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<p>By Ricardo Brito</p>
<p>BRASILIA (Reuters) – A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Tuesday authorized an investigation of President Michel Temer for suspected corruption involving a decree regulating ports, adding to graft allegations the president has so far parried with backing from Congress.</p>
<p>The new investigation is based on a wiretapped conversation of a former Temer aide, Rodrigo Rocha Loures, who, according to court documents, discussed shaping the decree in return for bribes channeled from a port operator to the president.</p>
<p>In his ruling, Justice Luis Roberto Barroso said the new probe was warranted because Brazil’s top prosecutor, Rodrigo Janot, had found “strong indications” of crimes, given that the decree signed by Temer answered part of the demands made by logistics firm Rodrimar SA.</p>
<p>Temer’s lawyer said in a statement sent to the Supreme Court that the allegations against the president are “contaminated by untruths and malicious distortions.”</p>
<p>The decree was publicly debated and benefited all port operators and not just Rodrimar, it said.</p>
<p>Rodrimar also denied that it had received any special treatment from the government. The company said the decree in question partially addressed widespread demands from Brazil’s port operators.</p>
<p>Temer has denied any role in the corruption scandals that have come to light during a sprawling three-year investigation of political bribery in Brazil.</p>
<p>His lawyers have also challenge the plea bargain deal that yielded the wiretap of Rocha Loures, arguing that the billionaire beef tycoon who arranged the recordings was unfairly favored by a close aide to Janot.</p>
<p>Last month, Temer’s allies in Congress easily blocked a corruption charge leveled by Janot. He is also expected to beat additional charges that Janot could level this week before leaving office. The latest investigation approved by the court adds more allegations to the mix.</p>
<p>Brazil’s currency, the real, posted its biggest daily drop in nearly a month, slipping 0.8 percent against the U.S. dollar as the investigation and a separate police probe into Temer’s allies kept pressure on the president.</p>
<p>Temer’s success in beating back accusations had bolstered bets that he would be able to return focus to his market-friendly proposals to overhaul Brazil’s tax and social security policies, tackling a record deficit.</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> | Brazil's top court approves new graft probe of President Temer | false | https://newsline.com/brazil039s-top-court-approves-new-graft-probe-of-president-temer/ | 2017-09-12 | 1right-center
| Brazil's top court approves new graft probe of President Temer
<p>By Ricardo Brito</p>
<p>BRASILIA (Reuters) – A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Tuesday authorized an investigation of President Michel Temer for suspected corruption involving a decree regulating ports, adding to graft allegations the president has so far parried with backing from Congress.</p>
<p>The new investigation is based on a wiretapped conversation of a former Temer aide, Rodrigo Rocha Loures, who, according to court documents, discussed shaping the decree in return for bribes channeled from a port operator to the president.</p>
<p>In his ruling, Justice Luis Roberto Barroso said the new probe was warranted because Brazil’s top prosecutor, Rodrigo Janot, had found “strong indications” of crimes, given that the decree signed by Temer answered part of the demands made by logistics firm Rodrimar SA.</p>
<p>Temer’s lawyer said in a statement sent to the Supreme Court that the allegations against the president are “contaminated by untruths and malicious distortions.”</p>
<p>The decree was publicly debated and benefited all port operators and not just Rodrimar, it said.</p>
<p>Rodrimar also denied that it had received any special treatment from the government. The company said the decree in question partially addressed widespread demands from Brazil’s port operators.</p>
<p>Temer has denied any role in the corruption scandals that have come to light during a sprawling three-year investigation of political bribery in Brazil.</p>
<p>His lawyers have also challenge the plea bargain deal that yielded the wiretap of Rocha Loures, arguing that the billionaire beef tycoon who arranged the recordings was unfairly favored by a close aide to Janot.</p>
<p>Last month, Temer’s allies in Congress easily blocked a corruption charge leveled by Janot. He is also expected to beat additional charges that Janot could level this week before leaving office. The latest investigation approved by the court adds more allegations to the mix.</p>
<p>Brazil’s currency, the real, posted its biggest daily drop in nearly a month, slipping 0.8 percent against the U.S. dollar as the investigation and a separate police probe into Temer’s allies kept pressure on the president.</p>
<p>Temer’s success in beating back accusations had bolstered bets that he would be able to return focus to his market-friendly proposals to overhaul Brazil’s tax and social security policies, tackling a record deficit.</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> | 2,500 |
<p />
<p>German digital map maker HERE will introduce a new set of traffic services this week that allows drivers to see for themselves what live road conditions are like miles ahead using data from competing automakers, an industry first.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Berlin-based company, owned by Germany's three premium automakers, will provide four services in which drivers share detailed video views of traffic jams or accidents, potential road hazards like fog or slippery streets, traffic signs including temporary speed limits and on-street parking.</p>
<p>BMW , Daimler and Volkswagen will all contribute data to the service, making their first big collaboration since they bought HERE for 2.8 billion euros ($3.1 billion) late last year from mobile equipment maker Nokia of Finland.</p>
<p>Other automakers are expected to join the project later and contribute data from their vehicles, HERE said.</p>
<p>The new live traffic services are set to hit the road in the first half of 2017, HERE said on Monday before the opening of this week's Paris Motor Show.</p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of vehicles from the three German automakers are set to begin feeding visual data into the HERE system supplying these services, with millions of vehicles expected to contribute live traffic feeds by the end of 2018, HERE said.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"You have competing brands which are putting their data together to create very unique services which were not possible before," Bruno Bourguet, HERE's global head of sales, said in an interview.</p>
<p>Data collected from vehicles participating in the network, drawn from brakes, windshield wipers, headlights, location systems, cameras and other sensors, are translated into alerts on driver dashboards using the HERE services.</p>
<p>Collecting sophisticated data from millions of cars on the road promises to give HERE a substantial lead over technology rivals such as Google , Apple , Tesla and TomTom , which have access to data from far fewer vehicles to collect so-called crowd-sourced data, analysts say.</p>
<p>"Crowd-sourced data is crucial for live traffic/maps and the size of the user base will be key to differentiation," UBS said in a recent report.</p>
<p>As other automakers contribute data for these services, an increasingly comprehensive view of road conditions around the world will be built to aid human drivers and, eventually, computer systems for autonomous cars, for which real-time road data is a pre-condition for replacing human drivers.</p>
<p>To date, efforts to realize the potential for connected cars have relied on efforts by individual car makers or technology suppliers, with much of the traffic data collected confined to very limited roads or city-level projects.</p>
<p>HERE, which provides location data to carmakers, businesses and consumer mobile apps, plans to offer live traffic data to the auto industry and other businesses needing more than static maps for new connected car services, including municipalities, road authorities, smartphone makers or mobile app developers.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.8913 euros)</p>
<p>(Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Adrian Croft)</p> | HERE, automakers team up to share data on traffic conditions | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/09/25/here-automakers-team-up-to-share-data-on-traffic-conditions.html | 2016-09-25 | 0right
| HERE, automakers team up to share data on traffic conditions
<p />
<p>German digital map maker HERE will introduce a new set of traffic services this week that allows drivers to see for themselves what live road conditions are like miles ahead using data from competing automakers, an industry first.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Berlin-based company, owned by Germany's three premium automakers, will provide four services in which drivers share detailed video views of traffic jams or accidents, potential road hazards like fog or slippery streets, traffic signs including temporary speed limits and on-street parking.</p>
<p>BMW , Daimler and Volkswagen will all contribute data to the service, making their first big collaboration since they bought HERE for 2.8 billion euros ($3.1 billion) late last year from mobile equipment maker Nokia of Finland.</p>
<p>Other automakers are expected to join the project later and contribute data from their vehicles, HERE said.</p>
<p>The new live traffic services are set to hit the road in the first half of 2017, HERE said on Monday before the opening of this week's Paris Motor Show.</p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of vehicles from the three German automakers are set to begin feeding visual data into the HERE system supplying these services, with millions of vehicles expected to contribute live traffic feeds by the end of 2018, HERE said.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"You have competing brands which are putting their data together to create very unique services which were not possible before," Bruno Bourguet, HERE's global head of sales, said in an interview.</p>
<p>Data collected from vehicles participating in the network, drawn from brakes, windshield wipers, headlights, location systems, cameras and other sensors, are translated into alerts on driver dashboards using the HERE services.</p>
<p>Collecting sophisticated data from millions of cars on the road promises to give HERE a substantial lead over technology rivals such as Google , Apple , Tesla and TomTom , which have access to data from far fewer vehicles to collect so-called crowd-sourced data, analysts say.</p>
<p>"Crowd-sourced data is crucial for live traffic/maps and the size of the user base will be key to differentiation," UBS said in a recent report.</p>
<p>As other automakers contribute data for these services, an increasingly comprehensive view of road conditions around the world will be built to aid human drivers and, eventually, computer systems for autonomous cars, for which real-time road data is a pre-condition for replacing human drivers.</p>
<p>To date, efforts to realize the potential for connected cars have relied on efforts by individual car makers or technology suppliers, with much of the traffic data collected confined to very limited roads or city-level projects.</p>
<p>HERE, which provides location data to carmakers, businesses and consumer mobile apps, plans to offer live traffic data to the auto industry and other businesses needing more than static maps for new connected car services, including municipalities, road authorities, smartphone makers or mobile app developers.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.8913 euros)</p>
<p>(Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Adrian Croft)</p> | 2,501 |
<p>Nov. 21 (UPI) — Officials at the U.S. State Department have approved a potential foreign military sale to Georgia for Javelin Missiles and Command Launch Units pending final contract approval from the U.S. Congress.</p>
<p>The $75 million deal <a href="http://www.dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/georgia-javelin-missiles-and-command-launch-units" type="external">was announced</a> Monday by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, calling for the sale of 410 FGM-148 Javelin Missiles and 72 Javelin Command Launch Units. The Javelin is a man-portable fire-and-forget anti-tank missile that uses an automatic infrared guidance tracker to hit its target after launch.</p>
<p>Congress was notified of the potential sale last Friday.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Georgia’s Deputy Defense Minister Lela Chikovani <a href="http://en.apa.az/world-news/europe/georgia-will-not-use-military-equipment-to-be-purchased-from-u-s-against-any-country-deputy-minister.html" type="external">told the</a> Azerbaijan Press Agency that Georgia will use the Javelin to increase its defense capacity, noting that the State Department’s approval reinforces the “strong strategic relations between the U.S. and Georgia.”</p>
<p>“The military equipment will serve to improve Georgia’s defense capacity and will not be used against any country,” Chikovani said.</p>
<p>The contract between the two countries also includes 10 basic skill trainers and up to 70 simulated rounds. State Department officials say the proposed sale will not alter the basic military balance of power in the region.</p>
<p>Defense contractors Raytheon and Lockheed Martin will be the prime contractors on the contract with work on the project scheduled to take place in Orlando, Fla., and Tucson, Ariz. The missiles, however, are being provided from the U.S. Army’s stock and future stock purchases, the State Department said.</p>
<p>Officials assess that there will be no adverse impact on U.S. military readiness as a result of this proposed sale.</p> | State Dept. approves potential Javelin missile sale to Georgia | false | https://newsline.com/state-dept-approves-potential-javelin-missile-sale-to-georgia/ | 2017-11-21 | 1right-center
| State Dept. approves potential Javelin missile sale to Georgia
<p>Nov. 21 (UPI) — Officials at the U.S. State Department have approved a potential foreign military sale to Georgia for Javelin Missiles and Command Launch Units pending final contract approval from the U.S. Congress.</p>
<p>The $75 million deal <a href="http://www.dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/georgia-javelin-missiles-and-command-launch-units" type="external">was announced</a> Monday by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, calling for the sale of 410 FGM-148 Javelin Missiles and 72 Javelin Command Launch Units. The Javelin is a man-portable fire-and-forget anti-tank missile that uses an automatic infrared guidance tracker to hit its target after launch.</p>
<p>Congress was notified of the potential sale last Friday.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Georgia’s Deputy Defense Minister Lela Chikovani <a href="http://en.apa.az/world-news/europe/georgia-will-not-use-military-equipment-to-be-purchased-from-u-s-against-any-country-deputy-minister.html" type="external">told the</a> Azerbaijan Press Agency that Georgia will use the Javelin to increase its defense capacity, noting that the State Department’s approval reinforces the “strong strategic relations between the U.S. and Georgia.”</p>
<p>“The military equipment will serve to improve Georgia’s defense capacity and will not be used against any country,” Chikovani said.</p>
<p>The contract between the two countries also includes 10 basic skill trainers and up to 70 simulated rounds. State Department officials say the proposed sale will not alter the basic military balance of power in the region.</p>
<p>Defense contractors Raytheon and Lockheed Martin will be the prime contractors on the contract with work on the project scheduled to take place in Orlando, Fla., and Tucson, Ariz. The missiles, however, are being provided from the U.S. Army’s stock and future stock purchases, the State Department said.</p>
<p>Officials assess that there will be no adverse impact on U.S. military readiness as a result of this proposed sale.</p> | 2,502 |
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<p>(Photo by Maritime Union of New Zealand on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/maritimeunion/2124143984/" type="external">Flickr</a>.)</p>
<p>On Friday, a federal judge fined the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/01/us-lonshoremen-court-idUSTRE79003X20111001" type="external">$250,000 for vandalism and trespassing</a> that occurred during a spout of confrontational protests against a newly opened, largely non-union port facility in Longview, Wash. Despite the fine, it appears that union activists will continue to protest the opening of the port. On September 7, 2011, 500 workers blocked the railroad tracks leading into Longview's Export Grain Terminal (EGT) port as a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway car attempted to enter the facility. According to ILWU Spokesman Craig Meirelles, police with batons charged protesters and their families in an effort to disperse them from the train tracks. Police ended up arresting 19 people that day. The <a href="http://labornotes.org/2011/09/longshore-union-protests-police-brutality-president-surrenders" type="external">next morning,</a> 800 dockworkers from all over the Pacific Northwest entered the dock and dumped out tens of thousands of grain from a 107-car long grain train. On September 21, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/01/us-lonshoremen-court-idUSTRE79003X20111001" type="external">12 union workers and family members were arrested for</a>attempting to block another train from entering the port. Since the protest at <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/01/us-lonshoremen-court-idUSTRE79003X20111001" type="external">least 135 pro-union protesters</a>have been arrested on various occasions, including 100 longshoremen who were arrested for invading the port back in July (a story which In These Times was the first national publication to cover).</p>
<p>As a result of the multiple incidents leading to arrests on charges of trespassing and vandalism, a federal judge issued an injunction, claiming the union broke the <a href="http://blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2011/10/04/labor-wars-in-longview-washington-no-wisconsin-here/" type="external">National Labor Relations Act’s Section 8(b)(4)</a> by attempting to prevent a rail company from delivering grain to the port. Last Friday, the judge fined the union $250,000 for breaking the injunction. The judge also said that he would fine individuals $2,500 each and union officers $5,000 each for future trespassing or illegal activities in protests against the EGT port facility. Union leaders vowed to continue to appeal the ruling by the judge. Despite the heavy fines and the threat of further legal action, it appears that protests will continue. The local longshoremen's union has even launched a campaign to recall the sheriff who has been arresting protesters attempting to block grain trains from entering the port.</p>
<p>Unions up and down the West Coast have engaged in illegal, sometimes uncoordinated wildcat strikes in solidarity. In response to police brutality on September 7, workers in Tacoma and Seattle went out on illegal wildcat strikes on September 8. In response to the arrest of ILWU President Robert McEllrath, ILWU members up and down the West Coast went on an <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/01/us-lonshoremen-court-idUSTRE79003X20111001" type="external">illegal 15-minute strike</a> in a sign of solidarity with the union workers at Longview, Washington.</p>
<p>“Everyone came to the tracks of their own free will to stand up for justice and protect good jobs in the community," said McEllrath, who stood with the volunteers during protests on September 7. “It shouldn’t be a crime to fight for good jobs in America.” The continued protests have made the port difficult to operate, thus hurting the terminal owners’ bottom line. Rarely are unions able to disrupt the operations of a company as the Longview workers have, as labor law strictly prohibits this and imposes heavy fines on unions that engage in such disruptive protests. Most unions therefore choose to take legal, safe route and protect their campaign, rarely engaging in such action and engaging in nondisruptive picketing that does little more than to attract occasional media attention and maintain moral witness. "The way that labor law is set up, longshore workers had to engage in illegal actions to have any chance of success. To allow an employer to refuse to use ILWU labor and undermine hard-won ILWU standards would threaten unionization on West Coast ports," says union organizer Joe Burns (a Working In These Times contributor and author of Reviving The Strike). "The problem is, labor law allows an employer to refuse to use union labor and then judges protect the employers with injunctions and threats against the union. Here, longshore workers decided to fight by labor's rules, not management's." Burns argues that in order for unions to revive themselves, they must get tough and be willing to break labor laws and incur fines in order to win. It looks at this point as if the ILWU is going to disregard the fines and continue to break the law in order to hamper the production at a nonunion facility and force the company to settle. In 1989, Richard Trumka chose to break labor law and launched his rise as labor leader by leading the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in a successful nine-month strike against Pittston Coal Group for cutting off medical benefits to pensioners and the disabled. A full 37,000 miners went out on wildcat strikes in solidarity with the Pittston strikers. The long strike led the UMWA to the brink of bankruptcy, and it was fined nearly $64 million during the strike (fines which were later settled out of court). But the workers stood firm, and the Pittston Strike became a rallying cry against the tide of union busting that had swept the nation during the Reagan era. Now president of the AFL-CIO, the country's largest labor federation, Trumka has <a href="" type="internal">recently been talking</a> about how a new Super PAC will help labor act more independently of the Democratic Party, and help organized labor to stay alive as a movement. Perhaps he should revisit the idea of breaking the law as a strategy for victory.</p> | Longshoreman Struggle Poses Critical Question: When Is It Worth Breaking the Law? | true | http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12045/longshoreman_struggle_poses_critical_question_about_breaking_the_law/ | 2011-10-04 | 4left
| Longshoreman Struggle Poses Critical Question: When Is It Worth Breaking the Law?
<p>your email</p>
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<p>(Photo by Maritime Union of New Zealand on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/maritimeunion/2124143984/" type="external">Flickr</a>.)</p>
<p>On Friday, a federal judge fined the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/01/us-lonshoremen-court-idUSTRE79003X20111001" type="external">$250,000 for vandalism and trespassing</a> that occurred during a spout of confrontational protests against a newly opened, largely non-union port facility in Longview, Wash. Despite the fine, it appears that union activists will continue to protest the opening of the port. On September 7, 2011, 500 workers blocked the railroad tracks leading into Longview's Export Grain Terminal (EGT) port as a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway car attempted to enter the facility. According to ILWU Spokesman Craig Meirelles, police with batons charged protesters and their families in an effort to disperse them from the train tracks. Police ended up arresting 19 people that day. The <a href="http://labornotes.org/2011/09/longshore-union-protests-police-brutality-president-surrenders" type="external">next morning,</a> 800 dockworkers from all over the Pacific Northwest entered the dock and dumped out tens of thousands of grain from a 107-car long grain train. On September 21, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/01/us-lonshoremen-court-idUSTRE79003X20111001" type="external">12 union workers and family members were arrested for</a>attempting to block another train from entering the port. Since the protest at <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/01/us-lonshoremen-court-idUSTRE79003X20111001" type="external">least 135 pro-union protesters</a>have been arrested on various occasions, including 100 longshoremen who were arrested for invading the port back in July (a story which In These Times was the first national publication to cover).</p>
<p>As a result of the multiple incidents leading to arrests on charges of trespassing and vandalism, a federal judge issued an injunction, claiming the union broke the <a href="http://blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2011/10/04/labor-wars-in-longview-washington-no-wisconsin-here/" type="external">National Labor Relations Act’s Section 8(b)(4)</a> by attempting to prevent a rail company from delivering grain to the port. Last Friday, the judge fined the union $250,000 for breaking the injunction. The judge also said that he would fine individuals $2,500 each and union officers $5,000 each for future trespassing or illegal activities in protests against the EGT port facility. Union leaders vowed to continue to appeal the ruling by the judge. Despite the heavy fines and the threat of further legal action, it appears that protests will continue. The local longshoremen's union has even launched a campaign to recall the sheriff who has been arresting protesters attempting to block grain trains from entering the port.</p>
<p>Unions up and down the West Coast have engaged in illegal, sometimes uncoordinated wildcat strikes in solidarity. In response to police brutality on September 7, workers in Tacoma and Seattle went out on illegal wildcat strikes on September 8. In response to the arrest of ILWU President Robert McEllrath, ILWU members up and down the West Coast went on an <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/01/us-lonshoremen-court-idUSTRE79003X20111001" type="external">illegal 15-minute strike</a> in a sign of solidarity with the union workers at Longview, Washington.</p>
<p>“Everyone came to the tracks of their own free will to stand up for justice and protect good jobs in the community," said McEllrath, who stood with the volunteers during protests on September 7. “It shouldn’t be a crime to fight for good jobs in America.” The continued protests have made the port difficult to operate, thus hurting the terminal owners’ bottom line. Rarely are unions able to disrupt the operations of a company as the Longview workers have, as labor law strictly prohibits this and imposes heavy fines on unions that engage in such disruptive protests. Most unions therefore choose to take legal, safe route and protect their campaign, rarely engaging in such action and engaging in nondisruptive picketing that does little more than to attract occasional media attention and maintain moral witness. "The way that labor law is set up, longshore workers had to engage in illegal actions to have any chance of success. To allow an employer to refuse to use ILWU labor and undermine hard-won ILWU standards would threaten unionization on West Coast ports," says union organizer Joe Burns (a Working In These Times contributor and author of Reviving The Strike). "The problem is, labor law allows an employer to refuse to use union labor and then judges protect the employers with injunctions and threats against the union. Here, longshore workers decided to fight by labor's rules, not management's." Burns argues that in order for unions to revive themselves, they must get tough and be willing to break labor laws and incur fines in order to win. It looks at this point as if the ILWU is going to disregard the fines and continue to break the law in order to hamper the production at a nonunion facility and force the company to settle. In 1989, Richard Trumka chose to break labor law and launched his rise as labor leader by leading the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in a successful nine-month strike against Pittston Coal Group for cutting off medical benefits to pensioners and the disabled. A full 37,000 miners went out on wildcat strikes in solidarity with the Pittston strikers. The long strike led the UMWA to the brink of bankruptcy, and it was fined nearly $64 million during the strike (fines which were later settled out of court). But the workers stood firm, and the Pittston Strike became a rallying cry against the tide of union busting that had swept the nation during the Reagan era. Now president of the AFL-CIO, the country's largest labor federation, Trumka has <a href="" type="internal">recently been talking</a> about how a new Super PAC will help labor act more independently of the Democratic Party, and help organized labor to stay alive as a movement. Perhaps he should revisit the idea of breaking the law as a strategy for victory.</p> | 2,503 |
<p>Republicans have been cornered by a president they had vowed to drive from office. Obamacare, an imperfect but badly needed revolution in health care, is, as President Barack Obama said, “here to stay.” Tens of millions of Americans will keep health insurance long denied them, and millions more will obtain such policies in the future.</p>
<p>Republicans sound angry and confused as they try to convince these many millions that they got a bad deal. It reminds me of earlier GOP generations warning Americans that Social Security and Medicare would land us all in the poorhouse. No doubt their latest effort will backfire, too.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision Thursday, assuring that Affordable Care Act subsidies will continue for low-income people throughout the country, gave Obama a huge political victory. The decision also was a great policy victory for Obama, establishing the Affordable Care Act as a vital part of the nation’s social safety net and too much a part of American life to be ripped out.</p>
<p>“What we’re not going to do is unravel what has been woven into the fabric of America,” Obama said. Or, as health care expert Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution said on <a href="http://khn.org/news/talking-the-talk-swift-responses-to-the-supreme-courts-king-v-burwell-decision/%20" type="external">the Kaiser Health News website</a>, “The ACA is already deeply entrenched and will be more so in 18 months when the opportunity for legislative action will occur. You won’t see any opportunity for legislation until 2017, and at that point more than 30 million people will be receiving coverage in one way or another under the ACA. And hospitals, drug companies, device manufacturers will all have new customers under the ACA, and it will be politically risky to roll it back to any significant degree.”</p>
<p />
<p>While Obama was pleased as a politician and policymaker, what may have made the president—a former law professor—happiest was the <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-114_qol1.pdf" type="external">language Chief Justice John Roberts used</a> in upholding the law.</p>
<p>In straightforward, dry terms Roberts skewered the contention of the conservative lawyers trying to destroy Obamacare. Their argument revolved around the online marketplaces, called exchanges, through which consumers buy insurance.</p>
<p>The conservatives had argued that residents of the 34 states that had not set up Affordable Care Act exchanges—but relied on the federal government exchange—were not eligible for subsidies available to those living in the states that had their own exchanges. These subsidies are in the form of tax credits, which can be subtracted from your income tax bill.</p>
<p>The law says subsidies are available through an exchange “established by the state.”</p>
<p>Through a twisting, misleading interpretation of the law, conservative lawyers tried to convince the court that these four words—“established by the state”—meant that subsidies would go only to those buying policies from state exchanges. But Roberts rejected the argument that the state and federal exchanges were different. “State exchanges and federal exchanges are equivalent—they must meet the same requirements, perform the same functions, and serve the same purposes,” he wrote. The Affordable Care Act, he said, requires individuals to be treated the same, no matter where they live.</p>
<p>Roberts ripped into the conservative lawyers. He dismissed their contentions as “a winding path of connect-the-dots” arguments to reach a conclusion that had not occurred to Congress. Congressional and presidential intent, he said, was to fix an ailing health care system.</p>
<p>Roberts said, “In a democracy, the power to make the law rests with those chosen by the people. Our role is more confined—‘to say what the law is.’ That is easier in some cases than in others. But in every case we must respect the role of the Legislature, and take care not to undo what it has done. A fair reading of legislation demands a fair understanding of the legislative plan. Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them. If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter.”If the court had gone the other way, the results would have been disastrous.</p>
<p>The website <a href="http://acasignups.net/" type="external">ACA Signups.net</a>, which tracks the number of people covered by policies whose standards are regulated by the Affordable Care Act, reported that almost 40 million have signed up for policies that comply with Obamacare rules on cost, coverage and other matters. Of these, 10.1 million have purchased policies through exchanges. Another 8 million have bought Obamacare-approved policies on their own. And 13.4 million low-income people received policies through Medicaid and the federal children’s program.</p>
<p>It’s not a perfect law. Medicare for all would have been much better. And, as Jordan Rau pointed out on Kaiser Health News, Obamacare faces a “weighty struggle … to keep prices under control, entice more consumers and encourage quality medical care.” And public support isn’t strong. A CBS poll showed 47 percent approved of Obamacare, although a larger number favored the subsidies and protective provisions of the law, such as the one allowing young adults to remain on their parents’ policies.</p>
<p>But it’s now part of our lives. You don’t have to stay on at a lousy job just for the health insurance. As the conservative <a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/06/25/obamacare-survival/" type="external">Commentary Magazine</a> noted in a grudging headline, “Obamacare Likely to Live Forever Now.” By the 2016 election, it will be a powerful weapon for Democratic presidential and congressional campaigns, and the father of Obamacare will be a valuable ally for the candidates.</p> | Obamacare: Not Perfect, But ‘Here to Stay’ | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/obamacare-not-perfect-but-here-to-stay/ | 2015-06-26 | 4left
| Obamacare: Not Perfect, But ‘Here to Stay’
<p>Republicans have been cornered by a president they had vowed to drive from office. Obamacare, an imperfect but badly needed revolution in health care, is, as President Barack Obama said, “here to stay.” Tens of millions of Americans will keep health insurance long denied them, and millions more will obtain such policies in the future.</p>
<p>Republicans sound angry and confused as they try to convince these many millions that they got a bad deal. It reminds me of earlier GOP generations warning Americans that Social Security and Medicare would land us all in the poorhouse. No doubt their latest effort will backfire, too.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision Thursday, assuring that Affordable Care Act subsidies will continue for low-income people throughout the country, gave Obama a huge political victory. The decision also was a great policy victory for Obama, establishing the Affordable Care Act as a vital part of the nation’s social safety net and too much a part of American life to be ripped out.</p>
<p>“What we’re not going to do is unravel what has been woven into the fabric of America,” Obama said. Or, as health care expert Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution said on <a href="http://khn.org/news/talking-the-talk-swift-responses-to-the-supreme-courts-king-v-burwell-decision/%20" type="external">the Kaiser Health News website</a>, “The ACA is already deeply entrenched and will be more so in 18 months when the opportunity for legislative action will occur. You won’t see any opportunity for legislation until 2017, and at that point more than 30 million people will be receiving coverage in one way or another under the ACA. And hospitals, drug companies, device manufacturers will all have new customers under the ACA, and it will be politically risky to roll it back to any significant degree.”</p>
<p />
<p>While Obama was pleased as a politician and policymaker, what may have made the president—a former law professor—happiest was the <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-114_qol1.pdf" type="external">language Chief Justice John Roberts used</a> in upholding the law.</p>
<p>In straightforward, dry terms Roberts skewered the contention of the conservative lawyers trying to destroy Obamacare. Their argument revolved around the online marketplaces, called exchanges, through which consumers buy insurance.</p>
<p>The conservatives had argued that residents of the 34 states that had not set up Affordable Care Act exchanges—but relied on the federal government exchange—were not eligible for subsidies available to those living in the states that had their own exchanges. These subsidies are in the form of tax credits, which can be subtracted from your income tax bill.</p>
<p>The law says subsidies are available through an exchange “established by the state.”</p>
<p>Through a twisting, misleading interpretation of the law, conservative lawyers tried to convince the court that these four words—“established by the state”—meant that subsidies would go only to those buying policies from state exchanges. But Roberts rejected the argument that the state and federal exchanges were different. “State exchanges and federal exchanges are equivalent—they must meet the same requirements, perform the same functions, and serve the same purposes,” he wrote. The Affordable Care Act, he said, requires individuals to be treated the same, no matter where they live.</p>
<p>Roberts ripped into the conservative lawyers. He dismissed their contentions as “a winding path of connect-the-dots” arguments to reach a conclusion that had not occurred to Congress. Congressional and presidential intent, he said, was to fix an ailing health care system.</p>
<p>Roberts said, “In a democracy, the power to make the law rests with those chosen by the people. Our role is more confined—‘to say what the law is.’ That is easier in some cases than in others. But in every case we must respect the role of the Legislature, and take care not to undo what it has done. A fair reading of legislation demands a fair understanding of the legislative plan. Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them. If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter.”If the court had gone the other way, the results would have been disastrous.</p>
<p>The website <a href="http://acasignups.net/" type="external">ACA Signups.net</a>, which tracks the number of people covered by policies whose standards are regulated by the Affordable Care Act, reported that almost 40 million have signed up for policies that comply with Obamacare rules on cost, coverage and other matters. Of these, 10.1 million have purchased policies through exchanges. Another 8 million have bought Obamacare-approved policies on their own. And 13.4 million low-income people received policies through Medicaid and the federal children’s program.</p>
<p>It’s not a perfect law. Medicare for all would have been much better. And, as Jordan Rau pointed out on Kaiser Health News, Obamacare faces a “weighty struggle … to keep prices under control, entice more consumers and encourage quality medical care.” And public support isn’t strong. A CBS poll showed 47 percent approved of Obamacare, although a larger number favored the subsidies and protective provisions of the law, such as the one allowing young adults to remain on their parents’ policies.</p>
<p>But it’s now part of our lives. You don’t have to stay on at a lousy job just for the health insurance. As the conservative <a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/06/25/obamacare-survival/" type="external">Commentary Magazine</a> noted in a grudging headline, “Obamacare Likely to Live Forever Now.” By the 2016 election, it will be a powerful weapon for Democratic presidential and congressional campaigns, and the father of Obamacare will be a valuable ally for the candidates.</p> | 2,504 |
<p>A Florida judge ordered George Zimmerman back to jail on Friday after revoking bail for the neighborhood watch captain charged with second-degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in the gated community of Sanford.–ARK</p>
<p>The New York Times:</p>
<p>Judge Lester made his ruling shortly after an assistant state attorney, Bernardo de la Rionda, asserted that Mr. Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, during a bail hearing on April 20, had “lied” and “were very deceptive” about assets available to them. That hearing cleared the way for Mr. Zimmerman’s release from jail on $150,000 bond. He had to put up 10 percent, or $15,000, to make bail.</p>
<p>The judge determined that Mr. Zimmerman, who has been in hiding because of concerns about his safety, had engaged in “material falsehoods.” At issue is the roughly $200,000 Mr. Zimmerman raised through a legal defense Web site, money that Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark M. O’Mara, said he learned of several days after the bond hearing.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/us/bond-revoked-for-suspect-in-martin-shooting.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Zimmerman Is Sent Back to Jail | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/zimmerman-is-sent-back-to-jail/ | 2012-06-02 | 4left
| Zimmerman Is Sent Back to Jail
<p>A Florida judge ordered George Zimmerman back to jail on Friday after revoking bail for the neighborhood watch captain charged with second-degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in the gated community of Sanford.–ARK</p>
<p>The New York Times:</p>
<p>Judge Lester made his ruling shortly after an assistant state attorney, Bernardo de la Rionda, asserted that Mr. Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, during a bail hearing on April 20, had “lied” and “were very deceptive” about assets available to them. That hearing cleared the way for Mr. Zimmerman’s release from jail on $150,000 bond. He had to put up 10 percent, or $15,000, to make bail.</p>
<p>The judge determined that Mr. Zimmerman, who has been in hiding because of concerns about his safety, had engaged in “material falsehoods.” At issue is the roughly $200,000 Mr. Zimmerman raised through a legal defense Web site, money that Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark M. O’Mara, said he learned of several days after the bond hearing.</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/02/us/bond-revoked-for-suspect-in-martin-shooting.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | 2,505 |
<p>The bad news is we have been deluged with bad, even mortifying, news, and for such an extended period of time, the mind reels in bafflement as the spirit sinks. Despair seems an apt response to events one cannot reconcile, of circumstances of which one cannot gain perspective nor control.</p>
<p>The only sadnesses that are dangerous and unhealthy are the ones that we carry around in public in order to drown them out with the noise; like diseases that are treated superficially and foolishly, they just withdraw and after a short interval break out again all the more terribly; and&#160;gather inside us and are life, are life that is unlived, rejected, lost, life that we can die of.</p>
<p>— Rainer Maria Rilke, excerpt from <a href="" type="internal">Letters to a Young Poet</a></p>
<p>Depression can be a compensatory response to the inherently manic nature of capitalist dominance of every aspect of life in late modernity. The affliction knocks you on your ass and keeps you there until the psyche can find a better means of using the agency of libido, which, under the extant corporate/consumer/surveillance state panopticon has been usurped.</p>
<p>Under the system’s economic despotism and attendant anomie and alienation, one’s longings, more often than not, do not lead to the connecting eros of a life- enhancing vocation or deepening interpersonal encounters but only as a vehicle that hijacks one’s life into the service of a soul-crushing system, wholly designed to exploit every moment of this fleeting life for the benefit of an overclass of parasites, a klavern of vampires and ghouls.</p>
<p>Depression is the soul’s way of saying, to paraphrase the Vietnam-era antiwar chant, “Hell no, I won’t go.”</p>
<p>Alienation is an apt response to negotiating a soulless landscape. Where is the eros in Big Box/strip-mall encounters? The ad hoc architecture of the consumer culture, which manages to be both utilitarian and garish, renders the heart dry as dust and grinds the mind to spittle. The psyche is in constant communion with its outer surroundings. Thus, what comes to pass if what is extant is a nadascape of vapid commercialization, designed to deliver the shallow sensations concomitant to consumerism but lacking a connecting eros to both numinous inner realities and binding human encounters? A mortification occurs. Some individuals are driven to lash out in anger, even in acts of mass murder. The rage remains inchoate thus is displayed in acts of road rage… in nebulous hatred of outsiders and minorities and the foreign other.</p>
<p>The propagandists of empire are privy to the fact. Hence, so many are convinced, so easily, that North Korea and Iran are threat to the homeland; that Russiagate is a thing; that the U.S. military and the nation’s so-called intelligence agencies are a force for good and act as agents of protection against a hostile world.</p>
<p>But with some, their soul isn’t buying it. Depression pulls one deep into&#160;oneself; therefore, manic compensation and displacement is not possible. They have opted out of the collective madness. Depression’s descent into the self becomes the option to surface level tropes of distraction. Compulsions fall away like autumn leaves, the sap of life is seemingly frozen, the winds of the world howl through barren branches of one’s inner wilderness — to wit, an accurate apprehension of the sound of propaganda and its affront to mind and soul.</p>
<p>Yet: All too many cannot envisage the veritable dangers of our age: ecocide and their threatened extinction of the human species; blanched coral reefs, scoured of life; dying oceans, gagging in plastic particulates; the sky burning, the ashes of charred forests stippling the wind.</p>
<p>Shooting sprees. As American as convenience store hotdogs, mass incarceration and drone murder.</p>
<p>Las Vegas, the crass and sterile U.S. landscape on stilts and steroids, retails in empty sensation. Dominion of night where coruscating lights have scoured away the stars. Perpetual, meretricious come-ons. City of towering, schlock temples wherein what the U.S. holds sacred is worshipped: legal larceny, the deification of empty sensation, and the transubstantiation of everything it touches, flesh and material, into fodder for exploitation. Kitsch uber Alles. A 24/7 neon Pentecost of Mammon.</p>
<p>A wilderness of the collective mind howling with hungry ghosts. Vengeful spirits … inundate the air of the U.S. cult of death. The imprecatory prayers of millions of slaughtered Indians ride the western winds and are funneled into the void of vapidity that is Las Vegas.</p>
<p>A man, eaten hollow by alienation, his soul rancid with displaced rage, stands at a hotel window. The heft of his firearm is the only thing that feels tangible in his hollowness and amid the weightless sheen of the architecture of the city below. The life of an Iraqi, Libyan, Yemeni, Syrian, Palestinian et. al. translates into nothing in the U.S. American system of value. “The only thing those people understand is brutality. When we rain down death … that is the fate they demand.”</p>
<p>The shooter’s mind roils. He acts as he has been conditioned to act. Now, he has achieved the power and control he has been denied. He is a military empire of one. His birthright as a U.S. American has been fulfilled. God bless the USA.</p>
<p>After mass shootings in the U.S., the sale of firearms rises. The phenomenon is very much like the reaction of alcoholics whose solution to the stress-inducing trouble, pain and chaos that their addiction inflicts upon their lives is to attempt to remedy the situation by careening into another drinking binge. U.S. Americans are attracted to guns in the same manner drunks are in love with their chosen killer.</p>
<p>They are seeking sanctuary from fear. All too many view the world as a hostile place, and the remedy, U.S. culture has instructed them, is to dispatch the threat by means of violence. These tormented souls believe they will be provided safety on a weapons-bristling citadel built on a mountain of corpses. (Floridians had to be advised that it would be a less than propitious act to fire weaponry into the fury of Hurricane Irma.)</p>
<p>Thus discussions of “gun control” will only exacerbate more fear, will cause gun sales to rise, and will increase the body count. The great unspoken is: U.S. Americans fear the wrong things. The culture roils in a miasma of confused apprehensions and displaced responses. The threat U.S. Americans are attempting to ward off is comprised by an occupation of ghosts, the ghost of history that stalks the precincts of their own minds.</p>
<p>If the habit of communal engagement is forsaken, the heart atrophies from a lack of practice. The presence of others, even the panoply of life itself, is misapprehended as menacing … Others are perceived as malevolent, inhuman — as phantoms, devoid of face, heart and blood.</p>
<p>Empathy is cultivated through participation mystique. Denied of the experience, the heart is at risk of being rendered a cold citadel of angst and paranoia. Without empathy’s agency, passion cannot be transmuted into compassion. Sans the sublimation of the heart’s hearth, psychical fires threaten to become a raging wildfire of collective madness:</p>
<p>“Putin’s neo-Cossack hacker squads have invaded my hard drive; Iran craves nukes; North Korea is a coiled, nuclear viper of seething crazy. Or the madness is made manifest as shooting sprees whereby the mass murderer attempts to cut down with barrages of semiautomatic weapon fire internal phantoms that torment him from within .” — Paranoid thoughts such as those can be read as, a confused soul’s dark fantasies of release from ego-ossified bondage although by means of the agency of death.</p>
<p>Moreover, I have noticed that often the true state of mind crouched beneath paranoia is envy. Envy… unconsciously evinced as, others are taking up your space in the world and are plotting to maintain the arrangement by your undoing. There is a solution: Go take a survey of the world beyond your self- circumscribed range and insist on your portion of life — your portion of fate. Yes, of course all too many situations in this life are rigged, e.g., the capitalist state. But life itself is too vast, too intricate to be fully controlled; the world is too big to rig.</p>
<p>First release yourself from the stultifying confinement attendant to self-&#160;inflicted bondage. Then proceed into the midst of life and show your face to the world.</p>
<p>Storms will pass, the landscape glistens with renewing rain”</p>
<p>Set barriers and barricades aflame … their flames caress the future.</p>
<p>Phil Rockstroh is a poet, lyricist and philosopher bard living, now, in Munich, Germany. He may be contacted: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a> And at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/phil.rockstroh" type="external">FaceBook.</a></p> | Citadels of Paranoia; Panoramas of Despair: an Occupation of Phantoms | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/10/12/citadels-of-paranoia-panoramas-of-despair-an-occupation-of-phantoms/ | 2017-10-12 | 4left
| Citadels of Paranoia; Panoramas of Despair: an Occupation of Phantoms
<p>The bad news is we have been deluged with bad, even mortifying, news, and for such an extended period of time, the mind reels in bafflement as the spirit sinks. Despair seems an apt response to events one cannot reconcile, of circumstances of which one cannot gain perspective nor control.</p>
<p>The only sadnesses that are dangerous and unhealthy are the ones that we carry around in public in order to drown them out with the noise; like diseases that are treated superficially and foolishly, they just withdraw and after a short interval break out again all the more terribly; and&#160;gather inside us and are life, are life that is unlived, rejected, lost, life that we can die of.</p>
<p>— Rainer Maria Rilke, excerpt from <a href="" type="internal">Letters to a Young Poet</a></p>
<p>Depression can be a compensatory response to the inherently manic nature of capitalist dominance of every aspect of life in late modernity. The affliction knocks you on your ass and keeps you there until the psyche can find a better means of using the agency of libido, which, under the extant corporate/consumer/surveillance state panopticon has been usurped.</p>
<p>Under the system’s economic despotism and attendant anomie and alienation, one’s longings, more often than not, do not lead to the connecting eros of a life- enhancing vocation or deepening interpersonal encounters but only as a vehicle that hijacks one’s life into the service of a soul-crushing system, wholly designed to exploit every moment of this fleeting life for the benefit of an overclass of parasites, a klavern of vampires and ghouls.</p>
<p>Depression is the soul’s way of saying, to paraphrase the Vietnam-era antiwar chant, “Hell no, I won’t go.”</p>
<p>Alienation is an apt response to negotiating a soulless landscape. Where is the eros in Big Box/strip-mall encounters? The ad hoc architecture of the consumer culture, which manages to be both utilitarian and garish, renders the heart dry as dust and grinds the mind to spittle. The psyche is in constant communion with its outer surroundings. Thus, what comes to pass if what is extant is a nadascape of vapid commercialization, designed to deliver the shallow sensations concomitant to consumerism but lacking a connecting eros to both numinous inner realities and binding human encounters? A mortification occurs. Some individuals are driven to lash out in anger, even in acts of mass murder. The rage remains inchoate thus is displayed in acts of road rage… in nebulous hatred of outsiders and minorities and the foreign other.</p>
<p>The propagandists of empire are privy to the fact. Hence, so many are convinced, so easily, that North Korea and Iran are threat to the homeland; that Russiagate is a thing; that the U.S. military and the nation’s so-called intelligence agencies are a force for good and act as agents of protection against a hostile world.</p>
<p>But with some, their soul isn’t buying it. Depression pulls one deep into&#160;oneself; therefore, manic compensation and displacement is not possible. They have opted out of the collective madness. Depression’s descent into the self becomes the option to surface level tropes of distraction. Compulsions fall away like autumn leaves, the sap of life is seemingly frozen, the winds of the world howl through barren branches of one’s inner wilderness — to wit, an accurate apprehension of the sound of propaganda and its affront to mind and soul.</p>
<p>Yet: All too many cannot envisage the veritable dangers of our age: ecocide and their threatened extinction of the human species; blanched coral reefs, scoured of life; dying oceans, gagging in plastic particulates; the sky burning, the ashes of charred forests stippling the wind.</p>
<p>Shooting sprees. As American as convenience store hotdogs, mass incarceration and drone murder.</p>
<p>Las Vegas, the crass and sterile U.S. landscape on stilts and steroids, retails in empty sensation. Dominion of night where coruscating lights have scoured away the stars. Perpetual, meretricious come-ons. City of towering, schlock temples wherein what the U.S. holds sacred is worshipped: legal larceny, the deification of empty sensation, and the transubstantiation of everything it touches, flesh and material, into fodder for exploitation. Kitsch uber Alles. A 24/7 neon Pentecost of Mammon.</p>
<p>A wilderness of the collective mind howling with hungry ghosts. Vengeful spirits … inundate the air of the U.S. cult of death. The imprecatory prayers of millions of slaughtered Indians ride the western winds and are funneled into the void of vapidity that is Las Vegas.</p>
<p>A man, eaten hollow by alienation, his soul rancid with displaced rage, stands at a hotel window. The heft of his firearm is the only thing that feels tangible in his hollowness and amid the weightless sheen of the architecture of the city below. The life of an Iraqi, Libyan, Yemeni, Syrian, Palestinian et. al. translates into nothing in the U.S. American system of value. “The only thing those people understand is brutality. When we rain down death … that is the fate they demand.”</p>
<p>The shooter’s mind roils. He acts as he has been conditioned to act. Now, he has achieved the power and control he has been denied. He is a military empire of one. His birthright as a U.S. American has been fulfilled. God bless the USA.</p>
<p>After mass shootings in the U.S., the sale of firearms rises. The phenomenon is very much like the reaction of alcoholics whose solution to the stress-inducing trouble, pain and chaos that their addiction inflicts upon their lives is to attempt to remedy the situation by careening into another drinking binge. U.S. Americans are attracted to guns in the same manner drunks are in love with their chosen killer.</p>
<p>They are seeking sanctuary from fear. All too many view the world as a hostile place, and the remedy, U.S. culture has instructed them, is to dispatch the threat by means of violence. These tormented souls believe they will be provided safety on a weapons-bristling citadel built on a mountain of corpses. (Floridians had to be advised that it would be a less than propitious act to fire weaponry into the fury of Hurricane Irma.)</p>
<p>Thus discussions of “gun control” will only exacerbate more fear, will cause gun sales to rise, and will increase the body count. The great unspoken is: U.S. Americans fear the wrong things. The culture roils in a miasma of confused apprehensions and displaced responses. The threat U.S. Americans are attempting to ward off is comprised by an occupation of ghosts, the ghost of history that stalks the precincts of their own minds.</p>
<p>If the habit of communal engagement is forsaken, the heart atrophies from a lack of practice. The presence of others, even the panoply of life itself, is misapprehended as menacing … Others are perceived as malevolent, inhuman — as phantoms, devoid of face, heart and blood.</p>
<p>Empathy is cultivated through participation mystique. Denied of the experience, the heart is at risk of being rendered a cold citadel of angst and paranoia. Without empathy’s agency, passion cannot be transmuted into compassion. Sans the sublimation of the heart’s hearth, psychical fires threaten to become a raging wildfire of collective madness:</p>
<p>“Putin’s neo-Cossack hacker squads have invaded my hard drive; Iran craves nukes; North Korea is a coiled, nuclear viper of seething crazy. Or the madness is made manifest as shooting sprees whereby the mass murderer attempts to cut down with barrages of semiautomatic weapon fire internal phantoms that torment him from within .” — Paranoid thoughts such as those can be read as, a confused soul’s dark fantasies of release from ego-ossified bondage although by means of the agency of death.</p>
<p>Moreover, I have noticed that often the true state of mind crouched beneath paranoia is envy. Envy… unconsciously evinced as, others are taking up your space in the world and are plotting to maintain the arrangement by your undoing. There is a solution: Go take a survey of the world beyond your self- circumscribed range and insist on your portion of life — your portion of fate. Yes, of course all too many situations in this life are rigged, e.g., the capitalist state. But life itself is too vast, too intricate to be fully controlled; the world is too big to rig.</p>
<p>First release yourself from the stultifying confinement attendant to self-&#160;inflicted bondage. Then proceed into the midst of life and show your face to the world.</p>
<p>Storms will pass, the landscape glistens with renewing rain”</p>
<p>Set barriers and barricades aflame … their flames caress the future.</p>
<p>Phil Rockstroh is a poet, lyricist and philosopher bard living, now, in Munich, Germany. He may be contacted: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a> And at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/phil.rockstroh" type="external">FaceBook.</a></p> | 2,506 |
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<p />
<p>And that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with how far the ball travels.</p>
<p>Marquis Bundy, the New Mexico Lobos’ tallest wide receiver at 6-foot-4, and Carlos Wiggins, the shortest at 5-8, each caught a touchdown pass from Gautsche on Saturday during the Lobos’ practice at University Stadium.</p>
<p>Some 300 fans braved temperatures in the 90s to watch the workout and mingle with coaches and players for photos and autographs afterward.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Though the Lobos were unaccustomed to the heat, having spent the previous 12 days in the cooler climes of Ruidoso, they got high marks from coach Bob Davie for their energy and concentration during the 90-minute workout – essentially, the last practice of “fall camp.” Classes at UNM start Monday.</p>
<p>“This is about my 36th, 37th year of these post-camp scrimmages,” Davie said. “I think, from a focus standpoint, from an overall execution standpoint, of guys being engaged, wanting to be out here, it was one of my better ones.”</p>
<p>The word “scrimmage” might suggest tackling to the ground, but the Lobos instead “thumped” for most of the practice. The focus, as it has been for most of the preseason, was on the passing game.</p>
<p>According to unofficial statistics kept by the Journal, Gautsche didn’t complete a high percentage of his throws – .375, or 6-of-16, with one drop. But his six completions totaled 147 yards and produced those two touchdowns.</p>
<p>UNM football coach Bob Davie, center, signs a poster Saturday at University Stadium as lineman Darryl Johnson looks on. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>On his first pass of the scrimmage, on a first-and-10 from the defense’s 25-yard line in a red-zone drill, Gautsche found Wiggins in the back of the end zone.</p>
<p>“It was a stop-and-go (route),” said Wiggins, the 5-8, 155-pound sophomore from Plano, Texas. “I faked the block, (then) found (the ball) over my shoulder and caught it.”</p>
<p>A few minutes later, on the first play of a series of downs that began on the offense’s 4-yard line, Gautsche threw deep for Bundy down the left sideline. The pass was slightly underthrown, but Bundy adjusted to the ball and made the catch for a 41-yard gain.</p>
<p>Later, during a third-down conversion drill, Gautsche again went to Bundy down the left sideline. Bundy, a sophomore from Anthem, Ariz., blessed with strong, yet soft hands and deceptive speed, made the catch somewhere around the defense’s 30 and took it in for a 54-yard touchdown.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Unofficially, Bundy had four catches for 114 yards.</p>
<p>Of his long-and-short partnership with Bundy, Wiggins said, “We call it the one-two punch. You’ve got the big, strong guy, with strong hands, to catch the deep ball.</p>
<p>“You’ve got the little guy, which is me, the two punch. You get us the ball in the open field, or anywhere, and we make plays.”</p>
<p>Gautsche said the passing game, largely absent last season, has improved by virtue of hours spent by quarterbacks and receivers on the practice field – many of those hours on their own time.</p>
<p>“We’ve always been trying to go out there and work every day and get routes in,” said Gautsche, a sophomore from Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho. “It’s definitely paying off.</p>
<p>“Carlos is really quick. He’s fast in and out of breaks. Marquis is a bigger guy that I can just kind of throw it up to, and he can go get it.”</p>
<p>The defense, meanwhile, appeared to make significant improvement over its performance in an Aug. 10 scrimmage in Ruidoso.</p>
<p>The Lobos’ bread-and-butter running game was largely contained, though star running back Kasey Carrier saw no action – a precautionary measure – and his primary backups, Crusoe Gongbay and Jhurell Pressley, got limited snaps. The longest run of the day was a 12-yarder on an option keeper by true freshman quarterback Lamar Jordan.</p>
<p>“We were careful,” Davie said of the decision to keep Carrier on the sidelines. “… There are some things we do know. We try to work on the unknowns.”</p>
<p>The defense held the offense to a 4-of-13 conversion rate during the third-down drill, and true freshman cornerback Markel Byrd had two interceptions off throws by No. 2 quarterback Clayton Mitchem.</p>
<p>“The focus (on defense) was a lot better … compared to last Saturday,” senior linebacker Dallas Bollema said. “The communication was a lot more on lockdown.</p>
<p>“We had a little defensive meeting, and we just told ourselves that we needed to step it up.”</p>
<p>The Lobos will take today off, then will practice after classes Monday afternoon.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Lobos get passing grade at scrimmage | false | https://abqjournal.com/249408/pair-of-td-tosses-for-qb-gautsche.html | 2013-08-18 | 2least
| Lobos get passing grade at scrimmage
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<p />
<p>And that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with how far the ball travels.</p>
<p>Marquis Bundy, the New Mexico Lobos’ tallest wide receiver at 6-foot-4, and Carlos Wiggins, the shortest at 5-8, each caught a touchdown pass from Gautsche on Saturday during the Lobos’ practice at University Stadium.</p>
<p>Some 300 fans braved temperatures in the 90s to watch the workout and mingle with coaches and players for photos and autographs afterward.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Though the Lobos were unaccustomed to the heat, having spent the previous 12 days in the cooler climes of Ruidoso, they got high marks from coach Bob Davie for their energy and concentration during the 90-minute workout – essentially, the last practice of “fall camp.” Classes at UNM start Monday.</p>
<p>“This is about my 36th, 37th year of these post-camp scrimmages,” Davie said. “I think, from a focus standpoint, from an overall execution standpoint, of guys being engaged, wanting to be out here, it was one of my better ones.”</p>
<p>The word “scrimmage” might suggest tackling to the ground, but the Lobos instead “thumped” for most of the practice. The focus, as it has been for most of the preseason, was on the passing game.</p>
<p>According to unofficial statistics kept by the Journal, Gautsche didn’t complete a high percentage of his throws – .375, or 6-of-16, with one drop. But his six completions totaled 147 yards and produced those two touchdowns.</p>
<p>UNM football coach Bob Davie, center, signs a poster Saturday at University Stadium as lineman Darryl Johnson looks on. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>On his first pass of the scrimmage, on a first-and-10 from the defense’s 25-yard line in a red-zone drill, Gautsche found Wiggins in the back of the end zone.</p>
<p>“It was a stop-and-go (route),” said Wiggins, the 5-8, 155-pound sophomore from Plano, Texas. “I faked the block, (then) found (the ball) over my shoulder and caught it.”</p>
<p>A few minutes later, on the first play of a series of downs that began on the offense’s 4-yard line, Gautsche threw deep for Bundy down the left sideline. The pass was slightly underthrown, but Bundy adjusted to the ball and made the catch for a 41-yard gain.</p>
<p>Later, during a third-down conversion drill, Gautsche again went to Bundy down the left sideline. Bundy, a sophomore from Anthem, Ariz., blessed with strong, yet soft hands and deceptive speed, made the catch somewhere around the defense’s 30 and took it in for a 54-yard touchdown.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Unofficially, Bundy had four catches for 114 yards.</p>
<p>Of his long-and-short partnership with Bundy, Wiggins said, “We call it the one-two punch. You’ve got the big, strong guy, with strong hands, to catch the deep ball.</p>
<p>“You’ve got the little guy, which is me, the two punch. You get us the ball in the open field, or anywhere, and we make plays.”</p>
<p>Gautsche said the passing game, largely absent last season, has improved by virtue of hours spent by quarterbacks and receivers on the practice field – many of those hours on their own time.</p>
<p>“We’ve always been trying to go out there and work every day and get routes in,” said Gautsche, a sophomore from Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho. “It’s definitely paying off.</p>
<p>“Carlos is really quick. He’s fast in and out of breaks. Marquis is a bigger guy that I can just kind of throw it up to, and he can go get it.”</p>
<p>The defense, meanwhile, appeared to make significant improvement over its performance in an Aug. 10 scrimmage in Ruidoso.</p>
<p>The Lobos’ bread-and-butter running game was largely contained, though star running back Kasey Carrier saw no action – a precautionary measure – and his primary backups, Crusoe Gongbay and Jhurell Pressley, got limited snaps. The longest run of the day was a 12-yarder on an option keeper by true freshman quarterback Lamar Jordan.</p>
<p>“We were careful,” Davie said of the decision to keep Carrier on the sidelines. “… There are some things we do know. We try to work on the unknowns.”</p>
<p>The defense held the offense to a 4-of-13 conversion rate during the third-down drill, and true freshman cornerback Markel Byrd had two interceptions off throws by No. 2 quarterback Clayton Mitchem.</p>
<p>“The focus (on defense) was a lot better … compared to last Saturday,” senior linebacker Dallas Bollema said. “The communication was a lot more on lockdown.</p>
<p>“We had a little defensive meeting, and we just told ourselves that we needed to step it up.”</p>
<p>The Lobos will take today off, then will practice after classes Monday afternoon.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 2,507 |
<p />
<p>RUSH: We just told you about Jody Allard, the <a href="" type="internal">feminist writer who compares her own sons to rapists</a>. They’re teenagers. She says they’re not safe because they have penises, and because they have penises they are prone to rape women, and she writes about them this way. And they’ve gotten old enough now that they’re able to find out that she’s writing this way about them, and they don’t like their mother. And she thinks that’s their problem.</p>
<p>Washington Post yesterday, Sunday edition, Kristine Phillips, headline: “ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/07/16/feminist-scientists-say-citing-research-by-straight-white-men-promotes-a-system-of-oppression/?utm_term=.b775553cc28c" type="external">Why These Professors Are Warning Against Promoting the Work of Straight, White Men</a>.” So you have Jody Allard whose own sons are rapists because they’re men. And she writes that she’s worried about them because they’re men. All men are barbarians, all men are rapists, all men are predators. This is part of feminist teaching. And now we have this story: “Why These Professors Are Warning Against Promoting the Work of Straight, White Men.”</p>
<p>Ready for a new word? Stand by. “Academics and scholars must be mindful –” Now, see, another thing. The Post treats this as legitimately inspired, legitimately serious. The Post does not mock this at all. The Post thinks, wow, this is cutting edge. This is something that we need to be on the right side of so that our readers realize that we are hip and with it.</p>
<p>“Academics and scholars must be mindful about using research done by only straight, white men, according to two scientists –” Scientists, you see. Yes, scientists, you can’t argue with scientists, lab coats and they look official and they think global warming is — can’t argue with scientists. Like Stephen Hawking, who says if we don’t fix climate change, the world is gonna be 480 degrees in 80 years. Scientists. “– according to two scientists who argued that it oppresses diverse voices and bolsters the status of already privileged and established white male scholars.”</p>
<p>So we cannot promote the work of straight white men anymore because it’s discriminatory and oppresses diversity. Geographers, these scientists are — have you heard — this story contains a term “feminist geography.” Have you ever heard of feminist geography? You’ve heard of it now. Can you imagine what it is? Do you have any idea what feminist geography is? Did you know that geography was feminist or could be? Geographers, people that do maps. People that study geography. These are scientists.</p>
<p>Their names are Carrie Mott and Daniel Cockayne, and they argue in a recent paper that promoting the work of straight white men perpetuates what they call “white heteromasculinism.” Promoting the work of straight white men “perpetuates what they call ‘white heteromasculinism,’ which they defined as a ‘system of oppression’ that benefits only those who are ‘white, male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and cisgendered.'”</p>
<p>Do you know what a cis is, folks? Do you even know that? Snerdley, do you know what a cisgender is? A cisgender is a person whose gender identity matches their birth sex. This is how convoluted this is. You’re born a man and you think you’re a man, you’re a cis. C-I-S, cisgendered. You have to be labeled. You can’t just be a man because some men identify as women. That means they’re not cisgendered. They’re transgendered. Transgender versus cisgendered. Heterosexual versus homosexual. Breeder versus gay. I mean, it’s not s-i-s-s-y gender, it’s c-i-s, cisgender.</p>
<p>Folks, this is insane. This is literal cockamamie. We have to stop promoting the work of straight white men because it promotes white heteromasculinity, essentially. We’ve got to stop white masculinity because it is a system of oppression and it benefits only those who are white, male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and cisgendered.</p>
<p>Now, what is it about all of those characteristics that the left despises? Who are these people that were white, male, able-bodied, that’s bad. See, able-bodied is bad, because not everybody is, it’s unfair. We should stop benefiting those who can take care of themselves, it’s not fair. It is actually discriminatory if you are self-reliant. If you’re able-bodied, if you’re able to do things, take care of yourself, you are discriminatory. And you are part of white heteromasculinity. Economically privileged, heterosexual, cisgendered. All of this, this defines normal!</p>
<p>If you are normal, you are bad for our culture. If you are white male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and know that you’re a man, if you’re a man, you are the problem.</p>
<p>“Mott, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and Cockayne, who teaches at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, argued that scholars or researchers disproportionately cite the work of white men, thereby unfairly adding credence to the body of knowledge they offer while ignoring the voices of other groups, like women and black male academics. Although citation seems like a mundane practice, the feminist professors argue that citing someone’s work has implications on his or her ability to be hired, get promoted and obtain tenured status, among others.”</p>
<p>So if you’re normal, you unfairly get most of the goodies. If you’re normal, you get most of the jobs, you get most of the money, you get most of the happiness, and it isn’t fair. The unnormal, the abnormal are being discriminated against by the normal. What did we say last week that much of this culture war is about? Changing the definition of “normal.”</p>
<p>“‘This important research has drawn direct attention to the continued underrepresentation and marginalization of women, people of color. … To cite narrowly, to only cite white men … or to only cite established scholars, does a disservice not only to researchers and writers who are othered by white heteromasculinism.'”</p>
<p>What does othered mean? You know you’re an other? Who are othered, researchers and writers who are othered by white heteromasculinism. In other words, these white heteromasculine types, they “other” everybody else. They turn ’em into others because they’re normal, and the others aren’t. They’re discriminating. They’re creating this group of people that are isolated, not normal. These are the words of these two scholars, these geographers who are scholars.</p>
<p>“Mott and Cockayne did not immediately respond to questions from The Washington Post, but Mott told Campus Reform last week that they decided to write about citation practices after observing that research done by white men are relied upon more heavily than those done by experts from other backgrounds.”</p>
<p>So there’s racism everywhere, sexism everywhere, misogyny everywhere. This is this kind of crap that’s ripping up every shred.</p> | This Is the Kind of Crap That’s Ripping Our Culture to Shreds | true | https://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/07/17/this-is-the-kind-of-crap-thats-ripping-our-culture-to-shreds/ | 2017-07-17 | 0right
| This Is the Kind of Crap That’s Ripping Our Culture to Shreds
<p />
<p>RUSH: We just told you about Jody Allard, the <a href="" type="internal">feminist writer who compares her own sons to rapists</a>. They’re teenagers. She says they’re not safe because they have penises, and because they have penises they are prone to rape women, and she writes about them this way. And they’ve gotten old enough now that they’re able to find out that she’s writing this way about them, and they don’t like their mother. And she thinks that’s their problem.</p>
<p>Washington Post yesterday, Sunday edition, Kristine Phillips, headline: “ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/07/16/feminist-scientists-say-citing-research-by-straight-white-men-promotes-a-system-of-oppression/?utm_term=.b775553cc28c" type="external">Why These Professors Are Warning Against Promoting the Work of Straight, White Men</a>.” So you have Jody Allard whose own sons are rapists because they’re men. And she writes that she’s worried about them because they’re men. All men are barbarians, all men are rapists, all men are predators. This is part of feminist teaching. And now we have this story: “Why These Professors Are Warning Against Promoting the Work of Straight, White Men.”</p>
<p>Ready for a new word? Stand by. “Academics and scholars must be mindful –” Now, see, another thing. The Post treats this as legitimately inspired, legitimately serious. The Post does not mock this at all. The Post thinks, wow, this is cutting edge. This is something that we need to be on the right side of so that our readers realize that we are hip and with it.</p>
<p>“Academics and scholars must be mindful about using research done by only straight, white men, according to two scientists –” Scientists, you see. Yes, scientists, you can’t argue with scientists, lab coats and they look official and they think global warming is — can’t argue with scientists. Like Stephen Hawking, who says if we don’t fix climate change, the world is gonna be 480 degrees in 80 years. Scientists. “– according to two scientists who argued that it oppresses diverse voices and bolsters the status of already privileged and established white male scholars.”</p>
<p>So we cannot promote the work of straight white men anymore because it’s discriminatory and oppresses diversity. Geographers, these scientists are — have you heard — this story contains a term “feminist geography.” Have you ever heard of feminist geography? You’ve heard of it now. Can you imagine what it is? Do you have any idea what feminist geography is? Did you know that geography was feminist or could be? Geographers, people that do maps. People that study geography. These are scientists.</p>
<p>Their names are Carrie Mott and Daniel Cockayne, and they argue in a recent paper that promoting the work of straight white men perpetuates what they call “white heteromasculinism.” Promoting the work of straight white men “perpetuates what they call ‘white heteromasculinism,’ which they defined as a ‘system of oppression’ that benefits only those who are ‘white, male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and cisgendered.'”</p>
<p>Do you know what a cis is, folks? Do you even know that? Snerdley, do you know what a cisgender is? A cisgender is a person whose gender identity matches their birth sex. This is how convoluted this is. You’re born a man and you think you’re a man, you’re a cis. C-I-S, cisgendered. You have to be labeled. You can’t just be a man because some men identify as women. That means they’re not cisgendered. They’re transgendered. Transgender versus cisgendered. Heterosexual versus homosexual. Breeder versus gay. I mean, it’s not s-i-s-s-y gender, it’s c-i-s, cisgender.</p>
<p>Folks, this is insane. This is literal cockamamie. We have to stop promoting the work of straight white men because it promotes white heteromasculinity, essentially. We’ve got to stop white masculinity because it is a system of oppression and it benefits only those who are white, male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and cisgendered.</p>
<p>Now, what is it about all of those characteristics that the left despises? Who are these people that were white, male, able-bodied, that’s bad. See, able-bodied is bad, because not everybody is, it’s unfair. We should stop benefiting those who can take care of themselves, it’s not fair. It is actually discriminatory if you are self-reliant. If you’re able-bodied, if you’re able to do things, take care of yourself, you are discriminatory. And you are part of white heteromasculinity. Economically privileged, heterosexual, cisgendered. All of this, this defines normal!</p>
<p>If you are normal, you are bad for our culture. If you are white male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and know that you’re a man, if you’re a man, you are the problem.</p>
<p>“Mott, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and Cockayne, who teaches at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, argued that scholars or researchers disproportionately cite the work of white men, thereby unfairly adding credence to the body of knowledge they offer while ignoring the voices of other groups, like women and black male academics. Although citation seems like a mundane practice, the feminist professors argue that citing someone’s work has implications on his or her ability to be hired, get promoted and obtain tenured status, among others.”</p>
<p>So if you’re normal, you unfairly get most of the goodies. If you’re normal, you get most of the jobs, you get most of the money, you get most of the happiness, and it isn’t fair. The unnormal, the abnormal are being discriminated against by the normal. What did we say last week that much of this culture war is about? Changing the definition of “normal.”</p>
<p>“‘This important research has drawn direct attention to the continued underrepresentation and marginalization of women, people of color. … To cite narrowly, to only cite white men … or to only cite established scholars, does a disservice not only to researchers and writers who are othered by white heteromasculinism.'”</p>
<p>What does othered mean? You know you’re an other? Who are othered, researchers and writers who are othered by white heteromasculinism. In other words, these white heteromasculine types, they “other” everybody else. They turn ’em into others because they’re normal, and the others aren’t. They’re discriminating. They’re creating this group of people that are isolated, not normal. These are the words of these two scholars, these geographers who are scholars.</p>
<p>“Mott and Cockayne did not immediately respond to questions from The Washington Post, but Mott told Campus Reform last week that they decided to write about citation practices after observing that research done by white men are relied upon more heavily than those done by experts from other backgrounds.”</p>
<p>So there’s racism everywhere, sexism everywhere, misogyny everywhere. This is this kind of crap that’s ripping up every shred.</p> | 2,508 |
<p>By Michael Schwalbe, CounterPunchThis piece first appeared at <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/06/05/twilight-of-the-professors/" type="external">CounterPunch</a>.</p>
<p>Michael Schwalbe is a professor of sociology at North Carolina State University and author of the much-praised “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/191-0775223-3786907?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&amp;field-keywords=+MICHAEL+SCHWALBE" type="external">Rigging the Game: How Inequality Is Reproduced in Everyday Life</a>” (2008). He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Twenty-eight years ago Russell Jacoby argued in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465036252/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Last Intellectuals</a> that the post-WWII expansion of higher education in the U.S. absorbed a generation of radicals who opted to become professors rather than freelance intellectual troublemakers. The constraints and rewards of academic life, according to Jacoby, effectively depoliticized many professors of leftist inclinations. Instead of writing in the common tongue for the educated public, they were carrot and sticked into writing in jargon for tiny academic audiences. As a result, their political force was largely spent in the pursuit of academic careers.</p>
<p>Jacoby acknowledges that universities gave refuge to dissident thinkers who had few other ways to make a decent living. He also grants that careerism did not make it impossible to publish radical work or to teach students to think critically about capitalist society. The problem is that the demands of academic careers made it harder to reach the heights achieved by public intellectuals of the previous generation. We thus ended up with, to paraphrase Jacoby, a thousand leftist sociologists but no C. Wright Mills.</p>
<p />
<p>Since Jacoby’s book was published, things have gotten worse. There are still plenty of left-leaning professors in U.S. colleges and universities. But as an employment sector, higher education has changed. There are now powerful conservatizing trends afoot that will likely lead to the extinction of professors as a left force in U.S. society within a few decades.</p>
<p>One major change is that the expanding academic job market that Jacoby observed is now shrinking. When the market for professors was growing, as it was in the 1960s and 1970s, radicals could get jobs in universities, earn tenure, and do critical intellectual work, even if it was often muted by a desire for conventional academic rewards. Today, tenure-track jobs are fewer and farther between. In response to reduced budgets and out of a desire for a more “flexible”—that is, cheap, pliable, and disposable—labor force, university administrators have cut tenure-track lines, preferring to hire faculty on a temporary, part-time, non-tenure-track basis.</p>
<p>This tightening of the academic job market has intensified competition for the tenure-track jobs that remain. Under these conditions, it is prudent—as each new cohort of graduate students discovers—to focus one’s efforts on publishing in academic journals and avoid rocking any boats, in print or in the classroom. Graduate students are advised that Facebook pages and Tweets should be crafted with the concerns of prospective employers in mind. Anticipation of a competitive job market thus begins to conservatize students early in their graduate careers.</p>
<p>The contingent employment that awaits many of today’s graduate students and that is the fact of life for many of today’s faculty is further conservatizing. Although all faculty are supposed to enjoy academic freedom, contingent faculty whose writing or teaching causes trouble are easily dismissed. A contract is simply not renewed, or a department chair says, “Sorry, we have no sections for you to teach,” and that’s the end of the matter. This precarious situation conduces to playing it safe, making no demands, and keeping students happy. Then there is the practical matter of how much research and writing one can do while trying to piece together a living by teaching four or more courses per semester, often at exploitively low wages.</p>
<p>Competition for jobs and contingent employment are the easier-to-see conservatizing forces. Others are less obvious. One of these is the growth of online instruction. This form of instruction turns a course—something once understood to be a mix of scripted and improvised performance under the control of a professor—into an ownable piece of intellectual property that can be administratively inspected and altered. Knowing that every detail of what one does as an instructor leaves an electronic record, subject at any time to administrative review, can be inhibiting at best and chilling at worst. The best bet, again, is to keep the material and discourse on safe ground.</p>
<p>Conservatizing forces are affecting tenure-track and tenured faculty as well. Budget cuts have led to increased pressure to get grants—an academic ball game that favors normal science and conventionality. Austerity has also intensified internal competition for resources, a competition that has in turn led to greater productivity demands (We must publish more, lest we look bad compared to department X!) backed up by more stringent post-tenure review procedures. All this tends to keep faculty oriented to doing pedestrian academic work. While there is no rule against cultivating a role as a public intellectual, there is only so much time in the day, and professors, like other workers, come to devote themselves to doing what they will be held accountable for and rewarded for.</p>
<p>Then there are the usual conservative attacks on professors. These are nothing new. From the elders of Athens to Andrew Carnegie to Reed Irvine to David Horowitz to today’s know-nothing Republican legislators, blasting professors for asking disturbing questions and pointing out inconvenient truths is standard cultural and class warfare. For the most part, such attacks, at least since the end of the McCarthy era, have been deflected by traditions of free speech, academic freedom, and tenure. Yet here again new economic and political realities have made these attacks more ominous.</p>
<p>When right-wing legislators control state governments, their anti-intellectualism can have serious upshot. It’s not just that budgets for public universities can and have been cut because of legislators’ hostility to non-vocational higher education, it’s that professors are increasingly aware that their public statements can draw retribution. Here in North Carolina in the past year we have seen centers and institutes in the UNC system closed because faculty associated with these centers and institutes offended Republican legislators. No professors lost their jobs, but nor did anyone fail to see that a warning shot had been fired.</p>
<p>Some North Carolina Republican legislators even tried to dictate higher teaching loads for UNC system faculty and to forbid state employees, including professors, from using any work time or state resources to so much as comment on public issues. Both proposals were promptly quashed by saner heads. But again the message was clear: We are watching you and, if we can, we will use our political power to cut you off at the knees. This is not a battle peculiar to North Carolina. Similar struggles are occurring in Wisconsin and other states where ALEC-driven Republicans are in control.</p>
<p>A widening embrace of neoliberal ideology amplifies these threats. Austerians and free marketeers want public universities to operate like vo-tech schools and to serve as think tanks for big business. And so they have targeted for elimination programs in the social sciences and humanities. The claim is that because these programs do not lead to jobs and do little to advance capitalist enterprise, taxpayer money should not be used to support them. This is a view that appeals to middle- and working-class voters whose wages have stagnated and whose taxes have risen. It’s also a view that could lead to an eventual gutting of the liberal arts in public universities, and thus even fewer jobs for PhDs who might aspire to be public intellectuals.</p>
<p>I have been referring mainly to public research universities, in part because they are what I know best. But it is also because of their value and vulnerability that public research universities are of special concern. These universities are supposed to operate in the public interest, thus giving faculty warrant to speak about policy issues and social problems. And unlike teaching-oriented schools, research universities expect faculty to publish. For these reasons, public research universities have had the potential to nurture critical intellectual work. Yet precisely because they are taxpayer supported, at least in part, they are vulnerable to attacks by neoliberal ideologues.</p>
<p>Prestigious private universities are a different story. They are not vulnerable to the same kinds of budget manipulation and demagogic rhetoric about the proper use of taxpayer money. Faculty in these schools have ample time and generous support for research and writing. Ivy League schools are also happy to see their faculty achieve celebrity status. With a few exceptions, however, Ivy League professors who achieve public visibility do so as house intellectuals for the nation’s elite; they are more likely to be legitimators of the status quo than its radical critics. The path to tenure at Harvard does not go through publication in Monthly Review.</p>
<p>Some colleagues with whom I’ve spoken about the demise of professors as public intellectuals have told me not to worry. It’s true, they admit, that we might not have the towering figures of the past, but today we have thousands of websites, blogs, and Twitter feeds through which ordinary professors, those without national fame, can reach a wide audience. For self-serving reasons, I would like to believe this. We indeed have more ways to put out ideas and information than in the pre-Internet era. But I am not so easily comforted.</p>
<p>Even if there are more potential outlets for critical analysis, the same conservatizing forces noted above—tougher job competition, contingent employment, surveillable online instruction, demands for grant-getting and conventional forms of productivity, more stringent accountability regimes, legislative monitoring and related attacks—continue to gain strength. So even if there are new means for reaching non-academic audiences, most professors have good reasons to ignore them. You want to Tweet, blog, or write for websites? That’s fine, just do it in your spare time and don’t expect to be rewarded for it. And be careful what you say.</p>
<p>In 2008, Frank Donoghue, an English professor at Ohio State University, published <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&amp;field-keywords=The+Last+Professors%3A+The+Corporate+University+and+the+Fate+of+the+Humanities" type="external">The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities</a>. Donoghue says, and I agree, that being a professor is still a great job—it affords status, decent pay, autonomy, control over one’s work, and a measure of democratic control over one’s workplace—but today the job is being degraded by the drive for greater managerial control of the university. Professors, especially at the middle and lower tiers of academia, are thus ceasing to be the self-directed, curiosity-driven intellectual workers they once were, or could have been. Despite the undeniable corporatization of the university, when I first read Donoghue’s book I thought he was being alarmist. Now I think he was too cautious.</p>
<p>Just as the public intellectuals that Jacoby reveres began to fade when their economic niche eroded such that they could no longer survive by freelance writing for engaged publics, so too with professors. The niche that once supported critical intellectual work in the university and allowed professors to offer independent analysis to a wide audience is changing. These changes will ever more strongly discourage professors, even tenured ones, from aspiring to or becoming public left intellectuals. What remains after that is likely to be merely academic.</p>
<p /> | Twilight of the Professors | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/twilight-of-the-professors-2/ | 2015-06-06 | 4left
| Twilight of the Professors
<p>By Michael Schwalbe, CounterPunchThis piece first appeared at <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/06/05/twilight-of-the-professors/" type="external">CounterPunch</a>.</p>
<p>Michael Schwalbe is a professor of sociology at North Carolina State University and author of the much-praised “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/191-0775223-3786907?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&amp;field-keywords=+MICHAEL+SCHWALBE" type="external">Rigging the Game: How Inequality Is Reproduced in Everyday Life</a>” (2008). He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>Twenty-eight years ago Russell Jacoby argued in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465036252/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Last Intellectuals</a> that the post-WWII expansion of higher education in the U.S. absorbed a generation of radicals who opted to become professors rather than freelance intellectual troublemakers. The constraints and rewards of academic life, according to Jacoby, effectively depoliticized many professors of leftist inclinations. Instead of writing in the common tongue for the educated public, they were carrot and sticked into writing in jargon for tiny academic audiences. As a result, their political force was largely spent in the pursuit of academic careers.</p>
<p>Jacoby acknowledges that universities gave refuge to dissident thinkers who had few other ways to make a decent living. He also grants that careerism did not make it impossible to publish radical work or to teach students to think critically about capitalist society. The problem is that the demands of academic careers made it harder to reach the heights achieved by public intellectuals of the previous generation. We thus ended up with, to paraphrase Jacoby, a thousand leftist sociologists but no C. Wright Mills.</p>
<p />
<p>Since Jacoby’s book was published, things have gotten worse. There are still plenty of left-leaning professors in U.S. colleges and universities. But as an employment sector, higher education has changed. There are now powerful conservatizing trends afoot that will likely lead to the extinction of professors as a left force in U.S. society within a few decades.</p>
<p>One major change is that the expanding academic job market that Jacoby observed is now shrinking. When the market for professors was growing, as it was in the 1960s and 1970s, radicals could get jobs in universities, earn tenure, and do critical intellectual work, even if it was often muted by a desire for conventional academic rewards. Today, tenure-track jobs are fewer and farther between. In response to reduced budgets and out of a desire for a more “flexible”—that is, cheap, pliable, and disposable—labor force, university administrators have cut tenure-track lines, preferring to hire faculty on a temporary, part-time, non-tenure-track basis.</p>
<p>This tightening of the academic job market has intensified competition for the tenure-track jobs that remain. Under these conditions, it is prudent—as each new cohort of graduate students discovers—to focus one’s efforts on publishing in academic journals and avoid rocking any boats, in print or in the classroom. Graduate students are advised that Facebook pages and Tweets should be crafted with the concerns of prospective employers in mind. Anticipation of a competitive job market thus begins to conservatize students early in their graduate careers.</p>
<p>The contingent employment that awaits many of today’s graduate students and that is the fact of life for many of today’s faculty is further conservatizing. Although all faculty are supposed to enjoy academic freedom, contingent faculty whose writing or teaching causes trouble are easily dismissed. A contract is simply not renewed, or a department chair says, “Sorry, we have no sections for you to teach,” and that’s the end of the matter. This precarious situation conduces to playing it safe, making no demands, and keeping students happy. Then there is the practical matter of how much research and writing one can do while trying to piece together a living by teaching four or more courses per semester, often at exploitively low wages.</p>
<p>Competition for jobs and contingent employment are the easier-to-see conservatizing forces. Others are less obvious. One of these is the growth of online instruction. This form of instruction turns a course—something once understood to be a mix of scripted and improvised performance under the control of a professor—into an ownable piece of intellectual property that can be administratively inspected and altered. Knowing that every detail of what one does as an instructor leaves an electronic record, subject at any time to administrative review, can be inhibiting at best and chilling at worst. The best bet, again, is to keep the material and discourse on safe ground.</p>
<p>Conservatizing forces are affecting tenure-track and tenured faculty as well. Budget cuts have led to increased pressure to get grants—an academic ball game that favors normal science and conventionality. Austerity has also intensified internal competition for resources, a competition that has in turn led to greater productivity demands (We must publish more, lest we look bad compared to department X!) backed up by more stringent post-tenure review procedures. All this tends to keep faculty oriented to doing pedestrian academic work. While there is no rule against cultivating a role as a public intellectual, there is only so much time in the day, and professors, like other workers, come to devote themselves to doing what they will be held accountable for and rewarded for.</p>
<p>Then there are the usual conservative attacks on professors. These are nothing new. From the elders of Athens to Andrew Carnegie to Reed Irvine to David Horowitz to today’s know-nothing Republican legislators, blasting professors for asking disturbing questions and pointing out inconvenient truths is standard cultural and class warfare. For the most part, such attacks, at least since the end of the McCarthy era, have been deflected by traditions of free speech, academic freedom, and tenure. Yet here again new economic and political realities have made these attacks more ominous.</p>
<p>When right-wing legislators control state governments, their anti-intellectualism can have serious upshot. It’s not just that budgets for public universities can and have been cut because of legislators’ hostility to non-vocational higher education, it’s that professors are increasingly aware that their public statements can draw retribution. Here in North Carolina in the past year we have seen centers and institutes in the UNC system closed because faculty associated with these centers and institutes offended Republican legislators. No professors lost their jobs, but nor did anyone fail to see that a warning shot had been fired.</p>
<p>Some North Carolina Republican legislators even tried to dictate higher teaching loads for UNC system faculty and to forbid state employees, including professors, from using any work time or state resources to so much as comment on public issues. Both proposals were promptly quashed by saner heads. But again the message was clear: We are watching you and, if we can, we will use our political power to cut you off at the knees. This is not a battle peculiar to North Carolina. Similar struggles are occurring in Wisconsin and other states where ALEC-driven Republicans are in control.</p>
<p>A widening embrace of neoliberal ideology amplifies these threats. Austerians and free marketeers want public universities to operate like vo-tech schools and to serve as think tanks for big business. And so they have targeted for elimination programs in the social sciences and humanities. The claim is that because these programs do not lead to jobs and do little to advance capitalist enterprise, taxpayer money should not be used to support them. This is a view that appeals to middle- and working-class voters whose wages have stagnated and whose taxes have risen. It’s also a view that could lead to an eventual gutting of the liberal arts in public universities, and thus even fewer jobs for PhDs who might aspire to be public intellectuals.</p>
<p>I have been referring mainly to public research universities, in part because they are what I know best. But it is also because of their value and vulnerability that public research universities are of special concern. These universities are supposed to operate in the public interest, thus giving faculty warrant to speak about policy issues and social problems. And unlike teaching-oriented schools, research universities expect faculty to publish. For these reasons, public research universities have had the potential to nurture critical intellectual work. Yet precisely because they are taxpayer supported, at least in part, they are vulnerable to attacks by neoliberal ideologues.</p>
<p>Prestigious private universities are a different story. They are not vulnerable to the same kinds of budget manipulation and demagogic rhetoric about the proper use of taxpayer money. Faculty in these schools have ample time and generous support for research and writing. Ivy League schools are also happy to see their faculty achieve celebrity status. With a few exceptions, however, Ivy League professors who achieve public visibility do so as house intellectuals for the nation’s elite; they are more likely to be legitimators of the status quo than its radical critics. The path to tenure at Harvard does not go through publication in Monthly Review.</p>
<p>Some colleagues with whom I’ve spoken about the demise of professors as public intellectuals have told me not to worry. It’s true, they admit, that we might not have the towering figures of the past, but today we have thousands of websites, blogs, and Twitter feeds through which ordinary professors, those without national fame, can reach a wide audience. For self-serving reasons, I would like to believe this. We indeed have more ways to put out ideas and information than in the pre-Internet era. But I am not so easily comforted.</p>
<p>Even if there are more potential outlets for critical analysis, the same conservatizing forces noted above—tougher job competition, contingent employment, surveillable online instruction, demands for grant-getting and conventional forms of productivity, more stringent accountability regimes, legislative monitoring and related attacks—continue to gain strength. So even if there are new means for reaching non-academic audiences, most professors have good reasons to ignore them. You want to Tweet, blog, or write for websites? That’s fine, just do it in your spare time and don’t expect to be rewarded for it. And be careful what you say.</p>
<p>In 2008, Frank Donoghue, an English professor at Ohio State University, published <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&amp;field-keywords=The+Last+Professors%3A+The+Corporate+University+and+the+Fate+of+the+Humanities" type="external">The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities</a>. Donoghue says, and I agree, that being a professor is still a great job—it affords status, decent pay, autonomy, control over one’s work, and a measure of democratic control over one’s workplace—but today the job is being degraded by the drive for greater managerial control of the university. Professors, especially at the middle and lower tiers of academia, are thus ceasing to be the self-directed, curiosity-driven intellectual workers they once were, or could have been. Despite the undeniable corporatization of the university, when I first read Donoghue’s book I thought he was being alarmist. Now I think he was too cautious.</p>
<p>Just as the public intellectuals that Jacoby reveres began to fade when their economic niche eroded such that they could no longer survive by freelance writing for engaged publics, so too with professors. The niche that once supported critical intellectual work in the university and allowed professors to offer independent analysis to a wide audience is changing. These changes will ever more strongly discourage professors, even tenured ones, from aspiring to or becoming public left intellectuals. What remains after that is likely to be merely academic.</p>
<p /> | 2,509 |
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<p>Skittles is <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/irl/white-skittles-pride-month/" type="external">releasing</a> limited edition white candy with a white bag in honor of Pride month. They are giving the LGBT their rainbow to commemorate this month. These bags are being sold at Tesco stores in the UK and on Amazon as well.</p>
<p>Some people are using the pride bag to accuse Skittles of racism. Here are some reactions to this bag:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>As the bag <a href="http://amp1037.cbslocal.com/2017/06/15/skittles-release-all-white-bag-and-candies-in-honor-of-pride-month/#.WUJ14gxL1v8.twitter" type="external">says</a>:</p>
<p>“During Pride, only one rainbow matters. So we’ve given up ours to show support.”</p>
<p>These candies are still fruit-flavored just like regular Skittles.</p>
<p>Ad Week <a href="http://www.adweek.com/creativity/skittles-sheds-its-rainbow-celebrate-london-pride-172303/" type="external">reported</a>:</p>
<p>“So this is kind of awkward, but we’re just gonna go ahead and address the rainbow-colored elephant in the room,” reads an open letter sent to publishers last week. “You have the rainbow … we have the rainbow … and usually that’s just hunky-dory.”</p>
<p>“But this Pride, only one rainbow deserves to be the centre of attention-yours,” the message goes on to read. “And we’re not going to be the ones to steal your rainbow thunder, no siree.”</p>
<p>Featured image via <a href="https://twitter.com/designtaxi/status/875387467628785664" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | Skittles Ditches The Rainbow For An AWESOME Reason! | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2017/06/15/skittles-ditches-the-rainbow-for-an-awesome-reason/ | 2017-06-15 | 4left
| Skittles Ditches The Rainbow For An AWESOME Reason!
<p />
<p />
<p>Skittles is <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/irl/white-skittles-pride-month/" type="external">releasing</a> limited edition white candy with a white bag in honor of Pride month. They are giving the LGBT their rainbow to commemorate this month. These bags are being sold at Tesco stores in the UK and on Amazon as well.</p>
<p>Some people are using the pride bag to accuse Skittles of racism. Here are some reactions to this bag:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>As the bag <a href="http://amp1037.cbslocal.com/2017/06/15/skittles-release-all-white-bag-and-candies-in-honor-of-pride-month/#.WUJ14gxL1v8.twitter" type="external">says</a>:</p>
<p>“During Pride, only one rainbow matters. So we’ve given up ours to show support.”</p>
<p>These candies are still fruit-flavored just like regular Skittles.</p>
<p>Ad Week <a href="http://www.adweek.com/creativity/skittles-sheds-its-rainbow-celebrate-london-pride-172303/" type="external">reported</a>:</p>
<p>“So this is kind of awkward, but we’re just gonna go ahead and address the rainbow-colored elephant in the room,” reads an open letter sent to publishers last week. “You have the rainbow … we have the rainbow … and usually that’s just hunky-dory.”</p>
<p>“But this Pride, only one rainbow deserves to be the centre of attention-yours,” the message goes on to read. “And we’re not going to be the ones to steal your rainbow thunder, no siree.”</p>
<p>Featured image via <a href="https://twitter.com/designtaxi/status/875387467628785664" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | 2,510 |
<p>Another MSNBC host demanded that conservatives apologize to the President for the failure for ObamaCare – not the other way around. Ed Schultz on Monday fumed, "The apology should be coming from the conservatives. The conservatives should be apologizing for having no plan." [MP3 audio&#160; <a href="http://newsbusters.org/sites/default/files/2013/2013-11-11-MSNBC-Ed-Schultz.mp3" type="external">here.</a>]</p>
<p>Bypassing the issue of the President's untrue statement– that if Americans like their health insurance, they can keep it – Schultz attacked, "They [conservatives] should be apologizing to the 50 million Americans who have been without insurance because, damn it, they've been sick!"</p>
<p />
<p>The anchor interpreted Obama's comments last week as a non-apology: "He's apologizing? That's kind of not how I saw the interview. The way I saw the interview was the President was apologizing for the inconvenience that people are having to go through to actually go to a policy where they're going to get some real coverage."</p>
<p><a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2013/11/11/msnbcs-smerconish-gop-apologize-obama-he-saved-us-junk-plans" type="external">On Friday</a>, Schultz's MSNBC colleague Michael Smerconish condescendingly explained, "The facts are that many of the same people that feel betrayed now will be thanking the President later."</p>
<p>Using words that Schultz would later imitate, Smerconish wondered, "As Republicans revel in the President's comments, we should ask who should offer the real apology here?"</p>
<p>A partial transcript of the November 11&#160;Ed Show&#160;segment is below:</p>
<p>5:08</p>
<p>ED SCHULTZ: I want the to talk about President Obama's interview with Chuck Todd last Thursday where it was reported in the media that the President has apologized to all of those people out there who were losing their insurance. Really? He's apologizing? That's kind of not how I saw the interview. The way I saw the interview was the President was apologizing for the inconvenience that people are having to go through to actually go to a policy where they're going to get some real coverage.</p>
<p>The apology should be coming from the conservatives. The conservatives should be apologizing for having no plan and no option for any of the people you've just seen illustrated on this program, and they should be apologizing to the 50 million Americans who have been without insurance because, damn it, they've been sick!&#160;The Republicans continue their ruthless tactics of lying about ObamaCare. And they are so strong and so influential, they have even infiltrated the Sunday talk shows.&#160;You know what you get on Sunday talk shows now? A bunch of conservative crap. You get the truth here on the Ed Show with people who are out in the workplace telling their stories about what is happening to ObamaCare.</p> | Ed Schultz's ObamaCare Demands: 'The Apology Should Be Coming from Conservatives' | true | http://mrc.org/biasalerts/ed-schultzs-obamacare-demands-apology-should-be-coming-conservatives | 0right
| Ed Schultz's ObamaCare Demands: 'The Apology Should Be Coming from Conservatives'
<p>Another MSNBC host demanded that conservatives apologize to the President for the failure for ObamaCare – not the other way around. Ed Schultz on Monday fumed, "The apology should be coming from the conservatives. The conservatives should be apologizing for having no plan." [MP3 audio&#160; <a href="http://newsbusters.org/sites/default/files/2013/2013-11-11-MSNBC-Ed-Schultz.mp3" type="external">here.</a>]</p>
<p>Bypassing the issue of the President's untrue statement– that if Americans like their health insurance, they can keep it – Schultz attacked, "They [conservatives] should be apologizing to the 50 million Americans who have been without insurance because, damn it, they've been sick!"</p>
<p />
<p>The anchor interpreted Obama's comments last week as a non-apology: "He's apologizing? That's kind of not how I saw the interview. The way I saw the interview was the President was apologizing for the inconvenience that people are having to go through to actually go to a policy where they're going to get some real coverage."</p>
<p><a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2013/11/11/msnbcs-smerconish-gop-apologize-obama-he-saved-us-junk-plans" type="external">On Friday</a>, Schultz's MSNBC colleague Michael Smerconish condescendingly explained, "The facts are that many of the same people that feel betrayed now will be thanking the President later."</p>
<p>Using words that Schultz would later imitate, Smerconish wondered, "As Republicans revel in the President's comments, we should ask who should offer the real apology here?"</p>
<p>A partial transcript of the November 11&#160;Ed Show&#160;segment is below:</p>
<p>5:08</p>
<p>ED SCHULTZ: I want the to talk about President Obama's interview with Chuck Todd last Thursday where it was reported in the media that the President has apologized to all of those people out there who were losing their insurance. Really? He's apologizing? That's kind of not how I saw the interview. The way I saw the interview was the President was apologizing for the inconvenience that people are having to go through to actually go to a policy where they're going to get some real coverage.</p>
<p>The apology should be coming from the conservatives. The conservatives should be apologizing for having no plan and no option for any of the people you've just seen illustrated on this program, and they should be apologizing to the 50 million Americans who have been without insurance because, damn it, they've been sick!&#160;The Republicans continue their ruthless tactics of lying about ObamaCare. And they are so strong and so influential, they have even infiltrated the Sunday talk shows.&#160;You know what you get on Sunday talk shows now? A bunch of conservative crap. You get the truth here on the Ed Show with people who are out in the workplace telling their stories about what is happening to ObamaCare.</p> | 2,511 |
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<p>The USGA had no comment on a letter sent to it by three Democratic U.S. senators asked that the event be moved away from Trump National in Bedminster.</p>
<p>Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, Edward Markey, of Massachusetts, and Bob Casey, of Pennsylvania, made the request in a letter sent Monday, asking USGA executive director Mike Davis to consider suspending further events at properties owned by the Republican presidential candidate because of what they describe as a “pattern of degrading and dehumanizing women” over decades.</p>
<p>The Trump Organization declined comment.</p>
<p>USGA spokeswoman Janeen Driscoll said in an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday that the organization’s stance on Trump has not changed since it issued a statement a couple of months ago.</p>
<p>At the time, the USGA said the Trump has made some remarks during his presidential campaign that are at odds with its belief that golf should be welcoming and inclusive for all. The organization has reiterated for more than a year that it does not share his views, and that is still true, the statement read.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>With the tournament less than a year away, the USGA said its focus is to conduct an excellent championship for the players, the spectators, the fans, and the volunteers.</p>
<p>“Our position hasn’t changed since that time” Driscoll wrote. “Beyond that, we simply will not comment on politics.”</p>
<p>Trump was recorded in a 2005 video using vulgar language and apparently boasting of sexual assault. He has been accused of unwanted sexual advances by a group of women this month. He has called them liars and threatened to sue.</p>
<p>Bob Menendez, of New Jersey, joined the other senators Tuesday in calling for the event to be moved, but only if the tournament stays in the state.</p>
<p>Menendez says he doesn’t agree with penalizing people in New Jersey who depend on the jobs that come from hosting the event.</p> | 3 US senators want women’s golf open moved from Trump course | false | https://abqjournal.com/874912/3-us-senators-want-womens-golf-open-moved-from-trump-course.html | 2016-10-25 | 2least
| 3 US senators want women’s golf open moved from Trump course
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<p />
<p>The USGA had no comment on a letter sent to it by three Democratic U.S. senators asked that the event be moved away from Trump National in Bedminster.</p>
<p>Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, Edward Markey, of Massachusetts, and Bob Casey, of Pennsylvania, made the request in a letter sent Monday, asking USGA executive director Mike Davis to consider suspending further events at properties owned by the Republican presidential candidate because of what they describe as a “pattern of degrading and dehumanizing women” over decades.</p>
<p>The Trump Organization declined comment.</p>
<p>USGA spokeswoman Janeen Driscoll said in an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday that the organization’s stance on Trump has not changed since it issued a statement a couple of months ago.</p>
<p>At the time, the USGA said the Trump has made some remarks during his presidential campaign that are at odds with its belief that golf should be welcoming and inclusive for all. The organization has reiterated for more than a year that it does not share his views, and that is still true, the statement read.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>With the tournament less than a year away, the USGA said its focus is to conduct an excellent championship for the players, the spectators, the fans, and the volunteers.</p>
<p>“Our position hasn’t changed since that time” Driscoll wrote. “Beyond that, we simply will not comment on politics.”</p>
<p>Trump was recorded in a 2005 video using vulgar language and apparently boasting of sexual assault. He has been accused of unwanted sexual advances by a group of women this month. He has called them liars and threatened to sue.</p>
<p>Bob Menendez, of New Jersey, joined the other senators Tuesday in calling for the event to be moved, but only if the tournament stays in the state.</p>
<p>Menendez says he doesn’t agree with penalizing people in New Jersey who depend on the jobs that come from hosting the event.</p> | 2,512 |
<p>Published time: 15 Aug, 2017 15:34</p>
<p>Police in India arrested four people suspected in the involvement of a leaked ‘Game of Thrones’ episode. Searches took place at the offices of Prime Focus Technologies in Bangalore, where the leak is believed to have occurred, last week.</p>
<p>The arrests took place on August 14, police said in a statement reported the <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/media/entertainment/police-arrests-4-in-game-of-thrones-episode-leak-case/articleshow/60063754.cms" type="external">Economic Times of India</a>.</p>
<p>Prime are contracted to manage data for Star India Private Limited, owned by 21st Century, which distribute ‘Game of Thrones’ in India.</p>
<p>The leaked episode, which appeared online two days before its scheduled August 7 release date, carried the logo of Star India.</p>
<p>A statement from police said the various people were involved in the leak, including both existing and former employees, with the investigation ongoing.</p>
<p>The raid of the Prime offices was carried out by a unit from the Cyber &amp; PAW, Government of Maharashtra, and included the collection of material to be further investigated.</p>
<p>In a statement Star India said the breach was the first in its history.</p>
<p>“We at Star India and Novi Digital Entertainment Private Limited stand committed and ready to help the law enforcement agencies with any technical assistance and help they may require in taking the investigation to its logical conclusion,” it read.</p>
<p>The episode leak followed a security breach which saw 1.5 terabytes of data stolen from HBO. Included in the data were unreleased episodes of other HBO shows.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/399350-hbo-hackers-bounty-ransom/" type="external">READ MORE: HBO offered GoT hackers $250k Bitcoin ‘bounty’ – emails</a></p> | ‘Game of Thrones’ leak: 4 arrested in India after data firm raided | false | https://newsline.com/game-of-thrones-leak-4-arrested-in-india-after-data-firm-raided/ | 2017-08-15 | 1right-center
| ‘Game of Thrones’ leak: 4 arrested in India after data firm raided
<p>Published time: 15 Aug, 2017 15:34</p>
<p>Police in India arrested four people suspected in the involvement of a leaked ‘Game of Thrones’ episode. Searches took place at the offices of Prime Focus Technologies in Bangalore, where the leak is believed to have occurred, last week.</p>
<p>The arrests took place on August 14, police said in a statement reported the <a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/media/entertainment/police-arrests-4-in-game-of-thrones-episode-leak-case/articleshow/60063754.cms" type="external">Economic Times of India</a>.</p>
<p>Prime are contracted to manage data for Star India Private Limited, owned by 21st Century, which distribute ‘Game of Thrones’ in India.</p>
<p>The leaked episode, which appeared online two days before its scheduled August 7 release date, carried the logo of Star India.</p>
<p>A statement from police said the various people were involved in the leak, including both existing and former employees, with the investigation ongoing.</p>
<p>The raid of the Prime offices was carried out by a unit from the Cyber &amp; PAW, Government of Maharashtra, and included the collection of material to be further investigated.</p>
<p>In a statement Star India said the breach was the first in its history.</p>
<p>“We at Star India and Novi Digital Entertainment Private Limited stand committed and ready to help the law enforcement agencies with any technical assistance and help they may require in taking the investigation to its logical conclusion,” it read.</p>
<p>The episode leak followed a security breach which saw 1.5 terabytes of data stolen from HBO. Included in the data were unreleased episodes of other HBO shows.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/399350-hbo-hackers-bounty-ransom/" type="external">READ MORE: HBO offered GoT hackers $250k Bitcoin ‘bounty’ – emails</a></p> | 2,513 |
<p>A recent poll shows that real estate mogul Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) lead Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) in Florida.</p>
<p>Here are the results of Thursday's <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-and-cruz-beating-rubio-and-bush-in-florida-poll/article/2578612?custom_click=rss" type="external">St. Pete Poll</a> conducted between Dec. 14-15:</p>
<p>This poll has not yet been included in <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president/republican_primary_polls.html" type="external">RealClearPolitics polling averages</a> in Florida, but they still show Trump leading:</p>
<p>The fact that Rubio and Bush aren't even in the top two in their home state does not bode well for either, especially since their polling numbers combined don't come close to Trump. The Daily Beast's Will Rahn <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/16/was-marco-rubio-overrated-all-along.html" type="external">notes</a> that Rubio is having trouble on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire, too:</p>
<p>Now, instead of talk of a boom for Rubio, we increasingly have Republicans wondering how the guy is getting so consistently out-hustled on the ground. “[U]nderneath the buzz, GOP activists in New Hampshire are grumbling that Rubio has fewer staff members and endorsements than most of his main rivals and has made fewer campaign appearances in the state, where voters are accustomed to face-to-face contact with presidential contenders,” The Boston Globe wrote this month. Iowa Republicans, meanwhile, are likewise annoyed that he doesn’t have much of a presence there.</p>
<p>Rubio’s apparent reluctance to really work the trail is all a bit mystifying. He says he’s missing Senate votes because he’s busy campaigning, and then people in New Hampshire and Iowa get miffed that he’s nowhere to be found. You don’t need a lot of money to barnstorm, which is why it’s usually the preferred tactic of candidates like Rubio, who has lagged behind Cruz and Bush in the fundraising race.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-and-cruz-beating-rubio-and-bush-in-florida-poll/article/2578612?custom_click=rss" type="external">The Washington Examiner</a> pointed out that Bush's debate watch party in Miami was mostly empty.</p>
<p>The St. Pete poll seems to confirm the trend that Republican voters aren't interested in establishment candidates like Rubio and Bush, consistently choosing outsiders like Trump, Cruz, and Carson over them. It could end up being a Trump vs. Cruz primary after all.</p> | Poll: Trump and Cruz Lead Rubio and Bush in Florida | true | https://dailywire.com/news/1946/poll-trump-and-cruz-lead-rubio-and-bush-florida-aaron-bandler | 2015-12-17 | 0right
| Poll: Trump and Cruz Lead Rubio and Bush in Florida
<p>A recent poll shows that real estate mogul Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) lead Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) in Florida.</p>
<p>Here are the results of Thursday's <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-and-cruz-beating-rubio-and-bush-in-florida-poll/article/2578612?custom_click=rss" type="external">St. Pete Poll</a> conducted between Dec. 14-15:</p>
<p>This poll has not yet been included in <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president/republican_primary_polls.html" type="external">RealClearPolitics polling averages</a> in Florida, but they still show Trump leading:</p>
<p>The fact that Rubio and Bush aren't even in the top two in their home state does not bode well for either, especially since their polling numbers combined don't come close to Trump. The Daily Beast's Will Rahn <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/16/was-marco-rubio-overrated-all-along.html" type="external">notes</a> that Rubio is having trouble on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire, too:</p>
<p>Now, instead of talk of a boom for Rubio, we increasingly have Republicans wondering how the guy is getting so consistently out-hustled on the ground. “[U]nderneath the buzz, GOP activists in New Hampshire are grumbling that Rubio has fewer staff members and endorsements than most of his main rivals and has made fewer campaign appearances in the state, where voters are accustomed to face-to-face contact with presidential contenders,” The Boston Globe wrote this month. Iowa Republicans, meanwhile, are likewise annoyed that he doesn’t have much of a presence there.</p>
<p>Rubio’s apparent reluctance to really work the trail is all a bit mystifying. He says he’s missing Senate votes because he’s busy campaigning, and then people in New Hampshire and Iowa get miffed that he’s nowhere to be found. You don’t need a lot of money to barnstorm, which is why it’s usually the preferred tactic of candidates like Rubio, who has lagged behind Cruz and Bush in the fundraising race.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-and-cruz-beating-rubio-and-bush-in-florida-poll/article/2578612?custom_click=rss" type="external">The Washington Examiner</a> pointed out that Bush's debate watch party in Miami was mostly empty.</p>
<p>The St. Pete poll seems to confirm the trend that Republican voters aren't interested in establishment candidates like Rubio and Bush, consistently choosing outsiders like Trump, Cruz, and Carson over them. It could end up being a Trump vs. Cruz primary after all.</p> | 2,514 |
<p>Photo Credit: Image by Shutterstock</p>
<p>(Editor’s Note: When MIT Sloan School of Management Professor <a href="//sloan.mit.edu/faculty/detail.php?in_spseqno=51388" type="external">Zeynep Ton</a> faces her students, she tells the future executives that they don’t have to treat employees and customers poorly to make money—especially in service jobs.</p>
<p>Ton knows they have heard all the stereotypes; that cutting costs is the key to profits. But she has found that’s not true, especially in the service sector. Better treatment of workers translates into more sales. Higher pay means less turnover. Better service creates loyalty among consumers. Ton profiles a handful of good and bad employers in a new <a href="//zeynepton.com/" type="external">book</a>, The Good Jobs Strategy: How The Smartest Companies Invest In Employees to Lower Costs and Improve Profits.</p>
<p>In this excerpt, we see contrasting profiles where management has chosen bad and good job strategies. Ton’s insights underscore that America’s business owners do not have to pay workers poorly, treat them and consumers with contempt, to make money. It is a powerful analysis that, if heeded, could transform the workplace.)&#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Excerpted from The Good Jobs Strategyby Zeynep Ton,with permission from Amazon Publishing/New Harvest.</p>
<p>The Bad Job: Janet’s Big Box Store</p>
<p>Janet had her own small video rental business, but it wasn’t making enough money. In 2005, she had to close it down. Luckily — or so it seemed — she became a sales associate in the electronics section of a large retail chain. Even better, it was a full-time job. Her job included making sure everything in her section was properly shelved and priced correctly. Her starting wage was only $8.20 per hour. While Janet’s managers recognized her hard work and promoted her several times, her raises were miniscule.</p>
<p>By 2012, Janet was a customer service manager in charge of dozens of employees at the front end of the store, including cart pushers, cashiers, greeters, and employees working in the money centers, in which customers could cash checks, make wire transfers, and buy pre-paid debit cards. She was also responsible for solving customer service problems at the checkout, such as pricing errors or credit cards that didn’t go through. On top of all that, she frequently had to solve equipment problems — or at least try to. “Like the other day,” she said, “the money order machine went down at the money center. I had to crawl around on the floor and get on tech support from National Cash Register and sit there and tinker with the money order machine. Unplugging the cable and plugging it back in as he was directing me from the phone until I got the money order machine back up and working.”</p>
<p>Janet is a problem solver who manages dozens of employees and lots of different equipment, yet after all her merit-based raises she still earns only $11.60 per hour. Supposedly she works full-time, but in fact she’s often scheduled for fewer than forty hours a week, so she never really knows how much money she will make.</p>
<p>Nor does she know whenshe’ll be working. Every week, her hours are scheduled on different days and at different times. One day she could be scheduled from 2:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and the next from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Some days her work ends around 9:00 p.m., yet she’s scheduled to arrive at 5:00 a.m. the next morning, leaving her only eight hours to drive home, eat dinner, try to sleep, get ready for work the next morning, and then drive in. “My life is always in turmoil because you can’t sleep,” she said. “You can’t just go to sleep on cue.” Sometimes she reports to work without having slept at all.</p>
<p>Janet is in her fifties, and both her work—with all its lifting and crawling—and her schedule can be tough on her health. She has health insurance that covers her and her son, but she can’t afford to get sick. Even though her insurance premium is only $70 per month, her deductible is a whopping $3,500. That’s a fortune for someone whose yearly income is around $22,000. The last time she had an infection in a lymph gland, the bill came to $998, which had to be paid out of pocket. She’s now paying it off at $20 a month. Her doctor recommended a simple surgery, but she can’t afford it; that would have to be out of pocket, too. Plus, missing work for the surgery would get her written up. Sick days at this retail chain—even hospitalized sick days — do not count as excused absences.</p>
<p>And so, after seven years and several promotions, Janet can still barely make ends meet. “I need a second job, but the way they schedule me, every time I get a second job, I can’t hold on to it.”</p>
<p>Despite all this, Janet maintains her strong work ethic. She tries to do a good job and serve her customers well. But even there, she often fails and feels helpless. Complaining about the long lines at the cash registers at her store, she said, “Customers are angry at the under-poverty-level workers standing there in front of them ringing them up, at the under-poverty-level customer service manager…&#160; They stay in line so long that their ice is melting. Many of them walk off and leave full baskets.” It’s Janet’s job to manage those checkout lines, but she can’t make them any shorter because she doesn’t have enough cashiers. Other workers in the store are trained to run a cash register, and Janet can page them if the lines get too long. But that doesn’t mean they’ll come. Sometimes they ignore the page, and Janet knows why. They’re under pressure to finish their own shelving tasks. If they help her — that is, if they come and help the customers — they’ll fall behind in their own work and end up in trouble.</p>
<p>The Good Job: Patty and QuikTrip</p>
<p>Patty began working at QuikTrip, a large retail chain, when she was nineteen years old, right out of high school. Her starting wage was low, like Janet’s. She had planned to work there while attending a technical college, but after two years, she realized that QuikTrip was “more than just a job.” It was a great career. So she stayed. And like Janet, Patty got several promotions. But unlike Janet, Patty has a good job.</p>
<p>Remember that, after seven years and several promotions, Janet was still making only about $22,000 a year. After seven years with QuikTrip, Patty was making almost triple that. And when I interviewed her in October 2010, she was making more than $70,000 a year. Patty also has affordable healthcare, enjoys a stable schedule, and finds dignity and satisfaction in her work. “I’ve always loved people,” she said, “and that’s what this company is in business for. Helping people and giving them great service.”</p>
<p>Patty’s job allows her to have a fulfilling life. “You were asking what makes me excited about going to work every day,” she said. “It’s knowing that you’re going to be able to attend your kids’ activities at school. You’re going to be able to take care of your kids, and knowing that the company that you work for is growing each day. And you don’t have to worry about, Am I going to get laid off tomorrow? Or, Where’s the next meal coming from? There is no other company that will pay you your regular wage, a customer service bonus, a profit bonus, and even an attendance bonus. You go to work, you do your job, you’re excited, and you know everything’s pretty much taken care of. QuikTrip has never let me down.”</p>
<p>From Patty’s description of her job, you would think she is a saleswoman at a high-end department store helping customers find designer clothes while a pianist plays in the background. Or perhaps she is a manager at a medical supply store helping people find the right wheelchair or a coffee cup they can hold with a hand weakened by a stroke. You would think that QuikTrip must compete on personalized customer service, not on low prices and a fast checkout line. How else could they pay Patty so well? How else could they give her so much leeway for her family life?</p>
<p>But QuikTrip is a large chain of convenience stores with gas stations. Yes, one of those places we often associate with dark interiors and strange smells. Patty’s work involves managing about fourteen employees as well as working the cash register, changing the coffee filters, putting product on the shelves, and cleaning the bathrooms. But that’s not how Patty and the dozens of other QuikTrip employees I met see their jobs. They see themselves doing something worthwhile, doing it well, and getting paid and treated well for it.</p>
<p>QuikTrip has appeared on Fortunemagazine’s list of the top one hundred companies to work for eleven straight years. Think about that—a convenience store chain that sells gasoline and merchandise at lower prices than other convenience stores is consistently voted one of the best places to work.</p>
<p>It’s not just the employees who love QuikTrip. Customers love it, too. Ask anyone who lives in Tulsa or Atlanta or any city that has QuikTrip stores and they will tell you that QuikTrip has low prices andexcellent customer service.</p>
<p>What does customer service look like in this setting? Patty is friendly and knows all the regular customers, but she doesn’t spend much time chatting and helping them choose the right donut. Instead, she focuses on putting the right product onto the right shelf at the right time with the right price tag. She and her crew are vigilant about keeping the store clean, including the bathrooms—especially the bathrooms. They make sure everyone has a quick trip through the checkout line. Those are the elements of customer service that distinguish QuikTrip. And the customers keep coming back. That’s why the company’s sales per square foot are 50 percent higher than the industry average and its gas sales are twice the industry average.</p>
<p>But if QuikTrip is providing lower prices and paying higher wages than its competitors, is it making as much money as it should? Absolutely. QuikTrip’s profit per store is more than double the industry average for convenience stores and 89 percent higher than the top quartile in the industry. Its labor productivity is 50 percent higher than the top quartile in the industry and the company turns its inventory three times before it has to pay its suppliers. Needless to say, QuikTrip’s investors are very happy.</p>
<p>The Choice: Create Good or Bad Jobs, Profits or Losses</p>
<p>QuikTrip’s model works for everyone involved—employees, customers, and investors—and that is not coincidence or luck. Patty’s success is not a byproduct of QuikTrip’s success; QuikTrip’s success is a byproduct of Patty’s. QuikTrip’s employees don’t get treated well because its profits happen to be up.</p>
<p>QuikTrip’s profits are up because it puts its employees at the center of its business. They are the creators of that success — not its lucky or occasional beneficiaries — and they are treated accordingly. That’s what the company says, that’s what its policies and procedures convey, and that’s how its employees feel. Rather than seeing its labor force as an expense to be controlled, QuikTrip sees its people as an engine of sales, service, profit, and growth. The better that engine is humming and the more it can be fueled, the better the company will do.</p>
<p>©2014 by Zeynep Ton. On-sale January 14, 2014. All Rights Reserved.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Zeynep Ton is&#160;an Adjunct Associate Professor of Operations Management at the <a href="http://sloan.mit.edu/faculty/detail.php?in_spseqno=51388" type="external">MIT Sloan School of Management</a>.</p> | A Tale of Two Jobs: How Low Wages Are Bad for Business | true | http://alternet.org/books/tale-two-jobs-how-low-wages-are-bad-business | 2014-01-09 | 4left
| A Tale of Two Jobs: How Low Wages Are Bad for Business
<p>Photo Credit: Image by Shutterstock</p>
<p>(Editor’s Note: When MIT Sloan School of Management Professor <a href="//sloan.mit.edu/faculty/detail.php?in_spseqno=51388" type="external">Zeynep Ton</a> faces her students, she tells the future executives that they don’t have to treat employees and customers poorly to make money—especially in service jobs.</p>
<p>Ton knows they have heard all the stereotypes; that cutting costs is the key to profits. But she has found that’s not true, especially in the service sector. Better treatment of workers translates into more sales. Higher pay means less turnover. Better service creates loyalty among consumers. Ton profiles a handful of good and bad employers in a new <a href="//zeynepton.com/" type="external">book</a>, The Good Jobs Strategy: How The Smartest Companies Invest In Employees to Lower Costs and Improve Profits.</p>
<p>In this excerpt, we see contrasting profiles where management has chosen bad and good job strategies. Ton’s insights underscore that America’s business owners do not have to pay workers poorly, treat them and consumers with contempt, to make money. It is a powerful analysis that, if heeded, could transform the workplace.)&#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Excerpted from The Good Jobs Strategyby Zeynep Ton,with permission from Amazon Publishing/New Harvest.</p>
<p>The Bad Job: Janet’s Big Box Store</p>
<p>Janet had her own small video rental business, but it wasn’t making enough money. In 2005, she had to close it down. Luckily — or so it seemed — she became a sales associate in the electronics section of a large retail chain. Even better, it was a full-time job. Her job included making sure everything in her section was properly shelved and priced correctly. Her starting wage was only $8.20 per hour. While Janet’s managers recognized her hard work and promoted her several times, her raises were miniscule.</p>
<p>By 2012, Janet was a customer service manager in charge of dozens of employees at the front end of the store, including cart pushers, cashiers, greeters, and employees working in the money centers, in which customers could cash checks, make wire transfers, and buy pre-paid debit cards. She was also responsible for solving customer service problems at the checkout, such as pricing errors or credit cards that didn’t go through. On top of all that, she frequently had to solve equipment problems — or at least try to. “Like the other day,” she said, “the money order machine went down at the money center. I had to crawl around on the floor and get on tech support from National Cash Register and sit there and tinker with the money order machine. Unplugging the cable and plugging it back in as he was directing me from the phone until I got the money order machine back up and working.”</p>
<p>Janet is a problem solver who manages dozens of employees and lots of different equipment, yet after all her merit-based raises she still earns only $11.60 per hour. Supposedly she works full-time, but in fact she’s often scheduled for fewer than forty hours a week, so she never really knows how much money she will make.</p>
<p>Nor does she know whenshe’ll be working. Every week, her hours are scheduled on different days and at different times. One day she could be scheduled from 2:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and the next from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Some days her work ends around 9:00 p.m., yet she’s scheduled to arrive at 5:00 a.m. the next morning, leaving her only eight hours to drive home, eat dinner, try to sleep, get ready for work the next morning, and then drive in. “My life is always in turmoil because you can’t sleep,” she said. “You can’t just go to sleep on cue.” Sometimes she reports to work without having slept at all.</p>
<p>Janet is in her fifties, and both her work—with all its lifting and crawling—and her schedule can be tough on her health. She has health insurance that covers her and her son, but she can’t afford to get sick. Even though her insurance premium is only $70 per month, her deductible is a whopping $3,500. That’s a fortune for someone whose yearly income is around $22,000. The last time she had an infection in a lymph gland, the bill came to $998, which had to be paid out of pocket. She’s now paying it off at $20 a month. Her doctor recommended a simple surgery, but she can’t afford it; that would have to be out of pocket, too. Plus, missing work for the surgery would get her written up. Sick days at this retail chain—even hospitalized sick days — do not count as excused absences.</p>
<p>And so, after seven years and several promotions, Janet can still barely make ends meet. “I need a second job, but the way they schedule me, every time I get a second job, I can’t hold on to it.”</p>
<p>Despite all this, Janet maintains her strong work ethic. She tries to do a good job and serve her customers well. But even there, she often fails and feels helpless. Complaining about the long lines at the cash registers at her store, she said, “Customers are angry at the under-poverty-level workers standing there in front of them ringing them up, at the under-poverty-level customer service manager…&#160; They stay in line so long that their ice is melting. Many of them walk off and leave full baskets.” It’s Janet’s job to manage those checkout lines, but she can’t make them any shorter because she doesn’t have enough cashiers. Other workers in the store are trained to run a cash register, and Janet can page them if the lines get too long. But that doesn’t mean they’ll come. Sometimes they ignore the page, and Janet knows why. They’re under pressure to finish their own shelving tasks. If they help her — that is, if they come and help the customers — they’ll fall behind in their own work and end up in trouble.</p>
<p>The Good Job: Patty and QuikTrip</p>
<p>Patty began working at QuikTrip, a large retail chain, when she was nineteen years old, right out of high school. Her starting wage was low, like Janet’s. She had planned to work there while attending a technical college, but after two years, she realized that QuikTrip was “more than just a job.” It was a great career. So she stayed. And like Janet, Patty got several promotions. But unlike Janet, Patty has a good job.</p>
<p>Remember that, after seven years and several promotions, Janet was still making only about $22,000 a year. After seven years with QuikTrip, Patty was making almost triple that. And when I interviewed her in October 2010, she was making more than $70,000 a year. Patty also has affordable healthcare, enjoys a stable schedule, and finds dignity and satisfaction in her work. “I’ve always loved people,” she said, “and that’s what this company is in business for. Helping people and giving them great service.”</p>
<p>Patty’s job allows her to have a fulfilling life. “You were asking what makes me excited about going to work every day,” she said. “It’s knowing that you’re going to be able to attend your kids’ activities at school. You’re going to be able to take care of your kids, and knowing that the company that you work for is growing each day. And you don’t have to worry about, Am I going to get laid off tomorrow? Or, Where’s the next meal coming from? There is no other company that will pay you your regular wage, a customer service bonus, a profit bonus, and even an attendance bonus. You go to work, you do your job, you’re excited, and you know everything’s pretty much taken care of. QuikTrip has never let me down.”</p>
<p>From Patty’s description of her job, you would think she is a saleswoman at a high-end department store helping customers find designer clothes while a pianist plays in the background. Or perhaps she is a manager at a medical supply store helping people find the right wheelchair or a coffee cup they can hold with a hand weakened by a stroke. You would think that QuikTrip must compete on personalized customer service, not on low prices and a fast checkout line. How else could they pay Patty so well? How else could they give her so much leeway for her family life?</p>
<p>But QuikTrip is a large chain of convenience stores with gas stations. Yes, one of those places we often associate with dark interiors and strange smells. Patty’s work involves managing about fourteen employees as well as working the cash register, changing the coffee filters, putting product on the shelves, and cleaning the bathrooms. But that’s not how Patty and the dozens of other QuikTrip employees I met see their jobs. They see themselves doing something worthwhile, doing it well, and getting paid and treated well for it.</p>
<p>QuikTrip has appeared on Fortunemagazine’s list of the top one hundred companies to work for eleven straight years. Think about that—a convenience store chain that sells gasoline and merchandise at lower prices than other convenience stores is consistently voted one of the best places to work.</p>
<p>It’s not just the employees who love QuikTrip. Customers love it, too. Ask anyone who lives in Tulsa or Atlanta or any city that has QuikTrip stores and they will tell you that QuikTrip has low prices andexcellent customer service.</p>
<p>What does customer service look like in this setting? Patty is friendly and knows all the regular customers, but she doesn’t spend much time chatting and helping them choose the right donut. Instead, she focuses on putting the right product onto the right shelf at the right time with the right price tag. She and her crew are vigilant about keeping the store clean, including the bathrooms—especially the bathrooms. They make sure everyone has a quick trip through the checkout line. Those are the elements of customer service that distinguish QuikTrip. And the customers keep coming back. That’s why the company’s sales per square foot are 50 percent higher than the industry average and its gas sales are twice the industry average.</p>
<p>But if QuikTrip is providing lower prices and paying higher wages than its competitors, is it making as much money as it should? Absolutely. QuikTrip’s profit per store is more than double the industry average for convenience stores and 89 percent higher than the top quartile in the industry. Its labor productivity is 50 percent higher than the top quartile in the industry and the company turns its inventory three times before it has to pay its suppliers. Needless to say, QuikTrip’s investors are very happy.</p>
<p>The Choice: Create Good or Bad Jobs, Profits or Losses</p>
<p>QuikTrip’s model works for everyone involved—employees, customers, and investors—and that is not coincidence or luck. Patty’s success is not a byproduct of QuikTrip’s success; QuikTrip’s success is a byproduct of Patty’s. QuikTrip’s employees don’t get treated well because its profits happen to be up.</p>
<p>QuikTrip’s profits are up because it puts its employees at the center of its business. They are the creators of that success — not its lucky or occasional beneficiaries — and they are treated accordingly. That’s what the company says, that’s what its policies and procedures convey, and that’s how its employees feel. Rather than seeing its labor force as an expense to be controlled, QuikTrip sees its people as an engine of sales, service, profit, and growth. The better that engine is humming and the more it can be fueled, the better the company will do.</p>
<p>©2014 by Zeynep Ton. On-sale January 14, 2014. All Rights Reserved.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Zeynep Ton is&#160;an Adjunct Associate Professor of Operations Management at the <a href="http://sloan.mit.edu/faculty/detail.php?in_spseqno=51388" type="external">MIT Sloan School of Management</a>.</p> | 2,515 |
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<p />
<p>All the ugliness concluded as Sunday turned to Monday on the East Coast with a “Can you believe that?!” 6-6 tie between the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals after each team’s kicker missed a gimme field goal attempt late in overtime. Even folks with an appreciation for stingy defense had to be face-palming at the way that one ended.</p>
<p>It all began about 15 hours earlier in London, where Case Keenum threw four interceptions — including one on a ridiculously amateurish miscommunication to thwart what could have been a game-tying drive late — in the Los Angeles Rams’ 17-10 loss to the New York Giants.</p>
<p>In between, there were other duds that featured sloppy offense, tons of turnovers, plenty of punts and penalties, questionable coaching or various other instances of the sort of blah, take-it-or-leave-it, non-action that led Washington Redskins coach Jay Gruden to refer to his team’s 20-17 loss against the Detroit Lions (which was 3-all at halftime) this way: “It was kind of a snoozer there, for a while.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Tell us about it, Jay.</p>
<p>Or as Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said of his previously unbeaten team’s performance in a 21-10 defeat against the Philadelphia Eagles, a game that included a combined half-dozen turnovers in the first half alone: “‘Embarrassing,’ really, is the word, in at least two of the phases.”</p>
<p>Could have been talking about much of the league, really.</p>
<p>In case you missed it, here are the other top topics after the NFL season’s seventh Sunday:</p>
<p>NO GOFF: Somehow, Rams coach Jeff Fisher sees fit to keep trotting Keenum out there and keep No. 1 overall draft pick Jared Goff on the bench. No matter how unprepared he might be, Goff couldn’t possibly give the team less of a chance to win than Keenum did Sunday — could he? “Jared is going to play when we feel Jared is ready,” Fisher said, adding: “We didn’t lose this game because of quarterback play.” You sure about that, Coach? And even if it’s true, why not get Goff some experience?</p>
<p>DOUBLE 200: Miami Dolphins RB Jay Ajayi joined some exclusive company by running for 214 yards in a 28-25 victory over the Buffalo Bills, making him only the fourth player in NFL history to top 200 on the ground in consecutive games. The others? O.J. Simpson — yes, THAT O.J. Simpson — Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams.</p>
<p>LANDRY’S HIT: Dolphins WR Jarvis Landry leveled Bills S Aaron Williams by launching into him and putting a shoulder into his helmet. The shot sent Williams to the hospital with head and neck injuries. “Definitely a cheap hit,” Bills CB Nickell Robey-Coleman said.</p>
<p>GREEN’S CATCH: What a catch ! On an old-fashioned, close-your-eyes-and-chuck-it Hail Mary pass at the end of the first half, Cincinnati Bengals WR A.J. Green — surrounded by defenders — juggled the ball before corralling it with one hand while landing on his back in the end zone for a 48-yard TD in a 31-17 victory over winless Cleveland.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>AT 43, VINATIERI GETS 43: Indy’s Adam Vinatieri, still kickin’ at age 43, made two field goals in a 34-26 victory at Tennessee, giving him 43 successful attempts in a row, breaking the record set by former Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt from 2002-04.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich" type="external">http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>AP NFL website: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">www.pro32.ap.org</a> and AP NFL Twitter feed: <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p> | ICYMI in NFL’s Week 7: U-G-L-Y, you ain’t got no alibi | false | https://abqjournal.com/873655/icymi-in-nfls-week-7-u-g-l-y-you-aint-got-no-alibi.html | 2016-10-24 | 2least
| ICYMI in NFL’s Week 7: U-G-L-Y, you ain’t got no alibi
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<p>All the ugliness concluded as Sunday turned to Monday on the East Coast with a “Can you believe that?!” 6-6 tie between the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals after each team’s kicker missed a gimme field goal attempt late in overtime. Even folks with an appreciation for stingy defense had to be face-palming at the way that one ended.</p>
<p>It all began about 15 hours earlier in London, where Case Keenum threw four interceptions — including one on a ridiculously amateurish miscommunication to thwart what could have been a game-tying drive late — in the Los Angeles Rams’ 17-10 loss to the New York Giants.</p>
<p>In between, there were other duds that featured sloppy offense, tons of turnovers, plenty of punts and penalties, questionable coaching or various other instances of the sort of blah, take-it-or-leave-it, non-action that led Washington Redskins coach Jay Gruden to refer to his team’s 20-17 loss against the Detroit Lions (which was 3-all at halftime) this way: “It was kind of a snoozer there, for a while.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Tell us about it, Jay.</p>
<p>Or as Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said of his previously unbeaten team’s performance in a 21-10 defeat against the Philadelphia Eagles, a game that included a combined half-dozen turnovers in the first half alone: “‘Embarrassing,’ really, is the word, in at least two of the phases.”</p>
<p>Could have been talking about much of the league, really.</p>
<p>In case you missed it, here are the other top topics after the NFL season’s seventh Sunday:</p>
<p>NO GOFF: Somehow, Rams coach Jeff Fisher sees fit to keep trotting Keenum out there and keep No. 1 overall draft pick Jared Goff on the bench. No matter how unprepared he might be, Goff couldn’t possibly give the team less of a chance to win than Keenum did Sunday — could he? “Jared is going to play when we feel Jared is ready,” Fisher said, adding: “We didn’t lose this game because of quarterback play.” You sure about that, Coach? And even if it’s true, why not get Goff some experience?</p>
<p>DOUBLE 200: Miami Dolphins RB Jay Ajayi joined some exclusive company by running for 214 yards in a 28-25 victory over the Buffalo Bills, making him only the fourth player in NFL history to top 200 on the ground in consecutive games. The others? O.J. Simpson — yes, THAT O.J. Simpson — Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams.</p>
<p>LANDRY’S HIT: Dolphins WR Jarvis Landry leveled Bills S Aaron Williams by launching into him and putting a shoulder into his helmet. The shot sent Williams to the hospital with head and neck injuries. “Definitely a cheap hit,” Bills CB Nickell Robey-Coleman said.</p>
<p>GREEN’S CATCH: What a catch ! On an old-fashioned, close-your-eyes-and-chuck-it Hail Mary pass at the end of the first half, Cincinnati Bengals WR A.J. Green — surrounded by defenders — juggled the ball before corralling it with one hand while landing on his back in the end zone for a 48-yard TD in a 31-17 victory over winless Cleveland.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>AT 43, VINATIERI GETS 43: Indy’s Adam Vinatieri, still kickin’ at age 43, made two field goals in a 34-26 victory at Tennessee, giving him 43 successful attempts in a row, breaking the record set by former Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt from 2002-04.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich" type="external">http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>AP NFL website: <a href="http://www.pro32.ap.org" type="external">www.pro32.ap.org</a> and AP NFL Twitter feed: <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_NFL" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_NFL</a></p> | 2,516 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />According to the leader of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Muslims living in America should not be bound by U.S. law. “If we are practicing Muslims, we are above the law of the land,” said Herman Mustafa Carroll, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth CAIR branch.</p>
<p>I suppose at the very least, Carroll is being honest about what practicing Muslims believe. This is what we’ve been telling people all along. Now CAIR is becoming a bit more vocal about what they are really about.</p>
<p>Carroll made the statement at a rally in Austin, Texas as part of a nationwide effort to hold “Muslim Capitol Day” events. According to the event website Muslims came to the Texas capitol to “promote civic and political activism throughout the wider Muslim community.”</p>
<p>It appears to me that they are promoting jihad and lawlessness. “We tried to downplay Sharia, because we didn’t want to give the other side any excitement for being here,” he said.</p>
<p>He then attempted to dismiss his critics as “anti-foreign.” I wonder if we should just out him now as “anti-American,” since he thinks he is above the laws of America.</p>
<p>“When you even say the word Sharia, people get nervous. We are not advocating for Sharia. We are not trying to make Sharia the law of the land,” he said.</p>
<p>While saying that Muslims only want the right to practice their faith, Carroll also included this little tidbit. “If you understand Sharia, the foundation of our faith … how we treat our neighbor, how we treat our parents … how we participate in society, all of that is part of Sharia.”</p>
<p>He must have intentionally left out the parts about jihad, honor killings and treating women and infidels as chattel, while seemingly speaking about harmless treatment of neighbors and parents.</p>
<p>They discussed “the recent House and Senate bill proposals involving the implementation of&#160; <a href="http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&amp;Bill=SB1639" type="external">‘anti-Sharia’ legislation</a>, where the First Amendment rights and freedoms of Muslims would ultimately be hindered.”</p>
<p>Carroll attempted to downplay Sharia law, despite&#160; <a href="http://texasmuslimcapitolday.com/2013/04/03/video-cair-tx-representative-joins-aclu-texas-in-testifying-against-anti-islam-bill/" type="external">joining with the ACLU</a>&#160;to oppose the anti-Sharia legislation in Texas.</p>
<p><a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/06/federal-attorney-warns-negative-posts-against-islam-could-get-you-prosecution-imprisonment/" type="external">I told you about</a>&#160;how the federal government was seeking to close the mouths of free speech in regards to Islam back in June. I don’t recall Mr. Carroll standing up and opposing that. In fact, his organization didn’t make a peep about that, which simply means they are complicit in it.</p>
<p>The event even included a speech by a representative of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, who declared that Texas was an awful place and that Islam was the answer.</p>
<p>“Why did Muhammad say that he would not rest until the Koran was the law of the land?”</p>
<p>“Islam does not have Texas in the current condition, the current socio-political condition that Texas is in. What is this condition that Texas is in? Why is Texas on the brink, when you look at Texas in comparison to 50 states, education, percent of population graduating from high school is 46, high school completion rate is 46, the scholastic assessment rate, the SAT score in Texas is 47, the percentage of population with no health insurance in Texas is first, those without health insurance Texas is first. When you look at the state of a child in Texas, the percentage of uninsured children, Texas is first… etc etc</p>
<p>You shouldn’t be filing legislation against Islam, when you look at Texas, Islam is not the problem. Islam is the solution. Allah Akbar.”</p>
<p>Well I suppose if you consider a means to illiteracy and poverty as your goals, then perhaps Islam is the answer. If you consider the merciless killing and degradation of women as what you are out to achieve, then yes, I suppose Islam is the answer. If you are considering an eternity in Hell, then yes Islam would provide that answer.</p>
<p>However, Carroll has also defended terrorists on the same grounds as his statement above; Muslims are above the law of the land.</p>
<p>“I think you can only blame Hamas for so long. It takes two to tango. And I think, you know, that what we’ve heard for a number of years is this terrorist, terrorist, terrorist, terrorist, Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, was not just Hamas.”</p>
<p>“Look at the true cause of the terrorism. It’s not somebody is reading a book, reading a Qur’an, and then go out and say, ‘Well, the Qur’an told me to blow this up. I’m gonna blow it up.’ The cause, the root cause of terrorism is oppression. The root cause of terrorism is oppression.”</p>
<p>Now ask yourself, those that read the Qur’an believe they are above the law of the land and some even go so far as to obey the words of the Qur’an and murder infidels. They both share a common core: The teachings of a demon-possessed pedophile, murdering thief named Mohammed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wnd.com/2003/05/18561/" type="external">Back in 2003</a>, CAIR founder Omar Ahmad sought to bully a newspaper that quoted him saying:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>For my friends who think Islam is not a threat to our society, let that one sink in.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wnd.com/2006/12/39229/" type="external">For years</a>&#160;Ahmad has been trying to seek a&#160; <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2003/05/18561/" type="external">retraction from the newspaper</a>, but to no avail as the paper stands by the article. I applaud their courage to do so and expose the attempts at&#160; <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/06/islam-uses-taqiyya-to-hide-their-true-intentions-and-too-many-americans-remain-oblivious/" type="external">taqiyya</a>&#160;being put forth by Ahmad and his Muslim Brotherhood front group.</p>
<p>Tim Brown is the Editor of <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/07/cair-director-hermanmustafa-carroll-muslims-are-above-american-law/" type="external">Freedom Outpost</a> and a regular contributor to The D.C. Clothesline.</p>
<p />
<p /> | CAIR Director: Practicing Muslims Are Above The Law of the Land | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2013/07/30/cair-director-practicing-muslims-are-above-the-law-of-the-land/ | 2013-07-30 | 0right
| CAIR Director: Practicing Muslims Are Above The Law of the Land
<p><a href="" type="internal" />According to the leader of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Muslims living in America should not be bound by U.S. law. “If we are practicing Muslims, we are above the law of the land,” said Herman Mustafa Carroll, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth CAIR branch.</p>
<p>I suppose at the very least, Carroll is being honest about what practicing Muslims believe. This is what we’ve been telling people all along. Now CAIR is becoming a bit more vocal about what they are really about.</p>
<p>Carroll made the statement at a rally in Austin, Texas as part of a nationwide effort to hold “Muslim Capitol Day” events. According to the event website Muslims came to the Texas capitol to “promote civic and political activism throughout the wider Muslim community.”</p>
<p>It appears to me that they are promoting jihad and lawlessness. “We tried to downplay Sharia, because we didn’t want to give the other side any excitement for being here,” he said.</p>
<p>He then attempted to dismiss his critics as “anti-foreign.” I wonder if we should just out him now as “anti-American,” since he thinks he is above the laws of America.</p>
<p>“When you even say the word Sharia, people get nervous. We are not advocating for Sharia. We are not trying to make Sharia the law of the land,” he said.</p>
<p>While saying that Muslims only want the right to practice their faith, Carroll also included this little tidbit. “If you understand Sharia, the foundation of our faith … how we treat our neighbor, how we treat our parents … how we participate in society, all of that is part of Sharia.”</p>
<p>He must have intentionally left out the parts about jihad, honor killings and treating women and infidels as chattel, while seemingly speaking about harmless treatment of neighbors and parents.</p>
<p>They discussed “the recent House and Senate bill proposals involving the implementation of&#160; <a href="http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&amp;Bill=SB1639" type="external">‘anti-Sharia’ legislation</a>, where the First Amendment rights and freedoms of Muslims would ultimately be hindered.”</p>
<p>Carroll attempted to downplay Sharia law, despite&#160; <a href="http://texasmuslimcapitolday.com/2013/04/03/video-cair-tx-representative-joins-aclu-texas-in-testifying-against-anti-islam-bill/" type="external">joining with the ACLU</a>&#160;to oppose the anti-Sharia legislation in Texas.</p>
<p><a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/06/federal-attorney-warns-negative-posts-against-islam-could-get-you-prosecution-imprisonment/" type="external">I told you about</a>&#160;how the federal government was seeking to close the mouths of free speech in regards to Islam back in June. I don’t recall Mr. Carroll standing up and opposing that. In fact, his organization didn’t make a peep about that, which simply means they are complicit in it.</p>
<p>The event even included a speech by a representative of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, who declared that Texas was an awful place and that Islam was the answer.</p>
<p>“Why did Muhammad say that he would not rest until the Koran was the law of the land?”</p>
<p>“Islam does not have Texas in the current condition, the current socio-political condition that Texas is in. What is this condition that Texas is in? Why is Texas on the brink, when you look at Texas in comparison to 50 states, education, percent of population graduating from high school is 46, high school completion rate is 46, the scholastic assessment rate, the SAT score in Texas is 47, the percentage of population with no health insurance in Texas is first, those without health insurance Texas is first. When you look at the state of a child in Texas, the percentage of uninsured children, Texas is first… etc etc</p>
<p>You shouldn’t be filing legislation against Islam, when you look at Texas, Islam is not the problem. Islam is the solution. Allah Akbar.”</p>
<p>Well I suppose if you consider a means to illiteracy and poverty as your goals, then perhaps Islam is the answer. If you consider the merciless killing and degradation of women as what you are out to achieve, then yes, I suppose Islam is the answer. If you are considering an eternity in Hell, then yes Islam would provide that answer.</p>
<p>However, Carroll has also defended terrorists on the same grounds as his statement above; Muslims are above the law of the land.</p>
<p>“I think you can only blame Hamas for so long. It takes two to tango. And I think, you know, that what we’ve heard for a number of years is this terrorist, terrorist, terrorist, terrorist, Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, was not just Hamas.”</p>
<p>“Look at the true cause of the terrorism. It’s not somebody is reading a book, reading a Qur’an, and then go out and say, ‘Well, the Qur’an told me to blow this up. I’m gonna blow it up.’ The cause, the root cause of terrorism is oppression. The root cause of terrorism is oppression.”</p>
<p>Now ask yourself, those that read the Qur’an believe they are above the law of the land and some even go so far as to obey the words of the Qur’an and murder infidels. They both share a common core: The teachings of a demon-possessed pedophile, murdering thief named Mohammed.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wnd.com/2003/05/18561/" type="external">Back in 2003</a>, CAIR founder Omar Ahmad sought to bully a newspaper that quoted him saying:</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>For my friends who think Islam is not a threat to our society, let that one sink in.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.wnd.com/2006/12/39229/" type="external">For years</a>&#160;Ahmad has been trying to seek a&#160; <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2003/05/18561/" type="external">retraction from the newspaper</a>, but to no avail as the paper stands by the article. I applaud their courage to do so and expose the attempts at&#160; <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/06/islam-uses-taqiyya-to-hide-their-true-intentions-and-too-many-americans-remain-oblivious/" type="external">taqiyya</a>&#160;being put forth by Ahmad and his Muslim Brotherhood front group.</p>
<p>Tim Brown is the Editor of <a href="http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/07/cair-director-hermanmustafa-carroll-muslims-are-above-american-law/" type="external">Freedom Outpost</a> and a regular contributor to The D.C. Clothesline.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 2,517 |
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<p />
<p>Here’s a glimpse of some of the gadgets and apps displayed by start-up companies this week at the fair, the world’s largest for wireless technology.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>CUTE ROBOT</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Living in Seoul, Jong-Gun Park looked around him one day and decided his fellow South Koreans needed some help expressing their emotions.</p>
<p>“We are so busy these days, always running to and from work, taking our kids to school, studying, that we no longer find the necessary time to interact with each other,” said Park, CEO of the company Circulus.</p>
<p>Enter Pibo, the friendly dinner table ice-breaker.</p>
<p>Pibo is a charming little robot whose goal is to get you and your loved ones sharing your daily life more. “Are you tired?” he asks, “I will play music without boredom.”</p>
<p>Sure, he still needs to hone his English, but he’s always eager to ask about your day or provide updates on weather conditions.</p>
<p>Still a prototype, Pibo comes in a case, should you wish to take him along on vacation. He is, after all, a member of the family. For an expected $490 a pop.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>JUST ADD WATER</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Growing your own veggies may become possible even for urbanites with tiny studio apartments.</p>
<p>Israeli startup Living Box offers a modular, unfoldable, solar-powered little greenhouse that you can use to harvest anything from tomatoes to tea and herbs.</p>
<p>“We have a slow release water system for irrigation, with a novel liquid nutrient solution and bacteria to avoid the use of pesticides, as well as an app prototype updating weather conditions and other relevant data right to your smartphone, so you don’t have to monitor it,” explained Nitzan Solan, CEO of the company.</p>
<p>The idea was to create a sustainable, affordable and simple mobile farming system that could be operated by anyone around the globe.</p>
<p>As of now, Living Box is testing in 50 sites around Israel, the U.S. and Nigeria, and aims to try locations in Spain and Fiji. It is expected to carry a market price of $300.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>COOL HANG</p>
<p>The hang, a metal percussion instrument shaped like a flying saucer, is beloved of street performers the world round and often associated with meditation practices like yoga. Now it comes in a fully digital version.</p>
<p>When delicately tapped, the Oval can reproduce the sounds of a hang as well as other instruments, like drums, trumpets and even violins.</p>
<p>Musicians Ravid Goldschmidt and Alex Posada, the co-founders of the Spanish startup that makes the Oval, say they sought to start a “revolution of percussion” with this instrument.</p>
<p>Already on the market, the Oval is aimed at all kinds of consumers, with about 40 percent estimated to be amateur or professional musicians.</p>
<p>It goes for about $950.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE</p>
<p>Samsung’s Relumino headset aims to do nothing less than help the blind see.</p>
<p>The gadget, shaped like virtual reality glasses, recasts images of the world in a way that someone with vision problems can see more clearly.</p>
<p>The glasses are still in a developmental stage and, although it’s still too early to venture a market price for them, Samsung Senior Engineer Junghoon Cho hopes to compete with other more expensive visual aids out there.</p>
<p>Besides correcting blurred images, the headset can eliminate blind spots and improve peripheral vision.</p>
<p>“If we make our own project, people who are visually impaired can walk outside using our glasses… We want to help them have a better social relationship with other people,” said Cho.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>SHOPPING VISION</p>
<p>Worried the new couch might not squeeze through door?</p>
<p>Sri Lanka-based startup Liveroom is trying to solve your angst. Its virtual reality technology aims to give shoppers a live look at how products in online stores would fit into your home.</p>
<p>This is how it works: you shoot an image of the space in question via a liveview button and then consult their catalog on the app for the item you want. The item will pop up on your tablet or smartphone set in the image of your home. You can move and rotate the item and change its colors, fabric and material.</p>
<p>“If you’re buying online, via e-commerce, you have only images. You have to visualize the product in your mind and maybe the dimensions and the colors are wrong,” said founder and CTO Sameera Nilupul. “With this technology, you can see exactly how the products look in your own home.”</p> | Chatting robots and music: fun gadgets on show in Barcelona | false | https://abqjournal.com/958223/chatting-robots-and-music-fun-gadgets-on-show-in-barcelona.html | 2017-02-27 | 2least
| Chatting robots and music: fun gadgets on show in Barcelona
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Here’s a glimpse of some of the gadgets and apps displayed by start-up companies this week at the fair, the world’s largest for wireless technology.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>CUTE ROBOT</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Living in Seoul, Jong-Gun Park looked around him one day and decided his fellow South Koreans needed some help expressing their emotions.</p>
<p>“We are so busy these days, always running to and from work, taking our kids to school, studying, that we no longer find the necessary time to interact with each other,” said Park, CEO of the company Circulus.</p>
<p>Enter Pibo, the friendly dinner table ice-breaker.</p>
<p>Pibo is a charming little robot whose goal is to get you and your loved ones sharing your daily life more. “Are you tired?” he asks, “I will play music without boredom.”</p>
<p>Sure, he still needs to hone his English, but he’s always eager to ask about your day or provide updates on weather conditions.</p>
<p>Still a prototype, Pibo comes in a case, should you wish to take him along on vacation. He is, after all, a member of the family. For an expected $490 a pop.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>JUST ADD WATER</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Growing your own veggies may become possible even for urbanites with tiny studio apartments.</p>
<p>Israeli startup Living Box offers a modular, unfoldable, solar-powered little greenhouse that you can use to harvest anything from tomatoes to tea and herbs.</p>
<p>“We have a slow release water system for irrigation, with a novel liquid nutrient solution and bacteria to avoid the use of pesticides, as well as an app prototype updating weather conditions and other relevant data right to your smartphone, so you don’t have to monitor it,” explained Nitzan Solan, CEO of the company.</p>
<p>The idea was to create a sustainable, affordable and simple mobile farming system that could be operated by anyone around the globe.</p>
<p>As of now, Living Box is testing in 50 sites around Israel, the U.S. and Nigeria, and aims to try locations in Spain and Fiji. It is expected to carry a market price of $300.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>COOL HANG</p>
<p>The hang, a metal percussion instrument shaped like a flying saucer, is beloved of street performers the world round and often associated with meditation practices like yoga. Now it comes in a fully digital version.</p>
<p>When delicately tapped, the Oval can reproduce the sounds of a hang as well as other instruments, like drums, trumpets and even violins.</p>
<p>Musicians Ravid Goldschmidt and Alex Posada, the co-founders of the Spanish startup that makes the Oval, say they sought to start a “revolution of percussion” with this instrument.</p>
<p>Already on the market, the Oval is aimed at all kinds of consumers, with about 40 percent estimated to be amateur or professional musicians.</p>
<p>It goes for about $950.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE</p>
<p>Samsung’s Relumino headset aims to do nothing less than help the blind see.</p>
<p>The gadget, shaped like virtual reality glasses, recasts images of the world in a way that someone with vision problems can see more clearly.</p>
<p>The glasses are still in a developmental stage and, although it’s still too early to venture a market price for them, Samsung Senior Engineer Junghoon Cho hopes to compete with other more expensive visual aids out there.</p>
<p>Besides correcting blurred images, the headset can eliminate blind spots and improve peripheral vision.</p>
<p>“If we make our own project, people who are visually impaired can walk outside using our glasses… We want to help them have a better social relationship with other people,” said Cho.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>SHOPPING VISION</p>
<p>Worried the new couch might not squeeze through door?</p>
<p>Sri Lanka-based startup Liveroom is trying to solve your angst. Its virtual reality technology aims to give shoppers a live look at how products in online stores would fit into your home.</p>
<p>This is how it works: you shoot an image of the space in question via a liveview button and then consult their catalog on the app for the item you want. The item will pop up on your tablet or smartphone set in the image of your home. You can move and rotate the item and change its colors, fabric and material.</p>
<p>“If you’re buying online, via e-commerce, you have only images. You have to visualize the product in your mind and maybe the dimensions and the colors are wrong,” said founder and CTO Sameera Nilupul. “With this technology, you can see exactly how the products look in your own home.”</p> | 2,518 |
<p>Over the weekend of June 9, about seventy activists from around the country converged in a poor neighborhood of Greenville, South Carolina. Led by the Prometheus Radio Project, a visionary Philadelphia-based organization of techies and media policy advocates, they came to assist organized local residents in what was billed as a “radio station barnraising” a weekend of collective work completing the studio, tuning, testing and raising the broadcast antenna, teaching and learning basic and advanced production skills and on Sunday evening, flipping the ON switch for Greenville’s first fully licensed low power community-owned FM radio station.</p>
<p>WMXP-LP Greenville’s broadcast range is only about 3.5 miles, but its impact is enormous. Owned and operated by the Malcolm X Grassroots Organization in that city, it’s one of many stations Prometheus and its allies aim to assist progressive organizations around the country in creating. WMXP-LP Greenville will provide local news and analysis, a venue for locally produced music and other programming in English and Spanish. According to its founder Efia Nwangaza, a former SNCC activist and local attorney, WMXP-LP will serve, empower and enrich the life of its community in ways that large corporate broadcasters never have and never will.</p>
<p>For African American communities, corporate monopolization of the airwaves has reduced our musical choices to degrading minstrel shows. Thanks in part to black commercial radio’s exclusive diet of entertainment and marketing, we know more about the furniture in Jamie Foxx’s new mansion than we do about our local school boards or police practices.</p>
<p>Worst of all by denying black audiences news and analyses of public affairs through the lens of the black experience, corporate media have shrunk the civic space in our communities where grassroots organizing and the Freedom Movement of a generation ago thrived to almost nothing. Back in 2000, the FCC approved low power nonprofit licensing, paving the way for thousands of local stations in urban and rural areas within the reach of most of the nation’s population. Big media responded with the false claim, rejected by almost every broadcast engineer not in their employ, that low power would interfere with their giant 20 and 50,000 watt operations. Big media’s generous campaign contributions persuaded the Congress to halt low power station licensing until now.</p>
<p>This month bills will be introduced with bipartisan sponsorship in both the House and Senate, to reopen the licensing of nonprofit, community-owned low power FM stations. Whether citizens will get the power to start and program their own radio stations on the tiniest remaining slice of what are, after all, their own airwaves will be decided by Congress this session. We can expect little or no help informing the public on this issue from corporate print and broadcast media in informing the public on this score. Three was no mainstream coverage of low power radio in 2000, no coverage of radio deregulation in 2003, and next to none of network neutrality today. But the wiggle room this time around for members of Congress will be small.</p>
<p>The public is deeply dissatisfied, and will not be easily convinced that they need fewer rather than more choices, less news, less local ownership, and less local content. Now Greenville SC is one more place they can look to, and ask, if they can do it at WMXP-LP Greenville, why can’t we?</p>
<p>BRUCE DIXON is managing editor of <a href="ttp://www.blackagendareport.com/" type="external">Black Agenda Report</a>, where this piece appears.</p> | Black Power Through Low Power Radio | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/06/14/black-power-through-low-power-radio/ | 2007-06-14 | 4left
| Black Power Through Low Power Radio
<p>Over the weekend of June 9, about seventy activists from around the country converged in a poor neighborhood of Greenville, South Carolina. Led by the Prometheus Radio Project, a visionary Philadelphia-based organization of techies and media policy advocates, they came to assist organized local residents in what was billed as a “radio station barnraising” a weekend of collective work completing the studio, tuning, testing and raising the broadcast antenna, teaching and learning basic and advanced production skills and on Sunday evening, flipping the ON switch for Greenville’s first fully licensed low power community-owned FM radio station.</p>
<p>WMXP-LP Greenville’s broadcast range is only about 3.5 miles, but its impact is enormous. Owned and operated by the Malcolm X Grassroots Organization in that city, it’s one of many stations Prometheus and its allies aim to assist progressive organizations around the country in creating. WMXP-LP Greenville will provide local news and analysis, a venue for locally produced music and other programming in English and Spanish. According to its founder Efia Nwangaza, a former SNCC activist and local attorney, WMXP-LP will serve, empower and enrich the life of its community in ways that large corporate broadcasters never have and never will.</p>
<p>For African American communities, corporate monopolization of the airwaves has reduced our musical choices to degrading minstrel shows. Thanks in part to black commercial radio’s exclusive diet of entertainment and marketing, we know more about the furniture in Jamie Foxx’s new mansion than we do about our local school boards or police practices.</p>
<p>Worst of all by denying black audiences news and analyses of public affairs through the lens of the black experience, corporate media have shrunk the civic space in our communities where grassroots organizing and the Freedom Movement of a generation ago thrived to almost nothing. Back in 2000, the FCC approved low power nonprofit licensing, paving the way for thousands of local stations in urban and rural areas within the reach of most of the nation’s population. Big media responded with the false claim, rejected by almost every broadcast engineer not in their employ, that low power would interfere with their giant 20 and 50,000 watt operations. Big media’s generous campaign contributions persuaded the Congress to halt low power station licensing until now.</p>
<p>This month bills will be introduced with bipartisan sponsorship in both the House and Senate, to reopen the licensing of nonprofit, community-owned low power FM stations. Whether citizens will get the power to start and program their own radio stations on the tiniest remaining slice of what are, after all, their own airwaves will be decided by Congress this session. We can expect little or no help informing the public on this issue from corporate print and broadcast media in informing the public on this score. Three was no mainstream coverage of low power radio in 2000, no coverage of radio deregulation in 2003, and next to none of network neutrality today. But the wiggle room this time around for members of Congress will be small.</p>
<p>The public is deeply dissatisfied, and will not be easily convinced that they need fewer rather than more choices, less news, less local ownership, and less local content. Now Greenville SC is one more place they can look to, and ask, if they can do it at WMXP-LP Greenville, why can’t we?</p>
<p>BRUCE DIXON is managing editor of <a href="ttp://www.blackagendareport.com/" type="external">Black Agenda Report</a>, where this piece appears.</p> | 2,519 |
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ These Louisiana lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>17-18-33-46-60, Mega Ball: 24, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(seventeen, eighteen, thirty-three, forty-six, sixty; Mega Ball: twenty-four; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Pick 3</p>
<p>9-8-9</p>
<p>(nine, eight, nine)</p>
<p>Pick 4</p>
<p>4-2-8-4</p>
<p>(four, two, eight, four)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ These Louisiana lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>17-18-33-46-60, Mega Ball: 24, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(seventeen, eighteen, thirty-three, forty-six, sixty; Mega Ball: twenty-four; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Pick 3</p>
<p>9-8-9</p>
<p>(nine, eight, nine)</p>
<p>Pick 4</p>
<p>4-2-8-4</p>
<p>(four, two, eight, four)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p> | LA Lottery | false | https://apnews.com/bd83891c79324fc4ac0fe02b0d6cbb25 | 2018-01-13 | 2least
| LA Lottery
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ These Louisiana lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>17-18-33-46-60, Mega Ball: 24, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(seventeen, eighteen, thirty-three, forty-six, sixty; Mega Ball: twenty-four; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Pick 3</p>
<p>9-8-9</p>
<p>(nine, eight, nine)</p>
<p>Pick 4</p>
<p>4-2-8-4</p>
<p>(four, two, eight, four)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ These Louisiana lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>17-18-33-46-60, Mega Ball: 24, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(seventeen, eighteen, thirty-three, forty-six, sixty; Mega Ball: twenty-four; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Pick 3</p>
<p>9-8-9</p>
<p>(nine, eight, nine)</p>
<p>Pick 4</p>
<p>4-2-8-4</p>
<p>(four, two, eight, four)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p> | 2,520 |
<p />
<p>Following day-long talks with Congressional leaders of both parties, President Obama concluded a meeting with House GOP leaders still no further than where the talks began about whether to increase the nation's borrowing limit before the October 17 deadline.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The approximately 90-minute meeting ended without a final conclusion. After departing the White House, House leaders went back to the Capitol to come up with some kind of solution by the end of the night.</p>
<p>Following the meeting, the White House released a statement saying "after a discussion about potential paths forward, no specific determinations were made. The president looks forward to making continued progress with members on both sides of the aisle."</p>
<p>In very early trading, S&amp;P 500 futures dipped 0.43% after Wall Street posted its second best day of the year Thursday.</p>
<p>Around 4:30 p.m. ET, &#160;House Republicans brought to the White House a proposal that would have extended the nation's borrowing limit by six weeks, and included a provision that would permanently end Treasury's ability to enact extraordinary measures to prevent a debt default now and in the future. Historically, these measures have been a critical tool in pushing back debt ceiling deadlines in past fiscal logjams, like the one in 2011.</p>
<p>Though the White House said earlier Thursday the president would be likely to consider and potentially sign a House-passed debt limit extension, it's unclear whether he would actually sign the plan in its current form that includes the Treasury provision. A clean version of a borrowing limit increase would have given Republicans wiggle room in negotiations over the budget once the threat of debt default is off the table -- but that looks increasingly unlikely with the new provision.</p>
<p>In response to the House Republican proposal, the White House said while it doesn't outright reject a debt ceiling increase with some conditions, it reiterated its desire for the House to pass the Senate's year-long borrowing limit extension proposal.</p>
<p>"While we are willing to look at any proposal Congress puts forward to end these manufactured crises, we will not allow a faction of the Republicans in the House to hold the economy hostage to its extraneous and extreme political demands. Congress needs to pass a clean debt limit increase and a funding bill to reopen the government," the White House said in a statement. Democratic congressional leaders met with the president and Vice President Joe Biden at 1:45 p.m. ET to discuss ways to avoid crossing next week's debt limit deadline. Following the meeting, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reiterated his party's stance on a clean debt ceiling extension -- a postilion that matches the president's. Still, he said he would be "open" to looking at a short-term increase from Republicans, but the Senate will "wait and see."&#160;Lew to Congress: Raise the Debt Limit … Now &#160; But as the clock ticks down to October 17, the date the Treasury Department has said it would run out of borrowing authority, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned Thursday, markets and the economy could feel the effects of even a potential debt default before the actual deadline passes.</p>
<p>In a hearing before Congress Thursday, Lew said it was never a plan not to pay America’s bills, and that prioritization is just default by another name. “Unfortunately, we now face a manufactured political crisis that is beginning to deliver an unnecessary blow to our economy – right at a time when the U.S. economy and the American people have painstakingly fought back from the worst recession since the Great Depression,” the Treasury Secretary said in prepared remarks.Markets Rally, But Not Everyone Buys In U.S. stock markets lurched higher on the glimmer of hope for a debt deal in Washington to avoid default, with the major market averages rallying more than 1% in morning trading. However, several individual market participants aren’t so sure the news is all positive. “This development is just an initial step to agreeing to agreeing. [The] only thing that comes of today’s meeting is a four-to-six week delay and says noting about what happens in the interim,” Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, said. The potential six-week extension staves off what could possibly be a huge downside risk for U.S. equity markets. In 2011, when a similar threat of default stared Congress and Wall Street in the face, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 600 points after Standard and Poor’s downgraded the U.S. sovereign debt rating from a platinum ‘AAA’ to a ‘AA+.’ Now, with a similar circumstance in mind, markets worry another downgrade could linger on the horizon if Congress doesn’t come to some kind of deal before next week’s deadline. Michael Block, chief Strategist, Rhino Trading Partners, sees one more scramble before a final deal is struck. “I think they fumble one more time, get one last piece of electioneering out of their system tonight, and then go into lockdown to get this done over the weekend,” he said.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | Deal or No Deal? No Clear Path Forward on Debt Ceiling | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2013/10/10/deal-or-no-deal-no-clear-path-forward-on-debt-ceiling.html | 2016-03-02 | 0right
| Deal or No Deal? No Clear Path Forward on Debt Ceiling
<p />
<p>Following day-long talks with Congressional leaders of both parties, President Obama concluded a meeting with House GOP leaders still no further than where the talks began about whether to increase the nation's borrowing limit before the October 17 deadline.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The approximately 90-minute meeting ended without a final conclusion. After departing the White House, House leaders went back to the Capitol to come up with some kind of solution by the end of the night.</p>
<p>Following the meeting, the White House released a statement saying "after a discussion about potential paths forward, no specific determinations were made. The president looks forward to making continued progress with members on both sides of the aisle."</p>
<p>In very early trading, S&amp;P 500 futures dipped 0.43% after Wall Street posted its second best day of the year Thursday.</p>
<p>Around 4:30 p.m. ET, &#160;House Republicans brought to the White House a proposal that would have extended the nation's borrowing limit by six weeks, and included a provision that would permanently end Treasury's ability to enact extraordinary measures to prevent a debt default now and in the future. Historically, these measures have been a critical tool in pushing back debt ceiling deadlines in past fiscal logjams, like the one in 2011.</p>
<p>Though the White House said earlier Thursday the president would be likely to consider and potentially sign a House-passed debt limit extension, it's unclear whether he would actually sign the plan in its current form that includes the Treasury provision. A clean version of a borrowing limit increase would have given Republicans wiggle room in negotiations over the budget once the threat of debt default is off the table -- but that looks increasingly unlikely with the new provision.</p>
<p>In response to the House Republican proposal, the White House said while it doesn't outright reject a debt ceiling increase with some conditions, it reiterated its desire for the House to pass the Senate's year-long borrowing limit extension proposal.</p>
<p>"While we are willing to look at any proposal Congress puts forward to end these manufactured crises, we will not allow a faction of the Republicans in the House to hold the economy hostage to its extraneous and extreme political demands. Congress needs to pass a clean debt limit increase and a funding bill to reopen the government," the White House said in a statement. Democratic congressional leaders met with the president and Vice President Joe Biden at 1:45 p.m. ET to discuss ways to avoid crossing next week's debt limit deadline. Following the meeting, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reiterated his party's stance on a clean debt ceiling extension -- a postilion that matches the president's. Still, he said he would be "open" to looking at a short-term increase from Republicans, but the Senate will "wait and see."&#160;Lew to Congress: Raise the Debt Limit … Now &#160; But as the clock ticks down to October 17, the date the Treasury Department has said it would run out of borrowing authority, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned Thursday, markets and the economy could feel the effects of even a potential debt default before the actual deadline passes.</p>
<p>In a hearing before Congress Thursday, Lew said it was never a plan not to pay America’s bills, and that prioritization is just default by another name. “Unfortunately, we now face a manufactured political crisis that is beginning to deliver an unnecessary blow to our economy – right at a time when the U.S. economy and the American people have painstakingly fought back from the worst recession since the Great Depression,” the Treasury Secretary said in prepared remarks.Markets Rally, But Not Everyone Buys In U.S. stock markets lurched higher on the glimmer of hope for a debt deal in Washington to avoid default, with the major market averages rallying more than 1% in morning trading. However, several individual market participants aren’t so sure the news is all positive. “This development is just an initial step to agreeing to agreeing. [The] only thing that comes of today’s meeting is a four-to-six week delay and says noting about what happens in the interim,” Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, said. The potential six-week extension staves off what could possibly be a huge downside risk for U.S. equity markets. In 2011, when a similar threat of default stared Congress and Wall Street in the face, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 600 points after Standard and Poor’s downgraded the U.S. sovereign debt rating from a platinum ‘AAA’ to a ‘AA+.’ Now, with a similar circumstance in mind, markets worry another downgrade could linger on the horizon if Congress doesn’t come to some kind of deal before next week’s deadline. Michael Block, chief Strategist, Rhino Trading Partners, sees one more scramble before a final deal is struck. “I think they fumble one more time, get one last piece of electioneering out of their system tonight, and then go into lockdown to get this done over the weekend,” he said.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | 2,521 |
<p>Cutesy, clever, gifty or sexy, here are some off-the-beaten-path ideas for gifts.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Gay ol’ St. Nick delivers the goods to LGBT people of all ages and sensibilities with this comprehensive gift guide designed to please every persuasion. (And because it wouldn’t be Christmas without dick cookies.)</p>
<p>Elliot Havoc Racer Chronograph Watch</p>
<p>Designed in gay-mecca Golden Gate City, the chronograph watch from Elliot Havok — shown here in festive green with Italian leather straps — features Miyota Japanese JS15 movement, a sapphire glass face and enough style cred that you can forgo the gift receipt. $199,&#160; <a href="http://www.elliothavok.com/" type="external">elliothavok.com</a></p>
<p>Elliot Havoc Racer Chronograph Watch</p>
<p>ONEHOPE Pride Box</p>
<p>Gay newlyweds will cherish the sentiment and enjoy the bubbly in this prideful gift box featuring ONEHOPE California Sparkling Brut Rainbow Glitter Edition, a Supreme Court Ruling card&#160;by Emily McDowell, rainbow disco ball bottle-necker and confetti push-pop in a white gift box. Every two gift sets funds one hour of operational costs for the Trevor Project’s lifeline helpline that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBT youth. $99,&#160; <a href="https://www.onehopewine.com/" type="external">onehopewine.com</a></p>
<p>ONEHOPE Pride Box</p>
<p>Slumbr Pillows</p>
<p>Slumbr’s online Pillow Quiz will help determine which luxurious pillows suit each sleeper — take it on your partner’s behalf so you don’t ruin the surprise. But rest assured you’ll both sleep better as visions of go-go boys dance in your heads. $60-225,&#160; <a href="http://www.slumbr.com/" type="external">slumbr.com</a></p>
<p>Slumber Pillows</p>
<p>BucknBear Small Abalone Knife</p>
<p>Vibrant iridescent abalone handles flank a gorgeous VG10 core Damascus steel blade, which resembles a beach shoreline, to create this all-purpose pocketknife that avid outdoorsmen and lesbians will go gaga over. $89,&#160; <a href="https://urbanedcsupply.com/" type="external">urbanedcsupply.com</a></p>
<p>BucknBear Small Abalone Knife</p>
<p>EcoReco E-Scooter</p>
<p>Commuters and students alike will appreciate this environmentally safe electric scooter that charges in a standard AC outlet, hits the road at up to 20 miles per hour for 10-20 miles on a single charge, and folds down quickly and easily into a compact and lightweight means of save-the-planet transportation. $799,&#160; <a href="https://ecorecoscooter.com/" type="external">ecorecoscooter.com</a></p>
<p>EcoReco E-Scooter</p>
<p>Petite Diamond Snowflake Necklace</p>
<p>Sixty-one shimmering diamonds set in a snowflake of 14 karat white gold takes the liberal politics your girlfriend wears on her proverbial sleeve and puts them squarely on her chest. A badge of honor, indeed. $495,&#160; <a href="https://www.bahdos.com/" type="external">bahdos.com</a></p>
<p>Petite Diamond Snowflake Necklace</p>
<p>Fanchest</p>
<p>Deck out your special sports fan in head-to-toe spirit for their favorite team with a Fanchest filled with everything they’ll need for a next-level game day. Each box is different but chests often include shirts, hats, scarves, cups and more officially licensed swag from NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB or college teams. Autographed memorabilia boxes also are available. $59-299,&#160; <a href="https://www.fanchest.com/" type="external">fanchest.com</a></p>
<p>Fanchest</p>
<p>Genital-Shaped Cookie Cutters</p>
<p>Gay sex positions and detailed human genitalia — veins and all, y’all — turn sugar-spiked dough into never-more-than-a-mouthful cookies lifted straight from the Kama Sutra. Perfect for the church bake sale. $9-12,&#160; <a href="https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/bakerlogy" type="external">etsy.com/au/shop/bakerlogy</a></p>
<p>Genital-Shaped Cookie Cutters</p>
<p>Astro Fi Wi-Fi Connected Telescope</p>
<p>Your gay niece or nephew (don’t we all have one by now?) can shoot for the stars (or at least gaze at them) with the Astro Fi Wi-Fi Connected Telescope that throws the live night sky onto a phone or tablet for easy exploration of the cosmos. $400,&#160; <a href="https://www.thegrommet.com/" type="external">thegrommet.com</a></p>
<p>Astro Fi Wi-Fi Connected Telescope</p>
<p>Frank Lloyd Wright Porcelain Box</p>
<p>Gold-trimmed and limited edition (only 1,500 numbered pieces exist) this porcelain-lidded catchall features one of Wright’s Liberty magazine cover designs with a quote on the inside as a daily reminder to put your best gay foot forward. $80,&#160; <a href="http://www.shopwright.org/" type="external">shopwright.org</a></p>
<p>Frank Lloyd Wright Porcelain Box</p>
<p>Wine Explorer by Vinome</p>
<p>After receiving their Helix-sequenced DNA results, recipients can head to the Vinome website to discover curated wine recommendations tailored to their taste preferences and scientifically selected based on their genetic makeup to add an exciting new element to boozy half-price-bottle nights. $110,&#160; <a href="http://www.helix.com/" type="external">helix.com</a></p>
<p>Epson Home Cinema 2100</p>
<p>Screen movies up to 11-feet wide — that’s four times the size of a 60-inch flat panel TV — with this home projector featuring full HD resolution, 1.6x zoom, and a built-in 10 W speaker that’ll make your Netflix-and-chill routine feel like a second-run matinee. Popcorn trick encouraged. $650,&#160; <a href="https://epson.com/" type="external">epson.com</a></p>
<p>Epson Home Cinema 2100</p>
<p>Symphonica Horn Speaker Dock</p>
<p>Reminiscent of the iconic Victrola phonograph, this handcrafted acoustic horn updates turn-of-the-century design to produce a sleek, electricity-free speaker to amplify smartphone playlists that would make Edison cream his pants. $130-160,&#160; <a href="https://www.symphonicasound.com/product/symphonica-speaker/" type="external">symphonicasound.com</a></p>
<p>Symphonica Horn Speaker Dock</p>
<p>Kevin Messenger Beverage Carrier</p>
<p>Don’t let this bag fool you: The only message it’s sending is how to get day drunk on three liters of insulated wine, beer or premade cocktail — and look dapper doing it. $75,&#160; <a href="http://vivajennz.com/" type="external">vivajennz.com</a></p>
<p>Kevin Messenger Beverage Carrier</p>
<p>Iridescent Universe Joggers</p>
<p>Explore the constellations of his nether region while he’s lounging in these hypnotic, cosmic statement joggers that you can’t take your eyes off of. $60,&#160; <a href="http://www.intotheam.com/" type="external">intotheam.com</a></p>
<p>Iridescent Universe Joggers</p>
<p>Hestan Cue Induction Cooking System</p>
<p>This smart pan and induction burner with embedded Bluetooth sensors brings amateur kitchen skills into the 21st century so you and boo can home-cook like the tuned-in Millennials you can’t stop telling everybody you are. $500,&#160; <a href="http://www.hestancue.com/" type="external">hestancue.com</a></p>
<p>Hestan Cue Induction Cooking System</p>
<p>Rocabi Weighted Blanket</p>
<p>Cut back on your Advil PM and Xanax nightcaps with all-the-rage adult weighted blankets that studies have found to help alleviate anxiety and insomnia. $209-279,&#160; <a href="https://www.rocabi.com/" type="external">rocabi.com</a></p>
<p>Rocabi Weighted Blanket</p>
<p>Seersucker Martini Belt</p>
<p>Hand-stitched and made to order, the martini needlepoint belt from Brewster Belt Co. adds a twist of whimsy to casual Fridays while reinforcing the comforting reality that it’s always&#160;5 p.m.&#160;somewhere. Also available in a San Francisco landscape design prominently featuring the rainbow pride flag. $165-175,&#160; <a href="http://www.brewsterbelt.com/" type="external">brewsterbelt.com</a></p>
<p>Seersucker Martini Belt</p>
<p>Happier Camper</p>
<p>Hitch vintage-inspired Happier Camper — outfitted with modern amenities, like the Adaptiv modular interior, USB ports and other custom components — to the back of most vehicles for all-the-time hook-up-and-go getaways guaranteed to renew a zest for adventure. $18,950-and-up,&#160; <a href="http://happiercamper.com/" type="external">happiercamper.com</a></p>
<p>Happier Camper</p>
<p>Mikey Rox is an award-winning journalist and LGBT lifestyle expert whose work has been published in more than 100 outlets across the world. He splits his time between homes in New York City and the Jersey Shore with his dog Jaxon. Connect with Mikey on Twitter&#160; <a href="http://www.twitter.com/mikeyrox" type="external">@mikeyrox</a>.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Astro Fi Wi-Fi Connected Telescope</a> <a href="" type="internal">BucknBear Small Abalone Knife</a> <a href="" type="internal">EcoReco E-Scooter</a> <a href="" type="internal">Elliot Havoc Racer Chronograph Watch</a> <a href="" type="internal">Epson Home Cinema 2100</a> <a href="" type="internal">Fanchest</a> <a href="" type="internal">Frank Lloyd Wright Porcelain Box</a> <a href="" type="internal">Genital-Shaped Cookie Cutters</a> <a href="" type="internal">Happier Camper</a> <a href="" type="internal">Hestan Cue Induction Cooking System</a> <a href="" type="internal">Iridescent Universe Joggers</a> <a href="" type="internal">Kevin Messenger Beverage Carrier</a> <a href="" type="internal">ONEHOPE Pride Box</a> <a href="" type="internal">Petite Diamond Snowflake Necklace</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rocabi Weighted Blanket</a> <a href="" type="internal">Seersucker Martini Belt</a> <a href="" type="internal">Slumbr Pillows</a> <a href="" type="internal">Symphonica Horn Speaker Dock</a> <a href="" type="internal">Wine Explorer by Vinome</a></p> | HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: Gay gifts galore | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/12/11/holiday-gift-guide-gay-gifts-galore/ | 3left-center
| HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: Gay gifts galore
<p>Cutesy, clever, gifty or sexy, here are some off-the-beaten-path ideas for gifts.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Gay ol’ St. Nick delivers the goods to LGBT people of all ages and sensibilities with this comprehensive gift guide designed to please every persuasion. (And because it wouldn’t be Christmas without dick cookies.)</p>
<p>Elliot Havoc Racer Chronograph Watch</p>
<p>Designed in gay-mecca Golden Gate City, the chronograph watch from Elliot Havok — shown here in festive green with Italian leather straps — features Miyota Japanese JS15 movement, a sapphire glass face and enough style cred that you can forgo the gift receipt. $199,&#160; <a href="http://www.elliothavok.com/" type="external">elliothavok.com</a></p>
<p>Elliot Havoc Racer Chronograph Watch</p>
<p>ONEHOPE Pride Box</p>
<p>Gay newlyweds will cherish the sentiment and enjoy the bubbly in this prideful gift box featuring ONEHOPE California Sparkling Brut Rainbow Glitter Edition, a Supreme Court Ruling card&#160;by Emily McDowell, rainbow disco ball bottle-necker and confetti push-pop in a white gift box. Every two gift sets funds one hour of operational costs for the Trevor Project’s lifeline helpline that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBT youth. $99,&#160; <a href="https://www.onehopewine.com/" type="external">onehopewine.com</a></p>
<p>ONEHOPE Pride Box</p>
<p>Slumbr Pillows</p>
<p>Slumbr’s online Pillow Quiz will help determine which luxurious pillows suit each sleeper — take it on your partner’s behalf so you don’t ruin the surprise. But rest assured you’ll both sleep better as visions of go-go boys dance in your heads. $60-225,&#160; <a href="http://www.slumbr.com/" type="external">slumbr.com</a></p>
<p>Slumber Pillows</p>
<p>BucknBear Small Abalone Knife</p>
<p>Vibrant iridescent abalone handles flank a gorgeous VG10 core Damascus steel blade, which resembles a beach shoreline, to create this all-purpose pocketknife that avid outdoorsmen and lesbians will go gaga over. $89,&#160; <a href="https://urbanedcsupply.com/" type="external">urbanedcsupply.com</a></p>
<p>BucknBear Small Abalone Knife</p>
<p>EcoReco E-Scooter</p>
<p>Commuters and students alike will appreciate this environmentally safe electric scooter that charges in a standard AC outlet, hits the road at up to 20 miles per hour for 10-20 miles on a single charge, and folds down quickly and easily into a compact and lightweight means of save-the-planet transportation. $799,&#160; <a href="https://ecorecoscooter.com/" type="external">ecorecoscooter.com</a></p>
<p>EcoReco E-Scooter</p>
<p>Petite Diamond Snowflake Necklace</p>
<p>Sixty-one shimmering diamonds set in a snowflake of 14 karat white gold takes the liberal politics your girlfriend wears on her proverbial sleeve and puts them squarely on her chest. A badge of honor, indeed. $495,&#160; <a href="https://www.bahdos.com/" type="external">bahdos.com</a></p>
<p>Petite Diamond Snowflake Necklace</p>
<p>Fanchest</p>
<p>Deck out your special sports fan in head-to-toe spirit for their favorite team with a Fanchest filled with everything they’ll need for a next-level game day. Each box is different but chests often include shirts, hats, scarves, cups and more officially licensed swag from NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB or college teams. Autographed memorabilia boxes also are available. $59-299,&#160; <a href="https://www.fanchest.com/" type="external">fanchest.com</a></p>
<p>Fanchest</p>
<p>Genital-Shaped Cookie Cutters</p>
<p>Gay sex positions and detailed human genitalia — veins and all, y’all — turn sugar-spiked dough into never-more-than-a-mouthful cookies lifted straight from the Kama Sutra. Perfect for the church bake sale. $9-12,&#160; <a href="https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/bakerlogy" type="external">etsy.com/au/shop/bakerlogy</a></p>
<p>Genital-Shaped Cookie Cutters</p>
<p>Astro Fi Wi-Fi Connected Telescope</p>
<p>Your gay niece or nephew (don’t we all have one by now?) can shoot for the stars (or at least gaze at them) with the Astro Fi Wi-Fi Connected Telescope that throws the live night sky onto a phone or tablet for easy exploration of the cosmos. $400,&#160; <a href="https://www.thegrommet.com/" type="external">thegrommet.com</a></p>
<p>Astro Fi Wi-Fi Connected Telescope</p>
<p>Frank Lloyd Wright Porcelain Box</p>
<p>Gold-trimmed and limited edition (only 1,500 numbered pieces exist) this porcelain-lidded catchall features one of Wright’s Liberty magazine cover designs with a quote on the inside as a daily reminder to put your best gay foot forward. $80,&#160; <a href="http://www.shopwright.org/" type="external">shopwright.org</a></p>
<p>Frank Lloyd Wright Porcelain Box</p>
<p>Wine Explorer by Vinome</p>
<p>After receiving their Helix-sequenced DNA results, recipients can head to the Vinome website to discover curated wine recommendations tailored to their taste preferences and scientifically selected based on their genetic makeup to add an exciting new element to boozy half-price-bottle nights. $110,&#160; <a href="http://www.helix.com/" type="external">helix.com</a></p>
<p>Epson Home Cinema 2100</p>
<p>Screen movies up to 11-feet wide — that’s four times the size of a 60-inch flat panel TV — with this home projector featuring full HD resolution, 1.6x zoom, and a built-in 10 W speaker that’ll make your Netflix-and-chill routine feel like a second-run matinee. Popcorn trick encouraged. $650,&#160; <a href="https://epson.com/" type="external">epson.com</a></p>
<p>Epson Home Cinema 2100</p>
<p>Symphonica Horn Speaker Dock</p>
<p>Reminiscent of the iconic Victrola phonograph, this handcrafted acoustic horn updates turn-of-the-century design to produce a sleek, electricity-free speaker to amplify smartphone playlists that would make Edison cream his pants. $130-160,&#160; <a href="https://www.symphonicasound.com/product/symphonica-speaker/" type="external">symphonicasound.com</a></p>
<p>Symphonica Horn Speaker Dock</p>
<p>Kevin Messenger Beverage Carrier</p>
<p>Don’t let this bag fool you: The only message it’s sending is how to get day drunk on three liters of insulated wine, beer or premade cocktail — and look dapper doing it. $75,&#160; <a href="http://vivajennz.com/" type="external">vivajennz.com</a></p>
<p>Kevin Messenger Beverage Carrier</p>
<p>Iridescent Universe Joggers</p>
<p>Explore the constellations of his nether region while he’s lounging in these hypnotic, cosmic statement joggers that you can’t take your eyes off of. $60,&#160; <a href="http://www.intotheam.com/" type="external">intotheam.com</a></p>
<p>Iridescent Universe Joggers</p>
<p>Hestan Cue Induction Cooking System</p>
<p>This smart pan and induction burner with embedded Bluetooth sensors brings amateur kitchen skills into the 21st century so you and boo can home-cook like the tuned-in Millennials you can’t stop telling everybody you are. $500,&#160; <a href="http://www.hestancue.com/" type="external">hestancue.com</a></p>
<p>Hestan Cue Induction Cooking System</p>
<p>Rocabi Weighted Blanket</p>
<p>Cut back on your Advil PM and Xanax nightcaps with all-the-rage adult weighted blankets that studies have found to help alleviate anxiety and insomnia. $209-279,&#160; <a href="https://www.rocabi.com/" type="external">rocabi.com</a></p>
<p>Rocabi Weighted Blanket</p>
<p>Seersucker Martini Belt</p>
<p>Hand-stitched and made to order, the martini needlepoint belt from Brewster Belt Co. adds a twist of whimsy to casual Fridays while reinforcing the comforting reality that it’s always&#160;5 p.m.&#160;somewhere. Also available in a San Francisco landscape design prominently featuring the rainbow pride flag. $165-175,&#160; <a href="http://www.brewsterbelt.com/" type="external">brewsterbelt.com</a></p>
<p>Seersucker Martini Belt</p>
<p>Happier Camper</p>
<p>Hitch vintage-inspired Happier Camper — outfitted with modern amenities, like the Adaptiv modular interior, USB ports and other custom components — to the back of most vehicles for all-the-time hook-up-and-go getaways guaranteed to renew a zest for adventure. $18,950-and-up,&#160; <a href="http://happiercamper.com/" type="external">happiercamper.com</a></p>
<p>Happier Camper</p>
<p>Mikey Rox is an award-winning journalist and LGBT lifestyle expert whose work has been published in more than 100 outlets across the world. He splits his time between homes in New York City and the Jersey Shore with his dog Jaxon. Connect with Mikey on Twitter&#160; <a href="http://www.twitter.com/mikeyrox" type="external">@mikeyrox</a>.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Astro Fi Wi-Fi Connected Telescope</a> <a href="" type="internal">BucknBear Small Abalone Knife</a> <a href="" type="internal">EcoReco E-Scooter</a> <a href="" type="internal">Elliot Havoc Racer Chronograph Watch</a> <a href="" type="internal">Epson Home Cinema 2100</a> <a href="" type="internal">Fanchest</a> <a href="" type="internal">Frank Lloyd Wright Porcelain Box</a> <a href="" type="internal">Genital-Shaped Cookie Cutters</a> <a href="" type="internal">Happier Camper</a> <a href="" type="internal">Hestan Cue Induction Cooking System</a> <a href="" type="internal">Iridescent Universe Joggers</a> <a href="" type="internal">Kevin Messenger Beverage Carrier</a> <a href="" type="internal">ONEHOPE Pride Box</a> <a href="" type="internal">Petite Diamond Snowflake Necklace</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rocabi Weighted Blanket</a> <a href="" type="internal">Seersucker Martini Belt</a> <a href="" type="internal">Slumbr Pillows</a> <a href="" type="internal">Symphonica Horn Speaker Dock</a> <a href="" type="internal">Wine Explorer by Vinome</a></p> | 2,522 |
|
<p>By Paul Lienert</p>
<p>(Reuters) – Ford Motor (NYSE:) Co has formed a team to accelerate global development of electric vehicles, whose mission will be to “think big” and “make quicker decisions,” an executive of the company said on Monday.</p>
<p>One aim of Ford’s “Team Edison” is to identify and develop electric-vehicle partnerships with other companies, including suppliers, in some markets, according to Sherif Marakby, vice president of autonomous vehicles and electrification.</p>
<p>Global demand for electric vehicles has “a significant potential to increase” as governments implement EV mandates and quotas, Marakby said in an interview.</p>
<p>He said the group will be based in the Detroit area and work with regional Ford vehicle electrification teams in China and Europe.</p>
<p>China, India, France and the United Kingdom all have announced plans to phase out vehicles powered by combustion engines and fossil fuels between 2030 and 2040.</p>
<p>Marakby said Team Edison “will look holistically at the electric vehicle market.”</p>
<p>“The idea is to think big, move fast and make quicker decisions” on EV production as demand increases and technology advances, he added.</p>
<p>Ford has not altered its previously announced plan to spend $4.5 billion over five years on electrified vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, Marakby said.</p>
<p>He declined to say how many new electric vehicles Ford expects to add in the future.</p>
<p>The new team will report to Ted Cannis, who has been named global director of electrification.</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> | Ford creates team to ramp up electric vehicle development | false | https://newsline.com/ford-creates-team-to-ramp-up-electric-vehicle-development/ | 2017-10-02 | 1right-center
| Ford creates team to ramp up electric vehicle development
<p>By Paul Lienert</p>
<p>(Reuters) – Ford Motor (NYSE:) Co has formed a team to accelerate global development of electric vehicles, whose mission will be to “think big” and “make quicker decisions,” an executive of the company said on Monday.</p>
<p>One aim of Ford’s “Team Edison” is to identify and develop electric-vehicle partnerships with other companies, including suppliers, in some markets, according to Sherif Marakby, vice president of autonomous vehicles and electrification.</p>
<p>Global demand for electric vehicles has “a significant potential to increase” as governments implement EV mandates and quotas, Marakby said in an interview.</p>
<p>He said the group will be based in the Detroit area and work with regional Ford vehicle electrification teams in China and Europe.</p>
<p>China, India, France and the United Kingdom all have announced plans to phase out vehicles powered by combustion engines and fossil fuels between 2030 and 2040.</p>
<p>Marakby said Team Edison “will look holistically at the electric vehicle market.”</p>
<p>“The idea is to think big, move fast and make quicker decisions” on EV production as demand increases and technology advances, he added.</p>
<p>Ford has not altered its previously announced plan to spend $4.5 billion over five years on electrified vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, Marakby said.</p>
<p>He declined to say how many new electric vehicles Ford expects to add in the future.</p>
<p>The new team will report to Ted Cannis, who has been named global director of electrification.</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> | 2,523 |
<p>It's settled, but far from over. The University of Virginia fraternity that was slimed and defamed by sicko fabulist Sabrina Erdely will receive a $1.65 million payment, the fraternity announced this week.</p>
<p>Erdely's manufactured tale of gang rape by Phi Kappa Psi members, spun through a manipulated UVA student dubbed "Jackie" and published by left-wing Rolling Stone magazine, combusted spectacularly after scrutiny by independent journalists in late 2014. The latest payout over the fictional hit piece comes in the wake of another defamation lawsuit by UVA dean of students Nicole Eramo. She won a $3 million jury verdict last year after suffering great damage to her reputation after Rolling Stone painted her as an uncaring, obstructionist school official who covered up sexual assault on campus.</p>
<p>The judgment, Eramo told NBC 29 in Charlottesville, Virginia, last week, "was vindicating."</p>
<p>But is it enough to compensate for the harm done — and is it enough to deter future rape hoaxers and their media enablers from perpetrating more lies against innocent young men?</p>
<p>Phi Kappa Psi initially sued for $25 million, but received a tiny fraction of that amount. Eramo's jury award also shrunk after she agreed to a settlement with Rolling Stone in April. Despite her court victory, she faced a mountain of legal bills related to trial costs and a threatened appeal.</p>
<p>And what about Erdeley's other victims?</p>
<p>Three other Phi Kappa Psi alumni, George Elias IV, Stephen Hadford and Ross Fowler, filed a third defamation suit that was dismissed by a federal judge last year. But in April, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York heard arguments for reinstating the case. It will take considerable time and resources for the fraternity members to be made whole again.</p>
<p>Even more troubling: There are other forgotten targets of Erdely's shoddy slur-nolism, again published by Rolling Stone, who have yet to see any accountability for her destructive words and actions against them.</p>
<p>In 2011, Erdely published a massive "investigation" in Rolling Stone alleging a "high-level conspiracy" to cover up sexual abuse by Philadelphia Catholic clergy. Erdely featured the graphic allegations of a troubled accuser known as "Billy Doe," who lodged wild rape charges against two Catholic priests and a lay teacher. His testimony resulted in the convictions of four men (one of whom died in prison), while "Billy" pocketed a $5 million settlement.</p>
<p>Ralph Cipriano, independent investigative journalist and founder of BigTrial, has extensively chronicled the lies, contradictions, and schemes of former altar boy "Billy" — a.k.a. Daniel Gallagher — over the past five years. Last month, Cipriano reported that a key detective in the case, Joe Walsh, filed an affidavit in the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court outlining Gallagher's deception. When Walsh pressed Gallagher on whether his stories of "brutal anal rapes, death threats, (and) getting tied up naked with altar sashes" were true, Walsh wrote that Gallagher admitted he "just made up stuff and told them anything."</p>
<p>More damning, Cipriano reported, Walsh had "repeatedly informed the prosecutor in the case, former Assistant District Attorney Mariana Sorensen, that Gallagher wasn't a credible witness. Walsh also informed Sorensen that there was no evidence that backed up Gallagher's fantastic stories, and that the evidence gathered by Walsh actually contradicted Gallagher."</p>
<p>But the DA's office proceeded with the prosecutions, anyway. And Rolling Stone has never bothered to review or update Erdely's article — or inform readers of the real scandal of yet another fake rape hoax and prosecutorial misconduct.</p>
<p>In 2013, Erdely published another piece of half-baked advocacy journalism on "The Rape of Petty Officer (Rebecca) Blumer: Inside the military's culture of sex abuse, denial and cover-up."</p>
<p>She's a one-trick pony, ain't she?</p>
<p>As Washington Examiner reporter Ashe Schow pointed out, Erdely "apparently made no attempt to contact members of the military involved in investigating the case, instead relying on victim's advocates with no direct knowledge" of Blumer's claims of being "roofied and raped."</p>
<p>Fraternities, religious institutions, the military, and the entire male population have been defamed by a lying liar with a laptop and her "progressive" editors at Democrat donor Jann Wenner's flagship rock music rag. All in service of promoting "rape culture" propaganda at any cost.</p>
<p>Too few journalists are willing to challenge the corruption of the criminal justice system in their backyards. Politicized police departments and pro-prosecution courts have failed to uphold the constitutional rights of the accused. The wheels of justice grind far too slowly for the falsely defamed and falsely convicted, fighting for their reputations or for their lives behind bars.</p>
<p>Juries need to send louder messages and impose strong deterrents against rape fakers and their propagandists. Make them pay. Big time.</p>
<p>Michelle Malkin is host of "Michelle Malkin Investigates" on CRTV.com. Her email address is [email protected]. To find out more about Michelle Malkin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.</p>
<p>COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM</p> | MALKIN: Rape Fakers Must Pay a Higher Price | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17535/malkin-rape-fakers-must-pay-higher-price-michelle-malkin | 2017-06-14 | 0right
| MALKIN: Rape Fakers Must Pay a Higher Price
<p>It's settled, but far from over. The University of Virginia fraternity that was slimed and defamed by sicko fabulist Sabrina Erdely will receive a $1.65 million payment, the fraternity announced this week.</p>
<p>Erdely's manufactured tale of gang rape by Phi Kappa Psi members, spun through a manipulated UVA student dubbed "Jackie" and published by left-wing Rolling Stone magazine, combusted spectacularly after scrutiny by independent journalists in late 2014. The latest payout over the fictional hit piece comes in the wake of another defamation lawsuit by UVA dean of students Nicole Eramo. She won a $3 million jury verdict last year after suffering great damage to her reputation after Rolling Stone painted her as an uncaring, obstructionist school official who covered up sexual assault on campus.</p>
<p>The judgment, Eramo told NBC 29 in Charlottesville, Virginia, last week, "was vindicating."</p>
<p>But is it enough to compensate for the harm done — and is it enough to deter future rape hoaxers and their media enablers from perpetrating more lies against innocent young men?</p>
<p>Phi Kappa Psi initially sued for $25 million, but received a tiny fraction of that amount. Eramo's jury award also shrunk after she agreed to a settlement with Rolling Stone in April. Despite her court victory, she faced a mountain of legal bills related to trial costs and a threatened appeal.</p>
<p>And what about Erdeley's other victims?</p>
<p>Three other Phi Kappa Psi alumni, George Elias IV, Stephen Hadford and Ross Fowler, filed a third defamation suit that was dismissed by a federal judge last year. But in April, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York heard arguments for reinstating the case. It will take considerable time and resources for the fraternity members to be made whole again.</p>
<p>Even more troubling: There are other forgotten targets of Erdely's shoddy slur-nolism, again published by Rolling Stone, who have yet to see any accountability for her destructive words and actions against them.</p>
<p>In 2011, Erdely published a massive "investigation" in Rolling Stone alleging a "high-level conspiracy" to cover up sexual abuse by Philadelphia Catholic clergy. Erdely featured the graphic allegations of a troubled accuser known as "Billy Doe," who lodged wild rape charges against two Catholic priests and a lay teacher. His testimony resulted in the convictions of four men (one of whom died in prison), while "Billy" pocketed a $5 million settlement.</p>
<p>Ralph Cipriano, independent investigative journalist and founder of BigTrial, has extensively chronicled the lies, contradictions, and schemes of former altar boy "Billy" — a.k.a. Daniel Gallagher — over the past five years. Last month, Cipriano reported that a key detective in the case, Joe Walsh, filed an affidavit in the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court outlining Gallagher's deception. When Walsh pressed Gallagher on whether his stories of "brutal anal rapes, death threats, (and) getting tied up naked with altar sashes" were true, Walsh wrote that Gallagher admitted he "just made up stuff and told them anything."</p>
<p>More damning, Cipriano reported, Walsh had "repeatedly informed the prosecutor in the case, former Assistant District Attorney Mariana Sorensen, that Gallagher wasn't a credible witness. Walsh also informed Sorensen that there was no evidence that backed up Gallagher's fantastic stories, and that the evidence gathered by Walsh actually contradicted Gallagher."</p>
<p>But the DA's office proceeded with the prosecutions, anyway. And Rolling Stone has never bothered to review or update Erdely's article — or inform readers of the real scandal of yet another fake rape hoax and prosecutorial misconduct.</p>
<p>In 2013, Erdely published another piece of half-baked advocacy journalism on "The Rape of Petty Officer (Rebecca) Blumer: Inside the military's culture of sex abuse, denial and cover-up."</p>
<p>She's a one-trick pony, ain't she?</p>
<p>As Washington Examiner reporter Ashe Schow pointed out, Erdely "apparently made no attempt to contact members of the military involved in investigating the case, instead relying on victim's advocates with no direct knowledge" of Blumer's claims of being "roofied and raped."</p>
<p>Fraternities, religious institutions, the military, and the entire male population have been defamed by a lying liar with a laptop and her "progressive" editors at Democrat donor Jann Wenner's flagship rock music rag. All in service of promoting "rape culture" propaganda at any cost.</p>
<p>Too few journalists are willing to challenge the corruption of the criminal justice system in their backyards. Politicized police departments and pro-prosecution courts have failed to uphold the constitutional rights of the accused. The wheels of justice grind far too slowly for the falsely defamed and falsely convicted, fighting for their reputations or for their lives behind bars.</p>
<p>Juries need to send louder messages and impose strong deterrents against rape fakers and their propagandists. Make them pay. Big time.</p>
<p>Michelle Malkin is host of "Michelle Malkin Investigates" on CRTV.com. Her email address is [email protected]. To find out more about Michelle Malkin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.</p>
<p>COPYRIGHT 2017 CREATORS.COM</p> | 2,524 |
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The murder of a Hispanic New Mexico jailer in 1968 — a year of unrest in the U.S. — has divided residents, scholars and civil rights advocates for decades. Fifty years and two investigations later, one of the most dramatic conflicts of the civil rights era remains unsolved.</p>
<p>On a frigid January evening, assailants abducted Eulogio Salazar in front of his home in the rural community of Tierra Amarilla. His body was later found in a ravine.</p>
<p>Police said the perpetrators viciously pistol-whipped Salazar.</p>
<p>Hysteria followed in northern New Mexico amid racial tensions and a push by Hispanic activists for the return of land they say the government illegally seized from their ancestors in New Mexico and southern Colorado.</p>
<p>“I think whoever did it probably went to his grave,” Maria Varela, a photographer who worked with civil rights activists in the area, said of the killing. “But there are people in that community who know who did it.”</p>
<p>The murder came as Salazar was preparing to testify against Hispanic rights activist Reies Lopez Tijerina and his followers, who six months earlier led an armed raid of the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Tijerina is led into court in Santa Fe in 1967. (Ray Cary/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)</p>
<p>The raid was connected to age-old land disputes and began after activists from the group La Alianza Federal de Mercedes sought to make a citizen’s arrest of Santa Fe’s district attorney.</p>
<p>The group wanted local officials to honor Spanish land grants outlined in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo — the agreement that ended the U.S.-Mexican War of 1848 — and give back land to the descendants of Hispanic pioneering families.</p>
<p>Salazar was working at the courthouse as a jailer and was shot during the raid. Afterward, he told then-Gov. David Cargo it was Tijerina who shot him, according to Cargo’s memoirs.</p>
<p>Tijerina and his followers escaped into a nearby national forest, generating excitement among supporters and fear among others. Their actions helped spark the Chicano Movement — a militant phase of the Mexican-American civil rights struggle.</p>
<p>Salazar was recovering from his wounds when he was killed. His body was found with his car at the foot of a hill 5 miles (8 kilometers) from his home. The car was nose-down against a snow-banked barbed-wire fence.</p>
<p>There were no witnesses. No one was ever convicted.</p>
<p>But Salazar’s family says they know who was behind the murder: associates of Tijerina.</p>
<p>“Someone did this because blood was boiling, and they were trying to cover their tracks,” said Michael Olivas, Salazar’s cousin and a University of Houston law professor.</p>
<p>Tijerina denied having any role in Salazar’s killing up until his own death in 2015.</p>
<p>Tijerina at a 2012 event at the New Mexico Statehouse. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File)</p>
<p>Others say Salazar was a casualty of overzealous law enforcement working to dismantle the growing influence of Mexican-American civil rights groups and thwart activists’ efforts to reclaim the land they argued was stolen from them.</p>
<p>Tijerina and other Alianza members were under constant surveillance and infiltration by the FBI and New Mexico State Police, said David Correia, author of “Properties of Violence: Law and Land Grant Struggle in Northern New Mexico.” In fact, scholars have uncovered evidence authorities were trying to provoke Tijerina and his group into a violent confrontation.</p>
<p>“When Eulogio Salazar gets killed, that’s the context in which he’s murdered,” Correia said. “There was a coordinated, covert campaign to politically delegitimize Alianza.”</p>
<p>Salazar was not an Alianza member, but some scholars have suggested he might have changed his mind about testifying against Tijerina, angering authorities. Salazar’s family disputes that theory.</p>
<p>The truth likely will never come out, said Toney Anaya, a former New Mexico attorney general who oversaw an investigation into the murder nearly 10 years later.</p>
<p>“There simply were not enough leads to try to get down to the bottom of who done it,” Anaya said.</p>
<p>A report by then-New Mexico Assistant Attorney General Michael Francke faulted the State Police for a sloppy investigation and all but cleared Tijerina and his associates. But it had pages redacted, furthering conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>John Crenshaw, a former Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper reporter who covered the Salazar murder, said despite the many theories, Salazar’s death cast a “cold feeling” over the land grant movement.</p>
<p>“Talk about a cold case,” Crenshaw said. “Whoever or for whatever reasons, I’d love for the whole world to know after all these years ... but I don’t think that will ever happen.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Russell Contreras is a member of the AP’s race and ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/russcontreras" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/russcontreras" type="external">http://twitter.com/russcontreras</a></p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The murder of a Hispanic New Mexico jailer in 1968 — a year of unrest in the U.S. — has divided residents, scholars and civil rights advocates for decades. Fifty years and two investigations later, one of the most dramatic conflicts of the civil rights era remains unsolved.</p>
<p>On a frigid January evening, assailants abducted Eulogio Salazar in front of his home in the rural community of Tierra Amarilla. His body was later found in a ravine.</p>
<p>Police said the perpetrators viciously pistol-whipped Salazar.</p>
<p>Hysteria followed in northern New Mexico amid racial tensions and a push by Hispanic activists for the return of land they say the government illegally seized from their ancestors in New Mexico and southern Colorado.</p>
<p>“I think whoever did it probably went to his grave,” Maria Varela, a photographer who worked with civil rights activists in the area, said of the killing. “But there are people in that community who know who did it.”</p>
<p>The murder came as Salazar was preparing to testify against Hispanic rights activist Reies Lopez Tijerina and his followers, who six months earlier led an armed raid of the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Tijerina is led into court in Santa Fe in 1967. (Ray Cary/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)</p>
<p>The raid was connected to age-old land disputes and began after activists from the group La Alianza Federal de Mercedes sought to make a citizen’s arrest of Santa Fe’s district attorney.</p>
<p>The group wanted local officials to honor Spanish land grants outlined in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo — the agreement that ended the U.S.-Mexican War of 1848 — and give back land to the descendants of Hispanic pioneering families.</p>
<p>Salazar was working at the courthouse as a jailer and was shot during the raid. Afterward, he told then-Gov. David Cargo it was Tijerina who shot him, according to Cargo’s memoirs.</p>
<p>Tijerina and his followers escaped into a nearby national forest, generating excitement among supporters and fear among others. Their actions helped spark the Chicano Movement — a militant phase of the Mexican-American civil rights struggle.</p>
<p>Salazar was recovering from his wounds when he was killed. His body was found with his car at the foot of a hill 5 miles (8 kilometers) from his home. The car was nose-down against a snow-banked barbed-wire fence.</p>
<p>There were no witnesses. No one was ever convicted.</p>
<p>But Salazar’s family says they know who was behind the murder: associates of Tijerina.</p>
<p>“Someone did this because blood was boiling, and they were trying to cover their tracks,” said Michael Olivas, Salazar’s cousin and a University of Houston law professor.</p>
<p>Tijerina denied having any role in Salazar’s killing up until his own death in 2015.</p>
<p>Tijerina at a 2012 event at the New Mexico Statehouse. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File)</p>
<p>Others say Salazar was a casualty of overzealous law enforcement working to dismantle the growing influence of Mexican-American civil rights groups and thwart activists’ efforts to reclaim the land they argued was stolen from them.</p>
<p>Tijerina and other Alianza members were under constant surveillance and infiltration by the FBI and New Mexico State Police, said David Correia, author of “Properties of Violence: Law and Land Grant Struggle in Northern New Mexico.” In fact, scholars have uncovered evidence authorities were trying to provoke Tijerina and his group into a violent confrontation.</p>
<p>“When Eulogio Salazar gets killed, that’s the context in which he’s murdered,” Correia said. “There was a coordinated, covert campaign to politically delegitimize Alianza.”</p>
<p>Salazar was not an Alianza member, but some scholars have suggested he might have changed his mind about testifying against Tijerina, angering authorities. Salazar’s family disputes that theory.</p>
<p>The truth likely will never come out, said Toney Anaya, a former New Mexico attorney general who oversaw an investigation into the murder nearly 10 years later.</p>
<p>“There simply were not enough leads to try to get down to the bottom of who done it,” Anaya said.</p>
<p>A report by then-New Mexico Assistant Attorney General Michael Francke faulted the State Police for a sloppy investigation and all but cleared Tijerina and his associates. But it had pages redacted, furthering conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>John Crenshaw, a former Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper reporter who covered the Salazar murder, said despite the many theories, Salazar’s death cast a “cold feeling” over the land grant movement.</p>
<p>“Talk about a cold case,” Crenshaw said. “Whoever or for whatever reasons, I’d love for the whole world to know after all these years ... but I don’t think that will ever happen.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Russell Contreras is a member of the AP’s race and ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/russcontreras" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/russcontreras" type="external">http://twitter.com/russcontreras</a></p> | Unsolved civil rights-era murder divides scholars, residents | false | https://apnews.com/a9f03591e3a24416b66d5b78d0ba9543 | 2018-01-16 | 2least
| Unsolved civil rights-era murder divides scholars, residents
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The murder of a Hispanic New Mexico jailer in 1968 — a year of unrest in the U.S. — has divided residents, scholars and civil rights advocates for decades. Fifty years and two investigations later, one of the most dramatic conflicts of the civil rights era remains unsolved.</p>
<p>On a frigid January evening, assailants abducted Eulogio Salazar in front of his home in the rural community of Tierra Amarilla. His body was later found in a ravine.</p>
<p>Police said the perpetrators viciously pistol-whipped Salazar.</p>
<p>Hysteria followed in northern New Mexico amid racial tensions and a push by Hispanic activists for the return of land they say the government illegally seized from their ancestors in New Mexico and southern Colorado.</p>
<p>“I think whoever did it probably went to his grave,” Maria Varela, a photographer who worked with civil rights activists in the area, said of the killing. “But there are people in that community who know who did it.”</p>
<p>The murder came as Salazar was preparing to testify against Hispanic rights activist Reies Lopez Tijerina and his followers, who six months earlier led an armed raid of the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Tijerina is led into court in Santa Fe in 1967. (Ray Cary/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)</p>
<p>The raid was connected to age-old land disputes and began after activists from the group La Alianza Federal de Mercedes sought to make a citizen’s arrest of Santa Fe’s district attorney.</p>
<p>The group wanted local officials to honor Spanish land grants outlined in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo — the agreement that ended the U.S.-Mexican War of 1848 — and give back land to the descendants of Hispanic pioneering families.</p>
<p>Salazar was working at the courthouse as a jailer and was shot during the raid. Afterward, he told then-Gov. David Cargo it was Tijerina who shot him, according to Cargo’s memoirs.</p>
<p>Tijerina and his followers escaped into a nearby national forest, generating excitement among supporters and fear among others. Their actions helped spark the Chicano Movement — a militant phase of the Mexican-American civil rights struggle.</p>
<p>Salazar was recovering from his wounds when he was killed. His body was found with his car at the foot of a hill 5 miles (8 kilometers) from his home. The car was nose-down against a snow-banked barbed-wire fence.</p>
<p>There were no witnesses. No one was ever convicted.</p>
<p>But Salazar’s family says they know who was behind the murder: associates of Tijerina.</p>
<p>“Someone did this because blood was boiling, and they were trying to cover their tracks,” said Michael Olivas, Salazar’s cousin and a University of Houston law professor.</p>
<p>Tijerina denied having any role in Salazar’s killing up until his own death in 2015.</p>
<p>Tijerina at a 2012 event at the New Mexico Statehouse. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File)</p>
<p>Others say Salazar was a casualty of overzealous law enforcement working to dismantle the growing influence of Mexican-American civil rights groups and thwart activists’ efforts to reclaim the land they argued was stolen from them.</p>
<p>Tijerina and other Alianza members were under constant surveillance and infiltration by the FBI and New Mexico State Police, said David Correia, author of “Properties of Violence: Law and Land Grant Struggle in Northern New Mexico.” In fact, scholars have uncovered evidence authorities were trying to provoke Tijerina and his group into a violent confrontation.</p>
<p>“When Eulogio Salazar gets killed, that’s the context in which he’s murdered,” Correia said. “There was a coordinated, covert campaign to politically delegitimize Alianza.”</p>
<p>Salazar was not an Alianza member, but some scholars have suggested he might have changed his mind about testifying against Tijerina, angering authorities. Salazar’s family disputes that theory.</p>
<p>The truth likely will never come out, said Toney Anaya, a former New Mexico attorney general who oversaw an investigation into the murder nearly 10 years later.</p>
<p>“There simply were not enough leads to try to get down to the bottom of who done it,” Anaya said.</p>
<p>A report by then-New Mexico Assistant Attorney General Michael Francke faulted the State Police for a sloppy investigation and all but cleared Tijerina and his associates. But it had pages redacted, furthering conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>John Crenshaw, a former Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper reporter who covered the Salazar murder, said despite the many theories, Salazar’s death cast a “cold feeling” over the land grant movement.</p>
<p>“Talk about a cold case,” Crenshaw said. “Whoever or for whatever reasons, I’d love for the whole world to know after all these years ... but I don’t think that will ever happen.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Russell Contreras is a member of the AP’s race and ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/russcontreras" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/russcontreras" type="external">http://twitter.com/russcontreras</a></p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The murder of a Hispanic New Mexico jailer in 1968 — a year of unrest in the U.S. — has divided residents, scholars and civil rights advocates for decades. Fifty years and two investigations later, one of the most dramatic conflicts of the civil rights era remains unsolved.</p>
<p>On a frigid January evening, assailants abducted Eulogio Salazar in front of his home in the rural community of Tierra Amarilla. His body was later found in a ravine.</p>
<p>Police said the perpetrators viciously pistol-whipped Salazar.</p>
<p>Hysteria followed in northern New Mexico amid racial tensions and a push by Hispanic activists for the return of land they say the government illegally seized from their ancestors in New Mexico and southern Colorado.</p>
<p>“I think whoever did it probably went to his grave,” Maria Varela, a photographer who worked with civil rights activists in the area, said of the killing. “But there are people in that community who know who did it.”</p>
<p>The murder came as Salazar was preparing to testify against Hispanic rights activist Reies Lopez Tijerina and his followers, who six months earlier led an armed raid of the Tierra Amarilla Courthouse about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Tijerina is led into court in Santa Fe in 1967. (Ray Cary/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)</p>
<p>The raid was connected to age-old land disputes and began after activists from the group La Alianza Federal de Mercedes sought to make a citizen’s arrest of Santa Fe’s district attorney.</p>
<p>The group wanted local officials to honor Spanish land grants outlined in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo — the agreement that ended the U.S.-Mexican War of 1848 — and give back land to the descendants of Hispanic pioneering families.</p>
<p>Salazar was working at the courthouse as a jailer and was shot during the raid. Afterward, he told then-Gov. David Cargo it was Tijerina who shot him, according to Cargo’s memoirs.</p>
<p>Tijerina and his followers escaped into a nearby national forest, generating excitement among supporters and fear among others. Their actions helped spark the Chicano Movement — a militant phase of the Mexican-American civil rights struggle.</p>
<p>Salazar was recovering from his wounds when he was killed. His body was found with his car at the foot of a hill 5 miles (8 kilometers) from his home. The car was nose-down against a snow-banked barbed-wire fence.</p>
<p>There were no witnesses. No one was ever convicted.</p>
<p>But Salazar’s family says they know who was behind the murder: associates of Tijerina.</p>
<p>“Someone did this because blood was boiling, and they were trying to cover their tracks,” said Michael Olivas, Salazar’s cousin and a University of Houston law professor.</p>
<p>Tijerina denied having any role in Salazar’s killing up until his own death in 2015.</p>
<p>Tijerina at a 2012 event at the New Mexico Statehouse. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File)</p>
<p>Others say Salazar was a casualty of overzealous law enforcement working to dismantle the growing influence of Mexican-American civil rights groups and thwart activists’ efforts to reclaim the land they argued was stolen from them.</p>
<p>Tijerina and other Alianza members were under constant surveillance and infiltration by the FBI and New Mexico State Police, said David Correia, author of “Properties of Violence: Law and Land Grant Struggle in Northern New Mexico.” In fact, scholars have uncovered evidence authorities were trying to provoke Tijerina and his group into a violent confrontation.</p>
<p>“When Eulogio Salazar gets killed, that’s the context in which he’s murdered,” Correia said. “There was a coordinated, covert campaign to politically delegitimize Alianza.”</p>
<p>Salazar was not an Alianza member, but some scholars have suggested he might have changed his mind about testifying against Tijerina, angering authorities. Salazar’s family disputes that theory.</p>
<p>The truth likely will never come out, said Toney Anaya, a former New Mexico attorney general who oversaw an investigation into the murder nearly 10 years later.</p>
<p>“There simply were not enough leads to try to get down to the bottom of who done it,” Anaya said.</p>
<p>A report by then-New Mexico Assistant Attorney General Michael Francke faulted the State Police for a sloppy investigation and all but cleared Tijerina and his associates. But it had pages redacted, furthering conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>John Crenshaw, a former Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper reporter who covered the Salazar murder, said despite the many theories, Salazar’s death cast a “cold feeling” over the land grant movement.</p>
<p>“Talk about a cold case,” Crenshaw said. “Whoever or for whatever reasons, I’d love for the whole world to know after all these years ... but I don’t think that will ever happen.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Russell Contreras is a member of the AP’s race and ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/russcontreras" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/russcontreras" type="external">http://twitter.com/russcontreras</a></p> | 2,525 |
<p>The life of Frank Carlucci I has largely escaped public scrutiny, possibly because he’s grandfather to one of the knights of the political chessboard — Carlyle Group’s Frank Carlucci III — who is not known for being flashy. But Carlucci I was an ebullient man and left a legacy as a master builder that merits attention, some of his projects including the Ellis Island Landing Station in New York Harbor, the Grand Stairway at Arlington National Cemetery and Washington D.C.’s Willard Hotel. Moreover, his life provides further insight into <a href="" type="internal">the political motivations of his grandson</a>.</p>
<p>His talent for secrecy in the Masonic brotherhood, for example, for which he was rewarded with the highest honor: “sublime prince of the royal secret” was no doubt coded somewhere in the Y chromosome passed along to Frank Carlucci III, who has so far served as deputy director of the CIA, secretary of defense and national security adviser, among other trusted appointments.</p>
<p>Carlucci I’s power base was his craft. As a third-generation Italian stone cutter, he was confident of his work. He was also a strikingly handsome man, sporting a handlebar moustache in an 1897 photo in the Portrait and Biographical Record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>But to get a sense of what other forces shaped Carlucci I, you have to think your way back to another mythical age when medieval secret societies and ethnic fraternal organizations played a protective role in America’s emerging communities ­ as they did in the late 1800s in mineral-rich Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the Carlucci family settled after emigrating from Italy. Carlucci I belonged to them all ­ Masons, Knights Templar, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Mystic Shrine and Irem Temple Shrine.</p>
<p>He also served as honorary president for life of most, if not all, of the Italian societies in Scranton. Scranton had a large Italian immigrant population. The Italians came to the US seeking freedom and no more “padroni” (it’s unclear that’s what they got). Men generally worked in the anthracite coal mines and their families belonged to one of the Roman Catholic churches.</p>
<p>But Carlucci was a stone mason. Think Da Vinci Code for a moment. At the heart of Masonry and its occult rituals and symbols (a couple of which are stamped on US currency) is the building of the Temple of Solomon and fate of its master builder. Through the centuries this association with mysticism has put the Masons at odds with the Catholic Church, which has long rejected occult secret societies.</p>
<p>Carlucci obviously valued the traditions of his craft and professional associations, and the knowledge of the keystone in building an archway was part of the Mason success story. So, Carlucci opted for membership in St. Luke’s Episcopal church in Scranton. He also organized several Republican political clubs and served on various local councils.</p>
<p>Frank Carlucci I was born at Santomenira, Italy near Salerno on April 7, 1862 ­ according to northeast Pennsylvania historian Joseph H. Young, who retrieved Lackawanna county documents. He was the son of Carlo and Grace (Napoliello) Carlucci and the grandson of John Angelo Carlucci.</p>
<p>Frank I took up stone cutting at age 14 in Italy. And in 1882 at age 20, he emigrated to the US with his brother Nick Carlucci. There were nine children altogether and the family reunited in Scranton where a number of Carlucci descendants still live.</p>
<p>Frank first worked in Scranton with a German building contractor named Conrad Schroeder, leaving the firm in 1884 to form a cut stone partnership with Nick ­ Frank Carlucci &amp; Brother, then F&amp;N Carlucci. In 1900, F&amp;N Carlucci merged with Schroeder, reorganizing as The Carlucci Stone Company.</p>
<p>The Carluccis advertised as wholesale dealers and general contractors in cut stone and cut stone buildings. They dealt in limestone, bluestone, pink granolithic sandstone and crushed stone. This was before the widespread use of cinder blocks in building. Schroeder remained president of the company until his death two years later from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound.</p>
<p>The Carlucci stoneyards were conveniently situated in Scranton close to the Delaware, Lackawanna &amp; Western railroad, which enabled Carlucci to transport stone throughout the country. He tapped the company’s sandstone quarries at nearby Nicholson and Forest City, and cut and dressed the stone in his stoneyards. He collaborated with such architects as Lansing Holden, Fred Amsden, Ed Langley and others to build dozens of landmarks in northeastern Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the keystone state, among them: the Luzerne and Monroe county courthouses, a post office, five Protestant churches, the Lackawanna county jail (built with Schroeder), Coal Exchange Building (with Schroeder), several hotels, the Scranton Republican Building, the FM Kirby residence, CS Woolworth residence.</p>
<p>The sandstone Carlucci used first formed in the upper Lackawanna River about 365 million years ago. It was greenish gray (bluestone) that went into the 1890 construction of Ellis Island Landing Station in New York Harbor. Carlucci secured a $250,000 government contract for the job. He also built his own home in stone at Clay Avenue and Poplar Street ­ a classic Greek temple with pillars, where he lived with his Swiss wife, Louise Cerini and children Frank Jr., Carl, Helen and Althea.</p>
<p>Carlucci maintained contact with the pool of artisans in southern Italy where he grew up, some of whom he brought to Scranton. He started a School of Mechanics and Arts in Scranton to train stonecutters. He also published the only Italian newspaper at the time in northeastern Pennsylvania, the Pensiero (Thought).</p>
<p>In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America, Carlucci proposed erecting a Columbus monument in Scranton’s Courthouse Square. Italian sculptor Albini Cottini drew the model for Columbus and Carlucci carved it from a 9 12 foot block of solid limestone. The statue still stands on the square where Carlucci spoke at the October 11, 1892 unveiling.</p>
<p>In an encore in 1893, Carlucci carved a statue of George Washington for the square. According to Mary Ann Moran, director of the Lackawanna Historical Society who has been studying the Carlucci monuments, the night of the Washington statue dedication a theater benefit was held entitled “The Voodoo or the Lucky Charm”, which seems to say something about the life of Carlucci .</p>
<p>One of his most talented proteges was Vincent Russoniello. Russoniello’s archives at Philadelphia’s Historical Society of Pennsylvania reveal he first began working for Carlucci for 22 cents an hour grossing $3 a week and then graduated to apprentice architect for which he was paid nothing.</p>
<p>He got the job because his family was related to the Carluccis through the Cassess banking family. Russoniello later opened his own firm in Scranton, building many of the Roman Catholic churches in the region using Carrara marble, plus various properties for prominent businessmen including Frank Carlucci I, lawyer John Memolo and industrialists Philip and Angelo Medico.</p>
<p>In 1913 Carlucci’s eyesight began to fail. There was a financial crash around this time and banks were closing, including the Cassess Bank. Carlucci left the stone cutting business and was forced to sell his home on Clay &amp; Poplar; it was eventually demolished. From 1921 until his death a decade later, he was a coal operator/contractor. His son, Frank Carlucci, Jr., would take a more secure path as an insurance agent for Connecticut Mutual and move his family to the woods at Bear Creek following the death of his first wife. Frank Carlucci I died March 4, 1931 at the age of 69, several months after the birth of his grandson and namesake, Frank Carlucci III.</p>
<p>SUZAN MAZUR’s reports have appeared in the Financial Times, Economist, Forbes, Newsday, Philadelphia Inquirer, among other publications, and on PBS, CBC and MBC. She has been a guest on McLaughlin, Charlie Rose, and various Fox television news shows. Email: <a href="mailto:[email protected]%[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Frank Carlucci the First | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/07/02/frank-carlucci-the-first/ | 2005-07-02 | 4left
| Frank Carlucci the First
<p>The life of Frank Carlucci I has largely escaped public scrutiny, possibly because he’s grandfather to one of the knights of the political chessboard — Carlyle Group’s Frank Carlucci III — who is not known for being flashy. But Carlucci I was an ebullient man and left a legacy as a master builder that merits attention, some of his projects including the Ellis Island Landing Station in New York Harbor, the Grand Stairway at Arlington National Cemetery and Washington D.C.’s Willard Hotel. Moreover, his life provides further insight into <a href="" type="internal">the political motivations of his grandson</a>.</p>
<p>His talent for secrecy in the Masonic brotherhood, for example, for which he was rewarded with the highest honor: “sublime prince of the royal secret” was no doubt coded somewhere in the Y chromosome passed along to Frank Carlucci III, who has so far served as deputy director of the CIA, secretary of defense and national security adviser, among other trusted appointments.</p>
<p>Carlucci I’s power base was his craft. As a third-generation Italian stone cutter, he was confident of his work. He was also a strikingly handsome man, sporting a handlebar moustache in an 1897 photo in the Portrait and Biographical Record of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>But to get a sense of what other forces shaped Carlucci I, you have to think your way back to another mythical age when medieval secret societies and ethnic fraternal organizations played a protective role in America’s emerging communities ­ as they did in the late 1800s in mineral-rich Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the Carlucci family settled after emigrating from Italy. Carlucci I belonged to them all ­ Masons, Knights Templar, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Mystic Shrine and Irem Temple Shrine.</p>
<p>He also served as honorary president for life of most, if not all, of the Italian societies in Scranton. Scranton had a large Italian immigrant population. The Italians came to the US seeking freedom and no more “padroni” (it’s unclear that’s what they got). Men generally worked in the anthracite coal mines and their families belonged to one of the Roman Catholic churches.</p>
<p>But Carlucci was a stone mason. Think Da Vinci Code for a moment. At the heart of Masonry and its occult rituals and symbols (a couple of which are stamped on US currency) is the building of the Temple of Solomon and fate of its master builder. Through the centuries this association with mysticism has put the Masons at odds with the Catholic Church, which has long rejected occult secret societies.</p>
<p>Carlucci obviously valued the traditions of his craft and professional associations, and the knowledge of the keystone in building an archway was part of the Mason success story. So, Carlucci opted for membership in St. Luke’s Episcopal church in Scranton. He also organized several Republican political clubs and served on various local councils.</p>
<p>Frank Carlucci I was born at Santomenira, Italy near Salerno on April 7, 1862 ­ according to northeast Pennsylvania historian Joseph H. Young, who retrieved Lackawanna county documents. He was the son of Carlo and Grace (Napoliello) Carlucci and the grandson of John Angelo Carlucci.</p>
<p>Frank I took up stone cutting at age 14 in Italy. And in 1882 at age 20, he emigrated to the US with his brother Nick Carlucci. There were nine children altogether and the family reunited in Scranton where a number of Carlucci descendants still live.</p>
<p>Frank first worked in Scranton with a German building contractor named Conrad Schroeder, leaving the firm in 1884 to form a cut stone partnership with Nick ­ Frank Carlucci &amp; Brother, then F&amp;N Carlucci. In 1900, F&amp;N Carlucci merged with Schroeder, reorganizing as The Carlucci Stone Company.</p>
<p>The Carluccis advertised as wholesale dealers and general contractors in cut stone and cut stone buildings. They dealt in limestone, bluestone, pink granolithic sandstone and crushed stone. This was before the widespread use of cinder blocks in building. Schroeder remained president of the company until his death two years later from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound.</p>
<p>The Carlucci stoneyards were conveniently situated in Scranton close to the Delaware, Lackawanna &amp; Western railroad, which enabled Carlucci to transport stone throughout the country. He tapped the company’s sandstone quarries at nearby Nicholson and Forest City, and cut and dressed the stone in his stoneyards. He collaborated with such architects as Lansing Holden, Fred Amsden, Ed Langley and others to build dozens of landmarks in northeastern Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the keystone state, among them: the Luzerne and Monroe county courthouses, a post office, five Protestant churches, the Lackawanna county jail (built with Schroeder), Coal Exchange Building (with Schroeder), several hotels, the Scranton Republican Building, the FM Kirby residence, CS Woolworth residence.</p>
<p>The sandstone Carlucci used first formed in the upper Lackawanna River about 365 million years ago. It was greenish gray (bluestone) that went into the 1890 construction of Ellis Island Landing Station in New York Harbor. Carlucci secured a $250,000 government contract for the job. He also built his own home in stone at Clay Avenue and Poplar Street ­ a classic Greek temple with pillars, where he lived with his Swiss wife, Louise Cerini and children Frank Jr., Carl, Helen and Althea.</p>
<p>Carlucci maintained contact with the pool of artisans in southern Italy where he grew up, some of whom he brought to Scranton. He started a School of Mechanics and Arts in Scranton to train stonecutters. He also published the only Italian newspaper at the time in northeastern Pennsylvania, the Pensiero (Thought).</p>
<p>In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America, Carlucci proposed erecting a Columbus monument in Scranton’s Courthouse Square. Italian sculptor Albini Cottini drew the model for Columbus and Carlucci carved it from a 9 12 foot block of solid limestone. The statue still stands on the square where Carlucci spoke at the October 11, 1892 unveiling.</p>
<p>In an encore in 1893, Carlucci carved a statue of George Washington for the square. According to Mary Ann Moran, director of the Lackawanna Historical Society who has been studying the Carlucci monuments, the night of the Washington statue dedication a theater benefit was held entitled “The Voodoo or the Lucky Charm”, which seems to say something about the life of Carlucci .</p>
<p>One of his most talented proteges was Vincent Russoniello. Russoniello’s archives at Philadelphia’s Historical Society of Pennsylvania reveal he first began working for Carlucci for 22 cents an hour grossing $3 a week and then graduated to apprentice architect for which he was paid nothing.</p>
<p>He got the job because his family was related to the Carluccis through the Cassess banking family. Russoniello later opened his own firm in Scranton, building many of the Roman Catholic churches in the region using Carrara marble, plus various properties for prominent businessmen including Frank Carlucci I, lawyer John Memolo and industrialists Philip and Angelo Medico.</p>
<p>In 1913 Carlucci’s eyesight began to fail. There was a financial crash around this time and banks were closing, including the Cassess Bank. Carlucci left the stone cutting business and was forced to sell his home on Clay &amp; Poplar; it was eventually demolished. From 1921 until his death a decade later, he was a coal operator/contractor. His son, Frank Carlucci, Jr., would take a more secure path as an insurance agent for Connecticut Mutual and move his family to the woods at Bear Creek following the death of his first wife. Frank Carlucci I died March 4, 1931 at the age of 69, several months after the birth of his grandson and namesake, Frank Carlucci III.</p>
<p>SUZAN MAZUR’s reports have appeared in the Financial Times, Economist, Forbes, Newsday, Philadelphia Inquirer, among other publications, and on PBS, CBC and MBC. She has been a guest on McLaughlin, Charlie Rose, and various Fox television news shows. Email: <a href="mailto:[email protected]%[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | 2,526 |
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<p />
<p>Officers were called to a home after receiving a call about someone having a gun there.</p>
<p>Police managed to safely remove all but one of the people inside the home.</p>
<p>The man who was later shot remained in a patio area.</p>
<p>Police say they tried to negotiate with the man, but that an Avondale officer fired his gun after the man on the patio pointed a gun at officers.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Authorities say the officer was in fear for his life.</p>
<p>No officers were injured.</p>
<p>The identity of the man who was killed hasn’t yet been released.</p> | Authorities: Officer killed man who pointed gun at police | false | https://abqjournal.com/1012875/authorities-officer-killed-man-who-pointed-gun-at-police.html | 2least
| Authorities: Officer killed man who pointed gun at police
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<p />
<p>Officers were called to a home after receiving a call about someone having a gun there.</p>
<p>Police managed to safely remove all but one of the people inside the home.</p>
<p>The man who was later shot remained in a patio area.</p>
<p>Police say they tried to negotiate with the man, but that an Avondale officer fired his gun after the man on the patio pointed a gun at officers.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Authorities say the officer was in fear for his life.</p>
<p>No officers were injured.</p>
<p>The identity of the man who was killed hasn’t yet been released.</p> | 2,527 |
|
<p />
<p>Let’s face it, the West has been sold to the highest bidder and Russian President Vladimir Putin has no reason to fear us. A Politico piece explains that the Kremlin knows the truth about Europe, and its actions in the Ukraine are evidence of this shift in attitude. “Brussels today, Russia believes, talks about human rights but no longer believes in it,” Ben Judah writes. “Europe is really run by an elite with the morality of the hedge fund: Make money at all costs and move it offshore.”</p>
<p>And as Judah puts it, Putin knows America is vulnerable and overextended with its pointless wars abroad while Europe is too busy making money to stand up to him. And the sad thing is, he’s right.</p>
<p>Politico Magazine:</p>
<p />
<p>The West is blinking in disbelief — Vladimir Putin just invaded Ukraine. German diplomats, French Eurocrats and American pundits are all stunned. Why has Russia chosen to gamble its trillion-dollar ties with the West?</p>
<p>Western leaders are stunned because they haven’t realized Russia’s owners no longer respect Europeans the way they once did after the Cold War. Russia thinks the West is no longer a crusading alliance. Russia thinks the West is now all about the money.</p>
<p>Putin’s henchmen know this personally. Russia’s rulers have been buying up Europe for years. They have mansions and luxury flats from London’s West End to France’s Cote d’Azure. Their children are safe at British boarding and Swiss finishing schools. And their money is squirrelled away in Austrian banks and British tax havens.</p>
<p>Putin’s inner circle no longer fear the European establishment. They once imagined them all in MI6. Now they know better. They have seen firsthand how obsequious Western aristocrats and corporate tycoons suddenly turn when their billions come into play. They now view them as hypocrites—the same European elites who help them hide their fortunes.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/russia-vladimir-putin-the-west-104134.html#ixzz2v5YUgavP" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi Zapata</a></p> | Russia Can't Take the West Seriously Anymore, but Why Should It? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/russia-cant-take-the-west-seriously-anymore-but-why-should-it/ | 2014-03-05 | 4left
| Russia Can't Take the West Seriously Anymore, but Why Should It?
<p />
<p>Let’s face it, the West has been sold to the highest bidder and Russian President Vladimir Putin has no reason to fear us. A Politico piece explains that the Kremlin knows the truth about Europe, and its actions in the Ukraine are evidence of this shift in attitude. “Brussels today, Russia believes, talks about human rights but no longer believes in it,” Ben Judah writes. “Europe is really run by an elite with the morality of the hedge fund: Make money at all costs and move it offshore.”</p>
<p>And as Judah puts it, Putin knows America is vulnerable and overextended with its pointless wars abroad while Europe is too busy making money to stand up to him. And the sad thing is, he’s right.</p>
<p>Politico Magazine:</p>
<p />
<p>The West is blinking in disbelief — Vladimir Putin just invaded Ukraine. German diplomats, French Eurocrats and American pundits are all stunned. Why has Russia chosen to gamble its trillion-dollar ties with the West?</p>
<p>Western leaders are stunned because they haven’t realized Russia’s owners no longer respect Europeans the way they once did after the Cold War. Russia thinks the West is no longer a crusading alliance. Russia thinks the West is now all about the money.</p>
<p>Putin’s henchmen know this personally. Russia’s rulers have been buying up Europe for years. They have mansions and luxury flats from London’s West End to France’s Cote d’Azure. Their children are safe at British boarding and Swiss finishing schools. And their money is squirrelled away in Austrian banks and British tax havens.</p>
<p>Putin’s inner circle no longer fear the European establishment. They once imagined them all in MI6. Now they know better. They have seen firsthand how obsequious Western aristocrats and corporate tycoons suddenly turn when their billions come into play. They now view them as hypocrites—the same European elites who help them hide their fortunes.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/russia-vladimir-putin-the-west-104134.html#ixzz2v5YUgavP" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi Zapata</a></p> | 2,528 |
<p>NYT:WASHINGTON – As Western governments debate how to punish Iran for its nuclear activities, Bush administration and European officials said Thursday that they wanted to avoid causing hardship or more anti-Western resentment in the Iranian public.</p>
<p>The officials said that sanctions were not in the offing anytime soon, and they had ruled out any early steps toward an oil embargo or other sorts of sweeping economic punishments that would not only be opposed in Europe but would also cause internal suffering in Iran. | <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/politics/20sanctions.html?pagewanted=print" type="external">story</a></p>
<p>It’s sort of like admonishing a drug dealer for selling heroin to kids, and then scoring a dime bag of blow for yourself.</p>
<p /> | Iran Has Us Over a Barrel--Of Oil | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/iran-has-us-over-a-barrel-of-oil/ | 2006-01-20 | 4left
| Iran Has Us Over a Barrel--Of Oil
<p>NYT:WASHINGTON – As Western governments debate how to punish Iran for its nuclear activities, Bush administration and European officials said Thursday that they wanted to avoid causing hardship or more anti-Western resentment in the Iranian public.</p>
<p>The officials said that sanctions were not in the offing anytime soon, and they had ruled out any early steps toward an oil embargo or other sorts of sweeping economic punishments that would not only be opposed in Europe but would also cause internal suffering in Iran. | <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/politics/20sanctions.html?pagewanted=print" type="external">story</a></p>
<p>It’s sort of like admonishing a drug dealer for selling heroin to kids, and then scoring a dime bag of blow for yourself.</p>
<p /> | 2,529 |
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<p />
<p>The only recent year with a bigger percentage drop was 2009, when America was in a large recession. American cars and factories spewed 5.83 billion tons of carbon dioxide in 2012, down from 6.06 billion in 2011. The latest figure is the lowest level for U.S. emissions since 1994. Carbon dioxide is the chief man-made global warming gas.</p>
<p>Energy Department economist Perry Lindstrom said carbon pollution reduction is due to warm winter weather, more efficient cars because of new mileage requirements and an ongoing shift from coal to natural gas to produce electricity.</p>
<p>The coal shift is a big factor, as is a sluggish economic recovery, said Jay Apt, director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center. He said in 1994 coal provided 52 percent of U.S. power and now it is down to 37 percent. Burning coal produces far more carbon dioxide than burning natural gas.</p>
<p>Some past cuts in carbon pollution were mostly due to economic factors, such as the 7.1 percent drop in 2009, Lindstrom said. But this drop happened while the U.S. economy was growing 2.8 percent, as reflected by the gross domestic product, and its energy use was dropping by more than 2 percent.</p>
<p>Economists measure energy efficiency and how real reductions are in carbon pollution by calculating carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP. And from 2011 to 2012, the United States carbon pollution per GDP dropped by a record 6.5 percent, Lindstrom said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>That shows this drop was clearly not due to a recession, Lindstrom said.</p>
<p>In 2012, America spewed more than 368,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per second.</p>
<p />
<p /> | U.S. carbon dioxide pollution down 3.8% | false | https://abqjournal.com/285937/us-carbon-dioxide-pollution-down-38.html | 2013-10-22 | 2least
| U.S. carbon dioxide pollution down 3.8%
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<p />
<p>The only recent year with a bigger percentage drop was 2009, when America was in a large recession. American cars and factories spewed 5.83 billion tons of carbon dioxide in 2012, down from 6.06 billion in 2011. The latest figure is the lowest level for U.S. emissions since 1994. Carbon dioxide is the chief man-made global warming gas.</p>
<p>Energy Department economist Perry Lindstrom said carbon pollution reduction is due to warm winter weather, more efficient cars because of new mileage requirements and an ongoing shift from coal to natural gas to produce electricity.</p>
<p>The coal shift is a big factor, as is a sluggish economic recovery, said Jay Apt, director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center. He said in 1994 coal provided 52 percent of U.S. power and now it is down to 37 percent. Burning coal produces far more carbon dioxide than burning natural gas.</p>
<p>Some past cuts in carbon pollution were mostly due to economic factors, such as the 7.1 percent drop in 2009, Lindstrom said. But this drop happened while the U.S. economy was growing 2.8 percent, as reflected by the gross domestic product, and its energy use was dropping by more than 2 percent.</p>
<p>Economists measure energy efficiency and how real reductions are in carbon pollution by calculating carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP. And from 2011 to 2012, the United States carbon pollution per GDP dropped by a record 6.5 percent, Lindstrom said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>That shows this drop was clearly not due to a recession, Lindstrom said.</p>
<p>In 2012, America spewed more than 368,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per second.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 2,530 |
<p>At least 17 people were killed and 57 wounded in a series of bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Thursday, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hxRxV9LThvcAVFSxxJqi1K-nrwuA?docId=CNG.ce04e1d19feafe9ee2aa5149756e3c54.4e1" type="external">according to Agence France Presse</a>.</p>
<p>A car bomb exploded outside a crowded restaurant in the Shia neighborhood of Shula, killing 13 and wounding at least 37, <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2012/05/31/bombs_hit_homes_of_iraqi_policemen_kill_2_people/" type="external">the Associated Press reports</a>, while a similar attack on the Baghdad home of an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Miliki killed a civilian and wounded four others.</p>
<p>Earlier Thursday, explosions hit the two homes of Iraqi policemen in the mainly Sunni district of Amariyah, killing two and wounding nine. A policeman was also killed and three others injured in a fifth attack on a police patrol in the capital.</p>
<p>The roadside bombs and car bombs hit at least a half-dozen neighborhoods north, south and west of Baghdad, including Ghazaliyah and Yarmuk in west Baghdad, and Dora and Saidiyah in the south of the capital, said AFP.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iraq/120425/russia-oil-giant-lukoil-start-drilling-iraq" type="external">Russia oil giant LUKOIL to start drilling in Iraq</a></p>
<p>Although violence in Iraq has declined in recent years, Thursday's violence came after scores were killed during bomb attacks in April, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/31/world/meast/iraq-violence/" type="external">CNN reports</a>. According to the Iraqi interior ministry, 126 people were killed in violence and 271 were wounded during that month.</p>
<p>It is unclear who carried out Thursday's attacks and whether they were linked. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18277527" type="external">According to the BBC</a>, Baghdad is currently hosting a major auction inviting international companies to explore oil and gas across Iraq. &#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iraq/120419/blasts-iraq-kill-at-least-23-officials" type="external">Blasts in Iraq kill at least 36</a></p>
<p>Watch raw video footage from the bombing in Shula, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/may/31/baghdad-bombing-11-dead-video?newsfeed=true" type="external">courtesy of the Guardian</a>:</p>
<p /> | At least 17 killed and dozens wounded in Iraq bomb attacks | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-05-31/least-17-killed-and-dozens-wounded-iraq-bomb-attacks | 2012-05-31 | 3left-center
| At least 17 killed and dozens wounded in Iraq bomb attacks
<p>At least 17 people were killed and 57 wounded in a series of bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Thursday, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hxRxV9LThvcAVFSxxJqi1K-nrwuA?docId=CNG.ce04e1d19feafe9ee2aa5149756e3c54.4e1" type="external">according to Agence France Presse</a>.</p>
<p>A car bomb exploded outside a crowded restaurant in the Shia neighborhood of Shula, killing 13 and wounding at least 37, <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2012/05/31/bombs_hit_homes_of_iraqi_policemen_kill_2_people/" type="external">the Associated Press reports</a>, while a similar attack on the Baghdad home of an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Miliki killed a civilian and wounded four others.</p>
<p>Earlier Thursday, explosions hit the two homes of Iraqi policemen in the mainly Sunni district of Amariyah, killing two and wounding nine. A policeman was also killed and three others injured in a fifth attack on a police patrol in the capital.</p>
<p>The roadside bombs and car bombs hit at least a half-dozen neighborhoods north, south and west of Baghdad, including Ghazaliyah and Yarmuk in west Baghdad, and Dora and Saidiyah in the south of the capital, said AFP.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iraq/120425/russia-oil-giant-lukoil-start-drilling-iraq" type="external">Russia oil giant LUKOIL to start drilling in Iraq</a></p>
<p>Although violence in Iraq has declined in recent years, Thursday's violence came after scores were killed during bomb attacks in April, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/31/world/meast/iraq-violence/" type="external">CNN reports</a>. According to the Iraqi interior ministry, 126 people were killed in violence and 271 were wounded during that month.</p>
<p>It is unclear who carried out Thursday's attacks and whether they were linked. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18277527" type="external">According to the BBC</a>, Baghdad is currently hosting a major auction inviting international companies to explore oil and gas across Iraq. &#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iraq/120419/blasts-iraq-kill-at-least-23-officials" type="external">Blasts in Iraq kill at least 36</a></p>
<p>Watch raw video footage from the bombing in Shula, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/may/31/baghdad-bombing-11-dead-video?newsfeed=true" type="external">courtesy of the Guardian</a>:</p>
<p /> | 2,531 |
<p>In November 1965, all electric power in an 80,000-square-mile area of the northeastern United States and Canada failed. Like the most recent failure, the breakdown was a total surprise and attributable to a single plant failure. In 1965, the electric grid was supposed to shift power from areas with excess generating capacity to other areas in the network experiencing a drain, but instead of counteracting the local failure, it spread out of control leaving the whole system and dozens of cities in the dark. It wasn’t supposed to happen then. It certainly wasn’t supposed to happen now. In 1965, pundits presented the dilemma as a question of humans versus machines, and concluded that people must control machines. It struck at the very heart of the fallacy that we were in control of the rise of technology after World War II, and that that “progress” was unequivocally good.</p>
<p>So, too, with the more recent failure. But rather than assessing our technological progress (and maybe we should), the bigger question is how we should assess progress in our efforts to ensure national security. Do we feel safer at home in our war against terrorism?</p>
<p>The enduring images on the evening news showed New Yorkers fearing that the blackout had been the result of a terrorist attack. While we might thankfully acknowledge that it was not the work of enemies to the United States, it would behoove us to carefully think about our psyche and our faith in such protective measures as the Patriot Act, Homeland Security Act, and pre-emptive strikes. It would appear, rather, that Americans are entering a new generation of what the great American historian Richard Hofstadter once aptly called the “paranoid style,” that sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that defined much of the Cold War.</p>
<p>Hofstadter did not introduce the paranoid style as a clinical term, but rather as a force in politics, and its impact on the modes of expression that influenced the way in which ideas were popularly received. In sum, it was an effective form of political rhetoric. In Hofstadter’s able hands, the paranoid style aptly demonstrated how much political leverage could be squeezed out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. Its new variation presents a far more ominous iteration, as it is a resounding majority who appears willing to submit to the threats.</p>
<p>The terrorist threats are very real. I don’t mean to suggest that the potential for attacks on American soil is a figment of our collective imagination. But the fear threatens to consume our collective imagination. Something has to give. Heightened security has come at the expense of American freedoms. We are told that such security measures are essential to ensure our safety, and yet we continue to quake at the prospect of an imminent attack.</p>
<p>It doesn’t add up that we should continually strive for more security-at considerable expense financial, political, and psychological-and still not feel any the safer. Americanism as conceived by the liberties upon which this country was founded is under attack, but only a portion of that danger is from an external force. Our new paranoid style is racing to inhibit our freedoms in order to protect them. The irony is palpable. And all for security from things that go bump in the dark.</p>
<p>MICHAEL EGAN teaches in the Department of History at Washington State University. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark | true | https://counterpunch.org/2003/08/20/revisiting-the-paranoid-style-in-the-dark/ | 2003-08-20 | 4left
| Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark
<p>In November 1965, all electric power in an 80,000-square-mile area of the northeastern United States and Canada failed. Like the most recent failure, the breakdown was a total surprise and attributable to a single plant failure. In 1965, the electric grid was supposed to shift power from areas with excess generating capacity to other areas in the network experiencing a drain, but instead of counteracting the local failure, it spread out of control leaving the whole system and dozens of cities in the dark. It wasn’t supposed to happen then. It certainly wasn’t supposed to happen now. In 1965, pundits presented the dilemma as a question of humans versus machines, and concluded that people must control machines. It struck at the very heart of the fallacy that we were in control of the rise of technology after World War II, and that that “progress” was unequivocally good.</p>
<p>So, too, with the more recent failure. But rather than assessing our technological progress (and maybe we should), the bigger question is how we should assess progress in our efforts to ensure national security. Do we feel safer at home in our war against terrorism?</p>
<p>The enduring images on the evening news showed New Yorkers fearing that the blackout had been the result of a terrorist attack. While we might thankfully acknowledge that it was not the work of enemies to the United States, it would behoove us to carefully think about our psyche and our faith in such protective measures as the Patriot Act, Homeland Security Act, and pre-emptive strikes. It would appear, rather, that Americans are entering a new generation of what the great American historian Richard Hofstadter once aptly called the “paranoid style,” that sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that defined much of the Cold War.</p>
<p>Hofstadter did not introduce the paranoid style as a clinical term, but rather as a force in politics, and its impact on the modes of expression that influenced the way in which ideas were popularly received. In sum, it was an effective form of political rhetoric. In Hofstadter’s able hands, the paranoid style aptly demonstrated how much political leverage could be squeezed out of the animosities and passions of a small minority. Its new variation presents a far more ominous iteration, as it is a resounding majority who appears willing to submit to the threats.</p>
<p>The terrorist threats are very real. I don’t mean to suggest that the potential for attacks on American soil is a figment of our collective imagination. But the fear threatens to consume our collective imagination. Something has to give. Heightened security has come at the expense of American freedoms. We are told that such security measures are essential to ensure our safety, and yet we continue to quake at the prospect of an imminent attack.</p>
<p>It doesn’t add up that we should continually strive for more security-at considerable expense financial, political, and psychological-and still not feel any the safer. Americanism as conceived by the liberties upon which this country was founded is under attack, but only a portion of that danger is from an external force. Our new paranoid style is racing to inhibit our freedoms in order to protect them. The irony is palpable. And all for security from things that go bump in the dark.</p>
<p>MICHAEL EGAN teaches in the Department of History at Washington State University. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,532 |
<p>Theater performer Mike Daisey apologized on his blog this weekend for losing "his grounding" and fabricating details of his stage monologue.</p>
<p>Daisey's solo show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" deals with the conditions for factory workers who make Apple products.</p>
<p>The public-radio program "This American Life" retracted one of its most popular stories featuring excerpts from Daisey's show.</p>
<p>We retracted the piece we aired by Bruce Wallace about Mike Daisey's one-man show.</p>
<p>Daisey made up details about the lives of factory workers, and he didn't spend much time with them.</p>
<p>Leslie Chang did invest time getting to know Chinese factory workers.</p>
<p>She's is a long time China correspondent, and a contributor to the New Yorker.</p>
<p>She spent two years getting to know assembly-line workers in south China for her book Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China .</p>
<p>"They are not victims. The workers choose to leave the countryside to go to the city. They choose to work in a certain factory," Chang tells host Marco Werman. "It's true they can't organize a union. They can't sue their boss. Certainly the system is stacked against them. But their choice is to leave to a better factory. And over time the really bad factories don't have workers and they have to improve conditions or they go out of business."</p>
<p>Chang says it's all part of a massive transformation sweeping China.</p>
<p>"Hundreds of millions of people are leaving the countryside for the city. This is larger than the number of people who came from Europe to America over a century," Chang says. "The changes that they're going through are immense and personal and let's just give them their due that they're choosing to go through these lives and not just think it's about us and our IPADs."</p> | Why Chinese Factory Workers Don't Covet Your iPad | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-03-27/why-chinese-factory-workers-dont-covet-your-ipad | 2012-03-27 | 3left-center
| Why Chinese Factory Workers Don't Covet Your iPad
<p>Theater performer Mike Daisey apologized on his blog this weekend for losing "his grounding" and fabricating details of his stage monologue.</p>
<p>Daisey's solo show "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" deals with the conditions for factory workers who make Apple products.</p>
<p>The public-radio program "This American Life" retracted one of its most popular stories featuring excerpts from Daisey's show.</p>
<p>We retracted the piece we aired by Bruce Wallace about Mike Daisey's one-man show.</p>
<p>Daisey made up details about the lives of factory workers, and he didn't spend much time with them.</p>
<p>Leslie Chang did invest time getting to know Chinese factory workers.</p>
<p>She's is a long time China correspondent, and a contributor to the New Yorker.</p>
<p>She spent two years getting to know assembly-line workers in south China for her book Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China .</p>
<p>"They are not victims. The workers choose to leave the countryside to go to the city. They choose to work in a certain factory," Chang tells host Marco Werman. "It's true they can't organize a union. They can't sue their boss. Certainly the system is stacked against them. But their choice is to leave to a better factory. And over time the really bad factories don't have workers and they have to improve conditions or they go out of business."</p>
<p>Chang says it's all part of a massive transformation sweeping China.</p>
<p>"Hundreds of millions of people are leaving the countryside for the city. This is larger than the number of people who came from Europe to America over a century," Chang says. "The changes that they're going through are immense and personal and let's just give them their due that they're choosing to go through these lives and not just think it's about us and our IPADs."</p> | 2,533 |
<p><a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire</a> says…</p>
<p>Drone technology doesn’t have to be used exclusively for killing people. Archaeologists are using drones to explore previously hard-to-reach locales and making some interesting discoveries.</p>
<p />
<p>Due to the dry and remote landscape of the Sahara Desert, traditional archaeological expeditions have been hard to carry out. &#160;</p>
<p>The Garamantian civilization existed in what is today’s Southern Libya at around 1000B.C. and satellite imagery&#160;has discovered ‘158 major settlements, 184 cemeteries, 30 square kilometers of fields, plus a variety of irrigation systems’.</p>
<p />
<p>The dense and dangerous terrain of the Amazon has also provided similar challenges. Drones are being used to navigate through the thick Amazonian rainforest and are equipped with technology to analyse the distribution of plants, which can indicate human farming. The very composition of today’s Amazon is thought to have been greatly influenced by human activity, which is contrary to radical, Malthusian environmental rhetoric.</p>
<p>Follow us here: <a href="http://twitter.com/21WIRE" type="external">http://twitter.com/21WIRE</a></p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="external">Lizzie Wade</a></p>
<p>What do the Sahara desert and the Amazon rainforest have in common? Until recently, archaeologists would have told you they were both inhospitable environments devoid of large-scale human settlements.</p>
<p>But they were wrong. Here today at the annual meeting of the AAAS (which publishes&#160;Science), two researchers explained how remote sensing technology,&#160; <a href="https://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2015/webprogram/Session9535.html" type="external">including satellite imaging and drone flights</a>, is revealing the traces of past civilizations that have been hiding in plain sight.</p>
<p>“Although [the Amazon and Sahara] seem so different, a lot of the questions are actually very similar,” says David Mattingly, an archaeologist at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. He studies a culture known as the Garamantes, which began building a network of cities, forts, and farmland around oases in the Sahara of southern Libya around 1000 B.C.E.</p>
<p>The civilization reached its peak in the early centuries of the Common Era, only to decline after 700 C.E., possibly because they had tapped out the region’s ground water, Mattingly explains…</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">Continue reading the full story on ScienceMag</a></p>
<p>READ MORE ANCIENT HISTORY AT:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Ancient History Files</a></p> | Drones and Satellites Discover Lost Civilizations | true | http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/02/24/drones-and-satellites-discover-lost-civilizations/ | 2015-02-24 | 4left
| Drones and Satellites Discover Lost Civilizations
<p><a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire</a> says…</p>
<p>Drone technology doesn’t have to be used exclusively for killing people. Archaeologists are using drones to explore previously hard-to-reach locales and making some interesting discoveries.</p>
<p />
<p>Due to the dry and remote landscape of the Sahara Desert, traditional archaeological expeditions have been hard to carry out. &#160;</p>
<p>The Garamantian civilization existed in what is today’s Southern Libya at around 1000B.C. and satellite imagery&#160;has discovered ‘158 major settlements, 184 cemeteries, 30 square kilometers of fields, plus a variety of irrigation systems’.</p>
<p />
<p>The dense and dangerous terrain of the Amazon has also provided similar challenges. Drones are being used to navigate through the thick Amazonian rainforest and are equipped with technology to analyse the distribution of plants, which can indicate human farming. The very composition of today’s Amazon is thought to have been greatly influenced by human activity, which is contrary to radical, Malthusian environmental rhetoric.</p>
<p>Follow us here: <a href="http://twitter.com/21WIRE" type="external">http://twitter.com/21WIRE</a></p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="external">Lizzie Wade</a></p>
<p>What do the Sahara desert and the Amazon rainforest have in common? Until recently, archaeologists would have told you they were both inhospitable environments devoid of large-scale human settlements.</p>
<p>But they were wrong. Here today at the annual meeting of the AAAS (which publishes&#160;Science), two researchers explained how remote sensing technology,&#160; <a href="https://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2015/webprogram/Session9535.html" type="external">including satellite imaging and drone flights</a>, is revealing the traces of past civilizations that have been hiding in plain sight.</p>
<p>“Although [the Amazon and Sahara] seem so different, a lot of the questions are actually very similar,” says David Mattingly, an archaeologist at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. He studies a culture known as the Garamantes, which began building a network of cities, forts, and farmland around oases in the Sahara of southern Libya around 1000 B.C.E.</p>
<p>The civilization reached its peak in the early centuries of the Common Era, only to decline after 700 C.E., possibly because they had tapped out the region’s ground water, Mattingly explains…</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">Continue reading the full story on ScienceMag</a></p>
<p>READ MORE ANCIENT HISTORY AT:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Ancient History Files</a></p> | 2,534 |
<p>Elon Musk said AI —&#160;Artificial Intelligence — is probably the “scariest problem” facing human civilization, repeating himself while speaking to the nation’s governors as part of his current technology goodwill tour.</p>
<p>The Tesla CEO was speaking at the National Governors Association in Rhode Island on Saturday, and he told the state CEOs that AI was “a fundamental existential risk for human civilization,” per <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/07/17/537686649/elon-musk-warns-governors-artificial-intelligence-poses-existential-risk" type="external">NPR</a>.</p>
<p>“I don’t think people fully appreciate that,” he said, adding that, based on what he had seen of cutting edge technology, the threat posed by AI was scary.”</p>
<p>For years Musk has been vocal about his concerns regarding AI and Saturday’s version of his public message was more forceful.</p>
<p>“AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization in a way that car accidents, airplane crashes faulty, drugs or bad food were not. They were harmful to certain individuals within society but not to society as whole,” he said.</p>
<p>Musk noted there definitely is a role for regulators.</p>
<p>“I’m against over regulation for sure but I think we need to get on that with AI. There will certainly be a lot of job disruption because what is going to happen is that robots will be able to do everything better than all of us.”</p>
<p>Musk said this really was the scariest problem to him, stressing there is a need to ensure regulation over AI was enforced.</p>
<p>“The first order of business would be to try to learn as much as possible, to understand the nature of the issues.”</p>
<p>Musk started <a href="https://www.neuralink.com/" type="external">Neuralink</a> in an attempt to develop AI that would positively affect humanity.</p>
<p>The company strives to connect humans and computers through “ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces”.</p> | Elon Musk: AI 'Scariest Problem' Facing Civilization | false | https://newsline.com/elon-musk-ai-scariest-problem-facing-civilization/ | 2017-07-17 | 1right-center
| Elon Musk: AI 'Scariest Problem' Facing Civilization
<p>Elon Musk said AI —&#160;Artificial Intelligence — is probably the “scariest problem” facing human civilization, repeating himself while speaking to the nation’s governors as part of his current technology goodwill tour.</p>
<p>The Tesla CEO was speaking at the National Governors Association in Rhode Island on Saturday, and he told the state CEOs that AI was “a fundamental existential risk for human civilization,” per <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/07/17/537686649/elon-musk-warns-governors-artificial-intelligence-poses-existential-risk" type="external">NPR</a>.</p>
<p>“I don’t think people fully appreciate that,” he said, adding that, based on what he had seen of cutting edge technology, the threat posed by AI was scary.”</p>
<p>For years Musk has been vocal about his concerns regarding AI and Saturday’s version of his public message was more forceful.</p>
<p>“AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization in a way that car accidents, airplane crashes faulty, drugs or bad food were not. They were harmful to certain individuals within society but not to society as whole,” he said.</p>
<p>Musk noted there definitely is a role for regulators.</p>
<p>“I’m against over regulation for sure but I think we need to get on that with AI. There will certainly be a lot of job disruption because what is going to happen is that robots will be able to do everything better than all of us.”</p>
<p>Musk said this really was the scariest problem to him, stressing there is a need to ensure regulation over AI was enforced.</p>
<p>“The first order of business would be to try to learn as much as possible, to understand the nature of the issues.”</p>
<p>Musk started <a href="https://www.neuralink.com/" type="external">Neuralink</a> in an attempt to develop AI that would positively affect humanity.</p>
<p>The company strives to connect humans and computers through “ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces”.</p> | 2,535 |
<p>How abrupt has the reversal in the mainstream media been regarding the various accusations against Bill Clinton regarding sexual assault or harassment?</p>
<p>This fast. In May 2016, journalists from ABC, NBC, CNN and MSNBC all participated in attacking Donald Trump when he brought up Clinton’s history of abusing women.</p>
<p>In May 2016, ABC World News ran a segment in which they attacked Donald Trump for accusing Bill Clinton of rape and other forms of sexual harassment</p>
<p>The segment began with <a href="http://freebeacon.com/politics/before-awakening-media-defense-bill-clinton-sexual-misconduct-allegations/" type="external">ABC News reporter Tom Llamas</a> intoning, “Tonight, Donald Trump. Proving nothing is off limits, dramatically intensifying his attacks on former president Bill Clinton’s history with women.”</p>
<p>The screen cut to an interview Fox’s Sean Hannity conducted with Trump. Hannity remarked, “I looked at The New York Times, Are they going to interview Juanita Broaddrick? Are they going to interview Paula Jones? Are they going to interview Kathleen Willey? In one case it’s about exposure; in another case it’s about it’s about groping and fondling and touching against the woman’s will –"</p>
<p>Trump interrupted, “And rape."</p>
<p>Hannity echoed, “And rape.”</p>
<p>Llamas: “The rape accusation is decades-old, and discredited.”</p>
<p>Back to Trump: “Massive settlements.”</p>
<p>Hannity: “$850,000 to Paula Jones.”</p>
<p>Trump: “And lots of other things.”</p>
<p>Voiceover: They were referring to a trio of women who say Bill Clinton made unwanted sexual advances in the 80s and 90s. Mr. Clinton denies it; two of the cases were plagued by factual discrepancies. Still, the accusations linger and will be a focus of GOP ads against Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>A voiceover from an ad featured a woman saying of Hillary, “She politically attacked sexually harassed victims."</p>
<p>ABC wasn’t alone; NBC’s Andrea Mitchell joined in, stating, "Donald Trump using that word unprompted, during an interview last night with Fox News' Sean Hannity. Bringing up a discredited and long-denied accusation against former president Bill Clinton, dating back to 1978 when he was Arkansas Attorney General."</p>
<p>And there was more, as Alex Griswold of The Washington Free Beacon <a href="http://freebeacon.com/politics/before-awakening-media-defense-bill-clinton-sexual-misconduct-allegations/" type="external">points out</a>:</p>
<p>Mitchell's MSNBC colleagues went even further, with hosts Tamron Hall and Thomas Roberts remarking about Clinton's " <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2016/05/09/msnbcs-tamron-hall-bill-clintons-cheating-involved-only-alleged" type="external">alleged affairs</a>" and "alleged misconduct with women," despite Clinton admitting to at least two extramarital affairs. On CNN, host Brooke Baldwin bristled and tried to change the subject when her guests attempted to discuss some of the sexual assault accusations. "Okay, let's not go there," she <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/cnn-host-shuts-down-talk-of-clinton-sex-scandals/article/2591741" type="external">interjected</a>. "I think the Clinton camp would point to, you know, her resume of lifting women up through the years," Baldwin continued.</p>
<p>Baldwin's CNN colleague Chris Cuomo was likewise <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/chris-cuomo-confronts-trump-on-comments-over-bill-clintons-sex-life/article/2579495" type="external">peeved</a> by Trump bringing up the sexual assault allegations, and pressed Trump on the issue in an interview. Is part of making America great again getting back into the weeds with Bill Clinton and his sex life?" he asked at one point. "Why do you call him one of the great women abusers of all time?"</p>
<p>ABC video below:</p>
<p>Video of Mitchell below:</p> | FLASHBACK: Watch TV Networks Attack Trump For Bringing Up Bill Clinton's Abuse Of Women | true | https://dailywire.com/news/23635/flashback-watch-tv-networks-attack-trump-bringing-hank-berrien | 2017-11-15 | 0right
| FLASHBACK: Watch TV Networks Attack Trump For Bringing Up Bill Clinton's Abuse Of Women
<p>How abrupt has the reversal in the mainstream media been regarding the various accusations against Bill Clinton regarding sexual assault or harassment?</p>
<p>This fast. In May 2016, journalists from ABC, NBC, CNN and MSNBC all participated in attacking Donald Trump when he brought up Clinton’s history of abusing women.</p>
<p>In May 2016, ABC World News ran a segment in which they attacked Donald Trump for accusing Bill Clinton of rape and other forms of sexual harassment</p>
<p>The segment began with <a href="http://freebeacon.com/politics/before-awakening-media-defense-bill-clinton-sexual-misconduct-allegations/" type="external">ABC News reporter Tom Llamas</a> intoning, “Tonight, Donald Trump. Proving nothing is off limits, dramatically intensifying his attacks on former president Bill Clinton’s history with women.”</p>
<p>The screen cut to an interview Fox’s Sean Hannity conducted with Trump. Hannity remarked, “I looked at The New York Times, Are they going to interview Juanita Broaddrick? Are they going to interview Paula Jones? Are they going to interview Kathleen Willey? In one case it’s about exposure; in another case it’s about it’s about groping and fondling and touching against the woman’s will –"</p>
<p>Trump interrupted, “And rape."</p>
<p>Hannity echoed, “And rape.”</p>
<p>Llamas: “The rape accusation is decades-old, and discredited.”</p>
<p>Back to Trump: “Massive settlements.”</p>
<p>Hannity: “$850,000 to Paula Jones.”</p>
<p>Trump: “And lots of other things.”</p>
<p>Voiceover: They were referring to a trio of women who say Bill Clinton made unwanted sexual advances in the 80s and 90s. Mr. Clinton denies it; two of the cases were plagued by factual discrepancies. Still, the accusations linger and will be a focus of GOP ads against Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>A voiceover from an ad featured a woman saying of Hillary, “She politically attacked sexually harassed victims."</p>
<p>ABC wasn’t alone; NBC’s Andrea Mitchell joined in, stating, "Donald Trump using that word unprompted, during an interview last night with Fox News' Sean Hannity. Bringing up a discredited and long-denied accusation against former president Bill Clinton, dating back to 1978 when he was Arkansas Attorney General."</p>
<p>And there was more, as Alex Griswold of The Washington Free Beacon <a href="http://freebeacon.com/politics/before-awakening-media-defense-bill-clinton-sexual-misconduct-allegations/" type="external">points out</a>:</p>
<p>Mitchell's MSNBC colleagues went even further, with hosts Tamron Hall and Thomas Roberts remarking about Clinton's " <a href="https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/curtis-houck/2016/05/09/msnbcs-tamron-hall-bill-clintons-cheating-involved-only-alleged" type="external">alleged affairs</a>" and "alleged misconduct with women," despite Clinton admitting to at least two extramarital affairs. On CNN, host Brooke Baldwin bristled and tried to change the subject when her guests attempted to discuss some of the sexual assault accusations. "Okay, let's not go there," she <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/cnn-host-shuts-down-talk-of-clinton-sex-scandals/article/2591741" type="external">interjected</a>. "I think the Clinton camp would point to, you know, her resume of lifting women up through the years," Baldwin continued.</p>
<p>Baldwin's CNN colleague Chris Cuomo was likewise <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/chris-cuomo-confronts-trump-on-comments-over-bill-clintons-sex-life/article/2579495" type="external">peeved</a> by Trump bringing up the sexual assault allegations, and pressed Trump on the issue in an interview. Is part of making America great again getting back into the weeds with Bill Clinton and his sex life?" he asked at one point. "Why do you call him one of the great women abusers of all time?"</p>
<p>ABC video below:</p>
<p>Video of Mitchell below:</p> | 2,536 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>NEW YORK — An investor who put $300,000 into one of “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli’s health care industry hedge fund testified Thursday that he reported eye-popping returns before abruptly shutting down the fund and ducking her demands to get her money back.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the account shows Sarah Hassan was a victim of a scam orchestrated by the impish former pharmaceutical CEO and social media provocateur, even though Hassan ultimately recouped the money in a settlement that included a stock windfall.</p>
<p>“To hear over a year later that the cash was gone, it was upsetting,” Sarah Hassan testified as the first witness at Shkreli’s securities fraud trial in federal court in Brooklyn. “I saw that as being my cash. It was just not right.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Shkreli, 34, became a pariah in 2015 after a drug company he founded, Turing Pharmaceuticals, spent $55 million for the U.S. rights to sell a life-saving medicine called Daraprim and promptly raised the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.</p>
<p>The spotlight intensified later that year with his arrest on charges — unrelated to Daraprim — focusing on a pair of failed hedge funds he started by luring in wealthy investors with lies about the worth of his portfolio. After he lost investors’ money through bad trades, he secretly looted Retrophin, another biotech company where he was CEO, for $10 million to pay back his disgruntled clients, prosecutors said.</p>
<p>Hassan, daughter of former Bausch &amp; Lomb chairman Fred Hassan, told jurors she agreed to have dinner with Skhreli after a friend of her father’s told her he was “a rising star in the hedge fund world,” she said, adding that Shkreli claimed to manage $40 million. She said she was “thrilled” when he reported in September 2012 email she made nearly a $135,000 profit.</p>
<p>Despite never receiving formal account statements, “I trusted him and I trusted the numbers,” she said.</p>
<p>In another email to all investors, Shkreli announced he was using all the assets in the fund to launch Retrophin. When she tried to get her investment back, he stalled for months before she finally agreed to a settlement for $400,000 cash and stock shares she sold for $900,000 once the company went public, she said.</p>
<p>On cross-examination, defense attorney Benjamin Brafman pressed on how his client had harmed her, aside from being a pain to deal with.</p>
<p>“I know it was frustrating — trust me, I’ve dealt with him — but at the end of the day, you had a successful agreement in which you more than tripled your money, correct?” he said.</p>
<p>She agreed. But she also said that until the settlement, she had to live with the fear that she lost her money.</p>
<p>Along with the price-gouging scandal, Shkreli has become notorious for bragging about himself and trolling critics on social media. A posting on his Facebook page on Thursday assailed news accounts of jury selection that highlighted how prospective jurors got dismissed for making nasty comments about him. He wrote: “Lying media corporate drones love to lie for their shareholders.”</p> | Investor: ‘Pharma Bro’ reported too-good-to-be-true returns | false | https://abqjournal.com/1025542/investor-shkreli-reported-too-good-to-be-true-returns.html | 2017-06-29 | 2least
| Investor: ‘Pharma Bro’ reported too-good-to-be-true returns
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>NEW YORK — An investor who put $300,000 into one of “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli’s health care industry hedge fund testified Thursday that he reported eye-popping returns before abruptly shutting down the fund and ducking her demands to get her money back.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the account shows Sarah Hassan was a victim of a scam orchestrated by the impish former pharmaceutical CEO and social media provocateur, even though Hassan ultimately recouped the money in a settlement that included a stock windfall.</p>
<p>“To hear over a year later that the cash was gone, it was upsetting,” Sarah Hassan testified as the first witness at Shkreli’s securities fraud trial in federal court in Brooklyn. “I saw that as being my cash. It was just not right.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Shkreli, 34, became a pariah in 2015 after a drug company he founded, Turing Pharmaceuticals, spent $55 million for the U.S. rights to sell a life-saving medicine called Daraprim and promptly raised the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.</p>
<p>The spotlight intensified later that year with his arrest on charges — unrelated to Daraprim — focusing on a pair of failed hedge funds he started by luring in wealthy investors with lies about the worth of his portfolio. After he lost investors’ money through bad trades, he secretly looted Retrophin, another biotech company where he was CEO, for $10 million to pay back his disgruntled clients, prosecutors said.</p>
<p>Hassan, daughter of former Bausch &amp; Lomb chairman Fred Hassan, told jurors she agreed to have dinner with Skhreli after a friend of her father’s told her he was “a rising star in the hedge fund world,” she said, adding that Shkreli claimed to manage $40 million. She said she was “thrilled” when he reported in September 2012 email she made nearly a $135,000 profit.</p>
<p>Despite never receiving formal account statements, “I trusted him and I trusted the numbers,” she said.</p>
<p>In another email to all investors, Shkreli announced he was using all the assets in the fund to launch Retrophin. When she tried to get her investment back, he stalled for months before she finally agreed to a settlement for $400,000 cash and stock shares she sold for $900,000 once the company went public, she said.</p>
<p>On cross-examination, defense attorney Benjamin Brafman pressed on how his client had harmed her, aside from being a pain to deal with.</p>
<p>“I know it was frustrating — trust me, I’ve dealt with him — but at the end of the day, you had a successful agreement in which you more than tripled your money, correct?” he said.</p>
<p>She agreed. But she also said that until the settlement, she had to live with the fear that she lost her money.</p>
<p>Along with the price-gouging scandal, Shkreli has become notorious for bragging about himself and trolling critics on social media. A posting on his Facebook page on Thursday assailed news accounts of jury selection that highlighted how prospective jurors got dismissed for making nasty comments about him. He wrote: “Lying media corporate drones love to lie for their shareholders.”</p> | 2,537 |
<p />
<p>Photo by www.GlynLowe.com | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p />
<p>Last January, before Iowa and New Hampshire and Super Tuesday, it seemed certain that a Democrat would be elected President in 2016.</p>
<p>Democrats were widely, and justifiably, despised, but that didn’t matter; there wasn’t a Republican running who wasn’t too ludicrous or too loathsome or both to be taken seriously.</p>
<p>It didn’t matter either that long before last January, Hillary Clinton had the Democratic nomination sewn up.</p>
<p>Hardly anyone was truly happy about that.&#160; But thanks to the Clintons’ connections and their control of the Democratic Party, it seemed inevitable.&#160; Party functionaries were OK with this; under Clinton, they would retain their power.&#160;&#160; Outside their circles, there was only acquiescence and no enthusiasm.</p>
<p>The exception was the segment of the party comprised of unreconstructed second wave feminists who thought that a “glass ceiling” kept women from becoming President, and who wanted to see it shattered before they died. &#160;There weren’t many of them.</p>
<p>Even so, Hillary’s victory was all but assured.&#160; Everyone this side of the Tea Party was resigned to it; even, most likely, Donald Trump.&#160; There were, of course, a few old-line Republicans who thought that maybe another Bush could defeat another Clinton, but even they “knew” in their hearts that it wasn’t going to happen.</p>
<p>Eleven months later, Donald Trump — not quite the most ludicrous and loathsome contender for the Republican nomination, but close — was elected President of the United States.</p>
<p>With each passing day, Trump’s victory seems more surreal and nightmarish.</p>
<p>How the hell did it happen?&#160;&#160; Did the billionaire make a pact with the Devil?&#160; Were the gods that make playthings of mere mortals being more than usually mischievous?</p>
<p>It is tempting to attribute Hillary’s defeat to super-natural forces, but there really is no need.&#160; She lost because she was just that bad; and because voters were fed up with the neoliberal, “humanitarian” interventionist politics she promoted.&#160; They were also fed up with her.</p>
<p>Inasmuch as the fix was in, the real miracle was that Bernie Sanders came as close as he did to becoming the Democratic nominee. &#160;Had he gone for the jugular, the way that Trump did with his rivals, that would have happened.&#160; Had he even been just a tad less gentlemanly, he would very likely have stopped the Clinton juggernaut in its tracks.</p>
<p>Was unconditional surrender his idea all along? &#160;On that question, the jury is still out. &#160;My guess is that there is no simple answer: sometimes he was running for Clinton, and sometimes against her – without being clear, even in his own mind, what he was up to.</p>
<p>In any case, the movement his candidacy ignited was primed to go farther than he was.&#160; Many Sanders supporters would have been delighted to be led out of the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>Had Sanders seized that opportunity, he would have done far more good than he actually did.&#160; Instead of making himself a footnote to the Clinton and Trump stories, he could have made history itself – by striking a decisive blow at America’s disabling duopoly party system.</p>
<p>But from the moment that he crossed over to the Dark Side by all but swearing fealty to Clinton, the chances that anything worthwhile at the national level could be salvaged out of the 2016 election season – apart from the long overdue fall of the Houses of Clinton and Bush — shrunk to nil.</p>
<p>And so, on Election Day, many Sanders supporters voted grudgingly for Hillary, believing her to be the lesser evil.&#160; &#160;Others didn’t vote at all; and a few voted for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate.</p>
<p>Stein had waged a fine campaign, but under a de facto media blackout.&#160; Running as a Democrat, Sanders was able eventually to overcome a similar problem – though only slightly.&#160; Had he joined forces with Stein, as she invited him to do, corporate media would have had to take notice.&#160;&#160; Without him on board, the Greens never had a chance even to get past the five percent threshold that would have made it easier for them next time.</p>
<p>Hillary still got many more votes than the Donald. &#160;But thanks to an affront to democracy foisted upon us by our Founders, the Electoral College, many of those votes didn’t matter because they were cast in “red” or “blue,” not “battleground,” states.</p>
<p>And so, what had seemed impossible happened: Hillary, the Democrat, lost and a billionaire real estate tycoon and reality TV star too ridiculous for words – a birther, no less – beat her.</p>
<p>November 8 didn’t just end a dreadful electoral season badly; it locked the country and the world into a horrifying dream world – in which some of the most reactionary plutocrats in America, along with racists, nativists and Islamophobes, run the show, and in which a thin-skinned egotist unable to steer a decent or even a consistent course is Commander-in-Chief.</p>
<p>Nearly a century ago, H.L. Mencken penned a prophecy that has lately been making the rounds on the Internet.&#160; “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.&#160; On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”</p>
<p>That quotation surfaced in 2004, when George W. Bush was elected for a second term.&#160; It fits him better than Trump, which may be why, this time around, those who cite it sometimes add words like “narcissist” and “egotist,” to “moron.”&#160; Consider that a fair use of&#160; “poetic license.”</p>
<p>Lately, Trump has been stupidly tempting fate by brazenly antagonizing the CIA and other intelligence services — not so much because he is a moron, but because he is full of himself and because he is ignorant of literature and history.&#160; Nevertheless, he is if not smart, then fiendishly clever.&#160; No matter how ill conceived his projects may be, and no matter how badly they turn out, when they fail, if there is a way to feather his own nest, he finds it.</p>
<p>Still, the Mencken quote, even in its original version, is on point; the nightmarish world that is about to take shape under Trump’s aegis will be moronic or worse. &#160;Look at the cabinet he has assembled!&#160;&#160; How could it not?</p>
<p>This is reason enough to be sad to see Obama go.&#160; It is the sadness of moving from awful to a whole lot worse.</p>
<p>There is however an important caveat to bear in mind.&#160; It has to do with Russia and warmongering, and therefore with the risk of nuclear war.</p>
<p>Before electoral exigencies caused the American political class and the media that serve it to fall lock, stock, and barrel under the sway of Russophobic neocons and humanitarian interveners, this concern would have seemed almost comically anachronistic.</p>
<p>But the War Party has been flourishing lately, in “liberal” Democratic circles especially, carrying Obama along; to the extent that he falls under its sway, good riddance to him.&#160; To the extent that, for whatever reason, Trump will hold back the rush to war, then welcome aboard.</p>
<p>It is hard to say where either of them stands.&#160; Unlike the average Democrat, Obama is at least thoughtful; and the Donald lip-flops day-by-day, sometimes hour-by-hour.</p>
<p>Why is this even an issue?&#160;&#160; Corporate media blame Vladimir Putin.&#160; It would make more sense to blame the Clinton campaign.</p>
<p>As her campaign for the presidency dragged on, without her finding much traction anywhere, HRC, an inveterate Cold Warrior, could hardly resist redbaiting Trump for expressing admiration for Russia’s leader and for having a sensible thing or two to say about the importance of getting along with Russia.&#160; It didn’t matter to her that Russia today is about as red as the Goldwater Girls’ chapter in which she began her political career.</p>
<p>Her better half was President while post-Communist Russia was plunging backwards into the capitalist orbit, its economy in shambles, and its people in desperate straits.&#160; Those were the salad days for Russian oligarchs and kleptocrats, and for unreconstructed Cold Warriors who wanted Russia to be weak and ailing.&#160; That is what Hillary wants too; and she seems to think that she is entitled to no less.</p>
<p>As a neocon fellow traveler and as a “humanitarian” proponent of regime change in countries that don’t tow the American line, she just could not pass up an opportunity to go after Russia itself; not militarily – not now, anyway – but in ways that would, at a minimum, prepare public opinion for aggressive measures ahead.</p>
<p>To an alarming extent, corporate media have been collaborating in this project, The Washington Post leading the way.&#160; The tales they spin are nearly as inconsistent as the tweets emanating out of Trump Tower.&#160;&#160; One day Putin is a Communist who wants to restore the Soviet Union; another, he is a “populist” who is soft on fascism.&#160; They really ought to get their stories straight.</p>
<p>How appalling can it get!&#160; And which is worse: liberals embracing the CIA and leading the War Party’s charge; or having to rely on a narcissistic egotistical “moron” to turn back a march towards nuclear war?</p>
<p>Pressure from “liberal” and not-so-liberal Democrats, and from Republicans of the John McCain-Lindsey Graham variety, reinforced by the media onslaught, seems to have become too much for Obama to withstand.&#160; When Trump would call Obama weak, he wasn’t saying anything that others hadn’t figured out long ago, but neither was he wrong.</p>
<p>However, it is unlikely, in the waning days of his presidency, that Obama will give the War Party carte blanche to go wherever its recklessness leads; he is not that weak.&#160; And, in any case, he will soon be gone.</p>
<p>It is therefore reasonably safe to conclude that, give the sheer awfulness of what will take its place, there is no reason not to regret the Age of Obama’s much longed for passing.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The reason why it will be sad to see Obama go is Donald Trump; had Hillary Clinton been a better candidate, she would have been the reason.</p>
<p>There are many reasons, even so, to be glad that he will be gone – but even in aggregate, they don’t cancel out the reason to be sad.</p>
<p>It is important, however, not to lose sight of the reasons to be glad.</p>
<p>In fairness, though, and not to put too sour a face on Obama’s years in office, two mitigating factors must be acknowledged and taken into account.</p>
<p>Thanks to the thoroughgoing deregulation of the financial sector that Bill Clinton engineered during his second term, and then to the ruinous Bush wars that Hillary Clinton supported, Obama became President just as the Great Recession was unfolding.</p>
<p>And, as if that weren’t bad enough, a Republican Party dead set on doing Obama’s presidency in began lighting into it from Day One.&#160; Their over the top hostility involved more than hypertrophied partisanship; there was a racist component to it as well.&#160; It encouraged their wickedness and steeled their resolve.</p>
<p>Even so, Obama could have done a lot better than he did.&#160; He came into office with Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress, and with an enviable reserve of political capital.&#160; He squandered it all.</p>
<p>And because he and his fellow Democrats raised hopes that they went on to dash – not all by themselves, of course; it was a bipartisan effort — the Democrats were slaughtered in the 2010 Congressional elections and, more consequentially, in the elections for governorships and other state level offices that accompanied them.</p>
<p>Gerrymandering is high on the list of ways that the duopoly party system obstructs democracy in America.&#160; What makes it possible is yet another undemocratic feature of the American system: that state legislatures and governors map out legislative districts within their states.&#160;&#160; They do it after every census – that is, every ten years — under only minimal judicial supervision or under none at all.</p>
<p>2010 was a census year.&#160; &#160;The Democrats’ losses enabled the Republicans to go off on a gerrymandering spree that effectively guaranteed Republican control of the House of Representatives at least until the next time the boundaries are redrawn.</p>
<p>This didn’t affect Obama’s own reelection; he was able to win a second term because he ran against a Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, who was as unpopular with Republican voters as Hillary Clinton was with Democrats.&#160; But his victory did nothing to get the Democratic Party off the ropes; his coattails were useless.</p>
<p>It would have been the same or worse this year in the House elections, even had Clinton not flubbed so badly.&#160; If she had defeated Trump, as everyone thought she would, the Senate might have passed back into Democratic control, but the House would certainly have remained Republican – with Democrats, as always, getting a larger share of the vote in House elections, but still, thanks to gerrymandering, ending up with fewer seats.</p>
<p>Moreover, what happened to Lyndon Johnson half a century ago would likely happen again to Hillary: liberals, never fond of her in the first place, would increasingly turn against her as the consequences of her warmongering sunk in.&#160; One result would be that Democrats would now be looking forward to another 2010-style shellacking in 2018.</p>
<p>Another would be that they, along with the public at large, would soon find themselves looking back upon Obama in much the way that Democrats in the Johnson era looked back fondly upon JFK.</p>
<p>Nostalgia blinded them to the harm that Kennedy’s politics did; it was he, after all, who got the Vietnam War going.&#160;&#160; That blindness persists to this day.</p>
<p>Had Hillary won, perceptions of Obama’s “legacy” would be shaped by similar delusions.</p>
<p>But Trump won, and once the consequences of that catastrophe sink in, nostalgia for anything and everything that preceded January 20, 2017 is likely to make the Obama years seem like a Golden Age.</p>
<p>Obama’s vaunted “legacy” is therefore safe – thanks, ironically, to the buffoon who gave Hillary her comeuppance.</p>
<p>Even so, for the sake of struggles ahead, it is important to keep in mind how, in a less nightmarish possible world, Obama’s move out of the White House would be something to look forward to with unadulterated gladness rather than something to dread.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>In the aftermath of Obama’s victory eight years ago, there was a lot of blather about a “post-racial” America.&#160;&#160; No one talks that way any more; the condition of African Americans has hardly improved over the past eight years.&#160; Indeed, African Americans and other persons of color are, if anything, even more afflicted by police violence now than they were when Bush and Dick Cheney were calling the shots.</p>
<p>The main, and very nearly the only, thing Obama did for African Americans was getting elected.&#160; From the moment his victory was announced, and the celebrations in Grant Park were broadcast around the world, it has all been downhill.</p>
<p>“Saving” the economy – keeping a major recession from turning into a full-fledged depression – was another achievement of his.&#160; &#160;He did it by saving finance capitalists from themselves, enriching them egregiously in the process.</p>
<p>At the same time, Obama did almost nothing for everybody else.&#160; As a good neoliberal, eager to curry favor with Wall Street, he saved the banksters, leaving their victims to fend for themselves.&#160; Those who were too big to fail were also too big to jail.&#160; Obama let each and every one of them off scot-free.</p>
<p>He also let Bush era war criminals go unpunished; and then went on to follow their lead.&#160; He did stop talking about a Global War on Terror, but, apart from the name change, the main difference between the Obama years and the final years of George W. Bush’s presidency was just that Obama tried, and largely succeeded, in keeping the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on his watch out of sight.</p>
<p>Weaponized drones and special ops assassins are good for that. Obama seems to have enjoyed wielding them.</p>
<p>Then there were the deportations.&#160; If he stays true to his word, which he probably will in this case, Trump will be worse.&#160; But the still reigning Deporter-in-Chief was no slouch.</p>
<p>Trump is seeking out incompetent reactionaries to fill top government positions. &#160;Obama preferred neoliberals to hard right “conservatives,” and he did value competence, but, like Trump. he appointed some certifiable doozies.&#160;&#160; For that, he has much to answer for.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State?&#160; Seriously?&#160; Was the point to make Condoleezza Rice look good? &#160;&#160;Who knows what he was thinking or what debts he was paying off.&#160; All that we do know is that from Libya to Honduras – and worst of all in Syria and Iraq and in refugee camps around Europe — they are still dealing with the consequences.</p>
<p>Obama transformed America’s perpetual war regime — for the worse.&#160;&#160; Even Bush sought out Congressional approval for the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.&#160;&#160; Obama starts new wars, and expands old ones, without bothering to inform the public or, for that matter, the Congress — in which war-making powers supposedly reside.</p>
<p>As in the nineteenth century, when the U.S. Army would secure the “frontier” by slaughtering the peoples who lived there, it isn’t even clear how many wars the United States is currently fighting – this time to secure what we have lately come to call the “homeland.”</p>
<p>There is so much more: Obama’s attack on whistleblowers, for example, and on government transparency.&#160; And there are countless sins of omission, worthwhile things that Obama could have done, but didn’t – to advance workers’ rights, for example, or to &#160;address the causes and consequences of global warming and other ecological catastrophes.</p>
<p>To be sure, our not very loyal opposition party has a lot to answer for, but Republican obstinacy only explains so much.&#160; Obama’s pro-corporate predilections explain a lot more.</p>
<p>And, of course, there is his “signature” achievement – the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare.</p>
<p>That Republicans hate Obamacare so much is odd, to say the least, inasmuch as it is basically a Republican program.&#160;&#160; The general idea behind it was contrived at the Heritage Foundation in an effort to ward off genuine health care reform, and something very like it was implemented in Massachusetts by then Governor Mitt Romney, Obama’s rival for the Presidency in 2012.</p>
<p>Moreover, if Trump and the Republican legislators he is currently leading around by the nose &#160;do succeed in replacing it, what they come up with will be something very much like it.</p>
<p>It is hard to resist the conclusion that, for Republicans, the problem with Obamacare is its connection with Obama.&#160; Make a few cosmetic changes, call it Trumpcare, and the loony-tunes who cannot stop trying to repeal Obamacare will stop acting out, and get behind it a hundred percent.</p>
<p>In its present version, Obamacare has generally done more good than harm; mainly by mandating insurance reforms that even Trump knows he dare not alter, and by enrolling tens of thousands of previously uninsured Americans.</p>
<p>But it also did little to control costs, and it further entrenched the power of the private insurance industry, while further enriching Big Pharma and other health care profiteers.&#160; Its enactment into law also set back efforts to establish health care as a right for all citizens, as it is nearly everywhere else in the world.</p>
<p>On balance, though, it will be sad to see the Affordable Care Act go, just as it will be sad to see Trump take over from Obama.</p>
<p>The old order, desperately in need of radical transformation, is now about to change profoundly – not in a salutary way, however; not even in a way that is sufficiently coherent to survive the vicissitudes of political life.&#160; &#160;What will become of the country and the world when it all comes crashing down?&#160; One shudders to think.</p>
<p>A major task for now therefore is to do all we can to cushion the blow; another is to work to refashion politics altogether – in ways that will make Clinton-Trump choices unthinkable in the future.</p>
<p>The Trumpworld is so topsy-turvy and out of joint, and so uncharted, that it will take a great deal of effort and thought to figure out how to do either.</p>
<p>There surely are ways, however – especially if Trump and his minions actually do undo Clintonite neoliberalism and humanitarian imperialism; and if, as is more likely by far, their own mindless shenanigans, driven by ignorance and greed, do themselves in as well.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, we can rejoice in Obama’s departure from the political scene, even as we know that it will be a sad day indeed when he does.</p> | Obama: Sad and Glad to See the Back of Him | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/01/06/obama-sad-and-glad-to-see-the-back-of-him/ | 2017-01-06 | 4left
| Obama: Sad and Glad to See the Back of Him
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<p>Photo by www.GlynLowe.com | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p />
<p>Last January, before Iowa and New Hampshire and Super Tuesday, it seemed certain that a Democrat would be elected President in 2016.</p>
<p>Democrats were widely, and justifiably, despised, but that didn’t matter; there wasn’t a Republican running who wasn’t too ludicrous or too loathsome or both to be taken seriously.</p>
<p>It didn’t matter either that long before last January, Hillary Clinton had the Democratic nomination sewn up.</p>
<p>Hardly anyone was truly happy about that.&#160; But thanks to the Clintons’ connections and their control of the Democratic Party, it seemed inevitable.&#160; Party functionaries were OK with this; under Clinton, they would retain their power.&#160;&#160; Outside their circles, there was only acquiescence and no enthusiasm.</p>
<p>The exception was the segment of the party comprised of unreconstructed second wave feminists who thought that a “glass ceiling” kept women from becoming President, and who wanted to see it shattered before they died. &#160;There weren’t many of them.</p>
<p>Even so, Hillary’s victory was all but assured.&#160; Everyone this side of the Tea Party was resigned to it; even, most likely, Donald Trump.&#160; There were, of course, a few old-line Republicans who thought that maybe another Bush could defeat another Clinton, but even they “knew” in their hearts that it wasn’t going to happen.</p>
<p>Eleven months later, Donald Trump — not quite the most ludicrous and loathsome contender for the Republican nomination, but close — was elected President of the United States.</p>
<p>With each passing day, Trump’s victory seems more surreal and nightmarish.</p>
<p>How the hell did it happen?&#160;&#160; Did the billionaire make a pact with the Devil?&#160; Were the gods that make playthings of mere mortals being more than usually mischievous?</p>
<p>It is tempting to attribute Hillary’s defeat to super-natural forces, but there really is no need.&#160; She lost because she was just that bad; and because voters were fed up with the neoliberal, “humanitarian” interventionist politics she promoted.&#160; They were also fed up with her.</p>
<p>Inasmuch as the fix was in, the real miracle was that Bernie Sanders came as close as he did to becoming the Democratic nominee. &#160;Had he gone for the jugular, the way that Trump did with his rivals, that would have happened.&#160; Had he even been just a tad less gentlemanly, he would very likely have stopped the Clinton juggernaut in its tracks.</p>
<p>Was unconditional surrender his idea all along? &#160;On that question, the jury is still out. &#160;My guess is that there is no simple answer: sometimes he was running for Clinton, and sometimes against her – without being clear, even in his own mind, what he was up to.</p>
<p>In any case, the movement his candidacy ignited was primed to go farther than he was.&#160; Many Sanders supporters would have been delighted to be led out of the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>Had Sanders seized that opportunity, he would have done far more good than he actually did.&#160; Instead of making himself a footnote to the Clinton and Trump stories, he could have made history itself – by striking a decisive blow at America’s disabling duopoly party system.</p>
<p>But from the moment that he crossed over to the Dark Side by all but swearing fealty to Clinton, the chances that anything worthwhile at the national level could be salvaged out of the 2016 election season – apart from the long overdue fall of the Houses of Clinton and Bush — shrunk to nil.</p>
<p>And so, on Election Day, many Sanders supporters voted grudgingly for Hillary, believing her to be the lesser evil.&#160; &#160;Others didn’t vote at all; and a few voted for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate.</p>
<p>Stein had waged a fine campaign, but under a de facto media blackout.&#160; Running as a Democrat, Sanders was able eventually to overcome a similar problem – though only slightly.&#160; Had he joined forces with Stein, as she invited him to do, corporate media would have had to take notice.&#160;&#160; Without him on board, the Greens never had a chance even to get past the five percent threshold that would have made it easier for them next time.</p>
<p>Hillary still got many more votes than the Donald. &#160;But thanks to an affront to democracy foisted upon us by our Founders, the Electoral College, many of those votes didn’t matter because they were cast in “red” or “blue,” not “battleground,” states.</p>
<p>And so, what had seemed impossible happened: Hillary, the Democrat, lost and a billionaire real estate tycoon and reality TV star too ridiculous for words – a birther, no less – beat her.</p>
<p>November 8 didn’t just end a dreadful electoral season badly; it locked the country and the world into a horrifying dream world – in which some of the most reactionary plutocrats in America, along with racists, nativists and Islamophobes, run the show, and in which a thin-skinned egotist unable to steer a decent or even a consistent course is Commander-in-Chief.</p>
<p>Nearly a century ago, H.L. Mencken penned a prophecy that has lately been making the rounds on the Internet.&#160; “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.&#160; On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”</p>
<p>That quotation surfaced in 2004, when George W. Bush was elected for a second term.&#160; It fits him better than Trump, which may be why, this time around, those who cite it sometimes add words like “narcissist” and “egotist,” to “moron.”&#160; Consider that a fair use of&#160; “poetic license.”</p>
<p>Lately, Trump has been stupidly tempting fate by brazenly antagonizing the CIA and other intelligence services — not so much because he is a moron, but because he is full of himself and because he is ignorant of literature and history.&#160; Nevertheless, he is if not smart, then fiendishly clever.&#160; No matter how ill conceived his projects may be, and no matter how badly they turn out, when they fail, if there is a way to feather his own nest, he finds it.</p>
<p>Still, the Mencken quote, even in its original version, is on point; the nightmarish world that is about to take shape under Trump’s aegis will be moronic or worse. &#160;Look at the cabinet he has assembled!&#160;&#160; How could it not?</p>
<p>This is reason enough to be sad to see Obama go.&#160; It is the sadness of moving from awful to a whole lot worse.</p>
<p>There is however an important caveat to bear in mind.&#160; It has to do with Russia and warmongering, and therefore with the risk of nuclear war.</p>
<p>Before electoral exigencies caused the American political class and the media that serve it to fall lock, stock, and barrel under the sway of Russophobic neocons and humanitarian interveners, this concern would have seemed almost comically anachronistic.</p>
<p>But the War Party has been flourishing lately, in “liberal” Democratic circles especially, carrying Obama along; to the extent that he falls under its sway, good riddance to him.&#160; To the extent that, for whatever reason, Trump will hold back the rush to war, then welcome aboard.</p>
<p>It is hard to say where either of them stands.&#160; Unlike the average Democrat, Obama is at least thoughtful; and the Donald lip-flops day-by-day, sometimes hour-by-hour.</p>
<p>Why is this even an issue?&#160;&#160; Corporate media blame Vladimir Putin.&#160; It would make more sense to blame the Clinton campaign.</p>
<p>As her campaign for the presidency dragged on, without her finding much traction anywhere, HRC, an inveterate Cold Warrior, could hardly resist redbaiting Trump for expressing admiration for Russia’s leader and for having a sensible thing or two to say about the importance of getting along with Russia.&#160; It didn’t matter to her that Russia today is about as red as the Goldwater Girls’ chapter in which she began her political career.</p>
<p>Her better half was President while post-Communist Russia was plunging backwards into the capitalist orbit, its economy in shambles, and its people in desperate straits.&#160; Those were the salad days for Russian oligarchs and kleptocrats, and for unreconstructed Cold Warriors who wanted Russia to be weak and ailing.&#160; That is what Hillary wants too; and she seems to think that she is entitled to no less.</p>
<p>As a neocon fellow traveler and as a “humanitarian” proponent of regime change in countries that don’t tow the American line, she just could not pass up an opportunity to go after Russia itself; not militarily – not now, anyway – but in ways that would, at a minimum, prepare public opinion for aggressive measures ahead.</p>
<p>To an alarming extent, corporate media have been collaborating in this project, The Washington Post leading the way.&#160; The tales they spin are nearly as inconsistent as the tweets emanating out of Trump Tower.&#160;&#160; One day Putin is a Communist who wants to restore the Soviet Union; another, he is a “populist” who is soft on fascism.&#160; They really ought to get their stories straight.</p>
<p>How appalling can it get!&#160; And which is worse: liberals embracing the CIA and leading the War Party’s charge; or having to rely on a narcissistic egotistical “moron” to turn back a march towards nuclear war?</p>
<p>Pressure from “liberal” and not-so-liberal Democrats, and from Republicans of the John McCain-Lindsey Graham variety, reinforced by the media onslaught, seems to have become too much for Obama to withstand.&#160; When Trump would call Obama weak, he wasn’t saying anything that others hadn’t figured out long ago, but neither was he wrong.</p>
<p>However, it is unlikely, in the waning days of his presidency, that Obama will give the War Party carte blanche to go wherever its recklessness leads; he is not that weak.&#160; And, in any case, he will soon be gone.</p>
<p>It is therefore reasonably safe to conclude that, give the sheer awfulness of what will take its place, there is no reason not to regret the Age of Obama’s much longed for passing.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>The reason why it will be sad to see Obama go is Donald Trump; had Hillary Clinton been a better candidate, she would have been the reason.</p>
<p>There are many reasons, even so, to be glad that he will be gone – but even in aggregate, they don’t cancel out the reason to be sad.</p>
<p>It is important, however, not to lose sight of the reasons to be glad.</p>
<p>In fairness, though, and not to put too sour a face on Obama’s years in office, two mitigating factors must be acknowledged and taken into account.</p>
<p>Thanks to the thoroughgoing deregulation of the financial sector that Bill Clinton engineered during his second term, and then to the ruinous Bush wars that Hillary Clinton supported, Obama became President just as the Great Recession was unfolding.</p>
<p>And, as if that weren’t bad enough, a Republican Party dead set on doing Obama’s presidency in began lighting into it from Day One.&#160; Their over the top hostility involved more than hypertrophied partisanship; there was a racist component to it as well.&#160; It encouraged their wickedness and steeled their resolve.</p>
<p>Even so, Obama could have done a lot better than he did.&#160; He came into office with Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress, and with an enviable reserve of political capital.&#160; He squandered it all.</p>
<p>And because he and his fellow Democrats raised hopes that they went on to dash – not all by themselves, of course; it was a bipartisan effort — the Democrats were slaughtered in the 2010 Congressional elections and, more consequentially, in the elections for governorships and other state level offices that accompanied them.</p>
<p>Gerrymandering is high on the list of ways that the duopoly party system obstructs democracy in America.&#160; What makes it possible is yet another undemocratic feature of the American system: that state legislatures and governors map out legislative districts within their states.&#160;&#160; They do it after every census – that is, every ten years — under only minimal judicial supervision or under none at all.</p>
<p>2010 was a census year.&#160; &#160;The Democrats’ losses enabled the Republicans to go off on a gerrymandering spree that effectively guaranteed Republican control of the House of Representatives at least until the next time the boundaries are redrawn.</p>
<p>This didn’t affect Obama’s own reelection; he was able to win a second term because he ran against a Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, who was as unpopular with Republican voters as Hillary Clinton was with Democrats.&#160; But his victory did nothing to get the Democratic Party off the ropes; his coattails were useless.</p>
<p>It would have been the same or worse this year in the House elections, even had Clinton not flubbed so badly.&#160; If she had defeated Trump, as everyone thought she would, the Senate might have passed back into Democratic control, but the House would certainly have remained Republican – with Democrats, as always, getting a larger share of the vote in House elections, but still, thanks to gerrymandering, ending up with fewer seats.</p>
<p>Moreover, what happened to Lyndon Johnson half a century ago would likely happen again to Hillary: liberals, never fond of her in the first place, would increasingly turn against her as the consequences of her warmongering sunk in.&#160; One result would be that Democrats would now be looking forward to another 2010-style shellacking in 2018.</p>
<p>Another would be that they, along with the public at large, would soon find themselves looking back upon Obama in much the way that Democrats in the Johnson era looked back fondly upon JFK.</p>
<p>Nostalgia blinded them to the harm that Kennedy’s politics did; it was he, after all, who got the Vietnam War going.&#160;&#160; That blindness persists to this day.</p>
<p>Had Hillary won, perceptions of Obama’s “legacy” would be shaped by similar delusions.</p>
<p>But Trump won, and once the consequences of that catastrophe sink in, nostalgia for anything and everything that preceded January 20, 2017 is likely to make the Obama years seem like a Golden Age.</p>
<p>Obama’s vaunted “legacy” is therefore safe – thanks, ironically, to the buffoon who gave Hillary her comeuppance.</p>
<p>Even so, for the sake of struggles ahead, it is important to keep in mind how, in a less nightmarish possible world, Obama’s move out of the White House would be something to look forward to with unadulterated gladness rather than something to dread.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>In the aftermath of Obama’s victory eight years ago, there was a lot of blather about a “post-racial” America.&#160;&#160; No one talks that way any more; the condition of African Americans has hardly improved over the past eight years.&#160; Indeed, African Americans and other persons of color are, if anything, even more afflicted by police violence now than they were when Bush and Dick Cheney were calling the shots.</p>
<p>The main, and very nearly the only, thing Obama did for African Americans was getting elected.&#160; From the moment his victory was announced, and the celebrations in Grant Park were broadcast around the world, it has all been downhill.</p>
<p>“Saving” the economy – keeping a major recession from turning into a full-fledged depression – was another achievement of his.&#160; &#160;He did it by saving finance capitalists from themselves, enriching them egregiously in the process.</p>
<p>At the same time, Obama did almost nothing for everybody else.&#160; As a good neoliberal, eager to curry favor with Wall Street, he saved the banksters, leaving their victims to fend for themselves.&#160; Those who were too big to fail were also too big to jail.&#160; Obama let each and every one of them off scot-free.</p>
<p>He also let Bush era war criminals go unpunished; and then went on to follow their lead.&#160; He did stop talking about a Global War on Terror, but, apart from the name change, the main difference between the Obama years and the final years of George W. Bush’s presidency was just that Obama tried, and largely succeeded, in keeping the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on his watch out of sight.</p>
<p>Weaponized drones and special ops assassins are good for that. Obama seems to have enjoyed wielding them.</p>
<p>Then there were the deportations.&#160; If he stays true to his word, which he probably will in this case, Trump will be worse.&#160; But the still reigning Deporter-in-Chief was no slouch.</p>
<p>Trump is seeking out incompetent reactionaries to fill top government positions. &#160;Obama preferred neoliberals to hard right “conservatives,” and he did value competence, but, like Trump. he appointed some certifiable doozies.&#160;&#160; For that, he has much to answer for.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State?&#160; Seriously?&#160; Was the point to make Condoleezza Rice look good? &#160;&#160;Who knows what he was thinking or what debts he was paying off.&#160; All that we do know is that from Libya to Honduras – and worst of all in Syria and Iraq and in refugee camps around Europe — they are still dealing with the consequences.</p>
<p>Obama transformed America’s perpetual war regime — for the worse.&#160;&#160; Even Bush sought out Congressional approval for the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.&#160;&#160; Obama starts new wars, and expands old ones, without bothering to inform the public or, for that matter, the Congress — in which war-making powers supposedly reside.</p>
<p>As in the nineteenth century, when the U.S. Army would secure the “frontier” by slaughtering the peoples who lived there, it isn’t even clear how many wars the United States is currently fighting – this time to secure what we have lately come to call the “homeland.”</p>
<p>There is so much more: Obama’s attack on whistleblowers, for example, and on government transparency.&#160; And there are countless sins of omission, worthwhile things that Obama could have done, but didn’t – to advance workers’ rights, for example, or to &#160;address the causes and consequences of global warming and other ecological catastrophes.</p>
<p>To be sure, our not very loyal opposition party has a lot to answer for, but Republican obstinacy only explains so much.&#160; Obama’s pro-corporate predilections explain a lot more.</p>
<p>And, of course, there is his “signature” achievement – the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare.</p>
<p>That Republicans hate Obamacare so much is odd, to say the least, inasmuch as it is basically a Republican program.&#160;&#160; The general idea behind it was contrived at the Heritage Foundation in an effort to ward off genuine health care reform, and something very like it was implemented in Massachusetts by then Governor Mitt Romney, Obama’s rival for the Presidency in 2012.</p>
<p>Moreover, if Trump and the Republican legislators he is currently leading around by the nose &#160;do succeed in replacing it, what they come up with will be something very much like it.</p>
<p>It is hard to resist the conclusion that, for Republicans, the problem with Obamacare is its connection with Obama.&#160; Make a few cosmetic changes, call it Trumpcare, and the loony-tunes who cannot stop trying to repeal Obamacare will stop acting out, and get behind it a hundred percent.</p>
<p>In its present version, Obamacare has generally done more good than harm; mainly by mandating insurance reforms that even Trump knows he dare not alter, and by enrolling tens of thousands of previously uninsured Americans.</p>
<p>But it also did little to control costs, and it further entrenched the power of the private insurance industry, while further enriching Big Pharma and other health care profiteers.&#160; Its enactment into law also set back efforts to establish health care as a right for all citizens, as it is nearly everywhere else in the world.</p>
<p>On balance, though, it will be sad to see the Affordable Care Act go, just as it will be sad to see Trump take over from Obama.</p>
<p>The old order, desperately in need of radical transformation, is now about to change profoundly – not in a salutary way, however; not even in a way that is sufficiently coherent to survive the vicissitudes of political life.&#160; &#160;What will become of the country and the world when it all comes crashing down?&#160; One shudders to think.</p>
<p>A major task for now therefore is to do all we can to cushion the blow; another is to work to refashion politics altogether – in ways that will make Clinton-Trump choices unthinkable in the future.</p>
<p>The Trumpworld is so topsy-turvy and out of joint, and so uncharted, that it will take a great deal of effort and thought to figure out how to do either.</p>
<p>There surely are ways, however – especially if Trump and his minions actually do undo Clintonite neoliberalism and humanitarian imperialism; and if, as is more likely by far, their own mindless shenanigans, driven by ignorance and greed, do themselves in as well.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, we can rejoice in Obama’s departure from the political scene, even as we know that it will be a sad day indeed when he does.</p> | 2,538 |
<p>By <a href="" type="internal">Robert Reich</a> / <a href="http://robertreich.org/post/154643782110" type="external">RobertReich.org</a></p>
<p />
<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/" type="external">Gage Skidmore</a> / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">CC BY-SA 2.0</a></p>
<p>Donald Trump has just finished the last of his nine post-election “thank you tour” rallies.&#160;Why did he do them? And why is he planning further rallies after he becomes president?</p>
<p />
<p>One clue is that Trump conducted them only in the states he won. And most attendees appeared to have voted for him – overwhelmingly white, and many wearing Trump hats and T-shirts. When warm-up speakers asked how many had previously attended a Trump rally, most hands went up.</p>
<p>A second clue is that rather than urge followers to bury the hatchet, Trump wound them up. “It’s a movement,” he <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F4605647%2Fdonald-trump-vicious-violent-supporters%2F&amp;t=OGZmYmYzMzI4YzI0YTM1OWZmMGM1ZjUyODIzYTYxMjBlYzViM2ZkYyxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">said in Mobile</a>, playfully telling the crowd that in the run-up to the election, “You people were vicious, violent, screaming, ‘Where’s the wall?’ ‘We want the wall!’ Screaming, ‘Prison!’ ‘Prison!’ ‘Lock her up!’ I mean, you were going crazy. You were nasty and mean and vicious.” He called his followers “wild beasts.”</p>
<p>A third clue: Rather than shift from campaigning to governing, Trump’s post-election rallies were almost identical to the rallies he held when he was a candidate – the same format, identical pledges (“We will build a great wall!”), and same condemnations of the “dishonest” media.&#160;They also elicited many of the same audience responses, such as “Lock her up! Lock her up!”</p>
<p>And rather than use the rallies to forgive those who criticized him during the campaign, he employed them to settle scores — criticizing politicians who opposed his candidacy, like Ohio Governor John Kasich; blasting media personalities who predicted he would lose, such as CNN’s John King; and mocking opponents, such as Evan McMullin, the Republican who campaigned against him as an independent in Utah.</p>
<p>Trump vows to continue these rallies after he becomes president. As he <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagotribune.com%2Fnews%2Fnationworld%2Fpolitics%2Fct-trump-alabama-rally-20161217-story.html&amp;t=ZDM3OTlmYWYxZmRmN2ExMzc4MTlkMTU0ZDIzNjhiZWMzNDM1OTlhNCxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">told the crowd in Mobile</a>, “They’re saying, ‘As president, he shouldn’t be doing rallies.’ But I think we should, right? We’ve done everything else the opposite. This is the way you get an honest word out.”</p>
<p>“Get an honest word out?” There’s the real tipoff.</p>
<p>Like his non-stop tweets, Trump’s&#160;purpose in holding these rallies is to connect directly with a large and enthusiastic base of followers who will believe what he says – and thereby reject facts from mainstream media, policy analysts, government agencies that collect data, and the scientific community. &#160;</p>
<p>During his just-completed&#160;“thank-you tour,”&#160;Trump repeatedly claimed, for example, that the murder rate in the United States is the largest it’s been in 45 years. <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.factcheck.org%2F2016%2F10%2Ftrump-wrong-on-murder-rate%2F&amp;t=OTc2NDJmNjlkNTZlMTc0ZmFiM2Q0ODM2YTZlYzVjOWUwOThhMGJkZSxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">In fact, it’s near a 50-year low</a>, according to the FBI.</p>
<p>He also repeatedly said he won the election by a “ <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.democracynow.org%2F2016%2F12%2F2%2Fheadlines%2Fat_rally_in_cincinnati_trump_repeatedly_attacks_media&amp;t=ZjVlODlhMjgxYjY3ZGQ5NmEyMWIwMWZjYmZhNWMwODAxNGI0MjFiNyxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">landslide</a>,” when in fact he lost the popular vote by 2.8 million votes – over five times Al Gore’s margin over George W. Bush in 2000.</p>
<p>And he repeatedly asserted that the election was marred by “ <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2016%2F11%2F27%2Fpolitics%2Fdonald-trump-voter-fraud-popular-vote%2F&amp;t=OTgzOTY2NThiZDllOWQ1OGNkNjRmZTI1YmU3MWQ0NzcwODgyMzkyNyxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">massive voting fraud</a>,” when in fact there has been <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F12%2F18%2Fus%2Fvoter-fraud.html%3F_r%3D0&amp;t=NDMxMDg2MjliZDE3ZjZkMGIyMTg5ZWEwNjFjMjU5MjIyYzI0YTY1OCxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">no evidence of voting fraud</a> at all (unless you consider the possibility that Russia hacked into our voting systems – which Trump dismisses).</p>
<p>A democracy depends on truth. Trump’s claims that the murder rate is soaring may elicit support for policies such as harsher policing and sentencing – the opposite of what we need.&#160;His assertions that he won by a landslide may give him a mandate he doesn’t deserve. His claims of “massive voter fraud” could legitimize further efforts to suppress votes through rigid ID and other requirements.</p>
<p>If repeatedly told Muslims are the enemy, the public may support efforts to monitor them and their places of worship inside America, or even to confine them. If told that tide of undocumented immigrants is rising (in fact, it’s been falling), the public could get behind draconian policies to keep them out.</p>
<p>If told to ignore scientific evidence of climate change, the public may reject efforts to reverse it. If told to disregard CIA reports of Russian tampering with our elections, the public could become less vigilant about future tampering.</p>
<p>In short, the rallies and tweets give Trump an unprecedented platform for telling Big Lies without fear of contradiction – and therefore for advancing whatever agenda he wishes.&#160;</p>
<p>It’s no coincidence that Trump continues to denigrate the media, and hasn’t held a news conference since July.</p>
<p>A president intent on developing a base of enthusiastic supporters who believe boldface lies poses a clear threat to American democracy. This is how tyranny begins.</p> | Why Donald Trump Will Continue to Hold Rallies as President | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/why-donald-trump-will-continue-to-hold-rallies-as-president/ | 2016-12-19 | 4left
| Why Donald Trump Will Continue to Hold Rallies as President
<p>By <a href="" type="internal">Robert Reich</a> / <a href="http://robertreich.org/post/154643782110" type="external">RobertReich.org</a></p>
<p />
<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/" type="external">Gage Skidmore</a> / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">CC BY-SA 2.0</a></p>
<p>Donald Trump has just finished the last of his nine post-election “thank you tour” rallies.&#160;Why did he do them? And why is he planning further rallies after he becomes president?</p>
<p />
<p>One clue is that Trump conducted them only in the states he won. And most attendees appeared to have voted for him – overwhelmingly white, and many wearing Trump hats and T-shirts. When warm-up speakers asked how many had previously attended a Trump rally, most hands went up.</p>
<p>A second clue is that rather than urge followers to bury the hatchet, Trump wound them up. “It’s a movement,” he <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F4605647%2Fdonald-trump-vicious-violent-supporters%2F&amp;t=OGZmYmYzMzI4YzI0YTM1OWZmMGM1ZjUyODIzYTYxMjBlYzViM2ZkYyxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">said in Mobile</a>, playfully telling the crowd that in the run-up to the election, “You people were vicious, violent, screaming, ‘Where’s the wall?’ ‘We want the wall!’ Screaming, ‘Prison!’ ‘Prison!’ ‘Lock her up!’ I mean, you were going crazy. You were nasty and mean and vicious.” He called his followers “wild beasts.”</p>
<p>A third clue: Rather than shift from campaigning to governing, Trump’s post-election rallies were almost identical to the rallies he held when he was a candidate – the same format, identical pledges (“We will build a great wall!”), and same condemnations of the “dishonest” media.&#160;They also elicited many of the same audience responses, such as “Lock her up! Lock her up!”</p>
<p>And rather than use the rallies to forgive those who criticized him during the campaign, he employed them to settle scores — criticizing politicians who opposed his candidacy, like Ohio Governor John Kasich; blasting media personalities who predicted he would lose, such as CNN’s John King; and mocking opponents, such as Evan McMullin, the Republican who campaigned against him as an independent in Utah.</p>
<p>Trump vows to continue these rallies after he becomes president. As he <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagotribune.com%2Fnews%2Fnationworld%2Fpolitics%2Fct-trump-alabama-rally-20161217-story.html&amp;t=ZDM3OTlmYWYxZmRmN2ExMzc4MTlkMTU0ZDIzNjhiZWMzNDM1OTlhNCxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">told the crowd in Mobile</a>, “They’re saying, ‘As president, he shouldn’t be doing rallies.’ But I think we should, right? We’ve done everything else the opposite. This is the way you get an honest word out.”</p>
<p>“Get an honest word out?” There’s the real tipoff.</p>
<p>Like his non-stop tweets, Trump’s&#160;purpose in holding these rallies is to connect directly with a large and enthusiastic base of followers who will believe what he says – and thereby reject facts from mainstream media, policy analysts, government agencies that collect data, and the scientific community. &#160;</p>
<p>During his just-completed&#160;“thank-you tour,”&#160;Trump repeatedly claimed, for example, that the murder rate in the United States is the largest it’s been in 45 years. <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.factcheck.org%2F2016%2F10%2Ftrump-wrong-on-murder-rate%2F&amp;t=OTc2NDJmNjlkNTZlMTc0ZmFiM2Q0ODM2YTZlYzVjOWUwOThhMGJkZSxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">In fact, it’s near a 50-year low</a>, according to the FBI.</p>
<p>He also repeatedly said he won the election by a “ <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.democracynow.org%2F2016%2F12%2F2%2Fheadlines%2Fat_rally_in_cincinnati_trump_repeatedly_attacks_media&amp;t=ZjVlODlhMjgxYjY3ZGQ5NmEyMWIwMWZjYmZhNWMwODAxNGI0MjFiNyxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">landslide</a>,” when in fact he lost the popular vote by 2.8 million votes – over five times Al Gore’s margin over George W. Bush in 2000.</p>
<p>And he repeatedly asserted that the election was marred by “ <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2016%2F11%2F27%2Fpolitics%2Fdonald-trump-voter-fraud-popular-vote%2F&amp;t=OTgzOTY2NThiZDllOWQ1OGNkNjRmZTI1YmU3MWQ0NzcwODgyMzkyNyxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">massive voting fraud</a>,” when in fact there has been <a href="http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F12%2F18%2Fus%2Fvoter-fraud.html%3F_r%3D0&amp;t=NDMxMDg2MjliZDE3ZjZkMGIyMTg5ZWEwNjFjMjU5MjIyYzI0YTY1OCxoa1Ewem1YeA%3D%3D&amp;b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F154643782110&amp;m=1" type="external">no evidence of voting fraud</a> at all (unless you consider the possibility that Russia hacked into our voting systems – which Trump dismisses).</p>
<p>A democracy depends on truth. Trump’s claims that the murder rate is soaring may elicit support for policies such as harsher policing and sentencing – the opposite of what we need.&#160;His assertions that he won by a landslide may give him a mandate he doesn’t deserve. His claims of “massive voter fraud” could legitimize further efforts to suppress votes through rigid ID and other requirements.</p>
<p>If repeatedly told Muslims are the enemy, the public may support efforts to monitor them and their places of worship inside America, or even to confine them. If told that tide of undocumented immigrants is rising (in fact, it’s been falling), the public could get behind draconian policies to keep them out.</p>
<p>If told to ignore scientific evidence of climate change, the public may reject efforts to reverse it. If told to disregard CIA reports of Russian tampering with our elections, the public could become less vigilant about future tampering.</p>
<p>In short, the rallies and tweets give Trump an unprecedented platform for telling Big Lies without fear of contradiction – and therefore for advancing whatever agenda he wishes.&#160;</p>
<p>It’s no coincidence that Trump continues to denigrate the media, and hasn’t held a news conference since July.</p>
<p>A president intent on developing a base of enthusiastic supporters who believe boldface lies poses a clear threat to American democracy. This is how tyranny begins.</p> | 2,539 |
<p>The <a href="http://texasbaptists.org/" type="external">Baptist General Convention of Texas</a> joined the <a href="http://www.texlife.org/" type="external">Texans for Life Coalition</a>, <a href="https://www.texasallianceforlife.org/" type="external">Texas Alliance for Life</a> and <a href="https://txcatholic.org/" type="external">Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops</a> in an April 18 press conference voicing support for 15 bills before the state House and Senate seeking to restrict abortion.</p>
<p>“We are honored to be here with these pro-life legislators and these groups to support a culture of life in Texas and to help defend life,” Kathryn Freeman, director of public policy for the BGCT Christian Life Commission, <a href="http://tlchouse.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&amp;clip_id=13617" type="external">said</a> in the early morning press conference at the state Capitol.</p>
<p>Kathryn Freeman, director of public policy for the BGCT Christian Life Commission, in the early morning press conference at the state Capitol.</p>
<p>The proposed bills —&#160;among more than 40 anti-abortion measures in Texas introduced this legislative session —&#160;would bar state funding for Planned Parenthood, outlaw “partial birth” abortion and ban the sale of fetal tissue.</p>
<p>Other legislation would require all fetal remains to be cremated or interred and prohibit health-care facilities from disposing of the remains in sanitary landfills, mandate reporting for abortion complications and ban “wrongful birth” lawsuits, preventing parents from suing doctors for malpractice after their child is born with severe disabilities.</p>
<p>“While we don’t have the votes on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade and abolish abortion in our nation, we must press onward in our efforts to save lives in our state and establish greater reverence for life in Texas,” Bishop Daniel Garcia of Austin said on behalf of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops.</p>
<p>Freeman, an attorney <a href="http://texasbaptists.org/news/attorney-named-clc-director-of-public-policy" type="external">named</a> public policy director for the Texas Baptist moral concerns agency in 2014, spoke favorably of a <a href="https://rewire.news/legislative-tracker/law/texas-bill-regarding-human-trafficking-coerced-abortion-hb-2858/" type="external">bill</a> that would require abortion providers to post the <a href="https://humantraffickinghotline.org/" type="external">National Human Trafficking Hotline</a> number in each patient admissions area, waiting room, restroom and patient consulting room.</p>
<p>“That, we think, is really important,” Freeman said. “Last year Texas was the number two state for calls into that hot line. We think that this bill has real practical impact for women and girls who might be sex trafficked getting that number in front of them and getting them out of those horrific situations.”</p>
<p>The bill would also make it a felony to knowingly use “force or the threat of force to compel an individual to receive an abortion.”</p>
<p>The BGCT has passed a number of <a href="https://texasbaptists.org/ministries/clc/ethics-justice/life-health-dying/abortion" type="external">resolutions</a> over the years opposing abortion, but only recently has it emerged as a legislative priority. In 2013 Executive Director David Hardage <a href="https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/texas/15338-senator-cites-hardage-letter-in-arguing-for-abortion-restrictions" type="external">lobbied</a> lawmakers to pass abortion restrictions famously filibustered the year before by a state senator who had been recently honored by the Christian Life Commission for her work against predatory lending.</p>
<p>Such lobbying departed with a long tradition of the CLC speaking “to” and not “for” Texas Baptists on matters of public policy, distinguishing the historically moderate convention from the narrowly focused political agenda of the Religious Right.</p>
<p>A CLC pamphlet <a href="http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/baptist/rptbgctc.html" type="external">released</a> in the 1990s opposed abortion on demand but acknowledged “rare circumstances” —&#160;including imminent threats to the mother’s physical and mental health, pregnancies resulting from rape or incest and severe fetal deformities —&#160;“in which Christians prayerfully choose abortion as the least tragic choice.”</p>
<p>The flurry of anti-abortion bills in the Republican-controlled legislature comes a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 2013 law that shut down half of the state’s abortion clinics.</p>
<p>NARAL Pro-Choice Texas <a href="http://prochoicetexas.org/blog/2017/04/lawmakers-must-prioritize-proactive-bills-expand-protect-reproductive-health-care/" type="external">said</a> the bills are designed “explicitly to reduce access to abortion and stigmatize Texans seeking vital health care” and “are harmful, endanger the lives of Texans and blatantly disrespect physicians and patient privacy.”</p>
<p>“Texas politicians can’t seem to take a hint, continuing to advance insulting and unconstitutional restrictions on a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion,” <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/press-room/texas-senate-passes-ban-on-proven-safe-method-of-abortion" type="external">said</a> Amanda Allen, senior state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Texas politicians need to abandon their crusade against women’s dignity and focus on measures that actually improve the lives and health of women and their families.”</p> | Texas Baptist convention aligns with groups seeking to limit abortion | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/texas-baptist-convention-aligns-groups-seeking-limit-abortion/ | 3left-center
| Texas Baptist convention aligns with groups seeking to limit abortion
<p>The <a href="http://texasbaptists.org/" type="external">Baptist General Convention of Texas</a> joined the <a href="http://www.texlife.org/" type="external">Texans for Life Coalition</a>, <a href="https://www.texasallianceforlife.org/" type="external">Texas Alliance for Life</a> and <a href="https://txcatholic.org/" type="external">Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops</a> in an April 18 press conference voicing support for 15 bills before the state House and Senate seeking to restrict abortion.</p>
<p>“We are honored to be here with these pro-life legislators and these groups to support a culture of life in Texas and to help defend life,” Kathryn Freeman, director of public policy for the BGCT Christian Life Commission, <a href="http://tlchouse.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&amp;clip_id=13617" type="external">said</a> in the early morning press conference at the state Capitol.</p>
<p>Kathryn Freeman, director of public policy for the BGCT Christian Life Commission, in the early morning press conference at the state Capitol.</p>
<p>The proposed bills —&#160;among more than 40 anti-abortion measures in Texas introduced this legislative session —&#160;would bar state funding for Planned Parenthood, outlaw “partial birth” abortion and ban the sale of fetal tissue.</p>
<p>Other legislation would require all fetal remains to be cremated or interred and prohibit health-care facilities from disposing of the remains in sanitary landfills, mandate reporting for abortion complications and ban “wrongful birth” lawsuits, preventing parents from suing doctors for malpractice after their child is born with severe disabilities.</p>
<p>“While we don’t have the votes on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade and abolish abortion in our nation, we must press onward in our efforts to save lives in our state and establish greater reverence for life in Texas,” Bishop Daniel Garcia of Austin said on behalf of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops.</p>
<p>Freeman, an attorney <a href="http://texasbaptists.org/news/attorney-named-clc-director-of-public-policy" type="external">named</a> public policy director for the Texas Baptist moral concerns agency in 2014, spoke favorably of a <a href="https://rewire.news/legislative-tracker/law/texas-bill-regarding-human-trafficking-coerced-abortion-hb-2858/" type="external">bill</a> that would require abortion providers to post the <a href="https://humantraffickinghotline.org/" type="external">National Human Trafficking Hotline</a> number in each patient admissions area, waiting room, restroom and patient consulting room.</p>
<p>“That, we think, is really important,” Freeman said. “Last year Texas was the number two state for calls into that hot line. We think that this bill has real practical impact for women and girls who might be sex trafficked getting that number in front of them and getting them out of those horrific situations.”</p>
<p>The bill would also make it a felony to knowingly use “force or the threat of force to compel an individual to receive an abortion.”</p>
<p>The BGCT has passed a number of <a href="https://texasbaptists.org/ministries/clc/ethics-justice/life-health-dying/abortion" type="external">resolutions</a> over the years opposing abortion, but only recently has it emerged as a legislative priority. In 2013 Executive Director David Hardage <a href="https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/texas/15338-senator-cites-hardage-letter-in-arguing-for-abortion-restrictions" type="external">lobbied</a> lawmakers to pass abortion restrictions famously filibustered the year before by a state senator who had been recently honored by the Christian Life Commission for her work against predatory lending.</p>
<p>Such lobbying departed with a long tradition of the CLC speaking “to” and not “for” Texas Baptists on matters of public policy, distinguishing the historically moderate convention from the narrowly focused political agenda of the Religious Right.</p>
<p>A CLC pamphlet <a href="http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/baptist/rptbgctc.html" type="external">released</a> in the 1990s opposed abortion on demand but acknowledged “rare circumstances” —&#160;including imminent threats to the mother’s physical and mental health, pregnancies resulting from rape or incest and severe fetal deformities —&#160;“in which Christians prayerfully choose abortion as the least tragic choice.”</p>
<p>The flurry of anti-abortion bills in the Republican-controlled legislature comes a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 2013 law that shut down half of the state’s abortion clinics.</p>
<p>NARAL Pro-Choice Texas <a href="http://prochoicetexas.org/blog/2017/04/lawmakers-must-prioritize-proactive-bills-expand-protect-reproductive-health-care/" type="external">said</a> the bills are designed “explicitly to reduce access to abortion and stigmatize Texans seeking vital health care” and “are harmful, endanger the lives of Texans and blatantly disrespect physicians and patient privacy.”</p>
<p>“Texas politicians can’t seem to take a hint, continuing to advance insulting and unconstitutional restrictions on a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion,” <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/press-room/texas-senate-passes-ban-on-proven-safe-method-of-abortion" type="external">said</a> Amanda Allen, senior state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Texas politicians need to abandon their crusade against women’s dignity and focus on measures that actually improve the lives and health of women and their families.”</p> | 2,540 |
|
<p>Image by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia</p>
<p />
<p>New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is one of free market capitalism’s loudest cheerleaders. The premise goes like this: <a href="" type="internal">Developing countries</a> make consumer goods so inexpensively that people in rich countries can afford to buy them and have money left over. Because of all the extra dough, demand for consumer products shoots up and makes third world countries rich. What’s good for China is good for America and everyone wins, right? Not quite.</p>
<p>Yesterday morning, another crack appeared in Friedman’s the-consumer-always-wins model when one of America’s largest shopping mall companies, Chicago-based General Growth Properties, <a href="http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/general-growth-properties-files-for-bankruptcy/?hp" type="external">filed for bankruptcy.</a>&#160; Friedman’s pretty close to GGP’s malls; the Bucksbaum family owns them, and Ann Bucksbaum is Tom Friedman’s wife.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>But despite his connection to one of America’s richest families, Friedman has always portrayed himself as a champion for the common man. Yes, high-paying <a href="" type="internal">manufacturing jobs</a> were gone from the American Midwest, but look at all the things average Americans can afford with their newfound buying power, he would explain.</p>
<p>But that’s not what’s happening anymore. Retail stores are closing across the country and mall vacancies are at their highest point in almost a decade, forcing malls to make weird decisions about how to stay afloat, like offering radically inexpensive rents for desired tenants and converting malls into office space.</p>
<p>GGP, which owns prized properties like <a href="http://www.alamoanacenter.com/" type="external">Ala Moana Center</a> in Honolulu, <a href="http://www.shopwatertower.com/html/index7.asp" type="external">Water Tower Place</a> in Chicago, and the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian in Las Vegas, has been struggling for some time. Harper’s Magazine estimated that last year the Bucksbaum fortune shrank from $3.6 billion to $25 million. And Friedman’s brother-in-law, John Bucksbaum, was forced to resign as CEO after an internal audit revealed that the Bucksbaum family trust made private loans to company officers without informing the board of directors.</p>
<p>Friedman has always kept quiet about his relationship to GGP. This is understandable; he’s a journalist, after all, and plays no role in the management of the company. But GGP’s bankruptcy says something about the way the global economy really works. Friedman’s often accused of ignoring that there are both losers and winners in globalization, but now it looks like even his rich in-laws are hurting.</p>
<p /> | Recession Hits Home for Tom Friedman | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/04/recession-hits-home-tom-friedman/ | 2009-04-17 | 4left
| Recession Hits Home for Tom Friedman
<p>Image by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia</p>
<p />
<p>New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is one of free market capitalism’s loudest cheerleaders. The premise goes like this: <a href="" type="internal">Developing countries</a> make consumer goods so inexpensively that people in rich countries can afford to buy them and have money left over. Because of all the extra dough, demand for consumer products shoots up and makes third world countries rich. What’s good for China is good for America and everyone wins, right? Not quite.</p>
<p>Yesterday morning, another crack appeared in Friedman’s the-consumer-always-wins model when one of America’s largest shopping mall companies, Chicago-based General Growth Properties, <a href="http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/general-growth-properties-files-for-bankruptcy/?hp" type="external">filed for bankruptcy.</a>&#160; Friedman’s pretty close to GGP’s malls; the Bucksbaum family owns them, and Ann Bucksbaum is Tom Friedman’s wife.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>But despite his connection to one of America’s richest families, Friedman has always portrayed himself as a champion for the common man. Yes, high-paying <a href="" type="internal">manufacturing jobs</a> were gone from the American Midwest, but look at all the things average Americans can afford with their newfound buying power, he would explain.</p>
<p>But that’s not what’s happening anymore. Retail stores are closing across the country and mall vacancies are at their highest point in almost a decade, forcing malls to make weird decisions about how to stay afloat, like offering radically inexpensive rents for desired tenants and converting malls into office space.</p>
<p>GGP, which owns prized properties like <a href="http://www.alamoanacenter.com/" type="external">Ala Moana Center</a> in Honolulu, <a href="http://www.shopwatertower.com/html/index7.asp" type="external">Water Tower Place</a> in Chicago, and the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian in Las Vegas, has been struggling for some time. Harper’s Magazine estimated that last year the Bucksbaum fortune shrank from $3.6 billion to $25 million. And Friedman’s brother-in-law, John Bucksbaum, was forced to resign as CEO after an internal audit revealed that the Bucksbaum family trust made private loans to company officers without informing the board of directors.</p>
<p>Friedman has always kept quiet about his relationship to GGP. This is understandable; he’s a journalist, after all, and plays no role in the management of the company. But GGP’s bankruptcy says something about the way the global economy really works. Friedman’s often accused of ignoring that there are both losers and winners in globalization, but now it looks like even his rich in-laws are hurting.</p>
<p /> | 2,541 |
<p>PERTH, Australia (AP) — Daria Gavrilova and Thanasi Kokkinakis each won their singles matches to give Australia a perfect start to its mixed team Hopman Cup campaign against Canada at Perth Arena on Sunday.</p>
<p>Gavrilova claimed a 6-1, 6-4 win over Eugenie Bouchard, before Kokkinakis wrapped up the Group A tie for Australia by beating world No.108 Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 3-6. 6-3 in the men's singles rubber.</p>
<p>The Canadian team responded in the mixed doubles winning 4-3 (1), 4-3 (4) in the Fast4 format to gain some consolation.</p>
<p>From the outset, world No. 83 Bouchard struggled to find any fluency and conceded the first set to the 25th ranked Gavrilova in under half an hour.</p>
<p>Gavrilova then raced to a 3-0 lead in the second before Bouchard broke back, and three double faults from Gavrilova in the sixth game opened the door for the Canadian to take the upper hand in the second set.</p>
<p>But Gavrilova recovered to hold serve and broke Bouchard again to claim the victory in 78 minutes.</p>
<p>On the back of Gavrilova's victory for the host nation, Kokkinakis, ranked 209th, also started confidently and claimed the first set, before Pospisil responded in the second.</p>
<p>With the match evenly poised midway through the deciding third set, Kokkinakis eventually took a break point opportunity in the sixth game and then served it out for the win in one hour and 53 minutes.</p>
<p>Belgium plays Germany in the other Group A fixture on Monday.</p>
<p>PERTH, Australia (AP) — Daria Gavrilova and Thanasi Kokkinakis each won their singles matches to give Australia a perfect start to its mixed team Hopman Cup campaign against Canada at Perth Arena on Sunday.</p>
<p>Gavrilova claimed a 6-1, 6-4 win over Eugenie Bouchard, before Kokkinakis wrapped up the Group A tie for Australia by beating world No.108 Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 3-6. 6-3 in the men's singles rubber.</p>
<p>The Canadian team responded in the mixed doubles winning 4-3 (1), 4-3 (4) in the Fast4 format to gain some consolation.</p>
<p>From the outset, world No. 83 Bouchard struggled to find any fluency and conceded the first set to the 25th ranked Gavrilova in under half an hour.</p>
<p>Gavrilova then raced to a 3-0 lead in the second before Bouchard broke back, and three double faults from Gavrilova in the sixth game opened the door for the Canadian to take the upper hand in the second set.</p>
<p>But Gavrilova recovered to hold serve and broke Bouchard again to claim the victory in 78 minutes.</p>
<p>On the back of Gavrilova's victory for the host nation, Kokkinakis, ranked 209th, also started confidently and claimed the first set, before Pospisil responded in the second.</p>
<p>With the match evenly poised midway through the deciding third set, Kokkinakis eventually took a break point opportunity in the sixth game and then served it out for the win in one hour and 53 minutes.</p>
<p>Belgium plays Germany in the other Group A fixture on Monday.</p> | Australia beat Canada to open Hopman Cup campaign | false | https://apnews.com/amp/9a7a5bd614bc447f9783d75288f282d8 | 2017-12-31 | 2least
| Australia beat Canada to open Hopman Cup campaign
<p>PERTH, Australia (AP) — Daria Gavrilova and Thanasi Kokkinakis each won their singles matches to give Australia a perfect start to its mixed team Hopman Cup campaign against Canada at Perth Arena on Sunday.</p>
<p>Gavrilova claimed a 6-1, 6-4 win over Eugenie Bouchard, before Kokkinakis wrapped up the Group A tie for Australia by beating world No.108 Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 3-6. 6-3 in the men's singles rubber.</p>
<p>The Canadian team responded in the mixed doubles winning 4-3 (1), 4-3 (4) in the Fast4 format to gain some consolation.</p>
<p>From the outset, world No. 83 Bouchard struggled to find any fluency and conceded the first set to the 25th ranked Gavrilova in under half an hour.</p>
<p>Gavrilova then raced to a 3-0 lead in the second before Bouchard broke back, and three double faults from Gavrilova in the sixth game opened the door for the Canadian to take the upper hand in the second set.</p>
<p>But Gavrilova recovered to hold serve and broke Bouchard again to claim the victory in 78 minutes.</p>
<p>On the back of Gavrilova's victory for the host nation, Kokkinakis, ranked 209th, also started confidently and claimed the first set, before Pospisil responded in the second.</p>
<p>With the match evenly poised midway through the deciding third set, Kokkinakis eventually took a break point opportunity in the sixth game and then served it out for the win in one hour and 53 minutes.</p>
<p>Belgium plays Germany in the other Group A fixture on Monday.</p>
<p>PERTH, Australia (AP) — Daria Gavrilova and Thanasi Kokkinakis each won their singles matches to give Australia a perfect start to its mixed team Hopman Cup campaign against Canada at Perth Arena on Sunday.</p>
<p>Gavrilova claimed a 6-1, 6-4 win over Eugenie Bouchard, before Kokkinakis wrapped up the Group A tie for Australia by beating world No.108 Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 3-6. 6-3 in the men's singles rubber.</p>
<p>The Canadian team responded in the mixed doubles winning 4-3 (1), 4-3 (4) in the Fast4 format to gain some consolation.</p>
<p>From the outset, world No. 83 Bouchard struggled to find any fluency and conceded the first set to the 25th ranked Gavrilova in under half an hour.</p>
<p>Gavrilova then raced to a 3-0 lead in the second before Bouchard broke back, and three double faults from Gavrilova in the sixth game opened the door for the Canadian to take the upper hand in the second set.</p>
<p>But Gavrilova recovered to hold serve and broke Bouchard again to claim the victory in 78 minutes.</p>
<p>On the back of Gavrilova's victory for the host nation, Kokkinakis, ranked 209th, also started confidently and claimed the first set, before Pospisil responded in the second.</p>
<p>With the match evenly poised midway through the deciding third set, Kokkinakis eventually took a break point opportunity in the sixth game and then served it out for the win in one hour and 53 minutes.</p>
<p>Belgium plays Germany in the other Group A fixture on Monday.</p> | 2,542 |
<p>In Washington, climate change deniers are fighting a fierce battle to stave off energy policy reform. The latest casualty of this war of ideas is Wei-Hock Soon, a part-time employee of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Resilient to the scientific consensus that human carbon emissions are fueling gradual warming, the aerospace engineer has served as a beacon for conservative legislators. A recently uncovered document shows that Soon was granted over $1.2 million from fossil-fuel companies and failed to disclose a conflict of interest in his peer-reviewed publications.</p>
<p>Since the Smithsonian is part of the federal government, former Greenpeace member Kert Davies legally obtained the Soon’s grant agreements through the Freedom of Information Act. Contributors include the American Petroleum Institute, the Koch brothers, Exxon Mobil and Southern Company. Several scientific papers and a congressional testimonial were termed as “deliverables,” reports <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html?_r=0" type="external">The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>“These proposals and contracts show debatable interventions in science literally on behalf of the Southern Company and the Kochs,” said Davies. “What it shows is the continuation of a long-term campaign by specific fossil-fuel companies and interests to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change.”</p>
<p>These recent revelations have drawn fire from members of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center and NASA, among others.</p>
<p>“This frankly becomes a personnel matter, which we have to handle with Dr. Soon internally,” Center administrator W. John Kress told the Times. “I am aware of the situation with Willie Soon, and I’m very concerned about it.”</p>
<p>The ethical standards of many journals requires authors to disclose funding which may imply a conflict of interest. Soon is not a Harvard employee, nor does he receive any pay directly from the University. Instead, donations and research contributions cover his stipend.</p>
<p>Just weeks ago, the Republican-led Senate voted on a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/amendment/114th-congress/senate-amendment/29" type="external">resolution</a> that confirms “the sense of the Senate that climate change is real and not a hoax.” The bill was passed almost unanimously, with a 98-1 Yea-Nay Vote. The GOP contributed 54 out of a possible 55 votes, with only one Mississippi republican voting against the bill. Despite acknowledging rising temperatures, the Senate failed to pass an affirmation of humanity’s role in climate change.</p>
<p /> | $1.2 Million Conflict of Interest Plagues Climate Change Denial Research | false | http://natmonitor.com/2015/02/22/1-2-million-conflict-of-interest-plagues-climate-change-denial-research/ | 2015-02-22 | 3left-center
| $1.2 Million Conflict of Interest Plagues Climate Change Denial Research
<p>In Washington, climate change deniers are fighting a fierce battle to stave off energy policy reform. The latest casualty of this war of ideas is Wei-Hock Soon, a part-time employee of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Resilient to the scientific consensus that human carbon emissions are fueling gradual warming, the aerospace engineer has served as a beacon for conservative legislators. A recently uncovered document shows that Soon was granted over $1.2 million from fossil-fuel companies and failed to disclose a conflict of interest in his peer-reviewed publications.</p>
<p>Since the Smithsonian is part of the federal government, former Greenpeace member Kert Davies legally obtained the Soon’s grant agreements through the Freedom of Information Act. Contributors include the American Petroleum Institute, the Koch brothers, Exxon Mobil and Southern Company. Several scientific papers and a congressional testimonial were termed as “deliverables,” reports <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html?_r=0" type="external">The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>“These proposals and contracts show debatable interventions in science literally on behalf of the Southern Company and the Kochs,” said Davies. “What it shows is the continuation of a long-term campaign by specific fossil-fuel companies and interests to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change.”</p>
<p>These recent revelations have drawn fire from members of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center and NASA, among others.</p>
<p>“This frankly becomes a personnel matter, which we have to handle with Dr. Soon internally,” Center administrator W. John Kress told the Times. “I am aware of the situation with Willie Soon, and I’m very concerned about it.”</p>
<p>The ethical standards of many journals requires authors to disclose funding which may imply a conflict of interest. Soon is not a Harvard employee, nor does he receive any pay directly from the University. Instead, donations and research contributions cover his stipend.</p>
<p>Just weeks ago, the Republican-led Senate voted on a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/amendment/114th-congress/senate-amendment/29" type="external">resolution</a> that confirms “the sense of the Senate that climate change is real and not a hoax.” The bill was passed almost unanimously, with a 98-1 Yea-Nay Vote. The GOP contributed 54 out of a possible 55 votes, with only one Mississippi republican voting against the bill. Despite acknowledging rising temperatures, the Senate failed to pass an affirmation of humanity’s role in climate change.</p>
<p /> | 2,543 |
<p>KFC and Pizza Hut parent Yum Brands Inc on Thursday said it is rethinking where it opens new restaurants in China and accelerating openings of its high-margin pizza chain in that country, where business has slowed and competition has grown.</p>
<p>China remains the world's fastest-growing major economy even though growth has cooled. Restaurants and retailers are flocking to its top cities, contributing to a spike in rents and labor costs that have bitten Yum's restaurant profits.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"We will be more selective in our pace of expansion in these areas," Yum China Chief Financial Officer Weiwei Chen said at the company's investor meeting in New York City.</p>
<p>Yum shares rose 1.9 percent to $67.14 in afternoon trading as investors digested its new China plans. Last week, its shares tumbled from an all-time high of $74.74 hit just before Yum warned that it expected same-restaurant sales in China to fall 4 percent in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>Yum has more than 5,100 restaurants in China, which contributes more than half of its overall revenue and operating profits. It already has announced plans to open 700 new units in China next year.</p>
<p>Chen said Yum's restaurants in China's smaller cities have better returns due to lower costs and "consumer enthusiasm for our brands" - so the company is focusing building efforts in those areas.</p>
<p>China's smaller cities will become bigger cities due to the government's urbanization efforts and Yum "will already be in position to take advantage of the larger and more affluent population," Investment Technology Group analyst Steve West said.</p>
<p>Yum also is speeding up openings of Pizza Hut restaurants because they have better margins and less competition, Chen said.</p>
<p>"It won't be too long before we reach 1,000" Pizza Hut restaurants in China, said Angela Loh, Yum China's chief concept officer.</p>
<p>Yum has two Pizza Hut concepts in China. One is a full-service restaurant and the other offers pizza delivery.</p>
<p>KFC accounts for the lion's share of Yum's restaurants in China, where the company was a pioneer and remains the largest Western restaurant operator.</p>
<p>But the company is no longer a lone wolf in China, where foreign brands have flocked and local upstarts are getting a foothold.</p>
<p>"We do face more severe competition," Loh said.</p>
<p>Yum's rivals in China include U.S. companies such as McDonald's Corp, Subway, Papa John's International Inc and Starbucks Corp.</p>
<p>Asian chains also turning up the heat. Those include Taiwan-owned Dico's, a fried chicken chain that takes direct aim at KFC; Ajisen (China) Holdings Ltd, a Japanese-style noodle chain; and a host of Chinese chains such as Golden Jaguar, Yonghe King and Country Style Cooking.</p>
<p>SLOW START TO 2013</p>
<p>Yum forecast mid-single-digit percentage same-restaurant sales growth in China for 2013. Chief Executive David Novak told investors he was "very confident" that the company would turn in "very solid" sales growth next year at established restaurants in China, its top market.</p>
<p>Yum is no stranger to volatility in China. While it has chalked up many years of robust growth there, it posted declines in full-year same-restaurant sales - an important performance measure for restaurant companies - in 2005 and 2009.</p>
<p>Novak said some of the fourth-quarter's underperformance could be attributed to cooling economic activity in China.</p>
<p>Novak, who is also Yum Brands' chairman, said he expects next year's same-restaurant sales in China to be stronger in the second half, after a softer first half.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | More Pizza Huts Coming to China | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/12/07/more-pizza-huts-coming-to-china.html | 2016-01-26 | 0right
| More Pizza Huts Coming to China
<p>KFC and Pizza Hut parent Yum Brands Inc on Thursday said it is rethinking where it opens new restaurants in China and accelerating openings of its high-margin pizza chain in that country, where business has slowed and competition has grown.</p>
<p>China remains the world's fastest-growing major economy even though growth has cooled. Restaurants and retailers are flocking to its top cities, contributing to a spike in rents and labor costs that have bitten Yum's restaurant profits.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"We will be more selective in our pace of expansion in these areas," Yum China Chief Financial Officer Weiwei Chen said at the company's investor meeting in New York City.</p>
<p>Yum shares rose 1.9 percent to $67.14 in afternoon trading as investors digested its new China plans. Last week, its shares tumbled from an all-time high of $74.74 hit just before Yum warned that it expected same-restaurant sales in China to fall 4 percent in the fourth quarter.</p>
<p>Yum has more than 5,100 restaurants in China, which contributes more than half of its overall revenue and operating profits. It already has announced plans to open 700 new units in China next year.</p>
<p>Chen said Yum's restaurants in China's smaller cities have better returns due to lower costs and "consumer enthusiasm for our brands" - so the company is focusing building efforts in those areas.</p>
<p>China's smaller cities will become bigger cities due to the government's urbanization efforts and Yum "will already be in position to take advantage of the larger and more affluent population," Investment Technology Group analyst Steve West said.</p>
<p>Yum also is speeding up openings of Pizza Hut restaurants because they have better margins and less competition, Chen said.</p>
<p>"It won't be too long before we reach 1,000" Pizza Hut restaurants in China, said Angela Loh, Yum China's chief concept officer.</p>
<p>Yum has two Pizza Hut concepts in China. One is a full-service restaurant and the other offers pizza delivery.</p>
<p>KFC accounts for the lion's share of Yum's restaurants in China, where the company was a pioneer and remains the largest Western restaurant operator.</p>
<p>But the company is no longer a lone wolf in China, where foreign brands have flocked and local upstarts are getting a foothold.</p>
<p>"We do face more severe competition," Loh said.</p>
<p>Yum's rivals in China include U.S. companies such as McDonald's Corp, Subway, Papa John's International Inc and Starbucks Corp.</p>
<p>Asian chains also turning up the heat. Those include Taiwan-owned Dico's, a fried chicken chain that takes direct aim at KFC; Ajisen (China) Holdings Ltd, a Japanese-style noodle chain; and a host of Chinese chains such as Golden Jaguar, Yonghe King and Country Style Cooking.</p>
<p>SLOW START TO 2013</p>
<p>Yum forecast mid-single-digit percentage same-restaurant sales growth in China for 2013. Chief Executive David Novak told investors he was "very confident" that the company would turn in "very solid" sales growth next year at established restaurants in China, its top market.</p>
<p>Yum is no stranger to volatility in China. While it has chalked up many years of robust growth there, it posted declines in full-year same-restaurant sales - an important performance measure for restaurant companies - in 2005 and 2009.</p>
<p>Novak said some of the fourth-quarter's underperformance could be attributed to cooling economic activity in China.</p>
<p>Novak, who is also Yum Brands' chairman, said he expects next year's same-restaurant sales in China to be stronger in the second half, after a softer first half.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | 2,544 |
<p>Good news from <a href="http://www.opa-europe.org" type="external">OPA Europe</a>. The European Online Publishers Association reports a growth of overall revenue of leading European online publishers by 40% from Q1 to Q2 2003 (sorry, no more details are given). It also announced the start of the "Online Publishing in Europe (OPiE) Project," which will shed a better light on the situation of European online publishing and show first results in December. OPA Europe's website still doesn't carry as much European information as you would hope for, but it's growing (and it's still worth a look if you want to learn something about what Europeans want to learn from the U.S.).</p> | European Online Publishers Report Revenue Growth | false | https://poynter.org/news/european-online-publishers-report-revenue-growth | 2003-10-08 | 2least
| European Online Publishers Report Revenue Growth
<p>Good news from <a href="http://www.opa-europe.org" type="external">OPA Europe</a>. The European Online Publishers Association reports a growth of overall revenue of leading European online publishers by 40% from Q1 to Q2 2003 (sorry, no more details are given). It also announced the start of the "Online Publishing in Europe (OPiE) Project," which will shed a better light on the situation of European online publishing and show first results in December. OPA Europe's website still doesn't carry as much European information as you would hope for, but it's growing (and it's still worth a look if you want to learn something about what Europeans want to learn from the U.S.).</p> | 2,545 |
<p>A look at the 10 biggest volume gainers on Nasdaq at the close of trading:</p>
<p>American National Insurance Co. : Approximately 255,100 shares changed hands, a 1,268.1 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $8.83 or 8.4 percent to $96.46.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Authentidate Holdings Corp. : Approximately 1,359,200 shares changed hands, a 2,475.4 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $.29 or 47.3 percent to $.33.</p>
<p>Carver Bancorp : Approximately 49,500 shares changed hands, a 1,999.3 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $.65 or 11.5 percent to $5.00.</p>
<p>1st Constitution Bancorp : Approximately 97,600 shares changed hands, a 1,613.5 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.11 or .9 percent to $11.80.</p>
<p>Heat Biologics Inc. : Approximately 594,400 shares changed hands, a 1,421.9 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.95 or 12.9 percent to $8.30.</p>
<p>Meru Networks Inc. : Approximately 1,729,400 shares changed hands, a 1,628.2 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $.76 or 32.2 percent to $1.60.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Pendrell Corp. : Approximately 4,376,500 shares changed hands, a 2,002.6 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.01 or 1.0 percent to $1.00.</p>
<p>RMG Network Holding Corp. : Approximately 8,874,500 shares changed hands, a 33,806.8 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.69 or 65.7 percent to $1.74.</p>
<p>Recro Pharma Inc. : Approximately 480,800 shares changed hands, a 2,334.9 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $1.21 or 36.8 percent to $4.50.</p>
<p>Seneca Foods Corp. : Approximately 893,200 shares changed hands, a 4,759.8 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.50 or 1.9 percent to $26.54.</p> | Top 10 Nasdaq-traded stocks posting largest volume increases | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/03/30/top-10-nasdaq-traded-stocks-posting-largest-volume-increases.html | 2016-03-05 | 0right
| Top 10 Nasdaq-traded stocks posting largest volume increases
<p>A look at the 10 biggest volume gainers on Nasdaq at the close of trading:</p>
<p>American National Insurance Co. : Approximately 255,100 shares changed hands, a 1,268.1 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $8.83 or 8.4 percent to $96.46.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Authentidate Holdings Corp. : Approximately 1,359,200 shares changed hands, a 2,475.4 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $.29 or 47.3 percent to $.33.</p>
<p>Carver Bancorp : Approximately 49,500 shares changed hands, a 1,999.3 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $.65 or 11.5 percent to $5.00.</p>
<p>1st Constitution Bancorp : Approximately 97,600 shares changed hands, a 1,613.5 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.11 or .9 percent to $11.80.</p>
<p>Heat Biologics Inc. : Approximately 594,400 shares changed hands, a 1,421.9 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.95 or 12.9 percent to $8.30.</p>
<p>Meru Networks Inc. : Approximately 1,729,400 shares changed hands, a 1,628.2 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares fell $.76 or 32.2 percent to $1.60.</p>
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<p>Pendrell Corp. : Approximately 4,376,500 shares changed hands, a 2,002.6 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.01 or 1.0 percent to $1.00.</p>
<p>RMG Network Holding Corp. : Approximately 8,874,500 shares changed hands, a 33,806.8 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.69 or 65.7 percent to $1.74.</p>
<p>Recro Pharma Inc. : Approximately 480,800 shares changed hands, a 2,334.9 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $1.21 or 36.8 percent to $4.50.</p>
<p>Seneca Foods Corp. : Approximately 893,200 shares changed hands, a 4,759.8 percent increase over its 65-day average volume. The shares rose $.50 or 1.9 percent to $26.54.</p> | 2,546 |
<p>Mixed-Martial Arts fighter Jason “Mayhem” Miller decided that the old saying, “don’t go down without a fight,” should be applied to all aspects of his life, including standoffs with the police.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-jason-mayhem-miller-live-tweeting-police-standoff-20141009-htmlstory.html" type="external">According to a report from the Los Angeles Times</a>, the MMA fighter was taken into custody on Thursday after initially locking himself inside his home and refusing to surrender.</p>
<p>Orange County sheriff’s deputies, who had warrants to arrest Miller for domestic violence and stalking allegations, reportedly waited four hours for Miller to come out willingly before breaking down his front door and arresting the former MTV reality show host.</p>
<p>While that may not sound different than most SWAT standoffs, Miller decided to throw in a twist: He live tweeted the entire incident.</p>
<p>In fact, he invited all of his Twitter followers to watch.</p>
<p>“If you would like to see this drama unfold, please, come to 26262 Avenida Calidad, Mission Viejo, CA 92691,” Miller tweeted at 11:20 a.m.</p>
<p>What followed was a stream of tweets about the incident, including Miller’s criticism of the&#160;use of police resources to arrest him.</p>
<p>“I need to tell everyone about the absolute waste of resources going on outside of my house right now,” Miller tweeted. “I am counting no less than five officers.”</p>
<p>As the situation escalated, Miller kept his followers in the loop.</p>
<p>“I now see a literal Armored Personal Carrier pulling up,” he tweeted. “They tryna to murder me. I just want a peaceful solution.”</p>
<p>He even compared his situation to the experience of black men in America.</p>
<p>“I did nothing wrong,” Mayhem tweeted. “This is the state of American Justice. I feel you black men. They fear, so they threaten to take our lives. Abhorrent.”</p>
<p>In his final tweet before being arrested, Miller confirmed that the police had broken a window in order to take him into custody.</p>
<p>Citing the Orange County sheriff’s office, the LA Times reports that Miller is being held on a $200,000 bond.</p>
<p />
<p /> | MMA fighter Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller live tweets standoff with SWAT team | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/10/10/mma-fighter-jason-mayhem-miller-live-tweets-standoff-with-swat-team/ | 2014-10-10 | 3left-center
| MMA fighter Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller live tweets standoff with SWAT team
<p>Mixed-Martial Arts fighter Jason “Mayhem” Miller decided that the old saying, “don’t go down without a fight,” should be applied to all aspects of his life, including standoffs with the police.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-jason-mayhem-miller-live-tweeting-police-standoff-20141009-htmlstory.html" type="external">According to a report from the Los Angeles Times</a>, the MMA fighter was taken into custody on Thursday after initially locking himself inside his home and refusing to surrender.</p>
<p>Orange County sheriff’s deputies, who had warrants to arrest Miller for domestic violence and stalking allegations, reportedly waited four hours for Miller to come out willingly before breaking down his front door and arresting the former MTV reality show host.</p>
<p>While that may not sound different than most SWAT standoffs, Miller decided to throw in a twist: He live tweeted the entire incident.</p>
<p>In fact, he invited all of his Twitter followers to watch.</p>
<p>“If you would like to see this drama unfold, please, come to 26262 Avenida Calidad, Mission Viejo, CA 92691,” Miller tweeted at 11:20 a.m.</p>
<p>What followed was a stream of tweets about the incident, including Miller’s criticism of the&#160;use of police resources to arrest him.</p>
<p>“I need to tell everyone about the absolute waste of resources going on outside of my house right now,” Miller tweeted. “I am counting no less than five officers.”</p>
<p>As the situation escalated, Miller kept his followers in the loop.</p>
<p>“I now see a literal Armored Personal Carrier pulling up,” he tweeted. “They tryna to murder me. I just want a peaceful solution.”</p>
<p>He even compared his situation to the experience of black men in America.</p>
<p>“I did nothing wrong,” Mayhem tweeted. “This is the state of American Justice. I feel you black men. They fear, so they threaten to take our lives. Abhorrent.”</p>
<p>In his final tweet before being arrested, Miller confirmed that the police had broken a window in order to take him into custody.</p>
<p>Citing the Orange County sheriff’s office, the LA Times reports that Miller is being held on a $200,000 bond.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 2,547 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>This year, we became a National Blue Ribbon School; one of only 11 charter schools in the nation to receive that honor. The rigor of our program is rated 48th in the country according to the Washington Post.</p>
<p>This school has consistently improved each year; from only 30 percent of students performing at or above grade level in math or reading to the current success of 95 percent.</p>
<p>Who wouldn't want a school like this in their district?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>On Feb. 1, 2013, AIMS applied for and received an amendment that allowed two things: expansion to another UNM location and an increase in the resulting enrollment. It was approved and the transcript was posted on the Public Education Commission website.</p>
<p>A year later, after careful consideration, AIMS presented a proposal to the UNM Regents Academic Affairs Committee about expanding onto the UNM West location. A Rio Rancho school board member sits on that committee. The proposal was approved unanimously.</p>
<p>However, an article reporting the committee's action a couple of days later spurred the Rio Rancho Public Schools Board and leadership into attack mode. The UNM West Advisory Committee, of which the superintendent is a member, also joined the fray.</p>
<p>Reasons against the school and its location were many, but they pretty much drilled down to money. They would have us believe the potential loss of revenue would decimate the district budget and ultimately harm children. This would make our presence disreputable.</p>
<p>To this point though, it's interesting the pride the district took in boasting of the 572 students from other districts that RRPS appropriates. I'm sure the budgetary impact on the much smaller surrounding districts is deep: a duplicitous position to take.</p>
<p>School choice is about parents having access to the benefits of a specialized program they feel is best for their children. It's the job of parents to know what is best for their children, not any governmental agency.</p>
<p>AIMS has gone through a number of transformations that have resulted in the nationally recognized school it is today: teacher research, teacher evaluation, use of data, formation of a common focused culture of success and college attendance. AIMS is a reform warrior.</p>
<p>To graduate, students must have 30 credits from UNM/CNM. Most students however graduate with 50 credit hours and we've even had students graduate with over 90 post-secondary credits. That translates to a savings of between $3,000 to $9,000 for parents and their students.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Rio Rancho City Council and community of Rio Rancho have been very welcoming to AIMS. As supporters of education, both current and future, the UNM regents and president also lend their support to this effort.</p>
<p>Rio Rancho parents deserve this opportunity for their children. They shouldn't have to travel 40 miles both ways or dip into their retirement savings to pay for the school they choose. That the program is needed is evident by the number of students the school has in its lottery already.</p>
<p>AIMS remains committed to this expansion. It's the right thing to do. A school with a great record like this would be embraced by anyone committed to their community's education. After all, it's about the kids, right?</p>
<p>Reform is about stepping out of the comfort and security of the status quo to engage in real innovation. It's time to stop this argument that at times has gotten silly and to focus on education.</p>
<p>Bottom line, this school is good for the kids and families of Rio Rancho. The Rio Rancho district and leadership should embrace the competition; it'll make Rio Rancho Public Schools better, it'll make AIMS better.</p>
<p />
<p /> | AIMS is good for the kids of Rio Rancho | false | https://abqjournal.com/402052/aims-is-good-for-the-kids-of-rio-rancho.html | 2least
| AIMS is good for the kids of Rio Rancho
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>This year, we became a National Blue Ribbon School; one of only 11 charter schools in the nation to receive that honor. The rigor of our program is rated 48th in the country according to the Washington Post.</p>
<p>This school has consistently improved each year; from only 30 percent of students performing at or above grade level in math or reading to the current success of 95 percent.</p>
<p>Who wouldn't want a school like this in their district?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>On Feb. 1, 2013, AIMS applied for and received an amendment that allowed two things: expansion to another UNM location and an increase in the resulting enrollment. It was approved and the transcript was posted on the Public Education Commission website.</p>
<p>A year later, after careful consideration, AIMS presented a proposal to the UNM Regents Academic Affairs Committee about expanding onto the UNM West location. A Rio Rancho school board member sits on that committee. The proposal was approved unanimously.</p>
<p>However, an article reporting the committee's action a couple of days later spurred the Rio Rancho Public Schools Board and leadership into attack mode. The UNM West Advisory Committee, of which the superintendent is a member, also joined the fray.</p>
<p>Reasons against the school and its location were many, but they pretty much drilled down to money. They would have us believe the potential loss of revenue would decimate the district budget and ultimately harm children. This would make our presence disreputable.</p>
<p>To this point though, it's interesting the pride the district took in boasting of the 572 students from other districts that RRPS appropriates. I'm sure the budgetary impact on the much smaller surrounding districts is deep: a duplicitous position to take.</p>
<p>School choice is about parents having access to the benefits of a specialized program they feel is best for their children. It's the job of parents to know what is best for their children, not any governmental agency.</p>
<p>AIMS has gone through a number of transformations that have resulted in the nationally recognized school it is today: teacher research, teacher evaluation, use of data, formation of a common focused culture of success and college attendance. AIMS is a reform warrior.</p>
<p>To graduate, students must have 30 credits from UNM/CNM. Most students however graduate with 50 credit hours and we've even had students graduate with over 90 post-secondary credits. That translates to a savings of between $3,000 to $9,000 for parents and their students.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Rio Rancho City Council and community of Rio Rancho have been very welcoming to AIMS. As supporters of education, both current and future, the UNM regents and president also lend their support to this effort.</p>
<p>Rio Rancho parents deserve this opportunity for their children. They shouldn't have to travel 40 miles both ways or dip into their retirement savings to pay for the school they choose. That the program is needed is evident by the number of students the school has in its lottery already.</p>
<p>AIMS remains committed to this expansion. It's the right thing to do. A school with a great record like this would be embraced by anyone committed to their community's education. After all, it's about the kids, right?</p>
<p>Reform is about stepping out of the comfort and security of the status quo to engage in real innovation. It's time to stop this argument that at times has gotten silly and to focus on education.</p>
<p>Bottom line, this school is good for the kids and families of Rio Rancho. The Rio Rancho district and leadership should embrace the competition; it'll make Rio Rancho Public Schools better, it'll make AIMS better.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 2,548 |
|
<p>Progress to deploy&#160; <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/new-risk-atmospheric-aerosols-sunscreen/" type="external">solar engineering, experimental technology designed to protect the world</a>&#160;against the impact of the changing climate, must pause, a former United Nations climate expert says, arguing that governments need to create “effective guardrails” against any unforeseen risks.</p>
<p>Janos Pasztor, who served as a UN assistant secretary-general on climate change, is using a speech to Arizona State University, broadast via Facebook Live by&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/asulightworks/" type="external">ASU LightWorks</a>, 6:30-8pm Arizona time (9:30pm EDT – US Eastern Daylight Time) today [Friday], to warn the world that governments are largely ignoring the fundamental question of who should control geoengineering, and how.</p>
<p>There are widespread misgivings, both among scientists and more widely, about geoengineering, with many regarding it as at best a strategy of last resort to help to avoid calamitous climate change.</p>
<p>Mr Pasztor’s warning comes as researchers prepare for what is thought to be the world’s first outdoor experiment on&#160; <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/researchers-highlight-warnings-over-controversial-stratospheric-aerosol-injection-idea/news-story/9e04b87f6bc97f1f6f51bf3a5c78a728" type="external">stratospheric aerosol injection</a>&#160;(SAI), one type of solar geoengineering. The test is due to take place later this year over Arizona.</p>
<p />
<p>Pasztor heads the&#160; <a href="https://www.c2g2.net/" type="external">Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Initiative&#160;</a>(C2G2),&#160; an initiative of the New York-based Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.&#160; <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/23366-2/" type="external">The Initiative wants solar geoengineering deployment to be delayed</a>&#160;until the risks and potential benefits are better known and governance frameworks are agreed.</p>
<p>“Some time within the next year, we may see the world’s first outdoor experiment on stratospheric aerosol injection take place here in the skies above Arizona, yet for the most part governments are not aware of, nor addressing, the profound governance issues this poses,” Mr Pasztor says.</p>
<p>“We urgently need an open, inclusive discussion on how the world will research and govern solar geoengineering. Otherwise we could be in danger of events overtaking society’s capacity to respond prudently and effectively.”</p>
<p>Solar geoengineering does not remove carbon from the atmosphere, and so it can be used only to supplement action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: it can never replace that action. Many risks and unknowns remain, Pasztor says, including possible harm to the environment, and to justice, geopolitical concerns and governance.</p>
<p>With SAI aerosols are sprayed into the stratosphere to reflect the sun’s radiation and cool the earth fast. It is still in its early stages, and scientists say it will take another 15 to 20 years for the technology to be developed fully.</p>
<p>Too soon to decide Any eventual full-scale deployment of technology of this sort would have planet-wide effects and pose profound ethical and governance challenges, C2G2 says. Pasztor says the risks and potential benefits of SAI are not yet understood well enough for policymakers to reach informed decisions.</p>
<p>This year’s planned experiment, called SCoPEx (Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment) is run by&#160; <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/keutschgroup/scopex" type="external">a Harvard University research group</a>, which says the physical risks posed by the quantity of aerosols to be released during SCoPEx will be hundreds of times smaller than during a transatlantic flight by a commercial airliner.</p>
<p>Even so, Pasztor says, the governance of SCoPEx will probably set important precedents. “As solar geoengineering moves from the lab to outdoor experiments, crucial questions remain unanswered,” he argues.</p>
<p>“How does this experiment acquire legitimacy from other scientists? Do civil society groups and the public, including those located in the area of the experiment, have a say? What are the ramifications for other proposed experiments in this country or in other countries?”</p>
<p>Priority for cuts So far, he says, many governments and civil society groups have shied away from the need to create governance for the new technology, or have not been aware of it. One common concern is that discussing geoengineering could distract society from concentrating on cutting carbon dioxide emissions.</p>
<p>Other geoengineering ideas, which may be nearing testing, include&#160; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/12/plan-to-refreeze-arctic-before-ice-goes-for-good-climate-change" type="external">proposals to refreeze parts of the Arctic</a>&#160;and to&#160; <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tiny-ocean-plants-geoengineer-brighter-clouds/" type="external">brighten clouds at sea</a>.</p>
<p>“There’s no question we must accelerate efforts to rapidly reduce global emissions, whilst at the same time remaining open to the possibility that other approaches may also be needed if we are to limit some of the adverse impacts of global warming”, Pasztor says.</p>
<p>“Public policy needs to address very legitimate safety, human rights and accountability issues, as well as concern for future generations.</p>
<p>“Getting this right is a challenge that affects all humanity, and needs to be addressed through discussions that include all sectors of society. It’s critical the world addresses this issue as soon as possible.”</p> | Solar Geoengineering ‘Too Uncertain to Go Ahead Yet,’ Expert Cautions | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/solar-geoengineering-too-uncertain-to-go-ahead-yet/ | 2018-04-08 | 4left
| Solar Geoengineering ‘Too Uncertain to Go Ahead Yet,’ Expert Cautions
<p>Progress to deploy&#160; <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/new-risk-atmospheric-aerosols-sunscreen/" type="external">solar engineering, experimental technology designed to protect the world</a>&#160;against the impact of the changing climate, must pause, a former United Nations climate expert says, arguing that governments need to create “effective guardrails” against any unforeseen risks.</p>
<p>Janos Pasztor, who served as a UN assistant secretary-general on climate change, is using a speech to Arizona State University, broadast via Facebook Live by&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/asulightworks/" type="external">ASU LightWorks</a>, 6:30-8pm Arizona time (9:30pm EDT – US Eastern Daylight Time) today [Friday], to warn the world that governments are largely ignoring the fundamental question of who should control geoengineering, and how.</p>
<p>There are widespread misgivings, both among scientists and more widely, about geoengineering, with many regarding it as at best a strategy of last resort to help to avoid calamitous climate change.</p>
<p>Mr Pasztor’s warning comes as researchers prepare for what is thought to be the world’s first outdoor experiment on&#160; <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/researchers-highlight-warnings-over-controversial-stratospheric-aerosol-injection-idea/news-story/9e04b87f6bc97f1f6f51bf3a5c78a728" type="external">stratospheric aerosol injection</a>&#160;(SAI), one type of solar geoengineering. The test is due to take place later this year over Arizona.</p>
<p />
<p>Pasztor heads the&#160; <a href="https://www.c2g2.net/" type="external">Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Initiative&#160;</a>(C2G2),&#160; an initiative of the New York-based Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.&#160; <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/23366-2/" type="external">The Initiative wants solar geoengineering deployment to be delayed</a>&#160;until the risks and potential benefits are better known and governance frameworks are agreed.</p>
<p>“Some time within the next year, we may see the world’s first outdoor experiment on stratospheric aerosol injection take place here in the skies above Arizona, yet for the most part governments are not aware of, nor addressing, the profound governance issues this poses,” Mr Pasztor says.</p>
<p>“We urgently need an open, inclusive discussion on how the world will research and govern solar geoengineering. Otherwise we could be in danger of events overtaking society’s capacity to respond prudently and effectively.”</p>
<p>Solar geoengineering does not remove carbon from the atmosphere, and so it can be used only to supplement action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: it can never replace that action. Many risks and unknowns remain, Pasztor says, including possible harm to the environment, and to justice, geopolitical concerns and governance.</p>
<p>With SAI aerosols are sprayed into the stratosphere to reflect the sun’s radiation and cool the earth fast. It is still in its early stages, and scientists say it will take another 15 to 20 years for the technology to be developed fully.</p>
<p>Too soon to decide Any eventual full-scale deployment of technology of this sort would have planet-wide effects and pose profound ethical and governance challenges, C2G2 says. Pasztor says the risks and potential benefits of SAI are not yet understood well enough for policymakers to reach informed decisions.</p>
<p>This year’s planned experiment, called SCoPEx (Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment) is run by&#160; <a href="https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/keutschgroup/scopex" type="external">a Harvard University research group</a>, which says the physical risks posed by the quantity of aerosols to be released during SCoPEx will be hundreds of times smaller than during a transatlantic flight by a commercial airliner.</p>
<p>Even so, Pasztor says, the governance of SCoPEx will probably set important precedents. “As solar geoengineering moves from the lab to outdoor experiments, crucial questions remain unanswered,” he argues.</p>
<p>“How does this experiment acquire legitimacy from other scientists? Do civil society groups and the public, including those located in the area of the experiment, have a say? What are the ramifications for other proposed experiments in this country or in other countries?”</p>
<p>Priority for cuts So far, he says, many governments and civil society groups have shied away from the need to create governance for the new technology, or have not been aware of it. One common concern is that discussing geoengineering could distract society from concentrating on cutting carbon dioxide emissions.</p>
<p>Other geoengineering ideas, which may be nearing testing, include&#160; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/12/plan-to-refreeze-arctic-before-ice-goes-for-good-climate-change" type="external">proposals to refreeze parts of the Arctic</a>&#160;and to&#160; <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tiny-ocean-plants-geoengineer-brighter-clouds/" type="external">brighten clouds at sea</a>.</p>
<p>“There’s no question we must accelerate efforts to rapidly reduce global emissions, whilst at the same time remaining open to the possibility that other approaches may also be needed if we are to limit some of the adverse impacts of global warming”, Pasztor says.</p>
<p>“Public policy needs to address very legitimate safety, human rights and accountability issues, as well as concern for future generations.</p>
<p>“Getting this right is a challenge that affects all humanity, and needs to be addressed through discussions that include all sectors of society. It’s critical the world addresses this issue as soon as possible.”</p> | 2,549 |
<p>According to law enforcement officials, FBI Director James Comey and his team of investigators will soon interview Hillary Clinton for what could be a campaign ending investigation.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/ajams-shuster-exclusive-hillary-clinton-to-be-interviewed-by-fbi-director-comey-in-mere-days/" type="external">report</a> comes via David Shuster (from Al Jazeera America, which apparently hasn't completely shut its doors yet), who spoke to officials involved with the case. According to the sources, the FBI has concluded its lengthy examination of Clinton's unapproved, unsecured private server and its thousands of classified emails and they, along with Justice Department prosecutors, are now ready to meet with The Inevitable One herself.</p>
<p>The FBI and Justice Department plan to conduct a series of interviews over the "next few days and weeks" which will include Clinton and a few of her former and current aides, including Cheryl Mills and Philippe Reines.</p>
<p>Shuster stresses that the interviews will come soon and that the sources say Clinton's interview "could be crucial":</p>
<p>Because there is now every sign the Clinton email investigation is quickly headed towards a conclusion, whether it’s her exoneration or indictment. In terms of timing, sources expect the conclusion to come in weeks, not months. And they add that Hillary Clinton’s interview with the FBI, which could come in days, could be crucial.</p>
<p>Though Clinton has continually attempted to dismiss her national security-threatening actions as a harmless oversight and the investigation as a politically motivated attack, her aspirations to be the first female President of the United States could very well be determined in the coming days.</p>
<p>H/t <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/ajams-shuster-exclusive-hillary-clinton-to-be-interviewed-by-fbi-director-comey-in-mere-days/" type="external">Mediaite</a></p> | Here We Go: Hillary To Be Interviewed By FBI Director | true | https://dailywire.com/news/4548/here-we-go-hillary-be-interviewed-fbi-director-james-barrett | 2016-03-31 | 0right
| Here We Go: Hillary To Be Interviewed By FBI Director
<p>According to law enforcement officials, FBI Director James Comey and his team of investigators will soon interview Hillary Clinton for what could be a campaign ending investigation.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/ajams-shuster-exclusive-hillary-clinton-to-be-interviewed-by-fbi-director-comey-in-mere-days/" type="external">report</a> comes via David Shuster (from Al Jazeera America, which apparently hasn't completely shut its doors yet), who spoke to officials involved with the case. According to the sources, the FBI has concluded its lengthy examination of Clinton's unapproved, unsecured private server and its thousands of classified emails and they, along with Justice Department prosecutors, are now ready to meet with The Inevitable One herself.</p>
<p>The FBI and Justice Department plan to conduct a series of interviews over the "next few days and weeks" which will include Clinton and a few of her former and current aides, including Cheryl Mills and Philippe Reines.</p>
<p>Shuster stresses that the interviews will come soon and that the sources say Clinton's interview "could be crucial":</p>
<p>Because there is now every sign the Clinton email investigation is quickly headed towards a conclusion, whether it’s her exoneration or indictment. In terms of timing, sources expect the conclusion to come in weeks, not months. And they add that Hillary Clinton’s interview with the FBI, which could come in days, could be crucial.</p>
<p>Though Clinton has continually attempted to dismiss her national security-threatening actions as a harmless oversight and the investigation as a politically motivated attack, her aspirations to be the first female President of the United States could very well be determined in the coming days.</p>
<p>H/t <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/ajams-shuster-exclusive-hillary-clinton-to-be-interviewed-by-fbi-director-comey-in-mere-days/" type="external">Mediaite</a></p> | 2,550 |
<p>Oct. 6 (UPI) — In September, the U.S. economy saw its first monthly loss of jobs in seven years — partly due to Hurricanes Harvey Irma — government statistics showed Friday.</p>
<p>The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" type="external">its September employment report</a> Friday, which showed a loss of 33,000 jobs.</p>
<p>The decline, pronounced in the restaurant and food services industry, was relatively small. The BLS report, though, said the net effects of <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane-Harvey/" type="external">Hurricane Harvey</a> in Texas in August and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane-Irma/" type="external">Hurricane Irma</a> in Florida last month reduced the employment figures for September.</p>
<p>The report said the storms had “no discernible effect” on the unemployment rate, however, which sank by 331,000 claimants to 4.2 percent.</p>
<p>The food services industry lost 105,000 jobs, largely through layoffs associated with the hurricanes. In the last 12 months, the industry expanded by an average of 24,000 jobs per month.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the health care industry grew by 23,000 jobs last month, in line with its monthly gains in the last year.</p> | Hurricanes aid first U.S. monthly jobs decline in 7 years | false | https://newsline.com/hurricanes-aid-first-u-s-monthly-jobs-decline-in-7-years/ | 2017-10-06 | 1right-center
| Hurricanes aid first U.S. monthly jobs decline in 7 years
<p>Oct. 6 (UPI) — In September, the U.S. economy saw its first monthly loss of jobs in seven years — partly due to Hurricanes Harvey Irma — government statistics showed Friday.</p>
<p>The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm" type="external">its September employment report</a> Friday, which showed a loss of 33,000 jobs.</p>
<p>The decline, pronounced in the restaurant and food services industry, was relatively small. The BLS report, though, said the net effects of <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane-Harvey/" type="external">Hurricane Harvey</a> in Texas in August and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane-Irma/" type="external">Hurricane Irma</a> in Florida last month reduced the employment figures for September.</p>
<p>The report said the storms had “no discernible effect” on the unemployment rate, however, which sank by 331,000 claimants to 4.2 percent.</p>
<p>The food services industry lost 105,000 jobs, largely through layoffs associated with the hurricanes. In the last 12 months, the industry expanded by an average of 24,000 jobs per month.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the health care industry grew by 23,000 jobs last month, in line with its monthly gains in the last year.</p> | 2,551 |
<p>One health insurer is eager to dive back into the Affordable Care Act's troubled insurance exchanges next year, even as competitors waver and President Donald Trump tweets doom about the law's future.</p>
<p>Centene Corp. said Tuesday that its exchange enrollment has swelled 74 percent since last year, up to nearly 1.2 million people.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>This comes as competitors like Aetna back away from these public marketplaces after absorbing steep losses, and others like the Blue Cross-Blue Shield carrier Anthem await signs of stability before committing to 2018. Trump has warned repeatedly about the collapse of the law and its exchanges, which provide coverage for around 12 million people.</p>
<p>Insurers have struggled to build a stable business out of the exchanges, in part because they can't attract enough young, healthy people to balance out sicker customers who use their coverage. Soaring premiums haven't helped that push. Companies also say they've been stung by expensive patients who wait until they need the coverage before enrolling.</p>
<p>As a result, exchange choices have grown thin, with many markets down to a single insurer. Some in Tennessee have none.</p>
<p>Heading into 2018, insurers also are nervous about the future of billions of dollars in cost-sharing assistance for some exchange customers with modest incomes.</p>
<p>Despite all this, Centene Chairman and CEO Michael Neidorff said Tuesday during a conference call to discuss the company's first-quarter results that he sees "nothing out there" that will change his company's participation next year.</p>
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<p>"We have the agility and the ability to adjust," he said.</p>
<p>Centene sells coverage under its Ambetter brand on exchanges in 12 states. That includes key markets like Florida, Texas and Ohio.</p>
<p>What makes it more bullish than its competitors on these still unstable markets? Analysts say Centene sticks to customers it knows. The insurer specializes in managing the state and federally funded Medicaid program for the poor. On the exchanges, it targets low-income customers in markets where it has already formed networks of providers for its Medicaid business.</p>
<p>That means the insurer doesn't have to build doctor networks for its exchange business from scratch. It also means Centene generally serves customers who get big subsidies that can shield them from price hikes. This makes it more likely they keep their coverage.</p>
<p>Neidorff said Tuesday that 80 percent of Centene's 2016 exchange customers renewed their plans in 2017. Repeat business like that makes it easier for insurers to figure out prices.</p>
<p>Centene has added some new exchange business through its acquisition of fellow insurer Health Net, said Stifel health insurance analyst Thomas Carroll.</p>
<p>It also has gained customers as competitors like UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Humana Inc. have left markets, noted Ana Gupte, who follows insurers as a senior analyst with Leerink Partners.</p>
<p>St. Louis-based Centene Corp. didn't detail financial results from its exchange business. But the insurer said Tuesday it earned $139 million overall in a first-quarter performance that topped Wall Street expectations.</p>
<p>Insurers are still sorting out their coverage plans for next year, so others may still come forward with their own exchange testimonials. They have until late spring or early summer, depending on the state, to make an initial decision on where they plan to sell next year.</p>
<p>Another big exchange participant, Indianapolis-based Anthem Inc., will report Wednesday on its first quarter.</p>
<p>Jefferies analyst David Windley said late last month in a research note that he thought the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer was leaning toward leaving a "high percentage" of the exchange markets in which it participates.</p>
<p>An Anthem spokeswoman said in response that the insurer was still pursuing "policy changes that will help with market stabilization and achieve the common goal of making quality health care more affordable and accessible for all."</p>
<p>An Anthem pullback would be a huge blow to the exchanges. Heading into 2017 Anthem was the lone insurer on exchanges in 300 counties in seven states, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and the health research firm Avalere.</p> | Insurer Centene commits to shaky ACA exchanges for 2018 | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/25/insurer-centene-commits-to-shaky-aca-exchanges-for-2018.html | 2017-04-25 | 0right
| Insurer Centene commits to shaky ACA exchanges for 2018
<p>One health insurer is eager to dive back into the Affordable Care Act's troubled insurance exchanges next year, even as competitors waver and President Donald Trump tweets doom about the law's future.</p>
<p>Centene Corp. said Tuesday that its exchange enrollment has swelled 74 percent since last year, up to nearly 1.2 million people.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>This comes as competitors like Aetna back away from these public marketplaces after absorbing steep losses, and others like the Blue Cross-Blue Shield carrier Anthem await signs of stability before committing to 2018. Trump has warned repeatedly about the collapse of the law and its exchanges, which provide coverage for around 12 million people.</p>
<p>Insurers have struggled to build a stable business out of the exchanges, in part because they can't attract enough young, healthy people to balance out sicker customers who use their coverage. Soaring premiums haven't helped that push. Companies also say they've been stung by expensive patients who wait until they need the coverage before enrolling.</p>
<p>As a result, exchange choices have grown thin, with many markets down to a single insurer. Some in Tennessee have none.</p>
<p>Heading into 2018, insurers also are nervous about the future of billions of dollars in cost-sharing assistance for some exchange customers with modest incomes.</p>
<p>Despite all this, Centene Chairman and CEO Michael Neidorff said Tuesday during a conference call to discuss the company's first-quarter results that he sees "nothing out there" that will change his company's participation next year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"We have the agility and the ability to adjust," he said.</p>
<p>Centene sells coverage under its Ambetter brand on exchanges in 12 states. That includes key markets like Florida, Texas and Ohio.</p>
<p>What makes it more bullish than its competitors on these still unstable markets? Analysts say Centene sticks to customers it knows. The insurer specializes in managing the state and federally funded Medicaid program for the poor. On the exchanges, it targets low-income customers in markets where it has already formed networks of providers for its Medicaid business.</p>
<p>That means the insurer doesn't have to build doctor networks for its exchange business from scratch. It also means Centene generally serves customers who get big subsidies that can shield them from price hikes. This makes it more likely they keep their coverage.</p>
<p>Neidorff said Tuesday that 80 percent of Centene's 2016 exchange customers renewed their plans in 2017. Repeat business like that makes it easier for insurers to figure out prices.</p>
<p>Centene has added some new exchange business through its acquisition of fellow insurer Health Net, said Stifel health insurance analyst Thomas Carroll.</p>
<p>It also has gained customers as competitors like UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Humana Inc. have left markets, noted Ana Gupte, who follows insurers as a senior analyst with Leerink Partners.</p>
<p>St. Louis-based Centene Corp. didn't detail financial results from its exchange business. But the insurer said Tuesday it earned $139 million overall in a first-quarter performance that topped Wall Street expectations.</p>
<p>Insurers are still sorting out their coverage plans for next year, so others may still come forward with their own exchange testimonials. They have until late spring or early summer, depending on the state, to make an initial decision on where they plan to sell next year.</p>
<p>Another big exchange participant, Indianapolis-based Anthem Inc., will report Wednesday on its first quarter.</p>
<p>Jefferies analyst David Windley said late last month in a research note that he thought the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurer was leaning toward leaving a "high percentage" of the exchange markets in which it participates.</p>
<p>An Anthem spokeswoman said in response that the insurer was still pursuing "policy changes that will help with market stabilization and achieve the common goal of making quality health care more affordable and accessible for all."</p>
<p>An Anthem pullback would be a huge blow to the exchanges. Heading into 2017 Anthem was the lone insurer on exchanges in 300 counties in seven states, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and the health research firm Avalere.</p> | 2,552 |
<p>When pastors leave congregations, their former churches often face what could be termed a punctuation crisis.Some mark the departure with a period, as the end of a sentence—either for the minister or the congregation. Others approach it with a question mark, asking: “Where do we go from here?” But others see it as a parenthesis in their church's history—an in-between time when the church can regroup, refocus and retool for its future.</p>
<p>David Odom, founding president of the Center for Congregational Health in Winston-Salem, N.C., believes the parenthesis created by a change in church leadership can be a helpful time when churches clarify their identity and work through other critical issues. More than 25 years ago, Loren Mead of the Alban Institute initiated work that led to creation of the Interim Ministry Network, and Odom's organization partnered with the network to develop training for intentional interim ministry.</p>
<p>While new issues—such as changes in worship style—have developed to put stress on congregations during transitional times, the basic principles and presuppositions underpinning the intentional interim process remain valid, Odom said.</p>
<p>“Identify clarification is a good thing for congregations, and that's as true today as it was before,” he said. Intentional interim ministers help guide churches through five key developmental tasks:</p>
<p>• Coming to terms with their history. If the previous pastor left on good terms, it may mean “letting go” of a beloved leader. If conflict surrounded a pastor's last days at a church, it can mean coming to terms with pain and allowing wounds to heal.</p>
<p>• Examining leadership and organizational needs. Odom pointed to key questions a church should ask: “What is the role of the pastor? How much responsibility and authority does the staff have? Who in the church has the responsibility for making decisions?”</p>
<p>• Rethinking denominational linkage. “There's a lot of emotion tied up in denominational identity for some people. If a congregation is strictly pragmatic, it may be simply a question of what kind of mission and ministry opportunities does it want to be involved in,” he said. And search committees face another crucial question: “Where do we go to find a minister that we can trust?”</p>
<p>• Developing new identity and vision. Intentional interim ministers help congregations rediscover what sets them apart from other churches and gives them meaning. “Identity and values often are picked up in the stories of a church,” Odom noted.</p>
<p>• Making a commitment to new leadership. Intentional interim ministers generally work with transition teams to help churches prepare to receive a new leader.</p>
<p>When churches fail to approach the interim period with intentionality, tensions often develop. Leadership issues rank as the No. 1 challenge churches face when the congregation is without a pastor, said Karl Fickling, intentional interim specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.</p>
<p>In some cases, conflict stems from deacons who always have functioned as an administrative body that supervises the pastor rather than as servant-leaders in the congregation, he noted.</p>
<p>In other instances, pastors have caused church splits by imposing on them a governance model that takes away the congregation's right to self-governance, he noted.</p>
<p>“One thing we see frequently is what I would consider an epidemic of pastors reacting after they visit a Willow Creek or Saddleback [church growth] conference and then come back to their churches, do away with the deacons altogether, cancel the church business meetings and put into place a small group of elders who make all the decisions with the pastor,” Fickling said.</p>
<p>“Often, that attempt is seen positively by some young members who have come into the church without any Baptist background, but it is resisted by older members who believe the whole church should be involved in decision-making. So, it results in a church split.”</p>
<p>Next to leadership issues, the second-most-common challenge churches face is the question of how to relate to pastors who retire or resign but who don't leave a congregation, Fickling noted.</p>
<p>The problem becomes particularly acute when the pastor has served the congregation a long time—or, even more so, when he founded the church, he noted.</p>
<p>“Any time a pastor is in a particular church for a long tenure, the church tends to grow to have the personality of that pastor,” Fickling noted.</p>
<p>Over time, congregations tend to grant the pastor greater decision-making authority, he added.</p> | The church in parenthesis | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/thechurchinparenthesis/ | 3left-center
| The church in parenthesis
<p>When pastors leave congregations, their former churches often face what could be termed a punctuation crisis.Some mark the departure with a period, as the end of a sentence—either for the minister or the congregation. Others approach it with a question mark, asking: “Where do we go from here?” But others see it as a parenthesis in their church's history—an in-between time when the church can regroup, refocus and retool for its future.</p>
<p>David Odom, founding president of the Center for Congregational Health in Winston-Salem, N.C., believes the parenthesis created by a change in church leadership can be a helpful time when churches clarify their identity and work through other critical issues. More than 25 years ago, Loren Mead of the Alban Institute initiated work that led to creation of the Interim Ministry Network, and Odom's organization partnered with the network to develop training for intentional interim ministry.</p>
<p>While new issues—such as changes in worship style—have developed to put stress on congregations during transitional times, the basic principles and presuppositions underpinning the intentional interim process remain valid, Odom said.</p>
<p>“Identify clarification is a good thing for congregations, and that's as true today as it was before,” he said. Intentional interim ministers help guide churches through five key developmental tasks:</p>
<p>• Coming to terms with their history. If the previous pastor left on good terms, it may mean “letting go” of a beloved leader. If conflict surrounded a pastor's last days at a church, it can mean coming to terms with pain and allowing wounds to heal.</p>
<p>• Examining leadership and organizational needs. Odom pointed to key questions a church should ask: “What is the role of the pastor? How much responsibility and authority does the staff have? Who in the church has the responsibility for making decisions?”</p>
<p>• Rethinking denominational linkage. “There's a lot of emotion tied up in denominational identity for some people. If a congregation is strictly pragmatic, it may be simply a question of what kind of mission and ministry opportunities does it want to be involved in,” he said. And search committees face another crucial question: “Where do we go to find a minister that we can trust?”</p>
<p>• Developing new identity and vision. Intentional interim ministers help congregations rediscover what sets them apart from other churches and gives them meaning. “Identity and values often are picked up in the stories of a church,” Odom noted.</p>
<p>• Making a commitment to new leadership. Intentional interim ministers generally work with transition teams to help churches prepare to receive a new leader.</p>
<p>When churches fail to approach the interim period with intentionality, tensions often develop. Leadership issues rank as the No. 1 challenge churches face when the congregation is without a pastor, said Karl Fickling, intentional interim specialist with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.</p>
<p>In some cases, conflict stems from deacons who always have functioned as an administrative body that supervises the pastor rather than as servant-leaders in the congregation, he noted.</p>
<p>In other instances, pastors have caused church splits by imposing on them a governance model that takes away the congregation's right to self-governance, he noted.</p>
<p>“One thing we see frequently is what I would consider an epidemic of pastors reacting after they visit a Willow Creek or Saddleback [church growth] conference and then come back to their churches, do away with the deacons altogether, cancel the church business meetings and put into place a small group of elders who make all the decisions with the pastor,” Fickling said.</p>
<p>“Often, that attempt is seen positively by some young members who have come into the church without any Baptist background, but it is resisted by older members who believe the whole church should be involved in decision-making. So, it results in a church split.”</p>
<p>Next to leadership issues, the second-most-common challenge churches face is the question of how to relate to pastors who retire or resign but who don't leave a congregation, Fickling noted.</p>
<p>The problem becomes particularly acute when the pastor has served the congregation a long time—or, even more so, when he founded the church, he noted.</p>
<p>“Any time a pastor is in a particular church for a long tenure, the church tends to grow to have the personality of that pastor,” Fickling noted.</p>
<p>Over time, congregations tend to grant the pastor greater decision-making authority, he added.</p> | 2,553 |
|
<p>By Bob Allen</p>
<p>The Alliance of Baptists, Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, and Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America teamed up to revise and update a congregational resource on human sexuality first released in 2000.</p>
<p>The March 2013 edition of Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: A Resource for Congregations on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity made its debut at the April 4-7 Alliance of Baptists convocation in Greenville, S.C. That’s the same city where Alliance leaders previewed a groundbreaking “ <a href="http://www.sitemason.com/files/goSLAc/Task%20Force%20on%20Human%20Sexuality.pdf" type="external">Report of the Task Force on Human Sexuality</a>” in 1994.</p>
<p>Paula Dempsey, minister for partnership relations with the Alliance of Baptists, termed human sexuality one of a number of “headlight” issues the Alliance has taken on in its 25-year history – like women’s leadership in the church, racial reconciliation and ecumenical and interfaith dialogue that other groups thought too progressive or too risky at the time.</p>
<p>During her annual report Dempsey extended “full welcome of all regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity” and singled out gay members of the audience to say: “We stand in solidarity with you seeking the same rights for your families other families enjoy.”</p>
<p>Edited by Cody Sanders, an <a href="http://www.dallasvoice.com/baptist-reformer-10115505.html" type="external">emerging</a> gay religious leader who <a href="faith/theology/item/7160-speakers-say-churches-can-learn-from-same-sex-couples" type="external">spoke</a> last April at a [Baptist] Conference on Sexuality and Covenant co-sponsored by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Mercer University’s Center for Theology and Public Life, the 360-page resource updates both popular and academic language about sexuality.</p>
<p>When the resource was first published, for example, many of the authors used the term “homosexual” when referring to gay men and lesbians. Once commonly used that way, today the term is not typically used to label persons except by those who hold a non-affirming stance.</p>
<p>“Queer,” on the other hand, once used as a pejorative term to taunt, denigrate and humiliate, today has been reclaimed as a unifying word inclusive of persons who identify as bisexual, transgender, lesbian or gay.</p>
<p>The first edition omitted any discussion of gender identity. While “sexual orientation” refers to an individual’s primary attractions and desires for intimacy, “gender identity” is <a href="http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/917990-overview" type="external">defined</a> as a personal conception of oneself as male or female – or rarely, both or neither – regardless if the individual is biologically female or male.</p>
<p>Sanders said no attempt was made to edit articles that were original to the 2000 publication out of respect for the integrity of the original articles and the contexts of time and place in which they were written. The revised resource includes more stories of churches that have “come out” as welcoming and affirming of people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.</p>
<p>Sanders said in an introductory article, the revised Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth is needed now more than ever.</p>
<p>“Over the past decade the debate and conversation about human sexuality and gender identity and diversity in North America has reached into every corner of our civil and religious lives,” he wrote.</p>
<p>“New laws have been enacted regarding sexual violence. Laws about marriage and civil unions have both prevented and in other cases allowed same-sex couples to wed, urging churches to enter the turbulent waters of the debate.</p>
<p>“Congregations are facing with urgency issues of biblical interpretation, the relationship of church and state and polity questions about church membership and leadership. Too often the conversation is framed by political platforms, and the voice of progressive Baptists can be lost in the fray. Some churches have struggled to find space for discernment or interpretation based in the lived experiences of believers.”</p>
<p>Sanders said a series of meetings began in late 2009 of representatives from the Alliance, the Peace Fellowship and the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists to consider revising the resource and how the three organizations might work together.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.arcusfoundation.org/" type="external">Arcus Foundation</a> provided a grant pay for the meetings, and the <a href="http://erlbcarpenterfoundation.org/home.html" type="external">E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation</a> made a major grant to support the completion and publication of the new edition.</p>
<p>Mary Andreolli, the Alliance’s minister for outreach and communications, said the new Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth will be available from Amazon.com and AllianceConnect, an online clearing house for sharing resources among progressive Christians also unveiled at this year’s convocation.</p> | Sexuality resource updated, released | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/sexuality-resource-updated-released/ | 3left-center
| Sexuality resource updated, released
<p>By Bob Allen</p>
<p>The Alliance of Baptists, Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, and Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America teamed up to revise and update a congregational resource on human sexuality first released in 2000.</p>
<p>The March 2013 edition of Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: A Resource for Congregations on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity made its debut at the April 4-7 Alliance of Baptists convocation in Greenville, S.C. That’s the same city where Alliance leaders previewed a groundbreaking “ <a href="http://www.sitemason.com/files/goSLAc/Task%20Force%20on%20Human%20Sexuality.pdf" type="external">Report of the Task Force on Human Sexuality</a>” in 1994.</p>
<p>Paula Dempsey, minister for partnership relations with the Alliance of Baptists, termed human sexuality one of a number of “headlight” issues the Alliance has taken on in its 25-year history – like women’s leadership in the church, racial reconciliation and ecumenical and interfaith dialogue that other groups thought too progressive or too risky at the time.</p>
<p>During her annual report Dempsey extended “full welcome of all regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity” and singled out gay members of the audience to say: “We stand in solidarity with you seeking the same rights for your families other families enjoy.”</p>
<p>Edited by Cody Sanders, an <a href="http://www.dallasvoice.com/baptist-reformer-10115505.html" type="external">emerging</a> gay religious leader who <a href="faith/theology/item/7160-speakers-say-churches-can-learn-from-same-sex-couples" type="external">spoke</a> last April at a [Baptist] Conference on Sexuality and Covenant co-sponsored by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Mercer University’s Center for Theology and Public Life, the 360-page resource updates both popular and academic language about sexuality.</p>
<p>When the resource was first published, for example, many of the authors used the term “homosexual” when referring to gay men and lesbians. Once commonly used that way, today the term is not typically used to label persons except by those who hold a non-affirming stance.</p>
<p>“Queer,” on the other hand, once used as a pejorative term to taunt, denigrate and humiliate, today has been reclaimed as a unifying word inclusive of persons who identify as bisexual, transgender, lesbian or gay.</p>
<p>The first edition omitted any discussion of gender identity. While “sexual orientation” refers to an individual’s primary attractions and desires for intimacy, “gender identity” is <a href="http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/917990-overview" type="external">defined</a> as a personal conception of oneself as male or female – or rarely, both or neither – regardless if the individual is biologically female or male.</p>
<p>Sanders said no attempt was made to edit articles that were original to the 2000 publication out of respect for the integrity of the original articles and the contexts of time and place in which they were written. The revised resource includes more stories of churches that have “come out” as welcoming and affirming of people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.</p>
<p>Sanders said in an introductory article, the revised Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth is needed now more than ever.</p>
<p>“Over the past decade the debate and conversation about human sexuality and gender identity and diversity in North America has reached into every corner of our civil and religious lives,” he wrote.</p>
<p>“New laws have been enacted regarding sexual violence. Laws about marriage and civil unions have both prevented and in other cases allowed same-sex couples to wed, urging churches to enter the turbulent waters of the debate.</p>
<p>“Congregations are facing with urgency issues of biblical interpretation, the relationship of church and state and polity questions about church membership and leadership. Too often the conversation is framed by political platforms, and the voice of progressive Baptists can be lost in the fray. Some churches have struggled to find space for discernment or interpretation based in the lived experiences of believers.”</p>
<p>Sanders said a series of meetings began in late 2009 of representatives from the Alliance, the Peace Fellowship and the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists to consider revising the resource and how the three organizations might work together.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.arcusfoundation.org/" type="external">Arcus Foundation</a> provided a grant pay for the meetings, and the <a href="http://erlbcarpenterfoundation.org/home.html" type="external">E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation</a> made a major grant to support the completion and publication of the new edition.</p>
<p>Mary Andreolli, the Alliance’s minister for outreach and communications, said the new Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth will be available from Amazon.com and AllianceConnect, an online clearing house for sharing resources among progressive Christians also unveiled at this year’s convocation.</p> | 2,554 |
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<p>The proposed moratorium, which is expected to be considered by the full Legislature in the coming 60-day session, could foreshadow a larger debate about the New Mexico Public Employee Retirement Association’s retirement and benefit guidelines.</p>
<p>Wayne Propst, the pension fund’s executive director, said the PERA board believes a five-year “timeout period” would buy more time for the 2013 solvency legislation to get the retirement system on solid financial footing.</p>
<p>“While we’ve had some good (investment) returns and the solvency legislation seems to be working as intended, it’s just too early to start saying let’s revisit the reforms,” Propst told the</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Journal after Monday’s meeting of the legislative Investments and Pensions Oversight Committee.</p>
<p>Leaders of some New Mexico cities, including Albuquerque, have recently raised concerns the solvency bill’s provisions are causing a flood of retirements, especially among law enforcement officers.</p>
<p>The Albuquerque City Council this month adopted legislation that calls for bolstering police officers’ paychecks for every year they postpone retirement and stay on the job. That could mean up to $12,000 a year in additional pay for some officers.</p>
<p>Mayor Richard Berry, a supporter of the idea, received the bill last week and plans to sign it, his office confirmed Monday.</p>
<p>However, a PERA analysis of the Albuquerque measure concluded it would add an estimated $6.1 million to the unfunded liability of the pension fund’s municipal police plan.</p>
<p>“If cities or counties are making decisions that take us backwards, that’s a concern,” Propst said.</p>
<p>He said PERA would not oppose “incentive” programs aimed at postponing retirements as long as they do not affect the pension fund’s bottom-line solvency. He said the proposed timeout period was in the works before the Albuquerque proposal and was not specifically crafted in response to it.</p>
<p>During the 2014 legislative session, several bills were introduced that would have allowed certain law enforcement officials to return to work without having their pension benefits put on hold.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Though none of the bills was approved, several lawmakers said Monday that permitting such a practice – commonly known as double dipping – just four-plus years after it was disallowed could undermine the 2013 solvency legislation.</p>
<p>“This is going to come back to us,” said Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela, D-Santa Fe. “It’s going to adversely affect the fund.”</p>
<p>However, other lawmakers have lamented the difficulty of finding and retaining experienced candidates for key public safety jobs.</p>
<p>During Monday’s interim committee hearing, several lawmakers suggested the timeout period proposal should be introduced as a bill, not as a nonbinding joint memorial, to give it more heft.</p>
<p>“The bottom line is you need more teeth in it,” said outgoing Rep. Donald Bratton, R-Hobbs.</p>
<p>While Propst said he believes the memorial approach would send a message, he said the idea of a bill to address some of the PERA board’s concerns will be considered.</p>
<p>The sweeping solvency changes enacted in 2013 to both of the state’s primary pension funds – one for state government employees and the other for educators – were an attempt to keep the funds afloat into the future.</p>
<p>PERA, which covers state workers, law enforcement officers and other public-sector employees, had faced a solvency crunch due largely to investment losses, a swell in the number of retirees and longer life expectancies.</p>
<p>The legislative changes signed into law in 2013 by Gov. Susana Martinez trimmed retirement benefits for future workers, active employees and current retirees, while also enacting stricter retirement eligibility guidelines for future hires.</p>
<p>They also required most employees to funnel more of their paychecks into the retirement fund and increased the level of taxpayer-funded contributions into the fund.</p>
<p>Since the changes were enacted, the retirement system’s financial outlook has improved. For instance, the overall funded ratio for PERA retirement plans has gone from 65.3 percent in the 2012 budget year to 75.8 percent in 2014. The funded ratio is a way of measuring assets versus benefits owed.</p>
<p>Journal staff writer Dan McKay contributed to this report.</p>
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<p /> | ‘Timeout period’ sought for PERA | false | https://abqjournal.com/497737/timeout-period-sought-for-pera.html | 2least
| ‘Timeout period’ sought for PERA
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<p>The proposed moratorium, which is expected to be considered by the full Legislature in the coming 60-day session, could foreshadow a larger debate about the New Mexico Public Employee Retirement Association’s retirement and benefit guidelines.</p>
<p>Wayne Propst, the pension fund’s executive director, said the PERA board believes a five-year “timeout period” would buy more time for the 2013 solvency legislation to get the retirement system on solid financial footing.</p>
<p>“While we’ve had some good (investment) returns and the solvency legislation seems to be working as intended, it’s just too early to start saying let’s revisit the reforms,” Propst told the</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Journal after Monday’s meeting of the legislative Investments and Pensions Oversight Committee.</p>
<p>Leaders of some New Mexico cities, including Albuquerque, have recently raised concerns the solvency bill’s provisions are causing a flood of retirements, especially among law enforcement officers.</p>
<p>The Albuquerque City Council this month adopted legislation that calls for bolstering police officers’ paychecks for every year they postpone retirement and stay on the job. That could mean up to $12,000 a year in additional pay for some officers.</p>
<p>Mayor Richard Berry, a supporter of the idea, received the bill last week and plans to sign it, his office confirmed Monday.</p>
<p>However, a PERA analysis of the Albuquerque measure concluded it would add an estimated $6.1 million to the unfunded liability of the pension fund’s municipal police plan.</p>
<p>“If cities or counties are making decisions that take us backwards, that’s a concern,” Propst said.</p>
<p>He said PERA would not oppose “incentive” programs aimed at postponing retirements as long as they do not affect the pension fund’s bottom-line solvency. He said the proposed timeout period was in the works before the Albuquerque proposal and was not specifically crafted in response to it.</p>
<p>During the 2014 legislative session, several bills were introduced that would have allowed certain law enforcement officials to return to work without having their pension benefits put on hold.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Though none of the bills was approved, several lawmakers said Monday that permitting such a practice – commonly known as double dipping – just four-plus years after it was disallowed could undermine the 2013 solvency legislation.</p>
<p>“This is going to come back to us,” said Rep. Luciano “Lucky” Varela, D-Santa Fe. “It’s going to adversely affect the fund.”</p>
<p>However, other lawmakers have lamented the difficulty of finding and retaining experienced candidates for key public safety jobs.</p>
<p>During Monday’s interim committee hearing, several lawmakers suggested the timeout period proposal should be introduced as a bill, not as a nonbinding joint memorial, to give it more heft.</p>
<p>“The bottom line is you need more teeth in it,” said outgoing Rep. Donald Bratton, R-Hobbs.</p>
<p>While Propst said he believes the memorial approach would send a message, he said the idea of a bill to address some of the PERA board’s concerns will be considered.</p>
<p>The sweeping solvency changes enacted in 2013 to both of the state’s primary pension funds – one for state government employees and the other for educators – were an attempt to keep the funds afloat into the future.</p>
<p>PERA, which covers state workers, law enforcement officers and other public-sector employees, had faced a solvency crunch due largely to investment losses, a swell in the number of retirees and longer life expectancies.</p>
<p>The legislative changes signed into law in 2013 by Gov. Susana Martinez trimmed retirement benefits for future workers, active employees and current retirees, while also enacting stricter retirement eligibility guidelines for future hires.</p>
<p>They also required most employees to funnel more of their paychecks into the retirement fund and increased the level of taxpayer-funded contributions into the fund.</p>
<p>Since the changes were enacted, the retirement system’s financial outlook has improved. For instance, the overall funded ratio for PERA retirement plans has gone from 65.3 percent in the 2012 budget year to 75.8 percent in 2014. The funded ratio is a way of measuring assets versus benefits owed.</p>
<p>Journal staff writer Dan McKay contributed to this report.</p>
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<p>Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said on Tuesday that U.S. policies toward China under President-elect Donald Trump may be uncertain, but he is optimistic because of the U.S. business community's enthusiasm for U.S.-China trade.</p>
<p>At a luncheon with U.S. and Chinese business people and government officials, Wang said he believed that businesses and the U.S. government would ultimately make the "right choices" to take advantage of market opportunities in China's economy.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"What the U.S. government will do we will wait and see, and I think it's difficult to predict, just like the U.S. presidential election," Wang said. "The large crowd here tells us one thing. Although there will be a change in the U.S. government, the passion of the U.S. business community for economic cooperation with China has remained unchanged."</p>
<p>(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)</p> | China vice premier sees optimism for U.S. trade in Trump presidency | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/11/22/china-vice-premier-sees-optimism-for-us-trade-in-trump-presidency.html | 2016-11-22 | 0right
| China vice premier sees optimism for U.S. trade in Trump presidency
<p>Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said on Tuesday that U.S. policies toward China under President-elect Donald Trump may be uncertain, but he is optimistic because of the U.S. business community's enthusiasm for U.S.-China trade.</p>
<p>At a luncheon with U.S. and Chinese business people and government officials, Wang said he believed that businesses and the U.S. government would ultimately make the "right choices" to take advantage of market opportunities in China's economy.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"What the U.S. government will do we will wait and see, and I think it's difficult to predict, just like the U.S. presidential election," Wang said. "The large crowd here tells us one thing. Although there will be a change in the U.S. government, the passion of the U.S. business community for economic cooperation with China has remained unchanged."</p>
<p>(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)</p> | 2,556 |
<p>Microsoft higher in premarket, while eBay stumbles</p>
<p>A record run for tech stocks was on the line Friday, as U.S. stock futures struggled for traction ahead of results from companies such as General Electric Co. and Honeywell International Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>EBay Inc. was under pressure ahead of the bell, while Microsoft Corp. shares were headed the other way in the wake of respective earnings for those companies.</p>
<p>Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were unchanged at 21,580, while S&amp;P 500 index futures inched up 3 points, or 0.1%, to 2,474.25. Nasdaq-100 index futures slipped less than 1 point to 5,925.</p>
<p>On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-street-stocks-poised-to-hold-onto-record-run-ecb-meeting-in-the-spotlight-2017-07-20) slipped 0.1% to end at 21,611.78, dragged by losses for Home Depot Inc. (HD) after Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) said it would sell Kenmore-branded appliances on Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) . The S&amp;P 500 index shed 0.38 points to close at 2,473.45.</p>
<p>But the Nasdaq notched its 41st record close by settling 0.1% higher at 6,390. That marks its 10th straight winning session. The Nasdaq was on course to finish the week around 1.2% higher, with one session left to go. The S&amp;P 500 is poised to rise 0.6%, but the Dow is looking at a modest loss of around 0.1%.</p>
<p>Read:Opinion: Stocks are healthy enough to rally without tech (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stocks-are-healthy-enough-to-rally-without-tech-2017-07-21)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>With no economic data to focus on, investors will be keeping a keen eye on earnings to come on Friday.</p>
<p>Stocks to watch: General Electric(GE) , Honeywell(HON) , Colgate-Palmolive Co.(CL) and Schlumberger Ltd.(SLB) will all report ahead of the opening bell.</p>
<p>Microsoft(MSFT) shares were set to open at an all-time high on Friday, and were up 0.9% at $74.87 in premarket trade. Shares shot higher late Thursday after the software maker posted forecast-beating earnings.</p>
<p>Read:Microsoft rides huge tax benefit from failing at smartphones to big earnings beat (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/microsoft-rides-huge-tax-benefit-from-failing-at-smartphones-to-big-earnings-beat-2017-07-20)</p>
<p>EBay(EBAY) shares fell 3.6% premarket after the e-commerce group reported second-quarter earnings and sales that were in line with forecasts (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ebay-lower-as-q2-earnings-sales-in-line-with-forecast-2017-07-20).</p>
<p>Visa Inc.(V) was up nearly 1% after earnings topped Wall Street estimates (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/visa-shares-tick-higher-after-earnings-top-street-estimate-2017-07-20) late Thursday.</p>
<p>Other markets: Asian markets cooled off Friday, taking a breather from recent gains. The Stoxx Europe 600 index (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-struggle-to-break-grip-of-stronger-euro-2017-07-21) was little changed, but struggling under the weight of a stronger currency.</p>
<p>The euro continued to climb against the dollar after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's dovish comments on monetary policy were ignored by markets (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/euro-sits-at-2-year-high-as-hawkish-view-on-ecb-dominates-2017-07-21). Gold prices inched higher, and oil prices (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-steadies-as-investors-wait-for-rig-data-opec-meeting-2017-07-21) were steady ahead of U.S. rig-count data from Baker Hughes due later.</p>
<p>Read:How OPEC committee's coming meeting could make or break oil prices (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-opec-committees-coming-meeting-could-make-or-break-oil-prices-2017-07-20)</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>July 21, 2017 06:10 ET (10:10 GMT)</p> | MARKET SNAPSHOT: Nasdaq Win Streak In Doubt As Stock Futures Limp Ahead Of GE, Honeywell | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/21/market-snapshot-nasdaq-win-streak-in-doubt-as-stock-futures-limp-ahead-ge-honeywell.html | 2017-07-21 | 0right
| MARKET SNAPSHOT: Nasdaq Win Streak In Doubt As Stock Futures Limp Ahead Of GE, Honeywell
<p>Microsoft higher in premarket, while eBay stumbles</p>
<p>A record run for tech stocks was on the line Friday, as U.S. stock futures struggled for traction ahead of results from companies such as General Electric Co. and Honeywell International Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>EBay Inc. was under pressure ahead of the bell, while Microsoft Corp. shares were headed the other way in the wake of respective earnings for those companies.</p>
<p>Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were unchanged at 21,580, while S&amp;P 500 index futures inched up 3 points, or 0.1%, to 2,474.25. Nasdaq-100 index futures slipped less than 1 point to 5,925.</p>
<p>On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wall-street-stocks-poised-to-hold-onto-record-run-ecb-meeting-in-the-spotlight-2017-07-20) slipped 0.1% to end at 21,611.78, dragged by losses for Home Depot Inc. (HD) after Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) said it would sell Kenmore-branded appliances on Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) . The S&amp;P 500 index shed 0.38 points to close at 2,473.45.</p>
<p>But the Nasdaq notched its 41st record close by settling 0.1% higher at 6,390. That marks its 10th straight winning session. The Nasdaq was on course to finish the week around 1.2% higher, with one session left to go. The S&amp;P 500 is poised to rise 0.6%, but the Dow is looking at a modest loss of around 0.1%.</p>
<p>Read:Opinion: Stocks are healthy enough to rally without tech (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stocks-are-healthy-enough-to-rally-without-tech-2017-07-21)</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>With no economic data to focus on, investors will be keeping a keen eye on earnings to come on Friday.</p>
<p>Stocks to watch: General Electric(GE) , Honeywell(HON) , Colgate-Palmolive Co.(CL) and Schlumberger Ltd.(SLB) will all report ahead of the opening bell.</p>
<p>Microsoft(MSFT) shares were set to open at an all-time high on Friday, and were up 0.9% at $74.87 in premarket trade. Shares shot higher late Thursday after the software maker posted forecast-beating earnings.</p>
<p>Read:Microsoft rides huge tax benefit from failing at smartphones to big earnings beat (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/microsoft-rides-huge-tax-benefit-from-failing-at-smartphones-to-big-earnings-beat-2017-07-20)</p>
<p>EBay(EBAY) shares fell 3.6% premarket after the e-commerce group reported second-quarter earnings and sales that were in line with forecasts (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ebay-lower-as-q2-earnings-sales-in-line-with-forecast-2017-07-20).</p>
<p>Visa Inc.(V) was up nearly 1% after earnings topped Wall Street estimates (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/visa-shares-tick-higher-after-earnings-top-street-estimate-2017-07-20) late Thursday.</p>
<p>Other markets: Asian markets cooled off Friday, taking a breather from recent gains. The Stoxx Europe 600 index (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-struggle-to-break-grip-of-stronger-euro-2017-07-21) was little changed, but struggling under the weight of a stronger currency.</p>
<p>The euro continued to climb against the dollar after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's dovish comments on monetary policy were ignored by markets (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/euro-sits-at-2-year-high-as-hawkish-view-on-ecb-dominates-2017-07-21). Gold prices inched higher, and oil prices (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-steadies-as-investors-wait-for-rig-data-opec-meeting-2017-07-21) were steady ahead of U.S. rig-count data from Baker Hughes due later.</p>
<p>Read:How OPEC committee's coming meeting could make or break oil prices (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-opec-committees-coming-meeting-could-make-or-break-oil-prices-2017-07-20)</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>July 21, 2017 06:10 ET (10:10 GMT)</p> | 2,557 |
<p>Between the brutal civil war in Syria, the government shutdown and all of the deadly dysfunction it represents, the NSA spying revelations, and massive inequality, it’d be easy to for you to enter 2014 thinking the last year has been an awful one.</p>
<p>But you’d be wrong. We have every reason to believe that 2013 was, in fact, the best year on the planet for humankind.</p>
<p>Contrary to what you might have heard, virtually all of the most important forces that determine what make people’s lives good — the things that determine how long they live, and whether they live happily and freely — are trending in an extremely happy direction. While it’s possible that this progress could be reversed by something like runaway climate change, the effects will have to be dramatic to overcome the extraordinary and growing progress we’ve made in making the world a better place.</p>
<p>Here’s the five big reasons why.</p>
<p>The greatest story in recent human history is the simplest: we’re winning the fight against death. “There is not a single country in the world where infant or child mortality today is not lower than it was in 1950,” <a href="" type="internal">writes</a> Angus Deaton, a Princeton economist who works on global health issues.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/81965/1/9789241564588_eng.pdf" type="external">most up-to-date numbers</a> on global health, the 2013 World Health Organization (WHO) statistical compendium, confirm Deaton’s estimation. Between 1990 and 2010, the percentage of children who died before their fifth birthday <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/81965/1/9789241564588_eng.pdf" type="external">dropped by almost half</a>. Measles deaths declined by 71 percent, and both tuberculosis and maternal deaths by half again. HIV, that modern plague, is also being held back, with deaths from AIDS-related illnesses down by 24 percent since 2005.</p>
<p>In short, fewer people are dying untimely deaths. And that’s not only true in rich countries: life expectancy has gone up between 1990 and 2011 in <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/81965/1/9789241564588_eng.pdf" type="external">every WHO income bracket</a>. The gains are even more dramatic if you take the long view: global life expectancy was 47 in the early 1950s, but <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/81965/1/9789241564588_eng.pdf" type="external">had risen to 70</a> — a 50 percent jump — by 2011. For even more perspective, the average Briton in 1850 — when the British Empire had reached its apex —  <a href="" type="internal">was 40</a>. The average person today should expect to live almost twice as long as the average citizen of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful country in 1850.</p>
<p>In real terms, this means millions of fewer dead adults and children a year, millions fewer people who spend their lives suffering the pains and unfreedoms imposed by illness, and millions more people spending their twilight years with loved ones. And the trends are all positive — “progress has accelerated in recent years in many countries with the highest rates of mortality,” as the WHO rather bloodlessly <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/81965/1/9789241564588_eng.pdf" type="external">put it</a>.</p>
<p>What’s going on? Obviously, it’s fairly complicated, but the most important drivers have been <a href="" type="internal">technological and political innovation</a>. The Enlightenment-era advances in the scientific method got people doing high-quality research, which brought us modern medicine and the information technologies that allow us to spread medical breakthroughs around the world at increasingly faster rates. Scientific discoveries also fueled the Industrial Revolution and the birth of modern capitalism, giving us more resources to devote to large-scale application of live-saving technologies. And the global spread of liberal democracy made governments accountable to citizens, forcing them to attend to their health needs or pay the electoral price.</p>
<p>We’ll see the enormously beneficial impact of these two forces, technology and democracy, repeatedly throughout this list, which should tell you something about the foundations of human progress. But when talking about improvements in health, we shouldn’t neglect foreign aid. Nations donating huge amounts of money out of an <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/class/polisci243b/readings/v0002067.pdf" type="external">altruistic interest in the welfare of foreigners</a> is historically unprecedented, and while <a href="http://www.cgdev.org/blog/lot-aid-doesn%E2%80%99t-work-that%E2%80%99s-reason-reform-not-retrenchment" type="external">not all aid has been helpful</a>, health aid has been a huge boon.</p>
<p>Even Deaton, who wrote one of 2013’s harshest assessments of foreign aid, believes “the case for assistance to fight disease such as HIV/AIDS or smallpox is strong.” That’s because these programs have demonstrably saved lives — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a 2003 program pushed by President Bush, paid for anti-retroviral treatment for <a href="http://www.pepfar.gov/documents/organization/189671.pdf" type="external">over 5.1 million people</a> in the poor countries hardest-hit by the AIDS epidemic.</p>
<p>So we’re outracing the Four Horseman, extending our lives faster than pestilence, war, famine, and death can take them. That alone should be enough to say the world is getting better.</p>
<p>There are fewer people in abject penury than at any other point in human history, and middle class people <a href="" type="internal">enjoy their highest standard of living ever</a>. We haven’t come close to solving poverty: a number of African countries in particular have chronic problems generating growth, a nut foreign aid hasn’t yet cracked. So this isn’t a call for complacency about poverty any more than acknowledging victories over disease is an argument against <a href="" type="internal">tackling malaria</a>. But make no mistake: as a whole, the world is much richer in 2013 than it was before.</p>
<p>721 million fewer people lived in extreme poverty ($1.25 a day) in 2010 than in 1981, according to a new World Bank study from October. That’s astounding — a decline from 40 to about 14 percent of the world’s population <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTPREMNET/Resources/EP125.pdf" type="external">suffering from abject want</a>. And poverty rates are declining in every national income bracket: even in low income countries, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty ($1.25 a day in 2005 dollars) a day gone down from 63 in 1981 to 44 in 2010.</p>
<p>We can be fairly confident that these trends are continuing. For one thing, they survived the Great Recession in 2008. For another, the decline in poverty has been fueled by global economic growth, which looks to be continuing: global GDP <a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTDECPROSPECTS/EXTGBLPROSPECTSAPRIL/0,,contentMDK:23418759~menuPK:659159~pagePK:2470434~piPK:4977459~theSitePK:659149,00.html" type="external">grew</a> by 2.3 percent in 2012, a number that’ll <a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2013/new100813a.htm" type="external">rise to 2.9 percent in 2013</a> according to IMF projections.</p>
<p>The bulk of the recent decline in poverty comes form India and China — about 80 percent from China *alone*. Chinese economic and social reform, a delayed reaction to the mass slaughter and starvation of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, has been the engine of poverty’s global decline. If you subtract China, there are actually more poor people today than there were in 1981 (population growth trumping the percentage declines in poverty).</p>
<p>But we shouldn’t discount China. If what we care about is fewer people suffering the misery of poverty, then it shouldn’t matter what nation the less-poor people call home. Chinese growth should be celebrated, not shunted aside.</p>
<p>The poor haven’t been the only people benefitting from global growth. Middle class people have access to an ever-greater stock of life-improving goods. Televisions and refrigerators, once luxury goods, are now comparatively cheap and commonplace. That’s why large-percentage improvements in a nation’s GDP appear to <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/daily_chart_1" type="external">correlate strongly with higher levels of happiness</a> among the nation’s citizens; people like having things that make their lives easier and more worry-free.</p>
<p>Global economic growth in the past five decades has dramatically reduced poverty and <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2013/04/subjective-well-being-income" type="external">made people around the world happier</a>. Once again, we’re better off.</p>
<p>Another massive conflict could overturn the global progress against disease and poverty. But it appears war, too, may be losing its fangs.</p>
<p>Steven Pinker’s 2011 book The Better Angels Of Our Nature is the gold standard in this debate. Pinker brought a treasure trove of data to bear on the question of whether the world has gotten more peaceful, and found that, in the long arc of human history, both war and other forms of violence (the death penalty, for instance) are on a centuries-long downward slope.</p>
<p>Pinker summarizes his argument <a href="http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/intl_studies_review.pdf" type="external">here</a> if you don’t own the book. Most eye-popping are the numbers for the past 50 years; Pinker finds that “the worldwide rate of death from interstate and civil war combined has juddered downward…from almost 300 per 100,000 world population during World War II, to almost 30 during the Korean War, to the low teens during the era of the Vietnam War, to single digits in the 1970s and 1980s, to less than 1 in the twenty-first century.” Here’s what that looks like graphed:</p>
<p>So it looks like the smallest percentage of humans alive since World War II, and in all likelihood in human history, are living through the horrors of war. Did 2013 give us any reason to believe that Pinker and the other scholars who agree with him have been proven wrong?</p>
<p>Probably not. The academic debate over the decline of war really exploded in 2013, but the “declinist” thesis has fared pretty well. Challenges to Pinker’s conclusion that battle deaths have gone down over time <a href="http://jcr.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/11/08/0022002712459709.abstract" type="external">have not withstood scrutiny</a>. The most compelling critique, a new paper by Bear F. Braumoeller, argues that if you control for the larger number of countries in the last 50 years, war happens at <a href="http://www.braumoeller.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Is-War-Disappearing.pdf" type="external">roughly the same rates</a> as it has historically.</p>
<p>There are lots of things you might say about Braumoeller’s argument, and I’ve asked Pinker for his two cents (update: Pinker’s response <a href="#pinker" type="external">here</a>). But most importantly, if battle deaths per 100,000 people really has declined, then his argument doesn’t mean very much. If (percentage-wise) fewer people are dying from war, then what we call “war” now is a lot less deadly than “war” used to be. Braumoeller suggests population growth and improvements in battle medicine explain the decline, but that’s not convincing: tell me with a straight face that the only differences in deadliness between World War II, Vietnam, and the wars you see today is that there are more people and better doctors.</p>
<p>There’s a more rigorous way of putting that: today, we see many more civil wars than we do wars between nations. The former tend to be <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/15/think_again_war#sthash.UdT23Vbf.dpbs" type="external">less deadly than the latter</a>. That’s why the other major challenge to Pinker’s thesis in 2013, the deepening of the Syrian civil war, isn’t likely to upset the overall trend. Syria’s war is an unimaginable tragedy, one <a href="http://jpr.sagepub.com/content/50/4/509.full.pdf+html" type="external">responsible for</a> the rare, depressing increase in battle deaths from 2011 to 2012. However, the overall 2011–2012 trend “fits well with the observed long-term decline in battle deaths,” <a href="http://jpr.sagepub.com/content/50/4/509.full.pdf+html" type="external">according to</a> researchers at the authoritative Uppsala Conflict Data Program, because the uptick is not enough to suggest an overall change in trend. We should expect something similar when the 2013 numbers are published.</p>
<p>Why are smaller and smaller percentages of people being exposed to the horrors of war? There are lots of reasons one could point to, but two of the biggest ones are the spread of democracy and humans getting, for lack of a better word, better.</p>
<p>That democracies never, or almost never, go to war with each other is not seriously in dispute: the <a href="http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/faculty/hauser/PS368/RussettTriangulatingPeace.pdf" type="external">statistical evidence</a> is <a href="https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ray.htm" type="external">ridiculously strong</a>. While some argue that the “democratic peace,” as it’s called, is caused by things other than democracy itself, there’s good experimental evidence that democratic leaders and citizens <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/~pcglobal/conferences/methods/papers/tomz.pdf" type="external">just don’t want to fight each other</a>.</p>
<p>Since 1950, democracy has spread around the world like wildfire. There were only a <a href="http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/stats-on-human-rights/statistics-on-freedom/statistics-on-democracy/" type="external">handful of democracies</a> after World War II, but that grew to roughly 40 percent of all by the end of the Cold War. Today, a comfortable majority —  <a href="http://dartthrowingchimp.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/the-democratic-recession-that-isnt/" type="external">about 60 percent</a> — of all states are democracies. This freer world is also a safer one.</p>
<p>Second — and this is Pinker’s preferred explanation — people have developed strategies for dealing with war’s causes and consequences. “Human ingenuity and experience have gradually been brought to bear,” Pinker <a href="http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/intl_studies_review.pdf" type="external">writes</a>, “just as they have chipped away at hunger and disease.” A series of human inventions, things like <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/15/think_again_war#sthash.UdT23Vbf.dpbs" type="external">U.N. peacekeeping operations</a>, which nowadays are <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Winning-War-Decline-Conflict-Worldwide/dp/B007K4G54E" type="external">very successful at reducing violence</a>, have given us a set of social tools increasingly well suited to reducing the harm caused by armed conflict.</p>
<p>War’s decline isn’t accidental, in other words. It’s by design.</p>
<p>Pinker’s trend against violence isn’t limited just to war. It seems likes crimes, both of the sort states commit against their citizens and citizens commit against each other, are also on the decline.</p>
<p>Take <a href="http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/intl_studies_review.pdf" type="external">a few examples</a>. Slavery, once commonly sanctioned by governments, is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/modern_1.shtml" type="external">illegal everywhere on earth</a>. The use of torture as legal punishment has gone down dramatically. The European murder rate fell 35-fold from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century (check out this <a href="https://soci.ucalgary.ca/brannigan/sites/soci.ucalgary.ca.brannigan/files/long-term-historical-trends-of-violent-crime.pdf" type="external">amazing 2003 paper</a> from Michael Eisner, who dredged up medieval records to estimate European homicide rates in the swords-and-chivalry era, if you don’t believe me).</p>
<p>The decline has been especially marked in recent years. Though homicide crime rates climbed back up from their historic lows between the 1970s and 1990s, reversing progress made since the late 19th century, they have collapsed worldwide in the 21st century. 557,000 people <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/06/there_will_not_be_blood#sthash.PDzNnUCl.dpbs" type="external">were murdered</a> in 2001 — almost three times as many as were killed in war that year. In 2008, that number was 289,000, and the homicide rate has been declining in 75 percent of nations since then.</p>
<p>Statistics from around the developed world, where numbers are particularly reliable, show that it’s not just homicide that’s on the wane: it’s almost all violent crime. US government numbers show that violent crime in the United States <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline" type="external">declined</a> from a peak of about 750 crimes per 100,000 Americans to under 450 by 2009. G7 as a whole countries <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582041-rich-world-seeing-less-and-less-crime-even-face-high-unemployment-and-economic" type="external">show huge declines</a> in homicide, robbery, and vehicle theft.</p>
<p>So even in countries that aren’t at poor or at war, most people’s lives are getting safer and more secure. Why?</p>
<p>We know it’s not incarceration. While the United States and Britain have dramatically increased their prison populations, others, like Canada, the Netherlands, and Estonia, reduced their incarceration rates and saw <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582041-rich-world-seeing-less-and-less-crime-even-face-high-unemployment-and-economic" type="external">similar declines</a> in violent crime. Same thing state-to-state in the United States; New York imprisoned fewer people and <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582041-rich-world-seeing-less-and-less-crime-even-face-high-unemployment-and-economic" type="external">saw the fastest crime decline in the country</a>.</p>
<p>The Economist’s <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582041-rich-world-seeing-less-and-less-crime-even-face-high-unemployment-and-economic" type="external">deep dive</a> into the explanations for crime’s collapse provides a few answers. Globally, police have gotten better at working with communities and targeting areas with the most crime. They’ve also gotten new toys, like DNA testing, that make it easier to catch criminals.</p>
<p>The crack epidemic in the United States and its heroin twin in Europe have both slowed down dramatically. Rapid gentrification has made inner-city crime harder. And the increasing cheapness of “luxury” goods like iPods and DVD players has reduced incentives for crime on both the supply and demand sides: stealing a DVD player isn’t as profitable, and it’s easier for a would-be thief to buy one in the first place.</p>
<p>But there’s one explanation The Economist dismissed that strikes me as hugely important: the abolition of lead gasoline. Kevin Drum at Mother Jones wrote what’s universally acknowledged to be <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline" type="external">the definitive argument for the lead/crime link</a>, and it’s incredibly compelling. We know for a fact that lead exposure damages people’s brains and can potentially be fatal; that’s why an international campaign to ban leaded gasoline started around 1970. Today, leaded gasoline is <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/global_phase-out_of_lead_in_ga.html" type="external">almost unheard of</a> — it’s banned in 175 countries, and there’s been a decline in lead blood levels by about 90 percent.</p>
<p>Drum marshals a wealth of evidence that the parts of the brain damaged by lead are the same ones that check people’s aggressive impulses. Moreover, the timing matches up: crime shot up in the mid-to-late-20th century as cars spread around the world, and started to decline in the 70s as the anti-lead campaign was succeeding. Here’s close the relationship is, using data from the United States:</p>
<p>Now, non-homicide violent crime <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv12.pdf" type="external">appears to have ticked up in 2012</a>, based on U.S. government surveys of victims of crime, but it’s very possible that’s just a blip: the official Department of Justice report <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv12.pdf" type="external">says up-front</a> that “the apparent increase in the rate of violent crimes reported to police from 2011 to 2012 was not statistically significant.”</p>
<p>So we have no reason to believe crime is making a come back, and every reason to believe the historical decline in criminal violence is here to stay.</p>
<p>Racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination remain, without a doubt, extraordinarily powerful forces. The statistical and experimental evidence is overwhelming — this <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~pager/annualreview_discrimination.pdf" type="external">irrefutable proof</a> of widespread discrimination against African-Americans, for instance, should put the “ <a href="" type="internal">racism is dead</a>” fantasy to bed.</p>
<p>Yet the need to combat discrimination denial shouldn’t blind us to the good news. Over the centuries, humanity has made extraordinary progress in taming its hate for and ill-treatment of other humans on the basis of difference alone. Indeed, it is very likely that we live in the least discriminatory era in the history of modern civilization. It’s not a huge prize given how bad the past had been, but there are still gains worth celebrating.</p>
<p>Go back 150 years in time and the point should be obvious. Take four prominent groups in 1860: African-Americans were in chains, European Jews were routinely massacred in the ghettos and shtetls they were confined to, women around the world were denied the opportunity to work outside the home and made almost entirely subordinate to their husbands, and LGBT people were invisible. The improvements in each of these group’s statuses today, both in the United States and internationally, are incontestable.</p>
<p>On closer look, we have reason to believe the happy trends are likely to continue. Take racial discrimination. In 2000, Harvard sociologist Lawrence Bobo penned a comprehensive assessment of the data on racial attitudes in the United States. He found a “national consensus” on the ideals of racial equality and integration. “A nation once comfortable as a deliberately segregationist and racially discriminatory society has not only abandoned that view,” Bobo writes, “but now overtly positively endorses the goals of racial integration and equal treatment. There is no sign whatsoever of retreat from this ideal, despite events that many thought would call it into question. The magnitude, steadiness, and breadth of this change should be lost on no one.”</p>
<p>The norm against overt racism has gone global. In her book on the international anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s, Syracuse’s Audie Klotz <a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=MHqUzQfGTcoC&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PR9&amp;dq=mandela+sanctions+apartheid&amp;ots=ecoS5JIWID&amp;sig=SPb7jtd1ack0vW5j1tVFhFusGW4#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">says flatly</a> that “the illegitimacy of white minority rule led to South Africa’s persistent diplomatic, cultural, and economic isolation.” The belief that racial discrimination could not be tolerated had become so widespread, Klotz argues, that it united the globe — including governments that had strategic interests in supporting South Africa’s whites — in opposition to apartheid. In 2011, <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/19/naughty_or_nice#sthash.IWeDqF0A.GmgRXEbr.dpbs" type="external">91 percent of respondents in a sample of 21 diverse countries</a> said that equal treatment of people of different races or ethnicities was important to them.</p>
<p>Racism obviously survived both American and South African apartheid, albeit in more subtle, insidious forms. “The death of Jim Crow racism has left us in an uncomfortable place,” Bobo <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/bobo/files/racialat.pdf" type="external">writes</a>, “a state of laissez-faire racism” where racial discrimination and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/28/these-seven-charts-show-the-black-white-economic-gap-hasnt-budged-in-50-years/" type="external">disparities</a> still exist, but support for the kind of aggressive government policies needed to address them is racially polarized. But there’s reason to hope that’ll change as well: two <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/report/2013/10/22/77665/building-an-all-in-nation/" type="external">massive</a> <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/05/pdf/millennial_generation.pdf" type="external">studies</a> of the political views of younger Americans by my TP Ideas colleagues, John Halpin and Ruy Teixeira, found that millenials were significantly more racially tolerant and supportive of government action to address racial disparities than the generations that preceded them. Though I’m not aware of any similar research of on a global scale, it’s hard not to imagine they’d find similar results, suggesting that we should have hope that the power of racial prejudice may be waning.</p>
<p>The story about gender discrimination is very similar: after the feminist movement’s enormous victories in the 20th century, structural sexism still shapes the world in profound ways, but the cause of gender equality is making progress. In 2011, 86 percent of people in a diverse 21 country sample <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/19/naughty_or_nice#sthash.IWeDqF0A.GmgRXEbr.dpbs" type="external">said that equal treatment on the basis of gender was an important value</a>. The U.N.’s Human Development Report’s Gender Inequality Index — a <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/gii/" type="external">comprehensive study</a> of reproductive health, social empowerment, and labor market equity —  <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/Equity%20Inequality%20Human%20Development%20in%20post-2015%20framework.pdf" type="external">saw a 20 percent decline</a> in observable gender inequalities from 1995 to 2011. IMF data show <a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2013/sdn1310.pdf" type="external">consistent global declines</a> in wage disparities between genders, labor force participation, and educational attainment around the world. While enormous inequality remains, 2013 is looking to be the worst year for sexism in history.</p>
<p>Finally, we’ve made astonishing progress on sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination — largely in the past 15 years. At the beginning of 2003, zero Americans lived in marriage equality states; by the end of 2013, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/16/massachusetts-gay-marriage_n_4288726.html" type="external">38 percent of Americans will</a>. Article 13 of the European Community Treaty <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_393_en.pdf" type="external">bans discrimination</a> on the grounds of sexual orientation, and, in 2011, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution committing the council to documenting and exposing discrimination on orientation or identity grounds around the world. The public opinion trends <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-homosexuality/" type="external">are positive worldwide</a>: all of the major shifts from 2007 to 2013 in Pew’s “acceptance of homosexuality” poll were towards greater tolerance, and young people everywhere are more open to equality for LGBT individuals than their older peers.</p>
<p>Once again, these victories are partial and by no means inevitable. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination aren’t just “going away” on their own. They’re losing their hold on us because people are working to change other people’s minds and because governments are passing laws aimed at promoting equality. Positive trends don’t mean the problems are close to solved, and certainly aren’t excuses for sitting on our hands.</p>
<p>That’s true of everything on this list. The fact that fewer people are dying from war and disease doesn’t lessen the moral imperative to do something about those that are; the fact that people are getting richer and safer in their homes isn’t an excuse for doing more to address poverty and crime.</p>
<p>But too often, the worst parts about the world are treated as inevitable, the prospect of radical victory over pain and suffering dismissed as utopian fantasy. The overwhelming force of the evidence shows that to be false. As best we can tell, the reason humanity is getting better is because humans have decided to make the world a better place. We consciously chose to develop lifesaving medicine and build freer political systems; we’ve passed laws against workplace discrimination and poisoning children’s minds with lead.</p>
<p>So far, these choices have more than paid off. It’s up to us to make sure they continue to.</p>
<p>Adam Peck contributed graphics to this story.</p>
<p>After publication, Steven Pinker wrote back with some criticisms of Bear Braumoeller’s claim that the decline of war is a myth. Here’s Pinker’s response, lightly edited for clarity:</p>
<p>Braumoeller’s conclusions are unwarranted for several reasons. First, the <a href="http://www.correlatesofwar.org/" type="external">Correlates of War</a> database he uses treats minor skirmishes that kill no one the same as major wars. Even if there are as many trivial shots fired across a bow as before, the fact that there are fewer wars that actually kill lots of people is significant.</p>
<p>Second, it’s not true that only per capita measures show a decline in war — the absolute number of people killed shows a steep decline as well — though even if it were only per capita, that is still significant, since with more people more densely packed there are more opportunities to kill them and more of them to kill (but, as I said, this is moot anyway).</p>
<p>Third, by “controlling for” the number of countries, he’s simply making a real effect go away by a statistical trick –- the fact is that people are far less likely to get killed in a war.</p>
<p>Fourth, the idea that countries are no less likely to go to war now than they were before is clearly false, for reasons I lay out in detail in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/1455883115" type="external">The Better Angels of Our Nature</a> — conscription is down, war expenditures per GDP are down, and the recent debate on intervening in Syria shows that great powers like the UK and US are very skittish about getting into wars.</p> | 5 Reasons Why 2013 Was The Best Year In Human History | true | http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/12/11/3036671/2013-certainly-year-human-history/ | 2013-12-11 | 4left
| 5 Reasons Why 2013 Was The Best Year In Human History
<p>Between the brutal civil war in Syria, the government shutdown and all of the deadly dysfunction it represents, the NSA spying revelations, and massive inequality, it’d be easy to for you to enter 2014 thinking the last year has been an awful one.</p>
<p>But you’d be wrong. We have every reason to believe that 2013 was, in fact, the best year on the planet for humankind.</p>
<p>Contrary to what you might have heard, virtually all of the most important forces that determine what make people’s lives good — the things that determine how long they live, and whether they live happily and freely — are trending in an extremely happy direction. While it’s possible that this progress could be reversed by something like runaway climate change, the effects will have to be dramatic to overcome the extraordinary and growing progress we’ve made in making the world a better place.</p>
<p>Here’s the five big reasons why.</p>
<p>The greatest story in recent human history is the simplest: we’re winning the fight against death. “There is not a single country in the world where infant or child mortality today is not lower than it was in 1950,” <a href="" type="internal">writes</a> Angus Deaton, a Princeton economist who works on global health issues.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/81965/1/9789241564588_eng.pdf" type="external">most up-to-date numbers</a> on global health, the 2013 World Health Organization (WHO) statistical compendium, confirm Deaton’s estimation. Between 1990 and 2010, the percentage of children who died before their fifth birthday <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/81965/1/9789241564588_eng.pdf" type="external">dropped by almost half</a>. Measles deaths declined by 71 percent, and both tuberculosis and maternal deaths by half again. HIV, that modern plague, is also being held back, with deaths from AIDS-related illnesses down by 24 percent since 2005.</p>
<p>In short, fewer people are dying untimely deaths. And that’s not only true in rich countries: life expectancy has gone up between 1990 and 2011 in <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/81965/1/9789241564588_eng.pdf" type="external">every WHO income bracket</a>. The gains are even more dramatic if you take the long view: global life expectancy was 47 in the early 1950s, but <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/81965/1/9789241564588_eng.pdf" type="external">had risen to 70</a> — a 50 percent jump — by 2011. For even more perspective, the average Briton in 1850 — when the British Empire had reached its apex —  <a href="" type="internal">was 40</a>. The average person today should expect to live almost twice as long as the average citizen of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful country in 1850.</p>
<p>In real terms, this means millions of fewer dead adults and children a year, millions fewer people who spend their lives suffering the pains and unfreedoms imposed by illness, and millions more people spending their twilight years with loved ones. And the trends are all positive — “progress has accelerated in recent years in many countries with the highest rates of mortality,” as the WHO rather bloodlessly <a href="http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/81965/1/9789241564588_eng.pdf" type="external">put it</a>.</p>
<p>What’s going on? Obviously, it’s fairly complicated, but the most important drivers have been <a href="" type="internal">technological and political innovation</a>. The Enlightenment-era advances in the scientific method got people doing high-quality research, which brought us modern medicine and the information technologies that allow us to spread medical breakthroughs around the world at increasingly faster rates. Scientific discoveries also fueled the Industrial Revolution and the birth of modern capitalism, giving us more resources to devote to large-scale application of live-saving technologies. And the global spread of liberal democracy made governments accountable to citizens, forcing them to attend to their health needs or pay the electoral price.</p>
<p>We’ll see the enormously beneficial impact of these two forces, technology and democracy, repeatedly throughout this list, which should tell you something about the foundations of human progress. But when talking about improvements in health, we shouldn’t neglect foreign aid. Nations donating huge amounts of money out of an <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/class/polisci243b/readings/v0002067.pdf" type="external">altruistic interest in the welfare of foreigners</a> is historically unprecedented, and while <a href="http://www.cgdev.org/blog/lot-aid-doesn%E2%80%99t-work-that%E2%80%99s-reason-reform-not-retrenchment" type="external">not all aid has been helpful</a>, health aid has been a huge boon.</p>
<p>Even Deaton, who wrote one of 2013’s harshest assessments of foreign aid, believes “the case for assistance to fight disease such as HIV/AIDS or smallpox is strong.” That’s because these programs have demonstrably saved lives — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a 2003 program pushed by President Bush, paid for anti-retroviral treatment for <a href="http://www.pepfar.gov/documents/organization/189671.pdf" type="external">over 5.1 million people</a> in the poor countries hardest-hit by the AIDS epidemic.</p>
<p>So we’re outracing the Four Horseman, extending our lives faster than pestilence, war, famine, and death can take them. That alone should be enough to say the world is getting better.</p>
<p>There are fewer people in abject penury than at any other point in human history, and middle class people <a href="" type="internal">enjoy their highest standard of living ever</a>. We haven’t come close to solving poverty: a number of African countries in particular have chronic problems generating growth, a nut foreign aid hasn’t yet cracked. So this isn’t a call for complacency about poverty any more than acknowledging victories over disease is an argument against <a href="" type="internal">tackling malaria</a>. But make no mistake: as a whole, the world is much richer in 2013 than it was before.</p>
<p>721 million fewer people lived in extreme poverty ($1.25 a day) in 2010 than in 1981, according to a new World Bank study from October. That’s astounding — a decline from 40 to about 14 percent of the world’s population <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTPREMNET/Resources/EP125.pdf" type="external">suffering from abject want</a>. And poverty rates are declining in every national income bracket: even in low income countries, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty ($1.25 a day in 2005 dollars) a day gone down from 63 in 1981 to 44 in 2010.</p>
<p>We can be fairly confident that these trends are continuing. For one thing, they survived the Great Recession in 2008. For another, the decline in poverty has been fueled by global economic growth, which looks to be continuing: global GDP <a href="http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTDECPROSPECTS/EXTGBLPROSPECTSAPRIL/0,,contentMDK:23418759~menuPK:659159~pagePK:2470434~piPK:4977459~theSitePK:659149,00.html" type="external">grew</a> by 2.3 percent in 2012, a number that’ll <a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2013/new100813a.htm" type="external">rise to 2.9 percent in 2013</a> according to IMF projections.</p>
<p>The bulk of the recent decline in poverty comes form India and China — about 80 percent from China *alone*. Chinese economic and social reform, a delayed reaction to the mass slaughter and starvation of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, has been the engine of poverty’s global decline. If you subtract China, there are actually more poor people today than there were in 1981 (population growth trumping the percentage declines in poverty).</p>
<p>But we shouldn’t discount China. If what we care about is fewer people suffering the misery of poverty, then it shouldn’t matter what nation the less-poor people call home. Chinese growth should be celebrated, not shunted aside.</p>
<p>The poor haven’t been the only people benefitting from global growth. Middle class people have access to an ever-greater stock of life-improving goods. Televisions and refrigerators, once luxury goods, are now comparatively cheap and commonplace. That’s why large-percentage improvements in a nation’s GDP appear to <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/daily_chart_1" type="external">correlate strongly with higher levels of happiness</a> among the nation’s citizens; people like having things that make their lives easier and more worry-free.</p>
<p>Global economic growth in the past five decades has dramatically reduced poverty and <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2013/04/subjective-well-being-income" type="external">made people around the world happier</a>. Once again, we’re better off.</p>
<p>Another massive conflict could overturn the global progress against disease and poverty. But it appears war, too, may be losing its fangs.</p>
<p>Steven Pinker’s 2011 book The Better Angels Of Our Nature is the gold standard in this debate. Pinker brought a treasure trove of data to bear on the question of whether the world has gotten more peaceful, and found that, in the long arc of human history, both war and other forms of violence (the death penalty, for instance) are on a centuries-long downward slope.</p>
<p>Pinker summarizes his argument <a href="http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/intl_studies_review.pdf" type="external">here</a> if you don’t own the book. Most eye-popping are the numbers for the past 50 years; Pinker finds that “the worldwide rate of death from interstate and civil war combined has juddered downward…from almost 300 per 100,000 world population during World War II, to almost 30 during the Korean War, to the low teens during the era of the Vietnam War, to single digits in the 1970s and 1980s, to less than 1 in the twenty-first century.” Here’s what that looks like graphed:</p>
<p>So it looks like the smallest percentage of humans alive since World War II, and in all likelihood in human history, are living through the horrors of war. Did 2013 give us any reason to believe that Pinker and the other scholars who agree with him have been proven wrong?</p>
<p>Probably not. The academic debate over the decline of war really exploded in 2013, but the “declinist” thesis has fared pretty well. Challenges to Pinker’s conclusion that battle deaths have gone down over time <a href="http://jcr.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/11/08/0022002712459709.abstract" type="external">have not withstood scrutiny</a>. The most compelling critique, a new paper by Bear F. Braumoeller, argues that if you control for the larger number of countries in the last 50 years, war happens at <a href="http://www.braumoeller.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Is-War-Disappearing.pdf" type="external">roughly the same rates</a> as it has historically.</p>
<p>There are lots of things you might say about Braumoeller’s argument, and I’ve asked Pinker for his two cents (update: Pinker’s response <a href="#pinker" type="external">here</a>). But most importantly, if battle deaths per 100,000 people really has declined, then his argument doesn’t mean very much. If (percentage-wise) fewer people are dying from war, then what we call “war” now is a lot less deadly than “war” used to be. Braumoeller suggests population growth and improvements in battle medicine explain the decline, but that’s not convincing: tell me with a straight face that the only differences in deadliness between World War II, Vietnam, and the wars you see today is that there are more people and better doctors.</p>
<p>There’s a more rigorous way of putting that: today, we see many more civil wars than we do wars between nations. The former tend to be <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/15/think_again_war#sthash.UdT23Vbf.dpbs" type="external">less deadly than the latter</a>. That’s why the other major challenge to Pinker’s thesis in 2013, the deepening of the Syrian civil war, isn’t likely to upset the overall trend. Syria’s war is an unimaginable tragedy, one <a href="http://jpr.sagepub.com/content/50/4/509.full.pdf+html" type="external">responsible for</a> the rare, depressing increase in battle deaths from 2011 to 2012. However, the overall 2011–2012 trend “fits well with the observed long-term decline in battle deaths,” <a href="http://jpr.sagepub.com/content/50/4/509.full.pdf+html" type="external">according to</a> researchers at the authoritative Uppsala Conflict Data Program, because the uptick is not enough to suggest an overall change in trend. We should expect something similar when the 2013 numbers are published.</p>
<p>Why are smaller and smaller percentages of people being exposed to the horrors of war? There are lots of reasons one could point to, but two of the biggest ones are the spread of democracy and humans getting, for lack of a better word, better.</p>
<p>That democracies never, or almost never, go to war with each other is not seriously in dispute: the <a href="http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/faculty/hauser/PS368/RussettTriangulatingPeace.pdf" type="external">statistical evidence</a> is <a href="https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/ray.htm" type="external">ridiculously strong</a>. While some argue that the “democratic peace,” as it’s called, is caused by things other than democracy itself, there’s good experimental evidence that democratic leaders and citizens <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/~pcglobal/conferences/methods/papers/tomz.pdf" type="external">just don’t want to fight each other</a>.</p>
<p>Since 1950, democracy has spread around the world like wildfire. There were only a <a href="http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/stats-on-human-rights/statistics-on-freedom/statistics-on-democracy/" type="external">handful of democracies</a> after World War II, but that grew to roughly 40 percent of all by the end of the Cold War. Today, a comfortable majority —  <a href="http://dartthrowingchimp.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/the-democratic-recession-that-isnt/" type="external">about 60 percent</a> — of all states are democracies. This freer world is also a safer one.</p>
<p>Second — and this is Pinker’s preferred explanation — people have developed strategies for dealing with war’s causes and consequences. “Human ingenuity and experience have gradually been brought to bear,” Pinker <a href="http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/intl_studies_review.pdf" type="external">writes</a>, “just as they have chipped away at hunger and disease.” A series of human inventions, things like <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/15/think_again_war#sthash.UdT23Vbf.dpbs" type="external">U.N. peacekeeping operations</a>, which nowadays are <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Winning-War-Decline-Conflict-Worldwide/dp/B007K4G54E" type="external">very successful at reducing violence</a>, have given us a set of social tools increasingly well suited to reducing the harm caused by armed conflict.</p>
<p>War’s decline isn’t accidental, in other words. It’s by design.</p>
<p>Pinker’s trend against violence isn’t limited just to war. It seems likes crimes, both of the sort states commit against their citizens and citizens commit against each other, are also on the decline.</p>
<p>Take <a href="http://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/intl_studies_review.pdf" type="external">a few examples</a>. Slavery, once commonly sanctioned by governments, is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/modern/modern_1.shtml" type="external">illegal everywhere on earth</a>. The use of torture as legal punishment has gone down dramatically. The European murder rate fell 35-fold from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century (check out this <a href="https://soci.ucalgary.ca/brannigan/sites/soci.ucalgary.ca.brannigan/files/long-term-historical-trends-of-violent-crime.pdf" type="external">amazing 2003 paper</a> from Michael Eisner, who dredged up medieval records to estimate European homicide rates in the swords-and-chivalry era, if you don’t believe me).</p>
<p>The decline has been especially marked in recent years. Though homicide crime rates climbed back up from their historic lows between the 1970s and 1990s, reversing progress made since the late 19th century, they have collapsed worldwide in the 21st century. 557,000 people <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/06/there_will_not_be_blood#sthash.PDzNnUCl.dpbs" type="external">were murdered</a> in 2001 — almost three times as many as were killed in war that year. In 2008, that number was 289,000, and the homicide rate has been declining in 75 percent of nations since then.</p>
<p>Statistics from around the developed world, where numbers are particularly reliable, show that it’s not just homicide that’s on the wane: it’s almost all violent crime. US government numbers show that violent crime in the United States <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline" type="external">declined</a> from a peak of about 750 crimes per 100,000 Americans to under 450 by 2009. G7 as a whole countries <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582041-rich-world-seeing-less-and-less-crime-even-face-high-unemployment-and-economic" type="external">show huge declines</a> in homicide, robbery, and vehicle theft.</p>
<p>So even in countries that aren’t at poor or at war, most people’s lives are getting safer and more secure. Why?</p>
<p>We know it’s not incarceration. While the United States and Britain have dramatically increased their prison populations, others, like Canada, the Netherlands, and Estonia, reduced their incarceration rates and saw <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582041-rich-world-seeing-less-and-less-crime-even-face-high-unemployment-and-economic" type="external">similar declines</a> in violent crime. Same thing state-to-state in the United States; New York imprisoned fewer people and <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582041-rich-world-seeing-less-and-less-crime-even-face-high-unemployment-and-economic" type="external">saw the fastest crime decline in the country</a>.</p>
<p>The Economist’s <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582041-rich-world-seeing-less-and-less-crime-even-face-high-unemployment-and-economic" type="external">deep dive</a> into the explanations for crime’s collapse provides a few answers. Globally, police have gotten better at working with communities and targeting areas with the most crime. They’ve also gotten new toys, like DNA testing, that make it easier to catch criminals.</p>
<p>The crack epidemic in the United States and its heroin twin in Europe have both slowed down dramatically. Rapid gentrification has made inner-city crime harder. And the increasing cheapness of “luxury” goods like iPods and DVD players has reduced incentives for crime on both the supply and demand sides: stealing a DVD player isn’t as profitable, and it’s easier for a would-be thief to buy one in the first place.</p>
<p>But there’s one explanation The Economist dismissed that strikes me as hugely important: the abolition of lead gasoline. Kevin Drum at Mother Jones wrote what’s universally acknowledged to be <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline" type="external">the definitive argument for the lead/crime link</a>, and it’s incredibly compelling. We know for a fact that lead exposure damages people’s brains and can potentially be fatal; that’s why an international campaign to ban leaded gasoline started around 1970. Today, leaded gasoline is <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/global_phase-out_of_lead_in_ga.html" type="external">almost unheard of</a> — it’s banned in 175 countries, and there’s been a decline in lead blood levels by about 90 percent.</p>
<p>Drum marshals a wealth of evidence that the parts of the brain damaged by lead are the same ones that check people’s aggressive impulses. Moreover, the timing matches up: crime shot up in the mid-to-late-20th century as cars spread around the world, and started to decline in the 70s as the anti-lead campaign was succeeding. Here’s close the relationship is, using data from the United States:</p>
<p>Now, non-homicide violent crime <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv12.pdf" type="external">appears to have ticked up in 2012</a>, based on U.S. government surveys of victims of crime, but it’s very possible that’s just a blip: the official Department of Justice report <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv12.pdf" type="external">says up-front</a> that “the apparent increase in the rate of violent crimes reported to police from 2011 to 2012 was not statistically significant.”</p>
<p>So we have no reason to believe crime is making a come back, and every reason to believe the historical decline in criminal violence is here to stay.</p>
<p>Racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination remain, without a doubt, extraordinarily powerful forces. The statistical and experimental evidence is overwhelming — this <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~pager/annualreview_discrimination.pdf" type="external">irrefutable proof</a> of widespread discrimination against African-Americans, for instance, should put the “ <a href="" type="internal">racism is dead</a>” fantasy to bed.</p>
<p>Yet the need to combat discrimination denial shouldn’t blind us to the good news. Over the centuries, humanity has made extraordinary progress in taming its hate for and ill-treatment of other humans on the basis of difference alone. Indeed, it is very likely that we live in the least discriminatory era in the history of modern civilization. It’s not a huge prize given how bad the past had been, but there are still gains worth celebrating.</p>
<p>Go back 150 years in time and the point should be obvious. Take four prominent groups in 1860: African-Americans were in chains, European Jews were routinely massacred in the ghettos and shtetls they were confined to, women around the world were denied the opportunity to work outside the home and made almost entirely subordinate to their husbands, and LGBT people were invisible. The improvements in each of these group’s statuses today, both in the United States and internationally, are incontestable.</p>
<p>On closer look, we have reason to believe the happy trends are likely to continue. Take racial discrimination. In 2000, Harvard sociologist Lawrence Bobo penned a comprehensive assessment of the data on racial attitudes in the United States. He found a “national consensus” on the ideals of racial equality and integration. “A nation once comfortable as a deliberately segregationist and racially discriminatory society has not only abandoned that view,” Bobo writes, “but now overtly positively endorses the goals of racial integration and equal treatment. There is no sign whatsoever of retreat from this ideal, despite events that many thought would call it into question. The magnitude, steadiness, and breadth of this change should be lost on no one.”</p>
<p>The norm against overt racism has gone global. In her book on the international anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s, Syracuse’s Audie Klotz <a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=MHqUzQfGTcoC&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PR9&amp;dq=mandela+sanctions+apartheid&amp;ots=ecoS5JIWID&amp;sig=SPb7jtd1ack0vW5j1tVFhFusGW4#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">says flatly</a> that “the illegitimacy of white minority rule led to South Africa’s persistent diplomatic, cultural, and economic isolation.” The belief that racial discrimination could not be tolerated had become so widespread, Klotz argues, that it united the globe — including governments that had strategic interests in supporting South Africa’s whites — in opposition to apartheid. In 2011, <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/19/naughty_or_nice#sthash.IWeDqF0A.GmgRXEbr.dpbs" type="external">91 percent of respondents in a sample of 21 diverse countries</a> said that equal treatment of people of different races or ethnicities was important to them.</p>
<p>Racism obviously survived both American and South African apartheid, albeit in more subtle, insidious forms. “The death of Jim Crow racism has left us in an uncomfortable place,” Bobo <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/bobo/files/racialat.pdf" type="external">writes</a>, “a state of laissez-faire racism” where racial discrimination and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/28/these-seven-charts-show-the-black-white-economic-gap-hasnt-budged-in-50-years/" type="external">disparities</a> still exist, but support for the kind of aggressive government policies needed to address them is racially polarized. But there’s reason to hope that’ll change as well: two <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/report/2013/10/22/77665/building-an-all-in-nation/" type="external">massive</a> <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/05/pdf/millennial_generation.pdf" type="external">studies</a> of the political views of younger Americans by my TP Ideas colleagues, John Halpin and Ruy Teixeira, found that millenials were significantly more racially tolerant and supportive of government action to address racial disparities than the generations that preceded them. Though I’m not aware of any similar research of on a global scale, it’s hard not to imagine they’d find similar results, suggesting that we should have hope that the power of racial prejudice may be waning.</p>
<p>The story about gender discrimination is very similar: after the feminist movement’s enormous victories in the 20th century, structural sexism still shapes the world in profound ways, but the cause of gender equality is making progress. In 2011, 86 percent of people in a diverse 21 country sample <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/19/naughty_or_nice#sthash.IWeDqF0A.GmgRXEbr.dpbs" type="external">said that equal treatment on the basis of gender was an important value</a>. The U.N.’s Human Development Report’s Gender Inequality Index — a <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/gii/" type="external">comprehensive study</a> of reproductive health, social empowerment, and labor market equity —  <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/Equity%20Inequality%20Human%20Development%20in%20post-2015%20framework.pdf" type="external">saw a 20 percent decline</a> in observable gender inequalities from 1995 to 2011. IMF data show <a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2013/sdn1310.pdf" type="external">consistent global declines</a> in wage disparities between genders, labor force participation, and educational attainment around the world. While enormous inequality remains, 2013 is looking to be the worst year for sexism in history.</p>
<p>Finally, we’ve made astonishing progress on sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination — largely in the past 15 years. At the beginning of 2003, zero Americans lived in marriage equality states; by the end of 2013, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/16/massachusetts-gay-marriage_n_4288726.html" type="external">38 percent of Americans will</a>. Article 13 of the European Community Treaty <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_393_en.pdf" type="external">bans discrimination</a> on the grounds of sexual orientation, and, in 2011, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution committing the council to documenting and exposing discrimination on orientation or identity grounds around the world. The public opinion trends <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-homosexuality/" type="external">are positive worldwide</a>: all of the major shifts from 2007 to 2013 in Pew’s “acceptance of homosexuality” poll were towards greater tolerance, and young people everywhere are more open to equality for LGBT individuals than their older peers.</p>
<p>Once again, these victories are partial and by no means inevitable. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination aren’t just “going away” on their own. They’re losing their hold on us because people are working to change other people’s minds and because governments are passing laws aimed at promoting equality. Positive trends don’t mean the problems are close to solved, and certainly aren’t excuses for sitting on our hands.</p>
<p>That’s true of everything on this list. The fact that fewer people are dying from war and disease doesn’t lessen the moral imperative to do something about those that are; the fact that people are getting richer and safer in their homes isn’t an excuse for doing more to address poverty and crime.</p>
<p>But too often, the worst parts about the world are treated as inevitable, the prospect of radical victory over pain and suffering dismissed as utopian fantasy. The overwhelming force of the evidence shows that to be false. As best we can tell, the reason humanity is getting better is because humans have decided to make the world a better place. We consciously chose to develop lifesaving medicine and build freer political systems; we’ve passed laws against workplace discrimination and poisoning children’s minds with lead.</p>
<p>So far, these choices have more than paid off. It’s up to us to make sure they continue to.</p>
<p>Adam Peck contributed graphics to this story.</p>
<p>After publication, Steven Pinker wrote back with some criticisms of Bear Braumoeller’s claim that the decline of war is a myth. Here’s Pinker’s response, lightly edited for clarity:</p>
<p>Braumoeller’s conclusions are unwarranted for several reasons. First, the <a href="http://www.correlatesofwar.org/" type="external">Correlates of War</a> database he uses treats minor skirmishes that kill no one the same as major wars. Even if there are as many trivial shots fired across a bow as before, the fact that there are fewer wars that actually kill lots of people is significant.</p>
<p>Second, it’s not true that only per capita measures show a decline in war — the absolute number of people killed shows a steep decline as well — though even if it were only per capita, that is still significant, since with more people more densely packed there are more opportunities to kill them and more of them to kill (but, as I said, this is moot anyway).</p>
<p>Third, by “controlling for” the number of countries, he’s simply making a real effect go away by a statistical trick –- the fact is that people are far less likely to get killed in a war.</p>
<p>Fourth, the idea that countries are no less likely to go to war now than they were before is clearly false, for reasons I lay out in detail in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/1455883115" type="external">The Better Angels of Our Nature</a> — conscription is down, war expenditures per GDP are down, and the recent debate on intervening in Syria shows that great powers like the UK and US are very skittish about getting into wars.</p> | 2,558 |
<p>Jan 24 (Reuters) - Ocular Therapeutix Inc:</p>
<p>* OCULAR THERAPEUTIX™ ANNOUNCES PROPOSED PUBLIC OFFERING OF COMMON STOCK</p>
<p>* OCULAR THERAPEUTIX - TO USE PROCEEDS FROM OFFERING, EXISTING CASH AND EQUIVALENTS, TO FUND PLANNED RESUBMISSION OF NEW DRUG APPLICATION FOR DEXTENZA</p>
<p>* OCULAR THERAPEUTIX - TO ALSO USE PROCEEDS TO FUND CLINICAL DEVELOPMENT OF OTX-TP, OTX-TIC AND OTX-TKI, ADDITIONAL PRECLINICAL, REGULATORY ACTIVITIES Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - An Uber self-driving sport utility vehicle struck and killed a woman crossing a street in Arizona on Sunday, the first fatality involving an autonomous vehicle and a potential blow to the technology expected to transform transportation.</p>
<p>The ride services company said it was suspending North American tests of its self-driving vehicles. Safety advocates have called for a national moratorium on the testing of all so-called robot cars on public roads.</p>
<p>Here is a brief look at how the United States and some other countries regulate testing of autonomous vehicles.</p>
<p>- So far, 21 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia have enacted legislation related to autonomous vehicles, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. ( <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/autonomous-vehicles-self-driving-vehicles-enacted-legislation.aspx" type="external">here</a>)</p>
<p>- Nevada was the first to authorize operation of autonomous vehicles in 2011.</p>
<p>- Arizona has opened its arms to companies testing self-driving vehicles as a means to economic growth and jobs. Republican Governor Doug Ducey reached out to Uber in 2016 after California regulators cracked down on the company over its failure to obtain testing permits.</p>
<p>- China has issued licenses to automakers that allow self-driving vehicles to be road tested, the state-owned Xinhua news agency has reported. The licenses allow operators to test drive the vehicles on a 5.6-km (3.5-mile) public road in Jiading District of Shanghai, Xinhua said. Shanghai has regulations on road tests for such smart cars and has said it would promote the application and commercialization of vehicles using artificial intelligence technology and internet-linked functions, Xinhua reported.</p>
<p>- South Korea’s transport ministry began the provisional permit system in February 2016 and has approved provisional permits for 41 self-driving cars as of March including 14 for Hyundai Motor Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=005380.KS" type="external">005380.KS</a>), two for Kia Motors ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=000270.KS" type="external">000270.KS</a>) , and one for Audi-Volkswagen ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=VOWG_p.DE" type="external">VOWG_p.DE</a>). Audi-Volkswagen is the only foreign company with a provisional permit in South Korea.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=005380.KS" type="external">Hyundai Motor Co</a> 152500.0 005380.KS Korea Stock Exchange +1,000.00 (+0.66%) 005380.KS 000270.KS VOWG_p.DE
<p>South Korea said it was aware of the Uber incident and that it makes “frequent improvements to the permit system and could make changes in light of the incident going forward.”</p>
<p>- In Japan, all vehicles on roads require a driver to be sitting in the driver’s seat, according to the Transport Ministry. As long as someone is in the driver’s seat during an automated driving test and has his or her hands close to the wheel at all times, no special permit is needed to conduct self-driving tests.</p>
<p>A ministry spokesman said of the Uber incident, “We will be following it closely, but it’s too early to say how it will affect our approach to self-driving tests.”</p>
<p>- Singapore requires that all autonomous test vehicles undergo a vehicle safety assessment before they are approved for on-road trials. Test vehicles can only be driven in autonomous mode within an approved test-site. All test vehicles are required to have a qualified safety driver who is ready to take control, until autonomous vehicle trials demonstrate that the technology is ready for fully autonomous operations. All trial participants are also required to have third-party insurance for test vehicles and must share data.</p>
<p>Compiled by Matthew Lewis; Reporting by Joseph White in Detroit, Joyce Lee in Seoul, Twinnie Siu in Hong Kong</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Mississippi law that enacted the tightest restrictions on abortion in the United States, in a ruling handed down a day after the governor signed the measure.</p> FILE PHOTO: Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, arrives at B.B. King's funeral in Indianola, Mississippi, U.S., May 30, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
<p>The Mississippi law would prohibit abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, with some exceptions. It went into effect immediately after Republican Governor Phil Bryant signed it on Monday. State law previously banned abortion at 20 weeks after conception, in line with limits in 17 other states.</p>
<p>The judge’s ruling blocks the measure for 10 days, while he considers arguments on whether to stop the law from taking effect until the outcome of a full legal challenge.</p>
<p>“The Supreme Court says every woman has a constitutional right to ‘personal privacy’ regarding her body,” U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves in Jackson, Mississippi, said in a two-page ruling that quoted from the high court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.</p>
<p>The judge said a stay was justified because the Mississippi law’s proposed 15-week limit is outside of the medical consensus about when fetus becomes vital, raising questions about whether it violates the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>Abortion rights groups say anti-abortion organizations could use the case to test limits on abortion all the way to the Supreme Court. The court in the past has struck down prohibitions on abortion before fetal viability, usually considered to be about 20 weeks of gestation.</p>
<p>The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only clinic providing abortions in Mississippi, sued to block the measure on Monday.</p>
<p>“We will fight this unconstitutional ban and ensure that women can access legal and safe abortion care, no matter their zip code,” the New York City-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the clinic in court, said in a statement on Twitter after the ruling.</p>
<p>In 2016, the Supreme Court refused to uphold an Arkansas law that banned abortion after 12 weeks’ gestation as well as a North Dakota six-week law.</p>
<p>The Mississippi governor called the judge’s ruling on Tuesday disappointing.</p>
<p>“House Bill 1510 protects maternal health and will further our efforts to make Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child,” Bryant said in a statement. “We are confident in its constitutionality and look forward to vigorously defending it.”</p>
<p>The Mississippi law includes an exception in the case of severe fetal abnormality or a medical emergency.</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>AUSTIN/SCHERTZ, Texas (Reuters) - A package bomb blew up at a FedEx distribution center near San Antonio on Tuesday, the fifth in a series of attacks that have rocked Texas this month and sent investigators on a frantic search for what they suspect is a serial bomber.</p>
<p>The package filled with nails and metal shrapnel was mailed from Austin to another address in Austin and passed through a sorting center in Schertz, about 65 miles (105 km) away, when it exploded on a conveyer belt, knocking a female employee off her feet, officials said.</p>
<p>It was the fifth explosion in Texas in the past 18 days and the first involving a commercial parcel service.</p>
<p>“We do believe that these incidents are all related. That is because of the specific contents of these devices,” interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told members of the Austin City Council, the Austin American-Statesman reported.</p>
<p>A second package sent by the same person was discovered and turned over to law enforcement, FedEx Corp said in a statement. Meanwhile police had surrounded yet another FedEx location in the Austin area after discovering a suspicious package there.</p>
<p>The series of bombings have unsettled Austin, the state capital of some 1 million people, and drawn hundreds of federal law enforcement investigators to join local police. Schertz lies on the highway between Austin and San Antonio.</p>
<p>Speaking through the media, officials have appealed to the bomber to reveal the motives for the attacks. They have also asked the public for any tips, offering a $115,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprit.</p>
<p>White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a tweet: “We are committed to bringing perpetrators of these heinous acts to justice. There is no apparent nexus to terrorism at this time.”</p>
<p>The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether it was ruling out both international and domestic terrorism.</p>
<p>“This is obviously a very, very sick individual, or maybe individuals,” President Donald Trump told reporters. “These</p> Law enforcement personnel are seen gathering evidence outside a FedEx Store which was closed for investigation, in Austin, Texas, U.S., March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Sergio Flores
<p>are sick people, and we will get to the bottom of it.”</p>
<p>Investigators were trying to come up with a theory or intelligence regarding the motive for the bombings or identity of the bomber or bombers, a U.S. security official and a law enforcement official told Reuters.</p>
<p>The Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating the FedEx package explosion as if there were a connection to the Austin bombings, the law enforcement official said. Both sources declined to be identified.</p>
<p>The individual or people behind the bombings are likely to be highly skilled and methodical, said Fred Burton, chief security officer for Stratfor, a private intelligence and security consulting firm based in Austin.</p> Slideshow (18 Images)
<p>“This is a race against time to find him before he bombs again,” Burton said.</p>
<p>The four previous explosions killed two people and injured four others.</p>
<p>The first three devices were parcel bombs dropped off in front of homes on in three eastern Austin neighborhoods. The fourth went off on Sunday night on the west side of the city and was described by police as a more sophisticated device detonated through a trip wire.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-texas-blast-whitehouse/no-known-link-to-terrorism-in-texas-bombings-white-house-idUSKBN1GW293" type="external">No known link to terrorism in Texas bombings: White House</a>
<p>The four devices were similar in construction, suggesting they were the work of the same bomb maker, officials said.</p>
<p>Federal authorities at the scene of Tuesday’s blast offered few details, telling reporters their probe was in the early stages and that the building would be secured before investigators could gather evidence.</p>
<p>The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were among those working with local officials in Austin, Schertz and San Antonio.</p>
<p>“We have agents from across the country. We have our national response team here. We have explosive detection canines here. We have intel research specialists,” Frank Ortega, acting assistant special agent in charge of the San Antonio ATF office, told reporters. “We’ve been working around the clock.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Mark Hosenball and Lisa Lambert in Washington; Writing Daniel Trotta; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Tom Brown</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said on Tuesday that Facebook Inc chief executive Mark Zuckerberg should testify in Congress about his company’s treatment of users’ data.</p> FILE PHOTO - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the Alumni Exercises following the 366th Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., May 25, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
<p>“Fifty million people lost their privacy,” Feinstein told reporters at the U.S. Senate, amid mounting calls in Congress for the social media company to account for the mining of its users’ personal data by a political consultancy hired by President Donald Trump’s campaign.</p>
<p>“I think that we ought to have the head of Facebook, not their lawyer, not their number two, but their number one, come... state if they’re really prepared to lead the industry to some controls that prevent all this from happening,” she said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | BRIEF-Ocular Therapeutix Announces Proposed Public Offering Of Common Stock Factbox: How United States, others regulate autonomous vehicle testing Mississippi's new law restricting abortion blocked by judge for 10 days Fifth device explodes in Texas, seen linked to others Senate Democrat wants Facebook CEO Zuckerberg to testify | false | https://reuters.com/article/brief-ocular-therapeutix-announces-propo/brief-ocular-therapeutix-announces-proposed-public-offering-of-common-stock-idUSASB0C26J | 2018-01-24 | 2least
| BRIEF-Ocular Therapeutix Announces Proposed Public Offering Of Common Stock Factbox: How United States, others regulate autonomous vehicle testing Mississippi's new law restricting abortion blocked by judge for 10 days Fifth device explodes in Texas, seen linked to others Senate Democrat wants Facebook CEO Zuckerberg to testify
<p>Jan 24 (Reuters) - Ocular Therapeutix Inc:</p>
<p>* OCULAR THERAPEUTIX™ ANNOUNCES PROPOSED PUBLIC OFFERING OF COMMON STOCK</p>
<p>* OCULAR THERAPEUTIX - TO USE PROCEEDS FROM OFFERING, EXISTING CASH AND EQUIVALENTS, TO FUND PLANNED RESUBMISSION OF NEW DRUG APPLICATION FOR DEXTENZA</p>
<p>* OCULAR THERAPEUTIX - TO ALSO USE PROCEEDS TO FUND CLINICAL DEVELOPMENT OF OTX-TP, OTX-TIC AND OTX-TKI, ADDITIONAL PRECLINICAL, REGULATORY ACTIVITIES Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - An Uber self-driving sport utility vehicle struck and killed a woman crossing a street in Arizona on Sunday, the first fatality involving an autonomous vehicle and a potential blow to the technology expected to transform transportation.</p>
<p>The ride services company said it was suspending North American tests of its self-driving vehicles. Safety advocates have called for a national moratorium on the testing of all so-called robot cars on public roads.</p>
<p>Here is a brief look at how the United States and some other countries regulate testing of autonomous vehicles.</p>
<p>- So far, 21 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia have enacted legislation related to autonomous vehicles, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. ( <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/transportation/autonomous-vehicles-self-driving-vehicles-enacted-legislation.aspx" type="external">here</a>)</p>
<p>- Nevada was the first to authorize operation of autonomous vehicles in 2011.</p>
<p>- Arizona has opened its arms to companies testing self-driving vehicles as a means to economic growth and jobs. Republican Governor Doug Ducey reached out to Uber in 2016 after California regulators cracked down on the company over its failure to obtain testing permits.</p>
<p>- China has issued licenses to automakers that allow self-driving vehicles to be road tested, the state-owned Xinhua news agency has reported. The licenses allow operators to test drive the vehicles on a 5.6-km (3.5-mile) public road in Jiading District of Shanghai, Xinhua said. Shanghai has regulations on road tests for such smart cars and has said it would promote the application and commercialization of vehicles using artificial intelligence technology and internet-linked functions, Xinhua reported.</p>
<p>- South Korea’s transport ministry began the provisional permit system in February 2016 and has approved provisional permits for 41 self-driving cars as of March including 14 for Hyundai Motor Co ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=005380.KS" type="external">005380.KS</a>), two for Kia Motors ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=000270.KS" type="external">000270.KS</a>) , and one for Audi-Volkswagen ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=VOWG_p.DE" type="external">VOWG_p.DE</a>). Audi-Volkswagen is the only foreign company with a provisional permit in South Korea.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=005380.KS" type="external">Hyundai Motor Co</a> 152500.0 005380.KS Korea Stock Exchange +1,000.00 (+0.66%) 005380.KS 000270.KS VOWG_p.DE
<p>South Korea said it was aware of the Uber incident and that it makes “frequent improvements to the permit system and could make changes in light of the incident going forward.”</p>
<p>- In Japan, all vehicles on roads require a driver to be sitting in the driver’s seat, according to the Transport Ministry. As long as someone is in the driver’s seat during an automated driving test and has his or her hands close to the wheel at all times, no special permit is needed to conduct self-driving tests.</p>
<p>A ministry spokesman said of the Uber incident, “We will be following it closely, but it’s too early to say how it will affect our approach to self-driving tests.”</p>
<p>- Singapore requires that all autonomous test vehicles undergo a vehicle safety assessment before they are approved for on-road trials. Test vehicles can only be driven in autonomous mode within an approved test-site. All test vehicles are required to have a qualified safety driver who is ready to take control, until autonomous vehicle trials demonstrate that the technology is ready for fully autonomous operations. All trial participants are also required to have third-party insurance for test vehicles and must share data.</p>
<p>Compiled by Matthew Lewis; Reporting by Joseph White in Detroit, Joyce Lee in Seoul, Twinnie Siu in Hong Kong</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Mississippi law that enacted the tightest restrictions on abortion in the United States, in a ruling handed down a day after the governor signed the measure.</p> FILE PHOTO: Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, arrives at B.B. King's funeral in Indianola, Mississippi, U.S., May 30, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
<p>The Mississippi law would prohibit abortion after 15 weeks of gestation, with some exceptions. It went into effect immediately after Republican Governor Phil Bryant signed it on Monday. State law previously banned abortion at 20 weeks after conception, in line with limits in 17 other states.</p>
<p>The judge’s ruling blocks the measure for 10 days, while he considers arguments on whether to stop the law from taking effect until the outcome of a full legal challenge.</p>
<p>“The Supreme Court says every woman has a constitutional right to ‘personal privacy’ regarding her body,” U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves in Jackson, Mississippi, said in a two-page ruling that quoted from the high court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.</p>
<p>The judge said a stay was justified because the Mississippi law’s proposed 15-week limit is outside of the medical consensus about when fetus becomes vital, raising questions about whether it violates the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>Abortion rights groups say anti-abortion organizations could use the case to test limits on abortion all the way to the Supreme Court. The court in the past has struck down prohibitions on abortion before fetal viability, usually considered to be about 20 weeks of gestation.</p>
<p>The Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only clinic providing abortions in Mississippi, sued to block the measure on Monday.</p>
<p>“We will fight this unconstitutional ban and ensure that women can access legal and safe abortion care, no matter their zip code,” the New York City-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the clinic in court, said in a statement on Twitter after the ruling.</p>
<p>In 2016, the Supreme Court refused to uphold an Arkansas law that banned abortion after 12 weeks’ gestation as well as a North Dakota six-week law.</p>
<p>The Mississippi governor called the judge’s ruling on Tuesday disappointing.</p>
<p>“House Bill 1510 protects maternal health and will further our efforts to make Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child,” Bryant said in a statement. “We are confident in its constitutionality and look forward to vigorously defending it.”</p>
<p>The Mississippi law includes an exception in the case of severe fetal abnormality or a medical emergency.</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>AUSTIN/SCHERTZ, Texas (Reuters) - A package bomb blew up at a FedEx distribution center near San Antonio on Tuesday, the fifth in a series of attacks that have rocked Texas this month and sent investigators on a frantic search for what they suspect is a serial bomber.</p>
<p>The package filled with nails and metal shrapnel was mailed from Austin to another address in Austin and passed through a sorting center in Schertz, about 65 miles (105 km) away, when it exploded on a conveyer belt, knocking a female employee off her feet, officials said.</p>
<p>It was the fifth explosion in Texas in the past 18 days and the first involving a commercial parcel service.</p>
<p>“We do believe that these incidents are all related. That is because of the specific contents of these devices,” interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told members of the Austin City Council, the Austin American-Statesman reported.</p>
<p>A second package sent by the same person was discovered and turned over to law enforcement, FedEx Corp said in a statement. Meanwhile police had surrounded yet another FedEx location in the Austin area after discovering a suspicious package there.</p>
<p>The series of bombings have unsettled Austin, the state capital of some 1 million people, and drawn hundreds of federal law enforcement investigators to join local police. Schertz lies on the highway between Austin and San Antonio.</p>
<p>Speaking through the media, officials have appealed to the bomber to reveal the motives for the attacks. They have also asked the public for any tips, offering a $115,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprit.</p>
<p>White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a tweet: “We are committed to bringing perpetrators of these heinous acts to justice. There is no apparent nexus to terrorism at this time.”</p>
<p>The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether it was ruling out both international and domestic terrorism.</p>
<p>“This is obviously a very, very sick individual, or maybe individuals,” President Donald Trump told reporters. “These</p> Law enforcement personnel are seen gathering evidence outside a FedEx Store which was closed for investigation, in Austin, Texas, U.S., March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Sergio Flores
<p>are sick people, and we will get to the bottom of it.”</p>
<p>Investigators were trying to come up with a theory or intelligence regarding the motive for the bombings or identity of the bomber or bombers, a U.S. security official and a law enforcement official told Reuters.</p>
<p>The Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating the FedEx package explosion as if there were a connection to the Austin bombings, the law enforcement official said. Both sources declined to be identified.</p>
<p>The individual or people behind the bombings are likely to be highly skilled and methodical, said Fred Burton, chief security officer for Stratfor, a private intelligence and security consulting firm based in Austin.</p> Slideshow (18 Images)
<p>“This is a race against time to find him before he bombs again,” Burton said.</p>
<p>The four previous explosions killed two people and injured four others.</p>
<p>The first three devices were parcel bombs dropped off in front of homes on in three eastern Austin neighborhoods. The fourth went off on Sunday night on the west side of the city and was described by police as a more sophisticated device detonated through a trip wire.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-texas-blast-whitehouse/no-known-link-to-terrorism-in-texas-bombings-white-house-idUSKBN1GW293" type="external">No known link to terrorism in Texas bombings: White House</a>
<p>The four devices were similar in construction, suggesting they were the work of the same bomb maker, officials said.</p>
<p>Federal authorities at the scene of Tuesday’s blast offered few details, telling reporters their probe was in the early stages and that the building would be secured before investigators could gather evidence.</p>
<p>The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were among those working with local officials in Austin, Schertz and San Antonio.</p>
<p>“We have agents from across the country. We have our national response team here. We have explosive detection canines here. We have intel research specialists,” Frank Ortega, acting assistant special agent in charge of the San Antonio ATF office, told reporters. “We’ve been working around the clock.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Mark Hosenball and Lisa Lambert in Washington; Writing Daniel Trotta; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Tom Brown</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said on Tuesday that Facebook Inc chief executive Mark Zuckerberg should testify in Congress about his company’s treatment of users’ data.</p> FILE PHOTO - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the Alumni Exercises following the 366th Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., May 25, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
<p>“Fifty million people lost their privacy,” Feinstein told reporters at the U.S. Senate, amid mounting calls in Congress for the social media company to account for the mining of its users’ personal data by a political consultancy hired by President Donald Trump’s campaign.</p>
<p>“I think that we ought to have the head of Facebook, not their lawyer, not their number two, but their number one, come... state if they’re really prepared to lead the industry to some controls that prevent all this from happening,” she said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Nick Zieminski</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | 2,559 |
<p />
<p>Former Qwest Communications CEO Joseph Nacchio was awarded $14 million in a civil case he brought against a former financial advisor whose testimony years ago helped land Nacchio in jail on insider trading charges.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Although the two cases were unrelated, Nacchio said in an interview with FOXBusiness.com that the jury’s decision in the recent trial in New Jersey left him feeling “vindicated” because the jury believed his testimony despite efforts by defense attorneys to impugn his character.</p>
<p>“It was a good victory. I wanted to right a wrong that had been committed against my family,” Nacchio said Friday. “I felt personally a bit of vindication.”</p>
<p>Nacchio was one of a small group of high-profile, alleged white collar criminals targeted by the government in the late 1990s and early 2000s on accusations of insider trading and various acts of financial misconduct allegedly committed on the publicly traded companies they ran. Former HealthSouth (NYSE:HLS) CEO Richard Scrushy, Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco International (NYSE:TYC) and Jim Treacy, former COO of online recruiting agency Monster Worldwide (NYSE:MWW), are Nacchio’s peers in that category.</p>
<p>Nacchio, 66, spent several years in prison after being convicted in 2007 of insider trading while running Denver-based Qwest.</p>
<p>During the insider trading trial, Nacchio’s financial advisor, David Weinstein, who worked with a Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) affiliate called Ayco Co., was called to testify against Nacchi and asked to explain Nacchio’s possible motivation for allegedly selling some $52 million in Qwest shares.</p>
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<p>Nacchio has maintained his innocence in the insider trading case.</p>
<p>Several years later, while Nacchio was still in prison, he and his wife filed suit against Weinstein claiming the advisor breached his fiduciary duty to put his clients’ interests ahead of his own. Specifically, the Nacchio’s claimed Weinstein misled them with regard to a complex life insurance policy the Nacchio’s had purchased.</p>
<p>Nacchio explained to FOXBusiness.com that he had a long-term relationship with Weinstein but that the relationship seemed to change after Nacchio rose to the top of Qwest and started making serious money. The financial advisor, he said, began to aggressively push increasingly complicated products.</p>
<p>Eventually the Nacchios brought the case to court.</p>
<p>“I felt wronged by this, it bothered me for a number of years,” Nacchio said. “The principle was important to me, to right an injustice.”</p>
<p>In court papers, attorneys defending Weinstein said the financial advisor disclosed all risks to the Nacchios, according to Bloomberg News. Ayco said they plan to appeal the ruling. Weinstein and his lawyers couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.</p> | Former Qwest CEO Nacchio Awarded $14M in Court Victory | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/01/08/former-qwest-ceo-nacchio-in-14m-court-victory.html | 2016-03-04 | 0right
| Former Qwest CEO Nacchio Awarded $14M in Court Victory
<p />
<p>Former Qwest Communications CEO Joseph Nacchio was awarded $14 million in a civil case he brought against a former financial advisor whose testimony years ago helped land Nacchio in jail on insider trading charges.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Although the two cases were unrelated, Nacchio said in an interview with FOXBusiness.com that the jury’s decision in the recent trial in New Jersey left him feeling “vindicated” because the jury believed his testimony despite efforts by defense attorneys to impugn his character.</p>
<p>“It was a good victory. I wanted to right a wrong that had been committed against my family,” Nacchio said Friday. “I felt personally a bit of vindication.”</p>
<p>Nacchio was one of a small group of high-profile, alleged white collar criminals targeted by the government in the late 1990s and early 2000s on accusations of insider trading and various acts of financial misconduct allegedly committed on the publicly traded companies they ran. Former HealthSouth (NYSE:HLS) CEO Richard Scrushy, Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco International (NYSE:TYC) and Jim Treacy, former COO of online recruiting agency Monster Worldwide (NYSE:MWW), are Nacchio’s peers in that category.</p>
<p>Nacchio, 66, spent several years in prison after being convicted in 2007 of insider trading while running Denver-based Qwest.</p>
<p>During the insider trading trial, Nacchio’s financial advisor, David Weinstein, who worked with a Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) affiliate called Ayco Co., was called to testify against Nacchi and asked to explain Nacchio’s possible motivation for allegedly selling some $52 million in Qwest shares.</p>
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<p>Nacchio has maintained his innocence in the insider trading case.</p>
<p>Several years later, while Nacchio was still in prison, he and his wife filed suit against Weinstein claiming the advisor breached his fiduciary duty to put his clients’ interests ahead of his own. Specifically, the Nacchio’s claimed Weinstein misled them with regard to a complex life insurance policy the Nacchio’s had purchased.</p>
<p>Nacchio explained to FOXBusiness.com that he had a long-term relationship with Weinstein but that the relationship seemed to change after Nacchio rose to the top of Qwest and started making serious money. The financial advisor, he said, began to aggressively push increasingly complicated products.</p>
<p>Eventually the Nacchios brought the case to court.</p>
<p>“I felt wronged by this, it bothered me for a number of years,” Nacchio said. “The principle was important to me, to right an injustice.”</p>
<p>In court papers, attorneys defending Weinstein said the financial advisor disclosed all risks to the Nacchios, according to Bloomberg News. Ayco said they plan to appeal the ruling. Weinstein and his lawyers couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.</p> | 2,560 |
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<p />
<p>Some of these are quite crude and, while they may fool some people, they probably have a low “yield.”</p>
<p>For example, we do not answer our home phone unless we recognize the number of the caller ID. But I have had about 10 messages left on our machine from someone representing themselves as with the IRS, and almost yelling that they are suing me for a tax bill and that I need to return their call to immediately pay my bill.</p>
<p>That call is just silly and is almost a form of entertainment. Unfortunately, the scams seem to be getting more sophisticated. The most recent one is an email communication, allegedly from the IRS, that has an attachment.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The attachment is a fairly realistic-looking Form CP2000 notice from the IRS. A CP2000 is a notice of underreported income that the IRS believes it has identified. It comes from a matching of documents provided to the IRS from third parties to what is reported on your tax return.</p>
<p>So, as an example, if my bank issues a 1099-INT reporting that it paid me $100 in 2015 and that $100 does not appear on my 2015 tax return, the IRS will send me the CP2000 to propose an adjustment to my 2015 tax return.</p>
<p>The CP2000 is not a bill. It will explain to me my possible responses, which could include my agreement that I somehow did not include the interest on my return, or a response that I do not agree with the proposed adjustment.</p>
<p>The IRS does not send the CP2000 by email. The scam CP2000 comes as an email attachment, which is a tip-off to a tax practitioner that something is wrong, but many taxpayers may not be aware of what a CP2000 is or how it is communicated by the IRS to the taxpayer.</p>
<p>The scam form apparently also includes a payment button where the recipient can choose to pay the tax immediately online. The IRS will not ask for money in this manner.</p>
<p>The fake form also directs the recipient to make a check payable to “IRS.” The actual IRS asks that checks be made payable to “United States Treasury.” But, again, many taxpayers would not know this and would even assume that taxes are paid to the IRS.</p>
<p>The fake CP2000 has other problems, such as using the wrong return address and, as noted above, failing to explain what options the recipient has to respond to the proposed adjustment. It also says the tax due is a result of Obamacare.</p>
<p>These scams are particularly effective because they prey on people’s fears of the IRS. Many people will try to pay immediately to avoid further IRS actions, including simply further communications from the IRS.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>I think we can expect to see an ever-increasing level of sophistication from tax-related scams, which means it is important for both the IRS, financial publications and local newspapers to vigilantly report on the latest scams.</p>
<p>Q: My sister-in-law passed away in late August. My brother has learned that he will receive one year of her salary as a death benefit. The amount is about $39,000. Will this be taxable to him?</p>
<p>A . If this is simply a death benefit plan operated by the employer, yes, it will be taxable. The tax law once allowed a $5,000 death benefit exclusion, but that provision was repealed 20 years ago.</p>
<p>Life insurance proceeds are excluded from income. So I would check with your brother, and he may need to check with his wife’s former employer, to see whether this payment is a death benefit or a payment for insurance offered through a group term life insurance plan.</p>
<p>Many employers offer employees group-term life insurance that equals some percentage of the employee’s salary. This coverage can be a tax-free fringe benefit if the coverage does not exceed $50,000.</p>
<p>Even if some portion of the fringe benefit of the coverage is taxable income, the proceeds of the life insurance remain tax free.</p>
<p>James R. Hamill is the director of Tax Practice at Reynolds, Hix &amp; Co. in Albuquerque. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Tax-related scams grow ever more sophisticated | false | https://abqjournal.com/873502/taxrelated-scams-grow-ever-more-sophisticated.html | 2least
| Tax-related scams grow ever more sophisticated
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Some of these are quite crude and, while they may fool some people, they probably have a low “yield.”</p>
<p>For example, we do not answer our home phone unless we recognize the number of the caller ID. But I have had about 10 messages left on our machine from someone representing themselves as with the IRS, and almost yelling that they are suing me for a tax bill and that I need to return their call to immediately pay my bill.</p>
<p>That call is just silly and is almost a form of entertainment. Unfortunately, the scams seem to be getting more sophisticated. The most recent one is an email communication, allegedly from the IRS, that has an attachment.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The attachment is a fairly realistic-looking Form CP2000 notice from the IRS. A CP2000 is a notice of underreported income that the IRS believes it has identified. It comes from a matching of documents provided to the IRS from third parties to what is reported on your tax return.</p>
<p>So, as an example, if my bank issues a 1099-INT reporting that it paid me $100 in 2015 and that $100 does not appear on my 2015 tax return, the IRS will send me the CP2000 to propose an adjustment to my 2015 tax return.</p>
<p>The CP2000 is not a bill. It will explain to me my possible responses, which could include my agreement that I somehow did not include the interest on my return, or a response that I do not agree with the proposed adjustment.</p>
<p>The IRS does not send the CP2000 by email. The scam CP2000 comes as an email attachment, which is a tip-off to a tax practitioner that something is wrong, but many taxpayers may not be aware of what a CP2000 is or how it is communicated by the IRS to the taxpayer.</p>
<p>The scam form apparently also includes a payment button where the recipient can choose to pay the tax immediately online. The IRS will not ask for money in this manner.</p>
<p>The fake form also directs the recipient to make a check payable to “IRS.” The actual IRS asks that checks be made payable to “United States Treasury.” But, again, many taxpayers would not know this and would even assume that taxes are paid to the IRS.</p>
<p>The fake CP2000 has other problems, such as using the wrong return address and, as noted above, failing to explain what options the recipient has to respond to the proposed adjustment. It also says the tax due is a result of Obamacare.</p>
<p>These scams are particularly effective because they prey on people’s fears of the IRS. Many people will try to pay immediately to avoid further IRS actions, including simply further communications from the IRS.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>I think we can expect to see an ever-increasing level of sophistication from tax-related scams, which means it is important for both the IRS, financial publications and local newspapers to vigilantly report on the latest scams.</p>
<p>Q: My sister-in-law passed away in late August. My brother has learned that he will receive one year of her salary as a death benefit. The amount is about $39,000. Will this be taxable to him?</p>
<p>A . If this is simply a death benefit plan operated by the employer, yes, it will be taxable. The tax law once allowed a $5,000 death benefit exclusion, but that provision was repealed 20 years ago.</p>
<p>Life insurance proceeds are excluded from income. So I would check with your brother, and he may need to check with his wife’s former employer, to see whether this payment is a death benefit or a payment for insurance offered through a group term life insurance plan.</p>
<p>Many employers offer employees group-term life insurance that equals some percentage of the employee’s salary. This coverage can be a tax-free fringe benefit if the coverage does not exceed $50,000.</p>
<p>Even if some portion of the fringe benefit of the coverage is taxable income, the proceeds of the life insurance remain tax free.</p>
<p>James R. Hamill is the director of Tax Practice at Reynolds, Hix &amp; Co. in Albuquerque. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | 2,561 |
|
<p>From Gallup:</p>
<p>Herman Cain is the only candidate whose Positive Intensity Score has increased in comparison to Gallup’s initial measurement earlier this year. In fact, each of the eight candidates Gallup tracks began with scores in the double digits, but now only three remain in that range.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/150482/GOP-Field-Cain-Image-Better-Earlier-Year.aspx?utm_source=tagrss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=syndication" type="external">(Read Full Article)</a></p> | In GOP Field, Only Cain’s Image Better Than Earlier This Year | false | http://capoliticalreview.com/trending/in-gop-field-only-cains-image-better-than-earlier-this-year/ | 2011-11-04 | 1right-center
| In GOP Field, Only Cain’s Image Better Than Earlier This Year
<p>From Gallup:</p>
<p>Herman Cain is the only candidate whose Positive Intensity Score has increased in comparison to Gallup’s initial measurement earlier this year. In fact, each of the eight candidates Gallup tracks began with scores in the double digits, but now only three remain in that range.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/150482/GOP-Field-Cain-Image-Better-Earlier-Year.aspx?utm_source=tagrss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=syndication" type="external">(Read Full Article)</a></p> | 2,562 |
<p>When I woke up this morning and learned of the Las Vegas shooting, I fully expected all sorts of horrible hot takes and political exploitation.</p>
<p>And Twitter has not disappointed in that regard.</p>
<p>But I have to admit, <a href="" type="internal">as attuned as I am</a> to anti-Israel activists hijacking causes and events to turn them against Israel, it never entered my mind that the Las Vegas shooting would be exploited in that manner.</p>
<p />
<p>After all, as far as is currently known, the shooter and the shooting have nothing whatsoever to do with Israel. (There is a claim of responsibility by ISIS, but that is unverified.)</p>
<p>So, I actually was surprised when I saw a <a href="https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/914916699144687621" type="external">tweet from Yair Rosenberg</a>:</p>
<p>“American guns are overwhelmingly produced in America, but there is no atrocity that cannot and will not be blamed on the Jews or their state.”</p>
<p>Rosenberg was referring to this tweet from Yousef Munayyer, responding to a statement from the Israeli Embassy sending their “thoughts and prayers” and “love and solidarity” to the Las Vegas shooting victims:</p>
<p>“Also from Israel, assault rifles into the US market”</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/YousefMunayyer/status/914879061444395008" type="external" /></p>
<p>The tweet links to a February 2017&#160; <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/israelis-will-soon-be-mass-producing-ak-47s-for-the-us-market" type="external">Daily Beast</a> article that in the future AK-47s for the US market may be manufactured in Israel. Currently, the weapons are manufactured in many places, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/19/news/companies/kalashnikov-usa-guns/index.html" type="external">including the U.S.</a></p>
<p>So why bring up Israel at all? Why try to make the Las Vegas shooting about Israel, or by implication, suggest that Israel is somehow connected to gun violence in the U.S.?</p>
<p>We’ve seen a similar tactic in other contexts by anti-Israel, pro-BDS Jewish Voice for Peace, whose <a href="" type="internal">Deadly Exchange</a> campaign seeks to blame Israel and pro-Israel Jewish groups for police violence against non-whites in the U.S.</p>
<p>Munayyer leads the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, recently rebranded as the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian rights. It is a leading promoter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and is a group trying desperately to gain political legitimacy, with only limited success.</p>
<p>The United Methodist assembly <a href="" type="internal">voted to break ties with the U.S. Campaign</a> over the U.S. Campaign’s pathological Israel hatred, and a U.S. Campaign event on Capitol Hill <a href="" type="internal">was cancelled</a> once the nature of the group was exposed.</p>
<p>It also should surprise no one that the U.S. Campaign staff posted a photo in support of convicted terrorist murderer and immigration fraudster Rasmea Odeh <a href="" type="internal">the day she was deported</a> (Munayyer is third from left in back row):</p>
<p />
<p>Dave from Israelly Cool had a good response to Munayyer:</p>
<p>“You have an illness. Seek help. Preferably not from a Jewish doctor”</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/Israellycool/status/914918007490666496" type="external" /></p>
<p>(added) So did <a href="https://twitter.com/AviMayer/status/914989578808852481" type="external">Avi Mayer</a>:</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/AviMayer/status/914989578808852481" type="external" /></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The attempt to demonize Israel is beyond political at this point.</p> | Sick: Leading BDS activist tries to make #LasVegasShooting about Israel | true | https://legalinsurrection.com/2017/10/sick-leading-bds-activist-tries-to-make-lasvegasshooting-about-israel/ | 2017-10-02 | 0right
| Sick: Leading BDS activist tries to make #LasVegasShooting about Israel
<p>When I woke up this morning and learned of the Las Vegas shooting, I fully expected all sorts of horrible hot takes and political exploitation.</p>
<p>And Twitter has not disappointed in that regard.</p>
<p>But I have to admit, <a href="" type="internal">as attuned as I am</a> to anti-Israel activists hijacking causes and events to turn them against Israel, it never entered my mind that the Las Vegas shooting would be exploited in that manner.</p>
<p />
<p>After all, as far as is currently known, the shooter and the shooting have nothing whatsoever to do with Israel. (There is a claim of responsibility by ISIS, but that is unverified.)</p>
<p>So, I actually was surprised when I saw a <a href="https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/914916699144687621" type="external">tweet from Yair Rosenberg</a>:</p>
<p>“American guns are overwhelmingly produced in America, but there is no atrocity that cannot and will not be blamed on the Jews or their state.”</p>
<p>Rosenberg was referring to this tweet from Yousef Munayyer, responding to a statement from the Israeli Embassy sending their “thoughts and prayers” and “love and solidarity” to the Las Vegas shooting victims:</p>
<p>“Also from Israel, assault rifles into the US market”</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/YousefMunayyer/status/914879061444395008" type="external" /></p>
<p>The tweet links to a February 2017&#160; <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/israelis-will-soon-be-mass-producing-ak-47s-for-the-us-market" type="external">Daily Beast</a> article that in the future AK-47s for the US market may be manufactured in Israel. Currently, the weapons are manufactured in many places, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/19/news/companies/kalashnikov-usa-guns/index.html" type="external">including the U.S.</a></p>
<p>So why bring up Israel at all? Why try to make the Las Vegas shooting about Israel, or by implication, suggest that Israel is somehow connected to gun violence in the U.S.?</p>
<p>We’ve seen a similar tactic in other contexts by anti-Israel, pro-BDS Jewish Voice for Peace, whose <a href="" type="internal">Deadly Exchange</a> campaign seeks to blame Israel and pro-Israel Jewish groups for police violence against non-whites in the U.S.</p>
<p>Munayyer leads the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, recently rebranded as the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian rights. It is a leading promoter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and is a group trying desperately to gain political legitimacy, with only limited success.</p>
<p>The United Methodist assembly <a href="" type="internal">voted to break ties with the U.S. Campaign</a> over the U.S. Campaign’s pathological Israel hatred, and a U.S. Campaign event on Capitol Hill <a href="" type="internal">was cancelled</a> once the nature of the group was exposed.</p>
<p>It also should surprise no one that the U.S. Campaign staff posted a photo in support of convicted terrorist murderer and immigration fraudster Rasmea Odeh <a href="" type="internal">the day she was deported</a> (Munayyer is third from left in back row):</p>
<p />
<p>Dave from Israelly Cool had a good response to Munayyer:</p>
<p>“You have an illness. Seek help. Preferably not from a Jewish doctor”</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/Israellycool/status/914918007490666496" type="external" /></p>
<p>(added) So did <a href="https://twitter.com/AviMayer/status/914989578808852481" type="external">Avi Mayer</a>:</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/AviMayer/status/914989578808852481" type="external" /></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The attempt to demonize Israel is beyond political at this point.</p> | 2,563 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) — Navajo President Ben Shelly has approved a lease extension for a coal-fired power plant on the reservation that will allow it to keep operating until 2044.</p>
<p>Shelly signed the measure Tuesday, saying the Navajo Generating Station has long been a source of jobs and revenue for the tribe.</p>
<p>The agreement between the tribe and the owners of the power plant near Page boosts yearly payments to the Navajo Nation from $3 million to $43 million.</p>
<p>The electricity generated by the plant delivers water to Arizona’s most populated areas through a series of canals. It also ensures that water rights settlements with American Indian tribes are met.</p>
<p>The plant’s operator, the Salt River Project, had indicated that amendments to the lease agreement were acceptable.</p>
<p>The lease had been set to expire in 2019.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Navajo power plant lease extended | false | https://abqjournal.com/228086/navajo-power-plant-lease-extended.html | 2013-07-31 | 2least
| Navajo power plant lease extended
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) — Navajo President Ben Shelly has approved a lease extension for a coal-fired power plant on the reservation that will allow it to keep operating until 2044.</p>
<p>Shelly signed the measure Tuesday, saying the Navajo Generating Station has long been a source of jobs and revenue for the tribe.</p>
<p>The agreement between the tribe and the owners of the power plant near Page boosts yearly payments to the Navajo Nation from $3 million to $43 million.</p>
<p>The electricity generated by the plant delivers water to Arizona’s most populated areas through a series of canals. It also ensures that water rights settlements with American Indian tribes are met.</p>
<p>The plant’s operator, the Salt River Project, had indicated that amendments to the lease agreement were acceptable.</p>
<p>The lease had been set to expire in 2019.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 2,564 |
<p>TIDMINVP TIDMTSCO</p>
<p>FORM 8.5 (EPT/RI)</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>PUBLIC DEALING DISCLOSURE BY AN EXEMPT PRINCIPAL TRADER WITH RECOGNISED</p>
<p>INTERMEDIARY STATUS DEALING IN A CLIENT-SERVING CAPACITY</p>
<p>1. KEY INFORMATION</p>
<p>(a) Name of exempt principal trader:</p>
<p>Investec Bank plc</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>(b) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant</p>
<p>securities this form relates: Tesco plc</p>
<p>Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree</p>
<p>(c) Name of the party to the offer with which exempt</p>
<p>principal trader is connected: Investec are Broker to Booker Group plc</p>
<p>d) Date dealing undertaken:</p>
<p>30(th) January 2018</p>
<p>(e) Has the EPT previously disclosed, or is it today Yes</p>
<p>disclosing, in respect of any other party to this</p>
<p>offer?</p>
<p>2. DEALINGS BY THE EXEMPT PRINCIPAL TRADER</p>
<p>(a) Purchases and sales</p>
<p>Class of Purchases/ sales Total Highest price per unit paid/received Lowest price per unit paid/received</p>
<p>relevant number of (pence) (pence)</p>
<p>security securities</p>
<p>Ordinary Purchases 521,926 211.2 207.7</p>
<p>Shares</p>
<p>Ordinary Sales 519,065 211.7 207.8</p>
<p>Shares</p>
<p>(b) Derivatives transactions (other than options)</p>
<p>Class of Product description Nature of dealing Number of Price</p>
<p>relevant e.g. CFD e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing reference per</p>
<p>security a long/short position securities unit</p>
<p>(c) Options transactions in respect of existing securities</p>
<p>(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying</p>
<p>Class of Product Writing, Number of Exercise Type Expiry Option</p>
<p>relevant description purchasing, securities price e.g. American, European etc. date money</p>
<p>security e.g. call selling, to which per paid/</p>
<p>option varying option unit received</p>
<p>etc. relates per</p>
<p>unit</p>
<p>(ii) Exercising</p>
<p>Class of relevant Product description Number of Exercise price per</p>
<p>security e.g. call option securities unit</p>
<p>(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)</p>
<p>Class of relevant Nature of dealing Details Price per unit</p>
<p>security e.g. subscription, conversion (if applicable)</p>
<p>The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.</p>
<p>Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant</p>
<p>securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(b), copy table 2(a), (b),</p>
<p>(c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant</p>
<p>security dealt in.</p>
<p>3. OTHER INFORMATION</p>
<p>(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements</p>
<p>Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or</p>
<p>any agreement or understanding, formal or informal,</p>
<p>relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement</p>
<p>to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the</p>
<p>exempt principal trader making the disclosure and</p>
<p>any party to the offer or any person acting in concert</p>
<p>with a party to the offer:</p>
<p>If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings,</p>
<p>state "none"</p>
<p>None</p>
<p>(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to</p>
<p>options or derivatives</p>
<p>Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding,</p>
<p>formal or informal, between the exempt principal trader</p>
<p>making the disclosure and any other person relating</p>
<p>to:</p>
<p>(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under</p>
<p>any option; or</p>
<p>(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal</p>
<p>of any relevant securities to which any derivative</p>
<p>is referenced:</p>
<p>If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings,</p>
<p>state "none"</p>
<p>None</p>
<p>Date of disclosure:</p>
<p>31(st) January 2018</p>
<p>Contact name:</p>
<p>Robert Letson</p>
<p>Telephone number:</p>
<p>0207 597 5690</p>
<p>This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf</p>
<p>of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.</p>
<p>The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely</p>
<p>responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information</p>
<p>contained therein.</p>
<p>Source: Investec Bank plc via Globenewswire</p>
<p>https://www.investec.co.uk/</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>January 31, 2018 05:26 ET (10:26 GMT)</p> | Investec Bank plc Investec Bank Plc : Form 8.5 (EPT/RI) - Tesco Plc | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/27/investec-bank-plc-investec-bank-plc-form-8-5-eptri-tesco-plc.html | 2018-01-31 | 0right
| Investec Bank plc Investec Bank Plc : Form 8.5 (EPT/RI) - Tesco Plc
<p>TIDMINVP TIDMTSCO</p>
<p>FORM 8.5 (EPT/RI)</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>PUBLIC DEALING DISCLOSURE BY AN EXEMPT PRINCIPAL TRADER WITH RECOGNISED</p>
<p>INTERMEDIARY STATUS DEALING IN A CLIENT-SERVING CAPACITY</p>
<p>1. KEY INFORMATION</p>
<p>(a) Name of exempt principal trader:</p>
<p>Investec Bank plc</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>(b) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant</p>
<p>securities this form relates: Tesco plc</p>
<p>Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree</p>
<p>(c) Name of the party to the offer with which exempt</p>
<p>principal trader is connected: Investec are Broker to Booker Group plc</p>
<p>d) Date dealing undertaken:</p>
<p>30(th) January 2018</p>
<p>(e) Has the EPT previously disclosed, or is it today Yes</p>
<p>disclosing, in respect of any other party to this</p>
<p>offer?</p>
<p>2. DEALINGS BY THE EXEMPT PRINCIPAL TRADER</p>
<p>(a) Purchases and sales</p>
<p>Class of Purchases/ sales Total Highest price per unit paid/received Lowest price per unit paid/received</p>
<p>relevant number of (pence) (pence)</p>
<p>security securities</p>
<p>Ordinary Purchases 521,926 211.2 207.7</p>
<p>Shares</p>
<p>Ordinary Sales 519,065 211.7 207.8</p>
<p>Shares</p>
<p>(b) Derivatives transactions (other than options)</p>
<p>Class of Product description Nature of dealing Number of Price</p>
<p>relevant e.g. CFD e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing reference per</p>
<p>security a long/short position securities unit</p>
<p>(c) Options transactions in respect of existing securities</p>
<p>(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying</p>
<p>Class of Product Writing, Number of Exercise Type Expiry Option</p>
<p>relevant description purchasing, securities price e.g. American, European etc. date money</p>
<p>security e.g. call selling, to which per paid/</p>
<p>option varying option unit received</p>
<p>etc. relates per</p>
<p>unit</p>
<p>(ii) Exercising</p>
<p>Class of relevant Product description Number of Exercise price per</p>
<p>security e.g. call option securities unit</p>
<p>(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)</p>
<p>Class of relevant Nature of dealing Details Price per unit</p>
<p>security e.g. subscription, conversion (if applicable)</p>
<p>The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.</p>
<p>Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant</p>
<p>securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(b), copy table 2(a), (b),</p>
<p>(c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant</p>
<p>security dealt in.</p>
<p>3. OTHER INFORMATION</p>
<p>(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements</p>
<p>Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or</p>
<p>any agreement or understanding, formal or informal,</p>
<p>relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement</p>
<p>to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the</p>
<p>exempt principal trader making the disclosure and</p>
<p>any party to the offer or any person acting in concert</p>
<p>with a party to the offer:</p>
<p>If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings,</p>
<p>state "none"</p>
<p>None</p>
<p>(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to</p>
<p>options or derivatives</p>
<p>Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding,</p>
<p>formal or informal, between the exempt principal trader</p>
<p>making the disclosure and any other person relating</p>
<p>to:</p>
<p>(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under</p>
<p>any option; or</p>
<p>(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal</p>
<p>of any relevant securities to which any derivative</p>
<p>is referenced:</p>
<p>If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings,</p>
<p>state "none"</p>
<p>None</p>
<p>Date of disclosure:</p>
<p>31(st) January 2018</p>
<p>Contact name:</p>
<p>Robert Letson</p>
<p>Telephone number:</p>
<p>0207 597 5690</p>
<p>This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf</p>
<p>of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.</p>
<p>The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely</p>
<p>responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information</p>
<p>contained therein.</p>
<p>Source: Investec Bank plc via Globenewswire</p>
<p>https://www.investec.co.uk/</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>January 31, 2018 05:26 ET (10:26 GMT)</p> | 2,565 |
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — As the sexual misconduct wave hit Hollywood, the media and other industries last fall, an open letter circulated through the Illinois Capitol demanding an end to a culture of disrespectful treatment of women. Lawmakers have been trying to decide the best way to respond, but finding consensus has been more difficult than anticipated.</p>
<p>The governor eventually signed legislation requiring sexual harassment training for lawmakers and others working in the Statehouse, but the debate revealed problems in reviewing such complaints. A look at the issue in Illinois:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE PROPOSAL</p>
<p>The letter garnered hundreds of signatures from lawmakers, lobbyists and others with political affiliations in the capital, including top names among progressives in the Legislature, including Democratic Sen. Heather Steans and Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, both of Chicago, and Democratic Reps. Robyn Gabel of Evanston and Emanuel "Chris" Welch of Hillside.</p>
<p>The letter was publicly released days before Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, introduced legislation to add sexual harassment to a list of ethics violations for legislators and their staff members. The proposal also required them and lobbyists to undergo annual training.</p>
<p>The legislation was widely supported but quickly faced criticism because it called for complaints to be investigated by the legislative inspector general — a position that had been vacant for more than two years.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE HEARING</p>
<p>The impact of that vacancy became clear on Oct. 31, when a legislative committee considered Madigan's plan. An advocate for crime victims' rights testified that while working on legislation in 2016, Sen. Ira Silverstein of Chicago, the Democrats' caucus chairman, had paid her unwanted compliments, sent her inappropriate messages over social media and placed late-night calls to her.</p>
<p>The advocate, Denise Rotheimer, wanted to know why, after filing a complaint with the Legislative Ethics Commission a year earlier, nothing had happened.</p>
<p>Silverstein resigned as caucus chairman the day after Rotheimer's testimony, forfeiting a $21,000 annual stipend. He is the only lawmaker known in recent years to have suffered any repercussions for alleged harassment. A senator since 1999, he now faces four opponents in the March 20 Democratic primary.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE SCRAMBLE</p>
<p>Democrats who control the Legislature said they repeatedly tried to fill the part-time inspector general's post. Unflattering publicity followed, including the revelation by a state senator and ethics commission member that 27 complaints — not necessarily all harassment-related — had been filed but not acted upon during the vacancy.</p>
<p>The commission temporarily appointed former federal prosecutor Julie Porter on Nov. 4. She quickly pledged to address the complaints, telling The Associated Press: "I wouldn't have accepted this appointment if I thought there was nothing I could do to get the state and the citizens out of this current situation."</p>
<p>She reported in December that she had reviewed the 27 complaints and was ready to investigate several of them. Meanwhile, Rotheimer filed a fresh complaint — against the commission itself for failing to fill the inspector's position.</p>
<p>When lawmakers returned to Springfield in November, emergency sexual harassment-awareness sessions were arranged. Floor debate in the House and Senate were even interrupted so legislators could attend the sessions.</p>
<p>Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the legislation on Nov. 16, and the new law requires annual training. A 50-state review by The Associated Press found that about a third of state legislative chambers across the country do not require lawmakers to participate in sexual harassment training.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Contact Political Writer John O'Connor at <a href="https://twitter.com/apoconnor" type="external">https://twitter.com/apoconnor</a> . His work can be found at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/john%20o'connor</a></p>
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — As the sexual misconduct wave hit Hollywood, the media and other industries last fall, an open letter circulated through the Illinois Capitol demanding an end to a culture of disrespectful treatment of women. Lawmakers have been trying to decide the best way to respond, but finding consensus has been more difficult than anticipated.</p>
<p>The governor eventually signed legislation requiring sexual harassment training for lawmakers and others working in the Statehouse, but the debate revealed problems in reviewing such complaints. A look at the issue in Illinois:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE PROPOSAL</p>
<p>The letter garnered hundreds of signatures from lawmakers, lobbyists and others with political affiliations in the capital, including top names among progressives in the Legislature, including Democratic Sen. Heather Steans and Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, both of Chicago, and Democratic Reps. Robyn Gabel of Evanston and Emanuel "Chris" Welch of Hillside.</p>
<p>The letter was publicly released days before Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, introduced legislation to add sexual harassment to a list of ethics violations for legislators and their staff members. The proposal also required them and lobbyists to undergo annual training.</p>
<p>The legislation was widely supported but quickly faced criticism because it called for complaints to be investigated by the legislative inspector general — a position that had been vacant for more than two years.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE HEARING</p>
<p>The impact of that vacancy became clear on Oct. 31, when a legislative committee considered Madigan's plan. An advocate for crime victims' rights testified that while working on legislation in 2016, Sen. Ira Silverstein of Chicago, the Democrats' caucus chairman, had paid her unwanted compliments, sent her inappropriate messages over social media and placed late-night calls to her.</p>
<p>The advocate, Denise Rotheimer, wanted to know why, after filing a complaint with the Legislative Ethics Commission a year earlier, nothing had happened.</p>
<p>Silverstein resigned as caucus chairman the day after Rotheimer's testimony, forfeiting a $21,000 annual stipend. He is the only lawmaker known in recent years to have suffered any repercussions for alleged harassment. A senator since 1999, he now faces four opponents in the March 20 Democratic primary.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE SCRAMBLE</p>
<p>Democrats who control the Legislature said they repeatedly tried to fill the part-time inspector general's post. Unflattering publicity followed, including the revelation by a state senator and ethics commission member that 27 complaints — not necessarily all harassment-related — had been filed but not acted upon during the vacancy.</p>
<p>The commission temporarily appointed former federal prosecutor Julie Porter on Nov. 4. She quickly pledged to address the complaints, telling The Associated Press: "I wouldn't have accepted this appointment if I thought there was nothing I could do to get the state and the citizens out of this current situation."</p>
<p>She reported in December that she had reviewed the 27 complaints and was ready to investigate several of them. Meanwhile, Rotheimer filed a fresh complaint — against the commission itself for failing to fill the inspector's position.</p>
<p>When lawmakers returned to Springfield in November, emergency sexual harassment-awareness sessions were arranged. Floor debate in the House and Senate were even interrupted so legislators could attend the sessions.</p>
<p>Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the legislation on Nov. 16, and the new law requires annual training. A 50-state review by The Associated Press found that about a third of state legislative chambers across the country do not require lawmakers to participate in sexual harassment training.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Contact Political Writer John O'Connor at <a href="https://twitter.com/apoconnor" type="external">https://twitter.com/apoconnor</a> . His work can be found at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/john%20o'connor</a></p> | Illinois Capitol had its share of sexual misconduct missteps | false | https://apnews.com/amp/16b1350b187f45518c995bb4cddd8b57 | 2018-01-11 | 2least
| Illinois Capitol had its share of sexual misconduct missteps
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — As the sexual misconduct wave hit Hollywood, the media and other industries last fall, an open letter circulated through the Illinois Capitol demanding an end to a culture of disrespectful treatment of women. Lawmakers have been trying to decide the best way to respond, but finding consensus has been more difficult than anticipated.</p>
<p>The governor eventually signed legislation requiring sexual harassment training for lawmakers and others working in the Statehouse, but the debate revealed problems in reviewing such complaints. A look at the issue in Illinois:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE PROPOSAL</p>
<p>The letter garnered hundreds of signatures from lawmakers, lobbyists and others with political affiliations in the capital, including top names among progressives in the Legislature, including Democratic Sen. Heather Steans and Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, both of Chicago, and Democratic Reps. Robyn Gabel of Evanston and Emanuel "Chris" Welch of Hillside.</p>
<p>The letter was publicly released days before Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, introduced legislation to add sexual harassment to a list of ethics violations for legislators and their staff members. The proposal also required them and lobbyists to undergo annual training.</p>
<p>The legislation was widely supported but quickly faced criticism because it called for complaints to be investigated by the legislative inspector general — a position that had been vacant for more than two years.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE HEARING</p>
<p>The impact of that vacancy became clear on Oct. 31, when a legislative committee considered Madigan's plan. An advocate for crime victims' rights testified that while working on legislation in 2016, Sen. Ira Silverstein of Chicago, the Democrats' caucus chairman, had paid her unwanted compliments, sent her inappropriate messages over social media and placed late-night calls to her.</p>
<p>The advocate, Denise Rotheimer, wanted to know why, after filing a complaint with the Legislative Ethics Commission a year earlier, nothing had happened.</p>
<p>Silverstein resigned as caucus chairman the day after Rotheimer's testimony, forfeiting a $21,000 annual stipend. He is the only lawmaker known in recent years to have suffered any repercussions for alleged harassment. A senator since 1999, he now faces four opponents in the March 20 Democratic primary.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE SCRAMBLE</p>
<p>Democrats who control the Legislature said they repeatedly tried to fill the part-time inspector general's post. Unflattering publicity followed, including the revelation by a state senator and ethics commission member that 27 complaints — not necessarily all harassment-related — had been filed but not acted upon during the vacancy.</p>
<p>The commission temporarily appointed former federal prosecutor Julie Porter on Nov. 4. She quickly pledged to address the complaints, telling The Associated Press: "I wouldn't have accepted this appointment if I thought there was nothing I could do to get the state and the citizens out of this current situation."</p>
<p>She reported in December that she had reviewed the 27 complaints and was ready to investigate several of them. Meanwhile, Rotheimer filed a fresh complaint — against the commission itself for failing to fill the inspector's position.</p>
<p>When lawmakers returned to Springfield in November, emergency sexual harassment-awareness sessions were arranged. Floor debate in the House and Senate were even interrupted so legislators could attend the sessions.</p>
<p>Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the legislation on Nov. 16, and the new law requires annual training. A 50-state review by The Associated Press found that about a third of state legislative chambers across the country do not require lawmakers to participate in sexual harassment training.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Contact Political Writer John O'Connor at <a href="https://twitter.com/apoconnor" type="external">https://twitter.com/apoconnor</a> . His work can be found at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/john%20o'connor</a></p>
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — As the sexual misconduct wave hit Hollywood, the media and other industries last fall, an open letter circulated through the Illinois Capitol demanding an end to a culture of disrespectful treatment of women. Lawmakers have been trying to decide the best way to respond, but finding consensus has been more difficult than anticipated.</p>
<p>The governor eventually signed legislation requiring sexual harassment training for lawmakers and others working in the Statehouse, but the debate revealed problems in reviewing such complaints. A look at the issue in Illinois:</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE PROPOSAL</p>
<p>The letter garnered hundreds of signatures from lawmakers, lobbyists and others with political affiliations in the capital, including top names among progressives in the Legislature, including Democratic Sen. Heather Steans and Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, both of Chicago, and Democratic Reps. Robyn Gabel of Evanston and Emanuel "Chris" Welch of Hillside.</p>
<p>The letter was publicly released days before Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, introduced legislation to add sexual harassment to a list of ethics violations for legislators and their staff members. The proposal also required them and lobbyists to undergo annual training.</p>
<p>The legislation was widely supported but quickly faced criticism because it called for complaints to be investigated by the legislative inspector general — a position that had been vacant for more than two years.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE HEARING</p>
<p>The impact of that vacancy became clear on Oct. 31, when a legislative committee considered Madigan's plan. An advocate for crime victims' rights testified that while working on legislation in 2016, Sen. Ira Silverstein of Chicago, the Democrats' caucus chairman, had paid her unwanted compliments, sent her inappropriate messages over social media and placed late-night calls to her.</p>
<p>The advocate, Denise Rotheimer, wanted to know why, after filing a complaint with the Legislative Ethics Commission a year earlier, nothing had happened.</p>
<p>Silverstein resigned as caucus chairman the day after Rotheimer's testimony, forfeiting a $21,000 annual stipend. He is the only lawmaker known in recent years to have suffered any repercussions for alleged harassment. A senator since 1999, he now faces four opponents in the March 20 Democratic primary.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>THE SCRAMBLE</p>
<p>Democrats who control the Legislature said they repeatedly tried to fill the part-time inspector general's post. Unflattering publicity followed, including the revelation by a state senator and ethics commission member that 27 complaints — not necessarily all harassment-related — had been filed but not acted upon during the vacancy.</p>
<p>The commission temporarily appointed former federal prosecutor Julie Porter on Nov. 4. She quickly pledged to address the complaints, telling The Associated Press: "I wouldn't have accepted this appointment if I thought there was nothing I could do to get the state and the citizens out of this current situation."</p>
<p>She reported in December that she had reviewed the 27 complaints and was ready to investigate several of them. Meanwhile, Rotheimer filed a fresh complaint — against the commission itself for failing to fill the inspector's position.</p>
<p>When lawmakers returned to Springfield in November, emergency sexual harassment-awareness sessions were arranged. Floor debate in the House and Senate were even interrupted so legislators could attend the sessions.</p>
<p>Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the legislation on Nov. 16, and the new law requires annual training. A 50-state review by The Associated Press found that about a third of state legislative chambers across the country do not require lawmakers to participate in sexual harassment training.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Contact Political Writer John O'Connor at <a href="https://twitter.com/apoconnor" type="external">https://twitter.com/apoconnor</a> . His work can be found at <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/search/john%20o'connor</a></p> | 2,566 |
<p>The Gap Kids clothing company caved to idiotic criticism that their recent ad is racist because it shows a taller white girl resting her arm on a shorter black girl, which apparently projects "passive racism."</p>
<p>meet the kids who are proving that girls can do anything. check out <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GapKidsxED?src=hash" type="external">#GapKidsxED</a>: <a href="https://t.co/qbR13BsWIL" type="external">https://t.co/qbR13BsWIL</a> <a href="https://t.co/e47gVghHt0" type="external">pic.twitter.com/e47gVghHt0</a></p>
<p>Race-baiting Twitter critics declared it an "epic fail"...</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/GapKids" type="external">@GapKids</a> yeah that's cool and all but no one should be resting on anyone's head. Not cool <a href="https://t.co/IDhNLc21EO" type="external">pic.twitter.com/IDhNLc21EO</a></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/GapKids" type="external">@GapKids</a> proving girls can do anything... unless she's Black. Then all she can do is bear the weight of White girls. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EpicFail?src=hash" type="external">#EpicFail</a></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/GapKids" type="external">@GapKids</a> the best way to lose the black demographic. Making your only black model an armrest</p>
<p>It turns out that the eight-year-old black girl is actually the adopted sister of the twelve-year-old white girl who's resting her arm on her head; they are part of a performance troupe called "Le Petit Cirque" with the other two girls featured. You can't make it up.</p>
<p>The ad, which is a collaboration between Gap and Ellen Degeneres’ lifestyle brand ED, caused such outrage that Gap issued a statement saying they were replacing the image of the sisters.</p>
<p>“As a brand with a proud 46-year history of championing diversity and inclusivity, we appreciate the conversation that has taken place and are sorry to anyone we’ve offended,” a Gap spokeswoman said in a statement. “This GapKids campaign highlights true stories of talented girls who are celebrating creative self-expression and sharing their messages of empowerment. We are replacing the image with a different shot from the campaign, which encourages girls [and boys] everywhere to be themselves and feel pride in what makes them unique.”</p>
<p>The mother of the two girls, actress Brooke Smith, from Showtime's Ray Donovan, responded to the black news outlet <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/04/gapkids_ad_sparks_racially_charged_controversy.html?utm_content=buffer21324&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" type="external">The Root</a> that tweeted their article titled "The Price on Our Heads: New GapKids Ad Sparks Racially Charged Controversy.... This Gap ad is what happens when black faces appear but no black voices are at the table." ...</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/TheRoot" type="external">@TheRoot</a> girl with arm resting on her shoulder is her sister She didn't talk in video because she was 2 shy. everyone needs to calm down.</p>
<p>Click below for the video with Ellen and the kids...</p>
<p>And to top it off, Gap ran the exact same style ad previously but with the roles reversed, and no one raised an eyebrow...</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/KALIUCHIS" type="external">@KALIUCHIS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jess6mami" type="external">@jess6mami</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/GapKids" type="external">@GapKids</a> ......but <a href="https://t.co/J1qAwBSTlD" type="external">pic.twitter.com/J1qAwBSTlD</a></p>
<p>h/t <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/04/06/see-why-gap-kids-pulled-this-racist-ad-and-apologized-to-critics/" type="external">TheBlaze</a></p> | GAP Just Pulled This Ad Because Insane People Found It Racist | true | https://dailywire.com/news/4750/gap-just-pulled-ad-because-insane-people-found-it-chase-stephens | 2016-04-07 | 0right
| GAP Just Pulled This Ad Because Insane People Found It Racist
<p>The Gap Kids clothing company caved to idiotic criticism that their recent ad is racist because it shows a taller white girl resting her arm on a shorter black girl, which apparently projects "passive racism."</p>
<p>meet the kids who are proving that girls can do anything. check out <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GapKidsxED?src=hash" type="external">#GapKidsxED</a>: <a href="https://t.co/qbR13BsWIL" type="external">https://t.co/qbR13BsWIL</a> <a href="https://t.co/e47gVghHt0" type="external">pic.twitter.com/e47gVghHt0</a></p>
<p>Race-baiting Twitter critics declared it an "epic fail"...</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/GapKids" type="external">@GapKids</a> yeah that's cool and all but no one should be resting on anyone's head. Not cool <a href="https://t.co/IDhNLc21EO" type="external">pic.twitter.com/IDhNLc21EO</a></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/GapKids" type="external">@GapKids</a> proving girls can do anything... unless she's Black. Then all she can do is bear the weight of White girls. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EpicFail?src=hash" type="external">#EpicFail</a></p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/GapKids" type="external">@GapKids</a> the best way to lose the black demographic. Making your only black model an armrest</p>
<p>It turns out that the eight-year-old black girl is actually the adopted sister of the twelve-year-old white girl who's resting her arm on her head; they are part of a performance troupe called "Le Petit Cirque" with the other two girls featured. You can't make it up.</p>
<p>The ad, which is a collaboration between Gap and Ellen Degeneres’ lifestyle brand ED, caused such outrage that Gap issued a statement saying they were replacing the image of the sisters.</p>
<p>“As a brand with a proud 46-year history of championing diversity and inclusivity, we appreciate the conversation that has taken place and are sorry to anyone we’ve offended,” a Gap spokeswoman said in a statement. “This GapKids campaign highlights true stories of talented girls who are celebrating creative self-expression and sharing their messages of empowerment. We are replacing the image with a different shot from the campaign, which encourages girls [and boys] everywhere to be themselves and feel pride in what makes them unique.”</p>
<p>The mother of the two girls, actress Brooke Smith, from Showtime's Ray Donovan, responded to the black news outlet <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/04/gapkids_ad_sparks_racially_charged_controversy.html?utm_content=buffer21324&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" type="external">The Root</a> that tweeted their article titled "The Price on Our Heads: New GapKids Ad Sparks Racially Charged Controversy.... This Gap ad is what happens when black faces appear but no black voices are at the table." ...</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/TheRoot" type="external">@TheRoot</a> girl with arm resting on her shoulder is her sister She didn't talk in video because she was 2 shy. everyone needs to calm down.</p>
<p>Click below for the video with Ellen and the kids...</p>
<p>And to top it off, Gap ran the exact same style ad previously but with the roles reversed, and no one raised an eyebrow...</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/KALIUCHIS" type="external">@KALIUCHIS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jess6mami" type="external">@jess6mami</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/GapKids" type="external">@GapKids</a> ......but <a href="https://t.co/J1qAwBSTlD" type="external">pic.twitter.com/J1qAwBSTlD</a></p>
<p>h/t <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/04/06/see-why-gap-kids-pulled-this-racist-ad-and-apologized-to-critics/" type="external">TheBlaze</a></p> | 2,567 |
<p>During tonight's presidential debate, moderator Candy Crowley corrected Mitt Romney's false claim that President Obama did not refer to the September 11 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya as an act of terrorism the day after the attack.</p>
<p>Crowley was right, and Romney was wrong: In his September 12 <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/12/remarks-president-deaths-us-embassy-staff-libya" type="external">remarks</a>, the president said: "No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America." Despite this, conservatives in the media are insisting that Obama never said that.</p>
<p>Fox News host <a href="https://twitter.com/ericbolling/status/258396934866366464" type="external">Eric Bolling</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>Fox News contributor <a href="https://twitter.com/michellemalkin/status/258391404231925761" type="external">Michelle Malkin</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>Blogger <a href="https://twitter.com/gatewaypundit/status/258391547157049344" type="external">Jim Hoft</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>Both Malkin and Hoft linked to a September 30 Commentary <a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/09/30/no-obama-didnt-call-benghazi-act-of-terror-in-speech/" type="external">blog post</a> by Alana Goodman arguing that "at no point" in Obama's remarks responding to the Benghazi attack "was it clear that he was using that term to describe the attack in Benghazi." Instead, argued Goodman, the line might have been "just a generic, reassuring line he'd added into a speech which did take place, after all, the day after the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks." Even though Obama mentioned the four Americans killed in Benghazi in the very next line.</p>
<p>That makes little sense and is a reed far too thin to stand on. But it's good enough for Fox News and the conservative blogosphere.</p> | Transcript Truthers: Conservatives Deny Obama Called Libya Attack An "Act Of Terror" | true | http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/10/16/transcript-truthers-conservatives-deny-obama-ca/190677 | 2012-10-17 | 4left
| Transcript Truthers: Conservatives Deny Obama Called Libya Attack An "Act Of Terror"
<p>During tonight's presidential debate, moderator Candy Crowley corrected Mitt Romney's false claim that President Obama did not refer to the September 11 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya as an act of terrorism the day after the attack.</p>
<p>Crowley was right, and Romney was wrong: In his September 12 <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/09/12/remarks-president-deaths-us-embassy-staff-libya" type="external">remarks</a>, the president said: "No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America." Despite this, conservatives in the media are insisting that Obama never said that.</p>
<p>Fox News host <a href="https://twitter.com/ericbolling/status/258396934866366464" type="external">Eric Bolling</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>Fox News contributor <a href="https://twitter.com/michellemalkin/status/258391404231925761" type="external">Michelle Malkin</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>Blogger <a href="https://twitter.com/gatewaypundit/status/258391547157049344" type="external">Jim Hoft</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>Both Malkin and Hoft linked to a September 30 Commentary <a href="http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/09/30/no-obama-didnt-call-benghazi-act-of-terror-in-speech/" type="external">blog post</a> by Alana Goodman arguing that "at no point" in Obama's remarks responding to the Benghazi attack "was it clear that he was using that term to describe the attack in Benghazi." Instead, argued Goodman, the line might have been "just a generic, reassuring line he'd added into a speech which did take place, after all, the day after the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks." Even though Obama mentioned the four Americans killed in Benghazi in the very next line.</p>
<p>That makes little sense and is a reed far too thin to stand on. But it's good enough for Fox News and the conservative blogosphere.</p> | 2,568 |
<p>Among the iconic American businesses that have been driven into the tar pits of economic extinction, none will likely have a greater cultural impact than Eastman Kodak. From Hollywood’s “Gone with the Wind” to Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome,” film has been deeply entwined in the landscape of our lives – and those of people around the world.</p>
<p>“Kodak played a role in pretty much everyone’s life in the 20th century because it was the company we entrusted our most treasured possession to—our memories,” Robert Burley, a photography professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, told the <a href="http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article715288.ece" type="external">Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>But times have changed, and Kodak has failed to keep up. Despite their near complete dominance of the film industry through the 80s and their prodigious technological capabilities, they have been beaten by tiny microchips and memory cards that have democratized filmmaking and shifted the intellectual center of the business west to Silicon Valley and on to Japan, China and Korea. Kodak has reported just one profitable year since 2004.</p>
<p>Hence, the company finds itself on the verge of complete insolvency. It was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 19 and may not have the reserves to emerge from that status. Its only real source of substantive revenues now will come from the sale of its treasured patents – including those that created the digital imaging techniques that ended up killing the company.</p>
<p>However, Kodak enters bankruptcy with a plan to reorganize and move forward, as reported by the Associated Press:</p>
<p>“The Rochester, N.Y.-based company hopes to peddle a trove of photo patents and morph into a new-look powerhouse built around printers and ink. Even if it succeeds, it seems unlikely to ever resemble what its red-on-yellow K logo long stood for — a brand synonymous in every corner of the planet with capturing, collecting and sharing images.”</p>
<p>One of the casualties of the filing may be the long-term relationship between the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Kodak Theater, which has hosted the Oscars for the past 10 years. The contract for the awards show is due to be re-negotiated after the 2013 telecast, and the Academy is considering whether it should disassociate itself from the tarnished brand.</p>
<p>“I don’t think it’s good branding at all for the Oscars to be associated with a bankrupt company,” branding expert Adam Hanft told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/20/us-kodak-hollywood-idUSTRE80J07D20120120" type="external">Reuters</a>.</p>
<p>Hollywood has other reasons to distance itself from Kodak. Debts to the film studio represent a significant part of the company’s problems.</p>
<p>“Major entertainment companies listed among Kodak’s top 50 unsecured creditors include Sony, owed $16.7 million; Warner Brothers, due $14.2 million; NBC Universal, short $9.3 million; Paramount Studios, owed $6.8 million; and Walt Disney Studios, $4.2 million,” Reuters reported.</p>
<p>Although most photographers have moved into digital imaging, Kodak’s bankruptcy filing is a bittersweet moment:</p>
<p>“There’s a kind of emotional connection to Kodak for many people,” said Burley. “You could find that name inside every American household and, in the last five years, it’s disappeared. At the very least, digital technology will transform Kodak from a very big company to a smaller one. I think we all hope it won’t mean the end of Kodak because it still has a lot to offer.”</p> | Kodak may fade from public view | false | https://ivn.us/2012/01/26/kodak-may-fade-from-public-view/ | 2012-01-26 | 2least
| Kodak may fade from public view
<p>Among the iconic American businesses that have been driven into the tar pits of economic extinction, none will likely have a greater cultural impact than Eastman Kodak. From Hollywood’s “Gone with the Wind” to Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome,” film has been deeply entwined in the landscape of our lives – and those of people around the world.</p>
<p>“Kodak played a role in pretty much everyone’s life in the 20th century because it was the company we entrusted our most treasured possession to—our memories,” Robert Burley, a photography professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, told the <a href="http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article715288.ece" type="external">Associated Press</a>.</p>
<p>But times have changed, and Kodak has failed to keep up. Despite their near complete dominance of the film industry through the 80s and their prodigious technological capabilities, they have been beaten by tiny microchips and memory cards that have democratized filmmaking and shifted the intellectual center of the business west to Silicon Valley and on to Japan, China and Korea. Kodak has reported just one profitable year since 2004.</p>
<p>Hence, the company finds itself on the verge of complete insolvency. It was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 19 and may not have the reserves to emerge from that status. Its only real source of substantive revenues now will come from the sale of its treasured patents – including those that created the digital imaging techniques that ended up killing the company.</p>
<p>However, Kodak enters bankruptcy with a plan to reorganize and move forward, as reported by the Associated Press:</p>
<p>“The Rochester, N.Y.-based company hopes to peddle a trove of photo patents and morph into a new-look powerhouse built around printers and ink. Even if it succeeds, it seems unlikely to ever resemble what its red-on-yellow K logo long stood for — a brand synonymous in every corner of the planet with capturing, collecting and sharing images.”</p>
<p>One of the casualties of the filing may be the long-term relationship between the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the Kodak Theater, which has hosted the Oscars for the past 10 years. The contract for the awards show is due to be re-negotiated after the 2013 telecast, and the Academy is considering whether it should disassociate itself from the tarnished brand.</p>
<p>“I don’t think it’s good branding at all for the Oscars to be associated with a bankrupt company,” branding expert Adam Hanft told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/20/us-kodak-hollywood-idUSTRE80J07D20120120" type="external">Reuters</a>.</p>
<p>Hollywood has other reasons to distance itself from Kodak. Debts to the film studio represent a significant part of the company’s problems.</p>
<p>“Major entertainment companies listed among Kodak’s top 50 unsecured creditors include Sony, owed $16.7 million; Warner Brothers, due $14.2 million; NBC Universal, short $9.3 million; Paramount Studios, owed $6.8 million; and Walt Disney Studios, $4.2 million,” Reuters reported.</p>
<p>Although most photographers have moved into digital imaging, Kodak’s bankruptcy filing is a bittersweet moment:</p>
<p>“There’s a kind of emotional connection to Kodak for many people,” said Burley. “You could find that name inside every American household and, in the last five years, it’s disappeared. At the very least, digital technology will transform Kodak from a very big company to a smaller one. I think we all hope it won’t mean the end of Kodak because it still has a lot to offer.”</p> | 2,569 |
<p>Several laws <a href="" type="internal">adopted by the Nevada Legislature in 2017</a> sprang into effect just after midnight Sunday as fireworks exploded over the Strip, marking the start of the new year.</p>
<p>Amid the new crop of legislation are laws that require state insurance plans to cover contraceptives, strengthen penalties for guardians who abuse or neglect vulnerable persons in their care, and increase regulations on day care facilities.</p>
<p>Contraception laws</p>
<p>The enactment of Senate Bill 233 and Assembly Bill 249 guarantees Nevada women access to contraception and other preventive care services, such as mammograms and HPV screening and vaccinations. The new laws require private and state insurance plans, including Medicaid, to provide coverage for reproductive health and allow women to obtain a 12-month supply of contraceptives.</p>
<p>Training in child abuse cases</p>
<p>As of Jan. 1, regardless of the number of children in a facility’s care, employees must complete 24 hours of training, 12 of which must be specific to the age group served by the facility. Senate Bill 189 requires employees to complete two additional hours of training every year in recognizing and reporting child abuse or neglect, and requires day care facilities to run expanded background checks before hiring new employees.</p>
<p>‘Conversion’ therapy</p>
<p>Senate Bill 201, modeled on similar laws enacted in California and New Jersey, prohibits mental health professionals from conducting “conversion” therapy on minors. The bill was passed to protect children from substantial physical and psychological harm that can be caused by the therapy, which seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity and has not been shown to be medically or clinically effective.</p>
<p>Guardianship</p>
<p>Senate bills 229 and 360 make it easier for adults requiring guardians to nominate another person to be appointed as a guardian, and impose tougher penalties on abusive or neglectful guardians.</p>
<p>Previously the court could only give preference to guardians nominated in the adult’s will, trust, or other document executed while the vulnerable person was still competent. SB 229’s enactment means adults seeking a new guardian need only fill out a request form signed by two impartial adult witnesses. SB 360 creates a “Ward’s Bill of Rights” and increases the maximum sentence from six years to 20 years in prison for a guardian who exploits, neglects or abuses a person under their care.</p>
<p>Domestic violence protections</p>
<p>The new year also brings new workplace protections for victims of domestic violence. Senate Bill 361 requires an employer to provide 160 hours of leave during a 12-month period to an employee who has been a victim of domestic violence. Additionally, the state cannot deny unemployment benefits to a person who left their job to protect themselves from domestic violence.</p>
<p>More new laws</p>
<p>The new year also brings laws authorizing the use of alkaline hydrolysis — a water-based dissolution process — to cremate bodies; requiring moped drivers to use the right lane of a road except within a quarter-mile of a left-hand turn; requiring performers, trainers, and workers in live entertainment (including set designers, prop handlers and more) to complete 10 to 30 hours of Occupational Safety and Health Administration training within 15 days of being hired; and prohibiting the purchase, sale or possession with intent to sell animal parts or byproducts of several sensitive species, including tigers, lions, rhinos, sea turtles, elephants, sharks, mammoths, walruses, whales and hippos, among others, with exemptions for antiques, musical instruments, knives and firearms, and for scientific or educational institutions.</p>
<p>Contact Kimber Laux at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected].</a> Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/lauxkimber" type="external">@lauxkimber</a> on Twitter.</p> | New Nevada laws tackle day care, women’s health issues | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/new-nevada-laws-tackle-day-care-womens-health-issues/ | 2018-01-01 | 1right-center
| New Nevada laws tackle day care, women’s health issues
<p>Several laws <a href="" type="internal">adopted by the Nevada Legislature in 2017</a> sprang into effect just after midnight Sunday as fireworks exploded over the Strip, marking the start of the new year.</p>
<p>Amid the new crop of legislation are laws that require state insurance plans to cover contraceptives, strengthen penalties for guardians who abuse or neglect vulnerable persons in their care, and increase regulations on day care facilities.</p>
<p>Contraception laws</p>
<p>The enactment of Senate Bill 233 and Assembly Bill 249 guarantees Nevada women access to contraception and other preventive care services, such as mammograms and HPV screening and vaccinations. The new laws require private and state insurance plans, including Medicaid, to provide coverage for reproductive health and allow women to obtain a 12-month supply of contraceptives.</p>
<p>Training in child abuse cases</p>
<p>As of Jan. 1, regardless of the number of children in a facility’s care, employees must complete 24 hours of training, 12 of which must be specific to the age group served by the facility. Senate Bill 189 requires employees to complete two additional hours of training every year in recognizing and reporting child abuse or neglect, and requires day care facilities to run expanded background checks before hiring new employees.</p>
<p>‘Conversion’ therapy</p>
<p>Senate Bill 201, modeled on similar laws enacted in California and New Jersey, prohibits mental health professionals from conducting “conversion” therapy on minors. The bill was passed to protect children from substantial physical and psychological harm that can be caused by the therapy, which seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity and has not been shown to be medically or clinically effective.</p>
<p>Guardianship</p>
<p>Senate bills 229 and 360 make it easier for adults requiring guardians to nominate another person to be appointed as a guardian, and impose tougher penalties on abusive or neglectful guardians.</p>
<p>Previously the court could only give preference to guardians nominated in the adult’s will, trust, or other document executed while the vulnerable person was still competent. SB 229’s enactment means adults seeking a new guardian need only fill out a request form signed by two impartial adult witnesses. SB 360 creates a “Ward’s Bill of Rights” and increases the maximum sentence from six years to 20 years in prison for a guardian who exploits, neglects or abuses a person under their care.</p>
<p>Domestic violence protections</p>
<p>The new year also brings new workplace protections for victims of domestic violence. Senate Bill 361 requires an employer to provide 160 hours of leave during a 12-month period to an employee who has been a victim of domestic violence. Additionally, the state cannot deny unemployment benefits to a person who left their job to protect themselves from domestic violence.</p>
<p>More new laws</p>
<p>The new year also brings laws authorizing the use of alkaline hydrolysis — a water-based dissolution process — to cremate bodies; requiring moped drivers to use the right lane of a road except within a quarter-mile of a left-hand turn; requiring performers, trainers, and workers in live entertainment (including set designers, prop handlers and more) to complete 10 to 30 hours of Occupational Safety and Health Administration training within 15 days of being hired; and prohibiting the purchase, sale or possession with intent to sell animal parts or byproducts of several sensitive species, including tigers, lions, rhinos, sea turtles, elephants, sharks, mammoths, walruses, whales and hippos, among others, with exemptions for antiques, musical instruments, knives and firearms, and for scientific or educational institutions.</p>
<p>Contact Kimber Laux at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected].</a> Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/lauxkimber" type="external">@lauxkimber</a> on Twitter.</p> | 2,570 |
<p>The arrest of a 14-year-old Australian for allegedly <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/down-under/bali-lewis-mason-marijuana-pot-weed-cannabis-australia-kevin-rudd" type="external">buying marijuana in Bali</a>, Indonesia, has become something of an international incident,&#160;with Australia's top elected official - Prime Minister Julia Gillard - reportedly offering reassurances to the boy by phone.</p>
<p>(Down Under reports: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/down-under/bali-lewis-mason-marijuana-pot-weed-cannabis-australia-kevin-rudd" type="external">Bali marijuana arrest of Australian teen invokes memories of Corby, Bali Nine</a>)</p>
<p>The News South Wales schoolboy - named over the weekend as <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-10/gillard-speaks-to-boy-in-bali/3458986" type="external">Lewis Mason</a> of Newcastle - spent his sixth night in a jail cell Sunday in Denpasar for allegedly buying $25 worth of marijuana from a dealer in the resort town of Kuta Beach. He had been staying with his family at the Legian Beach Hotel.</p>
<p>Mason - whose name was suppressed by many Australian news outlets owing to ethical worries about identifying children in trouble - has admitted to <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/lawyer-aims-for-bali-drug-teen-to-be-released-to-parents-20111009-1lfx2.html" type="external">buying drugs</a>in a statement to police, The Age newspaper reports.&#160;</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/australian-teen-locked-in-bali-police-cell-could-be-released-to-parents/story-fn7x8me2-1226162501173" type="external">Australian government</a>has pledged to "pull out all stops" to get the teen home, the Herald Sun reports.</p>
<p>Gillard's office said she told Mason that the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-10/gillard-speaks-to-boy-in-bali/3458986" type="external">Australian government</a> was doing everything it could to convince Indonesia to release him, the ABC reports.</p>
<p>Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd already said Friday that the Australian authorities were negotiating with Indonesian officials to try to bring Mason home.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Mason's supporters are pinning their hopes on a psychiatric report from a government welfare officer due in the next few days.</p>
<p>Based on the report, the police may opt to release Mason into the custody of his parents while the investigation into his alleged purchase of <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/lawyer-aims-for-bali-drug-teen-to-be-released-to-parents-20111009-1lfx2.html" type="external">cannabis</a> continues, The Age reports. He wouldn't be able to leave Bali, however.&#160;</p>
<p>The report will help a judge decide whether the boy should skip a jail sentence - he faces a term of six years - and undergo treatment at a drug rehabilitation clinic, possibility back in Australia.</p>
<p>According to article 128 of Indonesia's drug laws, those caught with small amounts of drugs can be released if they can prove they are an addict, the Age reports, adding that Mason told a psychiatrist that he had used cannabis previously.</p>
<p>That's highly preferable, according to the ABC which reports that while <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3335633.htm" type="external">drug rehab programs</a> in Bali exist, experts in juvenile welfare don't know of any dealing regularly with minors.</p>
<p>The alternative, reports the ABC, doesn't bear thinking about:</p>
<p>In the justice system the rights of Indonesian children are often abused: as well as more infamous inmates like the Bali Nine and Schapelle Corby, Kerobokan prison is home to 10 children - nine boys and one girl.</p>
<p>During the day they mix with adult thieves, bashers and drug dealers.</p>
<p>At night the boys cram in to two cells of their own, to be separate from the men but the girl sleeps in the same cell as the adults in the women's wing.</p>
<p>However, experts warn that it could take months before he learns his fate. The Indonesian justice system is notoriously slow, and setting a court date alone could take another week.</p>
<p>And then Mason may still face court if police decide to charge him under laws that carry a maximum six-year prison sentence, some or all of which would be served in a cell for minors in Kerobokan prison.</p> | Australian prime minister speaks to boy arrested on drug charges in Bali, Indonesia | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-10-10/australian-prime-minister-speaks-boy-arrested-drug-charges-bali-indonesia | 2011-10-10 | 3left-center
| Australian prime minister speaks to boy arrested on drug charges in Bali, Indonesia
<p>The arrest of a 14-year-old Australian for allegedly <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/down-under/bali-lewis-mason-marijuana-pot-weed-cannabis-australia-kevin-rudd" type="external">buying marijuana in Bali</a>, Indonesia, has become something of an international incident,&#160;with Australia's top elected official - Prime Minister Julia Gillard - reportedly offering reassurances to the boy by phone.</p>
<p>(Down Under reports: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/down-under/bali-lewis-mason-marijuana-pot-weed-cannabis-australia-kevin-rudd" type="external">Bali marijuana arrest of Australian teen invokes memories of Corby, Bali Nine</a>)</p>
<p>The News South Wales schoolboy - named over the weekend as <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-10/gillard-speaks-to-boy-in-bali/3458986" type="external">Lewis Mason</a> of Newcastle - spent his sixth night in a jail cell Sunday in Denpasar for allegedly buying $25 worth of marijuana from a dealer in the resort town of Kuta Beach. He had been staying with his family at the Legian Beach Hotel.</p>
<p>Mason - whose name was suppressed by many Australian news outlets owing to ethical worries about identifying children in trouble - has admitted to <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/lawyer-aims-for-bali-drug-teen-to-be-released-to-parents-20111009-1lfx2.html" type="external">buying drugs</a>in a statement to police, The Age newspaper reports.&#160;</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/australian-teen-locked-in-bali-police-cell-could-be-released-to-parents/story-fn7x8me2-1226162501173" type="external">Australian government</a>has pledged to "pull out all stops" to get the teen home, the Herald Sun reports.</p>
<p>Gillard's office said she told Mason that the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-10/gillard-speaks-to-boy-in-bali/3458986" type="external">Australian government</a> was doing everything it could to convince Indonesia to release him, the ABC reports.</p>
<p>Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd already said Friday that the Australian authorities were negotiating with Indonesian officials to try to bring Mason home.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Mason's supporters are pinning their hopes on a psychiatric report from a government welfare officer due in the next few days.</p>
<p>Based on the report, the police may opt to release Mason into the custody of his parents while the investigation into his alleged purchase of <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/lawyer-aims-for-bali-drug-teen-to-be-released-to-parents-20111009-1lfx2.html" type="external">cannabis</a> continues, The Age reports. He wouldn't be able to leave Bali, however.&#160;</p>
<p>The report will help a judge decide whether the boy should skip a jail sentence - he faces a term of six years - and undergo treatment at a drug rehabilitation clinic, possibility back in Australia.</p>
<p>According to article 128 of Indonesia's drug laws, those caught with small amounts of drugs can be released if they can prove they are an addict, the Age reports, adding that Mason told a psychiatrist that he had used cannabis previously.</p>
<p>That's highly preferable, according to the ABC which reports that while <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3335633.htm" type="external">drug rehab programs</a> in Bali exist, experts in juvenile welfare don't know of any dealing regularly with minors.</p>
<p>The alternative, reports the ABC, doesn't bear thinking about:</p>
<p>In the justice system the rights of Indonesian children are often abused: as well as more infamous inmates like the Bali Nine and Schapelle Corby, Kerobokan prison is home to 10 children - nine boys and one girl.</p>
<p>During the day they mix with adult thieves, bashers and drug dealers.</p>
<p>At night the boys cram in to two cells of their own, to be separate from the men but the girl sleeps in the same cell as the adults in the women's wing.</p>
<p>However, experts warn that it could take months before he learns his fate. The Indonesian justice system is notoriously slow, and setting a court date alone could take another week.</p>
<p>And then Mason may still face court if police decide to charge him under laws that carry a maximum six-year prison sentence, some or all of which would be served in a cell for minors in Kerobokan prison.</p> | 2,571 |
<p>Siemens and Alstom say their train-making merger will save 470 million euros ($555 million) a year and help European industry stand up to swelling Asian competition — but they insist it's not just about cost cuts.</p>
<p>It's not about a German industrial heavyweight gobbling up a French national jewel, either, the two companies and the French and German governments argued Wednesday, despite uproar from across the French political spectrum over the deal.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares in both companies rose Wednesday, and Siemens and Alstom went to lengths to market it as a "merger of equals."</p>
<p>French unions remain worried about potential job losses when Alstom SA becomes Siemens Alstom after the deal announced Tuesday. The French government owns 20 percent of Alstom and intervened repeatedly in the past to protect the struggling maker of high-speed TGVs and its jobs.</p>
<p>The merger "contains also a political message," Siemens President Joe Kaeser told reporters in Paris. "A global business needs a global view" instead of a nation-focused mindset, he said. The merger was announced just two days after German elections that saw a nationalist party gain parliament seats for the first time in decades.</p>
<p>"The merger will lead to a more balanced global footprint," he said. Alstom is strong in Africa, India, Central and South America, while Siemens is strong in China, Europe and the U.S., he added.</p>
<p>French Finance and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters Wednesday that the deal is crucial given growing competition from Chinese train makers to meet worldwide demand for the kind of high-speed trains once exemplified by Alstom's TGVs. The French state will no longer have a role in the new company.</p>
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<p>The German government welcomed it as "a cooperation project of European and global standing."</p>
<p>Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Wednesday that it's important that the two firms are consulting with employee representatives and that there are "parallel pledges" to maintain jobs at sites in Germany and France.</p>
<p>Siemens and Alstom say they aim to save 470 million euros a year within four years by joining their train manufacturing activities.</p>
<p>Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge, who will run the merged company, said the deal would ultimately create jobs and innovation, and promised that no French site would close within the next five years.</p>
<p>Munich-based Siemens would hold 50 percent of the shares in the combined entity, with the chance to eventually acquire 2 percent more. The deal must be approved by Alstom shareholders and regulators, and is expected to close next year.</p> | France, Germany try to quell fears over train-making merger | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/27/french-minister-defends-alstom-siemens-deal.html | 2017-09-27 | 0right
| France, Germany try to quell fears over train-making merger
<p>Siemens and Alstom say their train-making merger will save 470 million euros ($555 million) a year and help European industry stand up to swelling Asian competition — but they insist it's not just about cost cuts.</p>
<p>It's not about a German industrial heavyweight gobbling up a French national jewel, either, the two companies and the French and German governments argued Wednesday, despite uproar from across the French political spectrum over the deal.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares in both companies rose Wednesday, and Siemens and Alstom went to lengths to market it as a "merger of equals."</p>
<p>French unions remain worried about potential job losses when Alstom SA becomes Siemens Alstom after the deal announced Tuesday. The French government owns 20 percent of Alstom and intervened repeatedly in the past to protect the struggling maker of high-speed TGVs and its jobs.</p>
<p>The merger "contains also a political message," Siemens President Joe Kaeser told reporters in Paris. "A global business needs a global view" instead of a nation-focused mindset, he said. The merger was announced just two days after German elections that saw a nationalist party gain parliament seats for the first time in decades.</p>
<p>"The merger will lead to a more balanced global footprint," he said. Alstom is strong in Africa, India, Central and South America, while Siemens is strong in China, Europe and the U.S., he added.</p>
<p>French Finance and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters Wednesday that the deal is crucial given growing competition from Chinese train makers to meet worldwide demand for the kind of high-speed trains once exemplified by Alstom's TGVs. The French state will no longer have a role in the new company.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The German government welcomed it as "a cooperation project of European and global standing."</p>
<p>Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Wednesday that it's important that the two firms are consulting with employee representatives and that there are "parallel pledges" to maintain jobs at sites in Germany and France.</p>
<p>Siemens and Alstom say they aim to save 470 million euros a year within four years by joining their train manufacturing activities.</p>
<p>Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge, who will run the merged company, said the deal would ultimately create jobs and innovation, and promised that no French site would close within the next five years.</p>
<p>Munich-based Siemens would hold 50 percent of the shares in the combined entity, with the chance to eventually acquire 2 percent more. The deal must be approved by Alstom shareholders and regulators, and is expected to close next year.</p> | 2,572 |
<p>Investors are digesting a barrage of earnings, economic data and Fed speeches</p>
<p>U.S. stock-index futures pointed to a mildly higher open on Thursday, putting the Dow industrials on course to recover somewhat from the prior session's 138-point drop, as Cisco and Wal-Mart's earnings-driven gains provided a boost.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Traders will be digesting a barrage of earnings reports, economic data and Federal Reserve speeches.</p>
<p>What are the main benchmarks doing?</p>
<p>Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 75 points, or 0.4%, to 23,337, while S&amp;P 500 futures tacked on 9.15 points, or 0.4%, to 2,574.25. Nasdaq-100 futures jumped by 27.50 points, or 0.4%, to 6,293.75.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the Dow and the S&amp;P 500 both closed 0.6% lower (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-futures-tumble-more-than-100-points-as-mood-for-risk-sours-2017-11-15), and the Nasdaq Composite gave up 0.5%. The S&amp;P and Dow suffered their biggest percentage drops since Sept. 5, with analysts blaming the fall on worries about a U.S. tax overhaul. In addition, a slide in oil prices on Wednesday put pressure on energy stocks.</p>
<p>Wednesday's decline marked the biggest one-day percentage drop for both the Dow and the S&amp;P since September. It also marked the first time in 50 sessions that the S&amp;P fell at least 0.5% in a single trading day, putting an end to its longest such streak since 1968, according to data from LPL Financial.</p>
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<p>What are strategists saying?</p>
<p>"Markets stand at an intriguing crossroads," said Richard Perry, a Hantec Markets analyst, in a note.</p>
<p>"Asian markets (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tencent-earnings-buoy-hong-kong-index-nikkei-looks-to-snap-loss-streak-2017-11-15) have bounced (helped by support coming in for oil), with the Nikkei 1.5% higher. European markets (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-rebound-after-longest-losing-streak-in-a-year-2017-11-16) have taken heart from the Asian session and have also found support in early moves. It will be interesting to see if this lasts," Perry said.</p>
<p>What are other assets doing?</p>
<p>Oil futures (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-prices-stabilize-after-prior-days-slump-showing-little-change-2017-11-16) were slightly lower, after earlier showing a small gain. Crude prices are trying to stabilize after a fall on Wednesday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-tumbles-further-in-wake-of-api-reading-showing-jump-in-us-supply-2017-11-15) that was attributed to a surprise climb in U.S. supplies.</p>
<p>The ICE U.S. Dollar Index (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dollar-drops-as-fears-build-that-tax-reform-plans-will-drag-2017-11-15) was inching up, while gold futures were roughly unchanged.</p>
<p>Which stocks look like key movers?</p>
<p>Shares in Cisco Systems Inc.(CSCO) jumped 7% in premarket action after the maker of networking equipment late Wednesday delivered better-than-expected quarterly results and an encouraging outlook (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cisco-shares-surge-as-earnings-outlook-top-street-views-2017-11-15). The tech stock was the Dow's biggest premarket gainer.</p>
<p>Don't miss:Cisco promises return to growth, but for how long? (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cisco-promises-return-to-growth-but-for-how-long-2017-11-15)</p>
<p>Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(WMT) climbed 4% premarket in the wake of the retailer posting better-than-expected earnings (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-marts-stock-jumps-toward-record-high-after-profit-and-sales-beat-raised-outlook-2017-11-16) early Thursday. It was the Dow's second-biggest winner.</p>
<p>Read more:Wal-Mart's in-store and digital sales put it a step ahead (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-mart-earnings-in-store-and-digital-sales-put-it-a-step-ahead-of-the-competition-2017-11-13)</p>
<p>NetApp Inc.(NTAP) soared 12% after the data-storage company's better-than-expected results (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/netapp-shares-jump-on-earnings-sales-beat-2017-11-15) late Wednesday.</p>
<p>L Brands Inc.(LB) fell 4% ahead of the bell after the Victoria's Secret parent posted earnings that matched forecasts and a drop in same-store sales (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/l-brands-shares-down-35-after-earnings-as-same-store-sales-fall-2017-11-15).</p>
<p>Retailer Best Buy Co.(BBY), Folgers and Pillsbury parent J.M. Smucker Co.(SJM) and media giant Viacom Inc.(VIA) were also due for active trading as they are among the companies on the earnings docket before the open.</p>
<p>Away from earnings-related moves, Procter &amp; Gamble Co.'s stock (PG) rose 2% premarket following news that storied activist investor Nelson Peltz had narrowly won a seat (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/activist-nelson-peltz-narrowly-wins-seat-on-pg-board-2017-11-15) on the consumer-products giant's board.</p>
<p>Auto maker Tesla Inc.'s stock (TSLA) gained 1% premarket ahead of the unveiling of its electric semi truck (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/four-things-tesla-needs-to-reveal-when-it-launches-the-semi-truck-2017-11-15) that is on tap after the market's close.</p>
<p>See:Elon Musk opens up on love life, traumatic childhood, Tesla goals (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-opens-up-on-love-life-traumatic-childhood-tesla-goals-2017-11-15)</p>
<p>Goldman Sachs Group Inc.(GS) and Morgan Stanley(MS) might make moves following news of a lawsuit that alleges those two banks and other lenders secretly shared client information (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lawsuit-alleges-goldman-other-big-banks-shared-client-info-to-rig-us-treasurys-auctions-2017-11-16) in order to rig auctions for the U.S. Treasurys market.</p>
<p>What economic releases could help drive markets?</p>
<p>Initial jobless claims rose a higher-than-expected 10,000 in the latest week (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-jobless-claims-jump-to-6-week-high-2017-11-16), hitting a six-week high, although they remain at historically low levels. Continuing jobless claims were at their lowest since Dec. 1973.</p>
<p>Separately, U.S. import prices rose 0.2% in October.</p>
<p>October figures for industrial production are scheduled to arrive at 9:15 a.m. Eastern, with 0.6% growth forecast for the headline number. Then a November reading on the housing market is on tap at 10 a.m. Eastern.</p>
<p>Check out:MarketWatch's Economic Calendar (http://www.marketwatch.com/economy-politics/calendars/economic)</p>
<p>On the Fed front, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester is due to give a speech at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., at 9:10 a.m. Eastern Time.</p>
<p>Dallas Fed President Rob Kaplan is taking part in a discussion at a CFA Society of Houston event at 1:10 p.m. Eastern, while Fed Gov. Lael Brainard is scheduled to talk at a University of Michigan Law School conference at 3:45 p.m. Eastern. San Francisco Fed President John Williams is addressing a forum on Asia in the City by the Bay at 4:45 p.m. Eastern.</p>
<p>Now read:CEO Bill McNabb reveals 'probably the thing we worry most about at Vanguard' (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ceo-bill-mcnabb-reveals-probably-the-thing-we-worry-most-about-at-vanguard-2017-11-16)</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 16, 2017 08:43 ET (13:43 GMT)</p> | MARKET SNAPSHOT: Stock Market On Track To Bounce Back After Dow's Two-day Drop | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/16/market-snapshot-stock-market-on-track-to-bounce-back-after-dows-two-day-drop.html | 2017-11-16 | 0right
| MARKET SNAPSHOT: Stock Market On Track To Bounce Back After Dow's Two-day Drop
<p>Investors are digesting a barrage of earnings, economic data and Fed speeches</p>
<p>U.S. stock-index futures pointed to a mildly higher open on Thursday, putting the Dow industrials on course to recover somewhat from the prior session's 138-point drop, as Cisco and Wal-Mart's earnings-driven gains provided a boost.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Traders will be digesting a barrage of earnings reports, economic data and Federal Reserve speeches.</p>
<p>What are the main benchmarks doing?</p>
<p>Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 75 points, or 0.4%, to 23,337, while S&amp;P 500 futures tacked on 9.15 points, or 0.4%, to 2,574.25. Nasdaq-100 futures jumped by 27.50 points, or 0.4%, to 6,293.75.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the Dow and the S&amp;P 500 both closed 0.6% lower (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-futures-tumble-more-than-100-points-as-mood-for-risk-sours-2017-11-15), and the Nasdaq Composite gave up 0.5%. The S&amp;P and Dow suffered their biggest percentage drops since Sept. 5, with analysts blaming the fall on worries about a U.S. tax overhaul. In addition, a slide in oil prices on Wednesday put pressure on energy stocks.</p>
<p>Wednesday's decline marked the biggest one-day percentage drop for both the Dow and the S&amp;P since September. It also marked the first time in 50 sessions that the S&amp;P fell at least 0.5% in a single trading day, putting an end to its longest such streak since 1968, according to data from LPL Financial.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>What are strategists saying?</p>
<p>"Markets stand at an intriguing crossroads," said Richard Perry, a Hantec Markets analyst, in a note.</p>
<p>"Asian markets (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tencent-earnings-buoy-hong-kong-index-nikkei-looks-to-snap-loss-streak-2017-11-15) have bounced (helped by support coming in for oil), with the Nikkei 1.5% higher. European markets (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-rebound-after-longest-losing-streak-in-a-year-2017-11-16) have taken heart from the Asian session and have also found support in early moves. It will be interesting to see if this lasts," Perry said.</p>
<p>What are other assets doing?</p>
<p>Oil futures (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-prices-stabilize-after-prior-days-slump-showing-little-change-2017-11-16) were slightly lower, after earlier showing a small gain. Crude prices are trying to stabilize after a fall on Wednesday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-tumbles-further-in-wake-of-api-reading-showing-jump-in-us-supply-2017-11-15) that was attributed to a surprise climb in U.S. supplies.</p>
<p>The ICE U.S. Dollar Index (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dollar-drops-as-fears-build-that-tax-reform-plans-will-drag-2017-11-15) was inching up, while gold futures were roughly unchanged.</p>
<p>Which stocks look like key movers?</p>
<p>Shares in Cisco Systems Inc.(CSCO) jumped 7% in premarket action after the maker of networking equipment late Wednesday delivered better-than-expected quarterly results and an encouraging outlook (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cisco-shares-surge-as-earnings-outlook-top-street-views-2017-11-15). The tech stock was the Dow's biggest premarket gainer.</p>
<p>Don't miss:Cisco promises return to growth, but for how long? (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/cisco-promises-return-to-growth-but-for-how-long-2017-11-15)</p>
<p>Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(WMT) climbed 4% premarket in the wake of the retailer posting better-than-expected earnings (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-marts-stock-jumps-toward-record-high-after-profit-and-sales-beat-raised-outlook-2017-11-16) early Thursday. It was the Dow's second-biggest winner.</p>
<p>Read more:Wal-Mart's in-store and digital sales put it a step ahead (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-mart-earnings-in-store-and-digital-sales-put-it-a-step-ahead-of-the-competition-2017-11-13)</p>
<p>NetApp Inc.(NTAP) soared 12% after the data-storage company's better-than-expected results (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/netapp-shares-jump-on-earnings-sales-beat-2017-11-15) late Wednesday.</p>
<p>L Brands Inc.(LB) fell 4% ahead of the bell after the Victoria's Secret parent posted earnings that matched forecasts and a drop in same-store sales (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/l-brands-shares-down-35-after-earnings-as-same-store-sales-fall-2017-11-15).</p>
<p>Retailer Best Buy Co.(BBY), Folgers and Pillsbury parent J.M. Smucker Co.(SJM) and media giant Viacom Inc.(VIA) were also due for active trading as they are among the companies on the earnings docket before the open.</p>
<p>Away from earnings-related moves, Procter &amp; Gamble Co.'s stock (PG) rose 2% premarket following news that storied activist investor Nelson Peltz had narrowly won a seat (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/activist-nelson-peltz-narrowly-wins-seat-on-pg-board-2017-11-15) on the consumer-products giant's board.</p>
<p>Auto maker Tesla Inc.'s stock (TSLA) gained 1% premarket ahead of the unveiling of its electric semi truck (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/four-things-tesla-needs-to-reveal-when-it-launches-the-semi-truck-2017-11-15) that is on tap after the market's close.</p>
<p>See:Elon Musk opens up on love life, traumatic childhood, Tesla goals (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-opens-up-on-love-life-traumatic-childhood-tesla-goals-2017-11-15)</p>
<p>Goldman Sachs Group Inc.(GS) and Morgan Stanley(MS) might make moves following news of a lawsuit that alleges those two banks and other lenders secretly shared client information (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lawsuit-alleges-goldman-other-big-banks-shared-client-info-to-rig-us-treasurys-auctions-2017-11-16) in order to rig auctions for the U.S. Treasurys market.</p>
<p>What economic releases could help drive markets?</p>
<p>Initial jobless claims rose a higher-than-expected 10,000 in the latest week (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-jobless-claims-jump-to-6-week-high-2017-11-16), hitting a six-week high, although they remain at historically low levels. Continuing jobless claims were at their lowest since Dec. 1973.</p>
<p>Separately, U.S. import prices rose 0.2% in October.</p>
<p>October figures for industrial production are scheduled to arrive at 9:15 a.m. Eastern, with 0.6% growth forecast for the headline number. Then a November reading on the housing market is on tap at 10 a.m. Eastern.</p>
<p>Check out:MarketWatch's Economic Calendar (http://www.marketwatch.com/economy-politics/calendars/economic)</p>
<p>On the Fed front, Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester is due to give a speech at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., at 9:10 a.m. Eastern Time.</p>
<p>Dallas Fed President Rob Kaplan is taking part in a discussion at a CFA Society of Houston event at 1:10 p.m. Eastern, while Fed Gov. Lael Brainard is scheduled to talk at a University of Michigan Law School conference at 3:45 p.m. Eastern. San Francisco Fed President John Williams is addressing a forum on Asia in the City by the Bay at 4:45 p.m. Eastern.</p>
<p>Now read:CEO Bill McNabb reveals 'probably the thing we worry most about at Vanguard' (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ceo-bill-mcnabb-reveals-probably-the-thing-we-worry-most-about-at-vanguard-2017-11-16)</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 16, 2017 08:43 ET (13:43 GMT)</p> | 2,573 |
<p>Report - Korn Ferry Institute</p>
<p />
<p>No company today is immune to cybercrime, yet too many remain unprepared for what has become the inevitable breach. The goal is not to prevent it&#160;— that is impossible&#160;— but rather to be prepared, stemming the worst damage by implementing a systematic approach to cybersecurity focused on rapid detection and recovery.</p>
<p>Boards are increasingly taking responsibility for cybersecurity because they recognize it for what it is:&#160;the latest form of risk, which, while in a new guise, must be managed with the same diligence and processes applied to other risks.&#160;Since most boards lack specific cybersecurity expertise we recommend several avenues to getting that crucial input and, importantly, translating it from tech-talk to the language of business most directors understand.</p>
<p /> | Korn Ferry Market Cap 100 2014: Adding Cybersecurity to the Board's Risk Portfolio | false | http://belfercenter.org/publication/korn-ferry-market-cap-100-2014-adding-cybersecurity-boards-risk-portfolio | 2014-10-10 | 2least
| Korn Ferry Market Cap 100 2014: Adding Cybersecurity to the Board's Risk Portfolio
<p>Report - Korn Ferry Institute</p>
<p />
<p>No company today is immune to cybercrime, yet too many remain unprepared for what has become the inevitable breach. The goal is not to prevent it&#160;— that is impossible&#160;— but rather to be prepared, stemming the worst damage by implementing a systematic approach to cybersecurity focused on rapid detection and recovery.</p>
<p>Boards are increasingly taking responsibility for cybersecurity because they recognize it for what it is:&#160;the latest form of risk, which, while in a new guise, must be managed with the same diligence and processes applied to other risks.&#160;Since most boards lack specific cybersecurity expertise we recommend several avenues to getting that crucial input and, importantly, translating it from tech-talk to the language of business most directors understand.</p>
<p /> | 2,574 |
<p>FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s economy is facing a host of risks — from high real estate prices to weak banks — but investors may be ignoring vulnerabilities given the country’s eight-year economic run, the Bundesbank said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Germany, the euro zone’s biggest economy, has been the engine of the bloc’s remarkable recovery, with indicators pointing to an ever-broader expansion helped by extraordinary central bank stimulus.</p>
<p>“There is a danger that low interest rates and the favorable economic conditions in Germany might cause market participants to underestimate risks,” the German central bank said in a regular stability report.</p>
<p>“Risks have built up, in particular, during the prolonged period of low interest rates — the valuations of many investments are very high, and the share of low-interest investments on the balance sheets of banks and insurers has risen steadily.”</p>
<p>The bank sector is currently strong and able to cope with risks but low interest rates threaten their long term profitability, raising the incentive for them to take on more risk in hope of higher returns, the Bundesbank added.</p>
<p>Residential property prices may be 15 to 30 percent overvalued and while risks stemming from housing loans still appear to be limited, a reversal in house prices could have a “huge” impact on banks, it said.</p>
<p>German banks are among the least efficient in Europe, with their return on assets among the lowest in the bloc and their cost to income ratio at 74.9 percent, the highest in the euro zone.</p>
<p>“This low level of profitability could increase the incentive to take on more risk in order to generate higher returns,” the report said, noting that an unexpectedly long period of low interest rates will continue to put pressure on small and medium-sized banks and life insurers in particular.</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> | Don't ignore rising risk in German economy, Bundesbank warns | false | https://newsline.com/don039t-ignore-rising-risk-in-german-economy-bundesbank-warns/ | 2017-11-29 | 1right-center
| Don't ignore rising risk in German economy, Bundesbank warns
<p>FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s economy is facing a host of risks — from high real estate prices to weak banks — but investors may be ignoring vulnerabilities given the country’s eight-year economic run, the Bundesbank said on Wednesday.</p>
<p>Germany, the euro zone’s biggest economy, has been the engine of the bloc’s remarkable recovery, with indicators pointing to an ever-broader expansion helped by extraordinary central bank stimulus.</p>
<p>“There is a danger that low interest rates and the favorable economic conditions in Germany might cause market participants to underestimate risks,” the German central bank said in a regular stability report.</p>
<p>“Risks have built up, in particular, during the prolonged period of low interest rates — the valuations of many investments are very high, and the share of low-interest investments on the balance sheets of banks and insurers has risen steadily.”</p>
<p>The bank sector is currently strong and able to cope with risks but low interest rates threaten their long term profitability, raising the incentive for them to take on more risk in hope of higher returns, the Bundesbank added.</p>
<p>Residential property prices may be 15 to 30 percent overvalued and while risks stemming from housing loans still appear to be limited, a reversal in house prices could have a “huge” impact on banks, it said.</p>
<p>German banks are among the least efficient in Europe, with their return on assets among the lowest in the bloc and their cost to income ratio at 74.9 percent, the highest in the euro zone.</p>
<p>“This low level of profitability could increase the incentive to take on more risk in order to generate higher returns,” the report said, noting that an unexpectedly long period of low interest rates will continue to put pressure on small and medium-sized banks and life insurers in particular.</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> | 2,575 |
<p>While looking for the opinion of the Fourth Circuit in Padilla v. Hanft, I noticed that the Court’s homepage had a link to celebrate Constitution Day. I think a better celebration of the Constitution would have been not rendering it useless, as the three-judge panel did in its unanimous decision in the Padilla case.</p>
<p>The opinion, written by Judge J. Michael Luttig, begins with a matter-of-fact description of Padilla: “Appellee Jose Padilla, a United States citizen, associated with forces hostile to the United States in Afghanistan and took up arms against United States forces in that country in our war against al Qaeda.” Usually when a court renders a decision, and they use the personal possessive pronoun “our” they mean “the court’s.” I doubt, however, that Judge Luttig, in writing the opinion, meant that the Fourth Circuit Court was conducting the war in Afghanistan. More likely his use of the term is indicative of the lack of judicial independence that ostensibly protects all parties in cases brought before the court. Luttig referring to the attack on Afghanistan as “our war” certainly gives the impression of bias which, as Chief Justice nominee John Roberts has said repeatedly during his confirmation hearings, has no place in “our” judicial system.</p>
<p>The opening paragraph of the opinion details Padilla’s activities in the months before his arrest and detention in 2002. After fighting on the battlefield in Afghanistan, he “escaped” to Pakistan where he was “recruited, trained, funded, and equipped by al Qaeda” to commit terrorist attacks once back in the United States. Padilla was arrested upon his return to the US at O’Hare International Airport before he could carry out his mission of detonating a radiological weapon, a so-called “dirty bomb.” It appears that Luttig accepts this information at face value, and indeed, for the purposes of this motion, Padilla’s attorneys stipulated these facts. Unfortunately, Luttig wastes his time recounting this information for it is utterly irrelevant. In Section II of the Court’s opinion, we are told that the authority given to the President under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force Joint Resolution (AUMF), passed by Congress three days after the September 11 attacks, is sufficient to allow indefinite detention: “[T]he President is unquestionably authorized by the AUMF” to detain indefinitely anyone he declares an enemy combatant. Luttig’s recitation of Padilla’s activities is pointless, for the court provides no standards for what makes one an enemy combatant. The memorandum designating Padilla an enemy combatant is reprinted in its entirety in the decision. In it, President Bush states that he has determined that Padilla “is, and at the time he entered the United States in May 2002 was, an enemy combatant,” setting this declaration out as a preamble to the litany of Padilla’s suspected activities. Had Padilla only done some of what he was accused of in the President’s finding, would that have been sufficient for his indefinite detention? Was the President required to cite any allegations? What makes Padilla an enemy combatant, then, are not any of his activities in Afghanistan or Pakistan; that is incidental. The only thing that makes Padilla an enemy combatant is the fact that the President signed his name to a piece of paper that said Padilla was an enemy combatant. A fair reading of the opinion can lead to only one conclusion: an enemy combatant is anyone the President so designates.</p>
<p>Luttig feigns moderation in his third footnote, arguing that the President’s “power to detain that is authorized under the AUMF is not a power to detain indefinitely. Detention is limited to the duration of the hostilities as to which detention is authorized. . . . Because the United States remains engaged in the conflict with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Padilla’s detention has not exceeded in duration that authorized by law.” However, since the AUMF gives the President the power to use “all necessary and appropriate force” against those “he determines” to have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks, “in order to prevent future acts of international terrorism,” the President has the authority to detain Padilla until the AUMF is repealed or superceded by a new Congressional resolution (which would require a two-thirds majority vote in both Houses to override a near-certain Presidential veto). In short, the President has de facto, if not de jure power to hold anyone indefinitely.</p>
<p>To support Congress’s grant of power to the President, Luttig cites two historical cases, both specious. The first concerns a Nazi saboteur detained and executed during WWII. However, there are two major differences between WWII and the Afghanistan War that Luttig does not mention. First, Germany, a recognized nation-state, declared war on the US, precipitating the declaration of war on Germany. In contrast, the 9/11 attacks were not from any one or cohesive group of nation-states, but from a decentralized organization operating in several countries, some of which were close allies of the United States. Such a distinction is important when comparing examples. This leads to the next difference, that WWII was a declared war where Congress exercised its sole constitutional authority to do so. Luttig reminds us that the Supreme Court held, in the case of the Nazi saboteur, that the President’s power to detain “in time of war” is “not to be set aside . . . without a clear conviction that [it is] in conflict with the Constitution or laws of Congress constitutionally enacted.” We are not, however, “in a time of war,” for only Congress has the authority to declare war. (In fact, December 11, 1941, was the last time Congress exercised this power.) In the “war” on Afghanistan, like every war since the end of WWII, Congress was reluctant to declare war, shirking its authority to do so. Instead, with the war in Afghanistan, and also with the authorization to use force in Iraq, Congress shamefully”and illegally”surrendered its decision to declare war to the President. As one commentator at the time said, John Kerry, John Edwards, and the rest of their colleagues in Congress had no more right to give the President the authority to go to war than they had to give that authority to the Supreme Court or any other entity. Thus, the authority given to President Roosevelt in WWII simply cannot be compared to the grant of authority given to President Bush in either context or constitutionality.</p>
<p>The other example of wartime detention cited in the opinion was from the Civil War. A Confederate sympathizer was detained by the Union, having been accused of associating with an anti-Union secret society. In Luttig’s opinion, since the Supreme Court ruled that Lambden P. Milligan was “unaffiliated with the Confederate army [he] could not be tried by a military tribunal,” thereby making a distinction with Padilla, who had affiliated with a hostile military force. But if we apply the Fourth Circuit panel’s reasoning retroactively, President Lincoln had simply to designate Milligan an “enemy combatant” pursuant to an act of Congress. Like Bush under the AUMC, he would have had the first and final word on who is an enemy combatant.</p>
<p>In the Padilla case, all Luttig considers is whether Congress granted the President the power to detain people indefinitely. Given the Resolution’s broad language, it most likely does give the President that power. But, like the war making power, Congress has no business delegating such authority to the President or anyone else. It simply cannot be maintained that the Constitution would allow the President to suspend its protections for anyone he deemed an “enemy combatant.” The saying goes that “rules are meant to be broken.” Nonsense; rules are meant to be followed, and Constitutions are meant to be enforced. Otherwise, they are nothing but whitewash for tyranny, as, for instance, the Soviet Constitution under Stalin certainly was. Luttig would have us believe that the framers of the Constitution wasted those hot summer months in Philadelphia back in 1787 hammering out a social charter that could be abrogated on the whim of one man. The entire purpose of the Constitution was to prevent such abusive power.</p>
<p>Many argue that the President would not use this power to detain capriciously anyone he wished. This is irrelevant on two counts. First, under the Fourth Circuit panel ruling, President Bush cannot, by legal definition, detain anyone capriciously, for he is “unquestionably authorized” to detain anyone he designates an “enemy combatant.” Second, that the President is unlikely to use this sweeping power to incarcerate people at random has nothing to do with whether or not he should have that right. The system of law is predicated on its equal enforcement, not on the mood swings of a neo-monarch.</p>
<p>Another contention is that the President’s power to detain is limited by the duration of the hostilities, making even an unjust detention a temporary condition. In a press release the ACLU stated “it is . . . important to understand [the Fourth Circuit opinion’s] limitations. It does not authorize the government to designate and detain as an enemy combatant’ anyone who it claims is associated with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.” As argued above, though, since the President sees the Iraq war as part of his mandate under the AUMF “to prevent future acts of international terrorism,” the decision in the Padilla case would allow indefinite detentions of anyone the President designates as an “enemy combatant” in the so-called “War on Terror.” It follows then that anything the President declares to be part of his efforts “to prevent future acts of international terrorism” could be used as an umbrella authority to detain anyone that the President feels, in his sole opinion, is worthy of being declared an “enemy combatant.” Furthermore, as the grant of authority under the AUMF seems to be open-ended, these detentions are, in practicality, indefinite. In other words, the ACLU is wrong. The decision in the Padilla case means that the President has the authority to detain anyone he wishes for as long as he wishes.</p>
<p>Winston Churchill wrote to Britain’s Home Secretary Herbert Morrison on November 21, 1943:</p>
<p>“The power of the executive to cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist.”</p>
<p>And this, as many writers have pointed out, was at a time when Britain’s security and future were anything but certain. Churchill likely would have agreed that the fate of Jose Padilla is of more than passing interest. I believe it to be the most important issue to face the Constitution since it went into effect on June 21, 1788; this statement is made not out of any personal sympathy for Jose Padilla or his alleged actions. But I also do not care one whit what his “alleged actions” were. Nothing he may have done or been planning to do could possibly be a greater threat to the security of this society and the rule of law than the direct dissolution of that rule of law. If the Supreme Court sustains the indefinite detention of American citizens, it will mark nothing less than the complete invalidation of the Constitution, an end to the rule of law, and the paving of the way for complete dictatorship.</p>
<p>I hope you enjoyed this recent Constitution Day. It may very well be the last with even the semblance of meaning.</p>
<p>TOM GORMAN is a writer and activist living in Glendale, California. He welcomes comments at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>CLARIFICATION</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH</p>
<p>We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).</p>
<p>Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.</p>
<p>We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.</p>
<p>As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.</p>
<p>We are pleased to clarify the position.</p>
<p>August 17, 2005</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Padilla and the Death of the Republic | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/09/19/padilla-and-the-death-of-the-republic/ | 2005-09-19 | 4left
| Padilla and the Death of the Republic
<p>While looking for the opinion of the Fourth Circuit in Padilla v. Hanft, I noticed that the Court’s homepage had a link to celebrate Constitution Day. I think a better celebration of the Constitution would have been not rendering it useless, as the three-judge panel did in its unanimous decision in the Padilla case.</p>
<p>The opinion, written by Judge J. Michael Luttig, begins with a matter-of-fact description of Padilla: “Appellee Jose Padilla, a United States citizen, associated with forces hostile to the United States in Afghanistan and took up arms against United States forces in that country in our war against al Qaeda.” Usually when a court renders a decision, and they use the personal possessive pronoun “our” they mean “the court’s.” I doubt, however, that Judge Luttig, in writing the opinion, meant that the Fourth Circuit Court was conducting the war in Afghanistan. More likely his use of the term is indicative of the lack of judicial independence that ostensibly protects all parties in cases brought before the court. Luttig referring to the attack on Afghanistan as “our war” certainly gives the impression of bias which, as Chief Justice nominee John Roberts has said repeatedly during his confirmation hearings, has no place in “our” judicial system.</p>
<p>The opening paragraph of the opinion details Padilla’s activities in the months before his arrest and detention in 2002. After fighting on the battlefield in Afghanistan, he “escaped” to Pakistan where he was “recruited, trained, funded, and equipped by al Qaeda” to commit terrorist attacks once back in the United States. Padilla was arrested upon his return to the US at O’Hare International Airport before he could carry out his mission of detonating a radiological weapon, a so-called “dirty bomb.” It appears that Luttig accepts this information at face value, and indeed, for the purposes of this motion, Padilla’s attorneys stipulated these facts. Unfortunately, Luttig wastes his time recounting this information for it is utterly irrelevant. In Section II of the Court’s opinion, we are told that the authority given to the President under the Authorization for the Use of Military Force Joint Resolution (AUMF), passed by Congress three days after the September 11 attacks, is sufficient to allow indefinite detention: “[T]he President is unquestionably authorized by the AUMF” to detain indefinitely anyone he declares an enemy combatant. Luttig’s recitation of Padilla’s activities is pointless, for the court provides no standards for what makes one an enemy combatant. The memorandum designating Padilla an enemy combatant is reprinted in its entirety in the decision. In it, President Bush states that he has determined that Padilla “is, and at the time he entered the United States in May 2002 was, an enemy combatant,” setting this declaration out as a preamble to the litany of Padilla’s suspected activities. Had Padilla only done some of what he was accused of in the President’s finding, would that have been sufficient for his indefinite detention? Was the President required to cite any allegations? What makes Padilla an enemy combatant, then, are not any of his activities in Afghanistan or Pakistan; that is incidental. The only thing that makes Padilla an enemy combatant is the fact that the President signed his name to a piece of paper that said Padilla was an enemy combatant. A fair reading of the opinion can lead to only one conclusion: an enemy combatant is anyone the President so designates.</p>
<p>Luttig feigns moderation in his third footnote, arguing that the President’s “power to detain that is authorized under the AUMF is not a power to detain indefinitely. Detention is limited to the duration of the hostilities as to which detention is authorized. . . . Because the United States remains engaged in the conflict with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Padilla’s detention has not exceeded in duration that authorized by law.” However, since the AUMF gives the President the power to use “all necessary and appropriate force” against those “he determines” to have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks, “in order to prevent future acts of international terrorism,” the President has the authority to detain Padilla until the AUMF is repealed or superceded by a new Congressional resolution (which would require a two-thirds majority vote in both Houses to override a near-certain Presidential veto). In short, the President has de facto, if not de jure power to hold anyone indefinitely.</p>
<p>To support Congress’s grant of power to the President, Luttig cites two historical cases, both specious. The first concerns a Nazi saboteur detained and executed during WWII. However, there are two major differences between WWII and the Afghanistan War that Luttig does not mention. First, Germany, a recognized nation-state, declared war on the US, precipitating the declaration of war on Germany. In contrast, the 9/11 attacks were not from any one or cohesive group of nation-states, but from a decentralized organization operating in several countries, some of which were close allies of the United States. Such a distinction is important when comparing examples. This leads to the next difference, that WWII was a declared war where Congress exercised its sole constitutional authority to do so. Luttig reminds us that the Supreme Court held, in the case of the Nazi saboteur, that the President’s power to detain “in time of war” is “not to be set aside . . . without a clear conviction that [it is] in conflict with the Constitution or laws of Congress constitutionally enacted.” We are not, however, “in a time of war,” for only Congress has the authority to declare war. (In fact, December 11, 1941, was the last time Congress exercised this power.) In the “war” on Afghanistan, like every war since the end of WWII, Congress was reluctant to declare war, shirking its authority to do so. Instead, with the war in Afghanistan, and also with the authorization to use force in Iraq, Congress shamefully”and illegally”surrendered its decision to declare war to the President. As one commentator at the time said, John Kerry, John Edwards, and the rest of their colleagues in Congress had no more right to give the President the authority to go to war than they had to give that authority to the Supreme Court or any other entity. Thus, the authority given to President Roosevelt in WWII simply cannot be compared to the grant of authority given to President Bush in either context or constitutionality.</p>
<p>The other example of wartime detention cited in the opinion was from the Civil War. A Confederate sympathizer was detained by the Union, having been accused of associating with an anti-Union secret society. In Luttig’s opinion, since the Supreme Court ruled that Lambden P. Milligan was “unaffiliated with the Confederate army [he] could not be tried by a military tribunal,” thereby making a distinction with Padilla, who had affiliated with a hostile military force. But if we apply the Fourth Circuit panel’s reasoning retroactively, President Lincoln had simply to designate Milligan an “enemy combatant” pursuant to an act of Congress. Like Bush under the AUMC, he would have had the first and final word on who is an enemy combatant.</p>
<p>In the Padilla case, all Luttig considers is whether Congress granted the President the power to detain people indefinitely. Given the Resolution’s broad language, it most likely does give the President that power. But, like the war making power, Congress has no business delegating such authority to the President or anyone else. It simply cannot be maintained that the Constitution would allow the President to suspend its protections for anyone he deemed an “enemy combatant.” The saying goes that “rules are meant to be broken.” Nonsense; rules are meant to be followed, and Constitutions are meant to be enforced. Otherwise, they are nothing but whitewash for tyranny, as, for instance, the Soviet Constitution under Stalin certainly was. Luttig would have us believe that the framers of the Constitution wasted those hot summer months in Philadelphia back in 1787 hammering out a social charter that could be abrogated on the whim of one man. The entire purpose of the Constitution was to prevent such abusive power.</p>
<p>Many argue that the President would not use this power to detain capriciously anyone he wished. This is irrelevant on two counts. First, under the Fourth Circuit panel ruling, President Bush cannot, by legal definition, detain anyone capriciously, for he is “unquestionably authorized” to detain anyone he designates an “enemy combatant.” Second, that the President is unlikely to use this sweeping power to incarcerate people at random has nothing to do with whether or not he should have that right. The system of law is predicated on its equal enforcement, not on the mood swings of a neo-monarch.</p>
<p>Another contention is that the President’s power to detain is limited by the duration of the hostilities, making even an unjust detention a temporary condition. In a press release the ACLU stated “it is . . . important to understand [the Fourth Circuit opinion’s] limitations. It does not authorize the government to designate and detain as an enemy combatant’ anyone who it claims is associated with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.” As argued above, though, since the President sees the Iraq war as part of his mandate under the AUMF “to prevent future acts of international terrorism,” the decision in the Padilla case would allow indefinite detentions of anyone the President designates as an “enemy combatant” in the so-called “War on Terror.” It follows then that anything the President declares to be part of his efforts “to prevent future acts of international terrorism” could be used as an umbrella authority to detain anyone that the President feels, in his sole opinion, is worthy of being declared an “enemy combatant.” Furthermore, as the grant of authority under the AUMF seems to be open-ended, these detentions are, in practicality, indefinite. In other words, the ACLU is wrong. The decision in the Padilla case means that the President has the authority to detain anyone he wishes for as long as he wishes.</p>
<p>Winston Churchill wrote to Britain’s Home Secretary Herbert Morrison on November 21, 1943:</p>
<p>“The power of the executive to cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist.”</p>
<p>And this, as many writers have pointed out, was at a time when Britain’s security and future were anything but certain. Churchill likely would have agreed that the fate of Jose Padilla is of more than passing interest. I believe it to be the most important issue to face the Constitution since it went into effect on June 21, 1788; this statement is made not out of any personal sympathy for Jose Padilla or his alleged actions. But I also do not care one whit what his “alleged actions” were. Nothing he may have done or been planning to do could possibly be a greater threat to the security of this society and the rule of law than the direct dissolution of that rule of law. If the Supreme Court sustains the indefinite detention of American citizens, it will mark nothing less than the complete invalidation of the Constitution, an end to the rule of law, and the paving of the way for complete dictatorship.</p>
<p>I hope you enjoyed this recent Constitution Day. It may very well be the last with even the semblance of meaning.</p>
<p>TOM GORMAN is a writer and activist living in Glendale, California. He welcomes comments at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>CLARIFICATION</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH</p>
<p>We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).</p>
<p>Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.</p>
<p>We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.</p>
<p>As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.</p>
<p>We are pleased to clarify the position.</p>
<p>August 17, 2005</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,576 |
<p>But hold! Isn’t it the demand of enlightened people that all within these borders have a right to work without being hassled by the INS or kindred agency of the state? You can argue whether Linda Chavez treated Marta TK, her sometime Guatemalan employee well or badly, and that such poor treatment might disqualify her as secretary of labor. But the spectacle of Democrats like Senator Tom Tom Daschle solemnly denouncing Chavez for giving work to an undocumented Latina was nauseating.</p>
<p>Here’s Chavez, who has appalling views on almost every issue relevant to the job for which she was briefly nominated, and the Democrats go after her for the one decent deed on her record, if you believe the testimony of Marta, to whom Chavez appears to have behaved well.</p>
<p>Chavez has been cruelly taken from them but what an immense favor Bush-Cheney did the Democrats by putting up Aschcroft and Norton! It’s hard to stir up liberal passions over Powell at the State Department or Rice as national security director, or even O’Neill at Treasury. How could you be worse than Madeleine Albright or Samuel Berger? And who cares about O’Neill when the effective ruler of the economy is over at the Fed.</p>
<p>But with Ashcroft scheduled for the Justice Department there are rich political and fund-raising opportunities for the Democrats, painting lurid scenarios of the Klan Grand Wizard taking up residence in the DOJ and telling the Naderites, We told you so. Here comes the Beast: Ashcroft, the foe of choice; Ashcroft the militia-symp; Aschcroft the racist hero of the old confederacy. What can you say for the guy, except that he’s probably marginally to the left of Eminem, great white hope of the rap crowd and currently in line for his fifth Grammy.</p>
<p>But will Ashcroft be effectively worse than Attorney General Janet Reno. This time eight years ago she was four months away from incinerating the Branch Davidians at Waco, and on the edge of a tenure that has seen her fervent support for the “war on drugs”, aka a war on the poor, most especially the blacks; her contributions to the crime bill of 1994; the targeting of minority youth; her complaisance towards expansions in the power of the prosecutorial state, and onslaughts on the Bill of Rights? It’s a tough act to follow.</p>
<p>The environmentalists see similar rich opportunity with Gale Norton, graduate of the Mountain States Legal Center, an anti-environmental think tank based in Denver, Colorado, headed by James Watt, greatest fund-raiser for environmental causes in our history. No doubt about it, Norton is scarcely nature’s friend. Her dreams are of Exxon’s Grand Canyon and Disney’s Yosemite. But once again, we should retain our perspective.</p>
<p>Consider, for example, Bill Clinton’s exit order, banning roads and logging on national forest “roadless” lands. Then look at the exceptions: Clinton’s ban excludes timber sales now in the pipeline, which can be grandafathered in over the next six years. Other huge loopholes include an okay for logging for “ecological reasons”, such as fire-breaks and habitat for deer. It’s amazing how much timber you can harvest out of these so-called “fire-breaks”. In the California Sierra they make the breaks up to quarter of a mile wide. There’s also an okay in Clinton’s order for roads for mining and grazing allotments, and for fire control. In all, the order envisages a 2.5 per cent reduction of total timber sales in the national forests, which isn’t much</p>
<p>If she’s smart, Norton will reverse the order simply by opting for one of the other options offered in the environmental impact statement what formed the basis of Clinton’s order.</p>
<p>There’s likely to be a big fight over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where outgoing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has just done Norton and the oil industry a big favor by advising Clinton that to designate ANWR a national monument would be “a meaningless gesture” that would invite the Republicans to reverse all such designations made in Clinton time. You can read this as a startlingly forthright admission that national monument status doesn’t mean much, which is true, also that Babbitt is as gutless as ever. To have made ANWR a national monument would have drawn the line in the sand, or in this case, the snow a bit deeper and made the forthcoming onslaught on ANWR a little tougher for the Bush-Cheney crowd.</p>
<p>What else can Norton do that Babbitt hasn’t already set in motion? Not much. Last year Babbitt put a moratorium on the listing of endangered species, and he’s smiled on the privatization of public assets through land trades, whereby timber corporations get old growth and we get the cut-over terrain. Salmon protection? The Clinton administration has let the Republicans off the hook on that one, insisting that the dams on the Snake River won’t be breached. Oil leasing off the continental shelf? For Bush-Cheney it would be political suicide. Reagan tried, and had to back off. Norton will go after the National Environmental Protection Act, but here again Babbitt and Gore paved the way, with their Habitat Conservation Plans that have ushered so many corporate foxes into the coop.</p>
<p>Over at EPA it’s hard to demonize Christy Todd Whitman, and at USDA could anyone be worse than Dan Glickman, friend of factory farms and saboteur of organic standards?</p>
<p>So, all in all, the Bush-Cheney directorate has done a fine job of rallying the Democrats, just as the Democrats, with their weak-kneed surrender to the Florida putsch and talk of bipartisanship, have given ammunition to the radicals denouncing the two-party consensus. For the activists, there’s plenty of opportunity. Militant green groups, including the reinvigorated Greenpeace, are fired up, and right here on the doorstep is the prospect of a national fight for microradio, whose prospects have been sabotaged by the National Association of Broadcasters. The NAB successfully shepherded through a legislative rider late last year that effectively outlaws new low power stations in most urban areas.</p>
<p>So we’re back where we were in the dawn of Clinton time, with courageous people asserting their rights, and defying corporations and the state. What else is new? Welcome to Bush-Cheney time. The basic map hasn’t changed. CP</p> | Different Players, Same Game | true | https://counterpunch.org/2001/01/12/different-players-same-game/ | 2001-01-12 | 4left
| Different Players, Same Game
<p>But hold! Isn’t it the demand of enlightened people that all within these borders have a right to work without being hassled by the INS or kindred agency of the state? You can argue whether Linda Chavez treated Marta TK, her sometime Guatemalan employee well or badly, and that such poor treatment might disqualify her as secretary of labor. But the spectacle of Democrats like Senator Tom Tom Daschle solemnly denouncing Chavez for giving work to an undocumented Latina was nauseating.</p>
<p>Here’s Chavez, who has appalling views on almost every issue relevant to the job for which she was briefly nominated, and the Democrats go after her for the one decent deed on her record, if you believe the testimony of Marta, to whom Chavez appears to have behaved well.</p>
<p>Chavez has been cruelly taken from them but what an immense favor Bush-Cheney did the Democrats by putting up Aschcroft and Norton! It’s hard to stir up liberal passions over Powell at the State Department or Rice as national security director, or even O’Neill at Treasury. How could you be worse than Madeleine Albright or Samuel Berger? And who cares about O’Neill when the effective ruler of the economy is over at the Fed.</p>
<p>But with Ashcroft scheduled for the Justice Department there are rich political and fund-raising opportunities for the Democrats, painting lurid scenarios of the Klan Grand Wizard taking up residence in the DOJ and telling the Naderites, We told you so. Here comes the Beast: Ashcroft, the foe of choice; Ashcroft the militia-symp; Aschcroft the racist hero of the old confederacy. What can you say for the guy, except that he’s probably marginally to the left of Eminem, great white hope of the rap crowd and currently in line for his fifth Grammy.</p>
<p>But will Ashcroft be effectively worse than Attorney General Janet Reno. This time eight years ago she was four months away from incinerating the Branch Davidians at Waco, and on the edge of a tenure that has seen her fervent support for the “war on drugs”, aka a war on the poor, most especially the blacks; her contributions to the crime bill of 1994; the targeting of minority youth; her complaisance towards expansions in the power of the prosecutorial state, and onslaughts on the Bill of Rights? It’s a tough act to follow.</p>
<p>The environmentalists see similar rich opportunity with Gale Norton, graduate of the Mountain States Legal Center, an anti-environmental think tank based in Denver, Colorado, headed by James Watt, greatest fund-raiser for environmental causes in our history. No doubt about it, Norton is scarcely nature’s friend. Her dreams are of Exxon’s Grand Canyon and Disney’s Yosemite. But once again, we should retain our perspective.</p>
<p>Consider, for example, Bill Clinton’s exit order, banning roads and logging on national forest “roadless” lands. Then look at the exceptions: Clinton’s ban excludes timber sales now in the pipeline, which can be grandafathered in over the next six years. Other huge loopholes include an okay for logging for “ecological reasons”, such as fire-breaks and habitat for deer. It’s amazing how much timber you can harvest out of these so-called “fire-breaks”. In the California Sierra they make the breaks up to quarter of a mile wide. There’s also an okay in Clinton’s order for roads for mining and grazing allotments, and for fire control. In all, the order envisages a 2.5 per cent reduction of total timber sales in the national forests, which isn’t much</p>
<p>If she’s smart, Norton will reverse the order simply by opting for one of the other options offered in the environmental impact statement what formed the basis of Clinton’s order.</p>
<p>There’s likely to be a big fight over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where outgoing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has just done Norton and the oil industry a big favor by advising Clinton that to designate ANWR a national monument would be “a meaningless gesture” that would invite the Republicans to reverse all such designations made in Clinton time. You can read this as a startlingly forthright admission that national monument status doesn’t mean much, which is true, also that Babbitt is as gutless as ever. To have made ANWR a national monument would have drawn the line in the sand, or in this case, the snow a bit deeper and made the forthcoming onslaught on ANWR a little tougher for the Bush-Cheney crowd.</p>
<p>What else can Norton do that Babbitt hasn’t already set in motion? Not much. Last year Babbitt put a moratorium on the listing of endangered species, and he’s smiled on the privatization of public assets through land trades, whereby timber corporations get old growth and we get the cut-over terrain. Salmon protection? The Clinton administration has let the Republicans off the hook on that one, insisting that the dams on the Snake River won’t be breached. Oil leasing off the continental shelf? For Bush-Cheney it would be political suicide. Reagan tried, and had to back off. Norton will go after the National Environmental Protection Act, but here again Babbitt and Gore paved the way, with their Habitat Conservation Plans that have ushered so many corporate foxes into the coop.</p>
<p>Over at EPA it’s hard to demonize Christy Todd Whitman, and at USDA could anyone be worse than Dan Glickman, friend of factory farms and saboteur of organic standards?</p>
<p>So, all in all, the Bush-Cheney directorate has done a fine job of rallying the Democrats, just as the Democrats, with their weak-kneed surrender to the Florida putsch and talk of bipartisanship, have given ammunition to the radicals denouncing the two-party consensus. For the activists, there’s plenty of opportunity. Militant green groups, including the reinvigorated Greenpeace, are fired up, and right here on the doorstep is the prospect of a national fight for microradio, whose prospects have been sabotaged by the National Association of Broadcasters. The NAB successfully shepherded through a legislative rider late last year that effectively outlaws new low power stations in most urban areas.</p>
<p>So we’re back where we were in the dawn of Clinton time, with courageous people asserting their rights, and defying corporations and the state. What else is new? Welcome to Bush-Cheney time. The basic map hasn’t changed. CP</p> | 2,577 |
<p />
<p>Trying to secure a mortgage right now? From higher mortgage rates, to rising home prices to the contraction in buying power — securing financing, for some, can be no easy endeavor. As prices, and rates rise simultaneously, lenders will still place the weighted emphasis on “real income,” or, the amount of monthly payment you can afford — as that’s what the loan is truly made against. Unfortunately, the amount of debt you have effectively chips away at your “real income.” So before you try to get a mortgage, you might want to pay down your debt. Just make sure you do it the right way.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Before I delve into the specifics, here are some quick terms you need to know:</p>
<p>Tip: Debt erodes income (ability to borrow money) at a ratio of 2:1; it takes $2 of income to offset $1 of debt.</p>
<p>Now, the strategy for paying off debt to qualify differs when buying a house from refinancing. Let’s look at the differences:</p>
<p>Paying Off Debt When Buying a Home</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>When buying a home, and prior to attaining an accepted purchase offer, paying off debt to qualify is simply a function of learning how much more buying power is achievable by eliminating debt like credit cards, student loans or car loans.</p>
<p>A qualified mortgage lender can run “what if” possibilities, which could become crucial in your endeavor to purchase not only the right home, but ultimately the home you can afford. Let’s say there’s $5,000 left on your car loan, you have the cash in the bank and the car loan payment is $600 per month. $600 per month on a car loan reduces your ability to purchase to the tune of more than $100,000 in loan amount. Consider this: A $100,000 mortgage loan at 4.5% on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage translates to $506 per month, $94 per month less than if you didn’t have the debt. If you pay off the debt in full, your DTI is reduced, improving your ability to qualify and increasing your real income.</p>
<p>How to Pay Off the Debt and Still Meet the Lending Credit Standard</p>
<p>If you’re paying it off pre-contract, simply inform your mortgage company and they can do a third-party validation and the debt can be omitted. When paying off during the escrow process, monies will have to be sourced and paper trailed, which is a little more technical, but still achievable. The same goes for credit cards and other payment obligations.</p>
<p>Paying Off Debt When Refinancing</p>
<p>When you’re refinancing, the lender’s going to require that your credit obligations — such as a car loan or credit card — are paid off in full and closed to prevent the possibility of your accumulating further debt, thus potentially affecting your ability to repay in the future. Moreover, the lender would call for an escrow account to pay off the debt through the loan closing.</p>
<p>When it comes to paying off debt to qualify in refinancing, different lenders will vary on their specific approaches. Generally, though, the accounts will have to be closed as well. That won’t prevent you from reapplying for credit after the mortgage has closed, however.</p>
<p>How to Pay Off the Debt and Still Meet the Lending Credit Standard</p>
<p>The monies you use to pay off your debt, similar to a purchase transaction, will have to be sourced — and you’ll have to have proof that the obligation has been closed. If possible, pay the credit card in full, learn the date the creditor reports to the bureaus, then apply for the mortgage after the creditor has reported it to the bureaus. Doing this will show the updated balance on the credit report, which will improve real income (revealing less debt), making the process more streamlined.</p>
<p>If you have debt that otherwise could be eliminated and have the means to pay off the debt, strongly consider doing so, as higher credit risk mortgages tend to be more pricey overall — compared to those for borrowers with lower debt-to-income ratios and better credit scores.</p>
<p>As you get ready to buy a house or refinance your mortgage, it’s important to pull your credit reports and credit scores to see where you stand. You can get your credit reports for free once a year from each of the three credit reporting agencies, and you can monitor your credit score using a free tool like Credit.com’s Credit Report Card.</p>
<p>Read More from Credit.com</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/can-you-take-an-emergency-loan-from-your-401k/" type="external">Can You Take an Emergency Loan From Your 401K in a Disaster? Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/debt-collection-fairer/" type="external">Is Debt Collection About to Become Fairer? Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/crowdfunding-for-student-loan-debt/" type="external">Crowdfunding for Student Loan Debt? Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/more-americans-with-bad-credit-are-getting-auto-loans/" type="external">More Americans With Bad Credit Are Getting Auto Loans Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Scott Sheldon is a senior loan officer and consumer advocate based in Santa Rosa, Cali. His work has appeared in Yahoo! Homes, CNN Money, MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal. Connect with him at <a href="http://www.sonomacountymortgages.com/" type="external">Sonoma County Mortgages Opens a New Window.</a>.&#160; <a href="http://blog.credit.com/author/scott-sheldon/" type="external">More by Scott Sheldon Opens a New Window.</a></p> | The Right Way to Pay Off Debt to Get a Mortgage | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/09/17/right-way-to-pay-off-debt-to-get-mortgage.html | 2016-03-05 | 0right
| The Right Way to Pay Off Debt to Get a Mortgage
<p />
<p>Trying to secure a mortgage right now? From higher mortgage rates, to rising home prices to the contraction in buying power — securing financing, for some, can be no easy endeavor. As prices, and rates rise simultaneously, lenders will still place the weighted emphasis on “real income,” or, the amount of monthly payment you can afford — as that’s what the loan is truly made against. Unfortunately, the amount of debt you have effectively chips away at your “real income.” So before you try to get a mortgage, you might want to pay down your debt. Just make sure you do it the right way.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Before I delve into the specifics, here are some quick terms you need to know:</p>
<p>Tip: Debt erodes income (ability to borrow money) at a ratio of 2:1; it takes $2 of income to offset $1 of debt.</p>
<p>Now, the strategy for paying off debt to qualify differs when buying a house from refinancing. Let’s look at the differences:</p>
<p>Paying Off Debt When Buying a Home</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>When buying a home, and prior to attaining an accepted purchase offer, paying off debt to qualify is simply a function of learning how much more buying power is achievable by eliminating debt like credit cards, student loans or car loans.</p>
<p>A qualified mortgage lender can run “what if” possibilities, which could become crucial in your endeavor to purchase not only the right home, but ultimately the home you can afford. Let’s say there’s $5,000 left on your car loan, you have the cash in the bank and the car loan payment is $600 per month. $600 per month on a car loan reduces your ability to purchase to the tune of more than $100,000 in loan amount. Consider this: A $100,000 mortgage loan at 4.5% on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage translates to $506 per month, $94 per month less than if you didn’t have the debt. If you pay off the debt in full, your DTI is reduced, improving your ability to qualify and increasing your real income.</p>
<p>How to Pay Off the Debt and Still Meet the Lending Credit Standard</p>
<p>If you’re paying it off pre-contract, simply inform your mortgage company and they can do a third-party validation and the debt can be omitted. When paying off during the escrow process, monies will have to be sourced and paper trailed, which is a little more technical, but still achievable. The same goes for credit cards and other payment obligations.</p>
<p>Paying Off Debt When Refinancing</p>
<p>When you’re refinancing, the lender’s going to require that your credit obligations — such as a car loan or credit card — are paid off in full and closed to prevent the possibility of your accumulating further debt, thus potentially affecting your ability to repay in the future. Moreover, the lender would call for an escrow account to pay off the debt through the loan closing.</p>
<p>When it comes to paying off debt to qualify in refinancing, different lenders will vary on their specific approaches. Generally, though, the accounts will have to be closed as well. That won’t prevent you from reapplying for credit after the mortgage has closed, however.</p>
<p>How to Pay Off the Debt and Still Meet the Lending Credit Standard</p>
<p>The monies you use to pay off your debt, similar to a purchase transaction, will have to be sourced — and you’ll have to have proof that the obligation has been closed. If possible, pay the credit card in full, learn the date the creditor reports to the bureaus, then apply for the mortgage after the creditor has reported it to the bureaus. Doing this will show the updated balance on the credit report, which will improve real income (revealing less debt), making the process more streamlined.</p>
<p>If you have debt that otherwise could be eliminated and have the means to pay off the debt, strongly consider doing so, as higher credit risk mortgages tend to be more pricey overall — compared to those for borrowers with lower debt-to-income ratios and better credit scores.</p>
<p>As you get ready to buy a house or refinance your mortgage, it’s important to pull your credit reports and credit scores to see where you stand. You can get your credit reports for free once a year from each of the three credit reporting agencies, and you can monitor your credit score using a free tool like Credit.com’s Credit Report Card.</p>
<p>Read More from Credit.com</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/can-you-take-an-emergency-loan-from-your-401k/" type="external">Can You Take an Emergency Loan From Your 401K in a Disaster? Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/debt-collection-fairer/" type="external">Is Debt Collection About to Become Fairer? Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/crowdfunding-for-student-loan-debt/" type="external">Crowdfunding for Student Loan Debt? Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.credit.com/2013/09/more-americans-with-bad-credit-are-getting-auto-loans/" type="external">More Americans With Bad Credit Are Getting Auto Loans Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>Scott Sheldon is a senior loan officer and consumer advocate based in Santa Rosa, Cali. His work has appeared in Yahoo! Homes, CNN Money, MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal. Connect with him at <a href="http://www.sonomacountymortgages.com/" type="external">Sonoma County Mortgages Opens a New Window.</a>.&#160; <a href="http://blog.credit.com/author/scott-sheldon/" type="external">More by Scott Sheldon Opens a New Window.</a></p> | 2,578 |
<p>Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) on Thursday reported earnings that rose fivefold in its second quarter, and topped analysts' expectations.</p>
<p>The Miami-based company said profit increased to $137.7 million, or 62 cents per share, from $24.7 million, or 11 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 66 cents per share. The average per-share estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for profit of 53 cents.</p>
<p>The cruise operator said revenue climbed 5.2 percent to $1.98 billion from $1.88 billion in the same quarter a year ago, and missed Wall Street forecasts. Analysts expected $1.99 billion, according to Zacks.</p>
<p>Royal Caribbean shares have increased $8.81, or 19 percent, to $56.23 since the beginning of the year. The stock has risen $19.86, or 55 percent, in the last 12 months.</p>
<p>This story was generated automatically by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Full RCL report: http://www.zacks.com/ap/RCL</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Keywords:Royal Caribbean,Earnings Report</p> | Royal Caribbean 2Q profit rises fivefold, tops forecast | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/07/24/royal-caribbean-2q-profit-rises-fivefold-tops-forecast.html | 2016-03-04 | 0right
| Royal Caribbean 2Q profit rises fivefold, tops forecast
<p>Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) on Thursday reported earnings that rose fivefold in its second quarter, and topped analysts' expectations.</p>
<p>The Miami-based company said profit increased to $137.7 million, or 62 cents per share, from $24.7 million, or 11 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 66 cents per share. The average per-share estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for profit of 53 cents.</p>
<p>The cruise operator said revenue climbed 5.2 percent to $1.98 billion from $1.88 billion in the same quarter a year ago, and missed Wall Street forecasts. Analysts expected $1.99 billion, according to Zacks.</p>
<p>Royal Caribbean shares have increased $8.81, or 19 percent, to $56.23 since the beginning of the year. The stock has risen $19.86, or 55 percent, in the last 12 months.</p>
<p>This story was generated automatically by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Full RCL report: http://www.zacks.com/ap/RCL</p>
<p>_____</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Keywords:Royal Caribbean,Earnings Report</p> | 2,579 |
<p>LONDON — Nine men, including at least three in their seventies, have been arrested in connection with a multi-million dollar heist in London’s jewelry district, British police said Tuesday.</p>
<p>London's Metropolitan Police said the men — between the ages of 48 and 76 — were arrested when more than 200 officers raided 12 addresses in London and the nearby county of Kent.</p>
<p>"A number of large bags containing significant amounts of high value property have been recovered from one address," the force said in a statement. "Officers are confident these are items stolen during the burglary."</p>
<p>Commander Peter Spiller said that at times the force has "been portrayed as if we’ve acted like Keystone Cops" while investigating, but that "these detectives have done their utmost to bring justice for the victims of this callous crime."</p>
<p>Security camera footage of the April 3 robbery showed the burglars, disguised as construction workers, enter the building in the Hatton Garden diamond district through a side entrance. They climbed down an elevator shaft and used industrial tools to break through almost seven feet of reinforced concrete into the basement vault.</p>
<p>The audacious thieves made away with some 70 safety-deposit boxes. The contents of the haul have not been officially disclosed — but estimates in the British press have valued them as high as $200 million.</p>
<p>Police said Tuesday that the suspects were arrested for conspiracy to burgle and being questioned at a London police station.</p> | Hatton Garden Heist: U.K. Police Arrest 9 Men Over Jewelry-District Raid | false | http://nbcnews.com/news/europe/london-diamond-heist-cops-arrest-9-after-series-raids-n361236 | 2015-05-20 | 3left-center
| Hatton Garden Heist: U.K. Police Arrest 9 Men Over Jewelry-District Raid
<p>LONDON — Nine men, including at least three in their seventies, have been arrested in connection with a multi-million dollar heist in London’s jewelry district, British police said Tuesday.</p>
<p>London's Metropolitan Police said the men — between the ages of 48 and 76 — were arrested when more than 200 officers raided 12 addresses in London and the nearby county of Kent.</p>
<p>"A number of large bags containing significant amounts of high value property have been recovered from one address," the force said in a statement. "Officers are confident these are items stolen during the burglary."</p>
<p>Commander Peter Spiller said that at times the force has "been portrayed as if we’ve acted like Keystone Cops" while investigating, but that "these detectives have done their utmost to bring justice for the victims of this callous crime."</p>
<p>Security camera footage of the April 3 robbery showed the burglars, disguised as construction workers, enter the building in the Hatton Garden diamond district through a side entrance. They climbed down an elevator shaft and used industrial tools to break through almost seven feet of reinforced concrete into the basement vault.</p>
<p>The audacious thieves made away with some 70 safety-deposit boxes. The contents of the haul have not been officially disclosed — but estimates in the British press have valued them as high as $200 million.</p>
<p>Police said Tuesday that the suspects were arrested for conspiracy to burgle and being questioned at a London police station.</p> | 2,580 |
<p>WASHINGTON — I do not recall precisely when I created a file folder with this tab: “Iraq endgame.” Many of the newspaper clippings, interview notes and copies of speeches that are stuffed in the folder date to 2006 — a year in which it seemed the American misadventure had metastasized into such a nightmare that our political leadership might begin to grope toward a resolution.</p>
<p>At one point, I created another file with this tab: “John Warner.” It was a hopeful act. The senior Republican senator from Virginia, then the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, returned from a trip to Iraq in October 2006 and shook the Bush White House to its foundation when he declared that the U.S. efforts there were “drifting sideways.” If things didn’t improve in two or three months, Warner warned, a “change of course” might be necessary. At that point in time, the Iraq Study Group — the sort of bipartisan committee of wise old hands to which Washington loves to throw its nastiest curveballs — was looked to as the panel that would give the White House and Congress sufficient political cover to begin a troop drawdown.</p>
<p>Here is what the Iraq Study Group recommended in December 2006 — a month after Democrats won control of both houses of Congress in an election that turned in large part on public disgust with the war: “By the first quarter of 2008, subject to unexpected developments in the security situation on the ground, all combat brigades not necessary for force protection could be out of Iraq.” The study group urged that no additional troops be sent because “sustained increases in U.S. troop levels would not solve the fundamental cause of violence in Iraq, which is the absence of national reconciliation.”</p>
<p>Now we near the end of the first quarter of 2008. Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of a spectacularly foolish war that was waged on false premises. In the two years since the Iraq Study Group offered a road map out of Iraq — an American military drawdown coupled with an intense diplomatic effort among all the players in the region — the Bush administration and most of the Republican Party have rallied instead to support the surge in American troop strength there.</p>
<p />
<p>President Bush, in his speech at the Pentagon marking the five-year anniversary, sounded the same tired themes that have brought us to this pass. Any withdrawal would be a “retreat” that would signal “weakness and a lack of resolve” to our enemies, he said. He even resurrected the discredited link between Iraq and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, suggesting that a withdrawal from Iraq would make another terrorist assault on the U.S. more likely.</p>
<p>I have been struck, reading the media accounts prepared for this anniversary, at how many of them look back — to the initial decision to invade, to the disbanding of the Iraqi army — rather than ahead. The question Americans should be asking themselves isn’t what went wrong. We already know those infuriating answers. The question is, what now?</p>
<p>This is why the sniping in the Democratic primary campaign over Hillary Clinton’s 2002 vote authorizing the use of force in Iraq — a choice Barack Obama did not have to make, since he was not yet in Washington — is irrelevant. The truth is that in the fall of 2002, some Democratic leaders, knowing Bush would use national security arguments against them in their campaigns, were intent on getting the war vote out of the way so that they could return the spotlight to the economy, which they believed favored their party. Among those who voted for the war resolution were former Sen. Tom Daschle, who was the Democratic leader and is now one of key Washington insiders backing Obama, and Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee and also an Obama backer.</p>
<p>The 2002 war vote is history. It is utterly without meaning for the next president, who will neither be able to take the vote back nor preen about having opposed the war from the start. A more relevant history is to be found in the pages of the Iraq Study Group report, which still offers a sober and sane assessment of the options for extricating ourselves from Iraq and beginning to mend the breaches, at home and abroad, that were opened with this monumental blunder.</p>
<p>Marie Cocco’s e-mail address is mariecocco(at)washpost.com.</p>
<p>© 2008, Washington Post Writers Group</p> | Whatever Happened to Ending the War? | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/whatever-happened-to-ending-the-war/ | 2008-03-20 | 4left
| Whatever Happened to Ending the War?
<p>WASHINGTON — I do not recall precisely when I created a file folder with this tab: “Iraq endgame.” Many of the newspaper clippings, interview notes and copies of speeches that are stuffed in the folder date to 2006 — a year in which it seemed the American misadventure had metastasized into such a nightmare that our political leadership might begin to grope toward a resolution.</p>
<p>At one point, I created another file with this tab: “John Warner.” It was a hopeful act. The senior Republican senator from Virginia, then the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, returned from a trip to Iraq in October 2006 and shook the Bush White House to its foundation when he declared that the U.S. efforts there were “drifting sideways.” If things didn’t improve in two or three months, Warner warned, a “change of course” might be necessary. At that point in time, the Iraq Study Group — the sort of bipartisan committee of wise old hands to which Washington loves to throw its nastiest curveballs — was looked to as the panel that would give the White House and Congress sufficient political cover to begin a troop drawdown.</p>
<p>Here is what the Iraq Study Group recommended in December 2006 — a month after Democrats won control of both houses of Congress in an election that turned in large part on public disgust with the war: “By the first quarter of 2008, subject to unexpected developments in the security situation on the ground, all combat brigades not necessary for force protection could be out of Iraq.” The study group urged that no additional troops be sent because “sustained increases in U.S. troop levels would not solve the fundamental cause of violence in Iraq, which is the absence of national reconciliation.”</p>
<p>Now we near the end of the first quarter of 2008. Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of a spectacularly foolish war that was waged on false premises. In the two years since the Iraq Study Group offered a road map out of Iraq — an American military drawdown coupled with an intense diplomatic effort among all the players in the region — the Bush administration and most of the Republican Party have rallied instead to support the surge in American troop strength there.</p>
<p />
<p>President Bush, in his speech at the Pentagon marking the five-year anniversary, sounded the same tired themes that have brought us to this pass. Any withdrawal would be a “retreat” that would signal “weakness and a lack of resolve” to our enemies, he said. He even resurrected the discredited link between Iraq and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, suggesting that a withdrawal from Iraq would make another terrorist assault on the U.S. more likely.</p>
<p>I have been struck, reading the media accounts prepared for this anniversary, at how many of them look back — to the initial decision to invade, to the disbanding of the Iraqi army — rather than ahead. The question Americans should be asking themselves isn’t what went wrong. We already know those infuriating answers. The question is, what now?</p>
<p>This is why the sniping in the Democratic primary campaign over Hillary Clinton’s 2002 vote authorizing the use of force in Iraq — a choice Barack Obama did not have to make, since he was not yet in Washington — is irrelevant. The truth is that in the fall of 2002, some Democratic leaders, knowing Bush would use national security arguments against them in their campaigns, were intent on getting the war vote out of the way so that they could return the spotlight to the economy, which they believed favored their party. Among those who voted for the war resolution were former Sen. Tom Daschle, who was the Democratic leader and is now one of key Washington insiders backing Obama, and Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee and also an Obama backer.</p>
<p>The 2002 war vote is history. It is utterly without meaning for the next president, who will neither be able to take the vote back nor preen about having opposed the war from the start. A more relevant history is to be found in the pages of the Iraq Study Group report, which still offers a sober and sane assessment of the options for extricating ourselves from Iraq and beginning to mend the breaches, at home and abroad, that were opened with this monumental blunder.</p>
<p>Marie Cocco’s e-mail address is mariecocco(at)washpost.com.</p>
<p>© 2008, Washington Post Writers Group</p> | 2,581 |
<p>A fire has been reported aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, but officials say it was quickly extinguished.</p>
<p>Miami-based Royal Caribbean International said in a statement that the fire broke out Wednesday in a mechanical area aboard the Freedom of the Seas as it arrived in Falmouth, Jamaica. The company said onboard fire suppression equipment put out the fire.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Passengers were told to go to evacuation assembly stations out of what Royal Caribbean called an abundance of caution. The company says the ship is now docked in Falmouth and all systems are operating normally.</p>
<p>There were no reports of injuries.</p>
<p>The 1,112-foot "Freedom of the Seas" is on a seven-night cruise that departed from Port Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday. The company didn't say immediately whether the cruise would continue.</p> | Fire reported aboard Royal Caribbean ship in Jamaica; no injuries reported or evacuation | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/07/22/fire-reported-aboard-royal-caribbean-ship-in-jamaica-no-injuries-reported-or.html | 2016-03-05 | 0right
| Fire reported aboard Royal Caribbean ship in Jamaica; no injuries reported or evacuation
<p>A fire has been reported aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, but officials say it was quickly extinguished.</p>
<p>Miami-based Royal Caribbean International said in a statement that the fire broke out Wednesday in a mechanical area aboard the Freedom of the Seas as it arrived in Falmouth, Jamaica. The company said onboard fire suppression equipment put out the fire.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Passengers were told to go to evacuation assembly stations out of what Royal Caribbean called an abundance of caution. The company says the ship is now docked in Falmouth and all systems are operating normally.</p>
<p>There were no reports of injuries.</p>
<p>The 1,112-foot "Freedom of the Seas" is on a seven-night cruise that departed from Port Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday. The company didn't say immediately whether the cruise would continue.</p> | 2,582 |
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<p>The members of the University of New Mexico women’s soccer team wish to give the following statement. “We are deeply sorry that we disappointed the Albuquerque, University of New Mexico and&#160; Lobo Athletic communities. What you may have seen in the media coverage the last week is not who we are. As student-athletes, we will use this as a learning opportunity — not only for ourselves, but also for us to be of assistance to others. Going forward, we will do everything we can — both as a team and as individuals — to represent Lobo Athletics in the best possible light both on and off the field. We love our school, our community and our state. Thanks to our fans who have been faithful supporters. We earnestly hope that you will continue to support us as we work to earn your trust.”</p>
<p />
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Lobo women’s soccer team offers apology | false | https://abqjournal.com/452007/lobo-womens-soccer-team-offers-apology.html | 2least
| Lobo women’s soccer team offers apology
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<p>The members of the University of New Mexico women’s soccer team wish to give the following statement. “We are deeply sorry that we disappointed the Albuquerque, University of New Mexico and&#160; Lobo Athletic communities. What you may have seen in the media coverage the last week is not who we are. As student-athletes, we will use this as a learning opportunity — not only for ourselves, but also for us to be of assistance to others. Going forward, we will do everything we can — both as a team and as individuals — to represent Lobo Athletics in the best possible light both on and off the field. We love our school, our community and our state. Thanks to our fans who have been faithful supporters. We earnestly hope that you will continue to support us as we work to earn your trust.”</p>
<p />
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 2,583 |
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<p>A D.C. Superior Court Judge on Dec. 15 sentenced former District dentist Bilal Ahmed to 16 and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting five male former patients and one male former employee at his dental office on the 2300 block of M St., N.W., between 2010 and 2014.</p>
<p>The sentence also calls for Ahmed, 45, to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life upon his release from prison, at which time he will also be placed on three years of supervised probation.</p>
<p>The sentencing came six months after Ahmed, whose dental licenses in D.C. and Maryland were suspended, pleaded guilty to five felony charges and three misdemeanor charges related to the sexual assaults against the patients and employee.</p>
<p>In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to drop several additional charges against Ahmed handed down by a Superior Court Grand Jury in a multi-count indictment in October 2016.</p>
<p>The Washington Post reported that four of the former patients and one former employee testified at the Dec. 15 sentencing hearing that Ahmed’s actions caused them to suffer lasting emotional distress. At least one of the victims testified he is suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder due to the sexual assault, the Post reported.</p>
<p>“The offenses against the dental patient victims…followed a typical pattern in which Ahmed would take patients into the procedure room, close the door, administer nitrous oxide through a face mask, and then sexually assault the victims while they were sedated,” a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.</p>
<p>A charging document filed in court says Ahmed asked four of the five patients whom he admitted to sexually assaulting “intrusive and inappropriate questions” about their personal life, including their sexual orientation, shortly before administering the nitrous oxide anesthesia.</p>
<p>“I feel the shame,” the Post quoted Ahmed as telling Judge Zoe Bush minutes before the sentencing. “To err is human, to forgive divine.”</p>
<p>In a statement released shortly after the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu said Ahmed violated the trust of his patients in the worst possible way.</p>
<p>“Bilal Ahmed used his dental practice and his position of authority to sexually abuse vulnerable victims, some of whom were his own patients and staff,” Liu said. “His victims included people who came to him for treatment and employment, caught off guard by his outrageous conduct,” she said. “Today’s sentence holds him accountable for his criminal breach of trust.”</p>
<p>The Post reported that Ronald Weiner, a forensic mental health expert who examined Ahmed after his arrest, testified at the sentencing hearing that Ahmed disclosed that he was sexually assaulted as a child. Weiner said he believes Ahmed “would not reoffend after therapy,” the Post reported.</p>
<p>Court records show that Ahmed is married and has five children. At the time of his plea agreement in May prosecutors agreed to allow Ahmed to be released into home detention at his Falls Church, Va., residence until the time of his sentencing. The terms of the release allowed him to leave home for daily prayer at a mosque in Falls Church or at the Islamic Center on Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest Washington.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Bilal Ahmed</a> <a href="" type="internal">Falls Church</a> <a href="" type="internal">Islamic Center</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jessie K. Liu</a> <a href="" type="internal">PTSD</a> <a href="" type="internal">Ronald Weiner</a> <a href="" type="internal">U.S. Attorney's Office</a> <a href="" type="internal">Virginia</a> <a href="" type="internal">Washington Post</a> <a href="" type="internal">Zoe Bush</a></p> | Dentist gets 16 years in prison for sexually assaulting male patients | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/12/18/bilal-ahmed-sentence/ | 3left-center
| Dentist gets 16 years in prison for sexually assaulting male patients
<p>A D.C. Superior Court Judge on Dec. 15 sentenced former District dentist Bilal Ahmed to 16 and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting five male former patients and one male former employee at his dental office on the 2300 block of M St., N.W., between 2010 and 2014.</p>
<p>The sentence also calls for Ahmed, 45, to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life upon his release from prison, at which time he will also be placed on three years of supervised probation.</p>
<p>The sentencing came six months after Ahmed, whose dental licenses in D.C. and Maryland were suspended, pleaded guilty to five felony charges and three misdemeanor charges related to the sexual assaults against the patients and employee.</p>
<p>In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to drop several additional charges against Ahmed handed down by a Superior Court Grand Jury in a multi-count indictment in October 2016.</p>
<p>The Washington Post reported that four of the former patients and one former employee testified at the Dec. 15 sentencing hearing that Ahmed’s actions caused them to suffer lasting emotional distress. At least one of the victims testified he is suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder due to the sexual assault, the Post reported.</p>
<p>“The offenses against the dental patient victims…followed a typical pattern in which Ahmed would take patients into the procedure room, close the door, administer nitrous oxide through a face mask, and then sexually assault the victims while they were sedated,” a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.</p>
<p>A charging document filed in court says Ahmed asked four of the five patients whom he admitted to sexually assaulting “intrusive and inappropriate questions” about their personal life, including their sexual orientation, shortly before administering the nitrous oxide anesthesia.</p>
<p>“I feel the shame,” the Post quoted Ahmed as telling Judge Zoe Bush minutes before the sentencing. “To err is human, to forgive divine.”</p>
<p>In a statement released shortly after the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu said Ahmed violated the trust of his patients in the worst possible way.</p>
<p>“Bilal Ahmed used his dental practice and his position of authority to sexually abuse vulnerable victims, some of whom were his own patients and staff,” Liu said. “His victims included people who came to him for treatment and employment, caught off guard by his outrageous conduct,” she said. “Today’s sentence holds him accountable for his criminal breach of trust.”</p>
<p>The Post reported that Ronald Weiner, a forensic mental health expert who examined Ahmed after his arrest, testified at the sentencing hearing that Ahmed disclosed that he was sexually assaulted as a child. Weiner said he believes Ahmed “would not reoffend after therapy,” the Post reported.</p>
<p>Court records show that Ahmed is married and has five children. At the time of his plea agreement in May prosecutors agreed to allow Ahmed to be released into home detention at his Falls Church, Va., residence until the time of his sentencing. The terms of the release allowed him to leave home for daily prayer at a mosque in Falls Church or at the Islamic Center on Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest Washington.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Bilal Ahmed</a> <a href="" type="internal">Falls Church</a> <a href="" type="internal">Islamic Center</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jessie K. Liu</a> <a href="" type="internal">PTSD</a> <a href="" type="internal">Ronald Weiner</a> <a href="" type="internal">U.S. Attorney's Office</a> <a href="" type="internal">Virginia</a> <a href="" type="internal">Washington Post</a> <a href="" type="internal">Zoe Bush</a></p> | 2,584 |
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<p>CHANDLER, Ariz. — Chandler police have identified a 20-year-old homicide victim.</p>
<p>Police say Dominic Vega of Chandler was fatally shot on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Vega was found on the street near Arizona Avenue and Ivanhoe Place and was pronounced dead on scene.</p>
<p>Police say several suspects fled in a four-door passenger car.</p>
<p>An investigation is ongoing.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Chandler police identify 20-year-old homicide victim | false | https://abqjournal.com/914146/chandler-police-investigating-killing-of-20-year-old-man.html | 2016-12-22 | 2least
| Chandler police identify 20-year-old homicide victim
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<p>CHANDLER, Ariz. — Chandler police have identified a 20-year-old homicide victim.</p>
<p>Police say Dominic Vega of Chandler was fatally shot on Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Vega was found on the street near Arizona Avenue and Ivanhoe Place and was pronounced dead on scene.</p>
<p>Police say several suspects fled in a four-door passenger car.</p>
<p>An investigation is ongoing.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 2,585 |
<p />
<p>Japanese auto supplier Denso announced a new $1 billion investment in its Tennessee plant on Friday, a move that will create 1,000 new U.S. jobs.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The investment is aimed at making the Maryville plant the Japanese company's primary manufacturer in North American for electrification and safety systems, the company said.</p>
<p>"This is an investment in the future of Denso, and also the future of transportation," Kenichiro Ito, the chairman of Denso North America, said in a statement. "We are seeing dramatic shifts in the role of transportation in society, and this investment will help position us to meet those changing demands."</p>
<p>The company plans to expand several production lines to produce advanced components for hybrid and electric vehicles. The products are designed to improve fuel efficiency and preserve electric power by recovering and recycling energy. They also will boost efficiency for the entire vehicle by anticipating road conditions through data collected inside and outside the car.</p>
<p>Denso opened the plant in Maryville in 1988 with about 100 employees. U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, then governor, has said the facility in his hometown was a sort of consolation prize after Tennessee lost out to Kentucky for a Toyota assembly plant. Today about 3,200 people work at the Maryville plant, besides another 1,400 employees at another Denso facility in nearby Athens, Tennessee.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The announcement comes as Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam prepares to embark on a trade mission to Asia that will include a pitch seeking to attract a new joint Toyota and Mazda assembly plant to his Southern state.</p>
<p>The Japanese automakers announced in August that they plan to spend $1.6 billion on the new manufacturing plant, creating up to 4,000 jobs. The companies plan to work together on advanced auto technology, such as electric vehicles, safety features and connected cars, as well as products that they could supply each other.</p>
<p>Tennessee is home to assembly plants by Nissan, General Motors and Volkswagen, along with a slew of suppliers. The state has been prepping a sprawling site outside of Memphis in hopes of attracting another auto manufacturing plant.</p>
<p>"We would love to get the Mazda-Toyota plant," Haslam told reporters Thursday. "We think we have leg up in automobile manufacturing because we're so strong in it now, and there is a sense in which there's a real desire to locate near other suppliers."</p>
<p>Last month, President Donald Trump said an unnamed powerful leader told him at the United Nations summit that his or her country would invest in, or build, five “major” auto plants in the U.S. in the coming weeks.</p>
<p>“I just left the United Nations last week and I was told by one of the most powerful leaders of the world that they are going to be announcing in the not too distant future five major factories in the United States, between increasing and new, five,” Trump said, adding the factories would be in the auto sector.</p>
<p>The Associated Press contributed to this story.</p> | Auto supplier Denso to invest $1B in Tennessee plant, create 1,000 jobs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/06/auto-supplier-denso-to-invest-1b-in-tennessee-plant-create-1000-jobs.html | 2017-10-06 | 0right
| Auto supplier Denso to invest $1B in Tennessee plant, create 1,000 jobs
<p />
<p>Japanese auto supplier Denso announced a new $1 billion investment in its Tennessee plant on Friday, a move that will create 1,000 new U.S. jobs.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The investment is aimed at making the Maryville plant the Japanese company's primary manufacturer in North American for electrification and safety systems, the company said.</p>
<p>"This is an investment in the future of Denso, and also the future of transportation," Kenichiro Ito, the chairman of Denso North America, said in a statement. "We are seeing dramatic shifts in the role of transportation in society, and this investment will help position us to meet those changing demands."</p>
<p>The company plans to expand several production lines to produce advanced components for hybrid and electric vehicles. The products are designed to improve fuel efficiency and preserve electric power by recovering and recycling energy. They also will boost efficiency for the entire vehicle by anticipating road conditions through data collected inside and outside the car.</p>
<p>Denso opened the plant in Maryville in 1988 with about 100 employees. U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, then governor, has said the facility in his hometown was a sort of consolation prize after Tennessee lost out to Kentucky for a Toyota assembly plant. Today about 3,200 people work at the Maryville plant, besides another 1,400 employees at another Denso facility in nearby Athens, Tennessee.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The announcement comes as Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam prepares to embark on a trade mission to Asia that will include a pitch seeking to attract a new joint Toyota and Mazda assembly plant to his Southern state.</p>
<p>The Japanese automakers announced in August that they plan to spend $1.6 billion on the new manufacturing plant, creating up to 4,000 jobs. The companies plan to work together on advanced auto technology, such as electric vehicles, safety features and connected cars, as well as products that they could supply each other.</p>
<p>Tennessee is home to assembly plants by Nissan, General Motors and Volkswagen, along with a slew of suppliers. The state has been prepping a sprawling site outside of Memphis in hopes of attracting another auto manufacturing plant.</p>
<p>"We would love to get the Mazda-Toyota plant," Haslam told reporters Thursday. "We think we have leg up in automobile manufacturing because we're so strong in it now, and there is a sense in which there's a real desire to locate near other suppliers."</p>
<p>Last month, President Donald Trump said an unnamed powerful leader told him at the United Nations summit that his or her country would invest in, or build, five “major” auto plants in the U.S. in the coming weeks.</p>
<p>“I just left the United Nations last week and I was told by one of the most powerful leaders of the world that they are going to be announcing in the not too distant future five major factories in the United States, between increasing and new, five,” Trump said, adding the factories would be in the auto sector.</p>
<p>The Associated Press contributed to this story.</p> | 2,586 |
<p>SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore police have arrested 17 men suspected of involvement in stealing oil from the largest Shell refinery in the world.</p>
<p>Police said Tuesday that they also seized $2.3 million and an oil tanker in connection with the theft, which was first reported in August.</p>
<p>Singapore media reported that that nine of the men were charged with criminal breach of trust and could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. Two Vietnamese were accused in court of receiving stolen goods and could face up to five years in jail, local media said.</p>
<p>Shell has not said how much oil was taken. It said in a statement that those detained included “a limited number of Shell employees.”</p>
<p>A police statement said the 17 men, aged 30-63, were detained Sunday. It said police are seeking to freeze the suspects’ bank accounts.</p>
<p>The oil came from Shell’s Bukom industrial site, located on an island southwest of Singapore. It is the company’s largest petrochemical production and export center in the Asia-Pacific.</p>
<p>Theft of oil and of oil tankers has been a chronic problem in piracy-prone Southeast Asia for years.</p>
<p>SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore police have arrested 17 men suspected of involvement in stealing oil from the largest Shell refinery in the world.</p>
<p>Police said Tuesday that they also seized $2.3 million and an oil tanker in connection with the theft, which was first reported in August.</p>
<p>Singapore media reported that that nine of the men were charged with criminal breach of trust and could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. Two Vietnamese were accused in court of receiving stolen goods and could face up to five years in jail, local media said.</p>
<p>Shell has not said how much oil was taken. It said in a statement that those detained included “a limited number of Shell employees.”</p>
<p>A police statement said the 17 men, aged 30-63, were detained Sunday. It said police are seeking to freeze the suspects’ bank accounts.</p>
<p>The oil came from Shell’s Bukom industrial site, located on an island southwest of Singapore. It is the company’s largest petrochemical production and export center in the Asia-Pacific.</p>
<p>Theft of oil and of oil tankers has been a chronic problem in piracy-prone Southeast Asia for years.</p> | Singapore arrests 17 suspected in Shell oil heist | false | https://apnews.com/346214de922940d1bc28dfc5ba83ea7f | 2018-01-09 | 2least
| Singapore arrests 17 suspected in Shell oil heist
<p>SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore police have arrested 17 men suspected of involvement in stealing oil from the largest Shell refinery in the world.</p>
<p>Police said Tuesday that they also seized $2.3 million and an oil tanker in connection with the theft, which was first reported in August.</p>
<p>Singapore media reported that that nine of the men were charged with criminal breach of trust and could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. Two Vietnamese were accused in court of receiving stolen goods and could face up to five years in jail, local media said.</p>
<p>Shell has not said how much oil was taken. It said in a statement that those detained included “a limited number of Shell employees.”</p>
<p>A police statement said the 17 men, aged 30-63, were detained Sunday. It said police are seeking to freeze the suspects’ bank accounts.</p>
<p>The oil came from Shell’s Bukom industrial site, located on an island southwest of Singapore. It is the company’s largest petrochemical production and export center in the Asia-Pacific.</p>
<p>Theft of oil and of oil tankers has been a chronic problem in piracy-prone Southeast Asia for years.</p>
<p>SINGAPORE (AP) — Singapore police have arrested 17 men suspected of involvement in stealing oil from the largest Shell refinery in the world.</p>
<p>Police said Tuesday that they also seized $2.3 million and an oil tanker in connection with the theft, which was first reported in August.</p>
<p>Singapore media reported that that nine of the men were charged with criminal breach of trust and could face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. Two Vietnamese were accused in court of receiving stolen goods and could face up to five years in jail, local media said.</p>
<p>Shell has not said how much oil was taken. It said in a statement that those detained included “a limited number of Shell employees.”</p>
<p>A police statement said the 17 men, aged 30-63, were detained Sunday. It said police are seeking to freeze the suspects’ bank accounts.</p>
<p>The oil came from Shell’s Bukom industrial site, located on an island southwest of Singapore. It is the company’s largest petrochemical production and export center in the Asia-Pacific.</p>
<p>Theft of oil and of oil tankers has been a chronic problem in piracy-prone Southeast Asia for years.</p> | 2,587 |
<p>Hillary Clinton declared Donald Trump unqualified to be president Thursday, citing as her proof a list of the presumptive GOP nominee's "irresponsible, reckless, dangerous comments.?</p>
<p>"I have concluded he is not qualified to be president of the United States,? Clinton told CNN's Chris Cuomo in an interview.</p>
<p>The likely Democratic presidential nominee has previously avoided answering the question, but said recent statements from Trump on everything from North Korea to NATO underscored the risk of his presidency in her mind.</p>
<p>"The threat that Donald Trump poses is so dramatic - to our country, to our democracy, and to our economy," Clinton said.</p>
<p>The former secretary of state, in particular, said Trump could not be trusted to keep the nation safe, pointing to the mysterious crash of a Cairo-bound EgyptAir flight over the Mediterranean early Thursday morning.</p>
<p>"It does appear it was an act of terrorism,? Clinton said of the crash. She added that Trump's support of a ban on Muslims entering the country would only exacerbate terrorism.</p>
<p>Clinton also refused to respond to Trump's accusation that her husband, former president Bill Clinton, raped women. "I know that is exactly what he is fishing for," Clinton said, refusing to engage.</p>
<p>But Before Clinton can turn her full attention to the presumptive Republican nominee, she first has to contend with a lingering primary challenge from Bernie Sanders, whom Clinton called on to do his part to unify the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>"I will be the nominee for our party, Chris," Clinton said. "There is no way I won't be."</p>
<p>Clinton said she was "very disturbed" by the chaos surrounding a Nevada Democratic State Convention this weekend, but said she is confident the party will ultimately come together to defeat Trump.</p>
<p>Asked if she was considering Sanders to be her vice presidential pick, Clinton refused to play ball. "I'm not going to answer that question," she said flatly.</p> | Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump 'Not Qualified' to be President | false | http://nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-not-qualified-be-president-n577006 | 2016-05-19 | 3left-center
| Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump 'Not Qualified' to be President
<p>Hillary Clinton declared Donald Trump unqualified to be president Thursday, citing as her proof a list of the presumptive GOP nominee's "irresponsible, reckless, dangerous comments.?</p>
<p>"I have concluded he is not qualified to be president of the United States,? Clinton told CNN's Chris Cuomo in an interview.</p>
<p>The likely Democratic presidential nominee has previously avoided answering the question, but said recent statements from Trump on everything from North Korea to NATO underscored the risk of his presidency in her mind.</p>
<p>"The threat that Donald Trump poses is so dramatic - to our country, to our democracy, and to our economy," Clinton said.</p>
<p>The former secretary of state, in particular, said Trump could not be trusted to keep the nation safe, pointing to the mysterious crash of a Cairo-bound EgyptAir flight over the Mediterranean early Thursday morning.</p>
<p>"It does appear it was an act of terrorism,? Clinton said of the crash. She added that Trump's support of a ban on Muslims entering the country would only exacerbate terrorism.</p>
<p>Clinton also refused to respond to Trump's accusation that her husband, former president Bill Clinton, raped women. "I know that is exactly what he is fishing for," Clinton said, refusing to engage.</p>
<p>But Before Clinton can turn her full attention to the presumptive Republican nominee, she first has to contend with a lingering primary challenge from Bernie Sanders, whom Clinton called on to do his part to unify the Democratic Party.</p>
<p>"I will be the nominee for our party, Chris," Clinton said. "There is no way I won't be."</p>
<p>Clinton said she was "very disturbed" by the chaos surrounding a Nevada Democratic State Convention this weekend, but said she is confident the party will ultimately come together to defeat Trump.</p>
<p>Asked if she was considering Sanders to be her vice presidential pick, Clinton refused to play ball. "I'm not going to answer that question," she said flatly.</p> | 2,588 |
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<p />
<p>The caller is not trying to send you money but instead is seeking to gain remote access to your computer and then lock you out while accessing all the information in your files, the sheriff's office said.</p>
<p>"Remember, phone scams are very realistic and sophisticated," a news release says. "You should never provide personal information, access to computers, passwords or exchange large amounts of money over the telephone unless you know who you are talking to."</p>
<p>Is it real or is it yet another scam?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>I've gotten a number of calls from Albuquerque residents, wondering about a letter they have received from the U.S. government's Office of Personnel Management.</p>
<p>The agency was subject to a huge hack last summer that compromised personal information, such as birthdates and Social Security numbers. More than 21 million people were affected, 25 percent of whom also had their fingerprint records stolen.</p>
<p>The agency is mailing out about 10 million letters to victims notifying them that their information was stolen, although not necessarily misused. The letter provides a PIN number and offers free identity theft protection and credit monitoring services.</p>
<p>The question is, do you risk getting scammed again if you respond? In fact, there are some reports of hoax letters, according to the Better Business Bureau, but there are ways to tell whether the letter is legitimate.</p>
<p>First, know that you don't have to be a U.S. federal employee to receive this letter. The breach was so widespread, that it affected former employees, federal job applicants, spouses and others living with an employee as listed on federal background investigation applications and even those who worked or volunteered with a federal agency but were not employees.</p>
<p>Legitimate letters will include a 25-digit PIN that allows you to register for the free services. Make sure your PIN is authentic by entering it at <a href="http://opm.gov/cybersecurity" type="external">opm.gov/cybersecurity</a>. The letter also includes instructions to visit the website to get more information and to sign up for monitoring.</p>
<p>The BBB says scammers "love to take advantage of large government initiatives." They went to work, for example, when the Affordable Care Act was rolled out.</p>
<p>Avoid a hoax with the following information:</p>
<p>For more information about the breach or the letters, go to the website listed above.</p>
<p>Ellen Marks is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal. Contact her at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or 505-823-3842 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-800-678-1508.</p>
<p /> | Here's two clever and convincing hoaxes to avoid | false | https://abqjournal.com/693765/heres-two-clever-and-convincing-hoaxes-to-avoid.html | 2least
| Here's two clever and convincing hoaxes to avoid
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The caller is not trying to send you money but instead is seeking to gain remote access to your computer and then lock you out while accessing all the information in your files, the sheriff's office said.</p>
<p>"Remember, phone scams are very realistic and sophisticated," a news release says. "You should never provide personal information, access to computers, passwords or exchange large amounts of money over the telephone unless you know who you are talking to."</p>
<p>Is it real or is it yet another scam?</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>I've gotten a number of calls from Albuquerque residents, wondering about a letter they have received from the U.S. government's Office of Personnel Management.</p>
<p>The agency was subject to a huge hack last summer that compromised personal information, such as birthdates and Social Security numbers. More than 21 million people were affected, 25 percent of whom also had their fingerprint records stolen.</p>
<p>The agency is mailing out about 10 million letters to victims notifying them that their information was stolen, although not necessarily misused. The letter provides a PIN number and offers free identity theft protection and credit monitoring services.</p>
<p>The question is, do you risk getting scammed again if you respond? In fact, there are some reports of hoax letters, according to the Better Business Bureau, but there are ways to tell whether the letter is legitimate.</p>
<p>First, know that you don't have to be a U.S. federal employee to receive this letter. The breach was so widespread, that it affected former employees, federal job applicants, spouses and others living with an employee as listed on federal background investigation applications and even those who worked or volunteered with a federal agency but were not employees.</p>
<p>Legitimate letters will include a 25-digit PIN that allows you to register for the free services. Make sure your PIN is authentic by entering it at <a href="http://opm.gov/cybersecurity" type="external">opm.gov/cybersecurity</a>. The letter also includes instructions to visit the website to get more information and to sign up for monitoring.</p>
<p>The BBB says scammers "love to take advantage of large government initiatives." They went to work, for example, when the Affordable Care Act was rolled out.</p>
<p>Avoid a hoax with the following information:</p>
<p>For more information about the breach or the letters, go to the website listed above.</p>
<p>Ellen Marks is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal. Contact her at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or 505-823-3842 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-800-678-1508.</p>
<p /> | 2,589 |
|
<p>President Trump on Thursday threatened to cease relief efforts in Puerto Rico, where a humanitarian crisis has been underway for the past three weeks.</p>
<p>In a series of tweets early Thursday morning, Trump cited&#160;television journalist&#160;Sharyl Attkisson — whose show&#160;Full Measure airs on stations owned by the right-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group —&#160;while pointing to Puerto Rico’s pre-existing debt, which was plaguing the U.S. territory long before Hurricane Maria made landfall as a Category 4 storm.</p>
<p>“‘Puerto Rico survived the Hurricanes, now a financial crisis looms largely of their own making,’ says Sharyl Attkisson,” Trump tweeted. “A total lack of&#160;accountability say the Governor. Electric and all infrastructure was disaster before hurricanes. Congress to decide how much to spend.”</p>
<p>“We cannot keep FEMA, the Military &amp; the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!” he continued.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Puerto Rico’s debt has been a source of consternation for Trump, whose administration has come under fire for its handling of the crisis in the wake of the storm. After initially avoiding commenting on the island’s unfolding disaster, Trump <a href="" type="internal">took to Twitter</a>&#160;in late September to blame Puerto Rico for its poor infrastructure and financial struggles. That pattern has continued ever since; during a trip to the island last week, Trump <a href="" type="internal">made reference to the island’s debt once again</a>.</p>
<p>“I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack — because we’ve spent a lot of money&#160;on Puerto Rico,” Trump said during a briefing.</p>
<p>The president called out the island's debt and struggles after days of tweeting about football.</p>
<p />
<p>Those comments <a href="" type="internal">went over poorly both on the island and on the mainland</a>. Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million inhabitants have faced an uphill battle in garnering attention from the White House despite the severity of the island’s crisis.&#160;At least 45 people have died since the hurricane hit, a number that is expected to rise. More than 110 people also remain unaccounted for.</p>
<p><a href="http://status.pr/?lng=en" type="external">As of Wednesday afternoon</a>, 89 percent of the island lacked power and only half had access to cellular reception. Only 64 percent of Puerto Rico has access to potable water and <a href="https://www.elnuevodia.com/english/english/nota/concernaboutwaterquality-2365036/" type="external">officials have even advised</a> that the water that is available should still be boiled.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/11/puerto-rico-food-shortage-hurricane-maria" type="external">The Guardian reported on Wednesday</a> that food shortages were also becoming an issue; according to its report, approximately 200,000 meals were being prepared per day to feed around 2 million residents. FEMA officials <a href="" type="internal">later avoided commenting</a> when asked about the food shortages by ThinkProgress.</p> | Trump threatens to end recovery efforts in Puerto Rico amid ongoing crisis | true | https://thinkprogress.org/puerto-rico-trump-threats-fc50858b0a8d/ | 2017-10-12 | 4left
| Trump threatens to end recovery efforts in Puerto Rico amid ongoing crisis
<p>President Trump on Thursday threatened to cease relief efforts in Puerto Rico, where a humanitarian crisis has been underway for the past three weeks.</p>
<p>In a series of tweets early Thursday morning, Trump cited&#160;television journalist&#160;Sharyl Attkisson — whose show&#160;Full Measure airs on stations owned by the right-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group —&#160;while pointing to Puerto Rico’s pre-existing debt, which was plaguing the U.S. territory long before Hurricane Maria made landfall as a Category 4 storm.</p>
<p>“‘Puerto Rico survived the Hurricanes, now a financial crisis looms largely of their own making,’ says Sharyl Attkisson,” Trump tweeted. “A total lack of&#160;accountability say the Governor. Electric and all infrastructure was disaster before hurricanes. Congress to decide how much to spend.”</p>
<p>“We cannot keep FEMA, the Military &amp; the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!” he continued.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Puerto Rico’s debt has been a source of consternation for Trump, whose administration has come under fire for its handling of the crisis in the wake of the storm. After initially avoiding commenting on the island’s unfolding disaster, Trump <a href="" type="internal">took to Twitter</a>&#160;in late September to blame Puerto Rico for its poor infrastructure and financial struggles. That pattern has continued ever since; during a trip to the island last week, Trump <a href="" type="internal">made reference to the island’s debt once again</a>.</p>
<p>“I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack — because we’ve spent a lot of money&#160;on Puerto Rico,” Trump said during a briefing.</p>
<p>The president called out the island's debt and struggles after days of tweeting about football.</p>
<p />
<p>Those comments <a href="" type="internal">went over poorly both on the island and on the mainland</a>. Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million inhabitants have faced an uphill battle in garnering attention from the White House despite the severity of the island’s crisis.&#160;At least 45 people have died since the hurricane hit, a number that is expected to rise. More than 110 people also remain unaccounted for.</p>
<p><a href="http://status.pr/?lng=en" type="external">As of Wednesday afternoon</a>, 89 percent of the island lacked power and only half had access to cellular reception. Only 64 percent of Puerto Rico has access to potable water and <a href="https://www.elnuevodia.com/english/english/nota/concernaboutwaterquality-2365036/" type="external">officials have even advised</a> that the water that is available should still be boiled.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/11/puerto-rico-food-shortage-hurricane-maria" type="external">The Guardian reported on Wednesday</a> that food shortages were also becoming an issue; according to its report, approximately 200,000 meals were being prepared per day to feed around 2 million residents. FEMA officials <a href="" type="internal">later avoided commenting</a> when asked about the food shortages by ThinkProgress.</p> | 2,590 |
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<p>YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — A geological analysis Friday found there was no more danger than usual of another giant rock fall after two huge slides, including one involving a slab of granite the size of a 36-story building, occurred this week on the famed El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park.</p>
<p>One person was killed and two injured in the successive rock falls on Wednesday and Thursday at the climbing mecca.</p>
<p>“If we felt any area was unsafe we wouldn’t be allowing people in there,” Yosemite geologist Greg Stock said Friday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>He and a U.S. Geological Service geologist were studying the mountain after the rock falls that awed but did not deter people in the close-knit climbing community.</p>
<p>“It’s kind of an inherently dangerous sport,” Hayden Jamieson, 24, of Mammoth Lakes, California, said as he prepared to head up El Capitan early Saturday.</p>
<p>The park typically sees about 80 rock falls a year.</p>
<p>Elite climbers who make their way up the sheer rock faces with ropes and their fingertips understand the risk but also know it’s rare to get hit and killed by rocks.</p>
<p>In addition, Stock said it’s impossible to predict when and where a rock fall will strike. Detecting shifts in rocks could be a sign that one will break loose days or maybe years later, he said.</p>
<p>Geologists don’t think climbers who pound stakes into the granite wall or hang from ropes during their treks have much effect on the stability of the mountainside.</p>
<p>“I am a scientist, so I won’t rule it out entirely,” Stock said. “We don’t see a strong link between climbing and rock falls.”</p>
<p>He also said climbers are relatively minuscule compared to the massive granite rocks they scale.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The slide on Wednesday featuring the building-sized boulder killed Andrew Foster, 32, of Wales, who was hiking with his wife at the bottom of El Capitan and preparing to ascend El Capitan far from trails used by most Yosemite visitors.</p>
<p>The massive slab of granite that fell Thursday weighed 30,500 tons (27,669 metric tonnes), geologists estimate.</p>
<p>That fall injured Jim Evans, who was driving out of the national park when rubble broke through the sunroof of his SUV, hitting the resident of Naples, Florida, in the head, said his wife.</p>
<p>Rachel Evans, told KSEE-TV of Fresno ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2x1EnIU)" type="external">http://bit.ly/2x1EnIU)</a> that the family had just finished a three-day visit to Yosemite.</p>
<p>“We didn’t know what had happened, but it shattered (the glass) and the dust just poured in,” Evans said. “We were trying to outrun it; it was like ‘Go! Let’s go!’ and at the same time my husband reached up and he was like ‘Oh, my head, my head’ because it was bleeding profusely and hurting.”</p>
<p>Climber Ryan Sheridan, of Buffalo, New York, had been scaling the route for days with a partner when the granite slab fell Wednesday below them.</p>
<p>He said he and his partner, Peter Zabrok, had slept on the wall in the fall zone a couple of nights before the slab came crumbling down.</p>
<p>Sheridan, 25, said he was spooked after hammering a pin into the wall that didn’t sound right.</p>
<p>“The entire wall seemed to be making hollow noises. When you hit the wall, you could hear echo all around you,” he said.</p>
<p>Some climbers were stressed Friday as they weighed whether to take one of about 100 routes up El Capitan or do another big climb in the park, said Josh Edwards, 21, of Bend, Oregon.</p>
<p>“It’s kind of scary thinking that an entire cliff side can come off,” Edwards said. “The general feeling is everybody’s a little scared. At least I am.”</p>
<p>Ian Mort, 60, of Los Angeles could smell the dust from the rock fall Thursday while he sat in jammed traffic and headed into the park for his first trip, but he said he wasn’t concerned.</p>
<p>“Mother Earth changes every day, and we just have to get used to it, I guess,” he said.</p>
<p>Foster’s former colleagues at the Up and Under outdoor gear store in Cardiff, Wales, recalled him in a statement as a man whose passion for the outdoors, “and mountains in particular, was enormous and infectious.”</p>
<p>His wife, Lucy, was seriously injured.</p>
<p>The last time a climber was killed by falling rock at Yosemite was in 2013, when a Montana climber fell after a rock dislodged and sliced his climbing rope. It was preceded by a 1999 rock fall that crushed a climber from Colorado. Park officials say rock falls overall have killed 16 people since 1857 and injured more than 100.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Olga R. Rodriguez and Juliet Williams in San Francisco contributed to this story.</p> | No increased danger after Yosemite rocks fall | false | https://abqjournal.com/1070725/2-days-2-dangerous-rock-falls-at-yosemite-national-park.html | 2017-09-29 | 2least
| No increased danger after Yosemite rocks fall
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<p>YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — A geological analysis Friday found there was no more danger than usual of another giant rock fall after two huge slides, including one involving a slab of granite the size of a 36-story building, occurred this week on the famed El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park.</p>
<p>One person was killed and two injured in the successive rock falls on Wednesday and Thursday at the climbing mecca.</p>
<p>“If we felt any area was unsafe we wouldn’t be allowing people in there,” Yosemite geologist Greg Stock said Friday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>He and a U.S. Geological Service geologist were studying the mountain after the rock falls that awed but did not deter people in the close-knit climbing community.</p>
<p>“It’s kind of an inherently dangerous sport,” Hayden Jamieson, 24, of Mammoth Lakes, California, said as he prepared to head up El Capitan early Saturday.</p>
<p>The park typically sees about 80 rock falls a year.</p>
<p>Elite climbers who make their way up the sheer rock faces with ropes and their fingertips understand the risk but also know it’s rare to get hit and killed by rocks.</p>
<p>In addition, Stock said it’s impossible to predict when and where a rock fall will strike. Detecting shifts in rocks could be a sign that one will break loose days or maybe years later, he said.</p>
<p>Geologists don’t think climbers who pound stakes into the granite wall or hang from ropes during their treks have much effect on the stability of the mountainside.</p>
<p>“I am a scientist, so I won’t rule it out entirely,” Stock said. “We don’t see a strong link between climbing and rock falls.”</p>
<p>He also said climbers are relatively minuscule compared to the massive granite rocks they scale.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The slide on Wednesday featuring the building-sized boulder killed Andrew Foster, 32, of Wales, who was hiking with his wife at the bottom of El Capitan and preparing to ascend El Capitan far from trails used by most Yosemite visitors.</p>
<p>The massive slab of granite that fell Thursday weighed 30,500 tons (27,669 metric tonnes), geologists estimate.</p>
<p>That fall injured Jim Evans, who was driving out of the national park when rubble broke through the sunroof of his SUV, hitting the resident of Naples, Florida, in the head, said his wife.</p>
<p>Rachel Evans, told KSEE-TV of Fresno ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2x1EnIU)" type="external">http://bit.ly/2x1EnIU)</a> that the family had just finished a three-day visit to Yosemite.</p>
<p>“We didn’t know what had happened, but it shattered (the glass) and the dust just poured in,” Evans said. “We were trying to outrun it; it was like ‘Go! Let’s go!’ and at the same time my husband reached up and he was like ‘Oh, my head, my head’ because it was bleeding profusely and hurting.”</p>
<p>Climber Ryan Sheridan, of Buffalo, New York, had been scaling the route for days with a partner when the granite slab fell Wednesday below them.</p>
<p>He said he and his partner, Peter Zabrok, had slept on the wall in the fall zone a couple of nights before the slab came crumbling down.</p>
<p>Sheridan, 25, said he was spooked after hammering a pin into the wall that didn’t sound right.</p>
<p>“The entire wall seemed to be making hollow noises. When you hit the wall, you could hear echo all around you,” he said.</p>
<p>Some climbers were stressed Friday as they weighed whether to take one of about 100 routes up El Capitan or do another big climb in the park, said Josh Edwards, 21, of Bend, Oregon.</p>
<p>“It’s kind of scary thinking that an entire cliff side can come off,” Edwards said. “The general feeling is everybody’s a little scared. At least I am.”</p>
<p>Ian Mort, 60, of Los Angeles could smell the dust from the rock fall Thursday while he sat in jammed traffic and headed into the park for his first trip, but he said he wasn’t concerned.</p>
<p>“Mother Earth changes every day, and we just have to get used to it, I guess,” he said.</p>
<p>Foster’s former colleagues at the Up and Under outdoor gear store in Cardiff, Wales, recalled him in a statement as a man whose passion for the outdoors, “and mountains in particular, was enormous and infectious.”</p>
<p>His wife, Lucy, was seriously injured.</p>
<p>The last time a climber was killed by falling rock at Yosemite was in 2013, when a Montana climber fell after a rock dislodged and sliced his climbing rope. It was preceded by a 1999 rock fall that crushed a climber from Colorado. Park officials say rock falls overall have killed 16 people since 1857 and injured more than 100.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Olga R. Rodriguez and Juliet Williams in San Francisco contributed to this story.</p> | 2,591 |
<p>During his presidential campaign and throughout his nine-month presidency, Donald Trump has been fixated on ending the Iran nuclear deal, which he called “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”</p>
<p>Under the&#160; <a href="https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/245317.pdf" type="external">2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action</a>&#160;(JCPOA), Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear program and in return, it received billions of dollars of relief from punishing sanctions.</p>
<p>Iran has allowed 24-hour inspections by officials from the&#160;United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “Iran has gotten rid of all of its highly enriched uranium,” Jessica T. Mathews&#160; <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/08/17/nuclear-diplomacy-from-iran-to-north-korea/" type="external">wrote</a>&#160;in the New York Review of Books. “It has also eliminated 99 percent of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium. … All enrichment has been shut down at the once-secret, fortified, underground facility at Fordow. … Iran has disabled and poured concrete into the core of its plutonium reactor — thus shutting down the plutonium as well as the uranium route to nuclear weapons. It has provided adequate answers to the IAEA’s long-standing list of questions regarding past weapons-related activities.”</p>
<p>Yukiya Amano, director general of IAEA, refuted Trump’s allegation that Iran had kept IAEA weapons inspectors from entering military bases. Amano said, “So far, IAEA has had access to all locations it needed to visit. At present, Iran is subject to the world’s most robust nuclear verification regime.”</p>
<p />
<p>But in spite of the fact that the IAEA has affirmed eight times — most recently in August — that Iran is meeting its obligations under the deal, Trump refused to certify Iran was in compliance and he decided the deal is not in the U.S. national security interests.</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1191/text" type="external">U.S. Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act</a>&#160;requires the president to determine every 90 days whether Iran remains compliant with the JCPOA and whether the agreement still serves U.S. interests. Trump reluctantly certified Iran’s compliance in April and July. But on Oct. 13, to the consternation of his secretary of state, secretary of defense, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he refused to certify Iran’s compliance with the deal.</p>
<p>France, Britain, Russia, China, Germany, the United States and Iran are parties to the historic agreement. After Trump’s Oct. 13 announcement, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement that retaining the Iran deal “is in our shared national security interest.” They stated, “The nuclear deal was the culmination of thirteen years of diplomacy and was a major step towards ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is not diverted for military purposes.”</p>
<p>Trump Walks in Lockstep With Netanyahu</p>
<p>Trump walks in lockstep with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has consistently opposed the Iran deal. The Christian Zionists, who await Christ’s second coming in Israel, constitute a significant portion of Trump’s base.</p>
<p>After his election but before inauguration, Trump inserted himself into U.S. foreign policy by criticizing Barack Obama for refusing to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s illegal settlement-building.</p>
<p>In 2015, before the U.S. joined the JCPOA, Netanyahu staged an end-run around then-President Obama and directly addressed the U.S. Congress, prevailing upon them to oppose the deal. “That deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told Congress. “It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons — lots of them.”</p>
<p>Netanyahu was thrilled with Trump’s refusal to recertify Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA.&#160;“It’s a very brave decision, and I think it’s the right decision for the world,” Netanyahu said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” The American Israel Public Affairs Committee also heralded Trump’s attack on the JCPOA.</p>
<p>The White House&#160; <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/10/13/president-donald-j-trumps-new-strategy-iran" type="external">fact sheet</a>&#160;outlining Trump’s new Iran policy accuses Iran of “unrelenting hostility to Israel.” In his&#160; <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/10/13/557622096/transcript-trump-s-remarks-on-iran-nuclear-deal" type="external">speech</a>&#160;announcing his refusal to recertify Iran’s compliance with the deal, Trump stated that Iran “remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and provides assistance to al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas, and other terrorist networks.”</p>
<p>In fact, Iran and al Qaeda, representing different sects of Islam, are sworn enemies. And after JCPOA was agreed upon in 2015, Noam Chomsky&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176038/" type="external">wrote</a>&#160;in TomDispatch:</p>
<p>Other concerns about the Iranian threat include its role as “the world’s leading supporter of terrorism,” which primarily refers to its support for Hezbollah and Hamas.&#160;Both of those movements emerged in resistance to US-backed Israeli violence and aggression, which vastly exceeds anything attributed to these villains, let alone the normal practice of the hegemonic power whose&#160;global drone assassination campaign&#160;alone dominates (and helps to foster) international terrorism.</p>
<p>Trump’s refusal to recertify Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA came one day after the U.S. announced it would withdraw from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The United States accused UNESCO — which promotes worldwide literacy, clean water, women’s equality, cultural heritage and sex education — of “anti-Israel bias.” Israel said it would pull out of UNESCO as well.</p>
<p>UNESCO incurred the wrath of Israel and the United States in July when it declared the core of Hebron, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an endangered Palestinian World Heritage site. In 2011, UNESCO was the first U.N. agency to allow Palestine to become a member, which led to Palestine’s upgraded legal status at the General Assembly the following year.</p>
<p>In 2015, UNESCO passed a resolution “strongly” condemning “Israeli aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims’ access to their holy site.” The resolution condemned the “continuous negative impact of the Israeli military confrontations” in Gaza as well.</p>
<p>Oct. 12 was also the day that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which control Gaza and the West Bank respectively, announced they were forming a unity government. Netanyahu opposes Palestinian unity. Iran is the only major power in the Middle East calling for the creation of a Palestinian state.</p>
<p>“President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are united in a shared agenda of escalation with Iran, with the goal of enabling increased U.S. and Israeli military aggression,”&#160;Jewish Voice for Peace’s Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson <a href="https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/grassroots-advocacy-can-must-save-diplomacy/" type="external">wrote in a statement</a>. “Trump’s hypocrisy is evident when he talks about caring about everyday Iranians, yet continually tries to ban them from entering the U.S.”</p>
<p>Trump Punts to Congress</p>
<p>After he drove a stake through the heart of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and later, the Affordable Care Act, Trump punted those issues to Congress to clean up the messes he made. On Oct. 13, he followed suit with JCPOA.</p>
<p>Trump did not urge Congress to reinstate sanctions on Iran, which would completely scuttle the JCPOA. But he placed the onus on Congress to add new terms not covered by the JCPOA, including sunset clauses and ballistic missiles.</p>
<p>If Congress fails to so act, Trump threatened that “the agreement will be terminated … and our participation can be canceled by me, as president, at any time.”</p>
<p>In order to enact Trump’s requested legislation, GOP senators would have to muster 60 votes, including eight Democrats, which is unlikely.</p>
<p>Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who spearheaded U.S. diplomacy with Iran, called Trump’s decision “a reckless abandonment of facts in favor of ego and ideology from a president who would rather play a high-stakes game of chicken with Congress and with Iran than admit that the nuclear agreement is working.”</p>
<p>“Breaking the Iran agreement would not only free Iran from limits placed on its nuclear program,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said, “it would irreparably harm America’s ability to negotiate future nonproliferation agreements. Why would any country in the world sign such an agreement with the United States if they knew that a reckless president might simply discard that agreement a few years later?”</p>
<p>This is particularly disturbing in light of the volatile standoff between the United States and nuclear-armed North Korea.</p>
<p>Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA has made the world a safer place. We must apply pressure on both Congress and the White House to retain the Iran deal.</p> | Trump and Netanyahu Stand 'United in a Shared Agenda' Against Iran | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/trump-netanyahu-stand-united-shared-agenda-iran/ | 2017-10-23 | 4left
| Trump and Netanyahu Stand 'United in a Shared Agenda' Against Iran
<p>During his presidential campaign and throughout his nine-month presidency, Donald Trump has been fixated on ending the Iran nuclear deal, which he called “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”</p>
<p>Under the&#160; <a href="https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/245317.pdf" type="external">2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action</a>&#160;(JCPOA), Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear program and in return, it received billions of dollars of relief from punishing sanctions.</p>
<p>Iran has allowed 24-hour inspections by officials from the&#160;United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “Iran has gotten rid of all of its highly enriched uranium,” Jessica T. Mathews&#160; <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/08/17/nuclear-diplomacy-from-iran-to-north-korea/" type="external">wrote</a>&#160;in the New York Review of Books. “It has also eliminated 99 percent of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium. … All enrichment has been shut down at the once-secret, fortified, underground facility at Fordow. … Iran has disabled and poured concrete into the core of its plutonium reactor — thus shutting down the plutonium as well as the uranium route to nuclear weapons. It has provided adequate answers to the IAEA’s long-standing list of questions regarding past weapons-related activities.”</p>
<p>Yukiya Amano, director general of IAEA, refuted Trump’s allegation that Iran had kept IAEA weapons inspectors from entering military bases. Amano said, “So far, IAEA has had access to all locations it needed to visit. At present, Iran is subject to the world’s most robust nuclear verification regime.”</p>
<p />
<p>But in spite of the fact that the IAEA has affirmed eight times — most recently in August — that Iran is meeting its obligations under the deal, Trump refused to certify Iran was in compliance and he decided the deal is not in the U.S. national security interests.</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1191/text" type="external">U.S. Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act</a>&#160;requires the president to determine every 90 days whether Iran remains compliant with the JCPOA and whether the agreement still serves U.S. interests. Trump reluctantly certified Iran’s compliance in April and July. But on Oct. 13, to the consternation of his secretary of state, secretary of defense, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he refused to certify Iran’s compliance with the deal.</p>
<p>France, Britain, Russia, China, Germany, the United States and Iran are parties to the historic agreement. After Trump’s Oct. 13 announcement, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement that retaining the Iran deal “is in our shared national security interest.” They stated, “The nuclear deal was the culmination of thirteen years of diplomacy and was a major step towards ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is not diverted for military purposes.”</p>
<p>Trump Walks in Lockstep With Netanyahu</p>
<p>Trump walks in lockstep with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has consistently opposed the Iran deal. The Christian Zionists, who await Christ’s second coming in Israel, constitute a significant portion of Trump’s base.</p>
<p>After his election but before inauguration, Trump inserted himself into U.S. foreign policy by criticizing Barack Obama for refusing to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s illegal settlement-building.</p>
<p>In 2015, before the U.S. joined the JCPOA, Netanyahu staged an end-run around then-President Obama and directly addressed the U.S. Congress, prevailing upon them to oppose the deal. “That deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told Congress. “It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons — lots of them.”</p>
<p>Netanyahu was thrilled with Trump’s refusal to recertify Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA.&#160;“It’s a very brave decision, and I think it’s the right decision for the world,” Netanyahu said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” The American Israel Public Affairs Committee also heralded Trump’s attack on the JCPOA.</p>
<p>The White House&#160; <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/10/13/president-donald-j-trumps-new-strategy-iran" type="external">fact sheet</a>&#160;outlining Trump’s new Iran policy accuses Iran of “unrelenting hostility to Israel.” In his&#160; <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/10/13/557622096/transcript-trump-s-remarks-on-iran-nuclear-deal" type="external">speech</a>&#160;announcing his refusal to recertify Iran’s compliance with the deal, Trump stated that Iran “remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and provides assistance to al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas, and other terrorist networks.”</p>
<p>In fact, Iran and al Qaeda, representing different sects of Islam, are sworn enemies. And after JCPOA was agreed upon in 2015, Noam Chomsky&#160; <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176038/" type="external">wrote</a>&#160;in TomDispatch:</p>
<p>Other concerns about the Iranian threat include its role as “the world’s leading supporter of terrorism,” which primarily refers to its support for Hezbollah and Hamas.&#160;Both of those movements emerged in resistance to US-backed Israeli violence and aggression, which vastly exceeds anything attributed to these villains, let alone the normal practice of the hegemonic power whose&#160;global drone assassination campaign&#160;alone dominates (and helps to foster) international terrorism.</p>
<p>Trump’s refusal to recertify Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA came one day after the U.S. announced it would withdraw from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The United States accused UNESCO — which promotes worldwide literacy, clean water, women’s equality, cultural heritage and sex education — of “anti-Israel bias.” Israel said it would pull out of UNESCO as well.</p>
<p>UNESCO incurred the wrath of Israel and the United States in July when it declared the core of Hebron, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an endangered Palestinian World Heritage site. In 2011, UNESCO was the first U.N. agency to allow Palestine to become a member, which led to Palestine’s upgraded legal status at the General Assembly the following year.</p>
<p>In 2015, UNESCO passed a resolution “strongly” condemning “Israeli aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims’ access to their holy site.” The resolution condemned the “continuous negative impact of the Israeli military confrontations” in Gaza as well.</p>
<p>Oct. 12 was also the day that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which control Gaza and the West Bank respectively, announced they were forming a unity government. Netanyahu opposes Palestinian unity. Iran is the only major power in the Middle East calling for the creation of a Palestinian state.</p>
<p>“President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are united in a shared agenda of escalation with Iran, with the goal of enabling increased U.S. and Israeli military aggression,”&#160;Jewish Voice for Peace’s Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson <a href="https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/grassroots-advocacy-can-must-save-diplomacy/" type="external">wrote in a statement</a>. “Trump’s hypocrisy is evident when he talks about caring about everyday Iranians, yet continually tries to ban them from entering the U.S.”</p>
<p>Trump Punts to Congress</p>
<p>After he drove a stake through the heart of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and later, the Affordable Care Act, Trump punted those issues to Congress to clean up the messes he made. On Oct. 13, he followed suit with JCPOA.</p>
<p>Trump did not urge Congress to reinstate sanctions on Iran, which would completely scuttle the JCPOA. But he placed the onus on Congress to add new terms not covered by the JCPOA, including sunset clauses and ballistic missiles.</p>
<p>If Congress fails to so act, Trump threatened that “the agreement will be terminated … and our participation can be canceled by me, as president, at any time.”</p>
<p>In order to enact Trump’s requested legislation, GOP senators would have to muster 60 votes, including eight Democrats, which is unlikely.</p>
<p>Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who spearheaded U.S. diplomacy with Iran, called Trump’s decision “a reckless abandonment of facts in favor of ego and ideology from a president who would rather play a high-stakes game of chicken with Congress and with Iran than admit that the nuclear agreement is working.”</p>
<p>“Breaking the Iran agreement would not only free Iran from limits placed on its nuclear program,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said, “it would irreparably harm America’s ability to negotiate future nonproliferation agreements. Why would any country in the world sign such an agreement with the United States if they knew that a reckless president might simply discard that agreement a few years later?”</p>
<p>This is particularly disturbing in light of the volatile standoff between the United States and nuclear-armed North Korea.</p>
<p>Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA has made the world a safer place. We must apply pressure on both Congress and the White House to retain the Iran deal.</p> | 2,592 |
<p>[Editors’ Note: This piece by Nobel Peace prize winner Mairead Maguire was submitted to the New York Times. They decline to publish it.]</p>
<p>In 2009 Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Liebermann ordered all foreign missions to distribute a 1941 photograph of the then Palestinian leader in exile, Haj Amin Al Husseini meeting Hitler. &#160; The motivation behind Liebermann’s order lay in international criticism of Israel’s decision to further expand its illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem; the not too subtle subtext being that as Palestinians are Nazis any policy implemented against them is justified.</p>
<p>This week the David Horowitz’s Freedom Center perpetrated the same historical distortion in its advertisement comparing college professors who advocate Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the state of Israel to the Nazi government’s persecution of Jews.&#160; Ignoring the political and human rights context in which the call for BDS has been made, and its ultimate aim of securing compliance with international human rights standards, its proponents are instead vilified as Jew haters and their opposition to illegal Israeli policies presented as hatred of ‘the Jewish state.’&#160; Through a series of outrageous assertions their support for Palestinian human rights is linked to the Nazis, calls for genocide and the Toulouse murders.</p>
<p>The truth however is that the call for BDS lies neither anti-Semitic in intent or effect, but reflects the recognition that after 20 years of failed negotiations and almost 44 years of military occupation and illegal colonization, there is no means by which Palestinians can achieve their basic human rights and freedoms except through the activism of international civil society.</p>
<p>The obligation to act is itself embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights prescription that “every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, secure their universal and effective recognition and observance.”</p>
<p>And of course, if states were to take their own obligations seriously there would be no need for this international civil society action.&#160; Until that day however we are all under obligation to secure human rights for everyone, regardless of race, creed or class.&#160; Those who advocate for BDS are fulfilling this mandate and it is perhaps a sign of the threat they pose to an unjust situation that they are deliberately misrepresented as Nazis – the vilest of all human rights abusers.</p>
<p>Yet the reality on the ground is that whilst Israel’s calculated colonization of Palestine contuines apace its attendant violations of civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights will only increase.&#160; In this situation the calls for BDS will not diminish but will grow, and scurrilous attempts to defend injustice and silence people of conscience by sowing fear and defamation will ultimately not only fail but are themselves extremely dangerous.&#160; By mendaciously claiming anti-Semitism where none exists they devalue the whole concept and aid the anti-Semitic agenda of making anti-Semitism respectable once again.&#160; Indeed they already sully and trivialise the memory of the Holocaust by using it as a means to defend present injustice.</p>
<p>Commenting upon Liebermann’s ploy of using the Holocaust era photograph to defend present illegality one Israeli source remarked that it had been met amongst Isreali diplomats by “laughter, scepticism and a sense of misplaced communication that this doesn’t help one bit the real argument.”&#160; The same can hopefully be said of Horowitz’s current distortions, yet in its calculated attacks on individual integrity it may be much more sinister than that.</p>
<p>Mairead Maguire is a&#160;Nobel Peace Laureate and a co-founder <a href="http://www.peacepeople.com" type="external">Peace People</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Sullying the Holocaust | true | https://counterpunch.org/2012/05/04/liebermans-ploy-and-horowitzs-distortions/ | 2012-05-04 | 4left
| Sullying the Holocaust
<p>[Editors’ Note: This piece by Nobel Peace prize winner Mairead Maguire was submitted to the New York Times. They decline to publish it.]</p>
<p>In 2009 Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Liebermann ordered all foreign missions to distribute a 1941 photograph of the then Palestinian leader in exile, Haj Amin Al Husseini meeting Hitler. &#160; The motivation behind Liebermann’s order lay in international criticism of Israel’s decision to further expand its illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem; the not too subtle subtext being that as Palestinians are Nazis any policy implemented against them is justified.</p>
<p>This week the David Horowitz’s Freedom Center perpetrated the same historical distortion in its advertisement comparing college professors who advocate Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the state of Israel to the Nazi government’s persecution of Jews.&#160; Ignoring the political and human rights context in which the call for BDS has been made, and its ultimate aim of securing compliance with international human rights standards, its proponents are instead vilified as Jew haters and their opposition to illegal Israeli policies presented as hatred of ‘the Jewish state.’&#160; Through a series of outrageous assertions their support for Palestinian human rights is linked to the Nazis, calls for genocide and the Toulouse murders.</p>
<p>The truth however is that the call for BDS lies neither anti-Semitic in intent or effect, but reflects the recognition that after 20 years of failed negotiations and almost 44 years of military occupation and illegal colonization, there is no means by which Palestinians can achieve their basic human rights and freedoms except through the activism of international civil society.</p>
<p>The obligation to act is itself embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights prescription that “every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, secure their universal and effective recognition and observance.”</p>
<p>And of course, if states were to take their own obligations seriously there would be no need for this international civil society action.&#160; Until that day however we are all under obligation to secure human rights for everyone, regardless of race, creed or class.&#160; Those who advocate for BDS are fulfilling this mandate and it is perhaps a sign of the threat they pose to an unjust situation that they are deliberately misrepresented as Nazis – the vilest of all human rights abusers.</p>
<p>Yet the reality on the ground is that whilst Israel’s calculated colonization of Palestine contuines apace its attendant violations of civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights will only increase.&#160; In this situation the calls for BDS will not diminish but will grow, and scurrilous attempts to defend injustice and silence people of conscience by sowing fear and defamation will ultimately not only fail but are themselves extremely dangerous.&#160; By mendaciously claiming anti-Semitism where none exists they devalue the whole concept and aid the anti-Semitic agenda of making anti-Semitism respectable once again.&#160; Indeed they already sully and trivialise the memory of the Holocaust by using it as a means to defend present injustice.</p>
<p>Commenting upon Liebermann’s ploy of using the Holocaust era photograph to defend present illegality one Israeli source remarked that it had been met amongst Isreali diplomats by “laughter, scepticism and a sense of misplaced communication that this doesn’t help one bit the real argument.”&#160; The same can hopefully be said of Horowitz’s current distortions, yet in its calculated attacks on individual integrity it may be much more sinister than that.</p>
<p>Mairead Maguire is a&#160;Nobel Peace Laureate and a co-founder <a href="http://www.peacepeople.com" type="external">Peace People</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,593 |
<p>All too often, socialists, like others, have regarded disability as a personal tragedy. Left publications rarely discuss it or debate it and activism by people with disabilities has been ignored by the left, notwithstanding the fact that Americans with disabilities are among the most marginalized of citizens in terms of income level and poverty rates. Yet in many ways recognizing the political dimensions of disability oppression—the fact that it is structural barriers that are primarily responsible for the marginalization of people with disabilities in employment, education, and other aspects of public life—is a fundamentally liberating notion that has deep implications for the organization of the workplace, the work day and the structure of the educational system. From a lack of wheelchair access in many communities to inflexible support systems that force people with disabilities to choose either employment or health benefits to barriers in education that have prevented many people with disabilities from reaching their full potential, barriers remain widespread in American society (and other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] countries).</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;A political theory of disablement, often known as the social model of disability, holds out the promise of a truly emancipatory politics by challenging ableism and incorporating respect for people with disabilities as a foundational praxis. It marks a shift away from the medical model which consigned people with disabilities to institutions, asylums, and worse. A society that truly empowered people with disabilities—a diverse group encompassing people with mobility impairments, blind and Deaf* people, people with psychiatric conditions, and more—would be one that radically reconsidered the concept of what it means to contribute to society. It would be one that provided health care benefits, including the funding of specialized medical equipment, to all regardless of employment status, and facilitated individuals, whether they had disabilities or not, to work part time without denial of access to benefits. Veterans with disabilities, both physical and psychiatric, would receive appropriate rehabilitation to retrain them to be able to participate in an economy retooled for a Green future and away from militarism. Effective and comprehensive measures, such as captioning and the dissemination of electronic texts, would be undertaken to ensure that information is produced in a manner accessible to blind and Deaf people to enjoy on an equal basis with their peers. It would ensure easy access to attendant services to allow people with disabilities to receive assistance with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, and toileting in their own home, while compensating the attendants appropriately.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Regrettably, despite the historic passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, Americans are a long way from achieving these objectives. Many in the business community continue to regard people with disabilities as unemployable and resist fervently any expansion of the diminished welfare state. As New Zealand disability rights advocate Chris Ford observes in his piece on disability politics in a time of capitalist crisis, the neoliberal attacks of capitalist states across the West have increasingly targeted disabled people who rely on welfare payments. He shows how these tendencies have markedly expanded in light of the 2008 global economic crisis and show no signs of abating. He reminds us that this devaluation of disabled people’s lives has ominous consequences in light of the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust, in which large numbers of people with disabilities were exterminated. Ford usefully posits the emergence of a global disability rights movement as an alternative to any return to the horrors of eugenics.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Switching gears, Anne Finger’s contribution dissects Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci’s 1926 essay on the enormous disparities between the industrialized North of Italy and the mostly peasant South, “Some Aspects of the Southern Question.” As she illustrates, these divisions were often cast in racial terms with the Southern Italians regarded as inferior and dark savages. Focusing on Gramsci’s critique of anthropologists of the day, Finger shows how Gramsci’s contribution can be re-read through a disability rights lens. And while one rarely thinks about the physical disabilities of socialist political activists, Finger, quoting the historian Douglas Baynton, eloquently reminds us that they are everywhere once one starts looking. Gramsci himself, as Finger notes, had various disabilities, nor is he the sole exception. The literature on the socialism of Helen Keller, both deaf and blind, has increased in recent years. American-Canadian radical Eugene T. Kingsley, a double amputee, while little known, edited the Socialist Party of Canada’s newspaper, the Western Clarion for many years in the first decade of the twentieth century and had the unique distinction of running as an open socialist numerous times for both the House of Representatives and the Canadian House of Commons between 1896 and 1926.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Returning to a focus on public policy, Canadian disability advocate Jihan Abbas provides an analysis of a rarely considered issue, the exploitation of the labor of people labelled as having intellectual disabilities. She notes how institutionalized people with disabilities often were assigned jobs while incarcerated in these settings. Continuing in the form of “sheltered workshops” where people with disabilities work at segregated, repetitive jobs for wages below the minimum wage, this invisible labor raises important questions about the meaning of work and exploitation.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Concluding our symposium, Rachel Garaghty tackles the complex policy issues relating to the provision of quality attendant services for Americans with disabilities, focusing on policy in Minnesota. While the Independent Living movement has seen a shift toward more people with disabilities living in the community, there remain significant barriers to the provision of quality attendant services. Collectively, these four essays provide different perspectives on how to think about disability while bearing in mind that disability rights are ultimately questions about power and politics.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Disability Rights Symposium: Introduction | true | http://newpol.org/node/637 | 4left
| Disability Rights Symposium: Introduction
<p>All too often, socialists, like others, have regarded disability as a personal tragedy. Left publications rarely discuss it or debate it and activism by people with disabilities has been ignored by the left, notwithstanding the fact that Americans with disabilities are among the most marginalized of citizens in terms of income level and poverty rates. Yet in many ways recognizing the political dimensions of disability oppression—the fact that it is structural barriers that are primarily responsible for the marginalization of people with disabilities in employment, education, and other aspects of public life—is a fundamentally liberating notion that has deep implications for the organization of the workplace, the work day and the structure of the educational system. From a lack of wheelchair access in many communities to inflexible support systems that force people with disabilities to choose either employment or health benefits to barriers in education that have prevented many people with disabilities from reaching their full potential, barriers remain widespread in American society (and other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD] countries).</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;A political theory of disablement, often known as the social model of disability, holds out the promise of a truly emancipatory politics by challenging ableism and incorporating respect for people with disabilities as a foundational praxis. It marks a shift away from the medical model which consigned people with disabilities to institutions, asylums, and worse. A society that truly empowered people with disabilities—a diverse group encompassing people with mobility impairments, blind and Deaf* people, people with psychiatric conditions, and more—would be one that radically reconsidered the concept of what it means to contribute to society. It would be one that provided health care benefits, including the funding of specialized medical equipment, to all regardless of employment status, and facilitated individuals, whether they had disabilities or not, to work part time without denial of access to benefits. Veterans with disabilities, both physical and psychiatric, would receive appropriate rehabilitation to retrain them to be able to participate in an economy retooled for a Green future and away from militarism. Effective and comprehensive measures, such as captioning and the dissemination of electronic texts, would be undertaken to ensure that information is produced in a manner accessible to blind and Deaf people to enjoy on an equal basis with their peers. It would ensure easy access to attendant services to allow people with disabilities to receive assistance with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, and toileting in their own home, while compensating the attendants appropriately.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Regrettably, despite the historic passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, Americans are a long way from achieving these objectives. Many in the business community continue to regard people with disabilities as unemployable and resist fervently any expansion of the diminished welfare state. As New Zealand disability rights advocate Chris Ford observes in his piece on disability politics in a time of capitalist crisis, the neoliberal attacks of capitalist states across the West have increasingly targeted disabled people who rely on welfare payments. He shows how these tendencies have markedly expanded in light of the 2008 global economic crisis and show no signs of abating. He reminds us that this devaluation of disabled people’s lives has ominous consequences in light of the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust, in which large numbers of people with disabilities were exterminated. Ford usefully posits the emergence of a global disability rights movement as an alternative to any return to the horrors of eugenics.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Switching gears, Anne Finger’s contribution dissects Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci’s 1926 essay on the enormous disparities between the industrialized North of Italy and the mostly peasant South, “Some Aspects of the Southern Question.” As she illustrates, these divisions were often cast in racial terms with the Southern Italians regarded as inferior and dark savages. Focusing on Gramsci’s critique of anthropologists of the day, Finger shows how Gramsci’s contribution can be re-read through a disability rights lens. And while one rarely thinks about the physical disabilities of socialist political activists, Finger, quoting the historian Douglas Baynton, eloquently reminds us that they are everywhere once one starts looking. Gramsci himself, as Finger notes, had various disabilities, nor is he the sole exception. The literature on the socialism of Helen Keller, both deaf and blind, has increased in recent years. American-Canadian radical Eugene T. Kingsley, a double amputee, while little known, edited the Socialist Party of Canada’s newspaper, the Western Clarion for many years in the first decade of the twentieth century and had the unique distinction of running as an open socialist numerous times for both the House of Representatives and the Canadian House of Commons between 1896 and 1926.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Returning to a focus on public policy, Canadian disability advocate Jihan Abbas provides an analysis of a rarely considered issue, the exploitation of the labor of people labelled as having intellectual disabilities. She notes how institutionalized people with disabilities often were assigned jobs while incarcerated in these settings. Continuing in the form of “sheltered workshops” where people with disabilities work at segregated, repetitive jobs for wages below the minimum wage, this invisible labor raises important questions about the meaning of work and exploitation.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Concluding our symposium, Rachel Garaghty tackles the complex policy issues relating to the provision of quality attendant services for Americans with disabilities, focusing on policy in Minnesota. While the Independent Living movement has seen a shift toward more people with disabilities living in the community, there remain significant barriers to the provision of quality attendant services. Collectively, these four essays provide different perspectives on how to think about disability while bearing in mind that disability rights are ultimately questions about power and politics.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,594 |
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<p>Just a few months after Walt&#160;Disney's (NYSE: DIS) exclusive streaming deal with Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) began, it's coming to an end. Disney announced its plan to end its relationship with Netflix in 2019 to start its own direct-to-consumer streaming product.</p>
<p>The represents a major blow to Netflix, which has spoken highly of Disney's content library. "Disney makes big franchise films. The movies that people like to watch over and over again," Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos <a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/4028389-netflixs-nflx-management-ubs-44th-annual-global-media-communications-conference-transcript?part=single" type="external">said</a> last year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>More importantly, it could be the start of a sea change for Netflix's content licensing business, which relies on other media companies. Other media execs, such as Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Jeff Bewkes, have expressed their concern that licensing shows and movies to Netflix is negatively affecting the results of their television ratings and movie sales. Some may decide to follow in Disney's footsteps, destroying some of the value of a Netflix subscription.</p>
<p>Media companies have a love-hate relationship with Netflix. Netflix provides a strong source of revenue, but it's also responsible for taking away viewership from traditional television. If <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/19/time-sensitiveheres-why-more-millennials-than-ever.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">viewers can get everything they want from Netflix</a>, there's no need to subscribe to cable, no need to tune into broadcasts as they're happening, and certainly no need to watch advertisements.</p>
<p>As such, it's caused several media companies to rethink their relationship with Netflix. Disney is only the latest. Time Warner expressed the desire to push its licensing window back nearly two years ago. It wants to retain the rights to its content for several years instead of a few months before it lands on Netflix.</p>
<p>CBS (NYSE: CBS) launched its own streaming service nearly three years ago: CBS All Access, which competes for attention with Netflix and traditional cable subscriptions. Interestingly, CBS is using Netflix <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/01/why-cbs-corporation-is-a-big-fan-of-netflix.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">to syndicate</a> its new All Access Star Trek original series everywhere globally except the United States. Still, CBS is increasingly reserving its best content for its own streaming service in the U.S.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Disney's decision to retain control of its own movies is just the latest move from big media companies. It likely won't be the last we see.</p>
<p>Smaller media companies may stick with Netflix to benefit from the increased exposure of the streaming platform and its 100 million-plus subscribers. But major networks and film studios with differentiated content like Disney won't stick around forever if Netflix continues to steal away their audiences.</p>
<p>Netflix's content budget has ballooned in recent years as it expanded globally and ramped up original productions. The company expects to spend $6 billion on content in 2017. As it starts footing the bill for more originals, producing them in house, Netflix is burning about $2 billion in of cash every year.</p>
<p>But don't expect the loss of content licensing deals to lighten up Netflix's investment in content. On the company's first-quarter earnings call, CFO David Wells said that even if content cost less, it would just buy more content to fill the budget.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if media companies like Disney demand more money for their content, Netflix's budgetary constraints would force it to take less content. Netflix may see that play out as it's currently in discussions to retain Disney's Star Wars and Marvel content beyond 2019.</p>
<p>But Netflix's content doesn't have to be specifically from Disney, or Time Warner, or CBS, or anyone, as long as it does a good job of filling the audiences those media companies' content attracts.</p>
<p>That puts a lot of pressure on Netflix to continue hitting the mark on original content. "That's why we got into the originals business five years ago, anticipating it may be not as easy a conversation with studios and networks," Sarandos recently told <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-disney-netflix-idUSKBN1AR0V0" type="external">Reuters</a>. It's done an <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/16/viewers-love-netflix-originals-more-than-hbos.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">excellent job</a> so far, but it also needs to <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/03/why-more-netflix-series-cancellations-are-a-good-t.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">take more risks</a>, which it's just starting to do four years into its original content strategy.</p>
<p>The loss of Disney will sting, but Netflix has a couple of years before it needs to replace that great content with its own. Netflix's original content machine has a new target, and with its recent acquisition of <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/07/netflix-steals-a-page-out-of-disneys-playbook.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Millarworld</a>, it now has some interesting intellectual property to play with.</p>
<p>That said, this will put even more pressure on Netflix's free cash flow, which the company expects to come in between negative $2 billion and negative $2.5 billion this year.&#160;Originals -- especially originals produced in house -- cost a lot more upfront than multiyear licensing deals. As such, Netflix may have to tap the bond market once again to raise cash if it loses a lot of licensing deals and replaces them with original content.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than NetflixWhen 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=c277eb76-e9f0-4527-a742-154b4fa750ae&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks</a> for investors to buy right now... and Netflix 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=c277eb76-e9f0-4527-a742-154b4fa750ae&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/adamlevy/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Adam Levy</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Time Warner. 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=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | Can Netflix Afford to Lose Disney? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/13/can-netflix-afford-to-lose-disney.html | 2017-08-13 | 0right
| Can Netflix Afford to Lose Disney?
<p>Just a few months after Walt&#160;Disney's (NYSE: DIS) exclusive streaming deal with Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) began, it's coming to an end. Disney announced its plan to end its relationship with Netflix in 2019 to start its own direct-to-consumer streaming product.</p>
<p>The represents a major blow to Netflix, which has spoken highly of Disney's content library. "Disney makes big franchise films. The movies that people like to watch over and over again," Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos <a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/4028389-netflixs-nflx-management-ubs-44th-annual-global-media-communications-conference-transcript?part=single" type="external">said</a> last year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>More importantly, it could be the start of a sea change for Netflix's content licensing business, which relies on other media companies. Other media execs, such as Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Jeff Bewkes, have expressed their concern that licensing shows and movies to Netflix is negatively affecting the results of their television ratings and movie sales. Some may decide to follow in Disney's footsteps, destroying some of the value of a Netflix subscription.</p>
<p>Media companies have a love-hate relationship with Netflix. Netflix provides a strong source of revenue, but it's also responsible for taking away viewership from traditional television. If <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/19/time-sensitiveheres-why-more-millennials-than-ever.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">viewers can get everything they want from Netflix</a>, there's no need to subscribe to cable, no need to tune into broadcasts as they're happening, and certainly no need to watch advertisements.</p>
<p>As such, it's caused several media companies to rethink their relationship with Netflix. Disney is only the latest. Time Warner expressed the desire to push its licensing window back nearly two years ago. It wants to retain the rights to its content for several years instead of a few months before it lands on Netflix.</p>
<p>CBS (NYSE: CBS) launched its own streaming service nearly three years ago: CBS All Access, which competes for attention with Netflix and traditional cable subscriptions. Interestingly, CBS is using Netflix <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/01/why-cbs-corporation-is-a-big-fan-of-netflix.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">to syndicate</a> its new All Access Star Trek original series everywhere globally except the United States. Still, CBS is increasingly reserving its best content for its own streaming service in the U.S.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Disney's decision to retain control of its own movies is just the latest move from big media companies. It likely won't be the last we see.</p>
<p>Smaller media companies may stick with Netflix to benefit from the increased exposure of the streaming platform and its 100 million-plus subscribers. But major networks and film studios with differentiated content like Disney won't stick around forever if Netflix continues to steal away their audiences.</p>
<p>Netflix's content budget has ballooned in recent years as it expanded globally and ramped up original productions. The company expects to spend $6 billion on content in 2017. As it starts footing the bill for more originals, producing them in house, Netflix is burning about $2 billion in of cash every year.</p>
<p>But don't expect the loss of content licensing deals to lighten up Netflix's investment in content. On the company's first-quarter earnings call, CFO David Wells said that even if content cost less, it would just buy more content to fill the budget.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if media companies like Disney demand more money for their content, Netflix's budgetary constraints would force it to take less content. Netflix may see that play out as it's currently in discussions to retain Disney's Star Wars and Marvel content beyond 2019.</p>
<p>But Netflix's content doesn't have to be specifically from Disney, or Time Warner, or CBS, or anyone, as long as it does a good job of filling the audiences those media companies' content attracts.</p>
<p>That puts a lot of pressure on Netflix to continue hitting the mark on original content. "That's why we got into the originals business five years ago, anticipating it may be not as easy a conversation with studios and networks," Sarandos recently told <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-disney-netflix-idUSKBN1AR0V0" type="external">Reuters</a>. It's done an <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/16/viewers-love-netflix-originals-more-than-hbos.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">excellent job</a> so far, but it also needs to <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/03/why-more-netflix-series-cancellations-are-a-good-t.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">take more risks</a>, which it's just starting to do four years into its original content strategy.</p>
<p>The loss of Disney will sting, but Netflix has a couple of years before it needs to replace that great content with its own. Netflix's original content machine has a new target, and with its recent acquisition of <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/07/netflix-steals-a-page-out-of-disneys-playbook.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Millarworld</a>, it now has some interesting intellectual property to play with.</p>
<p>That said, this will put even more pressure on Netflix's free cash flow, which the company expects to come in between negative $2 billion and negative $2.5 billion this year.&#160;Originals -- especially originals produced in house -- cost a lot more upfront than multiyear licensing deals. As such, Netflix may have to tap the bond market once again to raise cash if it loses a lot of licensing deals and replaces them with original content.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than NetflixWhen 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=c277eb76-e9f0-4527-a742-154b4fa750ae&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks</a> for investors to buy right now... and Netflix 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=c277eb76-e9f0-4527-a742-154b4fa750ae&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/adamlevy/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Adam Levy</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Time Warner. 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=ad1d253e-7ea6-11e7-8847-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p> | 2,595 |
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<p>The school's Health Sciences Center issued the statement Sunday, a day after Sanchez posted the allegations on Facebook.</p>
<p>In the posting, Sanchez says a congressional investigation determined that the center allegedly harvests and infant body parts through its relationship with Southwestern Women's Options Clinic.</p>
<p>KOB-TV reports ( <a href="http://bit.ly/1W3EtUF" type="external">http://bit.ly/1W3EtUF</a> ) that center officials say any fetal tissue was obtained from women who agreed to donate for research.</p>
<p>The center also says it has followed all federal laws involving fetal tissue research.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>According to the school, a House panel has issued subpoenas for depositions from two faculty members and related documents.</p>
<p>The school terminated its relationship with the clinic in December.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KOB-TV, <a href="http://www.kob.com" type="external">http://www.kob.com</a></p> | UNM denies buying, selling fetal tissue | false | https://abqjournal.com/750974/unm-denies-buying-selling-fetal-tissue.html | 2least
| UNM denies buying, selling fetal tissue
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<p />
<p>The school's Health Sciences Center issued the statement Sunday, a day after Sanchez posted the allegations on Facebook.</p>
<p>In the posting, Sanchez says a congressional investigation determined that the center allegedly harvests and infant body parts through its relationship with Southwestern Women's Options Clinic.</p>
<p>KOB-TV reports ( <a href="http://bit.ly/1W3EtUF" type="external">http://bit.ly/1W3EtUF</a> ) that center officials say any fetal tissue was obtained from women who agreed to donate for research.</p>
<p>The center also says it has followed all federal laws involving fetal tissue research.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>According to the school, a House panel has issued subpoenas for depositions from two faculty members and related documents.</p>
<p>The school terminated its relationship with the clinic in December.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KOB-TV, <a href="http://www.kob.com" type="external">http://www.kob.com</a></p> | 2,596 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Paul Francis Hicks, 49, a member of the Mescalero Apache Nation who lives in Mescalero, N.M., pleaded guilty in federal court in Las Cruces Wednesday to assault with a dangerous weapon and assault resulting in serious bodily injury as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.</p>
<p>Hicks pleaded guilty to assaulting a Mescalero Apache woman by slashing her hand with a large hunting knife at Mescalero Tribal Offices on March 1, 2012, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales said in a news release. The woman suffered tendon and nerve damage that required surgery to repair.</p>
<p>According to court filings, Hicks provoked an argument with the woman who worked at the tribal offices, and when he threatened to slash the woman’s face, she defended herself by blocking the knife with her left hand and suffered a large cut across the palm.</p>
<p>Hicks fled the scene but was apprehended by Bureau of Indian Affairs police later that day and was taken into tribal custody, the release said.</p>
<p>He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each of the two charges at a sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Mescalero Man Pleads Guilty to Assault | false | https://abqjournal.com/153019/mescalero-man-pleads-guilty-to-assault.html | 2least
| Mescalero Man Pleads Guilty to Assault
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Paul Francis Hicks, 49, a member of the Mescalero Apache Nation who lives in Mescalero, N.M., pleaded guilty in federal court in Las Cruces Wednesday to assault with a dangerous weapon and assault resulting in serious bodily injury as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.</p>
<p>Hicks pleaded guilty to assaulting a Mescalero Apache woman by slashing her hand with a large hunting knife at Mescalero Tribal Offices on March 1, 2012, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales said in a news release. The woman suffered tendon and nerve damage that required surgery to repair.</p>
<p>According to court filings, Hicks provoked an argument with the woman who worked at the tribal offices, and when he threatened to slash the woman’s face, she defended herself by blocking the knife with her left hand and suffered a large cut across the palm.</p>
<p>Hicks fled the scene but was apprehended by Bureau of Indian Affairs police later that day and was taken into tribal custody, the release said.</p>
<p>He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each of the two charges at a sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 2,597 |
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<p>Eight of the 17 tracks at Hoboken Terminal will reopen Monday at the busy station where commuters connect with other trains and with ferries heading into New York City, New Jersey Transit announced Friday.</p>
<p>Also Friday, a state lawmaker said the Assembly will request New Jersey’s auditor initiate an investigation into the crash. Assemblyman John McKeon said on Friday Assembly Speaker Vincent will ask the auditor to investigate the crash, likely by Monday.</p>
<p>One person was killed and more than 100 were injured last Thursday morning when the train slammed through a bumper at the end of the track and dislodged an overhead canopy, showering debris onto the train.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The federal agency investigating the crash said Thursday the train was going about twice the speed limit of 10 mph just before the crash.</p>
<p>With the resumption of service, a new rule will require that the conductor join the engineer whenever a train pulls into the terminal, NJ Transit spokeswoman Jennifer Nelson said. That means a second set of eyes will be watching as a train enters the final phase of its trip at stations where there are platforms at the end of the rails.</p>
<p>In the Sept. 29 crash, the engineer was alone at the time. He has told federal investigators he has no memory of the crash.</p>
<p>Some rail safety experts caution that having a second person in a cab isn’t automatically safer, since crew members can sometimes distract each other. In 1996 outside Washington, D.C., a commuter train engineer was thought to have been distracted by a conversation with a crew member, causing a crash with an Amtrak train that killed 11 people.</p>
<p>It took investigators until Tuesday to make the New Jersey crash site safe enough to be able to remove an event recorder from the lead car that had smashed into and over a bumper at the end of the line. The damaged train that took out part of a canopy wasn’t removed until Thursday, a week after the crash.</p>
<p>According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the train sped up and was going twice the 10 mph speed limit just before it slammed into a bumping post at the end of the rail line, went airborne and hurtled into the station’s waiting area Sept. 29.</p>
<p>The train was traveling at 8 mph and the throttle was in the idle position less than a minute before the crash. About 38 seconds before the crash, the throttle was increased and reached a maximum of about 21 mph, the NTSB said. The throttle went back to idle and the engineer hit the emergency brake less than a second before the crash, investigators said.</p>
<p>NJ Transit trains have an in-cab system designed to alert engineers with a loud alarm and stop locomotives when they go over 20 mph, according to an NJ Transit engineer who wasn’t authorized to discuss the accident and spoke on the condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>The NJ Transit engineer said the throttles have eight slots, putting the fourth spot at about half power. The engineer said the throttle should be set to idle, or the first and slowest speed spot, when entering Hoboken Terminal. The tracks into the station run slightly downhill, so there would be no need to push the throttle any higher, the engineer said.</p>
<p>An NTSB spokesman said he didn’t know if the alert system went off. He said it’s being looked at as part of the investigation.</p>
<p>A Thursday report contained no analysis of the data retrieved and no explanation for why the train increased speed. NTSB technical experts and the parties to the investigation are scheduled to meet in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to continue reviewing the data and video from the train.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak in Philadelphia contributed to this report.</p> | Train service set to resume after deadly New Jersey crash | false | https://abqjournal.com/862623/damaged-nj-transit-train-removed-from-terminal-after-crash.html | 2016-10-07 | 2least
| Train service set to resume after deadly New Jersey crash
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Eight of the 17 tracks at Hoboken Terminal will reopen Monday at the busy station where commuters connect with other trains and with ferries heading into New York City, New Jersey Transit announced Friday.</p>
<p>Also Friday, a state lawmaker said the Assembly will request New Jersey’s auditor initiate an investigation into the crash. Assemblyman John McKeon said on Friday Assembly Speaker Vincent will ask the auditor to investigate the crash, likely by Monday.</p>
<p>One person was killed and more than 100 were injured last Thursday morning when the train slammed through a bumper at the end of the track and dislodged an overhead canopy, showering debris onto the train.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The federal agency investigating the crash said Thursday the train was going about twice the speed limit of 10 mph just before the crash.</p>
<p>With the resumption of service, a new rule will require that the conductor join the engineer whenever a train pulls into the terminal, NJ Transit spokeswoman Jennifer Nelson said. That means a second set of eyes will be watching as a train enters the final phase of its trip at stations where there are platforms at the end of the rails.</p>
<p>In the Sept. 29 crash, the engineer was alone at the time. He has told federal investigators he has no memory of the crash.</p>
<p>Some rail safety experts caution that having a second person in a cab isn’t automatically safer, since crew members can sometimes distract each other. In 1996 outside Washington, D.C., a commuter train engineer was thought to have been distracted by a conversation with a crew member, causing a crash with an Amtrak train that killed 11 people.</p>
<p>It took investigators until Tuesday to make the New Jersey crash site safe enough to be able to remove an event recorder from the lead car that had smashed into and over a bumper at the end of the line. The damaged train that took out part of a canopy wasn’t removed until Thursday, a week after the crash.</p>
<p>According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the train sped up and was going twice the 10 mph speed limit just before it slammed into a bumping post at the end of the rail line, went airborne and hurtled into the station’s waiting area Sept. 29.</p>
<p>The train was traveling at 8 mph and the throttle was in the idle position less than a minute before the crash. About 38 seconds before the crash, the throttle was increased and reached a maximum of about 21 mph, the NTSB said. The throttle went back to idle and the engineer hit the emergency brake less than a second before the crash, investigators said.</p>
<p>NJ Transit trains have an in-cab system designed to alert engineers with a loud alarm and stop locomotives when they go over 20 mph, according to an NJ Transit engineer who wasn’t authorized to discuss the accident and spoke on the condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>The NJ Transit engineer said the throttles have eight slots, putting the fourth spot at about half power. The engineer said the throttle should be set to idle, or the first and slowest speed spot, when entering Hoboken Terminal. The tracks into the station run slightly downhill, so there would be no need to push the throttle any higher, the engineer said.</p>
<p>An NTSB spokesman said he didn’t know if the alert system went off. He said it’s being looked at as part of the investigation.</p>
<p>A Thursday report contained no analysis of the data retrieved and no explanation for why the train increased speed. NTSB technical experts and the parties to the investigation are scheduled to meet in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to continue reviewing the data and video from the train.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak in Philadelphia contributed to this report.</p> | 2,598 |
<p>Science journalist Miles O’Brien recently returned to Fukushima, Japan, for the sixth time since a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear meltdown there nearly six years ago.</p>
<p>O’Brien thought he would be reporting on the massive clean-up effort at the shuttered nuclear power plant, a decommissioning effort that requires 4,000 workers to suit up in Tyvek suits, three layers of socks, gloves and respirators every day.</p>
<p>Instead, O’Brien found himself chasing a very&#160;different story about nuclear power.</p>
<p>“If the Japanese had either closed or improved those plants in significant ways, we would not have had the meltdown,” O’Brien says. “So the important question is:&#160;Is nuclear the villain here, or is it inattention to iterating and improving the technology?” &#160;</p>
<p>O’Brien reports in his NOVA documentary <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/the-nuclear-option.html" type="external">“The Nuclear Option,”</a> which airs tonight on PBS stations, that 18,000 people died in the wake of the 2011 tsunami and quake in Japan, but no one has been killed by the radiation from the Fukushima meltdowns. &#160;</p>
<p>Meanwhile pollution released by burning coal and other fossil fuel power sources sickens millions each year.</p>
<p>As fears over global warming continue to simmer, nuclear power is experiencing something of a renaissance even as the Fukushima clean-up continues. &#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Solar and wind power hold promise, but storage problems mean neither can replace coal in the short term.</p>
<p>Solutions to those problems will emerge, O’Brien says, but “in the meantime we’ve got a problem that is immediate and we have some technology that could be available sooner.”</p>
<p>Today, the nuclear fuel sources in most reactors are cooled by water. If the reactors lose power, as they did at Fukushima,&#160;those coolant pumps shut down, the water boils away&#160;and a nuclear meltdown ensues.</p>
<p>Reactors that can withstand a loss of power for longer are already being built in the search for better nuclear energy. &#160;</p>
<p>But a new, potentially safer, generation of reactors is also being developed by engineers and energy startups around the country. &#160;</p>
<p>According to O’Brien’s NOVA special, a DC-based think tank called Third Way found in 2015 that more than 40 startups across the US were developing advanced nuclear power designs.</p>
<p>These atomic business plans, they say, have garnered more than a billion dollars in investment. &#160;</p>
<p>Some designs rely on liquid metal sodium as a coolant instead of water. The liquid metal is better at absorbing heat, less risky when cut off from power&#160;and doesn’t require building massive pressure chambers around the nuclear fuel, O’Brien says.</p>
<p>A liquid sodium reactor operated without incident for nearly 30 years&#160;at an Argonne National Laboratory testing site in Idaho. But nuclear power lost political support in the US after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, and the Argonne reactor was eventually moth-balled by President Bill Clinton.</p>
<p>“We got scared in the '70s and we walked away from this technology,” O’Brien says.</p>
<p />
<p>Nuclear physicist&#160;Chuck Till at a control panel at what is now the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho.&#160;</p>
<p>Courtesy of WGBH&#160;</p>
<p>Now, the idea of cooling a reactor with liquid sodium is being revived by a generation of nuclear scientists and entrepreneurs who see climate change as a bigger threat than nuclear power.</p>
<p>The highest-profile liquid sodium project is being developed by TerraPower, backed by Bill Gates and his former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold.</p>
<p>“From a technical perspective, we’ve solved every technical problem that’s occurred,” Myhrvold says. “But I can’t tell you, 'Oh yes, we’ve already been successful.' It’s going to be many more years of hard work before we are successful.”</p>
<p>“So we made a crazy bet," he says, "and we’re going to keep making that crazy bet."</p>
<p>Next-generation nuclear reactors have their risks too, of course. O’Brien says that liquid metal can be volatile when it comes in contact with water. And sodium-cooled reactors generate plutonium as a waste material.</p>
<p>“There are issues to work through here, but there’s no free lunch,” O’Brien says. “If you want the lights to go on 24/7/365, you kind of have to pick your poison. Maybe this is one way to do it, if we look at adopting the proper safety measures.” &#160;</p>
<p>The World has been reporting on stories about the human relationships at the heart of the atomic age. Read and listen to them <a href="" type="internal">here</a>. &#160;</p> | Climate change is fueling a second chance for nuclear power | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-01-11/climate-change-fueling-second-chance-nuclear-power | 2017-01-11 | 3left-center
| Climate change is fueling a second chance for nuclear power
<p>Science journalist Miles O’Brien recently returned to Fukushima, Japan, for the sixth time since a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear meltdown there nearly six years ago.</p>
<p>O’Brien thought he would be reporting on the massive clean-up effort at the shuttered nuclear power plant, a decommissioning effort that requires 4,000 workers to suit up in Tyvek suits, three layers of socks, gloves and respirators every day.</p>
<p>Instead, O’Brien found himself chasing a very&#160;different story about nuclear power.</p>
<p>“If the Japanese had either closed or improved those plants in significant ways, we would not have had the meltdown,” O’Brien says. “So the important question is:&#160;Is nuclear the villain here, or is it inattention to iterating and improving the technology?” &#160;</p>
<p>O’Brien reports in his NOVA documentary <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/the-nuclear-option.html" type="external">“The Nuclear Option,”</a> which airs tonight on PBS stations, that 18,000 people died in the wake of the 2011 tsunami and quake in Japan, but no one has been killed by the radiation from the Fukushima meltdowns. &#160;</p>
<p>Meanwhile pollution released by burning coal and other fossil fuel power sources sickens millions each year.</p>
<p>As fears over global warming continue to simmer, nuclear power is experiencing something of a renaissance even as the Fukushima clean-up continues. &#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Solar and wind power hold promise, but storage problems mean neither can replace coal in the short term.</p>
<p>Solutions to those problems will emerge, O’Brien says, but “in the meantime we’ve got a problem that is immediate and we have some technology that could be available sooner.”</p>
<p>Today, the nuclear fuel sources in most reactors are cooled by water. If the reactors lose power, as they did at Fukushima,&#160;those coolant pumps shut down, the water boils away&#160;and a nuclear meltdown ensues.</p>
<p>Reactors that can withstand a loss of power for longer are already being built in the search for better nuclear energy. &#160;</p>
<p>But a new, potentially safer, generation of reactors is also being developed by engineers and energy startups around the country. &#160;</p>
<p>According to O’Brien’s NOVA special, a DC-based think tank called Third Way found in 2015 that more than 40 startups across the US were developing advanced nuclear power designs.</p>
<p>These atomic business plans, they say, have garnered more than a billion dollars in investment. &#160;</p>
<p>Some designs rely on liquid metal sodium as a coolant instead of water. The liquid metal is better at absorbing heat, less risky when cut off from power&#160;and doesn’t require building massive pressure chambers around the nuclear fuel, O’Brien says.</p>
<p>A liquid sodium reactor operated without incident for nearly 30 years&#160;at an Argonne National Laboratory testing site in Idaho. But nuclear power lost political support in the US after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, and the Argonne reactor was eventually moth-balled by President Bill Clinton.</p>
<p>“We got scared in the '70s and we walked away from this technology,” O’Brien says.</p>
<p />
<p>Nuclear physicist&#160;Chuck Till at a control panel at what is now the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho.&#160;</p>
<p>Courtesy of WGBH&#160;</p>
<p>Now, the idea of cooling a reactor with liquid sodium is being revived by a generation of nuclear scientists and entrepreneurs who see climate change as a bigger threat than nuclear power.</p>
<p>The highest-profile liquid sodium project is being developed by TerraPower, backed by Bill Gates and his former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold.</p>
<p>“From a technical perspective, we’ve solved every technical problem that’s occurred,” Myhrvold says. “But I can’t tell you, 'Oh yes, we’ve already been successful.' It’s going to be many more years of hard work before we are successful.”</p>
<p>“So we made a crazy bet," he says, "and we’re going to keep making that crazy bet."</p>
<p>Next-generation nuclear reactors have their risks too, of course. O’Brien says that liquid metal can be volatile when it comes in contact with water. And sodium-cooled reactors generate plutonium as a waste material.</p>
<p>“There are issues to work through here, but there’s no free lunch,” O’Brien says. “If you want the lights to go on 24/7/365, you kind of have to pick your poison. Maybe this is one way to do it, if we look at adopting the proper safety measures.” &#160;</p>
<p>The World has been reporting on stories about the human relationships at the heart of the atomic age. Read and listen to them <a href="" type="internal">here</a>. &#160;</p> | 2,599 |
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