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>I am a Rom (more commonly known as “Gypsy”) who was born in Kosovo, Yugoslavia, and lived in Pristina (the capital of the Kosovo region) for 27 years. In the summer of 2000, ten years later, I was only 30 miles away in Macedonia but I could not visit the town where I lived most of my life. This was more than three years after the “humanitarian bombing” by U.S.-NATO forces and escalation of ethnic conflict began in Kosovo on March 24th, 1999. But it was still too dangerous for me, as a dark-skinned “Madjupi” (Albanian term connoting “lower than garbage”), to set foot inside of Kosovo.</p>
<p>Finally, the day arrived (May 2nd, 2002) when I could visit my place of birth, the place of so many memories from my youth. But that place–where I grew up with my four brothers and one sister, cousins, relatives, neighbors, friends–no longer existed. Everything had been wiped away. The new and renovated houses, villas, gas stations, motels, all built in the past three years by the triumphant ethnic Albanians, made Kosovo look like a foreign country to me. I didn’t know what to feel in that moment of returning. Fear, happiness, anger, sadness?</p>
<p>The paradox that crossed my mind was that all this rebuilding is being sponsored by international relief agencies and financed by development and investment companies with such well-known heads as Dick Cheney and George Soros. Meanwhile the Roma, Serbs, Gorani, Bosnians, Turks and other minorities in Kosovo are starving! While most of these international institutions were bragging about “free and democratic Kosovo,” these peoples were forced to abandon their homes, suffering a “humanitarian” supported ethnic cleansing that has been virtually invisible to the rest of the world. The ironic consequence of NATO/US rescue of oppressed Albanians is that they then became oppressors themselves.</p>
<p>This May, as President of Voice of Roma (VOR), I led a trip to Kosovo with delegates representing human rights, refugee assistance, and peace groups from the U.S., Germany, Italy, and Holland. Most people working in such organizations think that Kosovo is free now, and that its people are living in harmony and peace. They are surprised when I inform them that the ethnic minorities in Kosovo are still fleeing. I wanted them to witness with their own eyes what is going on there.</p>
<p>The delegates were housed in the Romani communities, south of Pristina. Each family hosted two or more delegates. The delegates spent time with and got to know people who had been caught in heavy crossfire between Serbs and Albanians, suffered from the heavy bombing by NATO’s &lt;U.S.-led&gt; forces, and experienced discrimination by K-FOR forces, the U.N. Police, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and Western European foreign policies. The delegates were appalled by the stories they heard and shocked at the conditions under which the Kosovo Roma were living.</p>
<p>Since NATO’s “peace-keepers” arrived in Kosovo, more than 300,000 ethnic minorities have been “cleansed” from the region by extremist Albanians. It has been more than a year since the U.N. Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) released any statements about human rights abuses of minorities in Kosovo. Surprisingly, such NGOs as Doctors Without Borders (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize), the International Red Cross, Oxfam, and many more have failed the ethnic minorities in Kosovo by not addressing their problems. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are alone in reporting on minority human rights abuses in Kosovo.</p>
<p>My question is: If NATO’s so-called humanitarian bombing was to stop “ethnic cleansing,” why are the same Western powers now so unwilling to intervene on behalf of the actual ethnic cleansing of Romani people and other minorities in Kosovo?</p>
<p>The ethnic cleansing of the Roma since U.N. peace-keepers arrived in June 12th of 1999 has resulted in more than 75% of this population (over 100,000 Romani people) fleeing Kosovo. Still the media and the international “humanitarian” community are silent. U.S. and Western media did not catch any of these events on their radar screens, or rather willingly ignored these horrors. (See our report The Current Plight of the Roma in Kosovo, available from Voice of Roma, P.O. Box 514, Sebastopol, CA 95473.)</p>
<p>The majority of the Roma who are left in Kosovo (25,000 out of a prewar population of 150,000) are internal refugees, but they do not have the official status of refugees. Instead these Roma are labeled “internally-displaced persons” (IDPs), with fewer recognized rights than refugees, and are restricted to camps with very poor facilities. Some Roma do live in Serbian controlled enclaves. No other ethnic group is in the IDP camps, only Roma. Why is this? Only the Roma have no safe haven country. Serbs flee to Serbia, Bosnians to Bosnia, Turks to Turkey, and Gorani (who are Muslim/Slavs) to Macedonia or Western Europe.</p>
<p>The poorest of the poor, in the IDP camps, the Roma face a remarkable level of discrimination and oppression that is threatening their lives and crippling their culture. Just to give you an idea, the U.N. provides to each of the Roma in IDP camps a monthly ration of eight kilos (17 pounds) of flour, two onions, two tomatoes, a half-kilo (one pound) of cheese, and some fruit (usually rotten). Beyond that, there is only three liters of cooking oil per family, regardless of family size; no other supplies are available (interviews with refugees in IDP camps in Kosovo and Macedonia). If these people are struggling to survive physically, what then happens to their culture?</p>
<p>For another example, when a U.N. representative was approached by a VOR representative about providing cooking and drinking water to Roma in one camp, his reply was, “Oh, the Gypsies know how to take care of themselves. They’re nomads; they’ve lived all their lives like that.” If the Roma are facing such dismissal from those on whom they depend for their physical survival, how are they to survive either physically or culturally?</p>
<p>This deeply-rooted stereotype, that the Roma are uncivilized wanderers who don’t have the same needs as members of “civilized” societies is contradicted by the facts. In Kosovo, Roma have lived in houses for over seven hundred years, and most of them have never seen a wanderer’s caravan. The effect of such stereotypes is to dehumanize the Roma and destroy their cultural infrastructure.</p>
<p>In today’s “free” Kosovo, no Rom can move freely; his children cannot go to school, and cannot speak their mother tongue. Because they had to leave their homes and now must stay in the camps, most of the Roma still in Kosovo have not seen nearby family members in more than three years. That means, among other things, that marriages cannot be made according to Romani social rules. What happens to a society in which new families cannot form?</p>
<p>How can we change the situation of Roma, wherever they may happen to be? What is our responsibility to a people who have been so abused and ignored for centuries?</p>
<p>SANI RIFATI is a Romani activist, writer and lecturer from Kosovo, now living in Graton, California. He is the President of Voice of Roma, a non-profit advocacy group working on behalf of Roma in Kosovo and Romani refugees living throughout Europe.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>This article originally appeared in <a href="http://www.dissidentvoice.org/" type="external">Dissident Voice</a>.</p>
<p>Glossary of Terms:</p>
<p>Rom= one person, (sing.), human being or husband in Romani language.</p>
<p>Roma= Gypsies (pl.)</p>
<p>Romani=Adjective (e.g. Romani language, history, culture, etc…)</p>
<p>Madjupi= Derogatory term in Albanian language for Roma.</p>
<p>Gorani= Ethnic group in Kosovo that are Slav Muslim</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Humanitarian Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo | true | https://counterpunch.org/2002/10/15/humanitarian-ethnic-cleansing-in-kosovo/ | 2002-10-15 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Jayme Quintana, front, set a Highlands University record in the mile run the first time she ran in the event, which took place at the Cherry and Silver Invite at the Albuquerque Convention Center. (Courtesy of New Mexico Highlands University)</p>
<p>Jayme Quintana's work in the fall has already paid dividends in the winter.</p>
<p>Quintana, a New Mexico Highlands University junior, set Cowgirls indoor records in the 600-meter and 1-mile runs at the Cherry and Silver Invite last weekend at the Albuquerque Convention Center.</p>
<p>What makes the mile mark so noteworthy in particular is that it was the first time that Quintana - who attended Robertson for two years before finishing up at West Las Vegas for her final two years - had run the event in competition.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>"Granted, the school record is not a world-beating record," Highlands coach Bob DeVries said. "But it's the first time she ran it. I was very pleased with her effort. I think she's just going to get better."</p>
<p>Known mostly as a middle distance runner through high school and her first two years at Highlands, DeVries said he's been encouraging her to consider the longer distances.</p>
<p>Highlands runner Jayme Quintana.</p>
<p>And, this fall, he got her to run cross-country for the first time.</p>
<p>"This fall, she ran cross-country and she picked up the mindset, plus the volume of work, that she really needed," Devries said. "I think the work she did in the fall has helped her with the workload in the spring."</p>
<p>Still, despite the extra work and confidence built on hard work, it was something of a daunting experience facing Division I athletes in an unfamiliar event.</p>
<p>"It's still intimidating the first time you run an event," Quintana said. "I'm shocked I did as well as I did."</p>
<p>Quintana ran a 5-minute, 24.39-second mile, finishing 15th overall and just missing winning her heat.</p>
<p>"She was really disappointed in herself in not winning the heat," DeVries said. "She let people feed off her and beat her at the end."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But, considering she came in as a newbie, falling off at the end could be expected.</p>
<p>"I didn't really know my strategy going in," Quintana said. "I went out to the front of the pack. I tried to keep as much of the lead as long as possible. It was different than I expected. I just have to work on making those last three laps my priority."</p>
<p>Because of the tighter confines of indoor meets, athletes run eight laps for a mile instead of the standard four outdoors.</p>
<p>Getting a chance to compete in Albuquerque was a fun experience, as well, she said.</p>
<p>"I like running at the UNM meets, at the convention center," Quintana said. "It's really nice. It's really competitive. But it's a neutral and friendly environment."</p>
<p>DeVries said he sees this result as a springboard for Quintana to future success.</p>
<p>"She was a very good 800 runner, one of the best we've ever had at Highlands, but she didn't really have the foot speed to be a great 800 runner on the national level," he said. "I think she can become a 5-minute flat or sub-5 mile runner."</p>
<p>Quintana needs to continue the hard work that has gotten her to this point, continuing to push herself in practice, DeVries said.</p>
<p>And that's going to come over time, he added.</p>
<p>"She has a lot of will power and I like the toughness that she showed," he said. "She's very adaptable. I was very proud of the way she took the lead and tried to control her race from the front. She made everybody work hard to beat her. I saw that toughness."</p>
<p>It all comes back to the miles Quintana put in during the fall.</p>
<p>"Coach really pushed me to do the cross-country," she said. "I definitely think that made a big difference."</p>
<p /> | Record mile run a springboard to success | false | https://abqjournal.com/714206/record-mile-run-a-springboard-to-success.html | 2 |
|
<p>This year, Sarah Palin created a very memorable neologism, and now that word has become famous like its politician-turned-reality-star creator! Yes, the word voted in by the good people at the New Oxford American Dictionary is refudiate. But does this mean it’s now legit? Take it away, New York Post. –KA</p>
<p>New York Post:</p>
<p>“Refudiate” became an instant classic back in July when national media and Palin watchers ridiculed her for using a non-existent word that seemed to be a cross between “refute” and “repudiate.”</p>
<p>“From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used ‘refudiate,’ we have concluded that neither ‘refute’ nor ‘repudiate’ seems consistently precise, and that ‘refudiate’ more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of ‘reject,’ Oxford University Press said in a press release accompanying the announcement.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/palin_refudiate_named_word_of_the_ECP77Ft5C3H31exvhhmxwO" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Word of the Year: Refudiate | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/word-of-the-year-refudiate/ | 2010-11-16 | 4 |
<p>Late last month an Egyptian fisherman saw a stork flying near the Nile with what he thought was a suspicious-looking device attached to his feathers.</p>
<p>Turns out, the device was just a French wildlife tracking device but animal espionage might not be as far fetched as you think according to Peter Earnest, a former spy for the CIA.</p>
<p>Earnest now directs the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, which is home to another feathered interloper: the pigeon cam.</p>
<p>The pigeon-cam is just that, a pigeon with a camera around its neck. The museum has a stuffed version of the bird spy, which was developed by a German on the eve of World War I.</p>
<p>"The idea was that the pigeon was a homing pigeon, which was released at point which when flying home would take it over the targeted area…there was an automatic shutter release on the camera so it was taken continuous shots," said Earnest.</p>
<p>There have been numerous other attempts to use animals including an attempt by the CIA to embed a listening device in a cat, called Operation Acoustic Kitty.</p>
<p>Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Peter Earnest about these attempts at animal espionage.</p> | Animal Espionage: Acoustic Kittens, Pigeon-Cams & Navy Trained Dolphins | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-09-06/animal-espionage-acoustic-kittens-pigeon-cams-navy-trained-dolphins | 2013-09-06 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Wikimedia Commons.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>There are few industries that have suffered as much over the last decade as banks, causing their stocks to tumble. But this shouldn't be interpreted as a reason to avoid the space. As a cursory analysis of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) shows, this is when enterprising investors want to think about adding these stocks to their portfolios.</p>
<p>There's one reason that big bank stocks, like JPMorgan Chase, are compelling right now: valuation.</p>
<p>Analysts and investors tend to value bank stocks by comparing their share prices to their book values per share. The typical bank in ordinary times will trade at or around one times book value, though this will vary over time as the prospects for the industry rise and fall with the business cycle.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/JPM/price_to_book_value" type="external">JPM Price to Book Value Opens a New Window.</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>When times are great and banks are making a lot of money, bank stocks trade for two or more times book value. But when the economy takes a turn for the worse, fueling loan losses and thereby weighing on bank share prices, bank stocks will trade for meaningful discounts to book value.</p>
<p>It's for that reason that bank investors try to adhere to the axiom: "buy at half of book value and sell at two times book value." Doing that is hard, as calling either the bottom or the top of the market is difficult, if not impossible. Yet, you don't have to get your timing exactly right to still benefit from this approach.</p>
<p>Right now, JPMorgan Chase's shares offer a case in point. The <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/08/09/top-10-biggest-banks-in-america.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">nation's biggest bank by assets Opens a New Window.</a> is trading for 1.1 times book value. That's not the bargain basement price that Bank of America or Citigroup are trading at -- approximately 30% below their respective book values -- but it's nevertheless reasonable when considering that JPMorgan Chase could easily trade for 1.5 times book value or higher in the years ahead.</p>
<p>I say that because JPMorgan Chase is bound to make a lot more money when interest rates rise. There's no telling when that will happen, though chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon believes the Federal Reserve should do so sooner rather than later. Either way, it's safe to assume that higher rates are <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/18/is-america-the-new-japan.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">in the cards for the future Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>JPMorgan Chase even goes so far as to estimate how much this could help its top line. According to its <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/19617/000001961716001056/corpq22016.htm" type="external">latest quarterly filing Opens a New Window.</a> with the Securities &amp; Exchange Commission, a 100 basis point, or 1 percentage point, boost in rates would translate into $3 billion more net interest income. If rates rose by 200 basis points, it would generate $4.9 billion more net interest income from its asset portfolio.</p>
<p>This would not only increase JPMorgan's profitability, it would also enable it to continue growing its already voluptuous dividend. The New York-based bank's shares yield 2.8%. That's the sixth highest among the nation's blue-chip bank stocks -- the roughly two dozen stocks on the KBW Bank Index -- and it's well above the 2.1% average yield on the S&amp;P 500.</p>
<p>While it's impossible to predict the future with any semblance of certainty, it's not unreasonable to think that JPMorgan Chase's shareholders will benefit as we proceed further and further away from the low interest rates produced by the financial crisis.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2759&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/JohnMaxfield37/info.aspx" type="external">John Maxfield Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Bank of America. The Motley Fool recommends Bank of America. 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> | Is JPMorgan Chase Stock a Buy Right Now? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/28/is-jpmorgan-chase-stock-buy-right-now.html | 2016-10-28 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>That existential question, which has nagged at Republicans since Trump’s stunning election one year ago, flared up anew Tuesday with Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake’s announcement that he is retiring from Congress. One of the GOP’s most consistent critics of the president, Flake was facing a tough primary challenge in next year’s election from at least one candidate with the backing of some Trump allies.</p>
<p>“There may not be a place for a Republican like me in the current Republican climate or the current Republican Party,” said Flake, a conservative who has worked with Democrats on issues like immigration and the Obama administration’s detente with Cuba.</p>
<p>The senator’s dour assessment of his future in the Republican Party gave voice to worries that have gripped the GOP heading into the midterm elections. Trump has shown little loyalty to some sitting senators, and has openly squabbled with Flake and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Some of the president’s ardent supporters — led by former White House senior adviser Steve Bannon — are actively courting GOP primary challengers who are more willing to buck the Republican establishment in Washington than line up behind its leaders.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Andy Surabian, a senior adviser for the pro-Trump group Great America Alliance, said Flake’s retirement is part of a trend and “should serve as another warning shot to the failed Republican establishment that backed Flake and others like them that their time is up.”</p>
<p>To be sure, intra-party divisions are hardly new for the GOP, which has struggled for years to reconcile its more moderate, pro-business wing with the growing crop of populists and nationalists that ultimately fueled Trump’s political rise. Trump’s election may have left Republicans with control of both the White House and Congress but it did nothing to heal the divisions. If anything, Trump — a former Democrat with no ideological mooring to conservative principles or deep ties to GOP leaders — has exacerbated the gulf between millions of GOP voters and the congressional leaders sent to Washington to represent them.</p>
<p>Peter Wehner, a Trump critic who served in President George W. Bush’s White House, said there’s a “struggle going on for the soul of conservatism and the Republican Party.” He urged more traditional Republicans to stay and fight for their principles instead of fleeing — though he left open the prospect that it’s a fight they ultimately may not win.</p>
<p>“If this party is defined by Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, then a lot of these people aren’t going to want to be a part of that party anyway,” Wehner said.</p>
<p>The anti-establishment forces already had one victory under their belt after firebrand jurist Roy Moore defeated incumbent Sen. Luther Strange in the Alabama GOP primary last month. Moore is considered an outlier among Republicans and hardly a guaranteed vote for McConnell if he lands in the Senate next year.</p>
<p>Flake’s comments Tuesday from the Senate floor came hours after Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who has also decided not to seek re-election, declared Trump was “debasing” the United States with untruths and name-calling. Last week, Sen. John McCain lamented a climate of “half-baked, spurious nationalism” and Bush bemoaned “bullying and prejudice in our public life” — comments that appeared to be veiled criticism of Trump, though neither man mentioned the president by name.</p>
<p>Privately, many more Republican officials have raised deep concerns about the direction Trump is pulling the party, both on policy and tone. He’s pulled the GOP to the right on immigration only to raise the prospect of making a deal with Democrats to allow young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children to stay in the country. He’s withdrawn the U.S. from a major Pacific Rim trade pact and threatened to pull out of a long-standing deal with Canada and Mexico. The president has also drawn open support from some white nationalists, a reality that was magnified after he equivocated in his response to clashes between white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, this summer.</p>
<p>But aside from occasional criticism of Trump’s tweets or most callous comments, most Republican office holders have stayed silent, in part out of fear of alienating the president’s supporters. A handful of House Republicans have taken the same path as Flake and Corker, announcing plans to retire rather than run for re-election in competitive districts.</p>
<p>Trent Lott, the former Republican Senate majority leader from Mississippi, blamed much of the GOP discontent on the fact that even with a Republican in the White House, the party has been unable to make good on its promises to voters. Efforts to repeal “Obamacare” have failed in embarrassing fashion. Many see the current debate over a tax overhaul package as their last best chance for a legislative breakthrough before the midterms and predict sweeping losses for the GOP if a bill doesn’t pass.</p>
<p>But Lott, too, said the solution for conservatives is to stay in Trump’s Republican Party, not walk away,</p>
<p>“You don’t complain that there’s not room for you in your party, you make room,” he said.</p>
<p>_</p>
<p>Follow Julie Pace at <a href="http://twitter.com/jpaceDC" type="external">http://twitter.com/jpaceDC</a></p> | Analysis: Can the GOP survive the Trump presidency? | false | https://abqjournal.com/1082776/analysis-can-the-gop-survive-the-trump-presidency.html | 2017-10-25 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Roth IRAs are a fantastic tool for retirement and estate planning, but there are rules that limit contributions to them. In 2017, income limits begin phasing out a person's eligibility to contribute to a Roth IRA at $118,000 for singles and $186,000 for couples. Will you be able to take full advantage of a Roth IRA in 2017?</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>IMAGE SOURCE: SENIORLIVING.ORG VIA FLICKR.</p>
<p>Roth IRAs are similar to traditional IRAs. However, they differ in important ways.</p>
<p>For example, traditional IRAs provide investors with a tax deduction up front, but earnings and contributions are taxed when money is withdrawn. Alternatively,Roth IRAs are funded with after-tax income and thus provide tax savings in the future, when earnings can be withdrawn tax-free.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>In 2017, individuals can contribute up to $5,500 for people under age 50, or $6,500 for people age 50 and up, to either a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA.You cannot contribute the full amount to both a traditional and a Roth IRA. However, you can split the amount between the two, as long as the total doesn't exceed the 2017 contribution limit.</p>
<p>Unfortunately,the ability to contribute to a Roth IRA vanishes if income eclipses set limits. The good news is thatthose income limits are increasing in 2017 from 2016 by $1,000 per person, or $2,000 per married couple filing jointly.</p>
<p>In 2017, individuals and couples filing jointly start losing their ability to contribute to a Roth IRA at $118,000 and $186,000, respectively.The ability to contribute to a Roth IRA disappears altogether once an individual or couple's income surpasses $133,000 and $196,000, respectively.</p>
<p>DATA SOURCE: IRS.</p>
<p>These income limits apply tomodified adjusted gross income, or MAGI, which <a href="https://www.irs.com/articles/what-modified-adjusted-gross-income" type="external">is calculated Opens a New Window.</a> by adding back some tax deductions, such as student loan interest, to the adjusted gross income listed on your Form 1040. In most cases, MAGI and AGI are the same, but if you have a complex tax situation, you'll want to sit down with your accountant.</p>
<p>If your MAGI is between $118,000 and $133,000 if single, or $186,000 and $196,000, if married, then the amount you can contribute to a Roth IRA in 2017 is reduced. Calculating thatreduction requires a little math, so let's walk through an example.</p>
<p>If you file individually, and you have $125,000 in MAGI, then you'll subtract $118,000 from $125,000, leaving you with $7,000. Then you divide $7,000 by $15,000, giving you a multiplier of 0.47. Multiply your contribution limit ($5,500 if under 50) by that number and subtract the result from the maximum contribution limit. In this case, $5,500 times 0.47 is $2,567, and $5,500 minus $2,567 results in a maximum contribution of $2,933.</p>
<p>IMAGE SOURCE: IRS AND AUTHOR.</p>
<p>The calculation is slightly different for married couples filing jointly.</p>
<p>If you're married filing jointly with $190,000 in MAGI, then it's $190,000 minus $186,000 divided by $10,000, instead of $15,000. For example, a married couple with $190,000 in MAGI would divide $4,000 ($190,000-$186,000) by $10,000, and end up with a 0.4 multiplier. Multiply $5,500 by 0.4, subtract that result from $5,500, and your contribution limit is $3,300.</p>
<p>Contributing to a Roth IRA can increase your financial security in retirement, so everyone should consider its advantages and disadvantages.In most cases, it's pretty cut and dried to know if you can contribute to a Roth IRA. However, if your income puts you in the phase-out zone and your tax situation is complex, then you'll want to sit down with a tax pro to make sure you don't run afoul of the IRS' contribution rules.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better thanWal-MartWhen investing geniuses David and TomGardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter theyhave run for over a decade, the Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tomjust revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/e-sa-bbn-eg?aid=8867&amp;source=isaeditxt0000476&amp;ftm_cam=sa-bbn-evergreen&amp;ftm_pit=6627&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">ten best stocks Opens a New Window.</a>for investors to buy right now... and Wal-Mart wasn't one of them! That's right -- theythink these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/e-sa-bbn-eg?aid=8867&amp;source=isaeditxt0000476&amp;ftm_cam=sa-bbn-evergreen&amp;ftm_pit=6627&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&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>*StockAdvisor returns as of December 12, 2016The author(s) may have a position in any stocks mentioned.</p>
<p>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> | Roth IRA Contribution Limits for 2017 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/20/roth-ira-contribution-limits-for-2017.html | 2016-12-20 | 0 |
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the Indiana Lottery's "Quick Draw Evening" game were:</p>
<p>04-11-26-33-35-36-46-47-48-51-53-54-55-62-65-66-70-71-78-80, BE: 65</p>
<p>(four, eleven, twenty-six, thirty-three, thirty-five, thirty-six, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, fifty-one, fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five, sixty-two, sixty-five, sixty-six, seventy, seventy-one, seventy-eight, eighty; BE: sixty-five)</p>
<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ The winning numbers in Saturday evening's drawing of the Indiana Lottery's "Quick Draw Evening" game were:</p>
<p>04-11-26-33-35-36-46-47-48-51-53-54-55-62-65-66-70-71-78-80, BE: 65</p>
<p>(four, eleven, twenty-six, thirty-three, thirty-five, thirty-six, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, fifty-one, fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five, sixty-two, sixty-five, sixty-six, seventy, seventy-one, seventy-eight, eighty; BE: sixty-five)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Quick Draw Evening' game | false | https://apnews.com/4ef9333f75c24ed3953f5cb4f645ead2 | 2018-01-07 | 2 |
<p>Shares of commodities producers rose as the rally in industrial metals continued. Copper futures hit a three-year high, driving up shares of miners such as Freeport McMoRan, amid investor optimism about Chinese demand and tightening supplies. In a move that likely will constrain supply further, Glencore's unit in Zambia will lay off 4,700 miners amid an escalating spat over electricity tariffs with the state power utility. Activist investor Elliott Management scored a victory as BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner by market value, said it now plans to sell its onshore U.S. oil-and-gas operations. BHP executives reversed earlier resistance to Elliott's demands about the U.S. operations, conceding that the purchases of acreage in American "shale plays" and their development were ill-timed and that the Shares of Monsanto and Bayer rose despite warnings from the European Union that there were serious doubts among antitrust regulators about the viability of the seed makers' merger deal.</p>
<p>-Rob Curran, [email protected]</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 22, 2017 16:25 ET (20:25 GMT)</p> | Materials Up as Copper Hits Three-Year High -- Materials Roundup | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/22/materials-up-as-copper-hits-three-year-high-materials-roundup.html | 2017-08-22 | 0 |
<p>NEW YORK - Some 6,000 men and women in uniform have arrived in New York for the city's 25th annual Fleet Week, a yearly celebration of military ships and the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel who serve on them, <a href="http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/05/23/fleet-week-2012-comes-to-nyc/" type="external">CBS News reported</a>.</p>
<p>"This is going to be a larger Fleet Week than we've seen in decades," William Armstrong, spokesman for sailing event coordinator Operation Sail Inc., told <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/fleet-week-watch-parade-ships-sail-york-harbor-article-1.1081983?localLinksEnabled=false" type="external">New York Daily News</a>.</p>
<p>Servicemen and servicewomen in uniform raise the visibility of the US military as they sightsee and club-hop in the Big Apple, and the public gets an opportunity to visit their ships and watch flyovers and other military demonstrations throughout the week, according to CBS News.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120427/f22-raptor-fighter-deployed-iran-aviation-week" type="external">US sends F-22 Raptors to base near Iran, sources say</a></p>
<p>The event kicked off this morning with a parade of 17 tall ships and 10 warships from around the world through the New York Harbor, past the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson River, New York Daily News reported.</p>
<p>The military ships, including vessels from Japan, Canada, Finland and the UK, will be docked around the city during the week, the <a href="http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Fleet-Week-New-York-City-Schedule-Sailor-Ship-Parade-153020175.html" type="external">Associated Press reported</a>. US Navy vessels on show include guided-missile destroyers and the multipurpose amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, according to the AP.</p>
<p>Mike Hallahan, a former Intrepid crew member, told CBS News that Fleet Week also gives New Yorkers a peek into their city's past. "At one time, this whole river was full of these ships," he said. "Most of service members don't wear uniforms, but they have to for Fleet Week. That's the way old New York used to look."</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/turkey/120430/turkey-woman-ceo-business-dogan-holdings" type="external">Turkey's woman at the top</a> &#160;</p> | Fleet Week New York celebrates 25 years of sailors in the streets | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-05-23/fleet-week-new-york-celebrates-25-years-sailors-streets | 2012-05-23 | 3 |
<p />
<p>Tweetastic:&#160;Journalists’ tweets show they <a href="" type="internal">don’t know</a> all the answers, but soon will.</p>
<p>Healthy Disdain: GOPers vow to <a href="" type="internal">challenge constitutionality</a> of the healthcare bill.</p>
<p>Fight or Flight:&#160;Why are insurance companies <a href="" type="internal">fighting health reform</a> when it benefits them?</p>
<p>Medi-fare: Even groundbreaking reform won’t <a href="" type="internal">curb Medicare costs</a> enough.</p>
<p>Survey Says:&#160;A new poll says <a href="" type="internal">Americans want healthcare</a>, if they don’t have to pay for it.</p>
<p>Killer TV:&#160;Study says watching more than an <a href="" type="internal">hour of TV</a> a day has health risks.</p>
<p>Cap Foes:&#160;Ag lobby is opposing just about any <a href="" type="internal">proposed emissions cuts</a>.</p>
<p>Garden Woes:&#160;An editorial compares <a href="" type="internal">school gardens</a> to sharecropping.</p>
<p>Sucker Punch:&#160;Insurers were funding <a href="" type="internal">attack ads</a> while claiming to support reform.</p>
<p>EPA Fight:&#160;Chamber of Commerce mulls <a href="" type="internal">sueing the EPA</a> over GHG regulation.</p>
<p>Helping Hand:&#160;Sen. Murkowski is getting help from <a href="" type="internal">Bush-era</a> folks.</p>
<p>Not Done Yet:&#160;Ag lobby vows to <a href="" type="internal">fight even harder</a> in face of EPA victory.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Eco-News Roundup: Friday January 15 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/01/eco-news-roundup-friday-january-15/ | 2010-01-15 | 4 |
<p>ALICANTE, Spain — It's not the grandiose architecture of Granada’s Moorish Alhambra Palace or Seville’s Cathedral that is sparking a full-out defense of a "cultural asset." Nor is it flamenco dancing or Spanish guitar playing.</p>
<p>Rather, beach bars and restaurants have become the cause celebre.</p>
<p>These chiringuitos — the local lingo for the bars and restaurants built in the sand — dot the Spanish coast. But Spain's zealous Ministry of Environment could wipe them out with a new campaign to&#160;enforce coastal protection legislation that has been on the books for two decades.</p>
<p>Politicians, business owners and citizens, however, are rallying to save the chiringuito, saying they are part of the appeal of the coastline.&#160;</p>
<p>Andalusian politicians called them a "basic ethnographic heritage" when earlier this year they approved a motion in their regional parliament to preserve the chiringuitos. The bars are linked to Spanish Mediterranean gastronomy, traditions, identity and way of life, they said.</p>
<p>Chiringuitos serve drinks, ice cream and food. “If they take away the chiringuitos, they take away the beach’s charm,” said Raquel Miro, enjoying a calamari tapa with her mother and daughter at La Ponderosa, a restaurant on San Juan beach, Alicante. “Instead of having lunch at a downtown restaurant, we prefer to eat here, looking at the sea. It’s comfortable and pleasant.”</p>
<p>La Ponderosa is one of the restaurants targeted by the ministry for demolition. There are no private beaches in Spain so authorities grant land use permits — for a fee — so restaurants can do business. Permits are valid for a number of years, even decades, but time is up for many restaurants. Some will have to close; others will be relocated to the boardwalk. The Coast Law enacted in 1988 imposes strict conditions for renewals and new permits.</p>
<p>But the sweeping away of one business model has made room for another, less permanent one on some beaches this summer. In little more than a white-washed hut occupying 250 square feet, Buddha Alcoy serves beer and spirits, sodas, ice cream, chips and packaged, pre-cooked meals from 9 a.m. through 3 a.m. The wooden structure with a thatched roof and a few wooden tables in the sand is unimposing. Sunset brings a shift from Latino rhythms to chill-out melodies. “We have more people at night than during the day,” owner Renata Forges said. “If there’s a nice moon, this is beautiful, beautiful,” she added. Buddha Alcoy will be dismantled without a trace at summer’s end, until the next season.</p>
<p>It is the concrete restaurants built into the sandy beaches that are in danger. Many have septic tanks, but waste like cooking oil from frying fish and making paella still winds up in the sea in some cases. The law bans permanent construction within 320 feet of the shore and sets a limit of 1,600 square feet for restaurants — conditions that many chiringuitos, built years ago, do not meet.</p>
<p>“There’s a lot of space here; chiringuitos are not invasive. If this were a virgin beach, with no buildings, I would understand the need to demolish the chiringuitos. But look at all those apartments,” said Miro, pointing to the towering apartment blocks sitting a few yards from La Ponderosa.</p>
<p>“Nobody understands why they want to make chiringuitos disappear,” said Israel, the Ponderosa waiter.</p>
<p>Even green organizations question the Ministry of Environment’s focus on these beach restaurants and bars when there are other illegal coastal constructions. “Coast protection is vital, but the big disasters are large complexes, such as hotels and marinas, many built after the law came into effect,” said Pilar Marcos, a Greenpeace spokeswoman. “A chiringuito is a small family business. It may be illegal, but so is a 21-story hotel built 14 meters [46 feet] from the water,” she insisted. Greenpeace identifies 100 of these so-called “black points” along the Spanish coast.</p>
<p>Ecologistas en Accion, another green organization, supports the demolition of illegal chiringuitos but also says that picking on them causes “a smoke screen” to “distract attention from high-impact problems,” which should be given priority, according to a press note.</p>
<p>The leading opposition political party, PP, recently cited economic arguments during a motion before Spain's Parliament to keep the chiringuitos. The party pointed to the 300 chiringuitos in Malaga province as an example, noting the area’s chiringuitos are a tourist attraction that provides 7,500 permanent and 7,000 seasonal jobs, and that they spend 225 million euros on purchases from suppliers. Congress rejected the motion.</p>
<p>Casa Julio, a restaurant on Alicante’s San Juan beach, has been serving meals since 1940. Alejandro Bolanos, a third-generation owner, said, “I don’t believe in the beach without chiringuitos. They provide services. It would be like going to the Sahara desert.” He said he collected 6,000 signatures in three weeks from customers against reducing the size of his place, now at 2,368 square feet. He serves about 300 meals a day in the summer and about the same amount on weekends during the winter. He said Casa Julio’s permit was granted until 2043; but demolition for most other restaurants on this beach, whose permits ended in 2000, will probably start in October.</p>
<p>Or not. Israel, the waiter at La Ponderosa, is hopeful. He explained to a group of German tourists enjoying a paella in his restaurant that San Juan beach chiringuitos should have been gone in January but that authorities seem to be aware of the unpopularity of making more people jobless. “The crisis keeps us here, for now,” he said.</p>
<p>More GlobalPost dispatches on Spain:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/spain/090611/mediterranean-beaches-jellyfish" type="external">Jellyfish invade Meditteranean beaches</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/spain/090526/universal-jurisdiction-audencia-nacional" type="external">Villains of the world beware</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/spain/090509/christopher-columbus-remains-dispute" type="external">The mysteries inside Columbus' casket</a></p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=spain&amp;oe=utf-8&amp;client=firefox-a&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;hl=en&amp;ll=37.788081,-1.82373&amp;spn=6.076473,12.744141&amp;z=6&amp;source=embed" type="external">View Larger Map</a></p> | A bulldozer with your sangria? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2009-06-19/bulldozer-your-sangria | 2009-06-19 | 3 |
<p><a href="http://stateofthemedia.org/" type="external">The Pew Research Center's</a> latest report on the state of the news media said that audiences are hungry for more news but, at the same time, most of the news media experienced a decline in total revenue in 2011.</p>
<p>The nonprofit group released it's ninth annual <a href="http://stateofthemedia.org/" type="external">State of the News Media 2012</a>report on Monday.</p>
<p>"A mounting body of evidence finds that <a href="http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2222/news-media-network-television-cable-audioo-radio-digital-platforms-local-mobile-devices-tablets-smartphones-native-american-community-newspapers?src=prc-headline" type="external">the spread of mobile technology is adding to news consumption</a>, strengthening the appeal of traditional news brands and even boosting reading of long-form journalism. But the evidence also shows that technology companies are strengthening their grip on who profits."</p>
<p>The study said the news industry wasn't much closer to a new revenue model than a year ago but that tech companies are profiting. Microsoft, Google, Facebook, AOL and Yahoo! generated 68 percent of digital ad revenues in 2011.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business-tech/120319/apple-pay-dividend-and-buy-back-stock-record-sales-swell-cash-pile" type="external">Apple to pay dividend, buy back stock amid record sales</a></p>
<p>Some surprising news: Pew researchers found Facebook and Twitter are now pathways to news, but their role may not be as large as some have suggested.</p>
<p>Only 9 percent of American adults "very often" click on news recommendations on Facebook or Twitter, according to the study, wrote <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/03/19/148769188/do-digital-gadgets-increase-our-appetite-for-news" type="external">NPR</a>.</p>
<p>Some 36 percent of adults directly read stories at those news organizations, while 32 percent get news from internet searches, and 29 percent use an app or news aggregator.</p>
<p>The good news is that growing evidence suggests that news is becoming a "more important and pervasive part of people's lives."</p>
<p>The Pew researchers said, in the end, that could be what saves the future of journalism.</p>
<p>[ <a href="http://storify.com/globalpost/surprise-twitter-facebook-not-big-news-sources-for" type="external">View the story "Surprise: Twitter, Facebook not big news sources for Americans" on Storify</a>]</p> | Surprise: Twitter, Facebook not big news sources for Americans | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-03-19/surprise-twitter-facebook-not-big-news-sources-americans | 2012-03-19 | 3 |
<p>TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — A Honduran judge has suspended five lawmakers accused of diverting public funds, but refused prosecutors' request that they be held pending trial.</p>
<p>All five members of Congress declined to make statements during their initial appearances in court on Thursday.</p>
<p>Honduran prosecutors and the Organization of American States' anti-corruption mission announced the case against the politicians earlier this month.</p>
<p>According to the investigation, the deputies allegedly requested the funds for a nonprofit organization, which cut checks to them immediately after receiving the money. The public projects never materialized, but banking records show the lawmakers deposited the checks in personal accounts or cashed them.</p>
<p>The judge barred them from leaving the country or having contact with their congressional colleagues.</p>
<p>TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — A Honduran judge has suspended five lawmakers accused of diverting public funds, but refused prosecutors' request that they be held pending trial.</p>
<p>All five members of Congress declined to make statements during their initial appearances in court on Thursday.</p>
<p>Honduran prosecutors and the Organization of American States' anti-corruption mission announced the case against the politicians earlier this month.</p>
<p>According to the investigation, the deputies allegedly requested the funds for a nonprofit organization, which cut checks to them immediately after receiving the money. The public projects never materialized, but banking records show the lawmakers deposited the checks in personal accounts or cashed them.</p>
<p>The judge barred them from leaving the country or having contact with their congressional colleagues.</p> | Judge suspends 5 Honduran lawmakers accused of corruption | false | https://apnews.com/amp/abb4825053f54f82979c1e8fdc2f9c9d | 2017-12-28 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>In her first interview since her knockout loss against Albuquerque's Holly Holm on Nov. 14, former UFC women's bantamweight Ronda Rousey told ESPN The Magazine that "it might be three to six months before I can eat an apple" because some her teeth were loosened by Holm's decisive kick to the head.</p>
<p>It's not clear whether Rousey's injuries would endanger a Holm-Rousey rematch, which has been targeted for July.</p>
<p>As of her reaction to her shocking upset defeat, the previously unbeaten, seemingly invincible Rousey said she's "really (expletive) sad."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Rousey's teeth rattled | false | https://abqjournal.com/687622/rouseys-teeth-rattled.html | 2 |
|
<p>A federal judge ordered Friday night that Marlise Muñoz, the Texas woman who has been kept on life support against her and her family’s will, be removed from her ventilator and respirator.</p>
<p>Muñoz has been <a href="" type="internal">legally dead</a> since she collapsed on her kitchen floor in November, but the state has kept her on a ventilator because she was pregnant. Lawyers for the John Peter Smith Hospital, where Muñoz is being kept, cited an <a href="" type="internal">obscure state law</a> that stipulates that hospitals are required not to remove “life-sustaining treatment” from pregnant women to argue that such life support was necessary.</p>
<p>However, lawyers both for Muñoz’s family and for John Peter Smith Hospital <a href="http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/01/fort-worth-hospital-acknowledges-pregnant-woman-is-brain-dead.html/" type="external">acknowledged</a> Friday that the fetus was “non-viable.” Earlier, attorneys simply had indicated that the fetus suffered “ <a href="" type="internal">abnormalities</a>,” but did not say whether it could viably live outside of the womb.</p>
<p>Muñoz’s case has sparked a conversation about the bodily autonomy of pregnant women when it comes to end-of-life wishes. Texas is <a href="http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org/programs/health/statepolicy/documents/REPRO_PregnancyExclusionsinStateLivingWillandMedicalProxyStatutesMeganGreeneandLeslieR.Wolfe.pdf" type="external">one of 12 states</a> that invalidates a woman’s wishes if she is pregnant.</p>
<p>District Judge R.H. Wallace on Friday night sided with Muñoz’s family, and ordered that the woman be taken off life support by 5:00 pm central time <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/us/judge-orders-hospital-to-remove-life-support-from-pregnant-woman.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss&amp;smid=tw-nytimes" type="external">Monday</a>.</p>
<p>The hospital has until Monday to remove Muñoz from life support.</p>
<p>John Peter Smith Hospital said Sunday that it <a href="http://www.star-telegram.com/welcome_page/?mode=1&amp;shf=%252F2014%252F01%252F25%252F5513457%252Fhospital-discussing-future-of.html%253Fstorylink%253Daddthis%2523.UuVKJcH2doo.twitter" type="external">would not fight</a> the judge’s order. “The past eight weeks have been difficult for the Munoz family, the caregivers and the entire Tarrant County community, which found itself involved in a sad situation,” the hospital said in a statement. “JPS Health Network has followed what we believed were the demands of a state statute. From the onset, JPS has said its role was not to make nor contest law but to follow it. On Friday, a state district judge ordered the removal of life-sustaining treatment from Marlise Munoz. The hospital will follow the court order.”</p> | Judge Orders Brain-Dead Texas Woman Be Taken Off Life Support After Lawyers Admit Her Fetus Is ‘Non-Viable’ | true | http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/24/3205351/marlise-munoz-off-life-support/ | 2014-01-24 | 4 |
<p>In the least shocking news ever, on the heels of firing baseball all-star Curt Shilling for his conservative views, ESPN, or "MSNBC with footballs," hired former U.S. Women's soccer star, LGBT activist and Hillary Clinton surrogate Abby Wambach.</p>
<p>Just what sports fans everywhere have been craving! Another Leftist pushing an agenda via media.</p>
<p>Oh, side note: Ms. Wambach, 35, was just <a href="http://equalizersoccer.com/2016/04/03/abby-wambach-arrested-duii-driving-influence-uswnt/" type="external">busted for a DUI</a> back in April; she subsequently admitted to previously using cocaine and marijuana. But at least she isn't conservative.</p>
<p>“The former U.S. Women’s National Team star will contribute to the company’s existing entities, such as 'Outside the Lines,' while also starring in a new podcast titled, 'Fearless Conversation with Abby Wambach,'" reports <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/05/04/soccer-star-abby-wambach-strikes-deal-with-espn-to-be-analyst-and-podcast-host/" type="external">The Washington Post.</a> "Wambach released a statement to Sports Illustrated about the career move, crediting her soccer career for allowing her to extend her stay in the sport beyond her time on the pitch."</p>
<p>“My soccer career has provided me with a lot of different experiences that brings more than Xs and Os to the table,” said Wambach. “I’m excited to join ESPN and to have the opportunity to tell stories that transcend soccer.”</p>
<p>Side note: Ms. Wambach, 35, was just busted for a DUI back in April</p>
<p>Wambach is, of course, welcomed by ESPN with open arms. Her LGBT activism won't stop her from obtaining a position with the company. She has a right to voice her own views and opinions, right?</p>
<p>Clearly, this sentiment is conditioned. Case in point: Curt Shilling. The baseball pitcher dared to side with biology over the Leftist thought police and state that " <a href="" type="internal">a man is a man no matter what</a>." He was subsequently fired.</p> | ESPN Hires LGBT Activist. Because Hey, That’s What Sports Fans Need. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/5530/espn-hires-lgbt-activist-because-hey-thats-what-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2016-05-06 | 0 |
<p>Gun Owners of America's executive director Larry Pratt on MSNBC's "Hardball"&lt;a href="http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/12/17/gun-owners-of-america-newtown-teachers-should-have-been-armed/"&gt;Hardball&lt;/a&gt;/MSNBC</p>
<p />
<p>The Washington green room is usually a fun place where Democrats, Republicans, journalists, legislators, executive branch officials, policy advocates, and politicos of various bents—occasionally adversaries—await television hits and chitchat politely among one another. The discourse can yield intriguing gossip, interesting tidbits, and, most important for a journalist, productive leads. It’s a microcosm of official Washington. But on Monday, as I cooled my heels prior to appearing on Hardball, the green room at the DC studio for MSNBC was filled with tension. In one chair was Larry Pratt, the executive director of Gun Owners of America, a group that’s more die-hard on gun rights than the National Rifle Association. Standing next to him was David Chipman, of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which was founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In essence, the nation’s emotionally fraught debate over guns was jammed into this tiny room.</p>
<p>Pratt and Chipman had never before debated previously on television. Pratt believes gun rights are completely unfettered, and there can be no restrictions on fire arms, period. (In years past, he has <a href="http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/2591/news-analysis-buchanan-dogged-by-links-to-extremists/" type="external">joined with</a> white supremacists, anti-Semites, and right-wing militia leaders to denounce gun control advocates.) Chipman, a former agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, advocates implementing a comprehensive gun safety program that would begin with extensive criminal and mental-health background checks for gun buyers. The green room often brings partisans of opposing sides into close proximity. But given the Newtown massacre—and I can’t speak for Pratt or Chipman—this moment felt archly awkward.</p>
<p>So I made small talk. I noted that the NRA had been suspiciously quiet in the past few days. With a sneer, Pratt said, “You’ve noticed that, too?” Well, I asked, should the NRA be out there right at this moment? “It’s an odd time to get laryngitis,” he said, a touch of defiance in his voice.</p>
<p>I suppose, I said, that the NRA’s duck-and-cover stance was good for Pratt and that he would gain attention that otherwise would go to the larger pro-gun outfit. “Exactly,” he said, with a smile.</p>
<p>Was he worried that the Newtown massacre would create political momentum for gun control measures? “Not yet,” he answered, adding that many Democratic lawmakers “surmised what Bill Clinton surmised in 1994,” referring to the GOP takeover of the House that was partly fueled by gun advocates ticked off by the passage of a partial ban on assault weapons. “But,” Pratt added, “if they’re feeling lucky, they might try something.”</p>
<p>At one point, I drew Chipman into the conversation. He noted that the first step his outfit advocated was enhanced background checks. Looking at Pratt, he said, certainly that’s something we can all agree on. Pratt wouldn’t yield an inch. “I’ll speak for myself,” he shot back.</p>
<p>Moments later, Pratt would appear on Hardball and <a href="http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/12/17/gun-owners-of-america-newtown-teachers-should-have-been-armed/" type="external">call for</a> arming teachers, principals, and school janitors, claiming, “It would serve you better than sitting like fish in a barrel.” He also would tell Chris Matthews that “we have guns in order to control the government.” When Matthews demanded an example, Pratt claimed that in 1946, citizens in Athens, Tennessee, took up arms against corrupt government officials.</p>
<p>In the green room, while Pratt, Chipman, and I watched the latest news from Newtown, I did wonder if the horrific tales and images of the past few days had caused Pratt to rethink his over-the-top advocacy of gun rights. Dead six-year-olds. A nation shocked. A community destroyed. All part of what sadly appears to be a never-ending series of such nightmares. Have you, I asked, reconsidered any of your gun-related views, even for a moment, since last Friday?</p>
<p>“You wouldn’t see me here if I had,” Pratt answered. “I keep waiting for the other side to see the logic of my position.”</p>
<p /> | A Gun Rights Fanatic and Gun Control Advocate Meet in the Green Room | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/david-corn-gun-control-larry-pratt-hardball-msnbc/ | 2012-12-18 | 4 |
<p>JERUSALEM — Once again, Israel finds itself on the sidelines of a public controversy in which it is both central and tangential.</p>
<p>What exactly did the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, say about the Holocaust in an interview with CNN? &#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>And what is Iran's intention in requesting an accelerated schedule for negotiations on its nuclear program, after what the United States, Israel and Western powers have called years of dissembling?</p>
<p>But first, consider this: there is no Farsi word for "Holocaust."</p>
<p>For all of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's histrionic obsession with the subject, the word he used to describe what he called "a myth" was borrowed from the language of the Great Satan: English.</p>
<p>"You just say the word 'Holocaust,' only with a Farsi intonation," says Alex Vatanka, an Iran expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC.</p>
<p>The irony of the linguistic deficit seems lost in the row about what, in fact, was meant when in the now infamous interview Rouhani said the “crime that the Nazis committed towards the Jews” was “reprehensible and condemnable.”&#160;</p>
<p>The semi-official Iranian news agency Fars, with ties to the hard-line Revolutionary Guard, an elite military unit formed to protect the regime, immediately accused CNN of fabricating parts of the interview and pointed out that Rouhani had not in fact uttered the word "Holocaust."&#160;</p>
<p>All Israeli government offices were closed on Wednesday and Thursday in observance of the Sukkot holiday, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an unreceptive response to Rouhani's speech at the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, made before the interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour went on the air.</p>
<p>In a late-night statement released by his spokesman, Netanyahu characterized the speech as "cynical" and "full of hypocrisy."</p>
<p>"Rouhani spoke of human rights even as Iranian forces are participating in the large-scale slaughter of innocent civilians in Syria," he said.</p>
<p>Alluding to Iran's increasing investment in conventional weaponry, in addition to concealed nuclear facilities, Netanyahu added that Rouhani "spoke of a nuclear program for civilian purposes even as an [International Atomic Energy Agency] report determines that the program has military dimensions, and when any rational person understands that Iran, one of the most oil-rich nations, is not investing capital in ballistic missiles and underground nuclear facilities in order to produce electricity."</p>
<p>The tetchy debate over the Iranian leader's possible acknowledgement — or not — of the Holocaust may appear semantic, but it is an indication of the delicacy of any subject touching on Jews, or Israel, within Iran's increasingly fragile political arena.</p>
<p>"The argument over his words is important," says Eldad J. Pardo, a Hebrew University expert on Iran and the Middle East. "The principle of Holocaust denial is holy for Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. And another principle is what is called Velayat-e Saqih — the rule of the jurist, meaning, the single-man rule of Khamenei. He has determined that there was no Holocaust and that all the world's problems are caused by Zionists and that Israel must disappear from the face of the earth."</p>
<p>Challenging the accepted credo, Pardo says, is no light matter.</p>
<p>After "eight crazy years of Ahmadinejad," Vatanka says, agreeing, it is imperative to "consider whatever Rouhani said or did not say in the context of Iran's domestic political landscape," not the least of which is the widespread acknowledgment, within Iran, that Ahmadinejad caused significant damage to his nation.</p>
<p>"For now, Rouhani benefits from two things," Vatanka says. The first, simply not being the uniquely polarizing figure of Ahmadinejad. The second, that "clear signals" emanating from Tehran indicate that the aging Supreme Leader, Iran's de facto man in charge, is willing to allow Rouhani significant leeway in initiating a new phase of negotiations with the US and the West.</p>
<p>Vatanka underscores that Iran-US relations are not a matter that will be resolved "in a photo op or in a symbolic handshake."</p>
<p>The extent of Israeli jitteriness in the shifting landscape created by what is being called Rouhani's "charm offensive" in the US was better measured by Israeli reactions to President Barack Obama's UN speech, a few hours before Rouhani's. It was listened to with painstaking attention in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Israeli coverage, which is usually unremittingly skeptical about any statement emitted by Iranian media outlets, gave top billing to the Iranian media's celebratory interpretation of Obama's address, which, like Rouhani's, was more conciliatory than last year's.&#160;</p>
<p>One nervous radio news show host groused that "it sounds like Obama's just offering the Iranians an open invitation to meet."</p>
<p>Then on Thursday, in a speech at a special UN conference on disarmament, Rouhani said that “no nation should possess nuclear weapons,” and called on Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, as Iran has, in order to rid the Middle East of nuclear weapons.&#160;</p>
<p>In a statement, Israel's minister of intelligence and international affairs, Yuval Steinitz, responded: "Iran's new president is playing an old and familiar game by trying to deflect attention from Iran's nuclear weapons program. The problem of the NPT in the Middle East is not with those countries which have not signed the NPT, but countries like Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria which have signed the treaty and brazenly violated it."</p>
<p>Rouhani finds himself walking a difficult line, Pardo says. Iran is trying to repair its ties to the West, and especially to the US, while struggling to maintain its own "holy of holies."</p>
<p>A new religion was established in 1979, with the Islamic revolution, Pardo claims. "It's that of Khamenism. It has a strong Shiite foundation, but with great influences from other lines of thought: Americano-French republicanism, fascism, communism, and even Israel and Zionism. A new ideology was developed with a pope at its head, and that pope is Khamenei."</p>
<p>A fundamental tenet of this state-religion is that "Israel must vanish from the map and that international Zionism controls the world," Pardo says.</p>
<p>"The Iranians are in a moment of political acrobatics right now: they want an agreement with US, but they can't come to an agreement without damaging the holiness of Khamenism, who styles himself the leader of all Muslims and of the downtrodden of the world. It’s a real ideological struggle."</p> | The Holocaust diaries: Iran and Israel's war of words | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-09-26/holocaust-diaries-iran-and-israels-war-words | 2013-09-26 | 3 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — After squandering a 25-point lead in the Super Bowl, the Atlanta Falcons are shaking up their defensive staff.</p>
<p>The team said Wednesday that coach Dan Quinn has dismissed coordinator Richard Smith and defensive line coach Bryan Cox, though there’s a chance Smith could stay with the Falcons in an advisory role.</p>
<p>The changes mean the NFC champions will have two new coordinators next season. Kyle Shanahan left to become head coach of the San Francisco 49ers and was replaced as offensive coordinator by Steve Sarkisian .</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Also, the Falcons promoted Keith Carter to running backs coach with Bobby Turner reportedly leaving to join Shanahan’s staff in San Francisco. In addition, they will need a new quarterbacks coach; Matt LaFleur is expected to be named offensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams.</p>
<p>Smith will likely be replaced by a coach already on staff. The Falcons are considering defensive backs coach Marquand Manuel, linebackers coach Jeff Ulbrich and defensive passing game coordinator Jerome Henderson.</p>
<p>Manuel interviewed for the defensive coordinator post in Jacksonville last season.</p>
<p>The 61-year-old Smith served as defensive coordinator during Quinn’s first two seasons in Atlanta, after previously working as a linebackers coach in Denver. He has more than a quarter-century of NFL coaching experience.</p>
<p>Under Smith, the Falcons showed significant improvement over the second half of the season and two playoff victories with a unit that often started as many four rookies and four second-year players.</p>
<p>But in the Super Bowl, Atlanta couldn’t protect a 28-3 lead midway through the third quarter. Tom Brady and the New England Patriots scored 31 consecutive points for the greatest comeback in title game history, winning 34-28 in overtime .</p>
<p>The Patriots piled up 546 yards and a staggering 37 first downs while running more than twice as many plays as Atlanta, 93-46. Brady, the game’s MVP, completed 43 of 62 passes for 466 yards and two TDs. In addition, New England made two straight 2-point conversions to force the first overtime game in Super Bowl history.</p>
<p>The 48-year-old Cox had been with the Falcons for three seasons, staying with the team as a holdover from Mike Smith’s staff when Quinn took over in 2015. Cox played in the NFL for 12 years, earning three trips to the Pro Bowl.</p>
<p>Carter spent the previous two seasons as Atlanta’s assistant offensive line coach. Now, he will be in charge of a group that includes 1,000-yard rusher Devonta Coleman and backup Tevin Coleman, one of the league’s most dynamic backfield pairs.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more NFL coverage: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">www.pro32.ap.org</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">www.twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p> | Falcons shaking up defensive staff after Super Bowl collapse | false | https://abqjournal.com/945102/falcons-shaking-up-defensive-staff-after-super-bowl-collapse.html | 2017-02-08 | 2 |
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (ABP) — Ed Vick, a prominent Baptist layman and supporter of moderate causes including Associated Baptist Press, died May 13, seven weeks after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.</p>
<p>Vick, of Raleigh, N.C., served as a director of Associated Baptist Press since 1994 and was a past chairman. He also formerly chaired the CBF board of directors, was a founding member of the CBF of North Carolina Endowment Management board of directors and was a former member of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Coordinating Council.</p>
<p />
<p>ABP directors accepted Vick’s resignation from the board due to illness May 3 “with regret” and voted to honor Ed and Laura Ann Vick with the organization’s Founders Award for individuals who have contributed to ABP through significant volunteer service, financial contributions or professional services. Directors voted to suspend a rule that says current board members are ineligible to receive the award until a year after their service concludes and to present it “at a date to be determined.”</p>
<p>“I think one of the best things I ever did for Associated Baptist Press was to recommend Ed to be a director,” R.G. Puckett said May 1, noting the absence of his longtime friend while accepting a lifetime achievement award from Associated Baptist Press. “He has given of his time, his energy, his enthusiasm and his financial resources to make this organization what it has become.”</p>
<p>Vick, a longtime member of First Baptist Church of Raleigh, joined his former graduate school professor, transportation engineer Bill Horn, and Bob Kimley from the Carolina State Highway Commission to incorporate the design-consulting firm Kimley-Horn and Associates in 1967. The company now describes itself as the leading engineering firm for multi-family residential and retail properties. It currently ranks 40th out of the top 500 design firms recognized by the Engineering News-Record. Vick retired in 2001.</p>
<p>The Vicks have made signification financial contributions to moderate Baptist life over the years including a lead gift of $125,000 to ABP for the Puckett Endowed Internship and $100,000 to begin an endowment to promote the spiritual, emotional and physical health of CBF missionaries and their families. They were personally involved in mission trips to New York City following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to the Ukraine and in support of the International Baptist Theological Seminary in the Czech Republic.</p>
<p>Vick is survived by his widow and three adult daughters. Funeral arrangements are pending.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Bob Allen</a> is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.</p> | Ed Vick, moderate Baptist lay leader, dies | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/edvickmoderatebaptistlayleaderdies/ | 3 |
|
<p>Washington Post story ( <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-hackers-penetrated-us-electricity-grid-through-a-utility-in-vermont/2016/12/30/8fc90cc4-ceec-11e6-b8a2-8c2a61b0436f_story.html?utm_term=.2e3d24e187d7" type="external">12/31/16</a>) with revised headline and a never-mind editor’s note. Is this “fake news”?</p>
<p>The putative scourge of “fake news” has been one of the most pervasive post-election media narratives. The general thrust goes like this: A torrent of fake news swept the internet, damaging Hillary Clinton and possibly leading to a Donald Trump victory.</p>
<p>A primary problem with this convenient-to-some narrative is that “fake news” has yet to be clearly defined by anyone. Vaguely conceptualized as misleading or outright fabricated stories, it can mean anything—as FAIR has noted previously ( <a href="" type="internal">12/1/16</a>)—from outlets that align with “Russian viewpoints” to foreign spam.</p>
<p>A recent series of events further illustrates this ambiguity. Friday night, the Washington Post ( <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-hackers-penetrated-us-electricity-grid-through-a-utility-in-vermont/2016/12/30/8fc90cc4-ceec-11e6-b8a2-8c2a61b0436f_story.html?utm_term=.99839d0e984a" type="external">12/30/16</a>) published an explosive report about Russian hackers breaking into a Vermont utility company. The headline splashed all over social media:</p>
<p>Russian Hackers Penetrated US Electricity Grid Through a Utility in Vermont, Officials Say</p>
<p>Quickly, the blockbuster story began to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/12/31/russia-hysteria-infects-washpost-again-false-story-about-hacking-u-s-electric-grid/" type="external">fall apart</a>, after Burlington Electric, the utility in question, issued a statement saying they had “detected the malware in a single Burlington Electric Department laptop not connected to [their] organization’s grid systems.” The Post “updated” the story several times throughout the evening, eventually adding a heavily qualified editor’s note that the only cause for concern was some “Russian code” on a laptop of one of the employees. There was no evidence of a hack or an attempted hack, Russian or otherwise.</p>
<p>Two days later, after the story was walked back several times, Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C1Qcpi-WIAAgXHS.jpg" type="external">linked to it</a> in a story about cybersecurity issues facing the incoming Trump administration:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>After FAIR and others pointed out the error, Rampell’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/will-trumps-white-house-have-computers/2017/01/02/6411f4ba-d12b-11e6-a783-cd3fa950f2fd_story.html?utm_term=.52f12856d1e4" type="external">article</a> was changed, but this episode shows how quickly an entirely bogus premise—that Russia had hacked, or even attempted to hack, an American public utility—can spread without an ounce of skepticism. At the time her column was published, the only “evidence” of an “attempted” Russian hack was some malware code that could have been used by anybody. Rampell, likely influenced by the initial erroneous reporting by her colleagues, made an assumption that this was evidence of an “attempted hack,” a false assumption debunked by the Post itself ( <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-government-hackers-do-not-appear-to-have-targeted-vermont-utility-say-people-close-to-investigation/2017/01/02/70c25956-d12c-11e6-945a-76f69a399dd5_story.html?utm_term=.c92986fe4235" type="external">1/2/16</a>) two hours after she published. In all cases, everything is rounded up to the most sensational, most Cold War–panic inducing conclusion. “Mistakes” rarely, if ever, happen in favor of less hysteria.</p>
<p>John McCain’s Washington Post op-ed ( <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-mccain-we-have-a-stake-in-syria-yet-we-have-done-nothing/2016/12/22/229678da-c7b7-11e6-8bee-54e800ef2a63_story.html?utm_term=.da25d78b8cc8" type="external">12/22/16</a>) failed to acknowledge that, according to the Post ( <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/lawmakers-move-to-curb-1-billion-cia-program-to-train-syrian-rebels/2015/06/12/b0f45a9e-1114-11e5-adec-e82f8395c032_story.html?utm_term=.a851e05b0fab" type="external">6/12/15</a>), the CIA has done a billion dollars a year worth of “nothing” in Syria.</p>
<p>In a separate instance, the Washington Post ( <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-mccain-we-have-a-stake-in-syria-yet-we-have-done-nothing/2016/12/22/229678da-c7b7-11e6-8bee-54e800ef2a63_story.html?utm_term=.da25d78b8cc8" type="external">12/22/16</a>) ran a column by Sen. John McCain insisting that the United States had “done nothing” in Syria. Had McCain’s editors, again, bothered to read their own paper, they would see that the Post ( <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/lawmakers-move-to-curb-1-billion-cia-program-to-train-syrian-rebels/2015/06/12/b0f45a9e-1114-11e5-adec-e82f8395c032_story.html?utm_term=.a851e05b0fab" type="external">6/12/15</a>) reported that the CIA has spent up to $1 billion a year on the Syrian opposition, or roughly $1 out of every $15 dollars the agency spends.</p>
<p>This wasn’t merely a difference of opinion; it was a clear, black-and-white falsehood—not only had the US not “done nothing,” it had, by any objective metric, done quite a bit. Even opinion columns can be factchecked; that this one wasn’t, on its most basic premise, suggests that when it comes to fanning the New Cold War—especially on its hottest front in Syria—the Washington Post has lowered its editorial standards to tabloid levels.</p>
<p>All this highlights the problem with limiting the criticism of misinformation to low-rent content farms in <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/how-macedonia-became-a-global-hub-for-pro-trump-misinfo?utm_term=.lpGPJPb30#.rkqX2XkPm" type="external">Macedonia</a>, as the “fake news” narrative so often does, while inoculating traditional outlets from the charge without a discernible reason to do so.</p>
<p>University of North Carolina professor Zeynep Tufekci—whose November New York Times column ( <a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/opinion/mark-zuckerberg-is-in-denial.html" type="external">11/15/16</a>) helped kick off the latest round of concern over fake news—objected to this counter-objection: “There is no, and never was, ‘perfect news,’” she <a href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/816288997978816512" type="external">tweeted</a>. “Pls stop referring to every mode of failure of news as ‘fake news.’ Conflation is not analysis.” When security researcher Marcy Wheeler <a href="https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/816291151581954048" type="external">pushed back</a> by insisting that what the Post had done was, by its own criteria, fake news, Tufekci <a href="https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/816296368465727488" type="external">doubled down</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>The issue, of course, is not whether the Washington Post engages in the same proportion of fake news as the trollhole websites in question; it’s that when its news is fake, it has a far more significant effect. The Post is still read by <a href="http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/news-websites" type="external">far more people</a> than fringe websites, and its reporting is met with far more credulity. It is also assumed that mistakes by the the Post are done entirely in good faith, with no consideration for political or editorial pressure to find dirt on America’s current No. 1 enemy, Russia.</p>
<p>But Tufekci and others have carved out such a narrow definition of “fake news” that it excludes anything emanating from establishment news sources. Indeed, when pressed on this point, Tufekci insisted “traditional media” could not, by definition, engage in fake news:</p>
<p />
<p>The Post’s misleading and sometimes outright false reporting on matters related to Russia are dismissed as simply “newsroom economics,” and no ill will or political incentive or ideology is ascribed. Because, we—The Good American Traditional Media—don’t do those types of things. A “fake news phenomenon” that cannot, by definition, include mainstream media is a power-serving tautology that shields US corporate media from scrutiny and encourages citizens to simply trust some outlets (we’ll tell you which ones) rather than think critically.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/12/27/belief-conspiracies-largely-depends-political-iden/" type="external">YouGov poll</a> showed a shocking 46 percent of Trump supporters believed the “pizzagate” scandal—a bizarre conspiracy <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/5/13842258/pizzagate-comet-ping-pong-fake-news" type="external">spread</a> on 4Chan and Infowars about Clinton’s campaign manager running a child sex ring out of a DC pizza parlor. This led, justifiably, to widespread mockery and hand-wringing over fake news by the pundit classes.</p>
<p>But most missed that the same poll <a href="https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/12/clinton1.png" type="external">found that</a> 50 percent of Clinton supporters believed the Russian government had tampered directly with vote tallies—as in, Putin agents directly manipulated election results. While these fears are based, at least in part, on actual (though still unproven) assertions by US intelligence that Russian hackers leaked unflattering DNC emails in an effort to influence the election, the idea that Russia actually hacked the voting process itself is an ungrounded conspiracy theory, and one the White House has repeatedly insisted didn’t happen. But where, one may ask, did 50 percent of Clinton supporters get the idea Russia hacked the election?</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Corporate media continue to refer to the alleged Russian hacking of the DNC (and Clinton campaign manager John Podesta) emails as “election hacking,” giving readers the distinct impression the Russians, well, hacked the election. This wildly misleading framing is augmented by a network of pro-Clinton pundits who, in the wake of the election, spent weeks <a href="https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/813878628593401856" type="external">fanning theories</a> that the machines were tampered with.</p>
<p>Fake news, to the extent it is a menace, ought to be measured by how badly it pollutes with misinformation. Given the number of people who think Russia is literally overturning vote totals, this meme and those who spread it certainly fits the description. But it doesn’t get the label that treats it as a serious problem, because “fake news”—in effect, if not by design—includes everyone and everything except US corporate media.</p>
<p>h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/WideAsleepNima/status/816309174573432832" type="external">Nima Shirazi</a></p>
<p>Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst for FAIR.org. You can find him on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/adamjohnsonnyc" type="external">@AdamJohnsonNYC</a>.</p>
<p>Messages can be sent to the Washington Post at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>, or via Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost" type="external">@washingtonpost</a>. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.</p> | WaPo Spreading Own Falsehoods Shows Real Power of Fake News | true | http://fair.org/home/wapo-spreading-own-falsehoods-shows-real-power-of-fake-news/ | 2017-01-04 | 4 |
<p>ROME (AP) — Italian ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi, known for his "bunga bunga" parties and fondness for younger women, is praising Catherine Deneuve for warning against a courtship backlash following the swell of sexual misconduct allegations against prominent men.</p>
<p>In a late-night talk show Thursday, Berlusconi said Deneuve had pronounced "holy" words in saying men should be free to hit on women. Berlusconi joked that usually women hit on him, but that it was only "natural" that women enjoy being courted by men.</p>
<p>"It's not an offense to court women if it stays in the realm of elegance," he said on RAI state television's "Porta a Porta" program.</p>
<p>Berlusconi has long characterized his sex-fueled "bunga bunga" parties, where showgirls and models were paid to attend, as "elegant soirees." Though he has faced years of legal woes, he has never faced sexual assault allegations, and a 2013 conviction for paying for sex with an underage woman was overturned on appeal.</p>
<p>But the 81-year-old former cruise ship crooner does appreciate beautiful, young women. His second wife left him after he showed up at the 18th birthday party of a supporter's daughter, and his current girlfriend is some 50 years his junior.</p>
<p>Berlusconi is now heading up a center-right coalition that hopes to retake power in March 4 general elections. The three-time premier can't run himself because of a tax fraud conviction, but he is still a popular politician in Italy and remains a kingmaker as head of his Forza Italia party.</p>
<p>ROME (AP) — Italian ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi, known for his "bunga bunga" parties and fondness for younger women, is praising Catherine Deneuve for warning against a courtship backlash following the swell of sexual misconduct allegations against prominent men.</p>
<p>In a late-night talk show Thursday, Berlusconi said Deneuve had pronounced "holy" words in saying men should be free to hit on women. Berlusconi joked that usually women hit on him, but that it was only "natural" that women enjoy being courted by men.</p>
<p>"It's not an offense to court women if it stays in the realm of elegance," he said on RAI state television's "Porta a Porta" program.</p>
<p>Berlusconi has long characterized his sex-fueled "bunga bunga" parties, where showgirls and models were paid to attend, as "elegant soirees." Though he has faced years of legal woes, he has never faced sexual assault allegations, and a 2013 conviction for paying for sex with an underage woman was overturned on appeal.</p>
<p>But the 81-year-old former cruise ship crooner does appreciate beautiful, young women. His second wife left him after he showed up at the 18th birthday party of a supporter's daughter, and his current girlfriend is some 50 years his junior.</p>
<p>Berlusconi is now heading up a center-right coalition that hopes to retake power in March 4 general elections. The three-time premier can't run himself because of a tax fraud conviction, but he is still a popular politician in Italy and remains a kingmaker as head of his Forza Italia party.</p> | Italy ex-leader Berlusconi backs Deneuve on male courtship | false | https://apnews.com/amp/a1f074d7782342d4a1c1dfbe4f861ae9 | 2018-01-12 | 2 |
<p>Libyans voted in their first democratic election yesterday to choose an interim national assembly to rule the country after the overthrow of Mu’ammer Gaddafi. International interest in this crucial election has been sparse compared to the wall-to-wall coverage by the foreign media during the eight-month war.</p>
<p>Throughout the Libyan crisis, human rights organisations have on the whole performed better than television, radio and print press in describing what was happening in Libya. Too many journalists and media outlets decided early on that Gaddafi’s forces were the black hats and the insurgents the white hats. They pumped out anti-Gaddafi atrocity stories, often without checking the facts, such as a supposed campaign of mass rape by government troops. Investigations by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and a United Nations team discovered no evidence for this, but their findings were largely ignored by the media. The insurgents claimed that they had found the bodies of government troops executed by their own side when they tried to defect, but Amnesty uncovered a video of the same men alive and being aggressively interrogated by the rebels, who most likely shot the soldiers themselves.</p>
<p>Last week Amnesty produced a devastating report – “Libya: Rule of law or rule of militias?” – based on meticulous and lengthy investigations, portraying Libya as a country where violent and predatory militia gangs have become the real power in the land. They jail, torture and kill individuals and persecute whole communities that oppose them now, did so in the past, or simply get in their way. A few actions by these out-of control militiamen have gained publicity, such as taking over Tripoli airport, shooting up the convoy of the British ambassador in Benghazi, and arresting staff members of the International Criminal Court.</p>
<p>But the widespread arbitrary detention and torture of people picked up at checkpoint by the thuwwar (revolutionaries) is not publicised because the Libyan government wants to play them down, or people are frightened of criticising the perpetrators and becoming targets.</p>
<p>Take the case of Hasna Shaeeb, a 31-year-old woman abducted from her Tripoli home last October by men in military dress and taken to the former Islamic Endowment Office in the capital. She was accused of being a pro-Gaddafi loyalist and a sniper. She was forced to sit in a chair with her hands handcuffed behind her back and was given electric shocks to her right leg, private parts, and head. Guards threatened to bring her mother to the cell and rape her, and urine was poured over her.</p>
<p>After she was freed from the chair, her torturers could not open her handcuffs with a key so they shot them off her, fragments of metal cutting into her flesh. On being released after three days, Ms Shaeeb had a doctor confirm her injuries and complained to the authorities about what had happened to her. They did nothing, but she received a threatening phone call from the militiaman who first arrested her and shots were fired at her house.</p>
<p>Ms Shaeeb’s story is uncommon only in that she made an official complaint which many others are too frightened to do. They have reasons for their fear. The government estimates that it holds 3,000 detainees and the militias a further 4,000. The latter prisoners are almost invariably tortured to extract confessions. The Amnesty report says “common methods of torture reported to the organisation include suspension in contorted positions and prolonged beatings with various objects including metal bars and chains, electric cables, wooden sticks, plastic hoses, water pipes, rifle-butts; and electric shocks.” Burning with cigarettes and hot metal is also used.</p>
<p>Diana Eltahawy, the Amnesty researcher who carried out many of the interviews on which the report is based, says that “things are not getting better” and, what makes things worse, is that in May the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) passed a law giving immunity to the “thuwwar” for any act they carry out in defence of the 17 February Revolution last year. The NTC has also decreed that interrogations by militias, though these very often involve torture, should carry legal weight. Ms Eltahawy says there is “a climate of self-censorship” within the post-Gaddafi government about abuses.</p>
<p>Not everybody survives mistreatment. Amnesty has detailed reports of 20 people tortured to death, the reason for their detention often obscure. For instance, on 10 May Hisham Saleh Fitouri, 28, a member of al-Awfiya militia, was arrested at a checkpoint after a confrontation with members of the Misrata militia. Two weeks later, his family located him in Misrata morgue where an autopsy report said that he had died of natural causes. But when his body was brought to Tripoli, a second examination showed he had deep bruises all over it and that he had died of renal failure and internal bleeding.</p>
<p>The militias have become used to meting out casual violence to anybody who annoys them. The middle-aged owner of a café on the beach in Tripoli complained about militiamen from Misrata firing their guns into the air in celebration. In retaliation, they beat him unconscious and destroyed his café with a rocket-propelled grenade. At the other end of the scale, there is the continuing persecution and violence against migrants from further south in Africa, as well as clashes between rival tribes and communities leaving hundreds dead.</p>
<p>Will a new government legitimised by the ballot box be able to rein in the militias and re-establish law and order? Or will Libya become like Lebanon during the civil war, when militias who had begun as defenders of their local community swiftly turned into gangsters running protection rackets? An advantage in Libya is that the population is almost entirely Sunni Muslim and there are not the same sectarian divisions as in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. The Libyan government, unlike the Lebanese, has substantial oil revenues and could buy off the militias or build the state security forces to the point where they can establish order.</p>
<p>It might happen. For all the black propaganda of the recent war, Libya does not have the tradition of ferocious violence of Iraq and Syria. Gaddafi may have had a demented personality cult and run a nasty police state, but he never killed people on the scale of Saddam Hussein or Hafez al-Assad. The legacy of hatred is not quite so bad in Libya as in other countries where militias have established their rule.</p>
<p>The stranglehold of the militias in Libya has been established without the outside world paying much attention. Many Libyans still hope that the “thuwwar” are only flourishing in the interregnum between the Gaddafi regime and a democratically elected successor government. Some still see the militiamen as heroes of the revolution (and many did fight heroically), even though it was Nato that destroyed the old regime.</p>
<p>A difficulty for foreign governments and media alike is that, having rejoiced in the overthrow of Gaddafi last year, they do not want bad news to besmirch their victory. Ms Eltahawy says that part of the problem in getting people to pay attention to what is happening these days is that since the fall of Gaddafi “Libya is always portrayed as a success story”.</p>
<p>PATRICK COCKBURN&#160;is the author of “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416551476/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq</a>.&#160;</p> | Can Libya’s New Leaders Curb the Violent Militias? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/07/09/can-libyas-new-leaders-curb-the-violent-militias/ | 2012-07-09 | 4 |
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> DIMITRI LASCARIS: This is Dimitri Lascaris for The Real News.
<p />
<p />According to independent analyses by NASA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth 2016 surface temperatures were the warmest since modern record keeping began in 1880. This makes 2016 the third year in a row to set a new record for global average surface temperatures. Heat records for the Arctic were also broken, and to a stunning degree. According to satellite data, the 2016 Arctic sea ice minimum extent, is effectively tied with 2007, for the second-lowest yearly minimum in the satellite records.
<p />
<p />Climate scientists have been saying that, "What happens in the Arctic, doesn't stay in the Arctic." To help us understand why we should be very concerned about the dramatic shifts we are seeing in the far north, we are joined by Dr. David Barber. Dr. Barber is a specialist in sea ice and climate change, at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Arctic System Science, and has over 30 years experience working in the Arctic. He leads a research group of more than 125 persons. He's published over 140 papers in peer-reviewed literature, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and is also an Officer of the Order of Canada. Dr. Barber, thank you for joining us today.
<p />
<p />DAVID BARBER: Nice to be here, Dimitri.
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: I'd like to begin by asking you to describe for us, in general terms, the effect that the planet's warming is having now on Arctic sea ice.
<p />
<p />DAVID BARBER: Well, a good way to think about it is the planet, as a whole, as it changes temperature, as it increases in temperature, it has a disproportionate effect as a function of latitude of the planet. We've increased by about 1 degree Celsius globally across the entire planet. But in the Arctic, we've increased, on average, two to three times that, relative to the rest of the planet.
<p />
<p />And the reason for that is, the Arctic is an ocean covered by sea ice, and that sea ice is white. So, when you have solar insulation on the surface, it reflects that energy from the sun back to space when the white cover is there; when there is no white cover there, it's a dark ocean and it absorbs that energy from the sun into the ocean. You then have to get rid of all that energy for sea ice to form in the fall, and that is one of the main reasons why we're seeing an amplification of this global warming signal in the Arctic.
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: Now, the polar bear has become a symbol internationally for the dwindling ice floe. But as we all know, the Arctic and the areas adjacent to the Arctic are quite sparsely populated. Why should those of us living in the more heavily populated parts of the planet be concerned about what's happening in the Arctic?
<p />
<p />DAVID BARBER: Well, I think there are many different reasons. One, is that people are very concerned about the Arctic itself, so if you really like polar bears, you're very concerned about that issue the polar bears are having relative to their habitat. But if you're more, sort of self-oriented, you're thinking about your own personal situation, there's also growing evidence that the changes that are going on in the Arctic are affecting other parts of the planet.
<p />
<p />There are a number of different kinds of effects, and we call these things tele-connections. So, what happens on one part of the planet doesn't just stay there, it affects other parts of the planet as well. This is not so surprising, because we all live on this single blue planet orbiting out there in space. And so we have to be concerned about our overall habitat as a human species, and the effects that climate change is having on that habitat.
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: It's my understanding that at one point in the fairly distant past, after the melting of massive levels of ice in North America, there was a dramatic cooling in Europe as a result of a change in the temperature of the flow of waters in the northern Atlantic.
<p />
<p />Is that a scenario, that kind of scenario, one with respect to which there's a significant risk of a recurrence? That something along the lines of, for example, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet could have a dramatic effect on the climate in Europe, or other parts of the Northern Hemisphere?
<p />
<p />DAVID BARBER: Yeah. What you're speaking of is what happens with meridional overturning in the North Atlantic. This is the way that deep water is formed on our planet's oceans. And sea ice plays a very important role in that overall process of how ocean energy is circulated around the planet.
<p />
<p />Now, historically, we've always felt that the amount of fresh water that you introduce to the North Atlantic had to be a very large amount of fresh water, for you to be able to slow down this overturning of this North Atlantic circulation. And of course, that fresh water historically has done that. And there is evidence from a paleoclimate record.
<p />
<p />Paleoclimate records are when we go back and study different proxies of how the climate is changing. We can see, very dramatically, shifts, and very dramatic changes, based on the historical evidence in the Greenland ice sheet, for example. But also from other ice sheets around the planet, that there have been occurrences in the past where very significant, and relatively rapid changes have happened to our climate system. So, as climate scientists, we're very concerned about that because it basically tells us that our planet is capable of shifting to another stable state relatively rapidly.
<p />
<p />Now, whether this will happen or not, based on our changing climate in the Arctic, we really don't know. And a lot of scientists are working on this around the planet, to try to figure out how sensitive the climate system is.
<p />
<p />I think the take-home message for the public is that, we should not be experimenting with releasing very large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere more quickly than anything our planet has seen before in its historical past, because the climate is very capable of changing to another stable state and, of course, that's not a good thing for us as a human species.
<p />
<p />The displacement of people due to climate is a very big concern for us, because there are so many of us on the planet. And we don't have a whole lot of, just sort of free room, to go and move to, once we have a climate problem in one part of the planet. So, it is a big sensitive issue, and something we have to pay attention to as humans inhabiting this particular planet.
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: And thus far, we've been talking about the effect on ice of global warming in the northern hemisphere. What are we seeing in Antarctica currently? What are the current trends telling us?
<p />
<p />DAVID BARBER: Well, it's complicated, just like it is in the Arctic. But the general thing you see in the media is that the sea ice in the southern hemisphere is not shrinking as quickly as the sea ice in the northern hemisphere is. And that's very true. But it's also very expected by us who work on sea ice. And the reason for that is, that the southern hemisphere is a very large land mass that's covered with a very large glacier situated right in the center of the southern pole, and then surrounding it you have this sea ice.
<p />
<p />So, you have this very large cold source, that is losing mass quickly to the oceans, which is increasing the amount of fresh water that goes into the marine system in the Antarctic. And that causes sea ice to actually grow more efficiently.
<p />
<p />In the northern hemisphere, we have an ocean surrounded by continents, which is a much different scenario. As we lose that sea ice in the northern hemisphere, we go back to this issue of a dark surface, versus a white surface, and that dark surface speeds up the removal of more sea ice in the northern hemisphere. So, that's why we're losing so much sea ice in the North Pole, relative to the South Pole.
<p />
<p />Both of them are giving us very strong signals that this global scale record that we have, this global scale increase in temperature, is affecting both poles very substantially. And of course, the other big thing in the southern hemisphere is all this land ice. It's the removal of that land ice into the ocean system, which then eventually melts, which leads to sea level rise. So, these are very important issues, both for the southern hemisphere, and the northern hemisphere.
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: I'd like to conclude by talking a little bit about sea level rise. As we've discussed previously on The Real News, and as many of our viewers will know, in late 2015, the global community came together in Paris to enter into an international climate accord. Which established, as an aspirational goal, that we keep the global temperature increase to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, and set a somewhat harder cap of 2 degrees Celsius.
<p />
<p />However, the emission reduction targets that have been submitted thus far, by the states that have acceded to that treaty, the scientific community is telling us, will result -- if those emission reduction targets are satisfied but not exceeded -- will result in global warming in excess of 3 degrees Celsius, perhaps closer to 4 degrees Celsius.
<p />
<p />If the global community satisfies its current emission reduction targets, but does not exceed them, what kind of sea level rise do you think we will experience in this century?
<p />
<p />DAVID BARBER: Well, first of all, I'm not a specialist in sea level rise, so I'm a little bit uncomfortable with giving you numbers. I'd rather talk more about the implications of this. What we're seeing in the Arctic with the current situation, is that the cryosphere -- so those portions of the earth's system that are frozen, so lake ice, sea ice, glacial ice –- all of them are being affected. They're all melting.
<p />
<p />The Greenland ice sheet, we're losing mass from it about 600% faster than what we expected. And of course, it's the glacial ice masses that are really causing the sea level rise issue to be such an issue.
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: ... you said 600% more than what you expected. Do you mean, what you expected taking into account warming trends resulting from the introduction of CO2 into the atmosphere? Or, are you talking about historical melting, before the fossil fuels era?
<p />
<p />DAVID BARBER: That's... mmm. I think the quote that I'm thinking of, is 600% faster than what current models project. That's based on greenhouse gas effects on the Greenland ice sheet. So, the situation is a serious one. Now, we also used to think that the Greenland ice sheet, and the ice sheets in the Antarctic, for instance, were a much slower process to lose mass to the ocean. We're finding that they actually lose mass quite quickly, when you have ice shelves in particular, where these glacial features grow out over an ocean.
<p />
<p />This is an issue for us in the northern hemisphere, when we have these fjords that are covered with ice shelves that come out overtop of the marine system. And they're a big concern in the Antarctic, where you have large ones that come out overtop the southern ocean.
<p />
<p />Now, when you think about the sea level rise that results from that, our models right now, almost all the models we use in climate science, are conservative, relative to what we're seeing when we go out and do field studies. That's a general statement that's true across both hemispheres. If we were to start... if we were to not meet our goals that we have, we will be in serious trouble if sea level rise within this century. One of the big concerns I have, is getting away from the very dirty fossil fuels.
<p />
<p />So, the idea of coal, and how we're going to use coal historically across our planet, transitioning to more greenhouse gas-friendly types of hydrocarbons, natural gas in particular. So, I think it's a big concern and something we have to get the politicians to realize, is that they're trying to set targets for things that appear to be happening much faster than our models are predicting. So, the models are giving us even a bit of a sense of optimism, when they really shouldn't be, because the observations are much more dramatic than the models predict.
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: Right. Well, that happens to be precisely why we at The Real News are establishing a new climate change bureau, because we think it's... all the scientists, like yourself, we've had on the program, and we've had many, have emphasized the need for our policymakers, our governments, to achieve a level of seriousness about the climate crisis that they haven't demonstrated thus far, because otherwise we will be in serious trouble.
<p />
<p />And for that reason, we thank you for joining us today, Dr. Barber, and I'm sure we'll have the opportunity, or hope to have the opportunity, to speak to you again.
<p />
<p />DAVID BARBER: Nice chatting with you. Have a good one.
<p />
<p />DIMITRI LASCARIS: You, too. This is Dimitri Lascaris for The Real News.
<p />
<p />
<p />-------------------------
<p />END | Greenland Ice Sheet Melting 600 Percent Faster Than Predicted by Current Models | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/story%3A18252%3ATRNN-Replay%253A-Greenland-Ice-Sheet-Melting-600-Percent-Faster-Than-Predicted-by-Current-Models | 2017-02-03 | 4 |
<p />
<p>In the weeks before hackers broke into Sony Pictures Entertainment, the studio suffered significant technology outages it blamed on software flaws and incompetent technical staffers who weren't paying attention, even as hackers targeted executives to trick them into revealing their online credentials.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Its chief executive was regularly reminded in unsecure emails of his own secret passwords for his and his family's mail, banking, travel and shopping accounts, according to a review of more than 32,000 stolen corporate emails circulating on the Internet.</p>
<p>Scrutiny of Sony's stolen computer data hasn't yet revealed exactly how hackers managed to slip inside to steal such an enormous cache, when it happened, who was behind the theft or their motives.</p>
<p>But late Wednesday, a U.S. official told The Associated Press that federal investigators have now connected the Sony hack to North Korea. The official was not authorized to discuss an ongoing criminal case openly, and spoke on condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>Confirmation of the North Korean link came just after Sony cancelled plans for the Dec. 25 release of "The Interview," which had been one of the hackers' public demands due to its depiction of the fictional assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.</p>
<p>The stolen files expose lax Internet security practices inside Sony such as pasting passwords into emails, using easy-to-guess passwords and failing to encrypt especially sensitive materials such as confidential salary and revenue figures, strategic plans and medical information about some employees. Experts say such haphazard practices are common across corporate America.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"Most people who say they're not doing that are lying," said Jon Callas, co-founder and chief technology officer for Silent Circle Inc., a global encrypted-communications service.</p>
<p>The emails show CEO Michael Lynton routinely received copies of his passwords in unsecure emails for his and his family's mail, banking, travel and shopping accounts, from his executive assistant, David Diamond. Other emails included photocopies of U.S. passports and driver's licenses and attachments with banking statements. The stolen files made clear that Diamond was deeply trusted to remember passwords for Lynton and his family and provide them whenever needed.</p>
<p>"I still need the password to your Amazon account," Diamond wrote to Lynton in August.</p>
<p>Sony spokeswoman Jean Guerin did not respond to a phone message left with an assistant in her office and email from The Associated Press on Wednesday.</p>
<p>In an October email, the company's chief financial officer, David C. Hendler, complained to Lynton that Sony Pictures had experienced months of "significant and repeated outages due to a lack of hardware capacity, running out of disk space, software patches that impacted the stability of the environment, poor system monitoring and an unskilled support team." Hendler also blamed a company rule that required employees to keep too many old emails.</p>
<p>"Sloppy, really sloppy," said Kevin Mitnick, a former hacker who served five years in federal prison and now runs Mitnick Security Consulting LLC. But Mitnick was quick to acknowledge that other top chief executives are "probably doing it, too." Companies can use password-management software, which can store dozens or hundreds of encrypted passwords to various accounts behind one protected password.</p>
<p>"It's pretty ordinary for CEOs and executive assistants to share confidential information by email," he said. "They feel that their email is secure and they have nothing to worry about."</p>
<p>The fact that Lynton regularly received emails with his passwords was particularly a problem for Sony because hackers who steal corporate data often will immediately search for the word "password" or a variation of the word across thousands of messages.</p>
<p>"If I'm trying to get credentials, that's the first search I'm going to run," said Mitnick, who is hired by companies to test their internal security.</p>
<p>The October email inside Sony, among tens of thousands of messages stolen in the crime, described specific software and hardware upgrades and plans to hire an outside consulting firm to improve the company's network, plus new rules to limit the amount of old emails that would be stored on servers. Lynton received it roughly three weeks before employees reported signs that hackers were rummaging inside Sony's computer network.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this story.</p>
<p>.</p> | Stolen Sony files reveal lax internal security practices, passwords easy for hackers to find | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/12/17/stolen-sony-files-reveal-lax-internal-security-practices-passwords-easy-for.html | 2016-04-07 | 0 |
<p>Decatur, GA — Katie McCrary is a homeless woman doing whatever she can to survive. But while she may have a criminal history, she, like other law-breakers, still deserve to be treated humanely and with some sense of decency. But that didn’t happen, according to critics, when a Dekalb County police officer&#160; <a href="http://www.cbs46.com/story/35848176/dekalb-police-face-investigation-after-viral-video-shows-officer-beating-homeless-woman" type="external">struck her with his baton</a>&#160;nearly too many times to count.</p>
<p>Police were called to the scene of a local convenience store at the corner of Glenwood and Line St. in Decatur last month. McCrary had been propositioning patrons for money. Others say she’s frequently there and may have mental issues.</p>
<p>But when the unnamed DeKalb County officer arrived, McCrary allegedly pushed him and would not follow his commands. That’s when bystanders say he began beating her with his baton.</p>
<p>“Like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, that’s excessive,” customer Calvin Smith said.</p>
<p>The incident happened on June 4, and a complaint of “excessive use of force” was filed as a result of the officer’s actions. The department investigated, came to the following conclusion which exonerated the officer.</p>
<p>Upon the officer’s arrival, the female, identified as Katie McCrary, attempted to push the officer out of the way. The officer stopped her at the door and asked her to step back. Words were exchanged between the officer and McCrary with McCrary subsequently assaulting the officer. She continued to aggressively resist the officer’s commands, resulting in the deployment of the officer’s baton.</p>
<p>The officer was eventually able to restrain and handcuff McCrary. EMS responded to the scene to check McCrary. She was transported to the DeKalb County Jail and later to Grady Hospital. The officer filed a Use of Force Report on the incident.</p>
<p>“You can see that she wasn’t even resisting arrest. She was probably resisting the last few swings that weren’t caught on camera,” customer Craig Nelson said.</p>
<p>Predictably, the officer was allowed to continue his employment with the police force. But that was then. Since that time, new cell phone footage, shot at the scene of the horrendous beating, has come to light and the investigation into police brutality and excessive force has been reopened.</p>
<p>“Just to see what you showed me, that makes my heart hurt,” customer Tasha Marignay said.</p>
<p>In an extremely rare move for any&#160;police department, the Dekalb County Police Department has reopened the case. The backlash the police force is receiving is likely very strong considering supporters and critics believe it to be a clear case of police brutality.</p>
<p>The officer struck her at least 13 times full force with his baton and even threatened to “shoot” her if she didn’t let go of his baton when she attempted to control his actions by grabbing his stick.</p>
<p>As a result of the video being published on social media, the police department has reopened its investigation and made the following statement:</p>
<p>Now that the Department has this new&#160;evidence…We have reopened the investigation and will determine whether the incident is consistent with policy and the law.</p>
<p>The officer has yet to be identified, and this week, many believe he should not only lose his privileges as an officer of the peace but should be arrested as well for assaulting an unarmed mentally ill woman.</p>
<p>The whole scenario brings back 1960’s era images of officers beating civil rights activists with batons, shooting them with water cannons, and allowing German Shepherd attack dogs to maul them in the streets.</p>
<p>We at TFTP predict the internal investigation will conclude that while the officer’s actions were justified under departmental policies and according to the use of force guidelines set by the federal government, the officer will be suspended with pay for a short period of time. That’s what usually happens.</p>
<p>WARNING: The video below is graphic and disturbing.&#160;</p>
<p>https://youtu.be/VgBLJzQFZs4</p> | Disturbing Video Shows Cop Brutally Beating Mentally Ill Woman with Baton | false | https://studionewsnetwork.com/news/disturbing-video-shows-cop-brutally-beating-mentally-ill-woman-with-baton/ | 2017-07-12 | 3 |
<p>PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Oregon Lottery's "Megabucks" game were:</p>
<p>01-05-17-22-28-45</p>
<p>(one, five, seventeen, twenty-two, twenty-eight, forty-five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $6.6 million</p>
<p>PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the Oregon Lottery's "Megabucks" game were:</p>
<p>01-05-17-22-28-45</p>
<p>(one, five, seventeen, twenty-two, twenty-eight, forty-five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $6.6 million</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Megabucks' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/979da9a2c8c943d9a17f479ff3d54740 | 2018-01-16 | 2 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Jon Stewart did an excellent expose on the brand of Conservatism being practice today. He uses the words of prominent Conservatives to show the inconsistency and un-tenability of their positions.</p>
<p>He first shows Bill O’Reilly, Allen West, Rush Limbaugh, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, &amp; Laura Ingraham attacking the so called government intrusion &amp; tyranny against personal freedom. He then segues into a brewing solution in Idaho, a group that would build a Conservative Mecca with enclosed walls where “Marxists, Socialists, Liberals, and Establishment Republicans” would not want to be a party of. Interesting it seems more like an isolated prison.</p>
<p />
<p>In a silly monologue, Glenn Beck detailed the city he would build, a sort of Conservative utopia, Independence, USA. What Jon Stewart is able to do is use Beck’s own description of what he envisions this Conservative mecca to be, as exactly what it is, a city that mimics Marxist ideology with a strict Conservative social code. It is central planning on steroids.</p>
<p />
<p>Stewart’s closing statement is both true and prescient:</p>
<p>Beck’s vision for this town tells you a lot about the freedom fetishes who swear at every turn that their opponents attempt to govern democratically are tyrannical assaults on our founding freedoms. But they don’t really believe in freedom, freedom to. They believe in freedom from; freedom from Liberals, freedom from people they disagree with... These folks that cloak themselves in patriotism pretending they alone can reveal the true intent of our constitution are not our founding fathers reincarnate. They are just another f--- neighborhood association whose nostalgic utopia will fall apart the minute somebody decides to paint their house mauve.</p>
<p />
<p>The deconstruction of today’s brand of Conservatism above is rather funny. The message however is not. This ideology has inflicted material damage not only to America, but to millions around the world. Too many have allowed an ideology filled with inconsistencies and proven destructive tenets to dominate the discourse for too long. This ideology repackaged has brought wars, income and wealth disparity, the inhumane disregards of AIDs in its infancy, the destruction of the environment, and much more. One just need to watch the gun control debate to see how it is always morphed to fit the needs of a select few.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/EgbertoWilliescom/181893712536" type="external">LIKE My Facebook Page</a></p> | Jon Stewart: Glenn Beck & Conservatives’ Utopia Is Social Libertyless Marxism (VIDEO) | true | http://egbertowillies.com/2013/01/30/jon-stewart-glenn-beck-conservatives-utopia-is-social-libertyless-marxism-video/ | 2013-01-30 | 4 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>For the past month, Natalie Ribbons was putting the finishing touches on an album release party in Austin, Texas.</p>
<p>“That consumed most of my last month,” she says during a recent phone interview. “We were also on tour. I had to manage all of that from the road.”</p>
<p>Ribbons is a member of the indie rock band Tele Novella. The band is rounded out by Jason Chronis, Matt Simon and Sarah La Puerta.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In 2014, the band won a contest for free recording time at Dub Narcotic Studios in Olympia, Wash.</p>
<p>This resulted in its first single, “Trouble in Paradise,” which was later featured in the ABC television series “Pretty Little Liars.”</p>
<p>Not long after that in 2015, the EP “Cosmic Dial Tone” was released on Los Angeles label Lolipop Records on the heels of a Wes Anderson tribute compilation (American Laundromat Records), to which they contributed a contagiously glad version of “Stephanie Says” by The Velvet Underground.</p>
<p>After a year of writing and recording, Ribbons is excited that the band’s debut album, “House of Souls,” is released on Yellow Year Records.</p>
<p>“This record took longer than we thought it was,” she says. “We wanted to work with (producer) Danny Reisch, and he has a busy schedule. He was on tour with Other Lives. We’ve had this material finished for two years, and it’s such a relief to have it out.”</p>
<p>Ribbons says the process was frustrating because of choosing to wait to work with the producer that the band wanted to work with.</p>
<p>“There wasn’t much we could do about it,” she says. “It took a long time to record. The whole thing was quite a fiasco. For the next records, we might take a different approach and not be so set on which producer we’ll work with.”</p>
<p>Because the album took a while to make, Ribbons says that at the beginning of next year, the band will take a three-month break.</p>
<p>This is to give her time to write new material for the next album. She also feels more inspired with the process.</p>
<p>“We’ve put a lot of hard work into music this year,” she says. “We’ve enjoyed being on the road. I think we need a break so I can begin writing and focus solely on that.”</p>
<p />
<p /> | Tele Novella touring after release of debut album | false | https://abqjournal.com/894798/for-the-record-2.html | 2 |
|
<p>LIMA, Peru (AP) - Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and 238 other Peruvian writers have signed an open letter denouncing a pardon granted to former President Alberto Fujimori, saying it covers their nation "in infamy and shame."</p>
<p>The letter released Saturday comes in response to President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's pre-Christmas pardon of Fujimori, who had been imprisoned for the killing of 25 Peruvians during his 10-year administration.</p>
<p>The letter says the pardon wasn't an act of compassion "but of the most crude and cynical political calculus." Backers of Fujimori last week helped Kuczynski avoid impeachment in Congress.</p>
<p>Fujimori defeated Vargas Llosa for the presidency in 1990. Two years later, he dissolved Congress. He fled the country in 2000.</p>
<p>Many prominent figures signed the letter, including novelists Daniel Alarcon and Alfredo Bryce Echenique.</p>
<p>LIMA, Peru (AP) - Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and 238 other Peruvian writers have signed an open letter denouncing a pardon granted to former President Alberto Fujimori, saying it covers their nation "in infamy and shame."</p>
<p>The letter released Saturday comes in response to President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's pre-Christmas pardon of Fujimori, who had been imprisoned for the killing of 25 Peruvians during his 10-year administration.</p>
<p>The letter says the pardon wasn't an act of compassion "but of the most crude and cynical political calculus." Backers of Fujimori last week helped Kuczynski avoid impeachment in Congress.</p>
<p>Fujimori defeated Vargas Llosa for the presidency in 1990. Two years later, he dissolved Congress. He fled the country in 2000.</p>
<p>Many prominent figures signed the letter, including novelists Daniel Alarcon and Alfredo Bryce Echenique.</p> | Peruvian writers denounce 'shame' of Fujimori pardon | false | https://apnews.com/d136bffac9b04be7877cb9daeace4db0 | 2017-12-30 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>A surprising surge in domestic production of light, sweet crude — a particular type of oil that foreign refiners covet — has triggered growing calls to lift the restrictions, which were put in place after the Arab oil embargo of 1973.</p>
<p>But the idea is touching a nerve that remains raw four decades after oil shortages crippled the economy and led to the law that banned crude exports without a special license.</p>
<p>“For 40 years, energy policy has been shaped by that experience of the 1970s,” says Daniel Yergin, energy historian, author and vice chairman of the research and analysis firm IHS. “But we are in a different world. Neither our logistics nor our thinking has caught up with the dramatic changes in North America.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Skeptics worry that lifting the restrictions would lead to higher gasoline prices and decreased energy security. Economists and analysts argue that it would have little or no effect on prices, largely because the U.S. already exports record amounts of gasoline and diesel, which are not restricted.</p>
<p>Some experts say allowing crude exports could actually improve energy security by encouraging more domestic production.</p>
<p>Major oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, along with the American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas lobbying group, are the biggest proponents of ending the ban.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski released a paper on energy exports describing the nation’s export laws as “antiquated” and urging President Barack Obama and the Senate to allow crude exports. Late last year, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz suggested at an industry gathering that it may be time to revisit export laws.</p>
<p>But easing the restrictions will be politically difficult, especially in an election year. In a recent letter to Obama, New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez made an argument that is likely to resonate with voters: “Crude oil that is produced in the U.S. should be used to lower prices here at home, not sent to the other side of the world.”</p>
<p>That the nation is talking about exporting oil at all is a result of a huge turnaround in domestic production in states such as North Dakota and Texas. The U.S. is producing more crude oil than it has in 25 years, and the government predicts production will approach its 1970 peak of 9.6 million barrels per day in 2016.</p>
<p>That’s still not nearly as much as we consume. The U.S. still imports an average of 7.5 million barrels of crude every day, more than any other country but China.</p>
<p>The issue is that refineries around the world have spent billions of dollars to gear up to process specific types of crude oil they expected to receive. But a boom in U.S. production put the global refinery system “out of whack,” Yergin says.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In the U.S., refiners expected to import more crude from Venezuela and the Middle East, a relatively thick oil that is high in sulfur and known as heavy, sour crude. Many refineries abroad can more easily handle light, sweet crude, which is thinner, lower in sulfur and easier to refine into gasoline and diesel.</p>
<p>But in a surprise, U.S. drillers are producing so much light, sweet crude that U.S. refiners can’t use it fast enough, and a relative glut has emerged. U.S. oil prices are lower than global oil prices by $10 per barrel or more. Foreign refiners would be willing to pay full price for that crude if U.S. producers were allowed to sell it.</p>
<p>Refiners who are enjoying lower prices for U.S. crude — and others worried about domestic fuel prices — say allowing exports would raise costs for the industry and for American consumers. By taking away the price advantage U.S. refiners enjoy, oil companies might produce less fuel, invest less in the U.S. and hire fewer people.</p>
<p>“It’s a jobs issue,” says Bill Day, a spokesman at Valero Energy, one of the nation’s biggest refiners. “The Gulf Coast of the U.S. has become a refining hub for the rest of the world. That keeps American refineries open and American workers on the job.”</p>
<p>But it’s not that simple, others say.</p>
<p>If the ban were lifted, some U.S. refiners would probably have to pay more for American crude, but many U.S. costal refiners already depend on more expensive international crude. And eliminating the ban could lower costs for other refineries.</p>
<p>Lifting the ban, experts say, is likely to have a bigger effect on individual refinery profits than on consumer prices.</p>
<p>“It probably doesn’t change the retail price at the pump, but it may change the incentive for refiners,” says Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners.</p>
<p>Because there is no ban on gasoline and diesel exports, the price of fuel for U.S. consumers is already set on the global market, even if crude oil prices are not. U.S. refiners take full advantage of that. They exported a record average of 2.7 million barrels of fuels per day last year through October, making petroleum products the nation’s top export.</p>
<p>U.S. oil producers say allowing crude exports would help spur further development of American oil resources and increase the nation’s energy security.</p>
<p>“It runs against the conventional wisdom about what oil security means,” says Michael Levi, director of the program on energy security and climate change at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Something seems upside-down when we say energy security means producing oil and sending it somewhere else.”</p>
<p>In the meantime, several companies aren’t waiting for policymakers to settle the debate. At least five are developing simple refining projects along the Gulf Coast to process light, sweet crude just enough to create petroleum products that can be freely exported to foreign refiners.</p>
<p>“It’s not a sleight of hand,” says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service and Gasbuddy.com. “When you have a ban or restrictions, you get opportunity and improvisation.”</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Jonathan Fahey can be reached at <a href="http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey" type="external">http://twitter.com/JonathanFahey</a> .</p> | American oil companies call for end to export ban | false | https://abqjournal.com/332547/american-oil-companies-call-for-end-to-export-ban.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>J.P. Morgan Chase &amp; Co. Chairman and Chief Executive James Dimon warned that the Wall Street bank could cut jobs in the U.K. and shift positions to elsewhere in Europe in the event of a vote to leave the European Union.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"If the U.K. leaves the EU, we may have no choice but to reorganize our business model here," Mr. Dimon said at a J.P. Morgan town hall meeting for staff in Bournemouth, U.K. on Friday. "Brexit could mean fewer J.P. Morgan jobs in the U.K. and more jobs in Europe."</p>
<p>U.K. Chancellor George Osborne, who is campaigning to remain in the EU ahead of the June 23 referendum, was in attendance.</p>
<p>Few senior figures in banking have given such a high-profile warning of negative consequences following a Brexit vote. In private, however, many of the chiefs of the biggest banks—both those with headquarters overseas and those based in London—have made similar remarks.</p>
<p>Mr. Dimon said the bank would need to assess the situation in the weeks and months after a vote to leave, adding that: "One realistic outcome is that we lose the ability to passport our banking and trading services into Europe. But our clients will still need us to trade within what will then be the EU. If that's what the rules say, we will need to do what works."</p>
<p>J.P. Morgan has roughly 16,000 staff in the U.K. across its offices in London, Basingstoke, Bournemouth, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Swindon.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"At a minimum, a Brexit will result in years of uncertainty and I believe that this uncertainty will hurt the economies of both Britain and the European Union," Mr. Dimon said.</p>
<p>Mr. Dimon's discussion of Brexit at the Bournemouth event echoes his April 6 letter to shareholders to accompany J.P. Morgan's annual report, in which he said that Brexit would lead to uncertainty and economic pain, even if "one can reasonably argue that Britain is better untethered to the bureaucratic and sometimes dysfunctional European Union" in the long run.</p> | J.P. Morgan's Dimon Warns on Possible Post-Brexit Job Losses | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/03/j-p-morgans-dimon-warns-on-possible-post-brexit-job-losses.html | 2016-06-03 | 0 |
<p>LONDON (AP) — A British coroner is awaiting the results of tests to determine what killed The Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan.</p>
<p>O’Riordan died Monday in London at 46.</p>
<p>An inquest into the singer’s death opened Friday at Westminster Coroner’s Court. Coroner’s officer Stephen Earl said O’Riordan was found unresponsive in her hotel room and was declared dead at the scene by ambulance workers.</p>
<p>He said a post-mortem examination has been conducted “and the court is awaiting the results of various tests that have been commissioned.”</p>
<p>Police say they don’t consider the death suspicious, meaning they have found no sign of foul play.</p>
<p>The Cranberries formed in the Irish city of Limerick at the end of the 1980s and had international hits in the ’90s with songs including “Dream,” ″Linger” and “Zombie.”</p>
<p>LONDON (AP) — A British coroner is awaiting the results of tests to determine what killed The Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan.</p>
<p>O’Riordan died Monday in London at 46.</p>
<p>An inquest into the singer’s death opened Friday at Westminster Coroner’s Court. Coroner’s officer Stephen Earl said O’Riordan was found unresponsive in her hotel room and was declared dead at the scene by ambulance workers.</p>
<p>He said a post-mortem examination has been conducted “and the court is awaiting the results of various tests that have been commissioned.”</p>
<p>Police say they don’t consider the death suspicious, meaning they have found no sign of foul play.</p>
<p>The Cranberries formed in the Irish city of Limerick at the end of the 1980s and had international hits in the ’90s with songs including “Dream,” ″Linger” and “Zombie.”</p> | UK coroner awaiting test results on late Cranberries singer | false | https://apnews.com/fb14d581415047fc9284b6dd9c3a06d5 | 2018-01-19 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>CHERRY HILL, N.J. — In New Jersey and California, top Democratic officials want to let people make charitable contributions to the state instead of paying certain taxes. In Connecticut and New York, officials are exploring a switch from income taxes to new ones on payroll. A few governors have even called for tax cuts.</p>
<p>The ideas are bubbling up as state lawmakers begin their 2018 sessions and assess the effects of the Republican tax overhaul that President Donald Trump signed into law last month. Lawmakers and governors in some states are grappling with how to protect their constituents.</p>
<p>The federal policy implements a maze of changes. It cuts tax rates and nearly doubles the standard income deduction. Yet it also caps or eliminates some popular itemized deductions, and sets the personal exemptions to zero.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>For many Americans, the result is expected to be lower federal tax obligations, at least initially. Those facing higher bills are expected to be concentrated in some high-tax states.</p>
<p>With legislators starting their sessions and governors writing state budgets, the response is a political priority. The proposals are bold, though not yet fleshed out.</p>
<p>This week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo used his state-of-the-state speech to pledge to sue over the GOP tax plan, which he called “an assault” by the federal government. A lawsuit would add taxes to the growing list of Trump administration policies that Democratic states have challenged in court.</p>
<p>Other states have not committed to sue, but some leaders have indicated they’ll explore the idea.</p>
<p>“I’m certainly not a constitutional lawyer, but the notion that this is not constitutional is something we want to pursue,” said Phil Murphy, New Jersey’s Democratic governor-elect.</p>
<p>Officials in California and Connecticut also said this week they were considering legal options.</p>
<p>In high-tax states, officials have been focused on protecting taxpayers from the impact of a new $10,000 cap on deductions for paying state and local taxes. In California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, more than one-third of tax filers claim the state and local tax deduction on federal taxes; the average deduction in each state is over $15,000.</p>
<p>California state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles Democrat who is running for the U.S. Senate, introduced legislation this week that would allow people to make charitable donations to the state instead of paying income taxes. That would allow them to claim a charitable deduction on federal taxes.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Our hard-earned tax dollars should not be subject to double-taxation, especially not to line the pockets of the Trump family, hedge fund managers and private jet owners,” de Leon said in a statement.</p>
<p>Another Democrat, New Jersey Gov.-elect Phil Murphy, announced a similar plan on Friday but said local governments also could implement it and apply it to property taxes.</p>
<p>Kim Rueben, a senior fellow at the liberal-leaning Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said it remains to be seen whether the IRS would allow deductions for that kind of contribution if it’s rewarded with tax credits. There is some precedent for it, though: She noted that some states give tax credits in return for private-school scholarships and that the IRS allows deductions of those contributions.</p>
<p>In Connecticut, two Democratic legislative leaders want to replace income taxes on individuals with payroll taxes on employers.</p>
<p>Under the new federal tax law, employers’ state and local taxes would remain deductible. House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz and House Majority Leader Matthew Ritter sent a letter Wednesday asking a state commission to evaluate the idea. New York’s Cuomo said he’s looking at a similar change there.</p>
<p>Rueben said that for the approach to work, states would have to figure out what to do with the income of high-earners who receive money from investments rather than jobs — something Cuomo said he could address through a tax on carried interest.</p>
<p>Nicole Keading, an economist at the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation, said that change also could mean that states would replace progressive income tax structures with flat payroll taxes.</p>
<p>“You would be raising taxes on low-income people,” she said.</p>
<p>The measure could be tough to pass this year with Cuomo and all members of the New York Legislature up for election. Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, a Republican who is running for governor, said the state should focus instead on cutting taxes and spending.</p>
<p>“The issues really hurting New Yorkers are self-inflicted wounds,” he said.</p>
<p>Governors in some other states are worried that their own current tax policies could inflict pain for taxpayers as a result of the federal changes.</p>
<p>More than 40 states have income taxes, and nearly all of them rely to some degree on definitions from the federal tax code.</p>
<p>Economists expect that many states will see their revenue rise because they tie their tax laws to federal provisions such as those on personal exemptions, which lower the bills based on the size of households.</p>
<p>In Maryland and Michigan, the Republican governors have said they will introduce tax cuts to compensate, after the GOP bill eliminated the personal exemption.</p>
<p>“Protecting taxpayers should be a bipartisan issue, so that’s my holiday gift to the people of Maryland,” Maryland’s Larry Hogan, a Republican, said last month.</p>
<p>Hogan, however, has to work with a legislature led by Democrats, and it’s unclear how they will want to respond. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Democrat, said the GOP tax plan will have “dire effects” for many Maryland residents.</p>
<p>“Our governor needs to be focusing on how he can join with members of the House and Senate to combat the evils of this federal tax bill,” he said.</p>
<p>Last month, Idaho’s state Senate leader, Republican Brent Hill, said he was concerned that new state revenue would come disproportionately from larger families because of the elimination of the exemption. He said the state could consider keeping a personal exemption or offering a state child tax credit.</p>
<p>Meanwhile in Colorado, Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, asked the Legislature last week for $300 million in new spending for the current fiscal year and for the fiscal year that begins July 1. He cited in part new revenue expected under the federal law, which he has criticized.</p>
<p>Hickenlooper wants to use the extra money for roads, schools and the state reserve.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Jim Anderson in Denver; Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Jonathan J. Cooper in Sacramento, California; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; David Klepper in Albany, New York; an Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland, contributed to this article.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Mulvihill at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill</a></p> | States exploring tax changes in response to federal overhaul | false | https://abqjournal.com/1115672/federal-tax-overhaul-could-lead-to-changes-in-some-states.html | 2018-01-06 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Ralph Nader gave the Green Party a national profile when he ran as its presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000. But the party has gradually soured on Nader, and finally severed its ties with him over the weekend, choosing to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/27/politics/campaign/27green.html" type="external">nominate longtime activist David Cobb</a> for president rather than endorse Nader’s independent candidacy. The split leaves both the Greens and Nader running from John Kerry’s left, while the Libertarians remain the top threat to siphon off Bush supporters on the right.</p>
<p>Nader was not seeking the Green Party nomination, having announced in December that he would run without a party affiliation. But he had hoped the Greens would not select a candidate of their own and choose to nominate him (as the Reform Party already had). Trailing Cobb in polls of party members, Nader <a href="/news/blog/2004/06/MB_2004_25.html#5" type="external">selected longtime Green activist</a>Peter Camejo as his running mate, with the intent of capturing the Green endorsement and the 22 states’ worth of ballot access it ensures.</p>
<p>But a clear majority of Greens went with Cobb, a former trial lawyer who left his practice to focus on political activism, on the second round of balloting. At the convention in Milwaukee, Camejo called for party unity after the vote, and Cobb was effusive in praising Nader:</p>
<p />
<p>“Ralph Nader has had more influence on my life than any human being who is not related to me. Ralph, if you are watching, thank you for what you have done, and thank you for what you will continue to do.”</p>
<p>But calls for unity will make little difference when voters make their choice between Cobb, Nader and Kerry in November. And the split underscores a problem the Green Party <a href="/news/update/2004/01/01_403.html" type="external">has been battling for some time</a> – how to get enough support to keep growing the party without the perception that it’s playing spoiler. If the Greens draw substantially fewer votes than they did in 2000, the party can lose precious ballot access next election, obliterating the gains it made under Nader. But Cobb still plans to run a “safe-state” strategy, campaigning for himself only in swing states, though he will campaign in all states for Green candidates down the ballot. The strategy <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0628-01.htm" type="external">has a fan</a> in columnist Norman Solomon, who said he switched his party affiliation to Green as a result:</p>
<p />
<p>“With the swing states all too close for comfort, activists should be emphatic that the Green Party’s presidential campaign this year ought to concentrate its efforts on -safe states’ — where the Bush-Kerry race isn’t close.</p>
<p>The Green Party should not be at cross-purposes with the progressive movements struggling to end the Bush presidency. People in those movements will long remember, for good or ill, how the Green Party conducts itself between now and the day that seals the fate of the Bush White House.”</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10480-2004Jun27.html?nav=rss_politics" type="external">Nader played down</a> his defeat at the hands of his former backers. Nader believes the Green Party stood to benefit more from the endorsement than he would, getting a higher profile and more fundraising opportunities from its association with him. And he questioned the logic of Cobb’s “safe-state” plan:</p>
<p>“If you’re trying to build a political movement, you don’t turn your backs on people who happen to live in so-called close states. Our plan is to get as many votes nationally as possible. We’re campaigning all-out.”</p>
<p>Nader is already facing attempts by Democrats to <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;u=/krseattle/20040628/lo_krseattle/naderripsdemocratsbidtostophim" type="external">block his ballot access</a> in several states, as <a href="http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html" type="external">well as a new FEC complaint</a> stemming from his campaign’s <a href="/news/dailymojo/2004/06/06_515.html" type="external">use of a charity’s office space. There’s no word yet on whether similar tactics will be employed against Cobb, now that progressives have three candidates to choose between this November.</a></p>
<p>While the Green Party is trying not to play spoiler to John Kerry, the Libertarian Party is hoping to do just that to George Bush. Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik <a href="http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/06/27/74159.php?sp1=rgj&amp;sp2=News&amp;sp3=Local+News&amp;sp5=RGJ.com&amp;sp6=news&amp;sp7=local_news" type="external">told the Reno Gazette-Journal</a> he hopes to take enough votes from Bush among conservatives in Nevada to swing the state to Kerry:</p>
<p />
<p>“We want to be able to control the swing votes so the Democrats and the Republicans must pay attention to us. I’m trying to let American voters know that there are more choices. I want them to know that the Libertarian Party has this crazy idea that the Constitution means something.”</p>
<p>Like Cobb, Badnarik concedes he won’t win the election, but is trying to grow his party’s base:</p>
<p />
<p>“Unfortunately, a large percentage of our population are still unaware that the Libertarian Party exists. I want to be able to spread the message successfully enough that everyone in the United States knows that we exist. I don’t have to make a touchdown this election. I just have to move the ball down the field to make it easier for the next Libertarian candidate to continue the process.”</p>
<p>Third-party candidates like the Greens and Libertarians – not to mention the Natural Law Party, the Socialist Party and so on – all face the same dilemma of how to widen their exposure without harming issues they care about. Now the Greens will find out whether jettisoning Nader achieves either of those goals.</p>
<p /> | Fractioned factions | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/07/fractioned-factions/ | 2004-07-01 | 4 |
<p>A new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirms what we have suspected for some time now - that <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/8/watchdog-reveals-irans-nuclear-arms-work/" type="external">Iran is working feverishly to build nuclear weapons</a>. And, according to the IAEA report, posted <a href="http://media.washtimes.com/media/misc/2011/11/08/iaeareport.pdf" type="external">here</a>, Iran has been in high gear on this project for a decade now.</p>
<p>This is the same country that continues to threaten Israel - Iran repeatedly promising to wipe Israel off of the map. And, now, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/ahmadinejad-iran-wont-retreat-nuclear-path-084255717.html" type="external">Iranian President Ahmadinejad rejects the IAEA findings</a> calling them absurd and says Iran won't back down on its nuclear program "one iota."</p>
<p>With this new evidence, there is new and growing concern in Israel, where a top <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/10/31/Israel-defense-chief-Iran-our-main-threat/UPI-76471320081019/" type="external">Israeli official makes it clear that "Iran is our central threat."</a> This has prompted the Israeli government to focus even more keenly on protecting their nation and people. <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57320457/israeli-minister-strike-possible-on-iran/" type="external">Israel's defense minister warned</a> of a possible Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear program. That possibility brought even more <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/149544" type="external">threats from Iran</a> which says if it is attacked by Israel, it will retaliate and start a 'street war' in Tel Aviv. One <a href="http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&amp;pageId=365765" type="external">news report</a> suggests that Iran has been preparing Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon to retaliate in the case of Israeli strikes against Iran's nuke sites.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/149544" type="external">One Iranian official also warns that Iran would strike out beyond Israel if Iran is attacked.</a> "Iranian forces will fight with the enemies with maximum might and power all throughout the European and US soil, if Iran comes under attack," the Iranian official threatened. <a href="http://cnsnews.com/news/article/iran-guard-well-kill-americans-if-they-kill-our-leaders" type="external">Another Iranian official went even further:</a> "You also should not forget that American commanders have plenty of presence and travel in the region. If you kill any of us, we will kill dozens of you," he warned.</p>
<p>Here's where we stand. It's a critical time. The United States must step up and put more pressure on Iran. We've had sanctions in place for years, but now is the time to implement new and damaging sanctions against Iran's military, as well as its economic and energy industries.</p>
<p>That's why we're supporting several pieces of legislation introduced in&#160;Congress. Here's a <a href="http://c0391070.cdn2.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/pdf/iran-sactions-legislation.pdf" type="external">summary</a> of the legislation that places greater sanctions on Iran. Strong bi-partisan measures in both the Senate and House. <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/8/out-of-the-closet-tehrans-nukes/" type="external">We can't afford to stand idly by and watch Iran develop its nuclear arsenal.</a></p>
<p>Take a moment and sign on to our <a href="" type="internal">Petition to Defend Israel, Sanction Iran for Nuclear Weapons</a>. This is the time for action. Please sign on today. The Petition is posted <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | A Nuclear Iran? Time for Tough Sanctions Now | true | http://aclj.org/iran/a-nuclear-iran-time-for-tough-sanctions-now | 2011-11-09 | 0 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter is working on a book about his religious faith.</p>
<p>Simon &amp; Schuster announced Wednesday that Carter’s “Faith: A Journey for All” will tell of how religion has sustained him and what role it plays in society. Carter, 93, said in a statement that he wanted to explore faith’s “far-reaching effect.” Carter has been a prolific author since leaving the presidency in 1981. He has written memoirs, fiction, poetry and policy books. His memoir “An Hour Before Daylight” was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2002.</p>
<p>“Faith” is scheduled to come out in March.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter is working on a book about his religious faith.</p>
<p>Simon &amp; Schuster announced Wednesday that Carter’s “Faith: A Journey for All” will tell of how religion has sustained him and what role it plays in society. Carter, 93, said in a statement that he wanted to explore faith’s “far-reaching effect.” Carter has been a prolific author since leaving the presidency in 1981. He has written memoirs, fiction, poetry and policy books. His memoir “An Hour Before Daylight” was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2002.</p>
<p>“Faith” is scheduled to come out in March.</p> | Former President Carter writing book about religious faith | false | https://apnews.com/d1c740f384f441b7ba0514e1ab6acfef | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Eric Thompson sells guns on the Internet. Of course, you may already know that. After all, his Green Bay, Wisc.-based firm, TGSCOM Inc. ( <a href="http://www.thegunsource.com/store/" type="external">www.thegunsource.com</a>), has had some high-profile clients, including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seung-Hui_Cho" type="external">Seng-Hui Cho</a>, who massacered 33 classmates at Virginia Tech last year, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Kazmierczak#Perpetrator" type="external">Stephen Kazmierczak</a>, who killed five students at Northern Illinois University last February. And surely for this, Thompson feels sorry. But don’t ask him to apologize for his business, for he’s committed to placing firearms in the warm, living hands of as many customers as possible… at the lowest possible price.</p>
<p>Since the initial shock of learning he had played a supporting role in at least two school shootings, Thompson has turned infamy into a marketing strategy. In the spirit of there being no such thing as bad publicity, he’s taken full advantage of opportunities to appear on television, including his recent FOX News sparring match with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Helmke" type="external">Paul Helmke</a> of the <a href="http://www.bradycampaign.org/" type="external">Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence</a>. This followed Thompson’s visit to Virginia Tech last month, where, almost a year to the day after the shootings, he spoke at an on-campus event sponsored by <a href="http://concealedcampus.org/" type="external">Students for Concealed Carry on Campus</a>. A school spokesman called the visit “terribly offensive” and said “the organizers appear to be incredibly insensitive to the families of the victims who lost loved ones and to the injured students still recovering from this horrendous tragedy.” But Thompson, who claims to have donated money to a Virginia Tech victims’ fund, stands by his decision to appear at the university. It’s all part of the “special responsibility” he’s been given to “help change people’s opinions.”</p>
<p>To that end, based on an email that appeared in my inbox this morning, Thompson appears to have hired Arena Strategy Group, a Republican-controlled PR firm in Wisconsin, to get out his message. The press release hails Thompson’s decision to offer his entire stock of guns at cost, supposedly to allow more people to acquire them and therefore to be armed and ready the next time trouble knocks on their doors.</p>
<p>The release speaks for itself:</p>
<p>Most business owners are upset when they don’t make a profit. Not Eric Thompson. Thompson, owner of TGSCOM, Inc, the online firearms and sporting goods dealer that sold weapons and accessories to both the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University shooters, couldn’t be happier to have sold thousands of firearms without making a dime the past two weeks.</p>
<p>Thompson’s regrettable tie to both campus shootings has compelled him to take an active role in helping to prevent future mass shootings. On April 23rd, Thompson launched www.gunsatcost.com and offered all in-stock firearms – which included over 5,400 types of guns – for two weeks without any markup in an effort to “give law-abiding citizens the tools to prevent tragedy.”</p>
<p>“The moments between when a dangerous criminal threatens the safety of innocent lives and law enforcement arrives are so critical.” said Thompson. “I am gratified I have been able to help so many law-abiding Americans buy a firearm at a discounted rate so they can protect themselves, their families and their entire community.”</p>
<p>Thompson also recently visited the Virginia Tech campus at the request of the student group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. While he was there, Thompson spoke about the importance of being able to carry a concealed weapon, including while on college campuses. He also met with friends of some of the shooting victims who share his belief that all qualified, licensed individuals should be able to carry a weapon for protection.</p>
<p>Thompson also partnered with the Students for Concealed Carry on Campus last month by supplying hundreds of holsters for their empty-holster protest. During the protest, thousands of students across the nation wore empty holsters to show their objection to the state laws and university policies that prevent law-abiding citizens from carrying concealed weapons on campus.</p>
<p /> | Guns Don’t Kill People, Irresponsible Gun Dealers Do | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/05/guns-dont-kill-people-irresponsible-gun-dealers-do/ | 2008-05-08 | 4 |
<p>By not solely condemning Nazis in the wake of the tragedy in Charlottesville, President Donald Trump opened the door for haters to brand him a “sympathizer” to the white supremacist movement, <a href="http://www.newsmaxtv.com/Shows/America-Talks-Live/vid/0_90svpynh%E2%80%8B" type="external">Bill O’Reilly told Newsmax TV Friday</a>.</p>
<p>“When you’re speaking about Nazis, you can’t bring in anybody else. It can’t be ‘Nazis and,'” O’Reilly said.</p>
<p>Important: Newsmax TV is available on DirecTV Ch. 349, U-verse 1220, and FiOS 615. If your cable operator doesn’t have Newsmax TV just call and ask them to put us on — Call toll-free 1-844-500-6397 and we’ll connect you right away to your cable operator!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.newsmaxtv.com/findus" type="external">For more places to Find Newsmax TV — Click Here Now</a></p>
<p>“Whatever you were going to say about them has to stay in a place where there can be no intrusion with anything else. So that was President Trump’s first mistake is that he equated behavior by Nazis in Charlottesville with behavior by the Antifas,” said O’Reilly, whose latest book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Killing-England-Struggle-American-Independence/dp/1627790640/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1503685830&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=%22Killing+England%3A+The+Brutal+Struggle+for+American+Independence%2C%22&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newsmedi1a-20&amp;linkId=RQXKC4CXDOQQ6V2K" type="external">“Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence,”</a> comes out Sept. 19.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newsmax.com/Politics/bill-oreilly-donald-trump-failure-charlottesville/2017/08/21/id/808810/" type="external">O’Reilly wrote earlier</a> in the week that it’s Trump’s —&#160;and the country’s —&#160;ignorance about Nazi history that led to the gaffe.</p>
<p>“The historical context of the Charlottesville reaction is that mass murder was carried out by ordinary Germans while the vast majority of that population looked away out of self-interest and fear. President Trump did not understand that and it has hurt him,” O’Reilly wrote then.</p>
<p>Denounce Nazis first, then go after far-left extremists, said the former prime-time stalwart and host of “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News.</p>
<p>“Then the day after, say this Antifa movement, they’re becoming very, very dangerous to the country and lay out that case but separately,” O’Reilly told <a href="http://www.newsmaxtv.com/" type="external">Newmax TV.</a> “When he didn’t do it separately and he brought them both in together, that gave the Trump haters the license to brand him a sympathizer. Disgusting, despicable, it’s a lie, but that’s what the Trump haters did.”</p>
<p>O’Reilly was then asked about how Trump should handle Gary Cohn, his chief economic adviser, <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/gary-cohn-trump-administration-do-better-condemning/2017/08/25/id/809727/" type="external">who came out critically</a> of Trump’s reticence to denounce the alt-right in an interview Thursday.</p>
<p>“I would say, ‘I’ve spoken to Gary, he’s a close friend, he’s doing a great job and I respect his point of view. And I’ve learned some lessons in this case and going forward, we’re going to do it differently,'” O’Reilly said.</p>
<p>Whether Trump takes that tack isn’t as important as recognizing the what the long view is of Democrats and the media.</p>
<p>“There’s only one bottom line on Donald Trump: get him out of office; that’s what’s happening here,” O’Reilly said.&#160;“And the media has invested in that, the far left has invested in that, the Democratic Party has invested in that.</p>
<p>“That’s a lot of people trying to get him out of office. So you’re not going to get any honesty on this level. So President Trump has got to understand that. He knows his base is still with him but he’s got to be very careful going forward and be as magnanimous as possible,” O’Reilly said.</p> | Bill O'Reilly: Trump's Charlottesville Response a Mistake | false | https://newsline.com/bill-oreilly-trumps-charlottesville-response-a-mistake-2/ | 2017-08-25 | 1 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Macias was nominated for the award by his daughter, Marissa, a student at New Mexico State University. Her nomination letter outlined Macias’ public-service career, including his 16-year stint as a state senator for District 36, which covers Doña Ana County.</p>
<p>She called Macias “a staple of the New Mexico community (who) has assisted generations of New Mexicans’ fight for their rights, improve their communities, and transition into leadership roles themselves.”</p>
<p>Macias is a native of Doña Ana County. He was NMSU’s first Hispanic student-body president. He is a former Doña Ana County manager, a former executive director of New Mexico Legal Aid, a former executive director of the binational Border Environmental Cooperation Commission, and a former executive director of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance.</p>
<p>In a statement, Macias said he was honored to receive the award and humbled to have been nominated by his daughter.</p>
<p>“Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month is important to our region,” he said in the statement. “I’m certain the selection committee had dozens of outstanding people to look at. That they chose me is a high honor that I cherish. To have been nominated with such passion and strength by Marissa makes the award so much more special. I am truly touched and grateful.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2016 the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.)</p>
<p>Visit the Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, N.M.) at <a href="http://www.lcsun-news.com" type="external">www.lcsun-news.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</p>
<p>_____</p> | Macias receives Hispanic leadership award | false | https://abqjournal.com/870280/macias-receives-hispanic-leadership-award.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p>Image source: Google.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The first thing I do when I purchase a new smartphone is go to the app store and download a bunch of apps made by Google -- Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Drive, to name a few. Even on an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, I prefer to use a lot of the Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) subsidiary's services. And Google makes it easy to use its services regardless of what platform you're using.</p>
<p>Google's advertising business model relies on reaching the widest possible audience to maximize revenue. But Google's newest software -- a virtual assistant simply called Google Assistant -- is available only on the new hardware Google unveiled at the beginning of the month. (A less robust version of the software is available through its new chat app Allo as well.)</p>
<p>The decision represents a major shift in strategy for Google that bears further examination.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>At the top of Google's keynote earlier this month, CEO Sundar Pichai told the audience, "We are moving from a mobile-first to an AI-first world." The user interface has moved from desktop PCs, to the web, to mobile, and now you can literally have a conversation with your computer. Whether that computer is a PC, phone, watch, or some cross between a speaker and a HAL 9000 doesn't matter.</p>
<p>There are a growing number of AI assistants: Siri, Cortana, Alexa, Viv, and now Google Assistant.</p>
<p>Apple used Siri to further differentiate the iPhone, and clandestinely break its reliance on Google search. (Siri uses Bing for search results.)</p>
<p>Microsoftintroduced Cortana to differentiate Windows Mobile, but it's since brought the AI to several platforms, including Windows 10, iOS, and Android.</p>
<p>Amazon.com introduced Alexa as part of its Echo speaker, and when the product took off, it extended it to its Kindle Fire tablets.</p>
<p>Google finds itself competing against a range of competitors, all of which have established user bases: Siri on iPhones, Cortana on Windows PCs, and Alexa on Echo and Kindle. Google's ability to overcome the competition simply through releasing another app in the Play Store or App Store is doubtful. Instead, it opted to integrate the software in some new high-end hardware, and compete in that market.</p>
<p>Assistant functions as a differentiating factor for the Pixel and Home. Google showed off how much more powerful Google Assistant is compared with Alexa or Siri, since it's backed by Google's knowledge graph. The AI is one of the few things that differentiates the Pixel from other Android smartphones.</p>
<p>The bigger problem for Google with Google Assistant is that the nature of the service is very hard to monetize. Unlike Google Search, which produces a list of query results that Google can easily slip some ads into, Google Assistant produces just one result per query -- hopefully the correct result. Ads don't fit into that model.</p>
<p>By only including Google Assistant on its own hardware, Google is effectively monetizing its service through hardware sales. That's more akin to Apple's business model, especially since it's started giving away macOS updates. It's a big shift for Google, but one necessitated by the nature of the Google Assistant service and the platform Pichai sees computing moving toward.</p>
<p>The primary purpose of keeping Google Assistant exclusive to Google's hardware may be to differentiate the Pixel and monetize the software. Still, Google Assistant has the potential to benefit the company's core search product.</p>
<p>The more people use the AI-powered assistant, the more data Google receives on its users and how they respond to certain answers. Google can feed that data back into its more easily monetized search engine and improve search results and the user experience.</p>
<p>Indeed, continually improving its search engine and giving users more and more reasons to use it will move the needle much more than selling a few devices. Google runs a $67 billion advertising business. For reference, Apple sold nearly 55 million iPads last year and generated just $23 billion in sales from the device.</p>
<p>The two factors that will affect Google's decision to extend Google Assistant to other devices are how well the Pixel sells and how much incremental revenue Google thinks it can squeeze out thanks to Assistant. Investors should look for additional information from management on its earnings call.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/adamlevy/info.aspx" type="external">Adam Levy Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Amazon.com and Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon.com, and Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of Microsoft and has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. 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> | Why Is Google Assistant Available Only on Its New Hardware? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/10/10/why-is-google-assistant-available-only-on-its-new-hardware.html | 2016-10-10 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Thinking out of the box used to be the small-business mantra. It was the battle cry of the little guy. Now? Not so much. With credit tight and sales weak, who can afford the time, the dollars, the staff, the trials and errors that, at best, still yield a long wait for return on investment? Yet creative environments remain the key to success.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>New ideas help you stand out, add value, improve your business model and boost revenue. Stop innovating and you die. So how does a smart entrepreneur resolve this dilemma of dollars versus development? You guessed it: Get creative about being creative. 3 steps to the next big thing If you’re trying to craft big-deal strategy — a vision to move forward — your first step ought to be backward.</p>
<p>You’ll need breathing and brainstorming room. No one can see the horizon while toiling in the trenches. But don’t be buffaloed by the economic climate. “The recession didn’t steal our ability to come up with great ideas, or our ability to value them,” says Ed Muzio, a management consultant based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “It did steal a lot of the discretionary time and money we used to use to implement them.”</p>
<p>As a result, Muzio, author of the book “Make Work Great: Supercharge Your Team, Reinvent the Culture, and Gain Influence — One Person at a Time,” favors innovation based on practicality. He suggests a three-step process to develop and test ideas, which he credits to <a href="" type="internal">Walt Disney</a>:</p>
<p>- Idea generation. Think as if there are no constraints. What would you like to do? - Planning. How would you go about it if your vision were possible? - Critiquing. Be your own worst critic. What are the flaws in your plan?</p>
<p>Then, says Muzio, without budging on the vision, bounce back and forth between refining the plan and uncovering and correcting flaws until you’ve cleared the hurdles. “If your idea survives this process, it’s not only worth doing,” he says, “it’s already well thought out.”</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>How to press creative juices without squeezing the budget If your goal is day-to-day innovation and motivating staff to push boundaries, then remember that workplaces with such a dynamic only thrive when risk-taking, individuality and fearless thinking are rewarded. With that in mind, here are low-cost ways to encourage profitable creativity:</p>
<p>Schedule playdates. Jill Morin, CEO of Kahler Slater, a Milwaukee-based firm that’s grown from a regional architectural services provider to an international design consultancy, believes that having fun is the secret to success. “Out of play can come breakthrough ideas and solutions,” she says, underlining how affordable this can be. Workdays at Kahler Slater include:</p>
<p>- Creativity fire drills. "Quick! Pin up whatever you're working on and share it." - Midweek movie madness. Everyone gathers before a big-screen TV to watch fun and inspiring films relevant to the industry or projects. - Cocktail napkin sketch contests. The napkin blueprints are then put on display.</p>
<p>Adopt the 1 percent solution. It’s the little things that count. Whether you’re boosting sales or streamlining operations, rely on incremental innovation. “We’ve found that it’s the ‘1-percenters’ that are making a difference in this economy,” says marketing director Brent Shelton at FatWallet.com, an online shopping coupon outfit. “We find little tweaks that add up, versus the risk and people power of a big innovation.”</p>
<p>Audition partners. To expand into new markets or add products or services, “join forces with other marketers to bring in more revenue without having to make a risky up-front investment,” suggests Alexander Hiam, author of “Business Innovation for Dummies.” An added benefit is that you also tap the partner’s experience and brain trust.</p>
<p>Define expectations. Rather than roam the territory, ask your advisors and employees to create “inside the box,” advises Shawn and Kevin Coyne, co-authors of “Brainsteering: A Better Approach to Breakthrough Ideas.” “Research shows that managers find more valuable ideas when they think within constraints rather than trying to think entirely open-endedly,” say the Coynes. For instance, a midsize bank wanted growth ideas that would pay off within 12 months and cost no more than $5,000 a branch. A brainstorming workshop produced several ideas, including a marketing effort that focused on branches located near other banks that local newspapers reported as likely to fail.</p>
<p>Make it top-down. Grassroots innovation begins with senior staff. “Only then will workers take out-of-the-box thinking seriously and not as ‘fad of the month,’” says Chuck Dymer, an innovation consultant based in Kansas City, Missouri. You need consistent and defined practices, whether a weekly idea workshop, a monthly cash bonus for best idea, or an online community for customers to weigh in.</p>
<p>Of course, innovation looks different to every business. But, says New York innovation consultant Stavros Michailidis, when leaders are committed to creativity and “invest their energy — not necessarily money — in it, creativity will flourish in its own unique way.”</p>
<p>Joanna L. Krotz writes about small-business marketing and management issues. She is the co-author of " <a href="" type="internal">Microsoft</a> Small Business Kit" and runs Muse2Muse Productions, a New York City-based custom content provider.</p>
<p>* For more articles like this, visit <a href="http://businessonmain.com?source=FOXNews" type="external">www.businessonmain.com. &#160; Opens a New Window.</a>The Fox Business newsroom was not involved in the creation or production of this special advertising section.</p> | Confidential to Biz Owners: Creativity = Cash Flow | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2010/11/05/confidential-biz-owners-creativity-cash-flow.html | 2016-03-23 | 0 |
<p>Ousted U.S. Attorney David Iglesias says he believes he was fired, in part, for failing to meet the <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/200/story/17532.html" type="external">obsessive demands</a> of a nonprofit organization with ties to the Republican Party that allegedly sought to limit the voting rights of minorities. Is there a more heinous political practice than the disenfranchisement of minority voters after so long a struggle?</p>
<p>McClatchy Washington Bureau:</p>
<p>McClatchy Newspapers has found that this election strategy was active on at least three fronts:</p>
<p>– Tax-exempt groups such as the American Center and the Lawyers Association were deployed in battleground states to press for restrictive ID laws and oversee balloting.</p>
<p />
<p>– The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division turned traditional voting rights enforcement upside down with legal policies that narrowed rather than protected the rights of minorities.</p>
<p>– The White House and the Justice Department encouraged selected U.S. attorneys to bring voter fraud prosecutions, despite studies showing that election fraud isn’t a widespread problem.</p>
<p>Nowhere was the breadth of these actions more obvious than at the American Center for Voting Rights and its legislative fund.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/200/story/17532.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | More Dirt on the GOP's 'Voter Fraud' Campaign | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/more-dirt-on-the-gops-voter-fraud-campaign/ | 2007-07-02 | 4 |
<p>Only a sage could have predicted that President Bush’s first major decision would be about federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. For the first few months of his presidency, most people expected stem cells to be a one-day story–like federal funding of overseas abortion clinics–with the usual histrionics on both the cultural right and left. But this was not to be.</p>
<p>The issue of stem cells struck a national nerve, bringing into sharp relief deep divides about right and wrong, life and death, and the meaning and source of human dignity. It introduced, in embryonic form, what may turn out to be the new bloody crossroads of U.S. politics: where giant leaps forward in medical science meet deeply entrenched differences about what makes life sacred, and where the American gospel of progress meets the biblical admonition against human pride.</p>
<p>President Bush’s address to the nation last Thursday, with great honesty and sobriety, laid out these differences and the competing goods (and evils) that underlie them. He described the “unique potential” of embryonic stem cells “to save life,” but also the prospect of a “brave new world” of “spare body parts” and “designer stem cells” made through human cloning. With the humility that he has tried to make the moral mark of his presidency, he described what is likely an accurate portrait of the American middle: “Many people are finding that the more they know about stem-cell research, the less certain they are about the right ethical and moral conclusions.”</p>
<p>Then he offered a compromise: Federal funding for research on embryonic stem-cell lines that have already been created, where, as he put it, “the life-and-death decision has already been made.”</p>
<p>This compromise was built on three principles: One, that human embryos are life–not to be discarded, harvested, cloned, or used simply “for our convenience”; two, that the hope of the sick and suffering for cures should be kindled, that the march of medical progress must continue, but that “even the most noble ends do not justify any means”; and that the government should not take life for research, but it should fund research where others have already taken life–since there is no turning back the clock, and since the memory of destroyed embryos may best be honored by giving hope to those who might still live in the here and now.</p>
<p>It was a statesmanlike speech and a statesmanlike proposal, a compromise that aimed to be at once morally serious, politically viable and practically sustainable. But whether the Bush compromise can hold is far from certain, for many reasons.</p>
<p>First, the destruction of embryos for research will continue apace in the private sector. Which raises the question: If research that involves the creation of embryos solely for research and destruction is immoral, shouldn’t there be a ban on all such research, not just on the federal funding of it? And if the guiding principle of the Bush compromise is to fund research on embryos that have already been destroyed, should the government fund research on future stem-cell lines, since, inevitably, private researchers will continue to make such life-and-death decisions in the months and years ahead?</p>
<p>Second, if this research is successful, won’t it become a regular part of modern medicine, making it hard for those who believe such research is wrong to live according to their values while remaining fully integrated in American life? Is it possible that just as a separate society of home-schoolers has grown, a separate society of “home-healers” might grow, and with it the already deep moral rift in the nation?</p>
<p>Third, what happens if the 60 or so existing stem-cell lines are “not enough,” as many leading scientists are already claiming? Will President Bush revisit his decision? Are the moral boundaries he has drawn strong enough–and widely accepted enough by the nation at large–to hold up against the next wave of medical promises?</p>
<p>For now, Bush’s decision seems to have achieved what most believed to be impossible: approval from many members of both the pro-life community and the patient-advocacy and medical research community. But this may turn out to be a Missouri Compromise–an effort to find the best possible solution, for now, with larger debates and disagreements just around the corner.</p>
<p>Throughout the campaign and during his first six months in office, the president vowed to bring a new civility and decency to American public life. After his legislative victories on tax cuts, energy and the patient’s bill of rights, his staff said he would turn his attention to America’s values, including initiatives like urging the media to put more good news in the newspaper and urging kids to e-mail their grandparents. Small and silly as these initiatives seem, they are part of a larger Bush project: to promote values without inciting conflict, to make America more virtuous without opening up the Pandora’s box of profound disagreement about what it is exactly that makes America virtuous. On a much more serious and sobering level, the president tried to accomplish this feat with stem cells: to preserve America’s shared values while reining in the nation’s deepest moral divides. It is, at best, an honorable enterprise, but whether it will prove lasting or significant, especially in the face of the looming challenges of the genetic revolution, is a great unknown.</p>
<p>After the speech, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card described Bush’s decision as “perfect for America.” Perhaps more accurately, it was a decision that perfectly reflects America’s uncertainty. A CNN/USA Today poll showed that 54% of Americans believe embryonic stem-cell research is morally wrong, but 69% believe it is medically necessary. In other words, most Americans believe it is necessary to do wrong, that it is morally right (or at least morally justifiable) to do evil. This may be the subtlety required by such life-and-death questions–the same subtlety required when good nations decide to go to war. Or it may be an untenable moral confusion–an escape from hard choices, an inability to rein in our inflamed desire for health.</p>
<p>Source Notes Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times</p> | Bush’s Stem-Cell Ruling | false | https://eppc.org/publications/bushs-stem-cell-ruling/ | 1 |
|
<p>MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Fire officials say a 104-year-old woman has died in a house fire in Tennessee.</p>
<p>The Memphis Fire Department said the woman was found unresponsive in the kitchen of a home that caught fire Friday. She died at the scene.</p>
<p>Investigators determined that the one-story, wood-frame home had a working smoke alarm. Officials said the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction in the kitchen wall area of the Memphis home.</p>
<p>The woman’s name has not been released.</p>
<p>MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Fire officials say a 104-year-old woman has died in a house fire in Tennessee.</p>
<p>The Memphis Fire Department said the woman was found unresponsive in the kitchen of a home that caught fire Friday. She died at the scene.</p>
<p>Investigators determined that the one-story, wood-frame home had a working smoke alarm. Officials said the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction in the kitchen wall area of the Memphis home.</p>
<p>The woman’s name has not been released.</p> | 104-year-old woman dies in house fire in Tennessee | false | https://apnews.com/f5fac3c4c26b4d0fa530e5e170ae9010 | 2018-01-13 | 2 |
<p>I haven't met a war-hawk that doesn't think we can solve all our problems by blowing sh*t up so it was no surprise that Ted Cruz went bomb crazy while speaking at the conservative group Americans For Prosperity's Defending The American Dream Summit in Dallas.</p>
<p>Even though <a href="" type="internal">Jon McCain and most everyone else thinks he's a wacko bird</a>, Cruz' foreign policy on the middle east is <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/cruz-dream-summit-americans-for-progress-isis/2014/08/30/id/591841/?promo_code=1645F-1&amp;utm_source=1645FCrooks_and_Liars&amp;utm_medium=nmwidget&amp;utm_campaign=widgetphase1" type="external">almost a mirror image of Senator McCain's.</a></p>
<p>Sen. Ted Cruz rallied the conservative faithful at the <a href="http://www.defendingthedream.com/" type="external">Defending the American Dream Summit</a> in Dallas on Saturday, saying that the U.S. should bomb the Islamic State (ISIS) "back to the Stone Age" for beheading American journalist James Foley.</p>
<p>"ISIS says they want to go back and reject modernity," the Texas Republican told 3,000 people at the event, which was sponsored by Americans for Prosperity. "Well, I think we should help them. We ought to bomb them back to the Stone Age."</p>
<p>"ISIS is the face of evil," Cruz said, adding that by executing Foley on Aug. 19, ISIS was "mocking America to the world." He described the group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, as "monsters."</p>
<p>Got a problem? Drop some bombs. I'm not saying ISIS isn't a problem, but I will say that the war-hawks and warmongers who have been always wrong continue to go on TV and demand we blow shit up.</p>
<p>Atrios: <a href="http://www.eschatonblog.com/2014/08/forever-bombs.html" type="external">Forever Bombs</a></p>
<p>It's way above my pay grade to know if any particular episode of bombing the hell out of people manages <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-military-airstrikes-in-iraq-boost-morale-of-thousands-of-besieged-residents/2014/08/31/4cc50f94-30d9-11e4-9b98-848790384093_story.html" type="external">to achieve some good</a>, but I do know that every episode of bombing the hell out of people ensures that our primary reaction to basically anything "bad" in the world is bombing the hell out of people.</p>
<p>A few hundred million dollars could build a lot of toilets and proper septic systems.</p>
<p>And let's not forget, Senator <a href="" type="internal">Ted Cruz was against intervening in Syria because of</a>Benghazzzziiii!</p>
<p>"It would be contrary to the Constitution," Cruz warned. "And listen, this is not the time for politics. This is a grave and serious moment. I would like to support our commander-in-chief. I would like to see our commander-in-chief focused on protecting U.S. national security."</p>
<p>But Cruz added the debate over Syria meant that Congress was not spending enough time going after the Obama administration for the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi.</p>
<p>"One of the problems with all of this focus on Syria is its missing the ball from what we should be focused on, which is the grave threat from radical Islamic terrorism," he insisted. "I mean, just this week is the one-year anniversary of the attack on Benghazi. In Benghazi, four Americans were killed, including the the first ambassador since 1979."</p> | Ted Cruz Joins The 'Bombs Away' Crowd: 'Let’s Bomb ISIS ‘Back To The Stone Age’ | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2014/08/ted-cruz-joins-bombs-away-crowd-let-s-bomb | 2014-08-31 | 4 |
<p>A ferry that crashed into a jetty in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, last month, leaving 18 people injured, will return to service this week.</p>
<p>The Steamship Authority said Monday that the ferry Iyanough is set to depart from Hyannis to Nantucket on Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The ferry hit a jetty and grounded on the rocks at the Hyannis Harbor entrance on June 16, sending 15 of the 18 injured to the hospital. The vessel was carrying 48 passengers, six crew members and three food service workers.</p>
<p>Officials have said the captain couldn't see the breakwater before the crash. Drug and alcohol tests came back negative for the captain and the pilot.</p>
<p>Officials say the U.S. Coast Guard inspected the Iyanough on Monday and deemed it seaworthy. The investigation into the crash continues.</p> | Ferry to return to service after crash that injured 18 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/17/ferry-to-return-to-service-after-crash-that-injured-18.html | 2017-07-17 | 0 |
<p>Donald Trump, Mr. Real Tough Guy, who has <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/24/politics/donald-trump-conservative-ronald-reagan/" type="external">likened himself</a>to Ronald Reagan, told Americans in 1987 that Ronald Reagan, who brought down the Soviet Union, famously declaring at the Berlin Wall, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”, <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/01/trump-used-anti-obama-riffs-against-reagan-first.html" type="external">was weak.</a></p>
<p>That’s correct; the man who was given millions by his daddy to spend and had a super-wealthy, comfortable childhood, lambasted the man who grew up poor and raised himself from nothing to the presidency, saved the country from the economic disaster that was Jimmy Carter, bombed Libya’s Khaddafy into submission, and teamed with the Pope to raise the Iron Curtain. Reagan was not tough enough for the braggart living off his daddy’s money.</p>
<p>In September 1987 Trump took out a full-page newspaper ad ripping Reagan’s foreign policy, reading, “There’s nothing wrong with America’s Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can’t cure. For decades, Japan and other nations have been taking advantage of the United States… Why are these nations not paying the United States for the human lives and billions of dollars we are losing to protect their interests? ... The world is laughing at America’s politicians as we protect ships we don’t own, carrying oil we don’t need, destined for allies who won’t help.”</p>
<p>At the time Trump slammed Reagan, he just so happened to be promoting his book, The Art of the Deal. Trump told a Rotary Club gathering in New Hampshire: “We don’t have tough people. We have nice people. But I’m tired of nice people, already. I mean, too much. I’m tired of nice people already in Washington. Let somebody be in there who doesn’t just smile nicely, who’s not just shaking hands. I want someone in there who knows how to negotiate, because that’s what it’s all about now. And, if the right person isn’t in office, you’re going to see a catastrophe.”</p>
<p>Mr. Tough Guy continued:</p>
<p>They’re ripping us off left and right,. They knock the hell out of the United States. Do they say, “Thank you?” No. Do they like us? Not particularly... We are a country that is losing $200 billion a year. We are supporting, we are literally supporting Japan, which is the greatest money machine ever created, and we created it to a large extent. Let’s not kid ourselves. We’re supporting Saudi Arabia. We’re supporting Kuwait. We’re bringing in ships to Kuwait through the gulf. We’re losing our men. We’re spending billions of dollars. So what’s happening? They don’t contribute one penny of this defense.</p>
<p>Even then, Trump resorted to the usual empty threats, continuing, “Why can’t we have a share of their money?” he asked. “We should have Japan and we should have Saudi Arabia and we should have all of these countries who are literally ripping us off left and right... They should pay for our $200-billion deficit.”</p>
<p>But how, Mr. Tough Guy, do we do that?</p>
<p>Trump’s answer: “I don’t mean you demand it. But I tell you what, folks. We can ask in such a way that they’re going to give it to us—if the right person’s asking.”</p>
<p>Oh. So Trump thought Reagan was the wrong person, and only Mr. Tough Guy could get the job done.</p>
<p>Trump told the Rotary Club crowd, “You think Gorbachev is tough, think of this character Khomeini. I mean this son of a bitch is something like nobody’s ever seen. He makes Gorbachev look like a baby. And Gorbachev is one tough cookie.” He added, “Why couldn’t we go in and take over some of their oil?”</p>
<p>Of course, now Trump is <a href="https://twitter.com/NumbersMuncher/status/703660183860469761" type="external">wailing</a> that Iran isn’t buying weapons from us.</p>
<p>In January, Reagan's son Michael <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/Newsmax-Tv/michael-reagan-donald-trump-political-conversion/2016/01/29/id/711936/" type="external">said</a>, "I get so tired of people coming to me saying 'he reminds me of your father' and I just go, 'how?' Donald Trump never supported Ronald Reagan. He supported [Walter] Mondale, he supported [Jimmy] Carter. Those are the people he supported against the nomination and election of Ronald Reagan. And If you look at what he has said and you look at what he's done over the years, it has nothing to do with conservatism and everything to do with liberalism."</p>
<p>Trump thought Reagan was the wrong person, and only Mr. Tough Guy could get the job done.</p>
<p>Mr. Tough Guy, who grew up the pampered scion of a multimillionaire and has consistently dodged tough questions, (see <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/08/23/as-rivals-snipe-trump-dodges-questions-on-details-of-immigration-plan/?_r=0" type="external">here</a>, <a href="v" type="external">here</a>, and <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/271085-trump-dodges-question-about-condemning-david-duke" type="external">here</a>) slammed Reagan as weak?</p>
<p>Mr. Tough Guy is all bluff, and always has been.</p> | Trump Says He’s Like Reagan. Except He Used to Rip Reagan. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/3787/trump-says-hes-reagan-except-he-used-rip-reagan-hank-berrien | 2016-03-01 | 0 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>On August 18, 2002, the New York Times carried a front-page story headlined, “Officers say U.S. aided Iraq despite the use of gas”. Quoting anonymous US “senior military officers”, the NYT “revealed” that in the 1980s, the administration of US President Ronald Reagan covertly provided “critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the decisive battles of the Iran-Iraq war”. The story made a brief splash in the international media, then died.</p>
<p>While the August 18 NYT article added new details about the extent of US military collaboration with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during Iraq’s 1980-88 war with Iran, it omitted the most outrageous aspect of the scandal: not only did Ronald Reagan’s Washington turn a blind-eye to the Hussein regime’s repeated use of chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers and Iraq’s Kurdish minority, but the US helped Iraq develop its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.</p>
<p>Nor did the NYT dwell on the extreme cynicism and hypocrisy of President George Bush II’s administration’s citing of those same terrible atrocities–which were disregarded at the time by Washington–and those same weapons programs–which no longer exist, having been dismantled and destroyed in the decade following the 1991 Gulf War–to justify a massive new war against the people of Iraq.</p>
<p>A reader of the NYT article (or the tens of thousands of other articles written after the war drive against Iraq began in earnest soon after September 11, 2001) would have looked in vain for the fact that many of the US politicians and ruling class pundits who demanded war against Hussein–in particular, the one of the most bellicose of the Bush administration’s “hawks”, defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld–were up to their ears in Washington’s efforts to cultivate, promote and excuse Hussein in the past.</p>
<p>The NYT article read as though Washington’s casual disregard about the use of chemical weapons by Hussein’s dictatorship throughout the 1980s had never been reported before. However, it was not the first time that “Iraqgate”–as the scandal of US military and political support for Hussein in the ’80s has been dubbed–has raised its embarrassing head in the corporate media, only to be quickly buried again.</p>
<p>One of the more comprehensive and damning accounts of Iraqgate was written by Douglas Frantz and Murray Waas and published in the February 23, 1992, Los Angeles Times. Headlined, “Bush secret effort helped Iraq build its war machine”, the article reported that “classified documents obtained by the LA Times show … a long-secret pattern of personal efforts by [George Bush senior]–both as president and vice president–to support and placate the Iraqi dictator.”</p>
<p>Even William Safire, the right-wing, war-mongering NYT columnist, on December 7, 1992, felt compelled to write that, “Iraqgate is uniquely horrendous: a scandal about the systematic abuse of power by misguided leaders of three democratic nations [the US, Britain and Italy] to secretly finance the arms buildup of a dictator”.</p>
<p>The background to Iraqgate was the January 1979 popular uprising that overthrew the cravenly pro-US Shah of Iran. The Iranian revolution threatened US imperialism’s domination of the strategic oil-rich region. Other than Israel, Iran had long been Washington’s key ally in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Washington immediately began to “cast about for ways to undermine or overthrow the Iranian revolution, or make up for the loss of the Shah. Hussein’s regime put up its hand. On September 22, 1980, Iraq launched an invasion of Iran. Throughout the bloody eight-year-long war–which cost at least 1 million lives–Washington backed Iraq.</p>
<p>As a 1990 report prepared for the Pentagon by the Strategic Studies Institute of the US War College admitted: “Throughout the [Iran-Iraq] war the United States practised a fairly benign policy toward Iraq… [Washington and Baghdad] wanted to restore the status quo ante … that prevailed before [the 1979 Iranian revolution] began threatening the regional balance of power. Khomeini’s revolutionary appeal was anathema to both Baghdad and Washington; hence they wanted to get rid of him. United by a common interest … the [US] began to actively assist Iraq.”</p>
<p>At first, as Iraqi forces seemed headed for victory over Iran, official US policy was neutrality in the conflict. Not only was Hussein doing Washington’s dirty work in the war with Iran, but the US rulers believed that Iraq could be lured away from its close economic and military relationship with the Soviet Union–just as Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat had done in the 1970s.</p>
<p>In March 1981, US Secretary of State Alexander Haig excitedly told the Senate foreign relations committee that Iraq was concerned by “the behaviour of Soviet imperialism in the Middle Eastern region”. The Soviet government had refused to deliver arms to Iraq as long as Baghdad continued its military offensive against Iran. Moscow was also unhappy with the Hussein’s vicious repression of the Iraqi Communist Party.</p>
<p>Washington’s support (innocuously referred to as a “tilt” at the time) for Iraq became more open after Iran succeeded in driving Iraqi forces from its territory in May 1982; in June, Iran went on the offensive against Iraq. The US scrambled to stem Iraq’s military setbacks. Washington and its conservative Arab allies suddenly feared Iran might even defeat Iraq, or at least cause the collapse of Hussein’s regime.</p>
<p>Using its allies in the Middle East, Washington funnelled huge supplies of arms to Iraq. Classified State Department cables uncovered by Frantz and Waas described covert transfers of howitzers, helicopters, bombs and other weapons to Baghdad in 1982-83 from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait.</p>
<p>Howard Teicher, who monitored Middle East policy at the US National Security Council during the Reagan administration, told the February 23, 1992, LA Times: “There was a conscious effort to encourage third countries to ship US arms or acquiesce in shipments after the fact. It was a policy of nods and winks.”</p>
<p>According to Mark Phythian’s 1997 book Arming Iraq: How the US and Britain Secretly Built Saddam’s War Machine (Northeastern University Press), in 1983 Reagan asked Italy’s Prime Minister Guilo Andreotti to channel arms to Iraq.</p>
<p>The January 1, 1984 Washington Post reported that the US had “informed friendly Persian Gulf nations that the defeat of Iraq in the three-year-old war with Iran would be ‘contrary to US interests’ and has made several moves to prevent that result”.</p>
<p>Central to these “moves” was the cementing of a military and political alliance with Saddam Hussein’s repressive regime, so as to build up Iraq as a military counterweight to Iran. In 1982, the Reagan administration removed Iraq from the State Department’s list of countries that allegedly supported terrorism. On December 19-20, 1983, Reagan dispatched his Middle East envoy–none other than Donald Rumsfeld–to Baghdad with a hand-written offer of a resumption of diplomatic relations, which had been severed during the 1967 Arab-Israel war. On March 24, 1984, Rumsfeld was again in Baghdad.</p>
<p>On that same day, the UPI wire service reported from the UN: “Mustard gas laced with a nerve agent has been used on Iranian soldiers … a team of UN experts has concluded … Meanwhile, in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, US presidential envoy Donald Rumsfeld held talks with foreign minister Tariq Aziz.”</p>
<p>The day before, Iran had accused Iraq of poisoning 600 of its soldiers with mustard gas and Tabun nerve gas.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that the US government knew Iraq was using chemical weapons. On March 5, 1984, the State Department had stated that “available evidence indicates that Iraq has used lethal chemical weapons”. The March 30, 1984, NYT reported that US intelligence officials has “what they believe to be incontrovertible evidence that Iraq has used nerve gas in its war with Iran and has almost finished extensive sites for mass producing the lethal chemical warfare agent”.</p>
<p>However, consistent with the pattern throughout the Iran-Iraq war and after, the use of these internationally outlawed weapons was not considered important enough by Rumsfeld and his political superiors to halt Washington’s blossoming love affair with Hussein.</p>
<p>The March 29, 1984, NYT, reporting on the aftermath of Rumsfeld’s talks in Baghdad, stated that US officials had pronounced “themselves satisfied with relations between Iraq and the US and suggest that normal diplomatic ties have been restored in all but name”. In November 1984, the US and Iraq officially restored diplomatic relations.</p>
<p>According to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, in a December 15, 1986 article, the CIA began to secretly supply Iraq with intelligence in 1984 that was used to “calibrate” mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops. Beginning in early 1985, the CIA provided Iraq with “data from sensitive US satellite reconnaissance photography … to assist Iraqi bombing raids”.</p>
<p>Iraqi chemical attacks on Iranian troops–and US assistance to Iraq–continued throughout the Iran-Iraq war. In a parallel program, the US defence department also provided intelligence and battle-planning assistance to Iraq.</p>
<p>The August 17, 2002 NYT reported that, according to “senior military officers with direct knowledge of the program”, even though “senior officials of the Reagan administration publicly condemned Iraq’s employment of mustard gas, sarin, VX and other poisonous agents … President Reagan, vice president George Bush [senior] and senior national security aides never withdrew their support for the highly classified program in which more than 60 officers of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) were secretly providing detailed information on Iranian deployments, tactical planning for battles, plans for air strikes and bomb-damage assessments for Iraq.”</p>
<p>Retired DIA officer Rick Francona told the NYT that Iraq’s chemical weapons were used in the war’s final battle in early 1988, in which Iraqi forces retook the Fao Peninsula from the Iranian army.</p>
<p>Another retired DIA officer, Walter Lang, told the NYT that “the use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern”. What concerned the DIA, CIA and the Reagan administration was that Iran not break through the Fao Peninsula and spread the Islamic revolution to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>Iraq’s 1982 removal from Washington’s official list of states that support terrorism meant that the Hussein regime was now eligible for US economic and military aid, and was able to purchase advanced US technology that could also be used for military purposes.</p>
<p>Conventional military sales resumed in December 1982. In 1983, the Reagan administration approved the sale of 60 Hughes helicopters to Iraq in 1983 “for civilian use”. However, as Phythian pointed out, these aircraft could be “weaponised” within hours of delivery. Then US Secretary of State George Schultz and commerce secretary George Baldridge also lobbied for the delivery of Bell helicopters equipped for “crop spraying”. It is believed that US-supplied choppers were used in the 1988 chemical attack on the Kurdish village of Halabja, which killed 5000 people.</p>
<p>With the Reagan administration’s connivance, Baghdad immediately embarked on a massive militarisation drive. This US-endorsed military spending spree began even before Iraq was delisted as a terrorist state, when the US commerce department approved the sale of Italian gas turbine engines for Iraq’s naval frigates.</p>
<p>Soon after, the US agriculture department’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) guaranteed to repay loans–in the event of defaults by Baghdad–banks had made to Iraq to buy US-grown commodities such as wheat and rice. Under this scheme, Iraq had three years to repay the loans, and if it could not the US taxpayers would have to cough up.</p>
<p>Washington offered this aid initially to prevent Hussein’s overthrow as the Iraqi people began to complain about the food shortages caused by the massive diversion of hard currency for the purchase of weapons and ammunition. The loan guarantees amounted to a massive US subsidy that allowed Hussein to launch his overt and covert arms buildup, one result being that the Iran-Iraq war entered a bloody five-year stalemate.</p>
<p>By the end of 1983, US$402 million in agriculture department loan guarantees for Iraq were approved. In 1984, this increased to $503 million and reached $1.1 billion in 1988. Between 1983 and 1990, CCC loan guarantees freed up more than $5 billion. Some $2 billion in bad loans, plus interest, ended up having to be covered by US taxpayers.</p>
<p>A similar taxpayer-funded, though smaller scale, scam operated under the auspices of the federal Export-Import Bank. In 1984, vice-president George Bush senior personally intervened to ensure that the bank guaranteed loans to Iraq of $500 million to build an oil pipeline. Export-Import Bank loan guarantees grew from $35 million in 1985 to $267 million by 1990.</p>
<p>According to William Blum, writing in the August 1998 issue of the Progressive, Sam Gejdenson, chairperson of a Congressional subcommittee investigating US exports to Iraq, disclosed that from 1985 until 1990 “the US government approved 771 licenses [only 39 were rejected] for the export to Iraq of $1.5 billion worth of biological agents and high-tech equipment with military application …</p>
<p>“The US spent virtually an entire decade making sure that Saddam Hussein had almost whatever he wanted… US export control policy was directed by US foreign policy as formulated by the State Department, and it was US foreign policy to assist the regime of Saddam Hussein.”</p>
<p>A 1994 US Senate report revealed that US companies were licenced by the commerce department to export a “witch’s brew” of biological and chemical materials, including bacillus anthracis (which causes anthrax) and clostridium botulinum (the source of botulism). The American Type Culture Collection made 70 shipments of the anthrax bug and other pathogenic agents.</p>
<p>The report also noted that US exports to Iraq included the precursors to chemical warfare agents, plans for chemical and biological warfare facilities and chemical warhead filling equipment. US firms supplied advanced and specialised computers, lasers, testing and analysing equipment. Among the better-known companies were Hewlett Packard, Unisys, Data General and Honeywell.</p>
<p>Billions of dollars worth of raw materials, machinery and equipment, missile technology and other “dual-use” items were also supplied by West German, French, Italian, British, Swiss and Austrian corporations, with the approval of their governments (German firms even sold Iraq entire factories capable of mass-producing poison gas). Much of this was purchased with funds freed by the US CCC credits.</p>
<p>The destination of much of this equipment was Saad 16, near Mosul in northern Iraq. Western intelligence agencies had long known that the sprawling complex was Iraq’s main ballistic missile development centre.</p>
<p>Blum reported that Washington was fully aware of the likely use of this material. In 1992, a US Senate committee learned that the commerce department had deleted references to military end-use from information it sent to Congress about 68 export licences, worth more than $1 billion.</p>
<p>In 1986, the US defence department’s deputy undersecretary for trade security, Stephen Bryen, had objected to the export of an advanced computer, similar to those used in the US missile program, to Saad 16 because “of the high likelihood of military end use”. The state and commerce departments approved the sale without conditions.</p>
<p>In his book, The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq, Kenneth Timmerman points out that several US agencies were supposed to review US exports that may be detrimental to US “national security”. However, the commerce department often did not submit exports to Hussein’s Iraq for review or approved them despite objections from other government departments.</p>
<p>On March 16, 1988, Iraqi forces launched a poison gas attack on the Iraqi Kurdish village of Halabja, killing 5000 people. While that attack is today being touted by senior US officials as one of the main reasons why Hussein must now be “taken out”, at the time Washington’s response to the atrocity was much more relaxed.</p>
<p>Just four months later, Washington stood by as the US giant Bechtel corporation won the contract to build a huge petrochemical plant that would give the Hussein regime the capacity to generate chemical weapons.</p>
<p>On September 8, 1988, the US Senate passed the Prevention of Genocide Act, which would have imposed sanctions on the Hussein regime. Immediately, the Reagan administration announced its opposition to the bill, calling it “premature”. The White House used its influence to stall the bill in the House of Representatives. When Congress did eventually pass the bill, the White House did not implement it.</p>
<p>Washington’s political, military and economic sweetheart deals with the Iraqi dictator came under even more stress when, in August 1989, FBI agents raided the Atlanta branch of the Rome-based Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL) and uncovered massive fraud involving the CCC loan guarantee scheme and billions of dollars worth of unauthorised “off-the-books” loans to Iraq.</p>
<p>BNL Atlanta manager Chris Drougal had used the CCC program to underwrite programs that had nothing to do with agricultural exports. Using this covert set-up, Hussein’s regime tried to buy the most hard-to-get components for its nuclear weapons and missile programs on the black market.</p>
<p>Russ Baker, writing in the March/April 1993 Columbia Journalism Review, noted: “Elements of the US government almost certainly knew that Drougal was funnelling US-backed loans–into dual-use technology and outright military technology. The British government was fully aware of the operations of Matrix-Churchill, a British firm with an Ohio branch, which was not only at the centre of the Iraqi procurement network but was also funded by BNL Atlanta… It would be later alleged by bank executives that the Italian government, long a close US ally as well as BNL’s ultimate owner, had knowledge of BNL’s loan diversions.”</p>
<p>Yet, even the public outrage generated by the Halabja massacre and the widening BNL scandal did not cool Washington’s ardour towards Hussein’s Iraq.</p>
<p>On October 2, 1989, US President George Bush senior signed the top-secret National Security Decision 26, which declared: “Normal relations between the US and Iraq would serve our long-term interests and promote stability in both the Gulf and the Middle East. The US should propose economic and political incentives for Iraq to moderate its behaviour and increase our influence with Iraq… We should pursue, and seek to facilitate, opportunities for US firms to participate in the reconstruction of the Iraqi economy.”</p>
<p>As public and congressional pressure mounted on the US Agriculture Department to end Iraq’s access to CCC loan guarantees, Secretary of State James Baker–armed with NSD 26–personally insisted that agriculture secretary Clayton Yeutter drop his opposition to their continuation.</p>
<p>In November 1989, Bush senior approved $1 billion in loan guarantees for Iraq in 1990. In April 1990, more revelations about the BNL scandal had again pushed the department of agriculture to the verge of halting Iraq’s CCC loan guarantees. On May 18, national security adviser Scowcroft personally intervened to ensure the delivery of the first $500 million tranche of the CCC subsidy for 1990.</p>
<p>According to Frantz and Waas’ February 23, 1992, LA Times article, in July 1990 “officials at the National Security Council and the State Department were pushing to deliver the second installment of the $1 billion in loan guarantees, despite the looming crisis in the region and evidence that Iraq had used the aid illegally to help finance a secret arms procurement network to obtain technology for its nuclear weapons and ballistic-missile program”.</p>
<p>From July 18 to August 1, 1990, Bush senior’s administration approved $4.8 million in advanced technology sales to Iraq. The end-users included Saad 16 and the Iraqi ministry of industry and military industrialisation. On August 1, $695,000 worth of advanced data transmission devices were approved.</p>
<p>“Only on August 2, 1990, did the agriculture department officially suspend the [CCC loan] guarantees to Iraq–the same day that Hussein’s tanks and troops swept into Kuwait”, noted Frantz and Waas.</p>
<p>NORM DIXON writes for Australia’s <a href="http://www.greenleft.org.au/" type="external">Green Left Weekly</a>.</p> | How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical Weapons | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/06/17/how-reagan-armed-saddam-with-chemical-weapons/ | 2004-06-17 | 4 |
<p>Small-cap stocks and the corresponding exchange traded funds have recently been gaining momentum and the momentum factor has been solid all year. The combination of those themes could bode well for more upside for funds such as the PowerShares DWA SmallCap Momentum Portfolio (NASDAQ:DWAS).</p>
<p>DWAS is up nearly 19 percent year-to-date with a significant portion of those gains recently being accrued. DWAS jumped more than 10 percent in the third quarter, making it one of the best-performing factor-based ETFs in the PowerShares stable.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>DWAS, which recently turned five years old, follows the Dorsey Wright SmallCap Technical Leaders Index. That benchmark includes securities pursuant to a Dorsey, Wright &amp; Associates, LLC proprietary selection methodology that is designed to identify companies that demonstrate powerful relative strength characteristics based on that companys market performance, <a href="https://www.invesco.com/portal/site/us/financial-professional/etfs/product-detail?productId=DWAS&amp;ticker=DWAS&amp;title=powershares-dwa-smallcap-momentum-portfolio" type="external">according to PowerShares Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>As DWAS proves, the combination of smaller stocks and the momentum factor is proving rewarding investors. Of course, there are reasons why this is the case.</p>
<p>The best-performing factor combination during the quarter was small-cap momentum, as evidenced by the Dorsey Wright SmallCap Technical Leaders Index, which outperformed the S&amp;P SmallCap 600 Index by 4.62 percent during the quarter, said PowerShares <a href="https://www.blog.invesco.us.com/small-cap-stocks-performance-third-quarter-2017" type="external">in a recent note Opens a New Window.</a>. Firming economic growth and renewed prospects for tax cuts supported the overall performance of small-cap stocks, which have the potential to do well in a strengthening economy. Within small-cap momentum, strong stock selection in information technology, consumer discretionary, health care and industrials drove excess returns.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>DWAS allocates barely more than a third of its weight to the energy sector, the ETF's smallest sector weight. The $223.2 million ETF holds 200 stocks.</p>
<p>Small-cap stocks and ETFs such as DWAS could benefit from some news out of Washington, D.C., including tax reform and a possible interest rate hike in December.</p>
<p>I believe that factor performance in the fourth quarter of 2017 will likely depend on whether or not the Republican-controlled Congress can pass tax reform legislation, said PowerShares. Also key will be continued global expansion, which I believe appears solid, given the September manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index readings in both developed and emerging markets.</p>
<p>DWAS is positioned cyclically as the technology, financial services and industrial sectors combine for over 55 percent of the ETF's weight. Those sector historically perform well when rates rise.</p>
<p>Related Links:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/17/10/10169169/guarding-against-inflation-for-a-nominal-fee#/null" type="external">A Cheap Inflation-Fighting ETF Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/17/10/10169166/an-etf-levered-to-the-cryptocurrency-trade" type="external">An ETF For The Bitcoin Trade Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.</p> | Sizing Up Small-Cap Momentum | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/13/sizing-up-small-cap-momentum.html | 2017-10-13 | 0 |
<p>According to separate statements released by CVS and Walmart Canada, a Canadian information technology vendor may have potentially leaked credit card data possibly affecting millions of users reported by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/18/business/cvs-and-walmart-canada-are-investigating-a-data-breach.html?_r=0" type="external">The New York Times.</a></p>
<p>The two retailers have temporarily suspended their internet photo database services and associated mobile services. The severity of the breach hasn’t yet been determined, but the two companies have exhorted customers to scrutinize credit card records.</p>
<p>PNI Digital Media, the third party merchant, hosts the companies photo sites and stores customers’ payment transactions and profiles. In addition, PNI’s investor relations page also details that it services Cosco. But on Friday the page was discontinued, however, Cosco’s site appears to be functioning normally.</p>
<p>PNI is a subsidiary of Staples, which was victimized by an online data intrusion of its own in 2014. A spokesman for Staples authenticated PNI’s investigation into a credit card hack.&#160;“If an issue is discovered, it is important to note that consumers are not responsible for any fraudulent activity on their credit cards that is reported on a timely basis,” he said. “We take the protection of information very seriously.”</p>
<p>I.T. vendors are more suspectable to attacks as scores of franchises continue to outsource their technology operations. According to Adam Levin, founder of IDT911, an online security firm,&#160;“Breaches have become a certainty in life, and everybody’s got to step up their game,” he said. “Even if the problem stems from a vendor, the retailer’s reputation is harmed, and it ends up in the middle of lawsuits.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, a CVS spokesman substantiated that their pharmacy’s e-commerce site was conducted separately and remained secure, and</p>
<p>Erin Pensa, a CVS spokeswoman, said that the pharmacy chain’s main e-commerce site, as well as sites dedicated to contact lens sales and the chain’s medical clinics, were managed separately and were unaffected.&#160;“Nothing is more central to us than protecting the privacy and security of our customer information, including financial information,” Ms. Pensa said, and is working intimately with PNI and other credit card companies.</p>
<p>A spokesman for Walmart Canada, Marilee McInnis, said in a statement that the retailer’s photo processing site in the United States or its central e-commerce hubs in Canada and the United States were compromised. “Our customers’ privacy is of the utmost importance. We immediately launched an investigation and will be contacting customers who may be impacted,” Ms. McInnis said. Canadian authorities have been notified and are directing their own investigation.</p>
<p /> | CVS and Walmart Canada data compromised | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/07/17/cvs-and-walmart-canada-data-compromised/ | 2015-07-17 | 3 |
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> DAVID DOUGHERTY, TRNN: On Tuesday, May 3, thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the North Carolina state legislature in the capital of Raleigh to oppose budget cuts to public education. Proposed education cuts are expected to total up to $1 billion, targeting K through 12 schools, community colleges, and state universities. The "One Voice" rally was organized by the NCAE, or the North Carolina Association of Educators, which is the largest teachers union in the state. There are concerns that cutbacks could cost thousands of state employees like teachers, bus drivers, janitors, assistants, and many others their jobs. Textbooks, elective and arts programs, school bus services, and financial aid are just a few examples of the many areas to be targeted by the budget cuts. Students and teachers formed a strong presence in the mobilization, voicing their concerns over the potential social costs of budget cuts in education spending.
<p />
<p />TERESA MCNAIR, READING TEACHER, CUMBERLAND COUNTY, NC: Well, frankly, what we'll have are more children in one classroom, which will be difficult to manage, will be difficult to educate, because one teacher can't be it all and see it all. So more children will fall through the cracks. And that's going to be devastating for our society, because we're going to have children who are going to become adults who will not want to continue school, because they have witnessed failure after failure after failure, because we just won't have the resources to make sure they get a good education. That's critical.
<p />
<p />CAROL REINER, TEACHER, SOUTHERN HIGH SCHOOL, DURHAM, NC: We are going to be creating students that will not know how to read and write because we don't have the resources. We are going to be graduating students without being prepared to succeed in society. We are going to be setting them up for failure. The elite, the dominant group, of course do not want minorities to get educated. And this goes also because of social economics in the country. That's why. It is happening nationwide, but especially here in the South, because, as we know, education is an equalizer. If you don't educate the people, the people [incompr.] ignorant, and the people will not vote, and the people will not stand for their rights.
<p />
<p />ALEXANDER CHAFFEE, STUDENT, NC: Schools in our state need the money that pays for the programs that make our school districts and public universities some of the best in the country. Yet legislators have been slashing educational funding for years to trim the state budget. And all the while, the same people who support limiting the education budget refuse to adjust our state's policy on collecting revenue taxes from major corporations that do business in our state. No politician who claims to have the best interests of our people should prioritize putting money in the pockets of millionaires over the education of our children. And education can't be thrifty and cheap. Knowledge is incredibly valuable. In order to create well-rounded citizens, we have to give them a well-rounded education.
<p />
<p />DOUGHERTY: Later that evening and the following day, House legislators voted to approve the Republican-drafted budget bill with a 72 to 47 vote that included five Democrats who joined Republicans in support of the cuts. Several students were removed from Tuesday's hearing and detained by police after unfurling a banner on the legislative balcony and chanting during the assembly. The budget bill will now go to the state senate, which is expected to approve its own similar version, focusing on education cuts. The Republicans have a large enough majority in the General Assembly to avoid a veto by Democratic governor Bev Perdue. Also introduced in the House was a bill to reduce the corporate income tax rate from 6.9 to 4.9 percent, amid other provisions aimed at loosening restrictions on the private sector. High-income earners and businesses have been accused of interfering in the political process. Powerful businessman Art Pope and his family members donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to political campaigning in the 2010 elections, while groups he partially funded and supported gave millions more. Reverand Curtis Gatewood of the North Carolina NAACP spoke at the rally and shared what he views to be the public's frustrations with a lack of participation and influence in the decision-making process.
<p />
<p />REV. CURTIS GATEWOOD, COALITION COORDINATOR FOR NORTH CAROLINA NAACP: Well, the people are fed up. We have a misguided, misdirected pack of politicians, ultraconservative Tea Party types, who are basically misled by hype rather than the facts. They're misled by a misguided political party rather than the facts. We are--they are here because they're fed up with the cuts to the budget. They are cutting education while they're building prisons. They're cutting teachers. They're cutting everything, almost. They're trying to--look, it looks as if they're trying to repeal all the things that happened over the last three centuries that brought us together as a nation, as a country, and now it looks as if they're trying to repeal or take us back. They're supposed to be lawmakers, but they're acting like lawbreakers. They're trying to break--they look as if they're breaking laws to take us backwards. And the people have decided, whether they're educators, whether they're children, whether they are workers, whether they're part of the NAACP, whether they are ministers, they are fed up and they're saying enough is enough.
<p />
<p />DOUGHERTY: North Carolina is not the only state to have introduced cuts and changes to the public education system. Dozens of other states have also targeted public education with severe budget cuts, as federal aid from the 2009 stimulus bill is set to expire later this year. Many states are also introducing legislation that will restructure the education system through charter school programs designed to replace public schools. Some people, like NCAE vice president Rodney Ellis, who helped organize Tuesday's rally, are concerned that the charter school model could place too much of an emphasis on profit rather than education.
<p />
<p />RODNEY ELLIS, STATE VICE PRESIDENT, NCAE: Well, I think it's part of a larger agenda to actually change the face of education as we know it right now. I think that there is a massive effort to eliminate public education as a viable and successful option for our students to consider. I think that they want to impose or establish a charter school system that would actually replace public schools. And it's--there's a hidden agenda here to actually just destroy public education and make education something that certain individuals might be able to profit from, as opposed to making sure that it has the resources it needs to really, really provide our students with a quality education.
<p />
<p />DOUGHERTY: As tensions rise once again over the future of public education in the United States, a multitude of people and organizations across the country are deploying a variety of tactics to resist legislation similar to the bills moving through the North Carolina General Assembly. The NCAE has planned a statewide boycott of Art Pope's businesses, in opposition to his bankrolling of the right-wing agenda in North Carolina, where people are again asking who it is that should be forced to pay for the budget crisis in the United States. This is David Dougherty with The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End of Transcript
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | Students and Teachers Fight Education Cuts in North Carolina | true | http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D6736 | 2011-05-09 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Spirits maker <a href="" type="internal">Brown-Forman</a> (NYSE:BFA) more than doubled its fourth-quarter profit after it drained operating costs by divesting several wine brands and improved sales with the help of Jack Daniel's popularity.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Louisville, KY-based maker of Southern Comfort and Jack Daniel's brewed up net income of $165.4 million, or $1.13 a share, up 128% from $72.7 million, or 49 cents, a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were looking for earnings of just 64 cents.</p>
<p>Sales climbed 8% to $791.3 million from $733 million a year ago, beating the Streets view of $731.9 million.</p>
<p>Paul Varga, the companys chief executive, said he was pleased with the results and strategic progress made in 2011.</p>
<p>Brown-Forman continued to implement strategic initiatives, most notably portfolio changes and route-to-consumer enhancements, which we believe will position our brands and company for enduring success, he said.</p>
<p>Leading the results last year was the Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey Family, which grew sales 10%, along with el Jimador and super premium brands Herradura, Sonoma-Cutrer, Chambord Liqueur, Chambord Vodka, Woodford Reserve and Tuaca. Those gains offset weaker sales from Southern Comfort and Finlandia.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, Brown-Forman said it expects the global economic environment and consumer trends to continue to improve in 2012, though it warned that uncertainties still remain.</p>
<p>The company set its fiscal 2012 guidance range between $3.45 and $3.85 a share. Analysts are expecting a profit of $3.68.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Brown-Forman Doubles 4Q Profit as Jack Daniel's Soars | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/06/09/brown-forman-doubles-4q-profit-as-jack-daniels-soars.html | 2016-01-28 | 0 |
<p>The 2017 fiscal year was very good for FactCheck.org.</p>
<p>The enthusiasm for fact-based reporting and holding politicians accountable had never been greater.</p>
<p>We received a record amount of individual donations — <a href="" type="internal">1,777 gifts totaling $201,311</a>&#160;— from our readers.</p>
<p>We received postcards from a group of Vermont residents who simply thanked us for our work. Many of those postcards displayed a quote from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/403/713" type="external">New York Times Co. v. the United States</a>.&#160;“The press was to serve the governed, not the governors,” Black wrote.</p>
<p>We even had one supporter offer to donate a portion of his profits from the sale of hats emblazoned with the word “Facts.” It was an offer that we respectfully declined.</p>
<p>But maintaining such enthusiasm is not easy.&#160;Our 2018 fiscal year began on July 1, and in the first three months of the fiscal year, we have received a little more than $9,000.</p>
<p>So&#160;please consider a donation to FactCheck.org.</p>
<p>Without your continued support, we cannot cut through the political spin and provide the facts to tens of millions of our readers and viewers.</p>
<p>FactCheck.org started 13 years ago with a founding grant from the Annenberg Foundation, and we continue to draw on that grant to operate. That founding grant is dwindling, but we have been able to extend the life of FactCheck.org with the help of individual donations.</p>
<p>Our future is increasingly in your hands.</p>
<p>We do not accept advertising. We do not accept any funds from unions, partisan organizations or advocacy groups. We do not accept donations from corporations with the exception of Facebook, which provides funding as part of Facebook’s initiative to combat the spread of so-called “fake news.” We rely on a shrinking founding grant and your generosity.</p>
<p>Credit card donations may be made through&#160; <a href="https://giving.aws.cloud.upenn.edu/fund?fastStart=simpleForm&amp;program=ANS&amp;fund=602014" type="external">our “Donate” page</a>, which has been revamped and now allows contributors to make recurring monthly donations.</p>
<p>If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, 202 S. 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-3806.&#160;Checks can be made payable to “The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania” with a note in the memo field indicating the donation&#160;is for FactCheck.org.</p>
<p>FactCheck.org is a project of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. The University of Pennsylvania is a 501(c)(3) organization, and your contribution is deductible from U.S. federal income taxes to the full extent allowed by law.</p>
<p>As part of our commitment to transparency, we disclose the names of all donors who give us $1,000 or more. It’s the reason why Inside Philanthropy <a href="https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2015/4/9/the-funders-behind-the-fact-checkers.html" type="external">praised</a> our disclosure policy as “exemplifying nonprofit transparency.”</p>
<p>Thank you for reading FactCheck.org. Have a happy holiday season, and a safe and healthy new year.</p>
<p>Update, Jan. 1: We have received nearly 500 donations totaling more than $55,000 since Dec. 15. Thanks to all who have donated.&#160;&#160;</p> | Why Donate? Because Facts Matter | false | https://factcheck.org/2017/12/donate-facts-matter/ | 2017-12-15 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">I wrote about the adoption of Discovery</a> before, but Pat ably handled the parent aspect of the story — how parents can help with homework, even when that homework is on a screen instead of paper.</p>
<p>Numerous people in my life have asked me about digital learning, and readers ( <a href="" type="internal">who are mostly oldish</a>) have expressed skepticism about whether students should be spending time with screens instead of good old-fashioned books and people.</p>
<p>First, the research: Most of what we know about digital learning tools suggests that it all hinges on how well it is used. Technology is no silver bullet, but it can augment good teaching. It is certainly no substitute for good teaching and human interaction.</p>
<p>Now, on to my personal, conflicted feelings on the matter: I really like old-fashioned things, and have a sort of gut aversion to certain technological advances. I’m a late adopter of everything, but I keep finding myself coming around. I stubbornly refuse to have a Kindle because I like the feel of books. But when I’m reading academic journal articles (which I do a lot, because I’m a party animal), I enjoy reading them on my partner’s iPad instead of having to print them out. I refused to shop online for years, until one day I tried it and liked the convenience. And my partner is slowly convincing me that video games can tell intricate stories and challenge the player to think tactically and critically.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>So where does that leave me? It leaves me with a strong affinity for old-fashioned things, working at a print newspaper while writing on a blog.</p>
<p>I think in 10 years, we’ll be shocked that anyone was skeptical about transitioning from paper textbooks to interactive, high-tech materials.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Discovery Fever | false | https://abqjournal.com/150996/discovery-fever.html | 2 |
|
<p>The idea floated by "intel" agencies that Steven Paddock didn't fit the profile of a Muslim convert is absurd on its face, and further proof that the keystone clowns and their "profilers' at the FBI haven't a clue. How can they profile what they refuse to acknowledge, learn about or recognize"</p>
<p>The fact is the FBI has nothing. Over a week after the monstrous slaughter, they have nothing and yet they have dismissed ISIS claims out of hand, despite the fact ISIS does not take credit for attacks that are not theirs. Not only did they take credit, they did something they never did before - they doubled and tripled down. The Islamic State (IS) featured an infographic on the Las Vegas attack in the 100th issue of its al-Naba weekly newspaper, and indicated that the shooter, "Abu Abdul Barr al-Amriki," had converted to Islam six months ago.</p>
<p>Jihad is the only motive that makes any sense. And the fact that the FBI has&#160;nothing&#160;else points to that. That Steven Paddock left no digital trail might very well be deliberate - to show how incompetent our law enforcement agencies are. ISIS took credit for the downing of the Russian jetliner in the Sinai. Everyone in law enforcement dismissed that too. Until ISIS provided proof a couple of weeks later, that is. I suspect we may see the same thing happen here. The Vegas attack mirrors the sophisticated planning and secrecy consistent with more complex ISIS plots like Sinai explosion of Russian airliner.</p>
<p>We have been told that because Paddock was white and 64, it is unlikely that he would be a convert to Islam. Why? Islam is ideological - it's not a race or an age. It's a belief system. It's also being said that if Paddock was a convert, Homeland Security is going to have to change their whole approach to jihad terror in the Homeland. We can only hope. Because this war has nothing to do with age, race or gender - it's religious. And profiling is required. On the top of my watch list would be converts. Who would be attracted to an ideology that is the cause of hatred, misogyny, subjugation and slaughter?</p>
<p><a href="http://news.siteintelgroup.com/blog/index.php/categories/jihad/entry/426-what-isis-has-to-lose-if-it's-lying-about-las-vegas-1" type="external">What ISIS has to Lose if it's Lying about Las Vegas</a></p>
<p>He was a&#160; <a href="https://pamelageller.com/2017/10/paddock-hapy-go-lucky.html/" type="external">happy-go-lucky guy&#160;</a>who drank and gambled&#160; <a href="https://pamelageller.com/2017/10/paddock-never-drank-alcohol.html/" type="external">until he stopped</a>.</p>
<p>He made&#160; <a href="http://pamelageller.com/2017/10/las-vegas-shooter-shooter.html/" type="external">multiple trips to the Middle East.</a></p>
<p>Sophisticated planning and secrecy consistent with more complex ISIS plots like Sinai explosion of Russian airliner.</p>
<p><a href="https://pamelageller.com/2017/10/lv-shooter-fbi-garland-boston-orland.html/" type="external">As FBI investigates Vegas attack, remember its FAILED investigations of Orlando jihadi mass murderer, Boston bombers, Garland jihadis, Boston beheaders</a></p>
<p>Here are some older, white converts who have been convicted of jihad terror.</p>
<p />
<p>Muslim convert Jack Roche convicted of plotting with Al Qaeda to blow up the Israel embassy in Australia.</p>
<p />
<p>Muslim convert Valentine Vladimir Mazlovsky, ISIS solider.</p>
<p />
<p>Don Morgan, Muslim convert, ISIS supporter.</p>
<p />
<p>Daniel Patrick Boyd is an American who in July 2009 was convicted for his participation in a jihadist terrorist cell in North Carolina</p>
<p />
<p>"Only Allah can judge me": Muslim convert Richard Dart refuses to stand in dock as he is sentenced to six years in prison for terrorism offences</p>
<p>Muslim convert Sebastian Gregerson an Islamic State "soldier" convicted of plotting violent jihad was sentenced to four years in federal prison</p>
<p><a href="http://imgur.com/vGFFPUM" type="external" /></p>
<p>And these&#160; <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/09/09/ginger-jihadis-why-redheads-are-attracted-to-radical-islam/" type="external">gingers.</a></p>
<p>Jamaal Uddin Jordan Horner</p>
<p>A member of the notorious "Muslim Patrol," which threatened to "kill the non-believers." Renounced his previous lifestyle of boozing and "seeing girls." Jailed for assault and for using threatening words and behaviour.</p>
<p><a href="http://imgur.com/3SP2Ie6" type="external" /></p>
<p>Salahuddin al-Britani Richard Dart A middle-class white boy who became a Christian while working at a kids' camp in the US, Dart was converted to radical Islam by hate preacher Anjem Choudary and later jailed for planning terrorist activities.</p>
<p><a href="http://imgur.com/KWFWodL" type="external" /></p>
<p>Sherafiyah Lewthwaite Samantha Lewthwaite</p>
<p>A troubled child who sought solace with Muslim neighbours, Lewthwaite has a string of terrorist ex-boyfriends (some imprisoned, some dead), including 7/7 suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay - hence her nickname, the "White Widow." Currently on the run and a member of terrorist group Al-Shabaab.</p>
<p><a href="http://imgur.com/EibjdA2" type="external" /></p>
<p>Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad Tim Winter</p>
<p>Cambridge director of studies who once recorded a video describing homosexuality as a sinful and "inherent aberration," and gays as "ignorant people who don't know what their bodies are for."</p>
<p><a href="http://imgur.com/Xli0hge" type="external" /></p>
<p>Brother Adam&#160;(centre) MC Chippy</p>
<p>Chippy is not known to be an extremist, but his videos are used as a recruitment tool in Bradford and elsewhere.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://imgur.com/lxX8AEb" type="external" /></p>
<p>Matthew Hamza&#160;(centre) Matthew Newton</p>
<p>Described by his family as a quiet lad, Newton started recruiting for the Taliban from a stall in Longsight market in Manchester. Jailed for trying to radicalise undercover police officers.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://imgur.com/I64Jphi" type="external" /></p>
<p>Abu Jibreel Paul Mellor</p>
<p>Formally a Lance Corporal in the Irish Guards, Mellor turned his back on the Queen to become a self-declared "soldier of Allah."&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://imgur.com/0Rx93m6" type="external" /></p>
<p>Abdul-Aziz ibn Myat David Myatt</p>
<p>Myatt converted to Islam, becoming a notable apologist for suicide bombing civilians.</p>
<p><a href="http://imgur.com/sivOx0T" type="external" /></p>
<p>Abdullah Deen</p>
<p>Former drum and bass MC, Millwall fan, cocaine dealer and self-employed perfume salesman before his conversion to radical Islam.</p>
<p>Pamela Geller's shocking new book,&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947979000/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1506028280&amp;sr=8-1-fkmr0&amp;keywords=fatwa+haunted+in+america" type="external">"FATWA: HUNTED IN AMERICA"</a>&#160;is now available on Amazon. It's Geller's tell all, her story - and it's every story - it's what happens when you stand for freedom today.&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947979000/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1506028280&amp;sr=8-1-fkmr0&amp;keywords=fatwa+haunted+in+america" type="external">Buy it. Now. Here.</a></p>
<p>Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of <a href="https://pamelageller.com/2017/10/paddock-fits-convert-profile.html/" type="external">PamelaGeller.com</a> and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Contrary to FBI Hooey, Steven Paddock Fits the Profile of a Convert | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2017/10/11/contrary-to-fbi-hooey-steven-paddock-fits-the-profile-of-a-convert/ | 2017-10-11 | 0 |
<p>There is no greater irony in American politics than the birther madness swirling around secondary presidential frontrunner Ted Cruz (and to a lesser extent, distant thirdster Marco Rubio).</p>
<p>The Republican establishment loathes Cruz even more than they hate Donald Trump. He’s been nothing but a thorn in their side since he arrived in Washington in 2013, fresh from annoying the Bush family in Texas. And yet it’s got to be dawning on them, with the Iowa caucuses looming, that despite the best efforts of the fulminating fist shakers vying to be the voice of the Ragin’ Establishment, Cruz is the only Republican candidate who has a prayer of keeping the nomination out of The Donald’s hands (and Sarah Palin’s hands off the <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/01/19/3740724/sarah-palin-donald-trump-endorsement/" type="external">Department of Energy</a>). If it turns out he’s not eligible to serve as president (or vice president)—and some heavy-hitting legal and legal historical minds, none of whom are crazy conspiracy theorists, say he’s not—well, doesn’t that just beat all.</p>
<p>The Cruz birther controversy, now the subject of a Texas lawsuit, offers multiple layers of schadenfreude for Democrats, who no doubt recall grimly how the president of the United States was essentially made to show his papers, while some states pondered laws that would have forced any presidential candidate who wanted to get on the ballot to do the same.</p>
<p>In fact, the Obama birthers went beyond claiming that his birth in the state of Hawaii was a fiction.</p>
<p>Some of them also floated the idea that Obama’s late mother colluded with unnamed others to fake an American birth for her Kenyan baby in order to foment a dark conspiracy to place a Mau Mau Marxist Manchurian Candidate—who also was a clandestine Muslim hiding in plain sight inside a scary, black Christian Chicago church—into the White House to destroy America. (Similar insane right-wing conspiracy theories haunted John McCain in 2000, tethered to the time he spent in a Vietcong gulag, as did questions about his eligibility given his birthplace in the Panama Canal Zone.) Birther “intellectual” and convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza even made a “documentary” in which he claimed to ferret out Obama’s secret African-anti-colonial leanings; apparently unencumbered by the detail that America’s British-born founders were pretty anti-colonial themselves.</p>
<p>One and three-quarter Obama presidential terms later, the Grand Old Party finds itself between a Trump and a “punch face.” And the man Bill Maher would like to throttle, backed by “cantaloupe calves” birther Steve King, is getting hoisted on the far right’s petard by an O.G. birther and occasional conservative with “New York values.”</p>
<p>Like it or not, it’s a perfectly reasonable strategy for Trump, if anything he says or does can be called reasonable. It keeps him consistent with his “pox on both houses” outsider brand. If Trump demanded to see the Democratic president’s birth certificate, why wouldn’t he hold a potential future Republican president to the same standard?</p>
<p>Even more to the point, Trump’s candidacy is at its core a blue-collar revolt against unlawful migration and demographic change. His loyal subjects hate a lot of things, including Barack Obama, but they hate illegal immigration most of all. If it turns out that the half-Cuban Cruz, who until he renounced his Canuckness 15 months ago was a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, is just another brand of sneak thief, the wrath of the Trumpites will, and probably should, be upon him.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Republican establishment has to be wondering, deep in the depths of its collective soul, whether the machine-gun-voiced Texan, who has spent his entire brief Senate career blowing up his own party’s battlements, maligning Republican leaders, luring House Tea Party freshmen into taking fruitless votes to try to sink Obamacare, and even goading his party into shutting down the government—wrecking the Republican brand in the process—might actually be a Manchurian Candidate of sorts; or more accurately an “Ontarian Candidate,” sent by mysterious forces north of the border to destroy the Republican Party forever. If the next time we see Mitch McConnell, he’s zombie-faced and calling Cruz “the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever met in my life,” I think we’ll know the deal.</p>
<p>Oh, the irony.</p> | Of Course Donald Trump Is a Ted Cruz Birther | true | https://thedailybeast.com/of-course-donald-trump-is-a-ted-cruz-birther | 2018-10-06 | 4 |
<p>Americans are hurting, and in communities across the country, our faith in government is fast eroding. A slow recovery and anemic job market has turned unemployment from a personal tragedy into a national crisis, depriving our economy of legions of people who are desperate to create and contribute. Social Security and Medicare, programs that provide a vital lifeline to millions of Americans, are on the verge of disappearing. Unpredictable turmoil abroad and looming environmental crises make achieving energy security not just important, but urgent. And because the money we spend as a nation consistently outpaces the money we bring in, the burden of our increasing debt — including the interest we pay on it — will soon crush us.</p>
<p>It is no secret that our country is at a critical juncture. But bitter partisanship, Congressional gridlock, and a blinding obsession with “beating the other side” are making these problems increasingly worse. Crucial responsibilities, such as creating good jobs and forging a secure energy future, lie forgotten and forsaken in favor of bickering and blame. That is why in 2016, it is imperative that we elect a leader who is committed to facing America’s challenges with the support of both parties, working together towards pre-established goals to solve our country’s most pressing problems.</p>
<p>No one knows who our next president will be, but everyone knows that president will have to engage Democrats and Republicans to get anything done. Building trust across party lines is the first step that must be taken to get our elected leaders working together. The candidates that make this promise are taking their first step to becoming a Problem Solver President.</p>
<p>1) Embrace the Agenda</p>
<p>I believe that America needs a National Strategic Agenda focused on four goals</p>
<p>– Create 25 million new jobs over the next 10 years; – Secure Social Security and Medicare for another 75 years; – Balance the federal budget by 2030; – Make America energy secure by 2024.</p>
<p>2) Promise to Act in the First 30 Days</p>
<p>If elected, I will gather House and Senate leaders from both parties within my first 30 days to begin work on at least one of the four goals in the National Strategic Agenda and to commit to a bipartisan process to achieve the agreed upon goal or goals.</p>
<p>3) Go on the Record</p> | How to Tell if Presidential Candidates are Serious About Problem Solving | false | https://nolabels.org/blog/tell-presidential-candidates-serious-problem-solving/ | 2015-11-10 | 2 |
<p>A large crowd of protesters gathered outside the White House on Wednesday to demand an independent investigation into President Trump’s ties to Russia.</p>
<p>The protest was organized to take place at noon Eastern, with participants demanding that a special prosecutor be put in charge of the ongoing Trump/Russia investigation. Protesters are assembling just one day after the controversial firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was overseeing the agency’s probe into conversations the Trump campaign had with Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 campaign. Progressive groups like MoveOn.org sent out emails promoting the demonstration adjacent to the North Lawn of the White House.</p>
<p>Crowd starting to amass in front of the White House. <a href="https://t.co/mueF0Np75p" type="external">pic.twitter.com/mueF0Np75p</a></p>
<p>— Jesse Berney (@jesseberney) <a href="https://twitter.com/jesseberney/status/862339870420860932" type="external">May 10, 2017</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p>The crowd was apparently so big that the chants of “No more lies!” were audible from the White House briefing room, where&#160;reporters were assembled to ask&#160;questions about the Comey firing. The Los Angeles Times’ Mike Memoli tweeted a photo of the crowd, reporting that the chanting was heard by all reporters present.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>The protest wasn’t attended by just liberals — one particular sign caught the eye of Twitter user Cate Hall, who tweeted a sign held by a woman that read “I &lt;3 Rule of Law – CONSERVATIVE &#160;AND NOT OK WITH THIS – Country Before Party.” Other protesters held Russian flags originally distributed at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that had Trump’s name on them.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is currently serving as Acting Director of the FBI in Comey’s stead, and is scheduled to testify before a Senate committee on Thursday. Trump has not, as of this writing, announced any potential candidates to replace Comey. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is <a href="" type="internal">actively opposing</a> any effort to appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the Trump/Russia probe, arguing that it would complicate ongoing Congressional investigations.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Jamie Green is a contributor for the Resistance Report covering the Trump administration, and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.</p> | Protesters gather outside White House to demand independent Russia investigation | true | http://resistancereport.com/politics/wh-protesters-russia-crowd/ | 2017-05-10 | 4 |
<p>&lt;a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hillaryclinton/24728266061/"&gt;Hillary for America&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>Hillary Clinton had some company at a rally for campaign volunteers in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Friday afternoon: four Democratic women who serve as US senators, and a fifth, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, who wants to join them next January. As she makes her final push in a state whose first-in-the-nation primary she won eight years ago, Clinton is traveling with a group of prominent women politicians who are saying explicitly what she dances around—that electing the first woman president would be a big effing deal, and you should absolutely think about that when you go to the polls.</p>
<p>“This is the torch that must be passed on, that you’ll be passing on when you’re out there door-knocking—you know how important this historical moment is for us,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. She told a story about a photo of her late mother with Clinton that she keeps on her desk, and related an anecdote about a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on the subject of paid maternity leave. “A male Republican across the table says, ‘Well, I don’t know why that’d be mandatory, I never had to use it,'” Klobuchar recalled. “Without missing a beat, Sen. Debbie Stabenow said, ‘I bet your mother did!'” The audience ate it up.</p>
<p>Stabenow, from Michigan, used her five minutes to tear into the sexist standards female candidates are subjected to—something that flared up recently when the Washington Post‘s <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/bob-woodward-hillary-clinton-shouts-article-1.2519021" type="external">Bob Woodward</a> (among other male pundits) suggested the former secretary of state shouted too much. Stabenow was blunt:</p>
<p>Anyone see the movie Sufragette, yeah? You need to see that if you haven’t. We’re almost at the 100th anniversary of the women’s right to vote. But there’s always a message we get about we’re too this or too that. Wait your turn. You smile too much, you must not be serious. You don’t smile enough, you must not be friendly! You talk too much and you’re too serious and you know, I wouldn’t want to have a beer with you—or I would want to have a beer with you but you can’t run security for your country. Your hair! You know, that—Donald Trump’s hair! What about that hair! Come on! So let me say this, and I say this particularly to the women. Guys, you can listen, but the women: Don’t do this. Don’t do this. This is the moment.&#160;</p>
<p>“When folks talk about a rev-o-lu-tion,” she said, elongating the final word in a brief Bernie Sanders impression, “the rev-o-lu-tion is electing the first woman president of the United States! That’s the revolution. And we’re ready for the revolution.”</p>
<p>The presence of Klobuchar, Stabenow, and Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire had another effect: It reminded voters that, notwithstanding her claim to not be a member of the Democratic establishment, Clinton has the backing of almost all of Sanders’ colleagues in the Senate Democratic caucus. And they’re not shy about explaining why.</p>
<p /> | Clinton’s Pitch to New Hampshire: Electing a Woman Is the Real Revolution | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/02/hillary-clinton-women-revolution-sanders/ | 2016-02-05 | 4 |
<p>By Jim Finkle</p>
<p>Palmisano will remain chairman after nearly a decade as the company's chief executive, during which he helped transform Big Blue from a personal computing hardware company into a global services behemoth.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Rometty, 54, takes over on January 1. Shares in <a href="" type="internal">IBM</a> slipped 0.7 percent after hours.</p>
<p>"Given Ginni's experience running the largest portion of the business by revenue, she was a logical choice," said Macquarie Securities analyst Brad Zelnick.</p>
<p>In nine years as IBM's leader, Palmisano, 60, exited low-margin businesses including PCs, printers and hard drives. He expanded the company's offerings in services, consulting and software.</p>
<p>Rometty most recently served as senior vice president of global sales for IBM after leading its global services business, where the company is the world's biggest provider of technology services.</p>
<p>"She has done well at IBM. She has contributed to their expansion overseas -- <a href="" type="internal">emerging markets</a> -- and has done a fantastic job in that space," said <a href="" type="internal">Morningstar</a> analyst Sunit Gogia. "All the public knowledge about her performance is very encouraging."</p> | IBM taps Rometty to succeed Palmisano as CEO | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/10/25/ibm-taps-rometty-to-succeed-palmisano-as-ceo.html | 2016-03-04 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — A Santa Fe burglary suspect, who was captured by the victim on cell phone video, may be hiding out in Albuquerque, Santa Fe police said.</p>
<p>Police say the video was recorded on Jan. 6, when the female victim recorded a man they say is Darius Esfandi, attempting to pull the screen off a back window of a home on the 7000 block of Valentine Loop. Esfandi, 20, has a history of fleeing and resisting police and past drug and property crime charges, police said.</p>
<p>At about 3 p.m. the victim called 9-1-1 to say a suspicious man was repeatedly ringing her doorbell. While still on the phone, she started recording, but the suspect fled when he realized the victim was recording him.</p>
<p>The victim’s video is available on the department’s FACEBOOK or YouTube pages.</p>
<p>Anyone with information on Darius Esfandi is asked to call Santa Fe police at (505) 428-3710 or Crime Stoppers at (505) 955-5050.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Police: Santa Fe burglary suspect may be hiding in Albuquerque | false | https://abqjournal.com/340994/340994.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE – Military veterans aren’t expected to get additional services when a new outpatient clinic is built for them in Santa Fe – but they will get a lot more room for the treatment they’re already getting.</p>
<p>“We’ve added the new services already here,” said George Marnell, director of the New Mexico VA Healthcare System, as he stood outside the current clinic at 2213 Brothers Rd. “That’s why we’re so tight.”</p>
<p>“We’re excited,” Irene Rodriquez, the clinic director, said of the planned new space.</p>
<p>Chris Calvert: Will work to help speed up processing</p>
<p>They had just finished giving a tour of the current 2,200-square-foot space to Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who said veterans and clinic staff “are going to be a lot better off” when they get the new clinic, which will be more than 7,000 square feet.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Planned for the Las Soleras development at Cerrillos and Beckner roads, the clinic likely will open in 2015 or late 2014. Marnell said a meeting is scheduled between the VA and the contractor, who will be directed to come back with a construction schedule.</p>
<p>“I’ve been concerned about all the (community-based VA clinics) in New Mexico and the conditions under which they are operating,” Udall said, adding that he is particularly concerned about commute times for rural veterans in finding the services they need.</p>
<p>Santa Fe’s clinic is one that helps reduce those commutes, and the increasing use of telemedicine means more veterans can find services closer to their homes rather than driving to Albuquerque. Marnell said veterans already meet with mental-health providers via the telemedicine network. Both research studies and the system’s own experience show patients are as comfortable meeting by camera as they are face to face, he added.</p>
<p>Also, cameras transmit retinal scans for ophthalmologists to check for damage, and even exercise and nutrition classes are offered via telemedicine, he said. “Here, we can get four people at once” in an exercise class, Marnell said. The new clinic will allow eight or nine at a time, he said.</p>
<p>Tom Udall: Veterans, staff will be “a lot better off”</p>
<p>The Santa Fe clinic has 13 workers and 2,300 veterans on its health-care panel; about 900 are signed up for behavioral health services, Rodriquez said.</p>
<p>City Councilor Chris Calvert, who joined the recent tour, said another problem with the current clinic is that it’s in space designed for three offices suites. Workers can’t move easily from one section to another, he said.</p>
<p>“The new space will be bigger and the functionality will be better,” Calvert said, adding that he will work for quick processing of permits and other construction matters that may come before city government.</p>
<p>Since the project is being newly built specifically for the clinic’s purposes, the flow of patient and staff should be significantly better, Marnell agreed.</p> | New vets’ clinic will provide needed space | false | https://abqjournal.com/245830/new-vets-clinic-will-provide-needed-space.html | 2013-08-11 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE –&#160; A Santa Fe man who worked as an electrical engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory for nearly 30 years has been convicted of violating federal tax laws.</p>
<p>The U.S. Attorney’s Office says jurors Thursday convicted 61-year-old Darryl J. Gutierrez of 10 counts of filing false tax returns and one count of obstructing and impeding the administration of the internal revenue laws.</p>
<p>The office says Gutierrez faces up to three years in prison on each count when he’s sentenced.</p>
<p>According to the office, Gutierrez for years regularly and timely filed income tax returns but then stopped complying with federal tax laws and began taking steps to prevent the IRS from assessing and collecting his taxes.</p>
<p>The office says Gutierrez filed 10 false federal income tax returns for 2000 through 2009.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Los Alamos lab engineer convicted for tax violations | false | https://abqjournal.com/980167/los-alamos-lab-engineer-convicted-for-tax-violations.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>PHOENIX - Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is joining a growing list of Republican governors calling for an immediate halt to the placement of any new refugees from the Middle East.</p>
<p>Monday's announcement from Ducey came three days after terrorists attacked multiple sites in Paris, killing 129 and wounding hundreds more.</p>
<p>Ducey says in a statement that he is invoking the state's right under federal law to immediately consult with U.S. officials on any new refugee placements.</p>
<p>Ducey also wants Congress to change the law to give states more oversight over refugee placement. Ducey says national leaders must react to protect its citizens.</p>
<p>Millions of Syrians have fled their war-torn homeland this year and President Barack Obama's administration has pledged to accept about 10,000 of them in the coming year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Ducey joins other GOP governors in rejecting Syrian refugees | false | https://abqjournal.com/676766/ducey-joins-other-gop-governors-in-rejecting-syrian-refugees.html | 2 |
|
<p>The relationship of low-brow talk radio and the GOP is not a symbiotic one but a parasitic one, with the parasite being low-brow gargoyles like the relentlessly smear-mongering Sean Hannity and the devoured host being the GOP.</p>
<p>Full Disclosure: Being in the same business, I’ve had the misfortune of knowing Hannity for the last few decades. For the past five years I was privileged to occasionally fill in for his former partner Alan Colmes on Alan’s Fox Radio program. Recently, however, I called Sean at Fox and unburdened myself to the effect that I considered him to be a vicious creep whose lies have contributed to the death and misery of Americans, Iraqis and others. In light of his phony penchant for playing the Jesus card at the drop of a cheap hat, I asked if him if he thought that Jesus gave him his media platform so that he could lie and smear the populace into penury and death. A few days later I was informed that Hannity had successfully commanded Fox management to no longer employ me as a substitute for Alan Colmes. It should be noted that it was because of Alan’s personal intervention that I was originally invited to substitute, and Alan expressed his earnest regrets that Hannity had me expelled.</p>
<p>Here’s why talk radio is such a magnet for humanity most vile. If 4 out of 100 people listen to Hannity/Limbaugh/Savage et al., then these bastards (and their myriad knock-offs) are heroes because a “4 share” in talk radio land is considered to be a major success. And there will always be at least 4 or 5 out of every hundred people who have the consciousness of a scarecrow, so talk radio thrives and tacky vipers like Hannity….AND HIS SPONSORS…. make bushels of dough by corroding civilization for the rest of us.</p>
<p>It’s a much different story for the GOP though, because The Party of Talk Radio, ie., the host to the parasitical radio scumlords, needs a lot more than 4% of the population to survive, let alone prosper. But the low-brow talk radio ghouls will, ironically, continue to stoke the dangerously inflammatory coals of intense political hatred because it makes for a “hot show”; notwithstanding that by igniting the viral hatred of the GOP base, they’ve hacked that base down to its wicked core by chasing any sane American out of the pathetic GOP nucleus that low-brow talk radio ginned up in the first place. They’ll always be able to lucratively populate Palin rallies and Tea Bag cotillions with their beastly followers, but the great news is that they’re slowly but very surely destroying the Republican party.</p>
<p>And that, my fine GOP friends, is why you find yourselves where you are today…..stooped in your bunker as, one by one, your former safe houses and redoubts are raided and overwhelmed by normal Americans while you crouch beside your wind up radios, aroused as in yore, as Hannity talks his shit and you wonder why it all went away. Good f-ing riddance!</p>
<p>JAY DIAMOND is a veteran NY broadcaster, and the Godfather of progressive talk radio. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a> .</p> | Why the Left Should Cheer Hannity and Limbaugh | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/05/22/why-the-left-should-cheer-hannity-and-limbaugh/ | 2009-05-22 | 4 |
<p />
<p>When I was growing up, my mom had to buy me friends. It's okay, I've come to terms with it. Not only have I come to terms with it, but now that I'm adult and I have to buy my own friends, I wouldn't mind going back to the "good ol' days" when the cost of friendship didn't hit my wallet.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Of course, I never had to spend $26 billion (that's right, B as in billion) for my friends the way Microsoft did for LinkedIn. Now, granted, LinkedIn has 400 million friends (and who couldn't want to be friends with one in every 20 people on the planet?). And, as long they don't all want to come couch surf for the summer, that's not too bad.</p>
<p>Microsoft is the new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_friends_forever" type="external">BFF Opens a New Window.</a> for those 400 million friends, having recently announced its intentions to <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/news/345202/microsoft-drops-26-2-billion-on-linkedin" type="external">buy LinkedIn for $26 billion Opens a New Window.</a>. Microsoft likely hopes that, through <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article/345220/6-amazing-things-microsoft-could-do-with-linkedin" type="external">rich LinkedIn member data Opens a New Window.</a>, it can surface insights that will help its own users be more productive. As an example, during the announcement, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella mentioned the power of integrating <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2120736,00.asp" type="external">LinkedIn Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" /> and <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2492238,00.asp" type="external">Microsoft Outlook Opens a New Window.</a> <a type="external" href="" />. Imagine walking into a meeting and having Outlook notify you that one of your colleagues and one of the participants in the meeting attended the same college. Armed with that information, you might be able to strike up a conversation to build rapport.</p>
<p>How to Use LinkedInThe intent of this article is not to assess whether the acquisition is a good or bad one. Rather, it provides an opportunity to re-visit whether LinkedIn is a tool you should be using in your marketing efforts. Based on your own experiences, your immediate answer might be an emphatic yes or no.</p>
<p>Either way, you need to remember that LinkedIn isn't just one tool. Some ways you can use LinkedIn should absolutely be part of your sales and marketing efforts; others are more challenging. As a result, it can be beneficial to view LinkedIn in two ways: as a research tool and as a communications vehicle. As a research tool, LinkedIn is invaluable. As a communications vehicle, LinkedIn is often lower on the marketing food chain than spam <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2453354,00.asp" type="external">email Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>This week's article will focus on the benefits of LinkedIn as a research tool and, in particular, on the "inbound" aspects of using LinkedIn. Next week, we will stick with the research side of things, but shift our focus to "outbound" efforts based on research. Finally, the week after that, we'll look at the dark side of LinkedIn—LinkedIn as a communications vehicle—and highlight things you can do to overcome some of LinkedIn's inherent disadvantages.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>No discussion of LinkedIn's research capabilities can take place without mention of the LinkedIn Graph. We're starting to hear more about "graphs" these days. Personally, I find the term to be nothing more than marketing gobbledygook (wait, as a marketer, I think that means I'm supposed to love it). Graphs are being tacked on to service names left and right—Office Graph, Facebook Graph, Google Graph (actually, it's called Knowledge Graph but you wouldn't have recognized it if I'd called it that), and so on. Generally speaking, graphs are insights that are generated by using semantic search. By trying to understand a searcher's intent and the contextual meaning of the search terms, graphs try to give more relevant search results using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning based on a large database of associated data.</p>
<p>The LinkedIn DatabaseIn the case of LinkedIn or Facebook, the "database" is everything that the service's users input: profile information, location data, updates, posts, likes, and so on. In the case of Microsoft, the Office Graph leverages usage data from tools such as <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383731,00.asp" type="external">Office 365</a> <a type="external" href="" />. Why these results are called "graphs" is a bit unclear to me, although sometimes the results are displayed graphically so, sure, they're graphs.</p>
<p>Whatever we call it, LinkedIn is a massive database of professionals, their history, their skills, and their activities. And you can mine that database to facilitate your sales and marketing. At a macro level, the LinkedIn Economic Graph can help you see trends in terms of geography, job type, and more. These might help your company when making product or marketing decisions.</p>
<p>It's at the micro level that things get really interesting. At the micro level, you've got inbound and outbound data. Just like an inbound sales team takes calls as they come into your business, so inbound data on LinkedIn relates to reactively seeing who is seeing your stuff: your profile, your posts, your company's page, and more.</p>
<p>First, you. People are viewing your profile (at least, I hope people are viewing your profile). Unless those people have made their views private, you can see who is visiting your profile, and then filter or sort by time (most recent views first), company, geographic area, job title, industry, and more. A couple of years back, one of our freelance developers generated all of his work simply by monitoring the "Who's Viewed Your Profile" page on LinkedIn periodically during the day. He then contacted anyone who had viewed his profile. Let me repeat: He generated all of his work from the "Who's Viewed Your Profile" page. You can get similar insights from people who have viewed your posts.</p>
<p>Next, your company. Does your company have a page? It should. And on that page, you should be posting company updates, posting job openings, recruiting followers, and more. LinkedIn actually does a great job of providing tips, tricks, and other guidance on how to use the company page, updates, and the like to increase engagement, so I don't delve into those here. But virtually every company could be doing more to drive engagement via its company page.</p>
<p>Next, your co-workers' profiles. Even if you have over 500 connections on LinkedIn, the reach you can generate for your company is limited if you only focus on your own profile. You need to take advantage of the multiplier effect. One way you do that on LinkedIn is through the profiles of all (or at least some) of your co-workers. Consider some of the following. You will have to decide how you will motivate these actions; decide if it will be through asking, through making it part of their job description, through small individual incentives, through larger team or company incentives, or through training:</p>
<p>Think Long-TermWhatever you want your employees to accomplish, take a long-term view. What you can accomplish in month one is going to be different from what you can accomplish in 12 months. Envision what an ideal company LinkedIn strategy would be, and then work back from that utopia and identify what needs to happen to get there.</p>
<p>Before we stop our discussion of inbound efforts (and, as a reminder, we'll shift our focus to outbound next week), consider these best practices for you, your company, and your company's employees:</p>
<p>Next week, we'll explore how to leverage LinkedIn's massive database to generate outbound marketing leads and grow sales.</p>
<p>This article <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article/345532/how-to-research-prospects-and-leads-on-linkedin" type="external">originally appeared Opens a New Window.</a> on <a href="http://www.pcmag.com" type="external">PCMag.com Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How to Research Prospects and Leads on LinkedIn | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/06/23/how-to-research-prospects-and-leads-on-linkedin.html | 2016-06-23 | 0 |
<p>Story from PRI's The World. Listen to audio for full report.</p>
<p>Melbourne's harbor is the first known home of a new species of dolphin: the Tursiops Australis or "Burrunan dolphin."</p>
<p>Kate Charlton-Robb and her colleagues at Monash University in Melbourne, studied dolphin skulls from a number of museums and conducted detailed analysis of DNA, and found that Tursiops Australis is clearly a different animal.</p>
<p>"These dolphins that are now a new species had characteristics of some of the common bottlenosed dolphins, but also, the Indo-Pacific bottlenosed dolphins -- it had some characteristics of those," Charlton-Robb explained. "But it also had some different characteristics that were not found in either of those two species."</p>
<p>According Charlton-Robb, Tursiops Australis exhibits a unique tricoloration, stubbier nose, curved dorsal fin other visual distinctions.</p>
<p>There are about 150 "resident" Burrunan dolphins in Australia, to Charlton-Robb's knowledge. She says more research is needed to find out if there are other populations in the area: "In order to protect them, we need to be able to continue the research and potentially see if there are other populations in this region that are sustainable."</p>
<p>View video of the "Burrunan dolphin":</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/09/110916-new-dolphin-species-australia-science-plos-melbourne/" type="external">Read more about Tursiops Australis</a> on the National Geographic website.</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> | New species of dolphin found right under researchers' noses | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-09-20/new-species-dolphin-found-right-under-researchers-noses | 2011-09-20 | 3 |
<p />
<p>It was bound to happen. This morning, Proto Labs failed to report record revenue for the 15th consecutive quarter. Instead, the quick-turn manufacturer reported that its sales grew by a still-impressive 24% year over year to $72.6 million, which increased earnings 2% to $10.7 million, or $0.40 per share. Excluding Alphaform AG, a German 3D printing service provider acquired during the fourth quarter of last year, Proto Labs' first-quarter revenue increased 16% to $67.7 million.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Proto Labs' earnings fell in line with its guidance of generating between $72 million and $76 million in revenue. According to CEO Vicki Holt, "revenue growth from our legacy injection molding and CNC machining services was tempered by a slowdown in industrial production," which weighed on results.</p>
<p>Still, Proto Labs' first-quarter earnings showed the company is executing well, and its business is growing.</p>
<p>A record worth celebratingIt may not have been a record sales quarter for Proto Labs, but the company did serve a record number of product developers, which suggests continued growing acceptance of its manufacturing services. In total, Proto Labs served 13,249 unique product developers in the first quarter, an increase of 20% annually and 6.7% sequentially.</p>
<p>Additionally, spending per product developer increased by about 3% year over year to $5,477, an encouraging sign that customers are becoming increasingly loyal to Proto Labs' services.</p>
<p>Data source: Proto Labs.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>All of Proto Labs' manufacturing services experienced healthy growth, with the most notable being 3D printing, which grew by over 46% excluding Alphaform, and by over 100% with it.</p>
<p>Data source: Proto Labs.</p>
<p>Compared to the fourth quarter, Proto Labs' international growth slowed slightly. Excluding the benefit of Alphaform, Proto Labs' sales in Europe increased about 22.2% year over year, while sales from Japan increased about 6.1%. For perspective, Proto Labs' fourth-quarter revenue increased 22% year over year in Europe (excluding Alphaform) and 54% in Japan.</p>
<p>The margin and cash flow storyProto Labs' gross profit margin declined 380 basis points year over year to 54.6%. This was largely driven by Alphaform, which operates at a lower gross margin than the company's average. Operating expenses outpaced revenue slightly and grew by 26.3% to $26.5 million. All told, between a lower gross profit margin and higher operating expenses, Proto Labs' first-quarter operating margin compressed from 27.1% to 20.9% since last year. This could be concerning, considering a company's operating margin directly affects its bottom-line profitability.</p>
<p>Proto Labs generated $16.9 million in cash in the first quarter, 9.9% more than the year prior, and added $11.5 million of said cash to its coffers. At the close of the quarter, Proto Labs had $157.2 million in cash and zero debt on its balance sheet.</p>
<p>Looking aheadIn the press release, Holt noted, "we foresee challenges with the industrial economy over the next few quarters." Judging by Proto Labs' steep double-digit stock decline today, investors may have been disappointed to learn that the company isn't immune to the widespread slowdown affecting the majority of industrial businesses, which previously seemed like it was avoiding the slowdown. Ultimately, Proto Labs' rapid manufacturing model is transactional in nature, meaning a slowdown in industrial activity could negatively impact its business.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/28/premium-the-record-breaking-streak-ends-at-proto-l.aspx" type="external">The Record-Breaking Streak Ends at Proto Labs, Inc. Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTopDown/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Steve Heller Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Proto Labs. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Proto Labs. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | The Record-Breaking Streak Ends at Proto Labs, Inc. | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/28/record-breaking-streak-ends-at-proto-labs-inc.html | 2016-04-28 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Run as One.</p>
<p>That’s the motto plastered across the front of this season’s UNLV men’s basketball media guide, and it’s telling.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>There are high expectations for these Rebels in coach Dave Rice’s second season because the collection of individual talent in Las Vegas, Nev., is through the roof. But that is all for not if they can’t play together.</p>
<p>“Obviously it’s going to take a little bit of time to integrate the new guys with the returning guys,” Rice said. “But having said that, we feel like in time we can have a pretty good team.”</p>
<p>It wasn’t as though the Rebels weren’t good last year, but fizzled down the stretch and many felt that despite 26 wins and an NCAA Tournament appearance, they were a bit of a letdown.</p>
<p>“We were a tired basketball team at the end of last year,” Rice said. “Again, not an excuse. We needed to be a less-tired basketball team. We needed to play better down the stretch.”</p>
<p>The main returning players are guard Anthony Marshall, who will move over to the primary point guard after serving as the departed Oscar Bellfield’s backup a season ago, and then there is forward Mike Moser, a junior who has popped up on some pundits’ preseason All-America teams and was a preseason All-Mountain West first-team selection after averaging a double-double last season with 14.0 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.</p>
<p>The Rebels would likely be thought of highly with those two returning starters alone, along with several more off the bench, but they also bring in two transfers capable of starting – a former McDonald’s All-American from Pittsburgh in 6-9 forward Khem Birch (eligible in mid-December) and the league’s preseason co-newcomer of the year in guard Bryce Dejean-Jones.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Rice also landed several prep players ranked highly in all recruiting services including guards Daquan Cook and Katin Reinhardt along with the gem of this class, 6-8 forward Anthony Bennett.</p>
<p>In Bennett, the MWC preseason freshman of the year, the Rebels landed a McDonald’s All-American who was ranked the No. 6 high school player in the country last year by CBS Sports, No. 7 by Rivals.com and ESPN and No. 8 by Scout.com.</p>
<p>“The talent speaks for itself,” Rice says of Bennett. “There’s a reason why he was ranked as high as he was. But he is a terrific teammate and he’s got an extremely high basketball IQ. Those two things, in addition to his talent serve him well and give him a chance to step right in and play major minutes for us right away.”</p>
<p>With the highly touted newcomers joining the talented returners, UNLV knows there is pressure mounting. Being ranked in the top 20 of both The Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll and the USA Today Coaches Top 25 only added to the expectations.</p>
<p>“I think there’s always pressure in terms of what we do,” Rice said. “A lot of that comes externally, but then there’s also internal pressure that we feel because just like every other team in this league, we have high expectations for our own team.”</p>
<p>Head coach: Dave Rice (26-9 in one seasons at UNLV and overall)</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>2011-12 record: 26-9, 9-5 MWC (1-2 vs. UNM)</p>
<p>Returning starters: F Mike Moser, G Anthony Marshall</p>
<p>Key players lost: F Chase Stanback, G Oscar Bellfield, F/C Brice Massamba</p>
<p>Key newcomers: F Anthony Bennett, F Khem Birch, G Bryce Dejean-Jones, G Katin Reinhardt</p>
<p>This season vs. UNM: Jan. 9 in the Pit, Feb. 9 at Las Vegas, Nev.</p>
<p>Of note: The Rebels, despite preseason hype and an influx of talent, had a rough go of it this fall. In a closed scrimmage at UCLA (no fans or media were allowed to attend and score was not officially kept), the Rebels were clearly outplayed and lost by double digits by all accounts. On Wednesday, the team was taken to overtime on its home court against Division II Dixie State before pulling out a 81-80 win. “We’ve got a long way to go,” Rice said after the game. “I know that people think when I say we’ve got a long way to go and that I think we have a chance to be a good team at some point, they think that’s just coach talk or media speak, but as you saw tonight, we’ve got a long way to go.”</p>
<p>— This article appeared on page D6 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | MWC Hoops Preview: Top-Line Talent Added to Potent UNLV Squad | false | https://abqjournal.com/238166/topline-talent-added-to-potent-squad-bolstered-by-topline.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Jesse Hanes. Courtesy Ross County Sheriff’s Office.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Jesse Denver Hanes, accused of killing Hatch Police Officer Jose Chavez last August, entered a guilty plea in state court in Las Cruces Wednesday in the death a day after pleading guilty to related carjacking and firearms charges in federal court.</p>
<p>The Wednesday plea was part of an agreement with prosecutors in which six other charges were dismissed. Hanes will be sentenced in the state case in about 90 days, after federal sentencing.</p>
<p>Both pleas of Hanes, 39, of Columbus, Ohio, stipulate a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of release, said Acting U.S. Attorney James D. Tierney and Special Agent in Charge Terry Wade of the FBI’s Albuquerque Division in a news release Tuesday.</p>
<p>“The U.S. Attorney’s Office has made a commitment to prosecute those who seek to harm the courageous officers who put their lives on the line to protect us and safeguard our communities whenever there is federal jurisdiction to do so,” Tierney said in a statement.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Hatch Police Chief James Gimler, on Tuesday, said, “I am very pleased that justice is being served in this case and that the victims of Mr. Hanes’ crimes will be spared the emotional difficulty of sitting through his trial.”</p>
<p>Hanes also is facing an unrelated state murder charge in Ohio. He has not yet been arraigned on that charge.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Accused killer of Hatch officer pleads guilty | false | https://abqjournal.com/1010557/feds-suspect-in-hatch-officers-death-pleads-guilty.html | 2017-05-30 | 2 |
<p>Senator Bernie Sanders refused to directly answer a question posed to him about possible about reparations being paid to the descendants of black slaves as compensation for the oppression of their ancestors. A socialist, Sanders is not usually one to miss an opportunity to call for more state-directed redistribution of wealth in pursuit of "economic justice."</p>
<p>MSNBC’s Chuck Todd channeled professional racial agitator Ta-Nehisi Coates, describing him as “one of the more respected thinkers in the civil rights movement,” and asked Sanders why he “stop[ped] short” on the issue of racial reparations.</p>
<p>“Why aren’t you for reparations because of slavery, for African-Americans, when you’re calling for economic justice on so many other levels. Why do you stop short on that issue?” asked Todd.</p>
<p>“Well, for the same reason that Barack Obama has, and the same reason, I believe, that Hillary Clinton has,” said Sanders, before speaking about what he described as unacceptable levels of poverty nationwide.</p>
<p>Sanders also noted that a greater proportion of blacks being mired in poverty than compared with the national average.</p>
<p>Pressing for a specific response, Todd again asked Sanders about his avoidance of the issue of reparations.</p>
<p>“We have got to invest in the future,” responded Sanders, calling for America to “invest in the future”, including raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.</p>
<p>Sanders then highlighted his previous support of Jesse Jackson - another professional racial agitator - in his 1988 campaign for the presidency.</p>
<p>“Check out how many white public officials, elected officials, supported Jesse Jackson in 1988. I did, and he won my state of Vermont,” said Sanders, “Jesse Jackson is a friend of mine. I thought he ran a brilliant campaign.”</p>
<p>Coates previously criticized what he described as an inconsistency in Sanders’s political prognostications with respect to the issue of reparations. Sanders had previously claimed that pursuing reparations would be a fruitless endeavor with Republican-majorities in both houses of Congress. Coates aptly pointed out, however, that many of Sanders’s current proposals would be similarly fruitless with current Republican control of Congress.</p>
<p>Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Martin O’Malley have all endorsed the anti-American racial grievance movement known as Black Lives Matter.</p>
<p>Speaking at Univision’s “Black And Brown Presidential Forum,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uehgkZrst0" type="external">Clinton indirectly endorsed</a> reparations under the guise of generalized and government-directed redistribution of wealth. She called for sending “federal dollars to communities that have had either disinvestment or or no investment, and have had years of being below the poverty level” as per a report from the Congressional Black Caucus.</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | #FeelTheBern: See Sanders's Response When Asked About Reparations For Blacks | true | https://dailywire.com/news/2845/feelthebern-sanders-dodges-question-about-robert-kraychik | 2016-01-24 | 0 |
<p>The workers wake up each morning on metal bunk beds in fluorescent-lit Chinese dormitories, North Koreans outsourced by their government to process seafood that ends up in American stores and homes.</p>
<p>Privacy is forbidden. They cannot leave their compounds without permission. They must take the few steps to the factories in pairs or groups, with North Korean minders ensuring no one strays. They have no access to telephones or email. And they are paid a fraction of their salaries, while the rest — as much as 70 percent — is taken by North Korea's government.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>This means Americans buying salmon for dinner at Walmart or ALDI may inadvertently have subsidized the North Korean government as it builds its nuclear weapons program, an AP investigation has found. Their purchases may also have supported what the United States calls "modern day slavery" — even if the jobs are highly coveted by North Koreans.</p>
<p>At a time when North Korea faces sanctions on many exports, the government is sending tens of thousands of workers worldwide, bringing in revenue estimated at anywhere from $200 million to $500 million a year. That could account for a sizable portion of North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs, which South Korea says have cost more than $1 billion.</p>
<p>While the presence of North Korean workers overseas has been documented, the AP investigation reveals for the first time that some products they make go to the United States, which is now a federal crime. AP also tracked the products made by North Korean workers to Canada, Germany and elsewhere in the European Union.</p>
<p>Besides seafood, AP found North Korean laborers making wood flooring and sewing garments in factories in Hunchun. Those industries also export to the U.S. from Hunchun, but AP did not track specific shipments except for seafood.</p>
<p>American companies are not allowed to import products made by North Korean workers anywhere in the world, under a law signed by President Donald Trump in early August. Importers or company officials could face criminal charges for using North Korean workers or materially benefiting from their work, according to the law.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Every Western company involved that responded to AP's requests for comment said forced labor and potential support for North Korea's weapons program were unacceptable in their supply chains. Many said they were going to investigate, and some said they had already cut off ties with suppliers.</p>
<p>John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute, the largest seafood trade association in the U.S., said his group was urging all of its companies to immediately re-examine their supply chains "to ensure that wages go to the workers, and are not siphoned off to support a dangerous dictator."</p>
<p>"While we understand that hiring North Korean workers may be legal in China," said Connelly, "we are deeply concerned that any seafood companies could be inadvertently propping up the despotic regime."</p>
<p>In response to the investigation, Senate leaders said Wednesday that the U.S. needs to keep products made by North Koreans out of the United States and get China to refuse to hire North Korean workers.</p>
<p>"The administration needs to ramp up the pressure on China to crack down on trade with North Korea across the board," said top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>EXPORTING LABOR</p>
<p>North Koreans overseas work in construction in the Gulf states, shipbuilding in Poland, logging in Russia. In Uruguay, authorities told AP, about 90 North Koreans crewed fishing boats last year. U.N. sanctions now bar countries from authorizing new work permits for North Korean workers but do not target those already abroad.</p>
<p>Roughly 3,000 North Koreans are believed to work in Hunchun, a far northeast Chinese industrial hub just a few miles from the borders of both North Korea and Russia. Signs in this mercantile city are in Chinese, Korean and Russian. Korean restaurants advertise cold noodles, a Northern favorite, and Russian truckers stop into nightclubs with black bread on the menu.</p>
<p>In an effort to boost the local economy, China and North Korea agreed several years ago to allow factories to contract for groups of North Korean workers, establishing an industrial zone with bargain-priced labor. Since then dozens of fish processing companies have opened in Hunchun, along with other manufacturers. Using North Korean workers is legal in China, and not considered forced labor.</p>
<p>It's unknown what conditions are like in all factories in the region, but AP reporters saw North Koreans living and working in several of the Hunchun facilities under the watchful eye of their overseers. The workers are not allowed to speak to reporters. However, the AP identified them as North Korean in numerous ways: the portraits of North Korea's late leaders they have in their rooms, their distinctive accents, interviews with multiple Hunchun businesspeople. The AP also reviewed North Korean laborer documents, including copies of a North Korean passport, a Chinese work permit and a contract with a Hunchun company.</p>
<p>When a reporter approached a group of North Koreans — women in tight, bright polyester clothes preparing their food at a Hunchun garment factory — one confirmed that she and some others were from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Then a minder arrived, ordering the workers to be silent: "Don't talk to him!"</p>
<p>Their contracts are typically for two or three years, and they are not allowed to go home early. The restrictions they work under make them very valuable employees. North Korean laborers are "more stable" than Chinese workers, said Li Shasha, a sales manager at Yanbian Shenghai Industry and Trade Co., a major Hunchun seafood processor.</p>
<p>Chinese workers have job protections that give them the right to take time off, while North Korean workers complete their contracts with few complaints, rare sick days and almost no turnover.</p>
<p>"They won't take a leave for some personal reason," said Li, whose company shipped containers of squid and snow crab to the U.S and Canada in July and August.</p>
<p>They are also often considered cheaper. Li said that at the Yanbian Shenghai factory, the North Koreans' salary is the same as for the Chinese, roughly $300 to $385 per month. But others say North Koreans are routinely paid about $300 a month compared to up to $540 for Chinese.</p>
<p>Either way, the North Korean government of Kim Jong Un keeps anywhere from half to 70 percent of their pay, according to scholars who have surveyed former laborers. It passes on to the workers as little as $90 per month — or roughly 46 cents per hour.</p>
<p>The work can be exhausting, with shifts lasting up to 12 hours and most workers getting just one day off each week. At some factories, laborers work hunched over tables as North Korean political slogans are blasted from waist-high loudspeakers.</p>
<p>Through dozens of interviews, observation, trade records and other public and confidential documents, AP identified three seafood processors that employ North Koreans and export to the U.S.: Joint venture Hunchun Dongyang Seafood Industry &amp; Trade Co. Ltd. &amp; Hunchun Pagoda Industry Co. Ltd. distributed globally by Ocean One Enterprise; Yantai Dachen Hunchun Seafood Products, and Yanbian Shenghai Industry &amp; Trade Co. Ltd.</p>
<p>They're getting their seafood from China, Russia and, in some cases like snow crab, Alaska. Although AP saw North Korean workers at Hunchun Dongyang, manager Zhu Qizhen said they don't hire North Korean workers anymore and refused to give details. The other Chinese companies didn't respond to repeated requests for comment.</p>
<p>Shipping records seen by the AP show more than 100 cargo containers of seafood, more than 2,000 tons, were sent to the U.S. and Canada this year from the factories where North Koreans were working in China.</p>
<p>Packages of snow crab, salmon fillets, squid rings and more were imported by American distributors, including Sea-Trek Enterprises in Rhode Island, and The Fishin' Company in Pennsylvania. Sea-Trek exports seafood to Europe, Australia, Asia, Central America and the Caribbean. The Fishin' Company supplies retailers and food service companies, as well as supermarkets.</p>
<p>The Fishin' Company said it cut its ties with Hunchun processors and got its last shipment this summer, but seafood can remain in the supply chain for more than a year. Owners of both companies said they were very concerned about the North Korean laborers, and planned to investigate.</p>
<p>Often the seafood arrives in generic packaging, but some was already branded in China with familiar names like Walmart or Sea Queen, a seafood brand sold exclusively at ALDI supermarkets, which has 1,600 stores across 35 states. There's no way to say where a particular package ends up, nor what percentage of the factories' products wind up in the U.S.</p>
<p>Walmart spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said company officials learned in an audit a year ago that there were potential labor problems at a Hunchun factory, and that they had banned their suppliers, including The Fishin' Company, from getting seafood processed there. She said The Fishin' Company had "responded constructively" but did not specify how.</p>
<p>Some U.S. brands and companies had indirect ties to the North Korean laborers in Hunchun, including Chicken of the Sea, owned by Thai Union. Trade records show shipments came from a sister company of the Hunchun factory in another part of China, where Thai Union spokeswoman Whitney Small says labor standards are being met and the employees are all Chinese. Small said the sister companies should not be penalized.</p>
<p>Shipments also went to two Canadian importers, Morgan Foods and Alliance Seafood, which did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Boxes at the factories had markings from several major German supermarket chains and brands — All-Fish distributors, REWE and Penny grocers and Icewind brand. REWE Group, which also owns the Penny chain, said that they used to do business with Hunchun Dongyang but the contract has expired. All the companies that responded said their suppliers were forbidden to use forced labor.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>HIDDEN LIVES</p>
<p>North Korean workers in China are under much more intense surveillance than those in Russia and the Middle East, experts say. That's likely because Pyongyang fears they could follow in the footsteps of tens of thousands of their countrymen who escaped to China, or they could interact with South Koreans living in China.</p>
<p>"If a North Korean wants to go overseas, China is his or her least favorable option," said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in South Korea. "Because in China, (factories) have essentially prison-like conditions."</p>
<p>The vast majority of the workers in Hunchun are women in their 20s. Most are thought to be hired back home by labor brokers, who often demand bribes for overseas jobs. The laborers arrive in China already divided into work teams, each led by a North Korean overseer, and remain isolated even from their own employers.</p>
<p>"They're not allowed to mingle with the Chinese," said a senior manager at a Hunchun company that employs many North Koreans. He spoke on condition he not be identified, fearing repercussions on his business. "We can only communicate with their team leaders."</p>
<p>In a sense, the North Korean workers in China remain in North Korea, under constant surveillance.</p>
<p>"They only talk about what they need to," said a medical worker who confirmed their nationality and had cared for some, and also spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for angering Chinese authorities. "They don't talk about what they might be thinking."</p>
<p>They live crowded into rooms often above or next door to the factories, in a world awash in North Korean rituals.</p>
<p>"Let's Follow the Ideas!" of North Korea's leaders, urges a poster at the workers' dormitory at Hunchun Pagoda. Portraits of the country's first two rulers, worshipped as god-like in the deeply isolated nation, gaze down from otherwise-bare walls. Laundry is often hanging up to dry and potted plants — mostly what appear to be herbs, though one room at Hunchun Pagoda has bright yellow carnations — sit on many windowsills.</p>
<p>It's a world of concrete. The factory buildings and dormitories at Hunchun Pagoda are grey slabs of unpainted concrete. The yard where the women play volleyball in their free time is concrete. The street outside the front gate is concrete.</p>
<p>At most factories the women prepare their own food and make tubs of their own kimchi, the spicy cabbage dish beloved in both Koreas. Their televisions cannot tune in Chinese programming, and they organize their own sports and singing contests on their days off.</p>
<p>Nearly every compound has a workers' garden. There are a half dozen rows of corn at Hunchun Pagoda, and kidney beans and melons at Yantai.</p>
<p>A booming Chinese economy means money has come even to cities like Hunchun, where six-lane roads and factories bump up against cornfields that, a year later, often make way for yet another factory. Mercedes are now regular sights on the road and 30-foot billboards at malls show bone-thin models in fur coats.</p>
<p>But when the North Koreans are allowed to leave their compounds, they go to the city's working-class street markets, where vendors set their wares on plastic sheets or folding tables, or sell directly from the backs of trucks.</p>
<p>Chinese merchants say most North Koreans are very careful about their finances. For instance, while they splurge on expensive spices imported from South Korea, they also buy Chinese noodles that cost less than half of the South Korean brands.</p>
<p>On a recent morning, a group of about 70 North Korean women walked to a Hunchun street market from the nearby Hong Chao Zhi Yi garment factory. They asked about prices for watermelons and plums, browsed through cheap pantyhose and bought steamed corn-on-the-cob for 1 Chinese yuan (about 16 cents) apiece.</p>
<p>As the late summer chill set in one evening, a dozen or so women from Hunchun Pagoda played volleyball in the quiet road in front of the compound's gate, scrimmaging in the pool of light thrown by the street lamp.</p>
<p>A train horn blew. The women shouted to one another while they played. As a car with a foreigner drove by, one laughingly called out: "Bye-bye!"</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>PROPPING UP NORTH KOREA</p>
<p>Estimates vary on how many North Koreans work overseas and how much money they bring in.</p>
<p>South Korea's intelligence agency estimated in 2014 that 50,000 to 60,000 work in about 50 countries, most in China and Russia. That number may now be up to 100,000, according to Lim Eul Chul, a scholar at South Korea's Kyungnam University who has interviewed numerous former laborers. Estimates that their labor brings in revenue of $200 million to $500 million annually to the North Korean government come from scholars, who base their findings on academic research papers, South Korean intelligence reports and sources in the Chinese business community.</p>
<p>That has made the workers a significant and reliable source of revenue for the North Korean regime as it struggles beneath the weight of increasing UN sanctions, which the U.S. estimates could cost Pyongyang upwards of $1.5 billion each year in lost export revenues. In the last month alone, China has said it's cracking down on North Korean exports, businesses and joint ventures, but it has a long history of not enforcing sanctions in practice.</p>
<p>Despite the pay and restrictions, these are highly sought-after jobs in North Korea, a chance to move up a rickety economic ladder and see a bit of the world beyond the closed-in nation.</p>
<p>Their monthly earnings in China are far more than many would earn in North Korea today, where official salaries often equal $1 per month. Experts estimate most families live on about $40-$60 a month, with much of their earnings coming from trading in the growing network of unofficial markets.</p>
<p>And there are plenty of benefits to working overseas. The laborers can use their earnings to start businesses in these markets, and can buy the status symbols of the slowly-growing middle class — foreign-made rice cookers, watches, TVs, tableware — selling them back home or using them as bribes. Simply going abroad is so rare that returning workers can find themselves highly sought-after when it comes time to marry.</p>
<p>Lim Il, a North Korean refugee, bribed a series of officials — with 20 bottles of liquor, 30 packs of cigarettes and restaurant gift cards — to get a job as a construction worker in Kuwait City in the late 1990s, when North Korea was still suffering through a horrific famine.</p>
<p>"I felt like I had won the lottery," he said. "People fantasized about getting overseas labor jobs."</p>
<p>Lim, a man in his late 40s who fled to South Korea in 1997 and now writes novels about the North, said that even though he was never paid his $120-a-month salary, he was happy to simply get beef soup and rice every day.</p>
<p>"Unless you were an idiot, you wouldn't give up such an opportunity," he said. While he never thought of himself as a slave, looking back he says that is the right description: "These North Korean workers (today) still don't know they are slaves."</p>
<p>The new law in the U.S. labels all North Korean workers both overseas and inside the country as engaging in forced labor. (While U.S. law generally forbids Americans from conducting business in North Korea, the AP employs a small number of support staff in its Pyongyang bureau, operating under a waiver granted by the U.S. government to allow the flow of news and information.)</p>
<p>"There are not many countries that, at a government level, export their own citizens as a commodity to be exploited," said an official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.</p>
<p>For years the State Department has blacklisted North Korea in its human trafficking reports, saying the overseas laborers and their families could face reprisals if the workers complain or try to escape, and criticizing Pyongyang for keeping much of the workers' earnings. China, Russia and other countries hosting North Korean labor are all members of the United Nations International Labor Organization, which requires workers to receive their full salaries.</p>
<p>Luis CdeBaca, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for human trafficking issues, said both federal law enforcement agents and importers should be making sure workers are treated fairly.</p>
<p>"If you think about a company like Walmart, which is spending a lot of money, time and effort to clean up its supply chain, sending auditors and inspectors to factories, working with suppliers, all of that is thrown out the window if they are importing products made with exploited North Korean labor," said CdeBaca. "It contradicts everything they are doing."</p>
<p>CdeBaca conceded the North Korean workers might like their jobs.</p>
<p>"The question is not, 'Are you happy?' " he said. "The question is, 'Are you free to leave?'"</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press journalists Leonardo Haberkorn in Uruguay, Han Guan Ng and researcher Fu Ting in China, Kelvin K. Chan in Hong Kong, Frank Jordans in Germany and Jon Gambrell in United Arab Emirates contributed to this report. Mendoza reported from California.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Read more in the series: https://www.apnews.com/tag/RepublicofKim</p> | NKorean workers prep seafood going to US stores, restaurants | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/04/nkorean-workers-prepare-seafood-for-us-stores-restaurants.html | 2017-10-05 | 0 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>It's a chilling fact: since July 1, when Cecil the Lion was shot and killed by a hunter, Planned Parenthood has been on a horrific killing spree. The numbers come from Planned Parenthood's own statistics, <a href="http://www.all.org/nav/index/heading/OQ/cat/MzQ/id/NjA3OQ/" type="external">reported by the American Life League</a>. Planned Parenthood performs an average of 327,653 abortions each year (based on 2013 stats). That's an average of 898 abortions per day (and we're including weekends and holidays). From there, the math is simple, and disgusting. The total number in the meme is through August 2, 2015, so it is likely much higher by the time you read this.</p>
<p /> | While everyone focuses on Cecil the Lion, this horrible thing took place | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/while-everyone-focuses-on-cecil-the-lion-this-horrible-thing-took-place/ | 0 |
|
<p>BOSTON — Everyone on the left side of American politics, from the near end to the far end, has advice for Occupy Wall Street. I’m no exception. But it’s useful to acknowledge first that this movement has accomplished things that the more established left didn’t.</p>
<p>The problems of growing economic inequality and abuses by the masters of the financial world have been in the background for years. Many progressives longed to make them central political questions.</p>
<p>Occupy realized that the old approaches hadn’t worked. So it provided the media with a committed group of activists to cover, a good story line, and excellent pictures. Paradoxically, its unconventional approach fit nicely with current media conventions. And its indifference to immediate political concerns gave the movement a freedom of action that others on the left did not have.</p>
<p>The breakup of some of Occupy’s encampments signals a new phase for the movement. This does not have to mean its end. On the contrary, it is an opportunity.</p>
<p />
<p>Let’s first dispense with a kind of narcissism that exists among Americans who lived through the 1960s and insist on seeing Occupy as nothing more than a rerun of the battles over Vietnam, Richard Nixon and the counterculture.</p>
<p>This frame is very convenient to conservatives who hope to drive a wedge between working-class voters and the Occupiers, much as Nixon brilliantly played construction workers against privileged hippies. That’s the theme of an outrageous advertisement assailing Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren by Crossroads GPS, the group associated with Karl Rove. It accuses Warren, a Democrat, of siding with Occupiers who “attack police, do drugs and trash public parks.”</p>
<p>Notice that this is an effort to bury the movement’s apt criticisms of the financial system beneath a pile of stereotypes. The Massachusetts Republican Party is reinforcing the message with regular “Occupy Wall Street Incident Reports” about anything bad that happens at demonstrations around the country. They run under a logo casting Warren as the “Matriarch of Mayhem,” in honor of her statement that she had created “much of the intellectual foundation” for the new movement.</p>
<p>To her credit, Warren has not backed off her support for the core ideas or goals of the movement. She has, however, emphasized that the demonstrators should obey the law.</p>
<p>That is good advice — as a general matter, but also as a political matter. If the Occupiers need to battle right-wing efforts to turn them into Abbie Hoffmans and Jerry Rubins (whom many of the Occupiers never heard of), they also need to resist a lefty sort of nostalgia.</p>
<p>It’s not the ’60s anymore. The protests of that era were rooted in affluence. Too often in those years, the left cut itself off from the concerns of the white working class and disdained its values. That’s the history the right wants to revive. In fact, the Occupy demonstrations are precisely about the concerns of Americans who have been sidelined economically. This in turn is why polls show broad support for Occupy’s objectives of greater economic equality and more financial accountability.</p>
<p>Thus the question going forward: Will the Occupy movement play into the hands of its enemies by living up to the stereotypes they are trying to create? Or will it instead move to a new phase that builds on its success?</p>
<p>Ongoing violent demonstrations will simply not help the cause, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s lessons on nonviolence are useful here. This movement is about something much bigger than “occupying” a particular space. Occupations proved to be a shrewd tactic. They are not a cause or an end in themselves. Focusing on holding a piece of public land simply makes the movement a hostage to the decisions of local officials, some of whom will inevitably be hostile to its purposes.</p>
<p>More importantly, the movement should remind itself of its greatest innovation, its slogan: “We are the 99 percent.” This is an affirmation that it is trying to speak for nearly everybody. Its tactics should live up to this aspiration by building support among the vast number of Americans who will never show up at the encampments. It should also want to help political figures such as Warren, who understood far earlier than most the costs of inequality and of the abuses of financial power. The last thing this movement should want to do is create fodder for the ads and emails propagated by Warren’s foes.</p>
<p>The occupations have done their work. Now it’s time to occupy the majority.</p>
<p>E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com.</p>
<p>© 2011, Washington Post Writers Group</p> | It's Time to Occupy the Majority | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/its-time-to-occupy-the-majority/ | 2011-11-21 | 4 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Lawmakers are rushing to draft New York's first regulations for a type of heavy-duty rooftop air conditioning equipment amid suspicions that bacteria-laden mist from these units could be the cause of the deadliest known outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the city's history.</p>
<p>Seven people have died and at least 86 have fallen ill in the South Bronx since July 10. People can get exposed to Legionella bacteria from a variety of sources, but cooling towers have been implicated in past outbreaks. Testing found five contaminated units in the part of the city where people are getting sick.</p>
<p>Five things to know about the outbreak:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>HOW COMMON IS LEGIONNAIRES' DISEASE?</p>
<p>Between 8,000 and 18,000 people are hospitalized in the U.S. each year with Legionnaires' disease, which is a type of pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of cases reported to the CDC each year has been rising, roughly doubling between 2000 and 2009.</p>
<p>A study in New York City found 1,449 cases and 185 deaths between 2002 and 2011. That's an average of around 19 deaths per year.</p>
<p>"Let's be clear that Legionnaires' disease has been a persistent health problem for years. A problem all over the country. A problem that has been slowing and steadily growing all over the country," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WHERE IT LURKS</p>
<p>The bacteria can thrive in warm water and become especially dangerous when the water is turned into a mist that can be inhaled.</p>
<p>Medical investigators have linked past outbreaks to public fountains, air conditioning systems, spas, showers and even the misters than keep fruit moist in supermarkets. In the case of New York City's outbreak, the infected people might have simply been walking by on the street when they inhaled the mist.</p>
<p>Investigators are still trying to determine which, if any, of the five cooling towers are directly linked to the illnesses. The presence of the bacteria doesn't necessarily mean the equipment infected anyone.</p>
<p>The disease is not transmitted person to person, nor can it be transmitted through drinking water.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WHAT IS BEING DONE?</p>
<p>The five cooling towers have all been decontaminated, and lawmakers are hurriedly crafting legislation they say could help prevent another such outbreak.</p>
<p>Building owners would be required to register the location of cooling towers with the city. There will also be a schedule of mandatory inspections, plus rules mandating a prompt disinfection if bacteria are found.</p>
<p>This type of regulation is rare in the U.S. but has existed for years in some other countries. Quebec, Canada, instituted similar rules after a Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Quebec City in 2012.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>HOW BAD IS THIS OUTBREAK?</p>
<p>City officials suspect the outbreak is starting to ease. They believe it peaked on July 30, and they have seen a decline in new cases since then. The first contaminated cooling tower was discovered and cleaned on July 29.</p>
<p>Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett called it "the largest outbreak of Legionnaire's disease that we are aware of in New York City."</p>
<p>It hasn't been nearly as bad as the episode that gave the illness its name — the 1976 outbreak that killed 34 people who had attended an American Legion convention in Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Legionnaires' disease is treatable with standard antibiotics and has a fatality rate of between 5 and 10 percent.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WHO IS AT RISK?</p>
<p>Researchers say one reason for the increase in reported cases is that there are more elderly and chronically ill people than in decades past. Those people are more susceptible to the illness.</p>
<p>City health officials said the victims of this outbreak all had other serious health problems.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — Lawmakers are rushing to draft New York's first regulations for a type of heavy-duty rooftop air conditioning equipment amid suspicions that bacteria-laden mist from these units could be the cause of the deadliest known outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the city's history.</p>
<p>Seven people have died and at least 86 have fallen ill in the South Bronx since July 10. People can get exposed to Legionella bacteria from a variety of sources, but cooling towers have been implicated in past outbreaks. Testing found five contaminated units in the part of the city where people are getting sick.</p>
<p>Five things to know about the outbreak:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>HOW COMMON IS LEGIONNAIRES' DISEASE?</p>
<p>Between 8,000 and 18,000 people are hospitalized in the U.S. each year with Legionnaires' disease, which is a type of pneumonia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of cases reported to the CDC each year has been rising, roughly doubling between 2000 and 2009.</p>
<p>A study in New York City found 1,449 cases and 185 deaths between 2002 and 2011. That's an average of around 19 deaths per year.</p>
<p>"Let's be clear that Legionnaires' disease has been a persistent health problem for years. A problem all over the country. A problem that has been slowing and steadily growing all over the country," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WHERE IT LURKS</p>
<p>The bacteria can thrive in warm water and become especially dangerous when the water is turned into a mist that can be inhaled.</p>
<p>Medical investigators have linked past outbreaks to public fountains, air conditioning systems, spas, showers and even the misters than keep fruit moist in supermarkets. In the case of New York City's outbreak, the infected people might have simply been walking by on the street when they inhaled the mist.</p>
<p>Investigators are still trying to determine which, if any, of the five cooling towers are directly linked to the illnesses. The presence of the bacteria doesn't necessarily mean the equipment infected anyone.</p>
<p>The disease is not transmitted person to person, nor can it be transmitted through drinking water.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WHAT IS BEING DONE?</p>
<p>The five cooling towers have all been decontaminated, and lawmakers are hurriedly crafting legislation they say could help prevent another such outbreak.</p>
<p>Building owners would be required to register the location of cooling towers with the city. There will also be a schedule of mandatory inspections, plus rules mandating a prompt disinfection if bacteria are found.</p>
<p>This type of regulation is rare in the U.S. but has existed for years in some other countries. Quebec, Canada, instituted similar rules after a Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Quebec City in 2012.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>HOW BAD IS THIS OUTBREAK?</p>
<p>City officials suspect the outbreak is starting to ease. They believe it peaked on July 30, and they have seen a decline in new cases since then. The first contaminated cooling tower was discovered and cleaned on July 29.</p>
<p>Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett called it "the largest outbreak of Legionnaire's disease that we are aware of in New York City."</p>
<p>It hasn't been nearly as bad as the episode that gave the illness its name — the 1976 outbreak that killed 34 people who had attended an American Legion convention in Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Legionnaires' disease is treatable with standard antibiotics and has a fatality rate of between 5 and 10 percent.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>WHO IS AT RISK?</p>
<p>Researchers say one reason for the increase in reported cases is that there are more elderly and chronically ill people than in decades past. Those people are more susceptible to the illness.</p>
<p>City health officials said the victims of this outbreak all had other serious health problems.</p> | NYC targets cooling systems linked to Legionnaires' outbreak | false | https://apnews.com/amp/3ff013e4efce43f499de1890d3dde2b1 | 2015-08-04 | 2 |
<p />
<p>Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker‘s prolific pop-music critic, is about to get busier. Last week, the news broke that he had signed on as the new culture editor of The Daily, News Corporation’s soon-to-debut iPad newspaper. For now, Frere-Jones, a musician in his own right and current member of the bands Piñata and Calvinist, continues to write—on <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2007/10/22/071022crmu_music_frerejones" type="external">race in American pop music</a> and the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2009/10/26/091026crmu_music_frerejones" type="external">end of hip-hop</a>, among other volatile subjects—and to document his surroundings in photos he calls “ <a href="http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/behind-50/" type="external">barely photography</a>.” We caught up with Frere-Jones to quiz him about his current music faves and the perks of being one of the world’s Top 30 critics. &#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Mother Jones: What’s your favorite new or upcoming release?</p>
<p>Sasha Frere-Jones: Robyn’s Body Talk Part 1 and Body Talk Part 2, two of three albums she has promised to release in 2010. At the Polar Music Prize ceremonies in Stockholm, I heard Robyn sing Björk’s “Hyperballad” and something felt right in the world, as if the good guys had won something significant. When pop as smart and exuberant and well-rendered as Robyn’s comes into the world, the idea of the underground seems less logical. If you can be Robyn, why would you need to escape the mainstream? (Both albums double as aerobic sessions, conveniently.)</p>
<p>MJ: Shuffle your iPod (or equivalent) and name the first 5 songs that pop up.</p>
<p>SFJ: 1. Ice Cube &amp; Dr. Dre, “Natural Born Killaz” 2. Emeralds, “Candy Shoppe” 3. Fucked Up, “Magic Word” 4. Instant Funk, “I Got My Mind Made Up” 5. Beach House, “Walk In The Park”</p>
<p>MJ: What’s the latest song that super-glued itself in your brain?</p>
<p>SFJ: The Budos Band, “Black Venom”</p>
<p>MJ: Three records you never get sick of listening to?</p>
<p>SFJ: The Jesus Lizard, Liar Outkast, Aquemini Brian Eno, Another Green World</p>
<p>MJ: Any guilty pleasures?</p>
<p>SFJ: Don’t believe in guilty pleasures. Categorical impossibility. Pleasure is pleasure.</p>
<p>MJ: Favorite holiday-related song or album?</p>
<p>SFJ: It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown</p>
<p>MJ: Favorite politically themed song or album?</p>
<p>SFJ: Everything is political, or nothing is.</p>
<p>MJ: Name the biggest perk of being pop-music critic for The New Yorker.</p>
<p>SFJ: I am paid to write and people read what I write.</p>
<p>MJ: Biggest irk?</p>
<p>SFJ: No irks!</p>
<p /> | Sasha Frere-Jones’ Listening Pleasures | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/sasha-frere-jones-new-yorker-interview/ | 2010-11-22 | 4 |
<p>Everyone seems to think everything on the Internet ought to be free. Journalists, especially, want to be paid for every word they write (preferably, twice), but don't want to pay for anything on the web.While I wish everything could be free, we are increasingly facing a choice: Tolerate big, overwhelming ads and pop-ups, or pay a few dollars a month for services we like. I believe you are going to see more and more sites offer two tiers of service. One, a free, basic level, and a second "pro" version, for which they will charge a fee.Writer and consultant <a href="http://robertspears.com/" type="external">Robert Spears</a> wrote <a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/snd/snd5.html" type="external">a very good piece on this topic</a> in April 2003 for <a href="http://www.paidcontent.org" type="external">PaidContent.org</a> that&#160;I suggest you read.&#160;Here are some suggestions for&#160;sites/service I believe are worth paying for, along with some suggestions from readers. If you have sites worth paying for, e-mail me at <a href="" type="external">[email protected]</a>&#160;(and let me know if I can quote you). <a href="http://www.britannica.com" type="external">Britannica.com</a> ($59.95 per year or $9.95 per month): The site now has not one, but three encyclopedias -- the entire 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica; the Britannica Student Encyclopedia, which is designed for students in middle school; and the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, which provides shorter bites of information. I also like the photos, maps, audio, and video that's served up to users. [ Note for journalists only: A limited number of press versions are available for working journalists by contacting Tom Panelas, PR director, at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>&#160;] <a href="http://www.consumerreports.org" type="external">ConsumerReports.org</a> ($24 per year or $4.95 per month): Freelancer Shelley Pannill&#160;says: "This site is worth paying for for the obvious reason that you can search specifically for the item you are buying, and you don't have to hold on to reams of magazines just in case you decide to replace the microwave." Freelancer Autumn Miller adds: "Good for when getting ready to purchase high-ticket items and electronics to get opinions on what to look for and what they found on different brands." <a href="http://www.vindigo.com" type="external">Vindigo.com</a> ($25 per year or $3.50 per month): Carolann Monroe, director of Web Operations for WABC-TV,&#160;recommends this excellent service for your Palm, Pocket PC, or other mobile device. It's like having a Zagat's guide with you no matter where you are. Next Tuesday, I'll share more sites and services worth paying for. Send&#160;your suggestions to <a href="" type="external">[email protected]</a>.Sree's Links: Workshops, panels, seminars at <a href="http://www.saja.org/convention2003.html" type="external">SAJA's annual convention</a> in Manhattan, June 20-22. You don't have to be South Asian to attend!</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> | Things Worth Paying For, Part I | false | https://poynter.org/news/things-worth-paying-part-i | 2003-05-19 | 2 |
<p>(Adds Qualcomm background)</p>
<p>BRUSSELS, Jan 24 (Reuters) - European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager will hold a news conference at 1130 CET (1030 GMT) on Wednesday on a case involving anti-competitive practices.</p>
<p>The Commission, which announced the news conference in a statement, did not give further details.</p>
<p>EU antitrust regulators are expected to impose a multi-million euro fine on Qualcomm Inc for paying Apple Inc to use only its chips, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The European Commission accused the company of the anti-competitive behaviour in 2015. The fine could in theory go as high as 10 percent of Qualcomm’s annual revenue, which was $22.2 billion for its most recent fiscal year. (Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian prosecutors on Wednesday said they had opened an investigation into whether London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica acted illegally in Brazil, as controversy over the firm’s data harvesting practices spreads across the globe.</p> The nameplate of political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica, is seen in central London, Britain March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
<p>Prosecutors for Brazil’s Federal District, which includes Brasilia, the capital, said in a written statement that they will look into whether the firm, through its partnership with Sao Paulo-based consulting group A Ponte Estratégia Planejamento e Pesquisa LTDA, illegally used the data of millions of Brazilians to create psychographic profiles.</p>
<p>Calls to CA Ponte, as the partnership is called, were not answered.</p>
<p>Prosecutors from a specialized data unit will look into whether there were security breaches that allowed the firm to illegally access personal data.</p>
<p>Regulators and lawmakers in the United States and Europe have demanded an explanation of how the consulting firm, which worked on U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign, gained access to data on 50 million Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) users in order to build voter profiles.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 169.39 FB.O Nasdaq +1.24 (+0.74%) FB.O
<p>Reports on Monday said that the firm may have improperly gained access to the data, and Cambridge Analytica has since suspended its chief executive Alexander Nix, while Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said his company made mistakes in its handling of user data.</p> Related Video
<p>By many measures, Brazil is Facebook’s third largest market.</p>
<p>Reporting by Ricardo Brito; Writing by Gram Slattery; Editing by Leslie Adler and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that his company made mistakes in how it handled data belonging to 50 million of its users and promised tougher steps to restrict developers’ access to such information.</p>
<p>The world’s largest social media network is facing growing government scrutiny in Europe and the United States about a whistleblower’s allegations that London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed user information to build profiles on American voters which were later used to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg, in his first public comments since the scandal erupted at the weekend, said in a post on Facebook that the company “made mistakes, there’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it.”</p>
<p>He did not elaborate on what the mistakes were, but he said the social network plans to conduct an investigation of apps on its platform, restrict developer access to data, and give members a tool that lets them more easily disable access to their Facebook data.</p>
<p>He did not explicitly apologize for the improper use of data, and his plans did not represent a big reduction of advertisers’ ability to use Facebook data, which is the company’s lifeblood.</p>
<p>Facebook shares pared gains on Wednesday after Zuckerberg’s post, closing up 0.7 percent. The company has lost more than $45 billion of its stock market value over the past three days on investor fears that any failure by big tech firms to protect personal data could deter advertisers and users and invite tougher regulation.</p> ‘SCAPEGOAT’
<p>On Tuesday, the board of Cambridge Analytica suspended its Chief Executive Alexander Nix, who was caught in a secret recording boasting that his company played a decisive role in Trump’s victory.</p>
<p>But the academic who provided the data disputed that on Wednesday.</p> Slideshow (6 Images)
<p>“I think what Cambridge Analytica has tried to sell is magic, and they’ve made claims that this is incredibly accurate and it tells you everything there is to tell about you. But I think the reality is it’s not that,” psychologist Aleksandr Kogan, an academic at Cambridge University, told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Kogan, who gathered the data by running a survey app on Facebook, also said that he was being made a scapegoat by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Both companies have blamed Kogan for alleged data misuse.</p>
<p>Only 300,000 Facebook users responded to Kogan’s quiz, but that gave the researcher access to those people’s Facebook friends as well, who had not agreed to share information, producing details on 50 million users.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 169.39 FB.O Nasdaq +1.24 (+0.74%) FB.O
<p>Facebook has said it subsequently made changes that prevent people from sharing data about friends, and maintains that no data breach occurred because the original users gave permission. Critics say that it essentially was a breach because data of unsuspecting friends was taken.</p>
<p>Facebook banned Cambridge Analytica from using any of Facebook’s services on Friday.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg said the company “will restrict developers’ data access even further to prevent other kinds of abuse” and that the company is working with regulators as they investigate what happened.</p>
<p>Many analysts have now raised concerns that the incident will have a negative impact on user engagement with Facebook, potentially reducing its clout with advertisers.</p>
<p>DZ Bank was the third Wall Street brokerage this week to make a rare cut in price targets for Facebook on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Investors now have to consider whether or not the company will conclude that it has grown in a manner that has proven to be untenable or whether it needs to significantly improve how it is managed,” said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-leave-eu/what-are-the-links-between-cambridge-analytica-and-a-brexit-campaign-group-idUSKBN1GX2IO" type="external">What are the links between Cambridge Analytica and a Brexit campaign group?</a>
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-brazil/brazil-prosecutors-open-investigation-into-cambridge-analytica-idUSKBN1GX35A" type="external">Brazil prosecutors open investigation into Cambridge Analytica</a>
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-kogan/academic-in-facebook-storm-worked-on-russian-dark-personality-project-idUSKBN1GX2F6" type="external">Academic in Facebook storm worked on Russian 'dark' personality project</a>
<p>Facebook shares are down more than 8 percent since Friday. The company has risen more than 550 percent in value in the past five years.</p>
<p>Reporting by Dustin Volz in Washington and Kate Holton in London; Writing by Susan Thomas; Editing by Bill Rigby</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday and forecast at least two more hikes for 2018, highlighting its growing confidence that tax cuts and government spending will boost the economy and inflation and spur more aggressive future tightening.</p>
<p>In its first policy meeting under new Fed chief Jerome Powell, the U.S. central bank indicated that inflation should finally move higher after years below its 2 percent target and that the economy had recently gained momentum.</p>
<p>The Fed also raised the estimated longer-term “neutral” rate, the level at which monetary policy neither boosts nor slows the economy, a touch, in a sign the current gradual rate hike cycle could go on longer than previously thought.</p>
<p>“The economic outlook has strengthened in recent months,” the Fed said in a statement at the end of a two-day meeting in which it lifted its benchmark overnight lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a range of 1.50 percent to 1.75 percent.</p>
<p>Powell, who took over from former Fed chief Janet Yellen in early February, said the central bank was staying on a path of gradual rate increases but needed to be on guard against inflation.</p>
<p>“We are trying to take the middle ground here,” Powell said in a press conference after the end of the policy meeting, adding that there were no signs the economy was on the cusp of accelerating inflation.</p>
<p>The rate hike was widely expected. All 104 economists polled by Reuters from March 5-13 said the Fed would increase borrowing costs this week.</p>
<p>U.S. stocks rose after the policy statement before paring gains to close lower. U.S. Treasury yields fell and then recovered. The dollar .DXY recorded its steepest one-day loss in nearly two months against a basket of currencies.</p>
<p>“The guidance in terms of the future rate hikes is a touch more hawkish than originally expected. 2019 looks like we’re going to get a faster pace of rate hikes,” said Matt Miskin, market strategist at John Hancock Investments.</p>
<p>“This a new Fed chairman starting with a bit of a hawkish tone as he takes leadership.”</p> Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at a news conference following the Federal Open Market Committee meetings in Washington, U.S., March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein CONFIDENCE IN THE ECONOMY
<p>The rate hike was the latest step away from years of stimulating the world’s largest economy in the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crisis and recession. The Fed tightened policy three times last year.</p>
<p>The combination of $1.8 trillion in expected fiscal stimulus from the Trump administration and recent hints of price and wage pressures had prompted some Fed officials to speculate more Americans could be drawn into an already tight labor market.</p>
<p>Some even worried inflation could rise well above the Fed’s target if the economy got too hot.</p> Slideshow (6 Images)
<p>Policymakers were largely split on Wednesday as to whether a total of three or four rate hikes would be needed this year. They predicted rates would rise three times next year and two times in 2020, a further indication of their view that the economy is on solid footing.</p>
<p>“The Fed seems to be gaining confidence,” said Brian Coulton, an economist at Fitch Rating in London.</p>
<p>Fed policymakers projected U.S. economic growth of 2.7 percent in 2018, an increase from the 2.5 percent forecast in December, and also marked up growth for next year. The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation was expected to end 2018 at 1.9 percent, unchanged from the previous forecast, but it is seen rising a bit above the target next year.</p>
<p>The U.S. unemployment rate by the end of 2018 is expected to edge down to 3.8 percent, indicating the Fed sees more room for the labor market to run. Fed officials predicted the longer-run rate would settle at 4.5 percent, slightly lower than the forecast from December.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-fed-powell/powell-sets-record-for-shortest-quarterly-news-conference-by-fed-chair-idUSKBN1GX38N" type="external">Powell sets record for shortest quarterly news conference by Fed chair</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-fed-taxation/as-trump-stimulus-fades-fed-sees-tight-monetary-policy-on-the-horizon-idUSKBN1GX36H" type="external">As Trump stimulus fades, Fed sees tight monetary policy on the horizon</a>
<a href="/article/us-usa-fed-fomc-text/fomc-statement-from-march-20-21-meeting-idUSKBN1GX2OJ" type="external">FOMC statement from March 20-21 meeting</a>
<p>U.S. joblessness stood at 4.1 percent last month.</p>
<p>While recent home sales and retail spending data have been on the weak side, the overall economic picture has brightened after growth accelerated to 2.3 percent last year.</p>
<p>Before the meeting, analysts were split over whether the Fed, which is wary of an early misstep under its new leadership, would raise policy tightening expectations until more price pressures are clearly evident. There are also looming outside risks to the economy such as a possible global trade war.</p>
<p>“This is a new risk (that) had been probably a low-profile risk, but which has become ... a more prominent risk to the outlook,” Powell said, adding, however, that the trade tensions had not affected the Fed’s expectations for the economy.</p>
<p>Reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Jason Lange in Washington; Additional reporting by Daniel Bases in New York and Ann Saphir in San Francisco; Editing by Paul Simao</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell set a record on Wednesday, after the U.S. central bank delivered a widely-expected interest rate hike, by holding the briefest quarterly news conference since the Fed began giving them in April 2011.</p> Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at a news conference following the Federal Open Market Committee meetings in Washington, U.S., March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
<p>Powell, who took the helm at the U.S. central bank in February, gave the Fed’s views and took reporters’ questions for 43 minutes, according to a video posted on the YouTube page of the Fed’s Board of Governors.</p>
<p>His predecessor Janet Yellen, Fed chair from 2014 until January, made appearances lasting about 58 minutes on average during her 16 new conferences, Reuters found in a review of the videos on the Fed’s YouTube page.</p>
<p>Powell showed a business-like approach that contrasted with the more academic style favored by Yellen, said Nathan Sheets, a former Fed economist now at PGIM Fixed Income in Newark, New Jersey.</p>
<p>“When she took these questions, she answered them in extremely exhaustive ways,” said Sheets. “Powell’s approach was much more giving what he saw as the most pertinent information.”</p>
<p>Former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke began the practice of holding regular news conferences in April 2011, when the U.S. economy was still struggling to gather momentum after the 2007-2009 financial crisis.</p>
<p>The news conferences have been seen as a tool for the Fed to more effectively communicate its expectations on the economic outlook. If investors have a better sense of what developments might change the outlook for monetary policy, that could help give the Fed better control over interest rates.</p>
<p>Bernanke’s 11 news conferences lasted about 57 minutes on average, according to information posted on the Fed Board’s YouTube page.</p>
<p>Bernanke, who like Yellen was a PhD economist with a background in academia, held the second-briefest quarterly news conference so far at 45 minutes.</p>
<p>Powell’s career before the Fed included roles in investment banking and on corporate boards. He was a managing partner at the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm. Powell was also a senior official at the Treasury Department during former President George H.W. Bush’s administration.</p>
<p>Powell said he would be “carefully considering” doing more press conferences, adding that while he and his colleagues want to communicate as clearly as possible, he wanted to “make sure that no one would take more frequent press conferences as a signal of the path of policy.”</p>
<p>Some analysts said that is exactly how markets would take it, given that since the Fed began raising rates in 2015, it has only done so at meetings when the Fed’s leader was scheduled to speak. The Fed meets eight times a year.</p>
<p>Reporting by Jason Lange in Washington and Ann Saphir in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir in Washington and Megan Davies in New York; Editing by Tom Brown</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | UPDATE 1-EU competition chief to hold news conference at 1030 GMT Brazil prosecutors open investigation into Cambridge Analytica Zuckerberg says Facebook made mistakes on user data, vows curbs Fed lifts rates, signals tougher stance as economy strengthens Powell sets record for shortest quarterly news conference by Fed chair | false | https://reuters.com/article/eu-antitrust/update-1-eu-competition-chief-to-hold-news-conference-at-1030-gmt-idUSL8N1PJ2GW | 2018-01-24 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The pressure was intense. FBI Director James Comey had told legislators in late October – less than two weeks before the election – that the bureau’s work had resumed, igniting a firestorm of criticism that his revelation had affected the election. The agents’ work, at first, seemed endless. They had to use special software to sift through some 650,000 emails.</p>
<p>But on Sunday, just two days before the election, Comey announced that the team had news to share. After reviewing “all of the communications that were to or from Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State,” he wrote, investigators had “not changed our conclusions.”</p>
<p>The messages, U.S. officials familiar with the case said, were either personal or duplicative of those found earlier in the investigation.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The recommendation marked the culmination of a nightmarish 10 days for the bureau. But coming two days before the election, it also generated renewed skepticism from both political parties about the FBI’s handling of the high-profile case.</p>
<p>Republicans said the announcement was vague and that they had unanswered questions about how investigators concluded that Clinton should face no charges in the first place. Democrats, meanwhile, said they remained concerned that Comey had told legislators so close to Election Day that the email investigation was resuming, though they were heartened to see the matter ostensibly put to rest.</p>
<p>“In the days that come,” said U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich, “we will have many questions about the handling of this investigation.”</p>
<p>From the moment Comey announced in July that he was recommending Clinton not be charged, the bureau has been under pressure and Comey at the center of a political firestorm.</p>
<p>Republicans have questioned whether FBI agents were thorough and aggressive enough, while Democrats have said that Comey was wrong to offer so much public detail on his findings. When he made the July announcement, Comey opined that Clinton and her staffers were “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information – an allegation that critics say maligned the Democratic presidential nominee without a trial in which she could defend herself.</p>
<p>Comey has said he offered so much detail to assure the public that the investigation was handled appropriately and without political influence. He testified for hours before Congress about what investigators had found and released to the FBI’s website hundreds of pages of interview summaries and other documents in the case.</p>
<p>But with his public path came pitfalls. And when FBI agents were looking into allegations about disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., and found on Weiner’s computer emails potentially relevant to the Clinton probe, Comey had a dilemma.</p>
<p>Should he update Congress, with the election so close, that the Clinton email investigation had resumed? Or, with so little information, should he wait, potentially inviting criticism that he had buried information to help Clinton get elected?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>After a full briefing on Oct. 27, Comey chose the former, sending a short letter to legislators the next day saying that the FBI had “learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation” and that agents would “take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”</p>
<p>Weiner is the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, and U.S. officials have said that they found correspondence of Abedin and Clinton on his computer. Abedin has said that she is unsure how her emails would have ended up on her husband’s laptop. When agents first found the materials, they were legally prohibited from sifting through them for Clinton email probe purposes. They got a warrant to do so Oct. 30.</p>
<p>“I don’t think anyone was unaware of the calendar,” one senior U.S. law enforcement official familiar with the probe said.</p>
<p>As the agents worked, the bureau faced a seemingly endless torrent of criticism. News leaked that agents in the FBI’s New York field office had been advocating for a separate investigation of the Clinton Foundation, even though public integrity prosecutors had told them that they did not have a case. That fueled the perception that at least some in the bureau, a organization of predominantly white men, might have partisan motivations, and Democrats called for the Justice Department inspector general to look into the matter.</p>
<p>Republicans also questioned whether – if the Clinton email investigators had used more aggressive tactics – they might have uncovered information that could have been used by those wanting to look into the Clinton Foundation.</p>
<p>Given the reasoning Comey laid out for not recommending charges in July, it was always unlikely that the new email review would change anyone’s mind. The FBI director already had said that classified information traversed Clinton’s private server. He said that in 110 emails, information was deemed sensitive enough to be classified at the time it was sent or received. Eight chains, he said, even included information deemed “top secret” – the highest level of classification. Adding to those totals would not seem a reason to alter his conclusion.</p>
<p>Now, though, the bureau will face more questions. In a statement, Sen. Charles Grassley , R-Iowa, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, said that the “vague” announcement by the FBI failed to provide context and that he was unsure if the review was over.</p>
<p>“The growing number of unanswered questions demand explanations: Is the FBI continuing to review the newly-revealed emails?” Grassley said. “Did the FBI limit its review to email from when Clinton was Secretary of State, leaving out emails that could shed light on possible obstruction of Congress?”</p>
<p>This time, though, Comey’s timing did not seem as much of an issue. Republicans and Democrats had called on him to complete the new review swiftly and announce his findings publicly. Ron Hosko, a former assistant director at the FBI, said that he believed Comey gave Congress information when it was available to him and that Sunday’s revelation served as evidence of that.</p>
<p>“I thought, if anything, now would be the time to sit quietly until after the election, but here we are again,” Hosko said. “They were able to give clarity on a Sunday evening, two days before the election, and he felt like, ‘If we have the question answered now, we have to answer the question now.’ “</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>LETTER LINK:</p>
<p>FBI director’s letter to Congress after review of newly discovered Clinton emails</p>
<p>https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/politics/fbi-directors-letter-to-congress-after-review-of-newly-discovered-clinton-emails/2129/</p>
<p>clinton-fbi-4thld-writethru</p> | For FBI, email investigation yields little but criticism | false | https://abqjournal.com/883583/for-fbi-email-investigation-yields-little-but-criticism.html | 2 |
|
<p>The United Nations climate talks in Doha went a full extra 24 hours and ended without increased cuts in fossil fuel emissions and without financial commitments between 2013 and 2015.</p>
<p>“This an incredibly weak deal,” said Samantha Smith representing the Climate Action Network, a coalition of more than 700 civil society organizations.</p>
<p>“Governments came here with no mandate for action,” Smith said in a press scrum moments after the meeting known as COP 18 ended and the 195 parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change approved a complex package called “The Doha Climate Gateway.”</p>
<p>The Doha Gateway creates a second phase of the Kyoto Protocol to cut fossil fuel emissions by industrialized nations from 2013 to 2020 but does not set new targets.</p>
<p>There is also no financial support to help poor countries adapt to impacts of climate change – only agreement for more meetings in 2013. Talks will also begin next year to create a “mechanism” to assess damages and costs for countries suffering losses from climate change.</p>
<p>Finally, the Doha Climate Gateway has an agreed outline for two years of negotiations on a new global climate treaty that would go into legal force in 2020.</p>
<p>“It is impossible to get everyone here to smile….I too am disappointed,” said Qatar’s Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, the COP18 president. Al-Attiyah told Tierramérica he was surprised countries wanted to make so many changes throughout the two weeks and right up to the final hours.</p>
<p>However, this is a “historic” agreement, Al-Attiyah insisted.</p>
<p>Doha will do nothing to cut emissions that are taking the world to four degrees and more of warming. It offers little in terms of finance to help poor countries cope with climate change, Smith said.</p>
<p>Smith singled out the U.S. and Canada for blocking progress on keys issues. Canada was one of the worst, she said. While profiting from its massive oil sands operations, it was “super-obstructive on finance”.</p>
<p>Industrialized countries promised to put $100 billion a year into a Green Climate Fund by 2020. To bridge the gap till then, developing nations asked for $60 billion in total by 2015. Britain, Germany and few other countries promised to contribute $6 billion but this is not binding. Under the Doha Climate Gateway, countries agreed to further talks on finance in 2013.</p>
<p>The loss and damage debate was among the most intense during closed meetings, featuring the U.S pitted against island states like the Philippines that are badly impacted by stronger cyclones and sea level rise.</p>
<p>The U.S. delegates blocked all references that implied compensation or liability, openly admitting they feared a political backlash at home, according to an anonymous source.</p>
<p>“Loss and damage is huge issue for Central America. We are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” said Laura Lopez Baltodano, of Centro Humboldt Nicaragua, an environmental NGO.</p>
<p>“Honduras and Nicaragua are the number one and number three most vulnerable countries in the world according to the Climate Risk Index,” Baltodano told Tierramérica here in Doha.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://germanwatch.org/en/cri" type="external">Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index</a> was released here a few days ago. It said those two countries have been the most affected in terms of lost lives and damages over the past 20 years. In 2011, Thailand, Cambodia, Pakistan and El Salvador were the worst affected by extreme weather events in 2011.</p>
<p>In 2010, at <a href="http://www.cc2010.mx/en/" type="external">COP 16 in Cancun</a>, there was agreement to find ways to assess and reduce losses and damages from impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events and slow onset events like sea level rise, ocean acidification, loss of biodiversity and desertification.</p>
<p>Developing countries wanted a new institution and framework to deal with loss and damage, but the U.S. was opposed to any new institution. The compromise is for a “new mechanism” to be created in 2013.</p>
<p>A new second phase of the Kyoto Protocol will run from 2013 to 2020. Getting this second phase or commitment is considered very important by developing countries because it has hard-won legal terms that commit countries to making cuts as well as methods for measuring and verifying emission levels.</p>
<p>However, only the European Union, Australia and a few other countries are involved, representing just 12 percent of global emissions. The U.S. has never participated, while Canada and Japan have opted out of the second phase.</p>
<p>None of those in the second Kyoto phase increased their emission cuts pledges. They did agree to a mandatory review of their reduction targets in 2014. Rich countries outside of Kyoto promised to make comparable cuts but offered nothing new here in Doha.</p>
<p>“The COP process is very disappointing,” said Baltodano, who has attended two previous ones. “It’s very clear that countries’ economic interests dominate the negotiations.”</p>
<p>Countries are mainly influenced by the corporate sector and civil society has very little interaction or influence there, she said. “There is a huge space we don’t reach.”</p>
<p>The Doha outcome puts the world on track for three, four or even five degrees of warming, said the delegate from the South Pacific island nation of Nauru who represents the Alliance of Small Island States in the final plenary.</p>
<p>“We’re not talking about how comfortable your people (in developed world) may live but whether our people live,” the delegate said. “The lives of our people are on the line here.”</p> | Leaders Fail the World - Again - at Doha Climate Summit | true | http://occupy.com/article/leaders-fail-world-again-doha-climate-summit | 4 |
|
<p>Different colonies of Acropora hyacinthus, one species examined by the Stanford team, showed different levels of heat tolerance depending on which pool they were in. Photo by Dan Barshis</p>
<p />
<p>In the world of coral reefs, most of the news is pretty gloomy. Rising ocean temperatures have led to massive die-offs from <a href="" type="internal">Indonesia</a> to <a href="" type="internal">Florida</a>; emissions-driven acidity could dissolve corals’ structure-building ability in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/opinion/a-world-without-coral-reefs.html" type="external">20 years</a>; rising sea levels threaten to block sunlight even from healthy reefs; and in November NOAA called on Congress to afford endangered species status to <a href="" type="internal">over 60 species</a>. A blunt, unsparing <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/opinion/a-world-without-coral-reefs.html" type="external">editorial</a> in the Times this summer slathered on the melodrama: Coral reefs are being pushed “into oblivion… there is no hope.”</p>
<p>Coral are not exactly the most dynamic animals in the ocean: They take decades to grow and are then rooted at the mercy of their environment, so they don’t inspire much confidence when it comes to adapting to climate change. But <a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1210224110" type="external">a study</a> out Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science from a group of Stanford geneticists suggests that coral might have more of a fighting spirit than we gave them credit for.</p>
<p>In 2000, ecologist Dan Barshis was with a research group in American Samoa, wading through tide pools, when he noticed that coral in some pools seemed healthy, despite being bathed in water much warmer than corals can normally survive, and despite the fact that individuals of the very same species were on their deathbeds in pools just down the beach. Corals get stressed when water temperatures rise, especially when it happens quickly; under enough stress, they’ll boot out the symbiotic algae that photosynthesize sunlight for the coral’s food and give the coral its signature color palette, leaving the coral pale—hence the term “bleaching”—and starving.</p>
<p />
<p>But the coral Barshis saw looked inexplicably happy, and over the next several years he found that the reason why is all about training. Barshis compared the genes of the heat-resistant corals and their more fragile bretheren under a range of water temperatures. He found that, in both groups, heat changed the way hundreds of genes were expressed. But in the heat-resistant group, 60 of these genes were flipped on all the time, and helping to crank out heat-resilient proteins and antioxidants. Using records of the pools’ temperatures, Barshis found that the strongest corals came from pools that were consistently but briefly exposed to high temperatures during low tides over time. He thinks the repeated exposure helped condition the corals to build up their tolerance, like an athlete building endurance through weight training, only on the level of DNA.</p>
<p>“It kinda comes down to what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” he says.</p>
<p>By contrast, when the unconditioned coral are suddenly exposed to hotter temperatures, it’s like “they’re caught with their guard down,” he says, and get worn out much more quickly, like a couch potato thrown into a sprint race with the athlete.</p>
<p>Scientists have known that heat conditioning can boost some organisms’ tolerance for high temperatures—in the lab, yeast have shown similar behavior to what Barshis and his colleagues found in the coral. But their research is the first to pinpoint the genetic basis of heat tolerance in coral, and it offers a rare spot of hope for this embattled sea critter: Scientists could <a href="" type="internal">use genetic engineering or selective breeding</a> to help spread heat tolerance throughout more of the world’s coral; or, Barshis suggests genetic profiling could help locate the most resilient populations and prioritize them for conservation.</p>
<p>“The more pessimistic [scientists] say, ‘Why research coral? They’re gone in a hundred years,'” says Larry Crowder, a conservation biologist at the Center for Ocean Solutions. “But the more optimistic ones are saying, ‘Not so much.'”</p>
<p>Corals are the center of biological diversity in the ocean, Crowder says, and losing them would deal a devastating blow to the marine ecosystem—not to mention the fish resources humans depend on. And Barshis’ research might provide a new approach to saving them.</p>
<p>“The opportunity to make a difference for corals is not to look at the ones that have gone bad,” he says. “But to look at the ones that have gone good.”</p>
<p />
<p /> | Coral Fights Back Against Warming Seas | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/coral-fights-back-against-climate-change/ | 2013-01-08 | 4 |
<p>Sept. 21 (UPI) — Those born on this date are under the sign of Virgo.</p>
<p>They include:</p>
<p>— Louis Joliet, French-Canadian explorer of the Mississippi River, in 1645</p>
<p>— British author/historian H.G. Wells in 1866</p>
<p>— Animator Chuck Jones (Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Wile E. Coyote) in 1912</p>
<p>— Actor Larry Hagman in 1931</p>
<p>— Singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen in 1934</p>
<p>— Radio talk show host Diane Rehm in 1936 (age 81)</p>
<p>— Journalist Bill Kurtis in 1940 (age 77)</p>
<p>— Comedian Fannie Flagg in 1944 (age 73)</p>
<p>— Television producer Jerry Bruckheimer in 1945 (age 74)</p>
<p>— Author Stephen King in 1947 (age 70)</p>
<p>— Guitarist Don Felder (Eagles) in 1947 (age 70)</p>
<p>— Comedian Bill Murray in 1950 (age 67)</p>
<p>— Champion race car driver Arie Luyendyk in 1953 (age 64)</p>
<p>— Ethan Coen, one of the filmmaking Coen brothers, in 1957 (age 60)</p>
<p>— Actor Dave Coulier in 1959 (age 58)</p>
<p>— Actor Nancy Travis in 1961 (age 56)</p>
<p>— Actor Rob Morrow in 1962 (age 55)</p>
<p>— Singer Faith Hill in 1967 (age 50)</p>
<p>— Actor Ricki Lake in 1968 (age 49)</p>
<p>— Actor Luke Wilson in 1971 (age 46)</p>
<p>— Actor and TV host Alfonso Ribeiro in 1971 (age 46)</p>
<p>— Singer Liam Gallagher in 1972 (age 45)</p>
<p>— Television personality Nicole Richie in 1981 (age 36)</p>
<p>— Singer Jason Derulo in 1989 (age 28)</p> | Famous birthdays for Sept. 21: Bill Murray, Stephen King | false | https://newsline.com/famous-birthdays-for-sept-21-bill-murray-stephen-king/ | 2017-09-21 | 1 |
<p>DONALD J. TRUMP SUES BILL MAHER FOR CHARITY $5 MILLION DOLLARS PROMISED TO CHARITY!</p>
<p>For information call Michael Cohen, EVP &amp; Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump (212) 8**-**** [number redacted by editor]</p>
<p>Donald Trump today filed a lawsuit against talk show host Bill Maher for the $5 million dollars he committed to pay Mr. Trump for charity while being interviewed on the Jay Leno Show. Mr. Trump is hereby demanding the $5 million dollars and issued the following statement:</p>
<p>“I don’t know whether this case will be won or lost, but I felt a major obligation to bring it on behalf of the charities listed, namely Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, Hurricane Sandy Victims, March of Dimes, and the Police Athletic League. Bill Maher made an unconditional offer while on The Jay Leno Show and I, without hesitation, accepted his offer and provided him with the appropriate documentation. Prior demands for payment went ignored by Mr. Maher despite the fact that the beneficiaries of this suit will ultimately be the charities named above, who would share equally the $5 million dollars…something I am certain they can desperately use.”</p>
<p>The lawsuit was filed in California.</p> | Trump suing Maher over ‘birth certificate’ bet | true | http://teaparty.org/trump-suing-maher-over-birth-certificate-bet-19760/ | 0 |
|
<p>Global stocks extended their selloff as investors continued to pare back risk positions, walking away with their profits from a strong year as geopolitical tensions rise.</p>
<p>European stocks widely fell 1% Thursday, helping pressure U.S. equities-- which then sold off further in the last 90 minutes of trading after President Donald Trump said his Tuesday threat to unleash "fire and fury" on North Korea "maybe wasn't tough enough." U.S. indexes ultimately logged their biggest declines since May 17.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>China raised the stakes with an editorial in the state-run Global Times late Thursday saying Beijing would intervene if there is a first strike against North Korea.</p>
<p>"This situation is beginning to develop into this generation's Cuban missile crisis," wrote ING's Robert Carnell in a morning note to clients.</p>
<p>Before their decline in recent days, Asian markets had logged some of the world's biggest gains this year. For some investors, the rising tensions between the U.S. and North Korea--and the typical late-summer slowdown in trading--are an opportunity to pull back and await developments.</p>
<p>"Market conditions were right for profit-taking" in stocks this week, said Alexander Ho Wan Lee, chief investment officer at Nimbus Capital Group.</p>
<p>Stock benchmarks in South Korea, Hong Kong and Shanghai were all down more than 1.5% by midday, with Australia not far behind. Benchmarks in smaller markets elsewhere fell a bit less than 1%, while Japan's markets were closed for a holiday.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Korea's Kospi, which came into Friday on its first three-session losing streak since April--down 1.6% for that stretch--is poised to end the week at its lowest level since late May. Still, it started the day still up 16% for the year, which speaks to how strong Korean stocks, and many Asian markets, have been. Index giant Samsung Electronics is a major factor in the reversal, down 2.9% Friday and 6.5% for the week--its worst week since October.</p>
<p>Even hotter in 2017 has been Hong Kong. When trading ended Tuesday, the Hang Seng Index had risen in 19 of the past 22 sessions and was up more than 25% for the year. But it fell Wednesday and Thursday--its first consecutive down days in a month--and ended morning trading Friday down 1.9%. If that holds, it will be the market's biggest one-day drop since November.</p>
<p>Chinese messaging and social-gaming company Tencent, whose surge of about 70% this year was key to the Hang Seng's gains, is off 4% Friday.</p>
<p>Given the lack of sustained stock selling this year in much of the world--let alone large declines--concern that a market correction is at hand isn't a surprise, analysts say. Many pullbacks have quickly reversed before they reached the 10% mark that commonly denotes a correction.</p>
<p>But the current geopolitical situation could keep potential buyers on the sidelines for now, said Mr. Lee--in fact, he added, it is already keeping some out of Asian markets, despite robust recent quarterly results from companies in the region.</p>
<p>In China, selling deepened as Friday morning progressed. Beijing warned of irrational trading in metals after steel-rebar and aluminum futures in China hit five-year highs this week.</p>
<p>And when Japanese traders get back to their desks on Monday, stocks will need to catch up with not just Friday's regional weakness but fresh yen gains. The currency strengthened steadily during Thursday's European trading and gained further in Asia. The dollar fell below Yen109 for the first time since June.</p>
<p>Early signs are the selling isn't set to worsen at the start of U.S. trading.</p>
<p>Write to Kenan Machado at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 11, 2017 01:14 ET (05:14 GMT)</p> | Trump Rhetoric Sinks Global Stocks -- Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/11/trump-rhetoric-sinks-global-stocks-update.html | 2017-08-11 | 0 |
<p>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Electricity has been restored to most homes and businesses that lost power in central Arkansas during this week's cold snap.</p>
<p>Entergy Arkansas says more than 1,300 homes and businesses were without power Wednesday morning, but nearly all of those had been restored as of Wednesday afternoon.</p>
<p>Earlier, electricity was knocked out to about 500 customers in downtown Little Rock after a piece of equipment malfunctioned in a substation, but Entergy says that power was restored at about 3 a.m.</p>
<p>Another outage knocked out electricity to about 600 customers in west Little Rock.</p>
<p>Entergy says that temperatures under 25 degrees cause high demand for electricity and that the extra stress on the system can cause isolated overloads of the utility's power-distribution system.</p>
<p>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Electricity has been restored to most homes and businesses that lost power in central Arkansas during this week's cold snap.</p>
<p>Entergy Arkansas says more than 1,300 homes and businesses were without power Wednesday morning, but nearly all of those had been restored as of Wednesday afternoon.</p>
<p>Earlier, electricity was knocked out to about 500 customers in downtown Little Rock after a piece of equipment malfunctioned in a substation, but Entergy says that power was restored at about 3 a.m.</p>
<p>Another outage knocked out electricity to about 600 customers in west Little Rock.</p>
<p>Entergy says that temperatures under 25 degrees cause high demand for electricity and that the extra stress on the system can cause isolated overloads of the utility's power-distribution system.</p> | Electricity restored to Little Rock customers amid cold snap | false | https://apnews.com/63440554bbe64bbc9cdbdaa063c958dc | 2018-01-03 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The findings released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center provide a gauge on how Web surfers have been responding to a computer bug nicknamed "Heartbleed." The flaw in a key piece of security technology used by more than 500,000 websites had been exposing online passwords and other sensitive data to potential theft for more than two years.</p>
<p>After word of the problem got out on April 7, affected websites began to close the Heartbleed loophole and security specialists recommended that Web surfers change their online passwords as a precaution.</p>
<p>That advice apparently resonated among those who read about in the extensive media coverage of the Heartbleed risks.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Passwords were changed or online accounts were closed by 39 percent of the Internet users in Pew's telephone survey of 1,501 adults taken in the U.S. from April 23-27.</p>
<p>But 36 percent of the Internet users participating in the survey hadn't heard about Heartbleed at all.</p>
<p>The almost equal division between people insulating themselves from Heartbleed and those unaware of the problem shows there is still a knowledge gap even as the Internet and mobile devices make it quicker and easier to find all kinds of information.</p>
<p>"There are some people who are pretty tuned in and are in an action frame of mind and then there others that don't know about the news that is breaking," said Lee Rainie, director of Pew Research's Internet Project.</p>
<p>Better educated and more affluent Internet users tended to pay the most attention to Heartbleed. Roughly three-fourths of the Internet users aware of Heartbleed had college educations and lived in households with annual incomes of at least $75,000, according to Pew.</p>
<p>Although Heartbleed stories appeared for several days online and in print publications, most websites bitten by the bug didn't send warnings to their users.</p>
<p>Major banking websites and other widely trafficked websites weren't affected by Heartbleed, factors that Rainie said may have caused many people to pay less attention to the media's coverage of the bug.</p>
<p>Only 19 percent of the survey respondents said they had heard "a lot" about Heartbleed. By comparison, 46 percent said they had heard "a lot" about the escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.</p>
<p>Just 6 percent of the survey participants believed Heartbleed led to their online information being ripped off.</p> | Survey: 'Heartbleed' spooks 39 pct of Web surfers | false | https://abqjournal.com/392050/survey-heartbleed-spooks-39-pct-of-web-surfers.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The ground beneath Santa Rita has been blasted, shoveled and trucked away over the last century to feed the world’s demand for copper, leaving a hole a mile-and-a-half wide and 1,500 feet deep.</p>
<p>In September, another vestige of Santa Rita disappeared when workers at the Chino Mine voted 236-83 to decertify a 72-year-old union celebrated for its heroic struggle to improve the lives of Hispanic miners and immortalized by the 1954 movie “Salt of the Earth.”</p>
<p>Mining trucks, each carrying a load of 300 tons, haul copper ore and waste rock at the Chino Mine. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>The Chino Mine, located about 12 miles east of Silver City, is among the world’s largest open-pit mines and still growing. Endless lines of huge Caterpillar trucks, each hauling 300 tons of copper ore and waste rock, grind slowly up steep inclines day and night. Some 960 workers continue to expand the massive hole.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>All around are mountains of waste piles that dwarf many of the taller peaks in this rugged area.</p>
<p>When Humble, 73, returned to Santa Rita in 1963 after a hitch in the Navy, he realized that he needed to begin collecting photos and other evidence of his hometown before the growing pit swallowed it completely.</p>
<p>“That’s when I realized that Santa Rita was disappearing,” he said. “Better get what I could.”</p>
<p>Today, Humble and others are mourning the end of the labor union he joined in 1967 when he began work as a mechanic at the Chino Mine.</p>
<p>The Sept. 18 union election ended one of the nation’s most storied unions, the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Local 890, commonly called Mine Mill Local 890.</p>
<p>The National Labor Relations Board certified the election results Sept. 30.</p>
<p>The union’s supporters say the move reflects a generational change by young miners who didn’t live through the struggles faced by their predecessors.</p>
<p>Improved mine safety and better wages played a role in declining union membership, said Humble, who co-authored a book, “Santa Rita del Cobre,” about the town and the mine.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In 1970, wages at Chino ranged from $24 a day for laborers to $32 a day for machinists, he said.</p>
<p>Hourly wages today at the Chino Mine range from $12.35 an hour for laborers to $23.20 an hour for a top mechanic, according to a three-year United Steelworkers contract negotiated in 2011. Wages are raised $1.50 an hour if copper prices exceed $2.75 a pound.</p>
<p>Freeport-McMoRan Copper &amp; Gold Inc., which owns the Chino Mine, issued this statement: “We believe that safe and productive mining operations can continue to be achieved in the workplace without a union at Chino, where employees are compensated fairly, treated with dignity and respect, and work as a team in a positive work environment.”</p>
<p>“If you’ve got a safe environment and a good wage, you don’t need a union,” Humble said. “Let’s hope it lasts.”</p>
<p>A 1916 photo of the Grant County mining town of Santa Rita, east of Silver City. By 1970, the town had vanished to make way for the expanding open-pit Chino Mine.</p>
<p>A view of the Chino Mine from N.M. 152 about 12 miles east of Silver City. The open-pit copper mine, among the world’s largest, is a mile-and-a-half wide and 1,500 feet deep. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>‘Can’t believe it’s over’</p>
<p>The Chino Mine, the town of Santa Rita and the union all are tightly braided in Humble’s memories.</p>
<p>“I can’t believe it’s over,” he said recently, sitting on a folding chair in the 1940s-era union hall in Bayard, where Local 890 members held often-raucous meetings for seven decades.</p>
<p>“I had a feeling the union would be decertified sooner or later. But I did not think it would be this soon and not by such a large margin. I was very, very disappointed.”</p>
<p>In this hall in 1950, Local 890 members voted to strike for better pay and working conditions at an underground mine north of Bayard owned by the Empire Zinc Co.</p>
<p>When a court injunction barred miners from manning the picket line, union members voted to allow women to continue the strike, over the strenuous objections of some miners.</p>
<p>The 15-month action in 1950-52, called the Salt of the Earth strike, forced Empire Zinc to grant better pay and working conditions for the mine’s Hispanic workers.</p>
<p>The strike was dramatized in the 1954 film “Salt of the Earth,” which was made by blacklisted filmmakers and cast with men and women who participated in the strike. The movie starred Juan Chacón, who served several terms as president of Local 890 from 1953-74.</p>
<p>“That really was our civil rights movement, both for Hispanic women and men,” said Frances Gonzales, 49, whose father participated in the strike.</p>
<p>Gonzales said she grew up around the union hall, where she attended meetings at her father’s side. Murals memorializing the Salt of the Earth strike line the hall inside and out.</p>
<p>Salt of the Earth, both the strike and the movie, called attention to the dangerous and discriminatory conditions faced by Hispanic miners, both at the Chino Mine and the many underground mines that dotted the area.</p>
<p>“It helped us to cross that barrier, to be accepted by the Anglo people who lived here,” she said. “They started to realize that we were treated very badly and very differently. That’s when a lot of barriers, little by little, started going down.”</p>
<p>Local 890 led periodic strikes at the Chino Mine to put pressure on company leaders during contract talks, including a nine-month strike in 1967-68. Chacón often spoke for the union in news stories about the strikes.</p>
<p>Mine Mill Local 890 was largely a Hispanic union, said Humble, who was among a handful of Anglo members. For many years, Hispanics were barred from the mine’s craft unions and the more-desirable jobs they represented.</p>
<p>“There was a strong incentive for Hispanics to join Mine Mill,” he said. “It was a chance for them to have some solidarity and a voice.”</p>
<p>The election</p>
<p>On the eve of the Sept. 18 union election, union leaders felt confident that they could fend off decertification, as they had in five previous elections from 1993 to 2004.</p>
<p>Frances Gonzales, 49, stands beside a banner signed by members of Mine Mill Local 890 in 1967 when they agreed to join the AFL-CIO-affiliated United Steelworkers. Several of her family members signed the banner, which hangs on the wall at the union hall in Bayard. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>In most cases, union members had voted nearly 2-to-1 to remain unionized. In 1998, for example, members voted 333-172 to reject decertification.</p>
<p>Union leaders went door-to-door, handing out fliers and reminding members of the union’s heroic past.</p>
<p>“We had done a lot of house visiting,” said Ray Teran, a 40-year employee of the Chino Mine and chairman of United Steelworkers Local 9424-3, the successor to Mine Mill Local 890.</p>
<p>“We had a lot of people from out of state to help with organizing and helping people understand the difference between union and non-union.”</p>
<p>The results of the election, and the nearly 3-to-1 rejection of the union, stunned supporters.</p>
<p>“It’s just kind of hard to stomach,” Teran, 61, said in an interview at the union hall, located about three miles west of the Chino Mine.</p>
<p>Generational changes in attitudes toward unions help explain the results, he said. Most voting members were in their 20s and 30s, he said. Teran was one of only a half-dozen members who had worked at the mine 30 years or more.</p>
<p>“It’s the generation,” he said. “They have no sense for unionization. They weren’t around for the struggles that their grandparents and parents went through. They don’t realize the sacrifices that took place to get to where we are.”</p>
<p>Dwindling membership over the years took a toll on the union, Humble said.</p>
<p>At least 10 unions flourished at Grant County’s two copper mines in 1967 when Humble started work as a mechanic at the Chino Mine.</p>
<p>One after another since 1991, members voted to decertify unions for machinists, carpenters, boilermakers and other trade groups, he said.</p>
<p>At the Tyrone Mine, a second Grant County copper mine owned by Freeport-McMoRan southwest of Silver City, all three unions were decertified in 1994.</p>
<p>Local 890 had a membership of 560 in 1996. Its successor union had a membership of 343 last month when it was decertified.</p>
<p>Grant County’s mining workforce and union membership have fluctuated with the ups and downs in copper prices.</p>
<p>Fatal blow</p>
<p>The Chino Mine’s closure in 2008-09 may have delivered the fatal blow to the union, Humble said.</p>
<p>Ray Teran, a 40-year veteran of the Chino Mine, hugs Frances Gonzales, whose father was a longtime miner and union member. Teran was chairman of United Steelworkers Local 9424-3, which was decertified after a union election last month. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>In 2008, operations at Chino were curtailed and hundreds of miners laid off after copper prices dipped under $2 a pound. Union membership dwindled to just a couple of dozen while the mine was closed in 2008-09, he said.</p>
<p>Copper prices have since rebounded to just over $3 a pound. In October 2010, Freeport-McMoRan announced it was restarting mining operations in Grant County. Today, 960 work at Chino and 620 at Tyrone, the company said.</p>
<p>“Everybody that has been hired lately, in the last several years, are new hires – a lot of younger people who have no idea of the advantages or disadvantages of a union,” Humble said.</p>
<p>Many say money also played a role in the union’s defeat.</p>
<p>Teran and others contend that Freeport-McMoRan paid annual bonuses to workers at the non-union Tyrone Mine but not to Chino employees. Some miners believe they will get bonuses, and possibly pay raises, now that Chino is non-union, he said.</p>
<p>Freeport-McMoRan said in a written statement that the company does not publicly discuss employee compensation. The Journal left repeated telephone messages with Irving Shane Shores, who organized the petition that led to the decertification vote, but they were not returned.</p>
<p>Many area residents say they are relieved the mines have reopened, even if they may regret the death of the county’s last miners’ union.</p>
<p>“This area is lucky to have (the mines), otherwise there wouldn’t be an economy in this area,” said Esther Gil, a councilwoman in Hurley, where Chino copper was smelted until 2007.</p>
<p>Her husband belonged to a Chino Mine union until his retirement a decade ago.</p>
<p>“Younger people don’t feel the attachment to the unions or understand that unions served an important purpose in improving people’s lives,” she said. <a href="" type="internal" />Copyright © 2014 Albuquerque Journal</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | End of the line for Chino’s storied union | false | https://abqjournal.com/478669/end-of-the-line-for-chinos-storied-union.html | 2 |
|
<p>Today the Russian Federal Security Service confirmed that a terrorist bomb was responsible for the crash and <a href="" type="internal">destruction of a Russian passenger jet</a> in the Sinai last month.</p>
<p>2.2 pounds of TNT explosives were used to bring the plane down in what officials are saying was “definitely a terrorist act.” Alexander V. Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., told the media today that soon after takeoff an IED exploded, causing the plane to mostly disintegrate in midair. Reports show that “foreign made explosive” was found on what was left for investigators to examine.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>The Russian government is offering a $50 million reward for information about the group or individuals who brought the plane down. Officials, however, were hesitant to confirm whether or not they believe or have evidence that ISIS or an ISIS-affiliated group was responsible for the attack. In the immediate wake of the attack, many European airlines suspended all travel over the Hassana area in the Sinai where the wreckage was found. The area has played host to clashes between Egyptian forces and a group of Islamic militants who recently pledged their loyalty to the Islamic State.</p>
<p>Airlines are still operating with an abundance of caution, and many are still refusing to fly into the popular Red Sea resort area the Russian jet had taken off from until security improves.</p>
<p>More from <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/17/middleeast/russian-metrojet-crash-bomb/" type="external">CNN</a>:</p>
<p>CNN spoke Tuesday with Carolyn McCall, chief executive of the UK budget airline EasyJet, who has called for aviation security and regulation to be improved.</p>
<p>“The reason the British government advised all airlines to stop flying to Sharm is that they believed there was a device in the hold of the Metrojet aircraft,” McCall said. “They had inside intelligence giving them that information, so that’s not surprising to anybody in the airline industry, given that the British government took very strong action immediately. Clearly, that is why security has got to be enhanced at Sharm el-Sheikh.”</p>
<p>She said EasyJet had suspended flights to Sharm el-Sheikh through the end of this month, as have all other British airlines.</p>
<p>“We will not resume flying until we are told unequivocally by the government that it is safe to operate at Sharm el-Sheikh airport,” she said.</p>
<p>Russia has intensified its attacks against ISIS strongholds in Raqqa and possibly other yet-unconfirmed targets in Syria.</p>
<p>From the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/world/europe/russia-plane-crash-bomb.html?_r=0" type="external">New York Times</a>:</p>
<p>Russia struck Raqqa with advanced Kalibr cruise missiles launched from a submarine in the eastern Mediterranean, the RBC news agency reported, citing sources in the Russian Defense Ministry. The agency said it was the first time Russia had fired cruise missiles from a submarine during a war.</p>
<p>There were also news agency reports of Russian fighter-bombers hitting Islamic State targets in Syria, but those could not be confirmed.</p>
<p>The strike came after President Vladimir V. Putin ordered an intensification of attacks following Russian confirmation that the crash of the Airbus A321 in Egypt had been caused by a terrorist attack.</p>
<p>In Washington, a Defense Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss another nation’s military strikes, confirmed that the Russians had provided notice before waging “a significant number of strikes in Raqqa” that may have included the use of sea-launched cruise missiles and long-range bombers.</p>
<p>The official said the notice was in accordance with safety protocols that the United States and Russia agreed to in October that are intended to prevent accidents and ensure safe separation during operations in Syria. The United States has not abandoned any operations because of the Russian strikes, the official said.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that this is a departure from Russia’s previous behavior in the region. After Russia began launching their own attacks in Syria, officials <a href="" type="internal">confirmed</a> that those strikes were targeting Russian ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.</p>
<p>Follow Amy on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/thatamymiller" type="external">@ThatAmyMiller</a></p> | Russia Confirms Terrorism Downed Jet in Sinai | true | http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/11/russia-confirms-terrorism-downed-jet-in-sinai/ | 2015-11-17 | 0 |
<p />
<p>Small Business Spotlight: Sharp Mamas</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Who: Dara Tarkowski</p>
<p>What: A consulting service for new or expectant mothers</p>
<p>When: 2013</p>
<p>Where: Chicago, Illinois</p>
<p>How: From nutrition classes and breastfeeding help to courses on advanced infant care, Sharp Mamas aims to give new families peace of mind when it comes to childrearing.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“Sharp Mamas offers in-home and classroom workshops on prenatal education,” says founder Dara Tarkowski. She says she considers the company to be a “general contractor for all things related to Baby.”</p>
<p>For in-home instruction, Sharp Mamas charges $100 per hour; group workshops are less expensive. Tarkowski’s partner is a professional nanny, and medical advice comes from clinical partners in the Chicago area.</p>
<p>Biggest challenge: For Tarkowski, the biggest challenge is just finding enough time in the day, considering that she still works full-time as a lawyer in addition to running Sharp Mamas.</p>
<p>One moment in time: “I’m proudest that we’ve made Sharp Mamas a reality, and that people are receiving it so positively,” says Tarkowski.</p>
<p>Best business advice: “Be the businesswoman you want your daughter to be!”</p>
<p>Quote from the owner: “Kelly and I are both crazy perfectionists, and we’re both a little controlling. Learning to rely on each other is something we’ve just figured out how to do,” says Tarkowski, referring to her business partner.</p> | Mompreneur on Marketing ‘Sharp Mamas’ | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/04/30/mompreneur-on-marketing-sharp-mamas.html | 2016-03-22 | 0 |
<p />
<p>I spent some time yesterday going through Willard's 2010 return and 2011 estimates of his taxes, and I agree with David Shuster in this segment. There's every possibility that the Romneys paid no income taxes at all in 2009 and possibly also in 2008. Here's why, starting at about 1:08 in the video above:</p>
<p>SHUSTER: Actually, Governor, if you think a limited release is going to put this issue behind you, you're politically tone-deaf. First, your 2010 return indicates you paid a rate of 13.9 percent. Furthermore, it suggests you paid far lower than that in 2009. You see, the 2010 return reveals you carried over $4.9 million dollars in losses from the previous year. That means you paid no taxes on capital gains in 2009, including no taxes on your carried interest.</p>
<p>So how much did you pay in 2009? Zero? How close to zero was it, Governor? Or how about the 2008 year, where the investment market first crashed?</p>
<p>Taxpayers are limited on the amount of capital losses they can use to offset income. In a year with low capital gains, high capital losses can offset the amount of those gains for a net-zero result. Any losses not used are carried forward to the following year, where they can be used there. The bottom line on Romney's tax return is that he likely paid minimal taxes in 2009, since his charitable deductions probably offset any speaker's fees, dividends and interest he was paid. I'm guessing he paid payroll tax on the speaker's fees up to the cap, and that is about it. Must be pretty nice, eh? Perhaps that's why <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/01/25/411831/ann-romney-unfortunate-returns/" type="external">Ann Romney thinks it's unfortunate</a> that he had to release even 2010, since she's concerned about people knowing how successful he is.</p>
<p>Willard's financial disclosures also indicate <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/25/409804/romneys-profited-foreclosure-florida/" type="external">he profited greatly from foreclosures in Florida</a>, which would certainly explain his desire to let the housing market fall into the tank while he reaped the benefits, both tax-wise and personally.</p>
<p>There's been a <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/25/411746/romney-tax-rate-spin-50-percent/" type="external">lot of spin</a> from Romney on these tax returns, and particularly on the fact that his income is comprised mostly of "carried interest". But that, too, is all smoke and mirrors. He claims that carried interest payments are already taxed at corporate rates. The problem with that, as we all know, is that very, very few corporations pay the full corporate tax rate of 35 percent. In fact, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/164103-report-corporations-pay-low-effective-tax-rates" type="external">many corporations have an effective tax rate of zero</a> or even negative rates. There is no reason to expect some specific reason for Romney's carried interest payments to be from companies that pay the full corporate rate.</p>
<p>All of this is legal. Even Romney's Swiss bank account is legal. But it speaks to the larger question of whether or not anyone who has never known what it's like to wonder if the kids will eat or the mortgage will be paid can possibly formulate tax policy that would make a lick of sense for anyone but the 1 percent. Since Romney has not exactly demonstrated an aptitude for empathy, I'm guessing not.</p>
<p>If I'm wrong about this, I'd suggest the Romney campaign release a few more years' tax returns. Let's see if he has ever worried about "putting food on his family." Odds, anyone?</p> | Romney May Have Paid Zero Taxes In 2009 | true | http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/romney-may-have-paid-zero-taxes-2009 | 2012-01-26 | 4 |
<p>2016 has <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-38466409" type="external">claimed</a> another one. The world’s oldest male panda, Pan Pan, died at age 31. He was diagnosed with cancer six months ago.</p>
<p />
<p>He has more than 130 descendants, which is a quarter of the&#160;world’s captive-born panda population. Pan Pan was born in Sichuan in China, but he was taken into captivity when he was just a few months old.</p>
<p>Tan Chengbin, a keeper at the China Conservation and Research Centre for Giant Panda in Dujiangyan, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/pan-pan-worlds-oldest-male-panda-dies-aged-31-cancer-a7499041.html" type="external">told</a> the Xinhua news agency:</p>
<p>“Pan Pan was the equivalent to about 100 human years, but he had been living with cancer and his health had deteriorated in the past three days.&#160;He had lost consciousness.”</p>
<p>The world’s oldest female <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-38466409" type="external">panda</a> is 36-year-old Basi; 38-year-old Jia Jia died in Hong Kong in October. Pandas usually only make it to 20-years-old in the wild.</p>
<p />
<p>Featured image via <a href="https://twitter.com/Gabby_rlly/status/814828540113907712" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | World’s Oldest Male Panda Dead At 31 | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2016/12/30/worlds-oldest-male-panda-dead-at-31/ | 2016-12-30 | 4 |
<p>PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Authorities in Massachusetts say a Maine police officer accused officers of racial profiling as they arrested her for pushing through a concert crowd and refusing to leave after being asked dozens of time.</p>
<p>Worcester police arrested 24-year-old Portland officer Zahra Munye Abu on Saturday night at a Ja Rule and Ashanti concert.</p>
<p>The Worcester Telegram and Gazette <a href="http://www.telegram.com/news/20180117/pd-portland-officer-cites-racial-profiling-in-worcester-arrest" type="external">reports</a> that police say Abu was escorted out after she grabbed the head of security by the front of his shirt. She was charged with misdemeanors, including assault and battery, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.</p>
<p>Abu is the first Somali immigrant to become a Maine police officer. Portland police say she is on paid administrative leave.</p>
<p>Worcester police say they don't know if Abu has a lawyer. Several phone calls and emails to Abu and family members weren't immediately returned.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show that Abu is 24, not 26.</p>
<p>PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Authorities in Massachusetts say a Maine police officer accused officers of racial profiling as they arrested her for pushing through a concert crowd and refusing to leave after being asked dozens of time.</p>
<p>Worcester police arrested 24-year-old Portland officer Zahra Munye Abu on Saturday night at a Ja Rule and Ashanti concert.</p>
<p>The Worcester Telegram and Gazette <a href="http://www.telegram.com/news/20180117/pd-portland-officer-cites-racial-profiling-in-worcester-arrest" type="external">reports</a> that police say Abu was escorted out after she grabbed the head of security by the front of his shirt. She was charged with misdemeanors, including assault and battery, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.</p>
<p>Abu is the first Somali immigrant to become a Maine police officer. Portland police say she is on paid administrative leave.</p>
<p>Worcester police say they don't know if Abu has a lawyer. Several phone calls and emails to Abu and family members weren't immediately returned.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been corrected to show that Abu is 24, not 26.</p> | Cops say officer pushed people at concert, wouldn't leave | false | https://apnews.com/amp/68a7d7f4c79a4340b55fbccdeb580fa9 | 2018-01-17 | 2 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SAN ANTONIO — An ex-high school English teacher in San Antonio accused of throwing lewd parties for boys must serve 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to child sex abuse-related counts.</p>
<p>Prosecutors in San Antonio say Jared Anderson was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to multiple counts of sexual performance by a child and indecency with a child by exposure.</p>
<p>The 29-year-old Anderson was a teacher at Judson High School when he was arrested in March 2016 on allegations he hosted sex parties for boys.</p>
<p>Police have said Anderson encouraged the boys to get naked and engage in sexual activity with him and each other during gatherings at his residence.</p>
<p>Authorities say Anderson later texted apologies to some parents amid the investigation.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Former San Antonio teacher gets 10 years in sex parties case | false | https://abqjournal.com/1046644/former-san-antonio-teacher-gets-10-years-in-sex-parties-case.html | 2 |
|
<p />
<p />
<p>AFTER NEARLY 40 HOURS inside the basement of <a href="" type="internal">Landmark Education</a>‘s world headquarters, I have not Transformed. Nor have I “popped” like microwave popcorn, as the Forum Leader striding back and forth at the front of the windowless gray room has promised. In fact, by the time he starts yelling and stabbing the board with a piece of chalk around hour 36, it’s become clear that I’ll be the hard kernel left at the bottom of this three-and-a-half-day Landmark Forum. I have, however, Invented the Possibility of a Future in which I get a big, fat raise, a Future I’ll Choose to Powerfully Enroll my bosses in, now that I am open to Miracles Around Money.</p>
<p>My reluctance to achieve Breakthrough Results is clearly not shared by many of my fellow Forum attendees. Even on day one, most seem positively elated to have plunked down 500 bucks for a more efficient, passionate, powerful life. “Hey, it’s cheaper than <a href="" type="internal">therapy</a>,” a therapist-turned-real estate agent tells me. He ponders how to persuade one of his employees to pony up for the Forum. She’s going through a rough patch, he explains—the <a href="" type="internal">recession</a>, her <a href="" type="internal">marriage</a>.</p>
<p>Not that being broke or brokenhearted would make her a minority in this room; several attendees talk about being between jobs, and one woman says she’s on welfare. In the scribbled shorthand of my furtive notes, PW stands for “incidents of public weeping.” I lose track after the PW count hits 65.</p>
<p>Landmark Education, a for-profit “employee-owned” private company, took in $89 million last year offering leadership and development seminars (and cruises, and dating services, and courses for kids and teens). It claims that more than 1 million seekers have sat through its basic training, which is offered in seven languages in 20 countries. Its consulting firm, the Vanto Group, has coached employees from <a href="" type="internal">Apple</a>, <a href="" type="internal">ExxonMobil</a>, JPMorgan Chase, and the Pentagon.</p>
<p>Though it’s hardly a secret, Landmark does not advertise that it is the buttoned-down reincarnation of the ultimate ’70s self-actualization philosophy, <a href="" type="internal">est</a>. <a href="" type="internal">Erhard Seminars Training</a> was founded by Werner Erhard, a former used car salesman who’d changed his name from Jack Rosenberg, moved to Northern California, and dabbled in Dale Carnegie, Zen, and Scientology before seizing upon the idea that you, and only you, are responsible for your own happiness or unhappiness, success or failure. Est’s marathon Transformation sessions were legendary for their confrontational tactics (Erhard calling his students “assholes”), inscrutable platitudes (“What is, is, and what ain’t, ain’t”), and the pressure put on participants to bring in new recruits for the next cycle of seminars.</p>
<p>In 1985, Erhard changed est’s name to the innocuous-sounding The Forum. Amid controversy over his convoluted tax records, he left the country in 1991 and slid into obscurity. But before he did, he sold the company’s “technology” to his former employees, who used it to create The Landmark Forum. Erhard’s brother, Harry Rosenberg, is Landmark’s CEO.</p>
<p>Like a successful grad of its own program, Landmark has shed its past hang-ups and realized Breakthrough Results. “We are on the list of offerings in the human-resources departments in hundreds of companies and organizations around the world,” boasts PR director Deborah Beroset. The company’s language of personal productivity, confidence, and communication (much of it trademarked) has become white noise in corporate America—and possibly in your personal circle, too. “Authentic life,” anyone?</p>
<p>Landmark’s corporate clients bring not just respectability but more warm bodies bearing checks. (Landmark relies entirely on word-of-mouth advertising.) The <a href="" type="internal">yoga</a> apparel chain Lululemon pays for its employees to enroll in Landmark. Other firms have been sued by employees claiming they were pressured to attend the Forum: In 2007, a Virginia man accused his former employer of firing him for his “refusal to embrace Landmark religious beliefs.” Not that Landmark itself condones such arm twisting. At the start of my session, we were asked to affirm that we were attending of our own free will. A couple of people who confessed otherwise were asked to leave. Still, I talked with several who’d been sent by their employers.</p>
<p>The profitable field Landmark helped pioneer is now crowded with life coaches, time-management gurus, and productivity bloggers. Like David Allen’s Getting Things Done or Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Landmark is just one of dozens of quasi-philosophies that promise to empty your inbox and fulfill your personal goals. And maybe survive the recession. Since the Great Depression, when Dale Carnegie’s seminars on how to win friends and influence people became popular, the personal development industry has bloomed under darkening economic skies. Forget <a href="" type="internal">work/life balance</a>; that’s so 2008. How to do more in less time is today’s hot productivity trend. (Landmark’s website touts a survey in which one-third of Forum grads reported that their incomes rose at least 25 percent after participating; 94 percent of those attributed it to the program.) Yet if Landmark is just another outpost in lifehacking country, why does it seem so insidious?</p>
<p>Part of it is the in-your-face, hard-sell ethos embedded in the corporate DNA it inherited from est. Forum grads are urged to stay involved and “invite” friends and family. After finishing the Forum, I received calls asking me to volunteer at the Landmark call center and come in for one-on-one coaching. The company also vigorously guards its reputation from critics. After I told Beroset I’d be writing an article on my mixed feelings about the Forum, she called several times and sent me an email that might be described as threatening—but in the most benign, centered kind of way.</p>
<p>I first heard about Landmark while working as a Peace Corps recruiter. Every now and again I’d see it listed at the end of someone’s resume, occupying the same spot as, say, a Kiwanis leadership award, or a pastime like water polo. Applicants described it as a professional development seminar—most had been signed up by employers—and gave glowing reports. “You should try it,” they invariably added. I forgot about the whole thing until a generally sane, well-meaning friend called me one weekend with a frog in his throat. He was at some time-management seminar, he’d really gotten a lot out of this thing, and would I want to come by and learn more next Tuesday night? It was hard to say no. But then I googled Landmark.</p>
<p>Eventually, as part of an ongoing attempt to hack my own overscheduled life, I did sign up for the Landmark Forum. I vowed to go in with an open mind and to follow the rules, no matter how restrictive. That meant taking just one meal break per 13-hour session, no Advil or other over-the-counter drugs, no speaking out unless called to the microphone by the Leader, and wearing my name tag at all times. I signed a six-page disclaimer in which I declared that I understood that after attending the Forum, people with no history of mental or emotional problems had experienced “brief, temporary episodes of emotional upset ranging from heightened activity…to mild psychotic-like behavior.”</p>
<p>At 9 a.m. on a Friday I find myself sardined into a basement room with 129 other people, listening to David Cunningham, a boomer in a dark suit and bright purple shirt, whose first language seems to be Tent-Revival Baptist Preacher. (I later learn that he was raised a fundamentalist in Florida.) He informs us that he has personally led more than 50,000 people to Transformation. He’s here to tell us that “anything you want for yourself and your life is available from being here this weekend.” He starts by taking a few questions from the floor. A querulous man observes that the phrases carefully ruler-lined on the chalkboard seem like poor English. (“In The Landmark Forum you will bring forth the presence of a New Realm of Possibility for yourself and your life.”) David agrees. “It’s very poor English. You know why? Because the usual confines of language would not allow your Transformation this weekend.”</p>
<p>Another man is called to the mic. He wants to know how Landmark is different from est. David sighs. “If I had to sum it up, here’s what I’d say: They’re both about Transformation, but est was very experiential. It was the ’70s, okay? Your access was an experience. Your access this weekend is going to be just through conversation. We realized we could do it just through conversation.” And that’s the last we hear of that.</p>
<p>A slight, blond woman sitting next to me confides that she’s here only because her boyfriend paid her way—with the subtext that this was an offer she couldn’t refuse. She shows me a packet of notes tied with a bow. They’re from a friend who attended a Forum and thought it was brainwashing. In the corner of the top sheet is written, “To be opened on ‘breaks.'” Why “breaks” in quotes, I wonder?</p>
<p>I soon find out. “Break” is a misleading term at an all-day workshop that offers no snacks, no drinks other than Dixie cups of water, a single mealtime, and only loosely scheduled pauses to use the bathroom. Also, every break has a corresponding assignment. The first one: Call someone who’d like to hear from you and tell them where you are. I call my brother. “So, it’s like the Hare Krishnas of time management,” he says slowly. On the next break, I hide in a bathroom stall and read a Landmark flyer seemingly translated from Martian: “What would it be like if the San Francisco center was your center of being, and reflected in this, you were being your center?…What if your way of being in the center gives the center its being and you are given your being from the space created in the center?”</p>
<p>By ten o’clock Friday night, 13 hours in, David is curing headaches with visualization techniques (an old Erhard trick) and redefining basic math. “How many items am I holding up?” he asks, holding up a Kleenex box and a chalkboard eraser. “Two,” we say in unison. He puts the eraser down. “Now how many am I holding up?” he asks. One? “Two,” he says. “The box and everything else.” We repeat this until it makes sense—kind of. David promises that tomorrow, people will start to pop.</p>
<p>Indeed, some attendees have popped even before they return to the basement at nine the next morning. Others pop while tearfully offering “shares” about being molested or abandoned, about illnesses and divorces, their suicidal parents. There is applause for stories of calling loved ones and offering forgiveness, and David gently prods the storytellers to invite their family members to attend a Forum—or even pay for them to attend. A woman re-creates a beautiful conversation she had with her mother this morning and ends by singing “Wind Beneath My Wings.”</p>
<p>Next, David calls up a woman—I’ll call her Rose—who is estranged from her siblings. She reports that when she called her sister this morning, it did not go well. “I’m going to get a little intense now,” David warns us with a smile, which he drops as soon as he turns to Rose. “You know the mood of celebration after the last share?” She nods. “What’s in the room now?” David shakes his head ruefully. “You were ‘screamed at’ by your sister? There’s no such thing as screaming.” People start fidgeting and making for the door; there hasn’t been a bathroom break in three hours. “You see, people are leaving,” David says. “This is why people don’t want to be around you, why your siblings don’t want to be around you. You’re too dead to feel,” he says.</p>
<p>By now, tears are streaming down Rose’s face. She asks to sit down; he says nothing. Finally, she thanks David, and he gives her a long hug before she takes a seat. Later, I walk over to tell her that I didn’t like how David treated her. To my surprise, she disagrees. After being publicly humiliated, she phoned her sister again, and this time her sister listened. “I guess this is what I needed to hear,” Rose tells me, smiling.</p>
<p>By Sunday, I’m in open rebellion. I come bearing contraband—a <a href="" type="internal">newspaper</a>, coffee, snacks, and Advil. “How are you?” I ask the minder at the door as I slap on my name tag. “I’m truthful,” he says, giving me the stink-eye. I Invent the Possibility of staying far away from Landmark seminars in the future.</p>
<p>We get Monday off. When I take a hard seat in the basement for Tuesday’s final Special Evening, I’m surprised to find I almost—almost—start crying. It’s like seeing a room of beloved camp friends after a year apart. The air is festive and buzzing with chatter about our day and a half away from each other. I think, This is great! No wonder people have brought along dozens of friends to sign up.</p>
<p>David quiets the crowd and sends the friends away with a group of minders. Turning to the rest of us, he says, “You know how I wished you big Problems on Sunday? Well, now I wish you big Breakdowns. Because a Breakdown is nothing more than the gap between your life now and the life you’re committed to living. Your job is to step into that gap.” He smiles. “When you came in here Friday morning, you were so certain about who you were, weren’t you? You walked in certain, and tonight you’re walking out uncertain. It could take years to become certain about who you are again. That’s what the rest of the Landmark Curriculum for Living is for: to help you resolve that uncertainty.”</p>
<p>Suddenly, I want him to love me as his student, to make him smile, to hear him tell me I’m doing a good job in my life. There are more “shares”; David tears up for the third time in two hours. “I love you forever,” he tells us. “If you ever wonder if someone loves you, the answer is yes. David loves you.”</p>
<p>And then, without warning, he launches into the <a href="" type="internal">hard, hard sell</a>. “I am committed to having every one of you register for the Advanced Course tonight,” he says. He’s no longer smiling. We can demonstrate our commitment to ourselves, to David, to Landmark—all for $650, a $200 discount—but only if we act now.</p>
<p>Before I get up and leave for good, I spot Rose. She’s sitting in the front row, gazing expectantly at David, ready to take the next step toward Transformation, Possibility, and Enrollment™.</p>
<p /> | The Landmark Forum: 42 Hours, $500, 65 Breakdowns | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/08/landmark-42-hours-500-65-breakdowns/ | 2009-08-17 | 4 |
<p>A U.N. report Tuesday estimated the number of the world’s displaced refugees in 2007 at 11.4 million, a majority of which the U.N. says come from the U.S.-led conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Analysts also say the number of refugees threatens to grow even more due to new concerns such as climate change, environmental degradation and increasingly scarce resources.</p>
<p>The New York Times:</p>
<p>The number of refugees crossing borders to escape conflict and persecution increased last year, and threatens to continue to grow because of factors like climate change and scarce resources, the United Nations refugee agency warned Tuesday.</p>
<p>The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees oversaw the care of 11.4 million refugees in 2007, including about 400,000 people who were enduring conflict in their own countries, the agency said. The total was 9.9 million people in 2006.</p>
<p />
<p>“We are now faced with a complex mix of global challenges that could threaten even more forced displacement in the future,” António Guterres, the high commissioner, said in a statement.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/world/18refugees.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Refugees on the Rise | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/refugees-on-the-rise/ | 2008-06-18 | 4 |
<p />
<p>Members of the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting board honed their strategy for eventually hiking interest rates and reducing the central bank’s massive balance sheet at the late-July meeting, minutes show.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Without providing specific timing, officials said they would probably target a federal funds rate in the range of 0.25 percentage points “at the time of liftoff and for some time thereafter.” The officials also agreed the Fed’s balance sheet “should be reduced gradually and predictably.”</p>
<p>The consensus among members of the Federal Open Markets Committee, which sets most Fed policy, is that interest rates will start moving higher no earlier than mid-2015. Although as economic conditions have improved, a growing campaign has mounted among some FOMC members to move that date up.</p>
<p>The minutes released on Wednesday reflect that ongoing debate but gave no indication the policy makers were ready to move up their timetable for raising rates.</p>
<p>Instead, the focus at last month’s meeting was in providing more details as to how the Fed will structure what it refers to as its “normalization” policy, or a return to policies that don’t include the unprecedented stimulus programs initiated in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.</p>
<p>Interest rates have been held at a historically low range of 0%-0.25% since December 2008 in an effort to spur lending and promote economic growth.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>While formulating a strategy and deciding on the proper language for raising the key fed funds rate, central bankers acknowledged that more complex measures will also be employed in their effort to maintain stable interest rates once liftoff begins.</p>
<p>For example, the FOMC members agreed that adjustments in the interest on excessive reserves held by the Fed “would be the primary tool used to move the federal funds rate into its target range and influence other money market rates.”</p>
<p>Central bankers also argued over the language tied to improvement in U.S. labor markets. Labor market data will be a key indicator used to determine the timing of interest rate hikes.</p>
<p>Fed Chair Janet Yellen has repeatedly referred to “slack” in labor markets that undermines optimism created by a sharp decline in the unemployment rate in recent months. Yellen has pointed to stagnant wages, a low labor force participation rate and the proliferation of part-time and temporary jobs as reasons why an accommodative policy – ie., low interest rates – are still needed.</p>
<p>But some members of the FOMC, likely those who are concerned that low interest rates will eventually lead to runaway inflation, wanted the FOMC statement language to reflect the belief that labor markets are improving faster than the Fed had previously anticipated.</p>
<p>“Regarding the labor market, many members concluded that a range of indicators of labor market conditions—including the unemployment rate as well as a number of other measures of labor utilization— had improved more in recent months than they anticipated earlier,” the minutes read.</p>
<p>The members decided to acknowledge both scenarios: that the unemployment rate was falling but that additional data revealed “significant underutilization of labor resources.”</p>
<p>“Many members noted, however, that the characterization of labor market underutilization might have to change before long, particularly if progress in the labor market continued to be faster than anticipated,” the minutes added.</p>
<p>With regard to inflation, the minutes noted that inflation has moved higher in recent months but is still running below the Fed’s target rate of 2%.</p>
<p>The Fed has said it won’t consider raising interest rates until inflation hits a range of 1.7%-2% and the unemployment rate falls to 5.2%-5.6%. down from its current 6.1% level.</p>
<p>“Regarding inflation, members agreed to update the language in the statement to acknowledge that inflation had recently moved somewhat closer to the Committee’s longer-run objective and to convey their judgment that the likelihood of inflation running persistently below 2 percent had diminished somewhat,” the minutes state.</p> | Fed Fine-Tuned Rate Liftoff, Balance Sheet Reduction Strategy in July Meeting | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2014/08/20/fed-fine-tuned-rate-liftoff-balance-sheet-reduction-strategy-in-july-meeting.html | 2016-03-05 | 0 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>He was a gentle and kind soul whose 90 years were filled with hard work, an honest lifestyle, and his favorite activity, traveling across America visiting 49 states.</p>
<p>He will be remembered for the twinkle in his eye, always being there in time of need for his children and grandchildren, and the patriarch of a close knit Christian family.</p>
<p>Paul L. Fontaine.</p>
<p>He had a warm smile, a quick wit and became a friend to all who came into contact with him.</p>
<p>Paul was born in Lowell, Mass., on Sept. 1, 1923. He graduated from Ware High School at 16 and then joined the Civilian Conservation Corps until he turned 18.</p>
<p>He joined the U.S. Army serving in World War II from 1943-1946. Paul was a member of the 1007 Engineer Battalion working in India building bridges and highways to Burma and China.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>He was an employee of the United States Postal Service, retiring after a 30-year career. Paul and Eleanor resided in Massachusetts and Florida, and became residents of New Mexico in 1974 when he retired from the postal service.</p>
<p>Paul leaves behind Eleanor, his dedicated and loving wife of 67 years, and all of his five children: Bruce and his wife Gail of Rio Rancho; Mark and his wife Dianna of Tallahassee, Fla.; June of Edgewood; Keith and his wife Georgia of Albuquerque; and Mary Joy and her husband David of Rio Rancho. Paul has 13 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren.</p>
<p>Paul received professional loving attention in his final days from Presbyterian Hospice and Comfort Keepers. The family will be forever grateful for their loving concern and care.</p>
<p>Paul’s arrangements are being handled by the Cremation Society of New Mexico and his family and friends will be holding a Celebration of Life in the near future.</p> | OBITUARY: Paul L. Fontaine | false | https://abqjournal.com/421923/paul-l-fontaine.html | 2 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>During the manhunt, Agua Fria Elementary School at 3160 Agua Fria was put on lockdown, at about 11:30 a.m., because summer programs were in session there.</p>
<p>The manhunt began on Cerrillos Road when detectives in an undercover car saw Martinez in a red Dodge Neon, the suspect vehicle in two Santa Fe County burglaries, Dobyns said. Martinez also has two municipal court warrants for failure to appear.</p>
<p>Dobyns said Martinez is a suspect in about three burglaries, including the two involving a Neon.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The detectives asked for marked cruisers to help them pull the car over, but the vehicle fled from the police onto Camino Carlos Rey. The chase later continued on roads including Siringo Road, Richards Avenue and Henry Lynch Road.</p>
<p>The vehicle pulled into the Santa Fe West Mobile Home Park, on Henry Lynch near Rufina, where it struck an unoccupied vehicle, Dobyns said.</p>
<p>Martinez left the car and jumped over a wall, and police lost sight of him. His passenger, identified by police later as 22-year-old Monique Montaño, ran from the car and into a trailer.</p>
<p>Montaño was caught and charged with resisting arrest, conspiracy to commit aggravated fleeing of a law enforcement officer, leaving the scene of an accident and possession of burglary tools, Dobyns said.</p>
<p>The final charge was due to a screwdriver police found in her purse. Dobyns said police also found gold costume jewelry in her purse.</p>
<p>“Both people, Kenneth and Monique, are frequent flyers of the gold buyers,” she said of the suspects.</p>
<p>Police saturated the area, called for a State Police helicopter and asked the Santa Fe SWAT team, which had been on a training assignment, to help in the search after a man who lives off Agua Fria told police a man believed to be Martinez hid in his shed and asked for water before fleeing again.</p>
<p>The SWAT team was used to help knock on doors and systematically search the neighborhood, Dobyns said.</p>
<p>Martinez was bald – although jail booking photo from earlier this year has him with dark hair – and was wearing a gray shirt and black shorts at the time of the chase, Dobyns said. He is about 5 feet, 5 inches, tall and weighs 140 pounds according to County inmate records.</p>
<p>Martinez was convicted in state District Court in Santa Fe in September 2007 with burglary and larceny and was also convicted in May 2009 of burglary, according to an online court records database.</p>
<p>Montaño was convicted in May 2011 in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court of fraudulently obtaining a controlled substance.</p>
<p>Anyone with information about Martinez is asked to call Santa Fe dispatch at 505-428-3710.</p> | Chopper And SWAT Join Chase | false | https://abqjournal.com/111915/chopper-and-swat-join-chase.html | 2012-06-09 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.