text
stringlengths 0
127k
| title
stringlengths 0
777
| hyperpartisan
bool 2
classes | url
stringlengths 26
278
| published_at
stringlengths 0
10
| bias
int64 0
4
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
<p />
<p>Video still from <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/world/middleeast/doctors-without-borders-airstrike-kunduz.html" type="external">The New York Times</a></p>
<p>This just in from Capitol Hill: Gen. John Campbell, America’s head military honcho in Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that a Doctors Without Borders-affiliated hospital in Kunduz was “mistakenly struck” in Saturday’s air attack.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/world/middleeast/doctors-without-borders-airstrike-kunduz.html" type="external">The New York Times</a> posted a report about Campbell’s testimony:</p>
<p />
<p>With the United States struggling to account for an airstrike that decimated a Doctors Without Borders hospital, the American commander in Afghanistan on Tuesday took responsibility for the sustained bombardment of the medical facility, which he said took place in response to an Afghan call for help.</p>
<p>The commander, Gen. John F. Campbell, said the strike was the result of “a U.S. decision made within the U.S. chain of command.”</p>
<p>General Campbell, in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, offered few new details about the attack, which lasted for more than a half-hour and killed 22 patients and hospital staff members in northern Afghanistan on Saturday. He said the details of what took place would come out in an investigation now underway.</p>
<p>But after days of shifting and at times ambiguous American statements about the strike, which Doctors Without Borders has compared to a war crime, General Campbell was as direct on Tuesday as any official has been to date.</p>
<p>“A hospital was mistakenly struck,” he said.</p>
<p>The general said the military had received a request for air support from Afghan troops fighting to retake Kunduz from the Taliban. “Even though the Afghans request that support,” he said, “it still has to go through a rigorous U.S. procedure.”</p>
<p>All the same, Campbell left several questions unanswered that will continue to be asked.</p>
<p>Watch the Times’ coverage of Campbell’s Senate appearance below:</p>
<p />
<p>–Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Kasia Anderson</a></p> | VIDEO: U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Says Kunduz Hospital Was 'Mistakenly Struck' | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/video-u-s-commander-in-afghanistan-says-kunduz-hospital-was-mistakenly-struck/ | 2015-10-07 | 4 |
<p>Chicago is one of America’s greatest cities. Yet many of its residents live in terror in what is virtually a war zone. When a demented killer slayed 49 in a gun rampage in Orlando, Fla., there was national attention. Presidential candidates called for escalating the fight against the Islamic State in the Middle East, even though the killer seems to be a homegrown terrorist.</p>
<p>But in Chicago, 404 have died in gun violence this year. According to the Congressional Research Service, the murder rate averaged 16.0 per 100,000 a year from 2010-2014. That is nearly four times the national average of 4.6 per 100,000 and nearly three times the Illinois state average (5.8).</p>
<p>These killings are not randomly distributed. African Americans constitute about one-third of Chicago’s residents, but they account for 80 percent of its murder victims.</p>
<p>The killings are concentrated in endangered communities, communities burdened with abject poverty and deplorable conditions. Desperation and murder are segregated in Chicago.</p>
<p>In West Garfield Park, the average per capita income is $10,951. More than 40 percent of the residents live below the poverty line, with an unemployment rate greater than 25 percent.</p>
<p>In Englewood, the average per capita household income is $11,993. Forty-two percent of households live below the poverty line, with an unemployment rate over 21 percent.</p>
<p>In Fuller Park, per capita household income is $9,016, with a majority — 55.5 percent — of households living below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is 40 percent. Washington Park, North Lawndale, Austin, Greater Grand Crossing, East Garfield Park … the list goes on.</p>
<p>During the height of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate hovered at roughly 20 percent. These neighborhoods are suffering levels twice that, now six years into the supposed recovery.</p>
<p>These are disaster zones in a supposedly world-class city. They look like they are under siege, and to some extent they are. Drugs and guns, violence and despair mark lives condemned to live in these zones.</p>
<p>The war in Iraq — one the Bush administration chose to launch — will end up costing us more than $3 trillion. And of course, the wars go on — in Afghanistan, in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen, and now the U.S. is beginning to bomb Libya.</p>
<p>But the right now disaster zones in Chicago are ignored. The everyday violence is decried but nothing is done. The poverty is regretted but there is no plan to attack it.</p>
<p>In fact, national policy does more to expand the divide between endangered communities and affluent ones, between those living in the disaster zone and those living uptown.</p>
<p>A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies and the Center for Enterprise Development details the growing racial wealth gap in America. They find that without a drastic change in policy, by 2043, when people of color are projected to account for more than half of the U.S. population, the racial wealth divide between white households and African American and Latino households will have doubled from about $500,000 in 2013 to more than $1 million.</p>
<p>The gap reflects the impact of historic inequities — from federally sanctioned housing discrimination to private redlining — but its expansion is fueled in part by tax policies that aid the highest earners while providing the lowest income families with virtually nothing.</p>
<p>Over the past 20 years alone, the report finds, the federal government spent more than $8 trillion through tax programs to assist families in building long-term wealth, including saving for retirement, purchasing a home, starting a business or paying for college. But the impact of these expenditures has been “upside down.” With typical millionaires pocketing about $145,000 in public tax benefits each year to increase their wealth while working families receive a total of $174 on average.</p>
<p>More of the same won’t help. Adding benefits to the wealthy few — like Donald Trump’s call to end the estate tax — will add to the inequity and contribute to the despair. If nothing changes, the desperate zones will get worse. Surely this crisis is worthy of debate in the presidential campaign, and action from the White House and Congress.</p> | Poverty and Desperation in a World Class City | true | https://counterpunch.org/2016/08/10/poverty-and-desperation-in-a-world-class-city/ | 2016-08-10 | 4 |
<p>A <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/23/us-photographers-blog-teleprompter-idUSBRE87M14V20120823" type="external">photo</a> of Obama’s head hidden behind&#160;a teleprompter screen made news last week.</p>
<p>Friend of the blog,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">frequent</a> <a href="" type="internal">PhotoShop</a> <a href="" type="internal">artist</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">photographer</a> Patricia put her own impression on the image:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Patricia has been a little under the weather lately, and we look forward to her recovery and future contributions.</p> | Running on empty | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/08/running-on-empty/ | 2012-08-26 | 0 |
<p>Dr. Woody and EY's Kerrie MacPherson on why women-owned businesses can't hit the $1M annual revenue mark - and how to fix it</p>
<p>When it comes to women-owned businesses, there’s good news and bad news. Nearly half of all new businesses in the U.S. are launched by women, according to Ernst &amp; Young, yet those started by men are three-and-a-half times more likely to reach $1 million in annual revenue.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>According to Kerrie MacPherson, senior partner at accounting firm Ernst &amp; Young, too many women entrepreneurs self-fund their ventures, which can be both costly and constraining. MacPherson notes there are numerous investors out there to help finance a business, but that entrepreneurs have to be in the game in order to have the opportunity to tap them.</p>
<p>At last month’s <a href="http://www.ey.com/US/en/Services/Strategic-Growth-Markets/Entrepreneurial-Winning-Women" type="external">Annual EY Strategic Growth Forum and Entrepreneurial Winning Women Program</a> (EWW), top women entrepreneurs from all over North America gathered for an award ceremony to share success stories, lend support and encourage each other to keep driving.</p>
<p>The conference also allows these entrepreneurs the opportunity to talk candidly with each other and discuss what it’s like being an entrepreneur and executive navigating a challenging economy.</p>
<p>To find out more about what drives these successful women, I sat down with three of this year’s award recipients to talk about the role of values, authenticity, and integrity in their success.&#160;&#160; Here’s what they had to say:</p>
<p>Values: Values are the core guiding principles you rely on to make decisions, particularly in times of uncertainty. Essentially, they act as your compass and ultimately become the foundation of your organization. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WXGRiEDZbY&amp;feature=c4-overview&amp;list=UUDPzvUFOrMHYL9__R4KuYeQ" type="external">Denise Wilson, founder and CEO</a> of <a href="http://www.desertjet.com/" type="external">Desert Jet</a> is a firm believer in having that personal compass to guide you through the uncertain conditions of the entrepreneurial life.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“Well, you know, I had a decision early on in the company about what the company was going to be about. And, it’s really not about the profits, it’s about what your life is going to be like. To me, I really want to enjoy walking down the halls of my company and looking at my employees and seeing that everyone is enjoying being there and having a good time. I want to see my clients be happy and really that’s what it’s about. I want to have a happy life, I want to enjoy my job and my work, and that’s really the big determining factor, do we live our values?”&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Authenticity: Being authentic in who you are and how you represent yourself is such an important component to the success of these women entrepreneurs. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc5t9EB2pbk&amp;feature=c4-overview&amp;list=UUDPzvUFOrMHYL9__R4KuYeQ" type="external">In my conversation with Raegan Moya-Jones</a>, founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.adenandanais.com/" type="external">aden +anais</a>, she articulated the power of being true to yourself and how that has driven her decisions as an entrepreneur and executive.</p>
<p>“It’s truly just about authenticity. If it doesn’t make sense to me as a mother I’m not going to put it under the brand. There are plenty of products I could add to the aden +anais range at this point and because we’re aden + anais I could sell millions of dollars of them, but I won’t do it because that’s not authentic, that doesn’t make sense to me as mom. I think it’s staying true to the very core of your business and your initial beliefs and values that keeps us doing what we do well.”</p>
<p>Integrity: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLhRHY0YwXs&amp;feature=c4-overview&amp;list=UUDPzvUFOrMHYL9__R4KuYeQ" type="external">Phyllis Newhouse, founder and CEO</a> of <a href="http://www.xtremesolutions-inc.com/" type="external">Xtreme Solutions</a>, talked about how her upbringing and 22 years of military service have influenced her value for integrity as a leader.</p>
<p>I come from a family of 11 and I always say the first CEO I was ever introduced to was my mother. When you have a family of 11 children and you’re learning how to balance and do conflict resolution between 11 children, really one of the core values I learned as a child was integrity. Integrity in everything that you do. Integrity for yourself and others. When I went into the military [I learned] a leader must have integrity and exemplify integrity. And that’s the same principle I use in business today. Integrity, always operate with integrity… When they see the transparency in leaders with integrity then most often you are going to get people moving in that direction of integrity.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</p> | 3 Women Entrepreneurs: How I Did It | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/12/16/3-women-entrepreneurs-how-did-it.html | 2016-06-14 | 0 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Baghdad.</p>
<p>One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq’s defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history, leaving the country’s army to fight a savage insurgency with museum-piece weapons.</p>
<p>The money, intended to train and equip an Iraqi army capable of bringing security to a country shattered by the US-led invasion and prolonged rebellion, was instead siphoned abroad in cash and has disappeared.</p>
<p>“It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history,” Ali Allawi, Iraq’s Finance Minister, told The Independent.</p>
<p>“Huge amounts of money have disappeared. In return we got nothing but scraps of metal.”</p>
<p>The carefully planned theft has so weakened the army that it cannot hold Baghdad against insurgent attack without American military support, Iraqi officials say, making it difficult for the US to withdraw its 135,000- strong army from Iraq, as Washington says it wishes to do.</p>
<p>Most of the money was supposedly spent buying arms from Poland and Pakistan. The contracts were peculiar in four ways. According to Mr Allawi, they were awarded without bidding, and were signed with a Baghdad-based company, and not directly with the foreign supplier. The money was paid up front, and, surprisingly for Iraq, it was paid at great speed out of the ministry’s account with the Central Bank. Military equipment purchased in Poland included 28-year-old Soviet-made helicopters. The manufacturers said they should have been scrapped after 25 years of service. Armoured cars purchased by Iraq turned out to be so poorly made that even a bullet from an elderly AK-47 machine-gun could penetrate their armour. A shipment of the latest MP5 American machine-guns, at a cost of $3,500 (£1,900) each, consisted in reality of Egyptian copies worth only $200 a gun. Other armoured cars leaked so much oil that they had to be abandoned. A deal was struck to buy 7.62mm machine-gun bullets for 16 cents each, although they should have cost between 4 and 6 cents.</p>
<p>Many Iraqi soldiers and police have died because they were not properly equipped. In Baghdad they often ride in civilian pick-up trucks vulnerable to gunfire, rocket- propelled grenades or roadside bombs. For months even men defusing bombs had no protection against blast because they worked without bullet-proof vests. These were often promised but never turned up.</p>
<p>The Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit says in a report to the Iraqi government that US-appointed Iraqi officials in the defence ministry allegedly presided over these dubious transactions.</p>
<p>Senior Iraqi officials now say they cannot understand how, if this is so, the disappearance of almost all the military procurement budget could have passed unnoticed by the US military in Baghdad and civilian advisers working in the defence ministry.</p>
<p>Government officials in Baghdad even suggest that the skill with which the robbery was organised suggests that the Iraqis involved were only front men, and “rogue elements” within the US military or intelligence services may have played a decisive role behind the scenes.</p>
<p>Given that building up an Iraqi army to replace American and British troops is a priority for Washington and London, the failure to notice that so much money was being siphoned off at the very least argues a high degree of negligence on the part of US officials and officers in Baghdad.</p>
<p>The report of the Board of Supreme Audit on the defence ministry contracts was presented to the office of Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Prime Minister, in May. But the extent of the losses has become apparent only gradually. The sum missing was first reported as $300m and then $500m, but in fact it is at least twice as large. “If you compare the amount that was allegedly stolen of about $1bn compared with the budget of the ministry of defence, it is nearly 100 per cent of the ministry’s [procurement] budget that has gone Awol,” said Mr Allawi.</p>
<p>The money missing from all ministries under the interim Iraqi government appointed by the US in June 2004 may turn out to be close to $2bn. Of a military procurement budget of $1.3bn, some $200m may have been spent on usable equipment, though this is a charitable view, say officials. As a result the Iraqi army has had to rely on cast-offs from the US military, and even these have been slow in coming.</p>
<p>Mr Allawi says a further $500m to $600m has allegedly disappeared from the electricity, transport, interior and other ministries. This helps to explain why the supply of electricity in Baghdad has been so poor since the fall of Saddam Hussein 29 months ago despite claims by the US and subsequent Iraqi governments that they are doing everything to improve power generation.</p>
<p>The sum missing over an eight-month period in 2004 and 2005 is the equivalent of the $1.8bn that Saddam allegedly received in kick- backs under the UN’s oil-for-food programme between 1997 and 2003. The UN was pilloried for not stopping this corruption. The US military is likely to be criticised over the latest scandal because it was far better placed than the UN to monitor corruption.</p>
<p>The fraud took place between 28 June 2004 and 28 February this year under the government of Iyad Allawi, who was interim prime minister. His ministers were appointed by the US envoy Robert Blackwell and his UN counterpart, Lakhdar Brahimi.</p>
<p>Among those whom the US promoted was a man who was previously a small businessman in London before the war, called Hazem Shaalan, who became Defence Minister.</p>
<p>Mr Shalaan says that Paul Bremer, then US viceroy in Iraq, signed off the appointment of Ziyad Cattan as the defence ministry’s procurement chief. Mr Cattan, of joint Polish-Iraqi nationality, spent 27 years in Europe, returning to Iraq two days before the war in 2003. He was hired by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority and became a district councillor before moving to the defence ministry.</p>
<p>For eight months the ministry spent money without restraint. Contracts worth more than $5m should have been reviewed by a cabinet committee, but Mr Shalaan asked for and received from the cabinet an exemption for the defence ministry. Missions abroad to acquire arms were generally led by Mr Cattan. Contracts for large sums were short scribbles on a single piece of paper. Auditors have had difficulty working out with whom Iraq has a contract in Pakistan.</p>
<p>Authorities in Baghdad have issued an arrest warrant for Mr Cattan. Neither he nor Mr Shalaan, both believed to be in Jordan, could be reached for further comment. Mr Bremer says he has never heard of Mr Cattan.</p>
<p>PATRICK COCKBURN was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn prize for war reporting in recognition of his writing on Iraq over the past year. His new memoir, <a href="" type="internal">The Broken Boy</a>, has just been published in the UK.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>CLARIFICATION</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH</p>
<p>We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).</p>
<p>Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.</p>
<p>We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.</p>
<p>As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.</p>
<p>We are pleased to clarify the position.</p>
<p>August 17, 2005</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | What Happened to Iraq’s Missing $1 Billion? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/09/20/what-happened-to-iraq-s-missing-1-billion/ | 2005-09-20 | 4 |
<p>Shares of health-care companies were flat as the Republican Senate leadership abandoned efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>Major insurers indicated they wouldn't make any radical changes to planned offerings on ACA exchanges next year. That will leave some parts of the country with scant options for people who purchase plans through the exchanges.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Rob Curran, [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>September 27, 2017 16:06 ET (20:06 GMT)</p> | Health Care Flat as ACA Repeal Fails -- Health Care Roundup | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/09/27/health-care-flat-as-aca-repeal-fails-health-care-roundup.html | 2017-09-27 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Obama Tangos as the world mourns the dozens of victims killed by ISIS Terrorists in Brussels – Belgium. Cartoon by A.F.Branco ©2016.</p>
<p>To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, <a href="http://legalinsurrection.com/tag/a-f-branco/" type="external">click here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://patriotdepot.com/comically-incorrect-a-collection-of-politically-incorrect-comics-volume-1/" type="external">A.F.Branco Coffee Table Book</a> &lt;—- Order Here!</p>
<p><a href="http://paypal.me/AntonioBranco" type="external">Donations/Tips accepted and appreciated</a>&#160;– &#160;$1.00 – $5.00 – $20 – $100 – &#160;it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. –&#160;THANK YOU!</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Dancing Fool | true | http://comicallyincorrect.com/2016/03/25/dirty-dancing/ | 2016-03-25 | 0 |
<p>How much radiation do medical imaging tests deliver to a patient? How much and what kind of risk is involved with imaging radiation? These and other questions are on the minds of patients who receive recommendations for such imaging tests from their doctors.</p>
<p>Decisions concerning diagnostic testing are best made after all of the costs and benefits are discussed and weighed, says the American Heart Association, or AHA, in a <a href="http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2014/09/29/CIR.0000000000000048" type="external">new statement</a> published this week in the journal Circuation. The AHA and several other organizations, including the American College of Cardiology, endorse the recommendation that doctors should discuss the risks associated with ionizing radiation before an imaging test is conducted.</p>
<p>Tests that deliver ionizing radiation to the patient include X-rays, cardiac stress tests, CT scans, and certain heart procedures. The main concern is that ionizing radiation exposure can potentially increase an individual’s lifetime risk for developing cancer.</p>
<p>“There is continuing concern on the part of patients in the area of ionizing radiation,” said Dr. Andrew J. Einstein, an associate professor of medicine in radiology at Columbia University in New York and co-author of the statement.</p>
<p>The risks associated with individual imaging procedures is quite small, and the clinical benefit conferred by the insights from such tests is often tremendous and outweigh the costs. However, patients still often have questions related to the radiation.</p>
<p>“The purpose of this document is to address physicians in particular and provide recommendations in terms of methods that can enhance safety and methods that can enhance patient understanding,” Einstein told Reuters Health during a telephone interview. The statement asserts that the decision to proceed with imaging involving ionizing radiation exposure should be shared by both the doctor and the patient. The responsibility of educating and informing the patient, the statement declares, rests squarely on the doctor.</p>
<p>“As doctors, it is our obligation to make sure that we, our colleagues and our patients understand the potential benefits of a medical imaging study as well as potential risks,” said Einstein. “Patients shouldn’t be scared off by a one in X chance of developing cancer, they should be reassured by the benefits of the imaging.”</p>
<p /> | Cardiologists urged to discuss risks of imaging radiation with patients | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/09/30/cardiologists-urged-to-discuss-risks-of-imaging-radiation-with-patients/ | 2014-09-30 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>COURTESY RIPE INC.</p>
<p>Gravy is almost done.</p>
<p>The eagerly anticipated breakfast-lunch-dinner at the <a href="" type="internal">former Milton’s coffee shop</a> in East Downtown is more than 90 percent complete and will launch this fall, according to the restaurant’s owners.</p>
<p>Gravy — a new venture from the team behind EDo’s very popular <a href="http://www.holycownm.com/" type="external">Holy Cow</a> — has been a long time coming, but owners say they’re finally putting the finishing touches on the intricate, 20-month renovation that has surpassed $500,000.</p>
<p>“We’re excited and just as anxious as everybody else” to open, said Chris Medina, who is working with partners Michael Wewerka and David Boyd on the project.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Gravy, located at 725 Central NE, will serve what Medina described as “modern, comfort food” made from scratch. That means dishes like a breakfast pot pie and its own version of classics like the tuna melt and beef stroganoff.</p>
<p>Beer also will be a huge part of the equation with 23 selections on tap.</p>
<p>Gravy will seat about 110 with a floor plan that Wewerka, the architect and builder, said is very similar to the original design. Wewerka, in fact, obtained the building’s original drawings from the famed California architecture firm, Armet Davis Newlove, that designed it as a Denny’s in 1964. The Gravy buildout restored some of the original features but incorporates custom seating, tables and design elements that give it a modern flair.</p>
<p>Once Gravy gets going, the business partners say they’ll get to work on two more EDo restaurants, a casual concept and a more upscale restaurant.</p> | Holy Cow owners wrapping up work on new EDo restaurant | false | https://abqjournal.com/449747/holy-cow-owners-wrapping-work-on-new-edo-restaurant.html | 2014-08-21 | 2 |
<p>For many a worker, a promotion can be the key toward a better life. In most cases getting bumped up to a new job means more money, more perks, and, of course, more responsibility.</p>
<p>Earning that step up, however, can be a challenge. Some people <a href="https://www.fool.com/careers/2017/06/21/10-reasons-youre-not-getting-promoted.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">lose out on promotions Opens a New Window.</a> for reasons they may not, but should, understand. If you're chronically late, obviously lazy, or in perpetual trouble for breaking the rules, well...maybe you shouldn't be surprised when someone gets promoted ahead of you.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In most cases, though, it's not that obvious. Many employees put their heads down, do a good job, and stay out of trouble. For those workers a promotion may be well deserved, but actually getting it requires doing a little more.</p>
<p>That may not be fair, but it's reality. You can get promoted -- and the advice below should help you make sure that the next time an opportunity comes up you aren't passed over.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSelena/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Selena Maranjian Opens a New Window.</a>: One good way to get a promotion is woefully underused and surprisingly effective: Just ask for it!</p>
<p>According to a survey of professionals by Accenture a few years ago, only 28% of American women and only 39% of American men have ever asked for a promotion -- and among those who did ask for one, a whopping 59% received one. The survey results were even more encouraging than that. Among those who asked for a promotion:</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>And what about the others? Well, the news isn't all bad even for them:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fool.com/careers/2017/06/09/6-ways-to-get-ahead-at-work.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">New responsibilities Opens a New Window.</a> might sound unwelcome, but they might lead to a future promotion, if you are seen doing well with them.</p>
<p>Even if you are not in a position to ask for a promotion or don't want one, here's another smart gambit: Ask for a raise. Again, surprisingly few people ask for one, and it frequently results in a raise. (For best results, ask for more money by making a strong case for it -- laying out your value and how you help the company succeed, and offering a list of comparable salaries elsewhere. It can help to rehearse your pitch a few times, too.)</p>
<p>Remember -- smart managers want to keep their best workers around, and they understand that these workers will probably want to move up via promotions and raises. Be that best worker and your career is likely to progress well.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/timbrugger/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Tim Brugger Opens a New Window.</a>: Regardless of the work environment, be it an office, factory, or out in the field, the more familiar you become with the processes and responsibilities of your position, the more likely you'll come across ongoing procedural hiccups or inefficiencies.</p>
<p>Calling attention to discrepancies in a regular "state of the union"-type meeting is fine. In time, improving workflow or becoming more productive by ridding the office or factory of inefficiencies is good for everyone.</p>
<p>But if you have plans to get promoted, don't simply lay a problem in the supervisor's lap and consider the matter closed; come up with a solution first. Bosses don't want more problems -- <a href="https://www.fool.com/careers/2017/05/01/5-simple-ways-to-impress-your-boss.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">they're looking for problem-solvers Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Don't stop with sharing your well-thought-out solution. What's the benefit to the company, your supervisor, or your fellow employees in implementing your idea? An example might be: "Doing this instead of that will not only increase the department's efficiency, it will free me up to become even more productive."</p>
<p>Promotions are for folks with solutions that, over time, will make their supervisors' jobs (if not easier) more productive -- not those who stop at pointing out faults. If it's not appropriate or feasible to broach the subject in a group setting, ask for a brief one-on-one with your supervisor to share the procedural snag, your idea for remedying the situation, and the upside to the company in implementing it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fool.com/author/11900/index.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Daniel B. Kline Opens a New Window.</a>: It has always amazed me how many people think they deserve promotions simply because they have seniority. Some companies may still operate that way -- where waiting in line trumps everything else -- but most do not. That means that seniority may give you an edge in the case of a tough decision (as it should), but a <a href="https://www.fool.com/careers/2017/07/04/this-is-the-biggest-mistake-you-can-make-at-work.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">better worker</a> with less tenure can jump ahead and snag a promotion.</p>
<p>Making yourself stand out is not just a question of working hard. Yes, you should volunteer for projects, come in early, and leave late, but that's probably not enough.</p>
<p>To earn a promotion, you need to win the faith of your coworkers. That means being a good teammate and leading by example. That's not easy to pull off, but if you can, it will make your eventual promotion a popular move, rather than one which creates resentment.</p>
<p>The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after.&#160; <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Dankline/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Daniel Kline Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSelena/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Selena Maranjian Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/timbrugger/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Tim Brugger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Accenture. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=aa002b2c-67c1-11e7-b2bd-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Ways to Earn a Promotion | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/18/3-ways-to-earn-promotion.html | 2017-07-18 | 0 |
<p>A federal judge has determined an Ohio school must allow a transgender student to use the restroom consistent with her gender identity.</p>
<p>A federal judge has ruled in favor of a transgender elementary school student seeking to use the restroom consistent with her gender identity, marking the latest such decision in disputes between schools and students on the issue.</p>
<p>In&#160; <a href="" type="internal">a 43-page decision</a>,&#160;U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley, a Clinton appointee, found&#160;denying the student, identified as Jane Doe, from using the restroom consistent&#160;with her gender identity violates Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a law barring gender discrimination in schools.</p>
<p>Marbley orders Highland Elementary School to “treat Jane Doe as the girl she is,” which includes referring to her by female pronouns in addition to allowing her to use the girl’s restroom.</p>
<p>The ruling is the result of a lawsuit the school filed in June&#160;seeking to overturn&#160;an order from the&#160;Obama administration requiring officials to treat Jane Doe consistent with her gender identity. In response to the lawsuit, attorneys representing Jane Doe filed a lawsuit seeking an order requiring the school to comply with the Obama administration.</p>
<p>Writing Jane Doe would be “irreparably harmed absent an injunction,” Marbley grants the request made by her attorneys, but denies the&#160;request for a preliminary injunction in favor of the school.</p>
<p>“The stigma and isolation Jane feels when she is singled out and forced to use a separate bathroom contribute to and exacerbate her mental-health challenges,” Marbley writes. “This is a clear case of irreparable harm to an eleven-year-old girl.”</p>
<p>The decision comes on the heels of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">a ruling last week</a> from a federal judge in Wisconsin ordering Kenosha Unified School District to allow a male transgender student to use the restroom consistent with his gender identity.</p>
<p>The ruling&#160;also follows an order from a federal court in Texas enjoining the Obama administration from enforcing guidance instructing schools to allow transgender students to use the restroom consistent with their gender identity. (Marbley’s decision comes on the same day the judge ordered a hearing on Friday to clarify the scope of the decision in response to a request from the Justice Department.)</p>
<p>Representing Jane Doe in the case is the National Center for Lesbian Rights as well as the Cleveland-based law firm Hickman &amp; Lowder and the New York-based law firm Debevoise &amp; Plimpton LLP. The U.S. Justice Department and&#160;Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General&#160;for Civil Rights Vanita Gupta are named as defendants.</p>
<p>Asaf Orr, who represented Jane Doe as&#160;a staff attorney for the&#160;National Center for Lesbian Rights’ transgender youth project, said the decision is consistent with ensuring all students are free from discrimination at school.</p>
<p>“Every student has a right to be free from discrimination and harassment while at school, and we are pleased the court has taken this important step in protecting Jane Doe’s rights,” Orr said. “As the case proceeds, we will continue to vigorously work to protect our client’s rights.”</p>
<p>Representing Highland Elementary School is West Chester, Ohio-based Langdon Law, the Mansfield, Ohio-based Renwick, Welsh &amp; Burton LLC and the anti-LGBT Alliance Defending Freedom.</p>
<p>Attorneys representing the schools have already filed notice with the court indicating they intend to appeal the decision to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Algenon Marbley</a> <a href="" type="internal">Highland Elementary School</a> <a href="" type="internal">Ohio</a> <a href="" type="internal">trans students</a></p> | Judge to Ohio school: ‘Treat Jane Doe as the girl she is’ | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/09/26/judge-school-treat-jane-doe-girl/ | 3 |
|
<p>Codo via Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Editor’s Note: A weekly roundup from our friends over at <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/" type="external">TreeHugger</a>. Enjoy!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/epa-petitioned-regulate-co2-using-clean-air-act.php" type="external">EPA Petitioned to Regulate CO2 Using Clean Air Act, Cap at 350ppm</a></p>
<p>On and off for the past year we’ve heard statements about how the Environmental Protection Agency could really make an end run around Congressional inaction on climate and set a cap on carbon dioxide emissions though the Clean Air Act. Even Al Gore hinted at it during Climate Week NYC. Well now the Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org have petitioned the EPA to do just that.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/peta-classified-terrorist-threat.php" type="external">USDA Classifies PETA as Terrorist Threat</a></p>
<p>PETA is one of the most controversial activist groups operating today. The group’s contentious media campaigns, undercover operations, infamous advertising, and high profile demonstrations have made them perhaps the most notorious–and most polarizing–nonprofit organization there is. But are they terrorists? According to the US Department of Agriculture, they are now.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/100-percent-renewables-by-2030-plan.php" type="external">100% Renewables by 2030: Ambitious Plan or Pipe Dream?</a></p>
<p>A recent study by Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, and Mark Delucchi, a research scientist at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, claims that the world could get to 100% renewables by 2030. Considering the immensity of the scale the world’s power grids, nobody can’t fault these two for lack of vision. But it is realistic, or just something nice to dream about, but without much chances of actually happening?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.treehugger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/interview-with-raul-vazquez-ceo-of-walmartcom.php" type="external">TreeHugger’s Interview with Raul Vazquez, CEO of Walmart.com</a></p>
<p>Wal-Mart embodies truths and prejudices that reflect our consumer culture. They are a straw-man for a lot of what is wrong. But, especially in recent years, they are a powerful potential leader in trying to be right. Thanks to some networking by our fearless leader, Graham Hill, TreeHugger had an opportunity to speak at some length with Raul Vazquez, CEO of the growing eCommerce powerhouse walmart.com. We hear from his own mouth how walmart.com will implement the sustainability index being developed in cooperation with respected Universities and NGOs, whether walmart.com is out to take Amazon down, and how business on-line is developing for the retail giant.</p>
<p>Debunking the Great Global Warming Conspiracy Conspiracy</p>
<p>One of the strangest things about the ongoing non-controversy over the hacked climate emails is that it’s revealed how irrational much of the thinking behind global warming denial really is. It’s always been understood that people have fundamental reasons for resisting the idea that man’s behavior is causing the climate to change—especially if they’re deeply comfortable with said behavior. But I hadn’t realized how many people actually—I mean really, truly—believe that climate change is a nefarious conspiracy concocted by elite liberals to… do what, exactly?</p>
<p /> | Three Questions: Will the EPA Regulate Greenhouse Gases? Is 100% Renewable Energy by 2030 Possible? Are PETA Really Terrorists?!? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/three-questions-will-epa-regulate-greenhouse-gases-100-renewable-energy-2030-pos/ | 2009-12-03 | 4 |
<p>"You did not kill them, but God killed them" reads the banner of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izz_ad-Din_al-Qassam" type="external">al-Qassam Brigades</a>, an allusion to the militant group's belief that they are carrying out God's work.</p>
<p>The al-Qassam Brigades are often referred to as the military wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>Yet the brigades, which have been behind the majority of attacks on Israel in the last few decades, are often said to act under their own commanders without warning the political leadership ahead of time.</p>
<p>The militant group has fired thousands of rockets into Israel over the last ten years, and has launched hundreds in just the last several days after the killing of their commander, Ahmed Jabari.</p>
<p>The&#160;Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, as they are formally known, are believed to have been formed in 1992 during the Oslo negotiations as an effort by Hamas to create a coherent military command.</p>
<p>Others say that the group was formed during the first Palestinian intifada, <a href="http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/the-main-armed-groups-in-gaza-1.1107214" type="external">according to Gulf News</a>.</p>
<p>The group's inception remains mysterious, but <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/world/middleeast/brigades-that-fire-on-israel-show-a-deadly-new-discipline.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">The New York Times</a>reported that the organization has gone through a number of stages.</p>
<p>In the early days, when it was run by&#160;Yahya Ayyash - who headed the organization in the West Bank and was its chief bombmaker until his death in 1996 - al-Qassam focused on suicide bombings in Israel.</p>
<p>The group began using rockets it called "Qassam" in its attacks on Israel in the early 2000s. In 2006, after Hamas won parliamentary elections in Gaza, the al-Qassam brigades began acting as a police force, while battling rival group Fatah for control.</p>
<p>The al-Qassam brigades defeated Fatah and took military control of the territory shortly after.</p>
<p>Along with homemade rockets, the group also uses longer-range Katyusha or Grad rockets from Iran smuggled into Gaza, which can reach about 40km, said a report by the <a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/PolicyFocus97.pdf" type="external">Washington Institute for Near East Policy</a>. The militant group also imports mortar shells from Iran.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/world/middleeast/brigades-that-fire-on-israel-show-a-deadly-new-discipline.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">The New York Times reported</a> that typical al-Qassam fighters join the forces by the age of 16, where the teens receive religious indoctrination before being given military training.&#160;The organization is believed to number about 15,000 fighters, according to the Washington Institute report.</p>
<p>The al-Qassam operate in loosely-linked cells that are divided by region and by brigade, which are separated into specialties like ground forces, antitank, artillery, etc.</p>
<p>There are, however, other competing military groups in Gaza, and it remains unclear how much control Hamas has over those groups, including Islamic Jihad's&#160;Al Quds Brigades and lesser-known Salafist groups like the Army of Islam.</p>
<p>Ahmed Jabari was a commander of the militant group until he was killed last week by an Israeli strike, but was <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,136239,00.html" type="external">reportedly</a>second-in-command to leader Mohammed Deif, who is now the gravely injured.</p>
<p>The al-Qassam Brigades are named after&#160;Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, an imam and a resistance fighter against the British and Jewish population of Palestine, who died in 1935.</p> | 'You did not kill them, but God killed them': A look at the al-Qassam Brigades | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-11-19/you-did-not-kill-them-god-killed-them-look-al-qassam-brigades | 2012-11-19 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Target Corporation(NYSE: TGT) seems to have gone from one catastrophe to the next in recent years.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A 2013 data breach affected more than 70 million customers and dampened sales over the subsequent quarters. That was followed by the company's decision to end its ill-fated expansion in Canada in 2015, which resulted in a massive $5.4 billion writedown. More recently, the company's decision to allow transgender customers to use the restroom of their choice prompted a boycott among some of its customers.</p>
<p>Image source: Motley Fool.</p>
<p>Sales and profits have also fallen in recent quarters, and the stock has gotten punished.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/TGT" type="external">TGT Opens a New Window.</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>While the broad market trades near all-time highs, Target is down more than a third from its 52-week high, and the stock has been one of the worst performers on theS&amp;P 500 over the last year.</p>
<p>CEO Brian Cornell took the helm of the big-box chain in August 2014, so he was not responsible for the credit card breach in 2013 or the Canadian expansion, though he did make the decision to pull out of Canada. Still, the stock has fallen about 10% during his tenure, and the company's recent performance has left much to be desired. Beyond the backlash over the company's bathroom policy and the stock's slide, there are other signs that Target may be due for a management change. Here are a few.</p>
<p>In recent months, Target has lost its Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Digital Officer, and the head of its grocery division. Over the last two years, the company has also seen the Chief Legal Officer, Chief Merchant, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Chief Stores Officer positions change hands.</p>
<p>Only one of the company's ten-member executive team remains from when Cornell became CEO. While rotation among executives can simply signal a company shifting strategy, it's often representative of greater problems, such as disagreements over strategic direction, poor performance, an unpleasant work environment, or even poor compensation.</p>
<p>Many of the recent defections correspond with problem areas for Target. Online sales have lagged behind those of peers and growth has slowed, which likely explains the departure of Chief Digital Officer Jason Goldberger, and the company's grocery strategy has long been muddled as well, leading to excess spoilage. Not surprisingly, grocery chief Anne Dament, who was one of Cornell's first big hires, left the company last November after just 18 months in the position.</p>
<p>Comparable sales, which strip out the effects of new stores, are one of the best measurements of a retailer's performance. However, comparable sales at Target have fallen for three straight quarters after seven consecutive quarters of growth. In the key fourth quarter, store-based comparable sales dropped 3.3%, though overall comparable sales were only down 1.5% due to a 34% increase in digital sales.</p>
<p>Management's guidance for the current year was also underwhelming. It sees low-single digit decline in comparable sales for 2017 and low-to-mid single digit decline in comparable sales for the first quarter. While the retail sector has struggled with the loss of customer traffic as e-commerce becomes more popular, Target's rivals likeWal-Mart(NYSE: WMT)andCostco Wholesale(NASDAQ: COST)have managed to deliver consistent comparable sales growth. Wal-Mart has overcome challenges to deliver nine straight quarters of comp sales growth, and the popularity of Costco's membership model has proven to be enduring.</p>
<p>Cornell came on to replace former CEO Gregg Steinhafel, whose tenure ended after the data breach disaster. At first, the stock responded favorably to Cornell's strategy, but the recent decline in sales and profits has pushed the stock into the red.</p>
<p>Cornell responded to the challenge by introducing a new strategy and financial model at the most recent earnings call. The strategy includes lowering prices to make the store more competitive with Wal-Mart and other peers, a move that will cut into profits. Cornell has said the company needs to do more to fulfill the second half of its slogan, "Expect More. Pay Less."</p>
<p>At the same time, however, the company plans to refurbish 600 stores and open 100 smaller stores by 2019. In many ways, the strategy mimics Wal-Mart's decision in 2015 to invest in lower prices, higher wages, and cleaner stores, which cost it on the bottom line but has boosted sales. Target doesn't have the same economies of scale or other advantages that Wal-Mart has, though.</p>
<p>At the Shoptalk retail industry conference a few weeks ago, Cornell's presentation stood out for being focused on brick-and-mortar retail rather than new technologies. The company's plans to open new stores runs counter to the trend in much of the retail industry, which is either closing stores or scaling back on new locations.</p>
<p>Cornell's future with Target may be riding on the outcome of his turnaround strategy. With less than three years at the helm, the board is likely willing to give him some more time to return the company to growth, but if cutting prices and sprucing up stores fails to bring customers in the door, it could be time for the board to show him the door as well.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than TargetWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=247acead-51d7-4cce-9701-e22755247004&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Target wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=247acead-51d7-4cce-9701-e22755247004&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFHobo/info.aspx" type="external">Jeremy Bowman Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Signs Target Corporation Needs New Management | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/19/3-signs-target-corporation-needs-new-management.html | 2017-04-19 | 0 |
<p>HOUSTON, Texas and BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The plane descended and just beyond the city limits, the clouds gave way to a view of the expansive territory Texas is known for. We had landed, the flight attendant announced, in Houston — the most populous city in the Lone Star State.</p>
<p>We were on our way from Boston to Buenos Aires, where we will be reporting for the next two weeks on the country’s high abortion rate and the legal and religious institutions that surround it.</p>
<p>Abortion is illegal in Argentina except in instances of sexual assault or danger to a woman’s life. But even in these cases, where there is legislation to protect women, experts have told us that the obstacles to a safe and legal procedure are often insurmountable. <a href="http://www.ela.org.ar/a2/index.cfm?fuseaction=MUESTRA&amp;campo=pdf0020&amp;ext=pdf&amp;codcontenido=836&amp;aplicacion=app187&amp;cnl=14&amp;opc=9&amp;cnl14=3" type="external">Argentina’s Department of Health</a> reported in 2006 that 30 percent of all maternal deaths are caused by complications from abortion.&#160;</p>
<p>Each year there are approximately 500,000 abortions in Argentina, and 40 percent of pregnancies end in abortion, according <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/03/31/abortion#Argentina" type="external">Human Rights Watch</a>.</p>
<p>It was somewhat fitting, then, that our layover was in Texas, where in March a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/02/texas-abortion-law_n_5078474.htm" type="external">federal appeals court upheld the state’s stringent limits on abortion</a> providers and drugs. Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/02/texas-abortion-law_n_5078474.html" type="external">told</a>&#160;The Huffington Post that the law would allow fewer than 10 clinics in the state to remain open.</p>
<p>Already a new report has highlighted an increase in “DIY abortion,” <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/24805-gulf-residents-are-already-turning-to-diy-abortions" type="external">with women throughout the Gulf states</a> “taking abortion back into their own hands, just as they did prior to the procedure becoming legal.”</p>
<p>As The Atlantic reported last week, misoprostol — <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/the-rise-of-the-diy-abortion-in-texas/373240/" type="external">a drug that induces abortion</a> — is increasingly in demand on the black market.&#160;Texas was the first state in which women have taken to these measures, according to Truthout, due to strict state mandates that require, among other things, multiple visits to clinics and long waiting periods.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court's ruling last month granting closely-held corporations religious exemption from the Affordable Care Act provision that requires that contraception be covered was welcomed by both Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Governor Rick Perry.</p>
<p>Abbott called it a “major victory for religious freedom and another blow” to the Affordable Care Act, which has “proven to be an illegal intrusion into the lives of Americans across the country.” Governor Perry applauded the Court, which he said “reaffirms that the government cannot mandate that anyone operate in a fashion counter to their most deeply-felt principles.”</p>
<p>But the state’s democratic Senator Wendy Davis took a sharp stance in opposition.</p>
<p>“Today’s disappointing decision to restrict access to birth control puts employers between women and their doctors,” she said. “We need to trust women to make their own health care decisions — not corporations, the Supreme Court or Greg Abbott,” <a href="http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2014/06/huge-day-at-supreme-court-as-hobby-lobby-decision-expected-court-also-could-limit-public-unions.html/" type="external">she added</a>.</p>
<p>Texas isn’t the only state where restrictions on birth control or abortion are coming into play. The <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/updates/2013/statetrends42013.html" type="external">Guttmacher Institute</a> reports that more than 205 abortion restrictions were enacted at the state level between 2011 and 2013 — more than the total number of restrictions in the previous decade.</p>
<p>Misoprostol, the abortion-inducing drug now being found in Texas, is also the pill used by many health-care providers in Argentina who do perform legal abortions. The prescription, according to the author of the Atlantic article, Erica Hellerstein, is common in countries in Latin America where abortion is illegal or highly restricted. In Argentina some doctors perform abortions off the books, while many women turn to <a href="http://www.medicaldaily.com/whats-it-get-back-alley-abortion-argentina-where-terminating-pregnancy-illegal-photos-269318" type="external">far riskier options</a>.</p>
<p>“And in this narrative,” Hellerstein wrote, “it is Latin America that has answers for the United States.”</p>
<p>Rebecca Lee Sanchez and Emily Judem are reporting from Argentina as part of a GlobalPost Special Report called " <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/nigeria/140514/secret-abortion-nigeria-christian-muslim" type="external">Birth Rights</a>" produced in partnership with The GroundTruth Project. The project is made possible by the Ford Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation and International Center for Journalists.</p> | Legal restrictions lead to 'DIY abortions' in Texas and Argentina alike | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-07-15/legal-restrictions-lead-diy-abortions-texas-and-argentina-alike | 2014-07-15 | 3 |
<p>Appointing Larry Summers our Treasury secretary would be a grave mistake, and a slap in the face to Mexico and those who struggle for economic justice on both sides of the border.</p>
<p>Summers, while serving as under secretary of the Treasury in 1995, engineered the destruction of Mexico’s economy by increasing interest rates to unmanageable levels—business and farm loans went from 11% to 56%, credit card rates from 7% to 61%, home loans from 5% to 75%, car loans from 7% to 91%. The result was massive human suffering and the forced migration of millions of economic refugees to the United States.</p>
<p>Although Wall Street banks profited handsomely, the impact of 1995 loan interest rate increases in Mexico was more than millions of people and businesses could handle. Thousands of farms and businesses, both large and small, went bankrupt. In 1995 alone over 12,000 of Mexico’s businesses filed for bankruptcy, and as economic activity came to a standstill and demand was cut, orders were canceled and plants operated at less than minimum levels. Idle capacity in many branches of the manufacturing sector increased to 70%. It became impossible for millions of workers to support their families by earning paychecks in their own country. Unable to earn enough to support their families, many of them migrated to the United States to find family wage work.</p>
<p>A report adopted by Mexico’s Senate on September 21, 2007 noted that Alan Greenspan gave Summers credit for the draconian interest rate measure and Greenspan wrote in his memoir:</p>
<p>That experience (the Mexican bail-out) formed a lasting bond between Rubin, Summers, and me … Larry could be shrewd too: it was his idea to put such a high interest rate on the Mexico loans that the Mexicans felt compelled to pay us back early.</p>
<p>Larry Summers’ tenure at Treasury the last time around was marked by enriching the relative few while devastating the very many. The U.S. citizenry voted for a change and a priority on Main Street over Wall Street. Policies that impoverish workers, whether here or in Mexico, do not reflect the change we voted for.</p>
<p>Surely the man we are so proud to have elected our president could choose, from among the many capable economists, one who values humanity.</p>
<p>PLEASE URGE OBAMA TO APPOINT A TREASURY SECRETARY OTHER THAN LARRY SUMMERS</p>
<p>Larry Summers is on the Obama short list for appointment to secretary of the Treasury.</p>
<p>Such an appointment would be a grave mistake, and a slap in the face to Mexico and those who struggle for economic justice on both sides of the border.</p>
<p>Summers, while serving as under secretary of the Treasury in 1995, engineered the destruction of Mexico’s economy through forced increase of interest rates to unmanageable levels—business and farm loans went from 11% to 56%, credit card rates from 7% to 61%, home loans from 5% to 75%, car loans from 7% to 91%. The result was massive human suffering and the forced migration of millions of economic refugees to the United States.</p>
<p>Appointing Summers would signal a continuance of the greed superceding human dignity as the cornerstone of our foreign policy.</p>
<p>Please review the following background information on Mr. Summers and ask anyone you know on the transition team to advise against selecting Summers or write to the Obama site at http://change.gov/ on the “American Moment” section.</p>
<p>Thank you for your work.</p>
<p>In solidarity,</p>
<p>PETER CERVANTES-GAUTSCHI</p>
<p>Excerpt from “Wall Street and Immigration: Financial Services Giants Have Profited from the Beginning,” PETER CERVANTES-GAUTSCHI, December 4, 2007, Americas Policy Program, Center for International Policy (CIP):</p>
<p>“On Dec. 22, 1994 the Mexican peso was devalued over 40%. This, coupled with an increase in the U.S. prime rate enacted by the U.S. Federal Reserve, rendered Mexico nearly bankrupt largely due to dollar-denominated bond debt to Wall Street banks.</p>
<p>The U.S. government got the International Monetary Fund and Canada to give Mexico money to put together a bailout package to pay its creditors, most of which were Wall Street banks. The International Monetary Fund contracted Mexico’s bailout loan to the U.S. Treasury Department. Acting in the interest of Wall Street creditors, Peter King got Congress to adopt legislation that imposed monthly oversight on the bailout implementation by the banking committee.</p>
<p>To get the bailout money, Mexico was required to meet stipulations that violated its own constitution, which limited foreign ownership of the banking industry to 5% and forbade home mortgage interest rates above 7%. The bailout package required that foreign banks get 49% of the banking market. Limits on interest rates for all loans were eliminated to pay off Citi, Chase Manhattan, Bank of America, JP Morgan, and the other foreign bond investors. Another stipulation on the bailout money required Mexico to put a cap on wages nationwide.</p>
<p>Although it was a major Mexican bond creditor, JP Morgan became Mexico’s financial adviser. An arrangement like this in the United States would have been seen as a blatantly illegal conflict of interest.</p>
<p>Mexico’s national bank was forced to raise the money to pay off the inflated bond debts to the foreign bond investors by dramatically increasing interest rates on the full spectrum of loans in Mexico.</p>
<p>Over the next two years interest rates on business and farm loans rose from an average of 11% to an average of 56%. Credit card debt interest rates went from 7% to 61%, interest rates on car loans went from 7% to 91%, and home loan interest rates rose from an average of 5% to 75%.</p>
<p>In the same period the Bank of America, Citibank, JP Morgan, Chase Manhattan, and HSBC acquired most of Mexico’s banking market.</p>
<p>The impact of 1995 loan interest rate increases was more than millions of people and thousands of businesses could handle. Thousands of farms and businesses, both large and small, went bankrupt. In 1995 alone, over 12,000 of Mexico’s businesses filed for bankruptcy, and as economic activity came to a standstill and demand was cut, orders were canceled and plants operated at less than minimum levels. Idle capacity in many branches of the manufacturing sector increased to 70%. It became impossible for millions of workers to support their families by earning paychecks in their own country. Unable to earn enough to support their families, millions of workers migrated to the United States to find family wage work.</p>
<p>The Wall Street banks profited handsomely. In 1998 for example, after recouping and profiting from their short-term bond investments through direct and enabled payments from the bailout package, JP Morgan and Citi owned over $4.1 billion dollars and $1.9 billion dollars respectively worth of loans in Mexico. A few years later Citi became the owner of 23.2% of the Mexican loan market through its acquisition of Banamex. The banking and finance sector rewarded the Republican members of the banking committees in Congress with millions of dollars in campaign contributions.”</p>
<p>Excerpt from a special (translated to English) commission report adopted unanimously by the Mexican Senate on September 21, 2007:</p>
<p>“The previous support document offered detailed information about a meeting at Los Pinos between the president of Mexico and the under secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Larry Summers. During that meeting and against the advice of the Mexican team that was negotiating at that very moment in Washington, the decision was made to raise interest rates excessively during 1995. That information is in a memoir written by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin, now a chairman of Citigroup, a U.S. company that is the world’s largest financial institution …</p>
<p>In September 2007, the former president of the U.S. Federal Reserve also published his memoirs. Additional revelations appear there about the source of the decision to inordinately hike interest rates, a decision that was to the great detriment of Mexico. Alan Greenspan notes in his memoir:</p>
<p>That experience formed a lasting bond between Rubin, Summers, and me … Larry could be shrewd too: it was his idea to put such a high interest rate on the Mexico loans that the Mexicans felt compelled to pay us back early.</p>
<p>In other words, the Mexican government made an unacceptable deal with Under Secretary Summers, akin to what the mother country gave its colonies. Mexico was treated as if it were a country without a history, without prestige, and without institutions. In his memoir, Rubin comments that the result of his intervention in Mexico led one of his colleagues to declare triumphantly to the New York Times : ‘This was Bob Rubin’s Bosnia. And today he got the troops out.’ Never should the Mexican government have accepted that extremely high and abusive interest rate.</p>
<p>The gravest problem was that these very high interest rates influenced the rates for other loans made to Mexico and also rigidified high levels of domestic interest rates. Beginning in March 1995, interest rates in Mexico exploded. Rates of return went positive in real terms for the next 10 years, and this contributed to the double problem of excessively costly (and almost nonexistent) financing for Mexican companies and high earnings for those who had invested in Mexican bonds, which led to the overvaluation of the peso.</p>
<p>In his memoir, Rubin also acknowledges that the IMF was recommending lower interest rates, but in the end, that institution accepted the excessively high proposal. However, the IMF experts could not have been unaware of the very damaging effect that those interest rates would have for the Mexican economy.”</p>
<p>PETER CERVANTES-GAUTSCHI is co-executive director of Enlace, an alliance of low wage worker organizations in the United States and Mexico, and analyst for the Americas Policy Program at <a href="http://www.americaspolicy.org" type="external">www.americaspolicy.org</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Secretary of Greed | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/11/14/secretary-of-greed/ | 2008-11-14 | 4 |
<p>Cass Sunstein is one of America's preeminent legal scholars and public policy thinkers, has worked as an adviser to President Barack Obama and has appeared on lists of potential candidates for the Supreme Court. He’s also, as it turns out, a pretty big&#160;Star Wars fan.</p>
<p>“I liked ‘Star Wars.’ I liked ‘A New Hope’ plenty. I liked ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ even better. And I liked ‘The Return of the Jedi,’” Sunstein says. “But my becoming a Star&#160;Wars-focused person is extremely recent and was prompted by my now 7-year-old son who, improbably at the age of 5, became very focused on ‘Star Wars.’ And that got me very curious about the whole phenomenon.”</p>
<p>Sunstein has written a book called "The World According to Star Wars,” that explores social, legal and political philosophy, taking illustrations and parallels from the popular space series.&#160;</p>
<p>“There is a connection between ‘Star Wars’ and law,” Sunstein says. “And that’s the first thing that drew me in. ‘I am your father’ is a way of making everyone go ‘whoa,’ because what they thought before is completely in a new light. That’s both shocking and also can produce a sense of immediate recognition: ‘That’s it. That’s right.’ And law’s like that, too. When the Supreme Court struck down racial segregation in 1954? That was an ‘I am your father’ moment of the best kind."</p>
<p>Sunstein also compares government regulation to Jedi knight magic.&#160;</p>
<p>“Jedi knights have a talent not just to move objects but also to affect minds and the way they can do that is manipulate people's attention,” Sunstein says. “What some of the behavioral economics has shown is that our attention is a very limited commodity and sometimes we won't see things that are even in front of our eyes. And that applies to not just magic stuff but to behavioral efforts by, let's say, self-interested companies to manipulate us. ... And governments, when they're working well, I think often are trying to expand people's attention so that they see aspects of a transaction that really matter to their lives.”</p>
<p>Sunstein also likes to analyze the way the Republic in the Star Wars movies turned into a fascist empire, and he likes to compare this fictional narrative to modern political events.&#160;</p>
<p>“We live in a time when strong men are having appeal in both Europe and the United States,” Sunstein says. “Mr. Trump, some of his appeal is, he’s gonna knock some heads. The niceties don’t matter to him. The idea that we have a broken, paralyzed legislative process and we need someone who can set things right.</p>
<p>"And in Europe we’re seeing that as well. I think Lucas did get that dynamic right. And it’s not a coincidence or a prophecy on his part. He studied history, particularly Nazi Germany and Napoleon’s France, and saw how a broken or blocked legislature can often breed a real challenge — a serious challenge — to democratic forms.”</p>
<p>Other parallels between Star Wars and our modern political universe? Sunstein says our discussions about the constitution are pretty similar to the way Star Wars fans debate the series.&#160;</p>
<p>“When we talk about whether the Constitution protects the right to same-sex marriage, now the right to polygamy, whether it protects against surveillance or whether to interpret it that way is foolish and ridiculous,” Sunstein says, “That's like the Star Wars fans debates over, you know, did Han shoot first? Are the movies actually secretly on the side of Emperor Palpatine? Those are all kind of like our constitutional debates.”&#160;</p>
<p>This story&#160;is based on an&#160; <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/story/what-would-luke-skywalker-do-cass-sunstein/" type="external">interview</a>&#160;that aired on PRI's&#160; <a href="http://www.studio360.org/" type="external">Studio 360</a>&#160;with Kurt Andersen.</p> | Obama adviser: Why a Supreme Court decision is like 'Star Wars' | false | https://pri.org/stories/2016-07-16/obama-adviser-why-supreme-court-decision-star-wars | 2016-07-17 | 3 |
<p>Gold dipped below an earlier two-month high on Friday as the dollar firmed, but the metal was still heading for its biggest weekly gain in a month as investors continued to cover short positions and on strong physical appetite from China.</p>
<p>Traders added that the crossing of a technical resistance level was also adding to buying, although the move upwards seen in the past week looked to have lost some momentum.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"After such a strong move up there is always the risk of a retracement... however after gold broke through its resistance at $1,350 last night things are looking somewhat more encouraging," Heraeus trader Alexander Zumpfe said.</p>
<p>"Expect initial resistance around the 100-day moving average at $1,375, which is slightly above today's intraday high."</p>
<p>Spot gold reached a two-month high of $1,372.51 an ounce earlier in the session but was at $1,360.01 an ounce, down 0.4 percent by 0944 GMT. It has risen around 3.5 percent so far this week, having gained for the last six sessions out of eight.</p>
<p>U.S. gold futures for December lost 0.1 percent to $1,360.40 an ounce.</p>
<p>Gold found technical support once prices crossed $1,350 on Thursday, traders said, as well as some safe-haven demand on escalating tensions in Egypt.</p>
<p>It had lost more than one percent after strong U.S. jobs data on Thursday indicated the Federal Reserve could soon start tapering its $85 billion monthly bond purchases.</p>
<p>An early end to the Fed's quantitative easing programme could hurt assets such as gold that had been boosted by central bank liquidity and a low interest rates environment, which encourages investors to put money into non-interest-bearing assets. The Fed's next policy meeting is on Sept. 17-18, while the July FOMC minutes will be released next Wednesday.</p>
<p>The dollar rose 0.1 percent, drawing support from a rise in U.S. Treasury yields around their highest in two years, hit on Thursday.</p>
<p>Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed ETF, fell just 0.3 tonnes to 912.92 tonnes on Thursday. Rare inflows were seen in the fund twice over the past six sessions but holdings remain at four-year lows.</p>
<p>CHINA BUYING</p>
<p>Shanghai gold futures rose 2 percent on Friday, with premiums to London spot prices up about $3 overnight to $24, indicating strong demand ahead of the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>Analysts also expect demand to start returning in India in coming weeks, ahead of the winter wedding season and festival celebrations and despite government's imports restrictions.</p>
<p>"We expect to see increasing gold purchases by the manufacturing trade for stocks ahead of Christmas and harvest festivals," SP Angel said in a note.</p>
<p>Silver rose to its highest in almost three months at $23.15 an ounce, before trading down 0.6 percent to $22.81. The metal was heading for its best week since late October 2011, with gains of around 11 percent.</p>
<p>Platinum fell 0.4 percent to $1,515.50 an ounce and palladium dropped 0.5 percent to $755.08 an ounce.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Jan Harvey in London and A. Ananthalakshmi in Singapore; editing by Keiron Henderson)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Gold Prices Drift Higher | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2013/07/16/gold-prices-drift-higher.html | 2016-03-02 | 0 |
<p>We know the role Twitter played in the Arab Uprisings. It helped get protesters out on specific days and times to Tahrir Square in Cairo, for example.</p>
<p>Well, even before that, the US government was looking at how mobile phone messaging could be used as a tool that might "renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society."</p>
<p><a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-secretly-created-cuban-twitter-stir-unrest" type="external">The Associated Press reports</a> that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) secretly designed a social media app for Cuba that would do just that.</p>
<p>AP reporter Desmond Butler says a mobile phone messaging app&#160;called ZunZuneo was used by thousands of Cubans between 2010 and 2012.</p>
<p>Broadly speaking, Butler says "the idea was that you would build up a subscriber base by getting people interested in text messaging on really innocuous themes. They'd send out messages on sports scores, pop music, gossip. The idea was to build up a critical mass of subscribers and eventually start adding political content."</p>
<p>Butler said many documents talked about organizing smart mobs -- or when messages are sent out telling people to meet at a certain place on short notice -- which is a tool that has been used in a lot of countries to bring about political change.</p>
<p>Butler says USAID self-described mission is to promote democracy, but it took&#160;the secretly designed project pretty far. Was it illegal in any sense? &#160;</p>
<p>"I am not a lawyer," he says. "I can tell you this. US national security law defines covert action as 'activity or activities of the United States government to influence political, economic or military conditions abroad where it is intended that the role of the United States government will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly.' Now what we know about this program is the role of the US government was not acknowledged publicly."</p>
<p>Butler says the US government set up front companies and they used off shore banking in the Cayman Islands. He added that the government felt it was important that their role of not become apparent.</p>
<p>Whether the ZunZuneo project was illegal or covert depends on who you ask. White House spokesman Jay Carney on Thursday called the program a "development assistance" scheme designed to allow Cubans facing government restrictions on information access to civil society.</p>
<p>"When you have a program like that in a non-permissive environment, a place like Cuba, you are discreet (in) how you implement it so you protect the&#160;practitioners," he said.&#160;"But that does not make it covert. USAID is a development agency, not an intelligence agency. Suggestions that this was a covert program are wrong."</p>
<p>USAID is responding to the AP report too. USAID spokesman Matt Herrick said that USAID was proud to work in Cuba to "promote human rights and universal freedoms" and to help information flow to its people.</p>
<p>Herrick said the name "ZunZuneo" came from a term for a Cuban hummingbird and that it was a social platform for Cubans to "speak freely among themselves."</p>
<p>The problem, says AP reporter Desmond Butler, is that USAID was setting up a network that Cubans were using in a very sensitive environment.</p>
<p>"The Cuban government has very serious counter intelligence," he says. "It could have conceivably been very dangerous for users to use this platform not knowing that &#160;they were using a US government platform in &#160;a country that consider the US an enemy."</p>
<p>In other words Cubans could have been arrested or sent to jail for doing something that they didn't realize was illegal. Butler says one Cuban interviewed put it this way, "It's not like there was a sign on the door that said brought to you by USAID."&#160;</p>
<p>After three years in operation, there were&#160;suspicions that Cuba was trying to shutdown the network. It also appears the US government project ran out of funding.</p>
<p>The&#160;ZunZuneo project has disappeared.</p> | Did the US government design the ZunZuneo app to empower Cubans or stir unrest? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-04-03/did-us-government-design-zunzuneo-app-empower-cubans-or-stir-unrest | 2014-04-03 | 3 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>So let’s get this straight.</p>
<p>Douglas Feith, who headed up the insidious Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon that was created to develop, gin up, and manufacture “evidence” to justify a US attack on Iraq, has been reprimanded in a long-delayed report by the Pentagon Inspector General’s office, which concludes that the whole OSP project, while perhaps not illegal, was “inappropriate.”</p>
<p>Feith and the Republican establishment are taking that as the final word, and as an official okay for the OSP’s activities.</p>
<p>But wait a minute.</p>
<p>When is the last time we heard the term “inappropriate behavior” used?</p>
<p>Right.</p>
<p>It was Bill Clinton and his cigar in the Oval Office.</p>
<p>And that “inappropriate” behavior, according to the Republican Congress, was grounds for siccing a special prosecutor on the president, for calling him before a grand jury and grilling him, and finally for impeaching him in the House and trying him in the Senate. All over an “inappropriate” consensual sexual escapade that didn’t hurt anyone.</p>
<p>Feith’s inappropriate behavior, however, which was organized by the White House, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, was central to the president’s obsessive plan to invade Iraq. It was Feith’s OSP operation that developed the false evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, that developed false evidence of Iraqi efforts to develop a uranium centrifuge, and that developed the false evidence that Iraq had tried to buy uranium ore from Niger. Feith and the OSP were central to the administration’s success in gaining Congressional support for an attack on Iraq, and for the ensuing conflict that has killed over 3100 Americans and as many as 650,000 innocent Iraqi men, women and children. If there were any sense of integrity, courage and patriotism in Congress today, members of the House would be lining up to file a bill creating a special prosecutor to investigate Feith, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, the White House and the whole OSP story. They’d be lining up too, to file bills of impeachment against the president and vice president.</p>
<p>If there is any sense of integrity, courage and patriotism abroad in the nation at large, we will see resolutions of impeachment passed in coming weeks in the legislatures of Vermont, New Mexico, New Jersey, and perhaps other states like Washington, Oregon, Rhode Island and California, demanding the commencement of impeachment hearings in the House.</p>
<p>Even if what the OSP did was not technically illegal-which is a big if-it was clearly inappropriate, as well as duplicitous, and in a matter as serious as sending the nation to war, clearly rises to the level of an impeachable offense.</p>
<p>Equally inappropriate is the House leadership’s refusal to take action on such a serious matter as fraudulent evidence being used to justify a war.</p>
<p>Americans and Iraqis are continuing to die in ever-greater numbers because no one in Congress has shown the courage to put a stop to the ongoing atrocity. Now that the Pentagon’s own inspector general has at least had the courage to rule that the activities of Feith and his treacherous colleagues was “inappropriate,” such legislative cowardice can no longer be tolerated.</p>
<p>Every day that passes without Congressional action to call the criminals of the Bush administration to account for the war in Iraq means more blood on the hands of the party that now runs the House-the Democrats.</p>
<p>Every day that we, the American People, don’t demand action from our representatives, means more blood on all our hands.</p>
<p>It is time for all this “inappropriate behavior” in Washington to come to an end.</p>
<p>Impeach the President! Impeach the Vice President!</p>
<p>DAVE LINDORFF is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512283/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal</a>. His n book of CounterPunch columns titled “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512984/counterpunchmaga" type="external">This Can’t be Happening!</a>” is published by Common Courage Press. Lindorff’s newest book is “ <a href="" type="internal">The Case for Impeachment</a>“, co-authored by Barbara Olshansky.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Inappropriate Behavior and Impeachment | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/02/12/inappropriate-behavior-and-impeachment/ | 2007-02-12 | 4 |
<p>Britain might begin standing up to Saudi Arabia over the Yemen crisis. A top Tory minister signaled London could be losing patience with its major Middle East ally and will begin to lean on Riyadh.</p>
<p>The Saudi Kingdom has imposed restrictions which are strangling aid routes into Yemen, in a move which could push the country into the “worst famine in decades.” Secretary of State for International Development Penny Mordaunt said Britain supports the Saudi-led coalition’s right to screen shipments but added there was “no excuse” for blocking checked vessels.</p>
<p>She hinted at tough action from Britain as she said the nation cannot “carry on as we have been.”</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/413452-saudi-killed-wedding-yemen/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Speaking to the Telegraph she said: “It is very clear that if you are using starvation as a weapon you are in breach of international humanitarian law. And what I have seen on my visit is that what is being held up is aid.”</p>
<p>“Unless this gets through we think that about 150,000 children may perish in the next few months. Already about 400,000 are severely malnourished and the death rate is going to increase dramatically if we don’t get food, but also critically fuel, in as well.”</p>
<p>Mordaunt met with met Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir and commander of the Saudi-led coalition forces Prince Fahad bin Turki, as well as other officials, to insist that the coalition clear the way for boats bound for the Yemeni ports of Hodeidah and Saleef.</p>
<p>Ports controlled by Houthi rebels are cut off by the Saudi-led blockades but civilians in the war zone are suffering as food, fuel, and medical supplies fail to reach them.</p>
<p>Britain’s clout over Saudi Arabia has not been greatly tested recently, but the demands from Mordaunt will indicate just how strong ties are.</p>
<p>“She received assurances that swift action would be taken and will be reviewing this closely,” the Department for International Development (Dfid) said in a statement after the talks.</p>
<p>The kingdom is at the helm of a coalition backing the Yemeni government as they attempt to drive Houthi rebels from the country.</p>
<p>The battle has been raging since March 2015 but intensified in recent weeks when routes into rebel-held areas were cut off.</p>
<p>Vessels were being checked by the United Nations (UN) over fears weapons were being stashed in crates of food and medical supplies. But Riyadh said they were failing and added further restrictions which have created a bottleneck.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/411913-yemen-war-houthis-killed-saleh/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Among the victims of the war are an estimated three million women and children suffering from malnutrition. Deadly illnesses also stalk the land, with perhaps one million contracting cholera in what is believed to be the world’s worst extant outbreak.</p>
<p>Last week Mordaunt announced £50 million of additional aid to Yemen in a bid to get food to 3.4 million people.</p>
<p>“I’ve got a good understanding of how it all works, and I will be going to my meetings [on Sunday] to say what I have seen today. Which is that there should be no excuse for not letting cleared ships into Hodeidah,” she told the Telegraph.</p>
<p>“I very much understand the strategic importance of our relationship with Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>“But we do not help that relationship by not speaking about the facts of the matter,” she said.</p>
<p>“If there were to be a breach of international humanitarian law, that would put that relationship into difficulty.”</p>
<p>Britain has repeatedly urged the Saudis to allow aid into Yemen.</p>
<p>Mordaunt’s visit came two weeks after Theresa May raised concerns over the Yemen blockade in a meeting with the Crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p> | Britain speaks out as Saudi-led coalition strangles aid route into Yemen | false | https://newsline.com/britain-speaks-out-as-saudi-led-coalition-strangles-aid-route-into-yemen/ | 2017-12-18 | 1 |
<p>After negotiating a sea of handlers and hangers-on, all of whom, with their au courant skinny jeans and shades, resemble extras in a Godard film—or these days, the bowels of Brooklyn—I arrive at the hotel suite’s back patio. And there, slouched over a white settee, she is: <a href="" type="internal">Carla Bruni</a>. During her tenure as first lady of France, the former supermodel was a paragon of style and sophistication. She was the Gallic Jackie O; a woman none other than Karl Lagerfeld called a “beautiful creature who can wear anything.” On this balmy summer day, in a cut-off Keith Richards tee and suffocating black leather pants, Bruni is proving Choupette’s consort correct.</p>
<p>She has ventured to the Lower East Side of Manhattan to discuss her upcoming album, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/french-touch/id1246944987" type="external">French Touch</a>, and does so with delight, gesticulating gaily in between puffs from a purple vape pen worthy of Prince. Unlike 2013’s Little French Songs, with its not-so-thinly-veiled tribute to hubby Nicholas Sarkozy (“Mon Raymond”) and Hollande diss track (“Le pingouin”), this record feels a bit less personal: a collection of eleven song covers ranging from The Clash’s “Jimmy Jazz” to Audrey Hepburn’s “Moon River.” All of the tracks come imbued with Bruni’s trademark come-hitherness—a quality she acknowledges, spinning a yarn about an elderly French journalist who once confessed that her music set the mood for a steamy make-out session with his wife, only to have him fall asleep in the middle. &#160;</p>
<p>“I take it as a compliment,” says Bruni. “If people want to relax to my music, to kiss, to lay on the bed…” her eyes trail off as she flashes a knowing grin.</p>
<p>It all began after an L.A. concert of hers back in 2014. Bruni was approached by uber-producer David Foster, of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” and Celine Dion’s “The Power of Love” renown, who expressed his desire to collaborate on music together. While Bruni had written many songs in her native French, she’d tried writing in English and the experiment didn’t go too well. So Foster convinced her to cover some of her favorite tunes.</p>
<p>Bruni, a guitarist and a piano player locked themselves in her Paris home. They emerged one month later with demos of rearranged songs that were then sent to Foster, who immediately took to the sultrier renditions of canonical anthems.</p>
<p>“I wanted them to come off as very personal songs,” she explains. “[Foster’s] used to big, sprawling productions and I’m used to smaller ones, so we met somewhere in the middle. I gave him some of my intimacy.”</p>
<p>One cut that’s sure to make headlines is her version of The Rolling Stones’ “Miss You,” originally sung by Mick Jagger. Bruni dated the nimble rock legend at the height of her modeling fame in the early ‘90s, shortly after splitting from Eric Clapton, but maintains that it is in no way a coded message to her ex-lover.</p>
<p>“Some other Stones songs would probably be more suitable with my voice, but we did ‘Miss You’ because we found a Latin way into it. The beat was very disco, so we took it down a notch,” shares Bruni. “No matter how much I admire the Stones and how much I like Mick—he’s an old friend and all that—it has nothing to do with my relationship to the Stones. The reason we did it is because it sounded cool.”</p>
<p>While Bruni has acknowledged seeing Jagger, she’d like to clear the air about another rumored beau: Donald Trump.</p>
<p>As the story goes, on June 26, 1991, a photo of Trump and then-girlfriend Marla Maples was splashed across the front page of the New York Post accompanied by the blaring headline, “IT’S OVER.” The Post story alleged that Trump was leaving Maples for Bruni—a report Trump himself confirmed the following day. But Bruni was adamant that it was all a lie, and that she’d never spent any alone time with the boastful real estate mogul. Her version of events was corroborated in the Trump biography Lost Tycoon, which claimed that after she rebuffed him, Trump began spreading a rumor that he and Bruni were in a relationship.</p>
<p>“Trump is obviously a lunatic,” Bruni&#160; <a href="https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&amp;dat=19910914&amp;id=QB8SAAAAIBAJ&amp;sjid=5-8DAAAAIBAJ&amp;pg=6589,1474106&amp;hl=en" type="external">told&#160;the&#160;Daily Mail</a>&#160;later that year. “It’s so untrue and I’m deeply embarrassed by it all. I’ve only ever met him once, about a year ago, at a big charity party in New York. And I haven’t seen him since, of that I’m sure.”</p>
<p>When I bring up the unfortunate episode to her, she shifts around uncomfortably on the sofa and lets out a deep sigh.&#160;</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>“Actually, the whole situation was very vague and just did not exist. So I was very surprised when he went to the press,” Bruni says of the current President of the United States. &#160;</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-alter-ego-barron/2016/05/12/02ac99ec-16fe-11e6-aa55-670cabef46e0_story.html?utm_term=.73145041fe07" type="external">the Washington Post uncovered</a> during his White House run, Trump used to pose as his own publicist, and, under the aliases “John Miller” and “John Barron,” would phone the tabloids and plant made-up stories about various A-list women he was supposedly dating, <a href="" type="internal">including Madonna, Kim Basinger, and Bruni</a>.</p>
<p>“Ah, I heard about that!” she says of the story. “There’s not much I can say. What I can say is that I think democracy is better than dictatorships, and democracy is about elections. So… we respect democracy.”</p>
<p>Doesn’t it upset you, though, that one of the first things that comes up when you’re googled is this ridiculous Trump rumor? I ask her.</p>
<p>“That’s because it was a lie,” she says sternly. “Maybe it’s American Google, because if it’s French Google, other things come up—mostly my man, my work, my younger pictures. But I’m glad there’s not much about my children. I’ve been able to protect them.”</p>
<p>On her choice in men, Bruni once remarked, “The one thing all the men I’ve loved have in common is a strong feminine side. I find feminine men very virile and macho men very fragile. Machismo is a defense mechanism.” While that sentiment certainly applies to Clapton and Jagger, most wouldn’t describe her husband, former French President Nicholas Sarkozy, as fitting that description. But the 49-year-old Bruni says otherwise, and, all this talk of exes notwithstanding, seems very much in love, regularly singing the praises of her husband and affectionately referring to him as “my man” throughout our chat.&#160; &#160;&#160;</p>
<p>“My man, for instance, he looks so male. He’s my main man, my love, because I got married,” she says of Sarkozy. “I never got married because I don’t like to lie, so I got married when I thought that was it. It’s a precise contract. Marriage talks about fidelity, being with the person during bad times. It’s a commitment. So my man is very much a pure male—alpha male, I would say—but he has a very feminine, sentimental side that comes out to the family.”</p>
<p>French President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (C) greets U.S. President Barack Obama on May 26, 2011.</p>
<p>When the Italian-born, France-raised Bruni began dating then-President Sarkozy in late 2007, the media predictably lost its marbles. The following April, a mere two months after they wed, a <a href="" type="internal">nude photograph of Bruni</a>—taken by a French fashion photographer in 1993—was sold at auction for $91,000, causing a tabloid stir. A similar event occurred last July, when nude photos of then-candidate Trump’s wife, Melania, found themselves in <a href="http://nypost.com/2016/07/30/meet-the-photographer-who-shot-melania-trump-naked/" type="external">the pages of the New York Post</a>. Like Bruni, the photos were from Melania’s modeling days—though she is quick to point out that the scenario wasn’t exactly the same.</p>
<p>“It was very different because I had quite a bit of fame from my modeling and my first album,” says Bruni, throwing the most casual of shade. “So when I married [Sarkozy], they went rahhhhh. They just went crazy. And I’m from France and Italy, so to me, making artistic naked pictures wasn’t a problem. I was not ashamed at all. And the picture was from when I was 20 years old, before I had children, so I thought, ‘Well, I look good.’ Plus, I don’t have that overly sexy body. I’ve always been very thin and sort of teenage-looking, so my nude pictures were never Playboy-ish. They were more artistic nudes made by great photographers.”</p>
<p>“Plus, what’s the scandal about?” she continues. “To me, morality has to do with being a good person, so I don’t see any immorality with being nude at all. I see immorality as being unkind, cheating and lying to people. That’s immorality to me. But not being a pretty young girl and posing nude.”</p>
<p>French Touch is out in October, and Bruni plans to tour America, Europe, and South America shortly thereafter. She is thrilled to finally have ample time to explore her true passion, and that her stateswoman days are, at least for now, behind her.&#160;</p>
<p>“It was fun,” she says of her time as first lady. “A great time, great honor, and great experience, but it’s also a great relief now. It’s so brutal and so frightening. I was frightened for him. When someone is a president, people want to kill him. He’s in danger. At first I thought, ‘Oh, this is so funny,’ and after a few years you think, ‘Oh no, this is actually scary. Oh my god.’”</p>
<p>“Plus, I’m very much a free person so I like to go out, buy things, be free and not be surrounded by cops,” she adds.</p>
<p>Or cameras? I say.</p>
<p>“Cameras are alright,” she giggles, flashing a wink.</p> | Carla Bruni on Music, Melania’s Nudes, and Those Pesky Donald Trump Rumors | true | https://thedailybeast.com/carla-bruni-on-music-melanias-nudes-and-those-pesky-donald-trump-rumors | 2018-10-03 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Today, I’m going to make an exception.</p>
<p>Not because there aren’t plenty of other scams out there to bring to your attention – there are – but because I continue to get phone calls and emails from readers about a topic I initially addressed last November and updated six months later in my “Scammed Etc.” blog.</p>
<p>And that’s the “IRS scam.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In the past few weeks alone, reports of sundry IRS scams have surfaced across the country, including New Mexico and the nearby states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Utah. A simple Google news search of “IRS tax scam” last week turned up more than 9,000 entries.</p>
<p>While there are numerous variations, this is the scheme where someone claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service calls and threatens you with arrest, deportation, revocation of your driver’s license, shutting off your utilities, etc., unless you immediately make good on taxes you (don’t) owe – usually by wire transfer or prepaid debit card.</p>
<p>That’s pretty much what happened to a Journal colleague, who told me last week that he and his wife had fielded about a dozen calls in the past month from someone identifying himself as “Rosh” from the IRS in Washington.</p>
<p />
<p>“Hello, this is Charlie King calling you from Tax Audit Department of Internal Revenue Services. The nature behind this voice mail is to make you aware that we have received some legal petitions against your name concerning a tax evasion. So we are about to take this matter to your federal claim courthouse and we are about to dispatch your papers. But before we go ahead and do that, and before we issue a warrant for your arrest, if you need any further details concerning the same case, if you need to know what exactly is going on, you can call us back on our call-back number … You have a great day.”</p>
<p>The Albuquerque couple was informed they needed to resolve a “tax situation” or else the agency would place a lien on their home. To their credit, they didn’t stay on the line long enough to find out how much they “owe” or how they were supposed to pay it.</p>
<p>For another local resident, the threat was a bit more personal.</p>
<p>The Albuquerque woman called me late last month to say she had received a telephone call from someone purportedly with the IRS. When she refused to confirm her name and address – she said he already knew it – he angrily responded by telling her the sheriff would be there soon to “pick her up.”</p>
<p>And then there is the Albuquerque woman who told me last week that she had received a voice-mail message from someone claiming to be with the IRS’ “Tax Audit Department.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The message said the agency had filed a legal petition for tax evasion against her and that she should return the call as soon as possible “before we execute this case by county sheriff officers.”</p>
<p>As I pointed out in my previous column, the IRS has been able to identify a handful of common threads related to this scam.</p>
<p>The caller may identify himself using a fake common name and phony badge number. He may know the last four digits of your Social Security number. Recipients may hear background sounds suggesting the calls are coming from a professional calling center – a point noted by my newsroom colleague. And if you hang up after being threatened with arrest, you may get a follow-up call from someone impersonating a police officer urging you to pay up immediately – or else.</p>
<p>All those are excellent points, but here’s all you really need to know in a nutshell:</p>
<p>That first point was of particular interest to Bruce Barnaby, who emailed me back in May after he had received an email from the “Internal Revenue Service” with “Tax Refund” in the subject line.</p>
<p>The Albuquerque man was intrigued enough to open the accompanying attachment, which he quickly realized was a mistake. That was made crystal clear when the second item on the form asked him to jot down his Social Security number – a surefire way to put yourself at risk of identity theft.</p>
<p>“I consider myself well informed and very careful with my tax returns, but I did not know that the IRS does not use email. If you have not done so already, please warn your readers,” he told me.</p>
<p>“Furthermore, don’t open any attachment from a suspicious source. That as you probably know is the route to hacking.”</p>
<p>Thank you, Bruce. That’s excellent advice for any email-based scam.</p>
<p>Nick Pappas is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal and writes a blog called “Scammed, Etc.” Contact him at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or 505-823-3847 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-800-678-1508.</p>
<p /> | IRS tax scam a familiar oldie that keeps spreading | false | https://abqjournal.com/432214/irs-tax-scam-a-familiar-oldie-that-keeps-spreading.html | 2 |
|
<p>Delta Airlines&#160; <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wireStory/delta-oks-offers-9950-flyers-give-seats-46803441" type="external">is now offering its employees the ability to offer customers</a> up to nearly $10,000 to encourage them to give up their seats on overbook flights, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press.</p>
<p>The new policy arrives as rival company United Airlines continues to suffer after viral video of a passenger being violently removed from a plane continues to haunt the company. United&#160; <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/united-airlines-bad-week-cost-buffett-and-other-investors-millions-2017-04-13" type="external">has lost $570 million in market cap this week</a> as a result of the incident, which left a passenger with a concussion, broken nose, and two lost teeth after he was forcibly dragged from an overbooked flight.</p>
<p>Delta’s new rates enable gate agents to offer up to $2,000 in compensation for passengers on overbooked flights (up from $800), and supervisors are now permitted to offer up to $9,950 (up from $1,350).</p>
<p>Nathan Wellman is a Los Angeles-based journalist, author, and playwright. His less-political Youtube channel&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgTX2M68DdRvR5Jd2YHEH7A" type="external">can be found here</a>.&#160;Follow him on Twitter: @LightningWOW</p> | Delta Airlines just responded to United’s PR disaster in the most genius way | true | http://resistancereport.com/news/delta-airlines-just-responded-uniteds-pr-disaster-genius-way/ | 2017-04-14 | 4 |
<p>Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough hangs around with a bad crowd at MSNBC, and it has had the predictable Stockholm Syndrome effect, as David Brooks’s tenure at the New York Time has had on him. In the infamous video below, Scarborough histrionically condemns Mitt Romney based on a misleading account of the Romney/Ryan campaign appearance outside Dayton last week. The Blaze picked it up <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/another-msnbc-scandal-blaze-readers-at-campaign-event-claim-network-misled-in-video-of-rally-chant/" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>BuzzFeed followed up with a good post <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/morning-joe-mocks-romney-for-something-that-didn" type="external">here</a>, reporting that Scarborough had mocked Romney for “something that didn’t happen.” Bryan Preston <a href="http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/09/28/msnbc-caught-doctoring-video-to-attack-romney/" type="external">highlights</a> the Townhall video below. It goes to the heart of the story. Reporters in attendance at the rally had no doubt that Romney was responding to the crowd’s chant of his name, not Ryan’s.</p>
<p />
<p>The Blaze story set off a storm on Twitter. <a href="http://twitchy.com" type="external">Twitchy</a> captures the action <a href="http://twitchy.com/2012/09/28/lapdog-collusion-msnbcs-scarborough-runs-deceptively-edited-romneyryan-chant-video-tweets-confirm/" type="external">here</a>. Scarborough did not take it well. Perhaps he was a little overcaffeinated. He tweeted: “I won’t even dignify the site that is fanning this false controversy but I will take note of those who link to the lie.” He’s taking note! Somehow Michelle Malkin perseveres. She won’t back down: “We are quaking in our super cute shoes. Of course, it’s quaking from giggle-snorts, but still.”</p>
<p>Over at NRO, Eliana Johnson (nepotism alert) gives this matter <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/328856/disputed-chant-gets-audio-boost-eliana-johnson" type="external">the close analysis it deserves</a>. She gives the disputed chant an audio boost and invites readers to draw their own conclusions. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003O7I6SE/amazon0156-20/" type="external">The Conversation</a>, take 2: Harry Caul, call your office.</p>
<p>I think Joe Scarborough is less a perpetrator than a victim in this matter. He is a victim of MSNBC’s own shoddy partisanship and propaganda. He hangs around with a bad crowd. He wants to be liked.</p>
<p>But character is destiny. His pathetic response to the controversy suggests that he needs some help. He needs the kind of friend who could pull off an intervention before he terminally embarrasses himself. Or does MSNBC mean never having to say you’re sorry?</p>
<p>UPDATE: Eliana has updated the story in her NRO post <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/328874/scarborough-doubles-down-eliana-johnson" type="external">“Scarborough doubles down.”</a></p> | The company he keeps | true | http://powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/09/the-company-he-keeps.php | 2012-09-30 | 0 |
<p>The documentary filmmaker and antiwar activist, noting that America has now been in Iraq longer than it fought in WWII, writes a <a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=202" type="external">stirring letter on his website</a> that demands the immediate pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq.</p>
<p>And it’s not just heated rhetoric. He draws on good historical lessons that are worth paying attention to.</p>
<p>Michaelmoore.com:</p>
<p>There are many ways to liberate a country. Usually the residents of that country rise up and liberate themselves. That’s how we did it. You can also do it through nonviolent, mass civil disobedience. That’s how India did it. You can get the world to boycott a regime until they are so ostracized they capitulate. That’s how South Africa did it. Or you can just wait them out and, sooner or later, the king’s legions simply leave (sometimes just because they’re too cold). That’s how Canada did it.</p>
<p />
<p>The one way that DOESN’T work is to invade a country and tell the people, “We are here to liberate you!” — when they have done NOTHING to liberate themselves. Where were all the suicide bombers when Saddam was oppressing them? Where were the insurgents planting bombs along the roadside as the evildoer Saddam’s convoy passed them by? I guess ol’ Saddam was a cruel despot — but not cruel enough for thousands to risk their necks. “Oh no, Mike, they couldn’t do that! Saddam would have had them killed!” Really? You don’t think King George had any of the colonial insurgents killed? You don’t think Patrick Henry or Tom Paine were afraid? That didn’t stop them. When tens of thousands aren’t willing to shed their own blood to remove a dictator, that should be the first clue that they aren’t going to be willing participants when you decide you’re going to do the liberating for them.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=202" type="external">Link</a></p> | Michael Moore: Cut and Run for Bravery | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/michael-moore-cut-and-run-for-bravery/ | 2006-11-30 | 4 |
<p>Unlike President Donald Trump’s refugee and travel ban, which is now <a href="" type="internal">stalled in the courts</a>, the crackdown on undocumented immigrants in the US is ramping up.</p>
<p>That could mean we'll see more people being sent to detention centers. For some companies, more detained immigrants mean&#160;more business.&#160;</p>
<p>But it's not just private prisons that stand to profit. Business is booming for a US company that bails out undocumented immigrants, and some clients&#160;are now alleging fraud.</p>
<p>“Few companies have benefited from the country’s broken immigration system like Libre,”&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/this-company-is-making-millions-from-americas-broken-immigration-system/2017/03/08/43abce9e-f881-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.8c8dc3ee3a7c" type="external">reporter Michael Miller writes in The Washington Post</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Libre by Nexus&#160;launched in 2014 and has grown from a regional business in Virginia to a national bail-bond company focused on immigration detention.</p>
<p>“An unprecedented immigration court backlog of more than 540,000 cases, fueled by the Central American refu­gee crisis and coupled with soaring immigration bond prices means that many detainees eligible for bail choose between spending many months behind bars or paying Libre’s fees," Miller <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/this-company-is-making-millions-from-americas-broken-immigration-system/2017/03/08/43abce9e-f881-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.96e472c312e3" type="external">explains</a>.&#160;"More than 12,500 have chosen Libre, which contends it is providing a much-needed service.”</p>
<p>Just like&#160;accused offenders in the criminal justice system,&#160;many undocumented immigrants in detention&#160;are eligible for bail.&#160;Unlike US citizens, they must pay their bond in full. Most can't. They simply don’t have the funds.</p>
<p>Enter Libre.</p>
<p>The company works with bond agencies to set up a schedule of payments and provides clients with&#160;GPS trackers&#160;to wear when they're released. The devices, which come with hefty monthly rental charges,&#160;reassure bond agencies that Libre's clients&#160;won't run.&#160;</p>
<p>There are problems with the scheme.&#160;Some say they were pressured into signing contracts in English and didn't understand the terms. Others&#160;say they&#160;didn't realize that signing with Libre would mean wearing a tracking device 24/7,&#160;that they were&#160;committing to pay&#160;the company $420 per month for the GPS monitor&#160;and that none of that money would go toward their bond payment.</p>
<p>Libre has faced several lawsuits over these claims.</p>
<p>The situation raises an important question: Is Libre by Nexus unfairly&#160;exploiting a&#160;broken immigration system in the US?</p>
<p>“You know the CEO of the company doesn’t hide the fact that he expects business to double by year’s end,” Miller says. “Business for Libre by Nexus is booming. He says that he wished these people weren’t detained and that they didn’t have to use the company’s services, but he says the company is essentially these immigrants’ last hope for getting out of detention."</p>
<p>“But it’s a controversial business practice and a lot of immigration attorneys and advocates say that the company is basically preying on these vulnerable people instead of helping them.”&#160;</p> | Private prisons aren’t the only companies making a fortune off immigration detention | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-03-16/private-prisons-aren-t-only-companies-making-fortune-immigration-detention | 2017-03-16 | 3 |
<p>Despite the massive federal stimulus package, national GDP only grew 1.9 percent from April to June, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/07/31/briefing-midday-exxon-markets-econ-cx_ss_0731markets20.html" type="external">the Commerce Department announced</a> Thursday, and it actually shrank in the last quarter of 2007. Meanwhile, high gas prices, supposedly reflecting costs, spiked profits of oil companies, with Exxon recording its most profitable quarter ever. In fact, reports the NYT, “It was the highest quarterly profit ever for any American company, as Exxon made nearly $90,000 a minute.”</p>
<p>New York Times:</p>
<p>Such profits have made Exxon Mobil a target of politicians in recent years, propelling calls for windfall profits taxes to finance research and development for renewable fuels to replace oil.</p>
<p>The principal reason for the company’s banquet of riches is rising fuel prices. Crude oil prices in the second quarter averaged more than $124 a barrel, 91 percent higher than the same quarter in 2007, according to Oppenheimer &amp; Company. Natural gas prices averaged $10.80 per thousand cubic feet, up 43 percent from the quarter a year ago.</p>
<p />
<p>But while high energy prices brought Exxon $10 billion in earnings from selling oil in the quarter, up about $4.1 billion or nearly 70 percent, not everything in its earnings report heartened investors. The company reported that its oil production decreased 8 percent from the second quarter of 2007, largely because of an expropriation of Exxon assets by the Venezuelan government and labor strife in Nigeria.</p>
<p>The company spent $7 billion, or nearly 40 percent more than the same quarter last year, to find and produce oil from new fields.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/business/01oil.html?src=linkedin" type="external">Read more</a></p> | What Else Is New? Economy Slumps, Oil Profits Surge | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/what-else-is-new-economy-slumps-oil-profits-surge/ | 2008-08-01 | 4 |
<p>Using his commencement speech at Rutgers University as a get-out-the-vote effort for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, President Barack Obama derided Donald Trump and Republicans more broadly as endorsing irrationality and ignorance. Chastised young citizens - who mostly support left-wing causes associated with Democrats - for insufficiently exercising their votes, Obama made the case for political experience as amounting to relevant expertise necessary to hold elected office.</p>
<p>Trump and Republicans were committing the sin of celebrating "know-nothingness" as boldness, said Obama.</p>
<p>“Facts, evidence, reason, logic, and understanding of science… these are good things. These are qualities you want in people making policy,” said Obama, casting Trump and Republicans as not valuing rationality. “That might seem obvious. We traditionally have valued those things, but if you were listening to today’s political debate you might wonder where this strain of anti-intellectualism came from,” said Obama. “In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue. It’s not cool to not know what you’re talking about. That’s not keeping it real, or tellin’ it like it is. That’s not challenging political correctness. That’s just not knowing what you’re talking about."</p>
<p>Repeating his ongoing calls for greater globalization, Obama mocked calls for physical security in the form of a barrier along the Mexican/American border.</p>
<p>“The world is more interconnected than ever before, and it’s becoming more connected every day. Building walls won’t change that,” said Obama, receiving applause. Adding that weak governments diminish healthcare capacity and contribute to the rise of disease threats such as the Zika virus, he called for great American engagement abroad in the form of foreign aid and international development.</p>
<p>“The point is, to help ourselves we gotta help others. Not pull up the drawbridge and try to keep the world out," said Obama.</p>
<p>Trump’s proposed temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the country was also critiqued.</p>
<p>“Isolating or disparaging Muslims, suggesting that they should be treated differently when it comes to entering this country, that’s not just a betrayal of our values. It would alienate the very communities at home and abroad that are our most important partners in the fight against violent extremism,” said Obama, implicitly acknowledging the overlap between Muslims and Islamic terrorism, yet still using the nebulous term “violent extremism" in a paradoxical attempt to divorce the people from the phenomenon.</p>
<p>Calling for a preservation of the status quo of immigration, Obama claimed that America’s genesis came about by attracting “strivers from every corner of the globe.”</p>
<p>Making the case for political experience as relevant and necessary expertise for professional politicians, Obama indirectly advocated on behalf of Clinton while admonishing against Trump. Given conventional expectations of expertise in the fields of medicine and aviation, said Obama, it was consistent to expect requisite expertise in the realm of politics for those seeking elected office.</p>
<p>“If we get sick, we actually wanna make sure that doctors’ve gone to medical school, they know what they’re talking about. If we get on a plane, we say we really want the pilot to be able to pilot the place. And yet in our public lives, we suddenly think, ‘I don’t want somebody who’s done it before,’” said Obama, warning that opposition to politicians with political experience amounted to a rejection of “facts” and “reason,” and would perpetuate American “decline.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Earlier this month</a>, Obama similarly used his commencement speech at Howard University as a get-out-the-vote effort for Clinton and the broader Democratic Party.</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Obama: Trump/GOP Embracing 'Anti-Intellectualism'; 'Ignorance Is Not A Virtue' | true | https://dailywire.com/news/5741/obama-anti-intellectualism-trumpgop-path-decline-robert-kraychik | 2016-05-15 | 0 |
<p />
<p>The board of Korean Air Lines &lt;003490.KS&gt;, the largest shareholder of collapsed Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd &lt;117930.KS&gt;, has approved lending 60 billion won ($53.96 million) to the container carrier, using Hanjin's accounts receivable as collateral, a spokesman for the airline said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The spokesman said the funds would be used to help to offload cargo that has been stranded on Hanjin ships. Last month, South Korea-based Hanjin filed for court receivership with roughly 6 trillion won in debt.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Tony Munroe and Jane Merriman)</p> | Korean Air to loan Hanjin Shipping 60 billion won to help unload cargo | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/09/21/korean-air-to-loan-hanjin-shipping-60-billion-won-to-help-unload-cargo.html | 2016-09-21 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The $350 billion long-term bill was approved 65-34, with bipartisan support. New Mexico's two senators, Democrats Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, voted against the bill.</p>
<p>It would make changes to highway, transit, railroad and auto safety programs, but its sponsors were only able to find enough money to pay for the first three years of the six-year bill.</p>
<p>Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the bill's passage "a win for our country."</p>
<p>Immediately after the vote, the Senate turned to a three-month patch previously passed by the House that extends the government's authority to process highway and transit aid payments to states through Oct. 29. Without congressional action, that authority expires at midnight today. House Republican leaders opted for the patch to give themselves more time to work on a long-term transportation bill.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Lawmakers have said they are loath to take up yet another short-term transportation funding extension - this will be the 34th extension since 2009. But Republicans and Democrats don't want to see transportation aid cut off, and they are eager to pass an amendment to the extension bill that fills a $3.4 billion hole in the Department of Veterans Affairs' budget. The money gap threatens to force the closure of hospitals and clinics nationwide.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Senate OKs long-term transportation bill | false | https://abqjournal.com/620968/senate-oks-longterm-transportation-bill.html | 2 |
|
<p>She’s got eight rugrats underfoot. Her <a href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20278472,00.html" type="external">husband Jon</a> may have a 23-year-old woman on the side. But what’s keeping Kate Gosselin, the matriarch of the “Jon &amp; Kate Plus 8″ brood, sane?</p>
<p>Her hair. It seems viewers can’t get enough of Kate’s hedgehog ‘do, which features long, highlighted strands in the front and spikes in the back. “Everybody wants it,” she bragged to Entertainment Weekly. “My hair stylist gets calls from all across the country.”</p>
<p>But you can’t have it, beyotch! “I have very, very thick hair, so it’s not going to work for everybody,” she warned.</p>
<p>You’ve got to admit, Kate personal life might become tabloid hell if “Jon &amp; Kate Head to Divorce Court,” but at least she loves her hair. Sometimes, we know, that’s all we need. [ <a href="http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/05/kate-gosselin-f.html" type="external">Entertainment Weekly</a>]</p> | At Least Kate Gosselin’s Got Great Hair, Right? | true | http://thefrisky.com/post/246-at-least-kate-gosselins-got-great-hair-right/ | 2018-10-04 | 4 |
<p>N.Y. Times:</p>
<p>The Democratic challenger in Montana, Jon Tester, won the race for the United States Senate today, leaving only Virginia to face an uncertain outcome in a tight midterm election race that is not expected to be decided for days or weeks.</p>
<p>The attention was focused today on the battle for the Senate after the House came out clearly in Democratic hands after Tuesday’s race. But the uncertainty of the races in Virginia or Montana left open the prospect of recounts that were likely to be lengthy.</p>
<p>After new figures pushed his lead to about 3,000 early this afternoon, Mr. Tester declared victory, but the Republican, Senator Conrad Burns, who has been trailing his challenger with more than 99 percent of the state’s precincts reporting, had not conceded.</p>
<p />
<p>Mr. Tester said in a live television interview with CNN today that he was “absolutely” declaring himself the winner. “We feel good about winning this election,” he said. “We feel good about going to Washington, D.C.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/us/politics/09senatecnd.html?_r=1&amp;oref=slogin&amp;pagewanted=print" type="external">Link</a></p> | Montana Democrat Tester Wins, Tying Senate | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/montana-democrat-tester-wins-tying-senate/ | 2006-11-08 | 4 |
<p>NEW YORK (RNS) — Studios and filmmakers are rediscovering a classic text as source material for upcoming mainstream films: the Bible.</p>
<p>Nearly 10 years after the blockbuster success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, which earned $611.9 million worldwide, studios are looking to the Good Book for good material.</p>
<p>Future films include:</p>
<p>• LD Entertainment is financially backing&#160; Resurrection, a drama set immediately after Jesus’ death and directed by Hatfields &amp; McCoys director Kevin Reynolds.</p>
<p>• Paramount will release Noah, a $125 million adaptation starring Russell Crowe in 2014.</p>
<p>• 20th Century Fox is developing Exodus, a Moses film starring Christian Bale.</p>
<p>• Warner Bros. has another Moses-themed film titled Gods And Kings, which Steven Spielberg flirted with directing.</p>
<p>• Warner Bros. also is working on a film on Pontius Pilate, rumored to possibly include Brad Pitt.</p>
<p>• Sony is producing Will Smith’s The Redemption of Cain, on the sibling rivalry of Cain and Abel.</p>
<p>• Lionsgate has been developing Mary Mother of Christ, described as “a prequel to The Passion of the Christ” and rumored to include Ben Kingsley.</p>
<p />
<p>Alongside the string of upcoming Bible-related films, producers from the History channel’s The Bible miniseries just announced that the series’ film adaptation Son of God will be released in theaters nationwide in February with 20th Century Fox.</p>
<p>The couple behind the show, Mark Burnett and Touched by an Angel star Roma Downey, said mixing Hollywood and the Bible can be tricky.</p>
<p>“It’s not just some story,” said Burnett, who produces The Voice and Survivor. “There’s a price to pay for failing to stay on track and failing to get the right advisers.”</p>
<p>When showing it to a group of children, the couple said they were told one thing: “Please don’t make it lame.”</p>
<p>“It’s not enough to have good intentions,” said Downey, who plays Jesus’ mother Mary in the series. “It has to be told in a way that’s relevant to a contemporary audience.”</p>
<p>The couple have been able to reach across traditional religious divides in getting promotions; Downey is Catholic and Burnett considers himself a nondenominational Christian. Their efforts have received endorsements from religious leaders ranging from megachurch pastor Rick Warren to Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl.</p>
<p>Previous generations of filmmakers largely stayed within their own traditions without much interest in what other Christians were making, said Dallas megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes, who hosted a film festival earlier this year.</p>
<p>“We have learned that there is more to unite us than to divide us,” he said. “That is exhibited primarily by how we see the arts and film.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, though, Jakes hopes to see faith-based films go more mainstream rather than being a separate niche category.</p>
<p>“Faith is not limited or incarcerated by labels that restrict it from being able to be woven into the fabric of the human experience,” he said. “I think that faith is best worn when it is part of the totality of the human experience rather than relegated over to a tribal expression of a particular group of people.”</p>
<p>Taking a cue from Gibson’s success with The Passion, film marketing campaigns now go after pastors’ endorsements through special advance screenings to secure endorsements from big-name religious leaders. As more people are sitting in front of the TV on a Sunday morning rather than in church, “filmmakers are the new high priests of our culture,” said A. Larry Ross, who has handled publicity for several religious leaders and organizations, including Billy Graham and Rick Warren.</p>
<p>“No pastor went to seminary to put people in [theater] seats or build revenue for a film producer,” Ross said. “Many pastors are realizing that in this video-driven culture, stories are the vessels of meaning.”</p>
<p>“For many faith and family films, the impact on the screen is less the answers given than it is the questions asked that you could discuss over coffee with someone who would never go to church with you but go to a movie with you,” he said.</p>
<p>In some ways, Hollywood’s fascination with the Bible isn’t new: Hollywood drew on biblical storytelling after World War II, especially with Charlton Heston, who played Moses in The Ten Commandments, and Ben-Hur, a movie about a Jewish prince sent into slavery and rescued by Jesus.</p>
<p>But some films flopped when they took too much license. The Last Temptation of Christ, Martin Scorsese’s 1988 film about the life of Jesus and the temptations he faced that included sex scenes, took in only $8.4 million domestically amid a widespread boycott led by Roman Catholics.</p>
<p>Independent films have dealt with the Bible in the past, but it’s significant that major Hollywood studios are taking this up, said Tom Allen, a partner in Allied Faith &amp; Family, a Hollywood marketing firm.</p>
<p>“We’re beyond the cheap ministry movies that appeal only to a certain constituency,” he said.</p>
<p>As Hollywood looks to epic tales of floods, burning bushes and parting seas, films with biblical themes will also continue to pop up. Nicolas Cage is slated to star in Left Behind, a movie based on the book series on the Second Coming of Christ. Sony’s adaption of the popular book Heaven is for Real is also scheduled for next year.</p>
<p>But sticking strictly to the Bible starts with a financial upside — no one collects copyright or licensing fees.</p>
<p>Sarah Pulliam Bailey is a national correspondent for Religion News Service.</p> | Increasingly, Hollywood looks to Bible for screenplay potential | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/increasinglyhollywoodlookstobibleforscreenplaypotential/ | 3 |
|
<p>No matter how one characterizes himself—as idealist or realist, optimist or pessimist, glass half-full or glass half-empty type of person—anyone who’s been paying attention has to be staggered by the fact that we live in a country where almost 90% of its workers are non-union.</p>
<p>That we once had nearly 35% union membership, and that those days of union pride and strong labor alliances happened to coincide with the 1950s—the most prosperous, vigorous and confident period in our history—shouldn’t be lost on anyone.</p>
<p>Today, in stark contrast (and with union membership hovering at just above 12%), we’ve lost our manufacturing sector, become victims to an out-of-control health care system, buried ourselves in an avalanche—trillions of dollars—of debt, and, in a cruel reversal of the economic promise of the post-war 1950s, managed to eviscerate the middle-class.</p>
<p>But there’s possible help on the way . . . maybe.&#160; The first significant move in decades to assist organized labor in its membership drives (going all the way back to the seventies, with the Democrats’ semi-serious attempt at revoking Taft-Hartley)&#160; was made yesterday.</p>
<p>On March 10, the Democrats in both houses of Congress formally introduced the long-awaited Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).&#160; By allowing workers to simply sign cards indicating they wished to join a union, the EFCA would make becoming union members substantially easier.&#160; And making it easier for workers to join a union could be the first step in replenishing and reinvigorating the middle-class.</p>
<p>To say that business groups object to the EFCA would be a laughable understatement.&#160; Not only do American businesses object to the bill, not only do they regard it as the most hideous piece of legislation since the New Deal, they are mobilized in opposition to it.&#160; Indeed, they have officially declared war against it.&#160; They have gone to the mattresses.&#160; They have vowed to see the beast killed.</p>
<p>As evidence, consider the efforts of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.&#160; In addition to raising tens of millions of dollars in anti-EFCA lobbying fees, on the eve of the bill’s introduction, the Chamber of Commerce initiated a nationwide effort to bring nearly 200 business leaders to Washington D.C., and have them pressure congressmen to vote against it.&#160; They’re using a full-court press.</p>
<p>And consider:&#160; an anti-union lobbying organization called Union Facts, led by executive director Richard Berman, spent $20 million in 2008 alone on television and radio advertising assaults against the EFCA, singling out states where Senate races are shaky for the Democrats.&#160; Berman’s group is saturating these target states with anti-union campaigns, hoping to pressure nervous Democrats to back off.</p>
<p>That’s the “good” news.&#160; The bad news is rather bleak.&#160;&#160; Despite President Obama recently reaffirming his support for the bill (after having appeared to have backed off a bit from his enthusiastic campaign rhetoric), several Democrats are reported to be having second thoughts about voting for the bill.&#160; Having been inundated with pressure, they’re reported to be wavering.</p>
<p>Even with every last Democrat voting in favor, the EFCA’s sponsors knew that to get the 60 votes necessary for cloture (to avoid a filibuster) they were going to need a couple of Republican votes—and getting the opposition to sign on was always a long-shot.&#160; Now, with some Democrats now looking to abandon ship, the chances for passage appear even slimmer. That toxic lobbying campaign launched by Berman’s group is having its intended effect.</p>
<p>The anti-EFCA folks are not only hauling out all old newsreel footage of union goons doing the perp walk on their way to jail (attempting to imply that the typical union official is a criminal), they’re trying to convince people that it’s the United Auto Workers (UAW)—and not three decades of woefully incompetent and arrogant management decisions—that are responsible for Detroit’s current problems.</p>
<p>Business groups are trying to blame the perceived greed and corruption of labor unions for America’s economic predicament.&#160; Which takes astonishing nerve, considering that it was Wall Street itself, the singularly most non-unionized, hyper-capitalistic institution in the free world, that precipitated the recession.</p>
<p>Obviously, as formal debate on the bill proceeds (the legislation must be voted on in April), we’ll get a clearer picture of where its chances stand.&#160; But two things should be emphasized:&#160; First, not having the votes for cloture shouldn’t necessarily prevent the Democrats from pursuing its passage.</p>
<p>What would be so wrong in inviting the Republicans to engage in a public, tantrum-like filibuster—the kind we used to associate with the racist Southerners who opposed civil rights legislation?&#160; Show America how trivial the Republicans can be in using these parliamentary stalling tactics.&#160; Show the public how little regard the Republicans have for working people.</p>
<p>And second, President Obama and his chief honcho, Rahm Emanuel, need to cloud up and rain on any Democratic senator who balks at voting for the bill.&#160; Threaten to support their Democratic opponent in the next primary.&#160; Threaten to ruin their political careers.&#160; Play political hardball with them.&#160; It’s been done before.&#160; Do it again.</p>
<p>DAVID MACARAY, a Los Angeles playwright (“Borneo Bob,” “Larva Boy”) and writer, was a former labor rep.&#160; He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The First Shot Has Been Fired | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/03/11/the-first-shot-has-been-fired/ | 2009-03-11 | 4 |
<p>Jon Huntsman. Flickr/ <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/3909233228/sizes/m/in/photostream/" type="external">World Economic Forum</a></p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Jon Huntsman</a>, former Utah governor and outgoing US ambassador to China, is inching toward an official run for the White House in 2012. In the latest news out of Huntman’s camp, <a href="http://www.politico.com/playbook/0311/playbook1371.html" type="external">Politico‘s Mike Allen reports today</a> that the ambassador’s political action committee, Horizon PAC, has beefed up its staff to 12, and plans to announce organizers in key primary and caucus states.</p>
<p>To win over fellow Republicans, Horizon PAC will begin doling out donations to local and state-level Republican candidates—a <a href="http://newmexicoindependent.com/56145/mitt-romney-pac-gives-10k-to-martinez-barela-pearce" type="external">common</a> <a href="http://minnesotaindependent.com/76186/bachmanns-pac-doled-out-money-to-state-candidates-in-iowa" type="external">practice</a> among presidential hopefuls and other top lawmakers. And earlier this month, 18 of Huntman’s lieutenants huddled in New Orleans to plot Huntsman’s strategies on fundraising, research, communications, and more. Of course, Huntsman himself can’t have a role in any of this planning until he officially concludes his ambassadorship at the end of April. But when he does return to the States, he’ll have a campaign in a box awaiting him.</p>
<p>Here’s more from Allen:</p>
<p>A Horizon strategist told Playbook that the PAC has already been very successful in fundraising, even before holding major events. The strategist said Huntsman, known for his moderate stands on the environment and gay rights, is as “as conservative as anybody in the field”—fiscally conservative and anti-abortion.</p>
<p>The campaign-in-waiting is being masterminded from Texas by John Weaver, who helped make Sen. John McCain a household name, and is a strategist known for winning outside the conventional playbook.</p>
<p>One sticking point for a Huntsman candidacy will be his tenure in the Obama administration. In recent months, the president and his aides have heaped praised on Huntsman, as well as likely 2012 candidate Mitt Romney, in what some <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/01/AR2011020101997.html" type="external">have</a> <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110202/el_yblog_theticket/obamas-compliments-could-hurt-gop-2012-rivals" type="external">dubbed</a> a death-by-kindness strategy. As Obama once quipped, “I’m sure that him having worked so well with me will be a great asset in any Republican primary.”</p>
<p>But Huntsman’s strategists are already testing out messages to counteract the poisonous praise of a Democratic administration. As the <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/03/26/politics/p055520D67.DTL&amp;type=printable" type="external">Associated Press reports</a>, “On Huntsman’s link to Obama, they say Huntsman was serving his country, not a partisan administration, and he would be the best positioned to go head-to-head against his former boss.” Selling that message, and more generally winning over conservative primary voters with a more moderate candidate, will prove the toughest task for Team Huntsman.</p>
<p /> | Jon Huntsman Revs Up 2012 Campaign Machine | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/jon-huntsman-revs-2012-campaign-machine/ | 2011-03-28 | 4 |
<p>If you listened closely, you could hear the country exhale these past few weeks as Americans opened their 401(k) statements and began to believe they might just be able to retire at 70 or 72 — instead of 80, as it seemed just a few months ago.</p>
<p>Cable television, especially the business network CNBC, is breathlessly telling us that stocks may have “hit bottom,” while stories about Wall Street again feature quotes from analysts who say that now may be the time to “get back in,” so long as people pick and choose their investments carefully. As the markets closed for Good Friday, the S&amp;P 500 had soared 27 percent since March 9, the fastest gain that the broad index of American stocks had posted since the Great Depression.</p>
<p>Even President Barack Obama, who at times looked and sounded positively shaken during those first few weeks after the election when he was learning the full depth and breadth of the economic crisis he would be inheriting, has helpfully offered the assessment that he sees “glimmers of hope” in the economy.</p>
<p>So why is this giving me the creeps?</p>
<p />
<p>Because we’ve been here, done this. And it didn’t work out so well.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding the day-to-day stock market fluctuations that so many follow the way farmers used to look at the changeable sky, we seem to be approaching a happy state of myopia where we begin to believe that Wall Street, big banks and hypersmart treasury secretaries are the answers to our economic problems. We’re not yet into “irrational exuberance,” because that usually comes later, after the latest “bubble” has formed but has not quite reached its bursting point.</p>
<p>Nothing right now looks like a bubble. But this does look an awfully lot like the years we spent fooling ourselves into thinking that the buying and selling of paper assets is economically the same as the buying and selling of tangible goods that are made by real workers who have actual paychecks with which to purchase products that they, and other workers like them, made.</p>
<p>Some people refer to this dangerous divergence between market psychology and the people who are supposed to make markets work as the “disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street.” It is a hackneyed phrase that has become overused — but it has become overused because it is so true.</p>
<p>Out in the real economy, monthly job losses are still ruinous. Paychecks for those lucky enough to remain on the job are stagnant or falling, according to the Labor Department, with manufacturing workers suffering a serious erosion in earnings. And since the value of people’s paychecks — not the value of their homes or their retirement funds — determines how much consumers can buy, retailers again reported lousy sales in March. The big exception was Wal-Mart, the giant discounter that has made its name (and its profits) by selling stuff cheaply to people who are at times so eager for a bargain they literally stampede into Wal-Mart stores — as they did during the last holiday shopping season, fatally trampling a Wal-Mart worker at a store on Long Island.</p>
<p>There are a couple of other genuinely scary indicators. The International Energy Agency is predicting that worldwide oil demand — like it or not, still a crucial marker of global economic health — is continuing to fall. “The pace of contraction is close to early 1980s levels, with a growing consensus that economic and oil demand recovery will be deferred to 2010,” the IEA said last week.</p>
<p>And even when something resembling an upturn in genuine economic activity becomes evident, it will be because the U.S. government is pumping record sums of money into the economy, in the form of the giant stimulus package Obama signed shortly after he took office and also the billions in cash the Federal Reserve has made available to financial institutions.</p>
<p>So how will we know things are getting better in the real world, instead of in the financial world, which remains so stubbornly divorced from reality? When average people start making purchases they might have postponed six months or a year ago.</p>
<p>The transaction is so fundamental that you have to wonder why the people who get paid to tell us the condition of the “fundamentals” still don’t get it.</p>
<p>Marie Cocco’s e-mail address is mariecocco(at)washpost.com. © 2009, Washington Post Writers Group</p> | Wrong Road to Recovery | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/wrong-road-to-recovery/ | 2009-04-14 | 4 |
<p>This woman works as a cleaning lady in Cairo and all the girls in her small Egyptian town were circumcised before reaching puberty. She says she was circumcised when she was eight. The vast majority of Egyptian women are circumcised and the practice is viewed as a way to protect family honor. Many families fear they won't be able to find husbands for their daughters if they're not circumcised. Egypt's Health Ministry banned circumcision in 1996 but the ban had loopholes so the practice continued. Then last year a girl died while being circumcised. The story made headlines. This Egyptian official says the girl's death shocked the public and reversed discourse on circumcisions. Still opposition to the ban, such as that from the Muslim Brotherhood political opposition, runs high. They paint it as an imposition of Western values and is an attack on Muslim tradition. The government official from earlier says FGM may be a tradition, but it has nothing to do with Islam. In fact Egypt's highest religious authorities have spoken out against FGM. Now Egypt joins a list of more than 15 African countries that have banned FGM. But experts say those bans are uniformly enforced. This analyst says legislation is important, but it alone is not enough, and education and enforcement is also needed. So FGM advocates have been lobbying governments and doctors to build a consensus against the practice. There have been TV commercials and billboard ads to educate, and they're having some success. Teenage circumcisions continue to drop.</p> | Egypt bans female circumcision | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-06-25/egypt-bans-female-circumcision | 2008-06-25 | 3 |
<p>MUMBAI (Reuters) – A blaze in a building under construction in a suburb of the Indian city of Mumbai killed at least six people, most of them laborers, and injured nearly a dozen, fire and police officials said on Thursday.</p>
<p>The cause of the fire, which broke out late on Wednesday, was being investigated, a fire service officer said. It is likely to compound concern about safety in the financial hub after an old building collapsed last week killing 34 people.</p>
<p>Laborers working on the building were living on the ground floor, some with families, and cooking gas canisters were believed to have exploded in the fire, fuelling its spread.</p>
<p>“Though the fire was brought under control immediately, all injuries and deaths occurred before the arrival of the fire brigade,” said P.S. Rahangdale, chief officer at the Mumbai Fire Brigade.</p>
<p>Eleven people were injured, eight of them critically, he said.</p>
<p>Mumbai has endured torrential monsoon rain and serious flooding over recent weeks. The building collapsed last week in a congested neighborhood of the old city after two days of intense downpours.</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> | Fire at building in India's Mumbai kills at least six | false | https://newsline.com/fire-at-building-in-india039s-mumbai-kills-at-least-six/ | 2017-09-07 | 1 |
<p>"Good fences make good neighbors" wrote Robert Frost. The same might be said of good borders.</p>
<p>China and Russia announced today they've settled a longstanding border dispute. For centuries each side claimed ownership of two small islands.</p>
<p>Russia and China 2004Russia and China 2004</p>
<p>So for our Geo Quiz -- we're looking for the names of those two islands. Geographer Sheila O'Lear says you can find them right where two major rivers meet.</p>
<p>Russia and China 2008Russia and China 2008</p>
<p>"The islands that we are talking about are north of the Korean Peninsula, and they are located at the confluence of the Amur River and Ussuri River. They are actually meandering rivers so they've probably been moving back and forth for some time."</p>
<p>The territorial dispute goes back to the days of imperial China and czarist Russia. Now Russia has handed all of one island and half of another to China.</p>
<p>We'll point out these islands on the map in just a minute.</p>
<p>First, our Geo Quiz involved a long-standing dispute between Russia and China over a couple of islands.</p>
<p>That squabble is over, as of today.</p>
<p>Russia has agreed to hand over one of the islands...and half of the other.</p>
<p>Shannon O'Lear specializes in Russian and Central Eurasian geography, she teaches at the University of Kansas. Listen to the interview:</p>
<p>What are the names of the islands that figure in this border dispute between Russia and China -- and give us a snap shot of where they are:</p>
<p>Yinlong Island, known as Tarabarov Island in Russian, along with the largely uninhabited half of Heixiazi Island, or Bolshoi Ussuriysky.</p> | Geo answer | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-10-14/geo-answer | 2008-10-14 | 3 |
<p>The small Southside Virginia town of Victoria in Lunenburg County is “the place to be” on Sunday, Oct. 14, as the church celebrates its centennial. The events are the culmination of a year-long celebration. John V. Upton, executive director of the General Association, will be the guest speaker.</p>
<p>Over the last century, there have been generations who received their schooling in Victoria. Many of them mastered “the three R's” — reading, ‘riting and the road to Richmond or Raleigh, depending upon the direction in which they headed out of town. There have been others who put down deep roots in the town and never left. On Centennial Sunday, there will be a reunion of the natives.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Fred Anderson</p>
<p>The people who remained and newcomers along the way have maintained the beautiful brick church with its Doric colonnade. They have beautified and enlarged the house. They added an elevator for the convenience of the people. They have kept the stained-glass windows sparkling.</p>
<p>The windows are colorful jewels. One of them bears the symbols of two Sunday school classes, the Baraca and Philathea classes. There was a time when the two Bible classes for men and women, respectively, were found in most every Baptist church. At Victoria, the names are perpetuated in beautiful glass. One memorial window bears the words “Fudge Sale.” “Come-heres” and strangers need to be told that it does not refer to a fundraising project of yore but that it actually is a person's name.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Victoria Baptist Church.</p>
<p>There also are windows which bear the names of different railroad brotherhood societies which paid for them. These give clues to Victoria's storied past. The location was considered halfway between Norfolk and Roanoke and an ideal location for the space needed for a major player in the Virginia economy, the railroad. In 1906 large acreage of farm and forest lands was secured for maintenance shops for the railroad. The new town was christened Victoria and officially chartered in 1909. It was to be a railroading town. Land companies divided the acreage into parcels and soon houses and commercial buildings were built.</p>
<p>There was a policy among Virginia Baptists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to build a Baptist church wherever the railroad built a depot. There already was an existing Baptist church in the nearby countryside, but the residents of the new town wanted a Baptist church in Victoria. The first church business meeting was held on Oct. 13, 1907. At the meeting all of the standard documents were in place — articles of faith, covenant and constitution. The only thing the new church needed was a pastor. Just to organize a new Baptist church was victory in itself.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Window in Victoria Baptist Church.</p>
<p>The church called William Bonnie Daughtry as the first pastor. At age 33, Daughtry already had four other churches. Somehow he managed to add Victoria as the fifth, with preaching twice a month. There were 25 members listed in the church's first report to the Concord Association. If the pastor could have gathered all of the five congregations into one meeting house, he would have had a sizeable congregation of some 400 worshippers. Instead, he had to travel to them across dirt roads that were dusty in the summer and muddy in the winter. His wife, Miss Della, also had to know all of the scattered families and remember in which direction her husband was headed to preach.</p>
<p>It was under Daughtry's pastoral leadership that the first Baptist church house was erected in the town. The church borrowed $600 to build a modest frame building. It had all the touches of a city church: arched Gothic-style windows and a small tower. Victory in the form of a house of worship had come to the Baptists of Victoria.</p>
<p>Charles Abbitt, a resident of the Chesapeake, the Virginia Baptist residential facility at Newport News, is among those oldtimers who treasures his Victoria roots. “My grandparents were charter members and my father came shortly after.” They worshipped in the original building. Abbitt recalls: “The railroad prospered except in the 1920s when a strike created a crisis. Some ‘strike-breakers' took the jobs from others. It was something which a little community like ours didn't get over for a long time. There were boys who wouldn't play with each other because some of their fathers were ‘strike-breakers.' ”</p>
<p>The Twenties also was the decade of advancement for the Victoria Church. It was proposed that a substantial brick building be erected. V.H. Harrell was pastor during the building program. The cost reflected the general prosperity of the early Twenties. It would cost $45,000; but at the time of occupancy, the new building still had a debt of $15,000. The stock market crash of '29 and the Great Depression which followed left the congregation saddled with the debt. The men of the church kept raising the money in modest amounts just to pay the interest on the debt. The women organized a Ladies' Aid Society to raise funds. Even little children gave their coins. Samuel G. Harwood was the pastor during the critical years and he reduced his own salary to help the church meet its expenses. Victory from debt did not come until 1942.</p>
<p>There were other victories. In 1923 when construction on the new church building was ready to commence, the original building was given to an African-American Baptist congregation, Pleasant Oak. The materials were used for a new meeting house for Pleasant Oak which was constructed about two miles out from town. In June 2007, as part of the centennial, Victoria Baptists gathered at their old building and shared a fellowship supper and joint worship service with the Pleasant Oak Baptists. Both churches' choirs and pastors, Stanley Hare of Victoria and James Green of Pleasant Oak, participated in the worship service. For Baptists of Southside Virginia, black and white, it was yet another victory.</p>
<p>Fred Anderson may be contacted at fred.anderson@ vbmb.org.</p> | Victories in Victoria | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/victoriesinvictoria/ | 3 |
|
<p>Verghese Kurien, 90, the father of India's "white revolution," died Sunday in Gujarat. A champion of the small farmer, Kurien was instrumental in creating a national milk distribution grid in the 1970s that turned India into the world's largest producer of milk and dairy products -- a feat with enormous financial and health implications.</p>
<p>In recent years, Kurien's Amul Dairy brand, a cooperative based in Gujarat, generates annual sales of some $2.5 billion, driven by&#160;three million producer members who collect around 9 million liters of milk a day.</p>
<p>Kurien&#160;died early Sunday morning, <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Gujarat/The-milkman-who-changed-the-course-of-history/Article1-927188.aspx" type="external">according to the Hindustan Times</a>. He was cremated in a simple ceremony as per his wish, in Anand, Gujarat, where he launched "Operation Flood" in the 1970s.</p>
<p>"His greatest contribution was to give a position of pre-eminence to the farmer," the paper quoted Manmohan Singh as saying.</p>
<p>"He was the maker of modern Gujarat. He brought out the cooperative energies of Gujarat for common good. Generations of Gujaratis have grown up on the strength of milk security he produced in the state," Ela Bhatt,&#160;founder of India's Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), told Radha Sharma of <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/amul-brand-builder-verghese-kurien-was-the-maker-of-modern-gujarat-ela-bhatt/articleshow/16332364.cms" type="external">the Economic Times</a>.</p>
<p>"Verghese Kurien's success was that he kindled urban interest in a rural story of empowerment and sustenance," Rajesh Pandathil writes for <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/business/kurien-indian-business-reminder-of-the-missing-rural-link-449859.html" type="external">FirstPost.in</a>.</p>
<p>"In his model of business, villagers are the producers and their products, which they own, are sold to the urban, using the tools of a typically urban-centric business."</p>
<p>In creating the Amul brand, he empowered farmers that are generally treated only as suppliers--fighting for contracts with the big companies that can take their products to market.&#160;</p>
<p>Cutting out exploitative middlemen, Kurien's cooperative "established a direct link between milk producers and consumers. Milk producers had the control of procurement, processing and marketing and a professional management was engaged," Pandathil writes.</p>
<p>The model has been replicated by many others--none quite so successfully. But it nevertheless seems that this is an area India needs to explore further: Not fighting against economies of scale, as many of the country's laws to protect "cottage industries" have done, but making economies of scale work for the little guy, too.</p> | Verghese Kurien, father of India's "white revolution" and Amul dairy brand, dies | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-09-10/verghese-kurien-father-indias-white-revolution-and-amul-dairy-brand-dies | 2012-09-10 | 3 |
<p>The first trial in the Abu Gharib prison torture saga concluded with a guilty plea by SPC staff Seargeant Jeremy Spivits.</p>
<p>Spivits was sentenced to one year in prison and a “Bad Conduct Discharge.”</p>
<p>As well, Spivits was ordered to provide evidence against the other low ranking soldiers charged in upcoming show trials meant to demostrate to Democacy-lusting Iraqi’s how we do it here.</p>
<p>Garnering less media attention is the desertion trial of Florida National Guardsman Camilo Mejia, which began on May 19th at Fort Stewart, Georgia.</p>
<p>Mejia, 28, is from North Miami, and an eight year veteran of the Army and National Guard. In March he went on a 15 day leave, never to return.</p>
<p>Mejia did, however, file for conscientious objector status.</p>
<p>In his application, written, as noted by the Miami Herald’s Elaine Del Valle, months before the photos from Abu Gharib surfaced, Mejia said he had witnessed similar acts of torture and abuse of Iraqis held at the Al Assad Air Force base.</p>
<p>Mejia further alleged that many Iraqis, like the hundreds just released at Abu Gharib, were routinely and arbitrarily arrested and held.</p>
<p>In his pre-Abu Gharib CO application, Mejia charged: “Many of these prisoner were arbitratily captured… and what set the combatants apart from the noncombatants could be something as as simple as walking away from a checkpoint.”</p>
<p>Mejia faces a year of hard labor and a possible bad conduct discharge if convicted. He faces a jury consiting of a military judge and fellow soldiers, most of them officers.</p>
<p>Perhaps the Abu Gharib horrors will increase the chances of an acquital. But not likely, especially considering the political background of Mejia’s parents, both of whom served in the Nicaraguan Sandinista govenment in the 1980s.</p>
<p>Indeed, Mejia is the offspring of Carlos Mejia who served as culture minister under the Sandinistas. Carlos Mejia penned the Sandinista National Liberation Front’s national anthem, which, Del Valle, notes, contain the lines, “We struggle against the Yankees, enemies of humanity.”</p>
<p>Mejias has also made it plain that he came to believe that this war was all about oil and profits and not about liberating Iraq from tyranny.</p>
<p>It would be surprising if Mejia’s jurors didn’t look at his stateements as just another way of saying the Yankees are still the enemy of humanity.</p>
<p>JACK McCARTHY lives in Tallahassee Florida. He can be reached at: <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Can Camilo Mejia Get a Fair Trial? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/05/21/can-camilo-mejia-get-a-fair-trial/ | 2004-05-21 | 4 |
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>A photo is going viral online and it is sending chills down people's spines as it shows an ISIS logo on a cellphone taken weeks ago but in the same exact spot where the Manhattan truck attacker mounted a bike path killing in the process eight people.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>The photograph was posted about two months ago where a man's hand could be seen holding the mobile phone with the ISIS logo on the screen taken along the junction of Houston Street and West Street in Manhattan with the skyscrapers including 1 World Trade Center visible in the background.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>It is the same spot where the horrific terror attack took place on Tuesday as terrorist Sayfullo Saipov drove a hired truck on to West Side Highway before ramming through pedestrians and cyclists along a bike path.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>SITE, a respected group which monitors terror activity, says the image appeared online as far back as two months ago. It is not clear which site the said image first appeared in.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>It has yet to be determined who was holding the phone in the photograph. It has yet to be established also if the person or persons involved in the said photograph and those who may have originally uploaded it are connected or known to the terrorist Saipov who staged the Manhattan attack.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>ISIS has yet to claim responsibility for the dastardly attack, but authorities found terror propaganda material inside the truck used by Saipov in the attack.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Saipov's chosen method is also consistent with past ISIS terror attacks including using a rented vehicle, leaving propaganda material inside, and following up the vehicle attack with secondary weapons.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>After plowing his truck down pedestrians and cyclists, Saipov then crashed his vehicle into a school bus before running down the highway holding fake guns. An NYPD officer shot the terrorist in the stomach and Saipov was later arrested and taken to a hospital.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Based from past actions, ISIS does not claim responsibility for a terror attack when the perpetrator is arrested, and not killed.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Pro-ISIS channels, however, have been sharing propaganda praising Saipov after he killed eight people in Manhattan. Worse, there have been posters going around online showing images of the Statue of Liberty exploding along side pictures of the carnage caused by Saipov.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Some supporters and sympathizers of ISIS have even called Saipov "a brother" while others expressed disappointment that "only eight people" were killed, arguing that a "bigger street" should have been picked.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Source:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5038753/Image-ISIS-flag-taken-exact-site-New-York-attack.html" type="external">dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5038753/Image-ISIS-flag-taken-exact-site-New-York-attack.html</a></p> | Creepy: Months-Old Photo of a Cell with ISIS Logo Taken in Same NY Attack Street | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/10880-Creepy-Months-Old-Photo-of-a-Cell-with-ISIS-Logo-Taken-in-Same-NY-Attack-Street | 2017-11-01 | 0 |
<p>On Monday morning, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump threw a temper tantrum on CNN’s “New Day” when host Chris Cuomo failed to immediately congratulate the real estate mogul on his glorious victory. Trump complained because Cuomo opted to follow established journalistic norms and question the frontrunner right off the bat rather than fawning over the subject of the interview.</p>
<p>"Well, this is a nice way to start off the interview," groaned Trump after Cuomo asked him about his campaign’s latest attacks on rival presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. "First of all, you should congratulate me for having won the race.”</p>
<p>He continued, "I thought, you know, at least there would be a small congratulations but I’m not surprised with CNN because that’s the way they treat Trump. You know, they call it the ‘Clinton Network,’ and I believe that. So, uh, let’s start off right there."</p>
<p>Here’s a transcript of the testy exchange:</p>
<p>Trump's interview on CNN this morning did not get off to a good start: <a href="https://t.co/8Yv6NY5gMb" type="external">pic.twitter.com/8Yv6NY5gMb</a></p>
<p>Since his campaign began, Trump has leveraged his (deliberately constructed) precarious relationship with the “media” to his advantage, nailing himself to the cross every time a reporter is audacious enough to question him. This is the same Donald Trump that called for an overhaul of the First Amendment in order to censor ostensibly unfriendly media outlets.</p>
<p>"Believe me, if I become president, oh, do [the media] have problems," Trump <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-libel-laws-sue-media-2016-2" type="external">said</a> at a campaign rally in late February. "They're going to have such problems. "I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money," he added.</p>
<p>From the start of the interview with Cuomo, Trump established a contentious tone. Naturally, the interview ended like it began, with rancor and enmity.</p>
<p>By the way, the ending of Trump's interview with CNN this morning wasn't exactly smooth sailing either: <a href="https://t.co/3vJr8cv2i5" type="external">pic.twitter.com/3vJr8cv2i5</a></p>
<p>Cuomo is far from blameless in the situation. When Trump threw decorum out of the window, Cuomo, likely fearing diminished access to the candidate in the future, backed down, apologized, and enabled the subject of his interview to dictate the terms of engagement. It was no longer a CNN interview at that point, a Trump show, complete with recycled campaign talking points and evasive answers.</p>
<p>As The Federalist’s <a href="http://thefederalist.com/author/dharsanyi/" type="external">David Harsanyi</a> wrote on Monday, <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2016/05/09/chris-cuomo-demonstrates-everything-thats-wrong-with-the-medias-donald-trump-coverage/" type="external">Chris Cuomo Demonstrates Everything That’s Wrong With The Media’s Donald Trump Coverage</a>. Harsanyi summed up the Trumpian media wasteland as follows:</p>
<p>This is how the media—and not all, but many—have covered Trump from the start: allowing him to dictate the contours of interviews, tossing him superficial questions that allow him to exert pretend toughness, and giving him a pass on the vital policy questions to engage in reality show theatrics.</p>
<p>The last thing a journalist should do is to suck up to a man running for the presidency of the most powerful country in the world. An independent and critical press is necessary to curtail the powers of the chief executive and shed light on potential abuses of the office. The job of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate" type="external">Fourth Estate</a> is to hold both elected officials and tyrannical majorities accountable. “Journalism can never be silent: That is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault,” <a href="http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/quotes-inspire-journalists/243651" type="external">asserted</a> Henry Anatole Grunwald. “It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.”</p>
<p>Whenever a (populist) demagogue ascends to power, we have to question the viability of our democratic institutions. Unfortunately, as has been clear for years now, one of the foundational pillars of democracy, a free press, has begun to collapse.</p> | WATCH: Trump Whines To CNN: ‘You Should Congratulate Me!’ | true | https://dailywire.com/news/5590/watch-trump-whines-cnn-you-should-congratulate-me-joshua-yasmeh | 2016-05-10 | 0 |
<p />
<p />
<p>Cokie Roberts needs a reality check because she's got herself convinced that if the president would just sit down and talk nice to the terrorists in the House of Representatives all of this talk about shutdowns and defaults wouldn't happen. In Cokie's pretty little world, there would be this nice negotiation and then Congress would link hands and sing Kumbaya after they gave the Tea Party their full list of demands.</p>
<p>After all, what do elections matter if the side who has the hostage can shoot it without consequence, right?</p>
<p>The roundtable on This Week was a shameful exercise in Village delusion. We begin with Cokie's "both sides" nonsense:</p>
<p>I might say this whole business of, you know, we won't negotiate with a gun to your head, actually I would prefer to negotiate with a gun to my head rather than have somebody shoot me.</p>
<p>And I think that's where they could end up if they don't sit down and talk. And so both sides really do need to some, now, I've got to believe that there is (inaudible) nobody in a back room with something in a back pocket.</p>
<p>No one reminded Cokie that both branches of Congress passed budgets in March and April. No one reminded Cokie that the Senate has requested a conference NINETEEN times only to have Ted Cruz block appointment of conferees in the Senate and the House refusing to appoint them too. Nay, that must be too esoteric for the Villagers.</p>
<p>So the terrorists take an innocent hostage -- the ACA -- and put a gun not only to the President's head, but to 800,000 Federal employees, the Senate, and every citizen of this country. Anyone with half a brain should have figured out by now that this is EXTREME behavior. It is not normal, it is not a "both sides" moment. After all, I can't recall Nancy Pelosi holding Dubya by the short hairs along with the entire country by threatening default and shutting down the government to withhold funding for the Iraq war. Because that's not what responsible politicians do.</p>
<p>There are lines that should not be crossed, but Cokie feels sorry for the terrorists. She's sad that the President is pushing them to be embarrassed by their embarrassing and unpatriotic behavior, and she has an ally in Jon Karl.</p>
<p>KARL: So you need something. Look the Republicans at this point have gotten themselves into this dark alley, into this box canyon. They need a way out. They cannot unconditionally surrender. I mean the White House I think that the danger for the White House is they are so convinced that they have the upper hand. And they do right now, absolutely have the upper hand. But they will overplay that and force the Republicans to a self-destructive move.</p>
<p>ROBERTS: What is the point of that by the way? What is the point of that? What is the point of the White House pushing them so hard that they have cry uncle?</p>
<p>The point, Cokie, is a simple one. We do not negotiate with terrorists, whether they originate here or in other countries. We do not cave in to unreasonable demands and we expect our elected officials to put the country ahead of their own political aims. That is the point.</p>
<p>The problem is, this attitude is now the Village cry. Dan Balz wrote a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/shutdowns-roots-lie-in-deeply-embedded-divisions-in-americas-politics/2013/10/05/28c0afe2-2cfa-11e3-b139-029811dbb57f_print.html" type="external">long, contemplative piece</a> for today's Washington Post blaming both sides for moving farther from the center into their own ideological universes. His entire piece fails to mention the fact that ONE side has left the rational world, much less the rational center.</p>
<p>There are a few breaths of fresh air in the putrid Village universe, however. <a href="//www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/opinion/sunday/governing-by-blackmail.html?ref=nicholasdkristof&amp;_r=1&amp;" type="external">Nicholas Kristof</a> laid it out clearly in the New York Times:</p>
<p>The stakes rise as we approach the debt limit and the risk of default — which <a href="http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl2178.aspx" type="external">the Treasury Department notes</a> could have an impact like that of the 2008 financial crisis and “has the potential to be catastrophic.” Astonishingly, Republican hard-liners see that potential catastrophe as a source of bargaining power in a game of extortion: We don’t want anything to happen to this fine American economy as we approach the debt limit, so you’d better meet our demands.</p>
<p>In this situation, it strikes a false note for us as journalists to cover the crisis simply by quoting each side as blaming the other. That’s a false equivalency.</p>
<p>Look, Cokie! He said it. He put it right there on the table. So did <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/10/01/how-the-press-helped-cause-the-gop-shutdown/196187" type="external">Media Matters</a>, who put responsibility for this ongoing clusterf*ck right on the shoulders of those who caused or helped to cause it:</p>
<p>What's been clear for years is that the press clings to its preferred storyline: When Republicans obstruct Obama's agenda, the president's to blame for not changing the GOP's unprecedented behavior. In other words, "both sides" are to blame for the GOP's radical actions and the epic gridlock it produces.</p>
<p>The media lesson for Republicans? There's very little political downside to pushing extremism if the press is going to give the party a pass.</p>
<p>Which is exactly what Cokie and her pals did in that segment. They pretended to be serious, but they were just giving cover to the Tea Party terrorists to continue their extreme behavior unabated, while the rest of the country, our economy, and what shreds of our social safety net remain are sucked away in a sea of shouts about 'both sides' doing it.</p>
<p>What will it take for them to actually be honest with their audiences? I don't know. The pattern is clear to anyone paying attention:</p>
<p>And now, rather than seeing the health care obstructionism as part of an obvious Republican continuum, and rather than noting it followed the gun law <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/04/10/on-cue-the-press-blames-obama-for-gops-radical/193556" type="external">obstructionism</a>, which followed the <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/03/05/sequestration-and-how-the-liberal-media-keep-bl/192907" type="external">sequester obstructionism</a>, which followed the Chuck Hagel confirmation <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/02/13/the-press-yawns-while-partisan-republicans-shre/192643&amp;ei=JqJ2UbOcC6SU0QGxvoHgBw&amp;usg=AFQjCNEFwMGpaIEPRAQFsk3-makzcCT2pg&amp;bvm=bv.45512109,d.dmQ" type="external">obstructionism</a>, which followed the Hurricane Sandy emergency relief <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/277141-house-committee-blocks-most-gop-attempts-to-trim-sandy-relief-bill" type="external">obstructionism</a>, which followed consistent <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/02/14/here-we-go-again-right-wing-media-goad-gop-to-e/192665" type="external">obstructionism</a> on juridicial nominees, the press remains reluctant to connect the obvious dots that help paint the portrait of a truly radical Republican party.</p>
<p>You can rest assured, however, that they don't shy away from painting a portrait of Barack Obama as a radical liberal who somehow deserves this kind of obstruction, because...both sides.</p> | Cokie Roberts Recommends Compromise With Economic Terrorists | true | http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/cokie-roberts-runs-interference-economic-te | 2013-10-07 | 4 |
<p>I have been hearing (I only have radio, no TV) over and over about the Heroic Rescue of Jessica Lynch. Bless her soul, I hope she gets well. But the reports raise doubts at a couple of levels.</p>
<p>1) They say her arms and legs were broken. Hard to think of an accident that would do all that. And there were 8 or 9 dead GIs where she was. If they had been killed in the battle, the Iraqis would not have dragged them to the hospital. Maybe they were wounded, and all died of their wounds, but that sounds unlikely.</p>
<p>What seems likely is that those deaths, and Jessica’s broken limbs, were the indirect result of the Heroic Rescue. It’s common sense that one of the dangers in a rescue attempt like that is that when the captors see that rescue is coming, they kill the prisoners rather than have them taken away. If it turns out that the 8 or 9 died just when the rescue was taking place, that would be pretty strong evidence that it was the rescue that killed them.</p>
<p>Which leads to 2) To what extent was this Heroic Rescue designed as a media event? Nothing new in that: it has been pretty well proven that the assault on Mount Suribachi at Iwojima (not just the flagraising, but the whole assault) was largely a USMC media event. If it turns ou to be true that the Heroic Rescue was also a media event, then the 8 or 9 dead and Ms Lynch’s broken arms and legs will be something that the US planners will be hard put to to explain (not that I absolve whoever did the killing and breaking).</p>
<p>Which leads to 3) One of my heros, Allen Nelson, a Vietnam vet who turned pacifist and comes to Okinawa a lot, once told me, “You know what surprised me the most the first time I went into combat? (long pause) There was no music.” For us movie goers and TV viewers, war is something that is accompanied by music. It’s the music that gives it its dignity. But on the battlefield, no music. But now on Fox and all the crap I get on the radio, the music has been restored. I get musical background to Bush’s speeches, music between battle descriptions, music backing up Central Command briefings. This is a movie.</p>
<p>The advocates of the New American Century talk about the Roman Empire as a model, but I had been thinking, at least we don’t do the Circus: battles to the death as entertainment. But now it has begun. Today I listened to(and I guess people with TVs watched) a live battle in which people were killed. You could see dead and dying bodies on real time. With music. After experiencing live (live-to-dead?) entertainment like this, can we hope that the viewers will be willing to go back to ordinary sitcoms?</p>
<p>Douglas Lummis is a political scientist living in Okinawa and the author of <a href="" type="internal">Radical Democracy</a>. Lummis can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Saving Private Lynch | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/04/09/saving-private-lynch/ | 2003-04-09 | 4 |
<p>TOKYO (Reuters) – World number one Garbine Muguruza put on a clinical display to power past Caroline Garcia 6-2 6-4 in the Pan Pacific Open quarter-finals in Tokyo on Friday.</p>
<p>The 23-year-old Wimbledon champion, who climbed to the top of the WTA rankings on Monday, hardly broke sweat against the Frenchwoman, ranked 20th in the world, on her way to victory in an hour and 20 minutes.</p>
<p>“To achieve this dream I’ve had since I was a child gives me a lot of confidence first,” Muguruza said in a courtside interview. “A boost of motivation to hold this position – because I think it’s the best.”</p>
<p>Muguruza took a 2-1 lead in the first set after an early break and continued to dominate until midway through the second, nullifying Garcia’s serve twice more as she looked to close out the contest quickly.</p>
<p>Garcia, however, staged a mini-revival when she converted her only break-point opportunity in the sixth game of the second but the Spaniard regained control of the contest with another break in the very next game.</p>
<p>The 2016 French Open winner will face defending champion Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark who went through to the semi-finals after Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova was forced to retire with a right thigh injury while trailing 3-6 7-6(5) 3-1.</p>
<p>After Cibulkova breezed through the first set, peppering the court with her powerful forehands, there were six consecutive breaks of serve at the start of the second.</p>
<p>The world number nine got a break in the 11th game to go 6-5 up but Wozniacki, seeded third, saved two match points and finally took it to the tiebreak to force a decider.</p>
<p>The Dane got an early break in the final set to go 3-1 up before her opponent could no longer continue.</p>
<p>Earlier, Germany’s Angelique Kerber won a battle of former world number ones against Karolina Pliskova 7-6(5) 7-5 to set up a semi-final clash against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.</p>
<p>The two-time grand slam champion, who defeated her Czech opponent in their last meeting at the 2016 U.S. Open final, converted her fifth match point to register a first win over a top-20 player this season.</p>
<p>“Being back in the semis here in Tokyo is a great feeling,” Kerber, who last reached the semi-finals at the event in 2014, said after her victory.</p>
<p>“It’s always tough to play against (Pliskova), so I was trying to focus on my game. I think I played a good match today.”</p>
<p>Nimble on her feet, Kerber, who has dropped to world number 14 since storming to the Australian and U.S. Open titles last year, put immense pressure on Pliskova’s serve but failed to convert 12 of her 13 break-point opportunities.</p>
<p>She did, however, hold her nerve during the first set tie-break to edge ahead and then finally broke in the 12th game of the second set to seal a spot in the last four.</p>
<p>Russian Pavlyuchenkova defeated another Czech player, Barbora Strycova, 5-7 6-3 6-1 to advance to the semi-finals.</p> | Tennis: Top seed Muguruza sails into Pan Pacific Open semis | false | https://newsline.com/tennis-top-seed-muguruza-sails-into-pan-pacific-open-semis/ | 2017-09-22 | 1 |
<p>For the week ended Nov 19, in percent. * denotes revision.</p>
<p>NOTE: Averages for are based on the number of planted acres, not</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>the number of states.</p>
<p>NO CONDITION REPORTED:</p>
<p>PROGRESS:</p>
<p>--Harvested--</p>
<p>11/19 11/12 2016 Avg</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Ark 99 97 100 97</p>
<p>Ill 100 95 100 99</p>
<p>Ind 92 89 99 98</p>
<p>Iowa 98 97 99 99</p>
<p>Ks 94 91 97 96</p>
<p>Ky 78 69 96 89</p>
<p>La 100 100 100 100</p>
<p>Mich 91 88 90 96</p>
<p>Minn 100 100 100 100</p>
<p>Miss 100 98 100 99</p>
<p>Mo 91 86 95 93</p>
<p>Nebr 100 99 100 100</p>
<p>NC 63 54 71 60</p>
<p>ND 100 99 100 100</p>
<p>Ohio 95 93 100 99</p>
<p>SD 100 99 100 100</p>
<p>Tenn 83 74 98 90</p>
<p>Wis 94 92 98 97</p>
<p>18-state</p>
<p>avg 96 93 98 97</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 20, 2017 16:17 ET (21:17 GMT)</p> | USDA Crop Progress: Soybean Progress-Nov 20 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/20/usda-crop-progress-soybean-progress-nov-20.html | 2017-11-20 | 0 |
<p>President Trump has ordered the State Department to look for ways to dramatically decrease funding to the United Nations, according to a <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/13/white-house-seeks-to-cut-billions-in-funding-for-united-nations/" type="external">report</a> by Foreign Policy. Trump signed a draft order in late January aimed at cutting funding to the U.N. by double-digits.</p>
<p>The aptly entitled “Auditing and Reducing U.S. Funding of International Organizations" demands at least a 40 percent overall decrease in American funding for international organizations that violate certain criteria, <a href="" type="internal">reported</a> The New York Times.</p>
<p>One such criterion is whether a given U.N. body recognizes full membership to the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, Islamist-inspired political projects accused of promoting terrorism and violence against Jews.</p>
<p>Less than two months later, Trump appears to be following through with his plans to slash funding by more than 40%.</p>
<p>“State Department staffers have been instructed to seek cuts in excess of 50 percent in U.S. funding for U.N. programs, signaling an unprecedented retreat by President Donald Trump’s administration …,” <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/13/white-house-seeks-to-cut-billions-in-funding-for-united-nations/" type="external">notes</a> Foreign Policy.</p>
<p>If Trump follows through with his defunding plans, U.N. organizations heavily reliant on American dollars may be severely impaired or cease to function altogether.</p>
<p>After years of ignoring genocide, excusing the abuses of Islamic dictatorships, and lambasting Western democracies including Israel, the U.N. may now find itself irreparably weakened.</p>
<p>The chickens have come home to roost. The U.N. has already delegitimized itself through moral perversity and self-righteous sanctimony. Trump’s decision to partially defund the U.N. may put the final nail in the coffin, relegating the international body to the edges of obscurity and irrelevance. Autocrats from Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and now “Palestine” have grazed the halls of international power for far too long. The time for reckoning has arrived</p>
<p>Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has suggested that the cuts would be stretched out over a period of three years, allowing for the international body to readjust its practices.</p>
<p>However, we’ll have to wait until Thursday when the White House unveils its 2018 budget proposal to confirm just how serious the Trump administration is about disempowering the United Nations through financial deprivation.</p>
<p>Trump’s decision to turn his back on feckless U.N. diplomacy signals a major transition from the previous administration. President Obama and his obsequious Secretary of State John Kerry were heavily reliant on the U.N. to ensure that bad actors like China, Russia, and Iran complied with international norms and agreements. But without any enforcement-power, the U.N. invariably failed to hold rogue regimes and hostile countries accountable for human rights violations, illegal weapons testing, and chemical warfare.</p>
<p>As a result, President Trump has chosen to adopt a more muscular foreign-policy approach.</p>
<p>“The budget proposal reinforces a shift by the Trump administration from U.S. support for diplomacy and foreign assistance to increased financial support for the U.S. military,” explains Foreign Policy. “Late last month, the Trump administration argued that the proposed cuts in the budgets for the State Department, USAID, and other foreign assistance programs, including contributions to the U.N., would help offset a projected $54 billion increase in defense spending.”</p>
<p>Most of the cuts will come directly from the U.N. budget. Foreign Policy elaborates further:</p>
<p>U.S. officials in Washington and New York learned during the past week that they will be asked to find ways to cut spending on obligatory and voluntary U.N. programs by 50 to 60 percent from the International Organization Affairs Bureau’s account. State Department officials, for instance, were told that they should try to identify up to $1 billion in cuts in the U.N. peacekeeping budget, according to one source. The United States provides about $2.5 billion per year to fund peacekeepers.</p>
<p>By putting the U.N. on notice and investing heavily in national defense, Trump’s America First policy is slowly materializing. True to his campaign promise, the president is refusing to apologize for America’s necessary pursuit of its self-interests.</p> | GOOD TRUMP: U.S. To Slash Funding To U.N. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/14433/good-trump-us-slash-funding-un-michael-qazvini | 2017-03-14 | 0 |
<p />
<p>It was another oil-fueled session for Wall Street Monday as stock markets moved sharply higher and oil prices rallied.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 226 points higher, or 1.38% to 16618. The S&amp;P 500 jumped 27 points, or 1.44% to 1945, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 66 points, or 1.47% to 4570.</p>
<p>All 10 S&amp;P 500 sectors were in positive territory as energy, materials, and industrials led the way higher.</p>
<p>Today’s Markets</p>
<p>Global crude oil prices kicked off the week on a bright note as they lurched higher, helping the U.S. stock market find a reason to rally.</p>
<p>Reuters reported the International Energy Agency, in its medium-term outlook outlined expectations for American shale production to fall by 60,000 barrels per day in 2016, and 200,000 next year. The forecast came on the heels of data that showed U.S. rig counts fell to the lowest level since 2009.</p>
<p>“This massive cutback in rigs is taking its toll as we have seen 123 oil rigs idled just since the beginning of this young year. That means U.S. output is in the process of topping and the price of oil is in the process of bottoming,” Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the PRICE Futures Group and FOX Business contributor said in a note.</p>
<p>In recent action, West Texas Intermediate crude prices jumped 6.21% to $31.48 a barrel, while Brent, the international benchmark, gained 5.09% to $34.69 a barrel.</p>
<p>Despite the pickup, Michael Block, chief strategist at Rhino Trading Partners, said the move higher, as has been the case in several recent trading sessions, is likely short-lived.</p>
<p>“Iran is still talking up more production, but that’s OK because they and Iraq need to regain share lost to war and sanctions…that works until someone cheats on whatever freeze is agreed upon next week. I hate to be cynical, but this won’t work,” he said in a note to clients.</p>
<p>Further, Block said he could see WTI, the U.S. benchmark, hitting $40 a barrel, but not moving much higher from there.</p>
<p>Last week, the markets were flooded by expectations that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would put a freeze on the cartel’s output at January levels. Venezuela, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar were involved in floating the idea early last week before Saudi Arabia eventually walked back comments, saying it wasn’t ready to trim its output, and Iran stayed mum on whether it would be willing to join the effort, which would help put upward pressure on prices hovering at multi-year lows.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in the market, traders ditched safe havens as they rushed to riskier assets like equities. Gold prices slipped 1.76% to $1,209 a troy ounce, as the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond rose 0.012 percentage point to 1.760%. Treasury yields move inversely to prices.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar gained 0.82% against a basket of global currencies on Monday, and as the euro dropped 0.98% against the greenback. The euro’s pressure came after weekend developments over a looming effort for the United Kingdom to exit the eurozone. IG senior market analyst Chris Beauchamp said in a note that the pound is down to four-week lows against the dollar as the market decides U.K. currency isn’t the best place to be for now, despite IG’s so-called Brexit binary shows a 67% chance the nation will stay in the EU.</p>
<p>“Given that we have many weeks of this ahead of us, such falls in the pound are either a monumental value opportunity (if you think the gloomy case is excessive) or a chance to ride the speculative wave lower,” he said.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, London Mayor Boris Johnson said he backs the Brexit, though Prime Minister David Cameron remains on the opposite side of the line.</p>
<p>Despite the ongoing chatter, European equity markets pushed higher on Monday. The Euro Stoxx 50, which tracks large-cap companies in the eurozone, jumped 2.19%. The German Dax gained 1.98%, while the French CAC 40 added 1.79%, and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 rose 1.47%.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Wall Street Jumps as Global Oil Prices Extend Rally | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/02/22/wall-street-jumps-as-global-oil-prices-extend-rally.html | 2016-02-22 | 0 |
<p>IRVING, Texas (AP) — Police say an officer investigating reports of a car burglary at a Dallas-area apartment complex has fatally shot a suspect.</p>
<p>Irving police say no officers were injured in the shooting before dawn Monday.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IrvingPD/photos/a.392984800785297.99050.377350252348752/1572663026150796/?type=3&amp;theater" type="external">Irving police statement says</a> officers responded to an apartment complex after a witness reported seeing a man breaking into a vehicle in the parking lot. Police say officers arrived as a suspect got into a pickup truck and tried to flee.</p>
<p>Police say the suspect's truck rammed a police car and several other vehicles in the lot. Investigators say an officer, fearing for his life, shot the suspect.</p>
<p>The suspect died at a Dallas hospital. Police didn't immediately release his name.</p>
<p>Authorities didn't immediately release the name of the officer amid the investigation.</p>
<p>IRVING, Texas (AP) — Police say an officer investigating reports of a car burglary at a Dallas-area apartment complex has fatally shot a suspect.</p>
<p>Irving police say no officers were injured in the shooting before dawn Monday.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.facebook.com/IrvingPD/photos/a.392984800785297.99050.377350252348752/1572663026150796/?type=3&amp;theater" type="external">Irving police statement says</a> officers responded to an apartment complex after a witness reported seeing a man breaking into a vehicle in the parking lot. Police say officers arrived as a suspect got into a pickup truck and tried to flee.</p>
<p>Police say the suspect's truck rammed a police car and several other vehicles in the lot. Investigators say an officer, fearing for his life, shot the suspect.</p>
<p>The suspect died at a Dallas hospital. Police didn't immediately release his name.</p>
<p>Authorities didn't immediately release the name of the officer amid the investigation.</p> | Irving officer fatally shoots suspect during burglary call | false | https://apnews.com/amp/a6a9bcffd814481bb2f4503877d7838f | 2018-01-22 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Forget the pundits, the Huffington Post has linked to <a href="http://www.tradesports.com/aav2/trading/tradingHTML.jsp?evID=35889&amp;eventSelect=35889&amp;updateList=true" type="external">tradesports.com</a>, which is taking bets on election 2006. This is how it works: the Republican Party is like a stock. You can buy in whenever you want. If the GOP takes the senate, the stock hits 100 and you get paid. If the GOP loses the senate, the stock hits zero (but hey, maybe you’ll make your money back once the Democrats turn the economy around).</p>
<p>So what’s the GOP Senate prospect trading at? Well, in the days leading up to the election it was hovering around 70. Now it’s at. . . . 13.5.</p>
<p>My bet’s that the Democrats take the Senate.</p>
<p /> | Will the Democrats Win the Senate? The Bookies Have Spoken! | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/11/will-democrats-win-senate-bookies-have-spoken/ | 2006-11-08 | 4 |
<p>Remarks at the WBAI September 11 Events, Riverside Church, New York City September 12, 2003</p>
<p>I want to thank WBAI for holding this very important and informative series of events and I thank them for including me.</p>
<p>It is impossible to be in New York City at this time and think about anything–business, politics, or even life–as usual. And perhaps that’s true all across America. But particularly here in New York, it is very clear, that people in this City are still very much in pain. And equally, nothing that has happened to us as a nation since that day has been usual, either.</p>
<p>Two years ago, what began as a normal Tuesday morning for millions of Americans–some commuting to work, others taking their children to school, and many others opening their businesses–soon became a day that found thousands of us plunged into chaos and agony by the criminal actions of terrorists.</p>
<p>These attacks upon our citizens were deeply felt by all the people of our great nation. We became one, and grieved for the thousands who lost their lives that day. Americans displayed their best and responded generously and immediately to the calls for help from our brothers and sisters. And as you here in New York certainly know, too many victims and their families are still in need of help today.</p>
<p>I have thought long and hard about the individuals who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. What could I possibly say to those whose loved ones lost their lives at the Trade Center, the Pentagon, or in a field in Pennsylvania? My words are certainly insufficient.</p>
<p>It must be with this same feeling of pain, emptiness, and inadequacy that Abraham Lincoln searched for words of consolation for the families of those who lost loved ones in the Civil War. In a letter to one such mother, a Mrs. Bixby, who lost five sons in the war to save our Union, Abraham Lincoln had this to say:</p>
<p>“I have been shown in the files of the War Department, a statement that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from your grief for a loss so overwhelming, but I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation which may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.” [I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and the lost, the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.”]</p>
<p>The thanks of a grateful nation. That’s what we have to give.</p>
<p>For on September 11th, New York City was very much like a battlefield. The citizens were called upon to display the kind of bravery, compassion, and sacrifice that we generally only can read about in historic battles. But just as many generations had done before them, Americans young and old, black and white, Native American, Latino, Asian, gay and straight, without regard to color, race, religion, ethnicity, or economic condition, Americans responded heroically.</p>
<p>We know a lot about some of these heroes. In New York City and in Washington, DC, we know of the courageous actions by police, firefighters, civilians and military personnel who all acted in the service of fellow Americans–knowing fully well that their actions to save others would almost certainly bring about their own deaths. But they acted selflessly anyway.</p>
<p>Including the clean up crews who worked long hours day and night breathing the dust of the rubble and who now may suffer serious health effects from their time at Ground Zero.</p>
<p>The pain is far from over.</p>
<p>Every one of those lost from our country and from the many other countries are as special as are the sons which Abraham Lincoln wrote about in his letter to Mrs. Bixby.</p>
<p>Today, we need to talk about the thanks of our grateful nation.</p>
<p>Now, how exactly should we show those thanks and what are the challenges that lie before us?</p>
<p>Well, first of all, we must not allow the tragedy of September 11 to create a climate of war and conflict throughout the world. These attacks were the result of the actions of a few. Certainly we can’t plunge our country which we all love, and the world that we all live in, into a never ending cycle of war and violence and hate.</p>
<p>Two generations ago, a torch was passed to a new generation. And the leadership of that generation challenged our country to become better in medicine and space exploration, civil rights and ending war.</p>
<p>How dare George W. Bush quote John F. Kennedy today at Fort Stewart, Georgia in an effort to justify his global militarism. John Kennedy specifically rejected pre-emptive war; JFK rejected war against a smaller, weaker, poorer country; he rejected Pax Americana imposed by American weapons of war, and spoke instead of constructing a peace, not for our time, but for all time.</p>
<p>And Bobby Kennedy, upon the announcement of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked what kind of country do we want. One divided by race? A country of violence, motivated by hate?</p>
<p>And, perhaps, Martin Luther King, Jr. himself explained our current dilemma best when in 1963 he said:</p>
<p>“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. . . . The chain reaction of evil–hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars–must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”</p>
<p>So, as the families of the victims correctly point out, the thanks of a grateful nation can’t include a generation of war. It can’t include the use of depleted uranium or nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>The thanks of a grateful nation must include universal health care, full funding for a quality education for all our children, especially the children of our reservations, barrios, and ghettos.</p>
<p>The thanks of a grateful nation must include tackling issues like poverty; unemployment, urban sprawl, transportation; protecting Mother Earth; civil rights, the glass ceiling, affirmative action, race relations; drug abuse, the death penalty, prison reform; the way we treat our veterans. Social justice, US standing in the world.</p>
<p>Protecting civil liberties. Ending war and promoting peace. That’s the thanks of a grateful nation.</p>
<p>The thanks of a grateful nation includes remembering who we are.</p>
<p>We are America and we have unbounded good to offer the world. The good that we saw deep in America’s heartland in the midst of tragedy on one particular day in September two years ago.</p>
<p>We are the America that declared its independence from tyranny and instituted the rule of law and our Bill of Rights for all our citizens.</p>
<p>We are the America that sent its greatest generation to fight on foreign soil so that others could be free.</p>
<p>But we are in danger of being that America no more.</p>
<p>Everything we hold dear to us, as the unique American character, the values that we struggled so hard for and won in the civil rights movements of blacks, women and gays, are all being threatened today by a small but powerful group who want to silence you, yet speak and act for you.</p>
<p>We are America and we are family. And yes, we can make gentle the life of this world.</p>
<p>CYNTHIA McKINNEY served in Congress as a representative from Georgia.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | A Message to the People of New York City | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/09/15/a-message-to-the-people-of-new-york-city/ | 2003-09-15 | 4 |
<p>Sept. 8 (UPI) — The foot is “on the accelerator” for Kurdish oil operations with new assets gained through a deal with Exxon Mobil, Norwegian energy company DNO said.</p>
<p>The Norwegian company, which has a core focus on oil basins in the Kurdish north of Iraq, said it assumed the role of operator after acquiring 50 percent of Exxon Mobil’s stake in the Baeshiqa reserve area. DNO joins a consortium that includes Exxon, the Turkish Energy Co. and the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government.</p>
<p>“We bring to the project a 10-year record of successful and fast-track operations in Kurdistan, culminating in more than 200 million barrels produced to date,” Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, the company’s executive chairman, said in <a href="http://www.dno.no/en/investor-relations/announcements/2017/dno-joins-exxonmobil-on-baeshiqa-license-in-kurdistan-assumes-operatorship-/" type="external">a statement</a>. “Following regularization of export payments and a landmark agreement with the (Kurdish) government to close out our historical receivables, our foot is back firmly on the accelerator.”</p>
<p>Oil leaves the Kurdish region from a pipeline and by trucks to a Turkish port at Ceyhan. DNO said Exxon’s early efforts at the Baeshiqa reserve were disrupted by security concerns related to the regional fight against the group calling itself the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Islamic-State/" type="external">Islamic State</a>.</p>
<p>Budgetary constraints for the Kurdish government caused contractual issues with international energy companies working in the region in the past. With more than a dozen consecutive monthly export payments, DNO said it was now ready to ramp up activity across its Kurdish portfolio.</p>
<p>Revenues in <a href="https://www.upi.com/Kurdish-oil-export-payments-boost-DNOs-performance/1401503572673/" type="external">the first half</a> of the year for DNO were up 43 percent in part because of regular payments for exports by the Kurdistan government. Free cash flow jumped by a factor of four.</p>
<p>DNO is the operator at the Tawke and Peshkabir oil fields in the Kurdish north, which combine for production of around 110,000 barrels of oil per day. The company said Exxon already conducted extensive studies of Baeshiqa and said, pending the government’s approval, exploratory work is set for the first half of next year.</p>
<p>Iraq is party to a multilateral effort to ease supply-side market strains with managed production cuts, but balked initially at the decision. Since the agreement went into force in January, the central government in Baghdad accused the Kurdish government of not contributing. A Kurdish referendum for independence is scheduled for late September.</p> | DNO gains oil lead in the Kurdish north of Iraq | false | https://newsline.com/dno-gains-oil-lead-in-the-kurdish-north-of-iraq/ | 2017-09-08 | 1 |
<p>A month ago, Missouri GOP prosecutor Brian Stumpe had less than $100 on hand in his campaign to unseat Cole County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Joyce, according to the <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/out-of-state-money-flowing-to-campaign-against-cole-county/article_fd67494a-82c2-57b0-81dc-aa4566ce7bfc.html" type="external">St. Louis Post-Dispatch</a>. Now, just a few weeks later, he has received $100,000 - all of it funneled into his campaign by a national group, the Republican State Leadership Committee, which has spent a total of $200,000 so far in this race for a single state judgeship.</p>
<p>So just what the heck is going on? Democrats and liberals on the ground in Missouri would tell you that somebody is trying to purchase the judgeship, and they have some suspicions about some Koch-esque Missouri multi-millionaires who might be behind the RSLC's interest in the race.</p>
<p />
<p>Why would they do that? Because Cole County, home to 75,000 people, contains Jefferson City, the Missouri state capital. So in most cases where somebody is suing the state government, those cases are heard in the Cole County Circuit Court. It is similar to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals at the federal level, in that case an appellate court with an outsized influence.</p>
<p>"If you sue the state of Missouri, if there's a lawsuit in which you're bringing a constitutional question or challenging ballot language or a fiscal note by a state auditor, those cases are directed to the Cole County Circuit Court," Roy Temple, chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party, told TPM. "It is a judgeship that has statewide importance."</p>
<p>Joyce is the only Democratic judge at the Cole County Circuit Court; her two colleagues are Republican. So ousting her would, in theory, be a significant win for Republicans looking to influence the outcome of the kind of cases Temple described. That helps explain why the Republican State Leadership Committee, which is currently chaired by former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and formerly chaired by Virginia GOP Senate candidate Ed Gillespie, would take an interest.</p>
<p>The big spending stirred outcry from Justice At Stake, a national group that advocates for "fair and impartial courts."</p>
<p>"When political groups try to buy up courts like real estate, they're pressuring judges to answer to politicians instead of the law and the Constitution," Bert Brandenburg, the group's executive director, <a href="http://www.justiceatstake.org/newsroom/press-releases-16824/?jas_national_group_pumps_200000_into_local_judicial_race&amp;show=news&amp;newsID=19230" type="external">said</a> in a statement. "And when even local courts aren't safe from big money pressure, every American should worry that their liberties could be for sale."</p>
<p>Jill Bader, a spokesperson for the RSLC, who confirmed the $200,000 allocated for the race, told TPM that the group "elects Republicans to the offices of lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state legislator and the judiciary." It also launched an initiative in 2014 specifically targeted to judicial races.</p>
<p>The group has gone up with a $100,000 buy for a psychedelic-flavored TV ad that accuses Joyce of being beholden to "radical environmentalists."</p>
<p />
<p>Bader wouldn't comment on whether any specific donations from any specific individuals had spurred its involvement in Cole County - "We have over 100,000 donors in all 50 states," she said - but a few favored suspects have cropped up among those on the the left.</p>
<p>One in particular is Rex Sinquefield, who accumulated his wealth as a money management magnate and has become the biggest player in Missouri politics. According to the <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article765892.html" type="external">Kansas City Star</a>, Sinquefield has given more than $30 million in disclosed donations to local candidates and political action committees in the last six years.</p>
<p>"He's our local Koch," Sean Nicholson, executive director of the liberal advocacy group Progress Missouri, told TPM. "He's a part of that universe."</p>
<p>Sinquefield is a big player in ballot initiatives, which means his causes often come up at the Cole County Circuit Court. According to the <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/04/12459/show-me-money-meet-multimillionaire-squeezing-missouris-schools" type="external">Center for Media and Democracy</a>, Sinquefield spent $11 million in 2011 to boost a ballot initiative that prohibited some municipalities from instituting an income tax. He also gave $1.8 million to an anti-teacher union group in 2013, the Center reported.</p>
<p>Those are his two pet issues, Temple and Nicholson said. "The two things he cares about are eliminating the income tax forever," Nicholson said. "He also is very interested in changing the laws on schools."</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/out-of-state-money-flowing-to-campaign-against-cole-county/article_fd67494a-82c2-57b0-81dc-aa4566ce7bfc.html" type="external">St. Louis Post-Dispatch</a>, Joyce issued a 2012 ruling that rewrote tax-related ballot initiative that Sinquefield backed, effectively neutering it.</p>
<p>He also has a history of six-figure donations to the RSLC. According to <a href="http://politicmo.com/2014/10/13/republican-state-leadership-committee-puts-another-100000-into-missouri-for-cole-county-judicial-race/" type="external">PoliticMo</a>, Sinquefield gave $475,000 to the group in late October 2012, which meant the donation wasn't made public until after the election. And RSLC gave a last-minute six-figure donation to the GOP candidate for Missouri secretary of state in 2012, according to the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/01/shane-schoeller-missouri-rslc_n_2060111.html" type="external">Huffington Post</a>.</p>
<p>"This is the route the money has taken before," Temple said. So far this year, though, according to the Post-Dispatch, Sinquefield hasn't given any money to the RSLC. But the current filings only cover through August, per the newspaper.</p>
<p>But he isn't the only suspect, Nicholson said. The Humphreys of Missouri, Ethelmae and David, who made their fortune through a roofing company, and Stanley Herzog are known big political spenders from the area. Ethelmae was, according to <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/koch-brothers-million-dollar-donor-club" type="external">Mother Jones</a>, an attendee at a 2010 Aspen summit hosted by the Koch brothers. Herzog, meanwhile, dropped $1 million in one swoop to Restore Our Future, the Mitt Romney super PAC in 2012, according to <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-1-billion-presidential-campaign/" type="external">CBS</a>. They have both been supporters of Show Me Better Courts, a political advocacy group that wants to reform the Missouri court system, Nicholson said.</p>
<p>TPM was unable to reach Sinquefield or Herzog for comment. Sinquefield has declined to comment to other news outlets about the RSLC's contribution to Stumpe. Ron Cook, a spokesman for the Humphrey family's TAMKO Building Products, told TPM: "The Humphreys family has not been nor will be involved."</p>
<p>Wherever the money comes from, it worries Nicholson. "It certainly raises some red flags and concerns about the impartiality of the judge they're trying to elect," he said. "The whole idea of having an independent judiciary is everybody has a fair shake."</p>
<p>"There's a lot of concern about what this means," he continued, "especially if we never find out the source of these funds."</p>
<p>It is also a growing concern among political observers. Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote Thursday in <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/courting-corruption-the-auctioning-of-the-judicial-system/381524/?single_page=true&amp;utm_source=digg&amp;utm_medium=email" type="external">The Atlantic</a> about the RSLC getting involving in local judicial elections in Ohio, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico, and Texas.</p>
<p>"This will ultimately undermine the whole idea of an independent judiciary," he warned, "which is the single most significant bedrock of a functioning democratic political system."</p> | Who's Behind The Whopping Six Figures Being Spent To Oust A Dem State Judge? | true | http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/missouri-judge-race-big-outside-money | 4 |
|
<p>Sept. 10 (UPI) — Georgia Gov. <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Nathan_Deal/" type="external">Nathan Deal</a> expanded a state of emergency declaration to cover all 159 counties in the state as <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane-Irma/" type="external">Hurricane Irma</a> made landfall in Florida.</p>
<p>Deal’s <a href="http://www.11alive.com/weather/irma/deal-expands-state-of-emergency-to-cover-entire-state/471659323" type="external">Sunday morning statement</a> expanded his earlier state of emergency declaration to cover the entire state and specified that the “state government will be closed Monday and Tuesday for all employees except essential personnel.”</p>
<p>The governor said he was directing the Georgia Emergency Management Agency to activate the state’s emergency operations plan due to the potential for dangers associated with excessive rainfall, strong winds, flooding, fallen trees and road closures.</p>
<p>A tropical storm watch for Georgia was upgraded to a tropical storm warning on Sunday, <a href="http://www.wsbtv.com/news/tropical-storm-warning-issued-for-parts-of-georgia-as-hurricane-irma-makes-landfall-in-florida/606510827" type="external">with meteorologists projecting</a> the state would see the worst of Irma from Monday morning until Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>Irma marks Metro Atlanta’s <a href="http://thecitizen.com/2017/09/10/coming-tropical-storm-warning-effect-fayette-coweta-counties-atlanta-metro-area/" type="external">first-ever</a> tropical storm warning, the National Weather Service said.</p>
<p>“On the forecast track, the center of Irma should move near or over the southwest and west coast of the Florida Peninsula later today through tonight. Irma should then move inland over northern Florida and southwestern Georgia Monday afternoon,” the <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2017/09/10/NHC-issues-urgent-warning-of-storm-surge-as-Irma-nears-Naples/7941504131001/?utm_source=fp&amp;utm_campaign=ds&amp;utm_medium=2" type="external">National Hurricane Center said</a> in its 2 p.m. advisory.</p>
<p>Deal also issued an executive order authorizing 5,000 National Guard personnel to be mobilized on state active duty for response and recovery operations from Hurricane Irma.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the National Weather Service issued a storm surge warning for the South Carolina coast through the northern border of Charleston County. The NWS warned of the potential for 4-6 feet of water to come ashore, strong rip currents, and winds of 30-40 mph, with gusts of 50 mph or stronger.</p>
<p>North Charleston Fire Chief Greg Bulanow said emergency vehicles would cease to operate with winds of 40 mph or stronger, but he does not expect that to happen.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/" type="external">Donald Trump</a> spoke to the governor for about 10 minutes Sunday morning to offer assistance.</p>
<p>“[Trump] called to stress the federal government’s willingness to help in any way it can when the storm reaches Tennessee,” Haslam spokeswoman Jennifer Donnals <a href="http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2017/09/10/hurricane-irma-trump-calls-haslam-pledge-assistance-when-storm-hits-tennessee/651376001/" type="external">told the Nashville Tennessean</a>.</p>
<p>Tennessee is projected to see up to 4 inches of rain from Irma, while gusts of wind are expected to reach 40-45 mph in the eastern part of the state and 30 mph in the central part of the state. The winds could arrive as early as Monday evening.</p>
<p>White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday the president also spoke with the governors of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.</p>
<p>Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey <a href="http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/09/gov_kay_ivey_warns_alabama_to.html" type="external">warned during a</a> Sunday news conference with other state officials that residents should brace for tree-toppling winds, especially in the eastern part of the state.</p>
<p>“The most recent forecast suggests that part of the state will see tropical storm conditions,” Ivey said.</p>
<p>“The vast majority of Alabamians are only going to be affected by thunderstorm-like wind and rain conditions with some possible flash flooding,” Ivey said. “But we do know that in the eastern portions of our state, they need to start preparing themselves for tropical storm conditions. We anticipate that the worst of the weather will arrive in our eastern most counties on Monday and enter others on Tuesday.”</p> | Atlanta has first-ever tropical storm warning as states brace for Irma | false | https://newsline.com/atlanta-has-first-ever-tropical-storm-warning-as-states-brace-for-irma/ | 2017-09-10 | 1 |
<p>Controversial Donald Trump ally Roger Stone has vowed to check the validity of the presidential election results by setting up what he describes as his own exit-polling operation outside of select precincts around the country on Election Day. Stone calls it “a monumental undertaking” and one that he claims could either validate or call into question the outcome on November 8.</p>
<p>Stone is attempting to recruit at least 3,000 volunteers to fan out to “several thousand” hand-picked voting precincts around the country that he and his team have determined to have the highest risk of faulty results. But Stone is far from that goal with just 12 days until the election, having recruited 1,200 people.</p>
<p>Trump, who is down in most polls, has been hyping the possibility of a <a href="" type="internal">“rigged” election</a> on the campaign trail for weeks now, saying that he might not accept the outcome should he lose.</p>
<p>Stone said that with his operation, he is planning to provide the evidence – or lack thereof – of any fishy voting results. He claims that if his exit polls are within a two percent margin of error of the certified results, then his opinion, the election can be trusted.</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">Feds Concerned About Risk of Violence as Election Day Nears</a></p>
<p>Major media outlets also conduct exit polls through a consortium. Those are paper-and-pencil surveys that are randomly given to voters leaving their polling places. The national exit poll is conducted in 350 precincts across the country where 25,000 voters are interviewed.</p>
<p>When asked if there will be a difference between his exit poll and the media consortium, Stone said the “methodology will be the same.”</p>
<p>While Trump has focused his complaints on the possibility of voter fraud, Stone said he is less concerned with fraud, which might change only a few votes, than the possible tampering of electronic voting machines, which he said could tip an election.</p>
<p>Stone is not a paid adviser to Trump, but he has been one of Trump’s longest on-again and off-again confidantes. Throughout Trump’s presidential campaign, Stone has warned of his concern over hacked voting machines, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/291534-can-the-2016-election-be-rigged-you-bet" type="external">writing about the issue</a> more than a year ago.</p>
<p>Stone told NBC News Tuesday that his exit poll operation is “a monumental undertaking” that has been in the works for “many, many months” and one that he is devoting all of his time to with days to go in the campaign. He said he will be training every volunteer to comply with electioneering and polling place laws in each of the states.</p>
<p>“I’m interested in interviewing voters to take a scientifically valid exit poll,” he said.</p>
<p>Stone, prone to conspiracy theories, has a history in controversial elections. He played a role in the recount in Florida between Al Gore and George W. Bush by leading protestors to a Florida recount office, causing a stoppage in the process, a move that was widely viewed to have helped Bush.</p>
<p>Stone insists that he is not going to deploy election monitors, which critics fear will intimidate voters, insisting that what he is doing is “not poll watching, it’s not voter intimidation. It’s simply an exit poll.”</p>
<p>“There’s a distinct difference between poll watching and exit polling,” Stone adds.</p>
<p>But election watchdogs are concerned with Stone’s effort.</p>
<p>"The last time I checked, when you conduct an exit poll it has to be done in a neutral and scientific way that purports with scientific standards on the way you approach participants to the way you frame your questions," said Dale Ho, the director of the Voting Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.</p>
<p>Stone insists that he will follow strict exit poll guidelines and has said in other interviews that while he doesn’t yet have the questions determined, he has gathered a team of political scientists, IT people and “at least two pollsters” who are "putting on the finishing touches."</p>
<p>“You’re asking a neutral questionnaire, you’re not wearing a Donald Trump hat, you are making it clear that you are doing a privately exit poll and then you feed all that info into a computer and you compare it to the results immediately after the polls closed,” is how Stone described the process to NBC News.</p>
<p>Still, Ho, says that exit polling is a complicated art.</p>
<p>"I don’t know if there’s some kind of hard and fast rule between the results of the exit poll and the official (election) results that mean the official results were flawed. It could be that the exit poll was flawed," Ho said.</p>
<p>Related: <a href="" type="internal">Hillary Clinton's Election Prize: Congressional Investigations</a></p>
<p>Stone told NBC News that he’s recruiting “mostly online,” and that recruitment extended to a right-wing internet talk show. Stone told Alex Jones of InfoWars Tuesday, who is a popular conspiracy theorist and Trump supporter who has espoused anti-Semitic and racially controversial comments, that, “we need an army of InfoWar warriors.” Jones said he envisions a "massive, massive, massive landslide for Trump” on Election Day.</p>
<p>Stone won't detail yet where his volunteers will be stationed throughout the country. He denies that the racial makeup of the voters in a given location is a determining factor but that single-party dominance is, adding that problems tend to happen in areas where one party has control of the local government. On Jones’ program, he mentioned that Clark County, Nevada, a battleground county that is home to Las Vegas, will have exit poll questioners.</p>
<p>He’s directing people to the website <a href="https://stopthesteal.org/" type="external">Stop the Steal</a>, which is run by the group Vote Protector. Interested volunteers must give their name, email addresses, state and congressional district to sign up. The volunteer is then guided on how to continue with the process. But Stone has less than 12 days to put it all together and has a long way to go to meet his goals.</p> | Trump Ally Roger Stone Scrambling to Create Election Day Operation | false | http://nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-ally-roger-stone-scrambling-create-election-day-operation-n673261 | 2016-10-27 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>White House officials have been urging the president to refocus on immigration and other issues that resonate with the conservatives, evangelicals and working-class whites who propelled him to the Oval Office. The president has ramped up his media-bashing via Tweet, long a successful tactic for Trump, and staged rallies hoping to marshal his base to his defense.</p>
<p>The effort underscores Trump’s shaky political positioning not yet seven months into his presidency. Trump has remained deeply unpopular among Democrats, and there are signs that his support among Republicans may be softening. His advisers are aware that a serious slip in support among his core voters could jeopardize hopes for a major, early legislative accomplishment and would certainly increase Republicans’ worries about his re-election prospects.</p>
<p>White House counselor Kellyanne Conway acknowledged the concerns Sunday on ABC, saying the president’s approval rating “among Republicans and conservatives and Trump voters is down slightly.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“It needs to go up,” she said.</p>
<p>In a Monday morning tweet, Trump dismissed his adviser’s statement. “The Trump base is far bigger &amp; stronger than ever before,” he wrote on Twitter. He later insisted that his support “will never change!”</p>
<p>But polling doesn’t support Trump’s claim. A recent Quinnipiac University survey showed the president’s approval dipping into negative territory among whites without college degrees — a key group of supporters for the president. The percentage of Republicans who strongly approve of his performance also fell, with just over half of Republicans saying they strongly approved of Trump. That’s down from the two-thirds of Republicans who strongly approved of the president’s performance in June.</p>
<p>Just one-third of all Americans approved of his job performance, a new low in the poll.</p>
<p>The president’s struggles already have prompted public speculation about his political future. The White House pushed back angrily Sunday against a New York Times report about Republicans preparing for 2020 presidential race that may not include Trump. The report described Vice President Mike Pence as laying groundwork in case Trump does not run. Pence called the report “disgraceful.”</p>
<p>The chatter has been fueled by Trump’s unsuccessful attempt to shepherd health care legislation through Congress, the drip-drip of revelations about his associates’ ties to Russia and the churn of turnover and turmoil at the White House. The president’s advisers have tried to drown out the bad news by focusing on his agenda.</p>
<p>“They are telling him just enact your program,” Conway said of the president’s base. “Don’t worry about a Congress that isn’t supporting legislation to get big ticket items done. And don’t worry about all the distractions and diversions and discouragement that others, who are trying to throw logs in your path, are throwing your way.”</p>
<p>In a televised event at the White House last week, the president endorsed legislation that would dramatically reduce legal immigration to the United States. The bill is unlikely to ever become law, but that mattered little to Trump’s advisers. Their barometer for success was the reaction from conservatives like commentator Ann Coulter, who called the White House’s embrace of the controversial legislation “the best moment of the Trump presidency since the inauguration.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Immigration is expected to continue being a focus for Trump in the coming weeks, including a push for the border wall. Officials also are weighing a more public role for White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, a favorite of Trump backers whose hard-line immigration policies irritate some congressional Republicans.</p>
<p>The appointment of White House chief of staff John Kelly also fits in to that effort. While Kelly was brought in primarily to bring much-needed discipline to the West Wing, officials note that he, too, is viewed favorably by some Trump loyalists for his early execution of the administration’s immigration policy as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Kelly’s appointment was particularly welcomed by senior strategist Steve Bannon, who has taken on the task of ensuring Trump doesn’t drift from the promises he made to his base during the campaign.</p>
<p>Several White House officials and Trump advisers insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the ways the administration is moving to shore up support for the president.</p>
<p>Like Trump’s embrace of the legislation curtailing legal immigration, some of what the president has to offer his core supporters is more show than substance. In late July, Trump announced on Twitter that he was banning transgender people serving in the military — a policy shift sought by social conservatives — despite the fact that the Pentagon had no plans in place to enact the change. The policy is now being crafted.</p>
<p>Alice Stewart, a conservative who worked for the presidential campaigns of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, said Trump is right to make overtures toward his coalition of loyal supporters, even if some of his moves are incomplete.</p>
<p>“I think people realize half a loaf is better than none,” Stewart said.</p>
<p>Mitch Harper, a former GOP state legislator and Republican activist in Indiana, said Trump will get credit from conservatives even for partial measures simply because he is “articulating things that they have not heard anyone articulate in a long time.”</p>
<p>And what about the results? Harper said Trump supporters “are willing to wait.”</p>
<p>Indeed, even some of Trump’s advisers still marvel at the loyalty of the president’s supporters. For now, conservatives are pinning the blame on Washington’s failure to get health care done not on Trump, but on the handful of Republican senators who blocked legislation aimed at overhauling “Obamacare.”</p>
<p>“I think on health care the president is viewed as someone who did everything they could,” said Matt Schlapp, who heads the American Conservative Union.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers John Raby in Huntington, West Virginia, and Catherine Lucey in Bridgewater, New Jersey, contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Julie Pace at <a href="http://twitter.com/jpaceDC" type="external">http://twitter.com/jpaceDC</a> and Laurie Kellman at <a href="http://twitter.com/APLaurieKellman" type="external">http://twitter.com/APLaurieKellman</a></p> | Trump looks to loyal voters as support slips, agenda stalls | false | https://abqjournal.com/1044488/trump-looks-to-loyal-voters-as-support-slips-agenda-stalls-2.html | 2 |
|
<p>When the news broke last Tuesday that <a href="/content/dailybeast/cheats/2010/12/07/drug-bust-nets-five-columbia-students.html" type="external">five Columbia University students were arrested for selling drugs</a>"including cocaine, ecstasy, and LSD"to undercover cops, <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2010/12/08/columbia-university-student-drug-bust-stuns-prestigious-campus.html" type="external">the campus was stunned</a>. Known as "Operation Ivy League," the sting revealed what students at the prestigious university already knew: When campus enforcement and student activity create a "permissive environment" for recreational drug use, students are wont to take advantage.</p>
<p>Two and half years ago, a <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2008/0509/p02s02-usju.html" type="external">drug raid at San Diego State University</a> culminated in the arrest of 75 students. Last September, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/OnCampus/unc-students-charged-drug-raid/story?id=8613801" type="external">two University of North Carolina students were arrested in a raid</a> that resulted in the seizure of 321.6 grams of cocaine. And earlier this year, a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/education/27reed.html?_r=1&amp;src=me" type="external">Reed College student died from a heroin overdose</a>, prompting the college's president to issue a promise to curtail drug use on campus.</p>
<p>Gallery: <a href="/content/dailybeast/galleries/2010/12/11/druggiest-colleges.html" type="external">Ranking The 50 Druggiest Colleges</a></p>
<p>Campus drug use has been on the rise for decades, as nearly half of full-time college students binge drink or abuse drugs at least once a month, according to a 2007 study by the national Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse on drugs in American colleges. The percentage of students that smoke marijuana or use other illegal drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, doubled from 1993 to 2005.</p>
<p>The Daily Beast combed available statistics to figure out which campuses have both environments that may be permissive of drug use as well as a student body that partakes in illegal drug use. To rank the colleges and universities, we first turned to <a href="http://collegeprowler.com/" type="external">College Prowler</a>, the largest student review database, to see which institutions had "drug scene" grades, which illustrate how students rate the prevalence of drugs on campus. A high grade, i.e. an A+, indicates that drugs and alcohol are not noticeable on campus and there is no pressure to use drugs. College Prowler provided an initial list of nearly 400 colleges and universities across the country of all sizes and academic rigor.</p>
<p>We then considered the surrounding environment, using the most recent data on illicit drug, marijuana, and cocaine use by state for 18-25 year olds, according to the <a href="http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k8state/AppB.htm" type="external">U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2009 National Survey on Drug Abuse</a>. Lastly, we referred to U.S. Department of Education data for the number of on-campus arrests for 2009 for drug-law violations for each school. An arrests-per-capita metric was calculated for each school based on the Department of Education's student population tabulations.</p>
<p>The College Prowler grades were assigned a numerical value according to the letter grade assigned, which was weighted one-third of each school's final score; the arrests-per-capita rank and drug use ranks were also ranked one-third of the final rank.</p>
<p>Correction: An earlier version of this story incorporated incorrect statistics in one category for Northeastern University, Washington and Lee University and Old Dominion University, respectively. This version has the correct rankings.</p> | The 50 Druggiest Colleges, From West Virginia to Williams | true | https://thedailybeast.com/the-50-druggiest-colleges-from-west-virginia-to-williams | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p />
<p>In the four-bedroom Brooklyn apartment Maria Motta shared with her three sons, her mother, her cousin, and a lodger, there was no place to sit. In fact, there was no furniture at all, aside from two double beds for the boys and a couple of inflatable mattresses for the adults. Since migrating from Mexico to New York City in 1980, Motta worked alongside her mother cleaning houses, but at the end of the month she rarely had the hundreds of dollars she’d need to buy her own sofa.</p>
<p>Then in the fall of 2001, Motta discovered Rent-A-Center. Situated in mostly poor neighborhoods, this chain’s 2,600 stores offer big-ticket items like furniture and electronics to millions of people with no credit. Hiking up prices and charging exorbitant interest, using a scheme critics have called “pay now, pay later,” the company racks up sales in the billions and is a key player in what one market research firm calls “the poverty market.”</p>
<p>Here was the deal: For $600, Motta would buy a matching armchair and love seat, to be paid for over three months. Never mind that the contract she saw quoted the cash price as $1,350 and the price for paying by installment as $2,700. Those numbers wouldn’t apply to her, said the salesperson, since she was buying, not renting. She paid $300 on the spot and another $300 within 60 days.</p>
<p>But the story didn’t end there. Monthly bills continued to arrive, late fees stacked up, and “incomplete” payments were rejected. Rent-A-Center employees routinely called her at home, says Motta, and even came by in person to pressure her to pay. After two years, Motta had paid Rent-A-Center almost $2,000. “I was giving and giving and it was never done,” she recalled. “I told them to take their sofa.” The company would not comment on her case.</p>
<p>Today, still hoping for a refund, Motta has joined the growing ranks of dissatisfied Rent-A-Center consumers. The company, which owns the franchises Renters Choice, Remco, Get It Now, and ColorTyme, has been the target of several recent lawsuits accusing it of preying upon cash- and credit-strapped customers with sales practices that inflate and mask the true costs of their merchandise. An investigation by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs in 2001 found that local Rent-A-Centers’ “cash prices” were as much as 225 percent above normal retail and that some of their long-term rental charges were equivalent to a 392 percent annual interest rate. The Cherry Street Rent-A-Center on New York’s Lower East Side, located in the shadow of a vast housing project, sells a plastic toddler bed shaped like a race car for $870 under a 90-day payment plan, and nearly $1,740 under a monthly plan. An online search found a comparable bed and mattress for as little as $325. A used Whirlpool refrigerator goes for $660 on the spot or $1,319 over 66 weeks. Sears’ website advertises a brand-new one for $570.</p>
<p>Darnley Stewart, an attorney who is leading a New York class-action suit against the company, finds this outrageous. “Rent-A-Center explicitly targets poor, largely minority neighborhoods and has no qualms about selling a cheap television for $700 to people who can’t afford it,” she says. Stewart’s suit, which is awaiting a ruling from the state Supreme Court, alleges that Rent-A-Center engaged in deceptive and fraudulent business practices by misrepresenting the actual costs of its merchandise and coercing customers with a “high-pressure sales scheme.”</p>
<p>But none of the numerous lawsuits against it–settlements in six states have totaled more than $256 million–has slowed the company’s growth. Last year, the firm, based in Plano, Texas, reported $2.3 billion in sales, with profits of $183 million. In part, the business is protected by an arcane distinction between rental businesses and ordinary retailers: By claiming that their customers are simply “renting” their goods, these companies–among which Rent-A-Center is the market leader–avoid usury laws that cap the interest rates on installment plans and require businesses to disclose what they’re charging. The rent-to-own sector has managed to neuter state and federal consumer-protection laws that would treat it as just another business selling goods on credit. Where it has failed to carve out loopholes in existing laws, the industry’s lobbyists have championed new legislation that distinguishes rent-to-own businesses from other retailers.</p>
<p>In the 1980s, they succeeded in getting legislatures to protect them in every state except Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin. And the fight to shelter themselves in those four states continues. According to the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), Rent-A-Center spent nearly $4 million between 1997 and 2002 trying to roll back consumer-protection laws in the states where it was still exposed.</p>
<p>In February 2003, Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) introduced the Consumer Rental-Purchase Agreement Act, which consumer advocates say would further shield rent-to-own businesses from having to reveal or limit their monthly charges. According to Ed Mierzwinski, PIRG’s consumer program director, the bill would invalidate the already watered-down existing state laws regulating the businesses. “Since the rent-to-own boys cannot get the last pro-consumer states to roll over and play dead, they have been asking Congress to pass a weaker federal law to override them,” he said. The bill picked up 95 cosponsors before stalling in committee last fall, and has already resurfaced in the 109th Congress. Since last May, the lobby has had the help of former Republican House leader Dick Armey, who now sits on Rent-A-Center’s board.</p>
<p>Some customers use Rent-A-Center as just that, a rental center. “Sometimes they want stuff for a weekend,” says a salesperson at the Cherry Street store, gesturing to rows of stereos and DVD players. “We get people who want chairs for a party or a big TV to watch a fight.” But most customers would rather own products than rent them. According to a survey by the Federal Trade Commission, 70 percent of rent-to-own customers–a market of 45 million projected consumers that boasts $6 billion in sales– eventually end up buying merchandise.</p>
<p>In the face of steady complaints, Rent-A-Center argues that it is offering a service to an otherwise excluded demographic, and that its mission is simply to “improve the lives of our customers.” But others, like attorney Darnley Stewart, are not even mildly persuaded: “I don’t think you are doing the poor a favor by gouging them.”</p>
<p /> | Pay Now, Pay Later | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2005/05/pay-now-pay-later/ | 2018-05-01 | 4 |
<p />
<p>A FUNCTIONING SENATE: Maine Senate hopeful Angus King is running as an independent and has yet to decide who he will caucus with. "My principal issue is the functioning of the Senate," King says. "I'm not arrogant or naive enough to think that one guy from Maine is going to be able to fundamentally change this structure, but I do think you've got to start somewhere, and I do think I can be a catalyst for it."&#160; <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-06-15/maine-candidate-king/55675188/1" type="external">Susan Davis for&#160;USA Today: Maine candidate: Don't assume party affiliation.&#160;</a></p>
<p>TOP CONCERNS: The economy, jobs and the deficit are the top concerns of independent voters, Linda Killian writes. As both parties continue to appeal to their bases the center of American politics is left unrepresented, she says:&#160; <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/stuck_in_the_middle_zLeJwJDntWt9jS3VRaYXfK" type="external">Linda Killian for&#160;The New York Post: Stuck in the middle</a></p>
<p>GOOD AND EVIL:&#160;Some members of Congress are leaving the body because they're fed up with the gridlock. "'Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat who heads the Senate Budget Committee, said he realized it was “time for me to leave” when a senior colleague told him 'your problem, Conrad, is you’re too solutions-oriented. You’ve never understood this is political theater.'"&#160; <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-18/u-dot-s-dot-lawmakers-head-to-exits-as-partisanship-trumps-legislating" type="external">James Rowley for&#160;Businessweek: U.S. Lawmakers Head to Exits as Partisanship Trumps Legislating</a></p>
<p>FARM BILL APPROVED: In a rare sign today of putting problem-solving before party, senators on Monday came to a bipartisan agreement on the farm bill that will likely allow the bill to pass the chamber some time this week. Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and ranking-Republican Pat Roberts were able to rally their respective sides to support the bill, in a sign of the good that can happen when both parties work together to find common ground.&#160; <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77550.html" type="external">David Rogers for&#160;POLITICO: Big breakthrough on farm bill</a></p>
<p>REJECTING CYNICISM:&#160;Newark Mayor and No Labels supporter Cory Booker spoke at the Stanford University Commencement over the weekend. He urged graduates to reject the political cynicism of today and instead "take the more difficult road" in life.&#160; <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkG03_BfRpk&amp;feature=player_embedded" type="external">Click here to watch Booker's address.</a></p>
<p>ACTION OF THE DAY:&#160; <a href="http://goog_1679039332/" type="external">Click here to check out the No Labels Facebook Action Center</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NoLabels/app_378015658906883" type="external">&#160;to help build the movement.</a>&#160;NOTE: This link will not work for mobile devices.</p>
<p>STAT OF THE DAY: Come 2013, roughly half of state lawmakers could have two years or less of experience:&#160; <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-06-14/state-legislatures-turnover/55675528/1" type="external">Chuck Raasch for&#160;USA TODAY: State lawmakers short on experience</a></p>
<p>Written &amp; edited by&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Collin Berglund</a>,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Lauren Gilbert</a>,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">John Thornburgh</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Jack McCullough</a></p>
<p>Tips, questions or ideas? Email the Problem-Solver's Daily team at&#160; <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>&#160;or tweet at us ( <a href="" type="internal">@nolabelsorg</a>).</p> | Angus King hopes to be a catalyst for a functioning government | false | https://nolabels.org/blog/angus-king-hopes-to-be-a-catalyst-for-a-functioning-government/ | 2012-06-19 | 2 |
<p>‘Gloom, Boom &amp; Doom Report’ editor Marc Faber on the impact of the U.K. leaving the European Union.</p>
<p>Despite the world’s focus being centered on the upcoming Brexit vote, one investor says Europe is becoming “economically irrelevant.”</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Marc Faber, editor of the “Gloom, Boom &amp; Doom Report,” joined the FOX Business Network’s Risk &amp; Reward and explained why he believes Europe’s economy is no longer as significant as it once was.</p>
<p>“The future of the world, economically, is in Asia—India, China, Indonesia and the other Southeast Asian and Indo-Chinese countries and emerging economies,” Faber said. “The Western world, relative to emerging economies, is diminishing in terms of importance—also politically and geopolitically.”</p>
<p>Faber also said if the U.K. decided to leave the European Union, it would send a message to the elites and bureaucrats who impose regulations that “stifle economic development.”</p>
<p>“An exit would be good for Britain, and it would not destroy the financial markets, quite on the contrary,” he said. “I think if Britain decided to leave the EU the stock market would rally and the British pound would rally.”</p> | Marc Faber: Europe is Becoming Irrelevant, Asia Taking Lead | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/23/marc-faber-europe-is-becoming-irrelevant-asia-taking-lead.html | 2016-06-23 | 0 |
<p>Martin Scorsese will direct a documentary about Bill Clinton for HBO, the network announced Monday.</p>
<p>Scorsese will both produce and direct the film about the life of Bill Clinton from his beginnings in Arkansas to his current role as head of Clinton Global Initiative.</p>
<p>About the project, Clinton was <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/20962/bill-clinton-documentary-martin-scorsese-returns-to-nonfiction-with-a-new-film-for-hbo" type="external">quoted by Policymic</a>as saying: "I am pleased that Martin Scorsese and HBO have agreed to do this film."&#160;</p>
<p>"I look forward to sharing my perspective on my years as president, and my work in the years since, with HBO's audience."</p>
<p>The project remains untitled.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/photo-galleries/5692572/bill-clinton-through-the-years" type="external">(PHOTOS): Bill Clinton through the years</a></p>
<p>Scorsese said that he will use conversations and interviews with the President to create the documentary.</p>
<p>"A towering figure who remains a major voice in world issues, President Clinton continues to shape the political dialogue both here and around the world,"&#160;Scorsese said, <a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118063715" type="external">according to Variety</a>.</p>
<p>"Through intimate conversations, I hope to provide greater insight into this transcendent figure."</p>
<p>This is the fourth partnership between Scorsese and HBO.</p>
<p>The 70-year-old director also created "Public Speaking" in 2010, "George Harrison: Living in the Material World" in 2012 and was executive producers on the series "Boardwalk Empire."</p> | Martin Scorsese to make Bill Clinton documentary for HBO | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-12-17/martin-scorsese-make-bill-clinton-documentary-hbo | 2012-12-17 | 3 |
<p>Washington D.C.</p>
<p>The postponement of a massive joint U.S.-Israeli military exercise appears to be the culmination of a series of events that has impelled the Barack Obama administration to put more distance between the United States and aggressive Israeli policies toward Iran.</p>
<p>The exercise, called “Austere Challenge ’12” and originally scheduled for April, was to have been a simulation of a joint U.S.-Israeli effort to identify, track and intercept incoming missiles by integrating U.S. radar systems with the Israeli Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome anti-missile defense systems.</p>
<p>U.S. participation in such an exercise, obviously geared to a scenario involving an Iranian retaliation against an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, would have made the United States out to be a partner of Israel in any war that would follow an Israeli attack on Iran.</p>
<p>Obama and U.S. military leaders apparently decided that the United States could not participate in such an exercise so long as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to give the administration any assurance that he will not attack Iran without prior approval from Washington.</p>
<p>The official explanation from both Israeli and U.S. officials about the delay was that both sides agreed on it. Both Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Mark Regev, spokesman for Netanyahu, suggested that it was delayed to avoid further exacerbation of tensions in the Gulf.</p>
<p>The spokesman for the U.S. European Command, Capt. John Ross, and Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told Laura Rozen of Yahoo News Sunday that the two sides had decided on the postponement to the second half of 2012 without offering any specific reason for it.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; However, Rozen reported Monday that “several current and former American officials” had told her Sunday that the delay had been requested last month by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. One official suggested privately that there is concern that the alleged Barak request could be aimed at keeping Israel’s options open for a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the spring.</p>
<p>But it would make little sense for Netanyahu and Barak to commit Israel to war with Iran before the shape of the U.S. presidential election campaign had become clear. And Barak would want to have knowledge gained from the joint exercise in tracking and intercepting Iranian missiles with the U.S. military before planning such a strike.</p>
<p>Moreover, the Israeli Air Force was still touting the planned maneuvers as recently as Thursday and, according to Israeli media, was taken by surprise by Sunday’s announcement.</p>
<p>The idea that the Israelis wanted the postponement appears to be a cover story to mask the political blow it represents to the Netanyahu government and to shield Obama from Republican charges that he is not sufficiently supportive of Israel. Nevertheless, the signal sent by the delay to Netanyahu and Barak, reportedly the most aggressive advocates of a strike against Iran in Israel’s right-wing government, could hardly be lost on the two leaders.</p>
<p>Obama may have conveyed the decision to Netanyahu during what is said to have been a lengthy telephone discussion between the two leaders Thursday night. Iran policy was one of the subjects Obama discussed with Netanyahu, according to the White House press release on the conversation.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; The decision to postpone the exercise may have been timed to provide a strong signal to Netanyahu in advance of this week’s visit to Israel by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey.</p>
<p>Dempsey reportedly expressed grave concern at a meeting with Obama last fall about the possibility that Israel intended to carry out a unilateral Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities without consulting with Washington in advance.</p>
<p>Obama has been quoted as responding that he had “no say” in Israel’s policy, much to Dempsey’s dismay.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; The coincidence of the announced delay with Dempsey’s mission thus suggests that the new military chief may inform his Israeli counterpart that any U.S. participation in a joint exercise like “Austere Challenge ’12” is contingent on Israel ending its implicit threat to launch an attack on Iran at a time of its own choosing.</p>
<p>This apparent rift between the two countries comes in the wake of a series of moves by Israel and its supporters here that appeared aimed at ratcheting up tensions between the U.S. and Iran.&#160;&#160; In November and December, U.S. neoconservatives aligned with Netanyahu’s Likud Party and the Israel lobby engineered legislation that forced on the Obama administration a unilateral sanctions law aimed at dramatically reducing Iranian crude oil exports and “collapsing” its economy.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; The administration’s reluctant embrace of sanctions against the oil sector and the Iran’s Central Bank led in turn to an Iranian threat to retaliate by closing off the Strait of Hormuz. The risk of a naval incident suddenly exploding into actual military conflict suddenly loomed large.</p>
<p>Netanyahu and Barak are widely believed to have hoped to provoke such conflict with a combination of more aggressive sanctions, sabotaging Iranian missile and nuclear facilities, and assassinations against individual scientists associated with the nuclear program.</p>
<p>Amid tensions already reaching dangerous heights, Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was assassinated in Tehran in a bombing Jan. 11. Both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor immediately condemned the assassination and vehemently denied any U.S. involvement in that or any other violence inside Iran.</p>
<p>It was the first time the U.S. government had chosen to distance itself so dramatically from actions that mainstream media has generally treated as part of a joint U.S.-Israeli policy.</p>
<p>U.S. officials told Associated Press Saturday that Israel was considered responsible for the killing, and the London Times published a detailed account of what it said was an Israeli Mossad operation.</p>
<p>The killing of the nuclear scientist also came in the context of what appears to be an intensification of diplomatic activity that most observers believe is designed to lay the groundwork for another P5+1 meeting (the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany). It has been widely assumed for the past week or so that here another P5+1 meeting will be held with Iran by the end of this month or early next.</p>
<p>While recent published stories about Washington’s communicating with Tehran through intermediaries stressed U.S. warnings about its “red lines” in responding to any Iranian move to close the Strait of Hormuz, those same communications may also have conveyed greater diplomatic flexibility on the nuclear issue in the hope of achieving some progress toward an agreement.</p>
<p>Mossad is believed to have assassinated at most a handful of Iranian nuclear scientists – not enough to slow down the Iranian program. And the timing of those operations has strongly suggested that the main aim has been to increase tensions with the United States and sabotage any possibility for agreement between Iran and the West on Iran’s nuclear program, if not actually provoke retaliation by Iran that could spark a wider conflict.</p>
<p>The assassination of nuclear scientist Majid Shariari and attempted assassination of his colleague, Fereydoon Abbasi on Nov. 29, 2010, for example, came just a few days after Tehran had reportedly agreed to hold a second meeting with the P5+1 in Geneva Dec. 6-7.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; A major investigative story published Friday on the website <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/" type="external">foreignpolicy.com</a> quoted former CIA officials as saying that Mossad operatives had been impersonating CIA personnel for several years in recruiting for and providing support to the Sunni terrorist organisation Jundallah, which operated inside Iran. That Israeli policy also suggested a desire to provoke Iranian retaliation against the United States.</p>
<p>GARETH PORTER&#160;is an investigative historian and journalist with Inter-Press Service specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, “ <a href="" type="internal">Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam</a>“, was published in 2006. &#160;</p>
<p>JIM LOBE’s blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at <a href="http://www.lobelog.com/" type="external">http://www.lobelog.com</a></p> | Obama Delays U.S.-Israeli War Exercise | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/01/17/obama-delays-u-s-israeli-war-exercise/ | 2012-01-17 | 4 |
<p>“ <a href="http://variety.com/tag/black-lightning/" type="external">Black Lightning</a>” has cast Grammy Award-winning singer <a href="http://variety.com/tag/jill-scott/" type="external">Jill Scott</a> as the villainous Lady Eve.</p>
<p>In the show, Lady Eve is a funeral parlor owner in Freeland who quickly becomes an adversary to <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/black-lightning-marvin-krondon-jones-iii-tobias-whale-cw-1202522016/" type="external">Black Lightning</a> as she becomes the bridge between Tobias Whale (Marvin “Krondon” Jones III) and a secret group of corrupt leaders.</p>
<p>“Jill is an amazing artist who can embody any character and give them an authentic voice that is both nuanced and richly complex,” “Black Lightning” showrunner and executive producer Salim Akil said. “I am excited to see her in the role of Lady Eve.”</p>
<p>Lady Eve first appeared in comics in 1985’s “Batman and the Outsiders #24.” She was the right-hand woman to the terrorist Kobra and his Kobra Cult.</p>
<p>“Black Lightning” stars Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce, a father of two and the principal of a charter high school who comes out of vigilante retirement as crime and corruption spread through his city thanks to a gang called The One Hundred.</p>
<p>Scott is a four-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who has also starred in films like “Why Did I Get Married?,” “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,” and “Steel Magnolias.”</p>
<p>“Black Lightning” will debut in midseason 2018 on The CW.</p>
<p /> | ‘Black Lightning’ Casts Jill Scott as Lady Eve | false | https://newsline.com/black-lightning-casts-jill-scott-as-lady-eve/ | 2017-10-05 | 1 |
<p>Occupy Wall Street and its kindred protests around the country are inept, incoherent and hopelessly quixotic. God, I love them.</p>
<p>I love every little thing about these gloriously amateurish sit-ins. I love that they are spontaneous, leaderless and open-ended. I love that the protesters refuse to issue specific demands beyond a forceful call for economic justice. I also love that in Chicago — uniquely, thus far — demonstrators have ignored the rule about vagueness and are being ultra-specific about their goals. I love that there are no rules, just tendencies.</p>
<p>I love that when Occupy Wall Street was denied permission to use bullhorns, demonstrators came up with an alternative straight out of Monty Python, or maybe “The Flintstones”: Have everyone within earshot repeat a speaker’s words, verbatim and in unison, so the whole crowd can hear. It works — and sounds tremendously silly. Protest movements that grow into something important tend to have a sense of humor.</p>
<p>I can’t help but love that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called the protests “growing mobs” and complained about fellow travelers who “have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans.” This would be the same Eric Cantor who praised the tea party movement in its raucous, confrontational, foaming-at-the-mouth infancy as “an organic movement” that was “about the people.” The man’s hypocrisy belongs in the Smithsonian.</p>
<p />
<p>Most of all, I love that the Occupy protests arise at just the right moment and are aimed at just the right target. This could be the start of something big and important.</p>
<p>“Economic justice” may mean different things to different people, but it’s not an empty phrase. It captures the sense that somehow, when we weren’t looking, the concept of fairness was deleted from our economic system — and our political lexicon. Economic injustice became the norm.</p>
<p>Revolutionary advances in technology and globalization are the forces most responsible for the hollowing-out of the American economy. But our policymakers responded in ways that tended to accentuate, rather than ameliorate, the most damaging effects of these worldwide trends.</p>
<p>The result is clear to see: A nation where the rich have become the mega-rich while the middle class has steadily lost ground, where unemployment is stuck at levels once considered unbearable, and where our political system is too dysfunctional to take the kind of bold action that would make a real difference. Eventually, the economy will limp out of this slump and things will seem better. Fundamentally, however, nothing will have changed.</p>
<p>Does that sound broad and unfocused? Yes, but it’s true.</p>
<p>The Occupy Wall Street protesters saw this broad, unfocused truth — and also understood that the place to begin this movement was at the epicenter of the financial system.</p>
<p>For most of our history, it was understood that the financial sector was supposed to perform a vital service for the economy: channeling liquidity to the companies where it could be most effectively used. But the rapid technological, economic and political change the world has witnessed in recent decades created myriad opportunities for Wall Street to channel liquidity to itself, often by inventing exotic new securities whose underpinnings may not exist. The 2008 financial crisis demonstrated the urgent need for reform.</p>
<p>It’s not that investment bankers should be held responsible for all the ills of the world. It’s that Wall Street is emblematic of an entire economic and political system that no longer seems to have most Americans’ best interests at heart.</p>
<p>So a ragtag group — not huge, but idealistic and determined — camps out in lower Manhattan. A similar thing happens in two dozen other cities. And maybe a movement is born.</p>
<p>Already, after less than a month, commentators are asking whether the Occupy protests can be transformed into a coherent political force. For now, at least, I hope not.</p>
<p>We have no shortage of politicians in this country. What we need is more passion and energy in the service of justice. We need to be forced to answer questions that sound simplistic or naive — questions about ethics and values. Detailed policy positions can wait.</p>
<p>At some point, these protest encampments will disappear — and, since the nation and the world will not have changed, they’ll be judged a failure. But I’ve got a hunch that this likely judgment will be wrong. I think the seed of progressive activism in the Occupy protests may grow into something very big indeed.</p>
<p>Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com.</p>
<p>© 2011, Washington Post Writers Group</p> | Occupy the Moment | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/occupy-the-moment/ | 2011-10-11 | 4 |
<p>The whistle-blower outfit has made enough enemies to warrant some secure digs, but a former nuclear bunker excavated in rock 98 feet below Stockholm might be <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5626381/this-is-the-nuclear-bunker-where-wikileaks-will-be-located" type="external">overkill</a>. It’s actually the home of what must be the world’s coolest Internet hosting company, which will house the future stash of WikiLeaks’ digital treasures.</p>
<p>Gizmodo:</p>
<p>Originally, it was just a bomb shelter built in 1943. In the ’70s, the Swedes turned the shelter into a full bunker, a civil defense center that was going to hold an emergency unit of the Swedish government in the case of a nuclear war.</p>
<p>Now, protected under 30 meters of rock and 1.64-feet-thick solid steel doors, it is the <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5086843/swedish-nuclear-bunker-transmogrified-into-data-center-fit-for-bond" type="external">colocation center of Bahnhof</a>, a Swedish internet hosting company. Bahnhof further expanded the facilities when they took over it, blasting new space for gas oil power plants extracted from decommissioned German submarines. In the case of an external power outage, the generators would kick in, keeping the servers running non-stop.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://gizmodo.com/5626381/this-is-the-nuclear-bunker-where-wikileaks-will-be-located" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p /> | WikiLeaks' Nuclear Bunker Is Like the Bat Cave, Only Cooler | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/wikileaks-nuclear-bunker-is-like-the-bat-cave-only-cooler/ | 2010-09-01 | 4 |
<p />
<p>In the coming weeks, as Houston turns its attention to rebuilding areas devastated by Tropical Storm Harvey, people like Jay De Leon are likely to play an outsized role – if they stay around.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>De Leon, 47, owns a small construction business in Houston, and he and his 10 employees do exactly the kind of demolition and refurbishing the city will need.&#160; But like a large number of construction workers in Texas, De Leon and most of his workers live in the United States illegally, and that could make things complicated.</p>
<p>The Pew Research Center estimated last year that 28 percent of Texas's construction workforce is undocumented, while other studies have put the number as high as 50 percent. Construction employed 23 percent of working undocumented adults in Texas at the end of 2014, higher than any other sector, according to the Migration Policy Institute.</p>
<p>However, undocumented immigrants are growing increasingly nervous in Texas because of an immigration crackdown by the Trump administration that has cast a wide net.</p>
<p>In addition, undocumented immigrants were worried about a new Texas law that had been scheduled to take effect on Friday, which would have barred cities in the state from embracing so-called sanctuary policies that offer safe harbor to illegal immigrants, and would have allowed &#160;local police to inquire about a person’s immigration status.</p>
<p>That law was temporarily enjoined by a federal judge late Wednesday, but the state's governor has vowed to appeal.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>De Leon, who has lived in the country for 20 years and has two citizen children, says the changes have spooked the city’s migrant workforce. In recent weeks, he said, one of his employees left the state and another returned to Mexico. Both feared that if they stayed they risked arrest.</p>
<p>Departing workers, he says, pose a problem for Houston in the wake of Harvey, which has killed at least 17 people and caused flood damage to commercial buildings, houses, roads and bridges expected to run into tens of billions of dollars.</p>
<p>“The situation that Houston is going through now with the hurricane is going to be the trial by fire for the Republicans and the governor that approved these radical laws,” De Leon said. "They will need our migrant labor to rebuild the city. I believe that without us it will be impossible."</p>
<p>Undocumented workers perform a wide range of construction jobs, from framing and dry-walling to plumbing and wiring.</p>
<p>Stan Marek, chief executive of Marek Construction in Texas, said his company doesn't hire undocumented immigrants and has long had difficulty finding enough trained U.S. workers.</p>
<p>"It's a crisis," Marek said. "We are looking at several thousand homes that have flood damage. There is no way the existing (legal) workforce can make a dent in it."</p>
<p>Marek would like to see the federal government grant emergency work authorization for undocumented workers in the rebuilding effort, he said. Otherwise, those immigrants are likely to be hired by firms that do not pay payroll taxes or provide benefits like workers' compensation and legally mandated overtime.</p>
<p>It isn't yet possible to estimate how many construction jobs will be added in Texas as it rebuilds, but in the 12 months after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Louisiana added 14,800 jobs in the sector, U.S. government data shows.</p>
<p>About 25 percent of the construction workers involved in the cleanup of New Orleans were undocumented, according to a study by researchers at Tulane and UC Berkeley universities. Those without papers were "especially at risk of exploitation," the study found.</p>
<p>WORKER EXODUS</p>
<p>The labor shortages are likely to grow worse, many builders warn. Earlier this year, a group of Hispanic contractors sent a letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott warning that the pending ban on sanctuary city policies would make it “difficult to find and retain experienced workers.”</p>
<p>Javier Arrias, chairman of the Hispanic Contractors Association de Tejas and one of the letter’s signers, told Reuters that "many construction workers are already moving to other states."</p>
<p>Abbott's office did not respond to a request for comment about the role undocumented workers might play in the recovery.</p>
<p>Elizabeth Theiss, president of Houston-based anti-immigration group Stop the Magnet, sees another option besides looking to workers in the country illegally. She says the rebuilding effort should be used to help train U.S. veterans and other citizens who need jobs.</p>
<p>Theiss acknowledged that reconstruction might proceed more slowly, at least initially, if immigrants without work documents are not part of the effort, but she noted that rebuilding would be slow under any scenario.</p>
<p>PERSONAL HARDSHIPS</p>
<p>Whatever role undocumented people play in rebuilding Houston, they could face hardships rebuilding their own lives.</p>
<p>While the Federal Emergency Management Agency provides emergency food, water and medicine to anyone, regardless of immigration status, cash assistance and other longer term aid is only available to citizens and immigrants in households where at least one family member has legal status.</p>
<p>Immigrant advocates are launching private fundraising drives to help fill the void.</p>
<p>"It is deeply tragic and un-American that so many of those working men and women who will be rebuilding Houston and the rest of the state will be doing so while facing tragedy in their own lives," said Jose Garza, executive director of the Workers Defense Project.</p>
<p>De Leon said his family was lucky and did not suffer flood damage. He is now busy rounding up supplies for immigrant families stuck at shelters who are afraid to seek out more help from authorities.</p>
<p>In the end, he says, President Donald Trump has to know “it's going to be impossible to rebuild Houston without the labor force of immigrants. It is illogical - what he says with his words and what really has to happen.”</p>
<p>(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg in Houston and Dan Levine in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Ann Saphir and Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Sue Horton and Ross Colvin)</p> | How Trump's immigration crackdown could slow Houston's rebuilding efforts | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/30/how-trumps-immigration-crackdown-could-slow-houstons-rebuilding-efforts.html | 2017-08-31 | 0 |
<p>Powerful words spoken by the father of the Navy SEAL who died in a botched raid in Yemen a few weeks ago called out the <a href="" type="internal">hypocrisy of the Republican Party</a> when it comes to Trump and the GOP, in general.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, I don’t want to see him,’’ William Owens said during an <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article135064074.html" type="external">interview</a> with the Miami Herald.&#160;“I told them I don’t want to meet the president.”</p>
<p>“Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration?,” he added. “Why? For two years prior, there were no boots on the ground in Yemen, everything was missiles and drones, because there was not a target worth one American life. Now, all of a sudden we had to make this grand display?’’</p>
<p>While I’m not going to&#160;insinuate that this was entirely Trump’s fault, there are certainly questions that need to be answered. This was a mission that had been planned before Trump took office, but I agree with Mr. Owens&#160;that the sudden urgency to order it so quickly after assuming office does seem more political than strategic.</p>
<p>Though what’s most disconcerting are <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-briefings-idUSKBN13X2M9" type="external">reports</a> that came out prior to all of this that Trump had been skipping intelligence briefings and he wasn’t even in the Situation Room when the raid was taking place.</p>
<p>Imagine what Republicans would be saying if Clinton had been elected, skipped intelligence briefings prior to ordering a failed military raid resulting in the death of a Navy SEAL, then we found out she wasn’t even in the Situation Room while all of this was going on.</p>
<p>People like Trump, his fellow Republicans, and their supporters have&#160;lied&#160;about her being asleep when Benghazi happened. It’s been falsely repeated that she was asleep when the attack took place, even though it was mid-day in Washington — not the “middle of the night” as many on the right have said it was. Furthermore, she wasn’t the president at that time — yet Trump was when this Navy SEAL was tragically killed.</p>
<p>“Don’t hide behind my son’s death to prevent an investigation,” Owens said. “I want an investigation. The government owes my son an investigation.”</p>
<p>While Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has called for an investigation, that’s something Trump criticized.</p>
<p>As I’ve been saying for weeks now, Republicans need to hold Donald Trump to the same standards they did Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But a majority of them won’t, because they seem determined to put politics over country every. single. time.&#160;</p>
<p>They spent years investigating Benghazi even though the late-Ambassador Chris Stevens’ family <a href="" type="internal">openly spoke out against the GOP</a> politicizing his death. So I don’t see any logical or ethical reason why any member of Congress (especially Republicans who, very recently, seemed to be big fans of investigations) would oppose looking into a botched military raid ordered by Trump, who skipped intelligence briefings and wasn’t in the Situation Room when it&#160;took place.</p>
<p>I can guarantee that had Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton been in charge when this happened, that’s&#160;exactly&#160;what Republicans would be pushing for.</p>
<p />
<p>3 Facebook comments</p> | Powerful Words from Father of Fallen Navy SEAL on Republican Hypocrisy | true | https://forwardprogressives.com/powerful-words-father-fallen-navy-seal-republican-hypocrisy/ | 2017-02-28 | 4 |
<p>Published time: 21 Nov, 2017 22:20</p>
<p>Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has finally returned to Beirut as tensions mount in the region over his sudden resignation earlier this month.</p>
<p>Hariri touched down at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport after stopping over in Cairo where he held talks with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Lebanon’s Naharnet news reports. The politician was met by security forces on arrival.</p>
<p>Prior to his engagement in Egypt, Hariri spent the weekend in Paris, holding talks with French President Emmanuel Macron who is reportedly trying to mediate in Lebanon’s crisis. Before Hariri travelled to Beirut, el-Sisi <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hariri-lebanon-meeting-sisi-egypt-1.4412413" type="external">spoke</a> on the phone with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, and the two leaders stressed the importance of preserving Lebanon’s national unity.</p>
<p>Hariri abruptly announced his resignation in a televised statement from Riyadh on November 4, blaming Iran for having a destabilizing influence in Lebanon and the Middle East and saying that his life was in danger from political opponent, Hezbollah. This led some to speculate the resignation statement had been made under duress while the PM was in Saudi Arabia, a claim repeated by Aoun. Hariri has denied these claims.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/410471-lebanon-readiness-border-israel/" type="external">READ MORE: Lebanese Army placed at ‘full readiness’ to counter ‘Israeli enemy’</a></p> | Lebanon’s PM returns to Beirut after abrupt resignation while in Saudi Arabia | false | https://newsline.com/lebanons-pm-returns-to-beirut-after-abrupt-resignation-while-in-saudi-arabia/ | 2017-11-21 | 1 |
<p>The White House says it is dropping a proposal to scale back the tax benefits of college savings plans amid a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats.</p>
<p>President Barack Obama made the proposal last week as part of his State of the Union address. It was part of Obama's plan to consolidate and simplify a sometimes confusing array of tax breaks for college students.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Resistance from Congress was swift. Republicans publicly criticized the plan, and aides said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi pushed senior administration officials to drop it as she flew with the president aboard Air Force One from India to Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>Other Democrats also privately weighed in against the plan, including Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.</p>
<p>A White House official said Tuesday the proposal had become a distraction.</p>
<p>"We proposed it because we thought it was a sensible approach, part of consolidating six programs to two and expanding and better targeting education tax relief for the middle class," said the White House official. "Given it has become such a distraction, we're not going to ask Congress to pass the 529 provision so that they can instead focus on delivering a larger package of education tax relief that has bipartisan support."</p>
<p>The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be quoted by name.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Obama's plan would reduce the tax benefits of future contributions to the popular 529 college savings plans. Current accounts would have been grandfathered, so existing funds could still grow and be withdrawn, tax-free.</p>
<p>The administration said all the additional tax revenue would have been used to help expand and make permanent a $2,500 tax credit that families can use for education expenses. Under current law, the tax credit is scheduled to expire at the end of 2017.</p>
<p>Contributions to college savings plans are not tax-deductible at the federal level. But once the money is invested, it can grow and eventually be withdrawn with no tax on the earnings, as long as the money is spent on tuition, fees, books and supplies needed to attend postsecondary school.</p>
<p>The savings plans, which are sponsored by states, can also be used to prepay college tuition.</p>
<p>About 12 million families take advantage of college savings plans. About half were held by families making more than $150,000, according to a 2012 report by the Government Accountability Office.</p>
<p>About 30 percent of plans were held by families who make less than $100,000, the report said.</p>
<p>The White House said Obama's proposal to scale back the tax benefits for savings plans was a small part of his overall plan to cut taxes for the middle class and to make college more affordable. Obama is also proposing a $60 billion plan to make the first two years of community or technical college free.</p>
<p>"The President's plan has the puzzle pieces necessary to bring the middle class back, but this particular piece didn't fit," Schumer said in a statement.</p>
<p>Earlier in the day, at a Capitol Hill news conference, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called on Obama to abandon his plan for the college-savings account.</p>
<p>After the White House decision was made public, Boehner's official Twitter account tweeted: "BREAKING: Americans spoke out. Now, #middleclass families won't have college savings taxed. Let's keep up the fight."</p>
<p>Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said, "This is welcome news for the countless hardworking parents who make sacrifices to save and provide for their children's futures."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap</p> | White House dropping proposal to reduce tax benefits of college savings plans amid backlash | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/01/28/white-house-dropping-proposal-to-reduce-tax-benefits-college-savings-plans-amid.html | 2016-03-09 | 0 |
<p>Christy Bowe/ZUMA</p>
<p />
<p>Jim Webb is sounding increasingly serious about <a href="" type="internal">running</a> for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. Last week, National Journal‘s Bob Moser <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/here-comes-trouble-20150213" type="external">wrote a cover story</a> wondering whether the former Virginia senator could “spark an anti-Hillary uprising,” in which Webb explained that his absence from the campaign trail this winter was, in part, the result of major knee surgery to fix problems leftover from his days in the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>Webb struck his first blow against his fellow Democrats on Wednesday. But rather than targeting Clinton, his likely presidential opposition, he struck out against the party’s incumbent, President Barack Obama. In a series of tweets, Webb lashed out at the president for <a href="" type="internal">vetoing a bill</a> that would have approved construction on the Keystone XL Pipeline.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Webb’s tweetstorm doesn’t tell the whole story. A <a href="" type="internal">letter from the EPA</a> released earlier this month argued that, thanks to recent drops in oil prices, Keystone XL could prove disastrous for carbon emissions.</p>
<p>As <a href="" type="internal">I detailed in December</a>, Jim Webb had an atrocious record on climate change and environmental issues while he served in the Senate. Standing up for Virginia’s roots as a coal state, Webb tried to thwart Obama’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gasses through EPA regulation, and he helped block Democratic attempts to pass a cap-and-trade law.</p>
<p>Clinton, for her part, has <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/hillary-clinton-won-t-talk-about-keystone-and-greens-are-ok-with-that-20150224" type="external">regularly sidestepped</a> addressing whether she wants to see the pipeline constructed, though she has generally been supportive of other environmental efforts made by the Obama administration.</p>
<p>While Webb objected to Obama’s decision to veto this specific bill, it’s still unclear whether the two Democrats disagree on the underlying issue. Obama has strenuously rejected attempts by congressional Republicans to force immediate approval of the pipeline, but his administration has not yet said definitely if it intends to let the project go forward eventually.</p>
<p /> | Obama Just Vetoed the GOP’s Keystone Bill, and This Democratic Presidential Hopeful Is Pissed | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/jim-webb-keystone-climate-change/ | 2015-02-25 | 4 |
<p>Let the good times roll!</p>
<p>California lawmakers&#160;accepted $844,000 in <a href="http://www.calnewsroom.com/2014/03/04/2014-gift-and-financial-disclosure-reports-for-california-officials/" type="external">gifts in 2013</a>&#160;—&#160;the majority of which came from special interest groups that routinely lobby the state Legislature.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://www.commoncause.org/states/california/research-and-reports/gifts-report-2013.pdf" type="external">new report</a> released by the good-government group California Common Cause, gifts to elected state representatives included&#160;$580,000 in travel payments, more than $100,000 in meals and receptions and $65,500 for&#160;tickets to entertainment and sporting events.</p>
<p>“With ongoing federal investigations into potential ethics violations by several state lawmakers, this report highlights that there are many legal channels through which special interests exert their influence in Sacramento,” Kathay Feng, executive director of CA&#160;Common Cause, said in a <a href="http://www.commoncause.org/states/california/press/press-releases/gifts-report-2013.html" type="external">press release</a>.</p>
<p>Each state lawmakers received, on average, $600 worth of gifts every&#160;month. To put that number into perspective, it’s&#160;three times the freebies the average recipient of food stamps receives in California. According to the <a href="http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/foodstamps/PG846.htm" type="external">California Department of Social Services</a>, “The average amount of CalFresh benefits received per household is about $200 per month.”</p>
<p>In total, state lawmakers reported more than&#160;2,700 individual gifts in 2013, ranging from a $1.50 bottle of Coke to a $15,782 trip to Armenia. While meals were the most common item, the largest payments were for travel to exotic locations and accommodation in luxury hotels. Among the more unique gifts were:</p>
<p>CA&#160;Common Cause says both the number and value of gifts increased dramatically in the past year. According to <a href="http://www.calnewsroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/2012-California-Legislator-Gifts-Common-Cause-Report.pdf" type="external">their report</a>,&#160;state elected officials <a href="" type="internal">accepted approximately</a> $216,000 in gifts and travel payments, including $41,000 in hotels and lodging; $30,000 for tickets to entertainment and sporting events; and more than $100,000 for meals and receptions.</p>
<p>“While Californians across the state exchange gifts this month in celebration of the holidays, its worth taking a minute to reflect on the year-round, not-so-secret Santa happening in the state Capitol,” said Sarah Swanbeck, policy and legislative affairs advocate for CA&#160;Common Cause. “What we’re seing is a growing trend in both the number of gifts and the total value of those gifts given by powerful special interest groups to state lawmakers.”</p>
<p>To compile its report, the group&#160;analyzed&#160;publicly available financial disclosure reports, which are filed annually with the Fair Political Practices Commission. That means the figures are likely to be lower than the actual total. State law does not require gifts under $50 in value to be reported on these Statement of Economic Interest forms. Financial disclosure reports for 2014 won’t be available until March 1.</p>
<p>Legislative leaders topped the list of gift recipients in 2013, with former Speaker of the Assembly John A. Perez, D-Los Angeles, taking home nearly $38,000 in gifts and perks. The Top 10 recipients, according to the report:</p>
<p>All of the state lawmakers listed in the Top 10 of gift recipients utilized the longstanding&#160;loophole that allows elected officials to circumvent the state’s $440 gift limit.</p>
<p>State&#160;officials can accept gifts that exceed the state’s gift limit if it is for travel-related expenses in conjunction with a speech or conference. Special&#160;interest groups routinely&#160;take advantage of this&#160;loophole by organizing “conferences” in exotic locales. In 2013, the two biggest donors helped state lawmakers jet off to <a href="http://johnhrabe.com/oops-la-times-confuses-armenia-with-hostile-neighbor-azerbaijan/" type="external">Scandinavia</a>, Taiwan&#160;and Maui, courtesy of this loophole.</p>
<p>The biggest gift-giver to state lawmakers was the California Foundation on the Environment &amp; Economy, which spent&#160;$161,893 in travel-related gifts. It was followed by the <a href="http://www.calnewsroom.com/tag/independent-voter-project/" type="external">Independent Voter Project</a>, which spent $38,080 in 2013.</p>
<p>Founded by former <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/15/1091322/-The-Independent-Voter-Project-cover-for-corporate-interests" type="external">Assemblyman Steve Peace</a>, the IVP&#160;hosts a&#160; <a href="http://www.calnewsroom.com/2013/12/01/conway-gorell-attended-annual-maui-junket/" type="external">notorious annual conference in Maui</a>. Eighteen&#160;state lawmakers <a href="http://www.calnewsroom.com/2014/03/04/gift-reports-confirm-18-ca-lawmakers-on-maui-trips/" type="external">attended the group’s 2013 conference</a>,&#160;held at the luxurious Fairmont Kea Lani, “Hawaii’s only all-suite and villa luxury oceanfront resort.”</p>
<p>The travel gift loophole has&#160;been criticized by newspapers and ethics experts.</p>
<p>“Almost all of this largesse came courtesy of people and organizations with business before the Legislature,” the <a href="http://www.pressdemocrat.com/opinion/editorials/3296470-181/pd-editorial-thumbs-up-thumbs" type="external">Press-Democrat recently editorialized</a>. “With all the junkets and outings, it’s a wonder they find time for any business.”</p>
<p>While travel-related gifts accounted for nearly 70 percent of the dollar amount, the most frequent&#160;gift given&#160;to legislators in 2013 was a free lunch. That’s gifts of meals and drinks; and attendance at receptions, events and hospitality suites.</p>
<p>In the area of free meals, the California Democratic Party donated more than any other group, according to CA Common Cause. The state party spent&#160;nearly&#160;$10,000 to wine and dine&#160;its members.</p>
<p>The top 10 gift-givers in 2013 were:</p> | CA Common Cause: State lawmakers accepted $844,000 in gifts in 2013 | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2014/12/29/ca-common-cause-state-lawmakers-accepted-844000-in-gifts-in-2013/ | 2018-12-20 | 3 |
<p>Amy Sussman/ZUMA</p>
<p>On Tuesday, life came&#160;at John Carman fast.</p>
<p>Nearly 10 months after the New Jersey Republican legislator shared a meme asking if the historic Women’s March would be “over in time” for its participants to “cook dinner,” a woman and first-time political candidate who expressed anger over the sexist remarks has ousted Carman from office.</p>
<p>Democrat Ashley Bennett will now take Carman’s seat on the Atlantic County Board of Freeholders, a nine-member governing body that oversees politics in the South Jersey county. She was one of <a href="" type="internal">thousands of women</a> around the country to dive into politics after Trump’s victory last year</p>
<p>“I was angry about [the Facebook meme], because elected officials shouldn’t be on social media mocking and belittling people who are expressing their concerns about their community and the nation,” Bennett <a href="https://wtop.com/government/2017/10/womens-march-dinner-joke-serves-up-a-political-challenge/slide/1/" type="external">said</a> in October.</p>
<p>Last month, Carman drew fresh outrage for sporting a Confederate flag patch in the shape of New Jersey on his denim vest. He denied the racist implications of the patch, calling it the <a href="http://nj1015.com/rebel-with-a-constituency-another-nj-politician-defends-confederate-flag-patch/" type="external">“South Jersey Rebel Patch.”</a></p>
<p>Here’s Carman’s Facebook post reacting to Tuesday’s loss:</p>
<p /> | Woman Unseats GOP Lawmaker Who Made Sexist Joke About Women’s March | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/ashley-bennett-john-carman-new-jersey-freeholder/ | 2017-11-08 | 4 |
<p />
<p>It’s dinnertime at the New Deal Cafe, a homely (as in full of mismatched, threadbare sofas and chairs, and a floor that could use a good scrubbing) coffeehouse in the center of Greenbelt, Maryland, 12 miles from Washington, D.C. People are chatting amiably or playing chess or reading the newspaper, while a folksinger from New York is doing a sound check. “I hear this place is a co-op,” she says, testing the microphone level. “How many of you are members?” The audience looks up and starts to pay attention. More than a few raise their hands. “That’s so cool,” the singer says. “Do you know how cool that is?”</p>
<p>By all accounts, they do. “We like to say that in Greenbelt we have democracy with a vengeance,” says Mary Lou Williamson, the editor of the Greenbelt News Review, the local weekly newspaper. Like the café, the News Review is a cooperative venture. Staffed by volunteers and run by a board comprised of Greenbelt residents, it is distributed free to every household in this city of 21,000 and has been since 1937, when a handful of people in town, feeling the need to communicate with one another, called a meeting and got it started.</p>
<p>“That’s how people in Greenbelt approach everything,” says historian Cathy Knepper, who devoted more than a decade to studying the city for her recently published book, Greenbelt, Maryland: A Living Legacy of the New Deal. “When they see a problem or want to start something new, they call a meeting and they organize. The remarkable thing is that they’ve kept it up for more than 60 years.” In addition to the newspaper and the café, the supermarket is a co-op, as are the nursery school, the bank, an Internet service provider, and Greenbelt Homes Inc., which owns 1,600 homes in the town center.</p>
<p>Those homes form the core of what’s now called Old Greenbelt, a community created out of whole cloth by the federal government during the Depression. The year was 1935. Millions of people were homeless or on the brink; even more were out of work. FDR created the Resettlement Administration to deal with the housing shortage, appointing Rexford Tugwell director. Greenbelt was Tugwell’s idea: a town for people of modest means, where the built environment — the houses and playgrounds and stores and roads — would promote neighborliness and civic engagement.</p>
<p>Tugwell, a passionate believer in the cooperative movement, envisioned Greenbelt, and the other two “green” towns he designed in Ohio and Wisconsin, as a way to try out progressive notions of social engineering while creating housing and jobs. Of the three, Greenbelt was his showcase. Built on worn-out tobacco fields owned by the government, the town was ringed by parks and had a central shopping and office district that was accessible by pedestrian walkways. Its row houses were clustered around shared courtyards that were also joined by walking paths. Cars existed on the periphery, and they still do. It is possible to go everywhere in Old Greenbelt — on foot.</p>
<p>“I walk to work,” says Katie Scott-Childress, the curator of historical programs at the Greenbelt Museum, “and to the [municipal] pool and to the [community] ceramics studio and the movie theater and the library. I know all my neighbors, because I literally cross paths with them every day.”</p>
<p>While Greenbelt was not America’s first planned cooperative community — its predecessors included Oneida, New Harmony, and Ephrata — it was the only one where the federal government was visionary and banker, contractor and leasing agent. It is also the only one to have survived into the 21st century more or less intact. This is true not only of its distinctive art deco architecture, but of its participatory ethos as well.</p>
<p>From its inception, Greenbelt was meant to be a community of doers. Anyone wishing to move to the town in the early years had to be vetted by government interviewers, who not only looked at income (it had to be between $800 and $2,200 depending on family size, the equivalent of roughly $10,000 to $28,000 today), but also assessed the applicants’ understanding of cooperative principles. “They screened you to the ninth inch,” says Annie Halley, whose family was among the first to move into Greenbelt when it opened in 1937. “They wanted to know our whole history and if we were willing to participate in the community.”</p>
<p>That first generation of Greenbelters is now affectionately referred to as “the pioneers,” a name that begins to get at the fact that they didn’t just move to a new place; they created it too. The civic infrastructure they built — the committees and co-ops and charitable groups, the arts associations and political clubs — was not only real and tangible, but mental and emotional as well. “The pioneers socialized us,” says Mary Sies, a University of Maryland professor and Greenbelt resident who is active in the local museum and the New Deal Cafe and runs a Web site devoted to the town’s history.</p>
<p>“There is some indication in the research we’ve done that once you are involved in a co-op you continue to be involved in community life,” says Leta Mach, director of education for the National Cooperative Business Association in Washington. Mach herself is a case in point. When she moved to Greenbelt in 1974, she enrolled her children in the cooperative nursery school, which led her to take a position on the school’s board, and then to become active in state and national co-op preschool organizations. She joined the staff of the News Review, worked as the public relations director for the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival — Labor Day is big in Greenbelt — served as PTA president and secretary of the food co-op, and chaired a townwide committee on education. “The majority of people here get involved in something,” she says.</p>
<p>Not that they have much of a choice. Residents of Old Greenbelt’s historic row houses don’t actually own their homes; they own a share of Greenbelt Homes Inc. and the right to dwell in their house. The co-op itself is governed by a residents board and a dozen committees that address everything from building maintenance and preservation (paid for by a sizable monthly co-op fee) to arts events and youth programs.</p>
<p>“What appealed to us,” recalls Wendy Turnbull, who with her husband, Alan, moved to Greenbelt 12 years ago, “was that here was this huge housing co-op and the members had governed themselves for decades, with vociferous debates about policies and programs. We were attracted by the underlying democratic nature of the co-op.” Today, Alan is in his third term on the City Council, while Wendy has served on a string of committees and boards and was a co-founder of the New Deal Cafe.</p>
<p>“It was the fall of ’94,” she recalls. “A group of Greenbelters started talking about how we needed a community living room for people to hang out and talk and read the paper and drink coffee. So we put it before the whole community, asking what they’d like. We had an open house and 150 people filled out questionnaires. After that, there was a general meeting and a board was elected, and I joined that board, too.</p>
<p>“Two, three, four nights a week, one or the other of us is at a meeting.”</p>
<p>When the pioneers moved to Greenbelt, a house could be rented for $31 a month. The cost of the co-op’s homes has increased considerably since then, but they are still cheap by suburban Washington standards, ranging from $30,000 to $100,000, rarely more. Old Greenbelt remains, as it was from the start, a bastion of the middle middle class, a place with one of the biggest American Legion posts in the country. (An all-white community when it was created, Greenbelt has since become more demographically balanced, with 41 percent of the population African American.)</p>
<p>“Greenbelt has always thought of itself as a community of people who don’t have a lot of money,” says Williamson, the newspaper editor. “And while there aren’t any really wealthy people here, there are tremendous differences in educational background. It’s not unusual to have blue-collar workers living next door to people with doctorates. We have a lot of University of Maryland maintenance workers and a lot of professors. It’s a great mixture. Most towns are not like that.”</p>
<p>In one way, Greenbelt has become more like other places: As the federal government divested itself of the town in the 1950s, large tracts of land were sold to developers. Apartment complexes went up, as did new homes and strip malls. New Greenbelt now surrounds Old Greenbelt the way the parklands once did. At the same time, Old Greenbelt’s spirit has extended beyond the old town’s boundaries, encircling the entire city with its demands, its shared assumptions, its pride.</p>
<p>“Many of the newer areas of town replicate Old Greenbelt,” says the historian Cathy Knepper. “They have community centers and neighborhood associations and other forms of self-government. The townwide committees and organizations make every effort to involve people from all parts of town, and they’re pretty successful. The influence of the town spreads, whether people realize it or not.”</p>
<p>A couple of years ago, when Harvard’s Robert Putnam published Bowling Alone, his argument — that a culture of suburbanism in which people do not know or associate with their neighbors was undermining American democracy — was greeted by a chorus of ahas and yeses. What Rexford Tugwell’s experiment in Greenbelt shows is that it didn’t have to be this way. Not the cars, not the gates, not the isolation, not the anomie.</p>
<p>“I see these ads for Kentlands in Maryland and Celebration — that planned community that Disney built in Florida — and I realize that Greenbelt is a model for them,” says Wendy Turnbull. “They’re all about how everyone knows each other, and they’re safe for kids, and the barber lives above the barbershop. Except those places are only for people with money.</p>
<p>“How a town is designed is really important,” she notes. “But you know why we have a real sense of community here? Because people roll up their sleeves and go to the frigging meetings.”</p>
<p /> | New Deal City | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2002/05/new-deal-city/ | 2018-05-01 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said Monday he is “confident” the central bank will start raising interest rates later this year once global markets settle down.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Lockhart, a voting member of the Fed’s policy-setting Federal Open Markets Committee, said he based his vote last week to delay a rate hike on the market volatility that arose in August after signs of weakness emerged in the Chinese economy.</p>
<p>But Lockhart said he expects that volatility to be temporary and that the Fed will be able to start raising rates before the end of 2015.</p>
<p>“As things settle down, I will be ready for the first policy move on the path to a more normal interest-rate environment. I am confident the much-used phrase ‘later this year’ is still operative,” Lockhart said in prepared remarks delivered during a speech in Atlanta.</p>
<p>The FOMC voted decisively last week to keep interest rates at the near-zero range where they've been held since December 2008. The move to delay came after weeks of intense debate over whether the U.S. economy is strong enough to absorb the higher borrowing costs that will follow a rate hike.</p>
<p>A September hike was all but certain until global markets became unsettled on the bad news out of China.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Lockhart said the Fed has achieved one element of its dual mandate of full employment and price stability. Central bankers are comfortable with the strength of the labor market, he said, but still seeking definitive signs that inflation is heading toward the Fed’s 2% target range, an indication of price stability.</p>
<p>Lockhart said he and the other FOMC members who voted to delay did so because of the lack of clarity regarding how the overseas turmoil might eventually impact the U.S. economy.</p>
<p>“About a month ago, uncertainties loomed larger, market volatility rose, and, from a policy maker’s perspective, risks to the domestic economy ratcheted up a little,” he said. “It’s too early to know whether this episode amounts to a bona fide shock to the economy or just a nervous spasm in the markets.”</p>
<p>“My summary assessment is that the sources of uncertainty that fueled financial market volatility represent a modest risk to our economy, but a risk factor nonetheless,” he added.</p>
<p>Fed Chair Janet Yellen said during a press conference on Thursday following the release of the Fed’s statement that “a great majority” of FOMC members favor raising rates before then end of 2015.</p> | Fed's Lockhart 'Confident' of 2015 Rate Hike | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2015/09/21/fed-lockhart-confident-2015-rate-hike.html | 2016-03-10 | 0 |
<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ These Tennessee lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Cash 3 Evening</p>
<p>7-9-7, Lucky Sum: 23</p>
<p>(seven, nine, seven; Lucky Sum: twenty-three)</p>
<p>Cash 3 Midday</p>
<p>6-9-1, Lucky Sum: 16</p>
<p>(six, nine, one; Lucky Sum: sixteen)</p>
<p>Cash 3 Morning</p>
<p>0-3-2, Lucky Sum: 5</p>
<p>(zero, three, two; Lucky Sum: five)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Evening</p>
<p>7-1-2-7, Lucky Sum: 17</p>
<p>(seven, one, two, seven; Lucky Sum: seventeen)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Midday</p>
<p>1-9-9-4, Lucky Sum: 23</p>
<p>(one, nine, nine, four; Lucky Sum: twenty-three)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Morning</p>
<p>2-6-8-4, Lucky Sum: 20</p>
<p>(two, six, eight, four; Lucky Sum: twenty)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>17-18-33-46-60, Mega Ball: 24, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(seventeen, eighteen, thirty-three, forty-six, sixty; Mega Ball: twenty-four; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
<p>Tennessee Cash</p>
<p>04-05-22-27-28, Bonus: 5</p>
<p>(four, five, twenty-two, twenty-seven, twenty-eight; Bonus: five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $810,000</p>
<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ These Tennessee lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Cash 3 Evening</p>
<p>7-9-7, Lucky Sum: 23</p>
<p>(seven, nine, seven; Lucky Sum: twenty-three)</p>
<p>Cash 3 Midday</p>
<p>6-9-1, Lucky Sum: 16</p>
<p>(six, nine, one; Lucky Sum: sixteen)</p>
<p>Cash 3 Morning</p>
<p>0-3-2, Lucky Sum: 5</p>
<p>(zero, three, two; Lucky Sum: five)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Evening</p>
<p>7-1-2-7, Lucky Sum: 17</p>
<p>(seven, one, two, seven; Lucky Sum: seventeen)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Midday</p>
<p>1-9-9-4, Lucky Sum: 23</p>
<p>(one, nine, nine, four; Lucky Sum: twenty-three)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Morning</p>
<p>2-6-8-4, Lucky Sum: 20</p>
<p>(two, six, eight, four; Lucky Sum: twenty)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>17-18-33-46-60, Mega Ball: 24, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(seventeen, eighteen, thirty-three, forty-six, sixty; Mega Ball: twenty-four; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
<p>Tennessee Cash</p>
<p>04-05-22-27-28, Bonus: 5</p>
<p>(four, five, twenty-two, twenty-seven, twenty-eight; Bonus: five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $810,000</p> | TN Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/amp/a1d459b29f0844f9815c4d8a046ff192 | 2018-01-13 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Several members of St. Pius’ state championship baseball team have been rewarded with All-State honors.</p>
<p>Outfielder Cody Bower was voted to the Class 4A first team, as was catcher Adam Baros, pitcher Kent Keeling and designated hitter Kendrick Sanchez.</p>
<p>Marc Hilton of the Sartans was chosen Coach of the Year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Second baseman Kyle Piersol was on the second team, and third baseman Andrew Muhlberger was honorable mention.</p>
<p>Cibola youth camp set for next month</p>
<p>The 2013 Cibola Cougar Football NMYAFL Camp is July 12-13.</p>
<p>The camp runs 5-7 p.m.</p>
<p>July 12 and 8 a.m.-noon July 13.s get a special $30 each discount. The price includes a T-shirt and lunch July 13. New Cibola High coach Rod Williams, along with coaching staff and players, will operate the camp.The camp will focus on offensive and defensive skills, blocking, tackling, passing, receiving, punting and field-goal kicking.The cost is $40 per camper. Teams or groupThose interested must sign up by June 21.For more information, contact James DeLeon at 264-7003</p>
<p>or Chris Gutierrez at 991-6362.</p>
<p>CHS football golf tourney at Sandia</p>
<p>The Cibola High School football golf tournament is Aug. 17 at Sandia Golf Club.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It is a 1:30 p.m. shotgun start, with a four-person scramble format.</p>
<p>The entry fee is $125, which covers green</p>
<p>fee, cart and range balls. There will be prizes, contests and raffles, as well.more information, contact James DeLeon at 264-7003.For</p>
<p>Blades offering summer lessons</p>
<p>Blades Multiplex Arenas in Rio Rancho is offering figure skating and hockey classes this month, starting Tuesday.</p>
<p>Classes are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. They cost $125. There are 30-minute lessons weekly for eight weeks.</p>
<p>Those interested can register at Blades or over the phone at 892-9222. Also, they can visit&#160; <a href="http://www.bladesnm.com" type="external">www.bladesnm.com</a>.</p>
<p>• Blades is also offering a four-week introductory skating skills class for both sports, also starting Tuesday. The cost is $64. It is for beginners only.</p>
<p>Stars play host to Amarillo tonight</p>
<p>The New Mexico Stars are back home tonight.</p>
<p>The Stars (4-4) have a key home game against Amarillo in a Lone Star Football League matchup.</p>
<p>Kickoff is 7:05 p.m.</p>
<p>New Mexico has already clinched a playoff berth. This is Amarillo’s first visit to the Santa Ana Star Center this season.</p>
<p>N</p>
<p>ance outlasts rivals in qualifier</p>
<p>J.D. Nance has earned entry into the New Mexico Open bowling tournament in August. He is the 24th bowler to gain a spot in the event, which will be</p>
<p>Aug. 16-18. at Tenpins &amp; More in Rio Rancho. First place will be worth $10,000.Nance won the most recent Open qualifier, last weekend. The Open will be</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Serge resigns for St. Mike’s job</p>
<p>Bosque School girls soccer coach Robyn Serge has resigned after one season.</p>
<p>She is taking over the girls’ program at St. Michael’s.</p> | Sports briefs | false | https://abqjournal.com/208296/208296.html | 2013-06-08 | 2 |
<p />
<p>For as long as I can remember -- back as far as President Jimmy Carter, at least, and all the way up through President-elect Donald Trump -- American presidents have been promising to pay for spending increases <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/11/how-will-a-trump-presidency-affect-defense-stocks.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">by cutting wasteful spending Opens a New Window.</a>. Turns out, they weren't just whistling Dixie.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>There is government waste to cut, and perhaps nowhere more so than at the Pentagon.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, legendary investigative journalist Bob Woodward of The Washington Post broke what's perhaps the biggest story of his career, bar Watergate. In <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.75aaad868ff4" type="external">a massive, 3,600-word article Opens a New Window.</a>co-authored with investigative journalist Craig Whitlock, Woodward revealed how the Defense Department commissioned a secret study in 2014, aiming to identify areas where it could shave costs to free up funds for investment in new military hardware.</p>
<p>The effort was wildly successful. Within three months, the Defense Department concluded there was a "clear path" to easily save $125 billion over five years without conducting layoffs, or really reducing U.S. military capabilities at all. Instead, simply streamlining the Pentagon's bureaucracy, improving use of information technology, and scaling back the use of expensive contractors would save $25 billion a year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The Pentagon promptly buried the report.</p>
<p>The study in question, which was commissioned by the Pentagon and conducted by a federal advisory panel known as the "Defense Business Board," with assistance from McKinsey &amp; Co., came up with some pretty shocking revelations -- things that had apparently escaped notice by the Pentagon brass, as the Post claims they were "revealed for the first time" in this report:</p>
<p>Expanding the shopping list, $25 billion could also buy 250 brand-new F-35s from Lockheed Martin. Or it could purchase a pair of Ford-class aircraft carriers from Huntington Ingalls. Over five years' time, the savings from streamlining Pentagon bureaucracy could even cover the entire cost of building Northrop Grumman'sproposed fleet of <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/10/27/news-flash-northrop-grumman-wins-the-b-3-bomber-co.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">B-21 nuclear stealth bombers Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Simply put, it's a bonanza of loot, ripe for the taking, and available to spend on weapons systems made by some of America's largest defense contractors. But now that the Pentagon knows the money is there, why isn't it putting the money to better use?</p>
<p>Turns out, while the generals expected there was some money to be salvaged by cutting waste, they found the scale of the waste somewhat staggering. And the worry soon grew: What would Congress do if it were to learn how much money is being wasted? Might Congress insist that the Pentagon tighten its belt? Might Congress reduce defense spending by several tens of billions of dollars annually, to force the Pentagon to manage its money better?</p>
<p>Ultimately, says the Post, that's exactly what the Pentagon concluded: that cluing Congress in to the size of this scandal might put the Pentagon's own budget at risk.</p>
<p>"This is what scares me," the Post quotes Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work worrying. Outraged at Pentagon inefficiency, Congress might slash the defense budget by $125 billion, demand the Defense Department cut its costs, and then deprive the Pentagon of any benefit from such cost-cutting -- in the form of getting to spend the money on the weapons the Pentagon actually needs.</p>
<p>Up until the Post published its report, it looked likely that the Pentagon would get away with burying its own wasteful spending report. In an attempt to squelch the findings, the Defense Department scrubbed a 77-page summary of the report from its own <a href="http://dbb.defense.gov/Reports/" type="external">public website Opens a New Window.</a>, banned participants in the research from revealing their findings to news media or to the public, and replaced the chairman of the Defense Business Board, which had led the investigation.</p>
<p>As things stand today, the newspaper declares that "the $125 billion savings plan [is] dead."</p>
<p>Of course, that was before The Washington Post shined a light on the report. Now that the news has been made public, Twitter is on fire with complaints about the Pentagon's efforts to hide its findings. Former presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders is blasting the Pentagon for "bloated and wasteful" spending, while other legislators, including Claire McCaskill and John McCain in the Senate, and Representative Mac Thornberry in the House, are promising to investigate further, even as calls mount for President-elect Trump to address the situation.</p>
<p>What remains to be seen is just how the new president will address it -- whether by slashing the defense budget, period, as the generals who buried the report feared, or by instituting real reforms to cut the administrative waste and free up additional dollars to spend on needed military equipment. Whether the scandal surrounding the Pentagon's report, and its burial, ultimately fizzles out, or the uproar grows and results in real change, trust that we'll be watching -- and we'll keep you informed.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Lockheed Martin When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=fe4e8c21-cf4b-4de6-9da0-65e093538efc&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Lockheed Martin wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=fe4e8c21-cf4b-4de6-9da0-65e093538efc&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of Nov. 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDitty/info.aspx" type="external">Rich Smith Opens a New Window.</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/" type="external">Motley Fool CAPS Opens a New Window.</a>, publicly pontificating under the handle <a href="http://caps.fool.com/ViewPlayer.aspx?t=01002844399633209838" type="external">TMFDitty Opens a New Window.</a>, where he's currently ranked No. 340 out of more than 75,000 rated members.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Washington Post Unearths Potential $125 Billion Payday for Defense Contractors | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/10/washington-post-unearths-potential-125-billion-payday-for-defense-contractors.html | 2016-12-10 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Donald Trump is preparing to sign executive actions on his first day in the White House on Friday to take the opening steps to crack down on immigration, build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and roll back outgoing President Barack Obama's policies.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Trump, a Republican elected on Nov. 8 to succeed Democrat Obama, arrived in Washington on a military plane with his family a day before he will be sworn in during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.</p>
<p>Aides said Trump will not wait to wield one of the most powerful tools of his office, the presidential pen, to sign several executive actions that can be implemented without the input of Congress.</p>
<p>"He is committed to not just Day 1, but Day 2, Day 3 of enacting an agenda of real change, and I think that you're going to see that in the days and weeks to come," Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said on Thursday, telling reporters to expect activity on Friday, during the weekend and early next week.</p>
<p>Trump on Saturday plans to visit the headquarters of the CIA in Langley, Virginia. He has harshly criticized the agency and its outgoing chief, first questioning the CIA's conclusion that Russia was involved in cyber hacking during the U.S. election campaign before later accepting the verdict. Trump also likened U.S. intelligence agencies to Nazi Germany.</p>
<p>Trump's advisers vetted more than 200 potential executive orders for him to consider signing on healthcare, climate policy, immigration, energy and numerous other issues, but it was not clear how many orders he will initially approve, according to a member of the Trump transition team who was not authorized to talk to the press.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Signing off on orders puts Trump, who has presided over a sprawling business empire but has never before held public office, in a familiar place similar to the CEO role that made him famous, and will give him some victories with his supporters before he has to turn to the lumbering process of getting Congress to pass bills.</p>
<p>The strategy has been used by other presidents, including Obama, in their first few weeks in office.</p>
<p>"It sends two messages. The first is that he wants to show he will take action and not be stifled by Washington gridlock. The second is that he will move forward on reversing policies that he believes to be broken and bad," said Princeton University presidential historian Julian Zelizer.</p>
<p>Trump also is expected to impose a federal hiring freeze and take steps to delay implementation of a Labor Department rule due to take effect in April that would require brokers who give retirement advice to put their clients' best interests first.</p>
<p>Obama, ending eight years as president, made frequent use of his executive powers during his second term in office, when the Republican-controlled Congress stymied his efforts to overhaul immigration and environmental laws. Many of those actions are now ripe targets for Trump to reverse.</p>
<p>BORDER WALL</p>
<p>Trump is expected to sign an executive order in his first few days to direct the building of a wall on the southern border with Mexico, and actions to limit the entry of asylum seekers from Latin America, among several immigration-related steps his advisers have recommended.</p>
<p>That includes rescinding Obama's order that allowed more than 700,000 people brought into the United States illegally as children to stay in the country on a two-year authorization to work and attend college, according to several people close to the presidential transition team.</p>
<p>It is unlikely Trump's order will result in an immediate round-up of these immigrants, sources told Reuters. Rather, he is expected to let the authorizations expire.</p>
<p>The issue could set up a confrontation with Obama, who told reporters on Wednesday he would weigh in if he felt the new administration was unfairly targeting these immigrants.</p>
<p>Advisors to Trump expect him to put restrictions on people entering the United States from certain countries until a system for "extreme vetting" for Islamic extremists can be set up.</p>
<p>During his presidential campaign, Trump proposed banning non-American Muslims from entering the United States but his executive order regarding immigration is expected to be based on nationality rather than religion.</p>
<p>Another proposed executive order would require all cabinet departments to disclose and pause current work being done in connection with Obama's initiatives to curb carbon emissions to combat climate change.</p>
<p>Trump also is expected to extend prohibitions on future lobbying imposed on members of his transition team.</p>
<p>'THE HIGHEST IQ'</p>
<p>Washington was turned into a virtual fortress ahead of the inauguration, with police ready to step in to separate protesters from Trump supporters at any sign of unrest.</p>
<p>As Obama packed up to leave the White House, Trump and his family arrived in Washington for the pomp of inauguration weekend. They laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery and attended a concert at the Lincoln Memorial.</p>
<p>Trump earlier spoke to lawmakers and incoming cabinet nominees at a luncheon in a ballroom at his hotel, down the street from the White House, announcing during brief remarks that he would pick Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets of the National Football League, as U.S. ambassador to Britain.</p>
<p>"We have a lot of smart people. I tell you what, one thing we've learned, we have by far the highest IQ of any cabinet ever assembled," Trump said.</p>
<p>Trump has selected all 21 members of his cabinet, along with six other key positions requiring Senate confirmation. The Senate is expected on Friday to vote to confirm retired General James Mattis, Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon, and retired General John Kelly, his Homeland Security choice.</p>
<p>Senate Republicans had hoped to confirm as many as seven cabinet members on Friday, but Democrats balked at the pace. Trump spokesman Spicer accused Senate Democrats of "stalling tactics."</p>
<p>Also in place for Monday: 536 "beachhead team members" at government agencies, Pence said, a small portion of the thousands of positions Obama's appointees will vacate.</p>
<p>Trump has asked 50 Obama staffers in critical posts to stay on until replacements can be found, including Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and Brett McGurk, envoy to the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State.</p>
<p>The list includes Adam Szubin, who has long served in an "acting" capacity in the Treasury Department's top anti-terrorism job because his nomination has been held up by congressional Republicans since Obama named him to the job in April 2015.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court said Chief Justice John Roberts, who will administer the oath of office on Friday, met with Trump on Thursday to discuss inauguration arrangements.</p> | Executive Actions Ready to go as Trump Prepares to Take Office | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/01/19/executive-actions-ready-to-go-as-trump-prepares-to-take-office.html | 2017-01-20 | 0 |
<p>By Megan Williams, PRI's The World. Listen to audio above for full report.</p>
<p>A free Amanda Knox has left Italy, after spending four years in an Italian jail. The 24-year-old from Seattle was accused and convicted of murdering her British roommate and fellow student Meredith Kercher. But an appeals court overturned her conviction and Knox was released. Now Italians are divided on whether their legal system has produced a fair outcome.</p>
<p>The verdict from the appeals court in Perugia was unequivocal. The judge who read it ordered the immediate release of Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito. The jury fully acquitted the pair of murder.</p>
<p>During the appeals trial, independent experts testified that the small amount of DNA evidence linking the former couple to the crime was not reliable.</p>
<p>While inside the courtroom there was jubilation, outside there were signs that not everyone was satisfied with the acquittal. Onlookers crowded in the piazza outside the Perugia court chanted “Vergogna!” or “Shame!” after hearing the verdict.</p>
<p>In Italy, public opinion has been divided, not just over the verdict, but also over the impact an American pro-Knox propaganda campaign had on the outcome. Some, like prosecution lawyer Guiliano Mignini, say that campaign extended beyond Knox’s family and supporters to include US media outlets.</p>
<p>“There was unacceptable media pressure surrounding this trial that unfortunately led to a verdict that was almost a foregone conclusion,” said the prosecutor after the verdict.</p>
<p>Others in Italy are left with doubts. “I’m just wondering if it’s true, if they are really innocent,” said a university student interviewed on the street in Rome. “Or maybe it’s just because of American pressure and people’s opinion in America.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theworld.org/2011/10/italians-react-to-the-release-of-amanda-knox/" type="external">Read the rest of this story</a> on The World website.</p>
<p>Here's what some folks had to say on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/publicradiointernational" type="external">PRI's Facebook page</a>:</p>
<p>John Stoj: Some in the US say a propaganda campaign supported by Italian media outlets affected the outcome of Amanda Knox's original trial.</p>
<p>Nikki Bearden: Some in Italy don't understand how to do proper crime investigation procedure and due process. But "whatever".</p>
<p>Jeff Gregory: Then why didn't it work the first time? This trial and the injustice done to Amanda have caused me to rethink my love for Italy. I may not go back, if the police are so ham-handed and they hate Americans so much. Let's see how long it takes Italy to start their own US PR campaign to get tourist money back into their country</p>
<p>Elizabeth Rodriguez: No, she was acquitted because of the horrendously sh*tty job the police and forensic people did. Thankfully she had a good lawyer in the acquittal phase as well as forensic people who actually knew what they were doing. The Italians should be embarrassed not crying foul.</p>
<p>Charles Johnson: Would a US appeal court have allowed Amanda to walk if she was convicted? We all know the answer to that question. There are far more people convicted, sentenced and sometimes killed with only circumstantial evidents in this country. The Italian justice system is just as weak and fraudulent as the US. They already gave in so they need to shut up and stop crying propaganda. Amanda knows more then she's saying. My heart goes off to Meredith's family. Good luck Amanda with the book deal and other deals yet to come. May God bless you.</p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p>PRI's "The World" is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. "The World" is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.&#160; <a href="the-world.html" type="external">More about The World.</a></p> | Public opinion in Italy divided over Amanda Knox acquittal | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-10-04/public-opinion-italy-divided-over-amanda-knox-acquittal | 2011-10-04 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The cooperation, unveiled ahead of counter-terror talks Tuesday with French President Emmanuel Macron, includes exploring the possibility of creating a new legal liability for tech companies if they fail to remove content.</p>
<p>“We are united in our total condemnation of terrorism and our commitment to stamp out this evil,” May said ahead of the session.</p>
<p>May has been pressing the tech companies to do more to thwart the spread of terrorist content on the web. In a speech following the London Bridge attacks, she insisted that “we cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Yet that is precisely what the internet – and the big companies that provide internet-based services – provide,” she said.</p>
<p>But tech experts wondered aloud what kind of regulation might be proposed, given that Britain’s laws are already among the toughest. A law known as the Snooper’ Charter gives authorities the powers to look at the internet browsing records of everyone in the country.</p>
<p>Among other things, the law requires telecommunications companies to keep records of all users’ web activity for a year, creating databases of personal information that the firms worry could be vulnerable to leaks and hackers.</p>
<p>Cynthia Wong, a senior researcher on the Internet and Human Rights at Human Rights Watch said no one should be surprised that smart phones and social media are used in attacks, as they are the “tools of modern life.”</p>
<p>“The problem here is that it’s like blaming truck manufacturers or knife-makers,” she said.</p>
<p>She said that it’s not as if tech companies are unwilling to help. “Is not as if they are doing nothing …. The problem there is the sheer scale of it — hundreds of hours of video are posted every single minute,” she said.</p>
<p>Part of the problem is also that no one is quite certain what the British prime minister intends to ask for. Censorship is a fraught issue in any context.</p>
<p>“I think the practicalities of doing this are not only extremely problematic but potentially quite frightening from a civil liberties point of view,” said Martin Moore, the director of the Center for the Study of Media, Communication and Power at King’s College London. The public needs to know what it means when she says ‘enough is enough.'”</p>
<p>Daniel Castro, the vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation in Washington said one has to wonder how sustainable these ideas are because they are driven by fear. He pointed out that there are all sorts of places on the internet “where you can put things up” without being able to take it down.</p>
<p>Rather than beating up on the tech companies, the more sensible approach is to work with them and give support to the tools they are developing to counter terror. After all, it is tech companies and academics who are leading on the effort to combat radicalization on line.</p>
<p>“I think that the most disappointing part of this is that the government should be a partner with the private sector,” he said of May’s rhetoric last week. “This is not how you bring partners to the table to come up with a solution. It’s delaying any positive action.”</p> | UK, France: tougher action on tech firms to fight extremism | false | https://abqjournal.com/1016779/uk-france-tougher-action-on-tech-firms-to-fight-extremism.html | 2017-06-12 | 2 |
<p>Jonathan Ernst/Reuters/ZUMA</p>
<p />
<p>Two White House officials assisted in providing Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, with the information he used to claim that members of Donald Trump’s transition team were “incidentally” swept up in foreign intelligence collection efforts, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/politics/devin-nunes-intelligence-reports.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;mtrref=www.nytimes.com" type="external">New York Times</a>reports. The paper identified the officials as National Security Council intelligence director Ezra Cohen-Watnick, a former aide to Michael Flynn, and Michael Ellis, who worked for Nunes before taking a job in the White House counsel’s office.</p>
<p>The effort to provide Nunes with the incidental collection info led to a bizarre and dramatic series of events last week. After viewing the intelligence reports on the White House grounds, Nunes, whose committee is probing Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, staged a dramatic press conference the next morning and then rushed to the White House to brief the president.</p>
<p>The bombshell report comes as Nunes&#160;has <a href="" type="internal">refused to disclose the source of the intelligence reports, even to members of his own committee,</a> and mounting calls for him to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, or even step down as the committee’s chair. The controversy has brought the Russia investigation in the House to a halt.</p>
<p>White House press secretary Sean Spicer repeatedly batted away questions regarding the Times report Thursday, claiming he was “not at liberty” to discuss it.</p>
<p>“I never said I would provide you answers,” he said at one point. “I said I would look into it.”</p>
<p>Earlier this month, the president ignited a firestorm of controversy when he accused his predecessor, Barack Obama, of wiretapping him. Trump—under fire for his baseless allegation—claimed that he felt “somewhat” vindicated by the information that Nunes provided him with (even though it in no way backed up his wiretapping claim).</p>
<p>Republican lawmakers, including Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, have called on Nunes to provide additional information about his White House meeting or risk losing the “ability to lead” the ongoing probe.</p>
<p>This is a breaking news post. We will update when more information becomes available.</p>
<p /> | Report: Two White House Officials Gave Devin Nunes “Incidental” Surveillance Info | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/03/report-two-white-house-officials-assisted-devin-nunes/ | 2017-03-30 | 4 |
<p>Boogie Nights has been hailed in advance as a contemporary classic and its director, Paul Thomas Anderson, as the new Tarantino. Well, maybe. But where I could see in Pulp Fiction and others of Mr Tarantino’s early works what all the fuss was about, even if I was a bit skeptical, in the case of Mr Anderson, I am mystified. As near as I can figure it, the formula for getting yourself buzzed about as a genius is to make an actor’s film with juicy parts for the likes of Burt Reynolds, Mark Wahlberg (a.k.a. Marky Mark), Julianne Moore, J.C. Reilly, Don Cheadle and others and then overload the soundtrack with loud, obtrusive music so that the audience can’t hear half of what they say. Add to the mix a story about pornography which tells just enough of the true story to stay on the right side of the “R” rating line, and end by making the point that these pathetic intellectual and emotional cripples are worthy our sympathy because they function as a kind of family with respect to each other—as a compensation for the families which none of them seem to have had.</p>
<p>Mr Anderson seems to feel no need to worry about any coherence beyond this rather random assemblage of fashionable elements. I have criticized The Ice Storm for relying too much on its portrayal of an historical moment and so undermining its universal appeal, but Boogie Nights, also set primarily in the 1970s, makes the opposite mistake. Apart from the standard references to clothes, cars and music, the 70s here could as well be the 60s or the 90s. The film takes us well into the 80s but it never mentions AIDS, which was devastating the real porno industry at about that time. The drug scene comes across as repellent, but the implication is that it was somehow tied into the pornography, instead of having a much wider currency. A little history is useful to lend a certain coherence to unfamiliar people and situations, but here there is no history to speak of except in fashion.</p>
<p>Mr Anderson sees things in terms of psychology rather than history. In particular, the porn star Eddie Adams (Mr Wahlberg), who later renames himself “Dirk Diggler,” has a cold, irritable and unloving mother who throws him out for having a girlfriend (if she only knew!). A stupid lad and high school drop out, Mr Diggler, if it hadn’t been for the porn industry, would probably never have risen much above the dishwasher job he is working at when “discovered” by Reynolds’s producer/director, Jack Horner. But he turns to him not only because, as he puts it, “everyone’s blessed with one special thing” (and his special thing is between his legs), but because Jack is like a father to him and his chief female star, Amber Waves (Miss Moore), instantly becomes like a mother. A mother whom he is required to copulate with several times a day. One of the funniest lines in the film comes during a moment of anger when Dirk shouts at her, “You’re not my f****** mother! But of course his f****** mother is exactly what she is.</p>
<p>Yet it gives the film rather a mawkish tone to make her maternal instincts constantly at issue. Jack says that she is “a mother to whoever needs mothering,” and she indeed takes up this role because her former husband will not allow her to see her son, getting the law on his side by revealing her employment in the pornography trade. Poor thing! We see her racked with sobs when the verdict is handed down. So she compensates by mothering not only Dirk but all the other young stars. One of them, another dim dropout called “Rollergirl” (Heather Graham)—whose gimmick is that she never takes off her skates—makes this relationship specific. “I want you to be my mom, Amber. I’ll ask you and you say, ‘Yes, I’m your mom.’” Then she bounces around like a child with delight when Amber obliges her.</p>
<p>Later, Dirk goes through a classic late adolescent falling out with Jack, finds that he is utterly unequipped to survive on his own, comes back, begging for forgiveness, and is received back into the bosom of his “family.” He puts his head on Amber’s lap and cries as she strokes his hair. Everybody here is undergoing a perpetual identity crisis, dreaming like Cheadle’s black cowboy of some “real thing I can do.” Even Jack dreams of fashioning out of his sleazy porno flicks true art, imagining an audience so enrapt by his “films” (as he calls them), that “when they spurt out that joy juice, they just got to sit in it until they find out how it ends.” Dirk himself sees his higher calling in terms of therapy rather than art: “It’s not about me getting off with a million different chicks,” he says; “it’s about how to get your wife off. If we had done this before, we could have saved a million relationships. I’ve saved thousands.”</p>
<p>It is part of the protocol of the industry that everybody believes—or pretends to believe—in everybody else’s fantasies. Fantasies, after all, are their business. Inconvenient truths, when forced onto their attention are either silently complied with (as in Jack’s reluctant transition along with the rest of the trade from film to videotape, which puts paid to his artistic pretensions) or resisted with savage violence (as when Jack and Rollergirl beat up a young man who dares to tell Jack that the quality of his work has fallen off). It is an effective way of representing a certain kind of bogus “tolerance”—associated, like the porn industry itself, with Southern California—but it suffers from another Hollywood bad habit, namely the tendency to get too cozy with its subjects. The film would have been a lot better if one had had the sense that Mr Anderson himself were not affording his characters the same courtesy, of believing in their fantasies.</p> | Boogie Nights | false | https://eppc.org/publications/boogie-nights/ | 1 |
|
<p>Three million southeast Asians dead. Fifty-six thousand U.S. soldiers killed. Cities flattened by bombs. A countryside devastated to this day by chemical warfare. That’s the reality of the U.S. war on Vietnam. But to judge from the media, the only thing that matters about the Vietnam War today is the record of one U.S. naval officer for a brief period in 1968 and 1969.</p>
<p>John Kerry enlisted in the Navy in 1966 and served two tours of duty in Vietnam. The first six-month stint was uneventful, on board a frigate that supported U.S. warships off the Vietnamese coast. The controversy is over Kerry’s second tour–four months as the captain of a small “swift boat” that carried U.S. troops on raids into the Mekong Delta. Regularly involved in firefights, Kerry suffered three wounds that earned him Purple Hearts–though all were minor enough that he didn’t miss a day of duty.</p>
<p>He also won two medals for “personal bravery” and for “gallantry”–for rescuing a Green Beret who had been swept off his boat, and for going ashore and killing a Vietnamese fighter allegedly threatening Kerry’s crew with a grenade launcher. After the third injury, Kerry requested to be reassigned out of combat, and ended up serving as an aide to an admiral back in the U.S.</p>
<p>The anti-Kerry veterans have many complaints about Kerry’s record–from its brief length, to whether his war wounds were serious enough to warrant Purple Hearts, to his actions during the battles that won him medals. But what neither side will talk about is the bigger picture–the U.S. war on the people of Vietnam, and the role that Kerry and the other swift boat captains played in it.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>THE SWIFT boats that Kerry captained ferried Navy SEALSs, Green Beret soldiers and other special forces on missions in the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta is at the southern end of Vietnam, hundreds of miles from the border that, during the war, separated North Vietnam, with its USSR-aligned communist government, and South Vietnam, controlled by a regime of U.S.-backed puppets.</p>
<p>The delta was economically important as the main center of rice production in Vietnam. It was also a main base of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam, the armed insurgents fighting for liberation in alliance with the north against the southern regime and its U.S. protectors.</p>
<p>This was Kerry’s enemy–the insurgent fighters of the NLF, which the Americans insisted on calling the “Viet Cong.” Since taking over from the French colonialists, the U.S. goal was to eliminate the NLF threat by any means.</p>
<p>Kerry was part of a dirty war to kill as many NLF fighters as possible–and to terrorize the rural population into turning against the rebels. Central to the U.S. strategy was the Phoenix program of assassinating suspected NLF leaders.</p>
<p>U.S. and South Vietnamese government assassins killed at least 20,000 people between 1966 and 1973 as part of the Phoenix program. As a swift boat captain, Kerry transported these murder squads along the canals and rivers of the Mekong region to the villages where supposed NLF fighters had been identified.</p>
<p>More generally, the boats were part of a reign of terror in the southern countryside. “The entire area, except for certain designated ‘friendly villages,’ was a free-fire zone, meaning the Americans could shoot at will and count anyone they killed as VC,” wrote Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair in CounterPunch magazine. Washington also targeted the Mekong Delta with chemical weapons–using napalm and the highly toxic Agent Orange to destroy vegetation as part of the war on the guerrillas.</p>
<p>By all accounts, Kerry never hesitated to use his superior firepower. His diaries, as described even by his official biographer Douglas Brinkley, contain numerous accounts of Kerry ordering his crew to open fire on unseen targets–as well as attacks on “friendly villages,” and on fishing boats that were suspected of transporting supplies to the rebels, but turned out to be carrying innocent families.</p>
<p>“Kerry was an extremely aggressive officer, and so was I,” a fellow lieutenant, James Wasser, told Brinkley. “I liked that he took the fight to the enemy, that he was tough and gutsy–not afraid to spill blood for his country.”</p>
<p>Washington’s “total war” made life unbearable for rural peasants. “[T]here is hardly a family in South Vietnam,” a Senate subcommittee concluded in 1971, “that has not suffered a death, injury or the anguish of abandoning an ancient homestead.”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>THE OTHER part of Kerry’s history that Republicans are sure to turn to in the coming weeks is his record as an opponent of war after he left Vietnam. Some time after being discharged from the Navy, Kerry began speaking out as an antiwar activist, working with the newly formed Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW).</p>
<p>Kerry was never the most radical VVAW member–many of the group’s core activists came to consider themselves revolutionaries–and his opposition to the U.S. war contrasts with his statements while serving in the Mekong Delta, which were, at most, critical of the Pentagon’s strategy. Nevertheless, Kerry took part in some of the antiwar movement’s most dramatic protests–including a weeklong VVAW demonstration where hundreds of veterans tossed their medals and other symbols of their time in the military over a fence in front of the U.S. Capitol building.</p>
<p>Representing the VVAW at congressional hearings in 1971, Kerry became a nationally known figure when he famously asked: “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” Kerry’s testimony described what he had heard at the so-called “Winter Soldier Investigation”–public hearings organized by the VVAW at which more than 150 Vietnam veterans told their stories.</p>
<p>“They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do,” Kerry said. “They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.”</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>COMPARED TO this brutality–inflicted on the Vietnamese by a U.S. government bent on imposing its will halfway around the world–the current obsession with Kerry’s war wounds is grotesque. Even as they report every charge and counter charge in the swift boat controversy, the media complain that the presidential campaign is stuck in a “time warp” over Vietnam, as the New York Times put it.</p>
<p>Actually, with the parallels between the U.S. defeat in Vietnam and the crisis of Washington’s occupation of Iraq becoming ever clearer, a serious discussion of what happened in Vietnam would explain a lot. Then, as now, the U.S. government unleashed all the savagery it could bring to bear on a poor country–and justified its barbarism in the name of promoting “democracy” and “freedom.”</p>
<p>Then, as now, Washington blamed continued resistance on a minority of fanatics–the “communist menace” in Vietnam, Islamist terrorists in Iraq–and promised that the end was just around the corner. In Vietnam, the world’s mightiest military machine was beaten by a poorly armed fighting force because the Vietnamese were fighting for their freedom.</p>
<p>In the process, a significant portion of U.S. soldiers rebelled against the war when they came to understand that they were being used as cannon fodder in a war that served the interests of the wealthy and powerful–and, for some, that the cause of the Vietnamese was just.</p>
<p>That’s the truth about Vietnam. And it’s precisely what John Kerry is desperate to avoid any discussion of today. He wants to bury his service to the antiwar movement–and instead, celebrate his service to the U.S. government in Vietnam, claiming his war stories as a patriotic badge of honor, just as pro-war veterans did in denouncing Kerry and the VVAW in the 1970s.</p>
<p>“I learned a lot about these values on that gunboat patrolling the Mekong Delta,” Kerry droned during his convention speech. But the values he learned were about empire, might makes right, and win at any cost.</p>
<p>Kerry’s attackers may be Bush-loving cranks, but Kerry is committing an even more disgusting crime by turning history on its head and portraying his service in Vietnam as “noble.” There was nothing “noble” about what U.S. troops did in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Washington built its war strategy around the indiscriminate use of the world’s most deadly arsenal to crush the Vietnamese people’s desire for freedom. The only “noble” alternative for U.S. soldiers was to turn against the war–and rebel against military hierarchy and political system that was ready to destroy an entire country and use U.S. troops as cannon fodder.</p>
<p>Yet that opposition to war–which a growing number of U.S. soldiers chose, and which Kerry himself briefly represented–is precisely what the Democrats and their presidential candidate want to ignore.</p>
<p>ALAN MAASS is the editor of Socialist Worker. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Real Vietnam | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/09/02/the-real-vietnam/ | 2004-09-02 | 4 |
<p>Attorney General Jeff Sessions holds drug policy roundtable at the Justice Department on Friday. Top of the agenda is Marijuana and its danger to the public. (Dec. 8)</p>
<p>Attorney General Jeff Sessions holds drug policy roundtable at the Justice Department on Friday. Top of the agenda is Marijuana and its danger to the public. (Dec. 8)</p> | Sessions Holds Drug Policy Roundtable at DOJ | false | https://apnews.com/bc83e15301ea4137abc6512271957277 | 2017-12-08 | 2 |
<p>By now everyone knows the new Supreme Court tilts to the right. Bush’s nominees, Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts, lead a conservative five-justice bloc, where reproductive health rights have been cut back and the President’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives will keep getting very real public money. <a href="#_edn1" type="external" /> No surprises from the Old Men In Black there.</p>
<p>But what’s less known is the court’s new major function, which is acting as an institution of corporate power. Since Bush’s appointments, the court has begun hearing far more business cases, and in case after case has “pushed the law in a direction favored by business,” as the Wall Street Journal reports. <a href="#_edn2" type="external" /> For example, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, America’s most powerful business lobby, took a position on fifteen cases before the court in 2007, and its side won in all but two. <a href="#_edn3" type="external" /></p>
<p>That makes sense, since Roberts previously represented and filed briefs on behalf of the Chamber and other prominent business organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers and other corporate clients. <a href="#_edn4" type="external" /> The Financial Times refers to Roberts and Alito as “pretty much the dream candidates of economic conservatism,” calling Justice Roberts himself “a white-shoe corporate lawyer” and noting “Justice Alito often sided with employers in his prior life as a judge.” <a href="#_edn5" type="external" /></p>
<p>The result is reviewed very well in Business Week, describing the views of Robin Conrad of the Chamber of Commerce’s litigation arm: “The judicial branch offers an alternative forum where business can seek changes it has failed to win from other branches of government. In the 1990s, the chamber and other business groups made this a vital part of their tort reform strategy, pouring money into local judicial campaigns to reshape state supreme courts…[now] the approach is playing out on a national level.” <a href="#_edn6" type="external" /> But “tort reform”—where barriers are raised to discourage suing companies—is only one part of what business expects from our court, in what will probably be decades of “business friendly” decisions.</p>
<p>Consider banking regulation, which is making a comeback these days with even the Federal Reserve Chair coming out for it. Our highest court recently ruled that national bank subsidiaries that extend mortgage loans, a major part of our current straits, can’t be regulated by state governments. <a href="#_edn7" type="external" /> Impressive, since mortgages and home equity loans were among the financial assets that were repackaged into forms that ended up bringing down the banks. The subprime legacy doesn’t seem to faze the court.</p>
<p>Additionally, the court ruled almost unanimously that banks, being “regulated” by the Securities and Exchange Commission, cannot be sued by investors—making them “generally immune from antitrust liability” as the International Herald Tribune describes. <a href="#_edn8" type="external" /> Companies face antitrust liability when they become large and powerful, so this decision looks great in our current environment of banking near-collapses. Because if there’s anything our “too big to fail” banks need, it’s to get even bigger.</p>
<p>The Supremes also decided that citizens have no right to legally challenge the tax breaks used by most of the U.S. states to “lure investment and jobs away from competing localities,” as the Financial Times reports. “Forty-six of the 50 states offer some form of investment tax credit. Big companies, many of them carmakers, get billions of dollars each year from states and cities in what critics call an ‘escalating arms race’ of tax incentives.” <a href="#_edn9" type="external" /> This is a big deal, since this type of tax concession is how firms drive the “race to the bottom” among states and countries—either you lower my taxes or I’ll build my plant somewhere that does. So for the Roberts Court, if the states want to oversee banks’ shady mortgage-issuing, no dice. But if they’re cutting taxes on Toyota so they’ll condescend to build a plant, no problem.</p>
<p>Business involvement in elections has been a recurring subject for the court. A 2007 ruling overturned a significant part of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, finding that corporations, unions, and interest groups can run “issue ads” immediately before elections. <a href="" type="internal" /> The intention of the law had been to prevent a pre-election flood of campaign advertising, thinly disguised as advocating for a political issue, paid for by companies and other groups. The law was restricted to the period just prior to elections or primaries, and only to ads which were funded by corporations, unions, or other groups from their own general treasuries—a very limited restriction on how companies could use their massive financial advantages in an election environment. <a href="#_edn11" type="external" /></p>
<p>The court set a very high standard for these sham “issue ads” to be found in violation of McCain-Feingold. The ads have to expressly urge a position on a candidate, or be subject to “no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate,” to be found illegal. <a href="#_edn12" type="external" /> In other words, they won’t be, as described by Richard Hasen, Law Professor at Loyola Law School Los Angeles, in a paper on the court’s new ad-friendly stance. Noting that the “burden of proof is on the government to prove the advertisement is not subject to exemption” and that the decision expressly forbids considering the context of the election in interpreting the ad, &#160;he finds that most campaign ads of the issue-oriented variety “will comfortably fall on the permitted side of the line.” <a href="#_edn13" type="external" /> In fact, “Very few ads broadcast close to an election” directly push for a candidate, but “almost always mention a legislative issue, even if they are also attacking a candidate.” In other words, the 2008 flood of corporate and other campaign ads in battleground states owes a lot to our highest court.</p>
<p>And now, the court seems ready to overturn or seriously restrict even this weakened limitation on corporate campaign influence, as a combative film on Hillary Clinton from the primary season has fallen under the ban. Since the law could extend to any political speech, as long as it advocates a candidate and was paid for with general corporate or group funds, it’s conceivable that books or signs could be banned, if paid for by firms. This has lead to the conservative wing of the court issuing a good deal of weak-sauce posturing as defenders of the First Amendment. <a href="#_edn14" type="external" /> The poor corporations are being slightly limited in their massive dollar advantage over the unions and other groups, so their political speech rights must be defended. Of course, the court also found that students can be censored and punished by schools for mocking school policy, in the well-known “bong hits 4 Jesus” case. <a href="#_edn15" type="external" /> If it’s people instead of capital, this court has little salt for free speech.</p>
<p>Another overturned McCain-Feingold provision, the “Millionaire Rule,” raised the ceiling on individual campaign contributions for candidates facing a self-financed opponent, whose vast personal resources tilt the playing field in their favor. <a href="#_edn16" type="external" /> The court found that this was unfair for imposing more restrictions on one party in an election than another, but this doesn’t address the advantage held by rich candidates who can self-finance. In fact, the Rule itself was a response to a previous Supreme Court ruling overturning restrictions on wealthy candidates using their own cash to gain office. An outside observer might call all this a clear argument for publicly-funded elections.</p>
<p>Turning to elected judges, the Supreme Court ruled “an elected judge may rule on a case where one party spent $3 million to help get him elected,” the Wall Street Journal reports. <a href="#_edn17" type="external" /> The question was whether this violates the constitutional rights of due process and impartial trials. Notably, conservative Justice Scalia held that due process was not violated because the judge’s conflict of interest was “vague.” 3 million bucks sounds pretty specific to me, but I’m no lawyer.</p>
<p>But I am an economist, and I’ll tell you that you can thank the court for some higher consumer goods prices as well. By 5-4, the Court overturned a 1911 Supreme Court ruling outlawing “minimum-price agreements,” where a manufacturer requires that retailers not mark down the prices of its products. The business press describes the corporate rationale for legalizing this practice: “minimum resale price agreements, although raising prices within brands, could be good for consumers as price competition between brands would be stimulated…the loss of competition on price would be more than made up for by the way a price floor would allow retailers to compete on service rather than on price alone.” <a href="#_edn18" type="external" /> The Wall Street Journal describes them as “a means to enhance a brand’s image and for retailers to make enough profit on their merchandise to provide better customer service,” but they “have run into legal trouble in the past when federal officials found they resulted in higher prices for consumers.” <a href="#_edn19" type="external" /></p>
<p>This is essentially what economists call “price fixing,” where firms work together to increase markups on products, and thus the price paid by consumers. In spite of the companies’ argument that the MPAs will encourage price competition between brands, the Journal observes that similar video games Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2 are being sold at the same mandatory retail price. And not a little one either, $189. The court’s opinion here is that when firms increase prices on us, the extra money will go into improving the product or customer service. Of course, it’s just possible that the higher markups will fatten the manufacturer’s profitability, instead. But at least the firm’s image is enhanced, in that you have to fork over more cash.</p>
<p>But the Roberts Court’s trademark has been its limitation of damages in corporate lawsuits and its moves to prevent firms from being taken to court at all. The court reduced the punitive damage settlement against Exxon for the 1989 Valdez oil spill by 80%, from $2.5 billion to $500 million. <a href="" type="internal" /> It also reversed a jury decision against cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris, which awarded $79 million to the widow of an Oregon smoker, on the grounds that the jury might have based that number on a desire to punish the corporation for harming other smokers (juries are silly that way). <a href="#_edn21" type="external" /> The court now seems eager to further reduce the limited extent to which companies can be held liable through lawsuits for costs they impose on others, or “externalize.”</p>
<p>The press describes the court as “closing the courtroom door,” preventing lawsuits against corporations, very often from the firms’ own investors. The court has found that class action lawsuits alleging fraud must be brought in federal courts, where they’re effectively barred; <a href="#_edn22" type="external" /> that investors can’t sue Wall Street banks over their losses from the cozy IPO agreements from the 1990s stock mania; <a href="#_edn23" type="external" /> and they face tighter standards for bringing suit for antitrust conspiracy. This series of decisions greatly reduced corporations’ liability to investor suits, leading Robin Conrad of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s legal arm to declare the Roberts Court in 2007 “our best Supreme Court ever.” <a href="#_edn24" type="external" /></p>
<p>These aren’t ambulance-chaser lawsuits—the Roberts Court is essentially insulating corporations from suits from their owners and customers, when such suits are often the only recourse when firms “externalize” their costs in loose regulatory environments. Closing off that possibility of redress for victims of corporate destruction will save big firms millions and billions of dollars, hence Conrad’s grateful attitude. Interestingly, while many of these business cases have been won by the court’s five-justice conservative bloc, on these issues of limiting court damages the court has been more unanimous—even the other, “liberal” justices would see firms insulated from accountability for their behavior.</p>
<p>But there have been some cracks in the corporate lock on the court. One interesting example is the court’s treatment of employee discrimination cases. Businesses, of course, would like to see these restricted, and in the first such case the court heard, the now-famous Ledbetter case, the court ruled against the plaintiff, Lilly Ledbetter. Ledbetter, a supervisor at a Goodyear plant, learned that her employer had paid every male in a similar position more than her, to the tune of about a thousand bucks more per month. But the court threw out her case since she failed to meet a strict 180-day deadline in filing suit. This tightened statute of limitations meant that very few such cases could be filed. But this became a prominent national issue, after which the court changed its tune. As the press describes, Ledbetter lead to “loud protests…But since then, the court has consistently sided with employees who have alleged discrimination, and ruled…to allow lawsuits to go forward.” <a href="#_edn25" type="external" /> This suggests that even the august Supreme Court can be made to feel the heat of public opinion, which is encouraging.</p>
<p>Another development suggesting incomplete commercial dominance of the Roberts Court is the recent decision on drug labeling. After having recently found that manufacturers of medical devices are shielded from lawsuits by their government-approved safety labels, the court found drug manufacturers aren’t, and that suits against them could go forward. <a href="#_edn26" type="external" /> This reversal for corporate power before the court has lead some observers to conclude that the its reputation as a business plaything was premature and that “something of a reevaluation of the court is underway.” <a href="#_edn27" type="external" /> But it should first be noted that Bush’s conservative appointees in fact dissented from this decision, along with Justice Scalia. So the question is what happened to the other two conservatives, Thomas and Kennedy.</p>
<p>The answer lies in the doctrine of federal “preemption,” where government regulation prevents state lawsuits. Preemption has only recently been extended to drugs from medical devices, mainly in a late policy of the Bush Administration. <a href="#_edn28" type="external" /> Apparently that took obedience to corporate power too far for a few conservatives, but over the long series of business rulings reviewed here, it’s a drop in the water.</p>
<p>So, if you’re a consumer who believes in punishment for corporate fraud, or just competitive pricing, this court is no great shakes. But if you’re a millionaire running for office, or a stockholder of a oil-spilling corporation, or a multinational firm demanding a tax break before you’ll make a hire, this Supreme Court hands out enough justice to redecorate your whole summer estate. But it’s still heartening that the court seems to have backed off in the face of wide outcry after the Ledbetter decision, which suggests that the aroused public can still exert pressure, even on a firm instrument of capital like the Roberts Court.</p>
<p>Sure, the Supreme Court’s an inherently conservative institution, and always sympathetic to the wealthy and powerful, from whose ranks the Justices have historically been drawn. But the escalation of the number of business cases on the docket suggests that Corporate America has tightened its grip. As the Economist has noted, Bush’s only lasting success in his “domestic legacy” probably lies in “shifting the Supreme Court significantly to the right.” <a href="#_edn29" type="external" /> And in keeping with the pattern of the Bush Administration, the court’s public approval rating is falling as it lines up with corporate demands on case after case. <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Over the coming decades of corporate dominance of the highest court in the land, it will take a more thoughtful, organized and active version of the response to the Ledbetter case to make the court even approach the desires of American citizens, rather than the wet dreams of the Chamber of Commerce. But that popular organization and education is the only way to drag the Roberts Court, kicking and screaming, into the twentieth century and points beyond.</p>
<p>ROB LARSON is affiliated with the Bar by his house. He’s Assistant Professor of Economics at Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington, Indiana and blogs at <a href="http://theprofitmargin.blogspot.com" type="external">http://theprofitmargin.blogspot.com</a>.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" type="external" /> Wall Street Journal, Partial Reversal, April 19, 2007. Wall Street Journal, Roberts Rules, June 26, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref2" type="external" /> Wall Street Journal, Roberts Court Unites on Business, June 30, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref3" type="external" /> Washington Post, Court Defies Pro-Business Label, March 8, 2009.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref4" type="external" /> Financial Times, Trade Group Backs Supreme Court Nominee, August 11, 2005.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref5" type="external" /> Financial Times, The Supreme Court Has Been Bad For Business, June 29, 2006.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref6" type="external" /> Business Week, The Supreme Court: Open For Business, July 9, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref7" type="external" /> Washington Post, Pro-Business Decision Hews To Patten of Roberts Court, June 22, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref8" type="external" /> International Herald Tribune, Analysis: Roberts Supreme Court Is A Conservative’s Dream, July 1, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref9" type="external" /> Financial Times, Supreme Court Backs US States’ Tax Breaks, May 16, 2006.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Wall Street Journal, Roberts Rules, June 26, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref11" type="external" /> See for example Center For Responsive Politics, 2008 Overview, http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/blio.php.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref12" type="external" /> New York Times, Justices Loosen Ad Restrictions In Campaign Finance Law, June 6, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref13" type="external" /> Hasen, Richard. Beyond Incoherence: The Roberts Court’s Deregulatory Turn in FEC vs. Wisconsin Right to Life, Minnesota Law Review, April 2008.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref14" type="external" /> New York Times, Justices Seem Skeptical Of Scope Of Finance Law, March 24, 2009.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref15" type="external" /> New York Times, Vote Against Banner Shows Divide On Speech In Schools, June 26, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref16" type="external" /> New York Times, Supreme Court Strikes Down “Millionaire’s Amendment,” June 27, 2008.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref17" type="external" /> Wall Street Journal, High Court Split Over Case on Judicial Ethics, March 3, 2009.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref18" type="external" /> Financial Times, Supreme Court Weighs Up Value Of Price-Fixing Against Discounts, March 27, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref19" type="external" /> Wall Street Journal, Why Some Toys Don’t Get Discounted, December 24, 2008.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> International Herald Tribune, Supreme Court Decision On Exxon Valdez Damages A Blow To Alaskans, June 26, 2008.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref21" type="external" /> Financial Times, Court Narrows US Money Laundering Law, June 3, 2008.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref22" type="external" /> Financial Times, Supreme Court May Limit Class Action Lawsuits By Investors, January 19, 2006.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref23" type="external" /> Washington Post, Pro-Business Decision Hews To Patten of Roberts Court, June 22, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref24" type="external" /> International Herald Tribune, Analysis: Roberts Supreme Court Is A Conservative’s Dream, July 1, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref25" type="external" /> Washington Post, Court Defies Pro-Business Label, March 8, 2009. Congress has since changed the law the undermine the Court decision; this will probably not be the only such episode.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref26" type="external" /> Financial Times, Drugs Groups Fear Rash of&#160; Label Litigation, March 5, 2009.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref27" type="external" /> Washington Post, Court Defies Pro-Business Label, March 8, 2009.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref28" type="external" /> Ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref29" type="external" /> The Economist, Supreme Success, July 7, 2007.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> Wall Street Journal, Roberts Court United on Business, June 30, 2007.</p> | Subprime Supreme Court | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/04/03/subprime-supreme-court/ | 2009-04-03 | 4 |
<p>Meghan McCain could be replacing Jedediah Bila as the conservative voice on ABC’s “The View,” <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/18/media/meghan-mccain-the-view/index.html" type="external">CNN</a> said on Monday, citing only “sources.” All the pieces seem to be falling in and out of place for the change.</p>
<p>A deal is in lates stages, CNN said according to three sources, but has not yet been completed.</p>
<p>Bila, the former Fox News correspondent who filled that role, had been a permanent co-host since September 2016, <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/the-view/news/view-news/the-view-returns-for-an-historic-season-20-on-tuesday-september-6" type="external">ABC News</a> noted. Like McCain, Bila was co-host on the similarly formatted Fox News talk show “Outnumbered” before joining “The View.”</p>
<p>Bila announced her departure from “The View” on Monday and a note was sent to the show’s staff, <a href="http://ew.com/tv/2017/09/18/meghan-mccain-talks-the-view/" type="external">Entertainment Weekly</a> reported.</p>
<p>“She has new opportunities on the horizon, including her new book,” the note said, per EW. “She’s been a spirited voice at the table over the past year, asking smart questions and challenging us all to think.”</p>
<p>“We want to thank Jed very much for all of her contributions and wish her great success with the next step in her career. She will always be part of ‘The View’ family, and we’ll welcome her back to talk about her new projects.”</p>
<p>McCain, the oldest daughter of U.S. Sen. John McCain, announced last week that she was leaving “Outnumbered,” <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/meghan-mccain-fox-news-channel-1202559824/" type="external">Variety</a> reported.</p>
<p>“I’m so thankful to Fox News for the chance to be on ‘Outnumbered,’ but I’m leaving to focus on other things,” McCain said in a statement, per Variety. “I have no doubt the show will continue to do well and wish all my friends and colleagues at the network nothing but success.”</p>
<p>McCain has blogged and appeared on MSNBC and the now defunct cable network Pivot as a contributor, Variety noted. She has a campaign memoir, “Dirty Sexy Politics,” and “America, You Sexy Bitch: A Love Letter to Freedom,” a collaboration with comedian Michael Ian Black.</p>
<p>The current co-host lineup for <a href="http://abc.go.com/shows/the-view/cast" type="external">“The View”</a> includes long-time panelists Whoopie Goldberg and Joy Behar, along with Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, and Paula Faris.</p> | Meghan McCain May Take Jedediah Bila Seat on 'The View' | false | https://newsline.com/meghan-mccain-may-take-jedediah-bila-seat-on-the-view/ | 2017-09-19 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey officials say dryer sheets have been placed in the bathrooms of Trenton’s city welfare office in an effort to prevent bedbugs from spreading.</p>
<p>The Trentonian reports ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2fyQS5z" type="external">http://bit.ly/2fyQS5z</a> ) a sign placed next to a box of dryer sheets in a bathroom states the sheets, which are typically used to remove static, should be used to wipe down clothing in the event of a bedbug exposure.</p>
<p>There’s no scientific evidence that dryer sheets repel bedbugs, but Social Services Director Barbara Buckley says they’re hoping the bedbugs will cling to the dryer sheets.</p>
<p>Buckley says people who are exposed to the bugs will be sent to an occupational health doctor. She says the office is under a regular extermination schedule.</p>
<p>Buckley says bugs are a constant issue at the office because they have so many visitors.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The (Trenton, N.J.) Trentonian, <a href="http://www.trentonian.com" type="external">http://www.trentonian.com</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Trenton welfare office deploys dryer sheets to curb bed bugs | false | https://abqjournal.com/879455/trenton-welfare-office-deploys-dryer-sheets-to-curb-bed-bugs.html | 2 |
|
<p>BEND, Ore. (AP) - A Cottage Grove man responsible for killing two trumpeter swans while hunting in central Oregon must pay $4,750 in restitution.</p>
<p>The Bulletin <a href="http://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/5889556-151/hunter-sentenced-for-killing-trumpeter-swans" type="external">reports</a> in a story on Friday that 35-year-old Michael J. Abbott received the sentence in Lake County Circuit Court. Abbott must also serve one year of probation and has lost his hunting privileges for three years.</p>
<p>Trumpeter swans are a protected species in Oregon, and Abbott was found guilty of two misdemeanor wildlife violations in September.</p>
<p>The swans named Fiona and Hope were a key part of the state's trumpeter swan reintroduction program.</p>
<p>Authorities say that Abbott shot the swans in October 2016 while hunting at the Summer Lake Wildlife Area.</p>
<p>Abbott reported shooting one swan after being confronted by hunters. Officials later found the other injured swan but it died.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Bulletin, <a href="http://www.bendbulletin.com" type="external">http://www.bendbulletin.com</a></p>
<p>BEND, Ore. (AP) - A Cottage Grove man responsible for killing two trumpeter swans while hunting in central Oregon must pay $4,750 in restitution.</p>
<p>The Bulletin <a href="http://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/5889556-151/hunter-sentenced-for-killing-trumpeter-swans" type="external">reports</a> in a story on Friday that 35-year-old Michael J. Abbott received the sentence in Lake County Circuit Court. Abbott must also serve one year of probation and has lost his hunting privileges for three years.</p>
<p>Trumpeter swans are a protected species in Oregon, and Abbott was found guilty of two misdemeanor wildlife violations in September.</p>
<p>The swans named Fiona and Hope were a key part of the state's trumpeter swan reintroduction program.</p>
<p>Authorities say that Abbott shot the swans in October 2016 while hunting at the Summer Lake Wildlife Area.</p>
<p>Abbott reported shooting one swan after being confronted by hunters. Officials later found the other injured swan but it died.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Bulletin, <a href="http://www.bendbulletin.com" type="external">http://www.bendbulletin.com</a></p> | Oregon man ordered to pay $4,750 for killing trumpeter swans | false | https://apnews.com/amp/9c655965d60940bda13a25f540e96bd5 | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p>In the US today a critical presidential election is in process in which not a single important issue is addressed by Hillary and the presstitutes.</p>
<p>I am now convinced that the Oligarchy that rules America intends to steal the presidential election. In the past, the oligarchs have not cared which candidate won as the oligarchs owned both. But they do not own Trump.</p>
<p>Most likely you are unaware of what Trump is telling people as the media does not report it. A person who speaks <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYozWHBIf8g" type="external">like this</a> is not endeared to the oligarchs.</p>
<p>Who are the oligarchs?</p>
<p>What convinces me that the Oligarchy intends to steal the election is the vast difference between the presstitutes’ reporting and the facts on the ground.</p>
<p>According to the presstitutes, Hillary is so far ahead that there is no point in Trump supporters bothering to vote. Hillary has won the election before the vote. Hillary has been declared a 93% sure winner.</p>
<p>I am yet to see one Hillary yard sign, but Trump signs are everywhere. Reports I receive are that Hillary’s public appearances are unattended but Trumps are so heavily attended that people have to be turned away. This is a report from a woman in Florida:</p>
<p>“Trump has pulled huge numbers all over FL while campaigning here this week. I only see Trump signs and stickers in my wide travels. I dined at a Mexican restaurant last night. Two women my age sitting behind me were talking about how they had tried to see Trump when he came to Tallahassee. They left work early, arriving at the venue at 4:00 for a 6:00 rally. The place was already over capacity so they were turned away. It turned out that there were so many people there by 2:00 that the doors had to be opened to them. The women said that the crowds present were a mix of races and ages.”</p>
<p>I know the person who gave me this report and have no doubt whatsoever as to its veracity.</p>
<p>I also receive from readers similar reports from around the country.</p>
<p>This is how the theft of the election is supposed to work: The media concentrated in a few corporate hands has gone all out to convince not only Americans but also the world, that Donald Trump is such an unacceptable candidate that he has lost the election before the vote.</p>
<p>By controlling the explanation, when the election is stolen those who challenge the stolen election are without a foundation in the media. All media reports will say that it was a runaway victory for Hillary over the misogynist immigrant-hating Trump.</p>
<p>And liberal, progressive opinion will be relieved and off guard as Hillary takes us into nuclear war.</p>
<p>That the Oligarchy intends to steal the election from the American people is verified by the officially reported behavior of the voting machines in early voting in Texas. The NPR presstitutes have declared that Hillary is such a favorite that even Republican Texas is up for grabs in the election.</p>
<p>If this is the case, why was it necessary for the voting machines to be programmed to change Trump votes to Hillary votes? Those voters who noted that they voted Trump but were recorded Hillary complained. The election officials, claiming a glitch (which only went one way), changed to paper ballots. But who will count them? No “glitches” caused Hillary votes to go to Trump, only Trump votes to go to Hillary.</p>
<p>The most brilliant movie of our time was The Matrix. This movie captured the life of Americans manipulated by a false reality, only in the real America there is insufficient awareness and no Neo, except possibly Donald Trump, to challenge the system. Americans of all stripes—academics, scholars, journalists, Republicans, Democrats, right-wing, left-wing, US Representatives, US Senators, Presidents, corporate moguls and brainwashed Americans and foreigners—live in a false reality.</p>
<p>In the United States today a critical presidential election is in process in which not a single important issue is addressed by Hillary and the presstitutes. This is total failure. Democracy, once the hope of the world, has totally failed in the United States of America. Trump is correct. The American people must restore the accountability of government to the people.</p> | The Failure of Democracy: How The Oligarchs Plan To Steal The Election | false | http://foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/11/01/the-failure-of-democracy-how-the-oligarchs-plan-to-steal-the-election/ | 2016-11-01 | 1 |
<p>Journalist Brian Ross’s inaccurate report on Mike Flynn’s guilty plea on Friday caused stocks to plummet and forced ABC to issue a correction, but this isn’t the first time he’s been caught making fake news.</p>
<p>Citing anonymous officials, Ross claimed Flynn agreed to testify that candidate Trump told him to contact the Russians during the election on ABC’s “Special Report.” However, the source told Ross that the order came when Trump had already won the election and was president-elect.</p>
<p>CORRECTION of ABC News Special Report: Flynn prepared to testify that President-elect Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians *during the transition* — initially as a way to work together to fight ISIS in Syria, confidant now says. <a href="https://t.co/ewrkVZTu2K" type="external">https://t.co/ewrkVZTu2K</a> <a href="https://t.co/URLiHf3uSm" type="external">pic.twitter.com/URLiHf3uSm</a></p>
<p>— ABC News (@ABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/936805557029048321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">December 2, 2017</a></p>
<p>Ross, an award-winning investigative reporter working for ABC for more than two decades, has made something of a career of explosive reports that later transpire to be inaccurate, or “fake news.”</p>
<p />
<p>You just knew this report was wrong as soon as ABC and Brian Ross reported it. <a href="https://t.co/IMQSARzPGy" type="external">https://t.co/IMQSARzPGy</a></p>
<p>— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) <a href="https://twitter.com/AriFleischer/status/936815999390695424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">December 2, 2017</a></p>
<p>Lot at stake for ABC and Brian Ross on the new report… if right, big deal… If wrong (or misinterpreted) then it will provide plenty of ammo for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/fakenews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">#fakenews</a> movement.</p>
<p>— Chris Vanderveen (@chrisvanderveen) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisvanderveen/status/936640658298695680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">December 1, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p>In 2001, Ross <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92270&amp;page=1" type="external">reported</a> that anthrax attacks in the US were likely the work of Iraq. Citing four anonymous sources, Ross <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/abctext_102801.html" type="external">claimed</a> the anthrax contained bentonite, which was “known to have been used by only one country in producing biochemical weapons – Iraq.”</p>
<p>At the time, Ross was in good company, with Senator John McCain also <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/one-month-after-9-11-mccain-said-anthrax-may-have-come-from-iraq-warned-iraq-is-the-second-phase-84eb8a55261c/" type="external">suggesting</a> the anthrax was the work of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The White House, on the other hand, <a href="http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2001/msg00979.html" type="external">said</a>“no tests ever found or even suggested the presence of bentonite.” The FBI later <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/us/20anthrax.html" type="external">concluded</a> that the attacks were carried out by US Army biodefense expert Brucer Ivins, and not Hussein, who at that stage was long dead following the 2003 US Iraq invasion.</p>
<p>Following the Aurora, Colorado, theater shooting in 2012, Ross told “Good Morning America” that he had discovered that shooter Jim Holmes may be a member of the Colorado Tea Party.</p>
<p>His investigation amounted to finding someone with the same name on a Tea Party Patriots website. ABC later <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/07/abc-news-apologizes-for-incorrect-tea-party-report-129588" type="external">issued</a> a correction.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/411744-trump-fired-flynn-lied/" type="external">READ MORE:&#160;Trump: I had to fire Flynn because he lied to VP and FBI, but his actions were lawful</a></p>
<p>In 2009, Ross claimed he had uncovered how Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan had attempted to reach out to “people associated with al Qaeda.” His report sparked theories that the Fort Hood shooting which left 13 dead was part of a larger terrorist plot.</p>
<p>Ross’ scoop was based on Hasan’s emails to one individual, Anwar al-Awlaki, a cleric living in Yemen who used to be the iman of Hasan’s mosque in Virginia. The FBI was already aware of these emails, which consisted of conversation about academic research, and had found they didn’t warrant investigation. When pressed on his claims, Ross admitted that the “people” he was referring to was just Awlaki.</p>
<p>Hasan later told the court that he was attempting to defend the leaders of the Taliban.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Ross reported in 2010 that Toyota cars had “unintended acceleration.” Ross demonstrated this in an on-air report showing him driving one of the cars going out of control.</p>
<p>The footage showed the car’s tachometer going from 1,000 RPM to 6,000 RPM in one second, but the dashboard lights also revealed the car was parked with the doors open at the time. This was then spliced into scenes of Ross driving the car in the report, Gawker <a href="http://gawker.com/5486666/how-abc-news-brian-ross-staged-his-toyota-death-ride" type="external">reports</a>.</p> | Who’s behind ABC’s fake news about Flynn? Brian Ross’s journalistic blunders | false | https://newsline.com/whos-behind-abcs-fake-news-about-flynn-brian-rosss-journalistic-blunders/ | 2017-12-02 | 1 |
<p>The current crisis in Syria provides Donald Trump with his first genuine test as president and commander-in-chief.&#160; On the basis of his first fifteen months in the White House, there is no reason to believe that he is equipped to manage a complex geopolitical and military situation that involves a failed Arab state as well as the military and political interests of many non-Arab states such as Russia, Iran, Turkey, and Israel in addition to the United States.</p>
<p>The delayed response to Syria’s unconscionable use of chemical weapons against its own people indicates that the U.S. national security bureaucracy as well as such key European allies as the UK, France, and Germany are trying to constrain the president and to limit the damage of greater U.S. involvement.</p>
<p>There is reason to believe that Trump lacks the cognitive ability to deal rationally, let alone successfully, with the complex Syrian situation.&#160; Trump’s chaotic Twitter outbursts have already warned of “nice and new and ‘smart’” weapons; his handling of numerous personnel challenges in the White House; his constant contradictions on issues both foreign and domestic; his fixation with the presidency of Barack Obama and his presidential rival Hillary Clinton offer a pattern of bizarre and impulsive decision making.&#160;His bombastic threats over the past year have been a particular worry.</p>
<p>The Syrian situation requires serious cognitive capabilities.&#160; The president must analyze and absorb large amounts of factual material, but Trump prefers to shoot from the hip without the benefit of background briefings.&#160; His angry and implosive manner will complicate the necessity for calm and reasoned discussion of sensitive political and military matters.&#160; His cavalier attitude toward the use of military force points to a reckless and aggressive manner that belies the seriousness of the crisis in the Middle East. He considers himself a “stable genius,” but repeatedly displays limited cognitive capabilities.</p>
<p>Trump’s manic behavior suggests that the White House and the United States would benefit from having key advisors around him who would be able to govern and moderate his behavior.&#160; We’ve been told that the so-called “adults” in the room have performed that function, although I remain skeptical.&#160; In the past month, in any event, we have lost two of those “adults” (Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster) and their replacements (CIA director Mike Pompeo and John Bolton) appear just as impetuous and authoritarian as the president himself.&#160; Trump’s numerous references to himself as the only one “who can fix it” point to the difficulty of counseling an authoritarian president.</p>
<p>The stress of the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller adds to the danger of the current situation because President Trump may view the use of military force as buying time in a worsening domestic atmosphere. The fact that he views the Mueller investigation as “an attack on America” also points to his authoritarian style.</p>
<p>Any discussion of the Syrian situation involves a debate over the use of lethal military weaponry against a target where Russian and Iranian forces are deployed.&#160; There are few military plans that survive the first round of fighting, but the Syrian situation is particularly complicated&#160;in view of&#160;the presence of foreign air and air defense forces.</p>
<p>We were lucky in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis because President John F. Kennedy was open to the use of diplomatic tools to solve the crisis, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was strong enough to reverse himself and withdraw strategic forces that shouldn’t have been deployed in the first place.&#160; Ultimately, each side did an effective job of assessing the intentions and capabilities of its adversary, which is a fundamental issue in any foreign policy crisis.</p>
<p>There is no reason to believe that Donald Trump is capable of making such assessments, and the presence of too many military advisers and a dearth of diplomatic advisers only complicates the situation.&#160; President Kennedy had the advantage of a former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, Llewellyn Thompson, to provide wise counsel and to give Russia the time and space to make a deliberative decision.</p>
<p>President Trump must rely on John Bolton and a hollowed out Department of State that is no position to contribute to a measured and realistic assessment of the problem.&#160; Of course, Donald Trump prides himself on not needing intelligence briefings or even intelligent advisers.</p>
<p>Over the past year or so, President Trump has displayed that he has virtually no capability to assess his adversaries at home or abroad.&#160; His grandiosity and his indifference to the concerns of others are obstacles to effective decision making.&#160; The Syrian crisis is already testing the mettle of his entire national security team.&#160; There is genuine reason for concern.</p> | Trump’s First Big Test: a Crisis for All of Us | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/04/13/trumps-first-big-test-a-crisis-for-all-of-us/ | 2018-04-13 | 4 |
<p />
<p>You wouldn't know it by looking at Smith &amp; Wesson Holding's (NASDAQ: SWHC) stock price chart, but 2016 has been an exceptionally good year for the gunmaker's business. Mostly because of burgeoning gun sales, revenues soared 68% over 2015, but the transformation into a diversified rugged outdoors company, as reflected by its <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/12/20/why-smith-wesson-changed-to-american-outdoor-brand.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">changing its name Opens a New Window.</a> to American Outdoor Brands, has helped, as well.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/SWHC" type="external">SWHC</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>While firearms sales recorded greater growth than did the outdoors and accessories segment, the latter carried better gross margins. Stripping out one-time expenses <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/27/seeking-less-reliance-on-guns-smith-wesson-buys-up.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">related to the acquisitions Opens a New Window.</a> this year of Crimson Trace, Taylor Brands, and Ultimate Survival Technologies, the segment has margins of nearly 50% compared to around 42% in firearms.</p>
<p>So it's not so simple to say one segment was worse than the other, particularly when the rugged outdoors market could become the major growth driver in the future for Smith &amp; Wesson. Still, drilling down further into the company, we do find one business that has stumbled along all year long: Thompson/Center Arms.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Acquired in 2007 for $102 million, Thompson/Center Arms was Smith &amp; Wesson's introduction into the long-guns market. It was a leading name in hunting with its black-powder guns, and was especially proficient in manufacturing long-gun barrels.</p>
<p>Smith &amp; Wesson has since expanded its business into multiple segments of the long-gun market, such as introducing its own brand of modern sporting rifles, so it should be positioned to capture changing consumer preference for these types of firearms. The gunmaker reported shipments of long guns more than doubled last quarter, far outstripping the 40% gains made in handgun shipments.</p>
<p>Image source: Thompson/Center.</p>
<p>Yet Thompson continues to struggle today. It was split up in the fiscal fourth quarter so that firearms like its Compass bolt-action rifle will still be found in the firearms segment, but the accessories business was transferred, appropriately enough, to the accessories segment. While that sort of common-sense division should havebeen intuitively simple, the integration has been hard.</p>
<p>In an attempt to increase profitability, Smith &amp; Wesson raised prices on many Thompson accessories and eliminated its discounting and promotional programs. That caused sales to suffer, but it helped profit levels improve markedly with gross margins rising 5 percentage points, to 47.3% in the fiscal first quarter.</p>
<p>But that was about as good as things got. CEO James Debney admitted on Smith &amp; Wesson's second-quarter earnings call with analysts that the Thompson transition is still a work in progress and they're trying to get the balance right between price and the SKUs they have remaining following the rationalization of a number of them.</p>
<p>Image source: Thompson/Center.</p>
<p>Even in areas where Thompson has done well, such as the Compass rifle, it still has problems. Shortly after it was released, Smith &amp; Wesson was forced to initiate a recall of the weapon because it could accidentally discharge if the gun was dropped. It told owners to immediately stop using the rifle until the defect could be repaired.</p>
<p>Smith &amp; Wesson is no longer just a firearms manufacturer in the way that industry peer Sturm, Ruger remains a pure play on guns. Smith &amp; Wesson has decided the rugged outdoors market is where it can achieve the greatest growth in the future, and 2016 marked the year where it began to transform itself to reflect that change.</p>
<p>It estimates the rugged outdoors gear and accessories market is a $60-billion market, significantly larger than firearms, which is now reverting to the mean, and entering a period of "normalization." While Smith &amp; Wesson ought to be able to take more market share from its rivals in such an environment, it's looking beyond just guns for greater growth. Yet Thompson accessories likely will hold that segment back for at least another quarter, and possibly longer.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Smith and Wesson Holding When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=5438289c-c7da-46de-9e0d-666d0189eaa0&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Smith and Wesson Holding wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=5438289c-c7da-46de-9e0d-666d0189eaa0&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of Nov. 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFCop/info.aspx" type="external">Rich Duprey Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Smith & Wesson Holding Corp's Worst Business Segment in 2016 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/02/smith-wesson-holding-corp-worst-business-segment-in-2016.html | 2017-01-02 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SEOUL, South Korea — A dictator stands on the verge of possessing nuclear missiles that threaten U.S. shores. A worried world ponders airstrikes and sanctions.</p>
<p>North Korea in 2017, right?</p>
<p>It’s actually China in the 1960s and ’70s, when Mao Zedong’s government staged a series of bold nuclear and missile tests. Outsiders eventually learned to live with China as an established nuclear power, even looking to Beijing, so far futilely, to persuade the North to abandon its nuclear ambitions.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>According to North Korean propaganda, the authoritarian nation run by three generations of the Kim family has been a nuclear state for years. With five nuclear tests of increasing power and the launch this past week of its first ICBM, observers are beginning to recognize what is still technically a taboo in government circles: North Korea is actually backing that boast up.</p>
<p>Over the decades, the United States and its allies have tried, or seriously contemplated, “surgical” military strikes, sanctions, isolation, diplomacy and pushing China to do more.</p>
<p>So far, nothing has worked in what academics call “The Land of Lousy Options.”</p>
<p>What follows is an examination of what might be done as North Korea barrels over the world’s nuclear red line.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>MILITARY STRIKES</p>
<p>There’s little doubt that U.S. B-2 bombers, F-22 tactical jetfighters and a barrage of cruise missiles could take out North Korean nuclear facilities; eliminating scattered missile and delivery systems would be much harder.</p>
<p>But it’s what comes next that scares many.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>North Korea has assembled along the border a huge number of artillery systems within striking range of much of greater Seoul’s 25 million people. North Korean missiles can reach the 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea and the 50,000 in Japan.</p>
<p>Jonathan Pollack, an Asia specialist at the Brookings Institution think tank, wrote this past week that pre-emptive military action simply isn’t credible because it would “entail incalculable levels of destruction and loss of life in South Korea and Japan, including to American citizens and military personnel.”</p>
<p>An analysis last year by the private U.S. intelligence firm Stratfor, however, raised the argument that the “price paid” for a surgical strike should be weighed with the “future potential costs” of trying to rid the North of its nukes after it has a nuclear strike capability, or of Pyongyang actually using those weapons.</p>
<p>“Following this logic, there is a compelling case to be made that the cost of military intervention right now is justified, purely considering the alternatives,” the analysis said. “Almost any price would be acceptable if it meant avoiding a nuclear conflict in the future. But the nature of policymaking is such that leaders are judged by present costs and not by those that could occur down the line.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>GETTING CHINA TO DO MORE</p>
<p>President Donald Trump latched onto this ancient idea early on, and at first glance it seems promising.</p>
<p>China is North Korea’s food and fuel lifeline and its only major ally. Why not then push Beijing to use its presumed leverage to turn the screws on the North until Pyongyang relinquishes its nukes?</p>
<p>Trump earlier this year appeared to concede that his conviction that China had “tremendous power” over North Korea was flawed after a meeting with China’s leader. “After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy,” Trump said.</p>
<p>The difficulty is partly because regime collapse in Pyongyang would probably push millions of desperate North Korean refugees into China over their shared border. China also is wary of a unified Korea with a U.S.-friendly Seoul in charge.</p>
<p>Outsourcing the problem to China “presumes that Beijing will act on America’s behalf in ways that it seems wholly unprepared to take at present,” Pollack wrote.</p>
<p>Jake Sullivan, a national security adviser in the Obama administration, and Victor Cha, an Asia specialist in the George W. Bush administration, recently suggested a deal in which China would make payments to Pyongyang and offer security assurances in return for North Korea nuclear checks.</p>
<p>“China would be paying not just for North Korean coal, but for North Korean compliance,” they wrote. U.N. officials would monitor compliance.</p>
<p>“If North Korea cheated, China would not be receiving what it paid for. The logical thing would be for it to withhold economic benefits until compliance resumed,” Sullivan and Cha wrote.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE</p>
<p>Each new North Korean long-range missile or nuclear test results in what’s trumpeted as the toughest sanctions to date at the U.N. — none of which have stopped North Korea’s march to nuclear mastery.</p>
<p>Sanctions advocates say that past efforts have been hamstrung by China, which has long protected its ally diplomatically.</p>
<p>There’s skepticism, however, that outside pressure can influence a country that has built a national ethos on defying such pressure.</p>
<p>“Does anyone actually think that with another round of sanctions the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, will suddenly give up power and North Koreans will all become liberal democrats?” David Kang, a Korea specialist at the University of Southern California, wrote recently.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>DIPLOMACY</p>
<p>Sitting down to talk with North Korea might seem the easiest solution with the biggest potential payoff. But diplomacy has as rich a history of failure as sanctions.</p>
<p>A 1990s nuclear freeze agreement fell apart after U.S. accusations of North Korean cheating. Six-nation disarmament talks throughout the 2000s finally broke down in acrimony. A 2012 aid-for-disarmament deal blew up days later when North Korea announced a long-range rocket launch.</p>
<p>Last year, the then-top U.S. intelligence official, James Clapper, said that persuading North Korea to abandon its nukes was “probably a lost cause” and that the best that could be done was “some sort of a cap,” though he acknowledged that would take serious concessions on the U.S. side.</p>
<p>The potential price of a freeze worries many.</p>
<p>Would Washington, for instance, agree to pull its troops out of South Korea or to end military drills with Seoul, potentially opening the path for the North to achieve its dream, by violence if necessary, of a unified Korea with Pyongyang in charge?</p>
<p>“Even if North Korea agreed to a freeze, how long would we expect it to maintain it this time around?” David Straub, a former U.S. government specialist on North Korea, wrote earlier this year. “Once promised, what more would the regime demand, backed by threats and blackmail, to keep a freeze?”</p>
<p>Engagement proponents say a cap of the North’s weapons program could lead to a serious drop in tension, better ties and maybe even economic deals in the region. Since early in his rule, Kim has said economic development is as high a national priority as its nuclear weapons program.</p>
<p>“Rather than threaten war or deepen sanctions, a more productive path is to nudge Kim down the same road that the major countries in East Asia have all taken: a shift from power to wealth,” John Delury, an Asia expert at Yonsei University in Seoul, wrote earlier this year. “If Kim wants to be North Korea’s developmental dictator, the United States’ best long-term strategy is to help him do so.”</p> | Frustrated with NKorea? Welcome to The Land of Lousy Options | false | https://abqjournal.com/1030263/frustrated-with-nkorea-welcome-to-the-land-of-lousy-options.html | 2017-07-08 | 2 |
<p>On Monday, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) tweeted that he wouldn’t join fellow members of Congress in a moment of silence over the Las Vegas shooting:</p>
<p>Moulton very quickly made the it known that he was talking about gun control:</p>
<p>What "action" Moulton would propose isn’t clear, although some Twitter users suggested bringing back the "assault weapons ban":</p>
<p>Can <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">@realDonaldTrump</a> use his executive powers to ban assault weapons?</p>
<p>The original Federal Assault Weapons Ban (FAWB), which passed in 1994 and expired in 2004, has been shown to have been completely ineffective. Sean Davis of The Federalist <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2016/06/13/the-assault-weapons-ban-is-a-stupid-idea-pushed-by-stupid-people/" type="external">writes</a>:</p>
<p>The 1994 assault weapons law banned semi-automatic rifles only if they had any two of the following five features in addition to a detachable magazine: a collapsible stock, a pistol grip, a bayonet mount, a flash suppressor, or a grenade launcher. That’s it. Not one of those cosmetic features has anything whatsoever to do with how or what a gun fires.</p>
<p>Economist John R. Lott, founder of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), and widely recognized gun expert, has noted that the 1994 ban did little to nothing to reduce gun crime.</p>
<p>In 2013, Lott wrote in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323468604578245803845796068?mg=prod/accounts-wsj" type="external">The Wall Street Journal</a> regarding Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) support of the ban:</p>
<p>Ms. Feinstein points to two studies by criminology professors Chris Koper and Jeff Roth for the National Institute of Justice to back up her contention that the ban reduced crime. She claims that their first study in 1997 showed that the ban decreased "total gun murders." In fact, the authors wrote: "the evidence is not strong enough for us to conclude that there was any meaningful effect (i.e., that the effect was different from zero)."</p>
<p>Messrs. Koper and Roth suggested that after the ban had been in effect for more years it might be possible to find a benefit. Seven years later, in 2004, they published a follow-up study for the National Institute of Justice with fellow criminologist Dan Woods that concluded, "we cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation's recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence."</p>
<p>He later added: "Since the Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired in September 2004, murder and overall violent-crime rates have fallen. In 2003, the last full year before the law expired, the U.S. murder rate was 5.7 per 100,000 people, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report. By 2011, the murder rate fell to 4.7 per 100,000 people. One should also bear in mind that just 2.6% of all murders are committed using any type of rifle."</p>
<p>Surely, Rep. Moulton isn’t looking to support something like the FAWB, as it was entirely ineffective.</p>
<p>If he’s looking to ban fully automatic weapons, which some reports <a href="" type="internal">suggest</a> the shooter used, that’s another dead end. Fully automatic firearms have been <a href="" type="internal">heavily regulated</a> since 1934, and the sale of newly made fully automatic firearms has been effectively banned since 1986.</p>
<p>Given everything mentioned above, one wonders what would Moulton would seek to do in order to curb these types of shootings. It’s likely that the Democrats in the House and Senate will push for "common sense" gun control, which is a buzzphrase used to cover any number of gun control measures that would take firearms away from law abiding citizens, and do little to noting to stop criminals.</p>
<p>The coming days will tell the tale.</p> | Democratic Rep. Moulton ‘Will Not’ Be Joining Fellow Congressmen In ‘Moment Of Silence’ Because It’s A ‘Time For Action’ | true | https://dailywire.com/news/21822/democratic-rep-moulton-will-not-be-joining-fellow-frank-camp | 2017-10-02 | 0 |
<p>If hockey is Canada's religion, its cathedral is the great outdoors.</p>
<p>Generations of young Canadians&#160;have learned the game on ponds and homemade&#160;outdoor rinks — even hockey god Wayne Gretzky.&#160;The story goes that Gretzky's dad made a&#160;rink in the family's backyard to help his son develop the skills that would one day make him arguably the best player ever.</p>
<p>There's even an&#160;ode to the outdoor rink on the Canadian five-dollar bill: "The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons," reads a snippet from the " <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/the-hockey-sweater-by-roch-carrier-celebrates-30-years-1.2845752" type="external">The Hockey Sweater</a>," a short story. "We lived in three places — the school, the church and the skating rink —&#160;but our real life was on the skating rink."</p>
<p>That love of outdoor rinks gave Robert McLeman&#160;an idea. It's called&#160; <a href="http://www.rinkwatch.org/" type="external">RinkWatch</a>.</p>
<p>"It's a citizen science project,&#160;and what we do is we ask people who have outdoor skating rinks&#160;to come to our website, to pin the location of that rink on our interactive map," says McLeman,&#160;an associate professor of geography and environmental studies at Ontario's&#160;Wilfred Laurier University. "Then&#160;throughout the skating season [they] update&#160;us on daily skating conditions.”</p>
<p>So far they've gotten thousand of submissions from Canada and the US over the past three years, and&#160;McLeman hopes the data&#160;will show Canadians&#160;the real-world consequences of climate change.</p>
<p />
<p>Rinkwatch.org</p>
<p>McLeman says that by 2090, Canadians could have far fewer days to lace up their skates and go for an outdoor glide. Take his forecast for Toronto:</p>
<p>“The skating season will shrink by about 25 percent," he says. "In&#160;other words, instead of a three-month skating season, we’ll have a six-week to eight-week skating season. ... If you like to skate outdoors,&#160;this will affect you. This will affect your quality of life."</p>
<p>The site's contributors include&#160;&#160;Kevin Sylvester, a&#160;Toronto resident and life-long hockey lover.&#160;“Back here in the corner there used to be a garage," he says at his home. "I tore it down to expand the rink by another 20 feet,&#160;so basically the backyard is the rink.”</p>
<p>He's made&#160;the rink every year for the past decade, and spends his winter evenings playing on it with his kids.&#160;But he worries that the outdoor rink is becoming a thing of the past.</p>
<p>“It’s gotten weirder,” he says. “Like,&#160;about five&#160;years ago,&#160;we didn't get out here for weeks. It just never got cold enough and it was a big puddle of water and birds were pooping in it."</p>
<p>Things have gotten better since then; Sylvester says the last two years were "perfect." But he's still nervous. "They make me worried because it's been cold and beautiful, but then I go, 'What the heck is going on?&#160;This is crazy.'&#160;The pattern changes way more in the last three years than it did 10&#160;years ago.”</p>
<p>For this year, the season is over.&#160;Sylvester took apart his rink last month when the weather started to warm up. There are even flowers starting to break through the ground where there was a thick layer of ice.</p>
<p />
<p>Kevin Sylvester in his yard in Toronto, Ontario.</p>
<p>Andrea Crossan</p>
<p>As he looks out onto his yard, Sylvester muses about having&#160;an even bigger rink one day.</p>
<p>“We sometimes talk about blowing out the fence, because my neighbors and I would like to have an actual awesome sized rink," he says. "Imagine that. You'd have a 40-foot wide rink. It would be like playing in the NHL. So&#160;we dream."</p> | A real hockey meltdown threatens Canada's signature sport | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-04-22/horrors-quick-melting-outdoor-rinks-threaten-canadas-signature-sport | 2015-04-22 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>On July 20, 1969, long before Facebook and Twitter, astronaut Neil Armstrong was friended and followed by an estimated 600 million people — 1 out of every 5 on the blue and white planet.</p>
<p>That was the day he walked on the moon, the day much of Earth sat glued to grainy black-and-white television screens and watched the United States win the last leg of a peaceful arms race in space, the day American ingenuity made the nation’s Sputnik moment of a decade earlier pay off.</p>
<p>Armstrong died Saturday at age 82. He lived a life of quiet dignity in suburban Cincinnati, avoiding the spotlight and the temptation of braggadocio. Yet it is important at his passing that the spotlight shine on his achievements and that the country remember what it was like to be the best in science and learning and exploration.</p>
<p>Because it’s been a long time, and federal policy decisions could make it a lot longer.</p>
<p>Armstrong joined more than two dozen Apollo-era veterans in 2010 to criticize the Obama administration’s space policy that slashed NASA’s budget and abandoned the moon-centric Constellation program. The man who uttered the famous “one giant leap for mankind” lived long enough to see his country surrender the final frontier to China, Russia and private spaceship companies. He criticized the “misguided proposal that forces NASA out of human space operations for the foreseeable future.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>So it is with more than a little wistfulness that Earth says goodbye to Neil Armstrong, a man who proclaimed himself “a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer” on the inside, but on the outside, to a nation and the world, had “the right stuff” as a Navy fighter pilot, a test pilot for NASA’s forerunner, the pilot of the X-15 rocket plane, engineer of the first space docking during the Gemini 8 mission.</p>
<p>And the first man to walk on a natural satellite that is not Earth.</p>
<p>It’s Earth that needs more Neil Armstrongs. And more leaders who understand their critical role in society and civilization.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p> | Editorial: The Man Who Helped U.S. Shoot for the Moon | false | https://abqjournal.com/127199/the-man-who-helped-us-shoot-for-the-moon.html | 2012-08-30 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Make the Most of a Job Loss</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A tough economy coupled with high unemployment has left many Americans stranded in uncertainty. The Bureau of Labor Statistics set the unemployment rate at 8.1% in April, only a fraction of a percent lower than the previous month. However, some folks who had found themselves among the jobless early in the recession have found new careers and business success.</p>
<p>There are many stories of people who were forced to think outside the box to find a job and survive. This article tells five tales of how some succeeded after a job loss to start a new career, and what smart financial steps they took to help them make the change.</p>
<p>Financial Crisis Turns Trader's Life Around</p>
<p>Buying a franchise has helped some people start a new career after hitting bottom in a job loss. Barry Kleiman from Bedford, N.Y., lost his job as an institutional equity trader in 2008 when his firm Needham &amp; Co. LLC&#160;downsized. Afterward, he worked temporarily as a career counselor while pondering what direction he should take. One option he considered was as a small-business owner and franchise operator.</p>
<p>Kleiman is now an independent franchisee of The Entrepreneur's Source, where he assists others exploring small-business ownership and franchising, and helps people to realize their dreams. He coaches individuals who are considering self-employment as a career alternative. He says that his business is growing, although not quite as quickly as he would like. Despite the slow progress, he gets great satisfaction from guiding people into small-business ownership.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"It changes their lives, as it did mine. I could never go back to the corporate grind," Kleiman says.</p>
<p>Teacher Loses job, Travels the World</p>
<p>Think outside the box to find a job. Tiffany Aliche, a blogger under the handle of "The Budgetnista" in Newark, N.J., was a preschool teacher when her school closed due to funding cuts. She lost her job of seven years in September 2009.</p>
<p>What seemed like a disaster for her was really the best thing that could have happened, she says. Since her job loss, she's had the freedom to travel the world (14 countries), start her own business and finish writing a book she started in 2006 titled "The One Week Budget." She is now a full-time entrepreneur who teaches financial literacy and money management to groups and to individual clients.</p>
<p>Aliche wrote her book and began teaching people about finances in response to phone calls, emails and questions she received about how she was able to afford her lifestyle on her teacher's salary of $35,000 per year. She did it by saving $40,000 in two years.</p>
<p>How did she save so much?</p>
<p>"I created a budget and found the cost of my bare-bones, basic expenses, which were about one-half of my income," Aliche says. She shared a place with her sister, had no credit card or car debt and automated her bill payments and savings. She also gave herself a weekly cash allowance to keep from overspending.</p>
<p>Laid-Off Banker Becomes Window Cleaner</p>
<p>John Bryant from Hilliard, Ohio, used to work as a retail banker at The Huntington National Bank until he lost his job in 2008. One day while mulling over what to do next with his life, he remembered how poorly window cleaners cleaned his store windows at his previous job as a convenience store manager.</p>
<p>"They left muddy streaks," he remembers.</p>
<p>In the wake of his job loss, Bryant decided to start his own window-cleaning business rather than find a job. He founded Performance Cleaners LLC, where he is president. He currently has three employees.</p>
<p>"I found that almost every banker is a good businessman," he says.</p>
<p>Start a Tattoo Parlor</p>
<p>Thomas J. Cantwell IV of New York worked in a private bank doing mortgage refinancing sales after graduating in 2006 from Hofstra University on Long Island, N.Y., with a degree in political science. After the housing bubble popped, he says he braved it out for another two years but saw such a drop in income that he decided to no longer work in the mortgage industry.</p>
<p>"When the economy crashed, my industry was one of the worst-hit," Cantwell says.</p>
<p>Over the years, Cantwell had been adding to his collection of tattoos, going to the same artist each time. "Tattoos have been a part of my life since I was 15 years old, but it was always as a consumer and lover of the art form," he says.</p>
<p>During one session after leaving his job, he told the artist, "I give you all my money anyway. I should just open a shop and make you work for me."</p>
<p>They both laughed but later the tattoo artist pulled Cantwell aside and said he would work for him if he were to open his own shop. In 2010, the two opened Studio 28 Tattoos in Manhattan. Cantwell, now 29, says in the first year his business was given a "best" rating for tattoo parlors by Citysearch.com, a database of client reviews on businesses.</p>
<p>Continue Your Education</p>
<p>After attending Conestoga College in Ontario in 2007, Brenden Sherratt started working at a small art auction company. He hated it, but he couldn't find any other job opportunities because he had little work experience.</p>
<p>After his boss laid him off, Brenden viewed it as an opportunity to go back to school for a bachelor's degree. On the same day of his job loss, he sent in his application to Lakehead University, also in Ontario, and was accepted.</p>
<p>After graduating in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in business administration, Sherratt started working at Sortable.com, a Waterloo, Ontario, tech startup that helps people make purchasing decisions of products online.</p>
<p>"Losing a job is always tough, but you just have to believe in yourself and make a plan to get back to work. My plan involved investing in myself and going back to school, and I could not be happier that I lost my job," he says.</p> | How to Laugh Off a Layoff and Find a Job | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/06/12/how-to-laugh-off-layoff-and-find-job.html | 2017-02-08 | 0 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.