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<p>One rarely hears words like righteousness and dignity in conversations among those on the secular, progressive left.&#160; Unfortunately, in sidelining those words, along with honor, virtue, and even goodness,&#160; with their serious religious and moral overtone, we have demeaned exactly the human qualities needed to respond to the dire and threatening times we live in.&#160; While we are urged over and over by the those willing to report to us the full ongoing catastrophe, to take to the streets and protest, there is a prior action needed if the response is to be more than a return, politically, to “lesser evilism,”to the emptiness of so much of “progressive” politics.</p>
<p>We, the “bourgeois” ones with access to higher education,&#160; were supposed to know the system has failed us, to be counter cultural. Thus, there is something of the chickens coming home to roost in this current abominable incarnation of national leadership.&#160; We are the ones who could have understood the system in the way that leads one to act because one understands the system – in our case the neoliberal corporate capitalist system, the military industrial complex –&#160; is injurious to the humanity of all of us.</p>
<p>We’ve heard the warnings, from Dr. King, from Eisenhower’s farewell address,&#160; from James Baldwin, from Cornel West, from Noam Chomsky, from indigenous peoples.&#160; We are supposed to have this understanding, and we did not get it.&#160; We did not truly educate ourselves.&#160; It was up to us, the educated and better off, to understand the system is corrupt, cannot be reformed, is harmful to the common good, and we evaded our responsibility.&#160; Not with a shrug, perhaps with a sigh, we’ve said, Let someone else lead, I have my work and my family.</p>
<p>When the system has gone off the deep end, revolution is one option.&#160; On the other hand, disobedience, in the manner of Henry David Thoreau’s act of opposition to slavery and to war with Mexico, is another.&#160; Thoreau stated: “Know all men by these presents that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society which I have not joined.”&#160; That is, when your country is “no longer itself,” such an act of self-alienation is the justified action of a righteous man.</p>
<p>Thoreau’s act of disobedience, as Curtis White points out in <a href="" type="internal">The Spirit of Disobedience</a>(2006), was not revolutionary.&#160; It is rather, refusal:”I will live as if your world has ended, as indeed it deserves to end.&#160; I will live as if my gesture of refusing your world has destroyed it.”&#160;&#160; Thoreau’s self-imposed exile to Walden was based, says White,&#160; in “the need to create a society…. that he could willingly join.”</p>
<p>That is, it was based first in a quite astonishing (if you think about it) level of trust in his own self worth. It was a moral position taken not in submission to a religious rule or shared understanding,&#160; but in concert with his own instinctual being.&#160; For first he had to make a choice independent of everyone else, including his friend, mentor and fellow Concord person of genius, Ralph Emerson, to do as his conscience bid.&#160; Each of us has this option, as long as we can find in ourselves the place of righteous refusal in the manner of Thoreau.&#160; We can participate in the building of the new world to replace this failed one.&#160; Conscientious disobedience coming from one’s self-acknowledged dignity as a human being, is a very different act than that of partisan fighting over the Russians influencing our politics, absorbing as that is, or identity politics that depends for its energy on the victim condition of the individual or group.&#160; It suggests that the important and necessary work for men and women is to locate our innate righteousness so we can turn to creating a society “we can willingly join.”</p>
<p>This is the work to be taken up once we have turned our servile, prostrate will away from its habitual customary deference to the given standards of “good behavior,” which, after all, are really no more demanding than do your job, don’t make waves, collect your salary and benefits, buy stuff, let your pesky passion be satisfied with deciding between android vs iphone, or Wall St.-approved Democrat vs. Wall St.-approved Republican.&#160; Creating the new, human-worthy society awaits us once&#160; we’ve confessed our powerlessness over our addiction to TV and mass media, an industry flourishing in the age of Trump, a bizarre celebrity who holds peoples’ fascination in the same way as do car wrecks or burning buildings.&#160; When we avidly follow a national news that matches, in its effect on our adrenal system, the lurid ‘scoops’ promised on the covers of magazines at the checkout line at the supermarket,&#160; we can be sure it is not information we’re after as responsible citizens, but a “turn on” to feed our addiction.</p>
<p>In these times when we are cut off from a context or a genuine culture that could&#160; nourish and encourage our humanity, many of of us get trapped into taking what the consumer culture offers.&#160; Captive in a dehumanizing culture, this is the way we take care of ourselves.&#160; It is not the way free, dignified, sovereign people answer their rightful wants and needs.</p>
<p>Thus the first task is the daunting one; ending our existence as servile addicts and finding in ourselves the worthy and righteous man or woman who can refuse this America, and create the America (or more locally, our own town or city or farm, or home on the edge of a pond) worthy of our souls, and of the souls of all of us including those fervently joining in the politics of hate.&#160; This is not survivalism; it cannot be undertaken in order to be among the post-apocalyptic remnant.&#160; Being righteous is not being “more righteous than thou.” It is serving the greatness inherent in the lowly individual soul, acting as the expressive organ for its aberrant goodness,&#160; a morality always checked against ego inflation by the “impossible” demand that one is – bottom line – supposed to counter and vanquish the crushing sense of personal unworthiness.</p>
<p>This weekend, thanks to nearby Hamilton College,&#160; we got to see a production by The Acting Company of the play X, or Betty Shabazz vs. The Nation, by Marcus Gardley.&#160; Seeing this outstanding production of a really excellent play, I was reminded of the passion I’d had for Malcolm X as a great man and a great leader after reading The Autobiography back in the 90’s.&#160; In the play, Malcolm gradually and with difficulty reaches his decision to leave the Nation of Islam and his spiritual father Elijah Muhammad who had mentored Malcolm’s transformation from petty criminal to powerful leader.&#160; We witnessed the struggle of the righteous man who must stand up for his righteousness even at the risk of opposing “God,” or he who, in one’s own mind, has occupied the place of perfection for so long it has become accepted truth.&#160; It has become – in effect – dogma.</p>
<p>Being finally presented with incontrovertible evidence that Muhammad was not perfect, by means of his meeting, at his wife Betty’s urging, with several young women who’d been impregnated by the Nation’s leader,&#160; Malcolm was forced to make a break that he did not want to make.&#160; Loyalty to The Nation and to Elijah Muhammad was the guiding principle of a principled man; Malcolm’s personal popularity, which exceeded that of Elijah Muhammad – the celebrity which means so much in public life today – meant relatively little to him&#160;&#160; He chose to separate himself when the organization had become unrecognizable to him; it was “no longer itself,” or what he had understood it as.&#160; The action would not make him popular; it guaranteed he would be an ambivalent figure in history, as indeed he already was.&#160; He was one of those geniuses whose path is not straight, but whose efforts to ‘self-correct,’ to challenge his own current dogma, never ceased. He did not understand himself as “perfect” and did not hold himself to that impossible standard, the trap in which Elijah Muhammad got caught.</p>
<p>Not his charisma or his eloquence, but his adhering faithfully to his own righteousness, to the inner moral compass, is what made him great (or honorable, as his wife calls him in the play), a great leader, and made his death – as well as that of ML King’s – a loss from which, in the area of leadership, America has never recovered. That I see these qualities in Malcolm X&#160; may seem speculative to some, but perhaps they are difficult to see when we have learned to honor not virtue, not honor, not righteousness,&#160; but those who can convince us that being crude louts “just like the rest of us,” lets the rest of us,&#160; so reduced in our sense of personal worth, off the hook.</p>
<p>Obediently we have kept questions of moral and character development, the traditional realm of religion, at the fringe of our concerns.&#160; We have been obediently religiophobic in a way that is not simply a critique of institutional religion but which frees us from any sense of a moral obligation to our own inner being, leaving it sequestered in shame. The success of Trump is attributable to our failure to understand and appreciate true greatness out of our sheepish inclination to be let off from our personal responsibility to realize the true genius each is born with and – in a human-worthy society – supposed to manifest. That our society has failed to teach us this means, as Thoreau and Malcolm exemplify, it is time to create the one we can willingly join.</p> | Righteousness and Dignity: Thoreau, Malcolm X and the Crisis of Leadership in America | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/04/05/91694/ | 2017-04-05 | 4left
| Righteousness and Dignity: Thoreau, Malcolm X and the Crisis of Leadership in America
<p>One rarely hears words like righteousness and dignity in conversations among those on the secular, progressive left.&#160; Unfortunately, in sidelining those words, along with honor, virtue, and even goodness,&#160; with their serious religious and moral overtone, we have demeaned exactly the human qualities needed to respond to the dire and threatening times we live in.&#160; While we are urged over and over by the those willing to report to us the full ongoing catastrophe, to take to the streets and protest, there is a prior action needed if the response is to be more than a return, politically, to “lesser evilism,”to the emptiness of so much of “progressive” politics.</p>
<p>We, the “bourgeois” ones with access to higher education,&#160; were supposed to know the system has failed us, to be counter cultural. Thus, there is something of the chickens coming home to roost in this current abominable incarnation of national leadership.&#160; We are the ones who could have understood the system in the way that leads one to act because one understands the system – in our case the neoliberal corporate capitalist system, the military industrial complex –&#160; is injurious to the humanity of all of us.</p>
<p>We’ve heard the warnings, from Dr. King, from Eisenhower’s farewell address,&#160; from James Baldwin, from Cornel West, from Noam Chomsky, from indigenous peoples.&#160; We are supposed to have this understanding, and we did not get it.&#160; We did not truly educate ourselves.&#160; It was up to us, the educated and better off, to understand the system is corrupt, cannot be reformed, is harmful to the common good, and we evaded our responsibility.&#160; Not with a shrug, perhaps with a sigh, we’ve said, Let someone else lead, I have my work and my family.</p>
<p>When the system has gone off the deep end, revolution is one option.&#160; On the other hand, disobedience, in the manner of Henry David Thoreau’s act of opposition to slavery and to war with Mexico, is another.&#160; Thoreau stated: “Know all men by these presents that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society which I have not joined.”&#160; That is, when your country is “no longer itself,” such an act of self-alienation is the justified action of a righteous man.</p>
<p>Thoreau’s act of disobedience, as Curtis White points out in <a href="" type="internal">The Spirit of Disobedience</a>(2006), was not revolutionary.&#160; It is rather, refusal:”I will live as if your world has ended, as indeed it deserves to end.&#160; I will live as if my gesture of refusing your world has destroyed it.”&#160;&#160; Thoreau’s self-imposed exile to Walden was based, says White,&#160; in “the need to create a society…. that he could willingly join.”</p>
<p>That is, it was based first in a quite astonishing (if you think about it) level of trust in his own self worth. It was a moral position taken not in submission to a religious rule or shared understanding,&#160; but in concert with his own instinctual being.&#160; For first he had to make a choice independent of everyone else, including his friend, mentor and fellow Concord person of genius, Ralph Emerson, to do as his conscience bid.&#160; Each of us has this option, as long as we can find in ourselves the place of righteous refusal in the manner of Thoreau.&#160; We can participate in the building of the new world to replace this failed one.&#160; Conscientious disobedience coming from one’s self-acknowledged dignity as a human being, is a very different act than that of partisan fighting over the Russians influencing our politics, absorbing as that is, or identity politics that depends for its energy on the victim condition of the individual or group.&#160; It suggests that the important and necessary work for men and women is to locate our innate righteousness so we can turn to creating a society “we can willingly join.”</p>
<p>This is the work to be taken up once we have turned our servile, prostrate will away from its habitual customary deference to the given standards of “good behavior,” which, after all, are really no more demanding than do your job, don’t make waves, collect your salary and benefits, buy stuff, let your pesky passion be satisfied with deciding between android vs iphone, or Wall St.-approved Democrat vs. Wall St.-approved Republican.&#160; Creating the new, human-worthy society awaits us once&#160; we’ve confessed our powerlessness over our addiction to TV and mass media, an industry flourishing in the age of Trump, a bizarre celebrity who holds peoples’ fascination in the same way as do car wrecks or burning buildings.&#160; When we avidly follow a national news that matches, in its effect on our adrenal system, the lurid ‘scoops’ promised on the covers of magazines at the checkout line at the supermarket,&#160; we can be sure it is not information we’re after as responsible citizens, but a “turn on” to feed our addiction.</p>
<p>In these times when we are cut off from a context or a genuine culture that could&#160; nourish and encourage our humanity, many of of us get trapped into taking what the consumer culture offers.&#160; Captive in a dehumanizing culture, this is the way we take care of ourselves.&#160; It is not the way free, dignified, sovereign people answer their rightful wants and needs.</p>
<p>Thus the first task is the daunting one; ending our existence as servile addicts and finding in ourselves the worthy and righteous man or woman who can refuse this America, and create the America (or more locally, our own town or city or farm, or home on the edge of a pond) worthy of our souls, and of the souls of all of us including those fervently joining in the politics of hate.&#160; This is not survivalism; it cannot be undertaken in order to be among the post-apocalyptic remnant.&#160; Being righteous is not being “more righteous than thou.” It is serving the greatness inherent in the lowly individual soul, acting as the expressive organ for its aberrant goodness,&#160; a morality always checked against ego inflation by the “impossible” demand that one is – bottom line – supposed to counter and vanquish the crushing sense of personal unworthiness.</p>
<p>This weekend, thanks to nearby Hamilton College,&#160; we got to see a production by The Acting Company of the play X, or Betty Shabazz vs. The Nation, by Marcus Gardley.&#160; Seeing this outstanding production of a really excellent play, I was reminded of the passion I’d had for Malcolm X as a great man and a great leader after reading The Autobiography back in the 90’s.&#160; In the play, Malcolm gradually and with difficulty reaches his decision to leave the Nation of Islam and his spiritual father Elijah Muhammad who had mentored Malcolm’s transformation from petty criminal to powerful leader.&#160; We witnessed the struggle of the righteous man who must stand up for his righteousness even at the risk of opposing “God,” or he who, in one’s own mind, has occupied the place of perfection for so long it has become accepted truth.&#160; It has become – in effect – dogma.</p>
<p>Being finally presented with incontrovertible evidence that Muhammad was not perfect, by means of his meeting, at his wife Betty’s urging, with several young women who’d been impregnated by the Nation’s leader,&#160; Malcolm was forced to make a break that he did not want to make.&#160; Loyalty to The Nation and to Elijah Muhammad was the guiding principle of a principled man; Malcolm’s personal popularity, which exceeded that of Elijah Muhammad – the celebrity which means so much in public life today – meant relatively little to him&#160;&#160; He chose to separate himself when the organization had become unrecognizable to him; it was “no longer itself,” or what he had understood it as.&#160; The action would not make him popular; it guaranteed he would be an ambivalent figure in history, as indeed he already was.&#160; He was one of those geniuses whose path is not straight, but whose efforts to ‘self-correct,’ to challenge his own current dogma, never ceased. He did not understand himself as “perfect” and did not hold himself to that impossible standard, the trap in which Elijah Muhammad got caught.</p>
<p>Not his charisma or his eloquence, but his adhering faithfully to his own righteousness, to the inner moral compass, is what made him great (or honorable, as his wife calls him in the play), a great leader, and made his death – as well as that of ML King’s – a loss from which, in the area of leadership, America has never recovered. That I see these qualities in Malcolm X&#160; may seem speculative to some, but perhaps they are difficult to see when we have learned to honor not virtue, not honor, not righteousness,&#160; but those who can convince us that being crude louts “just like the rest of us,” lets the rest of us,&#160; so reduced in our sense of personal worth, off the hook.</p>
<p>Obediently we have kept questions of moral and character development, the traditional realm of religion, at the fringe of our concerns.&#160; We have been obediently religiophobic in a way that is not simply a critique of institutional religion but which frees us from any sense of a moral obligation to our own inner being, leaving it sequestered in shame. The success of Trump is attributable to our failure to understand and appreciate true greatness out of our sheepish inclination to be let off from our personal responsibility to realize the true genius each is born with and – in a human-worthy society – supposed to manifest. That our society has failed to teach us this means, as Thoreau and Malcolm exemplify, it is time to create the one we can willingly join.</p> | 1,700 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Greg Sommer was part of the Sandia National Laboratories team that developed the medical diagnostic lab-on-a-disk known as SpinDx. (Courtesy of Sandia Labs)</p>
<p>For example, Greg Sommer was on the Sandia team that developed the medical diagnostic lab-on-a-disk known as SpinDx. It is being commercialized using Sandia's Entrepreneurial Separation to Transfer Technology program.</p>
<p>That program is an "innovative tech-transfer tool that has endured," said Jackie Kerby Moore, Sandia's manager of Technology and Economic Development. "Not only do we have many success stories, but we've measured the economic impact, which shows positive benefits to the local community. Furthermore, entrepreneurs who return to Sandia bring new experiences that benefit the labs."</p>
<p>Thirty-three of the 99 companies involved in program since it began in 1994 responded to the survey gauging its economic impact. Respondents said 379 jobs were created by their companies through the program since it began, and that in 2012 they employed 1,550 people at an average annual salary of $80,000. Their 2012 sales revenue was $212 million. From 2008 through 2012, the businesses invested $40 million in equipment and $277 million in goods and services. Two-thirds of them had commercialized a technology as a result of ESTT.</p>
<p>"Four startups using Sandia technology licenses came out of the program in the past two years alone, along with a number of company expansions," Kerby Moore said. "Of these, three licensed technologies from Sandia."</p>
<p>One of Sandia's hottest technologies is the medical diagnostic lab-on-a-disk SpinDx, being commercialized by Sommer using ESTT. He co-founded and is chief executive officer of Sandstone Diagnostics in Livermore, Calif., which is bringing the technology to market.</p>
<p>"The high-tech environment at Sandia is ripe for innovation and game-changing technologies," he said. "The ESTT program allowed us to launch Sandstone and develop cutting-edge medical products based on technology we originally developed for Sandia's biodefense missions."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The transfer program encourages researchers to take technology out of the labs and into the private sector by guaranteeing their jobs back if they return within two years. They can request a third-year extension.</p>
<p>The Sandia survey showed that 145 Sandia researchers left through the program, 62 to start a business and 83 to expand one. Forty-one, or 28 percent, returned to the labs while 98 researchers left for good. Six are currently in the transfer program. Of the 99 companies impacted by the program since 1994, 49 were startups and 50 were expansions.</p>
<p>Of the 145 who left on ESTT, 27 of the companies they joined licensed a Sandia technology.</p>
<p>Looking back at 20 years, Kerby Moore said ESTT has been an important piece of Sandia's tech transfer and economic development portfolio. "It is still relevant and has a lot of life ahead," she said.</p>
<p /> | Lab tech transfer spawns jobs | false | https://abqjournal.com/398429/lab-tech-transfer-spawns-jobs.html | 2least
| Lab tech transfer spawns jobs
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Greg Sommer was part of the Sandia National Laboratories team that developed the medical diagnostic lab-on-a-disk known as SpinDx. (Courtesy of Sandia Labs)</p>
<p>For example, Greg Sommer was on the Sandia team that developed the medical diagnostic lab-on-a-disk known as SpinDx. It is being commercialized using Sandia's Entrepreneurial Separation to Transfer Technology program.</p>
<p>That program is an "innovative tech-transfer tool that has endured," said Jackie Kerby Moore, Sandia's manager of Technology and Economic Development. "Not only do we have many success stories, but we've measured the economic impact, which shows positive benefits to the local community. Furthermore, entrepreneurs who return to Sandia bring new experiences that benefit the labs."</p>
<p>Thirty-three of the 99 companies involved in program since it began in 1994 responded to the survey gauging its economic impact. Respondents said 379 jobs were created by their companies through the program since it began, and that in 2012 they employed 1,550 people at an average annual salary of $80,000. Their 2012 sales revenue was $212 million. From 2008 through 2012, the businesses invested $40 million in equipment and $277 million in goods and services. Two-thirds of them had commercialized a technology as a result of ESTT.</p>
<p>"Four startups using Sandia technology licenses came out of the program in the past two years alone, along with a number of company expansions," Kerby Moore said. "Of these, three licensed technologies from Sandia."</p>
<p>One of Sandia's hottest technologies is the medical diagnostic lab-on-a-disk SpinDx, being commercialized by Sommer using ESTT. He co-founded and is chief executive officer of Sandstone Diagnostics in Livermore, Calif., which is bringing the technology to market.</p>
<p>"The high-tech environment at Sandia is ripe for innovation and game-changing technologies," he said. "The ESTT program allowed us to launch Sandstone and develop cutting-edge medical products based on technology we originally developed for Sandia's biodefense missions."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The transfer program encourages researchers to take technology out of the labs and into the private sector by guaranteeing their jobs back if they return within two years. They can request a third-year extension.</p>
<p>The Sandia survey showed that 145 Sandia researchers left through the program, 62 to start a business and 83 to expand one. Forty-one, or 28 percent, returned to the labs while 98 researchers left for good. Six are currently in the transfer program. Of the 99 companies impacted by the program since 1994, 49 were startups and 50 were expansions.</p>
<p>Of the 145 who left on ESTT, 27 of the companies they joined licensed a Sandia technology.</p>
<p>Looking back at 20 years, Kerby Moore said ESTT has been an important piece of Sandia's tech transfer and economic development portfolio. "It is still relevant and has a lot of life ahead," she said.</p>
<p /> | 1,701 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Perry said he’s authorized immediate shipments of crude to the Phillips 66 refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The oil will be replenished under an exchange arrangement similar to a loan.</p>
<p>The Energy Department will review other requests for oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency stockpile that guards against supply disruptions, a spokeswoman said.</p>
<p>The petroleum reserve was created in the wake of the 1970s Arab oil embargo. The reserve stores oil at four underground sites in Texas and Louisiana.</p>
<p>Gasoline prices have increased by at least 10 cents a gallon since Harvey came ashore and caused record flooding, shutting down oil refineries along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. More than one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity has been shuttered, according to S&amp;P Global Platts.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Pump prices have surged. The average for a gallon of regular gasoline has risen from about $2.35 a week ago to $2.45 now, AAA reported. The price spike is more dramatic in some states such as Georgia, where the average cost per gallon of regular gas has climbed from $2.22 a week ago to $2.39 now.</p>
<p>It could take two weeks or longer before big refineries in the Houston area can recover from a record-setting deluge and resume normal operations.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump has proposed selling nearly half the petroleum reserve amid an oil production boom that has seen U.S. imports drop sharply in the past decade.</p>
<p>Trump’s budget calls for selling up to 270 million barrels of oil over the next decade, raising an estimated $16.6 billion. The proposal, on top of planned auctions expected over the next few years, could push the reserve below 300 million barrels by 2025. It now is at 679 million barrels.</p> | Energy chief taps emergency oil reserve in wake of Harvey | false | https://abqjournal.com/1056511/energy-chief-taps-emergency-oil-reserve-in-wake-of-harvey.html | 2017-08-31 | 2least
| Energy chief taps emergency oil reserve in wake of Harvey
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Perry said he’s authorized immediate shipments of crude to the Phillips 66 refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The oil will be replenished under an exchange arrangement similar to a loan.</p>
<p>The Energy Department will review other requests for oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency stockpile that guards against supply disruptions, a spokeswoman said.</p>
<p>The petroleum reserve was created in the wake of the 1970s Arab oil embargo. The reserve stores oil at four underground sites in Texas and Louisiana.</p>
<p>Gasoline prices have increased by at least 10 cents a gallon since Harvey came ashore and caused record flooding, shutting down oil refineries along the Texas and Louisiana coasts. More than one-fifth of U.S. refining capacity has been shuttered, according to S&amp;P Global Platts.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Pump prices have surged. The average for a gallon of regular gasoline has risen from about $2.35 a week ago to $2.45 now, AAA reported. The price spike is more dramatic in some states such as Georgia, where the average cost per gallon of regular gas has climbed from $2.22 a week ago to $2.39 now.</p>
<p>It could take two weeks or longer before big refineries in the Houston area can recover from a record-setting deluge and resume normal operations.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump has proposed selling nearly half the petroleum reserve amid an oil production boom that has seen U.S. imports drop sharply in the past decade.</p>
<p>Trump’s budget calls for selling up to 270 million barrels of oil over the next decade, raising an estimated $16.6 billion. The proposal, on top of planned auctions expected over the next few years, could push the reserve below 300 million barrels by 2025. It now is at 679 million barrels.</p> | 1,702 |
<p>The Cannes International Film Festival is be wrapping up this weekend, but movie buffs around the world will continue to dissect what wass hot — and what was not.</p>
<p>One film sure to be debated is Abel Ferrara’s “Welcome to New York,” starring Gerard Depardieu as a thinly-veiled Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The French politician and former head of the IMF was accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeper in a New York City hotel. Perhaps because of its ripped-from-the-headlines nature, it was popular with festival attendees.</p>
<p>“It was the hottest ticket in town for the night that it played,” said Xan Brooks. Brooks is a film critic for The Guardian and he was able to snag a ticket to see the film that evening.</p>
<p>It was an extraordinary film and extraordinary performance by Depardieu, Brooks said.</p>
<p>Officially, the film is not about Dominique Strauss-Kahn but inspired by the case in which the French politician assaulted a maid in his New York hotel room. Ferrara named his main character, calling him Mr. Devereaux. Still, according to Brooks, the rest of the plot seems very much lifted from the papers.</p>
<p>Ferrara likes to push the envelope.</p>
<p>“Here he kind of pushes it over the table, under the door and out into the garden and really clears the stage for a startling performance from Depardieu,” Brooks said.</p>
<p>In one particularly memorable scene, a strip search, Depardieu allows Ferrara’s camera to film him naked. Depardieu is 65 and overweight — and the scene goes on for about 10 minutes.</p>
<p>“I don’t know if this is a great film, but we watched it all with our jaws dropped open,” said Brooks.</p>
<p>Some have called the film a total flop — which Brooks can understand.</p>
<p>“The problem that Ferrara has is that he’s making a film about an alleged sexual assault, and yet he plays it as a kind of debased, trashy pantomime. And there’s a sense that he’s inviting us to laugh," Brooks said, “but then when it tips over to [the character Devereaux] molesting women, is Ferrara saying this is funny too? And that is a real issue that I think anyone will have to weigh up when watching this film.”</p>
<p>Another element complicating the film is Depardieu portraying himself. The film opens with a staged-interview where he's he’s asked why he took on the role. Depardieu says he took the role because he hates politics and politicians. Yet, he himself has been seen cozying up with Russian president Vladimir Putin.</p>
<p>His performance in that interview begs the question about who the film actually about?</p>
<p>“We know him as a virile star of French cinema and he’s now a hulking wreck, railing against what he sees as big government, fleeing French tax laws. He’s cozying up to Putin, he’s a newly minted Russian citizen,” Brooks pointed out. “So as we’re watching, are we thinking this is a portrait of Strauss-Kahn’s fall from grace, or are we thinking this actually about Depardieu’s fall from grace as well?”</p> | Cannes is buzzing over Gerard Depardieu's performance in 'Welcome to New York' | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-05-22/cannes-buzzing-over-gerard-depardieus-performance-welcome-new-york | 2014-05-22 | 3left-center
| Cannes is buzzing over Gerard Depardieu's performance in 'Welcome to New York'
<p>The Cannes International Film Festival is be wrapping up this weekend, but movie buffs around the world will continue to dissect what wass hot — and what was not.</p>
<p>One film sure to be debated is Abel Ferrara’s “Welcome to New York,” starring Gerard Depardieu as a thinly-veiled Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The French politician and former head of the IMF was accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeper in a New York City hotel. Perhaps because of its ripped-from-the-headlines nature, it was popular with festival attendees.</p>
<p>“It was the hottest ticket in town for the night that it played,” said Xan Brooks. Brooks is a film critic for The Guardian and he was able to snag a ticket to see the film that evening.</p>
<p>It was an extraordinary film and extraordinary performance by Depardieu, Brooks said.</p>
<p>Officially, the film is not about Dominique Strauss-Kahn but inspired by the case in which the French politician assaulted a maid in his New York hotel room. Ferrara named his main character, calling him Mr. Devereaux. Still, according to Brooks, the rest of the plot seems very much lifted from the papers.</p>
<p>Ferrara likes to push the envelope.</p>
<p>“Here he kind of pushes it over the table, under the door and out into the garden and really clears the stage for a startling performance from Depardieu,” Brooks said.</p>
<p>In one particularly memorable scene, a strip search, Depardieu allows Ferrara’s camera to film him naked. Depardieu is 65 and overweight — and the scene goes on for about 10 minutes.</p>
<p>“I don’t know if this is a great film, but we watched it all with our jaws dropped open,” said Brooks.</p>
<p>Some have called the film a total flop — which Brooks can understand.</p>
<p>“The problem that Ferrara has is that he’s making a film about an alleged sexual assault, and yet he plays it as a kind of debased, trashy pantomime. And there’s a sense that he’s inviting us to laugh," Brooks said, “but then when it tips over to [the character Devereaux] molesting women, is Ferrara saying this is funny too? And that is a real issue that I think anyone will have to weigh up when watching this film.”</p>
<p>Another element complicating the film is Depardieu portraying himself. The film opens with a staged-interview where he's he’s asked why he took on the role. Depardieu says he took the role because he hates politics and politicians. Yet, he himself has been seen cozying up with Russian president Vladimir Putin.</p>
<p>His performance in that interview begs the question about who the film actually about?</p>
<p>“We know him as a virile star of French cinema and he’s now a hulking wreck, railing against what he sees as big government, fleeing French tax laws. He’s cozying up to Putin, he’s a newly minted Russian citizen,” Brooks pointed out. “So as we’re watching, are we thinking this is a portrait of Strauss-Kahn’s fall from grace, or are we thinking this actually about Depardieu’s fall from grace as well?”</p> | 1,703 |
<p>Rowan Co., Ky. Clerk Kim Davis (Photo courtesy Twitter)</p>
<p>A Kentucky clerk who’s&#160;denying marriage licenses to&#160;same-sex couples despite multiple court orders&#160;on Wednesday&#160;urged a federal judge not to find her in contempt ahead of hearing in which she could face penalties for her actions.</p>
<p>In a <a href="" type="internal">seven-page filing</a>, an attorney for Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, an Apostolic Christian who is refusing marriage licenses to same-sex couples out of religious objections, invokes among other things an “impossibility defense” for why she’s unable to comply with court orders.</p>
<p>“In the case at bar, Davis is unable to comply with the August 12, 2015 order…because it irreparably and irreversibly violates her conscience by directing her to authorize and issue SSM licenses bearing her name and approval,” the filing says. “Testimony from Davis, and multiple prior filings in this Court…provide the evidentiary support for her inability to comply with the Injunction, which is on appeal to the Sixth Circuit.”</p>
<p>The attorney who signed the document is Jonathan Christman, a senior attorney with the Florida-based social conservative legal group known as Liberty Counsel. The anti-LGBT group has represented Davis throughout her litigation.</p>
<p>Additional arguments made against contempt charges are they would violate her due process rights, burden her exercise of religion under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and be intrusive on state affairs.</p>
<p>“It is not as if Kim Davis the individual stops existing while Kim Davis is performing her duties as Rowan County clerk,” the filing says. “Moreover, Plaintiffs sued Davis in her individual capacity seeking punitive damages from her personally. By suing her individually, Plaintiffs concede the relevancy of Davis in her&#160;individual capacity as the person occupying the office of Rowan County clerk.”</p>
<p>The filing says options other than contempt are available, such as deputizing a neighboring clerk to issue marriage licenses and removing Davis’ name from the forms.</p>
<p>Also on Wednesday, Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican, <a href="" type="internal">filed a motion</a> requesting to file a friend-of-the-court brief to urge the court not to find Davis in contempt until the legislature passes a measure to clarify Kentucky’s marriage laws.</p>
<p>“The focus of Obergefell was solely upon Kentucky’s Constitutional definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman,” the filing says. “The Supreme Court did not address the effect this would have on KRS Chapter 402, the statutory provisions by which marriage licenses are issued and recorded. It is the position of the Movant that the concept of marriage as between a man and a woman is so interwoven into KRS Chapter 402 that the defendant County Clerk cannot reasonably determine her duties until such time as the General Assembly has clarified the&#160;impact of Obergefell by revising KRS Chapter 402 through legislation.”</p>
<p>After U.S. District Judge David Bunning issued an order last month requiring Davis to end the “no licenses” policy in her office, the argument that she couldn’t issue even one marriage license to same-sex couples as her litigation proceeded on appeal was rejected by the judge, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and, just this week, the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Davis cased marriage operations in her office entirely after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide. Couples seeking to marry in Rowan County sued her in federal court, which prompted Bunning to issue the preliminary injunction requiring Davis to issue marriage licenses to all couples, gay or straight, who seek the documents.</p>
<p>The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay Monday on the district court order requiring Davis to issue marriage licenses in her office. She and her deputy clerks are required to appear before federal court on Thursday to face charges of contempt for their continued refusal to comply with the order.&#160;Attorneys representing&#160;the couples suing Davis are seeking fines, not imprisonment, as a penalty for the clerk.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Kim Davis</a> <a href="" type="internal">Liberty Counsel</a></p> | Ky. clerk urges court not to find her in contempt | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2015/09/02/ky-clerk-urges-court-not-to-find-her-in-contempt/ | 3left-center
| Ky. clerk urges court not to find her in contempt
<p>Rowan Co., Ky. Clerk Kim Davis (Photo courtesy Twitter)</p>
<p>A Kentucky clerk who’s&#160;denying marriage licenses to&#160;same-sex couples despite multiple court orders&#160;on Wednesday&#160;urged a federal judge not to find her in contempt ahead of hearing in which she could face penalties for her actions.</p>
<p>In a <a href="" type="internal">seven-page filing</a>, an attorney for Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, an Apostolic Christian who is refusing marriage licenses to same-sex couples out of religious objections, invokes among other things an “impossibility defense” for why she’s unable to comply with court orders.</p>
<p>“In the case at bar, Davis is unable to comply with the August 12, 2015 order…because it irreparably and irreversibly violates her conscience by directing her to authorize and issue SSM licenses bearing her name and approval,” the filing says. “Testimony from Davis, and multiple prior filings in this Court…provide the evidentiary support for her inability to comply with the Injunction, which is on appeal to the Sixth Circuit.”</p>
<p>The attorney who signed the document is Jonathan Christman, a senior attorney with the Florida-based social conservative legal group known as Liberty Counsel. The anti-LGBT group has represented Davis throughout her litigation.</p>
<p>Additional arguments made against contempt charges are they would violate her due process rights, burden her exercise of religion under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and be intrusive on state affairs.</p>
<p>“It is not as if Kim Davis the individual stops existing while Kim Davis is performing her duties as Rowan County clerk,” the filing says. “Moreover, Plaintiffs sued Davis in her individual capacity seeking punitive damages from her personally. By suing her individually, Plaintiffs concede the relevancy of Davis in her&#160;individual capacity as the person occupying the office of Rowan County clerk.”</p>
<p>The filing says options other than contempt are available, such as deputizing a neighboring clerk to issue marriage licenses and removing Davis’ name from the forms.</p>
<p>Also on Wednesday, Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican, <a href="" type="internal">filed a motion</a> requesting to file a friend-of-the-court brief to urge the court not to find Davis in contempt until the legislature passes a measure to clarify Kentucky’s marriage laws.</p>
<p>“The focus of Obergefell was solely upon Kentucky’s Constitutional definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman,” the filing says. “The Supreme Court did not address the effect this would have on KRS Chapter 402, the statutory provisions by which marriage licenses are issued and recorded. It is the position of the Movant that the concept of marriage as between a man and a woman is so interwoven into KRS Chapter 402 that the defendant County Clerk cannot reasonably determine her duties until such time as the General Assembly has clarified the&#160;impact of Obergefell by revising KRS Chapter 402 through legislation.”</p>
<p>After U.S. District Judge David Bunning issued an order last month requiring Davis to end the “no licenses” policy in her office, the argument that she couldn’t issue even one marriage license to same-sex couples as her litigation proceeded on appeal was rejected by the judge, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and, just this week, the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Davis cased marriage operations in her office entirely after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide. Couples seeking to marry in Rowan County sued her in federal court, which prompted Bunning to issue the preliminary injunction requiring Davis to issue marriage licenses to all couples, gay or straight, who seek the documents.</p>
<p>The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay Monday on the district court order requiring Davis to issue marriage licenses in her office. She and her deputy clerks are required to appear before federal court on Thursday to face charges of contempt for their continued refusal to comply with the order.&#160;Attorneys representing&#160;the couples suing Davis are seeking fines, not imprisonment, as a penalty for the clerk.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Kim Davis</a> <a href="" type="internal">Liberty Counsel</a></p> | 1,704 |
|
<p>Original Article By <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/this-is-one-of-the-big-reasons-why-so-many-families-are-feeling-extreme-financial-stress" type="external">Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse</a>Posted February 22, 2017</p>
<p>When the cost of living rises faster than paychecks do year after year, eventually that becomes a very big problem.&#160; For quite some time I have been writing about the shrinking middle class, and one of the biggest culprits is inflation.&#160; Every month, tens of millions of American families struggle to pay the bills, and most of them don’t even understand the economic forces that are putting so much pressure on them.&#160; The United States never had a persistent, ongoing problem with inflation until the debt-based Federal Reserve system was introduced in 1913.&#160; Since that time, we have had non-stop inflation and the U.S. dollar <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/why-donald-trump-must-shut-down-the-federal-reserve-and-start-issuing-debt-free-money" type="external">has lost more than 98 percent of its value</a>.&#160; If our paychecks were increasing faster than inflation this wouldn’t be a problem, but in recent years this has definitely not been the case for most Americans.</p>
<p>And unfortunately inflation is starting to accelerate once again.&#160; In fact, <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/inflation-surges-in-january-by-most-in-four-years-cpi-shows-2017-02-15" type="external">it is being reported</a> that inflation rose at the fastest pace in four years in January…</p>
<p>The prices Americans pay for goods and services surged in January by the largest amount in four years, mostly reflecting a rebound in the cost of gasoline that’s taking a bigger chunk out of household incomes.</p>
<p>The consumer price index, or cost of living, rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in January, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm" type="external">the government said Wednesday</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, our incomes have been incredibly stagnant.&#160;&#160; In fact, we just learned that median household income <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/4042342-real-median-household-income-growth-2016" type="external">did not go up at all</a> during 2016.</p>
<p>This is one of the reasons why we consistently see families <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/bye-bye-middle-class-the-rate-of-homeownership-in-the-united-states-has-hit-the-lowest-level-ever" type="external">fall out of the middle class</a> month after month.&#160; Even if you keep the same job year after year, your standard of living is going to steadily go down unless your pay goes up.</p>
<p>The things that we all spend money on month after month just keep going up in price.&#160; I am talking about food, housing, medical care and other essentials.&#160; If there is one thing that we can always count on, it is the fact that things are going to cost more tomorrow than they do today.</p>
<p>Let’s talk about food for a moment.&#160; Whenever I go to the grocery store, I am almost always shocked.&#160; I still remember a time when I could get everything that I needed for an entire week for about 20 bucks, but these days you can’t even fill up one cart for 100 dollars.</p>
<p>That is because food prices have been rising aggressively for many years.&#160; The following is a list <a href="http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2017/02/the-20-grocery-items-driving-up-your.html" type="external">that was posted on The Economic Policy Journal</a> that shows how much some food and grocery items have increased over the past decade…</p>
<p>1. Tobacco and smoking products</p>
<p>-Price increase: 90.4%</p>
<p>2. Margarine</p>
<p>-Price increase: 63.6%</p>
<p>3. Uncooked ground beef</p>
<p>-Price increase: 46.3%</p>
<p>4. Shelf stable fish and seafood -Price increase:&#160;45.0%</p>
<p>5. Prescription drugs -Price increase: 43.5%</p>
<p>6. Rice, pasta, cornmeal -Price increase: 40.3%</p>
<p>7. Bread -Price increase: 38.9%</p>
<p>8. Snacks -Price increase: 38.4%</p>
<p>9. Miscellaneous poultry including turkey -Price increase: 37.0%</p>
<p>10. Apples -Price increase: 36.6%</p>
<p>11. Frankfurters -Price increase: 35.8%</p>
<p>12. Canned vegetables -Price increase: 35.3%</p>
<p>13. Salt and other seasonings and spices -Price increase: 34.0%</p>
<p>14. Miscellaneous fats and oils including peanut butter -Price increase: 34.0%</p>
<p>15. Miscellaneous processed fruits and vegetables including dried -Price increase: 33.7%</p>
<p>16. Bacon and related products -Price increase: 33.2%</p>
<p>17. Fresh whole chicken -Price increase: 32.5%</p>
<p>18. Cakes, cupcakes, and cookies -Price increase: 32.1%</p>
<p>19. Flour and prepared flour mixes -Price increase: 32.1%</p>
<p>20. Canned fruits -Price increase: 32.0%</p>
<p>And thanks to out of control government spending and reckless manipulation by the Federal Reserve, we have come to a time when inflation is starting to accelerate once again.</p>
<p>According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if honest numbers were being used the government would be telling us that inflation is rising <a href="http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts" type="external">at a 6 percent annual rate</a> for the first time since 2011.</p>
<p>At the same time, evidence is mounting that U.S. consumers are simply tapped out.&#160; Previously, I have explained that interest rates are going up, consumer bankruptcies <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/debt-apocalypse-beckons-as-u-s-consumer-bankruptcies-do-something-they-havent-done-in-almost-7-years" type="external">are rising</a>, and lending standards for consumers are <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/recession-2017-things-are-happening-that-usually-never-happen-unless-a-new-recession-is-beginning" type="external">really tightening up</a>.</p>
<p>All of those are things we would expect to see if a new recession was starting.</p>
<p>And today we learned that the number of Americans refinancing their homes has fallen to the lowest level that we have seen <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/15/mortgage-applications-drop-nearly-4-percent-as-refinancing-hits-8-year-low.html" type="external">since 2009</a>…</p>
<p>A slowdown in refinancing pulled down the total mortgage application volume last week as changes to certain government-loan programs made refinances less lucrative. Refinance volume now stands at its lowest level since June 2009.</p>
<p>If you will remember, we also saw a slowdown in mortgage refinancing just before the great financial crisis of 2008.</p>
<p>For mortgage applications overall, they are now down <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/15/mortgage-applications-drop-nearly-4-percent-as-refinancing-hits-8-year-low.html" type="external">almost 31 percent</a> from where they were a year ago…</p>
<p>Total mortgage application volume fell 3.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis last week from the previous week, and are nearly 31 percent lower than the same week a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.</p>
<p>A 31 percent decline in a single year is catastrophic.</p>
<p>If this continues, it won’t be too long before everyone is talking about a new housing crash.</p>
<p>And we also learned this week that FHA mortgage delinquencies increased during the fourth quarter <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/15/mortgage-delinquencies-among-some-homeowners-just-spiked-spelling-trouble.html" type="external">“for the first time since 2006″</a>…</p>
<p>Federal Housing Administration mortgage delinquencies jumped in the fourth quarter for the first time since 2006, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. The FHA insures low down-payment loans and is a favorite among first-time homebuyers.</p>
<p>The seasonally adjusted FHA delinquency rate increased to 9.02 percent in the fourth quarter from 8.3 percent in the third quarter, MBA data show.</p>
<p>So many things are happening right now that we have not seen happen in many years, but most people are choosing not to see the red flags that are popping up all around us.</p>
<p>None of our long-term economic problems have been fixed.&#160; And even though Donald Trump won the election, the truth is that our economy is in the worst shape it has been since the last financial crisis.&#160; I continue to encourage all of my readers <a href="http://amzn.to/2kAsYVF" type="external">to get prepared</a> for very hard times, but just like back in 2007 we are experiencing a wave of tremendous optimism right now and most people think that the party can somehow continue indefinitely.</p>
<p>Whether Donald Trump won the election or not, the truth is that a major economic downturn <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/why-donald-trump-needs-the-next-recession-to-start-as-quickly-as-possible" type="external">was going to come anyway</a>.&#160; You see, Donald Trump is not some magician that can just wave a wand and somehow make the consequences of decades of very foolish decisions instantly disappear.</p>
<p>We have been on the biggest debt binge in human history, and there is going to be a great price to pay when this immense debt bubble finally bursts.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, most people are not going to acknowledge the truth until it is too late.</p>
<p>Original Article By <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/this-is-one-of-the-big-reasons-why-so-many-families-are-feeling-extreme-financial-stress" type="external">Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse</a>Posted February 22, 2017</p> | It’s not your imagination: Prices are SKYROCKETING | true | https://americauncensored.com/not-imagination-prices-skyrocketing/ | 0right
| It’s not your imagination: Prices are SKYROCKETING
<p>Original Article By <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/this-is-one-of-the-big-reasons-why-so-many-families-are-feeling-extreme-financial-stress" type="external">Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse</a>Posted February 22, 2017</p>
<p>When the cost of living rises faster than paychecks do year after year, eventually that becomes a very big problem.&#160; For quite some time I have been writing about the shrinking middle class, and one of the biggest culprits is inflation.&#160; Every month, tens of millions of American families struggle to pay the bills, and most of them don’t even understand the economic forces that are putting so much pressure on them.&#160; The United States never had a persistent, ongoing problem with inflation until the debt-based Federal Reserve system was introduced in 1913.&#160; Since that time, we have had non-stop inflation and the U.S. dollar <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/why-donald-trump-must-shut-down-the-federal-reserve-and-start-issuing-debt-free-money" type="external">has lost more than 98 percent of its value</a>.&#160; If our paychecks were increasing faster than inflation this wouldn’t be a problem, but in recent years this has definitely not been the case for most Americans.</p>
<p>And unfortunately inflation is starting to accelerate once again.&#160; In fact, <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/inflation-surges-in-january-by-most-in-four-years-cpi-shows-2017-02-15" type="external">it is being reported</a> that inflation rose at the fastest pace in four years in January…</p>
<p>The prices Americans pay for goods and services surged in January by the largest amount in four years, mostly reflecting a rebound in the cost of gasoline that’s taking a bigger chunk out of household incomes.</p>
<p>The consumer price index, or cost of living, rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in January, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm" type="external">the government said Wednesday</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, our incomes have been incredibly stagnant.&#160;&#160; In fact, we just learned that median household income <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/4042342-real-median-household-income-growth-2016" type="external">did not go up at all</a> during 2016.</p>
<p>This is one of the reasons why we consistently see families <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/bye-bye-middle-class-the-rate-of-homeownership-in-the-united-states-has-hit-the-lowest-level-ever" type="external">fall out of the middle class</a> month after month.&#160; Even if you keep the same job year after year, your standard of living is going to steadily go down unless your pay goes up.</p>
<p>The things that we all spend money on month after month just keep going up in price.&#160; I am talking about food, housing, medical care and other essentials.&#160; If there is one thing that we can always count on, it is the fact that things are going to cost more tomorrow than they do today.</p>
<p>Let’s talk about food for a moment.&#160; Whenever I go to the grocery store, I am almost always shocked.&#160; I still remember a time when I could get everything that I needed for an entire week for about 20 bucks, but these days you can’t even fill up one cart for 100 dollars.</p>
<p>That is because food prices have been rising aggressively for many years.&#160; The following is a list <a href="http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2017/02/the-20-grocery-items-driving-up-your.html" type="external">that was posted on The Economic Policy Journal</a> that shows how much some food and grocery items have increased over the past decade…</p>
<p>1. Tobacco and smoking products</p>
<p>-Price increase: 90.4%</p>
<p>2. Margarine</p>
<p>-Price increase: 63.6%</p>
<p>3. Uncooked ground beef</p>
<p>-Price increase: 46.3%</p>
<p>4. Shelf stable fish and seafood -Price increase:&#160;45.0%</p>
<p>5. Prescription drugs -Price increase: 43.5%</p>
<p>6. Rice, pasta, cornmeal -Price increase: 40.3%</p>
<p>7. Bread -Price increase: 38.9%</p>
<p>8. Snacks -Price increase: 38.4%</p>
<p>9. Miscellaneous poultry including turkey -Price increase: 37.0%</p>
<p>10. Apples -Price increase: 36.6%</p>
<p>11. Frankfurters -Price increase: 35.8%</p>
<p>12. Canned vegetables -Price increase: 35.3%</p>
<p>13. Salt and other seasonings and spices -Price increase: 34.0%</p>
<p>14. Miscellaneous fats and oils including peanut butter -Price increase: 34.0%</p>
<p>15. Miscellaneous processed fruits and vegetables including dried -Price increase: 33.7%</p>
<p>16. Bacon and related products -Price increase: 33.2%</p>
<p>17. Fresh whole chicken -Price increase: 32.5%</p>
<p>18. Cakes, cupcakes, and cookies -Price increase: 32.1%</p>
<p>19. Flour and prepared flour mixes -Price increase: 32.1%</p>
<p>20. Canned fruits -Price increase: 32.0%</p>
<p>And thanks to out of control government spending and reckless manipulation by the Federal Reserve, we have come to a time when inflation is starting to accelerate once again.</p>
<p>According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if honest numbers were being used the government would be telling us that inflation is rising <a href="http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts" type="external">at a 6 percent annual rate</a> for the first time since 2011.</p>
<p>At the same time, evidence is mounting that U.S. consumers are simply tapped out.&#160; Previously, I have explained that interest rates are going up, consumer bankruptcies <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/debt-apocalypse-beckons-as-u-s-consumer-bankruptcies-do-something-they-havent-done-in-almost-7-years" type="external">are rising</a>, and lending standards for consumers are <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/recession-2017-things-are-happening-that-usually-never-happen-unless-a-new-recession-is-beginning" type="external">really tightening up</a>.</p>
<p>All of those are things we would expect to see if a new recession was starting.</p>
<p>And today we learned that the number of Americans refinancing their homes has fallen to the lowest level that we have seen <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/15/mortgage-applications-drop-nearly-4-percent-as-refinancing-hits-8-year-low.html" type="external">since 2009</a>…</p>
<p>A slowdown in refinancing pulled down the total mortgage application volume last week as changes to certain government-loan programs made refinances less lucrative. Refinance volume now stands at its lowest level since June 2009.</p>
<p>If you will remember, we also saw a slowdown in mortgage refinancing just before the great financial crisis of 2008.</p>
<p>For mortgage applications overall, they are now down <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/15/mortgage-applications-drop-nearly-4-percent-as-refinancing-hits-8-year-low.html" type="external">almost 31 percent</a> from where they were a year ago…</p>
<p>Total mortgage application volume fell 3.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis last week from the previous week, and are nearly 31 percent lower than the same week a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.</p>
<p>A 31 percent decline in a single year is catastrophic.</p>
<p>If this continues, it won’t be too long before everyone is talking about a new housing crash.</p>
<p>And we also learned this week that FHA mortgage delinquencies increased during the fourth quarter <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/15/mortgage-delinquencies-among-some-homeowners-just-spiked-spelling-trouble.html" type="external">“for the first time since 2006″</a>…</p>
<p>Federal Housing Administration mortgage delinquencies jumped in the fourth quarter for the first time since 2006, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. The FHA insures low down-payment loans and is a favorite among first-time homebuyers.</p>
<p>The seasonally adjusted FHA delinquency rate increased to 9.02 percent in the fourth quarter from 8.3 percent in the third quarter, MBA data show.</p>
<p>So many things are happening right now that we have not seen happen in many years, but most people are choosing not to see the red flags that are popping up all around us.</p>
<p>None of our long-term economic problems have been fixed.&#160; And even though Donald Trump won the election, the truth is that our economy is in the worst shape it has been since the last financial crisis.&#160; I continue to encourage all of my readers <a href="http://amzn.to/2kAsYVF" type="external">to get prepared</a> for very hard times, but just like back in 2007 we are experiencing a wave of tremendous optimism right now and most people think that the party can somehow continue indefinitely.</p>
<p>Whether Donald Trump won the election or not, the truth is that a major economic downturn <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/why-donald-trump-needs-the-next-recession-to-start-as-quickly-as-possible" type="external">was going to come anyway</a>.&#160; You see, Donald Trump is not some magician that can just wave a wand and somehow make the consequences of decades of very foolish decisions instantly disappear.</p>
<p>We have been on the biggest debt binge in human history, and there is going to be a great price to pay when this immense debt bubble finally bursts.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, most people are not going to acknowledge the truth until it is too late.</p>
<p>Original Article By <a href="http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/this-is-one-of-the-big-reasons-why-so-many-families-are-feeling-extreme-financial-stress" type="external">Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse</a>Posted February 22, 2017</p> | 1,705 |
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<p>On Monday Donald Trump insisted he never spoke to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi about a $25,000 donation his foundation made to her in 2013&#160; as she was trying to figure out whether to investigate Trump University.</p>
<p>As reported by <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/trump-denies-impropriety-trump-university-donation-controversy-227741" type="external">Politico</a> both Trump and Bondi have been the subject of criticism in regards to the donation. Critics have been saying Florida attorney’s political committee received the donation while deliberating a fraud case against the Republican nominee’s now-defunct real estate school in an effort to persuade Bondi not to investigate the school.</p>
<p>For months Bondi has publicly denied the reports and Trump echoed the same thing on Monday.</p>
<p>Trump said:</p>
<p>I’ve just known Pat Bondi for years. I have a lot of respect for her. Never spoke to her about that at all.</p>
<p>He pointed out he made the contribution because he admired her performance as attorney general.</p>
<p>She has done an amazing job as attorney general of Florida. She is very popular.</p>
<p>Trump also exuded confidence about the still-pending Trump University case. He said:</p>
<p>Many of the attorney generals turned that case down because I’ll win that case in court. Many turned that down.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Trump Says He Never Spoke To Bondi About Donation | true | http://shark-tank.com/2016/09/06/trump-says-he-never-spoke-to-bondi-about-donation/ | 0right
| Trump Says He Never Spoke To Bondi About Donation
<p>On Monday Donald Trump insisted he never spoke to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi about a $25,000 donation his foundation made to her in 2013&#160; as she was trying to figure out whether to investigate Trump University.</p>
<p>As reported by <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/trump-denies-impropriety-trump-university-donation-controversy-227741" type="external">Politico</a> both Trump and Bondi have been the subject of criticism in regards to the donation. Critics have been saying Florida attorney’s political committee received the donation while deliberating a fraud case against the Republican nominee’s now-defunct real estate school in an effort to persuade Bondi not to investigate the school.</p>
<p>For months Bondi has publicly denied the reports and Trump echoed the same thing on Monday.</p>
<p>Trump said:</p>
<p>I’ve just known Pat Bondi for years. I have a lot of respect for her. Never spoke to her about that at all.</p>
<p>He pointed out he made the contribution because he admired her performance as attorney general.</p>
<p>She has done an amazing job as attorney general of Florida. She is very popular.</p>
<p>Trump also exuded confidence about the still-pending Trump University case. He said:</p>
<p>Many of the attorney generals turned that case down because I’ll win that case in court. Many turned that down.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 1,706 |
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<p>It took me a moment before I understood why my story about a few relatively inconsequential incidents, which occurred years ago at my high school, had such an effect on the undergraduates taking my fall semester course in 2006.</p>
<p>One of my anecdotes related to classmates of mine who lived in the Jewish settlements at the northern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. It was 1981, and the following year they would be forced to leave their homes as part of Israel’s peace agreement with Egypt, but at the time, I told my students, the evacuation did not seem imminent, at least to many teenagers for whom each year stretches without end. A particular issue that did preoccupy us, I continued, was learning to drive. I described to my students how my friends from the farming communities located in the Sinai and the small town of Yamit took their lessons in the Palestinian town of Rafah and were among the first to pass their driving tests.</p>
<p>My students in the politics and government department of Ben-Gurion University found this story incomprehensible. They simply could not imagine Israeli teenagers taking driving lessons in the middle of Rafah, which, in their minds, is no more than a terrorist nest riddled with tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt; weapons subsequently used against Israeli targets.</p>
<p>The average age difference between me and my students is only 15 years, but our perspectives are radically different. When I was a high-school student at the agricultural school Eshel Hanasi, I frequently hitched a ride back from school to my home in Beer Sheva with Palestinian taxis from the Gaza Strip. In the current context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this is simply unfathomable. No taxis from the territories are allowed to enter Israel, and even if they were somehow able to obtain an entry permit, Israeli Jews would be afraid to use them.</p>
<p>Two decades ago, Palestinians were an integral part of the Israeli landscape, primarily as low-wage laborers who built houses, cleaned streets and worked in agriculture, but in the last few years they have literally disappeared. In the 1980s, most Israelis and Palestinians could travel freely between the territories and Israel and, in many respects, felt safe doing so. Currently Palestinians are locked up in the Gaza Strip, and Israelis are not permitted to enter the region. Palestinians from the West Bank are confined behind a separation barrier and only the Jewish settlers living there travel back and forth from Israel.</p>
<p>Most of my students have consequently never talked with Palestinians from the territories, except perhaps as soldiers during their military service. Their acquaintance with Palestinians is therefore limited to three-minute news bites that almost always report on Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets or Israeli military assaults on Palestinian towns.</p>
<p>The students’ reaction to my teenage experiences is accordingly understandable, but it also brings to the fore a crucial issue that is often overlooked: namely, that Israel’s occupation has dramatically changed over the past four decades, and particularly since the eruption of the second Intifada in 2000.Some of the changes; the most damaging of which are the ongoing expansion of the settlements and the hermetic closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which have, in many respects, led to the rise of Hamas; are often discussed in the media and are rightly understood as hindering the possibility of Israelis and Palestinians reaching a peace agreement based on the two-state solution. The change that is hardly ever mentioned is the current lack of contact between ordinary Israelis (as opposed to soldiers and settlers) and Palestinians.</p>
<p>The separation barrier built deep inside Palestinian territories best symbolizes this change. One of its many devastating effects is the severance of practically all day-to-day contact between the two peoples. The younger generation on both sides of the Green Line no longer sees the ‘other’ as living, breathing beings but rather in stereotypical terms, which are often informed by prejudice and racist assumptions.</p>
<p>The alienation between Israeli Jews and Palestinians consequently serves the interests of all those who would like to portray the other side as a perpetual and mortal enemy.</p>
<p>The effects of this change should not be underestimated. Simply put, it seems that the younger (Jewish) generation within Israel is less likely than ever to support a leader who would have the courage to initiate a just peace agreement based on the full withdrawal to the 1967 borders, including the return of East Jerusalem, and some kind of creative solution for the Palestinian refugees.</p>
<p>Tragically, after 41 years of occupation the two-state solution seems to be more remote than ever before. Peace within the existing context, as Israeli peace activist and former Knesset member, Uri Avnery, has convincingly argued, is like surmounting an abyss. One cannot achieve it with short strides but only with a great leap. My students’ reactions suggest that the gulf between the two peoples is only growing wider.</p>
<p>NEVE GORDON teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University, Israel. Read about his new book, Israel’s Occupation, and more at <a href="http://www.israelsoccupation.info/" type="external">www.israelsoccupation.info</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Learning to Drive in Rafah | true | https://counterpunch.org/2008/06/19/learning-to-drive-in-rafah/ | 2008-06-19 | 4left
| Learning to Drive in Rafah
<p>It took me a moment before I understood why my story about a few relatively inconsequential incidents, which occurred years ago at my high school, had such an effect on the undergraduates taking my fall semester course in 2006.</p>
<p>One of my anecdotes related to classmates of mine who lived in the Jewish settlements at the northern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. It was 1981, and the following year they would be forced to leave their homes as part of Israel’s peace agreement with Egypt, but at the time, I told my students, the evacuation did not seem imminent, at least to many teenagers for whom each year stretches without end. A particular issue that did preoccupy us, I continued, was learning to drive. I described to my students how my friends from the farming communities located in the Sinai and the small town of Yamit took their lessons in the Palestinian town of Rafah and were among the first to pass their driving tests.</p>
<p>My students in the politics and government department of Ben-Gurion University found this story incomprehensible. They simply could not imagine Israeli teenagers taking driving lessons in the middle of Rafah, which, in their minds, is no more than a terrorist nest riddled with tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt; weapons subsequently used against Israeli targets.</p>
<p>The average age difference between me and my students is only 15 years, but our perspectives are radically different. When I was a high-school student at the agricultural school Eshel Hanasi, I frequently hitched a ride back from school to my home in Beer Sheva with Palestinian taxis from the Gaza Strip. In the current context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this is simply unfathomable. No taxis from the territories are allowed to enter Israel, and even if they were somehow able to obtain an entry permit, Israeli Jews would be afraid to use them.</p>
<p>Two decades ago, Palestinians were an integral part of the Israeli landscape, primarily as low-wage laborers who built houses, cleaned streets and worked in agriculture, but in the last few years they have literally disappeared. In the 1980s, most Israelis and Palestinians could travel freely between the territories and Israel and, in many respects, felt safe doing so. Currently Palestinians are locked up in the Gaza Strip, and Israelis are not permitted to enter the region. Palestinians from the West Bank are confined behind a separation barrier and only the Jewish settlers living there travel back and forth from Israel.</p>
<p>Most of my students have consequently never talked with Palestinians from the territories, except perhaps as soldiers during their military service. Their acquaintance with Palestinians is therefore limited to three-minute news bites that almost always report on Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets or Israeli military assaults on Palestinian towns.</p>
<p>The students’ reaction to my teenage experiences is accordingly understandable, but it also brings to the fore a crucial issue that is often overlooked: namely, that Israel’s occupation has dramatically changed over the past four decades, and particularly since the eruption of the second Intifada in 2000.Some of the changes; the most damaging of which are the ongoing expansion of the settlements and the hermetic closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which have, in many respects, led to the rise of Hamas; are often discussed in the media and are rightly understood as hindering the possibility of Israelis and Palestinians reaching a peace agreement based on the two-state solution. The change that is hardly ever mentioned is the current lack of contact between ordinary Israelis (as opposed to soldiers and settlers) and Palestinians.</p>
<p>The separation barrier built deep inside Palestinian territories best symbolizes this change. One of its many devastating effects is the severance of practically all day-to-day contact between the two peoples. The younger generation on both sides of the Green Line no longer sees the ‘other’ as living, breathing beings but rather in stereotypical terms, which are often informed by prejudice and racist assumptions.</p>
<p>The alienation between Israeli Jews and Palestinians consequently serves the interests of all those who would like to portray the other side as a perpetual and mortal enemy.</p>
<p>The effects of this change should not be underestimated. Simply put, it seems that the younger (Jewish) generation within Israel is less likely than ever to support a leader who would have the courage to initiate a just peace agreement based on the full withdrawal to the 1967 borders, including the return of East Jerusalem, and some kind of creative solution for the Palestinian refugees.</p>
<p>Tragically, after 41 years of occupation the two-state solution seems to be more remote than ever before. Peace within the existing context, as Israeli peace activist and former Knesset member, Uri Avnery, has convincingly argued, is like surmounting an abyss. One cannot achieve it with short strides but only with a great leap. My students’ reactions suggest that the gulf between the two peoples is only growing wider.</p>
<p>NEVE GORDON teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University, Israel. Read about his new book, Israel’s Occupation, and more at <a href="http://www.israelsoccupation.info/" type="external">www.israelsoccupation.info</a></p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Your Ad Here</a> &#160;</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | 1,707 |
<p>Sampling is when a musician takes a segment of a previously recorded song by someone else, and places it in a new composition.</p>
<p>Sampling came of age in the disco era.</p>
<p>It's now very common.</p>
<p>Hip-hop artists rely heavily on samples of old-school soul and eclectic sounds from around the globe.</p>
<p>And cheaper and more widely available technology has made sampling easy.</p>
<p>But if you sample someone's else song and paste it into your own work without permission from the original artist and composer, it's an instant copyright violation.</p>
<p>That was the dilemma facing Chilean musician and producer Jose Antonio Bravo, age 32, better known on the airwaves in Santiago as DJ Bitman.</p>
<p>That's DJ Bitman's track, "My Computer Is Funk."</p>
<p>Now if I had to guess, I'd say there are two samples in what we just heard.</p>
<p>It began with what sounded like a 1960s era synthesizer mixed with the voice of an announcer also from the 60s for some computer product demonstration.</p>
<p>In the past, DJ's have gotten permission to use samples like these.</p>
<p>But times are different.</p>
<p>The music industry is in an economic slump partly over intellectual property issues.</p>
<p>Back now to DJ Bitman: here's a musician in Santiago, Chile, who's played in punk bands and is entirely self-taught, but has big chops.</p>
<p>Last year he sat down to make his album "Latin Bitman," and he wanted to use some samples.</p>
<p>Bitman: Making this album from the start, I started with samples, and the record company told me man you can't use samples, any samples, so I started a process to replace every sample with live recordings, live musicians.</p>
<p>Werman: So even like the airline announcement at the very top of the record, that's a voice that you recorded.</p>
<p>Bitman: Yeah, that's a voice, it's a friend of mine, Anita Tijoux, she's French. I wanted the textures and the colors of the music could be like a sample, but without it, you know. So I've been in a process to know how, how you can really to sound like a sample without using it.</p>
<p>Bitman: I wanted to open the space of latin music, I've been trying to use the funk, the soul, the jazz, the reggae, that are not precisely latin, you know, and I've been trying to mix it with latin music and hip hop, to make it like universal music.</p>
<p>Let's put it this way: if there are other life forms out there in the universe and they heard this, they would dig it.</p>
<p>That's how universal a sound DJ Bitman has created on his CD "Latin Bitman."</p>
<p>We end today's show with a track called "Refuse," which sounds like Superfly goes to Jamaica.</p>
<p>I'm Marco Werman.</p> | Global Hit - DJ Bitman | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-01-25/global-hit-dj-bitman | 2008-01-25 | 3left-center
| Global Hit - DJ Bitman
<p>Sampling is when a musician takes a segment of a previously recorded song by someone else, and places it in a new composition.</p>
<p>Sampling came of age in the disco era.</p>
<p>It's now very common.</p>
<p>Hip-hop artists rely heavily on samples of old-school soul and eclectic sounds from around the globe.</p>
<p>And cheaper and more widely available technology has made sampling easy.</p>
<p>But if you sample someone's else song and paste it into your own work without permission from the original artist and composer, it's an instant copyright violation.</p>
<p>That was the dilemma facing Chilean musician and producer Jose Antonio Bravo, age 32, better known on the airwaves in Santiago as DJ Bitman.</p>
<p>That's DJ Bitman's track, "My Computer Is Funk."</p>
<p>Now if I had to guess, I'd say there are two samples in what we just heard.</p>
<p>It began with what sounded like a 1960s era synthesizer mixed with the voice of an announcer also from the 60s for some computer product demonstration.</p>
<p>In the past, DJ's have gotten permission to use samples like these.</p>
<p>But times are different.</p>
<p>The music industry is in an economic slump partly over intellectual property issues.</p>
<p>Back now to DJ Bitman: here's a musician in Santiago, Chile, who's played in punk bands and is entirely self-taught, but has big chops.</p>
<p>Last year he sat down to make his album "Latin Bitman," and he wanted to use some samples.</p>
<p>Bitman: Making this album from the start, I started with samples, and the record company told me man you can't use samples, any samples, so I started a process to replace every sample with live recordings, live musicians.</p>
<p>Werman: So even like the airline announcement at the very top of the record, that's a voice that you recorded.</p>
<p>Bitman: Yeah, that's a voice, it's a friend of mine, Anita Tijoux, she's French. I wanted the textures and the colors of the music could be like a sample, but without it, you know. So I've been in a process to know how, how you can really to sound like a sample without using it.</p>
<p>Bitman: I wanted to open the space of latin music, I've been trying to use the funk, the soul, the jazz, the reggae, that are not precisely latin, you know, and I've been trying to mix it with latin music and hip hop, to make it like universal music.</p>
<p>Let's put it this way: if there are other life forms out there in the universe and they heard this, they would dig it.</p>
<p>That's how universal a sound DJ Bitman has created on his CD "Latin Bitman."</p>
<p>We end today's show with a track called "Refuse," which sounds like Superfly goes to Jamaica.</p>
<p>I'm Marco Werman.</p> | 1,708 |
<p>Some people trick or treat on Halloween. Others aspire to win the annual office costume contest. And still others spend their lunchtime handing out joints and cannabis-infused edibles outside the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). That's what a group of protesters did Tuesday to raise awareness of what they say is an unfair marijuana usage policy within government housing.</p>
<p>Recreational marijuana may be legal in eight states -- and medical marijuana may be legal in another 20 -- but HUD has a strict no-marijuana policy in all of its housing facilities. This means that even in a state which has completely legalized marijuana for medical and recreational purposes, individuals can be denied or removed from HUD housing for possession and usage of marijuana and marijuana products. A <a href="https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/USEOFMARIJINMFASSISTPROPTY.PDF" type="external">memo</a> put out by HUD in December 2014 stated: "regardless of the purpose for which legalized under state law, the use of marijuana in any form is illegal under the CSA [Controlled Substances Act]."</p>
<p>"People that own their homes are able to smoke in their homes," explained Seth Kaye, one of the event's organizers. Kaye said that the law was unfair, and disproportionately affected lower income people who live in public housing and still have to abide by the federal law. "It's classist in that way -- people who are poorest are screwed the most."</p>
<p>That law affects HUD housing residents like Patty Loveless.</p>
<p>"After everything I've been through," said Loveless, "am I going to have to start worrying about being priced out of life?"</p>
<p>Loveless sat in his wheelchair outside the federal HUD. building on Halloween morning, surrounded by a crowd dotted with young women with pink hair and young men in Boy Scout-esque uniforms. Loveless is just one member of D.C.'s active marijuana rights community. He also has chronic pain caused by gangrene and over nine fractures in his back.</p>
<p>D.C.'s marijuana activists said that residents like Loveless who need marijuana for medical purposes -- for reducing pain, seizures or other maladies -- are hardest hit by HUD's marijuana policy.</p>
<p>"They treat people like the laws don't apply to them," said organizer Adam Eidinger, one of the many attendees clad in a Boy Scout uniform at this Halloween-day event. "When D.C. legalized, they should have legalized for everyone."</p>
<p>Eidinger said that HUD landlords use marijuana use as leverage over public housing residents, using it to keep them from complaining about unfinished work or problems with their apartments. The Department of Housing and Urban Development did not return a request for comment.</p>
<p>Outside HUD, a line formed outside the makeshift jail erected on the back of a trailer. Organizers handed out packets of cannabis and edibles from inside the trailer, checking IDs to make sure all recipients were over 21.</p>
<p>"Well that's how people feel -- they feel like they're in jail, even though they're in their house," Eidinger said.</p>
<p>Behind the crowd, a handful of district police watched on. They had directed that as long as the protesters stayed on District of Columbia land, and did not step onto federal land with the cannabis, the event was lawful. Everyone stayed in the right area, and no one tried to use any of the cannabis in public.</p>
<p>"So Trump," Loveless exclaimed, "Get up off your [sic] keister and tell HUD to leave us alone."</p> | Activists handed out cannabis outside the Department of Housing and Urban Development | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/11/01/politics/marijuana-activists-hand-out-joints-outside-department-of-housing-and-urban-development | 2017-11-01 | 1right-center
| Activists handed out cannabis outside the Department of Housing and Urban Development
<p>Some people trick or treat on Halloween. Others aspire to win the annual office costume contest. And still others spend their lunchtime handing out joints and cannabis-infused edibles outside the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). That's what a group of protesters did Tuesday to raise awareness of what they say is an unfair marijuana usage policy within government housing.</p>
<p>Recreational marijuana may be legal in eight states -- and medical marijuana may be legal in another 20 -- but HUD has a strict no-marijuana policy in all of its housing facilities. This means that even in a state which has completely legalized marijuana for medical and recreational purposes, individuals can be denied or removed from HUD housing for possession and usage of marijuana and marijuana products. A <a href="https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/USEOFMARIJINMFASSISTPROPTY.PDF" type="external">memo</a> put out by HUD in December 2014 stated: "regardless of the purpose for which legalized under state law, the use of marijuana in any form is illegal under the CSA [Controlled Substances Act]."</p>
<p>"People that own their homes are able to smoke in their homes," explained Seth Kaye, one of the event's organizers. Kaye said that the law was unfair, and disproportionately affected lower income people who live in public housing and still have to abide by the federal law. "It's classist in that way -- people who are poorest are screwed the most."</p>
<p>That law affects HUD housing residents like Patty Loveless.</p>
<p>"After everything I've been through," said Loveless, "am I going to have to start worrying about being priced out of life?"</p>
<p>Loveless sat in his wheelchair outside the federal HUD. building on Halloween morning, surrounded by a crowd dotted with young women with pink hair and young men in Boy Scout-esque uniforms. Loveless is just one member of D.C.'s active marijuana rights community. He also has chronic pain caused by gangrene and over nine fractures in his back.</p>
<p>D.C.'s marijuana activists said that residents like Loveless who need marijuana for medical purposes -- for reducing pain, seizures or other maladies -- are hardest hit by HUD's marijuana policy.</p>
<p>"They treat people like the laws don't apply to them," said organizer Adam Eidinger, one of the many attendees clad in a Boy Scout uniform at this Halloween-day event. "When D.C. legalized, they should have legalized for everyone."</p>
<p>Eidinger said that HUD landlords use marijuana use as leverage over public housing residents, using it to keep them from complaining about unfinished work or problems with their apartments. The Department of Housing and Urban Development did not return a request for comment.</p>
<p>Outside HUD, a line formed outside the makeshift jail erected on the back of a trailer. Organizers handed out packets of cannabis and edibles from inside the trailer, checking IDs to make sure all recipients were over 21.</p>
<p>"Well that's how people feel -- they feel like they're in jail, even though they're in their house," Eidinger said.</p>
<p>Behind the crowd, a handful of district police watched on. They had directed that as long as the protesters stayed on District of Columbia land, and did not step onto federal land with the cannabis, the event was lawful. Everyone stayed in the right area, and no one tried to use any of the cannabis in public.</p>
<p>"So Trump," Loveless exclaimed, "Get up off your [sic] keister and tell HUD to leave us alone."</p> | 1,709 |
<p>With the hullabaloo about Trump and fascism, it is useful to review Hitler’s first months in power, to get a sense of a real fascist regime.</p>
<p>Hitler came to power January 30, 1933, Trump on January 20, making easy a chronological comparison of their lead ups to power and their first months in power. The comparison shows how silly and hysterical it is to claim Trump represents fascism.</p>
<p>Hitler did not take power by entering into the primaries of a German version of the Republican Party. In complete contrast to Trump, he built, controlled, and ran under the banner of his own fascist party. Hitler also created an armed thug operation, the Brownshirts, to bully progressive organizations. The Brownshirts numbered 500,000 organized men by late 1932, five times the size of the German army.</p>
<p>Four parties contended in the German elections in the summer of 1932: the Nazis, the National Party, the Social Democrats and the Communists all of which won millions of votes.</p>
<p>During this election, “In Prussia alone between June 1 and 20 there were 461 pitched battles in the streets which cost 82 lives and seriously wounded 400 men.”&#160; “In July, 38 Nazis and 30 Communists were among the 86 dead.” On &#160;July 10, 18 were killed, and on July 17, “when the Nazis, under police escort, staged a march through Altona, a working class suburb of Hamburg, 19 persons were shot dead and 285 wounded.” <a href="#_ftn1" type="external">[1]</a></p>
<p>A world of violence and murder between fascists and anti-fascists, just in the space of six weeks, bearing no similarity to the few fistfights and the shutting down of a Trump rally in Chicago during the more than yearlong US electoral season.</p>
<p>On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Right after, in Prussia, with two-thirds of the German population, the police force was purged and Nazis replaced police chiefs. The police were then ordered not to interfere with the work of the Brownshirts. The February 17, 1933 Nazi police order stated:</p>
<p>“The activities of subversive organizations are … to be combatted with the most drastic methods. Communist terrorist acts are to be proceeded against with all severity, and weapons must be used ruthlessly when necessary. Police officers who in the execution of their duties use their firearms will be supported by us without regard for the effect of their shots….” <a href="#_ftn2" type="external">[2]</a></p>
<p>Little over two weeks in power, the Brownshirts had been handed the license to bully, beat, even kill leftists and Jews. In contrast, the two week old Trump presidency found its first anti-Muslim executive order blocked by a judge.</p>
<p>Three weeks in power, 50,000 Brownshirts were made part of the police. They began unauthorized arrests, broke into public building and homes and made nightly raids to seize anti-Hitler opponents. Those seized were typically put in newly set up “camps.”</p>
<p>On February 24 the Nazis took over the Communist Party headquarters. Communist meetings were banned, their press shut down, and their Reichstag (the German version of the US Congress) deputies arrested. Thus, less than a month in power, the Nazis had beheaded the militant left.</p>
<p>Here, hundreds of thousands had mobilized around the country to protest Trump’s actions, unchallenged by any sort of Trump thugs.</p>
<p>February 27, not a month in power, the Reichstag was torched, which the Nazis blamed on the Communists. A vast national witch-hunt ensued. The Nazi’s Emergency Degree declared:</p>
<p>“Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.” <a href="#_ftn3" type="external">[3]</a></p>
<p>Leaving aside that under Obama and before, the NSA already had eliminated our right to privacy, in US terms this decree would mean Trump had abolished the Bill of Rights and instituted imprisonment without trial before he had even been president for a month.</p>
<p>By the middle of March, Nazi thugs had rounded up tens of thousands of political opponents, liberals, Communists and Social Democrats, put them in camps, tortured them, and in many cases killed them. This even included outspoken religious leaders. In Prussia alone, 25,000 Communist, Social Democrat and liberal leaders were arrested and sent to Nazi camps.</p>
<p>Brownshirt thugs took over town halls, government offices, newspapers, trade union offices, businesses, department stores, banks, and courts, removing “unreliable” officials.</p>
<p>Here in the US, during the same time period, another judge blocked Trump’s revised anti-Muslim travel ban.</p>
<p>On March 21, Hitler was given a decree to arrest anyone criticizing the Nazi party, to be tried in military style courts with no jury and often with no right to defense.</p>
<p>On March 23, still before two months in power — as long as Trump has been President — the German Parliament approved the Enabling Act, allowing Hitler to enact laws by decree.</p>
<p>On April 7 all Jews were dismissed from civil service jobs.</p>
<p>On May 2, after the Nazis had cynically declared May Day a national holiday, all the trade union offices were occupied, with their property and funds confiscated, and trade union leaders arrested and beaten.</p>
<p>By June 1933, there were 2 million Brownshirts, twenty times the size of the German army, and these “brown-shirted gangs roamed the streets, arresting and beating up and sometimes murdering whomever they pleased while the police looked on without lifting a nightstick…. Judges were intimidated; they were afraid for their lives if they convicted and sentenced a storm-trooper even for cold-blooded murder.” <a href="#_ftn4" type="external">[4]</a></p>
<p>July 14 all other political parties were prohibited, and&#160;the fascists could confiscate the property of any organization it considered anti-Nazi and could summarily revoke anyone’s citizenship.</p>
<p>That was fascism. Here, a great number of liberal-leftists call Trump a new Hitler, some even claiming that we live under a <a href="" type="internal">fascist regime</a>. &#160;Yet Trump does not possess his own party, nor an armed fascist militia obedient to him, let alone one of hundreds of thousands. Trump has not thrown out the Bill of Rights, wiped out the AFL-CIO, sent his political opponents to concentration camps. He can’t even shut down Saturday Night Live.&#160; Trump is a billionaire racist, sexist war-monger out to salvage the US corporate empire, nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>What lies behind this hysteria about Trump fascism?</p>
<p>In almost every presidential election going back generations, liberal-left Democratic Party supporters label the Republican candidate with the political swearword “fascist.” Now it is more shrill. As the Democratic presidential candidates become more and more openly corporate stooges these liberal-left “lesser evil” voters must resort to painting the Republican in extreme terms to win support for their own candidate. We should just be very scared, vote Democrat, or we are doomed.</p>
<p>Leftists recognize corporate America owns the two parties, yet many still vote Democrat. Every four years, we must first defeat the so-called fascist, then build our movement. So is the story we are told. This strategy traps us in the Democratic Party. It has worked effectively for generations. Not only does it reinforce our domination by corporate America, but it seriously miseducates people about fascism.</p>
<p>Needless to say, so long as corporate America has the liberal-left tied to their two party system, they have no need for fascism. They need fascism only when their customary method of rule breaks down, and they face a very direct threat of losing control to revolutionary forces. The historic function of fascism is to smash the radicalized working class and its allies, destroy their organizations, and shut down political liberties when the corporate rulers find themselves unable to govern through their charade of democracy. &#160;No such problem here.</p>
<p>We do need to fight Trump, just as we would have with Clinton, and should have with Obama. But it miseducates people to paint Trump as qualitatively different. They all rule for corporate America, all have more or less the same program of controlling the 99% and making us pay for the decline of their system.</p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" type="external">[1]</a> William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 165</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref2" type="external">[2]</a> Jeremy Noakes and Geoffrey Pridham, Nazism 1919-1945: A Documentary Reader Vol. 1: The Rise to Power, no.87</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref3" type="external">[3]</a> Jeremy Noakes and Geoffrey Pridham, Nazism 1919-1945: A Documentary Reader Vol. 1: The Rise to Power, no.95</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref4" type="external">[4]</a> William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 203</p> | First Two Months in Power: Hitler vs. Trump | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/03/21/first-two-months-in-power-hitler-vs-trump/ | 2017-03-21 | 4left
| First Two Months in Power: Hitler vs. Trump
<p>With the hullabaloo about Trump and fascism, it is useful to review Hitler’s first months in power, to get a sense of a real fascist regime.</p>
<p>Hitler came to power January 30, 1933, Trump on January 20, making easy a chronological comparison of their lead ups to power and their first months in power. The comparison shows how silly and hysterical it is to claim Trump represents fascism.</p>
<p>Hitler did not take power by entering into the primaries of a German version of the Republican Party. In complete contrast to Trump, he built, controlled, and ran under the banner of his own fascist party. Hitler also created an armed thug operation, the Brownshirts, to bully progressive organizations. The Brownshirts numbered 500,000 organized men by late 1932, five times the size of the German army.</p>
<p>Four parties contended in the German elections in the summer of 1932: the Nazis, the National Party, the Social Democrats and the Communists all of which won millions of votes.</p>
<p>During this election, “In Prussia alone between June 1 and 20 there were 461 pitched battles in the streets which cost 82 lives and seriously wounded 400 men.”&#160; “In July, 38 Nazis and 30 Communists were among the 86 dead.” On &#160;July 10, 18 were killed, and on July 17, “when the Nazis, under police escort, staged a march through Altona, a working class suburb of Hamburg, 19 persons were shot dead and 285 wounded.” <a href="#_ftn1" type="external">[1]</a></p>
<p>A world of violence and murder between fascists and anti-fascists, just in the space of six weeks, bearing no similarity to the few fistfights and the shutting down of a Trump rally in Chicago during the more than yearlong US electoral season.</p>
<p>On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Right after, in Prussia, with two-thirds of the German population, the police force was purged and Nazis replaced police chiefs. The police were then ordered not to interfere with the work of the Brownshirts. The February 17, 1933 Nazi police order stated:</p>
<p>“The activities of subversive organizations are … to be combatted with the most drastic methods. Communist terrorist acts are to be proceeded against with all severity, and weapons must be used ruthlessly when necessary. Police officers who in the execution of their duties use their firearms will be supported by us without regard for the effect of their shots….” <a href="#_ftn2" type="external">[2]</a></p>
<p>Little over two weeks in power, the Brownshirts had been handed the license to bully, beat, even kill leftists and Jews. In contrast, the two week old Trump presidency found its first anti-Muslim executive order blocked by a judge.</p>
<p>Three weeks in power, 50,000 Brownshirts were made part of the police. They began unauthorized arrests, broke into public building and homes and made nightly raids to seize anti-Hitler opponents. Those seized were typically put in newly set up “camps.”</p>
<p>On February 24 the Nazis took over the Communist Party headquarters. Communist meetings were banned, their press shut down, and their Reichstag (the German version of the US Congress) deputies arrested. Thus, less than a month in power, the Nazis had beheaded the militant left.</p>
<p>Here, hundreds of thousands had mobilized around the country to protest Trump’s actions, unchallenged by any sort of Trump thugs.</p>
<p>February 27, not a month in power, the Reichstag was torched, which the Nazis blamed on the Communists. A vast national witch-hunt ensued. The Nazi’s Emergency Degree declared:</p>
<p>“Restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.” <a href="#_ftn3" type="external">[3]</a></p>
<p>Leaving aside that under Obama and before, the NSA already had eliminated our right to privacy, in US terms this decree would mean Trump had abolished the Bill of Rights and instituted imprisonment without trial before he had even been president for a month.</p>
<p>By the middle of March, Nazi thugs had rounded up tens of thousands of political opponents, liberals, Communists and Social Democrats, put them in camps, tortured them, and in many cases killed them. This even included outspoken religious leaders. In Prussia alone, 25,000 Communist, Social Democrat and liberal leaders were arrested and sent to Nazi camps.</p>
<p>Brownshirt thugs took over town halls, government offices, newspapers, trade union offices, businesses, department stores, banks, and courts, removing “unreliable” officials.</p>
<p>Here in the US, during the same time period, another judge blocked Trump’s revised anti-Muslim travel ban.</p>
<p>On March 21, Hitler was given a decree to arrest anyone criticizing the Nazi party, to be tried in military style courts with no jury and often with no right to defense.</p>
<p>On March 23, still before two months in power — as long as Trump has been President — the German Parliament approved the Enabling Act, allowing Hitler to enact laws by decree.</p>
<p>On April 7 all Jews were dismissed from civil service jobs.</p>
<p>On May 2, after the Nazis had cynically declared May Day a national holiday, all the trade union offices were occupied, with their property and funds confiscated, and trade union leaders arrested and beaten.</p>
<p>By June 1933, there were 2 million Brownshirts, twenty times the size of the German army, and these “brown-shirted gangs roamed the streets, arresting and beating up and sometimes murdering whomever they pleased while the police looked on without lifting a nightstick…. Judges were intimidated; they were afraid for their lives if they convicted and sentenced a storm-trooper even for cold-blooded murder.” <a href="#_ftn4" type="external">[4]</a></p>
<p>July 14 all other political parties were prohibited, and&#160;the fascists could confiscate the property of any organization it considered anti-Nazi and could summarily revoke anyone’s citizenship.</p>
<p>That was fascism. Here, a great number of liberal-leftists call Trump a new Hitler, some even claiming that we live under a <a href="" type="internal">fascist regime</a>. &#160;Yet Trump does not possess his own party, nor an armed fascist militia obedient to him, let alone one of hundreds of thousands. Trump has not thrown out the Bill of Rights, wiped out the AFL-CIO, sent his political opponents to concentration camps. He can’t even shut down Saturday Night Live.&#160; Trump is a billionaire racist, sexist war-monger out to salvage the US corporate empire, nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>What lies behind this hysteria about Trump fascism?</p>
<p>In almost every presidential election going back generations, liberal-left Democratic Party supporters label the Republican candidate with the political swearword “fascist.” Now it is more shrill. As the Democratic presidential candidates become more and more openly corporate stooges these liberal-left “lesser evil” voters must resort to painting the Republican in extreme terms to win support for their own candidate. We should just be very scared, vote Democrat, or we are doomed.</p>
<p>Leftists recognize corporate America owns the two parties, yet many still vote Democrat. Every four years, we must first defeat the so-called fascist, then build our movement. So is the story we are told. This strategy traps us in the Democratic Party. It has worked effectively for generations. Not only does it reinforce our domination by corporate America, but it seriously miseducates people about fascism.</p>
<p>Needless to say, so long as corporate America has the liberal-left tied to their two party system, they have no need for fascism. They need fascism only when their customary method of rule breaks down, and they face a very direct threat of losing control to revolutionary forces. The historic function of fascism is to smash the radicalized working class and its allies, destroy their organizations, and shut down political liberties when the corporate rulers find themselves unable to govern through their charade of democracy. &#160;No such problem here.</p>
<p>We do need to fight Trump, just as we would have with Clinton, and should have with Obama. But it miseducates people to paint Trump as qualitatively different. They all rule for corporate America, all have more or less the same program of controlling the 99% and making us pay for the decline of their system.</p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" type="external">[1]</a> William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 165</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref2" type="external">[2]</a> Jeremy Noakes and Geoffrey Pridham, Nazism 1919-1945: A Documentary Reader Vol. 1: The Rise to Power, no.87</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref3" type="external">[3]</a> Jeremy Noakes and Geoffrey Pridham, Nazism 1919-1945: A Documentary Reader Vol. 1: The Rise to Power, no.95</p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref4" type="external">[4]</a> William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 203</p> | 1,710 |
<p>An alarming number of Germans favor using violence against human beings who are desperately fleeing their countries from war and misery.</p>
<p>A representative&#160; <a href="https://yougov.de/news/2016/02/09/schiessbefehl-und-verfassungstreue-der-afd-informa/" type="external">survey</a> conducted by the renowned opinion research firm YouGov asked a total of 2,080 German residents if they thought the use of armed force justifiable or not in order to prevent unarmed refugees from crossing borders. Even though more than half of the surveyed people (57 percent) answered it was not justifiable, a disturbing number of 29 percent would support the use of weapons against refugees at German borders.</p>
<p>The occasion for this survey was a recent utterance by the head of the right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD). In an interview with the regional newspaper Mannheimer Morgen, Ms Frauke Petry <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/german-police-should-shoot-refugees-says-german-party-leader-a6844611.html" type="external">said</a> police officers must “use firearms if necessary” to “prevent illegal border crossings” claiming that “armed force is there as a last resort”.</p>
<p>The German Member of the European Parliament and vice president of the AfD, aristocrat and granddaughter of Adolf Hitler’s Secretary of the Treasury Beatrix von Storch, fleshed out this despicable demand of her fellow party member. <a href="http://neurope.eu/article/german-afd-mep-calls-for-use-of-arms-against-refugees/" type="external">When asked on Facebook</a> if her party really wanted to use armed force against migrant women and children to be denied access to Germany von Storch answered with a mere “Yes.”</p>
<p>After these inhumane and unconstitutional statements from the AfD leadership, a massive outcry went through the entire German online scene, suggesting that this desired treatment of refugees was only the opinion of a tiny minority among the German society. The results of the cited survey proved this presumption wrong. It seems the self-proclaimed Alternative for Germany has a good instinct for how far they can go with their shameful, anti-migrant utterances and for how to push the acceptable limits of the public debate stepwise to the right end of the spectrum.</p>
<p>Founded in 2013, the young party AfD grew rapidly in popularity with its distinct Euroscepticism satisfying the growing anti-Euro-resentment among the German population. As time passed, the party engaged in more and more anti-migrant and especially in anti-Islam populist rhetoric revealing its actual far right-wing nature. In a synergetic interplay with the successful spread of the infamous racist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/27/pegida-germany-anti-immigrant-group-polarising-dresden" type="external">PEGIDA rally movement</a> (German abbreviation for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident) the AfD is skyrocketing <a href="http://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/insa.htm" type="external">in the polls</a>, becoming the third strongest party in Germany surpassing The Greens and The Left.</p>
<p>In the wake of the horrific <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/05/germany-crisis-cologne-new-years-eve-sex-attacks" type="external">series of sexual assaults in the city of Cologne</a> on New Year’s Eve in which scores of women were molested, robbed and in two alleged cases even raped by hundreds of men of “Arabic or North African appearance”, refugees, asylum seekers and migrants indiscriminately seem to have been put under general suspicion. Racist sentiments further infiltrate the German mainstream and <a href="http://justicenow.de/refugees-welcome-not-in-deutschland-english/" type="external">the recent tide of racist-motivated violence</a> further escalates.</p>
<p><a href="https://yougov.de/news/2016/02/05/die-meisten-deutschen-lehnen-korperliche-gewalt-ab/" type="external">Another survey conducted by YouGov</a> is as worrying as the one mentioned above. According to the poll, a number of 29 percent of those surveyed could imagine participating in vigilante groups using violence to defend their interests, if the state fails to do so. This high number reflects a widespread increase in the perceived menace posed by migrants and has started to manifest itself in the streets.</p>
<p>Taking advantage of the Cologne attacks, mostly right-wing citizens <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/germans-organize-vigilante-groups-on-social-media/a-18971895" type="external">have been forming vigilante gangs</a> in several German cities, shamefully disguising their clearly racist intentions under the banner of advocating women’s rights. After an online call for “clean-up” of their city, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/cologne-sexual-assaults-vigilante-gangs-attack-asylum-seekers-after-vowing-to-clean-up-german-city-a6807021.html" type="external">one of these groups in Cologne</a> was roving the streets in a “manhunt” that resulted in attacking eleven men from Pakistan, Guinea and Syria, some of whom needed to be admitted to hospital. The phenomenon of vigilante groups is not a Germany-only problem but also in many other European cities, such as in Finland where the “Soldiers of Odin” are <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2016/02/09/three-ring-circus-finland-soldiers-loldiers-and-asylum-seekers/mo91jvSddBKXnzObucimlL/story.html" type="external">prowling the streets</a> in 25 cities across the country.</p>
<p>A rally of the racist PEGIDA in Leipzig <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/633894/Germany-Sex-assaults-Vigilante-Leipzig-Cologne-Angela-Merkel" type="external">degenerated into rioting</a> when about 200 masked hooligans broke off from the rally and vandalized the left-leaning alternative neighborhood of Connewitz. The senior mayor of Leipzig Burkard Jung (SPD, Social Democrats) <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/leipzig-oberbuergermeister-spricht-von-strassenterror-a-1071622.html" type="external">denounced these violent acts</a>, which were unprecedented in recent German history, as “street terror” that aimed to spread fear and loathing.</p>
<p>Even though PEGIDA, their Germany-wide offshoots and even the thrashing vigilante groups desperately try to portray themselves as peaceful protest movements of “worried citizens”, time and again violence occurs on the sidelines of their marches. An atmosphere of aggression is troubling in every corner of Germany. In 2015 alone, 263 people fell victim to right-wing motivated criminal assault and an unfathomable number of 132 arson attacks on refugee accommodations <a href="https://www.mut-gegen-rechte-gewalt.de/service/chronik-vorfaelle?field_art_tid%5B%5D=858&amp;field_art_tid%5B%5D=861&amp;field_date_value%5Bvalue%5D%5Byear%5D=2015" type="external">were reported</a>.</p>
<p>The different racist movements on the street along with an increasing radicalization of the AfD in the political arena, is poison for the social climate in the country. As a result, we find 29 percent of the German population okay with using weapons against human beings who are desperately fleeing their countries from war and misery.</p> | Use of armed force against refugees deemed justifiable by 29 percent of Germans | false | http://foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/03/04/use-of-armed-force-against-refugees-deemed-justifiable-by-29-percent-of-germans/ | 2016-03-04 | 1right-center
| Use of armed force against refugees deemed justifiable by 29 percent of Germans
<p>An alarming number of Germans favor using violence against human beings who are desperately fleeing their countries from war and misery.</p>
<p>A representative&#160; <a href="https://yougov.de/news/2016/02/09/schiessbefehl-und-verfassungstreue-der-afd-informa/" type="external">survey</a> conducted by the renowned opinion research firm YouGov asked a total of 2,080 German residents if they thought the use of armed force justifiable or not in order to prevent unarmed refugees from crossing borders. Even though more than half of the surveyed people (57 percent) answered it was not justifiable, a disturbing number of 29 percent would support the use of weapons against refugees at German borders.</p>
<p>The occasion for this survey was a recent utterance by the head of the right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD). In an interview with the regional newspaper Mannheimer Morgen, Ms Frauke Petry <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/german-police-should-shoot-refugees-says-german-party-leader-a6844611.html" type="external">said</a> police officers must “use firearms if necessary” to “prevent illegal border crossings” claiming that “armed force is there as a last resort”.</p>
<p>The German Member of the European Parliament and vice president of the AfD, aristocrat and granddaughter of Adolf Hitler’s Secretary of the Treasury Beatrix von Storch, fleshed out this despicable demand of her fellow party member. <a href="http://neurope.eu/article/german-afd-mep-calls-for-use-of-arms-against-refugees/" type="external">When asked on Facebook</a> if her party really wanted to use armed force against migrant women and children to be denied access to Germany von Storch answered with a mere “Yes.”</p>
<p>After these inhumane and unconstitutional statements from the AfD leadership, a massive outcry went through the entire German online scene, suggesting that this desired treatment of refugees was only the opinion of a tiny minority among the German society. The results of the cited survey proved this presumption wrong. It seems the self-proclaimed Alternative for Germany has a good instinct for how far they can go with their shameful, anti-migrant utterances and for how to push the acceptable limits of the public debate stepwise to the right end of the spectrum.</p>
<p>Founded in 2013, the young party AfD grew rapidly in popularity with its distinct Euroscepticism satisfying the growing anti-Euro-resentment among the German population. As time passed, the party engaged in more and more anti-migrant and especially in anti-Islam populist rhetoric revealing its actual far right-wing nature. In a synergetic interplay with the successful spread of the infamous racist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/27/pegida-germany-anti-immigrant-group-polarising-dresden" type="external">PEGIDA rally movement</a> (German abbreviation for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident) the AfD is skyrocketing <a href="http://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/insa.htm" type="external">in the polls</a>, becoming the third strongest party in Germany surpassing The Greens and The Left.</p>
<p>In the wake of the horrific <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/05/germany-crisis-cologne-new-years-eve-sex-attacks" type="external">series of sexual assaults in the city of Cologne</a> on New Year’s Eve in which scores of women were molested, robbed and in two alleged cases even raped by hundreds of men of “Arabic or North African appearance”, refugees, asylum seekers and migrants indiscriminately seem to have been put under general suspicion. Racist sentiments further infiltrate the German mainstream and <a href="http://justicenow.de/refugees-welcome-not-in-deutschland-english/" type="external">the recent tide of racist-motivated violence</a> further escalates.</p>
<p><a href="https://yougov.de/news/2016/02/05/die-meisten-deutschen-lehnen-korperliche-gewalt-ab/" type="external">Another survey conducted by YouGov</a> is as worrying as the one mentioned above. According to the poll, a number of 29 percent of those surveyed could imagine participating in vigilante groups using violence to defend their interests, if the state fails to do so. This high number reflects a widespread increase in the perceived menace posed by migrants and has started to manifest itself in the streets.</p>
<p>Taking advantage of the Cologne attacks, mostly right-wing citizens <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/germans-organize-vigilante-groups-on-social-media/a-18971895" type="external">have been forming vigilante gangs</a> in several German cities, shamefully disguising their clearly racist intentions under the banner of advocating women’s rights. After an online call for “clean-up” of their city, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/cologne-sexual-assaults-vigilante-gangs-attack-asylum-seekers-after-vowing-to-clean-up-german-city-a6807021.html" type="external">one of these groups in Cologne</a> was roving the streets in a “manhunt” that resulted in attacking eleven men from Pakistan, Guinea and Syria, some of whom needed to be admitted to hospital. The phenomenon of vigilante groups is not a Germany-only problem but also in many other European cities, such as in Finland where the “Soldiers of Odin” are <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2016/02/09/three-ring-circus-finland-soldiers-loldiers-and-asylum-seekers/mo91jvSddBKXnzObucimlL/story.html" type="external">prowling the streets</a> in 25 cities across the country.</p>
<p>A rally of the racist PEGIDA in Leipzig <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/633894/Germany-Sex-assaults-Vigilante-Leipzig-Cologne-Angela-Merkel" type="external">degenerated into rioting</a> when about 200 masked hooligans broke off from the rally and vandalized the left-leaning alternative neighborhood of Connewitz. The senior mayor of Leipzig Burkard Jung (SPD, Social Democrats) <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/leipzig-oberbuergermeister-spricht-von-strassenterror-a-1071622.html" type="external">denounced these violent acts</a>, which were unprecedented in recent German history, as “street terror” that aimed to spread fear and loathing.</p>
<p>Even though PEGIDA, their Germany-wide offshoots and even the thrashing vigilante groups desperately try to portray themselves as peaceful protest movements of “worried citizens”, time and again violence occurs on the sidelines of their marches. An atmosphere of aggression is troubling in every corner of Germany. In 2015 alone, 263 people fell victim to right-wing motivated criminal assault and an unfathomable number of 132 arson attacks on refugee accommodations <a href="https://www.mut-gegen-rechte-gewalt.de/service/chronik-vorfaelle?field_art_tid%5B%5D=858&amp;field_art_tid%5B%5D=861&amp;field_date_value%5Bvalue%5D%5Byear%5D=2015" type="external">were reported</a>.</p>
<p>The different racist movements on the street along with an increasing radicalization of the AfD in the political arena, is poison for the social climate in the country. As a result, we find 29 percent of the German population okay with using weapons against human beings who are desperately fleeing their countries from war and misery.</p> | 1,711 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>to a politician/bureaucrat is like giving gasoline to an arsonist. – H.T.</p>
<p>AS A GAY</p>
<p>man , I am embarrassed that members of my own community are hurting animals for fun. Rodeos are inherently cruel to animals. CNN should be ashamed for promoting animal abuse. – W.J.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>THE REASON that common-sense comprehensive immigration reform hasn’t passed the last six years is because the Grand Old White Tea Party can’t compromise in their simplistic black and white world. – B.F.</p>
<p>POLICE ENCOUNTER a mentally ill man with a gun and he is not shot. This is a step forward. – S.P.</p>
<p>I REALLY DOUBT the Spaceport will ever be viable. – M.G.</p>
<p>I AGREE THAT able-bodied adults should be required to work outside the home. However, children do not stop needing their mothers at home at age 6. – E.B.</p>
<p>SPACEPORT AMERICA – another boondoggle built by the government of New Mexico with taxpayer dollars. White elephant for sale or lease. – A.E.N.</p>
<p>IN FOUR YEARS , the PED has not listened to teachers even once, so why would they now? Their agenda has nothing to do with educating kids and everything to do with privatizing public education in the name of profit. – M.L.A.</p>
<p>POLITICIANS SHOULDN’T tell teachers how to do their job when they don’t even know how to do their own. – H.R.</p>
<p>THANKS TO ALL the courteous drivers out (there) who show respect and caution for those on bicycles. I ride my bike as a form of exercise and travel through many intersections and roads in Albuquerque. As a driver of an automobile, I now realize how much bicyclists appreciate safe and courteous drivers. – E.P.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>I FEEL REALLY sorry for the former governor, county commissioners, pseudo-medicos and any others who are obsessed with only one issue – pot. There is so much more to life. – J.B.</p>
<p>IN THE NOV. 11 paper, every letter to the editor regarding the election was from Democrats whining about the results. All you have to do is read these letters to understand why New Mexico is last in everything! – J.H.</p>
<p>AMTRAK SAYS if the state of New Mexico doesn’t invest $11 million to maintain their railroad tracks, the state will lose $3 million in economic benefits. Is this the Democrats’ way of doing math? Seems to me we could gain $8 million by doing nothing. – L.L.</p>
<p>HEADLINE: “COUNCIL weighs uses for $30 million bond money.” Wait! Those bonds were voter-approved for specific purposes – no debate. I will not vote for a bond issue until there is a law that says the money must be used for the purpose stated on the ballot. – D.B.</p>
<p>TWO VICTORIES for APD on Nov. 9. Nice work! The situations on Central Avenue and on San Mateo over I-40 had successful outcomes, with APD’s help. And thanks, news media, for publishing these stories. Please publish more APD success stories like this. – W.H.T.</p>
<p>ONLY A YEAR ago , Republicans threatened to destroy the country’s credit and reputation by defaulting on our national debt and then forced a senseless government shutdown that cost taxpayers billions. Now we’ve elected them to Senate majority. What the heck, America? – C.S.</p>
<p>HELP WANTED: UNM regents seek three tokens for Innovate ABQ board. Applicants must combine multiple characteristics: female, non-European color and ethnicity, millennial. LGBTs, entrepreneurial, establishment credentials a plus. Must be able to work well on board dominated by old white guys. Creativity and innovation not required. – M.M.</p>
<p>YET ANOTHER above-the-fold headline about a stupid, fictional TV series? I thank God that I will not live long enough to see the Journal’s 10,000th headline about it, “One Hundred Years of Breaking Bad.” It’s over. Give it a rest! – H.P.</p>
<p>A NEWS STORY focused on dog excrement on the dirt and paved path around Albuquerque Academy. Intrigued, I conducted a little study and perhaps found a solution. Put away your cellphone, with no texting or phone calls while walking, and pay attention to where you step. Hope this helps. – M.B.B.</p>
<p /> | Speak Up | false | https://abqjournal.com/497755/speak-up-137.html | 2014-11-18 | 2least
| Speak Up
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>to a politician/bureaucrat is like giving gasoline to an arsonist. – H.T.</p>
<p>AS A GAY</p>
<p>man , I am embarrassed that members of my own community are hurting animals for fun. Rodeos are inherently cruel to animals. CNN should be ashamed for promoting animal abuse. – W.J.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>THE REASON that common-sense comprehensive immigration reform hasn’t passed the last six years is because the Grand Old White Tea Party can’t compromise in their simplistic black and white world. – B.F.</p>
<p>POLICE ENCOUNTER a mentally ill man with a gun and he is not shot. This is a step forward. – S.P.</p>
<p>I REALLY DOUBT the Spaceport will ever be viable. – M.G.</p>
<p>I AGREE THAT able-bodied adults should be required to work outside the home. However, children do not stop needing their mothers at home at age 6. – E.B.</p>
<p>SPACEPORT AMERICA – another boondoggle built by the government of New Mexico with taxpayer dollars. White elephant for sale or lease. – A.E.N.</p>
<p>IN FOUR YEARS , the PED has not listened to teachers even once, so why would they now? Their agenda has nothing to do with educating kids and everything to do with privatizing public education in the name of profit. – M.L.A.</p>
<p>POLITICIANS SHOULDN’T tell teachers how to do their job when they don’t even know how to do their own. – H.R.</p>
<p>THANKS TO ALL the courteous drivers out (there) who show respect and caution for those on bicycles. I ride my bike as a form of exercise and travel through many intersections and roads in Albuquerque. As a driver of an automobile, I now realize how much bicyclists appreciate safe and courteous drivers. – E.P.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>I FEEL REALLY sorry for the former governor, county commissioners, pseudo-medicos and any others who are obsessed with only one issue – pot. There is so much more to life. – J.B.</p>
<p>IN THE NOV. 11 paper, every letter to the editor regarding the election was from Democrats whining about the results. All you have to do is read these letters to understand why New Mexico is last in everything! – J.H.</p>
<p>AMTRAK SAYS if the state of New Mexico doesn’t invest $11 million to maintain their railroad tracks, the state will lose $3 million in economic benefits. Is this the Democrats’ way of doing math? Seems to me we could gain $8 million by doing nothing. – L.L.</p>
<p>HEADLINE: “COUNCIL weighs uses for $30 million bond money.” Wait! Those bonds were voter-approved for specific purposes – no debate. I will not vote for a bond issue until there is a law that says the money must be used for the purpose stated on the ballot. – D.B.</p>
<p>TWO VICTORIES for APD on Nov. 9. Nice work! The situations on Central Avenue and on San Mateo over I-40 had successful outcomes, with APD’s help. And thanks, news media, for publishing these stories. Please publish more APD success stories like this. – W.H.T.</p>
<p>ONLY A YEAR ago , Republicans threatened to destroy the country’s credit and reputation by defaulting on our national debt and then forced a senseless government shutdown that cost taxpayers billions. Now we’ve elected them to Senate majority. What the heck, America? – C.S.</p>
<p>HELP WANTED: UNM regents seek three tokens for Innovate ABQ board. Applicants must combine multiple characteristics: female, non-European color and ethnicity, millennial. LGBTs, entrepreneurial, establishment credentials a plus. Must be able to work well on board dominated by old white guys. Creativity and innovation not required. – M.M.</p>
<p>YET ANOTHER above-the-fold headline about a stupid, fictional TV series? I thank God that I will not live long enough to see the Journal’s 10,000th headline about it, “One Hundred Years of Breaking Bad.” It’s over. Give it a rest! – H.P.</p>
<p>A NEWS STORY focused on dog excrement on the dirt and paved path around Albuquerque Academy. Intrigued, I conducted a little study and perhaps found a solution. Put away your cellphone, with no texting or phone calls while walking, and pay attention to where you step. Hope this helps. – M.B.B.</p>
<p /> | 1,712 |
<p>The student debt crisis has reached a boiling point. And instead of despairing, students across the country have spent months organizing what is expected to be an historic nationwide walkout making three demands: Tuition-free public colleges and universities, a cancellation of student debt, and a $15 an hour minimum wage for all campus workers. The event, happening all day Thursday, has been dubbed the&#160; <a href="http://studentmarch.org/" type="external">Million Student March</a>.</p>
<p>As I wrote&#160; <a href="" type="internal">earlier this year</a>, student debt has become a price that poor young people pay for not being wealthy. In order to be competitive in today’s job market, young people have no choice but to earn a college degree. But earning that degree requires either being independently wealthy or going into debt –&#160; <a href="http://www.demos.org/blog/2/20/15/federal-reserve-just-released-boatload-information-student-debt-here%E2%80%99s-what-it%E2%80%99s-tellin" type="external">$30,000 for the average student</a>, to be precise. Student debt carries a much higher interest rate than other forms of debt, and unlike those other forms of debt, it’s impossible to be discharged through bankruptcy.</p>
<p>But because jobs are so scarce, not all of the estimated&#160; <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/million-student-march-aims-to-fight-for-free-college-tuition-and-cancellation-of-student-debt-2015-11-09" type="external">40 million Americans</a>&#160;who carry an accumulated $1.3 trillion in debt will be able to find stable employment, and&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/30/student-loans-default_n_4019806.html" type="external">one in seven</a>&#160;of those borrowers will default on those loans within the first three years of required payments. As most of us know, and many through personal experience, defaulting on any kind of debt harms your credit rating, which in turn harms your ability to do any number of things that require a credit check, like renting an apartment, buying a car or getting a job.</p>
<p>Indebted students are in a no-win situation: to have a good resume that leads to an interview for a decent job, applicants need a college degree. Getting a degree requires going into debt. Going into debt harms your ability to get a job. And the circle goes round and round.</p>
<p>Keely Mullen, an organizer with the Million Student March, owes $150,000 in debt for her undergraduate degree from Northeastern University in Boston. Mullen said a mass movement is needed to fight what she calls “the corporatization of higher education.”</p>
<p>“We’re ready to fight back,” Mullen said in an interview&#160; <a href="http://usuncut.com/resistance/million-student-march-expands-nearly-100-cities/" type="external">with US Uncut</a>. “We’re waking up with empty hands and empty pockets and realizing that we shouldn’t be shackled to debt before we even enter the adult world.”</p>
<p>“It feels more and more like education is just not a priority of our government or our system,” Mullen continued.</p>
<p>According to&#160; <a href="http://studentmarch.org/" type="external">StudentMarch.org</a>, the official website of Thursday’s march, there are 106 marches scheduled in 35 states across the country. Thirteen of those actions are on campuses across California,&#160; <a href="http://studentmarch.org/find-march/" type="external">from San Diego to Humboldt County</a>. Nine campuses in Michigan are participating, and nine campuses in New York are walking out. Even two campuses in Hawaii are taking part in today’s actions.</p>
<p>As of the time of this writing, the marches happening today at UC Berkeley and UC Davis have&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1692397367660306/" type="external">545</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/189951374673725/" type="external">717</a>&#160;confirmed attendees, respectively, according to the Facebook event page for each march. At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst,&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1048954838475920/" type="external">517 participants</a>&#160;are expected, and Temple University in Philadelphia is expected to bring out&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1637878633132674/" type="external">284 marchers</a>.</p>
<p>The national call for tuition-free college has become a hot campaign issue within the Democratic presidential primary. While Hillary Clinton has proposed a path to debt-free college, her idea still doesn’t go as far as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ proposal for tuition-free undergraduate education at all public universities. March organizer Elan Axelbank doesn’t trust Clinton’s plan.</p>
<p>“Wells Fargo is the second largest private student loan lender in the country, and is also one of the biggest contributors to Hillary Clinton’s super PAC,” Axelbank told US Uncut. “How can corporate politicians like her take on the corporations abusing us when they’re the very ones funding her election?”</p>
<p>A 2014 article from The Atlantic claims that providing all of America’s college students with tuition-free undergraduate education would cost&#160; <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/heres-exactly-how-much-the-government-would-have-to-spend-to-make-public-college-tuition-free/282803/" type="external">just $62.6 billion</a>, which is currently less than the U.S. government currently spends on all student aid programs – from federal student loans, Pell grants, federal work study positions, and other initiatives. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education is expected to make&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/14/student-loan-profits_n_5149653.html" type="external">$127 billion in profit</a>&#160;from federal student loans in the next decade.&#160; <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-studying-new-bankruptcy-options-for-student-loan-borrowers-1426004272" type="external">Ninety percent</a>&#160;of all student loans actually come from the federal government.</p>
<p>Bernie Sanders’s&#160; <a href="http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/collegeforallsummary/?inline=file" type="external">Free College for All Act</a>&#160;estimates the annual cost of free college be approximately $70 billion. His bill would provide $47 billion per year, or two-thirds of the cost, to help states offset tuition expenses, while the remaining third would come from states themselves. To qualify for the federal funds, states would have to first promise to invest tax dollars into need-based financial aid programs and academic instruction, while reducing their dependence on low-paid adjunct professors. Clinton’s plan would spend about&#160; <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clinton-proposes-debt-free-tuition-at-public-colleges-1439179200" type="external">$35 billion</a>&#160;per year to help students attend college, paid for by reducing deductions for upper-income tax filers. However, it would still require out-of-pocket contributions from students.</p>
<p>“This still means families will have to empty their pockets just so their kids can get an education,” Axelbank said.</p>
<p>Organizations endorsing today’s march include the United States Student Association, College Students for Bernie, Socialist Alternative, the Student Labor Action Project, the Energy Action Coalition and National People’s Action, among others.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Students at 100 Campuses Join First-Ever March for Tuition-Free College | true | http://occupy.com/article/today-students-100-campuses-join-first-ever-march-tuition-free-college | 4left
| Students at 100 Campuses Join First-Ever March for Tuition-Free College
<p>The student debt crisis has reached a boiling point. And instead of despairing, students across the country have spent months organizing what is expected to be an historic nationwide walkout making three demands: Tuition-free public colleges and universities, a cancellation of student debt, and a $15 an hour minimum wage for all campus workers. The event, happening all day Thursday, has been dubbed the&#160; <a href="http://studentmarch.org/" type="external">Million Student March</a>.</p>
<p>As I wrote&#160; <a href="" type="internal">earlier this year</a>, student debt has become a price that poor young people pay for not being wealthy. In order to be competitive in today’s job market, young people have no choice but to earn a college degree. But earning that degree requires either being independently wealthy or going into debt –&#160; <a href="http://www.demos.org/blog/2/20/15/federal-reserve-just-released-boatload-information-student-debt-here%E2%80%99s-what-it%E2%80%99s-tellin" type="external">$30,000 for the average student</a>, to be precise. Student debt carries a much higher interest rate than other forms of debt, and unlike those other forms of debt, it’s impossible to be discharged through bankruptcy.</p>
<p>But because jobs are so scarce, not all of the estimated&#160; <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/million-student-march-aims-to-fight-for-free-college-tuition-and-cancellation-of-student-debt-2015-11-09" type="external">40 million Americans</a>&#160;who carry an accumulated $1.3 trillion in debt will be able to find stable employment, and&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/30/student-loans-default_n_4019806.html" type="external">one in seven</a>&#160;of those borrowers will default on those loans within the first three years of required payments. As most of us know, and many through personal experience, defaulting on any kind of debt harms your credit rating, which in turn harms your ability to do any number of things that require a credit check, like renting an apartment, buying a car or getting a job.</p>
<p>Indebted students are in a no-win situation: to have a good resume that leads to an interview for a decent job, applicants need a college degree. Getting a degree requires going into debt. Going into debt harms your ability to get a job. And the circle goes round and round.</p>
<p>Keely Mullen, an organizer with the Million Student March, owes $150,000 in debt for her undergraduate degree from Northeastern University in Boston. Mullen said a mass movement is needed to fight what she calls “the corporatization of higher education.”</p>
<p>“We’re ready to fight back,” Mullen said in an interview&#160; <a href="http://usuncut.com/resistance/million-student-march-expands-nearly-100-cities/" type="external">with US Uncut</a>. “We’re waking up with empty hands and empty pockets and realizing that we shouldn’t be shackled to debt before we even enter the adult world.”</p>
<p>“It feels more and more like education is just not a priority of our government or our system,” Mullen continued.</p>
<p>According to&#160; <a href="http://studentmarch.org/" type="external">StudentMarch.org</a>, the official website of Thursday’s march, there are 106 marches scheduled in 35 states across the country. Thirteen of those actions are on campuses across California,&#160; <a href="http://studentmarch.org/find-march/" type="external">from San Diego to Humboldt County</a>. Nine campuses in Michigan are participating, and nine campuses in New York are walking out. Even two campuses in Hawaii are taking part in today’s actions.</p>
<p>As of the time of this writing, the marches happening today at UC Berkeley and UC Davis have&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1692397367660306/" type="external">545</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/189951374673725/" type="external">717</a>&#160;confirmed attendees, respectively, according to the Facebook event page for each march. At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst,&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1048954838475920/" type="external">517 participants</a>&#160;are expected, and Temple University in Philadelphia is expected to bring out&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1637878633132674/" type="external">284 marchers</a>.</p>
<p>The national call for tuition-free college has become a hot campaign issue within the Democratic presidential primary. While Hillary Clinton has proposed a path to debt-free college, her idea still doesn’t go as far as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ proposal for tuition-free undergraduate education at all public universities. March organizer Elan Axelbank doesn’t trust Clinton’s plan.</p>
<p>“Wells Fargo is the second largest private student loan lender in the country, and is also one of the biggest contributors to Hillary Clinton’s super PAC,” Axelbank told US Uncut. “How can corporate politicians like her take on the corporations abusing us when they’re the very ones funding her election?”</p>
<p>A 2014 article from The Atlantic claims that providing all of America’s college students with tuition-free undergraduate education would cost&#160; <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/heres-exactly-how-much-the-government-would-have-to-spend-to-make-public-college-tuition-free/282803/" type="external">just $62.6 billion</a>, which is currently less than the U.S. government currently spends on all student aid programs – from federal student loans, Pell grants, federal work study positions, and other initiatives. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education is expected to make&#160; <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/14/student-loan-profits_n_5149653.html" type="external">$127 billion in profit</a>&#160;from federal student loans in the next decade.&#160; <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-studying-new-bankruptcy-options-for-student-loan-borrowers-1426004272" type="external">Ninety percent</a>&#160;of all student loans actually come from the federal government.</p>
<p>Bernie Sanders’s&#160; <a href="http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/collegeforallsummary/?inline=file" type="external">Free College for All Act</a>&#160;estimates the annual cost of free college be approximately $70 billion. His bill would provide $47 billion per year, or two-thirds of the cost, to help states offset tuition expenses, while the remaining third would come from states themselves. To qualify for the federal funds, states would have to first promise to invest tax dollars into need-based financial aid programs and academic instruction, while reducing their dependence on low-paid adjunct professors. Clinton’s plan would spend about&#160; <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clinton-proposes-debt-free-tuition-at-public-colleges-1439179200" type="external">$35 billion</a>&#160;per year to help students attend college, paid for by reducing deductions for upper-income tax filers. However, it would still require out-of-pocket contributions from students.</p>
<p>“This still means families will have to empty their pockets just so their kids can get an education,” Axelbank said.</p>
<p>Organizations endorsing today’s march include the United States Student Association, College Students for Bernie, Socialist Alternative, the Student Labor Action Project, the Energy Action Coalition and National People’s Action, among others.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 1,713 |
|
<p>National Coming Out Day inevitably produces with it, every year, a barrage of viral coming out stories. These stories of individuals, confronting an unfathomable oppression and claiming their true selves are meant to be celebrated, lauded, and encouraged. Queer folk and allies alike love sharing and appreciating these quasi-heartwarming videos that exhibit individuals at their most vulnerable moments. Tears shed and exuberant happiness floods the screen as the parent, guardian, sibling, or friend reassures their loved one that they will ‘love them no matter what’. An incalculable weight has now been lifted off their shoulders and society now welcomes them with open arms! Unfortunately, this is not the happy ending that the audience has been waiting for. In fact, beneath the external presentation of what was just witnessed is an ever-growing list of problems that regularly go unnoticed when an individual comes out.</p>
<p>It certainly seems like there’s an increasing ‘acceptance’ of the gay identity in some communities, families, and social circles. Although, this gay identity needs to fit the criteria of a certain heteronormative shell, (monogamous, coupled, cis-gendered, patriotic, passive, etc.) which happens to ironically mirror an accepted heterosexual member of society. This newfound ‘acceptance’ comes with expectations, some of which completely ignore the person that is coming out. This article will be exposing these expectations as being equally as problematic as non-acceptance.</p>
<p>In some instances, there is an expectation that because the individual is in an ‘accepting’ environment, then they should not have to stay in the closet, in which they are literally expected to come out. Take for instance the story of a man who will be given the code name Ben. Growing up in a large town that on the surface level appeared to be accepting of all walks of life, Ben never worried that his peers wouldn’t accept him. Ben could not come to terms with accepting himself, which prevented him from opening up to his friends and family about his sexuality. Ben finally decided to come out to his closest friend, whom immediately proceeded to make Ben feel guilty for not coming out sooner. “Why didn’t you tell me before? Why haven’t you told anyone else? You should do it soon. Why is it taking you so long?” were all seemingly legitimate questions to Ben’s friend, but not so much to Ben. In fact, Ben experienced immense amounts of guilt and anxiety upon hearing the comments spewed by his friend. While it’s not arguable that queer folk embracing their true selves is a great thing, being forced or held to a time-constraint is not so much. Nobody wants to be rushed into coming to terms with their repressed identity, regardless of the environment they’re living in.</p>
<p>Another example of expectations following ‘acceptance’ is when the individual coming out is told they are obligated to tell others, those individuals deserve to know. For example, Skylar comes out to their mother. Skylar’s mother then questions Skylar if they have already came out to their father, in which Skylar responds “No, I haven’t been able to just yet”. Skylar’s mother replies, “Well you need to tell him right now, he deserves to know”, immediately suffocating her child with her value system that leaves no room for Skylar’s liberation. What could possibly be more manipulative than convincing queer folk that their sexual orientation/identity needs to be broadcasted for other’s benefit? Straight folk, you are not entitled to the orientation, identity, or self of the queer individual in question, regardless of your relationship to them.</p>
<p>The shift has been made from, caring that the individual is gay, to caring about who knows, or in other words, caring about everyone except the individual who is coming out. It’s important to recognize how this shift from not accepting homosexuality, to ‘accepting’ with expectations, does NOT shift the balance of power between heteronormative society and queer folk. In other words, straight folk, you are no better than your non-accepting peers when you establish conditions upon your acceptance of queer folk. This new shift yet again, creates an additional power dynamic between heteronormative society and queer identities, which in turn shows how just simply ‘accepting’ queer folk does not change or dismantle any forms of inequality. With this falsity exposed, it now begs the question; if coming out further reinforces the power structure between queer folk and heteronormative society, why do we continue to do it?</p>
<p>On the surface, coming out might seem like a form of liberation for queer folk, and for some individuals it very well is. With that said, the actual process of coming out in some ways is counterproductive in breaking free from the heteronormative shackles that we wish to be released from in the first place. Understandably, many queer individuals come out as a means of self-identification and empowerment. I am in no way counteracting that reasoning, but understanding that coming out encompasses a much broader social horizon than just your personal self is vital. While self-empowerment is important, we need to transfer our focus from the queer individual to the larger queer community. What should be accomplished, you seeking personal acceptance for yourself, or dismantling the structures of inequality that force queer folk into these situations in the first place?</p>
<p>You’re right if you’re now thinking the bigger picture should be assessed. What is the tradeoff to crafting big announcements and spectacles out of coming out? That is, adhering exactly to what heteronormative society wants us to do, have us categorize ourselves as the ‘other’, using labels they created to define ourselves, and validating the power structure that has been institutionalized for generations. Payson exemplifies in an essay, “Furthermore, the claiming of a socially constructed identity, even if meant to be a rebellious act, is exactly what is needed in order to solidify the creation of that identity. As already established no one could have identified her/himself as homosexual before some social authority told her/him that s/he was”, (Payson, 2004, p.1).</p>
<p>Heteronormative society has already decided what is ‘normal’ and what is accepted. Coming out doesn’t push any limits of these norms, it simply reinforces the norm of homosexuality being an ‘abnormality’; why else would it need to be exposed? Spade and Willse explain in their writing, “Freedom and Equality are not achieved when a practice crosses over to being acceptable. Instead, such shifts strengthen the line between what is considered good, healthy, and normal and what remains bad, unhealthy, stigmatized, and criminalized”, (Spade, Willse, 2013, p.1). Queer folk are forced to come out in an attempt to keep the balance of power in check, and this power dynamic is only reinforced when coming out shifts from being unacceptable to being semi-acceptable depending on the circumstances. Understanding how this fluctuation in coming out barely scratches the surface of dismantling the structures of inequality between heteronormative society and queer folk is principal, regardless of how heart-warming the ‘coming out’ video is.</p>
<p>Straight “allies”, understand that your conditions and expectations around queer identities are nothing more than muted signs of homophobia. Queer folk, be cognizant of the responses you receive from your straight friends and family. What may seem like a harmless and friendly reply can have deep-seated homophobic ties and governing beliefs. Understand your larger social involvement and how it impacts not only you, but also queer folk everywhere. If you so choose to come out, do not be bond by the very structures that were put into place in an effort to oppress you. Define yourself, with or without the acceptance of your straight peers, and embody that identity unapologetically.</p>
<p>Anthony Vigliano is a Senior Psychology student at Stockton University.</p>
<p>References</p>
<p>Payson, J. (2004). <a href="" type="internal">Inside and Outside the Closet: Coming Out and Binary Social &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Structures</a>. Knowing the Body: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Sex and Gender.</p>
<p>Spade, D., &amp; Willse, C. (2013). <a href="" type="internal">Marriage Will Never Set Us Free</a>. Beyond Capitalism.&#160;</p> | Understanding Coming Out in 2017, For Queer and Straight Folk | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/10/13/understanding-coming-out-in-2017-for-queer-and-straight-folk/ | 2017-10-13 | 4left
| Understanding Coming Out in 2017, For Queer and Straight Folk
<p>National Coming Out Day inevitably produces with it, every year, a barrage of viral coming out stories. These stories of individuals, confronting an unfathomable oppression and claiming their true selves are meant to be celebrated, lauded, and encouraged. Queer folk and allies alike love sharing and appreciating these quasi-heartwarming videos that exhibit individuals at their most vulnerable moments. Tears shed and exuberant happiness floods the screen as the parent, guardian, sibling, or friend reassures their loved one that they will ‘love them no matter what’. An incalculable weight has now been lifted off their shoulders and society now welcomes them with open arms! Unfortunately, this is not the happy ending that the audience has been waiting for. In fact, beneath the external presentation of what was just witnessed is an ever-growing list of problems that regularly go unnoticed when an individual comes out.</p>
<p>It certainly seems like there’s an increasing ‘acceptance’ of the gay identity in some communities, families, and social circles. Although, this gay identity needs to fit the criteria of a certain heteronormative shell, (monogamous, coupled, cis-gendered, patriotic, passive, etc.) which happens to ironically mirror an accepted heterosexual member of society. This newfound ‘acceptance’ comes with expectations, some of which completely ignore the person that is coming out. This article will be exposing these expectations as being equally as problematic as non-acceptance.</p>
<p>In some instances, there is an expectation that because the individual is in an ‘accepting’ environment, then they should not have to stay in the closet, in which they are literally expected to come out. Take for instance the story of a man who will be given the code name Ben. Growing up in a large town that on the surface level appeared to be accepting of all walks of life, Ben never worried that his peers wouldn’t accept him. Ben could not come to terms with accepting himself, which prevented him from opening up to his friends and family about his sexuality. Ben finally decided to come out to his closest friend, whom immediately proceeded to make Ben feel guilty for not coming out sooner. “Why didn’t you tell me before? Why haven’t you told anyone else? You should do it soon. Why is it taking you so long?” were all seemingly legitimate questions to Ben’s friend, but not so much to Ben. In fact, Ben experienced immense amounts of guilt and anxiety upon hearing the comments spewed by his friend. While it’s not arguable that queer folk embracing their true selves is a great thing, being forced or held to a time-constraint is not so much. Nobody wants to be rushed into coming to terms with their repressed identity, regardless of the environment they’re living in.</p>
<p>Another example of expectations following ‘acceptance’ is when the individual coming out is told they are obligated to tell others, those individuals deserve to know. For example, Skylar comes out to their mother. Skylar’s mother then questions Skylar if they have already came out to their father, in which Skylar responds “No, I haven’t been able to just yet”. Skylar’s mother replies, “Well you need to tell him right now, he deserves to know”, immediately suffocating her child with her value system that leaves no room for Skylar’s liberation. What could possibly be more manipulative than convincing queer folk that their sexual orientation/identity needs to be broadcasted for other’s benefit? Straight folk, you are not entitled to the orientation, identity, or self of the queer individual in question, regardless of your relationship to them.</p>
<p>The shift has been made from, caring that the individual is gay, to caring about who knows, or in other words, caring about everyone except the individual who is coming out. It’s important to recognize how this shift from not accepting homosexuality, to ‘accepting’ with expectations, does NOT shift the balance of power between heteronormative society and queer folk. In other words, straight folk, you are no better than your non-accepting peers when you establish conditions upon your acceptance of queer folk. This new shift yet again, creates an additional power dynamic between heteronormative society and queer identities, which in turn shows how just simply ‘accepting’ queer folk does not change or dismantle any forms of inequality. With this falsity exposed, it now begs the question; if coming out further reinforces the power structure between queer folk and heteronormative society, why do we continue to do it?</p>
<p>On the surface, coming out might seem like a form of liberation for queer folk, and for some individuals it very well is. With that said, the actual process of coming out in some ways is counterproductive in breaking free from the heteronormative shackles that we wish to be released from in the first place. Understandably, many queer individuals come out as a means of self-identification and empowerment. I am in no way counteracting that reasoning, but understanding that coming out encompasses a much broader social horizon than just your personal self is vital. While self-empowerment is important, we need to transfer our focus from the queer individual to the larger queer community. What should be accomplished, you seeking personal acceptance for yourself, or dismantling the structures of inequality that force queer folk into these situations in the first place?</p>
<p>You’re right if you’re now thinking the bigger picture should be assessed. What is the tradeoff to crafting big announcements and spectacles out of coming out? That is, adhering exactly to what heteronormative society wants us to do, have us categorize ourselves as the ‘other’, using labels they created to define ourselves, and validating the power structure that has been institutionalized for generations. Payson exemplifies in an essay, “Furthermore, the claiming of a socially constructed identity, even if meant to be a rebellious act, is exactly what is needed in order to solidify the creation of that identity. As already established no one could have identified her/himself as homosexual before some social authority told her/him that s/he was”, (Payson, 2004, p.1).</p>
<p>Heteronormative society has already decided what is ‘normal’ and what is accepted. Coming out doesn’t push any limits of these norms, it simply reinforces the norm of homosexuality being an ‘abnormality’; why else would it need to be exposed? Spade and Willse explain in their writing, “Freedom and Equality are not achieved when a practice crosses over to being acceptable. Instead, such shifts strengthen the line between what is considered good, healthy, and normal and what remains bad, unhealthy, stigmatized, and criminalized”, (Spade, Willse, 2013, p.1). Queer folk are forced to come out in an attempt to keep the balance of power in check, and this power dynamic is only reinforced when coming out shifts from being unacceptable to being semi-acceptable depending on the circumstances. Understanding how this fluctuation in coming out barely scratches the surface of dismantling the structures of inequality between heteronormative society and queer folk is principal, regardless of how heart-warming the ‘coming out’ video is.</p>
<p>Straight “allies”, understand that your conditions and expectations around queer identities are nothing more than muted signs of homophobia. Queer folk, be cognizant of the responses you receive from your straight friends and family. What may seem like a harmless and friendly reply can have deep-seated homophobic ties and governing beliefs. Understand your larger social involvement and how it impacts not only you, but also queer folk everywhere. If you so choose to come out, do not be bond by the very structures that were put into place in an effort to oppress you. Define yourself, with or without the acceptance of your straight peers, and embody that identity unapologetically.</p>
<p>Anthony Vigliano is a Senior Psychology student at Stockton University.</p>
<p>References</p>
<p>Payson, J. (2004). <a href="" type="internal">Inside and Outside the Closet: Coming Out and Binary Social &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Structures</a>. Knowing the Body: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Sex and Gender.</p>
<p>Spade, D., &amp; Willse, C. (2013). <a href="" type="internal">Marriage Will Never Set Us Free</a>. Beyond Capitalism.&#160;</p> | 1,714 |
<p>PARKLAND, Fla.—The line of students and their parents wrapped around Stoneman Douglas High School, several thousand people entering the campus for the first time since a gunman took 17 lives nearly two weeks ago.</p>
<p>They walked solemnly but resolutely Sunday through gates that had been locked to all but law enforcement and school officials since the Valentine’s Day shooting, set to collect backpacks and other belongings left behind as they fled the massacre. To enter, they passed within feet of the three-story building where the shooting happened. It is now cordoned off by a chain link fence that was covered with banners from other schools showing their solidarity.</p>
<p>“Just seeing the building was scary,” freshman Francesca Lozano said as she exited the school with her mom. Still, she was happy to see her friends. “That made it a lot better.”</p>
<p>The 3,200-student school reopens Wednesday and administrators said families would get phone calls about details later. Sunday was a day to ease into the return.</p>
<p />
<p>“Two of my best friends aren’t here anymore,” said freshman Sammy Cooper, who picked up the book bag he had dropped as he saw the accused gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, begin shooting. “But I’m definitely going to school Wednesday. I will handle it.”</p>
<p>Junior Sebastian Pena said the gathering was a chance to see friends and his teachers, and to “come together as a family.”</p>
<p>The students were greeted by 17 people dressed in white costumes as angels standing beside a makeshift memorial outside the school. Organizer Terry Decarlo said the costumes are sent to every mass shooting and disaster so the survivors “know angels are looking over them and protecting them.” Many of those dressed as angels at Stoneman Douglas on Sunday were survivors of the 2016 mass shooting at the Orlando nightclub Pulse, where 49 people died.</p>
<p>Earlier Sunday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s office said he had asked Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearingen to investigate the law enforcement response to the shooting. The agency confirmed it would begin the probe immediately.</p>
<p>Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel has come under withering scrutiny after the revelation last week that deputy Scot Peterson, the school’s assigned security officer, was nearby when the shooting began but did not go into the building to confront Cruz during the attack. The sheriff’s office is also facing a backlash for apparently mishandling some of the 18 tipster calls related to the suspected shooter. The tips were among a series of what authorities now describe as the clearest missed warning signs that Cruz, who had a history of disturbing behavior, posed a serious threat.</p>
<p>Israel defended his leadership Sunday and said investigators were looking into claims that three other deputies were on the scene but failed to enter the school when the chance to save lives still existed. To date, the investigation has pointed to only one deputy being on school grounds while the killer was present, he told CNN.</p>
<p>Israel also labeled as “absolutely untrue” reports that the deputies waited outside even though children were inside the building needing urgent medical treatment.</p>
<p>State Rep. Bill Hager, a Republican lawmaker from Boca Raton, has called on Scott to remove Israel from office because of the missed red flags.</p>
<p>Israel vowed not to resign, saying Hager’s letter “was full of misinformation” and “shameful, politically motivated.”</p>
<p>House Speaker Richard Corcoran stepped up the pressure Sunday, calling on Scott to suspend the sheriff.</p>
<p>“In the years leading up to this unspeakable tragedy, Sheriff Israel, his deputies, and staff ignored repeated warning signs about the violent, erratic, threatening and antisocial behavior of Nikolas Jacob Cruz,” Corcoran said in a letter signed by more than 70 lawmakers.</p>
<p>Scott said in a statement Sunday that he understands Corcoran’s concerns, but added “there must be an independent investigation.”</p>
<p>“Like me, he wants the families to have answers and for there to be full accountability. That’s what the victims and their families deserve,” Scott said.</p>
<p>Israel insisted that lapses were being investigated. He told CNN that a deputy who responded to a Nov. 30 call referring to Cruz as a “school shooter in the making” was being investigated by internal affairs for not filing a report and had been placed on restrictive duty.</p>
<p>“There needed to be report. And that’s what we are looking into— that a report needed to be completed, it needed to be forwarded to either Homeland Security or a violent crimes unit,” Israel said.</p>
<p>The FBI has acknowledged that it failed to investigate the tip about Cruz that the agency received on Jan. 5.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Florida, Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.</p> | Students Resolute as They Re-enter School Massacre Site | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/students-resolute-re-enter-school-shooting-site/ | 2018-02-26 | 4left
| Students Resolute as They Re-enter School Massacre Site
<p>PARKLAND, Fla.—The line of students and their parents wrapped around Stoneman Douglas High School, several thousand people entering the campus for the first time since a gunman took 17 lives nearly two weeks ago.</p>
<p>They walked solemnly but resolutely Sunday through gates that had been locked to all but law enforcement and school officials since the Valentine’s Day shooting, set to collect backpacks and other belongings left behind as they fled the massacre. To enter, they passed within feet of the three-story building where the shooting happened. It is now cordoned off by a chain link fence that was covered with banners from other schools showing their solidarity.</p>
<p>“Just seeing the building was scary,” freshman Francesca Lozano said as she exited the school with her mom. Still, she was happy to see her friends. “That made it a lot better.”</p>
<p>The 3,200-student school reopens Wednesday and administrators said families would get phone calls about details later. Sunday was a day to ease into the return.</p>
<p />
<p>“Two of my best friends aren’t here anymore,” said freshman Sammy Cooper, who picked up the book bag he had dropped as he saw the accused gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, begin shooting. “But I’m definitely going to school Wednesday. I will handle it.”</p>
<p>Junior Sebastian Pena said the gathering was a chance to see friends and his teachers, and to “come together as a family.”</p>
<p>The students were greeted by 17 people dressed in white costumes as angels standing beside a makeshift memorial outside the school. Organizer Terry Decarlo said the costumes are sent to every mass shooting and disaster so the survivors “know angels are looking over them and protecting them.” Many of those dressed as angels at Stoneman Douglas on Sunday were survivors of the 2016 mass shooting at the Orlando nightclub Pulse, where 49 people died.</p>
<p>Earlier Sunday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s office said he had asked Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearingen to investigate the law enforcement response to the shooting. The agency confirmed it would begin the probe immediately.</p>
<p>Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel has come under withering scrutiny after the revelation last week that deputy Scot Peterson, the school’s assigned security officer, was nearby when the shooting began but did not go into the building to confront Cruz during the attack. The sheriff’s office is also facing a backlash for apparently mishandling some of the 18 tipster calls related to the suspected shooter. The tips were among a series of what authorities now describe as the clearest missed warning signs that Cruz, who had a history of disturbing behavior, posed a serious threat.</p>
<p>Israel defended his leadership Sunday and said investigators were looking into claims that three other deputies were on the scene but failed to enter the school when the chance to save lives still existed. To date, the investigation has pointed to only one deputy being on school grounds while the killer was present, he told CNN.</p>
<p>Israel also labeled as “absolutely untrue” reports that the deputies waited outside even though children were inside the building needing urgent medical treatment.</p>
<p>State Rep. Bill Hager, a Republican lawmaker from Boca Raton, has called on Scott to remove Israel from office because of the missed red flags.</p>
<p>Israel vowed not to resign, saying Hager’s letter “was full of misinformation” and “shameful, politically motivated.”</p>
<p>House Speaker Richard Corcoran stepped up the pressure Sunday, calling on Scott to suspend the sheriff.</p>
<p>“In the years leading up to this unspeakable tragedy, Sheriff Israel, his deputies, and staff ignored repeated warning signs about the violent, erratic, threatening and antisocial behavior of Nikolas Jacob Cruz,” Corcoran said in a letter signed by more than 70 lawmakers.</p>
<p>Scott said in a statement Sunday that he understands Corcoran’s concerns, but added “there must be an independent investigation.”</p>
<p>“Like me, he wants the families to have answers and for there to be full accountability. That’s what the victims and their families deserve,” Scott said.</p>
<p>Israel insisted that lapses were being investigated. He told CNN that a deputy who responded to a Nov. 30 call referring to Cruz as a “school shooter in the making” was being investigated by internal affairs for not filing a report and had been placed on restrictive duty.</p>
<p>“There needed to be report. And that’s what we are looking into— that a report needed to be completed, it needed to be forwarded to either Homeland Security or a violent crimes unit,” Israel said.</p>
<p>The FBI has acknowledged that it failed to investigate the tip about Cruz that the agency received on Jan. 5.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Florida, Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.</p> | 1,715 |
<p>Sen. Tammy Duckworth is no stranger to firsts: She is already the first Asian American woman to be elected to Congress from her home state of Illinois and the first disabled woman to win election from any state.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, she announced that she's pregnant with her second child - and that would make her the first serving U.S. senator to give birth while in office.</p>
<p>The 49-year-old Democrat became Illinois' junior senator last year winning the seat after serving two terms in the House.</p>
<p>In a light-hearted announcement on Twitter, Duckworth made a play on her surname with a graphic of four ducks, a reference to herself, husband Bryan Bowlsbey, daughter Abigail and the impending arrival.</p>
<p>In a subsequent tweet, Duckworth expressed thanks for "the outpouring of congratulations and support," but added: "I'm hardly alone or unique as a working parent, and my daughter Abigail has only made me more committed to doing my job and standing up for hardworking families everywhere."</p>
<p>The Associated Press notes: "Duckworth gave birth to her first child in 2014, while serving in the House. She is one of only 10 lawmakers who have given birth while serving in Congress. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., was a U.S. representative when she had her second child in 2008. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., has had three children while serving in Congress."</p>
<p>Born in Thailand to an American father and Thai mother, Duckworth served in the Illinois Army National Guard for more than two decades and had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel by the time of her 2014 retirement. She lost her legs in Iraq in 2004 when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the Black Hawk helicopter she was piloting.</p>
<p><a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/tammy-duckworth-pregnant-first-sitting-senator-give-birth/" type="external">The Chicago Sun Times reports</a> that Duckworth and her husband "tried various fertilization methods over a period of years before Abigail O'kalani Bowlsbey was conceived through a form of in vitro fertilization."</p>
<p>After Abigail's birth by cesarean section, the couple waited 18 months to try again, the Sun Times says. "I've had multiple IVF cycles and a miscarriage trying to conceive again, so we're very grateful," she told the newspaper.</p> | Sen. Tammy Duckworth's pregnancy set to be another first for the Illinois Democrat | false | https://mprnews.org/story/2018/01/24/npr-sen-tammy-duckworth-pregnancy-set-to-be-another-first-for-illinois-democrat | 2018-01-24 | 3left-center
| Sen. Tammy Duckworth's pregnancy set to be another first for the Illinois Democrat
<p>Sen. Tammy Duckworth is no stranger to firsts: She is already the first Asian American woman to be elected to Congress from her home state of Illinois and the first disabled woman to win election from any state.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, she announced that she's pregnant with her second child - and that would make her the first serving U.S. senator to give birth while in office.</p>
<p>The 49-year-old Democrat became Illinois' junior senator last year winning the seat after serving two terms in the House.</p>
<p>In a light-hearted announcement on Twitter, Duckworth made a play on her surname with a graphic of four ducks, a reference to herself, husband Bryan Bowlsbey, daughter Abigail and the impending arrival.</p>
<p>In a subsequent tweet, Duckworth expressed thanks for "the outpouring of congratulations and support," but added: "I'm hardly alone or unique as a working parent, and my daughter Abigail has only made me more committed to doing my job and standing up for hardworking families everywhere."</p>
<p>The Associated Press notes: "Duckworth gave birth to her first child in 2014, while serving in the House. She is one of only 10 lawmakers who have given birth while serving in Congress. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., was a U.S. representative when she had her second child in 2008. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., has had three children while serving in Congress."</p>
<p>Born in Thailand to an American father and Thai mother, Duckworth served in the Illinois Army National Guard for more than two decades and had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel by the time of her 2014 retirement. She lost her legs in Iraq in 2004 when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the Black Hawk helicopter she was piloting.</p>
<p><a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/tammy-duckworth-pregnant-first-sitting-senator-give-birth/" type="external">The Chicago Sun Times reports</a> that Duckworth and her husband "tried various fertilization methods over a period of years before Abigail O'kalani Bowlsbey was conceived through a form of in vitro fertilization."</p>
<p>After Abigail's birth by cesarean section, the couple waited 18 months to try again, the Sun Times says. "I've had multiple IVF cycles and a miscarriage trying to conceive again, so we're very grateful," she told the newspaper.</p> | 1,716 |
<p>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX defended its rocket performance during the weekend launch of a secret U.S. satellite, responding Tuesday to media reports that the satellite codenamed Zuma was lost.</p>
<p>Company President Gwynne Shotwell said the Falcon 9 rocket "did everything correctly" Sunday night and suggestions otherwise are "categorically false."</p>
<p>Northrop Grumman — which provided the satellite for an undisclosed U.S. government entity — said it cannot comment on classified missions. The company chose SpaceX as the launch provider, noting late last year that it took "great care to ensure the most affordable and lowest risk scenario for Zuma." The name refers to a Malibu beach in Southern California.</p>
<p>This was <a href="http://www.spacex.com/" type="external">SpaceX'</a> s third classified mission for the U.S. government, a lucrative customer. It was so shrouded in secrecy that the sponsoring government agency was not even identified, as is usually the case.</p>
<p>The Falcon's first stage completed its job, lifting the rocket off the pad and toward space, then separated and landed back at Cape Canaveral. But second-stage information was kept to a minimum because of all the secrecy surrounding the flight. The rocket's second stage propels the satellite into orbit.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal quotes unidentified congressional officials who were briefed on the mission as saying the satellite apparently did not separate from the second stage, and plunged through the atmosphere and burned up.</p>
<p>Originally scheduled for a November launch, Zuma was delayed by potential concern about another mission's payload fairing, the shell on top that protects a satellite during launch. The company later said it had cleared the issue.</p>
<p>Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who catalogues launches worldwide, said an object the size of a second stage re-entered Earth's atmosphere over Sudan some two hours after the launch. That would have been about 1 ½ orbits and normal for a second stage. He said a number designation was assigned by federal space trackers, but that doesn't mean there is anything still in orbit.</p>
<p>SpaceX's Shotwell said in a statement that since no rocket changes are warranted for upcoming flights, the company's launch schedule remains on track. If additional reviews uncover any problems, she said, "we will report it immediately."</p>
<p>Last year was a banner year for the private space company with 18 launches. It's shooting for even more flights in 2018.</p>
<p>SpaceX's new, powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy, was at its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, awaiting an engine test-firing sometime this week. The California-based company aims to launch the Heavy by month's end, making its debut with chief executive Elon Musk's own personal Tesla Roadster on board. Another Falcon 9, meanwhile, is scheduled to fly in three weeks with a communication satellite for Luxembourg.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington.</p>
<p>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX defended its rocket performance during the weekend launch of a secret U.S. satellite, responding Tuesday to media reports that the satellite codenamed Zuma was lost.</p>
<p>Company President Gwynne Shotwell said the Falcon 9 rocket "did everything correctly" Sunday night and suggestions otherwise are "categorically false."</p>
<p>Northrop Grumman — which provided the satellite for an undisclosed U.S. government entity — said it cannot comment on classified missions. The company chose SpaceX as the launch provider, noting late last year that it took "great care to ensure the most affordable and lowest risk scenario for Zuma." The name refers to a Malibu beach in Southern California.</p>
<p>This was <a href="http://www.spacex.com/" type="external">SpaceX'</a> s third classified mission for the U.S. government, a lucrative customer. It was so shrouded in secrecy that the sponsoring government agency was not even identified, as is usually the case.</p>
<p>The Falcon's first stage completed its job, lifting the rocket off the pad and toward space, then separated and landed back at Cape Canaveral. But second-stage information was kept to a minimum because of all the secrecy surrounding the flight. The rocket's second stage propels the satellite into orbit.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal quotes unidentified congressional officials who were briefed on the mission as saying the satellite apparently did not separate from the second stage, and plunged through the atmosphere and burned up.</p>
<p>Originally scheduled for a November launch, Zuma was delayed by potential concern about another mission's payload fairing, the shell on top that protects a satellite during launch. The company later said it had cleared the issue.</p>
<p>Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who catalogues launches worldwide, said an object the size of a second stage re-entered Earth's atmosphere over Sudan some two hours after the launch. That would have been about 1 ½ orbits and normal for a second stage. He said a number designation was assigned by federal space trackers, but that doesn't mean there is anything still in orbit.</p>
<p>SpaceX's Shotwell said in a statement that since no rocket changes are warranted for upcoming flights, the company's launch schedule remains on track. If additional reviews uncover any problems, she said, "we will report it immediately."</p>
<p>Last year was a banner year for the private space company with 18 launches. It's shooting for even more flights in 2018.</p>
<p>SpaceX's new, powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy, was at its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, awaiting an engine test-firing sometime this week. The California-based company aims to launch the Heavy by month's end, making its debut with chief executive Elon Musk's own personal Tesla Roadster on board. Another Falcon 9, meanwhile, is scheduled to fly in three weeks with a communication satellite for Luxembourg.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington.</p> | SpaceX says rocket performance OK in secret satellite launch | false | https://apnews.com/amp/7d8f63fe72394aa19d02c734dff75f08 | 2018-01-09 | 2least
| SpaceX says rocket performance OK in secret satellite launch
<p>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX defended its rocket performance during the weekend launch of a secret U.S. satellite, responding Tuesday to media reports that the satellite codenamed Zuma was lost.</p>
<p>Company President Gwynne Shotwell said the Falcon 9 rocket "did everything correctly" Sunday night and suggestions otherwise are "categorically false."</p>
<p>Northrop Grumman — which provided the satellite for an undisclosed U.S. government entity — said it cannot comment on classified missions. The company chose SpaceX as the launch provider, noting late last year that it took "great care to ensure the most affordable and lowest risk scenario for Zuma." The name refers to a Malibu beach in Southern California.</p>
<p>This was <a href="http://www.spacex.com/" type="external">SpaceX'</a> s third classified mission for the U.S. government, a lucrative customer. It was so shrouded in secrecy that the sponsoring government agency was not even identified, as is usually the case.</p>
<p>The Falcon's first stage completed its job, lifting the rocket off the pad and toward space, then separated and landed back at Cape Canaveral. But second-stage information was kept to a minimum because of all the secrecy surrounding the flight. The rocket's second stage propels the satellite into orbit.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal quotes unidentified congressional officials who were briefed on the mission as saying the satellite apparently did not separate from the second stage, and plunged through the atmosphere and burned up.</p>
<p>Originally scheduled for a November launch, Zuma was delayed by potential concern about another mission's payload fairing, the shell on top that protects a satellite during launch. The company later said it had cleared the issue.</p>
<p>Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who catalogues launches worldwide, said an object the size of a second stage re-entered Earth's atmosphere over Sudan some two hours after the launch. That would have been about 1 ½ orbits and normal for a second stage. He said a number designation was assigned by federal space trackers, but that doesn't mean there is anything still in orbit.</p>
<p>SpaceX's Shotwell said in a statement that since no rocket changes are warranted for upcoming flights, the company's launch schedule remains on track. If additional reviews uncover any problems, she said, "we will report it immediately."</p>
<p>Last year was a banner year for the private space company with 18 launches. It's shooting for even more flights in 2018.</p>
<p>SpaceX's new, powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy, was at its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, awaiting an engine test-firing sometime this week. The California-based company aims to launch the Heavy by month's end, making its debut with chief executive Elon Musk's own personal Tesla Roadster on board. Another Falcon 9, meanwhile, is scheduled to fly in three weeks with a communication satellite for Luxembourg.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington.</p>
<p>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX defended its rocket performance during the weekend launch of a secret U.S. satellite, responding Tuesday to media reports that the satellite codenamed Zuma was lost.</p>
<p>Company President Gwynne Shotwell said the Falcon 9 rocket "did everything correctly" Sunday night and suggestions otherwise are "categorically false."</p>
<p>Northrop Grumman — which provided the satellite for an undisclosed U.S. government entity — said it cannot comment on classified missions. The company chose SpaceX as the launch provider, noting late last year that it took "great care to ensure the most affordable and lowest risk scenario for Zuma." The name refers to a Malibu beach in Southern California.</p>
<p>This was <a href="http://www.spacex.com/" type="external">SpaceX'</a> s third classified mission for the U.S. government, a lucrative customer. It was so shrouded in secrecy that the sponsoring government agency was not even identified, as is usually the case.</p>
<p>The Falcon's first stage completed its job, lifting the rocket off the pad and toward space, then separated and landed back at Cape Canaveral. But second-stage information was kept to a minimum because of all the secrecy surrounding the flight. The rocket's second stage propels the satellite into orbit.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal quotes unidentified congressional officials who were briefed on the mission as saying the satellite apparently did not separate from the second stage, and plunged through the atmosphere and burned up.</p>
<p>Originally scheduled for a November launch, Zuma was delayed by potential concern about another mission's payload fairing, the shell on top that protects a satellite during launch. The company later said it had cleared the issue.</p>
<p>Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who catalogues launches worldwide, said an object the size of a second stage re-entered Earth's atmosphere over Sudan some two hours after the launch. That would have been about 1 ½ orbits and normal for a second stage. He said a number designation was assigned by federal space trackers, but that doesn't mean there is anything still in orbit.</p>
<p>SpaceX's Shotwell said in a statement that since no rocket changes are warranted for upcoming flights, the company's launch schedule remains on track. If additional reviews uncover any problems, she said, "we will report it immediately."</p>
<p>Last year was a banner year for the private space company with 18 launches. It's shooting for even more flights in 2018.</p>
<p>SpaceX's new, powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy, was at its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, awaiting an engine test-firing sometime this week. The California-based company aims to launch the Heavy by month's end, making its debut with chief executive Elon Musk's own personal Tesla Roadster on board. Another Falcon 9, meanwhile, is scheduled to fly in three weeks with a communication satellite for Luxembourg.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington.</p> | 1,717 |
<p />
<p>Rob Kaplan was 48 years old when he decided to retire as vice chairman of <a href="" type="internal">Goldman Sachs Group</a> Inc. (NYSE:GS).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The year was 2006, a mortgage-fueled U.S. economy revved full throttle, and Goldman Sachs was at the top of its game.</p>
<p>The U.S. economy had yet to collapse. <a href="" type="internal">Hank Paulson</a>, the former Goldman Sachs chairman and Treasury secretary under President Bush, had yet to push for the once-unthinkable bailout of Wall Street's private investment banks. And Rolling Stone magazine had yet to brand Goldman Sachs the "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."</p>
<p>Who leaves the world's most powerful investment bank during the world's greatest financial boom? Who walks away from multimillion-dollar annual bonuses to "retire" at age 48?</p>
<p>"What was it that Jerry Seinfeld said? You want to walk off the stage while they are still clapping for an encore," Kaplan told me in a telephone interview. "I've always remembered that...I tried to end while things were still good."</p>
<p>Leaving Goldman Sachs was brutally painful, Kaplan said, but also quite lucky. Kaplan had simply followed his muse. He liked working with clients, but over time, he felt his industry shift emphasis from clients to computer algorithms.</p>
<p>"Everybody thinks <a href="" type="internal">Wall Street</a> is about making money," Kaplan said. "At the great firms, the vision is about serving clients."</p>
<p>Kaplan opened a new chapter in his life as professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. He wanted to take the good that he gathered in 22 years at Goldman Sachs and share it with hundreds of CEOs and business leaders.</p>
<p>He's now out with a book, What to ask the person in the mirror? Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential. It's garnered endorsements from Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of investment-management giant Pimco, as well as supermodel Tyra Banks, who looks good in any mirror.</p>
<p>Imagine a leadership book written by an actual leader--as opposed to a self-appointed guru. Imagine a Goldman Sachs guy who looks in the mirror and asks questions--as opposed to just excessively preening himself. And imagine a kid from Kansas, springing up like a sunflower to land one of the top jobs on Wall Street.</p>
<p>Kaplan grew up in Kansas City, the son of a jewelry salesman, and went to the University of Kansas before getting his MBA at Harvard in 1983. Perhaps this is why he says things one wouldn't expect from a former Goldman Sachs guy.</p>
<p>"How many legs does a cow have if you call its tail a leg?" Kaplan asks, raising a question often attributed to President Lincoln. "The answer is four. Just because you call its tail a leg, doesn't make it a leg."</p>
<p>Kaplan is also fond of paraphrasing Einstein: "Not everything that counts can be counted. And not everything that can be counted, counts."</p>
<p>His point: "A record year does not make a great firm."</p>
<p>Kaplan's book is about asking the right questions, to create the right vision, to establish the right priorities, and then matching the way one's time is spent to the priorities one sets, which isn't easily accomplished.</p>
<p>"How can we make more money?" and "How can we make our quarterly numbers?" are the wrong questions. Leaders who begin here fall astray. The question has to be, "How can we best serve customers and add value?"</p>
<p>"The money and the financials follow." Kaplan said.</p>
<p>In a speech to graduates last May, Kaplan discussed the "MBA Oath" some business schools have adopted after taking a hard look at the some of the graduates they've unleashed upon the earth.</p>
<p>Kaplan encouraged graduates to write down their most strongly held beliefs. "Examples might include: treat people with respect; ...if you have someone over a barrel, don't take advantage of it; transparency is vitally important; business should have a positive impact on the community," he said.</p>
<p>He also suggested writing down the ethical boundaries they would never cross, such as, "I will never lie, cheat, steal."</p>
<p>It's important to think all this through before something like an unexpected market freefall demands compromises. "These events happen in a nano-second," Kaplan said.</p>
<p>A few other thoughts you wouldn't expect from a former Goldman Sachs guy.</p>
<p>- "Two tax cuts and two wars put us in a box."</p>
<p>- It's time to raise taxes on the rich, even rich guys like him. This won't hurt most of the small businesses with the best potential to create jobs since most are under the $250,000-a-year income threshold for tax increases. "If you carve out doctors, dentists, law practices and investment partnerships, I think you'll find there's not many small business left," Kaplan said.</p>
<p>- It's time to rescue the nation's overleveraged, under-employed and foreclosure-stricken middle class. "The engine of a country is its middle class," Kaplan said. "You show me a growing middle class, and I'll show you a growing country and a healthy financial sector."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Words You Wouldn't Expect From a Goldman Guy | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2011/07/27/words-wouldnt-expect-from-goldman-guy.html | 2016-01-28 | 0right
| Words You Wouldn't Expect From a Goldman Guy
<p />
<p>Rob Kaplan was 48 years old when he decided to retire as vice chairman of <a href="" type="internal">Goldman Sachs Group</a> Inc. (NYSE:GS).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The year was 2006, a mortgage-fueled U.S. economy revved full throttle, and Goldman Sachs was at the top of its game.</p>
<p>The U.S. economy had yet to collapse. <a href="" type="internal">Hank Paulson</a>, the former Goldman Sachs chairman and Treasury secretary under President Bush, had yet to push for the once-unthinkable bailout of Wall Street's private investment banks. And Rolling Stone magazine had yet to brand Goldman Sachs the "great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."</p>
<p>Who leaves the world's most powerful investment bank during the world's greatest financial boom? Who walks away from multimillion-dollar annual bonuses to "retire" at age 48?</p>
<p>"What was it that Jerry Seinfeld said? You want to walk off the stage while they are still clapping for an encore," Kaplan told me in a telephone interview. "I've always remembered that...I tried to end while things were still good."</p>
<p>Leaving Goldman Sachs was brutally painful, Kaplan said, but also quite lucky. Kaplan had simply followed his muse. He liked working with clients, but over time, he felt his industry shift emphasis from clients to computer algorithms.</p>
<p>"Everybody thinks <a href="" type="internal">Wall Street</a> is about making money," Kaplan said. "At the great firms, the vision is about serving clients."</p>
<p>Kaplan opened a new chapter in his life as professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. He wanted to take the good that he gathered in 22 years at Goldman Sachs and share it with hundreds of CEOs and business leaders.</p>
<p>He's now out with a book, What to ask the person in the mirror? Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential. It's garnered endorsements from Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of investment-management giant Pimco, as well as supermodel Tyra Banks, who looks good in any mirror.</p>
<p>Imagine a leadership book written by an actual leader--as opposed to a self-appointed guru. Imagine a Goldman Sachs guy who looks in the mirror and asks questions--as opposed to just excessively preening himself. And imagine a kid from Kansas, springing up like a sunflower to land one of the top jobs on Wall Street.</p>
<p>Kaplan grew up in Kansas City, the son of a jewelry salesman, and went to the University of Kansas before getting his MBA at Harvard in 1983. Perhaps this is why he says things one wouldn't expect from a former Goldman Sachs guy.</p>
<p>"How many legs does a cow have if you call its tail a leg?" Kaplan asks, raising a question often attributed to President Lincoln. "The answer is four. Just because you call its tail a leg, doesn't make it a leg."</p>
<p>Kaplan is also fond of paraphrasing Einstein: "Not everything that counts can be counted. And not everything that can be counted, counts."</p>
<p>His point: "A record year does not make a great firm."</p>
<p>Kaplan's book is about asking the right questions, to create the right vision, to establish the right priorities, and then matching the way one's time is spent to the priorities one sets, which isn't easily accomplished.</p>
<p>"How can we make more money?" and "How can we make our quarterly numbers?" are the wrong questions. Leaders who begin here fall astray. The question has to be, "How can we best serve customers and add value?"</p>
<p>"The money and the financials follow." Kaplan said.</p>
<p>In a speech to graduates last May, Kaplan discussed the "MBA Oath" some business schools have adopted after taking a hard look at the some of the graduates they've unleashed upon the earth.</p>
<p>Kaplan encouraged graduates to write down their most strongly held beliefs. "Examples might include: treat people with respect; ...if you have someone over a barrel, don't take advantage of it; transparency is vitally important; business should have a positive impact on the community," he said.</p>
<p>He also suggested writing down the ethical boundaries they would never cross, such as, "I will never lie, cheat, steal."</p>
<p>It's important to think all this through before something like an unexpected market freefall demands compromises. "These events happen in a nano-second," Kaplan said.</p>
<p>A few other thoughts you wouldn't expect from a former Goldman Sachs guy.</p>
<p>- "Two tax cuts and two wars put us in a box."</p>
<p>- It's time to raise taxes on the rich, even rich guys like him. This won't hurt most of the small businesses with the best potential to create jobs since most are under the $250,000-a-year income threshold for tax increases. "If you carve out doctors, dentists, law practices and investment partnerships, I think you'll find there's not many small business left," Kaplan said.</p>
<p>- It's time to rescue the nation's overleveraged, under-employed and foreclosure-stricken middle class. "The engine of a country is its middle class," Kaplan said. "You show me a growing middle class, and I'll show you a growing country and a healthy financial sector."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | 1,718 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>So that’s means some newcomers are ready to fill the void, right?</p>
<p>Not so quick, as perennial contender Sandia Prep survived an early dismissal of one of its top players during Thursday’s quarterfinal round at the soccer complex to advance to meet Hatch Valley, while top seed Hope Christian also remains alive to play a team it knows well, Moriarty.</p>
<p>No. 2 SANDIA PREP 1, No. 10 BOSQUE 0: Before 10 minutes had elapsed, forward Lucas Sandoval was gone and the Sundevils (11-7-1) faced an enormous challenge after two yellow cards to Sandoval.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“It kind of changed our whole format,” Sandia Prep coach Tommy Smith said. “We were playing two up front and one below and we had to change our formation.”</p>
<p>In the 29th minute, Ryan Schulze crushed a free kick from just inside midfield.</p>
<p>“It was kind of a fluky goal,” Smith said. “But it counts.”</p>
<p>It was the third time the Sundevils shut out the district rival Bobcats (7-12-3).</p>
<p>No. 1 HOPE CHRISTIAN 4, No. 8 NMMI 0: The Huskies (19-2) absorbed a big challenge early before putting the game away against the district rival Colts (8-11-1).</p>
<p>The turning point came in the 35th minute when Sam Rallis and Dylan Werner teamed for a goal.</p>
<p>“That was important because if they go in 0-0 at the half, really the momentum is for them,” Hope coach Steve Kokulis said. “We would have been favored in that game … so it was huge to get that goal before half.”</p>
<p>Hope beat Moriarty 2-1 and 3-0 during league play.</p>
<p>No. 4 MORIARTY 3, No. 5 SANTA FE PREP 0: Winners of two of the last three state tournaments, the Blue Griffins (12-6-2) simply ran out of healthy bodies and were victims of some advance scouting by the Pintos (14-6-1).</p>
<p>“The way I saw them play, they have a lot of smart soccer players, good on the ball, good possession,” Moriarty coach Jordan Allcorn said. “Our strength is our speed and athleticism. So we wanted to frustrate them and not let them pass around the ball and our speed would be able to beat them up top.”</p>
<p>No. 6 HATCH VALLEY 4, No. 3 ROBERTSON 1: Kevin Acosta scored twice for the Bears (11-6-3), who broke open the game with three second-half goals.</p>
<p>Hatch held a 1-0 lead at halftime before T.J. Trujillo got the game even for the Cardinals (14-7). Juan Rodriguez then scored moments later to put Bears back on top.</p> | Girls soccer: Sandia Prep, Hope advance | false | https://abqjournal.com/1087306/girls-soccer-sandia-prep-hope-advance.html | 2least
| Girls soccer: Sandia Prep, Hope advance
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>So that’s means some newcomers are ready to fill the void, right?</p>
<p>Not so quick, as perennial contender Sandia Prep survived an early dismissal of one of its top players during Thursday’s quarterfinal round at the soccer complex to advance to meet Hatch Valley, while top seed Hope Christian also remains alive to play a team it knows well, Moriarty.</p>
<p>No. 2 SANDIA PREP 1, No. 10 BOSQUE 0: Before 10 minutes had elapsed, forward Lucas Sandoval was gone and the Sundevils (11-7-1) faced an enormous challenge after two yellow cards to Sandoval.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“It kind of changed our whole format,” Sandia Prep coach Tommy Smith said. “We were playing two up front and one below and we had to change our formation.”</p>
<p>In the 29th minute, Ryan Schulze crushed a free kick from just inside midfield.</p>
<p>“It was kind of a fluky goal,” Smith said. “But it counts.”</p>
<p>It was the third time the Sundevils shut out the district rival Bobcats (7-12-3).</p>
<p>No. 1 HOPE CHRISTIAN 4, No. 8 NMMI 0: The Huskies (19-2) absorbed a big challenge early before putting the game away against the district rival Colts (8-11-1).</p>
<p>The turning point came in the 35th minute when Sam Rallis and Dylan Werner teamed for a goal.</p>
<p>“That was important because if they go in 0-0 at the half, really the momentum is for them,” Hope coach Steve Kokulis said. “We would have been favored in that game … so it was huge to get that goal before half.”</p>
<p>Hope beat Moriarty 2-1 and 3-0 during league play.</p>
<p>No. 4 MORIARTY 3, No. 5 SANTA FE PREP 0: Winners of two of the last three state tournaments, the Blue Griffins (12-6-2) simply ran out of healthy bodies and were victims of some advance scouting by the Pintos (14-6-1).</p>
<p>“The way I saw them play, they have a lot of smart soccer players, good on the ball, good possession,” Moriarty coach Jordan Allcorn said. “Our strength is our speed and athleticism. So we wanted to frustrate them and not let them pass around the ball and our speed would be able to beat them up top.”</p>
<p>No. 6 HATCH VALLEY 4, No. 3 ROBERTSON 1: Kevin Acosta scored twice for the Bears (11-6-3), who broke open the game with three second-half goals.</p>
<p>Hatch held a 1-0 lead at halftime before T.J. Trujillo got the game even for the Cardinals (14-7). Juan Rodriguez then scored moments later to put Bears back on top.</p> | 1,719 |
|
<p>Clinicians have leaned on three primary weapons to battle cancer for decades -- surgery, radiation, and pharmacological therapy. Despite making steady progress in all three of these areas, nearly 600,000 deaths are attributable to cancer each year in the U.S. alone. Clearly, these a still a huge unmet need for new and improved therapies.</p>
<p>Enter&#160;Novocure (NASDAQ: NVCR).&#160;This small-cap medical device company has created what it believes to be the fourth modality of treatment. The company has spent the past 17 years championing the use of tumor treating fields, or TTFields for short, as a new method to fight cancer.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Like any new idea, the company has faced an uphill battle at converting doubters into believers. However, Novocure recently released some exciting <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/03/heres-why-novocure-ltd-is-skyrocketing-today.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=69d12468-585b-11e7-85ba-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">clinical news Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;that should go a long way to winning over the skeptics. What's more, the company's top-line is growing at triple-digit rates now that the vast majority of payers are on board.</p>
<p>I was recently afforded the opportunity to hold an exclusive interview with Bill Doyle, Novocure's Executive Chairman, to learn more about his company. Below are some of the highlights from our conversation. (Some quotes have been edited for clarity.)</p>
<p>I started our&#160;conversation by asking Bill to briefly explain how TTFields work:</p>
<p>In essence, Novocure discovered that surrounding a tumor with TTFields helps to inhibit cancerous cell division. As a result, the tumor has a harder time growing inside the patient.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Wrapping your head around how TTFields work can be a big complex, but Bill gave a wonderful <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_doyle_treating_cancer_with_electric_fields" type="external">Ted Talk Opens a New Window.</a> on how TTFields work a few years back that provides a much more detailed explanation of this process in action.</p>
<p>Next, I asked Bill to expand on some of the clinical advantages that TTFields hold over other currently&#160;available cancer treatments:</p>
<p>You are likely aware that traditional cancer treatments are infamous for having brutal side effects. Patients who use chemotherapy drugs can experience&#160;nausea, constipation, fatigue, anemia, and more. Radiation therapy is far from perfect, too, as it often kills healthy cells alongside cancerous ones, which leads to undesirable clinical outcomes.</p>
<p>The fact that TTFields have no systemic toxicity associated with is a highly desirable clinical advantage.</p>
<p>Novocure used its advanced knowledge of TTFields to create its first product. The company calls the device Optune, and it consists of batteries, electronics, and transducer arrays that are affixed directly to the skin near where the tumor resides. Once Optune is turned on, it surrounds the tumor with an electric field that inhibits its&#160;ability to multiply.</p>
<p>Novocure originally wanted to use Optune to fight lung cancer, but regulators instructed the company to start with brain cancer instead. That guidance caused Novocure to target glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM, which is an especially&#160;aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer. Roughly 12,500 patients are diagnosed with GBM in the U.S. each year.</p>
<p>As crazy as Optune sounds, it would up winning over&#160;regulators. Novocure secured its first FDA approval in 2011 as a treatment for recurrent glioblastoma. A few years later it was awarded an expanded indication to treat&#160;newly diagnosed GBM in combination with temozolomide (chemotherapy). Optune has also been given the thumbs up in Europe and Japan, too.</p>
<p>While sales of Optune have grown rapidly since launch, Novocure only recently released long-term data from its&#160;EF-14 trial showed that&#160;adding&#160;Optune&#160;to the standard-of-care chemotherapy treatment led to gains in overall survival rates at two, three, four, and five years.</p>
<p>More specifically, patients who used&#160;Optune&#160;and chemotherapy demonstrated a five-year survival rate of 13%, which was more than double the 5% rate observed in the group that only received chemotherapy.</p>
<p>While Optune is clearly having a positive impact on treating GBM, the company believes that this is just the beginning for TTFields. Here's what Bill had to say about Optune's potential in other cancers.</p>
<p>Given the company's belief in&#160;Optune's&#160;long-term potential, Novocure has funded a number of clinical trials in other forms of cancer with the hope of winning label expansions down the road.</p>
<p>These potential label expansion claims represent a truly massive opportunity for Novocure. &#160;To put some numbers behind it, nearly 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with lung, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer each year in the U.S. alone. That figure is roughly 24-times larger than the company's U.S. GBM opportunity.</p>
<p>In addition to pioneering a brand new modality to treat cancer, Novocure is also attempting to blaze a new trail for the medical device business model, too. Rather than charge a big upfront fee for Optune and then bill for the use of each transducer arrays (which are replaced every two to three days), Novocure decided to roll all those costs into one package. Here's Bill's overview of how the company makes money:</p>
<p>In terms of cost, Optune's list price is $21,000 per month, which is in-line with the price of other cancer treatments. As a result, the key metric for investors to watch is what's called "active patients", which is the number of patients who are using Optune during any given period.</p>
<p>As you'd expect, this number has grown quickly over the last few years.</p>
<p>In spite of this strong growth curve, Novocure believes that there is ample room left for growth in GBM. In just the U.S., Germany, and Japan, the company estimates that its addressable market opportunity is more than 13,000 patients annually. That represents a more than 10x opportunity in just these few markets!</p>
<p>As a result of soaring patient usage, Novocure's revenue has been rising rapidly. Last quarter the company's top-line grew by 167% year-over-year. What's more, the company's operating expenses actually declined by 1% during this same period. That shows that the company has reached enough scale to drive operating leverage.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Novocure is still very early in its growth cycle, which means that the company is still burning through cash. Last quarter the company set fire to $18 million. Thankfully, the company still holds more than $189 million in cash on its books, so liquidity is not an immediate concern.</p>
<p>I asked Bill Doyle to comment on the company's financial position. Here's what he said:</p>
<p>In other words, Novocure believes that its growth will be so strong over the next few years that company won't have to hit up shareholders for extra cash. If true, that's great news for investors.</p>
<p>After speaking with Bill and visiting the company's U.S. headquarters, I must admit that I am quite bullish on Novocure's long-term potential. The clinical data that we've seen from Optune thus far clearly indicates that TTFields are the real deal, and the company's opportunity in lung, pancreatic, and ovarian cancer are truly massive.</p>
<p>While I certainly acknowledge that there are risks galore, I personally think that the potential upside is big enough to compensate investors for the risk that they are taking. In case you think those are empty words, you should know that I recently became a shareholder of Novocure myself.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than NovoCureWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=eb09b442-cbfc-4407-a06b-d4c1bf558bbc&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=69d12468-585b-11e7-85ba-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and NovoCure wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=eb09b442-cbfc-4407-a06b-d4c1bf558bbc&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=69d12468-585b-11e7-85ba-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of June 5, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTypeoh/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=69d12468-585b-11e7-85ba-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Brian Feroldi Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of NovoCure. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=69d12468-585b-11e7-85ba-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | The Fastest Growing Cancer Company You've Never Heard Of | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/13/fastest-growing-cancer-company-youve-never-heard.html | 2017-07-13 | 0right
| The Fastest Growing Cancer Company You've Never Heard Of
<p>Clinicians have leaned on three primary weapons to battle cancer for decades -- surgery, radiation, and pharmacological therapy. Despite making steady progress in all three of these areas, nearly 600,000 deaths are attributable to cancer each year in the U.S. alone. Clearly, these a still a huge unmet need for new and improved therapies.</p>
<p>Enter&#160;Novocure (NASDAQ: NVCR).&#160;This small-cap medical device company has created what it believes to be the fourth modality of treatment. The company has spent the past 17 years championing the use of tumor treating fields, or TTFields for short, as a new method to fight cancer.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Like any new idea, the company has faced an uphill battle at converting doubters into believers. However, Novocure recently released some exciting <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/03/heres-why-novocure-ltd-is-skyrocketing-today.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=69d12468-585b-11e7-85ba-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">clinical news Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;that should go a long way to winning over the skeptics. What's more, the company's top-line is growing at triple-digit rates now that the vast majority of payers are on board.</p>
<p>I was recently afforded the opportunity to hold an exclusive interview with Bill Doyle, Novocure's Executive Chairman, to learn more about his company. Below are some of the highlights from our conversation. (Some quotes have been edited for clarity.)</p>
<p>I started our&#160;conversation by asking Bill to briefly explain how TTFields work:</p>
<p>In essence, Novocure discovered that surrounding a tumor with TTFields helps to inhibit cancerous cell division. As a result, the tumor has a harder time growing inside the patient.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Wrapping your head around how TTFields work can be a big complex, but Bill gave a wonderful <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_doyle_treating_cancer_with_electric_fields" type="external">Ted Talk Opens a New Window.</a> on how TTFields work a few years back that provides a much more detailed explanation of this process in action.</p>
<p>Next, I asked Bill to expand on some of the clinical advantages that TTFields hold over other currently&#160;available cancer treatments:</p>
<p>You are likely aware that traditional cancer treatments are infamous for having brutal side effects. Patients who use chemotherapy drugs can experience&#160;nausea, constipation, fatigue, anemia, and more. Radiation therapy is far from perfect, too, as it often kills healthy cells alongside cancerous ones, which leads to undesirable clinical outcomes.</p>
<p>The fact that TTFields have no systemic toxicity associated with is a highly desirable clinical advantage.</p>
<p>Novocure used its advanced knowledge of TTFields to create its first product. The company calls the device Optune, and it consists of batteries, electronics, and transducer arrays that are affixed directly to the skin near where the tumor resides. Once Optune is turned on, it surrounds the tumor with an electric field that inhibits its&#160;ability to multiply.</p>
<p>Novocure originally wanted to use Optune to fight lung cancer, but regulators instructed the company to start with brain cancer instead. That guidance caused Novocure to target glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM, which is an especially&#160;aggressive and deadly form of brain cancer. Roughly 12,500 patients are diagnosed with GBM in the U.S. each year.</p>
<p>As crazy as Optune sounds, it would up winning over&#160;regulators. Novocure secured its first FDA approval in 2011 as a treatment for recurrent glioblastoma. A few years later it was awarded an expanded indication to treat&#160;newly diagnosed GBM in combination with temozolomide (chemotherapy). Optune has also been given the thumbs up in Europe and Japan, too.</p>
<p>While sales of Optune have grown rapidly since launch, Novocure only recently released long-term data from its&#160;EF-14 trial showed that&#160;adding&#160;Optune&#160;to the standard-of-care chemotherapy treatment led to gains in overall survival rates at two, three, four, and five years.</p>
<p>More specifically, patients who used&#160;Optune&#160;and chemotherapy demonstrated a five-year survival rate of 13%, which was more than double the 5% rate observed in the group that only received chemotherapy.</p>
<p>While Optune is clearly having a positive impact on treating GBM, the company believes that this is just the beginning for TTFields. Here's what Bill had to say about Optune's potential in other cancers.</p>
<p>Given the company's belief in&#160;Optune's&#160;long-term potential, Novocure has funded a number of clinical trials in other forms of cancer with the hope of winning label expansions down the road.</p>
<p>These potential label expansion claims represent a truly massive opportunity for Novocure. &#160;To put some numbers behind it, nearly 300,000 Americans are diagnosed with lung, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer each year in the U.S. alone. That figure is roughly 24-times larger than the company's U.S. GBM opportunity.</p>
<p>In addition to pioneering a brand new modality to treat cancer, Novocure is also attempting to blaze a new trail for the medical device business model, too. Rather than charge a big upfront fee for Optune and then bill for the use of each transducer arrays (which are replaced every two to three days), Novocure decided to roll all those costs into one package. Here's Bill's overview of how the company makes money:</p>
<p>In terms of cost, Optune's list price is $21,000 per month, which is in-line with the price of other cancer treatments. As a result, the key metric for investors to watch is what's called "active patients", which is the number of patients who are using Optune during any given period.</p>
<p>As you'd expect, this number has grown quickly over the last few years.</p>
<p>In spite of this strong growth curve, Novocure believes that there is ample room left for growth in GBM. In just the U.S., Germany, and Japan, the company estimates that its addressable market opportunity is more than 13,000 patients annually. That represents a more than 10x opportunity in just these few markets!</p>
<p>As a result of soaring patient usage, Novocure's revenue has been rising rapidly. Last quarter the company's top-line grew by 167% year-over-year. What's more, the company's operating expenses actually declined by 1% during this same period. That shows that the company has reached enough scale to drive operating leverage.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Novocure is still very early in its growth cycle, which means that the company is still burning through cash. Last quarter the company set fire to $18 million. Thankfully, the company still holds more than $189 million in cash on its books, so liquidity is not an immediate concern.</p>
<p>I asked Bill Doyle to comment on the company's financial position. Here's what he said:</p>
<p>In other words, Novocure believes that its growth will be so strong over the next few years that company won't have to hit up shareholders for extra cash. If true, that's great news for investors.</p>
<p>After speaking with Bill and visiting the company's U.S. headquarters, I must admit that I am quite bullish on Novocure's long-term potential. The clinical data that we've seen from Optune thus far clearly indicates that TTFields are the real deal, and the company's opportunity in lung, pancreatic, and ovarian cancer are truly massive.</p>
<p>While I certainly acknowledge that there are risks galore, I personally think that the potential upside is big enough to compensate investors for the risk that they are taking. In case you think those are empty words, you should know that I recently became a shareholder of Novocure myself.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than NovoCureWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=eb09b442-cbfc-4407-a06b-d4c1bf558bbc&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=69d12468-585b-11e7-85ba-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and NovoCure wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=eb09b442-cbfc-4407-a06b-d4c1bf558bbc&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=69d12468-585b-11e7-85ba-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of June 5, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTypeoh/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=69d12468-585b-11e7-85ba-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Brian Feroldi Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of NovoCure. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=69d12468-585b-11e7-85ba-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 1,720 |
<p>San Antonio Express-News Express-News editor Robert Rivard says a New York Times editor openly chatted with him at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention about the Times' interest in Macarena Hernandez, "even gloating as she walked away, 'She's ours.'" But Rivard kept <a href="http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0305/13/ltm.14.html" type="external">Hernandez</a> -- a Jayson Blair plagiarism victim -- by promoting her to his projects team. "The Times was doing what we all do in this business," writes Rivard. "The big fish eat the little fish. Hernandez was an attractive target for recruitment: young, Mexican American, bilingual, a gifted reporter and writer." &gt; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9740-2003Jul4.html" type="external">Ex-NYT reporter Phillips recalls a fabricated quotes incident (WP)</a></p> | Express-News' Hernandez says no to New York Times offer | false | https://poynter.org/news/express-news-hernandez-says-no-new-york-times-offer | 2003-07-07 | 2least
| Express-News' Hernandez says no to New York Times offer
<p>San Antonio Express-News Express-News editor Robert Rivard says a New York Times editor openly chatted with him at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention about the Times' interest in Macarena Hernandez, "even gloating as she walked away, 'She's ours.'" But Rivard kept <a href="http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0305/13/ltm.14.html" type="external">Hernandez</a> -- a Jayson Blair plagiarism victim -- by promoting her to his projects team. "The Times was doing what we all do in this business," writes Rivard. "The big fish eat the little fish. Hernandez was an attractive target for recruitment: young, Mexican American, bilingual, a gifted reporter and writer." &gt; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9740-2003Jul4.html" type="external">Ex-NYT reporter Phillips recalls a fabricated quotes incident (WP)</a></p> | 1,721 |
<p>Look on the bright side. They finally found a WMD. Not in the desert wastes of Iraq, nor in the cellar of one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces. Not in an Iranian nuclear facility. In Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s underwear. He’s been charged by a US grand jury with “attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.” Who’d have thought it could be so small? Or that&#160; “mass” could mean something less than a four digit casualty list? “Suitcase bomb” used to be about as low as WMDs would go in dimension.</p>
<p>Connoisseurs of the ritual known as “Accepting full responsibility” will surely grade Obams a mere B for his performance Thursday at his White House press conference.</p>
<p>“Ultimately, the buck stops with me,” Obama said, apropos Terror’s near Christmas Day miss on Northwest Flight 253. “As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people, and when the system fails, it is my responsibility.”</p>
<p>First strike against Obama’s speech writer is the weasel-use of “ultimately”, not to mention the mawkish use of “solemn”.&#160;&#160; Second strike is his habitual dive into “systemic failure”, as he termed it earlier in the week. . Everyone knows that systemic failure – which Obama has been hawking all week – spells out as “No one is to blame. This is bigger than all of us.”&#160; That’s the phrase’s&#160; singular beauty. I give John Brennan low marks too. “I told the president today I let him down,” said Obama’s top counterterrorism aide, who followed his boss at the press briefing . Okay so far. Exciting, even. In medieval Japan he would have stuck a sword in his stomach at this point.</p>
<p>Not Brennan.&#160; “I am the president’s assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism and I told him I will do better and we will do better as a team.”The all-time champ at not accepting, while purporting to accept, “full responsibility” was Ronald Reagan, shouldering blame for the criminal saga known as “Iran-Contra,” for which he was indeed entirely responsible and for which he should have been impeached and thrown into prison. The 76-year old president&#160; addressed the nation on March 4, 1987, after the Tower Commission had issued &#160;damaging report about the White House’s guiding role.</p>
<p>Stage one: artful deflection of blame: “First, let me say I take full responsibility for my own actions and for those of my administration. As angry as I may be about activities undertaken without my knowledge, I am still accountable for those activities. As disappointed as I may be in some who served me, I’m still the one who must answer to the American people for this behavior. And as personally distasteful as I find secret bank accounts and diverted funds – well, as the Navy would say, this happened on my watch.”</p>
<p>A small masterpiece, as I’m sure you’ll agree.</p>
<p>Stage 2: Manly openness about some trifling blunders: “One thing still upsetting me, however, is that no one kept proper records of meetings or decisions. This led to my failure to recollect whether I approved an arms shipment before or after the fact. I did approve it; I just can’t say specifically when.” (A lot better than Nixonian lawyer-speak:&#160; To the best of my recollection I cannot recall at this point in time.) Then Reagan’s pledge to do better. “Well, rest assured, there’s plenty of recordkeeping now going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”</p>
<p>Stage 3. Onward and upward! “You know,” Reagan concluded affably, “ by the time you reach my age, you’ve made plenty of mistakes. And if you’ve lived your life properly – so, you learn. You put things in perspective. You pull your energies together. You change. You go forward.”&#160;&#160; And all this from a man with incipient Alzheimer’s.</p>
<p>The problem with all the gabble about systemic failure and with not making Brennan or at least the head of the US embassy in Lagos resign is that it reminds people that Obama hasn’t got much of a spine, also that systemic failures are impossible to fix within the system’s terms, a judgment wonderfully ratified by Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano’s insistence on December 27 that “the system worked.”</p>
<p>America’s defenses against terror fouled up on December 25, 2009 for the same reasons they fouled up on September 11, 2001, even though&#160; the 9/11 attacks were followed by vast bureaucratic upheavals and searching scrutinies of intelligence procedures.</p>
<p>Now Obama is listing the orders he’s issued to improve interagency cooperation: expand the Watch List, enlarge the overall Terror data base, train-up more security personnel at airports. It fulfills the first law of reactive politics, Do something. Issue orders. Look busy.&#160; But beyond that, will it stop the next bomber?</p>
<p>It was Napolitano herself, formerly governor of Arizona, who said of the wall being built to stop illegal migrants crossing the southern&#160; border, “You show me a 50-foot wall and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder at the border. That’s the way the border works.” By the same token, show me a top red alert urgent intelligence report and I’ll show you 100 other red alert&#160; intelligence reports piled on top of it. Show me the sixteen agencies which maker up the &#160;“U.S. Intelligence Community”, plus&#160; tactical military intelligence and security organizations, plus&#160; those responsible for security responses to transnational threats including&#160; terrorism, cyber warfare and computer security, narcotics trafficking, and international organized crime, and I’ll show you bureaucratic rivalry and confusion, buck-passing,&#160; active sabotage of rival agencies, incompetence, sloth and all the sins and inefficiencies familiar to anyone who has ever read a decent work of history about such matters.</p>
<p>Add to all this the fact that no one &#160;“responsible” ever does have to pay any sort of price. A lot of people lost their lives on September 11, 2001 but so far as I can recall not one lost their job for letting it happen.&#160; No lives at all were lost on December 25, 2009, but no jobs lost either, from Brennan on down.</p>
<p>Maybe there’s progress. The lowly TSA guard who didn’t notice that man going through the “No Entry” gate to give his girl friend another goodbye kiss at Newark Airport &#160;(mass panic, total shut-down) has been placed on leave.</p>
<p>Now there’s an avalanche of punditry about Britain’s Islamic minority as the petri dish in which toxic cultures of militant Islam flourish and multiply. At this rate they’ll soon be deploying the Delta Force in Tower Hamlets and assassinating imams.</p>
<p>As noted here last week, the petri dish for terror is US national policy, abetted by junior partners in the UK, France and Germany: widening attacks on Afghanistan, an unfolding record of torturing captives to death since 2001, full support for Israel’s onslaughts on Palestinians and calculated mass murder.&#160; It’s scarcely surprising that we’ve now had this terror bid in the new Age of Obama, and a supposed swerve into rationality. The swerve has been the other way and guess what, the Muslim world has noticed.</p>
<p>What words can a radical imam in the UK or Yemen have to offer as incitement to attack America&#160; as vividly persuasive as the policies adopted by Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, expanding the war in Afghanistan, cheerleading for Israel and – it turns out – initiating a dirty war in Yemen? When the US Congress on November 4 last year voted 334 to 36 to condemn the Goldstone Report for its charge that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza how many young Muslims exclaimed, that does it, and headed for their local Terrorist recruiting office?</p>
<p>How the terrorists – Al Qaida or some cognate organization – must be exulting! All that has to be done is to get someone on a plane bound for a US city, with explosive deployed on or in their person. The carrier doesn’t need even to successfully detonate the bomb, just be discovered. Result: political hysteria in the US; another savage blow at the aviation industry and tourism here in the Homeland.&#160; The latest U.S. Dept. of Commerce statistics show a continued drop in foreign visitors to the U.S. Since 9/11/2001 there’s been a 17 per cent decline – 60 million tourists . A survey concludes a negative impression of the U.S. is the primary reason for this decline. The wearisome new security screenings, with travelers fretting about TSA guards chortling lewdly over full-body scans, will accelerate that trend.</p>
<p>Back in 1962 Roberta Wohlstetter published <a href="" type="internal">Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision</a>, a famous reconstruction of the indications and warning process preceding the successful Japanese surprise attack of December 7, 1941. The book was a disingenuous one since part of Wohlstetter’s agenda was to discredit the fairly persuasive evidence that Roosevelt was aware of an impending Japanese attack – though not its dimensions – and saw it as something that would finally allow him to trump all opposition to the US’s entry into World War Two. But Wohlstetter, excavating all the “systemic” obstructions to the efficient use of intelligence, did accurately conclude that “We have to accept the fact of uncertainty and learn to live with it”. It’s no solution to requisition bigger and better x-ray machines at points of departure and entry, to expand watch lists and computer data bases. Obama promised change, in his campaign and in Cairo. So far as the Islamic world is concerned – he’s betrayed that promise. That’s the systemic failure.</p>
<p>Hot&#160; from the Press</p>
<p>Subscribe and read our latest newsletter. Danny Weil has a superb piece on the debate on education we should be having right now and where the left has largely quit the field of battle.&#160; Back in the last century the philosopher John Dewey and elite liberal pundit Walter Lippmann squared off on the purpose of education. Dewey wanted it to foster human potential to become fully rounded human beings. Lippmann, echoing business sentiment, favored a shrivelled “functionalist” model, dooming most of the poor while nourishing tomorrow’s elites. Weil sets this debate against the kindred schemes to privatize education of billionaires like Gates and their functionaries like Obama’s appalling Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Also, newsletter subscribers get a&#160; fine angry report from Cairo by Yvonne Ridley, who was among the 1400 who rallied to Cairo for the Gaza Freedom March. Also in this bumper issue is&#160; Saul Landau on Cuba in the heroic years and Cuba now. Plus, Jeffrey St Clair and Yours Truly on what to expect in 2010. Clue: Look back, not forwards.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/Annual_Subscriptions.html" type="external">Subscribe Now!</a></p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | Acting Responsible | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/01/08/acting-responsible/ | 2010-01-08 | 4left
| Acting Responsible
<p>Look on the bright side. They finally found a WMD. Not in the desert wastes of Iraq, nor in the cellar of one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces. Not in an Iranian nuclear facility. In Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s underwear. He’s been charged by a US grand jury with “attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.” Who’d have thought it could be so small? Or that&#160; “mass” could mean something less than a four digit casualty list? “Suitcase bomb” used to be about as low as WMDs would go in dimension.</p>
<p>Connoisseurs of the ritual known as “Accepting full responsibility” will surely grade Obams a mere B for his performance Thursday at his White House press conference.</p>
<p>“Ultimately, the buck stops with me,” Obama said, apropos Terror’s near Christmas Day miss on Northwest Flight 253. “As president, I have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people, and when the system fails, it is my responsibility.”</p>
<p>First strike against Obama’s speech writer is the weasel-use of “ultimately”, not to mention the mawkish use of “solemn”.&#160;&#160; Second strike is his habitual dive into “systemic failure”, as he termed it earlier in the week. . Everyone knows that systemic failure – which Obama has been hawking all week – spells out as “No one is to blame. This is bigger than all of us.”&#160; That’s the phrase’s&#160; singular beauty. I give John Brennan low marks too. “I told the president today I let him down,” said Obama’s top counterterrorism aide, who followed his boss at the press briefing . Okay so far. Exciting, even. In medieval Japan he would have stuck a sword in his stomach at this point.</p>
<p>Not Brennan.&#160; “I am the president’s assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism and I told him I will do better and we will do better as a team.”The all-time champ at not accepting, while purporting to accept, “full responsibility” was Ronald Reagan, shouldering blame for the criminal saga known as “Iran-Contra,” for which he was indeed entirely responsible and for which he should have been impeached and thrown into prison. The 76-year old president&#160; addressed the nation on March 4, 1987, after the Tower Commission had issued &#160;damaging report about the White House’s guiding role.</p>
<p>Stage one: artful deflection of blame: “First, let me say I take full responsibility for my own actions and for those of my administration. As angry as I may be about activities undertaken without my knowledge, I am still accountable for those activities. As disappointed as I may be in some who served me, I’m still the one who must answer to the American people for this behavior. And as personally distasteful as I find secret bank accounts and diverted funds – well, as the Navy would say, this happened on my watch.”</p>
<p>A small masterpiece, as I’m sure you’ll agree.</p>
<p>Stage 2: Manly openness about some trifling blunders: “One thing still upsetting me, however, is that no one kept proper records of meetings or decisions. This led to my failure to recollect whether I approved an arms shipment before or after the fact. I did approve it; I just can’t say specifically when.” (A lot better than Nixonian lawyer-speak:&#160; To the best of my recollection I cannot recall at this point in time.) Then Reagan’s pledge to do better. “Well, rest assured, there’s plenty of recordkeeping now going on at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”</p>
<p>Stage 3. Onward and upward! “You know,” Reagan concluded affably, “ by the time you reach my age, you’ve made plenty of mistakes. And if you’ve lived your life properly – so, you learn. You put things in perspective. You pull your energies together. You change. You go forward.”&#160;&#160; And all this from a man with incipient Alzheimer’s.</p>
<p>The problem with all the gabble about systemic failure and with not making Brennan or at least the head of the US embassy in Lagos resign is that it reminds people that Obama hasn’t got much of a spine, also that systemic failures are impossible to fix within the system’s terms, a judgment wonderfully ratified by Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano’s insistence on December 27 that “the system worked.”</p>
<p>America’s defenses against terror fouled up on December 25, 2009 for the same reasons they fouled up on September 11, 2001, even though&#160; the 9/11 attacks were followed by vast bureaucratic upheavals and searching scrutinies of intelligence procedures.</p>
<p>Now Obama is listing the orders he’s issued to improve interagency cooperation: expand the Watch List, enlarge the overall Terror data base, train-up more security personnel at airports. It fulfills the first law of reactive politics, Do something. Issue orders. Look busy.&#160; But beyond that, will it stop the next bomber?</p>
<p>It was Napolitano herself, formerly governor of Arizona, who said of the wall being built to stop illegal migrants crossing the southern&#160; border, “You show me a 50-foot wall and I’ll show you a 51-foot ladder at the border. That’s the way the border works.” By the same token, show me a top red alert urgent intelligence report and I’ll show you 100 other red alert&#160; intelligence reports piled on top of it. Show me the sixteen agencies which maker up the &#160;“U.S. Intelligence Community”, plus&#160; tactical military intelligence and security organizations, plus&#160; those responsible for security responses to transnational threats including&#160; terrorism, cyber warfare and computer security, narcotics trafficking, and international organized crime, and I’ll show you bureaucratic rivalry and confusion, buck-passing,&#160; active sabotage of rival agencies, incompetence, sloth and all the sins and inefficiencies familiar to anyone who has ever read a decent work of history about such matters.</p>
<p>Add to all this the fact that no one &#160;“responsible” ever does have to pay any sort of price. A lot of people lost their lives on September 11, 2001 but so far as I can recall not one lost their job for letting it happen.&#160; No lives at all were lost on December 25, 2009, but no jobs lost either, from Brennan on down.</p>
<p>Maybe there’s progress. The lowly TSA guard who didn’t notice that man going through the “No Entry” gate to give his girl friend another goodbye kiss at Newark Airport &#160;(mass panic, total shut-down) has been placed on leave.</p>
<p>Now there’s an avalanche of punditry about Britain’s Islamic minority as the petri dish in which toxic cultures of militant Islam flourish and multiply. At this rate they’ll soon be deploying the Delta Force in Tower Hamlets and assassinating imams.</p>
<p>As noted here last week, the petri dish for terror is US national policy, abetted by junior partners in the UK, France and Germany: widening attacks on Afghanistan, an unfolding record of torturing captives to death since 2001, full support for Israel’s onslaughts on Palestinians and calculated mass murder.&#160; It’s scarcely surprising that we’ve now had this terror bid in the new Age of Obama, and a supposed swerve into rationality. The swerve has been the other way and guess what, the Muslim world has noticed.</p>
<p>What words can a radical imam in the UK or Yemen have to offer as incitement to attack America&#160; as vividly persuasive as the policies adopted by Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, expanding the war in Afghanistan, cheerleading for Israel and – it turns out – initiating a dirty war in Yemen? When the US Congress on November 4 last year voted 334 to 36 to condemn the Goldstone Report for its charge that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza how many young Muslims exclaimed, that does it, and headed for their local Terrorist recruiting office?</p>
<p>How the terrorists – Al Qaida or some cognate organization – must be exulting! All that has to be done is to get someone on a plane bound for a US city, with explosive deployed on or in their person. The carrier doesn’t need even to successfully detonate the bomb, just be discovered. Result: political hysteria in the US; another savage blow at the aviation industry and tourism here in the Homeland.&#160; The latest U.S. Dept. of Commerce statistics show a continued drop in foreign visitors to the U.S. Since 9/11/2001 there’s been a 17 per cent decline – 60 million tourists . A survey concludes a negative impression of the U.S. is the primary reason for this decline. The wearisome new security screenings, with travelers fretting about TSA guards chortling lewdly over full-body scans, will accelerate that trend.</p>
<p>Back in 1962 Roberta Wohlstetter published <a href="" type="internal">Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision</a>, a famous reconstruction of the indications and warning process preceding the successful Japanese surprise attack of December 7, 1941. The book was a disingenuous one since part of Wohlstetter’s agenda was to discredit the fairly persuasive evidence that Roosevelt was aware of an impending Japanese attack – though not its dimensions – and saw it as something that would finally allow him to trump all opposition to the US’s entry into World War Two. But Wohlstetter, excavating all the “systemic” obstructions to the efficient use of intelligence, did accurately conclude that “We have to accept the fact of uncertainty and learn to live with it”. It’s no solution to requisition bigger and better x-ray machines at points of departure and entry, to expand watch lists and computer data bases. Obama promised change, in his campaign and in Cairo. So far as the Islamic world is concerned – he’s betrayed that promise. That’s the systemic failure.</p>
<p>Hot&#160; from the Press</p>
<p>Subscribe and read our latest newsletter. Danny Weil has a superb piece on the debate on education we should be having right now and where the left has largely quit the field of battle.&#160; Back in the last century the philosopher John Dewey and elite liberal pundit Walter Lippmann squared off on the purpose of education. Dewey wanted it to foster human potential to become fully rounded human beings. Lippmann, echoing business sentiment, favored a shrivelled “functionalist” model, dooming most of the poor while nourishing tomorrow’s elites. Weil sets this debate against the kindred schemes to privatize education of billionaires like Gates and their functionaries like Obama’s appalling Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Also, newsletter subscribers get a&#160; fine angry report from Cairo by Yvonne Ridley, who was among the 1400 who rallied to Cairo for the Gaza Freedom March. Also in this bumper issue is&#160; Saul Landau on Cuba in the heroic years and Cuba now. Plus, Jeffrey St Clair and Yours Truly on what to expect in 2010. Clue: Look back, not forwards.</p>
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<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | 1,722 |
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<p>He is promoting his new book, “Emma: A Modern Retelling,” based on the Jane Austen classic.</p>
<p>The highly prolific Smith also has written the “Isabel Dalhousie” series, the “44 Scotland Street” series and the “Corduroy Mansions” series. He lives in Scotland.</p>
<p>The event, sponsored by Bookworks, is free and no tickets are required. Seating is first-come, first-served. The KiMo is at Central and Sixth Street NW in Downtown Albuquerque.</p>
<p>AT BOOKWORKS: Local author Caroline Starr Rose, author of “May B.,” will sign her new book “Blue Birds,” at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 11, at the bookstore, 4022 Rio Grande NW. It is a story of friendship and the meaning of family set in 1580s Roanoke, Va.</p>
<p>Loretta Hall will sign her book, “Space Pioneers,” at 3 p.m. April 12. In it 90 space pioneers describe their experiences while working on space research and exploration from the 1940s through the space shuttle program.</p>
<p>Vamos a Leer Book Club, a monthly book club for educators and readers interested in young adult literature from Hispanic authors, will be at 3 p.m. Monday, April 6, at Bookworks. This month’s selection is “Serafina’s Promise” by Ann Burg. The event is free and open to all.</p>
<p>Richard Vargas and contributors to Mas Tequila Review will read at Bookworks at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 11, to celebrate five years of the small press poetry journal. Those reading will be Rich Boucher, Lauren Camp, Jennifer Givhan, Larry Goodell, Jennifer Krohn (also reading for Liz Napieralski), Mary Oishi, Richard Oyama and Margaret Randall .</p>
<p>IN SANTA FE: Joel H. Bernstein will be at Collected Works Bookstore and Coffee House, 202 Galisteo St., Santa Fe, at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 9, with his books “Buck’s Country: A Novel of the Modern West” and “Wild Ride: The History and Lore of Western Rodeo.”</p>
<p>In “Buck’s Country,” Buck Cooper was a confused and uncertain cowboy. After more than a dozen years of fighting long winters, the droughts and the emptiness of Montana, he heads back to his beloved New Mexico, hoping it finally would be the culmination of a dream he had been nurturing for years.</p>
<p>“Wild Ride” presents a history of rodeo from its rugged beginning in Mexico to today’s professional circuits.</p>
<p /> | Series author promotes book about Jane Austen’s Emma | false | https://abqjournal.com/564926/series-author-plugs-book-on-austens-emma.html | 2least
| Series author promotes book about Jane Austen’s Emma
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<p />
<p>He is promoting his new book, “Emma: A Modern Retelling,” based on the Jane Austen classic.</p>
<p>The highly prolific Smith also has written the “Isabel Dalhousie” series, the “44 Scotland Street” series and the “Corduroy Mansions” series. He lives in Scotland.</p>
<p>The event, sponsored by Bookworks, is free and no tickets are required. Seating is first-come, first-served. The KiMo is at Central and Sixth Street NW in Downtown Albuquerque.</p>
<p>AT BOOKWORKS: Local author Caroline Starr Rose, author of “May B.,” will sign her new book “Blue Birds,” at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 11, at the bookstore, 4022 Rio Grande NW. It is a story of friendship and the meaning of family set in 1580s Roanoke, Va.</p>
<p>Loretta Hall will sign her book, “Space Pioneers,” at 3 p.m. April 12. In it 90 space pioneers describe their experiences while working on space research and exploration from the 1940s through the space shuttle program.</p>
<p>Vamos a Leer Book Club, a monthly book club for educators and readers interested in young adult literature from Hispanic authors, will be at 3 p.m. Monday, April 6, at Bookworks. This month’s selection is “Serafina’s Promise” by Ann Burg. The event is free and open to all.</p>
<p>Richard Vargas and contributors to Mas Tequila Review will read at Bookworks at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 11, to celebrate five years of the small press poetry journal. Those reading will be Rich Boucher, Lauren Camp, Jennifer Givhan, Larry Goodell, Jennifer Krohn (also reading for Liz Napieralski), Mary Oishi, Richard Oyama and Margaret Randall .</p>
<p>IN SANTA FE: Joel H. Bernstein will be at Collected Works Bookstore and Coffee House, 202 Galisteo St., Santa Fe, at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 9, with his books “Buck’s Country: A Novel of the Modern West” and “Wild Ride: The History and Lore of Western Rodeo.”</p>
<p>In “Buck’s Country,” Buck Cooper was a confused and uncertain cowboy. After more than a dozen years of fighting long winters, the droughts and the emptiness of Montana, he heads back to his beloved New Mexico, hoping it finally would be the culmination of a dream he had been nurturing for years.</p>
<p>“Wild Ride” presents a history of rodeo from its rugged beginning in Mexico to today’s professional circuits.</p>
<p /> | 1,723 |
|
<p>A Louisiana middle school teacher was handcuffed and arrested during a school board meeting Monday after objecting to a proposed renewal of the district superintendent's contract that included a $30,000 raise.</p>
<p>A 12-minute video of the incident in which Deyshia Hargrave, an English/Language Arts teacher at Rene A. Rost middle school in Vermilion Parish, is violently escorted from the meeting has amassed over 2.5 million views on YouTube and caused a firestorm of controversy nationwide.</p>
<p>Teachers in the district, she says, have not received a permanent raise in 10 years. Superintendent Jerome Puyau did though, despite the school district's history of financial troubles,</p>
<p>"I have a serious issue with a superintendent or any person in a position of leadership getting any type of raise," says Hargrave in the video. "I feel like it is a slap in the face to all the teachers, cafeteria workers and any other support staff we have. We work very hard with very little to maintain the salaries that we have."</p>
<p>She continued, explaining that class sizes have increased, along with the demand on local school teachers. "At the top? That's not where kids learn. It's in the classroom. And those teachers, like myself, are not getting a dime," she said.</p>
<p>Still, Puyau's new contract was approved, raising his salary to about $140,000.</p>
<p>Hargrave was then called on for comment again, before being told by the board's president that what she was saying was not "germane to what was on the agenda."</p>
<p>A deputy city marshal employed by the school board told her to leave, which, as can be seen on the now-viral video, Hargrave began to do. Moments later, she was pushed to the floor, put in handcuffs, and placed &#160;in the back of a police car.</p>
<p>Ike Funderburk, Abbeville's city attorney and prosecutor, told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/us/teacher-arrested-louisiana.html?_r=0" type="external">New York Times</a> that she was arrested for "remaining after having been forbidden" and "resisting an officer," but that after review, charges would not be pressed. Despite this, Hargrave was booked into jail before making bail.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.apnews.com/47f554f3c2a44cd98406111f4b600f02/Marshal-who-arrested-teacher-was-sued-for-excessive-force" type="external">emotional interview</a>, Puyau said that he, his family, and other school board members have received death threats over the incident. He <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vermilion-louisiana-superintendent-jerome-puyau-speaks-out-after-arrest-of-teacher/" type="external">told CBS News</a> that he should have intervened in the arrest.</p>
<p>He simultaneously maintains, however, the propriety of his raise, explaining that he has not received one since assuming his position as superintendent five years ago. His new salary puts him at No. 32 out of 69 superintendents in Louisiana in terms of salary, according to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/01/10/louisiana-teacher-handcuffed-pay-raise-question/1019777001/" type="external">USA Today</a>.</p>
<p>Notably, the school district has weathered financial troubles in recent years.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>In April 2016, it had a deficit of about $3 million, according to local news station KATC. In an attempt to alleviate it at the time, Puyau spearheaded <a href="http://www.katc.com/story/31835686/vermilion-school-board-votes-to-not-fill-6-open-teaching-jobs" type="external">an effort to leave 16 teaching jobs unfilled</a>. The board approved a reduced number of six.</p>
<p>Almost one year later, in March 2017, Vermillion Parish voters passed <a href="http://www.katc.com/story/34998188/vermilion-school-boards-tax-renewal-passes-overwhelmingly" type="external">a property tax renewal to raise about $8 million</a> for the school board to pay teacher salaries.</p>
<p>Additionally, an <a href="http://www.govwiki.info/pdfs/School%20District/LA%20Vermilion%20Parish%20School%20Board%202017.pdf" type="external">independent financial audit from this past fiscal year</a> found that the district has reduced its outstanding debt by almost $400,000.</p>
<p>Despite this, Hargrave said that teachers in the district have not received permanent raises in a decade, twice as long as Puyau has held his title.</p>
<p>Before the March tax renewal was voted on, Hargrave even spoke to KATC and <a href="http://www.katc.com/story/34712213/tax-renewal-to-affect-vermilion-parish-school-board-employees-pay" type="external">explained</a> that, "some of our salary goes directly back to these students, not just to pay our bills. Personally, I buy extra things in my classroom so when a student doesn't have it, it's available."</p>
<p>In 2016 Puyau faced <a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2016/05/19/vermilion-parish-superintendent-could-face-termination/84590138/" type="external">possible termination</a> after some members of the board took issue with his leadership style.</p>
<p>In that same year, Deyshia Hargrave was given a "teacher of the year" award.</p>
<p>She has since spoken out, both on - <a href="https://www.today.com/video/deyshia-hargrave-teacher-handcuffed-at-school-board-meeting-speaks-out-1134603331522" type="external">Today</a>,? and on <a href="https://youtu.be/K8rE3XR9z8Q" type="external">YouTube</a>, where she said that "by silencing my voice they've also taken away - or tried to take away - my First Amendment right to speak. And I'm appalled at this, and you should be, too."</p> | School Teacher Arrested for Objecting to Superintendent's $30,000 Raise | true | https://thedailybeast.com/school-teacher-arrested-for-objecting-to-superintendents-dollar30000-raise | 2018-10-04 | 4left
| School Teacher Arrested for Objecting to Superintendent's $30,000 Raise
<p>A Louisiana middle school teacher was handcuffed and arrested during a school board meeting Monday after objecting to a proposed renewal of the district superintendent's contract that included a $30,000 raise.</p>
<p>A 12-minute video of the incident in which Deyshia Hargrave, an English/Language Arts teacher at Rene A. Rost middle school in Vermilion Parish, is violently escorted from the meeting has amassed over 2.5 million views on YouTube and caused a firestorm of controversy nationwide.</p>
<p>Teachers in the district, she says, have not received a permanent raise in 10 years. Superintendent Jerome Puyau did though, despite the school district's history of financial troubles,</p>
<p>"I have a serious issue with a superintendent or any person in a position of leadership getting any type of raise," says Hargrave in the video. "I feel like it is a slap in the face to all the teachers, cafeteria workers and any other support staff we have. We work very hard with very little to maintain the salaries that we have."</p>
<p>She continued, explaining that class sizes have increased, along with the demand on local school teachers. "At the top? That's not where kids learn. It's in the classroom. And those teachers, like myself, are not getting a dime," she said.</p>
<p>Still, Puyau's new contract was approved, raising his salary to about $140,000.</p>
<p>Hargrave was then called on for comment again, before being told by the board's president that what she was saying was not "germane to what was on the agenda."</p>
<p>A deputy city marshal employed by the school board told her to leave, which, as can be seen on the now-viral video, Hargrave began to do. Moments later, she was pushed to the floor, put in handcuffs, and placed &#160;in the back of a police car.</p>
<p>Ike Funderburk, Abbeville's city attorney and prosecutor, told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/us/teacher-arrested-louisiana.html?_r=0" type="external">New York Times</a> that she was arrested for "remaining after having been forbidden" and "resisting an officer," but that after review, charges would not be pressed. Despite this, Hargrave was booked into jail before making bail.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.apnews.com/47f554f3c2a44cd98406111f4b600f02/Marshal-who-arrested-teacher-was-sued-for-excessive-force" type="external">emotional interview</a>, Puyau said that he, his family, and other school board members have received death threats over the incident. He <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vermilion-louisiana-superintendent-jerome-puyau-speaks-out-after-arrest-of-teacher/" type="external">told CBS News</a> that he should have intervened in the arrest.</p>
<p>He simultaneously maintains, however, the propriety of his raise, explaining that he has not received one since assuming his position as superintendent five years ago. His new salary puts him at No. 32 out of 69 superintendents in Louisiana in terms of salary, according to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/01/10/louisiana-teacher-handcuffed-pay-raise-question/1019777001/" type="external">USA Today</a>.</p>
<p>Notably, the school district has weathered financial troubles in recent years.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>In April 2016, it had a deficit of about $3 million, according to local news station KATC. In an attempt to alleviate it at the time, Puyau spearheaded <a href="http://www.katc.com/story/31835686/vermilion-school-board-votes-to-not-fill-6-open-teaching-jobs" type="external">an effort to leave 16 teaching jobs unfilled</a>. The board approved a reduced number of six.</p>
<p>Almost one year later, in March 2017, Vermillion Parish voters passed <a href="http://www.katc.com/story/34998188/vermilion-school-boards-tax-renewal-passes-overwhelmingly" type="external">a property tax renewal to raise about $8 million</a> for the school board to pay teacher salaries.</p>
<p>Additionally, an <a href="http://www.govwiki.info/pdfs/School%20District/LA%20Vermilion%20Parish%20School%20Board%202017.pdf" type="external">independent financial audit from this past fiscal year</a> found that the district has reduced its outstanding debt by almost $400,000.</p>
<p>Despite this, Hargrave said that teachers in the district have not received permanent raises in a decade, twice as long as Puyau has held his title.</p>
<p>Before the March tax renewal was voted on, Hargrave even spoke to KATC and <a href="http://www.katc.com/story/34712213/tax-renewal-to-affect-vermilion-parish-school-board-employees-pay" type="external">explained</a> that, "some of our salary goes directly back to these students, not just to pay our bills. Personally, I buy extra things in my classroom so when a student doesn't have it, it's available."</p>
<p>In 2016 Puyau faced <a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/2016/05/19/vermilion-parish-superintendent-could-face-termination/84590138/" type="external">possible termination</a> after some members of the board took issue with his leadership style.</p>
<p>In that same year, Deyshia Hargrave was given a "teacher of the year" award.</p>
<p>She has since spoken out, both on - <a href="https://www.today.com/video/deyshia-hargrave-teacher-handcuffed-at-school-board-meeting-speaks-out-1134603331522" type="external">Today</a>,? and on <a href="https://youtu.be/K8rE3XR9z8Q" type="external">YouTube</a>, where she said that "by silencing my voice they've also taken away - or tried to take away - my First Amendment right to speak. And I'm appalled at this, and you should be, too."</p> | 1,724 |
<p>Business Insider breaks down <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/senate-republican-health-care-bill-motion-to-proceed-vote-count-2017-7" type="external">what might happen</a>:</p>
<p>After a rush of confusion leading up to the vote, it appears that McConnell’s tactics are starting to come into view. Based on statements from various members, McConnell’s current plan is to allow a vote on an Obamacare repeal-only bill to go first and likely fail. Then, they will vote on the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) which would be a repeal and replace. Additionally, the BCRA may also include two amendments, one from Sen. Ted Cruz and one from Sen. Rob Portman. If these are included, the bill would need 60 votes to pass and thus would likely fail.</p>
<p>After those two ideas fail, it seems that McConnell will move on to a “skinny repeal.” This would cobble together some amendments to repeal certain parts of Obamacare, like the individual mandate and medical device tax. If the Senate passes this skinny bill, the thinking goes, lawmakers from the House and Senate can come together to work on a compromise bill in a conference committee. What that would look like is unknown, but it would at least advance the bill and give McConnell some sort of victory.</p>
<p>The Senate’s lunchtime recess ends at 2:15PM.</p>
<p /> | LIVE VIDEO: Senate Again Votes On Obamacare Repeal | true | http://joemygod.com/2017/07/25/live-video-senate-votes-obamacare-repeal/ | 2017-07-25 | 4left
| LIVE VIDEO: Senate Again Votes On Obamacare Repeal
<p>Business Insider breaks down <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/senate-republican-health-care-bill-motion-to-proceed-vote-count-2017-7" type="external">what might happen</a>:</p>
<p>After a rush of confusion leading up to the vote, it appears that McConnell’s tactics are starting to come into view. Based on statements from various members, McConnell’s current plan is to allow a vote on an Obamacare repeal-only bill to go first and likely fail. Then, they will vote on the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) which would be a repeal and replace. Additionally, the BCRA may also include two amendments, one from Sen. Ted Cruz and one from Sen. Rob Portman. If these are included, the bill would need 60 votes to pass and thus would likely fail.</p>
<p>After those two ideas fail, it seems that McConnell will move on to a “skinny repeal.” This would cobble together some amendments to repeal certain parts of Obamacare, like the individual mandate and medical device tax. If the Senate passes this skinny bill, the thinking goes, lawmakers from the House and Senate can come together to work on a compromise bill in a conference committee. What that would look like is unknown, but it would at least advance the bill and give McConnell some sort of victory.</p>
<p>The Senate’s lunchtime recess ends at 2:15PM.</p>
<p /> | 1,725 |
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Top-ranked Rafael Nadal will make his return from injury at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament to prepare for the Australian Open, which begins on Jan. 15.</p>
<p>Nadal joins former No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic, a six-time Australian Open champion, in using the Kooyong event to warm up for the year's first Grand Slam tournament.</p>
<p>Tournament director Peter Johnston on Sunday said negotiations with Nadal accelerated after the 16-time major winner withdrew from the Brisbane International.</p>
<p>"Rafa was looking for match play and of course we were more than happy to oblige," Johnston said. "The addition of both Novak and Rafa changes our schedule and the way we will run the four days but that's what Kooyong is all about, we are here to help the players get ready for the Open."</p>
<p>Nadal, who lost last year's Australian final to Roger Federer and went on to win the French and U.S. Open titles, has been struggling with a right knee problem and withdrew from the ATP tournament in Brisbane to give himself longer for recovery. He is scheduled to play Tuesday at Kooyong, which regularly hosted the Australian Open on grass before the tournament moved to hard courts at Melbourne Park.</p>
<p>Djokovic is returning from a right elbow injury that has kept him off the tour since July. Last week he said he wasn't sure he'd be able to play at the Australian Open, and wouldn't confirm until after the two exhibition events.</p>
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Top-ranked Rafael Nadal will make his return from injury at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament to prepare for the Australian Open, which begins on Jan. 15.</p>
<p>Nadal joins former No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic, a six-time Australian Open champion, in using the Kooyong event to warm up for the year's first Grand Slam tournament.</p>
<p>Tournament director Peter Johnston on Sunday said negotiations with Nadal accelerated after the 16-time major winner withdrew from the Brisbane International.</p>
<p>"Rafa was looking for match play and of course we were more than happy to oblige," Johnston said. "The addition of both Novak and Rafa changes our schedule and the way we will run the four days but that's what Kooyong is all about, we are here to help the players get ready for the Open."</p>
<p>Nadal, who lost last year's Australian final to Roger Federer and went on to win the French and U.S. Open titles, has been struggling with a right knee problem and withdrew from the ATP tournament in Brisbane to give himself longer for recovery. He is scheduled to play Tuesday at Kooyong, which regularly hosted the Australian Open on grass before the tournament moved to hard courts at Melbourne Park.</p>
<p>Djokovic is returning from a right elbow injury that has kept him off the tour since July. Last week he said he wasn't sure he'd be able to play at the Australian Open, and wouldn't confirm until after the two exhibition events.</p> | Nadal to play Kooyong exhibition ahead of Australian Open | false | https://apnews.com/amp/a3304afba19740a7a9feaad378ac08f4 | 2018-01-07 | 2least
| Nadal to play Kooyong exhibition ahead of Australian Open
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Top-ranked Rafael Nadal will make his return from injury at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament to prepare for the Australian Open, which begins on Jan. 15.</p>
<p>Nadal joins former No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic, a six-time Australian Open champion, in using the Kooyong event to warm up for the year's first Grand Slam tournament.</p>
<p>Tournament director Peter Johnston on Sunday said negotiations with Nadal accelerated after the 16-time major winner withdrew from the Brisbane International.</p>
<p>"Rafa was looking for match play and of course we were more than happy to oblige," Johnston said. "The addition of both Novak and Rafa changes our schedule and the way we will run the four days but that's what Kooyong is all about, we are here to help the players get ready for the Open."</p>
<p>Nadal, who lost last year's Australian final to Roger Federer and went on to win the French and U.S. Open titles, has been struggling with a right knee problem and withdrew from the ATP tournament in Brisbane to give himself longer for recovery. He is scheduled to play Tuesday at Kooyong, which regularly hosted the Australian Open on grass before the tournament moved to hard courts at Melbourne Park.</p>
<p>Djokovic is returning from a right elbow injury that has kept him off the tour since July. Last week he said he wasn't sure he'd be able to play at the Australian Open, and wouldn't confirm until after the two exhibition events.</p>
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Top-ranked Rafael Nadal will make his return from injury at the Kooyong Classic exhibition tournament to prepare for the Australian Open, which begins on Jan. 15.</p>
<p>Nadal joins former No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic, a six-time Australian Open champion, in using the Kooyong event to warm up for the year's first Grand Slam tournament.</p>
<p>Tournament director Peter Johnston on Sunday said negotiations with Nadal accelerated after the 16-time major winner withdrew from the Brisbane International.</p>
<p>"Rafa was looking for match play and of course we were more than happy to oblige," Johnston said. "The addition of both Novak and Rafa changes our schedule and the way we will run the four days but that's what Kooyong is all about, we are here to help the players get ready for the Open."</p>
<p>Nadal, who lost last year's Australian final to Roger Federer and went on to win the French and U.S. Open titles, has been struggling with a right knee problem and withdrew from the ATP tournament in Brisbane to give himself longer for recovery. He is scheduled to play Tuesday at Kooyong, which regularly hosted the Australian Open on grass before the tournament moved to hard courts at Melbourne Park.</p>
<p>Djokovic is returning from a right elbow injury that has kept him off the tour since July. Last week he said he wasn't sure he'd be able to play at the Australian Open, and wouldn't confirm until after the two exhibition events.</p> | 1,726 |
<p>As President Obama considers US options in war-torn Syria, one of Bashar al-Assad's longtime clients just offered a public pledge of support.</p>
<p>Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, delivered a speech in Beirut this week declaring that "Syria has friends that will not allow it to fall."?</p>
<p>Nasrallah's words were the closest thing yet to a public admission that Hezbollah is directly involved in Syria's civil war, though it's been an open secret that his militiamen have been fighting and dying alongside Syrian government forces.</p>
<p>"Almost every day there are new reports' of Hezbollah fighters coming home from Syria in body bags,"? said Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "They're described to have been engaged in, as Hezbollah puts it, 'their Jihadi duty.'"?</p>
<p>Levitt is the author of the forthcoming book, "Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God."?</p>
<p>But why did Nasrallah make a such a public declaration of support for Syria's government now?</p>
<p>"The pressure is mounting on Nasrallah,"? Levitt said. The Shi'ite leader wanted to address his domestic Lebanese audience first and foremost, "to try and explain that [Hezbollah's military involvement in Syria] is "a defensive campaign to protect fellow Shia, fellow Lebanese, Shia shrines [inside Syria].""</p>
<p>Secondly, Nasrallah wants to maintain Hezbollah's credibility as a Lebanese resistance movement, dedicated to the struggle against Israel, the US and al-Qaeda.</p>
<p>But Levitt said that there is a risk here too for Hezbollah, because much of Lebanon, especially its Sunni Muslim population, has come to see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a tyrant and butcher.</p>
<p>"You have a situation now where some of the radical Sunnis in Syria and Lebanon aren't only calling for fighters to go and fight the regime in Syria, they're calling for fighting Hezbollah."?</p>
<p>Levitt points to recent reports of a bomb planted in the Hezbollah stronghold of southern Beirut, allegedly by the al-Qaeda-linked group, the Nusra Front. The group is considered to be the most capable anti-government militia operating right now in Syria. And that makes both Washington and its allies in Israel wary.</p>
<p>When Israelis listened to Hasan Nasrallah's speech this week, what they heard was the voice of Tehran.</p>
<p>"Iran cannot lose its strategic hold in Syria and therefore it's now letting loose all of its cannons in trying to deter anybody from intervening in Syria,"? said Shmuel Bar, a former Israeli military intelligence official now with the Institute of Policy and Studies in Herzliya, Israel.</p>
<p>Bar said Hezbollah's warning to Washington went like this: Either stay out of Syria, or face terrorist attacks against US assets in the region and American allies.</p>
<p>It is not clear if Hezbollah has the capacity to back up those kind of threats, said Thanassis Cambanis, author of "A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah's Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel."?</p>
<p>However, "because of Hezbollah's involvement,"? Cambanis went on to say, "the war really is pushing across the border into Lebanon."?</p>
<p>"Even [for the] people who support Hezbollah, this carries a real grave danger of a war between Shia and Sunni inside Lebanon."?</p>
<p>For Nasrallah and his Lebanese Shi'ite militia, this is "an existential struggle to protect their strategic hinterland in Syria,"? Cambanis said.</p>
<p>Experts have long warned that fighting in Syria could ignite a regional war. And it looks like Lebanon just took another step closer to being sucked into the sectarian bloodbath next door.</p> | Hezbollah Comes Clean: It Stands With Syrian Government | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-05-02/hezbollah-comes-clean-it-stands-syrian-government | 2013-05-02 | 3left-center
| Hezbollah Comes Clean: It Stands With Syrian Government
<p>As President Obama considers US options in war-torn Syria, one of Bashar al-Assad's longtime clients just offered a public pledge of support.</p>
<p>Hasan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, delivered a speech in Beirut this week declaring that "Syria has friends that will not allow it to fall."?</p>
<p>Nasrallah's words were the closest thing yet to a public admission that Hezbollah is directly involved in Syria's civil war, though it's been an open secret that his militiamen have been fighting and dying alongside Syrian government forces.</p>
<p>"Almost every day there are new reports' of Hezbollah fighters coming home from Syria in body bags,"? said Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "They're described to have been engaged in, as Hezbollah puts it, 'their Jihadi duty.'"?</p>
<p>Levitt is the author of the forthcoming book, "Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God."?</p>
<p>But why did Nasrallah make a such a public declaration of support for Syria's government now?</p>
<p>"The pressure is mounting on Nasrallah,"? Levitt said. The Shi'ite leader wanted to address his domestic Lebanese audience first and foremost, "to try and explain that [Hezbollah's military involvement in Syria] is "a defensive campaign to protect fellow Shia, fellow Lebanese, Shia shrines [inside Syria].""</p>
<p>Secondly, Nasrallah wants to maintain Hezbollah's credibility as a Lebanese resistance movement, dedicated to the struggle against Israel, the US and al-Qaeda.</p>
<p>But Levitt said that there is a risk here too for Hezbollah, because much of Lebanon, especially its Sunni Muslim population, has come to see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a tyrant and butcher.</p>
<p>"You have a situation now where some of the radical Sunnis in Syria and Lebanon aren't only calling for fighters to go and fight the regime in Syria, they're calling for fighting Hezbollah."?</p>
<p>Levitt points to recent reports of a bomb planted in the Hezbollah stronghold of southern Beirut, allegedly by the al-Qaeda-linked group, the Nusra Front. The group is considered to be the most capable anti-government militia operating right now in Syria. And that makes both Washington and its allies in Israel wary.</p>
<p>When Israelis listened to Hasan Nasrallah's speech this week, what they heard was the voice of Tehran.</p>
<p>"Iran cannot lose its strategic hold in Syria and therefore it's now letting loose all of its cannons in trying to deter anybody from intervening in Syria,"? said Shmuel Bar, a former Israeli military intelligence official now with the Institute of Policy and Studies in Herzliya, Israel.</p>
<p>Bar said Hezbollah's warning to Washington went like this: Either stay out of Syria, or face terrorist attacks against US assets in the region and American allies.</p>
<p>It is not clear if Hezbollah has the capacity to back up those kind of threats, said Thanassis Cambanis, author of "A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah's Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel."?</p>
<p>However, "because of Hezbollah's involvement,"? Cambanis went on to say, "the war really is pushing across the border into Lebanon."?</p>
<p>"Even [for the] people who support Hezbollah, this carries a real grave danger of a war between Shia and Sunni inside Lebanon."?</p>
<p>For Nasrallah and his Lebanese Shi'ite militia, this is "an existential struggle to protect their strategic hinterland in Syria,"? Cambanis said.</p>
<p>Experts have long warned that fighting in Syria could ignite a regional war. And it looks like Lebanon just took another step closer to being sucked into the sectarian bloodbath next door.</p> | 1,727 |
<p />
<p>A handful of the world’s largest technology companies have reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that will allow the companies to more fully disclose the information they share with the government under national security requirements.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The companies -- Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD), Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Apple (NASDAD:AAPL), came under fire last year when it was revealed that they shared information with the government culled from social media sites operated by and devices sold by the companies.</p>
<p>The embarrassing revelations came to light as part of policy leaks by former security contractor Edward Snowden.</p>
<p>In the wake of those revelations, the tech companies sued the DOJ and the two sides have been litigation for months over the tech companies desire to disclose more about the information they are compelled to give to federal law enforcement agencies, specifically the National Security Agency.</p>
<p>Fox News reported that the agreement announced Monday came about after a recent meeting at the White House prior to President Obama’s speech about the NSA. DOJ officials, White House officials and intelligence officials were present at the meeting.</p>
<p>A Government official tells Fox News that President Obama had a line in the speech the next day that was specifically written because of the meeting the night before at the White House. President Obama said something to the effect of “the government seeks to work out a resolution to tech companies wanting to give additional information about these inquiries to their customers.”</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>According to a government official, then the next week on Thursday and Friday January 23 and 24 Deputy AG James Cole held conference calls with the General Counsels of the tech companies. Half of them came to an agreement during the first call, the second half were on board after last Friday’s call.</p>
<p>All tech companies and content providers can start using these rules, not just the 6 big companies who were involved in litigation with the federal government.</p>
<p>As soon as the release is made and this becomes official these tech companies are allowed to start disclosing information on everything except for information that falls under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Ace, which will requires a six month lag. Thus, if the information in question happened today, the companies could not release it until 6 months from today.</p>
<p>In addition there will be a delay of two years for data relating to the first order that is served on a company platform, product or service (whether developed or acquired) for which the company has not previously received such an order. In other words if Google comes up with a new platform the NSA wants to look at they have two years to do so before the companies can report on it.</p> | Big Tech Firms Reach Info Sharing Deal With Government | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/01/27/big-tech-firms-reach-info-sharing-deal-with-gvt.html | 2016-03-09 | 0right
| Big Tech Firms Reach Info Sharing Deal With Government
<p />
<p>A handful of the world’s largest technology companies have reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that will allow the companies to more fully disclose the information they share with the government under national security requirements.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The companies -- Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD), Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Apple (NASDAD:AAPL), came under fire last year when it was revealed that they shared information with the government culled from social media sites operated by and devices sold by the companies.</p>
<p>The embarrassing revelations came to light as part of policy leaks by former security contractor Edward Snowden.</p>
<p>In the wake of those revelations, the tech companies sued the DOJ and the two sides have been litigation for months over the tech companies desire to disclose more about the information they are compelled to give to federal law enforcement agencies, specifically the National Security Agency.</p>
<p>Fox News reported that the agreement announced Monday came about after a recent meeting at the White House prior to President Obama’s speech about the NSA. DOJ officials, White House officials and intelligence officials were present at the meeting.</p>
<p>A Government official tells Fox News that President Obama had a line in the speech the next day that was specifically written because of the meeting the night before at the White House. President Obama said something to the effect of “the government seeks to work out a resolution to tech companies wanting to give additional information about these inquiries to their customers.”</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>According to a government official, then the next week on Thursday and Friday January 23 and 24 Deputy AG James Cole held conference calls with the General Counsels of the tech companies. Half of them came to an agreement during the first call, the second half were on board after last Friday’s call.</p>
<p>All tech companies and content providers can start using these rules, not just the 6 big companies who were involved in litigation with the federal government.</p>
<p>As soon as the release is made and this becomes official these tech companies are allowed to start disclosing information on everything except for information that falls under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Ace, which will requires a six month lag. Thus, if the information in question happened today, the companies could not release it until 6 months from today.</p>
<p>In addition there will be a delay of two years for data relating to the first order that is served on a company platform, product or service (whether developed or acquired) for which the company has not previously received such an order. In other words if Google comes up with a new platform the NSA wants to look at they have two years to do so before the companies can report on it.</p> | 1,728 |
<p>Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the , and sectors led shares lower.</p>
<p>At the close in Sydney, the fell 0.13%.</p>
<p>The best performers of the session on the were Orocobre Ltd (AX:), which rose 5.14% or 0.200 points to trade at 4.090 at the close. Meanwhile, Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:) added 4.08% or 0.380 points to end at 9.700 and Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX:) was up 3.99% or 0.095 points to 2.475 in late trade.</p>
<p>The worst performers of the session were Healthscope (AX:), which fell 3.57% or 0.060 points to trade at 1.620 at the close. Ardent Leisure Group (AX:) declined 3.23% or 0.060 points to end at 1.800 and Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:) was down 2.77% or 0.035 points to 1.230.</p>
<p>Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 587 to 572 and 393 ended unchanged.</p>
<p>Shares in Healthscope (AX:) fell to all time lows; falling 3.57% or 0.060 to 1.620. Shares in Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:) rose to 3-years highs; rising 4.08% or 0.380 to 9.700.</p>
<p>The , which measures the implied volatility of S&amp;P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.92% to 13.619.</p>
<p>Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.17% or 2.33 to $1341.33 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.22% or 0.11 to hit $49.05 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.31% or 0.17 to trade at $54.03 a barrel.</p>
<p>AUD/USD was down 0.15% to 0.7990, while AUD/JPY fell 0.31% to 87.11.</p>
<p>The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 92.16.</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.13% | false | https://newsline.com/australia-stocks-lower-at-close-of-trade-spasx-200-down-0-13/ | 2017-09-07 | 1right-center
| Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.13%
<p>Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the , and sectors led shares lower.</p>
<p>At the close in Sydney, the fell 0.13%.</p>
<p>The best performers of the session on the were Orocobre Ltd (AX:), which rose 5.14% or 0.200 points to trade at 4.090 at the close. Meanwhile, Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:) added 4.08% or 0.380 points to end at 9.700 and Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX:) was up 3.99% or 0.095 points to 2.475 in late trade.</p>
<p>The worst performers of the session were Healthscope (AX:), which fell 3.57% or 0.060 points to trade at 1.620 at the close. Ardent Leisure Group (AX:) declined 3.23% or 0.060 points to end at 1.800 and Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:) was down 2.77% or 0.035 points to 1.230.</p>
<p>Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 587 to 572 and 393 ended unchanged.</p>
<p>Shares in Healthscope (AX:) fell to all time lows; falling 3.57% or 0.060 to 1.620. Shares in Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:) rose to 3-years highs; rising 4.08% or 0.380 to 9.700.</p>
<p>The , which measures the implied volatility of S&amp;P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.92% to 13.619.</p>
<p>Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.17% or 2.33 to $1341.33 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.22% or 0.11 to hit $49.05 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.31% or 0.17 to trade at $54.03 a barrel.</p>
<p>AUD/USD was down 0.15% to 0.7990, while AUD/JPY fell 0.31% to 87.11.</p>
<p>The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 92.16.</p>
<p />
<p>Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.</p> | 1,729 |
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<p>JERUSALEM — Former NBA player Amare Stoudemire has apologized for telling an Israeli website that he would avoid a gay teammate.</p>
<p>Stoudemire told Walla Sport when asked about the possibility of having a gay teammate: “I’m going to shower across the street, make sure my change of clothes are around the corner.” When asked if he was joking, he said “there’s always a truth within a joke.”</p>
<p>In a statement released Thursday by his current team, Israel’s Hapoel Jerusalem, Stoudemire says the questions were “hypothetical” and all his answers had “a comedic undertone.” He says he’s “deeply sorry for offending anyone” and he’s “open to creating a dialogue to assist the fight the LGBT community encounters daily.”</p>
<p>Stoudemire’s comments drew criticism from gay former NBA players Jason Collins and John Amaechi.</p>
<p>When Stoudemire played for the New York Knicks in 2012, he was fined $50,000 by the NBA after tweeting a gay slur at a fan.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Ex-NBA star Stoudemire sorry about gay teammate comments | false | https://abqjournal.com/960518/ex-nba-star-stoudemire-sorry-about-gay-teammate-comments.html | 2017-03-02 | 2least
| Ex-NBA star Stoudemire sorry about gay teammate comments
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<p>JERUSALEM — Former NBA player Amare Stoudemire has apologized for telling an Israeli website that he would avoid a gay teammate.</p>
<p>Stoudemire told Walla Sport when asked about the possibility of having a gay teammate: “I’m going to shower across the street, make sure my change of clothes are around the corner.” When asked if he was joking, he said “there’s always a truth within a joke.”</p>
<p>In a statement released Thursday by his current team, Israel’s Hapoel Jerusalem, Stoudemire says the questions were “hypothetical” and all his answers had “a comedic undertone.” He says he’s “deeply sorry for offending anyone” and he’s “open to creating a dialogue to assist the fight the LGBT community encounters daily.”</p>
<p>Stoudemire’s comments drew criticism from gay former NBA players Jason Collins and John Amaechi.</p>
<p>When Stoudemire played for the New York Knicks in 2012, he was fined $50,000 by the NBA after tweeting a gay slur at a fan.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 1,730 |
<p>we end our program with music from Borneo.That's the huge island shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Traditional music on the island is in danger of disappearing. But, one group is trying to keep that from happening. Michael Switow sent us this report from the Malaysian province of Sarawak.</p>
<p>Anak Adi Rurum is made up of group of teenage girls from one of Borneo's smallest ethnic groups. Their break came at a festival in Malaysia that high-lights music from South East Asia's myriad cultures. They sing and play the sape, a stringed lute with a long wooden body that some say resembles a cricket bat.</p>
<p>Traditional music in Borneo has been in danger of disappearing. Western tunes - from Christian hymnals to MTV - have displaced the local songs. But the girls' band is part of a growing movement of Sarawakians acting to hold on to their musical heritage.</p>
<p>LUGUN: "This group actually started by a set of concerned parents and what we wanted to do was for the children to learn a little bit of their own culture."</p>
<p>Nikki Lugun is the band's manager and the mother of two of its members.</p>
<p>LUGUN: "It started with very basic dance steps and singing. The problem was every time they wanted to dance we had to hunt for a CD and the right song."</p>
<p>So these young performers did something that's taboo. They learned to play the sape, an instrument that until now had been exclusively for men. The Sape Revival is striking a chord with the region's youth. Noriyani Iman is a 25 year old writer. Stanley Clement a 30 year old art director. Both are from Kuala Lumpur.</p>
<p>IMAN: "Oh it's really emotional. It evokes emotions in a person that you wouldn't expect from an instrument or a group, a musical group.</p>
<p>CLEMENT: "The pop music of course it constantly will evolve and the world will follow pop, but this is what the world should be following because this is the roots of where we come from."</p>
<p>The girls of Anak Adi� Rurum trace their heritage to the Kelabit highlands of eastern Sarawak. Away from the coast where most of the girls now live, there are no roads. The only way in out out are small planes, or a week long hike through the jungle. The area is so remote that the Kelabit didn't meet a white man until just before World War II.</p>
<p>The Kelabit were reputed to have been the fiercest headhunters on all of Borneo. Today they are fiercely Christian. In one area alone, there are some 15 churches to serve a population of just one thousand. Inside one of the churches, a group of elderly women with elongated earlobes that extend to their shoulders sing a song composed by their mothers.</p>
<p>Jaman Riboh, the owner of a local guesthouse, explains that the women are singing the praises of something most of us take for granted -- clothing made from cloth.</p>
<p>RIBOH: "The first cloth came in the mid of the second world war, the first time they wear cloth, instead of the tree bark, so this is the song"</p>
<p>Like tree bark clothing, the Kelabit abandoned many of their other traditions as well -- including the old songs. Nikki Lugun says now it's not easy to recapture the traditional culture.</p>
<p>LUGUN: "A lot of the songs were forgotten through time. And a lot of the songs were also banned because of connotations of adultery and animal sacrifice which were against Christian beliefs. So a lot of songs were not sung again and people just stopped singing."</p>
<p>While many of the elders were against passing down the songs, Nikki tells them that today's youth hear worse things on TV and radio.</p>
<p>Like teenagers the world over, the Anak Adi Rurum girls are big fans of pop and hip hop. While they enjoy learning and playing the songs of their ancestors, they're also keen to mix it up a little.</p>
<p>At this concert - after several traditional melodies - the band pulls out guitars to accompany the sapes and close their set with a hip-hop remix of an ancient melody.</p>
<p>Many of the traditional arts have already been lost in Borneo. But thanks to the enthusiasm of young performers like these, some of the tradition is being successfully reclaimed.</p>
<p>For The World, I'm Michael Switow in Sarawak, Malaysia.</p> | Global hit Borneo | false | https://pri.org/stories/2008-02-01/global-hit-borneo | 2008-02-01 | 3left-center
| Global hit Borneo
<p>we end our program with music from Borneo.That's the huge island shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Traditional music on the island is in danger of disappearing. But, one group is trying to keep that from happening. Michael Switow sent us this report from the Malaysian province of Sarawak.</p>
<p>Anak Adi Rurum is made up of group of teenage girls from one of Borneo's smallest ethnic groups. Their break came at a festival in Malaysia that high-lights music from South East Asia's myriad cultures. They sing and play the sape, a stringed lute with a long wooden body that some say resembles a cricket bat.</p>
<p>Traditional music in Borneo has been in danger of disappearing. Western tunes - from Christian hymnals to MTV - have displaced the local songs. But the girls' band is part of a growing movement of Sarawakians acting to hold on to their musical heritage.</p>
<p>LUGUN: "This group actually started by a set of concerned parents and what we wanted to do was for the children to learn a little bit of their own culture."</p>
<p>Nikki Lugun is the band's manager and the mother of two of its members.</p>
<p>LUGUN: "It started with very basic dance steps and singing. The problem was every time they wanted to dance we had to hunt for a CD and the right song."</p>
<p>So these young performers did something that's taboo. They learned to play the sape, an instrument that until now had been exclusively for men. The Sape Revival is striking a chord with the region's youth. Noriyani Iman is a 25 year old writer. Stanley Clement a 30 year old art director. Both are from Kuala Lumpur.</p>
<p>IMAN: "Oh it's really emotional. It evokes emotions in a person that you wouldn't expect from an instrument or a group, a musical group.</p>
<p>CLEMENT: "The pop music of course it constantly will evolve and the world will follow pop, but this is what the world should be following because this is the roots of where we come from."</p>
<p>The girls of Anak Adi� Rurum trace their heritage to the Kelabit highlands of eastern Sarawak. Away from the coast where most of the girls now live, there are no roads. The only way in out out are small planes, or a week long hike through the jungle. The area is so remote that the Kelabit didn't meet a white man until just before World War II.</p>
<p>The Kelabit were reputed to have been the fiercest headhunters on all of Borneo. Today they are fiercely Christian. In one area alone, there are some 15 churches to serve a population of just one thousand. Inside one of the churches, a group of elderly women with elongated earlobes that extend to their shoulders sing a song composed by their mothers.</p>
<p>Jaman Riboh, the owner of a local guesthouse, explains that the women are singing the praises of something most of us take for granted -- clothing made from cloth.</p>
<p>RIBOH: "The first cloth came in the mid of the second world war, the first time they wear cloth, instead of the tree bark, so this is the song"</p>
<p>Like tree bark clothing, the Kelabit abandoned many of their other traditions as well -- including the old songs. Nikki Lugun says now it's not easy to recapture the traditional culture.</p>
<p>LUGUN: "A lot of the songs were forgotten through time. And a lot of the songs were also banned because of connotations of adultery and animal sacrifice which were against Christian beliefs. So a lot of songs were not sung again and people just stopped singing."</p>
<p>While many of the elders were against passing down the songs, Nikki tells them that today's youth hear worse things on TV and radio.</p>
<p>Like teenagers the world over, the Anak Adi Rurum girls are big fans of pop and hip hop. While they enjoy learning and playing the songs of their ancestors, they're also keen to mix it up a little.</p>
<p>At this concert - after several traditional melodies - the band pulls out guitars to accompany the sapes and close their set with a hip-hop remix of an ancient melody.</p>
<p>Many of the traditional arts have already been lost in Borneo. But thanks to the enthusiasm of young performers like these, some of the tradition is being successfully reclaimed.</p>
<p>For The World, I'm Michael Switow in Sarawak, Malaysia.</p> | 1,731 |
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<p>NEW YORK — The Federal Communications Commission is proposing a $120 million fine for a scheme that appeared to trick consumers into buying vacation packages that were not what they had expected.</p>
<p>The agency said Thursday that Miami resident Adrian Abramovich, through his companies, made calls that were faked to appear as though they were from the same area code as the people who were dialed. That local touch could persuade more people to pick up the phone.</p>
<p>People who did answer the phone heard a recording saying they could get a vacation package from well-known travel companies like Marriott, Expedia, Hilton and TripAdvisor. Instead, they got transferred to a call center where salespeople pushed low-quality travel deals, often related to timeshares, that were unaffiliated with the brands in the prerecorded message at the start of the call.</p>
<p>The agency said Abramovich’s companies made nearly 97 million robocalls from October-December 2016, and were spewing out “mass-robocalling” operations in both 2015 and 2016. The agency said these calls also interfered with a hospital paging service by slowing down its network.</p>
<p>FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said that the $120 million penalty is the largest in the agency’s history.</p>
<p>The AP was not immediately able to reach Abramovich.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | $120 million fine proposed for travel-deal robocalls | false | https://abqjournal.com/1021995/120-million-fine-proposed-for-travel-deal-robocalls.html | 2least
| $120 million fine proposed for travel-deal robocalls
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<p>NEW YORK — The Federal Communications Commission is proposing a $120 million fine for a scheme that appeared to trick consumers into buying vacation packages that were not what they had expected.</p>
<p>The agency said Thursday that Miami resident Adrian Abramovich, through his companies, made calls that were faked to appear as though they were from the same area code as the people who were dialed. That local touch could persuade more people to pick up the phone.</p>
<p>People who did answer the phone heard a recording saying they could get a vacation package from well-known travel companies like Marriott, Expedia, Hilton and TripAdvisor. Instead, they got transferred to a call center where salespeople pushed low-quality travel deals, often related to timeshares, that were unaffiliated with the brands in the prerecorded message at the start of the call.</p>
<p>The agency said Abramovich’s companies made nearly 97 million robocalls from October-December 2016, and were spewing out “mass-robocalling” operations in both 2015 and 2016. The agency said these calls also interfered with a hospital paging service by slowing down its network.</p>
<p>FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said that the $120 million penalty is the largest in the agency’s history.</p>
<p>The AP was not immediately able to reach Abramovich.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 1,732 |
|
<p>Motivational posters line the hallways en route to the visitation room.&#160;&#160;Images of rock climbers, an eagle soaring over clouds, a collection of hands of all pigmentation on a basketball, each with an inspirational one-word message: &#160;LEADERSHIP, OPPORTUNITY, ACHIEVEMENT, FOCUS, TEAMWORK.</p>
<p>Opportunity? Achievement? The irony was almost outrageous. The hallway was in the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison and I was walking down it with the Davis family en route to visit death row inmate Troy Davis.</p>
<p>Though I had been corresponding with Troy for years via letters and phone, December 2009 was my first visit. I knew I would not have the opportunity to be sitting in the same room as Troy; contact visits had been taken away from death row inmates a few months earlier. Instead, I spoke to Troy through a black iron grate, alongside his mother, sisters and teen-aged nephew. At the end of every visit, the Davis family would form a prayer circle, holding hands, Troy leading a prayer thanking God for their blessings and praying for the strength to continue their quest for justice. Now that contact visits had been revoked, Troy could not hold hands with the rest of his family. Instead, he pressed his hands flat against the black iron grating. His family and I formed a semi-circle. Troy’s mother pressed her hand on the opposite side of the grate as Troy’s right palm, and his nephew did the same on the left. Everyone bowed their heads, closed their eyes and offered prayers. I couldn’t help but take a peek. Troy looked like a silhouette through the dense iron grill, his head bowed, his hands pressed against the grate, with his mother and nephew’s hands pressed just as firmly on the other side, finding a way, despite the steel and bars, to maintain their circle of prayer.</p>
<p>Georgia is preparing to kill Troy Davis at 7 p.m. tonight. He has refused his last meal, opting to fast and pray. If the state carries out his plans, he will be strapped to a gurney. Needles will be thrust into his arms, so that three different lethal injection drugs will flow through his veins. If there is no last-minute intervention, Troy will die.</p>
<p>Tonight’s expected execution of Troy Davis brings inconceivable pain and loss to his family and friends. But it should also bring deep self-probing to us as a country, forcing us to ask ourselves agonizing questions: How can our system of justice be comfortable executing a man despite such substantive doubts as to his guilt? How can our country possibly justify taking an unarmed, captive human being, and killing that human being? Who are we as a people if we, sanctioned by the state, intentionally and with premeditation wrack a family with grief?</p>
<p>I will be outside the prison as the hours and minutes tick towards 7:00pm, joining with hundreds of others, including Troy’s family, in prayerful protest. I will be thinking of the words that Troy asked my colleague, Wende Gozan-Brown of Amnesty International, to share when we visited him this morning:</p>
<p>“The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davis’s who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I’m in good spirits and I’m prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop fighting until I’ve taken my last breath.”</p>
<p>As 7 pm approaches, I do not intend to picture Troy strapped onto a gurney. Instead, I will focus on the image which has been seared into my brain since December 2009:</p>
<p>Troy standing in silhouette, arms outstretched and palms pressed against the iron grating, his mother’s hand pressed against his on one side, his nephew’s on the other, the rest of the family holding hands in between, as he leads a circle of prayer, thanking God for the blessings they have received, and asking for the strength to continue the struggle for justice.</p>
<p>JEN MARLOWE is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, author, playwright, human rights advocate, and founder of donkeysaddle projects. Her new book,&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568584482/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian’s Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker</a>, co-written with and about Palestinian peace activist Sami Al Jundi, has just been published by Nation Books. Her previous book was&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival</a>. Her email address is:&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Executing Troy Davis | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/09/21/executing-troy-davis/ | 2011-09-21 | 4left
| Executing Troy Davis
<p>Motivational posters line the hallways en route to the visitation room.&#160;&#160;Images of rock climbers, an eagle soaring over clouds, a collection of hands of all pigmentation on a basketball, each with an inspirational one-word message: &#160;LEADERSHIP, OPPORTUNITY, ACHIEVEMENT, FOCUS, TEAMWORK.</p>
<p>Opportunity? Achievement? The irony was almost outrageous. The hallway was in the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison and I was walking down it with the Davis family en route to visit death row inmate Troy Davis.</p>
<p>Though I had been corresponding with Troy for years via letters and phone, December 2009 was my first visit. I knew I would not have the opportunity to be sitting in the same room as Troy; contact visits had been taken away from death row inmates a few months earlier. Instead, I spoke to Troy through a black iron grate, alongside his mother, sisters and teen-aged nephew. At the end of every visit, the Davis family would form a prayer circle, holding hands, Troy leading a prayer thanking God for their blessings and praying for the strength to continue their quest for justice. Now that contact visits had been revoked, Troy could not hold hands with the rest of his family. Instead, he pressed his hands flat against the black iron grating. His family and I formed a semi-circle. Troy’s mother pressed her hand on the opposite side of the grate as Troy’s right palm, and his nephew did the same on the left. Everyone bowed their heads, closed their eyes and offered prayers. I couldn’t help but take a peek. Troy looked like a silhouette through the dense iron grill, his head bowed, his hands pressed against the grate, with his mother and nephew’s hands pressed just as firmly on the other side, finding a way, despite the steel and bars, to maintain their circle of prayer.</p>
<p>Georgia is preparing to kill Troy Davis at 7 p.m. tonight. He has refused his last meal, opting to fast and pray. If the state carries out his plans, he will be strapped to a gurney. Needles will be thrust into his arms, so that three different lethal injection drugs will flow through his veins. If there is no last-minute intervention, Troy will die.</p>
<p>Tonight’s expected execution of Troy Davis brings inconceivable pain and loss to his family and friends. But it should also bring deep self-probing to us as a country, forcing us to ask ourselves agonizing questions: How can our system of justice be comfortable executing a man despite such substantive doubts as to his guilt? How can our country possibly justify taking an unarmed, captive human being, and killing that human being? Who are we as a people if we, sanctioned by the state, intentionally and with premeditation wrack a family with grief?</p>
<p>I will be outside the prison as the hours and minutes tick towards 7:00pm, joining with hundreds of others, including Troy’s family, in prayerful protest. I will be thinking of the words that Troy asked my colleague, Wende Gozan-Brown of Amnesty International, to share when we visited him this morning:</p>
<p>“The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davis’s who came before me and all the ones who will come after me. I’m in good spirits and I’m prayerful and at peace. But I will not stop fighting until I’ve taken my last breath.”</p>
<p>As 7 pm approaches, I do not intend to picture Troy strapped onto a gurney. Instead, I will focus on the image which has been seared into my brain since December 2009:</p>
<p>Troy standing in silhouette, arms outstretched and palms pressed against the iron grating, his mother’s hand pressed against his on one side, his nephew’s on the other, the rest of the family holding hands in between, as he leads a circle of prayer, thanking God for the blessings they have received, and asking for the strength to continue the struggle for justice.</p>
<p>JEN MARLOWE is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, author, playwright, human rights advocate, and founder of donkeysaddle projects. Her new book,&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568584482/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Hour of Sunlight: One Palestinian’s Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker</a>, co-written with and about Palestinian peace activist Sami Al Jundi, has just been published by Nation Books. Her previous book was&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival</a>. Her email address is:&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 1,733 |
<p>by flickr user watz used under creative commons license</p>
<p />
<p>There’s a lot of things the Golden State will do to save water (including declaring a <a href="http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/9796" type="external">State of Emergency</a>&#160;and virtually <a href="" type="internal">closing the water supply to the Central Valley</a>)&#160;but pushing Californians to pee in the shower is NOT one of them.&#160;</p>
<p>“That’s not something we’ve advocated, no,”&#160;said Water Department spokesman Matt Knotley, who seemed shocked by the suggestion, apparently all the rage in Brazil, that folks should pee in the shower to save water. “If that’s what they want to do in their country, fine. There are plenty of other ways that are very easy to save water.”&#160;</p>
<p>Unfortunately, none of those have a cute Portugese PA video.&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>&#160;In case you’re totally grossed out, you should know that this is not the first time we’ve approached water conservation through toilet humor.&#160;In the late 80s, when I&#160;was potty training, you could sum California’s drought policy in a simple rhyme:&#160;If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.xixinobanho.org.br/" type="external">xixinobahno.org</a>, we could save thousands of gallons of water a year if we quit flushing so much. But, since this is America, you can just <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&amp;id=6937468" type="external">Cash-for-Clunkers your water-wasting throne</a> and call it a day.&#160;</p>
<p>If that’s too much of a hassle, there are even less difficult ways to save.&#160;Knotley suggested boring solutions like turning off the tap while you brush your teeth (8 gallons a day)&#160;or taking shorter showers (up to 10 gallons a minute). You can even call the local water district and have them check your place for leaks. In short, there’s really no need to save your pee.</p>
<p /> | Video: Should You Pee in the Shower? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/08/if-its-yellow/ | 2009-08-06 | 4left
| Video: Should You Pee in the Shower?
<p>by flickr user watz used under creative commons license</p>
<p />
<p>There’s a lot of things the Golden State will do to save water (including declaring a <a href="http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/9796" type="external">State of Emergency</a>&#160;and virtually <a href="" type="internal">closing the water supply to the Central Valley</a>)&#160;but pushing Californians to pee in the shower is NOT one of them.&#160;</p>
<p>“That’s not something we’ve advocated, no,”&#160;said Water Department spokesman Matt Knotley, who seemed shocked by the suggestion, apparently all the rage in Brazil, that folks should pee in the shower to save water. “If that’s what they want to do in their country, fine. There are plenty of other ways that are very easy to save water.”&#160;</p>
<p>Unfortunately, none of those have a cute Portugese PA video.&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>&#160;In case you’re totally grossed out, you should know that this is not the first time we’ve approached water conservation through toilet humor.&#160;In the late 80s, when I&#160;was potty training, you could sum California’s drought policy in a simple rhyme:&#160;If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.xixinobanho.org.br/" type="external">xixinobahno.org</a>, we could save thousands of gallons of water a year if we quit flushing so much. But, since this is America, you can just <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&amp;id=6937468" type="external">Cash-for-Clunkers your water-wasting throne</a> and call it a day.&#160;</p>
<p>If that’s too much of a hassle, there are even less difficult ways to save.&#160;Knotley suggested boring solutions like turning off the tap while you brush your teeth (8 gallons a day)&#160;or taking shorter showers (up to 10 gallons a minute). You can even call the local water district and have them check your place for leaks. In short, there’s really no need to save your pee.</p>
<p /> | 1,734 |
<p>The increasingly dangerous Afghanistan situation is worth analysis at two levels, that of the war itself, the ultimately doomed attempt by the United States to conquer the Taliban insurrection and impose a pro-American government, and the domestic political effect of Barack Obama’s misguided decision to replace “Bush’s war” in Iraq with “Obama’s war” in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The former rested on the fiction that Saddam Hussein threatened the United States and Israel with weapons of mass destruction. The Afghan intervention is being promoted by the yet more extravagant fantasy that America and the world are potentially threatened by Taliban-controlled Pakistani nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>The recent political focus has been on the replacement of Gen. Stanley McChrystal with the man whose counterinsurgency policy he was supposed to be carrying out, Gen. David Petraeus, former chief of the U.S. Army’s Central Command and principal author of current American military doctrine on insurgent warfare.</p>
<p>This doctrine proposes defeating an insurgency by systematically clearing with regular troops a given area under insurgent domination, then establishing there, with the help of a “surge” of American civilian nation-builders, a new representative and responsive democratic political structure, while American troops, with local soldiers and police, move on to “take” another insurgent-held area so as to clear out the insurgents there.</p>
<p />
<p>This is classic anti-guerrilla warfare, employed by the U.S. in the Philippines in 1899-1902, in Vietnam in the later 1960s and 1970s, and as part of the “Sunni Awakening” movement in Iraq. It is totally dependent upon the political context in which it functions, which is largely hostile today in Afghanistan. The current object of American attention is the area of Marja, which Gen. McChrystal promised to clear and hold — bringing in a civilian “government in a box” to its welcoming inhabitants. Next was to be Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city. But U.S. forces opened the Marja box and found it contained nothing, and because the area has not yet been satisfactorily cleared, the Taliban have re-infiltrated.</p>
<p>The commentator Ray McGovern, a longtime CIA officer become critic of America’s contemporary wars, <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/obama-misses-afghan-exit-ramp60773" type="external">has suggested</a> (in the online magazine Truthout, June 25) that Gen. McChrystal’s seemingly foolhardy dalliance with a Rolling Stones left-wing journalist, leading to the general’s dismissal, may have actually been a calculated method to abandon what he had come to judge a sinking American ship in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>President Obama’s replacement of McChrystal with Gen. Petraeus astutely protected the president from Republican attack, but could also be seen, from the electoral perspective, as a double coup.</p>
<p>Both generals have in the past indicated presidential ambitions, and now McChrystal is disgraced and out, and if McChrystal’s supposed pessimism about the military situation is accurate, Petraeus, who formulated the Afghanistan strategy, is the man who will sink with the ship.</p>
<p>There will be no general to challenge the president unless McChrystal (who is said to have voted for Obama in 2008) were to offer himself to the Republicans in 2012. A general on his way to success, stabbed in the back by leftist journalists, jettisoned by a liberal administration composed of those un-American aliens-who-govern-us, ready to surrender to terrorism, strikes me as a more promising Republican presidential candidate than Sarah Palin, never convincing as a national candidate, and by 2012 hopelessly shopworn.</p>
<p>Afghanistan’s war now is out of America’s political control, even as tens of thousands of U.S. troops arrive, and the mammoth bases that have become essential to U.S. military operations are being constructed. They will be there when the Obama-ordered “top-to-bottom” policy review takes place in December. By then a great deal can have happened, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai pursues a political settlement with certain Taliban and other warlords and ethnic leaders in his country, and what’s left of the old Northern Alliance, and indirectly with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency that has always been involved with the Taliban in Afghanistan. As for al-Qaida, it is now a phantom which manifests its existence chiefly in Washington think tanks and editorial offices. Afghanistan and Pakistan will do what is best for them.</p>
<p>The ambition among the most important of those who actually live in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and are unwilling to see both countries torn apart by an American war machine historically conditioned to function at full blast with maximum destruction, is what the head of Pakistan’s army staff, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, calls a “grand national reconciliation” in Afghanistan (see the Paris daily Le Figaro, June 29). American troops, The New York Times tells us, are glad to see McChrystal gone because he relentlessly opposed indiscriminate use of airpower and artillery against peasant guerrillas, since blowing up the house and family of anyone who shoots at an American is much the safest way for infantry to advance, but does not make citizens friendly.</p>
<p>Higher military and political ranks in Washington remain obsessed with Afghanistan’s strategic position and resources, and with the danger of Pakistan, with its own Taliban domestic threat, its nuclear weapons, and its huge and intensely nationalistic army which, by and large, hates and fears the United States. This could explode into a new war should the United States move into Pakistan territory in its quest to kill “violent extremists” and control nuclear weapons. <a href="http://www.nationalinterest.org/General.aspx?id=92&amp;id2=23214" type="external">Anatol Lieven’s article</a> on Pakistan, which he knows well, in the May-June issue of The National Interest magazine, is essential reading.</p>
<p>Barack Obama’s “right war” points toward an even bigger disaster.</p>
<p>The only solution is for Obama to keep his promise to leave Afghanistan in 2011 — at the latest.</p>
<p>Visit William Pfaff’s website for more on his latest book, “The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of America’s Foreign Policy,” at <a href="http://www.williampfaff.com" type="external">www.williampfaff.com</a>.</p>
<p>© 2010 Tribune Media Services, Inc.</p> | When the 'Right War' Goes Wrong | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/when-the-right-war-goes-wrong/ | 2010-06-30 | 4left
| When the 'Right War' Goes Wrong
<p>The increasingly dangerous Afghanistan situation is worth analysis at two levels, that of the war itself, the ultimately doomed attempt by the United States to conquer the Taliban insurrection and impose a pro-American government, and the domestic political effect of Barack Obama’s misguided decision to replace “Bush’s war” in Iraq with “Obama’s war” in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The former rested on the fiction that Saddam Hussein threatened the United States and Israel with weapons of mass destruction. The Afghan intervention is being promoted by the yet more extravagant fantasy that America and the world are potentially threatened by Taliban-controlled Pakistani nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>The recent political focus has been on the replacement of Gen. Stanley McChrystal with the man whose counterinsurgency policy he was supposed to be carrying out, Gen. David Petraeus, former chief of the U.S. Army’s Central Command and principal author of current American military doctrine on insurgent warfare.</p>
<p>This doctrine proposes defeating an insurgency by systematically clearing with regular troops a given area under insurgent domination, then establishing there, with the help of a “surge” of American civilian nation-builders, a new representative and responsive democratic political structure, while American troops, with local soldiers and police, move on to “take” another insurgent-held area so as to clear out the insurgents there.</p>
<p />
<p>This is classic anti-guerrilla warfare, employed by the U.S. in the Philippines in 1899-1902, in Vietnam in the later 1960s and 1970s, and as part of the “Sunni Awakening” movement in Iraq. It is totally dependent upon the political context in which it functions, which is largely hostile today in Afghanistan. The current object of American attention is the area of Marja, which Gen. McChrystal promised to clear and hold — bringing in a civilian “government in a box” to its welcoming inhabitants. Next was to be Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city. But U.S. forces opened the Marja box and found it contained nothing, and because the area has not yet been satisfactorily cleared, the Taliban have re-infiltrated.</p>
<p>The commentator Ray McGovern, a longtime CIA officer become critic of America’s contemporary wars, <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/obama-misses-afghan-exit-ramp60773" type="external">has suggested</a> (in the online magazine Truthout, June 25) that Gen. McChrystal’s seemingly foolhardy dalliance with a Rolling Stones left-wing journalist, leading to the general’s dismissal, may have actually been a calculated method to abandon what he had come to judge a sinking American ship in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>President Obama’s replacement of McChrystal with Gen. Petraeus astutely protected the president from Republican attack, but could also be seen, from the electoral perspective, as a double coup.</p>
<p>Both generals have in the past indicated presidential ambitions, and now McChrystal is disgraced and out, and if McChrystal’s supposed pessimism about the military situation is accurate, Petraeus, who formulated the Afghanistan strategy, is the man who will sink with the ship.</p>
<p>There will be no general to challenge the president unless McChrystal (who is said to have voted for Obama in 2008) were to offer himself to the Republicans in 2012. A general on his way to success, stabbed in the back by leftist journalists, jettisoned by a liberal administration composed of those un-American aliens-who-govern-us, ready to surrender to terrorism, strikes me as a more promising Republican presidential candidate than Sarah Palin, never convincing as a national candidate, and by 2012 hopelessly shopworn.</p>
<p>Afghanistan’s war now is out of America’s political control, even as tens of thousands of U.S. troops arrive, and the mammoth bases that have become essential to U.S. military operations are being constructed. They will be there when the Obama-ordered “top-to-bottom” policy review takes place in December. By then a great deal can have happened, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai pursues a political settlement with certain Taliban and other warlords and ethnic leaders in his country, and what’s left of the old Northern Alliance, and indirectly with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency that has always been involved with the Taliban in Afghanistan. As for al-Qaida, it is now a phantom which manifests its existence chiefly in Washington think tanks and editorial offices. Afghanistan and Pakistan will do what is best for them.</p>
<p>The ambition among the most important of those who actually live in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and are unwilling to see both countries torn apart by an American war machine historically conditioned to function at full blast with maximum destruction, is what the head of Pakistan’s army staff, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, calls a “grand national reconciliation” in Afghanistan (see the Paris daily Le Figaro, June 29). American troops, The New York Times tells us, are glad to see McChrystal gone because he relentlessly opposed indiscriminate use of airpower and artillery against peasant guerrillas, since blowing up the house and family of anyone who shoots at an American is much the safest way for infantry to advance, but does not make citizens friendly.</p>
<p>Higher military and political ranks in Washington remain obsessed with Afghanistan’s strategic position and resources, and with the danger of Pakistan, with its own Taliban domestic threat, its nuclear weapons, and its huge and intensely nationalistic army which, by and large, hates and fears the United States. This could explode into a new war should the United States move into Pakistan territory in its quest to kill “violent extremists” and control nuclear weapons. <a href="http://www.nationalinterest.org/General.aspx?id=92&amp;id2=23214" type="external">Anatol Lieven’s article</a> on Pakistan, which he knows well, in the May-June issue of The National Interest magazine, is essential reading.</p>
<p>Barack Obama’s “right war” points toward an even bigger disaster.</p>
<p>The only solution is for Obama to keep his promise to leave Afghanistan in 2011 — at the latest.</p>
<p>Visit William Pfaff’s website for more on his latest book, “The Irony of Manifest Destiny: The Tragedy of America’s Foreign Policy,” at <a href="http://www.williampfaff.com" type="external">www.williampfaff.com</a>.</p>
<p>© 2010 Tribune Media Services, Inc.</p> | 1,735 |
<p>Mark J. Terrill/AP</p>
<p />
<p>Update:&#160;Ben Carson released a statement responding to articles by Mother Jones and the Associated Press about his business relationship Alfonso Costa. “Al Costa is my best friend. Al Costa is my very best friend. I know his heart. I am proud to call him my friend. I have always and will continue to stand by him. That is what real friends do!”&#160;</p>
<p>In his 2013 book America the Beautiful, Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who now is at the front of the GOP’s 2016 presidential pack, proposed a simple plan to reduce health&#160;care fraud: the Saudi Arabian Solution. “I would not advocate chopping off people’s limbs, but there would be some very stiff penalties for this kind of fraud, such as loss of one’s medical license for life, no less than ten years in prison, and loss of all of one’s personal possessions,” Carson wrote. Yet several years earlier, Carson sent a letter to a federal judge in Pittsburgh pleading for leniency in the case of his best friend Alfonso Costa, a dentist in the Pittsburgh area who <a href="http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7618434.html" type="external">had pleaded guilty to federal charges</a> of health&#160;care fraud. And at the time Carson was seeking mercy for Costa, he had close business ties with Costa’s real estate firm, Costa Land Management—a fact he neglected to mention in his letter to the judge.</p>
<p>Carson and Costa have long been tight. They vacation together, and Carson holidays at an Italian resort villa owned by Costa’s company. Costa is president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Ben Carson Scholars Fund, which awards $1,000 college scholarships to students who demonstrate good character and strong academics. And Costa’s real estate development firm helps to oversee a lucrative investment for Carson and his wife, one that last year netted the Carsons between $200,000 and $2 million, according to the GOP candidate’s financial disclosure forms.</p>
<p>Carson, who retired from medicine in 2013 and has spent recent years giving speeches and selling books, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2015/08/26/24-7-wall-st-net-worth-presidential-candidates/32409491/" type="external">is worth at least $8 million</a>. A significant portion of his wealth comes from companies tied to Costa’s real estate firm that own a lucrative property in the Pittsburgh area. The Carson campaign did not respond to a request for comment about his business relationship with Costa. But Carson’s spokesman Doug Watts <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-carson-profits-friendship-felon-085227938--election.html" type="external">told the Associated Press</a>: “I will confirm they are best friends and that they do hold business investments together.”</p>
<p>Carson and Costa met in the 1990s, becoming fast friends with the Pittsburgh-based oral surgeon who had developed a lucrative side business as a real estate investor and developer.&#160;In 2004, Costa created a Pittsburgh chapter of Carson’s charity, joined the national board, and began working closely with Carson. Three years later, when Carson and his wife invested in commercial real estate in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Costa and his firm were closely associated with the entities the Carsons used to purchase an office building.</p>
<p>That year, Carson created two limited liability corporations in Pennsylvania—BenCan LLC AND INBS LLC—that listed Costa’s residence at that time as their address. (And they still do, though Costa sold that house in 2011.) Shortly after their formation, the companies were used to purchase an office building in Mount Lebanon, a Pittsburgh suburb. <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504835-leaseassignment7.html" type="external">Real estate records</a> list Carson as the owner of BenCan and his wife Candy as the owner of INBS; the couple jointly purchased the building for $3 million, $2.4 million of which they borrowed. On both the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2509160-mortgage.html" type="external">mortgage</a> and the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2509166-deed.html" type="external">deed</a>, Carson and his wife state their official addresses as Costa’s office. Many of the publicly available documents associated with this property, including <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2509178-pnclease.html" type="external">lease agreements,</a> are signed not by Carson or his wife, but by various executives from the Costa Land Company, including the outfit’s&#160;chief operating officer, Sarah Piccione. Neither Costa nor Piccione responded to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Carson’s personal financial disclosure, which he was required to file as a presidential candidate, notes that his investment in BenCan is worth between $1 million and $5 million and his wife’s LLC is valued at $1 million or more. Though Carson has served on various corporate boards and earned millions through his books and speeches, the BenCan and INBS investments represent at least a quarter of the Carsons’ net worth. According to Carson’s disclosure, he and his wife earn between $200,000 and $2 million a year in income from their LLCs. (Candidates provide their income and the value of assets and liabilities in ranges). The Carsons’ property investment has done well, with insurance company Allstate leasing office space the entire time the Carsons have owned it. More recently, the Carsons have added a drive-through ATM to the property.</p>
<p>Around the time Carson began working with Costa’s company in 2007, his friend ran into trouble with the feds. Costa had founded a successful dental practice in the Pittsburgh area in 1986, and he soon began investing in real estate. By the late 1990s, his property dealings were so lucrative that he decided to move out of dentistry and focus on real estate full time. In 1998, Costa agreed to sell his practice to another oral surgeon, Roberto Michienzi, but he continued to work at this office until 2001 for a $10,000 monthly fee.</p>
<p>In late 2007, Costa and Michienzi, were both charged with health care fraud. They were charged with defrauding insurance companies, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, of $44,000 through a scheme that spanned 1996 to 2001. Prosecutors alleged that the two men lured in new patients by waiving certain out-of-pocket fees—for example, copayments—and then over-billed the insurance company for care that they didn’t provide to make up the difference.</p>
<p>“The false over-billing for the dental services actually provided simply offset the cost of these inducements, and thus effectively caused insurers to fund the expansion of the business,” a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504848-dojobjectiontosentencing.html" type="external">memo</a> from the Department of Justice noted.</p>
<p>Costa and Michienzi both pleaded guilty. But in the sentencing phase, contrasting stories emerged. Costa’s attorney <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504845-costatranscriptofsentencing.html#document/p29/a259136" type="external">insisted</a> that nearly all of the $44,000 in fraudulent billing was the fault of Michienzi and only $180 was attributable to Costa. Michienzi, who could not be reached for comment, and his family and friends placed the blame squarely on Costa.</p>
<p>“I wish there was a class in dental school for the young naive graduating dental student of what to look out for so they are not led astray in the wrong direction by others, but there was not for my brother or I,” Joseph Michienzi, who is an oral surgeon, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504854-michienzisentencingletters.html#document/p8/a259137" type="external">wrote</a> the judge in support of his brother’s case. “Roberto came to trust a mentor who he believed was his friend, but had ulterior motives and not his best interest in heart that in the end would dishonor my brother and the system.”</p>
<p>Another supporter described Michienzi as <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504854-michienzisentencingletters.html#document/p13/a259138" type="external">“a victim of guile.”</a> An attorney who knew Michienzi and wrote to the judge on his behalf described him as “easily persuaded” and trusting, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504854-michienzisentencingletters.html#document/p4/a259139" type="external">“a follower who is now held responsible for his actions.”</a></p>
<p>On the other side, Costa had a slew of associates who <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504780-carsonlettertojudge.html" type="external">sent letters</a> to the judge attesting to his good character and his good works—most notably, his role with the Ben Carson Scholars Fund. His two star supporters were Carson and former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis, an honorary board member of Carson’s nonprofit.</p>
<p>Carson penned <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504780-carsonlettertojudge.html#document/p7/a259140" type="external">a gushing letter of support for his friend.</a> He wrote that <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504780-carsonlettertojudge.html#document/p8/a259141" type="external">“next to my wife of 32 years, there is no one on this planet I trust more than Al Costa.”</a> He also testified at Costa’s sentencing in March 2008. At that hearing, Carson <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504845-costatranscriptofsentencing.html" type="external">told</a> the judge: “Well, I feel very strongly, obviously, about Al Costa. You know, he’s one of my closest, if not my closest, friend. We were, we became friends about a decade ago. We found that, you know, our value systems were almost identical.” Carson said that if Costa were to be incarcerated, it would harm the Carson charity and possibly force the Pittsburgh chapter to shutter.&#160;</p>
<p>Michienzi, who had agreed to cooperate against Costa, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $44,000 in restitution. Costa received a tougher sentence: three years probation, one year of house arrest, 100 hours of community service, and he was ordered to pay restitution of $44,000 and a $250,000 fine. Costa later completed 125 hours of community service— <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504844-carsonscholarsfundcommunityservice.html" type="external">working for Carson’s charity</a>. Costa’s dental license was later <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504847-dentallicense.html#document/p4/a259142" type="external">revoked</a> and Michienzi’s was <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504847-dentallicense.html#document/p5/a259143" type="external">suspended</a>.</p>
<p>Carson never accepted—at least, publicly—that his friend had done something criminal. He insisted the case against Costa was unfounded. In the same book in which he excoriated doctors who commit health care fraud, Carson claimed that he was “aware of numerous, patriotic, humanitarian Americans who have been severely abused by components of our justice system, including one of my closest friends.” Carson does not name Costa but describes the case of a talented Italian-American oral surgeon who made wise investments in real estate.</p>
<p>As his real estate business increased, the available time he had for practicing oral surgery decreased, and he sold his practice to a colleague. Unfortunately, that colleague was later accused of Medicare fraud, but he did not have deep pockets—so the investigating agents came after my friend, even though he no longer owned the practice.</p>
<p>In Carson’s account, investigators found only one improper billing, for $180. Carson theorized that Costa was targeted by petty federal agents who envied his wealth:</p>
<p>My friend owns a spectacular home, a Manhattan penthouse, two Ferraris, and a European villa. However, given the fortune he has amassed, he lives modestly compared to the lifestyle he could have if he so desired. I believe the lead agent was either jealous of his success or incorrectly concluded that he had organized crime connections that produced his wealth.</p>
<p>The publicly available court records for this case contain no mention of organized crime, but they are clear about Costa and Michienzi’s culpability in the fraud scheme, to which they both admitted.</p>
<p>Costa remains a fixture in Carson’s orbit. He continues to hold a prominent role with the Carson Scholars Fund as president of the Pittsburgh chapter and his wife Mary Costa is a board member, and <a href="http://www.costalandco.com/docs/carsonscholars.pdf" type="external">hosts major fundraising events</a> for the charity at which Carson appears (as does Bettis). Once Costa was released from house arrest, he and Carson resumed their travels together. The website of the Costa Land Company&#160; <a href="http://costalandco.com/costavilla/villa_testimonials.html" type="external">touts</a> Carson’s frequent stays at Villa Lilly, Costa’s luxury property on the Amalfi coast—what Carson has called the “most beautiful spot on earth.” As he climbed the polls in September, Carson announced he was taking time off from the campaign trail to promote his book. But first he decided celebrate his 64th birthday—with a week at Costa’s Italian villa.</p>
<p /> | Ben Carson Made Money With the Help of a Felon Convicted of Health Care Fraud | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/11/ben-carson-alfonso-costa-healthcare-fraud/ | 2015-11-12 | 4left
| Ben Carson Made Money With the Help of a Felon Convicted of Health Care Fraud
<p>Mark J. Terrill/AP</p>
<p />
<p>Update:&#160;Ben Carson released a statement responding to articles by Mother Jones and the Associated Press about his business relationship Alfonso Costa. “Al Costa is my best friend. Al Costa is my very best friend. I know his heart. I am proud to call him my friend. I have always and will continue to stand by him. That is what real friends do!”&#160;</p>
<p>In his 2013 book America the Beautiful, Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who now is at the front of the GOP’s 2016 presidential pack, proposed a simple plan to reduce health&#160;care fraud: the Saudi Arabian Solution. “I would not advocate chopping off people’s limbs, but there would be some very stiff penalties for this kind of fraud, such as loss of one’s medical license for life, no less than ten years in prison, and loss of all of one’s personal possessions,” Carson wrote. Yet several years earlier, Carson sent a letter to a federal judge in Pittsburgh pleading for leniency in the case of his best friend Alfonso Costa, a dentist in the Pittsburgh area who <a href="http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-7618434.html" type="external">had pleaded guilty to federal charges</a> of health&#160;care fraud. And at the time Carson was seeking mercy for Costa, he had close business ties with Costa’s real estate firm, Costa Land Management—a fact he neglected to mention in his letter to the judge.</p>
<p>Carson and Costa have long been tight. They vacation together, and Carson holidays at an Italian resort villa owned by Costa’s company. Costa is president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Ben Carson Scholars Fund, which awards $1,000 college scholarships to students who demonstrate good character and strong academics. And Costa’s real estate development firm helps to oversee a lucrative investment for Carson and his wife, one that last year netted the Carsons between $200,000 and $2 million, according to the GOP candidate’s financial disclosure forms.</p>
<p>Carson, who retired from medicine in 2013 and has spent recent years giving speeches and selling books, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2015/08/26/24-7-wall-st-net-worth-presidential-candidates/32409491/" type="external">is worth at least $8 million</a>. A significant portion of his wealth comes from companies tied to Costa’s real estate firm that own a lucrative property in the Pittsburgh area. The Carson campaign did not respond to a request for comment about his business relationship with Costa. But Carson’s spokesman Doug Watts <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-carson-profits-friendship-felon-085227938--election.html" type="external">told the Associated Press</a>: “I will confirm they are best friends and that they do hold business investments together.”</p>
<p>Carson and Costa met in the 1990s, becoming fast friends with the Pittsburgh-based oral surgeon who had developed a lucrative side business as a real estate investor and developer.&#160;In 2004, Costa created a Pittsburgh chapter of Carson’s charity, joined the national board, and began working closely with Carson. Three years later, when Carson and his wife invested in commercial real estate in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Costa and his firm were closely associated with the entities the Carsons used to purchase an office building.</p>
<p>That year, Carson created two limited liability corporations in Pennsylvania—BenCan LLC AND INBS LLC—that listed Costa’s residence at that time as their address. (And they still do, though Costa sold that house in 2011.) Shortly after their formation, the companies were used to purchase an office building in Mount Lebanon, a Pittsburgh suburb. <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504835-leaseassignment7.html" type="external">Real estate records</a> list Carson as the owner of BenCan and his wife Candy as the owner of INBS; the couple jointly purchased the building for $3 million, $2.4 million of which they borrowed. On both the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2509160-mortgage.html" type="external">mortgage</a> and the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2509166-deed.html" type="external">deed</a>, Carson and his wife state their official addresses as Costa’s office. Many of the publicly available documents associated with this property, including <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2509178-pnclease.html" type="external">lease agreements,</a> are signed not by Carson or his wife, but by various executives from the Costa Land Company, including the outfit’s&#160;chief operating officer, Sarah Piccione. Neither Costa nor Piccione responded to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Carson’s personal financial disclosure, which he was required to file as a presidential candidate, notes that his investment in BenCan is worth between $1 million and $5 million and his wife’s LLC is valued at $1 million or more. Though Carson has served on various corporate boards and earned millions through his books and speeches, the BenCan and INBS investments represent at least a quarter of the Carsons’ net worth. According to Carson’s disclosure, he and his wife earn between $200,000 and $2 million a year in income from their LLCs. (Candidates provide their income and the value of assets and liabilities in ranges). The Carsons’ property investment has done well, with insurance company Allstate leasing office space the entire time the Carsons have owned it. More recently, the Carsons have added a drive-through ATM to the property.</p>
<p>Around the time Carson began working with Costa’s company in 2007, his friend ran into trouble with the feds. Costa had founded a successful dental practice in the Pittsburgh area in 1986, and he soon began investing in real estate. By the late 1990s, his property dealings were so lucrative that he decided to move out of dentistry and focus on real estate full time. In 1998, Costa agreed to sell his practice to another oral surgeon, Roberto Michienzi, but he continued to work at this office until 2001 for a $10,000 monthly fee.</p>
<p>In late 2007, Costa and Michienzi, were both charged with health care fraud. They were charged with defrauding insurance companies, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, of $44,000 through a scheme that spanned 1996 to 2001. Prosecutors alleged that the two men lured in new patients by waiving certain out-of-pocket fees—for example, copayments—and then over-billed the insurance company for care that they didn’t provide to make up the difference.</p>
<p>“The false over-billing for the dental services actually provided simply offset the cost of these inducements, and thus effectively caused insurers to fund the expansion of the business,” a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504848-dojobjectiontosentencing.html" type="external">memo</a> from the Department of Justice noted.</p>
<p>Costa and Michienzi both pleaded guilty. But in the sentencing phase, contrasting stories emerged. Costa’s attorney <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504845-costatranscriptofsentencing.html#document/p29/a259136" type="external">insisted</a> that nearly all of the $44,000 in fraudulent billing was the fault of Michienzi and only $180 was attributable to Costa. Michienzi, who could not be reached for comment, and his family and friends placed the blame squarely on Costa.</p>
<p>“I wish there was a class in dental school for the young naive graduating dental student of what to look out for so they are not led astray in the wrong direction by others, but there was not for my brother or I,” Joseph Michienzi, who is an oral surgeon, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504854-michienzisentencingletters.html#document/p8/a259137" type="external">wrote</a> the judge in support of his brother’s case. “Roberto came to trust a mentor who he believed was his friend, but had ulterior motives and not his best interest in heart that in the end would dishonor my brother and the system.”</p>
<p>Another supporter described Michienzi as <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504854-michienzisentencingletters.html#document/p13/a259138" type="external">“a victim of guile.”</a> An attorney who knew Michienzi and wrote to the judge on his behalf described him as “easily persuaded” and trusting, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504854-michienzisentencingletters.html#document/p4/a259139" type="external">“a follower who is now held responsible for his actions.”</a></p>
<p>On the other side, Costa had a slew of associates who <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504780-carsonlettertojudge.html" type="external">sent letters</a> to the judge attesting to his good character and his good works—most notably, his role with the Ben Carson Scholars Fund. His two star supporters were Carson and former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis, an honorary board member of Carson’s nonprofit.</p>
<p>Carson penned <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504780-carsonlettertojudge.html#document/p7/a259140" type="external">a gushing letter of support for his friend.</a> He wrote that <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504780-carsonlettertojudge.html#document/p8/a259141" type="external">“next to my wife of 32 years, there is no one on this planet I trust more than Al Costa.”</a> He also testified at Costa’s sentencing in March 2008. At that hearing, Carson <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504845-costatranscriptofsentencing.html" type="external">told</a> the judge: “Well, I feel very strongly, obviously, about Al Costa. You know, he’s one of my closest, if not my closest, friend. We were, we became friends about a decade ago. We found that, you know, our value systems were almost identical.” Carson said that if Costa were to be incarcerated, it would harm the Carson charity and possibly force the Pittsburgh chapter to shutter.&#160;</p>
<p>Michienzi, who had agreed to cooperate against Costa, was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $44,000 in restitution. Costa received a tougher sentence: three years probation, one year of house arrest, 100 hours of community service, and he was ordered to pay restitution of $44,000 and a $250,000 fine. Costa later completed 125 hours of community service— <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504844-carsonscholarsfundcommunityservice.html" type="external">working for Carson’s charity</a>. Costa’s dental license was later <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504847-dentallicense.html#document/p4/a259142" type="external">revoked</a> and Michienzi’s was <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2504847-dentallicense.html#document/p5/a259143" type="external">suspended</a>.</p>
<p>Carson never accepted—at least, publicly—that his friend had done something criminal. He insisted the case against Costa was unfounded. In the same book in which he excoriated doctors who commit health care fraud, Carson claimed that he was “aware of numerous, patriotic, humanitarian Americans who have been severely abused by components of our justice system, including one of my closest friends.” Carson does not name Costa but describes the case of a talented Italian-American oral surgeon who made wise investments in real estate.</p>
<p>As his real estate business increased, the available time he had for practicing oral surgery decreased, and he sold his practice to a colleague. Unfortunately, that colleague was later accused of Medicare fraud, but he did not have deep pockets—so the investigating agents came after my friend, even though he no longer owned the practice.</p>
<p>In Carson’s account, investigators found only one improper billing, for $180. Carson theorized that Costa was targeted by petty federal agents who envied his wealth:</p>
<p>My friend owns a spectacular home, a Manhattan penthouse, two Ferraris, and a European villa. However, given the fortune he has amassed, he lives modestly compared to the lifestyle he could have if he so desired. I believe the lead agent was either jealous of his success or incorrectly concluded that he had organized crime connections that produced his wealth.</p>
<p>The publicly available court records for this case contain no mention of organized crime, but they are clear about Costa and Michienzi’s culpability in the fraud scheme, to which they both admitted.</p>
<p>Costa remains a fixture in Carson’s orbit. He continues to hold a prominent role with the Carson Scholars Fund as president of the Pittsburgh chapter and his wife Mary Costa is a board member, and <a href="http://www.costalandco.com/docs/carsonscholars.pdf" type="external">hosts major fundraising events</a> for the charity at which Carson appears (as does Bettis). Once Costa was released from house arrest, he and Carson resumed their travels together. The website of the Costa Land Company&#160; <a href="http://costalandco.com/costavilla/villa_testimonials.html" type="external">touts</a> Carson’s frequent stays at Villa Lilly, Costa’s luxury property on the Amalfi coast—what Carson has called the “most beautiful spot on earth.” As he climbed the polls in September, Carson announced he was taking time off from the campaign trail to promote his book. But first he decided celebrate his 64th birthday—with a week at Costa’s Italian villa.</p>
<p /> | 1,736 |
<p>A look at the AP Municipal Bond Index for Tuesday, Nov. 7:</p>
<p>BIGGEST MOVER: 30-year bonds. Yield fell 12 basis points over the last week to 2.78 percent.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>TWO-YEAR: Yield climbed 1 basis point to 1.21 percent. The two-year/10-year spread is 103 basis points, down from 117 basis points a week ago. The two-year/30-year spread is 157 basis points, down from 173 basis points a week ago.</p>
<p>10-YEAR: Yield fell 4 basis points to 2.24 percent, compared with 2.32 percent for a 10-year Treasury. The gap between 10-year municipal bonds and Treasurys has been widening over the last week. It was 5 basis points on Oct. 31. The 10-year/30-year spread for municipal bonds is 54 basis points.</p>
<p>30-YEAR: Yield decreased by 6 basis points to 2.78 percent, compared with 2.77 percent for a 30-year Treasury.</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>AP created this story using data from Municipal Bond Information Services and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Learn more about the AP Municipal Bond Index at http://mbis.com/</p> | Muni bond Tuesday update: 10-year yield decreases | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/17/muni-bond-tuesday-update-10-year-yield-decreases.html | 2017-11-08 | 0right
| Muni bond Tuesday update: 10-year yield decreases
<p>A look at the AP Municipal Bond Index for Tuesday, Nov. 7:</p>
<p>BIGGEST MOVER: 30-year bonds. Yield fell 12 basis points over the last week to 2.78 percent.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>TWO-YEAR: Yield climbed 1 basis point to 1.21 percent. The two-year/10-year spread is 103 basis points, down from 117 basis points a week ago. The two-year/30-year spread is 157 basis points, down from 173 basis points a week ago.</p>
<p>10-YEAR: Yield fell 4 basis points to 2.24 percent, compared with 2.32 percent for a 10-year Treasury. The gap between 10-year municipal bonds and Treasurys has been widening over the last week. It was 5 basis points on Oct. 31. The 10-year/30-year spread for municipal bonds is 54 basis points.</p>
<p>30-YEAR: Yield decreased by 6 basis points to 2.78 percent, compared with 2.77 percent for a 30-year Treasury.</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>AP created this story using data from Municipal Bond Information Services and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Learn more about the AP Municipal Bond Index at http://mbis.com/</p> | 1,737 |
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<p />
<p>Nearly two decades prior, Rick Perry, also an A&amp;M alumnus, made his own bit of university history when he became the first Aggie to serve as governor of Texas.</p>
<p>But for their shared school pride, these men and their accomplishments had nothing to do with each other.</p>
<p>That changed Wednesday, when Perry, the country’s current energy secretary, chose to plunge into campus politics, claiming publicly that Brooks stole the election from another student.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>That student, Robert McIntosh, is the son of a prominent Republican fundraiser in Dallas who campaigned for Donald Trump during his presidential election.</p>
<p>Perry’s accusation drew astounded responses from the university, Texas lawmakers and a professor, who said it was “extraordinary” that a federal official would involve himself in an issue as hyperlocal as student government elections.</p>
<p>“Honestly, we were just surprised to see that the secretary of energy would take the time to weigh in in detail,” Amy Smith, the school’s senior vice president of marketing and communications, told the Texas Tribune, “and we respectfully disagree with his assessment of what happened.”</p>
<p>Perry wrote in a lengthy commentary for the Houston Chronicle that he was “deeply troubled” by the actions of A&amp;M’s administration and Student Government Association for overseeing what he viewed as an engineered election that awarded victory to Brooks in a “quest for ‘diversity.’ “</p>
<p>Brooks spoke with reporters about his sexuality after the election, but did not make it part of his platform, reported A&amp;M’s student newspaper, the Battalion. Perry wrote in his commentary that his problem was not with the sexual orientation of the victorious student, but the way in which he won.</p>
<p>“When I first read that our student body had elected an openly gay man, Bobby Brooks, for president of the student body, I viewed it as a testament to the Aggie character,” Perry wrote. “I was proud of our students because the election appeared to demonstrate a commitment to treating every student equally, judging on character rather than on personal characteristics.”</p>
<p>“Unfortunately,” Perry added, “a closer review appears to prove the opposite; and the Aggie administration and SGA owe us answers.”</p>
<p>McIntosh clinched the popular vote by 750 votes, but was disqualified by the student election commissioner after accusations of voter intimidation surfaced, reported the Battalion.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A&amp;M’s judicial court – the university’s version of a student supreme court – overturned McIntosh’s disqualification, ruling there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove he intimidated voters. But another charge, that he failed to disclose financial information for glow sticks briefly featured in a campaign video, was unanimously upheld, so his disqualified status did not change.</p>
<p>Brooks, who came in second place in the election, was named the victor.</p>
<p>The drama of the election results and the subsequent dispute played out over several weeks in the pages of the student newspaper, revealing a passionate debate among students about democratic ideals.</p>
<p>The administration, it seems, gave the students room to resolve their disagreements without interference.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until Wednesday, after several Texas newspapers published profiles of Brooks discussing his historic feat, that Perry weighed in with his commentary. Even McIntosh was surprised by the energy secretary’s words, he told the student newspaper:</p>
<p>“I did not at all expect his editorial and I’m humbled to have his support. He made a compelling case which I fully support and continue to fight for. Our campaign team won the election and was subsequently disqualified unfairly. Diversity, at its heart, is equal treatment of all, and we hope this situation is resolved in a way that ensures a fair and more transparent process now and in future elections.”</p>
<p>Perry said the election commission and judicial court, both composed entirely of students, disqualified McIntosh “through a process that – at best – made a mockery of due process and transparency.”</p>
<p>“At worst,” Perry wrote, “the SGA allowed an election to be stolen outright.”</p>
<p>The energy secretary called out, by first and last name, the student election commissioner and student chief justice of the A&amp;M judicial court. Perry implored them to explain why they chose to “overturn a fairly won election” and treat “these cases as annoyances rather than with respect.”</p>
<p>“The administration must explain why it stood passive while equal treatment was mocked in the name of diversity, and why officials did not brief the Board of Regents,” he continued.</p>
<p>Smith, the university’s senior communications vice president, told the Texas Tribune that student government elections are run by the students, not administrators, and that Perry’s “understanding of the election rules of student body president elections doesn’t reflect the facts.”</p>
<p>Reached late Wednesday night, the student election commissioner declined to comment. Brooks and the student chief justice did not respond to a similar request from The Washington Post.</p>
<p>With a tone that resembled the same fury over “political correctness” that boosted Trump, Perry insinuated in his commentary that McIntosh was unfairly disqualified because his opponent was gay.</p>
<p>“Brooks’ presidency is being treated as a victory for ‘diversity,'” he wrote. “It is difficult to escape the perception that this quest for ‘diversity’ is the real reason the election outcome was overturned. Does the principle of ‘diversity’ override and supersede all other values of our Aggie Honor Code?”</p>
<p>Perry said “every Aggie ought to ask themselves” if they would allow a black, gay or nonwhite male to be disqualified from an election on the same grounds as McIntosh.</p>
<p>Smith offered a sharp rebuke to that claim, too: “To suggest that the same decision of disqualification would not have been made if the roles were reversed is to deny the Texas A&amp;M of today where accountability applies to all,” she told the Battalion.</p>
<p>Experts on Texas politics described Perry’s actions as “astounding,” “extraordinary” and “strange.”</p>
<p>“He’s written it as a call for fairness, not that he’s come out against the first gay student body president at A&amp;M,” Cal Jillson, a political-science professor at Southern Methodist University, told the Houston Chronicle, “but the extraordinary part is that he took the time to do this when he should have so many bigger fish to fry in his current job.”</p>
<p>Perry was confirmed as energy secretary after a contentious hearing that called into question his knowledge and respect for the department. Perry, a former presidential candidate, was the longest-serving Texas governor and has not been shy about his Aggie pride.</p>
<p>This, said Rice University professor Mark Jones, could explain his unusually aggressive response to his alma mater’s current student body.</p>
<p>“This must be his inner Aggie speaking, because this is certainly not something you expect a cabinet secretary to weigh in on – actually, probably not even a governor,” Jones told the Houston Chronicle. “It’s strange. Of all the things he could have an opinion on, this is probably not the smartest move for a cabinet secretary. He must really be upset about it.”</p> | Perry calls for investigation of Texas A&M’s election of gay student body president | false | https://abqjournal.com/974618/perry-calls-for-investigation-of-texas-ams-election-of-gay-student-body-president.html | 2least
| Perry calls for investigation of Texas A&M’s election of gay student body president
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<p />
<p>Nearly two decades prior, Rick Perry, also an A&amp;M alumnus, made his own bit of university history when he became the first Aggie to serve as governor of Texas.</p>
<p>But for their shared school pride, these men and their accomplishments had nothing to do with each other.</p>
<p>That changed Wednesday, when Perry, the country’s current energy secretary, chose to plunge into campus politics, claiming publicly that Brooks stole the election from another student.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>That student, Robert McIntosh, is the son of a prominent Republican fundraiser in Dallas who campaigned for Donald Trump during his presidential election.</p>
<p>Perry’s accusation drew astounded responses from the university, Texas lawmakers and a professor, who said it was “extraordinary” that a federal official would involve himself in an issue as hyperlocal as student government elections.</p>
<p>“Honestly, we were just surprised to see that the secretary of energy would take the time to weigh in in detail,” Amy Smith, the school’s senior vice president of marketing and communications, told the Texas Tribune, “and we respectfully disagree with his assessment of what happened.”</p>
<p>Perry wrote in a lengthy commentary for the Houston Chronicle that he was “deeply troubled” by the actions of A&amp;M’s administration and Student Government Association for overseeing what he viewed as an engineered election that awarded victory to Brooks in a “quest for ‘diversity.’ “</p>
<p>Brooks spoke with reporters about his sexuality after the election, but did not make it part of his platform, reported A&amp;M’s student newspaper, the Battalion. Perry wrote in his commentary that his problem was not with the sexual orientation of the victorious student, but the way in which he won.</p>
<p>“When I first read that our student body had elected an openly gay man, Bobby Brooks, for president of the student body, I viewed it as a testament to the Aggie character,” Perry wrote. “I was proud of our students because the election appeared to demonstrate a commitment to treating every student equally, judging on character rather than on personal characteristics.”</p>
<p>“Unfortunately,” Perry added, “a closer review appears to prove the opposite; and the Aggie administration and SGA owe us answers.”</p>
<p>McIntosh clinched the popular vote by 750 votes, but was disqualified by the student election commissioner after accusations of voter intimidation surfaced, reported the Battalion.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A&amp;M’s judicial court – the university’s version of a student supreme court – overturned McIntosh’s disqualification, ruling there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove he intimidated voters. But another charge, that he failed to disclose financial information for glow sticks briefly featured in a campaign video, was unanimously upheld, so his disqualified status did not change.</p>
<p>Brooks, who came in second place in the election, was named the victor.</p>
<p>The drama of the election results and the subsequent dispute played out over several weeks in the pages of the student newspaper, revealing a passionate debate among students about democratic ideals.</p>
<p>The administration, it seems, gave the students room to resolve their disagreements without interference.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until Wednesday, after several Texas newspapers published profiles of Brooks discussing his historic feat, that Perry weighed in with his commentary. Even McIntosh was surprised by the energy secretary’s words, he told the student newspaper:</p>
<p>“I did not at all expect his editorial and I’m humbled to have his support. He made a compelling case which I fully support and continue to fight for. Our campaign team won the election and was subsequently disqualified unfairly. Diversity, at its heart, is equal treatment of all, and we hope this situation is resolved in a way that ensures a fair and more transparent process now and in future elections.”</p>
<p>Perry said the election commission and judicial court, both composed entirely of students, disqualified McIntosh “through a process that – at best – made a mockery of due process and transparency.”</p>
<p>“At worst,” Perry wrote, “the SGA allowed an election to be stolen outright.”</p>
<p>The energy secretary called out, by first and last name, the student election commissioner and student chief justice of the A&amp;M judicial court. Perry implored them to explain why they chose to “overturn a fairly won election” and treat “these cases as annoyances rather than with respect.”</p>
<p>“The administration must explain why it stood passive while equal treatment was mocked in the name of diversity, and why officials did not brief the Board of Regents,” he continued.</p>
<p>Smith, the university’s senior communications vice president, told the Texas Tribune that student government elections are run by the students, not administrators, and that Perry’s “understanding of the election rules of student body president elections doesn’t reflect the facts.”</p>
<p>Reached late Wednesday night, the student election commissioner declined to comment. Brooks and the student chief justice did not respond to a similar request from The Washington Post.</p>
<p>With a tone that resembled the same fury over “political correctness” that boosted Trump, Perry insinuated in his commentary that McIntosh was unfairly disqualified because his opponent was gay.</p>
<p>“Brooks’ presidency is being treated as a victory for ‘diversity,'” he wrote. “It is difficult to escape the perception that this quest for ‘diversity’ is the real reason the election outcome was overturned. Does the principle of ‘diversity’ override and supersede all other values of our Aggie Honor Code?”</p>
<p>Perry said “every Aggie ought to ask themselves” if they would allow a black, gay or nonwhite male to be disqualified from an election on the same grounds as McIntosh.</p>
<p>Smith offered a sharp rebuke to that claim, too: “To suggest that the same decision of disqualification would not have been made if the roles were reversed is to deny the Texas A&amp;M of today where accountability applies to all,” she told the Battalion.</p>
<p>Experts on Texas politics described Perry’s actions as “astounding,” “extraordinary” and “strange.”</p>
<p>“He’s written it as a call for fairness, not that he’s come out against the first gay student body president at A&amp;M,” Cal Jillson, a political-science professor at Southern Methodist University, told the Houston Chronicle, “but the extraordinary part is that he took the time to do this when he should have so many bigger fish to fry in his current job.”</p>
<p>Perry was confirmed as energy secretary after a contentious hearing that called into question his knowledge and respect for the department. Perry, a former presidential candidate, was the longest-serving Texas governor and has not been shy about his Aggie pride.</p>
<p>This, said Rice University professor Mark Jones, could explain his unusually aggressive response to his alma mater’s current student body.</p>
<p>“This must be his inner Aggie speaking, because this is certainly not something you expect a cabinet secretary to weigh in on – actually, probably not even a governor,” Jones told the Houston Chronicle. “It’s strange. Of all the things he could have an opinion on, this is probably not the smartest move for a cabinet secretary. He must really be upset about it.”</p> | 1,738 |
|
<p>Think Progress picked up over the weekend that in his initial response to Obama's gay-marriage announcement, Mitt Romney said certain rights for gay rights would remain on the table as far as he was concerned, including adoption rights. <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/05/12/483187/romney-now-only-acknowledges-same-sex-adoption-days-after-supporting-it/" type="external">But now!:</a></p>
<p>But by Friday afternoon, he was already <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/romney-backs-away-from-gay-adoptions-20120511" type="external">backing away</a> from that position, suggesting that he merely “acknowledges” that many states offer same-sex adoption:</p>
<p>ROMNEY: Actually, I think all states but one allow gay adoption. So that’s a position which has been decided by most of the state legislatures, including the one in my state some time ago. So I simply acknowledge the fact that gay adoption is legal in all states but one.</p>
<p>There's not really a policy position in here, but the dog whistle is a-blowin full steam. Couple this with the Falwell Factory <a href="http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/romney-doubles-down-opposition-gay-marriag" type="external">commencement address</a>, and we see signs that this might be a bigger issue this fall than some pundits are thinking (the early c.w. is: we'll have a few culture war pangs but we'll quickly return to the economy).</p>
<p>Romney is on record now as opposing civil unions, which vast majorities support, and supporting a federal constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage (I haven't seen polls on this, but people are very skittish about such amendments, usually--recall that the anti-flag burning one never even passed).</p>
<p>The math, as it were, is very simple: If he keeps to those two positions, then he, not Obama, is very clearly the one with the extreme position on this issue; he will be playing to the religious right, trying to goose turnout, using this as a wege issue. If he "moderates" those positions, dog-whistles to the center about how maybe civil unions are okay, we'll avoid a kulturkampf and I would say that on balance he'd pick up more votes in the middle than he'd lost on the fringe. But on the other hand, if he does that, he's a flip-flopper. He's toast.</p>
<p>So my judgment would be that he won't change his positions, and that while the economy will remain issue number one, this will be a pretty big deal until Election Day. And I believe, because of the extremeness of Romney's two positions (civil unions and amendment), Obama can eke out a win on this issue. Middle-of-the-road people may not be ready to watch Jack and Jeff smooch each other at the altar, but neither do they want to think of themselves as intolerant.</p>
<p>Final note: This whole business now makes the question of Romney's veep choice much more interesting. Will he be more inclined now to choose a culture warrior? What good does Rob Portman do the anti same-sexers? I bet the Romney campaign's polls will show, as the McCain campaign's did, that they'll benefit from playing to cultural right. It will then be up to him to find someone who a) is that person and b) knows the difference between North and South Korea. The temptation will be great. I'd say Marco Rubio's odds increased over the weekend.</p> | Why We May Yet Have a Culture War | true | https://thedailybeast.com/why-we-may-yet-have-a-culture-war | 2018-10-04 | 4left
| Why We May Yet Have a Culture War
<p>Think Progress picked up over the weekend that in his initial response to Obama's gay-marriage announcement, Mitt Romney said certain rights for gay rights would remain on the table as far as he was concerned, including adoption rights. <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/05/12/483187/romney-now-only-acknowledges-same-sex-adoption-days-after-supporting-it/" type="external">But now!:</a></p>
<p>But by Friday afternoon, he was already <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/romney-backs-away-from-gay-adoptions-20120511" type="external">backing away</a> from that position, suggesting that he merely “acknowledges” that many states offer same-sex adoption:</p>
<p>ROMNEY: Actually, I think all states but one allow gay adoption. So that’s a position which has been decided by most of the state legislatures, including the one in my state some time ago. So I simply acknowledge the fact that gay adoption is legal in all states but one.</p>
<p>There's not really a policy position in here, but the dog whistle is a-blowin full steam. Couple this with the Falwell Factory <a href="http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/romney-doubles-down-opposition-gay-marriag" type="external">commencement address</a>, and we see signs that this might be a bigger issue this fall than some pundits are thinking (the early c.w. is: we'll have a few culture war pangs but we'll quickly return to the economy).</p>
<p>Romney is on record now as opposing civil unions, which vast majorities support, and supporting a federal constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage (I haven't seen polls on this, but people are very skittish about such amendments, usually--recall that the anti-flag burning one never even passed).</p>
<p>The math, as it were, is very simple: If he keeps to those two positions, then he, not Obama, is very clearly the one with the extreme position on this issue; he will be playing to the religious right, trying to goose turnout, using this as a wege issue. If he "moderates" those positions, dog-whistles to the center about how maybe civil unions are okay, we'll avoid a kulturkampf and I would say that on balance he'd pick up more votes in the middle than he'd lost on the fringe. But on the other hand, if he does that, he's a flip-flopper. He's toast.</p>
<p>So my judgment would be that he won't change his positions, and that while the economy will remain issue number one, this will be a pretty big deal until Election Day. And I believe, because of the extremeness of Romney's two positions (civil unions and amendment), Obama can eke out a win on this issue. Middle-of-the-road people may not be ready to watch Jack and Jeff smooch each other at the altar, but neither do they want to think of themselves as intolerant.</p>
<p>Final note: This whole business now makes the question of Romney's veep choice much more interesting. Will he be more inclined now to choose a culture warrior? What good does Rob Portman do the anti same-sexers? I bet the Romney campaign's polls will show, as the McCain campaign's did, that they'll benefit from playing to cultural right. It will then be up to him to find someone who a) is that person and b) knows the difference between North and South Korea. The temptation will be great. I'd say Marco Rubio's odds increased over the weekend.</p> | 1,739 |
<p>This is the war on terror and the war of terror, the Project for the New American Century, or the New World Order, crafted before the events of September 11, 2001 and trafficked to a frightened-beyond-reason public unwilling to examine why we’re hated, receptive only to “they’re jealous of our freedoms.” Frenzied by nationalism, our young rushed to recruitment centers and on to boot camp, trained as matriculants of imperial US murder.&#160; It is the long war, perhaps permanent, a consequence of evil intersections, machinations to bomb a country or two, three, four, five, six, seven, whatever, back to the Stone Age.</p>
<p>“USA! USA! USA!”</p>
<p>The Cheney/Bush Administration had what it required, as articulated by Dick, “a Pearl Harbor-like event.&#160; Finally, a president and his vice’s grasp held America’s palpable fear.&#160; Cheney must have said, “Be still my heart.” With the collapse of towers, a ruptured Pentagon, and a cratered field in Pennsylvania, Dick Cheney, malevolence personified and an admitted torturer, entered the shelter of his nurtured delusions where he paved a corridor of death not only for “coalition forces” but, also, for civilians and those angry&#160; “insurgents”, whose lands his greed-twisted project encompassed.</p>
<p>The fourth estate became corporate media. Quivering masses tuned to episodes of reality anything, shunning critical thought.</p>
<p>Allowing the Patriot Act to subvert the Constitution, we ceded both to foreign terrorists and to terrorists within the highest echelons of our government.</p>
<p>The 9/11 Commission convened only after family members pressed for an investigation.&#160; The long-awaited verdict placed blame for the attack on a “failure of imagination”.</p>
<p>There has been little consideration by our “leadership” that the footprint of US foreign policy in the Middle East has created enemies, that our allegiance to Israel is a denial of human rights to Palestinians, and that our sanctions and occupations have killed millions.&#160; For maintenance and expansion of US geopolitical power/hegemony.&#160; And for oil.</p>
<p>“USA! USA! USA!”</p>
<p>“OIL! OIL! OIL!”</p>
<p>If you are a family member of someone who either died on 9/11 or from breathing toxins&#160; at the scene, your loved one perished for empire and oil.&#160; If you are a family member of someone killed in the resulting, vengeful invasion and occupation, your “hero” was sacrificed on empire and oil’s altar.</p>
<p>Soon, we mark the ten-year anniversary of that September morning. Barack Obama is continuing the foreign policy carnage.&#160; For empire and oil.</p>
<p>Soon, we mark the ten-year anniversary of 9/11.&#160; Soldier suicide is on the rise.&#160; Sixty-six troops died in Afghanistan’s 2011 August.&#160; For empire and oil.</p>
<p>Soon, we mark the ten-year anniversary of one day, one day that has led to fall-in-the-floor anguish for families of troops and who-knows-how-many dead, wounded, or maimed civilians, including children, in the countries we’ve destroyed.&#160; For empire and oil.</p>
<p>Congress has appropriated a total of $1.26 trillion for war in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30, 2011.&#160; Add to this $7.6 trillion spent on security since that day in 2001.&#160; For empire and oil.</p>
<p>Dick no-apologies Cheney, in his memoir that will hit bookstores this weekend, spins his war crimes, about which we know already.&#160; Pride in torture is characteristic of his particular defect.&#160; But here’s something new:&#160; After the malevolent antisocial’s heart surgery in 2010, he was unconscious for weeks, dreaming of life in an Italian villa with cobblestone streets.&#160; If there were justice, Cheney’s mental images while comatose would have been his indictment, arrest, and prosecution for crimes against humanity.</p>
<p>If there were justice, Barack Obama would have held the Bush Administration accountable for crimes against peace.&#160; If there were justice, the Obama Administration would be held accountable.&#160; Instead of hawking their books, they’d have been booked.</p>
<p>Missy Beattie lives in Baltimore, Maryland.&#160; She can be reached at:&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Empire and Oil | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/09/02/empire-and-oil/ | 2011-09-02 | 4left
| Empire and Oil
<p>This is the war on terror and the war of terror, the Project for the New American Century, or the New World Order, crafted before the events of September 11, 2001 and trafficked to a frightened-beyond-reason public unwilling to examine why we’re hated, receptive only to “they’re jealous of our freedoms.” Frenzied by nationalism, our young rushed to recruitment centers and on to boot camp, trained as matriculants of imperial US murder.&#160; It is the long war, perhaps permanent, a consequence of evil intersections, machinations to bomb a country or two, three, four, five, six, seven, whatever, back to the Stone Age.</p>
<p>“USA! USA! USA!”</p>
<p>The Cheney/Bush Administration had what it required, as articulated by Dick, “a Pearl Harbor-like event.&#160; Finally, a president and his vice’s grasp held America’s palpable fear.&#160; Cheney must have said, “Be still my heart.” With the collapse of towers, a ruptured Pentagon, and a cratered field in Pennsylvania, Dick Cheney, malevolence personified and an admitted torturer, entered the shelter of his nurtured delusions where he paved a corridor of death not only for “coalition forces” but, also, for civilians and those angry&#160; “insurgents”, whose lands his greed-twisted project encompassed.</p>
<p>The fourth estate became corporate media. Quivering masses tuned to episodes of reality anything, shunning critical thought.</p>
<p>Allowing the Patriot Act to subvert the Constitution, we ceded both to foreign terrorists and to terrorists within the highest echelons of our government.</p>
<p>The 9/11 Commission convened only after family members pressed for an investigation.&#160; The long-awaited verdict placed blame for the attack on a “failure of imagination”.</p>
<p>There has been little consideration by our “leadership” that the footprint of US foreign policy in the Middle East has created enemies, that our allegiance to Israel is a denial of human rights to Palestinians, and that our sanctions and occupations have killed millions.&#160; For maintenance and expansion of US geopolitical power/hegemony.&#160; And for oil.</p>
<p>“USA! USA! USA!”</p>
<p>“OIL! OIL! OIL!”</p>
<p>If you are a family member of someone who either died on 9/11 or from breathing toxins&#160; at the scene, your loved one perished for empire and oil.&#160; If you are a family member of someone killed in the resulting, vengeful invasion and occupation, your “hero” was sacrificed on empire and oil’s altar.</p>
<p>Soon, we mark the ten-year anniversary of that September morning. Barack Obama is continuing the foreign policy carnage.&#160; For empire and oil.</p>
<p>Soon, we mark the ten-year anniversary of 9/11.&#160; Soldier suicide is on the rise.&#160; Sixty-six troops died in Afghanistan’s 2011 August.&#160; For empire and oil.</p>
<p>Soon, we mark the ten-year anniversary of one day, one day that has led to fall-in-the-floor anguish for families of troops and who-knows-how-many dead, wounded, or maimed civilians, including children, in the countries we’ve destroyed.&#160; For empire and oil.</p>
<p>Congress has appropriated a total of $1.26 trillion for war in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30, 2011.&#160; Add to this $7.6 trillion spent on security since that day in 2001.&#160; For empire and oil.</p>
<p>Dick no-apologies Cheney, in his memoir that will hit bookstores this weekend, spins his war crimes, about which we know already.&#160; Pride in torture is characteristic of his particular defect.&#160; But here’s something new:&#160; After the malevolent antisocial’s heart surgery in 2010, he was unconscious for weeks, dreaming of life in an Italian villa with cobblestone streets.&#160; If there were justice, Cheney’s mental images while comatose would have been his indictment, arrest, and prosecution for crimes against humanity.</p>
<p>If there were justice, Barack Obama would have held the Bush Administration accountable for crimes against peace.&#160; If there were justice, the Obama Administration would be held accountable.&#160; Instead of hawking their books, they’d have been booked.</p>
<p>Missy Beattie lives in Baltimore, Maryland.&#160; She can be reached at:&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 1,740 |
<p>Joining with a number of his Latin American neighbors, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has formally recognized “the Palestine state as free and independent within its borders … .” –JCL</p>
<p>CNN:</p>
<p>Ecuador is the latest country to recognize an independent Palestinian state.</p>
<p>The government said on Friday that President Rafael Correa recognized “the Palestine State as free and independent within its borders since 1967.”</p>
<p />
<p>Others countries — such as Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay — recently made the same move. These diplomatic initiatives come after the breakdown of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.</p>
<p>Palestinians have been seeking international recognition of an independent state, a strategy to achieve statehood outside the framework of talks with Israel.</p>
<p><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/12/25/ecuador.palestinian.state/index.html?hpt=T2" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Ecuador Recognizes an Independent Palestine | true | http://truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/ecuador_recognizes_palestine_20101226/ | 2010-12-27 | 4left
| Ecuador Recognizes an Independent Palestine
<p>Joining with a number of his Latin American neighbors, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has formally recognized “the Palestine state as free and independent within its borders … .” –JCL</p>
<p>CNN:</p>
<p>Ecuador is the latest country to recognize an independent Palestinian state.</p>
<p>The government said on Friday that President Rafael Correa recognized “the Palestine State as free and independent within its borders since 1967.”</p>
<p />
<p>Others countries — such as Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay — recently made the same move. These diplomatic initiatives come after the breakdown of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.</p>
<p>Palestinians have been seeking international recognition of an independent state, a strategy to achieve statehood outside the framework of talks with Israel.</p>
<p><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/12/25/ecuador.palestinian.state/index.html?hpt=T2" type="external">Read more</a></p> | 1,741 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — It is a mathematical impossibility for a group of Oscar nominations to please everyone, but this year came pretty close with meaningful love for “Get Out,” ″Lady Bird” and “Phantom Thread,” and the history-making nomination of “Mudbound” director of photography Rachel Morrison, who became the first woman to ever be nominated for cinematography.</p>
<p>Still, there were some significant surprises and even a few outright snubs:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>NO WONDER WOMAN</p>
<p>It was a good day for women, generally speaking, with the first ever nomination for a female cinematographer (Rachel Morrison for “Mudbound”) and Greta Gerwig becoming the fifth woman in history to get a best director nomination (for “Lady Bird”), but the love stopped short of one of the most populist female-driven projects of the year: “Wonder Woman.” The Patty Jenkins-directed blockbuster received zero nominations, even in a year that was surprisingly friendly to big budget hits (like “Logan” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.“)</p>
<p>DENZEL BREAKS THROUGH, FRANCO DOESN’T</p>
<p>James Franco in “The Disaster Artist” (Justina Mintz/A24)</p>
<p>You’d be forgiven if you weren’t aware there was a Denzel Washington film out this year. Dan Gilroy’s criminal court thriller “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” came and went without much fanfare, to middling reviews and box office. Washington’s performance as the activist lawyer was the one bright spot for many critics (although the New York Times said the film “doesn’t serve” him). Still, Washington has hardly been at the forefront of the awards race this year, especially when compared with, say Tom Hanks, who wasn’t nominated for playing Ben Bradlee in “The Post” (and hasn’t been nominated in 17 years). Washington also perhaps took the spot from James Franco for “The Disaster Artist.” This is Washington’s sixth lead actor nomination (he’s won twice).</p>
<p>NETFLIX FINDS A NARRATIVE WIN IN ‘MUDBOUND’</p>
<p>The streaming service has gambled big in the past few years with would-be Oscar nominees, but found their first successful non-documentary contender in a film it acquired at the Sundance Film Festival — Dee Rees’ American odyssey “Mudbound,” about two families, one black, and one white, in the post-WWII South. “Mudbound” was nominated for best adapted screenplay, best supporting actress (Mary J. Blige), best original song and best cinematography. For some, it’s been a question of whether the film academy had an anti-Netflix bias. Whatever the case was before, though, the times might be changing.</p>
<p>‘PHANTOM THREAD’ ECLIPSES HEAVYWEIGHTS</p>
<p>Paul Thomas Anderson’s moody period piece is a favorite among hardcore cinephiles, but many were surprised Tuesday when Anderson was nominated for best director over both Steven Spielberg (“The Post”) and Martin McDonagh (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”). Anderson, an eight-time Oscar nominee (now twice for directing), didn’t even get a Director’s Guild or a Producer’s Guild nomination for “Phantom Thread.”</p>
<p>THE STEVE JAMES CURSE IS BROKEN</p>
<p>Snubs were almost becoming a way of life for documentary filmmaker Steve James who time and time again churns out excellent work to not much film Academy recognition. His “Hoop Dreams” was infamously only nominated for editing and then his sure bet, the Roger Ebert documentary “Life Itself,” was also passed over. This year, James finally got nominated for “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” about the family-owned community bank that was the only U.S. bank to face criminal charges following the 2008 subprime mortgage collapse.</p>
<p>RIDLEY’S BIG BET PAYS OFF</p>
<p>(Giles Keyte/Sony Pictures via AP)</p>
<p>By now, everyone knows how Ridley Scott replaced Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer as J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World” just six weeks before the film was set to hit theaters. That choice that was officially validated in the best possible way for the film — a supporting Oscar nomination for Plummer (his third).</p>
<p>DIVERSITY GETS A BOOST, BUT ONLY FOR SOME</p>
<p>The Oscars are not so white anymore, but one group that remains marginalized is Latino actors, who have not gotten an Oscar nomination since 2012. In fact, only three have won in the last 20 years (Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Benicio Del Toro). This year, Salma Hayek had the best shot for her role in the dark satire “Beatriz at Dinner.”</p>
<p>‘JANE’ GETS CUT OUT</p>
<p>Three days after Brett Morgen’s highly acclaimed Jane Goodall documentary “Jane” picked up the Producers Guild Award in the documentary category, the film academy left it on the cutting room floor.</p>
<p>THE BABY CEO MOVIE IS AN OSCAR NOMINEE</p>
<p>(DreamWorks Animation via AP)</p>
<p>They can’t take it back. A film that has a 52 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes — “The Boss Baby,” in which Alec Baldwin voices a pint-sized, suit-wearing CEO — has been nominated for best animated feature.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For full coverage of awards season, visit: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/AwardsSeason</a></p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — It is a mathematical impossibility for a group of Oscar nominations to please everyone, but this year came pretty close with meaningful love for “Get Out,” ″Lady Bird” and “Phantom Thread,” and the history-making nomination of “Mudbound” director of photography Rachel Morrison, who became the first woman to ever be nominated for cinematography.</p>
<p>Still, there were some significant surprises and even a few outright snubs:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>NO WONDER WOMAN</p>
<p>It was a good day for women, generally speaking, with the first ever nomination for a female cinematographer (Rachel Morrison for “Mudbound”) and Greta Gerwig becoming the fifth woman in history to get a best director nomination (for “Lady Bird”), but the love stopped short of one of the most populist female-driven projects of the year: “Wonder Woman.” The Patty Jenkins-directed blockbuster received zero nominations, even in a year that was surprisingly friendly to big budget hits (like “Logan” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.“)</p>
<p>DENZEL BREAKS THROUGH, FRANCO DOESN’T</p>
<p>James Franco in “The Disaster Artist” (Justina Mintz/A24)</p>
<p>You’d be forgiven if you weren’t aware there was a Denzel Washington film out this year. Dan Gilroy’s criminal court thriller “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” came and went without much fanfare, to middling reviews and box office. Washington’s performance as the activist lawyer was the one bright spot for many critics (although the New York Times said the film “doesn’t serve” him). Still, Washington has hardly been at the forefront of the awards race this year, especially when compared with, say Tom Hanks, who wasn’t nominated for playing Ben Bradlee in “The Post” (and hasn’t been nominated in 17 years). Washington also perhaps took the spot from James Franco for “The Disaster Artist.” This is Washington’s sixth lead actor nomination (he’s won twice).</p>
<p>NETFLIX FINDS A NARRATIVE WIN IN ‘MUDBOUND’</p>
<p>The streaming service has gambled big in the past few years with would-be Oscar nominees, but found their first successful non-documentary contender in a film it acquired at the Sundance Film Festival — Dee Rees’ American odyssey “Mudbound,” about two families, one black, and one white, in the post-WWII South. “Mudbound” was nominated for best adapted screenplay, best supporting actress (Mary J. Blige), best original song and best cinematography. For some, it’s been a question of whether the film academy had an anti-Netflix bias. Whatever the case was before, though, the times might be changing.</p>
<p>‘PHANTOM THREAD’ ECLIPSES HEAVYWEIGHTS</p>
<p>Paul Thomas Anderson’s moody period piece is a favorite among hardcore cinephiles, but many were surprised Tuesday when Anderson was nominated for best director over both Steven Spielberg (“The Post”) and Martin McDonagh (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”). Anderson, an eight-time Oscar nominee (now twice for directing), didn’t even get a Director’s Guild or a Producer’s Guild nomination for “Phantom Thread.”</p>
<p>THE STEVE JAMES CURSE IS BROKEN</p>
<p>Snubs were almost becoming a way of life for documentary filmmaker Steve James who time and time again churns out excellent work to not much film Academy recognition. His “Hoop Dreams” was infamously only nominated for editing and then his sure bet, the Roger Ebert documentary “Life Itself,” was also passed over. This year, James finally got nominated for “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” about the family-owned community bank that was the only U.S. bank to face criminal charges following the 2008 subprime mortgage collapse.</p>
<p>RIDLEY’S BIG BET PAYS OFF</p>
<p>(Giles Keyte/Sony Pictures via AP)</p>
<p>By now, everyone knows how Ridley Scott replaced Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer as J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World” just six weeks before the film was set to hit theaters. That choice that was officially validated in the best possible way for the film — a supporting Oscar nomination for Plummer (his third).</p>
<p>DIVERSITY GETS A BOOST, BUT ONLY FOR SOME</p>
<p>The Oscars are not so white anymore, but one group that remains marginalized is Latino actors, who have not gotten an Oscar nomination since 2012. In fact, only three have won in the last 20 years (Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Benicio Del Toro). This year, Salma Hayek had the best shot for her role in the dark satire “Beatriz at Dinner.”</p>
<p>‘JANE’ GETS CUT OUT</p>
<p>Three days after Brett Morgen’s highly acclaimed Jane Goodall documentary “Jane” picked up the Producers Guild Award in the documentary category, the film academy left it on the cutting room floor.</p>
<p>THE BABY CEO MOVIE IS AN OSCAR NOMINEE</p>
<p>(DreamWorks Animation via AP)</p>
<p>They can’t take it back. A film that has a 52 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes — “The Boss Baby,” in which Alec Baldwin voices a pint-sized, suit-wearing CEO — has been nominated for best animated feature.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For full coverage of awards season, visit: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/AwardsSeason</a></p> | ‘Wonder Woman’ is left hanging and 8 other Oscar surprises | false | https://apnews.com/ea51a814738a44c6a81ff221d533a6bb | 2018-01-23 | 2least
| ‘Wonder Woman’ is left hanging and 8 other Oscar surprises
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — It is a mathematical impossibility for a group of Oscar nominations to please everyone, but this year came pretty close with meaningful love for “Get Out,” ″Lady Bird” and “Phantom Thread,” and the history-making nomination of “Mudbound” director of photography Rachel Morrison, who became the first woman to ever be nominated for cinematography.</p>
<p>Still, there were some significant surprises and even a few outright snubs:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>NO WONDER WOMAN</p>
<p>It was a good day for women, generally speaking, with the first ever nomination for a female cinematographer (Rachel Morrison for “Mudbound”) and Greta Gerwig becoming the fifth woman in history to get a best director nomination (for “Lady Bird”), but the love stopped short of one of the most populist female-driven projects of the year: “Wonder Woman.” The Patty Jenkins-directed blockbuster received zero nominations, even in a year that was surprisingly friendly to big budget hits (like “Logan” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.“)</p>
<p>DENZEL BREAKS THROUGH, FRANCO DOESN’T</p>
<p>James Franco in “The Disaster Artist” (Justina Mintz/A24)</p>
<p>You’d be forgiven if you weren’t aware there was a Denzel Washington film out this year. Dan Gilroy’s criminal court thriller “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” came and went without much fanfare, to middling reviews and box office. Washington’s performance as the activist lawyer was the one bright spot for many critics (although the New York Times said the film “doesn’t serve” him). Still, Washington has hardly been at the forefront of the awards race this year, especially when compared with, say Tom Hanks, who wasn’t nominated for playing Ben Bradlee in “The Post” (and hasn’t been nominated in 17 years). Washington also perhaps took the spot from James Franco for “The Disaster Artist.” This is Washington’s sixth lead actor nomination (he’s won twice).</p>
<p>NETFLIX FINDS A NARRATIVE WIN IN ‘MUDBOUND’</p>
<p>The streaming service has gambled big in the past few years with would-be Oscar nominees, but found their first successful non-documentary contender in a film it acquired at the Sundance Film Festival — Dee Rees’ American odyssey “Mudbound,” about two families, one black, and one white, in the post-WWII South. “Mudbound” was nominated for best adapted screenplay, best supporting actress (Mary J. Blige), best original song and best cinematography. For some, it’s been a question of whether the film academy had an anti-Netflix bias. Whatever the case was before, though, the times might be changing.</p>
<p>‘PHANTOM THREAD’ ECLIPSES HEAVYWEIGHTS</p>
<p>Paul Thomas Anderson’s moody period piece is a favorite among hardcore cinephiles, but many were surprised Tuesday when Anderson was nominated for best director over both Steven Spielberg (“The Post”) and Martin McDonagh (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”). Anderson, an eight-time Oscar nominee (now twice for directing), didn’t even get a Director’s Guild or a Producer’s Guild nomination for “Phantom Thread.”</p>
<p>THE STEVE JAMES CURSE IS BROKEN</p>
<p>Snubs were almost becoming a way of life for documentary filmmaker Steve James who time and time again churns out excellent work to not much film Academy recognition. His “Hoop Dreams” was infamously only nominated for editing and then his sure bet, the Roger Ebert documentary “Life Itself,” was also passed over. This year, James finally got nominated for “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” about the family-owned community bank that was the only U.S. bank to face criminal charges following the 2008 subprime mortgage collapse.</p>
<p>RIDLEY’S BIG BET PAYS OFF</p>
<p>(Giles Keyte/Sony Pictures via AP)</p>
<p>By now, everyone knows how Ridley Scott replaced Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer as J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World” just six weeks before the film was set to hit theaters. That choice that was officially validated in the best possible way for the film — a supporting Oscar nomination for Plummer (his third).</p>
<p>DIVERSITY GETS A BOOST, BUT ONLY FOR SOME</p>
<p>The Oscars are not so white anymore, but one group that remains marginalized is Latino actors, who have not gotten an Oscar nomination since 2012. In fact, only three have won in the last 20 years (Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Benicio Del Toro). This year, Salma Hayek had the best shot for her role in the dark satire “Beatriz at Dinner.”</p>
<p>‘JANE’ GETS CUT OUT</p>
<p>Three days after Brett Morgen’s highly acclaimed Jane Goodall documentary “Jane” picked up the Producers Guild Award in the documentary category, the film academy left it on the cutting room floor.</p>
<p>THE BABY CEO MOVIE IS AN OSCAR NOMINEE</p>
<p>(DreamWorks Animation via AP)</p>
<p>They can’t take it back. A film that has a 52 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes — “The Boss Baby,” in which Alec Baldwin voices a pint-sized, suit-wearing CEO — has been nominated for best animated feature.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For full coverage of awards season, visit: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/AwardsSeason</a></p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — It is a mathematical impossibility for a group of Oscar nominations to please everyone, but this year came pretty close with meaningful love for “Get Out,” ″Lady Bird” and “Phantom Thread,” and the history-making nomination of “Mudbound” director of photography Rachel Morrison, who became the first woman to ever be nominated for cinematography.</p>
<p>Still, there were some significant surprises and even a few outright snubs:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>NO WONDER WOMAN</p>
<p>It was a good day for women, generally speaking, with the first ever nomination for a female cinematographer (Rachel Morrison for “Mudbound”) and Greta Gerwig becoming the fifth woman in history to get a best director nomination (for “Lady Bird”), but the love stopped short of one of the most populist female-driven projects of the year: “Wonder Woman.” The Patty Jenkins-directed blockbuster received zero nominations, even in a year that was surprisingly friendly to big budget hits (like “Logan” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.“)</p>
<p>DENZEL BREAKS THROUGH, FRANCO DOESN’T</p>
<p>James Franco in “The Disaster Artist” (Justina Mintz/A24)</p>
<p>You’d be forgiven if you weren’t aware there was a Denzel Washington film out this year. Dan Gilroy’s criminal court thriller “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” came and went without much fanfare, to middling reviews and box office. Washington’s performance as the activist lawyer was the one bright spot for many critics (although the New York Times said the film “doesn’t serve” him). Still, Washington has hardly been at the forefront of the awards race this year, especially when compared with, say Tom Hanks, who wasn’t nominated for playing Ben Bradlee in “The Post” (and hasn’t been nominated in 17 years). Washington also perhaps took the spot from James Franco for “The Disaster Artist.” This is Washington’s sixth lead actor nomination (he’s won twice).</p>
<p>NETFLIX FINDS A NARRATIVE WIN IN ‘MUDBOUND’</p>
<p>The streaming service has gambled big in the past few years with would-be Oscar nominees, but found their first successful non-documentary contender in a film it acquired at the Sundance Film Festival — Dee Rees’ American odyssey “Mudbound,” about two families, one black, and one white, in the post-WWII South. “Mudbound” was nominated for best adapted screenplay, best supporting actress (Mary J. Blige), best original song and best cinematography. For some, it’s been a question of whether the film academy had an anti-Netflix bias. Whatever the case was before, though, the times might be changing.</p>
<p>‘PHANTOM THREAD’ ECLIPSES HEAVYWEIGHTS</p>
<p>Paul Thomas Anderson’s moody period piece is a favorite among hardcore cinephiles, but many were surprised Tuesday when Anderson was nominated for best director over both Steven Spielberg (“The Post”) and Martin McDonagh (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”). Anderson, an eight-time Oscar nominee (now twice for directing), didn’t even get a Director’s Guild or a Producer’s Guild nomination for “Phantom Thread.”</p>
<p>THE STEVE JAMES CURSE IS BROKEN</p>
<p>Snubs were almost becoming a way of life for documentary filmmaker Steve James who time and time again churns out excellent work to not much film Academy recognition. His “Hoop Dreams” was infamously only nominated for editing and then his sure bet, the Roger Ebert documentary “Life Itself,” was also passed over. This year, James finally got nominated for “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” about the family-owned community bank that was the only U.S. bank to face criminal charges following the 2008 subprime mortgage collapse.</p>
<p>RIDLEY’S BIG BET PAYS OFF</p>
<p>(Giles Keyte/Sony Pictures via AP)</p>
<p>By now, everyone knows how Ridley Scott replaced Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer as J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World” just six weeks before the film was set to hit theaters. That choice that was officially validated in the best possible way for the film — a supporting Oscar nomination for Plummer (his third).</p>
<p>DIVERSITY GETS A BOOST, BUT ONLY FOR SOME</p>
<p>The Oscars are not so white anymore, but one group that remains marginalized is Latino actors, who have not gotten an Oscar nomination since 2012. In fact, only three have won in the last 20 years (Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Benicio Del Toro). This year, Salma Hayek had the best shot for her role in the dark satire “Beatriz at Dinner.”</p>
<p>‘JANE’ GETS CUT OUT</p>
<p>Three days after Brett Morgen’s highly acclaimed Jane Goodall documentary “Jane” picked up the Producers Guild Award in the documentary category, the film academy left it on the cutting room floor.</p>
<p>THE BABY CEO MOVIE IS AN OSCAR NOMINEE</p>
<p>(DreamWorks Animation via AP)</p>
<p>They can’t take it back. A film that has a 52 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes — “The Boss Baby,” in which Alec Baldwin voices a pint-sized, suit-wearing CEO — has been nominated for best animated feature.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For full coverage of awards season, visit: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/AwardsSeason</a></p> | 1,742 |
<p>On Thursday, President Obama attempted to <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/10/20/obama-offers-prescription-affordable-care-act-growing-pains/92466252/" type="external">defend</a> the <a href="" type="internal">skyrocketing costs</a> of Obamacare by comparing them to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, a smartphone that was banned on airplanes because it had a nasty habit of spontaneously combusting. Obama said that even though the Samsung had problems, “you don’t go back to using a rotary phone.”</p>
<p>Except, of course, that you do go back to using a rotary phone while you recall all the devices and rethink how to avoid exploding devices.</p>
<p>Obama put the responsibility on the states for not expanding Medicaid, thereby avoiding picking up the costs of Obamacare. The vast majority of people who have enrolled in Obamacare have done so at point of government gun, and have done so as part of the Medicaid expansions Obamacare attempted to incentivize; as of October 2015, nearly all of the “ <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Obamacare+enrollees+medicaid+percent&amp;oq=Obamacare+enrollees+medicaid+percent&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.6621j0j4&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8" type="external">newly insured</a>” enrollees were Medicaid enrollees. Obama tried to claim that the federal government would pick up the tab for expanded Medicaid, but that neglects that over time, the states pick up more and more of the tab – and that the federal government is $20 trillion in debt.</p>
<p>Now, Obama’s pushing the public option, using George W. Bush’s egregiously awful Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit expansion. Part D has led to massive increases in healthcare costs, as well as to rejection of Medicare itself by health providers thanks to government restrictions on costs. As Mark Levin writes in Plunder and Deceit, “the impracticability of Medicare’s centralized management and archaic decision-making practices…significantly impairs the broader private sector.”</p>
<p>“This is not a radical idea,” Obama said. “It was fine when it was their idea.” Except that it wasn’t. Every bad Republican idea becomes the basis of an exponentially worse Democratic idea. Just ask Herbert Hoover.</p>
<p>This was always the plan. I told Fox News back in August 2013 that Obamacare was designed to fail, thereby necessitating a government option. That option would bankrupt insurance companies – the government doesn’t have a necessity for profit margin, and therefore, for decent service – and lead to the complete government takeover of healthcare Obama has always sought. In other words, Obamacare was created with designed obsolescence – it’s as though Samsung had designed their phones to melt down so that they could then market the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Government Edition.</p> | Obamacare's Collapsing. That Was Always The Plan. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/10118/obamacares-collapsing-was-always-plan-ben-shapiro | 2016-10-20 | 0right
| Obamacare's Collapsing. That Was Always The Plan.
<p>On Thursday, President Obama attempted to <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/10/20/obama-offers-prescription-affordable-care-act-growing-pains/92466252/" type="external">defend</a> the <a href="" type="internal">skyrocketing costs</a> of Obamacare by comparing them to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, a smartphone that was banned on airplanes because it had a nasty habit of spontaneously combusting. Obama said that even though the Samsung had problems, “you don’t go back to using a rotary phone.”</p>
<p>Except, of course, that you do go back to using a rotary phone while you recall all the devices and rethink how to avoid exploding devices.</p>
<p>Obama put the responsibility on the states for not expanding Medicaid, thereby avoiding picking up the costs of Obamacare. The vast majority of people who have enrolled in Obamacare have done so at point of government gun, and have done so as part of the Medicaid expansions Obamacare attempted to incentivize; as of October 2015, nearly all of the “ <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Obamacare+enrollees+medicaid+percent&amp;oq=Obamacare+enrollees+medicaid+percent&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.6621j0j4&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8" type="external">newly insured</a>” enrollees were Medicaid enrollees. Obama tried to claim that the federal government would pick up the tab for expanded Medicaid, but that neglects that over time, the states pick up more and more of the tab – and that the federal government is $20 trillion in debt.</p>
<p>Now, Obama’s pushing the public option, using George W. Bush’s egregiously awful Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit expansion. Part D has led to massive increases in healthcare costs, as well as to rejection of Medicare itself by health providers thanks to government restrictions on costs. As Mark Levin writes in Plunder and Deceit, “the impracticability of Medicare’s centralized management and archaic decision-making practices…significantly impairs the broader private sector.”</p>
<p>“This is not a radical idea,” Obama said. “It was fine when it was their idea.” Except that it wasn’t. Every bad Republican idea becomes the basis of an exponentially worse Democratic idea. Just ask Herbert Hoover.</p>
<p>This was always the plan. I told Fox News back in August 2013 that Obamacare was designed to fail, thereby necessitating a government option. That option would bankrupt insurance companies – the government doesn’t have a necessity for profit margin, and therefore, for decent service – and lead to the complete government takeover of healthcare Obama has always sought. In other words, Obamacare was created with designed obsolescence – it’s as though Samsung had designed their phones to melt down so that they could then market the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Government Edition.</p> | 1,743 |
<p>Published time: 30 Jul, 2017 15:03</p>
<p>Hawaii’s capital city Honolulu has banned pedestrians from looking at their phones while crossing the road in an effort to tackle deaths and injuries from “distracted walking.”</p>
<p>Honolulu is the first major city in the US to implement such a ban which targets “smartphone zombies” for their own protection. &#160;</p>
<p>“We hold the unfortunate distinction of being a major city with more pedestrians being hit in crosswalks, particularly our seniors, than almost any other city in the county,” Honolulu mayor Kirk Caldwell said Thursday, Reuters reports.</p>
<p>First time offenders will receive a fine ranging from $15-35, while repeat offenders will face fines of $99.</p>
<p>The Distracted Walking Law was signed by Caldwell on Thursday and will come into effect on October 25 after the city council passed the bill 7-2.</p>
<p>Some members of the public aren’t impressed by the new rule, claiming it constitutes too much regulation.</p>
<p>“Scrap this intrusive bill, provide more education to citizens about responsible electronics usage, and allow law enforcement to focus on larger issues,” Ben Robinson said in a written statement to the council, Reuters reports.</p>
<p>“Sometimes I wish there were laws that we didn’t have to pass — that perhaps common sense would prevail,” Caldwell said, “but sometimes we lack common sense.”</p>
<p>Other cities in the US have tried to pass similar laws, but failed. However, Fort Lee in New Jersey managed to ban texting while crossing the street in 2012.</p>
<p>In 2016, the German town of <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/german-city-installed-traffic-lights-texters-180958926/" type="external">Augsburg</a> put red and green lights on the ground to make phone addicts more aware of upcoming street crossings.</p> | ‘Smartphone zombies’ face bans of up to $99 for texting while crossing the street | false | https://newsline.com/smartphone-zombies-face-bans-of-up-to-99-for-texting-while-crossing-the-street/ | 2017-07-30 | 1right-center
| ‘Smartphone zombies’ face bans of up to $99 for texting while crossing the street
<p>Published time: 30 Jul, 2017 15:03</p>
<p>Hawaii’s capital city Honolulu has banned pedestrians from looking at their phones while crossing the road in an effort to tackle deaths and injuries from “distracted walking.”</p>
<p>Honolulu is the first major city in the US to implement such a ban which targets “smartphone zombies” for their own protection. &#160;</p>
<p>“We hold the unfortunate distinction of being a major city with more pedestrians being hit in crosswalks, particularly our seniors, than almost any other city in the county,” Honolulu mayor Kirk Caldwell said Thursday, Reuters reports.</p>
<p>First time offenders will receive a fine ranging from $15-35, while repeat offenders will face fines of $99.</p>
<p>The Distracted Walking Law was signed by Caldwell on Thursday and will come into effect on October 25 after the city council passed the bill 7-2.</p>
<p>Some members of the public aren’t impressed by the new rule, claiming it constitutes too much regulation.</p>
<p>“Scrap this intrusive bill, provide more education to citizens about responsible electronics usage, and allow law enforcement to focus on larger issues,” Ben Robinson said in a written statement to the council, Reuters reports.</p>
<p>“Sometimes I wish there were laws that we didn’t have to pass — that perhaps common sense would prevail,” Caldwell said, “but sometimes we lack common sense.”</p>
<p>Other cities in the US have tried to pass similar laws, but failed. However, Fort Lee in New Jersey managed to ban texting while crossing the street in 2012.</p>
<p>In 2016, the German town of <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/german-city-installed-traffic-lights-texters-180958926/" type="external">Augsburg</a> put red and green lights on the ground to make phone addicts more aware of upcoming street crossings.</p> | 1,744 |
<p>Photo by Nathaniel St. Clair</p>
<p>It should be abundantly clear to rational observers that, while the U.S. health care system is broken, the Republican House reform proposal – called the “American Health Care Act” (AHCA) – will make matters even worse. The general details of the legislation should now be well known: 1. repeal the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) mandate that Americans purchase health insurance; 2. Eliminate the ACA’s health insurance exchanges and replace individual federal subsidies for those buying on state health care exchanges with health care-related tax credits; 3. Eliminate the tax increase on individuals earning more than $200,000 a year, and couples earning over $250,000, needed to pay for the health insurance exchange subsidies; 4. Empower states to allow insurers to increase their rates, denying health care to individuals with pre-existing conditions; and 5. Allow states to create high-risk pools for individuals seeking insurance who are priced out of traditional insurance markets due to pre-existing conditions.</p>
<p>The health care system in the U.S. is deeply dysfunctional, and the status quo set up under Obama’s ACA is unsustainable. On the one hand, the ACA’s mandate and subsidies have resulted in millions of Americans registering for care, and the number of uninsured Americans has fallen significantly, from 17.1 percent in late 2013 to 10.9 percent in early 2017. On the other hand, just because more people have health care doesn’t mean it’s affordable care. Numerous health insurers have left the federal and state insurance exchanges entirely, including Aetna, Humana, United Health, and others, because they oppose paying higher costs to insure sick Americans with pre-existing conditions.</p>
<p>The ACA was premised on the notion that insurers could better cover the costs of sick individuals if large numbers of healthy Americans were also forced to buy insurance on state insurance exchanges, thereby spreading the cost of caring for the sick across many policy holders. But these costs are greater than many insurers are willing to bear, and we’re now seeing a strong push back via insurance companies abandoning the exchanges entirely or radically increasing the cost of their plans on those exchanges. As the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates, the number of insurers operating in exchange markets declined in 74 percent of all states from 2015 to 2017. While an average of 6 insurers operated in each state in 2015, the number had fallen to 4 by 2017. A third of American states (17 total) now only have one or two insurers offering coverage on their exchanges, hardly enough to promote any sort of meaningful competition that might encourage rate reductions for customers. Furthermore, costs have skyrocketed for the plans that are available. Kaiser estimates that health insurance premium costs increased by more than 10 percent in two-thirds of American states from 2016 to 2017 alone. The average 40-year-old purchasing a silver insurance plan on an exchange across the 50 states saw their premiums increase by a whopping 24 percent from 2016 to 2017.</p>
<p>Such a massive increase in health costs is a massive red flag for consumers. Coupled with double digit increases in the cost of care each year, and over many years, it suggests that the health care system is fundamentally broken, with Americans increasingly being priced out of coverage. The reason for the recent spike in costs, and for insurers’ flight from the exchanges, should be obvious: profit motive. In a for-profit health care system, insurers strongly oppose providing affordable care to sick Americans. In a privatized health care system, corporations treat the sick as a threat to profits. The notion, embraced in the insurance industry, that companies should be able to price sick people out of the health care market is incredibly callous, pathological, and evil, at least if society’s goal is to provide for the needs of citizens. But quality coverage for the greatest number of people, including the sick, is not the goal of health care corporations. They seek to maximize profits, while minimizing health care expenses.</p>
<p>The ACA’s Democratic supporters naively thought they could play nice with the insurers, and that insurance companies would cover the sick (with the help of government subsidies), without gouging consumers. Obviously, they were wrong. Democrats could have introduced a system of price controls into the ACA to prevent private insurers from gouging citizens. Or they could have passed a health insurance reform with a “public option,” in which the government provides coverage to the sick and poor, independent of corporate insurers. Neither of these solutions was deemed acceptable by the Democrats. The party gained attention in late April of this year, when 104 Democrats – a majority of party members in the House – co-sponsored a universal health care bill. But majority support from the party’s rank-and-file doesn’t count for much when party leaders oppose such efforts.</p>
<p>The ACA was never a solution to the health care travesty afflicting Americans, and those who have experience with the law know this all too well. I was forced to purchase health insurance for my wife and two children on the Illinois insurance exchange from 2014 through 2016. At the time, I was employed as a full-time, tenured professor by a small college, where administrators pursued a scorched-earth policy against their employees, refusing to pay a cent for family health insurance. Under the Wal-Mart model of education, every penny saved is a penny earned in the minds of the neoliberal administrative class. At the time, I was nearly bankrupted by health care costs, despite Obama’s promises to provide “affordable” care for all Americans. My wife required several medical surgeries following her two miscarriages, and an additional surgery due to complications following the birth of our second son. Furthermore, my oldest son is Autistic, and was receiving expensive therapies, which meant large out-of-pocket costs and deductibles. My younger son also required expensive therapies, as he suffers from a medical condition called Apraxia – a neurological condition that delays speech-development and other motor skills. The costs for my wife and two sons on the Illinois exchange were prohibitive. Not even counting my own insurance costs, my family costs averaged between $17,000 to $20,000 a year. For a college professor making less than $65,000 a year after taxes, such costs were prohibitive.</p>
<p>Despite my negative experiences under the ACA, the law did get a few things right. The law expanded Medicaid, while banning insurers from denying people care due to pre-existing conditions. It also raised taxes on higher income Americans to provide insurance subsidies to working families buying insurance on the ACA exchanges. Despite the ACA’s flaws, the Republican AHCA plan is even worse. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would result in 24 million Americans losing their insurance in the face of the cutting back Medicaid eligibility, the elimination of federal insurance subsidies to individuals, the collapse of the insurance exchanges, and the re-introduction of pre-existing conditions denials.</p>
<p>The repeal of the ACA mandate means a significant reduction in the pool of individuals buying health insurance on the private market. Individuals within various social groups are likely to self-select out of coverage. Some examples include: poorer, young Americans who feel they are healthy enough to go without health insurance; previous Medicaid recipients who are no longer eligible for coverage; working and middle class individuals who were already struggling to pay for the exorbitant costs of health care, and are no longer required to do so; and sick individuals who will be priced out of the traditional insurance market, and unable to afford coverage in the high-risk pools. There was much talk from Republicans about coercing Americans to remain on their insurance plans, and that leaving such plans would mean their insurers would increase premiums by 30 percent if they decided to drop their plan and later re-enroll. This proposal was supposed to ensure that individuals would not simply drop their coverage once the ACA mandate was eliminated, and would remain on their insurance so that enough healthy Americans stayed in insurance pools to help pay for sicker Americans. But this proposal isn’t realistic. From the point of view of low-income individuals struggling to pay for insurance, why worry about the potential higher costs of health care that may materialize further down the road when you can’t afford the health care costs in front of you now?</p>
<p>Republicans seem quite disconnected from reality when it comes to the harmful effects that will flow from the AHCA. Their policies will hurt millions of people. They want to replace the current federal subsidies under the ACA, which go to insurers and allow individuals to pay lower health care premiums, with even more health care-related tax deductions for individuals who purchase private insurance. This plan will further subsidize the affluent – those who can already afford health care – while harming poorer, working Americans relying on the subsidies to afford any insurance at all. The elimination of insurance exchange subsidies for individuals will cause millions to drop out of the insurance market. What good is a tax rebate if you can’t afford the monthly premiums, out-of-pockets, and deductible costs for your insurance plan?</p>
<p>Republicans have also proposed creating “high-risk pools” to cover Americans with pre-existing conditions who are uninsurable in an environment that allows insurance corporations to jack up rates on the sick, effectively denying them coverage. But the funding for these pools is anemic at best, as is now clear from looking at the Republicans’ House bill. Providing a more conservative cost estimate, Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the high-risk pools will cost at least $25 billion a year. Other groups, such as the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP), estimate the pools may cost $33 billion a year. As CAP reports, funding the high-risk pools will cost $330 billion over 10 years, despite funding provisions under the Republican House proposal amounting to just $13 billion a year, or $130 billion over 10 years. Although Republicans added another $8 billion to cover the high-risk pools before passing the bill, this still amounts to as much as a $192 billion shortfall over a decade. In other words, available funds from the House bill will provide only 55 percent of all funds needed according to Kaiser’s more conservative estimate of the high-risk pools’ cost, and just 40 percent of the cost according to CAP’s more expansive estimate.</p>
<p>Are we to believe that insurance companies will simply eat the cost of hundreds of billions in health care payments to sick enrollees, in light of the federal government’s shortchanging of high-risk pools? If these pools receive only half of the funds required to provide benefits to sick Americans, why wouldn’t we assume the rest of the costs will be pushed onto consumers, especially if the AHCA legally allows insurers to do so? If sick Americans are priced out of high-risk pools that are exorbitantly expensive, then we have essentially returned to the pre-ACA status quo of denying millions care due to pre-existing conditions. As the Center for American Progress estimates, 31 million Americans are currently insured through “small-group” and “individual markets” with “about half of whom likely have at least one pre-existing health condition.” CAP projects that the high-risk pools, as currently constituted, are likely to provide care to less than 2 million people, a small fraction of the more than 15 million people with pre-existing conditions.</p>
<p>Insurers are already abandoning the ACA exchanges at an alarming rate, despite heavy federal subsidies for insurance buyers, and a large pool of customers to help defray the costs of caring for sick individuals. If under the best of conditions, private health insurers are unwilling to cover the (admittedly expensive) costs of the sick, what makes one think that they will be willing to do so with heavily under-funded high-risk pools with only sick people in them? The obvious answer is that insurers won’t provide affordable care through these pools. In short, the Republican plan for dealing with sick Americans is a clunker. It’s dead-on-arrival, merely reinstituting the old, pre-ACA status quo that denied millions of Americans accessible care.</p>
<p>There are some potential alternatives that could deal with the problems at hand, if Democrats and Republicans were willing to consider them. These include: 1. Retaining the ACA’s subsidies to individuals purchasing health insurance on an exchange, while imposing strong cost-control regulations on private insurers for the health care plans they provide, coupled with a continued prohibition on denying individuals care due to pre-existing conditions; 2. Introducing a “public option,” in which the federal government “cuts out the middleman” private insurer, and provides needed care directly to all sick and uninsured Americans; or 3. Creating a universal health care system, which eliminates the primary cause of the central problem with American health care – for-profit health insurers that are dead-set on denying affordable care to the sick and needy. If most Democrats are serious about a universal health care system, the path forward is obvious: remove the current leadership of the party, including Pelosi, Schumer, and any others who stand in the way of progressive reform. If rank-and-file Democrats are not themselves serious about implementing a universal health care system, then Americans must remove the Democratic Party itself from power, replacing it with a party committed to progressive, social democratic policies.</p> | From Bad to Worse: Forecasting the Effects of Republican Health Care Reform | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/05/12/from-bad-to-worse-forecasting-the-effects-of-republican-health-care-reform/ | 2017-05-12 | 4left
| From Bad to Worse: Forecasting the Effects of Republican Health Care Reform
<p>Photo by Nathaniel St. Clair</p>
<p>It should be abundantly clear to rational observers that, while the U.S. health care system is broken, the Republican House reform proposal – called the “American Health Care Act” (AHCA) – will make matters even worse. The general details of the legislation should now be well known: 1. repeal the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) mandate that Americans purchase health insurance; 2. Eliminate the ACA’s health insurance exchanges and replace individual federal subsidies for those buying on state health care exchanges with health care-related tax credits; 3. Eliminate the tax increase on individuals earning more than $200,000 a year, and couples earning over $250,000, needed to pay for the health insurance exchange subsidies; 4. Empower states to allow insurers to increase their rates, denying health care to individuals with pre-existing conditions; and 5. Allow states to create high-risk pools for individuals seeking insurance who are priced out of traditional insurance markets due to pre-existing conditions.</p>
<p>The health care system in the U.S. is deeply dysfunctional, and the status quo set up under Obama’s ACA is unsustainable. On the one hand, the ACA’s mandate and subsidies have resulted in millions of Americans registering for care, and the number of uninsured Americans has fallen significantly, from 17.1 percent in late 2013 to 10.9 percent in early 2017. On the other hand, just because more people have health care doesn’t mean it’s affordable care. Numerous health insurers have left the federal and state insurance exchanges entirely, including Aetna, Humana, United Health, and others, because they oppose paying higher costs to insure sick Americans with pre-existing conditions.</p>
<p>The ACA was premised on the notion that insurers could better cover the costs of sick individuals if large numbers of healthy Americans were also forced to buy insurance on state insurance exchanges, thereby spreading the cost of caring for the sick across many policy holders. But these costs are greater than many insurers are willing to bear, and we’re now seeing a strong push back via insurance companies abandoning the exchanges entirely or radically increasing the cost of their plans on those exchanges. As the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates, the number of insurers operating in exchange markets declined in 74 percent of all states from 2015 to 2017. While an average of 6 insurers operated in each state in 2015, the number had fallen to 4 by 2017. A third of American states (17 total) now only have one or two insurers offering coverage on their exchanges, hardly enough to promote any sort of meaningful competition that might encourage rate reductions for customers. Furthermore, costs have skyrocketed for the plans that are available. Kaiser estimates that health insurance premium costs increased by more than 10 percent in two-thirds of American states from 2016 to 2017 alone. The average 40-year-old purchasing a silver insurance plan on an exchange across the 50 states saw their premiums increase by a whopping 24 percent from 2016 to 2017.</p>
<p>Such a massive increase in health costs is a massive red flag for consumers. Coupled with double digit increases in the cost of care each year, and over many years, it suggests that the health care system is fundamentally broken, with Americans increasingly being priced out of coverage. The reason for the recent spike in costs, and for insurers’ flight from the exchanges, should be obvious: profit motive. In a for-profit health care system, insurers strongly oppose providing affordable care to sick Americans. In a privatized health care system, corporations treat the sick as a threat to profits. The notion, embraced in the insurance industry, that companies should be able to price sick people out of the health care market is incredibly callous, pathological, and evil, at least if society’s goal is to provide for the needs of citizens. But quality coverage for the greatest number of people, including the sick, is not the goal of health care corporations. They seek to maximize profits, while minimizing health care expenses.</p>
<p>The ACA’s Democratic supporters naively thought they could play nice with the insurers, and that insurance companies would cover the sick (with the help of government subsidies), without gouging consumers. Obviously, they were wrong. Democrats could have introduced a system of price controls into the ACA to prevent private insurers from gouging citizens. Or they could have passed a health insurance reform with a “public option,” in which the government provides coverage to the sick and poor, independent of corporate insurers. Neither of these solutions was deemed acceptable by the Democrats. The party gained attention in late April of this year, when 104 Democrats – a majority of party members in the House – co-sponsored a universal health care bill. But majority support from the party’s rank-and-file doesn’t count for much when party leaders oppose such efforts.</p>
<p>The ACA was never a solution to the health care travesty afflicting Americans, and those who have experience with the law know this all too well. I was forced to purchase health insurance for my wife and two children on the Illinois insurance exchange from 2014 through 2016. At the time, I was employed as a full-time, tenured professor by a small college, where administrators pursued a scorched-earth policy against their employees, refusing to pay a cent for family health insurance. Under the Wal-Mart model of education, every penny saved is a penny earned in the minds of the neoliberal administrative class. At the time, I was nearly bankrupted by health care costs, despite Obama’s promises to provide “affordable” care for all Americans. My wife required several medical surgeries following her two miscarriages, and an additional surgery due to complications following the birth of our second son. Furthermore, my oldest son is Autistic, and was receiving expensive therapies, which meant large out-of-pocket costs and deductibles. My younger son also required expensive therapies, as he suffers from a medical condition called Apraxia – a neurological condition that delays speech-development and other motor skills. The costs for my wife and two sons on the Illinois exchange were prohibitive. Not even counting my own insurance costs, my family costs averaged between $17,000 to $20,000 a year. For a college professor making less than $65,000 a year after taxes, such costs were prohibitive.</p>
<p>Despite my negative experiences under the ACA, the law did get a few things right. The law expanded Medicaid, while banning insurers from denying people care due to pre-existing conditions. It also raised taxes on higher income Americans to provide insurance subsidies to working families buying insurance on the ACA exchanges. Despite the ACA’s flaws, the Republican AHCA plan is even worse. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would result in 24 million Americans losing their insurance in the face of the cutting back Medicaid eligibility, the elimination of federal insurance subsidies to individuals, the collapse of the insurance exchanges, and the re-introduction of pre-existing conditions denials.</p>
<p>The repeal of the ACA mandate means a significant reduction in the pool of individuals buying health insurance on the private market. Individuals within various social groups are likely to self-select out of coverage. Some examples include: poorer, young Americans who feel they are healthy enough to go without health insurance; previous Medicaid recipients who are no longer eligible for coverage; working and middle class individuals who were already struggling to pay for the exorbitant costs of health care, and are no longer required to do so; and sick individuals who will be priced out of the traditional insurance market, and unable to afford coverage in the high-risk pools. There was much talk from Republicans about coercing Americans to remain on their insurance plans, and that leaving such plans would mean their insurers would increase premiums by 30 percent if they decided to drop their plan and later re-enroll. This proposal was supposed to ensure that individuals would not simply drop their coverage once the ACA mandate was eliminated, and would remain on their insurance so that enough healthy Americans stayed in insurance pools to help pay for sicker Americans. But this proposal isn’t realistic. From the point of view of low-income individuals struggling to pay for insurance, why worry about the potential higher costs of health care that may materialize further down the road when you can’t afford the health care costs in front of you now?</p>
<p>Republicans seem quite disconnected from reality when it comes to the harmful effects that will flow from the AHCA. Their policies will hurt millions of people. They want to replace the current federal subsidies under the ACA, which go to insurers and allow individuals to pay lower health care premiums, with even more health care-related tax deductions for individuals who purchase private insurance. This plan will further subsidize the affluent – those who can already afford health care – while harming poorer, working Americans relying on the subsidies to afford any insurance at all. The elimination of insurance exchange subsidies for individuals will cause millions to drop out of the insurance market. What good is a tax rebate if you can’t afford the monthly premiums, out-of-pockets, and deductible costs for your insurance plan?</p>
<p>Republicans have also proposed creating “high-risk pools” to cover Americans with pre-existing conditions who are uninsurable in an environment that allows insurance corporations to jack up rates on the sick, effectively denying them coverage. But the funding for these pools is anemic at best, as is now clear from looking at the Republicans’ House bill. Providing a more conservative cost estimate, Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the high-risk pools will cost at least $25 billion a year. Other groups, such as the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP), estimate the pools may cost $33 billion a year. As CAP reports, funding the high-risk pools will cost $330 billion over 10 years, despite funding provisions under the Republican House proposal amounting to just $13 billion a year, or $130 billion over 10 years. Although Republicans added another $8 billion to cover the high-risk pools before passing the bill, this still amounts to as much as a $192 billion shortfall over a decade. In other words, available funds from the House bill will provide only 55 percent of all funds needed according to Kaiser’s more conservative estimate of the high-risk pools’ cost, and just 40 percent of the cost according to CAP’s more expansive estimate.</p>
<p>Are we to believe that insurance companies will simply eat the cost of hundreds of billions in health care payments to sick enrollees, in light of the federal government’s shortchanging of high-risk pools? If these pools receive only half of the funds required to provide benefits to sick Americans, why wouldn’t we assume the rest of the costs will be pushed onto consumers, especially if the AHCA legally allows insurers to do so? If sick Americans are priced out of high-risk pools that are exorbitantly expensive, then we have essentially returned to the pre-ACA status quo of denying millions care due to pre-existing conditions. As the Center for American Progress estimates, 31 million Americans are currently insured through “small-group” and “individual markets” with “about half of whom likely have at least one pre-existing health condition.” CAP projects that the high-risk pools, as currently constituted, are likely to provide care to less than 2 million people, a small fraction of the more than 15 million people with pre-existing conditions.</p>
<p>Insurers are already abandoning the ACA exchanges at an alarming rate, despite heavy federal subsidies for insurance buyers, and a large pool of customers to help defray the costs of caring for sick individuals. If under the best of conditions, private health insurers are unwilling to cover the (admittedly expensive) costs of the sick, what makes one think that they will be willing to do so with heavily under-funded high-risk pools with only sick people in them? The obvious answer is that insurers won’t provide affordable care through these pools. In short, the Republican plan for dealing with sick Americans is a clunker. It’s dead-on-arrival, merely reinstituting the old, pre-ACA status quo that denied millions of Americans accessible care.</p>
<p>There are some potential alternatives that could deal with the problems at hand, if Democrats and Republicans were willing to consider them. These include: 1. Retaining the ACA’s subsidies to individuals purchasing health insurance on an exchange, while imposing strong cost-control regulations on private insurers for the health care plans they provide, coupled with a continued prohibition on denying individuals care due to pre-existing conditions; 2. Introducing a “public option,” in which the federal government “cuts out the middleman” private insurer, and provides needed care directly to all sick and uninsured Americans; or 3. Creating a universal health care system, which eliminates the primary cause of the central problem with American health care – for-profit health insurers that are dead-set on denying affordable care to the sick and needy. If most Democrats are serious about a universal health care system, the path forward is obvious: remove the current leadership of the party, including Pelosi, Schumer, and any others who stand in the way of progressive reform. If rank-and-file Democrats are not themselves serious about implementing a universal health care system, then Americans must remove the Democratic Party itself from power, replacing it with a party committed to progressive, social democratic policies.</p> | 1,745 |
<p />
<p>Dear Dr. Don,&#160;</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>My father died recently and I will be inheriting about $200,000. We have a 15-year mortgage at 2.99% and owe $90,000. Initially, I wanted to pay off the mortgage, use some to buy cars for me and my husband and invest the remainder. We're currently driving 1996 and 2001 Toyota Corollas.</p>
<p>I know it would make sense to invest more and keep the mortgage. But we're going to have a cash flow problem because I plan to quit my job to take care of my mother with Alzheimer's. She will be contributing $1,500 a month to the household, but our life would be a lot easier if we didn't have the $700 monthly mortgage payment. My husband makes $50,000 a year, and I have been making $34,000, but that ends in a few months. Thanks very much for any advice you have for us.</p>
<p>Thanks,&#160;</p>
<p>-Lisa Long-Term</p>
<p>Dear Lisa,&#160;</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>I'm sorry for your loss. Inheritances often come at a high price -- the loss of a loved one. Being your mother's caretaker will be a challenge. Be sure to take advantage of opportunities for respite care and local support groups. Don't shoulder the responsibility alone.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bankrate.com/partners/funnel/mortgage-rates.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Compare Mortgage Rates in Your Area Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>I'm a little conflicted whether you should prepay the mortgage with the inheritance. In general, I think that people should invest when they can earn more on their investments after-tax than they pay after-tax on their mortgage. While I don't know if you're able to fully utilize the mortgage interest deduction on your taxes, you do have a great rate on your 15-year fixed-rate mortgage. A mortgage interest rate of 3% won't be around forever. If you decide to prepay and then need to remortgage the property later, you'd likely be stuck with a higher rate.</p>
<p>Your mother's contribution of $18,000 a year will replace more than half your gross income. On a net basis, it's probably closer to 70%. Since you can decide to prepay the mortgage at any time, I'd suggest waiting a couple of months after you quit your job to see how the monthly budget works out before making the commitment to prepay your mortgage. You really don't know how long you'll be out of the workforce. Investing your inheritance may be the best way for you to build wealth for future income needs, such as retirement.</p>
<p>I also suggest that you talk with a tax professional about the tax implications of having your mother move in to be cared for by you.</p>
<p>If you use part of the inheritance to prepay your mortgage, you are actually investing in real estate. What changes is the degree of leverage used in the investment when you no longer have a mortgage.</p>
<p>Regarding your cars, they are getting old. I can see why you would want to update the fleet. The inheritance gives you the opportunity to do that without the budget strain of two car payments. Just don't get too extravagant when picking out your new rides.</p>
<p>Get more news, money-saving tips and expert advice by signing up for a free <a href="http://app.bankrate.com/prefcenter/signup.cfm?t=newsletter" type="external">Bankrate newsletter Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Ask the adviser</p>
<p>To ask a question of Dr. Don, go to the " <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/brm/ask.asp" type="external">Ask the Experts Opens a New Window.</a>" page and select one of these topics: "Financing a home," "Saving and Investing" or "Money." Read more <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/advisers/drdon.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Dr. Don columns Opens a New Window.</a> for additional personal finance advice.</p>
<p>Bankrate's content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/coinfo/disclaimer.asp" type="external">Bankrate's Terms of Use Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 2013, Bankrate Inc.</p> | Picking Priorities with an Inheritance | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/11/15/picking-priorities-with-inheritance.html | 2016-03-06 | 0right
| Picking Priorities with an Inheritance
<p />
<p>Dear Dr. Don,&#160;</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>My father died recently and I will be inheriting about $200,000. We have a 15-year mortgage at 2.99% and owe $90,000. Initially, I wanted to pay off the mortgage, use some to buy cars for me and my husband and invest the remainder. We're currently driving 1996 and 2001 Toyota Corollas.</p>
<p>I know it would make sense to invest more and keep the mortgage. But we're going to have a cash flow problem because I plan to quit my job to take care of my mother with Alzheimer's. She will be contributing $1,500 a month to the household, but our life would be a lot easier if we didn't have the $700 monthly mortgage payment. My husband makes $50,000 a year, and I have been making $34,000, but that ends in a few months. Thanks very much for any advice you have for us.</p>
<p>Thanks,&#160;</p>
<p>-Lisa Long-Term</p>
<p>Dear Lisa,&#160;</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>I'm sorry for your loss. Inheritances often come at a high price -- the loss of a loved one. Being your mother's caretaker will be a challenge. Be sure to take advantage of opportunities for respite care and local support groups. Don't shoulder the responsibility alone.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bankrate.com/partners/funnel/mortgage-rates.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Compare Mortgage Rates in Your Area Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>I'm a little conflicted whether you should prepay the mortgage with the inheritance. In general, I think that people should invest when they can earn more on their investments after-tax than they pay after-tax on their mortgage. While I don't know if you're able to fully utilize the mortgage interest deduction on your taxes, you do have a great rate on your 15-year fixed-rate mortgage. A mortgage interest rate of 3% won't be around forever. If you decide to prepay and then need to remortgage the property later, you'd likely be stuck with a higher rate.</p>
<p>Your mother's contribution of $18,000 a year will replace more than half your gross income. On a net basis, it's probably closer to 70%. Since you can decide to prepay the mortgage at any time, I'd suggest waiting a couple of months after you quit your job to see how the monthly budget works out before making the commitment to prepay your mortgage. You really don't know how long you'll be out of the workforce. Investing your inheritance may be the best way for you to build wealth for future income needs, such as retirement.</p>
<p>I also suggest that you talk with a tax professional about the tax implications of having your mother move in to be cared for by you.</p>
<p>If you use part of the inheritance to prepay your mortgage, you are actually investing in real estate. What changes is the degree of leverage used in the investment when you no longer have a mortgage.</p>
<p>Regarding your cars, they are getting old. I can see why you would want to update the fleet. The inheritance gives you the opportunity to do that without the budget strain of two car payments. Just don't get too extravagant when picking out your new rides.</p>
<p>Get more news, money-saving tips and expert advice by signing up for a free <a href="http://app.bankrate.com/prefcenter/signup.cfm?t=newsletter" type="external">Bankrate newsletter Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Ask the adviser</p>
<p>To ask a question of Dr. Don, go to the " <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/brm/ask.asp" type="external">Ask the Experts Opens a New Window.</a>" page and select one of these topics: "Financing a home," "Saving and Investing" or "Money." Read more <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/advisers/drdon.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Dr. Don columns Opens a New Window.</a> for additional personal finance advice.</p>
<p>Bankrate's content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/coinfo/disclaimer.asp" type="external">Bankrate's Terms of Use Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 2013, Bankrate Inc.</p> | 1,746 |
<p>Sotheby's adopted a "poison pill" to ward off an unwanted takeover, two days after activist investor Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC announced that it raised its stake in the auctioneer and called for its chief executive to step down.</p>
<p>The company said the shareholder rights plan would be triggered if a person or group acquired 10 percent or more of its shares.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Third Point has raised its stake to 9.3 percent, making it Sotheby's largest shareholder.</p>
<p>"Poison pills" are designed to dilute holdings of an investor should its stake exceed a given threshold.</p> | Sotheby's Adopts 'Poison Pill' to Ward off Takeover | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/10/04/sotheby-adopts-poison-pill-to-ward-off-takeover.html | 2016-01-25 | 0right
| Sotheby's Adopts 'Poison Pill' to Ward off Takeover
<p>Sotheby's adopted a "poison pill" to ward off an unwanted takeover, two days after activist investor Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC announced that it raised its stake in the auctioneer and called for its chief executive to step down.</p>
<p>The company said the shareholder rights plan would be triggered if a person or group acquired 10 percent or more of its shares.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Third Point has raised its stake to 9.3 percent, making it Sotheby's largest shareholder.</p>
<p>"Poison pills" are designed to dilute holdings of an investor should its stake exceed a given threshold.</p> | 1,747 |
<p>Some of the children and a pregnant woman being held in an immigration jail in Texas are Palestinian refugees whose families came to the USA with visas, says a Dallas lawyer.</p>
<p>Immigration attorney John Wheat Gibson represents two families that include a pregnant woman and children ages 2, 3, 5, 12, 14, and 17. The families have been incarcerated since their midnight arrests in early November by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).</p>
<p>“The children, imprisoned with their mothers, have never been accused of any wrongdoing. Neither have their mothers,” says Gibson. “All are Palestinian refugees who entered the U.S. legally, but have been denied asylum.”</p>
<p>The fathers were separated from their families, the two-year-old was placed into foster care, and the remaining women and children were sent to the privatized Hutto jail in Taylor, Texas. The education of the school-aged children has been interrupted.</p>
<p>In an affidavit supplied by Gibson, one of the fathers, Adel Said Suleiman, says that he was identified as a refugee by the United Nations before coming to the USA in 1995. He claims that his immigration status has been mishandled by others, but that he has never been accused of any crimes or wrongdoings.</p>
<p>Suleiman’s wife, Asma Quddoura, is in the Hutto jail with their son, Ayman, a 17-year-old senior at Arlington’s James Bowie High School. Attorney Gibson, who now represents Suleiman, says his client was not provided with due notice of a deportation order.</p>
<p>Suleiman, a diabetic, sits in a chilly cell at the Garvin County Jail, Oklahoma, where the stink from an overflowing toilet “is horrible.”</p>
<p>“There is another diabetic, here, too,” says the Suleiman affidavit. “The guards bring us evening medication late, after supper, although it should be taken with food. The food served here is dangerous to diabetics, because it is sweet. I asked them to leave the sugar out of my oatmeal, but they refused. I take medication in the morning and because I cannot take it with food my blood sugar is very low.”</p>
<p>The second father, Salaheddin Ibrahim, was also separated from his family, including his pregnant wife, Hanan Ahmad. Four of the Ibrahim children–Hamzeh, 14; Rodaina, 12; Maryam, 5; and Faten, 3–are incarcerated with their mother. A two-year-old daughter was placed in foster care. Ibrahim was sent to another Texas jail in Haskell.</p>
<p>At one point, says Gibson, Amad’s children “became hysterical when guards wrapped her in wrist and leg chains to take her to the hospital.”</p>
<p>“Compare the treatment of the Colombian wife of Georgia State Senator Curt B. Thompson last week,” Gibson said.</p>
<p>“She also was under a final order of deportation, but the DHS did not detain her, even though, unlike my clients, she had been hiding from them since November 28, according to Brenda Goodman, writing in the New York Times, December 6.”</p>
<p>The privatized Hutto jail was the focus of a walk and vigil last week by Texas activists protesting the incarceration of immigrants and their children.</p>
<p>“Innocent children should not be jailed and forced to live under traumatizing and dehumanizing conditions,” said a statement from vigil organizers, Texans United for Families. “It is bad policy and an impractical and inhumane response to a growing refugee crisis. The U.S. should seek alternatives to detention while making sure that it legislates policies that support families and keep them together and out of jail.”</p>
<p>Jay Johnson-Castro, a South Texas businessman who earned recognition for his walk protesting the planned border wall, also walked from the nearby Texas Capitol to join the vigil. In a follow-up email, Johnson-Castro encouraged more activism:</p>
<p>“Get access into these so called ‘detention centers’ which are little more than prison camps that exploit desperate people only to make obscene profits.”</p>
<p>The Hutto jail is named after T. Don Hutto, co-founder of Correctional Corporation of America (CCA), the jail’s corporate proprietor. In 2004, CCA announced that the jail would be closed for lack of occupancy, but the site was revived as a result of new immigration enforcement policies.</p>
<p>“Although the [Hutto jail] contract does not provide for a guaranteed occupancy,” said a December 2005 release from CCA, “the Company expects the facility to be substantially occupied before the end of the second quarter of 2006.” Activists say the jail detains 400 immigrants, half of them children.</p>
<p>“We believe this contract represents an important step in this ongoing initiative being undertaken by ICE,” stated John Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of CCA, shortly before Christmas last year.</p>
<p>GREG MOSES is editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review and author of <a href="" type="internal">Revolution of Conscience: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Philosophy of Nonviolence</a>. His chapter on civil rights under Clinton and Bush appears in <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Dime’s Worth of Difference</a>, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Globalized Gulag | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/12/19/globalized-gulag/ | 2006-12-19 | 4left
| Globalized Gulag
<p>Some of the children and a pregnant woman being held in an immigration jail in Texas are Palestinian refugees whose families came to the USA with visas, says a Dallas lawyer.</p>
<p>Immigration attorney John Wheat Gibson represents two families that include a pregnant woman and children ages 2, 3, 5, 12, 14, and 17. The families have been incarcerated since their midnight arrests in early November by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).</p>
<p>“The children, imprisoned with their mothers, have never been accused of any wrongdoing. Neither have their mothers,” says Gibson. “All are Palestinian refugees who entered the U.S. legally, but have been denied asylum.”</p>
<p>The fathers were separated from their families, the two-year-old was placed into foster care, and the remaining women and children were sent to the privatized Hutto jail in Taylor, Texas. The education of the school-aged children has been interrupted.</p>
<p>In an affidavit supplied by Gibson, one of the fathers, Adel Said Suleiman, says that he was identified as a refugee by the United Nations before coming to the USA in 1995. He claims that his immigration status has been mishandled by others, but that he has never been accused of any crimes or wrongdoings.</p>
<p>Suleiman’s wife, Asma Quddoura, is in the Hutto jail with their son, Ayman, a 17-year-old senior at Arlington’s James Bowie High School. Attorney Gibson, who now represents Suleiman, says his client was not provided with due notice of a deportation order.</p>
<p>Suleiman, a diabetic, sits in a chilly cell at the Garvin County Jail, Oklahoma, where the stink from an overflowing toilet “is horrible.”</p>
<p>“There is another diabetic, here, too,” says the Suleiman affidavit. “The guards bring us evening medication late, after supper, although it should be taken with food. The food served here is dangerous to diabetics, because it is sweet. I asked them to leave the sugar out of my oatmeal, but they refused. I take medication in the morning and because I cannot take it with food my blood sugar is very low.”</p>
<p>The second father, Salaheddin Ibrahim, was also separated from his family, including his pregnant wife, Hanan Ahmad. Four of the Ibrahim children–Hamzeh, 14; Rodaina, 12; Maryam, 5; and Faten, 3–are incarcerated with their mother. A two-year-old daughter was placed in foster care. Ibrahim was sent to another Texas jail in Haskell.</p>
<p>At one point, says Gibson, Amad’s children “became hysterical when guards wrapped her in wrist and leg chains to take her to the hospital.”</p>
<p>“Compare the treatment of the Colombian wife of Georgia State Senator Curt B. Thompson last week,” Gibson said.</p>
<p>“She also was under a final order of deportation, but the DHS did not detain her, even though, unlike my clients, she had been hiding from them since November 28, according to Brenda Goodman, writing in the New York Times, December 6.”</p>
<p>The privatized Hutto jail was the focus of a walk and vigil last week by Texas activists protesting the incarceration of immigrants and their children.</p>
<p>“Innocent children should not be jailed and forced to live under traumatizing and dehumanizing conditions,” said a statement from vigil organizers, Texans United for Families. “It is bad policy and an impractical and inhumane response to a growing refugee crisis. The U.S. should seek alternatives to detention while making sure that it legislates policies that support families and keep them together and out of jail.”</p>
<p>Jay Johnson-Castro, a South Texas businessman who earned recognition for his walk protesting the planned border wall, also walked from the nearby Texas Capitol to join the vigil. In a follow-up email, Johnson-Castro encouraged more activism:</p>
<p>“Get access into these so called ‘detention centers’ which are little more than prison camps that exploit desperate people only to make obscene profits.”</p>
<p>The Hutto jail is named after T. Don Hutto, co-founder of Correctional Corporation of America (CCA), the jail’s corporate proprietor. In 2004, CCA announced that the jail would be closed for lack of occupancy, but the site was revived as a result of new immigration enforcement policies.</p>
<p>“Although the [Hutto jail] contract does not provide for a guaranteed occupancy,” said a December 2005 release from CCA, “the Company expects the facility to be substantially occupied before the end of the second quarter of 2006.” Activists say the jail detains 400 immigrants, half of them children.</p>
<p>“We believe this contract represents an important step in this ongoing initiative being undertaken by ICE,” stated John Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of CCA, shortly before Christmas last year.</p>
<p>GREG MOSES is editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review and author of <a href="" type="internal">Revolution of Conscience: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Philosophy of Nonviolence</a>. His chapter on civil rights under Clinton and Bush appears in <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Dime’s Worth of Difference</a>, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | 1,748 |
<p>Sept. 29 (UPI) — At least 22 people are dead and nearly 40 people were injured at Mumbai’s Elphinstone railway station in a bridge stampede on Friday.</p>
<p>The fatal stampede began around 11 a.m., when officials say several people tripped and fell on the crowded bridge linking the Elphinstone Road and Parel suburban railway stations.</p>
<p>Officials <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/elphinstone-railway-station-stampede-live-updates-mumbai-dead-injured-4866641/" type="external">attributed the stampede</a> and the deaths to heavy rainfall which contributed to more people using the already overcrowded bridge for shelter.</p>
<p>Railway experts and daily commuters, however, believe the railways are to blame, citing that the footbridges are unequipped to handle the daily crowds.</p>
<p>“This accident will hopefully be a wake-up call for the minister and his officials,” one Parel <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/22-dead-35-injured-in-stampede-at-mumbai-s-elphinstone-road-station/story-oqPqfPrr7p0C9pE9W8SNPK.html" type="external">resident said</a>. “Instead of fancy bullet trains, they should first ensure railway commuters don’t die horrid deaths like this because of their negligence.”</p>
<p>Calling it a man-made disaster, Congress <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/elphinstone-road-station-stampede-those-responsible-must-be-held-accountable-says-sonia-gandhi/" type="external">President Sonia Gandhi said</a> on Friday, “such accidents could have been avoided had there been proper planning and concern for safety.”</p>
<p>Government officials made clear they would compensate the families of the dead with roughly $8,000 and planned to pay for the medical expenses of those injured.</p> | 22 dead, nearly 40 injured in Mumbai bridge stampede | false | https://newsline.com/22-dead-nearly-40-injured-in-mumbai-bridge-stampede/ | 2017-09-29 | 1right-center
| 22 dead, nearly 40 injured in Mumbai bridge stampede
<p>Sept. 29 (UPI) — At least 22 people are dead and nearly 40 people were injured at Mumbai’s Elphinstone railway station in a bridge stampede on Friday.</p>
<p>The fatal stampede began around 11 a.m., when officials say several people tripped and fell on the crowded bridge linking the Elphinstone Road and Parel suburban railway stations.</p>
<p>Officials <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/elphinstone-railway-station-stampede-live-updates-mumbai-dead-injured-4866641/" type="external">attributed the stampede</a> and the deaths to heavy rainfall which contributed to more people using the already overcrowded bridge for shelter.</p>
<p>Railway experts and daily commuters, however, believe the railways are to blame, citing that the footbridges are unequipped to handle the daily crowds.</p>
<p>“This accident will hopefully be a wake-up call for the minister and his officials,” one Parel <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/22-dead-35-injured-in-stampede-at-mumbai-s-elphinstone-road-station/story-oqPqfPrr7p0C9pE9W8SNPK.html" type="external">resident said</a>. “Instead of fancy bullet trains, they should first ensure railway commuters don’t die horrid deaths like this because of their negligence.”</p>
<p>Calling it a man-made disaster, Congress <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/elphinstone-road-station-stampede-those-responsible-must-be-held-accountable-says-sonia-gandhi/" type="external">President Sonia Gandhi said</a> on Friday, “such accidents could have been avoided had there been proper planning and concern for safety.”</p>
<p>Government officials made clear they would compensate the families of the dead with roughly $8,000 and planned to pay for the medical expenses of those injured.</p> | 1,749 |
<p>Over the course of the last month, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/11/01/need-strong-leader-trumps-popularity-high-among-iraqis.html" type="external">Fox News</a> surveyed dozens of Iraqi citizens to get their perspective on the presidential race in the United States and found that many in the war-torn country prefer GOP nominee Donald Trump to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>Nseeif Al-Khattabi, a Shia Muslim and governor of the Holy Karbala Province Council, said that America needs to eschew political correctness as it relates to radical Islam, and that "if [Trump] follows his words and his strong stance and points his fingers at these countries that support terrorism, he will be able to stop it." Al-Khattabi added that if the GOP nominee needed him to speak at a rally, he would gladly accept.</p>
<p>Gen. Sarhad Qader Mohammad, director of the districts and towns of Kirkuk Province Police Department, agrees. Mohammad says that Clinton has a "softer approach" on terrorism, whereas Trump "won't put up with it."</p>
<p>Many Iraqis who spoke with Fox News seem to fear a Hillary Clinton presidency because they see her as an extension of President Obama, who's foreign policy decisions created a power vacuum in Iraq as well as in Libya, which was then capitalized upon by the Islamic State.</p>
<p>President Obama's foreign policy blunders are numerous and deeply felt.</p>
<p>Regardless of one's opinion of the propriety or efficacy of the invasion of Iraq, few can deny that Obama's decision to withdraw all troops, leaving virtually no American presence behind, created a destabilizing void. President Obama and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, helped create yet another void by helping topple Libyan prime minister, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011.</p>
<p>Obama largely ignored Iran's Green Movement in 2009, when, after an allegedly rigged election, hundreds of thousands of moderate Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran in protest. According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-24/why-obama-let-iran-s-green-revolution-fail" type="external">Jay Solomon</a> of The Wall Street Journal, Obama actively avoided offering help to the protesters, even ordering the CIA to "stand down."</p>
<p>In contrast to his turning a blind eye to the Iranian Green Movement, Present Obama encouraged the 2011 Arab Spring revolution, during which time Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, was effectively thrown out of office. After Mubarak was gone, Mohamed Morsi of the radical Muslim Brotherhood took power for a brief time.</p>
<p>For the Iraqis interviewed by Fox News, Trump's tough talk may come across as refreshing after eight years of Obama's foreign policy weakness. However, two critical points must be considered. Aside from general bombast, Donald Trump hasn't made his foreign policy plans with regard to the Middle East all that clear. What he has said is strikingly broad and often incoherent. Moreover, strength alone isn't inherently smart or effective. Trump has signaled that he wants to partner with Russia, a nation many consider to be our greatest geopolitical enemy.</p>
<p>However, there is indeed a chance that Clinton, while not an Obama clone, would continue the president's ineffectual and feckless policies, specifically with regard to radical Islam. This would only cause further harm to the Iraqi people. Between the two less than ideal candidates, many Iraqis have made clear they'd prefer strength, or at least strong talk, over more of the same.</p> | Iraqis Allegedly Prefer Trump to Clinton--But Why? | true | https://dailywire.com/news/10464/iraqis-allegedly-prefer-trump-clinton-why-frank-camp | 2016-11-03 | 0right
| Iraqis Allegedly Prefer Trump to Clinton--But Why?
<p>Over the course of the last month, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/11/01/need-strong-leader-trumps-popularity-high-among-iraqis.html" type="external">Fox News</a> surveyed dozens of Iraqi citizens to get their perspective on the presidential race in the United States and found that many in the war-torn country prefer GOP nominee Donald Trump to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>Nseeif Al-Khattabi, a Shia Muslim and governor of the Holy Karbala Province Council, said that America needs to eschew political correctness as it relates to radical Islam, and that "if [Trump] follows his words and his strong stance and points his fingers at these countries that support terrorism, he will be able to stop it." Al-Khattabi added that if the GOP nominee needed him to speak at a rally, he would gladly accept.</p>
<p>Gen. Sarhad Qader Mohammad, director of the districts and towns of Kirkuk Province Police Department, agrees. Mohammad says that Clinton has a "softer approach" on terrorism, whereas Trump "won't put up with it."</p>
<p>Many Iraqis who spoke with Fox News seem to fear a Hillary Clinton presidency because they see her as an extension of President Obama, who's foreign policy decisions created a power vacuum in Iraq as well as in Libya, which was then capitalized upon by the Islamic State.</p>
<p>President Obama's foreign policy blunders are numerous and deeply felt.</p>
<p>Regardless of one's opinion of the propriety or efficacy of the invasion of Iraq, few can deny that Obama's decision to withdraw all troops, leaving virtually no American presence behind, created a destabilizing void. President Obama and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, helped create yet another void by helping topple Libyan prime minister, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011.</p>
<p>Obama largely ignored Iran's Green Movement in 2009, when, after an allegedly rigged election, hundreds of thousands of moderate Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran in protest. According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-24/why-obama-let-iran-s-green-revolution-fail" type="external">Jay Solomon</a> of The Wall Street Journal, Obama actively avoided offering help to the protesters, even ordering the CIA to "stand down."</p>
<p>In contrast to his turning a blind eye to the Iranian Green Movement, Present Obama encouraged the 2011 Arab Spring revolution, during which time Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, was effectively thrown out of office. After Mubarak was gone, Mohamed Morsi of the radical Muslim Brotherhood took power for a brief time.</p>
<p>For the Iraqis interviewed by Fox News, Trump's tough talk may come across as refreshing after eight years of Obama's foreign policy weakness. However, two critical points must be considered. Aside from general bombast, Donald Trump hasn't made his foreign policy plans with regard to the Middle East all that clear. What he has said is strikingly broad and often incoherent. Moreover, strength alone isn't inherently smart or effective. Trump has signaled that he wants to partner with Russia, a nation many consider to be our greatest geopolitical enemy.</p>
<p>However, there is indeed a chance that Clinton, while not an Obama clone, would continue the president's ineffectual and feckless policies, specifically with regard to radical Islam. This would only cause further harm to the Iraqi people. Between the two less than ideal candidates, many Iraqis have made clear they'd prefer strength, or at least strong talk, over more of the same.</p> | 1,750 |
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<p>Albuquerque firefighters were able to keep a fire in a furniture business from spreading to two adjacent businesses in a strip mall.</p>
<p>The Fire Department says smoke from the fire was visible from miles away as firefighters headed to Rodeo Rustic Furniture at 111 Carlisle Northeast Thursday morning.</p>
<p>According to the department, firefighters were able to put out the fire within 30 minutes.</p>
<p>Further details were not immediately available.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Albuquerque firefighters contain fire at business | false | https://abqjournal.com/597207/albuquerque-firefighters-contain-fire-at-business.html | 2least
| Albuquerque firefighters contain fire at business
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<p>Albuquerque firefighters were able to keep a fire in a furniture business from spreading to two adjacent businesses in a strip mall.</p>
<p>The Fire Department says smoke from the fire was visible from miles away as firefighters headed to Rodeo Rustic Furniture at 111 Carlisle Northeast Thursday morning.</p>
<p>According to the department, firefighters were able to put out the fire within 30 minutes.</p>
<p>Further details were not immediately available.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 1,751 |
|
<p>They're not Hollywood stars, they're not TV personalities and they don't play in a rock band, but their pay packages are in the same league.</p>
<p>Six of the 10 highest-paid CEOs last year worked in the media industry, according to a study carried out by executive compensation data firm Equilar and The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The best-paid chief executive of a large American company was David Zaslav, head of Discovery Communications (NASDAQ:DISCA), the pay-TV channel operator that is home to "Shark Week." His total compensation more than quadrupled to $156.1 million in 2014 after he extended his contract.</p>
<p>Les Moonves, of CBS (NYSE:CBS), held on to second place in the rankings, despite a drop in pay from a year earlier. His pay package totaled $54.4 million.</p>
<p>The remaining four CEOs, from entertainment giants Viacom (NASDAQ:VIAB), Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) and Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), have ranked among the nation's highest-paid executives for at least four years, according to the Equilar/AP pay study.</p>
<p>One reason for the high level of pay in the industry is that its CEOs are dealing with well-paid individuals.</p>
<p>"The talent, the actors and directors and writers, they're being paid a lot of money," said Steven Kaplan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. "In industries where the talent makes a lot of money, the CEO makes a lot of money as well."</p>
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<p>Pay packages for CEOs overall grew for the fifth straight year in 2014, driven by a rising stock market that pushed up the value of executive stock awards. Median compensation for the heads of Standard &amp; Poor's 500 companies rose to a record $10.6 million, up from $10.5 million the year before, according to the Equilar/AP pay study.</p>
<p>Peer pressure is another factor driving up executive compensation. The board members responsible for setting CEO pay typically consider what the heads of similar companies are making. If pay for one goes up, it will likely go up for others.</p>
<p>For the chieftains of media, there are also other factors boosting pay.</p>
<p>Several work at companies where a few major shareholders control the vote.</p>
<p>The media magnate Sumner Redstone controls almost 80 percent of the voting stock at CBS and Viacom. Because of his large holdings, Redstone can easily override the concerns of other investors about the level of CEO pay. Discovery's voting stock is heavily influenced by the brothers Si and Donald Newhouse and John Malone, another influential investor in the media industry.</p>
<p>At Comcast, which owns NBC and Universal Studios, CEO and Chairman Brian Roberts controls a third of his company's voting stock. That means he has substantial influence on the pay that he is awarded.</p>
<p>Comcast had no comment when contacted by the AP for this story.</p>
<p>All of the media executives have tried, with varying degrees of success, to maximize the value of their company's entertainment brands online and on mobile devices.</p>
<p>For example, Moonves at CBS launched the series "Under the Dome" — based on the Stephen King novel — both on the network and on the Amazon Prime streaming service. Besides reaching online customers, the move helped offset production costs. The company, whose shows also include "NCIS" and "The Good Wife," has attracted 100,000 customers to "CBS All Access," an online subscription platform that costs $6 a month. Time Warner, under CEO Jeffrey Bewkes, launched HBO Now, which streams shows to computers, tablets and smartphones for $15 a month.</p>
<p>At Disney, CEO Bob Iger has bolstered revenues through canny acquisitions.</p>
<p>The purchase of Marvel in 2009 is reaping dividends with blockbuster superhero movies. "Avengers: Age of Ultron," pulled in almost $190 million in its opening weekend, making it the second-biggest U.S. movie opening ever. Disney's purchase of LucasFilms in 2012 means it also owns the highly lucrative "Star Wars" franchise, with the next installment scheduled for release in December.</p>
<p>Disney spokesman David Jefferson said in an email that Iger's pay award "reflected the company's outstanding financial performance," and cited its record earnings. He also said that during Iger's tenure Disney has returned more than $51 billion to stockholders through share buybacks and dividends.</p>
<p>Media stocks have climbed strongly the past five years. An index of media companies in the S&amp;P 500 index has risen 193 percent compared with a gain of 95 percent for the broader S&amp;P 500.</p>
<p>Discovery's stock price has climbed almost fivefold since it started trading as a public company in September 2008.</p>
<p>Zaslav, who has led Discovery since 2007, saw his compensation rise last year after he negotiated a new contract that will keep him at the company until 2019. Last year's pay package included $145 million in stock and options awards, $6 million in cash bonuses, $3 million in base salary, and $1.9 million in perks.</p>
<p>The company has pushed its channels overseas where pay TV penetration is growing faster than in the U.S. Last year, Discovery also grabbed a controlling stake in Eurosport International, making a bet on live sports. The move into European sports has set the stage for renewed growth overseas.</p>
<p>Zaslav has done a terrific job, said Chris Marangi, portfolio manager at GAMCO Investors Inc., which holds more than $150 million in Discovery stock.</p>
<p>The CEO has returned cash to shareholders and increased viewership largely through company-owned reality TV shows like "Say Yes to the Dress" and "Deadliest Catch."</p>
<p>"He's a dynamic leader at the helm of a company in a very fast-changing industry," Marangi said.</p>
<p>Even though Discovery's stock has slumped over the last 18 months, it is still up 243 percent since Zaslav took the helm in 2007. That compares with a gain of 49 percent for the S&amp;P 500 over the same time.</p>
<p>Discovery declined to comment for this story when contacted by the AP.</p>
<p>The pay package of Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman's reflects "solid financial results, execution on key operational goals and a return of $3.9 billion to stockholders through stock buybacks and dividends," company spokesman Jeremy Zweig said in an e-mail.</p>
<p>Top executives are getting paid more because much of their compensation comes from bonuses linked to their company's financial and stock performance. Only a small part of their pay comes from their base salary.</p>
<p>Structuring pay this way is intended to align the executives' interests to that of the company and to encourage long-term strategies.</p>
<p>Because corporate earnings have grown consistently, with a near six-year expansion of the economy, executives have met or beaten their earnings targets generally.</p>
<p>Earnings-per-share for the average S&amp;P 500 company rose 7.7 percent in 2014, according to data from S&amp;P Capital IQ. Revenue-per-share climbed 4 percent.</p>
<p>"There should be a strong link between pay and performance. The markets were up in 2014 so it makes sense that (compensation) was going in the same direction," said Bess Joffe, managing director of corporate governance at TIAA-CREF, an asset management company. "We would also expect, in a downturn, for the compensation numbers to fall."</p>
<p>The gap between pay for CEOs and that of the average worker narrowed slightly last year, because average wages crept up more than CEO pay did.</p>
<p>A chief executive made about 205 times the average worker's wage, compared with 257 times the year before, according to AP calculations using earnings statistics from The Labor Department. That gap was still much wider than six years before, during the recession, when executives earned 181 times the average worker's pay.</p>
<p>The notion that every CEO is a visionary in the mold of Steve Jobs, who led Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), or Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), is challenged by some.</p>
<p>"There are superstar CEOs that definitely are the driving force of the company, but while they are out there, they are rare," said Charles Elson, a corporate governance expert at the University of Delaware.</p>
<p>Elson says that boards should look at overall levels of pay within their own company, rather than benchmarking pay against CEOs working in the same industry. He also says companies are paying too much to retain their chief executives when there is little evidence they'll move to competitors.</p>
<p>For the annual CEO pay study, Equilar assessed data from 338 companies that filed proxy statements with regulators between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2015. To calculate a CEO's pay package, Equilar and the AP looked at salary, stock and option awards, perks and bonuses.</p>
<p>The study only includes chief executives who have been at the helm of their company for at least two years. Because of these criteria, there are some notable omissions from the list.</p>
<p>Among other findings:</p>
<p>— The industry with the biggest pay increase was basic materials, which includes oil, mining and chemical companies. Median pay at these companies rose by 15 percent last year. Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson was the highest paid, making $28.4 million last year.</p>
<p>— Female CEOs again had a median pay package worth more than their male counterparts. Last year, women chief executives earned $15.9 million compared with the median salary for male CEOs of $10.4 million. The number of female CEOs included in the study rose to 17 from 12 in the previous year. Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer was the highest paid, earning $42.1 million, which placed her fifth among CEOs in the survey.</p>
<p>— Richard Hayne, the CEO and co-founder of Urban Outfitters, received the biggest pay bump. His compensation soared 682 percent to $535,636. Most of the increase came from his performance cash bonus, which jumped to $500,000 from $35,000 a year earlier. Hayne returned to lead the company in 2012 after an absence of five years.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Nakashima reported from Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Follow Steve Rothwell on Twitter @SteveRothwellAP</p>
<p>Follow Ryan Nakashima on Twitter @rnakashi</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>http://www.equilar.com/</p>
<p>Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. YaSummary</p> | Media CEOs Dominate Ranks of Top-Paid Executives | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2015/05/28/media-ceos-dominate-ranks-top-paid-executives.html | 2016-03-04 | 0right
| Media CEOs Dominate Ranks of Top-Paid Executives
<p>They're not Hollywood stars, they're not TV personalities and they don't play in a rock band, but their pay packages are in the same league.</p>
<p>Six of the 10 highest-paid CEOs last year worked in the media industry, according to a study carried out by executive compensation data firm Equilar and The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The best-paid chief executive of a large American company was David Zaslav, head of Discovery Communications (NASDAQ:DISCA), the pay-TV channel operator that is home to "Shark Week." His total compensation more than quadrupled to $156.1 million in 2014 after he extended his contract.</p>
<p>Les Moonves, of CBS (NYSE:CBS), held on to second place in the rankings, despite a drop in pay from a year earlier. His pay package totaled $54.4 million.</p>
<p>The remaining four CEOs, from entertainment giants Viacom (NASDAQ:VIAB), Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) and Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), have ranked among the nation's highest-paid executives for at least four years, according to the Equilar/AP pay study.</p>
<p>One reason for the high level of pay in the industry is that its CEOs are dealing with well-paid individuals.</p>
<p>"The talent, the actors and directors and writers, they're being paid a lot of money," said Steven Kaplan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. "In industries where the talent makes a lot of money, the CEO makes a lot of money as well."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Pay packages for CEOs overall grew for the fifth straight year in 2014, driven by a rising stock market that pushed up the value of executive stock awards. Median compensation for the heads of Standard &amp; Poor's 500 companies rose to a record $10.6 million, up from $10.5 million the year before, according to the Equilar/AP pay study.</p>
<p>Peer pressure is another factor driving up executive compensation. The board members responsible for setting CEO pay typically consider what the heads of similar companies are making. If pay for one goes up, it will likely go up for others.</p>
<p>For the chieftains of media, there are also other factors boosting pay.</p>
<p>Several work at companies where a few major shareholders control the vote.</p>
<p>The media magnate Sumner Redstone controls almost 80 percent of the voting stock at CBS and Viacom. Because of his large holdings, Redstone can easily override the concerns of other investors about the level of CEO pay. Discovery's voting stock is heavily influenced by the brothers Si and Donald Newhouse and John Malone, another influential investor in the media industry.</p>
<p>At Comcast, which owns NBC and Universal Studios, CEO and Chairman Brian Roberts controls a third of his company's voting stock. That means he has substantial influence on the pay that he is awarded.</p>
<p>Comcast had no comment when contacted by the AP for this story.</p>
<p>All of the media executives have tried, with varying degrees of success, to maximize the value of their company's entertainment brands online and on mobile devices.</p>
<p>For example, Moonves at CBS launched the series "Under the Dome" — based on the Stephen King novel — both on the network and on the Amazon Prime streaming service. Besides reaching online customers, the move helped offset production costs. The company, whose shows also include "NCIS" and "The Good Wife," has attracted 100,000 customers to "CBS All Access," an online subscription platform that costs $6 a month. Time Warner, under CEO Jeffrey Bewkes, launched HBO Now, which streams shows to computers, tablets and smartphones for $15 a month.</p>
<p>At Disney, CEO Bob Iger has bolstered revenues through canny acquisitions.</p>
<p>The purchase of Marvel in 2009 is reaping dividends with blockbuster superhero movies. "Avengers: Age of Ultron," pulled in almost $190 million in its opening weekend, making it the second-biggest U.S. movie opening ever. Disney's purchase of LucasFilms in 2012 means it also owns the highly lucrative "Star Wars" franchise, with the next installment scheduled for release in December.</p>
<p>Disney spokesman David Jefferson said in an email that Iger's pay award "reflected the company's outstanding financial performance," and cited its record earnings. He also said that during Iger's tenure Disney has returned more than $51 billion to stockholders through share buybacks and dividends.</p>
<p>Media stocks have climbed strongly the past five years. An index of media companies in the S&amp;P 500 index has risen 193 percent compared with a gain of 95 percent for the broader S&amp;P 500.</p>
<p>Discovery's stock price has climbed almost fivefold since it started trading as a public company in September 2008.</p>
<p>Zaslav, who has led Discovery since 2007, saw his compensation rise last year after he negotiated a new contract that will keep him at the company until 2019. Last year's pay package included $145 million in stock and options awards, $6 million in cash bonuses, $3 million in base salary, and $1.9 million in perks.</p>
<p>The company has pushed its channels overseas where pay TV penetration is growing faster than in the U.S. Last year, Discovery also grabbed a controlling stake in Eurosport International, making a bet on live sports. The move into European sports has set the stage for renewed growth overseas.</p>
<p>Zaslav has done a terrific job, said Chris Marangi, portfolio manager at GAMCO Investors Inc., which holds more than $150 million in Discovery stock.</p>
<p>The CEO has returned cash to shareholders and increased viewership largely through company-owned reality TV shows like "Say Yes to the Dress" and "Deadliest Catch."</p>
<p>"He's a dynamic leader at the helm of a company in a very fast-changing industry," Marangi said.</p>
<p>Even though Discovery's stock has slumped over the last 18 months, it is still up 243 percent since Zaslav took the helm in 2007. That compares with a gain of 49 percent for the S&amp;P 500 over the same time.</p>
<p>Discovery declined to comment for this story when contacted by the AP.</p>
<p>The pay package of Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman's reflects "solid financial results, execution on key operational goals and a return of $3.9 billion to stockholders through stock buybacks and dividends," company spokesman Jeremy Zweig said in an e-mail.</p>
<p>Top executives are getting paid more because much of their compensation comes from bonuses linked to their company's financial and stock performance. Only a small part of their pay comes from their base salary.</p>
<p>Structuring pay this way is intended to align the executives' interests to that of the company and to encourage long-term strategies.</p>
<p>Because corporate earnings have grown consistently, with a near six-year expansion of the economy, executives have met or beaten their earnings targets generally.</p>
<p>Earnings-per-share for the average S&amp;P 500 company rose 7.7 percent in 2014, according to data from S&amp;P Capital IQ. Revenue-per-share climbed 4 percent.</p>
<p>"There should be a strong link between pay and performance. The markets were up in 2014 so it makes sense that (compensation) was going in the same direction," said Bess Joffe, managing director of corporate governance at TIAA-CREF, an asset management company. "We would also expect, in a downturn, for the compensation numbers to fall."</p>
<p>The gap between pay for CEOs and that of the average worker narrowed slightly last year, because average wages crept up more than CEO pay did.</p>
<p>A chief executive made about 205 times the average worker's wage, compared with 257 times the year before, according to AP calculations using earnings statistics from The Labor Department. That gap was still much wider than six years before, during the recession, when executives earned 181 times the average worker's pay.</p>
<p>The notion that every CEO is a visionary in the mold of Steve Jobs, who led Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), or Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), is challenged by some.</p>
<p>"There are superstar CEOs that definitely are the driving force of the company, but while they are out there, they are rare," said Charles Elson, a corporate governance expert at the University of Delaware.</p>
<p>Elson says that boards should look at overall levels of pay within their own company, rather than benchmarking pay against CEOs working in the same industry. He also says companies are paying too much to retain their chief executives when there is little evidence they'll move to competitors.</p>
<p>For the annual CEO pay study, Equilar assessed data from 338 companies that filed proxy statements with regulators between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2015. To calculate a CEO's pay package, Equilar and the AP looked at salary, stock and option awards, perks and bonuses.</p>
<p>The study only includes chief executives who have been at the helm of their company for at least two years. Because of these criteria, there are some notable omissions from the list.</p>
<p>Among other findings:</p>
<p>— The industry with the biggest pay increase was basic materials, which includes oil, mining and chemical companies. Median pay at these companies rose by 15 percent last year. Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson was the highest paid, making $28.4 million last year.</p>
<p>— Female CEOs again had a median pay package worth more than their male counterparts. Last year, women chief executives earned $15.9 million compared with the median salary for male CEOs of $10.4 million. The number of female CEOs included in the study rose to 17 from 12 in the previous year. Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer was the highest paid, earning $42.1 million, which placed her fifth among CEOs in the survey.</p>
<p>— Richard Hayne, the CEO and co-founder of Urban Outfitters, received the biggest pay bump. His compensation soared 682 percent to $535,636. Most of the increase came from his performance cash bonus, which jumped to $500,000 from $35,000 a year earlier. Hayne returned to lead the company in 2012 after an absence of five years.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Nakashima reported from Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Follow Steve Rothwell on Twitter @SteveRothwellAP</p>
<p>Follow Ryan Nakashima on Twitter @rnakashi</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>http://www.equilar.com/</p>
<p>Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. YaSummary</p> | 1,752 |
<p>The International Olympic Committee (IOC) urged South Korea to bar a footballer from the bronze medal ceremony after being photographed holding a political message.</p>
<p>The South Korean player was spotted holding a flag supporting the sovereignty of islands disputed by his home country and Japan.</p>
<p>The two islands,&#160;which are known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea - Liancourt Rocks in English - are equidistant from both countries, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/IOC-investigates-South-Korean-flag-incident-3780894.php" type="external">reported the Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>Claims to the island go <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liancourt_Rocks#Pollution_and_environmental_destruction" type="external">back hundreds of years</a> and have caused various protests and demonstrations in both South Korea and Japan.</p>
<p>Fifa had already said that it would investigate the incident, while the IOC got involved in the dispute today.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/south-korea/120810/japan-ambassador-south-korea-disputed-islands-south-china-sea" type="external">Japan recalls ambassador to South Korea in another island dispute</a></p>
<p>Both forbid political statements at matches.</p>
<p>The bronze medal game was held just hours after South Korean president&#160;Lee Myung-bak visited the disputed islands, causing Japan to recall its ambassador to the country, <a href="http://ajw.asahi.com/article/asia/korean_peninsula/AJ201208110058" type="external">reported Asahi Shimbun</a>.</p>
<p>It was feared that the match, which South Korea won 2-0, was going to further raise diplomatic tensions, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/aug/11/london-2012-olympics-south-korea-flag?newsfeed=true" type="external">said the Guardian</a>, yet was free of incident.</p>
<p>On Saturday, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/11/us-oly-socc-islands-day-idUSBRE87A07P20120811" type="external">according to Reuters</a>, the IOC made a statement that read,&#160;"We have opened an inquiry and have asked the NOC of the Republic of Korea for an explanation," the International Olympic Committee said in a statement on Saturday. We have also requested that the Republic of Korea NOC takes swift action on this issue and that the athlete not be present at this afternoon's medal presentation ceremony."</p> | IOC urges South Korea to bar soccer player from ceremony | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-08-11/ioc-urges-south-korea-bar-soccer-player-ceremony | 2012-08-11 | 3left-center
| IOC urges South Korea to bar soccer player from ceremony
<p>The International Olympic Committee (IOC) urged South Korea to bar a footballer from the bronze medal ceremony after being photographed holding a political message.</p>
<p>The South Korean player was spotted holding a flag supporting the sovereignty of islands disputed by his home country and Japan.</p>
<p>The two islands,&#160;which are known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea - Liancourt Rocks in English - are equidistant from both countries, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/IOC-investigates-South-Korean-flag-incident-3780894.php" type="external">reported the Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>Claims to the island go <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liancourt_Rocks#Pollution_and_environmental_destruction" type="external">back hundreds of years</a> and have caused various protests and demonstrations in both South Korea and Japan.</p>
<p>Fifa had already said that it would investigate the incident, while the IOC got involved in the dispute today.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/south-korea/120810/japan-ambassador-south-korea-disputed-islands-south-china-sea" type="external">Japan recalls ambassador to South Korea in another island dispute</a></p>
<p>Both forbid political statements at matches.</p>
<p>The bronze medal game was held just hours after South Korean president&#160;Lee Myung-bak visited the disputed islands, causing Japan to recall its ambassador to the country, <a href="http://ajw.asahi.com/article/asia/korean_peninsula/AJ201208110058" type="external">reported Asahi Shimbun</a>.</p>
<p>It was feared that the match, which South Korea won 2-0, was going to further raise diplomatic tensions, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/aug/11/london-2012-olympics-south-korea-flag?newsfeed=true" type="external">said the Guardian</a>, yet was free of incident.</p>
<p>On Saturday, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/11/us-oly-socc-islands-day-idUSBRE87A07P20120811" type="external">according to Reuters</a>, the IOC made a statement that read,&#160;"We have opened an inquiry and have asked the NOC of the Republic of Korea for an explanation," the International Olympic Committee said in a statement on Saturday. We have also requested that the Republic of Korea NOC takes swift action on this issue and that the athlete not be present at this afternoon's medal presentation ceremony."</p> | 1,753 |
<p>LAS VEGAS (NV)Las Vegas SunBy KEN RITTERASSOCIATED PRESS</p>
<p />
<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to abusing teenage boys will remain free on probation for at least 60 more days after a judge on Wednesday gave his lawyer and Nevada authorities more time to transfer him to an out-of-state treatment center.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Clark County District Judge Donald Mosley did not specify where the Rev. Mark Roberts would be sent for the remaining probation he received after pleading guilty to lewdness and child abuse involving five teens at his Henderson parish.</p>
<p>Prosecutor Doug Herndon said the judge prohibited disclosure of the location.</p>
<p>Roberts' lawyer, George Foley Sr., called the secrecy necessary to thwart those who "go out to deliberately frustrate the judge's orders."</p> | Judge lets convicted Nevada priest remain free on probation | false | https://poynter.org/news/judge-lets-convicted-nevada-priest-remain-free-probation | 2003-12-04 | 2least
| Judge lets convicted Nevada priest remain free on probation
<p>LAS VEGAS (NV)Las Vegas SunBy KEN RITTERASSOCIATED PRESS</p>
<p />
<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to abusing teenage boys will remain free on probation for at least 60 more days after a judge on Wednesday gave his lawyer and Nevada authorities more time to transfer him to an out-of-state treatment center.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Clark County District Judge Donald Mosley did not specify where the Rev. Mark Roberts would be sent for the remaining probation he received after pleading guilty to lewdness and child abuse involving five teens at his Henderson parish.</p>
<p>Prosecutor Doug Herndon said the judge prohibited disclosure of the location.</p>
<p>Roberts' lawyer, George Foley Sr., called the secrecy necessary to thwart those who "go out to deliberately frustrate the judge's orders."</p> | 1,754 |
<p>For the first time, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped photos of auroras lighting up Uranus's icy atmosphere, <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120413-uranus-auroras-science-space-hubble/" type="external">reported National Geographic</a>. Two short-lived, Earth-sized storms - also known as Northern Lights - were captured by astronomers as they lit up on the day side of the gas giant in November 2011.</p>
<p>Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, is known for being a bit of an oddball. <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/hubble-uranus-auroras/" type="external">According to Wired</a>, at some unknown point in its past, the planet was knocked on its side. Its "North Pole" is now the area most planets' equators call home.</p>
<p>The newly found auroras appear to be tiny white dots in Hubble photos. While Earth's auroras appear as giant green curtains of light and can last hours, the new auroras seen on Uranus are fairly small and didn't last more than a few minutes.</p>
<p>"The last time we had any definite signals of auroral activity on Uranus was when NASA's Voyager 2 probe swung by in 1986," said study leader Laurent Lamy, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris in Meudon, France, to National Geographic. "But this is the first time we can actually see these emissions light up with an Earth-based telescope."</p>
<p>Conditions on Uranus were very different when Voyager flew past the planet in 1986. According to Wired, its magnetic north pole was facing straight into the solar wind at the time, creating longer lasting auroras that were mainly located on the night side, similar to observations of Earth's Northern Lights.</p>
<p>Now that Uranus has entered its spring equinox season, its axis is perpendicular to the sun's flow of charged particles, which astronomers think is responsible for the strange auroras captured by Hubble.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/news/business-tech/science/dark-matter-galaxy-hubble-space-telescope-abell-520" type="external">Clump of galactic dark matter baffles scientists</a></p>
<p /> | Uranus auroras captured by Hubble Space Telescope (VIDEO) | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-04-15/uranus-auroras-captured-hubble-space-telescope-video | 2012-04-15 | 3left-center
| Uranus auroras captured by Hubble Space Telescope (VIDEO)
<p>For the first time, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped photos of auroras lighting up Uranus's icy atmosphere, <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120413-uranus-auroras-science-space-hubble/" type="external">reported National Geographic</a>. Two short-lived, Earth-sized storms - also known as Northern Lights - were captured by astronomers as they lit up on the day side of the gas giant in November 2011.</p>
<p>Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, is known for being a bit of an oddball. <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/hubble-uranus-auroras/" type="external">According to Wired</a>, at some unknown point in its past, the planet was knocked on its side. Its "North Pole" is now the area most planets' equators call home.</p>
<p>The newly found auroras appear to be tiny white dots in Hubble photos. While Earth's auroras appear as giant green curtains of light and can last hours, the new auroras seen on Uranus are fairly small and didn't last more than a few minutes.</p>
<p>"The last time we had any definite signals of auroral activity on Uranus was when NASA's Voyager 2 probe swung by in 1986," said study leader Laurent Lamy, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris in Meudon, France, to National Geographic. "But this is the first time we can actually see these emissions light up with an Earth-based telescope."</p>
<p>Conditions on Uranus were very different when Voyager flew past the planet in 1986. According to Wired, its magnetic north pole was facing straight into the solar wind at the time, creating longer lasting auroras that were mainly located on the night side, similar to observations of Earth's Northern Lights.</p>
<p>Now that Uranus has entered its spring equinox season, its axis is perpendicular to the sun's flow of charged particles, which astronomers think is responsible for the strange auroras captured by Hubble.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/news/business-tech/science/dark-matter-galaxy-hubble-space-telescope-abell-520" type="external">Clump of galactic dark matter baffles scientists</a></p>
<p /> | 1,755 |
<p>By Bob Allen</p>
<p>A former Georgia police officer must stand trial to defend himself against misconduct alleged in a lawsuit stemming from the fatal shooting of a Southern Baptist minister in a botched drug-sting investigation in 2009, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 4. But two supervisors were cleared of failing to properly train him in the use of deadly force.</p>
<p>The appeals court said a lower court acted properly in refusing to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed in 2010 by the widow of Jonathan Ayers, pastor of Shoals Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Ga. Ayers, 28, was fatally shot by Deputy Sheriff Billy Shane Harrison, who mistook him for a drug-dealer suspect fleeing arrest in a gas-station parking lot in Toccoa, Ga., on Sept. 1, 2009.</p>
<p>The lawsuit by widow Abigail Ayers alleges excessive use of deadly force, assault, battery and false arrest. Harrison claims erratic driving by the pastor endangered the officer and his partner, justifying his decision to fire two shots as Ayers’ vehicle pulled away.</p>
<p>One bullet struck Ayers in the abdomen. He died later at a local hospital. Before his death, the pastor reportedly told medical personnel he did not know who shot him and that he fled because he thought he was being robbed and was afraid.</p>
<p>Harrison said the duo identified themselves as police officers and ordered Ayers to stop for questioning. Harrison said at first he thought Ayers’ car had struck his partner and that he had reason to believe the driver was attempting to run over him as well. A grand jury armed with findings by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation cleared the officers of any criminal wrongdoing.</p>
<p>In order to dismiss the civil lawsuit, however, the appellate court had to view the facts “in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion,” in this case, Abigail Ayers. By that standard, the court said, “we cannot say that Officer Harrison’s use of deadly force was objectively reasonable, or that he was entitled to qualified immunity under federal law or official immunity under state law.”</p>
<p>The court did find, however, the evidence warrants dismissal of a claim of negligent training against Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley and Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell, who trained and assigned Harrison to the joint Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team.</p>
<p>In that role, Harrison and his partner, Chance Oxner, observed Jonathan Ayers talking to a woman they knew to be waiting for a man who was going to sell her drugs. Later spotting his car parked outside while he went into a convenience store to draw money from an ATM machine, the non-uniformed officers waited until Ayers returned to his car before rushing the vehicle with weapons drawn.</p>
<p>The appellate court said it will be up to a jury to decide whether Harrison properly identified himself as a police officer and if he was justified in using deadly force. Police acknowledge they did not have probable cause to place Ayers under arrest but say they wanted to question him about why he was talking to the suspect.</p>
<p>After his death, friends of Ayers said he had been ministering to the woman, trying to convince her to get off drugs and turn her life around. At the time of his death, Abigail Ayers was pregnant with the couple’s first child.</p>
<p>Previous stories:</p>
<p><a href="ministry/people/item/7608-police-defend-killing-of-baptist-pastor" type="external">Police defend killing of Baptist pastor</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/6654-police-ask-judge-to-dismiss-lawsuit-over-shooting-of-georgia-pastor" type="external">Police ask judge to dismiss lawsuit over shooting of Georgia pastor</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/4966-widow-files-lawsuit-in-police-shooting-of-slain-baptist-pastor" type="external">Widow files lawsuit in police shooting of slain Baptist pastor</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/4786-widow-of-slain-baptist-pastor-plans-to-file-lawsuit" type="external">Widow of slain Baptist pastor plans to file lawsuit</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/4677-grand-jury-clears-police-in-shooting-of-georgia-baptist-pastor" type="external">Grand jury clears police in shooting of Georgia Baptist pastor</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/4606-grand-jury-to-review-police-shooting-of-georgia-pastor" type="external">Grand jury to review police shooting of Georgia pastor</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/4461-probe-of-georgia-pastors-shooting-expected-to-take-another-month" type="external">Probe of Georgia pastor’s shooting expected to take another month</a></p>
<p><a href="4448-rally-planned-for-georgia-pastor-killed-in-botched-drug-sting" type="external">Rally planned for Georgia pastor killed in botched drug sting</a></p>
<p><a href="4366-georgia-baptist-pastor-killed-in-botched-drug-sting" type="external">Georgia Baptist pastor killed in botched drug sting</a></p> | Slain pastor lawsuit headed for trial | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/slain-pastor-lawsuit-headed-for-trial/ | 3left-center
| Slain pastor lawsuit headed for trial
<p>By Bob Allen</p>
<p>A former Georgia police officer must stand trial to defend himself against misconduct alleged in a lawsuit stemming from the fatal shooting of a Southern Baptist minister in a botched drug-sting investigation in 2009, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 4. But two supervisors were cleared of failing to properly train him in the use of deadly force.</p>
<p>The appeals court said a lower court acted properly in refusing to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed in 2010 by the widow of Jonathan Ayers, pastor of Shoals Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Ga. Ayers, 28, was fatally shot by Deputy Sheriff Billy Shane Harrison, who mistook him for a drug-dealer suspect fleeing arrest in a gas-station parking lot in Toccoa, Ga., on Sept. 1, 2009.</p>
<p>The lawsuit by widow Abigail Ayers alleges excessive use of deadly force, assault, battery and false arrest. Harrison claims erratic driving by the pastor endangered the officer and his partner, justifying his decision to fire two shots as Ayers’ vehicle pulled away.</p>
<p>One bullet struck Ayers in the abdomen. He died later at a local hospital. Before his death, the pastor reportedly told medical personnel he did not know who shot him and that he fled because he thought he was being robbed and was afraid.</p>
<p>Harrison said the duo identified themselves as police officers and ordered Ayers to stop for questioning. Harrison said at first he thought Ayers’ car had struck his partner and that he had reason to believe the driver was attempting to run over him as well. A grand jury armed with findings by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation cleared the officers of any criminal wrongdoing.</p>
<p>In order to dismiss the civil lawsuit, however, the appellate court had to view the facts “in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion,” in this case, Abigail Ayers. By that standard, the court said, “we cannot say that Officer Harrison’s use of deadly force was objectively reasonable, or that he was entitled to qualified immunity under federal law or official immunity under state law.”</p>
<p>The court did find, however, the evidence warrants dismissal of a claim of negligent training against Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley and Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell, who trained and assigned Harrison to the joint Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team.</p>
<p>In that role, Harrison and his partner, Chance Oxner, observed Jonathan Ayers talking to a woman they knew to be waiting for a man who was going to sell her drugs. Later spotting his car parked outside while he went into a convenience store to draw money from an ATM machine, the non-uniformed officers waited until Ayers returned to his car before rushing the vehicle with weapons drawn.</p>
<p>The appellate court said it will be up to a jury to decide whether Harrison properly identified himself as a police officer and if he was justified in using deadly force. Police acknowledge they did not have probable cause to place Ayers under arrest but say they wanted to question him about why he was talking to the suspect.</p>
<p>After his death, friends of Ayers said he had been ministering to the woman, trying to convince her to get off drugs and turn her life around. At the time of his death, Abigail Ayers was pregnant with the couple’s first child.</p>
<p>Previous stories:</p>
<p><a href="ministry/people/item/7608-police-defend-killing-of-baptist-pastor" type="external">Police defend killing of Baptist pastor</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/6654-police-ask-judge-to-dismiss-lawsuit-over-shooting-of-georgia-pastor" type="external">Police ask judge to dismiss lawsuit over shooting of Georgia pastor</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/4966-widow-files-lawsuit-in-police-shooting-of-slain-baptist-pastor" type="external">Widow files lawsuit in police shooting of slain Baptist pastor</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/4786-widow-of-slain-baptist-pastor-plans-to-file-lawsuit" type="external">Widow of slain Baptist pastor plans to file lawsuit</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/4677-grand-jury-clears-police-in-shooting-of-georgia-baptist-pastor" type="external">Grand jury clears police in shooting of Georgia Baptist pastor</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/4606-grand-jury-to-review-police-shooting-of-georgia-pastor" type="external">Grand jury to review police shooting of Georgia pastor</a></p>
<p><a href="archives/item/4461-probe-of-georgia-pastors-shooting-expected-to-take-another-month" type="external">Probe of Georgia pastor’s shooting expected to take another month</a></p>
<p><a href="4448-rally-planned-for-georgia-pastor-killed-in-botched-drug-sting" type="external">Rally planned for Georgia pastor killed in botched drug sting</a></p>
<p><a href="4366-georgia-baptist-pastor-killed-in-botched-drug-sting" type="external">Georgia Baptist pastor killed in botched drug sting</a></p> | 1,756 |
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<p />
<p>The bigger the military, the more time it must spend taking care of itself and maintaining its structure, instead of changing with the times. And changing is what the U.S. military must begin as it recovers from the past decade’s two wars.</p>
<p>For example, the Navy recently christened the USS Gerald R. Ford, an aircraft carrier that cost perhaps $13.5 billion. Its modern aspects include a smaller crew, better radar and a different means of launching aircraft, but it looks like the carriers the United States has built for the past half-century. And that means it has a huge “radar signature,” making it highly visible.</p>
<p>That could be dangerous in an era of global satellite imagery and long-range precision missiles, neither of which existed when the Ford’s first predecessors were built. As Capt. Henry Hendrix, a naval historian and aviator, wrote this year, today’s carrier, like the massive battleships that preceded it, is “surprisingly irrelevant to the conflicts of the time.” What use is a carrier if the missiles that can hit it have a range twice as long as that of the carrier’s aircraft?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Indeed, if the U.S. Navy persists in its current acquisition course, it runs the risk of being like the Royal Navy that entered World War II. As ours is today, the British navy then could throw more firepower than any other sea service.</p>
<p>Yet it proved largely irrelevant in that war because its leaders had missed the growing significance of submarines and aircraft carriers. They thought of carriers as scout ships, providing far-seeing eyes for battleships, when, in fact, carrier aircraft had replaced battleships as the striking arm of the fleet.</p>
<p>Yes, the Royal Navy won the Battle of the Atlantic – partly because the United States gave it destroyers and other escort ships the admirals had neglected, as well as some crucial long-range land-based aircraft.</p>
<p>The issue, therefore, is how to have not the most powerful military today but rather the most relevant military at the point of necessity – a point that cannot be known. To have that, the United States needs a military that is not necessarily “ready for combat” at any given moment but instead is most able to adapt to the events of tomorrow.</p>
<p>The wrong way to prepare is to try to anticipate what the next war will be and then build a military – on land, sea and air – that fits that bill. Guesses about the future will almost certainly be wrong.</p>
<p>In 2000, no one thought we would invade Afghanistan the following year. In 1953, Vietnam was a faraway country about which Americans knew little. In 1949, Korea was thought likely to be beyond our defense perimeter. And so on.</p>
<p>The best form of preparedness is to develop a military that is most able to adapt. It should be small and nimble. Its officers should be educated as well as trained because one trains for the known but educates for the unknown – that is, prepares officers to think critically as they go into chaotic, difficult and new situations.</p>
<p>Eugenia Kiesling, a West Point history professor, observed that between the world wars, “Smaller forces brought fewer logistical constraints and more rapid adaptation to changes in technology.” That observation is an argument not for a jack-of-all-trades military but for one that is smaller and optimized through its spending to be nimble.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>My point is not to beat up on the Navy. All branches of the U.S. military face the same issue. The United States still has an Industrial Age military in an Information Age world.</p>
<p>The focus is generally more on producing mass strength than achieving precision. Land forces, in particular, need to think less about relying on big bases and more about being able to survive in an era of persistent global surveillance.</p>
<p>For example, what will happen when the technological advances of the past decade, such as armed drones controlled from the far side of the planet, are turned against us? What if terrorists find ways to send drones to Washington addresses they obtain from the Internet?</p>
<p>Imagine a world where, in a few decades, Google is the world’s largest defense contractor. Would we want generals who think more like George Patton or Steve Jobs – or who offer a bit of both? How do we get them?</p>
<p>These are the sorts of questions the Pentagon should begin addressing. If it does not, we should find leaders who will.</p>
<p>Thomas E. Ricks is an adviser on national security at the New America Foundation, where he participates in its “Future of War” project.</p>
<p /> | Power by precision, strength by agility | false | https://abqjournal.com/320020/power-by-precision-strength-by-agility.html | 2least
| Power by precision, strength by agility
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The bigger the military, the more time it must spend taking care of itself and maintaining its structure, instead of changing with the times. And changing is what the U.S. military must begin as it recovers from the past decade’s two wars.</p>
<p>For example, the Navy recently christened the USS Gerald R. Ford, an aircraft carrier that cost perhaps $13.5 billion. Its modern aspects include a smaller crew, better radar and a different means of launching aircraft, but it looks like the carriers the United States has built for the past half-century. And that means it has a huge “radar signature,” making it highly visible.</p>
<p>That could be dangerous in an era of global satellite imagery and long-range precision missiles, neither of which existed when the Ford’s first predecessors were built. As Capt. Henry Hendrix, a naval historian and aviator, wrote this year, today’s carrier, like the massive battleships that preceded it, is “surprisingly irrelevant to the conflicts of the time.” What use is a carrier if the missiles that can hit it have a range twice as long as that of the carrier’s aircraft?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Indeed, if the U.S. Navy persists in its current acquisition course, it runs the risk of being like the Royal Navy that entered World War II. As ours is today, the British navy then could throw more firepower than any other sea service.</p>
<p>Yet it proved largely irrelevant in that war because its leaders had missed the growing significance of submarines and aircraft carriers. They thought of carriers as scout ships, providing far-seeing eyes for battleships, when, in fact, carrier aircraft had replaced battleships as the striking arm of the fleet.</p>
<p>Yes, the Royal Navy won the Battle of the Atlantic – partly because the United States gave it destroyers and other escort ships the admirals had neglected, as well as some crucial long-range land-based aircraft.</p>
<p>The issue, therefore, is how to have not the most powerful military today but rather the most relevant military at the point of necessity – a point that cannot be known. To have that, the United States needs a military that is not necessarily “ready for combat” at any given moment but instead is most able to adapt to the events of tomorrow.</p>
<p>The wrong way to prepare is to try to anticipate what the next war will be and then build a military – on land, sea and air – that fits that bill. Guesses about the future will almost certainly be wrong.</p>
<p>In 2000, no one thought we would invade Afghanistan the following year. In 1953, Vietnam was a faraway country about which Americans knew little. In 1949, Korea was thought likely to be beyond our defense perimeter. And so on.</p>
<p>The best form of preparedness is to develop a military that is most able to adapt. It should be small and nimble. Its officers should be educated as well as trained because one trains for the known but educates for the unknown – that is, prepares officers to think critically as they go into chaotic, difficult and new situations.</p>
<p>Eugenia Kiesling, a West Point history professor, observed that between the world wars, “Smaller forces brought fewer logistical constraints and more rapid adaptation to changes in technology.” That observation is an argument not for a jack-of-all-trades military but for one that is smaller and optimized through its spending to be nimble.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>My point is not to beat up on the Navy. All branches of the U.S. military face the same issue. The United States still has an Industrial Age military in an Information Age world.</p>
<p>The focus is generally more on producing mass strength than achieving precision. Land forces, in particular, need to think less about relying on big bases and more about being able to survive in an era of persistent global surveillance.</p>
<p>For example, what will happen when the technological advances of the past decade, such as armed drones controlled from the far side of the planet, are turned against us? What if terrorists find ways to send drones to Washington addresses they obtain from the Internet?</p>
<p>Imagine a world where, in a few decades, Google is the world’s largest defense contractor. Would we want generals who think more like George Patton or Steve Jobs – or who offer a bit of both? How do we get them?</p>
<p>These are the sorts of questions the Pentagon should begin addressing. If it does not, we should find leaders who will.</p>
<p>Thomas E. Ricks is an adviser on national security at the New America Foundation, where he participates in its “Future of War” project.</p>
<p /> | 1,757 |
|
<p>Market pullbacks aren't all that fun for investors who don't have much cash on the sidelines. But for those who have plenty of dry powder and are looking for better bargains, market pullbacks can be great. And that's especially the case for buying dividend stocks, because lower stock prices pushes their yields higher.</p>
<p>Three solid dividend stocks that you can buy on sale right now are Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC). Here's what makes these three stand out.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Investors have loved Pfizer's dividends for decades. There's still plenty to like. The big pharma company's dividend currently yields just under 4%. Pfizer also appears to be in good shape to keep the dividends flowing, with the drugmaker using less than 78% of earnings and only 57% of free cash flow to fund its dividend program.</p>
<p>Pfizer stock also looks like a relative bargain. Its shares trade at a little over 11 times expected earnings. And Pfizer's trailing-12-month earnings multiple of 9.7 is near the lowest point that it's been in the last 10 years.</p>
<p>Even better news is that Pfizer's earnings should increase more over the next several years than they have recently. The company's lineup includes fast-growing Ibrance, which is on track to become the world's No. 5 <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/10/these-5-cancer-drugs-will-be-the-biggest-winners-5.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">best-selling cancer drug by 2022 Opens a New Window.</a>. Eliquis, the blockbuster anticoagulant co-marketed by Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb, is growing sales even faster than Ibrance.</p>
<p>The company has its problems, particularly with sales declines for its essential segment, which includes older drugs that have either lost patent exclusivity or will do so soon. On the other hand, Pfizer thinks that it could win approval for up to 15 new drugs or new indications for existing drugs with blockbuster potential. Overall, now looks like one of the best times in years to buy this longtime pharma winner.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Verizon offers an even more attractive dividend than Pfizer. The telecom giant's dividend yield currently stands at 4.81%. Verizon's dividend also appears to be pretty safe. The company's payout ratio is less than 60%. Although Verizon's free cash flow generated over the last 12 months is lower than its dividends paid, that's due to the company's large capital investments.</p>
<p>The telecom stock trades at less than 11 times expected earnings. On a trailing-12-month basis, Verizon's earnings multiple is less than 7. As with the case with Pfizer, Verizon's trailing earnings multiple is near the lowest it's been over the last decade.</p>
<p>You can't blame only the latest market pullback for Verizon's relatively low valuation. The company <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/01/18/why-2017-was-a-year-to-forget-for-verizon-communic.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">didn't have a great 2017 Opens a New Window.</a>, starting off the year by losing over 300,000 wireless subscribers. Verizon changed its strategy, though, and remains the largest wireless carrier in the U.S.</p>
<p>The big driver for Verizon's growth will likely be high-speed 5G wireless networks. These networks could be faster than most home internet connections, which would open up a wide range of possibilities for Verizon to offer new services. Verizon is already launching its 5G networks in some cities. I think the company will remain a leader in the technology, which makes Verizon an inexpensive dividend stock with the potential to grow in the future.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo's dividend yields 2.82% right now. The big financial services company is in better shape than most to keep paying out -- and potentially increase -- its dividends. Wells Fargo uses less than 40% of its earnings and only 40% of free cash flow to fund its dividend.</p>
<p>Although Wells Fargo stock gained more than 10% in 2017, its lagged its peers. The company continued to reel from the aftermath of its fake accounts scandal as well as other issues that emerged. The stock now trades at less than 10.5 times expected earnings and less than 14 times trailing-12-month earnings. Both multiples rank Wells Fargo among the least expensive stocks in its peer group.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for Wells Fargo, the negative impact of its past scandals isn't over yet. The Federal Reserve recently penalized the company by <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/02/05/heres-why-wells-fargo-plunged-today.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">limiting the growth of its assets Opens a New Window.</a> until Wells Fargo can prove that its house is in order. This move by the Fed could cause Wells Fargo to forego around $400 million in profit this year.</p>
<p>Still, though, tax reform and rising interest rates should benefit Wells Fargo in 2018 and beyond. The Fed's restriction is expected to last throughout most of this year, but the company will eventually move on from the mistakes of its past. In my view, Wells Fargo will recover, making this dividend stock a bargain at current price levels.</p>
<p>Some investors might be leery of buying any stock, even a solid dividend stock, for fear that the market could keep falling. Don't be.</p>
<p>If you need cash for the short term, you shouldn't deploy that money by buying stocks anyway. If you don't need the money for the short term, your only concern should be the long-term prospects of the stocks you buy. I think that the long term looks bright for Pfizer, Verizon, and Wells Fargo. Buying them at attractive valuations improves your chances of long-term gains. And with their great dividends, these stocks will pay you while you wait.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Verizon CommunicationsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=67cccf86-4a0c-4e14-a7ec-521bd95a5d9a&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Verizon Communications wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=67cccf86-4a0c-4e14-a7ec-521bd95a5d9a&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 5, 2018</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFishBiz/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Keith Speights Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Pfizer and Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Verizon Communications. 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;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Dividend Stocks to Buy on Sale | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/18/3-dividend-stocks-to-buy-on-sale.html | 2018-02-13 | 0right
| 3 Dividend Stocks to Buy on Sale
<p>Market pullbacks aren't all that fun for investors who don't have much cash on the sidelines. But for those who have plenty of dry powder and are looking for better bargains, market pullbacks can be great. And that's especially the case for buying dividend stocks, because lower stock prices pushes their yields higher.</p>
<p>Three solid dividend stocks that you can buy on sale right now are Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC). Here's what makes these three stand out.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Investors have loved Pfizer's dividends for decades. There's still plenty to like. The big pharma company's dividend currently yields just under 4%. Pfizer also appears to be in good shape to keep the dividends flowing, with the drugmaker using less than 78% of earnings and only 57% of free cash flow to fund its dividend program.</p>
<p>Pfizer stock also looks like a relative bargain. Its shares trade at a little over 11 times expected earnings. And Pfizer's trailing-12-month earnings multiple of 9.7 is near the lowest point that it's been in the last 10 years.</p>
<p>Even better news is that Pfizer's earnings should increase more over the next several years than they have recently. The company's lineup includes fast-growing Ibrance, which is on track to become the world's No. 5 <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/10/these-5-cancer-drugs-will-be-the-biggest-winners-5.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">best-selling cancer drug by 2022 Opens a New Window.</a>. Eliquis, the blockbuster anticoagulant co-marketed by Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb, is growing sales even faster than Ibrance.</p>
<p>The company has its problems, particularly with sales declines for its essential segment, which includes older drugs that have either lost patent exclusivity or will do so soon. On the other hand, Pfizer thinks that it could win approval for up to 15 new drugs or new indications for existing drugs with blockbuster potential. Overall, now looks like one of the best times in years to buy this longtime pharma winner.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Verizon offers an even more attractive dividend than Pfizer. The telecom giant's dividend yield currently stands at 4.81%. Verizon's dividend also appears to be pretty safe. The company's payout ratio is less than 60%. Although Verizon's free cash flow generated over the last 12 months is lower than its dividends paid, that's due to the company's large capital investments.</p>
<p>The telecom stock trades at less than 11 times expected earnings. On a trailing-12-month basis, Verizon's earnings multiple is less than 7. As with the case with Pfizer, Verizon's trailing earnings multiple is near the lowest it's been over the last decade.</p>
<p>You can't blame only the latest market pullback for Verizon's relatively low valuation. The company <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/01/18/why-2017-was-a-year-to-forget-for-verizon-communic.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">didn't have a great 2017 Opens a New Window.</a>, starting off the year by losing over 300,000 wireless subscribers. Verizon changed its strategy, though, and remains the largest wireless carrier in the U.S.</p>
<p>The big driver for Verizon's growth will likely be high-speed 5G wireless networks. These networks could be faster than most home internet connections, which would open up a wide range of possibilities for Verizon to offer new services. Verizon is already launching its 5G networks in some cities. I think the company will remain a leader in the technology, which makes Verizon an inexpensive dividend stock with the potential to grow in the future.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo's dividend yields 2.82% right now. The big financial services company is in better shape than most to keep paying out -- and potentially increase -- its dividends. Wells Fargo uses less than 40% of its earnings and only 40% of free cash flow to fund its dividend.</p>
<p>Although Wells Fargo stock gained more than 10% in 2017, its lagged its peers. The company continued to reel from the aftermath of its fake accounts scandal as well as other issues that emerged. The stock now trades at less than 10.5 times expected earnings and less than 14 times trailing-12-month earnings. Both multiples rank Wells Fargo among the least expensive stocks in its peer group.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for Wells Fargo, the negative impact of its past scandals isn't over yet. The Federal Reserve recently penalized the company by <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/02/05/heres-why-wells-fargo-plunged-today.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">limiting the growth of its assets Opens a New Window.</a> until Wells Fargo can prove that its house is in order. This move by the Fed could cause Wells Fargo to forego around $400 million in profit this year.</p>
<p>Still, though, tax reform and rising interest rates should benefit Wells Fargo in 2018 and beyond. The Fed's restriction is expected to last throughout most of this year, but the company will eventually move on from the mistakes of its past. In my view, Wells Fargo will recover, making this dividend stock a bargain at current price levels.</p>
<p>Some investors might be leery of buying any stock, even a solid dividend stock, for fear that the market could keep falling. Don't be.</p>
<p>If you need cash for the short term, you shouldn't deploy that money by buying stocks anyway. If you don't need the money for the short term, your only concern should be the long-term prospects of the stocks you buy. I think that the long term looks bright for Pfizer, Verizon, and Wells Fargo. Buying them at attractive valuations improves your chances of long-term gains. And with their great dividends, these stocks will pay you while you wait.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Verizon CommunicationsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=67cccf86-4a0c-4e14-a7ec-521bd95a5d9a&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Verizon Communications wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=67cccf86-4a0c-4e14-a7ec-521bd95a5d9a&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 5, 2018</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFishBiz/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Keith Speights Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Pfizer and Wells Fargo. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Verizon Communications. 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;referring_guid=994e0536-0ffc-11e8-8405-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 1,758 |
<p>Aug. 4 (UPI) — Police in Louisiana said they arrested a man accused of hiding about 2 pounds of marijuana in cereal boxes to smuggle it across state lines.</p>
<p>The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Highway Enforcement Unit said <a href="https://www.facebook.com/stpso/posts/1441862302564407" type="external">in a Facebook post</a> a rental car with California plates was pulled over for speeding early Tuesday on Interstate 12.</p>
<p>The driver, Donald Roots-Scott Jr., told deputies his license was expired and there was marijuana inside the vehicle.</p>
<p>Deputies found about 2 pounds of marijuana hidden inside cereal boxes in the suspect’s back seat, the sheriff’s office said. The boxes were labeled for Crunch Berries and Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch.</p>
<p>Roots-Scott, who allegedly told deputies he was taking the high-grade cannabis to Mississippi for distribution, was arrested on charges of exceeding the maximum speed limit, driving with an expired license and possession of schedule 1 controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute.</p> | Louisiana police find 2 pounds of pot hidden in cereal boxes | false | https://newsline.com/louisiana-police-find-2-pounds-of-pot-hidden-in-cereal-boxes/ | 2017-08-04 | 1right-center
| Louisiana police find 2 pounds of pot hidden in cereal boxes
<p>Aug. 4 (UPI) — Police in Louisiana said they arrested a man accused of hiding about 2 pounds of marijuana in cereal boxes to smuggle it across state lines.</p>
<p>The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Highway Enforcement Unit said <a href="https://www.facebook.com/stpso/posts/1441862302564407" type="external">in a Facebook post</a> a rental car with California plates was pulled over for speeding early Tuesday on Interstate 12.</p>
<p>The driver, Donald Roots-Scott Jr., told deputies his license was expired and there was marijuana inside the vehicle.</p>
<p>Deputies found about 2 pounds of marijuana hidden inside cereal boxes in the suspect’s back seat, the sheriff’s office said. The boxes were labeled for Crunch Berries and Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch.</p>
<p>Roots-Scott, who allegedly told deputies he was taking the high-grade cannabis to Mississippi for distribution, was arrested on charges of exceeding the maximum speed limit, driving with an expired license and possession of schedule 1 controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute.</p> | 1,759 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Setting up an online brokerage account may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. Most online brokerage applications are easy to understand, but if you need help with the process, The Motley Fool's got your back. We've put together a series of how-to articles for setting up an online brokerage accounts.</p>
<p>This article is a step-by-step guide for setting up a TradeStation account, but if you're interested in comparing other brokers, then check out our <a href="http://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/broker/index.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">broker comparison page Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>TradeStation charges a range of prices per trade, depending on how many trades you make per month. The lowest you'll pay in your equities account is $4.99 per trade (if you make 200 or more trades per month), and the most you'll pay is $8.99 per trade (for 49 or fewer trades per month). You can also pay per share, which can end up being cheaper if you're trading a large block of shares.TradeStation has a minimum $5,000 deposit when opening an individual brokerage account (you can find out more about the company's pricing <a href="https://www.tradestation.com/pricing#" type="external">here Opens a New Window.</a>).</p>
<p>If you need help setting up the account, the company lists its customer service phone numbers for both U.S. and international customers on each page.</p>
<p>To set up and account, just <a href="https://getstarted.tradestation.com/newaccount/getstarted.aspx?utm_source=TSCOM&amp;utm_medium=banner&amp;utm_content=Right+Side+Banner&amp;utm_campaign=Trade+free+for+60+days&amp;offer=3066AEDB" type="external">go here Opens a New Window.</a> and start answering the basic information questions on the page. If you're a current customer, click the customer login link and enter your information. For this article, we'll fill out all the information as if we're a new customer.</p>
<p>The first question asks the name of a TradeStation sales representative, if you've spoken with one. We're selecting "none" here, as we didn't speak with anyone at TradeStation. Then enter your name, country, phone number, and email address on this page.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStation <a href="https://getstarted.tradestation.com/newaccount/getstarted.aspx?utm_source=TSCOM&amp;utm_medium=banner&amp;utm_content=Right+Side+Banner&amp;utm_campaign=Trade+free+for+60+days&amp;offer=3066AEDB" type="external">site Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>On the next page, you'll create your login (username and password) for the account and set up several security questions and answers.</p>
<p>Once you enter that information, you'll be taken to another page that asks what you'll be trading (choose "equities") and the type of account you want (choose "individual").</p>
<p>When you select "equities," you'll see a new question appear asking which commission/fee plan you want. You can select a per-trade commission or per-share commission. You can learn about each option <a href="https://www.tradestation.com/pricing#" type="external">here Opens a New Window.</a> and <a href="https://www.tradestation.com/pricing#lb2" type="external">here Opens a New Window.</a>.For this how-to, we're going to select the per-trade price.</p>
<p>You'll also be asked if you want to add margin to your account. This feature is typically used by advanced investors, and it isn't for beginners. If you want to find out more about trading on margin, <a href="http://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/broker/2015/06/24/buying-on-margin-the-pros-and-cons.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">go here Opens a New Window.</a>.The last question is whether or not you have a promotional code. If you have one, just enter it and then click "continue."</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>On the next page you'll see a list of requirements that you need to meet to engage in pattern day trading. Don't worry if you don't meet these requirements; TradeStation says you may still be able to open an account. (And in any case, you probably <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/10/09/why-day-trading-stocks-is-not-the-way-to-invest.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">shouldn't be day trading anyway Opens a New Window.</a>.)</p>
<p>We already covered what you'll need to get started with the account at the beginning of this article, so just click the "continue" button to go on to the next section.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>On the next page you'll be asked how you heard about TradeStation, and then you'll fill out more personal information (Social Security number, date of birth, citizenship, drivers license, and your permanent address).</p>
<p>You'll also be asked for your phone number, your marital status, and the number of dependents you have.Once you've entered all of the information, head on to the next section.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>On this page you'll enter your employment information and answer a few financial regulatory questions.</p>
<p>Specifically, you'll be asked whether you areassociated with or employed by the NYSE, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), or aregistered brokerage firm. You'll also be asked if you'rea director, 10% shareholder, or policymaking officer of a publicly owned company. The last question in this section will ask ifyou are deemed a professional subscriber by the exchanges and therefore required to pay higher exchange fees. You'll probably answer "no" to all of these questions.</p>
<p>After answering all of those exciting questions, you'll also enter your employer information (address, title, how many years you've been there, and so on) if applicable.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>The next section is a series of questions about how many years you've been trading in stocks, mutual funds, options, and futures.</p>
<p>You'll also be asked how many stocks you plan to trade per month (as well as futures, mutual funds, and options). You can just answer the questions that pertain to stocks and mark the other selections as "none."</p>
<p>TradeStation will also ask you to rate your trading activity as "limited, moderate, or extensive." Just select the option that best applies to you.</p>
<p>You'll also be asked what your annual income is, your nearest marginal tax bracket, your approximate total net worth, your approximate liquid net worth, and what your primary source of income is, as well as the source of assets you'll use to deposit in the account.</p>
<p>Just answer those questions, and you're on to the next step.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>On the next page, TradeStation will ask you if you want the ability to trade options with the account. As with margin trading, this feature is typically for more experienced investors. We're going to select "no" to this question, but you can find out more about options <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/options/options-a-foolish-introduction.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>In this section you'll be given the option of adding a third-party trading authority on the account (someone else who can trade on the account), and you'll answer some questions about setting up other TradeStation platforms. Since we're only setting up an individual brokerage account, we'll answer "no" to these questions.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>The next page is simply an application summary of all the information you've filled out. Just review your answers to ensure that they're correct and go on to the next page.</p>
<p>Once you do that, you'll see a page with lots of official agreements and policies for you to read through. Each document link has a box next to it that you'll need to check indicating that you've read it. Once you've gone through all of the documents, enter your name at the bottom of the page (which is an electronic signature) and click "I agree."</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>And that's it! You've set up your TradeStation account. The next page will tell you that the account is under review, and when it's approved you'll receive an email with your TradeStation account number and a link to how to fund the account.</p>
<p>Remember to check out some <a href="http://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/broker/?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">special broker offers here Opens a New Window.</a>, and if you need some tips on how to get started investing, check out these articles:</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>The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How to Sign Up for a TradeStation Online Brokerage Account: A Step-by-Step Guide | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/06/how-to-sign-up-for-tradestation-online-brokerage-account-step-by-step-guide.html | 2017-01-06 | 0right
| How to Sign Up for a TradeStation Online Brokerage Account: A Step-by-Step Guide
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Setting up an online brokerage account may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. Most online brokerage applications are easy to understand, but if you need help with the process, The Motley Fool's got your back. We've put together a series of how-to articles for setting up an online brokerage accounts.</p>
<p>This article is a step-by-step guide for setting up a TradeStation account, but if you're interested in comparing other brokers, then check out our <a href="http://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/broker/index.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">broker comparison page Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>TradeStation charges a range of prices per trade, depending on how many trades you make per month. The lowest you'll pay in your equities account is $4.99 per trade (if you make 200 or more trades per month), and the most you'll pay is $8.99 per trade (for 49 or fewer trades per month). You can also pay per share, which can end up being cheaper if you're trading a large block of shares.TradeStation has a minimum $5,000 deposit when opening an individual brokerage account (you can find out more about the company's pricing <a href="https://www.tradestation.com/pricing#" type="external">here Opens a New Window.</a>).</p>
<p>If you need help setting up the account, the company lists its customer service phone numbers for both U.S. and international customers on each page.</p>
<p>To set up and account, just <a href="https://getstarted.tradestation.com/newaccount/getstarted.aspx?utm_source=TSCOM&amp;utm_medium=banner&amp;utm_content=Right+Side+Banner&amp;utm_campaign=Trade+free+for+60+days&amp;offer=3066AEDB" type="external">go here Opens a New Window.</a> and start answering the basic information questions on the page. If you're a current customer, click the customer login link and enter your information. For this article, we'll fill out all the information as if we're a new customer.</p>
<p>The first question asks the name of a TradeStation sales representative, if you've spoken with one. We're selecting "none" here, as we didn't speak with anyone at TradeStation. Then enter your name, country, phone number, and email address on this page.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStation <a href="https://getstarted.tradestation.com/newaccount/getstarted.aspx?utm_source=TSCOM&amp;utm_medium=banner&amp;utm_content=Right+Side+Banner&amp;utm_campaign=Trade+free+for+60+days&amp;offer=3066AEDB" type="external">site Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>On the next page, you'll create your login (username and password) for the account and set up several security questions and answers.</p>
<p>Once you enter that information, you'll be taken to another page that asks what you'll be trading (choose "equities") and the type of account you want (choose "individual").</p>
<p>When you select "equities," you'll see a new question appear asking which commission/fee plan you want. You can select a per-trade commission or per-share commission. You can learn about each option <a href="https://www.tradestation.com/pricing#" type="external">here Opens a New Window.</a> and <a href="https://www.tradestation.com/pricing#lb2" type="external">here Opens a New Window.</a>.For this how-to, we're going to select the per-trade price.</p>
<p>You'll also be asked if you want to add margin to your account. This feature is typically used by advanced investors, and it isn't for beginners. If you want to find out more about trading on margin, <a href="http://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/broker/2015/06/24/buying-on-margin-the-pros-and-cons.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">go here Opens a New Window.</a>.The last question is whether or not you have a promotional code. If you have one, just enter it and then click "continue."</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>On the next page you'll see a list of requirements that you need to meet to engage in pattern day trading. Don't worry if you don't meet these requirements; TradeStation says you may still be able to open an account. (And in any case, you probably <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/10/09/why-day-trading-stocks-is-not-the-way-to-invest.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">shouldn't be day trading anyway Opens a New Window.</a>.)</p>
<p>We already covered what you'll need to get started with the account at the beginning of this article, so just click the "continue" button to go on to the next section.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>On the next page you'll be asked how you heard about TradeStation, and then you'll fill out more personal information (Social Security number, date of birth, citizenship, drivers license, and your permanent address).</p>
<p>You'll also be asked for your phone number, your marital status, and the number of dependents you have.Once you've entered all of the information, head on to the next section.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>On this page you'll enter your employment information and answer a few financial regulatory questions.</p>
<p>Specifically, you'll be asked whether you areassociated with or employed by the NYSE, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), or aregistered brokerage firm. You'll also be asked if you'rea director, 10% shareholder, or policymaking officer of a publicly owned company. The last question in this section will ask ifyou are deemed a professional subscriber by the exchanges and therefore required to pay higher exchange fees. You'll probably answer "no" to all of these questions.</p>
<p>After answering all of those exciting questions, you'll also enter your employer information (address, title, how many years you've been there, and so on) if applicable.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>The next section is a series of questions about how many years you've been trading in stocks, mutual funds, options, and futures.</p>
<p>You'll also be asked how many stocks you plan to trade per month (as well as futures, mutual funds, and options). You can just answer the questions that pertain to stocks and mark the other selections as "none."</p>
<p>TradeStation will also ask you to rate your trading activity as "limited, moderate, or extensive." Just select the option that best applies to you.</p>
<p>You'll also be asked what your annual income is, your nearest marginal tax bracket, your approximate total net worth, your approximate liquid net worth, and what your primary source of income is, as well as the source of assets you'll use to deposit in the account.</p>
<p>Just answer those questions, and you're on to the next step.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>On the next page, TradeStation will ask you if you want the ability to trade options with the account. As with margin trading, this feature is typically for more experienced investors. We're going to select "no" to this question, but you can find out more about options <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/options/options-a-foolish-introduction.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>In this section you'll be given the option of adding a third-party trading authority on the account (someone else who can trade on the account), and you'll answer some questions about setting up other TradeStation platforms. Since we're only setting up an individual brokerage account, we'll answer "no" to these questions.</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>The next page is simply an application summary of all the information you've filled out. Just review your answers to ensure that they're correct and go on to the next page.</p>
<p>Once you do that, you'll see a page with lots of official agreements and policies for you to read through. Each document link has a box next to it that you'll need to check indicating that you've read it. Once you've gone through all of the documents, enter your name at the bottom of the page (which is an electronic signature) and click "I agree."</p>
<p>Image source: author screen shot of TradeStationsite.</p>
<p>And that's it! You've set up your TradeStation account. The next page will tell you that the account is under review, and when it's approved you'll receive an email with your TradeStation account number and a link to how to fund the account.</p>
<p>Remember to check out some <a href="http://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/broker/?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">special broker offers here Opens a New Window.</a>, and if you need some tips on how to get started investing, check out these articles:</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>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> | 1,760 |
<p>Katy Grimes: A <a href="http://paigeforschoolboard.com/index.php/archives/107" type="external">friend</a> of mine is running for School Board of the Sacramento City Unified School District. She’s the type of person who should be on a school board – she’s a parent, a teacher, and a small-government, no-excuses type of person. But she’s running not just against the incumbent, she’s running against the entire CTA.</p>
<p><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&amp;ik=7464e5ea78&amp;view=att&amp;th=12be59d63fc9a040&amp;attid=0.1&amp;disp=inline&amp;zw" type="external">This brochure</a> was sent out on behalf of her opponent, by the <a href="http://www.cta.org/" type="external">CTA</a>. And I heard that the <a href="http://www.447jac.org/" type="external">Plumbers and Pipefitters local union</a> has given her opponent a great deal of money – rumor has it, $100,000.</p>
<p>Apparently there is much more at stake in the Sacramento city schools, or at least the uber-powerful unions think so.</p>
<p>When an involved, concerned parent and local high school English teacher cannot run for a local school board without having the California Teachers Association and Plumbers and Pipefitters union throw the race, the stink of corruption is far too prevalent in every corner of our lives, and even in the lives of our kids.</p>
<p>And the <a href="http://www.cta.org/Issues-and-Action/Election-2010/Prop-24.aspx" type="external">other side</a> of the mailer is a YES on Proposition 24 advertisement.</p>
<p><a href="http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_24,_Repeal_of_Corporate_Tax_Breaks_(2010)" type="external">Ballotpedia</a> states “the goal of the initiative is to stop several corporate tax breaks that are slated to go into effect in 2010 and 2012.” A group called “ <a href="http://www.stopprop24.com/" type="external">Stop the Jobs Tax</a>” says on their website, “At a time when two million Californians are out of work, the initiative taxes new job creation, hits California employers and small businesses with higher taxes and stifles job growth in our most promising industries. It would lead to fewer jobs and fewer tax revenues.”</p>
<p>As the <a href="http://www.cta.org/Issues-and-Action/Election-2010/Prop-24.aspx" type="external">CTA website</a>states, “Prop. 24 keeps corporate taxes exactly where they are today…”</p>
<p>It’s obvious that the CTA also wants to keep their favorite candidates exactly where they are today as well. But I am hoping that parents start researching the members of their own school boards and find out who is funding these candidates and board members.</p>
<p>My&#160; <a href="http://paigeforschoolboard.com/index.php/why-i-am-running" type="external">friend</a>‘s husband&#160;loaned her campaign the money, and whatever other donations friends could scrape up… and the local newspapers have highly criticized her for the small loan, with not a word about the big union contributions to her opponent!</p>
<p>OCT. 25, 2010</p> | Unions throw BIG money at school races | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2010/10/25/unions-throw-big-money-at-school-races/ | 2018-10-20 | 3left-center
| Unions throw BIG money at school races
<p>Katy Grimes: A <a href="http://paigeforschoolboard.com/index.php/archives/107" type="external">friend</a> of mine is running for School Board of the Sacramento City Unified School District. She’s the type of person who should be on a school board – she’s a parent, a teacher, and a small-government, no-excuses type of person. But she’s running not just against the incumbent, she’s running against the entire CTA.</p>
<p><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&amp;ik=7464e5ea78&amp;view=att&amp;th=12be59d63fc9a040&amp;attid=0.1&amp;disp=inline&amp;zw" type="external">This brochure</a> was sent out on behalf of her opponent, by the <a href="http://www.cta.org/" type="external">CTA</a>. And I heard that the <a href="http://www.447jac.org/" type="external">Plumbers and Pipefitters local union</a> has given her opponent a great deal of money – rumor has it, $100,000.</p>
<p>Apparently there is much more at stake in the Sacramento city schools, or at least the uber-powerful unions think so.</p>
<p>When an involved, concerned parent and local high school English teacher cannot run for a local school board without having the California Teachers Association and Plumbers and Pipefitters union throw the race, the stink of corruption is far too prevalent in every corner of our lives, and even in the lives of our kids.</p>
<p>And the <a href="http://www.cta.org/Issues-and-Action/Election-2010/Prop-24.aspx" type="external">other side</a> of the mailer is a YES on Proposition 24 advertisement.</p>
<p><a href="http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_24,_Repeal_of_Corporate_Tax_Breaks_(2010)" type="external">Ballotpedia</a> states “the goal of the initiative is to stop several corporate tax breaks that are slated to go into effect in 2010 and 2012.” A group called “ <a href="http://www.stopprop24.com/" type="external">Stop the Jobs Tax</a>” says on their website, “At a time when two million Californians are out of work, the initiative taxes new job creation, hits California employers and small businesses with higher taxes and stifles job growth in our most promising industries. It would lead to fewer jobs and fewer tax revenues.”</p>
<p>As the <a href="http://www.cta.org/Issues-and-Action/Election-2010/Prop-24.aspx" type="external">CTA website</a>states, “Prop. 24 keeps corporate taxes exactly where they are today…”</p>
<p>It’s obvious that the CTA also wants to keep their favorite candidates exactly where they are today as well. But I am hoping that parents start researching the members of their own school boards and find out who is funding these candidates and board members.</p>
<p>My&#160; <a href="http://paigeforschoolboard.com/index.php/why-i-am-running" type="external">friend</a>‘s husband&#160;loaned her campaign the money, and whatever other donations friends could scrape up… and the local newspapers have highly criticized her for the small loan, with not a word about the big union contributions to her opponent!</p>
<p>OCT. 25, 2010</p> | 1,761 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>This Feb. 5, 2015 photo shows a school sign at Austin Waldorf School in from Austin, Texas. Nearly half of the 400 students enrolled in the school forgo vaccinations, one of the highest rates in Texas. (Lukas Keapproth/Austin American-Statesman via AP) AUSTIN CHRONICLE OUT, COMMUNITY IMPACT OUT, INTERNET AND TV MUST CREDIT PHOTOGRAPHER AND STATESMAN.COM, MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT</p>
<p>DALLAS - Tucked into a hillside not far from a popular nature preserve, the private Austin Waldorf School touts its individualized learning and emphasis on moral purpose. But the school with an enrollment of nearly 400 is different in another way: Nearly half its students forgo vaccinations, one of the highest rates in Texas.</p>
<p>Four years ago fully half its students received a "conscientious exemption" from at least one of the federally recommended vaccinations, a rate that's since dipped slightly to 48 percent, according to figures provided by the Texas Department of State Health Services.</p>
<p>The school is a striking example of a statewide rise in exemptions that concerns public health officials and runs contrary to efforts in California and elsewhere to ensure more students are immunized.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Texas is one of 18 states that allow parents to cite religion or personal beliefs in exempting their school-age children from vaccination. In 2007 there were more than 10,000 students exempted and that number soared to nearly 41,000 in the last school year. Texas began allowing exemptions for reasons of conscience in 2003. A year later, some 3,000 students had received one.</p>
<p>"I'm mostly concerned about parents who request personal exemptions based on reasons of conscience but in fact they're making that choice based on misinformation they've gotten from other sources or perhaps someone outside the medical community," said Dr. Justin Smith, a pediatrician with Cook Children's Health Care System in Fort Worth.</p>
<p>While students who aren't fully vaccinated account for less than 1 percent of the 5.2 million students enrolled in Texas public or charter schools, the rising trend of exemptions has some medical experts worried about outbreaks of disease.</p>
<p>Those fears were highlighted when a child who had traveled abroad went to school early this month in a Dallas suburb and later showed signs of measles. It was the first reported case of the highly contagious virus in Texas in this new year. Measles cases in the U.S. are unusual, although there were 667 reported cases in 2014, mainly due to an outbreak that occurred primarily among unvaccinated Amish communities in Ohio, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p>
<p>Smith believes that social media are playing a role in the rise in exemptions.</p>
<p>"There's more a trend in discussing these issues in social media or discussing them interpersonally with other parents and it kind of becomes a group mentality," he said.</p>
<p>Dawn Richardson, a co-founder of the Texas-based Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, said more parents are opting to spread out when their children receive a range of vaccinations rather than when a physician or school dictates it must be done. Parents also are concerned with the increase over the years in the number of vaccines and the dosages that are given, she said. There were 13 vaccinations recommended by the CDC last year, up from six in 1995, according to Dr. Amanda Cohn with the CDC.</p>
<p>"Parents are trying to make better decisions and actually tailor the vaccine schedule according to their child," Richardson said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Critics contend vaccination can result in disabling side effects - most notably in the form of autism, a connection scientific research has debunked - but Smith and other health experts note the overwhelming science points to wide-ranging benefits from immunization.</p>
<p>He said while the vaccination rate in Texas remains high, if the rate were to drop to 90 percent or lower then outbreaks of disease could become alarming.</p>
<p>Kathy McElveen, interim director of the Austin Waldorf School, said any decision on vaccinating students is left to the parents and that the school complies with all state-mandated health standards.</p>
<p>"Just because somebody sought an exemption doesn't mean that a student isn't immunized," she said, explaining that a parent may opt to immunize for measles or chickenpox, but not another disease, such as hepatitis.</p>
<p>The exemption rate in Texas is comparable to other large states. In Florida, which allows for a religious exemption but not one based on personal beliefs, 1.8 percent of kindergarten students last year had an exemption while just over 1 percent of seventh-graders did.</p>
<p>Just over 3 percent of kindergarten students in California were exempted two years ago and that number dropped to 2.54 percent before lawmakers last year adopted a bill that only allows for medical exemptions. That action came after an outbreak of measles at Disneyland sickened more than 100.</p>
<p>California joined Mississippi and West Virginia as the three states allowing only medical exemptions.</p>
<p>Dr. Ryan Van Ramshorst, a pediatrician in San Antonio and member of the Texas Medical Association, said he wishes "we were living in a day and age where laws like that wouldn't be necessary." But he said more must be done to ensure children are fully vaccinated.</p>
<p>"We're going to reach a critical mass in Texas where we're going to have outbreaks if parents don't vaccinate their children," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been updated to correct in the 10th graph the number of CDC-recommended vaccinations.</p> | Texas health officials wary of rise in unvaccinated students | false | https://abqjournal.com/712098/texas-health-officials-wary-of-rise-in-unvaccinated-students.html | 2least
| Texas health officials wary of rise in unvaccinated students
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<p>This Feb. 5, 2015 photo shows a school sign at Austin Waldorf School in from Austin, Texas. Nearly half of the 400 students enrolled in the school forgo vaccinations, one of the highest rates in Texas. (Lukas Keapproth/Austin American-Statesman via AP) AUSTIN CHRONICLE OUT, COMMUNITY IMPACT OUT, INTERNET AND TV MUST CREDIT PHOTOGRAPHER AND STATESMAN.COM, MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT</p>
<p>DALLAS - Tucked into a hillside not far from a popular nature preserve, the private Austin Waldorf School touts its individualized learning and emphasis on moral purpose. But the school with an enrollment of nearly 400 is different in another way: Nearly half its students forgo vaccinations, one of the highest rates in Texas.</p>
<p>Four years ago fully half its students received a "conscientious exemption" from at least one of the federally recommended vaccinations, a rate that's since dipped slightly to 48 percent, according to figures provided by the Texas Department of State Health Services.</p>
<p>The school is a striking example of a statewide rise in exemptions that concerns public health officials and runs contrary to efforts in California and elsewhere to ensure more students are immunized.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Texas is one of 18 states that allow parents to cite religion or personal beliefs in exempting their school-age children from vaccination. In 2007 there were more than 10,000 students exempted and that number soared to nearly 41,000 in the last school year. Texas began allowing exemptions for reasons of conscience in 2003. A year later, some 3,000 students had received one.</p>
<p>"I'm mostly concerned about parents who request personal exemptions based on reasons of conscience but in fact they're making that choice based on misinformation they've gotten from other sources or perhaps someone outside the medical community," said Dr. Justin Smith, a pediatrician with Cook Children's Health Care System in Fort Worth.</p>
<p>While students who aren't fully vaccinated account for less than 1 percent of the 5.2 million students enrolled in Texas public or charter schools, the rising trend of exemptions has some medical experts worried about outbreaks of disease.</p>
<p>Those fears were highlighted when a child who had traveled abroad went to school early this month in a Dallas suburb and later showed signs of measles. It was the first reported case of the highly contagious virus in Texas in this new year. Measles cases in the U.S. are unusual, although there were 667 reported cases in 2014, mainly due to an outbreak that occurred primarily among unvaccinated Amish communities in Ohio, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.</p>
<p>Smith believes that social media are playing a role in the rise in exemptions.</p>
<p>"There's more a trend in discussing these issues in social media or discussing them interpersonally with other parents and it kind of becomes a group mentality," he said.</p>
<p>Dawn Richardson, a co-founder of the Texas-based Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, said more parents are opting to spread out when their children receive a range of vaccinations rather than when a physician or school dictates it must be done. Parents also are concerned with the increase over the years in the number of vaccines and the dosages that are given, she said. There were 13 vaccinations recommended by the CDC last year, up from six in 1995, according to Dr. Amanda Cohn with the CDC.</p>
<p>"Parents are trying to make better decisions and actually tailor the vaccine schedule according to their child," Richardson said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Critics contend vaccination can result in disabling side effects - most notably in the form of autism, a connection scientific research has debunked - but Smith and other health experts note the overwhelming science points to wide-ranging benefits from immunization.</p>
<p>He said while the vaccination rate in Texas remains high, if the rate were to drop to 90 percent or lower then outbreaks of disease could become alarming.</p>
<p>Kathy McElveen, interim director of the Austin Waldorf School, said any decision on vaccinating students is left to the parents and that the school complies with all state-mandated health standards.</p>
<p>"Just because somebody sought an exemption doesn't mean that a student isn't immunized," she said, explaining that a parent may opt to immunize for measles or chickenpox, but not another disease, such as hepatitis.</p>
<p>The exemption rate in Texas is comparable to other large states. In Florida, which allows for a religious exemption but not one based on personal beliefs, 1.8 percent of kindergarten students last year had an exemption while just over 1 percent of seventh-graders did.</p>
<p>Just over 3 percent of kindergarten students in California were exempted two years ago and that number dropped to 2.54 percent before lawmakers last year adopted a bill that only allows for medical exemptions. That action came after an outbreak of measles at Disneyland sickened more than 100.</p>
<p>California joined Mississippi and West Virginia as the three states allowing only medical exemptions.</p>
<p>Dr. Ryan Van Ramshorst, a pediatrician in San Antonio and member of the Texas Medical Association, said he wishes "we were living in a day and age where laws like that wouldn't be necessary." But he said more must be done to ensure children are fully vaccinated.</p>
<p>"We're going to reach a critical mass in Texas where we're going to have outbreaks if parents don't vaccinate their children," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been updated to correct in the 10th graph the number of CDC-recommended vaccinations.</p> | 1,762 |
|
<p>The press, trumpeting the lurid and salacious details of the sexual assault charges brought against powerful men, has missed the real story—the widespread popular revolt led by women, many of whom have stood up, despite vicious attacks and the dictates of legally binding nondisclosure agreements, to denounce the entitlement of the corporate and political elites. This women’s revolt is not solely about sexual abuse. It is about fighting a corporate power structure that institutionalizes and enables misogyny, racism and bigotry. It is about rejecting the belief that wealth and power give the elites the right to engage in economic, political, social and sexual sadism. It challenges the twisted ethic that those who are crushed and humiliated by the rich, the famous and the powerful have no rights and no voice. Let’s hope this is the beginning, not the end.</p>
<p>“Women are carefully choosing the men who are at the pinnacles of power to address race and class and sex,” the <a href="http://leelakeman.com/" type="external">feminist Lee Lakeman</a> told me when I reached her by phone in Vancouver. “[These women] know what they are doing. You can’t take down someone like <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41594672" type="external">Harvey Weinstein</a> without affecting a whole industry. Feminism has never been just about protecting our individual self. It is a collective resistance. It has a vitality we need to use to deal with these hierarchies.”</p>
<p>“We need to get ourselves behind these women who are taking on the potentates,” she said. “… We need to draw attention to the structures of power. Clearly, women don’t want only an end to sexual harassment on the job. They want meaningful, secure jobs. They want respect for their work. They want to be believed when they speak. They want credit for their ideas. There is a focus now on the jobs. There was a moment when we focused on husbands. Now we are focused on our place in the public sphere. This is a structural attack. And this is an alliance of younger women and older women. This alliance sends men a message. It may take us 20 years, but we will get to you. It says this behavior will not go unmonitored. We may not get every guy, but you could be the one we get. It allows women to experience an uprising, what it feels like. This feeds the revolt.”</p>
<p>The pathology of men who force women to watch them masturbate in the shower or who close their office doors so they can drop their pants or grope terrified and humiliated job applicants, interns or co-workers is emblematic of the narcissism and unbridled self-adulation that come with excessive power. These assaults are expressions of the widespread objectification of women mainlined by a pornified culture. Eroticism is not mutual in pornography or prostitution. The men get off by humiliating, degrading, insulting and physically violating women. The current revelations are not, in the end, even about sex. They are about the solipsistic auto-arousal that the humiliation and physical abuse of women, a staple of porn and prostitution, have conditioned many men to confuse with sex.</p>
<p />
<p>Those who engage in this behavior, and <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-rape-sexual-assault-minor-wife-business-victims-roy-moore-713531" type="external">Donald Trump is the poster child</a> for this cultural sickness, are so atomized and narcissistic that to themselves they alone exist. They are stunted, deformed human beings. They are incapable of genuine relationships. They lack the capacity for empathy or self-reflection. Their abuse of women, however, is only one example of the myriad abuses they feel entitled to carry out in their professional and personal interactions. And, sadly, surrounding them are many enablers, including some women, who bow before the same idols of power and wealth to perpetuate this cruelty.</p>
<p>“All men benefit from this gender hierarchy and these systems of oppression,” Alice Lee, the co-founder of <a href="" type="external">Asian Women Coalition Ending Prostitution</a>, based in Vancouver, told me. “Individual men collude in this oppression together, knowingly or unknowingly. The public discussion has yet to acknowledge this. ‘Nice’ men, or ‘progressive’ men, are trying to ignore their own complicity. This makes it harder to institute real systemic change. We will have to fight harder. Women are revolting and supporting each other to expose this collusion. They are demanding systemic change. But those men in power will never give up power unless they are forced to do so. [Women and the men who genuinely support them] need to work together to make systematic change in the workplace, in the justice system, in civil society and at home.”</p>
<p>Women activists have mounted a campaign to pressure NBC to release outtakes from Trump’s reality television show “The Apprentice” in which he allegedly <a href="" type="external">repeatedly used racial or ethnic slurs</a>, including against African-Americans and Jews. He also is accused <a href="" type="external">in a defamation lawsuit</a> of sexually harassing Summer Zervos, who appeared on the show as a contestant.</p>
<p>Trump was host of the show and one of its executive producers for 14 seasons. Those who worked on the series, which created the fictional public persona that Trump used to get elected to the presidency, signed nondisclosure agreements forbidding them to detail Trump’s behavior or remarks.</p>
<p>Trump’s attorneys on Tuesday will attempt to have the Zervos suit dismissed in the New York State Supreme Court. Zervos has accused Trump of “very aggressively” kissing her, groping her breasts and thrusting his genitals at her during a 2007 meeting at The Beverly Hills Hotel. She brought the defamation action after Trump said she and more than a dozen other women had lied when they said they had been sexually assaulted by him. Presidents, according to the 1997 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in <a href="" type="external">Clinton v. Jones</a>, are not immune from civil law litigation for actions carried out before they assumed office.</p>
<p>The powerful men engaging in sexual predation live in a rarified universe where they own everyone around themselves. They demand unquestioned obedience. They must be the center of attention. Their opinions alone count. Their feelings alone are important. They cannot discern right from wrong and lies from truth. They are modern slave masters. Those who work for them are forced to sing, dance and provide physical pleasure or get the whip. And they have the power, granted to them by corporate and political institutions, to persecute and discredit any who defy them. This pathology captures not only the bleak inner core of Trump but also many of his political rivals, including Bill Clinton.</p>
<p>“We have been told for over 25 years that all that matters is wealth,” said Lakeman. “All that matters is what <a href="" type="external">neoliberalism</a> says matters. We have been told our movements are ineffective. They can’t make anything happen, whether that is peace on a global scale or peace between men and women. What’s going on right now tells women maybe we can make a difference.”</p>
<p>“This is a particular kind of politics,” Lakeman said. “It is women saying the left has not taken sexism seriously, has not taken women’s oppression seriously, and it won’t get away with this. Women are leading. It would be smart for anyone who wants transformation in the world to help us, help us fight class and race and sex bigotry.”</p>
<p>College fraternities are breeding grounds for sexual harassment and the objectification of women. The fraternities often ship their men-children straight into corporate offices and other institutions that wield power. The cult of the self defines corporate culture. It celebrates the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation; a penchant for lying, deception and manipulation; and an inability to feel remorse or guilt. The higher one rises in the corporate hierarchy, the more power and money one amasses, the more these traits are pronounced and rewarded. Hedonism and greed become insatiable. There is no sense of proportion, propriety or limits. It is a culture in which you use others or be used, where you seize as much as you can as fast as you can and ignore the consequences to yourself, those around you, your community and the planet. It is at once infantile and evil. It is also a path to collective self-destruction.</p>
<p>“These are men who profit from other people’s work,” Lakeman said of the celebrities and business and political elites. “Their jobs barely exist as independent. It is the nature of hierarchy to rip off the people below.”</p>
<p>“We are dealing with a global behavior,” Lakeman went on. “This women’s action is pointing out the behavior of powerful men throughout the industrial West. Women are deciding to tell bosses, liberal institutions and managers this behavior has to stop. They are going public immediately. No one trusts the liberal institutions, the owners or the managers to handle this.”</p>
<p>“Part of this tactic is to say that whether you like it or not we are going to oppose this, whether we win or not we will oppose this, whether we get the proper results or not we will oppose this,” Lakeman said. “This is spectacular. This is what it takes to make a difference. Collectively we seem to have agreed on whom to go after—the men who are holding economic, social and cultural power. It is astounding how these guys are being selected. Sexual harassment is only one face of this. We hate these men for their profiteering, their representation of what it means to be a man, their abuses of power. And even the ‘good guys’ who slide into this behavior have to be shown up. It has to stop. I don’t think it will end with men who hold this kind of power. But there is a very wise consensus that says we should go after the men we all agree on and behavior that is at once menacing and pathetic.”</p>
<p>The women’s revolt understands that our institutions, including those on the left, will not defend us. We must defend ourselves.</p>
<p>“We are looking at the end of the Roman Empire,” Lakeman said. “We are looking at people grasping in all manner of disgusting ways for power. Women are looking for a way out. They are looking for a way to address some of this. We have been denied all the promised ways. This is the result of 50 years of feminist work against violence. Those who hold positions of corporate and political power are very nervous. They can’t control this. There is a genuine uprising, and no one can find the leader to shut it down.”</p> | A Women’s Revolt That Targets Far More Than Sexual Abuse | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/womens-revolt-targets-far-sexual-abuse/ | 2017-12-03 | 4left
| A Women’s Revolt That Targets Far More Than Sexual Abuse
<p>The press, trumpeting the lurid and salacious details of the sexual assault charges brought against powerful men, has missed the real story—the widespread popular revolt led by women, many of whom have stood up, despite vicious attacks and the dictates of legally binding nondisclosure agreements, to denounce the entitlement of the corporate and political elites. This women’s revolt is not solely about sexual abuse. It is about fighting a corporate power structure that institutionalizes and enables misogyny, racism and bigotry. It is about rejecting the belief that wealth and power give the elites the right to engage in economic, political, social and sexual sadism. It challenges the twisted ethic that those who are crushed and humiliated by the rich, the famous and the powerful have no rights and no voice. Let’s hope this is the beginning, not the end.</p>
<p>“Women are carefully choosing the men who are at the pinnacles of power to address race and class and sex,” the <a href="http://leelakeman.com/" type="external">feminist Lee Lakeman</a> told me when I reached her by phone in Vancouver. “[These women] know what they are doing. You can’t take down someone like <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41594672" type="external">Harvey Weinstein</a> without affecting a whole industry. Feminism has never been just about protecting our individual self. It is a collective resistance. It has a vitality we need to use to deal with these hierarchies.”</p>
<p>“We need to get ourselves behind these women who are taking on the potentates,” she said. “… We need to draw attention to the structures of power. Clearly, women don’t want only an end to sexual harassment on the job. They want meaningful, secure jobs. They want respect for their work. They want to be believed when they speak. They want credit for their ideas. There is a focus now on the jobs. There was a moment when we focused on husbands. Now we are focused on our place in the public sphere. This is a structural attack. And this is an alliance of younger women and older women. This alliance sends men a message. It may take us 20 years, but we will get to you. It says this behavior will not go unmonitored. We may not get every guy, but you could be the one we get. It allows women to experience an uprising, what it feels like. This feeds the revolt.”</p>
<p>The pathology of men who force women to watch them masturbate in the shower or who close their office doors so they can drop their pants or grope terrified and humiliated job applicants, interns or co-workers is emblematic of the narcissism and unbridled self-adulation that come with excessive power. These assaults are expressions of the widespread objectification of women mainlined by a pornified culture. Eroticism is not mutual in pornography or prostitution. The men get off by humiliating, degrading, insulting and physically violating women. The current revelations are not, in the end, even about sex. They are about the solipsistic auto-arousal that the humiliation and physical abuse of women, a staple of porn and prostitution, have conditioned many men to confuse with sex.</p>
<p />
<p>Those who engage in this behavior, and <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-rape-sexual-assault-minor-wife-business-victims-roy-moore-713531" type="external">Donald Trump is the poster child</a> for this cultural sickness, are so atomized and narcissistic that to themselves they alone exist. They are stunted, deformed human beings. They are incapable of genuine relationships. They lack the capacity for empathy or self-reflection. Their abuse of women, however, is only one example of the myriad abuses they feel entitled to carry out in their professional and personal interactions. And, sadly, surrounding them are many enablers, including some women, who bow before the same idols of power and wealth to perpetuate this cruelty.</p>
<p>“All men benefit from this gender hierarchy and these systems of oppression,” Alice Lee, the co-founder of <a href="" type="external">Asian Women Coalition Ending Prostitution</a>, based in Vancouver, told me. “Individual men collude in this oppression together, knowingly or unknowingly. The public discussion has yet to acknowledge this. ‘Nice’ men, or ‘progressive’ men, are trying to ignore their own complicity. This makes it harder to institute real systemic change. We will have to fight harder. Women are revolting and supporting each other to expose this collusion. They are demanding systemic change. But those men in power will never give up power unless they are forced to do so. [Women and the men who genuinely support them] need to work together to make systematic change in the workplace, in the justice system, in civil society and at home.”</p>
<p>Women activists have mounted a campaign to pressure NBC to release outtakes from Trump’s reality television show “The Apprentice” in which he allegedly <a href="" type="external">repeatedly used racial or ethnic slurs</a>, including against African-Americans and Jews. He also is accused <a href="" type="external">in a defamation lawsuit</a> of sexually harassing Summer Zervos, who appeared on the show as a contestant.</p>
<p>Trump was host of the show and one of its executive producers for 14 seasons. Those who worked on the series, which created the fictional public persona that Trump used to get elected to the presidency, signed nondisclosure agreements forbidding them to detail Trump’s behavior or remarks.</p>
<p>Trump’s attorneys on Tuesday will attempt to have the Zervos suit dismissed in the New York State Supreme Court. Zervos has accused Trump of “very aggressively” kissing her, groping her breasts and thrusting his genitals at her during a 2007 meeting at The Beverly Hills Hotel. She brought the defamation action after Trump said she and more than a dozen other women had lied when they said they had been sexually assaulted by him. Presidents, according to the 1997 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in <a href="" type="external">Clinton v. Jones</a>, are not immune from civil law litigation for actions carried out before they assumed office.</p>
<p>The powerful men engaging in sexual predation live in a rarified universe where they own everyone around themselves. They demand unquestioned obedience. They must be the center of attention. Their opinions alone count. Their feelings alone are important. They cannot discern right from wrong and lies from truth. They are modern slave masters. Those who work for them are forced to sing, dance and provide physical pleasure or get the whip. And they have the power, granted to them by corporate and political institutions, to persecute and discredit any who defy them. This pathology captures not only the bleak inner core of Trump but also many of his political rivals, including Bill Clinton.</p>
<p>“We have been told for over 25 years that all that matters is wealth,” said Lakeman. “All that matters is what <a href="" type="external">neoliberalism</a> says matters. We have been told our movements are ineffective. They can’t make anything happen, whether that is peace on a global scale or peace between men and women. What’s going on right now tells women maybe we can make a difference.”</p>
<p>“This is a particular kind of politics,” Lakeman said. “It is women saying the left has not taken sexism seriously, has not taken women’s oppression seriously, and it won’t get away with this. Women are leading. It would be smart for anyone who wants transformation in the world to help us, help us fight class and race and sex bigotry.”</p>
<p>College fraternities are breeding grounds for sexual harassment and the objectification of women. The fraternities often ship their men-children straight into corporate offices and other institutions that wield power. The cult of the self defines corporate culture. It celebrates the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation; a penchant for lying, deception and manipulation; and an inability to feel remorse or guilt. The higher one rises in the corporate hierarchy, the more power and money one amasses, the more these traits are pronounced and rewarded. Hedonism and greed become insatiable. There is no sense of proportion, propriety or limits. It is a culture in which you use others or be used, where you seize as much as you can as fast as you can and ignore the consequences to yourself, those around you, your community and the planet. It is at once infantile and evil. It is also a path to collective self-destruction.</p>
<p>“These are men who profit from other people’s work,” Lakeman said of the celebrities and business and political elites. “Their jobs barely exist as independent. It is the nature of hierarchy to rip off the people below.”</p>
<p>“We are dealing with a global behavior,” Lakeman went on. “This women’s action is pointing out the behavior of powerful men throughout the industrial West. Women are deciding to tell bosses, liberal institutions and managers this behavior has to stop. They are going public immediately. No one trusts the liberal institutions, the owners or the managers to handle this.”</p>
<p>“Part of this tactic is to say that whether you like it or not we are going to oppose this, whether we win or not we will oppose this, whether we get the proper results or not we will oppose this,” Lakeman said. “This is spectacular. This is what it takes to make a difference. Collectively we seem to have agreed on whom to go after—the men who are holding economic, social and cultural power. It is astounding how these guys are being selected. Sexual harassment is only one face of this. We hate these men for their profiteering, their representation of what it means to be a man, their abuses of power. And even the ‘good guys’ who slide into this behavior have to be shown up. It has to stop. I don’t think it will end with men who hold this kind of power. But there is a very wise consensus that says we should go after the men we all agree on and behavior that is at once menacing and pathetic.”</p>
<p>The women’s revolt understands that our institutions, including those on the left, will not defend us. We must defend ourselves.</p>
<p>“We are looking at the end of the Roman Empire,” Lakeman said. “We are looking at people grasping in all manner of disgusting ways for power. Women are looking for a way out. They are looking for a way to address some of this. We have been denied all the promised ways. This is the result of 50 years of feminist work against violence. Those who hold positions of corporate and political power are very nervous. They can’t control this. There is a genuine uprising, and no one can find the leader to shut it down.”</p> | 1,763 |
<p>The lede on the DRUDGEREPORT most of Monday showed a Catholic nun being patted down at an airport security checkpoint, with the caption starkly declaring that “THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON.”</p>
<p>He’s right.</p>
<p>Ten years after 9/11, Americans who fly are facing a Faustian choice between subjecting themselves to a virtual (and potentially medically damaging) strip search conducted in questionable machines run by federal employees or a psychologically damaging pat-down of their bodies. Osama bin Ladin must be giggling himself silly this week.</p>
<p>But what should we expect in a society that requires adults to wear bicycle helmets while pedaling in the park, provides disclaimers of liability on TV advertisements, or prints warnings on fast-food coffee cups? The name of the game is zero risk. Not risk mitigation, or accepting responsibility for one’s actions, but risk aversion. It’s a failure to acknowledge that we can’t protect against everything bad that can happen to us, so we must protect against everything we think might — might — be harmful at some point.</p>
<p>It’s living in fear.</p>
<p>TSA has established itself as the lead federal agency charged with perpetuating this risk-averse culture at airports around the country. The proof is evident over the past ten years: Because of the Shoebomber, we have to remove our shoes. Thanks to the Christmas Crotchbomber, we are subjected to invasive scanning or government-mandated molestation. Because there’s a potential for explosives in liquid or gel form, we’ve got the “Three Ounces in A Baggie” rule. Wearing a sweater or bulky fleece hoodie? Take it off (along with your shoes and belt) so it can be examined. Or frisking Granny, or asking toddlers to drink from their Sippy-cups to make sure it’s really Mommy’s milk inside. And let’s not forget the thankfully defunct prohibitions on knitting needles, insulin syringes, matches, lighters, or standing during the last 30 minutes of flights to Washington, DC.</p>
<p>All in the name of protecting the homeland.</p>
<p>Given this latest round of homeland hysteria, I must ask again — what happens after the next ‘new’ attempt to smuggle something onto a plane? Actually, we know the answer: another item will go on the Prohibited Items List and additional screenings of passengers will be conducted, followed by more patronising security-speak from our Department of Homeland Insecurity asking law abiding folks to give up more of their privacy and personal “space” in the interest of Homeland (er, “State”) Security. Big Brother, meet Big Sister. With all her homeland security lobbyists along for the ride.</p>
<p>Where does it end?</p>
<p>Due to this nationalised risk aversion and a docile public, we’re now living in a country that subordinates law abiding travelers to quasi-law-enforcement employees of a government agency empowered to make up the rules as it goes along and arrest/fine those who question, challenge, or refuse to comply with their demands while impeding their travel within this great country. What does all of this do to our nation? Our way of life? Our way of thinking as citizens?</p>
<p>Perhaps this is intentional, and we’re being conditioned to accept the actions of TSA and embrace a zero-risk mentality on our society. What else can explain the statement made earlier today by TSA Director John Pistole that citizens who protest what they see as government transgressions into their privacy are being “irresponsible”? Calling us irresponsible when protesting this latest round of TSA actions is no different than our being labelled unpatriotic when protesting or questioning some of the provisions in the controversial USA PATRIOT Act. Same stuff, different Administration.</p>
<p>The American public needs to recognise the nature of the terror threat and accept a certain level of risk in their lives and travels instead of kowtowing to every reactive security ‘enhancement’ proclaimed by TSA as necessary to protect the country. In terms of airport security, we are the laughing stock of the industrialised world, and an embarrassment to knowledgeable security professionals.</p>
<p>The tragedy of 9/11 wasn’t the attacks of that day, but what has happened to America in the years since.</p>
<p>Which begs the question: who should we be afraid of, really — “them” or “us?”</p>
<p>RICHARD FORNO is a security researcher in the Washington, DC area.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p /> | TSA and America’s Zero Risk Culture | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/11/16/tsa-and-america-s-zero-risk-culture/ | 2010-11-16 | 4left
| TSA and America’s Zero Risk Culture
<p>The lede on the DRUDGEREPORT most of Monday showed a Catholic nun being patted down at an airport security checkpoint, with the caption starkly declaring that “THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON.”</p>
<p>He’s right.</p>
<p>Ten years after 9/11, Americans who fly are facing a Faustian choice between subjecting themselves to a virtual (and potentially medically damaging) strip search conducted in questionable machines run by federal employees or a psychologically damaging pat-down of their bodies. Osama bin Ladin must be giggling himself silly this week.</p>
<p>But what should we expect in a society that requires adults to wear bicycle helmets while pedaling in the park, provides disclaimers of liability on TV advertisements, or prints warnings on fast-food coffee cups? The name of the game is zero risk. Not risk mitigation, or accepting responsibility for one’s actions, but risk aversion. It’s a failure to acknowledge that we can’t protect against everything bad that can happen to us, so we must protect against everything we think might — might — be harmful at some point.</p>
<p>It’s living in fear.</p>
<p>TSA has established itself as the lead federal agency charged with perpetuating this risk-averse culture at airports around the country. The proof is evident over the past ten years: Because of the Shoebomber, we have to remove our shoes. Thanks to the Christmas Crotchbomber, we are subjected to invasive scanning or government-mandated molestation. Because there’s a potential for explosives in liquid or gel form, we’ve got the “Three Ounces in A Baggie” rule. Wearing a sweater or bulky fleece hoodie? Take it off (along with your shoes and belt) so it can be examined. Or frisking Granny, or asking toddlers to drink from their Sippy-cups to make sure it’s really Mommy’s milk inside. And let’s not forget the thankfully defunct prohibitions on knitting needles, insulin syringes, matches, lighters, or standing during the last 30 minutes of flights to Washington, DC.</p>
<p>All in the name of protecting the homeland.</p>
<p>Given this latest round of homeland hysteria, I must ask again — what happens after the next ‘new’ attempt to smuggle something onto a plane? Actually, we know the answer: another item will go on the Prohibited Items List and additional screenings of passengers will be conducted, followed by more patronising security-speak from our Department of Homeland Insecurity asking law abiding folks to give up more of their privacy and personal “space” in the interest of Homeland (er, “State”) Security. Big Brother, meet Big Sister. With all her homeland security lobbyists along for the ride.</p>
<p>Where does it end?</p>
<p>Due to this nationalised risk aversion and a docile public, we’re now living in a country that subordinates law abiding travelers to quasi-law-enforcement employees of a government agency empowered to make up the rules as it goes along and arrest/fine those who question, challenge, or refuse to comply with their demands while impeding their travel within this great country. What does all of this do to our nation? Our way of life? Our way of thinking as citizens?</p>
<p>Perhaps this is intentional, and we’re being conditioned to accept the actions of TSA and embrace a zero-risk mentality on our society. What else can explain the statement made earlier today by TSA Director John Pistole that citizens who protest what they see as government transgressions into their privacy are being “irresponsible”? Calling us irresponsible when protesting this latest round of TSA actions is no different than our being labelled unpatriotic when protesting or questioning some of the provisions in the controversial USA PATRIOT Act. Same stuff, different Administration.</p>
<p>The American public needs to recognise the nature of the terror threat and accept a certain level of risk in their lives and travels instead of kowtowing to every reactive security ‘enhancement’ proclaimed by TSA as necessary to protect the country. In terms of airport security, we are the laughing stock of the industrialised world, and an embarrassment to knowledgeable security professionals.</p>
<p>The tragedy of 9/11 wasn’t the attacks of that day, but what has happened to America in the years since.</p>
<p>Which begs the question: who should we be afraid of, really — “them” or “us?”</p>
<p>RICHARD FORNO is a security researcher in the Washington, DC area.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p /> | 1,764 |
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<p>HOUSTON — A 17-year-old man is charged with capital murder for the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old Houston woman who was trying to stop him from breaking into her car.</p>
<p>Police say Broderick Delance Knight is accused of the Dec. 16 slaying of Karla Carias. She was visiting her boyfriend and his father at a southeast Houston apartment complex when they heard someone breaking into her car.</p>
<p>They ran outside, the burglar fled to a getaway car and one of the occupants leaned out a window and fired a single shot while speeding off.</p>
<p>Carias was hit and was pronounced dead at a hospital.</p>
<p>Knight is charged with aggravated robbery in another case and court records show he’s a fugitive from juvenile authorities. He’s held without bond facing a court appearance Friday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Man, 17, charged with killing woman trying to stop burglary | false | https://abqjournal.com/917804/man-17-charged-with-killing-woman-trying-to-stop-burglary.html | 2least
| Man, 17, charged with killing woman trying to stop burglary
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<p>HOUSTON — A 17-year-old man is charged with capital murder for the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old Houston woman who was trying to stop him from breaking into her car.</p>
<p>Police say Broderick Delance Knight is accused of the Dec. 16 slaying of Karla Carias. She was visiting her boyfriend and his father at a southeast Houston apartment complex when they heard someone breaking into her car.</p>
<p>They ran outside, the burglar fled to a getaway car and one of the occupants leaned out a window and fired a single shot while speeding off.</p>
<p>Carias was hit and was pronounced dead at a hospital.</p>
<p>Knight is charged with aggravated robbery in another case and court records show he’s a fugitive from juvenile authorities. He’s held without bond facing a court appearance Friday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 1,765 |
|
<p />
<p>Fortunately the good citizens of Milwaukee are heeding the <a href="" type="internal">advice of their Sheriff and arming up</a>. &#160;Sheriff David Clarke has long been a voice of reason within his county, made ever so evident in his public service ad he ran last year:</p>
<p>"I'm Sheriff David Clarke and I want to talk to you about something personal: Your safety. It's no longer a spectator sport. I need you in the game. But are you ready? With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option. - Consider taking a certified safety course in handling of firearms, so you can defend yourself until we get there. You have a duty to protect yourself and your family. We're partners now. Can I count on you?"</p>
<p>The entire city of Milwaukee can thank a 30 year old West Allis &#160;man for "partnering up" with Sheriff Clarke and carrying his sidearm with him when he was out.</p>
<p>A group of at least 6 gang bangers had been terrorizing the streets, on a 3 day rampage, committing dozens of armed robberies and thefts. &#160;That all came to an abrupt end early Monday morning when the five approached the armed citizen and his coworkers as they&#160;closed up the tavern they worked at and were leaving.</p>
<p>Upon leaving work the CCW permit holder and his friends were approached by the gang and were held at gunpoint in an attempt to rob them. &#160;The CCW holder didn't care to much for that notion and in response produced his sidearm and fired upon the thugs. &#160;Shooting and killing one before the rest could flee like the cowards they are.</p>
<p>Thanks to the identification of the dead robber, a 15 year old with a long arrest record despite his age, his 5 cohorts were arrested shortly after.</p>
<p>Their crime spree and reign of terror over thanks to a law abiding citizen with a firearm.</p>
<p>Of course, now that we live in a hypersensitive, "but he was just a child", blah blah blah world, the hero of this story was still brought into the station and detained for a while. &#160;The DA has ordered for him to return and will conduct an investigation to determine whether the shooting was in self defense.</p>
<p>Not for not, if a group of friends and I are getting held up at gun point, self defense mode has been activated. &#160;I'm not sure what the DA is thinking here but hopefully it's just the song and dance of covering his own ass. &#160;With luck it won't put the hero citizen out too much.</p>
<p>Even the cops don't seem to be too worried about it as&#160;Lt. Mark Stanmeyer of the Milwaukee PD said the shooting victim was a 15-year-old boy that he called "a known gang member" who had a lengthy arrest record including armed robbery and auto theft.</p>
<p>It was only a matter of time before the little gang banger grew up to be a big gang banger and killed some innocent person.</p>
<p>This all proves that once again, the law abiding are better armed with a gun in the hand than 911 on the line.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.</p> | Man Saves Friends by Fighting Off 5 Attackers With His Firearm | true | http://bulletsfirst.net/2014/09/05/man-saves-friends-fighting-5-attackers-firearm/ | 0right
| Man Saves Friends by Fighting Off 5 Attackers With His Firearm
<p />
<p>Fortunately the good citizens of Milwaukee are heeding the <a href="" type="internal">advice of their Sheriff and arming up</a>. &#160;Sheriff David Clarke has long been a voice of reason within his county, made ever so evident in his public service ad he ran last year:</p>
<p>"I'm Sheriff David Clarke and I want to talk to you about something personal: Your safety. It's no longer a spectator sport. I need you in the game. But are you ready? With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option. - Consider taking a certified safety course in handling of firearms, so you can defend yourself until we get there. You have a duty to protect yourself and your family. We're partners now. Can I count on you?"</p>
<p>The entire city of Milwaukee can thank a 30 year old West Allis &#160;man for "partnering up" with Sheriff Clarke and carrying his sidearm with him when he was out.</p>
<p>A group of at least 6 gang bangers had been terrorizing the streets, on a 3 day rampage, committing dozens of armed robberies and thefts. &#160;That all came to an abrupt end early Monday morning when the five approached the armed citizen and his coworkers as they&#160;closed up the tavern they worked at and were leaving.</p>
<p>Upon leaving work the CCW permit holder and his friends were approached by the gang and were held at gunpoint in an attempt to rob them. &#160;The CCW holder didn't care to much for that notion and in response produced his sidearm and fired upon the thugs. &#160;Shooting and killing one before the rest could flee like the cowards they are.</p>
<p>Thanks to the identification of the dead robber, a 15 year old with a long arrest record despite his age, his 5 cohorts were arrested shortly after.</p>
<p>Their crime spree and reign of terror over thanks to a law abiding citizen with a firearm.</p>
<p>Of course, now that we live in a hypersensitive, "but he was just a child", blah blah blah world, the hero of this story was still brought into the station and detained for a while. &#160;The DA has ordered for him to return and will conduct an investigation to determine whether the shooting was in self defense.</p>
<p>Not for not, if a group of friends and I are getting held up at gun point, self defense mode has been activated. &#160;I'm not sure what the DA is thinking here but hopefully it's just the song and dance of covering his own ass. &#160;With luck it won't put the hero citizen out too much.</p>
<p>Even the cops don't seem to be too worried about it as&#160;Lt. Mark Stanmeyer of the Milwaukee PD said the shooting victim was a 15-year-old boy that he called "a known gang member" who had a lengthy arrest record including armed robbery and auto theft.</p>
<p>It was only a matter of time before the little gang banger grew up to be a big gang banger and killed some innocent person.</p>
<p>This all proves that once again, the law abiding are better armed with a gun in the hand than 911 on the line.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.</p> | 1,766 |
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<p />
<p>Faced with a significant number of jaywalking deaths and injuries, Santa Fe city officials are considering toughening up penalties for the petty misdemeanor.</p>
<p>A new ordinance would mandate that jaywalkers answer for their crimes by appearing in Municipal Court, where they could receive a sentence of up to 90 days in jail and a $300 fine.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Currently, jaywalkers are fined $25 and can pay the penalty, which includes an additional $56 in fees, by mail.</p>
<p>“This puts a little more ‘oomph'” into the law and says, “we’re taking it a little more seriously,” Municipal Court Judge Ann Yalman told the city’s Public Safety Committee this week.</p>
<p>The proposal goes before the City Council for a final vote in January.</p>
<p>Yalman said she’s heard that six people have been killed while jaywalking in Santa Fe, but she couldn’t immediately provide a time frame for that number. She noted that just this week she heard a case involving a man seriously hurt while jaywalking.</p>
<p>“Apparently there’s been an awful lot of jaywalkers that have been severely injured or killed,” Yalman said.</p>
<p>City Councilor Ron Trujillo, who leads the Public Safety Committee, said he often sees students at DeVargas Middle School on Llano Street illegally crossing the often busy road to reach nearby shops.</p>
<p>“I don’t want to see a child get hit by a car,” Trujillo said.</p>
<p>Accidents involving jaywalkers tend to happen on Cerrillos Road, St. Francis Drive or near downtown Santa Fe, according to Yalman. — This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | SF Jaywalkers May See Crackdown | false | https://abqjournal.com/148370/sf-jaywalkers-may-see-crackdown.html | 2012-11-24 | 2least
| SF Jaywalkers May See Crackdown
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<p />
<p>Faced with a significant number of jaywalking deaths and injuries, Santa Fe city officials are considering toughening up penalties for the petty misdemeanor.</p>
<p>A new ordinance would mandate that jaywalkers answer for their crimes by appearing in Municipal Court, where they could receive a sentence of up to 90 days in jail and a $300 fine.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Currently, jaywalkers are fined $25 and can pay the penalty, which includes an additional $56 in fees, by mail.</p>
<p>“This puts a little more ‘oomph'” into the law and says, “we’re taking it a little more seriously,” Municipal Court Judge Ann Yalman told the city’s Public Safety Committee this week.</p>
<p>The proposal goes before the City Council for a final vote in January.</p>
<p>Yalman said she’s heard that six people have been killed while jaywalking in Santa Fe, but she couldn’t immediately provide a time frame for that number. She noted that just this week she heard a case involving a man seriously hurt while jaywalking.</p>
<p>“Apparently there’s been an awful lot of jaywalkers that have been severely injured or killed,” Yalman said.</p>
<p>City Councilor Ron Trujillo, who leads the Public Safety Committee, said he often sees students at DeVargas Middle School on Llano Street illegally crossing the often busy road to reach nearby shops.</p>
<p>“I don’t want to see a child get hit by a car,” Trujillo said.</p>
<p>Accidents involving jaywalkers tend to happen on Cerrillos Road, St. Francis Drive or near downtown Santa Fe, according to Yalman. — This article appeared on page C2 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | 1,767 |
<p>Testosterone therapy — widely advertised as a way to help men improve a low sex drive and reclaim diminished energy — might raise the risk of heart attack, according to new research.</p>
<p>The increased risk was found in men younger than 65 with a history of heart disease, and in older men even if they didn’t have a history of the disease. In both groups, heart attack risk doubled in the 90 days after the men began testosterone therapy, said researcher William Finkle, CEO of Consolidated Research, in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>The study was conducted by a research team that included experts from Consolidated Research, the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the University of California, Los Angeles. The included nearly 56,000 men who had been prescribed testosterone therapy — more than 48,000 of whom were under age 65. The risk for heart attack doubled in a 90-day period for men over 65 and those under 65 with a history of heart disease, the researchers found.</p>
<p>The two-fold increase in risk in younger men was seen only in those with a history of heart disease.</p>
<p>AbbVie and Actavis, the makers of testosterone therapies, did not respond to requests for comment on the study.</p>
<p>“Based on the best available data, testosterone replacement still appears to be safe … for properly selected patients,” said Dr. Ryan Terlecki, director of the Men’s Health Clinic at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.</p>
<p>Among the flaws in the study, Terlecki said, was the use of information obtained from medical claims data, which makes it uncertain which men actually used the testosterone.</p>
<p>Terlecki said men who have a lack of energy should first see their doctor and ask about screening for depression and other conditions — such as thyroid disease or B12 deficiency — that could also be the cause.</p>
<p /> | Study finds testosterone therapy may increase heart attack risk in older men | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/02/04/study-finds-testosterone-therapy-may-increase-heart-attack-risk-in-older-men-2/ | 2014-02-04 | 3left-center
| Study finds testosterone therapy may increase heart attack risk in older men
<p>Testosterone therapy — widely advertised as a way to help men improve a low sex drive and reclaim diminished energy — might raise the risk of heart attack, according to new research.</p>
<p>The increased risk was found in men younger than 65 with a history of heart disease, and in older men even if they didn’t have a history of the disease. In both groups, heart attack risk doubled in the 90 days after the men began testosterone therapy, said researcher William Finkle, CEO of Consolidated Research, in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>The study was conducted by a research team that included experts from Consolidated Research, the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the University of California, Los Angeles. The included nearly 56,000 men who had been prescribed testosterone therapy — more than 48,000 of whom were under age 65. The risk for heart attack doubled in a 90-day period for men over 65 and those under 65 with a history of heart disease, the researchers found.</p>
<p>The two-fold increase in risk in younger men was seen only in those with a history of heart disease.</p>
<p>AbbVie and Actavis, the makers of testosterone therapies, did not respond to requests for comment on the study.</p>
<p>“Based on the best available data, testosterone replacement still appears to be safe … for properly selected patients,” said Dr. Ryan Terlecki, director of the Men’s Health Clinic at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.</p>
<p>Among the flaws in the study, Terlecki said, was the use of information obtained from medical claims data, which makes it uncertain which men actually used the testosterone.</p>
<p>Terlecki said men who have a lack of energy should first see their doctor and ask about screening for depression and other conditions — such as thyroid disease or B12 deficiency — that could also be the cause.</p>
<p /> | 1,768 |
<p>DETROIT (AP) — Among the many shiny models vying for attention at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show are the revamped Volkswagen Jetta, Hyundai Veloster and Kia Forte.</p>
<p>But cars — particularly small ones — are having a tough time getting buyers to look their way as SUVs grow in popularity.</p>
<p>Car sales are expected to hit a record low this year after steadily declining for several years. SUVs surpassed cars for the first time in 2016, and the gap only widens: Auto shopping site Edmunds.com forecasts the utilities will make up 43.5 percent of new vehicle sales this year, while cars will fall to 34.5 percent. (Edmunds regularly provides content, including automotive tips and reviews, for distribution by The Associated Press.)</p>
<p>The reasons are plenty, including relatively low gas prices, growing millennial families and small, attractive SUV models that are becoming more fuel efficient and affordable.</p>
<p>The small car slump and utility boom has spurred industry changes: Ford is converting a Michigan plant that currently makes the Focus for Bronco SUV production. The automaker plans to move Focus production to China.</p>
<p>So why the big push to make — and market — cars as the demand dwindles? There are economies of scale, since many cars are sold globally, including in overseas markets where small cars are more popular. Then there’s the “gateway” effect, according to Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst for the car buying site Autotrader.com.</p>
<p>“A small car is likely the first new vehicle a young person buys,” she said in an email. “So it is particularly important to make a good impression so that person sticks with a brand and moves up the size and price ladder.”</p>
<p>Despite the sales drops, the U.S. small car category is still “huge,” Krebs said, representing 2.1 million last year and the fourth largest vehicle segment.</p>
<p>Still, there’s no question that several car-dependent manufacturers have been hurt by the shift to SUVs, including VW, Hyundai and Kia. The models being showcased in Detroit are examples of “what they have to work with while they develop more sport-utilities,” Krebs said.</p>
<p>Hyundai isn’t giving up on small cars, as evidenced by the new Veloster. It also recently revealed the updated Accent subcompact, which has some surprising optional features like remote start, which lets the driver start the car with a smartphone, and a hands-free trunk that opens when the driver waves a foot under it.</p>
<p>“We still believe there’s big demand for basic transportation that offers more,” said Michael O’Brien, who leads U.S. product planning for Kia, Hyundai’s smaller affiliate.</p>
<p>Underscoring the point, Kia said the Forte had its best sales year in 2017 — the last year before the redesigned model debuted at the Detroit show.</p>
<p>Even though small cars have fallen out of favor in the U.S. now, automakers still need to invest in them due to demand in other parts of the world, says Mark Reuss, General Motors’ global product development chief. Also, Reuss says he’s seen events that have rapidly shifted what consumers want, and he wants to be ready if that happens.</p>
<p>“These are long-term capital investments,” Reuss said. “Some of the big shocks that have happened that I’ve seen in my career flip things pretty quick, faster than we can change capital investments.”</p>
<p>Jonathan Smoke, the chief economist for Cox Automotive, says customers looking for an affordable vehicle last year were more likely to shop for used SUVs over new small cars. But small cars are still an important part of the market, he says, especially in cities where people need something small and maneuverable.</p>
<p>Sales of new small cars also spiked after the hurricanes in Florida and Texas, when people who needed transportation quickly went for the most affordable cars they could find.</p>
<p>“There’s a place for the compact car,” he said. “There’s a place for value.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP auto writers Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin contributed to this story.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Jeff Karoub on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub." type="external">http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub.</a> Find more of his work at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/jeff%20karoub.</a></p>
<p>DETROIT (AP) — Among the many shiny models vying for attention at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show are the revamped Volkswagen Jetta, Hyundai Veloster and Kia Forte.</p>
<p>But cars — particularly small ones — are having a tough time getting buyers to look their way as SUVs grow in popularity.</p>
<p>Car sales are expected to hit a record low this year after steadily declining for several years. SUVs surpassed cars for the first time in 2016, and the gap only widens: Auto shopping site Edmunds.com forecasts the utilities will make up 43.5 percent of new vehicle sales this year, while cars will fall to 34.5 percent. (Edmunds regularly provides content, including automotive tips and reviews, for distribution by The Associated Press.)</p>
<p>The reasons are plenty, including relatively low gas prices, growing millennial families and small, attractive SUV models that are becoming more fuel efficient and affordable.</p>
<p>The small car slump and utility boom has spurred industry changes: Ford is converting a Michigan plant that currently makes the Focus for Bronco SUV production. The automaker plans to move Focus production to China.</p>
<p>So why the big push to make — and market — cars as the demand dwindles? There are economies of scale, since many cars are sold globally, including in overseas markets where small cars are more popular. Then there’s the “gateway” effect, according to Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst for the car buying site Autotrader.com.</p>
<p>“A small car is likely the first new vehicle a young person buys,” she said in an email. “So it is particularly important to make a good impression so that person sticks with a brand and moves up the size and price ladder.”</p>
<p>Despite the sales drops, the U.S. small car category is still “huge,” Krebs said, representing 2.1 million last year and the fourth largest vehicle segment.</p>
<p>Still, there’s no question that several car-dependent manufacturers have been hurt by the shift to SUVs, including VW, Hyundai and Kia. The models being showcased in Detroit are examples of “what they have to work with while they develop more sport-utilities,” Krebs said.</p>
<p>Hyundai isn’t giving up on small cars, as evidenced by the new Veloster. It also recently revealed the updated Accent subcompact, which has some surprising optional features like remote start, which lets the driver start the car with a smartphone, and a hands-free trunk that opens when the driver waves a foot under it.</p>
<p>“We still believe there’s big demand for basic transportation that offers more,” said Michael O’Brien, who leads U.S. product planning for Kia, Hyundai’s smaller affiliate.</p>
<p>Underscoring the point, Kia said the Forte had its best sales year in 2017 — the last year before the redesigned model debuted at the Detroit show.</p>
<p>Even though small cars have fallen out of favor in the U.S. now, automakers still need to invest in them due to demand in other parts of the world, says Mark Reuss, General Motors’ global product development chief. Also, Reuss says he’s seen events that have rapidly shifted what consumers want, and he wants to be ready if that happens.</p>
<p>“These are long-term capital investments,” Reuss said. “Some of the big shocks that have happened that I’ve seen in my career flip things pretty quick, faster than we can change capital investments.”</p>
<p>Jonathan Smoke, the chief economist for Cox Automotive, says customers looking for an affordable vehicle last year were more likely to shop for used SUVs over new small cars. But small cars are still an important part of the market, he says, especially in cities where people need something small and maneuverable.</p>
<p>Sales of new small cars also spiked after the hurricanes in Florida and Texas, when people who needed transportation quickly went for the most affordable cars they could find.</p>
<p>“There’s a place for the compact car,” he said. “There’s a place for value.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP auto writers Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin contributed to this story.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Jeff Karoub on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub." type="external">http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub.</a> Find more of his work at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/jeff%20karoub.</a></p> | New small cars unveiled at auto show but will anyone buy? | false | https://apnews.com/0a129957043242c4a975fac8bba9de65 | 2018-01-16 | 2least
| New small cars unveiled at auto show but will anyone buy?
<p>DETROIT (AP) — Among the many shiny models vying for attention at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show are the revamped Volkswagen Jetta, Hyundai Veloster and Kia Forte.</p>
<p>But cars — particularly small ones — are having a tough time getting buyers to look their way as SUVs grow in popularity.</p>
<p>Car sales are expected to hit a record low this year after steadily declining for several years. SUVs surpassed cars for the first time in 2016, and the gap only widens: Auto shopping site Edmunds.com forecasts the utilities will make up 43.5 percent of new vehicle sales this year, while cars will fall to 34.5 percent. (Edmunds regularly provides content, including automotive tips and reviews, for distribution by The Associated Press.)</p>
<p>The reasons are plenty, including relatively low gas prices, growing millennial families and small, attractive SUV models that are becoming more fuel efficient and affordable.</p>
<p>The small car slump and utility boom has spurred industry changes: Ford is converting a Michigan plant that currently makes the Focus for Bronco SUV production. The automaker plans to move Focus production to China.</p>
<p>So why the big push to make — and market — cars as the demand dwindles? There are economies of scale, since many cars are sold globally, including in overseas markets where small cars are more popular. Then there’s the “gateway” effect, according to Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst for the car buying site Autotrader.com.</p>
<p>“A small car is likely the first new vehicle a young person buys,” she said in an email. “So it is particularly important to make a good impression so that person sticks with a brand and moves up the size and price ladder.”</p>
<p>Despite the sales drops, the U.S. small car category is still “huge,” Krebs said, representing 2.1 million last year and the fourth largest vehicle segment.</p>
<p>Still, there’s no question that several car-dependent manufacturers have been hurt by the shift to SUVs, including VW, Hyundai and Kia. The models being showcased in Detroit are examples of “what they have to work with while they develop more sport-utilities,” Krebs said.</p>
<p>Hyundai isn’t giving up on small cars, as evidenced by the new Veloster. It also recently revealed the updated Accent subcompact, which has some surprising optional features like remote start, which lets the driver start the car with a smartphone, and a hands-free trunk that opens when the driver waves a foot under it.</p>
<p>“We still believe there’s big demand for basic transportation that offers more,” said Michael O’Brien, who leads U.S. product planning for Kia, Hyundai’s smaller affiliate.</p>
<p>Underscoring the point, Kia said the Forte had its best sales year in 2017 — the last year before the redesigned model debuted at the Detroit show.</p>
<p>Even though small cars have fallen out of favor in the U.S. now, automakers still need to invest in them due to demand in other parts of the world, says Mark Reuss, General Motors’ global product development chief. Also, Reuss says he’s seen events that have rapidly shifted what consumers want, and he wants to be ready if that happens.</p>
<p>“These are long-term capital investments,” Reuss said. “Some of the big shocks that have happened that I’ve seen in my career flip things pretty quick, faster than we can change capital investments.”</p>
<p>Jonathan Smoke, the chief economist for Cox Automotive, says customers looking for an affordable vehicle last year were more likely to shop for used SUVs over new small cars. But small cars are still an important part of the market, he says, especially in cities where people need something small and maneuverable.</p>
<p>Sales of new small cars also spiked after the hurricanes in Florida and Texas, when people who needed transportation quickly went for the most affordable cars they could find.</p>
<p>“There’s a place for the compact car,” he said. “There’s a place for value.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP auto writers Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin contributed to this story.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Jeff Karoub on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub." type="external">http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub.</a> Find more of his work at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/jeff%20karoub.</a></p>
<p>DETROIT (AP) — Among the many shiny models vying for attention at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show are the revamped Volkswagen Jetta, Hyundai Veloster and Kia Forte.</p>
<p>But cars — particularly small ones — are having a tough time getting buyers to look their way as SUVs grow in popularity.</p>
<p>Car sales are expected to hit a record low this year after steadily declining for several years. SUVs surpassed cars for the first time in 2016, and the gap only widens: Auto shopping site Edmunds.com forecasts the utilities will make up 43.5 percent of new vehicle sales this year, while cars will fall to 34.5 percent. (Edmunds regularly provides content, including automotive tips and reviews, for distribution by The Associated Press.)</p>
<p>The reasons are plenty, including relatively low gas prices, growing millennial families and small, attractive SUV models that are becoming more fuel efficient and affordable.</p>
<p>The small car slump and utility boom has spurred industry changes: Ford is converting a Michigan plant that currently makes the Focus for Bronco SUV production. The automaker plans to move Focus production to China.</p>
<p>So why the big push to make — and market — cars as the demand dwindles? There are economies of scale, since many cars are sold globally, including in overseas markets where small cars are more popular. Then there’s the “gateway” effect, according to Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst for the car buying site Autotrader.com.</p>
<p>“A small car is likely the first new vehicle a young person buys,” she said in an email. “So it is particularly important to make a good impression so that person sticks with a brand and moves up the size and price ladder.”</p>
<p>Despite the sales drops, the U.S. small car category is still “huge,” Krebs said, representing 2.1 million last year and the fourth largest vehicle segment.</p>
<p>Still, there’s no question that several car-dependent manufacturers have been hurt by the shift to SUVs, including VW, Hyundai and Kia. The models being showcased in Detroit are examples of “what they have to work with while they develop more sport-utilities,” Krebs said.</p>
<p>Hyundai isn’t giving up on small cars, as evidenced by the new Veloster. It also recently revealed the updated Accent subcompact, which has some surprising optional features like remote start, which lets the driver start the car with a smartphone, and a hands-free trunk that opens when the driver waves a foot under it.</p>
<p>“We still believe there’s big demand for basic transportation that offers more,” said Michael O’Brien, who leads U.S. product planning for Kia, Hyundai’s smaller affiliate.</p>
<p>Underscoring the point, Kia said the Forte had its best sales year in 2017 — the last year before the redesigned model debuted at the Detroit show.</p>
<p>Even though small cars have fallen out of favor in the U.S. now, automakers still need to invest in them due to demand in other parts of the world, says Mark Reuss, General Motors’ global product development chief. Also, Reuss says he’s seen events that have rapidly shifted what consumers want, and he wants to be ready if that happens.</p>
<p>“These are long-term capital investments,” Reuss said. “Some of the big shocks that have happened that I’ve seen in my career flip things pretty quick, faster than we can change capital investments.”</p>
<p>Jonathan Smoke, the chief economist for Cox Automotive, says customers looking for an affordable vehicle last year were more likely to shop for used SUVs over new small cars. But small cars are still an important part of the market, he says, especially in cities where people need something small and maneuverable.</p>
<p>Sales of new small cars also spiked after the hurricanes in Florida and Texas, when people who needed transportation quickly went for the most affordable cars they could find.</p>
<p>“There’s a place for the compact car,” he said. “There’s a place for value.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP auto writers Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin contributed to this story.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Jeff Karoub on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub." type="external">http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub.</a> Find more of his work at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/jeff%20karoub.</a></p> | 1,769 |
<p>In the Tony award winning musical Les Miserables, the student Enjolras leads his fellow students in two triumphal songs, singing about how their planned uprising against the Parisian government is “the music of a people who will not be slaves again” and how “there is a life about to start, when tomorrow comes.” The title of the more well known one is “Do you hear the people sing” and its general gist is something along the lines of “Students of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your books, desks and report cards!”</p>
<p>And yet, despite the colossal failure which Enjolras’s rebellion turns out to be, one has little doubt that the character himself, if he were real, would be terribly embarrassed by the “protest” which occurred at the state capitol last week. According to the <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11927769" type="external">San Jose Mercury News</a>, “students and staff members from colleges across the state marched from West Sacramento to the state Capitol on Monday morning, protesting budget cuts to community colleges and proposed fee increases at California’s universities. Thousands arrived by the busload, wearing T-shirts representing their schools and carrying signs that read, ‘We are the future.'”</p>
<p>Well, that’s a relief, because they’re certainly not the past. After all, this is the same state that was shocked by the free speech rallies at Berkeley, and by the rabid university anarchy which Ronald Reagan was partially elected to end. As Bob Dylan would say, “The times, they are a-changin’.” Granted, the numbers attracted to this particular rally are minimally impressive, but the larger question of whether they actually accomplished anything is, sadly, left hanging.</p>
<p>The reason for this thousand-strong march was simple: Students at California’s state and community colleges are not happy that they are the ones being hit by fee increases and spending cuts, which have reduced the number of courses offered while increasing tuition. One can hardly blame them, considering that the state spends 40 percent of its budget on education, and for that much money, they probably should be getting more. However, that problem would require a march on the <a href="/article/issues/2009/2/11/we-dont-need-no-education-ii" type="external">local teachers’ union</a>, not Sacramento, which might be a harder sell. It’s not nearly so easy to get in the news.</p>
<p>However, there is a tacit assumption inherent in the protestors’ rhetoric which is worth criticizing, and that is the “we are the future” cliche which the Mercury News has reported. This is a common rhetorical refrain among students, but it may obscure something greater — namely, the question of which of them really are the future, or will impact it.</p>
<p>This question has been treated at great length by the educational scholar Charles Murray, who published an <a href="http://www.american.com/archive/2008/september-october-magazine/are-too-many-people-going-to-college" type="external">article</a> recently defending the notion that too many people are going to college. However, according to Murray, “Saying ‘too many people are going to college’ is not the same as saying that the average student does not need to know about history, science, and great works of art, music, and literature. They do need to know-and to know more than they are currently learning. So let’s teach it to them, but let’s not wait for college to do it.” College, Murray claims, should be for the really advanced things – the things one would talk about after learning the basics of our cultural heritage.</p>
<p>In a cash-strapped time like this, Murray’s ideas have special relevance, since a renewed interest in secondary education would do two things — firstly, it would target expectations so that the overdemand for college education might be adjusted downwards. After all, students who have trouble with the basics of American education are hardly qualified to enter a more advanced area. But secondly and more importantly, it would force a discussion of teachers’ unions, since they tend to have exponentially more power in secondary schools, and as such, have more power to damage education there. As such, it’s arguably a good thing that the discussion about whether college is essential could be forced by this bit of student zealotry.</p>
<p>Enjolras they ain’t, but they might have a chance of unintentionally getting some real change talked about, rather than, to quote the musical again, “wetting themselves with blood.”</p> | Do you Hear the People Mutter? | false | https://ivn.us/2009/03/25/do-you-hear-people-mutter/ | 2009-03-25 | 2least
| Do you Hear the People Mutter?
<p>In the Tony award winning musical Les Miserables, the student Enjolras leads his fellow students in two triumphal songs, singing about how their planned uprising against the Parisian government is “the music of a people who will not be slaves again” and how “there is a life about to start, when tomorrow comes.” The title of the more well known one is “Do you hear the people sing” and its general gist is something along the lines of “Students of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your books, desks and report cards!”</p>
<p>And yet, despite the colossal failure which Enjolras’s rebellion turns out to be, one has little doubt that the character himself, if he were real, would be terribly embarrassed by the “protest” which occurred at the state capitol last week. According to the <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11927769" type="external">San Jose Mercury News</a>, “students and staff members from colleges across the state marched from West Sacramento to the state Capitol on Monday morning, protesting budget cuts to community colleges and proposed fee increases at California’s universities. Thousands arrived by the busload, wearing T-shirts representing their schools and carrying signs that read, ‘We are the future.'”</p>
<p>Well, that’s a relief, because they’re certainly not the past. After all, this is the same state that was shocked by the free speech rallies at Berkeley, and by the rabid university anarchy which Ronald Reagan was partially elected to end. As Bob Dylan would say, “The times, they are a-changin’.” Granted, the numbers attracted to this particular rally are minimally impressive, but the larger question of whether they actually accomplished anything is, sadly, left hanging.</p>
<p>The reason for this thousand-strong march was simple: Students at California’s state and community colleges are not happy that they are the ones being hit by fee increases and spending cuts, which have reduced the number of courses offered while increasing tuition. One can hardly blame them, considering that the state spends 40 percent of its budget on education, and for that much money, they probably should be getting more. However, that problem would require a march on the <a href="/article/issues/2009/2/11/we-dont-need-no-education-ii" type="external">local teachers’ union</a>, not Sacramento, which might be a harder sell. It’s not nearly so easy to get in the news.</p>
<p>However, there is a tacit assumption inherent in the protestors’ rhetoric which is worth criticizing, and that is the “we are the future” cliche which the Mercury News has reported. This is a common rhetorical refrain among students, but it may obscure something greater — namely, the question of which of them really are the future, or will impact it.</p>
<p>This question has been treated at great length by the educational scholar Charles Murray, who published an <a href="http://www.american.com/archive/2008/september-october-magazine/are-too-many-people-going-to-college" type="external">article</a> recently defending the notion that too many people are going to college. However, according to Murray, “Saying ‘too many people are going to college’ is not the same as saying that the average student does not need to know about history, science, and great works of art, music, and literature. They do need to know-and to know more than they are currently learning. So let’s teach it to them, but let’s not wait for college to do it.” College, Murray claims, should be for the really advanced things – the things one would talk about after learning the basics of our cultural heritage.</p>
<p>In a cash-strapped time like this, Murray’s ideas have special relevance, since a renewed interest in secondary education would do two things — firstly, it would target expectations so that the overdemand for college education might be adjusted downwards. After all, students who have trouble with the basics of American education are hardly qualified to enter a more advanced area. But secondly and more importantly, it would force a discussion of teachers’ unions, since they tend to have exponentially more power in secondary schools, and as such, have more power to damage education there. As such, it’s arguably a good thing that the discussion about whether college is essential could be forced by this bit of student zealotry.</p>
<p>Enjolras they ain’t, but they might have a chance of unintentionally getting some real change talked about, rather than, to quote the musical again, “wetting themselves with blood.”</p> | 1,770 |
<p>Suzi Altman/ZUMA Wire</p>
<p />
<p>At last, some good news in abortion rights. Last week, a federal judge in Alabama blocked a regulation that might have closed the state’s largest abortion clinic for good.</p>
<p>The West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa closed back in January after the clinic’s previous physician retired. The clinic’s new doctor was unable to gain admitting privileges at a local hospital or establish a contract with another doctor who had those privileges, putting the clinic in violation of&#160; <a href="https://ecf.almd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2013cv0405-238" type="external">state requirements.</a>&#160;Proponents of the regulation said it was needed to protect women’s safety should complications arise when ending a pregnancy, while abortion rights advocates argued that it was an attempt to shutter clinics that rely on&#160; <a href="" type="internal">providers</a> who live out of the state. Major medical organizations have generally opposed such laws as medically unnecessary.</p>
<p>The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on the clinic’s behalf challenging the requirement, and on August 13, US District Judge Myron Thompson issued a temporary restraining order putting the clinic back in business. Thompson said the closure of the clinic put an “undue burden” on women who were forced to travel longer distances to obtain abortions.</p>
<p>The Tuscaloosa clinic was one of only two in Alabama to provide second-trimester abortions up to the state’s 20-week <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_PLTA.pdf" type="external">legal limit</a>. In 2013, it performed 40 percent of the state’s abortions; after it closed, the closest clinic in Huntsville saw a 57 percent increase in women seeking abortions.</p>
<p>The judge cited evidence that the increased distances and the additional strain on the state’s remaining clinics forced women to&#160;delay abortions until their pregnancies were past the 20-week limit. Thompson also cited the concern that the regulation’s effect on&#160;reducing abortion access “increased the risk that women will take their abortion into their own hands,” and noted that the Huntsville clinic reported calls from women seeking advice on how to terminate their own pregnancies, or threatening to do so. Thompson also referred to a “‘severe scarcity of abortion doctors…nationwide and particularly in the South,’ with no residency program offering training in performing abortion in Louisiana, Alabama, or Mississippi.”&#160;</p>
<p>“For all Alabama women, the closure of the largest abortion provider in the state, one of two providers in the state that administers abortions after 16 weeks, has reduced the number of abortions that can be provided here,” Thompson wrote.</p>
<p>Thompson has been consistently supportive of abortion rights. Last year, the judge, who served as Alabama’s first <a href="http://www.jtb.org/index.php?src=directory&amp;view=biographies&amp;srctype=detail&amp;refno=198" type="external">African-American assistant attorney general</a> before being nominated to the bench by President Jimmy Carter, <a href="https://ecf.almd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2013cv0405-238" type="external">issued a broader ruling</a> in a similar case involving several other clinics.</p>
<p /> | A Judge Just Handed Abortion Supporters a Huge Win in the Deep South | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/08/alabamas-largest-abortion-clinic-reopens/ | 2015-08-18 | 4left
| A Judge Just Handed Abortion Supporters a Huge Win in the Deep South
<p>Suzi Altman/ZUMA Wire</p>
<p />
<p>At last, some good news in abortion rights. Last week, a federal judge in Alabama blocked a regulation that might have closed the state’s largest abortion clinic for good.</p>
<p>The West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa closed back in January after the clinic’s previous physician retired. The clinic’s new doctor was unable to gain admitting privileges at a local hospital or establish a contract with another doctor who had those privileges, putting the clinic in violation of&#160; <a href="https://ecf.almd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2013cv0405-238" type="external">state requirements.</a>&#160;Proponents of the regulation said it was needed to protect women’s safety should complications arise when ending a pregnancy, while abortion rights advocates argued that it was an attempt to shutter clinics that rely on&#160; <a href="" type="internal">providers</a> who live out of the state. Major medical organizations have generally opposed such laws as medically unnecessary.</p>
<p>The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on the clinic’s behalf challenging the requirement, and on August 13, US District Judge Myron Thompson issued a temporary restraining order putting the clinic back in business. Thompson said the closure of the clinic put an “undue burden” on women who were forced to travel longer distances to obtain abortions.</p>
<p>The Tuscaloosa clinic was one of only two in Alabama to provide second-trimester abortions up to the state’s 20-week <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_PLTA.pdf" type="external">legal limit</a>. In 2013, it performed 40 percent of the state’s abortions; after it closed, the closest clinic in Huntsville saw a 57 percent increase in women seeking abortions.</p>
<p>The judge cited evidence that the increased distances and the additional strain on the state’s remaining clinics forced women to&#160;delay abortions until their pregnancies were past the 20-week limit. Thompson also cited the concern that the regulation’s effect on&#160;reducing abortion access “increased the risk that women will take their abortion into their own hands,” and noted that the Huntsville clinic reported calls from women seeking advice on how to terminate their own pregnancies, or threatening to do so. Thompson also referred to a “‘severe scarcity of abortion doctors…nationwide and particularly in the South,’ with no residency program offering training in performing abortion in Louisiana, Alabama, or Mississippi.”&#160;</p>
<p>“For all Alabama women, the closure of the largest abortion provider in the state, one of two providers in the state that administers abortions after 16 weeks, has reduced the number of abortions that can be provided here,” Thompson wrote.</p>
<p>Thompson has been consistently supportive of abortion rights. Last year, the judge, who served as Alabama’s first <a href="http://www.jtb.org/index.php?src=directory&amp;view=biographies&amp;srctype=detail&amp;refno=198" type="external">African-American assistant attorney general</a> before being nominated to the bench by President Jimmy Carter, <a href="https://ecf.almd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2013cv0405-238" type="external">issued a broader ruling</a> in a similar case involving several other clinics.</p>
<p /> | 1,771 |
<p />
<p>Novartis (NYSE:NVS) raised its full-year outlook for the second straight quarter on Tuesday as its blockbuster high-blood pressure drug Diovan continues to benefit from weaker-than-expected generic competition, however its income slumped as R&amp;D costs surged.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Swiss drug maker lowered its forecast on the impact from generic drugs to $2.3 billion, down from $2.7 billion in July and $3.5 billion in January, amid the postponement of the Diovan generic launch in the &#160;U.S. Novartis says that will benefit sales and income this year.</p>
<p>The company expects 2013 sales to grow at a low- to mid-single digit rate with operating income coming either in line or better than the previous year, a benefit of fewer generics partially offset by increased investment in its pipeline and launches.</p>
<p>However, it warned that the benefit from generics could reverse in 2014 with the launch of the Diovan monotherapy in the U.S. now expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2013.</p>
<p>In its most recent quarter, sales were up 4% to $14.34 billion from $13.8 billion a year ago, topping average analyst estimates of $14.28 billion in a Thomson Reuters poll.</p>
<p>Earnings fell 6% to $2.3 billion, or 91 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $2.4 billion, or 99 cents, as costs surged on increased research and development.</p>
<p>Excluding one-time items, it earned $1.26 a share, missing the Street’s view by five pennies.</p>
<p>In a statement, Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez said “all divisions” contributed to the sales momentum, particularly what it refers to as “growth products.”</p>
<p>"We achieved impressive momentum in innovation, and set an industry record with our third FDA Breakthrough Therapy designated product of the year for BYM338 in a degenerative muscle disease,” Jimenez said.</p>
<p>Shares of Novartis were up close to 3% to a 52-week high of $77.42 in recent trade.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Novartis Sales Benefit as Generic Launch Postponed | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2013/10/22/novartis-sales-benefit-as-generic-launch-postponed.html | 2016-03-02 | 0right
| Novartis Sales Benefit as Generic Launch Postponed
<p />
<p>Novartis (NYSE:NVS) raised its full-year outlook for the second straight quarter on Tuesday as its blockbuster high-blood pressure drug Diovan continues to benefit from weaker-than-expected generic competition, however its income slumped as R&amp;D costs surged.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Swiss drug maker lowered its forecast on the impact from generic drugs to $2.3 billion, down from $2.7 billion in July and $3.5 billion in January, amid the postponement of the Diovan generic launch in the &#160;U.S. Novartis says that will benefit sales and income this year.</p>
<p>The company expects 2013 sales to grow at a low- to mid-single digit rate with operating income coming either in line or better than the previous year, a benefit of fewer generics partially offset by increased investment in its pipeline and launches.</p>
<p>However, it warned that the benefit from generics could reverse in 2014 with the launch of the Diovan monotherapy in the U.S. now expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2013.</p>
<p>In its most recent quarter, sales were up 4% to $14.34 billion from $13.8 billion a year ago, topping average analyst estimates of $14.28 billion in a Thomson Reuters poll.</p>
<p>Earnings fell 6% to $2.3 billion, or 91 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $2.4 billion, or 99 cents, as costs surged on increased research and development.</p>
<p>Excluding one-time items, it earned $1.26 a share, missing the Street’s view by five pennies.</p>
<p>In a statement, Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez said “all divisions” contributed to the sales momentum, particularly what it refers to as “growth products.”</p>
<p>"We achieved impressive momentum in innovation, and set an industry record with our third FDA Breakthrough Therapy designated product of the year for BYM338 in a degenerative muscle disease,” Jimenez said.</p>
<p>Shares of Novartis were up close to 3% to a 52-week high of $77.42 in recent trade.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | 1,772 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>President Obama claims the debate over the Affordable Care Act is "over," but in coming weeks and months expect it to intensify. Health-insurance companies will soon begin releasing preliminary rate estimates for next year's plans. Industry experts say consumers should once again brace for significantly higher premiums.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Capsize.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p><a type="external" href="">Click here to view original web page at</a></p>
<p /> | The Short Unhappy Life of ObamaCare | true | http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/stephen-t-parente-the-short-unhappy-life-of-obamacare-wsj/ | 0right
| The Short Unhappy Life of ObamaCare
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>President Obama claims the debate over the Affordable Care Act is "over," but in coming weeks and months expect it to intensify. Health-insurance companies will soon begin releasing preliminary rate estimates for next year's plans. Industry experts say consumers should once again brace for significantly higher premiums.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Capsize.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p><a type="external" href="">Click here to view original web page at</a></p>
<p /> | 1,773 |
|
<p>TOKYO — When Taro Kono was growing up as the son of a major Japanese political party leader, he had what he calls a “fever for the atom.” Like many of his countrymen, he regarded nuclear power plants as his country’s ticket to postwar prosperity, a modern, economical way to meet huge energy needs on an island with few natural resources.</p>
<p>Over the next five decades, pro-nuclear sentiment led Japan to build the world’s third largest fleet of nuclear reactors. Its officials spent more than two decades and $22 billion building a factory to create plutonium-based nuclear reactor fuel, the largest ever to be subject to international monitoring. The facility is slated for completion in October at Rokkasho on Japan’s northeast coast, kicking off a new phase in the country’s long-term plan to increase energy independence.</p>
<p>By the time Kono was elected to the parliament, known as the Diet, at the age of 33 in 1996, however, he had become a skeptic about the Rokkasho plant. After interrogating scientists and meeting with critics, he concluded that a vast array of new reactors fueled by its plutonium faced huge technical challenges, posed a major proliferation risk, and probably would not reap the financial benefits claimed by its backers. He told the American ambassador at an embassy dinner in 2008 that its high costs were improperly kept hidden from the public.</p>
<p>But Kono’s campaign in Japan against the plant has now been systematically squashed, in what he and his allies depict as a telling illustration of the powerful political forces — cronyism, influence-buying and a stifling of dissenting voices — that have kept the nuclear industry and its backers in the utilities here going strong.</p>
<p>By all accounts, the Japanese nuclear industry’s sway and its governmental support remain high, even in the face of technical glitches, huge cost overruns, and accidents like the meltdowns of three reactors at Fukushima three years ago this week — which led to the abrupt closure of all its remaining reactors.</p>
<p>The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who leads Kono’s party, announced in February its support for restarting some reactors and possibly building new ones, designed specifically to burn plutonium-based fuel.</p>
<p>Abe did so with apparent confidence that he has the enduring support — if not of the public — of the so-called “nuclear power village,” a tightly-woven network of regulators, utility industry executives, engineers, labor leaders and local politicians who have become dependent on nuclear power for jobs, income, and prestige.</p>
<p>Kono, a fluent English-speaker who received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, said in an interview that he has been talking about nuclear power “for the last 16 to 17 years,” but “no one really paid attention, right?”</p>
<p>Kono was unable to defeat the plutonium fuel program, he said, because its powerful constituency includes not only members of the ruling party, but bureaucrats, media leaders, bankers and academics. The louder he complained, the more these elites turned their backs on him. Just 60 legislators out of 722 in the parliament’s lower and upper chambers have joined the anti-nuclear caucus he helped organize.</p>
<p>Industry officials contend that Rokkasho’s completion makes sound fiscal sense. Yoshihiko Kawai, president of Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., the consortium of 85 utilities and other companies that owns the plant, has argued that making new plutonium-based fuels from old reactor fuel — according to the Rokkasho plan — was thrifty, not wasteful. “By directly disposing of spent fuels, we would be just throwing this energy resource away,” he told Plutonium Magazine in 2012.</p>
<p>A broadside over dinner</p>
<p>On a warm, cloudless fall evening in 2008, Kono brought his strong views about the corrupting influence of the “nuclear village” to a dinner at the walled residence of U.S. ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer, a longtime friend and former business partner of President George W. Bush.</p>
<p>Schieffer was eager to take the measure of a rising politician who opposed Bush’s plan for wider use of plutonium-based nuclear fuels around the globe, under a program known as Global Nuclear Energy Partnership that envisioned a large role for the Rokkasho plant.</p>
<p>Seated in the small dining room of the residence where Douglas MacArthur met Emperor Hirohito in 1945, Kono attempted to sketch out the institutional reasons why Japan’s bureaucrats and its utilities remained wedded to what he considered an outdated nuclear policy. A <a href="http://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08TOKYO2993_a.html" type="external">confidential embassy summary</a> of the unusual conversation, full of criticism by Kono of his country’s policies, was published by Wikileaks in 2011.</p>
<p>Kono said junior officials in the government, who saw plutonium fuels as a costly technological dead end, were trapped by policies they had inherited from more senior lawmakers whom Japanese culture did not permit them to challenge. He complained that under Japanese parliamentary customs, he could not hire or fire committee staff but often had to rely on bureaucrats loaned from government agencies, all with a vested interest in promoting nuclear power. Any questions he asked were quickly passed back to those agencies.</p>
<p>A desire for the atom</p>
<p>Japan’s appetite for nuclear power seems quixotic for a nation devastated by its dark underside: the plutonium- and uranium-fueled weapons developed by American scientists. But one lesson its leaders took from the explosions over Nagasaki and Hiroshima was that they should master the technology that defeated them.</p>
<p>“I saw the mushroom cloud from my naval operation base in Takamatsu,” a young sailor named Yasuhiro Nakasone recalled in his autobiography. Nakasone, who would become Japan’s top science official and then its prime minister from 1982 to 1987, said he concluded that if Japan didn’t use the atom for peaceful purposes, it would “forever be a fourth-rate nation.”</p>
<p>That impulse was nurtured, carefully and secretly, by Washington. A <a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/1705143/SHORIKI,%20MATSUTARO%20%20%20VOL.%201_0029.pdf" type="external">1954 cable</a> to the director of the CIA — declassified only eight years ago — called for an “atomic peace mission” to Japan by U.S. nuclear scientists and reactor-company officials to overcome prevailing anti-nuclear sentiment and help “revive the hopes of the deflation-oppressed Japanese in reconstructing their economy.”</p>
<p>To carry out what the cable described as “an enlightenment propaganda program,” the agency in particular enlisted the assistance of Matsutaro Shoriki, a former head of the Tokyo police commission in the 1920s who had gone on to become a prominent publisher and broadcaster. The Yomiuri Shimbun, his newspaper, enthusiastically promoted nuclear power and Shoriki himself helped found Japan’s Atomic Industrial Forum, a tight alliance of companies and utilities. He died in 1969.</p>
<p>Beginning in 1966, Japan started building about one reactor a year. From the start, however, Japan planned to use uranium-fueled light-water reactors — the technology in predominant use around the globe — only until it had created a new energy system based on advanced, breeder reactors, so named because they can both consume and produce plutonium in what in principle could be an endless cycle, almost like perpetual-motion machines.</p>
<p>Uranium was initially — and mistakenly — thought to be rare. And breeders, initially predicted to be less costly than conventional reactors, have proven expensive to build, difficult to operate, and hard to secure, provoking France, Britain, and the United States to cut back or close their breeder programs several decades ago.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Read previous report: Japan Producing Huge, Lightly Guarded Stockpile of Plutonium</a></p>
<p>As a young man, Kono read in his “manga” comic books that breeder reactors were ideal for Japan, because they could provide the country with energy for thousands of years “without having to burn oil,” he wrote in his recent book on the Fukushima disaster. The major Japanese utilities all supported this claim, and helped spread that word through advertising expenditures that totaled $27.6 billion over the past four decades, according to a 2013 investigation by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, the Center’s partner in this examination of Rokkasho.</p>
<p>Construction of the Rokkasho plant began in 1993 and was initially supposed to be finished by 1997, but technical setbacks and construction problems forced a delay of nearly two decades. Paul Dickman, a senior policy fellow at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, the center of U.S. breeder reactor research, said Rokkasho is “a great facility.” But he also said it was a “construction project that’s gone out of control,” because Japan chose to modify an existing French design for such plants, rather than simply copying it.</p>
<p>A dissenting view is suppressed</p>
<p>Throughout Rokkasho’s construction, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has been a bastion of pro-nuclear boosterism. But four officials in its economic and industrial policy bureau dared to challenge orthodoxy in 2004, when they prepared a 26-page Powerpoint entitled “The Unstoppable Nuclear Fuel Cycle” that called the planned plutonium-based nuclear program outdated and its promoters corrupt.</p>
<p>The presentation, obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, said nuclear policymaking was controlled by “those involved with and interested in the nuclear power industry.” It noted that four of the Atomic Energy Commission’s five members had a professional or financial stake in the industry, presaging a widespread criticism of the organization in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster.</p>
<p>The presentation also predicted that building, operating, and decommissioning the Rokkasho plant would cost almost $190 billion, and warned that the practicality of building special reactors to burn the fuel it would make “has yet to be proven.” In a rush to embrace plutonium recycling, it said, Japan’s political leaders had “ignored the lack of conclusive research” and failed to acknowledge technical criticisms.</p>
<p>Although the authors urged that their report be published to encourage a public debate, it was instead suppressed, and they were all swiftly purged from the policy bureau, according to a source with direct information about METI’s response. The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper finally disclosed the report’s existence in 2012.</p>
<p>Officials with METI declined the Center for Public Integrity’s request for an interview.</p>
<p>The AEC meanwhile disregarded the policy bureau’s advice, and approved initial testing of the Rokkasho plant in 2006, which contaminated its pipes and equipment with highly radioactive dust, solvents, and other wastes. That ended any hopes of simply mothballing the plant. Any future decommissioning will take decades and cost $16 billion, according to AEC estimates.</p>
<p>Members of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan since 1955 except for a year in the 1990s and for a three-year period ending in 2012, have been rewarded for their pro-nuclear stance with campaign donations from the 10 giant electrical utilities that control around 96 percent of the nation’s power supply.</p>
<p>The largest of these, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, formally ended its direct corporate donations in 1974. But it systematically encouraged “voluntary” donations by company executives and managers to a fund-raising entity created by the ruling party, according to a 2011 investigation by Asahi. At least 448 Tepco executives donated roughly $777,000 in total to the entity between 1995 and 2009, according to campaign finance documents obtained by Asahi and shared with the Center.</p>
<p>A TEPCO spokesman told Asahi that the donations were “based on the judgment of the individual and the company is not involved. We do not encourage such donations.” But Tepco executives, in interviews with Asahi reporters, said the company repeatedly stipulated how much they should donate — roughly $3,900 for top executives, $3,300 for executive vice presidents, and $1,700 for managing directors, the newspaper said.</p>
<p>Heaven-sent officials</p>
<p>Tepco’s influence has also been enhanced by its enthusiastic participation in revolving door-employment practices similar to those involving bureaucrats and companies in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>A METI report in 2011, prepared at the insistence of nuclear opponents in Japan’s tiny Communist Party, said for example that between 1960 and 2011, Tepco hired 68 high-level government officials. From 1980 to late 2011, the report said, four former top-level bureaucrats from METI’s own Agency for Natural Resources and Energy became vice presidents at other electric utilities. The practice is known here by the amusing term, amakudari, for appointees who “descended from heaven.”</p>
<p>Tepco officials also regularly move into key regulatory positions, part of a migration known as ama-agari, or “ascent to heaven” that has involved dozens of top utility officials. More than 100 such utility executives between 2001 and 2011 were able to keep drawing an industry paycheck while also working part-time for the government, a practice that is legal here, according to a former member of the Japanese Diet Lower House Economy and Industry Committee, who spoke on background. An official working in the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s research division, in an interview, said on condition of anonymity that the ama-agari system is “like having cops and thieves working in the same police station.”</p>
<p>Perhaps the most significant instance of ama-agari was the Liberal Democratic Party’s appointment in 1998 of Tokio Kano, a longtime TEPCO executive, as chairman of the parliamentary committee that oversees METI and as the parliamentary secretary of science and technology. Both are posts crucial to the nuclear energy industry, and Kano used them to advance legislation enabling plutonium-based fuel to be burned in some standard reactors — not just breeders. He also pushed through a law requiring that all spent nuclear fuel be sent to Rokkasho or similar Japanese plants.</p>
<p>Taro Kono, the industry critic, charged that Kano “acted like the secretary general of whatever committee had anything to do with energy and electricity.” Kono says that when he himself raised objections to nuclear policies during committee meetings, Kano would say “well, there’s a strange voice in this room, but we kind of got unanimous consent” and then proceed.</p>
<p>When Kano retired from the parliament in 2011, he returned to TEPCO — where he had kept an office throughout his work writing legislation — as a special adviser.</p>
<p>Kano declined the Center’s request for an interview. But he told Asahi in 2011 he remains convinced that nuclear power is sensible. “Reactors were built because local residents strongly desired them, and it’s a fact they generated employment and income,” he said. “Some researchers say that low-dose radiation is good for your health. It’s a persuasive argument.”</p>
<p>Kano separately <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/world/asia/27collusion.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">told The New York Times</a> that year it was “disgusting” that his critics considered him a TEPCO “errand boy” merely because he had the business community’s support.</p>
<p>Funds and wastes cement Rokkasho’s role</p>
<p>The Aomori region where the Rokkasho plant is located, with a windswept coastline and harsh climate, ranks near the bottom of the nation’s 47 prefectures, or statelets, in per capita income. “You can’t grow much,” says Taro Kono, the anti-nuclear activist lawmaker, who said he understands the plant’s local appeal. “It’s a tough place to live.”</p>
<p>In the 1980s, the central government tried and failed to stimulate Aomori’s economy with sugar beet farming and a tank farm for petroleum reserves, both of which faltered. So the nuclear plant’s construction, which started in 1993, turned out to be a vital source of jobs, taxes, and even tourism — contributing around 88 percent of the village’s total tax revenue in 2012, according to Aomori Prefecture officials. A Japanese study last year said it had boosted per capita income levels by 62 percent.</p>
<p>Moreover, to smooth the way for the plant, the central government pays the village — which has a population of just 12,000 — $25.9 million in grants yearly under a special nuclear subsidy program created in Tokyo to promote the siting of nuclear energy facilities all over the country. The grants have amounted to more than $2,300 annually for every man woman and child in the village, according to prefecture officials. The village’s Chamber of Commerce has reported that roughly 70 percent of the businesses there are now involved with or dependent upon the nuclear industry.</p>
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<p>Of course, the downside of the program for local citizens is that Rokkasho has since become a storage site for 3,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel from commercial power plants, waiting to be processed into new plutonium. To win the right to do this, Japan’s electric power monopolies 16 years ago pledged that the vast bulk of that spent fuel would be recycled as fuel — or it would be sent back.</p>
<p>But doing so would swamp spent-fuel pools at reactor sites that are already close to capacity, Japanese officials say, and could doom the Abe government’s plans to reopen many of Japan’s 50 surviving reactors.</p>
<p>Kono says renegotiating this agreement — which many politicians regard as sacrosanct — is the single biggest challenge to unraveling the plans of the “nuclear village.”</p>
<p>A latent nuclear arsenal?</p>
<p>After the Fukushima disaster, some of Kono’s political adversaries embraced another argument in favor of the country’s reactors and the Rokkasho plant that may seem surprising to some in the West: Operating these facilities sends a useful signal to would-be aggressors that Japan could quickly develop nuclear arms.</p>
<p>“There’s a pro-nuclear power plant argument that we need to keep the nuclear reactor running so that we can pretend that we may have a nuclear weapon one day,” Kono said during the late-night interview in his apartment house.</p>
<p>Shigeru Ishiba, a former defense minister who was Kono’s rival for a ruling party leadership post in 2009 and is now its general secretary, caused a stir in October 2011 when he told Sapio, a right-wing magazine, that Japan’s commercial nuclear reactors “would allow us to produce a nuclear warhead in a short amount of time.” He added: “It’s a tacit deterrent.”</p>
<p>Many prominent Japanese officials still want the capability to produce nuclear arms if they were needed, according to Naoto Kan, who held a series of top government financial and strategic policy positions before becoming Japan’s prime minister from 2010 to 2011, representing the Democratic Party of Japan — the LDP’s main rival. He said the desire for a nuclear weapons capability is an important source of support for Japan’s plutonium programs.</p>
<p>“Inside Japan, and that is not only within the Democratic Party of Japan, there are entities who wish to be able to maintain the ability to produce Japan’s own plutonium,” Kan said in an interview with the Center for Public Integrity in his parliamentary office. “They do not say it in public, but they wish to have the capability to create nuclear weapons in case of a threat.”</p>
<p>Japan has a pacifist constitution, and a 47-year-old policy of ruling out the production, possession or introduction of nuclear weapons on Japanese soil. It has signed and ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is a leading advocate of nuclear arms control.</p>
<p>Moreover, all of Japan’s existing plutonium stockpile is under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, while its uranium — a linchpin of any effort to restart the country’s civilian reactors — is largely imported.</p>
<p>These large challenges would have to be overcome for Japan to embark on a weapons program, according to <a href="http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~hymans/Biopage.htm" type="external">Jacques E.C. Hymans</a> at the University of Southern California and other scholars.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Related: Japan Has a Nuclear 'Bomb in the Basement,' and China Isn't Happy</a></p>
<p>But a potential linkage between Rokkasho’s product and nuclear weapons has hung over the program from the start. Kumao Kaneko, a 76-year-old former director of the Nuclear Energy Division of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Center for Public Integrity that Tokyo pressed the Carter administration in 1977 for permission to start producing plutonium partly to ensure Japan had a weapons option. [Restored this background]</p>
<p>The U.S. has long been concerned about potential development of a Japanese bomb, since Japan has the scientific skills, infrastructure and — most important — the raw explosive material in the form of plutonium, hundreds of pounds of weapons-grade uranium, and the technology to produce more. Washington’s worry is that such an arsenal would set off a regional arms race, complicating Japan’s relations with its neighbors, some of whom would clamor for a similar capability.</p>
<p>U.S. policymakers have pursued a two-pronged path to blocking that development: Over the past four years, they have quietly brought a stream of Japanese diplomats and military officers into highly restricted U.S. nuclear weapons centers — including the Strategic Command headquarters in Nebraska, a Minuteman missile base in Montana, and a Trident submarine base outside Seattle — to remind them of the robustness of the U.S. nuclear deterrent.</p>
<p>The U.S. also has gently urged Japan to cap or reduce the size of its plutonium stockpile. Its officials have encouraged Japan to reopen its closed reactors, in part so any newly-created plutonium can be burned at the same rate it is being produced. U.S. officials confirm they’ve also pressed Japan to give up, through repatriation to the United States, some of its existing plutonium stocks before production gets under way.</p>
<p>But the U.S. has not urged Japan to cancel its Rokkasho project, several current and former senior U.S. and Japanese officials said. Authorities say one reason Washington has not offered that advice is that killing it — and all the future nuclear power plants linked to it — would increase Japan’s dependence on traditional energy supplies and drive up their price on the world market, adversely impacting the U.S. economy.</p>
<p>“Obviously what is done in the long term at Rokkasho is a decision for the Japanese people, the Japanese government to make,” Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman said during a July 2012 press conference in Tokyo. He added that “to the extent that there would be paths forward for Rokkasho” that could avoid increasing Japan’s stockpile of plutonium, “that would be a good thing.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/national-security/nuclear-waste" type="external">Read More of the Center's Reporting on Nuclear Waste</a></p>
<p>Poneman coupled this, however, with a public pitch for letting Japan use nuclear power to reduce carbon emissions, acknowledging that it is an important tool “for our friends and colleagues in Japan … who are very worried about climate change.”</p>
<p>Jon Wolfstahl, who until two years ago served as a nonproliferation expert on the staff of Vice President Joe Biden and the White House National Security Council, said many in the administration believed that Japan wouldn’t listen to pleas for canceling Rokkasho, and that insisting on it would only fracture U.S. relations with the country.</p>
<p>“They don’t need the United States to tell them that Rokkasho is a giant waste of money and that there’s no need for them to start marching down this road,” Wolfstahl said. “But I’m not sure there’s much the U.S. could do about it.”</p>
<p><a href="http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/563/gary_samore.html" type="external">Gary Samore</a>, who directed nuclear proliferation policy at the White House during Obama’s first term, put it more bluntly: “If the Japanese government really decided, ‘yes, we’re going to turn it on,’ then the Obama administration would have to make a decision,” he said.</p>
<p>Either the United States will have to stick “with existing policy, which is not to object,” or it will have to try to persuade Japan to abandon its plutonium manufacturing plan.</p>
<p>Toshihiro Okuyama and Yumi Nakayama, staff writers for the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, contributed reporting for this article.</p>
<p>Douglas Birch is a senior writer at the Center for Public Integrity. R. Jeffrey Smith is managing editor for national security at the Center. Jake Adelstein has worked as an investigative journalist in Tokyo since 1993.</p>
<p>This story was <a href="https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/03/12/14394/plutonium-fever-blossoms-japan" type="external">published</a> by <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/" type="external">The Center for Public Integrity</a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.</p> | Japan’s Well-Placed Nuclear Power Advocates Swat Away Opponents | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/fukushima-anniversary/japan-s-well-placed-nuclear-power-advocates-swat-away-opponents-n50396 | 2014-03-12 | 3left-center
| Japan’s Well-Placed Nuclear Power Advocates Swat Away Opponents
<p>TOKYO — When Taro Kono was growing up as the son of a major Japanese political party leader, he had what he calls a “fever for the atom.” Like many of his countrymen, he regarded nuclear power plants as his country’s ticket to postwar prosperity, a modern, economical way to meet huge energy needs on an island with few natural resources.</p>
<p>Over the next five decades, pro-nuclear sentiment led Japan to build the world’s third largest fleet of nuclear reactors. Its officials spent more than two decades and $22 billion building a factory to create plutonium-based nuclear reactor fuel, the largest ever to be subject to international monitoring. The facility is slated for completion in October at Rokkasho on Japan’s northeast coast, kicking off a new phase in the country’s long-term plan to increase energy independence.</p>
<p>By the time Kono was elected to the parliament, known as the Diet, at the age of 33 in 1996, however, he had become a skeptic about the Rokkasho plant. After interrogating scientists and meeting with critics, he concluded that a vast array of new reactors fueled by its plutonium faced huge technical challenges, posed a major proliferation risk, and probably would not reap the financial benefits claimed by its backers. He told the American ambassador at an embassy dinner in 2008 that its high costs were improperly kept hidden from the public.</p>
<p>But Kono’s campaign in Japan against the plant has now been systematically squashed, in what he and his allies depict as a telling illustration of the powerful political forces — cronyism, influence-buying and a stifling of dissenting voices — that have kept the nuclear industry and its backers in the utilities here going strong.</p>
<p>By all accounts, the Japanese nuclear industry’s sway and its governmental support remain high, even in the face of technical glitches, huge cost overruns, and accidents like the meltdowns of three reactors at Fukushima three years ago this week — which led to the abrupt closure of all its remaining reactors.</p>
<p>The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who leads Kono’s party, announced in February its support for restarting some reactors and possibly building new ones, designed specifically to burn plutonium-based fuel.</p>
<p>Abe did so with apparent confidence that he has the enduring support — if not of the public — of the so-called “nuclear power village,” a tightly-woven network of regulators, utility industry executives, engineers, labor leaders and local politicians who have become dependent on nuclear power for jobs, income, and prestige.</p>
<p>Kono, a fluent English-speaker who received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, said in an interview that he has been talking about nuclear power “for the last 16 to 17 years,” but “no one really paid attention, right?”</p>
<p>Kono was unable to defeat the plutonium fuel program, he said, because its powerful constituency includes not only members of the ruling party, but bureaucrats, media leaders, bankers and academics. The louder he complained, the more these elites turned their backs on him. Just 60 legislators out of 722 in the parliament’s lower and upper chambers have joined the anti-nuclear caucus he helped organize.</p>
<p>Industry officials contend that Rokkasho’s completion makes sound fiscal sense. Yoshihiko Kawai, president of Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., the consortium of 85 utilities and other companies that owns the plant, has argued that making new plutonium-based fuels from old reactor fuel — according to the Rokkasho plan — was thrifty, not wasteful. “By directly disposing of spent fuels, we would be just throwing this energy resource away,” he told Plutonium Magazine in 2012.</p>
<p>A broadside over dinner</p>
<p>On a warm, cloudless fall evening in 2008, Kono brought his strong views about the corrupting influence of the “nuclear village” to a dinner at the walled residence of U.S. ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer, a longtime friend and former business partner of President George W. Bush.</p>
<p>Schieffer was eager to take the measure of a rising politician who opposed Bush’s plan for wider use of plutonium-based nuclear fuels around the globe, under a program known as Global Nuclear Energy Partnership that envisioned a large role for the Rokkasho plant.</p>
<p>Seated in the small dining room of the residence where Douglas MacArthur met Emperor Hirohito in 1945, Kono attempted to sketch out the institutional reasons why Japan’s bureaucrats and its utilities remained wedded to what he considered an outdated nuclear policy. A <a href="http://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08TOKYO2993_a.html" type="external">confidential embassy summary</a> of the unusual conversation, full of criticism by Kono of his country’s policies, was published by Wikileaks in 2011.</p>
<p>Kono said junior officials in the government, who saw plutonium fuels as a costly technological dead end, were trapped by policies they had inherited from more senior lawmakers whom Japanese culture did not permit them to challenge. He complained that under Japanese parliamentary customs, he could not hire or fire committee staff but often had to rely on bureaucrats loaned from government agencies, all with a vested interest in promoting nuclear power. Any questions he asked were quickly passed back to those agencies.</p>
<p>A desire for the atom</p>
<p>Japan’s appetite for nuclear power seems quixotic for a nation devastated by its dark underside: the plutonium- and uranium-fueled weapons developed by American scientists. But one lesson its leaders took from the explosions over Nagasaki and Hiroshima was that they should master the technology that defeated them.</p>
<p>“I saw the mushroom cloud from my naval operation base in Takamatsu,” a young sailor named Yasuhiro Nakasone recalled in his autobiography. Nakasone, who would become Japan’s top science official and then its prime minister from 1982 to 1987, said he concluded that if Japan didn’t use the atom for peaceful purposes, it would “forever be a fourth-rate nation.”</p>
<p>That impulse was nurtured, carefully and secretly, by Washington. A <a href="http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/1705143/SHORIKI,%20MATSUTARO%20%20%20VOL.%201_0029.pdf" type="external">1954 cable</a> to the director of the CIA — declassified only eight years ago — called for an “atomic peace mission” to Japan by U.S. nuclear scientists and reactor-company officials to overcome prevailing anti-nuclear sentiment and help “revive the hopes of the deflation-oppressed Japanese in reconstructing their economy.”</p>
<p>To carry out what the cable described as “an enlightenment propaganda program,” the agency in particular enlisted the assistance of Matsutaro Shoriki, a former head of the Tokyo police commission in the 1920s who had gone on to become a prominent publisher and broadcaster. The Yomiuri Shimbun, his newspaper, enthusiastically promoted nuclear power and Shoriki himself helped found Japan’s Atomic Industrial Forum, a tight alliance of companies and utilities. He died in 1969.</p>
<p>Beginning in 1966, Japan started building about one reactor a year. From the start, however, Japan planned to use uranium-fueled light-water reactors — the technology in predominant use around the globe — only until it had created a new energy system based on advanced, breeder reactors, so named because they can both consume and produce plutonium in what in principle could be an endless cycle, almost like perpetual-motion machines.</p>
<p>Uranium was initially — and mistakenly — thought to be rare. And breeders, initially predicted to be less costly than conventional reactors, have proven expensive to build, difficult to operate, and hard to secure, provoking France, Britain, and the United States to cut back or close their breeder programs several decades ago.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Read previous report: Japan Producing Huge, Lightly Guarded Stockpile of Plutonium</a></p>
<p>As a young man, Kono read in his “manga” comic books that breeder reactors were ideal for Japan, because they could provide the country with energy for thousands of years “without having to burn oil,” he wrote in his recent book on the Fukushima disaster. The major Japanese utilities all supported this claim, and helped spread that word through advertising expenditures that totaled $27.6 billion over the past four decades, according to a 2013 investigation by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, the Center’s partner in this examination of Rokkasho.</p>
<p>Construction of the Rokkasho plant began in 1993 and was initially supposed to be finished by 1997, but technical setbacks and construction problems forced a delay of nearly two decades. Paul Dickman, a senior policy fellow at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, the center of U.S. breeder reactor research, said Rokkasho is “a great facility.” But he also said it was a “construction project that’s gone out of control,” because Japan chose to modify an existing French design for such plants, rather than simply copying it.</p>
<p>A dissenting view is suppressed</p>
<p>Throughout Rokkasho’s construction, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has been a bastion of pro-nuclear boosterism. But four officials in its economic and industrial policy bureau dared to challenge orthodoxy in 2004, when they prepared a 26-page Powerpoint entitled “The Unstoppable Nuclear Fuel Cycle” that called the planned plutonium-based nuclear program outdated and its promoters corrupt.</p>
<p>The presentation, obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, said nuclear policymaking was controlled by “those involved with and interested in the nuclear power industry.” It noted that four of the Atomic Energy Commission’s five members had a professional or financial stake in the industry, presaging a widespread criticism of the organization in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster.</p>
<p>The presentation also predicted that building, operating, and decommissioning the Rokkasho plant would cost almost $190 billion, and warned that the practicality of building special reactors to burn the fuel it would make “has yet to be proven.” In a rush to embrace plutonium recycling, it said, Japan’s political leaders had “ignored the lack of conclusive research” and failed to acknowledge technical criticisms.</p>
<p>Although the authors urged that their report be published to encourage a public debate, it was instead suppressed, and they were all swiftly purged from the policy bureau, according to a source with direct information about METI’s response. The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper finally disclosed the report’s existence in 2012.</p>
<p>Officials with METI declined the Center for Public Integrity’s request for an interview.</p>
<p>The AEC meanwhile disregarded the policy bureau’s advice, and approved initial testing of the Rokkasho plant in 2006, which contaminated its pipes and equipment with highly radioactive dust, solvents, and other wastes. That ended any hopes of simply mothballing the plant. Any future decommissioning will take decades and cost $16 billion, according to AEC estimates.</p>
<p>Members of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan since 1955 except for a year in the 1990s and for a three-year period ending in 2012, have been rewarded for their pro-nuclear stance with campaign donations from the 10 giant electrical utilities that control around 96 percent of the nation’s power supply.</p>
<p>The largest of these, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, formally ended its direct corporate donations in 1974. But it systematically encouraged “voluntary” donations by company executives and managers to a fund-raising entity created by the ruling party, according to a 2011 investigation by Asahi. At least 448 Tepco executives donated roughly $777,000 in total to the entity between 1995 and 2009, according to campaign finance documents obtained by Asahi and shared with the Center.</p>
<p>A TEPCO spokesman told Asahi that the donations were “based on the judgment of the individual and the company is not involved. We do not encourage such donations.” But Tepco executives, in interviews with Asahi reporters, said the company repeatedly stipulated how much they should donate — roughly $3,900 for top executives, $3,300 for executive vice presidents, and $1,700 for managing directors, the newspaper said.</p>
<p>Heaven-sent officials</p>
<p>Tepco’s influence has also been enhanced by its enthusiastic participation in revolving door-employment practices similar to those involving bureaucrats and companies in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>A METI report in 2011, prepared at the insistence of nuclear opponents in Japan’s tiny Communist Party, said for example that between 1960 and 2011, Tepco hired 68 high-level government officials. From 1980 to late 2011, the report said, four former top-level bureaucrats from METI’s own Agency for Natural Resources and Energy became vice presidents at other electric utilities. The practice is known here by the amusing term, amakudari, for appointees who “descended from heaven.”</p>
<p>Tepco officials also regularly move into key regulatory positions, part of a migration known as ama-agari, or “ascent to heaven” that has involved dozens of top utility officials. More than 100 such utility executives between 2001 and 2011 were able to keep drawing an industry paycheck while also working part-time for the government, a practice that is legal here, according to a former member of the Japanese Diet Lower House Economy and Industry Committee, who spoke on background. An official working in the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s research division, in an interview, said on condition of anonymity that the ama-agari system is “like having cops and thieves working in the same police station.”</p>
<p>Perhaps the most significant instance of ama-agari was the Liberal Democratic Party’s appointment in 1998 of Tokio Kano, a longtime TEPCO executive, as chairman of the parliamentary committee that oversees METI and as the parliamentary secretary of science and technology. Both are posts crucial to the nuclear energy industry, and Kano used them to advance legislation enabling plutonium-based fuel to be burned in some standard reactors — not just breeders. He also pushed through a law requiring that all spent nuclear fuel be sent to Rokkasho or similar Japanese plants.</p>
<p>Taro Kono, the industry critic, charged that Kano “acted like the secretary general of whatever committee had anything to do with energy and electricity.” Kono says that when he himself raised objections to nuclear policies during committee meetings, Kano would say “well, there’s a strange voice in this room, but we kind of got unanimous consent” and then proceed.</p>
<p>When Kano retired from the parliament in 2011, he returned to TEPCO — where he had kept an office throughout his work writing legislation — as a special adviser.</p>
<p>Kano declined the Center’s request for an interview. But he told Asahi in 2011 he remains convinced that nuclear power is sensible. “Reactors were built because local residents strongly desired them, and it’s a fact they generated employment and income,” he said. “Some researchers say that low-dose radiation is good for your health. It’s a persuasive argument.”</p>
<p>Kano separately <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/world/asia/27collusion.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">told The New York Times</a> that year it was “disgusting” that his critics considered him a TEPCO “errand boy” merely because he had the business community’s support.</p>
<p>Funds and wastes cement Rokkasho’s role</p>
<p>The Aomori region where the Rokkasho plant is located, with a windswept coastline and harsh climate, ranks near the bottom of the nation’s 47 prefectures, or statelets, in per capita income. “You can’t grow much,” says Taro Kono, the anti-nuclear activist lawmaker, who said he understands the plant’s local appeal. “It’s a tough place to live.”</p>
<p>In the 1980s, the central government tried and failed to stimulate Aomori’s economy with sugar beet farming and a tank farm for petroleum reserves, both of which faltered. So the nuclear plant’s construction, which started in 1993, turned out to be a vital source of jobs, taxes, and even tourism — contributing around 88 percent of the village’s total tax revenue in 2012, according to Aomori Prefecture officials. A Japanese study last year said it had boosted per capita income levels by 62 percent.</p>
<p>Moreover, to smooth the way for the plant, the central government pays the village — which has a population of just 12,000 — $25.9 million in grants yearly under a special nuclear subsidy program created in Tokyo to promote the siting of nuclear energy facilities all over the country. The grants have amounted to more than $2,300 annually for every man woman and child in the village, according to prefecture officials. The village’s Chamber of Commerce has reported that roughly 70 percent of the businesses there are now involved with or dependent upon the nuclear industry.</p>
<p>Follow NBC News Investigations on <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCInvestigates" type="external">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NBCInvestigates" type="external">Facebook</a></p>
<p>Of course, the downside of the program for local citizens is that Rokkasho has since become a storage site for 3,000 tons of highly radioactive spent fuel from commercial power plants, waiting to be processed into new plutonium. To win the right to do this, Japan’s electric power monopolies 16 years ago pledged that the vast bulk of that spent fuel would be recycled as fuel — or it would be sent back.</p>
<p>But doing so would swamp spent-fuel pools at reactor sites that are already close to capacity, Japanese officials say, and could doom the Abe government’s plans to reopen many of Japan’s 50 surviving reactors.</p>
<p>Kono says renegotiating this agreement — which many politicians regard as sacrosanct — is the single biggest challenge to unraveling the plans of the “nuclear village.”</p>
<p>A latent nuclear arsenal?</p>
<p>After the Fukushima disaster, some of Kono’s political adversaries embraced another argument in favor of the country’s reactors and the Rokkasho plant that may seem surprising to some in the West: Operating these facilities sends a useful signal to would-be aggressors that Japan could quickly develop nuclear arms.</p>
<p>“There’s a pro-nuclear power plant argument that we need to keep the nuclear reactor running so that we can pretend that we may have a nuclear weapon one day,” Kono said during the late-night interview in his apartment house.</p>
<p>Shigeru Ishiba, a former defense minister who was Kono’s rival for a ruling party leadership post in 2009 and is now its general secretary, caused a stir in October 2011 when he told Sapio, a right-wing magazine, that Japan’s commercial nuclear reactors “would allow us to produce a nuclear warhead in a short amount of time.” He added: “It’s a tacit deterrent.”</p>
<p>Many prominent Japanese officials still want the capability to produce nuclear arms if they were needed, according to Naoto Kan, who held a series of top government financial and strategic policy positions before becoming Japan’s prime minister from 2010 to 2011, representing the Democratic Party of Japan — the LDP’s main rival. He said the desire for a nuclear weapons capability is an important source of support for Japan’s plutonium programs.</p>
<p>“Inside Japan, and that is not only within the Democratic Party of Japan, there are entities who wish to be able to maintain the ability to produce Japan’s own plutonium,” Kan said in an interview with the Center for Public Integrity in his parliamentary office. “They do not say it in public, but they wish to have the capability to create nuclear weapons in case of a threat.”</p>
<p>Japan has a pacifist constitution, and a 47-year-old policy of ruling out the production, possession or introduction of nuclear weapons on Japanese soil. It has signed and ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is a leading advocate of nuclear arms control.</p>
<p>Moreover, all of Japan’s existing plutonium stockpile is under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, while its uranium — a linchpin of any effort to restart the country’s civilian reactors — is largely imported.</p>
<p>These large challenges would have to be overcome for Japan to embark on a weapons program, according to <a href="http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~hymans/Biopage.htm" type="external">Jacques E.C. Hymans</a> at the University of Southern California and other scholars.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Related: Japan Has a Nuclear 'Bomb in the Basement,' and China Isn't Happy</a></p>
<p>But a potential linkage between Rokkasho’s product and nuclear weapons has hung over the program from the start. Kumao Kaneko, a 76-year-old former director of the Nuclear Energy Division of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Center for Public Integrity that Tokyo pressed the Carter administration in 1977 for permission to start producing plutonium partly to ensure Japan had a weapons option. [Restored this background]</p>
<p>The U.S. has long been concerned about potential development of a Japanese bomb, since Japan has the scientific skills, infrastructure and — most important — the raw explosive material in the form of plutonium, hundreds of pounds of weapons-grade uranium, and the technology to produce more. Washington’s worry is that such an arsenal would set off a regional arms race, complicating Japan’s relations with its neighbors, some of whom would clamor for a similar capability.</p>
<p>U.S. policymakers have pursued a two-pronged path to blocking that development: Over the past four years, they have quietly brought a stream of Japanese diplomats and military officers into highly restricted U.S. nuclear weapons centers — including the Strategic Command headquarters in Nebraska, a Minuteman missile base in Montana, and a Trident submarine base outside Seattle — to remind them of the robustness of the U.S. nuclear deterrent.</p>
<p>The U.S. also has gently urged Japan to cap or reduce the size of its plutonium stockpile. Its officials have encouraged Japan to reopen its closed reactors, in part so any newly-created plutonium can be burned at the same rate it is being produced. U.S. officials confirm they’ve also pressed Japan to give up, through repatriation to the United States, some of its existing plutonium stocks before production gets under way.</p>
<p>But the U.S. has not urged Japan to cancel its Rokkasho project, several current and former senior U.S. and Japanese officials said. Authorities say one reason Washington has not offered that advice is that killing it — and all the future nuclear power plants linked to it — would increase Japan’s dependence on traditional energy supplies and drive up their price on the world market, adversely impacting the U.S. economy.</p>
<p>“Obviously what is done in the long term at Rokkasho is a decision for the Japanese people, the Japanese government to make,” Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman said during a July 2012 press conference in Tokyo. He added that “to the extent that there would be paths forward for Rokkasho” that could avoid increasing Japan’s stockpile of plutonium, “that would be a good thing.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/national-security/nuclear-waste" type="external">Read More of the Center's Reporting on Nuclear Waste</a></p>
<p>Poneman coupled this, however, with a public pitch for letting Japan use nuclear power to reduce carbon emissions, acknowledging that it is an important tool “for our friends and colleagues in Japan … who are very worried about climate change.”</p>
<p>Jon Wolfstahl, who until two years ago served as a nonproliferation expert on the staff of Vice President Joe Biden and the White House National Security Council, said many in the administration believed that Japan wouldn’t listen to pleas for canceling Rokkasho, and that insisting on it would only fracture U.S. relations with the country.</p>
<p>“They don’t need the United States to tell them that Rokkasho is a giant waste of money and that there’s no need for them to start marching down this road,” Wolfstahl said. “But I’m not sure there’s much the U.S. could do about it.”</p>
<p><a href="http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/563/gary_samore.html" type="external">Gary Samore</a>, who directed nuclear proliferation policy at the White House during Obama’s first term, put it more bluntly: “If the Japanese government really decided, ‘yes, we’re going to turn it on,’ then the Obama administration would have to make a decision,” he said.</p>
<p>Either the United States will have to stick “with existing policy, which is not to object,” or it will have to try to persuade Japan to abandon its plutonium manufacturing plan.</p>
<p>Toshihiro Okuyama and Yumi Nakayama, staff writers for the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, contributed reporting for this article.</p>
<p>Douglas Birch is a senior writer at the Center for Public Integrity. R. Jeffrey Smith is managing editor for national security at the Center. Jake Adelstein has worked as an investigative journalist in Tokyo since 1993.</p>
<p>This story was <a href="https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/03/12/14394/plutonium-fever-blossoms-japan" type="external">published</a> by <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/" type="external">The Center for Public Integrity</a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.</p> | 1,774 |
<p>Thousands of Kuwaiti protesters stormed the parliament late Wednesday night, during a rally in which police were accused of beating up activists.</p>
<p>An opposition MP said the protesters were demanding the resignation of Prime Minister <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g7PTT9W18J64Fzq-l2GOclPNQwbA?docId=CNG.f10a404351a8ae5d486eb97d4fb3ce67.851" type="external">Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah</a>, Agence France Presse reported.</p>
<p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/111020/british-embassy-kuwait-suspends-services-threat" type="external">British embassy in Kuwait closes amid threat</a></p>
<p>Five protesters were said to have been injured.</p>
<p>Reports said police used batons to stop protesters from marching to Sheikh Nasser's residence.</p>
<p>Lawmaker <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15768027" type="external">Mussallam al-Barrak</a>, one of the protest leaders, also called for the dissolution of parliament.</p>
<p>Demonstrators broke through the gates to the parliament building and entered the main chamber, where they sang the national anthem, the BBC reported.</p>
<p>Each week, hundreds of people have been protesting outside parliament against alleged corruption - including opposition politicians.</p>
<p>Some say they will camp outside the parliament until <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasser_Mohammed_Al-Ahmed_Al-Sabah" type="external">Sheikh Nasser</a> is sacked. &#160;</p> | Kuwaiti protesters storm parliament | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-17/kuwaiti-protesters-storm-parliament | 2011-11-17 | 3left-center
| Kuwaiti protesters storm parliament
<p>Thousands of Kuwaiti protesters stormed the parliament late Wednesday night, during a rally in which police were accused of beating up activists.</p>
<p>An opposition MP said the protesters were demanding the resignation of Prime Minister <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g7PTT9W18J64Fzq-l2GOclPNQwbA?docId=CNG.f10a404351a8ae5d486eb97d4fb3ce67.851" type="external">Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah</a>, Agence France Presse reported.</p>
<p>More on GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/111020/british-embassy-kuwait-suspends-services-threat" type="external">British embassy in Kuwait closes amid threat</a></p>
<p>Five protesters were said to have been injured.</p>
<p>Reports said police used batons to stop protesters from marching to Sheikh Nasser's residence.</p>
<p>Lawmaker <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15768027" type="external">Mussallam al-Barrak</a>, one of the protest leaders, also called for the dissolution of parliament.</p>
<p>Demonstrators broke through the gates to the parliament building and entered the main chamber, where they sang the national anthem, the BBC reported.</p>
<p>Each week, hundreds of people have been protesting outside parliament against alleged corruption - including opposition politicians.</p>
<p>Some say they will camp outside the parliament until <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasser_Mohammed_Al-Ahmed_Al-Sabah" type="external">Sheikh Nasser</a> is sacked. &#160;</p> | 1,775 |
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<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
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<p>If you've ever taken the time to sit down and listen to one of Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE) quarterly conference calls or investor day updates, you'll catch many of the same themes throughout. One of those being that Pfizer and its CEO, Ian Read, very much believe in growth by acquisition.</p>
<p>Earlier this decade when Pfizer lost patent exclusivity on the best-selling drug of all-time, cholesterol-fighting drug Lipitor, as well as other blockbusters more recently such as Celebrex and Zyvox, it forced management to take a good look at itself and figure out where new growth catalysts would come from. Despite having a deep pipeline complete with 86 clinical stage or registration-stage products as of May 3, 2016, Pfizer's answer has been to supplement its pipeline and product portfolio with inorganic growth via M&amp;A.</p>
<p>It's hard to blame Pfizer for going this route with the current lending environment as attractive as it is. Near-record-low interest rates have made borrowing pretty inexpensive for M&amp;A activity, which in turn fueled biotech to a record value of deals in 2015. Pfizer is one of those drugmakers that's been quite active on the M&amp;A front.</p>
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<p>Image source: Astellas Pharma.</p>
<p>Why bring this up? On Monday, Pfizer announced that it was going to be purchasing cancer drug developer Medivation (NASDAQ: MDVN) for $14 billion, or $81.50 per share in cash. Medivation has been on the auction block for months, with Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) seeming as if it'd be the most likely suitor. Sanofi had made multiple offers for Medivation that Medivation's board had rejected as too low, and even had a plan in place to replace Medivation's board and take its offer to shareholders. In the end, only Pfizer was willing to pay up.</p>
<p>The reason behind Pfizer's willingness to pony up $14 billion for Medivation rests with Xtandi, a Food and Drug Administration-approved oral drug designed to treat metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Xtandi sales over the trailing 12 months have totaled $2.2 billion, which is split between Medivation and its collaborative partner Astellas Pharma (NASDAQOTH: ALPMY). In theory, though, Xtandi is still early in its growth cycle, with a push into earlier stages of mCRPC treatment seeming likely. This push could help Xtandi's sales improve to between $4 billion and $5 billion at their annual peak.</p>
<p>Best of all, Pfizer's shareholders were likely thrilled to see that the acquisition would be immediately accretive to earnings to the tune of $0.05 per share over the first full year.</p>
<p>But is Pfizer's deal to scoop up Medivation at $81.50 in cash really worth it?</p>
<p>The company does get a fast-growing cancer drug that has what looks to be a good shot of continued label expansion, but it'll be forced to split its bounty with Astellas Pharma. Even if Xtandi reaches the upper echelon of its peak sales estimates, Pfizer paid very close to six times peak annual sales for the drug. This puts a lot of pressure on Pfizer to ensure that other late-stage drugs being developed by Medivation, including talazoparib for BRCA-mutated breast cancer, and pidilizumab for blood cancer, succeed in clinical trials. BMO Capital analyst Do Kim recently suggested talazoparib could generate up to $850 million in peak annual sales if approved, but we likely won't see that clinical data for a few more quarters. These are utopian scenarios, and they rarely play out in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Of course, this is far from Pfizer's only instance of seemingly overpaying for an acquisition. Just three months ago, Pfizer announced the purchase of Anacor Pharmaceuticals for $5.2 billion, or $99.25 in cash per share. That was a 55% premium to Anacor's closing price on the previous trading day. The purpose of the Anacor acquisition was to get its hands on crisaborole, a promising non-steroidal topical anti-inflammatory PDE-4 inhibitor that's been submitted for regulatory review as a treatment for mild-to-moderate atopic dermatitis. If approved, some analysts have suggested crisaborole could generate $1 billion-plus in peak annual sales.</p>
<p>But here's the issue: there's tons of competition surrounding atopic dermatitis. Celgene's (NASDAQ: CELG) oral PDE-4 inhibitor Otezla has already racked up two label indications and has around a half-dozen more on the docket, including atopic dermatitis. In a relative small study conducted with Otezla, the drug generated a 62% success rate of reducing the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) in patients by 50% or more. While EASI isn't comparable to the measurement used to determine the success of crisaborole, it does imply that Celgene's Otezla could be stiff competition nonetheless. A bevy of other atopic dermatitis drugs are also in development from competitors. Based on <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/24/pfizers-buyout-of-anacor-pharmaceuticals-for-52-bi.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">my own analysis Opens a New Window.</a>, I don't foresee Pfizer coming out ahead following its Anacor deal until perhaps 2024 or 2025.</p>
<p>There was also Pfizer's attempted acquisition of Allergan (NYSE: AGN), which eventually turned out to be nothing more than a disguised tax inversion deal. The deal would have created the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, with Pfizer touting up the diversity of the pipelines and product portfolios of the two companies. Yet, the crown jewel of the deal was the purported ability of Pfizer to relocate its headquarters to Allergan's home country of Ireland in order to save money on its corporate income taxes. In total, Pfizer was willing to work out a slightly more than 20% premium for Allergan at the time the deal was announced ($160 billion) to save $2 billion annually in cost synergies.</p>
<p>When it comes to M&amp;A, you could rightly say that Pfizer and its management team have a history of overpaying, or attempting to overpay.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Instead of attempting to acquire everything within sight, I'd suggest Pfizer's management team take a step back and reevaluate its strategy. It has a number of strong growth assets with which to rely on at the moment that could really ignore organic growth.</p>
<p>One of these assets is breast cancer drug Ibrance, which was first approved to treat ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer in Feb. 2015. After Ibrance essentially doubled progression-free survival in late-stage trials, its fate as a blockbuster drug appeared to be sealed. In the second quarter, Ibrance sales hit $514 million, up more than 200% from the $140 million generated during its first full quarter on pharmacy shelves last year. This puts Ibrance on pace for $2 billion-plus in annual sales already. Ibrance's growth and label expansion opportunities are where Pfizer's focus should be.</p>
<p>Additionally, Pfizer should be placing its marketing efforts into reaching more consumers for its top-selling pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar 13. In Sept. 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made Prevnar 13 the recommended pneumococcal vaccine for persons aged 65 and up, which allowed Pfizer to quickly gobble up around 30% of its potential patient pool. This pushed sales of Prevnar 13 above $6 billion worldwide in 2015. Pfizer should be looking for ways to market beyond the low-hanging fruit customers for this blockbuster vaccine.</p>
<p>Pfizer also has a growing number of biosimilar products that could begin siphoning sales from branded therapies in the coming years. These biosimilars are part of the aforementioned 86-drug pipeline.</p>
<p>Pfizer has organic options to consider investing time and money in, but for now it seems content in overpaying for assets and taking a long time to recoup its initial investments. I happen to believe that's a recipe which rarely works in shareholders' favor.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFUltraLong/info.aspx" type="external">Sean Williams Opens a New Window.</a>has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/tmfultralong.aspx" type="external">TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/TMFUltraLong" type="external">@TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Celgene. It also has the following options: short October 2016 $95 puts on Celgene. 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://wiki.fool.com/Motley" 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> | Dear Pfizer, Stop Overpaying for Acquisitions! | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/24/dear-pfizer-stop-overpaying-for-acquisitions.html | 2016-08-24 | 0right
| Dear Pfizer, Stop Overpaying for Acquisitions!
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>If you've ever taken the time to sit down and listen to one of Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE) quarterly conference calls or investor day updates, you'll catch many of the same themes throughout. One of those being that Pfizer and its CEO, Ian Read, very much believe in growth by acquisition.</p>
<p>Earlier this decade when Pfizer lost patent exclusivity on the best-selling drug of all-time, cholesterol-fighting drug Lipitor, as well as other blockbusters more recently such as Celebrex and Zyvox, it forced management to take a good look at itself and figure out where new growth catalysts would come from. Despite having a deep pipeline complete with 86 clinical stage or registration-stage products as of May 3, 2016, Pfizer's answer has been to supplement its pipeline and product portfolio with inorganic growth via M&amp;A.</p>
<p>It's hard to blame Pfizer for going this route with the current lending environment as attractive as it is. Near-record-low interest rates have made borrowing pretty inexpensive for M&amp;A activity, which in turn fueled biotech to a record value of deals in 2015. Pfizer is one of those drugmakers that's been quite active on the M&amp;A front.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Image source: Astellas Pharma.</p>
<p>Why bring this up? On Monday, Pfizer announced that it was going to be purchasing cancer drug developer Medivation (NASDAQ: MDVN) for $14 billion, or $81.50 per share in cash. Medivation has been on the auction block for months, with Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) seeming as if it'd be the most likely suitor. Sanofi had made multiple offers for Medivation that Medivation's board had rejected as too low, and even had a plan in place to replace Medivation's board and take its offer to shareholders. In the end, only Pfizer was willing to pay up.</p>
<p>The reason behind Pfizer's willingness to pony up $14 billion for Medivation rests with Xtandi, a Food and Drug Administration-approved oral drug designed to treat metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Xtandi sales over the trailing 12 months have totaled $2.2 billion, which is split between Medivation and its collaborative partner Astellas Pharma (NASDAQOTH: ALPMY). In theory, though, Xtandi is still early in its growth cycle, with a push into earlier stages of mCRPC treatment seeming likely. This push could help Xtandi's sales improve to between $4 billion and $5 billion at their annual peak.</p>
<p>Best of all, Pfizer's shareholders were likely thrilled to see that the acquisition would be immediately accretive to earnings to the tune of $0.05 per share over the first full year.</p>
<p>But is Pfizer's deal to scoop up Medivation at $81.50 in cash really worth it?</p>
<p>The company does get a fast-growing cancer drug that has what looks to be a good shot of continued label expansion, but it'll be forced to split its bounty with Astellas Pharma. Even if Xtandi reaches the upper echelon of its peak sales estimates, Pfizer paid very close to six times peak annual sales for the drug. This puts a lot of pressure on Pfizer to ensure that other late-stage drugs being developed by Medivation, including talazoparib for BRCA-mutated breast cancer, and pidilizumab for blood cancer, succeed in clinical trials. BMO Capital analyst Do Kim recently suggested talazoparib could generate up to $850 million in peak annual sales if approved, but we likely won't see that clinical data for a few more quarters. These are utopian scenarios, and they rarely play out in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Of course, this is far from Pfizer's only instance of seemingly overpaying for an acquisition. Just three months ago, Pfizer announced the purchase of Anacor Pharmaceuticals for $5.2 billion, or $99.25 in cash per share. That was a 55% premium to Anacor's closing price on the previous trading day. The purpose of the Anacor acquisition was to get its hands on crisaborole, a promising non-steroidal topical anti-inflammatory PDE-4 inhibitor that's been submitted for regulatory review as a treatment for mild-to-moderate atopic dermatitis. If approved, some analysts have suggested crisaborole could generate $1 billion-plus in peak annual sales.</p>
<p>But here's the issue: there's tons of competition surrounding atopic dermatitis. Celgene's (NASDAQ: CELG) oral PDE-4 inhibitor Otezla has already racked up two label indications and has around a half-dozen more on the docket, including atopic dermatitis. In a relative small study conducted with Otezla, the drug generated a 62% success rate of reducing the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) in patients by 50% or more. While EASI isn't comparable to the measurement used to determine the success of crisaborole, it does imply that Celgene's Otezla could be stiff competition nonetheless. A bevy of other atopic dermatitis drugs are also in development from competitors. Based on <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/24/pfizers-buyout-of-anacor-pharmaceuticals-for-52-bi.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">my own analysis Opens a New Window.</a>, I don't foresee Pfizer coming out ahead following its Anacor deal until perhaps 2024 or 2025.</p>
<p>There was also Pfizer's attempted acquisition of Allergan (NYSE: AGN), which eventually turned out to be nothing more than a disguised tax inversion deal. The deal would have created the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, with Pfizer touting up the diversity of the pipelines and product portfolios of the two companies. Yet, the crown jewel of the deal was the purported ability of Pfizer to relocate its headquarters to Allergan's home country of Ireland in order to save money on its corporate income taxes. In total, Pfizer was willing to work out a slightly more than 20% premium for Allergan at the time the deal was announced ($160 billion) to save $2 billion annually in cost synergies.</p>
<p>When it comes to M&amp;A, you could rightly say that Pfizer and its management team have a history of overpaying, or attempting to overpay.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Instead of attempting to acquire everything within sight, I'd suggest Pfizer's management team take a step back and reevaluate its strategy. It has a number of strong growth assets with which to rely on at the moment that could really ignore organic growth.</p>
<p>One of these assets is breast cancer drug Ibrance, which was first approved to treat ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer in Feb. 2015. After Ibrance essentially doubled progression-free survival in late-stage trials, its fate as a blockbuster drug appeared to be sealed. In the second quarter, Ibrance sales hit $514 million, up more than 200% from the $140 million generated during its first full quarter on pharmacy shelves last year. This puts Ibrance on pace for $2 billion-plus in annual sales already. Ibrance's growth and label expansion opportunities are where Pfizer's focus should be.</p>
<p>Additionally, Pfizer should be placing its marketing efforts into reaching more consumers for its top-selling pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar 13. In Sept. 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made Prevnar 13 the recommended pneumococcal vaccine for persons aged 65 and up, which allowed Pfizer to quickly gobble up around 30% of its potential patient pool. This pushed sales of Prevnar 13 above $6 billion worldwide in 2015. Pfizer should be looking for ways to market beyond the low-hanging fruit customers for this blockbuster vaccine.</p>
<p>Pfizer also has a growing number of biosimilar products that could begin siphoning sales from branded therapies in the coming years. These biosimilars are part of the aforementioned 86-drug pipeline.</p>
<p>Pfizer has organic options to consider investing time and money in, but for now it seems content in overpaying for assets and taking a long time to recoup its initial investments. I happen to believe that's a recipe which rarely works in shareholders' favor.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFUltraLong/info.aspx" type="external">Sean Williams Opens a New Window.</a>has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/tmfultralong.aspx" type="external">TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/TMFUltraLong" type="external">@TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Celgene. It also has the following options: short October 2016 $95 puts on Celgene. 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://wiki.fool.com/Motley" 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> | 1,776 |
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Liberty bolstered their backcourt, signing free agent guard Shavonte Zellous to a multiyear contract on Monday.</p>
<p>Zellous, a WNBA All-Star in 2013 and also the league's most improved player that season, spent the previous five years with the Indiana Fever.</p>
<p>"I am excited to join the New York Liberty. I know the franchise and players are hungry to win a WNBA Championship, and share the same drive and determination I do to make that happen," Zellous said. "Getting to play my home games in the 'World's Most Famous Arena,' in front of such a passionate fan base, is an incredible opportunity. I am thankful for the five years I spent in Indiana, where we were able to accomplish a lot, and I created so many memories."</p>
<p>Zellous averaged 8.4 points last season to help the Fever reach the WNBA Finals. She will help the Liberty, who lost Epiphanny Prince to an ACL injury in November.</p>
<p>"Even if Piph was still healthy she was our No. 1 priority going into free agency," New York Liberty president Isiah Thomas said. "Before Piph was hurt, she was high on our board in terms of people we want to have play on our team. We look at it that she understands our chemistry, understands our defensive concepts. She knows (Coach Bill) Laimbeer. It's a good fit for us."</p>
<p>New York also re-signed center Carolyn Swords, who was a restricted free agent. Swords averaged 5.1 points and 4 rebounds a game for New York to help the Liberty reach the Eastern Conference finals. She appeared in all 34 regular season games, starting the final 22.</p>
<p>"I am thrilled to be returning to New York," said Swords. "I am excited to build on our team's accomplishments from last season, and I cannot wait to get back to our fans at Madison Square Garden."</p>
<p>Thomas said that the Liberty are still looking to make other moves.</p>
<p>"We're still in the market, still active," he said. "We still want to improve our team and we know we have to get better. We're still active, still beating the bushes."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Doug on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dougfeinberg</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Liberty bolstered their backcourt, signing free agent guard Shavonte Zellous to a multiyear contract on Monday.</p>
<p>Zellous, a WNBA All-Star in 2013 and also the league's most improved player that season, spent the previous five years with the Indiana Fever.</p>
<p>"I am excited to join the New York Liberty. I know the franchise and players are hungry to win a WNBA Championship, and share the same drive and determination I do to make that happen," Zellous said. "Getting to play my home games in the 'World's Most Famous Arena,' in front of such a passionate fan base, is an incredible opportunity. I am thankful for the five years I spent in Indiana, where we were able to accomplish a lot, and I created so many memories."</p>
<p>Zellous averaged 8.4 points last season to help the Fever reach the WNBA Finals. She will help the Liberty, who lost Epiphanny Prince to an ACL injury in November.</p>
<p>"Even if Piph was still healthy she was our No. 1 priority going into free agency," New York Liberty president Isiah Thomas said. "Before Piph was hurt, she was high on our board in terms of people we want to have play on our team. We look at it that she understands our chemistry, understands our defensive concepts. She knows (Coach Bill) Laimbeer. It's a good fit for us."</p>
<p>New York also re-signed center Carolyn Swords, who was a restricted free agent. Swords averaged 5.1 points and 4 rebounds a game for New York to help the Liberty reach the Eastern Conference finals. She appeared in all 34 regular season games, starting the final 22.</p>
<p>"I am thrilled to be returning to New York," said Swords. "I am excited to build on our team's accomplishments from last season, and I cannot wait to get back to our fans at Madison Square Garden."</p>
<p>Thomas said that the Liberty are still looking to make other moves.</p>
<p>"We're still in the market, still active," he said. "We still want to improve our team and we know we have to get better. We're still active, still beating the bushes."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Doug on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dougfeinberg</p> | New York Liberty sign free agent Shavonte Zellous | false | https://apnews.com/amp/42cb7d0cbad4487e9fd8351e3727091a | 2016-02-01 | 2least
| New York Liberty sign free agent Shavonte Zellous
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Liberty bolstered their backcourt, signing free agent guard Shavonte Zellous to a multiyear contract on Monday.</p>
<p>Zellous, a WNBA All-Star in 2013 and also the league's most improved player that season, spent the previous five years with the Indiana Fever.</p>
<p>"I am excited to join the New York Liberty. I know the franchise and players are hungry to win a WNBA Championship, and share the same drive and determination I do to make that happen," Zellous said. "Getting to play my home games in the 'World's Most Famous Arena,' in front of such a passionate fan base, is an incredible opportunity. I am thankful for the five years I spent in Indiana, where we were able to accomplish a lot, and I created so many memories."</p>
<p>Zellous averaged 8.4 points last season to help the Fever reach the WNBA Finals. She will help the Liberty, who lost Epiphanny Prince to an ACL injury in November.</p>
<p>"Even if Piph was still healthy she was our No. 1 priority going into free agency," New York Liberty president Isiah Thomas said. "Before Piph was hurt, she was high on our board in terms of people we want to have play on our team. We look at it that she understands our chemistry, understands our defensive concepts. She knows (Coach Bill) Laimbeer. It's a good fit for us."</p>
<p>New York also re-signed center Carolyn Swords, who was a restricted free agent. Swords averaged 5.1 points and 4 rebounds a game for New York to help the Liberty reach the Eastern Conference finals. She appeared in all 34 regular season games, starting the final 22.</p>
<p>"I am thrilled to be returning to New York," said Swords. "I am excited to build on our team's accomplishments from last season, and I cannot wait to get back to our fans at Madison Square Garden."</p>
<p>Thomas said that the Liberty are still looking to make other moves.</p>
<p>"We're still in the market, still active," he said. "We still want to improve our team and we know we have to get better. We're still active, still beating the bushes."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Doug on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dougfeinberg</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Liberty bolstered their backcourt, signing free agent guard Shavonte Zellous to a multiyear contract on Monday.</p>
<p>Zellous, a WNBA All-Star in 2013 and also the league's most improved player that season, spent the previous five years with the Indiana Fever.</p>
<p>"I am excited to join the New York Liberty. I know the franchise and players are hungry to win a WNBA Championship, and share the same drive and determination I do to make that happen," Zellous said. "Getting to play my home games in the 'World's Most Famous Arena,' in front of such a passionate fan base, is an incredible opportunity. I am thankful for the five years I spent in Indiana, where we were able to accomplish a lot, and I created so many memories."</p>
<p>Zellous averaged 8.4 points last season to help the Fever reach the WNBA Finals. She will help the Liberty, who lost Epiphanny Prince to an ACL injury in November.</p>
<p>"Even if Piph was still healthy she was our No. 1 priority going into free agency," New York Liberty president Isiah Thomas said. "Before Piph was hurt, she was high on our board in terms of people we want to have play on our team. We look at it that she understands our chemistry, understands our defensive concepts. She knows (Coach Bill) Laimbeer. It's a good fit for us."</p>
<p>New York also re-signed center Carolyn Swords, who was a restricted free agent. Swords averaged 5.1 points and 4 rebounds a game for New York to help the Liberty reach the Eastern Conference finals. She appeared in all 34 regular season games, starting the final 22.</p>
<p>"I am thrilled to be returning to New York," said Swords. "I am excited to build on our team's accomplishments from last season, and I cannot wait to get back to our fans at Madison Square Garden."</p>
<p>Thomas said that the Liberty are still looking to make other moves.</p>
<p>"We're still in the market, still active," he said. "We still want to improve our team and we know we have to get better. We're still active, still beating the bushes."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Doug on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dougfeinberg</p> | 1,777 |
<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Greg_Olsen/" type="external">Greg Olsen</a> has been such a staple in the lineup for the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Carolina_Panthers/" type="external">Carolina Panthers</a> that the offense simply won’t be the same without him.</p>
<p>But that will be the case for an undetermined amount of time after the standout tight end suffered a broken right foot in the second game of the season. He underwent surgery Monday.</p>
<p>It’s time to move on, with the Panthers having to figure out for the first time since he joined the team in 2011 how they’re going to function without such a reliable player.</p>
<p>The immediate attention shifts to tight end Ed Dickson, an eighth-year pro who has been decent at times with the team but hasn’t shown signs that he’ll be able to provide the consistent production. Then again, maybe all he needs is a chance.</p>
<p>“I have full faith in Ed and guys underneath him are going to do their jobs,” quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Cam_Newton/" type="external">Cam Newton</a> said.</p>
<p>In fact, Newton has misfired on throws intended for Dickson one time in each of the first two games. More accurate throws and Dickson would have had a couple more nice chunks of yardage, and in one case a touchdown.</p>
<p>Olsen, an 11th-year pro, said it seemed like a freak injury when he exited in the second quarter Sunday against the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Buffalo-Bills/" type="external">Buffalo Bills</a>.</p>
<p>“I was running a route and I just stepped and I just fell,” he said. “I just felt something in my foot. I didn’t touch anybody. I didn’t get hit. It’s the way my foot went down. It just popped.”</p>
<p>Olsen has been selected for the Pro Bowl for three consecutive seasons. He’s the only tight end in NFL history with three consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more receiving yards. He made 80 catches for 1,073 yards last year.</p>
<p>“This is the NFL and you just have to know the next man up,” Newton said.</p>
<p>Second-year pro Chris Manhertz is another tight end on the roster. Dickson made two catches for 26 yards against the Bills.</p>
<p>Olsen, who made one catch for 10 yards in the first quarter Sunday, tried to put an encouraging spin on the situation.</p>
<p>“I’m going to miss a lot of games,” he said. “Sometimes it is what it is, but we’re 2-0.”</p>
<p>The Panthers are also deciding whether to place him on injured reserve. If they do that, he would be ineligible to return to play for eight weeks.</p>
<p>NOTES, QUOTES</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>The Panthers held Bills running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/LeSean_McCoy/" type="external">LeSean McCoy</a> to 9 yards on 12 attempts just a week after McCoy’s 110-yard rushing outing in the opener against the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New-York-Jets/" type="external">New York Jets</a>.</p>
<p>“We bottled those guys up for the most part,” linebacker <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Luke-Kuechly/" type="external">Luke Kuechly</a> said. “I think it really has to do with the guys up front.”</p>
<p>No Buffalo running back had a gain of more than 6 yards on any play.</p>
<p>The Panthers have held both opponents to less than 100 rushing yards this month. Since 2013, Carolina is 30-12 when the opponent fails to reach the 100-yard mark on the ground.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>The Panthers went with center Tyler Larsen in the Buffalo game after <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ryan-Kalil/" type="external">Ryan Kalil</a> reported to the stadium on the morning of the game with a sore neck. Trainers worked on alleviating the pain, but that didn’t work so Kalil didn’t play.</p>
<p>Larsen is a second-year pro.</p>
<p>“Tyler did an excellent job,” head coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ron_Rivera/" type="external">Ron Rivera</a> said. “But again, you like to have that steady, calm, cool hand in there (with Kalil).”</p>
<p>Larsen received plenty of work in training camp as Kalil nursed other ailments, so that surely helped prepare him.</p>
<p>Quarterback Cam Newton said Kalil’s sudden lack of availability for the game was strange, but the team was equipped to move on because there’s confidence in Larsen and others.</p>
<p>“They are well-prepared and ready for the moment,” Newton said.</p> | Carolina Panthers have to move on without TE Greg Olsen | false | https://newsline.com/carolina-panthers-have-to-move-on-without-te-greg-olsen/ | 2017-09-19 | 1right-center
| Carolina Panthers have to move on without TE Greg Olsen
<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Greg_Olsen/" type="external">Greg Olsen</a> has been such a staple in the lineup for the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Carolina_Panthers/" type="external">Carolina Panthers</a> that the offense simply won’t be the same without him.</p>
<p>But that will be the case for an undetermined amount of time after the standout tight end suffered a broken right foot in the second game of the season. He underwent surgery Monday.</p>
<p>It’s time to move on, with the Panthers having to figure out for the first time since he joined the team in 2011 how they’re going to function without such a reliable player.</p>
<p>The immediate attention shifts to tight end Ed Dickson, an eighth-year pro who has been decent at times with the team but hasn’t shown signs that he’ll be able to provide the consistent production. Then again, maybe all he needs is a chance.</p>
<p>“I have full faith in Ed and guys underneath him are going to do their jobs,” quarterback <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Cam_Newton/" type="external">Cam Newton</a> said.</p>
<p>In fact, Newton has misfired on throws intended for Dickson one time in each of the first two games. More accurate throws and Dickson would have had a couple more nice chunks of yardage, and in one case a touchdown.</p>
<p>Olsen, an 11th-year pro, said it seemed like a freak injury when he exited in the second quarter Sunday against the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Buffalo-Bills/" type="external">Buffalo Bills</a>.</p>
<p>“I was running a route and I just stepped and I just fell,” he said. “I just felt something in my foot. I didn’t touch anybody. I didn’t get hit. It’s the way my foot went down. It just popped.”</p>
<p>Olsen has been selected for the Pro Bowl for three consecutive seasons. He’s the only tight end in NFL history with three consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more receiving yards. He made 80 catches for 1,073 yards last year.</p>
<p>“This is the NFL and you just have to know the next man up,” Newton said.</p>
<p>Second-year pro Chris Manhertz is another tight end on the roster. Dickson made two catches for 26 yards against the Bills.</p>
<p>Olsen, who made one catch for 10 yards in the first quarter Sunday, tried to put an encouraging spin on the situation.</p>
<p>“I’m going to miss a lot of games,” he said. “Sometimes it is what it is, but we’re 2-0.”</p>
<p>The Panthers are also deciding whether to place him on injured reserve. If they do that, he would be ineligible to return to play for eight weeks.</p>
<p>NOTES, QUOTES</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>The Panthers held Bills running back <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/LeSean_McCoy/" type="external">LeSean McCoy</a> to 9 yards on 12 attempts just a week after McCoy’s 110-yard rushing outing in the opener against the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New-York-Jets/" type="external">New York Jets</a>.</p>
<p>“We bottled those guys up for the most part,” linebacker <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Luke-Kuechly/" type="external">Luke Kuechly</a> said. “I think it really has to do with the guys up front.”</p>
<p>No Buffalo running back had a gain of more than 6 yards on any play.</p>
<p>The Panthers have held both opponents to less than 100 rushing yards this month. Since 2013, Carolina is 30-12 when the opponent fails to reach the 100-yard mark on the ground.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>The Panthers went with center Tyler Larsen in the Buffalo game after <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ryan-Kalil/" type="external">Ryan Kalil</a> reported to the stadium on the morning of the game with a sore neck. Trainers worked on alleviating the pain, but that didn’t work so Kalil didn’t play.</p>
<p>Larsen is a second-year pro.</p>
<p>“Tyler did an excellent job,” head coach <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ron_Rivera/" type="external">Ron Rivera</a> said. “But again, you like to have that steady, calm, cool hand in there (with Kalil).”</p>
<p>Larsen received plenty of work in training camp as Kalil nursed other ailments, so that surely helped prepare him.</p>
<p>Quarterback Cam Newton said Kalil’s sudden lack of availability for the game was strange, but the team was equipped to move on because there’s confidence in Larsen and others.</p>
<p>“They are well-prepared and ready for the moment,” Newton said.</p> | 1,778 |
<p>SACRAMENTO, CA (April 23, 2012) – State Senator Juan Vargas’ SB 969, “Lucy’s Law”, which would create a certification program for the pet grooming industry, was approved by the Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development (5-3) this afternoon.&#160; The bill, authored in an effort to prevent injuries and fatalities to pets resulting from visits to the pet groomer, now heads to the Senate Committee on Rules.</p>
<p>“Today, our State is one step closer to professionalizing the pet grooming industry and ensuring that groomers are properly trained and pets are protected from harm,” said Senator Vargas (D-San Diego).&#160; “With this certification program in place, owners can feel confident that they are leaving their pet in the hands of groomers that care to be trained at the highest standard available in California.”</p>
<p>State Senator Juan Vargas, authored SB 969 after learning about Lucy, a small Yorkshire terrier mix, who sustained multiple injuries during a routine trip to the groomer.&#160; Among these injuries were: a detached retina, a severed ligament in her leg, and lacerations to five of her eight nipples.</p>
<p>Outside of Lucy’s case, there have been thousands of life-threatening injuries to pets over the years due to negligent and under-trained pet groomers who use improper techniques when grooming animals. Injuries from these negligent acts range from severe lacerations due to improper usage of grooming tools, toe injuries, broken bones caused by the animal being dropped, eye injuries, and in the most severe of cases, death.</p>
<p>About SB 969:</p>
<p>SB 969 would create the “California Pet Grooming Council” and would allow for voluntary certification of pet groomers and pet bathers and brushers.&#160; It would SB 969 would establish the requirements necessary to obtain a certificate as a pet groomer or pet bather and brusher, and set forth the duties and obligations of a certified pet groomer or pet bather and brusher. The bill would set forth the duties of the council with regard to the regulation of pet groomers and pet bathers and brushers and would also set standards for discipline and authorize the council to impose administrative penalties for a violation of these provisions.</p>
<p>As a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, the California Pet Grooming Council would certify pet groomers and pet bathers and brushers who meet specified education, examination, training and experience requirements, and would make it an unfair business practice for anyone to call themselves a “certified pet groomer” or a “certified pet bather and brusher” unless they have been certified by the Council.</p>
<p>The Council would be composed of members from several organizations, including but not limited to, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SCPA), the National Dog Groomers Association, the State Bar of California, the State Humane Society, the Veterinary Medical Board, and retail entities providing pet grooming services.</p>
<p>About Senator Juan Vargas:</p>
<p>Vargas represents the 40th California State Senate District which includes the southern portion of San Diego County, portions of Riverside County, all of Imperial County and California’s entire US/Mexico border.&#160; Vargas represented the 79th California State Assembly District from 2000 – 2006 and served on the San Diego City Council from 1993 – 2000.</p> | Vargas’ Pet Grooming Bill Approved by Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee (5-3) | false | https://ivn.us/2012/04/23/vargas-pet-grooming-bill-approved-by-business-professions-and-economic-development-committee-5-3/ | 2012-04-23 | 2least
| Vargas’ Pet Grooming Bill Approved by Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee (5-3)
<p>SACRAMENTO, CA (April 23, 2012) – State Senator Juan Vargas’ SB 969, “Lucy’s Law”, which would create a certification program for the pet grooming industry, was approved by the Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development (5-3) this afternoon.&#160; The bill, authored in an effort to prevent injuries and fatalities to pets resulting from visits to the pet groomer, now heads to the Senate Committee on Rules.</p>
<p>“Today, our State is one step closer to professionalizing the pet grooming industry and ensuring that groomers are properly trained and pets are protected from harm,” said Senator Vargas (D-San Diego).&#160; “With this certification program in place, owners can feel confident that they are leaving their pet in the hands of groomers that care to be trained at the highest standard available in California.”</p>
<p>State Senator Juan Vargas, authored SB 969 after learning about Lucy, a small Yorkshire terrier mix, who sustained multiple injuries during a routine trip to the groomer.&#160; Among these injuries were: a detached retina, a severed ligament in her leg, and lacerations to five of her eight nipples.</p>
<p>Outside of Lucy’s case, there have been thousands of life-threatening injuries to pets over the years due to negligent and under-trained pet groomers who use improper techniques when grooming animals. Injuries from these negligent acts range from severe lacerations due to improper usage of grooming tools, toe injuries, broken bones caused by the animal being dropped, eye injuries, and in the most severe of cases, death.</p>
<p>About SB 969:</p>
<p>SB 969 would create the “California Pet Grooming Council” and would allow for voluntary certification of pet groomers and pet bathers and brushers.&#160; It would SB 969 would establish the requirements necessary to obtain a certificate as a pet groomer or pet bather and brusher, and set forth the duties and obligations of a certified pet groomer or pet bather and brusher. The bill would set forth the duties of the council with regard to the regulation of pet groomers and pet bathers and brushers and would also set standards for discipline and authorize the council to impose administrative penalties for a violation of these provisions.</p>
<p>As a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, the California Pet Grooming Council would certify pet groomers and pet bathers and brushers who meet specified education, examination, training and experience requirements, and would make it an unfair business practice for anyone to call themselves a “certified pet groomer” or a “certified pet bather and brusher” unless they have been certified by the Council.</p>
<p>The Council would be composed of members from several organizations, including but not limited to, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SCPA), the National Dog Groomers Association, the State Bar of California, the State Humane Society, the Veterinary Medical Board, and retail entities providing pet grooming services.</p>
<p>About Senator Juan Vargas:</p>
<p>Vargas represents the 40th California State Senate District which includes the southern portion of San Diego County, portions of Riverside County, all of Imperial County and California’s entire US/Mexico border.&#160; Vargas represented the 79th California State Assembly District from 2000 – 2006 and served on the San Diego City Council from 1993 – 2000.</p> | 1,779 |
<p>Photo by Tom Thai | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>In&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-preparing-for-the-coming-transformation/" type="external">our last article, we predicted that the 2020’s will be an era of transformation</a>. We focused on the development of the movement since the “Take-Off” phase of the 2011 Occupy encampments, followed by Black Lives Matter, Fight for $15, Idle No More, carbon infrastructure protests, debt resistance, immigration protests and more. The 2020s will be a decade when the impacts of years of mismanagement of crisis situations, such as climate change, inequality and US militarism, become unavoidable requiring major transformations. What we do now to prepare will help determine the result.</p>
<p>Transformative Era will be Driven by Long Neglected Issues</p>
<p>For many of the issues the popular movement has been raising, the government has failed to act or taken counterproductive actions, putting the profits and interests of campaign donors ahead of the necessities of people and protection of the planet. The environment is being destroyed, the food supply is being&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/top-scientist-widespread-pesticide-use-is-not-safe/" type="external">poisoned by pesticides</a>&#160;and the wealth divide is widening.</p>
<p>The massive&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/climate-change-is-happening-faster-than-expected/" type="external">threat of climate change has become more immediate and worse.</a>In the last year, the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">scientific consensus</a>&#160;has become more dire. The&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-people-act-where-us-fails-on-climate/" type="external">impacts are upon us now</a>&#160;–&#160; <a href="" type="internal">&#160;wildfires and superstorms</a>,&#160;war brought on by drought, mass migrations and deaths.</p>
<p>At the same time multiple analyses and government reports point to&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-when-empires-fall/" type="external">a fading US empire.</a>&#160;Since the end of World War II, the US has dominated the globe politically, economically and militarily becoming the largest empire in world history.&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/panic-of-boris-johnson-in-moscow-agony-of-rotting-empire/" type="external">That era is coming to an end</a>.</p>
<p>In his new book, “ <a href="" type="internal">In the Shadows of the American Century</a>,” historian and chronicler of empire Alfred McCoy writes that US empire will end in the next decade. The US is falling behind in all spheres of influence. McCoy demonstrates how US spying on foreign governments and using torture in multiple countries have undermined the US’ moral authority, as have aggressive bullying for corporation-friendly trade deals, holding back climate agreements in the Obama era and pulling out of the climate agreement in the Trump era. He chronicles the rise of China, India and Russia, among other countries. The&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-power-dynamics-changing-in-world-order/" type="external">power dynamics of the world are changing</a>&#160;with the US being left out of important decisions while&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/putin-xi-message-to-trump-us-unipolar-world-is-over/" type="external">China and Russia work in tandem in more areas</a>.</p>
<p>McCoy describes various scenarios for how US empire will end, depending on how the current crises play out.&#160;No matter what happens, it is up to those of us living in the US to demand the US dismantles its empire in a way that causes the least harm. Paul Street&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/in-shadows-of-american-century-rise-decline-of-us-global-power/" type="external">writes</a>, “the decline of the American Empire might be a&#160;good&#160;thing for ordinary people at home as well as abroad.” Ending empire is an opportunity for changes that move us toward being a cooperative nation in a multipolar world rather than hanging on to power through military might.</p>
<p>The end of empire will have many repercussions. Public investment in empire has meant a lack of investment on urgent needs, e.g. repairing failing and inadequate infrastructure, rebuilding cities that have been ignored, especially in black and brown communities, strengthening education from pre-school through post-graduate, to name a handful of many inadequately-funded areas. The empire economy helped create an unfair economy at home that pushed people into poverty, debt and homelessness. To reverse those impacts, the US must shift military spending to meet civilian needs and provide funding for a new democratized economy.</p>
<p>System-changing Issues</p>
<p>The credibility of the power structure that allowed these crises to fester will shrink. On each of the issues where the people’s movement has been growing, those in power have either denied reality and done nothing or have made matters worse through counterproductive policies. Multiple crisis situations barreling toward us require&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-mobilize-for-system-change/" type="external">mobilization for system change</a>,&#160;not simple reforms.</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-mobilize-for-system-change/" type="external">US democracy crisis</a>&#160;is due to the corruption of money in elections, laws that prevent challenges by third parties, media that warps coverage in favor of the duopoly, gerrymandering and more. The&#160; <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/14489-lifting-the-veil-of-mirage-democracy-in-the-united-states" type="external">mirage of US elections</a>&#160;has become evident to tens of millions of people resulting in both duopoly parties being unpopular and in disarray.</p>
<p>System failure is also a failure of the capitalist economic system, dominated by Wall Street, monopolies and massive transnational corporations. The kleptocrats in power are looting public treasures, monetizing and profiteering off our basic necessities such as water, energy and transportation. Increasing numbers of people agree we need a&#160; <a href="http://itsoureconomy.us/issues/" type="external">new economy based on economic democracy</a>&#160;and the Commons where key sectors are socialized and under democratic control.</p>
<p>In “ <a href="https://popularresistance.org/seymour-melman-and-the-new-american-revolution/" type="external">Seymour Melman and the New American Revolution</a>,” Jonathan Feldman describes Melman’s ideas for dismantling empire and capitalism and shifting economic and political power to people through worker ownership and other democratized systems.</p>
<p>The movement must position itself for this coming era of transition by: (1) weakening the power structure by protest of mistaken policies and building alternatives to replace them; and (2) specifically defining the transformations we want so that the power holders cannot deceive us with false measures.</p>
<p>Opportunities to build movement power</p>
<p>Economic justice:&#160; <a href="http://itsoureconomy.us/issues/" type="external">Inequality in the United States is extreme</a>&#160;and the&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/the-worlds-wealthiest-get-more-obscenly-more-wealthy/" type="external">world’s wealthy grow obscenely richer</a>. Three people in the US have wealth equal to half the population while millions in urban areas&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/report-the-road-to-zero-wealth/" type="external">have zero wealth</a>,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">tens of millions cannot handle a surprise $500 expense</a>&#160;and an&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/the-student-debt-crisis-is-exploding/" type="external">entire generation is entering adulthood in massive debt</a>&#160;to a job market that will keep them in debt.</p>
<p>Over the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">last 40 years,&#160;</a> <a href="" type="internal">CEO pay rose 937 percent</a>&#160;while worker compensation remained stagnant. The&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/help-for-struggling-millionaires-is-on-the-way/" type="external">recent tax cuts will add to all of these problems</a>&#160;with increased debt caused by tax cuts for the rich causing cuts to social safety net programs like Medicaid and privatizing Social Security and Medicare.&#160; <a href="" type="internal">An economic crash seems almost inevitable</a>&#160;as this decade comes to a close.</p>
<p><a href="https://popularresistance.org/national-consensus-builds-for-transformational-change-action-needed/" type="external">National consensus</a>&#160;on issues like taxing the rich and building the economy from the bottom up will grow, creating opportunities for new economy programs, e.g. workers owning businesses, laws ensuring a livable wage,&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/tag/public-banks/" type="external">public banks</a>,&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/tag/participatory-budgeting/" type="external">participatory budgeting</a>&#160;where people decide public expenditures, a&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/even-a-modest-basic-income-could-improve-economic-security/" type="external">guaranteed income</a>&#160;to ensure people can meet their basic needs and other programs giving people power in the economy. Not only should the recently-passed tax cuts be repealed, but an&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/tax-reforms-higher-purpose/" type="external">aggressively progressive income and wealth tax should be put in place</a>&#160;along with a financial transactions tax to shrink the wealth divide and finance essential services.</p>
<p>Healthcare as a public good:&#160; <a href="http://www.healthoverprofit.org/" type="external">Health care</a>&#160;continues to be a top issue of concern as people cannot afford necessary care. Even with insurance, the deductibles and co-pays on top of high premiums are unaffordable and tens of millions of people cannot afford any insurance. To confront the healthcare crisis, the US most move from a system dominated by profits for insurance companies, Big Pharma and providers to a system where health care is a public good with equal access for all funded by a progressive tax. National improved Medicare for all has majority support and is poised to become a litmus test issue in upcoming elections.</p>
<p>Internet freedom with equal access for all and independent media:&#160;The attack on&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/tag/net-neutrality/" type="external">net neutrality</a>&#160;has created a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">massive movement</a>&#160;and national consensus that access to the Internet should be equal for all. People recognize that the Internet is essential to participate in the economy, politics and culture, resulting in calls to&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/nationalize-the-networks/" type="external">nationalize the Internet</a>. The quality of Internet service must be improved so there is high speed Internet, as exists in other developed countries. We must&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-creating-21st-century-internet/" type="external">create an Internet for the 21st Century</a>.</p>
<p>Further concentration of media is limiting access to a diversity of views. Freedom of speech in the 21st&#160;Century requires protection of political speech on the Internet not only from government but from corporations, e.g. Google and Facebook, that control social media. Laws must&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-dissent-under-attack-by-government-corporations/" type="external">protect independent and social media</a>&#160;as democracy requires diverse information and robust debate.</p>
<p>Confronting climate change and reversing environmental degradation:&#160;There must be a&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/overcoming-contradictions-of-climate-change-in-short-time-we-have/" type="external">rapid transition</a>&#160;to a clean energy economy, which will create jobs for those who install solar, wind and other clean energy sources, construct efficient transit and housing, and conduct research to develop technology needed to remake the economy. The climate crisis will impact all aspects of life, including food, farming, water management, housing and more. Energy must be democratized so people who create more energy are compensated as producers and energy is socialized through public utilities. A carbon tax will encourage the change to clean energy and provide funds for the transition.</p>
<p>End of empire:&#160;There will be massive shifts in the economy at home and abroad and in foreign policy as empire comes to an end. The military-security state comprises a large and decentralized sector of the US economy. A just transition to a civilian peace economy will be required. The US will no longer has the power to coerce countries into signing trade deals, an economic arm of empire, that allow the exploitation of workers, communities and the environment. A new era of trade designed to protect people and planet will become possible. New international institutions will be needed to correct the weaknesses of the United Nations and allow governance that protects human rights and economic and racial equality. Mechanisms will be required to resolve conflicts between nations peacefully.</p>
<p>Systemic Racism:&#160;Through all these issues, racism, a hierarchy of power that allows one group of people to dominate another, is intimately intertwined. Institutions that perpetuate racism and inequality will need to be dismantled. This is not identity politics, as some have accused, nor does it negate the suffering and oppression of poor white people. It is a reality that must be faced if we are to create new systems that do not default to disparities between groups of people. Indigenous rights and sovereignty must be respected. Reparations must be paid for generations of stolen wealth.</p>
<p>The Task of Ensuring Justice</p>
<p>While transitions are inevitable, it is not inevitable they will be made based on economic, racial and environmental justice and peace. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves and each other so people understand the root causes of the crises we face, build popular power and create alternative systems that have desirable results. This is not the time for reform or the belief that we just need to elect the right person. The current systems, including the electoral system, are rigged against us and we need to use popular power change them.</p>
<p>As Kevin Buckland&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/organizing-on-sinking-ship-future-of-climate-justice-movement/" type="external">writes in Roar Magazine</a>:</p>
<p>“If we fail to offer scalable discursive, tactical and structural alternatives to the extractivist logic that has created the climate crisis, capitalism may itself transform the coming wave of disruptions into its own benefit, exacerbating existent inequalities for every social and ecological ‘issue’ as it strengthens its stranglehold of the future on a rapidly destabilizing battleground.”</p>
<p>Buckland focuses on the climate crisis, but the same is relevant for other crises. A crisis provides an opportunity for change. Those who have solutions on hand and power will determine what type of change occurs.</p>
<p>We face formidable opponents. They have resources, money and tools that can thwart our efforts. But this is nothing new. All movements for social transformation have faced difficult odds, still they have prevailed. We outnumber our opponents and when we work together, though we may not have the money, we do have resources and tools. We also have allies.</p>
<p>At a recent family gathering, one of our relatives who does human rights work remarked that people in other countries feel that they should be able to vote in US elections because the US has such a significant global impact. While that isn’t going to happen, there are ways that the international community outside the US can have influence, and that is through boycotts, divestments and sanctions. This can happen at the individual level, through institutions such as universities and at the governmental level. Activists can call on their governments to target US institutions of military and economic dominance.</p>
<p>During the South African Apartheid, it was South African activists who called on other nations to boycott their country. This was a primary reason why apartheid ended. A decade ago, hundreds of Palestinians came together and called for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) of Israel. The BDS movement is having such a great effect that&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Israel is fighting to stop it</a>.</p>
<p>And while we are reaching out to our international allies, we can share information with each other about what systems work and don’t work so that we can create the new world we need more rapidly. Collectively, we have greater wisdom than individually.</p>
<p>We live in a difficult time, but it is also a time of opportunities to correct our mistakes and build something better. Change is coming. As we wrote in 2011,&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/history-is-knocking/" type="external">history is knocking</a>. We must all decide in 2018 how we will answer it.</p> | Ensuring Justice in an Era of Transformation | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/01/04/ensuring-justice-in-an-era-of-transformation/ | 2018-01-04 | 4left
| Ensuring Justice in an Era of Transformation
<p>Photo by Tom Thai | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>In&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-preparing-for-the-coming-transformation/" type="external">our last article, we predicted that the 2020’s will be an era of transformation</a>. We focused on the development of the movement since the “Take-Off” phase of the 2011 Occupy encampments, followed by Black Lives Matter, Fight for $15, Idle No More, carbon infrastructure protests, debt resistance, immigration protests and more. The 2020s will be a decade when the impacts of years of mismanagement of crisis situations, such as climate change, inequality and US militarism, become unavoidable requiring major transformations. What we do now to prepare will help determine the result.</p>
<p>Transformative Era will be Driven by Long Neglected Issues</p>
<p>For many of the issues the popular movement has been raising, the government has failed to act or taken counterproductive actions, putting the profits and interests of campaign donors ahead of the necessities of people and protection of the planet. The environment is being destroyed, the food supply is being&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/top-scientist-widespread-pesticide-use-is-not-safe/" type="external">poisoned by pesticides</a>&#160;and the wealth divide is widening.</p>
<p>The massive&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/climate-change-is-happening-faster-than-expected/" type="external">threat of climate change has become more immediate and worse.</a>In the last year, the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">scientific consensus</a>&#160;has become more dire. The&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-people-act-where-us-fails-on-climate/" type="external">impacts are upon us now</a>&#160;–&#160; <a href="" type="internal">&#160;wildfires and superstorms</a>,&#160;war brought on by drought, mass migrations and deaths.</p>
<p>At the same time multiple analyses and government reports point to&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-when-empires-fall/" type="external">a fading US empire.</a>&#160;Since the end of World War II, the US has dominated the globe politically, economically and militarily becoming the largest empire in world history.&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/panic-of-boris-johnson-in-moscow-agony-of-rotting-empire/" type="external">That era is coming to an end</a>.</p>
<p>In his new book, “ <a href="" type="internal">In the Shadows of the American Century</a>,” historian and chronicler of empire Alfred McCoy writes that US empire will end in the next decade. The US is falling behind in all spheres of influence. McCoy demonstrates how US spying on foreign governments and using torture in multiple countries have undermined the US’ moral authority, as have aggressive bullying for corporation-friendly trade deals, holding back climate agreements in the Obama era and pulling out of the climate agreement in the Trump era. He chronicles the rise of China, India and Russia, among other countries. The&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-power-dynamics-changing-in-world-order/" type="external">power dynamics of the world are changing</a>&#160;with the US being left out of important decisions while&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/putin-xi-message-to-trump-us-unipolar-world-is-over/" type="external">China and Russia work in tandem in more areas</a>.</p>
<p>McCoy describes various scenarios for how US empire will end, depending on how the current crises play out.&#160;No matter what happens, it is up to those of us living in the US to demand the US dismantles its empire in a way that causes the least harm. Paul Street&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/in-shadows-of-american-century-rise-decline-of-us-global-power/" type="external">writes</a>, “the decline of the American Empire might be a&#160;good&#160;thing for ordinary people at home as well as abroad.” Ending empire is an opportunity for changes that move us toward being a cooperative nation in a multipolar world rather than hanging on to power through military might.</p>
<p>The end of empire will have many repercussions. Public investment in empire has meant a lack of investment on urgent needs, e.g. repairing failing and inadequate infrastructure, rebuilding cities that have been ignored, especially in black and brown communities, strengthening education from pre-school through post-graduate, to name a handful of many inadequately-funded areas. The empire economy helped create an unfair economy at home that pushed people into poverty, debt and homelessness. To reverse those impacts, the US must shift military spending to meet civilian needs and provide funding for a new democratized economy.</p>
<p>System-changing Issues</p>
<p>The credibility of the power structure that allowed these crises to fester will shrink. On each of the issues where the people’s movement has been growing, those in power have either denied reality and done nothing or have made matters worse through counterproductive policies. Multiple crisis situations barreling toward us require&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-mobilize-for-system-change/" type="external">mobilization for system change</a>,&#160;not simple reforms.</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-mobilize-for-system-change/" type="external">US democracy crisis</a>&#160;is due to the corruption of money in elections, laws that prevent challenges by third parties, media that warps coverage in favor of the duopoly, gerrymandering and more. The&#160; <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/14489-lifting-the-veil-of-mirage-democracy-in-the-united-states" type="external">mirage of US elections</a>&#160;has become evident to tens of millions of people resulting in both duopoly parties being unpopular and in disarray.</p>
<p>System failure is also a failure of the capitalist economic system, dominated by Wall Street, monopolies and massive transnational corporations. The kleptocrats in power are looting public treasures, monetizing and profiteering off our basic necessities such as water, energy and transportation. Increasing numbers of people agree we need a&#160; <a href="http://itsoureconomy.us/issues/" type="external">new economy based on economic democracy</a>&#160;and the Commons where key sectors are socialized and under democratic control.</p>
<p>In “ <a href="https://popularresistance.org/seymour-melman-and-the-new-american-revolution/" type="external">Seymour Melman and the New American Revolution</a>,” Jonathan Feldman describes Melman’s ideas for dismantling empire and capitalism and shifting economic and political power to people through worker ownership and other democratized systems.</p>
<p>The movement must position itself for this coming era of transition by: (1) weakening the power structure by protest of mistaken policies and building alternatives to replace them; and (2) specifically defining the transformations we want so that the power holders cannot deceive us with false measures.</p>
<p>Opportunities to build movement power</p>
<p>Economic justice:&#160; <a href="http://itsoureconomy.us/issues/" type="external">Inequality in the United States is extreme</a>&#160;and the&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/the-worlds-wealthiest-get-more-obscenly-more-wealthy/" type="external">world’s wealthy grow obscenely richer</a>. Three people in the US have wealth equal to half the population while millions in urban areas&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/report-the-road-to-zero-wealth/" type="external">have zero wealth</a>,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">tens of millions cannot handle a surprise $500 expense</a>&#160;and an&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/the-student-debt-crisis-is-exploding/" type="external">entire generation is entering adulthood in massive debt</a>&#160;to a job market that will keep them in debt.</p>
<p>Over the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">last 40 years,&#160;</a> <a href="" type="internal">CEO pay rose 937 percent</a>&#160;while worker compensation remained stagnant. The&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/help-for-struggling-millionaires-is-on-the-way/" type="external">recent tax cuts will add to all of these problems</a>&#160;with increased debt caused by tax cuts for the rich causing cuts to social safety net programs like Medicaid and privatizing Social Security and Medicare.&#160; <a href="" type="internal">An economic crash seems almost inevitable</a>&#160;as this decade comes to a close.</p>
<p><a href="https://popularresistance.org/national-consensus-builds-for-transformational-change-action-needed/" type="external">National consensus</a>&#160;on issues like taxing the rich and building the economy from the bottom up will grow, creating opportunities for new economy programs, e.g. workers owning businesses, laws ensuring a livable wage,&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/tag/public-banks/" type="external">public banks</a>,&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/tag/participatory-budgeting/" type="external">participatory budgeting</a>&#160;where people decide public expenditures, a&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/even-a-modest-basic-income-could-improve-economic-security/" type="external">guaranteed income</a>&#160;to ensure people can meet their basic needs and other programs giving people power in the economy. Not only should the recently-passed tax cuts be repealed, but an&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/tax-reforms-higher-purpose/" type="external">aggressively progressive income and wealth tax should be put in place</a>&#160;along with a financial transactions tax to shrink the wealth divide and finance essential services.</p>
<p>Healthcare as a public good:&#160; <a href="http://www.healthoverprofit.org/" type="external">Health care</a>&#160;continues to be a top issue of concern as people cannot afford necessary care. Even with insurance, the deductibles and co-pays on top of high premiums are unaffordable and tens of millions of people cannot afford any insurance. To confront the healthcare crisis, the US most move from a system dominated by profits for insurance companies, Big Pharma and providers to a system where health care is a public good with equal access for all funded by a progressive tax. National improved Medicare for all has majority support and is poised to become a litmus test issue in upcoming elections.</p>
<p>Internet freedom with equal access for all and independent media:&#160;The attack on&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/tag/net-neutrality/" type="external">net neutrality</a>&#160;has created a&#160; <a href="" type="internal">massive movement</a>&#160;and national consensus that access to the Internet should be equal for all. People recognize that the Internet is essential to participate in the economy, politics and culture, resulting in calls to&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/nationalize-the-networks/" type="external">nationalize the Internet</a>. The quality of Internet service must be improved so there is high speed Internet, as exists in other developed countries. We must&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-creating-21st-century-internet/" type="external">create an Internet for the 21st Century</a>.</p>
<p>Further concentration of media is limiting access to a diversity of views. Freedom of speech in the 21st&#160;Century requires protection of political speech on the Internet not only from government but from corporations, e.g. Google and Facebook, that control social media. Laws must&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/newsletter-dissent-under-attack-by-government-corporations/" type="external">protect independent and social media</a>&#160;as democracy requires diverse information and robust debate.</p>
<p>Confronting climate change and reversing environmental degradation:&#160;There must be a&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/overcoming-contradictions-of-climate-change-in-short-time-we-have/" type="external">rapid transition</a>&#160;to a clean energy economy, which will create jobs for those who install solar, wind and other clean energy sources, construct efficient transit and housing, and conduct research to develop technology needed to remake the economy. The climate crisis will impact all aspects of life, including food, farming, water management, housing and more. Energy must be democratized so people who create more energy are compensated as producers and energy is socialized through public utilities. A carbon tax will encourage the change to clean energy and provide funds for the transition.</p>
<p>End of empire:&#160;There will be massive shifts in the economy at home and abroad and in foreign policy as empire comes to an end. The military-security state comprises a large and decentralized sector of the US economy. A just transition to a civilian peace economy will be required. The US will no longer has the power to coerce countries into signing trade deals, an economic arm of empire, that allow the exploitation of workers, communities and the environment. A new era of trade designed to protect people and planet will become possible. New international institutions will be needed to correct the weaknesses of the United Nations and allow governance that protects human rights and economic and racial equality. Mechanisms will be required to resolve conflicts between nations peacefully.</p>
<p>Systemic Racism:&#160;Through all these issues, racism, a hierarchy of power that allows one group of people to dominate another, is intimately intertwined. Institutions that perpetuate racism and inequality will need to be dismantled. This is not identity politics, as some have accused, nor does it negate the suffering and oppression of poor white people. It is a reality that must be faced if we are to create new systems that do not default to disparities between groups of people. Indigenous rights and sovereignty must be respected. Reparations must be paid for generations of stolen wealth.</p>
<p>The Task of Ensuring Justice</p>
<p>While transitions are inevitable, it is not inevitable they will be made based on economic, racial and environmental justice and peace. It is our responsibility to educate ourselves and each other so people understand the root causes of the crises we face, build popular power and create alternative systems that have desirable results. This is not the time for reform or the belief that we just need to elect the right person. The current systems, including the electoral system, are rigged against us and we need to use popular power change them.</p>
<p>As Kevin Buckland&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/organizing-on-sinking-ship-future-of-climate-justice-movement/" type="external">writes in Roar Magazine</a>:</p>
<p>“If we fail to offer scalable discursive, tactical and structural alternatives to the extractivist logic that has created the climate crisis, capitalism may itself transform the coming wave of disruptions into its own benefit, exacerbating existent inequalities for every social and ecological ‘issue’ as it strengthens its stranglehold of the future on a rapidly destabilizing battleground.”</p>
<p>Buckland focuses on the climate crisis, but the same is relevant for other crises. A crisis provides an opportunity for change. Those who have solutions on hand and power will determine what type of change occurs.</p>
<p>We face formidable opponents. They have resources, money and tools that can thwart our efforts. But this is nothing new. All movements for social transformation have faced difficult odds, still they have prevailed. We outnumber our opponents and when we work together, though we may not have the money, we do have resources and tools. We also have allies.</p>
<p>At a recent family gathering, one of our relatives who does human rights work remarked that people in other countries feel that they should be able to vote in US elections because the US has such a significant global impact. While that isn’t going to happen, there are ways that the international community outside the US can have influence, and that is through boycotts, divestments and sanctions. This can happen at the individual level, through institutions such as universities and at the governmental level. Activists can call on their governments to target US institutions of military and economic dominance.</p>
<p>During the South African Apartheid, it was South African activists who called on other nations to boycott their country. This was a primary reason why apartheid ended. A decade ago, hundreds of Palestinians came together and called for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) of Israel. The BDS movement is having such a great effect that&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Israel is fighting to stop it</a>.</p>
<p>And while we are reaching out to our international allies, we can share information with each other about what systems work and don’t work so that we can create the new world we need more rapidly. Collectively, we have greater wisdom than individually.</p>
<p>We live in a difficult time, but it is also a time of opportunities to correct our mistakes and build something better. Change is coming. As we wrote in 2011,&#160; <a href="https://popularresistance.org/history-is-knocking/" type="external">history is knocking</a>. We must all decide in 2018 how we will answer it.</p> | 1,780 |
<p />
<p>When it comes to landing a job fast, it’s all about the people you know — and the people who know you.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>According to Jobvite, 55 percent of <a href="http://recruiting.jobvite.com/company/press-releases/2012/jobvite-declares-may-national-employee-referral-month/" type="external">employer referrals Opens a New Window.</a> get hired faster than candidates from company <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm" type="external">career sites Opens a New Window.</a>. In addition, HR professionals rate employee referrals as the No. 1 source for quality hires.</p>
<p>Companies use employee referrals because <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/5-ways-accessible-recruiters/" type="external">recruiters Opens a New Window.</a> and hiring managers have found employee referrals to be one of the most effective ways to discover talent and find the best candidates for a position. In fact, 44 percent of new hires are employee referrals.</p>
<p>Not only is being an employee referral a great way to discover <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/Jobs/jobs.htm" type="external">job openings, Opens a New Window.</a> but also it’s a great way to secure an <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/5-ways-employers-interested-interview/" type="external">interview Opens a New Window.</a>. Research shows employers prefer hiring employee referrals because it boosts their confidence in the candidate. Plus, as an employee referral, you already have a step in the door of a company.</p>
<p>So how does one get hired as an employee referral? Getting referred by an employee greatly depends on <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/networking-5-bad-habits-avoid/" type="external">networking Opens a New Window.</a>. In addition, it’s also about targeting employers with whom you already have an inside connection.</p>
<p>Here are five tips for getting hired as an employee referral:</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>1. Start Checking Your LinkedIn Connections</p>
<p>LinkedIn serves as a gold mine of opportunities as you search for professionals who can refer you for a job. First, take a look at your connections to find your strongest relationships. These could be people you’ve met at networking events, are previous coworkers, or alumni. Next, see if any of these connections work for a company that’s hiring or one you’d like to work for.</p>
<p>Once you locate some LinkedIn connections, it’s time to start reaching out. Depending on the strength of the relationship you have with the person, it’s a good idea to send them a copy of your resume. This allows the individual to review your credentials before they give you the referral.</p>
<p>2. Target Employers</p>
<p>If there’s a specific company you want to work for, begin networking with employees who work for that organization. It’s important to do some networking first, especially when you don’t have a current connection with the organization.</p>
<p>Prior to applying for the job, make sure you ask the person if you can use their name as a referral. It’s also important you explain how you contacted the individual, too.</p>
<p>When you ask for the referral, ask the right questions. Instead of asking, “Can you refer me for XYZ position?” ask, “Do you think I’d be a good fit for this position? If so, do you think you could refer me?”</p>
<p>3. Connect with the Right People</p>
<p>As you continue to network with professionals, make sure you’re connecting with the right people. Although this might be difficult to do when you don’t have many contacts, it can definitely strengthen your referral.</p>
<p>For example, if you’re marketing professional, connect with individuals within the organization’s marketing and PR department. This is a great way to target your application and create a stronger referral.</p>
<p>4. Join Professional Organizations</p>
<p>Another great way to find someone to refer you is to get involved with industry and professional organizations. When joining an organization, you’ll have access to professionals in your industry who can connect you to job opportunities. Plus, you’ll discover exclusive job opportunities that were available for organization members, too.</p>
<p>5. Schedule Informational Interviews</p>
<p><a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/ultimate-guide-informational-interviews/" type="external">Informational interviews Opens a New Window.</a> are a great way to build stronger relationships and learn more about employers as you search for jobs. Although the purpose of an informational interview is to learn about a company or profession, they’re a great way to build a new contact.</p>
<p>When attending informational interviews, be careful with your approach when requesting a referral. If the individual encourages you to check out their job postings, then asking for a referral is welcome. However, if the individual didn’t mention anything about job opportunities, it’s a good idea to maintain a relationship with the person after the interview and follow up in a few weeks about the referral.</p>
<p>Employers are more likely to trust candidates who have an inside connection with their company. Anytime you can secure a referral for your job application, you’ll you’ll have a strong advantage when you submit your application.</p>
<p>Read More from Glassdoor:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/network-recruiter/" type="external">How to Network with the Right Recruiter Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/10-tips-improve-social-media-productivity/" type="external">10 Tips to Improve Social Media Productivity Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/turn-temp-job-fulltime-job/" type="external">How To Turn Your Temp Job into a Full-Time Job Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/4-ways-avoid-called-job-hopper/" type="external">4 Ways to Avoid Being Called a ‘Job Hopper’ Opens a New Window.</a></p> | 5 Secrets to Winning an Employee Referral and Getting Hired | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/06/24/5-secrets-to-winning-employee-referral-and-getting-hired.html | 2016-03-04 | 0right
| 5 Secrets to Winning an Employee Referral and Getting Hired
<p />
<p>When it comes to landing a job fast, it’s all about the people you know — and the people who know you.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>According to Jobvite, 55 percent of <a href="http://recruiting.jobvite.com/company/press-releases/2012/jobvite-declares-may-national-employee-referral-month/" type="external">employer referrals Opens a New Window.</a> get hired faster than candidates from company <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm" type="external">career sites Opens a New Window.</a>. In addition, HR professionals rate employee referrals as the No. 1 source for quality hires.</p>
<p>Companies use employee referrals because <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/5-ways-accessible-recruiters/" type="external">recruiters Opens a New Window.</a> and hiring managers have found employee referrals to be one of the most effective ways to discover talent and find the best candidates for a position. In fact, 44 percent of new hires are employee referrals.</p>
<p>Not only is being an employee referral a great way to discover <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/Jobs/jobs.htm" type="external">job openings, Opens a New Window.</a> but also it’s a great way to secure an <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/5-ways-employers-interested-interview/" type="external">interview Opens a New Window.</a>. Research shows employers prefer hiring employee referrals because it boosts their confidence in the candidate. Plus, as an employee referral, you already have a step in the door of a company.</p>
<p>So how does one get hired as an employee referral? Getting referred by an employee greatly depends on <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/networking-5-bad-habits-avoid/" type="external">networking Opens a New Window.</a>. In addition, it’s also about targeting employers with whom you already have an inside connection.</p>
<p>Here are five tips for getting hired as an employee referral:</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>1. Start Checking Your LinkedIn Connections</p>
<p>LinkedIn serves as a gold mine of opportunities as you search for professionals who can refer you for a job. First, take a look at your connections to find your strongest relationships. These could be people you’ve met at networking events, are previous coworkers, or alumni. Next, see if any of these connections work for a company that’s hiring or one you’d like to work for.</p>
<p>Once you locate some LinkedIn connections, it’s time to start reaching out. Depending on the strength of the relationship you have with the person, it’s a good idea to send them a copy of your resume. This allows the individual to review your credentials before they give you the referral.</p>
<p>2. Target Employers</p>
<p>If there’s a specific company you want to work for, begin networking with employees who work for that organization. It’s important to do some networking first, especially when you don’t have a current connection with the organization.</p>
<p>Prior to applying for the job, make sure you ask the person if you can use their name as a referral. It’s also important you explain how you contacted the individual, too.</p>
<p>When you ask for the referral, ask the right questions. Instead of asking, “Can you refer me for XYZ position?” ask, “Do you think I’d be a good fit for this position? If so, do you think you could refer me?”</p>
<p>3. Connect with the Right People</p>
<p>As you continue to network with professionals, make sure you’re connecting with the right people. Although this might be difficult to do when you don’t have many contacts, it can definitely strengthen your referral.</p>
<p>For example, if you’re marketing professional, connect with individuals within the organization’s marketing and PR department. This is a great way to target your application and create a stronger referral.</p>
<p>4. Join Professional Organizations</p>
<p>Another great way to find someone to refer you is to get involved with industry and professional organizations. When joining an organization, you’ll have access to professionals in your industry who can connect you to job opportunities. Plus, you’ll discover exclusive job opportunities that were available for organization members, too.</p>
<p>5. Schedule Informational Interviews</p>
<p><a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/ultimate-guide-informational-interviews/" type="external">Informational interviews Opens a New Window.</a> are a great way to build stronger relationships and learn more about employers as you search for jobs. Although the purpose of an informational interview is to learn about a company or profession, they’re a great way to build a new contact.</p>
<p>When attending informational interviews, be careful with your approach when requesting a referral. If the individual encourages you to check out their job postings, then asking for a referral is welcome. However, if the individual didn’t mention anything about job opportunities, it’s a good idea to maintain a relationship with the person after the interview and follow up in a few weeks about the referral.</p>
<p>Employers are more likely to trust candidates who have an inside connection with their company. Anytime you can secure a referral for your job application, you’ll you’ll have a strong advantage when you submit your application.</p>
<p>Read More from Glassdoor:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/network-recruiter/" type="external">How to Network with the Right Recruiter Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/10-tips-improve-social-media-productivity/" type="external">10 Tips to Improve Social Media Productivity Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/turn-temp-job-fulltime-job/" type="external">How To Turn Your Temp Job into a Full-Time Job Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/4-ways-avoid-called-job-hopper/" type="external">4 Ways to Avoid Being Called a ‘Job Hopper’ Opens a New Window.</a></p> | 1,781 |
<p>The State of Connecticut’s Public Safety and Security Committee (PSSC) is a joint standing committee of the Connecticut General Assembly and contains members of the Senate and the House. In the Connecticut Legislature, there are no separate chamber committees.</p>
<p>PSSC is charged with matters relating to homeland security, the Department of Public Safety, including <a href="" type="internal">state police</a>, state organized task force on crime, municipal police training, fire marshals, the fire safety code and the state building code, civil preparedness and legalized gambling, and military and veterans’ affairs, except veterans’ pensions.</p>
<p>The Public Safety and Security Committee of 2015 has 15 Democratic members and 10 Republican members. The Chair of the committee is <a href="http://www.senatedems.ct.gov/Larson.php" type="external">Sen. Timothy Larson</a>, Democrat, who is also the General Assembly’s Majority Whip. For the names of the other 24 committee members, <a href="http://ballotpedia.org/Public_Safety_and_Security_Committee,_Connecticut_General_Assembly" type="external">go here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/connecticut-public-safety-security-committee.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>On March 3, 2015, at a&#160;public hearing of the Public Safety and Security Committee&#160;on SB 1011: An Act Concerning the Training of Security Personnel, a private citizen named Maureen Crowley boldly spoke out on the <a href="" type="internal">Sandy Hook fraud</a>.</p>
<p>Maureen Crowley</p>
<p>Below is the transcript I took of Crowley’s testimony:</p>
<p>Thank you, all, for allowing me to be here today.</p>
<p>My name is Maureen Crowley. I was born in New Britain, the city in which my great grandfather James Christopher Crowley founded the Crowley Brothers Paint Company in 1885. We then moved to Plainville when I was toddler, moved back to Briton when I was in the 6th grade. I attended St. Francis of Assisi Junior High where Sister Miriam Patrise taught me “When you’re not sure of the right thing to do, the right thing is usually the hard thing to do.”</p>
<p>It’s hard for me to speak here today, to speak — an aging baby boomer — would have been easier to sit home. But the truth never comes easily. It comes with dues for those who choose to speak it. The truth is often not palatable or pristine, but it is simple. Simple, but far from easy.</p>
<p>Security matters indeed, of course it does. Safety. Based on the events in Newtown, Connecticut, December 14, 2012 — not December 13, 2012, the day which was confirmed by [search engine] Bing itself, that the interview with principal Dawn Hochsprung was cached. Not&#160;December 13, the day that the September 2013 FBI Report says that the “shooting” occurred. This was before the other report, Uniform Crime Reporting of the FBI, infamously declared no murders in Newtown in 2012. Not December 13, the day that the Social Security Death Index proclaimed was the day that Mr. Fictional himself, “Adam Lanza,” left this world. There’s even a report from the Committee on the Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster that not only has the date of this event wrong, they have the day of the week wrong. It was NOT on, December 12 was not a Tuesday. December 11 was a Tuesday. In fact, December 11 was the day when United Way started soliciting funds.</p>
<p>The list of pre-knowledge — confirmed, issued, and divulged — is long. How could this be if it were a real shooting, done by a 112-pound young man, standing a full 6 feet tall, wearing a size 8½ shoe, after he neatly made his bed and washed the New Hampshire trip dirt off his mom’s car, and shot 26 people?</p>
<p>No. [Crowley shakes her head]</p>
<p>I was, as some of you here are now, I believed every word out of [CNN anchor] Anderson Cooper’s mouth that day. But once the persecution of Wolfgang Halbig began, I wanted to ask why the Newtown Police would send law enforcement into his home in Florida if they did not have something to hide.</p>
<p>This is serious! This is a non-event that has turned the culture of the state of Connecticut and the culture of the United States of America upside down. Mental health vulturism. Drills in which 3rd-graders are forced to look down the barrel of a gun. And even state monitoring of Connecticut homeschooling, and even a president that wants to war on bullets.</p>
<p>I reject the official narrative of Sandy Hook. I reject the lies. I’m suspicious of the upwards of $500 million raised through a plethora of donation websites with zero ISUC scrutiny, zero money-laundering scrutiny, zero United Way …</p>
<p>At this point, Timothy Larson, the chairman of the Public Safety and Security Committee, interrupts Crowley and orders her to “wrap it up.”</p>
<p>Newtown Safety &amp; Security Committee chair Timothy Larson</p>
<p>Maureen Crowley continues:</p>
<p>We the people are not as stupid as the people in this room think we are.</p>
<p>I invite you to at least watch the video, “We Need to Talk About Sandy Hook.” Again, the name of the video is “We Need to Talk About Sandy Hook.” You’ll find it well thought-out, fact based, zero speculation, and interesting.</p>
<p>I hope you’ll remember my words today, unlike the ten members of the Connecticut State Police who could not remember how they entered the non-commissioned, non-operating Sandy Hook Elementary School that day! You think broken glass would be memorable, at a school that boasted 34 classrooms&#160;when it was K through 5, but no mass evacuation captured on a single police dash cam.</p>
<p>Connecticut — the state which I volunteer to teach piano in the prison systems. The state that I graduated from with a Bachelor’s degree from Central Connecticut State University. Connecticut — the state that was nothing but good to me. And I seek to return the favor by speaking the truth. If they don’t like hearing the nickname “Corrupticut,” then neither should any of you.</p>
<p>Sredzinski: “Thank you for your testimony. Any further questions? Thank you very much.”</p>
<p>Watch Maureen Crowley’s testimony for yourself before YouTube scrubs this video:</p>
<p />
<p>Thank you, Maureen Crowley.</p>
<p>Thank you for <a href="" type="internal">speaking out</a>.</p>
<p>And may God bless and keep you safe from all harm, brave lady.&#160;</p>
<p>Here’s contact Info for Public Safety and Security Committee Chair Sen. Timothy Larson:</p>
<p>Legislative Office Building Room 3600 Hartford, CT 06106-1591 1-800-842-1420 To send an email: <a href="http://www.senatedems.ct.gov/Larson-mailform.php" type="external">http://www.senatedems.ct.gov/Larson-mailform.php</a></p>
<p>H/t Barry Soetoro, Esq. and FOTM reader Matt Lombardo</p>
<p>For all the posts FOTM has published on the <a href="" type="internal">Sandy Hook hoax</a>, including every facet alluded to by Maureen Crowley — Adam Lanza’s curious 12/13/2012 date-of-death, pre-dated donation websites, <a href="" type="internal">Wolfgang Halbig</a>, the long- <a href="" type="internal">abandoned Sandy Hook school</a>, no dash cam video of <a href="" type="internal">students being evacuated</a> —&#160; <a href="http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/sandy-hook-massacre/" type="external">go here</a>.</p>
<p>~Éowyn</p>
<p>Dr. Eowyn’s post first appeared at <a href="http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2015/03/06/citizen-speaks-out-on-sandy-hook-hoax-at-connecticut-state-committee-hearing/" type="external">Fellowship of the Minds</a>.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Connecticut Citizen speaks out on Sandy Hook hoax at State committee hearing | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2015/03/06/connecticut-citizen-speaks-out-on-sandy-hook-hoax-at-state-committee-hearing/ | 2015-03-06 | 0right
| Connecticut Citizen speaks out on Sandy Hook hoax at State committee hearing
<p>The State of Connecticut’s Public Safety and Security Committee (PSSC) is a joint standing committee of the Connecticut General Assembly and contains members of the Senate and the House. In the Connecticut Legislature, there are no separate chamber committees.</p>
<p>PSSC is charged with matters relating to homeland security, the Department of Public Safety, including <a href="" type="internal">state police</a>, state organized task force on crime, municipal police training, fire marshals, the fire safety code and the state building code, civil preparedness and legalized gambling, and military and veterans’ affairs, except veterans’ pensions.</p>
<p>The Public Safety and Security Committee of 2015 has 15 Democratic members and 10 Republican members. The Chair of the committee is <a href="http://www.senatedems.ct.gov/Larson.php" type="external">Sen. Timothy Larson</a>, Democrat, who is also the General Assembly’s Majority Whip. For the names of the other 24 committee members, <a href="http://ballotpedia.org/Public_Safety_and_Security_Committee,_Connecticut_General_Assembly" type="external">go here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/connecticut-public-safety-security-committee.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>On March 3, 2015, at a&#160;public hearing of the Public Safety and Security Committee&#160;on SB 1011: An Act Concerning the Training of Security Personnel, a private citizen named Maureen Crowley boldly spoke out on the <a href="" type="internal">Sandy Hook fraud</a>.</p>
<p>Maureen Crowley</p>
<p>Below is the transcript I took of Crowley’s testimony:</p>
<p>Thank you, all, for allowing me to be here today.</p>
<p>My name is Maureen Crowley. I was born in New Britain, the city in which my great grandfather James Christopher Crowley founded the Crowley Brothers Paint Company in 1885. We then moved to Plainville when I was toddler, moved back to Briton when I was in the 6th grade. I attended St. Francis of Assisi Junior High where Sister Miriam Patrise taught me “When you’re not sure of the right thing to do, the right thing is usually the hard thing to do.”</p>
<p>It’s hard for me to speak here today, to speak — an aging baby boomer — would have been easier to sit home. But the truth never comes easily. It comes with dues for those who choose to speak it. The truth is often not palatable or pristine, but it is simple. Simple, but far from easy.</p>
<p>Security matters indeed, of course it does. Safety. Based on the events in Newtown, Connecticut, December 14, 2012 — not December 13, 2012, the day which was confirmed by [search engine] Bing itself, that the interview with principal Dawn Hochsprung was cached. Not&#160;December 13, the day that the September 2013 FBI Report says that the “shooting” occurred. This was before the other report, Uniform Crime Reporting of the FBI, infamously declared no murders in Newtown in 2012. Not December 13, the day that the Social Security Death Index proclaimed was the day that Mr. Fictional himself, “Adam Lanza,” left this world. There’s even a report from the Committee on the Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster that not only has the date of this event wrong, they have the day of the week wrong. It was NOT on, December 12 was not a Tuesday. December 11 was a Tuesday. In fact, December 11 was the day when United Way started soliciting funds.</p>
<p>The list of pre-knowledge — confirmed, issued, and divulged — is long. How could this be if it were a real shooting, done by a 112-pound young man, standing a full 6 feet tall, wearing a size 8½ shoe, after he neatly made his bed and washed the New Hampshire trip dirt off his mom’s car, and shot 26 people?</p>
<p>No. [Crowley shakes her head]</p>
<p>I was, as some of you here are now, I believed every word out of [CNN anchor] Anderson Cooper’s mouth that day. But once the persecution of Wolfgang Halbig began, I wanted to ask why the Newtown Police would send law enforcement into his home in Florida if they did not have something to hide.</p>
<p>This is serious! This is a non-event that has turned the culture of the state of Connecticut and the culture of the United States of America upside down. Mental health vulturism. Drills in which 3rd-graders are forced to look down the barrel of a gun. And even state monitoring of Connecticut homeschooling, and even a president that wants to war on bullets.</p>
<p>I reject the official narrative of Sandy Hook. I reject the lies. I’m suspicious of the upwards of $500 million raised through a plethora of donation websites with zero ISUC scrutiny, zero money-laundering scrutiny, zero United Way …</p>
<p>At this point, Timothy Larson, the chairman of the Public Safety and Security Committee, interrupts Crowley and orders her to “wrap it up.”</p>
<p>Newtown Safety &amp; Security Committee chair Timothy Larson</p>
<p>Maureen Crowley continues:</p>
<p>We the people are not as stupid as the people in this room think we are.</p>
<p>I invite you to at least watch the video, “We Need to Talk About Sandy Hook.” Again, the name of the video is “We Need to Talk About Sandy Hook.” You’ll find it well thought-out, fact based, zero speculation, and interesting.</p>
<p>I hope you’ll remember my words today, unlike the ten members of the Connecticut State Police who could not remember how they entered the non-commissioned, non-operating Sandy Hook Elementary School that day! You think broken glass would be memorable, at a school that boasted 34 classrooms&#160;when it was K through 5, but no mass evacuation captured on a single police dash cam.</p>
<p>Connecticut — the state which I volunteer to teach piano in the prison systems. The state that I graduated from with a Bachelor’s degree from Central Connecticut State University. Connecticut — the state that was nothing but good to me. And I seek to return the favor by speaking the truth. If they don’t like hearing the nickname “Corrupticut,” then neither should any of you.</p>
<p>Sredzinski: “Thank you for your testimony. Any further questions? Thank you very much.”</p>
<p>Watch Maureen Crowley’s testimony for yourself before YouTube scrubs this video:</p>
<p />
<p>Thank you, Maureen Crowley.</p>
<p>Thank you for <a href="" type="internal">speaking out</a>.</p>
<p>And may God bless and keep you safe from all harm, brave lady.&#160;</p>
<p>Here’s contact Info for Public Safety and Security Committee Chair Sen. Timothy Larson:</p>
<p>Legislative Office Building Room 3600 Hartford, CT 06106-1591 1-800-842-1420 To send an email: <a href="http://www.senatedems.ct.gov/Larson-mailform.php" type="external">http://www.senatedems.ct.gov/Larson-mailform.php</a></p>
<p>H/t Barry Soetoro, Esq. and FOTM reader Matt Lombardo</p>
<p>For all the posts FOTM has published on the <a href="" type="internal">Sandy Hook hoax</a>, including every facet alluded to by Maureen Crowley — Adam Lanza’s curious 12/13/2012 date-of-death, pre-dated donation websites, <a href="" type="internal">Wolfgang Halbig</a>, the long- <a href="" type="internal">abandoned Sandy Hook school</a>, no dash cam video of <a href="" type="internal">students being evacuated</a> —&#160; <a href="http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/sandy-hook-massacre/" type="external">go here</a>.</p>
<p>~Éowyn</p>
<p>Dr. Eowyn’s post first appeared at <a href="http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2015/03/06/citizen-speaks-out-on-sandy-hook-hoax-at-connecticut-state-committee-hearing/" type="external">Fellowship of the Minds</a>.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 1,782 |
<p>Elon Musk-backed SolarCity Corp, the top U.S. installer of residential solar systems, increased the size of its initial public offering but said it expects a lower pricing, a day after an underwriter said the IPO had been postponed.</p>
<p>The company said it now expects to sell 11.5 million shares at $8 each.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The offering is likely to be priced on Wednesday night and start trading on Thursday on the Nasdaq, an underwriter said.</p>
<p>SolarCity earlier planned to sell 10.1 million shares that were expected to be priced between $13 and $15 each.</p>
<p>At the current intended IPO price the solar systems company will be valued at about $585 million, almost half its earlier proposed valuation of nearly $1 billion.</p>
<p>The company said in a filing that existing stockholders would also sell about 65,000 shares. (http://link.reuters.com/xyf64t)</p>
<p>The clean technology sector has suffered some recent high-profile flameouts with the bankruptcies of solar company Solyndra and battery maker A123 Systems.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>SolarCity was promoted as the most promising alternative energy IPO candidate since the debut of Musk's electric car company, Tesla Motors Inc, in 2010.</p>
<p>Technology entrepreneur Musk is SolarCity's chairman and the first cousin of its co-founders, Lyndon and Peter Rive. He currently holds a 31 percent stake in the company.</p>
<p>SolarCity, whose revenue has more than quadrupled in the last five years, allows customers to lease its product by paying a monthly fee instead of an outright purchase. It also benefited from a sharp drop in solar panel prices.</p>
<p>The San Mateo, California-based company reported a net loss of $80 million on revenue of $103.4 million for the nine months ending September 30, 2012.</p>
<p>Google Inc and U.S. Bancorp have helped finance some SolarCity projects, but investors said that determining an IPO price was challenging because there are few publicly traded direct competitors with which to compare it.</p>
<p>Underwriters picked for the IPO include Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.</p> | SolarCity Increases Shares of IPO | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/12/12/solarcity-increases-shares-ipo.html | 2016-03-04 | 0right
| SolarCity Increases Shares of IPO
<p>Elon Musk-backed SolarCity Corp, the top U.S. installer of residential solar systems, increased the size of its initial public offering but said it expects a lower pricing, a day after an underwriter said the IPO had been postponed.</p>
<p>The company said it now expects to sell 11.5 million shares at $8 each.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The offering is likely to be priced on Wednesday night and start trading on Thursday on the Nasdaq, an underwriter said.</p>
<p>SolarCity earlier planned to sell 10.1 million shares that were expected to be priced between $13 and $15 each.</p>
<p>At the current intended IPO price the solar systems company will be valued at about $585 million, almost half its earlier proposed valuation of nearly $1 billion.</p>
<p>The company said in a filing that existing stockholders would also sell about 65,000 shares. (http://link.reuters.com/xyf64t)</p>
<p>The clean technology sector has suffered some recent high-profile flameouts with the bankruptcies of solar company Solyndra and battery maker A123 Systems.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>SolarCity was promoted as the most promising alternative energy IPO candidate since the debut of Musk's electric car company, Tesla Motors Inc, in 2010.</p>
<p>Technology entrepreneur Musk is SolarCity's chairman and the first cousin of its co-founders, Lyndon and Peter Rive. He currently holds a 31 percent stake in the company.</p>
<p>SolarCity, whose revenue has more than quadrupled in the last five years, allows customers to lease its product by paying a monthly fee instead of an outright purchase. It also benefited from a sharp drop in solar panel prices.</p>
<p>The San Mateo, California-based company reported a net loss of $80 million on revenue of $103.4 million for the nine months ending September 30, 2012.</p>
<p>Google Inc and U.S. Bancorp have helped finance some SolarCity projects, but investors said that determining an IPO price was challenging because there are few publicly traded direct competitors with which to compare it.</p>
<p>Underwriters picked for the IPO include Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.</p> | 1,783 |
<p>When police use their power to carry out personal vendettas, innocent people suffer.</p>
<p>Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies conducted a massive nationwide roundup of drug trafficking suspects this week, arresting more than a 450 people on narcotics-related charges. The sweeps, which were dubbed Operation Fallen Hero, were a response to the killing of Immigrations and Customs agent Jaime Zapata, who was shot dead on a highway in Mexico 10 days ago. Senior agency officials (tacitly) conceded that the dragnet had nothing to do with impartially enforcing the law, but was a reprisal for the untimely murder of their colleague.</p>
<p>According to the New York Times:</p>
<p>“Louie Garcia, a deputy special immigration and customs agent involved with the sweeps, echoed that thought in an interview with The Associated Press. “This is personal,” he said. “We lost an agent. We lost a good agent. And we have to respond.” (“Drug Raids Across U.S. Net Hundreds of Suspects”, New York Times)</p>
<p>Garcia’s admission that the roundup was motivated by “personal” considerations, proves that drug enforcement agencies are using their power to settle scores. If that’s the case, then the public should question whether the suspects who were arrested are really criminals at all or merely undocumented workers and other minor offenders who were caught up in the dragnet. People should also wonder why these so-called criminals weren’t picked up before this week’s raids if the police knew where they were located and what crimes they had committed. Garcia’s comments just reinforce the belief that the police are unwilling to perform their duties unless one of their own has been killed.</p>
<p>“If you attack a U.S. law enforcement officer, we are not going to back down,” said Derek Maltz, special agent in charge of special operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.” (LA Times)</p>
<p>No one expects the police to “back down”, nor do they expect them to go on a rampage and incarcerate hundreds of people who had nothing to do with Zapata’s death.</p>
<p>From the LA Times: “Authorities said the sweeps were a direct response to the slaying of Zapata, who was the highest-profile U.S. law enforcement officer killed in Mexico since DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was kidnapped and tortured by drug gangs in 1985.”</p>
<p>So, 3,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agents were deployed in this misguided muscle-flexing exercise to send a message to Mexican druglords that US agencies are prepared to “get tough”? Is that it? Unfortunately, the sweeps merely prove that the police are flying blind and haven’t the slightest idea how to deal with the problem, so they’ve returned to the same tit-for-tat failed strategy that’s been used for the last 30 years. As always, the latest failure was accompanied by a press conference where bulging bags of cocaine and kilos of marijuana were stacked three feet high so the media could “Ooo and Ahhh” over the DEA’s latest triumph. Meanwhile, the 450 victims of this fiasco are spending their time in the hoosegow before being deported to Mexico. This is justice?</p>
<p>On Wednesday, President Obama called Mexico’s president Felipe Calderon and thanked him for arresting a number of suspects in the Zapata investigation. According to the Associated Press: “Obama told Calderon that neither the United States nor Mexico could tolerate violence against those who protect and serve the citizens.”</p>
<p>Right. More than 35,000 people have been killed in the last four years in the battle between the drug cartels and the Mexican military, and Obama says he will not “tolerate violence”?</p>
<p>Wake up and smell the coffee, Barack.</p>
<p>White House Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske issued this statement following the announcement of the mass arrests on Wednesday:</p>
<p>“Today’s forceful crackdown demonstrates that the United States will never back down from the threats posed by barbaric criminal organizations that smuggle poisons into our communities and have no regard for innocent human life.”</p>
<p>Once again, more tough talk and Rambo-style law enforcement. It hasn’t worked so far, and it won’t work now. The War on Drugs has always been a way of diverting attention from the deeply-rooted social issues that cause drug abuse. It’s time to put an end the carnage and try a different approach.</p>
<p>MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p /> | Operation Payback | true | https://counterpunch.org/2011/02/25/operation-payback/ | 2011-02-25 | 4left
| Operation Payback
<p>When police use their power to carry out personal vendettas, innocent people suffer.</p>
<p>Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies conducted a massive nationwide roundup of drug trafficking suspects this week, arresting more than a 450 people on narcotics-related charges. The sweeps, which were dubbed Operation Fallen Hero, were a response to the killing of Immigrations and Customs agent Jaime Zapata, who was shot dead on a highway in Mexico 10 days ago. Senior agency officials (tacitly) conceded that the dragnet had nothing to do with impartially enforcing the law, but was a reprisal for the untimely murder of their colleague.</p>
<p>According to the New York Times:</p>
<p>“Louie Garcia, a deputy special immigration and customs agent involved with the sweeps, echoed that thought in an interview with The Associated Press. “This is personal,” he said. “We lost an agent. We lost a good agent. And we have to respond.” (“Drug Raids Across U.S. Net Hundreds of Suspects”, New York Times)</p>
<p>Garcia’s admission that the roundup was motivated by “personal” considerations, proves that drug enforcement agencies are using their power to settle scores. If that’s the case, then the public should question whether the suspects who were arrested are really criminals at all or merely undocumented workers and other minor offenders who were caught up in the dragnet. People should also wonder why these so-called criminals weren’t picked up before this week’s raids if the police knew where they were located and what crimes they had committed. Garcia’s comments just reinforce the belief that the police are unwilling to perform their duties unless one of their own has been killed.</p>
<p>“If you attack a U.S. law enforcement officer, we are not going to back down,” said Derek Maltz, special agent in charge of special operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.” (LA Times)</p>
<p>No one expects the police to “back down”, nor do they expect them to go on a rampage and incarcerate hundreds of people who had nothing to do with Zapata’s death.</p>
<p>From the LA Times: “Authorities said the sweeps were a direct response to the slaying of Zapata, who was the highest-profile U.S. law enforcement officer killed in Mexico since DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena was kidnapped and tortured by drug gangs in 1985.”</p>
<p>So, 3,000 federal, state and local law enforcement agents were deployed in this misguided muscle-flexing exercise to send a message to Mexican druglords that US agencies are prepared to “get tough”? Is that it? Unfortunately, the sweeps merely prove that the police are flying blind and haven’t the slightest idea how to deal with the problem, so they’ve returned to the same tit-for-tat failed strategy that’s been used for the last 30 years. As always, the latest failure was accompanied by a press conference where bulging bags of cocaine and kilos of marijuana were stacked three feet high so the media could “Ooo and Ahhh” over the DEA’s latest triumph. Meanwhile, the 450 victims of this fiasco are spending their time in the hoosegow before being deported to Mexico. This is justice?</p>
<p>On Wednesday, President Obama called Mexico’s president Felipe Calderon and thanked him for arresting a number of suspects in the Zapata investigation. According to the Associated Press: “Obama told Calderon that neither the United States nor Mexico could tolerate violence against those who protect and serve the citizens.”</p>
<p>Right. More than 35,000 people have been killed in the last four years in the battle between the drug cartels and the Mexican military, and Obama says he will not “tolerate violence”?</p>
<p>Wake up and smell the coffee, Barack.</p>
<p>White House Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske issued this statement following the announcement of the mass arrests on Wednesday:</p>
<p>“Today’s forceful crackdown demonstrates that the United States will never back down from the threats posed by barbaric criminal organizations that smuggle poisons into our communities and have no regard for innocent human life.”</p>
<p>Once again, more tough talk and Rambo-style law enforcement. It hasn’t worked so far, and it won’t work now. The War on Drugs has always been a way of diverting attention from the deeply-rooted social issues that cause drug abuse. It’s time to put an end the carnage and try a different approach.</p>
<p>MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p /> | 1,784 |
<p>President-elect Donald Trump has been lashing out at the intelligence community lately, due to their <a href="" type="internal">reports</a> about Russia's attempts to influence the election as well as <a href="" type="internal">the publishing of an unverified report</a> about Trump's supposed ties with the Kremlin.</p>
<p>As Trump is wont to do, he has used his Twitter account to target and criticize the intelligence community. Here are Trump's seven most anti-intelligence community tweets.</p>
<p>Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to "leak" into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?</p>
<p>. <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews" type="external">@FoxNews</a> "Outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan, blasts Pres-Elect Trump on Russia threat. Does not fully understand." Oh really, couldn't do...</p>
<p>much worse - just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?</p>
<p>It now turns out that the phony allegations against me were put together by my political opponents and a failed spy afraid of being sued....</p>
<p>Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans - FAKE NEWS! Russia says nothing exists. Probably...</p>
<p>released by "Intelligence" even knowing there is no proof, and never will be. My people will have a full report on hacking within 90 days!</p>
<p>Thank you to Bob Woodward who said, "That is a garbage document...it never should have been presented...Trump's right to be upset (angry)...</p>
<p>about that...Those Intelligence chiefs made a mistake here, &amp; when people make mistakes, they should APOLOGIZE." Media should also apologize</p>
<p>The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!</p>
<p>Before I, or anyone, saw the classified and/or highly confidential hacking intelligence report, it was leaked out to <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews" type="external">@NBCNews</a>. So serious!</p>
<p>The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people....</p>
<p>to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against "Intelligence" when in fact I am a big fan!</p>
<p>It's truly ironic for Trump to claim that he's a fan of the intelligence community when he uses the word "intelligence" with quotation marks.</p> | Read Trump's 7 Most Anti-Intelligence Community Tweets | true | https://dailywire.com/news/12457/read-trumps-7-most-anti-intelligence-community-aaron-bandler | 2017-01-16 | 0right
| Read Trump's 7 Most Anti-Intelligence Community Tweets
<p>President-elect Donald Trump has been lashing out at the intelligence community lately, due to their <a href="" type="internal">reports</a> about Russia's attempts to influence the election as well as <a href="" type="internal">the publishing of an unverified report</a> about Trump's supposed ties with the Kremlin.</p>
<p>As Trump is wont to do, he has used his Twitter account to target and criticize the intelligence community. Here are Trump's seven most anti-intelligence community tweets.</p>
<p>Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to "leak" into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?</p>
<p>. <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews" type="external">@FoxNews</a> "Outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan, blasts Pres-Elect Trump on Russia threat. Does not fully understand." Oh really, couldn't do...</p>
<p>much worse - just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?</p>
<p>It now turns out that the phony allegations against me were put together by my political opponents and a failed spy afraid of being sued....</p>
<p>Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans - FAKE NEWS! Russia says nothing exists. Probably...</p>
<p>released by "Intelligence" even knowing there is no proof, and never will be. My people will have a full report on hacking within 90 days!</p>
<p>Thank you to Bob Woodward who said, "That is a garbage document...it never should have been presented...Trump's right to be upset (angry)...</p>
<p>about that...Those Intelligence chiefs made a mistake here, &amp; when people make mistakes, they should APOLOGIZE." Media should also apologize</p>
<p>The "Intelligence" briefing on so-called "Russian hacking" was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!</p>
<p>Before I, or anyone, saw the classified and/or highly confidential hacking intelligence report, it was leaked out to <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews" type="external">@NBCNews</a>. So serious!</p>
<p>The dishonest media likes saying that I am in Agreement with Julian Assange - wrong. I simply state what he states, it is for the people....</p>
<p>to make up their own minds as to the truth. The media lies to make it look like I am against "Intelligence" when in fact I am a big fan!</p>
<p>It's truly ironic for Trump to claim that he's a fan of the intelligence community when he uses the word "intelligence" with quotation marks.</p> | 1,785 |
<p />
<p>Reading Russell Long’s resume, it’s easy to get the wrong impression. As a former amateur race car driver — and one of the youngest sailors ever to skipper an America’s Cup yacht — Long would seem a natural adherent of industrial-strength outdoor recreation. But as manufacturers of “personal thrill craft” now know, and as the Bush administration may soon learn, underestimating Long’s passion for the environment can be a perilous mistake. As founder of the Bluewater Network, a San Francisco-based conservation group, Long has taken on a powerful foe: the makers of Jet Skis and outboard motorboats. By the end of next year, largely due to his efforts, Jet Skis are scheduled to be banned in waterways throughout the National Park System. State agencies are also cracking down on Jet Skis and other “thrill craft” in lakes used for drinking water.</p>
<p>Jet Skis, it turns out, are more than a noisy nuisance — they are also one of the crudest gasoline-burning machines. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, their two-stroke engines discharge nearly a third of their fuel directly into the water. Now roaring off assembly lines at the rate of 100,000 a year, Jet Skis pose a serious and growing threat to fish, vegetation, and drinking water.</p>
<p>Long says he became “radicalized” against two-stroke engines while working with traditional fishermen in India during the early 1990s. In the coastal state of Kerala, he found that pollution from outboard engines left fish tasting like kerosene. After returning home, Long used EPA data and put together a report concluding that outboard motors dump as much oil as 15 Exxon Valdez tankers into U.S. waterways each year — an estimated 1 billion pounds of cancer-causing petroleum hydrocarbons. Driving a Jet Ski for seven hours produces as many hydrocarbons as driving a car 100,000 miles.</p>
<p>Armed with this data, Long and Bluewater filed suit to protect sensitive waters. “The Park Service knew quite well that Jet Skis threaten public safety, shatter natural quiet, and destroy visitor enjoyment,” Long says. Staging a public stunt to illustrate the danger, Long ran a two-stroke engine in a tank of water near San Francisco Bay; after half an hour, smelly petrol residue clouded the surface of the tank. State and federal officials threatened Long with up to $25,000 in fines if he dumped the water into the bay — a level of vigilance, he pointed out, that they weren’t applying to outboard motorists who pollute public waters each day simply by driving their boats.</p>
<p>The in-your-face lobbying and legal action forced the Park Service to ban Jet Skis in April 2000. Officials also ordered a phaseout of snowmobiles with two-stroke engines in selected areas. “Long was courageous to step forward and point out how inappropriate Jet Skis and other motorized thrill craft are in our National Park System,” says Don Barry, assistant interior secretary during the Clinton administration. “He became a catalyst for us ultimately doing the right thing.”</p>
<p>Bluewater’s victory may be short-lived. Intent on rolling back the Clinton-era prohibitions, the Bush administration temporarily lifted the Jet Ski ban in four national parks. Long is already gearing up for another fight. “We’ve successfully sued the government before, and we’ll do it again if we have to,” he says. “I’m confident that we have the law and public opinion on our side.”</p>
<p /> | Cutting the Jet Ski Engines | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2001/09/cutting-jet-ski-engines/ | 2018-09-01 | 4left
| Cutting the Jet Ski Engines
<p />
<p>Reading Russell Long’s resume, it’s easy to get the wrong impression. As a former amateur race car driver — and one of the youngest sailors ever to skipper an America’s Cup yacht — Long would seem a natural adherent of industrial-strength outdoor recreation. But as manufacturers of “personal thrill craft” now know, and as the Bush administration may soon learn, underestimating Long’s passion for the environment can be a perilous mistake. As founder of the Bluewater Network, a San Francisco-based conservation group, Long has taken on a powerful foe: the makers of Jet Skis and outboard motorboats. By the end of next year, largely due to his efforts, Jet Skis are scheduled to be banned in waterways throughout the National Park System. State agencies are also cracking down on Jet Skis and other “thrill craft” in lakes used for drinking water.</p>
<p>Jet Skis, it turns out, are more than a noisy nuisance — they are also one of the crudest gasoline-burning machines. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, their two-stroke engines discharge nearly a third of their fuel directly into the water. Now roaring off assembly lines at the rate of 100,000 a year, Jet Skis pose a serious and growing threat to fish, vegetation, and drinking water.</p>
<p>Long says he became “radicalized” against two-stroke engines while working with traditional fishermen in India during the early 1990s. In the coastal state of Kerala, he found that pollution from outboard engines left fish tasting like kerosene. After returning home, Long used EPA data and put together a report concluding that outboard motors dump as much oil as 15 Exxon Valdez tankers into U.S. waterways each year — an estimated 1 billion pounds of cancer-causing petroleum hydrocarbons. Driving a Jet Ski for seven hours produces as many hydrocarbons as driving a car 100,000 miles.</p>
<p>Armed with this data, Long and Bluewater filed suit to protect sensitive waters. “The Park Service knew quite well that Jet Skis threaten public safety, shatter natural quiet, and destroy visitor enjoyment,” Long says. Staging a public stunt to illustrate the danger, Long ran a two-stroke engine in a tank of water near San Francisco Bay; after half an hour, smelly petrol residue clouded the surface of the tank. State and federal officials threatened Long with up to $25,000 in fines if he dumped the water into the bay — a level of vigilance, he pointed out, that they weren’t applying to outboard motorists who pollute public waters each day simply by driving their boats.</p>
<p>The in-your-face lobbying and legal action forced the Park Service to ban Jet Skis in April 2000. Officials also ordered a phaseout of snowmobiles with two-stroke engines in selected areas. “Long was courageous to step forward and point out how inappropriate Jet Skis and other motorized thrill craft are in our National Park System,” says Don Barry, assistant interior secretary during the Clinton administration. “He became a catalyst for us ultimately doing the right thing.”</p>
<p>Bluewater’s victory may be short-lived. Intent on rolling back the Clinton-era prohibitions, the Bush administration temporarily lifted the Jet Ski ban in four national parks. Long is already gearing up for another fight. “We’ve successfully sued the government before, and we’ll do it again if we have to,” he says. “I’m confident that we have the law and public opinion on our side.”</p>
<p /> | 1,786 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday urged a federal appeals court to strike down an Arizona law that denies bail to immigrants in the country illegally, a voter-approved law that Arizona's lawyers call necessary to prevent criminal suspects from fleeing the U.S.&#160; <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>ACLU attorney Cecellia Wang asked a special 11-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to find the law unconstitutional, saying immigrants are being unfairly singled out as flight risks.</p>
<p>The case marks the latest battle over Arizona's crackdowns on illegal immigration from the past decade. Arizona voters passed the law in 2006 to deny bail to people who are in the country illegally and charged with felony offenses from shoplifting and aggravated identity theft to murder and sexual assault.</p>
<p>Wang argued that no empirical data exist that show immigrants are any more of a flight risk than others cut loose before their final court appearances.</p>
<p>The ACLU and other legal aid groups maintain that immigrants are unfairly held and denied their fundamental constitutional rights while others are allowed to put up bond in exchange for their freedom before trial.</p>
<p>Lawyers for the state argue that the law prevents defendants from fleeing the country before their court hearings.</p>
<p>Tim Casey, a lawyer representing Maricopa County, Ariz., noted that Proposition 100 was approved by 78 percent of the voters. Casey argued that the law is in the "compelling interest in keeping Arizona safe and undocumented workers out of the country."</p>
<p>A smaller three-judge panel rejected the ACLU's arguments in 2011, but the organization appealed to a larger en banc panel of 11 judges.</p>
<p>Four of the judges Tuesday asked questions of both sides but gave no indication of how they would rule. One judge, Marsha Berzon, asked rhetorically, "How does one overturn the will of an overwhelming majority of voters to support the (federal) law?"</p>
<p>It could take months before the court rules, and the outcome can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Arizona is one of at least four states with laws confronting the issue of bail for people in the country without authorization. Missouri and Alabama have laws similar to Arizona's, while Virginia has a less stringent statute in which immigrants are allowed to argue their case for bail before a judge.</p>
<p>Arizona passed the no-bail law as it targeted illegal immigration through a series of measures in the Legislature and at the ballot box. It was among four immigration proposals approved by Arizonans in 2006. The no-bail law was proposed by then-state Rep. Russell Pearce, who would later succeed in pushing through Arizona's landmark 2010 immigration enforcement law.</p>
<p>The challengers say the push by the Arizona Legislature to put the measure on the ballot was permeated with the intent to punish people in the country illegally for federal immigration violations. They also argue the state law is trumped by federal law.</p>
<p>The lawyers defending the law say its intent was to improve public safety, not punish people for federal immigration violations. They also said the state law doesn't conflict with federal law.</p>
<p>This news item is from The Associated Press and has been updated since it was first posted. This version corrects the nature of the legal challenge, the spelling of&#160;Cecellia Wang's name, Tim Casey's job title and the states that have laws similar to Arizona.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Contact author</a></p>
<p>&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">ACLU</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Arizona</a>, <a href="" type="internal">civil rights</a>, <a href="" type="internal">immigrants charged with felony</a>, <a href="" type="internal">immigration news</a>, <a href="" type="internal">undocumented immigrants</a></p> | Ariz., ACLU Spar Over Immigrants Charged With Felonies | true | http://equalvoiceforfamilies.org/ariz-aclu-spar-over-immigrants-charged-with-felonies/ | 4left
| Ariz., ACLU Spar Over Immigrants Charged With Felonies
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday urged a federal appeals court to strike down an Arizona law that denies bail to immigrants in the country illegally, a voter-approved law that Arizona's lawyers call necessary to prevent criminal suspects from fleeing the U.S.&#160; <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>ACLU attorney Cecellia Wang asked a special 11-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to find the law unconstitutional, saying immigrants are being unfairly singled out as flight risks.</p>
<p>The case marks the latest battle over Arizona's crackdowns on illegal immigration from the past decade. Arizona voters passed the law in 2006 to deny bail to people who are in the country illegally and charged with felony offenses from shoplifting and aggravated identity theft to murder and sexual assault.</p>
<p>Wang argued that no empirical data exist that show immigrants are any more of a flight risk than others cut loose before their final court appearances.</p>
<p>The ACLU and other legal aid groups maintain that immigrants are unfairly held and denied their fundamental constitutional rights while others are allowed to put up bond in exchange for their freedom before trial.</p>
<p>Lawyers for the state argue that the law prevents defendants from fleeing the country before their court hearings.</p>
<p>Tim Casey, a lawyer representing Maricopa County, Ariz., noted that Proposition 100 was approved by 78 percent of the voters. Casey argued that the law is in the "compelling interest in keeping Arizona safe and undocumented workers out of the country."</p>
<p>A smaller three-judge panel rejected the ACLU's arguments in 2011, but the organization appealed to a larger en banc panel of 11 judges.</p>
<p>Four of the judges Tuesday asked questions of both sides but gave no indication of how they would rule. One judge, Marsha Berzon, asked rhetorically, "How does one overturn the will of an overwhelming majority of voters to support the (federal) law?"</p>
<p>It could take months before the court rules, and the outcome can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Arizona is one of at least four states with laws confronting the issue of bail for people in the country without authorization. Missouri and Alabama have laws similar to Arizona's, while Virginia has a less stringent statute in which immigrants are allowed to argue their case for bail before a judge.</p>
<p>Arizona passed the no-bail law as it targeted illegal immigration through a series of measures in the Legislature and at the ballot box. It was among four immigration proposals approved by Arizonans in 2006. The no-bail law was proposed by then-state Rep. Russell Pearce, who would later succeed in pushing through Arizona's landmark 2010 immigration enforcement law.</p>
<p>The challengers say the push by the Arizona Legislature to put the measure on the ballot was permeated with the intent to punish people in the country illegally for federal immigration violations. They also argue the state law is trumped by federal law.</p>
<p>The lawyers defending the law say its intent was to improve public safety, not punish people for federal immigration violations. They also said the state law doesn't conflict with federal law.</p>
<p>This news item is from The Associated Press and has been updated since it was first posted. This version corrects the nature of the legal challenge, the spelling of&#160;Cecellia Wang's name, Tim Casey's job title and the states that have laws similar to Arizona.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Contact author</a></p>
<p>&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">ACLU</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Arizona</a>, <a href="" type="internal">civil rights</a>, <a href="" type="internal">immigrants charged with felony</a>, <a href="" type="internal">immigration news</a>, <a href="" type="internal">undocumented immigrants</a></p> | 1,787 |
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<p>China's Tencent Holdings Ltd., which operates online games and the popular WeChat messaging service, says its latest quarterly profit rose 59 percent due to strong growth in its mobile business.</p>
<p>Tencent said Wednesday it earned 5.8 billion yuan ($949 million) in the three months ended June 30, or 0.63 yuan (10.2 U.S. cents) per share. Revenue rose 37 percent to 19.7 billion yuan ($3.2 billion).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Tencent and other Chinese Internet services are spending heavily to expand mobile services as the country's Web surfers shift to going online wirelessly through smartphones and tablet computers.</p>
<p>Tencent said online games revenue rose 7 percent over the previous quarter, driven mostly by higher revenue for smartphone games integrated with WeChat.</p> | Tencent, Chinese operator of games and WeChat message service, says profit up 59 percent | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/08/13/tencent-chinese-operator-games-and-wechat-message-service-says-profit-up-5.html | 2016-03-06 | 0right
| Tencent, Chinese operator of games and WeChat message service, says profit up 59 percent
<p>China's Tencent Holdings Ltd., which operates online games and the popular WeChat messaging service, says its latest quarterly profit rose 59 percent due to strong growth in its mobile business.</p>
<p>Tencent said Wednesday it earned 5.8 billion yuan ($949 million) in the three months ended June 30, or 0.63 yuan (10.2 U.S. cents) per share. Revenue rose 37 percent to 19.7 billion yuan ($3.2 billion).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Tencent and other Chinese Internet services are spending heavily to expand mobile services as the country's Web surfers shift to going online wirelessly through smartphones and tablet computers.</p>
<p>Tencent said online games revenue rose 7 percent over the previous quarter, driven mostly by higher revenue for smartphone games integrated with WeChat.</p> | 1,788 |
<p>Political observers in Iran are estimating that turnout for Friday’s parliamentary elections may break the country’s 2004 record low of 51 percent. The government’s ruling religious conservative faction is accused of barring many opposition reformist candidates and depressing electoral participation.</p>
<p>The Guardian</p>
<p>Iranians have been voting today [Friday] in parliamentary elections, although few believe their vote will have much effect on how the country is ruled.</p>
<p>After a very slow start, turnout picked up as voters returned from Friday prayers, but there were far more people out shopping for the imminent Norouz (Persian new year) holiday than voting. Queues at the polling stations were a rare sight.</p>
<p />
<p>Political observers suggested the turnout could climb above the low point of 51% set at the last parliamentary elections, in 2004, but not by much.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/14/iran1" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Iran's Parliamentary Election Turnout Lags | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/irans-parliamentary-election-turnout-lags/ | 2008-03-14 | 4left
| Iran's Parliamentary Election Turnout Lags
<p>Political observers in Iran are estimating that turnout for Friday’s parliamentary elections may break the country’s 2004 record low of 51 percent. The government’s ruling religious conservative faction is accused of barring many opposition reformist candidates and depressing electoral participation.</p>
<p>The Guardian</p>
<p>Iranians have been voting today [Friday] in parliamentary elections, although few believe their vote will have much effect on how the country is ruled.</p>
<p>After a very slow start, turnout picked up as voters returned from Friday prayers, but there were far more people out shopping for the imminent Norouz (Persian new year) holiday than voting. Queues at the polling stations were a rare sight.</p>
<p />
<p>Political observers suggested the turnout could climb above the low point of 51% set at the last parliamentary elections, in 2004, but not by much.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/14/iran1" type="external">Read more</a></p> | 1,789 |
<p>PHOENIX (AP) - Three Maricopa County Superior Court commissioners have been appointed along with two other attorneys as new Superior Court judges to fill vacancies created by retirements.</p>
<p>The appointees announced Wednesday by Gov. Doug Ducey include Commissioners Justin Beresky, Lisa VandenBerg and Kevin Wein.</p>
<p>The other two appointees are Snell &amp; Wilmer partner Sara Agne and Suzanne Scheiner Marwil, an administrative law judge for the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings.</p>
<p>PHOENIX (AP) - Three Maricopa County Superior Court commissioners have been appointed along with two other attorneys as new Superior Court judges to fill vacancies created by retirements.</p>
<p>The appointees announced Wednesday by Gov. Doug Ducey include Commissioners Justin Beresky, Lisa VandenBerg and Kevin Wein.</p>
<p>The other two appointees are Snell &amp; Wilmer partner Sara Agne and Suzanne Scheiner Marwil, an administrative law judge for the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings.</p> | Ducey appoints 5 new Maricopa County Superior Court judges | false | https://apnews.com/amp/9a6102c6a75e4c05988c61c66360fc4d | 2018-01-03 | 2least
| Ducey appoints 5 new Maricopa County Superior Court judges
<p>PHOENIX (AP) - Three Maricopa County Superior Court commissioners have been appointed along with two other attorneys as new Superior Court judges to fill vacancies created by retirements.</p>
<p>The appointees announced Wednesday by Gov. Doug Ducey include Commissioners Justin Beresky, Lisa VandenBerg and Kevin Wein.</p>
<p>The other two appointees are Snell &amp; Wilmer partner Sara Agne and Suzanne Scheiner Marwil, an administrative law judge for the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings.</p>
<p>PHOENIX (AP) - Three Maricopa County Superior Court commissioners have been appointed along with two other attorneys as new Superior Court judges to fill vacancies created by retirements.</p>
<p>The appointees announced Wednesday by Gov. Doug Ducey include Commissioners Justin Beresky, Lisa VandenBerg and Kevin Wein.</p>
<p>The other two appointees are Snell &amp; Wilmer partner Sara Agne and Suzanne Scheiner Marwil, an administrative law judge for the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings.</p> | 1,790 |
<p><a href="" type="external">The Telegraph reports that 59 persons are dead and 120 wounded in a suicide bombing attack on potential army recruits in Baghdad</a>. There may have been two perpetrators, presumably with bomb belts. Those volunteering for the Iraqi army were gathered in a large crowd outside a government building and being allowed in in groups of 250.</p>
<p>The news came just as Iraq’s political impasse worsened. The two biggest political lists <a href="" type="external">said that they entertained the most severe reservations about a proposal brought to Baghdad by State Department official Jeffrey Feltman that the two attempt to find a formula for power sharing,</a> according to al-Hayat writing in Arabic.</p>
<p>Washington’s goal is presumably to put the secular Iyad Allawi in ultimate charge of Iraq’s security forces. He is an old-time CIA asset and relatively anti-Iranian and so is trusted by the US political establishment. The old-time Shiite activist Nuri al-Maliki is not considered very close to Iran, but he has correct relations with that country and Iran has made it clear that it wants al-Maliki to remain in power. Al-Maliki has been accused of using the prime minister’s office to build up direct control of the army and to establish Shiite tribal militias loyal to his person.</p>
<p>With regard to the security situation, the new Iraqi army does militia smackdown well, at least in Shiite areas. It patrols urban areas o.k. It has significant flaws, though. The soldiers are not good at checkpoint inspection, not good at preventing bombings of major public sites, and still have poor logistics capabilities and few helicopters or other aircraft.</p>
<p>This bombing of a recruitment station, as Richard Spencer of the Telegraph says, is a revival of a Sunni Arab guerrilla tactic, of attempting to forestall the formation of a new Iraqi army and government.</p>
<p>But the sad thing is that this guerrilla tactic, which might have had some effect in Sunni Arab areas at the height of the war, is now being applied long past the date at which it makes any strategic sense. There already is a new Iraqi army. It is increasingly better trained and equipped over time. And, in a country with high unemployment and relatively few opportunities still in the small private sector, an army job is going to remain sufficiently attractive to young men that they will risk trying to join regardless of a few bombings here and there. And, of course, all the clans of all those killed and injured now have a growing feud with the Sunni fundamentalist vigilantes or Baath remnants who were likely behind the attack.</p>
<p>So this bloodshed is the result of a failed guerrilla movement going on as though it still has hope of taking over. It does not. All it can do is retard somewhat Iraq’s economic and political process.</p>
<p>The inevitable meme in the press, that such bombings and instability raise questions about Iraq’s ability to go it alone as the last of the designated US military combat units leaves the country by the end of August is misplaced. The US military was never able to prevent massive bombings when it was in charge. It is not now independently and actively patrolling major urban areas and so could not have forestalled Tuesday’s attack. And, there is no obvious immediate political fallout from random terrorism like that today. It might make caretaker prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is still trying to remain in power, look bad. It might make Iraqis even more fed up with their political class. But it won’t make the largely secular Sunni Arabs suddenly swing around and support the fundamentalists, whom the Shiites and Kurds hate with a passion. It won’t rehabilitate Baathism. It is the equivalent of the way a chicken runs frantically about after its head is cut off (my maternal grandfather raised chickens, and I’ve witnessed the phenomenon). The guerrillas, once having had a serious political agenda, have become nothing more than serial killers taking revenge on reality for their irrelevance.</p>
<p>All this time after the March 7 election, Iraqi parties have still not put together a governing coalition. (In parliamentary systems like that of Iraq, a multi-party election can result in a ‘hung parliament’ where no party has a majority– in contrast to the two-party system in the US, where the political constituents, such as urban liberals or the Christian Right, decide beforehand which party to support and there is always a majority of the one or the other in Congress).</p>
<p>In regard to the latest American proposal, Jamal Batikh of the secular, now largely Sunni Arab Iraqiya list headed by former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, described the suggestions brought to Baghdad on behalf of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and said that his party was preparing a response that would “forcefully reject” power sharing of the sort suggested. The Americans are now saying that Nuri al-Maliki should remain prime minister and that Allawi should become head of the national security council. A spokesman for one of the parties in the State of Law coalition, Abd al-Hadi al-Hassani, said that the Americans appeared to be attempting to build up the national security council so that it has greater powers than the constitution envisages for it, so as to reduce the power of the prime minister’s office and make the leadership fo the NSC attractive to Allawi. He said any such step would require an act of parliament, which in his view would be difficult to obtain.</p>
<p>As for Allawi’s intransigence about power sharing, all the Iraqi constitution stipulates is that the the party with the biggest number of seats have the first crack at forming a government, which would require finding allies to put together 163 seats or a majority in parliament that would vote for the government’s positions. The Iraqiya list received 91 seats in the March 7 election, out of 325 (the largest of any single party or pre-election coalition), and insists that it is therefore owed the prime ministership. That is, the Iraqi constitution envisages a British-style parliamentary system, but Allawi’s list is imagining that it is more presidential (which it is not). Like David Cameron in the UK, the party that gets the prime ministership would have to find even odd political bedfellows (such as the Tory alliance with the LibDems) to put together a majority in parliament. Allawi has not been able to do so and in my view is far less likely to succeed in doing so than al-Maliki or at least al-Maliki’s coalition. Allawi therefore does not automatically deserve the prime ministership in a parliamentary system, only the right to attempt to convince coalition parties to give it to him, in which he has consistently failed (as have all the other plausible prime ministers).</p>
<p>The constitutional crisis that Ms. Clinton is attempting to resolve is in my view far more deadly for Iraq than these occasional big bombings, however tragic the loss of life that they cause and however severe the impact on the daily psychology of Iraqis they are. If Iraq cannot form a government, then what is left but a coup? And if large numbers of Iraqis feel disenfranchised by a coup, which they likely would, would not such an event threaten return to civil war?</p> | 59 Dead, 120 Wounded in Iraqi Suicide Bombing; Iraqi Parties reject US Power Sharing Proposal | true | http://juancole.com/2010/08/59-dead-120-wounded-in-iraqi-suicide-bombing.html | 2010-08-17 | 4left
| 59 Dead, 120 Wounded in Iraqi Suicide Bombing; Iraqi Parties reject US Power Sharing Proposal
<p><a href="" type="external">The Telegraph reports that 59 persons are dead and 120 wounded in a suicide bombing attack on potential army recruits in Baghdad</a>. There may have been two perpetrators, presumably with bomb belts. Those volunteering for the Iraqi army were gathered in a large crowd outside a government building and being allowed in in groups of 250.</p>
<p>The news came just as Iraq’s political impasse worsened. The two biggest political lists <a href="" type="external">said that they entertained the most severe reservations about a proposal brought to Baghdad by State Department official Jeffrey Feltman that the two attempt to find a formula for power sharing,</a> according to al-Hayat writing in Arabic.</p>
<p>Washington’s goal is presumably to put the secular Iyad Allawi in ultimate charge of Iraq’s security forces. He is an old-time CIA asset and relatively anti-Iranian and so is trusted by the US political establishment. The old-time Shiite activist Nuri al-Maliki is not considered very close to Iran, but he has correct relations with that country and Iran has made it clear that it wants al-Maliki to remain in power. Al-Maliki has been accused of using the prime minister’s office to build up direct control of the army and to establish Shiite tribal militias loyal to his person.</p>
<p>With regard to the security situation, the new Iraqi army does militia smackdown well, at least in Shiite areas. It patrols urban areas o.k. It has significant flaws, though. The soldiers are not good at checkpoint inspection, not good at preventing bombings of major public sites, and still have poor logistics capabilities and few helicopters or other aircraft.</p>
<p>This bombing of a recruitment station, as Richard Spencer of the Telegraph says, is a revival of a Sunni Arab guerrilla tactic, of attempting to forestall the formation of a new Iraqi army and government.</p>
<p>But the sad thing is that this guerrilla tactic, which might have had some effect in Sunni Arab areas at the height of the war, is now being applied long past the date at which it makes any strategic sense. There already is a new Iraqi army. It is increasingly better trained and equipped over time. And, in a country with high unemployment and relatively few opportunities still in the small private sector, an army job is going to remain sufficiently attractive to young men that they will risk trying to join regardless of a few bombings here and there. And, of course, all the clans of all those killed and injured now have a growing feud with the Sunni fundamentalist vigilantes or Baath remnants who were likely behind the attack.</p>
<p>So this bloodshed is the result of a failed guerrilla movement going on as though it still has hope of taking over. It does not. All it can do is retard somewhat Iraq’s economic and political process.</p>
<p>The inevitable meme in the press, that such bombings and instability raise questions about Iraq’s ability to go it alone as the last of the designated US military combat units leaves the country by the end of August is misplaced. The US military was never able to prevent massive bombings when it was in charge. It is not now independently and actively patrolling major urban areas and so could not have forestalled Tuesday’s attack. And, there is no obvious immediate political fallout from random terrorism like that today. It might make caretaker prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is still trying to remain in power, look bad. It might make Iraqis even more fed up with their political class. But it won’t make the largely secular Sunni Arabs suddenly swing around and support the fundamentalists, whom the Shiites and Kurds hate with a passion. It won’t rehabilitate Baathism. It is the equivalent of the way a chicken runs frantically about after its head is cut off (my maternal grandfather raised chickens, and I’ve witnessed the phenomenon). The guerrillas, once having had a serious political agenda, have become nothing more than serial killers taking revenge on reality for their irrelevance.</p>
<p>All this time after the March 7 election, Iraqi parties have still not put together a governing coalition. (In parliamentary systems like that of Iraq, a multi-party election can result in a ‘hung parliament’ where no party has a majority– in contrast to the two-party system in the US, where the political constituents, such as urban liberals or the Christian Right, decide beforehand which party to support and there is always a majority of the one or the other in Congress).</p>
<p>In regard to the latest American proposal, Jamal Batikh of the secular, now largely Sunni Arab Iraqiya list headed by former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi, described the suggestions brought to Baghdad on behalf of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and said that his party was preparing a response that would “forcefully reject” power sharing of the sort suggested. The Americans are now saying that Nuri al-Maliki should remain prime minister and that Allawi should become head of the national security council. A spokesman for one of the parties in the State of Law coalition, Abd al-Hadi al-Hassani, said that the Americans appeared to be attempting to build up the national security council so that it has greater powers than the constitution envisages for it, so as to reduce the power of the prime minister’s office and make the leadership fo the NSC attractive to Allawi. He said any such step would require an act of parliament, which in his view would be difficult to obtain.</p>
<p>As for Allawi’s intransigence about power sharing, all the Iraqi constitution stipulates is that the the party with the biggest number of seats have the first crack at forming a government, which would require finding allies to put together 163 seats or a majority in parliament that would vote for the government’s positions. The Iraqiya list received 91 seats in the March 7 election, out of 325 (the largest of any single party or pre-election coalition), and insists that it is therefore owed the prime ministership. That is, the Iraqi constitution envisages a British-style parliamentary system, but Allawi’s list is imagining that it is more presidential (which it is not). Like David Cameron in the UK, the party that gets the prime ministership would have to find even odd political bedfellows (such as the Tory alliance with the LibDems) to put together a majority in parliament. Allawi has not been able to do so and in my view is far less likely to succeed in doing so than al-Maliki or at least al-Maliki’s coalition. Allawi therefore does not automatically deserve the prime ministership in a parliamentary system, only the right to attempt to convince coalition parties to give it to him, in which he has consistently failed (as have all the other plausible prime ministers).</p>
<p>The constitutional crisis that Ms. Clinton is attempting to resolve is in my view far more deadly for Iraq than these occasional big bombings, however tragic the loss of life that they cause and however severe the impact on the daily psychology of Iraqis they are. If Iraq cannot form a government, then what is left but a coup? And if large numbers of Iraqis feel disenfranchised by a coup, which they likely would, would not such an event threaten return to civil war?</p> | 1,791 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>That’s why so many business travelers treasure a morning run. Sure, you can hit the hotel gym, but a morning run can help reset your body clock while offering a look at local landmarks. Here are some strategies for planning a jog on a business trip in an unfamiliar destination.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>HOTELS</p>
<p>Most hotels can provide maps with easy-to-follow, safe routes.</p>
<p>All Westin hotels have a gear-lending program in partnership with New Balance. For $5, guests can borrow shorts, a T-shirt and New Balance shoes, plus a pair of socks to keep. The gear is especially handy if you’re traveling light and didn’t pack sneakers. (The borrowed sneakers are lined with fresh, disposable insoles.) And at 51 Westin properties, running concierges are available to lead morning runs twice a week for guests who sign up the night before.</p>
<p>“Our concierges are not necessarily running experts; their background is not in coaching runners, but they’re passionate about running and they have a unique knowledge of the city they run in all the time,” explained Christopher Heuisler, who heads the RunWestin program.</p>
<p>In New York, Kimpton’s INK 48 hotel offers a runner’s kit with a map of the Hudson River running path, a preloaded iPod Shuffle with headphones, a sports watch, running belt with water bottle, and an energy bar and sports drink upon return. In Miami, every room at the Conrad has a jogging route map with recommended runs to Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove and Brickell Key. Radisson Blu’s U.S. hotels offer BluRoutes. Some hotels, like The James Chicago, can arrange a personalized guided running tour that shows off the city.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>PERSONAL STRATEGIES AND FAVORITE ROUTES</p>
<p>Mary Pierik, a cruise director and tour leader with Tauck, likes to run by the water wherever she is. “Hard to get lost if you stay by the river, lake or pond,” she said. She also loves hilly terrain, so in Europe, she heads for castles, forts or churches “as they are usually built on top of a hill, are easy to see from a distance, and usually are well signed.” In addition, Pierik checks with locals to ensure she’s chosen a safe route, and always lets someone know she’s heading out and when she expects to return.</p>
<p>Jeff Wilson, host of the PBS show “Real Rail Adventures,” prefers hotels located near rail trails “like the Katy Trail in Dallas or the Keystone or West Papio Trails in Omaha (Nebraska). Nearly every large city has one or more of these trails, which are often laid out on old, unused rail beds. I prefer these trails to running on city sidewalks, dodging pedestrians.”</p>
<p>John Oxford loves going for a run when he’s in Washington, D.C., for his job with Renasant Bank. “Watching the sun come up over the Lincoln and World War II memorials is bar none the most beautiful run in America,” he said. Other favorite routes include the Kansas City Power and Light District, doing the “Rocky steps” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, New York’s Central Park and, in California, West Hollywood. He also likes running on college campuses such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UCLA.</p>
<p>“Treadmills are so boring,” Oxford said. “It’s neat to see where you are.”</p>
<p>Other popular places for runs cited by business travelers include along Lake Michigan in Chicago, along the Charles River in Boston, around Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas, along the Seine in Paris, in London’s Hyde Park, in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park, in Vancouver’s Stanley Park and, in San Diego, along San Diego Bay and up and down the outdoor stairs at the San Diego Convention Center.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TECHNOLOGY</p>
<p>In addition to obvious aids like GoogleMaps, or using GPS on a smartwatch or cellphone to guide you back to your hotel, you can plan and support your runs with apps and sites like MapMyRun, Strava, AthleticMindedTraveler, Endomondo and RunKeeper. Looking for others to run with? Find a group on Meetup.com wherever you are.</p> | Bleisure Bits: Tackling the morning jog on a business trip | false | https://abqjournal.com/566891/bleisure-bits-tackling-the-morning-jog-on-a-business-trip.html | 2least
| Bleisure Bits: Tackling the morning jog on a business trip
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>That’s why so many business travelers treasure a morning run. Sure, you can hit the hotel gym, but a morning run can help reset your body clock while offering a look at local landmarks. Here are some strategies for planning a jog on a business trip in an unfamiliar destination.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>HOTELS</p>
<p>Most hotels can provide maps with easy-to-follow, safe routes.</p>
<p>All Westin hotels have a gear-lending program in partnership with New Balance. For $5, guests can borrow shorts, a T-shirt and New Balance shoes, plus a pair of socks to keep. The gear is especially handy if you’re traveling light and didn’t pack sneakers. (The borrowed sneakers are lined with fresh, disposable insoles.) And at 51 Westin properties, running concierges are available to lead morning runs twice a week for guests who sign up the night before.</p>
<p>“Our concierges are not necessarily running experts; their background is not in coaching runners, but they’re passionate about running and they have a unique knowledge of the city they run in all the time,” explained Christopher Heuisler, who heads the RunWestin program.</p>
<p>In New York, Kimpton’s INK 48 hotel offers a runner’s kit with a map of the Hudson River running path, a preloaded iPod Shuffle with headphones, a sports watch, running belt with water bottle, and an energy bar and sports drink upon return. In Miami, every room at the Conrad has a jogging route map with recommended runs to Key Biscayne, Coconut Grove and Brickell Key. Radisson Blu’s U.S. hotels offer BluRoutes. Some hotels, like The James Chicago, can arrange a personalized guided running tour that shows off the city.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>PERSONAL STRATEGIES AND FAVORITE ROUTES</p>
<p>Mary Pierik, a cruise director and tour leader with Tauck, likes to run by the water wherever she is. “Hard to get lost if you stay by the river, lake or pond,” she said. She also loves hilly terrain, so in Europe, she heads for castles, forts or churches “as they are usually built on top of a hill, are easy to see from a distance, and usually are well signed.” In addition, Pierik checks with locals to ensure she’s chosen a safe route, and always lets someone know she’s heading out and when she expects to return.</p>
<p>Jeff Wilson, host of the PBS show “Real Rail Adventures,” prefers hotels located near rail trails “like the Katy Trail in Dallas or the Keystone or West Papio Trails in Omaha (Nebraska). Nearly every large city has one or more of these trails, which are often laid out on old, unused rail beds. I prefer these trails to running on city sidewalks, dodging pedestrians.”</p>
<p>John Oxford loves going for a run when he’s in Washington, D.C., for his job with Renasant Bank. “Watching the sun come up over the Lincoln and World War II memorials is bar none the most beautiful run in America,” he said. Other favorite routes include the Kansas City Power and Light District, doing the “Rocky steps” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, New York’s Central Park and, in California, West Hollywood. He also likes running on college campuses such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UCLA.</p>
<p>“Treadmills are so boring,” Oxford said. “It’s neat to see where you are.”</p>
<p>Other popular places for runs cited by business travelers include along Lake Michigan in Chicago, along the Charles River in Boston, around Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas, along the Seine in Paris, in London’s Hyde Park, in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park, in Vancouver’s Stanley Park and, in San Diego, along San Diego Bay and up and down the outdoor stairs at the San Diego Convention Center.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TECHNOLOGY</p>
<p>In addition to obvious aids like GoogleMaps, or using GPS on a smartwatch or cellphone to guide you back to your hotel, you can plan and support your runs with apps and sites like MapMyRun, Strava, AthleticMindedTraveler, Endomondo and RunKeeper. Looking for others to run with? Find a group on Meetup.com wherever you are.</p> | 1,792 |
|
<p>A legal brief&#160;recently&#160;filed by the Department of Justice&#160;(DOJ) reportedly explains&#160;that&#160;former Secretary of State&#160;Hillary "Clinton was within her legal rights to use of her own email account, to take the messages with her when she left office and to be the one deciding which of those messages are government records that should be returned"&#160;-- contradicting conservative media speculation that she&#160;may have violated the law.</p>
<p>The media has&#160; <a href="/research/2015/08/18/fox-pushes-3-debunked-myths-to-scandalize-hilla/204991" type="external">repeatedly</a>&#160; <a href="/research/2015/08/12/myths-and-facts-on-hillary-clintons-email-and-r/204913" type="external">scandalized</a>&#160;Clinton's&#160;email&#160;use, speculating that that she&#160; <a href="/research/2015/03/03/the-new-york-times-deceptive-suggestion-that-hi/202726" type="external">may</a>&#160;have "violated federal requirements"&#160; <a href="/research/2015/03/09/medias-baseless-speculation-that-clinton-may-ha/202813" type="external">or</a>&#160;committed a felony and&#160; <a href="/research/2015/07/08/joe-scarborough-wrong-on-hillary-clintons-email/204302" type="external">arguing</a>&#160;that&#160;her email use "was not permitted."&#160;</p>
<p>But,&#160;according to the Department of Justice, "[t]here is no question that Secretary Clinton had authority to delete personal emails without agency supervision -- she appropriately could have done so even if she were working on a government server." From&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/10/justice-department-rules-hillary-clinton-followed-/" type="external">The&#160;Washington Times</a>:&#160;</p>
<p>The Obama administration told a federal court&#160;Wednesday&#160;that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was within her legal rights to use of her own email account, to take the messages with her when she left office and to be the one deciding which of those messages are government records that should be returned.</p>
<p>In the most complete legal defense of Mrs. Clinton, Justice Department lawyers insisted they not only have no obligation, but no power, to go back and demand the former top diplomat turn over any documents she hasn't already given -- and neither, they said, can the court order that.</p>
<p>The defense came as part of a legal filing telling a judge why the administration shouldn't be required to order Mrs. Clinton and her top aides to preserve all of their emails.</p>
<p>"There is no question that Secretary Clinton had authority to delete personal emails without agency supervision -- she appropriately could have done so even if she were working on a government server," the administration lawyers argued. "Under policies issued by both the National Archives and Records Administration ('NARA') and the State Department, individual officers and employees are permitted and expected to exercise judgment to determine what constitutes a federal record."</p>
<p>The legal brief said that means employees are required to "review each message, identify its value and either delete it or move it to a record-keeping system."</p> | DOJ Debunks Media Speculation That Hillary Clinton's Email Use Was Illegal | true | http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/09/11/doj-debunks-media-speculation-that-hillary-clin/205497 | 2015-09-11 | 4left
| DOJ Debunks Media Speculation That Hillary Clinton's Email Use Was Illegal
<p>A legal brief&#160;recently&#160;filed by the Department of Justice&#160;(DOJ) reportedly explains&#160;that&#160;former Secretary of State&#160;Hillary "Clinton was within her legal rights to use of her own email account, to take the messages with her when she left office and to be the one deciding which of those messages are government records that should be returned"&#160;-- contradicting conservative media speculation that she&#160;may have violated the law.</p>
<p>The media has&#160; <a href="/research/2015/08/18/fox-pushes-3-debunked-myths-to-scandalize-hilla/204991" type="external">repeatedly</a>&#160; <a href="/research/2015/08/12/myths-and-facts-on-hillary-clintons-email-and-r/204913" type="external">scandalized</a>&#160;Clinton's&#160;email&#160;use, speculating that that she&#160; <a href="/research/2015/03/03/the-new-york-times-deceptive-suggestion-that-hi/202726" type="external">may</a>&#160;have "violated federal requirements"&#160; <a href="/research/2015/03/09/medias-baseless-speculation-that-clinton-may-ha/202813" type="external">or</a>&#160;committed a felony and&#160; <a href="/research/2015/07/08/joe-scarborough-wrong-on-hillary-clintons-email/204302" type="external">arguing</a>&#160;that&#160;her email use "was not permitted."&#160;</p>
<p>But,&#160;according to the Department of Justice, "[t]here is no question that Secretary Clinton had authority to delete personal emails without agency supervision -- she appropriately could have done so even if she were working on a government server." From&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/10/justice-department-rules-hillary-clinton-followed-/" type="external">The&#160;Washington Times</a>:&#160;</p>
<p>The Obama administration told a federal court&#160;Wednesday&#160;that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was within her legal rights to use of her own email account, to take the messages with her when she left office and to be the one deciding which of those messages are government records that should be returned.</p>
<p>In the most complete legal defense of Mrs. Clinton, Justice Department lawyers insisted they not only have no obligation, but no power, to go back and demand the former top diplomat turn over any documents she hasn't already given -- and neither, they said, can the court order that.</p>
<p>The defense came as part of a legal filing telling a judge why the administration shouldn't be required to order Mrs. Clinton and her top aides to preserve all of their emails.</p>
<p>"There is no question that Secretary Clinton had authority to delete personal emails without agency supervision -- she appropriately could have done so even if she were working on a government server," the administration lawyers argued. "Under policies issued by both the National Archives and Records Administration ('NARA') and the State Department, individual officers and employees are permitted and expected to exercise judgment to determine what constitutes a federal record."</p>
<p>The legal brief said that means employees are required to "review each message, identify its value and either delete it or move it to a record-keeping system."</p> | 1,793 |
<p />
<p>“I love free speech,” said George Bush, <a type="external" href="">smiling between gritted teeth,</a> as Australian M.P.’s heckling his speech to the Australian parliament were booted out into the street, and as street protesters against his war in Iraq struggled to make themselves heard from behind a far-distant police cordon.</p>
<p>Bush was down under for about 20 hours to thank the Australian for its support government in the war on terror and capping a lightning tour of Asia. A short time for a visit, but compared to other legs of the whistlestop (a couple of hours here, an afternoon there), it was pretty lengthy, reflecting, surely, his expectation that this ally would give him a warm welcome.</p>
<p>Prime Minister John Howard was psyched to see him; not so the Australian people. Aussies are upset over the war in Iraq and about two Australians the U.S. is holding as terror suspects in Guantanomo Bay, Cuba.</p>
<p>While Bush was expressing his love of <a type="external" href="">free speech,</a> the Australian press was expressing its outrage about limited public and media access to Bush. For the first time ever, the public was barred from Parliament, aka “the people’s house.” Organizers of an anti-war protest were banned from using a public address system anywhere in the precinct near Parliament, and they had to face away from the building so their voices wouldn’t offend the presidential ear.</p>
<p>Of course, many in Australia realize the importance of keeping up good relations with the U.S. But that doesn’t preclude a healthy opposition to policies. <a type="external" href="">The Sydney Morning Herald</a>writes:</p>
<p>“The basic right of freedom of speech will adopt a new interpretation during the Canberra visits this week by the U.S. President, George Bush, and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao. Protesters will be free to speak as much as they like-just as long as they can’t be heard.”</p>
<p>Two Senators from the Green party, Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle, began a ruckus in Parliament heckled Bush about the Guantanomo Bay prisoners. Australian government MPs were so concerned about the abuse that they formed a “human shield” around Bush. As one Australian paper put it, he was surrounded by a “protective rugby scrum” in an attempt to avoid protests and heckling shouts from the audience.</p>
<p>Anger toward Bush took many forms. Between 3,000 and 5,000 protestor marched in Sydney before Bush arrived. Forty-one Labor M.P.’s wrote Bush an open letter stating their opposition to BushÕs Iraq policy. <a type="external" href="">Tanya Plibersek</a>, a Sydney Labor MP, said: “The point of the letter is to let Mr Bush know that a large section of the Australian community does not share the Prime Minister’s support for the war. We also want to ensure that we can use this visit to engage the President in a constructive dialogue on our great concerns about the dangerous precedent of pre-emptive self-defence this war has set.”</p>
<p>Despite obvious tension in the country, the Australian press was not allowed to question Bush. When asked, officials said there would be no press conference because it simply wasn’t on the itinerary. How convenient, writes an <a type="external" href="">Australian reporter</a>:</p>
<p>“George Bush’s word is apparently beyond question. At least, by the Australian press. The US President has declined a customary joint press conference after his address to the Federal Parliament tomorrow. The media event, which normally allows two or three questions from Australian media and an equal number from the visiting press, would have been the only official opportunity for Australian journalists to quiz Mr Bush on the Iraq war and its aftermath.”</p>
<p>One columnist for the <a type="external" href="">Sydney Morning Herald</a> laments the lost opportunity to grill Bush, saying reporters wanted a chance to ask tough questions that, in his opinion, the U.S. media avoids for fear of being denied future access to the president. (Er, maybe that explains why he didn’t want to talk to them.)</p>
<p>“Will there be an opportunity for Australian political journalists to freely question George Bush tomorrow? While our parliament has “questions without notice,” the US relies on journalists to ask those questions. But no administration has had as few press conferences, and US journalists who have “access” play ball with the president so their “access” is not denied. While the president is in Australia he must play by our rules or clear off. If free access is denied, this must be the biggest story tomorrow, surely. If there is free access, I hope our journalists take the opportunity for some more robust questioning than “W” is used to.”</p>
<p>Many Australians were ticked off that Bush called their country a “sheriff” in the war on terror. An Australian columnist points out that perhaps Bush should have taken the time to talk with the Australian public, or the media, since he is clearly out of touch with their <a type="external" href="">opinions</a>:</p>
<p>“What’s the point of this Bush whistlestop? Bush is so ignorant of our circumstances that he thought it was a compliment to dub us sheriff of our region, yet while he’s here he won’t see real Australians, hear them or meet them. The trip is for our ‘representatives’ to swoon before him, our businesspeople to beg him for favours and our defence people to salute him. It’s a strange free world Bush leads …”</p>
<p /> | Dubya Down Under | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2003/10/dubya-down-under/ | 2003-10-24 | 4left
| Dubya Down Under
<p />
<p>“I love free speech,” said George Bush, <a type="external" href="">smiling between gritted teeth,</a> as Australian M.P.’s heckling his speech to the Australian parliament were booted out into the street, and as street protesters against his war in Iraq struggled to make themselves heard from behind a far-distant police cordon.</p>
<p>Bush was down under for about 20 hours to thank the Australian for its support government in the war on terror and capping a lightning tour of Asia. A short time for a visit, but compared to other legs of the whistlestop (a couple of hours here, an afternoon there), it was pretty lengthy, reflecting, surely, his expectation that this ally would give him a warm welcome.</p>
<p>Prime Minister John Howard was psyched to see him; not so the Australian people. Aussies are upset over the war in Iraq and about two Australians the U.S. is holding as terror suspects in Guantanomo Bay, Cuba.</p>
<p>While Bush was expressing his love of <a type="external" href="">free speech,</a> the Australian press was expressing its outrage about limited public and media access to Bush. For the first time ever, the public was barred from Parliament, aka “the people’s house.” Organizers of an anti-war protest were banned from using a public address system anywhere in the precinct near Parliament, and they had to face away from the building so their voices wouldn’t offend the presidential ear.</p>
<p>Of course, many in Australia realize the importance of keeping up good relations with the U.S. But that doesn’t preclude a healthy opposition to policies. <a type="external" href="">The Sydney Morning Herald</a>writes:</p>
<p>“The basic right of freedom of speech will adopt a new interpretation during the Canberra visits this week by the U.S. President, George Bush, and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao. Protesters will be free to speak as much as they like-just as long as they can’t be heard.”</p>
<p>Two Senators from the Green party, Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle, began a ruckus in Parliament heckled Bush about the Guantanomo Bay prisoners. Australian government MPs were so concerned about the abuse that they formed a “human shield” around Bush. As one Australian paper put it, he was surrounded by a “protective rugby scrum” in an attempt to avoid protests and heckling shouts from the audience.</p>
<p>Anger toward Bush took many forms. Between 3,000 and 5,000 protestor marched in Sydney before Bush arrived. Forty-one Labor M.P.’s wrote Bush an open letter stating their opposition to BushÕs Iraq policy. <a type="external" href="">Tanya Plibersek</a>, a Sydney Labor MP, said: “The point of the letter is to let Mr Bush know that a large section of the Australian community does not share the Prime Minister’s support for the war. We also want to ensure that we can use this visit to engage the President in a constructive dialogue on our great concerns about the dangerous precedent of pre-emptive self-defence this war has set.”</p>
<p>Despite obvious tension in the country, the Australian press was not allowed to question Bush. When asked, officials said there would be no press conference because it simply wasn’t on the itinerary. How convenient, writes an <a type="external" href="">Australian reporter</a>:</p>
<p>“George Bush’s word is apparently beyond question. At least, by the Australian press. The US President has declined a customary joint press conference after his address to the Federal Parliament tomorrow. The media event, which normally allows two or three questions from Australian media and an equal number from the visiting press, would have been the only official opportunity for Australian journalists to quiz Mr Bush on the Iraq war and its aftermath.”</p>
<p>One columnist for the <a type="external" href="">Sydney Morning Herald</a> laments the lost opportunity to grill Bush, saying reporters wanted a chance to ask tough questions that, in his opinion, the U.S. media avoids for fear of being denied future access to the president. (Er, maybe that explains why he didn’t want to talk to them.)</p>
<p>“Will there be an opportunity for Australian political journalists to freely question George Bush tomorrow? While our parliament has “questions without notice,” the US relies on journalists to ask those questions. But no administration has had as few press conferences, and US journalists who have “access” play ball with the president so their “access” is not denied. While the president is in Australia he must play by our rules or clear off. If free access is denied, this must be the biggest story tomorrow, surely. If there is free access, I hope our journalists take the opportunity for some more robust questioning than “W” is used to.”</p>
<p>Many Australians were ticked off that Bush called their country a “sheriff” in the war on terror. An Australian columnist points out that perhaps Bush should have taken the time to talk with the Australian public, or the media, since he is clearly out of touch with their <a type="external" href="">opinions</a>:</p>
<p>“What’s the point of this Bush whistlestop? Bush is so ignorant of our circumstances that he thought it was a compliment to dub us sheriff of our region, yet while he’s here he won’t see real Australians, hear them or meet them. The trip is for our ‘representatives’ to swoon before him, our businesspeople to beg him for favours and our defence people to salute him. It’s a strange free world Bush leads …”</p>
<p /> | 1,794 |
<p>JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Following a spike in deadly attacks on police, more than a dozen states have responded this year with “Blue Lives Matter” laws that come down even harder on crimes against law enforcement officers, raising concern among some civil rights activists of a potential setback in police-community relations.&#160;</p>
<p>The new measures build upon existing statutes allowing harsher sentences for people who kill or assault police. They impose even tougher penalties, extend them to more offenses, including certain nonviolent ones such as trespassing in Missouri, and broaden the list of victims covered to include off-duty officers, police relatives and some civilians at law enforcement agencies.</p>
<p>Proponents say an escalation of violence against police justifies the heightened protections.</p>
<p>“What we’re getting into as a society is that people are targeting police officers not by something that they may have done to them, but just because they’re wearing that uniform,” said Republican state Rep. Shawn Rhoads of Missouri, a former detective.</p>
<p>People who have been protesting aggressive police tactics are expressing alarm.</p>
<p>“This is another form of heightened repression of activists,” said Zaki Baruti, an activist and community organizer from St. Louis County. “It sends a message to protesters that we better not look at police cross-eyed.”</p>
<p>Police deaths on the job have generally declined over the past four decades, from a recent high of 280 in 1974 to a low of 116 in 2013, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. But they rose last year to 143, including 21 killed in ambushes — the highest number of such attacks in more than two decades.</p>
<p>Nearly all states already have laws enhancing the punishments for certain violent crimes against law officers.</p>
<p>One year ago, Louisiana became the first state to enact a law adding offenses against police, firefighters and emergency medical responders to its list of hate crimes.</p>
<p>More states began expanding their penalties after last summer, when five officers were killed in a July 7 sniper attack at a protest against police brutality in Dallas, and three more officers were slain in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 10 days later.</p>
<p>Penalty enhancements have passed this year in Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia, most of which are led by Republicans. Similar bills are under consideration in other states.</p>
<p>Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt cited the case of Bradley Verstraete as one example of the need for such measures. Verstraete was accused of raising an ax handle against police officers responding to a disturbance call in 2015. Police shot and wounded him.</p>
<p>Verstraete was sentenced in February to 8½ years in prison for attempted murder. His sentence could have been doubled under a law signed this month.</p>
<p>Troy Huser, president of the Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, called the measure a “knee-jerk response” to the attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge.</p>
<p>“If you double that sentence, in my opinion, it becomes draconian,” Huser said.</p>
<p>Some civil rights activists contend such laws will make it more difficult to prosecute officers and easier to charge protesters who confront police. They say such measures could undermine the Black Lives Matter movement that grew out of the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and other shootings by police around the country.</p>
<p>These laws “deepen divisions between law enforcement and communities with no tangible benefit to law enforcement,” said Sonia Gill Hernandez at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.</p>
<p>When Missouri passed its bill this month, the legal organization lambasted it as “an overt display of political posturing” over the Brown case. It dismissed talk of a “war on police” as unsubstantiated.</p>
<p>The Missouri legislation would add involuntary manslaughter, stalking, property damage and trespassing to the list of crimes bearing enhanced penalties for targeting police. It also would apply the tougher punishments to crimes involving officers’ spouses, children, parents, siblings, grandparents and in-laws.</p>
<p>It is awaiting the signature of Republican Gov. Eric Greitens, who vowed to put in place “the toughest penalties possible for anyone who attacks a law enforcement officer.”</p>
<p>“Missouri will show no mercy to cowards who assault cops,” he said.</p>
<p>Georgia’s Back the Badge Act increases mandatory minimum prison terms for assault or battery against public safety officers. Some of Arkansas’ enhanced penalties for targeting current and retired law officers, first responders and their families were passed via an emergency declaration, making them effective immediately upon Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s signature.</p>
<p>Arizona’s Blue Lives Matter Law expands the crime of aggravated assault against on-duty officers to apply to off-duty officers not engaged in police activities.</p>
<p>Some lawmakers also are seeking enhanced federal laws. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Ted Poe — both Texas Republicans — recently reintroduced the Back the Blue Act that would increase the punishments for crimes against law enforcement officers. It would make killing a judge or police officer punishable by death or a minimum of 30 years in prison.</p>
<p>Some question whether such steps are a deterrent. Jens Ohlin, a criminal law expert at Cornell University Law School in New York, said the new laws “reek of political pressure to do something symbolic as a way of expressing solidarity with police officers.”</p>
<p>“The problems that need to be solved are really problems on the ground. They’re not gaps in the statute,” Ohlin said. “You need to give police officers the tools necessary to protect themselves on the street, and you have to defuse dangerous situations on the ground before they escalate into violence against police officers.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>David Lieb of The Associated Press co-wrote this report.</p>
<p>Copyright 2017 The Associated Press</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Contact author</a></p>
<p>&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">civil rights</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Ferguson</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Police</a></p> | 'Blue Lives Matter' Laws Impose Tougher Penalties, Raise Concerns | true | http://equalvoiceforfamilies.org/blue-lives-matter-laws-impose-tougher-penalties-raise-concerns/ | 4left
| 'Blue Lives Matter' Laws Impose Tougher Penalties, Raise Concerns
<p>JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Following a spike in deadly attacks on police, more than a dozen states have responded this year with “Blue Lives Matter” laws that come down even harder on crimes against law enforcement officers, raising concern among some civil rights activists of a potential setback in police-community relations.&#160;</p>
<p>The new measures build upon existing statutes allowing harsher sentences for people who kill or assault police. They impose even tougher penalties, extend them to more offenses, including certain nonviolent ones such as trespassing in Missouri, and broaden the list of victims covered to include off-duty officers, police relatives and some civilians at law enforcement agencies.</p>
<p>Proponents say an escalation of violence against police justifies the heightened protections.</p>
<p>“What we’re getting into as a society is that people are targeting police officers not by something that they may have done to them, but just because they’re wearing that uniform,” said Republican state Rep. Shawn Rhoads of Missouri, a former detective.</p>
<p>People who have been protesting aggressive police tactics are expressing alarm.</p>
<p>“This is another form of heightened repression of activists,” said Zaki Baruti, an activist and community organizer from St. Louis County. “It sends a message to protesters that we better not look at police cross-eyed.”</p>
<p>Police deaths on the job have generally declined over the past four decades, from a recent high of 280 in 1974 to a low of 116 in 2013, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. But they rose last year to 143, including 21 killed in ambushes — the highest number of such attacks in more than two decades.</p>
<p>Nearly all states already have laws enhancing the punishments for certain violent crimes against law officers.</p>
<p>One year ago, Louisiana became the first state to enact a law adding offenses against police, firefighters and emergency medical responders to its list of hate crimes.</p>
<p>More states began expanding their penalties after last summer, when five officers were killed in a July 7 sniper attack at a protest against police brutality in Dallas, and three more officers were slain in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 10 days later.</p>
<p>Penalty enhancements have passed this year in Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia, most of which are led by Republicans. Similar bills are under consideration in other states.</p>
<p>Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt cited the case of Bradley Verstraete as one example of the need for such measures. Verstraete was accused of raising an ax handle against police officers responding to a disturbance call in 2015. Police shot and wounded him.</p>
<p>Verstraete was sentenced in February to 8½ years in prison for attempted murder. His sentence could have been doubled under a law signed this month.</p>
<p>Troy Huser, president of the Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, called the measure a “knee-jerk response” to the attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge.</p>
<p>“If you double that sentence, in my opinion, it becomes draconian,” Huser said.</p>
<p>Some civil rights activists contend such laws will make it more difficult to prosecute officers and easier to charge protesters who confront police. They say such measures could undermine the Black Lives Matter movement that grew out of the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and other shootings by police around the country.</p>
<p>These laws “deepen divisions between law enforcement and communities with no tangible benefit to law enforcement,” said Sonia Gill Hernandez at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.</p>
<p>When Missouri passed its bill this month, the legal organization lambasted it as “an overt display of political posturing” over the Brown case. It dismissed talk of a “war on police” as unsubstantiated.</p>
<p>The Missouri legislation would add involuntary manslaughter, stalking, property damage and trespassing to the list of crimes bearing enhanced penalties for targeting police. It also would apply the tougher punishments to crimes involving officers’ spouses, children, parents, siblings, grandparents and in-laws.</p>
<p>It is awaiting the signature of Republican Gov. Eric Greitens, who vowed to put in place “the toughest penalties possible for anyone who attacks a law enforcement officer.”</p>
<p>“Missouri will show no mercy to cowards who assault cops,” he said.</p>
<p>Georgia’s Back the Badge Act increases mandatory minimum prison terms for assault or battery against public safety officers. Some of Arkansas’ enhanced penalties for targeting current and retired law officers, first responders and their families were passed via an emergency declaration, making them effective immediately upon Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s signature.</p>
<p>Arizona’s Blue Lives Matter Law expands the crime of aggravated assault against on-duty officers to apply to off-duty officers not engaged in police activities.</p>
<p>Some lawmakers also are seeking enhanced federal laws. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Ted Poe — both Texas Republicans — recently reintroduced the Back the Blue Act that would increase the punishments for crimes against law enforcement officers. It would make killing a judge or police officer punishable by death or a minimum of 30 years in prison.</p>
<p>Some question whether such steps are a deterrent. Jens Ohlin, a criminal law expert at Cornell University Law School in New York, said the new laws “reek of political pressure to do something symbolic as a way of expressing solidarity with police officers.”</p>
<p>“The problems that need to be solved are really problems on the ground. They’re not gaps in the statute,” Ohlin said. “You need to give police officers the tools necessary to protect themselves on the street, and you have to defuse dangerous situations on the ground before they escalate into violence against police officers.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>David Lieb of The Associated Press co-wrote this report.</p>
<p>Copyright 2017 The Associated Press</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Contact author</a></p>
<p>&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">civil rights</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Ferguson</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Police</a></p> | 1,795 |
|
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<p>ADEN, Yemen — Witnesses say a suicide bomber has rammed his vehicle into security forces at a building in central Aden in southern Yemen, killing and injuring scores.</p>
<p>Residents heard a large explosion early Tuesday morning as far as several kilometers (miles) away and saw thick black smoke rising from the area.</p>
<p>The attack took place in the Sheikh Othman district in the central part of the city. Ambulances rushed to the site, where debris and body parts littered the area.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Witnesses: Suicide bomber attacks security in southern Yemen | false | https://abqjournal.com/1092295/witnesses-suicide-bomber-attacks-security-in-southern-yemen.html | 2least
| Witnesses: Suicide bomber attacks security in southern Yemen
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ADEN, Yemen — Witnesses say a suicide bomber has rammed his vehicle into security forces at a building in central Aden in southern Yemen, killing and injuring scores.</p>
<p>Residents heard a large explosion early Tuesday morning as far as several kilometers (miles) away and saw thick black smoke rising from the area.</p>
<p>The attack took place in the Sheikh Othman district in the central part of the city. Ambulances rushed to the site, where debris and body parts littered the area.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 1,796 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Shenyse Harris, left, and Jade Scott Lewis, students at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, rehearse “Some Girls,” in which a soon-to-be-married man makes contact with former girlfriends.</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — The first mystery in “Some Girls” is why some guy who is planning to get married would want to revisit four of his old girlfriends before he says his vows.</p>
<p>Is he checking back to make sure he chose the right woman? Does he want one last fling? Has he grown up, realized what a jerk he was to them and now sincerely wants to apologize? If so, why? To ease his own conscience or to feed his ego?</p>
<p>The second mystery: why any of them agree to see him in the first place. Sometimes it’s better to just let sleeping dogs lie.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Those are the kinds of questions Gail Springer has been exploring with her cast of five actors as they prepare to present Neil LaBute’s play at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design this weekend and next. Only by finding their own answers can they portray the characters in their full humanity. “They have to find an answer they can believe and play,” Springer said.</p>
<p>“I think the audience will appreciate his dark humor,” she said of the playwright. “LaBute always has his characters fighting with each other.”</p>
<p>And his clever dialogue is something students readily identify with, she said. “It’s very post-modern.”</p>
<p>And, while some have called LaBute a misanthrope or misogynist, Springer said she thinks the women in this play, each of whom encounters her former boyfriend one-on-one in successive scenes, “find a way to come out on the other side with self-respect.”</p>
<p>“LaBute focuses on why people are so harmful to each other. A certain brutality fascinates him,” she said. “He’s such a great writer.”</p>
<p>Springer said the play attracted her partly because of its cast mix: four women and one man.</p>
<p>“We’ve got wonderful girls here,” she said. The series of four scenes, each with only two people, means “the actors can really dig in,” Springer said. “It’s less about movement and more about how two people relate to each other.”</p>
<p>“Some Girls” includes elements of both drama and comedy. Productions that have emphasized the comedic aspects, though, have not garnered good reviews. Springer said she’s trying to find the right balance. “I’m not directing it as a TV sitcom,” she said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But she is directing it in a novel setting. While technical aspects of the Greer Garson Theatre are being renovated and updated, plays this fall are being presented in the round, with three-tiered seating set up to form a square on the main stage itself and the action concentrated in the middle.</p>
<p>In the spring, some of the department’s performances will be presented in other community spaces.</p>
<p>It’s a new experience both for the actors and the technical crew, and it expands their training to the changing challenges they will be facing in the post-college world, said Laura Fine Hawkes, chair of the Performing Arts Department.</p>
<p>For someone young, it’s important to give them a home where they feel comfortable enough to experiment and stretch themselves – “having a totally different space is completely scary,” Fine Hawkes said. But it teaches them flexibility.</p>
<p>“The only thing constant about the (performing arts) work is change,” she added.</p>
<p>The theater-in-the-round provides 142 seats, compared to 500-some in the full theater. “It is so intimate,” she said, adding that it will provide a new experience for the audience as well.</p>
<p>It may be just as well, since attendance has been falling in recent years – a trend that has been true nationwide, but which SFUAD officials are hoping to turn around locally. Part of the drop-off came after the College of Santa Fe closed, and Laureate Education took over the campus and opened it as a new institution.</p>
<p>Maybe enough time has passed that the university and its performing arts offerings can reintroduce themselves and build a new audience, Fine Hawkes said.</p>
<p>If they offer a fun, affordable outing where people can watch new young talent and a solid production – and that’s exactly what the faculty and students plan to offer – people will come, she said.</p>
<p />
<p /> | ‘Some Girls’ raises questions | false | https://abqjournal.com/481155/some-girls-raises-questions.html | 2014-10-17 | 2least
| ‘Some Girls’ raises questions
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Shenyse Harris, left, and Jade Scott Lewis, students at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, rehearse “Some Girls,” in which a soon-to-be-married man makes contact with former girlfriends.</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — The first mystery in “Some Girls” is why some guy who is planning to get married would want to revisit four of his old girlfriends before he says his vows.</p>
<p>Is he checking back to make sure he chose the right woman? Does he want one last fling? Has he grown up, realized what a jerk he was to them and now sincerely wants to apologize? If so, why? To ease his own conscience or to feed his ego?</p>
<p>The second mystery: why any of them agree to see him in the first place. Sometimes it’s better to just let sleeping dogs lie.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Those are the kinds of questions Gail Springer has been exploring with her cast of five actors as they prepare to present Neil LaBute’s play at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design this weekend and next. Only by finding their own answers can they portray the characters in their full humanity. “They have to find an answer they can believe and play,” Springer said.</p>
<p>“I think the audience will appreciate his dark humor,” she said of the playwright. “LaBute always has his characters fighting with each other.”</p>
<p>And his clever dialogue is something students readily identify with, she said. “It’s very post-modern.”</p>
<p>And, while some have called LaBute a misanthrope or misogynist, Springer said she thinks the women in this play, each of whom encounters her former boyfriend one-on-one in successive scenes, “find a way to come out on the other side with self-respect.”</p>
<p>“LaBute focuses on why people are so harmful to each other. A certain brutality fascinates him,” she said. “He’s such a great writer.”</p>
<p>Springer said the play attracted her partly because of its cast mix: four women and one man.</p>
<p>“We’ve got wonderful girls here,” she said. The series of four scenes, each with only two people, means “the actors can really dig in,” Springer said. “It’s less about movement and more about how two people relate to each other.”</p>
<p>“Some Girls” includes elements of both drama and comedy. Productions that have emphasized the comedic aspects, though, have not garnered good reviews. Springer said she’s trying to find the right balance. “I’m not directing it as a TV sitcom,” she said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But she is directing it in a novel setting. While technical aspects of the Greer Garson Theatre are being renovated and updated, plays this fall are being presented in the round, with three-tiered seating set up to form a square on the main stage itself and the action concentrated in the middle.</p>
<p>In the spring, some of the department’s performances will be presented in other community spaces.</p>
<p>It’s a new experience both for the actors and the technical crew, and it expands their training to the changing challenges they will be facing in the post-college world, said Laura Fine Hawkes, chair of the Performing Arts Department.</p>
<p>For someone young, it’s important to give them a home where they feel comfortable enough to experiment and stretch themselves – “having a totally different space is completely scary,” Fine Hawkes said. But it teaches them flexibility.</p>
<p>“The only thing constant about the (performing arts) work is change,” she added.</p>
<p>The theater-in-the-round provides 142 seats, compared to 500-some in the full theater. “It is so intimate,” she said, adding that it will provide a new experience for the audience as well.</p>
<p>It may be just as well, since attendance has been falling in recent years – a trend that has been true nationwide, but which SFUAD officials are hoping to turn around locally. Part of the drop-off came after the College of Santa Fe closed, and Laureate Education took over the campus and opened it as a new institution.</p>
<p>Maybe enough time has passed that the university and its performing arts offerings can reintroduce themselves and build a new audience, Fine Hawkes said.</p>
<p>If they offer a fun, affordable outing where people can watch new young talent and a solid production – and that’s exactly what the faculty and students plan to offer – people will come, she said.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 1,797 |
<p />
<p>Airbnb, the online marketplace for short-term lodging, is expanding its business in China, hoping to spur growth in the world's most populous country and a major tourist destination.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Fresh off a $1 billion fundraising round, Airbnb announced plans on Tuesday to expand its services in China and increase its staff there. Airbnb said it would more than triple its local workforce this year and double its investment in the region. The company did not provide specific numbers.</p>
<p>The company has an engineering center in Beijing and about 60 employees in the country.</p>
<p>Airbnb is also bringing its latest product, Trips, which was unveiled in November, to China. Trips is Airbnb's effort to expand beyond home and apartment rentals and offer travelers experiences that expose them to local music, art, food and traditions. Trips options in Shanghai include learning about 4,000-year-old Chinese folk art and attending a traditional opera.</p>
<p>San Francisco-based Airbnb connects hosts, who want to rent their homes or a room in their houses or apartments, with short-term renters who may stay a night or a few weeks. The company has been locked in a global battle with regulators who say the service takes affordable housing off the market and drives up rental prices.</p>
<p>Airbnb has more than 3 million homes listed on its site in 191 countries.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The service has become popular in China, where there are roughly 80,000 Airbnb listings that have housed nearly 1.6 million travelers, the company said.</p>
<p>Airbnb's recent tranche of $448 million in funding, which rounded out a $1 billion financing this month, provides new resources for the company to expand its global footprint. Airbnb executives told Reuters this month they expected the number of guests using the home rental service in Africa to double this year to 1.5 million.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Peter Cooney)</p> | Airbnb makes growth push in China with plans to double investment | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/22/airbnb-makes-growth-push-in-china-with-plans-to-double-investment.html | 2017-03-22 | 0right
| Airbnb makes growth push in China with plans to double investment
<p />
<p>Airbnb, the online marketplace for short-term lodging, is expanding its business in China, hoping to spur growth in the world's most populous country and a major tourist destination.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Fresh off a $1 billion fundraising round, Airbnb announced plans on Tuesday to expand its services in China and increase its staff there. Airbnb said it would more than triple its local workforce this year and double its investment in the region. The company did not provide specific numbers.</p>
<p>The company has an engineering center in Beijing and about 60 employees in the country.</p>
<p>Airbnb is also bringing its latest product, Trips, which was unveiled in November, to China. Trips is Airbnb's effort to expand beyond home and apartment rentals and offer travelers experiences that expose them to local music, art, food and traditions. Trips options in Shanghai include learning about 4,000-year-old Chinese folk art and attending a traditional opera.</p>
<p>San Francisco-based Airbnb connects hosts, who want to rent their homes or a room in their houses or apartments, with short-term renters who may stay a night or a few weeks. The company has been locked in a global battle with regulators who say the service takes affordable housing off the market and drives up rental prices.</p>
<p>Airbnb has more than 3 million homes listed on its site in 191 countries.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The service has become popular in China, where there are roughly 80,000 Airbnb listings that have housed nearly 1.6 million travelers, the company said.</p>
<p>Airbnb's recent tranche of $448 million in funding, which rounded out a $1 billion financing this month, provides new resources for the company to expand its global footprint. Airbnb executives told Reuters this month they expected the number of guests using the home rental service in Africa to double this year to 1.5 million.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Peter Cooney)</p> | 1,798 |
<p>Under Bush II, the percentage of Americans 18 to 24 years old <a href="http://www.pollster.com/mystery_pollster/nytpew_graphic_party_by_genera.php" type="external">who describe themselves as Democrats</a> has risen to its highest point in generations, according to Pew poll data.</p>
<p>Pollster.com :</p>
<p>The chart provides graphical evidence of the slow rolling realignment that is always at work as new young voters gradually replace their elders. Political scientists generally agree that young people tend to acquire political beliefs, including their partisan attachments, in their 20s. As Kirkpatrick writes, "voters typically develop a party preference based on the political atmosphere at the time they come of age and grow more attached to that party over the course of their lives." Once acquired, a true sense of party changes rarely changes, although some voters are less attached to political parties than others (as I speculated on Friday, some will shift back and forth on surveys depending on the politics of the moment or the wording or context of the survey question).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pollster.com/mystery_pollster/nytpew_graphic_party_by_genera.php" type="external">Link</a></p>
<p /> | A Historical Surge Among Young Democrats | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/a-historical-surge-among-young-democrats/ | 2006-10-18 | 4left
| A Historical Surge Among Young Democrats
<p>Under Bush II, the percentage of Americans 18 to 24 years old <a href="http://www.pollster.com/mystery_pollster/nytpew_graphic_party_by_genera.php" type="external">who describe themselves as Democrats</a> has risen to its highest point in generations, according to Pew poll data.</p>
<p>Pollster.com :</p>
<p>The chart provides graphical evidence of the slow rolling realignment that is always at work as new young voters gradually replace their elders. Political scientists generally agree that young people tend to acquire political beliefs, including their partisan attachments, in their 20s. As Kirkpatrick writes, "voters typically develop a party preference based on the political atmosphere at the time they come of age and grow more attached to that party over the course of their lives." Once acquired, a true sense of party changes rarely changes, although some voters are less attached to political parties than others (as I speculated on Friday, some will shift back and forth on surveys depending on the politics of the moment or the wording or context of the survey question).</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pollster.com/mystery_pollster/nytpew_graphic_party_by_genera.php" type="external">Link</a></p>
<p /> | 1,799 |
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