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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Study Reveals That Black PreSchoolers Given Harsher Punishments Than Whites</p>
<p>Volumes of research have been compiled that definitively show that the attitudes of most Americans are shaped by deeply ingrained racial biases. For example, the test results of the Harvard’s Project Implicit Test, a 10 minute online association test designed to examine thoughts and feelings outside a person’s awareness or control, revealed that 70% of the participants had an automatic preference for images representing white persons over those representing black persons.&#160; Our culture is permeated with racism and it is virtually impossible to fully escape its negative effects.&#160; &#160;</p>
<p>The school, one of the first institutions a child is exposed to, plays a major role in shaping one’s attitude.&#160; A primary means the school uses in shaping attitudes is the disciplinary process.&#160; Through the discipline actions taken against offenders of school policies the school teaches children who the “good guys” and the “bad guys” are.&#160; And it so happens that an inordinate number of the “bad guys” turn out to be black students.</p>
<p>The latest Department of Education (DOE) Survey of American Schools data reveal that overall 16% of black students are suspended from school compared to only 5% of white students.&#160; The data also reveal that 42 % of preschool students who are suspended once and 48% who are suspended more than once are black, even though only 18% of the preschool enrollment is black. The DOE report stated that this disparity in suspension of black students is not a variable of a higher rate of misbehavior, and further stated that black students tended to receive harsher punishment than their white peers for the same offense, especially for offenses such as non-compliance and disrespect.</p>
<p>The Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative, a group that studies and analyzes discipline disparities in schools, concluded in one of their recent research papers that issues of discipline disparities cannot be properly addressed until educators directly address issues of race and stereotype that are an inextricable part of these disparities.</p>
<p>In general, authorities on race relations believe that if the issue of racial biases is acknowledged and confronted in school systems and law enforcement departments, and if educators and police officers thereby become aware of their own racist attitudes and engage in appropriate training to overcome their racial biases, racial profiling and police brutality will significantly decline.</p>
<p>Let us connect the dots: unwarranted suspension of black students, racial profiling, the killing of unarmed black males…Racism is alive and well and must be forcefully confronted anew with effective fresh ideas and methods if our nation hopes to become the land envisioned Martin Luther King, Jr. where all people…“are judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.” &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | An Unholy Alliance: School Discipline and Police Brutality | true | http://politicalblindspot.com/an-unholy-alliance-school-discipline-and-police-brutality/ | 2015-02-03 | 4left
| An Unholy Alliance: School Discipline and Police Brutality
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Study Reveals That Black PreSchoolers Given Harsher Punishments Than Whites</p>
<p>Volumes of research have been compiled that definitively show that the attitudes of most Americans are shaped by deeply ingrained racial biases. For example, the test results of the Harvard’s Project Implicit Test, a 10 minute online association test designed to examine thoughts and feelings outside a person’s awareness or control, revealed that 70% of the participants had an automatic preference for images representing white persons over those representing black persons.&#160; Our culture is permeated with racism and it is virtually impossible to fully escape its negative effects.&#160; &#160;</p>
<p>The school, one of the first institutions a child is exposed to, plays a major role in shaping one’s attitude.&#160; A primary means the school uses in shaping attitudes is the disciplinary process.&#160; Through the discipline actions taken against offenders of school policies the school teaches children who the “good guys” and the “bad guys” are.&#160; And it so happens that an inordinate number of the “bad guys” turn out to be black students.</p>
<p>The latest Department of Education (DOE) Survey of American Schools data reveal that overall 16% of black students are suspended from school compared to only 5% of white students.&#160; The data also reveal that 42 % of preschool students who are suspended once and 48% who are suspended more than once are black, even though only 18% of the preschool enrollment is black. The DOE report stated that this disparity in suspension of black students is not a variable of a higher rate of misbehavior, and further stated that black students tended to receive harsher punishment than their white peers for the same offense, especially for offenses such as non-compliance and disrespect.</p>
<p>The Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative, a group that studies and analyzes discipline disparities in schools, concluded in one of their recent research papers that issues of discipline disparities cannot be properly addressed until educators directly address issues of race and stereotype that are an inextricable part of these disparities.</p>
<p>In general, authorities on race relations believe that if the issue of racial biases is acknowledged and confronted in school systems and law enforcement departments, and if educators and police officers thereby become aware of their own racist attitudes and engage in appropriate training to overcome their racial biases, racial profiling and police brutality will significantly decline.</p>
<p>Let us connect the dots: unwarranted suspension of black students, racial profiling, the killing of unarmed black males…Racism is alive and well and must be forcefully confronted anew with effective fresh ideas and methods if our nation hopes to become the land envisioned Martin Luther King, Jr. where all people…“are judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.” &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,700 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>What does this mean?</p>
<p>I am training for the Lake Stevens Ironman 70.3, but I want to race a local Olympic Distance event this weekend? First, because I just want to race and secondly because you need to support the local race community. If you don’t, they just won’t exist anymore. That’s why I will be “training through” this weekend’s race.</p>
<p>The regular 70.3 routine does not suffer, but the race results might be a little under your best effort due to the lack of rest and recovery before the shorter event.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Let’s take a look at this week’s training schedule so you have a better understanding of what I am describing. I would like to look at the previous weekend to see the “wrap around” effect.</p>
<p>You will notice that the training doesn’t begin to taper off until mid-week for the shorter race, this allows the volumes for the longer race to remain consistent. I also like to use the race as a substitute for the weekly bike and or run speed work. It’s an excellent training tool because you never train as hard as you race. For some of my athletes I use it as a bike or run test. If you us it as a bike test, don’t be too upset with a less than stellar run split due to the high output for the bike segment.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Saturday –Shorter bike warmup/ long base run day with the final mile at 70.3 pace</p>
<p>Sunday – Long relaxed bike day, focusing on higher cadence and remaining in the aero-bars as long as possible</p>
<p>Monday – Swim Day/ medium distance run</p>
<p>Tuesday – Swim Day/ Medium distance bike/ shorter distance run off the bike with speed intervals</p>
<p>Wednesday – Long Run Day</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Thursday – This is where the mini-taper begins, full rest day</p>
<p>Friday – Short pre-race brick</p>
<p>Saturday – Race Day!</p>
<p>Sunday – Easy longer ride, probably about 1/3 the volume of ;last Sunday’s ride</p>
<p>When you map out your season having races such as these are a great tool to test out your equipment, nutrition and gain some above average speed work. The day might not yield your best result, on this day, but the “A” race in three weeks might be your greatest effort yet.</p>
<p>Sun-Tzu wrote in the “Art of War,” in the 6th Century B.C., ‘Lose the battle, win the war.’</p>
<p>I am positive he wasn’t specifically referencing triathlon, but these ancient words still ring true.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Training through a race | false | https://abqjournal.com/511543/training-through-a-race.html | 2least
| Training through a race
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>What does this mean?</p>
<p>I am training for the Lake Stevens Ironman 70.3, but I want to race a local Olympic Distance event this weekend? First, because I just want to race and secondly because you need to support the local race community. If you don’t, they just won’t exist anymore. That’s why I will be “training through” this weekend’s race.</p>
<p>The regular 70.3 routine does not suffer, but the race results might be a little under your best effort due to the lack of rest and recovery before the shorter event.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Let’s take a look at this week’s training schedule so you have a better understanding of what I am describing. I would like to look at the previous weekend to see the “wrap around” effect.</p>
<p>You will notice that the training doesn’t begin to taper off until mid-week for the shorter race, this allows the volumes for the longer race to remain consistent. I also like to use the race as a substitute for the weekly bike and or run speed work. It’s an excellent training tool because you never train as hard as you race. For some of my athletes I use it as a bike or run test. If you us it as a bike test, don’t be too upset with a less than stellar run split due to the high output for the bike segment.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Saturday –Shorter bike warmup/ long base run day with the final mile at 70.3 pace</p>
<p>Sunday – Long relaxed bike day, focusing on higher cadence and remaining in the aero-bars as long as possible</p>
<p>Monday – Swim Day/ medium distance run</p>
<p>Tuesday – Swim Day/ Medium distance bike/ shorter distance run off the bike with speed intervals</p>
<p>Wednesday – Long Run Day</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Thursday – This is where the mini-taper begins, full rest day</p>
<p>Friday – Short pre-race brick</p>
<p>Saturday – Race Day!</p>
<p>Sunday – Easy longer ride, probably about 1/3 the volume of ;last Sunday’s ride</p>
<p>When you map out your season having races such as these are a great tool to test out your equipment, nutrition and gain some above average speed work. The day might not yield your best result, on this day, but the “A” race in three weeks might be your greatest effort yet.</p>
<p>Sun-Tzu wrote in the “Art of War,” in the 6th Century B.C., ‘Lose the battle, win the war.’</p>
<p>I am positive he wasn’t specifically referencing triathlon, but these ancient words still ring true.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,701 |
|
<p>In this July 28, 2015 file photo, Erica Canaut, center, cheers as she and other anti-abortion activists hold a rally on the steps of the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, to condemn the use of tissue samples obtained from aborted fetuses for medical research. Eric Gay/AP Photo</p>
<p />
<p>Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump presented himself as a staunchly “pro-life” candidate. He picked the <a href="" type="internal">aggressively anti-abortion</a> Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate and campaigned in favor of <a href="http://www.wsj.com/graphics/elections/2016/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-on-social-issues/" type="external">outlawing abortion</a>, defeating Roe v. Wade, defunding Planned Parenthood, appointing conservative Supreme Court justices, and cutting back on access to reproductive rights. His selection of Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as his potential attorney general and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) as part of his transition team further confirms that abortion rights are likely to be under fire during the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Reproductive rights advocates <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/press-room/crr-statement-on-election-of-donald-trump-as-45th-president-of-the-united-states" type="external">have said</a> a Trump presidency will potentially be a difficult time for abortion access and reproductive rights—and not only because he will appoint an anti-abortion Supreme Court justice. In fact, overturning Roe v. Wade might be the hardest goal for him to achieve. Stephanie Toti, a senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, explained that Trump’s judicial appointees would have to disregard a landmark case as well as more than 40 years of settled precedent since it was decided. She argued for the plaintiff in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt,&#160;widely considered the most important abortion case to come before the high court in several decades. The Supreme Court struck down several stringent abortion restrictions passed in Texas, and the case was considered a historic victory for abortion rights advocates.</p>
<p>“Women have a fundamental right under the Constitution to access abortion care,” Toti said. “And that [Whole Woman’s Health] decision has a huge precedential effect—it was joined by a solid majority of justices on the court.”</p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean there are not a number of other areas where Trump can put pressure on women’s access to reproductive health—especially given the experience of some of his close advisers and Cabinet nominees.</p>
<p>Sessions has been responsible for a pretty extreme anti-abortion voting record during his four terms in Congress. As previously reported by <a href="" type="internal">Mother Jones</a>, Sessions voted in favor of an amendment to remove pregnant women from the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, also known as SCHIP, and instead transfer coverage to the fetus itself. (The measure failed.) He has voted to bar Department of Health and Human Services grants from organizations that perform abortions (much in the spirit of the “defund Planned Parenthood” movement that Trump supports). He supported the ban of common dilation-and-extraction abortion procedures—coded as “partial birth abortions”—as well as a criminal penalty for harming a fetus during “a violent crime.” And Sessions voted against a $100 million allocation in the fiscal year 2006 budget toward reducing teen pregnancy through education and contraceptives.</p>
<p>Blackburn is another major figure in the anti-abortion movement. She’s perhaps best known for her role as head of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, which was formed after the <a href="" type="internal">Planned Parenthood sting videos</a> were released in the summer of 2015. The panel was charged with investigating unproved allegations that fetal tissue was being sold for profit. (No evidence has been found that there is any truth to this.) Democrats called out Blackburn for her “reckless disregard” for the safety of abortion providers and researchers after <a href="" type="internal">she released unredacted documents</a> that contained their names and contact information.</p>
<p>Trump has said he supports a ban on abortion after 20 weeks and discontinuing federal funding for Planned Parenthood for as long as the organization continues to offer abortion services, even though the nation’s largest women’s health care organization receives no government funds for providing the procedure. In September, Trump <a href="https://www.sba-list.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Trump-Letter-on-ProLife-Coalition.pdf" type="external">wrote a letter</a> to anti-abortion leaders outlining his commitment to eliminating abortion rights. (The letter was released by a conservative women’s organization called the Susan B. Anthony List, whose research arm, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, has claimed that copper IUDs constitute “early abortions.”) He promised to sign a law called the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/36" type="external">Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act</a>, which would implement a ban on abortions after 20 weeks on the assumption that a fetus can feel pain at that point. (This notion has been <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/201429" type="external">disproved</a>.) He also said he would make permanent the <a href="" type="internal">Hyde Amendment,</a> which prohibits federal Medicaid funding for abortion.</p>
<p>The battle over whether Planned Parenthood keeps its federal funding to provide screenings and health care for low-income women is likely to&#160; continue. In September, President Barack Obama <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-planned-parenthood_us_57d2c654e4b06a74c9f42f46" type="external">proposed</a> a change to Title X funding that would <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-21359.pdf" type="external">forbid states</a> from withholding funds for any reason other than the provider’s “ability to deliver services to program beneficiaries in an effective manner.” Obama’s proposal is pending a review of the results of a 30-day public comment period by the Department of Health and Human Services. If the measure fails, it will be one less barrier to Trump’s promise to defund Planned Parenthood. This rule wouldn’t end the battle over Planned Parenthood, but it would make it significantly more difficult for federal funds to be stripped from the provider, and it would push the fight back to the states, likely in the form of overly stringent regulations.</p>
<p>Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, is also in the line of fire. Trump’s initial promises to completely eliminate the program have changed since his election victory, and he told the <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-willing-to-keep-parts-of-health-law-1478895339" type="external">Wall Street Journal</a> that he may consider keeping in place some of its provisions such as coverage for preexisting conditions and the ability for young adults to remain under their parents’ insurance. But the ACA also covers one type of birth control per user at no out-of-pocket cost. Trump has not specifically mentioned it so far, but Vice President-elect Mike Pence <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/mike-pence-james-dobson-trump-birth-control-mandate-transgender-bathroom-170485/" type="external">told</a> conservative Christian radio host James Dobson last October that he is motivated by religious liberty when it comes to the future of the mandate, intimating that he would work to end it.</p>
<p>Coverage of birth control might be at greatest risk because its repeal does not require congressional approval. The Trump administration <a href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/11/how-donald-trump-could-change-the-cost-of-birth-control.html" type="external">would only have to</a> order the Department of Health and Human Services to exclude birth control from preventive care by redefining preventive care. Even if this were to happen, changes would not be in effect until 2018 and several plans under the ACA would still include birth control—although the options could become more limited.</p>
<p>Raegan McDonald-Mosley, the chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said her organization has seen a 900 percent increase in appointments for IUDs since the election results were announced.</p>
<p>“These spikes illustrate just how important the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit has been for women to access the birth control method of their choice,” McDonald-Mosley said. “Without coverage, out-of-pocket costs for IUDs can range from $500 to $1,000, which can be a major barrier for some women.”</p>
<p>But the greatest concern among providers and reproductive rights activists is that lawmakers in conservative states will be further emboldened by an anti-choice presidential administration and by a Republican, largely anti-choice majority in Congress. Dr. Willie Parker, an abortion provider who practices primarily in Alabama and Georgia, and serves as board chair for <a href="http://prh.org/" type="external">Physicians for Reproductive Health</a>, said there has always been and may always be “willful ignorance” when it comes to legislation around reproductive rights.</p>
<p>“There’s this saying, ‘You can’t awaken somebody that’s pretending to be asleep,'” Parker said. “We are in the midst of an intentional anti-intellectualism. I don’t think that [anti-choice] Congresspeople are as much benign and misguided as they are intentionally and willfully ignorant of the facts of reproduction, and that lends itself very well to them being ideologically driven and carrying out agendas.”</p>
<p>Parker also works in the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, and he’s been an active part of the fight to keep it open. He is a plaintiff in <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/press-room/mississippi-asks-supreme-court-to-review-states-clinic-shutdown-law" type="external">a lawsuit</a> filed in 2012 to block a law that required providers to have admitting privileges at a local hospital but would have effectively shut down the last abortion clinic in the state; he and his co-plaintiffs have won the case in the 5th Circuit twice. However, he said, the state has decided to persist even in the face of the Supreme Court ruling, based on the hope that a Trump administration and the appointment of a new conservative Supreme Court justice would improve their odds of winning.</p>
<p>Mississippi isn’t the only state that’s down to one clinic—Arkansas, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming are in similar situations. And <a href="https://www.apnews.com/b4ceff5d168d42369690f34b73ddc851/Texas-may-not-restore-lost-abortion-clinics-despite-ruling" type="external">Texas</a> lost more than half its clinics in the fight over a law known as HB 2 before the Supreme Court ruled last summer.</p>
<p>“The task of those who support reproductive rights and reproductive justice didn’t change based on who is in the White House,” Parker said. “We don’t know exactly what [Trump] is going to do, but we can’t take the position of ‘wait around and see.’ We have to work as if the things that we fought hard to protect for women were under assault, and we have to bring all of our creativity and our energy to bear to preserve those things.”</p>
<p /> | Trump Can’t Overturn Roe, But He Will Still Be a Nightmare for Abortion Rights | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/abortion-rights-trump-repeal-roe-heres-damage-he-can-do/ | 2016-11-21 | 4left
| Trump Can’t Overturn Roe, But He Will Still Be a Nightmare for Abortion Rights
<p>In this July 28, 2015 file photo, Erica Canaut, center, cheers as she and other anti-abortion activists hold a rally on the steps of the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, to condemn the use of tissue samples obtained from aborted fetuses for medical research. Eric Gay/AP Photo</p>
<p />
<p>Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump presented himself as a staunchly “pro-life” candidate. He picked the <a href="" type="internal">aggressively anti-abortion</a> Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate and campaigned in favor of <a href="http://www.wsj.com/graphics/elections/2016/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-on-social-issues/" type="external">outlawing abortion</a>, defeating Roe v. Wade, defunding Planned Parenthood, appointing conservative Supreme Court justices, and cutting back on access to reproductive rights. His selection of Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as his potential attorney general and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) as part of his transition team further confirms that abortion rights are likely to be under fire during the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Reproductive rights advocates <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/press-room/crr-statement-on-election-of-donald-trump-as-45th-president-of-the-united-states" type="external">have said</a> a Trump presidency will potentially be a difficult time for abortion access and reproductive rights—and not only because he will appoint an anti-abortion Supreme Court justice. In fact, overturning Roe v. Wade might be the hardest goal for him to achieve. Stephanie Toti, a senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, explained that Trump’s judicial appointees would have to disregard a landmark case as well as more than 40 years of settled precedent since it was decided. She argued for the plaintiff in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt,&#160;widely considered the most important abortion case to come before the high court in several decades. The Supreme Court struck down several stringent abortion restrictions passed in Texas, and the case was considered a historic victory for abortion rights advocates.</p>
<p>“Women have a fundamental right under the Constitution to access abortion care,” Toti said. “And that [Whole Woman’s Health] decision has a huge precedential effect—it was joined by a solid majority of justices on the court.”</p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean there are not a number of other areas where Trump can put pressure on women’s access to reproductive health—especially given the experience of some of his close advisers and Cabinet nominees.</p>
<p>Sessions has been responsible for a pretty extreme anti-abortion voting record during his four terms in Congress. As previously reported by <a href="" type="internal">Mother Jones</a>, Sessions voted in favor of an amendment to remove pregnant women from the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, also known as SCHIP, and instead transfer coverage to the fetus itself. (The measure failed.) He has voted to bar Department of Health and Human Services grants from organizations that perform abortions (much in the spirit of the “defund Planned Parenthood” movement that Trump supports). He supported the ban of common dilation-and-extraction abortion procedures—coded as “partial birth abortions”—as well as a criminal penalty for harming a fetus during “a violent crime.” And Sessions voted against a $100 million allocation in the fiscal year 2006 budget toward reducing teen pregnancy through education and contraceptives.</p>
<p>Blackburn is another major figure in the anti-abortion movement. She’s perhaps best known for her role as head of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, which was formed after the <a href="" type="internal">Planned Parenthood sting videos</a> were released in the summer of 2015. The panel was charged with investigating unproved allegations that fetal tissue was being sold for profit. (No evidence has been found that there is any truth to this.) Democrats called out Blackburn for her “reckless disregard” for the safety of abortion providers and researchers after <a href="" type="internal">she released unredacted documents</a> that contained their names and contact information.</p>
<p>Trump has said he supports a ban on abortion after 20 weeks and discontinuing federal funding for Planned Parenthood for as long as the organization continues to offer abortion services, even though the nation’s largest women’s health care organization receives no government funds for providing the procedure. In September, Trump <a href="https://www.sba-list.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Trump-Letter-on-ProLife-Coalition.pdf" type="external">wrote a letter</a> to anti-abortion leaders outlining his commitment to eliminating abortion rights. (The letter was released by a conservative women’s organization called the Susan B. Anthony List, whose research arm, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, has claimed that copper IUDs constitute “early abortions.”) He promised to sign a law called the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/36" type="external">Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act</a>, which would implement a ban on abortions after 20 weeks on the assumption that a fetus can feel pain at that point. (This notion has been <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/201429" type="external">disproved</a>.) He also said he would make permanent the <a href="" type="internal">Hyde Amendment,</a> which prohibits federal Medicaid funding for abortion.</p>
<p>The battle over whether Planned Parenthood keeps its federal funding to provide screenings and health care for low-income women is likely to&#160; continue. In September, President Barack Obama <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-planned-parenthood_us_57d2c654e4b06a74c9f42f46" type="external">proposed</a> a change to Title X funding that would <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-21359.pdf" type="external">forbid states</a> from withholding funds for any reason other than the provider’s “ability to deliver services to program beneficiaries in an effective manner.” Obama’s proposal is pending a review of the results of a 30-day public comment period by the Department of Health and Human Services. If the measure fails, it will be one less barrier to Trump’s promise to defund Planned Parenthood. This rule wouldn’t end the battle over Planned Parenthood, but it would make it significantly more difficult for federal funds to be stripped from the provider, and it would push the fight back to the states, likely in the form of overly stringent regulations.</p>
<p>Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, is also in the line of fire. Trump’s initial promises to completely eliminate the program have changed since his election victory, and he told the <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-willing-to-keep-parts-of-health-law-1478895339" type="external">Wall Street Journal</a> that he may consider keeping in place some of its provisions such as coverage for preexisting conditions and the ability for young adults to remain under their parents’ insurance. But the ACA also covers one type of birth control per user at no out-of-pocket cost. Trump has not specifically mentioned it so far, but Vice President-elect Mike Pence <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/mike-pence-james-dobson-trump-birth-control-mandate-transgender-bathroom-170485/" type="external">told</a> conservative Christian radio host James Dobson last October that he is motivated by religious liberty when it comes to the future of the mandate, intimating that he would work to end it.</p>
<p>Coverage of birth control might be at greatest risk because its repeal does not require congressional approval. The Trump administration <a href="http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/11/how-donald-trump-could-change-the-cost-of-birth-control.html" type="external">would only have to</a> order the Department of Health and Human Services to exclude birth control from preventive care by redefining preventive care. Even if this were to happen, changes would not be in effect until 2018 and several plans under the ACA would still include birth control—although the options could become more limited.</p>
<p>Raegan McDonald-Mosley, the chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said her organization has seen a 900 percent increase in appointments for IUDs since the election results were announced.</p>
<p>“These spikes illustrate just how important the Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit has been for women to access the birth control method of their choice,” McDonald-Mosley said. “Without coverage, out-of-pocket costs for IUDs can range from $500 to $1,000, which can be a major barrier for some women.”</p>
<p>But the greatest concern among providers and reproductive rights activists is that lawmakers in conservative states will be further emboldened by an anti-choice presidential administration and by a Republican, largely anti-choice majority in Congress. Dr. Willie Parker, an abortion provider who practices primarily in Alabama and Georgia, and serves as board chair for <a href="http://prh.org/" type="external">Physicians for Reproductive Health</a>, said there has always been and may always be “willful ignorance” when it comes to legislation around reproductive rights.</p>
<p>“There’s this saying, ‘You can’t awaken somebody that’s pretending to be asleep,'” Parker said. “We are in the midst of an intentional anti-intellectualism. I don’t think that [anti-choice] Congresspeople are as much benign and misguided as they are intentionally and willfully ignorant of the facts of reproduction, and that lends itself very well to them being ideologically driven and carrying out agendas.”</p>
<p>Parker also works in the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, and he’s been an active part of the fight to keep it open. He is a plaintiff in <a href="https://www.reproductiverights.org/press-room/mississippi-asks-supreme-court-to-review-states-clinic-shutdown-law" type="external">a lawsuit</a> filed in 2012 to block a law that required providers to have admitting privileges at a local hospital but would have effectively shut down the last abortion clinic in the state; he and his co-plaintiffs have won the case in the 5th Circuit twice. However, he said, the state has decided to persist even in the face of the Supreme Court ruling, based on the hope that a Trump administration and the appointment of a new conservative Supreme Court justice would improve their odds of winning.</p>
<p>Mississippi isn’t the only state that’s down to one clinic—Arkansas, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming are in similar situations. And <a href="https://www.apnews.com/b4ceff5d168d42369690f34b73ddc851/Texas-may-not-restore-lost-abortion-clinics-despite-ruling" type="external">Texas</a> lost more than half its clinics in the fight over a law known as HB 2 before the Supreme Court ruled last summer.</p>
<p>“The task of those who support reproductive rights and reproductive justice didn’t change based on who is in the White House,” Parker said. “We don’t know exactly what [Trump] is going to do, but we can’t take the position of ‘wait around and see.’ We have to work as if the things that we fought hard to protect for women were under assault, and we have to bring all of our creativity and our energy to bear to preserve those things.”</p>
<p /> | 2,702 |
<p>In Milton’s Paradise Lost, when Satan goes off to the new world of earth to sabotage Adam and Eve, a guarding angel lets him in because Satan feigns angelic demeanor so well. The narrative voice notes that only God can pierce hypocrisy; angels can’t. It’s a more refined version of the Hollywood line that the hardest thing to fake is sincerity.</p>
<p>When Colin Powell affirmed in his January 8th 2004 press conference that he was still confident in the intelligence that led him to beat the drums for war in Iraq he presented a persona hard to read. Is he like Satan the stealthy hypocrite bent on his own war, finally the general who will advance on Saddam and redeem his Gulf War I restraint? Or is he a victim of his own spinning stories, believing desperately so as not to be a war criminal or a fool? As a reluctant warrior, he always seemed a serious and decent man. Human beings honor belief. If you convince a jury you believed the shadow you shot in your doorway was an intruder, not your spouse, you’re held harmless though someone is dead. In court you get to tell your tale.</p>
<p>God is the imagination of real objectivity. Of piercing human hypocrisy and delusion. This is how it was. You fool yourself. You are proud and corrupt and self-serving, not perfect, sincere, and selfless. Virtue and vice are dialogues where there is an outside measure of your story. My favorite figure of this is over 4000 years old-the Egyptian weighing of the soul. The heart of the dead is balanced on a scale against the Feather of Maat, the goddess of justice. She incarnates righteousness; her hieroglyph is an ostrich feather. If you weigh evenly with her, you are righteous and proceed to the kingdom of Osiris; if you don’t, you get gobbled by Ahmet the crocodile-headed monster waiting below the scale to eat the unjust. You tell a story before the weighing, a negative confession-saying that you haven’t killed or stolen or misbehaved. But the judgment isn’t that story, it’s matching the feather-you were or weren’t just. The measure is not your story but your acts.</p>
<p>In Erroll Morris’ recent film about Robert McNamara’s role in the Vietnam War, McNamara defends his life, not unlike Colin Powell. It all makes sense given the overarching cold war, the good or bad intelligence, the basic well-meaning decency of our will. McNamara speaks also of World War II and his own role in the firebombing of Tokyo. He seems haunted by the 100,000 people destroyed in the raid he helped plan. If we had lost the war, he says, we would have been indicted as war criminals for killing civilians. Why, he says, would it be a war crime if we lost, and not if we won? He asks a hard question which the fog of war always conveniently clouds.</p>
<p>We the US avoid world courts because we play god and refuse to submit to human judgment. Our story rules and measures all. It’s nationalism which much of the world sees as arrogance and imperial violence. In my view it’s lying and delusion. It’s not quite hypocrisy because unlike Milton’s Satan, we deny our evil and assert it’s good. We’re in the spell of our spinning lying story.</p>
<p>Nor will we let it go, as Powell somberly persists “I am confident of what I presented last year; the intelligence community is confident of the material they gave me. And this game is still unfolding.”</p>
<p>There is no game; the tale unravels; the judgment weighs us down. Maat is more than an ostrich feather.</p>
<p>DIANE CHRISTIAN is SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at University at Buffalo and author of the new book <a href="http://csac.buffalo.edu/bs.html" type="external">Blood Sacrifice</a>. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | On Lying | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/01/10/on-lying/ | 2004-01-10 | 4left
| On Lying
<p>In Milton’s Paradise Lost, when Satan goes off to the new world of earth to sabotage Adam and Eve, a guarding angel lets him in because Satan feigns angelic demeanor so well. The narrative voice notes that only God can pierce hypocrisy; angels can’t. It’s a more refined version of the Hollywood line that the hardest thing to fake is sincerity.</p>
<p>When Colin Powell affirmed in his January 8th 2004 press conference that he was still confident in the intelligence that led him to beat the drums for war in Iraq he presented a persona hard to read. Is he like Satan the stealthy hypocrite bent on his own war, finally the general who will advance on Saddam and redeem his Gulf War I restraint? Or is he a victim of his own spinning stories, believing desperately so as not to be a war criminal or a fool? As a reluctant warrior, he always seemed a serious and decent man. Human beings honor belief. If you convince a jury you believed the shadow you shot in your doorway was an intruder, not your spouse, you’re held harmless though someone is dead. In court you get to tell your tale.</p>
<p>God is the imagination of real objectivity. Of piercing human hypocrisy and delusion. This is how it was. You fool yourself. You are proud and corrupt and self-serving, not perfect, sincere, and selfless. Virtue and vice are dialogues where there is an outside measure of your story. My favorite figure of this is over 4000 years old-the Egyptian weighing of the soul. The heart of the dead is balanced on a scale against the Feather of Maat, the goddess of justice. She incarnates righteousness; her hieroglyph is an ostrich feather. If you weigh evenly with her, you are righteous and proceed to the kingdom of Osiris; if you don’t, you get gobbled by Ahmet the crocodile-headed monster waiting below the scale to eat the unjust. You tell a story before the weighing, a negative confession-saying that you haven’t killed or stolen or misbehaved. But the judgment isn’t that story, it’s matching the feather-you were or weren’t just. The measure is not your story but your acts.</p>
<p>In Erroll Morris’ recent film about Robert McNamara’s role in the Vietnam War, McNamara defends his life, not unlike Colin Powell. It all makes sense given the overarching cold war, the good or bad intelligence, the basic well-meaning decency of our will. McNamara speaks also of World War II and his own role in the firebombing of Tokyo. He seems haunted by the 100,000 people destroyed in the raid he helped plan. If we had lost the war, he says, we would have been indicted as war criminals for killing civilians. Why, he says, would it be a war crime if we lost, and not if we won? He asks a hard question which the fog of war always conveniently clouds.</p>
<p>We the US avoid world courts because we play god and refuse to submit to human judgment. Our story rules and measures all. It’s nationalism which much of the world sees as arrogance and imperial violence. In my view it’s lying and delusion. It’s not quite hypocrisy because unlike Milton’s Satan, we deny our evil and assert it’s good. We’re in the spell of our spinning lying story.</p>
<p>Nor will we let it go, as Powell somberly persists “I am confident of what I presented last year; the intelligence community is confident of the material they gave me. And this game is still unfolding.”</p>
<p>There is no game; the tale unravels; the judgment weighs us down. Maat is more than an ostrich feather.</p>
<p>DIANE CHRISTIAN is SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at University at Buffalo and author of the new book <a href="http://csac.buffalo.edu/bs.html" type="external">Blood Sacrifice</a>. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,703 |
<p>Israel’s Interior Ministry has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/world/middleeast/12jerusalem.html" type="external">approved</a> a 1,600-unit housing complex in East Jerusalem. It’s the same complex that was announced last year, embarrassing a visiting Vice President Joe Biden, and it comes with the promise to build an additional 2,700 units of housing in the occupied Palestinian area of the city.</p>
<p>Israelis have been protesting high rents, erecting a tent city in Tel Aviv to drive home the point, but building on Palestinian land remains controversial. Thursday’s housing announcement, as The New York Times points out, could drive Palestinian leaders even harder to declare statehood at the United Nations in a month. — PZS</p>
<p>The New York Times:</p>
<p>The announcement also provoked an angry reaction from Israeli groups opposed to housing construction in land conquered by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. They denounced it as an opportunistic way for the Israeli government to exploit a housing shortage that has led to unaffordable rents and mass protests in Israel. Peace Now, the leading anti-settlement group in Israel, condemned what it called the Interior Ministry’s “cynical use” of the housing crisis.</p>
<p />
<p>The Israel Interior Ministry announcement came a month before the United Nations annual General Assembly in New York, where Palestinian Authority officials have said they may unilaterally declare statehood, a move that is opposed by both Israel and the United States, its strongest ally. They favor a resumption of peace talks, which remain stalled partly because of Palestinian objections to Israeli construction on disputed lands. The housing announcement could strengthen Palestinian resolve to proceed with the statehood declaration.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/world/middleeast/12jerusalem.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Israel OKs Major Housing Development With More to Come | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/israel-oks-major-housing-development-with-more-to-come/ | 2011-08-11 | 4left
| Israel OKs Major Housing Development With More to Come
<p>Israel’s Interior Ministry has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/world/middleeast/12jerusalem.html" type="external">approved</a> a 1,600-unit housing complex in East Jerusalem. It’s the same complex that was announced last year, embarrassing a visiting Vice President Joe Biden, and it comes with the promise to build an additional 2,700 units of housing in the occupied Palestinian area of the city.</p>
<p>Israelis have been protesting high rents, erecting a tent city in Tel Aviv to drive home the point, but building on Palestinian land remains controversial. Thursday’s housing announcement, as The New York Times points out, could drive Palestinian leaders even harder to declare statehood at the United Nations in a month. — PZS</p>
<p>The New York Times:</p>
<p>The announcement also provoked an angry reaction from Israeli groups opposed to housing construction in land conquered by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. They denounced it as an opportunistic way for the Israeli government to exploit a housing shortage that has led to unaffordable rents and mass protests in Israel. Peace Now, the leading anti-settlement group in Israel, condemned what it called the Interior Ministry’s “cynical use” of the housing crisis.</p>
<p />
<p>The Israel Interior Ministry announcement came a month before the United Nations annual General Assembly in New York, where Palestinian Authority officials have said they may unilaterally declare statehood, a move that is opposed by both Israel and the United States, its strongest ally. They favor a resumption of peace talks, which remain stalled partly because of Palestinian objections to Israeli construction on disputed lands. The housing announcement could strengthen Palestinian resolve to proceed with the statehood declaration.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/12/world/middleeast/12jerusalem.html" type="external">Read more</a></p> | 2,704 |
<p>Sen. Rand Paul dismissed comments he once made about Dick Cheney’s motives for invading Iraq by claiming they were made “before I was involved in politics for myself.” That’s false. Paul made his remarks in a 2009 speech he delivered during a statewide tour he launched to raise his profile for his U.S. Senate race in 2010.</p>
<p>At a 2009 speech at Western Kentucky University, Paul questioned Cheney’s motives for supporting the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/19/sprj.irq.int.bush.transcript/" type="external">invasion of Iraq in 2003</a>. He said Halliburton — where <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/national/28fact.html?_r=0" type="external">Cheney was once CEO</a> — got a “billion-dollar, no-bid contract” in Iraq and delivered “shoddy” work. He also noted that <a href="http://themedium.blogs.nytimes.com//2007/08/14/admire-the-quagmire/" type="external">Cheney opposed invading Iraq</a> in 1991 as President George H.W. Bush’s defense secretary, but supported it as President George W. Bush’s vice president in 2003, suggesting the policy change was done to help Halliburton.</p>
<p>Paul, April 7, 2009: There’s a great YouTube of Dick Cheney in 1995 defending Bush No. 1, and he goes on for about five minutes. He’s being interviewed, I think, by the American Enterprise Institute, and he says it would be a disaster, it would be vastly expensive, it’d be civil war, we would have no exit strategy. He goes on and on for five minutes. Dick Cheney saying it would be a bad idea and that’s why the first Bush didn’t go into Baghdad. Dick Cheney then goes to work for Halliburton. Makes hundreds of millions of dollars, their CEO. Next thing you know, he’s back in government and it’s a good idea to go into Iraq.</p>
<p>Paul’s past criticism of Cheney, which was first <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/04/rand-paul-dick-cheney-exploited-911-iraq-halliburton" type="external">reported last year by Mother Jones,</a> came up during a lengthy <a href="http://transcriptswire.cq.com/do/transcriptView?id=238149" type="external">interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity</a> on the day that the Kentucky senator entered the presidential race. As Hannity started to ask a question about the time “you took a shot at Dick Cheney,” Paul cut him off: “Once again, before I was involved in politics for myself. That was a long time ago.”</p>
<p>But that’s not accurate. Paul did not officially enter the 2010 Senate race until <a href="http://www.wkyt.com/blogs/neilsnotebook/52547502.html" type="external">Aug. 5, 2009</a>, but he was already in campaign mode when he spoke at Western Kentucky University.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ez3iKqAmbA" type="external">video</a> of Paul’s speech was posted to YouTube on April 7, 2009, by a Paul supporter, and the description said, “Dr. Rand Paul spoke at the Kentucky Federation of College Republicans Western Kentucky University Chapter Meeting.” Several weeks earlier, Paul <a href="http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/bowling-green-republican-considering-senate-run-but-only-if-bunning/article_ed0f61ca-954f-51af-a0f2-80efd131a7f6.html" type="external">had told the Associated Press on Feb. 26, 2009</a>, that he would consider running for Senate in Kentucky if then-Sen. Jim Bunning retired, and he began touring the state and giving speeches, including the one at Western Kentucky University.</p>
<p>In a speech on April 4, 2009 — three days before his critical comments of Cheney — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uACcUvwK1A0" type="external">Paul told a crowd of gun owners</a> that he was on a speaking tour to introduce himself to voters and discuss his conservative libertarian views, which he described as different from those of Democrats and even many Republicans in Washington.</p>
<p>Paul, April 4, 2009: What I’m doing today and throughout the last several months and for the next year is traveling around Kentucky, trying to become better known around Kentucky. There’s rumors that Senator Bunning may not run for office again. He’s still says he’s running for office and for as long as he does I won’t oppose him. But if Bunning steps down there needs to be some true believer who runs for office. … [A]nd if I were to run for office, in the end I would run more as an independent than I would as a specific party person because I think it’s more important, the issues than the party.</p>
<p>He said something similar at Western Kentucky University shortly after he gave his critique of Cheney and Halliburton.</p>
<p>“[W]e will not get bigger if we do the same old message, and so that’s what I feel like my job is for the next six months or a year,” he told the students. “I’m going to be going around Kentucky and giving speeches like this and trying to promote change and growth in our party.”</p>
<p>This is not the first time that Paul has sought to dismiss controversial past statements by saying those statements were made before he got involved in politics for himself.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">As we wrote</a>, a TV ad quotes Paul as saying it’s “ridiculous to think that Iran is a real threat to our national security.” The ad doesn’t disclose that the quote was from 2007 and was made when Rand Paul was campaigning for his father, Ron, who was running for the Republican presidential nomination. Earlier in the Fox News interview, Hannity asked about that quote and Paul said, “I also wasn’t campaigning for myself, I was campaigning to help my father at the time.” That is accurate.</p>
<p>But it’s not accurate for Paul to dismiss his comments about Cheney with the same kind of response. And that’s exactly what he did when he said: “Once again, before I was involved in politics for myself.” That’s revising history.</p>
<p>Other Claims</p>
<p>There were a few other statements that Paul made in his interview with Hannity that were either wrong or didn’t tell the whole story.</p>
<p>Paul said his proposal for a 17 percent flat tax would help low-income areas, which is his opinion, and he gave some examples of poor areas that he thinks could benefit.</p>
<p>Paul, April 7: Like, for example, Detroit has 20 percent unemployment. It’s a disaster. Appalachia, my state, eastern Kentucky, has a large amount of poverty. No one’s come up with a way to fix it because we’re always trying to tax them and then give them back a little bit to help them.</p>
<p>Detroit had an unemployment rate of 12.5 percent, as of February, not 20 percent. <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LAUCT262200000000003" type="external">Bureau of Labor Statistics data show</a> that the city’s unemployment rate was above 20 percent for much of the recession. It was 22.3 percent when President Obama took office in January 2009, and it peaked at a staggering 28.4 percent in June 2009. But the last time it was above 20 percent was July 2013.</p>
<p>It’s true that Detroit’s unemployment rate for February is still more than double the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/" type="external">5.5 percent national rate</a>. But Paul used outdated data and, in doing so, made the rate seem worse than it really is.</p>
<p>As for Kentucky Appalachia, it does have a high poverty rate. The average rate from 2009 to 2013 was 25.2 percent in Kentucky and averaged 17 percent throughout the entire 13-state region, according to the <a href="http://www.arc.gov/reports/custom_report.asp?REPORT_ID=58" type="external">latest economic report by the Appalachian Regional Commission</a>. Paul says “no one’s come up with a way to fix it,” but it should be noted that the rate has declined significantly since <a href="http://www.arc.gov/about/index.asp" type="external">the commission was formed in 1965 under a federal law signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson</a>.</p>
<p>The percentage of people in the Appalachian region living in poverty was 30.9 percent in 1960, and it dropped to 13.6 percent in 2000 before spiking again during <a href="http://www.nber.org/cycles/cyclesmain.html" type="external">the recession-wracked 2000s</a>.</p>
<p>Paul also praised President Reagan’s tax cuts, but in doing so he overstated the number of jobs that were created during Reagan’s time in office.</p>
<p>In promoting his own tax-cut plan, Paul said Reagan “dramatically cut tax rates” and “tens of millions of jobs were created” — which would be more than 20 million jobs. This is an old claim from Paul and, <a href="" type="internal">as we have written before</a>, there was a net total of 16.1 million new jobs created during Reagan’s eight years in office.</p>
<p>— Eugene Kiely</p> | Rand Paul Revises History of Cheney Criticism | false | https://factcheck.org/2015/04/rand-paul-revises-history-of-cheney-criticism/ | 2015-04-09 | 2least
| Rand Paul Revises History of Cheney Criticism
<p>Sen. Rand Paul dismissed comments he once made about Dick Cheney’s motives for invading Iraq by claiming they were made “before I was involved in politics for myself.” That’s false. Paul made his remarks in a 2009 speech he delivered during a statewide tour he launched to raise his profile for his U.S. Senate race in 2010.</p>
<p>At a 2009 speech at Western Kentucky University, Paul questioned Cheney’s motives for supporting the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/19/sprj.irq.int.bush.transcript/" type="external">invasion of Iraq in 2003</a>. He said Halliburton — where <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/national/28fact.html?_r=0" type="external">Cheney was once CEO</a> — got a “billion-dollar, no-bid contract” in Iraq and delivered “shoddy” work. He also noted that <a href="http://themedium.blogs.nytimes.com//2007/08/14/admire-the-quagmire/" type="external">Cheney opposed invading Iraq</a> in 1991 as President George H.W. Bush’s defense secretary, but supported it as President George W. Bush’s vice president in 2003, suggesting the policy change was done to help Halliburton.</p>
<p>Paul, April 7, 2009: There’s a great YouTube of Dick Cheney in 1995 defending Bush No. 1, and he goes on for about five minutes. He’s being interviewed, I think, by the American Enterprise Institute, and he says it would be a disaster, it would be vastly expensive, it’d be civil war, we would have no exit strategy. He goes on and on for five minutes. Dick Cheney saying it would be a bad idea and that’s why the first Bush didn’t go into Baghdad. Dick Cheney then goes to work for Halliburton. Makes hundreds of millions of dollars, their CEO. Next thing you know, he’s back in government and it’s a good idea to go into Iraq.</p>
<p>Paul’s past criticism of Cheney, which was first <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/04/rand-paul-dick-cheney-exploited-911-iraq-halliburton" type="external">reported last year by Mother Jones,</a> came up during a lengthy <a href="http://transcriptswire.cq.com/do/transcriptView?id=238149" type="external">interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity</a> on the day that the Kentucky senator entered the presidential race. As Hannity started to ask a question about the time “you took a shot at Dick Cheney,” Paul cut him off: “Once again, before I was involved in politics for myself. That was a long time ago.”</p>
<p>But that’s not accurate. Paul did not officially enter the 2010 Senate race until <a href="http://www.wkyt.com/blogs/neilsnotebook/52547502.html" type="external">Aug. 5, 2009</a>, but he was already in campaign mode when he spoke at Western Kentucky University.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ez3iKqAmbA" type="external">video</a> of Paul’s speech was posted to YouTube on April 7, 2009, by a Paul supporter, and the description said, “Dr. Rand Paul spoke at the Kentucky Federation of College Republicans Western Kentucky University Chapter Meeting.” Several weeks earlier, Paul <a href="http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/bowling-green-republican-considering-senate-run-but-only-if-bunning/article_ed0f61ca-954f-51af-a0f2-80efd131a7f6.html" type="external">had told the Associated Press on Feb. 26, 2009</a>, that he would consider running for Senate in Kentucky if then-Sen. Jim Bunning retired, and he began touring the state and giving speeches, including the one at Western Kentucky University.</p>
<p>In a speech on April 4, 2009 — three days before his critical comments of Cheney — <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uACcUvwK1A0" type="external">Paul told a crowd of gun owners</a> that he was on a speaking tour to introduce himself to voters and discuss his conservative libertarian views, which he described as different from those of Democrats and even many Republicans in Washington.</p>
<p>Paul, April 4, 2009: What I’m doing today and throughout the last several months and for the next year is traveling around Kentucky, trying to become better known around Kentucky. There’s rumors that Senator Bunning may not run for office again. He’s still says he’s running for office and for as long as he does I won’t oppose him. But if Bunning steps down there needs to be some true believer who runs for office. … [A]nd if I were to run for office, in the end I would run more as an independent than I would as a specific party person because I think it’s more important, the issues than the party.</p>
<p>He said something similar at Western Kentucky University shortly after he gave his critique of Cheney and Halliburton.</p>
<p>“[W]e will not get bigger if we do the same old message, and so that’s what I feel like my job is for the next six months or a year,” he told the students. “I’m going to be going around Kentucky and giving speeches like this and trying to promote change and growth in our party.”</p>
<p>This is not the first time that Paul has sought to dismiss controversial past statements by saying those statements were made before he got involved in politics for himself.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">As we wrote</a>, a TV ad quotes Paul as saying it’s “ridiculous to think that Iran is a real threat to our national security.” The ad doesn’t disclose that the quote was from 2007 and was made when Rand Paul was campaigning for his father, Ron, who was running for the Republican presidential nomination. Earlier in the Fox News interview, Hannity asked about that quote and Paul said, “I also wasn’t campaigning for myself, I was campaigning to help my father at the time.” That is accurate.</p>
<p>But it’s not accurate for Paul to dismiss his comments about Cheney with the same kind of response. And that’s exactly what he did when he said: “Once again, before I was involved in politics for myself.” That’s revising history.</p>
<p>Other Claims</p>
<p>There were a few other statements that Paul made in his interview with Hannity that were either wrong or didn’t tell the whole story.</p>
<p>Paul said his proposal for a 17 percent flat tax would help low-income areas, which is his opinion, and he gave some examples of poor areas that he thinks could benefit.</p>
<p>Paul, April 7: Like, for example, Detroit has 20 percent unemployment. It’s a disaster. Appalachia, my state, eastern Kentucky, has a large amount of poverty. No one’s come up with a way to fix it because we’re always trying to tax them and then give them back a little bit to help them.</p>
<p>Detroit had an unemployment rate of 12.5 percent, as of February, not 20 percent. <a href="http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LAUCT262200000000003" type="external">Bureau of Labor Statistics data show</a> that the city’s unemployment rate was above 20 percent for much of the recession. It was 22.3 percent when President Obama took office in January 2009, and it peaked at a staggering 28.4 percent in June 2009. But the last time it was above 20 percent was July 2013.</p>
<p>It’s true that Detroit’s unemployment rate for February is still more than double the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/" type="external">5.5 percent national rate</a>. But Paul used outdated data and, in doing so, made the rate seem worse than it really is.</p>
<p>As for Kentucky Appalachia, it does have a high poverty rate. The average rate from 2009 to 2013 was 25.2 percent in Kentucky and averaged 17 percent throughout the entire 13-state region, according to the <a href="http://www.arc.gov/reports/custom_report.asp?REPORT_ID=58" type="external">latest economic report by the Appalachian Regional Commission</a>. Paul says “no one’s come up with a way to fix it,” but it should be noted that the rate has declined significantly since <a href="http://www.arc.gov/about/index.asp" type="external">the commission was formed in 1965 under a federal law signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson</a>.</p>
<p>The percentage of people in the Appalachian region living in poverty was 30.9 percent in 1960, and it dropped to 13.6 percent in 2000 before spiking again during <a href="http://www.nber.org/cycles/cyclesmain.html" type="external">the recession-wracked 2000s</a>.</p>
<p>Paul also praised President Reagan’s tax cuts, but in doing so he overstated the number of jobs that were created during Reagan’s time in office.</p>
<p>In promoting his own tax-cut plan, Paul said Reagan “dramatically cut tax rates” and “tens of millions of jobs were created” — which would be more than 20 million jobs. This is an old claim from Paul and, <a href="" type="internal">as we have written before</a>, there was a net total of 16.1 million new jobs created during Reagan’s eight years in office.</p>
<p>— Eugene Kiely</p> | 2,705 |
<p>Sevilla is hiring Vincenzo Montella as coach, a month after the Italian was fired by AC Milan.</p>
<p>Sevilla said on Thursday it reached a deal in principle with Montella for a contract through June 2019.</p>
<p>Montella will finalize the terms of his departure from Milan on Friday, before travelling to Seville to sign his new contract that evening.</p>
<p>Montella will meet his new players on Saturday before being presented to the media.</p>
<p>His first match in charge will be on Wednesday, against second-division Cadiz in the Copa del Rey.</p>
<p>Montella is succeeding Eduardo Berizzo at Sevilla, which is fifth in the Spanish standings and in the last 16 of the Champions League, where it will face Manchester United.</p>
<p>The 43-year-old Montella was fired by Milan at the end of November after only six wins in 14 league matches despite the club spending more than 200 million euros (nearly $250 million) on new players in the offseason.</p>
<p>Montella was hired in June 2016 and led Milan to sixth place and a Europa League spot last season — ending a drought of three years without playing in continental competition.</p>
<p>Montella’s biggest achievement with Milan was winning the Italian Super Cup over Juventus in a penalty shootout in December 2016.</p>
<p>The 48-year-old Berizzo was fired last week, shortly after the Argentine coach returned from treatment for prostate cancer.</p>
<p>The Spanish club said his firing was due to bad results.</p>
<p>Berizzo joined the club in the offseason after impressing at Celta Vigo.</p>
<p>Sevilla is hiring Vincenzo Montella as coach, a month after the Italian was fired by AC Milan.</p>
<p>Sevilla said on Thursday it reached a deal in principle with Montella for a contract through June 2019.</p>
<p>Montella will finalize the terms of his departure from Milan on Friday, before travelling to Seville to sign his new contract that evening.</p>
<p>Montella will meet his new players on Saturday before being presented to the media.</p>
<p>His first match in charge will be on Wednesday, against second-division Cadiz in the Copa del Rey.</p>
<p>Montella is succeeding Eduardo Berizzo at Sevilla, which is fifth in the Spanish standings and in the last 16 of the Champions League, where it will face Manchester United.</p>
<p>The 43-year-old Montella was fired by Milan at the end of November after only six wins in 14 league matches despite the club spending more than 200 million euros (nearly $250 million) on new players in the offseason.</p>
<p>Montella was hired in June 2016 and led Milan to sixth place and a Europa League spot last season — ending a drought of three years without playing in continental competition.</p>
<p>Montella’s biggest achievement with Milan was winning the Italian Super Cup over Juventus in a penalty shootout in December 2016.</p>
<p>The 48-year-old Berizzo was fired last week, shortly after the Argentine coach returned from treatment for prostate cancer.</p>
<p>The Spanish club said his firing was due to bad results.</p>
<p>Berizzo joined the club in the offseason after impressing at Celta Vigo.</p> | Montella hired by Sevilla a month after being fired by Milan | false | https://apnews.com/c076c31e388d49f0acd977702619bbd1 | 2017-12-28 | 2least
| Montella hired by Sevilla a month after being fired by Milan
<p>Sevilla is hiring Vincenzo Montella as coach, a month after the Italian was fired by AC Milan.</p>
<p>Sevilla said on Thursday it reached a deal in principle with Montella for a contract through June 2019.</p>
<p>Montella will finalize the terms of his departure from Milan on Friday, before travelling to Seville to sign his new contract that evening.</p>
<p>Montella will meet his new players on Saturday before being presented to the media.</p>
<p>His first match in charge will be on Wednesday, against second-division Cadiz in the Copa del Rey.</p>
<p>Montella is succeeding Eduardo Berizzo at Sevilla, which is fifth in the Spanish standings and in the last 16 of the Champions League, where it will face Manchester United.</p>
<p>The 43-year-old Montella was fired by Milan at the end of November after only six wins in 14 league matches despite the club spending more than 200 million euros (nearly $250 million) on new players in the offseason.</p>
<p>Montella was hired in June 2016 and led Milan to sixth place and a Europa League spot last season — ending a drought of three years without playing in continental competition.</p>
<p>Montella’s biggest achievement with Milan was winning the Italian Super Cup over Juventus in a penalty shootout in December 2016.</p>
<p>The 48-year-old Berizzo was fired last week, shortly after the Argentine coach returned from treatment for prostate cancer.</p>
<p>The Spanish club said his firing was due to bad results.</p>
<p>Berizzo joined the club in the offseason after impressing at Celta Vigo.</p>
<p>Sevilla is hiring Vincenzo Montella as coach, a month after the Italian was fired by AC Milan.</p>
<p>Sevilla said on Thursday it reached a deal in principle with Montella for a contract through June 2019.</p>
<p>Montella will finalize the terms of his departure from Milan on Friday, before travelling to Seville to sign his new contract that evening.</p>
<p>Montella will meet his new players on Saturday before being presented to the media.</p>
<p>His first match in charge will be on Wednesday, against second-division Cadiz in the Copa del Rey.</p>
<p>Montella is succeeding Eduardo Berizzo at Sevilla, which is fifth in the Spanish standings and in the last 16 of the Champions League, where it will face Manchester United.</p>
<p>The 43-year-old Montella was fired by Milan at the end of November after only six wins in 14 league matches despite the club spending more than 200 million euros (nearly $250 million) on new players in the offseason.</p>
<p>Montella was hired in June 2016 and led Milan to sixth place and a Europa League spot last season — ending a drought of three years without playing in continental competition.</p>
<p>Montella’s biggest achievement with Milan was winning the Italian Super Cup over Juventus in a penalty shootout in December 2016.</p>
<p>The 48-year-old Berizzo was fired last week, shortly after the Argentine coach returned from treatment for prostate cancer.</p>
<p>The Spanish club said his firing was due to bad results.</p>
<p>Berizzo joined the club in the offseason after impressing at Celta Vigo.</p> | 2,706 |
<p>July 26 (UPI) — A Kentucky newspaper waded into one of the Internet’s hottest debates with a correction to stories dating back to 1887 that referred to hot dogs as “sandwiches.”</p>
<p>The Louisville Courier-Journal <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2017/07/19/correction-hot-dog-not-sandwich/489349001/" type="external">issued a correction July 19</a> to 10 articles ranging from 1887 to 1966 as a means of showing support for the argument that hot dogs are not sandwiches.</p>
<p>The correction reads:</p>
<p>“We’re deadly serious about accuracy at @courierjournal,” the newspaper’s executive editor, Joel Christopher, <a href="https://twitter.com/j_christo/status/887847312558616576" type="external">tweeted</a>.</p>
<p>The correction raised the ire of many on the pro-hot dogs as sandwiches side, including Sporkful podcast host and James Beard award nominee Dan Pashman.</p>
<p>“I’m buying a @courierjournal subscription just so I can cancel it,” Pashman <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSporkful/status/888396935878651905" type="external">tweeted</a>.</p>
<p>The Courier-Journal hit back at Pashman in <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2017/07/22/just-simple-hot-dog-correction-us-but-its-big-news-elsewhere/500793001/" type="external">a follow-up article</a> on its website.</p>
<p>“Dan has received quite a lot of accolades over the years, but he’s so wrong on this one. He probably thinks a taco is a sandwich, too. Or even a Hot Pocket,” the Courier-Journal quipped.</p> | Kentucky newspaper's correction: Hot dogs are not sandwiches | false | https://newsline.com/kentucky-newspapers-correction-hot-dogs-are-not-sandwiches/ | 2017-07-26 | 1right-center
| Kentucky newspaper's correction: Hot dogs are not sandwiches
<p>July 26 (UPI) — A Kentucky newspaper waded into one of the Internet’s hottest debates with a correction to stories dating back to 1887 that referred to hot dogs as “sandwiches.”</p>
<p>The Louisville Courier-Journal <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2017/07/19/correction-hot-dog-not-sandwich/489349001/" type="external">issued a correction July 19</a> to 10 articles ranging from 1887 to 1966 as a means of showing support for the argument that hot dogs are not sandwiches.</p>
<p>The correction reads:</p>
<p>“We’re deadly serious about accuracy at @courierjournal,” the newspaper’s executive editor, Joel Christopher, <a href="https://twitter.com/j_christo/status/887847312558616576" type="external">tweeted</a>.</p>
<p>The correction raised the ire of many on the pro-hot dogs as sandwiches side, including Sporkful podcast host and James Beard award nominee Dan Pashman.</p>
<p>“I’m buying a @courierjournal subscription just so I can cancel it,” Pashman <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSporkful/status/888396935878651905" type="external">tweeted</a>.</p>
<p>The Courier-Journal hit back at Pashman in <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2017/07/22/just-simple-hot-dog-correction-us-but-its-big-news-elsewhere/500793001/" type="external">a follow-up article</a> on its website.</p>
<p>“Dan has received quite a lot of accolades over the years, but he’s so wrong on this one. He probably thinks a taco is a sandwich, too. Or even a Hot Pocket,” the Courier-Journal quipped.</p> | 2,707 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>A muckraking shlemiel provides a cinematic case for US regime change. But “Fahrenheit 9/11” goes beyond the predictable anti-Bush screed; it delves into the nature of empire. Like Michael Moore’s earlier documentaries, “Roger and Me” and “Bowling for Columbine,” the new film treats contemporary class conflict at home and abroad. Its heroes, confused working class Americans, try to behave morally in the face of imperial evil.</p>
<p>Moore’s empathetic “documentary” characters evolve as the result of a traumatic social act: in “Roger,” General Motors closes eleven auto plants in Flint, Michigan, which brings consciousness or depression to those who lose jobs, stability, marriages; the high school shootings in Littleton, Colorado inspire two of permanently disabled Columbine students to confront the hidden hand behind gun violence; in “Fahrenheit,” Moore introduces Lila Lipscomb, a flag waving, conservative Democrat whose life personifies the bumper sticker line, “Bush Lied, My Son Died.”</p>
<p>Dead and wounded soldiers, victims of the Bushies’ lies in Iraq, emerge as foreign policy equivalents of the victims of General Motors’ irresponsibility in Michigan. Roger, the first name of GM CEO Roger Smith, offers empty euphemisms and platitudes to justify his profit seeking.</p>
<p>Using the pretext of reaching Roger, so the CEO can witness the results of his decision on the community, Moore returns to his hometown, Flint, to explore the lives of the newly unemployed coping with job loss and escalating crime–provoked by the obliteration of the city’s infrastructure. A GM lobbyist matter-of-factly explains that Smith had to move the plants to Mexico because it was “cost effective” — low wages and unenforceable labor and environmental standards. Hey, corporations can’t afford sentimentality. Remember, GM’s obligation to stockholders outstrips any duties the corporation might have toward large communities! And Roger got a multi million dollar raise for making the move!</p>
<p>“Bowling” targets another major corporation, Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons manufacturer located, ironically, near Columbine High. Lockheed provided the Pentagon with lethal weapons while serving as Littleton’s biggest employer. Homicidal violence in American life, the film suggests, parallels US actions abroad. Guns, Moore shows, are equally accessible in peaceful Canada, which does not share either the imperial institutions or the cruel racial past maintained by violence.</p>
<p>In “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Moore communicates a sense of urgency as he punctures the aura of “smoke ’em out” George as well as the carefully crafted “protect America” patina that the military has elaborated as it institutionalized and inflated itself in the post World War II decades. His footage on Iraq recalls what the networks aired during the Vietnam War and now seem frightened to exhibit: a US killing machine and lots of gruesome shots of dead and wounded GIs. “Fahrenheit” shows troops in Iraq preparing to “kill the enemy” by listening to lyrics screaming, “Burn, motherfucker.”</p>
<p>And it shows the faces of the young victims, dead and wounded who enlisted, the poor and minority men and women who comprise the lower ranks of the armed forces. The “support our troops” slogan rings hollow when they return home without assistance for their needs in education, health care or employment. The film exposes Bush’s priorities: young people join the army because it’s the only way to pay for college–like Lila Lipscomb’s son.</p>
<p>In Iraq, the young soldiers, presumably like Lila’s son, a good natured and moral person, act like brutes and occupiers–in the name of doing their duty, following orders, liberating Iraq.</p>
<p>These young people don’t necessarily seek the military; the military looks for them. Moore follows two recruiters cynically pitching in “poor shopping areas,” with a ubiquitous Wal-Mart, trying to enlist poor black youths for lethal combat much as they do in high schools. These well-groomed, uniformed hucksters sell professional killing as “career opportunities.” What really happens to those who fight becomes clear when the camera enters a ward in the Walter Reed Army Hospital.</p>
<p>The wounded don’t make the evening news, but they stoically try to manage without arms, legs or eyes. In Iraq, images flash of innocent dead and wounded civilians– equally absent from TV news.</p>
<p>“Fahrenheit” demands that people understand the behavior of Bush as President and his criminally fraudulent case for the Iraqi invasion in order to throw him out of office in November. Moore implies a sinister connection between the Bush and Saudi royal families to an extent that actually colored the Administration’s response to 9/11.</p>
<p>The media reported, without concluding, the mysterious exodus of Saudis, including members of the bin Laden family, immediately following the dastardly September deeds. Moore gets a former FBI agent to describe such behavior as downright irresponsible. The FBI knew that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals and that bin Laden was the key suspect. Obviously, members of his family, however innocent, would surely have known something that could have helped find the chief conspirator.</p>
<p>Using juxtaposition of images with mood inducing music to mold emotions, Moore maintains the audience. All films employ emotional manipulation, not book logic, to make their point. Imagine Moore trying to talk about the significance of the neo-con Project for a New American Century that prioritized Iraqi regime change. Yawn!</p>
<p>“Fahrenheit” begins by presenting the President as a privileged jerk who set a record for vacation taking, a man both absent-minded and downright absent. “I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you.” Then, Bush turns and strokes a golf ball: “Now watch this drive.”</p>
<p>The persona that White House spinners fed the media after 9/11 was of Bush as the fearless commander. In contrast, Moore shows Bush after receiving news of the 9/11 attacks as dazed and confused. The President looks lost while trying to follow the story line of “My Pet Goat,” which he was reading to second grade Florida students. Seven minutes tick by as the Chief executive holds the oversized picture book. Chaos, death and destruction envelope lower Manhattan while a hijacking pilot of the third plane aims for the Pentagon.</p>
<p>Moore’s quiet but tendentious narration leads the public to conclusions. He clearly does not rely on the audience’s own intelligence. Like Hollywood producers, Moore seems to assume that mainstream America, battered by mass media’s shotgun pellets of trivia, has become befuddled.</p>
<p>In the film, Moore skewers the media for their absence and their toadying. Some networks that dropped their investigative ball after 9/11 now question facts and motives behind “Fahrenheit.” On CBS’ “The Early Show” (June 25, 2004), Hannah Storm piously intoned: “the one thing that journalists try to do is to present both sides of the story, and it could be argued that you did not do that in this movie.”</p>
<p>“My side,” Moore responded, “the side of millions of Americans, rarely gets told. Why don’t you ask them [the Administration] the hard questions?” Storm had no answer.</p>
<p>“Fahrenheit’s” message and its surrounding publicity, has begun to resonate. At a Covina, California local hair salon, where chatting usually involves the latest diet trends, love lives of celebrities, or the unfulfilling sex lives of hair stylists and clients alike, the talk has turned to Bush and his failings.</p>
<p>At the AMC theater in Covina and the Edwards in West Covina, a mix of Latinos, Arabs, Chinese and Caucasians applauded at the end. In one Oakland, California theater, the owner announced he would not enforce the R rating. Teenagers flocked to see the film.</p>
<p>Did Moore convince them that the Bush family colluded with the corrupt Saudi monarchy and the bin Laden family? Did the shots of Bushies shaking hands with Crown Prince Abdullah establish guilt by association? The close ups of dark-skinned Saudi princes juxtaposed with a public beheading in Saudi Arabia certainly reinforce the Hollywood black hat image. The Saudi focus also lets Moore off the hook on the more politically cantankerous subject of Israel, a missing ingredient in the “Fahrenheit” script.</p>
<p>But he does not compromise on the issue of class. Indeed, he screams about the failure of Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” to reach the pockets of the jobless and uninsured poor. The real Bush, with his characteristic shit-eating grin, extols the white tie set at a fundraising dinner. “Here we have the haves and the have-mores,” he quips. “Some people call you the elite. I call you my base.” Yes, Bush is the progeny of this parasitic class and from them he derives his destructive “vision” of power.</p>
<p>Moore appears in his documentaries as the polar opposite of Bush, obese and unshaven–or is that a beard? This non-celebrity needs a tailor. Feigning innocence and sometimes righteousness, this self-proclaimed member of the oppressed class has made Time magazine’s cover. This shameless self-promoter–is there any other way to generate publicity?–has also made mass box office hits on the core issues of capitalism: class war, racism, violence–the ingredients of empire.</p>
<p>At a time when poor and minorities have no clear political representation, Michael Moore emerges–in all his imperfections–to articulate their grievances and steer them toward meaningful politics.</p>
<p>Farrah Hassen graduated from Cal Poly Pomona University.</p>
<p>Saul Landau is the Director of Digital Media and International Outreach Programs for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. His new book is <a href="" type="internal">The Business of America</a>.</p>
<p>An Informal Rejoinder to Jensen on F9/11 Moore Has Done Us a Service; More Must be Done</p>
<p>By VIJAY PRASHAD</p>
<p>Robert Jensen’s <a href="" type="internal">review of F9/11</a> irritated me. It seems to have missed the wood from the trees. There is the phenomenon of F9/11 which deserves comment — those who see the movie are not only seeing what Moore has edited for us, but many have been going for an experience, as an act of rebellion against the warfare culture, as a way to have conversations with relatives and friends whom one might take along, etc. (this, as far as press reports are concerned, and many are on michael moore’s own website). The movie enables and provokes a wider set of discussions and debates. What is in the movie, then, should not be judged only for what it is, but for what it enables. Jensen does not get this.</p>
<p>Jensen makes much of the racism in the movie: that South Asians and Arabs are not part of the frame when Moore discusses the Patriot Act. This is so. But the lack of discussion on South Asians and Arabs by Moore should not take away from the fact that the heart of the movie is in three places, all of them with much to say about race and racism:</p>
<p>(1) The opening, when the Black Congressional Caucus and one Asian representative rebuke the all-white Senate for failing to challenge the SC’s delivery of the presidency to GWB. This is a powerful scene, and it will make everyone recognize the strength of the Black-Asian voice in the House, and the racist cowardice of the Senate (which is basically an old-boys club). If Barack Obama wins, I wonder if he will be able to do anything there.</p>
<p>(2) The strong presence of Iraqis in the movie, notably the grandmother who grieves powerfully for the loss of a part of her family. She is the one who cries out for revenge as the last act of those who have been rendered helpless in the face of such state terror. This woman is the Iraqi version of Lila Lipscomb, of whom more below.</p>
<p>(3) Lila Lipscomb anchors this movie. She is a polycultural woman, of the working-class, with all the powerful contradictions of life in that sphere of America. Her honesty and forthrightness not only silence Moore (a fact that has been much related in the media coverage), but it also shows us the complexities of belief among people whose name the left often speaks.</p>
<p>Rather than take out Moore’s movie, it might be more useful to add to his framework. Here are two supplements to the opening section that might have enriched the film, and that do extend Moore’s rather limited analysis of capitalism:</p>
<p>(1) The political economy of the Ibn Saud-Multinational Oil Firm-Pentagon-Wall Street relationship. Moore relies upon the familial relationship between the Bushes and the Al-Saud clan to personalize or to dramatize the nexus between the monarchs of the peninsula, the multinational oil firms (mainly of US origin), the US military (and its contractors, such as United Defense — the Carlyle Group), and Wall Street (or global finance). For a documentary, the personal story makes certain abstract connections very compelling — it brings the abstractions to life with a concrete, made for television example. The documentaries from Media Education Foundation on sexism and on media criticism are able to be very didactic and successful — but they were geared to the classroom and not a mass audience. Documentaries that tend to go for a mass audience use the personal story to illustrate or illuminate the broader connections. One way to have intimated the broader contradictions would have been to have mentioned the report that Saddam Hussein had been trying to get his OPEC partners to shift their oil profits from Dollars to Euros. Such a move would have threatened the financial stability of the Dollar, hence the Dollar-Wall Street Complex (so well analyzed by Peter Gowan in Global Gamble). Moore could have even talked to a mainstream analyst at the Cambridge Energy Associates who, if they hewed close to the facts, would have told him that yes, there has been informal discussion in OPEC to consider such a move; and he could have spoken to a mainstream currency broker who would have said that such a move would have had grave effects for the US economy. That might have shown how integral the Saudi holdings of T-Bills is to the “stability” of the financial architecture.</p>
<p>(2) The destruction of the Saudi Left. Since Moore continued to talk of the Al-Saud clan as the “Saudis” he gave the very mistaken impression that all Saudis benefit from the actions of this undemocratic regime. He could have had a very short quote from someone like Fred Halliday, or any number of Saudi intellectuals who would have told him that the oil lands were once home to a vibrant left, that state repression by the monarchy destroyed enlightened groups such as the Arabian Peninsula People’s Union and Voice of the Vanguard, and that one of the instruments for the counter-revolution via a very intolerant brand of “Islam” was the creation, with CIA support, of the Rabitat al-Alam al-Islami, the World Muslim Congress. He treated “Saudis” as a monolith, had one too many images of the grotesque Al-Saud family fawning on Bush Senior, and an image of men at prayer — all without any other Saudi voice, so as to show that it is a society in ferment, with disagreement, and that state repression by the US (and ARAMCO, the oil monopoly) contributed to the barrenness of the left in the region. The details for this will be in my next book, The Rise and Fall of the Third World (New Press, forthcoming in the Spring of 2005).</p>
<p>I enjoyed Fahrenheit 9/11, and found it to be a very valuable op-ed in these times of corporate media strangulation of many of the basic ‘facts’ of our contemporary history. Moore has done us a good service. There is much more to do be done. So let’s do it.</p>
<p>Vijay Prashad teaches at Trinity College, Hartford, CT. His latest book is <a href="" type="internal">Keeping Up with the Dow Joneses: Debt, Prison, Workfare</a> (Boston: South End Press). He also contributes a chilling essay on prisons and poverty in CounterPunch’s forthcoming book, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">A Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils.</a></p>
<p>A Screening in a Working Class Town A Contrarian Review of F9/11</p>
<p>By DAVE LINDORFF</p>
<p>As someone who has frequently been a harsh critic of Michael Moore, I have to say I tip my hat to him for his film “Fahrenheit 9-11.”</p>
<p>Leftists who saw the film at early showings in New York City, or in some suburban mall or college town, where most of the audiences tent do be composed of middle class liberals, might be tempted to dismiss the film’s appeal as being a sop to liberal sensitivities.</p>
<p>I, however, was sitting in an urban theater in working-class Ambler, PA. In the theater with me were a mix of some middle-class liberals, teenage kids and working people of all races.</p>
<p>The response to the documentary in that theater was simply staggering. People-ordinary people who work for hourly wages, punch time cards and who may even have voted for Bush in 2000–were laughing uproariously at the images of Bush staring dumbly into space after being informed of the attacks on the Trade Center towers, groaning and laughing as Bush told a group of assembled business leaders that they were his “base,” and applauding wildly during the film’s credits.</p>
<p>But what really gripped the Ambler theatergoers was the part of Moore’s film where he interviewed troops in Iraq-both those that showed young men dehumanized to the point that they were killing to taped rock music, and those that showed troubled soldiers distraught that they were killing innocents and fighting and risking their lives for no discernable purpose. They were also gripped, as was I, by the images of a distraught Iraqi grandmother cursing America and bewailing the loss of a household of her relatives to an American bomb, and of a Flint mother who had lost her soldier son.</p>
<p>Equally powerful, and clearly troubling to those in the Ambler Theater around me, who expressed their disgust and dismay loudly, and almost involuntarily, were the scenes of bloody carnage, especially the shattered Iraqi children.</p>
<p>Whatever complaints one might have about things that Moore did or didn’t do in this film-he didn’t delve deeply enough into Bush’s AWOL record in the National Guard, he didn’t touch on Israel’s role in promoting the Iraq war or in helping train U.S. forces during the occupation, and he didn’t say much of anything about the Democrats’ complicity in the invasion and in the so-called “War on Terror” and the Patriot Act assault on the Bill of Rights-this is a powerful film.</p>
<p>It’s a powerful film for what it does do, and that is to show mainstream America for the first time the real horrors of this war. It shows clearly how it is the children of the working class who are being asked to fight this war on behalf of a corporate elite that President Bush declared to be “my base.” It shows, graphically, the corporate feeding frenzy to make money out of Iraq’s misery. And it shows how the poor in America, in run-down cities like Moore’s native Flint, Michigan, are being left to rot while Washington spends hundreds of billions fighting for corporate interests in the Middle East.</p>
<p>If a picture is worth a thousand words, this film has to be worth 1000 words per frame-certainly 1000 words in any mainstream corporate newspaper or read from the teleprompter of any corporate TV “news” anchor– and Moore is to be commended for producing it, even if it does make him filthy rich.</p>
<p>We don’t live in a perfect world, and given the extent to which our mass media have become little more than state organs for the purveyance of official government propaganda, this documentary, which is reportedly reaching deep into the heartland of America and garnering tremendous support, is about as good as it’s going to get. To criticize this film because it doesn’t go beyond an exposé of the Bush administration to deconstruct the evils of the U.S capitalist system is what Lenin might have called infantile leftism.</p>
<p>There are films like that being made, but they don’t run in the local Cineplex, which is the point. Besides, I suspect that most of the ordinary working-class people watching this film have anough common sense to realize that it’s not just Republicans who are calling American corporate leaders their “base” in private.</p>
<p>While it’s fair and appropriate to critique Moore and his film, and to call attention to its mistakes and omissions, I think we on the left should at the same time acknowledge the importance of such a powerful anti-war, anti-corporate message–one which is reaching more ordinary Americans than any other I can think of.</p>
<p>For my part, I’m recommending it ­warts and all–to everyone I meet.</p>
<p>Dave Lindorff is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512283/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal</a>. His new book of CounterPunch columns titled “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512984/counterpunchmaga" type="external">This Can’t be Happening!</a>” to be published this fall by Common Courage Press. Information about both books and other work by Lindorff can be found at <a href="http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/" type="external">www.thiscantbehappening.net</a>.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | The Schlemiel as Muckraker | true | https://counterpunch.org/2004/07/17/the-schlemiel-as-muckraker/ | 2004-07-17 | 4left
| The Schlemiel as Muckraker
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>A muckraking shlemiel provides a cinematic case for US regime change. But “Fahrenheit 9/11” goes beyond the predictable anti-Bush screed; it delves into the nature of empire. Like Michael Moore’s earlier documentaries, “Roger and Me” and “Bowling for Columbine,” the new film treats contemporary class conflict at home and abroad. Its heroes, confused working class Americans, try to behave morally in the face of imperial evil.</p>
<p>Moore’s empathetic “documentary” characters evolve as the result of a traumatic social act: in “Roger,” General Motors closes eleven auto plants in Flint, Michigan, which brings consciousness or depression to those who lose jobs, stability, marriages; the high school shootings in Littleton, Colorado inspire two of permanently disabled Columbine students to confront the hidden hand behind gun violence; in “Fahrenheit,” Moore introduces Lila Lipscomb, a flag waving, conservative Democrat whose life personifies the bumper sticker line, “Bush Lied, My Son Died.”</p>
<p>Dead and wounded soldiers, victims of the Bushies’ lies in Iraq, emerge as foreign policy equivalents of the victims of General Motors’ irresponsibility in Michigan. Roger, the first name of GM CEO Roger Smith, offers empty euphemisms and platitudes to justify his profit seeking.</p>
<p>Using the pretext of reaching Roger, so the CEO can witness the results of his decision on the community, Moore returns to his hometown, Flint, to explore the lives of the newly unemployed coping with job loss and escalating crime–provoked by the obliteration of the city’s infrastructure. A GM lobbyist matter-of-factly explains that Smith had to move the plants to Mexico because it was “cost effective” — low wages and unenforceable labor and environmental standards. Hey, corporations can’t afford sentimentality. Remember, GM’s obligation to stockholders outstrips any duties the corporation might have toward large communities! And Roger got a multi million dollar raise for making the move!</p>
<p>“Bowling” targets another major corporation, Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons manufacturer located, ironically, near Columbine High. Lockheed provided the Pentagon with lethal weapons while serving as Littleton’s biggest employer. Homicidal violence in American life, the film suggests, parallels US actions abroad. Guns, Moore shows, are equally accessible in peaceful Canada, which does not share either the imperial institutions or the cruel racial past maintained by violence.</p>
<p>In “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Moore communicates a sense of urgency as he punctures the aura of “smoke ’em out” George as well as the carefully crafted “protect America” patina that the military has elaborated as it institutionalized and inflated itself in the post World War II decades. His footage on Iraq recalls what the networks aired during the Vietnam War and now seem frightened to exhibit: a US killing machine and lots of gruesome shots of dead and wounded GIs. “Fahrenheit” shows troops in Iraq preparing to “kill the enemy” by listening to lyrics screaming, “Burn, motherfucker.”</p>
<p>And it shows the faces of the young victims, dead and wounded who enlisted, the poor and minority men and women who comprise the lower ranks of the armed forces. The “support our troops” slogan rings hollow when they return home without assistance for their needs in education, health care or employment. The film exposes Bush’s priorities: young people join the army because it’s the only way to pay for college–like Lila Lipscomb’s son.</p>
<p>In Iraq, the young soldiers, presumably like Lila’s son, a good natured and moral person, act like brutes and occupiers–in the name of doing their duty, following orders, liberating Iraq.</p>
<p>These young people don’t necessarily seek the military; the military looks for them. Moore follows two recruiters cynically pitching in “poor shopping areas,” with a ubiquitous Wal-Mart, trying to enlist poor black youths for lethal combat much as they do in high schools. These well-groomed, uniformed hucksters sell professional killing as “career opportunities.” What really happens to those who fight becomes clear when the camera enters a ward in the Walter Reed Army Hospital.</p>
<p>The wounded don’t make the evening news, but they stoically try to manage without arms, legs or eyes. In Iraq, images flash of innocent dead and wounded civilians– equally absent from TV news.</p>
<p>“Fahrenheit” demands that people understand the behavior of Bush as President and his criminally fraudulent case for the Iraqi invasion in order to throw him out of office in November. Moore implies a sinister connection between the Bush and Saudi royal families to an extent that actually colored the Administration’s response to 9/11.</p>
<p>The media reported, without concluding, the mysterious exodus of Saudis, including members of the bin Laden family, immediately following the dastardly September deeds. Moore gets a former FBI agent to describe such behavior as downright irresponsible. The FBI knew that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals and that bin Laden was the key suspect. Obviously, members of his family, however innocent, would surely have known something that could have helped find the chief conspirator.</p>
<p>Using juxtaposition of images with mood inducing music to mold emotions, Moore maintains the audience. All films employ emotional manipulation, not book logic, to make their point. Imagine Moore trying to talk about the significance of the neo-con Project for a New American Century that prioritized Iraqi regime change. Yawn!</p>
<p>“Fahrenheit” begins by presenting the President as a privileged jerk who set a record for vacation taking, a man both absent-minded and downright absent. “I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you.” Then, Bush turns and strokes a golf ball: “Now watch this drive.”</p>
<p>The persona that White House spinners fed the media after 9/11 was of Bush as the fearless commander. In contrast, Moore shows Bush after receiving news of the 9/11 attacks as dazed and confused. The President looks lost while trying to follow the story line of “My Pet Goat,” which he was reading to second grade Florida students. Seven minutes tick by as the Chief executive holds the oversized picture book. Chaos, death and destruction envelope lower Manhattan while a hijacking pilot of the third plane aims for the Pentagon.</p>
<p>Moore’s quiet but tendentious narration leads the public to conclusions. He clearly does not rely on the audience’s own intelligence. Like Hollywood producers, Moore seems to assume that mainstream America, battered by mass media’s shotgun pellets of trivia, has become befuddled.</p>
<p>In the film, Moore skewers the media for their absence and their toadying. Some networks that dropped their investigative ball after 9/11 now question facts and motives behind “Fahrenheit.” On CBS’ “The Early Show” (June 25, 2004), Hannah Storm piously intoned: “the one thing that journalists try to do is to present both sides of the story, and it could be argued that you did not do that in this movie.”</p>
<p>“My side,” Moore responded, “the side of millions of Americans, rarely gets told. Why don’t you ask them [the Administration] the hard questions?” Storm had no answer.</p>
<p>“Fahrenheit’s” message and its surrounding publicity, has begun to resonate. At a Covina, California local hair salon, where chatting usually involves the latest diet trends, love lives of celebrities, or the unfulfilling sex lives of hair stylists and clients alike, the talk has turned to Bush and his failings.</p>
<p>At the AMC theater in Covina and the Edwards in West Covina, a mix of Latinos, Arabs, Chinese and Caucasians applauded at the end. In one Oakland, California theater, the owner announced he would not enforce the R rating. Teenagers flocked to see the film.</p>
<p>Did Moore convince them that the Bush family colluded with the corrupt Saudi monarchy and the bin Laden family? Did the shots of Bushies shaking hands with Crown Prince Abdullah establish guilt by association? The close ups of dark-skinned Saudi princes juxtaposed with a public beheading in Saudi Arabia certainly reinforce the Hollywood black hat image. The Saudi focus also lets Moore off the hook on the more politically cantankerous subject of Israel, a missing ingredient in the “Fahrenheit” script.</p>
<p>But he does not compromise on the issue of class. Indeed, he screams about the failure of Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” to reach the pockets of the jobless and uninsured poor. The real Bush, with his characteristic shit-eating grin, extols the white tie set at a fundraising dinner. “Here we have the haves and the have-mores,” he quips. “Some people call you the elite. I call you my base.” Yes, Bush is the progeny of this parasitic class and from them he derives his destructive “vision” of power.</p>
<p>Moore appears in his documentaries as the polar opposite of Bush, obese and unshaven–or is that a beard? This non-celebrity needs a tailor. Feigning innocence and sometimes righteousness, this self-proclaimed member of the oppressed class has made Time magazine’s cover. This shameless self-promoter–is there any other way to generate publicity?–has also made mass box office hits on the core issues of capitalism: class war, racism, violence–the ingredients of empire.</p>
<p>At a time when poor and minorities have no clear political representation, Michael Moore emerges–in all his imperfections–to articulate their grievances and steer them toward meaningful politics.</p>
<p>Farrah Hassen graduated from Cal Poly Pomona University.</p>
<p>Saul Landau is the Director of Digital Media and International Outreach Programs for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. His new book is <a href="" type="internal">The Business of America</a>.</p>
<p>An Informal Rejoinder to Jensen on F9/11 Moore Has Done Us a Service; More Must be Done</p>
<p>By VIJAY PRASHAD</p>
<p>Robert Jensen’s <a href="" type="internal">review of F9/11</a> irritated me. It seems to have missed the wood from the trees. There is the phenomenon of F9/11 which deserves comment — those who see the movie are not only seeing what Moore has edited for us, but many have been going for an experience, as an act of rebellion against the warfare culture, as a way to have conversations with relatives and friends whom one might take along, etc. (this, as far as press reports are concerned, and many are on michael moore’s own website). The movie enables and provokes a wider set of discussions and debates. What is in the movie, then, should not be judged only for what it is, but for what it enables. Jensen does not get this.</p>
<p>Jensen makes much of the racism in the movie: that South Asians and Arabs are not part of the frame when Moore discusses the Patriot Act. This is so. But the lack of discussion on South Asians and Arabs by Moore should not take away from the fact that the heart of the movie is in three places, all of them with much to say about race and racism:</p>
<p>(1) The opening, when the Black Congressional Caucus and one Asian representative rebuke the all-white Senate for failing to challenge the SC’s delivery of the presidency to GWB. This is a powerful scene, and it will make everyone recognize the strength of the Black-Asian voice in the House, and the racist cowardice of the Senate (which is basically an old-boys club). If Barack Obama wins, I wonder if he will be able to do anything there.</p>
<p>(2) The strong presence of Iraqis in the movie, notably the grandmother who grieves powerfully for the loss of a part of her family. She is the one who cries out for revenge as the last act of those who have been rendered helpless in the face of such state terror. This woman is the Iraqi version of Lila Lipscomb, of whom more below.</p>
<p>(3) Lila Lipscomb anchors this movie. She is a polycultural woman, of the working-class, with all the powerful contradictions of life in that sphere of America. Her honesty and forthrightness not only silence Moore (a fact that has been much related in the media coverage), but it also shows us the complexities of belief among people whose name the left often speaks.</p>
<p>Rather than take out Moore’s movie, it might be more useful to add to his framework. Here are two supplements to the opening section that might have enriched the film, and that do extend Moore’s rather limited analysis of capitalism:</p>
<p>(1) The political economy of the Ibn Saud-Multinational Oil Firm-Pentagon-Wall Street relationship. Moore relies upon the familial relationship between the Bushes and the Al-Saud clan to personalize or to dramatize the nexus between the monarchs of the peninsula, the multinational oil firms (mainly of US origin), the US military (and its contractors, such as United Defense — the Carlyle Group), and Wall Street (or global finance). For a documentary, the personal story makes certain abstract connections very compelling — it brings the abstractions to life with a concrete, made for television example. The documentaries from Media Education Foundation on sexism and on media criticism are able to be very didactic and successful — but they were geared to the classroom and not a mass audience. Documentaries that tend to go for a mass audience use the personal story to illustrate or illuminate the broader connections. One way to have intimated the broader contradictions would have been to have mentioned the report that Saddam Hussein had been trying to get his OPEC partners to shift their oil profits from Dollars to Euros. Such a move would have threatened the financial stability of the Dollar, hence the Dollar-Wall Street Complex (so well analyzed by Peter Gowan in Global Gamble). Moore could have even talked to a mainstream analyst at the Cambridge Energy Associates who, if they hewed close to the facts, would have told him that yes, there has been informal discussion in OPEC to consider such a move; and he could have spoken to a mainstream currency broker who would have said that such a move would have had grave effects for the US economy. That might have shown how integral the Saudi holdings of T-Bills is to the “stability” of the financial architecture.</p>
<p>(2) The destruction of the Saudi Left. Since Moore continued to talk of the Al-Saud clan as the “Saudis” he gave the very mistaken impression that all Saudis benefit from the actions of this undemocratic regime. He could have had a very short quote from someone like Fred Halliday, or any number of Saudi intellectuals who would have told him that the oil lands were once home to a vibrant left, that state repression by the monarchy destroyed enlightened groups such as the Arabian Peninsula People’s Union and Voice of the Vanguard, and that one of the instruments for the counter-revolution via a very intolerant brand of “Islam” was the creation, with CIA support, of the Rabitat al-Alam al-Islami, the World Muslim Congress. He treated “Saudis” as a monolith, had one too many images of the grotesque Al-Saud family fawning on Bush Senior, and an image of men at prayer — all without any other Saudi voice, so as to show that it is a society in ferment, with disagreement, and that state repression by the US (and ARAMCO, the oil monopoly) contributed to the barrenness of the left in the region. The details for this will be in my next book, The Rise and Fall of the Third World (New Press, forthcoming in the Spring of 2005).</p>
<p>I enjoyed Fahrenheit 9/11, and found it to be a very valuable op-ed in these times of corporate media strangulation of many of the basic ‘facts’ of our contemporary history. Moore has done us a good service. There is much more to do be done. So let’s do it.</p>
<p>Vijay Prashad teaches at Trinity College, Hartford, CT. His latest book is <a href="" type="internal">Keeping Up with the Dow Joneses: Debt, Prison, Workfare</a> (Boston: South End Press). He also contributes a chilling essay on prisons and poverty in CounterPunch’s forthcoming book, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">A Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils.</a></p>
<p>A Screening in a Working Class Town A Contrarian Review of F9/11</p>
<p>By DAVE LINDORFF</p>
<p>As someone who has frequently been a harsh critic of Michael Moore, I have to say I tip my hat to him for his film “Fahrenheit 9-11.”</p>
<p>Leftists who saw the film at early showings in New York City, or in some suburban mall or college town, where most of the audiences tent do be composed of middle class liberals, might be tempted to dismiss the film’s appeal as being a sop to liberal sensitivities.</p>
<p>I, however, was sitting in an urban theater in working-class Ambler, PA. In the theater with me were a mix of some middle-class liberals, teenage kids and working people of all races.</p>
<p>The response to the documentary in that theater was simply staggering. People-ordinary people who work for hourly wages, punch time cards and who may even have voted for Bush in 2000–were laughing uproariously at the images of Bush staring dumbly into space after being informed of the attacks on the Trade Center towers, groaning and laughing as Bush told a group of assembled business leaders that they were his “base,” and applauding wildly during the film’s credits.</p>
<p>But what really gripped the Ambler theatergoers was the part of Moore’s film where he interviewed troops in Iraq-both those that showed young men dehumanized to the point that they were killing to taped rock music, and those that showed troubled soldiers distraught that they were killing innocents and fighting and risking their lives for no discernable purpose. They were also gripped, as was I, by the images of a distraught Iraqi grandmother cursing America and bewailing the loss of a household of her relatives to an American bomb, and of a Flint mother who had lost her soldier son.</p>
<p>Equally powerful, and clearly troubling to those in the Ambler Theater around me, who expressed their disgust and dismay loudly, and almost involuntarily, were the scenes of bloody carnage, especially the shattered Iraqi children.</p>
<p>Whatever complaints one might have about things that Moore did or didn’t do in this film-he didn’t delve deeply enough into Bush’s AWOL record in the National Guard, he didn’t touch on Israel’s role in promoting the Iraq war or in helping train U.S. forces during the occupation, and he didn’t say much of anything about the Democrats’ complicity in the invasion and in the so-called “War on Terror” and the Patriot Act assault on the Bill of Rights-this is a powerful film.</p>
<p>It’s a powerful film for what it does do, and that is to show mainstream America for the first time the real horrors of this war. It shows clearly how it is the children of the working class who are being asked to fight this war on behalf of a corporate elite that President Bush declared to be “my base.” It shows, graphically, the corporate feeding frenzy to make money out of Iraq’s misery. And it shows how the poor in America, in run-down cities like Moore’s native Flint, Michigan, are being left to rot while Washington spends hundreds of billions fighting for corporate interests in the Middle East.</p>
<p>If a picture is worth a thousand words, this film has to be worth 1000 words per frame-certainly 1000 words in any mainstream corporate newspaper or read from the teleprompter of any corporate TV “news” anchor– and Moore is to be commended for producing it, even if it does make him filthy rich.</p>
<p>We don’t live in a perfect world, and given the extent to which our mass media have become little more than state organs for the purveyance of official government propaganda, this documentary, which is reportedly reaching deep into the heartland of America and garnering tremendous support, is about as good as it’s going to get. To criticize this film because it doesn’t go beyond an exposé of the Bush administration to deconstruct the evils of the U.S capitalist system is what Lenin might have called infantile leftism.</p>
<p>There are films like that being made, but they don’t run in the local Cineplex, which is the point. Besides, I suspect that most of the ordinary working-class people watching this film have anough common sense to realize that it’s not just Republicans who are calling American corporate leaders their “base” in private.</p>
<p>While it’s fair and appropriate to critique Moore and his film, and to call attention to its mistakes and omissions, I think we on the left should at the same time acknowledge the importance of such a powerful anti-war, anti-corporate message–one which is reaching more ordinary Americans than any other I can think of.</p>
<p>For my part, I’m recommending it ­warts and all–to everyone I meet.</p>
<p>Dave Lindorff is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512283/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal</a>. His new book of CounterPunch columns titled “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567512984/counterpunchmaga" type="external">This Can’t be Happening!</a>” to be published this fall by Common Courage Press. Information about both books and other work by Lindorff can be found at <a href="http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/" type="external">www.thiscantbehappening.net</a>.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,708 |
<p>Published time: 28 Nov, 2017 18:08</p>
<p>The European Space Agency has revealed plans to launch a new drone-satellite hybrid project to make continuous observations of Earth. The stratospheric platforms will be able to stay in a fixed position for months on end, constantly watching the area below.</p>
<p>The High Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPS) will fly at an altitude similar to conventional aircraft, but operate more like satellites, according to a statement from the agency. The unmanned aircraft will not actually work from space but will remain high within Earth’s atmosphere, monitoring the territory below.</p>
<p>Working from an ideal altitude of 20km (12 miles), the <a href="https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/events/all-events/-/article/haps4esa-towards-an-esa-stratospheric-high-altitude-pseudo-satellites-haps-programme-for-earth-observation-telecommunications-and-navigation" type="external">HAPS</a> will be able to survey the ground to the horizon 500km away. This will allow them to conduct precise monitoring and surveillance, high-bandwidth communications or act as backup to existing satellite navigation services.</p>
<p>“For Earth observation, they could provide prolonged high-resolution coverage for priority regions, while for navigation and telecoms they could shrink blind spots in coverage and combine wide bandwidth with negligible signal delay,” ESA future-systems specialist Antonio Ciccolella said.</p>
<p>HAPS will be considered for a variety of applications, such as telecommunications, maritime surveillance, environmental monitoring, land border control applications and of course emergency response situations.</p>
<p>“There’s obvious potential for emergency response. They could also be employed semi-permanently, perhaps extending sat-nav coverage into high, narrow valleys and cities,” navigation engineer Roberto Prieto Cerdeira said.</p>
<p>The concept is not new, according to Earth observation specialist Thorsten Fehr, who said that thanks to developments in key technologies, after 20 years it’s finally becoming a reality.</p>
<p>These advances include “miniaturised avionics, high-performance solar cells, lightweight batteries and harness, miniaturisation of Earth observation sensors and high-bandwidth communication links that can deliver competitively priced services,” he said.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/393464-esa-pluto-habitable-planets/" type="external">READ MORE: Europe’s Space Agency approves alien-hunt project</a></p>
<p>HAPS could take the form of airplanes, airships or balloons. A feasibility&#160; <a href="https://business.esa.int/funding/invitation-to-tender/services-enabled-high-altitude-pseudo-satellites-haps-complemented-satellites" type="external">study&#160;</a>is currently ongoing until the end of January to identify sustainable applications and services of it.</p>
<p>A number of HAPS development projects have recently reached more advanced development stages suggesting that first operational services could be expected by the period 2018-2022.</p> | Drone-satellite hybrid could soon hover high within Earth’s atmosphere | false | https://newsline.com/drone-satellite-hybrid-could-soon-hover-high-within-earths-atmosphere/ | 2017-11-28 | 1right-center
| Drone-satellite hybrid could soon hover high within Earth’s atmosphere
<p>Published time: 28 Nov, 2017 18:08</p>
<p>The European Space Agency has revealed plans to launch a new drone-satellite hybrid project to make continuous observations of Earth. The stratospheric platforms will be able to stay in a fixed position for months on end, constantly watching the area below.</p>
<p>The High Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPS) will fly at an altitude similar to conventional aircraft, but operate more like satellites, according to a statement from the agency. The unmanned aircraft will not actually work from space but will remain high within Earth’s atmosphere, monitoring the territory below.</p>
<p>Working from an ideal altitude of 20km (12 miles), the <a href="https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/events/all-events/-/article/haps4esa-towards-an-esa-stratospheric-high-altitude-pseudo-satellites-haps-programme-for-earth-observation-telecommunications-and-navigation" type="external">HAPS</a> will be able to survey the ground to the horizon 500km away. This will allow them to conduct precise monitoring and surveillance, high-bandwidth communications or act as backup to existing satellite navigation services.</p>
<p>“For Earth observation, they could provide prolonged high-resolution coverage for priority regions, while for navigation and telecoms they could shrink blind spots in coverage and combine wide bandwidth with negligible signal delay,” ESA future-systems specialist Antonio Ciccolella said.</p>
<p>HAPS will be considered for a variety of applications, such as telecommunications, maritime surveillance, environmental monitoring, land border control applications and of course emergency response situations.</p>
<p>“There’s obvious potential for emergency response. They could also be employed semi-permanently, perhaps extending sat-nav coverage into high, narrow valleys and cities,” navigation engineer Roberto Prieto Cerdeira said.</p>
<p>The concept is not new, according to Earth observation specialist Thorsten Fehr, who said that thanks to developments in key technologies, after 20 years it’s finally becoming a reality.</p>
<p>These advances include “miniaturised avionics, high-performance solar cells, lightweight batteries and harness, miniaturisation of Earth observation sensors and high-bandwidth communication links that can deliver competitively priced services,” he said.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/393464-esa-pluto-habitable-planets/" type="external">READ MORE: Europe’s Space Agency approves alien-hunt project</a></p>
<p>HAPS could take the form of airplanes, airships or balloons. A feasibility&#160; <a href="https://business.esa.int/funding/invitation-to-tender/services-enabled-high-altitude-pseudo-satellites-haps-complemented-satellites" type="external">study&#160;</a>is currently ongoing until the end of January to identify sustainable applications and services of it.</p>
<p>A number of HAPS development projects have recently reached more advanced development stages suggesting that first operational services could be expected by the period 2018-2022.</p> | 2,709 |
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<p>TEL AVIV, Israel — Syria still possesses chemical weapons, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in Israel on Friday, warning against the banned munitions being used again.</p>
<p>At a news conference in Tel Aviv, Mattis also said that in recent days the Syrian Air Force has dispersed its combat aircraft. The implication is that Syria may be concerned about additional U.S. strikes following the cruise missile attack earlier this month in retaliation for alleged Syrian use of sarin gas.</p>
<p>Mattis spoke alongside Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. “There can be no doubt in the international community’s mind that Syria has retained chemical weapons in violation of its agreement and its statement that it had removed them all,” said Mattis. He said he didn’t want to elaborate on the amounts Syria has in order to avoid revealing sources of intelligence.</p>
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<p>“I can say authoritatively they have retained some, it’s a violation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions and it’s going to have to be taken up diplomatically and they would be ill advised to try to use any again, we made that very clear with our strike,” he said.</p>
<p>Israeli defense officials said this week that Syria still has up to three tons of chemical weapons in its possession. It was the first specific intelligence assessment of President Bashar Assad’s weapons capabilities since a deadly chemical attack earlier this month.</p>
<p>Lieberman also refused to go into detail but said “We have 100 percent information that (the) Assad regime used chemical weapons against rebels.”</p>
<p>Assad has strongly denied he was behind the attack in the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s northern Idlib province, and has accused the opposition of trying to frame his government. Top Assad ally, Russia, has asserted a Syrian government airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons factory, causing the disaster.</p>
<p>In response to the April 4 attack, the United States fired 59 missiles at a Syrian air base it said was the launching pad for the attack.</p>
<p>Before meeting with Mattis in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel is encouraged by the change of administrations in Washington.</p>
<p>“We sense a great change in the direction of American policy,” Netanyahu said. He referred to the U.S. cruise missile strike in Syria as an important example of the new administration’s “forthright deeds” against the use of chemical weapons.</p>
<p>A few hours later sirens wailed on the Israeli held side of the Golan Heights warning of incoming rockets from Syria, the Israeli military said. It said three “projectiles” were fired and no injuries have been reported. The Israeli military later said it retaliated and “targeted the locations where the launching originated.”</p>
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<p>Israel has been largely unaffected by the Syrian civil war raging next door, suffering mostly sporadic, spillover, incidents of fire. Israel has occasionally responded to fire with limited reprisals on Syrian positions.</p>
<p>It has also carried out a number of airstrikes on suspected weapon convoys it believed were destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.</p>
<p>Israel has warned against “game-changing” weapons reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon from Syria, which supports the militant group. Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 rockets on Israeli communities in the 2006 war, while Israel bombarded militant targets in southern Lebanon.</p>
<p>Last month Israel shot down an anti-aircraft missile fired at its planes as they struck a suspected Hezbollah weapons convoy.</p>
<p>Hezbollah and Iran, both bitter enemies of Israel, along with Russia have sent forces to support Assad.</p>
<p>Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons arsenal to avert U.S. strikes following a chemical weapons attack in opposition-held suburbs of Damascus in August 2013 that killed hundreds of people and sparked worldwide outrage.</p>
<p>Ahead of that disarmament, Assad’s government disclosed it had some 1,300 tons of chemical weapons, including sarin, VX nerve agent and mustard gas.</p>
<p>The entire stockpile was said to have been dismantled and shipped out under international supervision in 2014 and destroyed. But doubts began to emerge soon afterward that not all such armaments or production facilities were declared and destroyed. There also is evidence that the Islamic State group and other insurgents have acquired chemical weapons.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this story.</p> | US Defense Sec’y Mattis: Syria still has chemical weapons | false | https://abqjournal.com/991369/us-defense-secy-mattis-syria-still-has-chemical-weapons.html | 2017-04-21 | 2least
| US Defense Sec’y Mattis: Syria still has chemical weapons
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<p>TEL AVIV, Israel — Syria still possesses chemical weapons, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in Israel on Friday, warning against the banned munitions being used again.</p>
<p>At a news conference in Tel Aviv, Mattis also said that in recent days the Syrian Air Force has dispersed its combat aircraft. The implication is that Syria may be concerned about additional U.S. strikes following the cruise missile attack earlier this month in retaliation for alleged Syrian use of sarin gas.</p>
<p>Mattis spoke alongside Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. “There can be no doubt in the international community’s mind that Syria has retained chemical weapons in violation of its agreement and its statement that it had removed them all,” said Mattis. He said he didn’t want to elaborate on the amounts Syria has in order to avoid revealing sources of intelligence.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I can say authoritatively they have retained some, it’s a violation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions and it’s going to have to be taken up diplomatically and they would be ill advised to try to use any again, we made that very clear with our strike,” he said.</p>
<p>Israeli defense officials said this week that Syria still has up to three tons of chemical weapons in its possession. It was the first specific intelligence assessment of President Bashar Assad’s weapons capabilities since a deadly chemical attack earlier this month.</p>
<p>Lieberman also refused to go into detail but said “We have 100 percent information that (the) Assad regime used chemical weapons against rebels.”</p>
<p>Assad has strongly denied he was behind the attack in the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s northern Idlib province, and has accused the opposition of trying to frame his government. Top Assad ally, Russia, has asserted a Syrian government airstrike hit a rebel chemical weapons factory, causing the disaster.</p>
<p>In response to the April 4 attack, the United States fired 59 missiles at a Syrian air base it said was the launching pad for the attack.</p>
<p>Before meeting with Mattis in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel is encouraged by the change of administrations in Washington.</p>
<p>“We sense a great change in the direction of American policy,” Netanyahu said. He referred to the U.S. cruise missile strike in Syria as an important example of the new administration’s “forthright deeds” against the use of chemical weapons.</p>
<p>A few hours later sirens wailed on the Israeli held side of the Golan Heights warning of incoming rockets from Syria, the Israeli military said. It said three “projectiles” were fired and no injuries have been reported. The Israeli military later said it retaliated and “targeted the locations where the launching originated.”</p>
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<p>Israel has been largely unaffected by the Syrian civil war raging next door, suffering mostly sporadic, spillover, incidents of fire. Israel has occasionally responded to fire with limited reprisals on Syrian positions.</p>
<p>It has also carried out a number of airstrikes on suspected weapon convoys it believed were destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.</p>
<p>Israel has warned against “game-changing” weapons reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon from Syria, which supports the militant group. Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 rockets on Israeli communities in the 2006 war, while Israel bombarded militant targets in southern Lebanon.</p>
<p>Last month Israel shot down an anti-aircraft missile fired at its planes as they struck a suspected Hezbollah weapons convoy.</p>
<p>Hezbollah and Iran, both bitter enemies of Israel, along with Russia have sent forces to support Assad.</p>
<p>Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons arsenal to avert U.S. strikes following a chemical weapons attack in opposition-held suburbs of Damascus in August 2013 that killed hundreds of people and sparked worldwide outrage.</p>
<p>Ahead of that disarmament, Assad’s government disclosed it had some 1,300 tons of chemical weapons, including sarin, VX nerve agent and mustard gas.</p>
<p>The entire stockpile was said to have been dismantled and shipped out under international supervision in 2014 and destroyed. But doubts began to emerge soon afterward that not all such armaments or production facilities were declared and destroyed. There also is evidence that the Islamic State group and other insurgents have acquired chemical weapons.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this story.</p> | 2,710 |
<p>Malala YousafzaiRui Vieira/AP</p>
<p />
<p>Eight of the ten men accused of shooting of education rights activist and <a href="" type="internal">Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai</a> were secretly acquitted, according to reports released today by the Pakistani government. Following a trial at a military facility in April, news spread that the 10 Taliban gunmen who were accused of involvement in the 2012 attack on Yousafzai had confessed and were <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/30/world/asia/malala-attackers-sentenced/" type="external">sentenced to 25 years</a> in prison—the longest possible sentence in Pakistan.</p>
<p>But after reporters from the British newspaper the Daily Mirror were unable to locate the 10 in Pakistani prisons, the court published <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33018334" type="external">new findings</a> that revealed only two had in fact been convicted and the rest had been quietly released due to “lack of evidence.”</p>
<p>The Pakistani officials who failed to correct the initial reporting now <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33018334" type="external">deny confirming</a>the convictions, and the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/world/asia/pakistan-says-court-has-freed-8-of-10-accused-in-attack-on-malala-yousafzai.html?_r=0" type="external">reports</a> that the government will likely seek an appeal for the decision.</p>
<p>Yousafzai was 15 at the time of the attack and has since become a global voice for girls’ education rights. In 2013 she published a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Am-Malala-Stood-Education-Taliban/dp/0316322407" type="external">memoir</a>, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, and the following year, at the age of 17 she became the youngest Nobel Peace Peace Prize winner. She is currently attending school in Britain, where she and her family have relocated.</p>
<p /> | Most of the Suspects Accused of Attacking Malala Yousafzai Were Secretly Acquitted | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2015/06/malala-yousafzai-pakistan-suspects-acquitted/ | 2015-06-05 | 4left
| Most of the Suspects Accused of Attacking Malala Yousafzai Were Secretly Acquitted
<p>Malala YousafzaiRui Vieira/AP</p>
<p />
<p>Eight of the ten men accused of shooting of education rights activist and <a href="" type="internal">Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai</a> were secretly acquitted, according to reports released today by the Pakistani government. Following a trial at a military facility in April, news spread that the 10 Taliban gunmen who were accused of involvement in the 2012 attack on Yousafzai had confessed and were <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/30/world/asia/malala-attackers-sentenced/" type="external">sentenced to 25 years</a> in prison—the longest possible sentence in Pakistan.</p>
<p>But after reporters from the British newspaper the Daily Mirror were unable to locate the 10 in Pakistani prisons, the court published <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33018334" type="external">new findings</a> that revealed only two had in fact been convicted and the rest had been quietly released due to “lack of evidence.”</p>
<p>The Pakistani officials who failed to correct the initial reporting now <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33018334" type="external">deny confirming</a>the convictions, and the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/world/asia/pakistan-says-court-has-freed-8-of-10-accused-in-attack-on-malala-yousafzai.html?_r=0" type="external">reports</a> that the government will likely seek an appeal for the decision.</p>
<p>Yousafzai was 15 at the time of the attack and has since become a global voice for girls’ education rights. In 2013 she published a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Am-Malala-Stood-Education-Taliban/dp/0316322407" type="external">memoir</a>, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, and the following year, at the age of 17 she became the youngest Nobel Peace Peace Prize winner. She is currently attending school in Britain, where she and her family have relocated.</p>
<p /> | 2,711 |
<p />
<p>Marty Lederman has <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2006/06/hamdan_summary.html" type="external">commentary</a> on the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision today, ruling that the military tribunals set up at Guantanamo are improper, over at SCOTUSblog. Among other things, the Supreme Court has apparently ruled that the Geneva Conventions apply to all detainees captured in the conflict against al-Qaeda. That seems to mean, if Lederman’s right, that torture and “coercive” interrogation tactics will no longer be allowed, period. The CIA’s interrogation tactics are “officially” illegal, and methods such as waterboarding and inducing hypothermia are now “officially” war crimes. The Court also ruled that the president does not have the power to ignore or violate congressional law.</p>
<p>This looks very significant indeed, and short of convincing Congress to pull out of the Geneva Conventions, perhaps, it certainly looks like the Bush administration has been reined in. What this means in practice, though, still seems very much up in the air—presumably Congress could respond by setting up new tribunals at Guantanmo, or modifying the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or granting the administration other new powers, or so forth… So we’ll see what happens.</p>
<p>UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald has a useful discussion <a href="http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/06/significance-of-hamdan-v-rumsfeld.html" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE II: The Court also seems to have <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/29/gitmo-wiretapping/" type="external">rejected</a> one of the administration’s legal rationales for its illegal wiretapping program.</p>
<p /> | Hamdan to Rein Bush In? | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/06/hamdan-rein-bush/ | 2006-06-29 | 4left
| Hamdan to Rein Bush In?
<p />
<p>Marty Lederman has <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2006/06/hamdan_summary.html" type="external">commentary</a> on the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision today, ruling that the military tribunals set up at Guantanamo are improper, over at SCOTUSblog. Among other things, the Supreme Court has apparently ruled that the Geneva Conventions apply to all detainees captured in the conflict against al-Qaeda. That seems to mean, if Lederman’s right, that torture and “coercive” interrogation tactics will no longer be allowed, period. The CIA’s interrogation tactics are “officially” illegal, and methods such as waterboarding and inducing hypothermia are now “officially” war crimes. The Court also ruled that the president does not have the power to ignore or violate congressional law.</p>
<p>This looks very significant indeed, and short of convincing Congress to pull out of the Geneva Conventions, perhaps, it certainly looks like the Bush administration has been reined in. What this means in practice, though, still seems very much up in the air—presumably Congress could respond by setting up new tribunals at Guantanmo, or modifying the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or granting the administration other new powers, or so forth… So we’ll see what happens.</p>
<p>UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald has a useful discussion <a href="http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/06/significance-of-hamdan-v-rumsfeld.html" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE II: The Court also seems to have <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/29/gitmo-wiretapping/" type="external">rejected</a> one of the administration’s legal rationales for its illegal wiretapping program.</p>
<p /> | 2,712 |
<p>On Christmas Eve, thousands of Christians from around the world flocked to Bethlehem to celebrate at the traditional birthplace of Jesus. But a few miles up the road at a church in Jerusalem, something unexpected took place at Midnight Mass: the church became crowded with Jews.</p>
<p>Some might joke that there are more Jews in Jerusalem who attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve than synagogue on the Jewish holidays, but there’s some truth to it.</p>
<p>Throngs of Israeli Jews clamored at the gate of the Dormition Abbey about an hour and a half early to get a good seat at Midnight Mass. Seats were snatched up the moment the doors opened, and Israelis sat cross-legged on every available inch of the mosaic floor.</p>
<p>They were there not as believers, but as voyeurs.</p>
<p>“It’s a nice show,” said one dreadlocked Israeli university student in attendance. “It’s a good choreography, you know. I can appreciate a good show.”</p>
<p>“We’re here to share the happiness of different holidays than ours,” another student said. “It’s also just fun.”</p>
<p>Hundreds of Israelis were in attendance, many of them university students wearing dreads and piercings and funky gold leggings. One said he was attending for an ethnographic study — an assignment for anthropology class.</p>
<p>Liel Magen, who works at an intercultural center up the alleyway from the church, said he goes to all kinds of religious celebrations in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>“I think it’s important to be tolerant and interested in other religions, especially those that live among us as neighbors,” Magen said. “I don’t think we need to be separate. The beauty of this city is that we can celebrate all year long.”</p>
<p>Toward the front row, Sebastian Köckler, a Catholic tourist from Cologne, Germany, and his companion were a bit agitated.</p>
<p>“We hope it gets not as loud as now,” said Köckler. “It’s Christ’s birthday. For us, it’s one of the most important days in the year.”</p>
<p>Israelis aren’t known to be the most demure, quiet people, even in synagogue. But amazingly, it did quiet down.</p>
<p>The organ belted out its majestic chords, and a monk delivered greetings in Hebrew.</p>
<p>Tonight, he said, we celebrate the birth of a Jew who lived in this land about 2000 years ago. We are honored tonight to host the people of Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus.</p>
<p>We’ve waited for you all year long, he said.</p>
<p>The Jewish crowd at Midnight Mass presents a delicate challenge.</p>
<p>Father Gregory, the abbot, said he has a strong awareness of the fact that those who attend are the people of Israel, or what he calls the original people of God.</p>
<p>But he is careful not to proselytize. Israeli law restricts missionary activity in the country, and the Catholic Church also discourages it. Centuries of forced conversion by Christians in the past have made Jews and Catholics sensitive to this.</p>
<p>Father Gregory and his monks, for their part, say they regularly experience harassment by fundamentalist Jews who spit at them.</p>
<p>So what does a clergyman preach to a church full of Jews on Christmas Eve?</p>
<p>“I always try to preach quite carefully,” said Father Gregory Collins. “I talk about the Jewish roots of Jesus. I do stress that, as Christians, we believe Jesus is the son of God and the Messiah, and I acknowledge that most of the people in the church don’t believe that. But I think it’s not time for theological discussions. It’s time for celebrating the birth of Christ. And the area where we can all agree is Jesus’ summary of Jewish law: love God and your neighbor as yourself.”</p>
<p>Most of the Jewish Israelis I spoke to in the church said they don’t attend synagogue regularly.</p>
<p>But Father Gregory said when he looks out at the crowd each year, he can tell they are touched.</p>
<p>“They look fascinated and calmed actually,” he said. “When liturgy is done well, it’s a beautiful and dignified thing. I think it’s a point of contact that they understand that something special or sacred is going on.”</p>
<p>It is, indeed, a special atmosphere: the pomp, the glistening mosaic dome, the harmonies of the choir.</p>
<p>But Father Gregory admits there’s one other thing about his Midnight Mass that makes it an Israeli crowd pleaser: they sing "Silent Night" in German.</p>
<p>“Everyone loves 'Silent Night,'” said Collins. “I personally think Silent Night is the most terrible kitsch, and the most sentimental and overplayed melody. But it’s Christmas, and half of Christmas is kitsch to begin with. So I think people come because they enjoy the sentimentality of the traditional Christmas.”</p>
<p>And, hey, there was food, too. After mass, the monks invited the Israelis for coffee and biscuits.</p> | What do you preach to a church full of Jews on Christmas? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-12-25/what-do-you-preach-church-full-jews-christmas | 2013-12-25 | 3left-center
| What do you preach to a church full of Jews on Christmas?
<p>On Christmas Eve, thousands of Christians from around the world flocked to Bethlehem to celebrate at the traditional birthplace of Jesus. But a few miles up the road at a church in Jerusalem, something unexpected took place at Midnight Mass: the church became crowded with Jews.</p>
<p>Some might joke that there are more Jews in Jerusalem who attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve than synagogue on the Jewish holidays, but there’s some truth to it.</p>
<p>Throngs of Israeli Jews clamored at the gate of the Dormition Abbey about an hour and a half early to get a good seat at Midnight Mass. Seats were snatched up the moment the doors opened, and Israelis sat cross-legged on every available inch of the mosaic floor.</p>
<p>They were there not as believers, but as voyeurs.</p>
<p>“It’s a nice show,” said one dreadlocked Israeli university student in attendance. “It’s a good choreography, you know. I can appreciate a good show.”</p>
<p>“We’re here to share the happiness of different holidays than ours,” another student said. “It’s also just fun.”</p>
<p>Hundreds of Israelis were in attendance, many of them university students wearing dreads and piercings and funky gold leggings. One said he was attending for an ethnographic study — an assignment for anthropology class.</p>
<p>Liel Magen, who works at an intercultural center up the alleyway from the church, said he goes to all kinds of religious celebrations in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>“I think it’s important to be tolerant and interested in other religions, especially those that live among us as neighbors,” Magen said. “I don’t think we need to be separate. The beauty of this city is that we can celebrate all year long.”</p>
<p>Toward the front row, Sebastian Köckler, a Catholic tourist from Cologne, Germany, and his companion were a bit agitated.</p>
<p>“We hope it gets not as loud as now,” said Köckler. “It’s Christ’s birthday. For us, it’s one of the most important days in the year.”</p>
<p>Israelis aren’t known to be the most demure, quiet people, even in synagogue. But amazingly, it did quiet down.</p>
<p>The organ belted out its majestic chords, and a monk delivered greetings in Hebrew.</p>
<p>Tonight, he said, we celebrate the birth of a Jew who lived in this land about 2000 years ago. We are honored tonight to host the people of Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus.</p>
<p>We’ve waited for you all year long, he said.</p>
<p>The Jewish crowd at Midnight Mass presents a delicate challenge.</p>
<p>Father Gregory, the abbot, said he has a strong awareness of the fact that those who attend are the people of Israel, or what he calls the original people of God.</p>
<p>But he is careful not to proselytize. Israeli law restricts missionary activity in the country, and the Catholic Church also discourages it. Centuries of forced conversion by Christians in the past have made Jews and Catholics sensitive to this.</p>
<p>Father Gregory and his monks, for their part, say they regularly experience harassment by fundamentalist Jews who spit at them.</p>
<p>So what does a clergyman preach to a church full of Jews on Christmas Eve?</p>
<p>“I always try to preach quite carefully,” said Father Gregory Collins. “I talk about the Jewish roots of Jesus. I do stress that, as Christians, we believe Jesus is the son of God and the Messiah, and I acknowledge that most of the people in the church don’t believe that. But I think it’s not time for theological discussions. It’s time for celebrating the birth of Christ. And the area where we can all agree is Jesus’ summary of Jewish law: love God and your neighbor as yourself.”</p>
<p>Most of the Jewish Israelis I spoke to in the church said they don’t attend synagogue regularly.</p>
<p>But Father Gregory said when he looks out at the crowd each year, he can tell they are touched.</p>
<p>“They look fascinated and calmed actually,” he said. “When liturgy is done well, it’s a beautiful and dignified thing. I think it’s a point of contact that they understand that something special or sacred is going on.”</p>
<p>It is, indeed, a special atmosphere: the pomp, the glistening mosaic dome, the harmonies of the choir.</p>
<p>But Father Gregory admits there’s one other thing about his Midnight Mass that makes it an Israeli crowd pleaser: they sing "Silent Night" in German.</p>
<p>“Everyone loves 'Silent Night,'” said Collins. “I personally think Silent Night is the most terrible kitsch, and the most sentimental and overplayed melody. But it’s Christmas, and half of Christmas is kitsch to begin with. So I think people come because they enjoy the sentimentality of the traditional Christmas.”</p>
<p>And, hey, there was food, too. After mass, the monks invited the Israelis for coffee and biscuits.</p> | 2,713 |
<p>Oct. 12 (UPI) — A Florida woman sitting down for her morning coffee captured video of a rare Florida panther she caught staring back at her.</p>
<p>Andy Lloyd of Golden Gate Estates said she was sitting down for her morning coffee and browsing Facebook on Sunday morning when she <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU-18_K1g9M" type="external">noticed the big cat watching her</a> from outside the glass wall of her enclosed pool.</p>
<p>“There is a panther in my back yard,” the amazed woman says in the video she captured of the animal. “Oh my god, I am freaking out right now. Look at the size of that panther!”</p>
<p>Lloyd guessed the panther might have been disoriented by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane-Irma/" type="external">Hurricane Irma</a>.</p>
<p>“I was enjoying my morning coffee and Facebook updates, and I looked up and saw this endangered Florida Panther staring at me!” Lloyd <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Rz5XBsXe0" type="external">wrote</a>. “I grabbed my phone, didn’t move and filmed it. As a Florida teacher who knows the rareness and beauty of this animal, I was a bit scared and in awe. I figured hurricane Irma may have confused it. I filmed a rare creature enjoying my yard, and am blessed to have witnessed it while enjoying my coffee and Facebook!”</p> | Florida woman films panther watching her from back yard | false | https://newsline.com/florida-woman-films-panther-watching-her-from-back-yard/ | 2017-10-12 | 1right-center
| Florida woman films panther watching her from back yard
<p>Oct. 12 (UPI) — A Florida woman sitting down for her morning coffee captured video of a rare Florida panther she caught staring back at her.</p>
<p>Andy Lloyd of Golden Gate Estates said she was sitting down for her morning coffee and browsing Facebook on Sunday morning when she <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU-18_K1g9M" type="external">noticed the big cat watching her</a> from outside the glass wall of her enclosed pool.</p>
<p>“There is a panther in my back yard,” the amazed woman says in the video she captured of the animal. “Oh my god, I am freaking out right now. Look at the size of that panther!”</p>
<p>Lloyd guessed the panther might have been disoriented by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Hurricane-Irma/" type="external">Hurricane Irma</a>.</p>
<p>“I was enjoying my morning coffee and Facebook updates, and I looked up and saw this endangered Florida Panther staring at me!” Lloyd <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Rz5XBsXe0" type="external">wrote</a>. “I grabbed my phone, didn’t move and filmed it. As a Florida teacher who knows the rareness and beauty of this animal, I was a bit scared and in awe. I figured hurricane Irma may have confused it. I filmed a rare creature enjoying my yard, and am blessed to have witnessed it while enjoying my coffee and Facebook!”</p> | 2,714 |
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The flag that once flew over Belen’s 9/11 Memorial Park has been stolen — the third incident of theft or vandalism at the memorial which sits off Main Street near the Wells Fargo bank building, the Valencia County News-Bulletin reported.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The flag has been replaced in time for next week’s commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the News-Bulletin said.</p>
<p>“Obviously it was stolen,” Gloria Sanchez, a member of the Belen 9/11 planning committee, told the paper. “I’m distressed. How low can you get to steal a flag that symbolizes so much.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The park also has an 8-foot replica of the Twin Towers; a steel-sculpted eagle; a piece of steel beam from the World Trade Center; and a shovel used by the first organized rescue/recovery group that entered the Pentagon following the terrorist attacks, the News-Bulletin said.</p>
<p>A 10,000-pound limestone slab from the Pentagon was added last year to the park, which also lists the names of New Mexico service men and women who have died in the line of duty, the paper reported.</p>
<p>Sanchez said the stolen flag is the third incident of theft or vandalism to hit the park — following the theft of a bronze eagle and the defacing of a sign at the memorial with graffiti, the News-Bulletin said.</p>
<p>A $500 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of those involved in the theft of the flag; residents can call the Belen Police Department at (505) 864-6288.</p> | 8:40am — Flag Stolen From Belen’s 9/11 Memorial Park | false | https://abqjournal.com/9159/840am-flag-stolen-from-belens-911-memorial-park.html | 2least
| 8:40am — Flag Stolen From Belen’s 9/11 Memorial Park
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The flag that once flew over Belen’s 9/11 Memorial Park has been stolen — the third incident of theft or vandalism at the memorial which sits off Main Street near the Wells Fargo bank building, the Valencia County News-Bulletin reported.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The flag has been replaced in time for next week’s commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the News-Bulletin said.</p>
<p>“Obviously it was stolen,” Gloria Sanchez, a member of the Belen 9/11 planning committee, told the paper. “I’m distressed. How low can you get to steal a flag that symbolizes so much.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The park also has an 8-foot replica of the Twin Towers; a steel-sculpted eagle; a piece of steel beam from the World Trade Center; and a shovel used by the first organized rescue/recovery group that entered the Pentagon following the terrorist attacks, the News-Bulletin said.</p>
<p>A 10,000-pound limestone slab from the Pentagon was added last year to the park, which also lists the names of New Mexico service men and women who have died in the line of duty, the paper reported.</p>
<p>Sanchez said the stolen flag is the third incident of theft or vandalism to hit the park — following the theft of a bronze eagle and the defacing of a sign at the memorial with graffiti, the News-Bulletin said.</p>
<p>A $500 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of those involved in the theft of the flag; residents can call the Belen Police Department at (505) 864-6288.</p> | 2,715 |
|
<p>(Screenshot via YouTube.)</p>
<p>Thousands of people are urging Coachella headliners to donate proceeds from the festival to LGBT organizations.</p>
<p>Beyoncè, Kendrick Lamar and Radiohead are the big-name headlining acts for the two-weekend Coachella Valley Music Festival in April. Last week, a <a href="" type="internal">report</a> from the Washington Post spread that Coachella owner&#160;Phil Anschutz had donated to anti-LGBT organizations, such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, the National Christian Foundation and the Family Research Council, in the past.</p>
<p>Anschutz has called the report “fake news” and “garbage.”</p>
<p>“I unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation,” Anschutz told Rolling Stone.</p>
<p>In light of the report, a <a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/736/050/546/" type="external">petition</a> is asking for the headlining acts to donate the proceeds to&#160;The Trevor Project, Trans Lifeline and the Human Rights Campaign.</p>
<p>Care2 LGBTQ issues advocate Sarah Rose told <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/music-festivals/7654389/petition-coachella-headliners-donate-proceeds-pro-lgbtq" type="external">Billboard</a>the petition, which has already received more than 6,000 signatures, is a way to turn the situation around for the better.</p>
<p>“As a transgender woman and advocate for the LGBTQ community, my genuine hope is that these artists can turn a bad situation into a positive one,” Rose says. “I’m a diehard music fan and a musician myself, and I strongly believe that music shouldn’t be used as a means to discriminate.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Beyonce</a> <a href="" type="internal">Billboard</a> <a href="" type="internal">Care2</a> <a href="" type="internal">Coachella</a> <a href="" type="internal">Kendrick Lamar</a> <a href="" type="internal">Phil Anschutz</a> <a href="" type="internal">Radiohead</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sarah Rose</a></p> | Petition asks Coachella headliners to donate proceeds to LGBT groups | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/01/12/petition-asks-coachella-headliners-donate-proceeds-lgbt-groups/ | 3left-center
| Petition asks Coachella headliners to donate proceeds to LGBT groups
<p>(Screenshot via YouTube.)</p>
<p>Thousands of people are urging Coachella headliners to donate proceeds from the festival to LGBT organizations.</p>
<p>Beyoncè, Kendrick Lamar and Radiohead are the big-name headlining acts for the two-weekend Coachella Valley Music Festival in April. Last week, a <a href="" type="internal">report</a> from the Washington Post spread that Coachella owner&#160;Phil Anschutz had donated to anti-LGBT organizations, such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, the National Christian Foundation and the Family Research Council, in the past.</p>
<p>Anschutz has called the report “fake news” and “garbage.”</p>
<p>“I unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation,” Anschutz told Rolling Stone.</p>
<p>In light of the report, a <a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/736/050/546/" type="external">petition</a> is asking for the headlining acts to donate the proceeds to&#160;The Trevor Project, Trans Lifeline and the Human Rights Campaign.</p>
<p>Care2 LGBTQ issues advocate Sarah Rose told <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/music-festivals/7654389/petition-coachella-headliners-donate-proceeds-pro-lgbtq" type="external">Billboard</a>the petition, which has already received more than 6,000 signatures, is a way to turn the situation around for the better.</p>
<p>“As a transgender woman and advocate for the LGBTQ community, my genuine hope is that these artists can turn a bad situation into a positive one,” Rose says. “I’m a diehard music fan and a musician myself, and I strongly believe that music shouldn’t be used as a means to discriminate.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Beyonce</a> <a href="" type="internal">Billboard</a> <a href="" type="internal">Care2</a> <a href="" type="internal">Coachella</a> <a href="" type="internal">Kendrick Lamar</a> <a href="" type="internal">Phil Anschutz</a> <a href="" type="internal">Radiohead</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sarah Rose</a></p> | 2,716 |
|
<p />
<p>This post originally ran on <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2015/04/conquest-palestinian-propaganda.html" type="external">Juan Cole’s website</a>.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the extremist <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-02/islamic-state-storms-palestinian-refugee-camp-yarmuk-syria/6366546%20" type="external">Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) group, known for its brutal beheadings and mass murder, took over the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp</a> inside Damascus city limits. Palestinian women and Christians and male secularists are at special risk now. Had they been living normally in their homes in what is now Israel, with their own state, they would not have been left vulnerable to this fate. Refugees and stateless people not only have no courts or armies to defend their rights, they are not even recognized as having the right to have rights.</p>
<p>The Israelis ethnically cleansed three fifths of the Palestinians of British Mandate Palestine in 1947-48, creating enormous refugee crises in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon that roiled the region through the subsequent decades and continue to contribute to instability in the region. Some 70% of the Palestinians cooped up by the Israelis in the open-door concentration camp called Gaza are descendants of refugee families from what is now Israel, some living only an hour’s walk from the homes that were stolen from them. Some 40% of Palestinians in Gaza are still living in refugee camps, despite Israeli direct rule 1967-2005, which propagandists say was benevolent– but clearly it left Palestinians with blighted lives.</p>
<p />
<p>Propagandists who excuse the ethnic cleansing campaign and the continued explicit denial to Palestinians of the right of citizenship in a state often maintain that it should have been possible for “the Arabs” to “absorb” the Palestinians. But in international law, the state that committed the ethnic cleansing is responsible for it and for reparations, not the hapless neighbors on whom the refugees were unceremoniously dumped.</p>
<p>Moreover, the right wing Israeli construction of “the Arabs” is intended to deny specific Palestinian political identity and to create all the hundreds of millions of speakers of the Arabic language as an undifferentiated mass, as a way of making that mass responsible for absorbing the people on whom Israelis inflicted a tort.</p>
<p>As for “Arabs,” they include the Christians of Lebanon, who rejected Lebanese citizenship for Muslim Palestinians because it would change the politics of that country. It should be remembered that most Palestinians also reject ‘tawtin,’ being given citizenship that would preclude their claim on Palestinian identity or the right to return to their homeland.</p>
<p>The Palestinians expelled by Israelis to Syria are a case in point. They have grown through natural increase to <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report/89571/middle-east-palestinian-refugee-numbers-whereabouts%20" type="external">some 400,000</a> (Syria’s population is 23 million). Many of these Palestinians still live in 9 large refugee camps. Among the more prominent is Yarmouk, a camp that had until recently come to have 160,000 residents and now has only about 18,000. Palestinians are not Syrians and do not have Syrian citizenship, but they were given substantial rights as residents in Syria.</p>
<p>None of that means anything now that the Syrian state is in collapse. Some 90 percent of the population of Yarmouk has fled, caught in the cross-fire of the civil war. The fighting presented a dilemma to Palestinians themselves with the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC) siding with the regime and the Storm Brigade (Liwa’ al-`Asifa) siding with the secular rebel group of some years ago, the Free Syrian Army. Now leftists and secularists and democrats are all gone, along with tens of thousands of refugees made refugees all over again. Indeed, this is a common fate of the stateless, since their basic human rights are unstable and often denied, so that even when they build up a little island of prosperity, it is often abruptly taken back away.</p>
<p>Does it mean anything for the displaced Palestinian victims of the Israelis that they are “Arabs” among Daesh murderers? Where is the Palestinian army that would rescue them (the West Bank isn’t far away)?</p>
<p>Palestinians continue to suffer, not only under Israeli military occupation, but wherever they are stateless refugees, open to the cruel turns of fate that beset the powerless.</p>
<p>—-</p>
<p>Related video:</p>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/NsanSjhr660%20" type="external">Islamic State militants ‘enter Yarmouk refugee camp’ in Damascus – BBC News</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | Islamic State's Conquest of a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Syria Challenges Israeli Propaganda | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/islamic-states-conquest-of-a-palestinian-refugee-camp-in-syria-challenges-israeli-propaganda/ | 2015-04-02 | 4left
| Islamic State's Conquest of a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Syria Challenges Israeli Propaganda
<p />
<p>This post originally ran on <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2015/04/conquest-palestinian-propaganda.html" type="external">Juan Cole’s website</a>.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the extremist <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-02/islamic-state-storms-palestinian-refugee-camp-yarmuk-syria/6366546%20" type="external">Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) group, known for its brutal beheadings and mass murder, took over the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp</a> inside Damascus city limits. Palestinian women and Christians and male secularists are at special risk now. Had they been living normally in their homes in what is now Israel, with their own state, they would not have been left vulnerable to this fate. Refugees and stateless people not only have no courts or armies to defend their rights, they are not even recognized as having the right to have rights.</p>
<p>The Israelis ethnically cleansed three fifths of the Palestinians of British Mandate Palestine in 1947-48, creating enormous refugee crises in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon that roiled the region through the subsequent decades and continue to contribute to instability in the region. Some 70% of the Palestinians cooped up by the Israelis in the open-door concentration camp called Gaza are descendants of refugee families from what is now Israel, some living only an hour’s walk from the homes that were stolen from them. Some 40% of Palestinians in Gaza are still living in refugee camps, despite Israeli direct rule 1967-2005, which propagandists say was benevolent– but clearly it left Palestinians with blighted lives.</p>
<p />
<p>Propagandists who excuse the ethnic cleansing campaign and the continued explicit denial to Palestinians of the right of citizenship in a state often maintain that it should have been possible for “the Arabs” to “absorb” the Palestinians. But in international law, the state that committed the ethnic cleansing is responsible for it and for reparations, not the hapless neighbors on whom the refugees were unceremoniously dumped.</p>
<p>Moreover, the right wing Israeli construction of “the Arabs” is intended to deny specific Palestinian political identity and to create all the hundreds of millions of speakers of the Arabic language as an undifferentiated mass, as a way of making that mass responsible for absorbing the people on whom Israelis inflicted a tort.</p>
<p>As for “Arabs,” they include the Christians of Lebanon, who rejected Lebanese citizenship for Muslim Palestinians because it would change the politics of that country. It should be remembered that most Palestinians also reject ‘tawtin,’ being given citizenship that would preclude their claim on Palestinian identity or the right to return to their homeland.</p>
<p>The Palestinians expelled by Israelis to Syria are a case in point. They have grown through natural increase to <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report/89571/middle-east-palestinian-refugee-numbers-whereabouts%20" type="external">some 400,000</a> (Syria’s population is 23 million). Many of these Palestinians still live in 9 large refugee camps. Among the more prominent is Yarmouk, a camp that had until recently come to have 160,000 residents and now has only about 18,000. Palestinians are not Syrians and do not have Syrian citizenship, but they were given substantial rights as residents in Syria.</p>
<p>None of that means anything now that the Syrian state is in collapse. Some 90 percent of the population of Yarmouk has fled, caught in the cross-fire of the civil war. The fighting presented a dilemma to Palestinians themselves with the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC) siding with the regime and the Storm Brigade (Liwa’ al-`Asifa) siding with the secular rebel group of some years ago, the Free Syrian Army. Now leftists and secularists and democrats are all gone, along with tens of thousands of refugees made refugees all over again. Indeed, this is a common fate of the stateless, since their basic human rights are unstable and often denied, so that even when they build up a little island of prosperity, it is often abruptly taken back away.</p>
<p>Does it mean anything for the displaced Palestinian victims of the Israelis that they are “Arabs” among Daesh murderers? Where is the Palestinian army that would rescue them (the West Bank isn’t far away)?</p>
<p>Palestinians continue to suffer, not only under Israeli military occupation, but wherever they are stateless refugees, open to the cruel turns of fate that beset the powerless.</p>
<p>—-</p>
<p>Related video:</p>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/NsanSjhr660%20" type="external">Islamic State militants ‘enter Yarmouk refugee camp’ in Damascus – BBC News</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | 2,717 |
<p>Finally some good news for Detroit.</p>
<p>The Ford Motor company <a href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/news/article.asp?docKey=600-201212270016PR_NEWS_USPRX____DE34622-1&amp;params=timestamp%7C%7C12/27/2012%2012:16%20AM%20ET%7C%7Cheadline%7C%7CFord%20Is%20Investing%20More%20Than%20%24773%20Million%20Across%20Southeast%20Michigan%20Manufacturing%20Facilities%20to%20Support%20Growth%7C%7CdocSource%7C%7CPR%20Newswire%7C%7Cprovider%7C%7CACQUIREMEDIA%7C%7Cbridgesymbol%7C%7CUS;F&amp;ticker=F" type="external">announced on Thursday</a> that it would spend more than $773 million to expand its manufacturing facilities and would create about 2,350 new hourly jobs in Michigan as part of a plan to invest $6.2 billion and add 12,000 new positions by 2015.</p>
<p>"Even as we wrap up an incredibly busy year of capacity expansions and product launches, we are continuing to look to the future,"&#160; said Jim Tetreault, Ford vice president of North America Manufacturing. "These investments, many of which are already under way, will ensure our southeast Michiganmanufacturing facilities can support our aggressive growth plans."</p>
<p>The investment won't just be adding jobs, it'll be saving them. <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2012/12/27/ford-create-jobs-invest/1793485/" type="external">According to USA Today</a>, about 3,240 jobs were remain safe. Ford Motor Company has about 172,000 employees and 65 plants worldwide. &#160;</p> | Ford to add 12K new jobs over next three years | false | https://pri.org/stories/2012-12-27/ford-add-12k-new-jobs-over-next-three-years | 2012-12-27 | 3left-center
| Ford to add 12K new jobs over next three years
<p>Finally some good news for Detroit.</p>
<p>The Ford Motor company <a href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/news/article.asp?docKey=600-201212270016PR_NEWS_USPRX____DE34622-1&amp;params=timestamp%7C%7C12/27/2012%2012:16%20AM%20ET%7C%7Cheadline%7C%7CFord%20Is%20Investing%20More%20Than%20%24773%20Million%20Across%20Southeast%20Michigan%20Manufacturing%20Facilities%20to%20Support%20Growth%7C%7CdocSource%7C%7CPR%20Newswire%7C%7Cprovider%7C%7CACQUIREMEDIA%7C%7Cbridgesymbol%7C%7CUS;F&amp;ticker=F" type="external">announced on Thursday</a> that it would spend more than $773 million to expand its manufacturing facilities and would create about 2,350 new hourly jobs in Michigan as part of a plan to invest $6.2 billion and add 12,000 new positions by 2015.</p>
<p>"Even as we wrap up an incredibly busy year of capacity expansions and product launches, we are continuing to look to the future,"&#160; said Jim Tetreault, Ford vice president of North America Manufacturing. "These investments, many of which are already under way, will ensure our southeast Michiganmanufacturing facilities can support our aggressive growth plans."</p>
<p>The investment won't just be adding jobs, it'll be saving them. <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2012/12/27/ford-create-jobs-invest/1793485/" type="external">According to USA Today</a>, about 3,240 jobs were remain safe. Ford Motor Company has about 172,000 employees and 65 plants worldwide. &#160;</p> | 2,718 |
<p>Members of Gays Against Guns assembled outside the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel on Tuesday to protest a conference organized by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>About 30 members and supporters of the newly formed D.C. chapter of Gays Against Guns assembled on Connecticut Avenue outside the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Northwest Washington on Tuesday to protest a conference organized by the National Shooting Sports Foundation or NSSF.</p>
<p>Organizers of the protest said their aim was to “out” the little known foundation, which they say portrays itself as an advocate for hunters and outdoor sports enthusiasts but in reality is the national trade association for gun manufacturers, gun dealers and gun show operators.</p>
<p>“They have just as much influence on Capitol Hill as the NRA, but few voters even know who they are, the harm they do to the public, or which members of Congress they control,” said D.C. Gays Against Guns co-founder Michael Adolph.</p>
<p>“Their mission is to promote public policy that supports the production and sale of weapons in America, including military grade assault weapons designed for the mass slaughter of people,” a statement released by D.C. Gays Against Guns says.</p>
<p>Carrying signs saying “NSSF + NRA = Death” and chanting “How many more have to die?” and “No gun reform, no peace,” the protesters positioned themselves on the sidewalk on Connecticut Avenue next to the Woodley Park Metro station and just outside the hotel’s campus-like grounds.</p>
<p>Most prominent was a banner the protesters carried that appeared to be 30 to 40 feet long that stated in bold letters, “Gays Against Guns!”</p>
<p>Organizers said the backdrop for the protest was the NSSF’s annual Firearms Import/Export Conference, which was held at the Marriott Wardman Park Aug. 2-3.</p>
<p>“Gays Against Guns D.C. also called on Marriott, a longstanding friend of the LGBTQ community and corporate leader for equality, to explain where it stands on sensible gun policy,” Gays Against Guns D.C. said in its statement.</p>
<p>“It’s troubling to see your friends provide comfy beds and tasty cocktails to heads of an industry that revolves around violence, making and recklessly promoting and distributing the assault weapons used for the murder of your brothers and sisters,” said Adolph.</p>
<p>“We don’t doubt that Marriott cares about the LGBTQ community,” Adolph said in the group’s statement. “But lives are at risk here, and we simply ask them to show us they’ll stand with us in demanding sensible gun safety policy in America.”</p>
<p>In a statement released Tuesday night, Marriott said it serves as a hospitality company providing public accommodations.</p>
<p>“If a group or individual seeks to book space or an event at one of our hotels, and if to our knowledge that group or individual is pursuing their agenda in a legal manner that does not threaten the comfort or security of our guests and associates, it is our general practice to accept that business,” the statement says.</p>
<p>“In no way do we support or endorse any group or individual by virtue of accepting their business,” the statement says.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for the NSSF couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.</p>
<p>On its website, the NSSF acknowledges that it serves as the trade association for the firearms industry. But it also states its mission “is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports.”</p>
<p>It says its membership consists of “more than 13,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers.”</p>
<p>Several participants in the protest carried signs saying “We are Orlando,” a reminder that at least a dozen Gays Against Guns chapters have formed throughout the country in response to the June 12 shooting rampage at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that claimed the lives of 49 mostly LGBT patrons of the club.</p>
<p>As dozens of pedestrians walked past them, the protesters at one point sang the civil rights hymn “We Shall Overcome” as Silver Spring resident and protest participant Alfonso Fernandez Jr. read the names of each of the 49 people killed in the Orlando shooting.</p>
<p>“I think it’s going great for our first action,” said Gays Against Guns D.C.’s other co-founder, Phil Attey, in assessing the protest. “While it’s been great watching the reaction of the people on the street, it’s actually been more interesting watching the people coming out from the NSSF conference,” he said.</p>
<p>“They’re hearing us chanting ‘NSSF come out, come out,’ and they’re kind of going why are a bunch of gay people telling us to come out?” said Attey.</p>
<p>“But we are,” he said. “They need to come out of the closet as far as who they are as an organization. For too long they’ve flown under the radar as a group of duck and deer hunters that are concerned about the environment and safety,” Attey said.</p>
<p>“The American public has no clue that they wield as much power on Capitol Hill as the NRA and they’re equally responsible for the fact that we can’t get sensible gun control passed in Congress,” he said.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Gays Against Guns</a> <a href="" type="internal">Marriott Wardman Park Hotel</a> <a href="" type="internal">mass shooting</a> <a href="" type="internal">Michael Adolph</a> <a href="" type="internal">National Rifle Association</a> <a href="" type="internal">National Shooting Sports Foundation</a> <a href="" type="internal">NRA</a> <a href="" type="internal">NSSF</a> <a href="" type="internal">Orlando</a> <a href="" type="internal">Phil Attey</a></p> | Gays Against Guns protest targets ‘covert’ gun lobby | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2016/08/03/gays-against-guns-protest-targets-covert-gun-lobby/ | 3left-center
| Gays Against Guns protest targets ‘covert’ gun lobby
<p>Members of Gays Against Guns assembled outside the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel on Tuesday to protest a conference organized by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)</p>
<p>About 30 members and supporters of the newly formed D.C. chapter of Gays Against Guns assembled on Connecticut Avenue outside the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Northwest Washington on Tuesday to protest a conference organized by the National Shooting Sports Foundation or NSSF.</p>
<p>Organizers of the protest said their aim was to “out” the little known foundation, which they say portrays itself as an advocate for hunters and outdoor sports enthusiasts but in reality is the national trade association for gun manufacturers, gun dealers and gun show operators.</p>
<p>“They have just as much influence on Capitol Hill as the NRA, but few voters even know who they are, the harm they do to the public, or which members of Congress they control,” said D.C. Gays Against Guns co-founder Michael Adolph.</p>
<p>“Their mission is to promote public policy that supports the production and sale of weapons in America, including military grade assault weapons designed for the mass slaughter of people,” a statement released by D.C. Gays Against Guns says.</p>
<p>Carrying signs saying “NSSF + NRA = Death” and chanting “How many more have to die?” and “No gun reform, no peace,” the protesters positioned themselves on the sidewalk on Connecticut Avenue next to the Woodley Park Metro station and just outside the hotel’s campus-like grounds.</p>
<p>Most prominent was a banner the protesters carried that appeared to be 30 to 40 feet long that stated in bold letters, “Gays Against Guns!”</p>
<p>Organizers said the backdrop for the protest was the NSSF’s annual Firearms Import/Export Conference, which was held at the Marriott Wardman Park Aug. 2-3.</p>
<p>“Gays Against Guns D.C. also called on Marriott, a longstanding friend of the LGBTQ community and corporate leader for equality, to explain where it stands on sensible gun policy,” Gays Against Guns D.C. said in its statement.</p>
<p>“It’s troubling to see your friends provide comfy beds and tasty cocktails to heads of an industry that revolves around violence, making and recklessly promoting and distributing the assault weapons used for the murder of your brothers and sisters,” said Adolph.</p>
<p>“We don’t doubt that Marriott cares about the LGBTQ community,” Adolph said in the group’s statement. “But lives are at risk here, and we simply ask them to show us they’ll stand with us in demanding sensible gun safety policy in America.”</p>
<p>In a statement released Tuesday night, Marriott said it serves as a hospitality company providing public accommodations.</p>
<p>“If a group or individual seeks to book space or an event at one of our hotels, and if to our knowledge that group or individual is pursuing their agenda in a legal manner that does not threaten the comfort or security of our guests and associates, it is our general practice to accept that business,” the statement says.</p>
<p>“In no way do we support or endorse any group or individual by virtue of accepting their business,” the statement says.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for the NSSF couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.</p>
<p>On its website, the NSSF acknowledges that it serves as the trade association for the firearms industry. But it also states its mission “is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports.”</p>
<p>It says its membership consists of “more than 13,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers.”</p>
<p>Several participants in the protest carried signs saying “We are Orlando,” a reminder that at least a dozen Gays Against Guns chapters have formed throughout the country in response to the June 12 shooting rampage at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that claimed the lives of 49 mostly LGBT patrons of the club.</p>
<p>As dozens of pedestrians walked past them, the protesters at one point sang the civil rights hymn “We Shall Overcome” as Silver Spring resident and protest participant Alfonso Fernandez Jr. read the names of each of the 49 people killed in the Orlando shooting.</p>
<p>“I think it’s going great for our first action,” said Gays Against Guns D.C.’s other co-founder, Phil Attey, in assessing the protest. “While it’s been great watching the reaction of the people on the street, it’s actually been more interesting watching the people coming out from the NSSF conference,” he said.</p>
<p>“They’re hearing us chanting ‘NSSF come out, come out,’ and they’re kind of going why are a bunch of gay people telling us to come out?” said Attey.</p>
<p>“But we are,” he said. “They need to come out of the closet as far as who they are as an organization. For too long they’ve flown under the radar as a group of duck and deer hunters that are concerned about the environment and safety,” Attey said.</p>
<p>“The American public has no clue that they wield as much power on Capitol Hill as the NRA and they’re equally responsible for the fact that we can’t get sensible gun control passed in Congress,” he said.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Gays Against Guns</a> <a href="" type="internal">Marriott Wardman Park Hotel</a> <a href="" type="internal">mass shooting</a> <a href="" type="internal">Michael Adolph</a> <a href="" type="internal">National Rifle Association</a> <a href="" type="internal">National Shooting Sports Foundation</a> <a href="" type="internal">NRA</a> <a href="" type="internal">NSSF</a> <a href="" type="internal">Orlando</a> <a href="" type="internal">Phil Attey</a></p> | 2,719 |
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<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The National Weather Service has issued a <a href="http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=abq&amp;wwa=flash%20flood%20watch" type="external">flash flood watch</a> for parts of northern and central New Mexico including the Jemez Mountains and the San Francisco River valley and southwestern mountains in effect from 9 a.m. today through this evening.</p>
<p>A disturbance in the upper levels of the atmosphere moving north from Mexico will interact with abundant moisture in the air from the monsoon plume extending into Arizona and New Mexico bring about showers and thunderstorms that will increase in intensity late this morning and this afternoon and persist into the evening hours, the weather service said.</p>
<p>Recent rainfall has saturated the grown, so not so much rainfall is needed to cause flash flooding, according to the watch.</p>
<p>Especially prone to flash flooding is the Whitewater-Baldy, Las Conchas and Thompson Ridge burn scars, the weather service said.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?map.x=150&amp;map.y=119&amp;site=abq&amp;zmx=1&amp;zmy=1#.UgD_0Kxi2rg" type="external">Albuquerque metro area</a> should see scattered showers and thunderstorms after noon, with scattered thunderstorms possible tonight, followed by the chance of isolated thunderstorms each day and night until next Monday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Flash flood watch for Jemez, SW mountains | false | https://abqjournal.com/243068/flash-flood-watch-for-jemez-sw-mountains.html | 2013-08-06 | 2least
| Flash flood watch for Jemez, SW mountains
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The National Weather Service has issued a <a href="http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=abq&amp;wwa=flash%20flood%20watch" type="external">flash flood watch</a> for parts of northern and central New Mexico including the Jemez Mountains and the San Francisco River valley and southwestern mountains in effect from 9 a.m. today through this evening.</p>
<p>A disturbance in the upper levels of the atmosphere moving north from Mexico will interact with abundant moisture in the air from the monsoon plume extending into Arizona and New Mexico bring about showers and thunderstorms that will increase in intensity late this morning and this afternoon and persist into the evening hours, the weather service said.</p>
<p>Recent rainfall has saturated the grown, so not so much rainfall is needed to cause flash flooding, according to the watch.</p>
<p>Especially prone to flash flooding is the Whitewater-Baldy, Las Conchas and Thompson Ridge burn scars, the weather service said.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?map.x=150&amp;map.y=119&amp;site=abq&amp;zmx=1&amp;zmy=1#.UgD_0Kxi2rg" type="external">Albuquerque metro area</a> should see scattered showers and thunderstorms after noon, with scattered thunderstorms possible tonight, followed by the chance of isolated thunderstorms each day and night until next Monday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 2,720 |
<p>Do immigrants take American jobs? It’s a common refrain among those who want to tighten limits on legal immigration and deny a “path to citizenship” — which they call “amnesty” — to the millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. There’s even a new Reclaim American Jobs Caucus in the House …</p>
<p /> | false | https://factcheck.org/tag/gary-miller/ | 2least
|
<p>Do immigrants take American jobs? It’s a common refrain among those who want to tighten limits on legal immigration and deny a “path to citizenship” — which they call “amnesty” — to the millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. There’s even a new Reclaim American Jobs Caucus in the House …</p>
<p /> | 2,721 |
||
<p>Today is Day 1,183 of the Syria conflict.</p>
<p>Coverage from Syria has slowed down as journalists and photographers throughout the Middle East get re-routed to Iraq. The Iraq-Syria cross-border jihadist group, whose name is translated alternately as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is in its <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iraq/140610/maliki-asks-iraqi-parliament-declare-state-emergency-a" type="external">second day of a flash offensive</a>&#160;in which it has&#160;captured vast swaths of Iraq, adding to territory gained in Syria in previous weeks.</p>
<p>The Iraqi military has crumbled before the ISIL advance, and the jihadists have reportedly <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/meanwhile-syria/day-1181-today-further-proof-iraq-and-syria-are-one-batt" type="external">captured multiple US military vehicles and driven them back over the border into Syria</a>. Photos have also surfaced on Twitter claiming to show the group demolishing the earth-barriers previously erected on the Iraq-Syria border — both a tactical move to transport the vehicles and, as journalists on Twitter are perceiving it, a symbolic move for a group that aims to establish a borderless caliphate where two countries now stand.</p>
<p>History has a cruel sense of irony. All eyes in Iraq and Syria now turn to a people both countries have at various points sought to stifle: the Kurds. The Kurdish population in Syria has <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/zaman-syria-kurds-rojava-ypg-muslim-pyd-pkk-turkey-isis.html#" type="external">long been fighting against ISIL in the north</a>. And as Iraq's army literally <a href="https://twitter.com/LizSly/statuses/476348750944681984" type="external">drops its pants</a> and flees the advancing jihadists, the Peshmerga fighters of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government are stepping in.</p>
<p>Even before the recent events, Kurdish fighters in both Iraq and Syria had a long history as the darlings of Western media, due to, as Amberin Zaman recently <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/zaman-syria-kurds-rojava-ypg-muslim-pyd-pkk-turkey-isis.html#" type="external">pointed out</a> for Al Monitor, their "overtures to minorities ... and their policy of empowering women (about a third of the YPG's fighting force is female)." (The YPG is the Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria, on the border with Turkey.)</p>
<p>Now, in the wake of the embarrassing routing of the US-trained Iraqi troops, the Peshmerga of Iraqi Kurdistan are taking on impossibly romantic proportions in Western eyes, and the writeups are starting to look like they've been cribbed from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings" type="external">Tolkien's descriptions of elvish battalions</a>. "Thousands of men from the KRG's well-trained Peshmerga — which means 'those who face death' — were deployed around the southern border of the Kurdish autonomous enclave," <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/kurdish-fighters-mobilize-to-stop-threat-of-islamist-militants-1402530282" type="external">read</a> a Wall Street Journal piece yesterday evening:</p>
<p>"They included two brigades in Tuz Khurmatu, close to the disputed oil city of Kirkuk. Peshmerga units, which the KRG says are 190,000-strong, also set up checkpoints along the road to Mosul to regulate the flow of refugees and guard against militant attacks or infiltration.</p>
<p>"The Peshmerga forces are committed to protecting the security and stability of Kurdistan," said Safeen Dizayee, spokesman for the regional government in northern Iraq. The Kurdistan Communities Union offered to assist Iraqi Kurds in warding off ISIS: "The guerrillas of Kurdistan are ready for the defense and security of Kurdistan," it said.</p>
<p>In the wake of ISIS's routing of Iraqi army units in recent days, researchers and military officials said Kurdish fighters represent the best-equipped force to form a bulwark against a rapidly expanding Sunni militant threat.</p>
<p>The Peshmerga have previously stepped in to help protect Mosul from insurgents. The units have also helped ensure a decade of relative stability and prosperity for the Kurdish Iraqi enclave in contrast with the violence in the rest country."</p>
<p>But the facts are not embellished: Everyone's looking to the Kurdish forces because, well, they seem to be the only ones left. Not only has Iraq's army turned in a poor showing, but, as former UN special envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/meanwhile-syria/day-1180-fit-post-election-euphoria-assad-says-hell-rele" type="external">noted</a> in an interview with Der Spiegel on Sunday, there is some speculation that Assad's forces in Syria may have refrained from attacking ISIL in order to prove a point: to make ISIL the only alternative to Assad, and let that fact scare Syrians and the West into submission. In fact, following ISIL's gains in Iraq Assad smugly <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/assad-says-west-shifting-position-syria-20146128166985488.html" type="external">announced</a> that "the United States and the West have started to send signs of change. Terrorism is now on their soil." (Also, as has been pointed out in <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/6/12/5802824/how-isis-is-exploiting-the-economics-of-syrias-civil-war" type="external">multiple</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/the-militants-moving-in-on-syria-and-iraq.html?hp&amp;_r=0" type="external">publications</a> recently, the Assad regime is actually buying oil from ISIL, which has seized control of a number of key refineries.)</p>
<p>In other words, right now ISIL's biggest barriers to dominance in Iraq and Syria are not the national armies of these two countries. Instead, you've got the other jihadist groups jockeying for power, such as Al Nusra, which split with ISIL back in February — and then you've got the Kurds.</p>
<p>The conflict continues.</p> | Day 1,183: In Syria and Iraq, all eyes turn to the Kurds | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-06-12/day-1183-syria-and-iraq-all-eyes-turn-kurds | 2014-06-12 | 3left-center
| Day 1,183: In Syria and Iraq, all eyes turn to the Kurds
<p>Today is Day 1,183 of the Syria conflict.</p>
<p>Coverage from Syria has slowed down as journalists and photographers throughout the Middle East get re-routed to Iraq. The Iraq-Syria cross-border jihadist group, whose name is translated alternately as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is in its <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iraq/140610/maliki-asks-iraqi-parliament-declare-state-emergency-a" type="external">second day of a flash offensive</a>&#160;in which it has&#160;captured vast swaths of Iraq, adding to territory gained in Syria in previous weeks.</p>
<p>The Iraqi military has crumbled before the ISIL advance, and the jihadists have reportedly <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/meanwhile-syria/day-1181-today-further-proof-iraq-and-syria-are-one-batt" type="external">captured multiple US military vehicles and driven them back over the border into Syria</a>. Photos have also surfaced on Twitter claiming to show the group demolishing the earth-barriers previously erected on the Iraq-Syria border — both a tactical move to transport the vehicles and, as journalists on Twitter are perceiving it, a symbolic move for a group that aims to establish a borderless caliphate where two countries now stand.</p>
<p>History has a cruel sense of irony. All eyes in Iraq and Syria now turn to a people both countries have at various points sought to stifle: the Kurds. The Kurdish population in Syria has <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/zaman-syria-kurds-rojava-ypg-muslim-pyd-pkk-turkey-isis.html#" type="external">long been fighting against ISIL in the north</a>. And as Iraq's army literally <a href="https://twitter.com/LizSly/statuses/476348750944681984" type="external">drops its pants</a> and flees the advancing jihadists, the Peshmerga fighters of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government are stepping in.</p>
<p>Even before the recent events, Kurdish fighters in both Iraq and Syria had a long history as the darlings of Western media, due to, as Amberin Zaman recently <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/zaman-syria-kurds-rojava-ypg-muslim-pyd-pkk-turkey-isis.html#" type="external">pointed out</a> for Al Monitor, their "overtures to minorities ... and their policy of empowering women (about a third of the YPG's fighting force is female)." (The YPG is the Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria, on the border with Turkey.)</p>
<p>Now, in the wake of the embarrassing routing of the US-trained Iraqi troops, the Peshmerga of Iraqi Kurdistan are taking on impossibly romantic proportions in Western eyes, and the writeups are starting to look like they've been cribbed from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings" type="external">Tolkien's descriptions of elvish battalions</a>. "Thousands of men from the KRG's well-trained Peshmerga — which means 'those who face death' — were deployed around the southern border of the Kurdish autonomous enclave," <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/kurdish-fighters-mobilize-to-stop-threat-of-islamist-militants-1402530282" type="external">read</a> a Wall Street Journal piece yesterday evening:</p>
<p>"They included two brigades in Tuz Khurmatu, close to the disputed oil city of Kirkuk. Peshmerga units, which the KRG says are 190,000-strong, also set up checkpoints along the road to Mosul to regulate the flow of refugees and guard against militant attacks or infiltration.</p>
<p>"The Peshmerga forces are committed to protecting the security and stability of Kurdistan," said Safeen Dizayee, spokesman for the regional government in northern Iraq. The Kurdistan Communities Union offered to assist Iraqi Kurds in warding off ISIS: "The guerrillas of Kurdistan are ready for the defense and security of Kurdistan," it said.</p>
<p>In the wake of ISIS's routing of Iraqi army units in recent days, researchers and military officials said Kurdish fighters represent the best-equipped force to form a bulwark against a rapidly expanding Sunni militant threat.</p>
<p>The Peshmerga have previously stepped in to help protect Mosul from insurgents. The units have also helped ensure a decade of relative stability and prosperity for the Kurdish Iraqi enclave in contrast with the violence in the rest country."</p>
<p>But the facts are not embellished: Everyone's looking to the Kurdish forces because, well, they seem to be the only ones left. Not only has Iraq's army turned in a poor showing, but, as former UN special envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/meanwhile-syria/day-1180-fit-post-election-euphoria-assad-says-hell-rele" type="external">noted</a> in an interview with Der Spiegel on Sunday, there is some speculation that Assad's forces in Syria may have refrained from attacking ISIL in order to prove a point: to make ISIL the only alternative to Assad, and let that fact scare Syrians and the West into submission. In fact, following ISIL's gains in Iraq Assad smugly <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/assad-says-west-shifting-position-syria-20146128166985488.html" type="external">announced</a> that "the United States and the West have started to send signs of change. Terrorism is now on their soil." (Also, as has been pointed out in <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/6/12/5802824/how-isis-is-exploiting-the-economics-of-syrias-civil-war" type="external">multiple</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/world/middleeast/the-militants-moving-in-on-syria-and-iraq.html?hp&amp;_r=0" type="external">publications</a> recently, the Assad regime is actually buying oil from ISIL, which has seized control of a number of key refineries.)</p>
<p>In other words, right now ISIL's biggest barriers to dominance in Iraq and Syria are not the national armies of these two countries. Instead, you've got the other jihadist groups jockeying for power, such as Al Nusra, which split with ISIL back in February — and then you've got the Kurds.</p>
<p>The conflict continues.</p> | 2,722 |
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<p />
<p>But a New York Federal Reserve Bank report calls into question whether many people made that mental check mark, then went through the calculation of how much they were borrowing and how they planned to repay it, when they took out student loans that have snowballed into nearly $1.2 trillion in outstanding debt.</p>
<p>Even more shocking is that people over 50 are on the hook for 16 percent of that debt, or roughly $192 million. The average is nearly $30,000 and can be much higher.</p>
<p>Take the case of Andrew Jones, a 63-year-old New Jersey man whose student loan debt tracked him into retirement. Jones defaulted on nearly $5,000 in loans he took out in 1970. But they won’t go away and can’t be discharged in bankruptcy. Jones has now paid more than double the initial balance but still owes $18,000.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>His Social Security check was recently garnisheed to pay back interest and fees. Laid off and living on a fixed income, that monthly $145.50 deduction from his $970 check is a real hardship.</p>
<p>President Barack Obama recently ordered a program expanded to limit monthly payments to 10 percent of a person’s income. And U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Mark Warner, D-Va., have introduced the Dynamic Repayment Act that would put borrowers on an automatic 10 percent of their income repayment plan instead of the standard 10-year plan that often leads to defaults.</p>
<p>But a little financial literacy on the burden of compounding interest is in order for prospective students. If Jones had paid off his principal in a timely fashion, he wouldn’t be looking at a debt more than four times that initial balance 44 years after the fact.</p>
<p>The still-recovering economy, a lingering scarcity of higher-paying jobs and the escalating costs of college have contributed to the growing student loan debt. Nearly 7 million borrowers have defaulted on more than $100 billion owed. The Federal Reserve has said that “implies that a fundamental change has taken place in the way we finance higher education in the U.S.”</p>
<p>As well as how/if we pay for it. And while U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, recently unveiled the Higher Education Affordability Act, which would allow student loans to be erased in bankruptcy, “affordable” should not equate with on someone else’s dime.</p>
<p>The reality is that like a car, home or vacation, a college education is a financial decision. Unlike material goods, it should also be an investment that leads to better economic outcomes, not a lifetime of debt and fixed-income garnishments.</p>
<p>As such, student loans have to be weighed on a risk-vs.-reward basis, including whether the borrower is going to ultimately at least get back what they put in.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p /> | Editorial: School-loan defaults show risk-reward analysis vital | false | https://abqjournal.com/434948/schoolloan-defaults-show-riskreward-analysis-vital.html | 2least
| Editorial: School-loan defaults show risk-reward analysis vital
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>But a New York Federal Reserve Bank report calls into question whether many people made that mental check mark, then went through the calculation of how much they were borrowing and how they planned to repay it, when they took out student loans that have snowballed into nearly $1.2 trillion in outstanding debt.</p>
<p>Even more shocking is that people over 50 are on the hook for 16 percent of that debt, or roughly $192 million. The average is nearly $30,000 and can be much higher.</p>
<p>Take the case of Andrew Jones, a 63-year-old New Jersey man whose student loan debt tracked him into retirement. Jones defaulted on nearly $5,000 in loans he took out in 1970. But they won’t go away and can’t be discharged in bankruptcy. Jones has now paid more than double the initial balance but still owes $18,000.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>His Social Security check was recently garnisheed to pay back interest and fees. Laid off and living on a fixed income, that monthly $145.50 deduction from his $970 check is a real hardship.</p>
<p>President Barack Obama recently ordered a program expanded to limit monthly payments to 10 percent of a person’s income. And U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Mark Warner, D-Va., have introduced the Dynamic Repayment Act that would put borrowers on an automatic 10 percent of their income repayment plan instead of the standard 10-year plan that often leads to defaults.</p>
<p>But a little financial literacy on the burden of compounding interest is in order for prospective students. If Jones had paid off his principal in a timely fashion, he wouldn’t be looking at a debt more than four times that initial balance 44 years after the fact.</p>
<p>The still-recovering economy, a lingering scarcity of higher-paying jobs and the escalating costs of college have contributed to the growing student loan debt. Nearly 7 million borrowers have defaulted on more than $100 billion owed. The Federal Reserve has said that “implies that a fundamental change has taken place in the way we finance higher education in the U.S.”</p>
<p>As well as how/if we pay for it. And while U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, recently unveiled the Higher Education Affordability Act, which would allow student loans to be erased in bankruptcy, “affordable” should not equate with on someone else’s dime.</p>
<p>The reality is that like a car, home or vacation, a college education is a financial decision. Unlike material goods, it should also be an investment that leads to better economic outcomes, not a lifetime of debt and fixed-income garnishments.</p>
<p>As such, student loans have to be weighed on a risk-vs.-reward basis, including whether the borrower is going to ultimately at least get back what they put in.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p /> | 2,723 |
|
<p>Photo: AP/Wide World Photos</p>
<p />
<p>Article created by the <a href="http://www.urban.org" type="external">Urban Institute</a>.</p>
<p>1. What makes New Orleans such an interesting urban study?</p>
<p>Even before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was facing tough challenges — challenges that were particularly problematic for low-income and minority families. The city was losing jobs and population. And high levels of racial segregation and concentrated poverty had created neighborhoods of severe distress.</p>
<p>Unemployment, poverty, and single parenthood — problems shared by other cities in the country — were particularly intense in New Orleans. <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900922.html" type="external">Sheila Zedlewski’s essay</a> on the city’s social safety-net programs documents how especially difficult the situation was in New Orleans even before the storm.</p>
<p>But at the same time, New Orleans stands out from other cities because of its special artistic and cultural heritage. People throughout the country knew about and valued New Orleans’ unique character. It was a city that recognized how important art and culture are to its identity and to its economy. A lot of that art and culture bubbled up from low-income and minority communities.</p>
<p>2. Why is simply rebuilding the city not enough?</p>
<p>The city’s social infrastructure needs as much attention as the physical infrastructure. Because just about everything was wiped out by the storm, rebuilding gives New Orleans a chance to correct past mistakes. It can build a stronger system of social supports and opportunities as the reconstruction happens.</p>
<p>Just having streets and levies rebuilt won’t enable people to come back to the city. People need to know there is a job there, schools for their kids to go to, and affordable housing to live in. The communities and social supports need rebuilding too. It’s really in the city’s interest to tackle everything, or the population won’t return.</p>
<p>As a nation, we owe the most vulnerable residents of New Orleans help. The city’s low-income and minority populations were really suffering before the storm. They bore the brunt of the storm’s devastation and of the horribly handled aftermath. They are understandably skeptical about whether they will be welcomed back — whether there will be a place for them. It would be unjust to close them out of the city’s rebuilding.</p>
<p>Rebuilding New Orleans right could be a model, even for cities not devastated by disaster. Although no other city has to rebuild everything, lots of cities are struggling with unpredictable school populations, insufficient affordable housing, and a lack of adequate supports to give poor children a healthy start in life. If New Orleans implements some of the best thinking from around the country on these issues, it could become a model for other cities that aren’t in such dire straits but still struggle with similar social challenges.</p>
<p>3. Are children particularly vulnerable in this transition period?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900920.html" type="external">Olivia Golden’s essay</a> on children makes it clear that young kids — babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers — are at severe risk of long-term damage. Many experienced trauma and lost family members, friends, and home.</p>
<p>Some children were rushed out of their home, into the Super Dome, possibly into a shelter, and then to a motel. Such traumas can set children back emotionally over the long-term, especially if their parents are struggling to reestablish a safe and secure life.</p>
<p>As New Orleans rebuilds, it needs to focus on a support system for young children. Olivia outlines a proposal that builds on the successful Head Start model, but goes farther. Without such a support system, a generation of children in New Orleans may suffer a lifetime of disadvantage because of what they experienced.</p>
<p>Jane Hannaway and Paul Hill in their <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900913.html" type="external">essay on education</a> have proposed combining charter schools with vouchers. Both ideas are controversial in the school reform debate, but when you don’t know month-to-month how many kids are going to come back and where they are going to go, building a traditional school system all at once doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>Letting schools come back one at a time, and letting families direct public money to the schools that they think will meet their kids’ needs, really seems sensible in this shifting environment.</p>
<p>4. Will there be enough jobs, and such services as health care, for the families that return?</p>
<p>These pieces interconnect in complicated ways. One of the issues addressed by Bob Lerman and Harry Holzer in their <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900921.html" type="external">essay on employment</a> is that thousands of jobs were lost. Yet, thousands are likely to be created in the rebuilding process.</p>
<p>You also hear about how businesses are ready to reopen, but can’t because the workers aren’t coming back. The lack of housing, schools, and health services makes it hard to reopen establishments that would provide more jobs.</p>
<p>So Bob and Harry’s proposals focus less on creating jobs than on helping people get back to the jobs they had before — or to better jobs. They draw on experience from other cities with effective job placement, job readiness, and skills-development strategies. This way, the lower skilled and lower income residents of New Orleans who were not doing well in the pre-Katrina economy have a shot at, not just coming back, but at doing better.</p>
<p>Steve Zuckerman and Terry Coughlin in an <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900929.html" type="external">essay on health care</a> point out that New Orleans relied heavily on a single hospital (Charity Hospital) to meet the needs of poor and uninsured people. Katrina physically devastated that hospital. Steve and Terry argue that a more dispersed network of community health care facilities would better serve needy residents.</p>
<p>A rebuilt Charity Hospital would probably still be at the center of that network, but there would be more community-based facilities as well. This hybrid approach could give low-income families more access to care, including preventive care, and improve the health care situation for people without private health insurance.</p>
<p>5. What models might make New Orleans stronger than before?</p>
<p>Each of these Urban Institute essays draws from widely varying innovations around the country. But all share some important principles that should be central to the debate on New Orleans’ future.</p>
<p>The first principle is that individuals and families should be able to make their own choices. That’s really reflected in the school proposal — with vouchers and charter schools — but also in the ideas that Sue Popkin, Marti Burt, and I outline in our <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900914.html" type="external">essay</a> on how affordable housing options should be available in every part of the city, giving people choices about where to live.</p>
<p>But choices aren’t worth a lot without good information. So the second principle becomes information — the information that people need to make good choices. That doesn’t mean pamphlets. It means counselors and resource rooms and intermediaries that can help a family sitting in Houston figure out where to live, where to work, where to get job training, and where to send their kids to school. People need help from professionals and skilled volunteers to put their lives back together.</p>
<p>All of these strategies emphasize flexibility. In an environment where you can’t predict how many people are going to come back, where, or how fast — public systems have to be much more flexible than they typically are.</p>
<p>The last of our proposed principles focuses on asset building. Sheila Zedlewski makes a compelling argument for not just helping families get by, but helping them to accumulate savings and build a buffer so they are not tossed around by changing circumstances.</p>
<p>It’s not just individual financial assets, but also social assets at issue here. In her <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900927.html" type="external">essay on arts and culture</a>, Maria Jackson points out how social organizations — community-based cultural and artistic groups — are crucial assets for the city and its neighborhoods. These too will have to be rebuilt if the city is really going to come back.</p>
<p>This essay collection is not trying to tackle the whole rebuilding challenge facing New Orleans. Nor does it address the needs of the “diaspora” — former residents now scattered across the country, some of whom may not return. These are important issues, but we wanted to highlight the challenges of low-income and minority communities in New Orleans, and to offer strategies that could enable them to come back stronger.</p>
<p>All the rebuilding strategies outlined in our collection are designed to forge stronger connections between low-income families and the economic mainstream. In other words, the underlying goal is not just to ameliorate poverty, but also to break down barriers that prevent people from escaping poverty.</p>
<p /> | Rebuilding New Orleans into an Urban Model | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/03/rebuilding-new-orleans-urban-model/ | 2006-03-29 | 4left
| Rebuilding New Orleans into an Urban Model
<p>Photo: AP/Wide World Photos</p>
<p />
<p>Article created by the <a href="http://www.urban.org" type="external">Urban Institute</a>.</p>
<p>1. What makes New Orleans such an interesting urban study?</p>
<p>Even before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was facing tough challenges — challenges that were particularly problematic for low-income and minority families. The city was losing jobs and population. And high levels of racial segregation and concentrated poverty had created neighborhoods of severe distress.</p>
<p>Unemployment, poverty, and single parenthood — problems shared by other cities in the country — were particularly intense in New Orleans. <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900922.html" type="external">Sheila Zedlewski’s essay</a> on the city’s social safety-net programs documents how especially difficult the situation was in New Orleans even before the storm.</p>
<p>But at the same time, New Orleans stands out from other cities because of its special artistic and cultural heritage. People throughout the country knew about and valued New Orleans’ unique character. It was a city that recognized how important art and culture are to its identity and to its economy. A lot of that art and culture bubbled up from low-income and minority communities.</p>
<p>2. Why is simply rebuilding the city not enough?</p>
<p>The city’s social infrastructure needs as much attention as the physical infrastructure. Because just about everything was wiped out by the storm, rebuilding gives New Orleans a chance to correct past mistakes. It can build a stronger system of social supports and opportunities as the reconstruction happens.</p>
<p>Just having streets and levies rebuilt won’t enable people to come back to the city. People need to know there is a job there, schools for their kids to go to, and affordable housing to live in. The communities and social supports need rebuilding too. It’s really in the city’s interest to tackle everything, or the population won’t return.</p>
<p>As a nation, we owe the most vulnerable residents of New Orleans help. The city’s low-income and minority populations were really suffering before the storm. They bore the brunt of the storm’s devastation and of the horribly handled aftermath. They are understandably skeptical about whether they will be welcomed back — whether there will be a place for them. It would be unjust to close them out of the city’s rebuilding.</p>
<p>Rebuilding New Orleans right could be a model, even for cities not devastated by disaster. Although no other city has to rebuild everything, lots of cities are struggling with unpredictable school populations, insufficient affordable housing, and a lack of adequate supports to give poor children a healthy start in life. If New Orleans implements some of the best thinking from around the country on these issues, it could become a model for other cities that aren’t in such dire straits but still struggle with similar social challenges.</p>
<p>3. Are children particularly vulnerable in this transition period?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900920.html" type="external">Olivia Golden’s essay</a> on children makes it clear that young kids — babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers — are at severe risk of long-term damage. Many experienced trauma and lost family members, friends, and home.</p>
<p>Some children were rushed out of their home, into the Super Dome, possibly into a shelter, and then to a motel. Such traumas can set children back emotionally over the long-term, especially if their parents are struggling to reestablish a safe and secure life.</p>
<p>As New Orleans rebuilds, it needs to focus on a support system for young children. Olivia outlines a proposal that builds on the successful Head Start model, but goes farther. Without such a support system, a generation of children in New Orleans may suffer a lifetime of disadvantage because of what they experienced.</p>
<p>Jane Hannaway and Paul Hill in their <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900913.html" type="external">essay on education</a> have proposed combining charter schools with vouchers. Both ideas are controversial in the school reform debate, but when you don’t know month-to-month how many kids are going to come back and where they are going to go, building a traditional school system all at once doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>Letting schools come back one at a time, and letting families direct public money to the schools that they think will meet their kids’ needs, really seems sensible in this shifting environment.</p>
<p>4. Will there be enough jobs, and such services as health care, for the families that return?</p>
<p>These pieces interconnect in complicated ways. One of the issues addressed by Bob Lerman and Harry Holzer in their <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900921.html" type="external">essay on employment</a> is that thousands of jobs were lost. Yet, thousands are likely to be created in the rebuilding process.</p>
<p>You also hear about how businesses are ready to reopen, but can’t because the workers aren’t coming back. The lack of housing, schools, and health services makes it hard to reopen establishments that would provide more jobs.</p>
<p>So Bob and Harry’s proposals focus less on creating jobs than on helping people get back to the jobs they had before — or to better jobs. They draw on experience from other cities with effective job placement, job readiness, and skills-development strategies. This way, the lower skilled and lower income residents of New Orleans who were not doing well in the pre-Katrina economy have a shot at, not just coming back, but at doing better.</p>
<p>Steve Zuckerman and Terry Coughlin in an <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900929.html" type="external">essay on health care</a> point out that New Orleans relied heavily on a single hospital (Charity Hospital) to meet the needs of poor and uninsured people. Katrina physically devastated that hospital. Steve and Terry argue that a more dispersed network of community health care facilities would better serve needy residents.</p>
<p>A rebuilt Charity Hospital would probably still be at the center of that network, but there would be more community-based facilities as well. This hybrid approach could give low-income families more access to care, including preventive care, and improve the health care situation for people without private health insurance.</p>
<p>5. What models might make New Orleans stronger than before?</p>
<p>Each of these Urban Institute essays draws from widely varying innovations around the country. But all share some important principles that should be central to the debate on New Orleans’ future.</p>
<p>The first principle is that individuals and families should be able to make their own choices. That’s really reflected in the school proposal — with vouchers and charter schools — but also in the ideas that Sue Popkin, Marti Burt, and I outline in our <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900914.html" type="external">essay</a> on how affordable housing options should be available in every part of the city, giving people choices about where to live.</p>
<p>But choices aren’t worth a lot without good information. So the second principle becomes information — the information that people need to make good choices. That doesn’t mean pamphlets. It means counselors and resource rooms and intermediaries that can help a family sitting in Houston figure out where to live, where to work, where to get job training, and where to send their kids to school. People need help from professionals and skilled volunteers to put their lives back together.</p>
<p>All of these strategies emphasize flexibility. In an environment where you can’t predict how many people are going to come back, where, or how fast — public systems have to be much more flexible than they typically are.</p>
<p>The last of our proposed principles focuses on asset building. Sheila Zedlewski makes a compelling argument for not just helping families get by, but helping them to accumulate savings and build a buffer so they are not tossed around by changing circumstances.</p>
<p>It’s not just individual financial assets, but also social assets at issue here. In her <a href="http://www.urban.org/publications/900927.html" type="external">essay on arts and culture</a>, Maria Jackson points out how social organizations — community-based cultural and artistic groups — are crucial assets for the city and its neighborhoods. These too will have to be rebuilt if the city is really going to come back.</p>
<p>This essay collection is not trying to tackle the whole rebuilding challenge facing New Orleans. Nor does it address the needs of the “diaspora” — former residents now scattered across the country, some of whom may not return. These are important issues, but we wanted to highlight the challenges of low-income and minority communities in New Orleans, and to offer strategies that could enable them to come back stronger.</p>
<p>All the rebuilding strategies outlined in our collection are designed to forge stronger connections between low-income families and the economic mainstream. In other words, the underlying goal is not just to ameliorate poverty, but also to break down barriers that prevent people from escaping poverty.</p>
<p /> | 2,724 |
<p>Who stands to win under President Barack Obama's&#160;proposal to increase the availibility of overtime to American workers? &#160;We've crunched data to get a clue ahead of Obama's more detailed rollout of his initiative later this week. The answer is good news for some real estate managers, tax preparers and managers of places like Dunkin Donuts.</p>
<p>Under the plan, Obama would increase the&#160;threshold under&#160;which salaried workers receive overtime pay from $23,660 to $50,440. He claimed that the new rule, if implemented in 2016, would extend overtime payment to nearly 5&#160;million workers.</p>
<p>The current threshold has been unchanged since it was raised to $23,660 in 1975 by the Ford administration. Back then it covered 62 percent of salaried workers, but in 2014 the number has declined to just 8&#160;percent, according to an <a href="http://www.epi.org/blog/an-updated-analysis-of-who-would-benefit-from-an-increased-overtime-salary-threshold/" type="external">analysis</a>&#160;published last Friday by the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington DC. The analysis stated that if the threshold is raised to $52,000, equivalent to the 1975 level in 2014 dollars, it would cover 44 percent of the workforce.</p>
<p>Wondering which occupations are more likely to receive the highest overtime pay under the new rule, PRI did an analysis of the latest <a href="http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.htm" type="external">earnings</a>&#160;and <a href="http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat23.htm" type="external">work hours</a>&#160;data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p>
<p>It turned out that workers in the management, business and financial operations category who are currently earning below $50,440, or $970 but do not qualify for overtime pay would be the biggest winner as they have to endure longer work hours.</p>
<p>These occupations are financial specialists, logisticians, purchasing agents (except wholesale, retail and farm products), real estate managers, tax preparers, wholesale and retail buyers (except farm products), agricultural managers, food service managers, and human resources workers.</p>
<p>Earning an average weekly wage ranged between $704 to $962, they had the longest average working hours of 44.7 hours per week. The 4.7 hours of overtime would increase their weekly salary by almost 12 percent. For example, a human resource manager who earns $962 weekly, he or she would bring home an extra income of $5,878 a year.</p>
<p>For the lowest-paid occupations, mostly in the categories of service occupations, such as food attendants, dishwashers, maids and cooks, they would enjoy a smaller pay hike around three percent as their overtime is lower (1.3 hours). Still, they would earn an extra annual income of slightly over $600.</p>
<p>Use the table below to find out how the proposed rule would affect you or your friends and families. Click on the header to sort the table and filter the table by typing search terms in the top-right search box.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Which workers would gain the most under Obama’s new overtime proposal? | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-07-01/which-jobs-would-gain-most-under-obama-s-new-overtime-proposal | 2015-07-01 | 3left-center
| Which workers would gain the most under Obama’s new overtime proposal?
<p>Who stands to win under President Barack Obama's&#160;proposal to increase the availibility of overtime to American workers? &#160;We've crunched data to get a clue ahead of Obama's more detailed rollout of his initiative later this week. The answer is good news for some real estate managers, tax preparers and managers of places like Dunkin Donuts.</p>
<p>Under the plan, Obama would increase the&#160;threshold under&#160;which salaried workers receive overtime pay from $23,660 to $50,440. He claimed that the new rule, if implemented in 2016, would extend overtime payment to nearly 5&#160;million workers.</p>
<p>The current threshold has been unchanged since it was raised to $23,660 in 1975 by the Ford administration. Back then it covered 62 percent of salaried workers, but in 2014 the number has declined to just 8&#160;percent, according to an <a href="http://www.epi.org/blog/an-updated-analysis-of-who-would-benefit-from-an-increased-overtime-salary-threshold/" type="external">analysis</a>&#160;published last Friday by the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington DC. The analysis stated that if the threshold is raised to $52,000, equivalent to the 1975 level in 2014 dollars, it would cover 44 percent of the workforce.</p>
<p>Wondering which occupations are more likely to receive the highest overtime pay under the new rule, PRI did an analysis of the latest <a href="http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.htm" type="external">earnings</a>&#160;and <a href="http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat23.htm" type="external">work hours</a>&#160;data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.</p>
<p>It turned out that workers in the management, business and financial operations category who are currently earning below $50,440, or $970 but do not qualify for overtime pay would be the biggest winner as they have to endure longer work hours.</p>
<p>These occupations are financial specialists, logisticians, purchasing agents (except wholesale, retail and farm products), real estate managers, tax preparers, wholesale and retail buyers (except farm products), agricultural managers, food service managers, and human resources workers.</p>
<p>Earning an average weekly wage ranged between $704 to $962, they had the longest average working hours of 44.7 hours per week. The 4.7 hours of overtime would increase their weekly salary by almost 12 percent. For example, a human resource manager who earns $962 weekly, he or she would bring home an extra income of $5,878 a year.</p>
<p>For the lowest-paid occupations, mostly in the categories of service occupations, such as food attendants, dishwashers, maids and cooks, they would enjoy a smaller pay hike around three percent as their overtime is lower (1.3 hours). Still, they would earn an extra annual income of slightly over $600.</p>
<p>Use the table below to find out how the proposed rule would affect you or your friends and families. Click on the header to sort the table and filter the table by typing search terms in the top-right search box.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,725 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>The New Mexico baseball team (4-6) looks to build on its two-game sweep of La Salle when the UC Riverside Highlanders (7-5) come to Isotopes Park for a four-game series beginning today.</p>
<p>The Lobos, who had 36 hits in two games against La Salle, will face a Highlander team that has won four straight.</p>
<p>The UNM pitching staff led by A.J. Carman (0-0, 0.60), Kevin Baumgartner (0-1, 3.75) and Sam Wolff (1-1, 3.52) will look to tame a Riverside attack that includes senior catcher Clayton Prestridge and his .408 batting average.</p>
<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney has taken out a $5 million insurance policy to protect himself financially during the Gamecocks’ 2013 season.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The All-America defensive end used Twitter to laugh off discussions last month about whether he should sit out the year and not risk injury, but he apparently has been seriously thinking about his NFL future.</p>
<p>Several analysts say the 6-foot-6 Clowney would be the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NFL draft if he were eligible. That led to questions whether Clowney should consider not playing and avoid possibly suffering an injury that might ruin his draft status.</p>
<p>LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The University of New Mexico men’s golf team, ranked fifth in the country in the latest versions of both the Golfweek.com/Sagarin and Golfstat.com polls, will get another measure of its standing when it competes in the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters today through Sunday.</p>
<p>All 15 teams in the field are ranked in the top 50, including eight of the top-10 ranked teams in the Golfweek.com/Sagarin poll. No. 1 California, No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Alabama are among the participants.</p>
<p>Additionally, 28 of the top-50 players on Golfweek.com’s individual rankings are playing, including three Lobos — No. 20 James Erkenbeck, No. 35 Gavin Green and No. 46 Victor Perez.</p>
<p>“This is definitely a tournament you want to get invited to — for a lot of reasons,” coach Glen Millican said. “The course is as good as it gets, and it’s an event that you have to play your way into.”</p>
<p>AGGIE SOFTBALL: New Mexico State is competing in the Diamond Devil Invitational in Tempe, Ariz., today through Sunday. NMSU faces UC Davis and Pittsburgh on the first day of the invitational before meeting Notre Dame and host Arizona State on Saturday. The tournament concludes with two more meetings with the Irish and the Sun Devils on Sunday.</p>
<p>AGGIE TENNIS: The New Mexico State men’s team hits the road for two matches at UNM’s Linda Estes Tennis Complex. The Aggies face Rio Grande rival New Mexico on Saturday and meet DePaul on Sunday.</p>
<p>LOBO SKIING: In Middlebury, Vt., Mats Rudin Resaland earned first-team All-American honors as he led UNM with a second-place finish in the Nordic men’s 10K classic Thursday, the second day of the 2013 NCAA Skiing Championships. New Mexico is in fifth place overall.</p>
<p>SOCCER: U.S. women’s team goalkeeper Jill Loyden broke a bone in her left hand during training Thursday and will miss three months.</p>
<p>IDITAROD: The first musher to reach the village of Anvik along the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is in for a treat. The Millennium Alaskan Hotel Anchorage will fly its chef 350 miles to whip up a seven-course meal for the first musher to get to the first checkpoint along the Yukon River. — This article appeared on page D6 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | Quick Hits | false | https://abqjournal.com/239071/quick-hits-109.html | 2least
| Quick Hits
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>The New Mexico baseball team (4-6) looks to build on its two-game sweep of La Salle when the UC Riverside Highlanders (7-5) come to Isotopes Park for a four-game series beginning today.</p>
<p>The Lobos, who had 36 hits in two games against La Salle, will face a Highlander team that has won four straight.</p>
<p>The UNM pitching staff led by A.J. Carman (0-0, 0.60), Kevin Baumgartner (0-1, 3.75) and Sam Wolff (1-1, 3.52) will look to tame a Riverside attack that includes senior catcher Clayton Prestridge and his .408 batting average.</p>
<p>COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney has taken out a $5 million insurance policy to protect himself financially during the Gamecocks’ 2013 season.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The All-America defensive end used Twitter to laugh off discussions last month about whether he should sit out the year and not risk injury, but he apparently has been seriously thinking about his NFL future.</p>
<p>Several analysts say the 6-foot-6 Clowney would be the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NFL draft if he were eligible. That led to questions whether Clowney should consider not playing and avoid possibly suffering an injury that might ruin his draft status.</p>
<p>LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The University of New Mexico men’s golf team, ranked fifth in the country in the latest versions of both the Golfweek.com/Sagarin and Golfstat.com polls, will get another measure of its standing when it competes in the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters today through Sunday.</p>
<p>All 15 teams in the field are ranked in the top 50, including eight of the top-10 ranked teams in the Golfweek.com/Sagarin poll. No. 1 California, No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Alabama are among the participants.</p>
<p>Additionally, 28 of the top-50 players on Golfweek.com’s individual rankings are playing, including three Lobos — No. 20 James Erkenbeck, No. 35 Gavin Green and No. 46 Victor Perez.</p>
<p>“This is definitely a tournament you want to get invited to — for a lot of reasons,” coach Glen Millican said. “The course is as good as it gets, and it’s an event that you have to play your way into.”</p>
<p>AGGIE SOFTBALL: New Mexico State is competing in the Diamond Devil Invitational in Tempe, Ariz., today through Sunday. NMSU faces UC Davis and Pittsburgh on the first day of the invitational before meeting Notre Dame and host Arizona State on Saturday. The tournament concludes with two more meetings with the Irish and the Sun Devils on Sunday.</p>
<p>AGGIE TENNIS: The New Mexico State men’s team hits the road for two matches at UNM’s Linda Estes Tennis Complex. The Aggies face Rio Grande rival New Mexico on Saturday and meet DePaul on Sunday.</p>
<p>LOBO SKIING: In Middlebury, Vt., Mats Rudin Resaland earned first-team All-American honors as he led UNM with a second-place finish in the Nordic men’s 10K classic Thursday, the second day of the 2013 NCAA Skiing Championships. New Mexico is in fifth place overall.</p>
<p>SOCCER: U.S. women’s team goalkeeper Jill Loyden broke a bone in her left hand during training Thursday and will miss three months.</p>
<p>IDITAROD: The first musher to reach the village of Anvik along the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is in for a treat. The Millennium Alaskan Hotel Anchorage will fly its chef 350 miles to whip up a seven-course meal for the first musher to get to the first checkpoint along the Yukon River. — This article appeared on page D6 of the Albuquerque Journal</p> | 2,726 |
|
<p>Jon Super/AP</p>
<p />
<p>Here is President Barack Obama’s challenge: how to unleash the dogs of war without having them run wild.</p>
<p>This dilemma applies to both the political and policy considerations Obama faces, as he expands US military action in Iraq (and possibly Syria) to counter ISIS, the militant and murderous outfit that now calls itself the Islamic State and controls territory in northern Iraq and eastern Syria. In a speech from the White House on Wednesday night, Obama announced what was expected: The United States would widen its air strikes against ISIS in Iraq, “take action” of some sort against ISIS in Syria, ramp up military assistance for the Syrian opposition, keep sending advisers to assist the Iraqi military’s on-the-ground-campaign against ISIS, and maintain pressure on Iraqi politicians to produce a national government that can represent and work with Sunnis and, consequently, undercut ISIS’s support and appeal in Sunni-dominated areas of the country—all while assembling a coalition of Western nations and regional allies. (He gave no details about the membership of this under-construction alliance.) The goal: to “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS. There were no surprises in the speech, and this strategy of expanded-but-limited military intervention—Obama referred to it as a “counterterrorism campaign” different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—has a fair amount of support from the politerati and the policy wonks within Washington and beyond, as well as from the public, per recent polling. But whatever he calls it, the president is attempting a difficult feat: waging a nuanced war.</p>
<p>First, the politics. Despite years of public war-weariness following the Iraq War—a war that was sold on false pretenses and that yielded the current mess—Americans these days are telling pollsters that they <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/isis-threat-fear-terror-attack-soars-9-11-high-nbc-n199496" type="external">support US military action</a> against ISIS. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey found that 94 percent had heard about ISIS beheading two American journalists. That’s a whopping figure; far above any other event measured in NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls in the past five years. (The 2011 debt ceiling crisis rated only 77 percent.) And in this particular poll, 47 percent of the respondents noted that they fear that the United States is less safe now than prior to the 9/11 attacks. (A year after the attacks, only one-fifth said this.) Put it all together, and a good assumption is that many Americans are wigged out by ISIS and the chaos in Iraq. This may be, as some war skeptics have <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/09/10/morning-plum-is-media-putting-thumb-on-scale-for-war/" type="external">noted</a>, due to extensive media coverage of ISIS and its bloody deeds. Yet whether the public fear is justified—in recent days, some foreign policy experts have noted that ISIS does not pose a direct and immediate threat to the United States—Obama, at this point, has plenty of political leeway for beefed-up military operations aimed at ISIS.</p>
<p>Though <a href="" type="internal">some progressive Democrats</a> and libertarian-minded Republicans have already decried Obama’s stepped-up campaign in Iraq, he has not faced the sort of political opposition he encountered last year when he was considering bombing the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in retaliation for its use of chemical weapons (before Syria agreed to hand over its chemical weapons). There might be a tussle over whether Obama needs congressional authorization for the expanded military action against ISIS. In his speech, he said he already has the authority to proceed; some legislators say he does not, some say he does, and many lawmakers simply don’t want to be put on the hook with a vote. But there’s not yet a sign this will turn into a true political brawl. Still, Obama has to be careful. As he encourages and preserves support for this war, he cannot overstate the the threat ISIS poses—or allow others to hype that threat—for that could place him in a difficult position: advocating a limited strategy to deal with a situation the public views as a grave danger.</p>
<p>Obama has to present the ISIS problem in accurate terms. It’s now a threat to the region and US interests there, not an existential threat to the so-called homeland. Yet neocons and other hawks—John McCain, Dick Cheney, etc.—have gone full war, declaring that ISIS presents a profound danger to the United States and that Washington must go all-out (unilaterally, if necessary) to destroy this enemy. They’ve been calling for greater US involvement in the Syrian civil war. If Obama doesn’t manage the debate about the dangers ISIS poses, he will empower the hawks and weaken his political standing. And in the post-9/11 world, it’s tough to talk about threats and proportionate responses, without providing ammo for those who want to turn up the volume to 11.</p>
<p>In the speech, Obama did associate ISIS with the “terrorist threat” that yielded 9/11. But he stated that the current danger ISIS presents is directed at “the people of Iraq and Syria and the broader Middle East.” He added, “If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region—including to the United States. While we have not yet detected specific plotting against our homeland, ISIL leaders have threatened America and our allies.” He also raised the specter of Europeans and Americans joining ISIS forces and returning to their home countries to carry out “deadly attack”—a scenario some terrorism experts believe has been <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/05/opinion/bergen-sterman-isis-threat-hype/" type="external">exaggerated</a>. So Obama walked a fine line: He gave the impression that thwarting ISIS is important for preventing another 9/11, yet he noted that was no reason to fear an ISIS attack against the United States at this time. With this approach, the president is not curtailing excessive interpretations of the ISIS threat.</p>
<p>In 2003, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney sold a war on a simple premise: Saddam Hussein was a threat to the survival of the United States, and the only option was a full-scale invasion. Obama is presenting the public a military action that is not based on a black-and-white view (ISIS is evil, we will destroy it any way we can) but one predicated on grays. If US air strikes can make a difference, if other nations join in, if the Iraqi government gets it acts together, if the Iraqi military can do its job, then the United States will use its military might in a limited way to vanquish ISIS. A conditional case for war does not easily sync up with the stark nature of such an enterprise. If any of these ifs don’t come to be, will Obama be cornered and forced by his rhetoric to do something? After depicting ISIS as a peril warranting a US military response—and with much of the American public convinced of that—can he then shrug his shoulders and say, “Never mind”? Will he provide the hawks an opening for political attacks and demands for greater military intervention? In his speech, the man who ran for president with the pledge to end the Iraq War declared, “We will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq.” But what if all else fails? He vowed to eradicate the ISIS “cancer,” noting it will take time to do so. Can he stop if his nonwar counterterrorism campaign does not defeat the disease? It is hard to put the case for war back in the box.</p>
<p>The policy side of Obama’s ISIS dilemma is similar. Once ISIS is deemed a threat that must be countered with US military force, the commander-in-chief could find it difficult to adhere to self-imposed restraints. If air strikes pounding suspected ISIS targets in Iraq don’t do the trick, is Obama obligated to bomb in Syria? If bombing in Syria doesn’t turn the tide, does the United States have to become more involved in the civil war there? If US trainers don’t sufficiently help Iraqi troops battling ISIS, does the president resist calls for introducing US special forces into the fight? If an Iraqi unity government cannot function, does the United States and other coalition members wage the fight against ISIS on their own? If the current crisis yields a wider Sunni-Shiite conflict, what the hell does the United States do?</p>
<p>Obama’s intentions are clear: He doesn’t want to return to full-scale US military involvement in Iraq. But now that he has committed the United States to renewed military action there, where’s the line? When US military intervention in Libya was debated in the White House, Obama, after careful deliberation, chose a calibrated course of action that included limited US military involvement as part of a multilateral campaign. That plan achieved its end: Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi was ousted. (The dust there, however, is far from settling.) Obama’s approach to ISIS is similar, but this problem is more vexing and the risks greater. His speech gave little indication of how he might confront the possible problems and hard choices that will likely come.</p>
<p>There’s an old cliché: No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. The same might be true for a case for war. Once a war is started, the narrative of that war, like the events themselves, can be hard to control.</p>
<p /> | The ISIS Speech: Obama and the Dogs of War | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/obama-iraq-isis-speech/ | 2014-09-11 | 4left
| The ISIS Speech: Obama and the Dogs of War
<p>Jon Super/AP</p>
<p />
<p>Here is President Barack Obama’s challenge: how to unleash the dogs of war without having them run wild.</p>
<p>This dilemma applies to both the political and policy considerations Obama faces, as he expands US military action in Iraq (and possibly Syria) to counter ISIS, the militant and murderous outfit that now calls itself the Islamic State and controls territory in northern Iraq and eastern Syria. In a speech from the White House on Wednesday night, Obama announced what was expected: The United States would widen its air strikes against ISIS in Iraq, “take action” of some sort against ISIS in Syria, ramp up military assistance for the Syrian opposition, keep sending advisers to assist the Iraqi military’s on-the-ground-campaign against ISIS, and maintain pressure on Iraqi politicians to produce a national government that can represent and work with Sunnis and, consequently, undercut ISIS’s support and appeal in Sunni-dominated areas of the country—all while assembling a coalition of Western nations and regional allies. (He gave no details about the membership of this under-construction alliance.) The goal: to “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS. There were no surprises in the speech, and this strategy of expanded-but-limited military intervention—Obama referred to it as a “counterterrorism campaign” different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—has a fair amount of support from the politerati and the policy wonks within Washington and beyond, as well as from the public, per recent polling. But whatever he calls it, the president is attempting a difficult feat: waging a nuanced war.</p>
<p>First, the politics. Despite years of public war-weariness following the Iraq War—a war that was sold on false pretenses and that yielded the current mess—Americans these days are telling pollsters that they <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/isis-threat-fear-terror-attack-soars-9-11-high-nbc-n199496" type="external">support US military action</a> against ISIS. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey found that 94 percent had heard about ISIS beheading two American journalists. That’s a whopping figure; far above any other event measured in NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls in the past five years. (The 2011 debt ceiling crisis rated only 77 percent.) And in this particular poll, 47 percent of the respondents noted that they fear that the United States is less safe now than prior to the 9/11 attacks. (A year after the attacks, only one-fifth said this.) Put it all together, and a good assumption is that many Americans are wigged out by ISIS and the chaos in Iraq. This may be, as some war skeptics have <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/09/10/morning-plum-is-media-putting-thumb-on-scale-for-war/" type="external">noted</a>, due to extensive media coverage of ISIS and its bloody deeds. Yet whether the public fear is justified—in recent days, some foreign policy experts have noted that ISIS does not pose a direct and immediate threat to the United States—Obama, at this point, has plenty of political leeway for beefed-up military operations aimed at ISIS.</p>
<p>Though <a href="" type="internal">some progressive Democrats</a> and libertarian-minded Republicans have already decried Obama’s stepped-up campaign in Iraq, he has not faced the sort of political opposition he encountered last year when he was considering bombing the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria in retaliation for its use of chemical weapons (before Syria agreed to hand over its chemical weapons). There might be a tussle over whether Obama needs congressional authorization for the expanded military action against ISIS. In his speech, he said he already has the authority to proceed; some legislators say he does not, some say he does, and many lawmakers simply don’t want to be put on the hook with a vote. But there’s not yet a sign this will turn into a true political brawl. Still, Obama has to be careful. As he encourages and preserves support for this war, he cannot overstate the the threat ISIS poses—or allow others to hype that threat—for that could place him in a difficult position: advocating a limited strategy to deal with a situation the public views as a grave danger.</p>
<p>Obama has to present the ISIS problem in accurate terms. It’s now a threat to the region and US interests there, not an existential threat to the so-called homeland. Yet neocons and other hawks—John McCain, Dick Cheney, etc.—have gone full war, declaring that ISIS presents a profound danger to the United States and that Washington must go all-out (unilaterally, if necessary) to destroy this enemy. They’ve been calling for greater US involvement in the Syrian civil war. If Obama doesn’t manage the debate about the dangers ISIS poses, he will empower the hawks and weaken his political standing. And in the post-9/11 world, it’s tough to talk about threats and proportionate responses, without providing ammo for those who want to turn up the volume to 11.</p>
<p>In the speech, Obama did associate ISIS with the “terrorist threat” that yielded 9/11. But he stated that the current danger ISIS presents is directed at “the people of Iraq and Syria and the broader Middle East.” He added, “If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region—including to the United States. While we have not yet detected specific plotting against our homeland, ISIL leaders have threatened America and our allies.” He also raised the specter of Europeans and Americans joining ISIS forces and returning to their home countries to carry out “deadly attack”—a scenario some terrorism experts believe has been <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/05/opinion/bergen-sterman-isis-threat-hype/" type="external">exaggerated</a>. So Obama walked a fine line: He gave the impression that thwarting ISIS is important for preventing another 9/11, yet he noted that was no reason to fear an ISIS attack against the United States at this time. With this approach, the president is not curtailing excessive interpretations of the ISIS threat.</p>
<p>In 2003, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney sold a war on a simple premise: Saddam Hussein was a threat to the survival of the United States, and the only option was a full-scale invasion. Obama is presenting the public a military action that is not based on a black-and-white view (ISIS is evil, we will destroy it any way we can) but one predicated on grays. If US air strikes can make a difference, if other nations join in, if the Iraqi government gets it acts together, if the Iraqi military can do its job, then the United States will use its military might in a limited way to vanquish ISIS. A conditional case for war does not easily sync up with the stark nature of such an enterprise. If any of these ifs don’t come to be, will Obama be cornered and forced by his rhetoric to do something? After depicting ISIS as a peril warranting a US military response—and with much of the American public convinced of that—can he then shrug his shoulders and say, “Never mind”? Will he provide the hawks an opening for political attacks and demands for greater military intervention? In his speech, the man who ran for president with the pledge to end the Iraq War declared, “We will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq.” But what if all else fails? He vowed to eradicate the ISIS “cancer,” noting it will take time to do so. Can he stop if his nonwar counterterrorism campaign does not defeat the disease? It is hard to put the case for war back in the box.</p>
<p>The policy side of Obama’s ISIS dilemma is similar. Once ISIS is deemed a threat that must be countered with US military force, the commander-in-chief could find it difficult to adhere to self-imposed restraints. If air strikes pounding suspected ISIS targets in Iraq don’t do the trick, is Obama obligated to bomb in Syria? If bombing in Syria doesn’t turn the tide, does the United States have to become more involved in the civil war there? If US trainers don’t sufficiently help Iraqi troops battling ISIS, does the president resist calls for introducing US special forces into the fight? If an Iraqi unity government cannot function, does the United States and other coalition members wage the fight against ISIS on their own? If the current crisis yields a wider Sunni-Shiite conflict, what the hell does the United States do?</p>
<p>Obama’s intentions are clear: He doesn’t want to return to full-scale US military involvement in Iraq. But now that he has committed the United States to renewed military action there, where’s the line? When US military intervention in Libya was debated in the White House, Obama, after careful deliberation, chose a calibrated course of action that included limited US military involvement as part of a multilateral campaign. That plan achieved its end: Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi was ousted. (The dust there, however, is far from settling.) Obama’s approach to ISIS is similar, but this problem is more vexing and the risks greater. His speech gave little indication of how he might confront the possible problems and hard choices that will likely come.</p>
<p>There’s an old cliché: No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. The same might be true for a case for war. Once a war is started, the narrative of that war, like the events themselves, can be hard to control.</p>
<p /> | 2,727 |
<p>The S&amp;P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed to record high close on Friday as a strong jobs report restored confidence in the U.S. economy. The U.S. created 255,000 new jobs in July, significantly better than the 185,000 growth forecast by economists in a MarketWatch survey. The S&amp;P 500 rose 18 points to close at 2,182 for a weekly gain of 0.4% while the Nasdaq added 54 points, or 1.1%, to end at 5,221, up 1.1% this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 191 points, or 1%, to close at 18,543, advancing 0.6% for the week.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | S&P 500, Nasdaq Rally To Record High Close On Robust Jobs Data | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/05/sp-500-nasdaq-rally-to-record-high-close-on-robust-jobs-data.html | 2016-08-05 | 0right
| S&P 500, Nasdaq Rally To Record High Close On Robust Jobs Data
<p>The S&amp;P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed to record high close on Friday as a strong jobs report restored confidence in the U.S. economy. The U.S. created 255,000 new jobs in July, significantly better than the 185,000 growth forecast by economists in a MarketWatch survey. The S&amp;P 500 rose 18 points to close at 2,182 for a weekly gain of 0.4% while the Nasdaq added 54 points, or 1.1%, to end at 5,221, up 1.1% this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 191 points, or 1%, to close at 18,543, advancing 0.6% for the week.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | 2,728 |
<p />
<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/92922772" type="external">Twerk It Girl</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/irmaleticiagarcia" type="external">Irma L. Garcia</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com" type="external">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p>Everything I’ve ever wanted to say in defense of twerking has been compiled into a 5-minute documentary entitled Twerk It Girl by self-proclaimed “twerk scholar” at the University of Texas Kimari Brand. Utilizing multiple experiences — including a course on performance, feminism and social justice, a trip abroad to study Afro-Caribbean culture and politics, and her experiences as a Black girl at an institution of higher education that prioritizes white supremacist “credibility and status” — Brand has reframed the dialogue about twerking.</p>
<p>I’ve already talked about how culturally specific phenomenons created in marginalized communities — twerking being one of them — are <a href="" type="internal">appropriated by those with enough privilege</a> to be considered the “mainstream.” This process involves devaluing the practice in its original context and uplifting it when done by those in the proverbial “center.” But recently it appears that even the said mainstream has decided it wants no part of twerking. The sexualization of the dance, in addition to its association with poor and working-class Black women (and probably the fact that it’s one of the few things white folks aren’t able to “perfect” and dominate — and not for lack of trying) have created an overwhelming amount of stigma. While for many people, like my&#160;sisterfriend&#160;from Atlanta, “twerking” is just something you pick up, in the same way that a daughter from another background might learn the merengue.</p>
<p>With the help of social and biased media, we — including us Black folks — have internalized the message that because Black bodies are central to the practice of twerking, it can’t be a valid artistic&#160;expression. And everyday we are reinforcing this messaging. Don’t think so? A recent <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/women-arrested-oregon-twerking-city-hall-exposing-peeing-parking-lot-article-1.1773116" type="external">Oregon news story</a> broke involving three women who were rightfully arrested for disorderly conduct and drug possession after peeing and exposing their genitals in front of a municipal building. Headlines for the story all allude to the women being arrested for twerking. You all might also remember <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/05/high-school-students-suspended-for-twerking/" type="external">stories about students being suspended</a> from school for practicing twerking. Stories like these, and images like this one, label twerking as deviant behavior:</p>
<p>The narrative reminds me of those <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUhaHfxRSHA" type="external">Direct TV ads</a>.&#160;When you twerk, you move your ass. When you move your ass, people think less of you because of sexism and sex-shaming.&#160;When people think less of you, you are more likely to be targeted by authority figures for assumed transgressions. When you are more likely to be targeted by authority figures for assumed transgressions, you go to jail. Don’t go to jail, stop twerking.</p>
<p>​Twerking is art. Brand is using it as a tool of resistance against attacks on her own erotic autonomy and her right to do what she will with her own body. Furthermore, Brand&#160;is really fighting for the right to not be discredited as a woman, a scholar, or a human being because she twerks.</p> | “Twerk It Girl” examines twerking for autonomy and resistance | true | http://feministing.com/2014/04/30/twerk-it-girl-examines-twerking-for-autonomy-and-resistance/ | 4left
| “Twerk It Girl” examines twerking for autonomy and resistance
<p />
<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/92922772" type="external">Twerk It Girl</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/irmaleticiagarcia" type="external">Irma L. Garcia</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com" type="external">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p>Everything I’ve ever wanted to say in defense of twerking has been compiled into a 5-minute documentary entitled Twerk It Girl by self-proclaimed “twerk scholar” at the University of Texas Kimari Brand. Utilizing multiple experiences — including a course on performance, feminism and social justice, a trip abroad to study Afro-Caribbean culture and politics, and her experiences as a Black girl at an institution of higher education that prioritizes white supremacist “credibility and status” — Brand has reframed the dialogue about twerking.</p>
<p>I’ve already talked about how culturally specific phenomenons created in marginalized communities — twerking being one of them — are <a href="" type="internal">appropriated by those with enough privilege</a> to be considered the “mainstream.” This process involves devaluing the practice in its original context and uplifting it when done by those in the proverbial “center.” But recently it appears that even the said mainstream has decided it wants no part of twerking. The sexualization of the dance, in addition to its association with poor and working-class Black women (and probably the fact that it’s one of the few things white folks aren’t able to “perfect” and dominate — and not for lack of trying) have created an overwhelming amount of stigma. While for many people, like my&#160;sisterfriend&#160;from Atlanta, “twerking” is just something you pick up, in the same way that a daughter from another background might learn the merengue.</p>
<p>With the help of social and biased media, we — including us Black folks — have internalized the message that because Black bodies are central to the practice of twerking, it can’t be a valid artistic&#160;expression. And everyday we are reinforcing this messaging. Don’t think so? A recent <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/women-arrested-oregon-twerking-city-hall-exposing-peeing-parking-lot-article-1.1773116" type="external">Oregon news story</a> broke involving three women who were rightfully arrested for disorderly conduct and drug possession after peeing and exposing their genitals in front of a municipal building. Headlines for the story all allude to the women being arrested for twerking. You all might also remember <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/05/high-school-students-suspended-for-twerking/" type="external">stories about students being suspended</a> from school for practicing twerking. Stories like these, and images like this one, label twerking as deviant behavior:</p>
<p>The narrative reminds me of those <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUhaHfxRSHA" type="external">Direct TV ads</a>.&#160;When you twerk, you move your ass. When you move your ass, people think less of you because of sexism and sex-shaming.&#160;When people think less of you, you are more likely to be targeted by authority figures for assumed transgressions. When you are more likely to be targeted by authority figures for assumed transgressions, you go to jail. Don’t go to jail, stop twerking.</p>
<p>​Twerking is art. Brand is using it as a tool of resistance against attacks on her own erotic autonomy and her right to do what she will with her own body. Furthermore, Brand&#160;is really fighting for the right to not be discredited as a woman, a scholar, or a human being because she twerks.</p> | 2,729 |
|
<p>Mitch McConnell / Getty Images</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">David Rutz</a> August 9, 2017 2:47 pm</p>
<p>President Donald Trump on Wednesday fired back at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) <a href="" type="internal">for his remarks</a> that the president had "excessive expectations" regarding legislation, scolding McConnell for the failure of the Senate to repeal and replace Obamacare.</p>
<p>McConnell said Tuesday that Trump may expect too much out of Congress, pointing to his lack of political experience before the White House.</p>
<p>"Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before, and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the Democratic process," McConnell said.</p>
<p>Trump did not appear to like that in the aftermath of the collapse of efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare.</p>
<p>"Senator Mitch McConnell said I had ‘excessive expectations,' but I don't think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal &amp; Replace, why not done?" he wrote.</p>
<p />
<p>Trump repeatedly implored Republicans in Congress to keep their long-held promise regarding the health care law, but three GOP defections last month stalled the effort.</p>
<p>Fox News host Sean Hannity, a fervent defender of the president, also <a href="" type="internal">took exception</a> to McConnell's remarks via Twitter, calling the majority leader "weak" and "spineless."</p> | Trump Fires Back at McConnell Criticism, Scolds Him Over Obamacare Repeal Failure | true | http://freebeacon.com/politics/trump-fires-back-at-mcconnell-criticism-scolds-him-over-obamacare-repeal-failure/ | 2017-08-09 | 0right
| Trump Fires Back at McConnell Criticism, Scolds Him Over Obamacare Repeal Failure
<p>Mitch McConnell / Getty Images</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">David Rutz</a> August 9, 2017 2:47 pm</p>
<p>President Donald Trump on Wednesday fired back at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) <a href="" type="internal">for his remarks</a> that the president had "excessive expectations" regarding legislation, scolding McConnell for the failure of the Senate to repeal and replace Obamacare.</p>
<p>McConnell said Tuesday that Trump may expect too much out of Congress, pointing to his lack of political experience before the White House.</p>
<p>"Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before, and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the Democratic process," McConnell said.</p>
<p>Trump did not appear to like that in the aftermath of the collapse of efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare.</p>
<p>"Senator Mitch McConnell said I had ‘excessive expectations,' but I don't think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal &amp; Replace, why not done?" he wrote.</p>
<p />
<p>Trump repeatedly implored Republicans in Congress to keep their long-held promise regarding the health care law, but three GOP defections last month stalled the effort.</p>
<p>Fox News host Sean Hannity, a fervent defender of the president, also <a href="" type="internal">took exception</a> to McConnell's remarks via Twitter, calling the majority leader "weak" and "spineless."</p> | 2,730 |
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday afternoon's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 5 Day" game were:</p>
<p>0-9-5-9-8, Wild: 6</p>
<p>(zero, nine, five, nine, eight; Wild: six)</p>
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday afternoon's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 5 Day" game were:</p>
<p>0-9-5-9-8, Wild: 6</p>
<p>(zero, nine, five, nine, eight; Wild: six)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 5 Day' game | false | https://apnews.com/5d0592d934754df4ae5bb7748a3b3516 | 2018-01-07 | 2least
| Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 5 Day' game
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday afternoon's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 5 Day" game were:</p>
<p>0-9-5-9-8, Wild: 6</p>
<p>(zero, nine, five, nine, eight; Wild: six)</p>
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday afternoon's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 5 Day" game were:</p>
<p>0-9-5-9-8, Wild: 6</p>
<p>(zero, nine, five, nine, eight; Wild: six)</p> | 2,731 |
<p>Hey there, pregnant women! Out of all of the things that people tell you to do in your birthing plan, we are happy to report that the <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/02/10/dousing_your_newborn_in_vaginal_juices_is_pointless_and_weird.html" type="external">hot new birthing trend</a>, “vaginal seeding,” is not something you need to consider. At all. Ever.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/01/post-cesarean-bacteria-transfer-could-change-health-for-life-study-shows/?_r=4" type="external">study conducted</a>by the University of Puerto Rico, vaginal seeding is intended for Caesarean births and involves “rubbing your vaginal juices all over the baby’s face, mouth, skin, and anus in order to let him experience the same bacteria as a vaginally delivered baby.” In order to harvest said juices, simply place a strip of gauze inside the vagina an hour before actually delivering your bundle of joy and then rub it all over your baby’s body after delivery, in an attempt to recreate the “vaginal flora” your child is missing out on from being delivered naturally. The supposed benefit is that the bacteria produced by your vagina during birth will help your baby’s immune system and aid in fighting off autoimmune disorders and potential infections.</p>
<p>There’s very little medical evidence that proves this practice to be effective. Jennifer Conti, an OB-GYN writing in Slate, says that in some studies, the act of vaginal seeding has proven to be harmful to babies.</p>
<p>For example, if the mother is Group B strep positive. Group B strep is a bacteria that is present in roughly&#160; <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/groupbstrep/about/fast-facts.html" type="external">25 percent of all women</a>&#160;in the U.S. and is the leading cause of meningitis and sepsis in the newborn’s first week of life.&#160;Another example is the presence of chorioamnionitis, which is an infection of the baby’s bag of waters that affects up to 70 percent of preterm deliveries, 13 percent of full-term deliveries, and 12 percent of C-sections.</p>
<p>Giving birth is a terror and a joy all in one, much like the long plod of life that follows. It makes sense that new mothers-to-be are on the lookout for additions to their birthing plans like this as a balm against the unpredictable. But, the best thing for yourself and your new baby is what the doctors have been telling you all along — breastfeeding, post-birth skin to skin contact and reducing the amount of C-sections performed in general. If you want to vaginally seed your newborn angel, feel free. But don’t say we — and the medical community at large — didn’t warn you.</p>
<p>[ <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/02/10/dousing_your_newborn_in_vaginal_juices_is_pointless_and_weird.html" type="external">Slate</a>]</p> | Don’t Worry, You Don’t Have To “Vaginally Seed” Your Baby, It’s Totally Fine | true | http://thefrisky.com/2016-02-11/dont-worry-you-dont-have-to-vaginally-seed-your-baby-its-totally-fine/?utm_source%3Dsc-fb%26utm_medium%3Dref%26utm_campaign%3Dvagina | 2018-10-05 | 4left
| Don’t Worry, You Don’t Have To “Vaginally Seed” Your Baby, It’s Totally Fine
<p>Hey there, pregnant women! Out of all of the things that people tell you to do in your birthing plan, we are happy to report that the <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/02/10/dousing_your_newborn_in_vaginal_juices_is_pointless_and_weird.html" type="external">hot new birthing trend</a>, “vaginal seeding,” is not something you need to consider. At all. Ever.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/01/post-cesarean-bacteria-transfer-could-change-health-for-life-study-shows/?_r=4" type="external">study conducted</a>by the University of Puerto Rico, vaginal seeding is intended for Caesarean births and involves “rubbing your vaginal juices all over the baby’s face, mouth, skin, and anus in order to let him experience the same bacteria as a vaginally delivered baby.” In order to harvest said juices, simply place a strip of gauze inside the vagina an hour before actually delivering your bundle of joy and then rub it all over your baby’s body after delivery, in an attempt to recreate the “vaginal flora” your child is missing out on from being delivered naturally. The supposed benefit is that the bacteria produced by your vagina during birth will help your baby’s immune system and aid in fighting off autoimmune disorders and potential infections.</p>
<p>There’s very little medical evidence that proves this practice to be effective. Jennifer Conti, an OB-GYN writing in Slate, says that in some studies, the act of vaginal seeding has proven to be harmful to babies.</p>
<p>For example, if the mother is Group B strep positive. Group B strep is a bacteria that is present in roughly&#160; <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/groupbstrep/about/fast-facts.html" type="external">25 percent of all women</a>&#160;in the U.S. and is the leading cause of meningitis and sepsis in the newborn’s first week of life.&#160;Another example is the presence of chorioamnionitis, which is an infection of the baby’s bag of waters that affects up to 70 percent of preterm deliveries, 13 percent of full-term deliveries, and 12 percent of C-sections.</p>
<p>Giving birth is a terror and a joy all in one, much like the long plod of life that follows. It makes sense that new mothers-to-be are on the lookout for additions to their birthing plans like this as a balm against the unpredictable. But, the best thing for yourself and your new baby is what the doctors have been telling you all along — breastfeeding, post-birth skin to skin contact and reducing the amount of C-sections performed in general. If you want to vaginally seed your newborn angel, feel free. But don’t say we — and the medical community at large — didn’t warn you.</p>
<p>[ <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/02/10/dousing_your_newborn_in_vaginal_juices_is_pointless_and_weird.html" type="external">Slate</a>]</p> | 2,732 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In case you might have missed it, there's a contest underway to determine who the next president of the United States will be. While the media sometimes focuses more on personalities and controversies, the reality is that one of the presidential candidates will take office in January 2017 and be in a position to affect you, your family, and your friends with his or her policies.</p>
<p>Take Medicare, for example. Over 55 million Americans received benefits from the federal healthcare program in 2015,and that number will grow in the next decade as baby boomers age. Democratic presidential candidateHillary Clinton has laid out her plan for expanding Medicare. Here's how former Secretary of State Clinton plans to change the program -- and how it might impact you.</p>
<p>Prescription drugs increased from 11% of total Medicare spending in 2010 to 14% in 2014. This percentage is expected to grow more over the coming years, with expensive specialty drugs playing a major role in the increased spending.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton proposes to control Medicare prescription drug spending in three key ways. First, she wants to allow Medicare to negotiate directly with drug and biologic companies to obtain lower pricing. Second, Clinton seeks to demand higher rebates from drug manufacturers. Third, she wants to allow the importing of lower-cost drugs from other countries, as long as those countries have approved safety standards.</p>
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<p>How will Clinton's Medicare plan ultimately impact Americans? Her campaign estimates that Medicare would save more than $100 billion over 10 years. Lower drug prices would also save money for ordinary Americans, as Medicare Part D prescription drug plans include deductibles and other out-of-pocket spending.</p>
<p>There is a potential downside to Clinton's plan, though. The pharmaceutical industry could respond to lower profits by decreasing investment in research and development. If that happens, patients would likely see fewer new innovative medications come to market.</p>
<p>Clinton wants Medicare to shift to new payment models. In particular, her plan endorses the idea of "bundled payments," rather than fee-for-service payments. With bundled payments, one payment is made for an episode of care, even when multiple healthcare providers are involved in that care.</p>
<p>For example, suppose a person has heart bypass surgery. With the fee-for-service payment model, the hospital, surgeon, and anesthesiologist involved in the surgery would each be paid separately. With the bundled payments model, Medicare would only pay one lump sum amount to one entity that coordinates all the care, such as an accountable care organization (ACO).</p>
<p>The goal for the bundled payment approach is to save money for Medicare by providing a financial incentive for providers to control costs. If the actual cost of service is less than the bundled payment, providers get to keep the difference.</p>
<p>While these payment model reforms primarily impact healthcare providers, they could affect Medicare recipients as well. Lower costs should help stretch out-of-pocket spending by individuals. On the negative side, there is a possibility that more healthcare providers will opt out of taking on the financial risk that comes with bundled payments. If that happens, Medicare beneficiaries' choice of healthcare professionals would be more limited in the future.</p>
<p>Clinton also plans to restrict health insurance companies' ability to increase premiums by excessive amounts. She intends to accomplish this by giving states more power to block rate increases and by vigorously enforcing antitrust laws to prevent mergers that could harm consumers.</p>
<p>Around 19% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare supplement policies sold by private insurers. Another 21% are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan offered by private insurers.If Clinton's plan is put into effect, it could mean that Americans pay less for those policies in the future than they would otherwise.</p>
<p>Of course, just like other components of Clinton's plan, this could have unintended consequences. If private insurers aren't allowed to raise rates to cover legitimately higher costs, then they will be more likely to discontinue offering Medicare supplement or Medicare Advantage policies. Less competition could ultimately lead to higher prices.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most controversial -- and far-reaching -- Medicare change mentioned by Hillary Clinton is what she has called "Medicare for more." No specifics about this proposal have been put forward, but the general idea is to allow a younger cohort of Americans (perhaps those over age 50 or 55) to participate in the Medicare program. Currently, only individuals over age 65 (and their dependents, in some cases) can enroll in Medicare.</p>
<p>Wouldn't this idea put Medicare in even greater financial jeopardy? Maybe not. Younger people (even if they're over 50) generally have fewer health problems than older Americans, and the premiums paid by the additional beneficiaries might help the program.</p>
<p>The "Medicare for more" concept would likely have the most difficult path to becoming a reality of any part of Clinton's Medicare plan, though. With 55% of Americans <a href="http://www.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/189902/american-public-opinion-sanders-proposal-single-payer-healthcare-system.aspx?g_source=BLOG_PM&amp;g_medium=topic&amp;g_campaign=tiles" type="external">supporting a private U.S. healthcare system Opens a New Window.</a> rather than a government-run system, a significant expansion of Medicare could be an uphill battle.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/06/18/how-would-hillary-clinton-change-medicare.aspx" type="external">How Would Hillary Clinton Change Medicare? Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p>Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | How Would Hillary Clinton Change Medicare? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/18/how-would-hillary-clinton-change-medicare.html | 2016-06-18 | 0right
| How Would Hillary Clinton Change Medicare?
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In case you might have missed it, there's a contest underway to determine who the next president of the United States will be. While the media sometimes focuses more on personalities and controversies, the reality is that one of the presidential candidates will take office in January 2017 and be in a position to affect you, your family, and your friends with his or her policies.</p>
<p>Take Medicare, for example. Over 55 million Americans received benefits from the federal healthcare program in 2015,and that number will grow in the next decade as baby boomers age. Democratic presidential candidateHillary Clinton has laid out her plan for expanding Medicare. Here's how former Secretary of State Clinton plans to change the program -- and how it might impact you.</p>
<p>Prescription drugs increased from 11% of total Medicare spending in 2010 to 14% in 2014. This percentage is expected to grow more over the coming years, with expensive specialty drugs playing a major role in the increased spending.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton proposes to control Medicare prescription drug spending in three key ways. First, she wants to allow Medicare to negotiate directly with drug and biologic companies to obtain lower pricing. Second, Clinton seeks to demand higher rebates from drug manufacturers. Third, she wants to allow the importing of lower-cost drugs from other countries, as long as those countries have approved safety standards.</p>
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<p>How will Clinton's Medicare plan ultimately impact Americans? Her campaign estimates that Medicare would save more than $100 billion over 10 years. Lower drug prices would also save money for ordinary Americans, as Medicare Part D prescription drug plans include deductibles and other out-of-pocket spending.</p>
<p>There is a potential downside to Clinton's plan, though. The pharmaceutical industry could respond to lower profits by decreasing investment in research and development. If that happens, patients would likely see fewer new innovative medications come to market.</p>
<p>Clinton wants Medicare to shift to new payment models. In particular, her plan endorses the idea of "bundled payments," rather than fee-for-service payments. With bundled payments, one payment is made for an episode of care, even when multiple healthcare providers are involved in that care.</p>
<p>For example, suppose a person has heart bypass surgery. With the fee-for-service payment model, the hospital, surgeon, and anesthesiologist involved in the surgery would each be paid separately. With the bundled payments model, Medicare would only pay one lump sum amount to one entity that coordinates all the care, such as an accountable care organization (ACO).</p>
<p>The goal for the bundled payment approach is to save money for Medicare by providing a financial incentive for providers to control costs. If the actual cost of service is less than the bundled payment, providers get to keep the difference.</p>
<p>While these payment model reforms primarily impact healthcare providers, they could affect Medicare recipients as well. Lower costs should help stretch out-of-pocket spending by individuals. On the negative side, there is a possibility that more healthcare providers will opt out of taking on the financial risk that comes with bundled payments. If that happens, Medicare beneficiaries' choice of healthcare professionals would be more limited in the future.</p>
<p>Clinton also plans to restrict health insurance companies' ability to increase premiums by excessive amounts. She intends to accomplish this by giving states more power to block rate increases and by vigorously enforcing antitrust laws to prevent mergers that could harm consumers.</p>
<p>Around 19% of Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare supplement policies sold by private insurers. Another 21% are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan offered by private insurers.If Clinton's plan is put into effect, it could mean that Americans pay less for those policies in the future than they would otherwise.</p>
<p>Of course, just like other components of Clinton's plan, this could have unintended consequences. If private insurers aren't allowed to raise rates to cover legitimately higher costs, then they will be more likely to discontinue offering Medicare supplement or Medicare Advantage policies. Less competition could ultimately lead to higher prices.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most controversial -- and far-reaching -- Medicare change mentioned by Hillary Clinton is what she has called "Medicare for more." No specifics about this proposal have been put forward, but the general idea is to allow a younger cohort of Americans (perhaps those over age 50 or 55) to participate in the Medicare program. Currently, only individuals over age 65 (and their dependents, in some cases) can enroll in Medicare.</p>
<p>Wouldn't this idea put Medicare in even greater financial jeopardy? Maybe not. Younger people (even if they're over 50) generally have fewer health problems than older Americans, and the premiums paid by the additional beneficiaries might help the program.</p>
<p>The "Medicare for more" concept would likely have the most difficult path to becoming a reality of any part of Clinton's Medicare plan, though. With 55% of Americans <a href="http://www.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/189902/american-public-opinion-sanders-proposal-single-payer-healthcare-system.aspx?g_source=BLOG_PM&amp;g_medium=topic&amp;g_campaign=tiles" type="external">supporting a private U.S. healthcare system Opens a New Window.</a> rather than a government-run system, a significant expansion of Medicare could be an uphill battle.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/06/18/how-would-hillary-clinton-change-medicare.aspx" type="external">How Would Hillary Clinton Change Medicare? Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p>Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 2,733 |
<p />
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<p />
<p>Well, it's not the Tuskegee experiment, anyway. A deceased Southern Illinois University School of Medicine researcher is posthumously under fire for his herpes vaccine research which evidently violated both internal and government rules for research, this according to an SIU internal investigation.</p>
<p />
<p>The investigation was led by SIU's institutional review board which "has determined that serious noncompliance with regulatory requirements and institutional policies and procedures occurred," according to SIU School of Medicine dean and provost Dr. Jerry Kruse in an Oct. 6 written response to a federal inquiry about William Halford's genital herpes vaccine research. The vaccine research was funded in part by Peter Thiel.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Currently, the details of alleged noncompliance are unavailable, but SIU has submitted a full report on its investigation to the federal government. According to ot SIU spokeswoman Karen Carlson, no details are currently available at the moment as SIU is still undergoing their investigation.</p>
<p />
<p>The story was initially broken by the State Journal-Register and Kaiser Health News which led to an inquiry from the Office of Human Research Protections (a subsidiary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). HHS is investigating any potential issues related to Halford's company, Rational Vaccines.</p>
<p />
<p>Currently, the school is entitled to $15 million in federal research funding, but if it's found that the SIU violated federal rules, that funding could pop quicker than a scratched outbreak pustule. State Journal-Register obtained a copy of the letter to the HHS with redactions by appealing to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.</p>
<p />
<p>Rational Vaccines' chief executive officer, Agustin Fernandez III, is not responding to requests for comment via phone or email currently. Previously, he had gone on the record as saying that no one had been harmed during the clinical trial, which was held between March and August of 2016. Simply the fact that a clinical trial of a therapeutic vaccine took place without oversight or institutional review at SIU or elsewhere is controversial at best.</p> | Dead Herpes Vaccine Researcher Was in "Serious Noncompliance" | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/11994-Dead-Herpes-Vaccine-Researcher-Was-in-Serious-Noncompliance | 2017-11-15 | 0right
| Dead Herpes Vaccine Researcher Was in "Serious Noncompliance"
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Well, it's not the Tuskegee experiment, anyway. A deceased Southern Illinois University School of Medicine researcher is posthumously under fire for his herpes vaccine research which evidently violated both internal and government rules for research, this according to an SIU internal investigation.</p>
<p />
<p>The investigation was led by SIU's institutional review board which "has determined that serious noncompliance with regulatory requirements and institutional policies and procedures occurred," according to SIU School of Medicine dean and provost Dr. Jerry Kruse in an Oct. 6 written response to a federal inquiry about William Halford's genital herpes vaccine research. The vaccine research was funded in part by Peter Thiel.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Currently, the details of alleged noncompliance are unavailable, but SIU has submitted a full report on its investigation to the federal government. According to ot SIU spokeswoman Karen Carlson, no details are currently available at the moment as SIU is still undergoing their investigation.</p>
<p />
<p>The story was initially broken by the State Journal-Register and Kaiser Health News which led to an inquiry from the Office of Human Research Protections (a subsidiary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). HHS is investigating any potential issues related to Halford's company, Rational Vaccines.</p>
<p />
<p>Currently, the school is entitled to $15 million in federal research funding, but if it's found that the SIU violated federal rules, that funding could pop quicker than a scratched outbreak pustule. State Journal-Register obtained a copy of the letter to the HHS with redactions by appealing to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.</p>
<p />
<p>Rational Vaccines' chief executive officer, Agustin Fernandez III, is not responding to requests for comment via phone or email currently. Previously, he had gone on the record as saying that no one had been harmed during the clinical trial, which was held between March and August of 2016. Simply the fact that a clinical trial of a therapeutic vaccine took place without oversight or institutional review at SIU or elsewhere is controversial at best.</p> | 2,734 |
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<p>PHOENIX — A U.S. judge ordered a sweeping overhaul nearly four years ago of the office then led by Sheriff Joe Arpaio after finding that his deputies had systematically racially profiled Hispanics in traffic patrols targeting immigrants.</p>
<p>The agency in metro Phoenix is still dogged by those problems after newly released findings say that its officers treat minorities differently than white people.</p>
<p>Some officers and supervisors are making the overhaul more difficult by resisting the changes, immigrant rights attorneys who brought the profiling case said in court Wednesday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>An audit conducted by criminal justice researchers at Arizona State University as part of the racial profiling case said Hispanics are more likely to be searched and arrested by deputies in traffic stops than whites.</p>
<p>The study, released last week, examined 31,000 traffic stops from July 2015 through June 2016, near the end of Arpaio’s 24-year tenure.</p>
<p>“The likelihood of Hispanics being arrested or searched over time has not decreased, or even changed,” wrote the researchers, who had conducted an earlier study of the agency’s traffic stops. “Conversely, the length of stop for Hispanic drivers, while still longer than whites, decreased across years.”</p>
<p>It was released a month after President Donald Trump pardoned Arpaio for his misdemeanor conviction of intentionally disobeying a court order in the profiling case.</p>
<p>Thirty-three Democrats in Congress filed a friend-of-the-court brief Wednesday that asks the judge in Arpaio’s criminal case to reject the pardon and move forward with his sentencing. They argue the pardon is an invalid encroachment by the president on the power and independence of the courts.</p>
<p>Jeffrey Crouch, a professor of politics at American University who has written a book on presidential pardons, said the Democrats’ request is extremely unusual.</p>
<p>“I highly doubt whether they will be able to overturn Arpaio’s pardon,” Crouch said, adding that Democrats’ goal may be to generate interest in the controversy.</p>
<p>Sheriff Paul Penzone, who took office in January after defeating Arpaio, is developing plans for confronting the problems identified in the new audit, including training for deputies and their supervisors.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Penzone said it will take time to change the agency’s culture. He said his office will confront those problems through discussions with employees, training and, if needed, firings.</p>
<p>“Resistance won’t be tolerated,” Penzone said.</p>
<p>Cecillia Wang, one of the lawyers who pressed the profiling case against the agency, said the court-ordered changes are being complicated by some of the agency’s supervisors who were recruited by Arpaio and believe they have a duty to protect officers against allegations of bias.</p>
<p>U.S. District Judge Murray Snow expressed frustration with the delay in setting up an alert system to help supervisors identify problematic behavior by officers.</p>
<p>The system was ordered nearly four years ago, yet training for its use is just now underway.</p>
<p>“I am a little tired of this process taking this long,” Snow said.</p>
<p>Another report issued this summer by officials who are monitoring the agency on the judge’s behalf charts the status of the sheriff’s office in complying with the court-ordered overhaul.</p>
<p>The agency was deemed 40 percent compliant with the first phase and 58 percent compliant in phase two, according to the report, which covered the first three months of this year.</p>
<p>Taxpayers in metro Phoenix are on the hook for legal costs in the case until the sheriff’s office fully complies with the court-ordered changes for three straight years. By next summer, the costs are expected to reach $92 million.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/jacques%20billeaud .</p> | Audit: Phoenix-area deputies more likely to arrest Hispanics | false | https://abqjournal.com/1069640/audit-hispanics-still-treated-differently-in-arizona-traffic-stops.html | 2017-09-27 | 2least
| Audit: Phoenix-area deputies more likely to arrest Hispanics
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<p>PHOENIX — A U.S. judge ordered a sweeping overhaul nearly four years ago of the office then led by Sheriff Joe Arpaio after finding that his deputies had systematically racially profiled Hispanics in traffic patrols targeting immigrants.</p>
<p>The agency in metro Phoenix is still dogged by those problems after newly released findings say that its officers treat minorities differently than white people.</p>
<p>Some officers and supervisors are making the overhaul more difficult by resisting the changes, immigrant rights attorneys who brought the profiling case said in court Wednesday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>An audit conducted by criminal justice researchers at Arizona State University as part of the racial profiling case said Hispanics are more likely to be searched and arrested by deputies in traffic stops than whites.</p>
<p>The study, released last week, examined 31,000 traffic stops from July 2015 through June 2016, near the end of Arpaio’s 24-year tenure.</p>
<p>“The likelihood of Hispanics being arrested or searched over time has not decreased, or even changed,” wrote the researchers, who had conducted an earlier study of the agency’s traffic stops. “Conversely, the length of stop for Hispanic drivers, while still longer than whites, decreased across years.”</p>
<p>It was released a month after President Donald Trump pardoned Arpaio for his misdemeanor conviction of intentionally disobeying a court order in the profiling case.</p>
<p>Thirty-three Democrats in Congress filed a friend-of-the-court brief Wednesday that asks the judge in Arpaio’s criminal case to reject the pardon and move forward with his sentencing. They argue the pardon is an invalid encroachment by the president on the power and independence of the courts.</p>
<p>Jeffrey Crouch, a professor of politics at American University who has written a book on presidential pardons, said the Democrats’ request is extremely unusual.</p>
<p>“I highly doubt whether they will be able to overturn Arpaio’s pardon,” Crouch said, adding that Democrats’ goal may be to generate interest in the controversy.</p>
<p>Sheriff Paul Penzone, who took office in January after defeating Arpaio, is developing plans for confronting the problems identified in the new audit, including training for deputies and their supervisors.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Penzone said it will take time to change the agency’s culture. He said his office will confront those problems through discussions with employees, training and, if needed, firings.</p>
<p>“Resistance won’t be tolerated,” Penzone said.</p>
<p>Cecillia Wang, one of the lawyers who pressed the profiling case against the agency, said the court-ordered changes are being complicated by some of the agency’s supervisors who were recruited by Arpaio and believe they have a duty to protect officers against allegations of bias.</p>
<p>U.S. District Judge Murray Snow expressed frustration with the delay in setting up an alert system to help supervisors identify problematic behavior by officers.</p>
<p>The system was ordered nearly four years ago, yet training for its use is just now underway.</p>
<p>“I am a little tired of this process taking this long,” Snow said.</p>
<p>Another report issued this summer by officials who are monitoring the agency on the judge’s behalf charts the status of the sheriff’s office in complying with the court-ordered overhaul.</p>
<p>The agency was deemed 40 percent compliant with the first phase and 58 percent compliant in phase two, according to the report, which covered the first three months of this year.</p>
<p>Taxpayers in metro Phoenix are on the hook for legal costs in the case until the sheriff’s office fully complies with the court-ordered changes for three straight years. By next summer, the costs are expected to reach $92 million.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/jacques%20billeaud .</p> | 2,735 |
<p>At the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChabadPR/?hc_ref=ARRCDGCJwV8gxaDgMPeZrK1r8ODTxaRDSbUIN-NrEafTMhhkCSf60qSsjRcOej24dQQ&amp;fref=nf" type="external">Chabad of Puerto Rico</a>, a thin crowd sang along with Rabbi Mendel Zarchi as he lit the candles on the first night of Hanukkah. Usually, the rabbi does the rites for hundreds of Jewish tourists on the island, but this year, following the damage from Hurricane Maria, only a few dozen people showed up, including a health insurance executive and a man overseeing oil spill cleanup for the Environmental Protection Agency.</p>
<p>Hurricane Maria affected nearly every&#160;person in Puerto Rico, including&#160;the island’s Jewish community, which&#160;numbers between 1,500 and 2,500. Rabbi Zarchi said he lost power in his house for two months and slept on an air mattress in the synagogue. The director of another Jewish center suffered searing back pains from lugging fuel for his generator. Conversation in the Chabad Center veered quickly from the spiritual to a spirited discussion about the benefits of natural gas generators.</p>
<p>In this atmosphere I met Mely Revai as we both sampled latkes — potato pancakes — made by the rabbi’s wife.</p>
<p>I asked Revai if she's&#160;from Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>“Now, yes,” she answered.</p>
<p>Revai, 58, was a doctor in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas before she moved to San Juan in December 2016. She and her husband were just settling into their new life when the hurricane hit and knocked out the lights.</p>
<p>So this year, the candle lighting of Hanukkah seems especially significant,&#160;Revai says. &#160;</p>
<p>“A little light can dispel a lot of darkness. And you need to keep that light on in your heart to be able to overcome all the problems that life throws at you sometimes.”</p>
<p>I was intrigued at how Puerto Rico, a storm-tossed island, might also be a refuge. So I went to visit Revai at her home. She and her husband now live in an apartment building in the Carolina suburb of San Juan, on a busy street lined by restaurants that are newly reopened after the storm — though some still have battered rooftops.</p>
<p>Revai was ironing her husband’s shirts when I arrived. She was eager to finish the housework before the start of the Sabbath at sundown.</p>
<p>“It’s supposed to be permanent press but it’s not,” she said as she smoothed out a blue and white plaid shirt. “You always have to give it a going over.”</p>
<p>Revai doesn’t work as a doctor now; she says&#160;it would take too long to get licensed in Puerto Rico. She was born in what was Communist Romania. Her family fled to Venezuela when she was a baby, and she spent almost her whole life in Caracas. Revai estimates that there were about 30,000 Jewish people in Venezuela at one point, but many of them emigrated as the economic situation deteriorated. Revai could see that decline on the streets.</p>
<p>“There were more people looking for food in the garbage,” she said. “The roads were not kept well … And it was even getting dangerous to walk to the synagogue, so we stopped going Friday night to the synagogue.”</p>
<p>Her daughter moved to Boston for college, and her son moved to San Juan, where he now works&#160;in the family&#160;lumber store&#160;with offices in Venezuela and Puerto Rico. With no family left in Caracas, Revai and her husband eventually followed. They found an apartment in San Juan and started outfitting the kitchen.</p>
<p>“I told one of my girlfriends, it’s like we’re newly married again,” she recalled. “We go and buy dishes, and knives and cutlery and pots and pans.”</p>
<p>Revai’s husband went to work in the family store. Then in late September, as Hurricane Maria approached, Revai and her husband waited out the storm with their son’s family. The rain came pouring down, the hurricane-proof windows leaked and they dashed to keep the floor dry.</p>
<p>“You take a towel, you pick up the water, you drain it in the bucket and repeat as needed,” Revai said, sounding&#160;like a doctor prescribing medicine.</p>
<p>The day after the storm was the Jewish new year and Revai picked her way through the flooded streets to get to synagogue. Then her family assessed the damage. The electricity in Revai’s apartment was out — like just about everywhere else on the island — so she stayed with her son, his daughter and his wife, who was pregnant and due any minute even as many hospitals in the city had no power. (The baby arrived just as the hospital got its generator.)</p>
<p>The lumber store had lost its roof and walls, and the&#160;men in the family drove back and forth to work on the store,&#160;waiting&#160;hours in line for gas. Revai says that as someone who had just left Venezuela, watching that scene was eerie.</p>
<p>“It was very strange for us,” Revai said. “There were lines to go to the supermarket and lines to buy gas. But I thought well, it’s the United States, somebody has to help us.”</p>
<p>To cope with the strain, Revai went for daily walks on the beach and prayed for electricity.</p>
<p>After a month and a half in her son’s home,&#160;Revai noticed the street lights illuminating her block on one of her walks. A security guard in her building said the electricity worked and the couple&#160;moved back in.</p>
<p>“Three days after that, the lights went off again,” Revai said. “And we said we are not going to move back to my son’s house yet. Let’s wait a little bit.”</p>
<p>She still keeps cases of water by the front door, and an emergency lantern on a coffee table. There's also a Hanukkah lamp, one of the few possessions Revai brought with her from Caracas.</p>
<p>Revai pulled out a blanket she’s knitting for a friend in Israel who is expecting a new grandchild. Revai’s friends from Caracas have scattered. None of them are in Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>"That's the most difficult part,” she said. “I met some people on the beach, and the other people I met [are] in the synagogue, but most of them don't live here the whole year. So they come and go, and the social part is limited here."</p>
<p>She showed me a window where we could see the beach where she goes walking. Palm trees swayed in the afternoon air.</p>
<p>“Yes, they survived the storm,” she said.</p> | A Venezuelan couple found refuge in Puerto Rico. Then the hurricane hit. | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-12-20/venezuelan-couple-found-refuge-puerto-rico-then-hurricane-hit | 2017-12-20 | 3left-center
| A Venezuelan couple found refuge in Puerto Rico. Then the hurricane hit.
<p>At the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChabadPR/?hc_ref=ARRCDGCJwV8gxaDgMPeZrK1r8ODTxaRDSbUIN-NrEafTMhhkCSf60qSsjRcOej24dQQ&amp;fref=nf" type="external">Chabad of Puerto Rico</a>, a thin crowd sang along with Rabbi Mendel Zarchi as he lit the candles on the first night of Hanukkah. Usually, the rabbi does the rites for hundreds of Jewish tourists on the island, but this year, following the damage from Hurricane Maria, only a few dozen people showed up, including a health insurance executive and a man overseeing oil spill cleanup for the Environmental Protection Agency.</p>
<p>Hurricane Maria affected nearly every&#160;person in Puerto Rico, including&#160;the island’s Jewish community, which&#160;numbers between 1,500 and 2,500. Rabbi Zarchi said he lost power in his house for two months and slept on an air mattress in the synagogue. The director of another Jewish center suffered searing back pains from lugging fuel for his generator. Conversation in the Chabad Center veered quickly from the spiritual to a spirited discussion about the benefits of natural gas generators.</p>
<p>In this atmosphere I met Mely Revai as we both sampled latkes — potato pancakes — made by the rabbi’s wife.</p>
<p>I asked Revai if she's&#160;from Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>“Now, yes,” she answered.</p>
<p>Revai, 58, was a doctor in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas before she moved to San Juan in December 2016. She and her husband were just settling into their new life when the hurricane hit and knocked out the lights.</p>
<p>So this year, the candle lighting of Hanukkah seems especially significant,&#160;Revai says. &#160;</p>
<p>“A little light can dispel a lot of darkness. And you need to keep that light on in your heart to be able to overcome all the problems that life throws at you sometimes.”</p>
<p>I was intrigued at how Puerto Rico, a storm-tossed island, might also be a refuge. So I went to visit Revai at her home. She and her husband now live in an apartment building in the Carolina suburb of San Juan, on a busy street lined by restaurants that are newly reopened after the storm — though some still have battered rooftops.</p>
<p>Revai was ironing her husband’s shirts when I arrived. She was eager to finish the housework before the start of the Sabbath at sundown.</p>
<p>“It’s supposed to be permanent press but it’s not,” she said as she smoothed out a blue and white plaid shirt. “You always have to give it a going over.”</p>
<p>Revai doesn’t work as a doctor now; she says&#160;it would take too long to get licensed in Puerto Rico. She was born in what was Communist Romania. Her family fled to Venezuela when she was a baby, and she spent almost her whole life in Caracas. Revai estimates that there were about 30,000 Jewish people in Venezuela at one point, but many of them emigrated as the economic situation deteriorated. Revai could see that decline on the streets.</p>
<p>“There were more people looking for food in the garbage,” she said. “The roads were not kept well … And it was even getting dangerous to walk to the synagogue, so we stopped going Friday night to the synagogue.”</p>
<p>Her daughter moved to Boston for college, and her son moved to San Juan, where he now works&#160;in the family&#160;lumber store&#160;with offices in Venezuela and Puerto Rico. With no family left in Caracas, Revai and her husband eventually followed. They found an apartment in San Juan and started outfitting the kitchen.</p>
<p>“I told one of my girlfriends, it’s like we’re newly married again,” she recalled. “We go and buy dishes, and knives and cutlery and pots and pans.”</p>
<p>Revai’s husband went to work in the family store. Then in late September, as Hurricane Maria approached, Revai and her husband waited out the storm with their son’s family. The rain came pouring down, the hurricane-proof windows leaked and they dashed to keep the floor dry.</p>
<p>“You take a towel, you pick up the water, you drain it in the bucket and repeat as needed,” Revai said, sounding&#160;like a doctor prescribing medicine.</p>
<p>The day after the storm was the Jewish new year and Revai picked her way through the flooded streets to get to synagogue. Then her family assessed the damage. The electricity in Revai’s apartment was out — like just about everywhere else on the island — so she stayed with her son, his daughter and his wife, who was pregnant and due any minute even as many hospitals in the city had no power. (The baby arrived just as the hospital got its generator.)</p>
<p>The lumber store had lost its roof and walls, and the&#160;men in the family drove back and forth to work on the store,&#160;waiting&#160;hours in line for gas. Revai says that as someone who had just left Venezuela, watching that scene was eerie.</p>
<p>“It was very strange for us,” Revai said. “There were lines to go to the supermarket and lines to buy gas. But I thought well, it’s the United States, somebody has to help us.”</p>
<p>To cope with the strain, Revai went for daily walks on the beach and prayed for electricity.</p>
<p>After a month and a half in her son’s home,&#160;Revai noticed the street lights illuminating her block on one of her walks. A security guard in her building said the electricity worked and the couple&#160;moved back in.</p>
<p>“Three days after that, the lights went off again,” Revai said. “And we said we are not going to move back to my son’s house yet. Let’s wait a little bit.”</p>
<p>She still keeps cases of water by the front door, and an emergency lantern on a coffee table. There's also a Hanukkah lamp, one of the few possessions Revai brought with her from Caracas.</p>
<p>Revai pulled out a blanket she’s knitting for a friend in Israel who is expecting a new grandchild. Revai’s friends from Caracas have scattered. None of them are in Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>"That's the most difficult part,” she said. “I met some people on the beach, and the other people I met [are] in the synagogue, but most of them don't live here the whole year. So they come and go, and the social part is limited here."</p>
<p>She showed me a window where we could see the beach where she goes walking. Palm trees swayed in the afternoon air.</p>
<p>“Yes, they survived the storm,” she said.</p> | 2,736 |
<p>Pete Marovich/ZUMA</p>
<p>Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court case that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, died in Manhattan on Tuesday, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/us/edith-windsor-dead-same-sex-marriage-doma.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=second-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news" type="external">New York Times reports</a>. She was 88.&#160;</p>
<p>Windsor’s <a href="" type="internal">landmark case</a> allowed same-sex couples who were legally married under state law to be afforded the same federal benefits—such as pensions and tax claims—as heterosexual couples. The ruling paved the way for the legalization of same-sex marriages nationwide.&#160;</p>
<p>After her historic victory, Windsor and her partner, Judith Kasen, were married in 2016.</p> | Edith Windsor Dies at 88 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2017/09/edith-windsor-dies-at-88/ | 2017-09-12 | 4left
| Edith Windsor Dies at 88
<p>Pete Marovich/ZUMA</p>
<p>Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court case that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, died in Manhattan on Tuesday, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/us/edith-windsor-dead-same-sex-marriage-doma.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=second-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news" type="external">New York Times reports</a>. She was 88.&#160;</p>
<p>Windsor’s <a href="" type="internal">landmark case</a> allowed same-sex couples who were legally married under state law to be afforded the same federal benefits—such as pensions and tax claims—as heterosexual couples. The ruling paved the way for the legalization of same-sex marriages nationwide.&#160;</p>
<p>After her historic victory, Windsor and her partner, Judith Kasen, were married in 2016.</p> | 2,737 |
<p>NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta said on Saturday the country has “a problem” with its judiciary that must be fixed, a day after the Supreme Court annulled his election win last month and ordered a new poll within 60 days.</p>
<p>“We shall revisit this thing. We clearly have a problem,” he said, referring to the judiciary. “Who even elected you? Were you? We have a problem and we must fix it,” he said, speaking on live television at State House in Nairobi after he met with governor and other elected officials from his Jubilee party.</p>
<p>Kenyatta also repeated his message from Friday that he would respect the court’s ruling, an unprecedented move in Africa where governments often hold sway over judges.</p>
<p>He said via Twitter on Saturday: “For now let us meet at the ballot.”</p>
<p>It is the second time since the court’s ruling that Kenyatta issued a critical comment in public about the judiciary. On Friday during an impromptu rally in Nairobi, he criticised the court for ignoring the will of the people and dismissed the chief justice’s colleagues as “wakora” (crooks).</p>
<p>Analysts saw the president’s latest comments on the judiciary as a worrisome development.</p>
<p>“It’s extremely unfortunate that Kenyatta seems to be issuing veiled threats at the judiciary,” said Murithi Mutiga, a Nairobi-based senior Africa analyst at the International Crisis group.</p>
<p>“This was a tremendous moment for Kenyan democracy, where the court upheld the rule of law. Politicians should be careful not to incite the public against the judiciary.”</p>
<p>On Friday, Chief Justice David Maraga said the Supreme Court’s verdict was backed by four of the six judges and declared Kenyatta’s victory “invalid, null and void”.</p>
<p>Details of the ruling will be released within 21 days.</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> | Kenya president says problem with judiciary must be fixed, vows to 'revisit' after new election | false | https://newsline.com/kenya-president-says-problem-with-judiciary-must-be-fixed-vows-to-039revisit039-after-new-election/ | 2017-09-02 | 1right-center
| Kenya president says problem with judiciary must be fixed, vows to 'revisit' after new election
<p>NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta said on Saturday the country has “a problem” with its judiciary that must be fixed, a day after the Supreme Court annulled his election win last month and ordered a new poll within 60 days.</p>
<p>“We shall revisit this thing. We clearly have a problem,” he said, referring to the judiciary. “Who even elected you? Were you? We have a problem and we must fix it,” he said, speaking on live television at State House in Nairobi after he met with governor and other elected officials from his Jubilee party.</p>
<p>Kenyatta also repeated his message from Friday that he would respect the court’s ruling, an unprecedented move in Africa where governments often hold sway over judges.</p>
<p>He said via Twitter on Saturday: “For now let us meet at the ballot.”</p>
<p>It is the second time since the court’s ruling that Kenyatta issued a critical comment in public about the judiciary. On Friday during an impromptu rally in Nairobi, he criticised the court for ignoring the will of the people and dismissed the chief justice’s colleagues as “wakora” (crooks).</p>
<p>Analysts saw the president’s latest comments on the judiciary as a worrisome development.</p>
<p>“It’s extremely unfortunate that Kenyatta seems to be issuing veiled threats at the judiciary,” said Murithi Mutiga, a Nairobi-based senior Africa analyst at the International Crisis group.</p>
<p>“This was a tremendous moment for Kenyan democracy, where the court upheld the rule of law. Politicians should be careful not to incite the public against the judiciary.”</p>
<p>On Friday, Chief Justice David Maraga said the Supreme Court’s verdict was backed by four of the six judges and declared Kenyatta’s victory “invalid, null and void”.</p>
<p>Details of the ruling will be released within 21 days.</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> | 2,738 |
<p />
<p>With the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon twins nipping at its ankles, the Tacoma hadn't had a thorough makeover since the 2005 model year, settling for mostly cosmetic updates to keep the truck-buying public interested. Although its near-fanatical adherents buy these trucks not for looks, but for their legendary reliability, minimal maintenance requirements, top-ranked resale value and general trustworthiness.</p>
<p>But the 2016 Tacoma makes a convincing argument for its newness, even though under its butch new looks there's a lot of the old vehicle still plugging away. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.</p>
<p>Some toughening tweaks to the Tacoma's chassis and suspension bring added stiffness - and therefore greater resistance to flex and shake - as well as quieter overall operation. This pickup's structure is tighter than a proverbial drum both on smooth highway and ragged off-road surfaces.</p>
<p>An eye-popping factoid: Tacoma will be available in 29 - 29! - individual versions, from four-cylinder, six-speed manual-transmission, two-wheel-drive Access Cab work trucks to full-tilt, four-door, four-wheel-drive Double Cabs with off-road-ready upgrades.</p>
<p>While the 2.7-liter four is a holdover, the upper models feature an all-new, 3.5-liter, twin-cam V-6 that doles out much smoother, and quieter, power delivery than the retired 4.0-liter six. The six-speed autobox is likewise a slick operator.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The redesigned cabin is impressively assembled, like most all Toyota products, although there's a surfeit of hard plastics and a virtual lack of soft-touch points, except for a pad on the dash before the front-seat passenger, resulting in a fairly utilitarian aura.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />All the secondary controls are simply designed and well-located. A simple rotary knob on the dash engages the electronic dual-range transfer case.</p>
<p>Another holdover from earlier models is the close-to-the-floor seating, necessitating a legs-out driving position. The seats themselves are comfortable, although a bit short under the thighs.</p>
<p>So even if this "redesign" is really more of an update, it's still a successful advance for the segments's most popular vehicle. There's little doubt it will remain on top.</p>
<p /> | FRESH METAL: For 2016, Toyota redesigns its popular Tacoma midsize pickup | false | https://abqjournal.com/695737/fresh-metal-for-2016-toyota-redesigns-its-popular-tacoma-midsize-pickup.html | 2least
| FRESH METAL: For 2016, Toyota redesigns its popular Tacoma midsize pickup
<p />
<p>With the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon twins nipping at its ankles, the Tacoma hadn't had a thorough makeover since the 2005 model year, settling for mostly cosmetic updates to keep the truck-buying public interested. Although its near-fanatical adherents buy these trucks not for looks, but for their legendary reliability, minimal maintenance requirements, top-ranked resale value and general trustworthiness.</p>
<p>But the 2016 Tacoma makes a convincing argument for its newness, even though under its butch new looks there's a lot of the old vehicle still plugging away. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.</p>
<p>Some toughening tweaks to the Tacoma's chassis and suspension bring added stiffness - and therefore greater resistance to flex and shake - as well as quieter overall operation. This pickup's structure is tighter than a proverbial drum both on smooth highway and ragged off-road surfaces.</p>
<p>An eye-popping factoid: Tacoma will be available in 29 - 29! - individual versions, from four-cylinder, six-speed manual-transmission, two-wheel-drive Access Cab work trucks to full-tilt, four-door, four-wheel-drive Double Cabs with off-road-ready upgrades.</p>
<p>While the 2.7-liter four is a holdover, the upper models feature an all-new, 3.5-liter, twin-cam V-6 that doles out much smoother, and quieter, power delivery than the retired 4.0-liter six. The six-speed autobox is likewise a slick operator.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The redesigned cabin is impressively assembled, like most all Toyota products, although there's a surfeit of hard plastics and a virtual lack of soft-touch points, except for a pad on the dash before the front-seat passenger, resulting in a fairly utilitarian aura.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />All the secondary controls are simply designed and well-located. A simple rotary knob on the dash engages the electronic dual-range transfer case.</p>
<p>Another holdover from earlier models is the close-to-the-floor seating, necessitating a legs-out driving position. The seats themselves are comfortable, although a bit short under the thighs.</p>
<p>So even if this "redesign" is really more of an update, it's still a successful advance for the segments's most popular vehicle. There's little doubt it will remain on top.</p>
<p /> | 2,739 |
|
<p />
<p>All parents hope that their children will be a credit to them. That can literally be the case at tax time.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The popular $1,000-per-child tax credit was made a permanent part of the tax code, thanks to the American Taxpayer Relief Act, also known as the "fiscal cliff" tax bill, that was enacted in January, 2013.</p>
<p>Then last December, the tax break was further permanently enhanced. The component that allows for an additional refundable child tax credit -- that's money back from Uncle Sam even if you don't owe any taxes -- was permanently added to the tax code under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes, or PATH Act, of 2015.</p>
<p>Under PATH, families earning more than $3,000 now remain eligible for the added tax break. That threshold was slated to go to nearly $15,000 beginning in 2018, meaning many families would have stopped receiving the additional refundable credit.</p>
<p>These permanent child tax credit changes are great news for parents, who find the credit is an easy way to reduce their tax bills dollar for dollar and possibly get a refund.</p>
<p>Basic requirements</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>There are certain tests you -- and your kids -- must meet before the IRS will let you claim the tax credit.</p>
<p>The key requirement is that your youngster be 16 or younger at the end of the tax year.</p>
<p>But the child doesn't have to necessarily be your child. A qualifying child in the IRS' eyes also could be your sibling (either full or step) or a descendent of one of these relatives, such as a grandchild, niece or nephew.</p>
<p>As for your kids, they can be yours by birth, adoption or because your son or daughter was placed in your foster care by a court or authorized agency.</p>
<p>The IRS also looks at how much income you have in providing for most of the child's care.</p>
<p>And the credit begins phasing out if you make $110,000 and are married, filing a joint return; earn $75,000 and file as head of household, single or qualifying widow or widower; or make $55,000 and are married filing separately.</p>
<p>If you take other credits, they could affect the final amount of child tax credit that you can claim. Instruction booklets for Form 1040 and Form 1040A contain the work sheets you'll need to figure this credit. You also can find detailed examples in IRS Publication 972, Child Tax Credit.</p>
<p>Getting extra credit</p>
<p>One drawback of the child tax credit is that it is nonrefundable. That means it can help you erase your tax bill, but it won't get you a refund.</p>
<p>Take, for example, Jim and Joan, a couple with two kids who translate to a total child tax credit of $2,000. However, because Jim and Joan's tax bill is $900, they lose some of the tax benefit of the credit. They can use it to wipe out what they owe the IRS, but the other $1,100 is effectively lost.</p>
<p>But Joan, Jim and other filers in similar situations might be able to get all or some of that nonrefundable portion back via the additional child tax credit.</p>
<p>The additional child tax credit, as already mentioned, is a refundable tax credit. Generally, the additional child tax credit is 15 percent of your taxable earned income that exceeds $3,000.</p>
<p>How to claim the credits</p>
<p>In addition to the financial benefit, the child tax credit is not difficult to claim. Just complete the work sheet in your 1040 or 1040A instruction booklet (or in your tax software); then enter the proper amount on your tax return.</p>
<p>Claiming the additional credit amount, like most child-related duties, requires extra time and work. There are different calculations depending on the number of children being claimed and the amount of the basic child tax credit that was not used. To figure your precise refundable tax credit, you'll have to complete a work sheet and fill out Form 8812 and send it along with your individual tax return.</p>
<p>Or if you use tax software, that program will take you through the additional steps required to get the most tax credit from your children.</p>
<p>But don't let the extra paper or computer work stop you. The calculations could really pay off.</p>
<p>Veteran contributing editor Kay Bell writes Bankrate's tax stories from her Austin, Texas, home. She also writes two tax blogs, Bankrate's Taxes Blog and Don't Mess With Taxes. She is the author of the book "The Truth About Paying Fewer Taxes," and a co-author of the book "Future Millionaires' Guidebook." Read more:&#160; <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/getting-full-tax-credit-for-kids.aspx#ixzz40cnsR4yV" type="external">http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/getting-full-tax-credit-for-kids.aspx#ixzz40cnsR4yV Opens a New Window.</a>&#160; Follow us:&#160; <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=aDV7hM4FKr36Epadbi-bpO&amp;u=Bankrate" type="external">@Bankrate on Twitter Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;|&#160; <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=aDV7hM4FKr36Epadbi-bpO&amp;u=Bankrate" type="external">Bankrate on Facebook Opens a New Window.</a></p> | Make Sure Your Children are a Tax Credit to You | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/02/26/make-sure-your-children-are-tax-credit-to.html | 2016-03-06 | 0right
| Make Sure Your Children are a Tax Credit to You
<p />
<p>All parents hope that their children will be a credit to them. That can literally be the case at tax time.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The popular $1,000-per-child tax credit was made a permanent part of the tax code, thanks to the American Taxpayer Relief Act, also known as the "fiscal cliff" tax bill, that was enacted in January, 2013.</p>
<p>Then last December, the tax break was further permanently enhanced. The component that allows for an additional refundable child tax credit -- that's money back from Uncle Sam even if you don't owe any taxes -- was permanently added to the tax code under the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes, or PATH Act, of 2015.</p>
<p>Under PATH, families earning more than $3,000 now remain eligible for the added tax break. That threshold was slated to go to nearly $15,000 beginning in 2018, meaning many families would have stopped receiving the additional refundable credit.</p>
<p>These permanent child tax credit changes are great news for parents, who find the credit is an easy way to reduce their tax bills dollar for dollar and possibly get a refund.</p>
<p>Basic requirements</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>There are certain tests you -- and your kids -- must meet before the IRS will let you claim the tax credit.</p>
<p>The key requirement is that your youngster be 16 or younger at the end of the tax year.</p>
<p>But the child doesn't have to necessarily be your child. A qualifying child in the IRS' eyes also could be your sibling (either full or step) or a descendent of one of these relatives, such as a grandchild, niece or nephew.</p>
<p>As for your kids, they can be yours by birth, adoption or because your son or daughter was placed in your foster care by a court or authorized agency.</p>
<p>The IRS also looks at how much income you have in providing for most of the child's care.</p>
<p>And the credit begins phasing out if you make $110,000 and are married, filing a joint return; earn $75,000 and file as head of household, single or qualifying widow or widower; or make $55,000 and are married filing separately.</p>
<p>If you take other credits, they could affect the final amount of child tax credit that you can claim. Instruction booklets for Form 1040 and Form 1040A contain the work sheets you'll need to figure this credit. You also can find detailed examples in IRS Publication 972, Child Tax Credit.</p>
<p>Getting extra credit</p>
<p>One drawback of the child tax credit is that it is nonrefundable. That means it can help you erase your tax bill, but it won't get you a refund.</p>
<p>Take, for example, Jim and Joan, a couple with two kids who translate to a total child tax credit of $2,000. However, because Jim and Joan's tax bill is $900, they lose some of the tax benefit of the credit. They can use it to wipe out what they owe the IRS, but the other $1,100 is effectively lost.</p>
<p>But Joan, Jim and other filers in similar situations might be able to get all or some of that nonrefundable portion back via the additional child tax credit.</p>
<p>The additional child tax credit, as already mentioned, is a refundable tax credit. Generally, the additional child tax credit is 15 percent of your taxable earned income that exceeds $3,000.</p>
<p>How to claim the credits</p>
<p>In addition to the financial benefit, the child tax credit is not difficult to claim. Just complete the work sheet in your 1040 or 1040A instruction booklet (or in your tax software); then enter the proper amount on your tax return.</p>
<p>Claiming the additional credit amount, like most child-related duties, requires extra time and work. There are different calculations depending on the number of children being claimed and the amount of the basic child tax credit that was not used. To figure your precise refundable tax credit, you'll have to complete a work sheet and fill out Form 8812 and send it along with your individual tax return.</p>
<p>Or if you use tax software, that program will take you through the additional steps required to get the most tax credit from your children.</p>
<p>But don't let the extra paper or computer work stop you. The calculations could really pay off.</p>
<p>Veteran contributing editor Kay Bell writes Bankrate's tax stories from her Austin, Texas, home. She also writes two tax blogs, Bankrate's Taxes Blog and Don't Mess With Taxes. She is the author of the book "The Truth About Paying Fewer Taxes," and a co-author of the book "Future Millionaires' Guidebook." Read more:&#160; <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/getting-full-tax-credit-for-kids.aspx#ixzz40cnsR4yV" type="external">http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/getting-full-tax-credit-for-kids.aspx#ixzz40cnsR4yV Opens a New Window.</a>&#160; Follow us:&#160; <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=aDV7hM4FKr36Epadbi-bpO&amp;u=Bankrate" type="external">@Bankrate on Twitter Opens a New Window.</a>&#160;|&#160; <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=aDV7hM4FKr36Epadbi-bpO&amp;u=Bankrate" type="external">Bankrate on Facebook Opens a New Window.</a></p> | 2,740 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>OK. I have done it every time I’ve been asked. This year was no different.</p>
<p>But let me make one thing clear to all Lobo fans: I will not vote for the University of New Mexico in the preseason Top 25.</p>
<p>In fact, I won’t vote for the Lobos no matter how well they start the season.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>If they go 10-0? Nope.</p>
<p>How about 15-0? No chance.</p>
<p>Come to think of it, I don’t care if UNM finishes the season undefeated and wins its third straight Mountain West Conference title. I ain’t voting for no Lobos this year.</p>
<p>Now before Rudy C., the Burrito, and the dude with all the initials and titles after his name and all those other oh-so-knowledgeable Lobo experts start peppering Sports Speak Up! with more “kill Mark Smith” drivel, let’s make something clear.</p>
<p>The Land of Enchantment is the Land of Disenchantment as far as AP is concerned.</p>
<p>The state doesn’t get a vote this season in men’s hoops. The local bureau, when it asked me to represent New Mexico, didn’t realize the state does not get a vote this season.</p>
<p>“This is nothing new,” said a rather huffy-sounding AP sports editor Terry Taylor. “… It’s not new. We cut the number of voters from 72 to 65 and we went to a rotation.”</p>
<p>Not new? This is the first I’ve heard of it. Of course, I didn’t have the state’s vote last year. It rotates around each year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>So how long has this been the practice?</p>
<p>“We did it last season,” Taylor says.</p>
<p>Ahh — an ancient practice, indeed. Excuse me for my lack of knowledge.</p>
<p>Taylor said the voter count was reduced because “we just wanted to make the number more manageable. It was taking a long time to get all the votes in here and it was delaying getting the poll out. The college football poll has 60 voters, and we cut this to 65. We had 72 (prior to last season in men’s basketball).”</p>
<p>Taylor said seven states will alternate being left out each year. And it could be one or two states each time. She said Hawaii, Minnesota, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska and West Virginia join New Mexico in the rotation.</p>
<p>This year was our turn to get the shaft.</p>
<p>I asked why a state like California couldn’t have its number of voters reduced so that every state could be represented each year, but Taylor said the voters are determined “based on a formula that takes into account the number of schools they have” in each state.</p>
<p>She said New Mexico will get its vote back either next year or the year after.</p>
<p>I guess it’s another sign of the economy.</p>
<p>MWC VOTING: Speaking of votes, the Mountain West Conference men’s preseason basketball poll will be released today in Denver during the annual media day.</p>
<p>Last season, the MWC sent four teams to the NCAA Tournament for the first time — New Mexico, BYU, San Diego State and UNLV — and all four will likely be in the top four this preseason.</p>
<p>Expect BYU and its senior guard Jimmer Fredette to be the favorites to win the league and player of the year honors, respectively.</p>
<p>UNM senior guard Dairese Gary should also be on the first team, as well as at least two players from San Diego State — which will likely be the No. 2 team in the poll.</p>
<p>My vote: 1. BYU, 2. SDSU, 3. UNM, 4. Colorado State, 5. UNLV, 6. Wyoming, 7. TCU, 8. Utah 9. Air Force</p>
<p>I chose Fredette as player of the year and had Gary on my first team. There are no second- or third-team votes.</p>
<p>I listed New Mexico’s Drew Gordon as newcomer of the year and the Lobos’ Kendall Williams as freshman of the year.</p>
<p>KNIGHT TIME: Coaching legend Bob Knight will speak at the Lobos’ preseason banquet on Nov. 1 at the Embassy Suites. The benefit for the UNM library fund begins at 6:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Lobo coach Steve Alford says he hopes to make it an annual event, and will try to bring in a different guest speaker each year.</p>
<p>“It will be a like a tip-off thing,” Alford said. “They did this in Indiana, and raised more than $2 million for the library fund. Having coach Knight is a natural fit for us.”</p>
<p>The controversial Knight was Alford’s college coach. The two teamed to win the 1987 NCAA championship.</p>
<p>Cost for the banquet is $800 per 10-person table.</p>
<p>I hope it sells out.</p>
<p>It’s for a good cause — and a sellout ensures all chairs are fixed solidly to the ground.</p>
<p>For further information, visit golobos.com or call 505-925-5626 or 505-925-5750.</p>
<p>FUNNY STUFF: The best line I’ve heard so far this week, came from Journal sports writer James Yodice. He asked me if I’d seen next week’s Lobo football point spread.</p>
<p>“The Lobos are only a 3-and-a-half point underdog,” he said, “Against Bye Week.”</p>
<p>GRILLIN’ AGGIE: New Mexico State basketball coach Marvin Menzies scored some points with Aggie fans prior to Saturday’s football fiasco in Las Cruces. Menzies was grilling and serving burgers for the fans during the pre-game tailgate. Very cool. Word is, he didn’t drop a single burger.</p>
<p>Which might make him the only guy at the stadium who didn’t fumble that evening.</p>
<p>NFL QB CONTROVERSIES: Michael Vick has nothing to worry about when he gets healthy in Philly. He’s the starter. The Bengals’ Carson Palmer is in big-time trouble. But how strange is it that his brother, Jordan, is the guy gunning for his spot? In San Fran, Alex Smith and Mike Singletary are the NFL’s version of Mike Locksley and Paul Krebs — seemingly hitched to each other’s wagon, no matter how many wheels have fallen off.</p> | AP Hoops Poll Has New Mexico on the Bench | false | https://abqjournal.com/232872/ap-hoops-poll-has-new-mexico-on-the-bench.html | 2least
| AP Hoops Poll Has New Mexico on the Bench
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>OK. I have done it every time I’ve been asked. This year was no different.</p>
<p>But let me make one thing clear to all Lobo fans: I will not vote for the University of New Mexico in the preseason Top 25.</p>
<p>In fact, I won’t vote for the Lobos no matter how well they start the season.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>If they go 10-0? Nope.</p>
<p>How about 15-0? No chance.</p>
<p>Come to think of it, I don’t care if UNM finishes the season undefeated and wins its third straight Mountain West Conference title. I ain’t voting for no Lobos this year.</p>
<p>Now before Rudy C., the Burrito, and the dude with all the initials and titles after his name and all those other oh-so-knowledgeable Lobo experts start peppering Sports Speak Up! with more “kill Mark Smith” drivel, let’s make something clear.</p>
<p>The Land of Enchantment is the Land of Disenchantment as far as AP is concerned.</p>
<p>The state doesn’t get a vote this season in men’s hoops. The local bureau, when it asked me to represent New Mexico, didn’t realize the state does not get a vote this season.</p>
<p>“This is nothing new,” said a rather huffy-sounding AP sports editor Terry Taylor. “… It’s not new. We cut the number of voters from 72 to 65 and we went to a rotation.”</p>
<p>Not new? This is the first I’ve heard of it. Of course, I didn’t have the state’s vote last year. It rotates around each year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>So how long has this been the practice?</p>
<p>“We did it last season,” Taylor says.</p>
<p>Ahh — an ancient practice, indeed. Excuse me for my lack of knowledge.</p>
<p>Taylor said the voter count was reduced because “we just wanted to make the number more manageable. It was taking a long time to get all the votes in here and it was delaying getting the poll out. The college football poll has 60 voters, and we cut this to 65. We had 72 (prior to last season in men’s basketball).”</p>
<p>Taylor said seven states will alternate being left out each year. And it could be one or two states each time. She said Hawaii, Minnesota, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska and West Virginia join New Mexico in the rotation.</p>
<p>This year was our turn to get the shaft.</p>
<p>I asked why a state like California couldn’t have its number of voters reduced so that every state could be represented each year, but Taylor said the voters are determined “based on a formula that takes into account the number of schools they have” in each state.</p>
<p>She said New Mexico will get its vote back either next year or the year after.</p>
<p>I guess it’s another sign of the economy.</p>
<p>MWC VOTING: Speaking of votes, the Mountain West Conference men’s preseason basketball poll will be released today in Denver during the annual media day.</p>
<p>Last season, the MWC sent four teams to the NCAA Tournament for the first time — New Mexico, BYU, San Diego State and UNLV — and all four will likely be in the top four this preseason.</p>
<p>Expect BYU and its senior guard Jimmer Fredette to be the favorites to win the league and player of the year honors, respectively.</p>
<p>UNM senior guard Dairese Gary should also be on the first team, as well as at least two players from San Diego State — which will likely be the No. 2 team in the poll.</p>
<p>My vote: 1. BYU, 2. SDSU, 3. UNM, 4. Colorado State, 5. UNLV, 6. Wyoming, 7. TCU, 8. Utah 9. Air Force</p>
<p>I chose Fredette as player of the year and had Gary on my first team. There are no second- or third-team votes.</p>
<p>I listed New Mexico’s Drew Gordon as newcomer of the year and the Lobos’ Kendall Williams as freshman of the year.</p>
<p>KNIGHT TIME: Coaching legend Bob Knight will speak at the Lobos’ preseason banquet on Nov. 1 at the Embassy Suites. The benefit for the UNM library fund begins at 6:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Lobo coach Steve Alford says he hopes to make it an annual event, and will try to bring in a different guest speaker each year.</p>
<p>“It will be a like a tip-off thing,” Alford said. “They did this in Indiana, and raised more than $2 million for the library fund. Having coach Knight is a natural fit for us.”</p>
<p>The controversial Knight was Alford’s college coach. The two teamed to win the 1987 NCAA championship.</p>
<p>Cost for the banquet is $800 per 10-person table.</p>
<p>I hope it sells out.</p>
<p>It’s for a good cause — and a sellout ensures all chairs are fixed solidly to the ground.</p>
<p>For further information, visit golobos.com or call 505-925-5626 or 505-925-5750.</p>
<p>FUNNY STUFF: The best line I’ve heard so far this week, came from Journal sports writer James Yodice. He asked me if I’d seen next week’s Lobo football point spread.</p>
<p>“The Lobos are only a 3-and-a-half point underdog,” he said, “Against Bye Week.”</p>
<p>GRILLIN’ AGGIE: New Mexico State basketball coach Marvin Menzies scored some points with Aggie fans prior to Saturday’s football fiasco in Las Cruces. Menzies was grilling and serving burgers for the fans during the pre-game tailgate. Very cool. Word is, he didn’t drop a single burger.</p>
<p>Which might make him the only guy at the stadium who didn’t fumble that evening.</p>
<p>NFL QB CONTROVERSIES: Michael Vick has nothing to worry about when he gets healthy in Philly. He’s the starter. The Bengals’ Carson Palmer is in big-time trouble. But how strange is it that his brother, Jordan, is the guy gunning for his spot? In San Fran, Alex Smith and Mike Singletary are the NFL’s version of Mike Locksley and Paul Krebs — seemingly hitched to each other’s wagon, no matter how many wheels have fallen off.</p> | 2,741 |
|
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening’s drawing of the Wisconsin Lottery’s “Badger 5” game were:</p>
<p>01-02-11-16-31</p>
<p>(one, two, eleven, sixteen, thirty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $10,000</p>
<p>¶ Maximum prize: $45,000</p>
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening’s drawing of the Wisconsin Lottery’s “Badger 5” game were:</p>
<p>01-02-11-16-31</p>
<p>(one, two, eleven, sixteen, thirty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $10,000</p>
<p>¶ Maximum prize: $45,000</p> | Winning numbers drawn in ‘Badger 5’ game | false | https://apnews.com/b35b2b16a9154a90990f2ff100516dba | 2018-01-20 | 2least
| Winning numbers drawn in ‘Badger 5’ game
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening’s drawing of the Wisconsin Lottery’s “Badger 5” game were:</p>
<p>01-02-11-16-31</p>
<p>(one, two, eleven, sixteen, thirty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $10,000</p>
<p>¶ Maximum prize: $45,000</p>
<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Friday evening’s drawing of the Wisconsin Lottery’s “Badger 5” game were:</p>
<p>01-02-11-16-31</p>
<p>(one, two, eleven, sixteen, thirty-one)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $10,000</p>
<p>¶ Maximum prize: $45,000</p> | 2,742 |
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday afternoon's drawing of the North Carolina Lottery's "Pick 4 Day" game were:</p>
<p>6-7-5-9, Lucky Sum: 27</p>
<p>(six, seven, five, nine; Lucky Sum: twenty-seven)</p>
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday afternoon's drawing of the North Carolina Lottery's "Pick 4 Day" game were:</p>
<p>6-7-5-9, Lucky Sum: 27</p>
<p>(six, seven, five, nine; Lucky Sum: twenty-seven)</p> | Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 4 Day' game | false | https://apnews.com/amp/83fed845fded40569103b9266a3ea5cc | 2018-01-21 | 2least
| Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 4 Day' game
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday afternoon's drawing of the North Carolina Lottery's "Pick 4 Day" game were:</p>
<p>6-7-5-9, Lucky Sum: 27</p>
<p>(six, seven, five, nine; Lucky Sum: twenty-seven)</p>
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Sunday afternoon's drawing of the North Carolina Lottery's "Pick 4 Day" game were:</p>
<p>6-7-5-9, Lucky Sum: 27</p>
<p>(six, seven, five, nine; Lucky Sum: twenty-seven)</p> | 2,743 |
<p>In yet another astonishing eyewitness report that contradicts the official story surrounding the worst mass shooting in American history, a married couple who were celebrating their 10th anniversary in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting have come forward to reveal that there was an active shooter inside the Bellagio Hotel around the same time that supposed lone gunman Stephen Paddock was found dead.</p>
<p>During the confessional, a Canadian man by the name of Jeff detailed the fact that he and his wife were in the Bellagio Resort and Casino around 11:20pm on the night of the shooting when panic broke out in the hotels lobby.</p>
<p>Jeff begins the interview by making clear his belief that there were&#160;multiple active shooters targeting different places&#160;in Las Vegas on the night of the attack.</p>
<p>“First of all, I think what needs to be said is that, from my perspective, there were multiple events that occurred around Las Vegas, up and down the Strip that night. It wasn’t just centralized around the Mandalay Hotel,” the witness claimed.</p>
<p />
<p>The eyewitness then goes on to directly&#160;say that he and his wife were involved in an active shooter situation at a different hotel that authorities have so far done everything in their power to cover-up.</p>
<p>“My wife and I were in Las Vegas celebrating our 10th anniversary and on October 1st we were involved in an incident with an active shooter at the Bellagio. There is no mistake in my mind about it,” he continued.</p>
<p>Jeff then describes a scene in which he and his wife were walking through the main lobby when screams and gunfire erupted. Keep in mind, this is all information that the police and the FBI has hidden from the American people.</p>
<p>“All of a sudden there was just a crescendo of screams that started behind us in the lobby,” he claimed. “Then I heard somebody yell ‘there’s a shooter! There’s a shooter!’ And then I heard like five or six pops, like unmistakable gunfire, unmistakably.”</p>
<p>“That was about 11:20 when we heard the shots and the screams… at that point you could hear and see the screams and see hundreds of people coming towards us.”</p>
<p>Amazingly, as&#160; <a href="https://www.intellihub.com/las-vegas-shooting-an-in-depth-analysis/" type="external">Shepard Ambellas noted</a>, “The man’s claims match up to actual events captured in police audio recordings from the night of the shooting which confirms that between 11:15 and 11:18 p.m. on the night of Oct. 1 there was, in fact, something going on at the Bellagio.”</p>
<p>This testimony also backs up&#160; <a href="https://www.intellihub.com/eyewitness-claims-bullets-flew-into-the-bellagio-lobby-30-45-minutes-after-the-massacre/" type="external">claims by another eyewitness</a>,&#160;Rene Downs, who has spent the past few days doing interviews about a shooter inside the Bellagio Hotel.</p>
<p>Slowly but surely we are starting to see the official narrative regarding the Las Vegas Massacre be completely destroyed. At this point it is strikingly obvious that authorities have lied to the American people about the worst mass shooting in our countries history.</p>
<p>One can only speculate as to what the reasons for these lies actually are?</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://www.shtfplan.com/conspiracy-fact-and-theory/eyewitness-confessional-there-was-an-active-shooter-targeting-the-bellagio-hotel-during-the-las-vegas-massacre_10142017" type="external">SHTFplan.com</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | Eyewitness Confessional: There Was An Active Shooter Targeting The Bellagio Hotel During The Las Vegas Massacre | true | http://dcclothesline.com/2017/10/15/eyewitness-confessional-there-was-an-active-shooter-targeting-the-bellagio-hotel-during-the-las-vegas-massacre/ | 2017-10-15 | 0right
| Eyewitness Confessional: There Was An Active Shooter Targeting The Bellagio Hotel During The Las Vegas Massacre
<p>In yet another astonishing eyewitness report that contradicts the official story surrounding the worst mass shooting in American history, a married couple who were celebrating their 10th anniversary in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting have come forward to reveal that there was an active shooter inside the Bellagio Hotel around the same time that supposed lone gunman Stephen Paddock was found dead.</p>
<p>During the confessional, a Canadian man by the name of Jeff detailed the fact that he and his wife were in the Bellagio Resort and Casino around 11:20pm on the night of the shooting when panic broke out in the hotels lobby.</p>
<p>Jeff begins the interview by making clear his belief that there were&#160;multiple active shooters targeting different places&#160;in Las Vegas on the night of the attack.</p>
<p>“First of all, I think what needs to be said is that, from my perspective, there were multiple events that occurred around Las Vegas, up and down the Strip that night. It wasn’t just centralized around the Mandalay Hotel,” the witness claimed.</p>
<p />
<p>The eyewitness then goes on to directly&#160;say that he and his wife were involved in an active shooter situation at a different hotel that authorities have so far done everything in their power to cover-up.</p>
<p>“My wife and I were in Las Vegas celebrating our 10th anniversary and on October 1st we were involved in an incident with an active shooter at the Bellagio. There is no mistake in my mind about it,” he continued.</p>
<p>Jeff then describes a scene in which he and his wife were walking through the main lobby when screams and gunfire erupted. Keep in mind, this is all information that the police and the FBI has hidden from the American people.</p>
<p>“All of a sudden there was just a crescendo of screams that started behind us in the lobby,” he claimed. “Then I heard somebody yell ‘there’s a shooter! There’s a shooter!’ And then I heard like five or six pops, like unmistakable gunfire, unmistakably.”</p>
<p>“That was about 11:20 when we heard the shots and the screams… at that point you could hear and see the screams and see hundreds of people coming towards us.”</p>
<p>Amazingly, as&#160; <a href="https://www.intellihub.com/las-vegas-shooting-an-in-depth-analysis/" type="external">Shepard Ambellas noted</a>, “The man’s claims match up to actual events captured in police audio recordings from the night of the shooting which confirms that between 11:15 and 11:18 p.m. on the night of Oct. 1 there was, in fact, something going on at the Bellagio.”</p>
<p>This testimony also backs up&#160; <a href="https://www.intellihub.com/eyewitness-claims-bullets-flew-into-the-bellagio-lobby-30-45-minutes-after-the-massacre/" type="external">claims by another eyewitness</a>,&#160;Rene Downs, who has spent the past few days doing interviews about a shooter inside the Bellagio Hotel.</p>
<p>Slowly but surely we are starting to see the official narrative regarding the Las Vegas Massacre be completely destroyed. At this point it is strikingly obvious that authorities have lied to the American people about the worst mass shooting in our countries history.</p>
<p>One can only speculate as to what the reasons for these lies actually are?</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://www.shtfplan.com/conspiracy-fact-and-theory/eyewitness-confessional-there-was-an-active-shooter-targeting-the-bellagio-hotel-during-the-las-vegas-massacre_10142017" type="external">SHTFplan.com</a></p>
<p />
<p /> | 2,744 |
<p>Curt Schilling is still upset that ESPN gave him the boot after he was warned not to comment on political issues while already suspended for commenting on political issues.</p>
<p>He took to Breitbart and cried that you can comment on ESPN, <a href="http://deadspin.com/curt-schilling-espn-employs-the-biggest-racists-in-sp-1773582081" type="external">as long as you went off topic left.</a></p>
<p>Schilling, who has repeatedly decried echo chambers and safe spaces, appeared on the “Breitbart News Patriot Forum.” He said that ESPN’s real problem with him was not that he commented on politics, but that his political comments expressed the wrong ideology. “It was apparent to me early on that if you wanted to go off topic as a sportsperson,” Schilling said, “you had to go off topic left, or you were going to get into trouble.”</p>
<p>He claimed that ESPN, which once <a href="http://deadspin.com/espn-suspends-keith-law-from-twitter-for-defending-evol-1661836868#_ga=1.140344688.253254212.1421771124" type="external">suspended Keith Law from Twitter</a>for politely defending evolution from attacks by Schilling, is biased against conservatives, as proven by its continued employment of on-air talent he considers racist.</p>
<p>Schilling did not specifically clarify which of his former co-workers were racist or had said racist things. But he was asked, after the show, about his belief that ESPN only punishes political speech on one side of the spectrum, and gave two examples.</p>
<p>“The memo that was sent out more than once was about they wanted on air-talent to focus on sports. To me that means focus on sports unless you want to talk about something that is part of the liberal agenda.“You listen to Stephen A. Smith, and Stephen A. Smith was the guy who said that Robert Griffin didn’t play quarterback for the Redskins because he’s black. No, Robert Griffin didn’t play quarterback for the Redskins because he [stunk].“. . .</p>
<p>Tony Kornheiser compared the Tea Party to ISIS. I don’t know any planet where those are sports topics. But I don’t care. It’s OK. I think those conversations need to happen. But as soon as you go to the flip side, the right side, there are repercussions for not talking about sports.”</p>
<p>(Here are the contexts of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1H1lo2BwpU" type="external">Smith’s</a> and <a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/bruce-bookter/2015/10/26/tony-kornheiser-sees-tea-party-being-isis" type="external">Kornheiser’s</a> comments. Smith was speculating on whether Jay Gruden’s treatment of Griffin differed from that of Kirk Cousins, and how that fit into a long history of black quarterbacks being held to different standards. Kornheiser was interviewing a political journalist about infighting within the Republican Party, and mentioned ISIS as an example of a rejectionist movement.)</p>
<p>ESPN only cares about revenues and not generating controversies. They may not be handling all these outspoken athletes that great, but I'd say it's pretty hard to corral them all. However, Schilling is a whiner and a liar about what happened to him.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://deadspin.com/curt-schilling-espn-employs-the-biggest-racists-in-sp-1773582081" type="external">Deadspin piece is very good.</a></p>
<p /> | Curt Schilling: ESPN Employs Liberals 'Who Are Biggest Racists In Sports Commentating' | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2016/04/curt-schilling-espn-employs-liberals-who | 2016-04-28 | 4left
| Curt Schilling: ESPN Employs Liberals 'Who Are Biggest Racists In Sports Commentating'
<p>Curt Schilling is still upset that ESPN gave him the boot after he was warned not to comment on political issues while already suspended for commenting on political issues.</p>
<p>He took to Breitbart and cried that you can comment on ESPN, <a href="http://deadspin.com/curt-schilling-espn-employs-the-biggest-racists-in-sp-1773582081" type="external">as long as you went off topic left.</a></p>
<p>Schilling, who has repeatedly decried echo chambers and safe spaces, appeared on the “Breitbart News Patriot Forum.” He said that ESPN’s real problem with him was not that he commented on politics, but that his political comments expressed the wrong ideology. “It was apparent to me early on that if you wanted to go off topic as a sportsperson,” Schilling said, “you had to go off topic left, or you were going to get into trouble.”</p>
<p>He claimed that ESPN, which once <a href="http://deadspin.com/espn-suspends-keith-law-from-twitter-for-defending-evol-1661836868#_ga=1.140344688.253254212.1421771124" type="external">suspended Keith Law from Twitter</a>for politely defending evolution from attacks by Schilling, is biased against conservatives, as proven by its continued employment of on-air talent he considers racist.</p>
<p>Schilling did not specifically clarify which of his former co-workers were racist or had said racist things. But he was asked, after the show, about his belief that ESPN only punishes political speech on one side of the spectrum, and gave two examples.</p>
<p>“The memo that was sent out more than once was about they wanted on air-talent to focus on sports. To me that means focus on sports unless you want to talk about something that is part of the liberal agenda.“You listen to Stephen A. Smith, and Stephen A. Smith was the guy who said that Robert Griffin didn’t play quarterback for the Redskins because he’s black. No, Robert Griffin didn’t play quarterback for the Redskins because he [stunk].“. . .</p>
<p>Tony Kornheiser compared the Tea Party to ISIS. I don’t know any planet where those are sports topics. But I don’t care. It’s OK. I think those conversations need to happen. But as soon as you go to the flip side, the right side, there are repercussions for not talking about sports.”</p>
<p>(Here are the contexts of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1H1lo2BwpU" type="external">Smith’s</a> and <a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/bruce-bookter/2015/10/26/tony-kornheiser-sees-tea-party-being-isis" type="external">Kornheiser’s</a> comments. Smith was speculating on whether Jay Gruden’s treatment of Griffin differed from that of Kirk Cousins, and how that fit into a long history of black quarterbacks being held to different standards. Kornheiser was interviewing a political journalist about infighting within the Republican Party, and mentioned ISIS as an example of a rejectionist movement.)</p>
<p>ESPN only cares about revenues and not generating controversies. They may not be handling all these outspoken athletes that great, but I'd say it's pretty hard to corral them all. However, Schilling is a whiner and a liar about what happened to him.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://deadspin.com/curt-schilling-espn-employs-the-biggest-racists-in-sp-1773582081" type="external">Deadspin piece is very good.</a></p>
<p /> | 2,745 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>People on snow-covered ice at the base of the frozen American Falls, Niagara Falls, New York, c. 1883. (Source: Library of Congress)</p>
<p>As temperatures drop in the northeast corner of the United States, icy water that goes over the roaring Niagara Falls crashes into the rocks below and turns solid. Blocks of ice floes freeze together, forming a solid mass wide enough to connect the United States and Canada.</p>
<p>It’s called the ice bridge. Children in the late 1880s rode their sleds there, tourists strolled between the two countries, and entrepreneurs sold food and hot drinks from makeshift concession stands. A “sharp rogue,” as the Niagara Falls Gazette described a man on Feb. 14, 1883, built a shanty of boards in the middle of the massive bridge – right on the line between the two countries, where no laws apply – and sold liquor.</p>
<p>Mounds of ice piled up high enough to almost reach the top of the falls. One early-20th-century photo, published in “Niagara Falls: 1850-2000” by Paul Gromosiak and Christopher Stoianoff, showed children playing dangerously close to the rapidly falling waters as they stood at the top of an ice mountain.</p>
<p>Such was the geological wonder of the ice bridge and the three falls that form Niagara Falls in New York. American and Bridal Veil falls are next to each other on the U.S. side. Horseshoe Falls, the biggest of the three, straddles both countries. Collectively, more than 3,000 tons of water flows over the falls each second, making Niagara Falls a major source of hydroelectric power for the United States and Canada.</p>
<p>Gromosiak, a Niagara Falls historian, described to the Buffalo News in 2004 what it was like to be there:</p>
<p>“All the trees were bowing to the river, with the weight of ice on their branches. And I looked up at the sky and saw this vortex of ring-billed gulls, thousands of them. . . . The natural scene overwhelms the artificial scene around it. Especially on a day when the ice bridge is massive and you have huge mounds of ice below the American Falls, ice on all the trees, the sun shining and the rainbow in the sky. It diminishes even those skyscrapers on the Canadian side.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But behind the white, pristine beauty was a tragedy that changed the history of Niagara Falls.</p>
<p>About three-dozen people were on the ice bridge that broke at noon on Feb. 4, 1912. A large block of ice fell on the bridge, causing it to crack and the floes to break apart. Many made it to either side of the bridge; three didn’t.</p>
<p>Eldridge and Clara Stanton were paralyzed with fear as they stood on a moving ice floe. Clara collapsed, while Eldridge screamed for help. They held each other, looking like a mere dot in a photo taken from a distance. Farther up to their left was Burrell Hecock, who would’ve made it to the Canadian side had he not stopped to help the Stantons after hearing the screams. Together, they were swept to their deaths.</p>
<p>Their bodies were never found.</p>
<p>Walking over the ice bridge is no longer allowed.</p>
<p>Visitors take photographs at the brink of the Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls, Ont., Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018. Almost every year frigid temperatures transform the falls into an icy winter wonderland when the mist is blown back, freezing on the landscape. (Aaron Lynett/The Canadian Press via AP)</p> | People used to walk to Canada across frozen-over Niagara Falls. An accident changed everything. | false | https://abqjournal.com/1113824/people-used-to-walk-to-canada-across-frozen-over-niagara-falls-an-accident-changed-everything.html | 2018-01-02 | 2least
| People used to walk to Canada across frozen-over Niagara Falls. An accident changed everything.
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>People on snow-covered ice at the base of the frozen American Falls, Niagara Falls, New York, c. 1883. (Source: Library of Congress)</p>
<p>As temperatures drop in the northeast corner of the United States, icy water that goes over the roaring Niagara Falls crashes into the rocks below and turns solid. Blocks of ice floes freeze together, forming a solid mass wide enough to connect the United States and Canada.</p>
<p>It’s called the ice bridge. Children in the late 1880s rode their sleds there, tourists strolled between the two countries, and entrepreneurs sold food and hot drinks from makeshift concession stands. A “sharp rogue,” as the Niagara Falls Gazette described a man on Feb. 14, 1883, built a shanty of boards in the middle of the massive bridge – right on the line between the two countries, where no laws apply – and sold liquor.</p>
<p>Mounds of ice piled up high enough to almost reach the top of the falls. One early-20th-century photo, published in “Niagara Falls: 1850-2000” by Paul Gromosiak and Christopher Stoianoff, showed children playing dangerously close to the rapidly falling waters as they stood at the top of an ice mountain.</p>
<p>Such was the geological wonder of the ice bridge and the three falls that form Niagara Falls in New York. American and Bridal Veil falls are next to each other on the U.S. side. Horseshoe Falls, the biggest of the three, straddles both countries. Collectively, more than 3,000 tons of water flows over the falls each second, making Niagara Falls a major source of hydroelectric power for the United States and Canada.</p>
<p>Gromosiak, a Niagara Falls historian, described to the Buffalo News in 2004 what it was like to be there:</p>
<p>“All the trees were bowing to the river, with the weight of ice on their branches. And I looked up at the sky and saw this vortex of ring-billed gulls, thousands of them. . . . The natural scene overwhelms the artificial scene around it. Especially on a day when the ice bridge is massive and you have huge mounds of ice below the American Falls, ice on all the trees, the sun shining and the rainbow in the sky. It diminishes even those skyscrapers on the Canadian side.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But behind the white, pristine beauty was a tragedy that changed the history of Niagara Falls.</p>
<p>About three-dozen people were on the ice bridge that broke at noon on Feb. 4, 1912. A large block of ice fell on the bridge, causing it to crack and the floes to break apart. Many made it to either side of the bridge; three didn’t.</p>
<p>Eldridge and Clara Stanton were paralyzed with fear as they stood on a moving ice floe. Clara collapsed, while Eldridge screamed for help. They held each other, looking like a mere dot in a photo taken from a distance. Farther up to their left was Burrell Hecock, who would’ve made it to the Canadian side had he not stopped to help the Stantons after hearing the screams. Together, they were swept to their deaths.</p>
<p>Their bodies were never found.</p>
<p>Walking over the ice bridge is no longer allowed.</p>
<p>Visitors take photographs at the brink of the Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls, Ont., Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018. Almost every year frigid temperatures transform the falls into an icy winter wonderland when the mist is blown back, freezing on the landscape. (Aaron Lynett/The Canadian Press via AP)</p> | 2,746 |
<p>When the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its annual survey on hunger in the U.S. this November, something was missing. The word “hunger.”</p>
<p>The government decided to purge the word from this year’s Household Food Security survey. Why? Because, officials said, it is not a “scientifically accurate” term.</p>
<p>The term “food insecure with hunger”–the USDA’s previous designation for people who suffered the most from lack of food–has been changed to “very low food security.” “It seems that ‘hungry’ means different things to different people,” said sociologist Mark Nord, one of the main authors of the USDA survey.</p>
<p>Despite what the USDA may think, “hunger” is something everyone can understand. “We feel that this really diminishes what millions of Americans face every year, which is the honest lack of food or resources to access food in order to lead a healthy productive life,” Halley Aldeen, director of research and analysis at the national food bank network America’s Second Harvest, said in an interview.</p>
<p>“We really do want the word hunger restored to the report. We don’t want to diminish the condition that millions of Americans suffer from,” she said. “We know that 25 million Americans rely on our food assistance network, and no matter what others choose to call it, they are hungry.”</p>
<p>Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), agrees that the term change does a disservice to the millions of people in the U.S. who go hungry every year.</p>
<p>“It’s like the government announcing it would no longer talk about ‘uninsured people,’ but ‘people with reduced health care access,'” he says. “It’s replacing a phrase which has emotional punch for people with one that’s drained of any power.”</p>
<p>All the clinical terminology in the world can’t change the fact that, according to the USDA report, more than 35 million people were living in households that are “food insecure.” That means 12 percent of the U.S. population didn’t get enough to eat for at least part of last year.</p>
<p>According to the report, things got even worse for those who are worst off. The number of people in the USDA’s “very low food security” category–households in which “the food intake of some household members was reduced and their normal eating patterns were disrupted”–rose in 2005 to 10.8 million.</p>
<p>Hunger rates were higher for Black households (22.4 percent) and Hispanic households (17.9 percent) than the national average.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>IN SPITE of the Bush administration’s claim that the economy is strong, food pantries and soup kitchens report being stretched to the breaking point.</p>
<p>In Battle Creek, Mich., the Food Bank of South Central Michigan is using leftover food from restaurants to fill the gap between the needs of hungry people and what corporate and private donations will buy. “This is what we call ‘deep diving,'” Teresa Osborne, who leads the food bank’s donor and community relations program, told the Chicago Tribune, describing collecting discarded food from local restaurants.</p>
<p>At the same time as the need has increased, federal food assistance to pantries, in the form of commodities like milk products and canned goods, is down about 55 percent since 2001.</p>
<p>Anne Lipsey, executive director of Loaves &amp; Fishes, a food distributor and referral agency in Kalamazoo, Mich., said requests for food are increasing at a rate of as much as 15 percent a year. With about 30 percent of Kalamazoo residents living below the federal poverty line, “[w]e’re seeing more adult-only households, a complex and multigenerational coming together of people, for economic reasons,” Lipsey told the Tribune. “It’s people living on one person’s income, grandma’s Social Security and disability income for Uncle Fred.”</p>
<p>The busiest and most desperate time for pantries is at the end of the month, when food stamps run out.</p>
<p>In Ohio and Michigan, where hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs have been lost over the decade, food stamp use is up 65 percent in Ohio and 74 percent in Michigan from 2000 to 2005, according to the USDA.</p>
<p>According to a recent report by the New York Daily News, some 8,000 New York City employees–some 3 percent of the municipal workforce–use food stamps. Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered cold comfort to the city’s low-paid workers. “Well, if you want to sponsor higher taxes, we’ll have more money,” the billionaire mayor told a Daily News reporter. “There will be always some jobs that are entry level that don’t pay enough.”</p>
<p>Though food stamp use is on the rise, it’s still the case that four in 10 people who are eligible for food stamp benefits don’t receive them, according to a FRAC report. In part, food stamps can be difficult to obtain, with recipients required to go through a complicated process to qualify.</p>
<p>“The average food stamps application is 12 pages, while the federal firearm application is two,” said Aldeen from Second Harvest, which has conducted studies since 1993 of state food stamp requirements and collected interviews with applicants.</p>
<p>One of the most severe attacks on the food stamps program was by the Clinton administration–when it implemented the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, which dismantled the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program.</p>
<p>First on the chopping block were legal immigrants, who were immediately cut off food stamps. New rules made millions of childless, jobless adults ineligible, or put tough restrictions on them.</p>
<p>According to a July 2001 USDA report to Congress, 56 percent of the caseload declines between 1994 and 1999 “occurred because fewer eligible individuals participated in the program,” rather than because of the economy or changes in eligibility rules. From December 1997 to December 2000, the food stamp caseload fell by 3.5 million, according to FRAC.</p>
<p>Since 2000, the food stamp rolls are on the rise again. So, too, is the demand for free school lunches and breakfasts. A record 7.7 million low-income children received free and reduced-price breakfasts on an average day during the 2005-2006 school year, according to FRAC. But it’s also estimated that only two in every five children who need the breakfast program have access to it.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>EVERY DAY, people are forced to make what could be life-and-death decisions, based on poverty.</p>
<p>According to America’s Second Harvest’s Hunger in America Study 2006, 42 percent of the people they serve had to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel. Thirty-five percent had to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage.</p>
<p>It makes no sense, in a country with so much wealth and resources, that a single person goes hungry.</p>
<p>Funding for and access to food stamp programs and other food aid programs should be expanded. Food stamps are underfunded, with the average benefit allowing just one dollar per person, per meal, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Raising the minimum wage to a living wage–a demand that’s being made by activists in cities and counties across the country–would go some way toward reducing hunger.</p>
<p>No one should ever have to make the decision between food, shelter or other fundamental human needs.</p>
<p>ELIZABETH SCHULTE writes for the <a href="http://www.socialistworker.org/" type="external">Socialist Worker.</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Hungry for the Holidays | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/12/13/hungry-for-the-holidays/ | 2006-12-13 | 4left
| Hungry for the Holidays
<p>When the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its annual survey on hunger in the U.S. this November, something was missing. The word “hunger.”</p>
<p>The government decided to purge the word from this year’s Household Food Security survey. Why? Because, officials said, it is not a “scientifically accurate” term.</p>
<p>The term “food insecure with hunger”–the USDA’s previous designation for people who suffered the most from lack of food–has been changed to “very low food security.” “It seems that ‘hungry’ means different things to different people,” said sociologist Mark Nord, one of the main authors of the USDA survey.</p>
<p>Despite what the USDA may think, “hunger” is something everyone can understand. “We feel that this really diminishes what millions of Americans face every year, which is the honest lack of food or resources to access food in order to lead a healthy productive life,” Halley Aldeen, director of research and analysis at the national food bank network America’s Second Harvest, said in an interview.</p>
<p>“We really do want the word hunger restored to the report. We don’t want to diminish the condition that millions of Americans suffer from,” she said. “We know that 25 million Americans rely on our food assistance network, and no matter what others choose to call it, they are hungry.”</p>
<p>Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), agrees that the term change does a disservice to the millions of people in the U.S. who go hungry every year.</p>
<p>“It’s like the government announcing it would no longer talk about ‘uninsured people,’ but ‘people with reduced health care access,'” he says. “It’s replacing a phrase which has emotional punch for people with one that’s drained of any power.”</p>
<p>All the clinical terminology in the world can’t change the fact that, according to the USDA report, more than 35 million people were living in households that are “food insecure.” That means 12 percent of the U.S. population didn’t get enough to eat for at least part of last year.</p>
<p>According to the report, things got even worse for those who are worst off. The number of people in the USDA’s “very low food security” category–households in which “the food intake of some household members was reduced and their normal eating patterns were disrupted”–rose in 2005 to 10.8 million.</p>
<p>Hunger rates were higher for Black households (22.4 percent) and Hispanic households (17.9 percent) than the national average.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>IN SPITE of the Bush administration’s claim that the economy is strong, food pantries and soup kitchens report being stretched to the breaking point.</p>
<p>In Battle Creek, Mich., the Food Bank of South Central Michigan is using leftover food from restaurants to fill the gap between the needs of hungry people and what corporate and private donations will buy. “This is what we call ‘deep diving,'” Teresa Osborne, who leads the food bank’s donor and community relations program, told the Chicago Tribune, describing collecting discarded food from local restaurants.</p>
<p>At the same time as the need has increased, federal food assistance to pantries, in the form of commodities like milk products and canned goods, is down about 55 percent since 2001.</p>
<p>Anne Lipsey, executive director of Loaves &amp; Fishes, a food distributor and referral agency in Kalamazoo, Mich., said requests for food are increasing at a rate of as much as 15 percent a year. With about 30 percent of Kalamazoo residents living below the federal poverty line, “[w]e’re seeing more adult-only households, a complex and multigenerational coming together of people, for economic reasons,” Lipsey told the Tribune. “It’s people living on one person’s income, grandma’s Social Security and disability income for Uncle Fred.”</p>
<p>The busiest and most desperate time for pantries is at the end of the month, when food stamps run out.</p>
<p>In Ohio and Michigan, where hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs have been lost over the decade, food stamp use is up 65 percent in Ohio and 74 percent in Michigan from 2000 to 2005, according to the USDA.</p>
<p>According to a recent report by the New York Daily News, some 8,000 New York City employees–some 3 percent of the municipal workforce–use food stamps. Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered cold comfort to the city’s low-paid workers. “Well, if you want to sponsor higher taxes, we’ll have more money,” the billionaire mayor told a Daily News reporter. “There will be always some jobs that are entry level that don’t pay enough.”</p>
<p>Though food stamp use is on the rise, it’s still the case that four in 10 people who are eligible for food stamp benefits don’t receive them, according to a FRAC report. In part, food stamps can be difficult to obtain, with recipients required to go through a complicated process to qualify.</p>
<p>“The average food stamps application is 12 pages, while the federal firearm application is two,” said Aldeen from Second Harvest, which has conducted studies since 1993 of state food stamp requirements and collected interviews with applicants.</p>
<p>One of the most severe attacks on the food stamps program was by the Clinton administration–when it implemented the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, which dismantled the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program.</p>
<p>First on the chopping block were legal immigrants, who were immediately cut off food stamps. New rules made millions of childless, jobless adults ineligible, or put tough restrictions on them.</p>
<p>According to a July 2001 USDA report to Congress, 56 percent of the caseload declines between 1994 and 1999 “occurred because fewer eligible individuals participated in the program,” rather than because of the economy or changes in eligibility rules. From December 1997 to December 2000, the food stamp caseload fell by 3.5 million, according to FRAC.</p>
<p>Since 2000, the food stamp rolls are on the rise again. So, too, is the demand for free school lunches and breakfasts. A record 7.7 million low-income children received free and reduced-price breakfasts on an average day during the 2005-2006 school year, according to FRAC. But it’s also estimated that only two in every five children who need the breakfast program have access to it.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>EVERY DAY, people are forced to make what could be life-and-death decisions, based on poverty.</p>
<p>According to America’s Second Harvest’s Hunger in America Study 2006, 42 percent of the people they serve had to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel. Thirty-five percent had to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage.</p>
<p>It makes no sense, in a country with so much wealth and resources, that a single person goes hungry.</p>
<p>Funding for and access to food stamp programs and other food aid programs should be expanded. Food stamps are underfunded, with the average benefit allowing just one dollar per person, per meal, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Raising the minimum wage to a living wage–a demand that’s being made by activists in cities and counties across the country–would go some way toward reducing hunger.</p>
<p>No one should ever have to make the decision between food, shelter or other fundamental human needs.</p>
<p>ELIZABETH SCHULTE writes for the <a href="http://www.socialistworker.org/" type="external">Socialist Worker.</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,747 |
<p>Forget "game over."</p>
<p>Videogames are generating billions of dollars a year in revenue by creating additional characters and stories that players can buy long after a title's launch -- the equivalent of selling new chapters to an already completed book.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"Add ons" are a bonanza for major game publishers: Last year, world-wide spending on add-ons for PC and console games was $4.78 billion, nearly double 2012's haul, according to SuperData Research, which projects $5.21 billion in 2017 spending.</p>
<p>"It's the most important trend we've seen over the past five years," said Tim O'Shea, an analyst at Jefferies. "These are incremental dollars that weren't being captured before."</p>
<p>Analysts say add-ons' popularity is a major reason stock prices have more than tripled in the past five years at game giants Activision Blizzard Inc., Electronic Arts Inc., Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and Ubisoft Entertainment SA.</p>
<p>There is a downside, though: With players adding on to their favorite titles and playing them for longer stretches, executives say, it becomes more difficult to produce new blockbusters that stand out.</p>
<p>Here's how add-ons work: A person buys a game such as EA's "Battlefield 1," typically spending $60. The customer then spends more for extras, which can range from a 99-cent upgrade such as a special weapon to an "expansion pack" with new stories costing between roughly $10 and $40. Videogame publishers dole out the add-ons at intervals, typically over a year, but may also sell them as part of a package called a "season pass."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Electronic Arts, publisher of popular sports franchises such as FIFA soccer and Madden football, last year generated $1.2 billion in revenue from add-ons, including about $800 million from Ultimate Team, a mode launched in 2009 that players use to create and compete with fantasy-sports teams.</p>
<p>Previously, "people would typically buy one of our sports games and play it for two or three months and then probably put it away," Blake J. Jorgensen, EA's finance chief, said at an investor conference in February. "Today, people engage in Ultimate Team for a full year."</p>
<p>In some cases, the payoff from games with longer lifespans can provide cover for new titles that flopped, said Strauss Zelnick, chief executive at Take-Two. Take-Two's "Battleborn" game didn't meet the company's expectations when it launched in May last year. Even so, revenue that quarter rose 13% despite no other major releases. The company credited sales of digital add-ons for its Grand Theft Auto games, which were released in 2013 and 2014.</p>
<p>Mr. Zelnick declined to say when a new Grand Theft Auto game might launch. "There is a limited amount of mind share," he said.</p>
<p>Add-ons are part of a shift in the industry toward "games as a service" -- a play on the idea of "software as a service," where companies such as Salesforce.com Inc. sell subscriptions to software rather than boxed or downloaded programs that customers pay for once.</p>
<p>Games as a service began more than a decade ago, when broadband made it possible for ambitious games to offer persistently updated worlds, such as Activision Blizzard's "World of Warcraft," a subscription-based game that remains popular today.</p>
<p>More recently, the model has evolved to include services, typically free, such as matching competitors by skill level and contest hosting. The more time players spend in a game, the more likely they will be to spend on add-ons, analysts say.</p>
<p>Persuading players to put more time and money into the same game can have unexpected consequences.</p>
<p>Activision Blizzard recently said "Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare" underperformed during the 2016 holiday quarter relative to past installments of the hit series. Some fans didn't like the war simulator's outer-space setting. But the company also said many fans were still enjoying the previous year's "Black Ops III," which got free and paid updates throughout the year.</p>
<p>It is a particular danger for franchises released annually. "If users are actively engaged with older games, then there's not as much of an incentive for them to buy the next new game," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for Activision Blizzard declined to comment.</p>
<p>Still, consumers' aggressive adoption of games as a service is lifting digital sales, which contribute about half of total revenue at some big publishers. That's significant because digital goods generate higher profit margins.</p>
<p>"It used to be that you would ship a game and everyone would go on vacation for a month," said Chris Early, vice president of digital publishing at Ubisoft, the company behind "Assassin's Creed." Now, the company makes digital add-ons for just about all its games.</p>
<p>Write to Sarah E. Needleman at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 20, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)</p> | Add-Ons' Push Up Game Revenue -- WSJ | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/20/add-ons-push-up-game-revenue-wsj.html | 2017-04-20 | 0right
| Add-Ons' Push Up Game Revenue -- WSJ
<p>Forget "game over."</p>
<p>Videogames are generating billions of dollars a year in revenue by creating additional characters and stories that players can buy long after a title's launch -- the equivalent of selling new chapters to an already completed book.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"Add ons" are a bonanza for major game publishers: Last year, world-wide spending on add-ons for PC and console games was $4.78 billion, nearly double 2012's haul, according to SuperData Research, which projects $5.21 billion in 2017 spending.</p>
<p>"It's the most important trend we've seen over the past five years," said Tim O'Shea, an analyst at Jefferies. "These are incremental dollars that weren't being captured before."</p>
<p>Analysts say add-ons' popularity is a major reason stock prices have more than tripled in the past five years at game giants Activision Blizzard Inc., Electronic Arts Inc., Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and Ubisoft Entertainment SA.</p>
<p>There is a downside, though: With players adding on to their favorite titles and playing them for longer stretches, executives say, it becomes more difficult to produce new blockbusters that stand out.</p>
<p>Here's how add-ons work: A person buys a game such as EA's "Battlefield 1," typically spending $60. The customer then spends more for extras, which can range from a 99-cent upgrade such as a special weapon to an "expansion pack" with new stories costing between roughly $10 and $40. Videogame publishers dole out the add-ons at intervals, typically over a year, but may also sell them as part of a package called a "season pass."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Electronic Arts, publisher of popular sports franchises such as FIFA soccer and Madden football, last year generated $1.2 billion in revenue from add-ons, including about $800 million from Ultimate Team, a mode launched in 2009 that players use to create and compete with fantasy-sports teams.</p>
<p>Previously, "people would typically buy one of our sports games and play it for two or three months and then probably put it away," Blake J. Jorgensen, EA's finance chief, said at an investor conference in February. "Today, people engage in Ultimate Team for a full year."</p>
<p>In some cases, the payoff from games with longer lifespans can provide cover for new titles that flopped, said Strauss Zelnick, chief executive at Take-Two. Take-Two's "Battleborn" game didn't meet the company's expectations when it launched in May last year. Even so, revenue that quarter rose 13% despite no other major releases. The company credited sales of digital add-ons for its Grand Theft Auto games, which were released in 2013 and 2014.</p>
<p>Mr. Zelnick declined to say when a new Grand Theft Auto game might launch. "There is a limited amount of mind share," he said.</p>
<p>Add-ons are part of a shift in the industry toward "games as a service" -- a play on the idea of "software as a service," where companies such as Salesforce.com Inc. sell subscriptions to software rather than boxed or downloaded programs that customers pay for once.</p>
<p>Games as a service began more than a decade ago, when broadband made it possible for ambitious games to offer persistently updated worlds, such as Activision Blizzard's "World of Warcraft," a subscription-based game that remains popular today.</p>
<p>More recently, the model has evolved to include services, typically free, such as matching competitors by skill level and contest hosting. The more time players spend in a game, the more likely they will be to spend on add-ons, analysts say.</p>
<p>Persuading players to put more time and money into the same game can have unexpected consequences.</p>
<p>Activision Blizzard recently said "Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare" underperformed during the 2016 holiday quarter relative to past installments of the hit series. Some fans didn't like the war simulator's outer-space setting. But the company also said many fans were still enjoying the previous year's "Black Ops III," which got free and paid updates throughout the year.</p>
<p>It is a particular danger for franchises released annually. "If users are actively engaged with older games, then there's not as much of an incentive for them to buy the next new game," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird.</p>
<p>A spokeswoman for Activision Blizzard declined to comment.</p>
<p>Still, consumers' aggressive adoption of games as a service is lifting digital sales, which contribute about half of total revenue at some big publishers. That's significant because digital goods generate higher profit margins.</p>
<p>"It used to be that you would ship a game and everyone would go on vacation for a month," said Chris Early, vice president of digital publishing at Ubisoft, the company behind "Assassin's Creed." Now, the company makes digital add-ons for just about all its games.</p>
<p>Write to Sarah E. Needleman at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 20, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)</p> | 2,748 |
<p />
<p>Image source: AMD.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Between mid-2014 and mid-2015, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) watched helplessly as its unit share of the discrete graphics card market was cut in half. Rival NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) scored a coup with its 900 series of graphics cards, particularly the GTX 970, which remains to this day the most widely owned graphics card among Steam users. AMD's market share bottomed out during the second quarter of 2015, at just 18%.</p>
<p>The company has been slowly clawing its way back over the past year, picking up a few points of market share here and there. AMD's comeback accelerated in the second quarter of this year, with the company gaining roughly 7 percentage points of market share compared to the first quarter, and nearly 12 percentage points year over year.</p>
<p>Image source: Jon Peddie Research.</p>
<p>This gain in market share is good news for AMD, but it comes with caveats. The second quarter was seasonally weak, with total discrete graphics card shipments tumbling 20.8% compared to the first quarter, according to Jon Peddie Research. Whether market share gains in a weak quarter will stick around during the third and fourth quarters remains to be seen. In 2012, 2013, and 2014, AMD's market share peaked during the second quarter and declined during the third quarter.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Another issue is the timing of new product launches. NVIDIA's high-end GTX 1080 became available at the end of May, and the GTX 1070 became available in the beginning of June. The GTX 1060 wasn't launched until the end of July, with a $200 variant only becoming available in August. Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/03/amd-gets-aggressive-with-polaris.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">AMD's $200 RX 480 Opens a New Window.</a> launched in the last days of the second quarter, with the lower-end RX 470 and 460 launching in August.</p>
<p>The second-quarter data, then, doesn't tell us much about how AMD's new Polaris graphics cards are faring. Despite losing market share, NVIDIA posted solid second-quarter results. The company's gaming segment grew revenue by 18% year over year, driven by the high-end Pascal cards. AMD winning market share during the second quarter may have been driven more by NVIDIA's focus on the high end, leaving the mainstream to AMD, than anything else.</p>
<p>As it stands today, AMD's Polaris graphics cards target the $200-and-below segment, while NVIDIA's Pascal graphics cards target the $200-and-above segment. Eventually, NVIDIA will launch lower-end products, and AMD will launch higher-end products, but at the moment, the two companies' newest graphics cards are only directly competing at the $200 price point. This should help AMD win mainstream market share during the third quarter, at the expense of ceding the lucrative high-end portion of the market to NVIDIA.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/26/nvidia-corporation-preps-two-low-cost-desktop-grap.aspx?source=isesitlnk0000001&amp;mrr=1.00&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Rumors point to NVIDIA launching two low-end cards Opens a New Window.</a>, the GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti, as early as next month. Nothing has been confirmed at this point, but the cards are expected to target the $119 and $149 price points, respectively, putting them in direct competition with AMD's RX 460 and RX 470. Depending on how aggressive NVIDIA is with these new cards, AMD's edge in the mainstream portion of the market may not last too much longer.</p>
<p>AMD's market share gains during the second quarter are certainly a positive for the company, but they need to be considered in context. We won't know how Polaris has truly fared until results from the third quarter are released, and the imminent launch of low-end cards from NVIDIA could make it tougher for AMD to hold onto any market share gains in the fourth quarter and beyond. Where the market for discrete graphics cards ultimately settles, whether it's the old 60-40 split in NVIDIA's favor, or something else entirely, is still a big unknown.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early, in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBargainBin/info.aspx" type="external">Timothy Green Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | AMD Is Clawing Back Market Share From NVIDIA | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/27/amd-is-clawing-back-market-share-from-nvidia.html | 2016-09-27 | 0right
| AMD Is Clawing Back Market Share From NVIDIA
<p />
<p>Image source: AMD.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Between mid-2014 and mid-2015, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) watched helplessly as its unit share of the discrete graphics card market was cut in half. Rival NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) scored a coup with its 900 series of graphics cards, particularly the GTX 970, which remains to this day the most widely owned graphics card among Steam users. AMD's market share bottomed out during the second quarter of 2015, at just 18%.</p>
<p>The company has been slowly clawing its way back over the past year, picking up a few points of market share here and there. AMD's comeback accelerated in the second quarter of this year, with the company gaining roughly 7 percentage points of market share compared to the first quarter, and nearly 12 percentage points year over year.</p>
<p>Image source: Jon Peddie Research.</p>
<p>This gain in market share is good news for AMD, but it comes with caveats. The second quarter was seasonally weak, with total discrete graphics card shipments tumbling 20.8% compared to the first quarter, according to Jon Peddie Research. Whether market share gains in a weak quarter will stick around during the third and fourth quarters remains to be seen. In 2012, 2013, and 2014, AMD's market share peaked during the second quarter and declined during the third quarter.</p>
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<p>Another issue is the timing of new product launches. NVIDIA's high-end GTX 1080 became available at the end of May, and the GTX 1070 became available in the beginning of June. The GTX 1060 wasn't launched until the end of July, with a $200 variant only becoming available in August. Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/03/amd-gets-aggressive-with-polaris.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">AMD's $200 RX 480 Opens a New Window.</a> launched in the last days of the second quarter, with the lower-end RX 470 and 460 launching in August.</p>
<p>The second-quarter data, then, doesn't tell us much about how AMD's new Polaris graphics cards are faring. Despite losing market share, NVIDIA posted solid second-quarter results. The company's gaming segment grew revenue by 18% year over year, driven by the high-end Pascal cards. AMD winning market share during the second quarter may have been driven more by NVIDIA's focus on the high end, leaving the mainstream to AMD, than anything else.</p>
<p>As it stands today, AMD's Polaris graphics cards target the $200-and-below segment, while NVIDIA's Pascal graphics cards target the $200-and-above segment. Eventually, NVIDIA will launch lower-end products, and AMD will launch higher-end products, but at the moment, the two companies' newest graphics cards are only directly competing at the $200 price point. This should help AMD win mainstream market share during the third quarter, at the expense of ceding the lucrative high-end portion of the market to NVIDIA.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/26/nvidia-corporation-preps-two-low-cost-desktop-grap.aspx?source=isesitlnk0000001&amp;mrr=1.00&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Rumors point to NVIDIA launching two low-end cards Opens a New Window.</a>, the GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti, as early as next month. Nothing has been confirmed at this point, but the cards are expected to target the $119 and $149 price points, respectively, putting them in direct competition with AMD's RX 460 and RX 470. Depending on how aggressive NVIDIA is with these new cards, AMD's edge in the mainstream portion of the market may not last too much longer.</p>
<p>AMD's market share gains during the second quarter are certainly a positive for the company, but they need to be considered in context. We won't know how Polaris has truly fared until results from the third quarter are released, and the imminent launch of low-end cards from NVIDIA could make it tougher for AMD to hold onto any market share gains in the fourth quarter and beyond. Where the market for discrete graphics cards ultimately settles, whether it's the old 60-40 split in NVIDIA's favor, or something else entirely, is still a big unknown.</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early, in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBargainBin/info.aspx" type="external">Timothy Green Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 2,749 |
<p>It's September 11, 2016, the fifteen-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. It's also Jeh Johnson's birthday, and he's making the round of nearly all the Sunday shows.</p>
<p>I expect a mixture of Islamophobia, respectful reverence, and political opportunism on our Sunday shows this week, particularly with Rudy '9-11' Giuliani making the rounds.</p>
<p>Here's the lineup:</p>
<p>Here is the <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/295288-sunday-shows-preview-9-11-anniversary-prompts-national-security" type="external">full lineup</a>:</p>
<p>ABC’s “This Week:” Johnson and leading Donald Trump surrogate and then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani appear separately to discuss the Sept. 11, 2001 anniversary.</p>
<p>CBS’ “Face the Nation:” CIA Director John Brennan and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) both make an appearance to discuss modern terror threats.</p>
<p>CNN’s “State of the Union:” Clinton gives an exclusive taped interview, in which she discusses 9/11 and national security. Johnson makes an appearance.</p>
<p>“Fox News Sunday:” Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a Trump supporter, and Rep. Xavier Beccera (D-Calif.) will debate the presidential race. Johnson makes another appearance to discuss national security.</p>
<p>NBC’s “Meet the Press:” Johnson makes another appearance. Former deputy secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz gives an interview.</p>
<p>What's catching your eye this morning?</p> | Sunday Morning Bobblehead Thread | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2016/09/sunday-morning-bobblehead-thread-0 | 2016-09-11 | 4left
| Sunday Morning Bobblehead Thread
<p>It's September 11, 2016, the fifteen-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. It's also Jeh Johnson's birthday, and he's making the round of nearly all the Sunday shows.</p>
<p>I expect a mixture of Islamophobia, respectful reverence, and political opportunism on our Sunday shows this week, particularly with Rudy '9-11' Giuliani making the rounds.</p>
<p>Here's the lineup:</p>
<p>Here is the <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/295288-sunday-shows-preview-9-11-anniversary-prompts-national-security" type="external">full lineup</a>:</p>
<p>ABC’s “This Week:” Johnson and leading Donald Trump surrogate and then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani appear separately to discuss the Sept. 11, 2001 anniversary.</p>
<p>CBS’ “Face the Nation:” CIA Director John Brennan and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) both make an appearance to discuss modern terror threats.</p>
<p>CNN’s “State of the Union:” Clinton gives an exclusive taped interview, in which she discusses 9/11 and national security. Johnson makes an appearance.</p>
<p>“Fox News Sunday:” Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a Trump supporter, and Rep. Xavier Beccera (D-Calif.) will debate the presidential race. Johnson makes another appearance to discuss national security.</p>
<p>NBC’s “Meet the Press:” Johnson makes another appearance. Former deputy secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz gives an interview.</p>
<p>What's catching your eye this morning?</p> | 2,750 |
<p>LAMAR, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say an autopsy has been ordered in the death of an inmate at a southwest Missouri jail.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/crime_and_courts/joplin-woman-s-death-in-barton-county-jail-under-investigation/article_a9a8d964-0e43-5703-8921-2f055d9332d9.html" type="external">The Joplin Globe</a> reports that the Barton County Sheriff’s Department says a jailer discovered 33-year-old Colleen Blake dead early Saturday morning in her cell at the at the jail in the town of Lamar. The sheriff’s office says the sheriff’s department in neighboring Vernon County has been asked to investigate the death.</p>
<p>Blake had been an inmate at the jail since Nov. 9. She was being held on a charge of tampering with a motor vehicle and Lamar city charges of contempt of court and failure to pay fines.</p>
<p>No other details were provided about how she died.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, <a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com" type="external">http://www.joplinglobe.com</a></p>
<p>LAMAR, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say an autopsy has been ordered in the death of an inmate at a southwest Missouri jail.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/crime_and_courts/joplin-woman-s-death-in-barton-county-jail-under-investigation/article_a9a8d964-0e43-5703-8921-2f055d9332d9.html" type="external">The Joplin Globe</a> reports that the Barton County Sheriff’s Department says a jailer discovered 33-year-old Colleen Blake dead early Saturday morning in her cell at the at the jail in the town of Lamar. The sheriff’s office says the sheriff’s department in neighboring Vernon County has been asked to investigate the death.</p>
<p>Blake had been an inmate at the jail since Nov. 9. She was being held on a charge of tampering with a motor vehicle and Lamar city charges of contempt of court and failure to pay fines.</p>
<p>No other details were provided about how she died.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, <a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com" type="external">http://www.joplinglobe.com</a></p> | Authorities investigate death of southwest Missouri inmate | false | https://apnews.com/a993551a892f41b58ba1b86162a5eaf1 | 2018-01-09 | 2least
| Authorities investigate death of southwest Missouri inmate
<p>LAMAR, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say an autopsy has been ordered in the death of an inmate at a southwest Missouri jail.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/crime_and_courts/joplin-woman-s-death-in-barton-county-jail-under-investigation/article_a9a8d964-0e43-5703-8921-2f055d9332d9.html" type="external">The Joplin Globe</a> reports that the Barton County Sheriff’s Department says a jailer discovered 33-year-old Colleen Blake dead early Saturday morning in her cell at the at the jail in the town of Lamar. The sheriff’s office says the sheriff’s department in neighboring Vernon County has been asked to investigate the death.</p>
<p>Blake had been an inmate at the jail since Nov. 9. She was being held on a charge of tampering with a motor vehicle and Lamar city charges of contempt of court and failure to pay fines.</p>
<p>No other details were provided about how she died.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, <a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com" type="external">http://www.joplinglobe.com</a></p>
<p>LAMAR, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say an autopsy has been ordered in the death of an inmate at a southwest Missouri jail.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/crime_and_courts/joplin-woman-s-death-in-barton-county-jail-under-investigation/article_a9a8d964-0e43-5703-8921-2f055d9332d9.html" type="external">The Joplin Globe</a> reports that the Barton County Sheriff’s Department says a jailer discovered 33-year-old Colleen Blake dead early Saturday morning in her cell at the at the jail in the town of Lamar. The sheriff’s office says the sheriff’s department in neighboring Vernon County has been asked to investigate the death.</p>
<p>Blake had been an inmate at the jail since Nov. 9. She was being held on a charge of tampering with a motor vehicle and Lamar city charges of contempt of court and failure to pay fines.</p>
<p>No other details were provided about how she died.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, <a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.joplinglobe.com" type="external">http://www.joplinglobe.com</a></p> | 2,751 |
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<p>ATF President Ellen Bernstein said Friday the union’s contract does not allow transfers to be used as discipline for teachers. She said it could set a bad precedent.</p>
<p>“If the superintendent is allowed to violate the agreement in this manner, no one is safe,” Bernstein wrote in a newsletter posted on the union’s website.</p>
<p>Head coach Fred Romero and assistant coach Mike Tixier have both been banned from coaching, following a Thanksgiving weekend bus ride home from Las Cruces on which the players allegedly drank alcohol and were not stopped by the coaches. Romero, Tixier and sports trainer Jeff Archuleta are all on 11 days of unpaid leave. Archuleta will keep his job at La Cueva, but the other two will be transferred.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The teachers’ contract does not explicity ban the use of transfers as discipline, but also does not explicitly allow it. Bernstein said APS can only order transfers for reasons laid out in the contract, like the needs of an academic program.</p>
<p>“It’s explicit that they can’t (use transfers as discipline), because the right to do that is not in there,” she said.</p>
<p>Albuquerque Public Schools spokesman Rigo Chavez said it will be up to attorneys in the legal process to determine whether the discipline was allowable under the contract.</p>
<p>Bernstein said the union will file a grievance against the district on behalf of one of the coaches, who is a union member. She would not say which coach.</p>
<p>Romero and Tixier have hired attorneys and plan to appeal their discipline.</p>
<p>APS Superintendent Winston Brooks has placed the entire La Cueva athletic program on probation, meaning all coaches and athletes will be under extra scrutiny and further trouble could result in sports being canceled.</p>
<p>Four football players have also been disciplined as a result of the drinking, which allegedly happened on the bus ride home from a state semifinal game against Mayfield. The Bears lost the game 21-17, ending their season.</p>
<p>The players have been sanctioned with a 45-day suspension from extracurricular activities, along with other “appropriate discipline.” APS officials have not said who the players are.</p>
<p>Romero just finished his 11th season as head coach with the Bears, and his career record is 106-29. He coached La Cueva to state championships in 2003, 2004, and 2009. He was assistant coach for 10 years before taking on the head job.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | ATF To Challenge Ruling on Coaches | false | https://abqjournal.com/233294/atf-to-challenge-ruling-on-coaches.html | 2least
| ATF To Challenge Ruling on Coaches
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<p />
<p>ATF President Ellen Bernstein said Friday the union’s contract does not allow transfers to be used as discipline for teachers. She said it could set a bad precedent.</p>
<p>“If the superintendent is allowed to violate the agreement in this manner, no one is safe,” Bernstein wrote in a newsletter posted on the union’s website.</p>
<p>Head coach Fred Romero and assistant coach Mike Tixier have both been banned from coaching, following a Thanksgiving weekend bus ride home from Las Cruces on which the players allegedly drank alcohol and were not stopped by the coaches. Romero, Tixier and sports trainer Jeff Archuleta are all on 11 days of unpaid leave. Archuleta will keep his job at La Cueva, but the other two will be transferred.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The teachers’ contract does not explicity ban the use of transfers as discipline, but also does not explicitly allow it. Bernstein said APS can only order transfers for reasons laid out in the contract, like the needs of an academic program.</p>
<p>“It’s explicit that they can’t (use transfers as discipline), because the right to do that is not in there,” she said.</p>
<p>Albuquerque Public Schools spokesman Rigo Chavez said it will be up to attorneys in the legal process to determine whether the discipline was allowable under the contract.</p>
<p>Bernstein said the union will file a grievance against the district on behalf of one of the coaches, who is a union member. She would not say which coach.</p>
<p>Romero and Tixier have hired attorneys and plan to appeal their discipline.</p>
<p>APS Superintendent Winston Brooks has placed the entire La Cueva athletic program on probation, meaning all coaches and athletes will be under extra scrutiny and further trouble could result in sports being canceled.</p>
<p>Four football players have also been disciplined as a result of the drinking, which allegedly happened on the bus ride home from a state semifinal game against Mayfield. The Bears lost the game 21-17, ending their season.</p>
<p>The players have been sanctioned with a 45-day suspension from extracurricular activities, along with other “appropriate discipline.” APS officials have not said who the players are.</p>
<p>Romero just finished his 11th season as head coach with the Bears, and his career record is 106-29. He coached La Cueva to state championships in 2003, 2004, and 2009. He was assistant coach for 10 years before taking on the head job.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,752 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A man suspected of being intoxicated and trying to buy ammunition at a Las Cruces Walmart was found to be in possession of a concealed handgun late Tuesday evening, Las Cruces police said in a news release.</p>
<p>Christopher A. Aguirre, 32, who has addresses in both Roswell and Belen, was booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center on a $41,000 cash-only bond, facing one count each of possession of a firearm by a felon, resisting or obstructing a police officer, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, the release said.</p>
<p>Aguirre also has a warrant for his arrest from outside Las Cruces, police said.</p>
<p>Officers were at the Walmart on south Valley Drive on an unrelated incident shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday when they were asked by store security to help remove some individuals, including Aguirre, who appeared intoxicated, according to the release.</p>
<p>One of the officers spotted the barrel of a .25 caliber semiautomatic handgun sticking out of the pocket of Aguirre’s hoodie, and Aguirre tried to keep officers from removing the weapon but after a brief struggle, the gun was secured and Aguirre was arrested, police said.</p>
<p>Detectives determined that Aguirre has had more than one felony conviction and more than one conviction for possession of a firearm in the past 10 years, the release said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Felon found with gun at Cruces Walmart | false | https://abqjournal.com/175651/felon-found-with-gun-at-cruces-walmart.html | 2013-03-07 | 2least
| Felon found with gun at Cruces Walmart
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A man suspected of being intoxicated and trying to buy ammunition at a Las Cruces Walmart was found to be in possession of a concealed handgun late Tuesday evening, Las Cruces police said in a news release.</p>
<p>Christopher A. Aguirre, 32, who has addresses in both Roswell and Belen, was booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center on a $41,000 cash-only bond, facing one count each of possession of a firearm by a felon, resisting or obstructing a police officer, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, the release said.</p>
<p>Aguirre also has a warrant for his arrest from outside Las Cruces, police said.</p>
<p>Officers were at the Walmart on south Valley Drive on an unrelated incident shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday when they were asked by store security to help remove some individuals, including Aguirre, who appeared intoxicated, according to the release.</p>
<p>One of the officers spotted the barrel of a .25 caliber semiautomatic handgun sticking out of the pocket of Aguirre’s hoodie, and Aguirre tried to keep officers from removing the weapon but after a brief struggle, the gun was secured and Aguirre was arrested, police said.</p>
<p>Detectives determined that Aguirre has had more than one felony conviction and more than one conviction for possession of a firearm in the past 10 years, the release said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 2,753 |
<p>In 2008, the Republican National Convention drew a large number of viewers as the nation got its first peek at vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, giving television network executives hope that voters were still interested in watching election coverage on their sets at home.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />That optimism has now turned to doubt. The viewership for last week’s Republican convention in Tampa dropped substantially from 2008 as viewers shifted to social media, which allowed them to not only watch, but comment in real time on what they thought of the various speakers.</p>
<p>In 2008, 37 million people tuned in to watch Sarah Palin speak versus the 22 million who watched Paul Ryan deliver his vice presidential acceptance speech.</p>
<p>Some of that drop can be attributed to the curiosity about Palin. But social media also had an impact as YouTube live-streamed the convention, attracting 2.8 million viewers, along with several media organizations, something that was not widely available in 2008.</p>
<p>The real growth of social media, however, was shown by Twitter. In 2008 there were a combined total of 365,000 tweets sent for both the RNC and DNC conventions combined. According to Twitter, the Republican convention alone&#160;generated four million tweets this year.</p>
<p>At its high point, Mitt Romney’s speech generated 14,300 tweets per minute, which was more than Barack Obama elicited for his State of the Union speech in January, which clocked in at 14,100 tweets per minute.</p>
<p>To underscore the effect that social media had on the convention, consider the Clint Eastwood empty chair routine on Thursday night. Someone created a Twitter account, @InvisibleObama, which attracted over 20,000 followers in 45 minutes and now has over 69,000 followers.</p>
<p>The Democratic convention, which began yesterday, could set a new standard as conservative activists were very busy tweeting about the convention and will undoubtedly continue their “observations” &#160;to a greater degree than liberal activists did during the Republican convention.</p>
<p>The shift to social media was inevitable as the major networks trimmed their coverage to basically one prime time hour per night. Social media platforms like YouTube and Twitter allow for continuous coverage, and can now be seen on more portable devices like tablets and smartphones, siphoning away many television viewers.</p>
<p>Televised coverage of the conventions isn’t going away just yet, but it is likely to be reduced further in the future as social media use continues to grow and takes the television audience along with it.</p> | Social Media Use Soars During RNC Convention, As TV Audience Drops | true | http://aim.org/don-irvine-blog/social-media-use-soars-during-rnc-convention-as-tv-audience-drops/ | 2012-09-05 | 0right
| Social Media Use Soars During RNC Convention, As TV Audience Drops
<p>In 2008, the Republican National Convention drew a large number of viewers as the nation got its first peek at vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, giving television network executives hope that voters were still interested in watching election coverage on their sets at home.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />That optimism has now turned to doubt. The viewership for last week’s Republican convention in Tampa dropped substantially from 2008 as viewers shifted to social media, which allowed them to not only watch, but comment in real time on what they thought of the various speakers.</p>
<p>In 2008, 37 million people tuned in to watch Sarah Palin speak versus the 22 million who watched Paul Ryan deliver his vice presidential acceptance speech.</p>
<p>Some of that drop can be attributed to the curiosity about Palin. But social media also had an impact as YouTube live-streamed the convention, attracting 2.8 million viewers, along with several media organizations, something that was not widely available in 2008.</p>
<p>The real growth of social media, however, was shown by Twitter. In 2008 there were a combined total of 365,000 tweets sent for both the RNC and DNC conventions combined. According to Twitter, the Republican convention alone&#160;generated four million tweets this year.</p>
<p>At its high point, Mitt Romney’s speech generated 14,300 tweets per minute, which was more than Barack Obama elicited for his State of the Union speech in January, which clocked in at 14,100 tweets per minute.</p>
<p>To underscore the effect that social media had on the convention, consider the Clint Eastwood empty chair routine on Thursday night. Someone created a Twitter account, @InvisibleObama, which attracted over 20,000 followers in 45 minutes and now has over 69,000 followers.</p>
<p>The Democratic convention, which began yesterday, could set a new standard as conservative activists were very busy tweeting about the convention and will undoubtedly continue their “observations” &#160;to a greater degree than liberal activists did during the Republican convention.</p>
<p>The shift to social media was inevitable as the major networks trimmed their coverage to basically one prime time hour per night. Social media platforms like YouTube and Twitter allow for continuous coverage, and can now be seen on more portable devices like tablets and smartphones, siphoning away many television viewers.</p>
<p>Televised coverage of the conventions isn’t going away just yet, but it is likely to be reduced further in the future as social media use continues to grow and takes the television audience along with it.</p> | 2,754 |
<p>First Lady Melania Trump speaks with students as she visits a youth centre at Joint Andrews Airforce base, Maryland / Getty</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Cameron Cawthorne</a> September 28, 2017 4:45 pm</p>
<p>A Cambridge, Mass. elementary school librarian wrote in a blog post on Tuesday that she would not be keeping&#160;a collection of books that First Lady Melania Trump donated to her school.</p>
<p>Liz Phipps Soeiro&#160;published a <a href="http://www.hbook.com/2017/09/blogs/family-reading/dear-mrs-trump/#_" type="external">letter</a> to Trump on&#160;the Horn Book's Family Reading blog, in which she said that she would not be keeping the books the first lady donated to Cambridge Elementary School,&#160;the Hill <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/news/352909-elementary-school-librarian-says-shes-rejecting-books-from" type="external">reported</a>.</p>
<p>Trump&#160;donated a collection of ten&#160;Dr. Seuss books&#160;to one school in each state <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/349506-melania-trump-donates-sets-of-dr-seuss-to-mark-read-a-book-day" type="external">earlier this month</a> to mark National Read a Book Day.</p>
<p>"I work in a district that has plenty of resources, which contributes directly to ‘excellence,'" Soeiro wrote. "Cambridge, Massachusetts, is an amazing city with robust social programming, a responsive city government, free all-day kindergarten, and well-paid teachers (relatively speaking — many of us can't afford to live in the city in which we teach). My students have access to a school library with over nine thousand volumes and a librarian with a graduate degree in library science."</p>
<p>Soeiro added that the first lady should be donating books to school libraries in cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, and Chicago, because&#160;their&#160;libraries are&#160;being "shuttered" by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.</p>
<p>"Are those kids any less deserving of books simply because of circumstances beyond their control?" she wrote. "Why not go out of your way to gift books to underfunded and underprivileged communities that continue to be marginalized and maligned by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos?"</p>
<p>Soeiro then criticized Trump's choice of Dr. Seuss as "cliché" and said that he is a "tired and worn ambassador&#160;for children's literature."</p>
<p>"As first lady of the United States, you have an incredible platform with world-class resources at your fingertips," she wrote. "Just down the street you have access to a phenomenal children's librarian: Dr. Carla Hayden, the current librarian of Congress. I have no doubt Dr. Hayden would have given you some stellar recommendations."</p>
<p>She then characterized Dr. Seuss's illustrations as racist and said that they were steeped in "racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes," listing&#160;several examples in her letter.</p>
<p>Soeiro did not note that former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama both read Dr. Seuss books to children <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=michelle+obama+reading+dr+seuss&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=isch&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi1ypnBy8jWAhUhh1QKHVSGA4UQ_AUICygC&amp;biw=1118&amp;bih=750" type="external">several times</a> during&#160;their eight years in the White House. The former president&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/obama-pretty-much-all-the-stuff-you-need-to-know-is-in-dr-seuss/2016/03/02/7ca71bb0-e0d4-11e5-8c00-8aa03741dced_video.html?utm_term=.7e24010ba558" type="external">promoted</a> his "Read Across America" initiative last March by reflecting on Dr. Seuss's literature, saying, "Pretty much all the stuff you need to know is in Dr. Seuss."</p>
<p>The Cambridge school system responded to Soeiro's letter to the first lady with a statement that said, "The employee was not authorized to accept or reject donated books on behalf of the school or school district," CBS Boston <a href="http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/09/27/cambridge-librarian-rejects-books-donated-melania-trump/" type="external">reported</a>.</p>
<p>"We have counseled the employee on all relevant policies, including the policy against public resources being used for political purposes," the district said.</p> | Elementary School Librarian Rejects ‘Racist Propaganda’ Dr. Seuss Books From Melania Trump | true | http://freebeacon.com/issues/elementary-school-librarian-rejects-books-melania-trump/ | 2017-09-28 | 0right
| Elementary School Librarian Rejects ‘Racist Propaganda’ Dr. Seuss Books From Melania Trump
<p>First Lady Melania Trump speaks with students as she visits a youth centre at Joint Andrews Airforce base, Maryland / Getty</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Cameron Cawthorne</a> September 28, 2017 4:45 pm</p>
<p>A Cambridge, Mass. elementary school librarian wrote in a blog post on Tuesday that she would not be keeping&#160;a collection of books that First Lady Melania Trump donated to her school.</p>
<p>Liz Phipps Soeiro&#160;published a <a href="http://www.hbook.com/2017/09/blogs/family-reading/dear-mrs-trump/#_" type="external">letter</a> to Trump on&#160;the Horn Book's Family Reading blog, in which she said that she would not be keeping the books the first lady donated to Cambridge Elementary School,&#160;the Hill <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/news/352909-elementary-school-librarian-says-shes-rejecting-books-from" type="external">reported</a>.</p>
<p>Trump&#160;donated a collection of ten&#160;Dr. Seuss books&#160;to one school in each state <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/349506-melania-trump-donates-sets-of-dr-seuss-to-mark-read-a-book-day" type="external">earlier this month</a> to mark National Read a Book Day.</p>
<p>"I work in a district that has plenty of resources, which contributes directly to ‘excellence,'" Soeiro wrote. "Cambridge, Massachusetts, is an amazing city with robust social programming, a responsive city government, free all-day kindergarten, and well-paid teachers (relatively speaking — many of us can't afford to live in the city in which we teach). My students have access to a school library with over nine thousand volumes and a librarian with a graduate degree in library science."</p>
<p>Soeiro added that the first lady should be donating books to school libraries in cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, and Chicago, because&#160;their&#160;libraries are&#160;being "shuttered" by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.</p>
<p>"Are those kids any less deserving of books simply because of circumstances beyond their control?" she wrote. "Why not go out of your way to gift books to underfunded and underprivileged communities that continue to be marginalized and maligned by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos?"</p>
<p>Soeiro then criticized Trump's choice of Dr. Seuss as "cliché" and said that he is a "tired and worn ambassador&#160;for children's literature."</p>
<p>"As first lady of the United States, you have an incredible platform with world-class resources at your fingertips," she wrote. "Just down the street you have access to a phenomenal children's librarian: Dr. Carla Hayden, the current librarian of Congress. I have no doubt Dr. Hayden would have given you some stellar recommendations."</p>
<p>She then characterized Dr. Seuss's illustrations as racist and said that they were steeped in "racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes," listing&#160;several examples in her letter.</p>
<p>Soeiro did not note that former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama both read Dr. Seuss books to children <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=michelle+obama+reading+dr+seuss&amp;source=lnms&amp;tbm=isch&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi1ypnBy8jWAhUhh1QKHVSGA4UQ_AUICygC&amp;biw=1118&amp;bih=750" type="external">several times</a> during&#160;their eight years in the White House. The former president&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/obama-pretty-much-all-the-stuff-you-need-to-know-is-in-dr-seuss/2016/03/02/7ca71bb0-e0d4-11e5-8c00-8aa03741dced_video.html?utm_term=.7e24010ba558" type="external">promoted</a> his "Read Across America" initiative last March by reflecting on Dr. Seuss's literature, saying, "Pretty much all the stuff you need to know is in Dr. Seuss."</p>
<p>The Cambridge school system responded to Soeiro's letter to the first lady with a statement that said, "The employee was not authorized to accept or reject donated books on behalf of the school or school district," CBS Boston <a href="http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/09/27/cambridge-librarian-rejects-books-donated-melania-trump/" type="external">reported</a>.</p>
<p>"We have counseled the employee on all relevant policies, including the policy against public resources being used for political purposes," the district said.</p> | 2,755 |
<p>Q: Is Snopes.com run by “very Democratic” proprietors? Did they lie to discredit a State Farm insurance agent who attacked Obama? A: A chain e-mail that “exposed” Snopes contains falsehoods. And in fact, the site is run by someone who has no political party affiliation and his non-voting Canadian wife. A State Farm spokeswoman confirms what they reported about the Obama-baiting agent.</p>
<p /> | false | https://factcheck.org/tag/state-farm/ | 2least
|
<p>Q: Is Snopes.com run by “very Democratic” proprietors? Did they lie to discredit a State Farm insurance agent who attacked Obama? A: A chain e-mail that “exposed” Snopes contains falsehoods. And in fact, the site is run by someone who has no political party affiliation and his non-voting Canadian wife. A State Farm spokeswoman confirms what they reported about the Obama-baiting agent.</p>
<p /> | 2,756 |
||
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/75001512@N00/8607511354/sizes/z/in/photolist-e7BKfb-9Kdv1U-9KaH9n-9KaGfT-9Kdx49-9Kdv9f-btmYPm-8r7xAq-a7aKZf-acEGNt-a77Soe-a7X72E-a7Ueac-a7X6ZG-9wjn1u-9StPpV-9SwHpm-9StPqV-9SwHkb-9L3jqB-9L68JL-9L66Lo-9L67yu-9L67d3-FygNC-FygNY-FygMA-Fyiyk-FyiBi-FygPy-Fyiy4-FygKy-FyiAe-9Kdwqy-9KdviA-9KduyN-9KaGGB-9KaFVZ-9KaEJD-9KdvNA-9Kdvsh-9KaFBD-9KaGQx-8r7xyo-8r4qvX-a7X75j-aSnPV4-aSnPMT-aSnPQ6-Biqum-cXGprL/"&gt;Joelk75&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>The following excerpt, from Tom Engelhardt’s book,&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a>, is posted with permission from the University of Massachusetts Press. It <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175735/" type="external">first appeared</a> on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>1. The First Coming of G.I. Joe</p>
<p>It was 1964, and in Vietnam thousands of American “advisers” were already offering up their know-how from helicopter seats or gun sights. The United States was just a year short of sending its first large contingent of ground troops there, adolescents who would enter the battle zone dreaming of John Wayne and thinking of enemy-controlled territory as “Indian country.” Meanwhile, in that inaugural year of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, a new generation of children began to experience the American war story via the most popular toy warrior ever created.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" />His name, G.I.—for “Government Issue”—Joe was redolent of America’s last victorious war and utterly generic. There was no specific figure named Joe, nor did any of the “Joes” have names. “He” came in four types, one for each service, including the Marines. Yet every Joe was, in essence, the same. Since he was a toy of the Great Society with its dreams of inclusion, it only took a year for his manufacturer, Hasbro, to produce a “Negro Joe,” and two more to add a she-Joe (a nurse, naturally). Joe initially came with no story, no instructions, and no enemy, because it had not yet occurred to adults (or toy makers) not to trust the child to choose the right enemy to pit against Joe.</p>
<p>In TV ads of the time, Joe was depicted as the most traditional of war toys. Little boys in World War II-style helmets were shown entering battle with a G.I. Joe tank, or fiercely displaying their Joe equipment while a&#160;chorus of deep, male voices sang (to the tune of “The Halls of Montezuma”), “G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe, Fighting man from head to toe on the land, on the sea, in the air.” He was “authentic” with his “ten-inch bazooka that really works,” his “beachhead flame thrower,” and his “authentically detailed replica” of a US Army Jeep with its own “tripod mounted recoilless rifle” and four “rocket projectiles.”</p>
<p>He could take any beach or landing site in style, dressed in “the real thing,” ranging from an “Ike” jacket with red scarf to a “beachhead assault fatigue shirt,” pants, and field pack. He could chow down with his own mess kit, or bed down in his own “bivouac-pup tent set.” And he was a toy giant, too, nearly a foot tall. From the telltale pink scar on his cheek to the testosterone rush of fierce-faced ad boys shouting, “G.I. Joe, take the hill!” he seemed the picture of a manly fighting toy.</p>
<p>Yet Joe, like much else in his era, was hardly what he seemed. Launched the year Lyndon Johnson ran for president as a peace candidate against Barry Goldwater while his administration was secretly planning the large-scale bombing of North Vietnam, Joe, too, was involved in a cover-up. For if Joe was a behemoth of a toy soldier, he was also, though the word was unmentionable, a&#160;doll. War play Joe-style was, in fact, largely patterned on and due to a “girl”—Mattel’s Barbie.</p>
<p>The Secret History of Joe</p>
<p>Barbie had arrived on the toy scene in 1958 with a hard expression on her face and her nippleless breasts outthrust, a reminder that she, too, had a secret past. She was a breakthrough, the first “teenage” doll with a “teenage” figure. However, her creator, Ruth Handler, had modeled her not on a teenager but on a German tabloid comic strip “playgirl” named Lili, who, in doll form, was sold not to children but to men “in tobacconists and bars… as an adult male’s pet.” As Joe was later to hit the beaches, so Barbie took the fashion salons, malt shops, boudoirs, and bedrooms, fully accessorized, and with the same undercurrent of exaggeration. (The bigger the breasts, after all, the better to hang that Barbie Wedding Gown on.)</p>
<p>Joe was the brainstorm of a toy developer named Stanley Weston, who was convinced that boys secretly played with Barbie and deserved their own doll. Having loved toy soldiers as a child, he chose a military theme as the most acceptable for a boy’s doll and took his idea to Hassenfeld Brothers (later renamed Hasbro), a toy company then best known for producing Mr. Potato Head.</p>
<p>In those days, everyone in the toy business knew that toy soldiers were three-inch-high, immobile, plastic or lead figures, and the initial response to Joe ranged from doubt to scorn to laughter; but Merrill Hassenfeld, one of the two brothers running the company, called on an old friend, Major General Leonard Holland, head&#160;of the Rhode Island National Guard, who offered access to weaponry, uniforms, and gear in order to design a thoroughly accurate military figure. Joe was also given a special “grip,” an opposable thumb and forefinger, all the better to grasp those realistic machine guns and bazookas, and he was built with 21 movable parts so that boys could finally put war into motion.</p>
<p>Hassenfeld Brothers confounded the givens of the toy business by selling $16.9 million worth of Joes and equipment in Joe’s first year on the market, and after that things only got better. In this way was a warrior Adam created from Eve’s plastic rib, a tough guy with his own outfits and accessories, whom you could dress, undress, and take to bed—or tent down with, anyway. But none of this could be said. It was taboo at Hasbro to call Joe a doll. Instead, the company dubbed him a “poseable action figure for boys,” and the name “action figure” stuck to every war-fighting toy to follow. So Barbie and Joe, hard breasts and soft bullets, the exaggerated bombshell and the touchy-feely scar-faced warrior, came to represent the shaky gender stories of America at decade’s end, where a secret history of events was slowly sinking to the level of childhood.</p>
<p>For a while, all remained as it seemed. But Joe underwent a slow transformation that Barbie largely escaped (though in the early 1970s, facing the new feminism, her sales did decline). As the Vietnam years wore on, Joe became less and less a soldier. Protest was in the air. As early as 1966, a group of mothers dressed in Mary Poppins outfits picketed the toy industry’s yearly trade convention in New York, their umbrellas displaying the slogan, “Toy Fair or Warfare?” Indeed, Sears dropped all military toys from its catalog. According to&#160;Tomart’s Guide to Action Figure Collectibles, “In the late ‘60s… [f]earing a possible boycott of their ‘war-oriented toy,’ Hasbro changed Joe’s facial appearance and wardrobe. Flocked hair and a beard were added to the figures. Hasbro liquidated strictly military-looking pieces in special sets, and by 1970 the G.I. Joe Adventure Team was created.”</p>
<p>Now, Joe was teamed with his first real enemies, but they weren’t human. There was the tiger of the “White Tiger Hunt,” the “hammerhead stingray” of “Devil of the Deep,” the mummy of “Secret of the Mummy’s Tomb,” and the “black shark” of “Revenge of the Spy Shark,” as well as assorted polar bears, octopi, vultures, and a host of natural enemies in toy sets like “Sandstorm Survival.” For the first time, in those years of adult confusion, some indication of plot, of what exactly a child should do with these toys, began to be incorporated into titles like “The Search for the Stolen Idol” or “The Capture of the Pygmy Gorilla.”&#160;Not only was Joe now an adventurer, but his adventure was being crudely outlined on the packaging that accompanied him; and few of these new adventures bore any relationship to the war story into which he had been born.</p>
<p>This hipper, new Joe was, if not exactly gaining a personality, then undergoing a personalizing process. He no longer appeared so military with his new hairstyles and his “A” (for adventure) insignia, which, as Katharine Whittemore has pointed out, “looked just a bit like a peace sign.” In fact, he was beginning to look suspiciously like the opposition, fading as a warrior just as he was becoming a less generic doll. By 1974, he had even gained a bit of an oriental touch with a new “kung-fu grip.” In 1976, under the pressure of the increased cost of plastic, he shrank almost four inches; and soon after, he vanished from the scene. He was, according to Hasbro, “furloughed,” and as far as anyone then knew, consigned to toy oblivion.</p>
<p>Stripping War Out of the Child’s World</p>
<p>In this he was typical of the rest of the war story in child culture in those years. It was as if Vietnamese sappers had reached into the American homeland and blasted the war story free of its ritualistic content, as if the “Indians” of that moment had sent the cavalry into flight and unsettled the West. So many years of Vietnamese resistance had transformed the pleasures of war-play culture into atrocities, embarrassments to look at. By the 1970s, America’s cultural products seemed intent either on critiquing their own mechanics and myths or on staking out ever newer frontiers of defensiveness.</p>
<p>Take Sgt. Rock, that heroic World War II noncom of DC Comics’&#160;Our Army at War&#160;series. Each issue of his adventures now sported a new seal that proclaimed, “make WAR no more,” while his resolutely World War II-bound adventures were being undermined by a new enemy-like consciousness. The cover of a June 1971 issue, for instance, showed the intrepid but shaken sergeant stuttering “B-but they were civilians!” and pointing at the bodies of five men, none in uniform, who seemed to have been lined up against a wall and executed. Next to him, a GI, his submachine gun still smoking, exclaims, “I stopped the enemy, Rock! None of ‘em got away!”</p>
<p>Inside, an episode, “Headcount,” told the “underside” of the story of one Johnny Doe, a posthumously decorated private, who shoots first and asks later. “Hold it, Johnny!” yells Rock as Private Doe is about to do in a whole room of French hostages with their Nazi captors, claiming they’re all phonies, “if you’re wrong… we’re no better’n the nazi butchers we’re fightin’ against!” Of Doe, killed by Rock before he can murder the hostages, the story asked a final question that in 1971 would have been familiar to Americans of any age: “Was Johnny Doe a&#160;murderer—or a hero? That’s one question each of you will have to decide for yourselves!”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />Two months later, in the August issue of&#160;Our Army at War, a reader could enter the mind of Tatsuno Sakigawa in “Kamikaze.” Sakigawa, about to plunge his plane into the USS Stevens, recalls “when his mother held him close and warm! He remembered the fishing junk on which they lived… the pungent smell of sea and wind… he was at another place… in a happier time.” As his plane is hit by antiaircraft fire and explodes, you see his agonized face. “FATHER… MOTHER … WHERE ARE YOU?” he screams.</p>
<p>The scene cuts briefly to his parents on their burning junk (“H-help us… my son… help…”), and then to a final image of “the flames rising from Japan’s burning cities! Houses of wood and paper… his own home.” Tatsuno Sakigawa, the episode concludes, “died for the emperor… for country… for honor! But mostly… to avenge the death of his parents! The destruction of his home! The loss of his own life!” At page bottom, below DC’s pacifist seal of approval, was a “historical note: 250,000 Japanese died in the fire raids… 80,000 died in the Hiroshima A-bombing.”</p>
<p>Even in that most guarded of sanctuaries, the school textbook, the American story began to disassemble. First in its interstices, and then in its place emerged a series of previously hidden stories. In the late 1960s, textbooks rediscovered “the poor,” a group in absentia since the 1930s. By the early 1970s, the black story, the story of women, the Chicano story, the Native American story—all those previously “invisible” narratives—were emerging from under the monolithic story of America that had previously been imposed on a nation of children. Similarly, at the college level, histories of the non-European world emerged from under the monolithic “world” story that had once taken the student from Egypt to twentieth-century America via Greece, Rome, medieval Europe, and the Renaissance.</p>
<p>These new “celebratory” tales of the travails and triumphs of various “minorities” arose mainly as implicit critiques of the One American Story that had preceded them or as self-encapsulated and largely self-referential ministories like that new TV form, the miniseries. In either case, they proved linkable to no larger narrative, though in the 1980s they would all be gathered up willy-nilly under the umbrella of “multi-culturalism.”</p>
<p>Being celebratory, they needed no actual enemy, but implicitly the enemy was the very story that had until recently made them invisible. They were something like interest groups competing for a limited amount of just emptied space. The national story, which was supposed to be inclusive enough to gather in all those “huddled masses,”&#160;which had only a few years earlier allowed textbook writers to craft sentences like, “We are too little astonished at the unprecedented virtuous-ness of US foreign policy, and at its good sense,” had now been cracked open.</p>
<p>By the time Saigon fell in 1975, children like adults existed in a remarkably story-less realm. The very word&#160;war&#160;had been stripped out of children’s culture and childhood transformed into something like an un-American event. The subterranean haunted and haunting quality of children in the 1950s had risen to the surface. The young were now openly threatening adults. Some were challenging American power with evidence of the destruction of minority children at home or out there (“Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”), while others, whether as political radicals, part of the counterculture, or GIs in Vietnam, seemed in the process of defecting to the Eastern enemy.</p>
<p>Yet, paradoxically, that victorious enemy was nowhere in sight—not in the movies, not on TV (despite the image of Vietnam as a television war), not even in the press. Where the Vietnamese should have been, there was instead an absence. Because it was impossible to “see” who had defeated the United States and hence why Americans had lost, it was impossible to grasp what had been lost. So American victimhood, American loss—including the loss of childhood’s cultural forms—became a subject in itself, the only subject, you might say, while the invisibility of the foe who had taken the story away lent that loss a particular aura of unfairness.</p>
<p>So, in a final, strange reversal in that era of reversals, American postwar “reconstruction” would begin not in Vietnam, the land in ruins, which should have been but was not the defeated country, but at home in a land almost untouched by war, which should have been but was not the victor; and the rebuilding would focus not on some devastated physical environment but on the national psyche. In this postwar passage from John Wayne to Sylvester Stallone, from Pax Americana to Pecs Americana, this attempt to rebuild a furloughed American narrative of triumph, children were to play a special role.</p>
<p>2. Empty Space</p>
<p>On the evening of May 25, 1977, a dazed 32-year-old movie director, with one success to his name, was finishing a Herculean two weeks “mixing” his latest film for European audiences. Breaking for dinner, he and his wife headed for Hamburger Hamlet, a restaurant across the street from Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, only to run into heavy traffic and sizable crowds. Coming around a corner, he spied the title of his new film in giant letters on the theater marquee. It was opening day. “I said, ‘I don’t believe this,'” he recalled. “So we sat in Hamburger Hamlet and watched the giant crowd out there, and then I went back and mixed all night… I felt it was some kind of aberration.”</p>
<p>Director George Lucas had already celebrated his teenage years in&#160;American Graffiti&#160;(“Where were you in ‘62?”), the surprise hit of 1973, which sparked a wave of nostalgia for the years before Vietnam and inspired the TV series&#160;Happy Days&#160;(1974). As a moviemaker, however, he had had a desire to reach even deeper into his California boyhood, to return to those moments when he had acted out World War II scenarios with toy soldiers, or watched old Flash Gordon serials, cowboy and war films on television.</p>
<p>Like movie audiences (as box office receipts of the time indicated), he wanted to reverse the cinematic cannibalism of the 1960s. In this, he stood apart from directors as disparate as Robert Altman, Stanley Kubrick, Arthur Penn, Mel Brooks, and his own mentor Francis Ford Coppola, who for years had been dismantling space and horse operas, war and detective films; in fact, all familiar on-screen space.</p>
<p>“There’s a whole generation,” he would later say, “growing up without any kind of fairy tales.” Although he undoubtedly identified with the countercultural politics of the time, his was a conservative vision. Instinctively, he wanted to still the mocking voices and return the movie audience not just to his own childhood but to a childlike viewing state.</p>
<p>Throughout the early 1970s, he struggled to construct a script that would rebuild the missing war story in outer space. The heavens had been empty since, at the end of the 1960s, Stanley Kubrick blasted an American astronaut into a fetal state in&#160;2001: A Space Odyssey; Planet of the Apes&#160;took its astronauts on a mocking journey to a post-nuclear Earth&#160;where humans were not the dominant species; and the USS Enterprise&#160;of TV’s&#160;Star Trek&#160;left the “final frontier” to be mothballed.</p>
<p>In 1975, Lucas signed on with Twentieth Century Fox to produce a space film that (he reassured his wife) “ten-year-old boys would love.” To make it, he had his costume designer study books on World War II uniforms and Japanese armor, while he turned to films ranging from Frank Capra’s&#160;Battle of Britain&#160;(1943) to&#160;The Bridges at Toko-Ri&#160;(1954) to construct dogfights in space. In casting, he avoided white ethnics like Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino, who had played on-screen rebels for years, in favor of unknown WASP-y actors who might bring to mind the one-dimensional whiteness of his movie past.</p>
<p>Summoning up enemies from his screen childhood, he patterned his evil emperor on Ming, ruler of Mongo in&#160;Flash Gordon&#160;(as well as on Richard Nixon), and cloaked his dark Jedi, Darth Vader, in gleaming black visor and body suit. Although there would be no blacks on screen, he hired the black actor James Earl Jones to play Vader’s hissing techno-voice. In Chewbacca, the “Wookie” with the Mexican cartridge belts strung across his hairy chest, the Others of the previous decade from ascendant ape to Native American would be returned to their rightful place. This nonwhite would not even be capable of Hollywood-style broken English; only of King Kong-ish howls of frustration or rage (made by mixing bear, walrus, seal, and badger calls).</p>
<p>In early 1977, the almost finished film seemed an unlikely candidate for success. Fox’s research showed that the word&#160;war&#160;in a title would turn off women, that robots would turn off everyone, and that science fiction was a dead category. Fox’s board of directors had only reluctantly financed the film; and at a special screening, those directors who did not go to sleep were outraged. As movie theater owners showed little enthusiasm, the film opened in only 32 theaters nationwide.</p>
<p>Not in his wildest flights of fancy did Lucas imagine that his cinematic vision would sweep all before it, that his reconquest of a child audience and of “the kids in all of us” would be crucial to the reconstruction of a narrative of triumph, that he would help give a new look of entertainment to the design of war and reintroduce the spectacle of slaughter to the many screens of America.</p>
<p>The Look of Star Wars Enters the World of War</p>
<p>About two years before&#160;Star Wars&#160;opened, a 20-year-old MIT student, Peter Hagelstein, applied for a fellowship to the Hertz Foundation. Among its board members was Edward Teller, “father” of the H-bomb and a founder of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a government nuclear weapons research facility in Northern California. Although John&#160;D. Hertz (of rental car fame) had set up the fellowships to “foster the technological strength of America” vis-à-vis the Soviet Union and some recipients were recruited into Livermore’s weapons research by those interviewing them, the foundation advertised only that “[t]he proposed field of graduate study must be concerned with applications of the physical sciences to human problems, broadly construed.”</p>
<p>Hagelstein was offered a fellowship and a summer job at Livermore by Lowell Wood, his interviewer and head of Livermore’s O Group. Its young scientists were working on designing a “third generation” of nuclear weapons (the first two being the A and H bombs). According to Hagelstein, Wood told him only that they were working on “lasers and laser fusion, which I had never heard of before, and he said there were computer codes out there that were like playing a Wurlitzer organ. It all sounded kind of dreamy… The lab made quite an impression, especially the guards and barbed wire. When I got to the personnel department it dawned on me that they worked on weapons here, and that’s about the first I knew about it.”</p>
<p>In the summer of 1976, he went there full time, while continuing Ph.D. work at MIT. He was a young man who “hated bombs” and “didn’t want to be associated with anything nuclear.” He was even romantically involved with an antinuclear activist who picketed the lab. But he was held by a dream of creating a laboratory x-ray laser that would allow scientists to “see” various biological processes, and by the appealing young men of O Group, with their jeans and long hair, all-night work habits, countercultural élan, and perverse humor. (Once, they even “took up a collection” to buy Lowell Wood a Darth Vader costume.)</p>
<p>The year that&#160;Star Wars&#160;soared into box office heaven, a senior O Group scientist came up with a new concept for using a nuclear explosion to “pump” enough focused energy into a laser to turn it into a weapon. In the summer of 1979, Hagelstein appeared at a meeting where the use of an underground nuclear explosion to test out the idea was being discussed. Dazed from 20 straight hours of work, he made a suggestion—”The mouth just said it”—that was to lead to a laser device dubbed Excalibur and successfully tested in November 1980. While Hagelstein’s dream of a laboratory x-ray laser faded, “his” weapon became the centerpiece of a different sort of fantasy.</p>
<p>In February 1981, the trade journal&#160;Aviation Week and Space Technology&#160;reported the x-ray laser’s heavily classified existence, saying that, “mounted in a laser battle station” in space, it had “the potential to blunt a Soviet nuclear weapons attack.” The magazine’s account was accompanied by a hyper-realistic, futuristic “artist’s drawing” showing a&#160;snazzy battle station that “bristled with long laser rods,” an image the mainstream media picked up, thus marrying the look of war to the look of&#160;Star Wars.</p>
<p>By 1982, Teller had taken news of Peter Hagelstein’s laser directly to Ronald Reagan. Space lasers and other third-generation weapons, he assured the president, “by converting hydrogen bombs into hitherto unprecedented forms and by directing these in highly effective fashions against enemy targets would end the MAD [Mutual Assured Destruction] era and commence a period of assured survival on terms favorable to the Western alliance.” Even a young weapons researcher whose doctoral thesis (“Physics of Short Wavelength Laser Design”) mentioned three science fiction novels featuring beam weapons could hardly have imagined that one spaced-out suggestion would become a crucial part of a multibillion-dollar national fantasy to create a “protective shield” over the reconstruction of war on Earth.</p>
<p>[Part 2, “Teenagers in Space” will be posted on Thursday, August 15th.]</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the <a href="http://www.americanempireproject.com/" type="external">American Empire Project</a> and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The United States of Fear</a>, runs the Nation Institute’s <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>. This post is excerpted from his history of the Cold War, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a> (just published in a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CRW66UC/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00CRW66UC&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Kindle edition</a>), with the permission of its publisher, the <a href="http://www.umass.edu/umpress/" type="external">University of Massachusetts Press</a>.</p>
<p>Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a> or <a href="http://tomdispatch.tumblr.com/" type="external">Tumblr</a>. Check out the newest Dispatch book, Nick Turse’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Changing-Face-Empire-Cyberwarfare/dp/1608463109/" type="external">The Changing Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyberwarfare</a>. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | How GI Joe, Barbie, and Darth Vader Taught Children About War | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/gi-joe-real-wars/ | 2013-08-13 | 4left
| How GI Joe, Barbie, and Darth Vader Taught Children About War
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/75001512@N00/8607511354/sizes/z/in/photolist-e7BKfb-9Kdv1U-9KaH9n-9KaGfT-9Kdx49-9Kdv9f-btmYPm-8r7xAq-a7aKZf-acEGNt-a77Soe-a7X72E-a7Ueac-a7X6ZG-9wjn1u-9StPpV-9SwHpm-9StPqV-9SwHkb-9L3jqB-9L68JL-9L66Lo-9L67yu-9L67d3-FygNC-FygNY-FygMA-Fyiyk-FyiBi-FygPy-Fyiy4-FygKy-FyiAe-9Kdwqy-9KdviA-9KduyN-9KaGGB-9KaFVZ-9KaEJD-9KdvNA-9Kdvsh-9KaFBD-9KaGQx-8r7xyo-8r4qvX-a7X75j-aSnPV4-aSnPMT-aSnPQ6-Biqum-cXGprL/"&gt;Joelk75&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>The following excerpt, from Tom Engelhardt’s book,&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a>, is posted with permission from the University of Massachusetts Press. It <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175735/" type="external">first appeared</a> on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>1. The First Coming of G.I. Joe</p>
<p>It was 1964, and in Vietnam thousands of American “advisers” were already offering up their know-how from helicopter seats or gun sights. The United States was just a year short of sending its first large contingent of ground troops there, adolescents who would enter the battle zone dreaming of John Wayne and thinking of enemy-controlled territory as “Indian country.” Meanwhile, in that inaugural year of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, a new generation of children began to experience the American war story via the most popular toy warrior ever created.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" />His name, G.I.—for “Government Issue”—Joe was redolent of America’s last victorious war and utterly generic. There was no specific figure named Joe, nor did any of the “Joes” have names. “He” came in four types, one for each service, including the Marines. Yet every Joe was, in essence, the same. Since he was a toy of the Great Society with its dreams of inclusion, it only took a year for his manufacturer, Hasbro, to produce a “Negro Joe,” and two more to add a she-Joe (a nurse, naturally). Joe initially came with no story, no instructions, and no enemy, because it had not yet occurred to adults (or toy makers) not to trust the child to choose the right enemy to pit against Joe.</p>
<p>In TV ads of the time, Joe was depicted as the most traditional of war toys. Little boys in World War II-style helmets were shown entering battle with a G.I. Joe tank, or fiercely displaying their Joe equipment while a&#160;chorus of deep, male voices sang (to the tune of “The Halls of Montezuma”), “G.I. Joe, G.I. Joe, Fighting man from head to toe on the land, on the sea, in the air.” He was “authentic” with his “ten-inch bazooka that really works,” his “beachhead flame thrower,” and his “authentically detailed replica” of a US Army Jeep with its own “tripod mounted recoilless rifle” and four “rocket projectiles.”</p>
<p>He could take any beach or landing site in style, dressed in “the real thing,” ranging from an “Ike” jacket with red scarf to a “beachhead assault fatigue shirt,” pants, and field pack. He could chow down with his own mess kit, or bed down in his own “bivouac-pup tent set.” And he was a toy giant, too, nearly a foot tall. From the telltale pink scar on his cheek to the testosterone rush of fierce-faced ad boys shouting, “G.I. Joe, take the hill!” he seemed the picture of a manly fighting toy.</p>
<p>Yet Joe, like much else in his era, was hardly what he seemed. Launched the year Lyndon Johnson ran for president as a peace candidate against Barry Goldwater while his administration was secretly planning the large-scale bombing of North Vietnam, Joe, too, was involved in a cover-up. For if Joe was a behemoth of a toy soldier, he was also, though the word was unmentionable, a&#160;doll. War play Joe-style was, in fact, largely patterned on and due to a “girl”—Mattel’s Barbie.</p>
<p>The Secret History of Joe</p>
<p>Barbie had arrived on the toy scene in 1958 with a hard expression on her face and her nippleless breasts outthrust, a reminder that she, too, had a secret past. She was a breakthrough, the first “teenage” doll with a “teenage” figure. However, her creator, Ruth Handler, had modeled her not on a teenager but on a German tabloid comic strip “playgirl” named Lili, who, in doll form, was sold not to children but to men “in tobacconists and bars… as an adult male’s pet.” As Joe was later to hit the beaches, so Barbie took the fashion salons, malt shops, boudoirs, and bedrooms, fully accessorized, and with the same undercurrent of exaggeration. (The bigger the breasts, after all, the better to hang that Barbie Wedding Gown on.)</p>
<p>Joe was the brainstorm of a toy developer named Stanley Weston, who was convinced that boys secretly played with Barbie and deserved their own doll. Having loved toy soldiers as a child, he chose a military theme as the most acceptable for a boy’s doll and took his idea to Hassenfeld Brothers (later renamed Hasbro), a toy company then best known for producing Mr. Potato Head.</p>
<p>In those days, everyone in the toy business knew that toy soldiers were three-inch-high, immobile, plastic or lead figures, and the initial response to Joe ranged from doubt to scorn to laughter; but Merrill Hassenfeld, one of the two brothers running the company, called on an old friend, Major General Leonard Holland, head&#160;of the Rhode Island National Guard, who offered access to weaponry, uniforms, and gear in order to design a thoroughly accurate military figure. Joe was also given a special “grip,” an opposable thumb and forefinger, all the better to grasp those realistic machine guns and bazookas, and he was built with 21 movable parts so that boys could finally put war into motion.</p>
<p>Hassenfeld Brothers confounded the givens of the toy business by selling $16.9 million worth of Joes and equipment in Joe’s first year on the market, and after that things only got better. In this way was a warrior Adam created from Eve’s plastic rib, a tough guy with his own outfits and accessories, whom you could dress, undress, and take to bed—or tent down with, anyway. But none of this could be said. It was taboo at Hasbro to call Joe a doll. Instead, the company dubbed him a “poseable action figure for boys,” and the name “action figure” stuck to every war-fighting toy to follow. So Barbie and Joe, hard breasts and soft bullets, the exaggerated bombshell and the touchy-feely scar-faced warrior, came to represent the shaky gender stories of America at decade’s end, where a secret history of events was slowly sinking to the level of childhood.</p>
<p>For a while, all remained as it seemed. But Joe underwent a slow transformation that Barbie largely escaped (though in the early 1970s, facing the new feminism, her sales did decline). As the Vietnam years wore on, Joe became less and less a soldier. Protest was in the air. As early as 1966, a group of mothers dressed in Mary Poppins outfits picketed the toy industry’s yearly trade convention in New York, their umbrellas displaying the slogan, “Toy Fair or Warfare?” Indeed, Sears dropped all military toys from its catalog. According to&#160;Tomart’s Guide to Action Figure Collectibles, “In the late ‘60s… [f]earing a possible boycott of their ‘war-oriented toy,’ Hasbro changed Joe’s facial appearance and wardrobe. Flocked hair and a beard were added to the figures. Hasbro liquidated strictly military-looking pieces in special sets, and by 1970 the G.I. Joe Adventure Team was created.”</p>
<p>Now, Joe was teamed with his first real enemies, but they weren’t human. There was the tiger of the “White Tiger Hunt,” the “hammerhead stingray” of “Devil of the Deep,” the mummy of “Secret of the Mummy’s Tomb,” and the “black shark” of “Revenge of the Spy Shark,” as well as assorted polar bears, octopi, vultures, and a host of natural enemies in toy sets like “Sandstorm Survival.” For the first time, in those years of adult confusion, some indication of plot, of what exactly a child should do with these toys, began to be incorporated into titles like “The Search for the Stolen Idol” or “The Capture of the Pygmy Gorilla.”&#160;Not only was Joe now an adventurer, but his adventure was being crudely outlined on the packaging that accompanied him; and few of these new adventures bore any relationship to the war story into which he had been born.</p>
<p>This hipper, new Joe was, if not exactly gaining a personality, then undergoing a personalizing process. He no longer appeared so military with his new hairstyles and his “A” (for adventure) insignia, which, as Katharine Whittemore has pointed out, “looked just a bit like a peace sign.” In fact, he was beginning to look suspiciously like the opposition, fading as a warrior just as he was becoming a less generic doll. By 1974, he had even gained a bit of an oriental touch with a new “kung-fu grip.” In 1976, under the pressure of the increased cost of plastic, he shrank almost four inches; and soon after, he vanished from the scene. He was, according to Hasbro, “furloughed,” and as far as anyone then knew, consigned to toy oblivion.</p>
<p>Stripping War Out of the Child’s World</p>
<p>In this he was typical of the rest of the war story in child culture in those years. It was as if Vietnamese sappers had reached into the American homeland and blasted the war story free of its ritualistic content, as if the “Indians” of that moment had sent the cavalry into flight and unsettled the West. So many years of Vietnamese resistance had transformed the pleasures of war-play culture into atrocities, embarrassments to look at. By the 1970s, America’s cultural products seemed intent either on critiquing their own mechanics and myths or on staking out ever newer frontiers of defensiveness.</p>
<p>Take Sgt. Rock, that heroic World War II noncom of DC Comics’&#160;Our Army at War&#160;series. Each issue of his adventures now sported a new seal that proclaimed, “make WAR no more,” while his resolutely World War II-bound adventures were being undermined by a new enemy-like consciousness. The cover of a June 1971 issue, for instance, showed the intrepid but shaken sergeant stuttering “B-but they were civilians!” and pointing at the bodies of five men, none in uniform, who seemed to have been lined up against a wall and executed. Next to him, a GI, his submachine gun still smoking, exclaims, “I stopped the enemy, Rock! None of ‘em got away!”</p>
<p>Inside, an episode, “Headcount,” told the “underside” of the story of one Johnny Doe, a posthumously decorated private, who shoots first and asks later. “Hold it, Johnny!” yells Rock as Private Doe is about to do in a whole room of French hostages with their Nazi captors, claiming they’re all phonies, “if you’re wrong… we’re no better’n the nazi butchers we’re fightin’ against!” Of Doe, killed by Rock before he can murder the hostages, the story asked a final question that in 1971 would have been familiar to Americans of any age: “Was Johnny Doe a&#160;murderer—or a hero? That’s one question each of you will have to decide for yourselves!”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />Two months later, in the August issue of&#160;Our Army at War, a reader could enter the mind of Tatsuno Sakigawa in “Kamikaze.” Sakigawa, about to plunge his plane into the USS Stevens, recalls “when his mother held him close and warm! He remembered the fishing junk on which they lived… the pungent smell of sea and wind… he was at another place… in a happier time.” As his plane is hit by antiaircraft fire and explodes, you see his agonized face. “FATHER… MOTHER … WHERE ARE YOU?” he screams.</p>
<p>The scene cuts briefly to his parents on their burning junk (“H-help us… my son… help…”), and then to a final image of “the flames rising from Japan’s burning cities! Houses of wood and paper… his own home.” Tatsuno Sakigawa, the episode concludes, “died for the emperor… for country… for honor! But mostly… to avenge the death of his parents! The destruction of his home! The loss of his own life!” At page bottom, below DC’s pacifist seal of approval, was a “historical note: 250,000 Japanese died in the fire raids… 80,000 died in the Hiroshima A-bombing.”</p>
<p>Even in that most guarded of sanctuaries, the school textbook, the American story began to disassemble. First in its interstices, and then in its place emerged a series of previously hidden stories. In the late 1960s, textbooks rediscovered “the poor,” a group in absentia since the 1930s. By the early 1970s, the black story, the story of women, the Chicano story, the Native American story—all those previously “invisible” narratives—were emerging from under the monolithic story of America that had previously been imposed on a nation of children. Similarly, at the college level, histories of the non-European world emerged from under the monolithic “world” story that had once taken the student from Egypt to twentieth-century America via Greece, Rome, medieval Europe, and the Renaissance.</p>
<p>These new “celebratory” tales of the travails and triumphs of various “minorities” arose mainly as implicit critiques of the One American Story that had preceded them or as self-encapsulated and largely self-referential ministories like that new TV form, the miniseries. In either case, they proved linkable to no larger narrative, though in the 1980s they would all be gathered up willy-nilly under the umbrella of “multi-culturalism.”</p>
<p>Being celebratory, they needed no actual enemy, but implicitly the enemy was the very story that had until recently made them invisible. They were something like interest groups competing for a limited amount of just emptied space. The national story, which was supposed to be inclusive enough to gather in all those “huddled masses,”&#160;which had only a few years earlier allowed textbook writers to craft sentences like, “We are too little astonished at the unprecedented virtuous-ness of US foreign policy, and at its good sense,” had now been cracked open.</p>
<p>By the time Saigon fell in 1975, children like adults existed in a remarkably story-less realm. The very word&#160;war&#160;had been stripped out of children’s culture and childhood transformed into something like an un-American event. The subterranean haunted and haunting quality of children in the 1950s had risen to the surface. The young were now openly threatening adults. Some were challenging American power with evidence of the destruction of minority children at home or out there (“Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”), while others, whether as political radicals, part of the counterculture, or GIs in Vietnam, seemed in the process of defecting to the Eastern enemy.</p>
<p>Yet, paradoxically, that victorious enemy was nowhere in sight—not in the movies, not on TV (despite the image of Vietnam as a television war), not even in the press. Where the Vietnamese should have been, there was instead an absence. Because it was impossible to “see” who had defeated the United States and hence why Americans had lost, it was impossible to grasp what had been lost. So American victimhood, American loss—including the loss of childhood’s cultural forms—became a subject in itself, the only subject, you might say, while the invisibility of the foe who had taken the story away lent that loss a particular aura of unfairness.</p>
<p>So, in a final, strange reversal in that era of reversals, American postwar “reconstruction” would begin not in Vietnam, the land in ruins, which should have been but was not the defeated country, but at home in a land almost untouched by war, which should have been but was not the victor; and the rebuilding would focus not on some devastated physical environment but on the national psyche. In this postwar passage from John Wayne to Sylvester Stallone, from Pax Americana to Pecs Americana, this attempt to rebuild a furloughed American narrative of triumph, children were to play a special role.</p>
<p>2. Empty Space</p>
<p>On the evening of May 25, 1977, a dazed 32-year-old movie director, with one success to his name, was finishing a Herculean two weeks “mixing” his latest film for European audiences. Breaking for dinner, he and his wife headed for Hamburger Hamlet, a restaurant across the street from Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, only to run into heavy traffic and sizable crowds. Coming around a corner, he spied the title of his new film in giant letters on the theater marquee. It was opening day. “I said, ‘I don’t believe this,'” he recalled. “So we sat in Hamburger Hamlet and watched the giant crowd out there, and then I went back and mixed all night… I felt it was some kind of aberration.”</p>
<p>Director George Lucas had already celebrated his teenage years in&#160;American Graffiti&#160;(“Where were you in ‘62?”), the surprise hit of 1973, which sparked a wave of nostalgia for the years before Vietnam and inspired the TV series&#160;Happy Days&#160;(1974). As a moviemaker, however, he had had a desire to reach even deeper into his California boyhood, to return to those moments when he had acted out World War II scenarios with toy soldiers, or watched old Flash Gordon serials, cowboy and war films on television.</p>
<p>Like movie audiences (as box office receipts of the time indicated), he wanted to reverse the cinematic cannibalism of the 1960s. In this, he stood apart from directors as disparate as Robert Altman, Stanley Kubrick, Arthur Penn, Mel Brooks, and his own mentor Francis Ford Coppola, who for years had been dismantling space and horse operas, war and detective films; in fact, all familiar on-screen space.</p>
<p>“There’s a whole generation,” he would later say, “growing up without any kind of fairy tales.” Although he undoubtedly identified with the countercultural politics of the time, his was a conservative vision. Instinctively, he wanted to still the mocking voices and return the movie audience not just to his own childhood but to a childlike viewing state.</p>
<p>Throughout the early 1970s, he struggled to construct a script that would rebuild the missing war story in outer space. The heavens had been empty since, at the end of the 1960s, Stanley Kubrick blasted an American astronaut into a fetal state in&#160;2001: A Space Odyssey; Planet of the Apes&#160;took its astronauts on a mocking journey to a post-nuclear Earth&#160;where humans were not the dominant species; and the USS Enterprise&#160;of TV’s&#160;Star Trek&#160;left the “final frontier” to be mothballed.</p>
<p>In 1975, Lucas signed on with Twentieth Century Fox to produce a space film that (he reassured his wife) “ten-year-old boys would love.” To make it, he had his costume designer study books on World War II uniforms and Japanese armor, while he turned to films ranging from Frank Capra’s&#160;Battle of Britain&#160;(1943) to&#160;The Bridges at Toko-Ri&#160;(1954) to construct dogfights in space. In casting, he avoided white ethnics like Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino, who had played on-screen rebels for years, in favor of unknown WASP-y actors who might bring to mind the one-dimensional whiteness of his movie past.</p>
<p>Summoning up enemies from his screen childhood, he patterned his evil emperor on Ming, ruler of Mongo in&#160;Flash Gordon&#160;(as well as on Richard Nixon), and cloaked his dark Jedi, Darth Vader, in gleaming black visor and body suit. Although there would be no blacks on screen, he hired the black actor James Earl Jones to play Vader’s hissing techno-voice. In Chewbacca, the “Wookie” with the Mexican cartridge belts strung across his hairy chest, the Others of the previous decade from ascendant ape to Native American would be returned to their rightful place. This nonwhite would not even be capable of Hollywood-style broken English; only of King Kong-ish howls of frustration or rage (made by mixing bear, walrus, seal, and badger calls).</p>
<p>In early 1977, the almost finished film seemed an unlikely candidate for success. Fox’s research showed that the word&#160;war&#160;in a title would turn off women, that robots would turn off everyone, and that science fiction was a dead category. Fox’s board of directors had only reluctantly financed the film; and at a special screening, those directors who did not go to sleep were outraged. As movie theater owners showed little enthusiasm, the film opened in only 32 theaters nationwide.</p>
<p>Not in his wildest flights of fancy did Lucas imagine that his cinematic vision would sweep all before it, that his reconquest of a child audience and of “the kids in all of us” would be crucial to the reconstruction of a narrative of triumph, that he would help give a new look of entertainment to the design of war and reintroduce the spectacle of slaughter to the many screens of America.</p>
<p>The Look of Star Wars Enters the World of War</p>
<p>About two years before&#160;Star Wars&#160;opened, a 20-year-old MIT student, Peter Hagelstein, applied for a fellowship to the Hertz Foundation. Among its board members was Edward Teller, “father” of the H-bomb and a founder of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a government nuclear weapons research facility in Northern California. Although John&#160;D. Hertz (of rental car fame) had set up the fellowships to “foster the technological strength of America” vis-à-vis the Soviet Union and some recipients were recruited into Livermore’s weapons research by those interviewing them, the foundation advertised only that “[t]he proposed field of graduate study must be concerned with applications of the physical sciences to human problems, broadly construed.”</p>
<p>Hagelstein was offered a fellowship and a summer job at Livermore by Lowell Wood, his interviewer and head of Livermore’s O Group. Its young scientists were working on designing a “third generation” of nuclear weapons (the first two being the A and H bombs). According to Hagelstein, Wood told him only that they were working on “lasers and laser fusion, which I had never heard of before, and he said there were computer codes out there that were like playing a Wurlitzer organ. It all sounded kind of dreamy… The lab made quite an impression, especially the guards and barbed wire. When I got to the personnel department it dawned on me that they worked on weapons here, and that’s about the first I knew about it.”</p>
<p>In the summer of 1976, he went there full time, while continuing Ph.D. work at MIT. He was a young man who “hated bombs” and “didn’t want to be associated with anything nuclear.” He was even romantically involved with an antinuclear activist who picketed the lab. But he was held by a dream of creating a laboratory x-ray laser that would allow scientists to “see” various biological processes, and by the appealing young men of O Group, with their jeans and long hair, all-night work habits, countercultural élan, and perverse humor. (Once, they even “took up a collection” to buy Lowell Wood a Darth Vader costume.)</p>
<p>The year that&#160;Star Wars&#160;soared into box office heaven, a senior O Group scientist came up with a new concept for using a nuclear explosion to “pump” enough focused energy into a laser to turn it into a weapon. In the summer of 1979, Hagelstein appeared at a meeting where the use of an underground nuclear explosion to test out the idea was being discussed. Dazed from 20 straight hours of work, he made a suggestion—”The mouth just said it”—that was to lead to a laser device dubbed Excalibur and successfully tested in November 1980. While Hagelstein’s dream of a laboratory x-ray laser faded, “his” weapon became the centerpiece of a different sort of fantasy.</p>
<p>In February 1981, the trade journal&#160;Aviation Week and Space Technology&#160;reported the x-ray laser’s heavily classified existence, saying that, “mounted in a laser battle station” in space, it had “the potential to blunt a Soviet nuclear weapons attack.” The magazine’s account was accompanied by a hyper-realistic, futuristic “artist’s drawing” showing a&#160;snazzy battle station that “bristled with long laser rods,” an image the mainstream media picked up, thus marrying the look of war to the look of&#160;Star Wars.</p>
<p>By 1982, Teller had taken news of Peter Hagelstein’s laser directly to Ronald Reagan. Space lasers and other third-generation weapons, he assured the president, “by converting hydrogen bombs into hitherto unprecedented forms and by directing these in highly effective fashions against enemy targets would end the MAD [Mutual Assured Destruction] era and commence a period of assured survival on terms favorable to the Western alliance.” Even a young weapons researcher whose doctoral thesis (“Physics of Short Wavelength Laser Design”) mentioned three science fiction novels featuring beam weapons could hardly have imagined that one spaced-out suggestion would become a crucial part of a multibillion-dollar national fantasy to create a “protective shield” over the reconstruction of war on Earth.</p>
<p>[Part 2, “Teenagers in Space” will be posted on Thursday, August 15th.]</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the <a href="http://www.americanempireproject.com/" type="external">American Empire Project</a> and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The United States of Fear</a>, runs the Nation Institute’s <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch.com</a>. This post is excerpted from his history of the Cold War, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a> (just published in a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CRW66UC/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00CRW66UC&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Kindle edition</a>), with the permission of its publisher, the <a href="http://www.umass.edu/umpress/" type="external">University of Massachusetts Press</a>.</p>
<p>Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/tomdispatch" type="external">Facebook</a> or <a href="http://tomdispatch.tumblr.com/" type="external">Tumblr</a>. Check out the newest Dispatch book, Nick Turse’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Changing-Face-Empire-Cyberwarfare/dp/1608463109/" type="external">The Changing Face of Empire: Special Ops, Drones, Proxy Fighters, Secret Bases, and Cyberwarfare</a>. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="http://tomdispatch.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=6cb39ff0b1f670c349f828c73&amp;id=1e41682ade" type="external">here</a>.</p> | 2,757 |
<p>A small group of senators spoke on the floor Wednesday, urging their peers to pass what they say is a bipartisan DACA solution before the looming March 5th deadline. (Jan. 17)</p>
<p>A small group of senators spoke on the floor Wednesday, urging their peers to pass what they say is a bipartisan DACA solution before the looming March 5th deadline. (Jan. 17)</p> | Senators Urge Bipartisan Immigration Agreement | false | https://apnews.com/69063d42fe314d4caea9bccc72878347 | 2018-01-18 | 2least
| Senators Urge Bipartisan Immigration Agreement
<p>A small group of senators spoke on the floor Wednesday, urging their peers to pass what they say is a bipartisan DACA solution before the looming March 5th deadline. (Jan. 17)</p>
<p>A small group of senators spoke on the floor Wednesday, urging their peers to pass what they say is a bipartisan DACA solution before the looming March 5th deadline. (Jan. 17)</p> | 2,758 |
<p>By Jonathan Cable</p>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) – The Bank of England will raise interest rates for the first time in a decade at its next meeting, a Reuters poll of economists showed on Wednesday, with a large majority saying such a move would be a mistake.</p>
<p>A swathe of economists in the polls completely changed tack from a survey earlier this month after surprisingly hawkish rhetoric from the central bank, which has been giving its strongest signals to date that a hike is on the way.</p>
<p>But 35 of 47 economists polled said now was not the time to be increasing borrowing costs.</p>
<p>“If we are right on wage growth and domestic inflation pressures it might start to look as though tightening measures may have been a little premature,” said Liz Martins at HSBC, explaining that the recent, modest pickup in wages could be fleeting.</p>
<p>Sonali Punhani at Credit Suisse (SIX:) was more emphatic in a client note: “We think a rate hike in November in the backdrop of weak growth, high-currency-generated inflation but weak wage pressures and uncertainty is likely to be a policy mistake.”</p>
<p>Britain’s inflation rate has accelerated, mainly because of the fall in sterling’s value since a narrow referendum decision in June 2016 to leave the European Union. But growth has slowed sharply and is running at half the rate of the euro zone.</p>
<p>Inflation hit 2.9 percent in August, much quicker than the 2 percent the Bank targets</p>
<p>A majority of those polled — 31 of 50 economists — now forecast the first BoE rate hike in over a decade on Nov. 2, to 0.50 percent from 0.25 percent.</p>
<p>That is in stark contrast to a Reuters poll taken ahead of the Sept. 14 Monetary Policy Committee meeting, in which only three of 59 economists predicted an increase before the end of this year. Even by end-2018 only around a dozen expected one or more rate rises in that survey.</p>
<p>“This change is not based on a revised macro outlook as ‘no-change’ remains the only policy action consistent with our growth and inflation forecast,” wrote Fabrice Montagne at Barclays (LON:), explaining their sudden forecast change.</p>
<p>Last week, the Bank surprised markets by saying most of its policymakers said it likely rates would need to rise in coming months, thoughts repeated by Governor Mark Carney in a speech on Monday.</p>
<p>AND AGAIN?</p>
<p>There is no consensus on when the BoE will raise rates again. Only half the respondents expect a 25 basis point follow-up hike at some point next year to what would be a reversal of an emergency cut in the months after the European Union referendum.</p>
<p>Robert Wood at BofA-ML compared the current situation with the European Central Bank’s fateful decision, then led by President Jean-Claude Trichet, to launch two early hikes against inflation that are now widely agreed as a major policy error.</p>
<p>“Aside from the BoE’s history of flip-flopping on guidance that leads us to take any words with a bucket of salt, the BoE seem to us to be panicking as inflation hits a peak just as the ECB did back in 2011,” he said.</p>
<p>Credit Suisse’s Punhani echoed that view: “It is by no means our central view but raising rates from the zero lower bound against a backdrop of economic weakness and uncertainty is extremely risky. Ask the ECB.”</p>
<p>Wood said “the MPC is probably trying to talk up the currency.” At least for now, that is paying off.</p>
<p>Sterling hit its highest rate against the U.S. dollar since the Brexit vote on Friday after MPC member Gertjan Vlieghe, who was considered the BoE’s strongest opponent of a rate hike, also said borrowing costs might rise soon.</p>
<p>The turnaround in views comes despite an economy growing at half its usual pace and coincides with a BoE survey that showed no sign wages were likely to grow much more quickly. Retail sales, however, unexpectedly surged in August.</p>
<p>Huge uncertainties still surround the country’s scheduled March 2019 departure from the EU. But economists were mostly convinced the Bank wouldn’t need to ease policy before then. Only four of 37 said it would.</p>
<p>Other major central banks, such as the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada, have already embarked on a tightening path while the ECB is expected in October to announce plans to reduce its quantitative easing program.</p>
<p>(Polling by Rahul Karunakar and Shrutee Sarkar; Editing by Ross Finley/Jeremy Gaunt)</p> | Economists see Bank of England mistake in hiking rates now: Reuters poll | false | https://newsline.com/economists-see-bank-of-england-mistake-in-hiking-rates-now-reuters-poll/ | 2017-09-20 | 1right-center
| Economists see Bank of England mistake in hiking rates now: Reuters poll
<p>By Jonathan Cable</p>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) – The Bank of England will raise interest rates for the first time in a decade at its next meeting, a Reuters poll of economists showed on Wednesday, with a large majority saying such a move would be a mistake.</p>
<p>A swathe of economists in the polls completely changed tack from a survey earlier this month after surprisingly hawkish rhetoric from the central bank, which has been giving its strongest signals to date that a hike is on the way.</p>
<p>But 35 of 47 economists polled said now was not the time to be increasing borrowing costs.</p>
<p>“If we are right on wage growth and domestic inflation pressures it might start to look as though tightening measures may have been a little premature,” said Liz Martins at HSBC, explaining that the recent, modest pickup in wages could be fleeting.</p>
<p>Sonali Punhani at Credit Suisse (SIX:) was more emphatic in a client note: “We think a rate hike in November in the backdrop of weak growth, high-currency-generated inflation but weak wage pressures and uncertainty is likely to be a policy mistake.”</p>
<p>Britain’s inflation rate has accelerated, mainly because of the fall in sterling’s value since a narrow referendum decision in June 2016 to leave the European Union. But growth has slowed sharply and is running at half the rate of the euro zone.</p>
<p>Inflation hit 2.9 percent in August, much quicker than the 2 percent the Bank targets</p>
<p>A majority of those polled — 31 of 50 economists — now forecast the first BoE rate hike in over a decade on Nov. 2, to 0.50 percent from 0.25 percent.</p>
<p>That is in stark contrast to a Reuters poll taken ahead of the Sept. 14 Monetary Policy Committee meeting, in which only three of 59 economists predicted an increase before the end of this year. Even by end-2018 only around a dozen expected one or more rate rises in that survey.</p>
<p>“This change is not based on a revised macro outlook as ‘no-change’ remains the only policy action consistent with our growth and inflation forecast,” wrote Fabrice Montagne at Barclays (LON:), explaining their sudden forecast change.</p>
<p>Last week, the Bank surprised markets by saying most of its policymakers said it likely rates would need to rise in coming months, thoughts repeated by Governor Mark Carney in a speech on Monday.</p>
<p>AND AGAIN?</p>
<p>There is no consensus on when the BoE will raise rates again. Only half the respondents expect a 25 basis point follow-up hike at some point next year to what would be a reversal of an emergency cut in the months after the European Union referendum.</p>
<p>Robert Wood at BofA-ML compared the current situation with the European Central Bank’s fateful decision, then led by President Jean-Claude Trichet, to launch two early hikes against inflation that are now widely agreed as a major policy error.</p>
<p>“Aside from the BoE’s history of flip-flopping on guidance that leads us to take any words with a bucket of salt, the BoE seem to us to be panicking as inflation hits a peak just as the ECB did back in 2011,” he said.</p>
<p>Credit Suisse’s Punhani echoed that view: “It is by no means our central view but raising rates from the zero lower bound against a backdrop of economic weakness and uncertainty is extremely risky. Ask the ECB.”</p>
<p>Wood said “the MPC is probably trying to talk up the currency.” At least for now, that is paying off.</p>
<p>Sterling hit its highest rate against the U.S. dollar since the Brexit vote on Friday after MPC member Gertjan Vlieghe, who was considered the BoE’s strongest opponent of a rate hike, also said borrowing costs might rise soon.</p>
<p>The turnaround in views comes despite an economy growing at half its usual pace and coincides with a BoE survey that showed no sign wages were likely to grow much more quickly. Retail sales, however, unexpectedly surged in August.</p>
<p>Huge uncertainties still surround the country’s scheduled March 2019 departure from the EU. But economists were mostly convinced the Bank wouldn’t need to ease policy before then. Only four of 37 said it would.</p>
<p>Other major central banks, such as the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada, have already embarked on a tightening path while the ECB is expected in October to announce plans to reduce its quantitative easing program.</p>
<p>(Polling by Rahul Karunakar and Shrutee Sarkar; Editing by Ross Finley/Jeremy Gaunt)</p> | 2,759 |
<p>Dec. 4 (UPI) — Venezuela will create a new cryptocurrency backed by oil reserves and other natural resources, President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Nicolas_Maduro/" type="external">Nicolas Maduro</a> said.</p>
<p>Maduro <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/04/568299704/venezuela-will-create-new-petro-cryptocurrency-president-maduro-says" type="external">announced the new cryptocurrency</a> known as “petro” on his weekly national TV program Sundays with Maduro. It is an attempt to cope with a failing national economy and circumvent U.S. sanctions.</p>
<p>“Venezuela will create a petromoneda cryptocurrency to advance the matter of monetary sovereignty as it will help defeat the financial blockade and move toward new forms of international financing for the economic and social development of the country,” he said.</p>
<p>Maduro said the petro will be <a href="https://panampost.com/orlando-avendano/2017/12/03/venezuelan-petro-cryptocurrency-bolivar/" type="external">backed by Venezuela’s gold</a>, oil, gas and diamond reserves, which the government hopes will allow it to combat sanctions and high national inflation rates.</p>
<p>Venezuela’s government also <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/04/568299704/venezuela-will-create-new-petro-cryptocurrency-president-maduro-says" type="external">established the Blockchain Observatory</a> as “an institutional, political and legal base” for petro’s launch.</p> | Maduro: Venezuela to create new 'petro' cryptocurrency | false | https://newsline.com/maduro-venezuela-to-create-new-petro-cryptocurrency/ | 2017-12-04 | 1right-center
| Maduro: Venezuela to create new 'petro' cryptocurrency
<p>Dec. 4 (UPI) — Venezuela will create a new cryptocurrency backed by oil reserves and other natural resources, President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Nicolas_Maduro/" type="external">Nicolas Maduro</a> said.</p>
<p>Maduro <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/04/568299704/venezuela-will-create-new-petro-cryptocurrency-president-maduro-says" type="external">announced the new cryptocurrency</a> known as “petro” on his weekly national TV program Sundays with Maduro. It is an attempt to cope with a failing national economy and circumvent U.S. sanctions.</p>
<p>“Venezuela will create a petromoneda cryptocurrency to advance the matter of monetary sovereignty as it will help defeat the financial blockade and move toward new forms of international financing for the economic and social development of the country,” he said.</p>
<p>Maduro said the petro will be <a href="https://panampost.com/orlando-avendano/2017/12/03/venezuelan-petro-cryptocurrency-bolivar/" type="external">backed by Venezuela’s gold</a>, oil, gas and diamond reserves, which the government hopes will allow it to combat sanctions and high national inflation rates.</p>
<p>Venezuela’s government also <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/04/568299704/venezuela-will-create-new-petro-cryptocurrency-president-maduro-says" type="external">established the Blockchain Observatory</a> as “an institutional, political and legal base” for petro’s launch.</p> | 2,760 |
<p>IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — For much of coach Fran McCaffery’s eight-year tenure at Iowa, things seemed to be moving in the right direction.</p>
<p>This season has gone sideways.</p>
<p>The Hawkeyes have surprisingly lost their way after returning almost the entire team that nearly made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Granted, the starter they lost was Peter Jok, the Big Ten’s leading scorer. But Iowa still looked like an up-and-coming squad with a bright future.</p>
<p>Instead, the young Hawkeyes have paired an up-and-down offense with a terrible defense, and have sunk to the bottom of the league after five straight upper-division finishes in the Big Ten.</p>
<p>Iowa (10-10, 1-6 Big Ten), fresh off an ugly 80-64 loss at Rutgers, hosts third-ranked Purdue (18-2, 7-0) on Saturday.</p>
<p>“I’m going to keep going at guys that I think have ability and I think have prepared and worked hard enough to deserve an opportunity to play in that game. So I’ll keep putting him in. I won’t just give up on a guy,” said McCaffery, who has gone deep into the bench at times in an effort to find a rotation that works. “I might move a guy ahead of another guy. That’s bound to happen, especially when you’re losing some games like we have. You’re going to make some adjustments.”</p>
<p>What’s so strange about Iowa’s slide is that there doesn’t seem to be many clear answers as to why the team has played so poorly.</p>
<p>The lack of a true point guard beyond Jordan Bohannon has been a problem. Still, Iowa is sixth nationally with 18.6 assists per game, so it’s not as though sharing the ball has been a major issue.</p>
<p>Iowa does need a lead guard who breaks down opposing defenses while protecting the ball, creates more space for talented big men Luka Garza and Tyler Cook, and frees up Bohannon to focus more on scoring.</p>
<p>McCaffery’s son, Connor, a true freshman, might someday be that guy. But McCaffery has had an awful start this winter, missing 10 games because of a sprained ankle and mononucleosis, and then undergoing a tonsillectomy in late December.</p>
<p>“Sometimes we’re playing fast. We’ve got to slow it down a little. And veteran teams understand that a little bit better,” McCaffery said. “The other thing is if we’re having an off night. Can we pound the glass? Can we get some of them back? We have done that in some games, and we have not done that in some games.”</p>
<p>The good news for Iowa fans is that McCaffery’s track record — and the talent he’ll bring back in 2018-19 — suggests that this season could prove to be a fluke.</p>
<p>Cook (14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds a game) has blossomed into one of the Big Ten’s better big men. The 6-foot-11 Garza (10.5 points, 6.5 rebounds a game), a freshman, has the potential to join Cook in that category as early as next season, and Bohannon is shooting 44.5 percent on 3s even though stopping him from shooting 3s is often the top priority on opposing scouting reports.</p>
<p>“He’s developed ways to get open. I think the tendency is, when you’re a really good shooter, to force and just jack. He doesn’t do that because, if he did, he wouldn’t be shooting 45 percent. So he’ll wait, and it will come eventually,” McCaffery said.</p>
<p>Iowa will also add prep star Joe Weiskamp, a four-star shooting guard who is expected to give the Hawkeyes a badly-needed presence on the wing.</p>
<p>But nothing will change until the Hawkeyes start playing much better defense. Until that happens, a program that seemed destined to be a NCAA Tournament threat for years to come will instead occupy the Big Ten basement.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to be more focused and give a better effort defensively,” Cook said. “We haven’t played hard enough consistently to win games against good teams.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external" /> <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">https://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — For much of coach Fran McCaffery’s eight-year tenure at Iowa, things seemed to be moving in the right direction.</p>
<p>This season has gone sideways.</p>
<p>The Hawkeyes have surprisingly lost their way after returning almost the entire team that nearly made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Granted, the starter they lost was Peter Jok, the Big Ten’s leading scorer. But Iowa still looked like an up-and-coming squad with a bright future.</p>
<p>Instead, the young Hawkeyes have paired an up-and-down offense with a terrible defense, and have sunk to the bottom of the league after five straight upper-division finishes in the Big Ten.</p>
<p>Iowa (10-10, 1-6 Big Ten), fresh off an ugly 80-64 loss at Rutgers, hosts third-ranked Purdue (18-2, 7-0) on Saturday.</p>
<p>“I’m going to keep going at guys that I think have ability and I think have prepared and worked hard enough to deserve an opportunity to play in that game. So I’ll keep putting him in. I won’t just give up on a guy,” said McCaffery, who has gone deep into the bench at times in an effort to find a rotation that works. “I might move a guy ahead of another guy. That’s bound to happen, especially when you’re losing some games like we have. You’re going to make some adjustments.”</p>
<p>What’s so strange about Iowa’s slide is that there doesn’t seem to be many clear answers as to why the team has played so poorly.</p>
<p>The lack of a true point guard beyond Jordan Bohannon has been a problem. Still, Iowa is sixth nationally with 18.6 assists per game, so it’s not as though sharing the ball has been a major issue.</p>
<p>Iowa does need a lead guard who breaks down opposing defenses while protecting the ball, creates more space for talented big men Luka Garza and Tyler Cook, and frees up Bohannon to focus more on scoring.</p>
<p>McCaffery’s son, Connor, a true freshman, might someday be that guy. But McCaffery has had an awful start this winter, missing 10 games because of a sprained ankle and mononucleosis, and then undergoing a tonsillectomy in late December.</p>
<p>“Sometimes we’re playing fast. We’ve got to slow it down a little. And veteran teams understand that a little bit better,” McCaffery said. “The other thing is if we’re having an off night. Can we pound the glass? Can we get some of them back? We have done that in some games, and we have not done that in some games.”</p>
<p>The good news for Iowa fans is that McCaffery’s track record — and the talent he’ll bring back in 2018-19 — suggests that this season could prove to be a fluke.</p>
<p>Cook (14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds a game) has blossomed into one of the Big Ten’s better big men. The 6-foot-11 Garza (10.5 points, 6.5 rebounds a game), a freshman, has the potential to join Cook in that category as early as next season, and Bohannon is shooting 44.5 percent on 3s even though stopping him from shooting 3s is often the top priority on opposing scouting reports.</p>
<p>“He’s developed ways to get open. I think the tendency is, when you’re a really good shooter, to force and just jack. He doesn’t do that because, if he did, he wouldn’t be shooting 45 percent. So he’ll wait, and it will come eventually,” McCaffery said.</p>
<p>Iowa will also add prep star Joe Weiskamp, a four-star shooting guard who is expected to give the Hawkeyes a badly-needed presence on the wing.</p>
<p>But nothing will change until the Hawkeyes start playing much better defense. Until that happens, a program that seemed destined to be a NCAA Tournament threat for years to come will instead occupy the Big Ten basement.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to be more focused and give a better effort defensively,” Cook said. “We haven’t played hard enough consistently to win games against good teams.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external" /> <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">https://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | Iowa scuffling along with trouble on both ends of court | false | https://apnews.com/ff367dc7b97a4c9da45c573314f69711 | 2018-01-20 | 2least
| Iowa scuffling along with trouble on both ends of court
<p>IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — For much of coach Fran McCaffery’s eight-year tenure at Iowa, things seemed to be moving in the right direction.</p>
<p>This season has gone sideways.</p>
<p>The Hawkeyes have surprisingly lost their way after returning almost the entire team that nearly made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Granted, the starter they lost was Peter Jok, the Big Ten’s leading scorer. But Iowa still looked like an up-and-coming squad with a bright future.</p>
<p>Instead, the young Hawkeyes have paired an up-and-down offense with a terrible defense, and have sunk to the bottom of the league after five straight upper-division finishes in the Big Ten.</p>
<p>Iowa (10-10, 1-6 Big Ten), fresh off an ugly 80-64 loss at Rutgers, hosts third-ranked Purdue (18-2, 7-0) on Saturday.</p>
<p>“I’m going to keep going at guys that I think have ability and I think have prepared and worked hard enough to deserve an opportunity to play in that game. So I’ll keep putting him in. I won’t just give up on a guy,” said McCaffery, who has gone deep into the bench at times in an effort to find a rotation that works. “I might move a guy ahead of another guy. That’s bound to happen, especially when you’re losing some games like we have. You’re going to make some adjustments.”</p>
<p>What’s so strange about Iowa’s slide is that there doesn’t seem to be many clear answers as to why the team has played so poorly.</p>
<p>The lack of a true point guard beyond Jordan Bohannon has been a problem. Still, Iowa is sixth nationally with 18.6 assists per game, so it’s not as though sharing the ball has been a major issue.</p>
<p>Iowa does need a lead guard who breaks down opposing defenses while protecting the ball, creates more space for talented big men Luka Garza and Tyler Cook, and frees up Bohannon to focus more on scoring.</p>
<p>McCaffery’s son, Connor, a true freshman, might someday be that guy. But McCaffery has had an awful start this winter, missing 10 games because of a sprained ankle and mononucleosis, and then undergoing a tonsillectomy in late December.</p>
<p>“Sometimes we’re playing fast. We’ve got to slow it down a little. And veteran teams understand that a little bit better,” McCaffery said. “The other thing is if we’re having an off night. Can we pound the glass? Can we get some of them back? We have done that in some games, and we have not done that in some games.”</p>
<p>The good news for Iowa fans is that McCaffery’s track record — and the talent he’ll bring back in 2018-19 — suggests that this season could prove to be a fluke.</p>
<p>Cook (14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds a game) has blossomed into one of the Big Ten’s better big men. The 6-foot-11 Garza (10.5 points, 6.5 rebounds a game), a freshman, has the potential to join Cook in that category as early as next season, and Bohannon is shooting 44.5 percent on 3s even though stopping him from shooting 3s is often the top priority on opposing scouting reports.</p>
<p>“He’s developed ways to get open. I think the tendency is, when you’re a really good shooter, to force and just jack. He doesn’t do that because, if he did, he wouldn’t be shooting 45 percent. So he’ll wait, and it will come eventually,” McCaffery said.</p>
<p>Iowa will also add prep star Joe Weiskamp, a four-star shooting guard who is expected to give the Hawkeyes a badly-needed presence on the wing.</p>
<p>But nothing will change until the Hawkeyes start playing much better defense. Until that happens, a program that seemed destined to be a NCAA Tournament threat for years to come will instead occupy the Big Ten basement.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to be more focused and give a better effort defensively,” Cook said. “We haven’t played hard enough consistently to win games against good teams.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external" /> <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">https://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — For much of coach Fran McCaffery’s eight-year tenure at Iowa, things seemed to be moving in the right direction.</p>
<p>This season has gone sideways.</p>
<p>The Hawkeyes have surprisingly lost their way after returning almost the entire team that nearly made the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Granted, the starter they lost was Peter Jok, the Big Ten’s leading scorer. But Iowa still looked like an up-and-coming squad with a bright future.</p>
<p>Instead, the young Hawkeyes have paired an up-and-down offense with a terrible defense, and have sunk to the bottom of the league after five straight upper-division finishes in the Big Ten.</p>
<p>Iowa (10-10, 1-6 Big Ten), fresh off an ugly 80-64 loss at Rutgers, hosts third-ranked Purdue (18-2, 7-0) on Saturday.</p>
<p>“I’m going to keep going at guys that I think have ability and I think have prepared and worked hard enough to deserve an opportunity to play in that game. So I’ll keep putting him in. I won’t just give up on a guy,” said McCaffery, who has gone deep into the bench at times in an effort to find a rotation that works. “I might move a guy ahead of another guy. That’s bound to happen, especially when you’re losing some games like we have. You’re going to make some adjustments.”</p>
<p>What’s so strange about Iowa’s slide is that there doesn’t seem to be many clear answers as to why the team has played so poorly.</p>
<p>The lack of a true point guard beyond Jordan Bohannon has been a problem. Still, Iowa is sixth nationally with 18.6 assists per game, so it’s not as though sharing the ball has been a major issue.</p>
<p>Iowa does need a lead guard who breaks down opposing defenses while protecting the ball, creates more space for talented big men Luka Garza and Tyler Cook, and frees up Bohannon to focus more on scoring.</p>
<p>McCaffery’s son, Connor, a true freshman, might someday be that guy. But McCaffery has had an awful start this winter, missing 10 games because of a sprained ankle and mononucleosis, and then undergoing a tonsillectomy in late December.</p>
<p>“Sometimes we’re playing fast. We’ve got to slow it down a little. And veteran teams understand that a little bit better,” McCaffery said. “The other thing is if we’re having an off night. Can we pound the glass? Can we get some of them back? We have done that in some games, and we have not done that in some games.”</p>
<p>The good news for Iowa fans is that McCaffery’s track record — and the talent he’ll bring back in 2018-19 — suggests that this season could prove to be a fluke.</p>
<p>Cook (14.8 points, 6.8 rebounds a game) has blossomed into one of the Big Ten’s better big men. The 6-foot-11 Garza (10.5 points, 6.5 rebounds a game), a freshman, has the potential to join Cook in that category as early as next season, and Bohannon is shooting 44.5 percent on 3s even though stopping him from shooting 3s is often the top priority on opposing scouting reports.</p>
<p>“He’s developed ways to get open. I think the tendency is, when you’re a really good shooter, to force and just jack. He doesn’t do that because, if he did, he wouldn’t be shooting 45 percent. So he’ll wait, and it will come eventually,” McCaffery said.</p>
<p>Iowa will also add prep star Joe Weiskamp, a four-star shooting guard who is expected to give the Hawkeyes a badly-needed presence on the wing.</p>
<p>But nothing will change until the Hawkeyes start playing much better defense. Until that happens, a program that seemed destined to be a NCAA Tournament threat for years to come will instead occupy the Big Ten basement.</p>
<p>“We’ve got to be more focused and give a better effort defensively,” Cook said. “We haven’t played hard enough consistently to win games against good teams.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college basketball: <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external" /> <a href="https://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">https://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p> | 2,761 |
<p />
<p>Look at that couch. It's right there, only a few steps away. You could nap for 20 minutes. Maybe watch that movie that's been in your Netflix queue for a month. Maybe flip on the gaming console over there and check out that new game you bought. Or hey, that new novel came in the mail. You've been waiting all summer to read it.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Some people think that's what <a href="https://www.recruiter.com/freelance.html" type="external">freelancers Opens a New Window.</a> do all day – and it probably is what some of us do. When I first left the structured nine-to-five framework&#160;of my editorial job a year ago, I thought for sure I'd have loads of free time to do all of those things.</p>
<p>And you can have as much free time as you like as a freelancer – if you don't want to make any money or retain any clients. If you can't accept the fact&#160;that developing a work/life balance still means you have to work, perhaps freelancing isn't for you.</p>
<p>I've learned a few things as a freelance writer that I've decided to pass on here, because this life isn't for everybody. Below are seven things you'll need to be if you want to operate a successful freelance business:</p>
<p>1. Motivated</p>
<p>As a freelancer, you are your own boss. While you ultimately answer to clients if you want to get paid, the client only provides a task for you to perform. Because you're a&#160;contractor rather than an employee, it's completely up to you to decide how and when your work will be done. If you have trouble getting things done without having someone to answer to, the nine-to-five grind might be more your style.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>2. Able to Communicate</p>
<p>No matter what industry you decide to freelance in, you're going to spend a lot of time sending text messages, writing emails, and making phone calls. Because your clients have no&#160;direct control over you, you'll need to stay in touch with them&#160;so they know how your work is progressing – especially early on in the relationship. If your clients are worried that you aren't making any progress or taking your assignments seriously, they may outsource the job to someone else or bring it in house – and you'll find yourself out a paycheck.</p>
<p>3. Okay With Being Alone</p>
<p>You don't have to be a recluse or a loner to do freelance work, but you do need to be okay with spending a lot of time by yourself. It's just the nature of the work. This is one of the biggest struggles people who thrive on&#160;interactions with other people face when converting to remote or freelance work.</p>
<p>4. Organized</p>
<p>You aren't just working on a couple of projects for one company anymore. You're juggling several clients, all of whom have different requirements, contractual obligations, and deadlines for you. On top of that, you'll need to withhold taxes from every paycheck and make sure you pay them quarterly. You'll also need to keep track of business and personal expenses and keep them separate. And unless you have a very steady client base, your income is going to fluctuate dramatically, so you need to be able to plan ahead.</p>
<p>5. Confident</p>
<p>Freelancers don't get annual reviews. You won't have a boss to give you feedback about your work. More often than not, you'll get a thank-you and a paycheck from the client without ever&#160;knowing what they thought of your work. If you are the type of person who needs others to affirm your talent, stay in the office.</p>
<p>6.&#160;Creative</p>
<p>Every client is different. Some will give you very specific instructions about what they need from you, but in my experience, most give you base requirements or ideas and leave you&#160;on your own to figure out the best way to make it all&#160;happen. You'll need a healthy dose of creativity and critical thinking skills to meet the needs of many of the projects that land on your desk.</p>
<p>7. Patient</p>
<p>Some clients don't get back to you with answers as fast as you'd like. Some will pay you the same day, and others won't pay you for two months. Sometimes you'll spend hours doing research for a client you bill at a low rate. Other times, your client will ask you to re-do something or will reject a completed project entirely. Without a healthy dose of patience, freelancing can turn frustrating very quickly.</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>Freelancing is a great experience. There's a freedom to it that you won't find in an office. I often joke that "I'm the coolest boss I've ever had," and it's true to an extent. After all, nobody knows what you need to be happy in your work environment better than you do. If you're looking for something different, and none of the above seven qualities&#160;gives you pause, freelancing could be the right move for you, too.</p> | 7 Qualities Every Freelancer Needs to Succeed | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/08/15/7-qualities-every-freelancer-needs-to-succeed.html | 2016-08-20 | 0right
| 7 Qualities Every Freelancer Needs to Succeed
<p />
<p>Look at that couch. It's right there, only a few steps away. You could nap for 20 minutes. Maybe watch that movie that's been in your Netflix queue for a month. Maybe flip on the gaming console over there and check out that new game you bought. Or hey, that new novel came in the mail. You've been waiting all summer to read it.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Some people think that's what <a href="https://www.recruiter.com/freelance.html" type="external">freelancers Opens a New Window.</a> do all day – and it probably is what some of us do. When I first left the structured nine-to-five framework&#160;of my editorial job a year ago, I thought for sure I'd have loads of free time to do all of those things.</p>
<p>And you can have as much free time as you like as a freelancer – if you don't want to make any money or retain any clients. If you can't accept the fact&#160;that developing a work/life balance still means you have to work, perhaps freelancing isn't for you.</p>
<p>I've learned a few things as a freelance writer that I've decided to pass on here, because this life isn't for everybody. Below are seven things you'll need to be if you want to operate a successful freelance business:</p>
<p>1. Motivated</p>
<p>As a freelancer, you are your own boss. While you ultimately answer to clients if you want to get paid, the client only provides a task for you to perform. Because you're a&#160;contractor rather than an employee, it's completely up to you to decide how and when your work will be done. If you have trouble getting things done without having someone to answer to, the nine-to-five grind might be more your style.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>2. Able to Communicate</p>
<p>No matter what industry you decide to freelance in, you're going to spend a lot of time sending text messages, writing emails, and making phone calls. Because your clients have no&#160;direct control over you, you'll need to stay in touch with them&#160;so they know how your work is progressing – especially early on in the relationship. If your clients are worried that you aren't making any progress or taking your assignments seriously, they may outsource the job to someone else or bring it in house – and you'll find yourself out a paycheck.</p>
<p>3. Okay With Being Alone</p>
<p>You don't have to be a recluse or a loner to do freelance work, but you do need to be okay with spending a lot of time by yourself. It's just the nature of the work. This is one of the biggest struggles people who thrive on&#160;interactions with other people face when converting to remote or freelance work.</p>
<p>4. Organized</p>
<p>You aren't just working on a couple of projects for one company anymore. You're juggling several clients, all of whom have different requirements, contractual obligations, and deadlines for you. On top of that, you'll need to withhold taxes from every paycheck and make sure you pay them quarterly. You'll also need to keep track of business and personal expenses and keep them separate. And unless you have a very steady client base, your income is going to fluctuate dramatically, so you need to be able to plan ahead.</p>
<p>5. Confident</p>
<p>Freelancers don't get annual reviews. You won't have a boss to give you feedback about your work. More often than not, you'll get a thank-you and a paycheck from the client without ever&#160;knowing what they thought of your work. If you are the type of person who needs others to affirm your talent, stay in the office.</p>
<p>6.&#160;Creative</p>
<p>Every client is different. Some will give you very specific instructions about what they need from you, but in my experience, most give you base requirements or ideas and leave you&#160;on your own to figure out the best way to make it all&#160;happen. You'll need a healthy dose of creativity and critical thinking skills to meet the needs of many of the projects that land on your desk.</p>
<p>7. Patient</p>
<p>Some clients don't get back to you with answers as fast as you'd like. Some will pay you the same day, and others won't pay you for two months. Sometimes you'll spend hours doing research for a client you bill at a low rate. Other times, your client will ask you to re-do something or will reject a completed project entirely. Without a healthy dose of patience, freelancing can turn frustrating very quickly.</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>Freelancing is a great experience. There's a freedom to it that you won't find in an office. I often joke that "I'm the coolest boss I've ever had," and it's true to an extent. After all, nobody knows what you need to be happy in your work environment better than you do. If you're looking for something different, and none of the above seven qualities&#160;gives you pause, freelancing could be the right move for you, too.</p> | 2,762 |
<p>Joe Crumpler</p>
<p>Joe Crumpler, widower of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship founder Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, died June 10 at age 89.</p>
<p>The retired 30-year pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Cincinnati, was a president of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio, vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference and trustee of the Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources) before helping to found the North Central affiliate of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and serve at its moderator.</p>
<p>Crumpler’s greatest contribution to CBF life, however, may have been marrying his second wife. Carolyn Weatherford, executive director of the Woman’s Missionary Union auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention for 15 years, retired at age 59 in 1989 to wed Crumpler, a widower whose wife of 25 years, Eleanor Anne Ford Crumpler, had died seven years earlier.</p>
<p>Not long after the couple returned to Ohio from their wedding trip, Carolyn was approached by Daniel Vestal, then pastor of First Baptist Church of Dunwoody, Ga., and running for president of the Southern Baptist Convention, about joining him as a candidate for first vice president at the 1990 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.</p>
<p>After their defeat, Vestal convened “A Consultation of Concerned Baptists” in Atlanta to discuss alternate funding mechanisms to the SBC Cooperative Program for moderate churches disenfranchised by a decade of denominational infighting now known as the “conservative resurgence.”</p>
<p>A year later marked formation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which met for its 25th anniversary General Assembly last week in Greensboro, N.C. Vestal eventually served as the CBF executive coordinator 15 years before retiring in 2012.</p>
<p>Carolyn Crumpler was a member of the interim steering committee that laid groundwork for the new movement and was a member of the first CBF Coordinating Council. She went on to serve as the fourth CBF moderator in 1995-1996 and remained active in CBF life until complications from heart bypass surgery in 2013 put her in a skilled nursing facility. She died Jan. 2, 2015, at age 84.</p>
<p>James Joseph (“Joe”) Crumpler was an Alabama native who served in the military before graduating in 1955 from Howard College —&#160;now Samford University —&#160;and from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1958.</p>
<p>He served churches in Alabama, Ohio and Northern Kentucky before becoming pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church, and after retiring he served as an interim pastor at several congregations before finally retiring as pastor of Miamitown Baptist Church in 2014.</p>
<p>Joe Crumpler served as general chairman of the city-wide youth revival in New Orleans in 1950. He was tri-state chairman of the Crusade of the Americas for Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky and a member of the Cincinnati Billy Graham Crusade committee.</p>
<p>He is survived by three children and four grandchildren.</p>
<p>Visitation with the family is scheduled for 4-7 p.m. on Friday, July 8, and a memorial service at noon Saturday, July 9, at Mount Carmel Baptist Church, 8645 Kenwood Rd. in&#160;Cincinnati. Visitation on Saturday begins at 10:30 a.m.</p>
<p>In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions to the North Central Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, 10561 Adventure Lane, Cincinnati, OH 45242 or to the Alzheimer’s Association Greater Cincinnati, 644 Linn Street, Suite 1026, Cincinnati, OH 45203.</p> | CBF leader Joe Crumpler dead at 89 | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/cbf-leader-joe-crumpler-dead-at-89/ | 3left-center
| CBF leader Joe Crumpler dead at 89
<p>Joe Crumpler</p>
<p>Joe Crumpler, widower of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship founder Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, died June 10 at age 89.</p>
<p>The retired 30-year pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Cincinnati, was a president of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio, vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention Pastor’s Conference and trustee of the Baptist Sunday School Board (now LifeWay Christian Resources) before helping to found the North Central affiliate of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and serve at its moderator.</p>
<p>Crumpler’s greatest contribution to CBF life, however, may have been marrying his second wife. Carolyn Weatherford, executive director of the Woman’s Missionary Union auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention for 15 years, retired at age 59 in 1989 to wed Crumpler, a widower whose wife of 25 years, Eleanor Anne Ford Crumpler, had died seven years earlier.</p>
<p>Not long after the couple returned to Ohio from their wedding trip, Carolyn was approached by Daniel Vestal, then pastor of First Baptist Church of Dunwoody, Ga., and running for president of the Southern Baptist Convention, about joining him as a candidate for first vice president at the 1990 SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.</p>
<p>After their defeat, Vestal convened “A Consultation of Concerned Baptists” in Atlanta to discuss alternate funding mechanisms to the SBC Cooperative Program for moderate churches disenfranchised by a decade of denominational infighting now known as the “conservative resurgence.”</p>
<p>A year later marked formation of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which met for its 25th anniversary General Assembly last week in Greensboro, N.C. Vestal eventually served as the CBF executive coordinator 15 years before retiring in 2012.</p>
<p>Carolyn Crumpler was a member of the interim steering committee that laid groundwork for the new movement and was a member of the first CBF Coordinating Council. She went on to serve as the fourth CBF moderator in 1995-1996 and remained active in CBF life until complications from heart bypass surgery in 2013 put her in a skilled nursing facility. She died Jan. 2, 2015, at age 84.</p>
<p>James Joseph (“Joe”) Crumpler was an Alabama native who served in the military before graduating in 1955 from Howard College —&#160;now Samford University —&#160;and from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 1958.</p>
<p>He served churches in Alabama, Ohio and Northern Kentucky before becoming pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church, and after retiring he served as an interim pastor at several congregations before finally retiring as pastor of Miamitown Baptist Church in 2014.</p>
<p>Joe Crumpler served as general chairman of the city-wide youth revival in New Orleans in 1950. He was tri-state chairman of the Crusade of the Americas for Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky and a member of the Cincinnati Billy Graham Crusade committee.</p>
<p>He is survived by three children and four grandchildren.</p>
<p>Visitation with the family is scheduled for 4-7 p.m. on Friday, July 8, and a memorial service at noon Saturday, July 9, at Mount Carmel Baptist Church, 8645 Kenwood Rd. in&#160;Cincinnati. Visitation on Saturday begins at 10:30 a.m.</p>
<p>In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions to the North Central Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, 10561 Adventure Lane, Cincinnati, OH 45242 or to the Alzheimer’s Association Greater Cincinnati, 644 Linn Street, Suite 1026, Cincinnati, OH 45203.</p> | 2,763 |
|
<p>By Jeff Brumley</p>
<p>Baptists meeting in Antigua greeted Tropical Storm Isaac’s passage through the Caribbean with humor and determination while Cooperative Baptist Fellowship&#160;officials in Florida and other Gulf states prepared for the worst.</p>
<p>Isaac caused disruptions including flight cancellations at the ongoing <a href="http://spicewriter.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/cbf-mid-term-assembly-poster.pdf" type="external">Mid Term Assembly of the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship</a>. But participants forged ahead with the opening on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“When the Lord is in the vessel, you can smile at the storm,” Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Winston Baldwin told participants in welcoming them to the island, the <a href="http://www.bwanet.org/news/news-releases/165-cbf-mid-term-assembly" type="external">Baptist World Alliance reported</a>.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/" type="external">National Hurricane Center</a>, Isaac is located is projected to pass just south of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and make landfall in Cuba during the day on Saturday. Projections show Isaac blowing over or near the Florida Keys before bursting into the Gulf of Mexico late Sunday or early Monday.</p>
<p>The forecast cones&#160;probably are too wide to predict accurately after that, with the eastern extreme showing the storm traveling up the center of Florida and the westernmost prediction showing landfall in the middle of Louisiana on Aug. 29.</p>
<p>But that uncertainty hasn’t stopped first responders and religious organizations from activating their disaster relief plans.</p>
<p>Charles Ray, CBF’s U.S. disaster response coordinator, <a href="http://cbfportal.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/preparing-for-isaacs-arrival/" type="external">posted a blog on Thursday</a>alerting readers that Isaac is expected to be reach hurricane status in coming days and that state organizations, churches and individuals should be prepared to protect themselves and be ready to help if needed.</p>
<p>Ray told Associated Baptist Press that he fears crying wolf about early alerts, but it’s worse to wait until hurricane predictions become more precise.</p>
<p>Ray said he’ll be participating in a conference call Friday with national disaster relief agencies that include the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Federal Emergency Management Agency.</p>
<p>“Let’s be ready for the worst and pray it’s all a waste of time,” Ray said. “But I am not going to sit here and wait until Saturday and say ‘whoops.’”</p>
<p>Nor are state CBF state groups waiting.</p>
<p>CBF Florida Coordinator Ray Johnson said the organization’s two disaster relief trailers, which contain debris clearing equipment, are being checked for readiness. Volunteers are being contacted to provide response if and when needed.</p>
<p>Also, former CBF Florida associate coordinator Tommy Deal, now the disaster relief coordinator for Cooperative Baptists in Georgia, has been tapped to lead disaster planning in Florida, Johnson said.</p>
<p>“I sent out an e-mail&#160;on Thursday to all CBF churches in Florida to let them know we are watching the storm,” Johnson said. “If we are needed, we can mobilize teams.”</p>
<p>Neither CBF national nor any of its state groups are considered first responders, so they wouldn’t be headed in the moment a hurricane makes landfall, Ray said. Instead, they’ll wait until military or law enforcement call on them to respond to areas of need.</p>
<p>Part of the planning also includes rushing to CBF churches and families who may need assistance, Deal said.</p>
<p>“Our objective usually is to find areas that have a CBF presence and that look neglected by other responders,” Deal said.</p>
<p>Wherever they go, Deal added that disaster response is part relief work, and part ministry.</p>
<p>“This is being the presence of Christ and it’s being Christ-like to people during a very dark time,” Deal said.</p> | Baptists meet Isaac with humor, readiness | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/cbf-groups-meet-isaac-with-humor-and-preparedness/ | 3left-center
| Baptists meet Isaac with humor, readiness
<p>By Jeff Brumley</p>
<p>Baptists meeting in Antigua greeted Tropical Storm Isaac’s passage through the Caribbean with humor and determination while Cooperative Baptist Fellowship&#160;officials in Florida and other Gulf states prepared for the worst.</p>
<p>Isaac caused disruptions including flight cancellations at the ongoing <a href="http://spicewriter.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/cbf-mid-term-assembly-poster.pdf" type="external">Mid Term Assembly of the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship</a>. But participants forged ahead with the opening on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“When the Lord is in the vessel, you can smile at the storm,” Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Winston Baldwin told participants in welcoming them to the island, the <a href="http://www.bwanet.org/news/news-releases/165-cbf-mid-term-assembly" type="external">Baptist World Alliance reported</a>.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/" type="external">National Hurricane Center</a>, Isaac is located is projected to pass just south of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and make landfall in Cuba during the day on Saturday. Projections show Isaac blowing over or near the Florida Keys before bursting into the Gulf of Mexico late Sunday or early Monday.</p>
<p>The forecast cones&#160;probably are too wide to predict accurately after that, with the eastern extreme showing the storm traveling up the center of Florida and the westernmost prediction showing landfall in the middle of Louisiana on Aug. 29.</p>
<p>But that uncertainty hasn’t stopped first responders and religious organizations from activating their disaster relief plans.</p>
<p>Charles Ray, CBF’s U.S. disaster response coordinator, <a href="http://cbfportal.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/preparing-for-isaacs-arrival/" type="external">posted a blog on Thursday</a>alerting readers that Isaac is expected to be reach hurricane status in coming days and that state organizations, churches and individuals should be prepared to protect themselves and be ready to help if needed.</p>
<p>Ray told Associated Baptist Press that he fears crying wolf about early alerts, but it’s worse to wait until hurricane predictions become more precise.</p>
<p>Ray said he’ll be participating in a conference call Friday with national disaster relief agencies that include the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Federal Emergency Management Agency.</p>
<p>“Let’s be ready for the worst and pray it’s all a waste of time,” Ray said. “But I am not going to sit here and wait until Saturday and say ‘whoops.’”</p>
<p>Nor are state CBF state groups waiting.</p>
<p>CBF Florida Coordinator Ray Johnson said the organization’s two disaster relief trailers, which contain debris clearing equipment, are being checked for readiness. Volunteers are being contacted to provide response if and when needed.</p>
<p>Also, former CBF Florida associate coordinator Tommy Deal, now the disaster relief coordinator for Cooperative Baptists in Georgia, has been tapped to lead disaster planning in Florida, Johnson said.</p>
<p>“I sent out an e-mail&#160;on Thursday to all CBF churches in Florida to let them know we are watching the storm,” Johnson said. “If we are needed, we can mobilize teams.”</p>
<p>Neither CBF national nor any of its state groups are considered first responders, so they wouldn’t be headed in the moment a hurricane makes landfall, Ray said. Instead, they’ll wait until military or law enforcement call on them to respond to areas of need.</p>
<p>Part of the planning also includes rushing to CBF churches and families who may need assistance, Deal said.</p>
<p>“Our objective usually is to find areas that have a CBF presence and that look neglected by other responders,” Deal said.</p>
<p>Wherever they go, Deal added that disaster response is part relief work, and part ministry.</p>
<p>“This is being the presence of Christ and it’s being Christ-like to people during a very dark time,” Deal said.</p> | 2,764 |
|
<p>Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe pardoned an illegal immigrant Wednesday for past driving offenses, hoping his decision will help thwart Homeland Security agents’ attempts to deport the woman.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Liliana Cruz Mendez</a>’s case has taken on national significance as immigrant rights groups rally to her cause. Despite her unauthorized status, she has been a productive member of the Northern Virginia community and should be exempted from deportation, activists say.</p>
<p>Mr. McAuliffe, a Democrat, said his pardon should bolster those calls.</p>
<p>“Tearing this family apart will not make our commonwealth or our country safer,” the governor said in a statement. “If President Trump and his administration are serious about making our nation safer, they will release <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a>, focus their immigration enforcement efforts on legitimate threats to our public safety and get behind the comprehensive immigration reform our nation needs.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a> has been defying a 2006 deportation order, which immigration officials said makes her a legitimate target for removal to her home country of El Salvador.</p>
<p>The 30-year-old mother of two was detained last week when she showed up for a regular check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.</p>
<p>She went through similar check-ins under President Obama and was released both times, presumably because she fell short of the priorities Mr. Obama had set for deportation targets in his administration.</p>
<p>Her backers say <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a>’s only criminal history stems from a 2013 traffic stop for a broken taillight. She was driving without a license at the time, making her guilty of a misdemeanor.</p>
<p>She pleaded guilty to both offenses in 2014, paid $130 in fines and was given a year’s worth of unsupervised probation.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a>’s two children, ages 10 and 4, are U.S. citizens, and her husband has work authorization suggesting at least some tentative legal status. Activists said that should be enough to earn her leniency.</p>
<p>“It’s clear under the law that they have discretion to grant her request and allow <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Liliana</a> to remain with her family,” said Nick Katz, senior manager for legal services at CASA, an advocacy group for the immigrant community. “This is a textbook example for why we have discretion based on humanitarian concerns.”</p>
<p>But ICE says <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a> has been in the country illegally for more than a decade and has been under threat of deportation the entire time.</p>
<p>“ICE took Ms. Cruz Mendez into custody based on a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge in April 2006,” said agency spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell.</p>
<p>The spokeswoman signaled that Mr. McAuliffe’s pardon wouldn’t affect the case.</p>
<p>“Even without any criminal convictions, she is still subject to removal from the United States based on that final order of removal,” Ms. Cutrell said.</p>
<p>Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, said <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a> should be deported.</p>
<p>“It is a myth that immigration law is being used to split families,” he said. “Just because an illegal alien is deported does not mean they can’t take their children with them.”</p>
<p>The case is an example of the seismic shift in approach to immigration enforcement between the Obama administration and the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Mr. Obama carved more than 80 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants out of serious danger of deportation, ordering agents to focus only on serious criminals, people caught in the act of crossing the border and people who were recently ordered deported by an immigration judge.</p>
<p>Those ordered deported before 2014 were not considered priorities.</p>
<p>The Trump administration says it is still prioritizing criminals but will no longer give a pass to other illegal immigrants whom enforcement agents encounter — particularly those who are defying deportation orders.</p>
<p>“This country spent billions of dollars a year on border control, making sure these folks get due process. When a federal judge makes a decision, issues an order, that order needs to mean something,” said Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who was briefing reporters last week.</p>
<p>While apprehensions at the border are down more than 70 percent under Mr. Trump, ICE’s arrests in the interior are up 38 percent, according to the latest statistics.</p>
<p>Three-quarters of those arrested by ICE are criminals, the agency said. That is down from 92 percent under Mr. Obama in 2016. All told, ICE nabbed 30,500 immigrants with criminal records and another 10,800 without criminal records during Mr. Trump’s first 100 days.</p>
<p>“We are a law enforcement agency, and that’s what we’re going to do — we’re going to enforce the laws on the books,” Mr. Homan said. “Even though the executive orders have expanded the aperture of who we’re arresting, if you look at the numbers, the men and women of ICE are still prioritizing those cases in a way that makes sense.”</p>
<p>Immigrant rights activists cast doubt on the numbers, saying most of those classified as convicts by the Trump administration were guilty of traffic-related offenses or immigration crimes. The activists said those convictions shouldn’t come with penalties of deportation.</p>
<p>“We believe that ICE is misleading the public in a deliberate attempt to cover up the fact that their roundups and arrests of ordinary, hardworking immigrants greatly outnumber their arrests of serious criminals,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice.</p>
<p>His group said <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a>’s case is just the latest in a series of undeserving deportations. Others include a 22-year-old college student in California who was preparing to apply for Mr. Obama’s 2012 deportation amnesty for Dreamers, but who hadn’t accumulated the money for the application, and a North Carolina woman who had her asylum application denied in 2014 but who was granted repeated stays of deportation by the Obama administration.</p>
<p>CASA, meanwhile, will stage a rally Thursday in Baltimore calling for the release of Jesus Peraza, a father of two. CASA said the man has no criminal record yet was arrested by ICE officers a block from his child’s school.</p>
<p>“These type of arrests are sending a chill throughout the community,” said Elizabeth Alex, CASA’s director for the Baltimore area.</p>
<p>WBAL-TV reported that Mr. Peraza was deported a decade ago but sneaked back into the country.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2017/may/24/liliana-cruz-mendez-illegal-immigrant-gets-pardon-/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Virginia governor pardons illegal immigrant Liliana Mendez in hopes of thwarting deportation | true | http://washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/24/liliana-cruz-mendez-illegal-immigrant-gets-pardon-/ | 2017-05-24 | 0right
| Virginia governor pardons illegal immigrant Liliana Mendez in hopes of thwarting deportation
<p>Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe pardoned an illegal immigrant Wednesday for past driving offenses, hoping his decision will help thwart Homeland Security agents’ attempts to deport the woman.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Liliana Cruz Mendez</a>’s case has taken on national significance as immigrant rights groups rally to her cause. Despite her unauthorized status, she has been a productive member of the Northern Virginia community and should be exempted from deportation, activists say.</p>
<p>Mr. McAuliffe, a Democrat, said his pardon should bolster those calls.</p>
<p>“Tearing this family apart will not make our commonwealth or our country safer,” the governor said in a statement. “If President Trump and his administration are serious about making our nation safer, they will release <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a>, focus their immigration enforcement efforts on legitimate threats to our public safety and get behind the comprehensive immigration reform our nation needs.”</p>
<p><a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a> has been defying a 2006 deportation order, which immigration officials said makes her a legitimate target for removal to her home country of El Salvador.</p>
<p>The 30-year-old mother of two was detained last week when she showed up for a regular check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.</p>
<p>She went through similar check-ins under President Obama and was released both times, presumably because she fell short of the priorities Mr. Obama had set for deportation targets in his administration.</p>
<p>Her backers say <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a>’s only criminal history stems from a 2013 traffic stop for a broken taillight. She was driving without a license at the time, making her guilty of a misdemeanor.</p>
<p>She pleaded guilty to both offenses in 2014, paid $130 in fines and was given a year’s worth of unsupervised probation.</p>
<p><a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a>’s two children, ages 10 and 4, are U.S. citizens, and her husband has work authorization suggesting at least some tentative legal status. Activists said that should be enough to earn her leniency.</p>
<p>“It’s clear under the law that they have discretion to grant her request and allow <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Liliana</a> to remain with her family,” said Nick Katz, senior manager for legal services at CASA, an advocacy group for the immigrant community. “This is a textbook example for why we have discretion based on humanitarian concerns.”</p>
<p>But ICE says <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a> has been in the country illegally for more than a decade and has been under threat of deportation the entire time.</p>
<p>“ICE took Ms. Cruz Mendez into custody based on a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge in April 2006,” said agency spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell.</p>
<p>The spokeswoman signaled that Mr. McAuliffe’s pardon wouldn’t affect the case.</p>
<p>“Even without any criminal convictions, she is still subject to removal from the United States based on that final order of removal,” Ms. Cutrell said.</p>
<p>Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, said <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a> should be deported.</p>
<p>“It is a myth that immigration law is being used to split families,” he said. “Just because an illegal alien is deported does not mean they can’t take their children with them.”</p>
<p>The case is an example of the seismic shift in approach to immigration enforcement between the Obama administration and the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Mr. Obama carved more than 80 percent of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants out of serious danger of deportation, ordering agents to focus only on serious criminals, people caught in the act of crossing the border and people who were recently ordered deported by an immigration judge.</p>
<p>Those ordered deported before 2014 were not considered priorities.</p>
<p>The Trump administration says it is still prioritizing criminals but will no longer give a pass to other illegal immigrants whom enforcement agents encounter — particularly those who are defying deportation orders.</p>
<p>“This country spent billions of dollars a year on border control, making sure these folks get due process. When a federal judge makes a decision, issues an order, that order needs to mean something,” said Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who was briefing reporters last week.</p>
<p>While apprehensions at the border are down more than 70 percent under Mr. Trump, ICE’s arrests in the interior are up 38 percent, according to the latest statistics.</p>
<p>Three-quarters of those arrested by ICE are criminals, the agency said. That is down from 92 percent under Mr. Obama in 2016. All told, ICE nabbed 30,500 immigrants with criminal records and another 10,800 without criminal records during Mr. Trump’s first 100 days.</p>
<p>“We are a law enforcement agency, and that’s what we’re going to do — we’re going to enforce the laws on the books,” Mr. Homan said. “Even though the executive orders have expanded the aperture of who we’re arresting, if you look at the numbers, the men and women of ICE are still prioritizing those cases in a way that makes sense.”</p>
<p>Immigrant rights activists cast doubt on the numbers, saying most of those classified as convicts by the Trump administration were guilty of traffic-related offenses or immigration crimes. The activists said those convictions shouldn’t come with penalties of deportation.</p>
<p>“We believe that ICE is misleading the public in a deliberate attempt to cover up the fact that their roundups and arrests of ordinary, hardworking immigrants greatly outnumber their arrests of serious criminals,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice.</p>
<p>His group said <a href="/topics/liliana-cruz-mendez/" type="external">Ms. Mendez</a>’s case is just the latest in a series of undeserving deportations. Others include a 22-year-old college student in California who was preparing to apply for Mr. Obama’s 2012 deportation amnesty for Dreamers, but who hadn’t accumulated the money for the application, and a North Carolina woman who had her asylum application denied in 2014 but who was granted repeated stays of deportation by the Obama administration.</p>
<p>CASA, meanwhile, will stage a rally Thursday in Baltimore calling for the release of Jesus Peraza, a father of two. CASA said the man has no criminal record yet was arrested by ICE officers a block from his child’s school.</p>
<p>“These type of arrests are sending a chill throughout the community,” said Elizabeth Alex, CASA’s director for the Baltimore area.</p>
<p>WBAL-TV reported that Mr. Peraza was deported a decade ago but sneaked back into the country.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. <a href="http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2017/may/24/liliana-cruz-mendez-illegal-immigrant-gets-pardon-/" type="external">Click here for reprint permission</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,765 |
<p>It's well known that fast food restaurants have a high turn over rate and it's easy to imagine many people were discontent when they left their jobs.</p>
<p />
<p>An act of revenge in such cases probably occurs more often than what's revealed to the public. Is stealing bags of frozen chicken nuggets an act of revenge, or an act of heroism?</p>
<p><a href="http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/after-quitting-his-job-at-burger-king-this-man-stole-all-the-chicken-nuggets--Wko6qVClpg" type="external">John Alex Correa</a>, a student and a former employee of Burger King is the one who claims to have stolen all of the chicken nuggets after deciding to quit his job at the Burger King restaurant. He even went so far as to publish photographs online of the crime!</p>
<p>The photographs show bags of frozen chicken nuggets inside a car with someone's hand on top of them. What was his motive for providing incriminating evidence?</p>
<p>Twitter fans have been giving praise to John Alex Correa. Some consider him a hero in a battle against large fast food chains. Others were interested in the nuggets he had.</p>
<p>Later, John Alex Correa admitted that the nugget theft was an experiment for social media. Was he just wanting to know how people would respond?</p>
<p>There hasn't been any response from Burger King and no word of any police reports having been made because of food <a href="" type="internal">being stolen</a>.</p>
<p>Watch:</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p> | Man Quits Job At Burger King, Steals All The Chicken Nuggets (VIDEO) | true | http://offthemainpage.com/2016/01/27/man-quits-job-at-burger-king-steals-all-the-chicken-nuggets-video/ | 2016-01-27 | 4left
| Man Quits Job At Burger King, Steals All The Chicken Nuggets (VIDEO)
<p>It's well known that fast food restaurants have a high turn over rate and it's easy to imagine many people were discontent when they left their jobs.</p>
<p />
<p>An act of revenge in such cases probably occurs more often than what's revealed to the public. Is stealing bags of frozen chicken nuggets an act of revenge, or an act of heroism?</p>
<p><a href="http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/after-quitting-his-job-at-burger-king-this-man-stole-all-the-chicken-nuggets--Wko6qVClpg" type="external">John Alex Correa</a>, a student and a former employee of Burger King is the one who claims to have stolen all of the chicken nuggets after deciding to quit his job at the Burger King restaurant. He even went so far as to publish photographs online of the crime!</p>
<p>The photographs show bags of frozen chicken nuggets inside a car with someone's hand on top of them. What was his motive for providing incriminating evidence?</p>
<p>Twitter fans have been giving praise to John Alex Correa. Some consider him a hero in a battle against large fast food chains. Others were interested in the nuggets he had.</p>
<p>Later, John Alex Correa admitted that the nugget theft was an experiment for social media. Was he just wanting to know how people would respond?</p>
<p>There hasn't been any response from Burger King and no word of any police reports having been made because of food <a href="" type="internal">being stolen</a>.</p>
<p>Watch:</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,766 |
<p>Donald Trump will indeed seek to “Make America Great Again” through the use of thousands of additional troops in the longest war in which the U.S. has ever been engaged. It seems that the flip side of the destruction of the social fabric of this nation is this penchant for endless wars. And war has eaten away so at the definition of this nation that Trump won’t bother to even give lip service to the Constitutional authority of the Congress to declare war. And the right-wing Congress would never deny any of our recent presidents funding for the many ongoing debacles in which the government is now embroiled.</p>
<p>The&#160;New York Times&#160;got it right when it observed that “He (Trump) had outsourced the decision on how to proceed militarily in Afghanistan to the Pentagon…” (“As U.S. Adds Troops in Afghanistan, Trump’s Strategy Remains Undefined,” June 18, 2017). And all of this without even a single tweet!</p>
<p>And these troops are only a “stopgap measure”… “over what to do about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.”</p>
<p>Of course, this is not a “stopgap measure” for the big players in the global arms industry from the U.S. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and Raytheon are among those whose life on easy street has become even easier under Trump et al. There are billions of dollars to be made here… lots of additional swimming pools, exotic automobiles, status, and as many houses as one can call home. They move in seamless patterns from cold wars to wars on terror to wars on the streets of this nation with big bucks as the ultimate payoff.</p>
<p>And since not many care about what’s going on with issues of war in the U.S., it’s not surprising that&#160;Reuters&#160;reports that “U.S. warplanes dropped more weapons on Afghanistan in April than in any other single month since 2012.” It seems that those sky pilots are priming the pump for the anticipated troop increases noted above (“Use of Air Power In Afghanistan up Sharply as Trump Troop Decision Looms,” May 24, 2017).</p>
<p>It’s as if Dr. Strangelove is not only the commander-in-chief, but also the secretary of defense. Is it possible that only Congresswoman Barbara Lee got it right as expressed in a recent interview on&#160;Democracy Now? “The war in Afghanistan is the longest war in American history, 16 years. And so, at what point will the country say enough is enough, and insist the president come back to Congress for authorization?” (“Rep. Barbara Lee: In Expanding Global Wars, Trump Is Creating More Havoc and Chaos &amp; Has No Strategy,” June 15, 2017).</p>
<p>Politico&#160;reports that the U.S. is conducting “military operations” in places like Yemen and Somalia, to name just a few of the current U.S. wars “with little input or oversight from either the White House or Congress,“ (“Trump’s dangerous expansion of executive war powers,” April 3, 2017).&#160;Politco&#160;continues, “… Trump has quietly overseen an expansion in the administration’s war-making powers, giving the Department of Defense greater autonomy to conduct military operations…”</p>
<p>Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 in his speech “Beyond Vietnam”: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Without protest, we are already there.</p>
<p>Howard Lisnoff is a freelance writer. He is the author of&#160;Against the Wall: Memoir of a Vietnam-Era War Resister&#160;(2017).</p> | The Spiritual Death of Ongoing War | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/06/22/the-spiritual-death-of-ongoing-war/ | 2017-06-22 | 4left
| The Spiritual Death of Ongoing War
<p>Donald Trump will indeed seek to “Make America Great Again” through the use of thousands of additional troops in the longest war in which the U.S. has ever been engaged. It seems that the flip side of the destruction of the social fabric of this nation is this penchant for endless wars. And war has eaten away so at the definition of this nation that Trump won’t bother to even give lip service to the Constitutional authority of the Congress to declare war. And the right-wing Congress would never deny any of our recent presidents funding for the many ongoing debacles in which the government is now embroiled.</p>
<p>The&#160;New York Times&#160;got it right when it observed that “He (Trump) had outsourced the decision on how to proceed militarily in Afghanistan to the Pentagon…” (“As U.S. Adds Troops in Afghanistan, Trump’s Strategy Remains Undefined,” June 18, 2017). And all of this without even a single tweet!</p>
<p>And these troops are only a “stopgap measure”… “over what to do about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.”</p>
<p>Of course, this is not a “stopgap measure” for the big players in the global arms industry from the U.S. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and Raytheon are among those whose life on easy street has become even easier under Trump et al. There are billions of dollars to be made here… lots of additional swimming pools, exotic automobiles, status, and as many houses as one can call home. They move in seamless patterns from cold wars to wars on terror to wars on the streets of this nation with big bucks as the ultimate payoff.</p>
<p>And since not many care about what’s going on with issues of war in the U.S., it’s not surprising that&#160;Reuters&#160;reports that “U.S. warplanes dropped more weapons on Afghanistan in April than in any other single month since 2012.” It seems that those sky pilots are priming the pump for the anticipated troop increases noted above (“Use of Air Power In Afghanistan up Sharply as Trump Troop Decision Looms,” May 24, 2017).</p>
<p>It’s as if Dr. Strangelove is not only the commander-in-chief, but also the secretary of defense. Is it possible that only Congresswoman Barbara Lee got it right as expressed in a recent interview on&#160;Democracy Now? “The war in Afghanistan is the longest war in American history, 16 years. And so, at what point will the country say enough is enough, and insist the president come back to Congress for authorization?” (“Rep. Barbara Lee: In Expanding Global Wars, Trump Is Creating More Havoc and Chaos &amp; Has No Strategy,” June 15, 2017).</p>
<p>Politico&#160;reports that the U.S. is conducting “military operations” in places like Yemen and Somalia, to name just a few of the current U.S. wars “with little input or oversight from either the White House or Congress,“ (“Trump’s dangerous expansion of executive war powers,” April 3, 2017).&#160;Politco&#160;continues, “… Trump has quietly overseen an expansion in the administration’s war-making powers, giving the Department of Defense greater autonomy to conduct military operations…”</p>
<p>Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 in his speech “Beyond Vietnam”: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Without protest, we are already there.</p>
<p>Howard Lisnoff is a freelance writer. He is the author of&#160;Against the Wall: Memoir of a Vietnam-Era War Resister&#160;(2017).</p> | 2,767 |
<p>CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs have invited veteran catcher Chris Gimenez and 18 other non-roster players to their major league spring training camp.</p>
<p>A nine-year veteran, Gimenez played for Chicago manager Joe Maddon when both were with Tampa Bay in 2012 and 2013 and was later a teammate of free agent pitcher Yu Darvish — a Cubs target — with the Texas Rangers.</p>
<p>Chicago also invited pitchers Anthony Bass, Craig Brooks, David Garner, Justin Hancock, Thomas Hatch, Williams Perez, Alberto Baldonado, Daniel Camarena and Kyle Ryan; infielders Ryan Court, Mike Freeman, Jason Vosler and Chesny Young; catchers Taylor Davis, Ian Rice and Ali Solis; and outfielders Jacob Hannemann and Bijan Rademacher.</p>
<p>Pitchers and catchers begin workouts Feb. 14, with the first full squad workout on Feb. 19.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP baseball: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball</a></p>
<p>CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs have invited veteran catcher Chris Gimenez and 18 other non-roster players to their major league spring training camp.</p>
<p>A nine-year veteran, Gimenez played for Chicago manager Joe Maddon when both were with Tampa Bay in 2012 and 2013 and was later a teammate of free agent pitcher Yu Darvish — a Cubs target — with the Texas Rangers.</p>
<p>Chicago also invited pitchers Anthony Bass, Craig Brooks, David Garner, Justin Hancock, Thomas Hatch, Williams Perez, Alberto Baldonado, Daniel Camarena and Kyle Ryan; infielders Ryan Court, Mike Freeman, Jason Vosler and Chesny Young; catchers Taylor Davis, Ian Rice and Ali Solis; and outfielders Jacob Hannemann and Bijan Rademacher.</p>
<p>Pitchers and catchers begin workouts Feb. 14, with the first full squad workout on Feb. 19.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP baseball: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball</a></p> | Cubs invite Gimenez, 18 other players to major league camp | false | https://apnews.com/amp/f43154ad269048aeb0355d81b1de23be | 2018-01-25 | 2least
| Cubs invite Gimenez, 18 other players to major league camp
<p>CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs have invited veteran catcher Chris Gimenez and 18 other non-roster players to their major league spring training camp.</p>
<p>A nine-year veteran, Gimenez played for Chicago manager Joe Maddon when both were with Tampa Bay in 2012 and 2013 and was later a teammate of free agent pitcher Yu Darvish — a Cubs target — with the Texas Rangers.</p>
<p>Chicago also invited pitchers Anthony Bass, Craig Brooks, David Garner, Justin Hancock, Thomas Hatch, Williams Perez, Alberto Baldonado, Daniel Camarena and Kyle Ryan; infielders Ryan Court, Mike Freeman, Jason Vosler and Chesny Young; catchers Taylor Davis, Ian Rice and Ali Solis; and outfielders Jacob Hannemann and Bijan Rademacher.</p>
<p>Pitchers and catchers begin workouts Feb. 14, with the first full squad workout on Feb. 19.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP baseball: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball</a></p>
<p>CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs have invited veteran catcher Chris Gimenez and 18 other non-roster players to their major league spring training camp.</p>
<p>A nine-year veteran, Gimenez played for Chicago manager Joe Maddon when both were with Tampa Bay in 2012 and 2013 and was later a teammate of free agent pitcher Yu Darvish — a Cubs target — with the Texas Rangers.</p>
<p>Chicago also invited pitchers Anthony Bass, Craig Brooks, David Garner, Justin Hancock, Thomas Hatch, Williams Perez, Alberto Baldonado, Daniel Camarena and Kyle Ryan; infielders Ryan Court, Mike Freeman, Jason Vosler and Chesny Young; catchers Taylor Davis, Ian Rice and Ali Solis; and outfielders Jacob Hannemann and Bijan Rademacher.</p>
<p>Pitchers and catchers begin workouts Feb. 14, with the first full squad workout on Feb. 19.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP baseball: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball</a></p> | 2,768 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>A: There are lots of trees that do grow well here and bloom at different times of the growing season available to you. The first bloomer you’re going to notice here, and are already starting to show off, are in the ornamental pear family. These trees come in several different varieties, some having a pyramidal-shaped crown and others being more oval shaped. In bloom they are like brilliant white clouds of color.</p>
<p>Redbud trees are some of the earliest bloomers at ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden. (Marla Brose/Journal)</p>
<p>Next in our bloom cycle would be the ornamental plums followed closely by my favorite bloomer, the redbuds. A nifty thing about the plums and redbuds is their foliage. With the plum you get a cheery, pink bloom then purple-colored leaves all growing season long.</p>
<p>The redbud blooms are amazing. They look like sweet pea flowers borne all along the twigs and branches exploding into the most marvelous dark pink-magenta-purple colors that can astound your eyes. The leaves are a sweet, heart shape and offer blue-purple-red colors, variety dependent, to add visually throughout the growing season.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Just then you can find fruiting trees making their show. Nectarines, apricots and most cherry trees tend to flower pretty early and more times than not get nipped by historically late frosts, keeping them from bearing fruit. Peach and apple have an internal timetable making them far more reliable if you want to grow a fruiting tree. Both wear pink-white blooms that are so happy looking.</p>
<p>During the late spring, you’ll see crab apple trees making their annual show. Crab apples offer blooms in several different color schemes, ranging from coral-reds, pink-reds, brilliant true pinks and even some whites. As the season progresses, you’ll see catalpas bearing large white bloom clusters followed by large green leaves.</p>
<p>Stuck in the season, although you won’t really notice the flower, are Russian olive trees. Considered a nonnative, invasive tree, the scent of a Russian olive in bloom is delightfully unmistakable and in my opinion, something to look forward to. The leaves borne on the Russian are lance-shaped, like a willow offering a cool gray-green color and bark that is a dark brown-rust color, again offering additional visuals in the landscaping.</p>
<p>During the heat of the year there’ll be desert willow and chitalpa in bloom. Related to the catalpa – both have large orchid-shaped blooms in several pink and purple shades that will attract hummingbirds and fun-to-watch bumble bees. Summer brings on another favorite: the chaste tree (vitex). Usually offered in shrub form, the chaste can easily be trained into tree form. Variety dependent, they offer pale pink, pastel lavender, blue lavender to the most vivid neon cobalt blue color blooms you’ve ever seen. Oh so pretty.</p>
<p>As the year advances, the bloom cycles end but that doesn’t mean you can’t have color. Planted near a patio consider several rose trees and potted tropical hibiscus. The roses could set blooms several times throughout the season giving you color.</p>
<p>With the heat of the year the hibiscus offer large Hawaiian-looking flowers until late fall. The hibiscus will need to come in for the winter months or die. Given a good pruning at season’s end, they become far more manageable but even indoors they can sometimes bloom for you, warding off winter’s gloom.</p>
<p>I’ve barely scratched the surface on trees that’ll offer bloom for you, so here’s to finding trees that’ll fit your wants and expectations and hope you find just what you’re looking for. All of the nurseries in these parts have staffers who can teach you and sometimes you’ll even run into a gem of an individual at the big box stores who knows his or her stuff.</p>
<p>Also there is a publication created by the city – I believe it’s still in print – offered at nurseries that teaches about watering systems, which has informational charts listing the pros and cons of trees that grow here in our area to give you even more knowledge so you make the best choices. Hope I’ve helped, and have fun!</p>
<p>Need tips on growing your garden? Tracey Fitzgibbon is a certified nurseryman. Send your garden-related questions to Digging In, Rio West, P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, NM 87103.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | DIGGING IN: Variety of trees will bloom throughout year | false | https://abqjournal.com/966753/variety-of-trees-will-bloom-throughout-year.html | 2least
| DIGGING IN: Variety of trees will bloom throughout year
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>A: There are lots of trees that do grow well here and bloom at different times of the growing season available to you. The first bloomer you’re going to notice here, and are already starting to show off, are in the ornamental pear family. These trees come in several different varieties, some having a pyramidal-shaped crown and others being more oval shaped. In bloom they are like brilliant white clouds of color.</p>
<p>Redbud trees are some of the earliest bloomers at ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden. (Marla Brose/Journal)</p>
<p>Next in our bloom cycle would be the ornamental plums followed closely by my favorite bloomer, the redbuds. A nifty thing about the plums and redbuds is their foliage. With the plum you get a cheery, pink bloom then purple-colored leaves all growing season long.</p>
<p>The redbud blooms are amazing. They look like sweet pea flowers borne all along the twigs and branches exploding into the most marvelous dark pink-magenta-purple colors that can astound your eyes. The leaves are a sweet, heart shape and offer blue-purple-red colors, variety dependent, to add visually throughout the growing season.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Just then you can find fruiting trees making their show. Nectarines, apricots and most cherry trees tend to flower pretty early and more times than not get nipped by historically late frosts, keeping them from bearing fruit. Peach and apple have an internal timetable making them far more reliable if you want to grow a fruiting tree. Both wear pink-white blooms that are so happy looking.</p>
<p>During the late spring, you’ll see crab apple trees making their annual show. Crab apples offer blooms in several different color schemes, ranging from coral-reds, pink-reds, brilliant true pinks and even some whites. As the season progresses, you’ll see catalpas bearing large white bloom clusters followed by large green leaves.</p>
<p>Stuck in the season, although you won’t really notice the flower, are Russian olive trees. Considered a nonnative, invasive tree, the scent of a Russian olive in bloom is delightfully unmistakable and in my opinion, something to look forward to. The leaves borne on the Russian are lance-shaped, like a willow offering a cool gray-green color and bark that is a dark brown-rust color, again offering additional visuals in the landscaping.</p>
<p>During the heat of the year there’ll be desert willow and chitalpa in bloom. Related to the catalpa – both have large orchid-shaped blooms in several pink and purple shades that will attract hummingbirds and fun-to-watch bumble bees. Summer brings on another favorite: the chaste tree (vitex). Usually offered in shrub form, the chaste can easily be trained into tree form. Variety dependent, they offer pale pink, pastel lavender, blue lavender to the most vivid neon cobalt blue color blooms you’ve ever seen. Oh so pretty.</p>
<p>As the year advances, the bloom cycles end but that doesn’t mean you can’t have color. Planted near a patio consider several rose trees and potted tropical hibiscus. The roses could set blooms several times throughout the season giving you color.</p>
<p>With the heat of the year the hibiscus offer large Hawaiian-looking flowers until late fall. The hibiscus will need to come in for the winter months or die. Given a good pruning at season’s end, they become far more manageable but even indoors they can sometimes bloom for you, warding off winter’s gloom.</p>
<p>I’ve barely scratched the surface on trees that’ll offer bloom for you, so here’s to finding trees that’ll fit your wants and expectations and hope you find just what you’re looking for. All of the nurseries in these parts have staffers who can teach you and sometimes you’ll even run into a gem of an individual at the big box stores who knows his or her stuff.</p>
<p>Also there is a publication created by the city – I believe it’s still in print – offered at nurseries that teaches about watering systems, which has informational charts listing the pros and cons of trees that grow here in our area to give you even more knowledge so you make the best choices. Hope I’ve helped, and have fun!</p>
<p>Need tips on growing your garden? Tracey Fitzgibbon is a certified nurseryman. Send your garden-related questions to Digging In, Rio West, P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, NM 87103.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | 2,769 |
|
<p>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Experts at the Nebraska Regional Poison Center are reminding people about the dangers of carbon monoxide.</p>
<p>The odorless and colorless gas is produced when fuels don't burn completely in furnaces. Carbon monoxide exposure can be fatal.</p>
<p>There are more than 400 deaths and 15,000 emergency room visits every year in the United States because of carbon monoxide. Problems are more common during the winter months.</p>
<p>The symptoms include sleepiness, headaches, dizziness and blurred vision.</p>
<p>The Poison Center recommends that everyone keep carbon monoxide detectors on every level of their homes. And make sure to inspect furnaces and other fuel-burning equipment annually.</p>
<p>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Experts at the Nebraska Regional Poison Center are reminding people about the dangers of carbon monoxide.</p>
<p>The odorless and colorless gas is produced when fuels don't burn completely in furnaces. Carbon monoxide exposure can be fatal.</p>
<p>There are more than 400 deaths and 15,000 emergency room visits every year in the United States because of carbon monoxide. Problems are more common during the winter months.</p>
<p>The symptoms include sleepiness, headaches, dizziness and blurred vision.</p>
<p>The Poison Center recommends that everyone keep carbon monoxide detectors on every level of their homes. And make sure to inspect furnaces and other fuel-burning equipment annually.</p> | Authorities remind about the dangers of carbon monoxide | false | https://apnews.com/amp/9629e2cae06f4d87a78a447b3fec2a9a | 2018-01-07 | 2least
| Authorities remind about the dangers of carbon monoxide
<p>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Experts at the Nebraska Regional Poison Center are reminding people about the dangers of carbon monoxide.</p>
<p>The odorless and colorless gas is produced when fuels don't burn completely in furnaces. Carbon monoxide exposure can be fatal.</p>
<p>There are more than 400 deaths and 15,000 emergency room visits every year in the United States because of carbon monoxide. Problems are more common during the winter months.</p>
<p>The symptoms include sleepiness, headaches, dizziness and blurred vision.</p>
<p>The Poison Center recommends that everyone keep carbon monoxide detectors on every level of their homes. And make sure to inspect furnaces and other fuel-burning equipment annually.</p>
<p>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Experts at the Nebraska Regional Poison Center are reminding people about the dangers of carbon monoxide.</p>
<p>The odorless and colorless gas is produced when fuels don't burn completely in furnaces. Carbon monoxide exposure can be fatal.</p>
<p>There are more than 400 deaths and 15,000 emergency room visits every year in the United States because of carbon monoxide. Problems are more common during the winter months.</p>
<p>The symptoms include sleepiness, headaches, dizziness and blurred vision.</p>
<p>The Poison Center recommends that everyone keep carbon monoxide detectors on every level of their homes. And make sure to inspect furnaces and other fuel-burning equipment annually.</p> | 2,770 |
<p>It was 3:36 p.m. on Friday June 30.</p>
<p>The Friday before the July 4th holiday weekend.</p>
<p>Reporters were on their way out of town.</p>
<p>And into our e-mail box comes a press release from the Justice Department announcing that Boeing will not be criminally prosecuted for alleged criminal activity.</p>
<p>According to the press release, Boeing will pay a $50 million criminal penalty and $615 million in civil penalties to resolve federal claims relating to the company’s hiring of the former Air Force acquisitions chief Darleen A. Druyun, by its then CFO, Michael Sears, and its handling of competitors’ information in connection with the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Program and certain NASA launch services contracts.</p>
<p>Attached to the press release was a copy of the nine-page civil settlement agreement.</p>
<p>But where’s the non-prosecution agreement — the settlement agreement for the criminal side?</p>
<p>This non-prosecution agreement was not attached to the press release.</p>
<p>Why not?</p>
<p>No answer from the United States Attorney in Alexandria Virginia.</p>
<p>No answer from the United States Attorney in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>No answer from the Justice Department.</p>
<p>After all, it was late Friday.</p>
<p>And then, after all, it was the Monday before the Fourth of July.</p>
<p>No answer.</p>
<p>Finally, only later in the week, Main Justice sends along the non-prosecution agreement.</p>
<p>And now it is clear why Boeing didn’t want the document released.</p>
<p>In the agreement, which covers a two-year period, Boeing agrees not to commit any criminal offenses related to stealing of other companies’ sensitive procurement information or the laws governing federal bribery, graft and conflict of interest.</p>
<p>But unlike the 50 or so corporate deferred and non-prosecution agreements that have preceded this one, Boeing’s team of lawyers had inserted this item:</p>
<p>If a non-executive level Boeing employee violates the agreement, that’s not a violation by Boeing.</p>
<p>Don’t believe it?</p>
<p>Here’s the exact wording:</p>
<p>“For the purposes of determining compliance with this agreement (as opposed to legal responsibility), the commission of a defined offense by a Boeing employee classified at a level below executive management as defined by Boeing’s internal classification structure in place at the time of the execution of this agreement shall not be deemed to constitute the commission of a defined offense by Boeing.”</p>
<p>When told the provision, experts in the field expressed surprise.</p>
<p>“It’s an odd and unusual provision,” said Ryan McConnell of Baker Botts in Houston who has closely followed the rise of corporate deferred and non-prosecution agreements. “I’ve never seen it before.”</p>
<p>“Drawing the line between executives and other employees is a little crude,” said Columbia University Law Professor John Coffee. “I don’t think you want to tell non-executive employees they are legally immune and can’t get the company in trouble. You want the company monitoring all employees.”</p>
<p>“Under this agreement, Boeing gets a pass,” said University of Connecticut Law Professor Leonard Orland. “It’s pretty good negotiating. That’s amazing. Nobody else has it.”</p>
<p>And then the Boeing lawyers inserted this:</p>
<p>That even if a Boeing executive violates the agreement, it’s not a violation by Boeing if the company reports the violation to the federal government.</p>
<p>Don’t believe it?</p>
<p>Here’s the exact language:</p>
<p>“The commission of a defined offense by a Boeing employee shall not be deemed to constitute the commission of a defined offense by Boeing as long as the underlying allegation or conduct is reported by Boeing.”</p>
<p>The lawyers for Boeing did not return calls seeking their interpretation of these provisions.</p>
<p>Those lawyers, as listed in the non-prosecution agreement, are:</p>
<p>Brad Brian and Jerome Roth of Munger Tolles &amp; Olson.</p>
<p>Stephen Preston and Jamie Gorelick of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.</p>
<p>And Richard Cullen of McGuire Woods.</p>
<p>Only Boeing’s Tim Neale would speak on the issue.</p>
<p>“We’re not going to comment on what the provisions mean,” Neale said. “The agreement speaks for itself.”</p>
<p>Well, it does.</p>
<p>It means that over the past couple of years, we have gone from convicting corporate criminals for corporate crimes, to allowing them to get off with deferred and non-prosecution agreements, to the low point of the Boeing non-prosecution agreement, which says that even if Boeing violates the agreement, it’s not a violation.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., Alexandria, and Los Angeles did not return calls seeking answers to some questions, like:</p>
<p>Why wasn’t the Boeing non-prosecution agreement promptly released along with the civil agreement?</p>
<p>Did Boeing lawyers request that the non-prosecution agreement not be released?</p>
<p>Why did federal prosecutors agree to the loophole-ridden non-prosecution agreement?</p>
<p>Awaiting your call.</p>
<p>Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based <a href="http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/" type="external">Corporate Crime Reporter</a>.</p>
<p>Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based <a href="http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/" type="external">Multinational Monitor</a>, and co-director of Essential Action, a corporate accountability group. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press; <a href="http://www.corporatepredators.org/" type="external">http://www.corporatepredators.org</a>).</p>
<p>(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Boeing’s Criminal Agreement | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/07/11/boeing-s-criminal-agreement/ | 2006-07-11 | 4left
| Boeing’s Criminal Agreement
<p>It was 3:36 p.m. on Friday June 30.</p>
<p>The Friday before the July 4th holiday weekend.</p>
<p>Reporters were on their way out of town.</p>
<p>And into our e-mail box comes a press release from the Justice Department announcing that Boeing will not be criminally prosecuted for alleged criminal activity.</p>
<p>According to the press release, Boeing will pay a $50 million criminal penalty and $615 million in civil penalties to resolve federal claims relating to the company’s hiring of the former Air Force acquisitions chief Darleen A. Druyun, by its then CFO, Michael Sears, and its handling of competitors’ information in connection with the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Program and certain NASA launch services contracts.</p>
<p>Attached to the press release was a copy of the nine-page civil settlement agreement.</p>
<p>But where’s the non-prosecution agreement — the settlement agreement for the criminal side?</p>
<p>This non-prosecution agreement was not attached to the press release.</p>
<p>Why not?</p>
<p>No answer from the United States Attorney in Alexandria Virginia.</p>
<p>No answer from the United States Attorney in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>No answer from the Justice Department.</p>
<p>After all, it was late Friday.</p>
<p>And then, after all, it was the Monday before the Fourth of July.</p>
<p>No answer.</p>
<p>Finally, only later in the week, Main Justice sends along the non-prosecution agreement.</p>
<p>And now it is clear why Boeing didn’t want the document released.</p>
<p>In the agreement, which covers a two-year period, Boeing agrees not to commit any criminal offenses related to stealing of other companies’ sensitive procurement information or the laws governing federal bribery, graft and conflict of interest.</p>
<p>But unlike the 50 or so corporate deferred and non-prosecution agreements that have preceded this one, Boeing’s team of lawyers had inserted this item:</p>
<p>If a non-executive level Boeing employee violates the agreement, that’s not a violation by Boeing.</p>
<p>Don’t believe it?</p>
<p>Here’s the exact wording:</p>
<p>“For the purposes of determining compliance with this agreement (as opposed to legal responsibility), the commission of a defined offense by a Boeing employee classified at a level below executive management as defined by Boeing’s internal classification structure in place at the time of the execution of this agreement shall not be deemed to constitute the commission of a defined offense by Boeing.”</p>
<p>When told the provision, experts in the field expressed surprise.</p>
<p>“It’s an odd and unusual provision,” said Ryan McConnell of Baker Botts in Houston who has closely followed the rise of corporate deferred and non-prosecution agreements. “I’ve never seen it before.”</p>
<p>“Drawing the line between executives and other employees is a little crude,” said Columbia University Law Professor John Coffee. “I don’t think you want to tell non-executive employees they are legally immune and can’t get the company in trouble. You want the company monitoring all employees.”</p>
<p>“Under this agreement, Boeing gets a pass,” said University of Connecticut Law Professor Leonard Orland. “It’s pretty good negotiating. That’s amazing. Nobody else has it.”</p>
<p>And then the Boeing lawyers inserted this:</p>
<p>That even if a Boeing executive violates the agreement, it’s not a violation by Boeing if the company reports the violation to the federal government.</p>
<p>Don’t believe it?</p>
<p>Here’s the exact language:</p>
<p>“The commission of a defined offense by a Boeing employee shall not be deemed to constitute the commission of a defined offense by Boeing as long as the underlying allegation or conduct is reported by Boeing.”</p>
<p>The lawyers for Boeing did not return calls seeking their interpretation of these provisions.</p>
<p>Those lawyers, as listed in the non-prosecution agreement, are:</p>
<p>Brad Brian and Jerome Roth of Munger Tolles &amp; Olson.</p>
<p>Stephen Preston and Jamie Gorelick of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.</p>
<p>And Richard Cullen of McGuire Woods.</p>
<p>Only Boeing’s Tim Neale would speak on the issue.</p>
<p>“We’re not going to comment on what the provisions mean,” Neale said. “The agreement speaks for itself.”</p>
<p>Well, it does.</p>
<p>It means that over the past couple of years, we have gone from convicting corporate criminals for corporate crimes, to allowing them to get off with deferred and non-prosecution agreements, to the low point of the Boeing non-prosecution agreement, which says that even if Boeing violates the agreement, it’s not a violation.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., Alexandria, and Los Angeles did not return calls seeking answers to some questions, like:</p>
<p>Why wasn’t the Boeing non-prosecution agreement promptly released along with the civil agreement?</p>
<p>Did Boeing lawyers request that the non-prosecution agreement not be released?</p>
<p>Why did federal prosecutors agree to the loophole-ridden non-prosecution agreement?</p>
<p>Awaiting your call.</p>
<p>Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based <a href="http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/" type="external">Corporate Crime Reporter</a>.</p>
<p>Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based <a href="http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/" type="external">Multinational Monitor</a>, and co-director of Essential Action, a corporate accountability group. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press; <a href="http://www.corporatepredators.org/" type="external">http://www.corporatepredators.org</a>).</p>
<p>(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,771 |
<p>SHANGHAI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Victoria's Secret's glitzy annual fashion show hits the stage in China on Monday night for the first time, but will do so without several of its "angels" and star names who had been expected to attend, including model Gigi Hadid and pop singer Katy Perry.</p>
<p>Hadid has confirmed her absence, while reports have swirled ahead of the show about visas being denied over political sensitivities and strict controls around the Shanghai event - a potential headache for the brand famed for its racy lingerie.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Perry and Hadid have both drawn criticism in state media and online in China, the former for appearing at a concert in 2015 to show support for Taiwan, a self-governed island that China considers a wayward province and an integral part of its territory.</p>
<p>The furore underscores the challenges for global firms looking to hold major live events in China, even as music producers, Hollywood and sporting franchises increasingly look to tap into the country's fast-growing entertainment market.</p>
<p>"Brands have to be much more aware of politically or morally sensitive topics here," said Ben Cavender, Shanghai-based principal at China Market Research Group, adding the lure of the market meant most people would nevertheless take risks.</p>
<p>"It's a very different political environment than their home markets and we're at a time when China is on a drive to clean up behavior and push a sort of moral code."</p>
<p>China has long kept tight control of performers it allows into the country. Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Bjork and Bon Jovi are all banned over perceived bad behavior or for broaching sensitive topics like Tibet or Taiwan.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Under President Xi Jinping, a push to reinforce socialist "core values" in cultural products from video games to music shows has also meant firms like game developer NetEase Inc to the producers of the Grammy Awards have had to clean up their offerings.</p>
<p>Hadid, penned to be one of the Victoria's Secret "Angels" at the show, tweeted last week she was no longer attending. The tweet followed a video posted online of her squinting her eyes while holding a small Buddha statue drew ire in China.</p>
<p>U.S. media reports said Perry was denied a visa due to support for Taiwan at a 2015 show where she draped a flag of the democratic island around her shoulders.</p>
<p>Influential state-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times wrote in an editorial ahead of the show that it was "logical" the two had been denied visas due to their past actions.</p>
<p>"Payback was unavoidable. Those who are serious about developing careers in the Chinese market can draw lessons from this case and learn to abide by the rules in China," it said.</p>
<p>Victoria's Secret did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Asked whether or why Hadid and Perry had been banned from coming to China, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he did not know any of the details of the situation, but reiterated that China welcomed foreigners to visit to carry out "normal" business, tourism and cultural activities and issues visas to those who meet the conditions.</p>
<p>"But at the same time I want to say that like all other countries, China as a sovereign state has the right to decide itself in accordance with its laws and policies whether or not to issue papers to foreign citizens," Lu said, without elaborating.</p>
<p>Reuters could not reach Hadid for comment. Perry did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>The show, held in Paris last year, blends fashion, fantasy and entertainment, and has featured scores of supermodels, celebrities and musicians since its inception in 1996. The firm claims to sell the world's "sexiest panties and lingerie."</p>
<p>The pre-show theatrics are an unwelcome distraction as Victoria's Secret looks to grow in a women's underwear market expected to hit $33 billion by 2020, according to Euromonitor. The firm opened its first mainland store in Shanghai this year.</p>
<p>But getting in the government's bad book would be even worse, said Ryan Bao, a Beijing-based executive at SM Entertainment. South Korean performers he worked with had been frozen out over the last year amid a political standoff between Beijing and Seoul.</p>
<p>"The government is very smart. It wouldn't openly say someone was banned or give the reason, but would find a way to keep them out anyway," he said.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Additional reporting by Pei Li and Jiang Xihao, and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Christopher Cushing)</p> | Angels or demons? Political shadow hangs over Victoria's Secret China show | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/20/angels-or-demons-political-shadow-hangs-over-victoria-secret-china-show.html | 2017-11-20 | 0right
| Angels or demons? Political shadow hangs over Victoria's Secret China show
<p>SHANGHAI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Victoria's Secret's glitzy annual fashion show hits the stage in China on Monday night for the first time, but will do so without several of its "angels" and star names who had been expected to attend, including model Gigi Hadid and pop singer Katy Perry.</p>
<p>Hadid has confirmed her absence, while reports have swirled ahead of the show about visas being denied over political sensitivities and strict controls around the Shanghai event - a potential headache for the brand famed for its racy lingerie.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Perry and Hadid have both drawn criticism in state media and online in China, the former for appearing at a concert in 2015 to show support for Taiwan, a self-governed island that China considers a wayward province and an integral part of its territory.</p>
<p>The furore underscores the challenges for global firms looking to hold major live events in China, even as music producers, Hollywood and sporting franchises increasingly look to tap into the country's fast-growing entertainment market.</p>
<p>"Brands have to be much more aware of politically or morally sensitive topics here," said Ben Cavender, Shanghai-based principal at China Market Research Group, adding the lure of the market meant most people would nevertheless take risks.</p>
<p>"It's a very different political environment than their home markets and we're at a time when China is on a drive to clean up behavior and push a sort of moral code."</p>
<p>China has long kept tight control of performers it allows into the country. Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Bjork and Bon Jovi are all banned over perceived bad behavior or for broaching sensitive topics like Tibet or Taiwan.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Under President Xi Jinping, a push to reinforce socialist "core values" in cultural products from video games to music shows has also meant firms like game developer NetEase Inc to the producers of the Grammy Awards have had to clean up their offerings.</p>
<p>Hadid, penned to be one of the Victoria's Secret "Angels" at the show, tweeted last week she was no longer attending. The tweet followed a video posted online of her squinting her eyes while holding a small Buddha statue drew ire in China.</p>
<p>U.S. media reports said Perry was denied a visa due to support for Taiwan at a 2015 show where she draped a flag of the democratic island around her shoulders.</p>
<p>Influential state-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times wrote in an editorial ahead of the show that it was "logical" the two had been denied visas due to their past actions.</p>
<p>"Payback was unavoidable. Those who are serious about developing careers in the Chinese market can draw lessons from this case and learn to abide by the rules in China," it said.</p>
<p>Victoria's Secret did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Asked whether or why Hadid and Perry had been banned from coming to China, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he did not know any of the details of the situation, but reiterated that China welcomed foreigners to visit to carry out "normal" business, tourism and cultural activities and issues visas to those who meet the conditions.</p>
<p>"But at the same time I want to say that like all other countries, China as a sovereign state has the right to decide itself in accordance with its laws and policies whether or not to issue papers to foreign citizens," Lu said, without elaborating.</p>
<p>Reuters could not reach Hadid for comment. Perry did not respond to a request for comment.</p>
<p>The show, held in Paris last year, blends fashion, fantasy and entertainment, and has featured scores of supermodels, celebrities and musicians since its inception in 1996. The firm claims to sell the world's "sexiest panties and lingerie."</p>
<p>The pre-show theatrics are an unwelcome distraction as Victoria's Secret looks to grow in a women's underwear market expected to hit $33 billion by 2020, according to Euromonitor. The firm opened its first mainland store in Shanghai this year.</p>
<p>But getting in the government's bad book would be even worse, said Ryan Bao, a Beijing-based executive at SM Entertainment. South Korean performers he worked with had been frozen out over the last year amid a political standoff between Beijing and Seoul.</p>
<p>"The government is very smart. It wouldn't openly say someone was banned or give the reason, but would find a way to keep them out anyway," he said.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Additional reporting by Pei Li and Jiang Xihao, and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Christopher Cushing)</p> | 2,772 |
<p>Recently ousted Las Vegas judge Heidi Almase sent out mailers this week apologizing for a negative flyer her campaign sent out criticizing criminal defense attorneys while she was running for re-election.</p>
<p>“For disappointing those attorneys and the public, who I believe deserve the very best in their elected public servants, you have my personal apology,” the current mailer reads.</p>
<p>Almase <a href="" type="internal">lost her seat</a> on the Las Vegas Municipal Court to longtime prosecutor Cara Campbell in the June 13 municipal election. Campbell, a Clark County chief deputy district attorney, was a first-time candidate for public office. Almase was seeking her second six-year term, and lost to Campbell by 5.72 percentage points.</p>
<p>The race for Almase’s seat turned contentious in the days before the election. Her campaign <a href="" type="internal">posted a doctored image</a> on Facebook early in the week before the election depicting Almase alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson next to an endorsement.</p>
<p>A day after the photo was posted, her campaign <a href="" type="internal">sent a mailer</a> to constituents questioning how Campbell could be an impartial judge when she is married to “an attorney who keeps criminals on the streets?” The flyer drew criticism and cost Almase several major political endorsements.</p>
<p>She removed the doctored image, apologized for the mailer and fired her campaign manager just days before the election.</p>
<p>The apology flyer Almase issued this week notes how criminal defense attorneys “serve a necessary, and often thankless, duty within our courts, ensuring the adversarial process is founded on principles of fairness and due process.”</p>
<p>“The campaign literature did not reflect my belief about this important function,” the flyer reads.</p>
<p>Contact Blake Apgar at [email protected] or 702-387-5298. Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/blakeapgar" type="external">@blakeapgar</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>Text of apology from Almase flyer</p>
<p>“During the Municipal election cycle, my campaign sent out a negative mailer demeaning criminal defense attorneys. These attorneys serve a necessary, and often thankless, duty within our courts ensuring the adversarial process is founded on principles of fairness and due process.</p>
<p>The campaign literature did not reflect my belief about this important function.</p>
<p>For disappointing those attorneys and the public, who I believe deserve the very best in their elected public servants, you have my personal apology.</p>
<p>— Judge Heidi Almase</p>
<p /> | Mailer from ousted Las Vegas judge apologizes for negative campaign flyer | false | https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/las-vegas/mailer-from-ousted-las-vegas-judge-apologizes-for-negative-campaign-flyer/ | 2017-06-21 | 1right-center
| Mailer from ousted Las Vegas judge apologizes for negative campaign flyer
<p>Recently ousted Las Vegas judge Heidi Almase sent out mailers this week apologizing for a negative flyer her campaign sent out criticizing criminal defense attorneys while she was running for re-election.</p>
<p>“For disappointing those attorneys and the public, who I believe deserve the very best in their elected public servants, you have my personal apology,” the current mailer reads.</p>
<p>Almase <a href="" type="internal">lost her seat</a> on the Las Vegas Municipal Court to longtime prosecutor Cara Campbell in the June 13 municipal election. Campbell, a Clark County chief deputy district attorney, was a first-time candidate for public office. Almase was seeking her second six-year term, and lost to Campbell by 5.72 percentage points.</p>
<p>The race for Almase’s seat turned contentious in the days before the election. Her campaign <a href="" type="internal">posted a doctored image</a> on Facebook early in the week before the election depicting Almase alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson next to an endorsement.</p>
<p>A day after the photo was posted, her campaign <a href="" type="internal">sent a mailer</a> to constituents questioning how Campbell could be an impartial judge when she is married to “an attorney who keeps criminals on the streets?” The flyer drew criticism and cost Almase several major political endorsements.</p>
<p>She removed the doctored image, apologized for the mailer and fired her campaign manager just days before the election.</p>
<p>The apology flyer Almase issued this week notes how criminal defense attorneys “serve a necessary, and often thankless, duty within our courts, ensuring the adversarial process is founded on principles of fairness and due process.”</p>
<p>“The campaign literature did not reflect my belief about this important function,” the flyer reads.</p>
<p>Contact Blake Apgar at [email protected] or 702-387-5298. Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/blakeapgar" type="external">@blakeapgar</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>Text of apology from Almase flyer</p>
<p>“During the Municipal election cycle, my campaign sent out a negative mailer demeaning criminal defense attorneys. These attorneys serve a necessary, and often thankless, duty within our courts ensuring the adversarial process is founded on principles of fairness and due process.</p>
<p>The campaign literature did not reflect my belief about this important function.</p>
<p>For disappointing those attorneys and the public, who I believe deserve the very best in their elected public servants, you have my personal apology.</p>
<p>— Judge Heidi Almase</p>
<p /> | 2,773 |
<p>Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theresasthompson/2999130055/" target="_blank"&gt;Theresa Thompson&lt;/a&gt; (Creative Commons).</p>
<p />
<p>While the <a href="/mojo/2010/05/ohio-indiana-and-north-carolina-primary-results" type="external">Senate fields are set in&#160;Ohio and Indiana</a>, more big primaries loom in the next week.&#160;Incumbent Sen.&#160;Bob&#160;Bennett (R-Utah)&#160;could very well lose his seat on&#160;Saturday when he faces that state’s GOP&#160;nominating convention. If Bennett doesn’t do well enough there, he won’t even get to contest a primary. His crime:&#160;working on a bipartisan health care reform proposal with Oregon&#160;Sen.&#160;Ron&#160;Wyden. If the polls of the convention delegates are accurate, Bennett is <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/04/so_how_doomed_is_sen_bob_benne.html" type="external">doomed</a>.&#160;He could soon become Utah’s first incumbent senator to lose his party’s nomination in 70 years. The message is clear: Democrats are the enemy, and any work with them—however inchoate—is a grave sin for a true Republican.</p>
<p>There are primary elections for three House seats in Nebraska and three in West Virginia next Tuesday. Of the incumbents, only Rep.&#160;Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), a 14-termer, faces a real challenge. Both Mollohan and his challenger, state Sen. Mike Oliverio, have released polls showing themselves with high single-digit leads.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most interesting thing about this race is the dynamic: Oliverio is running against Mollohan from the right, and has even said he would support <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36607.html" type="external">someone other than&#160;Nancy Pelosi</a> for Speaker of the House. That’s a weird thing to say. The vote to&#160; elect a speaker at the beginning of each session of congress is basically what separates Democrats from Republicans—it’s one vote when you really have to vote with your party. You can bet Nancy Pelosi will be the Dems’ “candidate” for speaker. And you can bet that she’ll expect Oliverio to vote for her.</p>
<p>Followers of Massey Energy, the coal company associated with the <a href="/mojo/2010/04/west-virginia-mine-disaster" type="external">mining disaster</a> last month, will be focusing on the Republican primary in another West Virginia district. In the north of the state, Elliot “Spike” Maynard, a former state supreme court justice, is running for the right to face incumbent Dem Nick Rahall. <a href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/judge_who_vacationed_with_massey_ceo_now_running_f.php?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TPMmuckraker+%28TPMmuckraker%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader" type="external">Maynard is famous</a> for being photographed vacationing with <a href="/mojo/2010/04/west-virginia-mine-disaster" type="external">Don&#160;Blankenship</a>, the notorious Massey CEO, on the French Riviera while Massey was appealing a $50 million case to his court.&#160;</p>
<p /> | More Key Primaries Ahead | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/05/primary-season-motors/ | 2010-05-05 | 4left
| More Key Primaries Ahead
<p>Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/theresasthompson/2999130055/" target="_blank"&gt;Theresa Thompson&lt;/a&gt; (Creative Commons).</p>
<p />
<p>While the <a href="/mojo/2010/05/ohio-indiana-and-north-carolina-primary-results" type="external">Senate fields are set in&#160;Ohio and Indiana</a>, more big primaries loom in the next week.&#160;Incumbent Sen.&#160;Bob&#160;Bennett (R-Utah)&#160;could very well lose his seat on&#160;Saturday when he faces that state’s GOP&#160;nominating convention. If Bennett doesn’t do well enough there, he won’t even get to contest a primary. His crime:&#160;working on a bipartisan health care reform proposal with Oregon&#160;Sen.&#160;Ron&#160;Wyden. If the polls of the convention delegates are accurate, Bennett is <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/04/so_how_doomed_is_sen_bob_benne.html" type="external">doomed</a>.&#160;He could soon become Utah’s first incumbent senator to lose his party’s nomination in 70 years. The message is clear: Democrats are the enemy, and any work with them—however inchoate—is a grave sin for a true Republican.</p>
<p>There are primary elections for three House seats in Nebraska and three in West Virginia next Tuesday. Of the incumbents, only Rep.&#160;Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), a 14-termer, faces a real challenge. Both Mollohan and his challenger, state Sen. Mike Oliverio, have released polls showing themselves with high single-digit leads.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most interesting thing about this race is the dynamic: Oliverio is running against Mollohan from the right, and has even said he would support <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36607.html" type="external">someone other than&#160;Nancy Pelosi</a> for Speaker of the House. That’s a weird thing to say. The vote to&#160; elect a speaker at the beginning of each session of congress is basically what separates Democrats from Republicans—it’s one vote when you really have to vote with your party. You can bet Nancy Pelosi will be the Dems’ “candidate” for speaker. And you can bet that she’ll expect Oliverio to vote for her.</p>
<p>Followers of Massey Energy, the coal company associated with the <a href="/mojo/2010/04/west-virginia-mine-disaster" type="external">mining disaster</a> last month, will be focusing on the Republican primary in another West Virginia district. In the north of the state, Elliot “Spike” Maynard, a former state supreme court justice, is running for the right to face incumbent Dem Nick Rahall. <a href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/judge_who_vacationed_with_massey_ceo_now_running_f.php?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TPMmuckraker+%28TPMmuckraker%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader" type="external">Maynard is famous</a> for being photographed vacationing with <a href="/mojo/2010/04/west-virginia-mine-disaster" type="external">Don&#160;Blankenship</a>, the notorious Massey CEO, on the French Riviera while Massey was appealing a $50 million case to his court.&#160;</p>
<p /> | 2,774 |
<p>US president Donald Trump signed yet another massive government spending bill — $1.3 trillion — on March 23, after threatening a veto.</p>
<p>Why did he threaten a veto?</p>
<p>Because the bill doesn’t fund his cherished US-Mexico border wall idea, and because it doesn’t address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that he’s threatened to end absent a “fix.”</p>
<p>Why did he sign it?</p>
<p>For the military spending. Because, he says, “for the last eight years, deep defense cuts have undermined our national security,” and we just can’t have that.</p>
<p>Deep cuts? In what universe?</p>
<p>In every year since 2010, the US has spent more than half again as much on its military as in 2003 — two years into the Afghanistan war and the year that it invaded Iraq.</p>
<p>Since 2010, the US has never spent as little on the military as it did in 2007, the year before Trump’s predecessor was elected.</p>
<p>The US Department of Defense’s 2017 base budget was a whopping 7/10ths of 1% lower than the 2010 budget, which was smaller than the 2011 and 2012 budgets. Total US military spending in 2017 was only 4% less than in 2010.</p>
<p>Not only is Trump wrong about what actually happened, he’s wrong about what the effect would have been if things had happened that way. There’s nothing wrong with the security of the United States that “deep cuts” in military spending wouldn’t make better.</p>
<p>The US armed forces are far too big, far too powerful, and far too expensive to bear any plausible relation to defense. The primary purpose of US military spending is not to defend the United States, but to continuously transfer as much wealth as possible from the pockets of working taxpayers to the bank accounts of large “defense” contractors.</p>
<p>It’s a giant welfare program. And nearly three decades of continuous war, starting with Desert Storm in 1991 and escalating after 9/11, are the excuse for keeping the welfare checks flowing.</p>
<p>If Trump was serious about national security, he’d veto any budget that didn’t include those non-existent “deep cuts” he’s complaining about. A 75% cut over 10 years would still leave the US the largest military spender on the planet, but likely much less inclined to disastrously intervene in other people’s arguments.</p>
<p>But we already knew Trump wasn’t serious about national security, didn’t we? His tariffs on steel and aluminum prove that. They, too, are welfare programs designed to benefit corporate welfare queens at the expense of American workers and consumers. And they flout the well-known law of history laid down by Otto T. Mallery:</p>
<p>“If soldiers are not to cross international boundaries, goods must do so. Unless the Shackles can be dropped from trade, bombs will be dropped from the sky.”</p>
<p>“America First!” Trump cries, while putting Americans last — and in ever-increasing danger.</p> | On Military Spending and Trade, Trump Puts Americans Last | true | https://counterpunch.org/2018/03/26/on-military-spending-and-trade-trump-puts-americans-last/ | 2018-03-26 | 4left
| On Military Spending and Trade, Trump Puts Americans Last
<p>US president Donald Trump signed yet another massive government spending bill — $1.3 trillion — on March 23, after threatening a veto.</p>
<p>Why did he threaten a veto?</p>
<p>Because the bill doesn’t fund his cherished US-Mexico border wall idea, and because it doesn’t address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that he’s threatened to end absent a “fix.”</p>
<p>Why did he sign it?</p>
<p>For the military spending. Because, he says, “for the last eight years, deep defense cuts have undermined our national security,” and we just can’t have that.</p>
<p>Deep cuts? In what universe?</p>
<p>In every year since 2010, the US has spent more than half again as much on its military as in 2003 — two years into the Afghanistan war and the year that it invaded Iraq.</p>
<p>Since 2010, the US has never spent as little on the military as it did in 2007, the year before Trump’s predecessor was elected.</p>
<p>The US Department of Defense’s 2017 base budget was a whopping 7/10ths of 1% lower than the 2010 budget, which was smaller than the 2011 and 2012 budgets. Total US military spending in 2017 was only 4% less than in 2010.</p>
<p>Not only is Trump wrong about what actually happened, he’s wrong about what the effect would have been if things had happened that way. There’s nothing wrong with the security of the United States that “deep cuts” in military spending wouldn’t make better.</p>
<p>The US armed forces are far too big, far too powerful, and far too expensive to bear any plausible relation to defense. The primary purpose of US military spending is not to defend the United States, but to continuously transfer as much wealth as possible from the pockets of working taxpayers to the bank accounts of large “defense” contractors.</p>
<p>It’s a giant welfare program. And nearly three decades of continuous war, starting with Desert Storm in 1991 and escalating after 9/11, are the excuse for keeping the welfare checks flowing.</p>
<p>If Trump was serious about national security, he’d veto any budget that didn’t include those non-existent “deep cuts” he’s complaining about. A 75% cut over 10 years would still leave the US the largest military spender on the planet, but likely much less inclined to disastrously intervene in other people’s arguments.</p>
<p>But we already knew Trump wasn’t serious about national security, didn’t we? His tariffs on steel and aluminum prove that. They, too, are welfare programs designed to benefit corporate welfare queens at the expense of American workers and consumers. And they flout the well-known law of history laid down by Otto T. Mallery:</p>
<p>“If soldiers are not to cross international boundaries, goods must do so. Unless the Shackles can be dropped from trade, bombs will be dropped from the sky.”</p>
<p>“America First!” Trump cries, while putting Americans last — and in ever-increasing danger.</p> | 2,775 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Flick user Elvis Fool.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It's not easy being a cable company these days. Millennials are cutting the cord, and opting to keep paying for their mobile devices and internet connections instead of forking over big monthly subscriptions to bloated cable and satellite television bills.</p>
<p>The 13 largest providers lost 385,000 net subscribers in 2015 -- according to industry tracker Leichtman Research Group --accelerating from the 150,000 in net declines for 2014 and 100,000 the year before that. It's a bad trend that only seems to be getting worse.</p>
<p>This doesn't mean that the providers of pay TV are doomed. Let's go over a few of the players that are making the best of their challenging situations -- and may end up rewarding investors with their roughed up stock prices.</p>
<p>The country's largest cable provider is holding up better than its smaller peers. It may have shed 194,000 net video customers in 2014, but it only lost 36,000 couch potatoes last year. Its revenue from cable TV subscribers continues to grow as higher rates are more than offsetting the slowing defections.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The news is getting even better in 2016. Video customers actually increased by 53,000 during the first quarter, Comcast's best showing during the first quarter in nine years. More importantly, Comcast now has 22,400 cable TV accounts -- a rare year-over-year increase.</p>
<p>Comcast is also exciting because it has embraced the "content is king" mantra. It owns NBC Universal, and that includes the thriving chain of Universal Studios theme parks. Universal Studios theme parks had the largest percentage increase in attendance last year, yet it's the only publicly traded theme park operator to <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/03/3-theme-park-operators-that-beat-disney-in-2015.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">not beat the market Opens a New Window.</a> last year.</p>
<p>Comcast is also making the most of the gobs of cash that it's generating. It spent $9.2 billion in dividends and stock buybacks last year, and that's going to help woo income investors and pad earnings growth on a per-share basis.</p>
<p>Folks hate Comcast, and winning Consumerist's annual <a href="http://consumerist.com/2014/04/08/congratulations-to-comcast-your-2014-worst-company-in-america/" type="external">Worst Company in America Opens a New Window.</a> tournament in 2014 isn't very encouraging. However, Comcast has improved its reputation by beefing up its support staff and making it seamless to return used equipment for those cutting the cord. Just because folks hate Comcast doesn't mean that investors need to follow suit.</p>
<p>Consolidation in the industry has helped turn Charter into a major player. The recently completed acquisition of Time Warner Cable helped pad Charter's rolls by 11 million video customers and 13 million internet accounts. Factor in the new Bright House accounts and we're talking about more than 25 million customers for Charter. That's not too shabby for a company that had just 6.8 million total accounts at the end of March.</p>
<p>We'll have to see how the next few quarters play out, but once the integration hurdles are cleared it's easy to see why the sum of Charter's parts will add up to healthier bottom-line results given the realized synergies.</p>
<p>Both Comcast and Charter managed double-digit percentage growth in their internet operations, and investors should take comfort in that. Customers nixing their cable subscriptions still need broadband to power their streaming TV services.</p>
<p>There has been a lot of buyout activity among cable and satellite television providers. DirecTV, Cablevision, and Time Warner Cable have all switched owners in recent months. This brings us to the ranks of satellite television where Dish remains a swinging indie as the second largest player and now the largest trading as a stand-alone entity.</p>
<p>Dish isn't at its best right now. It's taking jabs at some of its content providers. It's battling Tribune, and earlier this month it droppedNFL Network and NFL RedZonefrom its collection of offered channels. However, its nearly 13.9 million pay TV subscribers are nothing to scoff at. Dish is also the company behind the growing Sling TV platform, proving that sometimes it's the disrupted that can turn around and be the disruptor.</p>
<p>Unlike Comcast and Charter, Dish Network stock has actually lost ground in 2016. It does share a forward earnings multiple in the high teens with Comcast. That may not seem like a screaming bargain, but as the few remaining publicly traded pay TV companies prove that they're not going to go under overnight they should attract investors if not outright acquirers. There's still a lot of money being made in cable television.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/06/27/3-beaten-up-cable-stocks-are-they-bargains.aspx" type="external">3 Beaten-up Cable Stocks: Are They Bargains? Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBreakerRick/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Rick Munarriz Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 3 Beaten-up Cable Stocks: Are They Bargains? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/27/3-beaten-up-cable-stocks-are-bargains.html | 2016-06-27 | 0right
| 3 Beaten-up Cable Stocks: Are They Bargains?
<p />
<p>Image source: Flick user Elvis Fool.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It's not easy being a cable company these days. Millennials are cutting the cord, and opting to keep paying for their mobile devices and internet connections instead of forking over big monthly subscriptions to bloated cable and satellite television bills.</p>
<p>The 13 largest providers lost 385,000 net subscribers in 2015 -- according to industry tracker Leichtman Research Group --accelerating from the 150,000 in net declines for 2014 and 100,000 the year before that. It's a bad trend that only seems to be getting worse.</p>
<p>This doesn't mean that the providers of pay TV are doomed. Let's go over a few of the players that are making the best of their challenging situations -- and may end up rewarding investors with their roughed up stock prices.</p>
<p>The country's largest cable provider is holding up better than its smaller peers. It may have shed 194,000 net video customers in 2014, but it only lost 36,000 couch potatoes last year. Its revenue from cable TV subscribers continues to grow as higher rates are more than offsetting the slowing defections.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The news is getting even better in 2016. Video customers actually increased by 53,000 during the first quarter, Comcast's best showing during the first quarter in nine years. More importantly, Comcast now has 22,400 cable TV accounts -- a rare year-over-year increase.</p>
<p>Comcast is also exciting because it has embraced the "content is king" mantra. It owns NBC Universal, and that includes the thriving chain of Universal Studios theme parks. Universal Studios theme parks had the largest percentage increase in attendance last year, yet it's the only publicly traded theme park operator to <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/03/3-theme-park-operators-that-beat-disney-in-2015.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">not beat the market Opens a New Window.</a> last year.</p>
<p>Comcast is also making the most of the gobs of cash that it's generating. It spent $9.2 billion in dividends and stock buybacks last year, and that's going to help woo income investors and pad earnings growth on a per-share basis.</p>
<p>Folks hate Comcast, and winning Consumerist's annual <a href="http://consumerist.com/2014/04/08/congratulations-to-comcast-your-2014-worst-company-in-america/" type="external">Worst Company in America Opens a New Window.</a> tournament in 2014 isn't very encouraging. However, Comcast has improved its reputation by beefing up its support staff and making it seamless to return used equipment for those cutting the cord. Just because folks hate Comcast doesn't mean that investors need to follow suit.</p>
<p>Consolidation in the industry has helped turn Charter into a major player. The recently completed acquisition of Time Warner Cable helped pad Charter's rolls by 11 million video customers and 13 million internet accounts. Factor in the new Bright House accounts and we're talking about more than 25 million customers for Charter. That's not too shabby for a company that had just 6.8 million total accounts at the end of March.</p>
<p>We'll have to see how the next few quarters play out, but once the integration hurdles are cleared it's easy to see why the sum of Charter's parts will add up to healthier bottom-line results given the realized synergies.</p>
<p>Both Comcast and Charter managed double-digit percentage growth in their internet operations, and investors should take comfort in that. Customers nixing their cable subscriptions still need broadband to power their streaming TV services.</p>
<p>There has been a lot of buyout activity among cable and satellite television providers. DirecTV, Cablevision, and Time Warner Cable have all switched owners in recent months. This brings us to the ranks of satellite television where Dish remains a swinging indie as the second largest player and now the largest trading as a stand-alone entity.</p>
<p>Dish isn't at its best right now. It's taking jabs at some of its content providers. It's battling Tribune, and earlier this month it droppedNFL Network and NFL RedZonefrom its collection of offered channels. However, its nearly 13.9 million pay TV subscribers are nothing to scoff at. Dish is also the company behind the growing Sling TV platform, proving that sometimes it's the disrupted that can turn around and be the disruptor.</p>
<p>Unlike Comcast and Charter, Dish Network stock has actually lost ground in 2016. It does share a forward earnings multiple in the high teens with Comcast. That may not seem like a screaming bargain, but as the few remaining publicly traded pay TV companies prove that they're not going to go under overnight they should attract investors if not outright acquirers. There's still a lot of money being made in cable television.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/06/27/3-beaten-up-cable-stocks-are-they-bargains.aspx" type="external">3 Beaten-up Cable Stocks: Are They Bargains? Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBreakerRick/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Rick Munarriz Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 2,776 |
<p>Mondelez International has tapped an outsider for its next chief executive.</p>
<p>The maker of Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies said Wednesday that Dirk Van de Put, who currently leads the privately held Canadian company McCain Foods Ltd., will take over for CEO Irene Rosenfeld in November.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Ms. Rosenfeld, 64 years old, will continue to serve as board chair until she retires in March. She has been CEO since 2007 and, in recent months, has faced pressure from activist investors to amp up the company's profit margins, which trail those of competitors.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Mondelez was searching for Ms. Rosenfeld's replacement, though she said earlier in the year she had no plans to retire.</p>
<p>McCain, a $7.3 billion company, makes frozen french fries and other potato products. At Mondelez, Mr. Van de Put will oversee a far-reaching portfolio of snack, gum and candy products including bel Vita biscuits and Trident gum.</p>
<p>Mr. Van de Put has also worked at Novartis AG, Group Danone, Coca-Cola Co. and Mars Inc. Ms. Rosenfeld said in prepared remarks that Mr. Van de Put is prepared to lead Mondelez, which has a market value of around $66 billion.</p>
<p>"He is a seasoned global CEO, having lived and worked on three different continents, with deep experience and expertise in all critical business and commercial operations in both emerging and developed markets," she said.</p>
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<p>Write to Cara Lombardo at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 02, 2017 08:07 ET (12:07 GMT)</p> | Mondelez Names McCain Foods Chief as New CEO | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/08/02/mondelez-names-mccain-foods-chief-as-new-ceo.html | 2017-08-02 | 0right
| Mondelez Names McCain Foods Chief as New CEO
<p>Mondelez International has tapped an outsider for its next chief executive.</p>
<p>The maker of Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies said Wednesday that Dirk Van de Put, who currently leads the privately held Canadian company McCain Foods Ltd., will take over for CEO Irene Rosenfeld in November.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Ms. Rosenfeld, 64 years old, will continue to serve as board chair until she retires in March. She has been CEO since 2007 and, in recent months, has faced pressure from activist investors to amp up the company's profit margins, which trail those of competitors.</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Mondelez was searching for Ms. Rosenfeld's replacement, though she said earlier in the year she had no plans to retire.</p>
<p>McCain, a $7.3 billion company, makes frozen french fries and other potato products. At Mondelez, Mr. Van de Put will oversee a far-reaching portfolio of snack, gum and candy products including bel Vita biscuits and Trident gum.</p>
<p>Mr. Van de Put has also worked at Novartis AG, Group Danone, Coca-Cola Co. and Mars Inc. Ms. Rosenfeld said in prepared remarks that Mr. Van de Put is prepared to lead Mondelez, which has a market value of around $66 billion.</p>
<p>"He is a seasoned global CEO, having lived and worked on three different continents, with deep experience and expertise in all critical business and commercial operations in both emerging and developed markets," she said.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Write to Cara Lombardo at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>August 02, 2017 08:07 ET (12:07 GMT)</p> | 2,777 |
<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Nick Perkins matched his season-high with 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting and added six rebounds to lead Buffalo past Northern Illinois 95-67 on Tuesday night for its sixth straight victory.</p>
<p>CJ Massinburg scored 16, Jayvon Graves added 12 points and six boards and Jeremy Harris pitched in with 11 points and four assists for the Bulls (13-5, 5-0 Mid-American Conference). Buffalo is 5-0 in conference play for the first time since the 1997-98 season when it was a member of the defunct Mid-Continent Conference. The Bulls beat the Huskies for a 13th straight time and have won five straight games by double digits, something they hadn't done since the 2003-04 season.</p>
<p>Northern Illinois (9-9, 2-3) came in with the stingiest defense in the MAC, but that was no match for the conference's top scoring team. Buffalo shot 54 percent from the floor, including 35.5 percent (11 of 31) from 3-point range. The Bulls are averaging 90 points in MAC play and have scored 80 or more in six straight games for the first time since 1970-71.</p>
<p>Eugene German scored 17 to pace the Huskies, who fell to 2-8 on the road. Dante Thorpe added 14 points and Levi Bradley scored 10.</p>
<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Nick Perkins matched his season-high with 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting and added six rebounds to lead Buffalo past Northern Illinois 95-67 on Tuesday night for its sixth straight victory.</p>
<p>CJ Massinburg scored 16, Jayvon Graves added 12 points and six boards and Jeremy Harris pitched in with 11 points and four assists for the Bulls (13-5, 5-0 Mid-American Conference). Buffalo is 5-0 in conference play for the first time since the 1997-98 season when it was a member of the defunct Mid-Continent Conference. The Bulls beat the Huskies for a 13th straight time and have won five straight games by double digits, something they hadn't done since the 2003-04 season.</p>
<p>Northern Illinois (9-9, 2-3) came in with the stingiest defense in the MAC, but that was no match for the conference's top scoring team. Buffalo shot 54 percent from the floor, including 35.5 percent (11 of 31) from 3-point range. The Bulls are averaging 90 points in MAC play and have scored 80 or more in six straight games for the first time since 1970-71.</p>
<p>Eugene German scored 17 to pace the Huskies, who fell to 2-8 on the road. Dante Thorpe added 14 points and Levi Bradley scored 10.</p> | Buffalo beats Northern Illinois 95-67 for sixth straight win | false | https://apnews.com/amp/3740045b103840bf922371ca27e6f6ae | 2018-01-17 | 2least
| Buffalo beats Northern Illinois 95-67 for sixth straight win
<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Nick Perkins matched his season-high with 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting and added six rebounds to lead Buffalo past Northern Illinois 95-67 on Tuesday night for its sixth straight victory.</p>
<p>CJ Massinburg scored 16, Jayvon Graves added 12 points and six boards and Jeremy Harris pitched in with 11 points and four assists for the Bulls (13-5, 5-0 Mid-American Conference). Buffalo is 5-0 in conference play for the first time since the 1997-98 season when it was a member of the defunct Mid-Continent Conference. The Bulls beat the Huskies for a 13th straight time and have won five straight games by double digits, something they hadn't done since the 2003-04 season.</p>
<p>Northern Illinois (9-9, 2-3) came in with the stingiest defense in the MAC, but that was no match for the conference's top scoring team. Buffalo shot 54 percent from the floor, including 35.5 percent (11 of 31) from 3-point range. The Bulls are averaging 90 points in MAC play and have scored 80 or more in six straight games for the first time since 1970-71.</p>
<p>Eugene German scored 17 to pace the Huskies, who fell to 2-8 on the road. Dante Thorpe added 14 points and Levi Bradley scored 10.</p>
<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Nick Perkins matched his season-high with 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting and added six rebounds to lead Buffalo past Northern Illinois 95-67 on Tuesday night for its sixth straight victory.</p>
<p>CJ Massinburg scored 16, Jayvon Graves added 12 points and six boards and Jeremy Harris pitched in with 11 points and four assists for the Bulls (13-5, 5-0 Mid-American Conference). Buffalo is 5-0 in conference play for the first time since the 1997-98 season when it was a member of the defunct Mid-Continent Conference. The Bulls beat the Huskies for a 13th straight time and have won five straight games by double digits, something they hadn't done since the 2003-04 season.</p>
<p>Northern Illinois (9-9, 2-3) came in with the stingiest defense in the MAC, but that was no match for the conference's top scoring team. Buffalo shot 54 percent from the floor, including 35.5 percent (11 of 31) from 3-point range. The Bulls are averaging 90 points in MAC play and have scored 80 or more in six straight games for the first time since 1970-71.</p>
<p>Eugene German scored 17 to pace the Huskies, who fell to 2-8 on the road. Dante Thorpe added 14 points and Levi Bradley scored 10.</p> | 2,778 |
<p>It's the end of an era. The Iowa Straw Poll, which receives massive amounts of attention and press coverage in presidential nominating years but usually has no impact on the outcome of the nominating process, will not take place this year.</p>
<p>After numerous Republican hopefuls, both in the top tier of the crowded field, including Jeb Bush as well as those polling near the bottom, said they wouldn't compete in the unscientific survey this year. Even Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who won the Iowa caucus in 2012 said he wouldn't spend money on the contest this year.</p>
<p>The Iowa Republican Party decided to pull the plug on the tradition. The vote, held Friday morning, was unanimous.</p>
<p>"This step, while extremely distasteful for those of us who love the Straw Poll, is necessary to strengthen our First in the Nation status and ensure our future nominee has the best chance possible to take back the White House in 2016," chair of the Iowa Republican Party, Jeff Kaufmann, said in a statement.</p>
<p>The Straw Poll has been taking place since 1979 and acts as a fundraiser for the Republican Party in Iowa as candidates often spend enormous amounts of money to win. It has acted as a mini election but with no electoral benefits.</p>
<p>"Many candidates are still concerned about participating in an event that carries significant media-driven expectations well ahead of our First in the Nation Caucuses. While we still deeply believe that the Straw Poll offers a fantastic opportunity for candidates, we need to focus on strengthening our First in the Nation status and putting a Republican back in the White House," Kaufmann said.</p> | It’s Over: The End Of The Iowa Straw Poll | false | http://nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/its-over-end-iowa-straw-poll-n374346 | 2015-06-12 | 3left-center
| It’s Over: The End Of The Iowa Straw Poll
<p>It's the end of an era. The Iowa Straw Poll, which receives massive amounts of attention and press coverage in presidential nominating years but usually has no impact on the outcome of the nominating process, will not take place this year.</p>
<p>After numerous Republican hopefuls, both in the top tier of the crowded field, including Jeb Bush as well as those polling near the bottom, said they wouldn't compete in the unscientific survey this year. Even Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who won the Iowa caucus in 2012 said he wouldn't spend money on the contest this year.</p>
<p>The Iowa Republican Party decided to pull the plug on the tradition. The vote, held Friday morning, was unanimous.</p>
<p>"This step, while extremely distasteful for those of us who love the Straw Poll, is necessary to strengthen our First in the Nation status and ensure our future nominee has the best chance possible to take back the White House in 2016," chair of the Iowa Republican Party, Jeff Kaufmann, said in a statement.</p>
<p>The Straw Poll has been taking place since 1979 and acts as a fundraiser for the Republican Party in Iowa as candidates often spend enormous amounts of money to win. It has acted as a mini election but with no electoral benefits.</p>
<p>"Many candidates are still concerned about participating in an event that carries significant media-driven expectations well ahead of our First in the Nation Caucuses. While we still deeply believe that the Straw Poll offers a fantastic opportunity for candidates, we need to focus on strengthening our First in the Nation status and putting a Republican back in the White House," Kaufmann said.</p> | 2,779 |
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<p>In this Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014 photo, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen arrives for a dinner during the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium at the Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park near Jackson, Wyo. Yellen will be pressed to clarify the Fed’s intentions after the Fed issues its policy statement on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. (AP Photo/John Locher)</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — Financial markets are awaiting the end of a Federal Reserve meeting Wednesday to see whether the Fed sends any clearer signal about the timing of an interest rate increase.</p>
<p>The phrase that investors will be alert for is “considerable time.” The presence or absence of those two words is viewed as key to the Fed’s timetable for a change in its key short-term rate. The Fed has kept that rate at a record low since December 2008.</p>
<p>Since March, the Fed has said it expects to keep this rate near zero for a “considerable time” after it stops buying Treasurys and mortgage bonds. The bond purchases have been intended to keep long-term rates down to support the economy.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But the purchases are set to end in November. So the Fed may soon want to use some phrasing other than “considerable time” to signify when it might start raising rates. It could sub out that phrase in this week’s statement. Or it could wait until its next meeting in October.</p>
<p>Whatever the statement says when the Fed’s two-day meeting ends, Chair Janet Yellen will be pressed when she meets with reporters later to clarify the Fed’s intentions.</p>
<p>Investors will also parse updated economic forecasts that the Fed will release Wednesday for any further clues to a rate increase.</p>
<p>Most economists think the Fed will raise rates starting around mid-2015. But as the U.S. economy has strengthened, speculation has intensified about whether it might do so sooner, perhaps by March.</p>
<p>With job growth solid, manufacturing and construction growing and unemployment at a near-normal 6.1 percent, many analysts think the Fed is edging closer to a rate increase to prevent a rising economy from igniting inflation. If so, it might send such a signal by dropping “considerable time” and substituting other language to suggest a likely rate hike by early 2015.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the Fed could drop “considerable time” but substitute vaguer language suggesting it might wait longer to raise rates than many expect. Yellen has cautioned that the drop in unemployment may overstate the job market’s improvement. She has said the Fed also takes into account the number of people unemployed for more than six months; the number of part-timers who want full-time work; and average wages. Those measures remain less than healthy.</p>
<p>Some economists think the Fed is not inclined to make major changes in its policy statement at the moment.</p>
<p>“All the trend lines for the economy look pretty good right now,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “I don’t think the Fed wants to upset the apple cart.”</p>
<p>Over the past several years, the Fed’s ultra-low rates have helped the economy, cheered the stock market and shrunk mortgage rates. A rate increase could threaten to reverse those trends.</p>
<p>In August, U.S. employers added just 142,000 jobs, well below the 212,000 average of the previous 12 months. The slowdown was seen as likely temporary. But some analysts say it underscored that the economic outlook may remain too hazy for the Fed to signal an earlier-than-expected rate hike.</p>
<p>The Fed was reminded last year that markets are highly sensitive to signals about the end of a prolonged period of low rates. In June 2013, when Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the Fed might start slowing its bond purchases before year’s end, the stock market plunged over two days. And bond rates headed up, slowing the housing recovery and jolting developing countries that had benefited from ultra-low U.S. rates.</p>
<p>“The adverse market reaction last year really did scare the Fed,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. “For that reason, they are treading cautiously now.”</p> | Financial markets awaiting any Fed signal on rates | false | https://abqjournal.com/463671/financial-markets-awaiting-any-fed-signal-on-rates.html | 2least
| Financial markets awaiting any Fed signal on rates
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>In this Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014 photo, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen arrives for a dinner during the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium at the Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park near Jackson, Wyo. Yellen will be pressed to clarify the Fed’s intentions after the Fed issues its policy statement on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014. (AP Photo/John Locher)</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — Financial markets are awaiting the end of a Federal Reserve meeting Wednesday to see whether the Fed sends any clearer signal about the timing of an interest rate increase.</p>
<p>The phrase that investors will be alert for is “considerable time.” The presence or absence of those two words is viewed as key to the Fed’s timetable for a change in its key short-term rate. The Fed has kept that rate at a record low since December 2008.</p>
<p>Since March, the Fed has said it expects to keep this rate near zero for a “considerable time” after it stops buying Treasurys and mortgage bonds. The bond purchases have been intended to keep long-term rates down to support the economy.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But the purchases are set to end in November. So the Fed may soon want to use some phrasing other than “considerable time” to signify when it might start raising rates. It could sub out that phrase in this week’s statement. Or it could wait until its next meeting in October.</p>
<p>Whatever the statement says when the Fed’s two-day meeting ends, Chair Janet Yellen will be pressed when she meets with reporters later to clarify the Fed’s intentions.</p>
<p>Investors will also parse updated economic forecasts that the Fed will release Wednesday for any further clues to a rate increase.</p>
<p>Most economists think the Fed will raise rates starting around mid-2015. But as the U.S. economy has strengthened, speculation has intensified about whether it might do so sooner, perhaps by March.</p>
<p>With job growth solid, manufacturing and construction growing and unemployment at a near-normal 6.1 percent, many analysts think the Fed is edging closer to a rate increase to prevent a rising economy from igniting inflation. If so, it might send such a signal by dropping “considerable time” and substituting other language to suggest a likely rate hike by early 2015.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the Fed could drop “considerable time” but substitute vaguer language suggesting it might wait longer to raise rates than many expect. Yellen has cautioned that the drop in unemployment may overstate the job market’s improvement. She has said the Fed also takes into account the number of people unemployed for more than six months; the number of part-timers who want full-time work; and average wages. Those measures remain less than healthy.</p>
<p>Some economists think the Fed is not inclined to make major changes in its policy statement at the moment.</p>
<p>“All the trend lines for the economy look pretty good right now,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “I don’t think the Fed wants to upset the apple cart.”</p>
<p>Over the past several years, the Fed’s ultra-low rates have helped the economy, cheered the stock market and shrunk mortgage rates. A rate increase could threaten to reverse those trends.</p>
<p>In August, U.S. employers added just 142,000 jobs, well below the 212,000 average of the previous 12 months. The slowdown was seen as likely temporary. But some analysts say it underscored that the economic outlook may remain too hazy for the Fed to signal an earlier-than-expected rate hike.</p>
<p>The Fed was reminded last year that markets are highly sensitive to signals about the end of a prolonged period of low rates. In June 2013, when Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the Fed might start slowing its bond purchases before year’s end, the stock market plunged over two days. And bond rates headed up, slowing the housing recovery and jolting developing countries that had benefited from ultra-low U.S. rates.</p>
<p>“The adverse market reaction last year really did scare the Fed,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. “For that reason, they are treading cautiously now.”</p> | 2,780 |
|
<p>Baghdad</p>
<p>A civil war between Sunni and Shia is spreading rapidly through central Iraq with each community seeking revenge for the latest massacre. A suicide bomber driving a van packed with explosives blew himself up yesterday outside the golden-domed mosque in Kufa yesterday killing at least 59 and injuring 132 Shia.</p>
<p>In the last ten days, while the world has been absorbed by the war in Lebanon, sectarian massacres have started to take place on an almost daily basis leading observers to fear a level of killing approaching that of Rwanda immediately before the genocide of 1994. On one single spot on the west bank of the Tigris river in north Baghdad between 10 and 12 bodies have been drifting ashore every day.</p>
<p>In Kufa, a city on the Euphrates south of Baghdad, the suicide bomber drove his vehicle into a dusty square 100 yards from a Shia shrine at 7.30am. He knew that poor day laborers gathered there looking for work. He said “I need labourers” and they clambered into his van which exploded a few moments later killing them and other workers standing around. “Four of my cousins were killed,” said Nasir Feisal, who survived the blast. “They were standing beside the van. Their bodies were scattered far apart by the blast.</p>
<p>The dramatic escalation in sectarian killings started on July 9 when black-clad Shia militiamen sealed off the largely Sunni al-Jihad district in west Baghdad and slaughtered every Sunni they identified, killing over 40 of them after glancing at their identity cards. Since then there has been a tit-for-tat massacre almost every day. On Monday gunmen, almost certainly Sunni, first attacked Shia mourners at a funeral near Mahmoudiya, a market town of 100,00 people 75 miles north of Kufa. They then shot down another 50 people in the local market.</p>
<p>The failure of the newly formed government of Nouri al-Maliki to stop the mass killings has rapidly discredited it. The Shia and Sunni militias – in the latter case the insurgents fighting the Americans – are becoming stronger as people look to them for protection. After the explosion in Kufa angry crowds hurled stones at the police demanding that the militiamen of the Mehdi Army, followers of the nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, take over security in the city. “We want the Mehdi Army to protect us,” screamed a woman in a black abaya robe. “We want Muqtada’s army to protect us.”&#160; Other people chanted at the police, who began to fire in the air to disperse them, “you are traitors!” and “American agents!”</p>
<p>In much of Baghdad the militias have taken over and are killing or driving out the minority community. It has become very easy to get killed anywhere in central Iraq, where one third of the 27 million population live, through belonging to the wrong sect. Many people carry two sets of identity papers, one forged at a cost of about $60, so they can claim to be a Sunni at Sunni checkpoints and Shia at Shia checkpoints.</p>
<p>Even this may not be enough to stay alive. Aware of the number of forged identity papers being used Mehdi Army checkpoints in the largely Shia Shu’ala district in west Baghdad&#160; have started to ask drivers questions about Shia theology to which a Sunni would not know the answer. One man, who was indeed a Shia, passed the test but was still executed because he was driving a car with number plates from Anbar, a wholly Sunni province.</p>
<p>While the White House and Downing Street still refuse to use the phrase ‘civil war’ Iraqis in the centre of the country have no doubt what is happening. Baghdad mortuary alone received 1,595 bodies in June. It has got worse since then. Many people are fleeing. On one day early this month at al-Salhai bus station in central Baghdad there were 23 buses, each carrying 49 people as well as 30 four wheel drive vehicles, all departing for Syria carrying refugees. Access to Jordan has become more difficult with many Iraqis turned back at the border. All buses have Sunni drivers these days since five Shia drivers were killed as ‘spies’ driving through the Sunni heart lands of western Iraq on their way to Jordan and Syria.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Massacres Soar in Central Iraq: Maliki Government Discredited | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/07/19/massacres-soar-in-central-iraq-maliki-government-discredited/ | 2006-07-19 | 4left
| Massacres Soar in Central Iraq: Maliki Government Discredited
<p>Baghdad</p>
<p>A civil war between Sunni and Shia is spreading rapidly through central Iraq with each community seeking revenge for the latest massacre. A suicide bomber driving a van packed with explosives blew himself up yesterday outside the golden-domed mosque in Kufa yesterday killing at least 59 and injuring 132 Shia.</p>
<p>In the last ten days, while the world has been absorbed by the war in Lebanon, sectarian massacres have started to take place on an almost daily basis leading observers to fear a level of killing approaching that of Rwanda immediately before the genocide of 1994. On one single spot on the west bank of the Tigris river in north Baghdad between 10 and 12 bodies have been drifting ashore every day.</p>
<p>In Kufa, a city on the Euphrates south of Baghdad, the suicide bomber drove his vehicle into a dusty square 100 yards from a Shia shrine at 7.30am. He knew that poor day laborers gathered there looking for work. He said “I need labourers” and they clambered into his van which exploded a few moments later killing them and other workers standing around. “Four of my cousins were killed,” said Nasir Feisal, who survived the blast. “They were standing beside the van. Their bodies were scattered far apart by the blast.</p>
<p>The dramatic escalation in sectarian killings started on July 9 when black-clad Shia militiamen sealed off the largely Sunni al-Jihad district in west Baghdad and slaughtered every Sunni they identified, killing over 40 of them after glancing at their identity cards. Since then there has been a tit-for-tat massacre almost every day. On Monday gunmen, almost certainly Sunni, first attacked Shia mourners at a funeral near Mahmoudiya, a market town of 100,00 people 75 miles north of Kufa. They then shot down another 50 people in the local market.</p>
<p>The failure of the newly formed government of Nouri al-Maliki to stop the mass killings has rapidly discredited it. The Shia and Sunni militias – in the latter case the insurgents fighting the Americans – are becoming stronger as people look to them for protection. After the explosion in Kufa angry crowds hurled stones at the police demanding that the militiamen of the Mehdi Army, followers of the nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, take over security in the city. “We want the Mehdi Army to protect us,” screamed a woman in a black abaya robe. “We want Muqtada’s army to protect us.”&#160; Other people chanted at the police, who began to fire in the air to disperse them, “you are traitors!” and “American agents!”</p>
<p>In much of Baghdad the militias have taken over and are killing or driving out the minority community. It has become very easy to get killed anywhere in central Iraq, where one third of the 27 million population live, through belonging to the wrong sect. Many people carry two sets of identity papers, one forged at a cost of about $60, so they can claim to be a Sunni at Sunni checkpoints and Shia at Shia checkpoints.</p>
<p>Even this may not be enough to stay alive. Aware of the number of forged identity papers being used Mehdi Army checkpoints in the largely Shia Shu’ala district in west Baghdad&#160; have started to ask drivers questions about Shia theology to which a Sunni would not know the answer. One man, who was indeed a Shia, passed the test but was still executed because he was driving a car with number plates from Anbar, a wholly Sunni province.</p>
<p>While the White House and Downing Street still refuse to use the phrase ‘civil war’ Iraqis in the centre of the country have no doubt what is happening. Baghdad mortuary alone received 1,595 bodies in June. It has got worse since then. Many people are fleeing. On one day early this month at al-Salhai bus station in central Baghdad there were 23 buses, each carrying 49 people as well as 30 four wheel drive vehicles, all departing for Syria carrying refugees. Access to Jordan has become more difficult with many Iraqis turned back at the border. All buses have Sunni drivers these days since five Shia drivers were killed as ‘spies’ driving through the Sunni heart lands of western Iraq on their way to Jordan and Syria.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 2,781 |
<p>From Roll Call:</p>
<p>The White House today stepped up its counteroffensive against GOP attacks on President Barack Obama’s energy record, announcing that a Canadian oil firm was resubmitting its Keystone XL pipeline plan for a federal permit.</p>
<p>The TransCanada pipeline project, which would ship Canadian shale oil to the Midwest and Gulf Coast to be refined, has become a key talking point for Republicans, who have accused the White House of opposing it at the behest of environmentalists. Republicans forced the president to make a decision on the pipeline as part of last year’s deal to extend the payroll tax, but the White House said it couldn’t approve it until all environmental and other reviews have been completed. When Obama rejected the pipeline application, he invited TransCanada to resubmit its application.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rollcall.com/news/wh_says_keystone_pipeline_still_possible-212632-1.html" type="external">(Read Full Article)</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p> | WH Says Keystone Pipeline Still Possible | false | http://capoliticalreview.com/trending/wh-says-keystone-pipeline-still-possible/ | 2012-02-29 | 1right-center
| WH Says Keystone Pipeline Still Possible
<p>From Roll Call:</p>
<p>The White House today stepped up its counteroffensive against GOP attacks on President Barack Obama’s energy record, announcing that a Canadian oil firm was resubmitting its Keystone XL pipeline plan for a federal permit.</p>
<p>The TransCanada pipeline project, which would ship Canadian shale oil to the Midwest and Gulf Coast to be refined, has become a key talking point for Republicans, who have accused the White House of opposing it at the behest of environmentalists. Republicans forced the president to make a decision on the pipeline as part of last year’s deal to extend the payroll tax, but the White House said it couldn’t approve it until all environmental and other reviews have been completed. When Obama rejected the pipeline application, he invited TransCanada to resubmit its application.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rollcall.com/news/wh_says_keystone_pipeline_still_possible-212632-1.html" type="external">(Read Full Article)</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p> | 2,782 |
<p>NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)&#160;said last week that it participated in a more than $20 million funding round into TuSimple, a Chinese start-up that's developing self-driving technology for long-haul trucks.</p>
<p>The graphics-chip specialist is well known for its <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/14/the-2-best-driverless-car-stocks-to-buy-in-2017-an.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ffb14e38-8702-11e7-b783-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">self-driving car initiatives and partnerships Opens a New Window.</a> with automakers&#160;Tesla,&#160;Toyota, Daimler's Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen's Audi, Volvo, and others. However, it seems to fly under many investors' radars that the artificial intelligence player is plunking down its chips (literally and figuratively) on the driverless trucking space, too.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Here's what you should know.</p>
<p>NVIDIA's investment in TuSimple was part of the more than $20 million funding round, led by Chinese social media company SINA, into the start-up. NVIDIA didn't disclose the amount of its investment, but it's being reported in the Asian press that the company's investment clenched it a 3% stake in the start-up.&#160;NVIDIA isn't a newbie to the self-driving truck space, but the TuSimple investment marks the first time it has invested in a company in this realm.</p>
<p>TuSimple, which was founded in 2015, uses its expertise in computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop autonomous driving systems for trucks. The company's self-driving tech uses eight cameras, three millimeter-wave radar units, computer vision algorithms, and high-definition (HD) mapping. It incorporates several of NVIDIA's technologies, including its graphics processing units (GPUs) and DRIVE PX 2 AI platform, a supercomputer for making sense out of the gads of data taken in by the various sensors about the surroundings of a semi-autonomous or fully autonomous vehicle.</p>
<p>TuSimple claims its "platform's camera and millimeter-​wave radar array allows for sensing distances of up to 200 meters from the vehicle, compared to the standard 80 meters using Lidar arrays." Sensors on autonomous trucks must be more powerful than those on cars because trucks have longer stopping times.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The company has more than 100 employees at its two locations in Beijing and San Diego. Its business model is similar to that of United States-based autonomous truck company Otto, which was acquired by Uber last year: It mostly teams with transportation companies to customize autonomous driving algorithms and solutions.</p>
<p>In June, TuSimple successfully completed a 200-mile Level 4 test drive from San Diego to Yuma, Arizona, using cameras as the primary sensor. Level 4 refers to the five-level classification for autonomous vehicle systems that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has adopted. <a href="" type="external">Level 4 Opens a New Window.</a> vehicles are fully autonomous, but only within their "operational design domain" -- in this case, on highways -- not in every driving scenario.</p>
<p>The potential market size for self-driving trucks is humongous: There are about 300 million trucks worldwide, driving more than 1.2 trillion miles annually. In the U.S. in 2016, there were 33.8 million trucks registered for business purposes, including 3.68 million heavy-duty Class 8 trucks. Trucking is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy: Last year, trucks moved nearly 71% of all domestic freight tonnage, generating revenue of $676.2 billion, according to the American Trucking Associations.</p>
<p>Transportation companies and other businesses with large delivery trucks are likely to embrace autonomous trucks, as there is a major shortage of truck drivers in both the U.S. and Europe.&#160;Moreover, self-driving trucks should help a company's bottom line, as they promise to be cost-effective in the not-too-distant future. Trucking companies will essentially be forced, in my opinion, to adopt the technology in order to stay competitive with their peers that embrace the tech.</p>
<p>NVIDIA has been positioning itself to profit from this budding market. In January, leading auto and truck parts supplier ZF and NVIDIA announced the launch of ZF ProAI self-driving systems, based on NVIDIA's DRIVE PX 2 AI platform, for cars, trucks, and other commercial vehicles.&#160;In March, the company announced that it's working with global truck maker PACCAR&#160;--&#160;which manufactures the Kenworth, Peterbilt, and DAF truck brands -- on developing automated driving systems for trucks.</p>
<p>Other truck manufacturers working in the driverless truck space include Daimler and Volvo. Moreover, an exciting new entrant is on the horizon: Tesla. CEO Elon Musk said in April that the company plans to unveil an electric semi truck in September. The truck is slated to have some autonomous driving features. Daimler, Volvo, and Tesla are all partnering with NVIDIA on self-driving cars, so it seems likely NVIDIA will be part of their self-driving truck initiatives, too.</p>
<p>In its most recently reported quarter, NVIDIA's auto platform's revenue grew 19% year over year to $142 million, accounting for 6.4% of its total revenue of $2.23 billion. This platform appears poised for robust growth, thanks to the strong position the company is carving out in the burgeoning autonomous car and truck markets.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than NvidiaWhen 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=4380c1d0-0347-4aaf-af21-ab48f5a9ae6d&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ffb14e38-8702-11e7-b783-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Nvidia 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=4380c1d0-0347-4aaf-af21-ab48f5a9ae6d&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ffb14e38-8702-11e7-b783-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFMcKenna/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ffb14e38-8702-11e7-b783-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Beth McKenna Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Nvidia. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia, Paccar, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Sina. 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=ffb14e38-8702-11e7-b783-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | NVIDIA Beefs Up Its Driverless Truck Muscle | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/23/nvidia-beefs-up-its-driverless-truck-muscle.html | 2017-08-23 | 0right
| NVIDIA Beefs Up Its Driverless Truck Muscle
<p>NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)&#160;said last week that it participated in a more than $20 million funding round into TuSimple, a Chinese start-up that's developing self-driving technology for long-haul trucks.</p>
<p>The graphics-chip specialist is well known for its <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/14/the-2-best-driverless-car-stocks-to-buy-in-2017-an.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ffb14e38-8702-11e7-b783-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">self-driving car initiatives and partnerships Opens a New Window.</a> with automakers&#160;Tesla,&#160;Toyota, Daimler's Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen's Audi, Volvo, and others. However, it seems to fly under many investors' radars that the artificial intelligence player is plunking down its chips (literally and figuratively) on the driverless trucking space, too.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Here's what you should know.</p>
<p>NVIDIA's investment in TuSimple was part of the more than $20 million funding round, led by Chinese social media company SINA, into the start-up. NVIDIA didn't disclose the amount of its investment, but it's being reported in the Asian press that the company's investment clenched it a 3% stake in the start-up.&#160;NVIDIA isn't a newbie to the self-driving truck space, but the TuSimple investment marks the first time it has invested in a company in this realm.</p>
<p>TuSimple, which was founded in 2015, uses its expertise in computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) to develop autonomous driving systems for trucks. The company's self-driving tech uses eight cameras, three millimeter-wave radar units, computer vision algorithms, and high-definition (HD) mapping. It incorporates several of NVIDIA's technologies, including its graphics processing units (GPUs) and DRIVE PX 2 AI platform, a supercomputer for making sense out of the gads of data taken in by the various sensors about the surroundings of a semi-autonomous or fully autonomous vehicle.</p>
<p>TuSimple claims its "platform's camera and millimeter-​wave radar array allows for sensing distances of up to 200 meters from the vehicle, compared to the standard 80 meters using Lidar arrays." Sensors on autonomous trucks must be more powerful than those on cars because trucks have longer stopping times.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The company has more than 100 employees at its two locations in Beijing and San Diego. Its business model is similar to that of United States-based autonomous truck company Otto, which was acquired by Uber last year: It mostly teams with transportation companies to customize autonomous driving algorithms and solutions.</p>
<p>In June, TuSimple successfully completed a 200-mile Level 4 test drive from San Diego to Yuma, Arizona, using cameras as the primary sensor. Level 4 refers to the five-level classification for autonomous vehicle systems that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has adopted. <a href="" type="external">Level 4 Opens a New Window.</a> vehicles are fully autonomous, but only within their "operational design domain" -- in this case, on highways -- not in every driving scenario.</p>
<p>The potential market size for self-driving trucks is humongous: There are about 300 million trucks worldwide, driving more than 1.2 trillion miles annually. In the U.S. in 2016, there were 33.8 million trucks registered for business purposes, including 3.68 million heavy-duty Class 8 trucks. Trucking is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy: Last year, trucks moved nearly 71% of all domestic freight tonnage, generating revenue of $676.2 billion, according to the American Trucking Associations.</p>
<p>Transportation companies and other businesses with large delivery trucks are likely to embrace autonomous trucks, as there is a major shortage of truck drivers in both the U.S. and Europe.&#160;Moreover, self-driving trucks should help a company's bottom line, as they promise to be cost-effective in the not-too-distant future. Trucking companies will essentially be forced, in my opinion, to adopt the technology in order to stay competitive with their peers that embrace the tech.</p>
<p>NVIDIA has been positioning itself to profit from this budding market. In January, leading auto and truck parts supplier ZF and NVIDIA announced the launch of ZF ProAI self-driving systems, based on NVIDIA's DRIVE PX 2 AI platform, for cars, trucks, and other commercial vehicles.&#160;In March, the company announced that it's working with global truck maker PACCAR&#160;--&#160;which manufactures the Kenworth, Peterbilt, and DAF truck brands -- on developing automated driving systems for trucks.</p>
<p>Other truck manufacturers working in the driverless truck space include Daimler and Volvo. Moreover, an exciting new entrant is on the horizon: Tesla. CEO Elon Musk said in April that the company plans to unveil an electric semi truck in September. The truck is slated to have some autonomous driving features. Daimler, Volvo, and Tesla are all partnering with NVIDIA on self-driving cars, so it seems likely NVIDIA will be part of their self-driving truck initiatives, too.</p>
<p>In its most recently reported quarter, NVIDIA's auto platform's revenue grew 19% year over year to $142 million, accounting for 6.4% of its total revenue of $2.23 billion. This platform appears poised for robust growth, thanks to the strong position the company is carving out in the burgeoning autonomous car and truck markets.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than NvidiaWhen 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=4380c1d0-0347-4aaf-af21-ab48f5a9ae6d&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ffb14e38-8702-11e7-b783-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Nvidia 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=4380c1d0-0347-4aaf-af21-ab48f5a9ae6d&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ffb14e38-8702-11e7-b783-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFMcKenna/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=ffb14e38-8702-11e7-b783-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Beth McKenna Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Nvidia. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia, Paccar, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Sina. 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=ffb14e38-8702-11e7-b783-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 2,783 |
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<p />
<p>“I know something about marching,” the Georgia congressman told the crowd, who responded with loud cheers. “I know something about marching when I was much younger, had all of my hair and a few pounds lighter. I marched in Nashville. I marched in Washington. I marched from Selma to Montgomery. I’m ready to march again!”</p>
<p>Those who gathered in Atlanta on Saturday were among the many people who gathered in cities around the world to voice their strong resistance to Trump just a day after he was inaugurated. Marchers packed the streets of Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Boston, London, Paris, Melbourne, Australia and elsewhere.</p>
<p>About a week earlier, Lewis called Trump an illegitimate president and said he wouldn’t attend his inauguration. His remarks on NBC’s “Meet the Press” prompted an attack from the president, who took to Twitter with a response: “All talk, talk, talk — no actions or results. Sad!”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Many people, Democrats and Republicans alike, came to Lewis’s defense. Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., said Lewis “deserves all of our respect.” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said Lewis “and his ‘talk’ have changed the world.”</p>
<p>The Georgia Democrat’s speech Saturday was a reminder of his role in 1963, when he marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington in a fight for civil rights for black people. The mile-long march from the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial, led by the Big Six, one of whom was Lewis, was the largest demonstration for human rights in U.S. history.</p>
<p>Lewis, then in his 20s and the head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, spoke of a “social revolution.”</p>
<p>“By and large, politicians who build their career on immoral compromise and allow themselves an open forum of political, economic and social exploitation dominate American politics,” Lewis said then. ” … Where is our party? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march on Washington? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march in the streets of Birmingham? Where is the political party that will protect the citizens of Albany, Georgia?”</p>
<p>Growing up as a student in segregated schools in Alabama, he also led sit-ins to desegregate school lunch counters in Nashville. He was one of the original Freedom Riders who integrated bus terminals across the South, according to his biography.</p>
<p>At age 25, he was severely beaten during a protest in Selma, Alabama. The confrontation on the day known as Bloody Sunday nearly killed Lewis and left him with a fractured skull.</p>
<p>In his three-minute speech Saturday, Lewis said the country is in store for another fight for civil rights.</p>
<p>“We’re fighting for our sisters, for our mothers, for our daughters. We’re also fighting for our brothers, for our sons who are not able to stand up and fight for themselves. We have a moral obligation to fight, so never, ever lose hope,” Lewis said. “You know what, in my younger days, I got arrested and went to jail 40 times … And I may get arrested and go to jail again.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But while Lewis’s speech began by reminiscing about the past, it ended by urging supporters to channel their energy for what lies ahead. He reminded supporters that they will soon have to exercise the right that many didn’t have in the 1960s.</p>
<p>“We cannot and must not stop now,” Lewis said. “Get people to register and vote. The next election, we must get out and vote like we’ve never, ever voted before.”</p>
<p>Several Democrats, particularly in the Senate, will face re-election in 2018 in states that Trump carried in November.</p>
<p>Lewis took the stage Saturday to chants of “Fifth District,” the Austin-American Statesman reported. The phrase was a reference to Lewis’s congressional district, which Trump blasted on Twitter, calling it “crime infested” and in “horrible shape.”</p>
<p>PolitiFact found that Trump’s claims were exaggerated. The 2015 unemployment and poverty rates in Lewis’ district, which he has represented since 1987, were higher than the state and national averages. But that same year, the percentage of people with high school and bachelor’s degrees in Georgia’s 5th District also were higher than state and national averages.</p>
<p>The feud with Lewis isn’t the first time that Trump has gotten into a public quarrel – during his campaign, he feuded with a beauty queen and also with the Muslim parents of a dead soldier. Lewis’s decision to boycott the inauguration, citing principle, also isn’t the first time he’s done so – he didn’t attend George W. Bush’s in 2001.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Cleve Wootson contributed to this story.</p> | ‘I know something about marching’: John Lewis’ fiery speech at the Women’s March in Atlanta | false | https://abqjournal.com/933658/i-know-something-about-marching-john-lewis-fiery-speech-at-the-womens-march-in-atlanta.html | 2least
| ‘I know something about marching’: John Lewis’ fiery speech at the Women’s March in Atlanta
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>“I know something about marching,” the Georgia congressman told the crowd, who responded with loud cheers. “I know something about marching when I was much younger, had all of my hair and a few pounds lighter. I marched in Nashville. I marched in Washington. I marched from Selma to Montgomery. I’m ready to march again!”</p>
<p>Those who gathered in Atlanta on Saturday were among the many people who gathered in cities around the world to voice their strong resistance to Trump just a day after he was inaugurated. Marchers packed the streets of Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Boston, London, Paris, Melbourne, Australia and elsewhere.</p>
<p>About a week earlier, Lewis called Trump an illegitimate president and said he wouldn’t attend his inauguration. His remarks on NBC’s “Meet the Press” prompted an attack from the president, who took to Twitter with a response: “All talk, talk, talk — no actions or results. Sad!”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Many people, Democrats and Republicans alike, came to Lewis’s defense. Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., said Lewis “deserves all of our respect.” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said Lewis “and his ‘talk’ have changed the world.”</p>
<p>The Georgia Democrat’s speech Saturday was a reminder of his role in 1963, when he marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington in a fight for civil rights for black people. The mile-long march from the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial, led by the Big Six, one of whom was Lewis, was the largest demonstration for human rights in U.S. history.</p>
<p>Lewis, then in his 20s and the head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, spoke of a “social revolution.”</p>
<p>“By and large, politicians who build their career on immoral compromise and allow themselves an open forum of political, economic and social exploitation dominate American politics,” Lewis said then. ” … Where is our party? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march on Washington? Where is the political party that will make it unnecessary to march in the streets of Birmingham? Where is the political party that will protect the citizens of Albany, Georgia?”</p>
<p>Growing up as a student in segregated schools in Alabama, he also led sit-ins to desegregate school lunch counters in Nashville. He was one of the original Freedom Riders who integrated bus terminals across the South, according to his biography.</p>
<p>At age 25, he was severely beaten during a protest in Selma, Alabama. The confrontation on the day known as Bloody Sunday nearly killed Lewis and left him with a fractured skull.</p>
<p>In his three-minute speech Saturday, Lewis said the country is in store for another fight for civil rights.</p>
<p>“We’re fighting for our sisters, for our mothers, for our daughters. We’re also fighting for our brothers, for our sons who are not able to stand up and fight for themselves. We have a moral obligation to fight, so never, ever lose hope,” Lewis said. “You know what, in my younger days, I got arrested and went to jail 40 times … And I may get arrested and go to jail again.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But while Lewis’s speech began by reminiscing about the past, it ended by urging supporters to channel their energy for what lies ahead. He reminded supporters that they will soon have to exercise the right that many didn’t have in the 1960s.</p>
<p>“We cannot and must not stop now,” Lewis said. “Get people to register and vote. The next election, we must get out and vote like we’ve never, ever voted before.”</p>
<p>Several Democrats, particularly in the Senate, will face re-election in 2018 in states that Trump carried in November.</p>
<p>Lewis took the stage Saturday to chants of “Fifth District,” the Austin-American Statesman reported. The phrase was a reference to Lewis’s congressional district, which Trump blasted on Twitter, calling it “crime infested” and in “horrible shape.”</p>
<p>PolitiFact found that Trump’s claims were exaggerated. The 2015 unemployment and poverty rates in Lewis’ district, which he has represented since 1987, were higher than the state and national averages. But that same year, the percentage of people with high school and bachelor’s degrees in Georgia’s 5th District also were higher than state and national averages.</p>
<p>The feud with Lewis isn’t the first time that Trump has gotten into a public quarrel – during his campaign, he feuded with a beauty queen and also with the Muslim parents of a dead soldier. Lewis’s decision to boycott the inauguration, citing principle, also isn’t the first time he’s done so – he didn’t attend George W. Bush’s in 2001.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Cleve Wootson contributed to this story.</p> | 2,784 |
|
<p>From Bakersfield Californian:</p>
<p>California High-Speed Rail Authority leaders acknowledge they have “a lot of damage to undo” with valley farmers and property owners along the route of the proposed train system.</p>
<p>As political battles loom in Sacramento over issuing $2.7 billion in bonds to begin building the system later this year in the valley, authority chairman Dan Richard said a new business plan and new leadership are focused on “what it’s going to take to make those things right” and rebuild the agency’s credibility.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/special-sections/rail/x238701843/High-speed-rail-authority-leaders-talk-about-rebuilding-credibility?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tbc619+%28The+Bakersfield+Californian+--+Latest+News%29&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=feedburner" type="external">(Read Full Article)</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p> | High-speed rail authority leaders talk about rebuilding credibility | false | http://capoliticalreview.com/trending/high-speed-rail-authority-leaders-talk-about-rebuilding-credibility/ | 2012-02-14 | 1right-center
| High-speed rail authority leaders talk about rebuilding credibility
<p>From Bakersfield Californian:</p>
<p>California High-Speed Rail Authority leaders acknowledge they have “a lot of damage to undo” with valley farmers and property owners along the route of the proposed train system.</p>
<p>As political battles loom in Sacramento over issuing $2.7 billion in bonds to begin building the system later this year in the valley, authority chairman Dan Richard said a new business plan and new leadership are focused on “what it’s going to take to make those things right” and rebuild the agency’s credibility.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/special-sections/rail/x238701843/High-speed-rail-authority-leaders-talk-about-rebuilding-credibility?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tbc619+%28The+Bakersfield+Californian+--+Latest+News%29&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=feedburner" type="external">(Read Full Article)</a> <a href="" type="internal" /></p> | 2,785 |
<p>Limassol, Cyprus.</p>
<p>“Come, my friends ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset … ”</p>
<p>–TS Eliot, “Ulysses”</p>
<p>In a few, short days, the <a href="http://www.freegaza.org/" type="external">Free Gaza Movement</a>, a diverse group of international human rights activists from seventeen different countries, will set sail from Cyprus to Gaza in order to shatter the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. I’m proud to stand with them. Over 170 prominent individuals and organizations have endorsed our efforts, including the Carter Center, former British Cabinet member Claire Short, and Nobel Peace Prize laureates Mairead Maguire and Desmond Tutu.</p>
<p>Adam Qvist, a 22 year old student and filmmaker from Copenhagen, Denmark, is one of the human rights workers sailing to Gaza. He explains his participation in the project in this way:</p>
<p>“I’m interested in telling narratives and advocating people’s existent feelings. The idea of sailing to Gaza is kind of crazy, but it’s also very straight-forward. The whole idea of having just one Palestinian who’s been forced off their land and who is able to return to Palestine – this is something that could demolish the whole Zionist venture. And it just has to be one person. If one person can do it, then others can do it. This project, this boat, is about giving people the freedom to take responsibility. You shouldn’t expect something from others if you can’t do it yourself, and this is true both on a very personal but also on a political level.</p>
<p>“This mission is an amazing opportunity to have a huge impact on this hard-locked, heart-locked, crisis. I’ve never been to Gaza, myself, but I know that Gaza is the forgotten little brother of the Middle East, or at least of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Everything about this crisis is clearer in Gaza. The Israeli occupation strategy is much clearer in Gaza, because it’s not specifically about taking more land. It’s mostly about completely destroying a people.”</p>
<p>Over two years ago, in an election process advocated by the United States, the party of Hamas was elected to power in Occupied Palestine. In response, Israel and the United States imposed a near total blockade on the people of Gaza in an illegal act of collective punishment.</p>
<p>For more than two years, Israel has blocked Gaza’s access to tax revenues, humanitarian aid, and even family remittances from Palestinians living abroad. Predictably, Gaza’s economy has completely collapsed, and malnutrition rates have skyrocketed. Today, because of the blockade, eighty percent of the people of Gaza are dependent on United Nations’ food aid just to be able to eat.</p>
<p>This is intolerable.</p>
<p>U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama often speaks about the “audacity of hope.” But hope can never be a passive emotion. Centuries ago, St. Augustine wrote that Hope has two, beautiful daughters: Anger and Courage. To hope for a better world is to be angry at the injustices that prevent that world from emerging, and it requires the courage to stand up and create newer worlds for ourselves.</p>
<p>Tom Nelson, a lawyer from Welches, Oregon, is sailing to Gaza to seek that newer world. According to Tom:</p>
<p>“Americans are terribly ignorant of the human effects of what they support. I think this boat is one of the most effective means of raising consciousness – particularly American consciousness – about the problems caused by American foreign policy. Americans have to know the consequences of these policies … I’m sixty-four years old, my children are grown, and my affairs are in order. I think about Rachel Corrie, and about what Israel may do to us. I know it’s risky, but I take a risk when I ride a motorcycle, and I think that if we’re really going to change things then somebody has to begin putting something on the line for that change to happen.”</p>
<p>Eliza Ernshire is a thirty-two year old schoolteacher from London. Her reasons for sailing to Gaza are much the same:</p>
<p>“For years and years – seeing place in the world that were being totally destroyed, and people that were being totally destroyed by other people and governments – I thought there’s nothing that I could do. But I realized that we can change things in small ways, and we have a responsibility to do this.</p>
<p>“No one is paying attention to what’s happening in Gaza. No one is listening to Palestinians. They are slowly being strangulated by Israel, and no one is even listening. I can’t sit outside of this and just let it happen … We as human beings have an obligation to stand up, and I can’t be passive about it. You can’t stand up in London and just say that you don’t agree. We need to find ways to connect people in the Middle East, particularly young people, to people and groups in wealthier countries. Together we can inspire each other, and together we can be much more than we are alone.”</p>
<p>Eliza speaks a powerful truth. Politicians and pundits often complain that the conflicts in the Middle East are complex and intractable, but two things are absolutely clear: One is that the use of violence – and, in Israel’s case, overwhelming violence – has not helped any side to achieve peace or security. And the other is that our governments, across our entire world, have completely failed to do anything productive to address this crisis.</p>
<p>It’s time we the people stand up for ourselves against unjust laws, wanton violence, criminal blockades, and the hardness of heart that makes these thing possible. It’s time we stand against fear-mongering and war-mongering, and build connections, for ourselves, with our sisters and brothers in the Middle East. Our politicians have long since failed us. Now it’s our turn to stand up and seek a newer world for ourselves.</p>
<p>RAMZI KYSIA is an Arab-American writer and activist, and a member of the <a href="http://freegaza.org/" type="external">Free Gaza Movement</a>. You can receive regular updates on their efforts to break the siege of Gaza by signing up for <a href="file://localhost/www/info/gazafriends" type="external">their newsletter</a>. If you’d like more information, or if you’d like to donate to their efforts, please visit their website at <a href="http://freegaza.org/" type="external">FreeGaza.org</a>.</p>
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| Yes, We Can!
<p>Limassol, Cyprus.</p>
<p>“Come, my friends ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset … ”</p>
<p>–TS Eliot, “Ulysses”</p>
<p>In a few, short days, the <a href="http://www.freegaza.org/" type="external">Free Gaza Movement</a>, a diverse group of international human rights activists from seventeen different countries, will set sail from Cyprus to Gaza in order to shatter the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. I’m proud to stand with them. Over 170 prominent individuals and organizations have endorsed our efforts, including the Carter Center, former British Cabinet member Claire Short, and Nobel Peace Prize laureates Mairead Maguire and Desmond Tutu.</p>
<p>Adam Qvist, a 22 year old student and filmmaker from Copenhagen, Denmark, is one of the human rights workers sailing to Gaza. He explains his participation in the project in this way:</p>
<p>“I’m interested in telling narratives and advocating people’s existent feelings. The idea of sailing to Gaza is kind of crazy, but it’s also very straight-forward. The whole idea of having just one Palestinian who’s been forced off their land and who is able to return to Palestine – this is something that could demolish the whole Zionist venture. And it just has to be one person. If one person can do it, then others can do it. This project, this boat, is about giving people the freedom to take responsibility. You shouldn’t expect something from others if you can’t do it yourself, and this is true both on a very personal but also on a political level.</p>
<p>“This mission is an amazing opportunity to have a huge impact on this hard-locked, heart-locked, crisis. I’ve never been to Gaza, myself, but I know that Gaza is the forgotten little brother of the Middle East, or at least of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Everything about this crisis is clearer in Gaza. The Israeli occupation strategy is much clearer in Gaza, because it’s not specifically about taking more land. It’s mostly about completely destroying a people.”</p>
<p>Over two years ago, in an election process advocated by the United States, the party of Hamas was elected to power in Occupied Palestine. In response, Israel and the United States imposed a near total blockade on the people of Gaza in an illegal act of collective punishment.</p>
<p>For more than two years, Israel has blocked Gaza’s access to tax revenues, humanitarian aid, and even family remittances from Palestinians living abroad. Predictably, Gaza’s economy has completely collapsed, and malnutrition rates have skyrocketed. Today, because of the blockade, eighty percent of the people of Gaza are dependent on United Nations’ food aid just to be able to eat.</p>
<p>This is intolerable.</p>
<p>U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama often speaks about the “audacity of hope.” But hope can never be a passive emotion. Centuries ago, St. Augustine wrote that Hope has two, beautiful daughters: Anger and Courage. To hope for a better world is to be angry at the injustices that prevent that world from emerging, and it requires the courage to stand up and create newer worlds for ourselves.</p>
<p>Tom Nelson, a lawyer from Welches, Oregon, is sailing to Gaza to seek that newer world. According to Tom:</p>
<p>“Americans are terribly ignorant of the human effects of what they support. I think this boat is one of the most effective means of raising consciousness – particularly American consciousness – about the problems caused by American foreign policy. Americans have to know the consequences of these policies … I’m sixty-four years old, my children are grown, and my affairs are in order. I think about Rachel Corrie, and about what Israel may do to us. I know it’s risky, but I take a risk when I ride a motorcycle, and I think that if we’re really going to change things then somebody has to begin putting something on the line for that change to happen.”</p>
<p>Eliza Ernshire is a thirty-two year old schoolteacher from London. Her reasons for sailing to Gaza are much the same:</p>
<p>“For years and years – seeing place in the world that were being totally destroyed, and people that were being totally destroyed by other people and governments – I thought there’s nothing that I could do. But I realized that we can change things in small ways, and we have a responsibility to do this.</p>
<p>“No one is paying attention to what’s happening in Gaza. No one is listening to Palestinians. They are slowly being strangulated by Israel, and no one is even listening. I can’t sit outside of this and just let it happen … We as human beings have an obligation to stand up, and I can’t be passive about it. You can’t stand up in London and just say that you don’t agree. We need to find ways to connect people in the Middle East, particularly young people, to people and groups in wealthier countries. Together we can inspire each other, and together we can be much more than we are alone.”</p>
<p>Eliza speaks a powerful truth. Politicians and pundits often complain that the conflicts in the Middle East are complex and intractable, but two things are absolutely clear: One is that the use of violence – and, in Israel’s case, overwhelming violence – has not helped any side to achieve peace or security. And the other is that our governments, across our entire world, have completely failed to do anything productive to address this crisis.</p>
<p>It’s time we the people stand up for ourselves against unjust laws, wanton violence, criminal blockades, and the hardness of heart that makes these thing possible. It’s time we stand against fear-mongering and war-mongering, and build connections, for ourselves, with our sisters and brothers in the Middle East. Our politicians have long since failed us. Now it’s our turn to stand up and seek a newer world for ourselves.</p>
<p>RAMZI KYSIA is an Arab-American writer and activist, and a member of the <a href="http://freegaza.org/" type="external">Free Gaza Movement</a>. You can receive regular updates on their efforts to break the siege of Gaza by signing up for <a href="file://localhost/www/info/gazafriends" type="external">their newsletter</a>. If you’d like more information, or if you’d like to donate to their efforts, please visit their website at <a href="http://freegaza.org/" type="external">FreeGaza.org</a>.</p>
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<p>RUSH: If the players have unabridgeable First Amendment rights, free speech, then why are there penalties for certain end zone celebrations?</p>
<p>Hmm? I mean, that’s certainly freedom of speech, freedom of expression. Why can’t Odell Beckham Jr. pretend he’s a dog and urinate on the floor on the end zone at Philadelphia? He’s got First Amendment rights! Of course, he doesn’t, you see. But here’s what’s happening. In public, the left is attempting to do damage for whatever their objectives are. We’ll leave those aside. The left is attempting to publicly damage, take hold, whatever, of the NFL.</p>
<p>And people who are not political — and there are a lot of those in this country, more than you would think — are seeing it. And they don’t like it, and now there’s a president speaking out against it. In public, it is Democrats who are now showing up to be the party supporting actions against the flag. The Democrats are being seen as the party that encourages protest against the anthem and the country itself. I’m telling you, sports media guys and gals, there’s no way Donald Trump loses this, the way you’ve got it going.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: Here’s the AP. The AP: “ <a href="https://apnews.com/5beb440ee1c24a738e48a1030de901b7/President's-criticisms-spark-more-protests-at-NFL-games" type="external">President’s Criticism Sparked More Protests at NFL Games.</a>” This is how out of touch, the media and everybody in the NFL just went to town on this. They promoted this, because the objective — for those of you tuning in today who are not politically oriented and not steeped in a daily dose of political news, the objective in all of this, after Trump’s comments on Friday, the objective is to separate Trump’s voters from Trump.</p>
<p>That’s what the political media has been trying to do ever since Trump won the nomination and maybe even before, because they think the route to getting rid of Trump is getting rid of his support base. So Trump goes to his Alabama rally on Friday night and says what he says, and the media assumes as they always do and the left assumes as they always do that a vast majority of America is righteously offended, righteously indignant, and righteously will not tolerate what the president said. And they go to town reporting it gleefully as though this is it, the president’s done it now, he’s finally shot himself in the foot. And then they realize that the president’s supporters on backing him and agree with him.</p>
<p>The attention this story is getting is largely because the media would love to damage the relationship that Trump has with his support base. Audio sound bite time. Let’s start here at number 1, Friday night in Huntsville, Alabama, campaign rally for Senator Luther Strange. That’s a whole other subject, that Trump was trying to appease Mitch. It was a mistake. In supporting Luther Strange, he was trying to appease Mitch, trying to get Mitch to help him out with some stuff legislatively, and they stuck with it. His supporters are even hanging on through this. But, anyway, we have two bites, what Trump said, and then a reaction from last night at Joint Base Andrews.</p>
<p>THE PRESIDENT: Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, “Get that son-of-a-bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired” (cheers) “He’s fired!” Wouldn’t you love it?</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>CROWD CHANTING: USA! USA! USA!</p>
<p>RUSH: Did you hear all that unity? Or “did you hear all that divisiveness?” But you see, that’s unity. That’s Trump’s supporters all in. Hook, line, and sinker, they bought it, they’re all for it. Now, a bunch of NFL people took offense that Trump was calling players SOBs. He didn’t use plural. He said, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say get that SOB off the field right now.”</p>
<p>Another way of putting it, “Ma’am, would you take your child out of the store for a moment or out of the theater until the child stops crying?” But he wasn’t calling the whole league that. But, of course, it was reported that’s what Trump thinks, everybody in the NFL was reacting, several people did. Here’s the second thing that Trump said. Not a lot of attention being paid to this.</p>
<p>THE PRESIDENT: The NFL ratings are town massively. Massively. The number one reason happens to be that they like watching what’s happening with yours truly. Because you know, today, if you hit too hard, right? They hit too hard, 15 yards, throw him out of the game. They had that last week. I watched for a couple of minutes, two guys just really, beautiful tackle, boom, 15 yards, the referee gets on television, his wife is sitting at home, she’s so proud of him. They’re ruining the game! Right?</p>
<p>RUSH: Oh, man. This goes against every grain of reporting in the NFL now. “You can’t celebrate hard hits. We’re trying to take those out of the game. That’s a futures suicide potential there. That’s a future concussion, you can’t celebrate that, you can’t promote that. We’re trying to take that out of the game.” Which they are. There’s a guy named Bill Tobin. He’s a scout for the Cincinnati Bengals. I think he’s been with the Detroit Lions. He’s a longtime NFL employee, and he’s likewise not happy with the direction the game’s going. He says (paraphrasing), “Look, football is what it is. And there are concussions that happen to people all over this country that don’t play football and there are people that die and commit suicide that don’t play football.”</p>
<p>He said rather than go through all this, there are people that want to play this game, make ’ems sign a piece of paper acknowledging what’s going on and let ’em play it, if that’s what they want to do. This is the United States. You can engage in freedom. And he’s upset that the social justice warriors are coming in here trying to legislate the game based on their own personal political preferences, which is what they are, and changing the game. And they’ve succeeded at that, too, folks.</p>
<p>I said something last week and I found that it was also stated by <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/tuesday-morning-quarterback-whats-behind-the-perception-of-the-nfls-declining-quality/article/2009732" type="external">Gregg Easterbrook, Tuesday Morning Quarterback</a>, a correct assessment of how people watch the game now. The league has done this, the league’s media’s done this to itself. You can’t watch football the way you used to. You watch thinking, knowing there’s gonna be a car wreck and that you shouldn’t be watching. There’s a part of you that says, “This game is dangerous, it’s brutal, people could get killed out there. Oh, God.” And it’s totally changed the attitude people have watching the game. This is undeniable too.</p>
<p>There’s now an invisible barrier — not barrier — invisible aura that you watch every game through now. They have stigmatized so much of it that it’s impossible for people to not watch the game with apprehension and, I don’t know, fear, something that approximates that, which is not going to encourage long-term devotion, loyalty, and viewership if you think you shouldn’t be watching because of the way that all of the head trauma, the injuries, the way they have been portrayed. Whenever a former player dies now, it’s like climate change caused the hurricane, it’s like playing football is the reason the former player died. There’s hardly any doubt about it. It’s just automatically assumed this stuff affects people who watch the game, it does, and it’s not a positive. The league’s got to know this is happening. This is affecting their pocketbook.</p>
<p>Now, Sunday at Joint Base Andrews, a bunch of reporters, parrots, “Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump, is it true that you’re racist? Is it true that your comments on the NFL were based on race? Is it true, is it true that what you really don’t like is black people protesting? Is that what it is, Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump? Mr. Trump, are you just racist?”</p>
<p>He’s heard this, the questions come, the allegation has come, the allegation was made on CNN Friday night, the president’s a racist. It’s cheap. You people in the media, that allegation is cheap because you throw it around at virtually every utterance somebody who’s not a liberal makes. Here’s Trump’s reply.</p>
<p>THE PRESIDENT: That’s okay. Look, he has to take his ideas and go with what he wants. I think it’s very disrespectful to our country. I think it’s very, very disrespectful to our flag. I like Bob very much, he’s my friend, and he gave me a Super Bowl ring a month ago, right? So he’s a good friend of mine and I want him to do what he wants to do. But when you get on your knee and you don’t respect the American flag or the anthem, that’s not being treated with respect. This has nothing to do with race. I’ve never said anything about race. This has nothing to do with race or anything else. This has to do with respect for our country.</p>
<p>RUSH: He was asked about Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots, a Trump supporter saying that he was deeply disappointed by what Trump said, and that first part of Trump’s answer was, yeah, yeah, yeah, he has to take his ideas and go with what he wants. Look, the owners, as I discussed earlier, are scared to death, folks. You might not feel sorry for ’em. I mean, they’re billionaires and all that, but they’re scared to death. They lose no matter which side they choose.</p>
<p>They’ve gotta come down on the side of their employees or their customers. They are trying to find this middle ground and they’re doing that with liberal political language like, “We’re for unity and solidarity,” and it doesn’t fly because this isn’t unity. Nobody’s being unified. The divisiveness is happening on Sundays. It’s not happening at the White House when President Trump makes statements or in Alabama.</p>
<p>By the way, something happened in Foxboro yesterday. I didn’t know this, either ’til reading the aftermath. But this is Gillette Stadium during the singing of the national anthem. Apparently, the fans booed. The Drive-Bys, I don’t know if they showed this or not, but there are two bites here from when their players were kneeling and all that during the anthem. Here, listen…</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>CROWD: (booing)</p>
<p>FAN: Stand up! Stand up!</p>
<p>RUSH: That’s the beginning of the anthem. Here’s at the end…</p>
<p>CROWD: (booing)</p>
<p>RUSH: (paraphrasing Goodell) “I’m so proud of what we did at the NFL today! I’m so proud of our reaction. Our unity! We all came together today at the NFL. We really socked it to ’em. We came together — and what nobody’s able to do, Donald Trump has done. Donald Trump’s got the players and the commissioner unified.” Right. The wagons are being circled around the NFL, and they’re not seeing them. Here’s a montage of NFL players and coaches. You characterize this yourself.</p>
<p>VON MILLER: We felt like President Trump’s speech was a — was an assault, you know on our most cherished right: freedom of speech.</p>
<p>JULIUS PEPPERS: There’s only a few times in a man’s life where you have a chance to make a statement, and I took it.</p>
<p>JIM CALDWELL: These are not SOBs in this league. Uh, these are men that, you know, that work hard. Integrity.</p>
<p>DESHONE KIZER: I know for a fact that I’m no son of a bitch and I — I plan on continuing forward and doing whatever I can from my position to, uh, you know promote, uh, the equality that’s needed in this country.</p>
<p>MIKE TOMLIN: We will not be divided by this. We got a group of men in there, men that come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, races, creed, ethnicities or religions, and so forth. That’s football. That’s a lot of team sports. But because of our position, we get drug into the bulls(bleep) to be quite honest with you.</p>
<p>RUSH: Tomlin — <a href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017/09/25/alejandro-villanueva-national-anthem/" type="external">Mike Tomlin the Steelers there</a> — really doesn’t want any part of it.</p> | There’s No Way Trump Loses NFL Battle | true | https://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/09/25/theres-no-way-trump-loses-nfl-battle/ | 2017-09-25 | 0right
| There’s No Way Trump Loses NFL Battle
<p />
<p>RUSH: If the players have unabridgeable First Amendment rights, free speech, then why are there penalties for certain end zone celebrations?</p>
<p>Hmm? I mean, that’s certainly freedom of speech, freedom of expression. Why can’t Odell Beckham Jr. pretend he’s a dog and urinate on the floor on the end zone at Philadelphia? He’s got First Amendment rights! Of course, he doesn’t, you see. But here’s what’s happening. In public, the left is attempting to do damage for whatever their objectives are. We’ll leave those aside. The left is attempting to publicly damage, take hold, whatever, of the NFL.</p>
<p>And people who are not political — and there are a lot of those in this country, more than you would think — are seeing it. And they don’t like it, and now there’s a president speaking out against it. In public, it is Democrats who are now showing up to be the party supporting actions against the flag. The Democrats are being seen as the party that encourages protest against the anthem and the country itself. I’m telling you, sports media guys and gals, there’s no way Donald Trump loses this, the way you’ve got it going.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: Here’s the AP. The AP: “ <a href="https://apnews.com/5beb440ee1c24a738e48a1030de901b7/President's-criticisms-spark-more-protests-at-NFL-games" type="external">President’s Criticism Sparked More Protests at NFL Games.</a>” This is how out of touch, the media and everybody in the NFL just went to town on this. They promoted this, because the objective — for those of you tuning in today who are not politically oriented and not steeped in a daily dose of political news, the objective in all of this, after Trump’s comments on Friday, the objective is to separate Trump’s voters from Trump.</p>
<p>That’s what the political media has been trying to do ever since Trump won the nomination and maybe even before, because they think the route to getting rid of Trump is getting rid of his support base. So Trump goes to his Alabama rally on Friday night and says what he says, and the media assumes as they always do and the left assumes as they always do that a vast majority of America is righteously offended, righteously indignant, and righteously will not tolerate what the president said. And they go to town reporting it gleefully as though this is it, the president’s done it now, he’s finally shot himself in the foot. And then they realize that the president’s supporters on backing him and agree with him.</p>
<p>The attention this story is getting is largely because the media would love to damage the relationship that Trump has with his support base. Audio sound bite time. Let’s start here at number 1, Friday night in Huntsville, Alabama, campaign rally for Senator Luther Strange. That’s a whole other subject, that Trump was trying to appease Mitch. It was a mistake. In supporting Luther Strange, he was trying to appease Mitch, trying to get Mitch to help him out with some stuff legislatively, and they stuck with it. His supporters are even hanging on through this. But, anyway, we have two bites, what Trump said, and then a reaction from last night at Joint Base Andrews.</p>
<p>THE PRESIDENT: Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, “Get that son-of-a-bitch off the field right now, out, he’s fired” (cheers) “He’s fired!” Wouldn’t you love it?</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>CROWD CHANTING: USA! USA! USA!</p>
<p>RUSH: Did you hear all that unity? Or “did you hear all that divisiveness?” But you see, that’s unity. That’s Trump’s supporters all in. Hook, line, and sinker, they bought it, they’re all for it. Now, a bunch of NFL people took offense that Trump was calling players SOBs. He didn’t use plural. He said, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say get that SOB off the field right now.”</p>
<p>Another way of putting it, “Ma’am, would you take your child out of the store for a moment or out of the theater until the child stops crying?” But he wasn’t calling the whole league that. But, of course, it was reported that’s what Trump thinks, everybody in the NFL was reacting, several people did. Here’s the second thing that Trump said. Not a lot of attention being paid to this.</p>
<p>THE PRESIDENT: The NFL ratings are town massively. Massively. The number one reason happens to be that they like watching what’s happening with yours truly. Because you know, today, if you hit too hard, right? They hit too hard, 15 yards, throw him out of the game. They had that last week. I watched for a couple of minutes, two guys just really, beautiful tackle, boom, 15 yards, the referee gets on television, his wife is sitting at home, she’s so proud of him. They’re ruining the game! Right?</p>
<p>RUSH: Oh, man. This goes against every grain of reporting in the NFL now. “You can’t celebrate hard hits. We’re trying to take those out of the game. That’s a futures suicide potential there. That’s a future concussion, you can’t celebrate that, you can’t promote that. We’re trying to take that out of the game.” Which they are. There’s a guy named Bill Tobin. He’s a scout for the Cincinnati Bengals. I think he’s been with the Detroit Lions. He’s a longtime NFL employee, and he’s likewise not happy with the direction the game’s going. He says (paraphrasing), “Look, football is what it is. And there are concussions that happen to people all over this country that don’t play football and there are people that die and commit suicide that don’t play football.”</p>
<p>He said rather than go through all this, there are people that want to play this game, make ’ems sign a piece of paper acknowledging what’s going on and let ’em play it, if that’s what they want to do. This is the United States. You can engage in freedom. And he’s upset that the social justice warriors are coming in here trying to legislate the game based on their own personal political preferences, which is what they are, and changing the game. And they’ve succeeded at that, too, folks.</p>
<p>I said something last week and I found that it was also stated by <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/tuesday-morning-quarterback-whats-behind-the-perception-of-the-nfls-declining-quality/article/2009732" type="external">Gregg Easterbrook, Tuesday Morning Quarterback</a>, a correct assessment of how people watch the game now. The league has done this, the league’s media’s done this to itself. You can’t watch football the way you used to. You watch thinking, knowing there’s gonna be a car wreck and that you shouldn’t be watching. There’s a part of you that says, “This game is dangerous, it’s brutal, people could get killed out there. Oh, God.” And it’s totally changed the attitude people have watching the game. This is undeniable too.</p>
<p>There’s now an invisible barrier — not barrier — invisible aura that you watch every game through now. They have stigmatized so much of it that it’s impossible for people to not watch the game with apprehension and, I don’t know, fear, something that approximates that, which is not going to encourage long-term devotion, loyalty, and viewership if you think you shouldn’t be watching because of the way that all of the head trauma, the injuries, the way they have been portrayed. Whenever a former player dies now, it’s like climate change caused the hurricane, it’s like playing football is the reason the former player died. There’s hardly any doubt about it. It’s just automatically assumed this stuff affects people who watch the game, it does, and it’s not a positive. The league’s got to know this is happening. This is affecting their pocketbook.</p>
<p>Now, Sunday at Joint Base Andrews, a bunch of reporters, parrots, “Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump, is it true that you’re racist? Is it true that your comments on the NFL were based on race? Is it true, is it true that what you really don’t like is black people protesting? Is that what it is, Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump? Mr. Trump, are you just racist?”</p>
<p>He’s heard this, the questions come, the allegation has come, the allegation was made on CNN Friday night, the president’s a racist. It’s cheap. You people in the media, that allegation is cheap because you throw it around at virtually every utterance somebody who’s not a liberal makes. Here’s Trump’s reply.</p>
<p>THE PRESIDENT: That’s okay. Look, he has to take his ideas and go with what he wants. I think it’s very disrespectful to our country. I think it’s very, very disrespectful to our flag. I like Bob very much, he’s my friend, and he gave me a Super Bowl ring a month ago, right? So he’s a good friend of mine and I want him to do what he wants to do. But when you get on your knee and you don’t respect the American flag or the anthem, that’s not being treated with respect. This has nothing to do with race. I’ve never said anything about race. This has nothing to do with race or anything else. This has to do with respect for our country.</p>
<p>RUSH: He was asked about Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots, a Trump supporter saying that he was deeply disappointed by what Trump said, and that first part of Trump’s answer was, yeah, yeah, yeah, he has to take his ideas and go with what he wants. Look, the owners, as I discussed earlier, are scared to death, folks. You might not feel sorry for ’em. I mean, they’re billionaires and all that, but they’re scared to death. They lose no matter which side they choose.</p>
<p>They’ve gotta come down on the side of their employees or their customers. They are trying to find this middle ground and they’re doing that with liberal political language like, “We’re for unity and solidarity,” and it doesn’t fly because this isn’t unity. Nobody’s being unified. The divisiveness is happening on Sundays. It’s not happening at the White House when President Trump makes statements or in Alabama.</p>
<p>By the way, something happened in Foxboro yesterday. I didn’t know this, either ’til reading the aftermath. But this is Gillette Stadium during the singing of the national anthem. Apparently, the fans booed. The Drive-Bys, I don’t know if they showed this or not, but there are two bites here from when their players were kneeling and all that during the anthem. Here, listen…</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>CROWD: (booing)</p>
<p>FAN: Stand up! Stand up!</p>
<p>RUSH: That’s the beginning of the anthem. Here’s at the end…</p>
<p>CROWD: (booing)</p>
<p>RUSH: (paraphrasing Goodell) “I’m so proud of what we did at the NFL today! I’m so proud of our reaction. Our unity! We all came together today at the NFL. We really socked it to ’em. We came together — and what nobody’s able to do, Donald Trump has done. Donald Trump’s got the players and the commissioner unified.” Right. The wagons are being circled around the NFL, and they’re not seeing them. Here’s a montage of NFL players and coaches. You characterize this yourself.</p>
<p>VON MILLER: We felt like President Trump’s speech was a — was an assault, you know on our most cherished right: freedom of speech.</p>
<p>JULIUS PEPPERS: There’s only a few times in a man’s life where you have a chance to make a statement, and I took it.</p>
<p>JIM CALDWELL: These are not SOBs in this league. Uh, these are men that, you know, that work hard. Integrity.</p>
<p>DESHONE KIZER: I know for a fact that I’m no son of a bitch and I — I plan on continuing forward and doing whatever I can from my position to, uh, you know promote, uh, the equality that’s needed in this country.</p>
<p>MIKE TOMLIN: We will not be divided by this. We got a group of men in there, men that come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, races, creed, ethnicities or religions, and so forth. That’s football. That’s a lot of team sports. But because of our position, we get drug into the bulls(bleep) to be quite honest with you.</p>
<p>RUSH: Tomlin — <a href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2017/09/25/alejandro-villanueva-national-anthem/" type="external">Mike Tomlin the Steelers there</a> — really doesn’t want any part of it.</p> | 2,787 |
<p>Image Source: Gigamon.</p>
<p>What:Shares ofGigamon Inc(NYSE: GIMO) were soaring today, closing up 12% after breezing past estimates in its second-quarter earnings report.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>So what:The network-traffic specialist said it made an adjusted per-share profit of $0.30 in the quarter, up from $0.16 a year ago, and better than estimates at $0.24. Revenue jumped 46%, to $75.1 million, also topping expectations of $70 million.</p>
<p>The company has benefited from its close relationship withAmazonWeb Services, and its cloud business should see revenue accelerate next year. CEO Paul Hopper said that "strong execution across the company" helped drive the impressive performance, noting, in particular, its first-to-market Security Delivery Platform.</p>
<p>Now what:In the last quarter, the company announced field trials of the Amazon Web Services Elastic Cloud Compute offering -- "the first visibility solution for information traversing with the public cloud."Gigamon's relationship with Amazon could prove to be lucrative as the AWS juggernaut is a fast-growing business set to hit $10 billion in revenue this year. The stock has more than doubled this year as the company has pushed further into the networking security market, which now makes up 60% of its revenue.</p>
<p>Gigamon did not issue guidance, but the strong demand for its products, and growth in cloud, should continue to push shares higher, as adjusted profits nearly doubled in the quarter.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFHobo/info.aspx" type="external">Jeremy Bowman Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | Why Gigamon Inc Shares Spiked Today | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/29/why-gigamon-inc-shares-spiked-today.html | 2016-07-29 | 0right
| Why Gigamon Inc Shares Spiked Today
<p>Image Source: Gigamon.</p>
<p>What:Shares ofGigamon Inc(NYSE: GIMO) were soaring today, closing up 12% after breezing past estimates in its second-quarter earnings report.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>So what:The network-traffic specialist said it made an adjusted per-share profit of $0.30 in the quarter, up from $0.16 a year ago, and better than estimates at $0.24. Revenue jumped 46%, to $75.1 million, also topping expectations of $70 million.</p>
<p>The company has benefited from its close relationship withAmazonWeb Services, and its cloud business should see revenue accelerate next year. CEO Paul Hopper said that "strong execution across the company" helped drive the impressive performance, noting, in particular, its first-to-market Security Delivery Platform.</p>
<p>Now what:In the last quarter, the company announced field trials of the Amazon Web Services Elastic Cloud Compute offering -- "the first visibility solution for information traversing with the public cloud."Gigamon's relationship with Amazon could prove to be lucrative as the AWS juggernaut is a fast-growing business set to hit $10 billion in revenue this year. The stock has more than doubled this year as the company has pushed further into the networking security market, which now makes up 60% of its revenue.</p>
<p>Gigamon did not issue guidance, but the strong demand for its products, and growth in cloud, should continue to push shares higher, as adjusted profits nearly doubled in the quarter.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-apple-wearable?aid=6965&amp;source=irbeditxt0000017&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable-d&amp;ftm_pit=2668&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">just click here Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFHobo/info.aspx" type="external">Jeremy Bowman Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p> | 2,788 |
<p>As Hurricane Irma edges closer to Florida, investors on Wall Street are watching a small insurer with an unusually big commitment to the state.</p>
<p>Universal Insurance Holdings Inc., with a market capitalization dwarfed by industry giants like Allstate Corp. and Travelers Cos., has the largest share in the Florida homeowners industry. It’s one of several lesser-known firms that have grown rapidly in a state that’s among the most vulnerable to Atlantic storms.</p>
<p>Shares of Universal and regional competitors have been volatile this week, a sign that investors are jittery. Irma could show whether the smaller insurers have adequately underwritten risks that bigger companies are avoiding.</p>
<p>Local insurers “would see a sizable share of the loss,” Elyse Greenspan, an analyst at Wells Fargo &amp; Co., said in a note to investors Wednesday, citing companies including Universal, Heritage Insurance Holdings Inc. and Federated National Holding Co. Still, the companies have bought protection against large losses, she wrote.</p>
<p>Michelle Giordano, a senior research analyst at Neuberger Berman, echoed that point. Reinsurers could have “disproportionate exposure” and bear a lot of the claims costs, she said.</p>
<p>Universal gained 70 cents to $19.10 at 1:15 p.m. after sliding 15 percent Tuesday.</p>
<p>Reinsurance Coverage</p>
<p>Arash Soleimani, an analyst at KBW Inc., said it would take a “once-in-a-lifetime” storm to blow a hole in the Florida companies’ finances, given the backstops they have from reinsurers. Even so, the market reaction prompted Fort Lauderdale-based Universal to take the unusual step of outlining its reinsurance coverage in a press release on Tuesday.&#160;</p>
<p>Irma’s top winds were 185 miles (300 kilometers) an hour Wednesday, making the system a Category 5, the highest measure on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale as the storm passed over islands in the Caribbean and barreled toward Puerto Rico with Florida in its sights.</p>
<p>“We have a tremendous balance sheet, we have a close to 300-page disaster-recovery plan that we began to implement,” Stephen Donaghy, chief operating officer of Universal, said by phone. “We’re doing everything you would hope we’d be doing if you’re a homeowner in Florida.”</p>
<p>The regional players owe their position in the market partly to a costly spate of hurricanes. Losses from storms in 2004 and 2005 convinced many national carriers like Allstate and State Farm Automobile Insurance Co. to retreat from coastal regions, giving smaller firms an opportunity to gain share. More recently, Florida’s state-run&#160;Citizens Property Insurance raised prices in an effort to shrink and reduce the risk to taxpayers.</p>
<p>Wall Street Backing</p>
<p>Universal’s gamble has proved to be profitable. The stock climbed more than seven-fold in the five years ended Dec. 31 as Florida avoided major storms and the company built up capital, benefiting holders including including Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. BlackRock Inc. is the firm’s largest shareholder.</p>
<p>At the end of June, one of Universal’s insurance subsidiaries had $351 million of statutory surplus and $2.65 billion in reinsurance coverage. That’s an improvement from a few years ago, when the company’s backstops weren’t so robust, Soleimani said.</p>
<p>The potential risk caught the attention of short sellers in 2015, who argued that Universal would be challenged if a major storm hit Florida. The company responded that no single hurricane event in recorded history would have tested its finances, given its reinsurance program.</p>
<p>Irma, however, is no ordinary storm. Barclays Plc analysts said Tuesday that it could potentially cause as much insured damage than Katrina in 2005, which at $50 billion was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history.</p>
<p>The industry has already been pressured by Hurricane Harvey, which inundated the Texas coastline and left parts of Houston, the fourth-largest U.S.-city, under feet of water. Insurers may face more than $10 billion in claims from that event, according to FBR &amp; Co.</p>
<p>A strike from Irma would be the first time since 1964 that the&#160;U.S. was hit by back-to-back storms of Category 3 or more.</p>
<p>The fear of a storm hitting Florida always causes a “huge reaction on the shares” of the state’s main homeowners’ carriers, said Soleimani. It’d take a storm hitting multiple big cities to do the kind of damage that investors fear, he said.</p>
<p>Still, he said, “anything is possible.”</p> | As Irma Looms, This Small Insurer Has an Outsized Bet on Florida | false | https://newsline.com/as-irma-looms-this-small-insurer-has-an-outsized-bet-on-florida/ | 2017-09-06 | 1right-center
| As Irma Looms, This Small Insurer Has an Outsized Bet on Florida
<p>As Hurricane Irma edges closer to Florida, investors on Wall Street are watching a small insurer with an unusually big commitment to the state.</p>
<p>Universal Insurance Holdings Inc., with a market capitalization dwarfed by industry giants like Allstate Corp. and Travelers Cos., has the largest share in the Florida homeowners industry. It’s one of several lesser-known firms that have grown rapidly in a state that’s among the most vulnerable to Atlantic storms.</p>
<p>Shares of Universal and regional competitors have been volatile this week, a sign that investors are jittery. Irma could show whether the smaller insurers have adequately underwritten risks that bigger companies are avoiding.</p>
<p>Local insurers “would see a sizable share of the loss,” Elyse Greenspan, an analyst at Wells Fargo &amp; Co., said in a note to investors Wednesday, citing companies including Universal, Heritage Insurance Holdings Inc. and Federated National Holding Co. Still, the companies have bought protection against large losses, she wrote.</p>
<p>Michelle Giordano, a senior research analyst at Neuberger Berman, echoed that point. Reinsurers could have “disproportionate exposure” and bear a lot of the claims costs, she said.</p>
<p>Universal gained 70 cents to $19.10 at 1:15 p.m. after sliding 15 percent Tuesday.</p>
<p>Reinsurance Coverage</p>
<p>Arash Soleimani, an analyst at KBW Inc., said it would take a “once-in-a-lifetime” storm to blow a hole in the Florida companies’ finances, given the backstops they have from reinsurers. Even so, the market reaction prompted Fort Lauderdale-based Universal to take the unusual step of outlining its reinsurance coverage in a press release on Tuesday.&#160;</p>
<p>Irma’s top winds were 185 miles (300 kilometers) an hour Wednesday, making the system a Category 5, the highest measure on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale as the storm passed over islands in the Caribbean and barreled toward Puerto Rico with Florida in its sights.</p>
<p>“We have a tremendous balance sheet, we have a close to 300-page disaster-recovery plan that we began to implement,” Stephen Donaghy, chief operating officer of Universal, said by phone. “We’re doing everything you would hope we’d be doing if you’re a homeowner in Florida.”</p>
<p>The regional players owe their position in the market partly to a costly spate of hurricanes. Losses from storms in 2004 and 2005 convinced many national carriers like Allstate and State Farm Automobile Insurance Co. to retreat from coastal regions, giving smaller firms an opportunity to gain share. More recently, Florida’s state-run&#160;Citizens Property Insurance raised prices in an effort to shrink and reduce the risk to taxpayers.</p>
<p>Wall Street Backing</p>
<p>Universal’s gamble has proved to be profitable. The stock climbed more than seven-fold in the five years ended Dec. 31 as Florida avoided major storms and the company built up capital, benefiting holders including including Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. BlackRock Inc. is the firm’s largest shareholder.</p>
<p>At the end of June, one of Universal’s insurance subsidiaries had $351 million of statutory surplus and $2.65 billion in reinsurance coverage. That’s an improvement from a few years ago, when the company’s backstops weren’t so robust, Soleimani said.</p>
<p>The potential risk caught the attention of short sellers in 2015, who argued that Universal would be challenged if a major storm hit Florida. The company responded that no single hurricane event in recorded history would have tested its finances, given its reinsurance program.</p>
<p>Irma, however, is no ordinary storm. Barclays Plc analysts said Tuesday that it could potentially cause as much insured damage than Katrina in 2005, which at $50 billion was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history.</p>
<p>The industry has already been pressured by Hurricane Harvey, which inundated the Texas coastline and left parts of Houston, the fourth-largest U.S.-city, under feet of water. Insurers may face more than $10 billion in claims from that event, according to FBR &amp; Co.</p>
<p>A strike from Irma would be the first time since 1964 that the&#160;U.S. was hit by back-to-back storms of Category 3 or more.</p>
<p>The fear of a storm hitting Florida always causes a “huge reaction on the shares” of the state’s main homeowners’ carriers, said Soleimani. It’d take a storm hitting multiple big cities to do the kind of damage that investors fear, he said.</p>
<p>Still, he said, “anything is possible.”</p> | 2,789 |
<p />
<p>The tight inventory for existing homes in sought-after neighborhoods is driving many would-be home buyers to build a brand new one to fit their needs. But conjuring up a dream home and making it become a reality is easier said than done.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Custom homebuilders make it easier for consumers to create their dream home, but the process can be long and can often include hiccups that can create stress and cost money.</p>
<p>“Building a new home is an exciting and at times, an overwhelming experience,” says Mark Tepper, senior vice president of sales and marketing at HomeFinder.com and currently in the process of building a custom home for his family of four. “The end result is incredibly rewarding. However, seemingly minor missteps along the way can cost an unexpected amount of time and money.”</p>
<p>When it comes to building a new home, buyers have two options: they can work with a homebuilder who will show them plans and materials to choose from, or they can do the research on their own, draft up plans and hire a contractor to build it.</p>
<p>No matter what path a buyer chooses, the first step is the same: determine a budget. Real estate experts advise consumers work closely with their builder to get a realistic estimate of not only what it will cost to build the house, but also add all the features and fixtures that they want inside the home as well. Once they have that number, Tepper recommends consumers &#160;increase the amount by 10% to cover any unforeseen changes and additions.</p>
<p>Establishing a budget will set the tone for the type of home individuals can afford and how it will be furnished.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“Do you want to spend up to $20,000 on energy-efficient construction which might save you $1,000 to $1,500 a year?” says, Steve Melman, director of economic services for the National Association of Home Builder’s, on some of the decisions builders have to make before breaking ground.</p>
<p>Building a new home will take between three to eight months and potentially longer for do-it-yourselfers, according to Jeff Martel, CEO of real estate firm Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate 43 Degree North in Boise, Idaho.</p>
<p>Consumers should be selective when choosing a builder and clearly detail their desires and time frame and choose a professional that aligns with their vision. For those wanting to be very involved in the process, Martel suggests looking for a custom builder that clearly understands the expectations. Soon-to-be home owners not wanting to be very involved in the process should work with builder who is willing to draw up different plans and be willing to take the lead without a lot of direction.</p>
<p>“You’re going to spend a lot of time with the builder so you better get along with them,” says Martel. “Certain buyers are very creative and artistic and want a very unique home. We’ll try to match them up with a builder that excels in that.”&#160; For buyers who are focused on the cost, Martel says he will find them builders that are analytical and dollar orientated.</p>
<p>While many home buyers fear building their dream house is out of their budget, experts say the loan process tends to be misunderstood. Securing a loan for new construction isn’t the same as applying for a mortgage to purchase an existing home.</p>
<p>According to Tepper, unless consumers are paying cash, they may need to secure financing for both a construction loan, which covers pay for the builder, subcontractors and suppliers, and a mortgage loan which would be used to finance the home after its complete and to pay off the construction loan.</p>
<p>When applying for a construction loan, Tepper says lenders require completed building plans and a detailed list of all the fees. Keep in mind that once the builder’s fees are notarized and submitted to the bank, they can’t change.</p>
<p>“If you spend more than originally budgeted, these fees will come out of your pocket; Further reason to budget in that additional 10%.”</p> | What to Expect When Building Your Dream Home | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/09/11/what-to-expect-when-building-your-dream-home.html | 2016-03-05 | 0right
| What to Expect When Building Your Dream Home
<p />
<p>The tight inventory for existing homes in sought-after neighborhoods is driving many would-be home buyers to build a brand new one to fit their needs. But conjuring up a dream home and making it become a reality is easier said than done.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Custom homebuilders make it easier for consumers to create their dream home, but the process can be long and can often include hiccups that can create stress and cost money.</p>
<p>“Building a new home is an exciting and at times, an overwhelming experience,” says Mark Tepper, senior vice president of sales and marketing at HomeFinder.com and currently in the process of building a custom home for his family of four. “The end result is incredibly rewarding. However, seemingly minor missteps along the way can cost an unexpected amount of time and money.”</p>
<p>When it comes to building a new home, buyers have two options: they can work with a homebuilder who will show them plans and materials to choose from, or they can do the research on their own, draft up plans and hire a contractor to build it.</p>
<p>No matter what path a buyer chooses, the first step is the same: determine a budget. Real estate experts advise consumers work closely with their builder to get a realistic estimate of not only what it will cost to build the house, but also add all the features and fixtures that they want inside the home as well. Once they have that number, Tepper recommends consumers &#160;increase the amount by 10% to cover any unforeseen changes and additions.</p>
<p>Establishing a budget will set the tone for the type of home individuals can afford and how it will be furnished.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“Do you want to spend up to $20,000 on energy-efficient construction which might save you $1,000 to $1,500 a year?” says, Steve Melman, director of economic services for the National Association of Home Builder’s, on some of the decisions builders have to make before breaking ground.</p>
<p>Building a new home will take between three to eight months and potentially longer for do-it-yourselfers, according to Jeff Martel, CEO of real estate firm Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate 43 Degree North in Boise, Idaho.</p>
<p>Consumers should be selective when choosing a builder and clearly detail their desires and time frame and choose a professional that aligns with their vision. For those wanting to be very involved in the process, Martel suggests looking for a custom builder that clearly understands the expectations. Soon-to-be home owners not wanting to be very involved in the process should work with builder who is willing to draw up different plans and be willing to take the lead without a lot of direction.</p>
<p>“You’re going to spend a lot of time with the builder so you better get along with them,” says Martel. “Certain buyers are very creative and artistic and want a very unique home. We’ll try to match them up with a builder that excels in that.”&#160; For buyers who are focused on the cost, Martel says he will find them builders that are analytical and dollar orientated.</p>
<p>While many home buyers fear building their dream house is out of their budget, experts say the loan process tends to be misunderstood. Securing a loan for new construction isn’t the same as applying for a mortgage to purchase an existing home.</p>
<p>According to Tepper, unless consumers are paying cash, they may need to secure financing for both a construction loan, which covers pay for the builder, subcontractors and suppliers, and a mortgage loan which would be used to finance the home after its complete and to pay off the construction loan.</p>
<p>When applying for a construction loan, Tepper says lenders require completed building plans and a detailed list of all the fees. Keep in mind that once the builder’s fees are notarized and submitted to the bank, they can’t change.</p>
<p>“If you spend more than originally budgeted, these fees will come out of your pocket; Further reason to budget in that additional 10%.”</p> | 2,790 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The University of New Mexico’s nonconference basketball schedule may not land the Lobos a No. 2 RPI ranking like last year’s team had, but it is hardly going to be a cakewalk for first-year head coach Craig Neal.</p>
<p>One five-game stretch from Dec. 4 through Dec. 21 features games – only two in the Pit – against five 2013 NCAA Tournament teams. That stretch is at New Mexico State (Dec. 4), vs. Cincinnati (Dec. 7), vs. Kansas in Kansas City, Mo. (Dec. 14), vs. NMSU (Dec. 17) and vs. Marquette in Las Vegas, Nev. (Dec. 21).</p>
<p>UNM will have a 30-game regular-season schedule – 12 nonconference games and 18 MWC games. There will be 15 home games in the regular season and two exhibition games in the Pit.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>While Neal had a hand in just about everything at UNM the past six years as associate head coach, this was the first time he oversew putting the schedule together.</p>
<p>“It was difficult because I didn’t do it (before). It was always Duane (Broussard) and Steve (Alford),” Neal said. “… It was good for me for me the first time to figure out had bad people don’t want to play us. They don’t want to come to the Pit. It doesn’t matter how much money you offer them or … if you offer them a 2 for 1. It was difficult.”</p>
<p>While the Journal had already reported on 10 of the Lobos’ 12 nonconference games, and the Mountain West Conference won’t release the 18-game conference schedule until later this summer, UNM released the entire nonconference schedule Wednesday morning.</p>
<p>The release coincided with ESPN unveiling the bracket for the Charleston Classic.</p>
<p>The Lobos’ Dec. 21 game against Marquette in the MGM Grand Showcase in Las Vegas is also an ESPN-owned event.</p>
<p>UNM will not, however, take part in ESPN’s 24-hour marathon of games that landed the Lobos a 2012-13 midnight season-opener in the Pit (a come-from behind victory over Davidson).</p>
<p>Other nonconference games previously confirmed by the Journal include Nov. 30 vs. San Diego and a game Dec. 23 vs. Grand Canyon University and recent UNM transfer Demetrius Walker.</p>
<p>Because Mountain West play was bumped up to 18 games for the coming season, league games start a week earlier, likely on Jan. 1. Because of that, UNM’s final nonconference game will be the Dec. 23 GCU game. In the 2012-13 season, UNM played two games between Christmas and New Year’s Eve before having more than a week off for the Jan. 9 league opener.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>NOT TRAVELING: Junior college guard Deshawn Delaney and 7-foot Sudanese center Obij Aget, who was originally in the 2012 recruiting class but did not enroll last year due to injury, have still not enrolled at UNM and will not be accompanying the team to Australia in August, Lobo coach Craig Neal confirmed Tuesday.</p>
<p>Delaney is still finishing up three classes at Vincennes University in Indiana.</p>
<p>Aget, who tore his ACL last year and waited to enroll, has not been cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse, which is looking into an eighth-grade transcript question, as well as his amateur eligibility status.</p>
<p>Aget played at La Lumiere prep school in LaPorte, Ind., and with the Indiana Elite club team, where he was coached by Mark Adams, father of UNM assistant coach Drew Adams.</p>
<p>Neal said he has no concerns that both players will be enrolled for the fall semester and on the team for the 2013-14 season.</p>
<p /> | 5-game stretch will test Lobos | false | https://abqjournal.com/240010/5game-stretch-will-test-lobos.html | 2least
| 5-game stretch will test Lobos
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<p>The University of New Mexico’s nonconference basketball schedule may not land the Lobos a No. 2 RPI ranking like last year’s team had, but it is hardly going to be a cakewalk for first-year head coach Craig Neal.</p>
<p>One five-game stretch from Dec. 4 through Dec. 21 features games – only two in the Pit – against five 2013 NCAA Tournament teams. That stretch is at New Mexico State (Dec. 4), vs. Cincinnati (Dec. 7), vs. Kansas in Kansas City, Mo. (Dec. 14), vs. NMSU (Dec. 17) and vs. Marquette in Las Vegas, Nev. (Dec. 21).</p>
<p>UNM will have a 30-game regular-season schedule – 12 nonconference games and 18 MWC games. There will be 15 home games in the regular season and two exhibition games in the Pit.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>While Neal had a hand in just about everything at UNM the past six years as associate head coach, this was the first time he oversew putting the schedule together.</p>
<p>“It was difficult because I didn’t do it (before). It was always Duane (Broussard) and Steve (Alford),” Neal said. “… It was good for me for me the first time to figure out had bad people don’t want to play us. They don’t want to come to the Pit. It doesn’t matter how much money you offer them or … if you offer them a 2 for 1. It was difficult.”</p>
<p>While the Journal had already reported on 10 of the Lobos’ 12 nonconference games, and the Mountain West Conference won’t release the 18-game conference schedule until later this summer, UNM released the entire nonconference schedule Wednesday morning.</p>
<p>The release coincided with ESPN unveiling the bracket for the Charleston Classic.</p>
<p>The Lobos’ Dec. 21 game against Marquette in the MGM Grand Showcase in Las Vegas is also an ESPN-owned event.</p>
<p>UNM will not, however, take part in ESPN’s 24-hour marathon of games that landed the Lobos a 2012-13 midnight season-opener in the Pit (a come-from behind victory over Davidson).</p>
<p>Other nonconference games previously confirmed by the Journal include Nov. 30 vs. San Diego and a game Dec. 23 vs. Grand Canyon University and recent UNM transfer Demetrius Walker.</p>
<p>Because Mountain West play was bumped up to 18 games for the coming season, league games start a week earlier, likely on Jan. 1. Because of that, UNM’s final nonconference game will be the Dec. 23 GCU game. In the 2012-13 season, UNM played two games between Christmas and New Year’s Eve before having more than a week off for the Jan. 9 league opener.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>NOT TRAVELING: Junior college guard Deshawn Delaney and 7-foot Sudanese center Obij Aget, who was originally in the 2012 recruiting class but did not enroll last year due to injury, have still not enrolled at UNM and will not be accompanying the team to Australia in August, Lobo coach Craig Neal confirmed Tuesday.</p>
<p>Delaney is still finishing up three classes at Vincennes University in Indiana.</p>
<p>Aget, who tore his ACL last year and waited to enroll, has not been cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse, which is looking into an eighth-grade transcript question, as well as his amateur eligibility status.</p>
<p>Aget played at La Lumiere prep school in LaPorte, Ind., and with the Indiana Elite club team, where he was coached by Mark Adams, father of UNM assistant coach Drew Adams.</p>
<p>Neal said he has no concerns that both players will be enrolled for the fall semester and on the team for the 2013-14 season.</p>
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Brown-thumbed houseplant lovers don't despair. Green thumbs can be cultivated through trial and error and a little bit of practice.</p>
<p>Rick Hobson, owner of Jericho Nursery, said he practically grew up in a greenhouse. His father worked at a nursery while Hobson was growing up, cementing his love of foliage. Hobson said there is one golden rule to follow - don't be afraid to kill a couple of plants along the way.</p>
<p>"I've been doing this since I was 5 and I will tell you that green thumbs are not inherited," he said. "They are earned and you will kill a couple of plants on your way to earning a green thumb."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Jennifer Davidson, a team lead who works in the greenhouse for Osuna Nursery, said there are no fool-proof ways to keep houseplants alive but offered some tips. When choosing a container, she said almost any material will do including ceramic, plastic, fiberglass, wood, aluminum and copper.</p>
<p>The most important thing, she said, is not to leave the houseplants sitting in water because they have a shallow root system. The water left in the tray, she said, should be dumped out shortly after the plant is watered.</p>
<p />
<p>"When it comes to pots, you can use just about anything as long as it has drainage," she said. "(Otherwise) the plant will get root rot."</p>
<p>She said it's also a good idea to remove all dead leaves, giving new leaves room to sprout and to use a potting soil specifically for indoor use, not gardening or outdoor use. Most hearty houseplants, she said, will survive the flux in home temperatures.</p>
<p>But, Hobson said, a challenge in New Mexico can be providing enough humidity. He said owners can use a humidifier or set up some type of humidity tray.</p>
<p>The trays have either rocks or small holes. The plant is placed on top, not sitting in the water, and the water slowly evaporates creating a humid environment.</p>
<p>"Everybody wants a recipe like water the plant on Sundays," Hobson said. "But there is no easy answer. You don't want it to be excessively wet or excessively dry."</p>
<p>He said it takes experimenting to determine how much and how often to water a plant. Hobson also recommends monthly fertilization to keep plants thriving and growing.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Both Davidson and Hobson offered some suggestions on hearty houseplants for beginners that do well in most homes in New Mexico.</p>
<p>One plant Hobson recommends is the Sansevieria, also known as mother-in-law's tongue or snake tongue because of the shape of its leaves. The plant has long green strands with a yellow outline. He said the plant likes low light.</p>
<p>"If you can't grow that, consider finding another hobby," Hobson joked. "We call it the cast iron plant because it's so hearty."</p>
<p>Another easy to care for plant is the pothos variety, which are vine-like plants. Davidson said the plant can survive in most places in the home except in areas where it would receive bright direct light, such as on the sill of a east-facing window.</p>
<p>Other suggestions were the corn plant, Madagascar dragon tree, philodendron, dwarf umbrella tree, spider plant, flamingo flower and Chinese evergreens, all of which can be found at local nurseries in town.</p>
<p>"It takes trial and error," Hobson said. "Don't get discouraged."</p>
<p /> | Are you a houseplant killer? Nursery experts share tips on keeping them alive | false | https://abqjournal.com/657959/green-2.html | 2least
| Are you a houseplant killer? Nursery experts share tips on keeping them alive
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Brown-thumbed houseplant lovers don't despair. Green thumbs can be cultivated through trial and error and a little bit of practice.</p>
<p>Rick Hobson, owner of Jericho Nursery, said he practically grew up in a greenhouse. His father worked at a nursery while Hobson was growing up, cementing his love of foliage. Hobson said there is one golden rule to follow - don't be afraid to kill a couple of plants along the way.</p>
<p>"I've been doing this since I was 5 and I will tell you that green thumbs are not inherited," he said. "They are earned and you will kill a couple of plants on your way to earning a green thumb."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Jennifer Davidson, a team lead who works in the greenhouse for Osuna Nursery, said there are no fool-proof ways to keep houseplants alive but offered some tips. When choosing a container, she said almost any material will do including ceramic, plastic, fiberglass, wood, aluminum and copper.</p>
<p>The most important thing, she said, is not to leave the houseplants sitting in water because they have a shallow root system. The water left in the tray, she said, should be dumped out shortly after the plant is watered.</p>
<p />
<p>"When it comes to pots, you can use just about anything as long as it has drainage," she said. "(Otherwise) the plant will get root rot."</p>
<p>She said it's also a good idea to remove all dead leaves, giving new leaves room to sprout and to use a potting soil specifically for indoor use, not gardening or outdoor use. Most hearty houseplants, she said, will survive the flux in home temperatures.</p>
<p>But, Hobson said, a challenge in New Mexico can be providing enough humidity. He said owners can use a humidifier or set up some type of humidity tray.</p>
<p>The trays have either rocks or small holes. The plant is placed on top, not sitting in the water, and the water slowly evaporates creating a humid environment.</p>
<p>"Everybody wants a recipe like water the plant on Sundays," Hobson said. "But there is no easy answer. You don't want it to be excessively wet or excessively dry."</p>
<p>He said it takes experimenting to determine how much and how often to water a plant. Hobson also recommends monthly fertilization to keep plants thriving and growing.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Both Davidson and Hobson offered some suggestions on hearty houseplants for beginners that do well in most homes in New Mexico.</p>
<p>One plant Hobson recommends is the Sansevieria, also known as mother-in-law's tongue or snake tongue because of the shape of its leaves. The plant has long green strands with a yellow outline. He said the plant likes low light.</p>
<p>"If you can't grow that, consider finding another hobby," Hobson joked. "We call it the cast iron plant because it's so hearty."</p>
<p>Another easy to care for plant is the pothos variety, which are vine-like plants. Davidson said the plant can survive in most places in the home except in areas where it would receive bright direct light, such as on the sill of a east-facing window.</p>
<p>Other suggestions were the corn plant, Madagascar dragon tree, philodendron, dwarf umbrella tree, spider plant, flamingo flower and Chinese evergreens, all of which can be found at local nurseries in town.</p>
<p>"It takes trial and error," Hobson said. "Don't get discouraged."</p>
<p /> | 2,792 |
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<p>Chief Justice John Roberts said it was not enough for prosecutors to show that comments by Anthony Elonis about killing his ex-wife and harming others would make a reasonable person feel threatened. But the high court sent the case back to the lower court without clarifying exactly what the standard of proof should be.</p>
<p>The ruling was a narrow victory for civil liberties groups that had urged the court to make it tougher to convict people who make crude comments on social media that might be viewed as threatening.</p>
<p>Yet the high court declined to lay out broad constitutional protections for such comments. "It is not necessary to consider any First Amendment issues," Roberts wrote.</p>
<p>Elonis, of Freemansburg in eastern Pennsylvania, was prosecuted under a law that makes it a crime to threaten another person after he posted Facebook rants about killing his estranged wife, harming law enforcement officials and shooting up a school.</p>
<p>One post about his wife said, "There's one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you. I'm not going to rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts."</p>
<p>Elonis claimed the government had no right to prosecute him if he didn't actually intend his comments to be threatening to others. He argued that his musings were protected by the First Amendment.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But the government said it didn't matter what Elonis intended. It argued that, if the comments provoked enough fear and anxiety to make a reasonable person feel threatened, that was enough to prosecute it as a crime.</p>
<p>Seven justices on the high court agreed that it was not necessary to reach First Amendment issues in reversing Elonis' conviction.</p>
<p>Roberts said the reasonable-person standard is "inconsistent with the conventional requirement for criminal conduct - awareness of some wrongdoing."</p>
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<p /> | Supreme Court tosses conviction on Facebook threats | false | https://abqjournal.com/592933/facebook-threats-conviction-tossed.html | 2least
| Supreme Court tosses conviction on Facebook threats
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<p>Chief Justice John Roberts said it was not enough for prosecutors to show that comments by Anthony Elonis about killing his ex-wife and harming others would make a reasonable person feel threatened. But the high court sent the case back to the lower court without clarifying exactly what the standard of proof should be.</p>
<p>The ruling was a narrow victory for civil liberties groups that had urged the court to make it tougher to convict people who make crude comments on social media that might be viewed as threatening.</p>
<p>Yet the high court declined to lay out broad constitutional protections for such comments. "It is not necessary to consider any First Amendment issues," Roberts wrote.</p>
<p>Elonis, of Freemansburg in eastern Pennsylvania, was prosecuted under a law that makes it a crime to threaten another person after he posted Facebook rants about killing his estranged wife, harming law enforcement officials and shooting up a school.</p>
<p>One post about his wife said, "There's one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you. I'm not going to rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts."</p>
<p>Elonis claimed the government had no right to prosecute him if he didn't actually intend his comments to be threatening to others. He argued that his musings were protected by the First Amendment.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But the government said it didn't matter what Elonis intended. It argued that, if the comments provoked enough fear and anxiety to make a reasonable person feel threatened, that was enough to prosecute it as a crime.</p>
<p>Seven justices on the high court agreed that it was not necessary to reach First Amendment issues in reversing Elonis' conviction.</p>
<p>Roberts said the reasonable-person standard is "inconsistent with the conventional requirement for criminal conduct - awareness of some wrongdoing."</p>
<p />
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<p>The AP <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KERRY_2008?SITE=WHIZ&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" type="external">reports</a>: “The Massachusetts Democrat, who lost to President Bush in 2004, said it is a basic principle that ‘Americans give people a second chance. And if you learn something and prove you’ve learned something, maybe even more so. Now, I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. We’ll make that decision down the road.'”</p>
<p>Transcript <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,220957,00.html" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p /> | Kerry says he deserves 2nd chance in ’08 | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/10/kerry-says-he-deserves-2nd-chance-08/ | 2006-10-15 | 4left
| Kerry says he deserves 2nd chance in ’08
<p />
<p>The AP <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KERRY_2008?SITE=WHIZ&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" type="external">reports</a>: “The Massachusetts Democrat, who lost to President Bush in 2004, said it is a basic principle that ‘Americans give people a second chance. And if you learn something and prove you’ve learned something, maybe even more so. Now, I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. We’ll make that decision down the road.'”</p>
<p>Transcript <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,220957,00.html" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p /> | 2,794 |
<p>Wouldn't it be so cool to have a species named after you? We definitely think it would be, but we're not really sure of how to go about making that happen. But if you're famous, your chances definitely go up. All Stephen Colbert had to do was ask! View the slideshow to find out what other celebrities also have an insect or arachnid named in their honor!</p>
<p>So whether or not you believe in past lives, it's kind of a nice thing to imagine. If life gets a little stressful, it can help to think back to, say, all of those years you spent as a pet cat, lovingly cared for in someone's home and without any true responsibilities! But were you a cat? Or did you pass your days in the jungle? Take our quiz to find out exactly what animal you used to be!</p>
<p>When it comes to Taylor Swift's music, it's hard not to find yourself singing along. Whether she's your all-time favorite artist or your guilty pleasure, there's really no denying that she knows how to make a catchy song. I mean, that's how she got so popular. Her songs get stuck in your head pretty easily. And if you've ever been in love or been dumped, the lyrics can be very relatable, making them even more fun to sing.</p>
<p>But do you actually know all of her lyrics, or are you just belting out the chorus? It's time to find out just how big of a TSwift fan you really are.</p> | These 11 celebrities have insects and arachnids named in their honor | false | https://circa.com/story/2017/11/02/hollywood/angelina-jolie-lucius-malfoy-among-celebrities-with-insects-named-after-them | 2017-11-02 | 1right-center
| These 11 celebrities have insects and arachnids named in their honor
<p>Wouldn't it be so cool to have a species named after you? We definitely think it would be, but we're not really sure of how to go about making that happen. But if you're famous, your chances definitely go up. All Stephen Colbert had to do was ask! View the slideshow to find out what other celebrities also have an insect or arachnid named in their honor!</p>
<p>So whether or not you believe in past lives, it's kind of a nice thing to imagine. If life gets a little stressful, it can help to think back to, say, all of those years you spent as a pet cat, lovingly cared for in someone's home and without any true responsibilities! But were you a cat? Or did you pass your days in the jungle? Take our quiz to find out exactly what animal you used to be!</p>
<p>When it comes to Taylor Swift's music, it's hard not to find yourself singing along. Whether she's your all-time favorite artist or your guilty pleasure, there's really no denying that she knows how to make a catchy song. I mean, that's how she got so popular. Her songs get stuck in your head pretty easily. And if you've ever been in love or been dumped, the lyrics can be very relatable, making them even more fun to sing.</p>
<p>But do you actually know all of her lyrics, or are you just belting out the chorus? It's time to find out just how big of a TSwift fan you really are.</p> | 2,795 |
<p>The laissez-faire attitude of the Reagan administration unleashed a wave of corporate mergers, takeovers, and buyouts that has made some financial whizzes wealthy, transformed the face of American business, and wreaked havoc with many industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast. We have allowed this wave of takeovers and buyouts to sweep across America with such speed that we can hardly keep up with the new names of businesses, let alone understand its impact upon society.</p>
<p>We do know that the rhetoric about "meaner and leaner" firms resulting from corporate restructurings does not create new jobs. In 1987, the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, chaired by then-Senator William Proxmire, estimated that approximately eight hundred thousand jobs had been lost because of these restructurings.</p>
<p /> | Toledo: Mired in Mergers | true | https://dissentmagazine.org/article/toledo-mired-in-mergers | 2018-10-06 | 4left
| Toledo: Mired in Mergers
<p>The laissez-faire attitude of the Reagan administration unleashed a wave of corporate mergers, takeovers, and buyouts that has made some financial whizzes wealthy, transformed the face of American business, and wreaked havoc with many industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast. We have allowed this wave of takeovers and buyouts to sweep across America with such speed that we can hardly keep up with the new names of businesses, let alone understand its impact upon society.</p>
<p>We do know that the rhetoric about "meaner and leaner" firms resulting from corporate restructurings does not create new jobs. In 1987, the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, chaired by then-Senator William Proxmire, estimated that approximately eight hundred thousand jobs had been lost because of these restructurings.</p>
<p /> | 2,796 |
<p />
<p>The Media Fact-Checkers have concluded that you should’t believe your lying eyes about Hillary Clinton’ Corruption. Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2016.</p>
<p>To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, <a href="http://legalinsurrection.com/tag/a-f-branco/" type="external">click here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://patriotdepot.com/2017-comically-incorrect-calendar/" type="external">A.F.Branco 2017 Calendar&#160;</a>&lt;—- Order Here!</p>
<p><a href="http://paypal.me/AntonioBranco" type="external">Donations/Tips accepted and appreciated</a>&#160;– &#160;$1.00 – $5.00 – $10 – $100 – &#160;it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. –&#160;THANK YOU!</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Just The Facts Ma’am | true | http://comicallyincorrect.com/2016/09/29/media-fact-checkers/ | 2016-09-29 | 0right
| Just The Facts Ma’am
<p />
<p>The Media Fact-Checkers have concluded that you should’t believe your lying eyes about Hillary Clinton’ Corruption. Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2016.</p>
<p>To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, <a href="http://legalinsurrection.com/tag/a-f-branco/" type="external">click here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://patriotdepot.com/2017-comically-incorrect-calendar/" type="external">A.F.Branco 2017 Calendar&#160;</a>&lt;—- Order Here!</p>
<p><a href="http://paypal.me/AntonioBranco" type="external">Donations/Tips accepted and appreciated</a>&#160;– &#160;$1.00 – $5.00 – $10 – $100 – &#160;it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. –&#160;THANK YOU!</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | 2,797 |
<p>Probably like most of you, I am engaged in a daily attempt to make up my mind about President Obama. I was an early supporter.</p>
<p>And as a former Washington “player,” I am aware how difficult is his position. I began to worry when he failed to grasp what I have seen to be the early window of opportunity for a new administration — the first three months — when the government is relatively fluid. As the months have flown by, I have seen that there are many positive things, mainly in his eloquent addresses on world problems, notably his speech at the University of Cairo on world pluralism, but also quite a few negative things. With sadness and alarm I find that my list of the negatives keeps on growing.</p>
<p>Among them are the following:</p>
<p>(1) The commitment to the war in “Af-Pak” which (I believe) will cost America upwards of $6 trillion but perhaps only a few hundred casualties since we are relying increasingly on drone bombing. Just the money costs could derail almost everything Obama’s supporters hoped and thought his administration would do. That amount of money is roughly half the total yearly income (the GNP) of America. Of course, it will cost Afghanistan far more.</p>
<p>Less dramatic perhaps but more crucial will be the further breakdown of Afghan society, leaving behind when we ultimately get out, an even more demoralized, fractured society and will probably lead to a coup d’etat in Pakistan, further enhancing the danger of war between the South Asian countries. The nominal leaders of Afghanistan (Hamid Karzai) and Pakistan (Asif Ali Zardari), whom we practically appointed and with whom we have chosen to work, are hated by their people and are human monuments to the potential of government corruption. (Drugs, traffic in American arms even to insurgents, shakedowns of citizens, sale of public offices, outright stealing, kidnap for ransom…the list is long and as an old hand, it certainly reminds me of South Vietnam.) We now have a window of opportunity to get out of this looming disaster, but it seems that the President is determined to “stay the course.” Fundamental to my worry is that I do not hear anyone around the President or he himself saying things that indicate that they know anything about Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir or India, much less “Pashtunistan”, aka The Northwest Frontier. Ignorance is rarely a very rewarding guide.</p>
<p>(Parenthetically, I have recently read the British “how to do it” manual on “Tribal fighting on the Northwest Frontier” by General Sir Andrew Skeen. Skeen spent his life fighting the Pathans. He warned British soldiers back in the 1920s that the Pathans were “the finest individual fighters in the east, really formidable enemies, to despise whom means sure trouble.” My copy is the only one I could find on the internet. It survived in a British officers’ mess library. I doubt that Messrs Petraeus, McChrystal et al have ever heard of it. It makes more sense than Petraeus’s Counterinsurgency Field Manual.)</p>
<p>(2) the choice of personnel is (to me) baffling:</p>
<p>In the military he has chosen to keep on Bush’s Secretary of Defense (who signed if not wrote the latest version of the neoconservative-inspired US National Defense Doctrine calling for, among other things, the “right” of first striking almost anyone we choose if we don’t like them), General David Petraeus, whom I regard as a con man for breathing life into the Vietnam counterinsurgency program (which has never worked anywhere in the world in the last two centuries when tried by the British, the Russians, the French, the Germans or us), and General Stanley McChrystal, who makes statements that sound terrifyingly like the SS. His main claim to fame appears to have come out of running the prison system in Afghanistan where, apparently, some of the worst cases of torture happened. These men, allegedly, have told Obama that he could win the war in Afghanistan “on the cheap.” So when his then principal military adviser gave a more sober assessment — nearly half a million men — Obama fired him and listened to Petraeus’ siren song. Again, as an old hand, I cannot help remembering Vietnam, where we went from 1,700 to half a million soldiers and still lost.</p>
<p>The Pentagon budget is not only enormous but contains a number of potential scandals. Our overseas bases now cost us over $100 billion yearly. Since the DOD sops up over half of the disposable resources of the government, Obama must get control of it. His task will be difficult because the DOD and what President Eisenhower called the “military industrial complex” have cleverly portioned out the work and procurement on the program to virtually every congressional district. Congress will opt for the program even if it bankrupts America. Congress will be Obama’s enemy if he tries any reforms. Even to try, he will need able advisers and staff. He should certainly know better than to appoint the foxes to guard the henhouse.</p>
<p>In the State Department’s activities, the most attractive person is Senator George Mitchell, but he does not seem to have any significant power. I hope I am wrong, but he reminds me of my dear friend Governor Chester Bowles after JFK fired him and used him only for window dressing. The others have their own agendas. To be generous, one has to say that Hillary has not yet shown enough to judge, but some of her statements would be hard to worsen. I assume that she has begun to run for the presidency in 2012. She reminds me of the wise saying that when a president assembles his cabinet, he has all his enemies in one room. Dick Holbrooke has a bully’s approach to diplomacy in one of the touchiest spots in the world. His browbeating, hectoring, shouting “Balkan” tactics are ill-suited to Central Asia. In the White House, I think it would be hard to find a worse choice than the new Special Assistant to the President, Dennis Ross. Three examples of his skill: a) in the early negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, when he was supposedly the honest broker, he took a more disruptive position than even the Israelis, apparently shocking even them; b) in the build-up to the Iranian elections he sponsored and organized a program to “electronically invade” Iran with destabilizing messages trying, more subtly to be sure than the 1953 CIA-MI6 coup, to “regime change” it.</p>
<p>Whatever else could be said about the “Iran-Syria OperationsGroup”, it played right into the hands of Ahmadinejad and the rightwing of the ulama and the military, giving them a proof text for American interferencein the elections and thus may have backfired, since no issue in Iranian politics is as sensitive as the fear of foreign espionage; (c) just before his appointment to be the chief honcho on all the Middle East, Ross published a book whose message was essentially ‘let’s try a bit of di-plomacy for a short time. Of course it won’t work, but it will justify our attacking.’ That is, his approach to peace-seeking is consistent and negative. Since he is now Obama’s point man, we are in for deeper trouble.</p>
<p>The Vice President, as you know, just reversed the final position of the Bush administration, where Bush told the Israelis that America would not approve an attack on Iran: Joe Biden essentially authorized it, saying what they decided to do was their business, not ours. But those of you who have read my occasional essays could tick off the list of potential disasters for America and the Western world such an attack would bring on. It is patently absurd to suggest that an Israeli attack (made with our weapons and implicit approval) is not our business; indeed, regardless of our weapons and our approval, the long-term consequences for our economy, our position in the world, and our exposure to terrorism would be almost impossible to exaggerate.</p>
<p>On the CIA I confess I am not a big admirer. It has taken on 3 tasks: gathering information, evaluating it and performing dirty tricks. It is usually agreed that over 80 per cent, perhaps more like 95 per cent, of the information it accumulates comes from sources that you and I can access if we have the time, energy and interest. Most of the rest comes from technology (intercepts and code breaking which appear to be valuable for counter-terrorism but, at least in my experience, are of near zero value in ‘strategy’; on satellite and overflight imagery much the same can be said.) The second task, evaluation or “appreciation” is very difficult at best, but the record, at least during the Bush administration, is pretty poor. It was far better done then and during the Vietnam war in the tiny Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the State Department. The third task often leads to disasters and violates all that America should stand for. There are scores of examples to back up this statement, but one that has now come back to haunt us is the 1953 coup d’etat that destroyed an elected and popular Iranian government that, had it survived, might have avoided the 1979 Iranian revolution and relieved us of our current worries there. We should get out of the business of espionage, kidnap, torture and murder. Period. The current leadership of the CIA does not seem to have addressed these issues, and President Obama has gone out of his way to grant a sort of blanket pardon in advance lest anyone fear that what he did was illegal or, more accurately, knowing that it was illegal, might be called to court.</p>
<p>Back to the President: From my experience with life at the “brink,” during the Cuban Missile Crisis, I think that the President’s initiative on cutting back nuclear weapons is perhaps the best thing he has done so far. True, it is a very modest step, leaving thousands of “devices” in place on both the Russian and American sides, only urging Israel, which has hundreds of bombs, to join the NPT, actually encouraging India to forge ahead with its nuclear program and so probably moving inexorably toward at least doubling the number of nuclear-weapon-armed countries rather than (as I have strenuously advocated) moving from Russo-American cutbacks to nuclear free areas and ultimately toward worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons. But, at least it is a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>That’s for foreign affairs.</p>
<p>There are, of course, for President Obama as for all previous presidents, myriads of issues, but one that I believe will haunt him for his own term and beyond is moral and constitutional: What are we doing — and what will we be seen to be doing — to the vast but unknown number of prisoners –terrorists, freedom fighters, accidents — we are holding indefinitely, without charges, without recourse to the courts or that fundamental right in our heritage from the struggle against tyranny, habeas corpus. What we are doing at Guantanamo, Bagram and an unknown number of other “secret” prisons is, as the courts have rightly, if belatedly and guardedly, held, a violation of our legal system. We don’t need the courts to tell us that it certainly a violation of our moral code. Obama began by urging transparency on this sordid issue, but he backed off. His Justice Department is now appealing a US District Court order that the Supreme Court decision on habeas corpus rights for Guantanamo also applied to a set of prisoners at Bagram who apparently arrived there by rendition or who, at least, are non Afghans. Of course, the most sordid issue is the evidence of sodomy, rape and torture captured in the photograph collection that Obama first wanted to release and then changed his mind. Those who profess to know say that what these pictures show is truly horrible. Some have compared them to the vivid record the Nazis kept of their sadism. Even pragmatically, since they are known — indeed known worldwide — it is questionable to say the least that hiding them will protect our reputation. For what little it is worth, my opinion is that making a clean breast of the evil and making an apology — as we have repeatedly urged other countries to do in comparable cases — would be or could be the beginning of the resurrection of America.</p>
<p>I am waiting for the Obama we elected to show up. I hope this drama does not follow Samuel Beckett’s script.</p>
<p>WILLIAM POLK served as the Middle East expert on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff during the Kennedy administration. He is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Violent Politics: a History of Insurgency and Terrorism from the American Revolution to Iraq</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | Report Card on Obama From a New Frontiersman | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/07/24/report-card-on-obama-from-a-new-frontiersman/ | 2009-07-24 | 4left
| Report Card on Obama From a New Frontiersman
<p>Probably like most of you, I am engaged in a daily attempt to make up my mind about President Obama. I was an early supporter.</p>
<p>And as a former Washington “player,” I am aware how difficult is his position. I began to worry when he failed to grasp what I have seen to be the early window of opportunity for a new administration — the first three months — when the government is relatively fluid. As the months have flown by, I have seen that there are many positive things, mainly in his eloquent addresses on world problems, notably his speech at the University of Cairo on world pluralism, but also quite a few negative things. With sadness and alarm I find that my list of the negatives keeps on growing.</p>
<p>Among them are the following:</p>
<p>(1) The commitment to the war in “Af-Pak” which (I believe) will cost America upwards of $6 trillion but perhaps only a few hundred casualties since we are relying increasingly on drone bombing. Just the money costs could derail almost everything Obama’s supporters hoped and thought his administration would do. That amount of money is roughly half the total yearly income (the GNP) of America. Of course, it will cost Afghanistan far more.</p>
<p>Less dramatic perhaps but more crucial will be the further breakdown of Afghan society, leaving behind when we ultimately get out, an even more demoralized, fractured society and will probably lead to a coup d’etat in Pakistan, further enhancing the danger of war between the South Asian countries. The nominal leaders of Afghanistan (Hamid Karzai) and Pakistan (Asif Ali Zardari), whom we practically appointed and with whom we have chosen to work, are hated by their people and are human monuments to the potential of government corruption. (Drugs, traffic in American arms even to insurgents, shakedowns of citizens, sale of public offices, outright stealing, kidnap for ransom…the list is long and as an old hand, it certainly reminds me of South Vietnam.) We now have a window of opportunity to get out of this looming disaster, but it seems that the President is determined to “stay the course.” Fundamental to my worry is that I do not hear anyone around the President or he himself saying things that indicate that they know anything about Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir or India, much less “Pashtunistan”, aka The Northwest Frontier. Ignorance is rarely a very rewarding guide.</p>
<p>(Parenthetically, I have recently read the British “how to do it” manual on “Tribal fighting on the Northwest Frontier” by General Sir Andrew Skeen. Skeen spent his life fighting the Pathans. He warned British soldiers back in the 1920s that the Pathans were “the finest individual fighters in the east, really formidable enemies, to despise whom means sure trouble.” My copy is the only one I could find on the internet. It survived in a British officers’ mess library. I doubt that Messrs Petraeus, McChrystal et al have ever heard of it. It makes more sense than Petraeus’s Counterinsurgency Field Manual.)</p>
<p>(2) the choice of personnel is (to me) baffling:</p>
<p>In the military he has chosen to keep on Bush’s Secretary of Defense (who signed if not wrote the latest version of the neoconservative-inspired US National Defense Doctrine calling for, among other things, the “right” of first striking almost anyone we choose if we don’t like them), General David Petraeus, whom I regard as a con man for breathing life into the Vietnam counterinsurgency program (which has never worked anywhere in the world in the last two centuries when tried by the British, the Russians, the French, the Germans or us), and General Stanley McChrystal, who makes statements that sound terrifyingly like the SS. His main claim to fame appears to have come out of running the prison system in Afghanistan where, apparently, some of the worst cases of torture happened. These men, allegedly, have told Obama that he could win the war in Afghanistan “on the cheap.” So when his then principal military adviser gave a more sober assessment — nearly half a million men — Obama fired him and listened to Petraeus’ siren song. Again, as an old hand, I cannot help remembering Vietnam, where we went from 1,700 to half a million soldiers and still lost.</p>
<p>The Pentagon budget is not only enormous but contains a number of potential scandals. Our overseas bases now cost us over $100 billion yearly. Since the DOD sops up over half of the disposable resources of the government, Obama must get control of it. His task will be difficult because the DOD and what President Eisenhower called the “military industrial complex” have cleverly portioned out the work and procurement on the program to virtually every congressional district. Congress will opt for the program even if it bankrupts America. Congress will be Obama’s enemy if he tries any reforms. Even to try, he will need able advisers and staff. He should certainly know better than to appoint the foxes to guard the henhouse.</p>
<p>In the State Department’s activities, the most attractive person is Senator George Mitchell, but he does not seem to have any significant power. I hope I am wrong, but he reminds me of my dear friend Governor Chester Bowles after JFK fired him and used him only for window dressing. The others have their own agendas. To be generous, one has to say that Hillary has not yet shown enough to judge, but some of her statements would be hard to worsen. I assume that she has begun to run for the presidency in 2012. She reminds me of the wise saying that when a president assembles his cabinet, he has all his enemies in one room. Dick Holbrooke has a bully’s approach to diplomacy in one of the touchiest spots in the world. His browbeating, hectoring, shouting “Balkan” tactics are ill-suited to Central Asia. In the White House, I think it would be hard to find a worse choice than the new Special Assistant to the President, Dennis Ross. Three examples of his skill: a) in the early negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, when he was supposedly the honest broker, he took a more disruptive position than even the Israelis, apparently shocking even them; b) in the build-up to the Iranian elections he sponsored and organized a program to “electronically invade” Iran with destabilizing messages trying, more subtly to be sure than the 1953 CIA-MI6 coup, to “regime change” it.</p>
<p>Whatever else could be said about the “Iran-Syria OperationsGroup”, it played right into the hands of Ahmadinejad and the rightwing of the ulama and the military, giving them a proof text for American interferencein the elections and thus may have backfired, since no issue in Iranian politics is as sensitive as the fear of foreign espionage; (c) just before his appointment to be the chief honcho on all the Middle East, Ross published a book whose message was essentially ‘let’s try a bit of di-plomacy for a short time. Of course it won’t work, but it will justify our attacking.’ That is, his approach to peace-seeking is consistent and negative. Since he is now Obama’s point man, we are in for deeper trouble.</p>
<p>The Vice President, as you know, just reversed the final position of the Bush administration, where Bush told the Israelis that America would not approve an attack on Iran: Joe Biden essentially authorized it, saying what they decided to do was their business, not ours. But those of you who have read my occasional essays could tick off the list of potential disasters for America and the Western world such an attack would bring on. It is patently absurd to suggest that an Israeli attack (made with our weapons and implicit approval) is not our business; indeed, regardless of our weapons and our approval, the long-term consequences for our economy, our position in the world, and our exposure to terrorism would be almost impossible to exaggerate.</p>
<p>On the CIA I confess I am not a big admirer. It has taken on 3 tasks: gathering information, evaluating it and performing dirty tricks. It is usually agreed that over 80 per cent, perhaps more like 95 per cent, of the information it accumulates comes from sources that you and I can access if we have the time, energy and interest. Most of the rest comes from technology (intercepts and code breaking which appear to be valuable for counter-terrorism but, at least in my experience, are of near zero value in ‘strategy’; on satellite and overflight imagery much the same can be said.) The second task, evaluation or “appreciation” is very difficult at best, but the record, at least during the Bush administration, is pretty poor. It was far better done then and during the Vietnam war in the tiny Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the State Department. The third task often leads to disasters and violates all that America should stand for. There are scores of examples to back up this statement, but one that has now come back to haunt us is the 1953 coup d’etat that destroyed an elected and popular Iranian government that, had it survived, might have avoided the 1979 Iranian revolution and relieved us of our current worries there. We should get out of the business of espionage, kidnap, torture and murder. Period. The current leadership of the CIA does not seem to have addressed these issues, and President Obama has gone out of his way to grant a sort of blanket pardon in advance lest anyone fear that what he did was illegal or, more accurately, knowing that it was illegal, might be called to court.</p>
<p>Back to the President: From my experience with life at the “brink,” during the Cuban Missile Crisis, I think that the President’s initiative on cutting back nuclear weapons is perhaps the best thing he has done so far. True, it is a very modest step, leaving thousands of “devices” in place on both the Russian and American sides, only urging Israel, which has hundreds of bombs, to join the NPT, actually encouraging India to forge ahead with its nuclear program and so probably moving inexorably toward at least doubling the number of nuclear-weapon-armed countries rather than (as I have strenuously advocated) moving from Russo-American cutbacks to nuclear free areas and ultimately toward worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons. But, at least it is a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>That’s for foreign affairs.</p>
<p>There are, of course, for President Obama as for all previous presidents, myriads of issues, but one that I believe will haunt him for his own term and beyond is moral and constitutional: What are we doing — and what will we be seen to be doing — to the vast but unknown number of prisoners –terrorists, freedom fighters, accidents — we are holding indefinitely, without charges, without recourse to the courts or that fundamental right in our heritage from the struggle against tyranny, habeas corpus. What we are doing at Guantanamo, Bagram and an unknown number of other “secret” prisons is, as the courts have rightly, if belatedly and guardedly, held, a violation of our legal system. We don’t need the courts to tell us that it certainly a violation of our moral code. Obama began by urging transparency on this sordid issue, but he backed off. His Justice Department is now appealing a US District Court order that the Supreme Court decision on habeas corpus rights for Guantanamo also applied to a set of prisoners at Bagram who apparently arrived there by rendition or who, at least, are non Afghans. Of course, the most sordid issue is the evidence of sodomy, rape and torture captured in the photograph collection that Obama first wanted to release and then changed his mind. Those who profess to know say that what these pictures show is truly horrible. Some have compared them to the vivid record the Nazis kept of their sadism. Even pragmatically, since they are known — indeed known worldwide — it is questionable to say the least that hiding them will protect our reputation. For what little it is worth, my opinion is that making a clean breast of the evil and making an apology — as we have repeatedly urged other countries to do in comparable cases — would be or could be the beginning of the resurrection of America.</p>
<p>I am waiting for the Obama we elected to show up. I hope this drama does not follow Samuel Beckett’s script.</p>
<p>WILLIAM POLK served as the Middle East expert on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff during the Kennedy administration. He is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Violent Politics: a History of Insurgency and Terrorism from the American Revolution to Iraq</a>.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | 2,798 |
<p>Dec. 5 (UPI) — President Sunil Gulati has resigned from USA Soccer after serving at his post for a dozen years.</p>
<p>Gulati announced Monday that he will not run for re-election for the job.</p>
<p>“I spent a lot of time thinking about it and talking about it with people in many different positions — many of whom told me I should run,” <a href="http://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states/story/3297493/sunil-gulati-wont-run-for-re-election-as-us-soccer-president" type="external">Gulati told ESPN</a>. “But in the end, I think the best thing for me personally, and for the federation, is to see someone new in the job.”</p>
<p>Gulati retains his seat on the FIFA Council and serves as the chairman for the U.S., Canada and Mexico bid to host the 2026 World Cup. His spot with the FIFA Council is secured through 2021.</p>
<p>Candidates looking to serve as head of the federation must submit their nominations by Dec. 12. Gulati became U.S. Soccer president in 2006 and has run unopposed in his previous elections. On Saturday, <a href="https://www.si.com/soccer/2017/12/04/sunil-gulati-us-soccer-president-election-will-not-run?utm_campaign=sinow&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;xid=socialflow_twitter_si" type="external">sources told Sports Illustrated</a> that Gulati “may support” Soccer United Marketing president Kathy Carter’s candidacy for the post.</p>
<p>The field includes Kyle Martino, Eric Wynalda, Paul Caligiuri, Carlos Cordeiro, Michael Winowrad, Paul Lapointe and Steve Gans, according to Sports Illustrated. Gulati has yet to publicly endorse Carter, who officially announced her candidacy Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>“I’m excited to announce my candidacy for President of @ussoccer. Soccer can, and should, become the leading sport in America, and I intend to make that vision a reality,” <a href="https://twitter.com/soccerkcarter/status/938038094380589057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">Carter tweeted</a>. “Thrilled for you to get to know me and my vision for the game.”</p> | Sunil Gulati: USA Soccer president resigns | false | https://newsline.com/sunil-gulati-usa-soccer-president-resigns/ | 2017-12-05 | 1right-center
| Sunil Gulati: USA Soccer president resigns
<p>Dec. 5 (UPI) — President Sunil Gulati has resigned from USA Soccer after serving at his post for a dozen years.</p>
<p>Gulati announced Monday that he will not run for re-election for the job.</p>
<p>“I spent a lot of time thinking about it and talking about it with people in many different positions — many of whom told me I should run,” <a href="http://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states/story/3297493/sunil-gulati-wont-run-for-re-election-as-us-soccer-president" type="external">Gulati told ESPN</a>. “But in the end, I think the best thing for me personally, and for the federation, is to see someone new in the job.”</p>
<p>Gulati retains his seat on the FIFA Council and serves as the chairman for the U.S., Canada and Mexico bid to host the 2026 World Cup. His spot with the FIFA Council is secured through 2021.</p>
<p>Candidates looking to serve as head of the federation must submit their nominations by Dec. 12. Gulati became U.S. Soccer president in 2006 and has run unopposed in his previous elections. On Saturday, <a href="https://www.si.com/soccer/2017/12/04/sunil-gulati-us-soccer-president-election-will-not-run?utm_campaign=sinow&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;xid=socialflow_twitter_si" type="external">sources told Sports Illustrated</a> that Gulati “may support” Soccer United Marketing president Kathy Carter’s candidacy for the post.</p>
<p>The field includes Kyle Martino, Eric Wynalda, Paul Caligiuri, Carlos Cordeiro, Michael Winowrad, Paul Lapointe and Steve Gans, according to Sports Illustrated. Gulati has yet to publicly endorse Carter, who officially announced her candidacy Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>“I’m excited to announce my candidacy for President of @ussoccer. Soccer can, and should, become the leading sport in America, and I intend to make that vision a reality,” <a href="https://twitter.com/soccerkcarter/status/938038094380589057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" type="external">Carter tweeted</a>. “Thrilled for you to get to know me and my vision for the game.”</p> | 2,799 |
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