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<p>Editor's note: 60 Seconds on Earth is a regular GlobalPost series where our correspondents in the field produce video snapshots of the places and people that we find important, impressive, crazy or just unmistakably cool. <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/130819/syrian-refugees-video-turkey-lebanon" type="external">Here's</a> a recent installment on escaping Syria by boat.</p>
<p>After more than two years of conflict, the battle between rebel and regime forces in Syria has only intensified. For much of that time, GlobalPost's Tracey Shelton has covered the war from the perspective of those who are waging it.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/74725050" type="external">60 Seconds on Earth: Life on the Syrian frontline</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/globalpost" type="external">GlobalPost</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com" type="external">Vimeo</a>.</p> | 60 Seconds on Earth: Life on the Syrian frontline (VIDEO) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-09-25/60-seconds-earth-life-syrian-frontline-video | 2013-09-25 | 3 |
<p>BALTIMORE (AP) — Joe Sherburne scored 18 points, including a dagger of a 3-pointer from the corner to blunt a comeback and Maryland-Baltimore County defeated Binghamton 69-57 Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Sherburne made 7 of 11 shots, including 4 of 6 from deep, had four assists, two steals and a blocked shot for UMBC (14-8, 5-2 America East Conference), which rebounded from a 44-point loss at Albany. The Retrievers have won four of their last five and retain sole possession of second place in conference behind Vermont.</p>
<p>Binghamton (10-12, 1-6) trailed by 18 at halftime, but scrapped back with a 23-8 run and twice came as close as five points with less than five minutes to play. Everson Davis 3-pointer pulled the Bearcats to 59-54 before Sherburne stepped up.</p>
<p>He fed Jourdan Grant for a 3-pointer, then stole the ball from Willie Rodriquez and dished to K.J. Maura for a jump shot. Sherburne ended the 8-0 run with the corner 3 that put UMBC up 67-54 with 1:31 to play.</p>
<p>Jairus Lyles added 17 points and Grant 10 for UMBC, which shot 51 percent (26 of 51).</p>
<p>Davis led the Bearcats with 14 points and Tyler Stewart scored 13.</p>
<p>BALTIMORE (AP) — Joe Sherburne scored 18 points, including a dagger of a 3-pointer from the corner to blunt a comeback and Maryland-Baltimore County defeated Binghamton 69-57 Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Sherburne made 7 of 11 shots, including 4 of 6 from deep, had four assists, two steals and a blocked shot for UMBC (14-8, 5-2 America East Conference), which rebounded from a 44-point loss at Albany. The Retrievers have won four of their last five and retain sole possession of second place in conference behind Vermont.</p>
<p>Binghamton (10-12, 1-6) trailed by 18 at halftime, but scrapped back with a 23-8 run and twice came as close as five points with less than five minutes to play. Everson Davis 3-pointer pulled the Bearcats to 59-54 before Sherburne stepped up.</p>
<p>He fed Jourdan Grant for a 3-pointer, then stole the ball from Willie Rodriquez and dished to K.J. Maura for a jump shot. Sherburne ended the 8-0 run with the corner 3 that put UMBC up 67-54 with 1:31 to play.</p>
<p>Jairus Lyles added 17 points and Grant 10 for UMBC, which shot 51 percent (26 of 51).</p>
<p>Davis led the Bearcats with 14 points and Tyler Stewart scored 13.</p> | Sherburne helps UMBC hold off Binghamton 69-57 | false | https://apnews.com/311034239310427fb519fe8333a702e7 | 2018-01-25 | 2 |
<p>The government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was under fire Monday after recently leaked documents showed a close Trudeau confidant and Liberal Party fundraiser had ties to an offshore trust established in the Cayman Islands.</p>
<p>The link has fueled criticism of Mr. Trudeau as he pushes a new tax policy that would crack down on loopholes used by small businesses and the self-employed to reduce their tax bills.</p>
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<p>The revelation is the latest headache for Mr. Trudeau's Liberal government, whose popularity has taken a hit in public-opinion polls due to opposition over the tax measures.</p>
<p>Mr. Trudeau's political rivals have said the proposal targets small firms and the self-employed, not maneuvers used by Canada's wealthiest families to minimize tax.</p>
<p>The link between the fundraiser, Stephen Bronfman, and the trust was revealed over the weekend in a trove of internal documents from Appleby, a Bermuda firm specializing in offshore legal advice for corporations and high net-worth individuals. Those documents were leaked to a German newspaper and then shared with a consortium of media organizations.</p>
<p>According the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and a person familiar with the documents, the Bronfman family lent millions of dollars to help fund the offshore trust, set up in 1991 by Leo Kolber for the benefit of Mr. Kolber's son, Jonathan. At the time, Mr. Kolber was chairman of the Bronfman family's investment arm, Claridge Inc.</p>
<p>According to his autobiography, Mr. Kolber describes himself as a Bronfman family "consigliere." He first advised Seagram's Co. owner Samuel Bronfman and later his sons Edgar and Charles, Stephen's father. Mr. Kolber is a longstanding Liberal Party supporter and former senator.</p>
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<p>In a statement Monday, Mr. Bronfman denied wrongdoing. He said he has "always fully complied" with tax laws, and he has "never funded nor used offshore trusts." Any trusts "have paid all taxes on all their income to the Canadian government."</p>
<p>The money moved to the Kolber trust, Mr. Bronfman said, involved a single loan made over a quarter-century ago, and was repaid five months later "in full compliance with all legal requirements."</p>
<p>The use of offshore trusts by Canadians is legal, although legislation over the past two decades has tried to limit their tax benefits.</p>
<p>The link nevertheless prompted further criticism of Mr. Trudeau's tax reform proposal on Monday.</p>
<p>Mr. Trudeau "has accused small-business owners of using tax loopholes of saving money on taxes, but what will he do now that close Liberal advisers are the ones that allegedly used tax loopholes to shelter their fortunes?" asked Andrew Scheer, leader of Canada's Conservative Party, during the question-period session Monday in the country's parliament.</p>
<p>Guy Caron, a lawmaker with the left-wing New Democratic Party, added the latest revelations suggest the Liberal government "always let the big fish go" when it comes to tax evasion.</p>
<p>Mr. Trudeau told parliament the government "is fully committed to fighting tax avoidance and tax evasion, and we will continue to ensure [authorities] pursue all [tax] infringes on many years to come."</p>
<p>When asked about Mr. Bronfman, the Canadian leader said he would let individuals "comment on their own situation."</p>
<p>A spokesman for the minister in charge of Canada's tax-enforcement agency said authorities would take "appropriate action" in regards to the transactions unveiled over the weekend.</p>
<p>Canada Broadcasting Corp., part of the media consortium granted access to the documents, said the Appleby data leak revealed about 3,300 Canadian individuals and entities with accounts in 19 tax havens. A handful of account holders named by the CBC included National Hockey League franchise the Montreal Canadiens, businesses and former politicians, all of whom denied any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Write to Paul Vieira at [email protected] and Jacquie McNish at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 06, 2017 17:04 ET (22:04 GMT)</p> | Canada's Trudeau Under Fire as Fundraiser Is Tied to Offshore Trust | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/06/canadas-trudeau-under-fire-as-fundraiser-is-tied-to-offshore-trust.html | 2017-11-06 | 0 |
<p>To do PR for President Donald Trump, it has to be one of the most difficult jobs that exist&#160;on the face of the planet, especially when it comes to major humanitarian crises. Trump has recently faced hardcore backlash from officials due to the slow response of the federal government to provide aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. It also did not help that Trump picked a fight with the mayor of San Juan after she criticized him openly. In fact, he basically called her a “politically motivated ingrate.” No, for real. He did that. That’s not fake news, and there are <a href="/2017/10/01/trump-flies-into-5am-puerto-rico-rant-like-a-scary-dictator-twitter-explodes-instantly/" type="external">screenshots</a> to prove it.</p>
<p>So, of course, the Trump PR team has to figure out how to spin the storm and the administration’s response. In a <a href="https://www.axios.com/full-text-white-houses-tom-bossert-update-on-puerto-rico-2491599603.html" type="external">leaked memo</a> from&#160;Axios, their plan to spin the disaster in Puerto Rico was revealed, and it’s proof that the Trump administration has no ability to own their own shortcomings. Specifically, the memo blamed the storm for all the problems and not the failings of the administration.</p>
<p>‘The storm caused these problems, not our response to it. We have pushed about as much stuff and people through a tiny hole in as short a timeframe as possible.’</p>
<p>Technically, yes, the storm physically caused the damage on the island. However, the response of the federal government can very much be blamed for the aftermath in the coming days. There was no need for Trump to worry about the shipping industry when he was considering waiving the Jones Act. There was absolutely no need for Trump’s Twitter tantrums lately where he picked fights with Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Mother Jones took <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/leaked-white-house-memo-details-puerto-rico-spin-the-storm-caused-these-problems-not-our-response-1/" type="external">issue</a> with parts of the leaked memo. Throughout the memo, Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert talked about progress being made, drinking water being restored, stores opening, etc… However, Mother Jones reporter AJ Vicens found an <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/09/in-puerto-ricos-town-of-the-forgotten-residents-are-desperate-for-fema-to-show-up/" type="external">entire town</a> Saturday that was without power, and he was approached by residents hoping he was a FEMA worker. Apparently, no one from FEMA had visited the town yet.</p>
<p>‘But according to residents, none of those 10,000 federal workers have made it to Ciales, just 45 minutes from San Juan. The storm in this town of 19,000 knocked out the power grid, destroyed entire blocks, and filled streets and homes with a pervasive chocolate-brown mud. Everyone we talked to in Ciales-young and old, residents of public housing and private homes, and even the mayor-complained about the local, Puerto Rican, and federal response to the disaster.’</p>
<p>Take note of something here. They aren’t just blaming the federal government. They blame their own local government. It isn’t just a case of Democratic Puerto Ricans wanting to blame Donald Trump for everything.</p>
<p>What help the town has received has been minimal. They’ve never received a satellite phone they were promised. The fuel they do obtain is stolen at night. Also, Mother Jones described a one-day ration of food provided by the National Guard as:</p>
<p>‘…a small fruit cup, a 7.5 ounce can of Hormel Corned Beef Hash, four small cookies, and a pack of peanut butter and cheddar crackers.’</p>
<p>Come on. We can do better than that, and we should.</p>
<p>The memo may want to say that progress is being made in Puerto Rico, but Mother Jones reported 95 percent of the island was still without power — and that statistic came from the U.S. Department of Energy.</p>
<p>Also, the leaked memo noted the president’s visit to Puerto Rico on Tuesday would “inspire the people and let them know we all care.” Here’s some advice. If you want to seem like you care, then actually care. Don’t show up for a photo opportunity. Send aid, and send it quickly and efficiently. If you’re criticized, don’t call those who criticize “ingrates” and say they only want things done for them.</p>
<p>You can read the entire leaked memo <a href="https://www.axios.com/full-text-white-houses-tom-bossert-update-on-puerto-rico-2491599603.html" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>Featured image by Joe Raedle/ <a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/license/855639476" type="external">Getty Images</a>.</p> | JUST IN: Leaked Memo Shows Trump’s Devious Agenda For Puerto Rico (DETAILS) | true | http://bipartisanreport.com/2017/10/01/just-in-leaked-memo-shows-trumps-devious-agenda-for-puerto-rico-details/ | 2017-10-01 | 4 |
<p>City officials in the North Dakota oil patch say they are forging ahead with housing and infrastructure projects, despite an expected downturn in drilling in the next year.</p>
<p>Watford City Mayor Brent Sanford said development and land sales are not slowing down because housing needs for permanent oil field workers have not been met, the Bismarck Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/1wBGYl5 ).</p>
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<p>"Basically, based on projections for a need of 7,000 permanent housing units, we're only at about 2,000," Sanford said. "We're so far away. We can't let our foot off the pedal here."</p>
<p>State officials expect oil prices to rebound in the long term but the state could see less drilling over the next several months.</p>
<p>Williston Mayor Howard Klug said his city has $75 million worth of shovel-ready projects, including building streets and creating a fulltime fire department. He said the city counting on the so-called surge funding of $800 million proposed by state officials to quickly give oil communities money they need for important projects.</p>
<p>"We need to spend some big dollars out here because we're four years behind. Maybe a slowdown would let us catch up some," Klug said.</p>
<p>Sanford and Klug said state officials and lawmakers should not let the drilling forecast deter funding for projects. Watford City has $65 million in projects, including a second water treatment plant, based upon anticipated surge funding, Sanford said.</p>
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<p>"I'm hoping they look at the long-term play," Sanford said.</p>
<p>Klug said the city auditor keeps close tabs on revenue and the city is watching its books to stay in tune with money coming in and going out, particularly variances in oil and sales tax revenues.</p>
<p>"If it gets to the point where we need to start canceling projects, we'll make a list," he said. "At this point, we're planning to go ahead."</p>
<p>Dickinson's city administrator Shawn Kessel said his city will move forward with the necessities on its list, particularly infrastructure projects to support its fast growth. Even so, the city will carefully watch oil tax-related income to be sure it can afford such budget items as the 15 new city employees it planned to bring on in 2015.</p>
<p>"We are making contingency plans," Kessel said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Bismarck Tribune, http://www.bismarcktribune.com</p> | Oil patch officials say drilling downturn won't slow housing, infrastructure demands | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/12/22/oil-patch-officials-say-drilling-downturn-wont-slow-housing-infrastructure.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>ROME – The <a href="http://variety.com/t/rome-film-festival/" type="external">Rome Film Festival</a> has announced a lineup full of crowd-pleasers, many out of Hollywood, that span a wide range of genres. The fest’s 12th edition opens with Scott Cooper’s brutal Western, “Hostiles.”</p>
<p>Though world premieres are scarce, they include Japanese director Junji Shimizu’s manga pic “Mazinger Z Infinity” (pictured), produced by <a href="http://variety.com/t/toei-animation/" type="external">Toei Animation</a> to mark the 45th anniversary of the “Mazinger” franchise, which has a global following. Its creator, manga artist Go Nagai, will be on hand.</p>
<p>The closer will be the world premiere of Italian title “The Place” by Paolo Genovese, whose “Perfect Strangers” was a mega-hit at the home box office and has sold widely around the world.</p>
<p>Sandwiched in between are lots of Hollywood awards-season hopefuls, including Kathryn Bigelow’s “Detroit,” Craig Gillespie’s&#160;“I, Tonya,” Richard Linklater’s “Last Flag Flying,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Logan Lucky,” and <a href="http://variety.com/t/netflix/" type="external">Netflix</a>’s “Mudbound” by Dee Rees.</p>
<p>Other standouts set to unspool during&#160;the Oct. 26-Nov. 5 event&#160;include Janus Metz’ “Borg vs. McEnroe,” Eugene Jarecki’s “Promised Land,” and and Tom Volf’s documentary “Maria by Callas, in Her Own Words,” which is world-premiering.</p>
<p>The first two episodes of Sky’s hotly anticipated TV series “Babylon Berlin” by Tom Tykwer, Henk Handloegten and Achim von Borries will debut in Italy at the fest. The lavish 16-episode series, set in the sophisticated and seamy world of 1920s Berlin, will go out on <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/nordic-broadcasters-ally-to-rival-global-streamers-with-ambitious-scandi-series-1202584131/" type="external">Netflix</a> in the U.S.</p>
<p>At a packed news conference in Rome on Tuesday, artistic director Antonio Monda called the fest “a showcase in demand” where future awards-season prizewinners screen. Monda, who was appointed in 2015 for a three-year stint, has been re-upped through 2020 after delivering an increase in paid attendance, partly thanks to the beefed-up onstage conversations component, which is called Close Encounters.</p>
<p>This year’s Close Encounters guests will include <a href="http://variety.com/t/david-lynch/" type="external">David Lynch</a>, Xavier Dolan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian McKellen, Nanni Moretti,&#160;Vanessa Redgrave, Christoph Waltz, composer&#160;Michael Nyman,&#160;writer Chuck Palahniuk and U.S. basketball coach Phil Jackson, in line with the festival’s multidisciplinary spirit. Lynch will be feted with a lifetime achievement award to be presented by director Paolo Sorrentino.</p>
<p>While the fest itself is not competitive, <a href="http://variety.com/t/trudie-styler/" type="external">Trudie Styler</a> will preside over the &#160;jury of the Alice in the City independent sidebar dedicated to children’s films, where Orlando Bloom is expected to present his new film,&#160;“Romans,” directed by the Shammasian brothers, which is screening as a special event.</p>
<p>Dakota Fanning is also expected to make the trek for the international premiere of “Please Stand By” by Ben Lewin, which will screen in the Alice in the City competition.</p> | Rome Film Festival Lineup Packed With Crowd-Pleasers | false | https://newsline.com/rome-film-festival-lineup-packed-with-crowd-pleasers/ | 2017-10-10 | 1 |
<p>Kathryn Ma's debut novel captures the confusion many immigrant adoptees face. In "The Year She Left Us," an 18-year-old Chinese girl, adopted into a Chinese American family, struggles to understand her identity.</p>
<p>"Ari is adopted as a Chinese orphan into a Chinese American family," says Ma. "People tell her, 'Oh, you’re lucky! You’ve been adopted into a Chinese American family, so it should be easier for you.' But she doesn’t feel lucky. She’s very confused, in fact, about her identity and how she should feel about her origins as a child left by her birth parents."</p>
<p>Much of the book is centered on the women in the family. Ma says the characters in her novel help to address a question many immigrants and adoptees face: How much does family history matter?</p>
<p>"The grandmother character in the book is very important to Ari ... being an immigrant from China herself," Ma says. "She says to her granddaughter, 'Look forward! Look forward! Look forward! Never look back.' By contrast, a number of adoptive families in the book, who have adopted daughters from China, are very interested in connecting their daughters to the heritage of their birth country. And so the book poses questions about why some people are drawn to their families’ history and past and why others, particularly others who have successfully immigrated to America, want to leave the past behind and move on."&#160;</p>
<p>Ma's parents are immigrants, too. Her mother and father are from China and moved to the US in the 1940s.&#160;She says part of being a child of immigrants means that there is added pressure to succeed.</p>
<p>"The pressure to have more conventional lives and to try and achieve a kind of outward success makes perfect sense when you think about the life of the immigrant, who comes to a new nation," Ma says. "I did understand deep in my bones that I was going to have to make something of myself to honor the kind of sacrifices that they made."</p>
<p>For Ma, that meant becoming a lawyer. She practiced law up until she turned 40, when she decided to change careers and become a writer.&#160;"I felt a kind of urgency to decide for myself whether I wanted to take the risk of trying to become an artist, of trying to live a creative life. Sometimes I’m sad that I didn’t find the courage in me, the flint in me, to go out and try and do it sooner," says Ma. "On the other hand, I do think that I, perhaps, could not have written such a complicated book, a book I think, I hope, is written rich with emotion and maturity. I’m not sure I could have written it a younger age."</p>
<p>Below is an excerpt from Ma's first novel, "The Year She Left Us."&#160;</p> | This author captures the identity crisis many immigrants face | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-06-13/author-captures-identity-crisis-many-immigrants-face | 2014-06-13 | 3 |
<p>One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. Next time you're on the hunt for a good deal, check out local garage sales--you’ll be surprised with what you can find in your neighbor's yard. Here are the best items to pick up at a garage sale, according to Lynda Hammond, "The Garage Sale Gal.”</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | Best Items to Find at a Garage Sale | true | http://foxbusiness.com/slideshow/2010/10/13/best-items-garage-sale.html | 2016-12-16 | 0 |
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<p>MARANA, Ariz. — A major road closure affecting thousands of Tucson-area drivers begins early Wednesday with the shutdown of Ina Road at Interstate 10 for 25 months to construct a new interchange.</p>
<p>The Department of Transportation says the $145 million project in Marana is scheduled to be completed in early 2019.</p>
<p>Funding for the project comes from the Regional Transportation Authority of the Pima Association of Governments and Marana, which is providing $25 million to widen Ina Road and related bridge work.</p>
<p>The project includes widening I-10 so it can eventually accommodate four lanes of traffic in each direction, expanding Ina road to two lanes in each direction and reconstructing frontage roads</p>
<p>Preliminary work on the project began last summer.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 25-month closure of Ina Road at I-10 begins Wednesday | false | https://abqjournal.com/949704/25-month-closure-of-ina-road-at-i-10-begins-wednesday.html | 2 |
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<p>It is no surprise that animals have <a href="http://listverse.com/2012/12/03/10-amazing-animal-abilities/" type="external">some pretty whacky talents</a>. These include the axolotl salamander’s ability to mend wounds immediately, the octopus’s ability to mimic other creatures’ movements, or even the hippopotamus—who can secrete a blood-sweat to protect their skin from the sun.</p>
<p>The latest animal in the scientific spotlight, however, is the otter—more specifically, the otter’s amazing ability to juggle rocks.</p>
<p>Time and time again scientists have witnessed otters playing with round rocks like a ball. What is curious about this behavior, though, is—much like the <a href="http://www.cracked.com/article_19442_8-simple-questions-you-wont-believe-science-cant-answer.html" type="external">lack of understanding of why ice is slippery</a>—no one knows why they do it.</p>
<p>The most prominent theories include purely recreation (like a dog with a stick or&#160; <a href="" type="internal">dolphins passing back and forth a small sea turtle</a>). Others think—since otters use rocks as tools to open shellfish—that their playful juggling means they are hungry.</p>
<p>What’s even crazier about these talented creatures is that they have been observed keeping the SAME ROCK in the pouches of skin underneath their arms like a pocket knife or a hacky sack.</p>
<p>Whatever the reason, the bastards are pretty good at it. Some even juggle <a href="http://www.archipelagofiles.com/2016/08/why-do-otters-juggle-rocks-whats-their.html" type="external">3 rocks at a time</a>.</p>
<p>Otters have truly become nature’s dark knight. From cute and cuddly hand-holders to <a href="" type="internal">savage and vicious rapists</a>, we are still learning new things about these complex creatures.</p>
<p>You win this round, otters.</p>
<p />
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<p>Featured image available via <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sea_otters_holding_hands.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a> under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en" type="external">license</a>.</p> | Otters Are Amazing Jugglers (VIDEO) | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2017/03/26/otters-are-amazing-jugglers-video/ | 2017-03-26 | 4 |
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<p>COLTON, Calif. — As the eldest son among 15 children, Senegalese tailor Saliou Ndiaye was his family’s greatest hope for a better life in a city rife with unemployment where many still travel by horse-drawn cart.</p>
<p>He learned to sew as a child, and for years sent money to his parents – first, from his country’s capital and later from a factory job in Brazil.</p>
<p>But after Ndiaye embarked on a lengthy journey to the United States, their dreams were dashed. A U.S. immigration judge denied Ndiaye’s asylum application in July, and after a year locked up in California, Ndiaye reportedly tried to kill himself.</p>
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<p>Now, the 33-year-old lies in an American hospital bed, hooked up to tubes keeping him alive. Immigration authorities recently stopped efforts to deport Ndiaye and released him from custody in a decision that under normal circumstances would be cause for celebration but in this case has drawn criticism from his supporters.</p>
<p>Ndiaye’s story is tragic and exceptionally rare but raises questions about the U.S. government’s responsibility for detainees’ medical care in an immense immigration system, where more than 300,000 people cycle through detention centers each year.</p>
<p>In an ironic twist, Ndiaye’s volunteer lawyer is asking an immigration judge to find the government can’t properly release an unconscious person, and order Ndiaye back into custody. She wants the U.S. government to remain responsible for his care and potentially his return to Senegal, where Ndiaye’s parents pray for a miracle.</p>
<p>“He is our great hope,” said his father, Mor Ndiaye, clutching Muslim prayer beads during an interview at the family’s home in Touba, Senegal’s second-largest city. “Everything he has done, he did it to support his family.”</p>
<p>U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is responsible for detainees’ care of regardless of where they’re held.</p>
<p>It can make financial sense for the government to release ailing immigrants to avoid providing security for them and paying costly medical bills that hospitals would cover anyway for poor patients, said Dr. Marc Stern, a former medical expert for the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Liberties, which investigates detention complaints.</p>
<p>But in some cases, the government also may have an incentive to free gravely ill immigrants because deaths in detention must be investigated and reported to Congress and the media. “It may count against them if he dies in custody,” Stern said.</p>
<p>Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack said Ndiaye was freed for humanitarian reasons and so his family and doctors could make medical decisions for him.</p>
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<p>She declined to discuss how immigration authorities handle suicide attempts in detention, but said a report was completed on Ndiaye’s case in line with agency standards.</p>
<p>It isn’t the first time immigrant advocates have raised concerns about the release of ill detainees. In 2015, Ethiopian immigrant Teka Gulema was hospitalized for an infection while in detention in Alabama. He was guarded by authorities for nearly a year but freed less than two months before his death in a hospital bed, said Christina Mansfield, co-founder of Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement.</p>
<p>As of last week, Ndiaye lay in a hospital bed at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, in the Southern California city of Colton, with a tube through his neck to help him breathe and another one for feeding. His eyes gazed into the distance, then closed, as his chest rose and fell. He didn’t respond to visitors.</p>
<p>Arrowhead declined to provide information about Ndiaye. But Ron Boatman, its associate administrator, said the hospital covers medical costs for indigent patients when no one else can pay.</p>
<p>Back in Senegal, Ndiaye’s family grieves for a son they can’t help. Why he ended up so far away is a mystery.</p>
<p>Ndiaye grew up in Touba and attended a Muslim school. By age 10, he would bring his mother whatever coins he earned sewing.</p>
<p>Eventually, Ndiaye moved to the capital of Dakar to work as a tailor, sending home money each month.</p>
<p>In 2013, he told his parents he had a visa for Brazil and asked them to pray for him. He traveled to the South American country and stayed there for two years, working in a factory and continuing to send home monthly contributions and forwarding grainy cellphone selfies of his new life.</p>
<p>Without telling his parents, he left Brazil and traveled through nine Latin American countries by car, bus and foot to reach a U.S. border crossing in 2016. It is a lengthy trek often undertaken by African migrants, who upon reaching the United States tell border authorities they are afraid to return home.</p>
<p>Ndiaye told officials he left Senegal over economic troubles and religious differences with his family, and was sent to a California detention facility.</p>
<p>The family learned of his whereabouts when Ndiaye called a younger brother and told him he was detained.</p>
<p>Ndiaye’s relatives could only speculate why he went to America. His uncle, Mor Diagne, has lived here for 35 years, and they thought maybe he hoped to join him.</p>
<p>At an asylum hearing, Ndiaye told an immigration judge he actually fled his country because he is gay and feared he could be killed over his sexuality if returned. The judge, however, cited inconsistencies in Ndiaye’s testimony, denied his application and ordered him deported.</p>
<p>Ndiaye appealed and lost. He was due back in court for an October hearing but never made it.</p>
<p>Immigration officials called Diagne, a Connecticut street vendor, to say Ndiaye tried to kill himself using a sock and a towel. Diagne flew to California, and Ndiaye’s immigration lawyer, Carrye Washington, took him to the hospital to see his nephew.</p>
<p>Two detention guards stood watch over Ndiaye, Washington said. Diagne signed papers for doctors to insert a feeding tube.</p>
<p>“I don’t want to tell them to take him off a machine and die,” Diagne said. “The doctor said only the machine is keeping him alive, and if it were turned off he would die within minutes.”</p>
<p>A week later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement stopped trying to deport Ndiaye and released him from custody. A box with his belongings was sent to Diagne’s home.</p>
<p>Diagne said he was afraid he’d be asked to pay for his nephew’s medical care, which he can’t afford.</p>
<p>Mor Ndiaye is so grief-stricken he hasn’t told his wife the full extent of their son’s condition. The couple said they knew nothing of assertions in his asylum petition that he was gay, which is illegal in Senegal. Other relatives speculated he said as much to bolster his claim.</p>
<p>Since Ndiaye was detained, the family has been under increased financial strain. His father went to Dakar to find work, and the family delayed baptizing Ndiaye’s niece and nephew because they can’t afford the customary party to feed friends and neighbors, which can cost $150 or more.</p>
<p>It is unclear whether Ndiaye has any possibility of recovery or what will happen to him. Washington has a December hearing before an immigration judge and hopes U.S. authorities eventually deport Ndiaye.</p>
<p>“My dream is that he wakes up and goes to Senegal,” Diagne said. “If he is to die, I want him to die at home with his parents.”</p>
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<p>Larson reported from Touba, Senegal. Associated Press writer Ndeye Sene Mbengue in Touba, Senegal, contributed to this report.</p> | Questions arise after US frees asylum-seeker on life support | false | https://abqjournal.com/1099842/us-frees-african-asylum-seeker-whos-on-life-support.html | 2017-11-30 | 2 |
<p>Aug. 17 (UPI) — The Harlem Globetrotters recently teamed up to dominate the rim in pool basketball.</p>
<p>Five players from the notorious basketball squad surprised tourists this week at the Nassau Inn in Wildwood Crest, N.J. The Globetrotters hit the hotel’s pool for the stunt.</p>
<p>The team began the fun with Zeus McClurkin tossing a pass to Ace Jackson. Jackson then threw a pass to teammate Cheese Chisholm as he was going down a slide. Cheese then ripped a pass across the pool to Animal Hyche. The ball then went to Dizzy English, who tossed it back to Ace. Ace then dished it to Zeus for a sensational slam and splash.</p>
<p>“Out here with the Harlem Globetrotters grillin and chillin,” Zeus said at the beginning of a video for the stunt. “Oh, you guys are having a pool party. Hey Ace, lets join them.”</p>
<p>The Globetrotters are in town for three games at the Wildwoods Convention Center. The team’s last game in the city this trip is at 7 p.m. Saturday. This isn’t the first time the Globetrotters have pulled off crazy tricks in the city. Earlier this month, Bull Bullard expertly <a href="https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/NBA/2017/08/09/Harlem-Globetrotters-swish-ridiculous-helicopter-shot/8871502289427/" type="external">executed a helicopter shot</a> from 210 feet above a basketball hoop at Morey’s Piers Amusement Parks.</p> | Harlem Globetrotters fly high at Jersey Shore pool party | false | https://newsline.com/harlem-globetrotters-fly-high-at-jersey-shore-pool-party/ | 2017-08-17 | 1 |
<p>AdWeek <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/milk-screenwriter-and-lgbt-activist-creates-powerful-anti-bullying-campaign-coke-166390" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>Black was recently tapped by Pereira &amp; O’Dell to direct three short films for Coca-Cola in Latin America, challenging young people to choose compassion over bullying. One of the films, “The Text,” revolves around gay teens. Another series of ads, from JWT New York for Tylenol, examines the makeup of the modern family. Next up for Black: When We Rise, an ABC miniseries about the gay-rights movement. Adweek: “How did the Coke campaign evolve?” Dustin Lance Black: “They knew they wanted to do one that was aimed at the LGBT community. And then they wanted to do two more that had the same idea of a crossroads moment where you’ve got to make a decision: Are you going to go the way of kindness, or are you going to go for the easy joke when someone’s having a tough time? If you do something with acceptance and kindness, you can create a true friendship.”</p>
<p>The clip is subtitled and has 1.7M views.</p>
<p /> | BRAZIL: Oscar-Winner Dustin Lance Black Directs Anti-Bullying Short For Coca-Cola [VIDEO] | true | http://joemygod.com/2015/08/20/brazil-oscar-winner-dustin-lance-black-directs-anti-bullying-short-for-coca-cola-video/ | 2015-08-20 | 4 |
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<p>It was inevitable that calls from western feminism to crack down on violence against women in other countries would both help and hurt women there. Take Iran, where a 2002 moratorium ordering a ban on the practice hasn’t stopped the carnage. From <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blogs/anotherthing?bid=25&amp;pid=283438" type="external">The Nation</a>:</p>
<p>In the most recent case, two sisters, Zohreh and Azar Kabiri, have been sentenced to stoning for “adultery.” (This sentence came after the ninety-nine lashes meted out for “inappropriate relations,” which came after a trial notable for its lack of due process.). Equality Now has the whole horrific story, with addresses of officials to address letters calling for a ban on stoning and the decriminalization of “adultery.”</p>
<p>That a few men have also been stoned for adultery is no sign of (does this need saying?) either equality or progress. Now, according to Katha Pollitt and Equality Now, Iran is speeding up the process, and maybe efficiently cleaning up the decadent gene pool, with sibling pairs.</p>
<p>According to a comment, the petition included in the article has stopped accepting signatures, but try anyway.</p>
<p>Since we’re discussing theocracies, <a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080303/joyce" type="external">The Nation</a> also analyzes this message for Europe from US conservatives: “have more white babies” because the mongrel hordes of Islam are out-breeding lazy, selfish whites. But that’s not really what they’re saying, I think. What they’re really saying, important as the white supremacy is to them, is: “Quick! Return women to barefoot pregnancy before it’s too late and get the gays back in the closet”. It’s the kindler, gentler stoning and the lash, however infinitely preferable to the real kind, as in Iran:</p>
<p>:…Europe is failing to produce enough babies — the right babies — to replace its old and dying. It’s “the baby bust,” “the birth dearth,” “the graying of the continent”: Modern euphemisms for old-fashioned race panic as low fertility among white “Western” couples coincides with an increasingly visible immigrant population across Europe. The real root of racial tensions in the Netherlands and France, America’s culture warriors tell anxious Europeans, isn’t ineffective methods of assimilating new citizens but, rather, decades of “anti-family” permissiveness — contraception, abortion, divorce, population control, women’s liberation and careers, “selfish” secularism and gay rights — enabling “decadent” white couples to neglect their reproductive duties. Defying the biblical command to “be fruitful and multiply,” Europeans have failed to produce the magic number of 2.1 children per couple, the estimated “replacement-level fertility” for developed nations (and a figure repeated so frequently it becomes a near incantation). The white Christian West, in this telling, is in danger of forfeiting itself through sheer lack of numbers to an onslaught of Muslim immigrants and their purportedly numerous offspring.</p>
<p>The piece is long but well worth the read because the battle between left and right here, encapsulated in the presidential election, has everything to do with this. These guys are trying to reinstate The Allies of WWII, united against a common enemy, good versus evil, right versus wrong. Secularism versus theocracy.</p>
<p /> | A Campaign to Stop Stoning Abroad, the Un-Liberation of Women and the De-Closeting of Gays at Home | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/02/campaign-stop-stoning-abroad-un-liberation-women-and-de-closeting-gays-home/ | 2008-02-21 | 4 |
<p>Jon Stewart is out at "The Daily Show."&#160;That's old news. But on Monday, America finally learned the name of the man who will replace Stewart: Trevor Noah.</p>
<p>It's huge news for South Africa as well: The 31-year-old&#160;Noah is a Johannesburg native whose mother is&#160;South African. (His dad is&#160;Swiss.)</p>
<p>He won the job after doing just three appearances as a contributor on the show, and it's a big step up into the host's chair.&#160;But Noah has dealt with much harder things, like growing up as a mixed-race child during apartheid.</p>
<p>It's been part of his standup routine for a while.&#160;"My mom could walk with me, but if the police showed up she'd have to let go of my hand, drop me&#160;and pretend like I wasn't hers, because we weren't supposed to exist as a family," Noah said&#160;during an appearance on&#160;"Live at&#160;the Apollo." "So my mom would let go. So it was like a little game. Police would show up and she'd be like, 'It's not&#160;mine,&#160;it's not mine!’ It was horrible for me. I felt like a bag of weed."</p>
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<p>“Everyone is incredibly excited,” says Pearl Boshomane, editor of <a href="http://www.dailyplanet.co.za/" type="external">The Daily Planet</a>, a South African news site. “Intially, when the rumors came out over the weekend,&#160;a lot of us were cautiously optimistic.”</p>
<p>Boshomane thought it would be great if Noah could get the gig, but&#160;she didn’t believe Comedy Central would "go for a mixed-race foreigner who’d only been on the show three times to actually take that really, really big seat that I think quite a few people in the States wanted,” she says. “But now the news came out [and] people are really excited and some say they are going to have parties and pop champagne for Trevor.”</p>
<p>It goes beyond champagne:&#160;Noah is an important comic in&#160;South Africa, where&#160;his&#160;mixed-race background allowed him to gain fans from across the racial spectrum.&#160;“He has always been able to bridge the two worlds,” Boshomane&#160;says. “Because there really are two worlds in South Africa. He understands both sides. He’s lived both sides."</p>
<p>But&#160;what’s in store for the beloved show? Boshomane says Americans should&#160;relax:&#160;Noah is the perfect person to take over for Jon Stewart. “He’s very smart and he’s very sharp and he’s going to make you uncomfortable,” she says. “He’s very observational. He’s so smart. He’s so funny. You laugh at his jokes, but you’re also going to cringe at the same time. That’s what you can look forward to.”</p>
<p>His first appearance on The Daily Show certainly lives up to that description.</p>
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<p /> | Joyous South Africans pop champagne to celebrate Trevor Noah's taking over for Jon Stewart | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-03-30/joyous-south-africans-pop-champagne-celebrate-trevor-noahs-taking-over-jon | 2015-03-30 | 3 |
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<p>For some time now, the <a href="http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/05/25/105437.html" type="external">American Trucking Associations have been saying</a> it is worried about a growing shortage of long-haul drivers. The <a href="http://www.truckline.com/index" type="external">ATA</a> says, if this trend keeps up, the industry will need an additional 111,000 drivers by 2014. Many seasoned drivers are now approaching retirement age.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>In May 2005, the Association said that, in addition to the new drivers, companies have to find replacements. <a href="http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/05/25/105437.html" type="external">TheAutoChannel.com reported</a>:</p>
<p>Another 219,000 must be found to replace drivers 55 and older who will retire in the next decade, putting total expansion and replacement hiring needs at 539,000 or an average of 54,000 new drivers per year for the next decade.</p>
<p>Scores of drivers exited the long-haul trucking industry after average weekly earnings fell 9 percent below average construction earnings in the 2000 recession. Driver wages have since failed to regain pre-2000 levels when they averaged 6 percent to 7 percent higher than construction wages. Long-haul drivers also cited extended periods away from home and unpredictable schedules as reasons for transitioning to other occupations.</p>
<p>At the same time, the industry also is challenged with finding qualified drivers. Many trucking companies reject a high percentage of driver applicants because they lack qualifications. Those challenges escalated in recent years as the industry tightened its security and safety measures.</p>
<p>Now trucking companies are getting more aggressive in their recruiting and retention efforts.&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/national/28truckers.html?ei=5090&amp;en=6a4b1951b77f482c&amp;ex=1298782800&amp;partner=rssuserland&amp;emc=rss&amp;pagewanted=print" type="external">The New York Times</a> reports:</p>
<p>With predictions from the [American Trucking Association] that the current shortage of 20,000 drivers will grow nearly fivefold within a decade, trucking companies are offering generous 401(k), stock-option and health-care packages to new recruits and cash bonuses and prizes to drivers who refer viable candidates.</p>
<p>In hope of stealing drivers from competitors, companies have begun outfitting more of their cabs with satellite radio and television and introducing policies to allow drivers to bring pets and spouses on the road.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alliedholdings.com" type="external">Allied Holdings</a>, a trucking company based in Decatur, Ga., employs chaplains to check on the morale of its drivers. <a href="http://www.schneider.com/" type="external">Schneider National</a>, based in Green Bay, Wis., holds "driver recognition days" every few months at regional repair shops, featuring Elvis impersonators, free barbecue and raffles for motorcycles and iPods. The trucking association has also begun pressuring large truck stops to add Internet portals.</p>
<p>"Hands down, this is the most serious crisis the industry has faced," said <a href="http://fleetowner.com/news/trincon_group_driver_truck_recruit_retention_110405/index.html" type="external">Duff Swain</a>, president of the <a href="http://www.trincongroup.com/" type="external">Trincon Group</a>, a transportation consulting firm in Columbus, Ohio. "Close to 10 percent of major fleets have their trucks sitting up against the fence because they're short on drivers."</p>
<p>Since more than three-quarters of all goods in the United States are shipped by truck, it is only a matter of time, Mr. Swain said, before the shortage causes delays in products hitting the shelves and leads to consumer price increases because of rising transportation costs.</p>
<p>Despite the 7.4 million Americans out of work as of last December, and the recent round of layoffs in manufacturing industries, trucking has struggled to find workers in part because the lifestyle is so grueling.</p>
<p><a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/243934_truckers10.html" type="external">The Seattle Post-Intelligencer</a> reported last fall that a local community college has a waiting list for applicants who want to enter its commercial-truck driving course.</p>
<p><a href="http://fleetowner.com/news/ata_driver_shortage_study_052505/index.html" type="external">FleetOwner.com</a> says trucking companies are stepping up recruitment among Hispanics and the "team driving" sectors. Team driving usually consists of married couples who travel together.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/05/25/105437.html" type="external">The Auto Channel story&#160; said (about last year's forecast):</a></p>
<p>"The driver market is the tightest it has been in 20 years," ATA President and CEO Bill Graves said. "It's a major limitation to the amount of freight that motor carriers can haul. It's critical that we find ways to tap a new labor pool, increase wages and recruit new people into the industry that keeps our national economy moving."</p>
<p>Of the 3.4 million truck drivers on the road, 1.3 million are long-haul truckers, the driver segment most severely impacted by the shortage. Although the current driver shortage is set at 20,000 drivers, it seems larger to the industry because of a high degree of driver "churning," or moving from carrier to carrier. Large truckload carriers reported an average annual turnover of 121 percent last year. &#160;</p>
<p>( <a href="http://www.truckline.com/NR/rdonlyres/E2E789CF-F308-463F-8831-0F7E283A0218/0/ATADriverShortageStudy05.pdf" type="external">See a detailed PDF of the 2005 ATA study here</a>.)</p>
<p>The Home Church Movement</p>
<p>Underlying the <a href="" type="internal">megachurch movement</a> is a less-noticed one, <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1167737,00.html" type="external">Time magazine</a> reports this week. While the megachurches give members a big congregational experience, a movement toward home church meetings is growing.</p>
<p>Some now wonder if these home churches might undercut the "mother" churches.&#160;</p>
<p>Here are some resources to help you as you report this story:</p>
<p>Contemporary Art Market is Hot</p>
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11569842/site/newsweek/" type="external">Newsweek</a> says:</p>
<p>To say that the contemporary-art market is "hot" is to say that computer users sometimes click on Google. A lot of people have made an awful lot of money in business in the past decade, and they're looking for something cool -- and cultural -- to do with it.</p>
<p /> | Wednesday Edition: Trucker Shortage Growing | false | https://poynter.org/news/wednesday-edition-trucker-shortage-growing | 2006-02-28 | 2 |
<p>Spanish bailed out lender Bankia said it aims to return to profitability by next year after a restructuring plan that will cost about 6,000 jobs and see it shed 50 billion euros ($64.65 billion) of assets.</p>
<p>The bank, which is set to receive European aid, said that hybrid debt holders would also contribute up to 4.8 billion euros to its clean-up, through losses on their holdings.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shareholders will contribute 10.7 billion euros as part of its recapitalization plan.</p>
<p>Bankia will cut its bank branches by 39 percent, and dispose of the 50 billion euros of assets via transfer to Spain's bad bank, the sale of industrial stakes and by cutting lending.</p>
<p>It is aiming for a net profit of 1.2 billion euros in 2015, and will scrap dividend payments until 2014.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Sonya Dowsett; Writing by Sarah White; Editing by Julien Toyer)</p> | Bankia eyes profit by 2013, to cut 6,000 jobs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/11/28/spain-bankia-eyes-profit-by-2013-to-cut-6000-jobs585179.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>There’s an image buried late in Chang-Rae Lee’s unflinching narrative, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594489769/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Surrendered</a>, that connects two of the writer’s three main characters and encapsulates not only the tension of this brilliant novel but the lives of virtually all of the characters, whether they are major or minor ones: “What was there, really, to be concerned about now? It was just the two of them from here on in, a pair of souls in a barrel floating down the last stretch of the river, twirling in one of the quieter eddies before being drawn into the chute toward the falls.” That chute is almost ubiquitous throughout the entire story: the brief moment of serenity, happiness, even pleasure and then the terribly brutal incident that follows. It’s easy to call Lee the darkest pessimist in our midst but his extraordinary novel is also filled with unforgettable moments of redemption and luminescence. No surprise, for Lee is a master of the narrative form as his three earlier novels have already shown us.</p>
<p>By the time we reach that image of the barrel heading toward the waterfall, we are well on our way toward the resolution of Lee’s tangled story. Along with Hector, the man who was her husband briefly years ago, June flies to Italy in order to track down their missing son, Nicholas. This is no simple search for a wayward child. First, Nicholas has been gone for eight years—mostly in Europe—sending an occasional postcard to his mother but just as often wiring her with a request for money. She’s always given in to these appeals, even though the amounts are increasingly excessive and they don’t metamorphose into better communication between the two of them. It’s clear to the reader, but not so much to June, that Nicholas wants nothing to do with her and only uses her as his own personal ATM machine. The reasons for the stultifying mother/son relationship will eventually be made clear, through a number of surprising revelations.</p>
<p>Hector has plenty of his own demons to live with. He married June in Korea shortly after the Korean war. The two of them originally met on the road together. She was still a teenager, while Hector, perhaps ten years older, stayed on in the country after fighting for the American forces. They both ended up at an orphanage, where Hector became the handyman for a couple of American missionaries who ran the place and June became the oldest orphan. Much, much later, when the two of them search for Nicholas in Italy, it’s with great reluctance from Hector who has only weeks earlier learned that Nicholas is his son.</p>
<p>Why does Hector agree to go with June in search of their son? It isn’t Hector’s newly-discovered fatherhood. Lee notes of him, “He had never come close to wanting children of his own and had no feelings either way for Nicholas.” Hector has lived a life thinking only of himself. His brief marriage to June all those years ago was solely in order to facilitate her American citizenship. He’s never committed to any woman, though he’s known dozens of them—used them for his selfish needs. But Hector has a wisp of a realization when June suddenly reappears in his life twenty-five or so years later that he’s poisoned all of the relationships he’s been a part of: “he was the cause, and the symptom, and the disease; he was the dooming factor for everyone but himself.” Too many other people have paid a price for being involved with him.</p>
<p>There’s a third equally important character in this carefully orchestrated story: Sylvie, who along with her husband, Tanner, ran the orphanage where Hector and June arrived quite accidentally together. Sylvie’s parents were missionaries in Manchuria, in 1934, well before the Korean War. The horrors she observed from the Japanese occupation were enough to maim one forever, yet much later, she married another missionary and they took off for Korea. Both her parents and her husband are genuinely decent people, “gypsies of mercy,” committing their lives to the downtrodden and the afflicted with no attempt to convert anyone to Christianity. And, yet, unbearable cruelty enters all of their lives.</p>
<p>It’s easy to assume that I have told too much of the story, but I assure you that I have not. I’ve sketched the barest outline of the disturbingly intertwined relationships of these three main characters who suffer quite literally from post traumatic syndrome. That is the price, Lee tells us, of being the innocent bystander or witness during times of war. Yes, two wars are described in this novel but only indirectly. There are no battle scenes, no marching armies. Rather, only lost souls who spend the rest of their lives trying to do good but generally messing up the lives of still other innocent people.</p>
<p>The Surrendered is a haunting novel—often impossible to put down in spite of the cruelty that runs through the narrative like an inescapable affliction. Change-Rae Lee is one of our country’s greatest living novelists, additional proof—in case you needed it—of the enormous contribution that immigrants have made to America.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594489769/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Surrendered</a> By Chang-Ra Lee Riverhead, 469 pp., $26.95</p>
<p>CHARLES R. LARSON is Professor of Literature at American University, in Washington, D.C.</p>
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<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p /> | Coming Through Slaughter | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/04/02/coming-through-slaughter/ | 2010-04-02 | 4 |
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<p>Our work in economic development is actively cultivating the culture of possibility. We are empowering locals and attracting from outside of Santa Fe the people who can contribute to our community of ideas, industries, products and solutions.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>We're building a system of support that will be a foundation for both the millennial with years of discovery ahead and the wisened boomer with years of earned experience and understanding. Our greatest assets are the Santa Feans we can leverage in powerful ways to amplify and unleash our economic potential.</p>
<p>Javier Gonzales.</p>
<p>Our strategy focuses on the resources that already exist in Santa Fe, laying the groundwork to build on film and digital media, technology, the outdoors and a culture of creative entrepreneurs to bring diversity and long-term sustainability to Santa Fe. Importantly, our goals will help create birth-to-career pathways that create opportunities for kids who are born in Santa Fe to achieve their American Dream right here at home and end the exporting of talented New Mexicans out of state.</p>
<p>We will continue to expand a booming film and media industry so that films and TV shows are born, raised and finished right here. We will look to gaming, virtual reality, animation, music and more to build out and expand the industry to encompass all forms of digital media. We are already building the broadband infrastructure to support the speeds and capacity this industry needs and we'll continue bringing brilliant minds together to build a digital media industry that will compete on an international level.</p>
<p>We will tirelessly pursue transfer tech and the scientists who invent it into local businesses. We have started by forming a partnership with Los Alamos National Labs, the Regional Development Council and others to host the region's first Technology Roundtable. The partners are listening to the needs of businesses, and following up by bringing resources together and growing the sector.</p>
<p>We are amplifying our leadership and exceptionalism in our outdoor industry. The Outside Bike and Brew festival is giving great companies like Bicycle Technologies International, the third-largest bike parts wholesaler in the U.S., a chance to bring their partner businesses to town and to invite them to try delicious locally manufactured beers after riding in the internationally renowned Santa Fe Century race, putting the spotlight on getting outdoors in Santa Fe.</p>
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<p>And we are growing the businesses of tomorrow with our Ignite Entrepreneurship Project, Startup Santa Fe and Make Santa Fe. Startup Santa Fe will unlock new resources and forge valuable connections for Santa Fe's entrepreneurs. Make Santa Fe unites the power of technology like 3-D printers and laser etchers with people who know how to use them to give creative entrepreneurs a new set of tools for exploration and invention.</p>
<p>Everything we do builds upon our culture and the businesses that have come before. That's why one of our biggest initiatives is the new Office of Business Development. Through this office, experts in incentives, tax credits, technical assistance and other tools will proactively seek out businesses, and support their growth and job creation. Any Santa Fe business will be able to use this resource through the on-demand services that will also be offered.</p>
<p>And we recognize that, to young, talented workers, place matters. So, hand in hand with our economic development vision, we are carefully looking to build complete neighborhoods that provide affordable housing in a city that is accessible to walking, biking and public transportation.</p>
<p>People who work hard, collaborate, understand the importance of community and have a spirit of adventure are already building Santa Fe's economic future. They are part what makes this a great place to build a business, raise a family or simply enjoy life. We're supporting them with strategic investments, services and initiatives to magnify our strengths and build a vibrant, sustainable economy.</p>
<p>Our city can serve as the convener and connector of people from all walks of life, creating a collision of ideas that will lead to new business and new opportunities that are at the center of a global, 21st-century economy. Together, we are re-imagining what is possible and unleashing the potential of Santa Fe.</p>
<p>Javier Gonzales is mayor of Santa Fe.</p>
<p /> | Building Santa Fe's economic future | false | https://abqjournal.com/574279/building-santa-fes-economic-future.html | 2 |
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<p>7:05 p.m. 610 AM</p>
<p>Probable Starters: Isotopes LHP John Lannan vs. Aces LHP Robbie Ray.</p>
<p>Promotion: ZOOperstars</p>
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<p>Thursday: Peter O’Brien went 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs to help Reno take a season-opening 8-2 win over Albuquerque at Isotopes Park. Danny Dorn also homered for the Aces, who outhit the ‘Topes 14-7 in front of an announced crowd of 8,702.</p>
<p>Dustin Garneau went 3-for-4 and Kyle Parker smacked a long solo home run to pace Albuquerque, but the home team did not score after Parker’s shot gave it a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third.</p>
<p>Reno jumped on Isotopes right-hander Jon Gray for four runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth. Gray came in on in relief of rehabbing Colorado Rockies left-hander Jorge De La Rosa, who allowed one run on four hits, walking three and striking out two in four innings. De La Rosa threw 57 pitches.</p> | ‘Topes today | false | https://abqjournal.com/567433/topes-today-280.html | 2 |
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<p />
<p>The May 6 SpaceX JCSAT-14 mission that silenced the critics. Image source: <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceX/media" type="external">SpaceX</a>.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>First they said SpaceX couldn't land a rocketship. <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/12/26/did-spacex-launch-just-put-boeing-lockheed-martin.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">So SpaceX did it</a>.</p>
<p>Then they said SpaceX couldn't land a rocketship on a boat. So <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/16/spacex-does-the-impossible-again.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">SpaceX did that, too</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/defensenewsguru/posts/352163734907646?comment_id=352166478240705&amp;comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D" type="external">cynics accused SpaceX</a> of making that last landing too easy on itself. "Its rocket didn't go far enough," they accused. It didn't reenter hot enough, or fast enough. Let's see SpaceX try landing a rocket after launching to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), and not just low Earth orbit (LEO)-- it won't survive the attempt!</p>
<p>Well, surprise, surprise -- last week, SpaceX did that too. After launching a Japanese communications satellite into GTO roughly 22,300 miles above Earth, SpaceX landed its Falcon 9 launch vehicle aboard a drone barge in the mid-Atlantic last Friday. This is something that no one else has ever done -- not Boeing nor Lockheed Martin , the twin titans of United Launch Alliance. Not Arianespace. <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/11/30/battle-of-the-billionaires-how-jeff-bezos-and-blue.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Not even Blue Origin</a> has accomplished such a feat.</p>
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<p>SpaceX's Falcon 9. On a boat. After launching a satellite into orbit 22,000 miles high. (Hint: It survived.) Image source: <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceX/media" type="external">SpaceX</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, SpaceX has now successfully relanded three of its last five rockets launched, including those carrying:</p>
<p>And yet, SpaceX's critics have been right about one thing all along: Space is hard.</p>
<p>It took SpaceX two failed attempts before it finally stuck a landing on solid ground. It took the pioneering space exploration company two more failures before Falcon 9 would land safely on a boat at sea.</p>
<p>Turns out, the one thing everyone was wrong about was that landing a rocket after a GTO mission (delivering a satellite to 22,000-26,000 miles distant) would be appreciably harder for SpaceX than landing after an LEO mission (LEO is anything under 1,200 miles above Earth's surface).</p>
<p>Yes, the speeds involved were higher, with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket rising higher and therefore falling farther down Earth's gravity well before landing. Yes, the temperature of reentry was higher. (Check out the discoloration on that rocket up above. It was white when it started its trip....) But SpaceX still did it.</p>
<p>The question now is: What will SpaceX do next?</p>
<p>The easy answer to this question is: Thaicom 8.</p>
<p>On May 26, SpaceX is scheduled to fly a Falcon 9 rocket out of its Space Launch Complex 40 installation at Cape Canaveral, carrying the Thai communications satellite into geosynchronous orbit (GSO) roughly 23,000 miles above Earth. After that, SpaceX has three launches scheduled to take place in June, two flying out of Cape Canaveral and one leaving from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.</p>
<p>SpaceX may or may not choose to relaunch the same Falcon 9 that landed at sea on April 8 for one of these missions -- or for another mission yet to be announced. Elon Musk has said he's "aiming for relaunch around May or June," depending on whether SpaceX can find a customer willing to take a ride on a used rocket.</p>
<p>It's after SpaceX finds that guinea pig, though, that things really get interesting. According to the company's chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX plans to cut its usual advertised price for a space launch by about 30% when reusing a rocket. That should shave $20 million off the company's usual launch price of roughly $60 million.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/17/how-profitable-is-spacex-how-much-more-profitable.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">At $40 million a rocket ride</a>, it's going to be very difficult for any other space launch company to compete with SpaceX. Currently, Boeing and Lockheed Martin's space launches cost $125 million and up. <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/01/could-europes-ariane-6-rocket-beat-spacexs.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Arianespace has a plan</a> in place to launch satellites two at a time aboard its new Ariane 64 rocket (once it's built), for an average launch cost of $63 million -- but even this won't compete with a $40 million price, if SpaceX is able to offer that consistently.</p>
<p>The key, though, is consistency. SpaceX has launched and landed three rockets -- and deserves all possible kudos for that. But can it re-launch and re-land a rocket? Can it rere-launch it and rere-land it? Because if it can, SpaceX will be able to underprice all comers, and change the economics of space exploration forever.</p>
<p>And in as little as a month and a half -- or less! -- we'll know the answer.</p>
<p>Up it goes and down it goes. But investors want to know: Can a SpaceX rocket yo-yo -- can it go up-down-up? Image source: <a href="https://twitter.com/SpaceX/media" type="external">SpaceX</a>.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/14/spacex-stuns-the-cynics.aspx" type="external">SpaceX Stuns the Cynics</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><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. 291 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> | SpaceX Stuns the Cynics | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/14/spacex-stuns-cynics.html | 2016-05-14 | 0 |
<p>Democrats have been using a web-based “calculator” to generate individualized answers to the question, “How much will you lose under Bush privatization plan?” For young, low-wage workers it projects cuts of up to 50% in benefits. And a $1-million TV advertising campaign is amplifying the claim, saying, “Look below the surface (of Bush’s plan) and you’ll find benefit checks cut almost in half.”</p>
<p>In fact, the&#160;calculator is rigged. We find&#160;it is&#160;based on a number of false assumptions&#160;and deceptive comparisons. For one thing, it assumes that stocks will yield average returns of only&#160;3 percent per year above inflation. The historical average is close to 7 percent.</p>
<p>The calculator’s authors claim that they use the same assumption used by the&#160;Congressional Budget Office.&#160;Actually, CBO projects a 6.8 percent gain.</p>
<p>The “Social Insecurity”&#160; <a href="http://reid.senate.gov/ss/calc.html" type="external">calculator</a> &#160;first appeared on the Senate Web site of Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.</p>
<p>By our count, various versions of&#160;it&#160;are appearing currently on the Web sites of 16 Democratic senators and the <a href="http://www.au.org/site/PageServer" type="external">Web site</a>&#160;of Americans United to Save Social Security, which is a coalition that includes the AFL-CIO and Moveon.org. But it is an artful bit of automated misinformation.</p>
<p>To their credit, the authors of the calculator state their basic assumptions clearly for anyone wishing to read and analyze the&#160; <a href="http://reid.senate.gov/ss/images/ss-calculator_assumptions.pdf" type="external">fine print</a>, which is more than we can say for a number of other web-based calculators we’ve seen.&#160;So, read the fine print we did.</p>
<p>One thing&#160;we found is that the calculator systematically underestimates the likely returns of investments. It says “The calculator assumes that your investments get a rate of return of 3 percent above inflation,” a&#160;figure most financial advisers would find absurdly low. As we’ve pointed out&#160; <a href="" type="internal">before</a> , the stock market has averaged 6.8&#160;percent above inflation for the past century .</p>
<p>Independent economists consulted by the bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board in 2001&#160;said&#160;stocks might&#160;not do quite so well in the future, but their range of estimates was still between 5.5 percent and 6.5 percent — or roughly double the figure used by the Democrats’ rigged calculator. Peter A. Diamond, Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,&#160;told FactCheck.org, “values around 6.0% or 6.5% seem to me appropriate for projection purposes.” John B. Shoven, Professor of Economics at Stanford University, wrote, “My own estimate for the long-run real return to equities looking forward is 6 to 6.5 percent.” And the lowest estimate came from John Y. Campbell, Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He wrote that&#160;“A rough guess for the long term . . .&#160;might be a geometric average equity return of 5 percent&#160;to 5.5 percent.” Compounded yearly over a working lifetime, even a 5 percent return would produce vastly higher benefits than a&#160;3 percent return.</p>
<p>To justify their lowball 3 percent figure, the calculator’s authors state that it is “the same assumption used by the CBO for its Social Security analysis.” That’s not entirely true.</p>
<p>It’s a fact that the Congressional Budget Office did publish a study of a proposed system of individual accounts in which it used a “risk-adjusted” figure of 3 percent&#160;for&#160;one &#160;part of its analysis. But&#160;in another part of the same study the&#160;CBO assumed that stocks would return an average of 6.8 percent. A series of&#160;500 different computer simulations of possible future outcomes showed a very low likelihood that actual future returns would be as low as 3 percent, and a decent probability that returns would be even better than 7 percent.</p>
<p>The “risk-adjusted” figure is an arcane concept&#160;that we won’t attempt to dissect here, except to say that it is essentially equal to the expected return on risk-free, interest-bearing&#160;Treasury securities. And by using that figure&#160;in&#160;one set of calculations, CBO was not predicting stock gains of a measly 3 percent over inflation. That would be a massive turn for the worst in the economy.</p>
<p>Just to be sure about that, we checked with the CBO’s director, Douglas Holtz-Eakin:</p>
<p>FactCheck.org: Does CBO’s use of a 3 percent “risk-adjusted” figure constitute a prediction by CBO&#160;that equities (stocks) will return only 3 percent&#160;in the future?</p>
<p>Holtz-Eakin: That’s the way it’s been portrayed. That’s wrong. We assume that equities will return 6.8 percent in the future.</p>
<p>The same kind of skewed calculations are also being used in a current TV ad&#160;being run by a new organization, “ <a href="http://protectyourcheck.org/" type="external">ProtectYourCheck.org</a>,” headed by Harold Ickes, the former Clinton deputy who ran the massive Media Fund campaign against Bush during the 2004 campaign. The latest ad says of Bush’s Social Security plan, “Look below the surface and you’ll find benefit checks cut almost in half.” To back up that claim, the Ickes organization cites the CBO analysis using the “risk-adjusted” figure, ignoring other CBO projections using the more realistic 6.8 percent assumption.</p>
<p>ProtectYourCheck.org Ad: “Life Line”</p>
<p>Announcer: It’s just the tip of the iceberg that threatens your retirement. The plan that George&#160;Bush and his backers in Congress have to privatize&#160;Social Security. Look below the surface and you’ll find benefit checks cut almost in half.&#160;Five trillion dollars&#160;in new debt. The retirement you’re earning — taken away. For 70 years Social Security has been America’s lifeline. Don’t let their privatization plan cut it. Call Congress. The Social Security you earned isn’t theirs to take.</p>
<p>Both the&#160;calculator and the ad&#160;also employ other misleading&#160;assumptions. Both assume that Bush’s plan involves pegging the rise in future benefits to prices, rather than to wages as under current law. Because prices rise more slowly than wages, that would indeed produce future&#160;benefit levels that are lower than currently promised, essentially freezing benefits at the buying power they have today. The current system of “wage indexing” is expected to push the purchasing power of future benefit levels&#160;to nearly double what they are today over the next 75 years.</p>
<p>However, whether freezing benefit levels at their current buying power would thus constitute a “cut” is debatable, to say the least.&#160;&#160;In fact, Bush hasn’t actually proposed “price indexing” or any other specific plan to restore solvency to the system. He has ruled out tax increases, implying he’d lean most heavily if not entirely on holding down benefit growth.</p>
<p>Both the ad and the calculator use benefits promised under current law as their basis for comparison, but they&#160;fail to mention that current tax rates can’t support those&#160;benefit&#160;levels&#160;beyond 2041. According to the latest&#160; <a href="http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/TR05/II_project.html#wp105057" type="external">projection</a>&#160;of the Social Security trustees, benefits&#160;would then have to be cut 26 percent at that time, and that reduction would grow every year thereafter. Compared to the actual level of benefits that can be supported by the current system, Bush’s supposed “cuts” would be much smaller.</p>
<p>Put another way, maintaining benefit growth at the level assumed by the calculator and the ad would require a tax increase, something not mentioned.</p>
<p>The ad also fails to mention whose benefits would be “cut almost in half.” Actually, no cuts are proposed for anyone currently getting benefits, something the ad fails to make clear. The calculator is better on this score. It simply won’t work for anyone who types in a birthday before 1950. The ad, however, invites current retirees to believe that their benefits would be cut, which is false.</p>
<p>Even&#160;accepting the dubious assumptions of the calculator, getting it to produce a “loss” as big as 50 percent requires using a birthday of 2005. In other words, the only persons whose benefits would be “cut” by “half” won’t be retiring for another 65 years or so.</p>
<p>We take no position on whether individual accounts are a good idea or a bad idea, and nothing here should be taken as an endorsement or as opposition. Opponents are correct to point out that the future returns of investments are uncertain. In&#160;our&#160;Feb. 3&#160; <a href="" type="internal">article</a>&#160;we faulted President Bush for saying accounts “will”&#160; grow fast enough to provide a better return than the present system. Nobody can guarantee that. It is within the realm of possibility that for the next 75 years stocks will actually produce a miserable&#160;3 percent return, as the Democratic calculator assumes. But history offers no support for such a pessimistic prediction, and neither do economists consulted by the bipartisan advisory board to the Social Security system.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&lt;iframe style="width: 500px; height:300px;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen src="https://video.factcheck.org/play/legacy-135-1"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>John Y. Campbell, Peter A. Diamond &amp;&#160;John B. Shoven, “ <a href="http://www.ssab.gov/Publications/Financing/estimated%20rate%20of%20return.pdf" type="external">Estimating the Real Rateof Return on StocksOver the Long Term</a>,” Social Security Advisory Board, Aug 2001.</p>
<p>&#160;“ <a href="http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&amp;id=988" type="external">The Short- and Long-Term Outlook for Stocks</a>,” Knowledge@Wharton Web site, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania: 2 June&#160;2004. (Free subscription required.)</p>
<p>Congressional Budget Office, “ <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=5666&amp;sequence=0" type="external">Long-Term Analysis of Plan 2 of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security</a>,” 21&#160;July&#160;2004 (Updated 30 Sept 2004).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/TR05/tr05.pdf" type="external">“The 2005 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds,”</a> 23 March 2005.</p> | A Rigged ‘Calculator’ | false | https://factcheck.org/2005/04/a-rigged-calculator/ | 2005-04-12 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Californians are finding out how Gov. Jerry Brown is going to deal with the state’s pension crisis: make the taxpayers pay for it. <a href="http://calpensions.com/2014/02/19/calpers-rate-hike-governor-wins-cities-lose/" type="external">This from CalPensions</a>:</p>
<p>A divided CalPERS board yesterday approved a faster rate hike for the state urged by Gov. Brown, but opposed by unions. A proposal to give struggling cities the option of more time to phase in the rate hike, seven years instead of five, was rejected.</p>
<p>The rate hike to cover the cost of retirees living longer is the third in the last two years, following a lower earnings forecast and a more conservative actuarial method. Many local government rates could increase roughly 50 percent by 2020.</p>
<p>An underfunded CalPERS has about 70 percent of the projected assets needed to pay promised pensions. There were big pension increases and deep employer rate cuts in good times, then huge investment losses during the bad times last decade.</p>
<p>Well, either the money comes from somewhere — meaning the taxpayers. Of the pensions will have to be cut, which is anathema to the unions.</p>
<p>In 2012, San Bernardino, Stockton and Mammoth Lakes declared bankruptcy. The latter is a small city that lost a lawsuit. But the other two big cities’ financial problems stemmed to a great extent (but not entirely) from the difficulty in making pension payments.</p>
<p>The economy is doing better now, so further municipal bankruptcies may not happen for a couple of years. But when a new recession inevitably hits, these new pension payments will dig deep and likely spark more bankruptcies.</p>
<p>The mistake of spiking pensions 15 years ago continues to rip across the state.</p> | CalPERS rate hike slams cities | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2014/02/19/calpers-rate-hike-slams-cities/ | 2018-02-20 | 3 |
<p>Anthony Allen Shore, 55, is scheduled for lethal injection Thursday, after his initial execution was delayed in October, according to our affiliate <a href="http://abc7amarillo.com/news/local/texas-tourniquet-killer-set-to-be-1st-us-execution-in-2018-01-18-2018" type="external">KVII</a>.</p>
<p>KVII on Thursday reported that Shore is known in Houston as the 'Tourniquet Killer' because of the technique used in his murders.</p>
<p>Shore's execution will be the first of 2018, since three other death row inmates had their executions rescheduled or stayed earlier this month.</p>
<p>Shore is convicted of strangling Maria del Carmen Estrada in 1992, and leaving her body at the drive-thru of a Dairy Queen in Houston. He has also confessed to killing a 9-year-old and two teenagers.</p>
<p>Texas' execution rate has been on the decline in recent years, according to data from the <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/" type="external">Death Penalty Information Center</a>.</p>
<p>Although Texas executed more people than any other state last year, the number is far less than it was in the last 10 years.</p>
<p>In 2017, Texas executed seven people, whereas in 2007, 26 people had their death sentences carried out.</p> | The Texas 'Tourniquet Killer' is set for the first US execution of 2018 | false | https://circa.com/story/2018/01/18/nation/anthony-allen-shore-texas-tourniquet-killer-set-for-first-us-execution-of-2018 | 2018-01-18 | 1 |
<p>The Poynter Institute and the <a href="http://www.knightfdn.org/" type="external">John S. and James L. Knight Foundation</a> announced today that they will develop News University, an online training portal for journalists.NewsU will create interactive lessons in journalism skills and ethics, drawing on the teaching of Poynter faculty, and will serve as a conduit to the best journalism-school offerings on the Web, including those with Knight chairs and mid-career programs."We want to extend our mission of teaching craft and leadership skills to professionals and students who can not attend seminars here," said Karen Dunlap, dean of the Poynter faculty and president-designate of the St. Petersburg, Florida, school."Poynter’s popular website has proven it can reach journalists," said Eric Newton, Knight Foundation director of journalism initiatives. "We want to help the school use it as well as it can to teach journalists."Knight Foundation’s five-year, $2.8 million grant will launch and develop News University, which, in addition to its own online courses, will work with other organizations to help them offer e-learning.</p> | Poynter and Knight to Create Online News University | false | https://poynter.org/news/poynter-and-knight-create-online-news-university | 2003-04-07 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
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<p>The three storms were expected to stretch into next week. Forecasters said the first two storms could drop a total of 5 inches of rain in higher elevation.</p>
<p>However, the third storm, starting as early as Monday, could be more powerful.</p>
<p>“There a potential for several inches,” National Weather Service forecaster Tom Dang said. “It will be very wet.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Nonetheless, California Department of Water Resources chief Bill Croyle said water was draining at about four times the rate that it was flowing in and the repairs should hold at the nation's tallest dam.</p>
<p>About 100,000 cubic feet of water was flowing from the reservoir each second, enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool.</p>
<p>Croyle said work crews had made “great progress” cementing thousands of tons of rocks into holes in the spillways.</p>
<p>“We shouldn't see a bump in the reservoir” from the upcoming storms, he said.</p>
<p>The reservoir has dropped 20 feet since it reached capacity Sunday. Croyle said officials hope it falls 50 feet by this Sunday.</p>
<p>Still, officials warned residents who have returned to their homes that the area downstream of the dam remained under an evacuation warning and they should be prepared to leave if the risk increases.</p>
<p>Some 200,000 people were allowed to return home Tuesday after being ordered to evacuate Sunday.</p>
<p>Sandra Waters, 42, of Oroville initially fled her home with little more than the clothes she was wearing. Now, she's preparing for the possibility of another evacuation by gathering food, clothing and sentimental items like photographs.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“You are always cautious when you live under a big dam, but we've always been pretty confident that it was safe and that it wasn't going to fail,” she said.</p>
<p>Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said some homes in the evacuation zone had been burglarized and deputies had made arrests.</p>
<p>He also called on private drone operators to refrain from flying their devices over the dam. Private drones can interfere with the repair work, which includes helicopters, he said.</p>
<p>The 770-foot-tall dam is located in Oroville, a small Gold Rush-era town along the Feather River in the Sierra Nevada foothills.</p>
<p>The region is largely rural, with its politics dominated by rice growers, orchard operators and other agricultural interests. It's dogged by the high unemployment rates endemic to farming communities.</p>
<p>Dump trucks and helicopters dropped thousands of tons of rocks and sandbags to shore up the spillways over the weekend and avoid what could be a catastrophic failure and flood.</p>
<p>The swollen lake reached its capacity over the weekend and spilled down an unpaved emergency spillway for nearly 40 hours, leaving it badly eroded. The problem occurred six days after engineers discovered a growing hole in the dam's main concrete spillway.</p>
<p>Croyle said teams were working on plans for permanent repairs to the dam's main spillway that could cost as much as $200 million.</p>
<p>As state officials puzzle through how to repair it, federal regulators have ordered California to figure out what went wrong.</p>
<p>In recent years, construction crews patched cracks – including in the area where water burrowed a huge pit last week. If the past repairs were not done properly, water could infiltrate and eventually tear through the concrete.</p>
<p>Inspectors with the state agency that operates and checks the dam went into the half-mile-long spillway in 2014 and 2015 and did not find any concerns, officials said.</p>
<p>Late Tuesday, President Donald Trump ordered federal authorities to help California recover from severe January storms – a disaster declaration that also assists state and local officials with the dam crisis.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in the state, officials say a reservoir in Santa Clara County is on the verge of spilling over for the first time since 2006. But unlike Oroville Dam, the Anderson Reservoir is not at risk of failure or causing major flooding, San Jose television station KNTV reported.</p>
<p>Elias reported from San Francisco.</p>
<p>.</p>
<p><a href="#92bf92e2-5270-4a95-a7b0-fe7e9284a346" type="external">© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</a> Learn more about our <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy" type="external">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms" type="external">Terms of Use</a>.</p> | California officials rush to drain lake as new storms begin | false | https://abqjournal.com/948613/officials-order-evacuation-of-residents-near-california-dam.html | 2017-02-12 | 2 |
<p>Congress over-rode a veto by George Bush this week to approve crucial legislation covering the Medicare health program for the elderly, ending a weeks-long fiasco that threatened to cut payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients by more than 10 percent.</p>
<p>Under a funding formula passed several years ago by the Republican-controlled Congress, Medicare reimbursements to doctors are automatically cut at regular intervals, unless new legislation heads off the reductions.</p>
<p>Until this year, Congress has stopped the reductions from going through, but as Chicago physician Dr. Anne Scheetz, who treats elderly patients in their homes and is paid through Medicare, says, “Every year, we are faced with cuts in physician pay.”</p>
<p>This year, under the funding rule, reimbursements for doctors were sliced by 10.6 percent as of July 1. In the days before, Senate Republicans used a procedural maneuver to block an up-and-down vote on a measure that would have headed off the cuts, and the Democrats fell one vote short of the 60 needed to stop them. Thus, the July 1 deadline passed without new legislation, though the Bush administration delayed implementing the reductions.</p>
<p>But after the July 4 recess, Sen. Ted Kennedy, who is suffering from brain cancer, returned to Washington to break the filibuster, and Republican opposition to the legislation peeled away. The bill went to George Bush, who vetoed it, but both houses of Congress quickly voted with two-thirds majorities to override the veto.</p>
<p>The legislation restores payments to doctors and will raise them by just over 1 percent at the start of next year. The increase is funded by a reduction in “federal payments to insurance companies that offer private Medicare Advantage plans, as an alternative to the traditional government-run program,” the Associated Press reported.</p>
<p>Bush and fellow Republicans opposed the legislation because of this provision. But in reality, Medicare Advantage plans are a giveaway to the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, who act as middlemen.</p>
<p>According to Scheetz, under Medicare Advantage, the government program “takes money and gives it to insurance companies who charge, on average, 112 percent of what it would cost to treat patients.” Patients don’t receive better service from the insurance companies, and doctors end up having to deal with additional layers of bureaucracy to get paid.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>IF THE 10.6 percent cut in payments to doctors had gone into effect, health care for the elderly would have suffered a serious blow. According to a survey by the American Medical Association, “60 percent of physicians reported that they would have to limit the number of new Medicare patients they treat if payments are cut 10 percent in 2008.”</p>
<p>“I will definitely continue to accept Medicare patients,” one physician wrote on an Internet discussion group maintained by the American Academy of Home Care Physicians (AAHCP). “This mess was not the results of anything our patients did. I cannot turn them away if they need a visit…I cannot, however, continue to make house calls full time. I’ve had to supplement my income through nursing home visits and outpatient care.”</p>
<p>Another AAHCP doctor gave expression to the rising discontent with a reference to Cindy Sheehan’s antiwar protest at George Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas: “I rather like the idea of a wheelchair sit-in on the Capitol steps.”</p>
<p>But as this doctor pointed out, “Restoring the Medicare cuts is only a band-aid.”</p>
<p>Scheetz agrees that the Medicare legislation Congress approved in overriding Bush’s veto is a “one-time fix”–and doesn’t deal with some of the existing problems with the system. For example, as Scheetz explains, because low “relative value scores” are assigned to diagnostic codes for primary care services (such as preventative health care), often times, this means that the reimbursement from Medicare may be less than what physicians must pay in overhead.</p>
<p>What’s more, currently, psychiatrists only receive 50 percent payment for mental health diagnosis under Medicare, while primary care physicians have an 80 percent approved fee, so there is less incentive for them to accept Medicare patients.</p>
<p>The legislation passed this week contains some improvements in the program. According to the Older Women’s League, it will “strengthen low-income protections against rising Medicare costs; improve access to preventive services; provide mental health parity in Medicare…[and] expand primary care and provide incentives for physicians to provide additional primary care services.”</p>
<p>But Medicare still has significant problems–and will remain hostage to Congress taking action to prevent periodic severe cuts in physician reimbursement. This crisis is another reason why many doctors are coming to the conclusion that the solution is a single-payer system eliminating the role of private insurance companies.</p>
<p>“Medicare is not unpopular among doctors,” Dr. Seth Foldy, a family practice physician in Milwaukee, told Roger Bybee for an article in the American Prospect. “The concept of Medicare for all [which is how a single-payer plan is often described] is making ideological headway.”</p>
<p>More generally, Bybee writes, “[d]octors are experiencing an extreme and relatively sudden loss of control at the hands of insurers and hospital networks, while being snowed under by paperwork and bureaucratic battles with insurance companies over authorization and payments.”</p>
<p>According to the Annals of Health Research, a 2007 poll found that “59 percent of U.S. doctors support a “single payer” plan that essentially eliminates the central role of private insurers.” This marked a 10 percent increase in just five years.</p>
<p>This is the right conclusion: What we need is a single-payer system that provides health care to everyone who needs it and is able to prioritize human need over the profits of insurance and pharmaceutical companies.</p>
<p>ALISON McKENNA writes for the <a href="http://www.socialistworker.org" type="external">Socialist Worker</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | A Close Call for Medicare | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/07/19/a-close-call-for-medicare/ | 2008-07-19 | 4 |
<p>Detail of Flickr photo by D. Ross Cameron; original viewable &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/drosscameron/4042305150/in/set-72157622657051080/" target="_blank"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.</p>
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<p>Spotted outside a mystery house in Alameda, California, where local news reporters dwell, pondering their <a href="" type="internal">dim fates</a>, as apparitions of former colleagues float despairingly in a fog of alcohol and memories, searching for their shrunken and canceled beats; cursing Craigslist, the <a href="" type="internal">blogosphere</a>, consolidation, leveraged CEOs, shareholder expectations—all those things that would not kindly stop for the good people who put good stories <a href="" type="internal">on paper</a>, nor yield to the needs of a civil democracy, but rather stumble forward: Relentless. Undead. Bloodsuckers and zombies. Happy Halloween!</p>
<p>(You can’t tell from the photo, but the hand extending up from the grave is clutching a copy of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/22/business/media/22singleton.html" type="external">Dean Singleton</a>‘s Oakland Tribune.)</p>
<p>Follow Michael Mechanic on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/MichaelMechanic" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p>
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<p /> | Quoth the Newspaper Maven, “Nevermore” | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/10/quoth-newspaper-maven-nevermore/ | 2009-10-30 | 4 |
<p>CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - The state attorney general says about 1,000 Nevadans may be eligible for payments of several hundred dollars under a $45 million nationwide settlement involving a New Jersey-based mortgage lender.</p>
<p>Attorney General Adam Laxalt announced Wednesday that the state also gets $390,000 for joining 49 other states and the District of Columbia in the case against PHH Mortgage Corp.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors alleged PHH violated standards for underwriting government-backed mortgages and submitted defective loans for government insurance.</p>
<p>PHH says it settled without admitting liability to avoid the distraction and expense of litigation.</p>
<p>Eligible homeowners are expected to be notified by mail in coming months.</p>
<p>Those who lost homes to foreclosure from 2009 through 2012 may qualify for a minimum $840 payment.</p>
<p>Those who faced foreclosure but didn't lose their home could get at least $285.</p>
<p>CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - The state attorney general says about 1,000 Nevadans may be eligible for payments of several hundred dollars under a $45 million nationwide settlement involving a New Jersey-based mortgage lender.</p>
<p>Attorney General Adam Laxalt announced Wednesday that the state also gets $390,000 for joining 49 other states and the District of Columbia in the case against PHH Mortgage Corp.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors alleged PHH violated standards for underwriting government-backed mortgages and submitted defective loans for government insurance.</p>
<p>PHH says it settled without admitting liability to avoid the distraction and expense of litigation.</p>
<p>Eligible homeowners are expected to be notified by mail in coming months.</p>
<p>Those who lost homes to foreclosure from 2009 through 2012 may qualify for a minimum $840 payment.</p>
<p>Those who faced foreclosure but didn't lose their home could get at least $285.</p> | AG: 1,000 Nevadans may get money under mortgage settlement | false | https://apnews.com/c516c3d70b434e52ad58dd9df456239c | 2018-01-04 | 2 |
<p>* STOXX 600 up 0.1 pct at close</p>
<p>* DAX bulls aim at 14,000 points</p>
<p>* Carrefour takes the fight to Amazon</p>
<p>* EasyJet jumps after Q1 results (Adds details and updates prices at close)</p>
<p>By Julien Ponthus</p>
<p>LONDON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - European shares rose to new highs on Tuesday after U.S. senators struck a deal to end a three-day government shutdown, while earnings updates were also in focus.</p>
<p>Euro zone stocks reached their highest in a decade, with Germany’s DAX jumping to a fresh record of just over 13,596 points. The DAX ended 0.7 percent higher, while the pan-European STOXX 600 closed the session up 0.1 percent.</p>
<p>“As the next goal, the bulls have the hurdle of 14,000 points in mind,” said market analyst Milan Cutkovic at trading house AxiTrader. “With the current mood on the stock markets, this is a realistic scenario for the coming weeks.”</p>
<p>After a previous session fueled by M&amp;A news, corporate updates maintained the buoyant mood.</p>
<p>Investors cheered plans by Europe’s biggest retailer Carrefour to slash costs, open its loss-making Chinese business to new investors and spend more heavily on e-commerce in the face of competition from Amazon.</p>
<p>Carrefour touched a five-month high with a 3.2 percent rise. Bernstein analysts said the strategic plan “ticks all the right boxes”.</p>
<p>Shares in computer peripherals and mobile speaker maker Logitech were the biggest gainers, jumping 8 percent after it reported better than expected sales and raised its guidance.</p>
<p>Easyjet was another strong riser, up 5.1 percent, after reporting first-quarter results.</p>
<p>“A strong performance for new boss Johan Lundgren in his first quarter as easyJet benefited from a combination of Ryanair cancellations and the demise of a trio of peers removing some capacity from the market”, senior ETX market analyst Neil Wilson commented.</p>
<p>Sky shares were up 2.3 percent after a UK regulator said Fox buying Sky was not in the public interest because of media plurality concerns, but suggested remedies.</p>
<p>The regulator CMA also backed Fox’s commitment to broadcasting standards.</p>
<p>“Concerns on broadcasting standards would likely have been a complete deal breaker,” said Neil Campling, Co-Head of the Global Thematic Group at Mirabaud Securities.</p>
<p>Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air rose 5.3 percent after saying it was interested in Italy’s struggling flag carrier Alitalia but only regarding short and medium-haul routes.</p>
<p>Online grocery technology provider Ocado inched a further 0.9 percent after a 27 percent surge on Monday when it unveiled a deal with Canada’s second-largest food supermarket group Sobeys. (Additional reporting by Danilo Masoni, Alasdair Pal and Kit Rees; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Americans are expected to rally nationwide on Saturday for tighter gun laws in “March For Our Lives” protests led by survivors of the Florida school massacre, which reiginited public anger over mass shootings.</p>
<p>Students from the Parkland, Florida, high school where 17 students and staff were killed on Feb. 14 will be among the 500,000 people organizers say could rally on Pennsylvania Avenue near the Capitol in Washington.</p>
<p>The protests orchestrated by survivors of the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are aimed at breaking through a legislative gridlock that has long stymied efforts to tighten firearms controls. Mass shootings at American schools and colleges have become a regular occurrence.</p>
<p>“This issue is going to turn into the No. 1 issue in this country. I know that’s not only what I want, but I know it’s what you guys want,” Alfonso Calderon, a junior at the Florida school, told Washington students at a pre-march event on Thursday.</p>
<p>The Washington rally is among more than 800 events scheduled worldwide, with U.S. demonstrations set from San Clemente, California, to New York and Parkland, according to gun-control group Everytown For Gun Safety.</p>
<p>The teenage organizers have won kudos and cash from dozens of celebrities, with singer Ariana Grande and “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda among those performing in Washington.</p> Demonstrators gather as students and gun control advocates hold the "March for Our Lives" event demanding gun control after recent school shootings at a rally in Washington, U.S., March 24, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
<p>“Trainwreck” star Amy Schumer is set to appear at the Los Angeles rally. Actor George Clooney and his human rights attorney wife have donated $500,000 and said they would be at the Washington rally.</p>
<p>Organizers want Congress, many of whose members are up for re-election this year, to ban the sale of assault weapons like the one used in the Florida rampage and to tighten background checks for gun buyers. On the other side of the debate, gun rights advocates cite constitutional guarantees of the right to bear arms.</p> Slideshow (7 Images)
<p>On Friday, Republican President Donald Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill that includes modest improvements to background checks for gun sales and grants to help schools prevent gun violence.</p>
<p>David Hogg, a senior at Stoneman Douglas, said the protests were a way for young Americans to show their opposition to the National Rifle Association, the powerful gun lobby.</p>
<p>“We’re asking people (to) put the USA over the NRA,” he said at the Thursday event in Washington.</p>
<p>An NRA spokeswoman said it had not taken a position on the protests.</p>
<p>Democrats and nonpartisan groups hope to register at least 25,000 first-time voters at the rallies, potentially a boost for Democrats, who generally favor stricter gun controls.</p>
<p>Reporting by Ian Simpson; editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) - Apple Inc’s Chief Executive Tim Cook on Saturday called for “calm heads” and more open trade, amid rising fears of a trade war between the United States and China.</p> Apple Inc's Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook speaks at the China Development Forum in Beijing, China March 24, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer
<p>Trade tension between China and the United States flared this week when President Donald Trump unveiled plans on Thursday to slap tariffs on potentially up to $60 billion in Chinese goods.</p>
<p>China’s Commerce Ministry on Friday urged the United States to “pull back from the brink”, saying it was not afraid to engage in a trade war.</p>
<p>“I’m cognizant that in both the U.S. and China, there have been cases where everyone hasn’t benefited, where the benefit hasn’t been balanced,” Cook said.</p>
<p>Speaking at the annual China Development Forum in Beijing, Cook said he hoped “calm heads” would prevail.</p>
<p>The sparring has cast a spotlight on hardware makers such as Apple, which assemble the majority of their products in China for export to other countries. Electrical goods and tech are the largest U.S. import item from China.</p>
<p>In the past year, Apple and other foreign tech firms have grappled with a string of new regulatory requirements in China, including a controversial law requiring firms to house user data in data centers overseen by Chinese firms.</p>
<p>Last month, Apple officially moved to store keys for its iCloud data in China, provoking intense criticism from rights groups who say the decision makes it easier for Chinese officials to tap and collect private data.</p>
<p>Despite challenges, the company has sought to expand its services in China, its third-largest market, where roughly 1.8 million developers use its platform.</p>
<p>“My belief is that businesses should be engaged with governments in countries where they are doing business, whether they agree or disagree,” Cook said.</p>
<p>Cook has come to China several times in the past year, and was among executives who met Chinese President Xi Jinping last October.</p> Related Video
<p>“My belief is that one plus one equals three. The pie gets larger, working together,” Cook said.</p>
<p>Others attending the three-day forum include the chief executives of IBM Group , Google Inc and Qualcomm Inc.</p>
<p>Cook, who this year co-chaired the event, also attended last year when he called for China to increase trade and continue opening itself up to the world.</p>
<p>Reporting by Matthew Miller and Cate Cadell; editing by Richard Pullin and Clarence Fernandez</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) - The response by China’s commerce ministry to the latest U.S trade measures is too weak, and should target U.S. soybeans, former Chinese finance minister Lou Jiwei said on Saturday.</p> FILE PHOTO: Soybeans are seen in a field waiting to be harvested in Minooka, Illinois, September 24, 2014. REUTERS/Jim Young/File Photo
<p>The commerce ministry on Friday unveiled a plan to levy additional duties on up to $3 billion of U.S. imports including fruit and wine, in response to U.S. import tariffs on steel and aluminum.</p>
<p>“I think the measures taken by China’s commerce ministry are relatively weak,” said Lou, currently chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund (NCSSF).</p>
<p>“If I were in the government, I would probably hit soybeans first, then hit autos and airplanes. We cannot let other people profit at our expense.”</p> Lou Jiwei, chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund (NCSSF), speaks at the China Development Forum in Beijing, China March 24, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer
<p>Lou was speaking at the annual China Development Forum in Beijing.</p>
<p>However, Lou also said a trade war is not good for either side.</p>
<p>“It’s like killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of our own people,” he told reporters separately on the sidelines of the forum.</p>
<p>“We should try to resolve the problem.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Kevin Yao; writing by Ryan Woo; editing by Richard Pullin</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States has flouted trade rules with an inquiry into intellectual property and China will defend its interests, Vice Premier Liu He told U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a telephone call on Saturday, Chinese state media reported.</p> FILE PHOTO: Containers are seen at the Yangshan Deep Water Port, part of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, in Shanghai, China February 13, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song
<p>The call between Mnuchin and Liu, a confidante of President Xi Jinping, was the highest-level contact between the two governments since U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans for tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese goods on Thursday.</p>
<p>The deepening rift has sent a chill through financial markets and the corporate world as investors predicted dire consequences for the global economy should trade barriers start going up.</p>
<p>Several U.S. chief executives attending a high-profile forum in Beijing on Saturday, including BlackRock Inc’s Larry Fink and Apple Inc’s Tim Cook, urged restraint.</p>
<p>In his call with Mnuchin, Liu, a Harvard-trained economist, said China still hoped both sides would remain “rational” and work together to keep trade relations stable, the official Xinhua news agency reported.</p>
<p>U.S. officials say an eight-month probe under the 1974 U.S. Trade Act has found that China engages in unfair trade practices by forcing American investors to turn over key technologies to Chinese firms.</p>
<p>However, Liu said the investigation report “violates international trade rules and is beneficial to neither Chinese interests, U.S. interests nor global interests”, Xinhua cited him as saying.</p>
<p>In a statement on its website, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said it had filed a request - at the direction of Trump - for consultations with China at the World Trade Organization to address “discriminatory technology licensing agreements”.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-china-apple/apples-tim-cook-calls-for-calm-heads-on-china-u-s-trade-idUSKBN1H005K" type="external">Apple's Tim Cook calls for calm heads on China, U.S. trade</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-china-wto/china-expresses-regret-at-u-s-move-to-file-wto-challenge-idUSKBN1H00AJ" type="external">China expresses regret at U.S. move to file WTO challenge</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-trade-soybeans-china/china-should-target-u-s-soybeans-says-former-finance-minister-idUSKBN1H0053" type="external">China should target U.S. soybeans, says former finance minister</a>
<p>China’s commerce ministry expressed regret at the filing on Saturday, and said China had taken strong measures to protect the legal rights and interests of both domestic and foreign owners of intellectual property.</p> COUNTER MOVES
<p>During a visit to Washington in early March, Liu had requested Washington set up a new economic dialogue mechanism, identify a point person on China issues, and deliver a list of demands.</p>
<p>The Trump administration responded by telling China to immediately shave $100 billion off its record $375 billion trade surplus with the United States. Beijing told Washington that U.S. export restrictions on some high-tech products are to blame.</p>
<p>“China has already prepared, and has the strength, to defend its national interests,” Liu said on Saturday.</p>
<p>According to an editorial by China’s state-run Global Times, it was Mnuchin who called Liu.</p>
<p>Firing off a warning shot, China on Friday declared plans to levy additional duties on up to $3 billion of U.S. imports in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum, imposed after a separate U.S. probe.</p>
<p>Zhang Zhaoxiang, senior vice president of China Minmetals Corp [CHMIN.UL], said that while the state-owned mining group’s steel exports to the U.S. are tiny, the impact could come indirectly.</p>
<p>“China’s direct exports to the U.S. are not big. But there will be some impact due to our exports via the United States or indirect exports,” Zhang told reporters on the sidelines of the China Development Forum in Beijing on Saturday.</p> FILE PHOTO: Chinese Vice Premier Liu He attends the news conference following the closing session of the National People's Congress (NPC), at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee
<p>Global Times said Beijing was only just beginning to look at means to retaliate.</p>
<p>“We believe it is only part of China’s countermeasures, and soybeans and other U.S. farm products will be targeted,” the widely-read tabloid said in a Saturday editorial.</p>
<p>Wei Jianguo, vice chairman of Beijing-based think tank China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, told China Daily that Beijing could impose tariffs on more U.S. products, and is considering a second and even third list of targets.</p>
<p>Possible items include aircraft and chips, Wei, a former vice commerce minister, told the newspaper, adding that tourism could be a possible target.</p> SOYBEANS, AUTOS, PLANES
<p>The commerce ministry’s response had so far been “relatively weak”, respected former Chinese finance minister Lou Jiwei said at the forum.</p> FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump holds a signed memorandum on intellectual property tariffs on high-tech goods from China, at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 22, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
<p>“If I were in the government, I would probably hit soybeans first, then hit autos and airplanes,” said Lou, currently chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund.</p>
<p>U.S. farm groups have long feared that China, which imports more than third of all U.S. soybeans, could slow purchases of agricultural products, heaping more pain on the struggling U.S. farm sector.</p>
<p>U.S. agricultural exports to China stood at $19.6 billion last year, with soybean shipments accounting for $12.4 billion.</p>
<p>Chinese penalties on U.S. soybeans will especially hurt Iowa, a state that backed Trump in the 2016 presidential elections.</p>
<p>Boeing jets have also been often cited as a potential target by China.</p>
<p>China and the U.S. had benefited by globalization, Blackrock’s Larry Fink said at the forum.</p>
<p>“I believe that a dialogue – and maybe some adjustments in trade and trade policy – can be in order. It does not need to be done publicly; it can be done privately,” he said.</p>
<p>Apple’s Tim Cook called for “calm heads” amid the dispute.</p>
<p>The sparring has cast a spotlight on hardware makers such as Apple, which assemble the majority of their products in China for export to other countries.</p>
<p>Electrical goods and tech are the largest U.S. import item from China.</p>
<p>Some economists say higher U.S. tariffs will lead to higher costs and ultimately hurt U.S. consumers, while restrictions on Chinese investments could take away jobs in America.</p>
<p>“I don’t think local governments in the United States and President Trump hope to see U.S. workers losing their jobs,” Sun Yongcai, general manager at Chinese railway firm CRRS Corp, which has two U.S. production plants, said at the forum.</p>
<p>Reporting by Ryan Woo and Hallie Gu; additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, Kevin Yao, Matthew Miller and Cate Cadell; Editing by Richard Pullin</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | UPDATE 2-European stocks rally on U.S. shutdown deal, DAX hits record Hundreds of thousands set to march for tighter U.S. gun controls Apple's Tim Cook calls for calm heads on China, U.S. trade China should target U.S. soybeans, says former finance minister China warns U.S. it will defend own trade interests | false | https://reuters.com/article/europe-stocks/update-2-european-stocks-rally-on-us-shutdown-deal-dax-hits-record-idUSL8N1PI1Z8 | 2018-01-23 | 2 |
<p>Black Keys drummer&#160;Patrick Carney isn’t a fan of Michael Jackson’s posthumous album&#160;Xscape. However, it’s not the quality of the album that frustrates Carney.</p>
<p>“[It’s] some f**king bulls**t that sucks so bad that it took them three years after he died to make it listenable,” Carney <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/black-keys-patrick-carney-michael-jacksons-xscape-is-bulls-20140513" type="external">told Rolling Stone magazine</a> in an interview.</p>
<p>“Like he had to be dead for three years for it to be released,” he said, suggesting that it was finally released because “L.A. Reid needed a new boat.”</p>
<p>Jermaine Jackson, Michael’s brother, had a similar response to the album.&#160;&#160;“I heard some of the songs, I love&#160;Xscape, but I haven’t heard the whole CD yet so until I hear it I can’t give you an honest opinion,” Jackson <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2014/05/11/jermaine-jackson-michael-jackson-music/" type="external">told TMZ</a>. “We have nothing to do with that, it’s all the estate.”</p>
<p>L.A. Reid <a href="http://www.eonline.com/news/541331/michael-jackson-s-new-album-xscape-debuts-l-a-reid-remembers-harmless-singer-as-man-of-love" type="external">reportedly</a> selected eight songs out of “hundreds” of tracks for Xscape.</p>
<p>What do you think of Michael’s new album? Sound off in the comments section.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Black Keys drummer calls Michael Jackson's posthumous album 'bulls**t' | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/05/14/black-keys-drummer-calls-michael-jacksons-posthumous-album-bullst/ | 2014-05-14 | 3 |
<p>As reported by&#160;Breitbart’s <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/12/08/WaPo-Media-Reporter-Bashir-Fired-over-Palin-Remarks-Because-Outrage-Never-Abated" type="external">Tony Lee</a>&#160;Monday, Washington Post&#160;media reporter Paul Farhi cited relentless pressure from conservatives&#160;for Bashir’s resignation from MSNBC after his on-air vitriolic, violent (and scripted) <a href="" type="internal">Sarah Palin comments</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1312/08/rs.01.html" type="external">Appearing</a>&#160;on CNN's&#160;Reliable Sources&#160;with host Brian Stelter, the&#160;Post's Paul Farhi said "the outrage was from the right, the idea that Sarah Palin and, by the way, a woman, obviously was being attacked was part of the outrage."</p>
<p>He said it was a relentless "campaign that just did not quit."</p>
<p>"I think the reality is probably that he was asked to leave," he continued. "That is to say he was fired, but in the legal world in which we live, perhaps they couldn't exactly say that."</p>
<p>Lee goes on to note that organizations like Breitbart News, TruthRevolt, and Newsbusters were instrumental in keeping up the pressure, “hammering Bashir and MSNBC for its hypocrisy in not disciplining him.”&#160;</p>
<p>Read the full Breitbart article <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/12/08/WaPo-Media-Reporter-Bashir-Fired-over-Palin-Remarks-Because-Outrage-Never-Abated" type="external">here</a>.</p> | Breitbart: WaPo Reporter Credits Conservative Campaign for Bashir Take Down | true | http://truthrevolt.org/news/breitbart-wapo-reporter-credits-conservative-campaign-bashir-take-down | 2018-10-05 | 0 |
<p>The musical adaptation of the smash 1990 romantic comedy “ <a href="http://variety.com/t/pretty-woman/" type="external">Pretty Woman</a>” has laid out its route to Broadway, with a creative team that includes musician <a href="http://variety.com/t/bryan-adams/" type="external">Bryan Adams</a> and <a href="http://variety.com/t/garry-marshall/" type="external">Garry Marshall</a>, the director of the film, as well as a cast led by Samantha Barks, one of the stars of the film version of “Les Miserables,” and Tony winner Steve Kazee (“Once”).</p>
<p>The musical will play a tryout run at Chicago’s Oriental Theater in spring 2018, with a fall 2018 opening planned on Broadway at one of the theaters owned by the Nederlander Organization.</p>
<p>“Pretty Woman” will have a score by Adams, whose 40-year career in music has included a string of hits such as “Summer of ’69” and “I Do It For You,” and frequent collaborator Jim Vallance, with book by writer-director-producer Marshall and J.F. Lawton, who penned the screenplay for the film. <a href="http://variety.com/t/jerry-mitchell/" type="external">Jerry Mitchell</a> (“Kinky Boots,” “On Your Feet!”) directs and choreographs.</p>
<p>Banks will make her Broadway debut in “Pretty Woman,” with Kazee returning to Broadway for the first time since “Once,” the 2012 musical that won him a Tony for lead actor in a musical. No other casting has yet been set.</p>
<p>Paula Wagner, the Hollywood veteran who also produces on Broadway, will produce “Pretty Woman” with a team that includes Nice Productions, LPO, New Regency Productions, Roy Furman, James L. Nederlander, Caiola Productions, Hunter Arnold, Stage Entertainment and The John Gore Organization.</p>
<p>The hit movie “Pretty Woman” starred Julia Roberts, in what his likely her most iconic role, opposite Richard Gere. The storyline follows the unexpected romance that develops between a prostitute and the businessman who hires her.</p>
<p>The design team will include David Rockwell (sets), Gregg Barnes (costumes), Kenneth Posner and Philip S. Rosenberg (lights) and John Shivers (sound). 101 Productions, Ltd. will serve as executive producer and general manager.</p>
<p>“Pretty Woman” will play a five-week run at Chicago’s Oriental Theater starting March 13. Further details, including exact Broadway dates and theater, remain to be set.</p> | ‘Pretty Woman’ Musical Sets Broadway Path With Bryan Adams, Garry Marshall | false | https://newsline.com/pretty-woman-musical-sets-broadway-path-with-bryan-adams-garry-marshall/ | 2017-09-26 | 1 |
<p>By Julien Pretot</p>
<p>BERGEN, Norway (Reuters) – France’s David Lappartient will beat incumbent Brian Cookson to be elected president of the International Cycling Union (UCI) if the body’s European delegates vote as one, former UCI chief Pat McQuaid told Reuters.</p>
<p>Both Lappartient and Cookson have said they were confident of getting 30 of the 45 delegates’ votes in Thursday’s election.</p>
<p>Yet McQuaid, who was beaten by Britain’s Cookson four years ago after two four-year terms, says European votes will swing the contest although other elements could come into play.</p>
<p>Europe has 15 delegates, Oceania has three while Asia, America and Africa each have nine.</p>
<p>“If they (European delegates) do vote as one I would say Lappartient will win it because he would just need eight extra votes,” McQuaid said on Wednesday at the road cycling world championships in Bergen, Norway, which he was attending in a private capacity.</p>
<p>“I know a few he’s definitely getting.”</p>
<p>Both Cookson and Lappartient did not respond to Reuters’ requests for interviews ahead of the election.</p>
<p>McQuaid, however, believes many of the delegates are not knowledgeable enough about the sport.</p>
<p>“Among the 45 delegates coming from five different continents, some of them would hardly tell the difference between their front wheel and their back wheel,” the Irishman said.</p>
<p>“Among them, how many really understand the needs of the UCI? Very few understand it. To win you have to convince those guys that you are the best, and it’s not a question of program. That’s where Lappartient will score because he is outgoing.”</p>
<p>Africa could also play a significant role on Thursday because the head of the African confederation, Egypt’s Mohamed Wagih, could influence the continent’s nine delegates to vote in a particular way, McQuaid said.</p>
<p>“Their president is decisive, he can influence his nine delegates,” he said.</p>
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<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Cycling: Europe to decide UCI election, says former chief McQuaid | false | https://newsline.com/cycling-europe-to-decide-uci-election-says-former-chief-mcquaid/ | 2017-09-20 | 1 |
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<p>J.P. Morgan Chase &amp; Co. says it is huge, but only in the best way, and just sprawling enough to serve its clients without being unmanageable.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Those were among the takeaways as the country's biggest bank by assets again argued that its size is a benefit and not a problem that should worry shareholders or regulators.</p>
<p>In a proxy released Thursday morning, J.P. Morgan pushed back against a shareholder proposal for a bank breakup, pointing to its business synergies, benefits of scale and value to clients.</p>
<p>The bank also said it has slimmed down even more in the last year, reducing assets by about $200 billion, dropping its regulatory capital surcharge by 1 percentage point and nearly wrapping up an effort to simplify its business.</p>
<p>Less than 24 hours earlier, however, Chairman and Chief Executive James Dimon's annual shareholder letter touted the virtues of the bank's size and ability to absorb losses -- for the entire industry in certain cases.</p>
<p>J.P. Morgan "alone has enough loss absorbing resources to bear all the losses, assumed by [a stress test issued by the Federal Reserve], of the 31 largest banks in the United States," Mr. Dimon wrote in his 50-page letter. He added that large U.S. banks are "far stronger" because of regulations and higher capital requirements.</p>
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<p>Yet J.P. Morgan has continued to face more forceful questions from analysts, investors and shareholders during the past year over whether it might be better for shareholders if the global bank broke itself up into smaller, more manageable units. The issue of whether banks should be broken up is also a consistent topic on the presidential campaign trail.</p>
<p>The bank said in its proxy that the board reviewed a breakup analysis with management that was presented throughout its February 2015 investor day. It "concurred in the conclusion that continuing our strategy and delivering on our commitments is the highest-certainty path to enhancing long-term shareholder value."</p>
<p>That presentation also referenced $18 billion in pretax synergies, and the bank added Thursday that each of its businesses benefits from its $9 billion in annual technology spending, which includes more than $600 million the bank expects to spend this year on cybersecurity.</p>
<p>The shareholder vote was requested by Bartlett Naylor, a shareholder activist and a financial policy advocate at the liberal lobbying group Public Citizen. He and others have raised the issue multiple times in previous years with other big banks as well, without getting much traction.</p>
<p>Mr. Naylor proposed that J.P. Morgan as well as Citigroup Inc. each create an independent board committee to address whether the bank would be more valuable to shareholders by divesting all noncore banking business segments. The committee would be required to report back to shareholders within 300 days.</p>
<p>The bank said that wouldn't be necessary or valuable to shareholders, breaking down details of shareholder communications that already include strategy discussions. For instance, J.P. Morgan hosted more than 90 shareholder calls and meetings on topics including strategy, participated in more than 50 investor meetings, presented at 13 investor conferences and conducted 10 investor trips in the U.S., Europe and Asia.</p>
<p>"The Board and management do not favor size for its own sake or support or oppose any strategy on ideological grounds, but instead analyze strategy from the perspective of serving the Firm's clients, customers and communities and how we believe any particular strategic initiative will affect long-term shareholder value," according to the proxy.</p>
<p>The proxy also shed light on Mr. Dimon's $27 million pay package for 2015, the highest among large U.S. bank CEOs.</p>
<p>J.P. Morgan's board said Mr. Dimon deserved the $7 million boost from the prior year, or 35%, because of strong multiyear results, business simplification efforts and strengthened "control" environment, among other factors, according to the proxy statement.</p>
<p>"Mr. Dimon has led a multiyear effort to fortify our controls, which includes addressing issues that resulted in supervisory and enforcement actions," according to the proxy.</p>
<p>Mr. Dimon's pay package comprises $20.5 million in performance-related restricted stock and $5 million in cash, along with his base salary of $1.5 million, according to a January filing.</p>
<p>This is the first year Mr. Dimon is being paid in performance share units, a type of restricted stock that has requirements on how long it must be held and has the possibility of being worth nothing based on the performances of Mr. Dimon and the bank.</p>
<p>The new features are designed to respond to a shareholder proposal last year that nearly garnered a majority in voting against Mr. Dimon's pay package.</p>
<p>The bank also disclosed that the board updated its policy on director age in 2015, beyond the previous 72-year-old retirement rule. J.P. Morgan's board has two key directors who passed the threshold: lead independent director Lee Raymond, 77, and audit committee chair Laban Jackson, 73, who is a liaison to regulators across the world. They both offered not to stand for re-election this year, according to the proxy.</p>
<p>"The Board believes that, while refreshment is an important consideration in assessing Board composition, the best interests of the Firm are served by being able to take advantage of all available talent and the Board should not make determinations with regard to membership based solely on age," according to the proxy.</p>
<p>In January, the bank disclosed that the board amended its bylaws by adding for a right of proxy access, allowing "eligible shareholders to include their nominees for election as directors," according to the proxy.</p>
<p>It was adopted following "extensive discussions with shareholders and reflects their expressed desire to have additional access to the director nomination process." The terms include allowing a shareholder to nominate up to 20% of the board, at least two directors in any event, and allows up to 20 shareholders to group together to reach the required threshold.</p>
<p>The bank also said that it would hold its annual shareholder meeting in New Orleans on May 17.</p>
<p>Write to Emily Glazer at [email protected]</p> | J.P. Morgan: We're Too Big Not to Succeed | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/07/j-p-morgan-were-too-big-not-to-succeed.html | 2016-07-06 | 0 |
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<p>The civil antitrust investigation by the Justice Department appears to focus on whether airlines illegally signaled to each other how quickly they would add new flights, routes and extra seats.</p>
<p>A letter received Tuesday by major U.S. carriers demands copies of all communications the airlines had with each other, Wall Street analysts and major shareholders about their plans for passenger-carrying capacity, or "the undesirability of your company or any other airline increasing capacity."</p>
<p>The Justice Department asked each airline for its passenger-carrying capacity both by region, and overall, since January 2010.</p>
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<p>Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce confirmed that the department is looking into potential "unlawful coordination" among some airlines. She declined to comment further or say which airlines are being investigated.</p>
<p>On a day when the overall stock market was up, stocks of the major U.S. airlines ended the day down 1 to 3 percent on news of the investigation.</p>
<p>American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines all said they received a letter and are complying. Several smaller carriers, including JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines, said they had not been contacted by the government.</p>
<p>The airlines publicly discussed capacity early last month in Miami at the International Air Transport Association's annual meeting. After hearing about that meeting, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., requested a Justice Department investigation.</p>
<p>The department had tried to block the most recent merger, the 2013 joining of American Airlines and US Airways, but ultimately agreed to let it proceed after the airlines made minor concessions.</p>
<p>Some Wall Street analysts argue that to remain financially strong, airlines should not expand capacity faster than the U.S. economy. And from January 2010 to January 2014, they didn't.</p>
<p>In that 4-year period, capacity on domestic flights was virtually flat while the U.S. economy grew about 2.2 percent per year. From January 2014 to January 2015, however, the airlines expanded by 5.5 percent, topping the economy's 2.4 percent growth for 2014.</p>
<p>Thanks to a series of mergers starting in 2008, America, Delta, Southwest and United now control more than 80 percent of the seats in the domestic travel market. They've eliminated unprofitable flights, filled more seats on planes and made a very public effort to slow growth to command higher airfares.</p>
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<p>It worked. The average domestic airfare rose an inflation-adjusted 13 percent from 2009 to 2014, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. And that doesn't include the billions of dollars airlines collect from new fees. During the past 12 months, the airlines took in $3.6 billion in bag fees and $3 billion in reservation-change fees.</p>
<p>That has led to record profits. In the past two years, U.S. airlines earned a combined $19.7 billion.</p>
<p>This year could bring even higher profits thanks to a massive drop in the price of jet fuel, airlines' single highest expense. In April, U.S. airlines paid $1.94 a gallon, down 34 percent from the year before.</p>
<p>That worries Wall Street analysts and investors. Cheap fuel has led airlines to make money-losing decisions in the past, rapidly expanding, launching new routes and setting unrealistically low fares to lure passengers. Airlines already flying those routes would match the fare, and all carriers would lose money.</p>
<p>Such price wars are long gone, but today's low fuel costs along with recent comments from airline executives have given the market jitters.</p>
<p>Airline stocks plunged in May after the chief financial officer of Southwest said at an industry event that the carrier would increase passenger-carrying capacity by 7 to 8 percent, an increase over an earlier target.</p>
<p>Wolfe Research analyst Hunter Keay, who hosted that May 19 conference, told investors in a note afterward that the big airlines are unhappy to be restraining growth while low-cost airlines like Spirit grow much faster. He urged the major airlines to "step up" and cut routes for the good of the industry.</p>
<p>On June 1, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said his airline would cap its 2015 growth at 7 percent. That sparked a rally in airline stocks, as investors were more assured that capacity growth would be limited.</p>
<p>Keay said Wednesday that he had not been contacted by the government and doesn't think the airlines have been acting inappropriately.</p>
<p>"The analyst community is bringing up the subject. You certainly can't fault an airline executive for responding to the question," Keay said. "The capacity continues to grow at the airports people want to fly to and air travel remains a particular good value for the consumer, especially for the utility that it provides."</p>
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<p>Koenig reported from Dallas, Mayerowitz from New York.</p>
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<p>David Koenig can be reached at <a href="http://twitter.com/airlinewriter," type="external">http://twitter.com/airlinewriter,</a> Mayerowitz at <a href="http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott" type="external">http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott</a> and Tucker at <a href="http://twitter.com/etuckerAP." type="external">http://twitter.com/etuckerAP.</a></p> | U.S. probing possible airline collusion that kept fares high | false | https://abqjournal.com/606803/us-probing-possible-airline-collusion-to-keep-fares-high.html | 2 |
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<p>I saw a picture of Youri Latortue in The Chauvettes’ newspaper this morning. Makes me think that he may be the Parliamentary leader of recent events. Though Youri Latortue is based in Gonaives, according to the newspaper, he was in the south (Les Cayes) investigating “prices”.</p>
<p>Youri, I believe, claimed Parliamentary Immunity when it was suggested that he may some how have been involved in illicit activities during previous governments including that of Aristide and that of Uncle Gerard Latortue. He might have even had a nickname back then. Uncle Gerard, if I remember correctly, had to be escorted to the airport by the American Ambassador. Don’t ask me why. Maybe it was a thank you gesture.</p>
<p>On Sunday April 6, our band, RAM, performed in Ennery, just north of Gonaives, to celebrate Toussaint Lourverture. We played for a few thousand ecstatic people who seemed to know all the words of all the songs. We left Ennery at about 11 PM, drove through Gonaives, which was dark and quiet except for one local bar which had a biker scene going on. When we got past the town of L’Estere we came up to a police roadblock. We were out in the boonies by this time I might add.</p>
<p>The scene was a bit creepy. There were about a dozen police in a group and the police pickup had its lights flashing. I had seen the lights from about a mile away not quite knowing what they were. I turned on my inside lights to improve the chances of them recognizing me. When we stopped, a big stocky man, dusty, wearing a dirty white t-shirt (it was a dirt road) came up to the window on the passenger side. My wife was sitting there. He said he had been attacked. He introduced himself as a Deputy in the Haitian Parliament.</p>
<p>We told him we just came back from Ennery. He asked if Youri Latortue was there. We said we hadn’t seen him though we had seen several other deputies. By this time the car was surrounded by police, with the uneasy joy of recognizing RAM at a time like this.</p>
<p>People don’t usually hang out on deserted dirt roads around midnight. I was a bit concerned. When they saw my security man in the back seat, they recognized him, laughed a bit, held some conversations I couldn’t hear, everyone still uneasy, and they let us go. The next morning the demonstrations /attacks began in Port-au-Prince.</p>
<p>I can’t make heads nor tails of what that was all about. There were no more road blocks until we got just outside Port-au-Prince.</p>
<p>By the time we got home, around 3am, we went through about six roadblocks. None of the others had that creepy feeling …. None of the others asked us questions and no one mentioned Youri except the Deputy.</p>
<p>RICHARD MORSE runs the Olafsson Hotel Port-au-Prince Haiti and the leads the Haitian band RAM.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | A Creepy Roadblock at Midnight | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/04/18/a-creepy-roadblock-at-midnight/ | 2008-04-18 | 4 |
<p>Two Democratic senators on Friday called on President Donald Trump to release the membership list and other information from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida in order to assure the public that the club won’t serve as “a private refuge for pay-to-play politics.”</p>
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<p>Trump travelled to Mar-a-Lago for the first time as President on Friday.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2017-02-03%20Whitehouse%20Udall%20Mar-a-Lago%20Letter.pdf" type="external">letter</a> sent by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Tom Udall (D-NM) referenced a recently <a href="" type="internal">reported two-fold increase</a> in the club’s membership fee—up to $200,000—and said: “Presumably demand for memberships has increased dramatically since you were elected President with the expectation that a membership at your Club will offer special access to you when you are there.”</p>
<p>“Your Winter White House will provide an audience with you for those who can afford it, not to mention an increasing cash-flow into your family-run organization,” the letter added. “Instead of draining the swamp, it appears you’re bringing Washington right to the swamps of Mar-a-Lago.”</p>
<p>To dispel any notion that the club was “a private refuge for pay-to-play politics,” the the senators said, Trump should disclose Mar-a-Lago’s membership list, and a list of those in attendance at the club when Trump is there.</p>
<p>The letter also asked Trump to explain the measures he is taking to ensure his safety at the club, and to ensure no one in attendance has “ties to foreign governments or other entities that seek to influence you or United States policy.”</p>
<p>Correction: This post originally reported that former Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) co-authored the letter to Trump. We regret the error.</p>
<p>Read Whitehouse and Udall’s letter below:</p> | Dems Tell Trump: Disclose Mar-A-Lago Guests To Dispel ‘Pay-To-Play’ Charges | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/democratic-senators-mar-a-lago-guest-list--2 | 4 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — A debate over bump stocks — devices that allowed semi-automatic rifles to fire at rapid speed during the Las Vegas shooting — will continue this week on Capitol Hill as lawmakers grapple with the politically stinging issue of gun control.</p>
<p>The week began Monday with a moment of silence for the victims of the Las Vegas tragedy at an annual conference here for progressive state legislators from across the country.</p>
<p>That moment of silence at the Omni Shoreham Hotel was led by members of the Nevada Legislature, in town for the 4th annual State Innovation Exchange Legislator Conference.</p>
<p>“It’s hard to talk about with this knot in my stomach,” said state Sen. Pat Spearman, D-North Las Vegas, who said the Nevada legislative delegation was brought onto the stage to lead the prayer for victims of tragedy.</p>
<p>Lawmakers from other states expressed their support for the Nevada delegation, “letting us know they were with us,” said Nevada Assemblyman William McCurdy II, D-Las Vegas.</p>
<p>“We decided to go up in unison and call for a moment of silence,” said McCurdy, adding, “We are stronger when we all stand together.”</p>
<p>As state lawmakers met, Congress was out for a federal holiday. The House returns this week.</p>
<p>Focus on bump stocks</p>
<p>The debate in Congress on gun control has focused mainly on bump stocks, which were used by the shooter, Stephen Paddock. He equipped some semi-automatic rifles with the devices before opening fire from his room at <a href="http://www.hotels.vegas/Las-Vegas-Hotels/Mandalay-Bay-Resort-And-Casino" type="external">Mandalay Bay</a> into a crowd attending a country music concert on Oct. 1.</p>
<p>There were 58 people killed and hundreds of others injured.</p>
<p>The bump stock accessory allows semi-automatic rifles to fire bursts of bullets near the speed of a fully automatic weapon.</p>
<p>Although the National Rifle Association has called for tighter controls on bump stocks, the gun lobby and Republican leaders are urging President Donald Trump to issue regulations through the Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.</p>
<p>The NRA opposes an outright ban on the devices.</p>
<p>Democrats want a ban on bump stocks through legislation that would do just that. A bill filed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is co-sponsored by many Democrats in the Senate, including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.</p>
<p>Cortez Masto, a former Nevada attorney general, said she plans to be “very vocal” in Washington about gun safety legislation to make sure “the terror that came to our community never visits another one in America.”</p>
<p>The Feinstein bill would ban not only bump stocks, but other accessories to increase the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons.</p>
<p>Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he plans to call a hearing on the gun control measures after several Republicans said they were open to legislative language to curb availability of the accessories.</p>
<p>Political consequences</p>
<p>But a vote on gun control legislation could have political consequences for vulnerable Republicans and Democrats up for reelection in 2018.</p>
<p>A bill to ban assault weapons in 1993 resulted in an NRA-orchestrated attack on Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Texas, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and other moderate Democrats, who lost reelection and saw a Republican takeover of the House.</p>
<p>The NRA funded unknown candidate Steve Stockman, who defeated Brooks. The gun lobby also funded an effort to defeat Speaker Tom Foley, D-Wash.</p>
<p>In Nevada, a divide over gun control in the congressional delegation falls along party lines, with the two Republicans, Sen. Dean Heller and Rep. Mark Amodei, favoring Trump administration action on regulations on bump stocks.</p>
<p>Cortez Masto and Democrat Reps. Dina Titus, Jacky Rosen and Ruben Kihuen favor legislation.</p>
<p>Heller joined other GOP senators last week in urging the administration to review and tighten regulations on bump stocks — a position that Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s executive vice president, underscored in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”</p>
<p>LaPierre said it is up to ATF to review and interpret current laws and regulations.</p>
<p>Feinstein, on another Sunday show, “Face the Nation,” argued against administrative actions that can be changed from president to president. “We need a law,” she said.</p>
<p>History shows any gun control legislation would face hurdles in the Senate, where lawmakers rejected bills to tighten background check requirements in 2015 following the San Bernardino, California, mass shooting, and in 2013 following the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.</p>
<p>Last year, groups and organizations on both sides of the issue spent money to lobby Congress.</p>
<p>Gun rights groups spent $10.6 million, and gun control organizations spent $1.7 million, on lobbyists alone. More was doled out in contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks money in politics.</p>
<p>Spearman, the Nevada state senator, said she has heard from Democrats and Republicans alike that something needs to be done, and that “throwing money” into the gun control debate “is not a winning strategy.”</p>
<p>She said people are looking for solutions.</p>
<p>“People are fed up,” Spearman said.</p>
<p>Contact Gary Martin at 202-662-7390 or <a href="" type="internal">[email protected].</a> Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/garymartindc" type="external">@garymartindc</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>Representing Nevada</p>
<p>Nevada legislators attending the 4th annual State Innovation Exchange Legislator Conference:</p>
<p>—Sen. Pat Spearman, D-North Las Vegas</p>
<p>—Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno, D-North Las Vegas</p>
<p>—Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas</p>
<p>—Assemblyman William McCurdy II, D-Las Vegas</p>
<p>—Assemblyman Tyrone Thompson, D-North Las Vegas</p>
<p /> | After Las Vegas shooting, Congress debates gun control again | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/after-las-vegas-shooting-congress-debates-gun-control-again/ | 2017-10-09 | 1 |
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<p>Question: Over three years ago one of the guys where I was living backed into my car during the night. He never said a word about it and I didn't want a confrontation, so I didn't say anything. I want it fixed now, but I'm afraid if I use my insurance company my rates will go up. Can I just go to the body shop and pay out of pocket?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Answer:&#160;Yes, you can go to a repair shop and pay out of pocket for the repairs. And, at this late date, that may be your only choice.</p>
<p>No one requires you to make a car insurance claim. If you choose to preserve a friendship rather than make a claim, that is your choice to make -- you just end up being the one who is out the money for repairs instead of the person who did the damage.</p>
<p>You didn't want a confrontation with your roommate, so you declined to speak to the at-fault party and obtain his auto insurance information.&#160; If you had, you could've made a claim against his <a href="http://www.carinsurance.com/coverage-definition/property-damage-liability.aspx?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-170783910" type="external">property damage liability coverage Opens a New Window.</a> and had your car fixed at no cost to you.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, if you were to change your mind and wanted to pursue him for the cost of repairs now, over three years after the fact, it's likely too late to do so.</p>
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<p>States have <a href="http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/statute-of-limitations-state-laws-chart-29941.html?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-170783910" type="external">statutes of limitations Opens a New Window.</a> for injury and property damage claims, or lawsuits.&#160; In most states, you only get two to three years to file for third-party property damage.&#160; There are states that allow up to six years, and Rhode Island permits up to 10 years.</p>
<p>How long is too long?</p>
<p>There can be even tighter deadlines under your own <a href="http://www.carinsurance.com/car-insurance-policy.aspx?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-170783910" type="external">car insurance policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Your auto policy should note how long you have to claim for damages your vehicle sustained. &#160;It may say something specific, like one year, or vague, like “promptly” or “as soon as possible,” but the point is that three years later is likely too late for you to make a <a href="http://www.carinsurance.com/coverage-definition/collision-coverage.aspx?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-170783910" type="external">collision Opens a New Window.</a> claim.</p>
<p>Whether you're making a first-party claim through your own insurance company or third-party claim through an at-fault driver's liability coverages, time is really of the essence.</p>
<p>Waiting to make a claim for weeks or months, and especially years, is much more likely to raise a red flag with the auto insurer involved.&#160; If it is within the given time period for the claim to be accepted, a late claim will be examined more closely by the adjuster.</p>
<p>One reason a claim made years after the incident can become problematic is that the insurance company needs to verify how the damage was done and to make certain that other damage wasn't done since the incident that you are trying to slip in and get repaired under this claim.</p>
<p>Will your rates go up? Not always</p>
<p>For future reference, keep in mind that it might have been possible to make <a href="http://www.carinsurance.com/auto-insurance-claims.aspx?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-170783910" type="external">an auto insurance claim Opens a New Window.</a> without your rates going up (but your insurer would have wanted to know who was at-fault and gone after him to recover the money they paid out).</p>
<p>While one minor accident and claim may affect your rates with some auto insurance providers, others won't rate on an accident if it's not your fault and/or if the accident is so minor that the repair costs are under a certain monetary amount (such as $1,000).&#160; State laws even sometimes dictate this.&#160; (See “ <a href="http://www.carinsurance.com/kb/if-not-at-fault-in-accident-will-rates-rise.aspx?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-170783910" type="external">If you're not at fault, will your rates go up? Opens a New Window.</a>” for more details)</p>
<p>However, if the damage were minor enough we'd recommend paying for it yourself, if you fail to go after the at-fault party, and <a href="http://www.carinsurance.com/kb/pay-out-of-pocket-for-minor-damage.aspx?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-170783910" type="external">save your auto policy for big items Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The original article can be found at CarInsurance.com: <a href="http://www.carinsurance.com/kb/pay-yourself-or-claim-before-its-too-late.aspx?WT.qs_osrc=fxb-170783910" type="external">Don't wait too long to make a claim Opens a New Window.</a></p> | Don't Wait too Long to Make a Claim | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/05/13/dont-wait-too-long-to-make-claim.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
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<p>He lived in south London and worked as a Web developer at Morgan Stanley, making 70,000 pounds (about $89,000) a year.</p>
<p>He was active on Grindr, the popular gay dating app.</p>
<p>And he was a huge fan of the American crime drama, “Breaking Bad,” according to the Guardian. How big of a fan? So much so, prosecutors said, that Brizzi copied techniques used by the show’s main character, Walter White, to dissolve body parts in a bathtub full of acid – one of the signature moments of the TV series.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Those body parts Brizzi attempted to dissolve were of Gordon Semple, a 59-year-old police constable whom Brizzi, an Italian national, met on Grindr in April, the Guardian reported.</p>
<p>Brizzi was found guilty last month of murdering Semple, a three-decade veteran of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. On Monday, a judge sentenced Brizzi to life in prison with a minimum of 24 years served, the Guardian reported.</p>
<p>The 50-year-old also faces a concurrent seven-year sentence for obstructing a coroner.</p>
<p>“Regret you express now for Mr. Semple’s death has to be seen against what you did over a number of days to his body,” Judge Nicholas Hilliard told him, according to the Guardian.</p>
<p>Semple had recently completed 30 years with the Metropolitan Police Service, where he worked with the antisocial-behavior team, his brother told the Sunday Post.</p>
<p>“We couldn’t walk past any big pub or club without them stopping him and shaking hands,” Ronnie Semple said. “He was well known and well respected.”</p>
<p>Brizzi is the second British man in recent months to kill someone he met on Grindr. Last month, Stephen Port – who denied all charges against him – was found guilty of murdering four men after luring them to his London flat, according to Sky News. Port drugged his victims with fatal doses of GHB and raped them after they had fallen unconscious, according to the BBC.</p>
<p>What Brizzi’s crime lacked in the number of victims he made up for in sheer horror. What exactly the convicted killer did to Semple’s body and how he did it is not entirely clear, but the judge noted that the case included “terrible features.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>According to the Guardian, Semple went to Brizzi’s flat after the pair made contact on Grindr. Semple was supposed to be working when he messaged Brizzi that he was “free now for [a] hot, dirty, sleazy session,” the paper reported.</p>
<p>Grindr did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>The company’s safety tips urge users to be cautious, noting that people should be careful about revealing personal information to strangers and should remember to let a trusted person know where they’re going if they plan to meet someone.</p>
<p>“If you start out lying, you will eventually get caught,” the company says. “Don’t bait and switch – it’s the surest way for things to end badly. Grindr is not the venue for you to explore your fantasies of being a different person. That’s not fair to the Grindr community, which thrives on honest representations.”</p>
<p>In the United States, the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission have issued warnings about romance scams perpetrated through such apps and dating sites.</p>
<p>“Millions of Americans visit online dating websites every year hoping to find a companion or even a soul mate,” the FBI said just before Valentine’s Day, adding that “the FBI wants to warn you that criminals use these sites, too, looking to turn the lonely and vulnerable into fast money through a variety of scams.”</p>
<p>Brizzi claimed Semple was accidentally killed during a “sex game gone wrong,” one that involved the constable being accidentally strangled by a dog leash, according to the BBC.</p>
<p>But a jury decided that Semple’s death was no accident.</p>
<p>Prosecutors maintained that the accidental strangling would have taken much longer than Brizzi’s story suggested it did, the BBC reported.</p>
<p>Adding to suspicion surrounding the death, prosecutors said, was that the two men had been hoping to bring more people to their sex party – but that when a third man showed up, Brizzi sent him on his way.</p>
<p>“I was right in the middle of strangling Gordon and I said to him, ‘Look, this is not the right time now, people are falling ill and it’s a mess,'” Brizzi said, according to the Independent.</p>
<p>In reality, investigators said, Semple had been killed.</p>
<p>Days later, as Semple’s partner at work desperately called his phone and reported him missing, Brizzi was trying to dispose of his victim. He was captured on camera buying tools that he would use to get rid of the body – heavy-duty scissors, knives, plastic buckets, cleaning products and a perforated metal sheet, according to the Guardian.</p>
<p>Those tools were used in horrific fashion to remove the flesh from Semple’s body, the paper reported. Some parts of the body reportedly were found in the bathtub, others in the buckets Brizzi had purchased.</p>
<p>In addition to trying to dissolve the body using acid, Brizzi dismembered other parts. Investigators also found teeth marks on a rib discovered in Brizzi’s kitchen, though he denied attempting to eat his victim’s body, according to the Independent.</p>
<p>There were also “pools of human fat in the oven,” the paper reported. And investigators found blood on the oven handle and Semple’s DNA on chopsticks and a cooking pot, the Guardian reported.</p>
<p>A human foot was later found in a nearby neighborhood, but many of Semple’s remains were never found. What remained of the body was eventually discovered by police after neighbors reported a putrid smell emanating from Brizzi’s apartment.</p>
<p>More than 400 people attended Semple’s funeral, the Sunday Post reported, and his fellow officers served as his pallbearers.</p>
<p>“Gordon was obviously involved in things we knew nothing about but to us, he will always be the Gordon we knew,” Ronnie Semple said of his brother. “We were very proud of him.”</p>
<p>Of his brother’s killer, he added: “I hope he rots in jail; the guy is a monster.”</p>
<p>British media labeled Brizzi a “Satanist” and said his life began to unravel after he developed a severe addiction to crystal meth that cost him his career at Morgan Stanley.</p>
<p>During his trial, jurors were shown footage of Brizzi being interviewed by detectives after his arrest in April. Asked about his drug use over the previous 24 hours, he admitted that while disposing of Gordon Semple’s body, he thought he was “getting away with it,” the Guardian reported.</p>
<p>“Yes, I took crystal meth yesterday when I was thinking I should get rid of the corpse. . . . Four days have passed by and nobody had seen or said anything. I thought I was getting away with it. I had nearly finished but I took a shot, I was going to finish the job today,” the Guardian quoted him as saying.</p>
<p>Investigators found a copy of the satanic bible downloaded on Brizzi’s computer, as well as notes he’d written to the devil. He confessed to police that he killed Semple, noting that “Satan told me to,” the Independent reported.</p>
<p>The Independent reported that Brizzi cried and said “I’m sorry” throughout his trial. Yet, he told jurors that his victim died in a “state of erotic bliss.”</p>
<p>london-bathtub</p> | ‘Breaking Bad’ fan tried to get rid of a body like Walter White – using a bathtub full of acid | false | https://abqjournal.com/907732/breaking-bad-fan-tried-to-get-rid-of-a-body-like-walter-white-using-a-bathtub-full-of-acid.html | 2 |
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<p>I love Adam Sandler. From Billy Madison to Happy Gilmore to the Chanukah Song, the predecessor of the Superbad generation has effortlessly conquered the domain of slapstick comedy and inappropriate jokes. But damn you Scuba Steve! If you’re going to propagate misinformation about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, do it quietly—or at least in your non-comedic life.</p>
<p>You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, Sandler’s new flick, takes Hollywood chicanery and stereotypes that denigrate Arabs to an unprecedented level—surpassing hit flicks like the Kingdom, the Siege, and every Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris movie that came before it. I group Zohan with other shamelessly racist action movies because a film should at least be minutely funny to be categorized as a comedy. For the Sandler diehards and hilarity-loving skeptics, I should clearly state: using race and prejudices to engender laughter is not the problem. Mel Brooks and the creators of South Park exploit stereotypes far beyond anything Sandler has ever done, but unlike Zohan, I don’t think insidious propaganda and underlying racism drive their comedy. After all, if this hebetudinous clunker was just comedy, Sandler and company wouldn’t have, as the New York Times reported, sought out Arab actors to give the movie “legitimacy.” Their search was successful and a few token Arabs showed their presence to innocuously inform the public that it is okay to vilify the crazy towel-headed terrorists once again.</p>
<p>What makes this movie even worse than many of the unfavorable movies made post-9/11 is Zohan’s disarming presentation; it is a comedic approach to understanding the inner workings of the substandard Arab people. Like the job stealing Mexicans, the liquor store robbing Blacks, and the HIV infested gays, negative stereotypes in Zohan strip down the Arab people to RPG wielding animals that senselessly thirst for Jewish blood.</p>
<p>From the start of the film, Sandler’s character, Zohan, is positioned as the altruistic hero—an Israeli Mossad agent who reluctantly kills Palestinian “terrorists,” while forgoing his real dream: to cut hair in the US for Paul Mitchell. Zohan is “brave,” “lovable,” and “funny,” and even his stereotypical chauvinism is eaten up by women (and men) throughout the movie—including his eventual Palestinian love interest, Dalia.</p>
<p>Compounded with played out, corny penis gags, the Israeli narrative is interwoven into the fabric of the film, including propagandistic reminiscences by Zohan’s father who recalls the oft-repeated myth of being surrounded “on all sides” by powerful enemies during the Six Day War—a war in which Israel preemptively struck and dominated those “enemies.” In line with Israeli and Western intelligence, Israel won the war in six days (and five hours, as Zohan’s father dutifully reminds us)—so much for existential threats and heroic narratives. Other historical revisions include a reference in a verbal battle between a Palestinian and Israeli shop owner, in which the Palestinian proclaimed, “Give it up, like you gave up the Gaza Strip!” This biting taunt, while not as blatant as the common stereotype, infers that Israel “gave up” the Gaza Strip and further insinuates that Israel had claim to it. The “humorous” jeer glosses over the glaring reality: Israel still occupies Gaza’s borders, airspace, imports and exports, and has economically strangulated and suffocated 1.4 million Palestinians in the world’s largest open-air prison.</p>
<p>But rewriting history (and regurgitating jokes from 1996) is hardly the movie’s worst crime. The portrayal of Palestinians as ugly, dirty, incompetent, stupid, goat loving terrorists was jammed down the viewer’s throat more times than Zohan’s lame hummus jokes. It becomes obvious to the audience why these good looking, suave, kindhearted Israelis have to kill these evil Palestinian “terrorists”—because they hate Jews more than they hate soap. The most egregious grievance by a Palestinian “terrorist” throughout the film was the stealing of a pet goat. Israel has killed more than 4,000 Palestinians since the start of the second intifada, including nearly a 1000 children, yet the main gripe of these rabid “terrorists” is a stereotypical love for hillside animals. This “inoffensive” scenario is the equivalent of a scene in a Hollywood “comedy” made by a Palestinian filmmaker stereotypically portraying Jews as pissed off about being sent to Auschwitz because they found out that Hitler was going to make them pay for the train ride.</p>
<p>A particular scene in Zohan went beyond comprehension: Sandler’s casting agency rounded up a handful of children to play Palestinians throwing rocks at Zohan. What does Zohan do in response to the actions of these soon-to-be terrorists? He gleefully catches the stones and turns them into the equivalent of a balloon animal. One is supposed to toss aside any arising sensitivities and overlook the many instances Israeli snipers and soldiers have shot Palestinian children in the head or taken their eyes out with rubber bullets because of these rocks Zohan takes with a smile. The posturing of the noble and affable Mossad agent is a slick attempt to humanize Israel and make the Mossad (an outfit that has engaged in countless operations of state terrorism) look like the valiant GI Joe force in the Middle East combating jihadi thugs in the name of good. But Sandler’s character is not only a hero, he’s also a humanitarian. There are multiple scenes where Zohan informs the audience that Israelis do their best to minimize the loss of innocent Palestinian life, when an examination of the conflict by Israeli human rights organizations exposes quite the opposite.</p>
<p>Other stereotypes saturate the movie. The Palestinian salon that Zohan gets a job at is described as a dump, Palestinians constantly cheer for the “terrorists,” a crowd of Palestinians applaud the death of “heroic” Zohan (which he faked), and the “terrorists” are so stupid and illiterate that they purchase Neosporin instead of liquid nitrogen to make their bomb to kill Zohan. There is no distinction made between Hezbollah, Hamas, jihadists, and terrorist sexcapading sheiks. Furthermore, the film conveniently illustrates how Israelis in the US, as “fellow” natives of the Middle East, suffer the same discrimination and tribulations as Arabs in a post-911 world. Oddly, Israelis are passed off as “brown” and “other” like the Arabs in the film, yet Zohan’s parents look like European Ashkenazi Jews. Moreover, while Israelis are shown as native hummus loving Middle Easterners, Zohan’s family is portrayed distinctively differently from the backwards Arabs. Zohan’s parents are sweet, comforting, reasonable and accepting from beginning to end, not rigid like their Arab counterparts. Even when Zohan finally captures Dalia’s heart, his parents show up in America and warmly embrace their relationship without question—while Dalia and others resist the notion of a courtship between the two and tells Zohan that her family would never accept him. Ah, if only all Arabs could just get to know Israelis and see how kind, generous, and amorous they all are, the sooner we could all sit in a circle singing Kumbaya over s’mores and unfunny Zohan hummus jokes.</p>
<p>The worst dialogue throughout this 102 minute laughless action flick is made by Dalia (played by Emmanuelle Chriqui), Zohan’s eventual Palestinian love interest. She serves at the omnipotent propagandist—blaming the troubles of the conflict on “extremists” and “hate” on both sides. She endlessly and vaguely laments about how much “hate” there is “over there,” and describes to Zohan that things are “different here.” As any knowledgeable American knows, Palestinians and Israelis love each other here in the US; they frequently have bake sales together; they form sit-ins for blind coexistence on college campuses; and have Palestinian/Israeli karaoke nights where they sing their favorite Beatles tunes like Give Peace a Chance. What Sandler, and co-writers Judd Apatow and Robert Smigel, fail to understand is that before there was Hamas, Yasser Arafat, Fatah, the PLO, or any resistance movement, there was the dispossession of the Palestinian people, whereby 780,000 indigenous Palestinians were displaced from their homeland by Jewish gangs and terror groups. Flash forward 60 years and the Palestinian people are living in squalor in demolished towns and refugee camps enduring a 40 year occupation that strangulates their economy and diminishes any semblance of normalcy or a proper life. What we are to believe by watching this film is that if everyone would just stop “hating” (which Israelis are depicted as clearly willing to do, while Palestinians resist it vehemently) Israelis and Palestinians could effortlessly live together in harmony. But “hate” has little to do with a conflict rooted in a people’s desire for basic human rights and an end to oppression.</p>
<p>In the end, everything ends up happy and joyful: Zohan gets the girl, he saves the block from a conniving mall developer, and the “terrorists” stop terrorizing. But the jovial ending left a sour taste in my mouth. As nearly a dozen “nameless” Palestinians were killed by innocent and heroic Israeli soldiers last week and another report of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza went unnoticed in the US press, people were laughing all over the country at how stupid, feeble, violent and backwards Arabs are. A diehard Sandler fan proclaimed: “He’s making it for 13 year old boys. It’s Critic Proof.” That’s what scares me most of all.</p>
<p>Remi Kanazi is the editor of the forthcoming anthology of poetry, Poets For Palestine, which can be pre-ordered at <a href="http://www.poetsforpalestine.com/" type="external">www.PoetsForPalestine.com</a>. Remi can be contacted at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | You Don’t Mess With the Racism! | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/06/26/you-don-t-mess-with-the-racism/ | 2008-06-26 | 4 |
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Hagel1.jpg" type="external" />WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A closed-door congressional hearing on the release of Bowe Bergdahl failed to calm Republican anger on Tuesday over the administration's secretive deal to trade five Taliban leaders held at Guantanamo for the U.S. prisoner of war. But a group of former soldiers defended the exchange and [?]</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/11/us-usa-afghanistan-bergdahl-idUSKBN0EL2N720140611" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.reuters.com</a></p>
<p /> | Hagel Gets Grilled On Bergdahl Deal | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/hearing-fails-to-calm-anger-over-deal-to-free-bergdahl/ | 0 |
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<p>SAO PAULO (AP) — The World Health Organization announced Tuesday that it now considers all of Sao Paulo state at risk for yellow fever, recommending that all international visitors to the state be vaccinated.</p>
<p>That puts the megacity of Sao Paulo on the list. But Brazil's Health Ministry said in a statement that it was not changing its own, recently updated map of at-risk areas, which includes only certain parts of the state and city. The ministry said that the WHO's more-cautious recommendation for foreigners was made in light of the fact that it is impossible to know where visitors might travel once they arrive in Sao Paulo state.</p>
<p>Antonio Nardi, a senior official at the ministry, later told reporters it was the result of an "excess of concern."</p>
<p>The announcement comes as an outbreak is gathering steam in Brazil during the Southern Hemisphere summer rainy season and just weeks ahead of Carnival, a major draw for foreign tourists. Nardi noted that most Carnival activities happen in cities, not in the forested areas that are of most concern, and so visitors should be safe.</p>
<p>Since July 2017, 35 cases of yellow fever have been confirmed in Brazil, 20 of them in Sao Paulo state and three in Rio de Janeiro state, according to Health Ministry data released Tuesday. In all, 20 people have died. Yellow fever is spread by the same mosquito that transmits other tropical diseases, including Zika.</p>
<p>Much of Brazil is considered at risk for the virus, but a corridor along the coast was long largely considered safe. Last year, however, Brazil saw an unusually large outbreak of the disease, including in areas not previously thought to be at risk. More than 770 people were infected, and more than 250 died. In response, the WHO began expanding its map of areas of transmission, including adding all of Rio de Janeiro state.</p>
<p>Brazil rushed to vaccinate millions of people in a massive campaign last year, and it is continuing those efforts this year. Just last week, the Health Ministry announced that a new campaign would vaccinate nearly 20 million people in dozens of cities in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia states. Sao Paulo health authorities announced Tuesday they would start vaccinations a few days early and said the campaign would vaccinate about half of the state's population by the end of next month.</p>
<p>Most of those people will receive a fractional dose of the vaccine — a strategy the WHO recommends to contain ongoing outbreaks that threaten to outrun vaccine supplies.</p>
<p>Nardi declined to say how many doses Brazil has in its strategic stocks, but he said the country has "sufficient vaccine to vaccinate the entire Brazilian population if necessary." Brazil is a major producer of yellow fever vaccines, but last year it requested 3.5 million doses from international emergency stockpiles.</p>
<p>Brazilian authorities say studies have shown that a fractional dose is effective for at least eight years, though a WHO factsheet only goes as far as saying it is effective for at least a year "and likely longer." A full dose is generally considered effective for life.</p>
<p>Even before the WHO announcement, Brazilian media were reporting long lines at health centers in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>"They should have already vaccinated the whole population of this country," said Roberta Tonelli Ferreira, 61-year-old who visited a health center in Sao Paulo on Tuesday with her granddaughter Valentina, who is 2. "They wait until a person dies, to have who knows how many deaths, for the public to be frightened to start vaccinating."</p>
<p>There is no known treatment for yellow fever, and vaccination campaigns are considered crucial to containing outbreaks. Symptoms of the disease include fever, muscle pain, and nausea; some patients also experience abdominal pain, kidney problems and the jaundice from which the disease gets its name.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press photographer Andre Penner contributed to this report.</p>
<p>SAO PAULO (AP) — The World Health Organization announced Tuesday that it now considers all of Sao Paulo state at risk for yellow fever, recommending that all international visitors to the state be vaccinated.</p>
<p>That puts the megacity of Sao Paulo on the list. But Brazil's Health Ministry said in a statement that it was not changing its own, recently updated map of at-risk areas, which includes only certain parts of the state and city. The ministry said that the WHO's more-cautious recommendation for foreigners was made in light of the fact that it is impossible to know where visitors might travel once they arrive in Sao Paulo state.</p>
<p>Antonio Nardi, a senior official at the ministry, later told reporters it was the result of an "excess of concern."</p>
<p>The announcement comes as an outbreak is gathering steam in Brazil during the Southern Hemisphere summer rainy season and just weeks ahead of Carnival, a major draw for foreign tourists. Nardi noted that most Carnival activities happen in cities, not in the forested areas that are of most concern, and so visitors should be safe.</p>
<p>Since July 2017, 35 cases of yellow fever have been confirmed in Brazil, 20 of them in Sao Paulo state and three in Rio de Janeiro state, according to Health Ministry data released Tuesday. In all, 20 people have died. Yellow fever is spread by the same mosquito that transmits other tropical diseases, including Zika.</p>
<p>Much of Brazil is considered at risk for the virus, but a corridor along the coast was long largely considered safe. Last year, however, Brazil saw an unusually large outbreak of the disease, including in areas not previously thought to be at risk. More than 770 people were infected, and more than 250 died. In response, the WHO began expanding its map of areas of transmission, including adding all of Rio de Janeiro state.</p>
<p>Brazil rushed to vaccinate millions of people in a massive campaign last year, and it is continuing those efforts this year. Just last week, the Health Ministry announced that a new campaign would vaccinate nearly 20 million people in dozens of cities in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia states. Sao Paulo health authorities announced Tuesday they would start vaccinations a few days early and said the campaign would vaccinate about half of the state's population by the end of next month.</p>
<p>Most of those people will receive a fractional dose of the vaccine — a strategy the WHO recommends to contain ongoing outbreaks that threaten to outrun vaccine supplies.</p>
<p>Nardi declined to say how many doses Brazil has in its strategic stocks, but he said the country has "sufficient vaccine to vaccinate the entire Brazilian population if necessary." Brazil is a major producer of yellow fever vaccines, but last year it requested 3.5 million doses from international emergency stockpiles.</p>
<p>Brazilian authorities say studies have shown that a fractional dose is effective for at least eight years, though a WHO factsheet only goes as far as saying it is effective for at least a year "and likely longer." A full dose is generally considered effective for life.</p>
<p>Even before the WHO announcement, Brazilian media were reporting long lines at health centers in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>"They should have already vaccinated the whole population of this country," said Roberta Tonelli Ferreira, 61-year-old who visited a health center in Sao Paulo on Tuesday with her granddaughter Valentina, who is 2. "They wait until a person dies, to have who knows how many deaths, for the public to be frightened to start vaccinating."</p>
<p>There is no known treatment for yellow fever, and vaccination campaigns are considered crucial to containing outbreaks. Symptoms of the disease include fever, muscle pain, and nausea; some patients also experience abdominal pain, kidney problems and the jaundice from which the disease gets its name.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press photographer Andre Penner contributed to this report.</p> | WHO: All of Sao Paulo state at risk for yellow fever | false | https://apnews.com/amp/a84001ea7df6423eb90b9173c892f4c3 | 2018-01-16 | 2 |
<p>(Reuters) – Sears Canada Inc (PK:) said late on Friday that it has asked a court to extend creditor protection that expires on Wednesday by another month so it can finish negotiating a deal that would keep the iconic brand running in Canada.</p>
<p>The company, which in 2012 was spun off from U.S. retailer Sears Holdings Corp (O:), filed for creditor protection in June and laid out a restructuring plan that included cutting 2,900 jobs and closing roughly a quarter of its stores.</p>
<p>The company said late on Friday that it is in negotiations with its executive chairman Brandon Stranzl, who submitted a conditional bid on Aug. 31 that he amended last week.</p>
<p>The statement did not identify any other bidders.</p>
<p>Sears Canada also said it will ask the court to approve deals to sell assets from its trucking firm, S.L.H. Transport Inc, and home improvement units that provide duct cleaning, oil, and heating and cooling services.</p>
<p>The statement did not identify financial terms of the potential deals, which it said it hopes the Ontario Superior Court of Justice will approve on Wednesday.</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> | Sears Canada asks court for more time to close deal with chairman | false | https://newsline.com/sears-canada-asks-court-for-more-time-to-close-deal-with-chairman/ | 2017-09-30 | 1 |
<p>We all remember when Justice Antonin Scalia died last year, leaving a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. As a result of his death, President Barack Obama did his job and nominated a qualified federal judge to replace Scalia on the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland.</p>
<p>Garland was a centrist, and a completely uncontroversial nominee for the land’s highest court. However, Mitch McConnell decided that his goal was to obstruct President Obama, and he and the rest of the Republicans in the Senate decided not to meet with Judge Garland, and to give him no hearing and no vote. Now that we have a new president in Donald Trump, a right-wing extremist approved by far-right activist groups like the Heritage Foundation has been nominated in one Neil Gorsuch. To that end, Democrats are taking to the streets as they have been doing since Trump’s election to pressure their elected Senators to oppose Trump’s pick.</p>
<p>One Democratic Senator, Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/317260-merkley-i-will-do-everything-in-my-power-to-block-trumps" type="external">has said that he will defend and keep open the Supreme Court seat</a> that was effectively stolen from President Obama. Merkley says via Twitter:</p>
<p />
<p>Part of the statement reads:</p>
<p>“This strategy of packing the court, if successful, could threaten fundamental rights in America, including workers’ right to organize, women’s reproductive rights, and the rights of ordinary citizens to have their voices heard in elections rather than being drowned out by the corrupting influenceof dark money from the richest Americans.”</p>
<p>“If President Trump were serious about healing the divisions in America and undoing the damage wrought by Senate Republicans last year, he could have named Merrick Garland to fill this seat. Garland is a centrist jurist who is respected on both sides of the aisle. Instead, he doubled down on division by picking an ideological and extreme nominee to satisfy the far right.”</p>
<p>Senator Merkley is right. The Court should not be packed with far-right – or, for that matter, far-left- ideologues. It should be filled with thoughtful, intellectual jurists who will not let personal opinions supercede the rule of law. That means nothing to the GOP, though; they just want their anti-worker, anti-poor, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-woman agenda pushed through – damage to the nation’s highest court be damned.</p>
<p>In short, Merkley is urging his Democratic colleagues in the United States Senate to stand up to Republican obstruction, to make them look as bad as possible, and to save the Court from far-right ideologues who would destroy and roll back rights for all Americans except the rich, straight, white, and male a century.</p>
<p>Featured image via&#160;Alex Wong/Getty Images</p> | Democratic Senator Joins #THERESISTANCE: Says Trump Stole Obama’s SCOTUS Seat (DETAILS) | true | http://addictinginfo.org/2017/02/01/democratic-senator-joins-theresistance-says-trump-stole-obamas-scotus-seat-details/ | 2017-02-01 | 4 |
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<p>“Almost 60 percent of the cia is contractors doing everything from running agents to counterintelligence. There’s a lack of oversight, lack of accountability, and brain drain. Taxpayers pay a lot of money to recruit people out of college and then send them through this elaborate training procedure down at the ‘farm,’ and then they’re less than fully productive for maybe the first five years. Finally they start being productive, and that’s when they start getting recruited by these contractors, who offer them twice as much money. And taxpayers end up paying twice as much for them through these contractors.”</p>
<p>Read an extended interview with James Bamford about the Bush legacy <a href="/interview/2008/09/fix-it-interview-james-bamford.html" type="external">here</a>.</p>
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<p /> | How to Fix It: Stop Outsourcing the CIA | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/09/how-fix-it-stop-outsourcing-cia/ | 2018-09-01 | 4 |
<p>“My number one priority in foreign policy is to protect Israel.”</p>
<p>–Former House Speaker Richard Armey</p>
<p>Rocky was a boyhood friend. He was as big and as strong as his name. In his wild days, Rocky hung out with a runt whose obnoxious mouth regularly got my friend into serious bar fights. One night Rocky was beaten senseless when he stepped between the runt and someone with dangerous friends. I never understood his irrational defense of a guy with obvious “needs.”</p>
<p>But then—K Street realpolitik notwithstanding—I have difficulty understanding America’s irrational defense of Israel, a country whose “needs” are as much at odds with the security of my country as were the runt’s “needs” at odds with the health of my friend.</p>
<p>Earlier this month 7,000 activists and politicians attended the America Israel Public Forum Committee’s 2008 Policy Conference in Washington D.C. This was AIPAC’s premier pro-Israel event, which attracted a bipartisan who’s who of Congressional sycophants. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s keynote address drew nearly half the members of Congress.</p>
<p>Along with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, both presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential candidates bent a knee and lowered their head in supplication, pledging an unwavering fealty along with an additional 30 billion taxpayer dollars in military aid to Israel.</p>
<p>John McCain told attendees, “The threats to Israel’s security are large and growing and America’s commitment must grow as well. I strongly support the increase in military aidto Israel . . . our shared interests and values are too great for us to follow any other policy.” Barak Obama dittoed, “Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable . . . Our alliance is based on shared interests and shared values. Those who threaten Israel threaten us . . . as president I will never compromise when it comes to Israel’s security.”</p>
<p>As an American citizen, I’d like to think the number one “non-negotiable” of anyone who would be president is the security and the interests of the American people. Instead of reading from the same AIPAC-vetted script, McCain and Obama would better serve their country by reading from the same Constitution—the version enshrined in Washington D.C. not in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>AIPAC is the most powerful of the dozen or so major organizations and think-tanks that comprise the “Israel lobby” in the United States. This influential lobby dictates U.S. Middle East foreign policy: “You can’t have an Israeli policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here,” admitted Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC) upon leaving office in 2004.</p>
<p>Recently, former President Jimmy Carter pointed out that the Israel lobby makes or breaks American politicians depending on their willingness to promote Israel’s “security” as their number one foreign policy priority: “It’s almost political suicide . . . for a member of Congress who wants to seek reelection to take any stand that might be interpreted as anti-policy of the conservative Israeli government.”</p>
<p>Predictably, politicians wanting to keep their government and K Street paychecks merrily dance the mizinka, the Jewish traditional marriage (of convenience) polka.</p>
<p>Most detrimental to the democratic process, however, is the way the lobby manages the political and social discourse by tarring critics of Israel’s policies and actions regarding the Palestinians, Gaza and the West Bank with the brush of anti-Semitism, a black epithet that once applied is difficult, if not impossible, to scrub off.</p>
<p>But does our “non-negotiable” support for Israel make us more secure, or is it a MAD policy akin to the insane Cold War strategy of “mutual assured destruction?”&#160; Such a strategy may, in the war on terror between “radical Islam” and “freedom-loving democracies,” result in the mutual assured destruction of both the United States and Israel.</p>
<p>A Pentagon Defense Science Board report published in 2004 concluded, “Muslims do not ‘hate our freedom,’ but rather they hate our policies.” And the policy that motivates their young men to bring the Middle East conflict to America by crashing passenger planes into the most prominent symbols of our affluence and military might is our “non-negotiable,” irrational support for the policies of Israel’s right-wing government.</p>
<p>In 2003 it was in Israel’s national security interest to see Saddam Hussein and his perceived regional threat disappear, and to let the American military do the killing and the dying to ensure that it vanished.&#160; It was never about American security. Period!</p>
<p>While Israel and their American lobby are not exclusively responsible for the Iraq War, it was their cooked intelligence reports and political clout that both stiffened the spine of the neocon administration bent on war and weaken the knees of American politicians who would be voting for the war.</p>
<p>Likewise, Israel’s “security” demands that Iran not further its nuclear ambitions, peaceful or otherwise. It is once again in their best interest to let the U.S. do the killing. The Bush administration and Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain promised to do just that using American nukes. AIPAC is intent on holding them to their promise.</p>
<p>Former chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter, wrote in his 2006 book, “Target Iran,” “Let there be no doubt: If there is an American war with Iran, it is a war that was made in Israel and no where else.” That war will both inflame and unite the Arab world against Israel and its benefactor and will once again bring the “chickens home to roost” on American shores.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that Israel has never lost a major war since 1948. It has the most technologically advanced and deadly military in the region and, according to journalist Chris Hedges, is the world’s fourth largest arms dealer and security technology exporter. It has over 200 nuclear warheads, enough to wipe the Arab world off the map in minutes. It has accomplished all this with chutzpa and 154 billion in U.S taxpayer dollars—monies it is not required to account for, unlike other countries that receive U.S. aid.</p>
<p>Keep in mind also that it is official U.S. policy that Israel not expand its settlements in the occupied territories. However, Israel is constructing a 40-foot high “security barrier” in the West Bank—at a cost of one million U.S taxpayer dollars per mile—that will effectively annex 40 percent of Palestinian land for Jewish settlements and further the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. This MAD policy waves a shoe in the face of Palestinian Arabs who have struggled for sixty years to live free in the State of Palestine. Be assured, Arabs know who is footing the bill.</p>
<p>Past victimhood is no moral justification for Israel’s repressive, draconian “defensive” policies against Palestinian resistance, whether that resistance takes the form of slingshots or backpack explosives. Nothing excuses the killing of innocents on either side, but we do well to remember that terror bombing was midwife to the birth of the state of Israel. Indeed, Israeli historian Benny Morris speculates,“The Arabs may well have learned the value of terrorist bombings from the Jews.”</p>
<p>Former Israeli Prime Minister Yizhak Shamir argued that “neither Jewish ethics nor tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat.” Defending his terrorist past to an interviewer in1998 he further claimed,“Had I not acted as I did, it is doubtful that we would have been able to create an independent Jewish state of our own.”&#160; No doubt Palestinian fighters are thinking the same regarding an independent Palestinian state of their own.</p>
<p>Since there is no overwhelming strategic or moral reason for the United States to continue its “non-negotiable” support of Israel, that country should be treated like any other ally and not like an over-indulged adolescent. It is time Israel makes its own way in the world. To assume it is incapable of doing so is anti-Semitism worthy of the brush stroke, and a MAD policy we can no longer afford.</p>
<p>More than likely, the runt would not have been as belligerent had Rocky not been watching his back.</p>
<p>[Author’s note: For a non-AIPAC vetted view of the Middle East conflict see Ramzy Baroud’s “The Second Palestine Intifada,” Ilan Pappe’s “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” and John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.]</p>
<p>ROBERT WEITZEL is a contributing editor to Media With a Conscience. His essays regularly appear in The Capital Times in Madison, WI.&#160; He can be contacted at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | A MAD Foreign Policy | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/06/23/a-mad-foreign-policy/ | 2008-06-23 | 4 |
<p>Prince Harry and three trekking teams made up of wounded veterans reached the South Pole on Friday after setting out three weeks ago on the 200-mile Walking with the Wounded South Pole Challenge.</p>
<p>Harry, 29, is the <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/prince-harry-wounded-veterans-set-reach-south-pole-085348800.html" type="external">first member of the British royal family</a> to reach the South Pole after his trek across Antarctica with 12 injured soldiers from Britain, the US, Canada and Australia.</p>
<p>The Walking with the Wounded charity said the teams, which also included <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/prince-harry-trek-teams-reach-south-pole-21206012" type="external">actors Dominic West and Alexander Skarsgard</a>, arrived at their destination at 8:25 a.m. EST.</p>
<p>Initially a race, the challenge was <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/13/world/south-pole-trek-harry/" type="external">changed to a non-competitive trek</a> by organizers because of concerns about the safety of participants, some of whom lost limbs fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.</p>
<p>Harry, who serves as an army helicopter pilot, joked earlier in the week about expecting to arrive at the South Pole on Friday the 13th, calling it "unlucky for some, lucky for us."</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/united-kingdom/131114/prince-harry-trek-200-miles-across-antarctica-south-pole" type="external">Prince Harry to trek 200 miles across Antarctica to South Pole</a></p>
<p>"The wind has dropped down, which is nice. I think everyone is feeling a bit tired but slowly getting into the rhythm," he said.</p>
<p>"Only just got into the rhythm now and it has almost finished."</p>
<p>The veterans participating in the trek have endured temperatures as low as minus 35 degrees Celsius (minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit) and winds whipping at around 50 miles per hour as they dragged 154-pound sleds.</p>
<p>Walking with the Wounded raises money to retrain injured troops and help them find new careers outside the military.</p>
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<p /> | Prince Harry reaches South Pole (PHOTOS, VIDEO) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-12-13/prince-harry-reaches-south-pole-photos-video | 2013-12-13 | 3 |
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<p>As Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. explore a merger that would reunite the two media companies after more than a decade, media buyers who control a large portion of their ad revenues are offering their nods of approval. They envision complementary audiences, ad products and possible discounts for bulk buys across multiple clients.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Media-buying executives see the potential union as a one-stop-shop where they'd be able to buy ads targeting young viewers on Viacom cable brands like MTV and Comedy Central, and ads aimed at older audiences on broadcast juggernaut CBS. The ability to commit ad dollars to one larger unified group instead of two separate groups could lead to increased commitments and ultimately cost efficiencies, several buyers said.</p>
<p>"From a buyer's perspective it creates healthy competition in the marketplace and gives us a great deal more fluidity across a diverse set of assets," as well as more "compelling packages," said David Cohen, president of Interpublic Group of Cos.' Magna media-buying unit in North America. "Viacom is the scrappy kid in the playground willing to try anything once and CBS is the tried and true elder statesman. The juxtaposition of these two is actually quite exciting and something I'd very much like to see."</p>
<p>National Amusements Inc., which holds nearly 80% voting stakes in CBS and Viacom, on Thursday called for the companies' boards to explore a reunion. In a letter to the boards, National Amusements said it believed a merger could "allow the combined company to respond even more aggressively and effectively to the challenges of the changing entertainment and media landscape."</p>
<p>While ad buyers expressed optimism, a merger won't make Viacom's stark challenges go away, especially the ratings challenges at many of its channels. While the company was once regarded as the go-to place on the cable dial to attract young viewers, it has struggled to maintain that identity as cord-cutting and cord-shaving chip away at its audience.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, there are promising advertising synergies. A reunion could allow the combined company to sell its broadcast and cable networks as a package in the "upfront" ad marketplace, when marketers commit to buying large amounts of inventory for the year. That's the approach of Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal and 21st Century Fox, for example.</p>
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<p>"It creates a direct competitor to NBCU like tomorrow," said one buyer. "If we're trying to negotiate a two billion-dollar deal with a group, it's easier for us to do business with NBCU because they have such a wide depth and breadth. CBS and Viacom don't have that breadth."</p>
<p>With a joint offering, combined with better data that proves the ads work across more clients, "naturally we'd spend more," added another ad buyer.</p>
<p>"The prospect of these two powerhouses reuniting opens up the possibility of new cross-platform media buys that tap into their great brands and programming." said Christina Norman, CEO of Media Storm, a media agency that supports CBS Sports and Viacom's Logo and CMT networks. Ms. Norman was a former president of Viacom's MTV.</p>
<p>Viacom also brings "data acumen" to CBS, he said. Viacom this May rolled out a product that uses American Express purchase data to help advertisers target consumers close to a point of sale. Most networks, including Viacom, have begun experimenting with technology that supports more sophisticated and automated ad-targeting, said another buyer.</p>
<p>There are some other potential benefits of a merger. Viacom could bring CBS international reach, and could potentially supply programming for CBS's subscription streaming service, CBS All Access. And the same scale that provides leverage with ad buyers will help the company in negotiations with pay TV providers. Plus, there are obvious cost savings.</p>
<p>Ad buyers said Viacom could benefit from the oversight of CBS Chief Les Moonves, whose close relationship with the Redstone empire's new mogul, Shari Redstone, has him poised to become CEO in the event of a merger.</p>
<p>"Les is a great monetizer of programming," said one ad buyer. "There's no doubt [Viacom's] product could benefit from a new leader."</p>
<p>By Alexandra Bruell</p> | Ad Buyers Are Bullish on Possible Viacom-CBS Reunion | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/30/ad-buyers-are-bullish-on-possible-viacom-cbs-reunion.html | 2016-09-30 | 0 |
<p>Workers stand in at the candidates' podiums in preparation for Tuesday's Republican debate in Milwaukee.Morry Gash/AP</p>
<p>If you were hoping for a reasonable discussion about science during Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debates, you’re probably going to be sorely disappointed. That’s because the only two candidates with serious positions climate change have been excluded from the event.</p>
<p>Last month, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former New York Gov. George Pataki made news when <a href="" type="internal">they called out their own party</a> for rejecting the science behind climate change. “I’ve talked to the climatologists of the world, and 90 percent of them are telling me the greenhouse gas effect is real, that we’re heating up the planet,” said Graham during CNBC’s Republican “undercard” debate—the early-evening consolation prize for candidates who aren’t polling high enough to land a spot in prime time. “It’s…not appropriate to think that human activity, putting CO2 into the atmosphere, doesn’t make the Earth warmer,” added Pataki. “It does. It’s uncontroverted.”</p>
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<p>Out of all the candidates in the crowded GOP field, Graham and Pataki also have the strongest track records when it comes to actually fighting climate change. In the Senate, Graham <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/01/lindsey-graham-climate-change_n_7486694.html?utm_hp_ref=climate-change" type="external">once sponsored a cap-and-trade bill</a> intended to reign-in greenhouse gas emissions. As governor, Pataki <a href="" type="internal">helped create</a> a regional cap-and-trade program in the Northeast. So I was excited to hear what they would have say on the issue during the debates that will air Tuesday on the Fox Business Network. Like its sister network Fox News, Fox Business is a major epicenter of <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/12/31/10-dumbest-things-fox-said-about-climate-change/191859" type="external">climate science denial</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for science, Graham and Pataki <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/11/06/gop-candidate-line-up-announced-for-fox-business-networkwsj-debate/" type="external">won’t be on stage Tuesday</a>. Neither of them are <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/2016_republican_presidential_nomination-3823.html" type="external">averaging</a> anywhere close to 2.5 percent in the polls—the threshold Fox established for the main debate. They aren’t even managing the 1 percent required to participate in the undercard debate.</p>
<p>Instead, viewers will hear from <a href="" type="internal">an array of global warming deniers</a>. Ted Cruz believes that climate change is a “pseudoscientific theory”; Donald Trump calls it a “hoax”; and Ben Carson insists there’s “no overwhelming science” that it’s caused by humans. Viewers will also hear from candidates like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (who was recently demoted to the undercard stage). Christie acknowledges that climate change is real <a href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/christie-was-the-only-republican-asked-about-climate-at-the-main-debate-and-he-got-it-all-wrong/" type="external">but seems to oppose</a> any realistic plan to deal with it.</p>
<p>Then there are the folks who will be asking the questions. Last year, Fox Business managing editor Neil Cavuto—one of the moderators for Tuesday’s main debate— <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/your-world-cavuto/2014/06/12/cavuto-when-i-first-became-global-warming-doubter" type="external">explained</a> how he first became a climate change “doubter”:</p>
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<p>Here’s what Trish Regan, one of the moderators for Tuesday’s undercard matchup, had to say when Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) called climate change the country’s top national security threat during a Democratic debate earlier this year:</p>
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<p>So since you’re not likely to hear this tonight, here’s Pataki explaining why you really should believe what climate scientists are saying—and why you should vaccinate your kids, too:</p>
<p /> | 2 GOP Candidates Have Reasonable Positions on Climate Change. They Won’t Be in Tonight’s Debate. | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/11/fox-business-debate-republicans-climate-change/ | 2015-11-10 | 4 |
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<p>United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) said Thursday online shopping activity helped the company post an 8% jump in second-quarter earnings.</p>
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<p>An increase in e-commerce deliveries lifted U.S. package revenue by 8% to $9.7 billion, and UPS said it will continue to invest in expanding its network as online orders grow. The company spent $35 million on facility construction and Saturday operations during the period. Total capital expenditures through the first half of the year reached $2 billion.</p>
<p>UPS, the world’s largest delivery company, added that domestic revenue per package improved 3% after it raised prices.</p>
<p>Atlanta-based UPS reported a 2.8% increase in overseas revenue, although operating profits dropped roughly 5% on a strong U.S. dollar.</p>
<p>The supply chain and freight unit logged revenue growth of 12%.</p>
<p>UPS earned overall net income of $1.4 billion, or $1.58 per share, up from $1.3 billion in the year-ago quarter. The results beat Wall Street’s estimate of $1.47. Revenue grew 7.7% to $15.7 billion.</p>
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<p>UPS is forecasting full-year earnings of $5.80 to $6.10 per share. Analysts are looking for $5.95 per share on average.</p>
<p>Shares fell 4.1% to $107.69 in recent trading. UPS is down 6% this year.</p> | Online shopping boosts UPS profit | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/27/ups-quarterly-profit-rises-on-u-s-ecommerce-deliveries.html | 2017-07-27 | 0 |
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<p>Most people don't understand the undertaking in practices such as female genital mutilation. Such barbaric practices are a thing of the past that are often undertaken in uncivilized societies.</p>
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<p>It turns out that, for the second time, a Michigan doctor was arrested for performing female genital mutilations on little girls. The Michigan doctor was identified as Dr. Fakhruddin Attar.</p>
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<p>The doctor is accused of letting Dr. Jumana Nagarwala perform mutilations at his Burhani Medical Clinic on Farmington Road in the Detroit area. The victims, who are little girls were sent from Minnesota to Attar's clinic for the barbaric procedure.</p>
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<p>Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, who is a Muslim physician was&#160;arrested last week&#160;and charged for mutilating genitalia of two 7 year old girls.&#160;</p>
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<p>Reports from the Detroit News&#160;indicated that Federal agents arrested a second doctor and his wife on Friday in a widening conspiracy involving female genital mutilation and members of a Muslim sect.</p>
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<p>The practice has been observed to be common amongst the Muslim sect. Dr. Fakhruddin Attar allowed Dr. Jumana Nagarwala to perform mutilations at his Burhani Medical Clinic on Farmington Road. The office manager, Farida Attar, who is Dr. Fakhruddin wife was also arrested. A 14-page complaint that was unsealed on Friday in federal court revealed that the two were accused of helping Nagarwala perform the mutilations.</p>
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<p>The arrests mark the latest development in the nation's first female genital mutilation case. Fortunately, the case is providing insight into a small, insular Muslim community in Metro Detroit and an illegal procedure performed on young girls.</p>
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<p>It was not clear as to where Nagarwala had allegedly mutilated the two 7-year-old girls from Minnesota earlier this year. However, the complaint has solved the mystery. The case has also shed light on a conspiracy involving at least Nagarwala, Attar and his wife. The three are members of the Dawoodi Bohra religious community.</p>
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<p>SOURCE: <a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/04/second-doctor-arrested-mutilating-little-girls-genitals-michigan/" type="external">thegatewaypundit.com/2017/04/second-doctor-arrested-mutilating-little-girls-genitals-michigan</a></p> | Female Genital Mutilation At An All-Time High: Second Doctor Arrested In Michigan | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/2427-Female-Genital-Mutilation-At-An-All-Time-High-Second-Doctor-Arrested-In-Michigan | 2017-04-21 | 0 |
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<p>Last Sunday, Jon Gertner had a good <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/magazine/15wage.html?ei=5090&amp;en=f7043a8ee7bc6102&amp;ex=1294981200&amp;partner=rssuserland&amp;emc=rss&amp;pagewanted=all" type="external">piece</a> for the New York Times Magazine about the living wage campaigns that are proving extremely popular—and successful—in cities across the country. The main point of the piece is that the progressives running these campaigns tend to make their appeals in moral, rather than economic terms, and suggests that its popularity could even make it a liberal wedge issue; as one living-wage advocate says, “This is our gay marriage.”</p>
<p>But Gertner also takes time to point out that the economic case for raising the minimum wage can hold its own too. Here, for instance, is what happened in Santa Fe, which voted to raise the local minimum to $8.50 an hour in 2003. Granted, Gertner considers “data” a plural word (which is strictly correct but still ludicrous), but the rest is good:</p>
<p>To look at the data that have accumulated since the wage went into effect is to get a more positive impression of the law. Last month, the University of New Mexico’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research issued some preliminary findings on what had happened to the city over the past year and a half. The report listed some potential unintended consequences of the wage raise: the exemption in the living-wage law for businesses with fewer than 25 employees, for instance, created “perverse incentives” for owners to keep their payrolls below 25 workers. There was some concern that the high living wage might encourage more high-school students to drop out; in addition, some employers reported that workers had begun commuting in to Santa Fe to earn more for a job there than they could make outside the city.</p>
<p>Yet the city’s employment picture stayed healthy – overall employment increased in each quarter after the living wage went into effect and was especially strong for hotels and restaurants, which have the most low-wage jobs.</p>
<p>That jibes with what economists David Card and Alan Krueger found in their <a href="http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/5632.html" type="external">study</a> on the minimum wage. Why wouldn’t a wage hike force employers to hire fewer workers? They reasoned that in the actual, existing labor market, employers might often have various undue advantages over their workers and as a result, businesses are able to bargain wages below what they would be in a market where wages were determined solely by supply and demand, in order to raise their profits. A minimum wage simply corrects this imbalance. Back to Gertner:</p>
<p>Most encouraging to supporters: the number of families in need of temporary assistance – a reasonably good indicator of the squeeze on the working poor – has declined significantly. On the other hand, the city’s gross receipts, a reflection of consumer spending and tourism, have been disappointing since the wage went into effect. That could suggest that prices are driving people away. Or it could merely mean that high gas and housing prices are hitting hard. The report calculates that the cost of living in Santa Fe rose by 9 percent a year over the past two and a half years.</p>
<p>Opponents of the minimum wage tend to argue that hiking the floor for wages will only increase inflation, as businesses are “forced” to increase prices, but they rarely cite any sort of proof, and it remains to be seen whether this is actually what happened in Santa Fe. It’s worth noting that last year, after Florida raised its state minimum, prices in local restaurants <a href="http://www.tampatrib.com/MGBXOR0P8GE.html" type="external">only rose</a> about 3 percent. It’s also worth noting that workers will almost certainly come out ahead even factoring in for inflation—that was the case in <a href="http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/issueguides_livingwage_alexlivwg" type="external">Baltimore</a> after living wage laws went into effect in 1994. (Granted, runaway inflation would definitely hurt workers, but as James K. Galbraith <a href="http://www.prospect.org/web/view-print.ww?id=4952" type="external">pointed out</a> a while back, there’s no evidence that an inflationary spiral induced by a wage increase has ever occurred.) One more quote:</p>
<p>Rob Day of the Santa Fe Bar and Grill sees this [i.e., the high cost of living] as the crux of the matter. In his view, the problem with Santa Fe is the cost of housing, and there are better ways than wage regulations – housing subsidies, for example – to make homes more affordable. In the wake of the wage raise, Day told me, he eventually tweaked his prices, but not enough to offset the payroll increases. He let go of his executive chef and was himself working longer hours. “Now in the matter of a year and a half, I think there is a whole group of us who thought, If we were going to start over, this isn’t the business we would have gone into,” he says.</p>
<p>Some of Day’s concerns are valid, and it’s true, some individual businesses may suffer, but on the whole, it’s hard to be sympathetic here. Between 1968 and 2004, domestic corporate profits <a href="http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011606LA.shtml" type="external">rose</a> 85 percent while the minimum wage fell 41 percent and the average hourly wage fell 4 percent. In the retail sector, profits have gone up 159 percent. Obviously capitalism wouldn’t work very well if no one made a profit, but even a living wage is hardly going to put that in danger. (Moreover, <a href="http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/issueguides_livingwage_alexlivwg" type="external">some evidence</a>, again, from Baltimore’s experiment with a living wage in the 1990s, suggested that some employers absorb the increase in labor costs through efficiency gains, especially lower turnover and “reduced shirking” at work.)</p>
<p>At any rate, owners and managers who have to work more thanks to a wage hike may find life a bit more burdensome, but presumably less burdensome than families who, at the federal minimum of $5.15 an hour, have to get by with a little over $10,000 a year. (And yes, despite the myth that only teenagers work for $5.15 an hour, most minimum wage workers tend to be breadwinners—Heather Boushey has <a href="http://www.cepr.net/publications/labor_market_2005_12.pdf" type="external">estimated</a> that the average minimum-wage worker earns 68 percent of his or her family’s income.) If we’re matching sob stories here, it’s not really a contest, which partly explains the success of these campaigns.</p>
<p /> | Living Wage Battles | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/01/living-wage-battles/ | 2006-01-23 | 4 |
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<p>"Burning Bohdi," a movie about a group of millennials dealing with the death of a high school classmate, is the centerpiece film today at the Austin Film Festival.</p>
<p>Kaley Cuoco stars as Katy in the independent film, "Burning Bohdi." The movie was filmed in New Mexico and is featured as the showcase film at the Austin Film Festival.</p>
<p>One of the featured actors is Kaley Cuoco, who has become famous as Penny on the TV series "The Big Bang Theory." Another is Cody Horn, who starred in "Magic Mike."</p>
<p>"Having the film be part of the festival is a great opportunity," said Marshall Bear. "We aren't in the festival competition. We are a featured film. It's humbling to see this happen."</p>
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<p>Matthew McDuffie, a professor of practice in screenwriting at UNM, wrote and directed the film, and Bear served as the film's producer.</p>
<p>The film follows a group of lifelong friends who stumble back home after high school when word goes out on Facebook that the most popular among them has died. The reunion stirs up sticky feelings of love, longing and regret, and the novelty of forgiveness, mortality and gratitude.</p>
<p>In addition to Cuoco and Horn, the film stars Landon Liboiron, Sasha Peiterse, Andy Buckley, Christopher Atwood and Virginia Madsen.</p>
<p>McDuffie says the film captures the vulnerability of this group.</p>
<p>"This is the first real loss for the group," McDuffie says. "They are in their 20s and still figuring out who they are as people. It's a story that a lot of people can relate to."</p>
<p>The film shot for 18 days in the South Valley. Two of those days were done off site at locations around the city.</p>
<p>"We were able to contain the entire shoot to our neighborhood," Bear says. "That saved us a lot of money by not having to move all of our gear to different locations."</p>
<p>Bear and McDuffie are proud of the film because it tells an interesting story. In fact, it was the story and the character of Katy that attracted Cuoco to the film.</p>
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<p>The duo knew they needed a "big name" to attach themselves to the film. After sending it to Cuoco's team, she showed interest and then the production hit a snag and stalled for a bit.</p>
<p>When Bear and McDuffie got the production rolling again, they had to meet with Cuoco to see if she was still interested. Cuoco had three weeks off last summer from her filming on "The Big Bang Theory."</p>
<p>"We got her for seven days," McDuffie says. "She immediately came on set ready to work. The role was something very different for her and she became Katy. It was incredible to see her transformation."</p>
<p>Cuoco wasn't the only one who was drawn to the script. Horn, who starred in "Magic Mike," was one of the first actors to read the script and helped champion the effort to get it made.</p>
<p>"Cody knew there would be a great actor response to the script," McDuffie says. "There aren't many roles out there for millennials to actually play their age. It was different and Cody recognized it."</p>
<p>McDuffie and Bear completed the film on a very low budget and the pair are proud to be part of the Austin Film Festival. The film has been submitted to other film festivals and the pair is hoping to gain distribution and a theatrical release for the film.</p>
<p>"This is known as the writer's film festival," Bear says. "It's amazing that we are part of it and can't wait for the world to see the film. It's a New Mexico-made film and represents the work we can do here in the state. Everyone pulled together to make the film happen and it's great to have it ready to be seen."</p>
<p /> | Top billing: NM filmmakers? 'Burning Bodhi' featured in Austin festival | false | https://abqjournal.com/668661/top-billing-19.html | 2 |
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<p>Mark the date: March 16, 2003. It will go down in history as the day our new Caesar crossed his personal Rubicon. Bush’s twin ultimata, to Iraq and to the United Nations, constituted the final and ultimate declaration of the new New World Order.</p>
<p>The first formal declaration was in his speech to Congress on September 20, 2001. “Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” The open implication was that the rule of law, already honored mostly in the breach, was to be replaced by the rule of force; that force, naturally, to emanate from Washington.</p>
<p>Over the 1.5 years since then, there have been numerous reaffirmations — the launching of the pre-emption doctrine, the warning to the UN that if it didn’t do America’s bidding it would make itself “irrelevant” — but it was always possible to imagine that even this reckless administration might be turned back, might at least at least generate an illusion of a velvet glove in which to cloak its iron fist.</p>
<p>No more. Bush’s declaration was crafted to lock in the insane and potentially suicidal course that the administration has taken ever since the attacks of 9/11.</p>
<p>What was really shocking and terrifying was not simply the effective declaration of war against Iraq; it has been a foregone conclusion for at least six months that, in the absence of overwhelming opposition, the war would happen. Rather, it was the way the ultimatum was delivered. To give Iraq 24 hours to “disarm” (even while Dick Cheney and Colin Powell make the rounds of talk TV saying there is no longer a way for Iraq to comply) is openly farcical. An administration that took a year after 9/11 before it instituted widespread X-raying of checked bags might be expected to understand this. To give the Security Council 24 hours to pass a resolution is a naked imperial imposition.</p>
<p>It is an ultimatum designed not to elicit any response, but rather to humiliate.</p>
<p>It is also perhaps worth commenting on the stunningly open mendacity of the Bush administration, continued with Bush’s ultimatum yesterday. To make this declaration on the 15th anniversary of the gassing of Halabja, to mention it specifically, is a profound insult not just to the Iraqi people but to all of us; where is the mention that the United States supported Iraq fully at the time, with biological and chemical materials, loan guarantees, and diplomatic cover? That it went so far as to issue organized disinformation (http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0117-01.htm) suggesting that Iran was the culprit? To mention Rwanda as an example of the “failure” of the UN was possibly even worse. Again, where was the mention that the UN “failed” because the United States kept UN peacekeepers from being reinforced, cut off their supplies, and pushed ceaselessly to have them removed? Or the mention that the State Department deliberately covered up http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/press.html) its clear knowledge that what was happening was genocide?</p>
<p>Indeed, it is again as if these references were added simply to display flagrant contempt for the rest of the world, which may know the truth but consistently feels unable to express it because of the weight of U.S. coercion.</p>
<p>And perhaps the most important lie was the reference to France. France has “shown its cards” and “said they were going to veto anything that held Saddam to account” — this right on the heels of Chirac’s effective surrender by agreeing to a 30-day deadline for disarmament.</p>
<p>This was is much bigger than a war on Iraq. It is a gauntlet hurled in the face of France and the rest of “old Europe.” It is a frontal assault on the concept of democracy worldwide. It is, if you look at the planning documents (http://www.newamericancentury.org) of the neoconservatives who now run our foreign policy, the first stage in a long campaign against China.</p>
<p>Yesterday, Bush drew the battle lines through the entire globe and through the middle of each country. In order even to begin to understand how to oppose this new imperialism, we must understand this: weapons of mass destruction have nothing to do with this war, and even Iraq itself has to do with this war only in the sense that it is a strategic prize. This war is a small part of an ongoing attempt to reshape the world.</p>
<p>The target of this war is not Iraq. The target is the entire world order, and Iraq is simply collateral damage.</p>
<p>RAHUL MAHAJAN is a founding member of the <a href="http://www.nowarcollective.com/" type="external">Nowar Collective</a> and serves on the National Board of Peace Action. This article has been excerpted from his forthcoming book, “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1583225781/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The U.S. War Against Iraq: Myths, Facts, and Lies,</a>” published by Seven Stories. His first book, “ <a href="" type="internal">The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism</a>,” has been described as “mandatory reading for all those who wish to get a handle on the war on terrorism.” His articles can be found at <a href="http://www.rahulmahajan.com/" type="external">http://www.rahulmahajan.com</a> He can be contacted at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Ave Caesar | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/03/18/ave-caesar/ | 2003-03-18 | 4 |
<p>BERLIN, Germany — As violence and disorder in Ukraine continued Thursday, Germany's foreign minister met with representatives from both sides of the country’s current face-off, beginning what could be the first real test of Germany's pledge to take a more robust role in world affairs.</p>
<p>But accepting its natural responsibilities as the European Union's most powerful nation could come at a cost: the deterioration of improved ties with Moscow that have taken years to build.</p>
<p>For while the EU has entered the diplomatic morass on the side of Ukraine’s protesters, condemning police violence against them, Moscow has blamed radicals among the protesters themselves, and the EU for failing to condemn them. After all, the protests originally started with citizens demanding greater integration with the EU, which President Viktor Yanukovych rejected in November in favor of greater closeness with Russia.</p>
<p>German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier — a longtime advocate of a so-called “special relationship” between Germany and Russia who last month pushed for Germany to take a bigger role in international affairs — is now in the eye of the storm, says <a href="http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/?fa=693" type="external">Judy Dempsey</a>, a senior associate for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Europe branch.</p>
<p>“It's not easy for Steinmeier because the rhetoric coming out of the Kremlin is very harsh against the EU and against the protesters in Ukraine. So Steinmeier for the first time is forced to actually speak out against the violence in Ukraine without alienating Russia,” Dempsey said.</p>
<p>Early Thursday, Steinmeier met with opposition leaders along with his counterparts from Poland and France. Later in the day, after erroneous reports suggested the EU negotiating team had left the country, the negotiators met with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych for four hours of closed-door talks.</p>
<p>The EU team exited the negotiations with Yanukovych with grim faces and declined to answer questions from reporters on the scene Thursday evening. But the trio of negotiators have reportedly proposed a roadmap for solving the crisis, and are staying overnight in Ukraine to continue the discussions, <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/ukraine-steinmeier-fabius-und-sikorski-bleiben-in-kiew-fuer-gespraeche-a-954712.html" type="external">according to</a> Der Spiegel.</p>
<p>Under their proposal, Ukraine would be put under control of a provisional government and embark on constitutional reforms until new parliamentary and presidential elections can be held.</p>
<p>It's too early to say what the outcome may be. But Nina Schick, of the EU-focused think tank Open Europe, suggests that Steinmeier's place at the head of the table and Germany's decision to back targeted sanctions against those responsible for the ongoing violence in Kviv already marks something of a watershed.</p>
<p>“It's hugely significant that Steinmeier is there with the Polish and French foreign ministers and that other countries that usually take the lead in EU foreign policy or try to create an aligned foreign policy, like the UK, have been far more hesitant,” Schick said.</p>
<p>On Thursday, the EU was preparing to impose sanctions against those responsible for the violence and impose an arms embargo on Ukraine, according to a draft ministerial statement <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/02/20/uk-ukraine-eu-idUKBREA1J16520140220" type="external">obtained</a> by Reuters.</p>
<p>Germany has traditionally opposed sanctions and is perhaps Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest thing to an advocate in Europe. But German politicians were in fact instrumental in this case in pushing an otherwise divided EU to take a stand.</p>
<p>“If Germany hadn't come out supporting the sanctions, I wonder whether or not the other countries of the EU would have agreed to pass them,” Schick said. “Countries like the UK, Spain and Italy were not keen.”</p>
<p>Germany's role could be as problematic for the protesters in Ukraine as it is for Yanukovych and Moscow, however. It is by no means certain that Steinmeier's presence will smooth the course toward a political solution, says Strategic Europe's Dempsey, who notes that the German foreign minister met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov before traveling to Kviv.</p>
<p>Pushing for an end to violence, Steinmeier continues to view Ukraine through the prism of Russia, Dempsey said. Meanwhile, the protesters and the opposition in Ukraine are deeply suspicious of Moscow, following Putin's efforts to effectively <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-promises-ukraine-cheaper-gas-15-billion-loan/1811836.html" type="external">buy them off</a> with $15 billion in soft loans and cheap natural gas in December.</p>
<p>In essence, it's Russia's monetary (and military) might against the more nebulous power of Europe's democratic values, with Ukraine caught in the middle. And the ambiguity of Steinmeier's, and Germany's, relationship with Russia won't make things any easier.</p>
<p>“There are two diametrically opposed players on the west of Ukraine and on the east of Ukraine. The Ukrainians themselves have to decide who they want at the negotiating table,” Dempsey said.</p>
<p>Easier said than done: That’s what these protests were about to begin with, right?</p> | Germany's in a tough spot with this Ukrainian mess | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-02-20/germanys-tough-spot-ukrainian-mess | 2014-02-20 | 3 |
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<p>Snow, the former UNM Lobos assistant, is in the midst of his first season as head coach of the New Mexico Highlands Cowboys.</p>
<p>“We knew this season would be about building a culture, a framework,” Snow said.</p>
<p>He is counting on small successes preceding larger successes he hopes await down the road.</p>
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<p>So while his Cowboys are 1-11, he sees something else.</p>
<p>“I think we’re getting better,” Snow said. “From a coaching standpoint, we’re starting to get to know our guys better.”</p>
<p>He admits it has been a struggle. He is dismayed by the long scoring droughts that hit his team far too often. But he is encouraged by the Cowboys’ effort at New Mexico State earlier this week. The drought didn’t come then until there were about six minutes left in the game. NMHU, after leading the Aggies 46-42 in the second half, lost 75-67.</p>
<p>“It was obviously the most talented team we’ve played,” Snow said. “But it was the most comfortable I felt going into a game because of our knowledge of them.”</p>
<p>Snow and assistant Brandon Mason, a former Aggie, studied NMSU when they were on UNM’s staff.</p>
<p>“Our guys were excited to play a team like that,” Snow said. “It was fun. We’re getting close to turning the corner and being a good team.”</p>
<p>SNOW: Ex-Lobo assistant leads Cowboys</p>
<p>Snow pointed to 6-foot-10, 285-pound junior Kaylen Shane, who averages 7.0 points and 6.5 rebounds a game. He had 12 points and six boards against NMSU. Snow said Shane liked going against players more his size, players he could be more physical with, rather than going against the slippery 6-6 guys he generally faces.</p>
<p>“We have to increase our frontcourt depth,” Snow said. “I’m pretty happy with our perimeter players.”</p>
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<p>Junior guard Kendrick Nichols averages 18.0 points a game; junior guard Charles George has 31 assists and 11 steals; and junior guard Jonathan Mines averages 14.0 points an outing.</p>
<p>NMHU (1-7 in the RMAC) will have a difficult challenge tonight when it visits Fort Lewis College. The Skyhawks are led by 6-9, 255-pound Alex Herrera, who averages 22.4 points a game. Fort Lewis (10-3, 5-2) averages 85.5 points a game.</p>
<p>“They shoot the heck out of it,” Snow said. “They only have a handful of guys who shoot below 45 percent. They spread the floor, shoot from all over and have an inside presence, as well.”</p>
<p>Snow is also familiar with a couple of the Skyhawks’ reserves. Senior guard Lucas Archuleta is from Rio Rancho and junior forward Kody Salcido attended Sandia Prep.</p>
<p>Snow and Mason are keeping an eye on New Mexico talent. They spent a good chunk of Wednesday scouting at the Albuquerque Metro Championships.</p>
<p>“It’s been really fun,” Snow said of his NMHU experience. “Our record might not indicate how good we are today.”</p>
<p>ENMU: The Greyhounds (7-7), who opened Lone Star play Wednesday with a 98-71 loss at Cameron, host Midwestern State at 4 p.m. Sunday. The Zias (4-7), who also lost their Lone Star opener at Cameron, open Sunday’s doubleheader with Midwestern State at 2 p.m.</p>
<p>WNMU: The Mustangs (1-11, 1-7 RMAC) are at Adams State today at 7:30 p.m. The Western women (5-6, 3-5 RMAC), who are coming off a win at Metro State, meet Adams State at 5:30 p.m. Stephanie Moore had 20 points and nine rebounds in the win.</p>
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<p /> | Highland’s first-year coach Snow building a foundation | false | https://abqjournal.com/523503/nmhus-snow-likes-clubs-spunk.html | 2 |
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<p>Al-Mouwasat Hospital, Damascus</p>
<p>Starving and sick infants have a strong international humanitarian legal case for immediate evacuation from Syria’s “death camp” of Madaya.</p>
<p>“Let me be clear: The use of starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime.” So declared UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon recently, connecting with the starvation cases of the two infants discussed below, Manal and Mohammad-Kamal, and with all civilians in Madaya, a besieged Syrian town near the Lebanese border.&#160; Less than an hour NW of Damascus, Madaya has been encircled by armed forces for more than a year and is described by some locals as “the open air prison’ and “the death camp.”</p>
<p>Here is Damascus the evidence is found in hospitals such as Al-Mouwasat and others, of the consequences of the fact that children are suffering not as a result of an accident of war, but rather as the foreseeable consequence of an intentional tactic – surrender or starve. And that tactic is directly contrary to the law of war and subject to individual criminal responsibility for the perpetrators.</p>
<p>The UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICIF) issued a statement on 9/6/2016 stating that it is “extremely” concerned for the safety of children caught up in violence in Madaya and elsewhere in Syria. Saad Houry, of the fund, said children make up a third of the population trapped in besieged areas, and called for unhindered humanitarian access and for children to be protected and evacuated for emergency medical treatment.</p>
<p>Madaya remains surrounded by approximately 65 checkpoints as well as military personnel, snipers, and heavy weaponry. In between the town’s residents and these checkpoints lie approximately 12,000 landmines, trenches, and dirt mounds, all designed to ensure that none of the 40,000 residents can get into or out of Madaya’s 12-square-kilometer area without risking their life.</p>
<p>Among the UNICEF estimated quarter millions of cases across Syria today involving besieged children, most malnourished and seeking sanctuary, are 4 year old Manal and her brother 3 year old Mohammad-Kamal shown below. These beauties are the younger siblings of Ghina and Nagham whose sniper victim’s case has been circulated via the Internet and who were allowed to leave Madaya two weeks ago for urgent medical treatment.</p>
<p>Their evacuation occurred as part of an Iran-UN agreement based on the “Four Towns Agreement” (itself unlawful under international law and which has both saved and cost some lives in this maelstrom civil war). The agreement signed in September 2015 stipulates parallel evacuations and aid deliveries for four encircled towns; two in Outer Damascus and two in Idlib province. Sunni Madaya and Zabadani are encircled by the regime and Shia Foah and Kafarya are encircled by rebels based in&#160;northern&#160;Syria. The “Four Towns” agreement has been somewhat successful at reducing violence in Madaya, Zabadani, Foah, and Kafraya but it has not done much to lift the illegal sieges imposed on each town. Consequently, deaths from traumatic injuries and lack of food and health care – all a direct result of the conflict, continue.</p>
<p>The sisters Ghina and Nagham, whose near-death experience in Madaya, was reported earlier, are now recovering from militia sniper wounds. Dear reader may recall that the sisters were shot while returning from Madaya’s clinic, near their home, with medicine for their severely anemic mother, Sahar.&#160;&#160; Ten year old, Ghina, whose left leg and thigh which had tentatively been scheduled for amputation in Madaya two weeks ago, will not lose them thanks to specialized medical care in Damascus.&#160; And this week (9/5/2016), eight year old Nagham finally had her arm and hand stitches removed (by the medical director of the hospital, her mother told this observer proudly). Nagham is now largely healed from the effects of last month’s sniper attack. Some good news is that on 9/7/2016, Ghina got out of bed for the first time and with Nagham offering sisterly encouragement from behind, she is practicing walking with her new crutches. But unfortunately, the 8 large medical spikes deeply embedded into Ghina’s thigh and leg, and which protrude nine inches out from her legs and thigh must remain for several more weeks.</p>
<p>(10 year old Ghina will not lose her leg after all and on 9/8/2016 the angelic sniper victim started practicing walking again. Photo: F. Lamb 9/7/2016)</p>
<p>But Ghina and Nagham’s younger sister and brother, Manal and Mohammad-Kamal are still under siege in Madaya.&#160; On 9/5/2016, Sahar, the four children’s mother provided this observer a detailed account of her youngest children’s current deteriorating health conditions as she sought assistance from the Beirut-Paris-Washington DC based NGO, <a href="http://mealsforsyrianrefugeechildrenlebanon.com" type="external">Meals for Syrian Refugee Children Lebanon</a> (MSRCL) to&#160; rescue her babies from Madaya and bring them to Damascus.</p>
<p>Both children still trapped in Madays are ill and have fevers. There are no medications available to them in the town. Both children are increasingly malnourished, with their only food, as their mother explained to this observer on 9/6/2016 being boiled bulgur and lentils.&#160; They have no milk nor any fruits or vegetables, eggs, bread or meat of any kind.&#160; Psychologically, the three and four years old Manal and Mohamad are terrified, and desperate to be with their mother Sahar and sisters Ghina and Nagham.</p>
<p>The Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society (SARCS), who heroically saved Ghina and Nagham last month, has been updated on this family’s dire situation and are trying to put Manal and Mohammad-Kamal on a future evacuation list. But whether they can do it anytime soon, if ever, is unknown.</p>
<p>In this observer’s&#160; opinion and based on observing SARCS work for the past few years, and&#160; tours this summer of many SARCS facilities, while spending hours in the company of SARCS staff and lovely volunteers, there is not a more humanitarian organization working&#160; in Syria today, than SARCS. Granted, local and international politics sometimes makes their humanitarian work complicated to say the least. This observer has heard on the same afternoon from disparate sources that SARCS helps only the government areas with its work and other critics who claim that it also helps the rebels with its work.</p>
<p>My observations convince me that SARCS, like Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) and the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) helps everyone everywhere that it can. In fact SARCS, true to its motto “Helping Everyone, Everywhere: employs more 1,592 staff and more than 6000 volunteers working in 14 branches and 62 sub-branches. They are doing amazing humanitarian work for which we are all indebted. Just last year SARCS delivered various services to 4.7 million including medicines and medical treatment to more than 2.5 million. In addition, 4.6 million Syrians received food and nearly one half million were given household essentials, 316.2 thousand people received protection services through teams and community centers plus 1.32 million people gained access to clean drinking water and sanitation.</p>
<p>But against this somewhat encouraging backdrop, there are growing urgent fears for the lives of 4 year old Manal and her 3 year old brother Mohammad-Kamal, given just received alarming reports of an escalating outbreak of Meningitis in besieged Madaya.</p>
<p>Yesterday (9/6/2016), this observer learned&#160; from&#160; Dr Mohammad Darwish working inside Madaya, that the besieged towns thre-member heroic local medical team that tries to treat its 40,000&#160; residents and which includes, Dr. Darwish, the dentist,&#160; plus a veterinarian and a former medical student are witnessing an unfolding meningitis epidemic. Fourteen cases have been reported over the past two weeks and more suspected cases appearing nearly daily. The “medical team” explains that they cannot confirm 100% the diagnosis because “we don’t have the tools to diagnose and treat patients.”</p>
<p>Signs of viral meningitis, which Manal and Mohammad-Kamal both now exhibit, according to their mother Sahar who speaks regularly when she can get a call through, with the children’s grandmother (Sahar’s mother)&#160; still trapped in Madaya&#160; and trying to care for her malnourished and ill grandchildren.&#160; She reports symptoms comparable to the flu, and that the children today have headaches, a fever with cold hands and feet. They have no appetite.&#160; Manal and Mohammad-Kamal’s case is one of countless others in Madaya that cry out for humanitarian intervention to allow innocent civilians to live.</p>
<p>A British Pediatrician at London’s Great Ormond&#160;Street Hospital, the UK’s largest pediatric center, contacted on 9/5/2016 on behalf of MSRCL, about Manal and Mohammad-Kamal’s symptoms, advised that the UK National Health Service (NHS) urges children or adults exhibiting these symptoms not to wait for a rash to develop, but to seek medical help immediately.&#160;Later in the day the London Doctor explained to MSRCL that babies and young children under five-years of age (Manal is 4 and Mohammad-Kamal is 3) are those most serious&#160; at risk for developing life-threatening bacterial meningitis because their body’s defenses are not yet developed.</p>
<p>The gentleman urged immediate evacuation of the Manal and Mohammad-Kamal. “These cases are especially urgent” he added “because Dr. Darwish, reports that in Madaya’s only clinic, the only three medical staff, do not have the medicines or the knowledge to treat meningitis or even the equipment to diagnose it.” Dr. Darwish and his medical team attribute the appearance of meningitis to malnutrition of residents, weakened immune systems and high summer temperatures.</p>
<p>Along with Madaya’s 40,000 residents, Sahar, the children’s mother, fears that an epidemic is rapidly spreading. According to Dr. Darwish yesterday (9/6/2016), “We’re afraid that some people may have a mental breakdown out of fear, paranoia is developing among residents, who are rushing to the field hospital with any of the signs of meningitis. In reality, we’re facing an epidemic that is sweeping the city.” Dr Darwish confirmed from Madaya that his medical team suspects a virulent outbreak of meningitis, with the above noted 14 reported cases over the past two weeks. But they cannot confirm the diagnosis because “we don’t have the tools to diagnose and treat patients.”</p>
<p>Dr. Darwish’s stated yesterday (9/6/2016) that his two-kilometer walk to work at the field hospital now takes him more than an hour and a half, because “hysterical” residents stop him en route for medical advice. “They ask, ‘what are the symptoms of meningitis? I have those symptoms—do I have it?”</p>
<p>In addition to the medical and humanitarian brief noted above for immediately saving Manal and Mohammad-Kamal and evacuating them from Madaya to Damascus, hopefully today but if not, then&#160; as soon as possible, there is a compelling legal case that warrants mention.</p>
<p>One imagines that not a great number of serious observers would likely dispute solid customary international law as well as treaty law on the subject of war crimes and crimes against humanity including the siege and starvation of civilians during armed conflicts. Specifically that they include but are&#160; not limited to, certain unconventional and improvised weapons and weapon systems such as barrel bombs, cluster munitions, incendiary weapons, poison, and poisoned weapons, chemical weapons, such as gas,&#160; encirclement ‘surrender or starve’ warfare targeting civilians, starvation of children, and blocking humanitarian access to civilians including life-threatening injuries.</p>
<p>Blocking&#160; Humanitarian aid to Manal and Mohammad-Kamal</p>
<p>&#160;The deliberate starvation of civilians such as Manal and Mohammad-Kamal is not a new tactic of war and one is reminded of Leningrad, Biafra, and Sri Lanka. International Humanitarian Law erases any doubt that the deliberate starvation of civilians as a tactic of war is prohibited and constitutes a prosecutable war crime. This prohibition finds clear expression in Article 54 of the Geneva Convention Additional Protocol 1, which states that besieging forces may not starve civilians “as a method of warfare.” Similarly, it is prohibited to “attack, destroy, remove or render useless” any items necessary for civilians’ survival. This includes food, land used to cultivate food, water, and irrigation works, regardless of whether the objective is to starve the civilian population, to cause them to flee, or is premised on some other motive.</p>
<p>The preventable deaths and suffering which continue in Madaya as a result of the siege exemplify, as the NGO Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) noted in a recent Report, &#160;exactly why siege warfare against civilian populations is illegal and amounts to a war crime. Imposed sieges that deprives a civilian population of goods essential to survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law. The Geneva Conventions prohibit starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by demanding “protection of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. Customary international humanitarian law prohibits starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare and prohibits parties from attacking objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, denying or deliberately impeding access of humanitarian aid intended for civilians in need, and restricting freedom of movement of humanitarian relief personnel. Willfully impeding aid in an attempt to starve civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime.</p>
<p>The ICC Statute goes farther than the International Humanitarian Law treaties. It allows for the prosecution of the intentional starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as such, but also “by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies.</p>
<p>(Photo: Rahaf Orabi, 9/5/2016 Manal and Mohammad-Kamal’s mother, sisters and their “American uncle” urge all sides fighting the war in Syria to immediately allow the family’s reunion.)</p>
<p>This observer and MSRCL trust SARCS and the ICRC and has placed their confidence in their humanity to rescue 4 years old Manal and &#160;3 year old Mohammad-Kamal from Madaya.</p>
<p>Hopefully too, the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council will take a short break from their self-serving political posturing in the now multi-proxy Syrian war, and focus on ending this carnage that is increasingly targeting more than a quarter million innocent children.</p> | A Children’s Story: Panic from Outbreak of Meningitis in “Death camp” Of Madaya | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/09/09/a-childrens-story-panic-from-outbreak-of-meningitis-in-death-camp-of-madaya/ | 2016-09-09 | 4 |
<p>Buffalo NewsBill O'Reilly and Terry Gross continue to go at it. "How thin-skinned can this guy be?" asks the "Fresh Air" host. "He's known as a tough interviewer. He's known for being very opinionated. I find it hard for me to imagine he was so mortally offended that his sensitivities could no longer stand to hear my questions." O'Reilly says: "I don't do interviews like that, I back up my stuff with facts. ... I don't try to embarrass people on the air. I ask tough questions and people are held accountable for their answers. But we're fair." &gt; <a href="http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2003/10/21/oreilly_voice.html" type="external">Jay Rosen says of O'Reilly:</a> "He’s a confusing figure to confront in an interview setting like Fresh Air, but not because his methods are obscure. It's the opposite. He brings forcefully to the surface and makes explicit what had been buried for so long in the journalist’s presentation of self: a political identity in the one who brings us the news -- proudly so." (PressThink) &gt; <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/showcase/chi-0310220046oct22.story" type="external">Franken does an O'Reilly impersonation at a Chicago reading (ChiTrib)</a></p> | NPR's Gross on O'Reilly: "How thin-skinned can this guy be?" | false | https://poynter.org/news/nprs-gross-oreilly-how-thin-skinned-can-guy-be | 2003-10-22 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Republican presidential contender Rand Paul said Sunday he will continue his effort to cut federal funding for the nonprofit women’s health group Planned Parenthood over a dispute regarding the treatment of aborted fetal tissue.</p>
<p>The Guardian reports:</p>
<p>Paul, a Kentucky senator on the libertarian wing of the Republican party, appeared on Fox News Sunday. He said: “I’m going to try to force a vote on this. I think the time is now to discuss whether taxpayer dollars should be going to such a gruesome procedure.”</p>
<p />
<p>Two videos have been released by an activist group, Center for Medical Progress (CMP), in an attempt to show that Planned Parenthood is breaking the law by selling fetal remains. The man behind the group, David Daleiden, has said 10 to 12 more videos will be released.</p>
<p>Planned Parenthood has categorically denied profiting from organ sales and accused the CMP of misleading the public with “highly edited” tapes and false charges. No illegal activity appears to have been caught on tape.</p>
<p>Also Sunday, Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, said that clinics in fewer than five states were harvesting such tissue. She said fees for the material were never charged, only the costs of transferring it to research institutes.</p>
<p>“Women at a very few places are allowed to donate fetal tissue for life-saving research,” she told ABC News. “This is laudable, that women and their families choose to make available fetal tissue in order to save other folks.”</p>
<p>Among the several strategies Paul said he is pursuing is a so-called discharge petition that would require the support of a minimum of 16 more senators. His earlier attempt to pass a defunding amendment was blocked by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.</p>
<p>Read more <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/26/rand-paul-push-cut-planned-parenthood-funding" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p> | Sen. Rand Paul Will 'Try to Force a Vote' to Defund Planned Parenthood | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/sen-rand-paul-will-try-to-force-a-vote-to-defund-planned-parenthood/ | 2015-07-26 | 4 |
<p>Nepal and India <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-nepal-tiger-censusbre91405k-20130204,0,2037317.story" type="external">kicked off a historic joint tiger census on Tuesday</a>, sending out experts to count the number of endangered&#160;Royal Bengal tigers living in their shared border region.</p>
<p>The area in question is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21329015" type="external">thought to be home to some 500 tigers</a>, making it one of the largest concentrated populations of the big cats in the world, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.&#160;</p>
<p>The double survey is part of an ambitious tiger conservation project — Nepal promised the world it would double its Bengal population by 2022 in order to better protect the endangered species from poaching and loss of habitat. Step one is <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-nepal-tiger-censusbre91405k-20130204,0,2037317.story" type="external">counting the present number of endangered animals</a> in the zone.&#160;</p>
<p>This requires extensive technological cooperation between the two nations, as ecologist Maheshwar Dhakal of Nepal's National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Department <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-nepal-tiger-censusbre91405k-20130204,0,2037317.story" type="external">explained to Reuters</a>:&#160;</p>
<p>"Simultaneous counting will help avoid the same tiger which crosses over from one side to the other from being counted twice as its motion will be captured by another camera on the other side."&#160;</p>
<p>The count will encompass at least 12 wildlife preserves and other areas in the Terai Arc region shared by the two South Asian countries, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21329015" type="external">according to the BBC</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of Royal Bengal tigers used to populate the region, but there are only about 3,000 left today, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21329015" type="external">according to wildlife sources</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>"Cross-border cooperation like this simultaneous census may well be the key to more effective conservation," says GlobalPost's senior correspondent in India, Jason Overdorf.</p>
<p>"Not only do poachers take advantage of India's porous borders with Nepal to smuggle body parts from tigers and other endangered species, but also some naturalists believe that the ultimate survival of the tiger and other large animals may depend on corridors that allow them to travel and interbreed."</p>
<p>Panthera's Alan Rabinowitz, for instance, is already working to <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/10/24/one-last-stand.html" type="external">connect the world's largest tiger reserve</a>, which he helped create in Myanmar, with tiger populations in Bhutan, India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.</p> | Nepal and India count their Bengals in tiger census | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-02-05/nepal-and-india-count-their-bengals-tiger-census | 2013-02-05 | 3 |
<p>Anyone who says that voter fraud isn’t a problem is a liar.</p>
<p>A James Madison University student has pled guilty after paying to register Virginia voters for the 2016 Presidential Election. There was one problem with these voters, however, they were dead.</p>
<p>Andrew J. Spieles was sentenced to 120 days in prison from submitting the names of deceased individuals to the Registrar’s Office in&#160;Harrisonburg, Virginia,&#160; <a href="http://wtvr.com/2017/06/26/andrew-spieles-guilty-plea/" type="external">CBS 6 WTVR</a>reports.</p>
<p>U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson said Spieles worked for a voter registration firm called Harrisonburg Votes. This firm is an affiliate of the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>“In July 2016 Spieles’ job was to register as many voters as possible and reported to Democratic Campaign headquarters in Harrisonburg.</p>
<p>“In August 2016, Spieles was directed to combine his registration numbers with those of another individual because their respective territories overlapped.</p>
<p>“After filling out a registration form for a voter, Spieles entered the information into a computer system used by the Virginia Democratic Party to track information such as name, age, address and political affiliation. Every Thursday an employee/volunteer hand-delivered the paper copies of the registration forms to the Registrar’s Office in Harrisonburg.”</p>
<p>A&#160;Registrar’s Office employees called police after another staffer&#160;recognized a name on a registration form — it belonged to&#160;the deceased father of a Rockingham County Judge.</p>
<p>Spieles worked for Harrisonburg Votes when he committed the crime, according to acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle.</p>
<p>– <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/06/27/student-gets-prison-after-registering-dead-voters-for-democrats/" type="external">Breitbart</a></p>
<p>The spokesperson went on to explain:</p>
<p>“The Registrar’s Office discovered multiple instances of similarly falsified forms when it reviewed additional registrations. Some were in the names of deceased individuals while others bore incorrect middle names, birth dates, and social security numbers.</p>
<p>“The Registrar’s Office learned that the individuals named in these forms had not in fact submitted the new voter registrations. The assistant registrar’s personal knowledge of the names of some of the individuals named in the falsified documents facilitated the detection of the crime.</p>
<p>“Spieles later admitted that he prepared the false voter registration forms by obtaining the name, age, and address of individuals from “walk sheets” provided to him by the Virginia Democratic Party, fabricating a birth date based on the ages listed in the walk sheet, and fabricating the social security numbers.”</p>
<p>Spieles said he created all 18 fraudulent forms on his own and that he had no accomplices in his crime.</p>
<p>Do you think the punishment matches the crime? Let us know in the comments below!</p> | Student Going to Jail for Registering Dead People as Democratic Voters | true | http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/student-going-jail-registering-dead-people-democratic-voters/ | 0 |
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<p>Do not push your children's lives into help by getting them married at their early age of schooling and fun.&#160;Are our daughters cheaper than the animals and cars that we give them as dowry? So let’s stop giving and asking for dowry. Otherwise, the fire called dowry will burn everyone from the Terai, the hills, and the Himalayas. It will not spare anyone.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXoMIsFU4yI" type="external">This anti-dowry PSA</a> (translated from Nepalese) is sponsored by the National Campaign to End Child Marriage in Nepal and is playing&#160;everywhere: On TV, on the radio&#160;and even in movie theaters and on buses, especially in the Terai region where child marriage is common. It’s part of a nationwide plan to end child marriage in Nepal that began last spring, in partnership with UNICEF.</p>
<p>Kiran Rupakhetee, who heads the child protection and development section in the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare for Nepal, says the rates of child marriage are still high, but the trend is declining. He says his group is focusing on a few key areas: empowering and educating girls, informing the community about the dangers of early marriage&#160;and implementing legal reform.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1963/08/18/page/4/article/nepal-bans-polygamy-and-child-nuptials" type="external">Child marriage was outlawed in 1963</a>, but at that time the definition of child marriage was below age 14 for girls and 18 for boys. Recent revisions adjusted that age to 20 for both boys and girls, but those rules aren’t strictly enforced, especially in rural regions. And changing the practice of child marriage in Nepal will take more than just changing the laws.</p>
<p>“This is a mindset. We need to change the mindset of the whole nation,” says Raj Kumar Mahato, who heads up <a href="http://www.bhore.org.np/" type="external">Bhore</a>, the organization behind the PSA.</p>
<p>He says the initiative they launched is putting the issue of child marriage in the public eye,&#160;and getting people to talk about it&#160;—&#160;something they’ve never done before.&#160;</p>
<p>“It will take time to end completely, but very positive signs have been observed,” he says.</p>
<p>In Pakistan, too, there’s been a push by the government to change child marriage laws. In 2013, authorities passed a law that raised the age of marriage to 18 for both boys and girls in the southeastern corner of the country. There’s a massive effort underway to expand this bill to other regions in Pakistan, and ultimately raise the age of marriage nationwide. But there are complications.</p>
<p />
<p>First, an economic one. Many families simply can’t afford to keep their daughters at home. Charmaine Shah of <a href="http://www.actionaidusa.org/" type="external">ActionAid International</a> says some parents must marry off their daughters to shed the economic burden. Another issue, she says, is that many people don’t even know there is a child marriage law.</p>
<p>“It’s very important that a mass public awareness campaign is launched. Not only by the government, but also the civil society plays a very key role around that, so that at least the community knows and is aware of the issues around child marriages and how it affects the development as well as the health of children,” Charmaine says.</p>
<p>And there’s yet another obstacle — a religious one.</p>
<p />
<p>“We, as civil society, through the legislatures, made a lot of efforts to put a law in table in Parliament,” says Rukhsana Shama, the program manager for <a href="http://www.bedari.org.pk/" type="external">Bedari</a>, a group that’s been working against child marriage since 2008. “But what happened was that all the Islamic sections present in the Parliament, they were very much against it. The amendment was sent to the Council of Islamic Ideology, and since then it is pending there, and the law was lapsed.”</p>
<p>Some interpretations of Islamic texts dictate that girls should be married off at puberty. And while advocates are hopeful that this tradition can be adapted to make life better for girls, Charmaine Shah says this will never happen without the support of local religious leaders.</p>
<p>“They have a huge influence over the mindset of the people and how they think, especially for the population that is not very literate,” she says. “A huge promotion needs to be done in terms of getting them on our side and helping them push this agenda forward.”</p>
<p>Follow us on Twitter @womenslives and #womenslives</p>
<p>Or join the conversation on the Across Women's Lives&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/833763303311433/" type="external">Facebook page</a>.</p>
<p /> | South Asian leaders try new ways to reduce child marriage | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-03-17/south-asian-leaders-try-new-ways-reduce-child-marriage | 2015-03-17 | 3 |
<p>From Sac Bee:</p>
<p>Gov.&#160; <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Jerry+Brown/" type="external">Jerry Brown</a>&#160;urged&#160; <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/charter+school/" type="external">charter school</a>&#160;supporters at the Capitol this afternoon to back his ballot initiative to raise taxes, as he continues to try pushing the proponents of competing tax initiatives to step aside.</p>
<p>“We need your support,” the Democratic governor told a cheering crowd on the Capitol lawn. “We need the support of all the teachers and the supporters of the public schools in&#160; <a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/California/" type="external">California.</a>”</p>
<p />
<p>Photo courtesy Steve Rhodes, flickr</p> | Jerry Brown pitches tax plan, hails charter school ‘insurgents’ | false | http://capoliticalreview.com/trending/jerry-brown-pitches-tax-plan-hails-charter-school-insurgents/ | 2012-03-01 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>“Good for you!” one of the volunteers exclaimed.</p>
<p>She didn’t resent the fact that a discarded racer had found a home with me: She realized that it doesn’t matter where you rescue your dog from, as long as you adopt a homeless dog instead of buying one from a pet store or breeder.</p>
<p>October is “Adopt a Shelter Dog” Month, and even though I adopted my dog a few weeks early, now is a great time to pay a visit to your local animal shelter or rescue group if you’re looking for a new best friend.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Shelters are bursting at the seams with dogs of all sizes, colors and ages who have ended up homeless through no fault of their own. Many were taken to shelters because the downturn in the economy caused their guardians to lose their jobs or homes. Other dogs found themselves homeless when their guardians divorced, had babies, were deployed overseas, were admitted to nursing homes or passed away.</p>
<p>That last reason was also the case with the greyhound my mother adopted. She had absolutely no intention of adopting a dog when she accompanied me on my visit to the greyhound adoption group’s kennel, but she fell hard for a sweet, bewildered older dog who had been brought in just a couple of weeks earlier after her guardian had died. (Like many rescue organizations, the group has a policy stating that it will always take dogs back, even years later, if things don’t work out.) Cleo is a perfect lady – gentle, affectionate and well mannered – but just a teensy bit of a clown. You couldn’t ask for a better dog.</p>
<p>Like many shelter dogs, Cleo and Jasper – the greyhound I adopted – are house-trained, neutered, healthy, friendly and eager to please. Jasper is newly retired from greyhound racing and, having spent his entire short life in a kennel – first at the track and then at the adoption group’s facility – he is adjusting to such things as stairs and storm doors and even the sound of crickets chirping at night.</p>
<p>Like most dogs, he’s a quick study. He just needed somebody to give him a chance.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there aren’t enough homes for all the thousands of dogs discarded by the racing industry every year. According to Grey2K USA, at least 3,000 greyhounds may be killed in one year alone (statistics are hard to verify because several states do not keep proper records) – nearly a quarter of the 12,800 dogs bred for racing in 2010.</p>
<p>Animal shelters face even more daunting percentages: They are forced to euthanize about half of the 6 million to 8 million animals who pass through their doors annually. The difference is that racetracks, along with breeders and pet shops, are contributing to the problem – animal shelters are trying to solve it.</p>
<p>We can all help work toward the day when every dog has the loving home he or she deserves by always adopting from shelters or rescue groups and refusing to patronize any breeder – but especially never buying an animal from an online classified ad or from a pet store, both of which often serve as fronts for notoriously cruel puppy mills.</p>
<p>Every time someone buys a dog from a breeder, he or she deprives a homeless dog of a chance at a home. And the only way that we are going to stop the madness of euthanizing millions of healthy, friendly, terrific dogs is by adopting (and neutering) them. It really is that simple.</p>
<p>And they really are terrific. Cleo and Jasper are proof of that.</p>
<p>Alisa Mullins is a senior writer with the PETA Foundation. Distributed by MCT Information Services</p> | Your New Best Pal Is Waiting for You | false | https://abqjournal.com/135120/your-new-best-pal-is-waiting-for-you.html | 2012-10-03 | 2 |
<p>Since Sept. 11, Americans have thought of themselves as the target of terrorists, emanating mainly from the Middle East. It may thus surprise them to learn that their own actions are in large part responsible for their problems and resentment in the Middle East. In particular, we argue that the massive aid flows and armaments transfers to Israel are largely responsible for the problems between Israelis and Palestinians today. The repercussions of this conflict reverberate everywhere in the region to the great detriment of the rights of the people in the area, but remarkably, also to the detriment of the US’s long-term interests.</p>
<p>Americans by nature tend to look closely at their government’s expenditures, to trim the fat wherever they can find it–welfare, social security, health care, education 85 all except when it comes to Israel. A valuable exercise for any American would be to examine the huge handouts given to Israel, which may reveal shocking facts and motivate them to a take closer look at what is done in their name. Here is a quick overview of US aid flows to Israel.</p>
<p>There are open and upfront economic and military handouts, and the table below lists the official numbers. Economists say that in the presence of inflation, a dollar yesterday is worth more than a dollar today, and an adjustment must be made to obtain meaningful comparable figures over time. It is highly desirable to express the aid flows in constant 2001 dollars, so that these figures mean something to us today. Inexplicably, this simple and standard transformation is never done pertaining aid flows to Israel–an omission that understates the aid flows. Now, adjusting the data and expressing it in 2001 constant dollars shows that the visible aid flows to Israel were $35.7bn over the past decade, and $143bn since 1967 [note 1]–the date after which US aid to Israel really took off. The latter stands in stark contrast with the unadjusted $83bn US aid since 1967 that is usually quoted. US aid to Israel: 1992 — 2001, and expressed in constant 2001 USD</p>
<p>USD Billion =</p>
<p>Year</p>
<p>Military</p>
<p>Economic</p>
<p>Total BN</p>
<p>adjustment</p>
<p>Total BN USD</p>
<p>1992</p> | US Aid to Israel, Feeding the Cuckoo | true | https://counterpunch.org/2002/11/16/us-aid-to-israel-feeding-the-cuckoo/ | 2002-11-16 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Enrique Mendez (left) and Miles Eric Lease at the 17th Street Festival in 2013. (Photo by Stephen Crowley)</p>
<p />
<p>In a two-page ruling and order, Judge Kimberley Knowles said she found that “a genuine issue exists regarding a material fact” over whether the relationship between D.C. resident Enrique Mendez and his partner of more than four years, Miles Eric Lease, constituted a common law marriage.</p>
<p>Mendez filed the petition last December with the court’s Domestic Relations Branch as part of an estate dispute with Lease’s family, which is being represented by his niece, Virginia resident Jennifer Lynn McKelvey.</p>
<p>At stake is Mendez’s contention that as Lease’s legal spouse, he is entitled to his deceased partner’s assets, including the Northwest Washington house that the two shared for four years.</p>
<p>Lease, 66, died unexpectedly of a heart attack on June 27, 2014.</p>
<p>Through her attorney, McKelvey contends that Mendez’s petition fails to provide sufficient evidence that he and Lease were in a relationship equivalent to marriage under D.C. law.</p>
<p>Knowles noted that each side has presented conflicting facts over whether the two men exchanged “marriage vows” and informed others of those vows, two steps that are required under D.C. law to establish a common law marriage.</p>
<p>In denying the estate’s motion for summary judgment to dismiss the case, the judge said the conflicting facts would have to be hashed out at a trial-like evidentiary hearing she scheduled for Nov. 10.</p>
<p>Meaghan Hearn, an attorney with the D.C. law firm Ackerman Brown, who’s representing Mendez, declined to comment on the court ruling, saying the matter remains an on-going case before the court. Christopher Glaser, McKelvey’s attorney, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.</p>
<p>Mendez’s petition says he and Lease began their romantic relationship in February 2010. It says the couple “took the next step in their romantic relationship” in July of that year when Mendez moved from New York City to D.C. to live in Lease’s house.</p>
<p>“The couple immediately began residing together at 4820 Iowa Ave., N.W., sharing living expenses and jointly contributing to the household,” the petition says.</p>
<p>It says the two men fulfilled the legal requirements of common law marriage in January 2013 when they exchanged vows to one another while on vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. According to the petition, the couple “presented themselves as spouses or ‘partners’ to friends, family and neighbors throughout the duration of their marriage.”</p>
<p>Court records show that Lease did not leave a will and that the court approved McKelvey as the personal representative of the estate shortly after Lease’s death. She assumed that position, which is similar to an executor of an estate, following the submission of affidavits by Lease’s mother and sister — the two next of kin — waiving their rights to be named personal representative.</p>
<p>In her motion for summary judgment seeking to have Mendez’s petition dismissed, McKelvey argues that virtually all of the property Mendez and Lease allegedly shared was owned and listed under Lease’s name, including the house, a car and truck that the two used together, and the auto insurance policy for the two vehicles.</p>
<p>It also points out that the two filed separate tax returns during the years the two were together and that each stated on the return that they were “single.” In addition, it says that although same-sex marriage became legal in D.C. in 2010, the two men did not marry.</p>
<p>“While Mendez and Lease may have intended to become married in the future, there is legally insufficient evidence to establish that a [common law] marriage had actually occurred,” McKelvey’s motion states.</p>
<p>In subsequent court filings and a deposition, Mendez identifies friends and family members whom he says he and Lease told of their vows and that the couple was widely known among their circle of friends in Washington to be in a relationship equivalent to marriage.</p>
<p>Mendez’s petition for a common law marriage declaration is believed to be only the second such petition filed in D.C. since same-sex marriage became legal in 2010. Local attorney Michelle Zavos said she knows of just one other such petition and in that case the court approved a same-sex common law marriage declaration.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">D.C.</a> <a href="" type="internal">D.C. Superior Court</a> <a href="" type="internal">Enrique Mendez</a> <a href="" type="internal">gay</a> <a href="" type="internal">Kimberley Knowles</a> <a href="" type="internal">Miles Eric Lease</a></p> | Motion to dismiss gay common law marriage case denied | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2015/08/28/motion-to-dismiss-gay-common-law-marriage-case-denied/ | 3 |
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<p>The U.K.'s Advertising Association reduced its estimate for growth in advertising expenditure in 2017 as spending is held back by higher inflation after the Brexit vote and lower business confidence following the indecisive general-election result.</p>
<p>The AA said Thursday it now expects U.K. advertising expenditure to grow by 2% over the full year, down from a previous estimate of 2.5%.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The revision comes as the AA reported growth of 1.3% in the first quarter of calendar year 2017, the slowest rate in more than four years.</p>
<p>James McDonald, an analyst at the World Advertising Research Center, which helped compile the figures, said supermarkets reined in TV advertising spending as higher inflation and slow wage growth have squeezed consumer spending.</p>
<p>Inflation has risen in part due to the fall in the pound against other currencies following the vote for the U.K. to leave the E.U. in June last year. Uncertainty increased last month when the governing Conservative Party lost its majority in a general election.</p>
<p>TV advertising fell by 6.2% in the first quarter, the first decline since 2009, the AA said. The AA report echoes comments by the U.K.'s main commercial TV network ITV PLC (ITV.LN), which Wednesday reported a fall in half-year pretax profit and said that retail, finance and food advertising has been hit by economic uncertainty and inflationary pressure.</p>
<p>The AA predicts advertising expenditure growth should pick up to 2.6% in 2018, driven by the soccer World Cup and a likely increased certainty about the terms of Brexit.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Write to Rory Gallivan at [email protected]; Twitter: @RoryGallivan</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>July 26, 2017 19:15 ET (23:15 GMT)</p> | UK Advertising Association Cuts 2017 Growth Estimate | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/26/uk-advertising-association-cuts-2017-growth-estimate.html | 2017-07-26 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Image source: SolarCity.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>SolarCity Corp's woes continued in the first quarter of 2016 as slowing growth, rising costs, and falling value creation hit the company's operations hard. For the third straight quarter, there were plenty of excuses, from the timing of sales to regulatory uncertainty, but the disappointing results are becoming a trend. And it's time to start taking the company's challenges very seriously.</p>
<p>What we learned in Q1 2016 Revenue jumped 82% to $122.6 million and net loss was up 16% to $25 million, or $0.25 per share. But those aren't the real metrics to judge SolarCity by.</p>
<p>214 MW of solar systems were installed in the quarter, which was higher than the 180 MW guidance due partly to a 14 MW project that was completed earlier than expected. But bookings were about 150 MW lower than expected, and that's making the second quarter look extremely weak. Management now expects 185 MW of installs in Q2 and full-year 2016 guidance was reduced from 1.25 GW to 1.0 to 1.1 GW. Notice that the guidance reduction was even bigger than the 150 MW bookings miss in the quarter. Management said there were a few reasons for the miss, some of which are very notable.</p>
<p>When SolarCity doesn't hit its booking goals, it has to spread sales costs over a much smaller base. And that led to the sharp increase in cost per watt you see below.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Image source: SolarCity.</p>
<p>Management doesn't think these higher costs will persist and pointed to falling installation costs year over year, but the big concern in 2015 was rising sales costs. There's no evidence yet that isn't still a problem.</p>
<p>What was encouraging was SolarCity monetizing $3.12 per watt for solar systems in the quarter, which should be above its long-term cost structure trend you see above. If it can finance more than its costs each quarter, it'll be cash flow-positive and be able to fund its operations without adding debt or selling shares to raise capital.</p>
<p>Why these numbers are a big deal The problem with the first-quarter numbers is that they show every flaw in SolarCity's business model. The company "owns the trucks," meaning everyone from the sales person to the installer is a SolarCity employee, and that requires constant volume to keep the business going. One bad quarter -- or heaven forbid, a bad year -- and the machine comes tumbling down.</p>
<p>SolarCity has also been almost completely reliant on long-term power purchase agreements (PPA) and leases, but the market is moving more toward loans (more on that in a minute). That led to lost sales in the first quarter.</p>
<p>SolarCity also has little differentiation from competitors, which is starting to mean it will have to compete more on price until it gets its high-efficiency solar manufacturing plant up and running. SunPower , on the other hand, said its residential and commercial solar businesses were growing like crazy in the first quarter. The company doesn't "own the trucks"; offers PPAs, cash sales, and loans; and has differentiated technology. In fact, SunPower had glowing comments about its residential and commercial business for all of 2016, so SolarCity's plethora of excuses why its growth is slowing is concerning considering what competition is saying.</p>
<p>If SolarCity is losing market share in its core markets to SunPower, it's a paradigm shift in the solar industry.</p>
<p>Image source: SolarCity.</p>
<p>The loans are finally coming One adjustment management made recently was adding a loan product, which was sorely needed. Based on the earnings presentation, there will be two fixed payment options for customers, a 10-year loan with a 2.99% interest rate and a 20-year option with a 4.99% interest rate. Management said they would be working with lending partners, but didn't mention who they were.</p>
<p>This will have some impacts both positive and negative for SolarCity. On the plus side, the company will sell these systems and get cash and margin upfront. This frees up the balance sheet and potentially gives SolarCity some predictable cash flow going forward.</p>
<p>The big question mark comes on the competitive front. If SolarCity is offering loans, it's then competing based on the pricing of its solar systems. That's much easier for customers to compare apples-to-apples than a lease or PPA, where SolarCity had borrowing advantages on the back end. Will SolarCity price systems attractively versus competitors? Will that mean low margins? Time will tell.</p>
<p>SolarCity needs a focus One of the telling parts of the conference call after earnings came out was an analyst asking if it was time for SolarCity to start transitioning to a cash-generation business model instead of focusing on growth. As I outlined above, the company is now able to generate cash flow from its business with multiple financing options, and the loan product will add another great option for cash flow.</p>
<p>But Lyndon Rive said that once SolarCity gets its current house in order, it will put the pedal to the metal on growth again. And that may be the company's core weakness. It's built a good residential business, and now that growth has slowed and it's actually generating cash flow, it may be time to pull the reins back on growth. But that's not enough for the current management team -- and that could come back to haunt investors someday.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/10/solarcity-corp-fails-to-live-up-to-expectations-ag.aspx" type="external">SolarCity Corp Fails to Live Up to Expectations (Again) Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFlushDraw/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Travis Hoium Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of SunPower. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends SolarCity. 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> | SolarCity Corp Fails to Live Up to Expectations (Again) | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/10/solarcity-corp-fails-to-live-up-to-expectations-again.html | 2016-05-10 | 0 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Slightly more people signed contracts in November to buy homes — with pending sales rising just 0.2 percent as the housing market copes with a dwindling supply of properties on the market.</p>
<p>The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its index of pending home sales was 109.5 in November. The modest increase follows a 3.5 percent increase in October.</p>
<p>More Americans are shopping for homes as the economy has improved. The low 4.1 percent unemployment rate has helped lift demand from would-be homebuyers, as the slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis has built up momentum after years of steady but unspectacular gains. Yet the demand has done little to bring more home-sellers into the market, causing a shortage of listings that has pushed up prices and spawned a rush to buy in many metro areas.</p>
<p>In November, the number of signed contracts rose in the Northeast and Midwest but slumped in the South and West.</p>
<p>Pending sales contracts are a barometer of future purchases. Sales are typically completed a month or two after a contract is signed.</p>
<p>The pending sales index has improved just 0.8 percent over the past year, as would-be buyers are finding that fewer homes are being listed for sale.</p>
<p>The number of homes listed for sale has dropped nearly 10 percent over the past year, the Realtors said earlier this month. Many homeowners are choosing to build up their equity or find themselves unable to afford another house if they sell their current residence. This dynamic has contributed to a 6.2 percent jump in home prices over the 12 months, according to the S&amp;P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index.</p>
<p>With home prices rising faster than incomes, it’s leading to the risk that people seeking homes could be priced out of the market. This, in turn, has caused homes to remain on the market for fewer days.</p>
<p>Some of the financial pressures from rising home prices have been minimized by cheaper borrowing costs.</p>
<p>Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said last week that the rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.94 percent, down from 4.30 percent a year ago.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Slightly more people signed contracts in November to buy homes — with pending sales rising just 0.2 percent as the housing market copes with a dwindling supply of properties on the market.</p>
<p>The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that its index of pending home sales was 109.5 in November. The modest increase follows a 3.5 percent increase in October.</p>
<p>More Americans are shopping for homes as the economy has improved. The low 4.1 percent unemployment rate has helped lift demand from would-be homebuyers, as the slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis has built up momentum after years of steady but unspectacular gains. Yet the demand has done little to bring more home-sellers into the market, causing a shortage of listings that has pushed up prices and spawned a rush to buy in many metro areas.</p>
<p>In November, the number of signed contracts rose in the Northeast and Midwest but slumped in the South and West.</p>
<p>Pending sales contracts are a barometer of future purchases. Sales are typically completed a month or two after a contract is signed.</p>
<p>The pending sales index has improved just 0.8 percent over the past year, as would-be buyers are finding that fewer homes are being listed for sale.</p>
<p>The number of homes listed for sale has dropped nearly 10 percent over the past year, the Realtors said earlier this month. Many homeowners are choosing to build up their equity or find themselves unable to afford another house if they sell their current residence. This dynamic has contributed to a 6.2 percent jump in home prices over the 12 months, according to the S&amp;P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index.</p>
<p>With home prices rising faster than incomes, it’s leading to the risk that people seeking homes could be priced out of the market. This, in turn, has caused homes to remain on the market for fewer days.</p>
<p>Some of the financial pressures from rising home prices have been minimized by cheaper borrowing costs.</p>
<p>Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said last week that the rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.94 percent, down from 4.30 percent a year ago.</p> | US pending home sales rose a slight 0.2 percent in November | false | https://apnews.com/8335ff0879114a81b0a4848cd161d980 | 2017-12-27 | 2 |
<p>May 30, 2013</p>
<p>By Katy Grimes</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Stop the presses! A really good Republican bill just passed the Assembly 63-0. What? How?</p>
<p><a href="http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/asm/ab_0501-0550/ab_527_bill_20130507_amended_asm_v97.pdf" type="external">AB 527</a>by Assemblywoman Beth Gaines, R-Rocklin, would repeal the existing exemption of the <a href="http://www.wci-inc.org" type="external">Western Climate Initiative, Inc.</a>, and its appointees, from the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act when performing their duties.</p>
<p>Thus far, WCI, Inc. an arm of the California Air Resources Board registered in Delaware, has been operating in secrecy.</p>
<p>Immediately after its passage, a&#160;very happy Gains explained more about her bill to me.</p>
<p>“First, the bill prohibits the Air Resources Board from making a payment to WCI, Inc., the out of state company charged with implementing California’s cap-and-trade, unless the Air Resources Board certifies that WCI, Inc. complies with the provisions of the <a href="http://ag.ca.gov/publications/bagleykeene2004_ada.pdf?" type="external">California Open Meetings Act and Public Records Act</a>insuring that all meetings and actions are subject to public scrutiny.”</p>
<p>“Secondly, it makes WCI, Inc. subject to audit by the California State Auditor. In the event of an audit, ARB may not make any payments to WCI, Inc. unless WCI, Inc. complies with the audit.”</p>
<p>According to their website,&#160; <a href="http://www.wci-inc.org" type="external">WCI, Inc.</a>&#160;was created to develop a compliance tracking system that tracks both allowances and offsets for the CARB’s can and trade program. WCI, Inc. will also administer allowance auctions; and conduct market monitoring of allowance auctions and offset certificate trading.</p>
<p>According to Gaines, existing law imposes conditions on the Western Climate Initiative, Inc., which is a nongovernmental entity created to assist the state board in the implementation of the act.</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="http://ag.ca.gov/publications/bagleykeene2004_ada.pdf?" type="external">Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act</a>, requires that all meetings of a state body be open and public. But the law creating the WCI, Inc. exempted the corporation, and its appointees from the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act.</p>
<p>Gaines’ bill would repeal that exemption.</p>
<p>Interestingly, &#160;WCI, Inc. was coincidentally registered in Delaware.</p>
<p>In November 2011, the California Air Resources Board &#160;formed WCI, Inc., a non-profit corporation, formed to provide administrative and technical services to support the implementation of state and provincial greenhouse gas emissions trading programs.</p>
<p>According to their website, <a href="http://www.wci-inc.org" type="external">WCI, Inc.</a> will develop a compliance tracking system that tracks both allowances and offsets; administer allowance auctions; and conduct market monitoring of allowance auctions and offset certificate trading.</p>
<p>The Board of Directors is made up of public officials from Quebec and British Columbia, and public officials from the State of California.</p>
<p>California officials include:</p>
<p>Matt Rodriguez, Secretary for Environmental Protection,&#160;Mary Nichols, Chairman of the California Air Resources Board, Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkelely, and Kip Lipper, senior staff member to California State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, and D-Sacramento,&#160;often called the&#160; <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/29/local/la-me-lipper29-2009nov29" type="external">“41st senator,”</a>&#160;&#160;and referred to as the godfather of California’s environmental bills.</p>
<p>No environmental legislation passes, or gets killed in the Legislature, without Lipper’s approval.</p>
<p>“Lipper is officially classified as an “environmental consultant” to the state Senate.&#160; Any environmental bill that has come out of the Legislature in the last decade has only done so because Lipper allowed it, or because he made it happen,” I wrote in <a href="" type="internal">CEQA reforms blow smog over state</a>. “When a bill becomes ‘Lipperized,’ it is altered into a far different bill than the original. Or the bill will die in a committee upon Lipper’s orders.”</p>
<p>And Lipper is now on the <a href="http://www.wci-inc.org/board-directors.php" type="external">WCI, Inc. Board of Directors</a>.</p>
<p>According to bill analysis:</p>
<p>Existing law sets out the authority and duties of the California State Auditor in conducting audits and surveys of specified entities. Existing law authorizes and provides access to the California State Auditor and his or her authorized representatives to examine and reproduce various records of any agency of the state. This bill would require a contract between the state and the Western Climate Initiative, Incorporated, to be subject to audit by the California State Auditor.</p>
<p>Bringing in the State Auditor is a great idea. The Air Resources Board could use a dose of this transparency as well.</p>
<p>“The Air Resources Board, with the authority of AB 32, The Global Warming Solutions Act, has already started down the path of abuse of power,” Gaines said recently on her Assembly <a href="http://arc.asm.ca.gov/member/AD6/newsletter/6_2885kr8thmgv.htm?keepThis=true&amp;TB_iframe=true&amp;n=6_2885kr8thmgv.htm&amp;height=600&amp;t=2&amp;width=930" type="external">website</a>. “I have always been opposed the high cost and ambiguity of AB 32, but now that it is being fully implemented my primary goal is to expose the outrageous cost to job creators in this state.”</p> | Air Resources Board corp facing open meetings | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2013/05/30/air-resources-board-corp-facing-open-meetings/ | 2018-05-20 | 3 |
<p>The less money I give Comcast, the happier I am. What really ticks me off is, my Comcast modem (and yours) are now wifi hotspots for all Comcast customers! Shouldn't they have to pay me for that privilege? Nope, not in Comcast World, where they charge me <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/02/technology/comcast-time-warner-cable-modem/" type="external">extra for the modem:</a></p>
<p>Comcast and Time Warner Cable have just raised fees for renting a modem so high that it now makes sense to buy your own. Even if it's a headache installing it.</p>
<p>The cable companies just hiked the monthly rates they charge customers for leasing their modems -- a somewhat hidden charge that most people don't even think about.</p>
<p>The price hikes are significant: Time Warner Cable's fee is leaping from $5.99 to $8, and Comcast's fee is jumping from $8 to $10.</p>
<p>That's a surprise 25% to 33% price surge. In the case of Time Warner Cable, this is the second fee increase in just over a year. Some Comcast Xfinity customers weren't notified until mid-December that prices would be raised on Jan. 1.</p>
<p>Time Warner Cable noted that the fee pays for "guaranteed full support and maintenance." Comcast did not return calls for comment.</p>
<p>People typically rent a modem for three reasons: Self-installation is a confusing chore. You might buy a modem that's not compatible. And most importantly, they're expensive.</p>
<p>But the game has changed. Consider the yearly fees: Time Warner Cable's rental fee is now $96. Comcast's rental is now $120.</p>
<p>If you buy a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XC6GJ0/?tag=crooksandliar-20" type="external">Motorola SB6121</a> modem, it'll pay for itself in less than a year. If you buy the faster <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040IUI46/?tag=crooksandliar-20" type="external">Motorola SBG6580</a> (modems don't have sexy or memorable names), it'll pay for itself in just over a year.</p>
<p>Be warned: Buying your own modem requires homework. Not all modems are compatible with Time Warner Cable and Comcast homes.</p>
<p>If you're a Time Warner Cable customer, you can look up whether a modem is compatible with its network on <a href="http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/support/internet/topics/buy-your-modem.html" type="external">the company's website</a>. Comcast customers can do the same on <a href="http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/" type="external">that company's website</a>. You'll need to know a little about your current plan to figure it out.</p> | With Another Rent Hike, It's Time To Buy Your Own Cable Modem | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2015/01/another-rent-hike-its-time-buy-your-own | 2015-01-05 | 4 |
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<p>RALEIGH, N.C. — The Trump administration dropped a lawsuit Friday accusing North Carolina of discriminating against LGBT residents in response to the state’s decision to undo its “bathroom bill.”</p>
<p>The Justice Department’s withdrawal represents the first significant movement in a tangle of legal action over the state’s nondiscrimination laws since a deal last month to get rid of House Bill 2.</p>
<p>LGBT advocates have vowed to continue a separate federal lawsuit, saying the replacement law still violates the rights of gay and transgender people.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>North Carolina’s compromise got rid of the most well-known provision of House Bill 2 that required transgender people to use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates in many public buildings. The new law makes clear that state legislators, not local governments, are in charge of any future bathroom policies.</p>
<p>The replacement law also prohibits local governments from enacting new nondiscrimination ordinances for workplaces, hotels and restaurants until 2020.</p>
<p>Tara Borelli, a lawyer for Lambda Legal, said her group will amend its lawsuit to challenge the new law, arguing that it continues harmful aspects of its predecessor. She said losing the Justice Department as an ally won’t weaken the case.</p>
<p>“This move does not affect the merits of the case,” she said. “HB2 was unconstitutional as of the moment it was enacted. HB142 was unconstitutional the moment it was enacted. We don’t think the courts will have any trouble seeing that, regardless of who’s sitting at counsel’s table.”</p>
<p>Separate from the Justice Department’s decision, an appeals court earlier this week asked Borelli and her colleagues for more information about how the new law will affect their case. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered both sides to file new arguments by late April.</p>
<p>Representatives of North Carolina’s Republican Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.</p>
<p>The new law received a vote of confidence from the NCAA and ACC, which had moved events out of the state. The NBA is also considering bringing back its All-Star Game, which it pulled from Charlotte.</p>
<p>Some business leaders applauded the compromise, while others said it didn’t go far enough.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who helped broker the deal, has said he wants to extend LGBT protections further but that House Bill 142 was the best compromise that the Republican-controlled legislature would approve.</p>
<p>The Justice Department’s withdrawal from the legal battle wasn’t unexpected. Weeks before the deal to undo House Bill 2, the federal government told a judge it was backing away from a request for an injunction. The lawsuit was started last year under then-President Barack Obama.</p>
<p>The Trump administration also reversed guidelines that transgender students nationwide should be able to use school bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity.</p>
<p>The policy change, along with a separate lawsuit by a transgender student in Virginia, are expected to influence the litigation in North Carolina. The Virginia case is pending before the 4th Circuit.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Drew at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jonldrew" type="external">www.twitter.com/jonldrew</a></p> | Justice Department drops North Carolina LGBT rights lawsuit | false | https://abqjournal.com/987877/justice-department-drops-north-carolina-lgbt-rights-lawsuit.html | 2017-04-14 | 2 |
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<p />
<p>With its first performance in Santa Fe of the season July 15, the company brought back Brazilian choreographer Fernando Melo, who they premiered for the first time last season with the show “Re: play.”</p>
<p>His new piece, “Dream Play,” uses video technology to project the movements and shapes the dancers are making while lying on the floor. The camera, positioned on the stage above them and facing downward, is then streamed on a projector for the audience, which sees the dancers from two angles: while they lie on the stage floor and from the video, which gives the illusion of them standing and dancing upright.</p>
<p>Fernando Melo</p>
<p>“The audience sees what the performers are doing, how they create the magic, and they see the result of the magic at the same time,” said Melo.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>According to artistic director Jean-Phillippe Malaty, the goal of ASFB is to give young, up-and-coming choreographers like Melo the chance to experiment with new ideas. “With Fernando, it’s really about the concept and taking the audience somewhere else,” he said.</p>
<p>Utilizing video as part of a performance is not something ASFB has done before, said Malaty, but the company enjoyed working with Melo because of his collaborative and innovative processes. He also said the ASFB always wants to give the audience a chance to see something new and creative.</p>
<p>“We believe in moving the art form forward – every time people come to the ballet, they usually see something new,” he said.</p>
<p>Melo, who is currently based in Europe, has been working with the dancers in Aspen for six weeks to create ways to make movements on the floor appear upright. He said that while parts of the show have storylines, he doesn’t want to comment on them in order to give the audience freedom to imagine. Like the rest of his shows, he said, “Dream Play” was made with the audience in mind.</p>
<p>“I’m pretty sure they’ll engage with it and have their own interpretation,”said Melo.</p>
<p>While the premise of the show is contemporary and experimental with its use of technology, he said the basis of the show is still true to traditional ballet. It’s based on the body and movement, as well as giving the audience a theatrical experience.</p>
<p>“Some movements look very magical, some look very physical,” said Melo. “There’s a lot of struggling [because] it’s difficult on the floor. We embrace that and show it to the audience.”</p>
<p>In addition to “Dream Play,” Saturday’s performance also will include programs previously performed by the company – “Little mortal jump” by Alejandro Cerrudo and “Eudaemonia” by Cherice Barton. The show premiered first in Aspen July 8 and will return to Santa Fe Sept. 2.</p>
<p /> | New angle on a dance experience | false | https://abqjournal.com/1032861/new-angle-on-a-dance-experience.html | 2017-07-14 | 2 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Wall Street sure loves the tax bill, even if polls show most Americans don't.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones industrial average surged past 25,000 Thursday, a strong signal of investor enthusiasm for President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut. The milestone comes less than a year after the Dow topped 20,000.</p>
<p>"We broke a very, very big barrier," Trump said Thursday at the White House. "Every time you see that number go up on Wall Street it means jobs, it means success, it means 401(k)s that are flourishing."</p>
<p>The Dow jumped an additional 220 points Friday after the government reported that employers added 148,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate remained a low 4.1 percent. Investors celebrated the modest job gains because they made it less likely that the Federal Reserve will step up its pace of interest rate increases. Higher rates can depress share prices as some investors shift money away from stocks to bonds.</p>
<p>It's easy to see why investors like the tax overhaul: Businesses will benefit from a steep cut in the corporate tax rate. They'll also be able to fully deduct the cost of major purchases from their taxable income, reducing the amount they owe. And companies with large stockpiles of cash overseas can bring the money back to the United States at new, lower rates.</p>
<p>All told, Wall Street analysts estimate the tax package should boost earnings for companies in the Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index by roughly 8 percent this year. That's much more generous than the average tax cut of 1.6 percent that middle-class families will receive, according to the Tax Policy Center.</p>
<p>"All else being equal, this should go straight to the bottom line," said David Joy, chief market strategist for Ameriprise Financial, a financial services company based in Minneapolis. Improved corporate profits contributed to the market's gains last year.</p>
<p>The public has been less enthusiastic about the tax law. A Monmouth University poll last month found that nearly half of Americans disapproved of it, with only 26 percent in support.</p>
<p>Still, some workers have seen a benefit: So far, dozens of companies have announced bonuses and higher minimum wages as a result of the tax cut. AT&amp;T, Comcast, Bank of America, and American Airlines have all pledged to pay $1,000 bonuses to their employees.</p>
<p>Investors also appear less concerned than many politicians about how the additional profits will be used. The Trump administration says it expects companies will plow much of the extra profit back into their businesses, purchasing more software, machinery, and other equipment. Those investments will make workers more productive and provide a key boost to the economy's long-run growth. They should also boost wages and salaries for employees.</p>
<p>Opponents of the tax law respond that companies are more likely to pass the windfall on to shareholders in the form of higher dividend payments and share buybacks, which raise the price of those shares still in investors' hands. Previous cuts in corporate tax rates, in the U.S. and overseas, haven't always led to higher wages.</p>
<p>For Wall Street, it's all good, at least in the short run. Most analysts take the view that either way, companies and the economy will benefit. Whether businesses pass most of the extra money to workers or to shareholders, consumer spending should increase and lift economic growth.</p>
<p>Trump has repeatedly made highly optimistic claims about the impact of his tax cuts and other policies on the economy, speculating that they would lead to annual growth of 4 percent or higher.</p>
<p>Last month, the Treasury Department estimated that the economy will expand at a 2.9 percent annual rate for the next decade.</p>
<p>Private economists, as well as the Federal Reserve, forecast a more modest impact. Most expect growth will be closer to 2.5 percent in 2018 and slower than that in subsequent years.</p>
<p>Some companies and sectors will likely benefit more than others, particularly if they derive most of their income from the United States. Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that large banks will see their earnings rise by 13 percent as a result of the corporate rate cut. Wells Fargo will likely see the biggest gain, at 18 percent.</p>
<p>Analysts at Stifel, an investment bank, project that some restaurant chains could see earnings boosts of 20 percent or more, including Chipotle, Wingstop and Domino's Pizza.</p>
<p>Barclays, another bank, says that technology and pharmaceutical firms, which are already paying lower taxes because they have lots of cash overseas, will see much smaller increases of less than 4 percent.</p>
<p>The legislation's corporate tax cut is not necessarily as dramatic as it seems, because most corporations don't end up paying the full 35 percent rate. Barclays estimates that the "effective" tax rate - what companies actually pay - will drop from 26 percent to 20.1 percent.</p>
<p>Joy and other analysts think that most of the money brought back from other countries will go to shareholders, rather than investment. That's what happened in 2004, when companies were given a one-time low rate on repatriated cash as an inducement.</p>
<p>Opinions differ, however, when it comes to the additional profits that result from the tax cut. Many economists expect that most of those dollars will also be passed on to shareholders.</p>
<p>Glenn Hubbard, an economist at Columbia Business School and former top economist for President George W. Bush, says the corporate tax cut will eventually benefit workers through higher pay. That will also boost the economy and most businesses by lifting spending.</p>
<p>"Any way you slice it, it's good for companies," Hubbard said.</p>
<p>For much of last year, the stock market's gains were helped by a synchronized global recovery, with economies from Europe to Asia to Latin America expanding simultaneously for the first time in a decade.</p>
<p>Since November, investors' anticipation of a tax cut has pushed markets higher, said Keith Parker, an analyst at UBS.</p>
<p>Still, the market's outsize return, benefits only a narrow slice of the population. According to research by Edward Wolff, an economist at New York University, just 10 percent of the population owns 84 percent of the stock market's value.</p>
<p>"That benefit won't accrue to everybody, certainly," Joy said.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Contact Christopher Rugaber on Twitter at <a href="http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber" type="external">http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber</a></p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - Wall Street sure loves the tax bill, even if polls show most Americans don't.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones industrial average surged past 25,000 Thursday, a strong signal of investor enthusiasm for President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut. The milestone comes less than a year after the Dow topped 20,000.</p>
<p>"We broke a very, very big barrier," Trump said Thursday at the White House. "Every time you see that number go up on Wall Street it means jobs, it means success, it means 401(k)s that are flourishing."</p>
<p>The Dow jumped an additional 220 points Friday after the government reported that employers added 148,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate remained a low 4.1 percent. Investors celebrated the modest job gains because they made it less likely that the Federal Reserve will step up its pace of interest rate increases. Higher rates can depress share prices as some investors shift money away from stocks to bonds.</p>
<p>It's easy to see why investors like the tax overhaul: Businesses will benefit from a steep cut in the corporate tax rate. They'll also be able to fully deduct the cost of major purchases from their taxable income, reducing the amount they owe. And companies with large stockpiles of cash overseas can bring the money back to the United States at new, lower rates.</p>
<p>All told, Wall Street analysts estimate the tax package should boost earnings for companies in the Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index by roughly 8 percent this year. That's much more generous than the average tax cut of 1.6 percent that middle-class families will receive, according to the Tax Policy Center.</p>
<p>"All else being equal, this should go straight to the bottom line," said David Joy, chief market strategist for Ameriprise Financial, a financial services company based in Minneapolis. Improved corporate profits contributed to the market's gains last year.</p>
<p>The public has been less enthusiastic about the tax law. A Monmouth University poll last month found that nearly half of Americans disapproved of it, with only 26 percent in support.</p>
<p>Still, some workers have seen a benefit: So far, dozens of companies have announced bonuses and higher minimum wages as a result of the tax cut. AT&amp;T, Comcast, Bank of America, and American Airlines have all pledged to pay $1,000 bonuses to their employees.</p>
<p>Investors also appear less concerned than many politicians about how the additional profits will be used. The Trump administration says it expects companies will plow much of the extra profit back into their businesses, purchasing more software, machinery, and other equipment. Those investments will make workers more productive and provide a key boost to the economy's long-run growth. They should also boost wages and salaries for employees.</p>
<p>Opponents of the tax law respond that companies are more likely to pass the windfall on to shareholders in the form of higher dividend payments and share buybacks, which raise the price of those shares still in investors' hands. Previous cuts in corporate tax rates, in the U.S. and overseas, haven't always led to higher wages.</p>
<p>For Wall Street, it's all good, at least in the short run. Most analysts take the view that either way, companies and the economy will benefit. Whether businesses pass most of the extra money to workers or to shareholders, consumer spending should increase and lift economic growth.</p>
<p>Trump has repeatedly made highly optimistic claims about the impact of his tax cuts and other policies on the economy, speculating that they would lead to annual growth of 4 percent or higher.</p>
<p>Last month, the Treasury Department estimated that the economy will expand at a 2.9 percent annual rate for the next decade.</p>
<p>Private economists, as well as the Federal Reserve, forecast a more modest impact. Most expect growth will be closer to 2.5 percent in 2018 and slower than that in subsequent years.</p>
<p>Some companies and sectors will likely benefit more than others, particularly if they derive most of their income from the United States. Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that large banks will see their earnings rise by 13 percent as a result of the corporate rate cut. Wells Fargo will likely see the biggest gain, at 18 percent.</p>
<p>Analysts at Stifel, an investment bank, project that some restaurant chains could see earnings boosts of 20 percent or more, including Chipotle, Wingstop and Domino's Pizza.</p>
<p>Barclays, another bank, says that technology and pharmaceutical firms, which are already paying lower taxes because they have lots of cash overseas, will see much smaller increases of less than 4 percent.</p>
<p>The legislation's corporate tax cut is not necessarily as dramatic as it seems, because most corporations don't end up paying the full 35 percent rate. Barclays estimates that the "effective" tax rate - what companies actually pay - will drop from 26 percent to 20.1 percent.</p>
<p>Joy and other analysts think that most of the money brought back from other countries will go to shareholders, rather than investment. That's what happened in 2004, when companies were given a one-time low rate on repatriated cash as an inducement.</p>
<p>Opinions differ, however, when it comes to the additional profits that result from the tax cut. Many economists expect that most of those dollars will also be passed on to shareholders.</p>
<p>Glenn Hubbard, an economist at Columbia Business School and former top economist for President George W. Bush, says the corporate tax cut will eventually benefit workers through higher pay. That will also boost the economy and most businesses by lifting spending.</p>
<p>"Any way you slice it, it's good for companies," Hubbard said.</p>
<p>For much of last year, the stock market's gains were helped by a synchronized global recovery, with economies from Europe to Asia to Latin America expanding simultaneously for the first time in a decade.</p>
<p>Since November, investors' anticipation of a tax cut has pushed markets higher, said Keith Parker, an analyst at UBS.</p>
<p>Still, the market's outsize return, benefits only a narrow slice of the population. According to research by Edward Wolff, an economist at New York University, just 10 percent of the population owns 84 percent of the stock market's value.</p>
<p>"That benefit won't accrue to everybody, certainly," Joy said.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Contact Christopher Rugaber on Twitter at <a href="http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber" type="external">http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber</a></p> | Wall Street's love of tax cuts drove Dow to 25,000 mark | false | https://apnews.com/amp/40f62e072fa94b27aa58168418cfe5a8 | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p />
<p />
<p>American car maker Ford is underscoring the need for President-Elect Trump's plans by trying to quickly move a production site to Mexico despite the tariff threats that the Republican candidate had vowed to implement.</p>
<p />
<p>Ford will try to move production of its Ford Focus models to Mexico sooner than foreseen. Originally CEO Mark Fields of Ford has stipulated his plan to move production as from 2018, but under the new directive which this website was able to get a hold of, that plan would now be moved forward to the first half of 2017 as the American car maker's management realizes that tariffs will be put in place for any factory opened in Mexico later than that.</p>
<p />
<p>If implemented, this would almost certainly lead to job losses for US car workers in Michigan. Ford however reacted by stating that 'two very important products will be put back into Michigan plants'.</p>
<p />
<p>CEO Mark Fields explained that the reason for the move is because he sees car and light truck demand hitting a plateau in over the next five year period due to the economic uncertainty that the market faces. He was quoted in Fortune saying: "We expect the industry to be about the same as it was last year, probably a little lower on the retail side, and a continuing competitive pricing environment.</p>
<p />
<p>If this planned moving of US jobs to Mexico, which is what we understand from Ford's plan, proves to be correct, this website and it's reporter calls for a ban or even boycott of Ford in the US. The non-respect of the voters choice in these Presidential elections cannot go without effect anymore.This is exactly what President-Elect Trump said they were doing, and they continue doing it even in the first days after the election result. If this goes ahead without any reaction from the public, other American companies will move their production facilities as well before the tariffs are implemented.</p>
<p>I urge you to react to this article and share your disbelief with other readers. This is an outrage. Respect American car workers and call upon Ford to keep US jobs in the US.</p> | On eve of Trump's presidency, Ford goes ahead with moving small car production to Mexico | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/493-On-eve-of-Trump-s-presidency-Ford-goes-ahead-with-moving-small-car-production-to-Mexico | 2016-11-16 | 0 |
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<p>It's a weekend morning in Minneapolis. I am one of hundreds running an urban race, the CityTrail Loppet, sponsored by the outdoor goods and footwear brand Salomon.</p>
<p>The trajectory of organized recreational running events follows a funny arc. I've paid over the years to participate in venues as diverse as pro sports stadiums and muddy farm fields.</p>
<p>Big city marathons have throngs of fans and aid stations almost every mile. On the flip side, in wilderness ultras and adventure races, you wear a pack, haul your water, and see hardly a soul.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The CityTrail concept bridges those extremes, and I think it's representative of a bigger trend. The campaign - which includes a race series, grass roots run events, branded Salomon products, and a fitness app - posits that you can find adventure anywhere.</p>
<p>For years, as a resident of the city, I have milked these edge zones, including "pirate" trails and wooded wastelands where my dog could run free. I train in the urban wilds, including along a gorge near my house, running, mountain biking and skiing on a frozen creek, all within earshot of a freeway and meandering through a dense urban core.</p>
<p>I am hardly alone in my search for some outdoor adventure among the city streets; certainly individuals and groups bike, run and recreate in these fringes, which often blend into city parks or abandoned industrial areas.</p>
<p>Salomon and its CityTrail concept bring this to a new and highly promoted level. The company has gone as far as mapping routes in cities around America and the world, all available on the namesake CityTrail app.</p>
<p>My race last weekend followed flagging tape on its twisting course, and big white arrows of flour dribbled on dirt revealed the way. I tripped once and tumbled on a root, and I took at least one wrong turn.</p>
<p>Then I emerged from the woods and saw the city ahead. It was a thrill to be dirty and exhausted, dead leaves stuck in my arm hairs, then cross a finish line back in civilization at a manicured park.</p>
<p>The Loppet race was regulated and approved. No one is condoning trespass or anything beyond the law. But when you can, no matter where you are, I do encourage getting off the beaten (and often paved) path.</p>
<p>Stephen Regenold writes about outdoors gear at <a href="http://gearjunkie.com" type="external">gearjunkie.com</a>.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Take the path less traveled in urban wilds | false | https://abqjournal.com/591049/take-the-path-less-traveled-in-urban-wilds.html | 2015-05-28 | 2 |
<p>On Friday, lawmakers in the Sunshine State struck a deal on how to spend the $2 billion dollars in hospital funding for the new budget that begins on July 1.</p>
<p>By doing so it shows they are moving forward with their negotiations and may potentially end the special session next week as scheduled.</p>
<p>Currently, House and Senate negotiators are racing to finish up their work so they can vote on the budget before June 20. That is the conclusion of the regular session and ten days before the state needs to have a spending plan to divert a shutdown.</p>
<p>Since the federal government is reducing the amount of aid they give hospitals for low income patients, Florida lawmakers have decided to use state money to offset the short fall.</p>
<p>Senate President Andy Gardiner said:</p>
<p>It’s important . . . that we provided some stability in the health-care system for hospitals to understand that, yes, Low Income Pool is going to change, but we’re going to make a financial commitment on the state standpoint to help in that transaction, and that’s what we did. Once that was done, I think that’s a huge step forward.</p>
<p>Governor Rick Scott’s office has voiced opposition to using state tax dollars to make up for the short fall from the federal government. They currently are reviewing the proposal.</p>
<p>With hospital funding hopefully out of the way, the focus can be shifted to education policy provisions. That would include some education policy provisions that the Senate wants to place into a budget-related bill.</p>
<p>Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli said budget chiefs will continue their negotiations through the weekend.</p>
<p>They released the following joint statement:</p>
<p>We look forward to using this last week of the special session to finalize a balanced budget and deliver broad-based tax reform legislation. We look forward to an on-time finish.</p> | Lawmakers Strike Deal On Hospital Funding in FL | true | http://shark-tank.com/2015/06/13/lawmakers-strike-deal-on-hospital-funding-in-fl/ | 0 |
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<p />
<p>If you become disabled and can no longer work, you may qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) based on your work record. Since SSDI benefits are based on your work record, they are generally comparable to what your Social Security retirement benefit would have been, had you worked until retirement age. Here's what you need to know about whether you qualify for SSDI and how to determine what your benefits could be.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The first step is to determine whether you qualify for disability benefits. As far as SSDI is concerned, disability benefits are paid to people who can't work because they have a medical condition that's expected to last at least a year or result in death.</p>
<p>The Social Security Administration uses a five-step process to determine if you're disabled.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Once you've established a qualifying disability, the other determining factor is whether or not you've worked enough to qualify for benefits. And, you'll need to pass two "tests."</p>
<p>Since SSDI benefits are based on your work record, they are generally comparable to your Social Security retirement benefit, had you been able to work until retirement. If you know your entire earnings history, you can input it into <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/AnypiaApplet.html" type="external">this calculator Opens a New Window.</a> in order to get an estimate of what your disability benefit would be.</p>
<p>Better yet, the easiest way to get an idea of what your disability benefits could be, as well as whether or not you're eligible, is to create an account on <a href="http://www.ssa.gov" type="external">www.ssa.gov Opens a New Window.</a> and view your most recent Social Security statement. You can find this information, as well as lots of other useful information about other potential Social Security benefits to which you may be entitled.</p>
<p>Image source: Social Security Administration.</p>
<p>As you can see from the sample Social Security statement above, this individual has worked enough to qualify for disability benefits, and their projected monthly benefit of $1,596 is in the ballpark of their expected retirement benefit of $1,762.</p>
<p>SSDI claims can take a while to process -- three to five months -- so it's important to apply as soon as possible. The easiest way is to apply online at <a href="http://www.ssa.gov" type="external">www.ssa.gov</a>, but you can also apply over the phone or in person at your local Social Security office.</p>
<p>In order to make the process go as quickly as possible, it helps to have certain information and documentation handy when you apply, including (but not limited to):</p>
<p>The bottom line is that while nobody plans on becoming disabled, Social Security Disability Insurance can provide you with the peace of mind that you and your loved ones will be taken care of should anything happen to you.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/retirement/general/2016/05/22/what-benefits-do-you-get-from-social-security-disa.aspx" type="external">What Benefits Do You Get From Social Security Disability? Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p>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> | What Benefits Do You Get From Social Security Disability? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/22/what-benefits-do-get-from-social-security-disability.html | 2016-05-22 | 0 |
<p>Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius.</p>
<p>They include:</p>
<p />
<p>-- American patriot John Hancock in 1737</p>
<p>-- French author Stendhal, a pseudonym for Marie-Henri Beyle, in 1783</p>
<p>-- French Impressionist painter Edouard Manet in 1832</p>
<p>-- Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein in 1898</p>
<p>-- Actor Dan Duryea in 1907</p>
<p>-- Comedian Ernie Kovacs in 1919</p>
<p>-- Actor/singer Chita Rivera in 1933 (age 85)</p>
<p>-- Actor Gil Gerard in 1943 (age 75)</p>
<p>-- Actor Rutger Hauer in 1944 (age 74)</p>
<p>-- Actor Richard Dean Anderson in 1950 (age 68)</p>
<p>-- Airline pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who in 2009 <a href="" type="internal">safely landed</a> a disabled airliner carrying 155 people in the Hudson River, in 1951 (age 67)</p>
<p>-- Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 1953 (age 65)</p>
<p>-- Princess Caroline of Monaco in 1957 (age 61)</p>
<p>-- Actor Gail O'Grady in 1963 (age 55)</p>
<p>-- Actor Mariska Hargitay in 1964 (age 54)</p>
<p>-- Actor Tiffani Thiessen in 1974 (age 44)</p>
<p>-- Actor Julia Jones in 1981 (age 37)</p> | Famous birthdays for Jan. 23: Mariska Hargitay, Chesley Sullenberger | false | https://upi.com/Entertainment_News/2018/01/23/Famous-birthdays-for-Jan-23-Mariska-Hargitay-Chesley-Sullenberger/8051516583789/ | 2 |
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<p>If you want to know how global warming causes an ice age, pay attention.</p>
<p>First off, what is global warming, and how does it work?</p>
<p>As most people already know, Earth’s atmosphere is made up of gases. Some gases mix, others stratify, much like if you pour oil into water. Now, the ability of a gas to retain heat is very important – this is the mechanism that keeps temperatures above deep-freeze at night, or moderately balmy during the day. Look at the moon; when the sun isn’t hitting it, you could see temperatures down below -183°C, and when the sun hits it, above 106°C. Because gases trap heat, and spread that heat around, we get to live on an Earth where the water doesn’t boil away every day.</p>
<p>Now, some gases are better at trapping heat than others – for the same reason metal gets hot while asbestos does not; different gases are made out of different stuff. Those gases that are especially good at trapping heat are called greenhouse gases, because they act like the windows of a greenhouse. On Earth, the main one is water vapor, followed closely behind by carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and a few others.</p>
<p>Scientists have taken what are called core samples, which means they drill a hole into the ice in some place like Antarctica, and examine the tiny air bubbles trapped inside. They can compare that to carbon dating from krill trapped in the same spot, and get an idea of a) how old the sample is, and b) what was the atmospheric composition at the time. They can then correlate this data to other geological data and get an idea how warm or how cold the Earth was. Here’s what they found:</p>
<p>There is a VERY high correlation between mean global temperatures and atmospheric concentration of CO2. When CO2 goes up, the temperature goes up. When CO2 goes down, the temperature goes down. Now, over the past several hundred-thousand years give or take, CO2 has fluctuated naturally with events like a high number of volcanos, etc, and this has triggered global warming repeatedly.</p>
<p>What’s ingenious about Mother Nature, is what happens next. Unlike other planets, Earth has a mechanism for dealing with excess CO2, called carbon sequestration. In short, it means the more CO2 there is in the atmosphere, the more CO2 gets taken up by the sequestration mechanisms. If you’ve ever taken 4th grade science, you will know that plants breathe in CO2, and breathe out oxygen. And if you’ve ever had a planted aquarium, you’ve seen this in action.</p>
<p>The more CO2 there is in the atmosphere, the warmer the world gets. The warmer the world gets, the more water is evaporated and comes down as rainfall, and the longer the growing season is in more polar regions. So with greater rainfall, longer growing seasons, and higher concentrations of CO2, we should expect to see massive plant growth in the coming decades. Once the mechanism is in place, the CO2 is brought back down to normal levels, the temperature drops (ice age), which kills off the excess plant life, and balance is restored.</p>
<p>Here’s where it gets weird.</p>
<p>What’s different today, is that unlike a singular, seismic event, we’re introducing atmospheric CO2 as a steady stream, in greater concentrations than ever before, by burning deposits that have been trapped underground for eons. Think about this: coal experts say we have a hundred-year supply of coal in the ground, easily. In other words, we will have released in less than a quarter of a millennia, the same amount of carbon that took billions of years for natural forces to sequester. According to ice core samples, CO2 levels have hit ranges of the upper 200s (ppm) during warm periods, down to the upper 100s in an ice age. Google “atmospheric CO2 levels” if you want to know where it’s at today.</p>
<p>The current supply is our production of CO2 from “carbon emissions.” What happens, then, when the supply is removed?</p>
<p>Like it or not, there is only so much oil and coal in the ground. Whether we have a twenty, thirty, or even a hundred-year supply of fossil fuels, we WILL run out. And when we run out, we will no longer be supplying this increase. But, the sequestration mechanism will still be there, meaning it’s going to take out all the CO2. And without the production to replace it, levels will simply drop.</p>
<p>A lot.</p>
<p>But of course, this is all a Chinese hoax.</p>
<p>Michael Patrick Lewis is a teacher, and bestselling author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Edge-God-Michael-Patrick-Lewis-ebook/dp/B016TSYNJA" type="external">Edge Of God</a>, and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Preferred-Rewards-Michael-Patrick-Lewis-ebook/dp/B00X43EPXI" type="external">Preferred Rewards</a>. He lives in a place that doesn’t want an ice age, so don’t bring your global warming here.</p>
<p /> | How Can Global Warming Cause an Ice Age? | false | http://natmonitor.com/2017/04/25/how-can-global-warming-cause-an-ice-age/ | 2017-04-25 | 3 |
<p>A Special Investigation by <a href="http://corpwatch.org/" type="external">CorpWatch</a></p>
<p>This was a war to transcend all wars ­ a war fought not for crass interests or crude motives, but for freedom and democracy. Or so we were told. Once this grand narrative was felled by reality, however, the story of its basic actors was twisted to meet new requirements: since it could not possibly be that the war aims were themselves corrupt, it must be the Iraqis ­ the supposed recipients of liberation, and the American soldiers ­ the deliverers of that liberation ­ who were flawed. This twist was to serve as punishment for those Iraqis who interpreted “freedom” to mean not only freedom from Saddam but freedom from US control, and as a smear job against those US soldiers who interpreted “defending the country” to mean something other than killing innocents and creating more hatred for America.</p>
<p>And so a new narrative was fleshed out by the administration and its sycophants: Iraqis are not so good after all; many of them are terrorists, dead-enders, and crazed murderers who need to be brought to heel or wiped out. Moreover, not all those Americans who signed up to defend their country are good, either: those who report atrocities, fight against illegal extension of their service, and reject a war based on lies are deemed cowards, criminals, and traitors.</p>
<p>As the struggle in Iraq intensifies, its bitter and revealing ironies rise like angry waves, pummeling the eroding promontory of the war’s many myths – foremost among them its very viability. Iraqis resisting occupation, soldiers exposing the brutalities that are fueling anti-occupation sentiment, and other Americans reluctantly being pressed into service to strengthen that occupation, are, in uneven, overlapping and contradictory ways, all victims of this war.</p>
<p>Consider the case of the case of Sergeant Frank Ford, a counterintelligence agent in the National Guard’s 223rd Military Intelligence division with 30 years of military service. He was witness to five incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqis in Samarra before he decided he could no longer stand by and do nothing. US Army counterintelligence agent David Debatto, who spoke with Ford, related his story thusly:</p>
<p>“He described multiple incidents of what he called ‘war crimes’ and ‘torture’ of Iraqi detainees in age from about 15 to 35. According to Ford, his teammates, three counterintelligence agents like himself ­ one of them a woman ­ systematically and repeatedly abused several Iraqi male detainees over a two to three week time period. Ford describes incidents of asphyxiation, mock executions, arms being pulled out of sockets, and lit cigarettes forced into detainee’s ears while they were blindfolded and bound.”</p>
<p>Ford, his anger apparent, also noted, “I guess one of the things that pisses me off most is the arroganceSome of the medics, too. Saying things like ‘So what, he’s just another haji,’ like they were scum or some kind of animal, really just pisses me off.”</p>
<p>So what happened when Ford brought the brutalities to the attention of his superior officer in June 2003? His immediate superior was himself involved in the abuse, and the one above him, when told of the allegations of war crimes by Ford, simply said chillingly, “Nope, that never happened. You’re delusional, you imagined the whole thing. And you’ve got 30 seconds to withdraw your complaint. If you do it, it will be as if this conversation never took place.” What happened next topped even this surreal Orwellian encounter: “[Ford was ordered] to report immediately to Captain Angela Madera, an Army psychiatrist, at the base mental-health facility for a ‘combat stress evaluation.'” When Madera evaluated Ford as having no mental health issues, the superior officer, according to another witness, was “just livid,” and berated and intimidated Madera into altering the report.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Ford was strapped down to a gurney and literally shipped out of Iraq illegally on the basis of non-existent mental problems – all because he had the courage to speak out against abuses he personally witnessed. His case is not unique: a military doctor charged with examining Ford in Germany (and who cleared him of any illness) noted “that he had treated ‘three of four’ other US soldiers from Iraq that were also sent to Landstuhl for psychological evaluationsafter they reported incidents” Another soldier who reported abuse, Julian Goodrum was “allegedly locked in a psychiatric ward as punishment for filing a complaint over the death of a soldier under his command;” he had also appeared before Congress to air grievances about the poor quality of medical care Reserve soldiers received. In another known case, Sergeant Samuel Provance of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade lost his security clearance and was shipped off to Germany after reporting abuses at Abu Ghraib. (1)</p>
<p>That Iraqis and other Arabs are being illegally abused, tortured, and killed on a systematic basis ­ and that the top levels of command are assiduously covering it up – is not in any doubt. A leaked letter from July 2004 sent by a senior Justice Department official to the Army’s leading criminal investigator reveals that FBI agents witnessed acts of torture and abuse committed against detainees at Guantanamo Bay in 2002, and reported them to the Pentagon ­ which proceeded to do nothing. “Harrington [the FBI counterterrorism expert who wrote the letter] said FBI officials complained about the pattern of abusive techniques to top Defense Department attorneys in January 2003, and it appeared that nothing was done.”</p>
<p>One of the incidents witnessed by an FBI agent was as follows: “Sergeant Lacey [a female] whispered in the ear of a handcuffed and shackled detainee, caressed him and applied lotion to his arms” This occurred during Ramadan ­ when sexual activity is forbidden for Muslims. But this was not about sex: “Later, the detainee appeared to grimace in pain, and the FBI agent asked a Marine who was present why. The Marine said [Lacey] had grabbed the detainee’s thumbs and bent them backward and also indicated that she also grabbed his genitals.”</p>
<p>The Marine also “implied that her treatment of that detainee was less harsh than her treatment of others by indicating that he had seen her treatment of other detainees result in detainees curling into a fetal position on the floor and crying in pain.” (2) It does not take much imagination to understand what was happening: Arab prisoners at Guantamo were having their testicles crushed by female military personnel.</p>
<p>Another classified report written around the same time recently (partially) released indicates similar horrors were imported into Iraq: “one of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s closest advisers learned of allegations that a clandestine military task force in Iraq was beating detainees, ordering Defense Intelligence Agency debriefers out of the room during questioning, confiscating evidence of the abuse and intimidating the debriefers when they complained.” The director of the DIA is the highest official in the administration known to complain of abuse, though the Bush administration “fought vigorously to keep the new documents from public view.” The two-page memo explains that a group named “Task Force 121” (now Task Force 6-26) hid “ghost detainees” in secret facilities and beat them up, including, as DIA agents noted, “punch[ing] a prisoner in the face to the point the individual needed medical attention,” and leaving burn and bruise marks all over detainees. (3)</p>
<p>Outside America’s new gulags, Iraqis still face the wrath of Bush’s freedom campaign. According to military prosecutors and several soldiers, in an August 28 raid in Sadr City, two “American soldiers shot to death two unarmed Iraqi men in their homes, then tried to cover up their crimes by claiming that the Iraqis had reached for guns.” Soldiers from the 41st Infantry Regiment, 1st Battallion who participated in the raid in which the civilian Iraqis were killed “said they immediately suspected that their two colleagues had murdered the Iraqi.” This followed another killing.</p>
<p>“The second killing occurred less than 30 minuters earlier, soldiers testified, when troops discovered an AK-47 rifle during a search of another house down the street.Williams ordered that the Iraqi man, who had been handcuffed and was being held on his knees in front of the house, be brought inside William cut off the plastic handcuffs, laid the rifle near the Iraqi and said aloud to other soldiers in the room, ‘I feel my life has been threatened.’ Williams then shot the man twice”</p>
<p>One of the testifying soldiers, Private first class Gary Romriell, who had to switch units after complaining about the murders said, “It was a real moral dilemma. On the one hand, my friends and associates were involved in the crimes. On the other hand, it was wrong.” Romriell rejected the perverse right-wing notion that the any act is moral so long as “our side” commits it. He rejected the logic of “my country, right or wrong” ­ as a citizen serving his country, he did what was right, and called out those citizens of his country who were wrong. (4)</p>
<p>Other soldiers have gone further. Former US Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey “said his unit killed more than 30 innocent Iraqi civilians” in testimony before a Canadian tribunal, which is deciding whether it will allow deserting paratrooper Jeremy Hinzman, formerly of the 82nd Airborne, to seek asylum in that country ­ and therefore avoid prosecution in the US. In support of Hinzman, Massey told the court, “I do know that we killed innocent civilians,” adding, “I was never clear on who was the enemy and who was not. When you don’t know who the enemy is, what are you doing there?” (5) Hinzman himself has said he began having doubts about the military when “I was walking to chow hall with my unit, and we were yelling, ‘Train to kill, kill we will,’ over and over again. I kind of snuck a peek around me and saw all my colleagues getting the red in the face and hoarse yelling ­ and at that point a light went off in my head and said, ‘You know, I made the wrong career decision.'” (6)</p>
<p>Hinzman is one of over 5,500 servicemen who have deserted the armed forces since the war in Iraq began. Many of these soldiers left the military not because they are cowards, but because they discovered that war was based on lies. Private first class Dan Felushko, 24, for instance, remarked, “I didn’t want, you know, ‘Died deluded in Iraq’ over my gravestone,” noting that he ­ along with every intelligence community around the world – saw no connection between September 11th and Hussein. One youngster from Texas who signed up for the Army two months before the war started said that at first, “I was supportive. I didn’t think to question.” But then, he did:</p>
<p>“I found out, basically, that they found no weapons of mass destructionand the claim that they made about ties to al Qaeda was coming up short, to say the least. It made me angry, because I felt our lives were being thrown away as soldiersmy image of my country always being the good guy, and always fighting for just causes, has been shattered” (7)</p>
<p>Only a handful of the deserters have actually fled to Canada. But those who desert during wartime and remain within the US military’s reach are usually thrown in jail for years. The full penalty under the law is execution.</p>
<p>When the war machine is not forcing Americans into morally compromising situations, transforming some into killers; when it is not actively intimidating and attacking those brave enough to speak out against atrocities; when it is not trying to hunt down and jail those who reject an illegal war, it still ensnares, grinds up, and spits out perfectly “patriotic” military personnel ­ and even Americans who aren’t supposed to be part of the military anymore. Official casualty statistics show that more than 1,230 American soldiers have died and more than 9,300 have been wounded in action. But this is misleading. A Pentagon letter recently disclosed that more than 15,000 troops with “non-battle” injuries and diseases have been evacuated from Iraq. These include injuries arising from “accidents,” as well as emotional and psychological trauma. According to a CBS report, only 20% of these 15,000 troops return to their units. (8)</p>
<p>Also misleading are the official non-fatality casualties: over half of them are serious enough to prevent a return to the war theater. Because more troops are being spared death from improved body and battle armor, more of those who survive suffer from severely crippling injuries. US troops injured in Iraq “have required limb amputations at twice the rate of past wars, and as many as 20 percent have suffered head and neck injuries that may require a lifetime of care.” A majority of casualties come not from bullet fire but IEDs, which retired US Army Surgeon G. Holt explained, are particularly vicious because, “The angle of the force of these IEDs is right for the neck and face.” (9)</p>
<p>What becomes of those military veterans who undergo amputation? The case of Army specialist Robert Loria is instructive. His arm ripped off by an IED while in Baqubah, Loria spent several months recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C., before being sent back to his base in Fort Hood, Texas. There, he was expecting to leave the Army with $4,486 in pay. But instead he received something else: an Army bill totaling $6,255.50 for medical care, an “erroneous” previous payment, and items in his possession that were blown up in the attack. Now he is $1,768.81 in debt and doesn’t even have enough money to return home. His wife was outraged: “They want us to sacrifice moreHis being blown up was supposed to be the worst thing, but it wasn’t. That the military doesn’t care was the worst.” (10)</p>
<p>While the Army is busy booting out some of its discarded material, it is equally busy trying to recycle others. It has called up 5,000 Americans from the Ready Reserve for two years of service, who “generally don’t train or get paid or belong to units, butcan be called up in case of war or national emergency.” The vast majority of them never dreamed they would be called up for duty: they served years ago and are tied to the military through an obscure clause relegated to the “remark section” of their contracts – and represented only in the form a six-digit reference to the actual clause itself ­ that requires them to resign their commissions to fully exit the service. Therefore people like Carey Trevino, a 31 year-old woman with three kids, including a baby boy, and Margaret Murray, a 4 foot 8 inch 55 year-old woman, and Rick Howell, a 47 year-old who is disabled at the knee from an injury suffered during his military career, are all being thrown onto the front lines. Howell, who said he would serve if he was restricted to carrying out duties in the United States and was refused that request, now says, “They’re going to have to come and get me. I mean literallyThey’ll have to drag me away and make me go.” (11)</p>
<p>The military’s resort to desperate and draconian measures should come as no surprise. Its forces in Iraq are overstretched, overextended, and unable to cope with battlefield requirements, a fact most military experts freely admit. A full 43% of the 138,000 troops deployed in Iraq ­ soon to be boosted to 150,000 ­ are part-timers. Many are trapped there under “stop-loss” orders extending their stay; one of the eight soldiers who recently sued the military for this tactic lost his court battle to prevent the Army from turning his one-year contract into a two-year (at least) ordeal. Still, soldiers are resisting lucrative bonuses designed to entice them into staying in the service. In fact, a recent army survey revealed that half the existing force was not planning to re-enlist at all. (12) No serious person can doubt, therefore, that a continuation of the war at this level will require full-blown military conscription. This war is a multi-layered disaster for an ever-expanding swath of Iraqis and Americans. The fundamental contradiction of war is that it can be based on lies, but it cannot be fought by liars. If people were willing to fight for lies, then they would not have to be lied to in the first place. Those American soldiers in the battlefield, like all Americans at home, were subjected to an intense propaganda barrage about the motives, aims, and goals of the war. They were deceived. But today, those soldiers are facing a barrage of an altogether different sort: that of an Iraqi insurgency whose very existence, success, and growth explodes all the official war claims.</p>
<p>The government believes that it can lie without consequence because, as one administration minion put it, such matters only concern “the reality-based community.” It must be conceded that is true. But it must also be conceded that those soldiers witnessing their friends and comrades dying and suffering around them, those troops aware of the horrific atrocities taking place, those families seeing their loved ones sent off without warning and return home without limbs, are leading members of “the reality-based community.” It is the duty of American anti-war activists to reach out to these people ­ as we have already begun to do ­ and end the war that is destroying America’s soul.</p>
<p>M. JUNAID ALAM is co-editor of the radical youth journal Left Hook ( <a href="http://www.lefthook.org/" type="external">http://www.lefthook.org</a>); he can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>Notes 1. “Whitewashing torture?” David DeBatto, Salon.com, December 8, 2004.</p>
<p>2. “FBI witnessed Guantanamo ‘abuse’.” The Associated Press, December 7, 2004.</p>
<p>3. “Report to Defense Alleged Abuse By Prison Interrogation Teams.” Barton Gellman and R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post. December 8, 2004.</p>
<p>4. “U.S. Military Prosecutors Allege Murder, Cover-Up.” By Edmund Sanders, LA Times, December 6, 2004.</p>
<p>5. “U.S. Marine claims unit killed Iraqi civilians.” ABC News, December 8, 2004.</p>
<p>6. “Deserters: We Won’t Go To Iraq.” CBS News, December 8, 2004.</p>
<p>7. See note 6.</p>
<p>8. “Press Routinely Undercounts U.S. Casualties in Iraq.” E &amp;P Staff, November 25, 2004.</p>
<p>9. “Amputation rate for US troops twice that of past wars.” By Raja Mishra, Boston Globe, December 9, 2004.</p>
<p>10. “He lost an arm in Iraq; the Army wants money.” By Dianna Cahn, Times Herald-Record, December 10, 2004.</p>
<p>11. “Old Soldiers Back on Duty.” CBS News. December 5, 2004.</p>
<p>12. “U.S. Army Plagued by Desertion and Plunging Morale.” By Elaine Monaghan, The Times U.K., December 10, 2004.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | The War is the War Crime | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/12/13/the-war-is-the-war-crime/ | 2004-12-13 | 4 |
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<p>Welcome to OnSale at FOXBusiness, where we look at cool deals and insane bargains. Best Buy is offering great deals on iPhone, and you can take your iPhone savings and accessorize the device with a case from Evouni. A last-minute hotel booking service now lets you gift a stay or two. Borrow books from friends, no matter what E-reading device you have, with this new cloud-based library. And&#160;before you take your holiday road trip you’ll want to download this app.iPhone DiscountBest Buy (NYSE:BBY) has some great savings on iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. The company is discounting the devices by $50 when you sign up for a 2-year contract. The offer is good for 16GB and 32GB models. Shipping is free through January 2, 2013. Best Buy is also promising a price match guarantee on qualifying products. If you find something at a competing retailer for less, and the item has a Low Price Guarantee badge at <a href="http://www.bestbuy.com" type="external">BestBuy.com Opens a New Window.</a> you can save the URL or print the offer and call the company or take it to your local Best Buy.&#160; If you decide to give an iPhone as a gift this year, you may want to check out this <a href="http://www.ahalife.com/product/2591/leather-iphone-stand-pouch/" type="external">great iPhone case Opens a New Window.</a>&#160; from Evouni. The leather case doubles as a holder so you can prop it up on your desk, vertically or horizontally. It comes in orange, blue, green and black and is priced at $60. Give HotelTonight <a href="http://www.hoteltonight.com" type="external">HotelTonight Opens a New Window.</a> now lets you give the gift of last-minute hotel deals. The service, which helps you find nearby unsold hotel rooms at rock-bottom prices, offers HT Credits in $25, $50, $100 and $250 increments. It's the perfect gift for your friends who are prone to spontaneous travel plans. And it's easy to access HotelTonight's discounts anywhere, anytime with the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/id407690035?mt=8" type="external">app for iPhone Opens a New Window.</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hoteltonight.android.prod&amp;referrer=utm_campaign%3Dapp.net%26utm_medium%3Dapp.net%26utm_source%3Dapp.net" type="external">Android Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>Know of a killer deal or insane bargain? Email the goods to [email protected], or follow us on Twitter&#160; <a href="http://www.twitter.com/OnSale_FOXBiz" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/OnSale_FOXBiz Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;and share the wealth.&#160;</p> | iPhone Discounts and an App for Roadtrips | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/12/12/on-sale-consumer-deals-websites-new-products-holiday-shopping-bargain.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>For just the second time in the last six years, President Barack Obama’s administration has released an on-time budget.</p>
<p>Although the presidential budget is merely a proposal, and will differ dramatically from what Congress puts forward, its punctuality is important because it sets the process in motion. After the president submits his proposal, Congress is legally obligated to follow a timeline that helps ensure the whole operation runs correctly. This includes holding hearings, developing budget resolutions, agreeing to a concurrent budget between chambers, following the&#160;appropriations&#160;process, etc.</p>
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<p>Simply put, it’s a lengthy process.</p>
<p>And although the budget process is lengthy by nature, it has become increasingly contentious in recent years. Avoiding unnecessary upfront delays therefore helps to mitigate against the ‘governing crisis to crisis’ approach that has become commonplace in this dysfunctional era.</p>
<p>When Congress fails to pass spending bills on time, it relies on temporary spending measures called continuing resolutions – which provide the money federal agencies need to operate based roughly on what they spent the previous year.</p>
<p>This stop-and-go budgeting creates havoc for government agencies and the citizens who depend on them.</p>
<p>As No Labels put forward in our&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Make Government Work!</a>&#160;legislative&#160;package of bipartisan reforms, on-time budgets are imperative to the fiscal health of our nation.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Importance of an On-Time Budget | false | https://nolabels.org/blog/the-importance-of-an-on-time-budget/ | 2015-02-03 | 2 |
<p>The blame game surrounding Gaza’s current political and social crisis is too unilateral and simplistic. In the public sphere responsibility for the instability of Gaza and the general Palestinian political malaise is placed either on Fatah’s corruption in leadership or on Hamas’ violent tendencies while seizing control of the Gaza Strip and during its consequent rule. Such a stance is feeding into the dichotomous derision of the rival Palestinian parties’ rhetoric. Both Hamas and Fatah must bare responsibility for their action and inaction. Meanwhile, unless the International Community pressures Israel to put an end to human rights abuses carried out against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank the milieu for any compromise between Hamas and Fatah remains unattainable.</p>
<p>In mid-June of this year Hamas carried out a military takeover of the Gaza Strip that, although ruthless and shocking to many Gazans, can be argued to have been justified in political terms. Fatah, the sole representative of the Palestinian people since taking the helm of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in the late 60s had long gone too far; its time of reckoning had come.</p>
<p>After Arafat conceded to the recognition of Israel at Oslo, the PLO’s official framework shifted from one of Palestinian “liberation” through resistance to the acceptance of the status quo. It is hard to say if a dim glimmer of hope of ending the crisis or an uncontrollable desire for quick fix legitimacy caused the change of heart. What is certain is that the hope for any change of the conflict turned out to be nonexistent.</p>
<p>In exchange for the PLO’s transformation aid money poured in, a reward for consent or acquiescence. In a non-state some form of state institutionalization began to take place. Eventually this cash cow, requiring rare accountability, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Arafat and his compatriots transformed from leaders of a resistance to fat cats, became owners of fancy homes, factories and companies with the help of monies meant to relieve and somehow compensate Palestinian suffering. In the 70s Palestinian almost meant Fathawi. But over the course of the next 30 years disillusionment set in and the call for change grew increasingly.</p>
<p>While Fatah officials pocketed the cream of Palestinian aid, Hamas tended to the population’s growing needs and gained a following. Elections in early 2006 were the litmus test. To the world’s surprise, or so it seemed, Hamas, having finally entered the democratic process, ended up victorious in parliamentary elections. After forming a democratically elected government a test of another kind followed. The Palestinians had crossed the ‘democracy’ hurdle, a Western, modern requirement for a more integrated Middle East, yet the world would not recognize the results of the elections they had so vehemently called for. And here lies really the crux of the matter. It seems the inventors of a game can also change its rules, and the Palestinians have had to pay dearly for rejecting acquiescence, this time round to the evolving rules of democracy.</p>
<p>Following elections Fatah rejected entering into a coalition with Hamas. Instead they claimed that they would hand over the reigns of power, cede all responsibility to their rivals in order to reform their ailing party. Contrary to such statements, police, border guards and security forces remained under Fatah control. Further steps were taken to undermine the elected Hamas leadership.</p>
<p>Meanwhile with the boycott of the newly elected government donor funds were frozen, pulling the carpet out from beneath the Palestinian Authority structure. Government employees making up a third of Gaza’s workforce, who were largely Fatah affiliated, the party being the source of their paychecks, acted as a potentially defiant force against Hamas. Fatah continued to control the streets, prisons and borders, and more importantly quietly began covert efforts at organized chaos and violence in order to undermine Hamas’ rule in the Gaza Strip. The popular symbol of such efforts was Fatah activist Sameech Al-Madhoun, who lead an initiative to increase tension with Hamas in the Northern Gaza Strip by kidnapping and torturing its members and instigating a fierce rivalry. The brains of the operation was Mohamed Dahlan, a close advisor to Mahmoud Abbas and prior to June 14th the Fatah street’s future presidential hopeful.</p>
<p>June 10th marked a turning point; Hamas had had enough with policies to rid them of their legitimate control of Gaza. The so called Hamas takeover saw relatively limited blood shed, although accounts of torture were reported, they were not unlike those experienced by Hamas’ members throughout Fatah’s reign. Violence of this kind cannot be excused. Violence breeds violence and in this case it is the oppressive Israeli presence in the Palestinian midst for more than half a century that clearly served as its inspiration. Hamas’ political entitlement was mixed with an often blinding religious determination.</p>
<p>Hamas’ new-gained control changed the atmosphere of Gaza. Suddenly, it was safe to go out at night, no random assassinations took place, robberies were almost unheard of, Fatah and Hamas rivalries dissipated and inter-familial feuds began too be settled with words rather than weapons. The downside was the ever-increasing siege on Gaza, this entailed every sector, effecting every woman, man and child, both those celebrating their liberation from Fatah’s political failure and corruption and those living in fear of the new Hamas rulers. The one improvement lay in the fact that aid began pouring in to the new rather dubious and un-democratic government in the West Bank. Government employees swearing allegiance to this unrepresentative government receive their paycheck to this day under the condition they do not work. Within weeks of Hamas’ “liberation” of Gaza 65% of remaining local factories and businesses were forced shut because of the closure on vital imports. Chocolate wafers could not be manufactured without imported cocoa.</p>
<p>Bit by bit, the Gaza Strip has been bursting at the seams. When Fatah members decided to attend prayers beyond the confines of Hamas-run mosques they were brutally hindered by Hamas security. Fatah members, who uttered too fierce of criticisms during demonstrations in opposition of the overseeing Hamas security forces, were singled out and later confronted and often physically abused. Hamas cried wolf, pointing the finger at foul play by Fatah in the West Bank trying to disrupt the unity and peace of Gaza. On Sunday October 7th Rami Ayyad, director of a Christian bookstore was kidnapped and killed by unknown assailants. Promises were made but the gravity of the act was never addressed. Historically Gaza has demonstrated excellent Muslim-Christian relations; an apolitical Christian member of Gaza’s civil society had never before been kidnapped and murdered. Raji Sourani of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights told the Independent, “this ugly act has no support by any religious group here,” in a sense echoing Hamas officials who again blamed outside forces seeking to strain Christian-Muslim relations in the Gaza Strip but taking no responsibility to tackle the growing malaise in their society.</p>
<p>In light of the gravity of Gaza’s situation there is much temptation to fall into a logically fallacious line of reasoning. The extent of Fatah’s corruption and misgovernment cannot justify the wrongdoings or incapability of Hamas, nor the undoing of Gaza’s society even when taking into account the vast odds placed against the ruling party.</p>
<p>The Hamas-Fatah blame game is in itself a slippery slope, which neglects the core of the issue. Gaza’s society has reached an unprecedented ethical valley. The kidnapping and killing of an innocent member of society would have been unacceptable and barely believable in Gaza just 20 years ago. Although Rami’s case is unique, today, sadly, political acts of violence for the sake of revenge are a common occurrence in Gaza. Is not this development really the heart of the matter? What has lead to the decay of a society, in recent history not much different than the communities along the Nile delta, the desert of Jordan or the coast of Syria? The disease of violence is a phenomenon widespread in Gaza today and rather than merely addressing the fruit and pointing the finger at the perpetrator of an act of violence, at the political party in control or vying for power, we must look beneath the surface at the social reality of the Gaza Strip. What can be expected of a 365km2 enclave with closed borders, insufficient resources to survive, a vibrant, growing population without enough work opportunities or future prospects of any sort? Has the world utterly lost its conscience or are we merely lead astray by an array of commentators with no grasp of history and a shallow either/ or capacity for reasoning?</p>
<p>Overarching political debates rarely take into account the common person whose reality it is addressing; the Hamas mother of seven who is not able to feed her children, The Fatah taxi driver beat down in his place of prayer, the wife of a murdered Palestinian Christian left in mourning. We must step out of the framework of political monologues and measure the wrongs carried out by all parties. Fatah’s critics need to also hold Hamas accountable for its shortcomings in Gaza, despite the deep-rooted extent of Fatah’s wrongdoing.</p>
<p>PHILIP RIZK is an Egyptian-German who lived in Gaza from 2005 to August 2007. Philip runs a blog: <a href="http://www.tabulagaza.com/" type="external">tabulagaza.com</a> and can be emailed at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Blame Game in Gaza | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/11/10/the-blame-game-in-gaza/ | 2007-11-10 | 4 |
<p>Officials who blocked the construction of a proposed mosque in Bernards Township, New Jersey disparaged Muslims and Islam in private emails, according to court documents filed by lawyers for the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge (ISBR).</p>
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<p>Members of the township committee and planning board called the mosque’s president a “fool,” mocked President Barack Obama as a “Muslim” “man child,” and erroneously said that Islam allows its adherents to “lie for the sake of their religion,” according to excerpts from online diaries and emails sent on their personal accounts. The documents were included in a 77-page court filing submitted Dec. 9 and first <a href="http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2016/12/islamic_society_lawsuit_basking_ridge_muslims.html" type="external">highlighted by NJ.com</a>.</p>
<p>The ISBR <a href="" type="internal">sued</a> Bernards Township and 15 township officials in March, alleging that they used increasingly esoteric land use issues as an excuse to block construction of the mosque. The suit alleged the township’s stated concerns about parking and stormwater management were just a mask for Islamophobic sentiment. The U.S. Justice Department agreed, <a href="http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2016/11/justice_dept_files_suit_against_town_over_mosque_d.html" type="external">filing its own lawsuit</a> against Bernards Township in November.</p>
<p>“Township officials kept moving the goalposts by using ever-changing local requirements to effectively deny this religious community the same access as other faiths,” U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Paul J. Fishman said when the DOJ suit was announced.</p>
<p>The ISBR’s lawyers requested in the filing that the township search officials’ personal emails and social media accounts for evidence that they blocked the ISBR’s request intentionally or harbored negative feelings towards Islam.</p>
<p>In a personal online diary entry cited in the filing, an unnamed planning board staffer wrote, “Yes, this application was treated differently.” In the same entry, the staffer cited incidents of the ISBR receiving unequal treatment before the planning board in regards to purported fire safety concerns.</p>
<p>The staffer also wrote that local officials made “discriminatory comments” about Muslims, including a remark by an unnamed township fire official that “they are allowed to lie for the sake of their religion.”</p>
<p>Emails cited in the filing show township committee and planning board members used their personal accounts to discuss how to keep ISBR president Mohammad Chaudry, a former Bernards Township mayor, from participating in a 9/11 memorial ceremony.</p>
<p>“Let’s work on something to freeze him out or be plain about why he is an unacceptable participant and [fi]nd a real moderate Muslim. There must be one,” township committee member John Carpenter wrote to other officials in one email chain. “We shouldn’t look the other way on his views – we owe that to our dead residents. Let’s make it happen without that fool.”</p>
<p>ISBR lawyers said in the filing that the township had previously denied that many of these documents existed, and that they only obtained copies of the documents after asking for all of the documents that the township had provided to DOJ.</p>
<p>In an email to NJ.com, the township’s current mayor, Carol Bianchi, wrote that she would not “join plaintiffs in their constant attempts to try this case in the media” and instead allow attorneys to review the documents themselves.</p>
<p>Bianchi was not mayor during the four-year dispute over the mosque’s construction, but was on the planning board at that time and is named as a defendant in the ISBR suit.</p>
<p>The Islamic center first sought approval for a mosque in Bernards Township in 2012. After years of working with the town to address various parking, traffic and buffer zone issues—and after a loud, often xenophobic campaign by residents against the mosque—the group’s application was unanimously denied in 2015.</p>
<p>Read the filing and the relevant electronic exchanges below:</p>
<p /> | NJ Town Officials Who Blocked Mosque Allegedly Disparaged Muslims In Emails | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/new-jersey-town-officials-who-blocked-mosque-disparaged-muslims-private-emails | 4 |
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<p>The latest hurdle in crafting a health care reform bill is figuring out how to prevent employers and employees from leaving their traditional employer-based health care coverage in favor of a government plan, which would dramatically increase costs.</p>
<p>“That’s the question — what’s fair?” said Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which held meetings with members again Wednesday. “That’s not resolved yet.”</p>
<p>One of the chief criticisms of the public option is that employers would dump their pricey health coverage if their employees would be able to easily get on the government plan. But that would break one of President Obama’s chief pledges - that people who like their current health insurance program can keep it - and drive up the taxpayer tab.</p>
<p>To prevent that, employees may be banned from joining the government option if they have access to employer coverage or employers may face tax penalties if they don’t offer coverage. The Senate Finance Committee debated much of this aspect of the bill Wednesday during its multiple meetings.</p>
<p>Mr. Obama, meanwhile, took his health care pitch to the states and the public Wednesday with a news conference with governors and a town hall discussion about health care on network television.</p>
<p>The House Democrats’ bill, which was debated in hearings this week, would require employers to pay a penalty of 8 percent of payroll if they don’t provide coverage. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the chief business lobby, has opposed the penalty and other costs that would burden business.</p>
<p>The Congressional Budget Office, in its report on a separate Senate bill out of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, found that 15 million people would leave employer coverage if a public plan was established.</p>
<p>White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday there have been questions to the White House about the number of so-called “free rider” employers.</p>
<p>“I don’t know which specific bill has these firewalls in them, but in some of the pieces of legislation, there are mechanisms that prevent an individual from - prevent an employer from doing this and prevent an individual from - that already has insurance from declining their employer-based insurance in order to go onto a public option,” he said.</p>
<p>He said health exchanges - the place were consumers can go to choose between the public option or private insurers - would be set up “to deal with those that either don’t have access to a health insurance plan as part of their employer or have found that, on the individual market, it’s far too complicated and far too expensive.”</p>
<p>Employers also could face other costs if the proposal to cap the tax break on employer-provided benefits is included in a final bill.</p>
<p>Sen. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat and member of the Finance Committee, told reporters that the committee plans to include the cap in the bill as one of the ways to reduce the total price of the bill from $1.6 trillion to $1.2 trillion, but he declined to identify the amount of the cap. A committee spokeswoman later said that the exclusion was not set in stone.</p>
<p>Mr. Conrad’s plan for a co-op has gained momentum as negotiations continued, he said.</p>
<p>Republicans say they are open to the idea.</p>
<p>“We’re working on more competition through what we call a co-op plan,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, ranking Republican on the committee. “And this is something that we think we can get bipartisan support for. Where there’s no bipartisan support for the public option as it came out of the White House or that it’s in the health bill as an example, the [Health, Education, Labor and Pensions] Committee bill.”</p>
<p>Other Republicans, such as Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, say they want to hear more about it first.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2009/jun/25/lawmakers-consider-health-care-free-riders/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Lawmakers debate health ‘public option’ | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/25/lawmakers-consider-health-care-free-riders/ | 2009-06-25 | 0 |
<p>There’s the usual lying that every single politician who’s ever lived does to try to get elected, then there’s the type of lying that Donald Trump does. By that I mean, Trump doesn’t just lie – he <a href="" type="internal">basically makes up entire alternate realities</a> that lack any regard or concern for being remotely factual. Watching his speeches, it really does seem like something pops into his head and he’ll just state it as fact without a care in the world for whether or not it’s true. From&#160;outrageous unemployment numbers&#160; <a href="" type="internal">to ludicrous lies about 9/11</a>, facts really don’t matter to Trump or <a href="" type="internal">those who support him</a>.</p>
<p>So it should come as no surprise that when he tried to compare his dismal polling numbers against Hillary Clinton to Ronald Reagan’s numbers in 1980 against Jimmy Carter, he was completely full of crap.</p>
<p>This week at a campaign rally, Trump’s exact words were:</p>
<p>“My numbers are better right now than Ronald Reagan’s numbers were with Jimmy Carter.”</p>
<p>That’s not a massive statement or lie, is it? Well, I would argue otherwise. You see, Trump’s campaign has been largely predicated on him bragging about his polling numbers. He obviously&#160;pays attention to as many polls as he can and places a lot of importance on these results. So he’s clearly aware that in basically every head-to-head poll, he loses to Hillary Clinton and his “favorability rating” is abysmal.</p>
<p>Trying to compare himself to Reagan is just Trump’s sad attempt to try to link his campaign to a Republican party icon.</p>
<p>Though as <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/apr/14/donald-trump/donald-trump-wrong-about-1980-ronald-reagan-race-a/" type="external">Politifact noted</a>, Trump’s numbers are&#160;much&#160;worse than Reagan’s were:</p>
<p>Trump said, “My numbers are better right now than Ronald Reagan’s numbers were with Jimmy Carter. … Ronald Reagan had a 30 (percent) favorability and he was behind Jimmy Carter by so much everybody said, ‘Oh this is going to be a disaster.’ ”</p>
<p>We found that Trump’s deficit against Clinton during March and April 2016 was twice the size of Reagan’s deficit against Carter in March and April 1980. We also found that Trump’s favorable/unfavorable ratings are much worse than Reagan’s were during that same period. We rate his claim False.</p>
<p>Not only is he currently trailing Clinton by twice as much as Reagan trailed Carter, but his favorable/unfavorable numbers are far worse than Reagan’s around the same time during his campaign in 1980. Another way to put it is, absolutely nothing about what Trump said was even remotely true.</p>
<p>Then again, <a href="" type="internal">practically&#160;nothing Trump says is true</a>. This is par for the course for Trump. In the 126 comments Politifact has investigated as of writing this, a grand total of&#160;three&#160;have been rated as “True” and&#160;seven&#160;as “Mostly True.” Meanwhile, 96 of his statements have been rated as Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire – that’s 76 percent.</p>
<p>It really is a testament to the absurdity of the modern-day Republican party that a candidate <a href="" type="internal">who lies as much as Donald Trump does</a> has managed to become such an overwhelming frontrunner for the party’s presidential nomination.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Fantastic New Study Exposes Stunning Reality of How Much More Dishonest Trump is Than Clinton</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Donald Trump's Note of Encouragement After Massacre: At Least My Numbers Will Go Up</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Here's the Real Reason Why Petulant Child Donald Trump is Already Whining About the Debates</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p> | Fact Checking Site Rips Apart Donald Trump’s Sad Attempt to Compare Himself to Ronald Reagan | true | http://forwardprogressives.com/fact-checking-site-rips-apart-donald-trumps-lie-trying-to-compare-himself-to-ronald-reagan/ | 2016-04-15 | 4 |
<p>White House photo/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/3484010807/"&gt;Pete Souza&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href="http://www.usa.gov/copyright.shtml"&gt;Government Work&lt;/a&gt;).</p>
<p>Bills change a lot on the way to becoming a law. Their contents change as members of the House and Senate push pet provisions. They get longer (or shorter) and more (or less) expensive. Even their names change. Sometimes, that can lead to mistakes. Take House Resolution (HR) 1586, a bill originally intended to modernize the air traffic control system (and reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration). In August, the Senate gutted the bill&#160;and used the HR number as a vehicle to provide money to save teacher jobs and Medicaid aid for the states.&#160;There’s just one problem: somewhere along the way, the bill lost its name. That’s right: the teacher jobs bill (as passed by the House and the Senate and enrolled for the president to sign) is called the “XXXXXXAct ofXXXX.” And they didn’t just make the mistake once. They made it twice. There are two substitute amendments to the bill with blank-blankety-blankety-blank names.&#160;</p>
<p>Sure, the important thing is that states got money to save teacher jobs and close budget gaps. But it’s still funny that Congress doesn’t even bother to name its bills anymore. And no one seems to care. After all, this isn’t a secret. It’s in the congressional record. It’s possible that a change was made after the bill was passed and sent to the president (a procedure known as an “enrollment correction”). I’ve asked the Government Printing Office for a copy of the bill signed by the president to see if that happened. But if that wasn’t done, the president himself had to have seen the funny name when he signed the bill on August 10. It’s right at the top:</p>
<p>SHORT TITLE</p>
<p>Section 1. This Act may be cited as the `XXXXXXAct ofXXXX’.</p>
<p>Here’s a screengrab:</p>
<p />
<p>Check all this out for yourself in THOMAS, the Library of Congress’ congressional database. Here’s <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:HR01586:@@@R" type="external">the timeline</a>. Here’s t <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1586:" type="external">he list of versions of the bill</a>. And here’s <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:7:./temp/~c111ff6usF:e0:" type="external">the bill itself</a>, as passed by the House and Senate and enrolled for the President’s signature. Read it and weep.</p> | Behold: The (Blank) Act of (Blankety-Blankety-Blank-Blank) | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/08/behold-blank-act-blankety-blankety-blank-blank/ | 2010-08-23 | 4 |
<p />
<p>If the Senate does not pass a cap and trade bill this year—a prospect that seems <a href="http://climateprogress.org/2009/08/31/breaking-boxer-and-kerry-to-delay-climate-bill/" type="external">increasingly likely</a>—the Obama administration may start pressuring legislators by moving to regulate CO2 itself.</p>
<p>Yesterday, as leading Senate Democrats announced they were putting off introducing a cap and trade bill, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson let it be known that her agency would probably classify CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act “ <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/31/MNM219GIJD.DTL" type="external">in the next months</a>,” triggering her ability to regulate it without approval from Congress. The so-called “ <a href="" type="internal">endangerment finding</a>,”&#160;long sought by environmentalists, was announced in April but has yet to be formalized. It would hypothetically allow the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases much as it does other forms of air pollution, by capping point-source emissions and fining polluters.</p>
<p>Jackson and President Obama have said that they prefer letting Congress regulate greenhouse gas emissions instead of doing it through the executive branch, a process that might prove more cumbersome and disruptive to the economy. Still, with conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans under intense pressure to block or water down the bill, Obama might gain a strategic edge by getting more specific about how he’d tackle the issue if they don’t. That could in turn give some legislators political cover, allowing them to tell their corporate overseers and conservative constituents that voting for the bill was in their “best interests”—a way of averting something even stricter. (Indeed, even the hint of the threat has already swayed one prominent Republican, <a href="http://www.grist.org/article/2009-08-31-could-waxman-and-markey-have-used-the-epa-threat-effectively/" type="external">Grist notes</a>).</p>
<p>Would that approach mean much bigger political risks for Obama? Of course. But it might be worth it: By 2012, when Americans realize that their electric bills haven’t skyrocketed, gas <a href="" type="internal">doesn’t cost $4 a gallon</a>, and coal miners are still employed, Obama’s stance on global warming might be old news, or even a plus at the ballot box.</p>
<p /> | Wielding Stick on Climate, EPA Reminds it Could Regulate CO2 Itself | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/wielding-stick-climate-epa-moves-ahead-regulating-co2-itself/ | 2009-09-01 | 4 |
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<p>Jack didn’t mean to, of course. Dogs aren’t wired to bite the hand that feeds them or break the heart that loves them. But four years ago while on a hunting trip around Corona, Jack, a big blue and white pit bull, disappeared. He was too loyal to have run away, too big to have fallen prey to wilder creatures.</p>
<p>For four months, Derek Dennisson and his mother, Lisa McDargh Dennisson, both of McIntosh, searched for his four-legged best friend.</p>
<p>“Derek was just so broken up with the loss,” his mother said. “Jack was his constant companion, his buddy.”</p>
<p />
<p>And then after those four awful months, Jack came home. A woman said she recognized Jack from a photo the Dennissons had posted in the Journal classifieds as the dog her daughter had bought for $20 from a group of woodcutters in Carrizozo, 45 miles south of where Jack has last been seen.</p>
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<p>Dennisson, a 30-year-old oil rig supervisor, and Jack had a good couple of years after that before a spinal disease took the loyal, lumbering dog away for good and Dennisson’s heart was broken anew.</p>
<p>“He told me he couldn’t go through that again,” McDargh Dennisson said. “My son is single, never been married. His dog was his family.”</p>
<p>Dog folks understand that.</p>
<p>But then came Tank.</p>
<p>The chubby black pit bull puppy with the honey-gold eyes was just too irresistible.</p>
<p>Dog folks understand that, too.</p>
<p>And so, love bloomed again in the hearts of a man and a dog. For nearly two years, they were inseparable, at least whenever the man’s job didn’t take him overseas. The chubby little pup was well-named, growing into a handsome 86-pound gentle giant, with thick muscles, a broad neck, floppy ears, a swath of white on his chest and an overbite that made him look more vicious than he could ever be.</p>
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<p>“Everybody knew Derek and Tank,” McDargh Dennisson said. “Derek took Tank everywhere in his pickup.”</p>
<p>This photo of Tank looking out the window waiting for his man to come home was taken four days before the dog disappeared Feb. 16. (Courtesy of Lisa McDargh Dennisson)</p>
<p>When Dennisson left for monthlong oil rig jobs, Tank stayed with McDargh Dennisson, who lived just across the road on a 20-acre spread two miles off N.M. 41, the highway that slices through rural, ranch-y McIntosh. While the big dog loved her, too – following her from room to room, sleeping beside her bed at night – it was obvious that he had but one true love.</p>
<p>“He’d stare out the window looking out toward Derek’s place and just wait,” she said.</p>
<p>Last month, McDargh Dennisson snapped a photo of the pining Tank and emailed it to her son, working in Dubai.</p>
<p>“Your son is missing you,” she wrote.</p>
<p>On the morning of Feb. 16, she ran an errand at the local post office, leaving Tank in the yard and the gate closed but unlocked because she planned to be gone so briefly. She was gone about 10 minutes.</p>
<p>It was enough time for Tank to disappear.</p>
<p>Tire tracks in the mud near the gate appear to show where an unknown vehicle heading south slammed on the brakes, backed up, veered around, then headed back toward the south.</p>
<p>Tank, she knew, would never leave on his own. She is convinced someone took him.</p>
<p>It took her a day before she could bring herself to tell her son. She knew she would be breaking her son’s heart again. And that broke hers.</p>
<p>“That was the hardest email I’ve had to write,” she said.</p>
<p>She has continued the search for Tank for a month now, contacting law enforcement, shelters, the media and East Mountain Pet Alert, a nonprofit website that sends out emails to hundreds of members about missing pets.</p>
<p>She drives the countryside and plasters posters of Tank anywhere she can, though curiously, she notes, the ones at the McIntosh post office have repeatedly disappeared.</p>
<p>Derek Dennisson got Tank when he was 5 weeks old, and the two soon became inseparable. (Courtesy of Lisa McDargh Dennisson)</p>
<p>She has heard from eight other bereaved pet owners in the area who say their pit bulls have also disappeared. Joyce Lewis, who runs East Mountain Pet Alert, said she has noticed an uptick in missing dogs in the McIntosh/Estancia area as well. Since July 2014, 10 dogs of all breeds have vanished – and those are just the dogs reported to her.</p>
<p>About a dozen dogs, many of them pit bulls, have been stolen in the Albuquerque area in the past two months, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office. Dogs are also being plucked from their homes in the East Mountains, Valencia County, Torrance County and Edgewood, according to the Bernalillo County Animal Cruelty Task Force.</p>
<p>Authorities believe the dogs are being stolen to use either as fighting dogs or as bait during training. Both are terrible, deadly fates. Last weekend, a miniature schnauzer stolen from a home in Rio Rancho was recovered from a dogfighting ring, thanks to its microchip. But the tiny dog was so badly mauled it did not survive.</p>
<p>The thought keeps McDargh Dennisson up at night. Her son is due to return to McIntosh at the end of this month.</p>
<p>“He is dreading coming home now,” she said. “He’s afraid his buddy won’t be here to greet him.”</p>
<p>What she hopes is that because Tank is neutered and nonaggressive he will not be attractive to those who fight dogs. She hopes Tank is being cared for by someone who does not realize he belongs to another. She hopes that her son’s heart will not be broken again and that when he returns he will not be the one staring out the window, waiting.</p>
<p>UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jolinegkg" type="external">@jolinegkg</a>. Go to <a href="" type="internal">ABQjournal.com/letters/new</a> to submit a letter to the editor.</p>
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<p /> | Hoping for best friend’s return | false | https://abqjournal.com/557075/hoping-for-best-friends-return.html | 2 |
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<p>Published time: 2 Sep, 2017 16:19</p>
<p>Nanotechnology could soon be used to directly combat disease within the human body – a breakthrough that promises revolutionary new treatments for the most deadly forms of cancer.</p>
<p>The study, published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v548/n7669/full/nature23657.html?sf110574769=1&amp;foxtrotcallback=true" type="external">Nature</a>, outlines how an international team of researchers from Rice, Durham, and North Carolina State universities worked together to test single-molecule nanomachines, a collection of rotor-propelled microbots capable of easily tunneling through the membranes of targeted cells to administer drugs.</p>
<p>In one test conducted at Durham University in the UK, the nanomachines took as little as three minutes to tunnel through the wall of a prostate cancer cell. The machine killed the cancer cell instantly.</p>
<p>Durham’s Dr. Robert Pal, a leader of the study and Royal Society University Research Fellow, <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/research/news/item/?itemno=32185" type="external">believes</a> the machines could be used to treat a range of cancers, including those most resistant to treatment.</p>
<p>He said: “We are moving towards realizing our ambition to be able to use light-activated nanomachines to target cancer cells such as those in breast tumors and skin melanomas, including those that are resistant to existing chemotherapy.”</p>
<p>“Once developed, this approach could provide a potential step change in noninvasive cancer treatment and greatly improve survival rates and patient welfare globally,” he added.</p>
<p>The nanomachines must spin at a rate of three million times per second in order to propel themselves through the body and overcome Brownian motion, the erratic movement of microscopic particles in the bloodstream.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.rice.edu/2017/08/30/motorized-molecules-drill-through-cells/" type="external">Rice University</a> chemist James Tour put into perspective the the size of the technology as well as the advanced level of technology contained within the microscopic machines. &#160;</p>
<p>“These nanomachines are so small that we could park 50,000 of them across the diameter of a human hair, yet they have the targeting and actuating components combined in that diminutive package to make molecular machines a reality for treating disease,” Tour said.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/401108-breast-implants-cause-cancer/" type="external">READ MORE: Surge in Australian breast cancer cases linked to cheap breast implants</a></p>
<p>The research is continuing, with teams carrying out experiments on microorganisms and fish. If successful, the researchers hope to move on to testing on rodents.</p>
<p>“The hope is to move this swiftly to rodents to test the efficacy of nanomachines for a wide range of medicinal therapies,” Tour added.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> | Motorized nanobots could fight deadly cancers inside the body – study (VIDEO) | false | https://newsline.com/motorized-nanobots-could-fight-deadly-cancers-inside-the-body-study-video/ | 2017-09-02 | 1 |
<p>A huge media contingent waits outside the Miami Beach Police Department for the transfer of singer Justin Bieber. Bieber is to be transported to the Miami Dade county jail facility later today.</p>
<p>Bieber was arrested early Thursday morning while allegedly drag racing in a rented Lamborghini. Police say he will be formally charged with DUI, resisting arrest, and driving with an expired license.</p> | Huge Media Contingent Awaiting Transfer of Justin Bieber | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/bieber-bust/huge-media-contingent-awaiting-transfer-justin-bieber-n15021 | 2014-01-24 | 3 |
<p>HONG KONG (Reuters) – A lack of space for cemeteries in crowded Hong Kong clashes with the age-old Chinese tradition of reverence for one’s ancestors.</p>
<p>But one entrepreneur uses virtual reality software to reconcile the two, allowing people to honor Confucian traditions of filial obligation in the territory where it can cost up to $130,000 to store the ashes of loved ones.</p>
<p>Anthony Yau’s firm, iVeneration.com, offers users the ability to create virtual headstones anywhere in an augmented reality landscape of Hong Kong, including such unlikely places as a downtown park.</p>
<p>Apart from the cost savings, Yau expects his business model to appeal to more eco-conscious young residents.</p>
<p>“The dead are taking so much more space than those who are still alive, as those buried use that piece of land for many years,” said Yau, as he manipulated his mobile telephone to correctly position a candle in front of a virtual headstone.</p>
<p>“For those who are still alive, they won’t stay on the same piece of land forever.”</p>
<p>Yau, who hopes to launch the website to the public in the first quarter of 2018, has already attracted 300 users.</p>
<p>Filial piety, or respect for parents and older people, is a paramount virtue in the Confucian tradition.</p>
<p>“We need to educate the next generation on filial piety, no matter how you show it, as long as it comes from the heart,” Yau added. “We think the next generation might use these services for their parents.”</p>
<p>Alex Lee, a 46-year-old employee of a technology company, uses iVeneration to pay his respects to his departed grandfather.</p>
<p>“Everyone is aware the lack of land is a problem in Hong Kong and the government has been encouraging green burial,” said Lee, as he leafed through an album of family photographs.</p>
<p>“For me, you don’t have to go to a thing to remember those passed away, it’s all in your heart.”</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> | Phones for urns: Hong Kong turns to virtual reality to honor ancestors | false | https://newsline.com/phones-for-urns-hong-kong-turns-to-virtual-reality-to-honor-ancestors/ | 2017-11-21 | 1 |
<p />
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>After the company reported fourth-quarter and full-year financial results, shares in Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX) fell by 12.9% at 2:15 p.m. EST on Tuesday.</p>
<p>Valeant Pharmaceuticals investors have been dealt a seemingly endless stream of disappointments since revelations emerged of improper marketing and pricing strategies in 2015.</p>
<p>IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.</p>
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<p>Since 2015, the company was forced to shutter its distribution partner Philidor, its longtime CEO was shown the exit, and last-minute negotiations with creditors cast doubt on the company's future.</p>
<p>Although new management has been put in place to divest non-core assets, pay down debt, and rekindle growth, the company's financial results last quarter indicate that there's still a lot of work to be done before investors can be rewarded with growth again.</p>
<p>In the quarter, the company's sales fell 12.9% year over year to $2.4 billion and its net loss was $515 million. Sales fell in each of its business segments. Bausch &amp; Lomb sales declined 0.9% because of currency headwinds. Branded Rx and U.S. diversified products sales were down 17.3% and 29.9% compared to last year, respectively, because payers continue to shift to lower-cost alternatives.</p>
<p>Overall, the company reported a full-year loss of $6.94 per share in 2016.</p>
<p>Management is guiding for sales to fall again this year. Revenue should be between $8.9 billion and $9.1 billion. The company is no longer going to provide guidance for non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings per share, but it is predicting non-GAAP EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of between $3.55 billion and $3.70 billion.</p>
<p>It wasn't all bad news: Valeant is making some headway. It recently sold some skincare brands to L'Oreal for $1.3 billion, and it sold the prostate cancer drug Provenge for $820 million; those deals give it some wiggle room. It also recently announced a big hiring plan for salespeople that it hopes will spark revenue. And it reduced its debt by more than $500 million in 2016.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Valeant's performance last year and tepid guidance for this year indicate that investors still face some big risks. For that reason, it might be best to focus on other investment ideas right now.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/EBCapitalMarkets/info.aspx" type="external">Todd Campbell Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. His clients may have positions in the companies mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Valeant Pharmaceuticals Is Tumbling Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/28/why-valeant-pharmaceuticals-is-tumbling-today.html | 2017-03-16 | 0 |
<p>The Panthers courageously made people's history.</p>
<p>Starting with a premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Stanley Nelson, Laurens Grant, Aljernon Tunsil, and Firelight Media’s made-for-PBS documentary on the history of the Black Panther Party has been touring the country. The feature length film—named, not without a touch of irony, The Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution—has attracted large audiences, much acclaim, and some criticism, most notably from former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown, who <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/03/ex-black-panther-leader-elaine-brown-slams-stanley-nelson-s-condemnable-documentary.html" type="external">called it</a> “a two-dimensional palliative for white people and Negroes who are comfortable in America’s oppressive status quo.”</p>
<p>Nelson, Grant and Tunsil are African-American documentary filmmakers of note, having to their collective credit documentaries on Emmet Till, Freedom Summer, Jesse Owens and the Freedom Riders. In his director’s statement, Nelson describes his mission in making the film:</p>
<p>Seven years ago, I set out to tell the story of the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party, a little known history that hadn’t been told in its entirety. In particular, I wanted to offer a unique and engaging opportunity to examine a very complex moment in time that challenges the cold, oversimplified narrative of a Panther who is prone to violence and consumed with anger. Thoroughly examining the history of the Black Panther Party allowed me to sift through the fragmented perceptions and find the core driver of the movement: the Black Panther Party emerged out of a love for their people and a devotion to empowering them. This powerful display of the human spirit, rooted in heart, is what compelled me to communicate this story accurately.</p>
<p>Several powerful documentaries paved the way for Firelight’s film. In 1969, radical filmmakers Mike Gray and Howard Alk made a black-and-white 16 millimeter film called American Revolution II, which chronicled the Chicago Black Panther Party’s efforts in forging a Rainbow Coalition among white, Puerto Rican and African-American organizations.</p>
<p>During their filming, Gray and Alk were inspired by a 21-year-old messianic Black Panther Party leader, Chairman Fred Hampton, and set out making a sequel to American Revolution II. They shot some remarkable footage of Hampton and the Chicago Panthers, but before they had finished the film, Hampton was murdered in his bed, the victim of a conspiracy hatched as part of the FBI’s then-secret COINTELPRO program and executed by the Chicago police and the State’s Attorney of Cook County, Edward V. Hanrahan.</p>
<p>Summoned to the apartment to film the murder scene, Gray and Alk then transformed their film into The Murder of Fred Hampton, which powerfully proved Hanrahan’s claim that the Panthers shot it out with the police to be a bold-faced lie, and that the raid was in fact a pre-planned police murder. The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, but was not widely viewed in this country. It was, however, seen in New York City by a young man named Stanley Nelson.</p>
<p>In 1987, African-American film producer Henry Hampton’s series Eyes on the Prize aired on PBS. The six-part series documented the early civil rights struggle, and three years later, PBS aired Eyes on the Prize II. This eight-part sequel chronicled the evolution of the civil rights struggle during the last half of the 1960s and through the 1970s as it moved north, became radicalized while also entering the realm of electoral politics.</p>
<p>One episode, entitled “Power” and narrated by Julian Bond, described the rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland California and featured interviews with former national BPP leaders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. A few weeks later, Henry Hampton, his director, Terry Rockefeller, and their film company, Blackside, presented an episode called “A Nation of Laws?” In this episode, the filmmakers, armed with evidence unearthed by Fred Hampton’s lawyers over a decade of litigation, and the investigation conducted by Senator Frank Church’s Intelligence Committee, made out a compelling case that Fred Hampton was a charismatic young leader of a dynamic revolutionary organization who was the victim of a nationwide FBI conspiracy to destroy the Black Panther Party, a conspiracy that was part and parcel of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO.</p>
<p>This episode featured the only known interview with FBI informant-provocateur William O’Neal, who drew the floorplan that the police used in their murderous raid, and who received a $300 bonus for his integral role in the conspiracy. “A Nation of Laws?” also made an early link between police repression and the issue of mass incarceration through Angela Y. Davis, who provided a bridge from the Hampton assassination to the second half of the episode which documented the 1971 Attica prison rebellion and its bloody suppression, on orders from Governor Nelson Rockefeller, by the New York State Police.</p>
<p>Nearly two decades passed before another documentary treated the BPP, Fred Hampton and the FBI’s program to destroy the Party. This time it was BET, oddly enough, in its series called American Gangster.&#160; In an hour-long episode that aired in 2008, BET crowned J. Edgar Hoover as an all-powerful law enforcement gangster and traced his decades-long war against all manner of black organizations and leaders. Honing in on COINTELPRO and its attempt to destroy Martin Luther King, the show condemned Hoover and the FBI as virulent racists who, after King’s assassination, joined hands with the newly elected Richard Nixon to continue its war on the black liberation movement, cloaked as a war on crime. The show climaxed by documenting in detail how the murder of Fred Hampton was COINTELRPO’s racist end game in the FBI’s plot to destroy the Black Panther Party.</p>
<p>So it was with this historical backdrop that Nelson and Grant set out to recount the short but complicated history of the Black Panther Party, starting in California in 1966 with the Party’s founding and its bursting on the national scene with its dramatic march into the California state legislature, legally holding guns while Governor Ronald Reagan was holding a press conference on the Capitol’s steps. Using remarkable black-and-white archival footage, the current voices of more than twenty former Panthers, a former FBI agent, several retired police officers, a number of Panther lawyers and community activists, and a collection of historians (rather than a narrator), and accompanied by some soul stirring period music , the fast-paced movie opens with the Chi-Lites belting out “Give More Power to the People” and takes the viewer through the police slaying of little Bobby Hutton, Huey Newton’s shootout with the Oakland police and the world-wide movement to “Free Huey.”</p>
<p>It shines a light on the many BPP community programs, from serving breakfast to thousands of children to publishing a weekly paper best known for its dissemination of the BPP’s 10-Point program and the art of Emory Douglas, which most often displayed his almost limitless capacity to depict police as all manner of pigs. It also shows the vital importance that young women played in the day-to-day operations of the Party—several of the Party’s female leaders, most notably Erica Huggins, Kathleen Cleaver, Elaine Brown and Phyllis Jackson have important roles in narrating the Party’s history.</p>
<p>Vanguard of the Revolution also takes a serious look at the developing division within the party between the imprisoned Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, who had risen to prominence in Newton’s absence and had later fled to Algeria and opened up an international section of the Party. The film also shows how the FBI took glee in attempting to foment and further exacerbate that conflict and other political differences that arose between the Panthers and other organizations. But the heart of the film is the recounting of a number of events that reflect the government’s unremitting repression of the Party and how the Party attempted to resist, yet ultimately succumbed, to this onslaught.</p>
<p>One such method was the arrest and prosecution of Panther leadership. Beyond the arrest and prosecution of Huey Newton, the film also deals at length with the jailing of the New York Panther leadership, in a case that became known as the Panther 21. Through the voice on Jamal Joseph, who, at the age of 16 was rounded up as one of the 21, and one of his lawyers, the viewer is familiarized with their trumped-up and politically motivated arrest, prosecution and, in one of the few joyous moments in the film, their acquittal and victory celebration. The film also documents the targeting of Bobby Seale as one of the alleged co-conspirators in the notorious Conspiracy 8 trial in Chicago in 1969, and his being viciously bound and gagged by Judge Julius Hoffman when Seale attempted to represent himself.</p>
<p>The second form of repression, which we now know was coordinated and orchestrated nationally by the FBI, was police violence—most commonly in the form of raids on Panther offices and homes that lead to injury, death and the mass arrests of Panthers who defended themselves against police. Most infamous of these attacks was the police assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark on December 4, 1969. While Vanguard of the Revolution does not plow ground not covered in prior films, it does accurately portray Hampton as the remarkable young leader that he was, showing numerous clips from The Murder of Fred Hampton, beginning with Hampton’s stirring speech at the Federal Courthouse (after Seale was gagged and jailed) in which he proclaimed that “you can jail a revolutionary, but you can’t jail a revolution.”</p>
<p>The film also gives appropriate prominence to Hampton’s assassination in the history of the Black Panther Party. Using much of Mike Gray’s footage, as well as portions of informant O’Neal’s interview from Eyes on the Prize II, this segment also relies on the voices, then and now, of raid survivor Akua Njeri (Deborah Johnson), several former Chicago Panthers, two of Hampton’s lawyers and an African-American police officer to retell the chilling tale. Notably absent is the voice of longtime U.S. Congressman Bobby Rush, who was the very prominent Minister of Defense of the Chicago Chapter who miraculously avoided a fate similar to Hampton’s on December 4. But Mike Gray is an important voice in the re-telling and gives a unique perspective as a filmmaker who chronicled the events in real time.</p>
<p>Bookended with the Hampton assassination in the film is the police raid on the Los Angeles Black Panther offices only four days later. Unlike the pre-dawn raid on Hampton’s apartment, this raid was met with armed Panther resistance. Through the eyes of three of the men who were present—Wayne Pharr, Roland Freeman and Gil Parker—we experience firsthand the gun battle that took place for many hours and the Panthers’ ultimate surrender. In one of the film’s most powerful moments, when Pharr, who has since died, was asked how he felt as he fired back at the police, he responded, “I felt free, I felt absolutely free.”</p>
<p>As the film heads to its conclusion, we see the results of the repression on the Panthers and the divisions within the Party as the Oakland Chapter turns to electoral politics and Bobby Seale runs for Mayor of Oakland. What we do not see is the emergence of an underground iteration of the Panthers known as the Black Liberation Army, which dedicated itself to armed actions and armed struggle and which engaged in some high-profile confrontations with police that left several police officers dead and numerous BLA members, including Assata Shakur and Sundiata Acoli, charged with capital crimes.</p>
<p>The film is not a complete history. The narration favors Kathleen Cleaver and her view of the history over that of Elaine Brown; George Jackson’s role in the Party’s evolving ideology is omitted, as is Angela Davis, Geronimo Pratt and the BLA; and Bobby Seale has withheld his very important current voice from the film. It could also be said that it glosses over the very real issue of male chauvinism in the Party, although Elaine Brown does briefly acknowledge that it was a problem. The documentary concludes on a down note, depicting Huey in his post-prison years as a violent, dope-addled, underworld kingpin—one former Panther called him a “fucking maniac”—while noting that Eldridge Cleaver went on to be a born-again Christian and political supporter of Ronald Reagan.</p>
<p>With Gil Scott Heron’s mournful “Winter in America” as the backdrop, those blows are softened somewhat by the film’s final act: the separate reading of each of the points in the Panther’s 10 Point Program by several of those former Panthers whose voices have become familiar during the movie, and by Jamal Joseph’s proclamation that, for all its youthful mistakes and over-exuberance, the Black Panther Party was motivated, at bottom, by an “undying love for the people.”</p>
<p>As one of the lawyers who fought to transform the narrative about the Black Panther Party and the assassination of Fred Hampton both through courtroom litigation and by working with various committed filmmakers over the years—including those at Blackside and Firelight—these omissions and criticisms, in my view, pale in comparison to what Firelight has succeeded in telling, primarily through the voices of those now-greying Black Panthers who lived through it. In their youth, these and many more Panthers courageously made people’s history. That history is somewhat imperfectly, but most powerfully, narrated in this film, and the lessons to those engaged in today’s struggles against racism and for justice are there for all to see. Can we ask for more from a documentary filmmaker?</p>
<p>Like what you’ve read? <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/itt-subscription-offer?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">Subscribe to In These Times magazine</a>, or <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/support-in-these-times?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">make a tax-deductible donation to fund this reporting</a>.</p>
<p>Flint Taylor is a founding partner of the People’s Law Office in Chicago. He is one of the lawyers for the families of slain Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, and together with his law partner Jeffrey Haas was trial counsel in the marathon 1976 civil trial. He has also represented many survivors of Chicago police torture, was involved in the struggle for reparations, and has done battle with the Chicago Police Department—and the Fraternal Order of Police—on numerous occasions over his 45 year career as a people’s lawyer</p> | The Black Panther Party and the “Undying Love for the People” | true | http://inthesetimes.com/article/18549/the-black-panther-party-and-the-undying-love-for-the-people | 2015-10-29 | 4 |
<p>[oldembed src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e8p97sD81qY" width="425" height="300" resize="1" fid="21"]</p>
<p>Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) and his allies in the state legislature are pursuing a plan to privatize dozens of prisons in South Florida. Republicans claim that private prisons are more efficient and that the move would save the state millions of dollars. <a href="http://battlegroundtampabay.com/2012/02/prison-privatization-bill-slows/" type="external">The privatization bill</a> is facing some trouble in the state senate, including opposition from key Republicans.</p>
<p>Scott claims that the purpose of the privatization push is to <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/gov-scott-extremely-disappointed-opponents-prison-privatization-cites-pension-fund-reason-pl" type="external">shave 7 percent</a> off the state budget, which perpetually comes up short since Republicans refuse to raise revenue and continue to drive the state's economy into the ground.</p>
<p>[State Sen. Steve] Oelrich, a long-time member of the Florida Retirement System, said he was taken aback when Scott suggested the reason the state had to save the money on its prisons was because he believes the "retirement system is broke."</p>
<p>"The governor's words were that we are 'lying to state employees,' '' Oelrich said. "That troubles me. I don't think that's necessarily correct."</p>
<p>Oelrich questioned why Scott would use that as a rationale for defending prison privatization, which is projected to save between $16 million to $30 million a year. The state's retirement fund is more than 80 percent funded, he said, a level he believes is considered high compared to other states. Bringing it up to 100 percent funding is not something advocated by actuaries, Oelrich said, and would cost billions.</p>
<p>"He says we're between $25 and $60 billion in unfunded liability because we've assumed a 7.5 percent accrual rate and it's only making 5 percent,'' he said. "I'm very concerned that if in fact the retirement system is broke and we can't fulfill our obligations, then the State of Florida ought to let people know that and make the decisions they ought to make."</p>
<p>A broad coalition of <a href="http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2012/01/coalition-to-haridopolos-prison-privatization-wont-work.html" type="external">groups</a> has come out in opposition to the plan:</p>
<p>No other state has initiated such an ambitious experiment as the one proposed in this legislation. Consequently, the proposal to greatly increase the number of prisons under private contract raises several issues of concern including the dubious cost saving claims, efficiency in correctional management, and the impact on public safety. Successful efforts to contain correctional costs have been achieved in a number of states in recent years through other criminal justice policy initiatives that have reduced demand for scarce correctional resources.</p>
<p>The groups are: ACLU of Florida, Advocare, Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), Critical Resistance, Florida Justice Institute, Human Rights Defense Center, In the Public Interest, Justice Strategies, National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc., Ohio Justice Policy Center, Private Corrections Institute, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, The Sentencing Project, Southern Center for Human Rights, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, United Church of Christ/ Justice and Witness Ministries, United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society</p>
<p>The bill is likely to have a <a href="http://floridaindependent.com/67403/corrections-workers-express-fear-as-prison-privatization-vote-nears" type="external">strong negative impact</a> on prison workers:</p>
<p>Labor groups and current corrections officers have warned legislators that privatizing prisons will lead to staff cuts and public safety hazards.</p>
<p>Roberts says his prison is already operating with a limited number of staff: “We are already running at critical levels.”</p>
<p>“We have the same number of prisoners,” Roberts explains, “but we have less staff.”</p>
<p>There are also concerns that workers who are not laid off will face significant cuts to their salary, benefits or both.</p>
<p>According to information given to state Sen. Mike Fasano’s office from the Senate appropriations staff, their fears could be warranted. Comparing beginning salaries and benefit rates for someone who takes a job at a public prison and someone who takes a job at a prison run by one of the top three private companies shows that workers could make significantly less if their prisons were to be privatized.</p>
<p>Fasano is one of the most vocal opponents of the state’s privatization plan, and has introduced an amendment that would strike out the entire bill.</p>
<p>According to Fasano’s office, someone starting out at a public prison would, on average, make $30,800 plus benefits at a rate of 59.8 percent, which amounts to a total compensation package of $49,222.</p>
<p>Beginning compensation packages at Management Training Corporation, meanwhile, are a $25,085 salary plus a 30 percent benefit rate, which amounts to $32,610 in total. GEO Group starts workers at $30,356 with a 20 percent benefit rate, which amounts to a $36,427 compensation package. Corrections Corporation of America pays $22,000 with a 25 percent benefit rate, which adds up to $27,500.</p>
<p>Roberts says that people working in prisons “are already upset.” He explains that 3 percent was recently taken out of public employee checks for retirement, and most workers have not seen a raise in six or seven years. He says finances are already tight for him.</p>
<p>“If they take my wages down, I wouldn’t make my rent,” he says. “I would be homeless. I have three kids. … I would starve.”</p>
<p>Robert also says that the fears have already started to affect morale. ”We have lost our will to work,” he says.</p>
<p>The supposed benefits of privatization <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/01/27/412548/as-private-prisons-enrich-lawmakers-florida-legislature-pushes-massive-prison-privatization-plan/" type="external">are a mirage</a> as well.</p>
<p>Private prisons have a well-documented record of failing to save taxpayers money. An exhaustive 2007 study conducted by the University of Utah concluded that “the value of moving to a privately managed system is questionable,” while many services are often inferior at private facilities as compared to public ones.</p>
<p>If the savings Scott and his allies suggest are a sham, what's the real drive behind the privatization scheme? <a href="http://saintpetersblog.com/2012/01/privatizing-state-prisons-a-capitalist-enterprise-that-feeds-on-the-misery-of-man/" type="external">Money, of course</a>:</p>
<p>(A) growing number of American prisons are now contracted out as for-profit businesses to for-profit companies. The companies are paid by the state, and their profit depends on spending as little as possible on the prisoners and the prisons. It’s hard to imagine any greater disconnect between public good and private profit: the interest of private prisons lies not in the obvious social good of having the minimum necessary number of inmates but in having as many as possible, housed as cheaply as possible.</p>
<p>And a lot of the profits from these for-profit companies have <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/01/27/412548/as-private-prisons-enrich-lawmakers-florida-legislature-pushes-massive-prison-privatization-plan/" type="external">found their way</a> into Republican campaign coffers:</p>
<p>But while the taxpayers may not see much return on their investment, others stand to reap millions of dollars. Last year, a report issued by the Justice Policy Institute found that private prisons spent millions on lobbying to help “make money through harsh policies and longer sentences.” In 2010, the two largest private prison companies had a combined $2.9 billion in revenues, Think Progress reported.</p>
<p>The corporations that own and operate private prisons are not the only ones who benefit financially either. An examination of campaign finance records shows that GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, was one of the 15 largest contributors to the Florida Republican Party in 2010, and gave over $11,000 in contributions directly to the campaigns of 14 of the 20 members of the Budget Committee that approved the bill, by a vote of 14-4. Since 2006, GEO Group has spent a total of $1.3 million in campaign contributions in Florida alone.</p>
<p>The battle has been a dirty one, with <a href="http://quinnell.us/sspb/?p=13816" type="external">Senate President Mike Haridopolos</a> removing fellow Republican Mike Fasano from his leadership position on the Senate Subcommittee on Criminal &amp; Civil Justice Appropriations because he wasn't in support of the privatization scheme. Experts were <a href="http://floridaindependent.com/66072/experts-not-allowed-to-testify-before-prison-privatization-vote" type="external">not allowed to testify</a> in advance of the vote. Finally, the bill itself would prevent the <a href="http://pushingrope.blogspot.com/2012/01/jd-alexander-fighting-to-keep-private.html" type="external">collection of data</a> about private prisons and their effectiveness. Why would you hide that info unless you knew it proved your arguments wrong?</p> | Rick Scott And Florida Republicans Look To Privatize Prisons | true | http://crooksandliars.com/kenneth-quinnell/rick-scott-and-florida-republican | 2012-02-03 | 4 |
<p>DENVER (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs are taking the bubble wrap off rookie <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/chiefs-qb-smiths-future-hot-topic-mahomes-gets-nfl-debut" type="external">QB Patrick Mahomes II</a> in their regular-season finale at Denver, where the Broncos are taking another look at <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/broncos-declare-paxton-lynch-starter-finale" type="external">Paxton Lynch</a> , who’s in danger of being their most disappointing first-round pick since Marcus Nash in 1998.</p>
<p>Mahomes, chosen 10th overall in the 2017 draft out of Texas Tech, spent all season watching and waiting while Alex Smith led the league with a 104.7 rating and topped 4,000 yards passing for the first time in his 13th NFL season — and likely his last in Kansas City.</p>
<p>Having clinched the middling AFC West again, the Chiefs (9-6) have the luxury of sneaking a peek at their future QB while resting other starters and treating Sunday’s game as a bye before the playoffs begin next week.</p>
<p>“We’re in a position where we can do that,” coach Andy Reid said. “It gives the kid some experience, that’s the reason. Listen, the Broncos are a good football team, real good defense. It’ll be a great experience to play against that crew.”</p>
<p>Denver’s defense is ranked second, behind only Minnesota’s.</p>
<p>“There is nothing else better than getting to go against the best,” Mahomes said as he prepared for his first NFL start.</p>
<p>“I’m not eager to play the second guy,” said Broncos star linebacker <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BdQvPoNn5aD/?taken-by=astapleton18" type="external">Von Miller</a> . “He is the guy of the future, though. So, it’s good to go and play against him for the future. But you just would like the circumstances to be totally different.</p>
<p>“You would like this game to mean more than what it means, and you would like for all of the starters to play. I would like a lot of different stuff to happen in 2017 and it didn’t happen.”</p>
<p>The Broncos’ offense was dismal with a rotation of quarterbacks, poor play up front and a lack of depth behind <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/anderson-closing-1000-yards-first-time" type="external">wide receiver Demaryius Thomas and running back C.J. Anderson</a> , both of whom can reach 1,000 yards Sunday.</p>
<p>Denver (5-10) is missing out on the playoff party for a second straight season.</p>
<p>They flopped under rookie head coach Vance Joseph, losing eight in a row for the first time in a half century, and a so-far dismal draft class led by Garett Bolles, who leads the league in holding penalties.</p>
<p>Lynch, Denver’s top pick last year, sprained his left ankle in his only start against Oakland on Nov. 26, when he threw for just 41 yards, and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave said that Lynch was still gimpy at practice this week.</p>
<p>Joseph said he doesn’t care if Lynch is facing backups, “you need something to go on. The more he plays, the better he is going to get. I think it’s one part evaluation, but it’s one part getting him ready for his future, also. It’s not a waste at all.</p>
<p>“It’s going to be good for him to go play for the evaluation and for the personal growth as a quarterback.”</p>
<p>Other subplots Sunday as the Chiefs seek their first five-game winning streak over the Broncos since 1970-73:</p>
<p>MOVING ON: Lynch may be down to his last chance to impress the Broncos. General manager John Elway and his top deputy Matt Russell began their tour of college QBs on the sideline at the Potato Bowl in Boise, Idaho, where they scouted Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen.</p>
<p>“I didn’t even know they were out there doing any of that,” Lynch said. “I really wasn’t paying any attention to it.”</p>
<p>The Broncos could be moving on from any or all of their QBs, including Trevor Siemian, in 2018.</p>
<p>“I’ll say this, we’ve had three starters this year,” Joseph said. “It’s not ideal at all. We have to fix and rectify that position.”</p>
<p>HOT SEAT: An even bigger debate in Denver is whether Joseph deserves a second season and if Elway will be looking for his fourth head coach in five seasons.</p>
<p>Of the six job openings in 2016, Joseph inherited what was largely considered the best situation with the Broncos coming off a 9-7 season.</p>
<p>While the Broncos were nose-diving to their worst season since their awful AFL days, Doug Marrone’s Jaguars, Sean McVay’s Rams, Anthony Lynn’s Chargers and Sean McDermott’s Bills all wrangled for playoff berths and Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers overcame an 0-9 stumble to win five of their past six.</p>
<p>IN THE HUNT: With 1,292 yards rushing, Chiefs rookie running back Kareem Hunt is 13 yards behind Todd Gurley and a yard ahead of Le’Veon Bell for the NFL rushing title. The Rams, Steelers and Chiefs are all in the playoffs, so there’s no telling how much work any of the three running backs will get.</p>
<p>ON THE RISE: The Chiefs went through their own prolonged slump after a 5-0 start. They lost six of seven, including four straight, before bouncing back to win their past three games and clinch another division crown.</p>
<p>“We flopped there for a few games and weren’t looking too good, so I’m proud of everybody sticking together,” Reid said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more NFL coverage: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">http://www.pro32.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p>
<p>___</p>
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<p>DENVER (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs are taking the bubble wrap off rookie <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/chiefs-qb-smiths-future-hot-topic-mahomes-gets-nfl-debut" type="external">QB Patrick Mahomes II</a> in their regular-season finale at Denver, where the Broncos are taking another look at <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/broncos-declare-paxton-lynch-starter-finale" type="external">Paxton Lynch</a> , who’s in danger of being their most disappointing first-round pick since Marcus Nash in 1998.</p>
<p>Mahomes, chosen 10th overall in the 2017 draft out of Texas Tech, spent all season watching and waiting while Alex Smith led the league with a 104.7 rating and topped 4,000 yards passing for the first time in his 13th NFL season — and likely his last in Kansas City.</p>
<p>Having clinched the middling AFC West again, the Chiefs (9-6) have the luxury of sneaking a peek at their future QB while resting other starters and treating Sunday’s game as a bye before the playoffs begin next week.</p>
<p>“We’re in a position where we can do that,” coach Andy Reid said. “It gives the kid some experience, that’s the reason. Listen, the Broncos are a good football team, real good defense. It’ll be a great experience to play against that crew.”</p>
<p>Denver’s defense is ranked second, behind only Minnesota’s.</p>
<p>“There is nothing else better than getting to go against the best,” Mahomes said as he prepared for his first NFL start.</p>
<p>“I’m not eager to play the second guy,” said Broncos star linebacker <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BdQvPoNn5aD/?taken-by=astapleton18" type="external">Von Miller</a> . “He is the guy of the future, though. So, it’s good to go and play against him for the future. But you just would like the circumstances to be totally different.</p>
<p>“You would like this game to mean more than what it means, and you would like for all of the starters to play. I would like a lot of different stuff to happen in 2017 and it didn’t happen.”</p>
<p>The Broncos’ offense was dismal with a rotation of quarterbacks, poor play up front and a lack of depth behind <a href="https://pro32.ap.org/article/anderson-closing-1000-yards-first-time" type="external">wide receiver Demaryius Thomas and running back C.J. Anderson</a> , both of whom can reach 1,000 yards Sunday.</p>
<p>Denver (5-10) is missing out on the playoff party for a second straight season.</p>
<p>They flopped under rookie head coach Vance Joseph, losing eight in a row for the first time in a half century, and a so-far dismal draft class led by Garett Bolles, who leads the league in holding penalties.</p>
<p>Lynch, Denver’s top pick last year, sprained his left ankle in his only start against Oakland on Nov. 26, when he threw for just 41 yards, and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave said that Lynch was still gimpy at practice this week.</p>
<p>Joseph said he doesn’t care if Lynch is facing backups, “you need something to go on. The more he plays, the better he is going to get. I think it’s one part evaluation, but it’s one part getting him ready for his future, also. It’s not a waste at all.</p>
<p>“It’s going to be good for him to go play for the evaluation and for the personal growth as a quarterback.”</p>
<p>Other subplots Sunday as the Chiefs seek their first five-game winning streak over the Broncos since 1970-73:</p>
<p>MOVING ON: Lynch may be down to his last chance to impress the Broncos. General manager John Elway and his top deputy Matt Russell began their tour of college QBs on the sideline at the Potato Bowl in Boise, Idaho, where they scouted Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen.</p>
<p>“I didn’t even know they were out there doing any of that,” Lynch said. “I really wasn’t paying any attention to it.”</p>
<p>The Broncos could be moving on from any or all of their QBs, including Trevor Siemian, in 2018.</p>
<p>“I’ll say this, we’ve had three starters this year,” Joseph said. “It’s not ideal at all. We have to fix and rectify that position.”</p>
<p>HOT SEAT: An even bigger debate in Denver is whether Joseph deserves a second season and if Elway will be looking for his fourth head coach in five seasons.</p>
<p>Of the six job openings in 2016, Joseph inherited what was largely considered the best situation with the Broncos coming off a 9-7 season.</p>
<p>While the Broncos were nose-diving to their worst season since their awful AFL days, Doug Marrone’s Jaguars, Sean McVay’s Rams, Anthony Lynn’s Chargers and Sean McDermott’s Bills all wrangled for playoff berths and Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers overcame an 0-9 stumble to win five of their past six.</p>
<p>IN THE HUNT: With 1,292 yards rushing, Chiefs rookie running back Kareem Hunt is 13 yards behind Todd Gurley and a yard ahead of Le’Veon Bell for the NFL rushing title. The Rams, Steelers and Chiefs are all in the playoffs, so there’s no telling how much work any of the three running backs will get.</p>
<p>ON THE RISE: The Chiefs went through their own prolonged slump after a 5-0 start. They lost six of seven, including four straight, before bouncing back to win their past three games and clinch another division crown.</p>
<p>“We flopped there for a few games and weren’t looking too good, so I’m proud of everybody sticking together,” Reid said.</p>
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<p>Follow Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/arniestapleton" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/arniestapleton" type="external">http://twitter.com/arniestapleton</a></p> | Chiefs, Broncos turning to young QBs in season finale | false | https://apnews.com/df364e40538b480e9cb052434efcdda2 | 2017-12-29 | 2 |
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<p>Santa Fe – officially nicknamed The City Different – might soon warrant an extra moniker to reflect the growing number of current and former U.S. diplomats hailing from the northern New Mexico town.</p>
<p>Maybe we could dub the beautiful and perpetually sunny city that sits at 7,200 feet “Not Foggy Bottom” in reference to the low-lying, often hazy Foggy Bottom neighborhood in Washington, D.C. that houses the U.S. State Department. At least three of our nation’s most high-profile diplomats now call Santa Fe home.</p>
<p>Everyone knows that Joe Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador to Africa and Iraq, and his wife, Valerie Plame, an ex-CIA agent, traded Washington’s glamorous party circuit and vicious political backbiting for a much more serene existence in Santa Fe after Plame was outed as a CIA agent during President George W. Bush’s second term.</p>
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<p>But did you know high-profile career diplomat Vicki Huddleston retired to Santa Fe last year after a distinguished assignment in the West African hot spot of Mali and serving as deputy assistant secretary in the Departments of State and Defense? Huddleston told me her brother attended prep school in Santa Fe decades ago and she fell in love with the place during visits to see him as a kid. She and her husband bought a house in the city about a decade ago as a “retreat” from her assignment in Mali from 2002-2005.</p>
<p>Huddleston, who is frequently interviewed in the national media about the militant Islamic threat brewing in Mali, lives in Santa Fe full-time now.</p>
<p>Patricia McMahon Hawkins, another career foreign service officer who served as the U.S. ambassador to Togo from 2008 to 2011, also calls Santa Fe home these days, while former U.S. Ambassador to Spain Ed Romero lives in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>I’m also informed that more than a few former CIA agents – aside from Plame – live in Santa Fe. But if I told you their names, I’d have to kill you.</p>
<p>Now, another Santa Fean is poised to take on one of the most challenging diplomatic posts in the world – ambassador to Libya.</p>
<p>President Barack Obama has nominated Deborah K. Jones, a New Mexico native and career diplomat who splits her time between Washington, D.C., and Santa Fe, to become our nation’s top envoy to the troubled north African nation.</p>
<p>Jones’ nomination is up before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. Sen. Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat who sits on the committee, is scheduled to introduce her. If confirmed – and there doesn’t seem to be much outright opposition to her nomination as yet – Jones will have her work cut out for her.</p>
<p>Congress is still demanding answers about the debacle in Benghazi last year, when Islamic radicals stormed the U.S. diplomatic mission and killed four Americans, including widely respected Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.</p>
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<p>Obviously, Jones wasn’t on the job during the Benghazi massacre, but it will be interesting to see how she handles questions about it, as well as the future security of America’s diplomatic mission in Libya.</p>
<p>Jones has been with the U.S. Foreign Service since 1982 and taken on assignments in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Baghdad, Iraq; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Syria. She served as principal officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Istanbul from 2005-2007 and as ambassador to Kuwait from 2008-2011.</p>
<p>Jones, a New Mexico native who attended high school in Arizona, didn’t respond to my requests for an interview. It’s common for White House nominees to duck the press in advance of potentially contentious confirmation hearings. Udall’s office tells me Jones’ mom is also a Santa Fe resident.</p>
<p>Huddleston, who did a stint on Capitol Hill in the office of former Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico in the late 1990s, told me her former colleague is up to the tall task of serving as America’s ambassador to Libya. Huddleston met with Jones on Wednesday for what was surely a fascinating conversation about foreign affairs and U.S. diplomacy.</p>
<p>“Deborah will do an excellent job,” Huddleston said. “She is smart, qualified, and knowledgeable. We are fortunate that she will take on this challenge.”</p>
<p>Huddleston also offered some insight about why so many highly accomplished American diplomats find respite in The City Different.</p>
<p>“Santa Fe is a great escape from D.C.,” she said. “It provides the wide open spaces needed to think and reflect. The added attraction is a diverse culture and many accomplished and creative full time and part- time residents.”</p> | Santa Fe is ‘The City Diplomatic’ | false | https://abqjournal.com/195931/santa-fe-is-the-city-diplomatic.html | 2013-05-05 | 2 |
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