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<p>U.S. borrowers are increasingly missing payments on home equity lines of credit they took out during the housing bubble, a trend that could deal another blow to the country's biggest banks.</p>
<p>The loans are a problem now because an increasing number are hitting their 10-year anniversary, at which point borrowers usually must start paying down the principal on the loans as well as the interest they had been paying all along.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>More than $221 billion of these loans at the largest banks will hit this mark over the next four years, about 40 percent of the home equity lines of credit now outstanding.</p>
<p>For a typical consumer, that shift can translate to their monthly payment more than tripling, a particular burden for the subprime borrowers that often took out these loans. And payments will rise further when the Federal Reserve starts to hike rates, because the loans usually carry floating interest rates.</p>
<p>The number of borrowers missing payments around the 10-year point can double in their eleventh year, data from consumer credit agency Equifax shows. When the loans go bad, banks can lose an eye-popping 90 cents on the dollar, because a home equity line of credit is usually the second mortgage a borrower has. If the bank forecloses, most of the proceeds of the sale pay off the main mortgage, leaving little for the home equity lender.</p>
<p>There are scenarios where everything works out fine. For example, if economic growth picks up, and home prices rise, borrowers may be able to refinance their main mortgage and their home equity lines of credit into a single new fixed-rate loan. Some borrowers would also be able to repay their loans by selling their homes into a strengthening market.</p>
<p>ONCE USED LIKE CREDIT CARDS</p>
<p>But some regulators, rating agencies, and analysts are alarmed. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a regulator overseeing national banks, has been warning banks about the risk of home equity lines since the spring of 2012. It is pressing banks to quantify their risks and minimize them where possible.</p>
<p>At a conference last month in Washington, DC, Amy Crews Cutts, the chief economist at consumer credit agency Equifax, told mortgage bankers that an increase in tens of thousands of homeowners' monthly payments on these home equity lines is a pending "wave of disaster."</p>
<p>Banks marketed home equity lines of credit aggressively before the housing bubble burst, and consumers were all too happy to use these loans like a cheaper version of credit card debt, paying for vacations and cars.</p>
<p>The big banks, including Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo &amp; Co, Citigroup Inc, and JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co have more than $10 billion of these home equity lines of credit on their books each, and in some cases much more than that.</p>
<p>How bad home equity lines of credit end up being for banks will hinge on the percentage of loans that default. Analysts struggle to forecast that number.</p>
<p>In the best case scenario, losses will edge higher from current levels, and will be entirely manageable. But the worst case scenario for some banks could be bad, eating deeply into their earnings and potentially cutting into their equity levels at a time when banks are under pressure to boost capital levels.</p>
<p>"We just don't know how close people are until they ultimately do hit delinquencies," said Darrin Benhart, the deputy comptroller for credit and market risk at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Banks can get some idea from updated credit scores, but "it's difficult to ferret that risk out," he said.</p>
<p>What is happening with home equity lines of credit illustrates how the mortgage bubble that formed in the years before the financial crisis is still hurting banks, even seven years after it burst. By many measures the mortgage market has yet to recover: The federal government still backs nine out of every ten home loans, 4.6 million foreclosures have been completed, and borrowers with excellent credit scores are still being denied loans.</p>
<p>NO EASY WAY OUT</p>
<p>Banks have some options for reducing their losses. They can encourage borrowers to sign up for a workout program if they will not be able to make their payments. In some cases, they can change the terms of the lines of credit to allow borrowers to pay only interest on their loans for a longer period, or to take longer to repay principal.</p>
<p>A Bank of America spokesman said in a statement that the bank is reaching out to customers more than a year before they have to start repaying principal on their loans, to explain options for refinancing or modifying their loans.</p>
<p>But these measures will only help so much, said Crews Cutts.</p>
<p>"There's no easy out on this," she said.</p>
<p>Between the end of 2003 and the end of 2007, outstanding debt on banks' home equity lines of credit jumped by 77 percent, to $611.4 billion from $346.1 billion, according to FDIC data, and while not every loan requires borrowers to start repaying principal after ten years, most do. These loans were attractive to banks during the housing boom, in part because lenders thought they could rely on the collateral value of the home to keep rising.</p>
<p>"These are very profitable at the beginning. People will take out these lines and make the early payments that are due," said Anthony Sanders, a professor of real estate finance at George Mason University who used to be a mortgage bond analyst at Deutsche Bank.</p>
<p>But after 10 years, a consumer with a $30,000 home equity line of credit and an initial interest rate of 3.25 percent would see their required payment jumping to $293.16 from $81.25, analysts from Fitch Ratings calculate.</p>
<p>That's why the loans are starting to look problematic: For home equity lines of credit made in 2003, missed payments have already started jumping.</p>
<p>Borrowers are delinquent on about 5.6 percent of loans made in 2003 that have hit their 10-year mark, Equifax data show, a figure that the agency estimates could rise to around 6 percent this year. That's a big jump from 2012, when delinquencies for loans from 2003 were closer to 3 percent.</p>
<p>This scenario will be increasingly common in the coming years: in 2014, borrowers on $29 billion of these loans at the biggest banks will see their monthly payment jump, followed by $53 billion in 2015, $66 billion in 2016, and $73 billion in 2017.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve could start raising rates as soon as July 2015, interest-rate futures markets show, which would also lift borrowers' monthly payments. The rising payments that consumers face "is the single largest risk that impacts the home equity book in Citi Holdings," Citigroup finance chief John Gerspach said on an October 16 conference call with analysts.</p>
<p>A high percentage of home equity lines of credit went to people with bad credit to begin with — over 16 percent of the home equity loans made in 2006, for example, went to people with credit scores below 659, seen by many banks as the dividing line between prime and subprime. In 2001, about 12 percent of home equity borrowers were subprime.</p>
<p>Banks are still getting hit by other mortgage problems too, most notably on the legal front. JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co last week agreed to a $13 billion settlement with the U.S. government over charges it overstated the quality of home loans it sold to investors.</p>
<p>TIP OF THE ICEBERG</p>
<p>Banks have differing exposure, and disclose varying levels of information, making it difficult to figure which is most exposed. The majority of home equity lines of credit are held by the biggest banks, said the OCC's Benhart.</p>
<p>At Bank of America, around $8 billion in outstanding home equity balances will reset before 2015 and another $57 billion will reset afterwards but it is unclear which years will have the highest number of resets. JPMorgan Chase said in an October regulatory filing that $9 billion will reset before 2015 and after 2017 and another $22 billion will reset in the intervening years.</p>
<p>At Wells Fargo, $4.5 billion of home equity balances will reset in 2014 and another $25.9 billion will reset between 2015 and 2017. At Citigroup, $1.3 billion in home equity lines of credit will reset in 2014 and another $14.8 billion will reset between 2015 and 2017.</p>
<p>Bank of America said that 9 percent of its outstanding home equity lines of credit that have reset were not performing. That kind of a figure would likely be manageable for big banks. But if home equity delinquencies rise to subprime-mortgage-like levels, it could spell trouble.</p>
<p>In terms of loan losses, "What we've seen so far is the tip of the iceberg. It's relatively low in relation to what's coming," Equifax's Crews Cuts said.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | New Wave of Mortgage Trouble on the Horizon? | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2013/11/26/new-wave-mortgage-trouble-on-horizon.html | 2016-03-02 | 0right
| New Wave of Mortgage Trouble on the Horizon?
<p>U.S. borrowers are increasingly missing payments on home equity lines of credit they took out during the housing bubble, a trend that could deal another blow to the country's biggest banks.</p>
<p>The loans are a problem now because an increasing number are hitting their 10-year anniversary, at which point borrowers usually must start paying down the principal on the loans as well as the interest they had been paying all along.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>More than $221 billion of these loans at the largest banks will hit this mark over the next four years, about 40 percent of the home equity lines of credit now outstanding.</p>
<p>For a typical consumer, that shift can translate to their monthly payment more than tripling, a particular burden for the subprime borrowers that often took out these loans. And payments will rise further when the Federal Reserve starts to hike rates, because the loans usually carry floating interest rates.</p>
<p>The number of borrowers missing payments around the 10-year point can double in their eleventh year, data from consumer credit agency Equifax shows. When the loans go bad, banks can lose an eye-popping 90 cents on the dollar, because a home equity line of credit is usually the second mortgage a borrower has. If the bank forecloses, most of the proceeds of the sale pay off the main mortgage, leaving little for the home equity lender.</p>
<p>There are scenarios where everything works out fine. For example, if economic growth picks up, and home prices rise, borrowers may be able to refinance their main mortgage and their home equity lines of credit into a single new fixed-rate loan. Some borrowers would also be able to repay their loans by selling their homes into a strengthening market.</p>
<p>ONCE USED LIKE CREDIT CARDS</p>
<p>But some regulators, rating agencies, and analysts are alarmed. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a regulator overseeing national banks, has been warning banks about the risk of home equity lines since the spring of 2012. It is pressing banks to quantify their risks and minimize them where possible.</p>
<p>At a conference last month in Washington, DC, Amy Crews Cutts, the chief economist at consumer credit agency Equifax, told mortgage bankers that an increase in tens of thousands of homeowners' monthly payments on these home equity lines is a pending "wave of disaster."</p>
<p>Banks marketed home equity lines of credit aggressively before the housing bubble burst, and consumers were all too happy to use these loans like a cheaper version of credit card debt, paying for vacations and cars.</p>
<p>The big banks, including Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo &amp; Co, Citigroup Inc, and JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co have more than $10 billion of these home equity lines of credit on their books each, and in some cases much more than that.</p>
<p>How bad home equity lines of credit end up being for banks will hinge on the percentage of loans that default. Analysts struggle to forecast that number.</p>
<p>In the best case scenario, losses will edge higher from current levels, and will be entirely manageable. But the worst case scenario for some banks could be bad, eating deeply into their earnings and potentially cutting into their equity levels at a time when banks are under pressure to boost capital levels.</p>
<p>"We just don't know how close people are until they ultimately do hit delinquencies," said Darrin Benhart, the deputy comptroller for credit and market risk at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Banks can get some idea from updated credit scores, but "it's difficult to ferret that risk out," he said.</p>
<p>What is happening with home equity lines of credit illustrates how the mortgage bubble that formed in the years before the financial crisis is still hurting banks, even seven years after it burst. By many measures the mortgage market has yet to recover: The federal government still backs nine out of every ten home loans, 4.6 million foreclosures have been completed, and borrowers with excellent credit scores are still being denied loans.</p>
<p>NO EASY WAY OUT</p>
<p>Banks have some options for reducing their losses. They can encourage borrowers to sign up for a workout program if they will not be able to make their payments. In some cases, they can change the terms of the lines of credit to allow borrowers to pay only interest on their loans for a longer period, or to take longer to repay principal.</p>
<p>A Bank of America spokesman said in a statement that the bank is reaching out to customers more than a year before they have to start repaying principal on their loans, to explain options for refinancing or modifying their loans.</p>
<p>But these measures will only help so much, said Crews Cutts.</p>
<p>"There's no easy out on this," she said.</p>
<p>Between the end of 2003 and the end of 2007, outstanding debt on banks' home equity lines of credit jumped by 77 percent, to $611.4 billion from $346.1 billion, according to FDIC data, and while not every loan requires borrowers to start repaying principal after ten years, most do. These loans were attractive to banks during the housing boom, in part because lenders thought they could rely on the collateral value of the home to keep rising.</p>
<p>"These are very profitable at the beginning. People will take out these lines and make the early payments that are due," said Anthony Sanders, a professor of real estate finance at George Mason University who used to be a mortgage bond analyst at Deutsche Bank.</p>
<p>But after 10 years, a consumer with a $30,000 home equity line of credit and an initial interest rate of 3.25 percent would see their required payment jumping to $293.16 from $81.25, analysts from Fitch Ratings calculate.</p>
<p>That's why the loans are starting to look problematic: For home equity lines of credit made in 2003, missed payments have already started jumping.</p>
<p>Borrowers are delinquent on about 5.6 percent of loans made in 2003 that have hit their 10-year mark, Equifax data show, a figure that the agency estimates could rise to around 6 percent this year. That's a big jump from 2012, when delinquencies for loans from 2003 were closer to 3 percent.</p>
<p>This scenario will be increasingly common in the coming years: in 2014, borrowers on $29 billion of these loans at the biggest banks will see their monthly payment jump, followed by $53 billion in 2015, $66 billion in 2016, and $73 billion in 2017.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve could start raising rates as soon as July 2015, interest-rate futures markets show, which would also lift borrowers' monthly payments. The rising payments that consumers face "is the single largest risk that impacts the home equity book in Citi Holdings," Citigroup finance chief John Gerspach said on an October 16 conference call with analysts.</p>
<p>A high percentage of home equity lines of credit went to people with bad credit to begin with — over 16 percent of the home equity loans made in 2006, for example, went to people with credit scores below 659, seen by many banks as the dividing line between prime and subprime. In 2001, about 12 percent of home equity borrowers were subprime.</p>
<p>Banks are still getting hit by other mortgage problems too, most notably on the legal front. JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co last week agreed to a $13 billion settlement with the U.S. government over charges it overstated the quality of home loans it sold to investors.</p>
<p>TIP OF THE ICEBERG</p>
<p>Banks have differing exposure, and disclose varying levels of information, making it difficult to figure which is most exposed. The majority of home equity lines of credit are held by the biggest banks, said the OCC's Benhart.</p>
<p>At Bank of America, around $8 billion in outstanding home equity balances will reset before 2015 and another $57 billion will reset afterwards but it is unclear which years will have the highest number of resets. JPMorgan Chase said in an October regulatory filing that $9 billion will reset before 2015 and after 2017 and another $22 billion will reset in the intervening years.</p>
<p>At Wells Fargo, $4.5 billion of home equity balances will reset in 2014 and another $25.9 billion will reset between 2015 and 2017. At Citigroup, $1.3 billion in home equity lines of credit will reset in 2014 and another $14.8 billion will reset between 2015 and 2017.</p>
<p>Bank of America said that 9 percent of its outstanding home equity lines of credit that have reset were not performing. That kind of a figure would likely be manageable for big banks. But if home equity delinquencies rise to subprime-mortgage-like levels, it could spell trouble.</p>
<p>In terms of loan losses, "What we've seen so far is the tip of the iceberg. It's relatively low in relation to what's coming," Equifax's Crews Cuts said.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p> | 4,000 |
<p>The undisguised, ultra-rightist biases of Fox News are all too familiar to anyone who is paying attention. Particularly since the election of Donald Trump, who has built the Fox Team into a partisan media border wall that works ferociously to defend him no matter how dishonest or disgusting his behavior. Trump even treats Fox as <a href="" type="internal">his recruiting pool</a> White House personnel.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsCorpse/posts/2076137832401001" type="external" /></p>
<p>However, there is one outpost of semi-sanity on the network that occasionally diverts from the Fox gospel. Afternoon anchor Shepard Smith has been known to propound actual facts in contrast to the deliberate lies and propaganda that infect the rest of Fox’s roster. Notably, he presented a <a href="https://youtu.be/8vCjyWlpmEY" type="external">reality-based summary</a> of the Uranium One issue that many Fox squawking heads twisted into a perverse anti-Hillary Clinton harangue. He has also offered a more <a href="https://youtu.be/rdcppVPa4CQ" type="external">compassionate view</a> of victims of gun violence than is generally exhibited by Fox’s NRA shills. These sort of segments have made Smith the most hated man on Fox News by Fox News viewers.</p>
<p>Predictably, the news that Smith <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fox-news-signsshepard-smith-new-multiyear-deal-1094727" type="external">just signed</a> a new, multiyear contract with Fox News has landed with a thud among the Fox faithful who have been clamoring for him to fired. And a recent <a href="http://time.com/longform/shepard-smith-fox-news/" type="external">profile</a> of Smith by Time Magazine wherein he expressed some candid opinions about his employer and colleagues isn’t going to make them any happier. Smith differentiated his role as a journalist with that of the “entertainers” who populate Fox’s primetime:</p>
<p>“We serve different masters. We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules. They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion. I don’t really watch a lot of opinion programming. I’m busy.” […]</p>
<p>“I get it,” he says, “that some of our opinion programming is there strictly to be entertaining. I get that. I don’t work there. I wouldn’t work there.”</p>
<p>Smith is right. And his characterization of much of Fox’s programming as entertainment is consistent with what Fox News executives have said. News Corpse reported in 2015 a variety of admissions by Fox that they are <a href="" type="internal">not really in the news business</a>. Among them the confession that Fox founder and CEO, the late Roger Ailes, gave to the Hollywood Reporter. He dismissed talk that Fox competed with other news networks, instead insisting that “We’re competing with TNT and USA and ESPN.”</p>
<p>But Smith’s remarks did not go unnoticed by his network-mate, Sean Hannity. As the Fox host most fiercely infatuated with Trump, Hannity took offense at being trivialized as an entertainer. He tweeted this response to Smith:</p>
<p />
<p>Smith never mentioned Hannity in his profile, but Hannity had no reservations making this feud personal. His indignation is hysterical considering that he broke none of the “stories” (actually crackpot conspiracy theories) he itemized in his tweet. He merely regurgitated them from other sleazy sources that feed his wingnut fringe fantasies (Breitbart, Infowars, Gateway Pundit, etc.). And then he has the gall to sign off with Fox’s brand new slogan, “Real News.” Fox <a href="https://twitter.com/NewsCorpse/status/973287749645082624" type="external">posted a promo</a> for the new tagline that warned “It’s about to get REAL.” Which kind of implies that it’s been bullshit up until now.</p>
<p>Another problem with Hannity trash-talking Smith is that Hannity himself has denied being a journalist. Or maybe this calmly phrased tweet was just misunderstood:</p>
<p />
<p>Inquiring minds want to know: If Hannity is not a “journalist jackass,” then what kind of jackass is he? It’s almost impossible to tell because he keeps contradicting himself. <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2017/08/07/contrary-past-protestation-sean-hannity-announces-im-journalist/217546" type="external">On his radio show</a> last August he insisted that “I’m a journalist but I’m an advocacy journalist.” Apparently Hannity is whatever he says he is at the time he’s saying it. Like most of what comes out of his mouth, it cannot be taken seriously or relied upon to be operative an hour later.</p>
<p>Poor Hannity must be terribly disturbed by how badly he is being <a href="" type="internal">crushed by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow</a> lately. He was moved by Fox to directly compete with her a few months ago, but they may be regretting that now. All it did was affirm how weak he is as a TV personality. And while there are a lot of Fox viewers who would like to see Smith fired, there are many more American who would prefer that Hannity is sent packing. And you can help by signing on here: <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fox-news-signsshepard-smith-new-multiyear-deal-1094727" type="external">Stop Hannity</a>.</p>
<p>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QSSMOES/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newscorpsecom-20&amp;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS" type="external">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.</a> Available now at Amazon.</p> | Popcorn Time: War Breaks Out at Fox News Between Shepard Smith and Sean Hannity | true | http://newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p%3D34190 | 4left
| Popcorn Time: War Breaks Out at Fox News Between Shepard Smith and Sean Hannity
<p>The undisguised, ultra-rightist biases of Fox News are all too familiar to anyone who is paying attention. Particularly since the election of Donald Trump, who has built the Fox Team into a partisan media border wall that works ferociously to defend him no matter how dishonest or disgusting his behavior. Trump even treats Fox as <a href="" type="internal">his recruiting pool</a> White House personnel.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsCorpse/posts/2076137832401001" type="external" /></p>
<p>However, there is one outpost of semi-sanity on the network that occasionally diverts from the Fox gospel. Afternoon anchor Shepard Smith has been known to propound actual facts in contrast to the deliberate lies and propaganda that infect the rest of Fox’s roster. Notably, he presented a <a href="https://youtu.be/8vCjyWlpmEY" type="external">reality-based summary</a> of the Uranium One issue that many Fox squawking heads twisted into a perverse anti-Hillary Clinton harangue. He has also offered a more <a href="https://youtu.be/rdcppVPa4CQ" type="external">compassionate view</a> of victims of gun violence than is generally exhibited by Fox’s NRA shills. These sort of segments have made Smith the most hated man on Fox News by Fox News viewers.</p>
<p>Predictably, the news that Smith <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fox-news-signsshepard-smith-new-multiyear-deal-1094727" type="external">just signed</a> a new, multiyear contract with Fox News has landed with a thud among the Fox faithful who have been clamoring for him to fired. And a recent <a href="http://time.com/longform/shepard-smith-fox-news/" type="external">profile</a> of Smith by Time Magazine wherein he expressed some candid opinions about his employer and colleagues isn’t going to make them any happier. Smith differentiated his role as a journalist with that of the “entertainers” who populate Fox’s primetime:</p>
<p>“We serve different masters. We work for different reporting chains, we have different rules. They don’t really have rules on the opinion side. They can say whatever they want. If it’s their opinion. I don’t really watch a lot of opinion programming. I’m busy.” […]</p>
<p>“I get it,” he says, “that some of our opinion programming is there strictly to be entertaining. I get that. I don’t work there. I wouldn’t work there.”</p>
<p>Smith is right. And his characterization of much of Fox’s programming as entertainment is consistent with what Fox News executives have said. News Corpse reported in 2015 a variety of admissions by Fox that they are <a href="" type="internal">not really in the news business</a>. Among them the confession that Fox founder and CEO, the late Roger Ailes, gave to the Hollywood Reporter. He dismissed talk that Fox competed with other news networks, instead insisting that “We’re competing with TNT and USA and ESPN.”</p>
<p>But Smith’s remarks did not go unnoticed by his network-mate, Sean Hannity. As the Fox host most fiercely infatuated with Trump, Hannity took offense at being trivialized as an entertainer. He tweeted this response to Smith:</p>
<p />
<p>Smith never mentioned Hannity in his profile, but Hannity had no reservations making this feud personal. His indignation is hysterical considering that he broke none of the “stories” (actually crackpot conspiracy theories) he itemized in his tweet. He merely regurgitated them from other sleazy sources that feed his wingnut fringe fantasies (Breitbart, Infowars, Gateway Pundit, etc.). And then he has the gall to sign off with Fox’s brand new slogan, “Real News.” Fox <a href="https://twitter.com/NewsCorpse/status/973287749645082624" type="external">posted a promo</a> for the new tagline that warned “It’s about to get REAL.” Which kind of implies that it’s been bullshit up until now.</p>
<p>Another problem with Hannity trash-talking Smith is that Hannity himself has denied being a journalist. Or maybe this calmly phrased tweet was just misunderstood:</p>
<p />
<p>Inquiring minds want to know: If Hannity is not a “journalist jackass,” then what kind of jackass is he? It’s almost impossible to tell because he keeps contradicting himself. <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2017/08/07/contrary-past-protestation-sean-hannity-announces-im-journalist/217546" type="external">On his radio show</a> last August he insisted that “I’m a journalist but I’m an advocacy journalist.” Apparently Hannity is whatever he says he is at the time he’s saying it. Like most of what comes out of his mouth, it cannot be taken seriously or relied upon to be operative an hour later.</p>
<p>Poor Hannity must be terribly disturbed by how badly he is being <a href="" type="internal">crushed by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow</a> lately. He was moved by Fox to directly compete with her a few months ago, but they may be regretting that now. All it did was affirm how weak he is as a TV personality. And while there are a lot of Fox viewers who would like to see Smith fired, there are many more American who would prefer that Hannity is sent packing. And you can help by signing on here: <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fox-news-signsshepard-smith-new-multiyear-deal-1094727" type="external">Stop Hannity</a>.</p>
<p>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QSSMOES/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newscorpsecom-20&amp;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS" type="external">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.</a> Available now at Amazon.</p> | 4,001 |
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<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — Northern New Mexico College is now Northern New Mexico University, according to a media release from the school.</p>
<p>The name change was approved by a unanimous vote of Northern’s board of regents on Tuesday. The change came on the recommendation of the school’s Academic Affairs Committee, according tot he release.</p>
<p>Pedro Martinez, a provost and vice-president of academic affairs, said the name change was long overdue.</p>
<p>“The term University reflects the depth and breath of our academic offerings, and we are continuing to add more,” he said.</p>
<p>President Nancy Barceló said the name change would reduce confusion between the school’s component colleges and the university as a whole. She added that it would help the institution be regarded with equal status as other state institutions, such as Western New Mexico and New Mexico Highlands.</p>
<p>The name change does not constitute a change in the school’s status or offerings.</p>
<p>Northern, with campuses in Española and El Rito, currently offers 13 bachelor’s degree programs and in recent years has expanded post-baccalaureate opportunities through partnerships with other schools.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Northern New Mexico College is now a university | false | https://abqjournal.com/532997/northern-new-mexico-college-is-now-a-university.html | 2least
| Northern New Mexico College is now a university
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — Northern New Mexico College is now Northern New Mexico University, according to a media release from the school.</p>
<p>The name change was approved by a unanimous vote of Northern’s board of regents on Tuesday. The change came on the recommendation of the school’s Academic Affairs Committee, according tot he release.</p>
<p>Pedro Martinez, a provost and vice-president of academic affairs, said the name change was long overdue.</p>
<p>“The term University reflects the depth and breath of our academic offerings, and we are continuing to add more,” he said.</p>
<p>President Nancy Barceló said the name change would reduce confusion between the school’s component colleges and the university as a whole. She added that it would help the institution be regarded with equal status as other state institutions, such as Western New Mexico and New Mexico Highlands.</p>
<p>The name change does not constitute a change in the school’s status or offerings.</p>
<p>Northern, with campuses in Española and El Rito, currently offers 13 bachelor’s degree programs and in recent years has expanded post-baccalaureate opportunities through partnerships with other schools.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 4,002 |
|
<p>MAGDALENA, N.M. (AP) - The town marshal in the west-central New Mexico town of Magdalena is without his two deputies following their arrests and resignations in a domestic disturbance involving the girlfriend of one of the men.</p>
<p>KRQE-TV <a href="http://krqe.com/2018/01/02/police-towns-only-two-deputies-resign-after-they-hog-tied-woman/" type="external">reports</a> that 24-year-old Anthony Brookins and 29-year-old Marocco Apachito resigned last weekend after being arrested for using two sets of handcuffs to hogtie Apachito's girlfriend after she locked her herself in a bathroom and then allegedly kicked and scratched him when he forced his way in.</p>
<p>Marshal Larry Cearley says both deputies "went to jail" after New Mexico State Police responded to the altercation Friday</p>
<p>Online court records don't list attorneys who could comment on behalf of the former deputies.</p>
<p>Cearly says he's disappointed that the now-former deputies made a mistake "that cost them their careers."</p>
<p>MAGDALENA, N.M. (AP) - The town marshal in the west-central New Mexico town of Magdalena is without his two deputies following their arrests and resignations in a domestic disturbance involving the girlfriend of one of the men.</p>
<p>KRQE-TV <a href="http://krqe.com/2018/01/02/police-towns-only-two-deputies-resign-after-they-hog-tied-woman/" type="external">reports</a> that 24-year-old Anthony Brookins and 29-year-old Marocco Apachito resigned last weekend after being arrested for using two sets of handcuffs to hogtie Apachito's girlfriend after she locked her herself in a bathroom and then allegedly kicked and scratched him when he forced his way in.</p>
<p>Marshal Larry Cearley says both deputies "went to jail" after New Mexico State Police responded to the altercation Friday</p>
<p>Online court records don't list attorneys who could comment on behalf of the former deputies.</p>
<p>Cearly says he's disappointed that the now-former deputies made a mistake "that cost them their careers."</p> | 2 deputies resign after altercation involving girlfriend | false | https://apnews.com/amp/dfaf86c453654b1c9c723e89e6f4ea28 | 2018-01-03 | 2least
| 2 deputies resign after altercation involving girlfriend
<p>MAGDALENA, N.M. (AP) - The town marshal in the west-central New Mexico town of Magdalena is without his two deputies following their arrests and resignations in a domestic disturbance involving the girlfriend of one of the men.</p>
<p>KRQE-TV <a href="http://krqe.com/2018/01/02/police-towns-only-two-deputies-resign-after-they-hog-tied-woman/" type="external">reports</a> that 24-year-old Anthony Brookins and 29-year-old Marocco Apachito resigned last weekend after being arrested for using two sets of handcuffs to hogtie Apachito's girlfriend after she locked her herself in a bathroom and then allegedly kicked and scratched him when he forced his way in.</p>
<p>Marshal Larry Cearley says both deputies "went to jail" after New Mexico State Police responded to the altercation Friday</p>
<p>Online court records don't list attorneys who could comment on behalf of the former deputies.</p>
<p>Cearly says he's disappointed that the now-former deputies made a mistake "that cost them their careers."</p>
<p>MAGDALENA, N.M. (AP) - The town marshal in the west-central New Mexico town of Magdalena is without his two deputies following their arrests and resignations in a domestic disturbance involving the girlfriend of one of the men.</p>
<p>KRQE-TV <a href="http://krqe.com/2018/01/02/police-towns-only-two-deputies-resign-after-they-hog-tied-woman/" type="external">reports</a> that 24-year-old Anthony Brookins and 29-year-old Marocco Apachito resigned last weekend after being arrested for using two sets of handcuffs to hogtie Apachito's girlfriend after she locked her herself in a bathroom and then allegedly kicked and scratched him when he forced his way in.</p>
<p>Marshal Larry Cearley says both deputies "went to jail" after New Mexico State Police responded to the altercation Friday</p>
<p>Online court records don't list attorneys who could comment on behalf of the former deputies.</p>
<p>Cearly says he's disappointed that the now-former deputies made a mistake "that cost them their careers."</p> | 4,003 |
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<p>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A U.S. Navy patrol boat fired warning shots Tuesday near an Iranian vessel that American sailors said came dangerously close to them during a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf, the first such incident to happen under President Donald Trump. Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Guard later blamed the American ship for provoking the situation.</p>
<p>The encounter involving the USS Thunderbolt, a Cyclone-class patrol ship based in Bahrain as part of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, is the latest confrontation between Iranian vessels and American warships. It comes as Trump already has threatened to renegotiate the nuclear deal struck by his predecessor and after his administration previously put Iran “on notice” over its ballistic missile tests.</p>
<p>The Thunderbolt was taking part in an exercise with American and other coalition vessels in international waters when the Iranian patrol boat approached it, 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Ian McConnaughey said. The Iranian ship did not respond to radio calls, flares and horn blasts as it came within 150 yards (137 meters) of the Thunderbolt, forcing the U.S. sailors aboard to fire the warning shots, McConnaughey said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“After the warning shots were fired, the Iranian vessel halted its unsafe approach,” the lieutenant said in a statement, adding that the Iranian vessel created “a risk for collision.” Large ships can’t stop immediately on the water, meaning getting close to each other risks a collision.</p>
<p>Video released by the Navy included a sailor giving a position off the eastern coast of Kuwait as the Iranian vessel sat directly in front of an American warship’s bow. Another video included images of the Iranian ship off the Thunderbolt as its horn blared. The sound of machine gun fire followed.</p>
<p>Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instead blamed the Thunderbolt for the incident in a statement, saying the American vessel moved toward one of its patrol boats. It said the Thunderbolt fired into the air “with the intention to provoke and create fear.”</p>
<p>Iran and the U.S. frequently have tense naval encounters in the Persian Gulf, nearly all involving the Revolutionary Guard, a separate force from Iran’s military that answers only to the country’s supreme leader. The last one to involve warning shots happened in January near the end of then-President Barack Obama’s term, when the USS Mahan fired shots toward Iranian fast attack boats as they neared the destroyer in the Strait of Hormuz.</p>
<p>The U.S. Navy recorded 35 instances of what it describes as “unsafe and/or unprofessional” interactions with Iranians forces in 2016, compared to 23 in 2015. Some analysts believe the incidents at sea are meant in part to squeeze moderate President Hassan Rouhani’s administration after the 2015 nuclear deal, like hard-liners’ arrests of dual nationals.</p>
<p>Of the incidents at sea last year, the worst involved Iranian forces capturing 10 U.S. sailors and holding them overnight. It became a propaganda coup for Iran’s hard-liners, as Iranian state television repeatedly aired footage of the Americans on their knees, their hands on their heads.</p>
<p>Iranian forces view the American presence in the Gulf as a provocation by itself. They in turn have accused the U.S. Navy of unprofessional behavior, especially in the Strait of Hormuz, the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a third of all oil trade by sea passes.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellap" type="external">www.twitter.com/jongambrellap</a> . His work can be found at <a href="http://apne.ws/2galNpz" type="external">http://apne.ws/2galNpz</a> .</p> | US Navy fires warning shots near Iran ship in Persian Gulf | false | https://abqjournal.com/1037907/official-us-navy-ship-fires-warning-shots-near-iranian-ship.html | 2017-07-25 | 2least
| US Navy fires warning shots near Iran ship in Persian Gulf
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A U.S. Navy patrol boat fired warning shots Tuesday near an Iranian vessel that American sailors said came dangerously close to them during a tense encounter in the Persian Gulf, the first such incident to happen under President Donald Trump. Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Guard later blamed the American ship for provoking the situation.</p>
<p>The encounter involving the USS Thunderbolt, a Cyclone-class patrol ship based in Bahrain as part of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, is the latest confrontation between Iranian vessels and American warships. It comes as Trump already has threatened to renegotiate the nuclear deal struck by his predecessor and after his administration previously put Iran “on notice” over its ballistic missile tests.</p>
<p>The Thunderbolt was taking part in an exercise with American and other coalition vessels in international waters when the Iranian patrol boat approached it, 5th Fleet spokesman Lt. Ian McConnaughey said. The Iranian ship did not respond to radio calls, flares and horn blasts as it came within 150 yards (137 meters) of the Thunderbolt, forcing the U.S. sailors aboard to fire the warning shots, McConnaughey said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“After the warning shots were fired, the Iranian vessel halted its unsafe approach,” the lieutenant said in a statement, adding that the Iranian vessel created “a risk for collision.” Large ships can’t stop immediately on the water, meaning getting close to each other risks a collision.</p>
<p>Video released by the Navy included a sailor giving a position off the eastern coast of Kuwait as the Iranian vessel sat directly in front of an American warship’s bow. Another video included images of the Iranian ship off the Thunderbolt as its horn blared. The sound of machine gun fire followed.</p>
<p>Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instead blamed the Thunderbolt for the incident in a statement, saying the American vessel moved toward one of its patrol boats. It said the Thunderbolt fired into the air “with the intention to provoke and create fear.”</p>
<p>Iran and the U.S. frequently have tense naval encounters in the Persian Gulf, nearly all involving the Revolutionary Guard, a separate force from Iran’s military that answers only to the country’s supreme leader. The last one to involve warning shots happened in January near the end of then-President Barack Obama’s term, when the USS Mahan fired shots toward Iranian fast attack boats as they neared the destroyer in the Strait of Hormuz.</p>
<p>The U.S. Navy recorded 35 instances of what it describes as “unsafe and/or unprofessional” interactions with Iranians forces in 2016, compared to 23 in 2015. Some analysts believe the incidents at sea are meant in part to squeeze moderate President Hassan Rouhani’s administration after the 2015 nuclear deal, like hard-liners’ arrests of dual nationals.</p>
<p>Of the incidents at sea last year, the worst involved Iranian forces capturing 10 U.S. sailors and holding them overnight. It became a propaganda coup for Iran’s hard-liners, as Iranian state television repeatedly aired footage of the Americans on their knees, their hands on their heads.</p>
<p>Iranian forces view the American presence in the Gulf as a provocation by itself. They in turn have accused the U.S. Navy of unprofessional behavior, especially in the Strait of Hormuz, the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a third of all oil trade by sea passes.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellap" type="external">www.twitter.com/jongambrellap</a> . His work can be found at <a href="http://apne.ws/2galNpz" type="external">http://apne.ws/2galNpz</a> .</p> | 4,004 |
<p><a href="" type="external">A dispassionate examination of Israeli policy and its negative impact on the US at the Wilson Center</a> by 5 former ambassadors is summarized at the Holy Land Peace Project blog. Josh argues that there is a significant change in what can be said publicly with regard to criticism of Israeli government actions. Some major points made by the ambassadors:</p>
<p>‘# Continued Israeli settlement building (not just expansion but building) is a major obstacle to the peace process and undermines the U.S. role as a mediator in the region. # Petraeus was absolutely right: American security interests are threatened by the lack of progress on Israeli-Palestinian peace. # The Obama administration has rightfully placed great focus on peacemaking, appointing George Mitchell on his first full day in office and reaching out to the Arab world with his Cairo speech. However, after 15 months the administration has not really laid out a clear U.S. policy on Israeli-Palestinian peace and this is hampering his efforts.’</p>
<p>But the supposed ban on saying these things was always a project of a small number of far-rightwing but very wealthy Jewish-American organizations such as the Zionist Organization of America and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.</p>
<p>More American Jews want a Palestinian state than do not want one <a href="" type="external">according to a just-released survey of American Jewish opinion by the American Jewish Congress</a> (48% to 45%). Admittedly, <a href="" type="external">67% of the general American public supports a Palestinian state</a>, but that nearly half of American Jews do, as well, shows that this issue is controversial only because a few far rightwing fringe elements are supported by a small number of extremely wealthy Christian Zionists and Wall Street types. By the numbers, I am solidly in the mainstream of both general American and US Jewish attitudes on this issue. It is the Daniel Pipes, Martin Kramers, Marty Peretzes, and John Hagees who are the extremists.</p>
<p>Some 64% of American Jews are also in favor of dismantling ‘some’ settlements on the West Bank to get peace, and nearly one in ten want all settlements disbanded. <a href="" type="external">Among Americans in general, only 49% say Israel should be required to stop building settlements as part of a peace deal</a>. It isn’t exactly the same question, but it may be that Jewish Americans are more flexible on this issue than are American gentiles, and they are certainly more flexible than are Republican Christians.</p>
<p>One big danger signal for supporters of Israel: The percentage of Americans who were sure that Israel is an ally of the US has fallen in Rasmussen’s polling from 70% last August to 58% in March. Since the far rightwing Likud government in Israel is clearly not interested in cooperating with the current US Middle East policy, and this attitude is obvious in their churlish behavior toward Joe Biden and US congressmen, it is no wonder that doubts are creeping in.</p> | US Attitudes, Discourse on Israel Shifting to Realism | true | http://juancole.com/2010/04/us-attitudes-discourse-on-israel-shifting-to-realism.html | 2010-04-13 | 4left
| US Attitudes, Discourse on Israel Shifting to Realism
<p><a href="" type="external">A dispassionate examination of Israeli policy and its negative impact on the US at the Wilson Center</a> by 5 former ambassadors is summarized at the Holy Land Peace Project blog. Josh argues that there is a significant change in what can be said publicly with regard to criticism of Israeli government actions. Some major points made by the ambassadors:</p>
<p>‘# Continued Israeli settlement building (not just expansion but building) is a major obstacle to the peace process and undermines the U.S. role as a mediator in the region. # Petraeus was absolutely right: American security interests are threatened by the lack of progress on Israeli-Palestinian peace. # The Obama administration has rightfully placed great focus on peacemaking, appointing George Mitchell on his first full day in office and reaching out to the Arab world with his Cairo speech. However, after 15 months the administration has not really laid out a clear U.S. policy on Israeli-Palestinian peace and this is hampering his efforts.’</p>
<p>But the supposed ban on saying these things was always a project of a small number of far-rightwing but very wealthy Jewish-American organizations such as the Zionist Organization of America and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.</p>
<p>More American Jews want a Palestinian state than do not want one <a href="" type="external">according to a just-released survey of American Jewish opinion by the American Jewish Congress</a> (48% to 45%). Admittedly, <a href="" type="external">67% of the general American public supports a Palestinian state</a>, but that nearly half of American Jews do, as well, shows that this issue is controversial only because a few far rightwing fringe elements are supported by a small number of extremely wealthy Christian Zionists and Wall Street types. By the numbers, I am solidly in the mainstream of both general American and US Jewish attitudes on this issue. It is the Daniel Pipes, Martin Kramers, Marty Peretzes, and John Hagees who are the extremists.</p>
<p>Some 64% of American Jews are also in favor of dismantling ‘some’ settlements on the West Bank to get peace, and nearly one in ten want all settlements disbanded. <a href="" type="external">Among Americans in general, only 49% say Israel should be required to stop building settlements as part of a peace deal</a>. It isn’t exactly the same question, but it may be that Jewish Americans are more flexible on this issue than are American gentiles, and they are certainly more flexible than are Republican Christians.</p>
<p>One big danger signal for supporters of Israel: The percentage of Americans who were sure that Israel is an ally of the US has fallen in Rasmussen’s polling from 70% last August to 58% in March. Since the far rightwing Likud government in Israel is clearly not interested in cooperating with the current US Middle East policy, and this attitude is obvious in their churlish behavior toward Joe Biden and US congressmen, it is no wonder that doubts are creeping in.</p> | 4,005 |
<p>Jerry Lewis, the brash slapstick comic who teamed with Dean Martin in the 1950s and later starred in “The Nutty Professor” and “The Bellboy” before launching the Muscular Dystrophy telethon, has died in Las Vegas. He was 91.</p>
<p>The Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John Katsilometes reported that he died at his home at 9:15 a.m. and his agent confirmed the news.</p>
<p>Over the past 10 years of his life, the cranky icon’s reputation soured as he was forced to apologize for making a gay slur on camera during the 2007 telethon, continued to make racist jokes into his ’90s, and didn’t hesitate to share his right-wing political views.</p>
<p>He appeared in a few later films such as Martin Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy,” but Lewis was largely offscreen from the late ’60s on and was more active with his annual Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy telethon, for which he raised more than $2.45 billion before being relieved of his role as leader of the telethon in 2011.</p>
<p>The high regard in which his comic abilities were held in France — he received the Legion of Honor award in 1983 — became a running joke in the U.S. long after Lewis’ style of broad physical comedy fell out of fashion. His final film, “Max Rose,” screened at France’s Cannes Film Festival in 2013.</p>
<p>The telethon, like other aspects of Lewis’ life, was beset by controversy. The comic’s offstage persona was anything but humorous. He was, by his own admission, an impatient man, and over the years battled numerous illnesses and a prescription drug dependency. His parting with Martin in 1956 after 10 years as a duo was acrimonious. And the telethons were awash in claims that there was a disparity between the money pledged and the money collected.</p>
<p>Lewis’ pairing with Martin, featuring their improvisatory backbiting and physical chicanery, was an instant hit in 1946. When producer Hal Wallis saw them performing at the Copacabana and at Slapsie Maxie’s in Hollywood, he saw the potential for a new Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and signed them to a Paramount Pictures contract.</p>
<p>For the next 10 years, Martin and Lewis turned out one silly film after the next starting with “My Friend Irma” in 1949 and including “The Caddy,” “The Stooge,” “Artists and Models” and “Pardners.” None of their films grossed less than $5 million, a handy sum in those days.</p>
<p>The premises of the films grew tired, and the more Martin and Lewis worked together, the more disparate they appeared. In 1956, after their film “Hollywood or Bust,” they made their last dual appearance at the Copacabana.</p>
<p>By the time of their breakup, Martin had a prosperous career as a recording artist and actor. And soon Lewis, too, was a hot solo ticket.</p>
<p>Shortly after they broke up, Lewis filled in for an ailing Judy Garland in Las Vegas. Over the next five years Lewis developed a slicker, more sophisticated stage persona and would continue to play Vegas until 2013.</p>
<p>Onscreen he made a go of it in such films as “The Delicate Delinquent” and “Rock-a-Bye Baby.” Lewis even had a million-selling single in the “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby” title track, which led to several albums on Decca Records.</p>
<p>He then extended his efforts into writing, producing and directing films. The first two, 1961’s “The Ladies Man” and 1962’s “The Errand Boy,” showed him at his best. His talents also dovetailed with director Frank Tashlin’s style in films such as “Cinderfella” and “The Disorderly Orderly.”</p>
<p>“The Nutty Professor” (1963) was his biggest success ever, grossing $19 million. But by then his mugging and exaggerated body gyrations had become out of control, as had the syrupy moments in his films.</p>
<p>Lewis signed a nonexclusive deal with Columbia that resulted in several uninspired films such as “Three on a Couch,” “The Big Mouth” and “Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.” Even Lewis had to admit, “Jerry Lewis is never just OK or adequate; he’s either very funny or he’s awful.”</p>
<p>While Americans largely dismissed him, Lewis had developed a following at French film journals Cahiers du Cinema and Positif.</p>
<p>He was born Joseph Levitch in Newark, N.J. Both his parents were in show business and, at the age of 5, Lewis made his debut at a Borscht Belt hotel singing “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?”</p>
<p>Perhaps because his parents spent a great deal of time on the road, Lewis was demanding attention through humor by the time he was attending Irvington High School in New Jersey. By age 15 he was pantomiming operatic and popular songs and was booked into a burlesque house in Buffalo.</p>
<p>In 1942 he tried out his comic pantomiming at Brown’s Hotel in upstate New York, where he was also working the summer as a bellboy. Comic Irving Kaye was sufficiently impressed to land Lewis some bookings and became his road manager.</p>
<p>Lewis met the young singer Dean Martin at New York nightclub the Glass Hatt and was first paired with him in 1946. Afters years of rupture, Martin made a surprise appearance on the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in 1976, and the pair reconciled after the death of Martin’s son in the late 1980s. (Martin died in 1995.)</p>
<p>In the early ’70s he continued to direct uninspired fare such as “Which Way to the Front?” and then tried a serious film, “The Day the Clown Cried,” though he famously shelved the completed work (some footage of it finally surfaced in 2013). He attempted a live TV variety show that failed, as did an attempt at a Broadway musical, “Feeling No Pain”; it was followed by the acrimonious “Hellzapoppin,” which was ditched out of town in Boston at a loss of $1.25 million.</p>
<p>In 1972 he lent his name to a string of 200 movie theaters for Network Cinema Corp., which led to bankruptcy proceedings in 1974. His heavy schedule also brought him to the verge of a nervous breakdown, serious ulcer problems and painkiller drug dependency. In 1982 he had double-bypass heart surgery and gave up his four pack-a-day smoking habit.</p>
<p>Lewis was offscreen until 1979’s low-budget “Hardly Working,” which he also directed; it did not reverse his fortunes. But in 1982, director Martin Scorsese harnessed the brash, cynical side of Lewis’ persona for the role of a kidnapped latenight talkshow host in “The King of Comedy.” Though he reportedly resented being upstaged by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard, the film represented some of Lewis’ finest work. Another high point was a similarly caustic appearance as a lethal underworld figure on the TV series “Wiseguy.”</p>
<p>Most of his later film work, however, failed to impress, such as “Slapstick of Another Kind,” “Cookie” and 1992’s “American Dreamer.”</p>
<p>In 1995, he appeared in Peter Chelsom’s film “Funny Bones” and took over the role of the devil in a Broadway revival of “Damn Yankees,” which he took on tour in the U.S.; he then appeared in a London production of the musical.</p>
<p>In 2003 he provided a guest voice on an episode of “The Simpsons”; in 2006 he did an episode of “Law and Order: SVU” in which he played the insane, morally befuddled but bizarrely benevolent uncle of Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer).</p>
<p>Lewis long sought to create a sequel to “The Nutty Professor”; eventually, Imagine Entertainment produced and Universal released the 1996 remake starring Eddie Murphy on which Lewis was credited for the screenplay to the 1963 version and as an executive producer.</p>
<p>Lewis also hoped to bring a musical adaptation of “The Nutty Professor” to Broadway. By summer 2012 an ailing but still enthusiastic Lewis made his stage helming debut with such a musical, with a score by Marvin Hamlisch and a book and lyrics by Rupert Holmes, in Nashville, where it played for seven weeks.</p>
<p>In 2013 Lewis starred in the long-gestating project “Max Rose,” written and directed by Daniel Noah and also starring Claire Bloom, Kevin Pollak, Kerry Bishe and Mort Sahl. Lewis played a jazz pianist who recently became a widower.</p>
<p>In 2009, Lewis received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts &amp; Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Award for his charitable work. In May 2014, he added his footprints to those of other screen luminaries at the Chinese Theatre.</p>
<p>In 1944 Lewis married former band singer Patti Palmer, with whom he had six sons, Gary, Ronnie, Scott, Anthony, Christopher and Joseph, who died in 2009. Gary for a time had a rock career as the lead singer of Gary Lewis &amp; the Playboys. The marriage ended in divorce.</p>
<p>He is survived by his second wife, SanDee Pitnick, with whom he adopted a daughter.</p> | Jerry Lewis, Comedy Legend, Dies at 91 | false | https://newsline.com/jerry-lewis-comedy-legend-dies-at-91/ | 2017-08-20 | 1right-center
| Jerry Lewis, Comedy Legend, Dies at 91
<p>Jerry Lewis, the brash slapstick comic who teamed with Dean Martin in the 1950s and later starred in “The Nutty Professor” and “The Bellboy” before launching the Muscular Dystrophy telethon, has died in Las Vegas. He was 91.</p>
<p>The Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John Katsilometes reported that he died at his home at 9:15 a.m. and his agent confirmed the news.</p>
<p>Over the past 10 years of his life, the cranky icon’s reputation soured as he was forced to apologize for making a gay slur on camera during the 2007 telethon, continued to make racist jokes into his ’90s, and didn’t hesitate to share his right-wing political views.</p>
<p>He appeared in a few later films such as Martin Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy,” but Lewis was largely offscreen from the late ’60s on and was more active with his annual Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy telethon, for which he raised more than $2.45 billion before being relieved of his role as leader of the telethon in 2011.</p>
<p>The high regard in which his comic abilities were held in France — he received the Legion of Honor award in 1983 — became a running joke in the U.S. long after Lewis’ style of broad physical comedy fell out of fashion. His final film, “Max Rose,” screened at France’s Cannes Film Festival in 2013.</p>
<p>The telethon, like other aspects of Lewis’ life, was beset by controversy. The comic’s offstage persona was anything but humorous. He was, by his own admission, an impatient man, and over the years battled numerous illnesses and a prescription drug dependency. His parting with Martin in 1956 after 10 years as a duo was acrimonious. And the telethons were awash in claims that there was a disparity between the money pledged and the money collected.</p>
<p>Lewis’ pairing with Martin, featuring their improvisatory backbiting and physical chicanery, was an instant hit in 1946. When producer Hal Wallis saw them performing at the Copacabana and at Slapsie Maxie’s in Hollywood, he saw the potential for a new Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and signed them to a Paramount Pictures contract.</p>
<p>For the next 10 years, Martin and Lewis turned out one silly film after the next starting with “My Friend Irma” in 1949 and including “The Caddy,” “The Stooge,” “Artists and Models” and “Pardners.” None of their films grossed less than $5 million, a handy sum in those days.</p>
<p>The premises of the films grew tired, and the more Martin and Lewis worked together, the more disparate they appeared. In 1956, after their film “Hollywood or Bust,” they made their last dual appearance at the Copacabana.</p>
<p>By the time of their breakup, Martin had a prosperous career as a recording artist and actor. And soon Lewis, too, was a hot solo ticket.</p>
<p>Shortly after they broke up, Lewis filled in for an ailing Judy Garland in Las Vegas. Over the next five years Lewis developed a slicker, more sophisticated stage persona and would continue to play Vegas until 2013.</p>
<p>Onscreen he made a go of it in such films as “The Delicate Delinquent” and “Rock-a-Bye Baby.” Lewis even had a million-selling single in the “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby” title track, which led to several albums on Decca Records.</p>
<p>He then extended his efforts into writing, producing and directing films. The first two, 1961’s “The Ladies Man” and 1962’s “The Errand Boy,” showed him at his best. His talents also dovetailed with director Frank Tashlin’s style in films such as “Cinderfella” and “The Disorderly Orderly.”</p>
<p>“The Nutty Professor” (1963) was his biggest success ever, grossing $19 million. But by then his mugging and exaggerated body gyrations had become out of control, as had the syrupy moments in his films.</p>
<p>Lewis signed a nonexclusive deal with Columbia that resulted in several uninspired films such as “Three on a Couch,” “The Big Mouth” and “Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.” Even Lewis had to admit, “Jerry Lewis is never just OK or adequate; he’s either very funny or he’s awful.”</p>
<p>While Americans largely dismissed him, Lewis had developed a following at French film journals Cahiers du Cinema and Positif.</p>
<p>He was born Joseph Levitch in Newark, N.J. Both his parents were in show business and, at the age of 5, Lewis made his debut at a Borscht Belt hotel singing “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?”</p>
<p>Perhaps because his parents spent a great deal of time on the road, Lewis was demanding attention through humor by the time he was attending Irvington High School in New Jersey. By age 15 he was pantomiming operatic and popular songs and was booked into a burlesque house in Buffalo.</p>
<p>In 1942 he tried out his comic pantomiming at Brown’s Hotel in upstate New York, where he was also working the summer as a bellboy. Comic Irving Kaye was sufficiently impressed to land Lewis some bookings and became his road manager.</p>
<p>Lewis met the young singer Dean Martin at New York nightclub the Glass Hatt and was first paired with him in 1946. Afters years of rupture, Martin made a surprise appearance on the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in 1976, and the pair reconciled after the death of Martin’s son in the late 1980s. (Martin died in 1995.)</p>
<p>In the early ’70s he continued to direct uninspired fare such as “Which Way to the Front?” and then tried a serious film, “The Day the Clown Cried,” though he famously shelved the completed work (some footage of it finally surfaced in 2013). He attempted a live TV variety show that failed, as did an attempt at a Broadway musical, “Feeling No Pain”; it was followed by the acrimonious “Hellzapoppin,” which was ditched out of town in Boston at a loss of $1.25 million.</p>
<p>In 1972 he lent his name to a string of 200 movie theaters for Network Cinema Corp., which led to bankruptcy proceedings in 1974. His heavy schedule also brought him to the verge of a nervous breakdown, serious ulcer problems and painkiller drug dependency. In 1982 he had double-bypass heart surgery and gave up his four pack-a-day smoking habit.</p>
<p>Lewis was offscreen until 1979’s low-budget “Hardly Working,” which he also directed; it did not reverse his fortunes. But in 1982, director Martin Scorsese harnessed the brash, cynical side of Lewis’ persona for the role of a kidnapped latenight talkshow host in “The King of Comedy.” Though he reportedly resented being upstaged by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard, the film represented some of Lewis’ finest work. Another high point was a similarly caustic appearance as a lethal underworld figure on the TV series “Wiseguy.”</p>
<p>Most of his later film work, however, failed to impress, such as “Slapstick of Another Kind,” “Cookie” and 1992’s “American Dreamer.”</p>
<p>In 1995, he appeared in Peter Chelsom’s film “Funny Bones” and took over the role of the devil in a Broadway revival of “Damn Yankees,” which he took on tour in the U.S.; he then appeared in a London production of the musical.</p>
<p>In 2003 he provided a guest voice on an episode of “The Simpsons”; in 2006 he did an episode of “Law and Order: SVU” in which he played the insane, morally befuddled but bizarrely benevolent uncle of Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer).</p>
<p>Lewis long sought to create a sequel to “The Nutty Professor”; eventually, Imagine Entertainment produced and Universal released the 1996 remake starring Eddie Murphy on which Lewis was credited for the screenplay to the 1963 version and as an executive producer.</p>
<p>Lewis also hoped to bring a musical adaptation of “The Nutty Professor” to Broadway. By summer 2012 an ailing but still enthusiastic Lewis made his stage helming debut with such a musical, with a score by Marvin Hamlisch and a book and lyrics by Rupert Holmes, in Nashville, where it played for seven weeks.</p>
<p>In 2013 Lewis starred in the long-gestating project “Max Rose,” written and directed by Daniel Noah and also starring Claire Bloom, Kevin Pollak, Kerry Bishe and Mort Sahl. Lewis played a jazz pianist who recently became a widower.</p>
<p>In 2009, Lewis received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts &amp; Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Award for his charitable work. In May 2014, he added his footprints to those of other screen luminaries at the Chinese Theatre.</p>
<p>In 1944 Lewis married former band singer Patti Palmer, with whom he had six sons, Gary, Ronnie, Scott, Anthony, Christopher and Joseph, who died in 2009. Gary for a time had a rock career as the lead singer of Gary Lewis &amp; the Playboys. The marriage ended in divorce.</p>
<p>He is survived by his second wife, SanDee Pitnick, with whom he adopted a daughter.</p> | 4,006 |
<p />
<p>Malalai Kakar was a police officer in Afghanistan. She was also a mother of six, a feminist, and a fearsome threat to the Taliban, who gunned her down in 2008. You would know some of Kakar’s story if you’d come across Lana Šlezic’s <a href="http://lanaslezic.com/afghanistan-women/" type="external">captivating photography</a>of <a href="" type="internal">women in Afghanistan</a> in Mother Jones and other publications. But the right-wing Britain First party recently co-opted a photo of Kakar—taken in 2005 just before she headed out on a raid to free a kidnap victim—using it as propaganda in the online “ban the burka” campaign. Its August 30 Facebook post using the image has been shared more than 44,000 times. The photo didn’t make headlines though until Friday, when Australian senator Jacqui Lambie of the <a href="http://palmerunited.com/" type="external">Palmer United Party</a> (created in 2013 by mining magnate Clive Palmer) shared the photo <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jacqui.lambie.9/posts/498336336969791" type="external">on her Facebook page</a>, prompting news outlets to ask Šlezic whether she was aware how her photograph was being used.</p>
<p />
<p>Šlezic was appalled. “The way her image has been misused for inflammatory purposes has left me, well, somewhat speechless,” she says. She immediately contacted both Britain First and Lambie asking them to remove the photo, but neither has complied.&#160;Lambie told the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/senator-jacqui-lambies-antiburqa-post-desecrated-image-photographer-says-20140920-10jnc3.html" type="external">Sydney Morning Herald</a> that she “absolutely stands by it” and won’t take the photo off her page. On Saturday she posted a “Letter to the Editor” on Facebook calling Šlezic’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-19/jacqui-lambie-ban-the-burka-photo-believed-to-be-policewoman/5757438" type="external">response</a> a “ <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jacqui.lambie.9" type="external">gross over-reaction</a>,” adding that “Malalai Kakar would have been the first to agree with my call to ban the burka.”</p>
<p>Šlezic told the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/photographer-horrified-after-claims-britain-first-used-picture-of-first-afghan-policewoman-killed-by-taliban-for-ban-the-burka-campaign-9745959.html" type="external">Independent</a>, “It’s a complete misrepresentation of the truth. It insults everything she stood for, it insults her and her family and suggests a story that is opposite of the truth. It is also an infringement of intellectual property.” She has filed a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/208282075858952" type="external">copyright complaint</a> with Facebook.</p>
<p>Šlezic spent two years in Afghanistan documenting the plight of women and girls, and her <a href="" type="internal">Mother Jones photo essay including Kakar’s image</a> was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2008.</p>
<p>During my two years in Afghanistan, I spent time with Malalai and her family on several trips to Kandahar. I spent time with her in her office while she consoled and helped women who were victims of domestic violence, rape, and forced marriage. I went out on a kidnapping raid with her, witnessed her apprehending a kidnapper and freeing the young teenage girl from his home. She really was a heroine for me, the light at the end of a very dark two year tunnel. Because of her, I believed there was hope for Afghan women and girls. When she was assassinated by the Taliban in September 2008 in front of her home and child, that hope, that light was extinguished.</p>
<p>Šlezic adds a plea to the public:</p>
<p>I’m asking you to lend your voice, your thoughts, your tweets and whatever else you can to send a message back to these people who without consent, without thought, without pause posted such a vulgar misappropriation of Malalai and everything she stood for. She was an extraordinary human being who fought for the rights of Afghan women and girls. Her memory should be respected.</p>
<p />
<p /> | This Afghan Policewoman Died Fighting the Taliban. Now Right-Wingers Are Desecrating Her Photo. | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/afghan-policewoman-photo-burka-lana-slezic/ | 2014-09-22 | 4left
| This Afghan Policewoman Died Fighting the Taliban. Now Right-Wingers Are Desecrating Her Photo.
<p />
<p>Malalai Kakar was a police officer in Afghanistan. She was also a mother of six, a feminist, and a fearsome threat to the Taliban, who gunned her down in 2008. You would know some of Kakar’s story if you’d come across Lana Šlezic’s <a href="http://lanaslezic.com/afghanistan-women/" type="external">captivating photography</a>of <a href="" type="internal">women in Afghanistan</a> in Mother Jones and other publications. But the right-wing Britain First party recently co-opted a photo of Kakar—taken in 2005 just before she headed out on a raid to free a kidnap victim—using it as propaganda in the online “ban the burka” campaign. Its August 30 Facebook post using the image has been shared more than 44,000 times. The photo didn’t make headlines though until Friday, when Australian senator Jacqui Lambie of the <a href="http://palmerunited.com/" type="external">Palmer United Party</a> (created in 2013 by mining magnate Clive Palmer) shared the photo <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jacqui.lambie.9/posts/498336336969791" type="external">on her Facebook page</a>, prompting news outlets to ask Šlezic whether she was aware how her photograph was being used.</p>
<p />
<p>Šlezic was appalled. “The way her image has been misused for inflammatory purposes has left me, well, somewhat speechless,” she says. She immediately contacted both Britain First and Lambie asking them to remove the photo, but neither has complied.&#160;Lambie told the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/senator-jacqui-lambies-antiburqa-post-desecrated-image-photographer-says-20140920-10jnc3.html" type="external">Sydney Morning Herald</a> that she “absolutely stands by it” and won’t take the photo off her page. On Saturday she posted a “Letter to the Editor” on Facebook calling Šlezic’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-19/jacqui-lambie-ban-the-burka-photo-believed-to-be-policewoman/5757438" type="external">response</a> a “ <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jacqui.lambie.9" type="external">gross over-reaction</a>,” adding that “Malalai Kakar would have been the first to agree with my call to ban the burka.”</p>
<p>Šlezic told the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/photographer-horrified-after-claims-britain-first-used-picture-of-first-afghan-policewoman-killed-by-taliban-for-ban-the-burka-campaign-9745959.html" type="external">Independent</a>, “It’s a complete misrepresentation of the truth. It insults everything she stood for, it insults her and her family and suggests a story that is opposite of the truth. It is also an infringement of intellectual property.” She has filed a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/208282075858952" type="external">copyright complaint</a> with Facebook.</p>
<p>Šlezic spent two years in Afghanistan documenting the plight of women and girls, and her <a href="" type="internal">Mother Jones photo essay including Kakar’s image</a> was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2008.</p>
<p>During my two years in Afghanistan, I spent time with Malalai and her family on several trips to Kandahar. I spent time with her in her office while she consoled and helped women who were victims of domestic violence, rape, and forced marriage. I went out on a kidnapping raid with her, witnessed her apprehending a kidnapper and freeing the young teenage girl from his home. She really was a heroine for me, the light at the end of a very dark two year tunnel. Because of her, I believed there was hope for Afghan women and girls. When she was assassinated by the Taliban in September 2008 in front of her home and child, that hope, that light was extinguished.</p>
<p>Šlezic adds a plea to the public:</p>
<p>I’m asking you to lend your voice, your thoughts, your tweets and whatever else you can to send a message back to these people who without consent, without thought, without pause posted such a vulgar misappropriation of Malalai and everything she stood for. She was an extraordinary human being who fought for the rights of Afghan women and girls. Her memory should be respected.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 4,007 |
<p />
<p>It is very clear that Alton Nolen’s mother is in complete shock and denial of her son’s actions.</p>
<p>The mother of the man&#160; <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/26/report-gruesome-beheading-detail-revealed-in-oklahoma-food-distribution-plant-murder/" type="external">accused of beheading</a>&#160;a woman at an Oklahoma food plant posted a video over the weekend apologizing to the victims’ families and claiming that there are two sides to every story.</p>
<p>Joyce&#160;Nolen, 50, the mother of the accused — 30-year-old&#160;Alton&#160;Nolen&#160;— appeared alongside the purported perpetrator’s sister, Megan&#160;Nolen, with both expressing their shock and disbelief over what unfolded last week.</p>
<p>“My heart is just so heavy right now. I know my son. My son was raised up in a loving home,” Joyce&#160;Nolen&#160;said.&#160;”My son was raised up believing in God … my son was a good kid.”</p>
<p>As for authorities’ claims that Alton&#160;Nolen, a Muslim convert who reportedly tried to evangelize his coworkers before being fired from Vaughan Foods, a food distribution company in Moore, Oklahoma, decapitated Colleen&#160;Hufford, 54, and stabbed another employee at the company’s offices Thursday, Joyce&#160;Nolen&#160;was perplexed.</p>
<p>She claimed in the short video that the crime didn’t mesh with her son’s demeanor.</p>
<p>The bereaved mother also cautioned that the public has only heard one side of what reportedly unfolded and that she’s hopeful the “whole story will come out.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/29/theres-two-sides-to-every-story-mother-of-the-man-accused-in-oklahoma-beheading-releases-video-response/" type="external">This article continues on&#160;theblaze.com</a></p> | ‘Two Sides To This Story’: Mother of Muslim Oklahoma Beheading Suspect Speaks Out | true | http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/two-sides-story-mother-muslim-oklahoma-beheading-suspect-speaks/ | 0right
| ‘Two Sides To This Story’: Mother of Muslim Oklahoma Beheading Suspect Speaks Out
<p />
<p>It is very clear that Alton Nolen’s mother is in complete shock and denial of her son’s actions.</p>
<p>The mother of the man&#160; <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/26/report-gruesome-beheading-detail-revealed-in-oklahoma-food-distribution-plant-murder/" type="external">accused of beheading</a>&#160;a woman at an Oklahoma food plant posted a video over the weekend apologizing to the victims’ families and claiming that there are two sides to every story.</p>
<p>Joyce&#160;Nolen, 50, the mother of the accused — 30-year-old&#160;Alton&#160;Nolen&#160;— appeared alongside the purported perpetrator’s sister, Megan&#160;Nolen, with both expressing their shock and disbelief over what unfolded last week.</p>
<p>“My heart is just so heavy right now. I know my son. My son was raised up in a loving home,” Joyce&#160;Nolen&#160;said.&#160;”My son was raised up believing in God … my son was a good kid.”</p>
<p>As for authorities’ claims that Alton&#160;Nolen, a Muslim convert who reportedly tried to evangelize his coworkers before being fired from Vaughan Foods, a food distribution company in Moore, Oklahoma, decapitated Colleen&#160;Hufford, 54, and stabbed another employee at the company’s offices Thursday, Joyce&#160;Nolen&#160;was perplexed.</p>
<p>She claimed in the short video that the crime didn’t mesh with her son’s demeanor.</p>
<p>The bereaved mother also cautioned that the public has only heard one side of what reportedly unfolded and that she’s hopeful the “whole story will come out.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/29/theres-two-sides-to-every-story-mother-of-the-man-accused-in-oklahoma-beheading-releases-video-response/" type="external">This article continues on&#160;theblaze.com</a></p> | 4,008 |
|
<p>Trade disputes with China have been heating up lately, but there really is no reason for the hostility. Essentially the dispute boils down to the fact that China wants to subsidize the consumption of people in the United States and elsewhere, by propping up the value of the dollar.</p>
<p>This is raising objections from the United States and other wealthy countries since Chinese imports are displacing domestic output and thereby costing jobs. But it need not be this way, if governments in the United States and other countries were more effective in managing their economies.</p>
<p>Essentially, China’s government is saying is that it has no better use for its money than subsidizing the consumption of people in the United States and other wealthy countries. That may seem surprising since per capita income in China is less than $8,000 a year, while it is over $45,000 a year in the United States, but if this is what China’s leaders insist, who are we to argue?</p>
<p>Economic theory predicts that capital flows from rich countries with slow growing labor forces to poor countries like China that have relatively little capital but rapidly growing labor forces. The logic is that capital draws a better return in China than in the United States, so it should flow in this direction.</p>
<p>However for the last decade capital has gone massively in the opposite direction. Relatively poor countries like China have sent a huge amount of capital to the United States, buying up government bonds and other assets. The purchases of dollars has led to a rise in the value of the dollar which makes U.S. goods less competitive in world markets. As a result, the United States exports fewer goods and imports more, creating a massive trade deficit and displacing millions of workers in U.S. manufacturing jobs.</p>
<p>But, this need not be a bad thing. Effectively, China is subsidizing its exports to the United States. This is very generous of the Chinese government. In effect, the United States can take advantage of China’s generosity to enjoy a higher standard of living. Currently our deficit with China is equal to 2 percent of GDP. This means that China is handing us goods and services that are worth roughly $280 billion a year more than the value of goods and services that we give them in exchange.</p>
<p>While this displaces a large amount of domestic production, we can ensure that the displacement does not result in unemployment by simply shortening workweeks. If everyone’s workweek was shortened by 2.0 percent (the equivalent of one week per year of vacation) we could keep the workforce fully employed even in the case of reduced demand.</p>
<p>This could be accomplished by having the government pay people to work shorter workweeks; in effect paying unemployment benefits to cover reduction in hours. This would spread the pain over many workers, rather than forcing a portion of the workforce to be completely unemployed. In this way, China could effectively subsidize the vacation of tens of millions of workers in the United States and elsewhere.</p>
<p>This may sound like a bad deal from China’s standpoint, but it is a deal that they insist upon. They have sometimes raised the question of whether they can expect to have debt to United States lose value as a result of a falling dollar. The United States should take away this uncertainty.</p>
<p>China absolutely will lose money on its investments in government bonds. It is buying short-term bonds that pay almost no interest and longer-term bonds that pay less than 3.0 percent. There is literally no one on Earth who will pay the same amount for trillions of dollars of these assets. So China’s leaders should rest completely assured that when they ultimately sell these assets they will be getting dollars that are worth substantially less than the dollars they bought. Presumably the Chinese public will be fine with this situation since there is no better use for trillions of dollars in China right now.</p>
<p>There is one other important aspect to this story that is worth mentioning. At present, China’s trade policy primary hurts non-college educated workers since those with college and professional degrees are largely protected from the same sort of competition that manufacturing workers face.</p>
<p>It is important to eliminate the barriers that protect doctors, lawyers, and university professors from competition with their lower-paid counterparts in the developing world. This way trade with China would put downward pressure on the wages of professionals, not just manufacturing workers. It would result in lower prices for medical care and the other services provided by these professionals, leading to a boon to consumers and the economy.</p>
<p>This could lead to even larger trade deficits, but if China and other countries want to subsidize our consumption, then this is their choice. A larger trade deficit would simply lead to larger losses for China on its dollar holdings, but that seems to be what its government wants.</p>
<p>So, we need not be hostile to China over its desire to give money to American consumers. An effective policy of work sharing, like the one in Germany, can ensure that China’s generosity leads to longer vacations, not unemployment. We should also take steps to ensure that our highest paid workers are subjected to the same competition from China as our manufacturing workers.</p>
<p>And, in order to eliminate their uncertainty on this issue, we should assure the Chinese people and their government that they will be repaid in lower-valued dollars. However, if China’s government thinks the best use of its money is to pay for longer vacations for workers in the United States there is no reason for us to be upset.</p>
<p>DEAN BAKER is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy</a>and <a href="" type="internal">False Profits: Recoverying From the Bubble Economy.</a></p>
<p>This column was originally published by <a href="http://www.wapost.com" type="external">The Guardian.</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> | If China Wants to Pay For Our Vacations, Should We Let Them? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/12/03/if-china-wants-to-pay-for-our-vacations-should-we-let-them/ | 2010-12-03 | 4left
| If China Wants to Pay For Our Vacations, Should We Let Them?
<p>Trade disputes with China have been heating up lately, but there really is no reason for the hostility. Essentially the dispute boils down to the fact that China wants to subsidize the consumption of people in the United States and elsewhere, by propping up the value of the dollar.</p>
<p>This is raising objections from the United States and other wealthy countries since Chinese imports are displacing domestic output and thereby costing jobs. But it need not be this way, if governments in the United States and other countries were more effective in managing their economies.</p>
<p>Essentially, China’s government is saying is that it has no better use for its money than subsidizing the consumption of people in the United States and other wealthy countries. That may seem surprising since per capita income in China is less than $8,000 a year, while it is over $45,000 a year in the United States, but if this is what China’s leaders insist, who are we to argue?</p>
<p>Economic theory predicts that capital flows from rich countries with slow growing labor forces to poor countries like China that have relatively little capital but rapidly growing labor forces. The logic is that capital draws a better return in China than in the United States, so it should flow in this direction.</p>
<p>However for the last decade capital has gone massively in the opposite direction. Relatively poor countries like China have sent a huge amount of capital to the United States, buying up government bonds and other assets. The purchases of dollars has led to a rise in the value of the dollar which makes U.S. goods less competitive in world markets. As a result, the United States exports fewer goods and imports more, creating a massive trade deficit and displacing millions of workers in U.S. manufacturing jobs.</p>
<p>But, this need not be a bad thing. Effectively, China is subsidizing its exports to the United States. This is very generous of the Chinese government. In effect, the United States can take advantage of China’s generosity to enjoy a higher standard of living. Currently our deficit with China is equal to 2 percent of GDP. This means that China is handing us goods and services that are worth roughly $280 billion a year more than the value of goods and services that we give them in exchange.</p>
<p>While this displaces a large amount of domestic production, we can ensure that the displacement does not result in unemployment by simply shortening workweeks. If everyone’s workweek was shortened by 2.0 percent (the equivalent of one week per year of vacation) we could keep the workforce fully employed even in the case of reduced demand.</p>
<p>This could be accomplished by having the government pay people to work shorter workweeks; in effect paying unemployment benefits to cover reduction in hours. This would spread the pain over many workers, rather than forcing a portion of the workforce to be completely unemployed. In this way, China could effectively subsidize the vacation of tens of millions of workers in the United States and elsewhere.</p>
<p>This may sound like a bad deal from China’s standpoint, but it is a deal that they insist upon. They have sometimes raised the question of whether they can expect to have debt to United States lose value as a result of a falling dollar. The United States should take away this uncertainty.</p>
<p>China absolutely will lose money on its investments in government bonds. It is buying short-term bonds that pay almost no interest and longer-term bonds that pay less than 3.0 percent. There is literally no one on Earth who will pay the same amount for trillions of dollars of these assets. So China’s leaders should rest completely assured that when they ultimately sell these assets they will be getting dollars that are worth substantially less than the dollars they bought. Presumably the Chinese public will be fine with this situation since there is no better use for trillions of dollars in China right now.</p>
<p>There is one other important aspect to this story that is worth mentioning. At present, China’s trade policy primary hurts non-college educated workers since those with college and professional degrees are largely protected from the same sort of competition that manufacturing workers face.</p>
<p>It is important to eliminate the barriers that protect doctors, lawyers, and university professors from competition with their lower-paid counterparts in the developing world. This way trade with China would put downward pressure on the wages of professionals, not just manufacturing workers. It would result in lower prices for medical care and the other services provided by these professionals, leading to a boon to consumers and the economy.</p>
<p>This could lead to even larger trade deficits, but if China and other countries want to subsidize our consumption, then this is their choice. A larger trade deficit would simply lead to larger losses for China on its dollar holdings, but that seems to be what its government wants.</p>
<p>So, we need not be hostile to China over its desire to give money to American consumers. An effective policy of work sharing, like the one in Germany, can ensure that China’s generosity leads to longer vacations, not unemployment. We should also take steps to ensure that our highest paid workers are subjected to the same competition from China as our manufacturing workers.</p>
<p>And, in order to eliminate their uncertainty on this issue, we should assure the Chinese people and their government that they will be repaid in lower-valued dollars. However, if China’s government thinks the best use of its money is to pay for longer vacations for workers in the United States there is no reason for us to be upset.</p>
<p>DEAN BAKER is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy</a>and <a href="" type="internal">False Profits: Recoverying From the Bubble Economy.</a></p>
<p>This column was originally published by <a href="http://www.wapost.com" type="external">The Guardian.</a></p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> | 4,009 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage slipped to 3.93 percent from 3.95 percent a week earlier. The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages eased to 3.16 percent from 3.18 percent.</p>
<p>The key 30-year rate was above its level of a year ago, 3.89 percent. Despite the recent declines, the rate has increased significantly overall since the end of October, when it stood at 3.76 percent.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise its key short-term interest rate at its policymaking meeting on Dec. 15-16. It would be the Fed's first interest rate hike in nearly a decade.</p>
<p>The expectation was bolstered Wednesday, when Fed Chair Janet Yellen indicated that the U.S. economy is on track for an interest rate increase this month, though she was careful to point out that the Fed will need to review any upcoming data before making a final decision.</p>
<p>Most notable among those data is the government's November jobs report, which comes out Friday. Economists forecast that U.S. employers created 200,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate remained steady at 5 percent.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond, which mortgage rates have been tracking, fell to 2.18 percent Wednesday from 2.23 percent a week earlier. Yields on the U.S. government bonds move in the opposite direction of the bonds' prices. The yield jumped back up to 2.26 percent Thursday morning.</p>
<p>To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country at the beginning of each week. The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.</p>
<p>The average fee for a 30-year mortgage declined to 0.6 point from 0.7 point last week. The fee for a 15-year loan eased to 0.5 point from 0.6 point.</p>
<p>The average rate on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 2.99 percent from 3.01 percent; the fee was unchanged at 0.5 point. The average rate on one-year ARMs rose to 2.61 percent from 2.59 percent; the fee held at 0.3 point.</p> | Average US rate on 30-year mortgages slips to 3.93 percent | false | https://abqjournal.com/685280/average-us-rate-on-30-year-mortgages-slips-to-3-93-percent.html | 2least
| Average US rate on 30-year mortgages slips to 3.93 percent
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage slipped to 3.93 percent from 3.95 percent a week earlier. The average rate on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages eased to 3.16 percent from 3.18 percent.</p>
<p>The key 30-year rate was above its level of a year ago, 3.89 percent. Despite the recent declines, the rate has increased significantly overall since the end of October, when it stood at 3.76 percent.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise its key short-term interest rate at its policymaking meeting on Dec. 15-16. It would be the Fed's first interest rate hike in nearly a decade.</p>
<p>The expectation was bolstered Wednesday, when Fed Chair Janet Yellen indicated that the U.S. economy is on track for an interest rate increase this month, though she was careful to point out that the Fed will need to review any upcoming data before making a final decision.</p>
<p>Most notable among those data is the government's November jobs report, which comes out Friday. Economists forecast that U.S. employers created 200,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate remained steady at 5 percent.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond, which mortgage rates have been tracking, fell to 2.18 percent Wednesday from 2.23 percent a week earlier. Yields on the U.S. government bonds move in the opposite direction of the bonds' prices. The yield jumped back up to 2.26 percent Thursday morning.</p>
<p>To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country at the beginning of each week. The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.</p>
<p>The average fee for a 30-year mortgage declined to 0.6 point from 0.7 point last week. The fee for a 15-year loan eased to 0.5 point from 0.6 point.</p>
<p>The average rate on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 2.99 percent from 3.01 percent; the fee was unchanged at 0.5 point. The average rate on one-year ARMs rose to 2.61 percent from 2.59 percent; the fee held at 0.3 point.</p> | 4,010 |
|
<p>The same man who dropped a civil suit by the Department of Justice into possible voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party and was the first U.S. Attorney General in history to be <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2012/06/holder-held-in-contempt-of-congress-077988" type="external">held in both criminal and civil contempt of Congress</a> for blocking information related to the Fast and Furious affair, thinks he should run for president in 2020.</p>
<p>That’s right; former Attorney General Eric Holder told <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/eric-holder-joins-anti-trump-resistance-mulls-presidential-campaign-110025091.html" type="external">Yahoo News</a>:</p>
<p>Up to now, I have been more behind-the-scenes. But that’s about to change. I have a certain status as the former attorney general. A certain familiarity as the first African-American attorney general. There’s a justified perception that I’m close to President Obama. So I want to use whatever skills I have, whatever notoriety I have, to be effective in opposing things that are, at the end of the day, just bad for the country. Now is the time to be more visible. Now is the time to be heard.</p>
<p>As Erick Erickson noted in <a href="http://theresurgent.com/eric-holder-is-considering-a-presidential-bid/" type="external">The Resurgent</a>:</p>
<p>He <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/in-va-governors-race-democrats-pledge-unity-and-say-they-will-send-message-to-trump/2017/06/18/097d9a98-53cd-11e7-be25-3a519335381c_story.html?utm_term=.e46c92da2f71" type="external">spoke last week</a> at the Virginia Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner — a political fundraiser in support of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam. … He serves as chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee — a group looking to prep Democrats for 2020. … The former attorney general is in the early stages of forming a PAC-like organization with the intention of blocking President Trump’s agenda using legal means.</p>
<p>Holder also attempted to justify the DOJ’s targeting of Fox Reporter James Rosen by <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141029/17394228983/eric-holder-says-he-regrets-lying-to-judge-saying-reporter-was-co-conspirator-law-made-him-do-it.shtml" type="external">lying</a> that a statute forced the DOJ to do it, when that was actually the opposite of what the statute wrote.</p>
<p>With his history, he should be the perfect successor to Hillary Clinton as the presidential nominee in 2020.</p> | You Won't Believe Who Wants To Run For President In 2020 | true | https://dailywire.com/news/17773/you-wont-believe-who-wants-run-president-2020-hank-berrien | 2017-06-21 | 0right
| You Won't Believe Who Wants To Run For President In 2020
<p>The same man who dropped a civil suit by the Department of Justice into possible voter intimidation by the New Black Panther Party and was the first U.S. Attorney General in history to be <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2012/06/holder-held-in-contempt-of-congress-077988" type="external">held in both criminal and civil contempt of Congress</a> for blocking information related to the Fast and Furious affair, thinks he should run for president in 2020.</p>
<p>That’s right; former Attorney General Eric Holder told <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/eric-holder-joins-anti-trump-resistance-mulls-presidential-campaign-110025091.html" type="external">Yahoo News</a>:</p>
<p>Up to now, I have been more behind-the-scenes. But that’s about to change. I have a certain status as the former attorney general. A certain familiarity as the first African-American attorney general. There’s a justified perception that I’m close to President Obama. So I want to use whatever skills I have, whatever notoriety I have, to be effective in opposing things that are, at the end of the day, just bad for the country. Now is the time to be more visible. Now is the time to be heard.</p>
<p>As Erick Erickson noted in <a href="http://theresurgent.com/eric-holder-is-considering-a-presidential-bid/" type="external">The Resurgent</a>:</p>
<p>He <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/in-va-governors-race-democrats-pledge-unity-and-say-they-will-send-message-to-trump/2017/06/18/097d9a98-53cd-11e7-be25-3a519335381c_story.html?utm_term=.e46c92da2f71" type="external">spoke last week</a> at the Virginia Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner — a political fundraiser in support of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam. … He serves as chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee — a group looking to prep Democrats for 2020. … The former attorney general is in the early stages of forming a PAC-like organization with the intention of blocking President Trump’s agenda using legal means.</p>
<p>Holder also attempted to justify the DOJ’s targeting of Fox Reporter James Rosen by <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141029/17394228983/eric-holder-says-he-regrets-lying-to-judge-saying-reporter-was-co-conspirator-law-made-him-do-it.shtml" type="external">lying</a> that a statute forced the DOJ to do it, when that was actually the opposite of what the statute wrote.</p>
<p>With his history, he should be the perfect successor to Hillary Clinton as the presidential nominee in 2020.</p> | 4,011 |
<p>Will it be possible in the near-future for prematurely-born infants to use an artificial womb to ensure their survival?</p>
<p>If the evidence provided by scientists using an artificial womb that looks like a plastic bag to nurture prematurely-born lambs is any indication, there is great hope for premature infants.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15112" type="external">study</a> published on Tuesday delineated scientists’ efforts to use what they called a “Biobag” design. The “Biobag” was a completely closed system that minimized amniotic fluid volumes and closely replicated the size and shape of the uterus. Made of polyethylene film that was translucent, sonolucent and flexible, the “Biobag” allowed monitoring, scanning and manipulation of the fetus as necessary.</p>
<p>The sacs included a nutrient-rich blood supply and a protective sac of amniotic fluid. Eight lambs survived for as long as four weeks inside the devices. The gestational age of the lambs approximated a human fetus of 22 or 23 weeks. After the lambs were removed from the sacs, tests showed they had developed normally and their lung function “essentially caught up to that of a mature infant,” according to Emily Partridge, a research fellow at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, one of the lead authors.</p>
<p>In the United States, the leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality is extreme prematurity; over one-third of all infant deaths and one-half of cerebral palsy is attributed to prematurity. Although infants have survived being born after 22 to 23 weeks of gestation, they have high associated rates of chronic lung disease and other complications of organ immaturity if they are born before 28 weeks. Thus giving premature babies an additional four weeks could be crucial.</p>
<p>The authors of the study write:</p>
<p>The primary obstacles (to extracorporeal support of the fetus) have been progressive circulatory failure due to preload or afterload imbalance imposed on the fetal heart by oxygenator resistance and pump-supported circuits, the use of open fluid incubators resulting in contamination and fetal sepsis and problems related to umbilical vascular access resulting in vascular spasm. To address these obstacles we have designed a system consisting of three main components, specifically, a pumpless arteriovenous circuit, a closed fluid environment with continuous fluid exchange and a new technique of umbilical vascular access.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2017/04/25/artificial-wombs-scientists-successfully-helped-premature-lambs-be-born-are-babies-next/" type="external">Life News</a>, Co-author Dr Marcus Davey, a foetal physiologist, said the sacs might be able to be used on human babies in “within three to four years.” Associate professor David Tingay, a neonatal researcher at Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, differed, saying:</p>
<p>[The womb] appears to do what others haven’t been able to do, which is to keep the animal alive for a long period of time and show that it’s growing normally. This is a very promising research finding, which will help us better understand how to support pre-term babies but there’s still need for caution and we would be a long way – I would estimate a decade or more – before we would be able use this knowledge in the NICU.</p> | WOW: Artificial Wombs For Premature Babies To Survive May Happen Soon | true | https://dailywire.com/news/15753/wow-artificial-wombs-premature-babies-survive-may-hank-berrien | 2017-04-26 | 0right
| WOW: Artificial Wombs For Premature Babies To Survive May Happen Soon
<p>Will it be possible in the near-future for prematurely-born infants to use an artificial womb to ensure their survival?</p>
<p>If the evidence provided by scientists using an artificial womb that looks like a plastic bag to nurture prematurely-born lambs is any indication, there is great hope for premature infants.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15112" type="external">study</a> published on Tuesday delineated scientists’ efforts to use what they called a “Biobag” design. The “Biobag” was a completely closed system that minimized amniotic fluid volumes and closely replicated the size and shape of the uterus. Made of polyethylene film that was translucent, sonolucent and flexible, the “Biobag” allowed monitoring, scanning and manipulation of the fetus as necessary.</p>
<p>The sacs included a nutrient-rich blood supply and a protective sac of amniotic fluid. Eight lambs survived for as long as four weeks inside the devices. The gestational age of the lambs approximated a human fetus of 22 or 23 weeks. After the lambs were removed from the sacs, tests showed they had developed normally and their lung function “essentially caught up to that of a mature infant,” according to Emily Partridge, a research fellow at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, one of the lead authors.</p>
<p>In the United States, the leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality is extreme prematurity; over one-third of all infant deaths and one-half of cerebral palsy is attributed to prematurity. Although infants have survived being born after 22 to 23 weeks of gestation, they have high associated rates of chronic lung disease and other complications of organ immaturity if they are born before 28 weeks. Thus giving premature babies an additional four weeks could be crucial.</p>
<p>The authors of the study write:</p>
<p>The primary obstacles (to extracorporeal support of the fetus) have been progressive circulatory failure due to preload or afterload imbalance imposed on the fetal heart by oxygenator resistance and pump-supported circuits, the use of open fluid incubators resulting in contamination and fetal sepsis and problems related to umbilical vascular access resulting in vascular spasm. To address these obstacles we have designed a system consisting of three main components, specifically, a pumpless arteriovenous circuit, a closed fluid environment with continuous fluid exchange and a new technique of umbilical vascular access.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2017/04/25/artificial-wombs-scientists-successfully-helped-premature-lambs-be-born-are-babies-next/" type="external">Life News</a>, Co-author Dr Marcus Davey, a foetal physiologist, said the sacs might be able to be used on human babies in “within three to four years.” Associate professor David Tingay, a neonatal researcher at Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, differed, saying:</p>
<p>[The womb] appears to do what others haven’t been able to do, which is to keep the animal alive for a long period of time and show that it’s growing normally. This is a very promising research finding, which will help us better understand how to support pre-term babies but there’s still need for caution and we would be a long way – I would estimate a decade or more – before we would be able use this knowledge in the NICU.</p> | 4,012 |
<p>Dish Network Corp. said Tuesday that Charlie Ergen has stepped down from his role as chief executive to focus on the company's fledgling wireless business.</p>
<p>The company promoted its operating chief, Erik Carlson, to the CEO post and named other executives to manage divisions holding its traditional satellite-television business and Sling TV, its online-only pay-TV package.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The reorganization comes as Dish's satellite business bleeds customers, pressuring its earnings. Investors have meanwhile waited for years for the company to find a profitable use for its trove of wireless-spectrum licenses. The Englewood, Colo., company has spent more than $21 billion over the past decade to assemble airwaves it could use for its own wireless network or to sell to another carrier.</p>
<p>Mr. Ergen, who will remain chairman of the company, previously sought deals with major telecommunications businesses to pair their networks with its spectrum but hasn't found success. Earlier this year, he said it could be a good time to strike a deal, in light of what he called a "more friendly" administration when it came to mergers and acquisitions.</p>
<p>That outlook was complicated by months of negotiations between wireless companies Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc., talks that came to an end last month after both sides came to an impasse over ownership terms. The telecom industry got another shock a few weeks later, when the U.S. Justice Department sued to block AT&amp;T Inc.'s $85 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc., arguing the combined company would have too much power over video distribution and innovation.</p>
<p>The department's lawsuit, which AT&amp;T and Time Warner have vowed to fight, tweaked some assumptions about which potential combinations might raise government officials' concerns. Some analysts said the department's arguments, which lump satellite service in with other video-distribution methods, could make it easier for AT&amp;T to buy Dish's satellite-TV unit.</p>
<p>On the wireless side, Dish could still dig in for the long haul. Executives have been laying the groundwork for an "internet of things" network that could serve internet-capable cars, home devices and other gadgets, but say it would take years to build. The company will need to run a wireless business covering a significant amount of the U.S. by 2020 to meet federal obligations, or it could lose the spectrum licenses.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>This is the second time Mr. Ergen has stepped down as CEO at the company he co-founded in 1980. He left the CEO post in 2011 then reclaimed the position in 2015.</p>
<p>During his most recent stint as CEO, Mr. Ergen launched Sling TV, the first online live TV service aimed at cord cutters created by a traditional pay-TV provider.</p>
<p>AT&amp;T said Tuesday its DirecTV Now service has more than 1 million subscribers after a little more than a year. Sling TV doesn't disclose how many paying customers it has, though several analysts estimate the service has well over 1 million.</p>
<p>Dish Network shares rose 1.1% to $52.18 during early trading. The stock is down nearly 10% so far this year.</p>
<p>Write to Drew FitzGerald at [email protected] and Imani Moise at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>December 05, 2017 12:25 ET (17:25 GMT)</p> | Charlie Ergen Steps Down as Dish CEO to Focus on Wireless Business -- Update | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/12/05/charlie-ergen-steps-down-as-dish-ceo-to-focus-on-wireless-business-update.html | 2017-12-05 | 0right
| Charlie Ergen Steps Down as Dish CEO to Focus on Wireless Business -- Update
<p>Dish Network Corp. said Tuesday that Charlie Ergen has stepped down from his role as chief executive to focus on the company's fledgling wireless business.</p>
<p>The company promoted its operating chief, Erik Carlson, to the CEO post and named other executives to manage divisions holding its traditional satellite-television business and Sling TV, its online-only pay-TV package.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The reorganization comes as Dish's satellite business bleeds customers, pressuring its earnings. Investors have meanwhile waited for years for the company to find a profitable use for its trove of wireless-spectrum licenses. The Englewood, Colo., company has spent more than $21 billion over the past decade to assemble airwaves it could use for its own wireless network or to sell to another carrier.</p>
<p>Mr. Ergen, who will remain chairman of the company, previously sought deals with major telecommunications businesses to pair their networks with its spectrum but hasn't found success. Earlier this year, he said it could be a good time to strike a deal, in light of what he called a "more friendly" administration when it came to mergers and acquisitions.</p>
<p>That outlook was complicated by months of negotiations between wireless companies Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc., talks that came to an end last month after both sides came to an impasse over ownership terms. The telecom industry got another shock a few weeks later, when the U.S. Justice Department sued to block AT&amp;T Inc.'s $85 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc., arguing the combined company would have too much power over video distribution and innovation.</p>
<p>The department's lawsuit, which AT&amp;T and Time Warner have vowed to fight, tweaked some assumptions about which potential combinations might raise government officials' concerns. Some analysts said the department's arguments, which lump satellite service in with other video-distribution methods, could make it easier for AT&amp;T to buy Dish's satellite-TV unit.</p>
<p>On the wireless side, Dish could still dig in for the long haul. Executives have been laying the groundwork for an "internet of things" network that could serve internet-capable cars, home devices and other gadgets, but say it would take years to build. The company will need to run a wireless business covering a significant amount of the U.S. by 2020 to meet federal obligations, or it could lose the spectrum licenses.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>This is the second time Mr. Ergen has stepped down as CEO at the company he co-founded in 1980. He left the CEO post in 2011 then reclaimed the position in 2015.</p>
<p>During his most recent stint as CEO, Mr. Ergen launched Sling TV, the first online live TV service aimed at cord cutters created by a traditional pay-TV provider.</p>
<p>AT&amp;T said Tuesday its DirecTV Now service has more than 1 million subscribers after a little more than a year. Sling TV doesn't disclose how many paying customers it has, though several analysts estimate the service has well over 1 million.</p>
<p>Dish Network shares rose 1.1% to $52.18 during early trading. The stock is down nearly 10% so far this year.</p>
<p>Write to Drew FitzGerald at [email protected] and Imani Moise at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>December 05, 2017 12:25 ET (17:25 GMT)</p> | 4,013 |
<p>Fox's misinformation campaign on the Affordable Care Act continues: <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/03/18/fox-lies-about-medicaid-gap-it-encouraged/198520" type="external">Fox Lies About Medicaid Gap It Encouraged</a>:</p>
<p>Fox News anchor Bret Baier erroneously claimed that low income Americans not covered by the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) must pay the law's penalty for not having health insurance despite the ACA's explicit exemption for those individuals.</p>
<p>On the March 18 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Baier aired a segment highlighting those Americans who would be left without health insurance, even though the uninsured population will be <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43900-2014-02-ACAtables.pdf#page=3" type="external">reduced</a>. He then claimed those who were supposed to be covered by the law's <a href="http://kff.org/health-reform/issue-brief/the-coverage-gap-uninsured-poor-adults-in-states-that-do-not-expand-medicaid/?__hstc=87270983.d58fc55919f9c03b5dfd8f078a27eaea.1392055881766.1392055881766.1392062677831.2&amp;__hssc=87270983.1.1392062677831&amp;__hsfp=1642704087" type="external">Medicaid expansion</a>, but live in <a href="http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2013/10/report-5-2-million-adults-will-fall-into-aca-coverage-gap-next-year/" type="external">GOP-led states</a> that opted out of the expansion, would be forced to pay the law's penalty for being uninsured:</p>
<p>BAIER: For those people, they not only face the prospect of not having health insurance coverage despite Obamacare, but now they will have to pay a penalty because of it.</p>
<p>But Baier is wrong. The ACA allows people in states which have opted out of Medicaid expansion, but would have qualified for Medicaid under that expansion, to apply for a hardship exemption which waives the penalty fee for those citizens.</p>
<p>As they noted, this is part of a pattern for Fox we've seen over and over again:</p>
<p>The network <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/11/foxs-false-warning-that-medicaid-expansion-will/197237" type="external">repeatedly insisted</a> that the expansion of Medicaid is unaffordable for states, and <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/11/01/fox-news-finds-a-victim-of-republicans-obamacar/196710" type="external">hid</a> the <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/10/foxs-reporting-on-medicaid-expansion-absolves-t/198005" type="external">GOP's role</a> in creating the Medicaid gap, while some of its personalities <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/07/03/right-wing-media-praise-gop-governors-decision/186934" type="external">praised</a> Republicans for not accepting Medicaid coverage for their poorest residents.</p> | Fox's Bret Baier Lies About Medicaid Gap | true | http://crooksandliars.com/2014/03/foxs-bret-baier-lies-about-medicaid-gap | 2014-03-19 | 4left
| Fox's Bret Baier Lies About Medicaid Gap
<p>Fox's misinformation campaign on the Affordable Care Act continues: <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/03/18/fox-lies-about-medicaid-gap-it-encouraged/198520" type="external">Fox Lies About Medicaid Gap It Encouraged</a>:</p>
<p>Fox News anchor Bret Baier erroneously claimed that low income Americans not covered by the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) must pay the law's penalty for not having health insurance despite the ACA's explicit exemption for those individuals.</p>
<p>On the March 18 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Baier aired a segment highlighting those Americans who would be left without health insurance, even though the uninsured population will be <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/43900-2014-02-ACAtables.pdf#page=3" type="external">reduced</a>. He then claimed those who were supposed to be covered by the law's <a href="http://kff.org/health-reform/issue-brief/the-coverage-gap-uninsured-poor-adults-in-states-that-do-not-expand-medicaid/?__hstc=87270983.d58fc55919f9c03b5dfd8f078a27eaea.1392055881766.1392055881766.1392062677831.2&amp;__hssc=87270983.1.1392062677831&amp;__hsfp=1642704087" type="external">Medicaid expansion</a>, but live in <a href="http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2013/10/report-5-2-million-adults-will-fall-into-aca-coverage-gap-next-year/" type="external">GOP-led states</a> that opted out of the expansion, would be forced to pay the law's penalty for being uninsured:</p>
<p>BAIER: For those people, they not only face the prospect of not having health insurance coverage despite Obamacare, but now they will have to pay a penalty because of it.</p>
<p>But Baier is wrong. The ACA allows people in states which have opted out of Medicaid expansion, but would have qualified for Medicaid under that expansion, to apply for a hardship exemption which waives the penalty fee for those citizens.</p>
<p>As they noted, this is part of a pattern for Fox we've seen over and over again:</p>
<p>The network <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/11/foxs-false-warning-that-medicaid-expansion-will/197237" type="external">repeatedly insisted</a> that the expansion of Medicaid is unaffordable for states, and <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/11/01/fox-news-finds-a-victim-of-republicans-obamacar/196710" type="external">hid</a> the <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/10/foxs-reporting-on-medicaid-expansion-absolves-t/198005" type="external">GOP's role</a> in creating the Medicaid gap, while some of its personalities <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/07/03/right-wing-media-praise-gop-governors-decision/186934" type="external">praised</a> Republicans for not accepting Medicaid coverage for their poorest residents.</p> | 4,014 |
<p />
<p />
<p>A Yonkers police officer in New York was shot in the face during a traffic stop which quickly escalated into a shootout with two suspects. The female officer received serious but non-life-threatening injuries when she approached the car and several gun shots were fired.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Yonkers Police Commissioner Charles Gardner said the officer was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. Gardner gave a public statement regarding the shooting and said, "She was struck in the chin," he went on to say that the bullet may have gone through her jaw. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the family." The young officer was from the 3rd Precinct and approached the suspects car during a traffic stop when they opened fire on her. She fired back striking one of the two men who required surgery at a local hospital.</p>
<p>The second man in the car was taken into custody but the investigation is still in the early stages and Garner did not release any further information. A Yonkers police Lt. Arthur Lein said, "It's chaotic" and officers would be there all night working on the investigation. The two men have not been charged nor identified at this time.</p>
<p>On Twitter:</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ErvinProduction" type="external">@ErvinProduction</a></p>
<p>Tips? Info? Send me a message!</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2017/09/25/yonkers-police-officer-shot-rumsey-road/702615001/" type="external">lohud.com/story/news/crime/2017/09/25/yonkers-police-officer-shot-rumsey-road/702615001</a></p> | Yonkers Officer Shot In Face During Traffic Stop Shoot Out | true | http://thegoldwater.com/news/8690-Yonkers-Officer-Shot-In-Face-During-Traffic-Stop-Shoot-Out | 2017-09-26 | 0right
| Yonkers Officer Shot In Face During Traffic Stop Shoot Out
<p />
<p />
<p>A Yonkers police officer in New York was shot in the face during a traffic stop which quickly escalated into a shootout with two suspects. The female officer received serious but non-life-threatening injuries when she approached the car and several gun shots were fired.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Yonkers Police Commissioner Charles Gardner said the officer was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. Gardner gave a public statement regarding the shooting and said, "She was struck in the chin," he went on to say that the bullet may have gone through her jaw. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the family." The young officer was from the 3rd Precinct and approached the suspects car during a traffic stop when they opened fire on her. She fired back striking one of the two men who required surgery at a local hospital.</p>
<p>The second man in the car was taken into custody but the investigation is still in the early stages and Garner did not release any further information. A Yonkers police Lt. Arthur Lein said, "It's chaotic" and officers would be there all night working on the investigation. The two men have not been charged nor identified at this time.</p>
<p>On Twitter:</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ErvinProduction" type="external">@ErvinProduction</a></p>
<p>Tips? Info? Send me a message!</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2017/09/25/yonkers-police-officer-shot-rumsey-road/702615001/" type="external">lohud.com/story/news/crime/2017/09/25/yonkers-police-officer-shot-rumsey-road/702615001</a></p> | 4,015 |
<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Security Council members are considering the first resolution on Yemen since a rebel takeover spun the Arab world’s poorest country into the danger of collapse.</p>
<p>A draft resolution obtained by The Associated Press demands that Shiite Houthi rebels “immediately and unconditionally” withdraw forces from government institutions, release U.S.-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his Cabinet from house arrest, and engage “in good faith” in U.N.-led peace talks.</p>
<p>But the draft falls short of what the Arab countries of the Gulf Coordination Council would like.</p>
<p>Alarmed and worried that Shiite powerhouse Iran is backing the rebels, the largely Sunni Muslim states of the council have demanded a resolution that condemns the Houthis and acts under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, meaning it can be militarily enforced.</p>
<p>The draft emerged just two days after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council that Yemen was “collapsing before our eyes.” Jordan and Britain quickly began working on a draft resolution.</p>
<p>At least nine countries, including the United States, have closed their embassies in Yemen in the past few days amid fears that the Houthis will grab more territory and that the world’s most dangerous branch of al-Qaida, based in Yemen, will be emboldened by the chaos. The Houthis and militant Sunnis of the al-Qaida branch are bitter rivals.</p>
<p>The U.N.-led talks continue but have made little ground, with envoy Jamal Benomar telling the Security Council on Thursday that Yemen, which neighbors Saudi Arabia and Oman, is at a crossroads between “civil war and disintegration.”</p>
<p>The draft resolution “strongly deplores” the Houthis’ actions to take over government institutions after grabbing control of the capital, Sanaa, in September. The rebels dissolved the parliament, and Hadi resigned last month.</p>
<p>The draft demands that all parties in Yemen “cease all armed hostilities against the people and the legitimate authorities of Yemen and relinquish the arms seized from Yemen’s military and security institutions.” It also calls on U.N. member states to “refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability.”</p>
<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Security Council members are considering the first resolution on Yemen since a rebel takeover spun the Arab world’s poorest country into the danger of collapse.</p>
<p>A draft resolution obtained by The Associated Press demands that Shiite Houthi rebels “immediately and unconditionally” withdraw forces from government institutions, release U.S.-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his Cabinet from house arrest, and engage “in good faith” in U.N.-led peace talks.</p>
<p>But the draft falls short of what the Arab countries of the Gulf Coordination Council would like.</p>
<p>Alarmed and worried that Shiite powerhouse Iran is backing the rebels, the largely Sunni Muslim states of the council have demanded a resolution that condemns the Houthis and acts under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, meaning it can be militarily enforced.</p>
<p>The draft emerged just two days after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council that Yemen was “collapsing before our eyes.” Jordan and Britain quickly began working on a draft resolution.</p>
<p>At least nine countries, including the United States, have closed their embassies in Yemen in the past few days amid fears that the Houthis will grab more territory and that the world’s most dangerous branch of al-Qaida, based in Yemen, will be emboldened by the chaos. The Houthis and militant Sunnis of the al-Qaida branch are bitter rivals.</p>
<p>The U.N.-led talks continue but have made little ground, with envoy Jamal Benomar telling the Security Council on Thursday that Yemen, which neighbors Saudi Arabia and Oman, is at a crossroads between “civil war and disintegration.”</p>
<p>The draft resolution “strongly deplores” the Houthis’ actions to take over government institutions after grabbing control of the capital, Sanaa, in September. The rebels dissolved the parliament, and Hadi resigned last month.</p>
<p>The draft demands that all parties in Yemen “cease all armed hostilities against the people and the legitimate authorities of Yemen and relinquish the arms seized from Yemen’s military and security institutions.” It also calls on U.N. member states to “refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability.”</p> | APNewsbreak: UN draft urges action on Yemen’s crisis | false | https://apnews.com/69d76be4b2674821a7679c8db778ff96 | 2015-02-15 | 2least
| APNewsbreak: UN draft urges action on Yemen’s crisis
<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Security Council members are considering the first resolution on Yemen since a rebel takeover spun the Arab world’s poorest country into the danger of collapse.</p>
<p>A draft resolution obtained by The Associated Press demands that Shiite Houthi rebels “immediately and unconditionally” withdraw forces from government institutions, release U.S.-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his Cabinet from house arrest, and engage “in good faith” in U.N.-led peace talks.</p>
<p>But the draft falls short of what the Arab countries of the Gulf Coordination Council would like.</p>
<p>Alarmed and worried that Shiite powerhouse Iran is backing the rebels, the largely Sunni Muslim states of the council have demanded a resolution that condemns the Houthis and acts under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, meaning it can be militarily enforced.</p>
<p>The draft emerged just two days after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council that Yemen was “collapsing before our eyes.” Jordan and Britain quickly began working on a draft resolution.</p>
<p>At least nine countries, including the United States, have closed their embassies in Yemen in the past few days amid fears that the Houthis will grab more territory and that the world’s most dangerous branch of al-Qaida, based in Yemen, will be emboldened by the chaos. The Houthis and militant Sunnis of the al-Qaida branch are bitter rivals.</p>
<p>The U.N.-led talks continue but have made little ground, with envoy Jamal Benomar telling the Security Council on Thursday that Yemen, which neighbors Saudi Arabia and Oman, is at a crossroads between “civil war and disintegration.”</p>
<p>The draft resolution “strongly deplores” the Houthis’ actions to take over government institutions after grabbing control of the capital, Sanaa, in September. The rebels dissolved the parliament, and Hadi resigned last month.</p>
<p>The draft demands that all parties in Yemen “cease all armed hostilities against the people and the legitimate authorities of Yemen and relinquish the arms seized from Yemen’s military and security institutions.” It also calls on U.N. member states to “refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability.”</p>
<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Security Council members are considering the first resolution on Yemen since a rebel takeover spun the Arab world’s poorest country into the danger of collapse.</p>
<p>A draft resolution obtained by The Associated Press demands that Shiite Houthi rebels “immediately and unconditionally” withdraw forces from government institutions, release U.S.-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his Cabinet from house arrest, and engage “in good faith” in U.N.-led peace talks.</p>
<p>But the draft falls short of what the Arab countries of the Gulf Coordination Council would like.</p>
<p>Alarmed and worried that Shiite powerhouse Iran is backing the rebels, the largely Sunni Muslim states of the council have demanded a resolution that condemns the Houthis and acts under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, meaning it can be militarily enforced.</p>
<p>The draft emerged just two days after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council that Yemen was “collapsing before our eyes.” Jordan and Britain quickly began working on a draft resolution.</p>
<p>At least nine countries, including the United States, have closed their embassies in Yemen in the past few days amid fears that the Houthis will grab more territory and that the world’s most dangerous branch of al-Qaida, based in Yemen, will be emboldened by the chaos. The Houthis and militant Sunnis of the al-Qaida branch are bitter rivals.</p>
<p>The U.N.-led talks continue but have made little ground, with envoy Jamal Benomar telling the Security Council on Thursday that Yemen, which neighbors Saudi Arabia and Oman, is at a crossroads between “civil war and disintegration.”</p>
<p>The draft resolution “strongly deplores” the Houthis’ actions to take over government institutions after grabbing control of the capital, Sanaa, in September. The rebels dissolved the parliament, and Hadi resigned last month.</p>
<p>The draft demands that all parties in Yemen “cease all armed hostilities against the people and the legitimate authorities of Yemen and relinquish the arms seized from Yemen’s military and security institutions.” It also calls on U.N. member states to “refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability.”</p> | 4,016 |
<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia is holding up Security Council approval to establish a new international body to assign blame for chemical attacks in Syria's deadly conflict for the first time.</p>
<p>Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who holds the council presidency in September, told reporters Wednesday that Russia had questions about the proposal by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.</p>
<p>He also raised the possibility that the council might need a new resolution to deal with allegations that the Islamic State extremist group has used chemical weapons including mustard gas in neighboring Iraq.</p>
<p>The Syrian government denies using chemical weapons but the United States and other Western nations contend Syria's government is to blame, especially for barrel bombs containing chlorine and other toxic agents dropped by helicopters, since the opposition doesn't have aircraft.</p>
<p>Ban sent a letter to the council last Thursday recommending the establishment of a three-member independent panel backed by experts with the freedom to go anywhere in Syria to identify those responsible for using chlorine and other chemical weapons so perpetrators can be brought to justice. The council was supposed to respond in five days.</p>
<p>Churkin said Russia wants the clarifications it was given by the U.N. Secretariat to its concerns to be put in writing "so that everybody has the same kind of understanding of what is going to happen in the work" of the so-called Joint Implementation Mechanism.</p>
<p>He said one example was Ban's call for voluntary contributions to fund the new body and Russia's concern that contributions could influence the "impartiality" of the new body. He said "some good explanations were given about how the money is going to be spent."</p>
<p>Last month, the council unanimously approved a resolution giving a green light to establish an international investigative body to determine responsibility for chemical attacks that have killed and injured a growing number of civilians over the past two years — and to go to suspect sites in government and opposition controlled areas. But council members also need to sign off on Ban's plan for the new body.</p>
<p>Reports have also surfaced in recent months that the Islamic State extremist group, which controls a third of Syria and Iraq, has used toxic chemicals. Churkin said Russia knows that the group has been "actively working" in this direction, including "using the services of some foreign experts to try to produce chemicals which can be used as a weapon."</p>
<p>He said Russia is very concerned about reports that Islamic State militants may be using toxic chemicals in both countries, and has been discussing the reports with the Iraqi government which is taking them seriously and "looking into it themselves."</p>
<p>In the case of Syria "the Security Council has played an important role in dealing with this problem," Churkin said, but in the case of Iraq Russia believes the council may need to adopt a new resolution at some point.</p>
<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia is holding up Security Council approval to establish a new international body to assign blame for chemical attacks in Syria's deadly conflict for the first time.</p>
<p>Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who holds the council presidency in September, told reporters Wednesday that Russia had questions about the proposal by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.</p>
<p>He also raised the possibility that the council might need a new resolution to deal with allegations that the Islamic State extremist group has used chemical weapons including mustard gas in neighboring Iraq.</p>
<p>The Syrian government denies using chemical weapons but the United States and other Western nations contend Syria's government is to blame, especially for barrel bombs containing chlorine and other toxic agents dropped by helicopters, since the opposition doesn't have aircraft.</p>
<p>Ban sent a letter to the council last Thursday recommending the establishment of a three-member independent panel backed by experts with the freedom to go anywhere in Syria to identify those responsible for using chlorine and other chemical weapons so perpetrators can be brought to justice. The council was supposed to respond in five days.</p>
<p>Churkin said Russia wants the clarifications it was given by the U.N. Secretariat to its concerns to be put in writing "so that everybody has the same kind of understanding of what is going to happen in the work" of the so-called Joint Implementation Mechanism.</p>
<p>He said one example was Ban's call for voluntary contributions to fund the new body and Russia's concern that contributions could influence the "impartiality" of the new body. He said "some good explanations were given about how the money is going to be spent."</p>
<p>Last month, the council unanimously approved a resolution giving a green light to establish an international investigative body to determine responsibility for chemical attacks that have killed and injured a growing number of civilians over the past two years — and to go to suspect sites in government and opposition controlled areas. But council members also need to sign off on Ban's plan for the new body.</p>
<p>Reports have also surfaced in recent months that the Islamic State extremist group, which controls a third of Syria and Iraq, has used toxic chemicals. Churkin said Russia knows that the group has been "actively working" in this direction, including "using the services of some foreign experts to try to produce chemicals which can be used as a weapon."</p>
<p>He said Russia is very concerned about reports that Islamic State militants may be using toxic chemicals in both countries, and has been discussing the reports with the Iraqi government which is taking them seriously and "looking into it themselves."</p>
<p>In the case of Syria "the Security Council has played an important role in dealing with this problem," Churkin said, but in the case of Iraq Russia believes the council may need to adopt a new resolution at some point.</p> | Russia delays new body to assign blame for Syrian attacks | false | https://apnews.com/amp/12ca70c2b7524e0ea435a0fc943c83c6 | 2015-09-02 | 2least
| Russia delays new body to assign blame for Syrian attacks
<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia is holding up Security Council approval to establish a new international body to assign blame for chemical attacks in Syria's deadly conflict for the first time.</p>
<p>Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who holds the council presidency in September, told reporters Wednesday that Russia had questions about the proposal by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.</p>
<p>He also raised the possibility that the council might need a new resolution to deal with allegations that the Islamic State extremist group has used chemical weapons including mustard gas in neighboring Iraq.</p>
<p>The Syrian government denies using chemical weapons but the United States and other Western nations contend Syria's government is to blame, especially for barrel bombs containing chlorine and other toxic agents dropped by helicopters, since the opposition doesn't have aircraft.</p>
<p>Ban sent a letter to the council last Thursday recommending the establishment of a three-member independent panel backed by experts with the freedom to go anywhere in Syria to identify those responsible for using chlorine and other chemical weapons so perpetrators can be brought to justice. The council was supposed to respond in five days.</p>
<p>Churkin said Russia wants the clarifications it was given by the U.N. Secretariat to its concerns to be put in writing "so that everybody has the same kind of understanding of what is going to happen in the work" of the so-called Joint Implementation Mechanism.</p>
<p>He said one example was Ban's call for voluntary contributions to fund the new body and Russia's concern that contributions could influence the "impartiality" of the new body. He said "some good explanations were given about how the money is going to be spent."</p>
<p>Last month, the council unanimously approved a resolution giving a green light to establish an international investigative body to determine responsibility for chemical attacks that have killed and injured a growing number of civilians over the past two years — and to go to suspect sites in government and opposition controlled areas. But council members also need to sign off on Ban's plan for the new body.</p>
<p>Reports have also surfaced in recent months that the Islamic State extremist group, which controls a third of Syria and Iraq, has used toxic chemicals. Churkin said Russia knows that the group has been "actively working" in this direction, including "using the services of some foreign experts to try to produce chemicals which can be used as a weapon."</p>
<p>He said Russia is very concerned about reports that Islamic State militants may be using toxic chemicals in both countries, and has been discussing the reports with the Iraqi government which is taking them seriously and "looking into it themselves."</p>
<p>In the case of Syria "the Security Council has played an important role in dealing with this problem," Churkin said, but in the case of Iraq Russia believes the council may need to adopt a new resolution at some point.</p>
<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia is holding up Security Council approval to establish a new international body to assign blame for chemical attacks in Syria's deadly conflict for the first time.</p>
<p>Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who holds the council presidency in September, told reporters Wednesday that Russia had questions about the proposal by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.</p>
<p>He also raised the possibility that the council might need a new resolution to deal with allegations that the Islamic State extremist group has used chemical weapons including mustard gas in neighboring Iraq.</p>
<p>The Syrian government denies using chemical weapons but the United States and other Western nations contend Syria's government is to blame, especially for barrel bombs containing chlorine and other toxic agents dropped by helicopters, since the opposition doesn't have aircraft.</p>
<p>Ban sent a letter to the council last Thursday recommending the establishment of a three-member independent panel backed by experts with the freedom to go anywhere in Syria to identify those responsible for using chlorine and other chemical weapons so perpetrators can be brought to justice. The council was supposed to respond in five days.</p>
<p>Churkin said Russia wants the clarifications it was given by the U.N. Secretariat to its concerns to be put in writing "so that everybody has the same kind of understanding of what is going to happen in the work" of the so-called Joint Implementation Mechanism.</p>
<p>He said one example was Ban's call for voluntary contributions to fund the new body and Russia's concern that contributions could influence the "impartiality" of the new body. He said "some good explanations were given about how the money is going to be spent."</p>
<p>Last month, the council unanimously approved a resolution giving a green light to establish an international investigative body to determine responsibility for chemical attacks that have killed and injured a growing number of civilians over the past two years — and to go to suspect sites in government and opposition controlled areas. But council members also need to sign off on Ban's plan for the new body.</p>
<p>Reports have also surfaced in recent months that the Islamic State extremist group, which controls a third of Syria and Iraq, has used toxic chemicals. Churkin said Russia knows that the group has been "actively working" in this direction, including "using the services of some foreign experts to try to produce chemicals which can be used as a weapon."</p>
<p>He said Russia is very concerned about reports that Islamic State militants may be using toxic chemicals in both countries, and has been discussing the reports with the Iraqi government which is taking them seriously and "looking into it themselves."</p>
<p>In the case of Syria "the Security Council has played an important role in dealing with this problem," Churkin said, but in the case of Iraq Russia believes the council may need to adopt a new resolution at some point.</p> | 4,017 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>California’s top-two open primary election is a groundbreaking effort, but statistics show that it has a long way to go before it makes a substantive difference in terms of opening up the elections to <a href="" type="internal">Independent</a> and third party candidates. This is the first year that the “No Party Preference” category has been added to the Green, Libertarian and Peace and Freedom alternatives to the traditional two-party system.</p>
<p>Of the state’s 53 Congressional voting districts, most are predominated by <a href="" type="internal">Democrats</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Republicans</a>, and only a handful have more than a single alternative candidate running either under Independent or third-party banners. There also remain a number of districts with a strict two-candidate, two-party choice, as well as a small number of single party elections.</p>
<p>Some of the districts offer a wide array of candidates, but most are from the two major parties. A perfect example is CD-8, which covers a vast swath of territory from Mono to San Bernardino County. This district has the largest number of candidates running anywhere in the state. Voters will be able to choose from among 10 Republicans, 2 Democrats and a single Independent, <a href="" type="internal">Anthony Adams</a>. Independents coming out for the first time to cast meaningful primary ballots will surely determine the outcome of a race this crowded.</p>
<p>In CD-2, which covers an area of central Northern California from just above Sacramento to the Oregon border, voters will be able to choose among 12 candidates – 8 Democrats, 2 Republicans and 2 Independents.</p>
<p>There are only five districts throughout the state with more than a single Independent candidate running, and a total of seven districts with two or more Independent and/or third-party candidates running. It might not seem like many, but for the very first year of open primaries–it will give future voters much to think about.</p>
<p>There are a total of 27 districts with four or more candidates. That’s more than half of the state’s voting areas. In these districts, partisan votes will likely get split, if not multiple ways. This opens the door for a nonpartisan, or non-endorsed partisan to make their way to a November ballot.</p>
<p>It is unclear whether incumbency has much of an impact on the number of candidates running in a district. Although for the most part the largest number of candidates are running in districts without incumbents (1, 2, 8 and 47), there are a number of notable exceptions. District 52 (in San Diego County), for example, lists 9 candidates up against the incumbent Republican. Two of those candidates are Independents, including <a href="" type="internal">Jack Doyle</a>, who we have covered here at IVN.</p>
<p>Traditional two-party, two-candidate races are in the clear minority, with only four remaining (Districts 4, 22, 36 and 53). Three districts have two-candidate, one-party races (40, 43 and 44 – all Democratic), and a single district (37) has an uncontested election with a Democratic incumbent.</p>
<p>Two districts (CD-20 and CD-33) offer 3 Independent or third party candidates, and CD-20 (mainly Kings County) is the only district with more third party candidates (3) than either Republicans or Democrats (2 each).</p>
<p>At this point are we at the beginning of a voter revolution with the top-two primary approach, or have we maxed out on the number of non-two-party candidates who will run in future elections? For now, the red-blue dichotomy remains largely in place. What makes a difference in this election, is that voters clearly have a lot of choices in certain districts. And their votes will have significant impact, a huge consideration for independents and moderate partisans worried about “throwaway” votes. It will be interesting to see whether these choices will result in changes in representation after the November elections. Given the fact that <a href="" type="internal">independent voters</a> will be finally enfranchised by the system, some surprises may be on the horizon. At the very least, this year’s election will pave the way for the future.</p> | Top-Two Open Primaries Show Plenty of Blue and Red | false | https://ivn.us/2012/05/17/top-two-open-primaries-show-plenty-of-blue-and-red/ | 2012-05-17 | 2least
| Top-Two Open Primaries Show Plenty of Blue and Red
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>California’s top-two open primary election is a groundbreaking effort, but statistics show that it has a long way to go before it makes a substantive difference in terms of opening up the elections to <a href="" type="internal">Independent</a> and third party candidates. This is the first year that the “No Party Preference” category has been added to the Green, Libertarian and Peace and Freedom alternatives to the traditional two-party system.</p>
<p>Of the state’s 53 Congressional voting districts, most are predominated by <a href="" type="internal">Democrats</a> and <a href="" type="internal">Republicans</a>, and only a handful have more than a single alternative candidate running either under Independent or third-party banners. There also remain a number of districts with a strict two-candidate, two-party choice, as well as a small number of single party elections.</p>
<p>Some of the districts offer a wide array of candidates, but most are from the two major parties. A perfect example is CD-8, which covers a vast swath of territory from Mono to San Bernardino County. This district has the largest number of candidates running anywhere in the state. Voters will be able to choose from among 10 Republicans, 2 Democrats and a single Independent, <a href="" type="internal">Anthony Adams</a>. Independents coming out for the first time to cast meaningful primary ballots will surely determine the outcome of a race this crowded.</p>
<p>In CD-2, which covers an area of central Northern California from just above Sacramento to the Oregon border, voters will be able to choose among 12 candidates – 8 Democrats, 2 Republicans and 2 Independents.</p>
<p>There are only five districts throughout the state with more than a single Independent candidate running, and a total of seven districts with two or more Independent and/or third-party candidates running. It might not seem like many, but for the very first year of open primaries–it will give future voters much to think about.</p>
<p>There are a total of 27 districts with four or more candidates. That’s more than half of the state’s voting areas. In these districts, partisan votes will likely get split, if not multiple ways. This opens the door for a nonpartisan, or non-endorsed partisan to make their way to a November ballot.</p>
<p>It is unclear whether incumbency has much of an impact on the number of candidates running in a district. Although for the most part the largest number of candidates are running in districts without incumbents (1, 2, 8 and 47), there are a number of notable exceptions. District 52 (in San Diego County), for example, lists 9 candidates up against the incumbent Republican. Two of those candidates are Independents, including <a href="" type="internal">Jack Doyle</a>, who we have covered here at IVN.</p>
<p>Traditional two-party, two-candidate races are in the clear minority, with only four remaining (Districts 4, 22, 36 and 53). Three districts have two-candidate, one-party races (40, 43 and 44 – all Democratic), and a single district (37) has an uncontested election with a Democratic incumbent.</p>
<p>Two districts (CD-20 and CD-33) offer 3 Independent or third party candidates, and CD-20 (mainly Kings County) is the only district with more third party candidates (3) than either Republicans or Democrats (2 each).</p>
<p>At this point are we at the beginning of a voter revolution with the top-two primary approach, or have we maxed out on the number of non-two-party candidates who will run in future elections? For now, the red-blue dichotomy remains largely in place. What makes a difference in this election, is that voters clearly have a lot of choices in certain districts. And their votes will have significant impact, a huge consideration for independents and moderate partisans worried about “throwaway” votes. It will be interesting to see whether these choices will result in changes in representation after the November elections. Given the fact that <a href="" type="internal">independent voters</a> will be finally enfranchised by the system, some surprises may be on the horizon. At the very least, this year’s election will pave the way for the future.</p> | 4,018 |
<p>A news story that appeared in the <a href="https://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/fake_gold_hits_nyc_ECXVP5WQOvYwMVTi8CoHRL" type="external">New York Post</a> reported that a dealer in New York City’s diamond district unknowingly acquired phony gold bars. The dealer later discovered that at least ten bars of gold he purchased were counterfeit. The bars had just a gold coating on the outside with the majority of the bar being <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten" type="external">tungsten</a>.</p>
<p>A gold dealer named&#160;Ibrahim Fadl, the man who received these fake gold bars, stated in the report how they came into his possession:</p>
<p>&#160;“Fadl, a Columbia University graduate with a master’s degree in chemical engineering, and who has more than 40 years in the industry, purchased the four fake bars from a well-known Russian salesman with whom he has done business.”</p>
<p>The&#160;counterfeiter buys a&#160;legitimate&#160;gold bar from a well known gold mint. They then take the bar, slice it in half, and hollow out the inside. A tungsten ingot, which is similar in weight, is placed into the center of the bar. It is then put back together and then sold as pure gold. This type of&#160;counterfeiting&#160;takes a huge upfront investment as the counterfeiter has to purchase real gold bars. In addition, a significant amount of skill is needed to fool anyone who has been in this market as long as Mr. Fadl has.</p>
<p>However, this type of story is not new. Last year, Congressman <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/id/43391588/Is_Gold_in_Fort_Knox_Real_Ron_Paul_Wants_to_Know" type="external">Ron Paul</a>, who chairs the&#160;House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, requested an audit of Fort Knox in Kentucky. The request was in response to a story that a huge&#160;shipment&#160;of gold bars that were delivered&#160;to <a href="http://www.viewzone.com/fakegold.html" type="external">China</a> turned out to be fake. The story could not be verified and is considered an Internet rumor. In March, a poorly constructed fake, reported by <a href="https://ausbullion.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/tungsten-filled-gold-bars.html" type="external">ABC Bullion</a>, was quickly detected because the bar was discovered to be underweight.</p>
<p>So, how&#160;prevalent is the issue of counterfeiting in the gold market and what can buyers do to protect themselves?</p>
<p>Detailed research on the matter and people with extensive experience in the gold market can reassure buyers and people looking to invest in the market that such counterfeiting practices are not that common. An <a href="http://www.perthmintbullion.com/us/blog/blog/12-03-26/Fake_Bars_-_The_Facts.aspx" type="external">essay</a> written by Bron Suchecki, from the respected Perth Mint in Australia, puts together a good argument that these incidents are exceedingly rare.&#160;Mr. Suckecki points out that gold bars are melted quite frequently to make jewelry, coins, and new bars. Therefore, a large scale operation would be easily detected.</p>
<p>In addition, if buyers are dealing with a&#160;reputable&#160;dealer or directly with a mint they should have little to worry about. If people looking to get into the market read the entire story about the gold bars Mr. Fadl purchased, he mentioned that the dealer offered him a huge discount when gold prices are on the rise. This should have been a huge red flag for Fadl, but he decided against his better judgement and made the purchase only to&#160;verify&#160;what he suspected later.</p> | Counterfeiting in the Gold Market Very Rare, Experts Say | false | https://ivn.us/2012/09/25/counterfeiting-in-the-gold-market/ | 2012-09-25 | 2least
| Counterfeiting in the Gold Market Very Rare, Experts Say
<p>A news story that appeared in the <a href="https://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/fake_gold_hits_nyc_ECXVP5WQOvYwMVTi8CoHRL" type="external">New York Post</a> reported that a dealer in New York City’s diamond district unknowingly acquired phony gold bars. The dealer later discovered that at least ten bars of gold he purchased were counterfeit. The bars had just a gold coating on the outside with the majority of the bar being <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten" type="external">tungsten</a>.</p>
<p>A gold dealer named&#160;Ibrahim Fadl, the man who received these fake gold bars, stated in the report how they came into his possession:</p>
<p>&#160;“Fadl, a Columbia University graduate with a master’s degree in chemical engineering, and who has more than 40 years in the industry, purchased the four fake bars from a well-known Russian salesman with whom he has done business.”</p>
<p>The&#160;counterfeiter buys a&#160;legitimate&#160;gold bar from a well known gold mint. They then take the bar, slice it in half, and hollow out the inside. A tungsten ingot, which is similar in weight, is placed into the center of the bar. It is then put back together and then sold as pure gold. This type of&#160;counterfeiting&#160;takes a huge upfront investment as the counterfeiter has to purchase real gold bars. In addition, a significant amount of skill is needed to fool anyone who has been in this market as long as Mr. Fadl has.</p>
<p>However, this type of story is not new. Last year, Congressman <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/id/43391588/Is_Gold_in_Fort_Knox_Real_Ron_Paul_Wants_to_Know" type="external">Ron Paul</a>, who chairs the&#160;House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, requested an audit of Fort Knox in Kentucky. The request was in response to a story that a huge&#160;shipment&#160;of gold bars that were delivered&#160;to <a href="http://www.viewzone.com/fakegold.html" type="external">China</a> turned out to be fake. The story could not be verified and is considered an Internet rumor. In March, a poorly constructed fake, reported by <a href="https://ausbullion.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/tungsten-filled-gold-bars.html" type="external">ABC Bullion</a>, was quickly detected because the bar was discovered to be underweight.</p>
<p>So, how&#160;prevalent is the issue of counterfeiting in the gold market and what can buyers do to protect themselves?</p>
<p>Detailed research on the matter and people with extensive experience in the gold market can reassure buyers and people looking to invest in the market that such counterfeiting practices are not that common. An <a href="http://www.perthmintbullion.com/us/blog/blog/12-03-26/Fake_Bars_-_The_Facts.aspx" type="external">essay</a> written by Bron Suchecki, from the respected Perth Mint in Australia, puts together a good argument that these incidents are exceedingly rare.&#160;Mr. Suckecki points out that gold bars are melted quite frequently to make jewelry, coins, and new bars. Therefore, a large scale operation would be easily detected.</p>
<p>In addition, if buyers are dealing with a&#160;reputable&#160;dealer or directly with a mint they should have little to worry about. If people looking to get into the market read the entire story about the gold bars Mr. Fadl purchased, he mentioned that the dealer offered him a huge discount when gold prices are on the rise. This should have been a huge red flag for Fadl, but he decided against his better judgement and made the purchase only to&#160;verify&#160;what he suspected later.</p> | 4,019 |
<p>Harper’s Ken Silverstein explains “why I hate Landon Donovan” in this feel-good post. “Tragically,” Silverstein concludes, “it appears the U.S. soccer team will likely continue to plague the Cup with its God-awful soccer.” Guess not everyone’s on the bandwagon.</p>
<p>Ken Silverstein on Harpers.org:</p>
<p>Donovan also said, “My guess is there are not many teams in this tournament that could have done what we did and arguably won the game,” Donovan said. “That’s what the American spirit is all about.”</p>
<p>Do what? The only thing that matters is the final score, which history will record as a tie. Donovan’s remarks are equivalent to Paul Pierce’s saying in an interview after last night’s Lakers–Celtics game, “My guess is there are not many teams who could have done what we did. We were beating the Lakers by 13 points in the second half.”</p>
<p />
<p>Second, given that the press has been talking about how the Americans had scored an “upset draw” by tying “mighty England,” shouldn’t today’s result therefore be deemed an “upset draw” for Slovenia, the smallest country that made the Cup?</p>
<p><a href="http://harpers.org/archive/2010/06/hbc-90007255" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Rooting Against Team USA | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/rooting-against-team-usa/ | 2010-06-21 | 4left
| Rooting Against Team USA
<p>Harper’s Ken Silverstein explains “why I hate Landon Donovan” in this feel-good post. “Tragically,” Silverstein concludes, “it appears the U.S. soccer team will likely continue to plague the Cup with its God-awful soccer.” Guess not everyone’s on the bandwagon.</p>
<p>Ken Silverstein on Harpers.org:</p>
<p>Donovan also said, “My guess is there are not many teams in this tournament that could have done what we did and arguably won the game,” Donovan said. “That’s what the American spirit is all about.”</p>
<p>Do what? The only thing that matters is the final score, which history will record as a tie. Donovan’s remarks are equivalent to Paul Pierce’s saying in an interview after last night’s Lakers–Celtics game, “My guess is there are not many teams who could have done what we did. We were beating the Lakers by 13 points in the second half.”</p>
<p />
<p>Second, given that the press has been talking about how the Americans had scored an “upset draw” by tying “mighty England,” shouldn’t today’s result therefore be deemed an “upset draw” for Slovenia, the smallest country that made the Cup?</p>
<p><a href="http://harpers.org/archive/2010/06/hbc-90007255" type="external">Read more</a></p> | 4,020 |
<p>Katy Grimes:&#160;The Sacramento region has dropped even lower in a national ranking of cities with a good small business climate and&#160;small-business vitality.</p>
<p>Last year, Sacramento was listed at No. 95 on a national ranking of 100 metropolitan areas. This year, the city has dropped below Stockton to&#160;No. 96, and only two rungs ahead of Detroit, according to The Business Journal.</p>
<p>The rankings are done annually by <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2011/04/11/sacramento-near-bottom-in-small-biz-rank.html?ed=2011-04-11&amp;s=article_du&amp;ana=e_du_pub" type="external">The Business Journal</a>, which factors in whether cities reward markets that have prosperous economies, are expanding rapidly, and are densely packed with small businesses.</p>
<p>Austin finished first.</p>
<p>It’s been so long, that it’s hard to remember when California finished at the top of the list for business vitality.</p>
<p>California had nine cities listed in the ranking, with San Jose coming in the highest at No. 20, San Diego at No. 47, Riverside-San Bernardino at No. 99, and Modesto falling to No. 100.</p>
<p>Everything that California is not doing can be found in Austin. The winning city is doing many things right:</p>
<p>“Population: The Austin area added 286,000 residents between 2004 and 2009, an increase of 20.2 percent. The only metro to grow faster was Raleigh at 22.8 percent.</p>
<p>Employment: Austin’s job base expanded by 9.3 percent between 2005 and 2010, the third-fastest upswing in the nation.</p>
<p>Small-business growth: The number of small businesses grew by 1.5 percent in Austin between 2007 and 2008, the latest period covered by official statistics. No other market did better than 0.6 percent.”</p>
<p>Each of these areas has a direct impact on small-business activity, according to The Business Journal.</p>
<p>But I’ll bet that Texas doesn’t have a fancy high speed rail system… or is turning sewage into solar power… or licensing tattoo artists… or banning plastic bags… or cutting off the water to farmers to save a bug.</p>
<p>Nearly every issue that the majority party in California has its attention on right now kills business, grows government and increases state debt – a real winning formula by people who have never signed the front of a paycheck and really don’t seem to understand or care what it takes to creates growth.</p>
<p>APRIL 11, 2011</p> | Small Business Vitality Poor In Calif. | false | https://calwatchdog.com/2011/04/11/small-business-vitality-poor-in-calif/ | 2018-04-20 | 3left-center
| Small Business Vitality Poor In Calif.
<p>Katy Grimes:&#160;The Sacramento region has dropped even lower in a national ranking of cities with a good small business climate and&#160;small-business vitality.</p>
<p>Last year, Sacramento was listed at No. 95 on a national ranking of 100 metropolitan areas. This year, the city has dropped below Stockton to&#160;No. 96, and only two rungs ahead of Detroit, according to The Business Journal.</p>
<p>The rankings are done annually by <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2011/04/11/sacramento-near-bottom-in-small-biz-rank.html?ed=2011-04-11&amp;s=article_du&amp;ana=e_du_pub" type="external">The Business Journal</a>, which factors in whether cities reward markets that have prosperous economies, are expanding rapidly, and are densely packed with small businesses.</p>
<p>Austin finished first.</p>
<p>It’s been so long, that it’s hard to remember when California finished at the top of the list for business vitality.</p>
<p>California had nine cities listed in the ranking, with San Jose coming in the highest at No. 20, San Diego at No. 47, Riverside-San Bernardino at No. 99, and Modesto falling to No. 100.</p>
<p>Everything that California is not doing can be found in Austin. The winning city is doing many things right:</p>
<p>“Population: The Austin area added 286,000 residents between 2004 and 2009, an increase of 20.2 percent. The only metro to grow faster was Raleigh at 22.8 percent.</p>
<p>Employment: Austin’s job base expanded by 9.3 percent between 2005 and 2010, the third-fastest upswing in the nation.</p>
<p>Small-business growth: The number of small businesses grew by 1.5 percent in Austin between 2007 and 2008, the latest period covered by official statistics. No other market did better than 0.6 percent.”</p>
<p>Each of these areas has a direct impact on small-business activity, according to The Business Journal.</p>
<p>But I’ll bet that Texas doesn’t have a fancy high speed rail system… or is turning sewage into solar power… or licensing tattoo artists… or banning plastic bags… or cutting off the water to farmers to save a bug.</p>
<p>Nearly every issue that the majority party in California has its attention on right now kills business, grows government and increases state debt – a real winning formula by people who have never signed the front of a paycheck and really don’t seem to understand or care what it takes to creates growth.</p>
<p>APRIL 11, 2011</p> | 4,021 |
<p>Thought exercise: You’re “The Decider.” Someone asks you whether the U.S. should attack Iran, to prevent that country from building an atomic bomb. How would you decide?</p>
<p>You’d probably ask some questions: war is serious business. You might make proponents of war meet a substantial burden of proof that Iran has a weapons program; that the program is headed toward a bomb; and that Iran would actually use the bomb–that, in short, Iran poses a serious threat. You might demand estimates of the likely costs and how to keep them as low as possible, and weigh these costs against other uses for the money, lives, materiel and energy needed for war.</p>
<p>If you asked these questions, you’d be far ahead of the real “Deciders,” the U.N. Security Council and the U.S. Congress. Although both bodies are charged under international and U.S. law respectively with deciding whether war is an appropriate way to address Iran’s alleged efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, neither body is required to ask these sorts of questions. Both failed to ask them before the 2003 invasion of Iraq (which the U.N. did not authorize, but has not condemned), and the result was a war that most of the world now regards as unnecessary, a war based on misinformation that could have been revealed as such before the bombs were ever dropped. Indeed, two years ago, two major newspapers, the <a href="" type="internal">New York Times</a>and <a href="" type="internal">Washington Post</a> issued limited mea culpas for failing to ask hardnosed questions. But Congress has not issued any apologies for failing to deliberate, for surrendering its constitutional power to decide whether to go to war to the president several months before this wasteful, counterproductive war was launched.</p>
<p>Congress appears equally unlikely to ask tough-minded questions this time, despite the fact that the President has essentially threatened a <a href="" type="internal">first-strike with nuclear weapons</a> against Iran. Nor does the U.N. Security Council appear ready to probe the Administration’s case with any rigor.</p>
<p>It’s a pity. War should no longer be treated as a sport of kings, an ad hoc decision more about whether countries will join coalitions than about evidence and a serious search for intelligent alternatives. War is too deadly, too costly; the risk of escalation, the spread of conflict, refugee crises, environmental harm, economic damage, and terrorist blowback against the public is too high. Although the existing “law of war” (that is, the law that purportedly takes effect once war starts) might seek to protect against many such harms, those laws are too little, too late: many damages are foreordained once war begins. It’s time for Congress and the U.N. to create processes to ensure that the searching questions are asked before any bombs are dropped.</p>
<p>This lack of process is rarely discussed by politicians or jurists. It was, however, raised recently, albeit obliquely, by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his proposals for U.N. reform. In his 2005 report, In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All, the Secretary-General urged the Security Council to adopt a resolution where the Council could “come to a common view on how to weigh the seriousness of the threat; the proper purpose of the proposed military action; whether means short of the use of force might plausibly succeed in stopping the threat; whether the military option is proportional to the threat at hand; and whether there is a reasonable chance of success.” ( In Larger Freedom, Ch. 3, “ <a href="http://www.un.org/largerfreedom/chap3.htm" type="external">Freedom From Fear,</a>” para. 126) So far, however, no such resolution has been adopted.</p>
<p>In addition to the points the Secretary-General raised, decisionmakers should be required to identify specifically the harms that would likely result from military action, and seek ways to limit them. For example, decisionmakers should be required to investigate the likely military and civilian casualties; refugee crises; the danger that the targeted country (or forces allied with it) might retaliate; the possibility that the conflict might spill over the target nation’s borders; likely environmental harm and likely economic impacts, especially on energy markets.</p>
<p>Congress, too, should step up. The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, and the power of the purse. With the Bush policy of preemptive war–a war we initiate when we’re not directly under attack–Congress has the duty to ensure that any use of military force is undertaken with seriousness and responsibility. The White House announced this policy almost four years ago and recently reaffirmed it ; the time is ripe for Congress to reassert itself by creating a process to test the need for such wars.</p>
<p>Preventing unnecessary wars is an important goal of the U.N. Charter and the U.S. Constitution. Recent history has shown that it’s hard to achieve this goal, however, when the White House is bent on war. The crisis regarding Iran presents the U.N. and Congress with the opportunity to create a process to guide the decision of whether to go to war, a process that helps ensure that any resort to force is truly the last resort, truly necessary, and that the attendant destruction and disorder are as limited as possible. Failure to create such a process is a mistake we cannot afford to repeat.</p>
<p>BRIAN J. FOLEY is a professor at Florida Coastal School of Law. Visit his website at <a href="http://www.brianjfoley.com/" type="external">www.brianjfoley.com</a> Contact him at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Who Will Question the Drive to Attack Iran? | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/05/26/who-will-question-the-drive-to-attack-iran/ | 2006-05-26 | 4left
| Who Will Question the Drive to Attack Iran?
<p>Thought exercise: You’re “The Decider.” Someone asks you whether the U.S. should attack Iran, to prevent that country from building an atomic bomb. How would you decide?</p>
<p>You’d probably ask some questions: war is serious business. You might make proponents of war meet a substantial burden of proof that Iran has a weapons program; that the program is headed toward a bomb; and that Iran would actually use the bomb–that, in short, Iran poses a serious threat. You might demand estimates of the likely costs and how to keep them as low as possible, and weigh these costs against other uses for the money, lives, materiel and energy needed for war.</p>
<p>If you asked these questions, you’d be far ahead of the real “Deciders,” the U.N. Security Council and the U.S. Congress. Although both bodies are charged under international and U.S. law respectively with deciding whether war is an appropriate way to address Iran’s alleged efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, neither body is required to ask these sorts of questions. Both failed to ask them before the 2003 invasion of Iraq (which the U.N. did not authorize, but has not condemned), and the result was a war that most of the world now regards as unnecessary, a war based on misinformation that could have been revealed as such before the bombs were ever dropped. Indeed, two years ago, two major newspapers, the <a href="" type="internal">New York Times</a>and <a href="" type="internal">Washington Post</a> issued limited mea culpas for failing to ask hardnosed questions. But Congress has not issued any apologies for failing to deliberate, for surrendering its constitutional power to decide whether to go to war to the president several months before this wasteful, counterproductive war was launched.</p>
<p>Congress appears equally unlikely to ask tough-minded questions this time, despite the fact that the President has essentially threatened a <a href="" type="internal">first-strike with nuclear weapons</a> against Iran. Nor does the U.N. Security Council appear ready to probe the Administration’s case with any rigor.</p>
<p>It’s a pity. War should no longer be treated as a sport of kings, an ad hoc decision more about whether countries will join coalitions than about evidence and a serious search for intelligent alternatives. War is too deadly, too costly; the risk of escalation, the spread of conflict, refugee crises, environmental harm, economic damage, and terrorist blowback against the public is too high. Although the existing “law of war” (that is, the law that purportedly takes effect once war starts) might seek to protect against many such harms, those laws are too little, too late: many damages are foreordained once war begins. It’s time for Congress and the U.N. to create processes to ensure that the searching questions are asked before any bombs are dropped.</p>
<p>This lack of process is rarely discussed by politicians or jurists. It was, however, raised recently, albeit obliquely, by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his proposals for U.N. reform. In his 2005 report, In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All, the Secretary-General urged the Security Council to adopt a resolution where the Council could “come to a common view on how to weigh the seriousness of the threat; the proper purpose of the proposed military action; whether means short of the use of force might plausibly succeed in stopping the threat; whether the military option is proportional to the threat at hand; and whether there is a reasonable chance of success.” ( In Larger Freedom, Ch. 3, “ <a href="http://www.un.org/largerfreedom/chap3.htm" type="external">Freedom From Fear,</a>” para. 126) So far, however, no such resolution has been adopted.</p>
<p>In addition to the points the Secretary-General raised, decisionmakers should be required to identify specifically the harms that would likely result from military action, and seek ways to limit them. For example, decisionmakers should be required to investigate the likely military and civilian casualties; refugee crises; the danger that the targeted country (or forces allied with it) might retaliate; the possibility that the conflict might spill over the target nation’s borders; likely environmental harm and likely economic impacts, especially on energy markets.</p>
<p>Congress, too, should step up. The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war, and the power of the purse. With the Bush policy of preemptive war–a war we initiate when we’re not directly under attack–Congress has the duty to ensure that any use of military force is undertaken with seriousness and responsibility. The White House announced this policy almost four years ago and recently reaffirmed it ; the time is ripe for Congress to reassert itself by creating a process to test the need for such wars.</p>
<p>Preventing unnecessary wars is an important goal of the U.N. Charter and the U.S. Constitution. Recent history has shown that it’s hard to achieve this goal, however, when the White House is bent on war. The crisis regarding Iran presents the U.N. and Congress with the opportunity to create a process to guide the decision of whether to go to war, a process that helps ensure that any resort to force is truly the last resort, truly necessary, and that the attendant destruction and disorder are as limited as possible. Failure to create such a process is a mistake we cannot afford to repeat.</p>
<p>BRIAN J. FOLEY is a professor at Florida Coastal School of Law. Visit his website at <a href="http://www.brianjfoley.com/" type="external">www.brianjfoley.com</a> Contact him at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 4,022 |
<p>On Sunday night, a lone gunman identified as <a href="" type="internal">Stephen Craig Poddock</a> opened fire at the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest country music festival crowd from the 32nd floor of a Vegas hotel, killing at least 50 people and injuring 400 others. The gunman was found dead in the hotel room by officers, from an apparent suicide.</p>
<p>Country music star Jason Aldean was performing at the time the gunman opened fire on the crowd, around 10 p.m. local time. Video footage shows Aldean slowing his singing when the gun shots are initially heard, and quickly running off stage the horrifying moment he realizes the sound was indeed gunfire.</p>
<p>Soon following the massacre, Aldean posted a statement to Instagram on his official page:</p>
<p>"Tonight has been beyond horrific," he wrote. "I still dont [sic] know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that Me and my Crew are safe. My Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight. It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night. #heartbroken #stopthehate."</p>
<p>See the terrifying moment Aldean runs off stage, below:</p>
<p>Aldean's pregnant wife, 29-year-old Brittany Aldean, also posted about the incident; she, too, was at the concert.</p>
<p>"Our angels were definitely watching over us tonight. No words for what happened... Just horrific. Praying for everyone," wrote Brittany.</p>
<p>Other singers at the concert, including Jake Owen and Chris Young, sounded-off on Twitter amidst the chaos.</p> | Country Singer Jason Aldean Releases Statement After Surviving Vegas Massacre | true | https://dailywire.com/news/21809/country-singer-jason-aldean-releases-statement-amanda-prestigiacomo | 2017-10-02 | 0right
| Country Singer Jason Aldean Releases Statement After Surviving Vegas Massacre
<p>On Sunday night, a lone gunman identified as <a href="" type="internal">Stephen Craig Poddock</a> opened fire at the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest country music festival crowd from the 32nd floor of a Vegas hotel, killing at least 50 people and injuring 400 others. The gunman was found dead in the hotel room by officers, from an apparent suicide.</p>
<p>Country music star Jason Aldean was performing at the time the gunman opened fire on the crowd, around 10 p.m. local time. Video footage shows Aldean slowing his singing when the gun shots are initially heard, and quickly running off stage the horrifying moment he realizes the sound was indeed gunfire.</p>
<p>Soon following the massacre, Aldean posted a statement to Instagram on his official page:</p>
<p>"Tonight has been beyond horrific," he wrote. "I still dont [sic] know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that Me and my Crew are safe. My Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight. It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night. #heartbroken #stopthehate."</p>
<p>See the terrifying moment Aldean runs off stage, below:</p>
<p>Aldean's pregnant wife, 29-year-old Brittany Aldean, also posted about the incident; she, too, was at the concert.</p>
<p>"Our angels were definitely watching over us tonight. No words for what happened... Just horrific. Praying for everyone," wrote Brittany.</p>
<p>Other singers at the concert, including Jake Owen and Chris Young, sounded-off on Twitter amidst the chaos.</p> | 4,023 |
<p>Vale S.A. (VALE) will report its next earnings on Jan 25 BMO. The company reported the earnings of $0.43/Share in the last quarter where the estimated EPS by analysts was $0.33/share. The difference between the expected and actual EPS was $0.1/share, which represents an Earnings surprise of 30.3%.</p>
<p>Many analysts are providing their Estimated Earnings analysis for Vale S.A. and for the current quarter 10 analysts have projected that the stock could give an Average Earnings estimate of $0.25/share. These analysts have also projected a Low Estimate of $0.12/share and a High Estimate of $0.32/share.</p>
<p>In case of Revenue Estimates, 4 analysts have provided their consensus Average Revenue Estimates for Vale S.A. as 8.51 Billion. According to these analysts, the Low Revenue Estimate for Vale S.A. is 8.21 Billion and the High Revenue Estimate is 9 Billion. The company had Year Ago Sales of 7.82 Billion.</p>
<p>These analysts also forecasted Growth Estimates for the Current Quarter for VALE to be 150%. They are projecting Next Quarter growth of -52.1%. For the next 5 years, Vale S.A. is expecting Growth of 19.25% per annum, whereas in the past 5 years the growth was -15.53% per annum.</p>
<p>Some buy side analysts are also providing their Analysis on Vale S.A., where 3 analysts have rated the stock as Strong buy, 0 analysts have given a Buy signal, 1 said it’s a HOLD, and 0 analysts rated the stock as Sell. (These Recommendations are for the Current Month Only reported by Yahoo Finance.)</p>
<p>When it comes to the Analysis of a Stock, Price Target plays a vital role. Analysts reported that the Price Target for Vale S.A. might touch $15.8 high while the Average Price Target and Low price Target is $11.83 and $6 respectively.</p>
<p>The Relative Volume of the company is 0.77 and Average Volume (3 months) is 27.88 million. The company’s P/E (price to earnings) ratio is 8.34 and Forward P/E ratio of 9.75.</p>
<p>The company shows its Return on Assets (ROA) value of 5.1%. The Return on Equity (ROE) value stands at 12.4%. While it’s Return on Investment (ROI) value is 5%.</p>
<p>While looking at the Stock’s Performance, Vale S.A. currently shows a Weekly Performance of 1.4%, where Monthly Performance is 11.46%, Quarterly performance is 0.37%, 6 Months performance is 38.2% and yearly performance percentage is 35.86%. Year to Date performance value (YTD perf) value is 47.63%. The Stock currently has a Weekly Volatility of 1.95% and Monthly Volatility of 2.54%.</p> | Analysts Recommendations Vale S.A. (VALE) | false | https://newsline.com/analysts-recommendations-vale-s-a-vale/ | 2017-12-15 | 1right-center
| Analysts Recommendations Vale S.A. (VALE)
<p>Vale S.A. (VALE) will report its next earnings on Jan 25 BMO. The company reported the earnings of $0.43/Share in the last quarter where the estimated EPS by analysts was $0.33/share. The difference between the expected and actual EPS was $0.1/share, which represents an Earnings surprise of 30.3%.</p>
<p>Many analysts are providing their Estimated Earnings analysis for Vale S.A. and for the current quarter 10 analysts have projected that the stock could give an Average Earnings estimate of $0.25/share. These analysts have also projected a Low Estimate of $0.12/share and a High Estimate of $0.32/share.</p>
<p>In case of Revenue Estimates, 4 analysts have provided their consensus Average Revenue Estimates for Vale S.A. as 8.51 Billion. According to these analysts, the Low Revenue Estimate for Vale S.A. is 8.21 Billion and the High Revenue Estimate is 9 Billion. The company had Year Ago Sales of 7.82 Billion.</p>
<p>These analysts also forecasted Growth Estimates for the Current Quarter for VALE to be 150%. They are projecting Next Quarter growth of -52.1%. For the next 5 years, Vale S.A. is expecting Growth of 19.25% per annum, whereas in the past 5 years the growth was -15.53% per annum.</p>
<p>Some buy side analysts are also providing their Analysis on Vale S.A., where 3 analysts have rated the stock as Strong buy, 0 analysts have given a Buy signal, 1 said it’s a HOLD, and 0 analysts rated the stock as Sell. (These Recommendations are for the Current Month Only reported by Yahoo Finance.)</p>
<p>When it comes to the Analysis of a Stock, Price Target plays a vital role. Analysts reported that the Price Target for Vale S.A. might touch $15.8 high while the Average Price Target and Low price Target is $11.83 and $6 respectively.</p>
<p>The Relative Volume of the company is 0.77 and Average Volume (3 months) is 27.88 million. The company’s P/E (price to earnings) ratio is 8.34 and Forward P/E ratio of 9.75.</p>
<p>The company shows its Return on Assets (ROA) value of 5.1%. The Return on Equity (ROE) value stands at 12.4%. While it’s Return on Investment (ROI) value is 5%.</p>
<p>While looking at the Stock’s Performance, Vale S.A. currently shows a Weekly Performance of 1.4%, where Monthly Performance is 11.46%, Quarterly performance is 0.37%, 6 Months performance is 38.2% and yearly performance percentage is 35.86%. Year to Date performance value (YTD perf) value is 47.63%. The Stock currently has a Weekly Volatility of 1.95% and Monthly Volatility of 2.54%.</p> | 4,024 |
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<p />
<p>The Commerce Department said Tuesday that builders broke ground on homes last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.3 million units. The increase marks a key moment in the recovery from the Great Recession: Builders started work on single-family houses at the fastest pace since September 2007, which was just a few months before the start of that economic downturn.</p>
<p>Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist at the real estate company Trulia, said completed new homes are likely to finish at a post-recession high, but completions are still just 65 percent of their 50 year-average.</p>
<p>Driving the rebound in home construction has been a shortage of existing properties being listed for sale.</p>
<p>Fewer people are putting their property on the market, despite healthy demand from buyers because the unemployment rate is at a 17 year-low and mortgage rates remain at attractive levels. New construction has filled some of this gap with starts on single-family houses rising 8.7 percent so far this year.</p>
<p>Still, not enough new homes are being built to totally end the supply squeeze. Over the past year, the number of sales listings for the much larger market for existing homes has fallen 6.4 percent.</p>
<p>The construction growth last month came from the South and West, while the Northeast and Midwest reported declines.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Builders are also backing away from the apartment rentals that until recently were a driving force behind the rebound in residential construction. Ground breakings for multi-family buildings such as apartment complexes have declined 8.5 percent year-to-date.</p>
<p>The move away from apartment construction has corresponded with a shift by the millennial population toward buying homes, said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Financial, a real estate transactions firm.</p>
<p>“The last two quarters have seen an increase, specifically a shift from renter occupied to owner occupied households, as Millennials age out of rentership and into homeownership,” Fleming said.</p>
<p>Building permits, an indicator of future construction, slipped 1.4 percent in October to 1.3 million. But the number of permits authorized so far this year has increased 5.8 percent.</p>
<p>Relatively low mortgage rates have helped would-be homebuyers, even as property prices have climbed faster than wages. The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate U.S. mortgages was 3.93 percent last week, slightly better than the 4.16 percent rate a year ago, according to mortgage Freddie Mac.</p> | US housing starts rose 3.3 percent in November | false | https://abqjournal.com/1108553/us-housing-starts-rose-3-3-percent-in-november.html | 2017-12-19 | 2least
| US housing starts rose 3.3 percent in November
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<p />
<p>The Commerce Department said Tuesday that builders broke ground on homes last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.3 million units. The increase marks a key moment in the recovery from the Great Recession: Builders started work on single-family houses at the fastest pace since September 2007, which was just a few months before the start of that economic downturn.</p>
<p>Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist at the real estate company Trulia, said completed new homes are likely to finish at a post-recession high, but completions are still just 65 percent of their 50 year-average.</p>
<p>Driving the rebound in home construction has been a shortage of existing properties being listed for sale.</p>
<p>Fewer people are putting their property on the market, despite healthy demand from buyers because the unemployment rate is at a 17 year-low and mortgage rates remain at attractive levels. New construction has filled some of this gap with starts on single-family houses rising 8.7 percent so far this year.</p>
<p>Still, not enough new homes are being built to totally end the supply squeeze. Over the past year, the number of sales listings for the much larger market for existing homes has fallen 6.4 percent.</p>
<p>The construction growth last month came from the South and West, while the Northeast and Midwest reported declines.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Builders are also backing away from the apartment rentals that until recently were a driving force behind the rebound in residential construction. Ground breakings for multi-family buildings such as apartment complexes have declined 8.5 percent year-to-date.</p>
<p>The move away from apartment construction has corresponded with a shift by the millennial population toward buying homes, said Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American Financial, a real estate transactions firm.</p>
<p>“The last two quarters have seen an increase, specifically a shift from renter occupied to owner occupied households, as Millennials age out of rentership and into homeownership,” Fleming said.</p>
<p>Building permits, an indicator of future construction, slipped 1.4 percent in October to 1.3 million. But the number of permits authorized so far this year has increased 5.8 percent.</p>
<p>Relatively low mortgage rates have helped would-be homebuyers, even as property prices have climbed faster than wages. The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate U.S. mortgages was 3.93 percent last week, slightly better than the 4.16 percent rate a year ago, according to mortgage Freddie Mac.</p> | 4,025 |
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<p />
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The jaguar is perched on a rock, poised to spring upon its unsuspecting prey while also ready to protect and nurture the youth within the walls of Atrisco Heritage Academy High School.</p>
<p>The sculpture, which rests in an indoor courtyard and was unveiled Wednesday as a gift from the Class of 2012, is the work of local, renowned artist Reynaldo “Sonny” Rivera and depicts the mascot for the school on the Southwest Mesa.</p>
<p>“This is a very special day,” Atrisco Heritage Principal Gabriel Antonio Gonzales said during an open-house event at the school. “This class left a legacy.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The jaguar also captures the heart and soul of the student body, he said.</p>
<p>“The jaguar is the boss here,” Gonzales said. “He’s our guide. He’s our mascot. And it’s very special because this is a gift from the Class of 2012, our first graduating class.”</p>
<p>The class commissioned Rivera in January to create the statuesque school symbol as well as a “Jaguars” relief that hangs over the school’s entrance. A jaguar is perched over the “J.”</p>
<p>The work cost $4,000, which was raised through the efforts of the graduating class.</p>
<p>“It was lots of car washes and dances at school. It was quite an effort,” Gonzales said, adding that “the piece is worth a lot more than that, but the artist donated his time and his skill.”</p>
<p>The rock is made of concrete and the jaguar of bronze. It’s multi-colored, with turquoise, gold and dark hues, reflecting the jaguars that the Aztecs built into their pyramids, Rivera said.</p>
<p>“It was worshipped and hunted by the Aztecs,” he said.</p>
<p>It’s called, “Jaguar Guerrero,” or warlike jaguar, to reflect the school’s fighting spirit, Rivera said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I feel honored and blessed, and I feel very humbled that my work was chosen,” the artist said.</p>
<p>Rivera said he tried to bring forth the feelings of the student body.</p>
<p>“I can tell that there’s a sense of pride in the school, and this should give the students a greater sense of pride,” Rivera said. “There’s a sense of spirit that I wanted to capture. The jaguar is a beautiful animal, and it tells the students that this is where they are protected. The jaguar was the king of the jungle here, and it will be there for them.”</p>
<p>In addition, he said, the work should inspire current and future students with artistic talent.</p>
<p>“They can look at this is and say, ‘If he can do this, so can I.’ ”</p>
<p>The piece “is absolutely stunning,” Gonzales said. “This finally marks the end of construction in the building of a new high school. This strengthens the pride of the student body. The work is special and gives the students spirit. It’s fun to see the kids get so excited about who they are.” — This article appeared on page 1 of the West Side Journal</p> | Jumping Jaguar | false | https://abqjournal.com/130441/jumping-jaguar.html | 2012-09-13 | 2least
| Jumping Jaguar
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<p />
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The jaguar is perched on a rock, poised to spring upon its unsuspecting prey while also ready to protect and nurture the youth within the walls of Atrisco Heritage Academy High School.</p>
<p>The sculpture, which rests in an indoor courtyard and was unveiled Wednesday as a gift from the Class of 2012, is the work of local, renowned artist Reynaldo “Sonny” Rivera and depicts the mascot for the school on the Southwest Mesa.</p>
<p>“This is a very special day,” Atrisco Heritage Principal Gabriel Antonio Gonzales said during an open-house event at the school. “This class left a legacy.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The jaguar also captures the heart and soul of the student body, he said.</p>
<p>“The jaguar is the boss here,” Gonzales said. “He’s our guide. He’s our mascot. And it’s very special because this is a gift from the Class of 2012, our first graduating class.”</p>
<p>The class commissioned Rivera in January to create the statuesque school symbol as well as a “Jaguars” relief that hangs over the school’s entrance. A jaguar is perched over the “J.”</p>
<p>The work cost $4,000, which was raised through the efforts of the graduating class.</p>
<p>“It was lots of car washes and dances at school. It was quite an effort,” Gonzales said, adding that “the piece is worth a lot more than that, but the artist donated his time and his skill.”</p>
<p>The rock is made of concrete and the jaguar of bronze. It’s multi-colored, with turquoise, gold and dark hues, reflecting the jaguars that the Aztecs built into their pyramids, Rivera said.</p>
<p>“It was worshipped and hunted by the Aztecs,” he said.</p>
<p>It’s called, “Jaguar Guerrero,” or warlike jaguar, to reflect the school’s fighting spirit, Rivera said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I feel honored and blessed, and I feel very humbled that my work was chosen,” the artist said.</p>
<p>Rivera said he tried to bring forth the feelings of the student body.</p>
<p>“I can tell that there’s a sense of pride in the school, and this should give the students a greater sense of pride,” Rivera said. “There’s a sense of spirit that I wanted to capture. The jaguar is a beautiful animal, and it tells the students that this is where they are protected. The jaguar was the king of the jungle here, and it will be there for them.”</p>
<p>In addition, he said, the work should inspire current and future students with artistic talent.</p>
<p>“They can look at this is and say, ‘If he can do this, so can I.’ ”</p>
<p>The piece “is absolutely stunning,” Gonzales said. “This finally marks the end of construction in the building of a new high school. This strengthens the pride of the student body. The work is special and gives the students spirit. It’s fun to see the kids get so excited about who they are.” — This article appeared on page 1 of the West Side Journal</p> | 4,026 |
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<p>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee for labor secretary abruptly withdrew his nomination Wednesday after Senate Republicans balked at supporting him, in part over taxes he belatedly paid on a former housekeeper not authorized to work in the United States.</p>
<p>Fast-food executive Andrew Puzder issued a short statement abandoning the effort, saying he was “honored to have been considered by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Labor.”</p>
<p>White House spokesman Sean Spicer declined to comment on possible replacements, but said late Wednesday that the White House had seen the writing on the wall.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We know how to count,” he said.</p>
<p>Puzder’s nomination became part of a streak of contentious confirmation battles and haphazard White House actions, including a botched rollout of Trump’s executive order on refugees and the ouster of national security adviser Michael Flynn.</p>
<p>Sen. Lamar Alexander, who would have chaired Puzder’s confirmation hearing Thursday, issued a terse statement saying the nominee would have made an “excellent” labor secretary, but “I respect his decision” to quit pursuing the post. Puzder spokesman George Thompson said his boss was a victim of “an unprecedented smear campaign.”</p>
<p>What troubled majority Republicans most of all was Puzder’s acknowledgement that he had not paid taxes on the housekeeper until after Trump nominated him to the Cabinet post Dec. 9 — five years after he had fired the worker.</p>
<p>Thompson said in an e-mail that Puzder informed the White House of the housekeeper matter “after the nomination.” People interviewed during the transition period said they were not asked by Trump’s team to provide vetting information, raising questions about the level of scrutiny.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Republicans made it clear that Puzder did not have the votes for confirmation.</p>
<p>Democrats and their allies welcomed Puzder’s withdrawal, saying his corporate background and opposition to such proposals as a big hike in the minimum wage made him an unfit advocate for American workers at the top of an agency charged with enforcing protections.</p>
<p>They had already made it clear that Puzder’s statements about women and his own workers would be major issues at his confirmation hearing.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Puzder was quoted in Entrepreneur magazine in 2015 as saying, “I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis.” He said the racy commercials for Carl’s Jr., one of his companies, were “very American.”</p>
<p>Democrats also said Puzder had disparaged workers at his restaurants by calling them “the best of the worst.” He was quoted by Business Insider as saying he wanted to try robots at his restaurants, because “They’re always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex or race discrimination case.”</p>
<p>A coalition led by the pro-labor National Employment Law Project and Jobs With Justice groups said Puzder’s withdrawal represents the “first victory of the resistance against President Trump.”</p>
<p>“Workers and families across the country spoke up loud and clear that they want a true champion for all workers in the Labor Department,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the panel that was to handle the hearing.</p>
<p>One GOP senator, speaking on condition of anonymity because the conversations were private, said six senators had asked the White House to call off Puzder’s Thursday hearing because they couldn’t see themselves voting for him. That would have put the nomination in jeopardy, since Senate Republicans have only a 52-48 majority and Democrats are solidly opposed.</p>
<p>Puzder’s spokesman said the nominee had paid the taxes as soon as he found out he owed them. But the discrepancy remained a growing political problem for Republicans and the Trump White House, which has taken a hard line on immigration and taxes.</p>
<p>“I want to hear what he has to say about that,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said before Puzder withdrew.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press Writers Alan Fram, Erica Werner and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Kellman and Lucey at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman</a> and @Catherine_Lucey.</p> | Puzder withdraws nomination to be Trump’s labor secretary | false | https://abqjournal.com/950655/puzders-nomination-as-labor-secretary-in-serious-trouble.html | 2017-02-15 | 2least
| Puzder withdraws nomination to be Trump’s labor secretary
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<p>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee for labor secretary abruptly withdrew his nomination Wednesday after Senate Republicans balked at supporting him, in part over taxes he belatedly paid on a former housekeeper not authorized to work in the United States.</p>
<p>Fast-food executive Andrew Puzder issued a short statement abandoning the effort, saying he was “honored to have been considered by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Labor.”</p>
<p>White House spokesman Sean Spicer declined to comment on possible replacements, but said late Wednesday that the White House had seen the writing on the wall.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We know how to count,” he said.</p>
<p>Puzder’s nomination became part of a streak of contentious confirmation battles and haphazard White House actions, including a botched rollout of Trump’s executive order on refugees and the ouster of national security adviser Michael Flynn.</p>
<p>Sen. Lamar Alexander, who would have chaired Puzder’s confirmation hearing Thursday, issued a terse statement saying the nominee would have made an “excellent” labor secretary, but “I respect his decision” to quit pursuing the post. Puzder spokesman George Thompson said his boss was a victim of “an unprecedented smear campaign.”</p>
<p>What troubled majority Republicans most of all was Puzder’s acknowledgement that he had not paid taxes on the housekeeper until after Trump nominated him to the Cabinet post Dec. 9 — five years after he had fired the worker.</p>
<p>Thompson said in an e-mail that Puzder informed the White House of the housekeeper matter “after the nomination.” People interviewed during the transition period said they were not asked by Trump’s team to provide vetting information, raising questions about the level of scrutiny.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Republicans made it clear that Puzder did not have the votes for confirmation.</p>
<p>Democrats and their allies welcomed Puzder’s withdrawal, saying his corporate background and opposition to such proposals as a big hike in the minimum wage made him an unfit advocate for American workers at the top of an agency charged with enforcing protections.</p>
<p>They had already made it clear that Puzder’s statements about women and his own workers would be major issues at his confirmation hearing.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Puzder was quoted in Entrepreneur magazine in 2015 as saying, “I like beautiful women eating burgers in bikinis.” He said the racy commercials for Carl’s Jr., one of his companies, were “very American.”</p>
<p>Democrats also said Puzder had disparaged workers at his restaurants by calling them “the best of the worst.” He was quoted by Business Insider as saying he wanted to try robots at his restaurants, because “They’re always polite, they always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex or race discrimination case.”</p>
<p>A coalition led by the pro-labor National Employment Law Project and Jobs With Justice groups said Puzder’s withdrawal represents the “first victory of the resistance against President Trump.”</p>
<p>“Workers and families across the country spoke up loud and clear that they want a true champion for all workers in the Labor Department,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the panel that was to handle the hearing.</p>
<p>One GOP senator, speaking on condition of anonymity because the conversations were private, said six senators had asked the White House to call off Puzder’s Thursday hearing because they couldn’t see themselves voting for him. That would have put the nomination in jeopardy, since Senate Republicans have only a 52-48 majority and Democrats are solidly opposed.</p>
<p>Puzder’s spokesman said the nominee had paid the taxes as soon as he found out he owed them. But the discrepancy remained a growing political problem for Republicans and the Trump White House, which has taken a hard line on immigration and taxes.</p>
<p>“I want to hear what he has to say about that,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said before Puzder withdrew.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press Writers Alan Fram, Erica Werner and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Kellman and Lucey at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellman</a> and @Catherine_Lucey.</p> | 4,027 |
<p><a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/mitt-romney-fox-news-win-new-hampshire-primary_b106506" type="external">TVNewser</a> reports that Fox News crushed the competition by a wider margin than Mitt Romney did during its coverage of the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday night.</p>
<p />
<p>Fox averaged 2.25 million total viewers and 550K in the key A25-54 demo as measured by Nielsen Fast National data during the primetime hours of 8-11 pm, which was more than the combined average of CNN and MSNBC.</p>
<p>MSNBC, which is normally a weak second to Fox News, slipped even more, falling well behind CNN in the key A25-54 demo.</p>
<p>Maybe it was MSNBC’s combined lineup of Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Lawrence O’Donnell, Al Sharpton and Rachel Maddow as the lead anchor that turned viewers off.</p>
<p>The best part of MSNBC’s coverage was the exchange between former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, a Romney supporter, with the liberal loons at MSNBC.</p>
<p>http://youtu.be/nONEnpR6z-E</p> | Fox Wins N.H. Primary Coverage, MSNBC Finishes Third [Video] | true | http://aim.org/don-irvine-blog/fox-wins-n-h-primary-coverage-msnbc-finishes-third/ | 2012-01-12 | 0right
| Fox Wins N.H. Primary Coverage, MSNBC Finishes Third [Video]
<p><a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/mitt-romney-fox-news-win-new-hampshire-primary_b106506" type="external">TVNewser</a> reports that Fox News crushed the competition by a wider margin than Mitt Romney did during its coverage of the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday night.</p>
<p />
<p>Fox averaged 2.25 million total viewers and 550K in the key A25-54 demo as measured by Nielsen Fast National data during the primetime hours of 8-11 pm, which was more than the combined average of CNN and MSNBC.</p>
<p>MSNBC, which is normally a weak second to Fox News, slipped even more, falling well behind CNN in the key A25-54 demo.</p>
<p>Maybe it was MSNBC’s combined lineup of Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz, Lawrence O’Donnell, Al Sharpton and Rachel Maddow as the lead anchor that turned viewers off.</p>
<p>The best part of MSNBC’s coverage was the exchange between former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, a Romney supporter, with the liberal loons at MSNBC.</p>
<p>http://youtu.be/nONEnpR6z-E</p> | 4,028 |
<p>The Mother Earth metaphor glosses over the betrayal that lurks within even our deepest commitments and most love-filled relationships.</p>
<p>Like what you've read? <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/itt-subscription-offer?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">Subscribe to In These Times magazine</a>, or <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/support-in-these-times?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">make a tax-deductible donation to fund this reporting</a>.</p>
<p>Theo Anderson, an In These Times writing fellow, has contributed to the magazine since 2010. He has a Ph.D. in modern U.S. history from Yale and writes on the intellectual and religious history of conservatism and progressivism in the United States. Follow him on Twitter @Theoanderson7 and contact him at [email protected].</p> | Uh-oh, We F**ked Our Mother | true | http://inthesetimes.com/article/15626/uh_oh_we_fked_our_mother/ | 2013-10-02 | 4left
| Uh-oh, We F**ked Our Mother
<p>The Mother Earth metaphor glosses over the betrayal that lurks within even our deepest commitments and most love-filled relationships.</p>
<p>Like what you've read? <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/itt-subscription-offer?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">Subscribe to In These Times magazine</a>, or <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/support-in-these-times?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">make a tax-deductible donation to fund this reporting</a>.</p>
<p>Theo Anderson, an In These Times writing fellow, has contributed to the magazine since 2010. He has a Ph.D. in modern U.S. history from Yale and writes on the intellectual and religious history of conservatism and progressivism in the United States. Follow him on Twitter @Theoanderson7 and contact him at [email protected].</p> | 4,029 |
<p>Chicago Tribune When a news organization becomes the focus of a story, it should bring in a neutral outsider to report on its own activities, says NYU history and education teacher Jonathan Zimmerman. "You simply can't expect people who work inside an institution to report impartially about mistakes and malfeasance by their friends and co-workers."</p> | News outlets shouldn't investigate themselves, says prof | false | https://poynter.org/news/news-outlets-shouldnt-investigate-themselves-says-prof | 2005-11-18 | 2least
| News outlets shouldn't investigate themselves, says prof
<p>Chicago Tribune When a news organization becomes the focus of a story, it should bring in a neutral outsider to report on its own activities, says NYU history and education teacher Jonathan Zimmerman. "You simply can't expect people who work inside an institution to report impartially about mistakes and malfeasance by their friends and co-workers."</p> | 4,030 |
<p>For more than a century, Newton, Iowa, was the quintessential company town. Maytag started building washing machines there in 1893. The company grew into a global brand, and Newton, a city of 15,000, prospered along with it.</p>
<p>When Maytag closed its doors in 2007, it was a rough transition. At the time, some 2,000 people were building washers and dryers at the old Maytag manufacturing facility.&#160;The cavernous building is the size of seven average-sized Walmarts.</p>
<p>Jim Schutte, a burly man who stands at 6 feet 8 inches, was a machine repairman with Maytag for 21 years. He lost his job in 2006 when <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12097032/ns/business-us_business/t/whirlpool-completes-acquisition-maytag/" type="external">Whirlpool bought Maytag</a> and shifted manufacturing to other states and Mexico.</p>
<p>“[I] just moved on, gotta do what you gotta do,” said Schutte.</p>
<p>Three years after Maytag left, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/newton-iowa-anger-in-the-heartland/2/" type="external">"60 Minutes" declared</a>, "Since the recession, we've seen a lot of troubled towns in the country, but nothing that looks quite as broken as Newton."&#160;</p>
<p>Today, a handful of tenants rent warehouse space at the old Maytag facility, and Schutte manages the property, patrolling the largely vacant warehouse where he spent two decades of his working life.</p>
<p>“It used to bother me at first, but not anymore. It will bother me Aug. 17th&#160;because that’s when I would’ve had my 30 years in,” said Schutte. “That’s when I could’ve retired. At Maytag, you had your full medical benefits and a nice pension when you retired with 30 years in.”</p>
<p>When does he think he’ll retire now?</p>
<p>“Probably never,” he said with a laugh. &#160;</p>
<p />
<p>Jim Schutte was one of some 2,000 people who worked for Maytag at an old manufacturing facility in Newton.&#160;</p>
<p>Jason Margolis</p>
<p>Now, at this point you might be thinking, OK, here’s another profile of a dying manufacturing city and the people that got left behind.&#160;Wrong, not Newton, Iowa.</p>
<p>“The unemployment rate in 2009 was 9.9 percent, and today it’s at 3.5 percent,” said Frank Liebl, executive director of the Newton Development Corporation. It’s his job to attract new businesses to the area.</p>
<p>Since Maytag left, community leaders have helped attract a lot of new employers with a simple pitch: We’re ready to work.</p>
<p>“When you lose that many people out of a community, all of a sudden companies say, ‘Wow, I’m going to come to Newton, Iowa, because they’ve got the infrastructure, they’ve got the buildings, and they’ve got the workforce,’” said Liebl.</p>
<p>But a lot of American cities could make that pitch. What’s different about Newton? For one thing, the population has held stable. The buildings and streets are also clean and well maintained. So, how did Newton get back on its feet when so many other small manufacturing cities throughout the Midwest hit hard times and shriveled up?</p>
<p>For starters, new employers opened up shop in Iowa, including an Arizona-based company that makes wind turbine blades —&#160;TPI Composites. Today at its Newton factory, TPI pumps out 27 blades a week that stretch 187 feet in length (three blades make a set).&#160;</p>
<p>“When TPI was looking to expand in the Midwest, Newton gave some tax incentives, some abatements for new companies to come,” said Amy Leavitt, TPI’s community and associate relations coordinator.</p>
<p>All told, the city, county and state of Iowa gave TPI $8 million in <a href="http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/state-approves-incentives-for-tpi-composites/article_b3dd6261-6acc-5ba0-b4a8-79081cd32c84.html" type="external">loans, grants&#160;and tax breaks</a>.</p>
<p>Since arriving in Newton a decade ago, TPI has grown from a handful of workers to more than 1,100. Mindy Pollock, who cuts fiberglass for wind&#160;blades, had been at Maytag for 22 years when she was let go.</p>
<p>“I’ve seen grown men crying that day,” said Pollock.</p>
<p>While she was out of work for eight months, she took advantage of some job retraining for laid-off workers.</p>
<p>“I actually took a computer class, just the basic computer class,” said Pollock. “The older you get, the less you know about that kind of technology, so it did help me.”</p>
<p>Now, she uses a computer every day at her new job.</p>
<p />
<p>TPI Composites builds 27 wind&#160;blades a week at its Newton factory. &#160;</p>
<p>Jason Margolis</p>
<p>OK, at this point, you may be thinking, I see, so this is a story about a manufacturing city that’s figured things out. Not exactly that, either.</p>
<p><a href="http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/prosci/swenson/swensonpage.htm" type="external">Economist Dave Swenson</a> at Iowa State University says Newton has indeed stopped its decline, but it hasn’t fully recovered. Jobs building wind&#160;blades are great, and TPI has helped Newton’s job base tremendously, but those jobs just don’t pay as well as the old Maytag positions.</p>
<p>In 2001, the going rate for manufacturing work in Jasper County, for which Newton is the county seat, was 37 percent above Iowa’s state average.</p>
<p>“In 2015, it was about 20 percent below the state average,” said Swenson. “And so the standard of living for the workforce has gone down measurably.”</p>
<p>And that job retraining program that helped Mindy Pollock find work building wind&#160;blades — well, classes aren’t for everyone. When Jim Schutte was laid off, he and many others said, No thanks.</p>
<p>“I had enough of school when I was in it,” said Schutte.</p>
<p>It’s hard to blame him for not wanting to go back.</p>
<p>Economist Dave Swenson says more education and learning new trades are good things, but, “Thinking you can just come on in and then say, ‘OK, we’re going to train you to be this as opposed to that,’ there are so many failures. And by the time somebody does get trained in something, oftentimes, it’s already too late, that sector isn’t hiring anymore. We’re really, really bad at figuring out what the next thing is.”</p>
<p>There’s also the problem of too much hope that life will somehow go back to “normal” — many union manufacturing jobs of the 20th&#160;century required little education but offered good pay and benefits. Swenson said that too many Midwestern cities&#160;and politicians&#160;are trying to re-create that past. &#160;</p>
<p>“Their mindset is we just need to replace these jobs with manufacturing, 'Make America Great Again,' re-employ workers in the manufacturing sector,” said Swenson. “It’s not as simple as that.”</p>
<p>Still, President Donald Trump’s message caught on like wildfire around Newton. Barack Obama won Jasper County in 2008 and <a href="https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/pdf/2012/general/canvsummary.pdf" type="external">2012</a>. Trump <a href="https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/pdf/2016/general/canvsummary.pdf" type="external">demolished Hillary Clinton there last November</a>.</p>
<p>But can President Trump, or any president, bring back manufacturing jobs to the heartland?</p>
<p>“No, and I think about the years that we’ve seen individual communities trying to do it. We’ve seen states trying to do it, so it’s not like nobody has thought of it before,” said <a href="http://www.econ.iastate.edu/people/liesl-eathington" type="external">Liesl Eathington</a>, an economist also at Iowa State University. “When you think about 20, 30, 40 years of economic development strategies, it’s the same thing — it’s just got new words attached to it.”</p>
<p>Still, the economists at Iowa State say that doesn’t mean you just throw your hands in the air and give up. They say industrial cities need to look forward, not back, and diversify their economies.</p>
<p>Amanda Price with the Newton Chamber of Commerce says her city has embraced that message.</p>
<p>“We’re trying to stay ahead of the game so that things like Maytag don’t happen again," she said.&#160;"I hate to say it, but the city put all its eggs in one basket for so many years.” &#160;</p>
<p>But why wouldn’t the city do that? Life was good in Newton for a long, long time. And Maytag was a good corporate citizen — it paid for things like community parks, the local aquatic center&#160;and the auditorium. Today, a lot of people in Newton remain bitter that Maytag left that all behind.</p>
<p>Newton’s downtown square has its charms — a central courthouse ringed by coffee shops, stores and restaurants, no boarded-up windows. It’s not Paris, but it’s certainly not depressed.</p>
<p />
<p>The county courthouse on Newton’s downtown square is shown here.&#160;</p>
<p>Jason Margolis</p>
<p>Price wants her city to move past Maytag, emotionally. She said when the company left, it was like somebody died.</p>
<p>“It was, it literally was. We’ve actually talked about having a major community event where we actually have a funeral, and we bury Maytag for good,” said Price. “People could bring their Maytag stuff if they still have something, and just let it go. I don’t know, maybe that would be something that would be therapeutic.”</p>
<p>This piece is a part of the series <a href="" type="internal">50 States: America's place in a shrinking world.</a> Become a part of the project and share your story with us.&#160;</p> | The most ‘broken’ town in America is back on its feet | false | https://pri.org/stories/2017-07-18/most-broken-town-america-back-its-feet | 2017-07-18 | 3left-center
| The most ‘broken’ town in America is back on its feet
<p>For more than a century, Newton, Iowa, was the quintessential company town. Maytag started building washing machines there in 1893. The company grew into a global brand, and Newton, a city of 15,000, prospered along with it.</p>
<p>When Maytag closed its doors in 2007, it was a rough transition. At the time, some 2,000 people were building washers and dryers at the old Maytag manufacturing facility.&#160;The cavernous building is the size of seven average-sized Walmarts.</p>
<p>Jim Schutte, a burly man who stands at 6 feet 8 inches, was a machine repairman with Maytag for 21 years. He lost his job in 2006 when <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12097032/ns/business-us_business/t/whirlpool-completes-acquisition-maytag/" type="external">Whirlpool bought Maytag</a> and shifted manufacturing to other states and Mexico.</p>
<p>“[I] just moved on, gotta do what you gotta do,” said Schutte.</p>
<p>Three years after Maytag left, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/newton-iowa-anger-in-the-heartland/2/" type="external">"60 Minutes" declared</a>, "Since the recession, we've seen a lot of troubled towns in the country, but nothing that looks quite as broken as Newton."&#160;</p>
<p>Today, a handful of tenants rent warehouse space at the old Maytag facility, and Schutte manages the property, patrolling the largely vacant warehouse where he spent two decades of his working life.</p>
<p>“It used to bother me at first, but not anymore. It will bother me Aug. 17th&#160;because that’s when I would’ve had my 30 years in,” said Schutte. “That’s when I could’ve retired. At Maytag, you had your full medical benefits and a nice pension when you retired with 30 years in.”</p>
<p>When does he think he’ll retire now?</p>
<p>“Probably never,” he said with a laugh. &#160;</p>
<p />
<p>Jim Schutte was one of some 2,000 people who worked for Maytag at an old manufacturing facility in Newton.&#160;</p>
<p>Jason Margolis</p>
<p>Now, at this point you might be thinking, OK, here’s another profile of a dying manufacturing city and the people that got left behind.&#160;Wrong, not Newton, Iowa.</p>
<p>“The unemployment rate in 2009 was 9.9 percent, and today it’s at 3.5 percent,” said Frank Liebl, executive director of the Newton Development Corporation. It’s his job to attract new businesses to the area.</p>
<p>Since Maytag left, community leaders have helped attract a lot of new employers with a simple pitch: We’re ready to work.</p>
<p>“When you lose that many people out of a community, all of a sudden companies say, ‘Wow, I’m going to come to Newton, Iowa, because they’ve got the infrastructure, they’ve got the buildings, and they’ve got the workforce,’” said Liebl.</p>
<p>But a lot of American cities could make that pitch. What’s different about Newton? For one thing, the population has held stable. The buildings and streets are also clean and well maintained. So, how did Newton get back on its feet when so many other small manufacturing cities throughout the Midwest hit hard times and shriveled up?</p>
<p>For starters, new employers opened up shop in Iowa, including an Arizona-based company that makes wind turbine blades —&#160;TPI Composites. Today at its Newton factory, TPI pumps out 27 blades a week that stretch 187 feet in length (three blades make a set).&#160;</p>
<p>“When TPI was looking to expand in the Midwest, Newton gave some tax incentives, some abatements for new companies to come,” said Amy Leavitt, TPI’s community and associate relations coordinator.</p>
<p>All told, the city, county and state of Iowa gave TPI $8 million in <a href="http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/state-approves-incentives-for-tpi-composites/article_b3dd6261-6acc-5ba0-b4a8-79081cd32c84.html" type="external">loans, grants&#160;and tax breaks</a>.</p>
<p>Since arriving in Newton a decade ago, TPI has grown from a handful of workers to more than 1,100. Mindy Pollock, who cuts fiberglass for wind&#160;blades, had been at Maytag for 22 years when she was let go.</p>
<p>“I’ve seen grown men crying that day,” said Pollock.</p>
<p>While she was out of work for eight months, she took advantage of some job retraining for laid-off workers.</p>
<p>“I actually took a computer class, just the basic computer class,” said Pollock. “The older you get, the less you know about that kind of technology, so it did help me.”</p>
<p>Now, she uses a computer every day at her new job.</p>
<p />
<p>TPI Composites builds 27 wind&#160;blades a week at its Newton factory. &#160;</p>
<p>Jason Margolis</p>
<p>OK, at this point, you may be thinking, I see, so this is a story about a manufacturing city that’s figured things out. Not exactly that, either.</p>
<p><a href="http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/prosci/swenson/swensonpage.htm" type="external">Economist Dave Swenson</a> at Iowa State University says Newton has indeed stopped its decline, but it hasn’t fully recovered. Jobs building wind&#160;blades are great, and TPI has helped Newton’s job base tremendously, but those jobs just don’t pay as well as the old Maytag positions.</p>
<p>In 2001, the going rate for manufacturing work in Jasper County, for which Newton is the county seat, was 37 percent above Iowa’s state average.</p>
<p>“In 2015, it was about 20 percent below the state average,” said Swenson. “And so the standard of living for the workforce has gone down measurably.”</p>
<p>And that job retraining program that helped Mindy Pollock find work building wind&#160;blades — well, classes aren’t for everyone. When Jim Schutte was laid off, he and many others said, No thanks.</p>
<p>“I had enough of school when I was in it,” said Schutte.</p>
<p>It’s hard to blame him for not wanting to go back.</p>
<p>Economist Dave Swenson says more education and learning new trades are good things, but, “Thinking you can just come on in and then say, ‘OK, we’re going to train you to be this as opposed to that,’ there are so many failures. And by the time somebody does get trained in something, oftentimes, it’s already too late, that sector isn’t hiring anymore. We’re really, really bad at figuring out what the next thing is.”</p>
<p>There’s also the problem of too much hope that life will somehow go back to “normal” — many union manufacturing jobs of the 20th&#160;century required little education but offered good pay and benefits. Swenson said that too many Midwestern cities&#160;and politicians&#160;are trying to re-create that past. &#160;</p>
<p>“Their mindset is we just need to replace these jobs with manufacturing, 'Make America Great Again,' re-employ workers in the manufacturing sector,” said Swenson. “It’s not as simple as that.”</p>
<p>Still, President Donald Trump’s message caught on like wildfire around Newton. Barack Obama won Jasper County in 2008 and <a href="https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/pdf/2012/general/canvsummary.pdf" type="external">2012</a>. Trump <a href="https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/pdf/2016/general/canvsummary.pdf" type="external">demolished Hillary Clinton there last November</a>.</p>
<p>But can President Trump, or any president, bring back manufacturing jobs to the heartland?</p>
<p>“No, and I think about the years that we’ve seen individual communities trying to do it. We’ve seen states trying to do it, so it’s not like nobody has thought of it before,” said <a href="http://www.econ.iastate.edu/people/liesl-eathington" type="external">Liesl Eathington</a>, an economist also at Iowa State University. “When you think about 20, 30, 40 years of economic development strategies, it’s the same thing — it’s just got new words attached to it.”</p>
<p>Still, the economists at Iowa State say that doesn’t mean you just throw your hands in the air and give up. They say industrial cities need to look forward, not back, and diversify their economies.</p>
<p>Amanda Price with the Newton Chamber of Commerce says her city has embraced that message.</p>
<p>“We’re trying to stay ahead of the game so that things like Maytag don’t happen again," she said.&#160;"I hate to say it, but the city put all its eggs in one basket for so many years.” &#160;</p>
<p>But why wouldn’t the city do that? Life was good in Newton for a long, long time. And Maytag was a good corporate citizen — it paid for things like community parks, the local aquatic center&#160;and the auditorium. Today, a lot of people in Newton remain bitter that Maytag left that all behind.</p>
<p>Newton’s downtown square has its charms — a central courthouse ringed by coffee shops, stores and restaurants, no boarded-up windows. It’s not Paris, but it’s certainly not depressed.</p>
<p />
<p>The county courthouse on Newton’s downtown square is shown here.&#160;</p>
<p>Jason Margolis</p>
<p>Price wants her city to move past Maytag, emotionally. She said when the company left, it was like somebody died.</p>
<p>“It was, it literally was. We’ve actually talked about having a major community event where we actually have a funeral, and we bury Maytag for good,” said Price. “People could bring their Maytag stuff if they still have something, and just let it go. I don’t know, maybe that would be something that would be therapeutic.”</p>
<p>This piece is a part of the series <a href="" type="internal">50 States: America's place in a shrinking world.</a> Become a part of the project and share your story with us.&#160;</p> | 4,031 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>After a weeklong trial, a Bernalillo County jury found Rodriguez guilty on two counts each of first-degree murder, conspiracy, armed robbery and tampering with evidence.</p>
<p>In January 2010, David and Connie Maldonado were at their home on Keswick NW. David Maldonado was shot once in the head ,and Connie’s throat was slashed, police said at the time.</p>
<p>Police said Rodriguez was tired of being shorted during heroin deals, so he had his girlfriend arrange a drug deal on Jan. 27, 2010.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Then, police said, Rodriguez and an accomplice entered the home and killed the pair while the girlfriend waited outside in the car.</p>
<p>Rodriguez is facing two life sentences for the murder charges, in addition to more time for the other convictions.</p> | Jury Convicts ‘Dragon’ in Double Slaying | false | https://abqjournal.com/167061/jury-convicts-dragon-in-double-slaying.html | 2013-02-07 | 2least
| Jury Convicts ‘Dragon’ in Double Slaying
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>After a weeklong trial, a Bernalillo County jury found Rodriguez guilty on two counts each of first-degree murder, conspiracy, armed robbery and tampering with evidence.</p>
<p>In January 2010, David and Connie Maldonado were at their home on Keswick NW. David Maldonado was shot once in the head ,and Connie’s throat was slashed, police said at the time.</p>
<p>Police said Rodriguez was tired of being shorted during heroin deals, so he had his girlfriend arrange a drug deal on Jan. 27, 2010.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Then, police said, Rodriguez and an accomplice entered the home and killed the pair while the girlfriend waited outside in the car.</p>
<p>Rodriguez is facing two life sentences for the murder charges, in addition to more time for the other convictions.</p> | 4,032 |
<p>On numerous occasions last school year, Sonya Jacobs’ daughter Ashley Charles called from Crane High to tell her mother she’d heard rumors of an impending fight and feared for her safety.</p>
<p>Jacobs, whose son was murdered four years ago, was not about to risk having her daughter caught in the middle of a brawl. So every time she got a call, Jacobs dropped everything to pick Ashley up, sign her out of class and hustle her back to the safety of their second-floor apartment.</p>
<p>The scenario happened so many times that Ashley failed her final-period class and Jacobs became increasingly nervous about the school. While Jacobs’ daughter could have been exaggerating, playing on her mother’s heightened sensitivity to get out of school early, Jacobs had no easy way to get solid information about the level of violence at Crane.</p>
<p>“I want to get her out of there,” Jacobs says. “I don’t feel comfortable with her there.”</p>
<p>Jacobs says she feels the school’s staff have been mostly dismissive of her concerns.</p>
<p>Solid information about violent incidents, police involvement and discipline would help parents navigate some of these issues, says Nelida Torres of POWER-PAC, a parent advocacy group brought together by the non-profit Community Organizing and Family Issues.</p>
<p>“It would be key for parents to be able to figure out if learning is happening or if principals and teachers are spending all their time doing this other stuff,” she says.</p>
<p>For Jacobs and other parents, finding out whether their child’s school is a safe haven can be difficult. CPS has yet to make school-level data on serious offenses, including incidents that sparked calls to the Chicago Police Department, widely available to parents and the public. And the district has no way of verifying whether principals report violations of the Student Code of Conduct to the Office of Safety and Security, as they are supposed to do.</p>
<p>Indeed, Jacobs’ story is evidence of this two-fold problem. Her worries about security at Crane are backed up by police reports, but the reports submitted to CPS by the school paint a rosier picture.</p>
<p>Last school year, police were called in 113 times to respond to violent incidents at Crane, yet administrators reported only 47 incidents to CPS, according to a Catalyst Chicago analysis of police reports and CPS incident reports for the 2006-07 school year.</p>
<p>Crane is not the only school with lax reporting: At 13 other high schools, police reports about violent incidents outnumbered school-generated reports made to CPS.</p>
<p>CEO Arne Duncan says he knows the district has had problems with underreporting of violence in the past, but adds that he feels schools have gotten better in recent years.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Duncan says, “I want the truth, so we can deal with the situation.”</p>
<p>A neighborhood problem?</p>
<p>At Crane, police reports show that in all but three of the 39 weeks that school was in session, at least one assault, battery or theft took place inside the building or on the grounds of the West Side school. During 14 of those weeks, three or more incidents took place—virtually one every school day.</p>
<p>Crane’s Principal Richard Smith did not return phone calls. David Penn, the dean of students, declined to address the issue of what is reported to the central administration. However, Penn maintains the school has been calm for a while, though the surrounding neighborhood can be treacherous.</p>
<p>Penn notes that the school serves young people who may be members of four different gangs. At the end of the school day, the school’s entire security force empties out of the building and surrounds it.</p>
<p>“I would say that 85 percent of the problems outside the school are not caused by Crane students,” he says.</p>
<p>Penn says school administrators have worked hard in recent years to get students involved in after-school programs, and to send a message that bad behavior won’t be tolerated.</p>
<p>Across town at Corliss High School in Pullman, the situation is similar to that at Crane. Corliss administrators reported only 41 incidents to CPS, but police reports show officers responded to 115 calls about violence inside or on the school’s grounds.</p>
<p>Corliss Principal Anthony Spivey says he has no idea what the police write reports about, but that he follows CPS policy to “the greatest extent.”</p>
<p>Spivey says he does not know how students and teachers feel about the safety environment at his far South Side school. “We hope to provide a safe environment…” he says. “I will tell you this—we don’t have children shot or stabbed. The question is, is the city a safe place?”</p>
<p>Schools work with police</p>
<p>Andres Durbak, director of the Office of Safety and Security, says that since there is a broader range of incidents that should be reported to CPS than to police, school reports should outnumber those reported to police.</p>
<p>However, presented with Catalyst’s data to the contrary, Durbak says he could see some situations in which a police officer would make a report and the school would not feel compelled to call it in.</p>
<p>Principals are required to report to Safety and Security every time a student violates the Student Code of Conduct. Durbak focuses on the violations in categories 4, 5 and 6, which are the more serious offenses, such as gang activity and fights in which someone is injured.</p>
<p>Theophilus Tines, the dean of boys at Harlan High School, notes that he works in concert with police. At Harlan, school incident reports surpassed police reports.</p>
<p>“I call the police in if I think they should be involved,” he says. “They don’t do much in the building without me knowing.”</p>
<p>Durbak says he monitors the school reports to see which schools are having significant problems in order to provide help if needed. So if schools aren’t reporting incidents accurately, they risk not getting extra support.</p>
<p>“We try not to make it punitive,” Durbak says.</p>
<p>Surprise visits</p>
<p>Still, Chicago Teachers Union officials, as well as a group of student leaders, say they believe that principals in many schools under-report.</p>
<p>Assaults and batteries in schools happen more frequently than reported, according to CTU officials. What gets reported depends on the principal’s philosophy, they say.</p>
<p>“Some principals are aggressive,” says Rick Perrotte, who works on safety issues for the CTU. “Others don’t follow through.”</p>
<p>Prosser High senior De’Rell Bonner, who served as the student representative on the School Board last year, recalls that he saw the reports of violent incidents in schools. Often, the summaries didn’t jibe with what he heard from students, especially students at Crane, which his cousin attended.</p>
<p>Bonner worked this past summer with a group of students at the Mikva Challenge, a non-profit organization that promotes civic engagement among young people, to come up with recommendations for how to make schools healthier and safer.</p>
<p>Spurred by what they see as a disconnect between what principals report to administrators and the truth of what’s going on, the students suggested that district leaders make surprise visits to schools.</p>
<p>When visits are planned, suddenly there’s toilet paper in the bathrooms and the halls are swept of students during class time—two things that don’t happen when a visit isn’t in the works, Bonner says. “We think people like Arne Duncan would benefit from seeing the schools on regular days.”</p>
<p>CPS has invited the students to make presentations to principals and security guards and have expressed interest in some of the students’ ideas. But administrators have not committed to unannounced visits at schools, says Hillary Reser of the Mikva Challenge.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Jacobs is still not convinced that Crane is a secure place for her daughter. During the first week of school, she tried unsuccessfully to register her in a different school. But when nothing came through, she wound up back at Crane.</p>
<p>On Monday, Sept. 10, she walked her daughter to Crane. Once again, she saw the police cars, which she says sit at all four corners of the block, all the time. Rather than ease her concerns, she says the squad cars add to her sense that Crane is dangerous.</p>
<p>“I have to make do with what I have,” she says.</p> | Parents want the real story | false | http://chicagoreporter.com/parents-want-real-story/ | 2007-10-01 | 3left-center
| Parents want the real story
<p>On numerous occasions last school year, Sonya Jacobs’ daughter Ashley Charles called from Crane High to tell her mother she’d heard rumors of an impending fight and feared for her safety.</p>
<p>Jacobs, whose son was murdered four years ago, was not about to risk having her daughter caught in the middle of a brawl. So every time she got a call, Jacobs dropped everything to pick Ashley up, sign her out of class and hustle her back to the safety of their second-floor apartment.</p>
<p>The scenario happened so many times that Ashley failed her final-period class and Jacobs became increasingly nervous about the school. While Jacobs’ daughter could have been exaggerating, playing on her mother’s heightened sensitivity to get out of school early, Jacobs had no easy way to get solid information about the level of violence at Crane.</p>
<p>“I want to get her out of there,” Jacobs says. “I don’t feel comfortable with her there.”</p>
<p>Jacobs says she feels the school’s staff have been mostly dismissive of her concerns.</p>
<p>Solid information about violent incidents, police involvement and discipline would help parents navigate some of these issues, says Nelida Torres of POWER-PAC, a parent advocacy group brought together by the non-profit Community Organizing and Family Issues.</p>
<p>“It would be key for parents to be able to figure out if learning is happening or if principals and teachers are spending all their time doing this other stuff,” she says.</p>
<p>For Jacobs and other parents, finding out whether their child’s school is a safe haven can be difficult. CPS has yet to make school-level data on serious offenses, including incidents that sparked calls to the Chicago Police Department, widely available to parents and the public. And the district has no way of verifying whether principals report violations of the Student Code of Conduct to the Office of Safety and Security, as they are supposed to do.</p>
<p>Indeed, Jacobs’ story is evidence of this two-fold problem. Her worries about security at Crane are backed up by police reports, but the reports submitted to CPS by the school paint a rosier picture.</p>
<p>Last school year, police were called in 113 times to respond to violent incidents at Crane, yet administrators reported only 47 incidents to CPS, according to a Catalyst Chicago analysis of police reports and CPS incident reports for the 2006-07 school year.</p>
<p>Crane is not the only school with lax reporting: At 13 other high schools, police reports about violent incidents outnumbered school-generated reports made to CPS.</p>
<p>CEO Arne Duncan says he knows the district has had problems with underreporting of violence in the past, but adds that he feels schools have gotten better in recent years.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Duncan says, “I want the truth, so we can deal with the situation.”</p>
<p>A neighborhood problem?</p>
<p>At Crane, police reports show that in all but three of the 39 weeks that school was in session, at least one assault, battery or theft took place inside the building or on the grounds of the West Side school. During 14 of those weeks, three or more incidents took place—virtually one every school day.</p>
<p>Crane’s Principal Richard Smith did not return phone calls. David Penn, the dean of students, declined to address the issue of what is reported to the central administration. However, Penn maintains the school has been calm for a while, though the surrounding neighborhood can be treacherous.</p>
<p>Penn notes that the school serves young people who may be members of four different gangs. At the end of the school day, the school’s entire security force empties out of the building and surrounds it.</p>
<p>“I would say that 85 percent of the problems outside the school are not caused by Crane students,” he says.</p>
<p>Penn says school administrators have worked hard in recent years to get students involved in after-school programs, and to send a message that bad behavior won’t be tolerated.</p>
<p>Across town at Corliss High School in Pullman, the situation is similar to that at Crane. Corliss administrators reported only 41 incidents to CPS, but police reports show officers responded to 115 calls about violence inside or on the school’s grounds.</p>
<p>Corliss Principal Anthony Spivey says he has no idea what the police write reports about, but that he follows CPS policy to “the greatest extent.”</p>
<p>Spivey says he does not know how students and teachers feel about the safety environment at his far South Side school. “We hope to provide a safe environment…” he says. “I will tell you this—we don’t have children shot or stabbed. The question is, is the city a safe place?”</p>
<p>Schools work with police</p>
<p>Andres Durbak, director of the Office of Safety and Security, says that since there is a broader range of incidents that should be reported to CPS than to police, school reports should outnumber those reported to police.</p>
<p>However, presented with Catalyst’s data to the contrary, Durbak says he could see some situations in which a police officer would make a report and the school would not feel compelled to call it in.</p>
<p>Principals are required to report to Safety and Security every time a student violates the Student Code of Conduct. Durbak focuses on the violations in categories 4, 5 and 6, which are the more serious offenses, such as gang activity and fights in which someone is injured.</p>
<p>Theophilus Tines, the dean of boys at Harlan High School, notes that he works in concert with police. At Harlan, school incident reports surpassed police reports.</p>
<p>“I call the police in if I think they should be involved,” he says. “They don’t do much in the building without me knowing.”</p>
<p>Durbak says he monitors the school reports to see which schools are having significant problems in order to provide help if needed. So if schools aren’t reporting incidents accurately, they risk not getting extra support.</p>
<p>“We try not to make it punitive,” Durbak says.</p>
<p>Surprise visits</p>
<p>Still, Chicago Teachers Union officials, as well as a group of student leaders, say they believe that principals in many schools under-report.</p>
<p>Assaults and batteries in schools happen more frequently than reported, according to CTU officials. What gets reported depends on the principal’s philosophy, they say.</p>
<p>“Some principals are aggressive,” says Rick Perrotte, who works on safety issues for the CTU. “Others don’t follow through.”</p>
<p>Prosser High senior De’Rell Bonner, who served as the student representative on the School Board last year, recalls that he saw the reports of violent incidents in schools. Often, the summaries didn’t jibe with what he heard from students, especially students at Crane, which his cousin attended.</p>
<p>Bonner worked this past summer with a group of students at the Mikva Challenge, a non-profit organization that promotes civic engagement among young people, to come up with recommendations for how to make schools healthier and safer.</p>
<p>Spurred by what they see as a disconnect between what principals report to administrators and the truth of what’s going on, the students suggested that district leaders make surprise visits to schools.</p>
<p>When visits are planned, suddenly there’s toilet paper in the bathrooms and the halls are swept of students during class time—two things that don’t happen when a visit isn’t in the works, Bonner says. “We think people like Arne Duncan would benefit from seeing the schools on regular days.”</p>
<p>CPS has invited the students to make presentations to principals and security guards and have expressed interest in some of the students’ ideas. But administrators have not committed to unannounced visits at schools, says Hillary Reser of the Mikva Challenge.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Jacobs is still not convinced that Crane is a secure place for her daughter. During the first week of school, she tried unsuccessfully to register her in a different school. But when nothing came through, she wound up back at Crane.</p>
<p>On Monday, Sept. 10, she walked her daughter to Crane. Once again, she saw the police cars, which she says sit at all four corners of the block, all the time. Rather than ease her concerns, she says the squad cars add to her sense that Crane is dangerous.</p>
<p>“I have to make do with what I have,” she says.</p> | 4,033 |
<p>Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.</p>
<p>At the close in Brussels, the gained 0.08%.</p>
<p>The best performers of the session on the were ING Groep NV (AS:), which rose 1.19% or 0.180 points to trade at 15.365 at the close. Meanwhile, KBC (BR:) added 1.05% or 0.740 points to end at 70.980 and Solvay SA (BR:) was up 0.76% or 0.95 points to 126.45 in late trade.</p>
<p>The worst performers of the session were Ontex Group (BR:), which fell 1.16% or 0.34 points to trade at 28.89 at the close. Engie SA (PA:) declined 1.07% or 0.15 points to end at 14.29 and Aperam SA (AS:) was down 0.90% or 0.40 points to 44.26.</p>
<p>Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 61 to 50 and 12 ended unchanged.</p>
<p>Shares in KBC (BR:) rose to 5-year highs; up 1.05% or 0.740 to 70.980.</p>
<p>Gold Futures for December delivery was down 1.39% or 18.25 to $1298.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.20% or 0.10 to hit $50.59 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.04% or 0.02 to trade at $56.27 a barrel.</p>
<p>EUR/USD was up 0.37% to 1.1938, while EUR/GBP fell 0.11% to 0.8802.</p>
<p>The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.26% at 91.98.</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> | Belgium stocks higher at close of trade; BEL 20 up 0.08% | false | https://newsline.com/belgium-stocks-higher-at-close-of-trade-bel-20-up-0-08/ | 2017-09-21 | 1right-center
| Belgium stocks higher at close of trade; BEL 20 up 0.08%
<p>Investing.com – Belgium stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.</p>
<p>At the close in Brussels, the gained 0.08%.</p>
<p>The best performers of the session on the were ING Groep NV (AS:), which rose 1.19% or 0.180 points to trade at 15.365 at the close. Meanwhile, KBC (BR:) added 1.05% or 0.740 points to end at 70.980 and Solvay SA (BR:) was up 0.76% or 0.95 points to 126.45 in late trade.</p>
<p>The worst performers of the session were Ontex Group (BR:), which fell 1.16% or 0.34 points to trade at 28.89 at the close. Engie SA (PA:) declined 1.07% or 0.15 points to end at 14.29 and Aperam SA (AS:) was down 0.90% or 0.40 points to 44.26.</p>
<p>Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Brussels Stock Exchange by 61 to 50 and 12 ended unchanged.</p>
<p>Shares in KBC (BR:) rose to 5-year highs; up 1.05% or 0.740 to 70.980.</p>
<p>Gold Futures for December delivery was down 1.39% or 18.25 to $1298.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.20% or 0.10 to hit $50.59 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.04% or 0.02 to trade at $56.27 a barrel.</p>
<p>EUR/USD was up 0.37% to 1.1938, while EUR/GBP fell 0.11% to 0.8802.</p>
<p>The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.26% at 91.98.</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> | 4,034 |
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<p>READING, Pa. - Police say a would-be robber in Pennsylvania had some poor timing when he pulled a gun on his taxi driver with a sheriff's deputy behind him.</p>
<p>The Berks County deputy approached the cab after it failed to move through a green light Monday in Reading (REH?-ding).</p>
<p>Surveillance video from inside the cab, obtained by WFMZ-TV ( <a href="http://bit.ly/1QEJOiQ)," type="external">http://bit.ly/1QEJOiQ),</a> shows the deputy's cruiser pulling up behind the taxi. Shortly after that, the passenger aims a gun at the driver and demands money.</p>
<p>Deputy Terry Ely approaches the cab and asks if there's a problem. Seeing the gun, Ely draws his firearm and orders the passenger out of the taxi.</p>
<p>The cab driver can be heard telling Ely "You're a lifesaver."</p>
<p>Eighteen-year-old Victor Martinez-Herrera was arrested. A lawyer for him wasn't listed in online court documents.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Would-be robber tries to stick up cab with deputy behind him | false | https://abqjournal.com/736956/would-be-robber-tries-to-stick-up-cab-with-deputy-behind-him.html | 2least
| Would-be robber tries to stick up cab with deputy behind him
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>READING, Pa. - Police say a would-be robber in Pennsylvania had some poor timing when he pulled a gun on his taxi driver with a sheriff's deputy behind him.</p>
<p>The Berks County deputy approached the cab after it failed to move through a green light Monday in Reading (REH?-ding).</p>
<p>Surveillance video from inside the cab, obtained by WFMZ-TV ( <a href="http://bit.ly/1QEJOiQ)," type="external">http://bit.ly/1QEJOiQ),</a> shows the deputy's cruiser pulling up behind the taxi. Shortly after that, the passenger aims a gun at the driver and demands money.</p>
<p>Deputy Terry Ely approaches the cab and asks if there's a problem. Seeing the gun, Ely draws his firearm and orders the passenger out of the taxi.</p>
<p>The cab driver can be heard telling Ely "You're a lifesaver."</p>
<p>Eighteen-year-old Victor Martinez-Herrera was arrested. A lawyer for him wasn't listed in online court documents.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 4,035 |
|
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 is trading near its all-time high, which is making it hard to find real bargains in the markets. In times like these, it's important for investors to only put money to work in the highest-quality investments they can find, and my top stock pick for the month of September fits that description perfectly.</p>
<p>Once upon a time, I thoughtThe Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN) was just another travel website. With hundreds of other travel sites to choose form, I was left scratching my head at why this stock was such a market darling.Thankfully, once I was educated about the business I too saw its massive potential, and the company has since grown to become one of my largest personal holdings.</p>
<p>So, what sets the Priceline Group apart from other travel sites? The answer lies in its <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/08/30/the-5-best-business-executives-nobodys-heard-of.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">top-notch Opens a New Window.</a> management team that has acquired a portfolio of brands that have become the envy of the travel industry. That list includes sites like Kayak.com, Rentalcars.com, Agoda.com, Opentable.com, and of course, priceline.com. However, I'm so bullish on this company because of its cash-cow business Booking.com.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Booking.com was the top dog and first mover in online travel in Europe, giving it a huge head start in the race to build out its hotel network. That's important, as mostEuropean hotels are run by small business owners, so they lack the expertise and resources to make their hotel available to online travelers. In response, they've welcomed Booking.com with open arms as the site helps them to fill their vacant rooms, and also provide back-office functions like customer service and marketing. In exchange, Booking.com takes a small commission for each hotel room it sells.</p>
<p>SinceBooking.com was the first company to take advantage of this opportunity, it has built out a truly massive network of properties. As of Q2, the site counted over 1 million properties representing 23.7 million rooms, making the site the go-to place for any European traveler who values selection.</p>
<p>As the company grew, the network effects started to really kick in, and the financial implications have been nothing short of magical.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/PCLN" type="external">PCLN Opens a New Window.</a>data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Despite this company's unbelievable run, I think there are plenty of reasons to believe that fast growth will continue. For one the global middle class is still growing and becoming wealthier, which should drive steady increases in the demand for travel. There's also the fact that travel agents still exist, but given the cost savings and ease of booking travel accommodations online, I think the Priceline Group can continue to win market share.</p>
<p>Of course, Priceline won't be the only winner in the move to online travel, so it has wisely built out partnerships with some of the other leading players in online travel. The company owns a 10.5% position in Ctrip.com International (NASDAQ: CTRP), a leading book agent in China: The two struck up a partnership deal that will give Chinese consumers access to the company's inventory of hotels. The company also struck up a partnership deal with TripAdvisor (NASDAQ: TRIP), the global leader in online reviews, that added the company's property list to TripAdvisor's "instant booking" platform.</p>
<p>Finally, when you zoom out and realize that the global online travel market is estimated to be worth $492 billion, Priceline's trailing-12-month revenue of less than $10 billion doesn't seem so astronomically high.</p>
<p>With a trailing <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/beginning/how-to-value-stocks-earnings-based-valuations.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">P/E ratio Opens a New Window.</a> of more than 27, you might scoff at the idea that the Priceline Group is a value stock right now, but I think that's being a bit short-sighted. Priceline is projected to produce roughly $80 in EPS next year, which means the company's forward PE ratio is only 18. Believe it or not, that's a discount to theS&amp;P 500'sforward P/E ratio of 18.5. Add to that the fact that analysts are projecting this company to grow its EPS by nearly 16% over the next five years, and buying today gives you higher growth and a lower multiple than the markets in general.</p>
<p>In total,I think there's real reason to believe the Priceline Group has everything investors look for in a high-quality investment. Yes, there will always be short-term global events that cause a hiccup in the company's business -- the 2014 Icelandic <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/03/3-reasons-ctripcom-international-ltd-stock-could-r.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">volcano eruption Opens a New Window.</a> of 2014 and the recent Brexit immediately come to mind -- but over the long haul, I have high confidence in this company's ability to thrive. That makes this company a great buy-and-hold candidate, which is why it's my favorite stock to buy this month.</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/TMFTypeoh/info.aspx" type="external">Brian Feroldi Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Ctrip.com International, Priceline Group, and TripAdvisor. Like this article? Follow him onTwitter, where he goes by the handle <a href="https://twitter.com/LongTermMindset" type="external">@Longtermmindset Opens a New Window.</a>, or connect with him on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-feroldi-mba-46370a5" type="external">LinkedIn Opens a New Window.</a> to see more articles like this.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Priceline Group and TripAdvisor. The Motley Fool recommends Ctrip.com International. 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>.</p>
<p>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> | Here's My Top Stock to Buy in September | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/17/here-my-top-stock-to-buy-in-september.html | 2016-09-17 | 0right
| Here's My Top Stock to Buy in September
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 is trading near its all-time high, which is making it hard to find real bargains in the markets. In times like these, it's important for investors to only put money to work in the highest-quality investments they can find, and my top stock pick for the month of September fits that description perfectly.</p>
<p>Once upon a time, I thoughtThe Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN) was just another travel website. With hundreds of other travel sites to choose form, I was left scratching my head at why this stock was such a market darling.Thankfully, once I was educated about the business I too saw its massive potential, and the company has since grown to become one of my largest personal holdings.</p>
<p>So, what sets the Priceline Group apart from other travel sites? The answer lies in its <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/08/30/the-5-best-business-executives-nobodys-heard-of.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">top-notch Opens a New Window.</a> management team that has acquired a portfolio of brands that have become the envy of the travel industry. That list includes sites like Kayak.com, Rentalcars.com, Agoda.com, Opentable.com, and of course, priceline.com. However, I'm so bullish on this company because of its cash-cow business Booking.com.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Booking.com was the top dog and first mover in online travel in Europe, giving it a huge head start in the race to build out its hotel network. That's important, as mostEuropean hotels are run by small business owners, so they lack the expertise and resources to make their hotel available to online travelers. In response, they've welcomed Booking.com with open arms as the site helps them to fill their vacant rooms, and also provide back-office functions like customer service and marketing. In exchange, Booking.com takes a small commission for each hotel room it sells.</p>
<p>SinceBooking.com was the first company to take advantage of this opportunity, it has built out a truly massive network of properties. As of Q2, the site counted over 1 million properties representing 23.7 million rooms, making the site the go-to place for any European traveler who values selection.</p>
<p>As the company grew, the network effects started to really kick in, and the financial implications have been nothing short of magical.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/PCLN" type="external">PCLN Opens a New Window.</a>data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Despite this company's unbelievable run, I think there are plenty of reasons to believe that fast growth will continue. For one the global middle class is still growing and becoming wealthier, which should drive steady increases in the demand for travel. There's also the fact that travel agents still exist, but given the cost savings and ease of booking travel accommodations online, I think the Priceline Group can continue to win market share.</p>
<p>Of course, Priceline won't be the only winner in the move to online travel, so it has wisely built out partnerships with some of the other leading players in online travel. The company owns a 10.5% position in Ctrip.com International (NASDAQ: CTRP), a leading book agent in China: The two struck up a partnership deal that will give Chinese consumers access to the company's inventory of hotels. The company also struck up a partnership deal with TripAdvisor (NASDAQ: TRIP), the global leader in online reviews, that added the company's property list to TripAdvisor's "instant booking" platform.</p>
<p>Finally, when you zoom out and realize that the global online travel market is estimated to be worth $492 billion, Priceline's trailing-12-month revenue of less than $10 billion doesn't seem so astronomically high.</p>
<p>With a trailing <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/beginning/how-to-value-stocks-earnings-based-valuations.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">P/E ratio Opens a New Window.</a> of more than 27, you might scoff at the idea that the Priceline Group is a value stock right now, but I think that's being a bit short-sighted. Priceline is projected to produce roughly $80 in EPS next year, which means the company's forward PE ratio is only 18. Believe it or not, that's a discount to theS&amp;P 500'sforward P/E ratio of 18.5. Add to that the fact that analysts are projecting this company to grow its EPS by nearly 16% over the next five years, and buying today gives you higher growth and a lower multiple than the markets in general.</p>
<p>In total,I think there's real reason to believe the Priceline Group has everything investors look for in a high-quality investment. Yes, there will always be short-term global events that cause a hiccup in the company's business -- the 2014 Icelandic <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/03/3-reasons-ctripcom-international-ltd-stock-could-r.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">volcano eruption Opens a New Window.</a> of 2014 and the recent Brexit immediately come to mind -- but over the long haul, I have high confidence in this company's ability to thrive. That makes this company a great buy-and-hold candidate, which is why it's my favorite stock to buy this month.</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/TMFTypeoh/info.aspx" type="external">Brian Feroldi Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Ctrip.com International, Priceline Group, and TripAdvisor. Like this article? Follow him onTwitter, where he goes by the handle <a href="https://twitter.com/LongTermMindset" type="external">@Longtermmindset Opens a New Window.</a>, or connect with him on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-feroldi-mba-46370a5" type="external">LinkedIn Opens a New Window.</a> to see more articles like this.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Priceline Group and TripAdvisor. The Motley Fool recommends Ctrip.com International. 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>.</p>
<p>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> | 4,036 |
<p>YouTube <a href="https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2016/06/daniel-zimmerman/youtube-pull-video-gun-director-admitting-felonies/" type="external">reportedly</a> removed a video that revealed the producer of an anti-gun movie admitting to committing felonies.</p>
<p>Stephanie Soechtig, who produced Katie Couric's Under the Gun documentary that was <a href="" type="internal">deceptively edited</a>, accidentally admitted in an interview on The Lip TV that her team committed a couple of gun crimes.</p>
<p>"We sent a producer out and he was from Colorado, he went to Arizona and he was able to buy a Bushmaster and then three other pistols without a background check in a matter of four hours," Soechtig said, and claimed that it was "perfectly legal."</p>
<p>"He just met someone in the parking lot at Wendy's and bought a Bushmaster, legally!" Soechtig said.</p>
<p>The host, Ondi Timoner, responded, "How is that legal? That sounds like black market trading."</p>
<p>That's because it's actually not legal, as AmmoLand <a href="http://www.ammoland.com/2016/06/under-the-gun-director-soechtig-confesses-to-federal-crimes/#axzz4AwvyX0OG" type="external">pointed out</a>:</p>
<p>Under current federal law it is a violation for any person to transfer, sell, trade, give, transport, or deliver any firearm to any person who the transferor knows or has reasonable cause to believe does not reside in the state in which the transferor resides. (18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(5).) Thus, by asking a private party in Arizona to sell the Colorado producer firearms, Ms. Soechtig and her staff induced an otherwise law abiding citizen to commit a federal crime. There was nothing legal about what Ms. Soechtig and her staff did, despite their slanted attempt to portray in their documentary the private sale of firearms as unregulated and legal.</p>
<p>It is also unlawful for any person other than a dealer to transport into or receive in the state where they reside any firearm purchased or otherwise obtained outside that State. (18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(3).) Violations of these laws can result in a hefty fine and a felony conviction of up to five years. (18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(1)(D).) Further, if two or more persons conspire to commit any offense, and at least one person commits an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy, each party to the conspiracy can also face an additional fine and imprisonment for up to five years. (18 U.S.C. § 371.)</p>
<p>AmmoLand posted a video on YouTube highlighting the clip under the title, "Katie Couric's Under the Gun Director, Stephanie Soechtig, Confesses to Federal Gun Crimes." That video was reportedly taken down, as they received a copyright infringement notice from YouTube after Lip Service, LLC, The Lip TV's parent company, issued a complaint about it.</p>
<p>"AmmoLand is deeply disappointed that Youtube would pull a video that is part of a legitimate news story highlighting main stream media’s total disregard of Federal and State gun laws," wrote Ammoland editor Fredy Riehl. "We will be appealing the copyright takedown notice."</p>
<p>As Dan Zimmerman at TheTruthAboutGuns.com pointed out, "Under the <a href="http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/" type="external">fair use provisions</a> of the relevant copyright laws, AmmoLand was well within its rights to run the clip."</p>
<p>The Lip TV still has the full interview with Soechtig on YouTube, and the part where Soechtig admits to the felonies is at the 1:30 mark:</p>
<p />
<p>AmmoLand and TheTruthAboutGuns.com also have the relevant clip on their sites from a different video source.</p> | Report: YouTube Took Down Clip of Couric’s Anti-Gun Producer Admitting Felonies | true | https://dailywire.com/news/6428/report-youtube-took-down-clip-courics-anti-gun-aaron-bandler | 2016-06-08 | 0right
| Report: YouTube Took Down Clip of Couric’s Anti-Gun Producer Admitting Felonies
<p>YouTube <a href="https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2016/06/daniel-zimmerman/youtube-pull-video-gun-director-admitting-felonies/" type="external">reportedly</a> removed a video that revealed the producer of an anti-gun movie admitting to committing felonies.</p>
<p>Stephanie Soechtig, who produced Katie Couric's Under the Gun documentary that was <a href="" type="internal">deceptively edited</a>, accidentally admitted in an interview on The Lip TV that her team committed a couple of gun crimes.</p>
<p>"We sent a producer out and he was from Colorado, he went to Arizona and he was able to buy a Bushmaster and then three other pistols without a background check in a matter of four hours," Soechtig said, and claimed that it was "perfectly legal."</p>
<p>"He just met someone in the parking lot at Wendy's and bought a Bushmaster, legally!" Soechtig said.</p>
<p>The host, Ondi Timoner, responded, "How is that legal? That sounds like black market trading."</p>
<p>That's because it's actually not legal, as AmmoLand <a href="http://www.ammoland.com/2016/06/under-the-gun-director-soechtig-confesses-to-federal-crimes/#axzz4AwvyX0OG" type="external">pointed out</a>:</p>
<p>Under current federal law it is a violation for any person to transfer, sell, trade, give, transport, or deliver any firearm to any person who the transferor knows or has reasonable cause to believe does not reside in the state in which the transferor resides. (18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(5).) Thus, by asking a private party in Arizona to sell the Colorado producer firearms, Ms. Soechtig and her staff induced an otherwise law abiding citizen to commit a federal crime. There was nothing legal about what Ms. Soechtig and her staff did, despite their slanted attempt to portray in their documentary the private sale of firearms as unregulated and legal.</p>
<p>It is also unlawful for any person other than a dealer to transport into or receive in the state where they reside any firearm purchased or otherwise obtained outside that State. (18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(3).) Violations of these laws can result in a hefty fine and a felony conviction of up to five years. (18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(1)(D).) Further, if two or more persons conspire to commit any offense, and at least one person commits an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy, each party to the conspiracy can also face an additional fine and imprisonment for up to five years. (18 U.S.C. § 371.)</p>
<p>AmmoLand posted a video on YouTube highlighting the clip under the title, "Katie Couric's Under the Gun Director, Stephanie Soechtig, Confesses to Federal Gun Crimes." That video was reportedly taken down, as they received a copyright infringement notice from YouTube after Lip Service, LLC, The Lip TV's parent company, issued a complaint about it.</p>
<p>"AmmoLand is deeply disappointed that Youtube would pull a video that is part of a legitimate news story highlighting main stream media’s total disregard of Federal and State gun laws," wrote Ammoland editor Fredy Riehl. "We will be appealing the copyright takedown notice."</p>
<p>As Dan Zimmerman at TheTruthAboutGuns.com pointed out, "Under the <a href="http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/" type="external">fair use provisions</a> of the relevant copyright laws, AmmoLand was well within its rights to run the clip."</p>
<p>The Lip TV still has the full interview with Soechtig on YouTube, and the part where Soechtig admits to the felonies is at the 1:30 mark:</p>
<p />
<p>AmmoLand and TheTruthAboutGuns.com also have the relevant clip on their sites from a different video source.</p> | 4,037 |
<p>There's something off about this trio of concerned Philippines bureaucrats, who are dutifully inspecting rubble left behind by a deadly typhoon.</p>
<p>One is tiptoeing atop a chunk of concrete. Another appears to be levitating.</p>
<p>A Filipino blogger and engineer,&#160;Pierre Albert San Diego, took the time to analyze the image, posted to an official government Facebook account.</p>
<p>His diagnosis? <a href="http://quiapo.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/dpwh-photoshop-fail/" type="external">An awful Photoshop job.</a></p>
<p>A government office has since <a href="http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/09/29/11/dpwh-under-fire-facebook-photoshopping" type="external">conceded that the photo is bogus</a>, the Manila-based ABS-CBN news outlet reports.</p>
<p>So did this trio of engineers even visit this damaged part of Manila? Which appears badly damaged by Typhoon Nerat, which has since <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gMoEVVkevsyS5LJfowaM-uYvCYPQ?docId=CNG.6e068600f864975e4893dacdd8959965.2d1" type="external">killed more than 35 people?</a></p>
<p>Actually, they did. In fact, you can see two of them strolling in the background of the Photoshopped picture.</p>
<p>The Department of Public Works and Highways apology, delivered via Facebook, doesn't fully explain why they'd fake a photo at a site the engineers actually visited.</p>
<p>But Pierre, the blogging engineer, has his theories.</p>
<p>According to ABS-CBN, he said: ""Although my evil mind tells me that the DPWH wants a pogi photo showing their bosses in deep thought while assessing the disaster site, and they didn't have the opportunity to pose because those guys were probably there for 15 minutes max - so they just lasso tooled the hell out of that pic."</p>
<p>(Translations: Pogi means "handsome" in the Philippines. And "lasso tool" is a photo cropping technique.)</p>
<p>His original post is <a href="http://quiapo.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/dpwh-photoshop-fail/" type="external">here</a>.</p> | Faking it in the Philippines | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-09-30/faking-it-philippines | 2011-09-30 | 3left-center
| Faking it in the Philippines
<p>There's something off about this trio of concerned Philippines bureaucrats, who are dutifully inspecting rubble left behind by a deadly typhoon.</p>
<p>One is tiptoeing atop a chunk of concrete. Another appears to be levitating.</p>
<p>A Filipino blogger and engineer,&#160;Pierre Albert San Diego, took the time to analyze the image, posted to an official government Facebook account.</p>
<p>His diagnosis? <a href="http://quiapo.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/dpwh-photoshop-fail/" type="external">An awful Photoshop job.</a></p>
<p>A government office has since <a href="http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/09/29/11/dpwh-under-fire-facebook-photoshopping" type="external">conceded that the photo is bogus</a>, the Manila-based ABS-CBN news outlet reports.</p>
<p>So did this trio of engineers even visit this damaged part of Manila? Which appears badly damaged by Typhoon Nerat, which has since <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gMoEVVkevsyS5LJfowaM-uYvCYPQ?docId=CNG.6e068600f864975e4893dacdd8959965.2d1" type="external">killed more than 35 people?</a></p>
<p>Actually, they did. In fact, you can see two of them strolling in the background of the Photoshopped picture.</p>
<p>The Department of Public Works and Highways apology, delivered via Facebook, doesn't fully explain why they'd fake a photo at a site the engineers actually visited.</p>
<p>But Pierre, the blogging engineer, has his theories.</p>
<p>According to ABS-CBN, he said: ""Although my evil mind tells me that the DPWH wants a pogi photo showing their bosses in deep thought while assessing the disaster site, and they didn't have the opportunity to pose because those guys were probably there for 15 minutes max - so they just lasso tooled the hell out of that pic."</p>
<p>(Translations: Pogi means "handsome" in the Philippines. And "lasso tool" is a photo cropping technique.)</p>
<p>His original post is <a href="http://quiapo.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/dpwh-photoshop-fail/" type="external">here</a>.</p> | 4,038 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>It’s been four years since Las Megananas, a Latina theater troupe, performed its original production “Río de Lágrimas/River of Tears.” And the group is ready to return to the stage.</p>
<p>“There’s been so much that has been happening in the world, I felt like it was time we brought it back,” says Soledad Marjón Hindi, who wrote the play. “We had a lot of fun and got a lot of response when we staged it before.”</p>
<p>The play is a trilingual – Nahual, English and Spanish – multimedia performance piece that is based on the legend of La Llorona.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The piece begins in Mexico with La Malinche, Hernan Cortés’ estranged lover and the first mother of the mestizo race, whose despair over their broken relationship and the death of her children transforms her into La Llorona, roaming the Rio Grande crying for the lost souls of her mestizo children.</p>
<p>Her journey north to the Southwest ends at the U.S./Mexico border in Cuidad Juárez, where, as the archetype of a grieving mother, she mourns the mistreatment, disappearance and death of thousands of factory workers along the border.</p>
<p>“I wanted to write about the idea of this woman who grieves through all the atrocities in her life,” Hindi explains. “In the story, the woman represents so many various things.”</p>
<p>The troupe members are Hindi, Vivian Fernandez, Valerie Borrego, Michelle Otero, Alicia Lueras Maldonado, Beatriz Villegas and Michelle Estrada Allred.</p>
<p>Maldonado reprises her role as the student interning at NAFTA, Malinche, La Llorona and the maquiladora worker.</p>
<p>She says there is a responsibility to playing each one of the roles.</p>
<p>“Each woman is strong in her own right and I want to make sure that I am portraying each one with the dignity that they have,” she explains. “I also feel like I have to show how each woman grows through the story and make sure that the message gets across and I tell their story properly.”</p>
<p>Having played the characters before, Maldonado says she’s hoping to incorporate her growth as a woman and as a performance artist in the play.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Yes, it’s been four years since we first staged the show, but there are a lot of issues in the play that exist today,” she says. “It’s kind of sad that we haven’t been able to figure these things out.”</p>
<p>Maldonado says with the West Mesa murders in 2009 – where the remains of 11 women were uncovered on the West Mesa in Albuquerque – making national news, it brought to light that situations that are acted out in the play still exist today.</p>
<p>“This was so close to home,” she says. “All of the women, they were someone’s daughter or sister. Yet, we couldn’t recognize the fact that something wrong was going on. There were times it seemed like the situation wasn’t being dealt with and that’s what is happening in Mexico with all the women going missing.”</p>
<p>Hindi says the performance gets the crowd involved in both thinking and acting.</p>
<p>“We have a piece where audience members have stones with names written on them,” she says. “One by one, each person comes on stage and reads the name. These are some of the names of the women who have been killed in Juarez. It gets very emotional, but the idea is to open up some minds and create a starting point for conversation.”</p>
<p>Hindi says she hopes audiences will begin to think about the injustice that’s going on.</p>
<p>“I’m committed to telling the story of these women,” she says. “Until the violence stops, we’ll be putting on this piece.”</p> | ‘Lágrimas’ tackles emotional issues | false | https://abqjournal.com/114687/lgrimas-tackles-emotional-issues.html | 2012-06-24 | 2least
| ‘Lágrimas’ tackles emotional issues
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>It’s been four years since Las Megananas, a Latina theater troupe, performed its original production “Río de Lágrimas/River of Tears.” And the group is ready to return to the stage.</p>
<p>“There’s been so much that has been happening in the world, I felt like it was time we brought it back,” says Soledad Marjón Hindi, who wrote the play. “We had a lot of fun and got a lot of response when we staged it before.”</p>
<p>The play is a trilingual – Nahual, English and Spanish – multimedia performance piece that is based on the legend of La Llorona.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The piece begins in Mexico with La Malinche, Hernan Cortés’ estranged lover and the first mother of the mestizo race, whose despair over their broken relationship and the death of her children transforms her into La Llorona, roaming the Rio Grande crying for the lost souls of her mestizo children.</p>
<p>Her journey north to the Southwest ends at the U.S./Mexico border in Cuidad Juárez, where, as the archetype of a grieving mother, she mourns the mistreatment, disappearance and death of thousands of factory workers along the border.</p>
<p>“I wanted to write about the idea of this woman who grieves through all the atrocities in her life,” Hindi explains. “In the story, the woman represents so many various things.”</p>
<p>The troupe members are Hindi, Vivian Fernandez, Valerie Borrego, Michelle Otero, Alicia Lueras Maldonado, Beatriz Villegas and Michelle Estrada Allred.</p>
<p>Maldonado reprises her role as the student interning at NAFTA, Malinche, La Llorona and the maquiladora worker.</p>
<p>She says there is a responsibility to playing each one of the roles.</p>
<p>“Each woman is strong in her own right and I want to make sure that I am portraying each one with the dignity that they have,” she explains. “I also feel like I have to show how each woman grows through the story and make sure that the message gets across and I tell their story properly.”</p>
<p>Having played the characters before, Maldonado says she’s hoping to incorporate her growth as a woman and as a performance artist in the play.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“Yes, it’s been four years since we first staged the show, but there are a lot of issues in the play that exist today,” she says. “It’s kind of sad that we haven’t been able to figure these things out.”</p>
<p>Maldonado says with the West Mesa murders in 2009 – where the remains of 11 women were uncovered on the West Mesa in Albuquerque – making national news, it brought to light that situations that are acted out in the play still exist today.</p>
<p>“This was so close to home,” she says. “All of the women, they were someone’s daughter or sister. Yet, we couldn’t recognize the fact that something wrong was going on. There were times it seemed like the situation wasn’t being dealt with and that’s what is happening in Mexico with all the women going missing.”</p>
<p>Hindi says the performance gets the crowd involved in both thinking and acting.</p>
<p>“We have a piece where audience members have stones with names written on them,” she says. “One by one, each person comes on stage and reads the name. These are some of the names of the women who have been killed in Juarez. It gets very emotional, but the idea is to open up some minds and create a starting point for conversation.”</p>
<p>Hindi says she hopes audiences will begin to think about the injustice that’s going on.</p>
<p>“I’m committed to telling the story of these women,” she says. “Until the violence stops, we’ll be putting on this piece.”</p> | 4,039 |
<p>Liberal Chick is back and this time she is singing. You heard me… singing. Oy-vey!</p>
<p>For those of you who couldn’t understand what this nutter was singing, herewith are the lyrics to her ‘song.’ Enjoy.</p>
<p>Crazy, but that’s how it goes Millions of Mexicans living as foes Maybe, It’s not too late, To learn how to love, and forget how to hate</p>
<p>Conservative wounds not healing The USA’s a bitter shame They’re goin’ off the rails on a death train People are coming to America on a death train</p>
<p>I’ve listened to preachers, I’ve listened to tools I’ve watched all the conservatives, Who make their own rules Conservatives conditioned to rule and control Fox news sells it, and you live the role</p>
<p>Conservative wounds still screaming Driving me insane Illegals goin’ off the rails on a death train They’re goin’ off the rails on a death train</p>
<p><a href="http://clashdaily.com/2014/11/liberal-chick-sings-illegals-goin-rails-death-train/" type="external">This article continues on clashdaily.com</a></p> | LIBERAL CHICK SINGS: “Illegals Are Goin’ Off The Rails On A Death Train” | true | http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/liberal-chick-sings-illegals-goin-rails-death-train/ | 0right
| LIBERAL CHICK SINGS: “Illegals Are Goin’ Off The Rails On A Death Train”
<p>Liberal Chick is back and this time she is singing. You heard me… singing. Oy-vey!</p>
<p>For those of you who couldn’t understand what this nutter was singing, herewith are the lyrics to her ‘song.’ Enjoy.</p>
<p>Crazy, but that’s how it goes Millions of Mexicans living as foes Maybe, It’s not too late, To learn how to love, and forget how to hate</p>
<p>Conservative wounds not healing The USA’s a bitter shame They’re goin’ off the rails on a death train People are coming to America on a death train</p>
<p>I’ve listened to preachers, I’ve listened to tools I’ve watched all the conservatives, Who make their own rules Conservatives conditioned to rule and control Fox news sells it, and you live the role</p>
<p>Conservative wounds still screaming Driving me insane Illegals goin’ off the rails on a death train They’re goin’ off the rails on a death train</p>
<p><a href="http://clashdaily.com/2014/11/liberal-chick-sings-illegals-goin-rails-death-train/" type="external">This article continues on clashdaily.com</a></p> | 4,040 |
|
<p>Conscious or not conscious of your own bad intentions, you suspect theirs to be still worse. Their notion of your intentions is the same. Measures of mere self-defense are naturally taken for acts of aggression. The same causes produce, on both sides, the same effects; each makes haste to begin for fear of being forestalled. In this state of things, if on either side there happen to be a Minister [of War], or a would-be Minister, who has a fancy for war, the stroke is struck, and the tinder catches fire.</p>
<p>Jeremy Bentham, 1789, “Plan for an Universal and Perpetual Peace.”</p>
<p>For more than a year, the USA has been openly threatening to bomb Iran. Some scenarios see the use of nuclear bombs. “All options are on the table” says Bush, Cheney, Rice, and most of the candidates in the 2008 Presidential race.</p>
<p>The reason? They say they feel threatened by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear power technology, although they formally granted Iran that right when they ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968. The IAEA has found no evidence of a nuclear weapons program. They say they feel threatened by Iran’s support of the Shia militia, especially those in Iraq and Lebanon. Iran has traditionally played the role of defending Shia communities, even in the Ottoman era. They say they feel threatened by Iran’s opposition to Israel’s expansion and Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, which is against international law and many UN resolutions. The say they feel threatened by Iran’s energy exports and its ability to influence world prices. In general, they feel threatened by an independent nation in an oil-rich region they wish to dominate. Therefore, they threaten to bomb Iran. “All options are on the table.”</p>
<p>The UN Charter, Article 2, section 4 states that</p>
<p>“All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”</p>
<p>America is a founding member of the UN and has thus made that provision a part of its own national law. According to the US Constitution, treaties constitute the highest law of the land. It is thus illegal under US law to threaten to bomb Iran. Nevertheless, they threaten war. They move excessive numbers of warships into seas surrounding Iran. They cultivate client states, build bases and deploy troops on all sides of Iran.</p>
<p>One consequence of these threats is that Iran must prepare to defend itself. On Oct. 20, a top Iranian military commander announced that Iran is ready to retaliate with 11,000 missiles in the first few minutes after an American surprise attack. The missiles are aimed at the military bases, ships at sea, and economic assets of the threatening nations. To launch that many missiles AFTER a shock-and-awe surprise attack means that Iran must have distributed the ability to launch missiles. There is not one launch button and one commanding finger on the button.</p>
<p>There are many buttons and many different fingers on them. War is now on a hair trigger, and the risk of accidental war is now very, very, very high. War might be started by an Iranian religious fundamentalist eager to go to heaven, or patriot eager to defend Iran, or a traitor eager to destroy Iran, or someone depressed or bored or simply misreading a radar screen and thinking a flock of birds are an incoming attack.</p>
<p>The USA has over 300,000 military and support personnel in the region around Iran, all of them now the target of 11,000 missiles on hair-trigger. That is what repeated threats of war have achieved.</p>
<p>The epilogue by Jeremy Bentham, written more than 200 years ago, aptly describes what is happening now. War seems inevitable. With war will come thousands of deaths, maybe millions, and whole economies will collapse, the first being that of the USA since it is most dependent on imported oil.</p>
<p>The epilogue quote comes from Bentham’s book, “Plan for an Universal and Perpetual Peace.” He coined the concept of “international law” and first conceived of the idea of a united nations. In the 18th century, those were merely ideas. Now, in the 21st century, they are reality. We have international law and a United Nations. But the USA and other belligerent nations have decided to act contrary to international law and in violation of the United Nations, with the consequence that their military forces and economies are now in jeopardy.</p>
<p>Among all of the options on the table, the most likely are self-destruction and national suicide.</p>
<p>FLOYD RUDMIN is Professor of Social &amp; Community Psychology at the University of Tromsø. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | What "All Options are on the Table" Really Means | true | https://counterpunch.org/2007/10/31/what-quot-all-options-are-on-the-table-quot-really-means/ | 2007-10-31 | 4left
| What "All Options are on the Table" Really Means
<p>Conscious or not conscious of your own bad intentions, you suspect theirs to be still worse. Their notion of your intentions is the same. Measures of mere self-defense are naturally taken for acts of aggression. The same causes produce, on both sides, the same effects; each makes haste to begin for fear of being forestalled. In this state of things, if on either side there happen to be a Minister [of War], or a would-be Minister, who has a fancy for war, the stroke is struck, and the tinder catches fire.</p>
<p>Jeremy Bentham, 1789, “Plan for an Universal and Perpetual Peace.”</p>
<p>For more than a year, the USA has been openly threatening to bomb Iran. Some scenarios see the use of nuclear bombs. “All options are on the table” says Bush, Cheney, Rice, and most of the candidates in the 2008 Presidential race.</p>
<p>The reason? They say they feel threatened by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear power technology, although they formally granted Iran that right when they ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968. The IAEA has found no evidence of a nuclear weapons program. They say they feel threatened by Iran’s support of the Shia militia, especially those in Iraq and Lebanon. Iran has traditionally played the role of defending Shia communities, even in the Ottoman era. They say they feel threatened by Iran’s opposition to Israel’s expansion and Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, which is against international law and many UN resolutions. The say they feel threatened by Iran’s energy exports and its ability to influence world prices. In general, they feel threatened by an independent nation in an oil-rich region they wish to dominate. Therefore, they threaten to bomb Iran. “All options are on the table.”</p>
<p>The UN Charter, Article 2, section 4 states that</p>
<p>“All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”</p>
<p>America is a founding member of the UN and has thus made that provision a part of its own national law. According to the US Constitution, treaties constitute the highest law of the land. It is thus illegal under US law to threaten to bomb Iran. Nevertheless, they threaten war. They move excessive numbers of warships into seas surrounding Iran. They cultivate client states, build bases and deploy troops on all sides of Iran.</p>
<p>One consequence of these threats is that Iran must prepare to defend itself. On Oct. 20, a top Iranian military commander announced that Iran is ready to retaliate with 11,000 missiles in the first few minutes after an American surprise attack. The missiles are aimed at the military bases, ships at sea, and economic assets of the threatening nations. To launch that many missiles AFTER a shock-and-awe surprise attack means that Iran must have distributed the ability to launch missiles. There is not one launch button and one commanding finger on the button.</p>
<p>There are many buttons and many different fingers on them. War is now on a hair trigger, and the risk of accidental war is now very, very, very high. War might be started by an Iranian religious fundamentalist eager to go to heaven, or patriot eager to defend Iran, or a traitor eager to destroy Iran, or someone depressed or bored or simply misreading a radar screen and thinking a flock of birds are an incoming attack.</p>
<p>The USA has over 300,000 military and support personnel in the region around Iran, all of them now the target of 11,000 missiles on hair-trigger. That is what repeated threats of war have achieved.</p>
<p>The epilogue by Jeremy Bentham, written more than 200 years ago, aptly describes what is happening now. War seems inevitable. With war will come thousands of deaths, maybe millions, and whole economies will collapse, the first being that of the USA since it is most dependent on imported oil.</p>
<p>The epilogue quote comes from Bentham’s book, “Plan for an Universal and Perpetual Peace.” He coined the concept of “international law” and first conceived of the idea of a united nations. In the 18th century, those were merely ideas. Now, in the 21st century, they are reality. We have international law and a United Nations. But the USA and other belligerent nations have decided to act contrary to international law and in violation of the United Nations, with the consequence that their military forces and economies are now in jeopardy.</p>
<p>Among all of the options on the table, the most likely are self-destruction and national suicide.</p>
<p>FLOYD RUDMIN is Professor of Social &amp; Community Psychology at the University of Tromsø. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 4,041 |
<p />
<p>Smartphones and tablets have been pushing the personal computer aside, thanks in part to popular apps made by mobile-first entrepreneurs like Flipboard CEO Mike McCue.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>But the desktop's definitely not dead.</p>
<p>In fact, it's the mode of choice for many readers, especially during business hours. McCue plans to capitalize on that by launching a version of Flipboard's digital magazine service especially designed for Web browsers. Until now, Flipboard's 15 million magazines could only be read through a mobile app.</p>
<p>"There is a whole group of people who don't do that much browsing on their phones. That's what they use their computer for," McCue said during an interview at Flipboard's Palo Alto, California, headquarters.</p>
<p>Besides winning new converts with the expanded access, McCue is also hoping many of Flipboard's 50 million existing users will visit the service more frequently now that it's on PCs.</p>
<p>PC sales have been in a slump for the past two years, though there have been recent signs the worst of the decline is over. Meanwhile, sales of mobile devices are still surging despite a recent slowdown in the tablet market. Worldwide PC shipments declined 2 percent last year to about 309 million machines while smartphone sales climbed 28 percent to 1.3 billion devices and tablet sales increased 4 percent to 230 million, according to the research firm International Data Corp.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>All but a few of the magazines in Flipboard are free. They are created through links culled from users' social media accounts or put together by other Flipboard users interested in sharing their interests and expertise with other readers, as well as professional publishers trying to expand their digital audiences. Flipboard lists the magazines under 34,000 different topics.</p>
<p>Flipboard was originally designed for tablets, but smartphones now account for about 70 percent of user activity, McCue said. That figure seems likely to change now that it's been tailored for the desktop. PCs remain the most popular way to access Internet services during the weekdays when most people are at work, with smartphones running second, according to data from comScore Inc. It isn't until the evening when tablets become the leading Internet-connected device, with peak usage occurring around 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.</p>
<p>Flipboard isn't the only popular mobile app making the leap to the PC in search of new users and deeper engagement. Last month, Facebook's mobile messaging service WhatsApp offered a version for Web browsers, although a user's smartphone must be on and online for the syncing to work. The trend reflects a growing realization among mobile-focused apps that they can't ignore PCs if they want to connect with users as much as possible, said Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett. "It doesn't make sense to users if they up show up to a service on a PC and get ignored, but get all this magic if you show up on a mobile device."</p>
<p>Flipboard's Web browser version, built over the past 18 months, is designed to detect and automatically adjust to the different screen sizes of PCs. The largest canvas of PC screens allows Flipboard to rearrange the way the content appears on desktops so compelling pictures are showcased in bigger sizes and different layouts than on a smartphone, or even a tablet. For now, the magazine pages on Flipboard's PC version are scrolled through with a mouse instead of flipped through with a touch as on the mobile apps.</p>
<p>Coming to the PC fulfills McCue's original vision for Flipboard when he came up with the idea in 2009 shortly after leaving Tellme, a voice-recognition service that he started and eventually sold to Microsoft for $800 million. After concluding that Web browsers and chips at that time were too clunky to produce digital magazines that looked as snazzy as print editions, McCue and Flipboard co-founder Evan Doll turned their attention to the iPad before moving on to smartphones.</p>
<p>"Our users sitting in front of their PCs can finally stop wondering why they can't use Flipboard," McCue said.</p> | Flipboard says readers want bigger screens, reverses mobile trend by launching for PCs | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2015/02/10/flipboard-says-readers-want-bigger-screens-reverses-mobile-trend-by-launching.html | 2016-03-06 | 0right
| Flipboard says readers want bigger screens, reverses mobile trend by launching for PCs
<p />
<p>Smartphones and tablets have been pushing the personal computer aside, thanks in part to popular apps made by mobile-first entrepreneurs like Flipboard CEO Mike McCue.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>But the desktop's definitely not dead.</p>
<p>In fact, it's the mode of choice for many readers, especially during business hours. McCue plans to capitalize on that by launching a version of Flipboard's digital magazine service especially designed for Web browsers. Until now, Flipboard's 15 million magazines could only be read through a mobile app.</p>
<p>"There is a whole group of people who don't do that much browsing on their phones. That's what they use their computer for," McCue said during an interview at Flipboard's Palo Alto, California, headquarters.</p>
<p>Besides winning new converts with the expanded access, McCue is also hoping many of Flipboard's 50 million existing users will visit the service more frequently now that it's on PCs.</p>
<p>PC sales have been in a slump for the past two years, though there have been recent signs the worst of the decline is over. Meanwhile, sales of mobile devices are still surging despite a recent slowdown in the tablet market. Worldwide PC shipments declined 2 percent last year to about 309 million machines while smartphone sales climbed 28 percent to 1.3 billion devices and tablet sales increased 4 percent to 230 million, according to the research firm International Data Corp.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>All but a few of the magazines in Flipboard are free. They are created through links culled from users' social media accounts or put together by other Flipboard users interested in sharing their interests and expertise with other readers, as well as professional publishers trying to expand their digital audiences. Flipboard lists the magazines under 34,000 different topics.</p>
<p>Flipboard was originally designed for tablets, but smartphones now account for about 70 percent of user activity, McCue said. That figure seems likely to change now that it's been tailored for the desktop. PCs remain the most popular way to access Internet services during the weekdays when most people are at work, with smartphones running second, according to data from comScore Inc. It isn't until the evening when tablets become the leading Internet-connected device, with peak usage occurring around 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.</p>
<p>Flipboard isn't the only popular mobile app making the leap to the PC in search of new users and deeper engagement. Last month, Facebook's mobile messaging service WhatsApp offered a version for Web browsers, although a user's smartphone must be on and online for the syncing to work. The trend reflects a growing realization among mobile-focused apps that they can't ignore PCs if they want to connect with users as much as possible, said Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett. "It doesn't make sense to users if they up show up to a service on a PC and get ignored, but get all this magic if you show up on a mobile device."</p>
<p>Flipboard's Web browser version, built over the past 18 months, is designed to detect and automatically adjust to the different screen sizes of PCs. The largest canvas of PC screens allows Flipboard to rearrange the way the content appears on desktops so compelling pictures are showcased in bigger sizes and different layouts than on a smartphone, or even a tablet. For now, the magazine pages on Flipboard's PC version are scrolled through with a mouse instead of flipped through with a touch as on the mobile apps.</p>
<p>Coming to the PC fulfills McCue's original vision for Flipboard when he came up with the idea in 2009 shortly after leaving Tellme, a voice-recognition service that he started and eventually sold to Microsoft for $800 million. After concluding that Web browsers and chips at that time were too clunky to produce digital magazines that looked as snazzy as print editions, McCue and Flipboard co-founder Evan Doll turned their attention to the iPad before moving on to smartphones.</p>
<p>"Our users sitting in front of their PCs can finally stop wondering why they can't use Flipboard," McCue said.</p> | 4,042 |
<p>BILOXI (MI)The Clarion-LedgerThe Associated Press</p>
<p />
<p>Bishop Thomas J. Rodi says the Roman Catholic Church has an even stronger commitment to make the church safe for young people.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>However, Rodi said Tuesday, that message has been lost in the media's focus on sexual abuse allegations.</p>
<p>Rodi, bishop of the 17-county Biloxi Diocese, joined other church officials Wednesday in St. Louis at the three-day U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting.</p>
<p>A year ago, the bishops set in motion the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People with its zero-tolerance rule for priests known to have abused a child.</p>
<p>Rodi said he has seen in advance media coverage a concentration on what has happened over the year, including removal of some priests, lawsuits and lay organizations calling for church change.</p>
<p>"There is a lot of effort going on to make certain church ministries are safe. I'm not sure, though, if that is the general public perception," said Rodi, who became bishop in 2001.</p>
<p>Rodi said the most significant issue the bishops will address is a proposal to have a plenary council for the U.S. church. The last time one was formed was 1884.</p> | Bishops' efforts lost, Rodi says | false | https://poynter.org/news/bishops-efforts-lost-rodi-says | 2003-06-19 | 2least
| Bishops' efforts lost, Rodi says
<p>BILOXI (MI)The Clarion-LedgerThe Associated Press</p>
<p />
<p>Bishop Thomas J. Rodi says the Roman Catholic Church has an even stronger commitment to make the church safe for young people.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>However, Rodi said Tuesday, that message has been lost in the media's focus on sexual abuse allegations.</p>
<p>Rodi, bishop of the 17-county Biloxi Diocese, joined other church officials Wednesday in St. Louis at the three-day U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting.</p>
<p>A year ago, the bishops set in motion the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People with its zero-tolerance rule for priests known to have abused a child.</p>
<p>Rodi said he has seen in advance media coverage a concentration on what has happened over the year, including removal of some priests, lawsuits and lay organizations calling for church change.</p>
<p>"There is a lot of effort going on to make certain church ministries are safe. I'm not sure, though, if that is the general public perception," said Rodi, who became bishop in 2001.</p>
<p>Rodi said the most significant issue the bishops will address is a proposal to have a plenary council for the U.S. church. The last time one was formed was 1884.</p> | 4,043 |
<p>The Latest on the Austin police chief saying a repaired Ford SUV flunked a carbon monoxide test — then later contradicting that previous statement (all times local):</p>
<p>6:15 p.m.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Austin police chief says a Ford Explorer SUV that the auto company repaired for a return to service with his department actually doesn't appear to have had exhaust containing carbon monoxide seeping into it — despite his saying earlier that it did.</p>
<p>Interim Police Chief Brian Manley said Friday that during a test of three SUVs repaired by Ford Motor Company, one tested positive for carbon monoxide.</p>
<p>But Manley told The Austin American-Statesman hours later that additional testing revealed alarms may have activated for some other reason.</p>
<p>He says: "We do not believe this issue is a Ford issue or related to the repairs they have done."</p>
<p>Ford responded to Manley's original comments by saying the methods it used to address Austin's carbon monoxide problem "have worked well."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>3 p.m.</p>
<p>Ford Motor Company says "the methods and parts we've utilized to repair Austin's vehicles have worked well to address" carbon monoxide concerns — even though the city's police department says one such repaired Ford Explorer is being pulled off the road because of continuing problems.</p>
<p>Interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said that during a Friday test of three SUVs repaired by Ford, one tested positive for carbon monoxide.</p>
<p>Ford spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt responded the automaker "was not provided with information on the levels of CO detected but we are ready to inspect any vehicle."</p>
<p>She said the company has "been happy to collaborate with Austin" police on SUV repairs.</p>
<p>This summer, Austin police took nearly 400 Explorers off patrol because of carbon monoxide concerns.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12 p.m.</p>
<p>A Ford Explorer SUV that the auto company repaired for a return to service with the Austin police department has again been pulled off the street because exhaust containing carbon monoxide was seeping into it.</p>
<p>Interim Police Chief Brian Manley said that during a Friday test of three SUVs repaired by Ford Motor Company, one tested positive for carbon monoxide. The officer driving it was treated but didn't require hospitalization.</p>
<p>The story was first reported by The Austin-American Statesman. A police department spokeswoman confirmed the chief's comments for The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Austin pulled nearly 400 Explorers off patrol in July because of carbon monoxide concerns. Police departments across the country use Explorers and several have also pulled them off the road. Ford has said it is looking into the problem.</p> | The Latest: Chief says repaired SUV likely didn't fail test | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/10/06/latest-chief-says-repaired-suv-likely-didnt-fail-test.html | 2017-10-06 | 0right
| The Latest: Chief says repaired SUV likely didn't fail test
<p>The Latest on the Austin police chief saying a repaired Ford SUV flunked a carbon monoxide test — then later contradicting that previous statement (all times local):</p>
<p>6:15 p.m.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Austin police chief says a Ford Explorer SUV that the auto company repaired for a return to service with his department actually doesn't appear to have had exhaust containing carbon monoxide seeping into it — despite his saying earlier that it did.</p>
<p>Interim Police Chief Brian Manley said Friday that during a test of three SUVs repaired by Ford Motor Company, one tested positive for carbon monoxide.</p>
<p>But Manley told The Austin American-Statesman hours later that additional testing revealed alarms may have activated for some other reason.</p>
<p>He says: "We do not believe this issue is a Ford issue or related to the repairs they have done."</p>
<p>Ford responded to Manley's original comments by saying the methods it used to address Austin's carbon monoxide problem "have worked well."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>3 p.m.</p>
<p>Ford Motor Company says "the methods and parts we've utilized to repair Austin's vehicles have worked well to address" carbon monoxide concerns — even though the city's police department says one such repaired Ford Explorer is being pulled off the road because of continuing problems.</p>
<p>Interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said that during a Friday test of three SUVs repaired by Ford, one tested positive for carbon monoxide.</p>
<p>Ford spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt responded the automaker "was not provided with information on the levels of CO detected but we are ready to inspect any vehicle."</p>
<p>She said the company has "been happy to collaborate with Austin" police on SUV repairs.</p>
<p>This summer, Austin police took nearly 400 Explorers off patrol because of carbon monoxide concerns.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12 p.m.</p>
<p>A Ford Explorer SUV that the auto company repaired for a return to service with the Austin police department has again been pulled off the street because exhaust containing carbon monoxide was seeping into it.</p>
<p>Interim Police Chief Brian Manley said that during a Friday test of three SUVs repaired by Ford Motor Company, one tested positive for carbon monoxide. The officer driving it was treated but didn't require hospitalization.</p>
<p>The story was first reported by The Austin-American Statesman. A police department spokeswoman confirmed the chief's comments for The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Austin pulled nearly 400 Explorers off patrol in July because of carbon monoxide concerns. Police departments across the country use Explorers and several have also pulled them off the road. Ford has said it is looking into the problem.</p> | 4,044 |
<p>&gt; <a href="http://www.gazetteextra.com/ellisdropped092905.asp" type="external">Wisconsin daily fires columnist for changing story subject's name (JG)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.gelfmagazine.com/gelflog/archives/media.html#penenberg_moves_to_slate" type="external">Penenberg on Slate: "I can't think of a better environment for me" (Gelf)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/351045p-299418c.html" type="external">ABC's Jennings left more than $50 million to wife and children (NYDN)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/351171p-299491c.html" type="external">OK! mag pays about $3 million for Kutcher-Moore wedding pics (NYDN)</a></p> | Additional items for September 30, 2005 | false | https://poynter.org/news/additional-items-september-30-2005 | 2005-09-30 | 2least
| Additional items for September 30, 2005
<p>&gt; <a href="http://www.gazetteextra.com/ellisdropped092905.asp" type="external">Wisconsin daily fires columnist for changing story subject's name (JG)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.gelfmagazine.com/gelflog/archives/media.html#penenberg_moves_to_slate" type="external">Penenberg on Slate: "I can't think of a better environment for me" (Gelf)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/351045p-299418c.html" type="external">ABC's Jennings left more than $50 million to wife and children (NYDN)</a> &gt; <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/351171p-299491c.html" type="external">OK! mag pays about $3 million for Kutcher-Moore wedding pics (NYDN)</a></p> | 4,045 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>First I found “Boys Have Deep Emotional Lives,” an article in The Atlantic about “mean girls” expert Rosalind Wiseman’s latest book, “Masterminds and Wingmen: Helping Our Boys Cope with Schoolyard Power, Locker-Room Tests, Girlfriends, and the New Rules of Boy World.”</p>
<p>Then I lucked into “How to Make School Better for Boys,” also from The Atlantic, by Christina Hoff Sommers on the updated edition of her book “The War Against Boys: How Misguided Policies Are Harming Our Young Men.”</p>
<p>Lastly, on the Daily Beast, I came across “How We Fail Our Boys,” a critical review of Helen Smith’s book “Men on Strike: Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream – and Why It Matters.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>For the mom of two very young men – ages 12 and 14-but-thinks-he’s-going-on-21 – this was a jackpot on a topic I agonize over every day: What will become of my boys? And one that seems to usually be far off anyone’s radar because, as the cliche goes, it’s already a man’s world so what’s there to worry about?</p>
<p>Believe me, there’s plenty to fret over. Though numerous male writers have tackled this subject, maybe with women increasingly speaking out about the difficulties that young men face it can start being a serious topic of discussion.</p>
<p>The statistics are comforting if you have daughters and terrifying if you’re raising boys. Take these from Sommers:</p>
<p>• “Women in the United States now earn 62 percent of associate’s degrees, 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees, 60 percent of master’s degrees, and 52 percent of doctorates.”</p>
<p>• “Boys in all ethnic groups and social classes are far less likely than their sisters to feel connected to school, to earn good grades, or to have high academic aspirations.”</p>
<p>• “The College Board delivered this disturbing message in a 2011 report about Hispanic and African-American boys and young adults: ‘Nearly half of young men of color age 15 to 24 who graduate from high school will end up unemployed, incarcerated or dead.’ Working-class white boys are faring only slightly better.”</p>
<p>Those numbers feel obvious to me. Boys today grow up immersed in an environment where the TV shows, movies and video games marketed to young men feature male protagonists who are violent, alcohol-guzzling, pot-smoking, and/or sexist “bros.” And let me tell you that they don’t model working hard in school to get good grades and the chance at a productive life.</p>
<p>Plus, so many boys just hate school. Mine certainly do and so do their peers and I sort of don’t blame them.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>If I had to toil for my grades in the communicate-your-feelings-in-therapy-speak environment of today’s “everybody’s special” K-8 zeitgeist, I wouldn’t like school either.</p>
<p>Sommers says that several things can help boys appreciate school more. For one, we must acknowledge boys’ different learning styles – boys like to work with their full bodies more than they like to sit quietly and listen, and they thrive on competition. Girls, on the other hand, are likelier to enjoy tasks that require communicating with each other and solving problems that require empathy.</p>
<p>Another suggestion from Sommers is to offer pathways to more technical and hands-on post-secondary educational experiences instead of assuming that the only route to a meaningful future is through college.</p>
<p>My humble contribution is to get more male teachers into classrooms. Currently, men represent only 2.3 percent of pre-school and kindergarten teachers and only 18.3 percent of elementary and middle school teachers, with the largest share of men teaching in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.</p>
<p>Even in high school, where men fare better as 42 percent of faculty, we could stand to provide all students with a mix somewhat closer to the U.S. population of men, which is 49 percent.</p>
<p>After years of being taught by only female teachers who valued, seemingly above all else, girls’ advanced verbal, social and stay-in-your-seat abilities, both my sons now finally have a better mix of teachers.</p>
<p>Their male teachers may be no more gifted at teaching than their female counterparts, but they bring teaching styles and personalities that are diverse in education simply because they’re men.</p>
<p>Maybe most importantly, male teachers provide much-needed role models of responsible, thoughtful men in an intellectual, caregiving profession – and modeling such good male behavior is crucial for the healthy development of both boys’ and girls’ view of gender roles.</p>
<p>E-mail: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.</p>
<p />
<p /> | Girls doing better; boys in trouble | false | https://abqjournal.com/265488/girls-doing-better-boys-in-trouble.html | 2least
| Girls doing better; boys in trouble
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>First I found “Boys Have Deep Emotional Lives,” an article in The Atlantic about “mean girls” expert Rosalind Wiseman’s latest book, “Masterminds and Wingmen: Helping Our Boys Cope with Schoolyard Power, Locker-Room Tests, Girlfriends, and the New Rules of Boy World.”</p>
<p>Then I lucked into “How to Make School Better for Boys,” also from The Atlantic, by Christina Hoff Sommers on the updated edition of her book “The War Against Boys: How Misguided Policies Are Harming Our Young Men.”</p>
<p>Lastly, on the Daily Beast, I came across “How We Fail Our Boys,” a critical review of Helen Smith’s book “Men on Strike: Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream – and Why It Matters.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>For the mom of two very young men – ages 12 and 14-but-thinks-he’s-going-on-21 – this was a jackpot on a topic I agonize over every day: What will become of my boys? And one that seems to usually be far off anyone’s radar because, as the cliche goes, it’s already a man’s world so what’s there to worry about?</p>
<p>Believe me, there’s plenty to fret over. Though numerous male writers have tackled this subject, maybe with women increasingly speaking out about the difficulties that young men face it can start being a serious topic of discussion.</p>
<p>The statistics are comforting if you have daughters and terrifying if you’re raising boys. Take these from Sommers:</p>
<p>• “Women in the United States now earn 62 percent of associate’s degrees, 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees, 60 percent of master’s degrees, and 52 percent of doctorates.”</p>
<p>• “Boys in all ethnic groups and social classes are far less likely than their sisters to feel connected to school, to earn good grades, or to have high academic aspirations.”</p>
<p>• “The College Board delivered this disturbing message in a 2011 report about Hispanic and African-American boys and young adults: ‘Nearly half of young men of color age 15 to 24 who graduate from high school will end up unemployed, incarcerated or dead.’ Working-class white boys are faring only slightly better.”</p>
<p>Those numbers feel obvious to me. Boys today grow up immersed in an environment where the TV shows, movies and video games marketed to young men feature male protagonists who are violent, alcohol-guzzling, pot-smoking, and/or sexist “bros.” And let me tell you that they don’t model working hard in school to get good grades and the chance at a productive life.</p>
<p>Plus, so many boys just hate school. Mine certainly do and so do their peers and I sort of don’t blame them.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>If I had to toil for my grades in the communicate-your-feelings-in-therapy-speak environment of today’s “everybody’s special” K-8 zeitgeist, I wouldn’t like school either.</p>
<p>Sommers says that several things can help boys appreciate school more. For one, we must acknowledge boys’ different learning styles – boys like to work with their full bodies more than they like to sit quietly and listen, and they thrive on competition. Girls, on the other hand, are likelier to enjoy tasks that require communicating with each other and solving problems that require empathy.</p>
<p>Another suggestion from Sommers is to offer pathways to more technical and hands-on post-secondary educational experiences instead of assuming that the only route to a meaningful future is through college.</p>
<p>My humble contribution is to get more male teachers into classrooms. Currently, men represent only 2.3 percent of pre-school and kindergarten teachers and only 18.3 percent of elementary and middle school teachers, with the largest share of men teaching in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.</p>
<p>Even in high school, where men fare better as 42 percent of faculty, we could stand to provide all students with a mix somewhat closer to the U.S. population of men, which is 49 percent.</p>
<p>After years of being taught by only female teachers who valued, seemingly above all else, girls’ advanced verbal, social and stay-in-your-seat abilities, both my sons now finally have a better mix of teachers.</p>
<p>Their male teachers may be no more gifted at teaching than their female counterparts, but they bring teaching styles and personalities that are diverse in education simply because they’re men.</p>
<p>Maybe most importantly, male teachers provide much-needed role models of responsible, thoughtful men in an intellectual, caregiving profession – and modeling such good male behavior is crucial for the healthy development of both boys’ and girls’ view of gender roles.</p>
<p>E-mail: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.</p>
<p />
<p /> | 4,046 |
|
<p />
<p>Of the many distasteful elements to the year-end "fiscal cliff" that Washington is desperately trying to avoid, few are more loathed than the automatic, indiscriminate spending cuts scheduled to begin on Jan. 2.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Yet a repeat of this agonizing drama could play out next summer.</p>
<p>That is because Congress, as part of deal to avert the year-end fiscal cliff of steep tax increases and across-the-board budget cuts, is likely to enact another forcing mechanism, or trigger, to make sure it keeps its latest round of deficit-reduction promises.</p>
<p>Lawmakers say automatic cuts and tax changes will be needed later because there is too little time now to get specific, with Congress racing to undo the damage it did in 2011.</p>
<p>At best, President Barack Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner will agree on broad targets for increased tax revenues, cuts to federal healthcare and retirement programs and other savings.</p>
<p>"We are going to need an enforcement mechanism," said Representative James Lankford, a Republican on the House Budget Committee from Oklahoma. "I've only been here two years but the one thing I've learned is Congress won't do anything until they have to. Until we create a have-to moment, it'll never occur."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The so-called automatic "sequester" cuts - split evenly between the military and domestic programs - were dictated by the last deficit reduction deal in August 2011, which settled a bruising fight over raising the U.S. debt limit.</p>
<p>Those cuts were meant to be so painful that Congress would have no choice but to find $1.2 trillion in 10-year savings elsewhere by the end of 2012.</p>
<p>This does not mean that Congress will use the same meat-ax approach. Instead, lawmakers and policy analysts are recommending a rebranded version that is more targeted with a new name to replace the discredited term "sequester."</p>
<p>Among the possible substitutes under consideration are "fallback," "failsafe" and "backstop."</p>
<p>Democratic Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, the retiring chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said the only way to get a deal by the end of the year is to agree on a "down payment" of some revenue increases, such as tax rises for the wealthy, and spending cuts.</p>
<p>The two sides would set forth a "framework" outlining targets for tax reform revenues and healthcare savings next year, he said, with the failsafe available in the event Congress fails to act.</p>
<p>"It's very important that the failsafe actually be good policy, because the failsafe may actually become the default position," said Conrad.</p>
<p>NO ROADMAP IN SEQUESTER</p>
<p>Most agree that the sequester was bad budget policy, leaving little flexibility in its implementation. Even Obama's latest public offer proposes to turn it off.</p>
<p>Because it targeted only discretionary spending on government programs, agencies and defense, it did not encourage lawmakers to make any progress on the biggest sources of potential savings - increased tax revenues and cuts to federal benefit programs known as entitlements.</p>
<p>"The current sequester doesn't do anything to tell you where the deal should be," said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a deficit- reduction group.</p>
<p>Essentially, more targeted trigger cuts and tax rises would be better than reductions to largely unrelated to programs that have already taken big cuts this year. But they would still pale in comparison with the full and specific savings that Congress aims to achieve next year, when it fills in the details of targets set out in any year-end deal.</p>
<p>For example, if lawmakers cannot agree on specific program cuts to achieve a certain level of savings to the Medicare healthcare program for the elderly, the trigger could automatically increase premiums charged to seniors or reduce reimbursement payments to healthcare providers.</p>
<p>Similarly, if revenue targets are not met through tax reform, across-the-board tax increases or caps on deductions could be imposed, analysts say.</p>
<p>"We don't want a trigger ever to be easy to live with. We want it to be related to the agreements that are reached," said Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland.</p>
<p>But skeptics say that any new, gentler trigger is unlikely to work any better than the sequester.</p>
<p>"They are looking for the 'Goldilocks' trigger - not so harsh that it would hurt to be implemented, but harsh enough that it will get them to act," said William Gale, a tax policy expert at the Brookings Institution.</p>
<p>"But there is no such thing, since they can always abolish triggers that they set earlier, as the deadline approaches. If the fiscal cliff is not a big enough of a trigger to get them to act, what would be?"</p>
<p>Some lawmakers, notably conservative budget hawks who want to cut military budgets as well as domestic spending, say the sequester is doing its job - forcing Congress to act.</p>
<p>"There has to be cuts to the budget. If the sequesters are the only way we can get them, so be it." said Representative Justin Amash, a Republican and libertarian maverick from Michigan.</p> | Washington Mulls New Fiscal 'Failsafe' Mechanism | true | http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2012/12/10/more-sequestration-next-summer.html | 2016-03-03 | 0right
| Washington Mulls New Fiscal 'Failsafe' Mechanism
<p />
<p>Of the many distasteful elements to the year-end "fiscal cliff" that Washington is desperately trying to avoid, few are more loathed than the automatic, indiscriminate spending cuts scheduled to begin on Jan. 2.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Yet a repeat of this agonizing drama could play out next summer.</p>
<p>That is because Congress, as part of deal to avert the year-end fiscal cliff of steep tax increases and across-the-board budget cuts, is likely to enact another forcing mechanism, or trigger, to make sure it keeps its latest round of deficit-reduction promises.</p>
<p>Lawmakers say automatic cuts and tax changes will be needed later because there is too little time now to get specific, with Congress racing to undo the damage it did in 2011.</p>
<p>At best, President Barack Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner will agree on broad targets for increased tax revenues, cuts to federal healthcare and retirement programs and other savings.</p>
<p>"We are going to need an enforcement mechanism," said Representative James Lankford, a Republican on the House Budget Committee from Oklahoma. "I've only been here two years but the one thing I've learned is Congress won't do anything until they have to. Until we create a have-to moment, it'll never occur."</p>
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<p>The so-called automatic "sequester" cuts - split evenly between the military and domestic programs - were dictated by the last deficit reduction deal in August 2011, which settled a bruising fight over raising the U.S. debt limit.</p>
<p>Those cuts were meant to be so painful that Congress would have no choice but to find $1.2 trillion in 10-year savings elsewhere by the end of 2012.</p>
<p>This does not mean that Congress will use the same meat-ax approach. Instead, lawmakers and policy analysts are recommending a rebranded version that is more targeted with a new name to replace the discredited term "sequester."</p>
<p>Among the possible substitutes under consideration are "fallback," "failsafe" and "backstop."</p>
<p>Democratic Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, the retiring chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said the only way to get a deal by the end of the year is to agree on a "down payment" of some revenue increases, such as tax rises for the wealthy, and spending cuts.</p>
<p>The two sides would set forth a "framework" outlining targets for tax reform revenues and healthcare savings next year, he said, with the failsafe available in the event Congress fails to act.</p>
<p>"It's very important that the failsafe actually be good policy, because the failsafe may actually become the default position," said Conrad.</p>
<p>NO ROADMAP IN SEQUESTER</p>
<p>Most agree that the sequester was bad budget policy, leaving little flexibility in its implementation. Even Obama's latest public offer proposes to turn it off.</p>
<p>Because it targeted only discretionary spending on government programs, agencies and defense, it did not encourage lawmakers to make any progress on the biggest sources of potential savings - increased tax revenues and cuts to federal benefit programs known as entitlements.</p>
<p>"The current sequester doesn't do anything to tell you where the deal should be," said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a deficit- reduction group.</p>
<p>Essentially, more targeted trigger cuts and tax rises would be better than reductions to largely unrelated to programs that have already taken big cuts this year. But they would still pale in comparison with the full and specific savings that Congress aims to achieve next year, when it fills in the details of targets set out in any year-end deal.</p>
<p>For example, if lawmakers cannot agree on specific program cuts to achieve a certain level of savings to the Medicare healthcare program for the elderly, the trigger could automatically increase premiums charged to seniors or reduce reimbursement payments to healthcare providers.</p>
<p>Similarly, if revenue targets are not met through tax reform, across-the-board tax increases or caps on deductions could be imposed, analysts say.</p>
<p>"We don't want a trigger ever to be easy to live with. We want it to be related to the agreements that are reached," said Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland.</p>
<p>But skeptics say that any new, gentler trigger is unlikely to work any better than the sequester.</p>
<p>"They are looking for the 'Goldilocks' trigger - not so harsh that it would hurt to be implemented, but harsh enough that it will get them to act," said William Gale, a tax policy expert at the Brookings Institution.</p>
<p>"But there is no such thing, since they can always abolish triggers that they set earlier, as the deadline approaches. If the fiscal cliff is not a big enough of a trigger to get them to act, what would be?"</p>
<p>Some lawmakers, notably conservative budget hawks who want to cut military budgets as well as domestic spending, say the sequester is doing its job - forcing Congress to act.</p>
<p>"There has to be cuts to the budget. If the sequesters are the only way we can get them, so be it." said Representative Justin Amash, a Republican and libertarian maverick from Michigan.</p> | 4,047 |
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<p />
<p>Outrageous, screamed critics. Good programs are being gutted. Surely true. But some ineffective or unimportant programs would also be gutted. The reflexive horror from Congress and (yes) the media to spending cuts reveals a central cause of chronic budget deficits. There’s a bipartisan unwillingness to answer this question: What is government for?</p>
<p>Once upon a time, before World War II, there was a strong consensus for limited government. In 1929, federal spending was 3 percent of gross domestic product; now it is 21 percent. Pay-as-you-go finance also enjoyed broad support. If more government was needed, it had to be covered by higher tax revenues. There was an “unwritten fiscal constitution,” writes Bill White in his book of the same name.</p>
<p>According to White, the government traditionally borrowed for only one of four reasons: war, starting with 1812; depression, starting with the Panic of 1819; geographic expansion (Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase); and preserving the union (the assumption of state debts after the Revolution). “For almost two centuries the president and Congress never planned to incur debt,” White writes, “simply to reduce taxes or to pay for routine annual spending.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>This gradually changed after World War II. The crucial break occurred in the early 1960s when President Kennedy accepted the advice of his economists that tax cuts would spur economic growth, although the budget was already in deficit. The assumption was that continuous strong economic growth would generate the higher tax revenues to pay for new programs.</p>
<p>We went from limited to open-ended government. Any group that could garner the votes got federal aid. Government operated a railroad (Amtrak), promoted “public” TV, subsidized farmers and much more. Spending discipline eroded. The trouble was that the central assumption – that rapid economic growth would automatically finance new government programs – was overoptimistic.</p>
<p>No matter. Consider the contrast between the last half of the 19th and 20th centuries. After Kennedy’s conversion, the federal government ran deficits in every year from 1963 to 1997, except for one (1969). After the Civil War, the response was much different. The debt was a then-staggering $2.7 billion. White reports that the government ran surpluses in every year from 1866 to 1893.</p>
<p>We should revert to the budget’s role as an exercise in political choice, not an instrument of economic policy. That doesn’t mean ignoring economics and trying futilely to balance the budget during recessions. The late economist Herbert Stein argued that when the economy nears “full employment,” the budget should near balance. This remains a good rule of thumb. Well, with the economy near full employment, the deficit exceeds $500 billion.</p>
<p>We need limited government not in the sense of smaller government – that’s impossible – but in the sense of government that is focused and reflects agreed-upon boundaries. What jobs must government do? Who deserves benefits and why?</p>
<p>The standard Washington narrative blames Republicans for the budget stalemate because they reject higher taxes. This is a half-truth. Democrats have stymied candid discussion by ruling out cuts in benefits for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These programs constitute more than half of present federal spending and two-thirds of growth through 2027, projects the Congressional Budget Office. Putting them off limits squeezes other programs, as Trump’s budget makes clear.</p>
<p>Trump has offered some good and bad choices; but at least he has offered choices. We need to go further. Here’s what we should do:</p>
<p>First, determine how much we need to spend on defense. (At 15 percent of the budget, it’s too little now, in my view.)</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Second, begin trimming programs for the elderly by gradually cutting benefits for the affluent and raising eligibility ages. Preserve most, though not all, of the safety net.</p>
<p>Third, eliminate – again gradually – marginal or ineffective programs, from Amtrak to farm subsidies to broadcasting grants. These cuts might not shrink government but would liberate funds for more important programs, such as research and defense.</p>
<p>Fourth, find a new tax (my candidate: a carbon tax) whose slow increase would close the considerable remaining deficits after spending cuts and increases.</p>
<p>The odds that Congress would pass anything like this are negligible. We have used government as a massive slush fund for whatever cause or interest seems popular. The carelessness is now woven into the social and political fabric. We need a leader who can shift public opinion and reconcile Americans to the need for choices, many unpopular. That person is nowhere in sight.</p>
<p>Samuelson’s columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion – look for the syndicated columnist link. Copyright, The Washington Post Writers Group.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Strong leadership needed to shrink excessive deficit | false | https://abqjournal.com/978034/strong-leadership-needed-to-shrink-excessive-deficit.html | 2least
| Strong leadership needed to shrink excessive deficit
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<p />
<p>Outrageous, screamed critics. Good programs are being gutted. Surely true. But some ineffective or unimportant programs would also be gutted. The reflexive horror from Congress and (yes) the media to spending cuts reveals a central cause of chronic budget deficits. There’s a bipartisan unwillingness to answer this question: What is government for?</p>
<p>Once upon a time, before World War II, there was a strong consensus for limited government. In 1929, federal spending was 3 percent of gross domestic product; now it is 21 percent. Pay-as-you-go finance also enjoyed broad support. If more government was needed, it had to be covered by higher tax revenues. There was an “unwritten fiscal constitution,” writes Bill White in his book of the same name.</p>
<p>According to White, the government traditionally borrowed for only one of four reasons: war, starting with 1812; depression, starting with the Panic of 1819; geographic expansion (Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase); and preserving the union (the assumption of state debts after the Revolution). “For almost two centuries the president and Congress never planned to incur debt,” White writes, “simply to reduce taxes or to pay for routine annual spending.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>This gradually changed after World War II. The crucial break occurred in the early 1960s when President Kennedy accepted the advice of his economists that tax cuts would spur economic growth, although the budget was already in deficit. The assumption was that continuous strong economic growth would generate the higher tax revenues to pay for new programs.</p>
<p>We went from limited to open-ended government. Any group that could garner the votes got federal aid. Government operated a railroad (Amtrak), promoted “public” TV, subsidized farmers and much more. Spending discipline eroded. The trouble was that the central assumption – that rapid economic growth would automatically finance new government programs – was overoptimistic.</p>
<p>No matter. Consider the contrast between the last half of the 19th and 20th centuries. After Kennedy’s conversion, the federal government ran deficits in every year from 1963 to 1997, except for one (1969). After the Civil War, the response was much different. The debt was a then-staggering $2.7 billion. White reports that the government ran surpluses in every year from 1866 to 1893.</p>
<p>We should revert to the budget’s role as an exercise in political choice, not an instrument of economic policy. That doesn’t mean ignoring economics and trying futilely to balance the budget during recessions. The late economist Herbert Stein argued that when the economy nears “full employment,” the budget should near balance. This remains a good rule of thumb. Well, with the economy near full employment, the deficit exceeds $500 billion.</p>
<p>We need limited government not in the sense of smaller government – that’s impossible – but in the sense of government that is focused and reflects agreed-upon boundaries. What jobs must government do? Who deserves benefits and why?</p>
<p>The standard Washington narrative blames Republicans for the budget stalemate because they reject higher taxes. This is a half-truth. Democrats have stymied candid discussion by ruling out cuts in benefits for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These programs constitute more than half of present federal spending and two-thirds of growth through 2027, projects the Congressional Budget Office. Putting them off limits squeezes other programs, as Trump’s budget makes clear.</p>
<p>Trump has offered some good and bad choices; but at least he has offered choices. We need to go further. Here’s what we should do:</p>
<p>First, determine how much we need to spend on defense. (At 15 percent of the budget, it’s too little now, in my view.)</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Second, begin trimming programs for the elderly by gradually cutting benefits for the affluent and raising eligibility ages. Preserve most, though not all, of the safety net.</p>
<p>Third, eliminate – again gradually – marginal or ineffective programs, from Amtrak to farm subsidies to broadcasting grants. These cuts might not shrink government but would liberate funds for more important programs, such as research and defense.</p>
<p>Fourth, find a new tax (my candidate: a carbon tax) whose slow increase would close the considerable remaining deficits after spending cuts and increases.</p>
<p>The odds that Congress would pass anything like this are negligible. We have used government as a massive slush fund for whatever cause or interest seems popular. The carelessness is now woven into the social and political fabric. We need a leader who can shift public opinion and reconcile Americans to the need for choices, many unpopular. That person is nowhere in sight.</p>
<p>Samuelson’s columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion – look for the syndicated columnist link. Copyright, The Washington Post Writers Group.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | 4,048 |
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<p />
<p>Allow me to go out on a limb here to predict that O.J. Simpson has not had his last tango with law enforcement.</p>
<p>Yes, he recently got a Nevada parole board to approve his release from prison on or about Oct. 1. But I got the impression Simpson – after serving nine years for kidnapping and armed robbery – really doesn’t think he did anything wrong back in 2007.</p>
<p>A parole commissioner asked him about the night he and a posse of pals, two of whom were armed, stormed into a Las Vegas hotel room and demanded the return of Simpson’s memorabilia.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“What were you thinking?” Commissioner Tony Corda asked.</p>
<p>“It was my property,” Simpson said with a shrug and a smile. “I wasn’t there to steal from anybody.” And he proceeded to launch into one of his famously long soliloquies.</p>
<p>“I never should have allowed those security guys to be there,” Simpson told the board, referring to the two men with guns. “They were just out for themselves.”</p>
<p>One of those armed men was Walter Alexander, who readily admits he used to be the guy who got the drugs for his buddies during their long weekend get-togethers. But these days, Alexander says, he has found God and turned his life around.</p>
<p>I watched O.J.’s parole hearing sitting next to Alexander on the New York set of a cable TV program. He looked stunned as O.J. gave his revisionist version of events from a decade ago. Early on, Alexander turned to me and whispered, “He is not telling the truth.”</p>
<p>“What is he talking about, that we were out for ourselves?” Alexander asked. “Why does he keep calling us ‘security guys’ like he didn’t know us? He asked us to come with him to get his stuff back!”</p>
<p>Back on the TV screen Simpson expressed open-palmed surprise that there had been guns in the room. Alexander, who had told me he hoped his longtime ex-friend would win his freedom that day, sat upright in his seat.</p>
<p>“He just blew it. They will know he’s lying,” Alexander said as he sadly shook his head. He was convinced O.J. had just lost his parole bid.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Alexander was sure the commissioners remembered his own trial testimony and that of Michael McClinton, the other gunman in the hotel room. Both testified during O.J.’s trial that they had firearms at O.J.’s insistence and that right before they entered, Simpson instructed them to “show the guns and look menacing.”</p>
<p>“I feel sorry for him,” Alexander said as he sank back down in his seat on the set. HLN host Erica Hill and I passed a glance, wondering if he was right. Would the Nevada parole commissioners see through Simpson’s golly-gee-I-didn’t-know-anything guise?</p>
<p>Then those jaw dropping comments from Simpson.</p>
<p>“I have, basically, led a conflict-free life,” prisoner No. 1027820 told the parole board.</p>
<p>Really? How many people do you know who have faced four separate court trials as Simpson has? One in 1995 on that infamous charge of double murder, a 1997 civil proceeding at which he was ordered to pay the family of murder victim Ron Goldman a settlement of $33.5 million, a 2001 road rage trial that found him not guilty of burglary and battery and, of course, the 2008 trial in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>He has led a “conflict-free” life? Does O.J. Simpson think we’re stupid?</p>
<p>When Simpson said, “Nobody has ever accused me of pulling any weapon on them,” I thought of two people who would argue with that if only they weren’t dead – Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman.</p>
<p>“I don’t think anybody’s ever accused me of having an alcohol problem or any kind of substance problem,” Simpson said when a commissioner asked why he’d failed to take an alcohol abuse program in prison as he’d promised. From the seat to my left, Alexander said, “He had been drinking all day (in 2007). He was totally drunk when we went to that room.”</p>
<p>My own reporting during the 1995-96 double-murder investigation and trial contradicted that statement, too. I whispered to Alexander that back in the day sources had told me Simpson was a frequent drinker and drug user.</p>
<p>“Cocaine and ecstasy were his favorites,” Alexander said in a matter-of-fact tone.</p>
<p>I could continue to pick apart Simpson’s statements to the parole board, but why? The commissioners chose to ignore Simpson’s discrepancies and seemed to have pre-determined the outcome of this televised extravaganza.</p>
<p>So, O.J. walks free in a couple of months. His fate will, once again, rest with his own behavior. Given his propensity to blame everyone else for his problems, I’m betting he’ll find it tough to stick to the strict restrictions of his parole. I wonder if O.J. realizes that no matter where he goes, countless cellphone cameras will be ready to capture his every move.</p>
<p>Simpson says he just wants to go back to his family in Florida and live quietly. Good idea. Then he can finally fulfill his 1995 promise to, “pursue as my primary goal in life the killer or killers who slaughtered Nicole and Mr. Goldman.”</p>
<p>www.DianeDimond.com; email to [email protected].</p>
<p />
<p /> | Pal says O.J. lied to parole board | false | https://abqjournal.com/1040207/pal-says-oj-lied-to-parole-board.html | 2least
| Pal says O.J. lied to parole board
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<p />
<p>Allow me to go out on a limb here to predict that O.J. Simpson has not had his last tango with law enforcement.</p>
<p>Yes, he recently got a Nevada parole board to approve his release from prison on or about Oct. 1. But I got the impression Simpson – after serving nine years for kidnapping and armed robbery – really doesn’t think he did anything wrong back in 2007.</p>
<p>A parole commissioner asked him about the night he and a posse of pals, two of whom were armed, stormed into a Las Vegas hotel room and demanded the return of Simpson’s memorabilia.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“What were you thinking?” Commissioner Tony Corda asked.</p>
<p>“It was my property,” Simpson said with a shrug and a smile. “I wasn’t there to steal from anybody.” And he proceeded to launch into one of his famously long soliloquies.</p>
<p>“I never should have allowed those security guys to be there,” Simpson told the board, referring to the two men with guns. “They were just out for themselves.”</p>
<p>One of those armed men was Walter Alexander, who readily admits he used to be the guy who got the drugs for his buddies during their long weekend get-togethers. But these days, Alexander says, he has found God and turned his life around.</p>
<p>I watched O.J.’s parole hearing sitting next to Alexander on the New York set of a cable TV program. He looked stunned as O.J. gave his revisionist version of events from a decade ago. Early on, Alexander turned to me and whispered, “He is not telling the truth.”</p>
<p>“What is he talking about, that we were out for ourselves?” Alexander asked. “Why does he keep calling us ‘security guys’ like he didn’t know us? He asked us to come with him to get his stuff back!”</p>
<p>Back on the TV screen Simpson expressed open-palmed surprise that there had been guns in the room. Alexander, who had told me he hoped his longtime ex-friend would win his freedom that day, sat upright in his seat.</p>
<p>“He just blew it. They will know he’s lying,” Alexander said as he sadly shook his head. He was convinced O.J. had just lost his parole bid.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Alexander was sure the commissioners remembered his own trial testimony and that of Michael McClinton, the other gunman in the hotel room. Both testified during O.J.’s trial that they had firearms at O.J.’s insistence and that right before they entered, Simpson instructed them to “show the guns and look menacing.”</p>
<p>“I feel sorry for him,” Alexander said as he sank back down in his seat on the set. HLN host Erica Hill and I passed a glance, wondering if he was right. Would the Nevada parole commissioners see through Simpson’s golly-gee-I-didn’t-know-anything guise?</p>
<p>Then those jaw dropping comments from Simpson.</p>
<p>“I have, basically, led a conflict-free life,” prisoner No. 1027820 told the parole board.</p>
<p>Really? How many people do you know who have faced four separate court trials as Simpson has? One in 1995 on that infamous charge of double murder, a 1997 civil proceeding at which he was ordered to pay the family of murder victim Ron Goldman a settlement of $33.5 million, a 2001 road rage trial that found him not guilty of burglary and battery and, of course, the 2008 trial in Las Vegas.</p>
<p>He has led a “conflict-free” life? Does O.J. Simpson think we’re stupid?</p>
<p>When Simpson said, “Nobody has ever accused me of pulling any weapon on them,” I thought of two people who would argue with that if only they weren’t dead – Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend Ron Goldman.</p>
<p>“I don’t think anybody’s ever accused me of having an alcohol problem or any kind of substance problem,” Simpson said when a commissioner asked why he’d failed to take an alcohol abuse program in prison as he’d promised. From the seat to my left, Alexander said, “He had been drinking all day (in 2007). He was totally drunk when we went to that room.”</p>
<p>My own reporting during the 1995-96 double-murder investigation and trial contradicted that statement, too. I whispered to Alexander that back in the day sources had told me Simpson was a frequent drinker and drug user.</p>
<p>“Cocaine and ecstasy were his favorites,” Alexander said in a matter-of-fact tone.</p>
<p>I could continue to pick apart Simpson’s statements to the parole board, but why? The commissioners chose to ignore Simpson’s discrepancies and seemed to have pre-determined the outcome of this televised extravaganza.</p>
<p>So, O.J. walks free in a couple of months. His fate will, once again, rest with his own behavior. Given his propensity to blame everyone else for his problems, I’m betting he’ll find it tough to stick to the strict restrictions of his parole. I wonder if O.J. realizes that no matter where he goes, countless cellphone cameras will be ready to capture his every move.</p>
<p>Simpson says he just wants to go back to his family in Florida and live quietly. Good idea. Then he can finally fulfill his 1995 promise to, “pursue as my primary goal in life the killer or killers who slaughtered Nicole and Mr. Goldman.”</p>
<p>www.DianeDimond.com; email to [email protected].</p>
<p />
<p /> | 4,049 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Summer officially begins at 11:04 p.m. tonight, when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, which runs through Mexico, the Bahamas, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India and southern China, according to the National Weather Service feature <a href="http://www.srh.weather.gov/abq/?n=clifeatures_summersolstice" type="external">“The Summer Solstice.”</a></p>
<p>For every place north of the Tropic of Cancer (and that would be us), the sun is at its highest point in the sky and marks the longest day of the year.</p>
<p>Now, normally, the longest day of the year isn’t necessarily the hottest, the weather service said. Though you could be forgiven for thinking so as <a href="http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?map.x=151&amp;map.y=118&amp;site=abq&amp;zmx=1&amp;zmy=1#.UcLu5dhi2rg" type="external">temperatures continue in the high 90s</a> in Albuquerque and across New Mexico this week.</p>
<p>In Albuquerque, the maximum daily temperature occurs nearly three weeks later in mid-July — which we hope isn’t the case this year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Summer’s coming in tonight | false | https://abqjournal.com/212539/summers-coming-in-tonight.html | 2013-06-20 | 2least
| Summer’s coming in tonight
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Summer officially begins at 11:04 p.m. tonight, when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer, which runs through Mexico, the Bahamas, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India and southern China, according to the National Weather Service feature <a href="http://www.srh.weather.gov/abq/?n=clifeatures_summersolstice" type="external">“The Summer Solstice.”</a></p>
<p>For every place north of the Tropic of Cancer (and that would be us), the sun is at its highest point in the sky and marks the longest day of the year.</p>
<p>Now, normally, the longest day of the year isn’t necessarily the hottest, the weather service said. Though you could be forgiven for thinking so as <a href="http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?map.x=151&amp;map.y=118&amp;site=abq&amp;zmx=1&amp;zmy=1#.UcLu5dhi2rg" type="external">temperatures continue in the high 90s</a> in Albuquerque and across New Mexico this week.</p>
<p>In Albuquerque, the maximum daily temperature occurs nearly three weeks later in mid-July — which we hope isn’t the case this year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 4,050 |
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<p />
<p>The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index rose 3.5 percent to 109.1, rebounding from a 3 percent decline in January. The index has reached its highest level since July 2015.</p>
<p>The increase in signed contracts occurred last month despite a shortage of homes on the market. The gain suggests a strong start to the spring home buying season, after some recent reports have hinted at a possible slowdown as rising prices have hurt affordability.</p>
<p>Pending sales contracts are a barometer of future purchases. A sale is typically completed a month or two after a contract is signed.</p>
<p>Regionally, signed contracts climbed 11.4 percent in the Midwest, with more modest gains in the South and West. In the Northeast, the number of contracts dipped 0.2 percent.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Last week, the Realtors reported that completed sales tumbled 7.1 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.08 million. That drop-off came after relatively healthy sales levels in December and January, which were due in part to a new federal regulation that had delayed closings in November.</p>
<p>Monday's pending sales report indicates that demand remains solid even though home prices are rising and buyers have a limited number of listings from which to choose.</p>
<p>The median home sales price was $210,800 in February, a 4.4 percent increase from a year ago.</p>
<p>Listings in February fell 1.1 percent from a year ago. Many homeowners are hesitant to sell because they would need more equity to cover a down payment for upgrading to a new house. Investors have also turned many homes into rentals, further depriving the market of properties for sale.</p> | Number of contracts to buy homes at highest point since July | false | https://abqjournal.com/747258/number-of-contracts-to-buy-homes-at-highest-point-since-july.html | 2least
| Number of contracts to buy homes at highest point since July
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<p>The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index rose 3.5 percent to 109.1, rebounding from a 3 percent decline in January. The index has reached its highest level since July 2015.</p>
<p>The increase in signed contracts occurred last month despite a shortage of homes on the market. The gain suggests a strong start to the spring home buying season, after some recent reports have hinted at a possible slowdown as rising prices have hurt affordability.</p>
<p>Pending sales contracts are a barometer of future purchases. A sale is typically completed a month or two after a contract is signed.</p>
<p>Regionally, signed contracts climbed 11.4 percent in the Midwest, with more modest gains in the South and West. In the Northeast, the number of contracts dipped 0.2 percent.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Last week, the Realtors reported that completed sales tumbled 7.1 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.08 million. That drop-off came after relatively healthy sales levels in December and January, which were due in part to a new federal regulation that had delayed closings in November.</p>
<p>Monday's pending sales report indicates that demand remains solid even though home prices are rising and buyers have a limited number of listings from which to choose.</p>
<p>The median home sales price was $210,800 in February, a 4.4 percent increase from a year ago.</p>
<p>Listings in February fell 1.1 percent from a year ago. Many homeowners are hesitant to sell because they would need more equity to cover a down payment for upgrading to a new house. Investors have also turned many homes into rentals, further depriving the market of properties for sale.</p> | 4,051 |
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<p />
<p>In the world of technology, arguably no opportunity is greater for investors than the Internet of Things right now -- that is, the growing trend of taking everyday objects and adding Internet connectivity to make them more useful. It stands to reason, then, that investors today arguably enjoy no greater opportunity than to buy and hold shares of innovative technology companies capitalizing on the Internet of Things.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Of course, there are dozens of intriguing IoT stocks out there. But in my opinion, two of the most promising businesses in the space are Sierra Wireless and NVIDIA .</p>
<p>But which is the better buy today? That depends on your goals as an investor.</p>
<p>Image source: Sierra Wireless, Inc.</p>
<p>On one hand, we have Sierra Wireless, an IoT pure play that boasts a relatively small market capitalization of just over $600 million as of this writing. But Sierra Wireless also focuses on wireless machine-to-machine communication solutions -- a market that industry analysts predict could grow to a whopping $20 billion over the next four years between Sierra Wireless' three reportable segments in OEM solutions, enterprise, and cloud and connectivity products. For perspective -- and with the caveat that Sierra Wireless won't be able to capture theentiremarket -- Sierra Wireless' most recent financial guidance calls for full-year 2016 revenue in the range of just $630 million to $670 million.</p>
<p>At the same time, the midpoint of that range also represents relatively modest top-line growth of around 7% from 2015. Sierra Wireless' revenue last quarter dropped 5.1% year over year, to $142.8 million, which may be off-putting for new investors searching for small-cap tech companies with outsize growth. Keep in mind, however, that last quarter's decline was driven almost entirely byexpectedsoftness from certain customers exercising caution in the automotive industry, and more than anything it's indicative of the chunkiness that comes with Sierra Wireless' still-small revenue stream in these early stages of growth.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Looking forward, Sierra Wireless management expects existing customer demand to normalize while more than 40 new OEM customer programs are set to ramp up through the remainder of this year -- hence its guidance calling for full-year revenue to increase despite its slow start to the year. And that will be supplemented by <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/13/5-things-sierra-wireless-inc-management-wants-yo-2.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">healthy gross margin</a> from its enterprise segment (52.5% excluding a favorable legal settlement last quarter), and particularly strong growth from its newer cloud and connectivity segment (up 92% year over year last quarter).</p>
<p>In the meantime, Sierra Wireless took advantage of its previously depressed share price in Q1 with a "notice of intention to make a normal course issuer bid" -- think of it as a sort of controlled share-repurchase authorization -- under which it bought back and retired nearly 550,000 shares of stock last quarter for $6.1 million. But that still leaves around 2.6 million in shares available for repurchase under its authorization, representing around 8.4% of Sierra Wireless' total float at today's prices.</p>
<p>That said, Sierra Wireless stock did skyrocket more than 20% the day after that encouraging quarterly report, so it remains to be seen whether the company will continue utilizing the authorization going forward. But with its shares still trading at a reasonable 18 times next year's expected earnings, I still think investors who don't mind enduring these kinds of volatile swings (both up and down) as Sierra Wireless builds its base stand to enjoy market-beating returns over the long term.</p>
<p>Image source: NVIDIA Corporation.</p>
<p>On the other hand, we have NVIDIA , a veritable juggernaut in the graphics-chip industry with a nearly $25 billion market capitalization as of this writing. To be fair, NVIDIA is one of my longtime personal holdings, and the stock has risen more than 400% (excluding dividends, which NVIDIA began paying in late 2012) since I bought my first shares in mid-2010. But while thenext400% will be much more difficult to achieve growing from this significantly larger base, I'm just as excited today by NVIDIA's long runway for growth.</p>
<p>In fact, NVIDIA is technically expected to outgrow Sierra Wireless this year, with analysts' consensus estimates calling for full fiscal-year revenue to increase 11.3%, to $5.57 billion. And that's not just from NVIDIA's core graphics card segment, through which the company shipped an incredible <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/03/this-is-why-2015-was-so-great-for-nvidia-stock.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">78.8% of the world's dedicated graphics cards</a> in the fourth quarter of 2015. NVIDIA is also enjoying broad strength across each of its other platforms, including professional visualization, data-center-centric products, and automotive solutions.</p>
<p>According to NVIDIA's founding CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, earlier this month, NVIDIA is seeing a sharp increase in customer engagement for its deep learning solutions, which the company describes as "a new computing model that uses the GPU's massive computing power to learn artificial intelligence algorithms." These algorithms can be used in a variety of IoT applications but have seen particularly strong early results in the developing market for self-driving cars. Led by NVIDIA's recently unveiled <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/08/everything-investors-need-to-know-about-nvidias-ne.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">DRIVE PX 2 platform</a>, NVIDIA is ensuring that its powerful GPU technology will play a central role in this burgeoning market.</p>
<p>On top of that -- and similar to Sierra Wireless -- NVIDIA is using its healthy balance sheet and cash flow to return capital to shareholders through dividends and repurchases. Last quarter alone, NVIDIA entered into a $500 million accelerated share-repurchase agreement in addition to paying $62 million in dividends, and it lpans to return roughly $1 billion to shareholders through dividends and repurchases -- or around 4% of its float, at today's prices -- when all is said and done this fiscal year. At the same time, shares arguably have some of this growth already priced in, trading at a more lofty 28 times next year's expected earnings.</p>
<p>So which is the better buy?</p>
<p>To be honest, I would prefer to own shares of both companies. But I also think it comes down to whether your individual tolerance for risk outweighs your desire for relative stability. Given its larger size and operating from a position of strength, I think NVIDIA offers the latter to more risk-averse investors who don't mind paying a slightly higher premium for that strength. And to own shares of Sierra Wireless requires you be comfortable with greater risk and potentially wider swings both up and down, especially as the company sits on the cusp of greatly increased profits as new OEM customer programs sit poised to ramp up and return the company to sustained, profitable growth.</p>
<p>In the end, though, I greatly admire both Sierra Wireless and NVIDIA, and I think both should generate impressive returns for long-term investors willing to patiently watch as their respective growth stories come to fruition.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/23/better-buy-sierra-wireless-vs-nvidia.aspx" type="external">Better Buy: Sierra Wireless vs. NVIDIA</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Steve Symington</a> owns shares of Nvidia. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia and Sierra Wireless. 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</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</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</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</a>.</p> | Better Buy: Sierra Wireless vs. NVIDIA | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/23/better-buy-sierra-wireless-vs-nvidia.html | 2016-05-23 | 0right
| Better Buy: Sierra Wireless vs. NVIDIA
<p />
<p>In the world of technology, arguably no opportunity is greater for investors than the Internet of Things right now -- that is, the growing trend of taking everyday objects and adding Internet connectivity to make them more useful. It stands to reason, then, that investors today arguably enjoy no greater opportunity than to buy and hold shares of innovative technology companies capitalizing on the Internet of Things.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Of course, there are dozens of intriguing IoT stocks out there. But in my opinion, two of the most promising businesses in the space are Sierra Wireless and NVIDIA .</p>
<p>But which is the better buy today? That depends on your goals as an investor.</p>
<p>Image source: Sierra Wireless, Inc.</p>
<p>On one hand, we have Sierra Wireless, an IoT pure play that boasts a relatively small market capitalization of just over $600 million as of this writing. But Sierra Wireless also focuses on wireless machine-to-machine communication solutions -- a market that industry analysts predict could grow to a whopping $20 billion over the next four years between Sierra Wireless' three reportable segments in OEM solutions, enterprise, and cloud and connectivity products. For perspective -- and with the caveat that Sierra Wireless won't be able to capture theentiremarket -- Sierra Wireless' most recent financial guidance calls for full-year 2016 revenue in the range of just $630 million to $670 million.</p>
<p>At the same time, the midpoint of that range also represents relatively modest top-line growth of around 7% from 2015. Sierra Wireless' revenue last quarter dropped 5.1% year over year, to $142.8 million, which may be off-putting for new investors searching for small-cap tech companies with outsize growth. Keep in mind, however, that last quarter's decline was driven almost entirely byexpectedsoftness from certain customers exercising caution in the automotive industry, and more than anything it's indicative of the chunkiness that comes with Sierra Wireless' still-small revenue stream in these early stages of growth.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Looking forward, Sierra Wireless management expects existing customer demand to normalize while more than 40 new OEM customer programs are set to ramp up through the remainder of this year -- hence its guidance calling for full-year revenue to increase despite its slow start to the year. And that will be supplemented by <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/13/5-things-sierra-wireless-inc-management-wants-yo-2.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">healthy gross margin</a> from its enterprise segment (52.5% excluding a favorable legal settlement last quarter), and particularly strong growth from its newer cloud and connectivity segment (up 92% year over year last quarter).</p>
<p>In the meantime, Sierra Wireless took advantage of its previously depressed share price in Q1 with a "notice of intention to make a normal course issuer bid" -- think of it as a sort of controlled share-repurchase authorization -- under which it bought back and retired nearly 550,000 shares of stock last quarter for $6.1 million. But that still leaves around 2.6 million in shares available for repurchase under its authorization, representing around 8.4% of Sierra Wireless' total float at today's prices.</p>
<p>That said, Sierra Wireless stock did skyrocket more than 20% the day after that encouraging quarterly report, so it remains to be seen whether the company will continue utilizing the authorization going forward. But with its shares still trading at a reasonable 18 times next year's expected earnings, I still think investors who don't mind enduring these kinds of volatile swings (both up and down) as Sierra Wireless builds its base stand to enjoy market-beating returns over the long term.</p>
<p>Image source: NVIDIA Corporation.</p>
<p>On the other hand, we have NVIDIA , a veritable juggernaut in the graphics-chip industry with a nearly $25 billion market capitalization as of this writing. To be fair, NVIDIA is one of my longtime personal holdings, and the stock has risen more than 400% (excluding dividends, which NVIDIA began paying in late 2012) since I bought my first shares in mid-2010. But while thenext400% will be much more difficult to achieve growing from this significantly larger base, I'm just as excited today by NVIDIA's long runway for growth.</p>
<p>In fact, NVIDIA is technically expected to outgrow Sierra Wireless this year, with analysts' consensus estimates calling for full fiscal-year revenue to increase 11.3%, to $5.57 billion. And that's not just from NVIDIA's core graphics card segment, through which the company shipped an incredible <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/03/this-is-why-2015-was-so-great-for-nvidia-stock.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">78.8% of the world's dedicated graphics cards</a> in the fourth quarter of 2015. NVIDIA is also enjoying broad strength across each of its other platforms, including professional visualization, data-center-centric products, and automotive solutions.</p>
<p>According to NVIDIA's founding CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang, earlier this month, NVIDIA is seeing a sharp increase in customer engagement for its deep learning solutions, which the company describes as "a new computing model that uses the GPU's massive computing power to learn artificial intelligence algorithms." These algorithms can be used in a variety of IoT applications but have seen particularly strong early results in the developing market for self-driving cars. Led by NVIDIA's recently unveiled <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/08/everything-investors-need-to-know-about-nvidias-ne.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">DRIVE PX 2 platform</a>, NVIDIA is ensuring that its powerful GPU technology will play a central role in this burgeoning market.</p>
<p>On top of that -- and similar to Sierra Wireless -- NVIDIA is using its healthy balance sheet and cash flow to return capital to shareholders through dividends and repurchases. Last quarter alone, NVIDIA entered into a $500 million accelerated share-repurchase agreement in addition to paying $62 million in dividends, and it lpans to return roughly $1 billion to shareholders through dividends and repurchases -- or around 4% of its float, at today's prices -- when all is said and done this fiscal year. At the same time, shares arguably have some of this growth already priced in, trading at a more lofty 28 times next year's expected earnings.</p>
<p>So which is the better buy?</p>
<p>To be honest, I would prefer to own shares of both companies. But I also think it comes down to whether your individual tolerance for risk outweighs your desire for relative stability. Given its larger size and operating from a position of strength, I think NVIDIA offers the latter to more risk-averse investors who don't mind paying a slightly higher premium for that strength. And to own shares of Sierra Wireless requires you be comfortable with greater risk and potentially wider swings both up and down, especially as the company sits on the cusp of greatly increased profits as new OEM customer programs sit poised to ramp up and return the company to sustained, profitable growth.</p>
<p>In the end, though, I greatly admire both Sierra Wireless and NVIDIA, and I think both should generate impressive returns for long-term investors willing to patiently watch as their respective growth stories come to fruition.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/23/better-buy-sierra-wireless-vs-nvidia.aspx" type="external">Better Buy: Sierra Wireless vs. NVIDIA</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Steve Symington</a> owns shares of Nvidia. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia and Sierra Wireless. 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</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</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</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</a>.</p> | 4,052 |
<p>STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Norway’s double Olympic cross-country skiing gold medalist Petter Northug will not be going to Pyeongchang for next month’s Winter Olympics after failing to recover from a recent illness.</p> FILE PHOTO: Norway's Petter Northug reacts after winning the men's cross country 50 km mass start classic race at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun March 1, 2015. Ê REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File photo
<p>Despite a struggle for form and fitness so far this season, many Norwegian fans held on to the hope that the 32-year-old would be able to take part as a reserve, but Northug’s name was absent when the team was announced on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Petter has said that it’s not on the agenda. He is not maximally prepared, he is still sick and therefore not at one hundred percent,” Northug’s coach Stig Rune Kveen was quoted as saying in newspaper VG.</p>
<p>Winner of 13 World Championship gold medals, Northug has also netted six Olympic medals for Norway, including two gold, a silver and a bronze at the 2010 games in Vancouver and two bronze medals in team events in Sochi four years later.</p>
<p>Reporting by Philip O'Connor; editing by Alexander Smith</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed rules on Wednesday to make digital companies pay their fair share of tax, with U.S. tech giants such as Google ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>), Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) and Amazon ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) set to foot a large chunk of the bill.</p> FILE PHOTO - The Google logo is seen at the "Station F" start up campus in Paris, France, February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
<p>Under the Commission’s plan, companies with significant digital revenues in Europe will pay a 3 percent tax on their turnover on various online services in the European Union, bringing in an estimated 5 billion euros ($6.1 billion).</p>
<p>If backed by EU states and lawmakers, whose support is far from certain, the tax would apply to large firms with annual worldwide revenue above 750 million euros ($920.9 million) annual “taxable” EU revenues above 50 million euros.</p>
<p>The tax, designed as a short-term measure before the EU finds a way to tax profits based on where they do business, could also encompass other high-profile U.S. firms such as Airbnb and Uber [UBER.UL].</p>
<p>It is designed to apply to activities in which users play a role in value creation - whether via online advertising, such as in search engines or social media, via online trading or in the sale of data about users.</p>
<p>The legislation comes as the United States unsettles Europe with its own tax reform and the threat of a trade war along with reports that Facebook user data was accessed by a consultancy to help President Donald Trump win the 2016 election.</p>
<p>EU antitrust authorities have also been busy investigating the business practices of Amazon, Google and Apple, leading to accusations, which the Commission denies, that it is targeting Silicon Valley.</p> DEEP DIVISIONS
<p>The Commission said that top digital firms, whose average revenue growth of 14 percent far exceeded that of other multinationals, faced an effective tax rate of 9.5 percent, less than half the level of traditional companies.</p>
<p>The proposals require backing from the European Parliament and the 28 EU countries, but they are divided on the issue. EU tax reforms need the backing of all member states to become law.</p> FILE PHOTO - A Facebook logo is pictured at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
<p>Large EU states have accused the tech firms of paying too little tax in the bloc by routing some of their profits to low-tax member states such as Ireland and Luxembourg.</p>
<p>U.S. tech companies themselves have said they are paying tax in line with national and international laws and, in some cases, that the tax should be paid in the United States on profits repatriated there.</p>
<p>The proposal is to tax companies according to where their digital users are based.</p>
<p>A senior EU diplomatic predicted it would be hard to push through the legislation, among the most important for the bloc, because of deep divisions between larger countries set to gain more tax income and smaller ones set to lose.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">Alphabet Inc</a> 1095.8 GOOGL.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) GOOGL.O FB.O AMZN.O
<p>Smaller countries also fear becoming less attractive to multinational firms.</p>
<p>Ireland has warned that the proposals risk merely re-slicing the tax cake, rather than actually taxing more. Some countries also believe that smaller companies should also face a bill.</p>
<p>Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said that the EU would prefer globally agreed rules, but that the amount of profits currently going untaxed was unacceptable.</p>
<p>The tax would to apply to online advertising sales, which would bring in companies such as Google and Facebook, to platforms offering services such as interaction with other users or online sales and to those selling data generated from users.</p>
<p>The tax would be collected in countries where the users are located.</p>
<p>Tech industry groups have complained that it is wrong to tax revenues as that would unduly hit companies, such as Amazon, with thinner margins.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.8145 euros)</p>
<p>Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Alison Williams</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up near a Shi’ite shrine in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 29 people and wounding dozens, officials said, as the Afghan capital celebrated the Nawruz holiday marking the start of the Persian new year.</p>
<p>The explosion underlined the threat to the city from militant attacks, despite government promises to tighten security in the wake of an attack in January that killed around 100 people.</p>
<p>Militant group Islamic State, which has claimed several previous attacks on Shi’ite targets, claimed responsibility, its Amaq news agency said. The Taliban issued a statement denying any connection.</p>
<p>Kabul had been on alert for attacks over the Nawruz holiday but the bomber was still able to detonate his explosives as people were leaving the Kart-e Sakhi shrine, in a heavily Shi’ite area in the west of the city.</p>
<p>“When the explosion took place, I fell to the ground and I saw many people on the ground around me,” said Ramazan, who was wounded in the blast at the shrine, near the city’s main university.</p> An Afghan man inspects the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani
<p>Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danesh said the bomber had apparently intended to reach the shrine, which was attacked during a Shi’ite festival in October 2016, but had been prevented from getting closer by police checkpoints.</p>
<p>“We had our security in place in and around the shrine,” he said. “All the casualties were young people who were either passing by on the road or gathering to enjoy Nawruz.”</p> Slideshow (11 Images)
<p>Dr Waheed Majroh, a spokesman for the ministry of public health, said 29 people were confirmed dead with 52 wounded being treated in hospitals in the city. Women and children were among the casualties, he said.</p>
<p>Nawruz, an ancient Persian celebration of the start of spring, is widely celebrated in many parts of Afghanistan but has also faced opposition from some fundamentalist Muslims, who say it is un-Islamic.</p>
<p>The seemingly endless attacks have undermined support for the government of President Ashraf Ghani, who offered last month to hold peace talks with Taliban insurgents fighting to drive out international forces and reimpose their version of strict Islamic law.</p>
<p>The Taliban have so far shown little sign of accepting the offer of talks with the Western-backed government, which they consider an illegitimate, foreign-imposed regime, although they have offered to talk to the United States.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Mohammad Aziz and Omar Fahmy in CAIRO; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Nick Macfie and Clarence Fernandez</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - For residents of the Old City, returning to Mosul is an exercise in trying to forget.</p> Moayad stands in front of the market stall where he sells second-hand jeans in al-Nabi market in the east Mosul, Iraq, January 11, 2018. REUTERS/Raya Jalabi
<p>Its streets bear the scars of the horrors they survived – either living under Islamic State’s (IS) draconian rule or during nine months of brutal fighting, as the U.S.-led coalition battled to recapture the city from the jihadists.</p>
<p>“This corner is where Daesh whipped my sons for talking out of turn,” said Um Abdullah, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State, walking around the neighborhood she returned to in January. “And this corner is where they killed my father for trying to stop them.”</p>
<p>The spot was meters away from her home in the Bab al-Jadeed district. Though the front door had been blown off its hinges, the house remained standing unlike most others on the street. Where there were once 40 families living, there are now only three.</p>
<p>Um Abdullah says she returned reluctantly to the area, which has no electricity and no running water, because conditions were nevertheless better than the refugee camp where she had lived before.</p>
<p>A few streets away, Um Russil said she had also recently returned to the area, where her husband had been wounded in an air strike.</p>
<p>“Some of our neighbors don’t want to return – they say they are scarred by what they went through and can’t come back,” she said. “But we had to come back ... we had no choice.”</p>
<p>Prior to the move back, Um Russil had been living in the eastern part of Mosul, Islamic State’s main base in Iraq which suffered heavy damage from bombing and fighting.</p> FORCED UNDERGROUND
<p>Many residents of the Old City were among the last to leave Mosul. As the fighting intensified in the spring of 2017, the militants retreated further inwards, to the densely packed buildings of the historic quarter. They took over entire homes, turning them into makeshift bases, forcing families underground.</p>
<p>“We lived for three months in the cellar, before they liberated our areas on July 7,” said Moayad, 45.</p>
<p>He was forced to live - along with his mother, his children and grandchildren - in his small, windowless basement by Russian-speaking Islamic State fighters who took over his home in the Zanjili district last spring.</p>
<p>“They had everything they needed,” said Moayad, who declined to give his full name. He added that without clean drinking water or food to eat, his family survived on flour mixed with saline water he stole from IS fighters’ medical kits.</p>
<p>He was jaundiced and starving when Iraqi security forces cleared his street and evacuated civilians who had been living under intense shelling for months.</p>
<p>It wasn’t always like this. When Islamic State first came to the city, they were mostly welcomed by the predominantly Sunni residents, some of whom – at least at first – were sympathetic to their cause.</p>
<p>“Nothing really changed at first,” said Moayad, a market trader who sells second hand clothes. “We could still move around, go to the market, walk in the streets and everyone would greet each other and chit-chat, even the new people in their strange clothes.”</p>
<p>Many residents were relieved to gain reprieve from the Shi’ite-led government forces that they say treated them badly, and happier still to get a break from car bombs that had dominated since al Qaeda, Islamic State’s predecessor, fomented a years-long insurgency.</p> CLEAN STREETS AND BRUTALITY
<p>Islamic State quickly set about building the apparatus of its so-called caliphate, including establishing a new local government. Some of the city’s employees left Mosul, current municipality head Abdelsattar al-Hibbu told Reuters.</p>
<p>But most stayed and were either forced to work for or willingly joined the new regime.</p>
<p>The militants ensured streets were cleaned and roads were paved. Some residents said the Islamic State’s administration, run by a French-Morrocan jihadi, was more efficient than the previous regime. The militants subsidized services and food for some of the city’s poor.</p>
<p>But they also imposed a system of oppressive religious taxes and issued a series of decrees covering all aspects of public and private life. Punishments ranged from chopped hands to beheadings, a spectrum of unfettered violence which turned many initial supporters away.</p>
<p>“You lived in constant fear of getting in trouble with the religious police or a senior fighter walking by,” said Moayad, who said crimes could be as small as smoking to wearing the wrong clothing.</p>
<p>As the war began and later intensified, residents of the Old City were prevented from leaving, serving as human shields for the dwindling numbers of IS fighters.</p>
<p>“They killed four people who tried to escape the neighborhood right outside my house,” said Moayad, recalling the scene.</p>
<p>“And they did it publicly to scare people into staying. We weren’t allowed to remove the bodies until they started decomposing, to scare us.”</p>
<p>Editing by Cassell Bryan-Low</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Perched atop a mound of rubble, Abdelsattar al-Hibbu surveyed what remained of his second-floor office: twisted iron and centuries-old stone reduced to dust by an airstrike.</p> FILE PHOTO - Abdelsattar al-Hibbu, municipality chief of Mosul, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Mosul, Iraq, January 9, 2018. REUTERS/Ari Jalal
<p>“I used to look out at the river from my window,” Hibbu said wistfully, recalling how the nine-month battle that defeated Islamic State militants in Mosul last year destroyed tens of thousands of buildings. “Now look at it.”</p>
<p>Hibbu is the municipality chief of Mosul and faces the titanic task of rebuilding Iraq’s second largest city from the ruins of war. It is a mega-project that could take years and require billions of dollars – yet his administration is strapped for cash.</p>
<p>“What are we supposed to do, dig money out of the ground?” asked Hibbu, a tall, broad man in his mid-forties who is fond of recounting his city’s storied past as a center of culture and learning.</p>
<p>His daily struggles reflect the challenges facing a city seen as vital to efforts to stabilize Iraq. Once home to about two million inhabitants, Mosul now has an estimated 700,000 of its population displaced and needs at least $2 billion of reconstruction, according to federal government estimates. Before the war it had an administrative budget of $80 million a year; now it doesn’t know how to pay its bills.</p>
<p>In mid-January Hibbu told Reuters he didn’t have a budget for 2018 yet, but that the city needed $75 million just to maintain basic services. He thought he might get $10 million from the Ministry of the Municipalities and Public Works, a federal government agency in Baghdad that oversees municipal governments. Nor is he expecting much from the provincial government, which once provided Mosul with about $60 million a year. It’s in disarray after the governor was suspended in an investigation into alleged corruption and the torturing of journalists. The governor denies any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>What scares Hibbu and Western officials is that the devastation and lack of help may reignite old sectarian grievances.</p>
<p>Mosul’s predominantly Sunni population had for years complained they were marginalized by the Shi’ite-led central government, treated like second class citizens and deprived of decent jobs and senior positions in the security forces. Those resentments led many of Mosul’s Sunnis to welcome Islamic State when it captured the city in 2014 and called for war against Iraq’s majority Shi’ites.</p>
<p>Hibbu, a Sunni himself, wants to avoid conditions that could enable a new group of militants to exploit frustration with the central government and pose another security threat.</p>
<p>“If Baghdad doesn’t properly invest in the reconstruction of Mosul, we could get something worse” than Islamic State, said Hibbu. “This lack of foresight is going to have very negative consequences.”</p>
<p>Lise Grande, until recently the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq who oversaw the U.N.’s stabilization program tasked with servicing immediate humanitarian needs, takes a similar view. “If we don’t stabilize these areas quickly, violent extremism might emerge again, and the gains against ISIL (Islamic State) could be lost,” she told Reuters.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-iraq-mosul-official-scene/bloody-scenes-of-life-under-is-haunt-mosul-returnees-idUSKBN1GX1AL" type="external">Bloody scenes of life under IS haunt Mosul returnees</a>
<a href="/article/us-iraq-mosul-official-help/international-help-for-iraq-idUSKBN1GX19I" type="external">International help for Iraq</a>
<p>The Baghdad government did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the reconstruction of Mosul and the festering tensions.</p>
<p>For Hibbu, it’s an uphill struggle. People show up at his office at all hours making endless demands. State employees who have not been paid in months. City workers who need more vehicles to clear the garbage that is piling up. Factory officials desperate for fuel. Even a shepherd seeking help to transport his animals through the city center.</p>
<p>Many people in the city feel abandoned. Some areas are dotted with dirt-covered women and children, scouring the rubble for scrap metal they can sell. At one rubbish dump in December, an elderly woman rooted through a pile of fetid garbage for anything salvageable. “At least under Daesh” - an Arabic acronym for Islamic State - “we were treated better and weren’t reduced to picking garbage,” she said.</p> DESERTED BAZAARS
<p>Hibbu portrays himself as a wheeler-dealer who can handle just about anything after a career as a municipality official that began 17 years ago under Saddam Hussein. During the subsequent al-Qaeda insurgency, local officials, including him, were targeted. Hibbu faced three assassination attempts and still feels pain from the wounds. Two bullets are still lodged in his lower back, he said.</p>
<p>He works an average of 18 hours a day, often sleeping on a mattress he keeps in his office, and the stress sometimes gets to him. One moment he has guests in his office and charms them over glasses of sweet tea, the next he yells down the telephone at employees or argues with people lobbying for help.</p>
<p>The Tigris River, which flows through the city, is a demarcation line in the task of reconstruction. To the east, which escaped the worst of the fighting, much of life has returned to normal: Markets are busy, classrooms are full and traffic is constant.</p>
<p>The picture is much bleaker to the west, where militants drew the advancing forces into door-to-door combat in the Old City, a warren of narrow streets dating back centuries. Officials estimate that 40,000 homes were destroyed in West Mosul. Civilian life has only just begun to trickle in once more.</p>
<p>According to Hibbu, of the 200,000 residents of the Old City, only 1,000 families have returned – or roughly 5,000 people. Many of those displaced are still living in refugee camps or have piled into East Mosul, putting additional strain on already stretched infrastructure.</p>
<p>The United Nations estimates there are 10 million tons of rubble in Mosul overall, and the Old City’s streets are still knee-deep with debris. Children’s clothes, university textbooks and human remains are scattered between mangled doorways and sheets of corrugated iron, the detritus of life in a city half-destroyed.</p>
<p>Taller buildings, home to snipers and makeshift bomb factories during the battle, are heaps of collapsed concrete. The bazaars have been turned inside out, their scorched or dust-coated contents strewn outside pummeled shops that once sold everything from CDs to saffron and second-hand clocks.</p> FILE PHOTO - Abdelsattar al-Hibbu, municipality chief of Mosul, is seen in Mosul, Iraq, January 9, 2018. REUTERS/Ari Jalal
<p>Massive cranes are perched in the main square, clearing rubble and bullet-pocked cars, and knocking down unstable structures. Men sweep dust and pick up trash.</p>
<p>“Every month we advance about 100 meters into the Old City,” Hibbu said of rubble-clearing efforts there, walking through the bazaars one morning in mid-January. “It’s slow going, but that’s all we can do with the resources we have right now.”</p>
<p>To help places such as Mosul, the Baghdad government set up a body called ReFAATO – The Reconstruction Fund for Areas Affected by Terroristic Operations. Fadhel Abdel Amir, an adviser to the Ministry of Municipalities, which is a partner in ReFAATO, said the fund was allocated $400 million last year in the federal budget. But only $120 million was actually transferred to the fund - and that money was for all liberated areas of Iraq, not just Mosul, Abdel Amir said.</p>
<p>According to Hibbu, Mosul received the equivalent of just $252,000 from ReFAATO for 2017. “That’s about what we need to spend every hour,” Hibbu said, frustrated. “It’s not fair on the people of Mosul.” The central government in Baghdad declined to comment.</p>
<p>Hibbu says the municipality currently has 1,500 employees but needs 10,000. Much of its machinery was stolen or destroyed by Islamic State. About 970 machines, worth some $350 million, were taken or wrecked, he says, and the city has been left with only two specialized bulldozers small enough for clearing residential side streets.</p>
<p>To survive, the city has been racking up debts and relying on the patience of workers. The municipality owes $7 million to contractors and workers it hired in 2017, Hibbu said. “We’re four months late paying the salaries of our laborers.”</p>
<p>Fuel supplies are also short. On Mosul’s outskirts is a plant making asphalt vital for reconstruction. Its manager, Wafar Younis Zanoon, said the plant needs 5,000 liters of fuel per day but secures only 3,000 liters about twice a week. “We have to close three days a week,” he said.</p>
<p>It is people like Um Russil, a mother of two, who came back to her home in the Bab al Jadeed neighborhood of the Old City in October, that Hibbu needs to reassure. The municipal chief was eager to show that her street and nearby ones had been cleared of rubble. But there was no water or electricity anywhere in the neighborhood.</p> Slideshow (18 Images)
<p>Um Russil asked Hibbu to speed up the delivery of basic services to her and three other families who have returned to her street. “I’m too embarrassed to ask anything from you,” she said as she pulled at her dirt-covered dress. “But our lives were destroyed by Daesh … Right now, we just need running water.” Hibbu, clad in a smart suit, instructed a deputy from his 20-person entourage to look into the delay.</p>
<p>Some barely scratch a living as they suffer quietly in half-demolished homes. On a typical day before the war, a trader named Moayad, who declined to give his full name, used to earn $10 a day selling used jeans. Now, he says he can hardly make $1 a week.</p>
<p>“How am I ever going to make any money to rebuild my home?” he asked on a cold day in mid-January. His eldest son was killed in an airstrike during the war, leaving him to take care of his son’s wife and five children.</p>
<p>He said he had to borrow $25 from his sister just to buy a tarpaulin and some cement blocks to shelter his extended family of 13. He fears that even if aid money does arrive, it will not reach people like him.</p>
<p>“The best solution would be if the international donors and the coalition gave money directly to us, to residents, to rebuild our own homes and our own city,” said Moayad. “Because you know the second the money goes into government hands, we’re never going to see a dinar.”</p> “NOT A WISE CHOICE”
<p>Early this year, the central government and Mosul officials approved a plan intended to ameliorate sectarian tensions and police the city more effectively. The federal police and the powerful Shi’ite militias that have been providing security since the city’s liberation on July 10 were supposed to be phased out in favor of an army unit led by Najm al-Jabouri, a popular general from a large Sunni tribe.</p>
<p>Iraqi and Western officials had agreed to this arrangement to help displaced Sunni civilians feel safe enough to move back to the city. The Shi’ite militias were accused throughout the war of extra-judicial killings of Sunnis suspected of backing Islamic State. However, the plan has been indefinitely delayed, according to military and government sources, due to an increase in violence across liberated areas.</p>
<p>Sectarian tensions are still evident in the city. In January, members of Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias and the federal police held up posters of Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in a main Mosul square.</p>
<p>“That was not a wise choice,” an outraged Hibbu said. “We gave a lot of martyrs fighting Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, and now they’re putting up pictures of Khomeini!”</p>
<p>The challenges of creating sectarian harmony were also evident on the outskirts of Mosul. Sh’ite militiamen who stood guard along a road leading to a garbage dump said they and many other militiamen have no intention of leaving the city.</p>
<p>“I am just concerned with security,” one of the men, Jameel Khodr, who was holding an AK-47, told Reuters. Like other militiamen, he was determined that the militias keep control of as much of the area as possible. “We have enough weapons. We have machineguns. Rocket-propelled grenades.”</p>
<p>As Hibbu strives to bridge divisions and rebuild the city, he is under no illusions about the difficulties.</p>
<p>“Iraq is truthfully a divided country. The people are divided, though officially, we’re not divided,” he said as he sat in his office, pensive at the start of what he knew would be a long day. He even wondered whether Mosul and the surrounding areas should split away from Baghdad and become autonomous.</p>
<p>“Everyone should be helping reconstruct the liberated areas. Because in Iraq, we endured terrorists from around the world.” He listed various countries that played a part in his city’s ruin, from Iran to the United States. “They all ended up in Mosul, where the coalition waged war against them and destroyed Mosul.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Raya Jalabi and Michael Georgy. Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad. Editing By Richard Woods</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | Cross-country skiing's Northug out of Norwegian team for Pyeongchang EU proposes online turnover tax for big tech firms Suicide bomber kills at least 29 near shrine in Afghan capital Bloody scenes of life under IS haunt Mosul returnees Special Report: This man is trying to rebuild Mosul. He needs help - lots of it | false | https://reuters.com/article/olympics-2018-nors-northug/cross-country-skiings-northug-out-of-norwegian-team-for-pyeongchang-idUSL8N1PJ4LO | 2018-01-24 | 2least
| Cross-country skiing's Northug out of Norwegian team for Pyeongchang EU proposes online turnover tax for big tech firms Suicide bomber kills at least 29 near shrine in Afghan capital Bloody scenes of life under IS haunt Mosul returnees Special Report: This man is trying to rebuild Mosul. He needs help - lots of it
<p>STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Norway’s double Olympic cross-country skiing gold medalist Petter Northug will not be going to Pyeongchang for next month’s Winter Olympics after failing to recover from a recent illness.</p> FILE PHOTO: Norway's Petter Northug reacts after winning the men's cross country 50 km mass start classic race at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun March 1, 2015. Ê REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File photo
<p>Despite a struggle for form and fitness so far this season, many Norwegian fans held on to the hope that the 32-year-old would be able to take part as a reserve, but Northug’s name was absent when the team was announced on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Petter has said that it’s not on the agenda. He is not maximally prepared, he is still sick and therefore not at one hundred percent,” Northug’s coach Stig Rune Kveen was quoted as saying in newspaper VG.</p>
<p>Winner of 13 World Championship gold medals, Northug has also netted six Olympic medals for Norway, including two gold, a silver and a bronze at the 2010 games in Vancouver and two bronze medals in team events in Sochi four years later.</p>
<p>Reporting by Philip O'Connor; editing by Alexander Smith</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed rules on Wednesday to make digital companies pay their fair share of tax, with U.S. tech giants such as Google ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>), Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) and Amazon ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) set to foot a large chunk of the bill.</p> FILE PHOTO - The Google logo is seen at the "Station F" start up campus in Paris, France, February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
<p>Under the Commission’s plan, companies with significant digital revenues in Europe will pay a 3 percent tax on their turnover on various online services in the European Union, bringing in an estimated 5 billion euros ($6.1 billion).</p>
<p>If backed by EU states and lawmakers, whose support is far from certain, the tax would apply to large firms with annual worldwide revenue above 750 million euros ($920.9 million) annual “taxable” EU revenues above 50 million euros.</p>
<p>The tax, designed as a short-term measure before the EU finds a way to tax profits based on where they do business, could also encompass other high-profile U.S. firms such as Airbnb and Uber [UBER.UL].</p>
<p>It is designed to apply to activities in which users play a role in value creation - whether via online advertising, such as in search engines or social media, via online trading or in the sale of data about users.</p>
<p>The legislation comes as the United States unsettles Europe with its own tax reform and the threat of a trade war along with reports that Facebook user data was accessed by a consultancy to help President Donald Trump win the 2016 election.</p>
<p>EU antitrust authorities have also been busy investigating the business practices of Amazon, Google and Apple, leading to accusations, which the Commission denies, that it is targeting Silicon Valley.</p> DEEP DIVISIONS
<p>The Commission said that top digital firms, whose average revenue growth of 14 percent far exceeded that of other multinationals, faced an effective tax rate of 9.5 percent, less than half the level of traditional companies.</p>
<p>The proposals require backing from the European Parliament and the 28 EU countries, but they are divided on the issue. EU tax reforms need the backing of all member states to become law.</p> FILE PHOTO - A Facebook logo is pictured at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Germany September 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
<p>Large EU states have accused the tech firms of paying too little tax in the bloc by routing some of their profits to low-tax member states such as Ireland and Luxembourg.</p>
<p>U.S. tech companies themselves have said they are paying tax in line with national and international laws and, in some cases, that the tax should be paid in the United States on profits repatriated there.</p>
<p>The proposal is to tax companies according to where their digital users are based.</p>
<p>A senior EU diplomatic predicted it would be hard to push through the legislation, among the most important for the bloc, because of deep divisions between larger countries set to gain more tax income and smaller ones set to lose.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">Alphabet Inc</a> 1095.8 GOOGL.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) GOOGL.O FB.O AMZN.O
<p>Smaller countries also fear becoming less attractive to multinational firms.</p>
<p>Ireland has warned that the proposals risk merely re-slicing the tax cake, rather than actually taxing more. Some countries also believe that smaller companies should also face a bill.</p>
<p>Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said that the EU would prefer globally agreed rules, but that the amount of profits currently going untaxed was unacceptable.</p>
<p>The tax would to apply to online advertising sales, which would bring in companies such as Google and Facebook, to platforms offering services such as interaction with other users or online sales and to those selling data generated from users.</p>
<p>The tax would be collected in countries where the users are located.</p>
<p>Tech industry groups have complained that it is wrong to tax revenues as that would unduly hit companies, such as Amazon, with thinner margins.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.8145 euros)</p>
<p>Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Alison Williams</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up near a Shi’ite shrine in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 29 people and wounding dozens, officials said, as the Afghan capital celebrated the Nawruz holiday marking the start of the Persian new year.</p>
<p>The explosion underlined the threat to the city from militant attacks, despite government promises to tighten security in the wake of an attack in January that killed around 100 people.</p>
<p>Militant group Islamic State, which has claimed several previous attacks on Shi’ite targets, claimed responsibility, its Amaq news agency said. The Taliban issued a statement denying any connection.</p>
<p>Kabul had been on alert for attacks over the Nawruz holiday but the bomber was still able to detonate his explosives as people were leaving the Kart-e Sakhi shrine, in a heavily Shi’ite area in the west of the city.</p>
<p>“When the explosion took place, I fell to the ground and I saw many people on the ground around me,” said Ramazan, who was wounded in the blast at the shrine, near the city’s main university.</p> An Afghan man inspects the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani
<p>Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danesh said the bomber had apparently intended to reach the shrine, which was attacked during a Shi’ite festival in October 2016, but had been prevented from getting closer by police checkpoints.</p>
<p>“We had our security in place in and around the shrine,” he said. “All the casualties were young people who were either passing by on the road or gathering to enjoy Nawruz.”</p> Slideshow (11 Images)
<p>Dr Waheed Majroh, a spokesman for the ministry of public health, said 29 people were confirmed dead with 52 wounded being treated in hospitals in the city. Women and children were among the casualties, he said.</p>
<p>Nawruz, an ancient Persian celebration of the start of spring, is widely celebrated in many parts of Afghanistan but has also faced opposition from some fundamentalist Muslims, who say it is un-Islamic.</p>
<p>The seemingly endless attacks have undermined support for the government of President Ashraf Ghani, who offered last month to hold peace talks with Taliban insurgents fighting to drive out international forces and reimpose their version of strict Islamic law.</p>
<p>The Taliban have so far shown little sign of accepting the offer of talks with the Western-backed government, which they consider an illegitimate, foreign-imposed regime, although they have offered to talk to the United States.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Mohammad Aziz and Omar Fahmy in CAIRO; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Nick Macfie and Clarence Fernandez</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - For residents of the Old City, returning to Mosul is an exercise in trying to forget.</p> Moayad stands in front of the market stall where he sells second-hand jeans in al-Nabi market in the east Mosul, Iraq, January 11, 2018. REUTERS/Raya Jalabi
<p>Its streets bear the scars of the horrors they survived – either living under Islamic State’s (IS) draconian rule or during nine months of brutal fighting, as the U.S.-led coalition battled to recapture the city from the jihadists.</p>
<p>“This corner is where Daesh whipped my sons for talking out of turn,” said Um Abdullah, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State, walking around the neighborhood she returned to in January. “And this corner is where they killed my father for trying to stop them.”</p>
<p>The spot was meters away from her home in the Bab al-Jadeed district. Though the front door had been blown off its hinges, the house remained standing unlike most others on the street. Where there were once 40 families living, there are now only three.</p>
<p>Um Abdullah says she returned reluctantly to the area, which has no electricity and no running water, because conditions were nevertheless better than the refugee camp where she had lived before.</p>
<p>A few streets away, Um Russil said she had also recently returned to the area, where her husband had been wounded in an air strike.</p>
<p>“Some of our neighbors don’t want to return – they say they are scarred by what they went through and can’t come back,” she said. “But we had to come back ... we had no choice.”</p>
<p>Prior to the move back, Um Russil had been living in the eastern part of Mosul, Islamic State’s main base in Iraq which suffered heavy damage from bombing and fighting.</p> FORCED UNDERGROUND
<p>Many residents of the Old City were among the last to leave Mosul. As the fighting intensified in the spring of 2017, the militants retreated further inwards, to the densely packed buildings of the historic quarter. They took over entire homes, turning them into makeshift bases, forcing families underground.</p>
<p>“We lived for three months in the cellar, before they liberated our areas on July 7,” said Moayad, 45.</p>
<p>He was forced to live - along with his mother, his children and grandchildren - in his small, windowless basement by Russian-speaking Islamic State fighters who took over his home in the Zanjili district last spring.</p>
<p>“They had everything they needed,” said Moayad, who declined to give his full name. He added that without clean drinking water or food to eat, his family survived on flour mixed with saline water he stole from IS fighters’ medical kits.</p>
<p>He was jaundiced and starving when Iraqi security forces cleared his street and evacuated civilians who had been living under intense shelling for months.</p>
<p>It wasn’t always like this. When Islamic State first came to the city, they were mostly welcomed by the predominantly Sunni residents, some of whom – at least at first – were sympathetic to their cause.</p>
<p>“Nothing really changed at first,” said Moayad, a market trader who sells second hand clothes. “We could still move around, go to the market, walk in the streets and everyone would greet each other and chit-chat, even the new people in their strange clothes.”</p>
<p>Many residents were relieved to gain reprieve from the Shi’ite-led government forces that they say treated them badly, and happier still to get a break from car bombs that had dominated since al Qaeda, Islamic State’s predecessor, fomented a years-long insurgency.</p> CLEAN STREETS AND BRUTALITY
<p>Islamic State quickly set about building the apparatus of its so-called caliphate, including establishing a new local government. Some of the city’s employees left Mosul, current municipality head Abdelsattar al-Hibbu told Reuters.</p>
<p>But most stayed and were either forced to work for or willingly joined the new regime.</p>
<p>The militants ensured streets were cleaned and roads were paved. Some residents said the Islamic State’s administration, run by a French-Morrocan jihadi, was more efficient than the previous regime. The militants subsidized services and food for some of the city’s poor.</p>
<p>But they also imposed a system of oppressive religious taxes and issued a series of decrees covering all aspects of public and private life. Punishments ranged from chopped hands to beheadings, a spectrum of unfettered violence which turned many initial supporters away.</p>
<p>“You lived in constant fear of getting in trouble with the religious police or a senior fighter walking by,” said Moayad, who said crimes could be as small as smoking to wearing the wrong clothing.</p>
<p>As the war began and later intensified, residents of the Old City were prevented from leaving, serving as human shields for the dwindling numbers of IS fighters.</p>
<p>“They killed four people who tried to escape the neighborhood right outside my house,” said Moayad, recalling the scene.</p>
<p>“And they did it publicly to scare people into staying. We weren’t allowed to remove the bodies until they started decomposing, to scare us.”</p>
<p>Editing by Cassell Bryan-Low</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Perched atop a mound of rubble, Abdelsattar al-Hibbu surveyed what remained of his second-floor office: twisted iron and centuries-old stone reduced to dust by an airstrike.</p> FILE PHOTO - Abdelsattar al-Hibbu, municipality chief of Mosul, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Mosul, Iraq, January 9, 2018. REUTERS/Ari Jalal
<p>“I used to look out at the river from my window,” Hibbu said wistfully, recalling how the nine-month battle that defeated Islamic State militants in Mosul last year destroyed tens of thousands of buildings. “Now look at it.”</p>
<p>Hibbu is the municipality chief of Mosul and faces the titanic task of rebuilding Iraq’s second largest city from the ruins of war. It is a mega-project that could take years and require billions of dollars – yet his administration is strapped for cash.</p>
<p>“What are we supposed to do, dig money out of the ground?” asked Hibbu, a tall, broad man in his mid-forties who is fond of recounting his city’s storied past as a center of culture and learning.</p>
<p>His daily struggles reflect the challenges facing a city seen as vital to efforts to stabilize Iraq. Once home to about two million inhabitants, Mosul now has an estimated 700,000 of its population displaced and needs at least $2 billion of reconstruction, according to federal government estimates. Before the war it had an administrative budget of $80 million a year; now it doesn’t know how to pay its bills.</p>
<p>In mid-January Hibbu told Reuters he didn’t have a budget for 2018 yet, but that the city needed $75 million just to maintain basic services. He thought he might get $10 million from the Ministry of the Municipalities and Public Works, a federal government agency in Baghdad that oversees municipal governments. Nor is he expecting much from the provincial government, which once provided Mosul with about $60 million a year. It’s in disarray after the governor was suspended in an investigation into alleged corruption and the torturing of journalists. The governor denies any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>What scares Hibbu and Western officials is that the devastation and lack of help may reignite old sectarian grievances.</p>
<p>Mosul’s predominantly Sunni population had for years complained they were marginalized by the Shi’ite-led central government, treated like second class citizens and deprived of decent jobs and senior positions in the security forces. Those resentments led many of Mosul’s Sunnis to welcome Islamic State when it captured the city in 2014 and called for war against Iraq’s majority Shi’ites.</p>
<p>Hibbu, a Sunni himself, wants to avoid conditions that could enable a new group of militants to exploit frustration with the central government and pose another security threat.</p>
<p>“If Baghdad doesn’t properly invest in the reconstruction of Mosul, we could get something worse” than Islamic State, said Hibbu. “This lack of foresight is going to have very negative consequences.”</p>
<p>Lise Grande, until recently the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq who oversaw the U.N.’s stabilization program tasked with servicing immediate humanitarian needs, takes a similar view. “If we don’t stabilize these areas quickly, violent extremism might emerge again, and the gains against ISIL (Islamic State) could be lost,” she told Reuters.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-iraq-mosul-official-scene/bloody-scenes-of-life-under-is-haunt-mosul-returnees-idUSKBN1GX1AL" type="external">Bloody scenes of life under IS haunt Mosul returnees</a>
<a href="/article/us-iraq-mosul-official-help/international-help-for-iraq-idUSKBN1GX19I" type="external">International help for Iraq</a>
<p>The Baghdad government did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the reconstruction of Mosul and the festering tensions.</p>
<p>For Hibbu, it’s an uphill struggle. People show up at his office at all hours making endless demands. State employees who have not been paid in months. City workers who need more vehicles to clear the garbage that is piling up. Factory officials desperate for fuel. Even a shepherd seeking help to transport his animals through the city center.</p>
<p>Many people in the city feel abandoned. Some areas are dotted with dirt-covered women and children, scouring the rubble for scrap metal they can sell. At one rubbish dump in December, an elderly woman rooted through a pile of fetid garbage for anything salvageable. “At least under Daesh” - an Arabic acronym for Islamic State - “we were treated better and weren’t reduced to picking garbage,” she said.</p> DESERTED BAZAARS
<p>Hibbu portrays himself as a wheeler-dealer who can handle just about anything after a career as a municipality official that began 17 years ago under Saddam Hussein. During the subsequent al-Qaeda insurgency, local officials, including him, were targeted. Hibbu faced three assassination attempts and still feels pain from the wounds. Two bullets are still lodged in his lower back, he said.</p>
<p>He works an average of 18 hours a day, often sleeping on a mattress he keeps in his office, and the stress sometimes gets to him. One moment he has guests in his office and charms them over glasses of sweet tea, the next he yells down the telephone at employees or argues with people lobbying for help.</p>
<p>The Tigris River, which flows through the city, is a demarcation line in the task of reconstruction. To the east, which escaped the worst of the fighting, much of life has returned to normal: Markets are busy, classrooms are full and traffic is constant.</p>
<p>The picture is much bleaker to the west, where militants drew the advancing forces into door-to-door combat in the Old City, a warren of narrow streets dating back centuries. Officials estimate that 40,000 homes were destroyed in West Mosul. Civilian life has only just begun to trickle in once more.</p>
<p>According to Hibbu, of the 200,000 residents of the Old City, only 1,000 families have returned – or roughly 5,000 people. Many of those displaced are still living in refugee camps or have piled into East Mosul, putting additional strain on already stretched infrastructure.</p>
<p>The United Nations estimates there are 10 million tons of rubble in Mosul overall, and the Old City’s streets are still knee-deep with debris. Children’s clothes, university textbooks and human remains are scattered between mangled doorways and sheets of corrugated iron, the detritus of life in a city half-destroyed.</p>
<p>Taller buildings, home to snipers and makeshift bomb factories during the battle, are heaps of collapsed concrete. The bazaars have been turned inside out, their scorched or dust-coated contents strewn outside pummeled shops that once sold everything from CDs to saffron and second-hand clocks.</p> FILE PHOTO - Abdelsattar al-Hibbu, municipality chief of Mosul, is seen in Mosul, Iraq, January 9, 2018. REUTERS/Ari Jalal
<p>Massive cranes are perched in the main square, clearing rubble and bullet-pocked cars, and knocking down unstable structures. Men sweep dust and pick up trash.</p>
<p>“Every month we advance about 100 meters into the Old City,” Hibbu said of rubble-clearing efforts there, walking through the bazaars one morning in mid-January. “It’s slow going, but that’s all we can do with the resources we have right now.”</p>
<p>To help places such as Mosul, the Baghdad government set up a body called ReFAATO – The Reconstruction Fund for Areas Affected by Terroristic Operations. Fadhel Abdel Amir, an adviser to the Ministry of Municipalities, which is a partner in ReFAATO, said the fund was allocated $400 million last year in the federal budget. But only $120 million was actually transferred to the fund - and that money was for all liberated areas of Iraq, not just Mosul, Abdel Amir said.</p>
<p>According to Hibbu, Mosul received the equivalent of just $252,000 from ReFAATO for 2017. “That’s about what we need to spend every hour,” Hibbu said, frustrated. “It’s not fair on the people of Mosul.” The central government in Baghdad declined to comment.</p>
<p>Hibbu says the municipality currently has 1,500 employees but needs 10,000. Much of its machinery was stolen or destroyed by Islamic State. About 970 machines, worth some $350 million, were taken or wrecked, he says, and the city has been left with only two specialized bulldozers small enough for clearing residential side streets.</p>
<p>To survive, the city has been racking up debts and relying on the patience of workers. The municipality owes $7 million to contractors and workers it hired in 2017, Hibbu said. “We’re four months late paying the salaries of our laborers.”</p>
<p>Fuel supplies are also short. On Mosul’s outskirts is a plant making asphalt vital for reconstruction. Its manager, Wafar Younis Zanoon, said the plant needs 5,000 liters of fuel per day but secures only 3,000 liters about twice a week. “We have to close three days a week,” he said.</p>
<p>It is people like Um Russil, a mother of two, who came back to her home in the Bab al Jadeed neighborhood of the Old City in October, that Hibbu needs to reassure. The municipal chief was eager to show that her street and nearby ones had been cleared of rubble. But there was no water or electricity anywhere in the neighborhood.</p> Slideshow (18 Images)
<p>Um Russil asked Hibbu to speed up the delivery of basic services to her and three other families who have returned to her street. “I’m too embarrassed to ask anything from you,” she said as she pulled at her dirt-covered dress. “But our lives were destroyed by Daesh … Right now, we just need running water.” Hibbu, clad in a smart suit, instructed a deputy from his 20-person entourage to look into the delay.</p>
<p>Some barely scratch a living as they suffer quietly in half-demolished homes. On a typical day before the war, a trader named Moayad, who declined to give his full name, used to earn $10 a day selling used jeans. Now, he says he can hardly make $1 a week.</p>
<p>“How am I ever going to make any money to rebuild my home?” he asked on a cold day in mid-January. His eldest son was killed in an airstrike during the war, leaving him to take care of his son’s wife and five children.</p>
<p>He said he had to borrow $25 from his sister just to buy a tarpaulin and some cement blocks to shelter his extended family of 13. He fears that even if aid money does arrive, it will not reach people like him.</p>
<p>“The best solution would be if the international donors and the coalition gave money directly to us, to residents, to rebuild our own homes and our own city,” said Moayad. “Because you know the second the money goes into government hands, we’re never going to see a dinar.”</p> “NOT A WISE CHOICE”
<p>Early this year, the central government and Mosul officials approved a plan intended to ameliorate sectarian tensions and police the city more effectively. The federal police and the powerful Shi’ite militias that have been providing security since the city’s liberation on July 10 were supposed to be phased out in favor of an army unit led by Najm al-Jabouri, a popular general from a large Sunni tribe.</p>
<p>Iraqi and Western officials had agreed to this arrangement to help displaced Sunni civilians feel safe enough to move back to the city. The Shi’ite militias were accused throughout the war of extra-judicial killings of Sunnis suspected of backing Islamic State. However, the plan has been indefinitely delayed, according to military and government sources, due to an increase in violence across liberated areas.</p>
<p>Sectarian tensions are still evident in the city. In January, members of Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias and the federal police held up posters of Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in a main Mosul square.</p>
<p>“That was not a wise choice,” an outraged Hibbu said. “We gave a lot of martyrs fighting Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, and now they’re putting up pictures of Khomeini!”</p>
<p>The challenges of creating sectarian harmony were also evident on the outskirts of Mosul. Sh’ite militiamen who stood guard along a road leading to a garbage dump said they and many other militiamen have no intention of leaving the city.</p>
<p>“I am just concerned with security,” one of the men, Jameel Khodr, who was holding an AK-47, told Reuters. Like other militiamen, he was determined that the militias keep control of as much of the area as possible. “We have enough weapons. We have machineguns. Rocket-propelled grenades.”</p>
<p>As Hibbu strives to bridge divisions and rebuild the city, he is under no illusions about the difficulties.</p>
<p>“Iraq is truthfully a divided country. The people are divided, though officially, we’re not divided,” he said as he sat in his office, pensive at the start of what he knew would be a long day. He even wondered whether Mosul and the surrounding areas should split away from Baghdad and become autonomous.</p>
<p>“Everyone should be helping reconstruct the liberated areas. Because in Iraq, we endured terrorists from around the world.” He listed various countries that played a part in his city’s ruin, from Iran to the United States. “They all ended up in Mosul, where the coalition waged war against them and destroyed Mosul.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Raya Jalabi and Michael Georgy. Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad. Editing By Richard Woods</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a> | 4,053 |
<p>(Screenshot via YouTube.)</p>
<p>Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar has been suspended for two games for calling Atlanta Braves pitcher Jason Motte a homophobic slur, <a href="http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/19412327/kevin-pillar-toronto-blue-jays-suspended-2-games-anti-gay-slur" type="external">ESPN</a>reports.</p>
<p>On Wednesday night, Pillar shouted the slur after Motte quick-pitched him to get a strikeout at the end of the seventh inning.</p>
<p>Following the game, Pillar dismissed his actions as being “part of the game.”</p>
<p>“It just stems from a little frustration in myself, just the way this series has been going,” Pillar told <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7SWtrUySYo" type="external">reporters.</a>“It was immature, stupid. It was uncalled-for. It’s part of the game. I’m a competitive guy.”</p>
<p>The MLB suspended him without pay from the Blue Jays game against the Braves on Thursday and against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday. His salary will be donated to charity.</p>
<p>Pillar <a href="https://twitter.com/KPILLAR4/status/865269119192633345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sbnation.com%2Fmlb%2F2017%2F5%2F18%2F15660608%2Fblue-jays-suspend-kevin-pillar-homophobic-slur" type="external">tweeted</a> a public apology for his behavior saying using the slur, “helped extend use of the word that has no place in baseball, in sports or anywhere in society today.”</p>
<p>“I’m completely and utterly embarrassed and feel horrible to have put the fans, my teammates and the Blue Jays organization in this position. I have apologized to Jason Motte, but also need to apologize to the Braves organization and their fans, and most importantly, to the LGBTQ community for the lack of respect I displayed last night. This is not who I am and will use this as an opportunity to better myself,” Pillar tweeted.</p>
<p>The Blue Jays also apologized&#160;for the incident and praised Pillar’s character.</p>
<p>“We know Kevin to be a respectful, high-character individual who we hope will learn from this situation and continue to positively contribute and live up to our values on and off the field,” the statement reads.</p>
<p />
<p>This is the second Blue Jays player that has been suspended for using a homophobic slur in a game. In 2012, shortstop Yunel Escobar was placed on a three-game suspension for writing an anti-gay slur in Spanish on his eye black sticker.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Atlanta Braves</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jason Motte</a> <a href="" type="internal">Kevin Pillar</a> <a href="" type="internal">MLB</a> <a href="" type="internal">Toronto Blue Jays</a></p> | Toronto Blue Jays’ Kevin Pillar suspended for anti-gay slur | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2017/05/19/toronto-blue-jays-kevin-pillar-suspended-anti-gay-slur/ | 3left-center
| Toronto Blue Jays’ Kevin Pillar suspended for anti-gay slur
<p>(Screenshot via YouTube.)</p>
<p>Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Kevin Pillar has been suspended for two games for calling Atlanta Braves pitcher Jason Motte a homophobic slur, <a href="http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/19412327/kevin-pillar-toronto-blue-jays-suspended-2-games-anti-gay-slur" type="external">ESPN</a>reports.</p>
<p>On Wednesday night, Pillar shouted the slur after Motte quick-pitched him to get a strikeout at the end of the seventh inning.</p>
<p>Following the game, Pillar dismissed his actions as being “part of the game.”</p>
<p>“It just stems from a little frustration in myself, just the way this series has been going,” Pillar told <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7SWtrUySYo" type="external">reporters.</a>“It was immature, stupid. It was uncalled-for. It’s part of the game. I’m a competitive guy.”</p>
<p>The MLB suspended him without pay from the Blue Jays game against the Braves on Thursday and against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday. His salary will be donated to charity.</p>
<p>Pillar <a href="https://twitter.com/KPILLAR4/status/865269119192633345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sbnation.com%2Fmlb%2F2017%2F5%2F18%2F15660608%2Fblue-jays-suspend-kevin-pillar-homophobic-slur" type="external">tweeted</a> a public apology for his behavior saying using the slur, “helped extend use of the word that has no place in baseball, in sports or anywhere in society today.”</p>
<p>“I’m completely and utterly embarrassed and feel horrible to have put the fans, my teammates and the Blue Jays organization in this position. I have apologized to Jason Motte, but also need to apologize to the Braves organization and their fans, and most importantly, to the LGBTQ community for the lack of respect I displayed last night. This is not who I am and will use this as an opportunity to better myself,” Pillar tweeted.</p>
<p>The Blue Jays also apologized&#160;for the incident and praised Pillar’s character.</p>
<p>“We know Kevin to be a respectful, high-character individual who we hope will learn from this situation and continue to positively contribute and live up to our values on and off the field,” the statement reads.</p>
<p />
<p>This is the second Blue Jays player that has been suspended for using a homophobic slur in a game. In 2012, shortstop Yunel Escobar was placed on a three-game suspension for writing an anti-gay slur in Spanish on his eye black sticker.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Atlanta Braves</a> <a href="" type="internal">Jason Motte</a> <a href="" type="internal">Kevin Pillar</a> <a href="" type="internal">MLB</a> <a href="" type="internal">Toronto Blue Jays</a></p> | 4,054 |
|
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>NEED TO KNOW</p>
<p>North Korea nuked it. After weeks of <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130205/5-signs-north-korea-nuclear-test-imminent" type="external">ominous rumblings</a> and <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130211/north-korea-sending-mixed-signals-nuclear-test" type="external">some last-minute double bluffing</a>, the secretive kingdom has carried out <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-appears-carry-out-third-nuclear-test" type="external">its third nuclear test</a>. The latest device was a "miniaturized" version of the ones tested in 2006 and 2009, Pyongyang said, though now with added blast power – so much power, in fact, that it caused a 4.9-magnitude earthquake.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-nuclear-test-barack-obama-national-security" type="external">reaction from the rest of the world</a> has been, to say the least, snappy. President Barack Obama called the test a "threat to US national security," the UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting, heck, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nuclear-test-adds-strain-to-north-koreas-relationship-with-china/2013/02/12/7a573546-74f5-11e2-95e4-6148e45d7adb_story.html" type="external">even China</a> condemned its ally. But does anyone else get the feeling that North Korea's just not listening?</p>
<p>The pope is retired, long live the pope. While the world reels from <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/130211/catholics-roman-catholic-church-pope-benedict-XVI-resigns" type="external">Pope Benedict XVI's surprise resignation</a>, the Vatican has just over two weeks until it's left pontiff-less. The Pope has made clear that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21421615" type="external">he won't be involved in choosing his successor</a>, which he'll leave to the hundred or so cardinals that get to vote on their favorites at a papal conclave. (Here's <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/130211/how-the-pope-elected" type="external">our guide</a> to the whole process, if that's all Latin to you.)</p>
<p>There are already murmurings that this time things might be different. Could the world see its first South American pope? Its first Asian pope? How about its first African pope? Faster than you can say a Hail Mary, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/130211/will-vatican-white-smoke-usher-the-first-black-pope" type="external">the bets are already on</a>.</p>
<p>WANT TO KNOW</p>
<p>How're you doing, America? President Obama is due to inform you, when he delivers <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whitehouse/obama-to-revive-populist-economic-message-in-state-of-the-union-call-for-more-tax-revenue/2013/02/11/eb81f29e-74a8-11e2-9889-60bfcbb02149_story.html" type="external">his fifth State of the Nation address</a> later today.</p>
<p>The White House has indicated that the economy will once more be the watchword, but you can expect the terms "guns," "violence" and "control" in close succession too. Not least because Michelle Obama will be watching with the parents of <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130130/chicago-gun-violence-hadiya-pendleton-student-wh" type="external">Hadiya Pendleton</a>, the 15-year-old schoolgirl shot dead just days after performing at Obama's second inauguration. And not least because <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130211/ted-nugent-attend-state-the-union" type="external">Ted Nugent</a> will be there and will, no doubt, be mad.</p>
<p>Magic is turning thousands of Nigerian women into sex workers – and keeping them that way. Authorities say tens of thousands of Nigerian women have been trafficked to Europe and bonded to sexual servitude: not with chains, but via juju, an ancient form of West African magic.</p>
<p>The women typically travel willingly, after being promised lucrative jobs. But before they depart, each woman has to swear an oath administered by a traditional priest, vowing to repay a large sum for their passage, or face death. In <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/130205/juju-women-sex-slaves-prostitution-Nigeria" type="external">a new three-part series</a>, GlobalPost's Heather Murdock investigates what happens to the women who break that oath.</p>
<p>STRANGE BUT TRUE</p>
<p>Pluto's moons need your help. Space scanners spotted <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/pluto-moon-naming-contest-opens" type="external">two tiny moons</a> orbiting everyone's favorite former planet back in 2011 and 2012, but no one's yet got round to naming them. Now, the SETI Institute is looking to the public to come up with some catchier titles than "P4" and "P5."</p>
<p>Answers on a long-range space rocket care of <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/plutorocks.com/voting/" type="external">Pluto Rocks</a>, please.</p> | Chatter: North Korea nukes it | false | https://pri.org/stories/2013-02-12/chatter-north-korea-nukes-it | 2013-02-12 | 3left-center
| Chatter: North Korea nukes it
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>NEED TO KNOW</p>
<p>North Korea nuked it. After weeks of <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130205/5-signs-north-korea-nuclear-test-imminent" type="external">ominous rumblings</a> and <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130211/north-korea-sending-mixed-signals-nuclear-test" type="external">some last-minute double bluffing</a>, the secretive kingdom has carried out <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-appears-carry-out-third-nuclear-test" type="external">its third nuclear test</a>. The latest device was a "miniaturized" version of the ones tested in 2006 and 2009, Pyongyang said, though now with added blast power – so much power, in fact, that it caused a 4.9-magnitude earthquake.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-nuclear-test-barack-obama-national-security" type="external">reaction from the rest of the world</a> has been, to say the least, snappy. President Barack Obama called the test a "threat to US national security," the UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting, heck, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nuclear-test-adds-strain-to-north-koreas-relationship-with-china/2013/02/12/7a573546-74f5-11e2-95e4-6148e45d7adb_story.html" type="external">even China</a> condemned its ally. But does anyone else get the feeling that North Korea's just not listening?</p>
<p>The pope is retired, long live the pope. While the world reels from <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/130211/catholics-roman-catholic-church-pope-benedict-XVI-resigns" type="external">Pope Benedict XVI's surprise resignation</a>, the Vatican has just over two weeks until it's left pontiff-less. The Pope has made clear that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21421615" type="external">he won't be involved in choosing his successor</a>, which he'll leave to the hundred or so cardinals that get to vote on their favorites at a papal conclave. (Here's <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/130211/how-the-pope-elected" type="external">our guide</a> to the whole process, if that's all Latin to you.)</p>
<p>There are already murmurings that this time things might be different. Could the world see its first South American pope? Its first Asian pope? How about its first African pope? Faster than you can say a Hail Mary, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/130211/will-vatican-white-smoke-usher-the-first-black-pope" type="external">the bets are already on</a>.</p>
<p>WANT TO KNOW</p>
<p>How're you doing, America? President Obama is due to inform you, when he delivers <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whitehouse/obama-to-revive-populist-economic-message-in-state-of-the-union-call-for-more-tax-revenue/2013/02/11/eb81f29e-74a8-11e2-9889-60bfcbb02149_story.html" type="external">his fifth State of the Nation address</a> later today.</p>
<p>The White House has indicated that the economy will once more be the watchword, but you can expect the terms "guns," "violence" and "control" in close succession too. Not least because Michelle Obama will be watching with the parents of <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130130/chicago-gun-violence-hadiya-pendleton-student-wh" type="external">Hadiya Pendleton</a>, the 15-year-old schoolgirl shot dead just days after performing at Obama's second inauguration. And not least because <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130211/ted-nugent-attend-state-the-union" type="external">Ted Nugent</a> will be there and will, no doubt, be mad.</p>
<p>Magic is turning thousands of Nigerian women into sex workers – and keeping them that way. Authorities say tens of thousands of Nigerian women have been trafficked to Europe and bonded to sexual servitude: not with chains, but via juju, an ancient form of West African magic.</p>
<p>The women typically travel willingly, after being promised lucrative jobs. But before they depart, each woman has to swear an oath administered by a traditional priest, vowing to repay a large sum for their passage, or face death. In <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/130205/juju-women-sex-slaves-prostitution-Nigeria" type="external">a new three-part series</a>, GlobalPost's Heather Murdock investigates what happens to the women who break that oath.</p>
<p>STRANGE BUT TRUE</p>
<p>Pluto's moons need your help. Space scanners spotted <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/pluto-moon-naming-contest-opens" type="external">two tiny moons</a> orbiting everyone's favorite former planet back in 2011 and 2012, but no one's yet got round to naming them. Now, the SETI Institute is looking to the public to come up with some catchier titles than "P4" and "P5."</p>
<p>Answers on a long-range space rocket care of <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/plutorocks.com/voting/" type="external">Pluto Rocks</a>, please.</p> | 4,055 |
<p>Though tempting to ascribe Trump’s seemingly bizarre statement lumping Hezbollah in the same box as ISIS and Al Qaeda to a gaff, this would be a mistake. Indeed, taken in the context of Washington’s wider geostrategic objectives in the region Trump’s statement was far from being a gaff.</p>
<p>The US President’s statement came during a joint press conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the White House Rose Garden. “Lebanon is on the front lines in the fight against ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah,” Trump said to a perplexed press corps as Mr Hariri stood beside him.</p>
<p>It is no stretch to imagine that Washington’s closest Middle East allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, were among those who were not surprised by Trump’s statement, given their shared enmity towards the Lebanese Shia resistance movement. Indeed the President’s words could have been scripted for him in Tel Aviv and Riyadh they were so on the mark where both are concerned.</p>
<p>What should also be borne in mind is Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s own hostility towards Hezbollah, along with his opposition to the Assad government in Syria. Significantly, it is a stance that is not shared by the country’s President, Michael Aoun, who is considered a staunch ally of both Hezbollah and Iran. The divergence in their respective views on Hezbollah was <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-politics-hariri-hezbollah-idUSKBN15T2FX" type="external">laid bare</a> earlier this year when in response to Aoun stating in an interview that Hezbollah’s military wing was vital to Lebanon’s security, Hariri described the organization’s arms as illegitimate.</p>
<p>Here we must take a moment to grasp the labyrinthine confessional world of Lebanese politics, in which it is mandated that the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the country’s parliament a Shiite Muslim. It is a power-sharing agreement that was <a href="https://www.un.int/lebanon/sites/www.un.int/files/Lebanon/the_taif_agreement_english_version_.pdf" type="external">forged</a> after the 15-year civil war that ravaged the country between 1975 and 1990.</p>
<p>Saad Hariri is the son of Rafic Hariri, business tycoon and former prime minister of Lebanon, who in 2005 was assassinated in a massive bomb attack while travelling through Beirut in a motorcade. Members of Hezbollah were <a href="" type="internal">implicated</a> in the assassination, alleged to have been acting in conjunction with the Syrians over Rafic Hariri’s strong opposition to the presence of Syrian forces in Lebanon at that time.</p>
<p>The enmity between Saad Hariri – his supporters and followers – and Hezbollah is thus well defined. As such, it seems highly likely that Lebanon’s Prime Minister likewise agreed with and endorsed Trump’s description of Hezbollah as a terrorist group on a par with ISIS and Al Qaeda.</p>
<p>Despite Trump’s studied denigration of Hezbollah, in truth it has been at the forefront of the conflict in Syria with ISIS and various Al Qaeda affiliates, such as Nusra, since 2013. Its contribution in this regard is impossible to refute, measured not only by its military effectiveness but also the <a href="" type="internal">losses</a> it has sustained. As author and academic Christopher Phillips writes in his book, The Battle for Syria, “By offering expertise that Assad lacked, such as light infantry and urban warfare expertise, training, or directing military tactics, from 2013 the Party of God [Hezbollah] became a vital component of Assad’s forces and greatly shaped the conflict.”</p>
<p>Hezbollah’s military effectiveness has never been in doubt and is acknowledged and respected even by its enemies, chief among them Israel. After the short war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, the New York Times ran an article in which an anonymous Israeli soldier was quoted admitting “They [Hezbollah] are trained and highly qualified, while in the same article an Israeli tank commander described them as “not just farmers who have been given weapons to fire. They are persistent and well trained.”</p>
<p>For the Israelis and Saudis, Hezbollah is and will always be a terrorist organization no different from ISIS or Al Qaeda. It is a position responsible for the raft of Israeli airstrikes conducted against Hezbollah positions and convoys in Syria over the past few years, taking advantage of the organization’s deployment in the country to try and weaken it. Given that most Middle East analysts and experts consider another conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to be <a href="" type="internal">inevitable</a>, these airstrikes are no surprise.</p>
<p>It would be a mistake, however, to assume that Hezbollah’s commitment in Syria has severely weakened its capabilities in any future conflict with Israel. As Nadav Pollak <a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/ResearchNote35-Pollak-2.pdf" type="external">points out</a>, “Hezbollah’s preparations for war with Israel have no doubt been hampered by its involvement in Syria, but the organization has nonetheless maintained significant capabilities to fight Israel.”</p>
<p>It bears emphasizing that the divide that matters in a region overladen with religion and religious strife is not between Muslim and non-Muslim, Sunni and Shia, or between secular and non-secular; the only divide that matters and is key to the region’s future is between sectarian and non-sectarian. In this respect, though identifying as a Shia resistance movement, Hezbollah undeniably comes under the category of non-sectarian, evidenced in its longstanding commitment to the Palestinians, who are Sunnis.</p>
<p>Along with Syria and Iran, Hezbollah forms an axis of resistance in the region not only to Salafi-jihadi terrorism but also US hegemony. Trump’s statement should be seen and treated in this light.</p> | Trump’s Hezbollah Gaffe Was No Gaffe | true | https://counterpunch.org/2017/07/28/trumps-hezbollah-gaff-was-no-gaff/ | 2017-07-28 | 4left
| Trump’s Hezbollah Gaffe Was No Gaffe
<p>Though tempting to ascribe Trump’s seemingly bizarre statement lumping Hezbollah in the same box as ISIS and Al Qaeda to a gaff, this would be a mistake. Indeed, taken in the context of Washington’s wider geostrategic objectives in the region Trump’s statement was far from being a gaff.</p>
<p>The US President’s statement came during a joint press conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in the White House Rose Garden. “Lebanon is on the front lines in the fight against ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah,” Trump said to a perplexed press corps as Mr Hariri stood beside him.</p>
<p>It is no stretch to imagine that Washington’s closest Middle East allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia, were among those who were not surprised by Trump’s statement, given their shared enmity towards the Lebanese Shia resistance movement. Indeed the President’s words could have been scripted for him in Tel Aviv and Riyadh they were so on the mark where both are concerned.</p>
<p>What should also be borne in mind is Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s own hostility towards Hezbollah, along with his opposition to the Assad government in Syria. Significantly, it is a stance that is not shared by the country’s President, Michael Aoun, who is considered a staunch ally of both Hezbollah and Iran. The divergence in their respective views on Hezbollah was <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-politics-hariri-hezbollah-idUSKBN15T2FX" type="external">laid bare</a> earlier this year when in response to Aoun stating in an interview that Hezbollah’s military wing was vital to Lebanon’s security, Hariri described the organization’s arms as illegitimate.</p>
<p>Here we must take a moment to grasp the labyrinthine confessional world of Lebanese politics, in which it is mandated that the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the country’s parliament a Shiite Muslim. It is a power-sharing agreement that was <a href="https://www.un.int/lebanon/sites/www.un.int/files/Lebanon/the_taif_agreement_english_version_.pdf" type="external">forged</a> after the 15-year civil war that ravaged the country between 1975 and 1990.</p>
<p>Saad Hariri is the son of Rafic Hariri, business tycoon and former prime minister of Lebanon, who in 2005 was assassinated in a massive bomb attack while travelling through Beirut in a motorcade. Members of Hezbollah were <a href="" type="internal">implicated</a> in the assassination, alleged to have been acting in conjunction with the Syrians over Rafic Hariri’s strong opposition to the presence of Syrian forces in Lebanon at that time.</p>
<p>The enmity between Saad Hariri – his supporters and followers – and Hezbollah is thus well defined. As such, it seems highly likely that Lebanon’s Prime Minister likewise agreed with and endorsed Trump’s description of Hezbollah as a terrorist group on a par with ISIS and Al Qaeda.</p>
<p>Despite Trump’s studied denigration of Hezbollah, in truth it has been at the forefront of the conflict in Syria with ISIS and various Al Qaeda affiliates, such as Nusra, since 2013. Its contribution in this regard is impossible to refute, measured not only by its military effectiveness but also the <a href="" type="internal">losses</a> it has sustained. As author and academic Christopher Phillips writes in his book, The Battle for Syria, “By offering expertise that Assad lacked, such as light infantry and urban warfare expertise, training, or directing military tactics, from 2013 the Party of God [Hezbollah] became a vital component of Assad’s forces and greatly shaped the conflict.”</p>
<p>Hezbollah’s military effectiveness has never been in doubt and is acknowledged and respected even by its enemies, chief among them Israel. After the short war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, the New York Times ran an article in which an anonymous Israeli soldier was quoted admitting “They [Hezbollah] are trained and highly qualified, while in the same article an Israeli tank commander described them as “not just farmers who have been given weapons to fire. They are persistent and well trained.”</p>
<p>For the Israelis and Saudis, Hezbollah is and will always be a terrorist organization no different from ISIS or Al Qaeda. It is a position responsible for the raft of Israeli airstrikes conducted against Hezbollah positions and convoys in Syria over the past few years, taking advantage of the organization’s deployment in the country to try and weaken it. Given that most Middle East analysts and experts consider another conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to be <a href="" type="internal">inevitable</a>, these airstrikes are no surprise.</p>
<p>It would be a mistake, however, to assume that Hezbollah’s commitment in Syria has severely weakened its capabilities in any future conflict with Israel. As Nadav Pollak <a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/ResearchNote35-Pollak-2.pdf" type="external">points out</a>, “Hezbollah’s preparations for war with Israel have no doubt been hampered by its involvement in Syria, but the organization has nonetheless maintained significant capabilities to fight Israel.”</p>
<p>It bears emphasizing that the divide that matters in a region overladen with religion and religious strife is not between Muslim and non-Muslim, Sunni and Shia, or between secular and non-secular; the only divide that matters and is key to the region’s future is between sectarian and non-sectarian. In this respect, though identifying as a Shia resistance movement, Hezbollah undeniably comes under the category of non-sectarian, evidenced in its longstanding commitment to the Palestinians, who are Sunnis.</p>
<p>Along with Syria and Iran, Hezbollah forms an axis of resistance in the region not only to Salafi-jihadi terrorism but also US hegemony. Trump’s statement should be seen and treated in this light.</p> | 4,056 |
<p>The Godfather of “Fake News,” former CBS anchorman Dan Rather, is now the presumptive leader of Democrats eager to charge those on the Right with purveying “fake News.”</p>
<p>Speaking in Texas at a public event, Rather blustered, “What the hell has gone on with the Russians in the election?” “Any argument that 2 and 2 equals 5 is not an ‘alternate fact.’ It’s untrue. Water does not run uphill. Gravity exists. It’s a truth.”</p>
<p>Of course, this is the same guy who was released from CBS after participating in a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-questions-on-bush-guard-duty-08-09-2004/" type="external">flawed investigation</a> into President George W. Bush’s National Guard duty during the Vietnam War.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/26/dan-rather-comeback-facebook-donald-trump-215050" type="external">Politico</a> delightedly notes that Rather is making a comeback at the age of 85;</p>
<p>Last fall, he debuted a weekly SiriusXM radio hour called “Dan Rather’s America,” and he’s a regular with hits on mainstream cable—a bigger platform than he has with AXS TV, for which he did “Dan Rather Reports” from 2006 to 2013 and now hosts “The Big Interview.” But the improbable, white-hot hub of his comeback is Facebook. Rather’s personal page has more than 2 million likes, his “News and Guts” page has another million-plus, and his posts are seen, shared and read by millions more. On average, "News and Guts" gets more likes, comments and shares per post than BuzzFeed, USA Today or CNN.</p>
<p>Rather’s hyperbole in recent days has been stretched to the limit, as he has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10158066620560716" type="external">written</a> of “potential peril,” <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10158259641415716" type="external">warned</a>, “This is an emergency,” and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10158382123590716" type="external">suggested</a> people start praying for the nation’s future.</p>
<p>Rather told Politico he’s been contemplating Adolf Hitler recently, adding, “And I’m not comparing Trump to Hitler, but … ” He said, “However you feel about Trump personally, to have this kind of chaos, bordering on havoc, with a new president coming in—that’s something new, and very, very dangerous.”</p>
<p>Rather stated:</p>
<p>Somebody’s really going to put him to the test … a real threat. With all this chaos, and frankly bullshit, swirling around, there’s some question that he can appear on television and rally the national consensus to meet that threat. Now, I hope it doesn’t happen, but history teaches us that something along that vein will happen … and if the president appeared on television and said, you know, ‘"My fellow Americans, we’re in peril, and I have to mount, have to put the country in war," I think it would be very difficult for him to persuade people. Because wait a minute. This is an old technique. This is what authoritarian regimes always do. Solidify their domestic base. They conjure up a cause and—see where this is going?</p> | Democrats Excited To Trot Out A Voice To Fight Fake News. You’ll Never Believe Who It Is. | true | https://dailywire.com/news/15779/democrats-excited-trot-out-voice-fight-fake-news-hank-berrien | 2017-04-26 | 0right
| Democrats Excited To Trot Out A Voice To Fight Fake News. You’ll Never Believe Who It Is.
<p>The Godfather of “Fake News,” former CBS anchorman Dan Rather, is now the presumptive leader of Democrats eager to charge those on the Right with purveying “fake News.”</p>
<p>Speaking in Texas at a public event, Rather blustered, “What the hell has gone on with the Russians in the election?” “Any argument that 2 and 2 equals 5 is not an ‘alternate fact.’ It’s untrue. Water does not run uphill. Gravity exists. It’s a truth.”</p>
<p>Of course, this is the same guy who was released from CBS after participating in a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-questions-on-bush-guard-duty-08-09-2004/" type="external">flawed investigation</a> into President George W. Bush’s National Guard duty during the Vietnam War.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/26/dan-rather-comeback-facebook-donald-trump-215050" type="external">Politico</a> delightedly notes that Rather is making a comeback at the age of 85;</p>
<p>Last fall, he debuted a weekly SiriusXM radio hour called “Dan Rather’s America,” and he’s a regular with hits on mainstream cable—a bigger platform than he has with AXS TV, for which he did “Dan Rather Reports” from 2006 to 2013 and now hosts “The Big Interview.” But the improbable, white-hot hub of his comeback is Facebook. Rather’s personal page has more than 2 million likes, his “News and Guts” page has another million-plus, and his posts are seen, shared and read by millions more. On average, "News and Guts" gets more likes, comments and shares per post than BuzzFeed, USA Today or CNN.</p>
<p>Rather’s hyperbole in recent days has been stretched to the limit, as he has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10158066620560716" type="external">written</a> of “potential peril,” <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10158259641415716" type="external">warned</a>, “This is an emergency,” and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10158382123590716" type="external">suggested</a> people start praying for the nation’s future.</p>
<p>Rather told Politico he’s been contemplating Adolf Hitler recently, adding, “And I’m not comparing Trump to Hitler, but … ” He said, “However you feel about Trump personally, to have this kind of chaos, bordering on havoc, with a new president coming in—that’s something new, and very, very dangerous.”</p>
<p>Rather stated:</p>
<p>Somebody’s really going to put him to the test … a real threat. With all this chaos, and frankly bullshit, swirling around, there’s some question that he can appear on television and rally the national consensus to meet that threat. Now, I hope it doesn’t happen, but history teaches us that something along that vein will happen … and if the president appeared on television and said, you know, ‘"My fellow Americans, we’re in peril, and I have to mount, have to put the country in war," I think it would be very difficult for him to persuade people. Because wait a minute. This is an old technique. This is what authoritarian regimes always do. Solidify their domestic base. They conjure up a cause and—see where this is going?</p> | 4,057 |
<p>America Ferrera is responding to a strange wardrobe mishap that took place on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival.</p>
<p>The former “Ugly Betty” star was on her way into the Palais des Festivals for the world premiere of the DreamWorks animated sequel, “How to Train Your Dragon 2″ when security grabbed Ukrainian journalist Vitalii Sediuk, as he tried to hide under Ferrara’s Georges Hobeika gown.</p>
<p>After the incident, the star continued to pose for press photographers with co-stars Cate Blanchett, Kit Harington, Jay Baruchel and Djimon Hounsou.</p>
<p>Ferrara has finally spoke out on the event saying that it felt like a weird dream. According to Vulture.com, the actress told a friend after the incident, “I don’t even know what happened. I feel something behind me, and there’s this guy under my dress, and then two guys drag him away!” She also said that, “If you’d asked me what my first experience at Cannes was going to be, I would not have imagined there would be dragons. I would not have imagined there would be, um, ankle biters on the carpet.”</p>
<p>Sediuk is known for his antics at celebrity events which often land him in hot water.</p>
<p>In 2012, Will Smith slapped Vitalli in the face after planting a kiss on his cheek at the Moscow premiere of ‘Men in Black III’. In 2013, he faced several charges after he rushed the Grammy stage during Adele’s acceptance speech. As part of his <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-prankster-vitalii-sediuk-avoiding-574210" type="external">plea agreement</a> in that case, Sediuk has sworn never again to set foot anywhere on L.A. Live, the 27-acre entertainment complex that houses Staples Center and the Nokia Theatre — two venues that play host to countless Hollywood events.</p>
<p>As for the film behind the controversy?</p>
<p>America Ferrera and Jonah Hill are both lending their voices to friends Astrid and Snotlout who find themselves facing a fight to protect the five-year peace between Vikings and dragons. “How to Train Your Dragon 2” is showing at the Cannes Film Festival out of competition.</p>
<p /> | America Ferrara responds to red carpet gown ambush | false | http://natmonitor.com/2014/05/18/america-ferrara-responds-to-red-carpet-gown-ambush/ | 2014-05-18 | 3left-center
| America Ferrara responds to red carpet gown ambush
<p>America Ferrera is responding to a strange wardrobe mishap that took place on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival.</p>
<p>The former “Ugly Betty” star was on her way into the Palais des Festivals for the world premiere of the DreamWorks animated sequel, “How to Train Your Dragon 2″ when security grabbed Ukrainian journalist Vitalii Sediuk, as he tried to hide under Ferrara’s Georges Hobeika gown.</p>
<p>After the incident, the star continued to pose for press photographers with co-stars Cate Blanchett, Kit Harington, Jay Baruchel and Djimon Hounsou.</p>
<p>Ferrara has finally spoke out on the event saying that it felt like a weird dream. According to Vulture.com, the actress told a friend after the incident, “I don’t even know what happened. I feel something behind me, and there’s this guy under my dress, and then two guys drag him away!” She also said that, “If you’d asked me what my first experience at Cannes was going to be, I would not have imagined there would be dragons. I would not have imagined there would be, um, ankle biters on the carpet.”</p>
<p>Sediuk is known for his antics at celebrity events which often land him in hot water.</p>
<p>In 2012, Will Smith slapped Vitalli in the face after planting a kiss on his cheek at the Moscow premiere of ‘Men in Black III’. In 2013, he faced several charges after he rushed the Grammy stage during Adele’s acceptance speech. As part of his <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-prankster-vitalii-sediuk-avoiding-574210" type="external">plea agreement</a> in that case, Sediuk has sworn never again to set foot anywhere on L.A. Live, the 27-acre entertainment complex that houses Staples Center and the Nokia Theatre — two venues that play host to countless Hollywood events.</p>
<p>As for the film behind the controversy?</p>
<p>America Ferrera and Jonah Hill are both lending their voices to friends Astrid and Snotlout who find themselves facing a fight to protect the five-year peace between Vikings and dragons. “How to Train Your Dragon 2” is showing at the Cannes Film Festival out of competition.</p>
<p /> | 4,058 |
<p>While Pat Robertson’s recent remarks on the Christian Broadcast Network’s The 700 Club that the United States should “take out” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez certainly caught the media spotlight, the statement by the evangelical minister was only the latest episode in a long and troubled story. Since the 1970s Robertson has loyally served hawkish U.S. foreign policy objectives in Latin America and played a particularly pernicious role in the region. Christian organizations nation wide would do well to heed the history and to rigorously challenge Robertson on his record.</p>
<p>As a young man, Robertson dreamed about profitable business deals in Latin America. After graduating from college, he briefly worked for the W.R. Grace &amp; Co. in New York. Robertson was specifically assigned to Grace’s Foreign Service School to analyze South American economic conditions in South America. There, Robertson collaborated with the company’s chief executives of the company. According to one of Robertson’s biographers, “during the months he worked with the Grace company he viewed Latin America as the ‘land of opportunity’ where he would find some way to enrich himself. Though Robertson left the company after only about nine months, he later achieved his dream by extending Christian televangelism to Central America. By the 1980s, Pat Robertson’s program “The 700 Club,” reached 3.1 million viewers in Guatemala. Robertson took a personal interest in the strife torn Central American nation, developing warm ties to General Efrain Rios Montt, a born again evangelical Christian. When Rios Montt took power in a military coup d’etat in March of 1982, Robertson immediately flew to Guatemala, meeting with the incoming president a scant five days after he came to power. Later, Robertson aired an interview with Rios Montt on “The 700 Club” and extolled the new military government.</p>
<p>Robertson’s visit came at a particularly sensitive time. Guatemala’s dirt poor indigenous peoples, who made up half the country’s population, were suffering greatly at the hands of the U.S. funded military. The armed forces had taken over Indian lands that seemed fertile for cattle exporting or a promising site to drill for oil. Those Indians who dared to resist were massacred. Rios Montt, a staunch anti-Communist supported by U.S. president Reagan, was determined to wipe out the Marxist URNG, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union rebels. However, according to Amnesty International, thousands of people with no connection to the armed struggle were killed by the regime. Not surprisingly, many Indians turned to armed resistance. To deal with the ever worsening situation, Rios Montt proposed a so called “guns and beans” campaign. Rios Montt explained the plan very succinctly: “If you are with us, we’ll feed you, if not, we’ll kill you.” For Robertson, however, Rios Montt’s extermination policy was of little account. Astonishingly, the televangelist wrote “I found [Rios Montt] to be a man of humilityimpeccable personal integrity, and a deep faith in Jesus Christ.”</p>
<p>One reason that Rios Montt may have appealed to Robertson was the dictator’s dislike of Catholic priests. In the 1980s, they had become an obstacle to the expansion of evangelical Protestantism. Working within indigenous communities, Catholic priests had been driven out or murdered. Protestant sects, on the other hand, allied to the Guatemalan military. They preached individual conversion, the importance of obedience to military and political authority, the merits of capitalism, and the value of inequality. Rios Montt’s own Church of the Word went so far as to define priests and nuns as the enemy. According to Walter LaFeber, a historian of Central America, three priests were killed within a thirty-six month period in just one province. With the Catholic Church out of the way, Rios Montt conducted a scorched earth policy. His forces massacred as many as 15,000 Indians. Whole villages were leveled and the army set up “Civilian Self-Defense Patrols” which forced 900,000 villagers to “voluntarily” aid police in tracking down suspects. Rios Montt created “model” villages, similar to concentration camps, which housed Indian refugees. However, when 40,000 survivors sought safety in Mexico, Guatemalan helicopters machine gunned the camps. Rios Montt justified the genocidal policy by claiming that the Indians were suspected of cooperating with the URNG, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union, or “might” cooperate in future. Amnesty International noted that extra judicial killings carried out the by the military “were done in terrible ways: people of all ages were not only shot to death, they were burned alive, hacked to death, disemboweled, drowned, beheaded. Small children were smashed against rocks or bayoneted to death.”</p>
<p>Far from denouncing such practices, Robertson rushed to defend Rios Montt. “Little by little the miracle began to unfold,” he wrote of the regime. “The country was stabilized. Democratic processes, never a reality in Guatemala, began to be put into place.” Robertson also praised Rios Montt for eliminating death squads, despite recent estimates that tens of thousands were killed by death squads in the second half of 1982 and throughout 1983. Most damning of all, even as Rios Montt was carrying out the extermination of the Mayan population, Robertson held a fundraising telethon for the Guatemalan military. The televangelist urged donations for International Love Lift, Rios Montt’s relief program linked to Gospel Outreach, the dictator’s U.S. church. Meanwhile, Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network reportedly sponsored a campaign to provide money as well as agricultural and medical technicians to aid in the design of Rios Montt’s first model villages. Rios Montt was ultimately overthrown in another military coup d’etat in August 1983.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Robertson’s involvement in Guatemalan politics did not discredit his career. He also led efforts to back the Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s, who sought to overthrow the Sandinista regime. More recently, he has been an important backer of President Bush and currently commands a captive audience of one million U.S. television viewers. Judging from his recent remarks, Robertson has not chosen to re-evaluate his hawkish views. The latest target drawing Robertson’s fire is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Unlike General Rios Montt, who came to power in a military coup, Chavez enjoys significant popular support. He has won two presidential elections, in 1998 and 2000, defeated an opposition led recall referendum in August 2004 and according to recent polls, has an approval rating of 70%. Not surprisingly, he is favored to win re-election in 2006. But to Robertson, the will of the Venezuelan people is of no account. Chavez, unlike Rios Montt, has not been compliant with U.S. interests. Not only has Chavez had the audaciousness to criticize the U.S. war in Iraq, but he also questions the fairness of Bush initiatives like the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. The world’s fifth largest oil producer, Venezuela has significant political and economic clout in the region, and Chavez has poured oil proceeds into health and education programs. To the ire of Robertson, Chavez has pursued an independent course by providing oil to Cuba. In exchange, the island nation has sent thousands of doctors who have assisted the Venezuelan poor. Unfortunately for Bush and the Christian right, Chavez has not been easily dislodged from power. Though the U.S. provided material assistance to Venezuelan opposition figures seeking to topple Chavez, a coup d’etat in April of 2002 proved a miserable failure when popular protest led to Chavez’s reinstatement. Since that time, Chavez has consolidated power and has become a hemispheric leader. Robertson’s attack surely will not alter the political equation in Venezuela. Though the televangelist has a presence in Venezuela, broadcasting in Spanish over Venezuelan station Televen, Venezuelan Protestants only number 2% of the population and are by and large a working class Chavez constituency. Nevertheless, Robertson’s remark has cast a pall over U.S.-Venezuelan relations, which had in recent months already hit a record low.</p>
<p>Though some Protestant ministers have criticized Robertson, arguing that the televangelist has demeaned the faith, this trickle needs to turn into a torrent. By all reckoning, Robertson’s career should have been destroyed as a result of his support for genocidal dictator Rios Montt. Now, Protestants nation-wide have the opportunity to voice their dissent over Robertson’s most recent outburst. Hopefully, they will act soon or Robertson will continue to make un-Christian statements that contribute to ill will between the United States and its neighbors.</p>
<p>NIKOLAS KOZLOFF received his doctorate in Latin American history from Oxford University in 2002. His book, <a href="" type="internal">South America In Revolt: Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and The Politics of Hemispheric Unity</a>, is forthcoming from St. Martin’s Press.</p>
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<p>CLARIFICATION</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH</p>
<p>We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).</p>
<p>Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.</p>
<p>We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.</p>
<p>As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.</p>
<p>We are pleased to clarify the position.</p>
<p>August 17, 2005</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Rev. Pat Robertson and Gen. Rios Montt | true | https://counterpunch.org/2005/09/17/rev-pat-robertson-and-gen-rios-montt/ | 2005-09-17 | 4left
| Rev. Pat Robertson and Gen. Rios Montt
<p>While Pat Robertson’s recent remarks on the Christian Broadcast Network’s The 700 Club that the United States should “take out” Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez certainly caught the media spotlight, the statement by the evangelical minister was only the latest episode in a long and troubled story. Since the 1970s Robertson has loyally served hawkish U.S. foreign policy objectives in Latin America and played a particularly pernicious role in the region. Christian organizations nation wide would do well to heed the history and to rigorously challenge Robertson on his record.</p>
<p>As a young man, Robertson dreamed about profitable business deals in Latin America. After graduating from college, he briefly worked for the W.R. Grace &amp; Co. in New York. Robertson was specifically assigned to Grace’s Foreign Service School to analyze South American economic conditions in South America. There, Robertson collaborated with the company’s chief executives of the company. According to one of Robertson’s biographers, “during the months he worked with the Grace company he viewed Latin America as the ‘land of opportunity’ where he would find some way to enrich himself. Though Robertson left the company after only about nine months, he later achieved his dream by extending Christian televangelism to Central America. By the 1980s, Pat Robertson’s program “The 700 Club,” reached 3.1 million viewers in Guatemala. Robertson took a personal interest in the strife torn Central American nation, developing warm ties to General Efrain Rios Montt, a born again evangelical Christian. When Rios Montt took power in a military coup d’etat in March of 1982, Robertson immediately flew to Guatemala, meeting with the incoming president a scant five days after he came to power. Later, Robertson aired an interview with Rios Montt on “The 700 Club” and extolled the new military government.</p>
<p>Robertson’s visit came at a particularly sensitive time. Guatemala’s dirt poor indigenous peoples, who made up half the country’s population, were suffering greatly at the hands of the U.S. funded military. The armed forces had taken over Indian lands that seemed fertile for cattle exporting or a promising site to drill for oil. Those Indians who dared to resist were massacred. Rios Montt, a staunch anti-Communist supported by U.S. president Reagan, was determined to wipe out the Marxist URNG, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union rebels. However, according to Amnesty International, thousands of people with no connection to the armed struggle were killed by the regime. Not surprisingly, many Indians turned to armed resistance. To deal with the ever worsening situation, Rios Montt proposed a so called “guns and beans” campaign. Rios Montt explained the plan very succinctly: “If you are with us, we’ll feed you, if not, we’ll kill you.” For Robertson, however, Rios Montt’s extermination policy was of little account. Astonishingly, the televangelist wrote “I found [Rios Montt] to be a man of humilityimpeccable personal integrity, and a deep faith in Jesus Christ.”</p>
<p>One reason that Rios Montt may have appealed to Robertson was the dictator’s dislike of Catholic priests. In the 1980s, they had become an obstacle to the expansion of evangelical Protestantism. Working within indigenous communities, Catholic priests had been driven out or murdered. Protestant sects, on the other hand, allied to the Guatemalan military. They preached individual conversion, the importance of obedience to military and political authority, the merits of capitalism, and the value of inequality. Rios Montt’s own Church of the Word went so far as to define priests and nuns as the enemy. According to Walter LaFeber, a historian of Central America, three priests were killed within a thirty-six month period in just one province. With the Catholic Church out of the way, Rios Montt conducted a scorched earth policy. His forces massacred as many as 15,000 Indians. Whole villages were leveled and the army set up “Civilian Self-Defense Patrols” which forced 900,000 villagers to “voluntarily” aid police in tracking down suspects. Rios Montt created “model” villages, similar to concentration camps, which housed Indian refugees. However, when 40,000 survivors sought safety in Mexico, Guatemalan helicopters machine gunned the camps. Rios Montt justified the genocidal policy by claiming that the Indians were suspected of cooperating with the URNG, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union, or “might” cooperate in future. Amnesty International noted that extra judicial killings carried out the by the military “were done in terrible ways: people of all ages were not only shot to death, they were burned alive, hacked to death, disemboweled, drowned, beheaded. Small children were smashed against rocks or bayoneted to death.”</p>
<p>Far from denouncing such practices, Robertson rushed to defend Rios Montt. “Little by little the miracle began to unfold,” he wrote of the regime. “The country was stabilized. Democratic processes, never a reality in Guatemala, began to be put into place.” Robertson also praised Rios Montt for eliminating death squads, despite recent estimates that tens of thousands were killed by death squads in the second half of 1982 and throughout 1983. Most damning of all, even as Rios Montt was carrying out the extermination of the Mayan population, Robertson held a fundraising telethon for the Guatemalan military. The televangelist urged donations for International Love Lift, Rios Montt’s relief program linked to Gospel Outreach, the dictator’s U.S. church. Meanwhile, Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network reportedly sponsored a campaign to provide money as well as agricultural and medical technicians to aid in the design of Rios Montt’s first model villages. Rios Montt was ultimately overthrown in another military coup d’etat in August 1983.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Robertson’s involvement in Guatemalan politics did not discredit his career. He also led efforts to back the Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s, who sought to overthrow the Sandinista regime. More recently, he has been an important backer of President Bush and currently commands a captive audience of one million U.S. television viewers. Judging from his recent remarks, Robertson has not chosen to re-evaluate his hawkish views. The latest target drawing Robertson’s fire is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Unlike General Rios Montt, who came to power in a military coup, Chavez enjoys significant popular support. He has won two presidential elections, in 1998 and 2000, defeated an opposition led recall referendum in August 2004 and according to recent polls, has an approval rating of 70%. Not surprisingly, he is favored to win re-election in 2006. But to Robertson, the will of the Venezuelan people is of no account. Chavez, unlike Rios Montt, has not been compliant with U.S. interests. Not only has Chavez had the audaciousness to criticize the U.S. war in Iraq, but he also questions the fairness of Bush initiatives like the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. The world’s fifth largest oil producer, Venezuela has significant political and economic clout in the region, and Chavez has poured oil proceeds into health and education programs. To the ire of Robertson, Chavez has pursued an independent course by providing oil to Cuba. In exchange, the island nation has sent thousands of doctors who have assisted the Venezuelan poor. Unfortunately for Bush and the Christian right, Chavez has not been easily dislodged from power. Though the U.S. provided material assistance to Venezuelan opposition figures seeking to topple Chavez, a coup d’etat in April of 2002 proved a miserable failure when popular protest led to Chavez’s reinstatement. Since that time, Chavez has consolidated power and has become a hemispheric leader. Robertson’s attack surely will not alter the political equation in Venezuela. Though the televangelist has a presence in Venezuela, broadcasting in Spanish over Venezuelan station Televen, Venezuelan Protestants only number 2% of the population and are by and large a working class Chavez constituency. Nevertheless, Robertson’s remark has cast a pall over U.S.-Venezuelan relations, which had in recent months already hit a record low.</p>
<p>Though some Protestant ministers have criticized Robertson, arguing that the televangelist has demeaned the faith, this trickle needs to turn into a torrent. By all reckoning, Robertson’s career should have been destroyed as a result of his support for genocidal dictator Rios Montt. Now, Protestants nation-wide have the opportunity to voice their dissent over Robertson’s most recent outburst. Hopefully, they will act soon or Robertson will continue to make un-Christian statements that contribute to ill will between the United States and its neighbors.</p>
<p>NIKOLAS KOZLOFF received his doctorate in Latin American history from Oxford University in 2002. His book, <a href="" type="internal">South America In Revolt: Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and The Politics of Hemispheric Unity</a>, is forthcoming from St. Martin’s Press.</p>
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<p>CLARIFICATION</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH</p>
<p>We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).</p>
<p>Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.</p>
<p>We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.</p>
<p>As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.</p>
<p>We are pleased to clarify the position.</p>
<p>August 17, 2005</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 4,059 |
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<p>This niche is where the Town House Dining Room has reclaimed membership after a five-year hiatus, re-opening in early 2012 at a new location – beloved and iconic fiberglass steer once again marking the spot.</p>
<p>Original owner George Argyres closed the Nob Hill Town House in 2007 after lease issues, leaving the family’s restaurant future up in the air. Longtime fans lamented then rejoiced when George’s son, Dino, announced the rebirth – steer and all – in late 2011.</p>
<p>The only change is the venue; each recipe has been lovingly recreated in the new kitchen by seasoned hands, starting with perfect Dolmas ($13 with Antipasto Platter) bound in their grape leaves, holding none of the typical soggy rice mush of other dolmas around town. That platter aims for – and achieves – table-wide satisfaction with imported feta, olives, salami, garlic dip and fish roe spread.</p>
<p>After a Greek starter, it’s proper to delve back into classic Americana and order a hearty cut of meat for one’s entree. The house specialties, listed as “from the broiler,” should start with Prime Rib ($24) for any fans of juicy beef. The lean nature of a prime rib cut requires a lesser doneness to maintain flavor and is augmented by horseradish and au jus. One shortcoming is the concave platter used to serve all broiled dishes – good for holding juices, awkward for any sort of cutting.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Fans of red meat that doesn’t ooze red cooking juices should try the Char Burger ($12), a fat patty stuffed with a cheese blend that nearly gushes out when cut. The side of delicious French fries more than compensates for the burger’s bunless presentation.</p>
<p>Fish lovers need not worry with the Argyres in the kitchen; a broiled Trout Filet ($14) is simple yet satisfying as long as you watch for bones. With most entrees, the only side to order is oven-roasted Greek potatoes, delivered as seasoned chunks with flavorful skin intact.</p>
<p>Completing the bridge from Greece to our land-locked state is an entree for the hungry: Lamb Chops ($31) served four to an order with a side of mint sauce (best ignored). Picture a typical T-bone steak – miniaturize it by three-quarters and that’s what these chops are all about. Order this specialty medium-rare to ensure maximum tenderness – each chop is small and easy to overcook. As you gnaw on the remnants it will be easy to overlook the side of steamed vegetables that came with each entree – they, like the starter salads, are distractions only appreciated by the famished.</p>
<p>Town House has some shortcomings like many old-school steakhouses, but it finds some last-minute joy when you order the house-made Baklava ($7.50) to finish the meal. It packs the richness of a truffle in a size you’ll swear you could never finish – until you do. It’s quite wonderful bottom to crispy top with candied orange peel.</p> | Town House bridges Greek, Americana | false | https://abqjournal.com/181002/dolmas-prime-rib-and-baklava-are-among-the-specialties.html | 2013-03-22 | 2least
| Town House bridges Greek, Americana
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<p />
<p>This niche is where the Town House Dining Room has reclaimed membership after a five-year hiatus, re-opening in early 2012 at a new location – beloved and iconic fiberglass steer once again marking the spot.</p>
<p>Original owner George Argyres closed the Nob Hill Town House in 2007 after lease issues, leaving the family’s restaurant future up in the air. Longtime fans lamented then rejoiced when George’s son, Dino, announced the rebirth – steer and all – in late 2011.</p>
<p>The only change is the venue; each recipe has been lovingly recreated in the new kitchen by seasoned hands, starting with perfect Dolmas ($13 with Antipasto Platter) bound in their grape leaves, holding none of the typical soggy rice mush of other dolmas around town. That platter aims for – and achieves – table-wide satisfaction with imported feta, olives, salami, garlic dip and fish roe spread.</p>
<p>After a Greek starter, it’s proper to delve back into classic Americana and order a hearty cut of meat for one’s entree. The house specialties, listed as “from the broiler,” should start with Prime Rib ($24) for any fans of juicy beef. The lean nature of a prime rib cut requires a lesser doneness to maintain flavor and is augmented by horseradish and au jus. One shortcoming is the concave platter used to serve all broiled dishes – good for holding juices, awkward for any sort of cutting.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Fans of red meat that doesn’t ooze red cooking juices should try the Char Burger ($12), a fat patty stuffed with a cheese blend that nearly gushes out when cut. The side of delicious French fries more than compensates for the burger’s bunless presentation.</p>
<p>Fish lovers need not worry with the Argyres in the kitchen; a broiled Trout Filet ($14) is simple yet satisfying as long as you watch for bones. With most entrees, the only side to order is oven-roasted Greek potatoes, delivered as seasoned chunks with flavorful skin intact.</p>
<p>Completing the bridge from Greece to our land-locked state is an entree for the hungry: Lamb Chops ($31) served four to an order with a side of mint sauce (best ignored). Picture a typical T-bone steak – miniaturize it by three-quarters and that’s what these chops are all about. Order this specialty medium-rare to ensure maximum tenderness – each chop is small and easy to overcook. As you gnaw on the remnants it will be easy to overlook the side of steamed vegetables that came with each entree – they, like the starter salads, are distractions only appreciated by the famished.</p>
<p>Town House has some shortcomings like many old-school steakhouses, but it finds some last-minute joy when you order the house-made Baklava ($7.50) to finish the meal. It packs the richness of a truffle in a size you’ll swear you could never finish – until you do. It’s quite wonderful bottom to crispy top with candied orange peel.</p> | 4,060 |
<p>Gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action's <a href="https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts" type="external">Shannon Watts</a> has officially earned the blue ribbon for Worst Tweet of the Day in her race-baiting, anti-Second Amendment, anti-law response to <a href="" type="internal">President Trump's offer</a>on Twitter to help the parents of 10-month-old Charlie Gard, whose life is currently hanging on the whim of U.K. officials and the Orwellian-named European Court on Human Rights.</p>
<p>"If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so," Trump <a href="" type="internal">tweeted</a> Monday.</p>
<p>In response to Trump's compassionate offer of help for the 10-month-old and his distraught parents — whose wish to give him experimental but potentially life-saving treatment in the U.S. has been <a href="http://twitchy.com/sd-3133/2017/07/03/shannon-watts-response-to-trumps-charlie-gard-tweet-is-despicable-even-for-her/" type="external">denied</a>by U.K. health care officials despite the parents having raised $1.6 million to try to save the life of their dying child — Watts resorted to the standard identity politics of the Left, and threw in a reference to Kate's Law and a jab at the group leading the charge to defend the Second Amendment for good measure.</p>
<p>"Anyone notice that the people Trump wants to help are white? From #CharlieGard to #KatesLaw to the leaders of the @NRA," wrote Watts.</p>
<p>Anyone notice that the people Trump wants to help are white? From <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CharlieGard?src=hash" type="external">#CharlieGard</a> to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KatesLaw?src=hash" type="external">#KatesLaw</a> to the leaders of the <a href="https://twitter.com/NRA" type="external">@NRA</a>. <a href="https://t.co/Ao2S4qfn7R" type="external">https://t.co/Ao2S4qfn7R</a></p>
<p>Twitchy called out Watts for the <a href="http://twitchy.com/sd-3133/2017/07/03/shannon-watts-response-to-trumps-charlie-gard-tweet-is-despicable-even-for-her/" type="external">"despicable" tweet</a>:</p>
<p>So Watts responded by posting evidence that Trump's a big fat "racist."</p>
<p>"Spoiler alert - Donald Trump had a history of racist behavior," tweeted Watts, adding a link to an article by Huffington Post on " <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-racist-examples_us_56d47177e4b03260bf777e83" type="external">13 Examples of Donald Trump Being Racist</a>."</p>
<p>Spoiler alert - Donald Trump had a history of racist behavior: <a href="https://t.co/YJ4U45kT5w" type="external">https://t.co/YJ4U45kT5w</a> <a href="https://t.co/hlKZsIfxZV" type="external">https://t.co/hlKZsIfxZV</a></p>
<p>But others on Twitter weren't buying Watts' race-baiting response to an offer of help for a dying child. A few quotes from various tweets:</p>
<p>"Oh look, another person who says people only by their skin color. I wonder what that's called. Could it be, RACISM?"</p>
<p>"No, only you. You need to stop projecting your own prejudices on to other people."</p>
<p>"I've noticed you're a true Obama disciple....divisive, racist, lying puppet. By the way, your fake virtue signaling is really see-through."</p>
<p>"What the hell is wrong with you? This is a baby."</p>
<p>"As if liberals care about babies -- 60+ million dead babies since the late 70s thanks to abortion."</p>
<p>If you haven't been following the tragic story of Charlie Gard, <a href="" type="internal">read this</a>.</p> | Worst Tweet Of The Day: Moms Demand Action Founder Responds To Trump's Offer To Help Little Charlie Gard | true | https://dailywire.com/news/18224/worst-tweet-day-shannon-watts-responds-trumps-james-barrett | 2017-07-03 | 0right
| Worst Tweet Of The Day: Moms Demand Action Founder Responds To Trump's Offer To Help Little Charlie Gard
<p>Gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action's <a href="https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts" type="external">Shannon Watts</a> has officially earned the blue ribbon for Worst Tweet of the Day in her race-baiting, anti-Second Amendment, anti-law response to <a href="" type="internal">President Trump's offer</a>on Twitter to help the parents of 10-month-old Charlie Gard, whose life is currently hanging on the whim of U.K. officials and the Orwellian-named European Court on Human Rights.</p>
<p>"If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so," Trump <a href="" type="internal">tweeted</a> Monday.</p>
<p>In response to Trump's compassionate offer of help for the 10-month-old and his distraught parents — whose wish to give him experimental but potentially life-saving treatment in the U.S. has been <a href="http://twitchy.com/sd-3133/2017/07/03/shannon-watts-response-to-trumps-charlie-gard-tweet-is-despicable-even-for-her/" type="external">denied</a>by U.K. health care officials despite the parents having raised $1.6 million to try to save the life of their dying child — Watts resorted to the standard identity politics of the Left, and threw in a reference to Kate's Law and a jab at the group leading the charge to defend the Second Amendment for good measure.</p>
<p>"Anyone notice that the people Trump wants to help are white? From #CharlieGard to #KatesLaw to the leaders of the @NRA," wrote Watts.</p>
<p>Anyone notice that the people Trump wants to help are white? From <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CharlieGard?src=hash" type="external">#CharlieGard</a> to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KatesLaw?src=hash" type="external">#KatesLaw</a> to the leaders of the <a href="https://twitter.com/NRA" type="external">@NRA</a>. <a href="https://t.co/Ao2S4qfn7R" type="external">https://t.co/Ao2S4qfn7R</a></p>
<p>Twitchy called out Watts for the <a href="http://twitchy.com/sd-3133/2017/07/03/shannon-watts-response-to-trumps-charlie-gard-tweet-is-despicable-even-for-her/" type="external">"despicable" tweet</a>:</p>
<p>So Watts responded by posting evidence that Trump's a big fat "racist."</p>
<p>"Spoiler alert - Donald Trump had a history of racist behavior," tweeted Watts, adding a link to an article by Huffington Post on " <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-racist-examples_us_56d47177e4b03260bf777e83" type="external">13 Examples of Donald Trump Being Racist</a>."</p>
<p>Spoiler alert - Donald Trump had a history of racist behavior: <a href="https://t.co/YJ4U45kT5w" type="external">https://t.co/YJ4U45kT5w</a> <a href="https://t.co/hlKZsIfxZV" type="external">https://t.co/hlKZsIfxZV</a></p>
<p>But others on Twitter weren't buying Watts' race-baiting response to an offer of help for a dying child. A few quotes from various tweets:</p>
<p>"Oh look, another person who says people only by their skin color. I wonder what that's called. Could it be, RACISM?"</p>
<p>"No, only you. You need to stop projecting your own prejudices on to other people."</p>
<p>"I've noticed you're a true Obama disciple....divisive, racist, lying puppet. By the way, your fake virtue signaling is really see-through."</p>
<p>"What the hell is wrong with you? This is a baby."</p>
<p>"As if liberals care about babies -- 60+ million dead babies since the late 70s thanks to abortion."</p>
<p>If you haven't been following the tragic story of Charlie Gard, <a href="" type="internal">read this</a>.</p> | 4,061 |
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Three new flu deaths, including the death of a child, have been reported in North Carolina, raising the state’s death toll so far this season to 12.</p>
<p>That’s according to numbers released Thursday by the North Carolina Department of Health. The deaths were reported between December 17 and 23.</p>
<p>The child, who lived in central North Carolina, is the first pediatric death reported in the state for the 2017-2018 flu season.</p>
<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says nine pediatric flu deaths have been reported across the country as of Dec. 16. The CDC says that many children who die as a result of the flu have no known medical condition that put them at higher risk for complications of the illness.</p>
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Three new flu deaths, including the death of a child, have been reported in North Carolina, raising the state’s death toll so far this season to 12.</p>
<p>That’s according to numbers released Thursday by the North Carolina Department of Health. The deaths were reported between December 17 and 23.</p>
<p>The child, who lived in central North Carolina, is the first pediatric death reported in the state for the 2017-2018 flu season.</p>
<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says nine pediatric flu deaths have been reported across the country as of Dec. 16. The CDC says that many children who die as a result of the flu have no known medical condition that put them at higher risk for complications of the illness.</p> | 3 more North Carolina flu deaths raise season’s toll to 12 | false | https://apnews.com/18bc9db6be7a4863833a81dc40fd6da6 | 2017-12-29 | 2least
| 3 more North Carolina flu deaths raise season’s toll to 12
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Three new flu deaths, including the death of a child, have been reported in North Carolina, raising the state’s death toll so far this season to 12.</p>
<p>That’s according to numbers released Thursday by the North Carolina Department of Health. The deaths were reported between December 17 and 23.</p>
<p>The child, who lived in central North Carolina, is the first pediatric death reported in the state for the 2017-2018 flu season.</p>
<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says nine pediatric flu deaths have been reported across the country as of Dec. 16. The CDC says that many children who die as a result of the flu have no known medical condition that put them at higher risk for complications of the illness.</p>
<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Three new flu deaths, including the death of a child, have been reported in North Carolina, raising the state’s death toll so far this season to 12.</p>
<p>That’s according to numbers released Thursday by the North Carolina Department of Health. The deaths were reported between December 17 and 23.</p>
<p>The child, who lived in central North Carolina, is the first pediatric death reported in the state for the 2017-2018 flu season.</p>
<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says nine pediatric flu deaths have been reported across the country as of Dec. 16. The CDC says that many children who die as a result of the flu have no known medical condition that put them at higher risk for complications of the illness.</p> | 4,062 |
<p>Nov. 17 (UPI) — Researchers have debunked a popular theory linking socioeconomic status, genetics and cognitive development.</p>
<p>Several studies have suggested genetics have a stronger influence on brain development among children from more affluent households. Some scientists have suggested the link between wealth and genetic influence is especially strong in the United States.</p>
<p>But new analysis of birth and school records suggests the influence of nature and nurture — genes and environment — are the same for everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status.</p>
<p>Researchers published their findings this week <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/11/07/1708491114" type="external">in the journal PNAS</a>.</p>
<p>“While children from higher socio-economic status backgrounds have much better cognitive outcomes on average than those from lower socio-economic status households, genetics appear to matter just as much for both groups,” lead study author David Figlio, economist at Northwestern University, <a href="https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2017/november/study-refutes-theory-link-cognition-genes-income/" type="external">said in a news release</a>. “Genes matter. Environment matters. But we find no evidence that the two interact.”</p>
<p>The new analysis was made possible by data tracking the educational performance of siblings and twins in Florida.</p>
<p>The conclusions drawn from the data are similar to the conclusions from previous research on correlations between birthweight and educational performance. Figlio confirmed that heavier babies tend to perform better on math and reading tests between the third and eighth grades, but found the relationship between weight and educational performance was the same for everyone.</p>
<p>“It’s definitely still true that, from the point of view of test scores, you’d rather be a tiny baby from a wealthy family than a big baby from a poor family,” Figlio said. “But birth weight matters, and it matters for everyone. It seems the same effect is at play here.”</p>
<p>Figlio believes part of the appeal of previous conclusions was the simplicity it offered. Researchers are still struggling to understand how cognitive development is influenced by nature and nurture. The research suggesting genes play a more important role among wealthier kids suggested a breakthrough in that scientific struggle.</p>
<p>“Being able to say that ‘genes’ matter more for this group versus that group is appealing partly for its simplicity,” said Jeremy Freese, researcher at Stanford. “We suspect the truth is more complicated: Some genes may matter more in richer families and other genes may matter in poorer families. There’s no overall characterization.”</p>
<p>While the exact roles nature and nurture play in cognitive development remain elusive, scientists do know they both matter — for everyone.</p>
<p>“We know poor children face many social disadvantages, and there is much we can do to address those to help promote the flourishing of all children,” Freese said.</p> | Research refutes theory linking family income, genetics, brain development | false | https://newsline.com/research-refutes-theory-linking-family-income-genetics-brain-development/ | 2017-11-17 | 1right-center
| Research refutes theory linking family income, genetics, brain development
<p>Nov. 17 (UPI) — Researchers have debunked a popular theory linking socioeconomic status, genetics and cognitive development.</p>
<p>Several studies have suggested genetics have a stronger influence on brain development among children from more affluent households. Some scientists have suggested the link between wealth and genetic influence is especially strong in the United States.</p>
<p>But new analysis of birth and school records suggests the influence of nature and nurture — genes and environment — are the same for everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status.</p>
<p>Researchers published their findings this week <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/11/07/1708491114" type="external">in the journal PNAS</a>.</p>
<p>“While children from higher socio-economic status backgrounds have much better cognitive outcomes on average than those from lower socio-economic status households, genetics appear to matter just as much for both groups,” lead study author David Figlio, economist at Northwestern University, <a href="https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2017/november/study-refutes-theory-link-cognition-genes-income/" type="external">said in a news release</a>. “Genes matter. Environment matters. But we find no evidence that the two interact.”</p>
<p>The new analysis was made possible by data tracking the educational performance of siblings and twins in Florida.</p>
<p>The conclusions drawn from the data are similar to the conclusions from previous research on correlations between birthweight and educational performance. Figlio confirmed that heavier babies tend to perform better on math and reading tests between the third and eighth grades, but found the relationship between weight and educational performance was the same for everyone.</p>
<p>“It’s definitely still true that, from the point of view of test scores, you’d rather be a tiny baby from a wealthy family than a big baby from a poor family,” Figlio said. “But birth weight matters, and it matters for everyone. It seems the same effect is at play here.”</p>
<p>Figlio believes part of the appeal of previous conclusions was the simplicity it offered. Researchers are still struggling to understand how cognitive development is influenced by nature and nurture. The research suggesting genes play a more important role among wealthier kids suggested a breakthrough in that scientific struggle.</p>
<p>“Being able to say that ‘genes’ matter more for this group versus that group is appealing partly for its simplicity,” said Jeremy Freese, researcher at Stanford. “We suspect the truth is more complicated: Some genes may matter more in richer families and other genes may matter in poorer families. There’s no overall characterization.”</p>
<p>While the exact roles nature and nurture play in cognitive development remain elusive, scientists do know they both matter — for everyone.</p>
<p>“We know poor children face many social disadvantages, and there is much we can do to address those to help promote the flourishing of all children,” Freese said.</p> | 4,063 |
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<p />
<p>The army announced the rescue on Twitter and said it was screening and interviewing the abducted girls and women.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Troops destroyed and cleared four militant camps and rescued 200 abducted girls and 93 women "but they are not the Chibok girls," army spokesman Col. Sani Usman told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram in April 2014. The militants took the schoolgirls in trucks into the Sambisa Forest. Dozens escaped, but 219 remain missing.</p>
<p>The plight of the schoolgirls, who have become known as "the Chibok girls," aroused international outrage and a campaign for their release under the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.</p>
<p>Their kidnapping brought Boko Haram to the attention of the world, with even U.S. first lady Michelle Obama becoming involved as she tweeted a photograph of herself holding the campaign sign.</p>
<p>Boko Haram has kidnapped an unknown number of girls, women and young men to be used as sex slaves and fighters. Many have escaped or been released as Boko Haram has fled a multinational offensive that began at the end of January.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A military source who was in Sambisa told The Associated Press that some of the women rescued Tuesday fought back, and that Boko Haram was using armed women as human shields, putting them as their first line of defense.</p>
<p>The Nigerian troops managed to subdue them and rounded them all up, and some said they were forced to fight for Boko Haram, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.</p>
<p>Boko Haram also has used girls and women as suicide bombers, sending them into crowded market places and elsewhere.</p>
<p>A month ago the Nigerian military began pounding the Sambisa Forest in air raids, an assault they said earlier they had been avoiding for fear of killing the Chibok schoolgirls, or inciting their captors to kill them.</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, counterinsurgency spokesman Mike Omeri said a multinational offensive that began at the end of January had driven Boko Haram from all major towns in the northeast and that Nigerian forces were concentrating on the Islamic militant stronghold in the Sambisa Forest. Omeri said the military believed that the Chibok girls might be held there.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In Chibok, community leader Pogu Bitrus said townspeople were desperately trying to verify the identity of the freed girls and women. He said the town had learned of the rescue through social media, not from the military.</p>
<p>"We are trying to verify if there are Chibok girls among them. We are working hard to verify. - All we know is this number have been rescued," he said. His comments reflected a distrust of the military, which has published many misstatements about the girls and once even claimed to have rescued some, though that proved to be untrue.</p>
<p>Unconfirmed reports over the past year had indicated the girls were broken up into smaller groups and had been forced to convert to Islam and that some were "married" off to their captors. Some witnesses said they saw the girls being ferried by canoe across Lake Chad and into neighboring Cameroon.</p>
<p>Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau published a video in which he threatened to sell the girls as slaves.</p>
<p>A Muslim leader who had tried to negotiate their release told the AP that at least three had died - from a snake bite, dysentery and malaria.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But the military has reported that none of the girls they found as they freed towns were the Chibok girls, indicating Boko Haram fighters might have held on to their most famous assets and taken them with them when they retreated to the Sambisa Forest, a national game reserve.</p>
<p>Unknown hundreds of people have been killed as the extremists retreated, according to reports from recaptured towns.</p>
<p>On Monday, a local government committee reported burying hundreds of skeletons of children, women and men believed killed by Boko Haram in Damasak, a town on the border with Niger.</p>
<p>"I know that there was a large-scale atrocity, but I cannot tell you the precise number of dead bodies," Senator-elect Abubakar Kyari told reporters in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital 180 kilometers (110 miles) southeast of Damasak.</p>
<p>Damasak was recaptured by troops from Chad and Niger last month and had been occupied by the Islamic extremists since November.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Faul reported from Lagos, Nigeria.</p> | Nigerian army rescues 300, none are kidnapped schoolgirls | false | https://abqjournal.com/576480/nigerian-army-rescues-293-females-from-boko-haram.html | 2least
| Nigerian army rescues 300, none are kidnapped schoolgirls
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<p />
<p>The army announced the rescue on Twitter and said it was screening and interviewing the abducted girls and women.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Troops destroyed and cleared four militant camps and rescued 200 abducted girls and 93 women "but they are not the Chibok girls," army spokesman Col. Sani Usman told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram in April 2014. The militants took the schoolgirls in trucks into the Sambisa Forest. Dozens escaped, but 219 remain missing.</p>
<p>The plight of the schoolgirls, who have become known as "the Chibok girls," aroused international outrage and a campaign for their release under the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.</p>
<p>Their kidnapping brought Boko Haram to the attention of the world, with even U.S. first lady Michelle Obama becoming involved as she tweeted a photograph of herself holding the campaign sign.</p>
<p>Boko Haram has kidnapped an unknown number of girls, women and young men to be used as sex slaves and fighters. Many have escaped or been released as Boko Haram has fled a multinational offensive that began at the end of January.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>A military source who was in Sambisa told The Associated Press that some of the women rescued Tuesday fought back, and that Boko Haram was using armed women as human shields, putting them as their first line of defense.</p>
<p>The Nigerian troops managed to subdue them and rounded them all up, and some said they were forced to fight for Boko Haram, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.</p>
<p>Boko Haram also has used girls and women as suicide bombers, sending them into crowded market places and elsewhere.</p>
<p>A month ago the Nigerian military began pounding the Sambisa Forest in air raids, an assault they said earlier they had been avoiding for fear of killing the Chibok schoolgirls, or inciting their captors to kill them.</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, counterinsurgency spokesman Mike Omeri said a multinational offensive that began at the end of January had driven Boko Haram from all major towns in the northeast and that Nigerian forces were concentrating on the Islamic militant stronghold in the Sambisa Forest. Omeri said the military believed that the Chibok girls might be held there.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>In Chibok, community leader Pogu Bitrus said townspeople were desperately trying to verify the identity of the freed girls and women. He said the town had learned of the rescue through social media, not from the military.</p>
<p>"We are trying to verify if there are Chibok girls among them. We are working hard to verify. - All we know is this number have been rescued," he said. His comments reflected a distrust of the military, which has published many misstatements about the girls and once even claimed to have rescued some, though that proved to be untrue.</p>
<p>Unconfirmed reports over the past year had indicated the girls were broken up into smaller groups and had been forced to convert to Islam and that some were "married" off to their captors. Some witnesses said they saw the girls being ferried by canoe across Lake Chad and into neighboring Cameroon.</p>
<p>Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau published a video in which he threatened to sell the girls as slaves.</p>
<p>A Muslim leader who had tried to negotiate their release told the AP that at least three had died - from a snake bite, dysentery and malaria.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But the military has reported that none of the girls they found as they freed towns were the Chibok girls, indicating Boko Haram fighters might have held on to their most famous assets and taken them with them when they retreated to the Sambisa Forest, a national game reserve.</p>
<p>Unknown hundreds of people have been killed as the extremists retreated, according to reports from recaptured towns.</p>
<p>On Monday, a local government committee reported burying hundreds of skeletons of children, women and men believed killed by Boko Haram in Damasak, a town on the border with Niger.</p>
<p>"I know that there was a large-scale atrocity, but I cannot tell you the precise number of dead bodies," Senator-elect Abubakar Kyari told reporters in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital 180 kilometers (110 miles) southeast of Damasak.</p>
<p>Damasak was recaptured by troops from Chad and Niger last month and had been occupied by the Islamic extremists since November.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>Faul reported from Lagos, Nigeria.</p> | 4,064 |
|
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — After allegations of sexual misconduct circulated on social media about James Franco, the actor told late-night host Stephen Colbert that the “the things I heard on Twitter are not accurate.”</p>
<p>The allegations against Franco were prompted in part by Franco’s best actor in a comedy or musical win Sunday at the Golden Globes for his film “The Disaster Artist.” At the ceremony, Franco wore a pin supporting the “Time’s Up” initiative for gender equality in Hollywood.</p>
<p />
<p>Actress Violet Paley said on Twitter that Franco pushed her head toward his groin in a car, and filmmaker Sarah Tither-Kaplan claimed a $100-a-day contract she signed to perform nudity in a film of Franco’s was exploitive. Actress Ally Sheedy also said in a since-deleted tweet that Franco was an example of why she left the movie business.</p>
<p>“I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done,” Franco told Colbert. “The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long, so I don’t want to shut them down in any way. I think that it’s a good thing and I support it.”</p>
<p>Franco’s appearance Tuesday on CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” came hours after The New York Times canceled a public event scheduled Wednesday that was intended to feature “The Disaster Artist” director and star and his brother and co-star, Dave Franco, discussing the movie with a Times reporter.</p>
<p>The Times said in a statement that it had canceled the event “given the controversy surrounding recent allegations.”</p>
<p>The scrutiny comes at a delicate moment for Franco, a contender for a best-actor Academy Awards nomination. Voting for the Oscar nominations ends Friday.</p>
<p>Franco said he had “no idea” why Sheedy, whom he directed in a 2014 off-Broadway play, was upset. “I had nothing but a great time with her,” he said. But in reference to other behavior, he said, “If there’s restitution to be made, I will make it.”</p>
<p>“I’m here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it’s off, and I’m completely willing and want to,” he said.</p>
<p>In 2014, Instagram messages showed Franco apparently trying to hit on a 17-year-old Scottish fan. Afterward Franco said he was “embarrassed” and said social media is “tricky.” ″I used bad judgment and I learned my lesson,” the actor said then.</p>
<p>Franco also attended the National Board of Review Awards gala in New York City on Tuesday to present his film’s adapted screenplay award. He didn’t comment on the allegations at the ceremony. An email seeking comment from his publicist wasn’t immediately returned.</p>
<p>Franco is scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on Wednesday.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — After allegations of sexual misconduct circulated on social media about James Franco, the actor told late-night host Stephen Colbert that the “the things I heard on Twitter are not accurate.”</p>
<p>The allegations against Franco were prompted in part by Franco’s best actor in a comedy or musical win Sunday at the Golden Globes for his film “The Disaster Artist.” At the ceremony, Franco wore a pin supporting the “Time’s Up” initiative for gender equality in Hollywood.</p>
<p />
<p>Actress Violet Paley said on Twitter that Franco pushed her head toward his groin in a car, and filmmaker Sarah Tither-Kaplan claimed a $100-a-day contract she signed to perform nudity in a film of Franco’s was exploitive. Actress Ally Sheedy also said in a since-deleted tweet that Franco was an example of why she left the movie business.</p>
<p>“I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done,” Franco told Colbert. “The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long, so I don’t want to shut them down in any way. I think that it’s a good thing and I support it.”</p>
<p>Franco’s appearance Tuesday on CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” came hours after The New York Times canceled a public event scheduled Wednesday that was intended to feature “The Disaster Artist” director and star and his brother and co-star, Dave Franco, discussing the movie with a Times reporter.</p>
<p>The Times said in a statement that it had canceled the event “given the controversy surrounding recent allegations.”</p>
<p>The scrutiny comes at a delicate moment for Franco, a contender for a best-actor Academy Awards nomination. Voting for the Oscar nominations ends Friday.</p>
<p>Franco said he had “no idea” why Sheedy, whom he directed in a 2014 off-Broadway play, was upset. “I had nothing but a great time with her,” he said. But in reference to other behavior, he said, “If there’s restitution to be made, I will make it.”</p>
<p>“I’m here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it’s off, and I’m completely willing and want to,” he said.</p>
<p>In 2014, Instagram messages showed Franco apparently trying to hit on a 17-year-old Scottish fan. Afterward Franco said he was “embarrassed” and said social media is “tricky.” ″I used bad judgment and I learned my lesson,” the actor said then.</p>
<p>Franco also attended the National Board of Review Awards gala in New York City on Tuesday to present his film’s adapted screenplay award. He didn’t comment on the allegations at the ceremony. An email seeking comment from his publicist wasn’t immediately returned.</p>
<p>Franco is scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on Wednesday.</p> | James Franco denies sexual misconduct allegations | false | https://apnews.com/af20f7ae53d349d3afd26d6edca032c0 | 2018-01-10 | 2least
| James Franco denies sexual misconduct allegations
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — After allegations of sexual misconduct circulated on social media about James Franco, the actor told late-night host Stephen Colbert that the “the things I heard on Twitter are not accurate.”</p>
<p>The allegations against Franco were prompted in part by Franco’s best actor in a comedy or musical win Sunday at the Golden Globes for his film “The Disaster Artist.” At the ceremony, Franco wore a pin supporting the “Time’s Up” initiative for gender equality in Hollywood.</p>
<p />
<p>Actress Violet Paley said on Twitter that Franco pushed her head toward his groin in a car, and filmmaker Sarah Tither-Kaplan claimed a $100-a-day contract she signed to perform nudity in a film of Franco’s was exploitive. Actress Ally Sheedy also said in a since-deleted tweet that Franco was an example of why she left the movie business.</p>
<p>“I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done,” Franco told Colbert. “The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long, so I don’t want to shut them down in any way. I think that it’s a good thing and I support it.”</p>
<p>Franco’s appearance Tuesday on CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” came hours after The New York Times canceled a public event scheduled Wednesday that was intended to feature “The Disaster Artist” director and star and his brother and co-star, Dave Franco, discussing the movie with a Times reporter.</p>
<p>The Times said in a statement that it had canceled the event “given the controversy surrounding recent allegations.”</p>
<p>The scrutiny comes at a delicate moment for Franco, a contender for a best-actor Academy Awards nomination. Voting for the Oscar nominations ends Friday.</p>
<p>Franco said he had “no idea” why Sheedy, whom he directed in a 2014 off-Broadway play, was upset. “I had nothing but a great time with her,” he said. But in reference to other behavior, he said, “If there’s restitution to be made, I will make it.”</p>
<p>“I’m here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it’s off, and I’m completely willing and want to,” he said.</p>
<p>In 2014, Instagram messages showed Franco apparently trying to hit on a 17-year-old Scottish fan. Afterward Franco said he was “embarrassed” and said social media is “tricky.” ″I used bad judgment and I learned my lesson,” the actor said then.</p>
<p>Franco also attended the National Board of Review Awards gala in New York City on Tuesday to present his film’s adapted screenplay award. He didn’t comment on the allegations at the ceremony. An email seeking comment from his publicist wasn’t immediately returned.</p>
<p>Franco is scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on Wednesday.</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — After allegations of sexual misconduct circulated on social media about James Franco, the actor told late-night host Stephen Colbert that the “the things I heard on Twitter are not accurate.”</p>
<p>The allegations against Franco were prompted in part by Franco’s best actor in a comedy or musical win Sunday at the Golden Globes for his film “The Disaster Artist.” At the ceremony, Franco wore a pin supporting the “Time’s Up” initiative for gender equality in Hollywood.</p>
<p />
<p>Actress Violet Paley said on Twitter that Franco pushed her head toward his groin in a car, and filmmaker Sarah Tither-Kaplan claimed a $100-a-day contract she signed to perform nudity in a film of Franco’s was exploitive. Actress Ally Sheedy also said in a since-deleted tweet that Franco was an example of why she left the movie business.</p>
<p>“I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done,” Franco told Colbert. “The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long, so I don’t want to shut them down in any way. I think that it’s a good thing and I support it.”</p>
<p>Franco’s appearance Tuesday on CBS’ “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” came hours after The New York Times canceled a public event scheduled Wednesday that was intended to feature “The Disaster Artist” director and star and his brother and co-star, Dave Franco, discussing the movie with a Times reporter.</p>
<p>The Times said in a statement that it had canceled the event “given the controversy surrounding recent allegations.”</p>
<p>The scrutiny comes at a delicate moment for Franco, a contender for a best-actor Academy Awards nomination. Voting for the Oscar nominations ends Friday.</p>
<p>Franco said he had “no idea” why Sheedy, whom he directed in a 2014 off-Broadway play, was upset. “I had nothing but a great time with her,” he said. But in reference to other behavior, he said, “If there’s restitution to be made, I will make it.”</p>
<p>“I’m here to listen and learn and change my perspective where it’s off, and I’m completely willing and want to,” he said.</p>
<p>In 2014, Instagram messages showed Franco apparently trying to hit on a 17-year-old Scottish fan. Afterward Franco said he was “embarrassed” and said social media is “tricky.” ″I used bad judgment and I learned my lesson,” the actor said then.</p>
<p>Franco also attended the National Board of Review Awards gala in New York City on Tuesday to present his film’s adapted screenplay award. He didn’t comment on the allegations at the ceremony. An email seeking comment from his publicist wasn’t immediately returned.</p>
<p>Franco is scheduled to appear on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on Wednesday.</p> | 4,065 |
<p>James Earl Hardy (Photo courtesy the D.C. Center)</p>
<p>OutWrite, an LGBT literary festival, is at the Reeves Center (2000 14th St., N.W.) Friday, July 31 and Saturday, Aug. 1. The festival will feature various readings and workshops led by LGBT authors and publishers.</p>
<p>On Friday from 6-9 p.m., there will be “Celebrating the Work of James Earl Hardy,” a reading of Hardy’s work to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hardy’s “B-Boy Blues” series. Panelists La Marr Jurelle Bruce and David Green will give a tribute to Hardy at 6 p.m. Hardy will give a keynote address at 7 p.m. A reception will follow at 8:15 p.m. featuring music by Prince Jerel.</p>
<p>On Saturday from 10:30 a.m.-noon, there will be a children’s book reading and activities period. Books read will include “Red: a Crayon’s Story,” by Michael Hall, “Blue Chameleon” by Emily Gravett and more. There will also be activities such as creating rainbow bracelets and applying for library cards to D.C. Public Libraries.</p>
<p>Also at 10:30 a.m., Hardy will give a reading from his collection of short stories, “Can You Feel What I’m Saying?”</p>
<p>At noon, there will be “Threefold: Presenting Three Cave Canem Fellows,” a reading from Bettina Judd, Tafisha A. Edwards and Saida Agostini.</p>
<p>At 1 p.m., Sheena Howard will read from her latest book “Black Queer Identity Matrix,” a book that explores black lesbian female identity.</p>
<p>At 1:30 p.m., Rebecca Coffey will give a reading from her book “Hysterical: Anna Freud’s Story,” a book about Sigmund Freud’s daughter’s struggle with being a lesbian when her father believed lesbianism to be a mental illness.</p>
<p>At 2 p.m. is “Queer Immigrant Stories,” a collection of readings by Mala Kumar and Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene followed by a question-and-answer session and discussion.</p>
<p>Rayceen Pendarvis hosts “Quick and Dirty,” a five-minute reading from six authors, at 3 p.m. At 4 p.m., author Rigoberto González reads from his book “Our Lady of the Crossword,” a book about his cultural heritage and sexuality.</p>
<p>At 5 p.m., Sons of Baldwin, a spoken-word group inspired by the works of James Baldwin, will give a performance.</p>
<p>Workshops include “Trans Self-Publishers: Storytelling on our Terms,” a workshop for self-publishing trans authors at 11 a.m., “Transforming Words into a Multi-Media Experience,” at 11 a.m., “Fade to Hot: Writing Sex Scenes” at 2 p.m. and “Black Writers Form: Black Queer Identity and the Written Word” at 3:30 p.m.</p>
<p>For more information on OutWrite’s readings and workshops, visit <a href="http://thedccenter.org/outwritedc" type="external">thedccenter.org/outwritedc</a>.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Bettina Judd</a> <a href="" type="internal">D.C. Public Libraries</a> <a href="" type="internal">David Green</a> <a href="" type="internal">Emily Gravett</a> <a href="" type="internal">James Baldwin</a> <a href="" type="internal">James Earl Hardy</a> <a href="" type="internal">La Marr Jurelle Bruce</a> <a href="" type="internal">LGBT</a> <a href="" type="internal">Mala Kumar</a> <a href="" type="internal">Michael Hall</a> <a href="" type="internal">OutWrite</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rayceen Pendarvis</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rebecca Coffey</a> <a href="" type="internal">Reeves Center</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rigoberto González</a> <a href="" type="internal">Saida Agostini</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sheena Howard</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sigmund Freud</a> <a href="" type="internal">Tafisha A. Edwards</a> <a href="" type="internal">Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene</a></p> | LGBT book festival returns to D.C. Center | false | http://washingtonblade.com/2015/07/29/lgbt-book-festival-returns-to-d-c-center/ | 3left-center
| LGBT book festival returns to D.C. Center
<p>James Earl Hardy (Photo courtesy the D.C. Center)</p>
<p>OutWrite, an LGBT literary festival, is at the Reeves Center (2000 14th St., N.W.) Friday, July 31 and Saturday, Aug. 1. The festival will feature various readings and workshops led by LGBT authors and publishers.</p>
<p>On Friday from 6-9 p.m., there will be “Celebrating the Work of James Earl Hardy,” a reading of Hardy’s work to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hardy’s “B-Boy Blues” series. Panelists La Marr Jurelle Bruce and David Green will give a tribute to Hardy at 6 p.m. Hardy will give a keynote address at 7 p.m. A reception will follow at 8:15 p.m. featuring music by Prince Jerel.</p>
<p>On Saturday from 10:30 a.m.-noon, there will be a children’s book reading and activities period. Books read will include “Red: a Crayon’s Story,” by Michael Hall, “Blue Chameleon” by Emily Gravett and more. There will also be activities such as creating rainbow bracelets and applying for library cards to D.C. Public Libraries.</p>
<p>Also at 10:30 a.m., Hardy will give a reading from his collection of short stories, “Can You Feel What I’m Saying?”</p>
<p>At noon, there will be “Threefold: Presenting Three Cave Canem Fellows,” a reading from Bettina Judd, Tafisha A. Edwards and Saida Agostini.</p>
<p>At 1 p.m., Sheena Howard will read from her latest book “Black Queer Identity Matrix,” a book that explores black lesbian female identity.</p>
<p>At 1:30 p.m., Rebecca Coffey will give a reading from her book “Hysterical: Anna Freud’s Story,” a book about Sigmund Freud’s daughter’s struggle with being a lesbian when her father believed lesbianism to be a mental illness.</p>
<p>At 2 p.m. is “Queer Immigrant Stories,” a collection of readings by Mala Kumar and Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene followed by a question-and-answer session and discussion.</p>
<p>Rayceen Pendarvis hosts “Quick and Dirty,” a five-minute reading from six authors, at 3 p.m. At 4 p.m., author Rigoberto González reads from his book “Our Lady of the Crossword,” a book about his cultural heritage and sexuality.</p>
<p>At 5 p.m., Sons of Baldwin, a spoken-word group inspired by the works of James Baldwin, will give a performance.</p>
<p>Workshops include “Trans Self-Publishers: Storytelling on our Terms,” a workshop for self-publishing trans authors at 11 a.m., “Transforming Words into a Multi-Media Experience,” at 11 a.m., “Fade to Hot: Writing Sex Scenes” at 2 p.m. and “Black Writers Form: Black Queer Identity and the Written Word” at 3:30 p.m.</p>
<p>For more information on OutWrite’s readings and workshops, visit <a href="http://thedccenter.org/outwritedc" type="external">thedccenter.org/outwritedc</a>.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Bettina Judd</a> <a href="" type="internal">D.C. Public Libraries</a> <a href="" type="internal">David Green</a> <a href="" type="internal">Emily Gravett</a> <a href="" type="internal">James Baldwin</a> <a href="" type="internal">James Earl Hardy</a> <a href="" type="internal">La Marr Jurelle Bruce</a> <a href="" type="internal">LGBT</a> <a href="" type="internal">Mala Kumar</a> <a href="" type="internal">Michael Hall</a> <a href="" type="internal">OutWrite</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rayceen Pendarvis</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rebecca Coffey</a> <a href="" type="internal">Reeves Center</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rigoberto González</a> <a href="" type="internal">Saida Agostini</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sheena Howard</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sigmund Freud</a> <a href="" type="internal">Tafisha A. Edwards</a> <a href="" type="internal">Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene</a></p> | 4,066 |
|
<p>The parents of a 16-year-old Congressional page contacted their congressman, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.).</p>
<p>Alexander says he contacted both Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) who oversees the page program.</p>
<p>Reps. Shimkus, Reynolds, and House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) admit they knew about it in 2005.</p>
<p>Kirk Fordham, Reynolds’ former chief of staff, told the Associated Press that three years ago, he had “more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives to intervene.”</p>
<p>Reynolds and Boehner say they told Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), speaker of the house.</p>
<p>Hastert says Reynolds may have told him about it, but he doesn’t remember.</p>
<p>At no time, did anyone contact police or the FBI. Their concerns for justice were shallow; their fears that a scandal would affect their re-elections were deep. The conservative Washington Times and several major conservative columnists have called for Hastert to resign.</p>
<p>For his part, President George W. Bush says he supports Hastert, doesn’t want him to resign, and called him a “father, teacher, coach who cares about the children of this country.” Almost as an afterthought, he said he was “dismayed and shocked.”</p>
<p>What President Bush was “dismayed and shocked” about were the actions of Mark Foley, a Republican congressman from Florida. The President apparently wasn’t dismayed or shocked about the cover-up the Republican leadership undertook to keep the information from the public, the contacts with Foley to warn him about his conduct, and their failure to discipline one of their members.</p>
<p>The story broke in early September when a relatively new blog, Stop Sex Predators (www.stopsexpredators.blogspot.com), reported that Foley, a six-term congressman who was co-chair of Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, had sent sexually explicit e-mails and text messages to the 16-year old male Congressional page. Within two weeks, ABC-TV’s Brian Ross, and then the rest of the nation’s major media, picked up the story. The day after Ross’s first report, Foley resigned. Subsequent reporting revealed that Foley may have had other inappropriate contacts, dating back to at least 2003.</p>
<p>Trying to spin his own actions, Foley said when he was a teenager he had been abused by a member of the clergy; he now admits he’s gay, and has checked himself into an alcoholic rehabilitation facility. As for Reps. Alexander, Shimkus, Reynolds, Boehner, and Hastert, and dozens of other Republicans who knew of the problem, they shuffled and wobbled, but never acknowledged why they didn’t take immediate action at least six months earlier.</p>
<p>Spinning and diverting, Hastert is blaming liberals for their reporting of the scandal; others have dug through the archives to find that 23 years earlier a Democratic congressman was censured for having sex with a 17-year-old page. (On the other side of the aisle, and not reported by the Republicans, a Republican congressman that year had sex with a 17-year-old female page.) Many screeched out about former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) and a rendezvous he had in 1988 with a woman on a boat called “Monkey Business,” and of Ted Kennedy, MaryJo Kopechne, and the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969, hoping to cloud the blame for their own problems.</p>
<p>Conservative Republicans devoutly proclaim themselves the party of “Family Values.” They want the people to believe they have been anointed with divine wisdom, sacred trust, and the key to the Holy Morality. Democrats and liberals, they decree, are sin-spewing heathens. But, truth is not on their side.</p>
<p>Rep. Robert Bauman (R-Md.), homophobic founder of Young Americans for Freedom and the American Conservative Union, and a darling of the Christian Coalition, lost his House seat in 1980 after disclosures that he solicited sex with a 16-year-old gay male; Bauman two years later acknowledged he was gay. Donald Lukens (R-Ohio) was sentenced to jail for having sex with a minor. The list of local and state Republican officials who were arrested and convicted of pedophilia or other sex crimes would choke even the most forgiving defense attorney. But, let’s just look at the family values of some of the Republicans recently elected or re-elected to federal office.</p>
<p>The list of “family values” Republicans who committed adultery, but continued to preach a doctrine of morality in government, would fill the telephone book of a small city. Among them are Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), and former Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), who were leaders of the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton; former presidential candidate Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kansas); former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.); former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), whom the Republicans planned to vote into office in 1999 as Gingrich’s successor, but whose career came unraveled by his admission of “marital infidelities”; Rep. Don Sherwood (R-Pa.), who had a five-year extramarital affair with a woman 35 years his junior and who later accused him of repeated assaults; and former Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-Idaho), who told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that God pardoned her sins.</p>
<p>Chenoweth was a “two-fer,” committing both sexual and legal sins. While her campaign strategy was loaded with rhetoric about family values and morals, she accepted illegal campaign contributions and then failed to disclose receipt of more than $50,000 for her 1994 campaign. She served three terms before deciding not to run for a fourth term in 2000. Rep. Randall (Duke) Cunningham (R-Calif.), a seven-term Congressman, who accepted $2.4 million in bribes, pled guilty to charges of conspiracy, mail fraud, and tax evasion. Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), an 11-term congressman, was first forced to resign as House majority leader after being indicted on charges he conspired to violate Texas state election laws; amid growing evidence of financial and ethical irregularities over several years, DeLay resigned from the House in April 2006.</p>
<p>The Republicans, whose “big tent” campaign rhetoric apparently still doesn’t include many minorities, is represented by Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.). Lott resigned as Senate majority leader in December 2002 after praising segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), suggesting that if Thurmond had been elected president on the Dixiecrat ticket in 1948, “we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years.” Lott-who opposed the Voting Right Act and voted against creating Martin Luther King Day-recently asked, “Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me.”</p>
<p>The Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal touched mostly Republicans, with one White House official charged with obstructing a federal investigation.</p>
<p>And there’s George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and John Ashcroft/Ambrose Gonzales, whose six year reign is pepper-shot with lies and violations of even the most basic codes of ethics. They are the cabal that had nodded off prior to the al-Qaeda attack upon the United States, and then lied to the people prior to launching an invasion of Iraq, which had no ties to the 9/11 plot, no ties to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups, and no weapons of mass destruction.</p>
<p>The Administration has also diverted, according to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, about $700 million from the war in Afghanistan and the search for Osama bin Laden to prepare for the invasion of Iraq. They awarded a no-bid $7 billion contract to Halliburton, which is now accused of war profiteering, diversion of funds, and numerous other questionable, illegal, or immoral practices. Billions of other taxpayer-funded dollars went to other companies that are major contributors to Republican candidates.</p>
<p>On domestic issues, the Bush­Cheney Administration has violated the environment, and disregarded health care and the working class, while holding the pursuit of obscene profits to be their personal god. They have encouraged the use of torture to gain information from even the remotest of suspects, and have refused to give suspects a fair trial. They have created fake news releases, bribed journalists, released secret information about a CIA agent in retaliation for her husband speaking out against Bush’s war in Iraq, illegally hacked into confidential Democrat strategy files, illegally spied upon both American citizens and the United Nations, invaded innumerable Constitutionally-protected personal rights of privacy, suppressed freedom of expression, and instilled fear as justification for its actions. Perhaps they should no longer be called “neocons,” but Vegomatic Republicans since they believe they have a divine right to slice, dice, and chop the Bill of Rights.</p>
<p>Sanctimoniously proclaiming themselves piously religious and patriotic, they have forsaken both the Bible and the Constitution. George W. Bush, when asked if he had consulted his father prior to the invasion of Iraq, devoutly declared that he had spoken to his “higher father.” His actions prove that he has abandoned both his heavenly father and this nation’s forefathers. So much for honoring thy father.</p>
<p>The salacious “family values” Republicans have become the party of right-wing righteous indignation. But the closest any of them will come to righteousness is their fervent prayers for something tumultuous to happen so the media and the public forget these latest elephant-sized transgressions.</p>
<p>WALTER BRASCH, professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, is an award-winning syndicated columnist and the author of 15 books, most of them about social issues, the First Amendment, and the media. His forthcoming book is <a href="" type="internal">America’s Unpatriotic Acts; The Federal Government’s Violation of Constitutional and Civil Liberties</a> (Peter Lang Publishing.) You may contact Brasch at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a> or at <a href="http://www.walterbrasch.com/" type="external">www.walterbrasch.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Sex, Lies and Family Values | true | https://counterpunch.org/2006/10/09/sex-lies-and-family-values/ | 2006-10-09 | 4left
| Sex, Lies and Family Values
<p>The parents of a 16-year-old Congressional page contacted their congressman, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.).</p>
<p>Alexander says he contacted both Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) who oversees the page program.</p>
<p>Reps. Shimkus, Reynolds, and House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) admit they knew about it in 2005.</p>
<p>Kirk Fordham, Reynolds’ former chief of staff, told the Associated Press that three years ago, he had “more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives to intervene.”</p>
<p>Reynolds and Boehner say they told Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), speaker of the house.</p>
<p>Hastert says Reynolds may have told him about it, but he doesn’t remember.</p>
<p>At no time, did anyone contact police or the FBI. Their concerns for justice were shallow; their fears that a scandal would affect their re-elections were deep. The conservative Washington Times and several major conservative columnists have called for Hastert to resign.</p>
<p>For his part, President George W. Bush says he supports Hastert, doesn’t want him to resign, and called him a “father, teacher, coach who cares about the children of this country.” Almost as an afterthought, he said he was “dismayed and shocked.”</p>
<p>What President Bush was “dismayed and shocked” about were the actions of Mark Foley, a Republican congressman from Florida. The President apparently wasn’t dismayed or shocked about the cover-up the Republican leadership undertook to keep the information from the public, the contacts with Foley to warn him about his conduct, and their failure to discipline one of their members.</p>
<p>The story broke in early September when a relatively new blog, Stop Sex Predators (www.stopsexpredators.blogspot.com), reported that Foley, a six-term congressman who was co-chair of Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus, had sent sexually explicit e-mails and text messages to the 16-year old male Congressional page. Within two weeks, ABC-TV’s Brian Ross, and then the rest of the nation’s major media, picked up the story. The day after Ross’s first report, Foley resigned. Subsequent reporting revealed that Foley may have had other inappropriate contacts, dating back to at least 2003.</p>
<p>Trying to spin his own actions, Foley said when he was a teenager he had been abused by a member of the clergy; he now admits he’s gay, and has checked himself into an alcoholic rehabilitation facility. As for Reps. Alexander, Shimkus, Reynolds, Boehner, and Hastert, and dozens of other Republicans who knew of the problem, they shuffled and wobbled, but never acknowledged why they didn’t take immediate action at least six months earlier.</p>
<p>Spinning and diverting, Hastert is blaming liberals for their reporting of the scandal; others have dug through the archives to find that 23 years earlier a Democratic congressman was censured for having sex with a 17-year-old page. (On the other side of the aisle, and not reported by the Republicans, a Republican congressman that year had sex with a 17-year-old female page.) Many screeched out about former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) and a rendezvous he had in 1988 with a woman on a boat called “Monkey Business,” and of Ted Kennedy, MaryJo Kopechne, and the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969, hoping to cloud the blame for their own problems.</p>
<p>Conservative Republicans devoutly proclaim themselves the party of “Family Values.” They want the people to believe they have been anointed with divine wisdom, sacred trust, and the key to the Holy Morality. Democrats and liberals, they decree, are sin-spewing heathens. But, truth is not on their side.</p>
<p>Rep. Robert Bauman (R-Md.), homophobic founder of Young Americans for Freedom and the American Conservative Union, and a darling of the Christian Coalition, lost his House seat in 1980 after disclosures that he solicited sex with a 16-year-old gay male; Bauman two years later acknowledged he was gay. Donald Lukens (R-Ohio) was sentenced to jail for having sex with a minor. The list of local and state Republican officials who were arrested and convicted of pedophilia or other sex crimes would choke even the most forgiving defense attorney. But, let’s just look at the family values of some of the Republicans recently elected or re-elected to federal office.</p>
<p>The list of “family values” Republicans who committed adultery, but continued to preach a doctrine of morality in government, would fill the telephone book of a small city. Among them are Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), and former Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), who were leaders of the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton; former presidential candidate Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kansas); former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.); former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), whom the Republicans planned to vote into office in 1999 as Gingrich’s successor, but whose career came unraveled by his admission of “marital infidelities”; Rep. Don Sherwood (R-Pa.), who had a five-year extramarital affair with a woman 35 years his junior and who later accused him of repeated assaults; and former Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-Idaho), who told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that God pardoned her sins.</p>
<p>Chenoweth was a “two-fer,” committing both sexual and legal sins. While her campaign strategy was loaded with rhetoric about family values and morals, she accepted illegal campaign contributions and then failed to disclose receipt of more than $50,000 for her 1994 campaign. She served three terms before deciding not to run for a fourth term in 2000. Rep. Randall (Duke) Cunningham (R-Calif.), a seven-term Congressman, who accepted $2.4 million in bribes, pled guilty to charges of conspiracy, mail fraud, and tax evasion. Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), an 11-term congressman, was first forced to resign as House majority leader after being indicted on charges he conspired to violate Texas state election laws; amid growing evidence of financial and ethical irregularities over several years, DeLay resigned from the House in April 2006.</p>
<p>The Republicans, whose “big tent” campaign rhetoric apparently still doesn’t include many minorities, is represented by Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.). Lott resigned as Senate majority leader in December 2002 after praising segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), suggesting that if Thurmond had been elected president on the Dixiecrat ticket in 1948, “we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years.” Lott-who opposed the Voting Right Act and voted against creating Martin Luther King Day-recently asked, “Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me.”</p>
<p>The Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal touched mostly Republicans, with one White House official charged with obstructing a federal investigation.</p>
<p>And there’s George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and John Ashcroft/Ambrose Gonzales, whose six year reign is pepper-shot with lies and violations of even the most basic codes of ethics. They are the cabal that had nodded off prior to the al-Qaeda attack upon the United States, and then lied to the people prior to launching an invasion of Iraq, which had no ties to the 9/11 plot, no ties to al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups, and no weapons of mass destruction.</p>
<p>The Administration has also diverted, according to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, about $700 million from the war in Afghanistan and the search for Osama bin Laden to prepare for the invasion of Iraq. They awarded a no-bid $7 billion contract to Halliburton, which is now accused of war profiteering, diversion of funds, and numerous other questionable, illegal, or immoral practices. Billions of other taxpayer-funded dollars went to other companies that are major contributors to Republican candidates.</p>
<p>On domestic issues, the Bush­Cheney Administration has violated the environment, and disregarded health care and the working class, while holding the pursuit of obscene profits to be their personal god. They have encouraged the use of torture to gain information from even the remotest of suspects, and have refused to give suspects a fair trial. They have created fake news releases, bribed journalists, released secret information about a CIA agent in retaliation for her husband speaking out against Bush’s war in Iraq, illegally hacked into confidential Democrat strategy files, illegally spied upon both American citizens and the United Nations, invaded innumerable Constitutionally-protected personal rights of privacy, suppressed freedom of expression, and instilled fear as justification for its actions. Perhaps they should no longer be called “neocons,” but Vegomatic Republicans since they believe they have a divine right to slice, dice, and chop the Bill of Rights.</p>
<p>Sanctimoniously proclaiming themselves piously religious and patriotic, they have forsaken both the Bible and the Constitution. George W. Bush, when asked if he had consulted his father prior to the invasion of Iraq, devoutly declared that he had spoken to his “higher father.” His actions prove that he has abandoned both his heavenly father and this nation’s forefathers. So much for honoring thy father.</p>
<p>The salacious “family values” Republicans have become the party of right-wing righteous indignation. But the closest any of them will come to righteousness is their fervent prayers for something tumultuous to happen so the media and the public forget these latest elephant-sized transgressions.</p>
<p>WALTER BRASCH, professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, is an award-winning syndicated columnist and the author of 15 books, most of them about social issues, the First Amendment, and the media. His forthcoming book is <a href="" type="internal">America’s Unpatriotic Acts; The Federal Government’s Violation of Constitutional and Civil Liberties</a> (Peter Lang Publishing.) You may contact Brasch at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a> or at <a href="http://www.walterbrasch.com/" type="external">www.walterbrasch.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 4,067 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The incident began about 10:30 p.m. at the Walmart on Carlisle in Albuquerque. Albuquerque Police were pursuing three people accused of shoplifting at the store and driving a vehicle that had been reported stolen, according to a State Police news release.</p>
<p>The chase went onto Interstate 40 and then north on Interstate 25, where the driver was speeding and passing other cars on the shoulder of the road. A State Police officer noticed the erratic driving without knowing Albuquerque Police cars were following at a safe distance with a helicopter monitoring the fleeing vehicle, according to the release.</p>
<p>State Police continued the pursuit north onto NM 165 and then east to Placitas, as Albuquerque Police provided backup.</p>
<p>The pursuit ended about 11:10 p.m. near mile marker 10 on NM 165. According to the news release, all three suspects fled on foot and one of them fired at officers.</p>
<p>Neither state nor Albuquerque police returned fire, according to the release. No officers were hurt.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Eventually, police persuaded two people to come out of the woods and surrender. Personnel in the helicopter noticed a third person lying on the ground, not moving.</p>
<p>State Police approached the subject, Jaycob J. Gabaldon, 36, of Albuquerque, and found he was dead. According to the release, it appears Gabaldon shot himself in the head, but his body was taken to the Office of the Medical Investigator to determine the exact cause of death.</p>
<p>Steven Fisher, 25, of Albuquerque, was arrested on an unrelated warrant during the incident, and State Police hadn’t released information on the third subject at press time.</p>
<p>State Police are continuing to investigate.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Man kills self after car chase; police arrest 2 other people | false | https://abqjournal.com/329394/man-kills-self-after-car-chase-police-arrest-2-other-people.html | 2least
| Man kills self after car chase; police arrest 2 other people
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The incident began about 10:30 p.m. at the Walmart on Carlisle in Albuquerque. Albuquerque Police were pursuing three people accused of shoplifting at the store and driving a vehicle that had been reported stolen, according to a State Police news release.</p>
<p>The chase went onto Interstate 40 and then north on Interstate 25, where the driver was speeding and passing other cars on the shoulder of the road. A State Police officer noticed the erratic driving without knowing Albuquerque Police cars were following at a safe distance with a helicopter monitoring the fleeing vehicle, according to the release.</p>
<p>State Police continued the pursuit north onto NM 165 and then east to Placitas, as Albuquerque Police provided backup.</p>
<p>The pursuit ended about 11:10 p.m. near mile marker 10 on NM 165. According to the news release, all three suspects fled on foot and one of them fired at officers.</p>
<p>Neither state nor Albuquerque police returned fire, according to the release. No officers were hurt.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Eventually, police persuaded two people to come out of the woods and surrender. Personnel in the helicopter noticed a third person lying on the ground, not moving.</p>
<p>State Police approached the subject, Jaycob J. Gabaldon, 36, of Albuquerque, and found he was dead. According to the release, it appears Gabaldon shot himself in the head, but his body was taken to the Office of the Medical Investigator to determine the exact cause of death.</p>
<p>Steven Fisher, 25, of Albuquerque, was arrested on an unrelated warrant during the incident, and State Police hadn’t released information on the third subject at press time.</p>
<p>State Police are continuing to investigate.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 4,068 |
|
<p />
<p>If liberals didn’t see this one coming, they are even bigger idiots than I thought. At The College of William &amp; Mary, Black Lives Matters shut down an ACLU Free Speech event. Why? Well, because “liberalism is white supremacy.” This is sheer racism which is what Black Lives Matter has been all about form the beginning… that and communism. They derailed an event hosted by the ACLU. It was ironically entitled: “Students and the First Amendment.” Considering how they’ve tried to silence conservatives, I find that rich. ACLU staffer and W&amp;M alumna Claire Gastañaga was behind the event.</p>
<p>The event was live-streamed by the student group to cover their protest on Facebook. Students stormed the stage just after the lecture began. For about twenty minutes they chanted, drowning out the speaker, Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, the executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. “ACLU, you protect Hitler, too,” “the oppressed are not impressed” and “shame, shame, shame, shame” were among the chants used by the protesters. In addition, they chanted “the revolution will not uphold the Constitution,” and “Liberalism is white supremacy.” These are racist communists that want to destroy the Constitution and our Republic.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>These asshats were protesting the ACLU’s decision to defend the Charlottesville rally that took place on the University of Virginia’s campus in August. Can’t have free speech if it disagrees with you, now can we? Except that is what free speech is and the First Amendment is specifically designed to protect speech we don’t like. The organizers of the event eventually pulled the plug after twenty minutes of chanting. I don’t blame them. But BLM should have been arrested for at least disturbing the peace here and more appropriately, inciting violence.</p>
<p>The college issued a statement that read in part that “silencing certain voices in order to advance the cause of others is not acceptable” because it “stifles debate.” You forgot the word ‘fascist’.</p>
<p>John Hawkins's book 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know is filled with lessons that newly minted adults need in order to get the most out of life. Gleaned from a lifetime of trial, error, and writing it down, Hawkins provides advice everyone can benefit from in short, digestible chapters.</p>
<p>More from the college:</p>
<p>William &amp; Mary has a powerful commitment to the free play of ideas. We have a campus where respectful dialogue, especially in disagreement, is encouraged so that we can listen and learn from views that differ from our own, so that we can freely express our own views, and so that debate can occur. Unfortunately, that type of exchange was unable to take place Wednesday night when an event to discuss a very important matter – the meaning of the First Amendment — could not be held as planned. …</p>
<p>Silencing certain voices in order to advance the cause of others is not acceptable in our community. This stifles debate and prevents those who’ve come to hear a speaker, our students in particular, from asking questions, often hard questions, and from engaging in debate where the strength of ideas, not the power of shouting, is the currency. William &amp; Mary must be a campus that welcomes difficult conversations, honest debate and civil dialogue.</p>
<p>This statement is toothless and pretty much meaningless. If you aren’t going to stop those who actively silence others from having free speech, then by definition, you no longer have free speech. Liberalism is not white supremacy, but there’s an argument to be made that Black Lives Matter is black supremacy. Oh, yes it is.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Terresa Monroe-Hamilton is an editor and writer for Right Wing News. She owns and blogs at <a href="http://www.noisyroom.net/blog/" type="external">NoisyRoom.net</a>. She is a Constitutional Conservative and NoisyRoom focuses on political and national issues of interest to the American public. Terresa is the editor at Trevor Loudon's site, New Zeal - <a href="http://www.trevorloudon.com/" type="external">trevorloudon.com</a>. She also does research at <a href="http://www.keywiki.org" type="external">KeyWiki.org</a>. You can <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">email Terresa here</a>. NoisyRoom can be found on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/noisyroom.net" type="external">Facebook</a> and on <a href="https://twitter.com/terresamonroe" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | WHAT!? Black Lives Matter SHUTS Down Free Speech Event – Because “Liberalism is White Supremacy” [VIDEO] | true | http://rightwingnews.com/black-lives-matter/what-black-lives-matter-shuts-down-free-speech-event-because-liberalism-is-white-supremacy-video/ | 2018-10-20 | 0right
| WHAT!? Black Lives Matter SHUTS Down Free Speech Event – Because “Liberalism is White Supremacy” [VIDEO]
<p />
<p>If liberals didn’t see this one coming, they are even bigger idiots than I thought. At The College of William &amp; Mary, Black Lives Matters shut down an ACLU Free Speech event. Why? Well, because “liberalism is white supremacy.” This is sheer racism which is what Black Lives Matter has been all about form the beginning… that and communism. They derailed an event hosted by the ACLU. It was ironically entitled: “Students and the First Amendment.” Considering how they’ve tried to silence conservatives, I find that rich. ACLU staffer and W&amp;M alumna Claire Gastañaga was behind the event.</p>
<p>The event was live-streamed by the student group to cover their protest on Facebook. Students stormed the stage just after the lecture began. For about twenty minutes they chanted, drowning out the speaker, Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, the executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. “ACLU, you protect Hitler, too,” “the oppressed are not impressed” and “shame, shame, shame, shame” were among the chants used by the protesters. In addition, they chanted “the revolution will not uphold the Constitution,” and “Liberalism is white supremacy.” These are racist communists that want to destroy the Constitution and our Republic.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>These asshats were protesting the ACLU’s decision to defend the Charlottesville rally that took place on the University of Virginia’s campus in August. Can’t have free speech if it disagrees with you, now can we? Except that is what free speech is and the First Amendment is specifically designed to protect speech we don’t like. The organizers of the event eventually pulled the plug after twenty minutes of chanting. I don’t blame them. But BLM should have been arrested for at least disturbing the peace here and more appropriately, inciting violence.</p>
<p>The college issued a statement that read in part that “silencing certain voices in order to advance the cause of others is not acceptable” because it “stifles debate.” You forgot the word ‘fascist’.</p>
<p>John Hawkins's book 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know is filled with lessons that newly minted adults need in order to get the most out of life. Gleaned from a lifetime of trial, error, and writing it down, Hawkins provides advice everyone can benefit from in short, digestible chapters.</p>
<p>More from the college:</p>
<p>William &amp; Mary has a powerful commitment to the free play of ideas. We have a campus where respectful dialogue, especially in disagreement, is encouraged so that we can listen and learn from views that differ from our own, so that we can freely express our own views, and so that debate can occur. Unfortunately, that type of exchange was unable to take place Wednesday night when an event to discuss a very important matter – the meaning of the First Amendment — could not be held as planned. …</p>
<p>Silencing certain voices in order to advance the cause of others is not acceptable in our community. This stifles debate and prevents those who’ve come to hear a speaker, our students in particular, from asking questions, often hard questions, and from engaging in debate where the strength of ideas, not the power of shouting, is the currency. William &amp; Mary must be a campus that welcomes difficult conversations, honest debate and civil dialogue.</p>
<p>This statement is toothless and pretty much meaningless. If you aren’t going to stop those who actively silence others from having free speech, then by definition, you no longer have free speech. Liberalism is not white supremacy, but there’s an argument to be made that Black Lives Matter is black supremacy. Oh, yes it is.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Terresa Monroe-Hamilton is an editor and writer for Right Wing News. She owns and blogs at <a href="http://www.noisyroom.net/blog/" type="external">NoisyRoom.net</a>. She is a Constitutional Conservative and NoisyRoom focuses on political and national issues of interest to the American public. Terresa is the editor at Trevor Loudon's site, New Zeal - <a href="http://www.trevorloudon.com/" type="external">trevorloudon.com</a>. She also does research at <a href="http://www.keywiki.org" type="external">KeyWiki.org</a>. You can <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">email Terresa here</a>. NoisyRoom can be found on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/noisyroom.net" type="external">Facebook</a> and on <a href="https://twitter.com/terresamonroe" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p> | 4,069 |
<p />
<p>Shares of Vivus (NASDAQ:VVUS) tumbled 12% on Friday morning after the biopharmaceutical company warned it expects European regulators to issue an unfavorable recommendation for its key weight-loss drug.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Vivus said a formal decision from the European Medicines Agency on the drug, Qsiva, is like to come in October.&#160; The company said it will either resubmit the application or appeal it, “depending upon the nature of the objection.”</p>
<p>“Vivus is committed to making this important medication available to obese patients in Europe,” Peter Tam, the company’s president, said in a statement.</p>
<p>If approved and effective, Qsiva should help drive revenue for Vivus, which pointed out that about 50% of adult Europeans are obese or overweight.</p>
<p>Qsiva received regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July, paving the way for its launch under the trade name Qsymia.</p>
<p>The green light from the FDA helps explain an impressive 143% surge for shares of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company so far this year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>However, shares of Vivus tumbled 11.57% to $20.97 Friday morning.</p>
<p>The FDA has also recently approved Belviq, a rival weight-loss drug from Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARNA).</p> | Vivus Dives 11% After Warning EU May Not Back Obesity Drug | true | http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/09/21/vivus-dives-11-after-warning-eu-may-not-back-obesity-drug.html | 2016-03-03 | 0right
| Vivus Dives 11% After Warning EU May Not Back Obesity Drug
<p />
<p>Shares of Vivus (NASDAQ:VVUS) tumbled 12% on Friday morning after the biopharmaceutical company warned it expects European regulators to issue an unfavorable recommendation for its key weight-loss drug.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Vivus said a formal decision from the European Medicines Agency on the drug, Qsiva, is like to come in October.&#160; The company said it will either resubmit the application or appeal it, “depending upon the nature of the objection.”</p>
<p>“Vivus is committed to making this important medication available to obese patients in Europe,” Peter Tam, the company’s president, said in a statement.</p>
<p>If approved and effective, Qsiva should help drive revenue for Vivus, which pointed out that about 50% of adult Europeans are obese or overweight.</p>
<p>Qsiva received regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July, paving the way for its launch under the trade name Qsymia.</p>
<p>The green light from the FDA helps explain an impressive 143% surge for shares of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company so far this year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>However, shares of Vivus tumbled 11.57% to $20.97 Friday morning.</p>
<p>The FDA has also recently approved Belviq, a rival weight-loss drug from Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARNA).</p> | 4,070 |
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<p>WOOLRICH, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s Woolrich Inc., the oldest manufacturer of outdoor wear in the United States, has merged with its European partner and will be headquartered in London.</p>
<p>Woolrich president Nicholas Brayton tells Pennlive.com ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2fPIj7a" type="external">http://bit.ly/2fPIj7a</a> ) the Wednesday merger with Italy’s W.P. Lavori in Corso will bring more jobs, mill renovations and development of company-owned land near the Pennsylvania mill. The two companies say it will enable Woolrich to grow globally.</p>
<p>The family-owned Woolrich was founded by John Rich in 1830 to make fabric for wives of hunters, loggers and trappers. The company’s blankets kept troops warm during the Civil War and its outfits went on Antarctica expeditions led by Adm. Richard E. Byrd.</p>
<p>Brayton says plans also call for investing in Woolrich’s 3,500 acres, possibly creating hiking trails, fishing and other outdoor activities.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | Oldest maker of outdoor wear in US will be based in London | false | https://abqjournal.com/900908/oldest-maker-of-outdoor-wear-in-us-will-be-based-in-london.html | 2least
| Oldest maker of outdoor wear in US will be based in London
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>WOOLRICH, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s Woolrich Inc., the oldest manufacturer of outdoor wear in the United States, has merged with its European partner and will be headquartered in London.</p>
<p>Woolrich president Nicholas Brayton tells Pennlive.com ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2fPIj7a" type="external">http://bit.ly/2fPIj7a</a> ) the Wednesday merger with Italy’s W.P. Lavori in Corso will bring more jobs, mill renovations and development of company-owned land near the Pennsylvania mill. The two companies say it will enable Woolrich to grow globally.</p>
<p>The family-owned Woolrich was founded by John Rich in 1830 to make fabric for wives of hunters, loggers and trappers. The company’s blankets kept troops warm during the Civil War and its outfits went on Antarctica expeditions led by Adm. Richard E. Byrd.</p>
<p>Brayton says plans also call for investing in Woolrich’s 3,500 acres, possibly creating hiking trails, fishing and other outdoor activities.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 4,071 |
|
<p>Everything is soothed by oil, and this is the reason why divers send out small quantities of it from their mouths, because it smooths every part which is rough.</p>
<p>Pliny the Elder, Natural History</p>
<p>The British anger is really over the fact that Americans lack the stiff upper lip for which the British are so famous. Instead of just sucking it up and putting on a brave face we seem to be engaged in a constant state of whinging and it’s hard for the British not to believe that it’s nothing more than wanting to make them and one of their prized corporate citizens look bad.</p>
<p>In fairness to the Americans, one has to observe that the oil being spilled (the word that is consistently used to describe something that never having been contained except by nature, was hardly capable of being “spilled”) is having a devastating effect on the environment and its inhabitants. Millions of people are having their lives irreversibly altered if not shattered with no prospect of returning to a pre-spill way of life during their lifetimes, presidential promises to the contrary notwithstanding. The environment will be irreversibly altered for hundreds of square miles with no prospect that the life contained therein will recover within the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>And it’s not that BP (referred to as “British Petroleum” by some commentators, in an attempt, the British think, to create more anger towards their country) did not do everything within its power, sort of, to protect against the very disaster that occurred. So thorough was BP that in the response plan that it furnished the government describing how it would deal with disasters, it said it had plans to protect “Sensitive Biological Resources” in the Gulf. It defined those resources to include “Sea lions, Seals, Sea Otters and Walruses”. That shows an amazing thoroughness since sightings of any of those creatures in the Gulf have, in recent centuries, been extremely rare. (During the recent congressional hearings in which executives from other companies that were drilling in the Gulf testified, it was disclosed that many of the response plans prepared by them also promised to protect those animals.)</p>
<p>BP also identified its “primary equipment providers in the Gulf of Mexico Region for deployment of spill response resources on a 24 hour, 7 days a week basis.” One of those providers, identified in a link on the proposal, was to a Japanese Home Shopping site but that was just a mistake and does not suggest BP was negligent. The fact that it identified them was significant even though when the event occurred the providers, including the Home Shopping Network were, contrary to the representation, unavailable. In its response plan it also says it has “personnel, equipment, and materials in sufficient quantities and recovery capacity to respond effectively to oil spills from the “worst case discharge scenarios” covered by the plan and it is almost certain that it believed that.</p>
<p>A rarely mentioned fact about the response plan is that it is almost 600 pages in length. That, too, speaks to the thoroughness of BP’s work.</p>
<p>Considering all of the foregoing, it is easy to see why the British are so upset by criticism of the company and its consequential damage to BP’s reputation.</p>
<p>BP is a very important British company. It has historically paid really good dividends and its stock is widely held by teachers’ unions, pension funds, etc. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London spoke for the British public when he expressed worry about “anti-British rhetoric” and “name-calling” from American politicians. George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer said it was important to remember the “economic value BP brings to people in Britain and America.” (The Americans will be forgiven if that benefit has been somewhat eclipsed by the disaster.) In addition, BP pays close to $1.4 billion in British taxes and any diminution in that amount would harm the British economy.</p>
<p>The Conservative peer, Lord Tebbit, was quoted in the New York Times as calling the American response “a crude, bigoted, xenophobic display of partisan, political, presidential petulance against a multinational company.” Sir Chrisopher Meyer, a former British ambassador to the U.S. said that the British government “must put down a marker with the U.S. administration that the survival and long term prosperity of BP is a vital British interest.” That is easy for Americans to overlook when contemplating the long-term survival and prosperity of residents of the gulf coast.</p>
<p>I am taking the concerns of the Brits to heart. I will, as I hope this column proves, say nothing but nice things about BP. And irrespective of what happens to the people who live on the Gulf coast, I join BP’s president in expressing the hope that he can get his life back. I am sure this has been an unpleasant and stressful time for him.</p>
<p>CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI can be e-mailed at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>For political commentary see his web page at <a href="http://humanraceandothersports.com" type="external">http://humanraceandothersports.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p /> | Poor Britain | true | https://counterpunch.org/2010/06/18/poor-britain/ | 2010-06-18 | 4left
| Poor Britain
<p>Everything is soothed by oil, and this is the reason why divers send out small quantities of it from their mouths, because it smooths every part which is rough.</p>
<p>Pliny the Elder, Natural History</p>
<p>The British anger is really over the fact that Americans lack the stiff upper lip for which the British are so famous. Instead of just sucking it up and putting on a brave face we seem to be engaged in a constant state of whinging and it’s hard for the British not to believe that it’s nothing more than wanting to make them and one of their prized corporate citizens look bad.</p>
<p>In fairness to the Americans, one has to observe that the oil being spilled (the word that is consistently used to describe something that never having been contained except by nature, was hardly capable of being “spilled”) is having a devastating effect on the environment and its inhabitants. Millions of people are having their lives irreversibly altered if not shattered with no prospect of returning to a pre-spill way of life during their lifetimes, presidential promises to the contrary notwithstanding. The environment will be irreversibly altered for hundreds of square miles with no prospect that the life contained therein will recover within the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>And it’s not that BP (referred to as “British Petroleum” by some commentators, in an attempt, the British think, to create more anger towards their country) did not do everything within its power, sort of, to protect against the very disaster that occurred. So thorough was BP that in the response plan that it furnished the government describing how it would deal with disasters, it said it had plans to protect “Sensitive Biological Resources” in the Gulf. It defined those resources to include “Sea lions, Seals, Sea Otters and Walruses”. That shows an amazing thoroughness since sightings of any of those creatures in the Gulf have, in recent centuries, been extremely rare. (During the recent congressional hearings in which executives from other companies that were drilling in the Gulf testified, it was disclosed that many of the response plans prepared by them also promised to protect those animals.)</p>
<p>BP also identified its “primary equipment providers in the Gulf of Mexico Region for deployment of spill response resources on a 24 hour, 7 days a week basis.” One of those providers, identified in a link on the proposal, was to a Japanese Home Shopping site but that was just a mistake and does not suggest BP was negligent. The fact that it identified them was significant even though when the event occurred the providers, including the Home Shopping Network were, contrary to the representation, unavailable. In its response plan it also says it has “personnel, equipment, and materials in sufficient quantities and recovery capacity to respond effectively to oil spills from the “worst case discharge scenarios” covered by the plan and it is almost certain that it believed that.</p>
<p>A rarely mentioned fact about the response plan is that it is almost 600 pages in length. That, too, speaks to the thoroughness of BP’s work.</p>
<p>Considering all of the foregoing, it is easy to see why the British are so upset by criticism of the company and its consequential damage to BP’s reputation.</p>
<p>BP is a very important British company. It has historically paid really good dividends and its stock is widely held by teachers’ unions, pension funds, etc. Boris Johnson, the mayor of London spoke for the British public when he expressed worry about “anti-British rhetoric” and “name-calling” from American politicians. George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer said it was important to remember the “economic value BP brings to people in Britain and America.” (The Americans will be forgiven if that benefit has been somewhat eclipsed by the disaster.) In addition, BP pays close to $1.4 billion in British taxes and any diminution in that amount would harm the British economy.</p>
<p>The Conservative peer, Lord Tebbit, was quoted in the New York Times as calling the American response “a crude, bigoted, xenophobic display of partisan, political, presidential petulance against a multinational company.” Sir Chrisopher Meyer, a former British ambassador to the U.S. said that the British government “must put down a marker with the U.S. administration that the survival and long term prosperity of BP is a vital British interest.” That is easy for Americans to overlook when contemplating the long-term survival and prosperity of residents of the gulf coast.</p>
<p>I am taking the concerns of the Brits to heart. I will, as I hope this column proves, say nothing but nice things about BP. And irrespective of what happens to the people who live on the Gulf coast, I join BP’s president in expressing the hope that he can get his life back. I am sure this has been an unpleasant and stressful time for him.</p>
<p>CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI can be e-mailed at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>For political commentary see his web page at <a href="http://humanraceandothersports.com" type="external">http://humanraceandothersports.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p /> | 4,072 |
<p>For years now, Washington’s political class has been locked in a hand-wringing debate over what to do about Afghanistan. Should the U.S. continue to plan for an extended military engagement? Can “moderate” Taliban somehow be peeled away from fanatical Taliban? Should the U.S. give up on democracy and focus on killing Al Quad terrorists with Predator drone assassination attacks, regardless of civilian casualties, public outrage or their legal ambiguity?</p>
<p>Although packed with foreign policy experts, the current debate remains largely grounded on what policy best serves Washington’s needs, but in terms of what’s best for Afghans, the answer to all of the above questions is no.</p>
<p>For most of the last 70 years nobody in Washington cared much about Afghanistan.&#160; Generations of Washington diplomats found no resources to value or strategy to gain by befriending it. Kabul’s early requests for military assistance in controlling its wild eastern frontier with Pakistan were first ignored and then outright rejected, leaving Afghanistan to seek aid&#160; from the Soviet Union. Conservative 1980’s Washington found the country endlessly useful as a cold war platform for declarations on freedom and self-determination, but then turned it over to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to determine its fate once the Red Army had left.</p>
<p>Today, every beltway pundit and media talking-head wants to help president Bema finally get Afghanistan right. But if getting Afghanistan right in 2009 boils down to abandoning everything that the U.S. and the west have invested over the last 7 years, then what do they have to lose by abandoning their old misperceptions?</p>
<p>Understanding how to forge a workable strategy&#160; for Afghanistan may be far simpler than anyone to date has considered, if only those with the power to do so in Washington can finally shed their obsolete cold war thinking and start thinking like the Afghans who fought to establish and maintain an independent Afghan nation.</p>
<p>Thinking like an Afghan</p>
<p>From antiquity, Afghan identity has been rooted in the lands surrounding the Hindu Kush bordering the Indus river. Afghan independence began as an uprising led by a mystical Sufi philosopher Bayezid Ansari against Mughal rule in the 16th century.&#160; Beginning&#160; in 1747, an Afghan dynasty ruled from Kashmir to the Arabian Sea and from Central Asia to Delhi and continued to rule Afghanistan until 1978.</p>
<p>Afghan rulers defeated British armies on three separate occasions while masterfully playing Britain’s interests off against imperial Russia’s southward march.&#160; Afghanistan’s late 19th century nation builder, Amir Abdur Rahman Khan faced impossible odds at&#160; keeping Afghanistan independent. Yet, he fought his severest battles against his own relations, his own subjects and his own Pashtun people and he succeeded.</p>
<p>For the decade of the 1920’s, despite severe opposition from rural landowners and powerful Mullahs and destabilization from British India, Amir Amanullah Khan moved the country forward through progressive rule while bringing an unprecedented level of rights to women. And while Iran and India were occupied by allied forces during World War II, Afghanistan’s Royal Prime Minister, Hashim Khan maintained Afghanistan’s independence by staying out of the war and adhering to a strict neutrality.</p>
<p>Following the creation of&#160; the state of Pakistan, Washington’s cold war objectives and Pakistan’s ambitions formed a single mindset. But that mindset now works against both the United States and Afghanistan as Pakistan’s military intelligence works unceasingly to undermine the efforts of Afghan moderates to establish a viable democratic state.</p>
<p>According to a recent Asia Foundation poll, 78 percent of Afghans continue to prefer democracy over any other form of government and despite its shortcomings, 68 percent said they were satisfied with the way democracy was working. An ABC/BBC/ARD National survey of Afghanistan in February found that&#160; 58 percent of the population saw the Taliban as the biggest danger while only 4 percent of Afghans support a Taliban government. Yet Washington appears immune from this reality.</p>
<p>If President Obama wishes to bring stability to Afghanistan and the region he must learn to see Afghanistan through Afghan eyes, help the Afghans defend their communities from Taliban terror, and give them the help they need to reestablish a genuine civil society.</p>
<p>In doing so, he may not only solve Afghanistan’s problems, but begin the renewal of Washington as well.</p>
<p>Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould are authors of <a href="" type="internal">Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story</a>, available from City Lights Books&#160; and&#160; <a href="http://www.Invisiblehistory.com" type="external">Invisiblehistory.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | Thinking Like an Afghan | true | https://counterpunch.org/2009/04/16/thinking-like-an-afghan/ | 2009-04-16 | 4left
| Thinking Like an Afghan
<p>For years now, Washington’s political class has been locked in a hand-wringing debate over what to do about Afghanistan. Should the U.S. continue to plan for an extended military engagement? Can “moderate” Taliban somehow be peeled away from fanatical Taliban? Should the U.S. give up on democracy and focus on killing Al Quad terrorists with Predator drone assassination attacks, regardless of civilian casualties, public outrage or their legal ambiguity?</p>
<p>Although packed with foreign policy experts, the current debate remains largely grounded on what policy best serves Washington’s needs, but in terms of what’s best for Afghans, the answer to all of the above questions is no.</p>
<p>For most of the last 70 years nobody in Washington cared much about Afghanistan.&#160; Generations of Washington diplomats found no resources to value or strategy to gain by befriending it. Kabul’s early requests for military assistance in controlling its wild eastern frontier with Pakistan were first ignored and then outright rejected, leaving Afghanistan to seek aid&#160; from the Soviet Union. Conservative 1980’s Washington found the country endlessly useful as a cold war platform for declarations on freedom and self-determination, but then turned it over to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to determine its fate once the Red Army had left.</p>
<p>Today, every beltway pundit and media talking-head wants to help president Bema finally get Afghanistan right. But if getting Afghanistan right in 2009 boils down to abandoning everything that the U.S. and the west have invested over the last 7 years, then what do they have to lose by abandoning their old misperceptions?</p>
<p>Understanding how to forge a workable strategy&#160; for Afghanistan may be far simpler than anyone to date has considered, if only those with the power to do so in Washington can finally shed their obsolete cold war thinking and start thinking like the Afghans who fought to establish and maintain an independent Afghan nation.</p>
<p>Thinking like an Afghan</p>
<p>From antiquity, Afghan identity has been rooted in the lands surrounding the Hindu Kush bordering the Indus river. Afghan independence began as an uprising led by a mystical Sufi philosopher Bayezid Ansari against Mughal rule in the 16th century.&#160; Beginning&#160; in 1747, an Afghan dynasty ruled from Kashmir to the Arabian Sea and from Central Asia to Delhi and continued to rule Afghanistan until 1978.</p>
<p>Afghan rulers defeated British armies on three separate occasions while masterfully playing Britain’s interests off against imperial Russia’s southward march.&#160; Afghanistan’s late 19th century nation builder, Amir Abdur Rahman Khan faced impossible odds at&#160; keeping Afghanistan independent. Yet, he fought his severest battles against his own relations, his own subjects and his own Pashtun people and he succeeded.</p>
<p>For the decade of the 1920’s, despite severe opposition from rural landowners and powerful Mullahs and destabilization from British India, Amir Amanullah Khan moved the country forward through progressive rule while bringing an unprecedented level of rights to women. And while Iran and India were occupied by allied forces during World War II, Afghanistan’s Royal Prime Minister, Hashim Khan maintained Afghanistan’s independence by staying out of the war and adhering to a strict neutrality.</p>
<p>Following the creation of&#160; the state of Pakistan, Washington’s cold war objectives and Pakistan’s ambitions formed a single mindset. But that mindset now works against both the United States and Afghanistan as Pakistan’s military intelligence works unceasingly to undermine the efforts of Afghan moderates to establish a viable democratic state.</p>
<p>According to a recent Asia Foundation poll, 78 percent of Afghans continue to prefer democracy over any other form of government and despite its shortcomings, 68 percent said they were satisfied with the way democracy was working. An ABC/BBC/ARD National survey of Afghanistan in February found that&#160; 58 percent of the population saw the Taliban as the biggest danger while only 4 percent of Afghans support a Taliban government. Yet Washington appears immune from this reality.</p>
<p>If President Obama wishes to bring stability to Afghanistan and the region he must learn to see Afghanistan through Afghan eyes, help the Afghans defend their communities from Taliban terror, and give them the help they need to reestablish a genuine civil society.</p>
<p>In doing so, he may not only solve Afghanistan’s problems, but begin the renewal of Washington as well.</p>
<p>Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould are authors of <a href="" type="internal">Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story</a>, available from City Lights Books&#160; and&#160; <a href="http://www.Invisiblehistory.com" type="external">Invisiblehistory.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | 4,073 |
<p>My wife and I brought home Rhodes, our first child, four months ago. Here's what I remember most about those first weeks: the smell of his skin and breath as he slept on my chest in our bed—small, warm, and fragile, like an egg. I breathed in the scent of the newest life I’d ever encountered as he slept.</p>
<p>He wasn’t undersized, but still I marveled at how tiny these newest of humans come. We, the most dominating creatures on Earth, start out so helpless and red and beautiful. I knew, as he lay curled against my heart, that I would do anything to protect him, love him, and bring him up right in the world.</p>
<p>Last month, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-india-hangings-20130914,0,6139574.story" type="external">four men in India</a> were sentenced to death for a rape and murder of such brutality it can scarcely be believed. The week prior, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/09/09/2590771/vanderbilt-rape-case/" type="external">four Vanderbilt University football players</a> were charged with raping an unconscious woman (much like last year's events in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steubenville_High_School_rape_case" type="external">Steubenville, Ohio</a>). And during the previous spring, just before Rhodes was born, Ariel Castro was arrested in Cleveland for imprisoning three women—kidnapped as young girls—in his house for ten years.</p>
<p>These and similar stories constantly fill our network news, cable opinion shows, newspapers, social media, blogs... It's nearly impossible to avoid stories of violence, rape, and domination. Living rightly is hard enough on your own, and now I must raise a son to do so in a world that is, in part, characterized by men's violence against women.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4LkrQCyIz8" type="external">Louis CK sums it up best</a>: "There is no greater threat to women than men. We are the number one threat to women. Globally and historically, we’re the number one cause of injury and mayhem to women." And I worry that he’s right.</p>
<p>Now that I am a father, this question constantly sits before me: How do I raise a son of compassion and dignity? A man who respects women?</p>
<p>Early on during our pregnancy, my wife and I discussed whether we preferred to raise a boy or a girl. It was completely beyond our control, but the conversation stuck with me: boy or girl? &#160;We've created a world of great beauty as well as great terror. Would I rather send a young man into it, or a young woman?</p>
<p>As I awaited our child, my awareness of news about sexual violence reached new heights, and influenced how I thought about raising a boy or a girl.</p>
<p>A girl, my early thinking followed, could be protected. I worried about her safety, but I thought I could shelter her from the particular threats made against young women.</p>
<p>But a boy, that really scared me. &#160;Boys are the particular threat to young women. If we had a boy, we would have to raise a man. And what kind of man would he be?</p>
<p>I have difficulty imagining my infant son as anything other than the innocent person he is today. My assumption is this: I’ll be a good dad and he’ll be a good boy. But I cannot see the future. I love him and want him to love others, to be kind, to be aware of his actions, and to treat people with respect. I want him to learn from the men who have chosen these things instead of power and abuse.</p>
<p>"It’s endemic."</p>
<p>That's Ed Heisler, executive director of <a href="http://menaspeacemakers.org/" type="external">Men as Peacemakers</a>, speaking about the <a href="http://www.wfmn.org/research/2010Reports/2010SWGM_FullReport.pdf" type="external">statistics</a> on sexual violence and domestic abuse.</p>
<p>"It is the social air that youth are breathing as they’re growing up," he told me. "The media, the athletic environment, the jeans, the adults who market the jeans, the parents, the teachers that we have in school, the religious leaders—all create an environment that normalizes the domination and the control of women." He chose the right word: endemic. "It’s been that way for some time and will remain that way until something in the social environment changes."</p>
<p>Men as Peacemakers was founded in Duluth, Minn., after the community was rocked by a series of murders committed by men in the 1990s. When citizens gathered to discuss addressing violence in their city, most of them were women. This concerned some of the men in the community, who convened a retreat with 55 men from the area to discuss their roles and responsibilities when it came to alleviating violence. One of the initiatives born of the meeting was Men as Peacemakers, whose mission is to teach men and boys that there are alternatives to violence, and that violence is unacceptable.</p>
<p>I had called Heisler with an honest question: How do I raise my son to be a man who will do his part, too, to change the social environment that subjugates women?</p>
<p>Men as Peacemakers attempts to counter this environment by embedding its role models and mentors throughout the community. For example, The Best Party Model, a program in coordination with with College of St. Scholastica, attempts to reshape the party culture in America to one that is safe and equitable for women. They do this by placing mentors in schools, colleges, youth organizations, and other places where young people can have honest conversations about sexuality and partying. And it turns out that language and conversation have a lot to do with shaping young men's attitudes toward women.</p>
<p>I mentioned an anecdote from this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. During Microsoft’s demo for the new Xbox One, the male player and emcee gave a virtual gaming beatdown to a female player before a live audience, telling her, " <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/06/microsoft-e3-rape-joke/66092/" type="external">Just let it happen. It’ll be over soon</a>."</p>
<p>In a culture where dominance and abusive rhetoric are socially permitted (video gaming), this is dominating language—and the language we use matters. Language can both empower and objectify. (Just compare the results of " <a href="https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&amp;tbm=isch&amp;source=hp&amp;biw=1152&amp;bih=579&amp;q=college+women&amp;oq=college+women&amp;gs_l=img.3..0l10.1327.2893.0.3238.13.11.0.1.1.0.99.611.11.11.0....0...1ac.1.27.img..1.12.615.ky0ZkkWRezc#q=college+women&amp;tbm=isch&amp;imgdii=_" type="external">college women</a>" to that of " <a href="https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&amp;tbm=isch&amp;source=hp&amp;biw=1152&amp;bih=579&amp;q=college+women&amp;oq=college+women&amp;gs_l=img.3..0l10.1327.2893.0.3238.13.11.0.1.1.0.99.611.11.11.0....0...1ac.1.27.img..1.12.615.ky0ZkkWRezc#q=college+girls&amp;tbm=isch&amp;imgdii=_" type="external">college girls</a>" in a Google Image search, and you get the point).</p>
<p>The Champions Initiative, another Men as Peacemakers initiative, pairs college athletes with youth and works directly with athletic associations and coaches to ensure that the prevention of violence against women is part of these associations' missions.</p>
<p>Since the Steubenville rape trial has focused an eye on sports culture and sexual violence, Heisler believes this outreach is critical. He uses the Steubenville case in a guided imagery exercise that asks boys to "think about that young man from Steubenville as a little boy" and to consider what his environment looks and sounds like: "Somehow that kid learned what his sense of humor was or that women were objects for men’s pleasure—things that don’t matter, you can pee on them, use them, do whatever you want with them and it doesn’t matter. That was not the way he was born."</p>
<p>So perhaps men are the worst thing that ever happens to women, but we are not born that way. We learn it. Even well-intentioned, responsible young men are capable of making terrible decisions if they are not taught, prepared, and encouraged to do otherwise.</p>
<p>So I asked Heisler directly: You’re talking to a new dad. What’s the most important, fundamental advice you can give to make sure that the children we’re raising are not going to add to this human rights problem?</p>
<p>His answer? Create a wholly new environment for young men:</p>
<p>"New dads have an opportunity and responsibility to very proactively think about how to shape and provide an environment for that young person, [one] that is going to role model and display and set expectations for equality and dignity and respect between men and women."</p>
<p>This means not just being a model in how we treat mothers, partners, and strangers in public, but also in how we think about our homes and the spaces we inhabit.</p>
<p>"We’re trying to create a world where dads—men—are taking it a step further and really thinking about how they creatively shape an environment that promotes gender equity and respect for women," Heisler told me. "We have a tide pushing in the opposite direction. It takes every effort to create an environment that will stick with our young people."</p>
<p>A few days later, I had a beer with Todd Bratulich and Luke Freeman. After all the research on violence and domination, I wanted to unwind. Todd is a youth pastor at <a href="http://www.1stcov.org/" type="external">First Covenant</a>, an urban Minneapolis community church; Luke, a high school teacher. More importantly, both, like me, have young sons.</p>
<p>We talked about how to be good men who love our partners and families and friends, and who want to make a warm and welcoming environment for our sons to grow into. We all felt good about our commitment to these issues, thinking we were doing our part—we weren't party to the culture of violence against women.</p>
<p>Then, sensing our self-satisfaction, Luke said: "We pat ourselves on the back because we find exceptions in ourselves, only to go on and enjoy our privilege."</p>
<p>And I realized, I hadn’t really done my part after all. Not yet. Treating my wife with love and kindness is vital, of course. But it also is only the minimum.</p>
<p>We must be active, creative, and purposeful in extending this behavior to every moment of our lives if we are to become peacemakers, to push against the tide and create the space needed to raise sons with empathy and compassion.</p>
<p>We three dads raised our glasses to the challenge, and went home to our sons.</p> | A New Dad Asks, If Male Violence Is the Biggest Threat to Women—How Do I Raise a Kind Son? | true | http://yesmagazine.org/happiness/a-father-s-perspective-on-raising-decent-men | 4left
| A New Dad Asks, If Male Violence Is the Biggest Threat to Women—How Do I Raise a Kind Son?
<p>My wife and I brought home Rhodes, our first child, four months ago. Here's what I remember most about those first weeks: the smell of his skin and breath as he slept on my chest in our bed—small, warm, and fragile, like an egg. I breathed in the scent of the newest life I’d ever encountered as he slept.</p>
<p>He wasn’t undersized, but still I marveled at how tiny these newest of humans come. We, the most dominating creatures on Earth, start out so helpless and red and beautiful. I knew, as he lay curled against my heart, that I would do anything to protect him, love him, and bring him up right in the world.</p>
<p>Last month, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-india-hangings-20130914,0,6139574.story" type="external">four men in India</a> were sentenced to death for a rape and murder of such brutality it can scarcely be believed. The week prior, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/09/09/2590771/vanderbilt-rape-case/" type="external">four Vanderbilt University football players</a> were charged with raping an unconscious woman (much like last year's events in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steubenville_High_School_rape_case" type="external">Steubenville, Ohio</a>). And during the previous spring, just before Rhodes was born, Ariel Castro was arrested in Cleveland for imprisoning three women—kidnapped as young girls—in his house for ten years.</p>
<p>These and similar stories constantly fill our network news, cable opinion shows, newspapers, social media, blogs... It's nearly impossible to avoid stories of violence, rape, and domination. Living rightly is hard enough on your own, and now I must raise a son to do so in a world that is, in part, characterized by men's violence against women.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4LkrQCyIz8" type="external">Louis CK sums it up best</a>: "There is no greater threat to women than men. We are the number one threat to women. Globally and historically, we’re the number one cause of injury and mayhem to women." And I worry that he’s right.</p>
<p>Now that I am a father, this question constantly sits before me: How do I raise a son of compassion and dignity? A man who respects women?</p>
<p>Early on during our pregnancy, my wife and I discussed whether we preferred to raise a boy or a girl. It was completely beyond our control, but the conversation stuck with me: boy or girl? &#160;We've created a world of great beauty as well as great terror. Would I rather send a young man into it, or a young woman?</p>
<p>As I awaited our child, my awareness of news about sexual violence reached new heights, and influenced how I thought about raising a boy or a girl.</p>
<p>A girl, my early thinking followed, could be protected. I worried about her safety, but I thought I could shelter her from the particular threats made against young women.</p>
<p>But a boy, that really scared me. &#160;Boys are the particular threat to young women. If we had a boy, we would have to raise a man. And what kind of man would he be?</p>
<p>I have difficulty imagining my infant son as anything other than the innocent person he is today. My assumption is this: I’ll be a good dad and he’ll be a good boy. But I cannot see the future. I love him and want him to love others, to be kind, to be aware of his actions, and to treat people with respect. I want him to learn from the men who have chosen these things instead of power and abuse.</p>
<p>"It’s endemic."</p>
<p>That's Ed Heisler, executive director of <a href="http://menaspeacemakers.org/" type="external">Men as Peacemakers</a>, speaking about the <a href="http://www.wfmn.org/research/2010Reports/2010SWGM_FullReport.pdf" type="external">statistics</a> on sexual violence and domestic abuse.</p>
<p>"It is the social air that youth are breathing as they’re growing up," he told me. "The media, the athletic environment, the jeans, the adults who market the jeans, the parents, the teachers that we have in school, the religious leaders—all create an environment that normalizes the domination and the control of women." He chose the right word: endemic. "It’s been that way for some time and will remain that way until something in the social environment changes."</p>
<p>Men as Peacemakers was founded in Duluth, Minn., after the community was rocked by a series of murders committed by men in the 1990s. When citizens gathered to discuss addressing violence in their city, most of them were women. This concerned some of the men in the community, who convened a retreat with 55 men from the area to discuss their roles and responsibilities when it came to alleviating violence. One of the initiatives born of the meeting was Men as Peacemakers, whose mission is to teach men and boys that there are alternatives to violence, and that violence is unacceptable.</p>
<p>I had called Heisler with an honest question: How do I raise my son to be a man who will do his part, too, to change the social environment that subjugates women?</p>
<p>Men as Peacemakers attempts to counter this environment by embedding its role models and mentors throughout the community. For example, The Best Party Model, a program in coordination with with College of St. Scholastica, attempts to reshape the party culture in America to one that is safe and equitable for women. They do this by placing mentors in schools, colleges, youth organizations, and other places where young people can have honest conversations about sexuality and partying. And it turns out that language and conversation have a lot to do with shaping young men's attitudes toward women.</p>
<p>I mentioned an anecdote from this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. During Microsoft’s demo for the new Xbox One, the male player and emcee gave a virtual gaming beatdown to a female player before a live audience, telling her, " <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/06/microsoft-e3-rape-joke/66092/" type="external">Just let it happen. It’ll be over soon</a>."</p>
<p>In a culture where dominance and abusive rhetoric are socially permitted (video gaming), this is dominating language—and the language we use matters. Language can both empower and objectify. (Just compare the results of " <a href="https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&amp;tbm=isch&amp;source=hp&amp;biw=1152&amp;bih=579&amp;q=college+women&amp;oq=college+women&amp;gs_l=img.3..0l10.1327.2893.0.3238.13.11.0.1.1.0.99.611.11.11.0....0...1ac.1.27.img..1.12.615.ky0ZkkWRezc#q=college+women&amp;tbm=isch&amp;imgdii=_" type="external">college women</a>" to that of " <a href="https://www.google.com/search?site=imghp&amp;tbm=isch&amp;source=hp&amp;biw=1152&amp;bih=579&amp;q=college+women&amp;oq=college+women&amp;gs_l=img.3..0l10.1327.2893.0.3238.13.11.0.1.1.0.99.611.11.11.0....0...1ac.1.27.img..1.12.615.ky0ZkkWRezc#q=college+girls&amp;tbm=isch&amp;imgdii=_" type="external">college girls</a>" in a Google Image search, and you get the point).</p>
<p>The Champions Initiative, another Men as Peacemakers initiative, pairs college athletes with youth and works directly with athletic associations and coaches to ensure that the prevention of violence against women is part of these associations' missions.</p>
<p>Since the Steubenville rape trial has focused an eye on sports culture and sexual violence, Heisler believes this outreach is critical. He uses the Steubenville case in a guided imagery exercise that asks boys to "think about that young man from Steubenville as a little boy" and to consider what his environment looks and sounds like: "Somehow that kid learned what his sense of humor was or that women were objects for men’s pleasure—things that don’t matter, you can pee on them, use them, do whatever you want with them and it doesn’t matter. That was not the way he was born."</p>
<p>So perhaps men are the worst thing that ever happens to women, but we are not born that way. We learn it. Even well-intentioned, responsible young men are capable of making terrible decisions if they are not taught, prepared, and encouraged to do otherwise.</p>
<p>So I asked Heisler directly: You’re talking to a new dad. What’s the most important, fundamental advice you can give to make sure that the children we’re raising are not going to add to this human rights problem?</p>
<p>His answer? Create a wholly new environment for young men:</p>
<p>"New dads have an opportunity and responsibility to very proactively think about how to shape and provide an environment for that young person, [one] that is going to role model and display and set expectations for equality and dignity and respect between men and women."</p>
<p>This means not just being a model in how we treat mothers, partners, and strangers in public, but also in how we think about our homes and the spaces we inhabit.</p>
<p>"We’re trying to create a world where dads—men—are taking it a step further and really thinking about how they creatively shape an environment that promotes gender equity and respect for women," Heisler told me. "We have a tide pushing in the opposite direction. It takes every effort to create an environment that will stick with our young people."</p>
<p>A few days later, I had a beer with Todd Bratulich and Luke Freeman. After all the research on violence and domination, I wanted to unwind. Todd is a youth pastor at <a href="http://www.1stcov.org/" type="external">First Covenant</a>, an urban Minneapolis community church; Luke, a high school teacher. More importantly, both, like me, have young sons.</p>
<p>We talked about how to be good men who love our partners and families and friends, and who want to make a warm and welcoming environment for our sons to grow into. We all felt good about our commitment to these issues, thinking we were doing our part—we weren't party to the culture of violence against women.</p>
<p>Then, sensing our self-satisfaction, Luke said: "We pat ourselves on the back because we find exceptions in ourselves, only to go on and enjoy our privilege."</p>
<p>And I realized, I hadn’t really done my part after all. Not yet. Treating my wife with love and kindness is vital, of course. But it also is only the minimum.</p>
<p>We must be active, creative, and purposeful in extending this behavior to every moment of our lives if we are to become peacemakers, to push against the tide and create the space needed to raise sons with empathy and compassion.</p>
<p>We three dads raised our glasses to the challenge, and went home to our sons.</p> | 4,074 |
|
<p>Rui Vieira/Zuma</p>
<p />
<p>The internet is the worst ballot box of all, according to three research and public-interest groups who are slamming states’ use of online voting and urging people to protect their privacy by physically mailing in their ballots instead.</p>
<p>“Internet voting creates a second-class system for some voters—one in which their votes may not be private and their ballots may be altered without their knowledge,” write the authors of <a href="http://www.secretballotatrisk.org/" type="external">The Secret Ballot at Risk: Recommendations for Protecting Democracy</a>. Caitriona Fitzgerald of the <a href="https://www.epic.org/" type="external">Electronic Privacy Information Center</a>, Pam Smith of the <a href="https://www.verifiedvoting.org/" type="external">Verified Voting Foundation</a>, and Susannah Goodman of <a href="http://www.commoncause.org/about/" type="external">the Voting Integrity Campaign of Common Cause,</a> who were the authors of the report, point out that states either have constitutional provisions or state statues guaranteeing the right to secret ballots, but that “because of current technological limitations…it is impossible to maintain separation of voters’ identities from their votes when Internet voting is used.”</p>
<p>The report comes at a time when hacking—especially from foreign interests seeking to influence US elections—has become a major theme of the presidential race. This summer, data from the <a href="" type="internal">Democratic National Committee,</a> other Democratic organizations, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/us/politics/democratic-party-russia-hack-cyberattack.html?_r=0" type="external">perhaps more than 100 high-ranking Democrats</a> were released by hackers the US government says were working with or on behalf of the Russian government. The authors of the report told reporters on a conference call Thursday that they’re glad these recent episodes have raised consciousness about information security, but that their report focuses on the less-discussed but critically important area of ballot secrecy.</p>
<p>“A lot of the vulnerabilities of online voting are discussed pretty frequently,” said Pam Smith of the Verified Voting Foundation. “The reason that we wanted to do this report is because the secrecy issue, the privacy issue, is something that doesn’t get as much attention.”</p>
<p>The researchers argue that maintaining ballot secrecy is key to preventing vote coercion, vote buying, and tampering. That’s why 44 states have a constitutional provision guaranteeing voting secrecy, while six states and Washington, DC, have statutes that provide for secret voting. In some states, like Delaware, for example, it is a crime for election officials to reveal a voter’s vote, according to the report.</p>
<p>In all, 32 states and the District of Columbia offer some form of voting over the internet (email, fax, or online portal), according to the researchers. Most of those states use the systems for their overseas military or absentee voters, but in Alaska, <a href="https://www.elections.alaska.gov/vi_bb_by_fax.php" type="external">all absentee voters can submit their ballots online</a>. In 28 of these states, voters using the online systems are required to waive their right to casting a secret ballot. But Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Washington do not give any warning about ballot secrecy. The researchers note that Montana has a statutory requirement that votes cast over the internet remain secret “despite the fact that this is technologically impossible.”</p>
<p>With current technology, ballots submitted online cannot be separated from the voters who cast them, which is why voters are required to sign away their right to privacy. Additionally, if the server hosting all the emailed ballots is compromised, the votes cast could easily become public, along with the voters’ identifying information associated with the ballot.</p>
<p>Online ballots can also easily be tampered with. <a href="https://galois.com/" type="external">Galois</a>, a computer security research firm, simulated an attack in 2014 and demonstrated how the flaws associated with submitting ballots online could enable <a href="https://galois.com/blog/2014/11/hacking-internet-voting-via-ballot-tampering/" type="external">a single hacker to manipulate election outcomes.</a> Their attack was developed over only a few days, according to the firm, and would be very difficult to prevent or detect.</p>
<p>Computerizing all votes is a nonstarter for many in the digital security world. In 2010, officials in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/us/politics/09vote.html?_r=0" type="external">Washington, DC, tested a system</a> that would allow overseas absentee ballot voters to vote online, and they invited researchers or anybody else to try to compromise the system during a mock election. Within 48 hours, a team from the University of Michigan “gained near-complete control of the election server [and] successfully changed every vote and revealed almost every secret ballot,” the <a href="http://jhalderm.com/pub/papers/dcvoting-fc12.pdf" type="external">researchers noted in a 2012 paper describing the episode</a>. The researchers added that DC election officials didn’t notice the breach for nearly two business days, “and might have remained unaware for far longer” had they not left a glaring clue: They modified the “Thank You” page that appeared at the end of the voting process so the University of Michigan fight song, “The Victors,” would automatically start playing.</p>
<p>The researchers don’t say election officials should avoid the internet altogether. Instead the internet can and should be used to facilitate voter registration, help voters find polling places, and help voters understand voting rules, regulations, and procedures. Voters can also obtain blank ballots over the internet that can be filled out manually and physically mailed back.</p>
<p>Those in the military or overseas should avoid online voting and opt for the old-fashioned approach: receive their ballots by mail early, print them out, physically mark them, and then mail them back to election officials.&#160;</p>
<p>“For some overseas and military voters Internet voting may seem more convenient, but until technology advances to a point where it can be done securely, the risks are overwhelming and it should not be an option,” the authors wrote. “Our elections are too important to gamble on.”</p>
<p>Read the full report below:</p>
<p>&lt;br /&gt; &lt;a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3028298/Secret-Ballot-Report-FINAL-2016-08-17.pdf"&gt;Secret-Ballot-Report-FINAL-2016-08-17 (PDF)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3028298/Secret-Ballot-Report-FINAL-2016-08-17.txt"&gt;Secret-Ballot-Report-FINAL-2016-08-17 (Text)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</p> | Voting Should Be Easier—But Not Like This | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/new-report-blasts-practice-voting-online/ | 2016-08-18 | 4left
| Voting Should Be Easier—But Not Like This
<p>Rui Vieira/Zuma</p>
<p />
<p>The internet is the worst ballot box of all, according to three research and public-interest groups who are slamming states’ use of online voting and urging people to protect their privacy by physically mailing in their ballots instead.</p>
<p>“Internet voting creates a second-class system for some voters—one in which their votes may not be private and their ballots may be altered without their knowledge,” write the authors of <a href="http://www.secretballotatrisk.org/" type="external">The Secret Ballot at Risk: Recommendations for Protecting Democracy</a>. Caitriona Fitzgerald of the <a href="https://www.epic.org/" type="external">Electronic Privacy Information Center</a>, Pam Smith of the <a href="https://www.verifiedvoting.org/" type="external">Verified Voting Foundation</a>, and Susannah Goodman of <a href="http://www.commoncause.org/about/" type="external">the Voting Integrity Campaign of Common Cause,</a> who were the authors of the report, point out that states either have constitutional provisions or state statues guaranteeing the right to secret ballots, but that “because of current technological limitations…it is impossible to maintain separation of voters’ identities from their votes when Internet voting is used.”</p>
<p>The report comes at a time when hacking—especially from foreign interests seeking to influence US elections—has become a major theme of the presidential race. This summer, data from the <a href="" type="internal">Democratic National Committee,</a> other Democratic organizations, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/us/politics/democratic-party-russia-hack-cyberattack.html?_r=0" type="external">perhaps more than 100 high-ranking Democrats</a> were released by hackers the US government says were working with or on behalf of the Russian government. The authors of the report told reporters on a conference call Thursday that they’re glad these recent episodes have raised consciousness about information security, but that their report focuses on the less-discussed but critically important area of ballot secrecy.</p>
<p>“A lot of the vulnerabilities of online voting are discussed pretty frequently,” said Pam Smith of the Verified Voting Foundation. “The reason that we wanted to do this report is because the secrecy issue, the privacy issue, is something that doesn’t get as much attention.”</p>
<p>The researchers argue that maintaining ballot secrecy is key to preventing vote coercion, vote buying, and tampering. That’s why 44 states have a constitutional provision guaranteeing voting secrecy, while six states and Washington, DC, have statutes that provide for secret voting. In some states, like Delaware, for example, it is a crime for election officials to reveal a voter’s vote, according to the report.</p>
<p>In all, 32 states and the District of Columbia offer some form of voting over the internet (email, fax, or online portal), according to the researchers. Most of those states use the systems for their overseas military or absentee voters, but in Alaska, <a href="https://www.elections.alaska.gov/vi_bb_by_fax.php" type="external">all absentee voters can submit their ballots online</a>. In 28 of these states, voters using the online systems are required to waive their right to casting a secret ballot. But Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Washington do not give any warning about ballot secrecy. The researchers note that Montana has a statutory requirement that votes cast over the internet remain secret “despite the fact that this is technologically impossible.”</p>
<p>With current technology, ballots submitted online cannot be separated from the voters who cast them, which is why voters are required to sign away their right to privacy. Additionally, if the server hosting all the emailed ballots is compromised, the votes cast could easily become public, along with the voters’ identifying information associated with the ballot.</p>
<p>Online ballots can also easily be tampered with. <a href="https://galois.com/" type="external">Galois</a>, a computer security research firm, simulated an attack in 2014 and demonstrated how the flaws associated with submitting ballots online could enable <a href="https://galois.com/blog/2014/11/hacking-internet-voting-via-ballot-tampering/" type="external">a single hacker to manipulate election outcomes.</a> Their attack was developed over only a few days, according to the firm, and would be very difficult to prevent or detect.</p>
<p>Computerizing all votes is a nonstarter for many in the digital security world. In 2010, officials in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/us/politics/09vote.html?_r=0" type="external">Washington, DC, tested a system</a> that would allow overseas absentee ballot voters to vote online, and they invited researchers or anybody else to try to compromise the system during a mock election. Within 48 hours, a team from the University of Michigan “gained near-complete control of the election server [and] successfully changed every vote and revealed almost every secret ballot,” the <a href="http://jhalderm.com/pub/papers/dcvoting-fc12.pdf" type="external">researchers noted in a 2012 paper describing the episode</a>. The researchers added that DC election officials didn’t notice the breach for nearly two business days, “and might have remained unaware for far longer” had they not left a glaring clue: They modified the “Thank You” page that appeared at the end of the voting process so the University of Michigan fight song, “The Victors,” would automatically start playing.</p>
<p>The researchers don’t say election officials should avoid the internet altogether. Instead the internet can and should be used to facilitate voter registration, help voters find polling places, and help voters understand voting rules, regulations, and procedures. Voters can also obtain blank ballots over the internet that can be filled out manually and physically mailed back.</p>
<p>Those in the military or overseas should avoid online voting and opt for the old-fashioned approach: receive their ballots by mail early, print them out, physically mark them, and then mail them back to election officials.&#160;</p>
<p>“For some overseas and military voters Internet voting may seem more convenient, but until technology advances to a point where it can be done securely, the risks are overwhelming and it should not be an option,” the authors wrote. “Our elections are too important to gamble on.”</p>
<p>Read the full report below:</p>
<p>&lt;br /&gt; &lt;a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3028298/Secret-Ballot-Report-FINAL-2016-08-17.pdf"&gt;Secret-Ballot-Report-FINAL-2016-08-17 (PDF)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3028298/Secret-Ballot-Report-FINAL-2016-08-17.txt"&gt;Secret-Ballot-Report-FINAL-2016-08-17 (Text)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</p> | 4,075 |
<p>On Thursday, in her first public remarks since Donald Trump won the presidency, Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet L. Yellen announced that the Fed would likely raise its benchmark interest rate in December.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/business/yellen-federal-reserve-congress.html?smid=tw-share&amp;amp;_r=5" type="external">The New York Times</a> reported that Yellen insisted the economy was healthy in <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/testimony/yellen20161117a.htm" type="external">prepared testimony</a> for Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, saying, “U.S. economic growth appears to have picked up from its subdued pace earlier this year.” Yet she also tempered that assessment, adding, “While above-trend growth of the labor force and employment cannot continue indefinitely, there nonetheless appears to be scope for some further improvement in the labor market.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-17/yellen-says-fed-interest-rate-hike-could-come-relatively-soon" type="external">Bloomberg</a> reported that Yellen said of the hike that it “could well become appropriate relatively soon if incoming data provide some further evidence of continued progress toward the committee’s objectives,”</p>
<p>Explaining why the Fed had not already raised rates, Yellen posited that the reluctance to do so did not derive from lack of confidence in the economy, but rather the benefit of low borrowing costs, which stimulate economic growth by eliciting borrowing and risk-taking. <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/feds-yellen-rate-increase-could-become-appropriate-relatively-soon-1479387604" type="external">The Wall Street Journal</a> took a rosy view of the economy, too, stating of the Fed’s prospective decision, “They now have several new pieces of reassuring data: <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-adds-161-000-jobs-in-october-jobless-rate-ticks-down-to-4-9-1478262813" type="external">wages grew 2.8% in October</a>, the fastest annual pace since June 2009, and employers continued to add jobs at a steady clip, the Labor Department said earlier this month.”</p>
<p>Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics Ltd., warned, “Yellen’s testimony ignored the very real possibility of substantial fiscal stimulus next year … (Yellen) “does not want the Fed to become even more of a political punch bag than it is already.”</p>
<p>But Yellen gave her own worries about waiting too long:</p>
<p>Were the FOMC to delay increases in the federal funds rate for too long, it could end up having to tighten policy relatively abruptly to keep the economy from significantly overshooting both of the committee’s longer-run policy goals. Moreover, holding the federal funds rate at its current level for too long could also encourage excessive risk-taking and ultimately undermine financial stability.”</p>
<p>Yellen stated that low interest rates were encouraging speculation, asserting, “Holding the federal funds rate at its current level for too long could also encourage excessive risk-taking and ultimately undermine financial stability.”</p>
<p>Jonathan Wright, a former Fed economist, stated, “A rate hike in December is a done deal, barring a significant surprise in the next jobs numbers or in financial markets. But the pace of firming is likely to continue to be glacial because the funds rate will then be within about a percentage point of the FOMC’s estimate of neutral.”</p>
<p>The target range for the benchmark federal funds rate at 0.25% to 0.5% since December 2015.</p> | Fed Will Raise Benchmark Interest Rate Just In Time For Trump To Take Office | true | https://dailywire.com/news/10873/fed-will-raise-benchmark-interest-rate-hank-berrien | 2016-11-17 | 0right
| Fed Will Raise Benchmark Interest Rate Just In Time For Trump To Take Office
<p>On Thursday, in her first public remarks since Donald Trump won the presidency, Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet L. Yellen announced that the Fed would likely raise its benchmark interest rate in December.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/business/yellen-federal-reserve-congress.html?smid=tw-share&amp;amp;_r=5" type="external">The New York Times</a> reported that Yellen insisted the economy was healthy in <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/testimony/yellen20161117a.htm" type="external">prepared testimony</a> for Congress’s Joint Economic Committee, saying, “U.S. economic growth appears to have picked up from its subdued pace earlier this year.” Yet she also tempered that assessment, adding, “While above-trend growth of the labor force and employment cannot continue indefinitely, there nonetheless appears to be scope for some further improvement in the labor market.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-17/yellen-says-fed-interest-rate-hike-could-come-relatively-soon" type="external">Bloomberg</a> reported that Yellen said of the hike that it “could well become appropriate relatively soon if incoming data provide some further evidence of continued progress toward the committee’s objectives,”</p>
<p>Explaining why the Fed had not already raised rates, Yellen posited that the reluctance to do so did not derive from lack of confidence in the economy, but rather the benefit of low borrowing costs, which stimulate economic growth by eliciting borrowing and risk-taking. <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/feds-yellen-rate-increase-could-become-appropriate-relatively-soon-1479387604" type="external">The Wall Street Journal</a> took a rosy view of the economy, too, stating of the Fed’s prospective decision, “They now have several new pieces of reassuring data: <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-adds-161-000-jobs-in-october-jobless-rate-ticks-down-to-4-9-1478262813" type="external">wages grew 2.8% in October</a>, the fastest annual pace since June 2009, and employers continued to add jobs at a steady clip, the Labor Department said earlier this month.”</p>
<p>Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics Ltd., warned, “Yellen’s testimony ignored the very real possibility of substantial fiscal stimulus next year … (Yellen) “does not want the Fed to become even more of a political punch bag than it is already.”</p>
<p>But Yellen gave her own worries about waiting too long:</p>
<p>Were the FOMC to delay increases in the federal funds rate for too long, it could end up having to tighten policy relatively abruptly to keep the economy from significantly overshooting both of the committee’s longer-run policy goals. Moreover, holding the federal funds rate at its current level for too long could also encourage excessive risk-taking and ultimately undermine financial stability.”</p>
<p>Yellen stated that low interest rates were encouraging speculation, asserting, “Holding the federal funds rate at its current level for too long could also encourage excessive risk-taking and ultimately undermine financial stability.”</p>
<p>Jonathan Wright, a former Fed economist, stated, “A rate hike in December is a done deal, barring a significant surprise in the next jobs numbers or in financial markets. But the pace of firming is likely to continue to be glacial because the funds rate will then be within about a percentage point of the FOMC’s estimate of neutral.”</p>
<p>The target range for the benchmark federal funds rate at 0.25% to 0.5% since December 2015.</p> | 4,076 |
<p>The characteristically Clintonian drive to pander to everyone at once was so strong as to enable her to gracefully drop the implication that there are no small Danish businesses and move right along.</p>
<p>This post is an excerpt from a&#160; <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/10/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-democratic-primary-debate/" type="external">roundtable discussion</a>&#160;about Tuesday's debate that originally appeared on&#160;Jacobin.</p>
<p>It was difficult enough eight years ago when Hillary Clinton only had to defend her vote for the Iraq War. This time around, the insurgent candidate she faces, in&#160; <a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/remember-obamas-historic-2008-presidential-run-bernie-sanders-so-far-exceeding-it" type="external">important ways</a>&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelwhitney/status/653996647161143296" type="external">outpacing</a>&#160;even the last guy, talks about “revolution” and “the working class” in the same sentence, and thus puts her in the unenviable position of having to defend capitalism itself.</p>
<p>Not to worry: Clintonian triangulation is nothing if not versatile. Reminding the audience that “we are not Denmark,” Clinton deployed the frame lately popularized by her husband’s one-time labor secretary, Robert Reich, that it is imperative to “save capitalism from itself.”</p>
<p>Sure, she wants to “rein in the excess of capitalism so that it doesn’t run amok and doesn’t cause the kind of inequalities we’re seeing in our economic system.” But the baby mustn’t go out with the bathwater: “We would be making a grave mistake to turn out backs on what built the greatest middle class in history,” she said, praying in aid “all the small businesses that were started because we have the opportunity and the freedom in our country for people to do that.” The characteristically Clintonian drive to pander to everyone at once was so strong as to enable her to gracefully drop the implication that there are no small Danish businesses and move right along.</p>
<p>She tipped her hand, though: pressed repeatedly to agree or disagree with Sen. Sanders’s preference for expanding Social Security, Clinton insisted that she’d rather “enhance the benefits for the poorest recipients of Social Security.” Similarly, as to whether she agrees with Sanders’s health care approach, extending Medicare to everyone, Clinton declined to answer (she doesn’t, though), insisting vaguely that “we agree on the goals, we just disagree on the means.”</p>
<p>Here was the vintage neoliberal approach with which the Clintons are justly associated, unchanged by the financial crises and social movements that have shifted the political terrain since its heyday in the 1990s. The means Sanders favors, the ones that work in Denmark and elsewhere, are universal programs aimed at providing the working class with relief from our dependence on capitalist firms for deriving the means of our own subsistence: public pensions so we aren’t at the mercy of a perfidious “ <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114944/labor-department-fiduciary-rule-congress-votes-thwart-it" type="external">savings industry</a>” and public health care, so we go not merely by the grace of a sector Clinton cited as one of her most prized enemies, but which has contributed&#160; <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&amp;cid=n00000019&amp;type=I" type="external">more than $11 million</a>&#160;to her over her career. (With enemies like this…)</p>
<p>Clinton, instead,&#160; <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123102/hillary-vs-bernie-will-decide-future-american-left" type="external">clings to the idea</a>&#160;that small, politically vulnerable, means-tested programs are preferable to large, universal ones, and that the&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/us/politics/hillary-clintons-proposed-changes-to-health-law-zero-in-on-affordability.html" type="external">mediation</a>&#160;of a marketplace of profit-obsessed firms is just what America’s sick need to help them heal.</p>
<p>The question of means is crucial, and we should take great heart that the grassroots foment—the movement for black lives, the climate movement, Occupy Wall Street, the low-wage worker movement—whose salience was in constant evidence throughout the debate, are wide open to unconventional means.</p>
<p>Read more from this and many other articles at&#160; <a href="http://jacobinmag.com" type="external">Jacobin</a>.</p>
<p>Like what you’ve read? <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/itt-subscription-offer?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">Subscribe to In These Times magazine</a>, or <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/support-in-these-times?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">make a tax-deductible donation to fund this reporting</a>.</p>
<p>Jesse A. Myerson is a New York–based activist and writer.</p> | Despite Bernie Sanders’ Prodding Last Night, Hillary Clinton Stuck to Her Neoliberal Talking Points | true | http://inthesetimes.com/article/18507/hillary-clinton-democratic-debate-neoliberal | 2015-10-14 | 4left
| Despite Bernie Sanders’ Prodding Last Night, Hillary Clinton Stuck to Her Neoliberal Talking Points
<p>The characteristically Clintonian drive to pander to everyone at once was so strong as to enable her to gracefully drop the implication that there are no small Danish businesses and move right along.</p>
<p>This post is an excerpt from a&#160; <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/10/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-democratic-primary-debate/" type="external">roundtable discussion</a>&#160;about Tuesday's debate that originally appeared on&#160;Jacobin.</p>
<p>It was difficult enough eight years ago when Hillary Clinton only had to defend her vote for the Iraq War. This time around, the insurgent candidate she faces, in&#160; <a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/remember-obamas-historic-2008-presidential-run-bernie-sanders-so-far-exceeding-it" type="external">important ways</a>&#160; <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelwhitney/status/653996647161143296" type="external">outpacing</a>&#160;even the last guy, talks about “revolution” and “the working class” in the same sentence, and thus puts her in the unenviable position of having to defend capitalism itself.</p>
<p>Not to worry: Clintonian triangulation is nothing if not versatile. Reminding the audience that “we are not Denmark,” Clinton deployed the frame lately popularized by her husband’s one-time labor secretary, Robert Reich, that it is imperative to “save capitalism from itself.”</p>
<p>Sure, she wants to “rein in the excess of capitalism so that it doesn’t run amok and doesn’t cause the kind of inequalities we’re seeing in our economic system.” But the baby mustn’t go out with the bathwater: “We would be making a grave mistake to turn out backs on what built the greatest middle class in history,” she said, praying in aid “all the small businesses that were started because we have the opportunity and the freedom in our country for people to do that.” The characteristically Clintonian drive to pander to everyone at once was so strong as to enable her to gracefully drop the implication that there are no small Danish businesses and move right along.</p>
<p>She tipped her hand, though: pressed repeatedly to agree or disagree with Sen. Sanders’s preference for expanding Social Security, Clinton insisted that she’d rather “enhance the benefits for the poorest recipients of Social Security.” Similarly, as to whether she agrees with Sanders’s health care approach, extending Medicare to everyone, Clinton declined to answer (she doesn’t, though), insisting vaguely that “we agree on the goals, we just disagree on the means.”</p>
<p>Here was the vintage neoliberal approach with which the Clintons are justly associated, unchanged by the financial crises and social movements that have shifted the political terrain since its heyday in the 1990s. The means Sanders favors, the ones that work in Denmark and elsewhere, are universal programs aimed at providing the working class with relief from our dependence on capitalist firms for deriving the means of our own subsistence: public pensions so we aren’t at the mercy of a perfidious “ <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114944/labor-department-fiduciary-rule-congress-votes-thwart-it" type="external">savings industry</a>” and public health care, so we go not merely by the grace of a sector Clinton cited as one of her most prized enemies, but which has contributed&#160; <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&amp;cid=n00000019&amp;type=I" type="external">more than $11 million</a>&#160;to her over her career. (With enemies like this…)</p>
<p>Clinton, instead,&#160; <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123102/hillary-vs-bernie-will-decide-future-american-left" type="external">clings to the idea</a>&#160;that small, politically vulnerable, means-tested programs are preferable to large, universal ones, and that the&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/us/politics/hillary-clintons-proposed-changes-to-health-law-zero-in-on-affordability.html" type="external">mediation</a>&#160;of a marketplace of profit-obsessed firms is just what America’s sick need to help them heal.</p>
<p>The question of means is crucial, and we should take great heart that the grassroots foment—the movement for black lives, the climate movement, Occupy Wall Street, the low-wage worker movement—whose salience was in constant evidence throughout the debate, are wide open to unconventional means.</p>
<p>Read more from this and many other articles at&#160; <a href="http://jacobinmag.com" type="external">Jacobin</a>.</p>
<p>Like what you’ve read? <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/itt-subscription-offer?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">Subscribe to In These Times magazine</a>, or <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/support-in-these-times?refcode=WS_ITT_Article_Footer&amp;noskip=true" type="external">make a tax-deductible donation to fund this reporting</a>.</p>
<p>Jesse A. Myerson is a New York–based activist and writer.</p> | 4,077 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>PESHAWAR, Pakistan — At least 40 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded Friday in four separate bomb and gun attacks in three major Pakistani cities, officials said.</p>
<p>A suicide bomber was involved in the first car bombing near the office of the provincial police chief in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed at least 12 people and wounded 20. There were conflicting claims of responsibility for this attack from different extremist groups.</p>
<p>Hours later twin bombings, minutes apart, hit a crowded market in a Shiite-dominated city in Parachinar, the main city in the Kurram tribal region and killed 24 people, mostly minority Shiite Muslims, according to government administrator Zahid Hussain.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Friday evening, gunmen in the port city of Karachi attacked police officers at a roadside restaurant and killed four of them before fleeing, senior police officer Asif Ahmed said.</p>
<p>Security forces raided a militant hideout in the northwestern city of Peshawar before dawn Saturday, triggering a shootout in which three Pakistani Talban were killed, senior police official Sajjad Khan said. He said two police officers were wounded in the gunbattle.</p>
<p>Khan said the identity of the slain militants was not immediately known.</p>
<p>The bomb and gun attacks come a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, which ends the holy month of Ramadan. TV footage showed panicked people rushing to safety following the Parachinar market bombings.</p>
<p>Mohammad Amir, an official at a government-run hospital in Parachinar, said they had received 24 dead bodies and more than 20 of the wounded were listed in critical condition.</p>
<p>Hussain said a severed head of a man was found near the scene of blasts, indicating the second attack in Parachinar might have been carried out by a suicide bomber but officers are still investigating to determine the exact nature of bombings.</p>
<p>Parachinar is located about 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Peshawar.</p>
<p>According to Pakistan’s military, it was using two helicopters to transport wounded people to other cities. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying terrorists were attacking soft targets.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Friday’s car bombing in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, was powerful enough that it was heard across the city, shattering windows on nearby buildings, said police spokesman Shahzada Farhat.</p>
<p>Wasim Beg, a spokesman at a government hospital, said the death toll from the bombing had risen to 12 throughout the morning and some of the wounded remained in critical condition.</p>
<p>TV footage showed several badly damaged cars and a road littered with broken glass.</p>
<p>Hours after the attack, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility. Asad Mansoor, the militants’ spokesman, vowed more such attacks as part of the extremist group’s campaign aimed at imposing Islamic laws in the country.</p>
<p>Later Friday, the Islamic State group said in a competing claim that it was behind the attack, adding that one of its followers targeted the police post in Quetta, detonating his suicide belt there. It also released a photograph of the alleged attacker, identified as Abu Othman al-Khorasani.</p>
<p>The competing claims could not be reconciled.</p>
<p>Anwarul Haq Kakar, a spokesman for the provincial government, blamed neighboring India for the blast but offered no evidence to back up the allegation.</p>
<p>Pakistan and India routinely trade charges of interference and inciting attacks on one another’s soil.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Pakistan said that an Indian naval officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage, had petitioned for mercy.</p>
<p>Jadhav, who Pakistan said had crossed into Baluchistan from neighboring Iran, was arrested in March 2016 and sentenced to death in April.</p>
<p>In New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs insisted Jadhav was sentenced on “concocted charges” and expressed doubts about the existence of the petition for mercy. It also reiterated that the proceedings against Jadhav have been shrouded “in opacity.”</p>
<p>Baluchistan has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists and separatists, who want a bigger share of the regional resources or outright independence, but also attacks blamed on the Pakistani Taliban and others. Those militant groups include Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is considered a close ally of IS, as well as Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which has taken credit for several previous attacks in Baluchistan and elsewhere and has bases in Pakistan’s tribal regions.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Riaz Khan reported this story in Peshawar and AP writer Abdul Sattar reported from Quetta. AP writers Katy Daigle in New Delhi, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.</p> | 40 people killed in bomb, gun attacks in 3 Pakistani cities | false | https://abqjournal.com/1022464/car-bomb-in-southwest-pakistan-kills-at-least-11-wounds-20.html | 2017-06-23 | 2least
| 40 people killed in bomb, gun attacks in 3 Pakistani cities
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>PESHAWAR, Pakistan — At least 40 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded Friday in four separate bomb and gun attacks in three major Pakistani cities, officials said.</p>
<p>A suicide bomber was involved in the first car bombing near the office of the provincial police chief in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed at least 12 people and wounded 20. There were conflicting claims of responsibility for this attack from different extremist groups.</p>
<p>Hours later twin bombings, minutes apart, hit a crowded market in a Shiite-dominated city in Parachinar, the main city in the Kurram tribal region and killed 24 people, mostly minority Shiite Muslims, according to government administrator Zahid Hussain.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Friday evening, gunmen in the port city of Karachi attacked police officers at a roadside restaurant and killed four of them before fleeing, senior police officer Asif Ahmed said.</p>
<p>Security forces raided a militant hideout in the northwestern city of Peshawar before dawn Saturday, triggering a shootout in which three Pakistani Talban were killed, senior police official Sajjad Khan said. He said two police officers were wounded in the gunbattle.</p>
<p>Khan said the identity of the slain militants was not immediately known.</p>
<p>The bomb and gun attacks come a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, which ends the holy month of Ramadan. TV footage showed panicked people rushing to safety following the Parachinar market bombings.</p>
<p>Mohammad Amir, an official at a government-run hospital in Parachinar, said they had received 24 dead bodies and more than 20 of the wounded were listed in critical condition.</p>
<p>Hussain said a severed head of a man was found near the scene of blasts, indicating the second attack in Parachinar might have been carried out by a suicide bomber but officers are still investigating to determine the exact nature of bombings.</p>
<p>Parachinar is located about 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Peshawar.</p>
<p>According to Pakistan’s military, it was using two helicopters to transport wounded people to other cities. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attacks, saying terrorists were attacking soft targets.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Friday’s car bombing in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, was powerful enough that it was heard across the city, shattering windows on nearby buildings, said police spokesman Shahzada Farhat.</p>
<p>Wasim Beg, a spokesman at a government hospital, said the death toll from the bombing had risen to 12 throughout the morning and some of the wounded remained in critical condition.</p>
<p>TV footage showed several badly damaged cars and a road littered with broken glass.</p>
<p>Hours after the attack, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility. Asad Mansoor, the militants’ spokesman, vowed more such attacks as part of the extremist group’s campaign aimed at imposing Islamic laws in the country.</p>
<p>Later Friday, the Islamic State group said in a competing claim that it was behind the attack, adding that one of its followers targeted the police post in Quetta, detonating his suicide belt there. It also released a photograph of the alleged attacker, identified as Abu Othman al-Khorasani.</p>
<p>The competing claims could not be reconciled.</p>
<p>Anwarul Haq Kakar, a spokesman for the provincial government, blamed neighboring India for the blast but offered no evidence to back up the allegation.</p>
<p>Pakistan and India routinely trade charges of interference and inciting attacks on one another’s soil.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Pakistan said that an Indian naval officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage, had petitioned for mercy.</p>
<p>Jadhav, who Pakistan said had crossed into Baluchistan from neighboring Iran, was arrested in March 2016 and sentenced to death in April.</p>
<p>In New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs insisted Jadhav was sentenced on “concocted charges” and expressed doubts about the existence of the petition for mercy. It also reiterated that the proceedings against Jadhav have been shrouded “in opacity.”</p>
<p>Baluchistan has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists and separatists, who want a bigger share of the regional resources or outright independence, but also attacks blamed on the Pakistani Taliban and others. Those militant groups include Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is considered a close ally of IS, as well as Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which has taken credit for several previous attacks in Baluchistan and elsewhere and has bases in Pakistan’s tribal regions.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Riaz Khan reported this story in Peshawar and AP writer Abdul Sattar reported from Quetta. AP writers Katy Daigle in New Delhi, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.</p> | 4,078 |
<p>Religious, school and business leaders in two Texas cities were stunned to learn that the mystery guest they were scheduled to meet &#160;was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.</p>
<p>“You could have knocked me over with a feather” when the 32-year-old billionaire walked through the door at the World Cup Café in Waco, said Aaron Zimmerman, an Episcopal priest there.</p>
<p>Zimmerman and others invited to the Jan. 18 gatherings —&#160;the other was in nearby West —&#160;said they were equally astonished when Zuckerberg explained he came to ask questions and listen, not to give speeches.</p>
<p>“The clergy spoke 90 percent of the time,” Zimmerman said of the Waco gathering attended exclusively by ministers. “That impressed me a lot.”</p>
<p>It probably wouldn’t have come as so much of a surprise had Zimmerman, rector at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Waco, and others present known in advance that Zuckerberg was the mystery dignitary they had been invited to meet.</p>
<p>Aaron Zimmerman</p>
<p>That would have given them time to see on Facebook that Zuckerberg has embarked on a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/YearofTravel" type="external">“Year of Travel”</a> in which he will visit 30 states in 2017 where he has not been before.</p>
<p>“Every year, I take on a personal challenge to learn new things and grow outside my work,” he said on the travel page. “My hope for this challenge is to get out and talk to more people about how they’re living, working and thinking about the future.”</p>
<p>In West, where the first of the two meetings were held, Zuckerberg gathered with church, school and business leaders.</p>
<p>“I thought he would give a speech promoting a charity or some technological innovation,” said John Crowder, pastor at First Baptist Church in West.</p>
<p>Instead, Zuckerberg spoke for about 60 seconds and then started asking questions.</p>
<p>“He wanted to hear from us,” Crowder said.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg asked about the 2013 fertilizer plant explosion that devastated the city and how the community has recovered.</p>
<p>He was especially interested in learning about the role churches have played in that recovery, Crowder said. The guest also was curious about how congregations of different denominations worked together.</p>
<p>“We got to tell him that right after the explosion, people in town just automatically turned to the church for help,” Crowder said. “They knew that was the place they could go and that is the role the church plays —&#160;at least in a small town.”</p>
<p>Zuckerberg also was curious about how churches maintain a healthy balance between internal and external ministries.</p>
<p>“He was interested in how much the church focuses on what he called ‘religion’ and how much it focuses on what he called ‘community service,’” Crowder said. “That was actually not a bad question for churches to consider asking themselves from time to time.”</p>
<p>The conversation in West then switched to business, with several questions covering the local economy and dominant industries.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg quizzed educators about the challenges facing schools.</p>
<p>John Crowder</p>
<p>“He shared with them that one of his goals is to get the internet into parts of the world that currently don’t have access to it, primarily for the purpose of education,” Crowder said.</p>
<p>On Facebook, the West Independent School District said its representatives shared about gains it has made in personalized and individualized learning and about its STEM designation.</p>
<p>“We even brainstormed ways to help with internet access for our students in the far corners of our school district,” the district said.</p>
<p>Later that day in Waco, Zuckerberg’s meeting with clergy covered religious trends. He wanted to know how churches go about forming community.</p>
<p>Zimmerman said he explained there is a larger community&#160;— the big group that worships together&#160;— that connects believers to God. Then smaller groups connect people to each other.</p>
<p>That’s &#160;“how we form community,.” Zimmerman told Zuckerberg.</p>
<p>Zimmerman said he left the meeting assured that the owner of Facebook seems to be trying to do the right things from a place of humility.</p>
<p>“I was impressed with someone who could have walked into the room like he owned the place,” he said. “Not him. He was wearing his trademark hoodie and jeans.”</p> | Mark Zuckerberg displays humility, interest in church trends during Texas visits | false | https://baptistnews.com/article/mark-zuckerberg-displays-humility-interest-in-church-trends-during-texas-visits/ | 3left-center
| Mark Zuckerberg displays humility, interest in church trends during Texas visits
<p>Religious, school and business leaders in two Texas cities were stunned to learn that the mystery guest they were scheduled to meet &#160;was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.</p>
<p>“You could have knocked me over with a feather” when the 32-year-old billionaire walked through the door at the World Cup Café in Waco, said Aaron Zimmerman, an Episcopal priest there.</p>
<p>Zimmerman and others invited to the Jan. 18 gatherings —&#160;the other was in nearby West —&#160;said they were equally astonished when Zuckerberg explained he came to ask questions and listen, not to give speeches.</p>
<p>“The clergy spoke 90 percent of the time,” Zimmerman said of the Waco gathering attended exclusively by ministers. “That impressed me a lot.”</p>
<p>It probably wouldn’t have come as so much of a surprise had Zimmerman, rector at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Waco, and others present known in advance that Zuckerberg was the mystery dignitary they had been invited to meet.</p>
<p>Aaron Zimmerman</p>
<p>That would have given them time to see on Facebook that Zuckerberg has embarked on a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/YearofTravel" type="external">“Year of Travel”</a> in which he will visit 30 states in 2017 where he has not been before.</p>
<p>“Every year, I take on a personal challenge to learn new things and grow outside my work,” he said on the travel page. “My hope for this challenge is to get out and talk to more people about how they’re living, working and thinking about the future.”</p>
<p>In West, where the first of the two meetings were held, Zuckerberg gathered with church, school and business leaders.</p>
<p>“I thought he would give a speech promoting a charity or some technological innovation,” said John Crowder, pastor at First Baptist Church in West.</p>
<p>Instead, Zuckerberg spoke for about 60 seconds and then started asking questions.</p>
<p>“He wanted to hear from us,” Crowder said.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg asked about the 2013 fertilizer plant explosion that devastated the city and how the community has recovered.</p>
<p>He was especially interested in learning about the role churches have played in that recovery, Crowder said. The guest also was curious about how congregations of different denominations worked together.</p>
<p>“We got to tell him that right after the explosion, people in town just automatically turned to the church for help,” Crowder said. “They knew that was the place they could go and that is the role the church plays —&#160;at least in a small town.”</p>
<p>Zuckerberg also was curious about how churches maintain a healthy balance between internal and external ministries.</p>
<p>“He was interested in how much the church focuses on what he called ‘religion’ and how much it focuses on what he called ‘community service,’” Crowder said. “That was actually not a bad question for churches to consider asking themselves from time to time.”</p>
<p>The conversation in West then switched to business, with several questions covering the local economy and dominant industries.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg quizzed educators about the challenges facing schools.</p>
<p>John Crowder</p>
<p>“He shared with them that one of his goals is to get the internet into parts of the world that currently don’t have access to it, primarily for the purpose of education,” Crowder said.</p>
<p>On Facebook, the West Independent School District said its representatives shared about gains it has made in personalized and individualized learning and about its STEM designation.</p>
<p>“We even brainstormed ways to help with internet access for our students in the far corners of our school district,” the district said.</p>
<p>Later that day in Waco, Zuckerberg’s meeting with clergy covered religious trends. He wanted to know how churches go about forming community.</p>
<p>Zimmerman said he explained there is a larger community&#160;— the big group that worships together&#160;— that connects believers to God. Then smaller groups connect people to each other.</p>
<p>That’s &#160;“how we form community,.” Zimmerman told Zuckerberg.</p>
<p>Zimmerman said he left the meeting assured that the owner of Facebook seems to be trying to do the right things from a place of humility.</p>
<p>“I was impressed with someone who could have walked into the room like he owned the place,” he said. “Not him. He was wearing his trademark hoodie and jeans.”</p> | 4,079 |
|
<p>By now we’ve heard what Donald Trump, the billionaire Republican presidential candidate, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/06/25/exp-presidential-candidate-donald-trump-immigration-intv-erin.cnn" type="external">has said</a> about immigrants from Mexico — that they’re “bringing drugs … crime. They’re rapists.”</p>
<p>And, he added: “Some, I assume, are good people.”</p>
<p>But with the killing of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco, we have also seen Trump double down on his casting of immigrants — Mexicans, really — as criminals. He is also not alone with his views. He joins others, including Iowa Congressman <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/21/steve-king-immigrants_n_4830738.html" type="external">Steve King</a>,&#160;who say immigrants&#160;commit a lot of crime. Violent crime.&#160;</p>
<p>But longtime experts on immigrants and crime say that is not true. “It’s an extremely slanted and distorted and kind of scared view of the world,” says Walter Ewing, a senior researcher with the American Immigration Council in Washington, DC.</p>
<p>First, he says, there’s this big-picture fact about immigrants in the US, legal or not: “Immigrants have been less likely than the native born to be criminals for about the past century at least,” he says. “This is a fact that seems to be consistently overlooked in the policy debate over immigration.”</p>
<p>To read more about his research, head <a href="http://immigrationimpact.com/2015/07/08/immigrants-are-less-likely-to-be-criminals-than-the-native-born/" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/globalnation/" type="external" /></p>
<p />
<p>But the debate that the killing of <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_28456088/at-kate-steinles-memorial-thursday-immigration-debate-over" type="external">Kathryn Steinle</a> in San Francisco raises is also about the millions of immigrants here illegally — and when they should be handed over to immigration authorities. Steinle, 32, was shot to death on July 1, while walking with her father along Pier 14, a favorite spot for both tourists and locals. Steinle was from Pleasanton, a short drive from the city. No motive for the killing has surfaced.&#160;</p>
<p>Steinle’s death is now part of the immigration debate because the suspect, Juan Francisco López Sánchez, is seen by some, including Trump, as an example of what’s wrong with immigration enforcement.</p>
<p>His case does test the system. Sánchez has been deported five times to Mexico, his home country, and his record includes a series of low-level drug offenses. After serving time in a US federal prison, he was transferred earlier this year to San Francisco, where he faced an old charge for possession of a small amount of marijuana. The charge was immediately dropped and Sánchez was released in April.</p>
<p>Following San Francisco’s policies, the police ignored a request by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official to inform them that they had Sánchez in custody and to hold him for deportation.&#160;</p>
<p>Why? San Francisco, along with an increasing number of cities and counties in the United States, says it won’t assist deporting immigrants for low-level crimes. For violent crimes, yes, but not for things like marijuana. Cracking down could crush community relations in a heavily immigrant area, says San Francisco Sheriff <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33432197" type="external">Ross Mirkarimi</a>.</p>
<p>Rosy Cho, an immigration lawyer in San Francisco, defends the policy. “San Francisco, as a city and county, has chosen to not play a part in that enforcement role — and we shouldn’t have to play that role,” she says.&#160;Cho’s office is just blocks from the waterfront where Sánchez allegedly killed Steinle. Every day, Cho defends immigrants whose rap sheets aren’t as extreme as Sánchez’s, but who do have records.</p>
<p>“But if you look at their criminal record,” she says, “it’s really for non-violent offenses and often offenses related to their living as an undocumented person in this country. They end up violating a lot of the laws that we take for granted. Not worrying about being arrested for not having a driver’s license,” she says. “I’ve been doing this for over 15 years and I can count on my hand the number of cases I’ve had where the offenses involved any kind of violence against a person or property.”</p>
<p>She hopes this case won’t tear down a policy that, she says, protects due process — and immigrants — from being treated more harshly because of their status.</p>
<p>Jessica Vaughan disagrees. She is director of policy studies at the conservative Center for Immigration Studies. “I shouldn’t have to wait until someone commits a felony or a violent crime before they’re allowed to deport someone,” says Vaughan, also a former State Department consular officer in Trinidad and Tobago.</p>
<p>She points to <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2cf4accdee9444b28ae920ead80475e6/report-many-immigrants-re-arrested-after-detainers-declined" type="external">information from ICE</a> that shows that more than 1,800 immigrants released from local jails were re-arrested between January and August 2014 — and that ICE had requested that the local jails detain those immigrants, as in the San Francisco case. Most of those arrests were for non-violent violations, including DUIs, and the 1,800 tally does not distinguish between re-arrests that resulted in convictions or whether charges were ultimately dropped.</p>
<p>Vaughan says it’s important for people in the community, including immigrants, to know that “those few immigrants within the population who are committing crimes are going to be held accountable for it and that they’re going to be removed instead of returned to the community.”</p>
<p>She says it should be one strike you’re out, regardless of the years someone has been here or rehabilitation. Advocates such as Cho say the focus should not be on undocumented immigrants whose records include minor crimes, but instead on those who commit violent offenses—and that the system in place now addresses that forcefully.</p>
<p>But people on both sides do agree on this&#160;—&#160;that a serious debate about the immigration system, and its flaws, must take place. And that it should include what someone with a record like Sánchez’s — with multiple deportations — says about who should stay or go, and whether communication between law enforcement and immigration officials should improve.</p>
<p>With the heated speeches though,&#160;and some politicians casting immigrants as criminals, the worry continues that a chance for real dialogue will get lost.</p> | Criminals? Immigrants are more law-abiding than native-born Americans | false | https://pri.org/stories/2015-07-17/how-heated-immigration-debate-rolls-over-one-big-picture-fact | 2015-07-17 | 3left-center
| Criminals? Immigrants are more law-abiding than native-born Americans
<p>By now we’ve heard what Donald Trump, the billionaire Republican presidential candidate, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/06/25/exp-presidential-candidate-donald-trump-immigration-intv-erin.cnn" type="external">has said</a> about immigrants from Mexico — that they’re “bringing drugs … crime. They’re rapists.”</p>
<p>And, he added: “Some, I assume, are good people.”</p>
<p>But with the killing of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco, we have also seen Trump double down on his casting of immigrants — Mexicans, really — as criminals. He is also not alone with his views. He joins others, including Iowa Congressman <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/21/steve-king-immigrants_n_4830738.html" type="external">Steve King</a>,&#160;who say immigrants&#160;commit a lot of crime. Violent crime.&#160;</p>
<p>But longtime experts on immigrants and crime say that is not true. “It’s an extremely slanted and distorted and kind of scared view of the world,” says Walter Ewing, a senior researcher with the American Immigration Council in Washington, DC.</p>
<p>First, he says, there’s this big-picture fact about immigrants in the US, legal or not: “Immigrants have been less likely than the native born to be criminals for about the past century at least,” he says. “This is a fact that seems to be consistently overlooked in the policy debate over immigration.”</p>
<p>To read more about his research, head <a href="http://immigrationimpact.com/2015/07/08/immigrants-are-less-likely-to-be-criminals-than-the-native-born/" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/globalnation/" type="external" /></p>
<p />
<p>But the debate that the killing of <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_28456088/at-kate-steinles-memorial-thursday-immigration-debate-over" type="external">Kathryn Steinle</a> in San Francisco raises is also about the millions of immigrants here illegally — and when they should be handed over to immigration authorities. Steinle, 32, was shot to death on July 1, while walking with her father along Pier 14, a favorite spot for both tourists and locals. Steinle was from Pleasanton, a short drive from the city. No motive for the killing has surfaced.&#160;</p>
<p>Steinle’s death is now part of the immigration debate because the suspect, Juan Francisco López Sánchez, is seen by some, including Trump, as an example of what’s wrong with immigration enforcement.</p>
<p>His case does test the system. Sánchez has been deported five times to Mexico, his home country, and his record includes a series of low-level drug offenses. After serving time in a US federal prison, he was transferred earlier this year to San Francisco, where he faced an old charge for possession of a small amount of marijuana. The charge was immediately dropped and Sánchez was released in April.</p>
<p>Following San Francisco’s policies, the police ignored a request by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official to inform them that they had Sánchez in custody and to hold him for deportation.&#160;</p>
<p>Why? San Francisco, along with an increasing number of cities and counties in the United States, says it won’t assist deporting immigrants for low-level crimes. For violent crimes, yes, but not for things like marijuana. Cracking down could crush community relations in a heavily immigrant area, says San Francisco Sheriff <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33432197" type="external">Ross Mirkarimi</a>.</p>
<p>Rosy Cho, an immigration lawyer in San Francisco, defends the policy. “San Francisco, as a city and county, has chosen to not play a part in that enforcement role — and we shouldn’t have to play that role,” she says.&#160;Cho’s office is just blocks from the waterfront where Sánchez allegedly killed Steinle. Every day, Cho defends immigrants whose rap sheets aren’t as extreme as Sánchez’s, but who do have records.</p>
<p>“But if you look at their criminal record,” she says, “it’s really for non-violent offenses and often offenses related to their living as an undocumented person in this country. They end up violating a lot of the laws that we take for granted. Not worrying about being arrested for not having a driver’s license,” she says. “I’ve been doing this for over 15 years and I can count on my hand the number of cases I’ve had where the offenses involved any kind of violence against a person or property.”</p>
<p>She hopes this case won’t tear down a policy that, she says, protects due process — and immigrants — from being treated more harshly because of their status.</p>
<p>Jessica Vaughan disagrees. She is director of policy studies at the conservative Center for Immigration Studies. “I shouldn’t have to wait until someone commits a felony or a violent crime before they’re allowed to deport someone,” says Vaughan, also a former State Department consular officer in Trinidad and Tobago.</p>
<p>She points to <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2cf4accdee9444b28ae920ead80475e6/report-many-immigrants-re-arrested-after-detainers-declined" type="external">information from ICE</a> that shows that more than 1,800 immigrants released from local jails were re-arrested between January and August 2014 — and that ICE had requested that the local jails detain those immigrants, as in the San Francisco case. Most of those arrests were for non-violent violations, including DUIs, and the 1,800 tally does not distinguish between re-arrests that resulted in convictions or whether charges were ultimately dropped.</p>
<p>Vaughan says it’s important for people in the community, including immigrants, to know that “those few immigrants within the population who are committing crimes are going to be held accountable for it and that they’re going to be removed instead of returned to the community.”</p>
<p>She says it should be one strike you’re out, regardless of the years someone has been here or rehabilitation. Advocates such as Cho say the focus should not be on undocumented immigrants whose records include minor crimes, but instead on those who commit violent offenses—and that the system in place now addresses that forcefully.</p>
<p>But people on both sides do agree on this&#160;—&#160;that a serious debate about the immigration system, and its flaws, must take place. And that it should include what someone with a record like Sánchez’s — with multiple deportations — says about who should stay or go, and whether communication between law enforcement and immigration officials should improve.</p>
<p>With the heated speeches though,&#160;and some politicians casting immigrants as criminals, the worry continues that a chance for real dialogue will get lost.</p> | 4,080 |
<p>Photo: Wikimedia Commons</p>
<p />
<p>Ever fantasized about <a href="" type="internal">Tom DeLay</a> doing the foxtrot? Then you’re in luck: Today, it was announced that the former House Majority Leader will grace the stage during the upcoming season of <a href="" type="internal">Dancing with the Stars</a>.</p>
<p>So does DeLay have a shot at beating out fellow contestants like Macy Gray and Donny Osmond? Word is he fancies boogying with his wife, and has a daughter who won the country dancing championship. But a better indicator might be his political track record:</p>
<p>Pros:</p>
<p>–He ain’t called The Hammer for nothing. While Majory Whip, DeLay got his nickname for ruthelessly tearing down his political opponents. Melissa Joan Hart and Kelly Osbourne, watch your backs!</p>
<p>–Despite mounting evidence, DeLay successfully avoided charges of perjury during a civil lawsuit, and was named but not charged for connections in the <a href="" type="internal">Abramoff scandal</a>. That kind of fancy footwork could prove useful during the two-step…</p>
<p>Cons:</p>
<p>–…Then again, his footwork wasn’t so smooth when he tried to get out of charges that he <a href="" type="internal">violated campaign finance rules</a>. He was indicted of the crime and had to resign from his post as Majority Leader.</p>
<p>–Vocal opponent of the National Endowment for the Arts. Hey, wait…doesn’t that endowment support dance?</p>
<p /> | Paso Doble and DeLay | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/08/paso-doble-and-delay/ | 2009-08-17 | 4left
| Paso Doble and DeLay
<p>Photo: Wikimedia Commons</p>
<p />
<p>Ever fantasized about <a href="" type="internal">Tom DeLay</a> doing the foxtrot? Then you’re in luck: Today, it was announced that the former House Majority Leader will grace the stage during the upcoming season of <a href="" type="internal">Dancing with the Stars</a>.</p>
<p>So does DeLay have a shot at beating out fellow contestants like Macy Gray and Donny Osmond? Word is he fancies boogying with his wife, and has a daughter who won the country dancing championship. But a better indicator might be his political track record:</p>
<p>Pros:</p>
<p>–He ain’t called The Hammer for nothing. While Majory Whip, DeLay got his nickname for ruthelessly tearing down his political opponents. Melissa Joan Hart and Kelly Osbourne, watch your backs!</p>
<p>–Despite mounting evidence, DeLay successfully avoided charges of perjury during a civil lawsuit, and was named but not charged for connections in the <a href="" type="internal">Abramoff scandal</a>. That kind of fancy footwork could prove useful during the two-step…</p>
<p>Cons:</p>
<p>–…Then again, his footwork wasn’t so smooth when he tried to get out of charges that he <a href="" type="internal">violated campaign finance rules</a>. He was indicted of the crime and had to resign from his post as Majority Leader.</p>
<p>–Vocal opponent of the National Endowment for the Arts. Hey, wait…doesn’t that endowment support dance?</p>
<p /> | 4,081 |
<p />
<p>&#160; &#160; A portrait of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/home_of_chaos" type="external">thierry ehrmann</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" type="external">(CC BY 2.0)</a></p>
<p>The Southern Poverty Law Center found that users on the White Nationalist Web forum Stormfront.org were responsible for something like a hundred slayings that related to discrimination. Among the infamous killers the site boasts as users are the man responsible for the 2011 Norway massacre, Anders Behring Breivik, and Wade Michael Page, who shot six people dead at a Sikh temple in 2012 in Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, billions of taxpayer dollars have gone to drone attacks, NSA spying and other supposed anti-terrorist tactics that were likely ineffective and inhumane.</p>
<p />
<p>The Guardian via AlterNet:</p>
<p>After a two-year investigation, the SPLC said (pdf) that since Stormfront became one of the first hate sites on the internet in 1995, its registered users have been disproportionately responsible for major killings. The report was released a month early after white supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross, was accused of killing three people at a Jewish center in Kansas City on Sunday.</p>
<p>“We know that the people who are going to commit the kinds of crimes, like the kinds of crimes Miller committed last weekend, this is where they live,” said Heidi Beirich, report author and a director at the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. The report, released on Thursday, calls Stormfront the “largest hate site in the world” and “a magnet and breeding ground for the deadly and deranged.”</p>
<p>…“It’s pretty clear that websites like Stormfront are breeding grounds for people who are just enraged at their situation, it’s there that people find the reasons their lives aren’t as they had hoped and Stormfront helps them find the enemy that is standing in their way – whether it be Jews, African Americans, immigrants and so on,” said Beirich. “Unfortunately it’s not very surprising that people who live in this kind of stew of violent racism eventually pick up a gun and do something about it at some point.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/new-report-more-100-hate-crime-murders-linked-single-far-right-website" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi Zapata</a></p>
<p /> | Looking for Terrorists? Why Not Check the Extreme Right Website Linked to 100 Hate Crime Killings | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/looking-for-terrorists-why-not-check-the-extreme-right-website-linked-to-100-hate-crime-killings/ | 2014-04-20 | 4left
| Looking for Terrorists? Why Not Check the Extreme Right Website Linked to 100 Hate Crime Killings
<p />
<p>&#160; &#160; A portrait of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/home_of_chaos" type="external">thierry ehrmann</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" type="external">(CC BY 2.0)</a></p>
<p>The Southern Poverty Law Center found that users on the White Nationalist Web forum Stormfront.org were responsible for something like a hundred slayings that related to discrimination. Among the infamous killers the site boasts as users are the man responsible for the 2011 Norway massacre, Anders Behring Breivik, and Wade Michael Page, who shot six people dead at a Sikh temple in 2012 in Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, billions of taxpayer dollars have gone to drone attacks, NSA spying and other supposed anti-terrorist tactics that were likely ineffective and inhumane.</p>
<p />
<p>The Guardian via AlterNet:</p>
<p>After a two-year investigation, the SPLC said (pdf) that since Stormfront became one of the first hate sites on the internet in 1995, its registered users have been disproportionately responsible for major killings. The report was released a month early after white supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross, was accused of killing three people at a Jewish center in Kansas City on Sunday.</p>
<p>“We know that the people who are going to commit the kinds of crimes, like the kinds of crimes Miller committed last weekend, this is where they live,” said Heidi Beirich, report author and a director at the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. The report, released on Thursday, calls Stormfront the “largest hate site in the world” and “a magnet and breeding ground for the deadly and deranged.”</p>
<p>…“It’s pretty clear that websites like Stormfront are breeding grounds for people who are just enraged at their situation, it’s there that people find the reasons their lives aren’t as they had hoped and Stormfront helps them find the enemy that is standing in their way – whether it be Jews, African Americans, immigrants and so on,” said Beirich. “Unfortunately it’s not very surprising that people who live in this kind of stew of violent racism eventually pick up a gun and do something about it at some point.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/new-report-more-100-hate-crime-murders-linked-single-far-right-website" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi Zapata</a></p>
<p /> | 4,082 |
<p>By Jessica Toonkel</p>
<p>(Reuters) – Viacom Inc’s (O:) MTV network had its first summer of ratings growth in six years, the network told Reuters this week, a sign that the company is seeing progress wooing back coveted younger viewers who watch shows online.</p>
<p>Viacom is in the midst of a turnaround to improve declining ratings and ad revenue by focusing on six core networks, including MTV under its new Chief Executive Officer Bob Bakish.</p>
<p>Once known as the edgy network for cool kids, MTV lost its luster in recent years as the former Viacom management failed to invest in programming or a digital strategy.</p>
<p>In recent months, MTV has brought in new creative talent, re-engineered a number of existing shows and made an effort to reach a younger audience through social media, said Chris McCarthy, who was named president of MTV last year.</p>
<p>Turning MTV around is crucial for Viacom as it makes up about 15 percent of the company’s media network revenue, according to John Janedis, a Jefferies analyst. In the third quarter, media network revenue was $2.56 billion, 76 percent of Viacom’s $3.36 billion total revenue.</p>
<p>Summer is a key time for networks like MTV that cater to younger viewers because kids are home from school.</p>
<p>“The ratings trajectory is the best we have seen in several years,” Janedis said. “That being said, after the erosion of audience over the past six years, this needs to continue.”</p>
<p>During primetime, in its target audience aged 18 to 34 years, MTV saw a 31 percent ratings increase in August. The spike was helped by its new reality show “Siesta Key,” according to Nielsen data provided by Viacom.</p>
<p>From June through August, MTV saw the first three months of consecutive ratings improvement year over year in six years, the company said.</p>
<p>“Our original programming isn’t just about renewing for next season,” he said. “It’s about digging in and seeing what is working and what is not.”</p>
<p>For example, MTV made several changes to “The Challenge,” its reality game show featuring alumnae from its “Real World” and “Road Rules” shows.</p>
<p>MTV brought back some fan favorites of the show, upped the prize money to $1 million and quickened the show’s pace, McCarthy said.</p>
<p>The show’s ratings jumped 20 percent among 18-34 year olds, making it the highest rated season in over two years with that demographic, according to the Nielsen data.</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> | Viacom's MTV sees first summer ratings growth in six years | false | https://newsline.com/viacom039s-mtv-sees-first-summer-ratings-growth-in-six-years/ | 2017-09-13 | 1right-center
| Viacom's MTV sees first summer ratings growth in six years
<p>By Jessica Toonkel</p>
<p>(Reuters) – Viacom Inc’s (O:) MTV network had its first summer of ratings growth in six years, the network told Reuters this week, a sign that the company is seeing progress wooing back coveted younger viewers who watch shows online.</p>
<p>Viacom is in the midst of a turnaround to improve declining ratings and ad revenue by focusing on six core networks, including MTV under its new Chief Executive Officer Bob Bakish.</p>
<p>Once known as the edgy network for cool kids, MTV lost its luster in recent years as the former Viacom management failed to invest in programming or a digital strategy.</p>
<p>In recent months, MTV has brought in new creative talent, re-engineered a number of existing shows and made an effort to reach a younger audience through social media, said Chris McCarthy, who was named president of MTV last year.</p>
<p>Turning MTV around is crucial for Viacom as it makes up about 15 percent of the company’s media network revenue, according to John Janedis, a Jefferies analyst. In the third quarter, media network revenue was $2.56 billion, 76 percent of Viacom’s $3.36 billion total revenue.</p>
<p>Summer is a key time for networks like MTV that cater to younger viewers because kids are home from school.</p>
<p>“The ratings trajectory is the best we have seen in several years,” Janedis said. “That being said, after the erosion of audience over the past six years, this needs to continue.”</p>
<p>During primetime, in its target audience aged 18 to 34 years, MTV saw a 31 percent ratings increase in August. The spike was helped by its new reality show “Siesta Key,” according to Nielsen data provided by Viacom.</p>
<p>From June through August, MTV saw the first three months of consecutive ratings improvement year over year in six years, the company said.</p>
<p>“Our original programming isn’t just about renewing for next season,” he said. “It’s about digging in and seeing what is working and what is not.”</p>
<p>For example, MTV made several changes to “The Challenge,” its reality game show featuring alumnae from its “Real World” and “Road Rules” shows.</p>
<p>MTV brought back some fan favorites of the show, upped the prize money to $1 million and quickened the show’s pace, McCarthy said.</p>
<p>The show’s ratings jumped 20 percent among 18-34 year olds, making it the highest rated season in over two years with that demographic, according to the Nielsen data.</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> | 4,083 |
<p>An Alabama prisoner scheduled for execution Thursday evening won a temporary delay from the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Tommy Arthur had petitioned the high court to stop the execution on the grounds that his sentencing violated recent rulings by the justices. He also challenged the state's lethal injection protocol.</p>
<p>Hours after he was supposed to be put to death, a divided Supreme Court granted the stay because four of the justices wanted more time to consider Arthur's arguments. The Chief Justice said he disagreed but granted the stay as a courtesy.</p>
<p>"We are greatly relieved by the Supreme Court’s decision granting a stay and now hope for the opportunity to present the merits of Mr. Arthur’s claims to the Court," Arthur's lawyer, Suhana Han, said in a statement.</p>
<p>Arthur, who is now 74, was serving a life sentence for murdering his sister-in-law when he was charged in 1982 with fatally shooting Troy Wicker, the husband of a woman with whom he was having an affair while on work release.</p>
<p>His first two convictions were overturned, but he was found guilty a third time — and at his final sentencing in 1991, he asked the jury to give him death. He said he thought he would get better prison accommodations, more time to see family and more time to devote to his appeal.</p>
<p>"Arthur told the jury that he did not believe he would be executed," an appeals court noted in a decision this week. He has maintained his innocence during his three decades on death row.</p>
<p>The state has set seven execution dates for Arthur. He won reprieves six times, and his last appeal led to a halt in executions statewide.</p>
<p>In his latest bid to stay alive, he is relying on a Supreme Court decision in January that struck down part of Florida's death penalty in a case called Hurst v. Florida.</p>
<p>Florida's system required the trial judge and not the jury to make the critical findings necessary to impose capital punishment, putting it at odds with a string of Supreme Court rulings that said the jury cannot be limited to an advisory role.</p>
<p>Arthur's legal team is arguing that Alabama's system is essentially the same as Florida's and thus unconstitutional, as well.</p>
<p>His lawyers have also challenged Alabama's choice of chemicals for its three-drug lethal injection, claiming they would cause too painful a death.</p> | Supreme Court Delays Inmate Tommy Arthur’s Seventh Execution Date | false | http://nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/execution-looms-tommy-arthur-inmate-who-escaped-death-six-times-n677411 | 2016-11-04 | 3left-center
| Supreme Court Delays Inmate Tommy Arthur’s Seventh Execution Date
<p>An Alabama prisoner scheduled for execution Thursday evening won a temporary delay from the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Tommy Arthur had petitioned the high court to stop the execution on the grounds that his sentencing violated recent rulings by the justices. He also challenged the state's lethal injection protocol.</p>
<p>Hours after he was supposed to be put to death, a divided Supreme Court granted the stay because four of the justices wanted more time to consider Arthur's arguments. The Chief Justice said he disagreed but granted the stay as a courtesy.</p>
<p>"We are greatly relieved by the Supreme Court’s decision granting a stay and now hope for the opportunity to present the merits of Mr. Arthur’s claims to the Court," Arthur's lawyer, Suhana Han, said in a statement.</p>
<p>Arthur, who is now 74, was serving a life sentence for murdering his sister-in-law when he was charged in 1982 with fatally shooting Troy Wicker, the husband of a woman with whom he was having an affair while on work release.</p>
<p>His first two convictions were overturned, but he was found guilty a third time — and at his final sentencing in 1991, he asked the jury to give him death. He said he thought he would get better prison accommodations, more time to see family and more time to devote to his appeal.</p>
<p>"Arthur told the jury that he did not believe he would be executed," an appeals court noted in a decision this week. He has maintained his innocence during his three decades on death row.</p>
<p>The state has set seven execution dates for Arthur. He won reprieves six times, and his last appeal led to a halt in executions statewide.</p>
<p>In his latest bid to stay alive, he is relying on a Supreme Court decision in January that struck down part of Florida's death penalty in a case called Hurst v. Florida.</p>
<p>Florida's system required the trial judge and not the jury to make the critical findings necessary to impose capital punishment, putting it at odds with a string of Supreme Court rulings that said the jury cannot be limited to an advisory role.</p>
<p>Arthur's legal team is arguing that Alabama's system is essentially the same as Florida's and thus unconstitutional, as well.</p>
<p>His lawyers have also challenged Alabama's choice of chemicals for its three-drug lethal injection, claiming they would cause too painful a death.</p> | 4,084 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/statephotos/5940665147/sizes/m/in/photostream/"&gt;US State Department&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>When a set of State Department emails were released Wednesday, one reporting that a local Islamist militia had claimed responsibility for the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the US ambassador to Libya, conservatives thought they had the smoking gun that the Obama administration had lied about what had occurred.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/24/us-usa-benghazi-emails-idUSBRE89N02C20121024" type="external">Reuters reported Wednesday</a> that on September 11—the day of the attack—a State Department email with the subject header “Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack” was sent to the White House. The message stated that “Embassy Tripoli reports the group claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli.” Case closed, conservatives said: The White House had engaged in a cover-up.</p>
<p>“[T]he president and his advisers repeatedly told us the attack was spontaneous reaction to the anti-Muslim video and that it lacked information suggesting it was a terrorist assault,” <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/white-house-e-mails-blow-up-its-libya-cover-story/2012/10/24/713ed4e6-1d8e-11e2-ba31-3083ca97c314_blog.html?wprss=rss_right-turn" type="external">wrote Jennifer Rubin</a>, president of the Washington Post‘s Mitt Romney fan club. “Bottom line? Barack Obama was willfully and knowingly lying to the American people,” <a href="http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/10/lies-scandal-and-politics-benghazi/" type="external">wrote Danielle Pletka</a>, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. (Of course, the idea that the video played a role is not inconsistent with the idea that the attack was an “act of terror,” a <a href="" type="internal">phrase the president himself used to describe the attack</a> in the days following the incident.)</p>
<p>There’s only one problem—well, actually, there are many, but one big one: The email appears to have been incorrect. Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi, the group suspected of attacking the consulate, never claimed responsibility for the assault. In fact, according to Aaron Zelin, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who monitors jihadist activity online, Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi didn’t post about the attack on its Facebook or Twitter page until September 12, the day after the attack. They expressed their approval of the incident, but they didn’t take credit; they did imply members of the group might have been involved, according to Zelin, stating, “Katibat Ansar al-Sharia [in Benghazi] as a military did not participate formally/officially and not by direct orders.” The statement also justifies the attack by implicitly alluding to the anti-Islam video linked to unrest in other parts of the Middle East, saying, “We commend the Libyan Muslim people in Benghazi [that were] against the attack on the [Muslim] Prophet [Muhammad].”</p>
<p>“It is possible staffers were mistaken in the heat of the moment,” wrote Zelin in an email to Mother Jones. “Not only was there no statement from ASB until the following morning, but it did not claim responsibility.” (Zelin provided Mother Jones with screenshots of AAS’s Twitter feed and Facebook page, <a href="http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/24/doubts-surface-over-e-mail-on-claim-of-responsibility-for-benghazi-attack/" type="external">which he also provided to CNN</a>. It’s possible the posts could have been deleted, but there’s no way to prove that.)</p>
<p>Even if the State Department email had been accurate, conservatives pounced on it eagerly without underlying corroboration, thereby providing a pretty good example of how complicated intelligence analysis can be and why it’s a bad idea to simply jump on a piece of information that fits your preconceived biases. The email was just one piece of information gathered in the aftermath of the attack. While the White House’s initial explanation that the attack had begun as a protest turned out to be wrong, the email itself doesn’t bear on two of the major remaining questions: what role the video played and whether the attack was planned or spontaneous.&#160;</p>
<p>You’d think that this would be obvious, but in the future it’s a good idea to remember that just because someone posts something on Facebook, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true. Even better: Just because someone said someone posted something on Facebook doesn’t mean it’s true. Even if you really, really want it to be.</p>
<p /> | GOP’s Benghazi Smoking Gun Goes Up in Smoke | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/benghazi-libya-state-emails/ | 2012-10-25 | 4left
| GOP’s Benghazi Smoking Gun Goes Up in Smoke
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/statephotos/5940665147/sizes/m/in/photostream/"&gt;US State Department&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>When a set of State Department emails were released Wednesday, one reporting that a local Islamist militia had claimed responsibility for the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the US ambassador to Libya, conservatives thought they had the smoking gun that the Obama administration had lied about what had occurred.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/24/us-usa-benghazi-emails-idUSBRE89N02C20121024" type="external">Reuters reported Wednesday</a> that on September 11—the day of the attack—a State Department email with the subject header “Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack” was sent to the White House. The message stated that “Embassy Tripoli reports the group claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli.” Case closed, conservatives said: The White House had engaged in a cover-up.</p>
<p>“[T]he president and his advisers repeatedly told us the attack was spontaneous reaction to the anti-Muslim video and that it lacked information suggesting it was a terrorist assault,” <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/white-house-e-mails-blow-up-its-libya-cover-story/2012/10/24/713ed4e6-1d8e-11e2-ba31-3083ca97c314_blog.html?wprss=rss_right-turn" type="external">wrote Jennifer Rubin</a>, president of the Washington Post‘s Mitt Romney fan club. “Bottom line? Barack Obama was willfully and knowingly lying to the American people,” <a href="http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/10/lies-scandal-and-politics-benghazi/" type="external">wrote Danielle Pletka</a>, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. (Of course, the idea that the video played a role is not inconsistent with the idea that the attack was an “act of terror,” a <a href="" type="internal">phrase the president himself used to describe the attack</a> in the days following the incident.)</p>
<p>There’s only one problem—well, actually, there are many, but one big one: The email appears to have been incorrect. Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi, the group suspected of attacking the consulate, never claimed responsibility for the assault. In fact, according to Aaron Zelin, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who monitors jihadist activity online, Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi didn’t post about the attack on its Facebook or Twitter page until September 12, the day after the attack. They expressed their approval of the incident, but they didn’t take credit; they did imply members of the group might have been involved, according to Zelin, stating, “Katibat Ansar al-Sharia [in Benghazi] as a military did not participate formally/officially and not by direct orders.” The statement also justifies the attack by implicitly alluding to the anti-Islam video linked to unrest in other parts of the Middle East, saying, “We commend the Libyan Muslim people in Benghazi [that were] against the attack on the [Muslim] Prophet [Muhammad].”</p>
<p>“It is possible staffers were mistaken in the heat of the moment,” wrote Zelin in an email to Mother Jones. “Not only was there no statement from ASB until the following morning, but it did not claim responsibility.” (Zelin provided Mother Jones with screenshots of AAS’s Twitter feed and Facebook page, <a href="http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/24/doubts-surface-over-e-mail-on-claim-of-responsibility-for-benghazi-attack/" type="external">which he also provided to CNN</a>. It’s possible the posts could have been deleted, but there’s no way to prove that.)</p>
<p>Even if the State Department email had been accurate, conservatives pounced on it eagerly without underlying corroboration, thereby providing a pretty good example of how complicated intelligence analysis can be and why it’s a bad idea to simply jump on a piece of information that fits your preconceived biases. The email was just one piece of information gathered in the aftermath of the attack. While the White House’s initial explanation that the attack had begun as a protest turned out to be wrong, the email itself doesn’t bear on two of the major remaining questions: what role the video played and whether the attack was planned or spontaneous.&#160;</p>
<p>You’d think that this would be obvious, but in the future it’s a good idea to remember that just because someone posts something on Facebook, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true. Even better: Just because someone said someone posted something on Facebook doesn’t mean it’s true. Even if you really, really want it to be.</p>
<p /> | 4,085 |
<p />
<p>A Boca Raton, Florida, middle school teacher is planning on putting up a large shrine to Satan in the town square so little boys and girls can worship what can only be described by many as the patron “saint” of liberalism.&#160; It blows my mind that any school in the country would continue to employ an alleged teacher like this.</p>
<p>This is basically the same display he set up last year.&#160; The city is none too thrilled but they were warned by their attorney that if the display was banned, they could end up paying a large amount of money in a lawsuit the teacher would likely bring against the city.</p>
<p><a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/28/florida-teacher-to-set-up-satanic-display-that-reads-may-the-children-hail-satan/" type="external">From The Daily Caller</a></p>
<p>&#160;Preston Smith, who teaches language arts at a Boca Raton middle school, said he plans to display a 300-pound metal Satanic pentagram, sporting “One Nation Under Antichrist,” “May The Children Hail Satan,” and “In Satan We Trust,” in Sanborn Square, according to WND. Smith, who made a similar Satanic spectacle in the park last year, will erect this year’s exhibition to protest a Nativity scene also displayed in the park, according to Christian Today.</p>
<p>“‘May the Children Hail Satan’ is an artistic expression of defiance toward the Sanborn Square nativity scene, which performs an annual re-enactment of predatory indoctrination in a public park targeting young children before they have critical thinking skills,” Smith told WPTV. “Satan and God are clearly both fictional characters devoid of any verifiable peer-reviewed scientific evidence.”</p>
<p>Smith’s plans outraged local Christians, especially pastor Mark Boykin of Church of All Nations, who promised to destroy the display with a sledgehammer should Smith dare to put it up and entice children to Satanism.</p>
<p>Pastor Boykin said:</p>
<p>“In essence they’re putting out a welcome mat for Satan.&#160; I think this is reprehensible. I think it’s an insult to our city. … It’s evil, it’s the essence of evil. I will take the responsibility for taking the sledgehammer and knocking it down.”</p>
<p>Parents have begun to rise up and demand the teacher be fired.&#160; How would you feel if you found out that one of your children’s teachers wanted your child to worship the devil?&#160; I mean, besides the teachers who actively campaigned in their classes for Hillary.&#160; What’s next?&#160; Human sacrifices to Satan?</p>
<p><a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/28/florida-teacher-to-set-up-satanic-display-that-reads-may-the-children-hail-satan/" type="external">More from the Daily Caller</a></p>
<p>Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie decried the message of Smith’s display, but said that the city could not legally oppose it due to First Amendment protections.</p>
<p>“I find this extremely offensive. But you know, again, we’ve chosen as the council to honor free speech,” Haynie told CBS 12.</p>
<p>Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers affirmed Haynie’s statement, adding that the repercussions of opposing Smith’s display would be more than the city government wanted to bear.</p>
<p>“We can’t say no to this, as offensive as it is. Our lawyers said whatever you do, don’t do that. Because it will be an expensive lawsuit,” Rodgers told CBS 12.</p>
<p>While the city’s hands may be tied, Smith’s career as a teacher may be in jeopardy, as&#160;Kim Bremer, president of the local parent-teacher association, said she wants to bring a metaphorical sledgehammer to Smith’s employment at&#160;Boca Raton Community Middle School.</p>
<p>Here’s a video report from WPTV:</p>
<p />
<p>Exit question: Where’s the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the ACLU when you really need them?</p>
<p>Related:</p>
<p>If you haven’t checked out and liked our&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">Facebook</a>&#160;page, please go&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">here</a>&#160;and do so.</p>
<p>And if you’re as concerned about online censorship as we are, go&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Banned-Facebook-Enables-Militant-Islamic/dp/1944212221/" type="external">here</a>&#160;and order this book (Remember, half of what we earn will be <a href="" type="internal">donated to Hurricane Harvey relief</a>):</p> | Florida Teacher To Set Up Huge Display Honoring Satan | true | http://conservativefiringline.com/florida-teacher-set-huge-display-honoring-satan/ | 2017-09-29 | 0right
| Florida Teacher To Set Up Huge Display Honoring Satan
<p />
<p>A Boca Raton, Florida, middle school teacher is planning on putting up a large shrine to Satan in the town square so little boys and girls can worship what can only be described by many as the patron “saint” of liberalism.&#160; It blows my mind that any school in the country would continue to employ an alleged teacher like this.</p>
<p>This is basically the same display he set up last year.&#160; The city is none too thrilled but they were warned by their attorney that if the display was banned, they could end up paying a large amount of money in a lawsuit the teacher would likely bring against the city.</p>
<p><a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/28/florida-teacher-to-set-up-satanic-display-that-reads-may-the-children-hail-satan/" type="external">From The Daily Caller</a></p>
<p>&#160;Preston Smith, who teaches language arts at a Boca Raton middle school, said he plans to display a 300-pound metal Satanic pentagram, sporting “One Nation Under Antichrist,” “May The Children Hail Satan,” and “In Satan We Trust,” in Sanborn Square, according to WND. Smith, who made a similar Satanic spectacle in the park last year, will erect this year’s exhibition to protest a Nativity scene also displayed in the park, according to Christian Today.</p>
<p>“‘May the Children Hail Satan’ is an artistic expression of defiance toward the Sanborn Square nativity scene, which performs an annual re-enactment of predatory indoctrination in a public park targeting young children before they have critical thinking skills,” Smith told WPTV. “Satan and God are clearly both fictional characters devoid of any verifiable peer-reviewed scientific evidence.”</p>
<p>Smith’s plans outraged local Christians, especially pastor Mark Boykin of Church of All Nations, who promised to destroy the display with a sledgehammer should Smith dare to put it up and entice children to Satanism.</p>
<p>Pastor Boykin said:</p>
<p>“In essence they’re putting out a welcome mat for Satan.&#160; I think this is reprehensible. I think it’s an insult to our city. … It’s evil, it’s the essence of evil. I will take the responsibility for taking the sledgehammer and knocking it down.”</p>
<p>Parents have begun to rise up and demand the teacher be fired.&#160; How would you feel if you found out that one of your children’s teachers wanted your child to worship the devil?&#160; I mean, besides the teachers who actively campaigned in their classes for Hillary.&#160; What’s next?&#160; Human sacrifices to Satan?</p>
<p><a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/28/florida-teacher-to-set-up-satanic-display-that-reads-may-the-children-hail-satan/" type="external">More from the Daily Caller</a></p>
<p>Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie decried the message of Smith’s display, but said that the city could not legally oppose it due to First Amendment protections.</p>
<p>“I find this extremely offensive. But you know, again, we’ve chosen as the council to honor free speech,” Haynie told CBS 12.</p>
<p>Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers affirmed Haynie’s statement, adding that the repercussions of opposing Smith’s display would be more than the city government wanted to bear.</p>
<p>“We can’t say no to this, as offensive as it is. Our lawyers said whatever you do, don’t do that. Because it will be an expensive lawsuit,” Rodgers told CBS 12.</p>
<p>While the city’s hands may be tied, Smith’s career as a teacher may be in jeopardy, as&#160;Kim Bremer, president of the local parent-teacher association, said she wants to bring a metaphorical sledgehammer to Smith’s employment at&#160;Boca Raton Community Middle School.</p>
<p>Here’s a video report from WPTV:</p>
<p />
<p>Exit question: Where’s the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the ACLU when you really need them?</p>
<p>Related:</p>
<p>If you haven’t checked out and liked our&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">Facebook</a>&#160;page, please go&#160; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ConservativeFiringLine?fref=ts" type="external">here</a>&#160;and do so.</p>
<p>And if you’re as concerned about online censorship as we are, go&#160; <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Banned-Facebook-Enables-Militant-Islamic/dp/1944212221/" type="external">here</a>&#160;and order this book (Remember, half of what we earn will be <a href="" type="internal">donated to Hurricane Harvey relief</a>):</p> | 4,086 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>But the number of bills passed this year is roughly in line with what she received in 2011 and 2013 – the first 60-day sessions of her tenure.</p>
<p>Still, this year’s session didn’t produce as many bills as the Bill Richardson and Gary Johnson eras, the two governors who preceded Martinez. It was common for lawmakers in the 1990s and early 2000s to pass more than 400 bills during a 60-day session.</p>
<p>Regardless, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said this week that it’s unwise to judge a session’s productivity based on the raw number of bills.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, noted that ethics and campaign-finance legislation made it through both chambers for the first time after years of effort. The ethics commission had been debated for decades.</p>
<p>Other important legislation among the 277 bills passed, he said, included measures banning the use of “conversion therapy” aimed at changing a young person’s sexual orientation and making it easier for transgender people to change the gender recorded on their birth certificates.</p>
<p>“I definitely think it was a worthwhile session,” Wirth said.</p>
<p>House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said the new Democratic majority in his chamber fulfilled its promises to pass a minimum-wage increase and encourage the development of high-speed internet networks, in addition to passing the ethics and campaign-disclosure bills.</p>
<p>“I’m incredibly proud of the Legislature,” he said.</p>
<p>Martinez, a Republican in her second term, reiterated her criticism that legislators wasted time. She has vowed to veto the budget they passed – partly because it includes tax increases.</p>
<p>“If the people of New Mexico knew lawmakers were spending their time debating and arguing over holiday songs and official state dances, they would be disgusted,” Martinez spokesman Michael Lonergan said. “They must have had a lot of fun, but it was at the taxpayers’ expense. What a waste of 60 days.”</p>
<p>The governor has until April 7 to decide whether to sign or veto most bills passed by the Legislature – such as proposals to impose new limits on the small-loan industry, consolidate nonpartisan elections and prohibit the use of solitary confinement for some inmates. She has already suggested she will veto two competing proposals to increase the minimum wage.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The ethics commission, which is a proposed constitutional amendment, doesn’t require the governor’s signature. It goes to voters in 2018.</p>
<p>Martinez over the weekend allowed two bills to become law – one authorizing the New Mexico Finance Authority to make loans for certain water projects, the other clearing the way for license plates honoring fallen police officers.</p>
<p>House Minority Whip Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, said he was disappointed by the Legislature’s production. But the ethics legislation, he agreed, was a bright spot.</p>
<p>“We passed a lot of license plate bills,” he said.</p>
<p />
<p>2011: 284 (Gov. Susana Martinez)</p>
<p>2013: 298 (Gov. Susana Martinez)</p>
<p>2015: 191 (Gov. Susana Martinez)</p>
<p>2017: 277 (Gov. Susana Martinez)</p>
<p>Source: Legislative staff, website. The Legislature was divided in 2015, with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats holding a majority in the Senate.</p>
<p /> | Legislature’s output highest since 2013 session | false | https://abqjournal.com/972926/productive-session-a-look-at-the-numbers.html | 2017-03-20 | 2least
| Legislature’s output highest since 2013 session
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<p />
<p>But the number of bills passed this year is roughly in line with what she received in 2011 and 2013 – the first 60-day sessions of her tenure.</p>
<p>Still, this year’s session didn’t produce as many bills as the Bill Richardson and Gary Johnson eras, the two governors who preceded Martinez. It was common for lawmakers in the 1990s and early 2000s to pass more than 400 bills during a 60-day session.</p>
<p>Regardless, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said this week that it’s unwise to judge a session’s productivity based on the raw number of bills.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, noted that ethics and campaign-finance legislation made it through both chambers for the first time after years of effort. The ethics commission had been debated for decades.</p>
<p>Other important legislation among the 277 bills passed, he said, included measures banning the use of “conversion therapy” aimed at changing a young person’s sexual orientation and making it easier for transgender people to change the gender recorded on their birth certificates.</p>
<p>“I definitely think it was a worthwhile session,” Wirth said.</p>
<p>House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said the new Democratic majority in his chamber fulfilled its promises to pass a minimum-wage increase and encourage the development of high-speed internet networks, in addition to passing the ethics and campaign-disclosure bills.</p>
<p>“I’m incredibly proud of the Legislature,” he said.</p>
<p>Martinez, a Republican in her second term, reiterated her criticism that legislators wasted time. She has vowed to veto the budget they passed – partly because it includes tax increases.</p>
<p>“If the people of New Mexico knew lawmakers were spending their time debating and arguing over holiday songs and official state dances, they would be disgusted,” Martinez spokesman Michael Lonergan said. “They must have had a lot of fun, but it was at the taxpayers’ expense. What a waste of 60 days.”</p>
<p>The governor has until April 7 to decide whether to sign or veto most bills passed by the Legislature – such as proposals to impose new limits on the small-loan industry, consolidate nonpartisan elections and prohibit the use of solitary confinement for some inmates. She has already suggested she will veto two competing proposals to increase the minimum wage.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The ethics commission, which is a proposed constitutional amendment, doesn’t require the governor’s signature. It goes to voters in 2018.</p>
<p>Martinez over the weekend allowed two bills to become law – one authorizing the New Mexico Finance Authority to make loans for certain water projects, the other clearing the way for license plates honoring fallen police officers.</p>
<p>House Minority Whip Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, said he was disappointed by the Legislature’s production. But the ethics legislation, he agreed, was a bright spot.</p>
<p>“We passed a lot of license plate bills,” he said.</p>
<p />
<p>2011: 284 (Gov. Susana Martinez)</p>
<p>2013: 298 (Gov. Susana Martinez)</p>
<p>2015: 191 (Gov. Susana Martinez)</p>
<p>2017: 277 (Gov. Susana Martinez)</p>
<p>Source: Legislative staff, website. The Legislature was divided in 2015, with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats holding a majority in the Senate.</p>
<p /> | 4,087 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Images of Money via PIxabay.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 has fully recovered from the drubbing it took at the start of the year, but that doesn't mean investors should expect nothing but smooth sailing from here. Bear markets can happen at any time, so it makes sense to dedicate a portion of your investment portfolio to stocks that tend to do well during periods of market turmoil.</p>
<p>Knowing that, we reached out to our team of Motley Fool contributors and asked them to highlight a stock they think is a good choice to hold if the market was to drop again. Read below to see their suggestions.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDirtyBird/info.aspx" type="external">Tyler Crowe: Opens a New Window.</a>There are some companies that just don't see their stock price move. Their revenue streams are extremely constant no matter the economic conditions, and their competitive advantages are so strong that new companies rarely try to take them on. A prime example of this is Waste Management (NYSE: WM). Simply put, the business of collecting garbage isn't one that sees much flux during the booms and busts of the economy, and the company has <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/13/4-charts-that-explain-waste-management-stock.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">built up a garbage collection and processing infrastructure Opens a New Window.</a> that is extremely difficult -- and expensive -- to replicate. As a result, the company's stock has never really gone on sale, even during the financial collapse or the dot-com bust.</p>
<p>Today, Waste Management's stock isn't what you would call cheap or expensive. If you were to buy it now with a dividend yield of 2.9%, no one would say you overpaid. At the same time, you probably won't feel like you're getting a screaming bargain on the stock, either. However, if you're looking for a company you can expect to weather any major market drops with reasonable confidence, then Waste Management is likely a stock you want to have in your portfolio.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTypeoh/info.aspx" type="external">Brian Feroldi Opens a New Window.</a>: One stock that tends to hold up really well during market panics isWal-Mart Stores . The company's stock sports a trailing beta of only 0.19, meaning it doesn't tend to move much in either direction, so if the market was to take a sudden turn for the worst, you can bet Wal-Mart's stock wouldn't go down much at all. This is due, at least in part, to Wal-Mart's status as the low priced retailer of choice for millions of Americans in good times and bad.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Another factor that should help protect Wal-Mart's investors from any downside movements is its low valuation. Currently, Wal-Mart is trading for around 15 times trailing earnings, which is far below that of the S&amp;P 500in general. Wal-Mart also offers up an above-average dividend yield of 2.87%, which makes it a great choice for investors who are after income.</p>
<p>Image source: Wal-Mart Stores.</p>
<p>Of course, there are no free lunches in investing, so anyone who buys Wal-Mart's stock is giving up the possibility for upside potential in exchange for downside protection. That's especially true when you consider that Wal-Mart's business is under tremendous pressure right now from both e-commerce players and dollar-store retailers, each of which are stealing customers at both the high and low ends. Mix in the huge pressure the company is under to increase wages for its employees, and you can understand why analysts are projecting that Wal-Mart's profits will be basically be flat for the next five years.</p>
<p>Still, Wal-Mart's investors will bank a good dividend if they simply buy and hold and the stock, and they won't have to worry much if the market was to suddenly tank, so this could be a good choice for investors who prize downside protection above everything else.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewCow/info.aspx" type="external">Evan Niu, CFA Opens a New Window.</a>: This might be counter-intuitive, but I'm going to go with one of my favorite income investments: BlackRock Enhanced Capital and Income . I've discussed the ETF in previous roundtables related to dividend or income investments, but CII is also a pretty good candidate for a defensive play, for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>For starters, CII is mostly an indexed ETF, so it will certainly follow the broader market lower. However, it pays such a high yield that if shares fall, the already-strong yield quickly skyrockets, and long-term investors can get a discount on a reliable dividend payer. At current prices, CII pays a 9% yield, which is pretty hard to beat as it is. Since it's a diversified ETF, I wouldn't worry too much about company-specific risks since it will follow the market higher with the rebound, too.</p>
<p>The other reason I think CII is a compelling candidate here is because of its unique option writing strategy. Part of how CII pays such a hefty yield is because the fund constantly writes call options against the broader market, and then uses the premiums it receives to help fund the payouts. It's absolutely true that for this reason, CII may underperform in a strong bull market, since these hedges will limit the upside of capital appreciation. But in a market downturn, CII enjoys gains on these short calls, which allows it to outperform in bear markets. If the market starts to head lower, CII is a strong defensive pick that just so happens to pay out hefty distributions.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/30/3-stocks-to-own-when-the-market-starts-to-drop.aspx" type="external">3 Stocks to Own When the Market Starts to Drop Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTypeoh/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Brian Feroldi Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewCow/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Evan Niu, CFA Opens a New Window.</a>, owns shares of BlackRock Capital &amp; Strategies Fn. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDirtyBird/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Tyler Crowe Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Waste Management. The Motley Fool owns shares of Waste Management. 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 Stocks to Own When the Market Starts to Drop | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/30/3-stocks-to-own-when-market-starts-to-drop.html | 2016-04-30 | 0right
| 3 Stocks to Own When the Market Starts to Drop
<p />
<p>Image source: Images of Money via PIxabay.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 has fully recovered from the drubbing it took at the start of the year, but that doesn't mean investors should expect nothing but smooth sailing from here. Bear markets can happen at any time, so it makes sense to dedicate a portion of your investment portfolio to stocks that tend to do well during periods of market turmoil.</p>
<p>Knowing that, we reached out to our team of Motley Fool contributors and asked them to highlight a stock they think is a good choice to hold if the market was to drop again. Read below to see their suggestions.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDirtyBird/info.aspx" type="external">Tyler Crowe: Opens a New Window.</a>There are some companies that just don't see their stock price move. Their revenue streams are extremely constant no matter the economic conditions, and their competitive advantages are so strong that new companies rarely try to take them on. A prime example of this is Waste Management (NYSE: WM). Simply put, the business of collecting garbage isn't one that sees much flux during the booms and busts of the economy, and the company has <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/13/4-charts-that-explain-waste-management-stock.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">built up a garbage collection and processing infrastructure Opens a New Window.</a> that is extremely difficult -- and expensive -- to replicate. As a result, the company's stock has never really gone on sale, even during the financial collapse or the dot-com bust.</p>
<p>Today, Waste Management's stock isn't what you would call cheap or expensive. If you were to buy it now with a dividend yield of 2.9%, no one would say you overpaid. At the same time, you probably won't feel like you're getting a screaming bargain on the stock, either. However, if you're looking for a company you can expect to weather any major market drops with reasonable confidence, then Waste Management is likely a stock you want to have in your portfolio.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTypeoh/info.aspx" type="external">Brian Feroldi Opens a New Window.</a>: One stock that tends to hold up really well during market panics isWal-Mart Stores . The company's stock sports a trailing beta of only 0.19, meaning it doesn't tend to move much in either direction, so if the market was to take a sudden turn for the worst, you can bet Wal-Mart's stock wouldn't go down much at all. This is due, at least in part, to Wal-Mart's status as the low priced retailer of choice for millions of Americans in good times and bad.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Another factor that should help protect Wal-Mart's investors from any downside movements is its low valuation. Currently, Wal-Mart is trading for around 15 times trailing earnings, which is far below that of the S&amp;P 500in general. Wal-Mart also offers up an above-average dividend yield of 2.87%, which makes it a great choice for investors who are after income.</p>
<p>Image source: Wal-Mart Stores.</p>
<p>Of course, there are no free lunches in investing, so anyone who buys Wal-Mart's stock is giving up the possibility for upside potential in exchange for downside protection. That's especially true when you consider that Wal-Mart's business is under tremendous pressure right now from both e-commerce players and dollar-store retailers, each of which are stealing customers at both the high and low ends. Mix in the huge pressure the company is under to increase wages for its employees, and you can understand why analysts are projecting that Wal-Mart's profits will be basically be flat for the next five years.</p>
<p>Still, Wal-Mart's investors will bank a good dividend if they simply buy and hold and the stock, and they won't have to worry much if the market was to suddenly tank, so this could be a good choice for investors who prize downside protection above everything else.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewCow/info.aspx" type="external">Evan Niu, CFA Opens a New Window.</a>: This might be counter-intuitive, but I'm going to go with one of my favorite income investments: BlackRock Enhanced Capital and Income . I've discussed the ETF in previous roundtables related to dividend or income investments, but CII is also a pretty good candidate for a defensive play, for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>For starters, CII is mostly an indexed ETF, so it will certainly follow the broader market lower. However, it pays such a high yield that if shares fall, the already-strong yield quickly skyrockets, and long-term investors can get a discount on a reliable dividend payer. At current prices, CII pays a 9% yield, which is pretty hard to beat as it is. Since it's a diversified ETF, I wouldn't worry too much about company-specific risks since it will follow the market higher with the rebound, too.</p>
<p>The other reason I think CII is a compelling candidate here is because of its unique option writing strategy. Part of how CII pays such a hefty yield is because the fund constantly writes call options against the broader market, and then uses the premiums it receives to help fund the payouts. It's absolutely true that for this reason, CII may underperform in a strong bull market, since these hedges will limit the upside of capital appreciation. But in a market downturn, CII enjoys gains on these short calls, which allows it to outperform in bear markets. If the market starts to head lower, CII is a strong defensive pick that just so happens to pay out hefty distributions.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/30/3-stocks-to-own-when-the-market-starts-to-drop.aspx" type="external">3 Stocks to Own When the Market Starts to Drop Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTypeoh/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Brian Feroldi Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewCow/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Evan Niu, CFA Opens a New Window.</a>, owns shares of BlackRock Capital &amp; Strategies Fn. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFDirtyBird/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Tyler Crowe Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Waste Management. The Motley Fool owns shares of Waste Management. 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> | 4,088 |
<p />
<p>JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co is putting its "Chase Pay" digital wallet on Wal-Mart's website and in the retailer's Walmart Pay app, hoping to give customers more ways to make purchases without cash, a bank executive said on Thursday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Kevin Watters, chief executive officer for cards at JPMorgan, said at a conference the bank is trying to make sure its Chase cards are an option for customers who want to make digital payments.</p>
<p>Payments with smartphones and digital wallets, such as Apple Pay, probably won't account for even 1 percent of transactions "for a while," and will ultimately catch on in unpredictable ways, Watters said.</p>
<p>"We want our card to be wherever our consumers want their card to be," Watters said.</p>
<p>As Watters began to speak, the bank said it reached an agreement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc allowing shoppers to be able to use Chase Pay. The service is to be launched later this year.</p>
<p>The bank has already made deals with Best Buy Co Inc and Starbucks Corp to accept Chase Pay.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>One year ago JPMorgan said it was starting to make deals with merchants to accept Chase Pay and expected to begin marketing the wallet to consumers this past summer, but the rollout has gone more slowly than the bank had hoped.</p>
<p>With a digital wallet, a person can use a computer or smartphone for e-commerce transactions.</p>
<p>(Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)</p> | JPMorgan plants digital payment flag at Wal-Mart | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/03/jpmorgan-plants-digital-payment-flag-at-wal-mart.html | 2016-11-03 | 0right
| JPMorgan plants digital payment flag at Wal-Mart
<p />
<p>JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co is putting its "Chase Pay" digital wallet on Wal-Mart's website and in the retailer's Walmart Pay app, hoping to give customers more ways to make purchases without cash, a bank executive said on Thursday.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Kevin Watters, chief executive officer for cards at JPMorgan, said at a conference the bank is trying to make sure its Chase cards are an option for customers who want to make digital payments.</p>
<p>Payments with smartphones and digital wallets, such as Apple Pay, probably won't account for even 1 percent of transactions "for a while," and will ultimately catch on in unpredictable ways, Watters said.</p>
<p>"We want our card to be wherever our consumers want their card to be," Watters said.</p>
<p>As Watters began to speak, the bank said it reached an agreement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc allowing shoppers to be able to use Chase Pay. The service is to be launched later this year.</p>
<p>The bank has already made deals with Best Buy Co Inc and Starbucks Corp to accept Chase Pay.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>One year ago JPMorgan said it was starting to make deals with merchants to accept Chase Pay and expected to begin marketing the wallet to consumers this past summer, but the rollout has gone more slowly than the bank had hoped.</p>
<p>With a digital wallet, a person can use a computer or smartphone for e-commerce transactions.</p>
<p>(Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)</p> | 4,089 |
<p>ZITHOBENI, South Africa — As the first generation born into a fully free, post-apartheid South Africa gets ready for its first election, you would think the country would be awash in good feeling and civic engagement. Not so.</p>
<p>The dusty main drag of Zithobeni township could well be ground zero for South Africa’s angry masses.</p>
<p>Here, young mobs rampaged through the streets in February to protest the poor delivery of electricity and water, burning down the local library, police station and government offices. Four months later, the rubble remains — heaps of charred books lie beneath twisted metal and blackened bricks.</p>
<p>The people of Zithobeni, like many others in the townships and shantytowns of South Africa, are frustrated, furious and increasingly desperate about the lack of improvement in their lives, two decades into democracy.</p>
<p>Much of the anger is focused at the African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela that has ruled since the first non-racial, fully democratic elections in 1994. But rather than vote the ANC out, a growing number of people are simply not voting at all.</p>
<p>The disaffection has spread to youth who are just beginning their political lives. For the first time, South Africans born after the 1994 elections — the “born frees” — are eligible to vote. But surprisingly few of them have even bothered to register for elections — only 33.6 percent of those born post-1994. In comparison, 60 percent of South Africans in their twenties are registered, and more than 90 percent of people older than 30.</p>
<p>Grace Phiri, 23, lives in a shack in Zithobeni and said she is unhappy with the lack of electricity, and the often dirty water that comes delivered from trucks. She graduated from high school in 2011 but has yet to find a job — and without a job, she can’t afford further studies.</p>
<p>“I don’t see any reason why I have to vote,” Phiri said. “The ANC says it is making South Africa better. But it’s not better.”</p>
<p>A litany of grievances</p>
<p>As Zithobeni burned in early February, similarly violent “service delivery” protests, as these demonstrations over utilities are called, took place in two other nearby townships. In Bekkersdal, two hours away, the unrest continues, burning tires and barricades blocking ANC officials’ recent attempts at campaigning.</p>
<p>The number of these protests has increased significantly in the last few years, from13 major incidents in 2004, to 470 in 2012, according to a University of Johannesburg study.</p>
<p>In the first three months of 2014, the number of protests averaged out to roughly one every second day, according to Municipal IQ, a data and intelligence service.</p>
<p>Another major grievance is South Africa’s high unemployment rate, which stands at 24 percent, rising to 34 percent when you include people who have stopped actively looking for work. Youth unemployment is even higher.</p>
<p>A more recent gripe is President Zuma’s fancy rural homestead in the town of Nkandla, which benefited from taxpayer-funded upgrades worth $23 million including a swimming pool and chicken coop, according to a recent report by South Africa’s public protector — like an ombudsman. Nkandla has become a byword for dodgy government spending.</p>
<p>Where to go, in a political landscape without Mandela?</p>
<p>Some voters have been inspired by an upstart left-wing party called the Economic Freedom Fighters, led by Julius Malema, the 33-year-old enfant terrible — complete with revolutionary-style red beret and Louis Vuitton sneakers — who led the ANC’s youth league until his expulsion in 2012.</p>
<p>Malema is facing charges of fraud and corruption related to road works contracts, along with $1.6 million in back taxes from South Africa’s revenue agency. Nevertheless, he has drawn impressive support, in particular from young people.</p>
<p>Surprise Mokoena, 18, a first-time voter, feels alienated from the ANC, the party of his parents.</p>
<p>“People are living in shacks, you see,” he said. “I’m going to vote for EFF to see how Malema could change things.”</p>
<p>Lufuno Ramutangwa, 21, a university student from Johannesburg, will be casting her first vote for the EFF because of their promise to provide free education. Ramutangwa has struggled to pay for university after her mother lost her job.</p>
<p>“A lot of us here, our parents are not working, we cannot go to school, we cannot afford [university]” she said. “When your parents have lost their job how are you going to pay for school?”</p>
<p>Another option for voters is the Democratic Alliance. The DA, led by a white woman named Helen Zille, has gained steadily as an opposition party, with a stronghold in the area around Cape Town and growing numbers of voters around Johannesburg. But many black South Africans are reticent to vote for a party that some view as “white,” despite the DA’s efforts to diversify. &#160;</p>
<p>With no opposition party able to inspire broader swaths of disaffected voters, the ANC is likely to win another near majority in parliament. The latest survey by Ipsos puts the ANC at 63.4 percent of votes, with the opposition Democratic Alliance at 23 percent and the EFF at just under 5 percent.</p>
<p>President Jacob Zuma has pointed to the mere two decades since apartheid to defend his government’s record and explain disaffection.</p>
<p>“We forget that apartheid was very violent, as a government,” President Zuma said at a press briefing Monday in Johannesburg. “People for a long time thought that if you talk to government, talk to authority, you must be violent. This is a culture that we have not addressed as a country, as a society.”</p>
<p>It’s a defense that fails to account for the <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/140425/20-years-apartheid-whats-changed-south-africa-and-what-hasnt" type="external">peaceful, record-long lines</a> in the first free elections in 1994.</p>
<p>Precious Ndala, 28, who lives in a shack and sells tea and snacks at roadside, has voted for the ANC in the past but hasn’t made up her mind this time around. While she is unhappy with the government, and the lack of change in poor communities, the ANC is, after all, the liberation party.</p>
<p>“We feel guilty for leaving the ANC,” Ndala said. “Mandela was one of a kind. But now he is gone.”</p>
<p>Fanny Shelemba, 40, pushing a wheelbarrow past the burnt-out library in Zithobeni, said he has voted for the ANC in every election since 1994. But he is tired of the violence and lack of jobs in his community, and is switching allegiances in the hope that life will improve.</p>
<p>“Jacob Zuma doesn’t do the right things. He does corruption,” Shelemba said. “I’m going to vote for the DA.”</p> | Why South African voters are angry | false | https://pri.org/stories/2014-05-06/why-south-african-voters-are-angry | 2014-05-06 | 3left-center
| Why South African voters are angry
<p>ZITHOBENI, South Africa — As the first generation born into a fully free, post-apartheid South Africa gets ready for its first election, you would think the country would be awash in good feeling and civic engagement. Not so.</p>
<p>The dusty main drag of Zithobeni township could well be ground zero for South Africa’s angry masses.</p>
<p>Here, young mobs rampaged through the streets in February to protest the poor delivery of electricity and water, burning down the local library, police station and government offices. Four months later, the rubble remains — heaps of charred books lie beneath twisted metal and blackened bricks.</p>
<p>The people of Zithobeni, like many others in the townships and shantytowns of South Africa, are frustrated, furious and increasingly desperate about the lack of improvement in their lives, two decades into democracy.</p>
<p>Much of the anger is focused at the African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela that has ruled since the first non-racial, fully democratic elections in 1994. But rather than vote the ANC out, a growing number of people are simply not voting at all.</p>
<p>The disaffection has spread to youth who are just beginning their political lives. For the first time, South Africans born after the 1994 elections — the “born frees” — are eligible to vote. But surprisingly few of them have even bothered to register for elections — only 33.6 percent of those born post-1994. In comparison, 60 percent of South Africans in their twenties are registered, and more than 90 percent of people older than 30.</p>
<p>Grace Phiri, 23, lives in a shack in Zithobeni and said she is unhappy with the lack of electricity, and the often dirty water that comes delivered from trucks. She graduated from high school in 2011 but has yet to find a job — and without a job, she can’t afford further studies.</p>
<p>“I don’t see any reason why I have to vote,” Phiri said. “The ANC says it is making South Africa better. But it’s not better.”</p>
<p>A litany of grievances</p>
<p>As Zithobeni burned in early February, similarly violent “service delivery” protests, as these demonstrations over utilities are called, took place in two other nearby townships. In Bekkersdal, two hours away, the unrest continues, burning tires and barricades blocking ANC officials’ recent attempts at campaigning.</p>
<p>The number of these protests has increased significantly in the last few years, from13 major incidents in 2004, to 470 in 2012, according to a University of Johannesburg study.</p>
<p>In the first three months of 2014, the number of protests averaged out to roughly one every second day, according to Municipal IQ, a data and intelligence service.</p>
<p>Another major grievance is South Africa’s high unemployment rate, which stands at 24 percent, rising to 34 percent when you include people who have stopped actively looking for work. Youth unemployment is even higher.</p>
<p>A more recent gripe is President Zuma’s fancy rural homestead in the town of Nkandla, which benefited from taxpayer-funded upgrades worth $23 million including a swimming pool and chicken coop, according to a recent report by South Africa’s public protector — like an ombudsman. Nkandla has become a byword for dodgy government spending.</p>
<p>Where to go, in a political landscape without Mandela?</p>
<p>Some voters have been inspired by an upstart left-wing party called the Economic Freedom Fighters, led by Julius Malema, the 33-year-old enfant terrible — complete with revolutionary-style red beret and Louis Vuitton sneakers — who led the ANC’s youth league until his expulsion in 2012.</p>
<p>Malema is facing charges of fraud and corruption related to road works contracts, along with $1.6 million in back taxes from South Africa’s revenue agency. Nevertheless, he has drawn impressive support, in particular from young people.</p>
<p>Surprise Mokoena, 18, a first-time voter, feels alienated from the ANC, the party of his parents.</p>
<p>“People are living in shacks, you see,” he said. “I’m going to vote for EFF to see how Malema could change things.”</p>
<p>Lufuno Ramutangwa, 21, a university student from Johannesburg, will be casting her first vote for the EFF because of their promise to provide free education. Ramutangwa has struggled to pay for university after her mother lost her job.</p>
<p>“A lot of us here, our parents are not working, we cannot go to school, we cannot afford [university]” she said. “When your parents have lost their job how are you going to pay for school?”</p>
<p>Another option for voters is the Democratic Alliance. The DA, led by a white woman named Helen Zille, has gained steadily as an opposition party, with a stronghold in the area around Cape Town and growing numbers of voters around Johannesburg. But many black South Africans are reticent to vote for a party that some view as “white,” despite the DA’s efforts to diversify. &#160;</p>
<p>With no opposition party able to inspire broader swaths of disaffected voters, the ANC is likely to win another near majority in parliament. The latest survey by Ipsos puts the ANC at 63.4 percent of votes, with the opposition Democratic Alliance at 23 percent and the EFF at just under 5 percent.</p>
<p>President Jacob Zuma has pointed to the mere two decades since apartheid to defend his government’s record and explain disaffection.</p>
<p>“We forget that apartheid was very violent, as a government,” President Zuma said at a press briefing Monday in Johannesburg. “People for a long time thought that if you talk to government, talk to authority, you must be violent. This is a culture that we have not addressed as a country, as a society.”</p>
<p>It’s a defense that fails to account for the <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/140425/20-years-apartheid-whats-changed-south-africa-and-what-hasnt" type="external">peaceful, record-long lines</a> in the first free elections in 1994.</p>
<p>Precious Ndala, 28, who lives in a shack and sells tea and snacks at roadside, has voted for the ANC in the past but hasn’t made up her mind this time around. While she is unhappy with the government, and the lack of change in poor communities, the ANC is, after all, the liberation party.</p>
<p>“We feel guilty for leaving the ANC,” Ndala said. “Mandela was one of a kind. But now he is gone.”</p>
<p>Fanny Shelemba, 40, pushing a wheelbarrow past the burnt-out library in Zithobeni, said he has voted for the ANC in every election since 1994. But he is tired of the violence and lack of jobs in his community, and is switching allegiances in the hope that life will improve.</p>
<p>“Jacob Zuma doesn’t do the right things. He does corruption,” Shelemba said. “I’m going to vote for the DA.”</p> | 4,090 |
<p />
<p>On the heels of Bike-to-Work Day comes this excellent little bit of news: Bike commuters are less affected by air pollution than car and bus commuters, according to a new <a href="http://journals.lww.com/epidem/Abstract/2011/03000/Respiratory_Effects_of_Commuters__Exposure_to_Air.13.aspx" type="external">study</a> published in the journal Epidemiology. The researchers found that even though bikers were exposed to more air pollution than vehicle passengers, their airways were less inflamed after the commute:</p>
<p>The Netherlands’ researchers measured three factors related to breathing ability – lung function, airway resistance and airway inflammation – among healthy, 18- to 56-year-old volunteers before and after they commuted for two hours by bus, car or bicycle. These measures were related to estimates of&#160;two sizes of particles (PM2.5 and PM10), the number of particles in the air and soot the commuters inhaled.</p>
<p>[…]</p>
<p>Car and bus commuters experienced more inflammation based on the amount of particles present and soot concentrations. While bicycle commuting exposed participants to higher levels of pollution, health effects were not changed among the bikers.</p>
<p>No word on why this is the case, but I’m tempted to chalk it up to the superior lung capacity of bikers.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | Bikers Weather Pollution Better Than Drivers | true | https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/bikers-weather-pollution-better-drivers/ | 2011-05-17 | 4left
| Bikers Weather Pollution Better Than Drivers
<p />
<p>On the heels of Bike-to-Work Day comes this excellent little bit of news: Bike commuters are less affected by air pollution than car and bus commuters, according to a new <a href="http://journals.lww.com/epidem/Abstract/2011/03000/Respiratory_Effects_of_Commuters__Exposure_to_Air.13.aspx" type="external">study</a> published in the journal Epidemiology. The researchers found that even though bikers were exposed to more air pollution than vehicle passengers, their airways were less inflamed after the commute:</p>
<p>The Netherlands’ researchers measured three factors related to breathing ability – lung function, airway resistance and airway inflammation – among healthy, 18- to 56-year-old volunteers before and after they commuted for two hours by bus, car or bicycle. These measures were related to estimates of&#160;two sizes of particles (PM2.5 and PM10), the number of particles in the air and soot the commuters inhaled.</p>
<p>[…]</p>
<p>Car and bus commuters experienced more inflammation based on the amount of particles present and soot concentrations. While bicycle commuting exposed participants to higher levels of pollution, health effects were not changed among the bikers.</p>
<p>No word on why this is the case, but I’m tempted to chalk it up to the superior lung capacity of bikers.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | 4,091 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>With the November election fast approaching, Californians are beginning to take a hard look at their various candidates. What they find may surprise them. While it is a staple of political discussion (especially in California) to view Republicans as a party of predominately white, male, old and homogeneous voters, the leading contenders on the Republican ticket this election cycle scarcely fit this definition. Moreover, the Democratic contenders for office have taken on an unusually homogenous tinge, given their traditional base, leading to an odd politically reversed slate of candidates whose impression on voters is highly unpredictable. And why does the Republican ticket carry such diversity?</p>
<p>As Republican-friendly columnist Kris Vera-Phillips puts it at <a href="http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=92238&amp;catid=348%20" type="external">News 10</a>:</p>
<p>“Not only is this the most diverse in that it includes three women, a Latino and an African American. More importantly, (1) it shows what is possible if we effectively tap that diversity and (2) it provides great models to Californians everywhere of what can be achieved if individually we work hard and collectively we give others the tools they need to succeed.</p>
<p>Yes Damon Dunn, the GOP candidate for Secretary of State, is African-American. But what is important to us is he shows how someone who grew up in a 3 bedroom trailer with 10 adults[…]</p>
<p>Yes, Carly Fiorina, GOP candidate for the US Senate, is a woman. But what is important is that she shows that a young girl who started out in the secretarial pool can go on to run one of the largest companies in the world. Then overcome breast cancer to run for the US Senate because she has seen first-hand how Washington’s policies and Boxer’s arrogance have cost millions their jobs and increased spending to unsustainable levels.</p>
<p>Yes, Abel Maldonado is a Latino. But what is important is that he shows that the son of an immigrant can rise to hold the second highest office in the state, Lt. Governor.”</p>
<p>No polling has been done on Damon Dunn’s race, though he has been attracting unconventional supporters and a degree of legitimacy with voters that should intrigue political observers. Meanwhile, in the Senate Race, Fiorina’s unusual characteristics seem to have gotten her play where other candidates would not. Consider the recent news that <a href="http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/election-2010-1/fiorina-boxer-toss-up/%20" type="external">Rasmussen Reports has moved the California Senate race into its tossup column</a>. Whether this news is the result of Fiorina’s compelling life story, her large financial solvency or simply the unattractiveness of her opponent is anyone’s guess, but the fact that Fiorina looks so dissimilar to Boxer’s previous opponents probably has at least something to do with it.</p>
<p>However, Maldonado complicates the picture, as his diverse background has been seemingly the least noticed, just as base enthusiasm for him is the weakest. He <a href="http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-07-10/news/21978044_1_field-poll-voters-newsom-and-harris" type="external">trails Democratic Lieutenant Governor Nominee Gavin Newsom by 9 points</a> according to a recent poll. This could tick up, but one possible explanation is that Newsom, who is known primarily for his defiant stance on gay marriage, represents an ideal of diversity more convincing to California voters than that embodied by Maldonado. This suggests that the California GOP faces an interesting line to walk – trumpeting its diversity without falling into the trap of tokenism. Thus far, their ability to do so is unclear. However, the uniqueness of this year’s GOP slate means that whatever the outcome in November, a greater degree of angles exist for analyzing the race.</p> | California GOP seizes diversity mantle | false | https://ivn.us/2010/08/26/california-gop-seizes-diversity-mantle/ | 2010-08-26 | 2least
| California GOP seizes diversity mantle
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>With the November election fast approaching, Californians are beginning to take a hard look at their various candidates. What they find may surprise them. While it is a staple of political discussion (especially in California) to view Republicans as a party of predominately white, male, old and homogeneous voters, the leading contenders on the Republican ticket this election cycle scarcely fit this definition. Moreover, the Democratic contenders for office have taken on an unusually homogenous tinge, given their traditional base, leading to an odd politically reversed slate of candidates whose impression on voters is highly unpredictable. And why does the Republican ticket carry such diversity?</p>
<p>As Republican-friendly columnist Kris Vera-Phillips puts it at <a href="http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=92238&amp;catid=348%20" type="external">News 10</a>:</p>
<p>“Not only is this the most diverse in that it includes three women, a Latino and an African American. More importantly, (1) it shows what is possible if we effectively tap that diversity and (2) it provides great models to Californians everywhere of what can be achieved if individually we work hard and collectively we give others the tools they need to succeed.</p>
<p>Yes Damon Dunn, the GOP candidate for Secretary of State, is African-American. But what is important to us is he shows how someone who grew up in a 3 bedroom trailer with 10 adults[…]</p>
<p>Yes, Carly Fiorina, GOP candidate for the US Senate, is a woman. But what is important is that she shows that a young girl who started out in the secretarial pool can go on to run one of the largest companies in the world. Then overcome breast cancer to run for the US Senate because she has seen first-hand how Washington’s policies and Boxer’s arrogance have cost millions their jobs and increased spending to unsustainable levels.</p>
<p>Yes, Abel Maldonado is a Latino. But what is important is that he shows that the son of an immigrant can rise to hold the second highest office in the state, Lt. Governor.”</p>
<p>No polling has been done on Damon Dunn’s race, though he has been attracting unconventional supporters and a degree of legitimacy with voters that should intrigue political observers. Meanwhile, in the Senate Race, Fiorina’s unusual characteristics seem to have gotten her play where other candidates would not. Consider the recent news that <a href="http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/election-2010-1/fiorina-boxer-toss-up/%20" type="external">Rasmussen Reports has moved the California Senate race into its tossup column</a>. Whether this news is the result of Fiorina’s compelling life story, her large financial solvency or simply the unattractiveness of her opponent is anyone’s guess, but the fact that Fiorina looks so dissimilar to Boxer’s previous opponents probably has at least something to do with it.</p>
<p>However, Maldonado complicates the picture, as his diverse background has been seemingly the least noticed, just as base enthusiasm for him is the weakest. He <a href="http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-07-10/news/21978044_1_field-poll-voters-newsom-and-harris" type="external">trails Democratic Lieutenant Governor Nominee Gavin Newsom by 9 points</a> according to a recent poll. This could tick up, but one possible explanation is that Newsom, who is known primarily for his defiant stance on gay marriage, represents an ideal of diversity more convincing to California voters than that embodied by Maldonado. This suggests that the California GOP faces an interesting line to walk – trumpeting its diversity without falling into the trap of tokenism. Thus far, their ability to do so is unclear. However, the uniqueness of this year’s GOP slate means that whatever the outcome in November, a greater degree of angles exist for analyzing the race.</p> | 4,092 |
<p>The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday raised its 2016 and 2017 forecasts for West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude prices. <a href="http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/" type="external">In its monthly energy outlook report Opens a New Window.</a>, the government agency forecast an average price of $42.83 a barrel for WTI this year, up from a previous estimate of $40.32. Brent crude is seen averaging $43.03 this year, up from the $40.52 May forecast. The EIA left its U.S. oil production estimates for 2016 and 2017 unchanged at 8.6 million barrels a day and 8.19 million barrels a day, respectively. July WTI crude was trading at $50.03 a barrel Tuesday, up 34 cents, or 0.7%.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | EIA Raises Oil Price Forecasts For This Year And Next | true | http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/07/eia-raises-oil-price-forecasts-for-this-year-and-next.html | 2016-06-07 | 0right
| EIA Raises Oil Price Forecasts For This Year And Next
<p>The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday raised its 2016 and 2017 forecasts for West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude prices. <a href="http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/" type="external">In its monthly energy outlook report Opens a New Window.</a>, the government agency forecast an average price of $42.83 a barrel for WTI this year, up from a previous estimate of $40.32. Brent crude is seen averaging $43.03 this year, up from the $40.52 May forecast. The EIA left its U.S. oil production estimates for 2016 and 2017 unchanged at 8.6 million barrels a day and 8.19 million barrels a day, respectively. July WTI crude was trading at $50.03 a barrel Tuesday, up 34 cents, or 0.7%.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p> | 4,093 |
<p>Until now, foreign policy has barely been an issue in the presidential race. That must change; here is how Mitt Romney should go about it.</p>
<p>First, he should be bold and explicit in declaring that recent events demonstrate that Barack Obama’s foreign policies have been not just a failure, but a disaster. Obama thought he could reason with the mullahs. He was wrong, and now Iran is on the brink of becoming a nuclear power. He thought he could mollify Islamic radicals with sweet talk and apologies. He <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2012/09/14/FLASHBACK-Obama-The-Day-Im-Inaugurated-Muslim-Hostility-Will-Ease" type="external">even claimed</a> that his mere inauguration would improve America’s relations with the Muslim world. He was wrong, and four Americans are dead and American embassies and consulates are under attack from Morocco to Yemen. Obama thought that America’s alliance with Israel was a key reason for Muslim hatred of the United States. He was wrong, and now America has been estranged from its only real ally in the region. Applause line: “The job of the president is not to apologize for America. The job of the president is to defend America!”</p>
<p>Further, Obama’s policies toward the Arab world have been inconsistent if not perverse. He was eager to intervene in Libya and to overthrow the U.S.’s principal Arab ally in Egypt, apparently without giving much thought to what would come next. Meanwhile, he has stood by and done nothing with respect to Syria. We now see the fruits of those policies in Libya and Egypt; Obama has empowered radical Islam and thereby made the world more dangerous for America, not less so.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/powerline.wpengine.com/ed-assets/2012/09/NorthAfricaMiddleEast026.jpeg" type="external" /></p>
<p>Second, Romney should stand up for the First Amendment. He should engage in no ritual denunciations of movies, cartoons, ministers in Florida, or burnings of the Koran, real or imagined. These things are all pretexts. The radical Muslims will never run out of pretexts; not until they get what they want, which is our entire submission to their ideology. Screw that, Romney should say–I’m paraphrasing here–Americans are a free people, and our freedoms will not be limited or constrained by howling mobs of fanatics. Not under a Romney administration, anyway.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/powerline.wpengine.com/ed-assets/2012/09/Constitution047.jpeg" type="external" /></p>
<p>Third, Romney should tie the current crisis directly to the Obama administration’s disdain for military power. The administration is in the process of reducing our armed forces, especially the Navy, to a level that experts believe will drastically impact our ability to project power around the world. Further, the impending “sequestration” will have the impact of cutting military spending to the bone, while social welfare spending continues to skyrocket. This chart shows the numbers:</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/powerline.wpengine.com/ed-assets/2012/09/image002.png" type="external" /></p>
<p>These cuts would, among other things, reduce spending on security for our embassies and other facilities abroad. The Obama administration has its priorities wrong: the only area where it is willing to cut spending is the first responsibility of the federal government, national defense.</p>
<p>These are simple points, and I am sure Romney is comfortable with all of them. The key is that he must be bold–he must not let his advisers turn him into Obama lite–and he must tie the debacles in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere directly to Obama administration policies and explain how his administration will be different. If he does that, foreign policy will become a strength of his campaign, not a weakness.</p> | How Mitt Romney Should Respond to the Crisis in the Muslim World | true | http://powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/09/how-mitt-romney-should-respond-to-the-crisis-in-the-muslim-world.php | 2012-09-15 | 0right
| How Mitt Romney Should Respond to the Crisis in the Muslim World
<p>Until now, foreign policy has barely been an issue in the presidential race. That must change; here is how Mitt Romney should go about it.</p>
<p>First, he should be bold and explicit in declaring that recent events demonstrate that Barack Obama’s foreign policies have been not just a failure, but a disaster. Obama thought he could reason with the mullahs. He was wrong, and now Iran is on the brink of becoming a nuclear power. He thought he could mollify Islamic radicals with sweet talk and apologies. He <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2012/09/14/FLASHBACK-Obama-The-Day-Im-Inaugurated-Muslim-Hostility-Will-Ease" type="external">even claimed</a> that his mere inauguration would improve America’s relations with the Muslim world. He was wrong, and four Americans are dead and American embassies and consulates are under attack from Morocco to Yemen. Obama thought that America’s alliance with Israel was a key reason for Muslim hatred of the United States. He was wrong, and now America has been estranged from its only real ally in the region. Applause line: “The job of the president is not to apologize for America. The job of the president is to defend America!”</p>
<p>Further, Obama’s policies toward the Arab world have been inconsistent if not perverse. He was eager to intervene in Libya and to overthrow the U.S.’s principal Arab ally in Egypt, apparently without giving much thought to what would come next. Meanwhile, he has stood by and done nothing with respect to Syria. We now see the fruits of those policies in Libya and Egypt; Obama has empowered radical Islam and thereby made the world more dangerous for America, not less so.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/powerline.wpengine.com/ed-assets/2012/09/NorthAfricaMiddleEast026.jpeg" type="external" /></p>
<p>Second, Romney should stand up for the First Amendment. He should engage in no ritual denunciations of movies, cartoons, ministers in Florida, or burnings of the Koran, real or imagined. These things are all pretexts. The radical Muslims will never run out of pretexts; not until they get what they want, which is our entire submission to their ideology. Screw that, Romney should say–I’m paraphrasing here–Americans are a free people, and our freedoms will not be limited or constrained by howling mobs of fanatics. Not under a Romney administration, anyway.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/powerline.wpengine.com/ed-assets/2012/09/Constitution047.jpeg" type="external" /></p>
<p>Third, Romney should tie the current crisis directly to the Obama administration’s disdain for military power. The administration is in the process of reducing our armed forces, especially the Navy, to a level that experts believe will drastically impact our ability to project power around the world. Further, the impending “sequestration” will have the impact of cutting military spending to the bone, while social welfare spending continues to skyrocket. This chart shows the numbers:</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/powerline.wpengine.com/ed-assets/2012/09/image002.png" type="external" /></p>
<p>These cuts would, among other things, reduce spending on security for our embassies and other facilities abroad. The Obama administration has its priorities wrong: the only area where it is willing to cut spending is the first responsibility of the federal government, national defense.</p>
<p>These are simple points, and I am sure Romney is comfortable with all of them. The key is that he must be bold–he must not let his advisers turn him into Obama lite–and he must tie the debacles in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere directly to Obama administration policies and explain how his administration will be different. If he does that, foreign policy will become a strength of his campaign, not a weakness.</p> | 4,094 |
<p>Washington Post The Weekly Standard is a Rupert Murdoch-owned, right-wing, warmongering magazine, but Peter Carlson writes: "It's worth noting that the Weekly Standard is a truly excellent right-wing warmongering magazine, no matter what your political persuasion might be. ...It is America's funniest right-wing magazine, although there is not, alas, much competition for that title."</p> | Weekly Standard has a delightfully impish sense of humor | false | https://poynter.org/news/weekly-standard-has-delightfully-impish-sense-humor | 2005-08-30 | 2least
| Weekly Standard has a delightfully impish sense of humor
<p>Washington Post The Weekly Standard is a Rupert Murdoch-owned, right-wing, warmongering magazine, but Peter Carlson writes: "It's worth noting that the Weekly Standard is a truly excellent right-wing warmongering magazine, no matter what your political persuasion might be. ...It is America's funniest right-wing magazine, although there is not, alas, much competition for that title."</p> | 4,095 |
<p>Iraq’s civilian spokesman for Baghdad security was released from captivity Monday. Professor Tahseen al-Sheikhli, who was kidnapped a few days ago, was found unharmed, except for his ego.</p>
<p>Guardian:</p>
<p>Sheikhli was kidnapped from his home in the Amin area of south-west Baghdad on Thursday. The Baghdad security crackdown, backed by thousands of extra US troops, was launched a year ago by the government to reduce violence that was threatening to tear the country apart.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the spike in violence in Shia areas of southern Iraq and Baghdad has yet to alter US plans to withdraw more combat forces this spring, the defence secretary, Robert Gates, said yesterday [Monday].</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/01/iraq" type="external">Read more</a></p> | Kidnappers Free Baghdad Security Spokesman | true | https://truthdig.com/articles/kidnappers-free-baghdad-security-spokesman/ | 2008-04-01 | 4left
| Kidnappers Free Baghdad Security Spokesman
<p>Iraq’s civilian spokesman for Baghdad security was released from captivity Monday. Professor Tahseen al-Sheikhli, who was kidnapped a few days ago, was found unharmed, except for his ego.</p>
<p>Guardian:</p>
<p>Sheikhli was kidnapped from his home in the Amin area of south-west Baghdad on Thursday. The Baghdad security crackdown, backed by thousands of extra US troops, was launched a year ago by the government to reduce violence that was threatening to tear the country apart.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the spike in violence in Shia areas of southern Iraq and Baghdad has yet to alter US plans to withdraw more combat forces this spring, the defence secretary, Robert Gates, said yesterday [Monday].</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/01/iraq" type="external">Read more</a></p> | 4,096 |
<p>The United States has drafted plans to sell "bunker-buster" bombs to the United Arab Emirates, as part of an effort to build a regional coalition to counter Iran, the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204358004577030392418491690.html" type="external">Wall Street Journal reported</a>.</p>
<p>The technology would enable the UAE to target structures such as bunkers and tunnels, where Iran is suspected to be developing nuclear weapons, <a href="" type="external">Politico reported</a>.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/11/us-usa-uae-bombs-idUSTRE7AA0VT20111111" type="external">Reuters</a>:</p>
<p>The Pentagon is considering a significant sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions made by Boeing Co, adding to other recent arms deals with the UAE. These include the sale of 500 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles about which U.S. lawmakers were notified in September.</p>
<p>The weapons sale proposal will be presented to Congress in a few days, the Wall Street Journal reported.</p>
<p>According to Politico:</p>
<p>According to administration officials, growing UAE's stockpile would allow the country to assume a role in which it can deter Iran and have an expanded security role in the region, the Journal said, and those familiar with discussions about the proposal told the publication that a serious congressional challenge to the plan isn't expected.</p>
<p>Tensions between the United States and Iran have mounted since a report by UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that offered evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>"An Iran armed with nuclear weapons is an intolerable threat to regional and international security, and we remain determined to prevent that outcome," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Thursday.</p> | US plans sale of bombs to UAE: reports | false | https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-11/us-plans-sale-bombs-uae-reports | 2011-11-11 | 3left-center
| US plans sale of bombs to UAE: reports
<p>The United States has drafted plans to sell "bunker-buster" bombs to the United Arab Emirates, as part of an effort to build a regional coalition to counter Iran, the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204358004577030392418491690.html" type="external">Wall Street Journal reported</a>.</p>
<p>The technology would enable the UAE to target structures such as bunkers and tunnels, where Iran is suspected to be developing nuclear weapons, <a href="" type="external">Politico reported</a>.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/11/us-usa-uae-bombs-idUSTRE7AA0VT20111111" type="external">Reuters</a>:</p>
<p>The Pentagon is considering a significant sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions made by Boeing Co, adding to other recent arms deals with the UAE. These include the sale of 500 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles about which U.S. lawmakers were notified in September.</p>
<p>The weapons sale proposal will be presented to Congress in a few days, the Wall Street Journal reported.</p>
<p>According to Politico:</p>
<p>According to administration officials, growing UAE's stockpile would allow the country to assume a role in which it can deter Iran and have an expanded security role in the region, the Journal said, and those familiar with discussions about the proposal told the publication that a serious congressional challenge to the plan isn't expected.</p>
<p>Tensions between the United States and Iran have mounted since a report by UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that offered evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>"An Iran armed with nuclear weapons is an intolerable threat to regional and international security, and we remain determined to prevent that outcome," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on Thursday.</p> | 4,097 |
<p>Comedy queen <a href="http://variety.com/t/kristen-wiig/" type="external">Kristen Wiig</a> has added to her growing portfolio of noteworthy residential properties with the $2.96 million purchase, as was sniffed out by real estate yenta <a href="http://www.yolandaslittleblackbook.com/blog-1/2017/12/08/kristen-wiig-pasadena-house-case-study/" type="external">Yolanda Yakkeyyak</a>, of a carefully restored and thoroughly updated mid-century modern residence tucked up into the quietly tony foothills above the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.</p>
<p>Designed by father and son architects Kemper Nomland and Kemper Nomland Jr. and built in 1947 as part of Arts and Architecture Magazine’s influential Case Study program and extensively renovated by the sellers, the multi-level residence has three bedrooms and 2.5 renovated bathrooms in 3,425-square-feet plus a substantial detached poolside guesthouse with bathroom. A freestanding masonry fireplace divides the otherwise combined living and dining rooms that feature a long wall of glass that fill the space with light and promote indoor outdoor living while the sleekly appointed kitchen is open over a breakfast counter to a family room with built-in cabinetry and glass sliders to the yard. The residence sits on a grassy, gently sloped lot of just over one-third of an acre with expansive, multi-level concrete patios, terraced gardens and a brand new swimming pool and spa.</p>
<p>As the bi-coastal writer/actress’s professional star has skyrocketed over the last few years, she’s beefed up her growing collection of homes on both the East and West coasts. In Los Angeles, where earlier this year she sold a city-view hillside contemporary in the Los Feliz area for <a href="http://variety.com/2017/dirt/real-estalker/kristen-wiig-los-angeles-house-franklin-hills-1202484928/" type="external">$2 million</a>, she continues to own a mid-century residence positioned almost preposterously high on a steep slope with a commanding view over the Silver Lake Reservoir that she bought in 2014 for $1.7 million. Wiig’s East Coast holdings include a two-bedroom and one-bathroom loft-style apartment in New York City’s Soho neighborhood that she picked up in 2009 for $1.5 million and set out as a rental earlier this year at $9,000 per month along with a secluded residence on almost 4.5 acres near the town of Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard that she bought in late 2015 for $2.46 million.</p>
<p>Listing photos: <a href="http://www.deasypenner.com/" type="external">Deasy Penner &amp; Partners</a></p>
<p /> | Kristin Wiig Adds Iconic Case Study House to Growing Property Portfolio | false | https://newsline.com/kristin-wiig-adds-iconic-case-study-house-to-growing-property-portfolio/ | 2017-12-11 | 1right-center
| Kristin Wiig Adds Iconic Case Study House to Growing Property Portfolio
<p>Comedy queen <a href="http://variety.com/t/kristen-wiig/" type="external">Kristen Wiig</a> has added to her growing portfolio of noteworthy residential properties with the $2.96 million purchase, as was sniffed out by real estate yenta <a href="http://www.yolandaslittleblackbook.com/blog-1/2017/12/08/kristen-wiig-pasadena-house-case-study/" type="external">Yolanda Yakkeyyak</a>, of a carefully restored and thoroughly updated mid-century modern residence tucked up into the quietly tony foothills above the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.</p>
<p>Designed by father and son architects Kemper Nomland and Kemper Nomland Jr. and built in 1947 as part of Arts and Architecture Magazine’s influential Case Study program and extensively renovated by the sellers, the multi-level residence has three bedrooms and 2.5 renovated bathrooms in 3,425-square-feet plus a substantial detached poolside guesthouse with bathroom. A freestanding masonry fireplace divides the otherwise combined living and dining rooms that feature a long wall of glass that fill the space with light and promote indoor outdoor living while the sleekly appointed kitchen is open over a breakfast counter to a family room with built-in cabinetry and glass sliders to the yard. The residence sits on a grassy, gently sloped lot of just over one-third of an acre with expansive, multi-level concrete patios, terraced gardens and a brand new swimming pool and spa.</p>
<p>As the bi-coastal writer/actress’s professional star has skyrocketed over the last few years, she’s beefed up her growing collection of homes on both the East and West coasts. In Los Angeles, where earlier this year she sold a city-view hillside contemporary in the Los Feliz area for <a href="http://variety.com/2017/dirt/real-estalker/kristen-wiig-los-angeles-house-franklin-hills-1202484928/" type="external">$2 million</a>, she continues to own a mid-century residence positioned almost preposterously high on a steep slope with a commanding view over the Silver Lake Reservoir that she bought in 2014 for $1.7 million. Wiig’s East Coast holdings include a two-bedroom and one-bathroom loft-style apartment in New York City’s Soho neighborhood that she picked up in 2009 for $1.5 million and set out as a rental earlier this year at $9,000 per month along with a secluded residence on almost 4.5 acres near the town of Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard that she bought in late 2015 for $2.46 million.</p>
<p>Listing photos: <a href="http://www.deasypenner.com/" type="external">Deasy Penner &amp; Partners</a></p>
<p /> | 4,098 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />WASHINGTON - U.S. factory output slid last month after two months of strong growth. Manufacturers produced less furniture, machinery and plastics.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve says that factory production in April dropped 0.4 percent from the previous month after rising a revised 0.7 percent in March and 1.5 percent in February. Manufacturing output has risen a solid 2.9 percent over the past year.</p>
<p>Other measures of manufacturing have looked healthy. The Institute for Supply Management has reported that U.S. manufacturing grew faster in April than March. The Commerce Department has said orders to U.S. factories for long-lasting manufactured goods showed decent gains in February and March.</p>
<p>Overall industrial output, which includes manufacturing, mining and utilities, fell 0.6 percent in April. Output at utilities plunged 5.3 percent; households used less heat as temperatures rose.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | U.S. factory output retreats after 2 strong months | false | https://abqjournal.com/400312/us-factory-output-retreats-after-2-strong-months.html | 2least
| U.S. factory output retreats after 2 strong months
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />WASHINGTON - U.S. factory output slid last month after two months of strong growth. Manufacturers produced less furniture, machinery and plastics.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve says that factory production in April dropped 0.4 percent from the previous month after rising a revised 0.7 percent in March and 1.5 percent in February. Manufacturing output has risen a solid 2.9 percent over the past year.</p>
<p>Other measures of manufacturing have looked healthy. The Institute for Supply Management has reported that U.S. manufacturing grew faster in April than March. The Commerce Department has said orders to U.S. factories for long-lasting manufactured goods showed decent gains in February and March.</p>
<p>Overall industrial output, which includes manufacturing, mining and utilities, fell 0.6 percent in April. Output at utilities plunged 5.3 percent; households used less heat as temperatures rose.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p> | 4,099 |
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