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<p>DETROIT (AP) — A judge on Thursday rejected a plea from a Michigan State basketball recruit who’s been barred from playing his senior season after transferring to a new high school.</p>
<p>Thomas Kithier said his rights have been violated by the Michigan High School Athletic Association. But U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani said there’s no constitutional right to play high school sports or participate in any school-related activity.</p>
<p>That may be a “shock to some,” the judge said.</p>
<p>The MHSAA said Kithier is ineligible because his transfer to defending Class A champion Clarkston from Dakota was motivated by sports and a desire to play with another Michigan State recruit, Foster Loyer, who was his teammate on a summer team.</p>
<p>Kithier and his parents insist that he left Dakota because he wanted a better education. They turned to federal court after losing an appeal.</p>
<p>Battani said the law isn’t on Kithier’s side, even if he misses an “opportunity of a lifetime” by not playing a final year of high school basketball. The 18-year-old’s attorney, Ven Johnson, described it as a “death penalty.”</p>
<p>Kithier declined to comment on Battani’s decision. Outside court, another attorney, Steve Fishman, said the MHSAA “screwed over a kid” who didn’t do anything wrong.</p>
<p>During more than an hour of arguments, an attorney for the MHSAA said legal precedent weighed heavily in favor of the organization.</p>
<p>“The MHSAA’s obligation is to enforce the rules as written. ... Courts don’t opine on the wisdom of rules written by voluntary associations,” attorney Scott Eldridge said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Ed White at <a href="http://twitter.com/edwhiteap" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/edwhiteap" type="external">http://twitter.com/edwhiteap</a></p>
<p>DETROIT (AP) — A judge on Thursday rejected a plea from a Michigan State basketball recruit who’s been barred from playing his senior season after transferring to a new high school.</p>
<p>Thomas Kithier said his rights have been violated by the Michigan High School Athletic Association. But U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani said there’s no constitutional right to play high school sports or participate in any school-related activity.</p>
<p>That may be a “shock to some,” the judge said.</p>
<p>The MHSAA said Kithier is ineligible because his transfer to defending Class A champion Clarkston from Dakota was motivated by sports and a desire to play with another Michigan State recruit, Foster Loyer, who was his teammate on a summer team.</p>
<p>Kithier and his parents insist that he left Dakota because he wanted a better education. They turned to federal court after losing an appeal.</p>
<p>Battani said the law isn’t on Kithier’s side, even if he misses an “opportunity of a lifetime” by not playing a final year of high school basketball. The 18-year-old’s attorney, Ven Johnson, described it as a “death penalty.”</p>
<p>Kithier declined to comment on Battani’s decision. Outside court, another attorney, Steve Fishman, said the MHSAA “screwed over a kid” who didn’t do anything wrong.</p>
<p>During more than an hour of arguments, an attorney for the MHSAA said legal precedent weighed heavily in favor of the organization.</p>
<p>“The MHSAA’s obligation is to enforce the rules as written. ... Courts don’t opine on the wisdom of rules written by voluntary associations,” attorney Scott Eldridge said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Ed White at <a href="http://twitter.com/edwhiteap" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/edwhiteap" type="external">http://twitter.com/edwhiteap</a></p>
|
Judge won’t lift ban; Michigan prep star remains benched
| false |
https://apnews.com/8e8f16d4dbc44d54b3dded2c5c7ffadd
|
2018-01-11
| 2least
|
Judge won’t lift ban; Michigan prep star remains benched
<p>DETROIT (AP) — A judge on Thursday rejected a plea from a Michigan State basketball recruit who’s been barred from playing his senior season after transferring to a new high school.</p>
<p>Thomas Kithier said his rights have been violated by the Michigan High School Athletic Association. But U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani said there’s no constitutional right to play high school sports or participate in any school-related activity.</p>
<p>That may be a “shock to some,” the judge said.</p>
<p>The MHSAA said Kithier is ineligible because his transfer to defending Class A champion Clarkston from Dakota was motivated by sports and a desire to play with another Michigan State recruit, Foster Loyer, who was his teammate on a summer team.</p>
<p>Kithier and his parents insist that he left Dakota because he wanted a better education. They turned to federal court after losing an appeal.</p>
<p>Battani said the law isn’t on Kithier’s side, even if he misses an “opportunity of a lifetime” by not playing a final year of high school basketball. The 18-year-old’s attorney, Ven Johnson, described it as a “death penalty.”</p>
<p>Kithier declined to comment on Battani’s decision. Outside court, another attorney, Steve Fishman, said the MHSAA “screwed over a kid” who didn’t do anything wrong.</p>
<p>During more than an hour of arguments, an attorney for the MHSAA said legal precedent weighed heavily in favor of the organization.</p>
<p>“The MHSAA’s obligation is to enforce the rules as written. ... Courts don’t opine on the wisdom of rules written by voluntary associations,” attorney Scott Eldridge said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Ed White at <a href="http://twitter.com/edwhiteap" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/edwhiteap" type="external">http://twitter.com/edwhiteap</a></p>
<p>DETROIT (AP) — A judge on Thursday rejected a plea from a Michigan State basketball recruit who’s been barred from playing his senior season after transferring to a new high school.</p>
<p>Thomas Kithier said his rights have been violated by the Michigan High School Athletic Association. But U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani said there’s no constitutional right to play high school sports or participate in any school-related activity.</p>
<p>That may be a “shock to some,” the judge said.</p>
<p>The MHSAA said Kithier is ineligible because his transfer to defending Class A champion Clarkston from Dakota was motivated by sports and a desire to play with another Michigan State recruit, Foster Loyer, who was his teammate on a summer team.</p>
<p>Kithier and his parents insist that he left Dakota because he wanted a better education. They turned to federal court after losing an appeal.</p>
<p>Battani said the law isn’t on Kithier’s side, even if he misses an “opportunity of a lifetime” by not playing a final year of high school basketball. The 18-year-old’s attorney, Ven Johnson, described it as a “death penalty.”</p>
<p>Kithier declined to comment on Battani’s decision. Outside court, another attorney, Steve Fishman, said the MHSAA “screwed over a kid” who didn’t do anything wrong.</p>
<p>During more than an hour of arguments, an attorney for the MHSAA said legal precedent weighed heavily in favor of the organization.</p>
<p>“The MHSAA’s obligation is to enforce the rules as written. ... Courts don’t opine on the wisdom of rules written by voluntary associations,” attorney Scott Eldridge said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Ed White at <a href="http://twitter.com/edwhiteap" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/edwhiteap" type="external">http://twitter.com/edwhiteap</a></p>
| 4,700 |
<p>Following the GOP debate, <a href="" type="internal">Professor Jacobson noted</a> that it looks like a two person race between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, and not only is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-now-see-a-trump-cruz-race-with-time-for-a-shift-running-out/2016/01/15/9b5d91f0-bbb4-11e5-b682-4bb4dd403c7d_story.html" type="external">this view</a> becoming a consensus but apparently Trump thinks so, too.</p>
<p>Trump has taken to Twitter to rant and rave against Cruz.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>His <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump" type="external">Twitter feed</a> is chock-full of tweets just like these, and it’s quite clear that he is really (really) worried about Cruz.&#160; As Trump said during the debate, he’s attacking Cruz now only because Cruz is polling so well.</p>
<p>Obviously, it doesn’t end with loans and donations, he’s also ranting about New York City and Cruz’s point about Trump’s <a href="" type="internal">New York values</a>, a point people outside of NYC understand very well.</p>
<p />
<p>The “wiseguy apology” to which Trump refers:</p>
<p />
<p>Solid gold.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>And my personal favorite . . .</p>
<p />
<p>For his part, Cruz is not being drawn into a Twitter feud with Trump, and in addition to the above tweet, has posted one other (excluding retweets) today on Trump:</p>
<p />
<p>Trump seems thin-skinned and a bit petty today on Twitter, and it seems that Cruz has rocked him more than should be evident.</p>
<p />
<p>Battle lines are being drawn and prominent pundits are picking sides.</p>
<p>Here’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-levin/friendly-advice-donald-and-i-do-mean-friendly/10153195320990946/?_rdr=p&amp;refid=17" type="external">Mark Levin’s advice to Trump</a>:</p>
<p>Either cut the crap – your accusations this morning that Cruz is Canadian, a criminal, owned by big banks, etc. (see link below) – or you will lose lots and lots of conservatives. Save the liberal New York City bully tactics for the New York City liberals. Put down your computer keyboard for a few hours, think before you tweet, and collect yourself. You’re not politically invincible, regardless of the polls and media.</p>
<p>I am already hearing more and more people getting fed up with the low road you’re taking against Cruz, which has obviously intensified this morning. You don’t need to attack his honor or attempt to smear his reputation. You can leave that to Mitch McConnell and the New York Times. Engage on real and substantive issues that matter to the country. Like I said, my friendly advice.</p>
<p>Levin cuts to the heart of the problem of Trump’s current tactics against Cruz.&#160; The people who avidly support Trump will continue to do so no matter what he says or does (we’ve seen that time and again), but the people who are wavering between Trump and Cruz are unlikely to be swayed by Trump’s rants.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/ted-cruz-donald-trump-twitter-217877" type="external">Cruz made a similar observation today</a>.</p>
<p>“It seems Donald has a lot of nervous energy,” he told reporters earlier Saturday in Fort Mill, S.C. “It seems for whatever reason Donald doesn’t react well when he’s going down in the polls. I imagine he’s very dismayed by the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC poll that shows in a head-to-head…he’d lose to me. Knowing Donald, that’s got to drive him nuts.”</p>
<p>. . . . “In terms of a commander-in-chief, we ought to have someone who isn’t springing out of bed to tweet in frantic response to the latest polls,” Cruz said.</p>
<p>The Texas senator, who has dismissed Trump’s conservative credibility by accusing him of having “New York values,” unpacked that line in more depth, noting that Trump himself used the phrase in a 1999 interview in which he also described himself as supporting abortion rights and not ruling out partial birth abortion, among other more liberal positions.</p>
<p>“Donald’s explanation, not mine, is because he’s a New Yorker, he’s from New York,” Cruz said.</p>
<p>Trump attacking Cruz the way he attacked others may backfire:</p>
<p />
<p>[Featured image via <a href="https://twitter.com/rickwtyler/status/621505161681367040" type="external">Twitter</a> . . . in happier times]</p>
|
It’s On! Trump Twitter Tirade Against Cruz
| true |
http://legalinsurrection.com/2016/01/its-on-trump-twitter-tirade-against-cruz/
|
2016-01-16
| 0right
|
It’s On! Trump Twitter Tirade Against Cruz
<p>Following the GOP debate, <a href="" type="internal">Professor Jacobson noted</a> that it looks like a two person race between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, and not only is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-now-see-a-trump-cruz-race-with-time-for-a-shift-running-out/2016/01/15/9b5d91f0-bbb4-11e5-b682-4bb4dd403c7d_story.html" type="external">this view</a> becoming a consensus but apparently Trump thinks so, too.</p>
<p>Trump has taken to Twitter to rant and rave against Cruz.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>His <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump" type="external">Twitter feed</a> is chock-full of tweets just like these, and it’s quite clear that he is really (really) worried about Cruz.&#160; As Trump said during the debate, he’s attacking Cruz now only because Cruz is polling so well.</p>
<p>Obviously, it doesn’t end with loans and donations, he’s also ranting about New York City and Cruz’s point about Trump’s <a href="" type="internal">New York values</a>, a point people outside of NYC understand very well.</p>
<p />
<p>The “wiseguy apology” to which Trump refers:</p>
<p />
<p>Solid gold.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>And my personal favorite . . .</p>
<p />
<p>For his part, Cruz is not being drawn into a Twitter feud with Trump, and in addition to the above tweet, has posted one other (excluding retweets) today on Trump:</p>
<p />
<p>Trump seems thin-skinned and a bit petty today on Twitter, and it seems that Cruz has rocked him more than should be evident.</p>
<p />
<p>Battle lines are being drawn and prominent pundits are picking sides.</p>
<p>Here’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-levin/friendly-advice-donald-and-i-do-mean-friendly/10153195320990946/?_rdr=p&amp;refid=17" type="external">Mark Levin’s advice to Trump</a>:</p>
<p>Either cut the crap – your accusations this morning that Cruz is Canadian, a criminal, owned by big banks, etc. (see link below) – or you will lose lots and lots of conservatives. Save the liberal New York City bully tactics for the New York City liberals. Put down your computer keyboard for a few hours, think before you tweet, and collect yourself. You’re not politically invincible, regardless of the polls and media.</p>
<p>I am already hearing more and more people getting fed up with the low road you’re taking against Cruz, which has obviously intensified this morning. You don’t need to attack his honor or attempt to smear his reputation. You can leave that to Mitch McConnell and the New York Times. Engage on real and substantive issues that matter to the country. Like I said, my friendly advice.</p>
<p>Levin cuts to the heart of the problem of Trump’s current tactics against Cruz.&#160; The people who avidly support Trump will continue to do so no matter what he says or does (we’ve seen that time and again), but the people who are wavering between Trump and Cruz are unlikely to be swayed by Trump’s rants.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/ted-cruz-donald-trump-twitter-217877" type="external">Cruz made a similar observation today</a>.</p>
<p>“It seems Donald has a lot of nervous energy,” he told reporters earlier Saturday in Fort Mill, S.C. “It seems for whatever reason Donald doesn’t react well when he’s going down in the polls. I imagine he’s very dismayed by the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC poll that shows in a head-to-head…he’d lose to me. Knowing Donald, that’s got to drive him nuts.”</p>
<p>. . . . “In terms of a commander-in-chief, we ought to have someone who isn’t springing out of bed to tweet in frantic response to the latest polls,” Cruz said.</p>
<p>The Texas senator, who has dismissed Trump’s conservative credibility by accusing him of having “New York values,” unpacked that line in more depth, noting that Trump himself used the phrase in a 1999 interview in which he also described himself as supporting abortion rights and not ruling out partial birth abortion, among other more liberal positions.</p>
<p>“Donald’s explanation, not mine, is because he’s a New Yorker, he’s from New York,” Cruz said.</p>
<p>Trump attacking Cruz the way he attacked others may backfire:</p>
<p />
<p>[Featured image via <a href="https://twitter.com/rickwtyler/status/621505161681367040" type="external">Twitter</a> . . . in happier times]</p>
| 4,701 |
<p />
<p>Dear Dr. Don,&#160;</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>My 19-year-old daughter recently graduated from high school. I want to fund an individual retirement account for her so she can begin saving for her future. What is the best way to open the IRA? Can she make deposits herself once annually, or must they be every month? My goal is to help teach her the value of investing early for long-term growth. Should the account be in both of our names?</p>
<p>Thank you,&#160;</p>
<p>-Karen Compounding</p>
<p>Dear Karen,&#160;</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Tax-advantaged retirement accounts may be held in only one person's name. If your daughter is legally considered a minor in your home state, then it may be necessary for you to be named as custodian on the account. Even so, the money is held in her name and is under her control as she legally becomes an adult. In most states, at age 19 she would be of legal age and your name would not be on the account. The individual retirement account provider will be able to say whether you need to be named on the account as custodian.</p>
<p>Your daughter must have taxable compensation in order to qualify as a contributor to a traditional or Roth IRA. If that is the case, you can gift her money to contribute up to the amount of her earned income or the annual contribution limit, whichever is less. As long as she doesn't go over the contribution allowed, it doesn't matter whether it trickles in over the tax year or the account is funded with a lump sum.</p>
<p>If your daughter is college-bound, your decision to fund her retirement account won't influence this year's financial aid package. But it might affect her eligibility for financial aid in later years in college.</p>
<p>Get more news, money-saving tips and expert advice by signing up for a free <a href="http://app.bankrate.com/prefcenter/signup.cfm?t=newsletter" type="external">Bankrate newsletter Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Ask the adviser</p>
<p>To ask a question of Dr. Don, go to the " <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/brm/ask.asp" type="external">Ask the Experts Opens a New Window.</a>" page and select one of these topics: "Financing a home," "Saving and Investing" or "Money." Read more <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/advisers/drdon.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Dr. Don columns Opens a New Window.</a> for additional personal finance advice.</p>
<p>Bankrate's content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/coinfo/disclaimer.asp" type="external">Bankrate's Terms of Use Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 2013, Bankrate Inc.</p>
|
How to Start Funding an IRA for Your Kid
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/08/14/how-to-start-funding-ira-for-your-kid.html
|
2016-03-06
| 0right
|
How to Start Funding an IRA for Your Kid
<p />
<p>Dear Dr. Don,&#160;</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>My 19-year-old daughter recently graduated from high school. I want to fund an individual retirement account for her so she can begin saving for her future. What is the best way to open the IRA? Can she make deposits herself once annually, or must they be every month? My goal is to help teach her the value of investing early for long-term growth. Should the account be in both of our names?</p>
<p>Thank you,&#160;</p>
<p>-Karen Compounding</p>
<p>Dear Karen,&#160;</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Tax-advantaged retirement accounts may be held in only one person's name. If your daughter is legally considered a minor in your home state, then it may be necessary for you to be named as custodian on the account. Even so, the money is held in her name and is under her control as she legally becomes an adult. In most states, at age 19 she would be of legal age and your name would not be on the account. The individual retirement account provider will be able to say whether you need to be named on the account as custodian.</p>
<p>Your daughter must have taxable compensation in order to qualify as a contributor to a traditional or Roth IRA. If that is the case, you can gift her money to contribute up to the amount of her earned income or the annual contribution limit, whichever is less. As long as she doesn't go over the contribution allowed, it doesn't matter whether it trickles in over the tax year or the account is funded with a lump sum.</p>
<p>If your daughter is college-bound, your decision to fund her retirement account won't influence this year's financial aid package. But it might affect her eligibility for financial aid in later years in college.</p>
<p>Get more news, money-saving tips and expert advice by signing up for a free <a href="http://app.bankrate.com/prefcenter/signup.cfm?t=newsletter" type="external">Bankrate newsletter Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Ask the adviser</p>
<p>To ask a question of Dr. Don, go to the " <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/brm/ask.asp" type="external">Ask the Experts Opens a New Window.</a>" page and select one of these topics: "Financing a home," "Saving and Investing" or "Money." Read more <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/advisers/drdon.aspx?pid=p:foxbz" type="external">Dr. Don columns Opens a New Window.</a> for additional personal finance advice.</p>
<p>Bankrate's content, including the guidance of its advice-and-expert columns and this website, is intended only to assist you with financial decisions. The content is broad in scope and does not consider your personal financial situation. Bankrate recommends that you seek the advice of advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances before making any final decisions or implementing any financial strategy. Please remember that your use of this website is governed by <a href="http://www.bankrate.com/coinfo/disclaimer.asp" type="external">Bankrate's Terms of Use Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 2013, Bankrate Inc.</p>
| 4,702 |
<p>Three weeks after President Donald Trump said that transgender people would not be allowed to serve in the military “in any capacity,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has left the door open for some to continue being part of the Armed Forces, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/08/14/mattis-leaves-door-open-to-some-transgender-military-service-says-pentagon-is-still-studying-the-issue/?utm_term=.07e06ff84e4d" type="external">The Washington Post reports.</a></p>
<p>Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon that he and his staff are still studying the issue and that we still “have received no direction [from the president] that would indicate any harm to anybody right now,” which seemed to raise the prospect that transgender people may be allowed to continue to serve.</p>
<p>Trump sent a tweet last month banning transgender service members, but the announcement was made without coordinating with the military, and the Pentagon has said since that it is awaiting an official order from Trump before making a policy change.</p>
<p>The defense secretary said this week, according to <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/14/politics/mattis-transgender-ban-military-trump/index.html" type="external">CNN</a>, that “The policy is going to address whether or not transgenders can serve under what conditions, what medical support they require, how much time would they be perhaps non-deployable leaving others to pick up their share of everything. There’s a host of issues and I’m learning more about this than I ever thought I would.”</p>
<p>However, Trump appeared to complicate matter further and doubled down on his tweet that he was banning transgender service by saying that he did the military a “great favor” by doing so.</p>
<p>When Mattis was asked why Trump chose to disclose the decision on Twitter and without a specific policy in place, the defense secretary answered that “the American people elected the commander-in-chief. They didn’t elect me. So the commander-in-chief in our country, in our system of government, is elected by the people, and he has that authority and responsibility.”</p>
|
Mattis Leaves Door Open for Transgender People to Serve in Military
| false |
https://newsline.com/mattis-leaves-door-open-for-transgender-people-to-serve-in-military/
|
2017-08-15
| 1right-center
|
Mattis Leaves Door Open for Transgender People to Serve in Military
<p>Three weeks after President Donald Trump said that transgender people would not be allowed to serve in the military “in any capacity,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has left the door open for some to continue being part of the Armed Forces, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/08/14/mattis-leaves-door-open-to-some-transgender-military-service-says-pentagon-is-still-studying-the-issue/?utm_term=.07e06ff84e4d" type="external">The Washington Post reports.</a></p>
<p>Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon that he and his staff are still studying the issue and that we still “have received no direction [from the president] that would indicate any harm to anybody right now,” which seemed to raise the prospect that transgender people may be allowed to continue to serve.</p>
<p>Trump sent a tweet last month banning transgender service members, but the announcement was made without coordinating with the military, and the Pentagon has said since that it is awaiting an official order from Trump before making a policy change.</p>
<p>The defense secretary said this week, according to <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/14/politics/mattis-transgender-ban-military-trump/index.html" type="external">CNN</a>, that “The policy is going to address whether or not transgenders can serve under what conditions, what medical support they require, how much time would they be perhaps non-deployable leaving others to pick up their share of everything. There’s a host of issues and I’m learning more about this than I ever thought I would.”</p>
<p>However, Trump appeared to complicate matter further and doubled down on his tweet that he was banning transgender service by saying that he did the military a “great favor” by doing so.</p>
<p>When Mattis was asked why Trump chose to disclose the decision on Twitter and without a specific policy in place, the defense secretary answered that “the American people elected the commander-in-chief. They didn’t elect me. So the commander-in-chief in our country, in our system of government, is elected by the people, and he has that authority and responsibility.”</p>
| 4,703 |
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A court order blocking Louisiana from carrying out any executions has been extended indefinitely after the death of the federal judge who issued it.</p>
<p>A lawsuit challenging the state's lethal injection protocols has kept death sentences on hold since 2014. U.S. District Judge James Brady, who died Dec. 9 after a brief illness, oversaw the lawsuit and agreed to order the temporary stay of all executions.</p>
<p>Brady's order was due to expire next Monday, but U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick agreed Thursday to extend it until another judge is assigned to the lawsuit. The case was reassigned to Friday to Dick, who will decide later on the next steps in the case.</p>
<p>Louisiana has 72 inmates on death row, according to state corrections department spokesman Ken Pastorick. The state's last execution was in January 2010, when prison officials put to death Gerald Bordelon, who was convicted of killing his 12-year-old stepdaughter in 2002.</p>
<p>Drug shortages have forced the corrections department to rewrite its execution plan several times since 2010. Under the state's current execution protocols, its primary method is a single-drug injection of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative. The alternative method is a two-drug combination of the painkiller hydromorphone and the sedative midazolam. Pastorick said the corrections department doesn't have any of those drugs in its inventory.</p>
<p>The most recent order that Brady issued to halt executions - at the request of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry's office - is limited to death row inmates who are plaintiffs in the litigation. But others can join the lawsuit if an execution date is set by the courts.</p>
<p>In 2016, Landry's office asked for an 18-month extension to an order that delayed the execution of Christopher Sepulvado. Landry's office said in a court filing that it would be "prudent" to extend the order given the litigation's "fluid state" at the time.</p>
<p>Sepulvado was convicted of first-degree murder for fatally beating and scalding his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Mercer, at his Mansfield home in 1992. Sepulvado repeatedly hit the boy on the head with a screwdriver handle and then immersed him in a bathtub filled with scalding water after the child came home from school with soiled pants.</p>
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A court order blocking Louisiana from carrying out any executions has been extended indefinitely after the death of the federal judge who issued it.</p>
<p>A lawsuit challenging the state's lethal injection protocols has kept death sentences on hold since 2014. U.S. District Judge James Brady, who died Dec. 9 after a brief illness, oversaw the lawsuit and agreed to order the temporary stay of all executions.</p>
<p>Brady's order was due to expire next Monday, but U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick agreed Thursday to extend it until another judge is assigned to the lawsuit. The case was reassigned to Friday to Dick, who will decide later on the next steps in the case.</p>
<p>Louisiana has 72 inmates on death row, according to state corrections department spokesman Ken Pastorick. The state's last execution was in January 2010, when prison officials put to death Gerald Bordelon, who was convicted of killing his 12-year-old stepdaughter in 2002.</p>
<p>Drug shortages have forced the corrections department to rewrite its execution plan several times since 2010. Under the state's current execution protocols, its primary method is a single-drug injection of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative. The alternative method is a two-drug combination of the painkiller hydromorphone and the sedative midazolam. Pastorick said the corrections department doesn't have any of those drugs in its inventory.</p>
<p>The most recent order that Brady issued to halt executions - at the request of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry's office - is limited to death row inmates who are plaintiffs in the litigation. But others can join the lawsuit if an execution date is set by the courts.</p>
<p>In 2016, Landry's office asked for an 18-month extension to an order that delayed the execution of Christopher Sepulvado. Landry's office said in a court filing that it would be "prudent" to extend the order given the litigation's "fluid state" at the time.</p>
<p>Sepulvado was convicted of first-degree murder for fatally beating and scalding his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Mercer, at his Mansfield home in 1992. Sepulvado repeatedly hit the boy on the head with a screwdriver handle and then immersed him in a bathtub filled with scalding water after the child came home from school with soiled pants.</p>
|
Court extends halt in Louisiana executions after judge dies
| false |
https://apnews.com/c98633b0cefb4250ae518d8ef5ab4652
|
2018-01-05
| 2least
|
Court extends halt in Louisiana executions after judge dies
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A court order blocking Louisiana from carrying out any executions has been extended indefinitely after the death of the federal judge who issued it.</p>
<p>A lawsuit challenging the state's lethal injection protocols has kept death sentences on hold since 2014. U.S. District Judge James Brady, who died Dec. 9 after a brief illness, oversaw the lawsuit and agreed to order the temporary stay of all executions.</p>
<p>Brady's order was due to expire next Monday, but U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick agreed Thursday to extend it until another judge is assigned to the lawsuit. The case was reassigned to Friday to Dick, who will decide later on the next steps in the case.</p>
<p>Louisiana has 72 inmates on death row, according to state corrections department spokesman Ken Pastorick. The state's last execution was in January 2010, when prison officials put to death Gerald Bordelon, who was convicted of killing his 12-year-old stepdaughter in 2002.</p>
<p>Drug shortages have forced the corrections department to rewrite its execution plan several times since 2010. Under the state's current execution protocols, its primary method is a single-drug injection of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative. The alternative method is a two-drug combination of the painkiller hydromorphone and the sedative midazolam. Pastorick said the corrections department doesn't have any of those drugs in its inventory.</p>
<p>The most recent order that Brady issued to halt executions - at the request of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry's office - is limited to death row inmates who are plaintiffs in the litigation. But others can join the lawsuit if an execution date is set by the courts.</p>
<p>In 2016, Landry's office asked for an 18-month extension to an order that delayed the execution of Christopher Sepulvado. Landry's office said in a court filing that it would be "prudent" to extend the order given the litigation's "fluid state" at the time.</p>
<p>Sepulvado was convicted of first-degree murder for fatally beating and scalding his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Mercer, at his Mansfield home in 1992. Sepulvado repeatedly hit the boy on the head with a screwdriver handle and then immersed him in a bathtub filled with scalding water after the child came home from school with soiled pants.</p>
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A court order blocking Louisiana from carrying out any executions has been extended indefinitely after the death of the federal judge who issued it.</p>
<p>A lawsuit challenging the state's lethal injection protocols has kept death sentences on hold since 2014. U.S. District Judge James Brady, who died Dec. 9 after a brief illness, oversaw the lawsuit and agreed to order the temporary stay of all executions.</p>
<p>Brady's order was due to expire next Monday, but U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick agreed Thursday to extend it until another judge is assigned to the lawsuit. The case was reassigned to Friday to Dick, who will decide later on the next steps in the case.</p>
<p>Louisiana has 72 inmates on death row, according to state corrections department spokesman Ken Pastorick. The state's last execution was in January 2010, when prison officials put to death Gerald Bordelon, who was convicted of killing his 12-year-old stepdaughter in 2002.</p>
<p>Drug shortages have forced the corrections department to rewrite its execution plan several times since 2010. Under the state's current execution protocols, its primary method is a single-drug injection of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative. The alternative method is a two-drug combination of the painkiller hydromorphone and the sedative midazolam. Pastorick said the corrections department doesn't have any of those drugs in its inventory.</p>
<p>The most recent order that Brady issued to halt executions - at the request of Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry's office - is limited to death row inmates who are plaintiffs in the litigation. But others can join the lawsuit if an execution date is set by the courts.</p>
<p>In 2016, Landry's office asked for an 18-month extension to an order that delayed the execution of Christopher Sepulvado. Landry's office said in a court filing that it would be "prudent" to extend the order given the litigation's "fluid state" at the time.</p>
<p>Sepulvado was convicted of first-degree murder for fatally beating and scalding his 6-year-old stepson, Wesley Mercer, at his Mansfield home in 1992. Sepulvado repeatedly hit the boy on the head with a screwdriver handle and then immersed him in a bathtub filled with scalding water after the child came home from school with soiled pants.</p>
| 4,704 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>LAS CRUCES – As far as Clint Barnard is concerned, football is football.</p>
<p>Whether it’s Division I or Division II – eight-man or 11-man, some things about the game never change.</p>
<p>“It’s the same game; it’s a game I’ve always loved,” said Barnard, who as the starting middle linebacker made eight tackles and broke up a pass in New Mexico State’s annual spring game here Saturday night.</p>
<p>“Everything’s a little more technical at this level, but football is football, especially on the defensive end of the ball. And to come here and be where I am, I’m really thankful.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Here, being the Division I level, isn’t where many coaches figured Barnard could play just a couple of years ago. Especially at middle linebacker.</p>
<p>It’s not that Barnard struggled in high school ball. He led his team to back-to-back undefeated state championship seasons and was named New Mexico player of the year two years in his division.</p>
<p>That division, however, was what scared the Division I college coaches away.</p>
<p>Barnard was a two-way star in eight-man football at Melrose, a tiny school just outside of Clovis.</p>
<p>“A lot of times, small-town kids don’t get the same opportunity as someone from a bigger city, or bigger school,” said Barnard, who is majoring in biology. “But if someone from a small town has the ability, it seems like a wasted opportunity if they don’t make the most of it.”</p>
<p>Barnard has, but without taking the typical path.</p>
<p>After graduating from Melrose in 2010, he received a scholarship to play quarterback at Division II New Mexico Highlands. He sat out the 2010 season as a redshirt and was moved to linebacker the following season.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“But I always wanted to be a Division I player,” he said.</p>
<p>Even knowing he would have to sit out another season as a redshirt transfer, Barnard came to New Mexico State last fall and played on the scout team.</p>
<p>His work-ethic, leadership and physical skills were impressive.</p>
<p>“There are so many guys who get overlooked, and it’s a matter of the right timing, the right opportunity,” says NMSU defensive coordinator David Elson. “It says a lot about Clint. He persevered.”</p>
<p>And he was rewarded with the scholarship – a moment Elson says he’ll never forget.</p>
<p>“I made the point to him that over my career, I’ve seen guys just happy to get the scholarship, and then they go into cruise control,” Elson said. “I literally was a little bit nervous for my safety when I said that to Clint. He looked at me, leaned up in his chair, ‘Coach I’m here to be the best I can, to start and to be a leader.’ I said, ‘That’s the(middle) linebacker right there.’ He really wants to be great.”</p>
<p>First-year head coach Doug Martin agrees.</p>
<p>“He’s one of the throwback players, old school,” Martin said. “He wants to be coached, and he’ll take any challenge you throw down at him. As a coach, you don’t ever have to worry about, ‘Is he in class, is he doing the right things off the field, on the field?’ He’s one of those guys you rely on as a coach to help you win.”</p>
<p>Barnard says he knows he has plenty of work ahead before he can lock down a starting spot next fall. But for now, the 6-foot-2, 234-pounder is living the dream.</p>
<p>Of his, and many a small-town boy.</p>
<p>“I’m here to prove to myself that I can do it,” he said. “And I want to prove to every kid playing small-town football that they can do it, too. I would love to go back and tell all those kids at Melrose High School that if they want to have a dream, they can achieve it.”</p>
<p>NOTES: The Aggies’ offense beat the defense 68-65 in the spring game, which awarded points to both sides for a variety of factors. The game was decided when kicker Maxwell Johnson booted a 47-yard field goal as time expired.</p>
<p>… NMSU alternated four quarterbacks, with rising senior Andrew Manley going 14-of-24 passing for a team-high 198 yards, one touchdown and one pick. Junior Travaughn Colwell was 19-of-28 for 161 yards with one interception and rushed for 95 yards. Andrew McDonald was 11-of-17 for 160 yards and a score.</p>
<p>… Two former metro area prep standouts led the receivers. Joshua Bowen (Manzano) had nine catches for 126 yards; Adam Shapiro (Rio Rancho) caught five balls for 101 yards. Melrose alum has big goals with Agsrobin zielinski/las cruces sun-newsClint Barnard (48), who played eight-man football at Melrose HIgh, started at middle linebacker for New Mexico State during the Aggies’ spring football game Saturday in Las Cruces.</p>
<p>new mexico state football</p>
|
Melrose alum has big goals with Ags
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/239515/melrose-alum-has-big-goals-with-ags.html
| 2least
|
Melrose alum has big goals with Ags
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>LAS CRUCES – As far as Clint Barnard is concerned, football is football.</p>
<p>Whether it’s Division I or Division II – eight-man or 11-man, some things about the game never change.</p>
<p>“It’s the same game; it’s a game I’ve always loved,” said Barnard, who as the starting middle linebacker made eight tackles and broke up a pass in New Mexico State’s annual spring game here Saturday night.</p>
<p>“Everything’s a little more technical at this level, but football is football, especially on the defensive end of the ball. And to come here and be where I am, I’m really thankful.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Here, being the Division I level, isn’t where many coaches figured Barnard could play just a couple of years ago. Especially at middle linebacker.</p>
<p>It’s not that Barnard struggled in high school ball. He led his team to back-to-back undefeated state championship seasons and was named New Mexico player of the year two years in his division.</p>
<p>That division, however, was what scared the Division I college coaches away.</p>
<p>Barnard was a two-way star in eight-man football at Melrose, a tiny school just outside of Clovis.</p>
<p>“A lot of times, small-town kids don’t get the same opportunity as someone from a bigger city, or bigger school,” said Barnard, who is majoring in biology. “But if someone from a small town has the ability, it seems like a wasted opportunity if they don’t make the most of it.”</p>
<p>Barnard has, but without taking the typical path.</p>
<p>After graduating from Melrose in 2010, he received a scholarship to play quarterback at Division II New Mexico Highlands. He sat out the 2010 season as a redshirt and was moved to linebacker the following season.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“But I always wanted to be a Division I player,” he said.</p>
<p>Even knowing he would have to sit out another season as a redshirt transfer, Barnard came to New Mexico State last fall and played on the scout team.</p>
<p>His work-ethic, leadership and physical skills were impressive.</p>
<p>“There are so many guys who get overlooked, and it’s a matter of the right timing, the right opportunity,” says NMSU defensive coordinator David Elson. “It says a lot about Clint. He persevered.”</p>
<p>And he was rewarded with the scholarship – a moment Elson says he’ll never forget.</p>
<p>“I made the point to him that over my career, I’ve seen guys just happy to get the scholarship, and then they go into cruise control,” Elson said. “I literally was a little bit nervous for my safety when I said that to Clint. He looked at me, leaned up in his chair, ‘Coach I’m here to be the best I can, to start and to be a leader.’ I said, ‘That’s the(middle) linebacker right there.’ He really wants to be great.”</p>
<p>First-year head coach Doug Martin agrees.</p>
<p>“He’s one of the throwback players, old school,” Martin said. “He wants to be coached, and he’ll take any challenge you throw down at him. As a coach, you don’t ever have to worry about, ‘Is he in class, is he doing the right things off the field, on the field?’ He’s one of those guys you rely on as a coach to help you win.”</p>
<p>Barnard says he knows he has plenty of work ahead before he can lock down a starting spot next fall. But for now, the 6-foot-2, 234-pounder is living the dream.</p>
<p>Of his, and many a small-town boy.</p>
<p>“I’m here to prove to myself that I can do it,” he said. “And I want to prove to every kid playing small-town football that they can do it, too. I would love to go back and tell all those kids at Melrose High School that if they want to have a dream, they can achieve it.”</p>
<p>NOTES: The Aggies’ offense beat the defense 68-65 in the spring game, which awarded points to both sides for a variety of factors. The game was decided when kicker Maxwell Johnson booted a 47-yard field goal as time expired.</p>
<p>… NMSU alternated four quarterbacks, with rising senior Andrew Manley going 14-of-24 passing for a team-high 198 yards, one touchdown and one pick. Junior Travaughn Colwell was 19-of-28 for 161 yards with one interception and rushed for 95 yards. Andrew McDonald was 11-of-17 for 160 yards and a score.</p>
<p>… Two former metro area prep standouts led the receivers. Joshua Bowen (Manzano) had nine catches for 126 yards; Adam Shapiro (Rio Rancho) caught five balls for 101 yards. Melrose alum has big goals with Agsrobin zielinski/las cruces sun-newsClint Barnard (48), who played eight-man football at Melrose HIgh, started at middle linebacker for New Mexico State during the Aggies’ spring football game Saturday in Las Cruces.</p>
<p>new mexico state football</p>
| 4,705 |
|
<p>The theme of empowerment for women, visible in the sea of black outfits among Golden Globe attendees on Sunday, also played out in the themes, characters and actors honored by voters in the television category.</p>
<p>The Globes also took on a new role — home of reruns. Seven of the 11 television awards went to actors or programs that were honored with Emmys four months ago. An eighth winner, Aziz Ansari, won an Emmy in 2016.</p>
<p>HBO's "Big Little Lies" led the way with four television Golden Globes, just like the show did at the Emmys. Five Globes went to cable networks, five went to streaming services while NBC earned the lone honor for broadcast television.</p>
<p>The Globes set the tone immediately for its television awards, giving out its first three honors to actresses. All of them talked about Hollywood's responsibility to tell stories about strong women.</p>
<p>Elisabeth Moss, honored as best actress in a drama for her role in "The Handmaid's Tale," typified that response. Amazon's dystopian tale of a society where the few fertile women are put in service of powerful men also won the Globe for best drama. Moss, in her acceptance speech, quoted novelist Margaret Atwood, whose book provides the basis for the series.</p>
<p>"Margaret Atwood, this is for you, and for all of the women who came before you and after you who were brave enough to speak out about tolerance and injustice," she said.</p>
<p>Nicole Kidman beat out her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, as the winner for best actress in a limited series for "Big Little Lies," HBO's disturbing tale of suburban life in California. Witherspoon, one of the show's producers, spoke about women who had been silenced by harassment and abuse when "Big Little Lies" was honored as best limited series.</p>
<p>"Time is up," Witherspoon said. "We see you, we hear you and we will tell your stories."</p>
<p>Kidman plays Celeste Wright, a woman who is beaten by her husband. The actor who portrays her husband, Alexander Skarsgard, also won a Globe for supporting actor. Laura Dern won for supporting actress, and she referenced her role in dealing with an abused child.</p>
<p>"May we teach our children that speaking out without the fear of retribution is our culture's new North Star," Dern said.</p>
<p>The Globes have developed a reputation for often championing work before other awards shows or before it is widely known among the public. That's what made all of Sunday's repeats so unusual. Besides the awards for "Big Little Lies" and "The Handmaid's Tale," Sterling K. Brown of NBC's "This is Us" was a repeat winner from the Emmys.</p>
<p>Honors given to Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" bucked that trend. Rachel Brosnahan won best comic actress for portraying a 1950s housewife who pursues a career in comedy, and the series won the Globe for best comedy.</p>
<p>One of Hollywood's quirkiest and most powerful female creators, Amy Sherman-Palladino, is behind the series. She thanked Amazon for its support.</p>
<p>"Every check cleared," she said. "We couldn't ask for a better partner."</p>
<p>Holding the flag for network television, Brown of NBC's "This is Us" won best actor in a drama. He said he was grateful to the series' creator for making a character specifically written for a black man.</p>
<p>"It makes it that much more difficult to dismiss me, or dismiss anybody who looks like me," Brown said.</p>
<p>Ewan McGregor of "Fargo" won the best supporting actor award for a limited series. He won a category stocked with heavyweight actors — Robert DeNiro, Jude Law, Geoffrey Rush and Kyle MacLachlan.</p>
<p>Despite his 2016 Emmy, Ansari seemed surprised to pick up the Globe for his role in Netflix's "Master of None" — or maybe that's further evidence that he's a good actor.</p>
<p>"I genuinely didn't think I was going to win because all of the web sites said I was going to lose," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For full coverage of awards season, visit: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/AwardsSeason</a></p>
<p>The theme of empowerment for women, visible in the sea of black outfits among Golden Globe attendees on Sunday, also played out in the themes, characters and actors honored by voters in the television category.</p>
<p>The Globes also took on a new role — home of reruns. Seven of the 11 television awards went to actors or programs that were honored with Emmys four months ago. An eighth winner, Aziz Ansari, won an Emmy in 2016.</p>
<p>HBO's "Big Little Lies" led the way with four television Golden Globes, just like the show did at the Emmys. Five Globes went to cable networks, five went to streaming services while NBC earned the lone honor for broadcast television.</p>
<p>The Globes set the tone immediately for its television awards, giving out its first three honors to actresses. All of them talked about Hollywood's responsibility to tell stories about strong women.</p>
<p>Elisabeth Moss, honored as best actress in a drama for her role in "The Handmaid's Tale," typified that response. Amazon's dystopian tale of a society where the few fertile women are put in service of powerful men also won the Globe for best drama. Moss, in her acceptance speech, quoted novelist Margaret Atwood, whose book provides the basis for the series.</p>
<p>"Margaret Atwood, this is for you, and for all of the women who came before you and after you who were brave enough to speak out about tolerance and injustice," she said.</p>
<p>Nicole Kidman beat out her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, as the winner for best actress in a limited series for "Big Little Lies," HBO's disturbing tale of suburban life in California. Witherspoon, one of the show's producers, spoke about women who had been silenced by harassment and abuse when "Big Little Lies" was honored as best limited series.</p>
<p>"Time is up," Witherspoon said. "We see you, we hear you and we will tell your stories."</p>
<p>Kidman plays Celeste Wright, a woman who is beaten by her husband. The actor who portrays her husband, Alexander Skarsgard, also won a Globe for supporting actor. Laura Dern won for supporting actress, and she referenced her role in dealing with an abused child.</p>
<p>"May we teach our children that speaking out without the fear of retribution is our culture's new North Star," Dern said.</p>
<p>The Globes have developed a reputation for often championing work before other awards shows or before it is widely known among the public. That's what made all of Sunday's repeats so unusual. Besides the awards for "Big Little Lies" and "The Handmaid's Tale," Sterling K. Brown of NBC's "This is Us" was a repeat winner from the Emmys.</p>
<p>Honors given to Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" bucked that trend. Rachel Brosnahan won best comic actress for portraying a 1950s housewife who pursues a career in comedy, and the series won the Globe for best comedy.</p>
<p>One of Hollywood's quirkiest and most powerful female creators, Amy Sherman-Palladino, is behind the series. She thanked Amazon for its support.</p>
<p>"Every check cleared," she said. "We couldn't ask for a better partner."</p>
<p>Holding the flag for network television, Brown of NBC's "This is Us" won best actor in a drama. He said he was grateful to the series' creator for making a character specifically written for a black man.</p>
<p>"It makes it that much more difficult to dismiss me, or dismiss anybody who looks like me," Brown said.</p>
<p>Ewan McGregor of "Fargo" won the best supporting actor award for a limited series. He won a category stocked with heavyweight actors — Robert DeNiro, Jude Law, Geoffrey Rush and Kyle MacLachlan.</p>
<p>Despite his 2016 Emmy, Ansari seemed surprised to pick up the Globe for his role in Netflix's "Master of None" — or maybe that's further evidence that he's a good actor.</p>
<p>"I genuinely didn't think I was going to win because all of the web sites said I was going to lose," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For full coverage of awards season, visit: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/AwardsSeason</a></p>
|
Globes TV awards echo show's theme of empowerment
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/4f496f3d85a549b68ab85921342d9bec
|
2018-01-08
| 2least
|
Globes TV awards echo show's theme of empowerment
<p>The theme of empowerment for women, visible in the sea of black outfits among Golden Globe attendees on Sunday, also played out in the themes, characters and actors honored by voters in the television category.</p>
<p>The Globes also took on a new role — home of reruns. Seven of the 11 television awards went to actors or programs that were honored with Emmys four months ago. An eighth winner, Aziz Ansari, won an Emmy in 2016.</p>
<p>HBO's "Big Little Lies" led the way with four television Golden Globes, just like the show did at the Emmys. Five Globes went to cable networks, five went to streaming services while NBC earned the lone honor for broadcast television.</p>
<p>The Globes set the tone immediately for its television awards, giving out its first three honors to actresses. All of them talked about Hollywood's responsibility to tell stories about strong women.</p>
<p>Elisabeth Moss, honored as best actress in a drama for her role in "The Handmaid's Tale," typified that response. Amazon's dystopian tale of a society where the few fertile women are put in service of powerful men also won the Globe for best drama. Moss, in her acceptance speech, quoted novelist Margaret Atwood, whose book provides the basis for the series.</p>
<p>"Margaret Atwood, this is for you, and for all of the women who came before you and after you who were brave enough to speak out about tolerance and injustice," she said.</p>
<p>Nicole Kidman beat out her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, as the winner for best actress in a limited series for "Big Little Lies," HBO's disturbing tale of suburban life in California. Witherspoon, one of the show's producers, spoke about women who had been silenced by harassment and abuse when "Big Little Lies" was honored as best limited series.</p>
<p>"Time is up," Witherspoon said. "We see you, we hear you and we will tell your stories."</p>
<p>Kidman plays Celeste Wright, a woman who is beaten by her husband. The actor who portrays her husband, Alexander Skarsgard, also won a Globe for supporting actor. Laura Dern won for supporting actress, and she referenced her role in dealing with an abused child.</p>
<p>"May we teach our children that speaking out without the fear of retribution is our culture's new North Star," Dern said.</p>
<p>The Globes have developed a reputation for often championing work before other awards shows or before it is widely known among the public. That's what made all of Sunday's repeats so unusual. Besides the awards for "Big Little Lies" and "The Handmaid's Tale," Sterling K. Brown of NBC's "This is Us" was a repeat winner from the Emmys.</p>
<p>Honors given to Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" bucked that trend. Rachel Brosnahan won best comic actress for portraying a 1950s housewife who pursues a career in comedy, and the series won the Globe for best comedy.</p>
<p>One of Hollywood's quirkiest and most powerful female creators, Amy Sherman-Palladino, is behind the series. She thanked Amazon for its support.</p>
<p>"Every check cleared," she said. "We couldn't ask for a better partner."</p>
<p>Holding the flag for network television, Brown of NBC's "This is Us" won best actor in a drama. He said he was grateful to the series' creator for making a character specifically written for a black man.</p>
<p>"It makes it that much more difficult to dismiss me, or dismiss anybody who looks like me," Brown said.</p>
<p>Ewan McGregor of "Fargo" won the best supporting actor award for a limited series. He won a category stocked with heavyweight actors — Robert DeNiro, Jude Law, Geoffrey Rush and Kyle MacLachlan.</p>
<p>Despite his 2016 Emmy, Ansari seemed surprised to pick up the Globe for his role in Netflix's "Master of None" — or maybe that's further evidence that he's a good actor.</p>
<p>"I genuinely didn't think I was going to win because all of the web sites said I was going to lose," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For full coverage of awards season, visit: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/AwardsSeason</a></p>
<p>The theme of empowerment for women, visible in the sea of black outfits among Golden Globe attendees on Sunday, also played out in the themes, characters and actors honored by voters in the television category.</p>
<p>The Globes also took on a new role — home of reruns. Seven of the 11 television awards went to actors or programs that were honored with Emmys four months ago. An eighth winner, Aziz Ansari, won an Emmy in 2016.</p>
<p>HBO's "Big Little Lies" led the way with four television Golden Globes, just like the show did at the Emmys. Five Globes went to cable networks, five went to streaming services while NBC earned the lone honor for broadcast television.</p>
<p>The Globes set the tone immediately for its television awards, giving out its first three honors to actresses. All of them talked about Hollywood's responsibility to tell stories about strong women.</p>
<p>Elisabeth Moss, honored as best actress in a drama for her role in "The Handmaid's Tale," typified that response. Amazon's dystopian tale of a society where the few fertile women are put in service of powerful men also won the Globe for best drama. Moss, in her acceptance speech, quoted novelist Margaret Atwood, whose book provides the basis for the series.</p>
<p>"Margaret Atwood, this is for you, and for all of the women who came before you and after you who were brave enough to speak out about tolerance and injustice," she said.</p>
<p>Nicole Kidman beat out her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, as the winner for best actress in a limited series for "Big Little Lies," HBO's disturbing tale of suburban life in California. Witherspoon, one of the show's producers, spoke about women who had been silenced by harassment and abuse when "Big Little Lies" was honored as best limited series.</p>
<p>"Time is up," Witherspoon said. "We see you, we hear you and we will tell your stories."</p>
<p>Kidman plays Celeste Wright, a woman who is beaten by her husband. The actor who portrays her husband, Alexander Skarsgard, also won a Globe for supporting actor. Laura Dern won for supporting actress, and she referenced her role in dealing with an abused child.</p>
<p>"May we teach our children that speaking out without the fear of retribution is our culture's new North Star," Dern said.</p>
<p>The Globes have developed a reputation for often championing work before other awards shows or before it is widely known among the public. That's what made all of Sunday's repeats so unusual. Besides the awards for "Big Little Lies" and "The Handmaid's Tale," Sterling K. Brown of NBC's "This is Us" was a repeat winner from the Emmys.</p>
<p>Honors given to Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" bucked that trend. Rachel Brosnahan won best comic actress for portraying a 1950s housewife who pursues a career in comedy, and the series won the Globe for best comedy.</p>
<p>One of Hollywood's quirkiest and most powerful female creators, Amy Sherman-Palladino, is behind the series. She thanked Amazon for its support.</p>
<p>"Every check cleared," she said. "We couldn't ask for a better partner."</p>
<p>Holding the flag for network television, Brown of NBC's "This is Us" won best actor in a drama. He said he was grateful to the series' creator for making a character specifically written for a black man.</p>
<p>"It makes it that much more difficult to dismiss me, or dismiss anybody who looks like me," Brown said.</p>
<p>Ewan McGregor of "Fargo" won the best supporting actor award for a limited series. He won a category stocked with heavyweight actors — Robert DeNiro, Jude Law, Geoffrey Rush and Kyle MacLachlan.</p>
<p>Despite his 2016 Emmy, Ansari seemed surprised to pick up the Globe for his role in Netflix's "Master of None" — or maybe that's further evidence that he's a good actor.</p>
<p>"I genuinely didn't think I was going to win because all of the web sites said I was going to lose," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For full coverage of awards season, visit: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/AwardsSeason</a></p>
| 4,706 |
<p>In recent weeks surveillance footage has broken in the Australian media of institutional abuse at the Don Dale juvenile detention facility just outside of Darwin. Needless to say this has been deeply shocking the Australian public — the graphic footage of teenagers being savagely beaten and forcibly restrained in chairs with bags over their heads all too reminiscent of the human rights abuses in Abu Ghraib. The effect of these images has not been much diminished by the fact that it took the story years to break in the face of protracted institutional resistance and willingness to turn a blind eye to what were clearly the same kinds of abuse.</p>
<p>This raises issues as to the institutional attitude towards child abuse, which are not much diminished by Prime Minister Turnbull response in calling a Royal Commission, and not just because their findings are not binding, and not taken as such by Australian governments which tend to ignore them. The official attitude towards the welfare of the children incarcerated in the Northern Territory, who are disproportionately from an indigenous background, is not much different to its attitude towards the welfare of those incarcerated in the Australian Gulag, our network of offshore refugee internment camps (termed ‘detention centres’ in official propaganda strategic communication, despite their inmates not having committed any crime).</p>
<p>But then, defenders of the status quo might rejoinder, what of the welfare of the indigenous children being sexually abused in remote communities? Is that not what the Howard Government’s famed Northern Territory Intervention, responding to claims in 2007 of child sexual abuse and neglect, was all about addressing? Well, above and beyond the fact that an independent report <a href="" type="internal">found</a> that it ‘failed to deliver substantial reform in any of the areas covered by the Close the Gap goals and has also failed to meet Australia’s international human rights obligations,’ indigenous critics <a href="https://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/intervention-to-destroy/" type="external">point</a> to the function of the policy in practice as ‘the explicit curtailment of the rights won through the struggles of the 1960s and 70s.’</p>
<p>But let us not let the facts get in the way of a good story —&#160;apologists for the empire of capital never do. Even by their own logic, child abuse is, to all appearances, as rife and as much a cultural norm in Australia as domestic violence, the latter currently manifesting in epidemic proportions as violence against women explodes along with violence against individual rights per se and the propensity to take our problems on innocent bystanders. All have become habitual features of life under neoliberal capitalism.</p>
<p>This fact notwithstanding, the official response couldn’t be more different depending on who the victims are. In the Northern Territory, imagined or real victims of child abuse have been given prolonged attention by the federal government and corporate media, although the question of who has been responsible remains contentious to say the least. At the Don Dale juvenile detention centre in the NT and the immigration detention camp in Nauru, on the other hand, the victims are not only largely invisible, only becoming known to the public though sustained efforts to make the abuses known in the face of institutional resistance, but the abuses are perpetrated by government departments also responsible for same and purportedly devoted to serving the public welfare.</p>
<p>While throughout the Howard era crocodile tears shed were shed over indigenous children to establish a pretext for the Intervention, those same tears dried up in short order when the Intervention failed to achieve its stated goals —&#160;being midwife to, amongst other things, a <a href="" type="internal">40%&#160;increase</a> in Indigenous incarceration as of March 2011, many of those children winding up in everyone’s favourite facility Don Dale. The double standards could not be any more conspicuous if they were being applied on purpose, and as such speak to broader understandings in sociological discourse on moral panics,&#160;part of which treats selective concern over child abuse as part of a broader critique of, amongst other things, scare mongering and deviance production over terrorism. In this discourse, the ‘production of deviance’ is based on the subjective character of the concept of deviance per se. Deviance is ‘produced’ insofar as it is a matter of who has the power to define the meaning of the word, as against the characteristics of anyone thus labeled.</p>
<p>As <a href="" type="internal">Daniel Filler</a> of the University of Alabama writes, ‘When Southern Baptist leader Reverend Jerry Vines recently declared that Mohammed was a “demon-possessed pedophile,” and that Allah leads Muslims to terrorism, his comments received national attention.’ Although many people dismissed them as ‘reactionary nonsense,’ Filler argues, the fact that Vines’ speech drew links between Islam, terrorism, and pedophilia is ‘far more significant than dismissive readers might have anticipated.’</p>
<p>While Vines’ statement was among the most explicit efforts tying Islam and terrorism to pedophilia, close scrutiny of rhetoric following September 11th suggests that this link is becoming increasingly common and natural. Why should this seemingly tenuous metaphor be consequential to legal scholars? Because this rhetorical connection may help create the social conditions necessary to support for radical detention policies that currently seem implausible.</p>
<p>As the politics of scare mongering and moral panic have done for millennia. ‘Yet if public anxiety soars and anger is targeted at Muslims,’ Filler adds, ‘and if the public demands internment camps, history suggests that the courts may not serve as an effective protector of civil liberties.’</p>
<p>In Australia, we have an example of this very process already at work, given not only the role of selective concern over child abuse in the case of the NT intervention, but also the noted role that smears against indigenous communities for the crimes of white religious officials have played in facilitating a continuation of the <a href="" type="internal">racist land grab</a> that has characterised and enabled European settler colonalism in Australia from the outset. In the case of the Intervention, it quickly became <a href="http://directaction.org.au/issue2/nt_intervention_continues_racist_land_grab" type="external">clear</a> that the policies and practices actually functioned as a means of expediting the destruction of indigenous connection to the land, vital not only to mob culture but their claims to Native Title — the weakest form of land tenure under white law. This was typically done in the name of dealing with so-called ‘unviable communities,’ communities deprived of resources as a matter of design until they became dysfunctional, at which point the dysfunctionality was pointed to as a fault of the communities thus afflicted. No tears for the children here.</p>
<p>Nor are there any for the refugee children locked up permanently on Nauru Island, one of the scenes of horror in the aforesaid Australian Gulag —&#160;nor for that matter, for the children of the rest of the island’s residents who live in poverty now that the island has been mined clean of its deposits of phosphate. Broke, Nauru was another easy target for successive Australian government both Tory and Laborite, who saw in their vulnerable community another opportunity to be taken advantage for its own benefit in the same way that they saw the indigenous communities in the Outback. What this demonstrates to us is that the Australian government was more than happy to act on false/overblown/misdirected allegations in the NT when it suited their purposes, and did nothing about actual allegations that it already knew about because it considers poor black kids extraneous to its primary purpose of serving its paymasters amongst the transnational corporate class who form the primary constituency of the political class as a whole, be they Australian or from anywhere else.</p>
<p>Where child abuse is concerned, as with every other contentious social issue and perceived exterior threat to ‘our’ way of life from terrorism to immigration to Islam, there are worthy and unworthy victims. If the Northern Territory Intervention here in Australia was based on made up stories about child abuse to justify a land grab, then the offshore gulag on Nauru was made possible by a resources grab, then made up stories to justify child abuse. In both cases the production of deviance as discussed by Daniel Filler above applies again, each manifestation of scare mongering and scapegoating functioning to render those with the power to define the meaning of deviance cause and cure of the same problem —&#160;during which time they typically take the opportunity to commit one or another institutional crime in service of their own power, privilege and self-interest in general. All of this begs the question as to if natural gas reserves need to be discovered on Nauru or underneath youth detention facilities in the Northern Territory for the Australian government to notice or give a shit about the child abuses they perpetrate.</p>
|
Worthy and Unworthy Victims of Child Abuse
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2016/08/19/worthy-and-unworthy-victims-of-child-abuse/
|
2016-08-19
| 4left
|
Worthy and Unworthy Victims of Child Abuse
<p>In recent weeks surveillance footage has broken in the Australian media of institutional abuse at the Don Dale juvenile detention facility just outside of Darwin. Needless to say this has been deeply shocking the Australian public — the graphic footage of teenagers being savagely beaten and forcibly restrained in chairs with bags over their heads all too reminiscent of the human rights abuses in Abu Ghraib. The effect of these images has not been much diminished by the fact that it took the story years to break in the face of protracted institutional resistance and willingness to turn a blind eye to what were clearly the same kinds of abuse.</p>
<p>This raises issues as to the institutional attitude towards child abuse, which are not much diminished by Prime Minister Turnbull response in calling a Royal Commission, and not just because their findings are not binding, and not taken as such by Australian governments which tend to ignore them. The official attitude towards the welfare of the children incarcerated in the Northern Territory, who are disproportionately from an indigenous background, is not much different to its attitude towards the welfare of those incarcerated in the Australian Gulag, our network of offshore refugee internment camps (termed ‘detention centres’ in official propaganda strategic communication, despite their inmates not having committed any crime).</p>
<p>But then, defenders of the status quo might rejoinder, what of the welfare of the indigenous children being sexually abused in remote communities? Is that not what the Howard Government’s famed Northern Territory Intervention, responding to claims in 2007 of child sexual abuse and neglect, was all about addressing? Well, above and beyond the fact that an independent report <a href="" type="internal">found</a> that it ‘failed to deliver substantial reform in any of the areas covered by the Close the Gap goals and has also failed to meet Australia’s international human rights obligations,’ indigenous critics <a href="https://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/intervention-to-destroy/" type="external">point</a> to the function of the policy in practice as ‘the explicit curtailment of the rights won through the struggles of the 1960s and 70s.’</p>
<p>But let us not let the facts get in the way of a good story —&#160;apologists for the empire of capital never do. Even by their own logic, child abuse is, to all appearances, as rife and as much a cultural norm in Australia as domestic violence, the latter currently manifesting in epidemic proportions as violence against women explodes along with violence against individual rights per se and the propensity to take our problems on innocent bystanders. All have become habitual features of life under neoliberal capitalism.</p>
<p>This fact notwithstanding, the official response couldn’t be more different depending on who the victims are. In the Northern Territory, imagined or real victims of child abuse have been given prolonged attention by the federal government and corporate media, although the question of who has been responsible remains contentious to say the least. At the Don Dale juvenile detention centre in the NT and the immigration detention camp in Nauru, on the other hand, the victims are not only largely invisible, only becoming known to the public though sustained efforts to make the abuses known in the face of institutional resistance, but the abuses are perpetrated by government departments also responsible for same and purportedly devoted to serving the public welfare.</p>
<p>While throughout the Howard era crocodile tears shed were shed over indigenous children to establish a pretext for the Intervention, those same tears dried up in short order when the Intervention failed to achieve its stated goals —&#160;being midwife to, amongst other things, a <a href="" type="internal">40%&#160;increase</a> in Indigenous incarceration as of March 2011, many of those children winding up in everyone’s favourite facility Don Dale. The double standards could not be any more conspicuous if they were being applied on purpose, and as such speak to broader understandings in sociological discourse on moral panics,&#160;part of which treats selective concern over child abuse as part of a broader critique of, amongst other things, scare mongering and deviance production over terrorism. In this discourse, the ‘production of deviance’ is based on the subjective character of the concept of deviance per se. Deviance is ‘produced’ insofar as it is a matter of who has the power to define the meaning of the word, as against the characteristics of anyone thus labeled.</p>
<p>As <a href="" type="internal">Daniel Filler</a> of the University of Alabama writes, ‘When Southern Baptist leader Reverend Jerry Vines recently declared that Mohammed was a “demon-possessed pedophile,” and that Allah leads Muslims to terrorism, his comments received national attention.’ Although many people dismissed them as ‘reactionary nonsense,’ Filler argues, the fact that Vines’ speech drew links between Islam, terrorism, and pedophilia is ‘far more significant than dismissive readers might have anticipated.’</p>
<p>While Vines’ statement was among the most explicit efforts tying Islam and terrorism to pedophilia, close scrutiny of rhetoric following September 11th suggests that this link is becoming increasingly common and natural. Why should this seemingly tenuous metaphor be consequential to legal scholars? Because this rhetorical connection may help create the social conditions necessary to support for radical detention policies that currently seem implausible.</p>
<p>As the politics of scare mongering and moral panic have done for millennia. ‘Yet if public anxiety soars and anger is targeted at Muslims,’ Filler adds, ‘and if the public demands internment camps, history suggests that the courts may not serve as an effective protector of civil liberties.’</p>
<p>In Australia, we have an example of this very process already at work, given not only the role of selective concern over child abuse in the case of the NT intervention, but also the noted role that smears against indigenous communities for the crimes of white religious officials have played in facilitating a continuation of the <a href="" type="internal">racist land grab</a> that has characterised and enabled European settler colonalism in Australia from the outset. In the case of the Intervention, it quickly became <a href="http://directaction.org.au/issue2/nt_intervention_continues_racist_land_grab" type="external">clear</a> that the policies and practices actually functioned as a means of expediting the destruction of indigenous connection to the land, vital not only to mob culture but their claims to Native Title — the weakest form of land tenure under white law. This was typically done in the name of dealing with so-called ‘unviable communities,’ communities deprived of resources as a matter of design until they became dysfunctional, at which point the dysfunctionality was pointed to as a fault of the communities thus afflicted. No tears for the children here.</p>
<p>Nor are there any for the refugee children locked up permanently on Nauru Island, one of the scenes of horror in the aforesaid Australian Gulag —&#160;nor for that matter, for the children of the rest of the island’s residents who live in poverty now that the island has been mined clean of its deposits of phosphate. Broke, Nauru was another easy target for successive Australian government both Tory and Laborite, who saw in their vulnerable community another opportunity to be taken advantage for its own benefit in the same way that they saw the indigenous communities in the Outback. What this demonstrates to us is that the Australian government was more than happy to act on false/overblown/misdirected allegations in the NT when it suited their purposes, and did nothing about actual allegations that it already knew about because it considers poor black kids extraneous to its primary purpose of serving its paymasters amongst the transnational corporate class who form the primary constituency of the political class as a whole, be they Australian or from anywhere else.</p>
<p>Where child abuse is concerned, as with every other contentious social issue and perceived exterior threat to ‘our’ way of life from terrorism to immigration to Islam, there are worthy and unworthy victims. If the Northern Territory Intervention here in Australia was based on made up stories about child abuse to justify a land grab, then the offshore gulag on Nauru was made possible by a resources grab, then made up stories to justify child abuse. In both cases the production of deviance as discussed by Daniel Filler above applies again, each manifestation of scare mongering and scapegoating functioning to render those with the power to define the meaning of deviance cause and cure of the same problem —&#160;during which time they typically take the opportunity to commit one or another institutional crime in service of their own power, privilege and self-interest in general. All of this begs the question as to if natural gas reserves need to be discovered on Nauru or underneath youth detention facilities in the Northern Territory for the Australian government to notice or give a shit about the child abuses they perpetrate.</p>
| 4,707 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Topping out 25 stories above the ground, Kong was spectacular, an ancient beastly creature well-suited for its name. Its trunk at the base measured 17 feet across.</p>
<p>This broccoli top, Ambrose thought, was doing well, much like the other sequoias he had climbed.</p>
<p>Ambrose is one of four biologists whose work in the trees this summer has led various media to report that the state's drought could be killing one of California's most famous treasures.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But researchers say those conclusions are wrong, or at least premature. Despite signs of stress - leaves turning brown after four hot and dry years - most of the sequoias seem to be holding up.</p>
<p>The browning foliage, first noticed last summer, brought Ambrose and fellow University of California, Berkeley, biologist Wendy Baxter to the Giant Forest in July to try to find out what's going on with the sequoias and, in the process, unravel the mystery of their internal plumbing: how these enormous trees use the water that's available to them.</p>
<p>Their research is one of three projects designed to help the National Park Service manage what is perhaps the best known forest in the world. Yet scientists know less about sequoias than more common species such as pines and firs, Ambrose said.</p>
<p>The drought has made the work more urgent. "It's a good year to be a researcher, but a bad year to be a tree," he said before the climb.</p>
<p>The Giant Forest was named by naturalist John Muir, who walked through these groves more than a century ago. Its landmark, the 3,000-year-old General Sherman tree, is 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.</p>
<p>Kong is younger, probably 2,000 years old, and Ambrose wondered what the future holds for the giant.</p>
<p>Mapping tree deaths</p>
<p>Ambrose and Baxter were invited into the Giant Forest by the National Park Service, which is paying $50,000 for their efforts. Their work is being closely watched by Nate Stephenson, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Stephenson has been studying many species of trees inside Sequoia National Park since 1979, and he doesn't like what he has been seeing, especially at the lower elevations.</p>
<p>On a 2 1/2-acre plot, 50 trees - a mix of sugar and ponderosa pine, incense cedar, white fir and oak - died in 2010. This year, 490 trees have died.</p>
<p>What lies ahead - El Nino or not - is not encouraging.</p>
<p>The drought is less important for its immediate effect than for its significance down the road, Stephenson argues. It may or may not be the result of global warming, "but what we do know is it is a preview of the future if warming continues."</p>
<p>Given tree deaths at lower elevations, he wondered whether species higher up were suffering as well. The question took him into the Giant Forest last summer. He wanted to see if sequoia seedlings with their shallow roots were at risk.</p>
<p>Spending an hour on his hands and knees near Crescent Meadow, he kept finding a healthy population of young trees. But when he glanced overhead, he saw the brown leaves, lots of brown leaves, in some of the mature trees.</p>
<p>He didn't know what it meant. Was it an adaptive mechanism or something more serious?</p>
<p>Working with the park service, he and his team mapped more than 2,000 sequoias throughout the park that were losing foliage. The Atwell and Garfield groves in the southwest corner of Sequoia seemed particularly hard hit.</p>
<p>In addition to Ambrose and Baxter, Stephenson enlisted researchers with the Carnegie Institution for Science to survey the forest from the air, using instruments that measure the water content of the trees.</p>
<p>Stephenson and his team will also oversee an analysis of tree rings taken from borings almost 25 years ago in the forest. He wants to know whether sequoias in different locations reacted differently to California's cyclical droughts.</p>
<p>The goal is to create a "vulnerability map" of the Giant Forest that will enable the park service to consider solutions such as prescribed burns or manual clearances to eliminate trees that compete for water.</p>
<p />
|
Giant worries
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/638522/giant-worries-2.html
|
2015-09-03
| 2least
|
Giant worries
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Topping out 25 stories above the ground, Kong was spectacular, an ancient beastly creature well-suited for its name. Its trunk at the base measured 17 feet across.</p>
<p>This broccoli top, Ambrose thought, was doing well, much like the other sequoias he had climbed.</p>
<p>Ambrose is one of four biologists whose work in the trees this summer has led various media to report that the state's drought could be killing one of California's most famous treasures.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But researchers say those conclusions are wrong, or at least premature. Despite signs of stress - leaves turning brown after four hot and dry years - most of the sequoias seem to be holding up.</p>
<p>The browning foliage, first noticed last summer, brought Ambrose and fellow University of California, Berkeley, biologist Wendy Baxter to the Giant Forest in July to try to find out what's going on with the sequoias and, in the process, unravel the mystery of their internal plumbing: how these enormous trees use the water that's available to them.</p>
<p>Their research is one of three projects designed to help the National Park Service manage what is perhaps the best known forest in the world. Yet scientists know less about sequoias than more common species such as pines and firs, Ambrose said.</p>
<p>The drought has made the work more urgent. "It's a good year to be a researcher, but a bad year to be a tree," he said before the climb.</p>
<p>The Giant Forest was named by naturalist John Muir, who walked through these groves more than a century ago. Its landmark, the 3,000-year-old General Sherman tree, is 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty.</p>
<p>Kong is younger, probably 2,000 years old, and Ambrose wondered what the future holds for the giant.</p>
<p>Mapping tree deaths</p>
<p>Ambrose and Baxter were invited into the Giant Forest by the National Park Service, which is paying $50,000 for their efforts. Their work is being closely watched by Nate Stephenson, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Stephenson has been studying many species of trees inside Sequoia National Park since 1979, and he doesn't like what he has been seeing, especially at the lower elevations.</p>
<p>On a 2 1/2-acre plot, 50 trees - a mix of sugar and ponderosa pine, incense cedar, white fir and oak - died in 2010. This year, 490 trees have died.</p>
<p>What lies ahead - El Nino or not - is not encouraging.</p>
<p>The drought is less important for its immediate effect than for its significance down the road, Stephenson argues. It may or may not be the result of global warming, "but what we do know is it is a preview of the future if warming continues."</p>
<p>Given tree deaths at lower elevations, he wondered whether species higher up were suffering as well. The question took him into the Giant Forest last summer. He wanted to see if sequoia seedlings with their shallow roots were at risk.</p>
<p>Spending an hour on his hands and knees near Crescent Meadow, he kept finding a healthy population of young trees. But when he glanced overhead, he saw the brown leaves, lots of brown leaves, in some of the mature trees.</p>
<p>He didn't know what it meant. Was it an adaptive mechanism or something more serious?</p>
<p>Working with the park service, he and his team mapped more than 2,000 sequoias throughout the park that were losing foliage. The Atwell and Garfield groves in the southwest corner of Sequoia seemed particularly hard hit.</p>
<p>In addition to Ambrose and Baxter, Stephenson enlisted researchers with the Carnegie Institution for Science to survey the forest from the air, using instruments that measure the water content of the trees.</p>
<p>Stephenson and his team will also oversee an analysis of tree rings taken from borings almost 25 years ago in the forest. He wants to know whether sequoias in different locations reacted differently to California's cyclical droughts.</p>
<p>The goal is to create a "vulnerability map" of the Giant Forest that will enable the park service to consider solutions such as prescribed burns or manual clearances to eliminate trees that compete for water.</p>
<p />
| 4,708 |
<p>BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian pro-government forces reached a sprawling air base controlled by rebels since 2015 on Wednesday, the target of a wide-ranging offensive in the northwestern Idlib province.</p>
<p>Recapturing the Abu Zuhour air base has been one of the main goals of the government offensive launched in late October. The operations also aim to secure the road linking the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest.</p>
<p>The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said troops were engaged in fierce fighting with al-Qaida-linked militants and other insurgents just outside Abu Zuhour.</p>
<p>The government offensive in the region has displaced tens of thousands of people, who have fled toward areas close to the Turkish border.</p>
<p>The push into Idlib province, the largest remaining territory held by rebels in Syria, is the deepest by the government since it lost much of the area three years ago. The province is covered by a de-escalation agreement reached last year between Russia and Iran, which back President Bashar Assad, and Turkey, which supports the opposition.</p>
<p>The U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein expressed "grave concern" over the situation in Idlib, which is home to more than 2.6 million Syrians, including more than 1.1 million who fled fighting elsewhere in the country.</p>
<p>Zeid also condemned the upsurge in civilian casualties in the suburbs of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta, stressing that all parties are obliged under international law to distinguish between lawful military targets and civilians.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, more than two dozen people were killed in the government bombardment of eastern Ghouta and rebel shelling of the capital itself.</p>
<p>"The suffering of the people of Syria knows no end," Zeid said in a statement about eastern Ghouta, where nearly 400,000 people are living under government siege.</p>
<p>"In Idlib, ground attacks and airstrikes have escalated as a rapidly-moving government offensive gains momentum, jeopardizing the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians," said Zeid.</p>
<p>He said at least 85 civilians, including 21 women and 30 children, have been killed and at least 183 wounded in eastern Ghouta since Dec. 31.</p>
<p>The push toward Abu Zuhour came as the opposition's Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported several explosions in the coastal province of Latakia, an Assad stronghold. The Observatory said the blasts were the result of explosions in an arms depot east of Latakia.</p>
<p>State media did not report any blasts in the area.</p>
<p>In Moscow, the Russian military urged its Turkish counterparts to tighten monitoring of the opposition in northern Syria in the wake of a drone attack on Russian military bases in the country.</p>
<p>Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces repelled a series of drone attacks Saturday, adding that out of the 13 drones involved, seven were shot down and six were forced to land without inflicting any damage.</p>
<p>The official military daily Krasnaya Zvezda said the ministry sent letters to the Turkish military asking it to deploy observers to Idlib to ensure that rebels don't launch more attacks.</p>
<p>Russia entered the civil war in 2015 to bolster government forces, helping them to secure a series of victories against the Islamic State group as well as mainstream rebels.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.</p>
<p>BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian pro-government forces reached a sprawling air base controlled by rebels since 2015 on Wednesday, the target of a wide-ranging offensive in the northwestern Idlib province.</p>
<p>Recapturing the Abu Zuhour air base has been one of the main goals of the government offensive launched in late October. The operations also aim to secure the road linking the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest.</p>
<p>The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said troops were engaged in fierce fighting with al-Qaida-linked militants and other insurgents just outside Abu Zuhour.</p>
<p>The government offensive in the region has displaced tens of thousands of people, who have fled toward areas close to the Turkish border.</p>
<p>The push into Idlib province, the largest remaining territory held by rebels in Syria, is the deepest by the government since it lost much of the area three years ago. The province is covered by a de-escalation agreement reached last year between Russia and Iran, which back President Bashar Assad, and Turkey, which supports the opposition.</p>
<p>The U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein expressed "grave concern" over the situation in Idlib, which is home to more than 2.6 million Syrians, including more than 1.1 million who fled fighting elsewhere in the country.</p>
<p>Zeid also condemned the upsurge in civilian casualties in the suburbs of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta, stressing that all parties are obliged under international law to distinguish between lawful military targets and civilians.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, more than two dozen people were killed in the government bombardment of eastern Ghouta and rebel shelling of the capital itself.</p>
<p>"The suffering of the people of Syria knows no end," Zeid said in a statement about eastern Ghouta, where nearly 400,000 people are living under government siege.</p>
<p>"In Idlib, ground attacks and airstrikes have escalated as a rapidly-moving government offensive gains momentum, jeopardizing the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians," said Zeid.</p>
<p>He said at least 85 civilians, including 21 women and 30 children, have been killed and at least 183 wounded in eastern Ghouta since Dec. 31.</p>
<p>The push toward Abu Zuhour came as the opposition's Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported several explosions in the coastal province of Latakia, an Assad stronghold. The Observatory said the blasts were the result of explosions in an arms depot east of Latakia.</p>
<p>State media did not report any blasts in the area.</p>
<p>In Moscow, the Russian military urged its Turkish counterparts to tighten monitoring of the opposition in northern Syria in the wake of a drone attack on Russian military bases in the country.</p>
<p>Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces repelled a series of drone attacks Saturday, adding that out of the 13 drones involved, seven were shot down and six were forced to land without inflicting any damage.</p>
<p>The official military daily Krasnaya Zvezda said the ministry sent letters to the Turkish military asking it to deploy observers to Idlib to ensure that rebels don't launch more attacks.</p>
<p>Russia entered the civil war in 2015 to bolster government forces, helping them to secure a series of victories against the Islamic State group as well as mainstream rebels.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.</p>
|
Syrian troops reach gates of key rebel-held air base
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/e2a2a35afb854bb595578d27e22eb1e3
|
2018-01-10
| 2least
|
Syrian troops reach gates of key rebel-held air base
<p>BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian pro-government forces reached a sprawling air base controlled by rebels since 2015 on Wednesday, the target of a wide-ranging offensive in the northwestern Idlib province.</p>
<p>Recapturing the Abu Zuhour air base has been one of the main goals of the government offensive launched in late October. The operations also aim to secure the road linking the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest.</p>
<p>The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said troops were engaged in fierce fighting with al-Qaida-linked militants and other insurgents just outside Abu Zuhour.</p>
<p>The government offensive in the region has displaced tens of thousands of people, who have fled toward areas close to the Turkish border.</p>
<p>The push into Idlib province, the largest remaining territory held by rebels in Syria, is the deepest by the government since it lost much of the area three years ago. The province is covered by a de-escalation agreement reached last year between Russia and Iran, which back President Bashar Assad, and Turkey, which supports the opposition.</p>
<p>The U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein expressed "grave concern" over the situation in Idlib, which is home to more than 2.6 million Syrians, including more than 1.1 million who fled fighting elsewhere in the country.</p>
<p>Zeid also condemned the upsurge in civilian casualties in the suburbs of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta, stressing that all parties are obliged under international law to distinguish between lawful military targets and civilians.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, more than two dozen people were killed in the government bombardment of eastern Ghouta and rebel shelling of the capital itself.</p>
<p>"The suffering of the people of Syria knows no end," Zeid said in a statement about eastern Ghouta, where nearly 400,000 people are living under government siege.</p>
<p>"In Idlib, ground attacks and airstrikes have escalated as a rapidly-moving government offensive gains momentum, jeopardizing the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians," said Zeid.</p>
<p>He said at least 85 civilians, including 21 women and 30 children, have been killed and at least 183 wounded in eastern Ghouta since Dec. 31.</p>
<p>The push toward Abu Zuhour came as the opposition's Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported several explosions in the coastal province of Latakia, an Assad stronghold. The Observatory said the blasts were the result of explosions in an arms depot east of Latakia.</p>
<p>State media did not report any blasts in the area.</p>
<p>In Moscow, the Russian military urged its Turkish counterparts to tighten monitoring of the opposition in northern Syria in the wake of a drone attack on Russian military bases in the country.</p>
<p>Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces repelled a series of drone attacks Saturday, adding that out of the 13 drones involved, seven were shot down and six were forced to land without inflicting any damage.</p>
<p>The official military daily Krasnaya Zvezda said the ministry sent letters to the Turkish military asking it to deploy observers to Idlib to ensure that rebels don't launch more attacks.</p>
<p>Russia entered the civil war in 2015 to bolster government forces, helping them to secure a series of victories against the Islamic State group as well as mainstream rebels.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.</p>
<p>BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian pro-government forces reached a sprawling air base controlled by rebels since 2015 on Wednesday, the target of a wide-ranging offensive in the northwestern Idlib province.</p>
<p>Recapturing the Abu Zuhour air base has been one of the main goals of the government offensive launched in late October. The operations also aim to secure the road linking the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest.</p>
<p>The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said troops were engaged in fierce fighting with al-Qaida-linked militants and other insurgents just outside Abu Zuhour.</p>
<p>The government offensive in the region has displaced tens of thousands of people, who have fled toward areas close to the Turkish border.</p>
<p>The push into Idlib province, the largest remaining territory held by rebels in Syria, is the deepest by the government since it lost much of the area three years ago. The province is covered by a de-escalation agreement reached last year between Russia and Iran, which back President Bashar Assad, and Turkey, which supports the opposition.</p>
<p>The U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein expressed "grave concern" over the situation in Idlib, which is home to more than 2.6 million Syrians, including more than 1.1 million who fled fighting elsewhere in the country.</p>
<p>Zeid also condemned the upsurge in civilian casualties in the suburbs of Damascus known as eastern Ghouta, stressing that all parties are obliged under international law to distinguish between lawful military targets and civilians.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, more than two dozen people were killed in the government bombardment of eastern Ghouta and rebel shelling of the capital itself.</p>
<p>"The suffering of the people of Syria knows no end," Zeid said in a statement about eastern Ghouta, where nearly 400,000 people are living under government siege.</p>
<p>"In Idlib, ground attacks and airstrikes have escalated as a rapidly-moving government offensive gains momentum, jeopardizing the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians," said Zeid.</p>
<p>He said at least 85 civilians, including 21 women and 30 children, have been killed and at least 183 wounded in eastern Ghouta since Dec. 31.</p>
<p>The push toward Abu Zuhour came as the opposition's Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported several explosions in the coastal province of Latakia, an Assad stronghold. The Observatory said the blasts were the result of explosions in an arms depot east of Latakia.</p>
<p>State media did not report any blasts in the area.</p>
<p>In Moscow, the Russian military urged its Turkish counterparts to tighten monitoring of the opposition in northern Syria in the wake of a drone attack on Russian military bases in the country.</p>
<p>Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces repelled a series of drone attacks Saturday, adding that out of the 13 drones involved, seven were shot down and six were forced to land without inflicting any damage.</p>
<p>The official military daily Krasnaya Zvezda said the ministry sent letters to the Turkish military asking it to deploy observers to Idlib to ensure that rebels don't launch more attacks.</p>
<p>Russia entered the civil war in 2015 to bolster government forces, helping them to secure a series of victories against the Islamic State group as well as mainstream rebels.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.</p>
| 4,709 |
<p>What Inspired the Show</p>
<p>The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs is a look at the conditions under which the workers at the <a href="/content/newsweek/2010/06/02/steve-jobs-strange-defense-of-foxconn.html" type="external">Foxconn</a> plant in Shenzhen, China, build iPhones, iPads, and other devices; the life of <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/10/24/steve-jobs-biography-let-the-backlash-begin.html" type="external">Steve Jobs</a>; and Mike Daisey’s complicated, lifelong love for all things Apple. Daisey explains how he’d wanted to do a piece on Jobs for years, but it wasn’t until he saw some photos taken at Foxconn that he knew he had a show.</p>
<p>Daisey: Why Tech Writers Are Hacks</p>
<p>An important theme of Agony is that the investigation he undertook, visiting the outside of the factory and talking to workers, is something technology journalists should have done long ago. We asked for his thoughts on whether tech writers have been failing to do their work as reporters.</p>
<p>Daisey: Wired’s Cover Story on Foxconn Was ‘Pathetic’</p>
<p>Wired magazine made waves with its <a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/ff_joelinchina/all/1" type="external">March 2011 cover story</a> on the same Foxconn plant Daisey visited. Daisey pulls no punches with his takedown of the piece.</p>
<p>On Using Theater to Confront Political Issues</p>
<p>In the last couple of decades, it’s been rare that an American theatrical work serves also as a call to political action. We asked about his decision in Agony to urge his audience to take Apple to task.</p>
<p>The Anger and Silence After Daisey’s Times Op-Ed on Steve Jobs</p>
<p>There was no shortage of obituaries hailing Steve Jobs’s genius. Mike Daisey talks about his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/opinion/jobs-looked-to-the-future.html" type="external">contentious New York Times op-ed</a> and how it provoked death threats from those who hadn’t seen his show, and silence from tech writers, including the Times’s <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/05/27/david-pogue-and-nicki-dugan-is-their-relationship-a-conflict-of-interest.html" type="external">David Pogue</a>.</p>
|
Mike Daisey on David Pogue, Steve Jobs, Technology Journalism: Video
| true |
https://thedailybeast.com/mike-daisey-on-david-pogue-steve-jobs-technology-journalism-video
|
2018-10-06
| 4left
|
Mike Daisey on David Pogue, Steve Jobs, Technology Journalism: Video
<p>What Inspired the Show</p>
<p>The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs is a look at the conditions under which the workers at the <a href="/content/newsweek/2010/06/02/steve-jobs-strange-defense-of-foxconn.html" type="external">Foxconn</a> plant in Shenzhen, China, build iPhones, iPads, and other devices; the life of <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/10/24/steve-jobs-biography-let-the-backlash-begin.html" type="external">Steve Jobs</a>; and Mike Daisey’s complicated, lifelong love for all things Apple. Daisey explains how he’d wanted to do a piece on Jobs for years, but it wasn’t until he saw some photos taken at Foxconn that he knew he had a show.</p>
<p>Daisey: Why Tech Writers Are Hacks</p>
<p>An important theme of Agony is that the investigation he undertook, visiting the outside of the factory and talking to workers, is something technology journalists should have done long ago. We asked for his thoughts on whether tech writers have been failing to do their work as reporters.</p>
<p>Daisey: Wired’s Cover Story on Foxconn Was ‘Pathetic’</p>
<p>Wired magazine made waves with its <a href="http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/ff_joelinchina/all/1" type="external">March 2011 cover story</a> on the same Foxconn plant Daisey visited. Daisey pulls no punches with his takedown of the piece.</p>
<p>On Using Theater to Confront Political Issues</p>
<p>In the last couple of decades, it’s been rare that an American theatrical work serves also as a call to political action. We asked about his decision in Agony to urge his audience to take Apple to task.</p>
<p>The Anger and Silence After Daisey’s Times Op-Ed on Steve Jobs</p>
<p>There was no shortage of obituaries hailing Steve Jobs’s genius. Mike Daisey talks about his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/opinion/jobs-looked-to-the-future.html" type="external">contentious New York Times op-ed</a> and how it provoked death threats from those who hadn’t seen his show, and silence from tech writers, including the Times’s <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2011/05/27/david-pogue-and-nicki-dugan-is-their-relationship-a-conflict-of-interest.html" type="external">David Pogue</a>.</p>
| 4,710 |
<p>NORTH AMITYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say one person is dead and four others are hurt after an overnight house fire on Long Island.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/officials-four-people-hurt-in-north-amityville-house-fire-1.16003617" type="external">Newsday</a> says the fire was reported around 2:30 a.m. Monday in North Amityville.</p>
<p>Fire Chief Aaron Collins says several firefighters had to be treated for hypothermia.</p>
<p>Collins says neighboring homes and vehicles also were damaged.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Newsday, <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external">http://www.newsday.com</a></p>
<p>NORTH AMITYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say one person is dead and four others are hurt after an overnight house fire on Long Island.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/officials-four-people-hurt-in-north-amityville-house-fire-1.16003617" type="external">Newsday</a> says the fire was reported around 2:30 a.m. Monday in North Amityville.</p>
<p>Fire Chief Aaron Collins says several firefighters had to be treated for hypothermia.</p>
<p>Collins says neighboring homes and vehicles also were damaged.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Newsday, <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external">http://www.newsday.com</a></p>
|
1 dead, 4 hurt in Long Island house fire
| false |
https://apnews.com/477d1e7ae9fd474fb1b8dbe804d5f348
|
2018-01-08
| 2least
|
1 dead, 4 hurt in Long Island house fire
<p>NORTH AMITYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say one person is dead and four others are hurt after an overnight house fire on Long Island.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/officials-four-people-hurt-in-north-amityville-house-fire-1.16003617" type="external">Newsday</a> says the fire was reported around 2:30 a.m. Monday in North Amityville.</p>
<p>Fire Chief Aaron Collins says several firefighters had to be treated for hypothermia.</p>
<p>Collins says neighboring homes and vehicles also were damaged.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Newsday, <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external">http://www.newsday.com</a></p>
<p>NORTH AMITYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say one person is dead and four others are hurt after an overnight house fire on Long Island.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/officials-four-people-hurt-in-north-amityville-house-fire-1.16003617" type="external">Newsday</a> says the fire was reported around 2:30 a.m. Monday in North Amityville.</p>
<p>Fire Chief Aaron Collins says several firefighters had to be treated for hypothermia.</p>
<p>Collins says neighboring homes and vehicles also were damaged.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Newsday, <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external">http://www.newsday.com</a></p>
| 4,711 |
<p>The current brouhaha over a U.S. plan to deploy anti-ballistic missiles (ABM) in Poland has nothing to do with a fear that Iran will attack Europe or the U.S. with nuclear tipped Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM), but a great deal to do with the Bush Administration’s efforts to neutralize Russia’s and China’s nuclear deterrents and edge both countries out of Central Asia.</p>
<p>The plan calls for deploying 10 ABMs in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic, supposedly to interdict missiles from “rogue states”-read North Korean and Iran.</p>
<p>U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security John Rood claims “North Korea possesses an ICBM range missile,” and it is “certainly possible” that Pyongyang could sell some to Iran. Barring that, Tehran could build its own missile capable of striking Europe and the U.S.</p>
<p>But the North Korean Taepodong-2, which failed a recent test, is not a true ICBM-in a pinch it might reach Alaska. And Iran pledged in 2003 not to upgrade its intermediate missile, the Shihab-3.</p>
<p>“Since there aren’t, and won’t be, any ICBMs [from North Korea and Iran], then against whom, against whom, is this system directed?” First Deputy Prime Minister Sergi Ivanov said to the Financial Times, “Only against us.”</p>
<p>The Chief of the Russian General Staff added, “The real goal [of the U.S. deployment] is to protect [the U.S.] from Russian and Chinese nuclear-missile potential and to create exclusive conditions for the invulnerability of the United States.”</p>
<p>U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded that “The idea that somehow 10 interceptors and a few radars in Eastern Europe are going to threaten the Soviet [sic] strategic return is purely ludicrous and everybody knows it.”</p>
<p>But once you start adding up a number of other things, it isn’t just 10 missiles and a radar site. There is already a similar site in Norway, and the plan is to put similar systems in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Britain is considering deploying ABM missiles at Fylingdales, which even the U.S. admits would pose a threat to Russian missiles.</p>
<p>“If the [Russians] are concerned about the U.S. targeting their intercontinental ballistic missiles, I think that would be problematic from the UK because I believe we probably could catch them from a UK launch site,” says U.S. Lieutenant General Trey Obering, head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.</p>
<p>An editorial in the Guardian called the Fylingdales plan “the far side of folly.”</p>
<p>The Russians are also suspicious that the Polish missiles are the camel’s nose under the tent.</p>
<p>Poland has made it clear that it doesn’t feel threatened by Iran. For Warsaw, this is all about its traditional enemy to the East, Russia. Besides the ABM missiles, Poland is pressing Washington for Patriot missiles and high altitude THAAD missiles, plus it is purchasing American F-16s. In response, the Russians have moved surface-to-air missiles into Belarus.</p>
<p>“It would be naïve to think that Washington would limit its appetite to Poland or the Czech Republic, or the modest potential that it is now talking about,” writes Victor Litovkin of Russia’s Independent Military Review,</p>
<p>All these systems will be tied into ABM systems in Alaska and California, plus similar planned systems in Japan, Australia and the Philippines (not to mention sea-borne ABM systems in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean).</p>
<p>Keep in mind the Bush Administration unilaterally withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.</p>
<p>Total all those things up, and toss in the recent decision by the Bush Administration to start designing another generation of nuclear warheads, and it is no wonder the Russians have turned cranky.</p>
<p>The European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have-with reservations- gone along with the plan, in part because the EU would like to squeeze Russian control over gas and oil pipelines coming out of Central Asia.</p>
<p>According to K.M. Bhadrakumar, the former Indian ambassador to Uzbekistan and Turkey, the U.S. has financed a pipeline that runs natural gas from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan through Turkey, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. The pipeline will be “a rival to Russian Gazprom’s Blue Stream-2,” scheduled to open in 2012.</p>
<p>“Moscow is well aware that Washington is the driving spirit behind the EU’s energy policy toward Central Asia,” Bhadrakumar writes in the Asia Times, arguing that the U.S. “calculates that Moscow will be inexorably drawn into a standoff with the EU over the latter’s increasingly proactive polices in Eurasia.”</p>
<p>While Rice may suggest that “everyone” thinks Russian paranoia is “ludicrous,” in fact the EU is split over the missiles, and unhappy that Washington bypassed NATO to make bilateral agreements with both countries.</p>
<p>Neither the rightwing Polish government nor the center-right Czech governments dare put the issue up for a referendum. Sentiment in the Czech Republic is running 60-40 against the radar, and there is strong opposition to the missiles in Poland.</p>
<p>The German Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in the current coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel, also oppose it. “We do not need new rockets in Europe,” says SPD chair Kurt Beck. “The SPD doesn’t want a new arms race between the U.S. and Russia on European soil. We have enough problems in the world.”</p>
<p>French President Jacques Chirac also warned, “We should be very careful about encouraging the creation of a new dividing lines in Europe or a return to the old order.”</p>
<p>The Russians have threatened to withdraw from the European Conventional Forces Treaty, and have even hinted they might reconsider their participation in the 1987 Intermediate Ballistic Missile Treaty. Russia is also making plans to quadruple its production of new ballistic missiles and add to its nuclear submarine fleet.</p>
<p>Stockholm International Peace Research Institute researcher Shannon Kile says the Russians view the deployment “as a violation of the original NATO enlargement agreement,” where the U.S. pledged it would not permanently deploy or station “military assets on the territories of former Warsaw pact countries.”</p>
<p>Last month, the White House urged admitting Albania, Croatia, Georgia, Macedonia and the Ukraine to NATO.</p>
<p>Implicit in Rice’s “ludicrous” comment is that an ABM system would be incapable of stopping a full-scale nuclear attack by a major nuclear power, and critics point out that the system has a dismal track record. Kile characterized the proposed ABM as “A system that won’t work to fight a threat that does not exist.”</p>
<p>But it doesn’t have to work very well. ABM systems have a dark secret: They are not supposed to stop all-out missile attacks, just mop up the few retaliatory enemy missiles that manage to survive a first strike. First strikes-called “counterpoint” attacks in bloodless vocabulary of nuclear war-are a central component in U.S. nuclear doctrine.</p>
<p>Last week the Democrats blocked funds for the European ABM system. Robert Wexler (D-Fl), chair of the House subcommittee on Europe, said, “Europeans also question why-if this program is really intended to protect Europe-did the administration choose to bilaterally negotiate with Poland and the Czech Republic rather than collectively decide this issue in NATO?”</p>
<p>But whether the Democrats will stand up to the White House is anyone’s guess.</p>
<p>If you are sitting in Moscow or Beijing and adding up the ABMs, the new warheads, and the growing ring of bases on your borders, you have little choice but to react. Imagine the U.S. response if the Russians and the Chinese were to deploy similar systems in Canada, Mexico and Cuba.</p>
<p>A nuclear arms race, an increase of tension in Europe, and the launching of a new Cold War: That is what is at stake in the European missile crisis.</p>
<p>CONN HALLINAN is an analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, a winner of a Project Censored Award, and did his PhD dissertation on the history of insurrectionary organizations in Ireland.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
|
European Missiles and the Camel’s Nose
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2007/05/12/european-missiles-and-the-camel-s-nose/
|
2007-05-12
| 4left
|
European Missiles and the Camel’s Nose
<p>The current brouhaha over a U.S. plan to deploy anti-ballistic missiles (ABM) in Poland has nothing to do with a fear that Iran will attack Europe or the U.S. with nuclear tipped Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM), but a great deal to do with the Bush Administration’s efforts to neutralize Russia’s and China’s nuclear deterrents and edge both countries out of Central Asia.</p>
<p>The plan calls for deploying 10 ABMs in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic, supposedly to interdict missiles from “rogue states”-read North Korean and Iran.</p>
<p>U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security John Rood claims “North Korea possesses an ICBM range missile,” and it is “certainly possible” that Pyongyang could sell some to Iran. Barring that, Tehran could build its own missile capable of striking Europe and the U.S.</p>
<p>But the North Korean Taepodong-2, which failed a recent test, is not a true ICBM-in a pinch it might reach Alaska. And Iran pledged in 2003 not to upgrade its intermediate missile, the Shihab-3.</p>
<p>“Since there aren’t, and won’t be, any ICBMs [from North Korea and Iran], then against whom, against whom, is this system directed?” First Deputy Prime Minister Sergi Ivanov said to the Financial Times, “Only against us.”</p>
<p>The Chief of the Russian General Staff added, “The real goal [of the U.S. deployment] is to protect [the U.S.] from Russian and Chinese nuclear-missile potential and to create exclusive conditions for the invulnerability of the United States.”</p>
<p>U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded that “The idea that somehow 10 interceptors and a few radars in Eastern Europe are going to threaten the Soviet [sic] strategic return is purely ludicrous and everybody knows it.”</p>
<p>But once you start adding up a number of other things, it isn’t just 10 missiles and a radar site. There is already a similar site in Norway, and the plan is to put similar systems in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Britain is considering deploying ABM missiles at Fylingdales, which even the U.S. admits would pose a threat to Russian missiles.</p>
<p>“If the [Russians] are concerned about the U.S. targeting their intercontinental ballistic missiles, I think that would be problematic from the UK because I believe we probably could catch them from a UK launch site,” says U.S. Lieutenant General Trey Obering, head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.</p>
<p>An editorial in the Guardian called the Fylingdales plan “the far side of folly.”</p>
<p>The Russians are also suspicious that the Polish missiles are the camel’s nose under the tent.</p>
<p>Poland has made it clear that it doesn’t feel threatened by Iran. For Warsaw, this is all about its traditional enemy to the East, Russia. Besides the ABM missiles, Poland is pressing Washington for Patriot missiles and high altitude THAAD missiles, plus it is purchasing American F-16s. In response, the Russians have moved surface-to-air missiles into Belarus.</p>
<p>“It would be naïve to think that Washington would limit its appetite to Poland or the Czech Republic, or the modest potential that it is now talking about,” writes Victor Litovkin of Russia’s Independent Military Review,</p>
<p>All these systems will be tied into ABM systems in Alaska and California, plus similar planned systems in Japan, Australia and the Philippines (not to mention sea-borne ABM systems in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean).</p>
<p>Keep in mind the Bush Administration unilaterally withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.</p>
<p>Total all those things up, and toss in the recent decision by the Bush Administration to start designing another generation of nuclear warheads, and it is no wonder the Russians have turned cranky.</p>
<p>The European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have-with reservations- gone along with the plan, in part because the EU would like to squeeze Russian control over gas and oil pipelines coming out of Central Asia.</p>
<p>According to K.M. Bhadrakumar, the former Indian ambassador to Uzbekistan and Turkey, the U.S. has financed a pipeline that runs natural gas from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan through Turkey, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. The pipeline will be “a rival to Russian Gazprom’s Blue Stream-2,” scheduled to open in 2012.</p>
<p>“Moscow is well aware that Washington is the driving spirit behind the EU’s energy policy toward Central Asia,” Bhadrakumar writes in the Asia Times, arguing that the U.S. “calculates that Moscow will be inexorably drawn into a standoff with the EU over the latter’s increasingly proactive polices in Eurasia.”</p>
<p>While Rice may suggest that “everyone” thinks Russian paranoia is “ludicrous,” in fact the EU is split over the missiles, and unhappy that Washington bypassed NATO to make bilateral agreements with both countries.</p>
<p>Neither the rightwing Polish government nor the center-right Czech governments dare put the issue up for a referendum. Sentiment in the Czech Republic is running 60-40 against the radar, and there is strong opposition to the missiles in Poland.</p>
<p>The German Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in the current coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel, also oppose it. “We do not need new rockets in Europe,” says SPD chair Kurt Beck. “The SPD doesn’t want a new arms race between the U.S. and Russia on European soil. We have enough problems in the world.”</p>
<p>French President Jacques Chirac also warned, “We should be very careful about encouraging the creation of a new dividing lines in Europe or a return to the old order.”</p>
<p>The Russians have threatened to withdraw from the European Conventional Forces Treaty, and have even hinted they might reconsider their participation in the 1987 Intermediate Ballistic Missile Treaty. Russia is also making plans to quadruple its production of new ballistic missiles and add to its nuclear submarine fleet.</p>
<p>Stockholm International Peace Research Institute researcher Shannon Kile says the Russians view the deployment “as a violation of the original NATO enlargement agreement,” where the U.S. pledged it would not permanently deploy or station “military assets on the territories of former Warsaw pact countries.”</p>
<p>Last month, the White House urged admitting Albania, Croatia, Georgia, Macedonia and the Ukraine to NATO.</p>
<p>Implicit in Rice’s “ludicrous” comment is that an ABM system would be incapable of stopping a full-scale nuclear attack by a major nuclear power, and critics point out that the system has a dismal track record. Kile characterized the proposed ABM as “A system that won’t work to fight a threat that does not exist.”</p>
<p>But it doesn’t have to work very well. ABM systems have a dark secret: They are not supposed to stop all-out missile attacks, just mop up the few retaliatory enemy missiles that manage to survive a first strike. First strikes-called “counterpoint” attacks in bloodless vocabulary of nuclear war-are a central component in U.S. nuclear doctrine.</p>
<p>Last week the Democrats blocked funds for the European ABM system. Robert Wexler (D-Fl), chair of the House subcommittee on Europe, said, “Europeans also question why-if this program is really intended to protect Europe-did the administration choose to bilaterally negotiate with Poland and the Czech Republic rather than collectively decide this issue in NATO?”</p>
<p>But whether the Democrats will stand up to the White House is anyone’s guess.</p>
<p>If you are sitting in Moscow or Beijing and adding up the ABMs, the new warheads, and the growing ring of bases on your borders, you have little choice but to react. Imagine the U.S. response if the Russians and the Chinese were to deploy similar systems in Canada, Mexico and Cuba.</p>
<p>A nuclear arms race, an increase of tension in Europe, and the launching of a new Cold War: That is what is at stake in the European missile crisis.</p>
<p>CONN HALLINAN is an analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, a winner of a Project Censored Award, and did his PhD dissertation on the history of insurrectionary organizations in Ireland.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
| 4,712 |
<p>Students at the University of Texas in Austin&#160;were given 90 minutes to leave campus this morning. In a message to students, university officials said a man had called in bomb threats, <a href="http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2012/09/14/ut_campus_under_evacuation_ord.html?cxntcid=breaking_news" type="external">the American-Statesman reported</a>.&#160;Officials warned that the man claimed to be affiliated with Al Qaeda. He said that bombs would go off within 90 minutes.&#160;</p>
<p>A message <a href="http://www.utexas.edu/emergency/" type="external">posted on the University of Texas website</a> urges everyone to get off of campus: "Evacuation due to threats on campus. Immediately evacuate ALL buildings and get as far away as possible."&#160;But after the 90 minutes had passed, no bombs went off or were found, and a bomb squad was never called,&#160; <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/university-texas-austin-evacuated-bomb-threat/story?id=17236203#.UFNRLtB2jss" type="external">ABC News reported</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/120601/when-the-brics-crumble" type="external">When the BRICs Crumble</a></p>
<p>On Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/UTAustin/status/246636050712240128" type="external">UT Austin later posted</a>: "Decision to resume operations&amp;classes will come shortly." A student <a href="https://twitter.com/mckinneykelsey/status/246636556218159105" type="external">&#160;responded</a> that the cell phone towers are "more packed than game day." And a UT spokesman <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/09/14/university-of-texas-emergency-threat-evacatuion/70000347/1#.UFNaMdB2jss" type="external">told USA Today</a> that officials are still working with police to make sure the campus is safe.&#160;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, North Dakota State University in Fargo was also evacuated this morning due to a bomb threat.&#160;"NDSU is requiring all employees and students to leave campus by 10:15 a.m.," an emergency alert read today, <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/169772846.html?refer=y&amp;refer=y" type="external">the Star Tribune reported</a>. No other information about the bomb threat at the NDSU campus was provided. It's not clear if the threats are related.&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
|
University of Texas bomb threats force campus evacuation (UPDATE)
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2012-09-14/university-texas-bomb-threats-force-campus-evacuation-update
|
2012-09-14
| 3left-center
|
University of Texas bomb threats force campus evacuation (UPDATE)
<p>Students at the University of Texas in Austin&#160;were given 90 minutes to leave campus this morning. In a message to students, university officials said a man had called in bomb threats, <a href="http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2012/09/14/ut_campus_under_evacuation_ord.html?cxntcid=breaking_news" type="external">the American-Statesman reported</a>.&#160;Officials warned that the man claimed to be affiliated with Al Qaeda. He said that bombs would go off within 90 minutes.&#160;</p>
<p>A message <a href="http://www.utexas.edu/emergency/" type="external">posted on the University of Texas website</a> urges everyone to get off of campus: "Evacuation due to threats on campus. Immediately evacuate ALL buildings and get as far away as possible."&#160;But after the 90 minutes had passed, no bombs went off or were found, and a bomb squad was never called,&#160; <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/university-texas-austin-evacuated-bomb-threat/story?id=17236203#.UFNRLtB2jss" type="external">ABC News reported</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business/120601/when-the-brics-crumble" type="external">When the BRICs Crumble</a></p>
<p>On Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/UTAustin/status/246636050712240128" type="external">UT Austin later posted</a>: "Decision to resume operations&amp;classes will come shortly." A student <a href="https://twitter.com/mckinneykelsey/status/246636556218159105" type="external">&#160;responded</a> that the cell phone towers are "more packed than game day." And a UT spokesman <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/09/14/university-of-texas-emergency-threat-evacatuion/70000347/1#.UFNaMdB2jss" type="external">told USA Today</a> that officials are still working with police to make sure the campus is safe.&#160;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, North Dakota State University in Fargo was also evacuated this morning due to a bomb threat.&#160;"NDSU is requiring all employees and students to leave campus by 10:15 a.m.," an emergency alert read today, <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/169772846.html?refer=y&amp;refer=y" type="external">the Star Tribune reported</a>. No other information about the bomb threat at the NDSU campus was provided. It's not clear if the threats are related.&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
| 4,713 |
<p>By <a href="" type="internal">Robert Reich</a> / <a href="http://robertreich.org/post/153488182530" type="external">RobertReich.org</a></p>
<p>California is now the capital of liberal America. Along with its neighbors Oregon and Washington, it will be a nation within the nation starting in January when the federal government goes dark.</p>
<p>In sharp contrast to much of the rest of the nation, Californians preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by a 2-to-1 margin. They also voted to extend a state tax surcharge on the wealthy, and adopt local housing and transportation measures along with a slew of local tax increases and bond proposals.</p>
<p>In other words, California is the opposite of Trumpland.</p>
<p />
<p>The differences go even deeper. For years, conservatives have been saying that a healthy economy depends on low taxes, few regulations, and low wages.</p>
<p>Are conservatives right? At the one end of the scale are Kansas and Texas, with among the nation's lowest taxes, least regulations, and lowest wages.</p>
<p>At the other end is California, with among the nation's highest taxes, especially on the wealthy; toughest regulations, particularly when it comes to the environment; most ambitious healthcare system, that insures more than 12 million poor Californians, in partnership with Medicaid; and high wages.</p>
<p>So according to conservative doctrine, Kansas and Texas ought to be booming, and California ought to be in the pits.</p>
<p>Actually, it's just the opposite.</p>
<p>For several years, Kansas's rate of economic growth has been the worst in the nation. Last year its economy actually shrank.</p>
<p>Texas hasn't been doing all that much better. Its rate of job growth has been below the national average. Retail sales are way down. The value of Texas exports has been dropping.</p>
<p>But what about so-called over-taxed, over-regulated, high-wage California?</p>
<p>California leads the nation in the rate of economic growth - more than twice the national average. If it were a separate nation it would now be the sixth largest economy in the world. Its population has surged to 39 million (up 5 percent since 2010).</p>
<p>California is home to the nation's fastest-growing and most innovative industries - entertainment and high tech. It incubates more startups than anywhere else in the world.</p>
<p>In other words, conservatives have it exactly backwards.</p>
<p>Why are Kansas and Texas doing so badly, and California so well?</p>
<p>For one thing, taxes enable states to invest their people. The University of California is the best system of public higher education in America. Add in the state's network of community colleges, state colleges, research institutions, and you have an unparalleled source of research, and powerful engine of upward mobility.</p>
<p>Kansas and Texas haven't been investing nearly to the same extent.</p>
<p>California also provides services to a diverse population, including a large percentage of immigrants. Donald Trump to the contrary, such diversity is a huge plus. Both Hollywood and Silicon Valley have thrived on the ideas and energies of new immigrants.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, California's regulations protect the public health and the state's natural beauty, which also draws people to the state - including talented people who could settle anywhere.</p>
<p>Wages are high in California because the economy is growing so fast employers have to pay more for workers. That's not a bad thing. After all, the goal isn't just growth. It's a high standard of living.</p>
<p>In fairness, Texas's problems are also linked to the oil bust. But that's really no excuse because Texas has failed to diversify its economy. Here again, it hasn't made adequate investments.</p>
<p>California is far from perfect. A housing shortage has driven rents and home prices into the stratosphere. Roads are clogged. Its public schools used to be the best in the nation but are now among the worst - largely because of a proposition approved by voters in 1978 that's strangled local school financing. Much more needs to be done.</p>
<p>But overall, the contrast is clear. Economic success depends on tax revenues that go into public investments, and regulations that protect the environment and public health. And true economic success results in high wages.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how Trumpland and California will coexist in coming years. I'm already hearing murmurs of secession by Golden Staters, and of federal intrusions by the incipient Trump administration.</p>
<p>But so far, California gives lie to the conservative dictum that low taxes, few regulations, and low wages are the keys economic success. Trumpland should take note.</p>
|
California Versus Trumpland
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/california-versus-trumpland/
|
2016-11-30
| 4left
|
California Versus Trumpland
<p>By <a href="" type="internal">Robert Reich</a> / <a href="http://robertreich.org/post/153488182530" type="external">RobertReich.org</a></p>
<p>California is now the capital of liberal America. Along with its neighbors Oregon and Washington, it will be a nation within the nation starting in January when the federal government goes dark.</p>
<p>In sharp contrast to much of the rest of the nation, Californians preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by a 2-to-1 margin. They also voted to extend a state tax surcharge on the wealthy, and adopt local housing and transportation measures along with a slew of local tax increases and bond proposals.</p>
<p>In other words, California is the opposite of Trumpland.</p>
<p />
<p>The differences go even deeper. For years, conservatives have been saying that a healthy economy depends on low taxes, few regulations, and low wages.</p>
<p>Are conservatives right? At the one end of the scale are Kansas and Texas, with among the nation's lowest taxes, least regulations, and lowest wages.</p>
<p>At the other end is California, with among the nation's highest taxes, especially on the wealthy; toughest regulations, particularly when it comes to the environment; most ambitious healthcare system, that insures more than 12 million poor Californians, in partnership with Medicaid; and high wages.</p>
<p>So according to conservative doctrine, Kansas and Texas ought to be booming, and California ought to be in the pits.</p>
<p>Actually, it's just the opposite.</p>
<p>For several years, Kansas's rate of economic growth has been the worst in the nation. Last year its economy actually shrank.</p>
<p>Texas hasn't been doing all that much better. Its rate of job growth has been below the national average. Retail sales are way down. The value of Texas exports has been dropping.</p>
<p>But what about so-called over-taxed, over-regulated, high-wage California?</p>
<p>California leads the nation in the rate of economic growth - more than twice the national average. If it were a separate nation it would now be the sixth largest economy in the world. Its population has surged to 39 million (up 5 percent since 2010).</p>
<p>California is home to the nation's fastest-growing and most innovative industries - entertainment and high tech. It incubates more startups than anywhere else in the world.</p>
<p>In other words, conservatives have it exactly backwards.</p>
<p>Why are Kansas and Texas doing so badly, and California so well?</p>
<p>For one thing, taxes enable states to invest their people. The University of California is the best system of public higher education in America. Add in the state's network of community colleges, state colleges, research institutions, and you have an unparalleled source of research, and powerful engine of upward mobility.</p>
<p>Kansas and Texas haven't been investing nearly to the same extent.</p>
<p>California also provides services to a diverse population, including a large percentage of immigrants. Donald Trump to the contrary, such diversity is a huge plus. Both Hollywood and Silicon Valley have thrived on the ideas and energies of new immigrants.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, California's regulations protect the public health and the state's natural beauty, which also draws people to the state - including talented people who could settle anywhere.</p>
<p>Wages are high in California because the economy is growing so fast employers have to pay more for workers. That's not a bad thing. After all, the goal isn't just growth. It's a high standard of living.</p>
<p>In fairness, Texas's problems are also linked to the oil bust. But that's really no excuse because Texas has failed to diversify its economy. Here again, it hasn't made adequate investments.</p>
<p>California is far from perfect. A housing shortage has driven rents and home prices into the stratosphere. Roads are clogged. Its public schools used to be the best in the nation but are now among the worst - largely because of a proposition approved by voters in 1978 that's strangled local school financing. Much more needs to be done.</p>
<p>But overall, the contrast is clear. Economic success depends on tax revenues that go into public investments, and regulations that protect the environment and public health. And true economic success results in high wages.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how Trumpland and California will coexist in coming years. I'm already hearing murmurs of secession by Golden Staters, and of federal intrusions by the incipient Trump administration.</p>
<p>But so far, California gives lie to the conservative dictum that low taxes, few regulations, and low wages are the keys economic success. Trumpland should take note.</p>
| 4,714 |
<p>Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) has beaten the stock market hands-down over the past year. The <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/12/24/rising-memory-prices-a-boon-for-micron-technology.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">rapid increase in the prices</a> of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and NAND memory has led to terrific growth in the chipmaker's revenue and earnings.</p>
<p>But how long can Micron investors rely on the benefits of higher memory prices? Does the company have some other catalyst in store that will help it sustain its outstanding growth? More importantly, is Micron stock still a good value after doubling in the past 12 months? Let's find out.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Memory prices have been soaring on the back of a supply shortage. Industry leaders such as Samsung and SK Hynix (who have combined control over 90% of this market) have repurposed&#160;their DRAM facilities to make server and smartphone-specific memory products. Not surprisingly, DRAM prices from these two manufacturers are up&#160;30% this month, and it's likely the trend will continue.</p>
<p>Memory market watcher DRAMeXchange forecasts that memory supply will continue to remain tight&#160;due to lack of capacity expansion in the near term. This is good news for Micron investors as the company can continue charging a premium for its memory products.</p>
<p>More importantly, Micron is finding ways to enter fast-growing spaces where DRAM demand could boom. For instance, the company has been supplying <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/03/some-good-news-for-micron-technology-incs-graphics.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">GDDR5X DRAM</a> to graphics specialist NVIDIA for its graphics cards. This is a shrewd move by Micron as discrete graphics cards shipments could jump&#160;to almost 68 million units by 2020, according to one estimate. That's up from 44 million units in 2015.</p>
<p>Moreover, the jump in discrete GPU (graphics processing unit) shipments is indicative of a potential rise in PC shipments as these chips are used in personal computers, which, in turn, will create more demand for DRAM in the long run. Investors, therefore, can remain fairly confident of an increase in memory demand in the long run. This will boost Micron's overall business as the DRAM segment supplies&#160;almost two-thirds of its total revenue.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The impressive thing about Micron Technology is that it has decided to diversify into the Internet of Things (IoT) space through a partnership&#160;with Microsoft. The chipmaker has teamed up with the software giant to deploy security features into IoT devices at the hardware level through its flash memory.</p>
<p>Micron's solution allows developers to build&#160;security features right into the IoT device without the need for any external hardware, leading to lower costs. Additionally, with the help of Microsoft's technology, Micron's hardware will also enable system administrators to fix the IoT device from a remote location in case of a compromise.</p>
<p>Microsoft's cloud service is growing quite impressively. The adoption&#160;of its Azure cloud service by businesses has jumped from just 26% to 43% of late, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2017/02/18/rightscale-2017-state-of-the-cloud-report-azure-gaining-in-enterprises/#4f35928a8481" type="external">according to</a> RightScale's State of the Cloud report, while rival Amazon Web Services' enterprise adoption rate improved just three percentage points.</p>
<p>This is good news for Micron as it could pitch its security platform to Azure's growing customer base. More importantly, the chipmaker's initiative of providing cybersecurity solutions to the IoT market could be a big deal as the IoT security space is currently worth $7.8 billion and is forecast&#160;to grow at 16.5% a year until 2020.</p>
<p>Micron Technology sports a trailing price-to-earnings&#160;(P/E) ratio of just 14, which is extremely cheap considering the rapid revenue and earnings growth it has delivered in recent quarters. What's more, the industry median P/E ratio of around&#160;23 indicates undervaluation as Micron's earnings are expected to get better in the long run.</p>
<p>In fact, analysts' earnings per share estimates for the next two fiscal years have risen tremendously over the past few months. Micron's EPS over the trailing 12 months was $2.28.</p>
<p>Investors who have missed Micron Technology's terrific run on the stock market can still consider initiating a position as favorable trends in the memory market and its move into the IoT look promising.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Micron TechnologyWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=3a5451e6-d592-442d-bb5a-d6ecb1aa2127&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks</a> for investors to buy right now... and Micron Technology wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=3a5451e6-d592-442d-bb5a-d6ecb1aa2127&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017</p>
<p>Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TechJunk13/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Harsh Chauhan</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p>
|
3 Reasons to Buy Micron Technology Stock
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/13/3-reasons-to-buy-micron-technology-stock.html
|
2017-09-13
| 0right
|
3 Reasons to Buy Micron Technology Stock
<p>Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) has beaten the stock market hands-down over the past year. The <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/12/24/rising-memory-prices-a-boon-for-micron-technology.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">rapid increase in the prices</a> of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and NAND memory has led to terrific growth in the chipmaker's revenue and earnings.</p>
<p>But how long can Micron investors rely on the benefits of higher memory prices? Does the company have some other catalyst in store that will help it sustain its outstanding growth? More importantly, is Micron stock still a good value after doubling in the past 12 months? Let's find out.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Memory prices have been soaring on the back of a supply shortage. Industry leaders such as Samsung and SK Hynix (who have combined control over 90% of this market) have repurposed&#160;their DRAM facilities to make server and smartphone-specific memory products. Not surprisingly, DRAM prices from these two manufacturers are up&#160;30% this month, and it's likely the trend will continue.</p>
<p>Memory market watcher DRAMeXchange forecasts that memory supply will continue to remain tight&#160;due to lack of capacity expansion in the near term. This is good news for Micron investors as the company can continue charging a premium for its memory products.</p>
<p>More importantly, Micron is finding ways to enter fast-growing spaces where DRAM demand could boom. For instance, the company has been supplying <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/03/some-good-news-for-micron-technology-incs-graphics.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">GDDR5X DRAM</a> to graphics specialist NVIDIA for its graphics cards. This is a shrewd move by Micron as discrete graphics cards shipments could jump&#160;to almost 68 million units by 2020, according to one estimate. That's up from 44 million units in 2015.</p>
<p>Moreover, the jump in discrete GPU (graphics processing unit) shipments is indicative of a potential rise in PC shipments as these chips are used in personal computers, which, in turn, will create more demand for DRAM in the long run. Investors, therefore, can remain fairly confident of an increase in memory demand in the long run. This will boost Micron's overall business as the DRAM segment supplies&#160;almost two-thirds of its total revenue.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The impressive thing about Micron Technology is that it has decided to diversify into the Internet of Things (IoT) space through a partnership&#160;with Microsoft. The chipmaker has teamed up with the software giant to deploy security features into IoT devices at the hardware level through its flash memory.</p>
<p>Micron's solution allows developers to build&#160;security features right into the IoT device without the need for any external hardware, leading to lower costs. Additionally, with the help of Microsoft's technology, Micron's hardware will also enable system administrators to fix the IoT device from a remote location in case of a compromise.</p>
<p>Microsoft's cloud service is growing quite impressively. The adoption&#160;of its Azure cloud service by businesses has jumped from just 26% to 43% of late, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2017/02/18/rightscale-2017-state-of-the-cloud-report-azure-gaining-in-enterprises/#4f35928a8481" type="external">according to</a> RightScale's State of the Cloud report, while rival Amazon Web Services' enterprise adoption rate improved just three percentage points.</p>
<p>This is good news for Micron as it could pitch its security platform to Azure's growing customer base. More importantly, the chipmaker's initiative of providing cybersecurity solutions to the IoT market could be a big deal as the IoT security space is currently worth $7.8 billion and is forecast&#160;to grow at 16.5% a year until 2020.</p>
<p>Micron Technology sports a trailing price-to-earnings&#160;(P/E) ratio of just 14, which is extremely cheap considering the rapid revenue and earnings growth it has delivered in recent quarters. What's more, the industry median P/E ratio of around&#160;23 indicates undervaluation as Micron's earnings are expected to get better in the long run.</p>
<p>In fact, analysts' earnings per share estimates for the next two fiscal years have risen tremendously over the past few months. Micron's EPS over the trailing 12 months was $2.28.</p>
<p>Investors who have missed Micron Technology's terrific run on the stock market can still consider initiating a position as favorable trends in the memory market and its move into the IoT look promising.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Micron TechnologyWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=3a5451e6-d592-442d-bb5a-d6ecb1aa2127&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks</a> for investors to buy right now... and Micron Technology wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=3a5451e6-d592-442d-bb5a-d6ecb1aa2127&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017</p>
<p>Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TechJunk13/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Harsh Chauhan</a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4be38440-8e71-11e7-b997-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy</a>.</p>
| 4,715 |
<p>A study published by the Pew Internet and American Life Project today confirms what you might have suspected.</p>
<p>People are taking "Facebook vacations," voluntarily taking a break from the site for several weeks or more.</p>
<p>The reasons they took breaks were by turns amusing and depressing, as the comments quoted by Pew show:</p>
<p>"I was tired of stupid comments."</p>
<p>"[I had] crazy friends. I did not want to be contacted."</p>
<p>"Too much drama."</p>
<p>"I gave it up for Lent."</p>
<p>"People were [posting] what they had for dinner."</p>
<p>"I don't like their privacy policy."</p>
<p>The study, which was conducted in December 2012 among 1,006 American adults who use the internet, showed that 67 percent of the respondents used Facebook. Of those who did not use Facebook, 20 percent had used it in the past.</p>
<p>Around 61 percent of those who actively used Facebook said they had taken breaks from the site in the past, for a variety of reasons, ranging from being too busy or bored to being concerned about privacy issues on the site.</p>
<p>While 3 percent of Facebook users planned to spend more time on the site in 2013, around 27 percent said they planned to spend less time on the site.</p>
<p>Does this mean Facebook is in decline? Maybe not.&#160;</p>
<p>A larger look at <a href="http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Online-Pictures/Main-Findings.aspx" type="external">use of social media</a> found that while 67 percent of online adults use Facebook, only 20 percent use LinkedIn, 16 percent use Twitter and 12 percent use Pinterest or Instagram.</p>
<p>Pew also found that while 47 percent of online adults used social networking sites in September 2009, that number had increased to 69 percent today. Social networking users also accessed the social network of their choice with increased frequency.</p>
<p>For those of you contemplating your future on Facebook, here's an infographic. <a href="http://www.helpfordepression.com/facebook-depression" type="external">The site Help for Depression posted it with this disclaimer</a>:</p>
<p>This infographic does not convey the message that Facebook causes depression because there is no data to support it. Instead, it illustrates how we use Facebook to share our thoughts, feelings, and personal interests.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.helpfordepression.com/facebook-depression" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.helpfordepression.com" type="external">Help for Depression</a></p>
|
Facebook users take breaks from site, says study
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2013-02-05/facebook-users-take-breaks-site-says-study
|
2013-02-05
| 3left-center
|
Facebook users take breaks from site, says study
<p>A study published by the Pew Internet and American Life Project today confirms what you might have suspected.</p>
<p>People are taking "Facebook vacations," voluntarily taking a break from the site for several weeks or more.</p>
<p>The reasons they took breaks were by turns amusing and depressing, as the comments quoted by Pew show:</p>
<p>"I was tired of stupid comments."</p>
<p>"[I had] crazy friends. I did not want to be contacted."</p>
<p>"Too much drama."</p>
<p>"I gave it up for Lent."</p>
<p>"People were [posting] what they had for dinner."</p>
<p>"I don't like their privacy policy."</p>
<p>The study, which was conducted in December 2012 among 1,006 American adults who use the internet, showed that 67 percent of the respondents used Facebook. Of those who did not use Facebook, 20 percent had used it in the past.</p>
<p>Around 61 percent of those who actively used Facebook said they had taken breaks from the site in the past, for a variety of reasons, ranging from being too busy or bored to being concerned about privacy issues on the site.</p>
<p>While 3 percent of Facebook users planned to spend more time on the site in 2013, around 27 percent said they planned to spend less time on the site.</p>
<p>Does this mean Facebook is in decline? Maybe not.&#160;</p>
<p>A larger look at <a href="http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Online-Pictures/Main-Findings.aspx" type="external">use of social media</a> found that while 67 percent of online adults use Facebook, only 20 percent use LinkedIn, 16 percent use Twitter and 12 percent use Pinterest or Instagram.</p>
<p>Pew also found that while 47 percent of online adults used social networking sites in September 2009, that number had increased to 69 percent today. Social networking users also accessed the social network of their choice with increased frequency.</p>
<p>For those of you contemplating your future on Facebook, here's an infographic. <a href="http://www.helpfordepression.com/facebook-depression" type="external">The site Help for Depression posted it with this disclaimer</a>:</p>
<p>This infographic does not convey the message that Facebook causes depression because there is no data to support it. Instead, it illustrates how we use Facebook to share our thoughts, feelings, and personal interests.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.helpfordepression.com/facebook-depression" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.helpfordepression.com" type="external">Help for Depression</a></p>
| 4,716 |
<p>Published time: 28 Sep, 2017 22:34Edited time: 28 Sep, 2017 23:30</p>
<p>Twitter’s “revelation” before the US Congress that RT spent thousands of dollars on promotion has “forced” Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan to “come clean” that the news organization was also running ad campaigns on billboards, radio and even CNN.</p>
<p>“Twitter has just unveiled horrendous information in Congress – that we’ve been spending money on our advertising campaigns, just like every media organization in the world,” said RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan.</p>
<p>“This is forcing us to go a step further and come clean that we also spent money on advertising at airports, in taxis, on billboards, on the Internet, on TV and radio. Even CNN ran our commercials. Somehow it did not cross our mind that in a developed democracy, regular media advertising can be considered suspicious or detrimental activity.”</p>
<p>“By the way, similar campaigns are conducted by the American media in the Russian segment of Twitter. It’ll be very interesting to find out how much they spend on it, who they target and for what purpose,” added Simonyan.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/404960-twitter-testify-senate-russia/" type="external" /></p>
<p>On Thursday, Twitter’s Vice President for Public Policy Colin Crowell spoke with members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, discussing the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections.</p>
<p>After being asked to look into 450 accounts that Facebook flagged as fake and “suspected” Russian bots, Twitter found 22 corresponding accounts on their platform and suspended them for violating the company’s rules against spam. Twitter also suspended another 179 “related or linked accounts” that were in violation of their terms of service. None of the 201 accounts were registered as advertisers, the company said.</p>
<p>“Twitter deeply respects the integrity of the election process, which is a cornerstone for all democracies. We will continue to strengthen Twitter against attempted manipulation, including malicious automated accounts and spam, as well as other activities that violate our Terms of Service,”&#160; <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2017/Update-Russian-Interference-in-2016--Election-Bots-and-Misinformation.html" type="external">Twitter said</a>.</p>
<p>Part of the revelations to Congress was that RT, RT America and RT en Español spent $274,100 for 1,823 US ads for their respective Twitter accounts that “definitely or potentially targeted the US market.”</p>
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RT ‘exposed’ spending money on ad campaigns… just like other media – editor-in-chief
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https://newsline.com/rt-exposed-spending-money-on-ad-campaigns-just-like-other-media-editor-in-chief/
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2017-09-28
| 1right-center
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RT ‘exposed’ spending money on ad campaigns… just like other media – editor-in-chief
<p>Published time: 28 Sep, 2017 22:34Edited time: 28 Sep, 2017 23:30</p>
<p>Twitter’s “revelation” before the US Congress that RT spent thousands of dollars on promotion has “forced” Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan to “come clean” that the news organization was also running ad campaigns on billboards, radio and even CNN.</p>
<p>“Twitter has just unveiled horrendous information in Congress – that we’ve been spending money on our advertising campaigns, just like every media organization in the world,” said RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan.</p>
<p>“This is forcing us to go a step further and come clean that we also spent money on advertising at airports, in taxis, on billboards, on the Internet, on TV and radio. Even CNN ran our commercials. Somehow it did not cross our mind that in a developed democracy, regular media advertising can be considered suspicious or detrimental activity.”</p>
<p>“By the way, similar campaigns are conducted by the American media in the Russian segment of Twitter. It’ll be very interesting to find out how much they spend on it, who they target and for what purpose,” added Simonyan.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/404960-twitter-testify-senate-russia/" type="external" /></p>
<p>On Thursday, Twitter’s Vice President for Public Policy Colin Crowell spoke with members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, discussing the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections.</p>
<p>After being asked to look into 450 accounts that Facebook flagged as fake and “suspected” Russian bots, Twitter found 22 corresponding accounts on their platform and suspended them for violating the company’s rules against spam. Twitter also suspended another 179 “related or linked accounts” that were in violation of their terms of service. None of the 201 accounts were registered as advertisers, the company said.</p>
<p>“Twitter deeply respects the integrity of the election process, which is a cornerstone for all democracies. We will continue to strengthen Twitter against attempted manipulation, including malicious automated accounts and spam, as well as other activities that violate our Terms of Service,”&#160; <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2017/Update-Russian-Interference-in-2016--Election-Bots-and-Misinformation.html" type="external">Twitter said</a>.</p>
<p>Part of the revelations to Congress was that RT, RT America and RT en Español spent $274,100 for 1,823 US ads for their respective Twitter accounts that “definitely or potentially targeted the US market.”</p>
| 4,717 |
<p>Aug. 29 (UPI) — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Boston-Red-Sox/" type="external">Boston Red Sox</a> right fielder <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mookie-Betts/" type="external">Mookie Betts</a> was robbed of his best chance for a hit Monday by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Toronto-Blue-Jays/" type="external">Toronto Blue Jays</a> centerfielder <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kevin-Pillar/" type="external">Kevin Pillar</a>.</p>
<p>Betts stepped up to the plate to lead off the sixth inning against Blue Jays righty <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Marcus-Stroman/" type="external">Marcus Stroman</a>. He quickly went up 1-0 in the count after taking an 85.1 mph slider for a ball. Stroman’s next offering was a 91.9 mph two-seam fastball. Betts jumped all over it.</p>
<p>The rake was driven to the opposite field, between Pillar and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jose_Bautista/" type="external">Jose Bautista</a>. Pillar raced on a full sprint toward the outfield fence. He eventually left his feet, extending his 6-foot, 205-pound frame and snagging the baseball with the glove on his left hand for the first out of the inning.</p>
<p>Pillar’s momentum carried him over the warning track and into the wall. Stroman yelled out to his teammate and gave him a round of applause for his efforts. The fans at the Rogers Centre bowed and gave him a standing ovation.</p>
<p>Not going to lie…I can’t stop watching that catch from <a href="https://twitter.com/KPILLAR4" type="external">@KPILLAR4</a> last night. That ball should never be caught! <a href="https://twitter.com/BlueJays" type="external">@BlueJays</a></p>
<p>— Marcus Stroman (@MStrooo6) <a href="https://twitter.com/MStrooo6/status/902541704498176001" type="external">August 29, 2017</a></p>
<p>“He has to get a Gold Glove at some point,” Stroman told reporters after the game, <a href="http://m.mlb.com/news/article/251126812/red-sox-end-skid-with-comeback-win-over-jays/?game_pk=492054" type="external">according to MLB.com</a>. “What he does every day is ridiculous. I’m just happy to have him back there saving me runs, saving me from working out of trouble. He’s been huge for me all year. He shows up every single day. He grinds. He’s a special player.”</p>
<p><a href="http://m.mlb.com/news/article/251148046/kevin-pillar-adds-to-reel-of-incredible-grabs/" type="external">According to MLB’s Statcast</a>, Pillar covered 82 feet in 4.6 seconds to make the catch. The ball had an exit velocity of 100.1 mph.</p>
<p>Toronto lost the game 6-5 to fall to 61-70 on the season.</p>
<p>Betts, who made his second All-Star appearance this year, leads the league with 590 plate appearances. He went 0-for-3 with two walks on Monday. Pillar went 1-for-4 with a run scored in the loss. He left four runners on base.</p>
<p>The series continues at 7:07 p.m. Tuesday in Toronto. Boston (74-57) leads the American League East by 3.5 games over the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New-York-Yankees/" type="external">New York Yankees</a>. The Blue Jays are in last place.</p>
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Toronto Blue Jays' Kevin Pillar makes full-extension diving catch
| false |
https://newsline.com/toronto-blue-jays039-kevin-pillar-makes-full-extension-diving-catch/
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2017-08-29
| 1right-center
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Toronto Blue Jays' Kevin Pillar makes full-extension diving catch
<p>Aug. 29 (UPI) — <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Boston-Red-Sox/" type="external">Boston Red Sox</a> right fielder <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Mookie-Betts/" type="external">Mookie Betts</a> was robbed of his best chance for a hit Monday by <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Toronto-Blue-Jays/" type="external">Toronto Blue Jays</a> centerfielder <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Kevin-Pillar/" type="external">Kevin Pillar</a>.</p>
<p>Betts stepped up to the plate to lead off the sixth inning against Blue Jays righty <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Marcus-Stroman/" type="external">Marcus Stroman</a>. He quickly went up 1-0 in the count after taking an 85.1 mph slider for a ball. Stroman’s next offering was a 91.9 mph two-seam fastball. Betts jumped all over it.</p>
<p>The rake was driven to the opposite field, between Pillar and <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Jose_Bautista/" type="external">Jose Bautista</a>. Pillar raced on a full sprint toward the outfield fence. He eventually left his feet, extending his 6-foot, 205-pound frame and snagging the baseball with the glove on his left hand for the first out of the inning.</p>
<p>Pillar’s momentum carried him over the warning track and into the wall. Stroman yelled out to his teammate and gave him a round of applause for his efforts. The fans at the Rogers Centre bowed and gave him a standing ovation.</p>
<p>Not going to lie…I can’t stop watching that catch from <a href="https://twitter.com/KPILLAR4" type="external">@KPILLAR4</a> last night. That ball should never be caught! <a href="https://twitter.com/BlueJays" type="external">@BlueJays</a></p>
<p>— Marcus Stroman (@MStrooo6) <a href="https://twitter.com/MStrooo6/status/902541704498176001" type="external">August 29, 2017</a></p>
<p>“He has to get a Gold Glove at some point,” Stroman told reporters after the game, <a href="http://m.mlb.com/news/article/251126812/red-sox-end-skid-with-comeback-win-over-jays/?game_pk=492054" type="external">according to MLB.com</a>. “What he does every day is ridiculous. I’m just happy to have him back there saving me runs, saving me from working out of trouble. He’s been huge for me all year. He shows up every single day. He grinds. He’s a special player.”</p>
<p><a href="http://m.mlb.com/news/article/251148046/kevin-pillar-adds-to-reel-of-incredible-grabs/" type="external">According to MLB’s Statcast</a>, Pillar covered 82 feet in 4.6 seconds to make the catch. The ball had an exit velocity of 100.1 mph.</p>
<p>Toronto lost the game 6-5 to fall to 61-70 on the season.</p>
<p>Betts, who made his second All-Star appearance this year, leads the league with 590 plate appearances. He went 0-for-3 with two walks on Monday. Pillar went 1-for-4 with a run scored in the loss. He left four runners on base.</p>
<p>The series continues at 7:07 p.m. Tuesday in Toronto. Boston (74-57) leads the American League East by 3.5 games over the <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/New-York-Yankees/" type="external">New York Yankees</a>. The Blue Jays are in last place.</p>
| 4,718 |
<p>ECB TO SCALE DOWN BUT EXTEND BOND-BUYING PROGRAM</p>
<p>European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the bank's giant bond-buying program could be extended beyond September 2018, having earlier added another nine months to its life-span.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>IRAQI FORCES ADVANCE ON LAST ISIS BASTION, KURDS</p>
<p>Iraqi government troops launched an offensive to rout Islamic State from its final stronghold in the country, while advancing against Kurdish fighters on a separate front.</p>
<p>U.S., PAKISTAN SPAR OVER FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM</p>
<p>American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he told Pakistani officials that the U.S. will address Taliban threats in their country on its own if they don't cooperate</p>
<p>XI'S NEXT STEP: DEMAND MORE FERVOR FROM CHINA'S COMMUNIST PARTY</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Now that China's president has emerged as the country's most powerful leader in decades, he needs an energized party to fulfill his goals. So far, members have seen a crackdown on unpaid dues, mandatory study sessions and purge of those seen as corrupt or inept.</p>
<p>AS WARS WIND DOWN IN SYRIA AND IRAQ, JORDAN SEES OPPORTUNITY</p>
<p>Squeezed by the wars in neighboring Syria and Iraq, Jordan has survived the regional mayhem-and is starting to look at the future with guarded optimism now that both conflicts show signs of winding down.</p>
<p>CATALAN PARLIAMENT READIES RESPONSE TO MADRID</p>
<p>Catalonia's leader said the regional parliament will decide Friday on how to respond to Spain's imminent move to impose direct rule on the restive region, as the separatist movement struggles to reconcile internal divisions.</p>
<p>SAUDIS SHOWCASE TECHNOLOGY IN BID TO WOO BUSINESS LEADERS</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia this week set out to dazzle the world's business elite, who welcomed signs that an insular kingdom is opening up even though some expressed skepticism the monarchy could accomplish the grand goals it set out.</p>
<p>TILLERSON: NO FUTURE FOR ASSAD REGIME IN SYRIA</p>
<p>Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the reign of Bashar al-Assad's family in Syria is coming to an end and "the only issue is how that should be brought about."</p>
<p>(For continuously updated news from the Wall Street Journal, see WSJ.com at http://wsj.com.)</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 26, 2017 17:24 ET (21:24 GMT)</p>
|
WSJ.com What's News - Worldwide News Briefs for Oct 26
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http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/26/wsj-com-whats-news-worldwide-news-briefs-for-oct-26.html
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2017-10-26
| 0right
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WSJ.com What's News - Worldwide News Briefs for Oct 26
<p>ECB TO SCALE DOWN BUT EXTEND BOND-BUYING PROGRAM</p>
<p>European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the bank's giant bond-buying program could be extended beyond September 2018, having earlier added another nine months to its life-span.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>IRAQI FORCES ADVANCE ON LAST ISIS BASTION, KURDS</p>
<p>Iraqi government troops launched an offensive to rout Islamic State from its final stronghold in the country, while advancing against Kurdish fighters on a separate front.</p>
<p>U.S., PAKISTAN SPAR OVER FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM</p>
<p>American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he told Pakistani officials that the U.S. will address Taliban threats in their country on its own if they don't cooperate</p>
<p>XI'S NEXT STEP: DEMAND MORE FERVOR FROM CHINA'S COMMUNIST PARTY</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Now that China's president has emerged as the country's most powerful leader in decades, he needs an energized party to fulfill his goals. So far, members have seen a crackdown on unpaid dues, mandatory study sessions and purge of those seen as corrupt or inept.</p>
<p>AS WARS WIND DOWN IN SYRIA AND IRAQ, JORDAN SEES OPPORTUNITY</p>
<p>Squeezed by the wars in neighboring Syria and Iraq, Jordan has survived the regional mayhem-and is starting to look at the future with guarded optimism now that both conflicts show signs of winding down.</p>
<p>CATALAN PARLIAMENT READIES RESPONSE TO MADRID</p>
<p>Catalonia's leader said the regional parliament will decide Friday on how to respond to Spain's imminent move to impose direct rule on the restive region, as the separatist movement struggles to reconcile internal divisions.</p>
<p>SAUDIS SHOWCASE TECHNOLOGY IN BID TO WOO BUSINESS LEADERS</p>
<p>Saudi Arabia this week set out to dazzle the world's business elite, who welcomed signs that an insular kingdom is opening up even though some expressed skepticism the monarchy could accomplish the grand goals it set out.</p>
<p>TILLERSON: NO FUTURE FOR ASSAD REGIME IN SYRIA</p>
<p>Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the reign of Bashar al-Assad's family in Syria is coming to an end and "the only issue is how that should be brought about."</p>
<p>(For continuously updated news from the Wall Street Journal, see WSJ.com at http://wsj.com.)</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 26, 2017 17:24 ET (21:24 GMT)</p>
| 4,719 |
<p>I’ve heard gunfire in the middle of the night before. But this time loud shots rang out during the dinner hour, one after another after another.</p>
<p><a href="http://homicides.suntimes.com/2015/09/20/14-year-old-tyjuan-poindexter-fatally-shot-in-kenwood-drive-by/" type="external">A 14-year-old boy who had been enjoying a beautiful September day with friends had just been fatally shot in the head</a>two blocks away in a neighbor’s driveway. Police were quick to point out that the victim, Tyjuan Poindexter, was not a gang member. He was just a regular boy, a victim of mistaken identity.</p>
<p>Tyjuan’s death was the latest tragedy in a series of high-profile shootings in my mixed-income neighborhood—a community frequently <a href="" type="external">described by residents on the website Nextdoor Kenwood as “family-friendly,” “pleasant” and “peaceful.”</a></p>
<p>I moved into North Kenwood eight years ago because I was attracted to the stately brownstones interspersed with attractive new housing. I was drawn to the tree-lined streets that define the predominately African-American neighborhood nestled on Chicago’s lakefront, just a stone’s throw from downtown. I was proud to live in a historic Bronzeville neighborhood.</p>
<p>But I did not want, or expect, to have to cope with gun violence.</p>
<p>It would be easy to blame the problem on bad morals, poor parenting or a “criminal element.” But I know it goes deeper than that.</p>
<p>Structural inequality also plays a huge role. As social and economic policies leave low-income blacks behind, middle-class African Americans also feel the impact.</p>
<p>Middle-class and low-income African Americans are connected through friendship, family and geographic proximity, as Northwestern University sociologist Mary Pattillo has reported in her research on black neighborhoods. Policies that hurt low-income African Americans ultimately hurt the black middle class, she wrote in <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/649288.html" type="external">her book, “Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle-Class.”</a></p>
<p>Middle-class African Americans are more likely than their white peers to live in or near economically distressed communities. <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&amp;iid=5137" type="external">That means closer proximity to violent crime</a>, poverty and other social problems.</p>
<p>Research from Stanford University, published this summer, found that <a href="http://cepa.stanford.edu/content/neighborhood-income-composition-race-and-income-1990-2009" type="external">middle-class African American and Hispanics live in poorer neighborhoods than white and Asian families with comparable incomes</a>. Nationwide, black families typically live in neighborhoods where the median income is consistently $10,000 to $12,000 lower than in the neighborhoods where white families of similar income live, according to the study. For Hispanic households, the difference is between $6,000 and $8,000. In many large metropolitan areas, the neighborhood differences are two to three times greater, the researchers said.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/poverty-rate-by-raceethnicity/" type="external">black poverty rate has been consistently at least double that of the overall poverty rate nationally</a>. With 25 percent of its African-American residents jobless, <a href="" type="internal">Chicago has the highest black unemployment rate</a> among the nation’s five most populous cities.</p>
<p>As poor blacks suffer, everyone living near them feels the pain, and that’s usually other African Americans.</p>
<p>I chose to live in a predominately black neighborhood, like many others I know, because I wanted to contribute as a homeowner, taxpayer, voter and good neighbor. I wanted to give back. At community meetings I’ve seen many of my neighbors doing their part to help North Kenwood thrive, whether it’s being quick to call 911 about suspicious activity, starting phone trees or forming a block club. Worrying about getting shot, however, should not be part of the social pact.</p>
<p>The solution is not to give privileged status to middle-class African Americans such as myself, but to make sure that black communities, as a whole, have equal access to the full range of city resources, from good schools to adequate street lighting to responsive police services. With the city budget process underway, now is a good time for all of us to keep an eagle eye on how those resources are distributed.</p>
<p>When structural inequalities are adequately addressed, my neighbors and I will be better able to fully enjoy the communities we have invested in. And no one will have to worry about allowing their sons or daughters outside on a warm day.</p>
|
Living in the cross hairs of gun violence
| false |
http://chicagoreporter.com/living-in-the-cross-hairs-of-gun-violence/
|
2015-09-29
| 3left-center
|
Living in the cross hairs of gun violence
<p>I’ve heard gunfire in the middle of the night before. But this time loud shots rang out during the dinner hour, one after another after another.</p>
<p><a href="http://homicides.suntimes.com/2015/09/20/14-year-old-tyjuan-poindexter-fatally-shot-in-kenwood-drive-by/" type="external">A 14-year-old boy who had been enjoying a beautiful September day with friends had just been fatally shot in the head</a>two blocks away in a neighbor’s driveway. Police were quick to point out that the victim, Tyjuan Poindexter, was not a gang member. He was just a regular boy, a victim of mistaken identity.</p>
<p>Tyjuan’s death was the latest tragedy in a series of high-profile shootings in my mixed-income neighborhood—a community frequently <a href="" type="external">described by residents on the website Nextdoor Kenwood as “family-friendly,” “pleasant” and “peaceful.”</a></p>
<p>I moved into North Kenwood eight years ago because I was attracted to the stately brownstones interspersed with attractive new housing. I was drawn to the tree-lined streets that define the predominately African-American neighborhood nestled on Chicago’s lakefront, just a stone’s throw from downtown. I was proud to live in a historic Bronzeville neighborhood.</p>
<p>But I did not want, or expect, to have to cope with gun violence.</p>
<p>It would be easy to blame the problem on bad morals, poor parenting or a “criminal element.” But I know it goes deeper than that.</p>
<p>Structural inequality also plays a huge role. As social and economic policies leave low-income blacks behind, middle-class African Americans also feel the impact.</p>
<p>Middle-class and low-income African Americans are connected through friendship, family and geographic proximity, as Northwestern University sociologist Mary Pattillo has reported in her research on black neighborhoods. Policies that hurt low-income African Americans ultimately hurt the black middle class, she wrote in <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/649288.html" type="external">her book, “Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle-Class.”</a></p>
<p>Middle-class African Americans are more likely than their white peers to live in or near economically distressed communities. <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&amp;iid=5137" type="external">That means closer proximity to violent crime</a>, poverty and other social problems.</p>
<p>Research from Stanford University, published this summer, found that <a href="http://cepa.stanford.edu/content/neighborhood-income-composition-race-and-income-1990-2009" type="external">middle-class African American and Hispanics live in poorer neighborhoods than white and Asian families with comparable incomes</a>. Nationwide, black families typically live in neighborhoods where the median income is consistently $10,000 to $12,000 lower than in the neighborhoods where white families of similar income live, according to the study. For Hispanic households, the difference is between $6,000 and $8,000. In many large metropolitan areas, the neighborhood differences are two to three times greater, the researchers said.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/poverty-rate-by-raceethnicity/" type="external">black poverty rate has been consistently at least double that of the overall poverty rate nationally</a>. With 25 percent of its African-American residents jobless, <a href="" type="internal">Chicago has the highest black unemployment rate</a> among the nation’s five most populous cities.</p>
<p>As poor blacks suffer, everyone living near them feels the pain, and that’s usually other African Americans.</p>
<p>I chose to live in a predominately black neighborhood, like many others I know, because I wanted to contribute as a homeowner, taxpayer, voter and good neighbor. I wanted to give back. At community meetings I’ve seen many of my neighbors doing their part to help North Kenwood thrive, whether it’s being quick to call 911 about suspicious activity, starting phone trees or forming a block club. Worrying about getting shot, however, should not be part of the social pact.</p>
<p>The solution is not to give privileged status to middle-class African Americans such as myself, but to make sure that black communities, as a whole, have equal access to the full range of city resources, from good schools to adequate street lighting to responsive police services. With the city budget process underway, now is a good time for all of us to keep an eagle eye on how those resources are distributed.</p>
<p>When structural inequalities are adequately addressed, my neighbors and I will be better able to fully enjoy the communities we have invested in. And no one will have to worry about allowing their sons or daughters outside on a warm day.</p>
| 4,720 |
<p>Nov. 20, 2012</p>
<p>By Chris Reed</p>
<p>As the Legislature’s refusal to pass a bill making it easier to fire classroom sexual predators shows, union power isn’t just about protecting jobs, pay and benefits. It’s also about insulating bad apples, even criminals, from the consequences of their behavior. A <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd-taser-20121118,0,7644605.story?track=rss" type="external">story</a> in Sunday’s L.A. Times offers a reminder that the champions of this abusive use of political clout are California’s law-enforcement unions.</p>
<p>“A Los Angeles police officer shocked a handcuffed woman with a Taser stun gun while joking with other officers at the scene, according to interviews and law enforcement records, adding to a series of controversial use-of-force incidents at the LAPD. …</p>
<p>“This marks the fourth time in the last few months that cases have come to light in which LAPD officers are accused of using force on suspects who had been restrained.</p>
<p>“In August, a security surveillance camera captured an officer violently throwing a handcuffed woman to the ground with any apparent provocation. Days later, the Times reported on a July incident in which a video camera in a patrol car recorded a female officer stomping her heel onto the genitals of a woman who was being restrained by other officers. That woman died after being forced into the back of a patrol car, although there is no evidence that her death was caused by the officer’s kick. And this month The Times learned about a botched arrest in July, in which a handcuffed man was mistakenly shot by officers after he escaped custody.”</p>
<p>And these are only the cases we hear about. Thanks to a&#160;2006 California Supreme Court decision in Copley Press v. Superior Court, officer misconduct is put behind an official wall. The very next year, a handful of honest lawmakers tried to rectify this dispiriting decision. They <a href="http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=4670" type="external">failed then</a> and have since pretty much given up.</p>
<p>But thanks to cell phone cameras, we <a href="http://www.policemisconduct.net/faqs/worst-police-misconduct-videos-of-2010-readers-poll/" type="external">hear more</a> about <a href="http://www.photographybay.com/2011/07/23/cell-phone-cameras-offer-powerful-insight-to-police-misconduct/" type="external">police misconduct</a> now than at any point ever. Police denials look ridiculous when <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mvIWFXbHNo&amp;feature=related" type="external">video shows</a> what officers are doing with their power.</p>
<p>So what do police unions do? They get states to <a href="http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/03/02/judge-rules-against-states-ban-on-recording-police-officers/" type="external">make it illegal</a> to record arrests! The brazenness of this is disgusting.</p>
<p>The twist here is that union workers’ misconduct normally infuriates Republicans. But this GOP ire doesn’t extend to bad cops.</p>
|
Union power protects miscreants, not just pay and benefits
| false |
https://calwatchdog.com/2012/11/20/union-power-protects-miscreants-not-just-pay-and-benefits/
|
2018-11-20
| 3left-center
|
Union power protects miscreants, not just pay and benefits
<p>Nov. 20, 2012</p>
<p>By Chris Reed</p>
<p>As the Legislature’s refusal to pass a bill making it easier to fire classroom sexual predators shows, union power isn’t just about protecting jobs, pay and benefits. It’s also about insulating bad apples, even criminals, from the consequences of their behavior. A <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd-taser-20121118,0,7644605.story?track=rss" type="external">story</a> in Sunday’s L.A. Times offers a reminder that the champions of this abusive use of political clout are California’s law-enforcement unions.</p>
<p>“A Los Angeles police officer shocked a handcuffed woman with a Taser stun gun while joking with other officers at the scene, according to interviews and law enforcement records, adding to a series of controversial use-of-force incidents at the LAPD. …</p>
<p>“This marks the fourth time in the last few months that cases have come to light in which LAPD officers are accused of using force on suspects who had been restrained.</p>
<p>“In August, a security surveillance camera captured an officer violently throwing a handcuffed woman to the ground with any apparent provocation. Days later, the Times reported on a July incident in which a video camera in a patrol car recorded a female officer stomping her heel onto the genitals of a woman who was being restrained by other officers. That woman died after being forced into the back of a patrol car, although there is no evidence that her death was caused by the officer’s kick. And this month The Times learned about a botched arrest in July, in which a handcuffed man was mistakenly shot by officers after he escaped custody.”</p>
<p>And these are only the cases we hear about. Thanks to a&#160;2006 California Supreme Court decision in Copley Press v. Superior Court, officer misconduct is put behind an official wall. The very next year, a handful of honest lawmakers tried to rectify this dispiriting decision. They <a href="http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=4670" type="external">failed then</a> and have since pretty much given up.</p>
<p>But thanks to cell phone cameras, we <a href="http://www.policemisconduct.net/faqs/worst-police-misconduct-videos-of-2010-readers-poll/" type="external">hear more</a> about <a href="http://www.photographybay.com/2011/07/23/cell-phone-cameras-offer-powerful-insight-to-police-misconduct/" type="external">police misconduct</a> now than at any point ever. Police denials look ridiculous when <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mvIWFXbHNo&amp;feature=related" type="external">video shows</a> what officers are doing with their power.</p>
<p>So what do police unions do? They get states to <a href="http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/03/02/judge-rules-against-states-ban-on-recording-police-officers/" type="external">make it illegal</a> to record arrests! The brazenness of this is disgusting.</p>
<p>The twist here is that union workers’ misconduct normally infuriates Republicans. But this GOP ire doesn’t extend to bad cops.</p>
| 4,721 |
<p>Today President Obama will announce a new set of regulations aimed at salvaging his legacy as a progressive visionary cutting carbon emissions from US power plants and pushing the country toward a focus on renewable energy.</p>
<p>The plan is a tweaked—and much stricter—version of the Clean Power Plan, which was unveiled last year. More from <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/white-house-set-to-adopt-sweeping-curbs-on-carbon-pollution/2015/08/01/ba6627fa-385c-11e5-b673-1df005a0fb28_story.html" type="external">WaPo</a>:</p>
<p>The new plan sets a goal of cutting carbon pollution from power plants by 32 percent by the year 2030, compared with 2005 levels — a 9 percent jump from the previous target of 30 percent — while rewarding states and utility companies that move quickly to expand their investment in solar and wind power.</p>
<p>Many states will face tougher requirements for lowering greenhouse-gas emissions under the revised plan. But state governments also will be given more time to meet their targets and considerably more flexibility in how they achieve their pollution-cutting goals, according to two senior officials knowledgeable about the rule. For the first time, the officials said, the plan also includes a “reliability safety valve” that can buy states additional time if needed to avoid disruptions in the power supply.</p>
<p />
<p>The White House kicked off its #ActOnClimate social media campaign promoting the new regulations this Saturday—and their video push looks pretty slick:</p>
<p />
<p>I hate it when the Democrats make approachable, pretty presentations to make the case for big government lunacy.</p>
<p>The Administration’s push for more regulations won’t stop with its digital campaign. Obama is set to travel to various locations—including the Alaskan arctic—for a series of policy speeches, and in December is expected to propose an international treaty addressing carbon emissions. He will also meet with Pope Francis during the Pope’s September visit.</p>
<p>Republicans in Congress aren’t taking this lying down. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is spearheading a campaign to encourage state-level mutiny; attorneys general in 12 states are already preparing lawsuits, and at least 25 states are expected to get involved in legal challenges that will eventually end up before the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>More from the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/us/obama-to-unveil-tougher-climate-plan-with-his-legacy-in-mind.html?_r=0" type="external">New York Times</a> [emphasis mine]:</p>
<p>Leading the legal charge are states like Wyoming and West Virginia with economies that depend heavily on coal mining or cheap coal-fired electricity. Emissions from coal-fired power plants are the nation’s single largest source of carbon pollution, and lawmakers who oppose the rules have denounced them as a “war on coal.”</p>
<p>“Once the E.P.A. finalizes this regulation, West Virginia will go to court, and we will challenge it,” Patrick Morrisey, the attorney general of West Virginia, said in an interview with a radio station in the state on Friday. “We think this regulation is terrible for the consumers of the state of West Virginia. It’s going to lead to reduced jobs, higher electricity rates, and really will put stress on the reliability of the power grid. The worst part of this proposal is that it’s flatly illegal under the Clean Air Act and the Constitution, and we intend to challenge it vigorously.”</p>
<p>Although Obama administration officials have repeatedly said states will have flexibility to design their own plans, the final rules are explicitly meant to encourage the use of interstate cap-and-trade systems, in which states place a cap on carbon pollution and then create a market for buying permits or credits to pollute. The idea is that forcing companies to pay to pollute will drive them to cleaner sources of energy.</p>
<p>“Encourage” is key for “incentivize,” so look for the Administration to tie other, more politically-palatable trickle-down policy initiatives to this new plan.</p>
<p>Will the Obama Administration even acknowledge the existence of studies suggesting that <a href="" type="internal">climate change hysteria</a> is beyond unnecessary? I think “no” is a safe bet.</p>
<p>We’ll keep you updated on this new policy push as it is rolled out.</p>
|
#ActOnClimate? Obama to announce more regulatory overreach
| true |
http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/08/actonclimate-obama-to-announce-more-regulatory-overreach/
|
2015-08-03
| 0right
|
#ActOnClimate? Obama to announce more regulatory overreach
<p>Today President Obama will announce a new set of regulations aimed at salvaging his legacy as a progressive visionary cutting carbon emissions from US power plants and pushing the country toward a focus on renewable energy.</p>
<p>The plan is a tweaked—and much stricter—version of the Clean Power Plan, which was unveiled last year. More from <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/white-house-set-to-adopt-sweeping-curbs-on-carbon-pollution/2015/08/01/ba6627fa-385c-11e5-b673-1df005a0fb28_story.html" type="external">WaPo</a>:</p>
<p>The new plan sets a goal of cutting carbon pollution from power plants by 32 percent by the year 2030, compared with 2005 levels — a 9 percent jump from the previous target of 30 percent — while rewarding states and utility companies that move quickly to expand their investment in solar and wind power.</p>
<p>Many states will face tougher requirements for lowering greenhouse-gas emissions under the revised plan. But state governments also will be given more time to meet their targets and considerably more flexibility in how they achieve their pollution-cutting goals, according to two senior officials knowledgeable about the rule. For the first time, the officials said, the plan also includes a “reliability safety valve” that can buy states additional time if needed to avoid disruptions in the power supply.</p>
<p />
<p>The White House kicked off its #ActOnClimate social media campaign promoting the new regulations this Saturday—and their video push looks pretty slick:</p>
<p />
<p>I hate it when the Democrats make approachable, pretty presentations to make the case for big government lunacy.</p>
<p>The Administration’s push for more regulations won’t stop with its digital campaign. Obama is set to travel to various locations—including the Alaskan arctic—for a series of policy speeches, and in December is expected to propose an international treaty addressing carbon emissions. He will also meet with Pope Francis during the Pope’s September visit.</p>
<p>Republicans in Congress aren’t taking this lying down. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is spearheading a campaign to encourage state-level mutiny; attorneys general in 12 states are already preparing lawsuits, and at least 25 states are expected to get involved in legal challenges that will eventually end up before the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>More from the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/us/obama-to-unveil-tougher-climate-plan-with-his-legacy-in-mind.html?_r=0" type="external">New York Times</a> [emphasis mine]:</p>
<p>Leading the legal charge are states like Wyoming and West Virginia with economies that depend heavily on coal mining or cheap coal-fired electricity. Emissions from coal-fired power plants are the nation’s single largest source of carbon pollution, and lawmakers who oppose the rules have denounced them as a “war on coal.”</p>
<p>“Once the E.P.A. finalizes this regulation, West Virginia will go to court, and we will challenge it,” Patrick Morrisey, the attorney general of West Virginia, said in an interview with a radio station in the state on Friday. “We think this regulation is terrible for the consumers of the state of West Virginia. It’s going to lead to reduced jobs, higher electricity rates, and really will put stress on the reliability of the power grid. The worst part of this proposal is that it’s flatly illegal under the Clean Air Act and the Constitution, and we intend to challenge it vigorously.”</p>
<p>Although Obama administration officials have repeatedly said states will have flexibility to design their own plans, the final rules are explicitly meant to encourage the use of interstate cap-and-trade systems, in which states place a cap on carbon pollution and then create a market for buying permits or credits to pollute. The idea is that forcing companies to pay to pollute will drive them to cleaner sources of energy.</p>
<p>“Encourage” is key for “incentivize,” so look for the Administration to tie other, more politically-palatable trickle-down policy initiatives to this new plan.</p>
<p>Will the Obama Administration even acknowledge the existence of studies suggesting that <a href="" type="internal">climate change hysteria</a> is beyond unnecessary? I think “no” is a safe bet.</p>
<p>We’ll keep you updated on this new policy push as it is rolled out.</p>
| 4,722 |
<p>CARSON CITY — Terminally ill patients could voluntarily end their lives with doctor-prescribed medication under a bill introduced Monday in the Nevada Senate.</p>
<p>Senate Bill 261, introduced by Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, allows a patient over 18 years old to request life-ending drugs if their conditions are terminal and likely to result in death within six months. At least two doctors would have to verify the diagnosis.</p>
<p>The patient must be a Nevada resident and mentally competent to make the life-ending decision. It would also require the patient be able to self-administer the drugs.</p>
<p>A similar bill was introduced in the 2015 Legislature, but Republican Sen. Joe Hardy, a Boulder City physician, member of the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and then chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, refused to hold a hearing.</p>
<p>Five states — California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont and Washington — allow physicians to aid in the dying of terminally ill patients, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Montana, a court ruling protects doctors from prosecution for helping dying patients end their lives.</p>
<p>SB261 was referred to the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.</p>
<p>Contact Sandra Chereb at [email protected] or 775-461-3821. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/sandrachereb" type="external">@SandraChereb</a> on Twitter.</p>
|
Assisted suicide bill introduced in Nevada Senate
| false |
https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/assisted-suicide-bill-introduced-in-nevada-senate/
|
2017-03-13
| 1right-center
|
Assisted suicide bill introduced in Nevada Senate
<p>CARSON CITY — Terminally ill patients could voluntarily end their lives with doctor-prescribed medication under a bill introduced Monday in the Nevada Senate.</p>
<p>Senate Bill 261, introduced by Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, allows a patient over 18 years old to request life-ending drugs if their conditions are terminal and likely to result in death within six months. At least two doctors would have to verify the diagnosis.</p>
<p>The patient must be a Nevada resident and mentally competent to make the life-ending decision. It would also require the patient be able to self-administer the drugs.</p>
<p>A similar bill was introduced in the 2015 Legislature, but Republican Sen. Joe Hardy, a Boulder City physician, member of the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and then chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, refused to hold a hearing.</p>
<p>Five states — California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont and Washington — allow physicians to aid in the dying of terminally ill patients, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Montana, a court ruling protects doctors from prosecution for helping dying patients end their lives.</p>
<p>SB261 was referred to the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.</p>
<p>Contact Sandra Chereb at [email protected] or 775-461-3821. Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/sandrachereb" type="external">@SandraChereb</a> on Twitter.</p>
| 4,723 |
<p>Matches always draw spectators, often generate controversies and sometimes provoke protests. The Davis Cup match Sweden played against Israel last weekend in Malmö, a port town south of Sweden, was a match with a difference. It generated lot of controversy, provoked a 10,000-strong demonstration but had no spectators at all. Baltiska Hallen, the 4000-seat arena was utterly empty during the weekend-long show. The spectators were banned weeks ahead of the match by the local authorities. The official pretext was: ” We have made a judgement that this is a high-risk match for our staff, for players and for officials”.</p>
<p>But it was the mass mobilisation , wide-spread popularity and successful campaigning by a grass-root “Stop the Match” campaign, launched last December, that forced the local authorities to exclude the public frrom the arena.</p>
<p>”Stop the Match” was a broad coalition of political parties, cultural groups and organisations that has been advocating since the beginning of the Gaza massacre for international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.</p>
<p>Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city, is ruled by a left-of-centre coalition. It has a large immigrant population. The Malmö city government was strongly criticised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and by Israel for its decision to close the stadium to the public.</p>
<p>The ITF and Israel were given a helping hand by mainstream Swedish media. The op-ed crusaders were angry at politicising the sport. The talk-show hosts wanted the left ‘extremists’ to leave the sport arenas alone. Sports ethics were invoked. The Malmö city government was grilled for capitulating before ‘extremists’. Nothing worked. Ironically, the same media would not leave the arenas alone ahead of Beijing Olympics. All major media houses dispatched their reporters to China. The TV screen and newspaper pages were flooded with dispatches from China regarding human rights violations. The op-ed contributors and TV anchors debated boycotting Beijing Olympics.</p>
<p>Similarly, ”Stop the Match” campaign was no novelty either here in Sweden. A Davis Cup match was played in an empty arena even in the past . In 1975, two years after a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet against the elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende, Sweden played Chile in Båstad and no spectators were allowed. While the match went ahead, several thousand demonstrators gathered peacefully outside the stadium.</p>
<p>Likewise, in 1968 Sweden in a Davis Cup match was supposed to meet Rhodesia. At the time, Rhodesia was criticised for enforcing apartheid. The demonstrators from around Sweden descended on Båstad in southern Sweden to protest the match. The demonstrators were roughed up by the police. The match in Sweden was cancelled and was eventually played in France.</p>
<p>Ahead of the Israel-Sweden Davis Cup matches last weekend, the mainstream Swedish media were forecasting trouble and scuffles. Up to 1000 police were mobilised while both the match and the march were marshalled by police and escorted by helicopters.</p>
<p>While activists carrying banners saying “Turn left, smash right,” and “Boycott Israel” joined the march, about 200 black-clad militants began pelting police with stones, lodged fireworks and fired paint bombs even when organisers of the official demonstration kept shouting at the masked protesters not to use violence against the authorities.</p>
<p>The media seized upon the opportunity. The march was simply missing in the videos run by electronic media on Saturday evening and images flashed by newspapers on Sunday morning. Instead, images of stone-casting youth were telecast/published with a sensation.</p>
<p>Though this might have offered the mainstream media some consolation yet the success of the march demonstrates that ”Stop the Match” campaign managed to raise the critical issues like daily situation of millions of Palestinians and the inappropriateness of welcoming representatives of Israel to a city where many inhabitants have lost friends and relatives in Gaza.</p>
<p>FAROOQ SULEHRIA lives in Sweden and can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
|
Tennis Without Spectators
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2009/03/09/tennis-without-spectators/
|
2009-03-09
| 4left
|
Tennis Without Spectators
<p>Matches always draw spectators, often generate controversies and sometimes provoke protests. The Davis Cup match Sweden played against Israel last weekend in Malmö, a port town south of Sweden, was a match with a difference. It generated lot of controversy, provoked a 10,000-strong demonstration but had no spectators at all. Baltiska Hallen, the 4000-seat arena was utterly empty during the weekend-long show. The spectators were banned weeks ahead of the match by the local authorities. The official pretext was: ” We have made a judgement that this is a high-risk match for our staff, for players and for officials”.</p>
<p>But it was the mass mobilisation , wide-spread popularity and successful campaigning by a grass-root “Stop the Match” campaign, launched last December, that forced the local authorities to exclude the public frrom the arena.</p>
<p>”Stop the Match” was a broad coalition of political parties, cultural groups and organisations that has been advocating since the beginning of the Gaza massacre for international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.</p>
<p>Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city, is ruled by a left-of-centre coalition. It has a large immigrant population. The Malmö city government was strongly criticised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and by Israel for its decision to close the stadium to the public.</p>
<p>The ITF and Israel were given a helping hand by mainstream Swedish media. The op-ed crusaders were angry at politicising the sport. The talk-show hosts wanted the left ‘extremists’ to leave the sport arenas alone. Sports ethics were invoked. The Malmö city government was grilled for capitulating before ‘extremists’. Nothing worked. Ironically, the same media would not leave the arenas alone ahead of Beijing Olympics. All major media houses dispatched their reporters to China. The TV screen and newspaper pages were flooded with dispatches from China regarding human rights violations. The op-ed contributors and TV anchors debated boycotting Beijing Olympics.</p>
<p>Similarly, ”Stop the Match” campaign was no novelty either here in Sweden. A Davis Cup match was played in an empty arena even in the past . In 1975, two years after a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet against the elected Chilean government of Salvador Allende, Sweden played Chile in Båstad and no spectators were allowed. While the match went ahead, several thousand demonstrators gathered peacefully outside the stadium.</p>
<p>Likewise, in 1968 Sweden in a Davis Cup match was supposed to meet Rhodesia. At the time, Rhodesia was criticised for enforcing apartheid. The demonstrators from around Sweden descended on Båstad in southern Sweden to protest the match. The demonstrators were roughed up by the police. The match in Sweden was cancelled and was eventually played in France.</p>
<p>Ahead of the Israel-Sweden Davis Cup matches last weekend, the mainstream Swedish media were forecasting trouble and scuffles. Up to 1000 police were mobilised while both the match and the march were marshalled by police and escorted by helicopters.</p>
<p>While activists carrying banners saying “Turn left, smash right,” and “Boycott Israel” joined the march, about 200 black-clad militants began pelting police with stones, lodged fireworks and fired paint bombs even when organisers of the official demonstration kept shouting at the masked protesters not to use violence against the authorities.</p>
<p>The media seized upon the opportunity. The march was simply missing in the videos run by electronic media on Saturday evening and images flashed by newspapers on Sunday morning. Instead, images of stone-casting youth were telecast/published with a sensation.</p>
<p>Though this might have offered the mainstream media some consolation yet the success of the march demonstrates that ”Stop the Match” campaign managed to raise the critical issues like daily situation of millions of Palestinians and the inappropriateness of welcoming representatives of Israel to a city where many inhabitants have lost friends and relatives in Gaza.</p>
<p>FAROOQ SULEHRIA lives in Sweden and can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>This month we learned that regulators will not reveal any shenanigans discovered by the highly paid “independent” consultants big banks hired under orders from the government to review potential wrongdoing on their part in the foreclosure/robo-signing scandal.</p>
<p>The withholding means homeowners who got just a few hundred dollars in settlements and want to sue the banks won’t have the evidence to do so. The consultants, meanwhile, got $2 billion for their services, a sum amounting to more than $20,000 per file.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p>
<p>Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone:</p>
<p />
<p>[I]t comes out that not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal – in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks.</p>
<p>In other words, the government not only ordered the banks to hire consultants who may have gamed the foreclosure settlement in favor of the banks, but the regulators themselves are hiding the information from the public in order to shield the banks from further lawsuits.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/while-wronged-homeowners-got-300-apiece-in-foreclosure-settlement-consultants-who-helped-protect-banks-got-2-billion-20130426" type="external">Read more</a></p>
|
Regulators to Keep Tight Lips on Foreclosure Improprieties
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/regulators-to-keep-tight-lips-on-foreclosure-improprieties/
|
2013-04-30
| 4left
|
Regulators to Keep Tight Lips on Foreclosure Improprieties
<p>This month we learned that regulators will not reveal any shenanigans discovered by the highly paid “independent” consultants big banks hired under orders from the government to review potential wrongdoing on their part in the foreclosure/robo-signing scandal.</p>
<p>The withholding means homeowners who got just a few hundred dollars in settlements and want to sue the banks won’t have the evidence to do so. The consultants, meanwhile, got $2 billion for their services, a sum amounting to more than $20,000 per file.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p>
<p>Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone:</p>
<p />
<p>[I]t comes out that not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal – in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks.</p>
<p>In other words, the government not only ordered the banks to hire consultants who may have gamed the foreclosure settlement in favor of the banks, but the regulators themselves are hiding the information from the public in order to shield the banks from further lawsuits.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/while-wronged-homeowners-got-300-apiece-in-foreclosure-settlement-consultants-who-helped-protect-banks-got-2-billion-20130426" type="external">Read more</a></p>
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<p>LYNCHBURG — The Virginia Baptist Mission Board has gotten its first look at a proposed budget that will reduce funding for Virginia Baptist ministries by more than half a million dollars in 2009.</p>
<p>Meeting at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center Oct. 14-15, board members also created a standing committee that will oversee operations at the 50-year-old conference center near Lynchburg. Previously oversight of the center was exercised by the full board, with day-to-day operations undertaken by board staff, a practice that will continue.</p>
<p>In addition the board adopted its own 2009 budget of about $7.5 million, down from the current budget of about $7.9 million, and recommended a series of constitution and bylaw amendments.</p>
<p />
<p>Photo by Jim White</p>
<p>BGAV president Joe Lewis receives appreciation for Virginia Baptist assistance on two Habitat for Humanity houses. Deborah Silverman, executive director of Lynchburg Habitat for Humanity, presents the plaque, while looking on are John Upton, executive director of the Mission Board, and Laura McDaniel, executive director-treasurer of Woman's Missionary Union of Virginia.</p>
<p>The proposed 2009 budget for the Baptist General Association of Virginia is $13,800,000, almost 4 percent less than the current budget of 14,360,000. The proposal will be considered by messengers to the BGAV annual meeting in Roanoke next month.</p>
<p>The Mission Board does not vote on the BGAV's budget, but the BGAV's budget committee is required to present its proposal to the board for “information and counsel” each October.</p>
<p>Tom McCann, chair of the budget committee, said the BGAV treasurer's office projects receipts of about $13.8 million toward the state association's budget this year.</p>
<p>Virginia ministries would receive $9,936,000, or 72 percent, of the proposed total, while national and inter-national causes would receive $3,864,000, or 28 percent. (See proposed budget breakdown on pages 25-26 of this issue.)</p>
<p>Most of the individual allocations for Virginia entities were reduced, with one significant exception: funding for retirement support would increase from $399,000 to $437,000. Support for retired Virginia Baptist ministers is supplemented by both the BGAV and by GuideStone Financial Services of the Southern Baptist Convention, the pension fund used by most Virginia Baptist ministers. Under an agreement signed several years ago, GuideStone is reducing its support, and the BGAV is increasing its. During a transition period, that line item in the BGAV budget will increase annually.</p>
<p>Overall allocations to the six educational institutions funded in the Virginia portion of the budget also were reduced, but the division within the allocations between scholarships and contributions to the school itself were changed.</p>
<p>Last year, Virginia Baptists voted to provide some of the schools' allocations in the form of direct scholarships to “emerging leaders,” who are expected to provide leadership to the BGAV's churches in the future. However, some of the schools expressed concern that their greatest need was funding for general operations, while funding for scholarships came from a variety of sources.</p>
<p>The proposed 2009 budget addresses those concerns by increasing the portion going directly to the school and decreasing its scholarship money.</p>
<p>While the overall amount funding national and international causes will be less in 2009, the allocations themselves remain unchanged. Those causes are funded through three world mission tracks — World Mission 1, 2 and 3 — and through a fourth option which gives congregations the opportunity to determine their own allocations.</p>
<p />
<p>Photo by Jim White</p>
<p>During an executive session, VBMB employees compose a report in song to be presented later that evening. From left are Thom Stanton, Leigh Anne Winston, Craig Waddell (with guitar), Greg Smith, Alice Rusher, Gwen Payne, Ron Hall (president of the Virginia Baptist Foundation), Leslie Straw, Jerry Jones and his wife, Jenny.</p>
<p>World Mission 1 funds ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention, while World Mission 3 supports ministries of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The division of allocations is determined by those entities themselves. World Mission 2 funds selected ministries of both the SBC and the CBF, as well as other national and international causes. The allocations are determined by the budget committee, with the approval of the BGAV.</p>
<p>The 2009 budget adopted by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board for its own ministries is reduced from the current budget of $7,900,966. While the majority of the Mission Board's revenue comes from the BGAV budget (which is reduced in the proposed budget), the board has other sources of revenue, including the Alma Hunt Missions Offering for Virginia Missions, contributions from national partnering agencies and investments.</p>
<p>Amendments in both the BGAV and the Mission Board constitution and bylaws were approved for recommendation to the BGAV next month. (See pages 21-23 of this issue.) In addition to some minor changes in language, the amendments also increase the amount of financial contributions necessary for affiliated churches to send messengers to the BGAV annual meeting, and modify the financial basis on which district associations are represented on the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.</p>
<p>The board also voted to use funds from the sale of one of the two buildings bought earlier this year for the Baptist campus ministry at Virginia Commonwealth University to bring the remaining building to “proper operating condition.”</p>
<p>Last spring the board sold the Baptist campus center at VCU and bought two 19th-century townhouses adjacent to the campus to replace it. Campus ministry officials have determined they do not need both buildings and begun the process of selling one of them. The Mission Board agreed that proceeds from the sale should be used on the remaining building “before using capital expense money on other campuses.”</p>
<p>In other action, the board:</p>
<p>• Approved a series of grants for four churches.</p>
<p>• Approved pastoral salary assistance for a number of BGAV churches and missions.</p>
<p>• Authorized three world mission initiative requests: $2,500 to reconstruct water supply for a hospital and village in Kikongo, Congo; $20,000 for disaster relief following hurricanes in the Turks and Caicos Islands; and $10,000 for support of the Ruth School for gypsy children in Romania.</p>
<p>• Allocated $10,000 in mission development funds to provide a van for the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic, a long-time Virginia Baptist partner.</p>
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Virginia Mission Board gets first look at reduced BGAV budget for 2009
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https://baptistnews.com/article/virginiamissionboardgetsfirstlookatreducedbgavbudgetfor2009/
| 3left-center
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Virginia Mission Board gets first look at reduced BGAV budget for 2009
<p>LYNCHBURG — The Virginia Baptist Mission Board has gotten its first look at a proposed budget that will reduce funding for Virginia Baptist ministries by more than half a million dollars in 2009.</p>
<p>Meeting at Eagle Eyrie Baptist Conference Center Oct. 14-15, board members also created a standing committee that will oversee operations at the 50-year-old conference center near Lynchburg. Previously oversight of the center was exercised by the full board, with day-to-day operations undertaken by board staff, a practice that will continue.</p>
<p>In addition the board adopted its own 2009 budget of about $7.5 million, down from the current budget of about $7.9 million, and recommended a series of constitution and bylaw amendments.</p>
<p />
<p>Photo by Jim White</p>
<p>BGAV president Joe Lewis receives appreciation for Virginia Baptist assistance on two Habitat for Humanity houses. Deborah Silverman, executive director of Lynchburg Habitat for Humanity, presents the plaque, while looking on are John Upton, executive director of the Mission Board, and Laura McDaniel, executive director-treasurer of Woman's Missionary Union of Virginia.</p>
<p>The proposed 2009 budget for the Baptist General Association of Virginia is $13,800,000, almost 4 percent less than the current budget of 14,360,000. The proposal will be considered by messengers to the BGAV annual meeting in Roanoke next month.</p>
<p>The Mission Board does not vote on the BGAV's budget, but the BGAV's budget committee is required to present its proposal to the board for “information and counsel” each October.</p>
<p>Tom McCann, chair of the budget committee, said the BGAV treasurer's office projects receipts of about $13.8 million toward the state association's budget this year.</p>
<p>Virginia ministries would receive $9,936,000, or 72 percent, of the proposed total, while national and inter-national causes would receive $3,864,000, or 28 percent. (See proposed budget breakdown on pages 25-26 of this issue.)</p>
<p>Most of the individual allocations for Virginia entities were reduced, with one significant exception: funding for retirement support would increase from $399,000 to $437,000. Support for retired Virginia Baptist ministers is supplemented by both the BGAV and by GuideStone Financial Services of the Southern Baptist Convention, the pension fund used by most Virginia Baptist ministers. Under an agreement signed several years ago, GuideStone is reducing its support, and the BGAV is increasing its. During a transition period, that line item in the BGAV budget will increase annually.</p>
<p>Overall allocations to the six educational institutions funded in the Virginia portion of the budget also were reduced, but the division within the allocations between scholarships and contributions to the school itself were changed.</p>
<p>Last year, Virginia Baptists voted to provide some of the schools' allocations in the form of direct scholarships to “emerging leaders,” who are expected to provide leadership to the BGAV's churches in the future. However, some of the schools expressed concern that their greatest need was funding for general operations, while funding for scholarships came from a variety of sources.</p>
<p>The proposed 2009 budget addresses those concerns by increasing the portion going directly to the school and decreasing its scholarship money.</p>
<p>While the overall amount funding national and international causes will be less in 2009, the allocations themselves remain unchanged. Those causes are funded through three world mission tracks — World Mission 1, 2 and 3 — and through a fourth option which gives congregations the opportunity to determine their own allocations.</p>
<p />
<p>Photo by Jim White</p>
<p>During an executive session, VBMB employees compose a report in song to be presented later that evening. From left are Thom Stanton, Leigh Anne Winston, Craig Waddell (with guitar), Greg Smith, Alice Rusher, Gwen Payne, Ron Hall (president of the Virginia Baptist Foundation), Leslie Straw, Jerry Jones and his wife, Jenny.</p>
<p>World Mission 1 funds ministries of the Southern Baptist Convention, while World Mission 3 supports ministries of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The division of allocations is determined by those entities themselves. World Mission 2 funds selected ministries of both the SBC and the CBF, as well as other national and international causes. The allocations are determined by the budget committee, with the approval of the BGAV.</p>
<p>The 2009 budget adopted by the Virginia Baptist Mission Board for its own ministries is reduced from the current budget of $7,900,966. While the majority of the Mission Board's revenue comes from the BGAV budget (which is reduced in the proposed budget), the board has other sources of revenue, including the Alma Hunt Missions Offering for Virginia Missions, contributions from national partnering agencies and investments.</p>
<p>Amendments in both the BGAV and the Mission Board constitution and bylaws were approved for recommendation to the BGAV next month. (See pages 21-23 of this issue.) In addition to some minor changes in language, the amendments also increase the amount of financial contributions necessary for affiliated churches to send messengers to the BGAV annual meeting, and modify the financial basis on which district associations are represented on the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.</p>
<p>The board also voted to use funds from the sale of one of the two buildings bought earlier this year for the Baptist campus ministry at Virginia Commonwealth University to bring the remaining building to “proper operating condition.”</p>
<p>Last spring the board sold the Baptist campus center at VCU and bought two 19th-century townhouses adjacent to the campus to replace it. Campus ministry officials have determined they do not need both buildings and begun the process of selling one of them. The Mission Board agreed that proceeds from the sale should be used on the remaining building “before using capital expense money on other campuses.”</p>
<p>In other action, the board:</p>
<p>• Approved a series of grants for four churches.</p>
<p>• Approved pastoral salary assistance for a number of BGAV churches and missions.</p>
<p>• Authorized three world mission initiative requests: $2,500 to reconstruct water supply for a hospital and village in Kikongo, Congo; $20,000 for disaster relief following hurricanes in the Turks and Caicos Islands; and $10,000 for support of the Ruth School for gypsy children in Romania.</p>
<p>• Allocated $10,000 in mission development funds to provide a van for the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic, a long-time Virginia Baptist partner.</p>
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<p />
<p>Interior designer Vern Yip, a judge on HGTV’s “Design Star” and a dog person, says new technology has led to a variety of stylish AND pet-friendly home-furnishing options.</p>
<p>Create a dedicated space for pets in a mudroom or laundry, keeping their items organized. (David A. Land/Associated Press)</p>
<p>“The furniture and home-décor industry has really rounded the corner and come to realize that this is a way of life for a lot of people,” Yip says.</p>
<p>Durable, easy-to-clean paints, antimicrobial stain-resistant rugs and more mean that a beautiful home and a furry pet are no longer incompatible.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Here, Yip and two other interior-design experts – Betsy Burnham, founder of Los Angeles’ Burnham Design, and small-space expert Kathryn Bechen – offer some tips.</p>
<p>PET PLANNING: Many pet owners today “are designing a space around their animals,” Burnham says.</p>
<p>Often, the planning starts with the biggest elements: walls and floors.</p>
<p>Paints have become much more pet-friendly (and kid-friendly) in recent years: “There are a lot of paint companies now that have flat paints that are wipe-able,” a feature previously offered only with glossy paints, Burnham says.</p>
<p>Flooring options have also expanded: Wood flooring companies have developed finishes that resist scratching, Yip says. Ceramic tile designed to look like stone flooring is another practical option.</p>
<p>And don’t forget the little things: If your pets are very active, minimize the number of items on tabletops and put more fragile things on higher shelves, especially in small rooms, Bechen says. Add a lidded basket or storage ottoman to stash pet toys when guests come over.</p>
<p>FABRIC STRATEGIES: Fabrics that can withstand life with pets used to be rough and often unappealing to touch, Yip says.</p>
<p>Now, you can find stain-resistant and antimicrobial fibers in a range of styles and soft textures. Burnham suggests looking for textiles made with a finish called Nanotex, which makes the fibers stain-resistant and waterproof.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>If you have cats, it’s also helpful to choose fabrics that are smooth.</p>
<p>“We sort of embrace leathers and flatter weaves so that the cat can’t get their claws into it,” Burnham says.</p>
<p>Bechen suggests avoiding very light-colored fabrics if dark pet hair will frustrate you (or very dark fabrics if your pets have light hair). Print patterns are less likely to show pet hair than solids are, she says.</p>
<p>And it helps to keep an attractive throw blanket on your pet’s favorite furniture, and then remove it when guests come over.</p>
<p>SEPARATE SPACE: It’s a luxury to have a room devoted to pets, or to have a large enough mudroom to create a sort of pet bedroom. But Yip says that’s becoming more common.</p>
<p>When guests who aren’t comfortable with animals come to visit, a dedicated room gives pets “a space that’s theirs, that they can retreat to that doesn’t feel like punishment,” Yip says. Even if the space does double-duty as an office or laundry room, you can create a secure area for a pet by keeping their bed, food dishes and familiar toys all in one place.</p>
<p>“Cats love to climb,” says Bechen, so cat owners can add a shelf around the perimeter of a laundry room or mudroom and put their cat’s bed up there. It creates a perfect perch for the pet to feel safe while surveying the room.</p>
<p>Litter boxes can also be creatively upgraded: Bechen suggests choosing one with a decorative cover. Her favorites are designed to resemble tiny, painted houses.</p>
<p />
|
Designers have ideas for stylish spaces for pets
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1040285/designers-have-ideas-for-stylish-spaces-for-pets.html
| 2least
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Designers have ideas for stylish spaces for pets
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Interior designer Vern Yip, a judge on HGTV’s “Design Star” and a dog person, says new technology has led to a variety of stylish AND pet-friendly home-furnishing options.</p>
<p>Create a dedicated space for pets in a mudroom or laundry, keeping their items organized. (David A. Land/Associated Press)</p>
<p>“The furniture and home-décor industry has really rounded the corner and come to realize that this is a way of life for a lot of people,” Yip says.</p>
<p>Durable, easy-to-clean paints, antimicrobial stain-resistant rugs and more mean that a beautiful home and a furry pet are no longer incompatible.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Here, Yip and two other interior-design experts – Betsy Burnham, founder of Los Angeles’ Burnham Design, and small-space expert Kathryn Bechen – offer some tips.</p>
<p>PET PLANNING: Many pet owners today “are designing a space around their animals,” Burnham says.</p>
<p>Often, the planning starts with the biggest elements: walls and floors.</p>
<p>Paints have become much more pet-friendly (and kid-friendly) in recent years: “There are a lot of paint companies now that have flat paints that are wipe-able,” a feature previously offered only with glossy paints, Burnham says.</p>
<p>Flooring options have also expanded: Wood flooring companies have developed finishes that resist scratching, Yip says. Ceramic tile designed to look like stone flooring is another practical option.</p>
<p>And don’t forget the little things: If your pets are very active, minimize the number of items on tabletops and put more fragile things on higher shelves, especially in small rooms, Bechen says. Add a lidded basket or storage ottoman to stash pet toys when guests come over.</p>
<p>FABRIC STRATEGIES: Fabrics that can withstand life with pets used to be rough and often unappealing to touch, Yip says.</p>
<p>Now, you can find stain-resistant and antimicrobial fibers in a range of styles and soft textures. Burnham suggests looking for textiles made with a finish called Nanotex, which makes the fibers stain-resistant and waterproof.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>If you have cats, it’s also helpful to choose fabrics that are smooth.</p>
<p>“We sort of embrace leathers and flatter weaves so that the cat can’t get their claws into it,” Burnham says.</p>
<p>Bechen suggests avoiding very light-colored fabrics if dark pet hair will frustrate you (or very dark fabrics if your pets have light hair). Print patterns are less likely to show pet hair than solids are, she says.</p>
<p>And it helps to keep an attractive throw blanket on your pet’s favorite furniture, and then remove it when guests come over.</p>
<p>SEPARATE SPACE: It’s a luxury to have a room devoted to pets, or to have a large enough mudroom to create a sort of pet bedroom. But Yip says that’s becoming more common.</p>
<p>When guests who aren’t comfortable with animals come to visit, a dedicated room gives pets “a space that’s theirs, that they can retreat to that doesn’t feel like punishment,” Yip says. Even if the space does double-duty as an office or laundry room, you can create a secure area for a pet by keeping their bed, food dishes and familiar toys all in one place.</p>
<p>“Cats love to climb,” says Bechen, so cat owners can add a shelf around the perimeter of a laundry room or mudroom and put their cat’s bed up there. It creates a perfect perch for the pet to feel safe while surveying the room.</p>
<p>Litter boxes can also be creatively upgraded: Bechen suggests choosing one with a decorative cover. Her favorites are designed to resemble tiny, painted houses.</p>
<p />
| 4,727 |
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<p>A grandmother and her 4-month-old granddaughter, a 5-year-old girl looking forward to Girl Scouts, a Navy commander and a family from three generations are among the people positively identified as victims in a massive mudslide that crushed part of the town of Oso, Wash.</p>
<p>Another 12 people remained missing as of Monday.</p>
<p>Here is a look at the lives and loves of those who died:</p>
<p>A librarian for more than 30 years, Linda McPherson took pride in the fact that she finished more than 100 books last year. She and her husband, Gary, were reading the newspaper together on Saturday morning when the mudslide hit their home, killing her and injuring him.</p>
<p>The 69-year-old mother of two, who grew up in the area, also served on the Darrington school board for 17 years and was a regular visitor to the school where her daughter Kate is a special-education teacher.</p>
<p>“She’s a very giving person. She hated to see people who had a need, and she always wanted to help them,” Kate McPherson said. "She's an amazing person, and she didn't deserve to go."</p>
<p>John Regelbrugge III spent 32 years in the Navy, rising through the ranks until he was appointed commander in 2012. He was put in charge of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard just three weeks ago.</p>
<p>“He was a commander and would have made captain shortly, too,” his father, John Regelbrugge, <a href="http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Navy-Commander-Found-Dead-in-Washington-Mudflow-252375391.html" type="external">told NBC San Diego</a>.</p>
<p>A father of five — two of his sons are in the Navy — Regelbrugge and his wife, Kris, were supposed to be out of the house early on Saturday but decided to sleep in. They were still home when the hillside collapsed. Kris is still missing.</p>
<p>Regelbrugge's family had hope he would survive. "He's a strong man and committed father. If there's a way to dig himself out of this, he will," his brother Greg <a href="" type="internal">told NBC</a> on Sunday. But two days later, three of the brothers found his body.</p>
<p>Christina Jefferds was an 18-year-old single mother when she had her daughter, Natasha Heustis. Two decades later, when Heustis had her own baby, Sonoah, her mother taught her everything she knew about being a good parent.</p>
<p>Jefferds, 45, who managed a dental clinic, told Heustis, 26, the first step was taking care of herself and she encouraged her daughter to go to a yoga class on Saturday morning. So Jeffereds was home alone watching 4-month-old Sonoah when their home was crushed by the mudflow.</p>
<p>"That little girl brought so much joy to her life," Heustis <a href="" type="internal">told NBC News</a>.</p>
<p>Sonoah was remembered as a happy baby who loved to smile but had not learned to laugh yet. She was doted on by Jefferds and her husband, Seth, a firefighter, and Heustis took solace in the fact that she died with her grandmother.</p>
<p>"She’s with my mom," Heustis said. "And she’s in a beautiful place."</p>
<p>During the week, Summer Raffo was a janitor at the Darrington High School, but in her free time she worked as a farrier, indulging a lifelong passion for horses.</p>
<p>On Saturday, Raffo left the home she shared with her husband of two years and went to pick up some tools for a horseshoeing job at a family friend's farm that morning. She never made the appointment, and her family figured out she would have been on state Route 530 in the mudslide's path.</p>
<p>Raffo was one of 13 siblings, 10 of them adopted like herself. Her brother, Dayn Brunner, led relatives on a five-day search of the debris for his sister's car. "My mom wants to hold her one last time," he said.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Brunner <a href="" type="internal">helped a rescue crew extricate her body</a> from the driver's seat of her blue Subaru. She was still wearing her seatbelt.</p>
<p>At least, he said, "she didn't suffer.'</p>
<p>Bill Welsh, 66, came home alive from Vietnam, but he never made it back from what was supposed to be an easy job installing a water heater for a new homeowner in Oso last weekend.</p>
<p>Welsh, who was head of the electrical department at Whitley Evergreen, left his house in Arlington at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday to meet his friend Steve Neal, 55, a plumber. He told his wife of 43 years, Barbara, that he would be back by noon.</p>
<p>Authorities believe both tradesmen were killed when the mudslide obliterated the house they were working on. At least one other worker and the owner of the house are still missing.</p>
<p>"He's a fighter," Barbara said Monday, three days before his body was identified.</p>
<p>"He was always there for me. He was always there for everyone"</p>
<p>Welsh was a father of two. Neal, 55, was the married father of three children and had six grandkids.</p>
<p>"He was always there for me. He was always there for everyone," his daughter Caroline <a href="http://www.king5.com/news/oso-landslide/Darrington-father-husband-grandfather-remembered-for-his-kind-spirit-252850631.html" type="external">told NBC affiliate KING 5</a> of Seattle.</p>
<p>Five-year-old Kaylee Spillers was looking forward to joining the Girl Scouts. Her mom, Jonielle, a nurse, was going to be the troop leader and her dad, Billy, a chief petty officer in the Navy, had promised to volunteers.</p>
<p>She had wispy blond hair and a sweet smile. She rooted for her old stepbrother's football team. She dressed up as a tiger for Halloween.</p>
<p>On Saturday morning, she was home with her dad and her siblings: step-brother Jovon Mangual, 13, Jacob Spillers, 4, and Brooke, 2. Only Jacob made it out alive. Jovon's body was positively ID'd on April 3, as was Billy Spillers' body on April 7 and Brooke Spillers' body on April 8.</p>
<p>Kaylee's mother was at work when tragedy struck. Mid-week, she posted a message for her missing family on Facebook: "Billy and kids hold on I love you and we are waiting for you for as long as it takes stay strong honey."</p>
<p>Billy Spillers, 30, had moved to the Oso neighborhood two years ago from Seattle with his family.</p>
<p>Amanda Lennick, 31, of Steelhead Drive was a nurse who had just bought her first house in Oso along the Stillaguamish River. She was working on fixing it up, and had three workmen over on Saturday morning to put the finishing touches on the home.</p>
<p>Her mom, Jamie Lennick, told NBC News that she planned to see her daughter that morning, but realized the house was right in the landslide’s path.</p>
<p>Lennick's boss at Providence Medical Center in Everett said she was excited about having her own home. “She was telling me, ‘Hey I’ve got the house. I’ve moved in. It’s great,’” Norm McFarland <a href="http://www.king5.com/news/investigators/New-homeowner-may-not-have-known-risks-on-Steelhead-Dr-252576281.html" type="external">told NBC affiliate KING5</a>.</p>
<p>Joe Miller, 47, of Steelhead Drive lived in a double-wide mobile home with his father but was getting ready to move out, <a href="" type="internal">according to his sister, Pamela Sanford</a>. Their father, Reed Miller, was out grocery shopping when the slide hit, leaving the younger Miller home alone. She said her brother enjoyed fly fishing along the Stillaguamish River when he was younger, and as an adult loved fishing and hunting. The land, she added, was “where he wanted to be.”</p>
<p>Alan Bejvl, 22, of Arlington, and his fiancee, Delaney Webb, were visiting here grandparents, Thomas and Marcy Satterlee, on Steelhead Drive the morning the landslide struck.</p>
<p>Thom Satterlee, 65, was a Marine in Vietnam, his daughter told The New York Times. “If anyone could make it, he could,” Andrea Hulme said. His body was positively identified by the county coroner April 1.</p>
<p>Satterlee was <a href="" type="internal">part of a group that sought to secede</a> from the country over land-rights issues.</p>
<p>Bejvl’s grandmother, Ruvena Bejvl, <a href="" type="internal">told NBC News</a> that her 22-year-old grandson was “very friendly” and dependable. She said the young couple had plans to see Webb’s mother later that day. “We still can't believe that he is gone,” Ruvena Bejvl said.</p>
<p>Julie Farnes, 59, moved to Steelhead Drive with her husband, Jerry, from the small fishing village of Cordova, Alaska, a year ago. The retired couple was joined by one of their three sons, Adam Farnes, 23.</p>
<p>Adam remained missing in the mudslide until Tuesday, April 1 when his body was identified. He worked at Mountain Lion Glass, KING TV reported.</p>
<p>Julie Farnes was active in her local Catholic church in Cordova, and was remembered for being “vibrant, bouncy, full of vigor and energy,” a pastor told the newspaper.</p>
<p>Jerry Farnes wasn't home when the slide hit.</p>
<p>Shelley Bellomo, 53, and her longtime partner, Jerry Logan, were killed in the mudslide, the Snohomish County Medical Examiner said. The couple lived together on Steelhead Drive, and Shelley Bollomo “loved living by that river,” her dad, Pete Bellomo, <a href="http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023215066_mudslidemondayxml.html" type="external">told The Seattle Times</a>. She loved most watching bald eagles take flight there, he added.</p>
<p>Pete Bellomo described Logan as “an all-around handyman” who would help his neighbors with their construction projects.</p>
<p>Brandy Ward, 58, was a retired nurse with two grandchildren and five dogs, a neighbor <a href="http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/04/mudslide-death-toll-now-at-27/" type="external">told The Seattle Times</a>. She was the ultimate “outdoorsy woman,” who grew vegetables in her garden and made jellies for neighbors.</p>
<p>Ward’s husband, Tim, 58, was rescued in the mudslide and taken to the hospital with a broken pelvis. He’s a fire commissioner in Oso and a worker at Boeing, according to the Everett Herald.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Three generations of one family</a> — who thought they had found paradise on the banks of the Stillaguamish River — perished in the mudslide. Lou Vandenburg, 71, a former Marine and retired state correction employee, and his wife, JuDee Vandenburg, 64, a former bar manager, had moved to Oso to be closer to their grandkids.</p>
<p>They lived in a trailer on the property of their son Shane Ruthven, 43, and daughter-in-law, Katie Ruthven, 34. Their 6-year-old son Hunter Ruthven, 6, who loved riding four-wheelers and relaxing by the river, had just gotten a new puppy, <a href="http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20140329/NEWS01/140328939/Family-was-%91happy-and-free-out-in-the-woods%92" type="external">relatives told the Everett Herald</a>.</p>
<p>Lon Slauson, 60, lived on Steelhead Drive and worked as a security guard at the Medallion Hotel in Arlington, <a href="http://www.king5.com/news/oso-landslide/remembering" type="external">NBC station KING TV reported</a>.</p>
<p>He owned several properties in the neighborhood. They were bought by his parents more than 30 years ago, the station said.</p>
<p>Tom Durnell, 65, shared his Steelhead Drive home with his wife, Debbie, who wasn’t there at the time of the slide. Durnell had worked as a stage manager and carpenter for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as well as the Intiman Theater in Seattle, <a href="http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/31340036-75/durnell-eugene-tom-debbie-milburn.html.csp" type="external">reported The Register-Guard</a>.</p>
<p>On Facebook, he boasted about his growing family: “I have three daughters and two sons and while my investment in them is in love and wisdom rather than genetics, that suits me just fine. They have provided us with 6 granddaughters and 1 grandson and I’m sure they ain’t done yet!”</p>
<p>Gloria Halstead, 67, was with her husband, Jerry, in their Steelhead Drive home when the slide hit. Jerry's son Steve told KIRO that his Jerry and Gloria were retirees from Boeing. Gloria's body was positively identified April 3. Jerry Halstead remains among the missing.</p>
<p>Larry Miller, 58, had a summer home in Oso with his wife, Sandra, 64. The Everett couple owned Seattle Roof Advisor. Sandra remains missing. "They talked about that property like it was heaven," Larry's stepsister, Kathi Johnson, <a href="http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20140405/NEWS01/140409517/" type="external">told the Everett Herald</a>. "They were so happy to be there."</p>
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A Snapshot of How Those Killed In Mudslide Lived
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http://nbcnews.com/storyline/deadly-mudslide/snapshot-how-those-killed-mudslide-lived-n69156
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2014-04-10
| 3left-center
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A Snapshot of How Those Killed In Mudslide Lived
<p>A grandmother and her 4-month-old granddaughter, a 5-year-old girl looking forward to Girl Scouts, a Navy commander and a family from three generations are among the people positively identified as victims in a massive mudslide that crushed part of the town of Oso, Wash.</p>
<p>Another 12 people remained missing as of Monday.</p>
<p>Here is a look at the lives and loves of those who died:</p>
<p>A librarian for more than 30 years, Linda McPherson took pride in the fact that she finished more than 100 books last year. She and her husband, Gary, were reading the newspaper together on Saturday morning when the mudslide hit their home, killing her and injuring him.</p>
<p>The 69-year-old mother of two, who grew up in the area, also served on the Darrington school board for 17 years and was a regular visitor to the school where her daughter Kate is a special-education teacher.</p>
<p>“She’s a very giving person. She hated to see people who had a need, and she always wanted to help them,” Kate McPherson said. "She's an amazing person, and she didn't deserve to go."</p>
<p>John Regelbrugge III spent 32 years in the Navy, rising through the ranks until he was appointed commander in 2012. He was put in charge of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard just three weeks ago.</p>
<p>“He was a commander and would have made captain shortly, too,” his father, John Regelbrugge, <a href="http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Navy-Commander-Found-Dead-in-Washington-Mudflow-252375391.html" type="external">told NBC San Diego</a>.</p>
<p>A father of five — two of his sons are in the Navy — Regelbrugge and his wife, Kris, were supposed to be out of the house early on Saturday but decided to sleep in. They were still home when the hillside collapsed. Kris is still missing.</p>
<p>Regelbrugge's family had hope he would survive. "He's a strong man and committed father. If there's a way to dig himself out of this, he will," his brother Greg <a href="" type="internal">told NBC</a> on Sunday. But two days later, three of the brothers found his body.</p>
<p>Christina Jefferds was an 18-year-old single mother when she had her daughter, Natasha Heustis. Two decades later, when Heustis had her own baby, Sonoah, her mother taught her everything she knew about being a good parent.</p>
<p>Jefferds, 45, who managed a dental clinic, told Heustis, 26, the first step was taking care of herself and she encouraged her daughter to go to a yoga class on Saturday morning. So Jeffereds was home alone watching 4-month-old Sonoah when their home was crushed by the mudflow.</p>
<p>"That little girl brought so much joy to her life," Heustis <a href="" type="internal">told NBC News</a>.</p>
<p>Sonoah was remembered as a happy baby who loved to smile but had not learned to laugh yet. She was doted on by Jefferds and her husband, Seth, a firefighter, and Heustis took solace in the fact that she died with her grandmother.</p>
<p>"She’s with my mom," Heustis said. "And she’s in a beautiful place."</p>
<p>During the week, Summer Raffo was a janitor at the Darrington High School, but in her free time she worked as a farrier, indulging a lifelong passion for horses.</p>
<p>On Saturday, Raffo left the home she shared with her husband of two years and went to pick up some tools for a horseshoeing job at a family friend's farm that morning. She never made the appointment, and her family figured out she would have been on state Route 530 in the mudslide's path.</p>
<p>Raffo was one of 13 siblings, 10 of them adopted like herself. Her brother, Dayn Brunner, led relatives on a five-day search of the debris for his sister's car. "My mom wants to hold her one last time," he said.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Brunner <a href="" type="internal">helped a rescue crew extricate her body</a> from the driver's seat of her blue Subaru. She was still wearing her seatbelt.</p>
<p>At least, he said, "she didn't suffer.'</p>
<p>Bill Welsh, 66, came home alive from Vietnam, but he never made it back from what was supposed to be an easy job installing a water heater for a new homeowner in Oso last weekend.</p>
<p>Welsh, who was head of the electrical department at Whitley Evergreen, left his house in Arlington at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday to meet his friend Steve Neal, 55, a plumber. He told his wife of 43 years, Barbara, that he would be back by noon.</p>
<p>Authorities believe both tradesmen were killed when the mudslide obliterated the house they were working on. At least one other worker and the owner of the house are still missing.</p>
<p>"He's a fighter," Barbara said Monday, three days before his body was identified.</p>
<p>"He was always there for me. He was always there for everyone"</p>
<p>Welsh was a father of two. Neal, 55, was the married father of three children and had six grandkids.</p>
<p>"He was always there for me. He was always there for everyone," his daughter Caroline <a href="http://www.king5.com/news/oso-landslide/Darrington-father-husband-grandfather-remembered-for-his-kind-spirit-252850631.html" type="external">told NBC affiliate KING 5</a> of Seattle.</p>
<p>Five-year-old Kaylee Spillers was looking forward to joining the Girl Scouts. Her mom, Jonielle, a nurse, was going to be the troop leader and her dad, Billy, a chief petty officer in the Navy, had promised to volunteers.</p>
<p>She had wispy blond hair and a sweet smile. She rooted for her old stepbrother's football team. She dressed up as a tiger for Halloween.</p>
<p>On Saturday morning, she was home with her dad and her siblings: step-brother Jovon Mangual, 13, Jacob Spillers, 4, and Brooke, 2. Only Jacob made it out alive. Jovon's body was positively ID'd on April 3, as was Billy Spillers' body on April 7 and Brooke Spillers' body on April 8.</p>
<p>Kaylee's mother was at work when tragedy struck. Mid-week, she posted a message for her missing family on Facebook: "Billy and kids hold on I love you and we are waiting for you for as long as it takes stay strong honey."</p>
<p>Billy Spillers, 30, had moved to the Oso neighborhood two years ago from Seattle with his family.</p>
<p>Amanda Lennick, 31, of Steelhead Drive was a nurse who had just bought her first house in Oso along the Stillaguamish River. She was working on fixing it up, and had three workmen over on Saturday morning to put the finishing touches on the home.</p>
<p>Her mom, Jamie Lennick, told NBC News that she planned to see her daughter that morning, but realized the house was right in the landslide’s path.</p>
<p>Lennick's boss at Providence Medical Center in Everett said she was excited about having her own home. “She was telling me, ‘Hey I’ve got the house. I’ve moved in. It’s great,’” Norm McFarland <a href="http://www.king5.com/news/investigators/New-homeowner-may-not-have-known-risks-on-Steelhead-Dr-252576281.html" type="external">told NBC affiliate KING5</a>.</p>
<p>Joe Miller, 47, of Steelhead Drive lived in a double-wide mobile home with his father but was getting ready to move out, <a href="" type="internal">according to his sister, Pamela Sanford</a>. Their father, Reed Miller, was out grocery shopping when the slide hit, leaving the younger Miller home alone. She said her brother enjoyed fly fishing along the Stillaguamish River when he was younger, and as an adult loved fishing and hunting. The land, she added, was “where he wanted to be.”</p>
<p>Alan Bejvl, 22, of Arlington, and his fiancee, Delaney Webb, were visiting here grandparents, Thomas and Marcy Satterlee, on Steelhead Drive the morning the landslide struck.</p>
<p>Thom Satterlee, 65, was a Marine in Vietnam, his daughter told The New York Times. “If anyone could make it, he could,” Andrea Hulme said. His body was positively identified by the county coroner April 1.</p>
<p>Satterlee was <a href="" type="internal">part of a group that sought to secede</a> from the country over land-rights issues.</p>
<p>Bejvl’s grandmother, Ruvena Bejvl, <a href="" type="internal">told NBC News</a> that her 22-year-old grandson was “very friendly” and dependable. She said the young couple had plans to see Webb’s mother later that day. “We still can't believe that he is gone,” Ruvena Bejvl said.</p>
<p>Julie Farnes, 59, moved to Steelhead Drive with her husband, Jerry, from the small fishing village of Cordova, Alaska, a year ago. The retired couple was joined by one of their three sons, Adam Farnes, 23.</p>
<p>Adam remained missing in the mudslide until Tuesday, April 1 when his body was identified. He worked at Mountain Lion Glass, KING TV reported.</p>
<p>Julie Farnes was active in her local Catholic church in Cordova, and was remembered for being “vibrant, bouncy, full of vigor and energy,” a pastor told the newspaper.</p>
<p>Jerry Farnes wasn't home when the slide hit.</p>
<p>Shelley Bellomo, 53, and her longtime partner, Jerry Logan, were killed in the mudslide, the Snohomish County Medical Examiner said. The couple lived together on Steelhead Drive, and Shelley Bollomo “loved living by that river,” her dad, Pete Bellomo, <a href="http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023215066_mudslidemondayxml.html" type="external">told The Seattle Times</a>. She loved most watching bald eagles take flight there, he added.</p>
<p>Pete Bellomo described Logan as “an all-around handyman” who would help his neighbors with their construction projects.</p>
<p>Brandy Ward, 58, was a retired nurse with two grandchildren and five dogs, a neighbor <a href="http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/04/mudslide-death-toll-now-at-27/" type="external">told The Seattle Times</a>. She was the ultimate “outdoorsy woman,” who grew vegetables in her garden and made jellies for neighbors.</p>
<p>Ward’s husband, Tim, 58, was rescued in the mudslide and taken to the hospital with a broken pelvis. He’s a fire commissioner in Oso and a worker at Boeing, according to the Everett Herald.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Three generations of one family</a> — who thought they had found paradise on the banks of the Stillaguamish River — perished in the mudslide. Lou Vandenburg, 71, a former Marine and retired state correction employee, and his wife, JuDee Vandenburg, 64, a former bar manager, had moved to Oso to be closer to their grandkids.</p>
<p>They lived in a trailer on the property of their son Shane Ruthven, 43, and daughter-in-law, Katie Ruthven, 34. Their 6-year-old son Hunter Ruthven, 6, who loved riding four-wheelers and relaxing by the river, had just gotten a new puppy, <a href="http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20140329/NEWS01/140328939/Family-was-%91happy-and-free-out-in-the-woods%92" type="external">relatives told the Everett Herald</a>.</p>
<p>Lon Slauson, 60, lived on Steelhead Drive and worked as a security guard at the Medallion Hotel in Arlington, <a href="http://www.king5.com/news/oso-landslide/remembering" type="external">NBC station KING TV reported</a>.</p>
<p>He owned several properties in the neighborhood. They were bought by his parents more than 30 years ago, the station said.</p>
<p>Tom Durnell, 65, shared his Steelhead Drive home with his wife, Debbie, who wasn’t there at the time of the slide. Durnell had worked as a stage manager and carpenter for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as well as the Intiman Theater in Seattle, <a href="http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/31340036-75/durnell-eugene-tom-debbie-milburn.html.csp" type="external">reported The Register-Guard</a>.</p>
<p>On Facebook, he boasted about his growing family: “I have three daughters and two sons and while my investment in them is in love and wisdom rather than genetics, that suits me just fine. They have provided us with 6 granddaughters and 1 grandson and I’m sure they ain’t done yet!”</p>
<p>Gloria Halstead, 67, was with her husband, Jerry, in their Steelhead Drive home when the slide hit. Jerry's son Steve told KIRO that his Jerry and Gloria were retirees from Boeing. Gloria's body was positively identified April 3. Jerry Halstead remains among the missing.</p>
<p>Larry Miller, 58, had a summer home in Oso with his wife, Sandra, 64. The Everett couple owned Seattle Roof Advisor. Sandra remains missing. "They talked about that property like it was heaven," Larry's stepsister, Kathi Johnson, <a href="http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20140405/NEWS01/140409517/" type="external">told the Everett Herald</a>. "They were so happy to be there."</p>
| 4,728 |
<p />
<p>The Wall Street Journal says some tech companies are forgoing traditional management structures – and are still seeing results. And should Jeff Bezos have considered new media instead of a struggling newspaper? Find out why Young Entrepreneur says yes.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>How to turn a profit: <a href="http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/i-want-to-make-a-profit/?ref=smallbusiness" type="external">The New York Times features Opens a New Window.</a> a column from a small-business owner struggling to improve his profit margins.</p>
<p>Are managers a necessity? <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323420604578652051466314748.html?mod=WSJ_SmallBusiness_LEADNewsCollection" type="external">The Wall Street Journal reports Opens a New Window.</a>that some tech companies are doing away with managers altogether.</p>
<p>Is The Washington Post a good bet? <a href="http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/startingup/start-ups/8-new-media-startups-jeff-bezos-might-have-bought-in-instead-of-wapo/" type="external">Young Entrepreneur Opens a New Window.</a>on the eight new media companies Bezos should have considered instead of the Post.</p>
<p>Be a better boss: <a href="http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/10-things-extraordinary-bosses-do-for-their-employees.html" type="external">Inc.com has ten things Opens a New Window.</a>extraordinary bosses do for their employees.</p>
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Are Managers Outdated and Unnecessary?
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/08/07/are-managers-outdated-and-unnecessary.html
|
2016-03-21
| 0right
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Are Managers Outdated and Unnecessary?
<p />
<p>The Wall Street Journal says some tech companies are forgoing traditional management structures – and are still seeing results. And should Jeff Bezos have considered new media instead of a struggling newspaper? Find out why Young Entrepreneur says yes.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>How to turn a profit: <a href="http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/i-want-to-make-a-profit/?ref=smallbusiness" type="external">The New York Times features Opens a New Window.</a> a column from a small-business owner struggling to improve his profit margins.</p>
<p>Are managers a necessity? <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323420604578652051466314748.html?mod=WSJ_SmallBusiness_LEADNewsCollection" type="external">The Wall Street Journal reports Opens a New Window.</a>that some tech companies are doing away with managers altogether.</p>
<p>Is The Washington Post a good bet? <a href="http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/startingup/start-ups/8-new-media-startups-jeff-bezos-might-have-bought-in-instead-of-wapo/" type="external">Young Entrepreneur Opens a New Window.</a>on the eight new media companies Bezos should have considered instead of the Post.</p>
<p>Be a better boss: <a href="http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/10-things-extraordinary-bosses-do-for-their-employees.html" type="external">Inc.com has ten things Opens a New Window.</a>extraordinary bosses do for their employees.</p>
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<p />
<p>Gray Wolves Ski Club, a group of active adults 50 years and older, will be taking memberships until Aug. 15.</p>
<p>Members qualify for a discount on the season pass at Wolf Creek Ski Area as well as other benefits. Membership forms can be downloaded at graywolfskiclub.com.</p>
<p>Membership Fees are $15 for a single and $25 per couple.</p>
<p>Some other advantages of club membership are:</p>
<p>⋄&#160; Gray Wolves season pass holders pick up tickets at the Base Camp Lodge, and do not have to wait in line at the ticket office.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>⋄&#160; Free fountain drinks at the Base Camp lodge every Tuesday (Gray Wolves Day).</p>
<p>⋄&#160; Subsidized lunches for several social events at the ski area.</p>
<p>⋄&#160; Discounted ski lessons.</p>
<p>The club also has annual parties, including a Christmas party, the Summer Annual Meeting, first day pre-season ticket sale tailgate party and the end-of-season potluck.</p>
<p>Other benefits include discounted room prices at several Pagosa Springs area hotels, discounts at area shops and attractions, discounts and reserved seating at special Gray Wolves Theater nights at the Pagosa Center for the Performing Arts and organized trips and outings.</p>
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Become a Gray Wolf, get deals
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/438283/become-a-gray-wolf-get-deals.html
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2014-07-31
| 2least
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Become a Gray Wolf, get deals
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Gray Wolves Ski Club, a group of active adults 50 years and older, will be taking memberships until Aug. 15.</p>
<p>Members qualify for a discount on the season pass at Wolf Creek Ski Area as well as other benefits. Membership forms can be downloaded at graywolfskiclub.com.</p>
<p>Membership Fees are $15 for a single and $25 per couple.</p>
<p>Some other advantages of club membership are:</p>
<p>⋄&#160; Gray Wolves season pass holders pick up tickets at the Base Camp Lodge, and do not have to wait in line at the ticket office.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>⋄&#160; Free fountain drinks at the Base Camp lodge every Tuesday (Gray Wolves Day).</p>
<p>⋄&#160; Subsidized lunches for several social events at the ski area.</p>
<p>⋄&#160; Discounted ski lessons.</p>
<p>The club also has annual parties, including a Christmas party, the Summer Annual Meeting, first day pre-season ticket sale tailgate party and the end-of-season potluck.</p>
<p>Other benefits include discounted room prices at several Pagosa Springs area hotels, discounts at area shops and attractions, discounts and reserved seating at special Gray Wolves Theater nights at the Pagosa Center for the Performing Arts and organized trips and outings.</p>
| 4,730 |
<p>Wells Fargo &amp; Co posted flat quarterly earnings on Thursday and warned its costs would remain elevated as the fallout from a sales practices scandal continues to impact the third-largest U.S. bank.</p>
<p>Higher personnel costs and legal fees as well as lower mortgage banking revenues kept Wells Fargo's first-quarter net income broadly flat at $5.5 billion and the San Francisco-based bank said expenses as a share of revenues would remain high.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Wells Fargo is trying to put a scandal over the opening of unauthorized accounts behind it and earlier this week said it would claw back an additional $75 million of compensation from the two former executives it blamed most for the debacle.</p>
<p>Known for consistently growing revenues and earnings in the post-crisis era, Wells Fargo has been thrown off course by the sales controversy and in recent quarters has also been disadvantaged by its smaller trading footprint.</p>
<p>Wall Street rivals have bounced back as bond and currency markets roared back to life last year with JPMorgan and Citi each reporting a 17 percent increase in quarterly profit on Thursday, beating analyst expectations.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo's revenues fell about 1 percent to $22 billion and missed the average estimate of $22.32 billion. On a per share basis, profit rose to $1.00 from 99 cents a year earlier, beating the average analyst estimate of 97 cents.</p>
<p>The bank's efficiency ratio, a closely watched number reflecting non-interest expenses as a percentage of revenue, was 62.7 percent, compared with 58.7 percent a year ago and 61.2 percent in the previous quarter, and Wells Fargo said it expected the ratio to "remain elevated."</p>
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<p>Noting that the efficiency ratio was outside the normal range, Chief Executive Tim Sloan said during a call with analysts: "I want to make it very clear that operating at this level is not acceptable."</p>
<p>Before the sales scandal, Wells Fargo had consistently targeted an efficiency ratio of 55-59 percent.</p>
<p>The bank's stock was down 1.2 percent in early trading on Thursday. After the close on Wednesday, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Wells Fargo's largest shareholder, said it withdrew an application to the Federal Reserve to boost its ownership stake above 10 percent, and is instead selling 9 million shares to keep it below that threshold.</p>
<p>MORTGAGES AND COSTS</p>
<p>Higher interest rates helped Wells Fargo earn more from lending with a 5 percent rise to $12.3 billion in its net interest income, an important measure of profitability that shows the difference between a bank's cost of money and how much it receives for the funds.</p>
<p>But higher rates have also put borrowers off refinancing their mortgages, driving a 23 percent drop in Wells Fargo's fee income from mortgages to $1.23 billion.</p>
<p>Mortgage borrowing was also a dark spot in JPMorgan's results, with mortgage fees and loan servicing revenue tumbling 39 percent to $406 million from $667 million.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo is the��largest U.S. residential mortgage lender, having made more than $244 billion worth of loans in 2016, according to trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance.</p>
<p>Interest rates have had a bigger impact on Wells' consumer business than the accounts scandal but the bank has had a steady decline in the number of consumers opening checking and credit card accounts.</p>
<p>Overall net profit at its retail bank, its biggest profit center, fell 9 percent due to a drop in fee income. Wells' wholesale banking division, which provides loans and other services to corporate clients, reported a 10 percent increase in net profit from a year ago.</p>
<p>Costs at Wells Fargo rose 6 percent compared to the year-ago period as the bank shelled out more for salaries as well as the legal costs related to the scandal.</p>
<p>(Editing by Carmel Crimmins and Meredith Mazzilli)</p>
|
Wells Fargo's profit flat, costs and mortgages weigh
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/13/wells-fargo-profit-flat-costs-and-mortgages-weigh.html
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2017-04-13
| 0right
|
Wells Fargo's profit flat, costs and mortgages weigh
<p>Wells Fargo &amp; Co posted flat quarterly earnings on Thursday and warned its costs would remain elevated as the fallout from a sales practices scandal continues to impact the third-largest U.S. bank.</p>
<p>Higher personnel costs and legal fees as well as lower mortgage banking revenues kept Wells Fargo's first-quarter net income broadly flat at $5.5 billion and the San Francisco-based bank said expenses as a share of revenues would remain high.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Wells Fargo is trying to put a scandal over the opening of unauthorized accounts behind it and earlier this week said it would claw back an additional $75 million of compensation from the two former executives it blamed most for the debacle.</p>
<p>Known for consistently growing revenues and earnings in the post-crisis era, Wells Fargo has been thrown off course by the sales controversy and in recent quarters has also been disadvantaged by its smaller trading footprint.</p>
<p>Wall Street rivals have bounced back as bond and currency markets roared back to life last year with JPMorgan and Citi each reporting a 17 percent increase in quarterly profit on Thursday, beating analyst expectations.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo's revenues fell about 1 percent to $22 billion and missed the average estimate of $22.32 billion. On a per share basis, profit rose to $1.00 from 99 cents a year earlier, beating the average analyst estimate of 97 cents.</p>
<p>The bank's efficiency ratio, a closely watched number reflecting non-interest expenses as a percentage of revenue, was 62.7 percent, compared with 58.7 percent a year ago and 61.2 percent in the previous quarter, and Wells Fargo said it expected the ratio to "remain elevated."</p>
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<p>Noting that the efficiency ratio was outside the normal range, Chief Executive Tim Sloan said during a call with analysts: "I want to make it very clear that operating at this level is not acceptable."</p>
<p>Before the sales scandal, Wells Fargo had consistently targeted an efficiency ratio of 55-59 percent.</p>
<p>The bank's stock was down 1.2 percent in early trading on Thursday. After the close on Wednesday, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Wells Fargo's largest shareholder, said it withdrew an application to the Federal Reserve to boost its ownership stake above 10 percent, and is instead selling 9 million shares to keep it below that threshold.</p>
<p>MORTGAGES AND COSTS</p>
<p>Higher interest rates helped Wells Fargo earn more from lending with a 5 percent rise to $12.3 billion in its net interest income, an important measure of profitability that shows the difference between a bank's cost of money and how much it receives for the funds.</p>
<p>But higher rates have also put borrowers off refinancing their mortgages, driving a 23 percent drop in Wells Fargo's fee income from mortgages to $1.23 billion.</p>
<p>Mortgage borrowing was also a dark spot in JPMorgan's results, with mortgage fees and loan servicing revenue tumbling 39 percent to $406 million from $667 million.</p>
<p>Wells Fargo is the��largest U.S. residential mortgage lender, having made more than $244 billion worth of loans in 2016, according to trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance.</p>
<p>Interest rates have had a bigger impact on Wells' consumer business than the accounts scandal but the bank has had a steady decline in the number of consumers opening checking and credit card accounts.</p>
<p>Overall net profit at its retail bank, its biggest profit center, fell 9 percent due to a drop in fee income. Wells' wholesale banking division, which provides loans and other services to corporate clients, reported a 10 percent increase in net profit from a year ago.</p>
<p>Costs at Wells Fargo rose 6 percent compared to the year-ago period as the bank shelled out more for salaries as well as the legal costs related to the scandal.</p>
<p>(Editing by Carmel Crimmins and Meredith Mazzilli)</p>
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<p />
<p>There is no comfort in the constancy.</p>
<p>State legislators and the governor are considering serious tax reforms as an integral part of crafting an elusive budget for next fiscal year. If they can pull that off, it could move New Mexico in the only direction left.</p>
<p>And that’s up.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>New Mexico is having a harder – much harder – time than most states recovering from the Great Recession that started in December 2007. We have fewer jobs now than when the recession began; our unemployment recently has been the highest in the nation.</p>
<p>We lead the nation in the loss of people of prime working age – 25 through 54 – since 2007, and an estimated 9,500 of those workers left the state between 2010 and 2015. Conversely, our neighboring states are seeing an influx of skilled workers.</p>
<p>For nearly a decade, New Mexico has been losing more jobs than it’s adding, leaving it among the 10 worst states for overall number of jobs. Meanwhile other states, and the nation as a whole, have seen a rise in overall jobs.</p>
<p>Our small businesses are struggling, in part because they can’t secure the capital needed to operate or expand.</p>
<p>Economists are pretty sure how we got here: A chronic over-dependence on oil and gas revenues and government jobs; poorly performing public schools; a relatively low-skilled workforce; questionable economic development strategies; and a tax system that’s less friendly to businesses than most states.</p>
<p>And, of course, the Great Recession, which no state had control over.</p>
<p>Jeff Mitchell, director of the University of New Mexico’s Bureau of Business &amp; Economic Research, says New Mexico’s slower-than-usual recovery has brought deep and structural changes to the state’s economy and “no one really has a good answer or response to the problem.”</p>
<p>But pieces of the puzzle are evident. The state’s oil and gas sector – revenues of which account for about a third of the state’s budget – has been hammered by the slump in oil prices.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>At the same time, federal jobs and dollars have been dropping.</p>
<p>Our poorly performing schools are not producing the quantity or quality of workers, entrepreneurs and skilled laborers we need to compete with other states. Mitchell attributes some of that to decades of under-performance and under-investment in New Mexico’s schools as the economy shifts to knowledge and skill-based jobs.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, places that have well-educated workforces are doing well nation- and worldwide, so new businesses tend to start in those areas. Similarly, existing businesses expand, drawing workers from other areas.</p>
<p>The lack of available capital for small businesses, partially wrought by post-recession banking restrictions, has forced some New Mexico businesses to shrink or close their operations.</p>
<p>And while Mitchell questions the state’s strategy of focusing on attracting/starting new businesses instead of helping existing ones, state Economic Development Secretary Matthew Geisel notes nearly 60 percent of the state’s key economic development fund has been devoted to existing businesses since fiscal 2014.</p>
<p>Regardless, the current strategy isn’t showing the results New Mexico needs. Manufacturing jobs have been disappearing for years, the construction industry has yet to fully recover from the recession, and except for a few notable exceptions, new businesses with well-paying, permanent jobs are not coming here.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Medicaid expansion is booming. But being poor and sick is not a plan for economic independence.</p>
<p>It would be nice if you could attack all of these problems at once, but that’s a tough order.</p>
<p>Instead, as we’ve said before, the comprehensive tax reform bill crafted by Rep. Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho – which passed the House unanimously and had bipartisan support in the Senate – is the best starting point we’ve seen in ages for getting the state on the right economic track.</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez has expressed support for much of it. Some Democratic lawmakers are nervous it’s too wide-ranging and that insufficient due diligence has been done to determine its full impact.</p>
<p>But both sides should use this as an opportunity to implement systemic changes that move the state away from that constant drumbeat of negative economic news.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p />
|
Editorial: NM tax reform a start for positive economic news
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/995444/nm-tax-reform-a-start-for.html
| 2least
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Editorial: NM tax reform a start for positive economic news
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>There is no comfort in the constancy.</p>
<p>State legislators and the governor are considering serious tax reforms as an integral part of crafting an elusive budget for next fiscal year. If they can pull that off, it could move New Mexico in the only direction left.</p>
<p>And that’s up.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>New Mexico is having a harder – much harder – time than most states recovering from the Great Recession that started in December 2007. We have fewer jobs now than when the recession began; our unemployment recently has been the highest in the nation.</p>
<p>We lead the nation in the loss of people of prime working age – 25 through 54 – since 2007, and an estimated 9,500 of those workers left the state between 2010 and 2015. Conversely, our neighboring states are seeing an influx of skilled workers.</p>
<p>For nearly a decade, New Mexico has been losing more jobs than it’s adding, leaving it among the 10 worst states for overall number of jobs. Meanwhile other states, and the nation as a whole, have seen a rise in overall jobs.</p>
<p>Our small businesses are struggling, in part because they can’t secure the capital needed to operate or expand.</p>
<p>Economists are pretty sure how we got here: A chronic over-dependence on oil and gas revenues and government jobs; poorly performing public schools; a relatively low-skilled workforce; questionable economic development strategies; and a tax system that’s less friendly to businesses than most states.</p>
<p>And, of course, the Great Recession, which no state had control over.</p>
<p>Jeff Mitchell, director of the University of New Mexico’s Bureau of Business &amp; Economic Research, says New Mexico’s slower-than-usual recovery has brought deep and structural changes to the state’s economy and “no one really has a good answer or response to the problem.”</p>
<p>But pieces of the puzzle are evident. The state’s oil and gas sector – revenues of which account for about a third of the state’s budget – has been hammered by the slump in oil prices.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>At the same time, federal jobs and dollars have been dropping.</p>
<p>Our poorly performing schools are not producing the quantity or quality of workers, entrepreneurs and skilled laborers we need to compete with other states. Mitchell attributes some of that to decades of under-performance and under-investment in New Mexico’s schools as the economy shifts to knowledge and skill-based jobs.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, places that have well-educated workforces are doing well nation- and worldwide, so new businesses tend to start in those areas. Similarly, existing businesses expand, drawing workers from other areas.</p>
<p>The lack of available capital for small businesses, partially wrought by post-recession banking restrictions, has forced some New Mexico businesses to shrink or close their operations.</p>
<p>And while Mitchell questions the state’s strategy of focusing on attracting/starting new businesses instead of helping existing ones, state Economic Development Secretary Matthew Geisel notes nearly 60 percent of the state’s key economic development fund has been devoted to existing businesses since fiscal 2014.</p>
<p>Regardless, the current strategy isn’t showing the results New Mexico needs. Manufacturing jobs have been disappearing for years, the construction industry has yet to fully recover from the recession, and except for a few notable exceptions, new businesses with well-paying, permanent jobs are not coming here.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Medicaid expansion is booming. But being poor and sick is not a plan for economic independence.</p>
<p>It would be nice if you could attack all of these problems at once, but that’s a tough order.</p>
<p>Instead, as we’ve said before, the comprehensive tax reform bill crafted by Rep. Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho – which passed the House unanimously and had bipartisan support in the Senate – is the best starting point we’ve seen in ages for getting the state on the right economic track.</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez has expressed support for much of it. Some Democratic lawmakers are nervous it’s too wide-ranging and that insufficient due diligence has been done to determine its full impact.</p>
<p>But both sides should use this as an opportunity to implement systemic changes that move the state away from that constant drumbeat of negative economic news.</p>
<p>This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.</p>
<p />
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<p />
<p>To win the doubles point, Jorge Escutia and Ricky Hernandez-Tong defeated Alex Giannini and Kumar Adavelly 6-1. Also getting a win for the Lobos was No. 8 Hayden Sabatka and Bart Van Leijsen who took on Sam Verbeck and Daniel Alameh, beating them 6-1.</p>
<p>With one point heading into singles play, the Lobos continued their momentum by winning the next two points. Augustus Ge took on Adavelly at number five singles and came out with a 6-4, 6-2 win. Close behind him, Van Leijsen at two singles defeated Diaz 6-3, 7-5.</p>
<p>In the number one singles match, Sabatka competed against Verbeck and fought a close match, but came up short 6-0, 7-5. Escutia followed and ended with the same fate, falling to Alameh 6-3, 7-5&#160; at number three.</p>
<p>Clinching the point for the Lobos was Roldolfo Jauregui at number four who defeated Chamba 6-2, 6-4. With that point, Lobos won the match 4-2.</p>
<p>"It was a high quality match for the first match of the season and that's exactly why we put this event together three years ago," said head coach Bart Scott. "We wanted high quality matches right out of the gate and we most certainly got one this morning. Pacific is a good team and are very well coached.&#160;I know they will be ready when we play them again this weekend."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>When talking about his doubles team, Scott added, "Our doubles really set the tone. Jorge and Ricky played a great set and Hayden and Bart did just enough to edge ahead to give us that 1-0 lead."</p>
<p><a href="https://d3el53au0d7w62.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/15/Match-1-UNM-4-Pacific-2.pdf" type="external">Box score: UNM 4, Pacific 2</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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Lobo men's tennis team wins season opener
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https://abqjournal.com/706914/706914.html
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Lobo men's tennis team wins season opener
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<p />
<p>To win the doubles point, Jorge Escutia and Ricky Hernandez-Tong defeated Alex Giannini and Kumar Adavelly 6-1. Also getting a win for the Lobos was No. 8 Hayden Sabatka and Bart Van Leijsen who took on Sam Verbeck and Daniel Alameh, beating them 6-1.</p>
<p>With one point heading into singles play, the Lobos continued their momentum by winning the next two points. Augustus Ge took on Adavelly at number five singles and came out with a 6-4, 6-2 win. Close behind him, Van Leijsen at two singles defeated Diaz 6-3, 7-5.</p>
<p>In the number one singles match, Sabatka competed against Verbeck and fought a close match, but came up short 6-0, 7-5. Escutia followed and ended with the same fate, falling to Alameh 6-3, 7-5&#160; at number three.</p>
<p>Clinching the point for the Lobos was Roldolfo Jauregui at number four who defeated Chamba 6-2, 6-4. With that point, Lobos won the match 4-2.</p>
<p>"It was a high quality match for the first match of the season and that's exactly why we put this event together three years ago," said head coach Bart Scott. "We wanted high quality matches right out of the gate and we most certainly got one this morning. Pacific is a good team and are very well coached.&#160;I know they will be ready when we play them again this weekend."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>When talking about his doubles team, Scott added, "Our doubles really set the tone. Jorge and Ricky played a great set and Hayden and Bart did just enough to edge ahead to give us that 1-0 lead."</p>
<p><a href="https://d3el53au0d7w62.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/15/Match-1-UNM-4-Pacific-2.pdf" type="external">Box score: UNM 4, Pacific 2</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
| 4,733 |
|
<p>Amenities turn into luxuries as you suffer a class fall.&#160; Buying fresh-cut flowers and newly published books requires more “discretionary” income than you have. You either give them up or find other options. Access to a backyard, for example, can close the flower gap. And Edward R. Hamilton, Bookseller, can, for a relative pittance, fill your shelves with coveted tomes of recent vintage. We call it “Eddie’s Hot Deals” in honor of an Inner Sunset corner grocery that sells $2.95 wooden-handled gardening tools, imitation-Felco pruning shears, discount American Spirits, etc.</p>
<p>From his headquarters in Fall Rivers, Connecticut, Eddie sends out a catalog filled with “publishers’ closeouts, overstocks, imports, remainders, and current titles at special prices.” Shipping costs $3.50 no matter how many books you order.</p>
<p>The catalog is approximately 8½-by-11 inches on glossy stock. The list of books for sale starts immediately below the banner, which proclaims, “Bargain Books.”&#160; The list continues —I’m looking at the Jan. 28 edition— for 114 pages. Each page contains three columns of enticing one-inch synopses, each synopsis accompanied by a picture of the book’s cover and ends with the original price and —flush right, in red— Eddie’s price.&#160; Some 72 category headings guide you to areas of interest, enabling the rational reader to skip “Occult,” “Religion,” “Self-Help,” etc.&#160; Almost all the other categories are worth a browse, even if you’re not that into “Civil War” or “Fishing &amp; Hunting.”</p>
<p>“Cannabis” is not yet a subject unto itself. Under “Your Health” there’s a listing for the Marijuana Medical Handbook by Dale Gieringer et al, published by QuickAmerican. A star at the start of the summary indicates that this is a “current title” with a minimal discount —down from $19.95 to $13.95.&#160; The experienced Eddie’s customer knows that the price is likely to come down to $7.95 in a future catalog, and then, perhaps, to $5.95.&#160; On the other hand, it could sell out before you spring for it.</p>
<p>It seems like a misuse of Eddie’s Hot Deals to buy a book that is not at least two-thirds off cover price. Better yet, three-quarters off, like “Patently Erotic,” published by Plume at $13, now $2.95. Synopsis: “Collection of actual patent applications for devices that treat sex as a science. Erotic? Maybe. Funny? Always.”</p>
<p>&#160;“Vietnam: A Natural History,” was published by Yale at $45 and is now available from Eddie’s for $7.95. There’s a lot of book for the buck. “Provides the first guide to Vietnam’s spectacular flora and fauna… regions that encompass tropics, subtropics, mountains, wetlands, coastal areas and more. Color illus. 423 pages.”&#160; If you still see images of defoliant being laid down on the jungle canopy, maybe this could cheer you up.</p>
<p>Also from Yale ($25 reduced to $5.95) is “Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice” by Janet Malcolm. “‘How had a pair of elderly Jewish lesbians survived the Nazis?’ Macolm asks at the beginning of this work of literary biography and investigative journalism.”&#160; Malcolm is the NYer writer who argued in court that quotation marks mean not what the person said, but what she, Janet, figures the person meant.</p>
<p>&#160;“Faberge’s Eggs… recounts the remarkable story of these masterpieces, taking us from the circumstances that inspired each egg’s design, through their disappearance in the trauma and revolution to the eventual reemergence in the global marketplace. Illus. in color. 302 pages. Random. Pub at $30. $9.95.”</p>
<p>“Sunflowers: The Secret History,” down from $22.95 to $4.95. “The unexpected and highly entertaining social history of this scandalous flower.” What’s scandalous about sunflowers? It’s almost worth $4.95 to find out.</p>
<p>As the seductive synopses take over your brain, topics you never think about start to fascinate. “Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences,” becomes a must-have. “Explores the sentence diagramming phenomenon, including its humble roots at Brooklyn Polytechnic.”&#160; Published by Harcourt at $14.95, now only $3.95!&#160; Get this one for the grand-kids.</p>
<p>Anderson Valley Advertiser readers, exposed for years to poignant filler quotes from Smedley Butler, might flash on “Devil Dog: The Amazing True Story of the Man Who Saved America” by David Talbot. “Smedley Butler took a bullet to the chest at age 18, ran down rebels in Nicaragua and Haiti, and saved the lives of his men in France. But when he learned that America was trading the blood of Marines to make Wall St. fat cats even fatter, Butler went on a crusade. He threw the gangsters out of Philadelphia, faced down Herbert Hoover, and blew the lid off a plot to overthrow FDR.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for Talbot, Simon &amp; Schuster has not yet remaindered “Devil Dog,” so Eddie prices it at $13.95 (down from $20). &#160;We’re going to wait for a deeper discount. Same for the biography of Giordano Bruno from FSG.</p>
<p>The biography of Thucydides, however, published by Viking at $26.95, is down to a reasonable $5.95.&#160; “Cheech &amp; Chong: The Unauthorized Autobiography,” published by S&amp;S for $23.95 is $5.95.&#160; “Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times” by Ralph Stanley recounts his life on the road with the Clinch Mountain Boys ($27.95 down to $7.95). “Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-boy Wrestler Who Created American Pop Culture” was published by Harper’s for $25.95; Eddie can get you a copy for $5.95. Did you know that James Brown took to wearing sequined capes on stage after seeing George perform in the ring?</p>
<p>We have a son in Japan. Tuesday morning he got on a train from Tokyo heading south to a friend’s farm. The situation in Japan is all I can think about. I was going to pass on Eddie’s offer of “Hiroshige: The 69 Stations of the Kisokaido” by Keisi Eisen, because it’s $39.95 (Braziller, Pub. At $80). “Offers an unforgettable portrait of daily life in 19th-century Japan. Each of the 71 color plates teems with characters, from beggars and brawling men to boaters and finely clothed women.”&#160; Better order it.&#160; You only live once.</p>
<p>FRED GARDNER is the editor of O’Shaughnessy’s, the journal of cannabis in clinical practice.&#160; He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
|
Keeping Your Mind Off Japan
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2011/03/18/keeping-your-mind-off-japan/
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2011-03-18
| 4left
|
Keeping Your Mind Off Japan
<p>Amenities turn into luxuries as you suffer a class fall.&#160; Buying fresh-cut flowers and newly published books requires more “discretionary” income than you have. You either give them up or find other options. Access to a backyard, for example, can close the flower gap. And Edward R. Hamilton, Bookseller, can, for a relative pittance, fill your shelves with coveted tomes of recent vintage. We call it “Eddie’s Hot Deals” in honor of an Inner Sunset corner grocery that sells $2.95 wooden-handled gardening tools, imitation-Felco pruning shears, discount American Spirits, etc.</p>
<p>From his headquarters in Fall Rivers, Connecticut, Eddie sends out a catalog filled with “publishers’ closeouts, overstocks, imports, remainders, and current titles at special prices.” Shipping costs $3.50 no matter how many books you order.</p>
<p>The catalog is approximately 8½-by-11 inches on glossy stock. The list of books for sale starts immediately below the banner, which proclaims, “Bargain Books.”&#160; The list continues —I’m looking at the Jan. 28 edition— for 114 pages. Each page contains three columns of enticing one-inch synopses, each synopsis accompanied by a picture of the book’s cover and ends with the original price and —flush right, in red— Eddie’s price.&#160; Some 72 category headings guide you to areas of interest, enabling the rational reader to skip “Occult,” “Religion,” “Self-Help,” etc.&#160; Almost all the other categories are worth a browse, even if you’re not that into “Civil War” or “Fishing &amp; Hunting.”</p>
<p>“Cannabis” is not yet a subject unto itself. Under “Your Health” there’s a listing for the Marijuana Medical Handbook by Dale Gieringer et al, published by QuickAmerican. A star at the start of the summary indicates that this is a “current title” with a minimal discount —down from $19.95 to $13.95.&#160; The experienced Eddie’s customer knows that the price is likely to come down to $7.95 in a future catalog, and then, perhaps, to $5.95.&#160; On the other hand, it could sell out before you spring for it.</p>
<p>It seems like a misuse of Eddie’s Hot Deals to buy a book that is not at least two-thirds off cover price. Better yet, three-quarters off, like “Patently Erotic,” published by Plume at $13, now $2.95. Synopsis: “Collection of actual patent applications for devices that treat sex as a science. Erotic? Maybe. Funny? Always.”</p>
<p>&#160;“Vietnam: A Natural History,” was published by Yale at $45 and is now available from Eddie’s for $7.95. There’s a lot of book for the buck. “Provides the first guide to Vietnam’s spectacular flora and fauna… regions that encompass tropics, subtropics, mountains, wetlands, coastal areas and more. Color illus. 423 pages.”&#160; If you still see images of defoliant being laid down on the jungle canopy, maybe this could cheer you up.</p>
<p>Also from Yale ($25 reduced to $5.95) is “Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice” by Janet Malcolm. “‘How had a pair of elderly Jewish lesbians survived the Nazis?’ Macolm asks at the beginning of this work of literary biography and investigative journalism.”&#160; Malcolm is the NYer writer who argued in court that quotation marks mean not what the person said, but what she, Janet, figures the person meant.</p>
<p>&#160;“Faberge’s Eggs… recounts the remarkable story of these masterpieces, taking us from the circumstances that inspired each egg’s design, through their disappearance in the trauma and revolution to the eventual reemergence in the global marketplace. Illus. in color. 302 pages. Random. Pub at $30. $9.95.”</p>
<p>“Sunflowers: The Secret History,” down from $22.95 to $4.95. “The unexpected and highly entertaining social history of this scandalous flower.” What’s scandalous about sunflowers? It’s almost worth $4.95 to find out.</p>
<p>As the seductive synopses take over your brain, topics you never think about start to fascinate. “Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences,” becomes a must-have. “Explores the sentence diagramming phenomenon, including its humble roots at Brooklyn Polytechnic.”&#160; Published by Harcourt at $14.95, now only $3.95!&#160; Get this one for the grand-kids.</p>
<p>Anderson Valley Advertiser readers, exposed for years to poignant filler quotes from Smedley Butler, might flash on “Devil Dog: The Amazing True Story of the Man Who Saved America” by David Talbot. “Smedley Butler took a bullet to the chest at age 18, ran down rebels in Nicaragua and Haiti, and saved the lives of his men in France. But when he learned that America was trading the blood of Marines to make Wall St. fat cats even fatter, Butler went on a crusade. He threw the gangsters out of Philadelphia, faced down Herbert Hoover, and blew the lid off a plot to overthrow FDR.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for Talbot, Simon &amp; Schuster has not yet remaindered “Devil Dog,” so Eddie prices it at $13.95 (down from $20). &#160;We’re going to wait for a deeper discount. Same for the biography of Giordano Bruno from FSG.</p>
<p>The biography of Thucydides, however, published by Viking at $26.95, is down to a reasonable $5.95.&#160; “Cheech &amp; Chong: The Unauthorized Autobiography,” published by S&amp;S for $23.95 is $5.95.&#160; “Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times” by Ralph Stanley recounts his life on the road with the Clinch Mountain Boys ($27.95 down to $7.95). “Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-boy Wrestler Who Created American Pop Culture” was published by Harper’s for $25.95; Eddie can get you a copy for $5.95. Did you know that James Brown took to wearing sequined capes on stage after seeing George perform in the ring?</p>
<p>We have a son in Japan. Tuesday morning he got on a train from Tokyo heading south to a friend’s farm. The situation in Japan is all I can think about. I was going to pass on Eddie’s offer of “Hiroshige: The 69 Stations of the Kisokaido” by Keisi Eisen, because it’s $39.95 (Braziller, Pub. At $80). “Offers an unforgettable portrait of daily life in 19th-century Japan. Each of the 71 color plates teems with characters, from beggars and brawling men to boaters and finely clothed women.”&#160; Better order it.&#160; You only live once.</p>
<p>FRED GARDNER is the editor of O’Shaughnessy’s, the journal of cannabis in clinical practice.&#160; He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
| 4,734 |
<p>Boston GlobeThomas Oliphant says Funny Cide jockey Jose Santos was <a href="http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/5873263.htm" type="external">victimized</a> because tabloid values have infected the entire journalism business. He writes: "Jayson Blair is a profound embarrassment to all who came within spitting distance of him...[but] the Santos story is more treacherous, because what happened to him could happen tomorrow -- to you." MORE OLIPHANT: "The Jayson Blairs get caught, and the flawed systems that enabled them get repaired. It's not perfect, but the aversion to fraud is obvious. I worry about the things done routinely in our business -- to the public. For these sins, most of us aren't really sorry."</p>
|
Oliphant calls jockey story more treacherous than Blair flap
| false |
https://poynter.org/news/oliphant-calls-jockey-story-more-treacherous-blair-flap
|
2003-05-20
| 2least
|
Oliphant calls jockey story more treacherous than Blair flap
<p>Boston GlobeThomas Oliphant says Funny Cide jockey Jose Santos was <a href="http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/5873263.htm" type="external">victimized</a> because tabloid values have infected the entire journalism business. He writes: "Jayson Blair is a profound embarrassment to all who came within spitting distance of him...[but] the Santos story is more treacherous, because what happened to him could happen tomorrow -- to you." MORE OLIPHANT: "The Jayson Blairs get caught, and the flawed systems that enabled them get repaired. It's not perfect, but the aversion to fraud is obvious. I worry about the things done routinely in our business -- to the public. For these sins, most of us aren't really sorry."</p>
| 4,735 |
<p>After a series of depressing announcements, Barack Obama will finally turn to an economic adviser who wasn’t directly responsible for the current crisis or mentored by someone who was. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the president-elect wants former Fed Chair Paul Volcker to lead a new presidential advisory board focused on saving America from financial ruin.</p>
<p>According to aides, Volcker is considered too old to be Treasury secretary, but Obama wants him in the White House.</p>
<p>Update: <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/obama-chooses-volcker-economic-adviser/story.aspx?guid=%7B98EDC0D4-EEEA-4E67-8410-B50FDC33A5D7%7D&amp;dist=msr_23" type="external">It’s official</a>. It’s difficult to say what kind of influence Volcker will actually have, since the board he will lead didn’t exist before Obama created it. If he is meant as a counterweight to Lawrence Summers and others among Rubin’s brood, he will have his work cut out for him. There are just so many filling up the Obama administration.</p>
<p>Wall Street Journal via <a href="http://politicalwire.com" type="external">Political Wire</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>The panel, called the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, is modeled on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board established by then-President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, at the height of the Cold War, when officials worried that that the existing bureaucratic structure was inadequate to help the U.S. keep pace with the Soviet threat. The financial crisis has drawn similar worries that the government isn’t properly organized to monitor and respond to modern financial markets.</p>
<p>The board’s tasks will be broad: to help design and implement short-term programs to jump-start the economy, raise wages and living standards and confront the housing crisis. It will also address the delicate task of bolstering Washington’s oversight of the financial markets in the wake of a Wall Street collapse that has taken down many of its most venerable institutions.</p>
<p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122767048323359165.html?mod=article-outset-box" type="external">Read more</a></p>
|
Last but Not Least: Obama Taps Volcker
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/last-but-not-least-obama-taps-volcker/
|
2008-11-26
| 4left
|
Last but Not Least: Obama Taps Volcker
<p>After a series of depressing announcements, Barack Obama will finally turn to an economic adviser who wasn’t directly responsible for the current crisis or mentored by someone who was. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the president-elect wants former Fed Chair Paul Volcker to lead a new presidential advisory board focused on saving America from financial ruin.</p>
<p>According to aides, Volcker is considered too old to be Treasury secretary, but Obama wants him in the White House.</p>
<p>Update: <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/obama-chooses-volcker-economic-adviser/story.aspx?guid=%7B98EDC0D4-EEEA-4E67-8410-B50FDC33A5D7%7D&amp;dist=msr_23" type="external">It’s official</a>. It’s difficult to say what kind of influence Volcker will actually have, since the board he will lead didn’t exist before Obama created it. If he is meant as a counterweight to Lawrence Summers and others among Rubin’s brood, he will have his work cut out for him. There are just so many filling up the Obama administration.</p>
<p>Wall Street Journal via <a href="http://politicalwire.com" type="external">Political Wire</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>The panel, called the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, is modeled on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board established by then-President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, at the height of the Cold War, when officials worried that that the existing bureaucratic structure was inadequate to help the U.S. keep pace with the Soviet threat. The financial crisis has drawn similar worries that the government isn’t properly organized to monitor and respond to modern financial markets.</p>
<p>The board’s tasks will be broad: to help design and implement short-term programs to jump-start the economy, raise wages and living standards and confront the housing crisis. It will also address the delicate task of bolstering Washington’s oversight of the financial markets in the wake of a Wall Street collapse that has taken down many of its most venerable institutions.</p>
<p><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122767048323359165.html?mod=article-outset-box" type="external">Read more</a></p>
| 4,736 |
<p>In the summer of 1960 the 32 year old Dr. Ernesto “Che” Guevara agreed to meet some US students at his president’s office in Cuba’s National Bank. Fidel had recently appointed him to that unlikely post. Like most events in Cuba, Che’s becoming Bank President provoked a joke.</p>
<p>Fidel asks the Cabinet: “Any of you guys an economist?”</p>
<p>Che raises his hand. Fidel, surprised, says “OK, Che, you’re the new bank chief.”</p>
<p>Afterwards, Fidel approaches Che: “You’re an economist?”</p>
<p>“Economist?” says Che. “I thought you said communist.”</p>
<p>At the 2:30 A.M. meeting, in July 1960, the new bank prez took his feet off his office desk and admitted that he knew little about economics. Revolution inspired him, he told the students. “Politics,” he emphasized, “not economics, should drive revolutionary policy.”</p>
<p>The dangerously handsome, bearded physician talked about his travels through Latin America ­ now etched on the screen in The Motorcycle Diaries (directed by Walter Salles). “The imperialists have sucked blood from the indigenous people of the Andes. Centuries of abuse have exhausted the land and the people,” he lectured. “And US imperialism continues to exploit.”</p>
<p>He described poverty and underdevelopment in Argentina, where this son of an architect grew up. The conditions at Chile’s Chuqicamata copper mines “are beyond belief,” he said, accusing Guggenheim-Rockefeller family interests of exploiting the minors’ labor, and persecuting those who tried to unionize, especially the communists. “Imperialism,” he snapped “has also wreaked havoc on the Amazon region shared by several countries.”</p>
<p>He spewed facts. Less than 2% of the population owned 65% of the land; 72% of the rural people owned less than 4%. He cited dramatic data on malnutrition, income gaps and foreign ownership, as if Doctor Guevara was presenting his case for major surgery to a hospital Board of Surgeons. UN data, he said, confirmed his own observations that he had recorded in notebooks from his early 1950s motorcycle journey. Only a continental revolution could bring justice to the poor majority and Fidel’s guerrilla model had lit the path for such a movement.</p>
<p>“What would you like the United States to do during this revolution?” the student asked.</p>
<p>“Disappear,” snapped Che, without cracking a smile.</p>
<p>Che stared at the student, who visibly gulped. The room was quiet. “I’m yanking your chain.” said Che, now smiling. Che emphasized to the students that revolution offers the best, if not the only way to make one’s historical mark on the side of justice and freedom, He radiated this contagious notion with perilous magnetism. At 3:30 a.m., he rose, shook hands and explained he still had work to complete before getting his four hours of sleep.</p>
<p>44 years later, I stared into the face of Gael Garcia Bernal, playing the youthful fourth year medical student bouncing on a motorcycle, with his Jack Kerouac-like partner, (Rodrigo de la Serna) in the pit of Patagonia, the snowy Andes of Chile and on the Amazon. In <a href="" type="internal">The Motorcycle Diaries</a>, the asthmatic hero, struggling for breath, swims the un-swimmable river to the other side of the Amazon to spend his birthday with the lepers: determination, audacity, recklessness.</p>
<p>Five years later, now doctor for the guerrilla army of the Sierra Maestre in eastern Cuba, the real Che raced into no man’s land in the midst of a firefight to rescue a wounded comrade.</p>
<p>Che was “temerario,” (Presumptuously or recklessly daring) Fidel told me in July 1974, one of the few criticisms he had of his most brilliant lieutenant. “I once tackled him [during the 1956-8 guerrilla war against Fulgencio Batista] when he stood up during a battle. `You’re too important to lose,’ I told him.”</p>
<p>In the film, Che’s recklessness manifests itself not only by his daring physical feats, but in the scene of him coveting a mechanic’s wife at a town dance while her husband drinks. Then he must flee to escape the wrath of angry townspeople. Young Che also jumps into a freezing lake to retrieve a duck for dinner. “Fearless,” Fidel agreed.</p>
<p>“But he shouldn’t have allowed his columns to lose contact,” Fidel said bitterly, referring to the split of Che’s guerrilla group in Bolivia. “And his relaxed attitude on security cost him,” he remarked. Che had permitted Regis Debray, the French intellectual (author of the text on guerrilla strategy, Revolution in the Revolution?), to learn the guerrilla’s whereabouts. Debray was subsequently captured. We now know, however, that CIA agents had tracked the guerrillas.</p>
<p>But in early July 1968, having just written the introduction to Che’s <a href="" type="internal">Bolivia Diary</a>, Fidel still anguished over the death of his comrade and the defeat of the Bolivian guerrilla expedition. He still clung to the foco guerrillero notion which, if properly applied would serve as a model for third world revolution. A mobile guerrilla troupe backed by organized clandestine urban rebels posed a two-front dilemma for unpopular third world governments and their inept repressive forces.</p>
<p>It had worked in Cuba. So, in 1964, with Fidel’s full support, Che organized a similar battle plan in the Congo. In his Congo diary ( <a href="" type="internal">Che in Africa: Che Guevara’s Congo Diary</a>, by William Galvez), the scientific minded-Che records his observations about reality in the Congo, as he did in Latin America.</p>
<p>His assessment: The Congo mission failed. One factor that contributed to the defeat of the effort, he observed, was lack of knowledge. The supposed Congolese revolutionary soldiers were “saturated with fetishistic concept about death and the enemy and have no organized political education.” But Che the poet also took this personally.</p>
<p>Like a character from a Conrad novel, he concludes that “During those last hours in the Congo, I had felt more alone than ever”</p>
<p>Just hours after writing these words, Che addressed his soon-to-depart comrades. Imagine the internal adrenalin it required to force these optimistic words into his mouth! “This struggle that we have waged has been a great experience. In spite of all the difficulties we’ve had, I hope that if some day Fidel proposes another mission of this kind, some of you will volunteer.”</p>
<p>Che returned in disguise to Cuba; then led an elite group of veteran guerrilla warriors to join a Bolivian cadre to liberate the landlocked country. The “foco” method assumed support from the Bolivian Communist Party whom, despite protests from Moscow, Fidel had “convinced” to back the operation. But the Bolivian Communists, following Soviet orders “betrayed Che,” Fidel charged.</p>
<p>Without the vital underground, the guerrilla foco floundered. In early October 1967, after months of unproductive struggle, a Bolivian soldier, with CIA agents hovering nearby, murdered the captured Che Guevara. This drama occurred in La Higuera, near the place where Jose Antonio de Sucre, Bolivar’s lieutenant, fought the Spaniards more than a century earlier.</p>
<p>Che’s death became and has remained an international event. Now, the movie offers insights into Che’s character. Gael Garcia conveys the young medical student whose addiction to principles propelled him to action, injected him with the kind of courage that arises almost preternaturally from the wellspring of feeling and thought inside him; the qualities that made him charismatic. Thirty seven years after his murder, his icon still entices the most noble souls around the world to try to “be like Che.”</p>
<p>His image and the slogan “Viva Che” appear on apartment walls in Damascus and Baghdad; his heroically drawn face on millions of T-shirts throughout the world. Yes, along with revolutionary sanctification, Che’s image has been commercialized. But those who understand what he meant will make history in his way throughout the world.</p>
<p>“Seremos como el Che,” appears on billboards and posters. Some students cynically reply, “Sure, we’ll also become asthmatics.” One student, however, insists that Che epitomizes revolutionary. She plans to spend her life working for the poor:</p>
<p>She cites sentences from Che’s Congo diary. “You are only a revolutionary when you are willing to leave all your comforts to go to another country to fight.” Che internalized the principle of “the recognition of necessity as the guide to freedom.” The poet, doctor, warrior, revolutionary continues to inspire from his grave. “Once again,” he wrote his parents as he prepared to embark for Africa in 1964, “I feel beneath my heels the ribs of Rocinante [Don Quixote’s `horse’].” He describes “a willpower that I have polished with an artist’s delight that “will sustain some shaky legs and some weary legs. I will do it.”</p>
<p>In the film, Garcia Bernal portrays of Che with effortless changes of facial expressions and body language. He offers qualities of wit, intelligence and determination that the real Che later manifested as he made history. Garcia Bernal’s Che shows how an immature medical student transforms his middle class guilt into revolutionary will.</p>
<p>In the contemporary globalized world, injustice has grown. Guerrilla focos no longer respond realistically to systemic injustice. But understanding the nature of exploitation, as the movie Che confronts exploitation of workers and indigenous people, means one must act — in Seattle, Washington, DC and other venues where the WTO meets. Viva Che!</p>
<p>SAUL LANDAU is the Director of Digital Media and International Outreach Programs for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. His new book is <a href="" type="internal">The Business of America</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
|
The Man and the Movie
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2004/11/06/the-man-and-the-movie/
|
2004-11-06
| 4left
|
The Man and the Movie
<p>In the summer of 1960 the 32 year old Dr. Ernesto “Che” Guevara agreed to meet some US students at his president’s office in Cuba’s National Bank. Fidel had recently appointed him to that unlikely post. Like most events in Cuba, Che’s becoming Bank President provoked a joke.</p>
<p>Fidel asks the Cabinet: “Any of you guys an economist?”</p>
<p>Che raises his hand. Fidel, surprised, says “OK, Che, you’re the new bank chief.”</p>
<p>Afterwards, Fidel approaches Che: “You’re an economist?”</p>
<p>“Economist?” says Che. “I thought you said communist.”</p>
<p>At the 2:30 A.M. meeting, in July 1960, the new bank prez took his feet off his office desk and admitted that he knew little about economics. Revolution inspired him, he told the students. “Politics,” he emphasized, “not economics, should drive revolutionary policy.”</p>
<p>The dangerously handsome, bearded physician talked about his travels through Latin America ­ now etched on the screen in The Motorcycle Diaries (directed by Walter Salles). “The imperialists have sucked blood from the indigenous people of the Andes. Centuries of abuse have exhausted the land and the people,” he lectured. “And US imperialism continues to exploit.”</p>
<p>He described poverty and underdevelopment in Argentina, where this son of an architect grew up. The conditions at Chile’s Chuqicamata copper mines “are beyond belief,” he said, accusing Guggenheim-Rockefeller family interests of exploiting the minors’ labor, and persecuting those who tried to unionize, especially the communists. “Imperialism,” he snapped “has also wreaked havoc on the Amazon region shared by several countries.”</p>
<p>He spewed facts. Less than 2% of the population owned 65% of the land; 72% of the rural people owned less than 4%. He cited dramatic data on malnutrition, income gaps and foreign ownership, as if Doctor Guevara was presenting his case for major surgery to a hospital Board of Surgeons. UN data, he said, confirmed his own observations that he had recorded in notebooks from his early 1950s motorcycle journey. Only a continental revolution could bring justice to the poor majority and Fidel’s guerrilla model had lit the path for such a movement.</p>
<p>“What would you like the United States to do during this revolution?” the student asked.</p>
<p>“Disappear,” snapped Che, without cracking a smile.</p>
<p>Che stared at the student, who visibly gulped. The room was quiet. “I’m yanking your chain.” said Che, now smiling. Che emphasized to the students that revolution offers the best, if not the only way to make one’s historical mark on the side of justice and freedom, He radiated this contagious notion with perilous magnetism. At 3:30 a.m., he rose, shook hands and explained he still had work to complete before getting his four hours of sleep.</p>
<p>44 years later, I stared into the face of Gael Garcia Bernal, playing the youthful fourth year medical student bouncing on a motorcycle, with his Jack Kerouac-like partner, (Rodrigo de la Serna) in the pit of Patagonia, the snowy Andes of Chile and on the Amazon. In <a href="" type="internal">The Motorcycle Diaries</a>, the asthmatic hero, struggling for breath, swims the un-swimmable river to the other side of the Amazon to spend his birthday with the lepers: determination, audacity, recklessness.</p>
<p>Five years later, now doctor for the guerrilla army of the Sierra Maestre in eastern Cuba, the real Che raced into no man’s land in the midst of a firefight to rescue a wounded comrade.</p>
<p>Che was “temerario,” (Presumptuously or recklessly daring) Fidel told me in July 1974, one of the few criticisms he had of his most brilliant lieutenant. “I once tackled him [during the 1956-8 guerrilla war against Fulgencio Batista] when he stood up during a battle. `You’re too important to lose,’ I told him.”</p>
<p>In the film, Che’s recklessness manifests itself not only by his daring physical feats, but in the scene of him coveting a mechanic’s wife at a town dance while her husband drinks. Then he must flee to escape the wrath of angry townspeople. Young Che also jumps into a freezing lake to retrieve a duck for dinner. “Fearless,” Fidel agreed.</p>
<p>“But he shouldn’t have allowed his columns to lose contact,” Fidel said bitterly, referring to the split of Che’s guerrilla group in Bolivia. “And his relaxed attitude on security cost him,” he remarked. Che had permitted Regis Debray, the French intellectual (author of the text on guerrilla strategy, Revolution in the Revolution?), to learn the guerrilla’s whereabouts. Debray was subsequently captured. We now know, however, that CIA agents had tracked the guerrillas.</p>
<p>But in early July 1968, having just written the introduction to Che’s <a href="" type="internal">Bolivia Diary</a>, Fidel still anguished over the death of his comrade and the defeat of the Bolivian guerrilla expedition. He still clung to the foco guerrillero notion which, if properly applied would serve as a model for third world revolution. A mobile guerrilla troupe backed by organized clandestine urban rebels posed a two-front dilemma for unpopular third world governments and their inept repressive forces.</p>
<p>It had worked in Cuba. So, in 1964, with Fidel’s full support, Che organized a similar battle plan in the Congo. In his Congo diary ( <a href="" type="internal">Che in Africa: Che Guevara’s Congo Diary</a>, by William Galvez), the scientific minded-Che records his observations about reality in the Congo, as he did in Latin America.</p>
<p>His assessment: The Congo mission failed. One factor that contributed to the defeat of the effort, he observed, was lack of knowledge. The supposed Congolese revolutionary soldiers were “saturated with fetishistic concept about death and the enemy and have no organized political education.” But Che the poet also took this personally.</p>
<p>Like a character from a Conrad novel, he concludes that “During those last hours in the Congo, I had felt more alone than ever”</p>
<p>Just hours after writing these words, Che addressed his soon-to-depart comrades. Imagine the internal adrenalin it required to force these optimistic words into his mouth! “This struggle that we have waged has been a great experience. In spite of all the difficulties we’ve had, I hope that if some day Fidel proposes another mission of this kind, some of you will volunteer.”</p>
<p>Che returned in disguise to Cuba; then led an elite group of veteran guerrilla warriors to join a Bolivian cadre to liberate the landlocked country. The “foco” method assumed support from the Bolivian Communist Party whom, despite protests from Moscow, Fidel had “convinced” to back the operation. But the Bolivian Communists, following Soviet orders “betrayed Che,” Fidel charged.</p>
<p>Without the vital underground, the guerrilla foco floundered. In early October 1967, after months of unproductive struggle, a Bolivian soldier, with CIA agents hovering nearby, murdered the captured Che Guevara. This drama occurred in La Higuera, near the place where Jose Antonio de Sucre, Bolivar’s lieutenant, fought the Spaniards more than a century earlier.</p>
<p>Che’s death became and has remained an international event. Now, the movie offers insights into Che’s character. Gael Garcia conveys the young medical student whose addiction to principles propelled him to action, injected him with the kind of courage that arises almost preternaturally from the wellspring of feeling and thought inside him; the qualities that made him charismatic. Thirty seven years after his murder, his icon still entices the most noble souls around the world to try to “be like Che.”</p>
<p>His image and the slogan “Viva Che” appear on apartment walls in Damascus and Baghdad; his heroically drawn face on millions of T-shirts throughout the world. Yes, along with revolutionary sanctification, Che’s image has been commercialized. But those who understand what he meant will make history in his way throughout the world.</p>
<p>“Seremos como el Che,” appears on billboards and posters. Some students cynically reply, “Sure, we’ll also become asthmatics.” One student, however, insists that Che epitomizes revolutionary. She plans to spend her life working for the poor:</p>
<p>She cites sentences from Che’s Congo diary. “You are only a revolutionary when you are willing to leave all your comforts to go to another country to fight.” Che internalized the principle of “the recognition of necessity as the guide to freedom.” The poet, doctor, warrior, revolutionary continues to inspire from his grave. “Once again,” he wrote his parents as he prepared to embark for Africa in 1964, “I feel beneath my heels the ribs of Rocinante [Don Quixote’s `horse’].” He describes “a willpower that I have polished with an artist’s delight that “will sustain some shaky legs and some weary legs. I will do it.”</p>
<p>In the film, Garcia Bernal portrays of Che with effortless changes of facial expressions and body language. He offers qualities of wit, intelligence and determination that the real Che later manifested as he made history. Garcia Bernal’s Che shows how an immature medical student transforms his middle class guilt into revolutionary will.</p>
<p>In the contemporary globalized world, injustice has grown. Guerrilla focos no longer respond realistically to systemic injustice. But understanding the nature of exploitation, as the movie Che confronts exploitation of workers and indigenous people, means one must act — in Seattle, Washington, DC and other venues where the WTO meets. Viva Che!</p>
<p>SAUL LANDAU is the Director of Digital Media and International Outreach Programs for the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. His new book is <a href="" type="internal">The Business of America</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
| 4,737 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNZDm_zKCIo" type="external">Knock-knock!</a></p>
<p>Good Lord, what is it now? I do not keep office hours on Sunday mornings—especially the Sunday morning before an Election Day!</p>
<p>I’ve got a gaggle of judicial candidates, each begging me to read the morning announcements. Parents are complaining that <a href="https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1391/582396461_0452dd5f62.jpg" type="external">the new elephant slide</a> in the Noah’s Ark nursery sends the wrong message to the conservative voters of tomorrow. Plus my sermon on “Give Unto Rome a Good Biblical Ass-Lickin’-Kickin’!” isn’t going to write itself!</p>
<p>Just another Lord’s Day morn at Cubic Zirconium Cathedral Ministries!</p>
<p>What do you want? Say, don’t you know that Halloween is over? Although I’ve got to say that I dig <a href="https://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p2/jjm47/JesusGunDoor.jpg" type="external">the whole Obi-Wan Kenobi look</a>. But you should really trade in that Glock for a light saber.</p>
<p>Seriously, though, I’m all out of treats. Why don’t you go bother Brother Bear down the street at <a href="https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1025/4728586828_01e2bf5564_z.jpg" type="external">Glory Holy Ministries</a>. He’ll give you a bag of candy corn if you can recite <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Golden-Rule/572466342867443" type="external">The Golden Rule</a>. But normally that’s just for kids—I’m not sure what he does for Kenny Loggins lookalikes.</p>
<p>I’ve gotta get back to work now, okay? If I’m not spot-on, Third Offering will be a bust—and then no anniversary getaway for me and Mrs. Pillow to Atlantis Sanya, China.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9kX3IWRFiY" type="external">Slam!</a></p>
<p>Okay, now where was I? Ah yes, back to my sermon and a few nips from that bottle of Old Grand-Dad.</p>
<p>The three key letters to any decent Election Week sermon: G-A-G.</p>
<p>G. Rome is coming for your Guns. Usually a few references to Nero and the Colosseum will do the trick. Plus, always a good idea to remind the congregation that if the victim in Jesus’ parable had been packing heat, we never would have needed a Good Samaritan in the first place.</p>
<p>A. Vote conservative or there will be Abortions in the streets, at kindergarten Christmas pageants, during Super Bowl commercials, you name it. Also, a wire shirt hanger always makes for a good visual. I must have one around here somewhere.</p>
<p>And, finally, G again. While the IRS might not want me to tell you which candidate to vote for, God Himself appeared to me last night in a vision, His Divine finger stretching forth and writing upon the wall, “Thou shalt vote for—”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxQEJdIN0J4" type="external">Knock-knock!</a></p>
<p>Sigh. Who is it this time? You again?! Listen, I appreciate the whole Chuck Norris in a tunic concept, but I’m going to have to call security if you don’t leave me alone.</p>
<p>What’s that? Follow you? Where, to Jo-Ann Fabrics? Careful, or someone’s going to ring you up as a Shroud of Turin bolt. Ha-ha!</p>
<p>You have an idea for my sermon? By all means, I’m all ears. Tolerance, plus care for the widow and orphan? Support same-sex marriage? Discount drones? Plug ecumenism? Add a few quotes by Pope Francis?</p>
<p>Holy shit, what are you, a Balaam’s ass socialist?! Why don’t I just invite Bernie Sanders in all his wild-haired glory to pour Welch’s grape juice into Dixie Cups at the altar? I’m sure that’ll boost our bottom line.</p>
<p>Sheesh. Hey, you want to write my sermon? How about I augment your costume? Why don’t you throw on a leather jacket and come back a third time as Richard Marx? You can sit just outside my office door and serenade me with “Right Here Waiting.”</p>
<p>Thanks for your help, but there’s a reason I’m a M to the D to the I to the V. Bang!</p>
<p>Now just run along and play Jesus Christ Superstar while the real Gospel professionals get back to the business of running tax-free billion-dollar operations. And don’t forget to vote straight-ticket Republican!</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9kX3IWRFiY" type="external">Slam!</a></p>
<p>…</p>
<p>Please open your hymnals to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULjCSK0oOlI" type="external">No. 3764</a>.</p>
<p>I need a photo-opportunity I want a shot at redemption Don’t want to end up a cartoon In a cartoon graveyard</p>
<p>Behold, the Christian Right Weekly Round-Up.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>5. If it Smells Like Hate, Looks Like Hate, Tastes Like Hate…, over at U.S. News &amp; World Report: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2014/10/28/southern-baptists-tell-pastors-hold-line-on-gays" type="external">“Southern Baptists Tell Pastors: Hold Line on Gays”</a></p>
<p>More than 1,000 Southern Baptist pastors and church leaders recently gathered at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission National Conference in Nashville. Erik Stanley, who represents <a href="http://www.alliancedefendingfreedom.org/" type="external">Alliance Defending Freedom</a>, took to the podium and stated “it was a myth that the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, was a hate crime.”</p>
<p>Lots of other things were stated about same-sex marriage and religion during the three-day conference. But what really matters is that Erik Stanley wasn’t booed off the stage for his opprobrious remarks.</p>
<p>In other words: if 1,000 Christian “leaders” are present and let slide something so blasphemous, who cares what else they have to say?</p>
<p>You will be voting Tuesday, won’t you?</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>4. Fundamentalists Confused Over Central Tenets of Christianity, Yet Remain Convinced God Digs Drone Strikes, via Christianity Today: <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/october-web-only/new-poll-finds-evangelicals-favorite-heresies.html?start=1" type="external">“New Poll Finds Evangelicals’ Favorite Heresies”</a></p>
<p>Millions of fundamentalist Americans will head to election polls this week convinced that God wants them to vote straight-ticket Republican—despite the fact that they aren’t even sure about the central tenets of their own faith.</p>
<p>Here are some everyman theological doozeys from the recently conducted LifeWay Research for Ligonier Ministries Theological Awareness Benchmark Study:</p>
<p>I might actually spend the greater part of my life scratching my head on that last one. So you think God is omnipotent and insists that you vote conservative, but you don’t think that same Divine Being has authority over your life?</p>
<p>Go figure. In the U.S.A. Great Democracy Project, even the most wooden-headed citizen gets a vote.</p>
<p>You can read the full survey results <a href="http://www.ligonier.org/thestateoftheology/" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>3. Vote, Because There Exists a Wisconsin Christian News: <a href="http://www.wisconsinchristiannews.com/view.php?sid=5295" type="external">“Scott Walker and the Compromise of Wisconsin Christians”</a></p>
<p>Matt Trewhella is the pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church and the founder of Missionaries to the Preborn. He lives in Milwaukee. And he thinks that Governor Scott Walker, scourge to progressives if ever there was, is too liberal to hold office:</p>
<p>Hence, when the Federal government imposes evil upon the people of our state, interposition by the civil authorities in our state is needed and necessary. … On principle we should have told Scott Walker we will not vote for him because of our love for Christ and our fealty to God’s law and Word.</p>
<p>That’s all I really have to say. If you’re reading this article and you’re a Wisconsin resident progressive, vote if for no reason other than to cancel the ballot of this deluded human being.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>2. Pat Robertson Rag is Last Media Organization on Earth to Believe in Voter Fraud, over at Christian Broadcasting Network: <a href="http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2014/October/Think-Voter-Fraud-Is-a-Joke-Think-Again/" type="external">“Think Voter Fraud is a Joke? Think Again”</a></p>
<p>The Christian Right “Get Out the Vote” machine is so sad. Dark-skinned, same-sex marriage liberals are crossing state lines to vote twice!</p>
<p>No, seriously, a former Federal Elections Commissioner wrote a book about the subject! And he just so happens to be a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Nothing funny about that, everybody, move along, move right along.</p>
<p>Tell you what: I will eat a live frog on camera if anyone in this country is caught crossing state borders to vote twice on Tuesday.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>1. One Last Trick Before We Go, over at Amazing Facts: <a href="http://www.amazingfacts.org/news-and-features/news/id/677/halloween-and-the-christian.aspx" type="external">“Halloween and the Christian”</a></p>
<p>We realize that some readers don’t actually click the article links, but you should click this one. Pick any sentence at random. Read it. And if you’re still not motivated to vote progressive on Tuesday, then I’ll be happy to cross a state line to vote for you.</p>
<p>Still too lazy to click the link? Fine, I’ll just pick a few sentences at random:</p>
<p>Teach your children plainly and clearly that the Bible does not support worshiping or contacting dead people. People were made to live for eternity, and it is sin that leads to death—so making light of death overlooks the source of death: sin. Is sin and death really things to have fun with? Of course not.</p>
<p>Oh, sweet Starburst Jesus. You will never in 1,000 years convince me that Thomas Jefferson wanted men like Pastor Doug to have a crack at determining the political fate of millions of his fellow human beings.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, don’t vote for a dead person on Tuesday. The Bible doesn’t support that.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>That’s a wrap!</p>
<p>Please open your hymnals to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R_wCpuflDI" type="external">No. 53</a>.</p>
<p>Do my prayers remain unanswered Like a beggar at your sleeve Olodumare is smiling in heaven Smiling in heaven I do believe</p>
<p>Progressives, the November Elections are <a href="http://mycountdown.org/fullpage.php?group=my%20countdown&amp;countdown=My%20Countdown&amp;widget_number=3010&amp;text1=Election%20Day%20Nov%204th,%202014&amp;text2=Make%20Your%20%27Purple%20Vote%27%20Count%20%21&amp;timezone=GMT&amp;event_time=1415059200&amp;img=&amp;cp3_Hex=&amp;cp2_Hex=993CF3&amp;cp1_Hex=000000&amp;hbg=0&amp;fwdt=400" type="external">mere moments away</a>!</p>
<p>And&#160; <a href="" type="internal">one-third of your fellow countrymen</a>&#160;will be rushing to the polls Tuesday to vote twice to counter your demonic liberal double vote.</p>
<p>You and they will be voting for the following political offices:</p>
<p>—All 435 seats of the U.S. House of Representatives —33 seats in the U.S. Senate —46 State Legislatures —And 38 State and Territorial Governorships.</p>
<p>Remember: A Progressive Vote is a vote for Civilization!</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christian Right Weekly Round-Up: Saturday in the Courtroom with Adolf</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christian Right Weekly Round-Up: Pastor Pillow Converts the Comets</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christian Right Weekly Round-Up: Pastor Pillow Gets Stoned with a Hot Blonde</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p>
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Christian Right Weekly Round-Up: Pastor Pillow Election Day Special, Jesus Stands at the Door with a Glock
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http://forwardprogressives.com/christian-right-weekly-round-pastor-pillow-election-day-special-jesus-stands-door-glock/
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2014-11-02
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Christian Right Weekly Round-Up: Pastor Pillow Election Day Special, Jesus Stands at the Door with a Glock
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNZDm_zKCIo" type="external">Knock-knock!</a></p>
<p>Good Lord, what is it now? I do not keep office hours on Sunday mornings—especially the Sunday morning before an Election Day!</p>
<p>I’ve got a gaggle of judicial candidates, each begging me to read the morning announcements. Parents are complaining that <a href="https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1391/582396461_0452dd5f62.jpg" type="external">the new elephant slide</a> in the Noah’s Ark nursery sends the wrong message to the conservative voters of tomorrow. Plus my sermon on “Give Unto Rome a Good Biblical Ass-Lickin’-Kickin’!” isn’t going to write itself!</p>
<p>Just another Lord’s Day morn at Cubic Zirconium Cathedral Ministries!</p>
<p>What do you want? Say, don’t you know that Halloween is over? Although I’ve got to say that I dig <a href="https://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p2/jjm47/JesusGunDoor.jpg" type="external">the whole Obi-Wan Kenobi look</a>. But you should really trade in that Glock for a light saber.</p>
<p>Seriously, though, I’m all out of treats. Why don’t you go bother Brother Bear down the street at <a href="https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1025/4728586828_01e2bf5564_z.jpg" type="external">Glory Holy Ministries</a>. He’ll give you a bag of candy corn if you can recite <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Golden-Rule/572466342867443" type="external">The Golden Rule</a>. But normally that’s just for kids—I’m not sure what he does for Kenny Loggins lookalikes.</p>
<p>I’ve gotta get back to work now, okay? If I’m not spot-on, Third Offering will be a bust—and then no anniversary getaway for me and Mrs. Pillow to Atlantis Sanya, China.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9kX3IWRFiY" type="external">Slam!</a></p>
<p>Okay, now where was I? Ah yes, back to my sermon and a few nips from that bottle of Old Grand-Dad.</p>
<p>The three key letters to any decent Election Week sermon: G-A-G.</p>
<p>G. Rome is coming for your Guns. Usually a few references to Nero and the Colosseum will do the trick. Plus, always a good idea to remind the congregation that if the victim in Jesus’ parable had been packing heat, we never would have needed a Good Samaritan in the first place.</p>
<p>A. Vote conservative or there will be Abortions in the streets, at kindergarten Christmas pageants, during Super Bowl commercials, you name it. Also, a wire shirt hanger always makes for a good visual. I must have one around here somewhere.</p>
<p>And, finally, G again. While the IRS might not want me to tell you which candidate to vote for, God Himself appeared to me last night in a vision, His Divine finger stretching forth and writing upon the wall, “Thou shalt vote for—”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxQEJdIN0J4" type="external">Knock-knock!</a></p>
<p>Sigh. Who is it this time? You again?! Listen, I appreciate the whole Chuck Norris in a tunic concept, but I’m going to have to call security if you don’t leave me alone.</p>
<p>What’s that? Follow you? Where, to Jo-Ann Fabrics? Careful, or someone’s going to ring you up as a Shroud of Turin bolt. Ha-ha!</p>
<p>You have an idea for my sermon? By all means, I’m all ears. Tolerance, plus care for the widow and orphan? Support same-sex marriage? Discount drones? Plug ecumenism? Add a few quotes by Pope Francis?</p>
<p>Holy shit, what are you, a Balaam’s ass socialist?! Why don’t I just invite Bernie Sanders in all his wild-haired glory to pour Welch’s grape juice into Dixie Cups at the altar? I’m sure that’ll boost our bottom line.</p>
<p>Sheesh. Hey, you want to write my sermon? How about I augment your costume? Why don’t you throw on a leather jacket and come back a third time as Richard Marx? You can sit just outside my office door and serenade me with “Right Here Waiting.”</p>
<p>Thanks for your help, but there’s a reason I’m a M to the D to the I to the V. Bang!</p>
<p>Now just run along and play Jesus Christ Superstar while the real Gospel professionals get back to the business of running tax-free billion-dollar operations. And don’t forget to vote straight-ticket Republican!</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9kX3IWRFiY" type="external">Slam!</a></p>
<p>…</p>
<p>Please open your hymnals to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULjCSK0oOlI" type="external">No. 3764</a>.</p>
<p>I need a photo-opportunity I want a shot at redemption Don’t want to end up a cartoon In a cartoon graveyard</p>
<p>Behold, the Christian Right Weekly Round-Up.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>5. If it Smells Like Hate, Looks Like Hate, Tastes Like Hate…, over at U.S. News &amp; World Report: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2014/10/28/southern-baptists-tell-pastors-hold-line-on-gays" type="external">“Southern Baptists Tell Pastors: Hold Line on Gays”</a></p>
<p>More than 1,000 Southern Baptist pastors and church leaders recently gathered at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission National Conference in Nashville. Erik Stanley, who represents <a href="http://www.alliancedefendingfreedom.org/" type="external">Alliance Defending Freedom</a>, took to the podium and stated “it was a myth that the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming, was a hate crime.”</p>
<p>Lots of other things were stated about same-sex marriage and religion during the three-day conference. But what really matters is that Erik Stanley wasn’t booed off the stage for his opprobrious remarks.</p>
<p>In other words: if 1,000 Christian “leaders” are present and let slide something so blasphemous, who cares what else they have to say?</p>
<p>You will be voting Tuesday, won’t you?</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>4. Fundamentalists Confused Over Central Tenets of Christianity, Yet Remain Convinced God Digs Drone Strikes, via Christianity Today: <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/october-web-only/new-poll-finds-evangelicals-favorite-heresies.html?start=1" type="external">“New Poll Finds Evangelicals’ Favorite Heresies”</a></p>
<p>Millions of fundamentalist Americans will head to election polls this week convinced that God wants them to vote straight-ticket Republican—despite the fact that they aren’t even sure about the central tenets of their own faith.</p>
<p>Here are some everyman theological doozeys from the recently conducted LifeWay Research for Ligonier Ministries Theological Awareness Benchmark Study:</p>
<p>I might actually spend the greater part of my life scratching my head on that last one. So you think God is omnipotent and insists that you vote conservative, but you don’t think that same Divine Being has authority over your life?</p>
<p>Go figure. In the U.S.A. Great Democracy Project, even the most wooden-headed citizen gets a vote.</p>
<p>You can read the full survey results <a href="http://www.ligonier.org/thestateoftheology/" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>3. Vote, Because There Exists a Wisconsin Christian News: <a href="http://www.wisconsinchristiannews.com/view.php?sid=5295" type="external">“Scott Walker and the Compromise of Wisconsin Christians”</a></p>
<p>Matt Trewhella is the pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church and the founder of Missionaries to the Preborn. He lives in Milwaukee. And he thinks that Governor Scott Walker, scourge to progressives if ever there was, is too liberal to hold office:</p>
<p>Hence, when the Federal government imposes evil upon the people of our state, interposition by the civil authorities in our state is needed and necessary. … On principle we should have told Scott Walker we will not vote for him because of our love for Christ and our fealty to God’s law and Word.</p>
<p>That’s all I really have to say. If you’re reading this article and you’re a Wisconsin resident progressive, vote if for no reason other than to cancel the ballot of this deluded human being.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>2. Pat Robertson Rag is Last Media Organization on Earth to Believe in Voter Fraud, over at Christian Broadcasting Network: <a href="http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/politics/2014/October/Think-Voter-Fraud-Is-a-Joke-Think-Again/" type="external">“Think Voter Fraud is a Joke? Think Again”</a></p>
<p>The Christian Right “Get Out the Vote” machine is so sad. Dark-skinned, same-sex marriage liberals are crossing state lines to vote twice!</p>
<p>No, seriously, a former Federal Elections Commissioner wrote a book about the subject! And he just so happens to be a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Nothing funny about that, everybody, move along, move right along.</p>
<p>Tell you what: I will eat a live frog on camera if anyone in this country is caught crossing state borders to vote twice on Tuesday.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>1. One Last Trick Before We Go, over at Amazing Facts: <a href="http://www.amazingfacts.org/news-and-features/news/id/677/halloween-and-the-christian.aspx" type="external">“Halloween and the Christian”</a></p>
<p>We realize that some readers don’t actually click the article links, but you should click this one. Pick any sentence at random. Read it. And if you’re still not motivated to vote progressive on Tuesday, then I’ll be happy to cross a state line to vote for you.</p>
<p>Still too lazy to click the link? Fine, I’ll just pick a few sentences at random:</p>
<p>Teach your children plainly and clearly that the Bible does not support worshiping or contacting dead people. People were made to live for eternity, and it is sin that leads to death—so making light of death overlooks the source of death: sin. Is sin and death really things to have fun with? Of course not.</p>
<p>Oh, sweet Starburst Jesus. You will never in 1,000 years convince me that Thomas Jefferson wanted men like Pastor Doug to have a crack at determining the political fate of millions of his fellow human beings.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, don’t vote for a dead person on Tuesday. The Bible doesn’t support that.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>That’s a wrap!</p>
<p>Please open your hymnals to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R_wCpuflDI" type="external">No. 53</a>.</p>
<p>Do my prayers remain unanswered Like a beggar at your sleeve Olodumare is smiling in heaven Smiling in heaven I do believe</p>
<p>Progressives, the November Elections are <a href="http://mycountdown.org/fullpage.php?group=my%20countdown&amp;countdown=My%20Countdown&amp;widget_number=3010&amp;text1=Election%20Day%20Nov%204th,%202014&amp;text2=Make%20Your%20%27Purple%20Vote%27%20Count%20%21&amp;timezone=GMT&amp;event_time=1415059200&amp;img=&amp;cp3_Hex=&amp;cp2_Hex=993CF3&amp;cp1_Hex=000000&amp;hbg=0&amp;fwdt=400" type="external">mere moments away</a>!</p>
<p>And&#160; <a href="" type="internal">one-third of your fellow countrymen</a>&#160;will be rushing to the polls Tuesday to vote twice to counter your demonic liberal double vote.</p>
<p>You and they will be voting for the following political offices:</p>
<p>—All 435 seats of the U.S. House of Representatives —33 seats in the U.S. Senate —46 State Legislatures —And 38 State and Territorial Governorships.</p>
<p>Remember: A Progressive Vote is a vote for Civilization!</p>
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christian Right Weekly Round-Up: Saturday in the Courtroom with Adolf</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christian Right Weekly Round-Up: Pastor Pillow Converts the Comets</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Christian Right Weekly Round-Up: Pastor Pillow Gets Stoned with a Hot Blonde</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p>
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<p />
<p>Although 2016 hasn't been the greatest year for healthcare stocks in general, another year is around the corner, and with it come new opportunities. Here's why Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG), Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LGND), and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) stand out as three of the best healthcare stocks to buy for 2017.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>There aren't many companies with a pathway to success as compelling as Celgene's. The big biotech's revenue increased 23% year over year in the first nine months of 2016, and earnings soared 50%. Celgene looks likely to keep up its winning ways thanks to a strong product lineup and a promising pipeline.</p>
<p>Blood cancer drug Revlimid continues to shine. Celgene has also built on its success in the multiple myeloma indication with third-line treatment Pomalyst/Imnovid. Meanwhile, the fastest growth is coming from anti-inflammatory drug Otezla, with sales soaring nearly 147% in the first nine months of 2016 compared to the prior-year period. Although cancer therapy Abraxane isn't growing nearly as much, it still generated revenue of $707 million in the first three quarters of this year.</p>
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<p>Celgene's pipeline includes 19 late-stage programs. Some of these are for additional indications for current drugs, in particular Revlimid and Otezla. Others, though, are newer candidates. I particularly like the prospects for ozanimod, which is in a late-stage study targeting multiple sclerosis and another study targeting ulcerative colitis, and luspatercept, which is in a couple of late-stage studies for treating blood disorders.</p>
<p>The list of partners in Celgene's ecosystem is also impressive. Celgene has expanded its opportunities for growth by collaborating with small and large biotechs alike. This approach is great for shareholders, because it limits Celgene's risk but still leaves significant upside.</p>
<p>Speaking of partnerships, few (if any) healthcare companies have forged as many partnering relationships as Ligand Pharmaceuticals. At last count, Ligand had over 90 partners and licensees for its drug development technologies. The list reads like a "who's who" of the biopharmaceutical world.</p>
<p>Ligand's business model is to license its technology platforms to other companies so that they can develop drugs more effectively. Ligand receives royalties on any sales of those drugs developed by its partners. The biotech's most successful products to date using this approach are Amgen'smultiple myeloma drug Kyprolis and Novartis' bone marrow stimulant Promacta.</p>
<p>There are currently over 140 programs in development using Ligand's technologies. Four await regulatory approval. Another seven candidates are in late-stage clinical studies.These programs don't have equal opportunities, though: Some could generate substantial royalty payments, while others have smaller potential.</p>
<p>Aside from Kyprolis and Promacta, Ligand has high expectations for roughly 18 of the drugs in development by partners. One of those is Merck's experimental Alzheimer's disease drug, verubecestat. Results are expected from a late-stage study of the drug in late 2017.</p>
<p>Wall Street thinks Ligand can grow earnings by 48% annually over the next five years. With its vast array of potential winners in the pipelines of multiple partners, I suspect that sort of growth is achievable.</p>
<p>UnitedHealth Group didn't have to wait for the presidential election results to say goodbye to Obamacare. After several years of losing lots of money on the Obamacare exchanges, the giant health insurer announced earlier this year that it would pull out of "all but a handful" of state exchanges in 2017. The news was well-received, because it meant that UnitedHealth would soon begin improving its bottom line.</p>
<p>That said, UnitedHealth's bottom line wasn't exactly hurting in the first place. The company reported net earnings of over $5.3 billion in the first nine months of this year, a 16% year-over-year increase. Exiting from most of the Obamacare exchanges, though, should pad earnings even more.</p>
<p>It's entirely possible that UnitedHealth could benefit even more if Obamacare is repealed and replaced with something else by the incoming Trump administration and Republican Congress. A lot depends, of course, on the details. The insurer could also win if the GOP successfully moves forward with plans to implement a <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/26/the-astounding-thing-about-donald-trumps-plan-to-c.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">premium support model for Medicare Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Regardless of which way the political winds blow, UnitedHealth's primary earnings growth driver, Optum, should keep its momentum going. The health services business segment's earnings from operations during the first nine months of this year increased 40% over the prior-year period. Optum's pharmacy benefits management (PBM) business led the way with 68% year-over-year growth.</p>
<p>Of these three healthcare stocks, only UnitedHealth has enjoyed a strong performance in 2016. Shares of the health insurer are up more than 30%, while Celgene and Ligand are down slightly year to date.</p>
<p>My view is that things are about to change for Celgene and Ligand -- and keep on rolling for UnitedHealth. Celgene, Ligand, and UnitedHealth should all be great healthcare stocks to own in 2017 -- and long afterward.</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=irbeditxt0000138&amp;ftm_cam=rb-wearable&amp;ftm_pit=6450&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/TMFFishBiz/info.aspx" type="external">Keith Speights Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Celgene. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Celgene. The Motley Fool recommends UnitedHealth Group. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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The Best Healthcare Stocks for 2017
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http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/10/best-healthcare-stocks-for-2017.html
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2016-12-10
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The Best Healthcare Stocks for 2017
<p />
<p>Although 2016 hasn't been the greatest year for healthcare stocks in general, another year is around the corner, and with it come new opportunities. Here's why Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG), Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LGND), and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) stand out as three of the best healthcare stocks to buy for 2017.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>There aren't many companies with a pathway to success as compelling as Celgene's. The big biotech's revenue increased 23% year over year in the first nine months of 2016, and earnings soared 50%. Celgene looks likely to keep up its winning ways thanks to a strong product lineup and a promising pipeline.</p>
<p>Blood cancer drug Revlimid continues to shine. Celgene has also built on its success in the multiple myeloma indication with third-line treatment Pomalyst/Imnovid. Meanwhile, the fastest growth is coming from anti-inflammatory drug Otezla, with sales soaring nearly 147% in the first nine months of 2016 compared to the prior-year period. Although cancer therapy Abraxane isn't growing nearly as much, it still generated revenue of $707 million in the first three quarters of this year.</p>
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<p>Celgene's pipeline includes 19 late-stage programs. Some of these are for additional indications for current drugs, in particular Revlimid and Otezla. Others, though, are newer candidates. I particularly like the prospects for ozanimod, which is in a late-stage study targeting multiple sclerosis and another study targeting ulcerative colitis, and luspatercept, which is in a couple of late-stage studies for treating blood disorders.</p>
<p>The list of partners in Celgene's ecosystem is also impressive. Celgene has expanded its opportunities for growth by collaborating with small and large biotechs alike. This approach is great for shareholders, because it limits Celgene's risk but still leaves significant upside.</p>
<p>Speaking of partnerships, few (if any) healthcare companies have forged as many partnering relationships as Ligand Pharmaceuticals. At last count, Ligand had over 90 partners and licensees for its drug development technologies. The list reads like a "who's who" of the biopharmaceutical world.</p>
<p>Ligand's business model is to license its technology platforms to other companies so that they can develop drugs more effectively. Ligand receives royalties on any sales of those drugs developed by its partners. The biotech's most successful products to date using this approach are Amgen'smultiple myeloma drug Kyprolis and Novartis' bone marrow stimulant Promacta.</p>
<p>There are currently over 140 programs in development using Ligand's technologies. Four await regulatory approval. Another seven candidates are in late-stage clinical studies.These programs don't have equal opportunities, though: Some could generate substantial royalty payments, while others have smaller potential.</p>
<p>Aside from Kyprolis and Promacta, Ligand has high expectations for roughly 18 of the drugs in development by partners. One of those is Merck's experimental Alzheimer's disease drug, verubecestat. Results are expected from a late-stage study of the drug in late 2017.</p>
<p>Wall Street thinks Ligand can grow earnings by 48% annually over the next five years. With its vast array of potential winners in the pipelines of multiple partners, I suspect that sort of growth is achievable.</p>
<p>UnitedHealth Group didn't have to wait for the presidential election results to say goodbye to Obamacare. After several years of losing lots of money on the Obamacare exchanges, the giant health insurer announced earlier this year that it would pull out of "all but a handful" of state exchanges in 2017. The news was well-received, because it meant that UnitedHealth would soon begin improving its bottom line.</p>
<p>That said, UnitedHealth's bottom line wasn't exactly hurting in the first place. The company reported net earnings of over $5.3 billion in the first nine months of this year, a 16% year-over-year increase. Exiting from most of the Obamacare exchanges, though, should pad earnings even more.</p>
<p>It's entirely possible that UnitedHealth could benefit even more if Obamacare is repealed and replaced with something else by the incoming Trump administration and Republican Congress. A lot depends, of course, on the details. The insurer could also win if the GOP successfully moves forward with plans to implement a <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/26/the-astounding-thing-about-donald-trumps-plan-to-c.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">premium support model for Medicare Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Regardless of which way the political winds blow, UnitedHealth's primary earnings growth driver, Optum, should keep its momentum going. The health services business segment's earnings from operations during the first nine months of this year increased 40% over the prior-year period. Optum's pharmacy benefits management (PBM) business led the way with 68% year-over-year growth.</p>
<p>Of these three healthcare stocks, only UnitedHealth has enjoyed a strong performance in 2016. Shares of the health insurer are up more than 30%, while Celgene and Ligand are down slightly year to date.</p>
<p>My view is that things are about to change for Celgene and Ligand -- and keep on rolling for UnitedHealth. Celgene, Ligand, and UnitedHealth should all be great healthcare stocks to own in 2017 -- and long afterward.</p>
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<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFishBiz/info.aspx" type="external">Keith Speights Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Celgene. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Celgene. The Motley Fool recommends UnitedHealth Group. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://www.fool.com/knowledge-center/motley.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — About 650 Qwest customers in Tijeras have been without phone or internet service since 7 a.m.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Bob Gravely, a spokesman for Qwest, said service won’t be restored until at least midnight Tuesday. Qwest was alerted to the problem about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.</p>
<p>Gravely said Qwest workers suspect someone cut down phone cables leading to the area and stole them for the copper wire that is contained inside them. He said that people steal the copper wiring in order to sell it.</p>
<p>Gravely said the incident was reported to law enforcement authorities but no one has been caught yet.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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Big Phone Outage In Tijeras, Qwest Says Thieves Probably To Blame
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Big Phone Outage In Tijeras, Qwest Says Thieves Probably To Blame
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — About 650 Qwest customers in Tijeras have been without phone or internet service since 7 a.m.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Bob Gravely, a spokesman for Qwest, said service won’t be restored until at least midnight Tuesday. Qwest was alerted to the problem about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.</p>
<p>Gravely said Qwest workers suspect someone cut down phone cables leading to the area and stole them for the copper wire that is contained inside them. He said that people steal the copper wiring in order to sell it.</p>
<p>Gravely said the incident was reported to law enforcement authorities but no one has been caught yet.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>Engelbert Stockhammer is a Professor of Economics at the School of Economics, Kingston University in the U.K. His research areas included macroeconomics, applied econometrics, and financial systems. His research work includes the books Unemployment in Europe (2004), and the edited 2011 volume, A Modern Guide to Keynesian Macroeconomics and Economic Policies. Engelbert is also a member of the coordination committee of the Research Network on Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policy.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore.
<p />
<p />There's a lot of discussion taking place in the presidential elections about Europe. Some people point to it as an example of how austerity doesn't work. Other peoples point to it as in a way it does work and what needs to be done, that there's no choice but austerity measures, and people need to take the bitter medicine in order to have growth.
<p />
<p />Now joining us to talk about all of this is Engelbert Stockhammer. He's a professor of economics at the school of economics, Kingston University, in the U.K. His research areas include macroeconomics, applied econometrics, and financial systems. His research work includes the books Unemployment in Europe and the edited 2011 volume A Modern Guide to Keynesian Macroeconomics and Economic Policies. And he joins us from the PERI institute in Amherst, Massachusetts. Thanks very much for joining us.
<p />
<p />ENGELBERT STOCKHAMMER, ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, KINGSTON UNIV.: Thank you.
<p />
<p />JAY: So what do you think Americans have to learn from the European crisis?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: I think there's really two things that Americans can learn. The first is that austerity policies don't work, and the second is that it's extremely important that monetary policy and fiscal policy work together and not in opposite directions.
<p />
<p />Let me elaborate briefly on the first one, that austerity policies don't work. The matter of the fact is that European economies actually didn't have much of a debt problem prior to the crisis. After 2008 and 2009, when the sovereign debt crisis in Europe started, government debt levels started increasing sharply. Now, countries like Greece have had three years or more of austerity policies, and not only has GDP been declining by more than 15&#160;percent and real wages been falling, it is also that government debt has not fallen, but it has increased further.
<p />
<p />But even if you look closer to the U.S., if you look at Great Britain, which is not part of the euro crisis, Great Britain has had one of the most aggressive austerity programs outside Southern Europe, and the economy has essentially flatlined. And, again, it's not only that GDP growth, economic growth is not getting active again; it is also that government debt is not increasing.
<p />
<p />The second thing that Americans can learn is that it's very important that fiscal policy (that is, government expenditure) as well as monetary policy (that is, central bank policy) work in the same direction. Now, to some extent, for some time that has happened in the U.S. But in Europe, the policy mix has been particularly dysfunctional, in the sense that the European Central Bank has not given the necessary support to peripheral European countries, and that has made the crisis a lot worse than it would have to be.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, if you go to the argument taking place on austerity in the presidential elections (although both of the main candidates buy into the idea that after this election there'll have to be a massive takedown or reduction of the American debt, and so they both kind of agree with a certain amount of austerity, but certainly Romney is for a more extreme version of that), the argument simply is it will free up more capital. You know, less government, less government expenditure frees the private sector to invest. And, yeah, there's pain. You've got to take the bitter pill to get to the growth. What's wrong with that theory?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: It's wrong in the sense that it assumes that private spending will suddenly get going if governments only spent less. That might be true in normal times—it probably isn't even true in normal times, but it's certainly not true in a debt overhang recession.
<p />
<p />The situation that we have now is that a lot of households are still underwater. They certainly have enormous amounts of debt. And you have a private business sector that on the one hand also has substantial amounts of debt, but it is facing a private sector that is not spending on consumption. So, in other words, as long as the private sector is saving, there's really not much that the government can do other than run big deficits.
<p />
<p />The only way that—the effect that it would have if the government tried to reduce expenditures is that it would reduce private expenditure even more, it would turn the stagnation that we're presently in into something like the Great Depression of the 1930s.
<p />
<p />JAY: The argument that, for example, Romney camp make—and to some extent the Obama camp makes, 'cause there's the rumor that President Obama has said that his plan, if elected, will be: for every $1 of increased taxes on the wealthy, he's going to find $2 of cuts. If that's true, then he's planning for, essentially, an overall reduction in government spending. But the argument coming from both quarters there is that the debt is simply unmanageable. Romney talks about, you know, it'd be, like, virtually a sin to pass on this much debt to future generations and such. Why isn't that true?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: It ignores that we're talking about the national economy, that in a national economy, certain accounting identities have to hold. In other words, if the private sector is saving a lot, there are some other [incompr.] that have to run a deficit. One sector's surpluses have to be another sector's deficit. Therefore, as long as the private sector is not spending, there's no way that the government can reduce its deficit.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, this point of view is certainly well known to European leaders and people heading up the European Central Bank, and certainly the German political and financial leaders. They don't seem to agree with this. They seem quite committed to this path of austerity, and there seems to be no compromise towards Greece or Spain or some of the other peripheral countries. Why do you think they don't get this? 'Cause the logic of what you're seeing seems fairly obvious.
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: It is a very good question, why they're not getting it, and indeed it's a very painful question/issue for Europe. It is the case that European economic policy has for a long time now been in a very neoliberal mindset. It's a neoliberal or, if you want, monetarist mindset, in the sense that European economic policies have at its very core been determined to reduce government activities. I mean, the Maastricht criteria to Growth and Stability Pact had as one of the key conditions an upper limit on government expenditure and on government debt. So the assumption was that it was the public sector that created economic instability. Now, in fact it was the private sector that created economic instability.
<p />
<p />European economic policies were also neoliberal in the sense that they supported capital flows across Europe. What we did end up with was property bubbles in peripheral Europe. In the southern European countries and in Ireland these property bubbles and asset price bubbles were fueled, among other things, by massive capital inflows from the central countries.
<p />
<p />And on the other hand, you have countries like Germany and Austria that developed an export-led growth model. So instead of creating a growth model where wages would grow enough, such that people could finance consumption expenditure out of it, there was really two growth models. One growth model essentially operated by rising house prices and high household debt, meaning it was a debt-led growth model, and on the other hand, you have the Germanic model that essentially accepted a flatlining domestic demand and created GDP growth via export surpluses.
<p />
<p />JAY: And this is essentially what you're saying is wages were either stagnant or it sometimes even went down a little bit.
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: German aggregate demand in the decade prior to the crisis was essentially flat internally. There have been studies that show that more than three-quarters of all growth in Germany in the decade prior [to this] was driven by export surpluses. It is only in the crisis itself that Germany started to have a good growth performance, and that to a significant extent has to do, on the one hand, with the fact that they had a fairly flexible program of shortening working hours during the recession, and the fact that they're—in their export orientation, happened to be focused on the growth markets, which is the Asian markets and China.
<p />
<p />JAY: And they seem to be putting—if the export model is their hope—and they've kind of more or less wiped out or destroyed demand in the peripheral countries of Europe, which were the big customers for German products particularly. So they're putting all their eggs in the Asian-Chinese-Indian basket.
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: That is what they're presently doing. For a long time, the export surpluses for Germany essentially came from the euro area. Germany is still doing most of its trade within the euro area. So whatever happens in the euro area, that meant a great deal for Germany.
<p />
<p />But yes, Germany is increasingly orienting towards Asia. And Germany is essentially now recommending its own growth model to the other European countries. But don't forget that the euro area overall is a relatively closed economic system. So, in other words, one country's export surplus is within the euro area and another country's deficit. Therefore, logically, it just doesn't make sense to try to implement the German model in the euro area overall.
<p />
<p />JAY: Alright. So the guys running this policy are not fools. And if you—from what I've been told by economists I've talked to, the market in Asia is not nearly—it's a lot of people, but in terms of real aggregate demand, it doesn't deal anything close to what either the American or European consumer market was. So where does all this lead?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: It is certainly the case that in terms of volume, these markets are in no position to substitute for American or European markets. But in terms of growth rates, they were the main areas to which you could have export growth.
<p />
<p />JAY: And so does this—it may be terrible for European and American workers, but in terms of if you're a financier or a holder of lots of capital in either Europe or North America, does this work as a strategy?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: That is what I was trying to say. It will work for a short time, but not in the long term. In the long term, if an economy wants to grow, you have to make sure that domestic expenditures are also growing, and that at the very core requires that consumption expenditures are growing.
<p />
<p />Now, there is essentially two ways that you can do that, and only one of them is sustainable. The sustainable way is that you have wage growth in line with GDP growth, and thus you can have a stable growth of consumption expenditures.
<p />
<p />The second way is what the Anglo-Saxon countries have tried in their debt-led growth model, and that was essentially that they had a fairly flat real-wage level, but an increasing level of household debt. And a growing part of household expenditures were financed out of increasing debt levels. Now, that is clearly not a sustainable growth model, and it essentially is working as long as you have property price bubbles or asset price bubbles. And that is why the U.S. and the U.K. are finding themselves in such a difficult position to reignite their economies, essentially because you have a huge debt overhang. And you have the huge debt overhang because wages have not been growing in line with GDP.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, I—at the time of the G20 meetings in Toronto, I went through the final statement that all the countries signed on to, and it was mostly about how to deal with the economic crisis. And I looked for the word wages in the document. I couldn't find the word wages used a single time. There was some reference to how China should do something to increase domestic demand, but zero when it came to rising wages in Europe and North America. And you certainly have not heard the word wages once in the presidential campaign, except from Romney, who says he wants people to have more take-home pay—but he means because he's going to lower taxes, not because wages are going to go up. So, assuming the discourse doesn't change in North America or Europe and there's nothing done that does facilitate higher wages, then what?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: Then we're in for a decade or two of stagnation. And whether that stagnation turns into a depression essentially depends on how much of austerity policy will have a fiscal policy.
<p />
<p />But the matter of the fact is that the structural reason why consumption expenditures have not been growing in large parts of the developed countries is exactly that wages have not been growing, and therefore consumption expenditure can't grow. There is a strong tendency to look at wages only as a cost factor—in other words, as decreasing competitiveness. But Keynes already pointed out in the 1930s in a discussion of the Great Depression that wages, of course, are a source of demand, and if you cut wages, you're cutting off the branch on which you're sitting. Therefore, the only way that you can have a sustainable recovery is also if you have sustainable wage growth.
<p />
<p />JAY: Thanks very much for joining us, Engelbert.
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: Thank you.
<p />
<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
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Austerity and Low Wages will Lead to Years of Recession
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2012-11-06
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Austerity and Low Wages will Lead to Years of Recession
<p>Engelbert Stockhammer is a Professor of Economics at the School of Economics, Kingston University in the U.K. His research areas included macroeconomics, applied econometrics, and financial systems. His research work includes the books Unemployment in Europe (2004), and the edited 2011 volume, A Modern Guide to Keynesian Macroeconomics and Economic Policies. Engelbert is also a member of the coordination committee of the Research Network on Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policy.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore.
<p />
<p />There's a lot of discussion taking place in the presidential elections about Europe. Some people point to it as an example of how austerity doesn't work. Other peoples point to it as in a way it does work and what needs to be done, that there's no choice but austerity measures, and people need to take the bitter medicine in order to have growth.
<p />
<p />Now joining us to talk about all of this is Engelbert Stockhammer. He's a professor of economics at the school of economics, Kingston University, in the U.K. His research areas include macroeconomics, applied econometrics, and financial systems. His research work includes the books Unemployment in Europe and the edited 2011 volume A Modern Guide to Keynesian Macroeconomics and Economic Policies. And he joins us from the PERI institute in Amherst, Massachusetts. Thanks very much for joining us.
<p />
<p />ENGELBERT STOCKHAMMER, ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, KINGSTON UNIV.: Thank you.
<p />
<p />JAY: So what do you think Americans have to learn from the European crisis?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: I think there's really two things that Americans can learn. The first is that austerity policies don't work, and the second is that it's extremely important that monetary policy and fiscal policy work together and not in opposite directions.
<p />
<p />Let me elaborate briefly on the first one, that austerity policies don't work. The matter of the fact is that European economies actually didn't have much of a debt problem prior to the crisis. After 2008 and 2009, when the sovereign debt crisis in Europe started, government debt levels started increasing sharply. Now, countries like Greece have had three years or more of austerity policies, and not only has GDP been declining by more than 15&#160;percent and real wages been falling, it is also that government debt has not fallen, but it has increased further.
<p />
<p />But even if you look closer to the U.S., if you look at Great Britain, which is not part of the euro crisis, Great Britain has had one of the most aggressive austerity programs outside Southern Europe, and the economy has essentially flatlined. And, again, it's not only that GDP growth, economic growth is not getting active again; it is also that government debt is not increasing.
<p />
<p />The second thing that Americans can learn is that it's very important that fiscal policy (that is, government expenditure) as well as monetary policy (that is, central bank policy) work in the same direction. Now, to some extent, for some time that has happened in the U.S. But in Europe, the policy mix has been particularly dysfunctional, in the sense that the European Central Bank has not given the necessary support to peripheral European countries, and that has made the crisis a lot worse than it would have to be.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, if you go to the argument taking place on austerity in the presidential elections (although both of the main candidates buy into the idea that after this election there'll have to be a massive takedown or reduction of the American debt, and so they both kind of agree with a certain amount of austerity, but certainly Romney is for a more extreme version of that), the argument simply is it will free up more capital. You know, less government, less government expenditure frees the private sector to invest. And, yeah, there's pain. You've got to take the bitter pill to get to the growth. What's wrong with that theory?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: It's wrong in the sense that it assumes that private spending will suddenly get going if governments only spent less. That might be true in normal times—it probably isn't even true in normal times, but it's certainly not true in a debt overhang recession.
<p />
<p />The situation that we have now is that a lot of households are still underwater. They certainly have enormous amounts of debt. And you have a private business sector that on the one hand also has substantial amounts of debt, but it is facing a private sector that is not spending on consumption. So, in other words, as long as the private sector is saving, there's really not much that the government can do other than run big deficits.
<p />
<p />The only way that—the effect that it would have if the government tried to reduce expenditures is that it would reduce private expenditure even more, it would turn the stagnation that we're presently in into something like the Great Depression of the 1930s.
<p />
<p />JAY: The argument that, for example, Romney camp make—and to some extent the Obama camp makes, 'cause there's the rumor that President Obama has said that his plan, if elected, will be: for every $1 of increased taxes on the wealthy, he's going to find $2 of cuts. If that's true, then he's planning for, essentially, an overall reduction in government spending. But the argument coming from both quarters there is that the debt is simply unmanageable. Romney talks about, you know, it'd be, like, virtually a sin to pass on this much debt to future generations and such. Why isn't that true?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: It ignores that we're talking about the national economy, that in a national economy, certain accounting identities have to hold. In other words, if the private sector is saving a lot, there are some other [incompr.] that have to run a deficit. One sector's surpluses have to be another sector's deficit. Therefore, as long as the private sector is not spending, there's no way that the government can reduce its deficit.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, this point of view is certainly well known to European leaders and people heading up the European Central Bank, and certainly the German political and financial leaders. They don't seem to agree with this. They seem quite committed to this path of austerity, and there seems to be no compromise towards Greece or Spain or some of the other peripheral countries. Why do you think they don't get this? 'Cause the logic of what you're seeing seems fairly obvious.
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: It is a very good question, why they're not getting it, and indeed it's a very painful question/issue for Europe. It is the case that European economic policy has for a long time now been in a very neoliberal mindset. It's a neoliberal or, if you want, monetarist mindset, in the sense that European economic policies have at its very core been determined to reduce government activities. I mean, the Maastricht criteria to Growth and Stability Pact had as one of the key conditions an upper limit on government expenditure and on government debt. So the assumption was that it was the public sector that created economic instability. Now, in fact it was the private sector that created economic instability.
<p />
<p />European economic policies were also neoliberal in the sense that they supported capital flows across Europe. What we did end up with was property bubbles in peripheral Europe. In the southern European countries and in Ireland these property bubbles and asset price bubbles were fueled, among other things, by massive capital inflows from the central countries.
<p />
<p />And on the other hand, you have countries like Germany and Austria that developed an export-led growth model. So instead of creating a growth model where wages would grow enough, such that people could finance consumption expenditure out of it, there was really two growth models. One growth model essentially operated by rising house prices and high household debt, meaning it was a debt-led growth model, and on the other hand, you have the Germanic model that essentially accepted a flatlining domestic demand and created GDP growth via export surpluses.
<p />
<p />JAY: And this is essentially what you're saying is wages were either stagnant or it sometimes even went down a little bit.
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: German aggregate demand in the decade prior to the crisis was essentially flat internally. There have been studies that show that more than three-quarters of all growth in Germany in the decade prior [to this] was driven by export surpluses. It is only in the crisis itself that Germany started to have a good growth performance, and that to a significant extent has to do, on the one hand, with the fact that they had a fairly flexible program of shortening working hours during the recession, and the fact that they're—in their export orientation, happened to be focused on the growth markets, which is the Asian markets and China.
<p />
<p />JAY: And they seem to be putting—if the export model is their hope—and they've kind of more or less wiped out or destroyed demand in the peripheral countries of Europe, which were the big customers for German products particularly. So they're putting all their eggs in the Asian-Chinese-Indian basket.
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: That is what they're presently doing. For a long time, the export surpluses for Germany essentially came from the euro area. Germany is still doing most of its trade within the euro area. So whatever happens in the euro area, that meant a great deal for Germany.
<p />
<p />But yes, Germany is increasingly orienting towards Asia. And Germany is essentially now recommending its own growth model to the other European countries. But don't forget that the euro area overall is a relatively closed economic system. So, in other words, one country's export surplus is within the euro area and another country's deficit. Therefore, logically, it just doesn't make sense to try to implement the German model in the euro area overall.
<p />
<p />JAY: Alright. So the guys running this policy are not fools. And if you—from what I've been told by economists I've talked to, the market in Asia is not nearly—it's a lot of people, but in terms of real aggregate demand, it doesn't deal anything close to what either the American or European consumer market was. So where does all this lead?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: It is certainly the case that in terms of volume, these markets are in no position to substitute for American or European markets. But in terms of growth rates, they were the main areas to which you could have export growth.
<p />
<p />JAY: And so does this—it may be terrible for European and American workers, but in terms of if you're a financier or a holder of lots of capital in either Europe or North America, does this work as a strategy?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: That is what I was trying to say. It will work for a short time, but not in the long term. In the long term, if an economy wants to grow, you have to make sure that domestic expenditures are also growing, and that at the very core requires that consumption expenditures are growing.
<p />
<p />Now, there is essentially two ways that you can do that, and only one of them is sustainable. The sustainable way is that you have wage growth in line with GDP growth, and thus you can have a stable growth of consumption expenditures.
<p />
<p />The second way is what the Anglo-Saxon countries have tried in their debt-led growth model, and that was essentially that they had a fairly flat real-wage level, but an increasing level of household debt. And a growing part of household expenditures were financed out of increasing debt levels. Now, that is clearly not a sustainable growth model, and it essentially is working as long as you have property price bubbles or asset price bubbles. And that is why the U.S. and the U.K. are finding themselves in such a difficult position to reignite their economies, essentially because you have a huge debt overhang. And you have the huge debt overhang because wages have not been growing in line with GDP.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, I—at the time of the G20 meetings in Toronto, I went through the final statement that all the countries signed on to, and it was mostly about how to deal with the economic crisis. And I looked for the word wages in the document. I couldn't find the word wages used a single time. There was some reference to how China should do something to increase domestic demand, but zero when it came to rising wages in Europe and North America. And you certainly have not heard the word wages once in the presidential campaign, except from Romney, who says he wants people to have more take-home pay—but he means because he's going to lower taxes, not because wages are going to go up. So, assuming the discourse doesn't change in North America or Europe and there's nothing done that does facilitate higher wages, then what?
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: Then we're in for a decade or two of stagnation. And whether that stagnation turns into a depression essentially depends on how much of austerity policy will have a fiscal policy.
<p />
<p />But the matter of the fact is that the structural reason why consumption expenditures have not been growing in large parts of the developed countries is exactly that wages have not been growing, and therefore consumption expenditure can't grow. There is a strong tendency to look at wages only as a cost factor—in other words, as decreasing competitiveness. But Keynes already pointed out in the 1930s in a discussion of the Great Depression that wages, of course, are a source of demand, and if you cut wages, you're cutting off the branch on which you're sitting. Therefore, the only way that you can have a sustainable recovery is also if you have sustainable wage growth.
<p />
<p />JAY: Thanks very much for joining us, Engelbert.
<p />
<p />STOCKHAMMER: Thank you.
<p />
<p />JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
| 4,741 |
<p>A few nights ago, I sank onto the couch next to the dog, and popped “The Missiles of October,” a 1974 made-for-TV docu-drama about the Cuban missile crisis, into the DVD player. This is a behind the scenes teleplay, based upon Robert F Kennedy’s book about the two week period in October 1962, when his brother, President John F. Kennedy, wrestled with the moral dilemmas presented by the shocking news that Russian Premier, Nikita Khrushchev was installing surface to surface ballistic missiles in Cuba.</p>
<p>This fascinating portrayal of historical events is not relaxing family fare. It was first produced as a TV film in 1974 and it is not to be confused with the much prettier Kevin Costner Hollywood production of 2000 titled “Thirteen Days,” which is more loosely based upon the same book.</p>
<p>Like the 2000 Hollywood movie, the 1974 TV dramatization conveniently leaves out the context of the crisis. There is no acknowledgement of any U.S. provocation for the Soviet duplicity, no mention of prior U.S. support for Fidel Castro the friendly free market dictator who was subsequently banished to the status of an evil totalitarian after he seized American corporate property. (Sound familiar?) Similarly, there is no mention of Operation Mongoose (a well documented U.S. plan to assassinate Castro with poison cigars, pills, pens and even a tainted wetsuit), and only passing reference is made to the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of the previous year, or of the trade and travel embargo initiated by former President Eisenhower, a nonsensical affectation which survives to this day.</p>
<p>One virtue of an anemic made-for-TV visual presentation is that there are no scenic panoramas, no languid love scenes to distract the viewer from the political debates and the philosophical dialogue. The ideas being thrown about, in this story, are adult themes, presented without any sugary overlay of star crossed lovers, and cute kiddies in peril.</p>
<p>In so far as the dialogue of this movie and the text of Robert Kennedy’s book are presumed to represent an accurate rendering of the dialogue that actually took place among the members of Ex Comm (Executive Committee of the National Security Council), then one must conclude that we are very lucky to have survived that fiasco. The actual audio recordings of some of these conversations are available from the national archives, and they are just as shocking as the televised recreations.</p>
<p>Our own Donald Rumsfeld, and his company of cluster bombers, have been content so far to merely generate a few thousand corpses in their mission to eradicate Evil from a scorched Earth. Their 1962 predecessors, by contrast, put forth plans that called for tens of millions of collateral deaths as a reasonable price to pay for punishing the uppity and evil Mr. Khrushchev. Starting with the entire population of Cuba and spreading immediately up the Eastern Seaboard, where receiving retaliatory strikes was anticipated as a foregone conclusion, the civilian losses on all sides from a nuclear exchange would have been horrendous.</p>
<p>Almost incidental to these civilian casualties, Cuba was equipped with tactical nuclear weapons, which could have turned the invading armada of American troop ships into a giant waterspout on a boiling sea.</p>
<p>This human toll was acceptable to the Cold War warriors of 1962, but apparently it was not acceptable to the Kennedys. In spite of their personal ambitions, these two politicians were apparently held back by pangs of conscience – what we sometimes call principles.</p>
<p>In his book, “Thirteen Days,” Robert Kennedy recalls how General LeMay and the Joint Chiefs wanted to launch swift, decisive, and deadly military action, capitalizing upon the element of surprise that was certain to evaporate in a matter of days if they didn’t act swiftly.</p>
<p>More mature minds called for a blockade to stop the construction of missile sites, backed up with verbal demands for their removal. This plan would, at least, provide an opportunity for the Russian Premier to back out of his tactical blunder. One of the more mature minds was the civilian Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, who “became the blockade’s strongest advocate,” according to Robert Kennedy, even as he supervised the military preparations for Armageddon.</p>
<p>Kennedy wrote, “I supported McNamara’s position in favor of a blockade. This was not from a deep conviction that it would be a successful course of action, but a feeling that it had more flexibility and fewer liabilities than a military attack. Most importantly, like others, I could not accept the idea that the United States would rain bombs on Cuba, killing thousands and thousands of civilians in a surprise attack. Maybe the alternatives were not very palatable, but I simply did not see how we could accept that course of action for our country.”</p>
<p>At that time, the American arsenal of nuclear weapons dwarfed Khrushchev’s operational inventory by a factor of ten to one. The result of a nuclear exchange might reasonably have been expected to leave the Americans slightly less dead than their Cuban, European and Soviet counterparts. Nonetheless President Kennedy and his young brother clearly had second thoughts about being the Goliath who attacked David, without warning.</p>
<p>Robert Kennedy argued that “whatever validity the military and political arguments were for an attack in preference to a blockade, America’s traditions and history would not permit such a course of action. Whatever military reasons he (hawkish Secretary of State, Dean Acheson) and others could marshal, they were nevertheless, in the last analysis, advocating a surprise attack by a very large nation against a very small one. This, I said, could not be undertaken by the U.S. if we were to maintain our moral position at home and around the globe. Our struggle against Communism throughout the world was far more than physical survival – it had as its essence our heritage and our ideals, and these we must not destroy.</p>
<p>“We spent more time on this moral question during the first five days than on any other single matter … We struggled and fought with one another and with our consciences, for it was a question that deeply troubled us all.”</p>
<p>With this historical perspective in mind, one has to wonder about the emotional maturity of our nation today, and particularly of the current occupants of the White House. If we were presented with such an excuse today, a perfect pretext for another lop-sided and glorious military victory over a weaker nation, such as China for instance, who among our current cast of prayer breakfast politicians possesses the emotional intelligence, and the courageous energy necessary to engage a room full of warriors in a mature and principled discussion of national morality?</p>
<p>The Kennedys, in spite of all their faults and their allegiance to American empire building, were still able to muster enough courage to support principles that cast them in the role of peaceniks among the generals, a role that cost them some serious political capital when they eventually revealed the crisis and their action plan to a hostile Congress.</p>
<p>Kennedy once remarked that those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. He understood the kind of political forces that created our own September 11th crisis, even though his own regime suppressed peaceful revolutions when it should not have. Vietnam was, after all, part of the Kennedy legacy, but the peaceful resolution of the Cuban missile crises, with a critical helping hand from Premier Khrushchev, was one of John Kennedy’s proudest moments. The world might be a far different place today, had cooler heads not prevailed in October 1962.</p>
<p>This is the role of principled adults. Courageous grownups have some moral boundary beyond which they know they should not go, no matter what the political payback, no matter how fearsome the face of the “enemy.”</p>
<p>Today, an adoring press tells us that our country’s Commander in Chief has posted a scoreboard on his wall, where he scrawls large black Xs across the glowering faces of his vanquished enemies. Presumably, some CIA flunky stationed a half world away, sifts the ashes of a primitive civilization that has been burned beyond recognition. He searches through teeth and bones for forensic evidence of trophy kills to lift the spirits our warrior chief. Speculative reports of such victories also help an adoring press fill those empty column inches around their Lexus ads.</p>
<p>Each time one of Bush’s “daisy cutters” annihilates a valley, in hopes of incinerating a few more of the “Evil Ones” amongst the expendable peasants, one can visualize the President reaching for his magic marker in anticipation of recording a fresh kill. This first phase of the endless war is just another sporting event for the fraternity boy who was privileged to sit out the Vietnam War, safely installed by family connections in a Texas National Guard unit. Meanwhile, the sons of less rich and powerful families were getting their legs blown off, protecting American interests overseas.</p>
<p>Don’t look for principles or moral courage in this White House. It doesn’t live there anymore. The concept of moral boundaries, within the world’s most powerful empire, has deteriorated into a preoccupation with draping modesty curtains over the bosoms of aluminum statues in the Hall of Justice. This peek-a-boo childishness reflects the maturity of American leadership. In this respect, we have become the new Taliban. Will the Army Corps of Engineers demolition team soon fan out across the country, with a list of other public works of art that offend the high priests on the Potomac? Can such an empire be long for this world?</p>
<p>If the President’s popularity polls are to be believed, only ten percent of Americans are able to recognize an adult conversation about principles anymore. The other ninety percent would have been appalled by the Kennedys’ lack of “character.” The Kennedys, after all, failed to cover those offensive bosoms.</p>
<p>Apparently, ninety percent of Americans are too busy with playground peek-a-boo games to notice any logical disconnect between a crime carried out by nineteen criminals who were mostly Saudi Arabian, and the resulting hellfire of retribution that was unleashed upon thousands of Afghan peasants living under the brutal Taliban government. Americans seem to be unconcerned that this same Taliban government was the one which American money had imposed upon the Afghans in a previous, equally unprincipled crusade.</p>
<p>Ninety percent of America’s citizens cannot see any logical disconnect between labeling foreign trained killers as “terrorists” and calling American trained and financed death squads “a stabilizing force.” Even when the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, and dozens of other thugs whom the U.S. has supported over the years, got re-labeled and recycled as “terrorists,” ninety percent of us still lacked the guts to question the obvious fickleness of this unprincipled labeling process. This script formula has proven so successful that the writers are busy converting even more of our “allies” into “terrorists.” This will provide fresh venues for TV’s newest soap opera, “The War on Terrorism.”</p>
<p>Ninety percent of us were apparently impressed by our leader’s public demonstration of moral agonizing over the “right to life” question as it relates to a few stem cells in a petri dish. His photo-op hand wringing scenes starred the same ham actor who remains totally unruffled by the arguments of people with real principles, people who plead for him to recognize the right to life as it applies to the already born children of the world, including Afghan and Palestinian children. The “right to life” now applies exclusively to microscopic organisms in petri dishes, tiny new theoretical citizens who lack the mental capacity to challenge the absurdities spewing forth from the capital.</p>
<p>Ninety percent of us apparently think that a multi-million dollar peek through a While House keyhole, to catch a Democratic president with his pants down, was essential to returning moral integrity to the White House.</p>
<p>Curiously, that same ninety percent feels that secret meetings between our Republican administration and Enron gift bearers, meetings at which the corporate mouthpieces dictated our latest national energy policy into the vice president’s Dictaphone, were a private affair between consenting adults. These meetings will impact the entire air breathing, oil importing, and oil producing populations of the planet for decades to come, but ninety percent of us think that it’s none of our business who serviced whom during those pay-to-play White House huddles. We do not question the moral right of our rulers to sell public policy in private transactions. After all, the lobbyists and their congressional bedmates have carefully written the laws to permit this form of prostitution.</p>
<p>That is why our foreign policies, the same policies that produce and provoke terrorists around the world, support no consistent set of principles. U.S. foreign relations represent the composite result of public policy purchases by competing bidders. Unfortunately, the public pays the price, in skyrocketing national defense costs, while the profits are pocketed in private transactions.</p>
<p>Ninety percent of us will accept the label of “war” whenever it is conveniently applied to justify an unchecked application of force, or whenever it is politically necessary to excuse outrageous behavior. An “America at War” is an America that is exempt from all the inconvenient restrictions of civilized behavior. On the other hand, the resulting war’s prisoners are not “prisoners of war” because this use of the war label would subject our government to the same expectations of civility that it demands from its opponents during real “wartime.” The principles behind the Geneva Conventions are beyond the mental grasp of ninety percent of us.</p>
<p>Ninety percent of us think that “stabilization” is a noble goal for our foreign policy. The Nazis had a grand scheme for stabilizing Europe. Some Americans of my father’s generation, many of whom were motivated by principles, destabilized the Nazi concentration camps. Death, oppression, imprisonment, torture, and the endless repetition of Big Lies are the tools most commonly used by “stabilizing forces.” Such forces seek to contain the status quo within blocks of concrete and rolls of razor wire.</p>
<p>The most stable citizenry is one which no longer has any rights. It never complains. Today’s Americans don’t like complainers. Our rulers are now in the process of stabilizing America. More prisons will soon be needed to contain the stabilized populations of America. We are becoming what we have embraced all over the world.</p>
<p>Why should “stability” be an acceptable substitute for the pursuit of such principles as freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and shared access to our common natural heritage of clean water, clear air and life sustaining habitat? Why should “terrorists” be condemned for attempts to poison us, while General Electric and Enron receive public subsidies for producing the same results? Those who oppose this greedy poisoning of America are called “radicals and environmental extremists.” Only the poisons injected by “Islamic extremists” are “evil.” The PCBs dumped into our rivers, and the nuclear toxins dumped onto my own state’s pristine deserts, are not “evil.” They are proof of our “stable economy.” Parts of the Hanford Reach, our newest national monument, will be stable and sterile for uncountable generations to come.</p>
<p>Why should American taxpayers provide foreign thugs with the weapons necessary to secure the perimeters of the world’s newest concentration camps, in the name of maintaining stability? Were the Afghans really better off when American tax money “stabilized” them under the Taliban regime? Now they are being “stabilized” again, under a new regime. If any principles are applied to this war, they won’t come from the American camp. We are already racing off to stage the next grand performance. The sights of our robot weapons are already trained on some other primitive society that needs to be “stabilized” for an appreciative press corps.</p>
<p>What principle was served by “stabilizing” Iraq under the thumb of the Shah, and then later stabilizing it under the fist of Saddam Hussein? What good will be accomplished if Saddam is exiled and Iraq is stabilized under some new murderous regime, again imposed by American military might acting without any guiding principles?</p>
<p>If no principles are ever applied to such work, what is the point of it? What good comes from stabilizing three million desperate Palestinian prisoners behind barbed wire barriers and American artillery?</p>
<p>Where are the people who will inspire the tomorrow’s world with their moral courage and their mental command of principles? Where is tomorrow’s world leadership going to come from? They probably won’t come from the most powerful empire the world has ever known. We can’t muster enough moral muscle to shut down our own terrorist training camp, the School of the Americas.</p>
<p>The United States of America is acting more and more like a has-been, an empire that has peaked and which now has developed round heels on its Reeboks. The fervor for reform, so brazen, bold and brash in the early seventies, has now slumped into a media induced stupor. Ninety percent of us are plugged into intravenous TV news. We are content to go along in order to get along. If the only measure of our greatness is our accumulation of hot tubs and luxury cars, then we are on top of the world. Why rock the corporate yacht? Why ask any questions?</p>
<p>Fortunately, for the rest of the world, there are courageous new voices rising up in unexpected places. Even though America is no longer governed by men with the conscience of the dead Kennedys, no longer restrained by men and women with the maturity to think twice about incinerating whole nations for political expedience, there are still hopeful signs of a moral rebirth elsewhere in the world. It is deep winter in America, but there are signs of a spiritual spring elsewhere on the planet.</p>
<p>In Israel, for instance, two hundred thirty two military reservists have risked their careers, their reputations, and even their personal liberty to take a moral stand against the amoral deeds of their own war mongering government. <a href="http://www.seruv.org.il/defaultEng.asp" type="external">They have signed a petition refusing to take part in war crimes against Palestinian civilians.</a> While these young patriots pledge their continuing support to the defense of Israel, they also publicly pledge that they “shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.”</p>
<p>These men of uncommon courage are combat veterans. They are not the Bush-Cheney brand of flag wavers who wear their patriotism proudly on their sleeves while hiding their cowardice behind Ivy League family privilege. The Israeli Army Reserve is not the Texas National Guard. It’s not a babysitting service for sons of the rich and famous. It is a real army, one that sees real combat, and takes real casualties. These Israeli soldiers have put their names on the line and put themselves in harm’s way, to stand up for principle.</p>
<p>There are even faint signs of a spiritual awakening in Afghanistan, where other nations, acting through the U.N. have shown an interest in nurturing the growth of a more modern civilization on this ancient battlefield. Of course, ninety percent of Americans have little patience for such “women’s work.” Our push button gladiators are already heading over the hill to cross swords with the Axis of Evil.</p>
<p>Around the world, from Geneva to Davos, there is a new stirring of young idealists, men and women willing to pick up the torch that has been cast aside by the ninety percent of Americans who “have better things to do.” The new movers and shakers are not content to slap flag decals on their SUVs. They are dogging the heels of the world’s power brokers as they crisscross the globe. These are the youngsters whom America dismisses as “activists,” “extremists,” “radicals,” and “protestors.” Without any help from us, they are demanding to be treated like real citizens of the world. Many of these troublemakers are pushing against great odds to promote those very same citizenship rights that ninety percent of Americans have discarded as being too messy, to much trouble.</p>
<p>These troublemakers are not welcome in America. We are a one party democracy, composed of cowering Democrats and Republican wannabes. We politely confine our civic impulses to the comfort zone of Rotary lunches and Chamber of Commerce dinners.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, out beyond the limited visual range of America’s well coiffed Eyewitness News Team, the real world is stirring from its slumber. Radical, unauthorized thinking is already spreading under the heavy blanket of winter snow.</p>
<p>The carefully contrived “stability” of prisons built with bricks of moral complacency and the mortar of propaganda will slowly but inexorably yield to the constant assault of principles. If water drips long enough on stone, the stone eventually yields. The principles of liberty and justice are simple, basic, and universally desired. They wear down the hardest of hearts.</p>
<p>It was the relentless onslaught of these ideals, not the empty rhetoric of some cold war warrior, which undermined the foundation of the Berlin Wall and brought it crashing down. East Germany was destabilized by principles stirring in the hearts of men and women of courage. It can happen elsewhere. The laws of physics and political maturation don’t change.</p>
<p>While America retreats into its second childhood, other cultures are growing up and learning to think for themselves. Those people who are more morally vigorous will take our place. Ninety percent of us will be content to merely watch history unfold on our big screen TVs. Real citizenship is hard work, better left to the young, the healthy, and the politically conscious.</p>
<p>Ninety percent of us are like our leaders. We are content with our Bud Light and our pretzels.</p>
<p>George Lewandowski is the content director for <a href="http://www.yellowtimes.org/" type="external">YellowTimes</a>. He encourages your comments: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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Empire in Decline
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https://counterpunch.org/2002/02/18/empire-in-decline/
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2002-02-18
| 4left
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Empire in Decline
<p>A few nights ago, I sank onto the couch next to the dog, and popped “The Missiles of October,” a 1974 made-for-TV docu-drama about the Cuban missile crisis, into the DVD player. This is a behind the scenes teleplay, based upon Robert F Kennedy’s book about the two week period in October 1962, when his brother, President John F. Kennedy, wrestled with the moral dilemmas presented by the shocking news that Russian Premier, Nikita Khrushchev was installing surface to surface ballistic missiles in Cuba.</p>
<p>This fascinating portrayal of historical events is not relaxing family fare. It was first produced as a TV film in 1974 and it is not to be confused with the much prettier Kevin Costner Hollywood production of 2000 titled “Thirteen Days,” which is more loosely based upon the same book.</p>
<p>Like the 2000 Hollywood movie, the 1974 TV dramatization conveniently leaves out the context of the crisis. There is no acknowledgement of any U.S. provocation for the Soviet duplicity, no mention of prior U.S. support for Fidel Castro the friendly free market dictator who was subsequently banished to the status of an evil totalitarian after he seized American corporate property. (Sound familiar?) Similarly, there is no mention of Operation Mongoose (a well documented U.S. plan to assassinate Castro with poison cigars, pills, pens and even a tainted wetsuit), and only passing reference is made to the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of the previous year, or of the trade and travel embargo initiated by former President Eisenhower, a nonsensical affectation which survives to this day.</p>
<p>One virtue of an anemic made-for-TV visual presentation is that there are no scenic panoramas, no languid love scenes to distract the viewer from the political debates and the philosophical dialogue. The ideas being thrown about, in this story, are adult themes, presented without any sugary overlay of star crossed lovers, and cute kiddies in peril.</p>
<p>In so far as the dialogue of this movie and the text of Robert Kennedy’s book are presumed to represent an accurate rendering of the dialogue that actually took place among the members of Ex Comm (Executive Committee of the National Security Council), then one must conclude that we are very lucky to have survived that fiasco. The actual audio recordings of some of these conversations are available from the national archives, and they are just as shocking as the televised recreations.</p>
<p>Our own Donald Rumsfeld, and his company of cluster bombers, have been content so far to merely generate a few thousand corpses in their mission to eradicate Evil from a scorched Earth. Their 1962 predecessors, by contrast, put forth plans that called for tens of millions of collateral deaths as a reasonable price to pay for punishing the uppity and evil Mr. Khrushchev. Starting with the entire population of Cuba and spreading immediately up the Eastern Seaboard, where receiving retaliatory strikes was anticipated as a foregone conclusion, the civilian losses on all sides from a nuclear exchange would have been horrendous.</p>
<p>Almost incidental to these civilian casualties, Cuba was equipped with tactical nuclear weapons, which could have turned the invading armada of American troop ships into a giant waterspout on a boiling sea.</p>
<p>This human toll was acceptable to the Cold War warriors of 1962, but apparently it was not acceptable to the Kennedys. In spite of their personal ambitions, these two politicians were apparently held back by pangs of conscience – what we sometimes call principles.</p>
<p>In his book, “Thirteen Days,” Robert Kennedy recalls how General LeMay and the Joint Chiefs wanted to launch swift, decisive, and deadly military action, capitalizing upon the element of surprise that was certain to evaporate in a matter of days if they didn’t act swiftly.</p>
<p>More mature minds called for a blockade to stop the construction of missile sites, backed up with verbal demands for their removal. This plan would, at least, provide an opportunity for the Russian Premier to back out of his tactical blunder. One of the more mature minds was the civilian Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, who “became the blockade’s strongest advocate,” according to Robert Kennedy, even as he supervised the military preparations for Armageddon.</p>
<p>Kennedy wrote, “I supported McNamara’s position in favor of a blockade. This was not from a deep conviction that it would be a successful course of action, but a feeling that it had more flexibility and fewer liabilities than a military attack. Most importantly, like others, I could not accept the idea that the United States would rain bombs on Cuba, killing thousands and thousands of civilians in a surprise attack. Maybe the alternatives were not very palatable, but I simply did not see how we could accept that course of action for our country.”</p>
<p>At that time, the American arsenal of nuclear weapons dwarfed Khrushchev’s operational inventory by a factor of ten to one. The result of a nuclear exchange might reasonably have been expected to leave the Americans slightly less dead than their Cuban, European and Soviet counterparts. Nonetheless President Kennedy and his young brother clearly had second thoughts about being the Goliath who attacked David, without warning.</p>
<p>Robert Kennedy argued that “whatever validity the military and political arguments were for an attack in preference to a blockade, America’s traditions and history would not permit such a course of action. Whatever military reasons he (hawkish Secretary of State, Dean Acheson) and others could marshal, they were nevertheless, in the last analysis, advocating a surprise attack by a very large nation against a very small one. This, I said, could not be undertaken by the U.S. if we were to maintain our moral position at home and around the globe. Our struggle against Communism throughout the world was far more than physical survival – it had as its essence our heritage and our ideals, and these we must not destroy.</p>
<p>“We spent more time on this moral question during the first five days than on any other single matter … We struggled and fought with one another and with our consciences, for it was a question that deeply troubled us all.”</p>
<p>With this historical perspective in mind, one has to wonder about the emotional maturity of our nation today, and particularly of the current occupants of the White House. If we were presented with such an excuse today, a perfect pretext for another lop-sided and glorious military victory over a weaker nation, such as China for instance, who among our current cast of prayer breakfast politicians possesses the emotional intelligence, and the courageous energy necessary to engage a room full of warriors in a mature and principled discussion of national morality?</p>
<p>The Kennedys, in spite of all their faults and their allegiance to American empire building, were still able to muster enough courage to support principles that cast them in the role of peaceniks among the generals, a role that cost them some serious political capital when they eventually revealed the crisis and their action plan to a hostile Congress.</p>
<p>Kennedy once remarked that those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. He understood the kind of political forces that created our own September 11th crisis, even though his own regime suppressed peaceful revolutions when it should not have. Vietnam was, after all, part of the Kennedy legacy, but the peaceful resolution of the Cuban missile crises, with a critical helping hand from Premier Khrushchev, was one of John Kennedy’s proudest moments. The world might be a far different place today, had cooler heads not prevailed in October 1962.</p>
<p>This is the role of principled adults. Courageous grownups have some moral boundary beyond which they know they should not go, no matter what the political payback, no matter how fearsome the face of the “enemy.”</p>
<p>Today, an adoring press tells us that our country’s Commander in Chief has posted a scoreboard on his wall, where he scrawls large black Xs across the glowering faces of his vanquished enemies. Presumably, some CIA flunky stationed a half world away, sifts the ashes of a primitive civilization that has been burned beyond recognition. He searches through teeth and bones for forensic evidence of trophy kills to lift the spirits our warrior chief. Speculative reports of such victories also help an adoring press fill those empty column inches around their Lexus ads.</p>
<p>Each time one of Bush’s “daisy cutters” annihilates a valley, in hopes of incinerating a few more of the “Evil Ones” amongst the expendable peasants, one can visualize the President reaching for his magic marker in anticipation of recording a fresh kill. This first phase of the endless war is just another sporting event for the fraternity boy who was privileged to sit out the Vietnam War, safely installed by family connections in a Texas National Guard unit. Meanwhile, the sons of less rich and powerful families were getting their legs blown off, protecting American interests overseas.</p>
<p>Don’t look for principles or moral courage in this White House. It doesn’t live there anymore. The concept of moral boundaries, within the world’s most powerful empire, has deteriorated into a preoccupation with draping modesty curtains over the bosoms of aluminum statues in the Hall of Justice. This peek-a-boo childishness reflects the maturity of American leadership. In this respect, we have become the new Taliban. Will the Army Corps of Engineers demolition team soon fan out across the country, with a list of other public works of art that offend the high priests on the Potomac? Can such an empire be long for this world?</p>
<p>If the President’s popularity polls are to be believed, only ten percent of Americans are able to recognize an adult conversation about principles anymore. The other ninety percent would have been appalled by the Kennedys’ lack of “character.” The Kennedys, after all, failed to cover those offensive bosoms.</p>
<p>Apparently, ninety percent of Americans are too busy with playground peek-a-boo games to notice any logical disconnect between a crime carried out by nineteen criminals who were mostly Saudi Arabian, and the resulting hellfire of retribution that was unleashed upon thousands of Afghan peasants living under the brutal Taliban government. Americans seem to be unconcerned that this same Taliban government was the one which American money had imposed upon the Afghans in a previous, equally unprincipled crusade.</p>
<p>Ninety percent of America’s citizens cannot see any logical disconnect between labeling foreign trained killers as “terrorists” and calling American trained and financed death squads “a stabilizing force.” Even when the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, and dozens of other thugs whom the U.S. has supported over the years, got re-labeled and recycled as “terrorists,” ninety percent of us still lacked the guts to question the obvious fickleness of this unprincipled labeling process. This script formula has proven so successful that the writers are busy converting even more of our “allies” into “terrorists.” This will provide fresh venues for TV’s newest soap opera, “The War on Terrorism.”</p>
<p>Ninety percent of us were apparently impressed by our leader’s public demonstration of moral agonizing over the “right to life” question as it relates to a few stem cells in a petri dish. His photo-op hand wringing scenes starred the same ham actor who remains totally unruffled by the arguments of people with real principles, people who plead for him to recognize the right to life as it applies to the already born children of the world, including Afghan and Palestinian children. The “right to life” now applies exclusively to microscopic organisms in petri dishes, tiny new theoretical citizens who lack the mental capacity to challenge the absurdities spewing forth from the capital.</p>
<p>Ninety percent of us apparently think that a multi-million dollar peek through a While House keyhole, to catch a Democratic president with his pants down, was essential to returning moral integrity to the White House.</p>
<p>Curiously, that same ninety percent feels that secret meetings between our Republican administration and Enron gift bearers, meetings at which the corporate mouthpieces dictated our latest national energy policy into the vice president’s Dictaphone, were a private affair between consenting adults. These meetings will impact the entire air breathing, oil importing, and oil producing populations of the planet for decades to come, but ninety percent of us think that it’s none of our business who serviced whom during those pay-to-play White House huddles. We do not question the moral right of our rulers to sell public policy in private transactions. After all, the lobbyists and their congressional bedmates have carefully written the laws to permit this form of prostitution.</p>
<p>That is why our foreign policies, the same policies that produce and provoke terrorists around the world, support no consistent set of principles. U.S. foreign relations represent the composite result of public policy purchases by competing bidders. Unfortunately, the public pays the price, in skyrocketing national defense costs, while the profits are pocketed in private transactions.</p>
<p>Ninety percent of us will accept the label of “war” whenever it is conveniently applied to justify an unchecked application of force, or whenever it is politically necessary to excuse outrageous behavior. An “America at War” is an America that is exempt from all the inconvenient restrictions of civilized behavior. On the other hand, the resulting war’s prisoners are not “prisoners of war” because this use of the war label would subject our government to the same expectations of civility that it demands from its opponents during real “wartime.” The principles behind the Geneva Conventions are beyond the mental grasp of ninety percent of us.</p>
<p>Ninety percent of us think that “stabilization” is a noble goal for our foreign policy. The Nazis had a grand scheme for stabilizing Europe. Some Americans of my father’s generation, many of whom were motivated by principles, destabilized the Nazi concentration camps. Death, oppression, imprisonment, torture, and the endless repetition of Big Lies are the tools most commonly used by “stabilizing forces.” Such forces seek to contain the status quo within blocks of concrete and rolls of razor wire.</p>
<p>The most stable citizenry is one which no longer has any rights. It never complains. Today’s Americans don’t like complainers. Our rulers are now in the process of stabilizing America. More prisons will soon be needed to contain the stabilized populations of America. We are becoming what we have embraced all over the world.</p>
<p>Why should “stability” be an acceptable substitute for the pursuit of such principles as freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and shared access to our common natural heritage of clean water, clear air and life sustaining habitat? Why should “terrorists” be condemned for attempts to poison us, while General Electric and Enron receive public subsidies for producing the same results? Those who oppose this greedy poisoning of America are called “radicals and environmental extremists.” Only the poisons injected by “Islamic extremists” are “evil.” The PCBs dumped into our rivers, and the nuclear toxins dumped onto my own state’s pristine deserts, are not “evil.” They are proof of our “stable economy.” Parts of the Hanford Reach, our newest national monument, will be stable and sterile for uncountable generations to come.</p>
<p>Why should American taxpayers provide foreign thugs with the weapons necessary to secure the perimeters of the world’s newest concentration camps, in the name of maintaining stability? Were the Afghans really better off when American tax money “stabilized” them under the Taliban regime? Now they are being “stabilized” again, under a new regime. If any principles are applied to this war, they won’t come from the American camp. We are already racing off to stage the next grand performance. The sights of our robot weapons are already trained on some other primitive society that needs to be “stabilized” for an appreciative press corps.</p>
<p>What principle was served by “stabilizing” Iraq under the thumb of the Shah, and then later stabilizing it under the fist of Saddam Hussein? What good will be accomplished if Saddam is exiled and Iraq is stabilized under some new murderous regime, again imposed by American military might acting without any guiding principles?</p>
<p>If no principles are ever applied to such work, what is the point of it? What good comes from stabilizing three million desperate Palestinian prisoners behind barbed wire barriers and American artillery?</p>
<p>Where are the people who will inspire the tomorrow’s world with their moral courage and their mental command of principles? Where is tomorrow’s world leadership going to come from? They probably won’t come from the most powerful empire the world has ever known. We can’t muster enough moral muscle to shut down our own terrorist training camp, the School of the Americas.</p>
<p>The United States of America is acting more and more like a has-been, an empire that has peaked and which now has developed round heels on its Reeboks. The fervor for reform, so brazen, bold and brash in the early seventies, has now slumped into a media induced stupor. Ninety percent of us are plugged into intravenous TV news. We are content to go along in order to get along. If the only measure of our greatness is our accumulation of hot tubs and luxury cars, then we are on top of the world. Why rock the corporate yacht? Why ask any questions?</p>
<p>Fortunately, for the rest of the world, there are courageous new voices rising up in unexpected places. Even though America is no longer governed by men with the conscience of the dead Kennedys, no longer restrained by men and women with the maturity to think twice about incinerating whole nations for political expedience, there are still hopeful signs of a moral rebirth elsewhere in the world. It is deep winter in America, but there are signs of a spiritual spring elsewhere on the planet.</p>
<p>In Israel, for instance, two hundred thirty two military reservists have risked their careers, their reputations, and even their personal liberty to take a moral stand against the amoral deeds of their own war mongering government. <a href="http://www.seruv.org.il/defaultEng.asp" type="external">They have signed a petition refusing to take part in war crimes against Palestinian civilians.</a> While these young patriots pledge their continuing support to the defense of Israel, they also publicly pledge that they “shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.”</p>
<p>These men of uncommon courage are combat veterans. They are not the Bush-Cheney brand of flag wavers who wear their patriotism proudly on their sleeves while hiding their cowardice behind Ivy League family privilege. The Israeli Army Reserve is not the Texas National Guard. It’s not a babysitting service for sons of the rich and famous. It is a real army, one that sees real combat, and takes real casualties. These Israeli soldiers have put their names on the line and put themselves in harm’s way, to stand up for principle.</p>
<p>There are even faint signs of a spiritual awakening in Afghanistan, where other nations, acting through the U.N. have shown an interest in nurturing the growth of a more modern civilization on this ancient battlefield. Of course, ninety percent of Americans have little patience for such “women’s work.” Our push button gladiators are already heading over the hill to cross swords with the Axis of Evil.</p>
<p>Around the world, from Geneva to Davos, there is a new stirring of young idealists, men and women willing to pick up the torch that has been cast aside by the ninety percent of Americans who “have better things to do.” The new movers and shakers are not content to slap flag decals on their SUVs. They are dogging the heels of the world’s power brokers as they crisscross the globe. These are the youngsters whom America dismisses as “activists,” “extremists,” “radicals,” and “protestors.” Without any help from us, they are demanding to be treated like real citizens of the world. Many of these troublemakers are pushing against great odds to promote those very same citizenship rights that ninety percent of Americans have discarded as being too messy, to much trouble.</p>
<p>These troublemakers are not welcome in America. We are a one party democracy, composed of cowering Democrats and Republican wannabes. We politely confine our civic impulses to the comfort zone of Rotary lunches and Chamber of Commerce dinners.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, out beyond the limited visual range of America’s well coiffed Eyewitness News Team, the real world is stirring from its slumber. Radical, unauthorized thinking is already spreading under the heavy blanket of winter snow.</p>
<p>The carefully contrived “stability” of prisons built with bricks of moral complacency and the mortar of propaganda will slowly but inexorably yield to the constant assault of principles. If water drips long enough on stone, the stone eventually yields. The principles of liberty and justice are simple, basic, and universally desired. They wear down the hardest of hearts.</p>
<p>It was the relentless onslaught of these ideals, not the empty rhetoric of some cold war warrior, which undermined the foundation of the Berlin Wall and brought it crashing down. East Germany was destabilized by principles stirring in the hearts of men and women of courage. It can happen elsewhere. The laws of physics and political maturation don’t change.</p>
<p>While America retreats into its second childhood, other cultures are growing up and learning to think for themselves. Those people who are more morally vigorous will take our place. Ninety percent of us will be content to merely watch history unfold on our big screen TVs. Real citizenship is hard work, better left to the young, the healthy, and the politically conscious.</p>
<p>Ninety percent of us are like our leaders. We are content with our Bud Light and our pretzels.</p>
<p>George Lewandowski is the content director for <a href="http://www.yellowtimes.org/" type="external">YellowTimes</a>. He encourages your comments: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
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<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Latest on the PGA Championship (all times local):</p>
<p>8:16 p.m.</p>
<p>The PGA Championship has turned into a track meet.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson have spent the last two holes running to their ball after striking it quickly in an effort to get the second round in before darkness.</p>
<p>A 1 hour, 45-minute rain delay put everyone on the course behind.</p>
<p>The group that included Day played particularly slow and eventually fell behind by an entire hole. They finally began playing “ready golf” with Johnson rushing up the fairway on No. 18 to hit his second shot just after Day teed off.</p>
<p>The group did finish the round as darkness leaving it almost impossible to see their balls on the green.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Hideki Matsuyama barely missed a birdie putt on the 18th hole that would have given him sole possession of the lead at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Instead, Matsuyama will have to settle for a share of the second-round lead at 8 under with Kevin Kisner after shooting 64 on Friday — the lowest round of the tournament so far.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Matsuyama had a bogey-free round that including seven birdies, five on the final seven holes. Two of those birdies came after he was forced off the course due to a 1 hour, 43 minute rain delay.</p>
<p>Matsuyama won the WGC Bridgestone Invitational last week after shooting a final-round 61.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:10 p.m.</p>
<p>Ryan Fox is making the most of his first professional tournament on American soil.</p>
<p>The New Zealander posted the lowest round so far at the PGA Tournament earlier today when he shot 5 under 66. Fox is tied for 10th place at 1 under at the midway point of the tournament.</p>
<p>Fox, 30, joined the European Tour in 2016 and has two top 10 finishes this year but no wins. He’s never been in contention for a major so he’s not putting any pressure on himself. He said he’s playing like a guy who has nothing to lose.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:50 p.m.</p>
<p>Tournament officials have announced the PGA Championship is expected to resume at approximately 6:25 p.m. Play has been suspended since 4:43 due to weather.</p>
<p>Kevin Kisner is leading the tournament and in the clubhouse at 8 under par after 36 holes, while Hideki Matsuyama is two shots back with five holes to play.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:05 p.m.</p>
<p>The 10th hole allowed only one wild par Friday at the PGA Championship when Rory McIlroy bounced a shot up a cart path and through a bunker. Jordan Spieth wasn’t so fortunate.</p>
<p>His tee shot was so for right on the par 5 that he had to drop in pine straw — but not before he cleaned up a spot for him to take his relief from a cart path. It didn’t do him any good. Spieth pulled his shot and went into more pine straw 111 yards away from the pin. He tried to play that one over a bunker and onto the green, but it hit a branch and dropped into — you guessed it — more pine straw.</p>
<p>His fourth shot came up short of the green, and he chipped up and made the putt for bogey.</p>
<p>Spieth was 11 shots behind Kevin Kisner when play was suspended by storms.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:43 p.m.</p>
<p>Play has been suspended at the PGA Championship because of approaching bad weather.</p>
<p>It has been raining here off and on throughout the day at Quail Hollow Club, but the tournament officials sounded the horn at 4:43 with lightning in the area.</p>
<p>It comes just as Hideki Matsuyama was making a run up the leaderboard at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Fresh off a final round 61 that earned him a victory last week at the Bridgestone Invitational, Matsuyama has found his groove again and is 5 under par through 14 holes on the day. He is two shots back of leader Kevin Kisner.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:35 p.m.</p>
<p>Steve Stricker was 11 shots out of the lead and feeling the heat. He had not missed a cut in a major since the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine, and at 5 over for the tournament, he was outside the cut line at Quail Hollow.</p>
<p>The 50-year-old Stricker responded with his best shots of the day. He hit 3-wood onto the green at the par-4 14th to 18 feet. On the next hole, he hit another 3-wood to 20 feet on the par-5 15th. Stricker can’t remember the last time he had eagle putts on successive holes. He missed them both, but the birdies sent him to a 70 and he made the cut.</p>
<p>Stricker now has gone eight consecutive years without missing a cut in a major.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:15 p.m.</p>
<p>There was a brief shower and overcast skies at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Rain began falling at Quail Hollow Club during the afternoon of the second round. Showers have been in the forecast all week in Charlotte, though the first round was completed in dry conditions.</p>
<p>Tournament officials posted signs warning fans of the threat of severe weather at about 2:30 p.m. and heavier showers began roughly 30 minutes later.</p>
<p>Play continued through the rain before it cleared up.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:54 p.m.</p>
<p>American Kevin Kisner has opened a commanding 4-shot lead at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Kisner shot 67 for the second straight day on Friday to move to 8 under, four shots ahead of Thorbjorn Olesen and Gary Woodland, who are just beginning their second rounds. Kiser’s round was helped by an eagle at No. 7.</p>
<p>The 33-year Kisner entered the tournament ranked 25th in the world rankings.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:15 p.m.</p>
<p>The PGA Championship will feature at least one club professional on the weekend at Quail Hollow.</p>
<p>Omar Uresti shot 32 on the back nine and rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt on his final hole for a 1-under 70 and was at 2-over 144, which appeared certain to make the cut. It will be only the second time in the last six years that a club pro makes the cut in the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Uresti doesn’t seem like a club pro because he made 350 starts on the PGA Tour. The 49-year-old Texan never qualified for the PGA Championship when he was on tour.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:15 p.m.</p>
<p>Phil Mickelson finally has his first birdie of the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>He broke his drought Friday with a birdie on No. 4 — his 13th hole of his second round.</p>
<p>He shot no better than par on any of his first 30 holes of the season’s final major championship.</p>
<p>Mickelson plopped his tee shot on the 185-yard, par-3 fourth about 20 feet from the flagstick and rolled in his putt. That briefly moved him to 10 over.</p>
<p>But Lefty immediately gave back that stroke with a bogey on the par-4 fifth — his 12th of the tournament.</p>
<p>His struggles have been an intriguing subplot at a Quail Hollow Club course he considers one of his favorites on the PGA Tour.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:45 a.m.</p>
<p>Kevin Na couldn’t have started the second round of the PGA Championship much better.</p>
<p>Na birdied five of his first six holes to briefly move to 3 over for the tournament.</p>
<p>Na started the day with a long way to go, opening with a 79 Thursday that left him 12 strokes behind the first-round co-leaders.</p>
<p>He began his round on the back nine, and his only par was on the par-4 12th.</p>
<p>But in a common theme for many players, the Green Mile at Quail Hollow Club tripped him up.</p>
<p>He gave back one of those strokes with a bogey on 16 after missing a 10-foot par putt, dropping to 4 over.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:20 a.m.</p>
<p>Rickie Fowler is keeping up his birdie binge at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Fowler picked up two more during his first nine holes of the second round, including one on the tricky 17th hole. That gives him eight birdies through 1½ rounds.</p>
<p>He made the turn at 1 under for the day and 3 under for the tournament — three strokes behind leader Kevin Kisner.</p>
<p>The 177-yard, par-3 17th yielded just five birdies during the first round. That’s the fewest of any hole at Quail Hollow Club.</p>
<p>Fowler had a birdie on the 14th and another on the 17th after plopping his tee shot about 15 feet from the flagstick and making the putt.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:50 a.m.</p>
<p>Phil Mickelson has played 1½ rounds without a birdie or better at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Mickelson started the second round on the back nine and had bogeys on three of his first nine holes. That moved him to 3 over for the day and 11 over for the tournament.</p>
<p>It also dropped him into a tie for 141st place. There were 154 players remaining in the field.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Lefty shot a 79 for his worst round at a PGA Championship. It came at a Quail Hollow Club course he considers one of his favorites on the PGA Tour.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:30 a.m.</p>
<p>Rory McIlroy was never so excited to make par.</p>
<p>Starting on the par-5 10th hole, McIlroy’s second shot sailed toward the gallery. The ball hit a downhill cart path and kept on rolling before settling in the rough of the 11th hole.</p>
<p>Instead of going over the trees, McIlroy chose to hit a 6 iron from 110 yards , skipping it along the cart path into the bunker, then out of bunker and across the green until in landed on the fringe on the other side. Two putts later, he had his par.</p>
<p>McIlroy is 1 under for the day and par for the tournament.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10 a.m.</p>
<p>Kevin Kisner has taken sole possession of the lead at the PGA Championship after birdieing two of his first three holes.</p>
<p>Kisner started his round on the back nine. He moved to 6 under after birdies on No. 10 and 12, but gave a shot back on No. 13 with a bogey. He is currently 5 under, one shot ahead of Thorbjorn Olesen, who will tee off in the afternoon.</p>
<p>Kisner won the Dean &amp; Deluca Invitational this year but has never won a major. He finished 18th at the PGA Championship last year.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:25 a.m.</p>
<p>Rory McIlroy opened the second round of the PGA Championship with three straight pars. The 28-year-old from Northern Ireland is looking to make up ground on leaders Thorbjorn Olesen and Kevin Kisner, who are five shots ahead.</p>
<p>The 2012 and 2014 PGA Championship winner is considered a favorite this week, along with Jordan Spieth, to take home the Wanamaker Trophy. McIlroy started the day at 1 over for the tournament.</p>
<p>McIlroy had a three-hole stretch Thursday that included a double bogey after he had reached 2 under for the tournament. He noted the grainy greens of the Quail Hollow course were fast and difficult.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8 a.m.</p>
<p>Jordan Spieth wasn’t overly worried about being five shots behind after one round of the PGA Championship. He just wants to make sure the deficit is a little smaller after the next round.</p>
<p>Spieth, who needs this major to complete the career Grand Slam, will know the target by the time he tees off at Quail Hollow on Friday afternoon.</p>
<p>Kevin Kisner, who shared the 18-hole lead at 4-under 67 with Thorbjorn Olesen, was among the early starters on another calm morning with a few gathering clouds.</p>
<p>Rory McIlroy let a good round get away from him and shot 72, the same score as Spieth. McIlroy also plays Friday morning and is hopeful the slightly smoother greens will allow him to make more putts.</p>
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PGA Championship turns into a track meet
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PGA Championship turns into a track meet
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<p>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Latest on the PGA Championship (all times local):</p>
<p>8:16 p.m.</p>
<p>The PGA Championship has turned into a track meet.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson have spent the last two holes running to their ball after striking it quickly in an effort to get the second round in before darkness.</p>
<p>A 1 hour, 45-minute rain delay put everyone on the course behind.</p>
<p>The group that included Day played particularly slow and eventually fell behind by an entire hole. They finally began playing “ready golf” with Johnson rushing up the fairway on No. 18 to hit his second shot just after Day teed off.</p>
<p>The group did finish the round as darkness leaving it almost impossible to see their balls on the green.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:40 p.m.</p>
<p>Hideki Matsuyama barely missed a birdie putt on the 18th hole that would have given him sole possession of the lead at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Instead, Matsuyama will have to settle for a share of the second-round lead at 8 under with Kevin Kisner after shooting 64 on Friday — the lowest round of the tournament so far.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Matsuyama had a bogey-free round that including seven birdies, five on the final seven holes. Two of those birdies came after he was forced off the course due to a 1 hour, 43 minute rain delay.</p>
<p>Matsuyama won the WGC Bridgestone Invitational last week after shooting a final-round 61.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>7:10 p.m.</p>
<p>Ryan Fox is making the most of his first professional tournament on American soil.</p>
<p>The New Zealander posted the lowest round so far at the PGA Tournament earlier today when he shot 5 under 66. Fox is tied for 10th place at 1 under at the midway point of the tournament.</p>
<p>Fox, 30, joined the European Tour in 2016 and has two top 10 finishes this year but no wins. He’s never been in contention for a major so he’s not putting any pressure on himself. He said he’s playing like a guy who has nothing to lose.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:50 p.m.</p>
<p>Tournament officials have announced the PGA Championship is expected to resume at approximately 6:25 p.m. Play has been suspended since 4:43 due to weather.</p>
<p>Kevin Kisner is leading the tournament and in the clubhouse at 8 under par after 36 holes, while Hideki Matsuyama is two shots back with five holes to play.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5:05 p.m.</p>
<p>The 10th hole allowed only one wild par Friday at the PGA Championship when Rory McIlroy bounced a shot up a cart path and through a bunker. Jordan Spieth wasn’t so fortunate.</p>
<p>His tee shot was so for right on the par 5 that he had to drop in pine straw — but not before he cleaned up a spot for him to take his relief from a cart path. It didn’t do him any good. Spieth pulled his shot and went into more pine straw 111 yards away from the pin. He tried to play that one over a bunker and onto the green, but it hit a branch and dropped into — you guessed it — more pine straw.</p>
<p>His fourth shot came up short of the green, and he chipped up and made the putt for bogey.</p>
<p>Spieth was 11 shots behind Kevin Kisner when play was suspended by storms.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>4:43 p.m.</p>
<p>Play has been suspended at the PGA Championship because of approaching bad weather.</p>
<p>It has been raining here off and on throughout the day at Quail Hollow Club, but the tournament officials sounded the horn at 4:43 with lightning in the area.</p>
<p>It comes just as Hideki Matsuyama was making a run up the leaderboard at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Fresh off a final round 61 that earned him a victory last week at the Bridgestone Invitational, Matsuyama has found his groove again and is 5 under par through 14 holes on the day. He is two shots back of leader Kevin Kisner.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:35 p.m.</p>
<p>Steve Stricker was 11 shots out of the lead and feeling the heat. He had not missed a cut in a major since the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine, and at 5 over for the tournament, he was outside the cut line at Quail Hollow.</p>
<p>The 50-year-old Stricker responded with his best shots of the day. He hit 3-wood onto the green at the par-4 14th to 18 feet. On the next hole, he hit another 3-wood to 20 feet on the par-5 15th. Stricker can’t remember the last time he had eagle putts on successive holes. He missed them both, but the birdies sent him to a 70 and he made the cut.</p>
<p>Stricker now has gone eight consecutive years without missing a cut in a major.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>3:15 p.m.</p>
<p>There was a brief shower and overcast skies at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Rain began falling at Quail Hollow Club during the afternoon of the second round. Showers have been in the forecast all week in Charlotte, though the first round was completed in dry conditions.</p>
<p>Tournament officials posted signs warning fans of the threat of severe weather at about 2:30 p.m. and heavier showers began roughly 30 minutes later.</p>
<p>Play continued through the rain before it cleared up.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:54 p.m.</p>
<p>American Kevin Kisner has opened a commanding 4-shot lead at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Kisner shot 67 for the second straight day on Friday to move to 8 under, four shots ahead of Thorbjorn Olesen and Gary Woodland, who are just beginning their second rounds. Kiser’s round was helped by an eagle at No. 7.</p>
<p>The 33-year Kisner entered the tournament ranked 25th in the world rankings.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>1:15 p.m.</p>
<p>The PGA Championship will feature at least one club professional on the weekend at Quail Hollow.</p>
<p>Omar Uresti shot 32 on the back nine and rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt on his final hole for a 1-under 70 and was at 2-over 144, which appeared certain to make the cut. It will be only the second time in the last six years that a club pro makes the cut in the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Uresti doesn’t seem like a club pro because he made 350 starts on the PGA Tour. The 49-year-old Texan never qualified for the PGA Championship when he was on tour.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:15 p.m.</p>
<p>Phil Mickelson finally has his first birdie of the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>He broke his drought Friday with a birdie on No. 4 — his 13th hole of his second round.</p>
<p>He shot no better than par on any of his first 30 holes of the season’s final major championship.</p>
<p>Mickelson plopped his tee shot on the 185-yard, par-3 fourth about 20 feet from the flagstick and rolled in his putt. That briefly moved him to 10 over.</p>
<p>But Lefty immediately gave back that stroke with a bogey on the par-4 fifth — his 12th of the tournament.</p>
<p>His struggles have been an intriguing subplot at a Quail Hollow Club course he considers one of his favorites on the PGA Tour.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:45 a.m.</p>
<p>Kevin Na couldn’t have started the second round of the PGA Championship much better.</p>
<p>Na birdied five of his first six holes to briefly move to 3 over for the tournament.</p>
<p>Na started the day with a long way to go, opening with a 79 Thursday that left him 12 strokes behind the first-round co-leaders.</p>
<p>He began his round on the back nine, and his only par was on the par-4 12th.</p>
<p>But in a common theme for many players, the Green Mile at Quail Hollow Club tripped him up.</p>
<p>He gave back one of those strokes with a bogey on 16 after missing a 10-foot par putt, dropping to 4 over.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>11:20 a.m.</p>
<p>Rickie Fowler is keeping up his birdie binge at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Fowler picked up two more during his first nine holes of the second round, including one on the tricky 17th hole. That gives him eight birdies through 1½ rounds.</p>
<p>He made the turn at 1 under for the day and 3 under for the tournament — three strokes behind leader Kevin Kisner.</p>
<p>The 177-yard, par-3 17th yielded just five birdies during the first round. That’s the fewest of any hole at Quail Hollow Club.</p>
<p>Fowler had a birdie on the 14th and another on the 17th after plopping his tee shot about 15 feet from the flagstick and making the putt.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:50 a.m.</p>
<p>Phil Mickelson has played 1½ rounds without a birdie or better at the PGA Championship.</p>
<p>Mickelson started the second round on the back nine and had bogeys on three of his first nine holes. That moved him to 3 over for the day and 11 over for the tournament.</p>
<p>It also dropped him into a tie for 141st place. There were 154 players remaining in the field.</p>
<p>On Thursday, Lefty shot a 79 for his worst round at a PGA Championship. It came at a Quail Hollow Club course he considers one of his favorites on the PGA Tour.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10:30 a.m.</p>
<p>Rory McIlroy was never so excited to make par.</p>
<p>Starting on the par-5 10th hole, McIlroy’s second shot sailed toward the gallery. The ball hit a downhill cart path and kept on rolling before settling in the rough of the 11th hole.</p>
<p>Instead of going over the trees, McIlroy chose to hit a 6 iron from 110 yards , skipping it along the cart path into the bunker, then out of bunker and across the green until in landed on the fringe on the other side. Two putts later, he had his par.</p>
<p>McIlroy is 1 under for the day and par for the tournament.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>10 a.m.</p>
<p>Kevin Kisner has taken sole possession of the lead at the PGA Championship after birdieing two of his first three holes.</p>
<p>Kisner started his round on the back nine. He moved to 6 under after birdies on No. 10 and 12, but gave a shot back on No. 13 with a bogey. He is currently 5 under, one shot ahead of Thorbjorn Olesen, who will tee off in the afternoon.</p>
<p>Kisner won the Dean &amp; Deluca Invitational this year but has never won a major. He finished 18th at the PGA Championship last year.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:25 a.m.</p>
<p>Rory McIlroy opened the second round of the PGA Championship with three straight pars. The 28-year-old from Northern Ireland is looking to make up ground on leaders Thorbjorn Olesen and Kevin Kisner, who are five shots ahead.</p>
<p>The 2012 and 2014 PGA Championship winner is considered a favorite this week, along with Jordan Spieth, to take home the Wanamaker Trophy. McIlroy started the day at 1 over for the tournament.</p>
<p>McIlroy had a three-hole stretch Thursday that included a double bogey after he had reached 2 under for the tournament. He noted the grainy greens of the Quail Hollow course were fast and difficult.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>8 a.m.</p>
<p>Jordan Spieth wasn’t overly worried about being five shots behind after one round of the PGA Championship. He just wants to make sure the deficit is a little smaller after the next round.</p>
<p>Spieth, who needs this major to complete the career Grand Slam, will know the target by the time he tees off at Quail Hollow on Friday afternoon.</p>
<p>Kevin Kisner, who shared the 18-hole lead at 4-under 67 with Thorbjorn Olesen, was among the early starters on another calm morning with a few gathering clouds.</p>
<p>Rory McIlroy let a good round get away from him and shot 72, the same score as Spieth. McIlroy also plays Friday morning and is hopeful the slightly smoother greens will allow him to make more putts.</p>
| 4,743 |
<p>The winter storm that hit the Middle East may have brought surprise, beauty and joy to Israelis and Egyptians — the latter seeing snow for the <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/cairo-sees-first-snow-years-cold-snap-hits-142519974.html" type="external">first time in years</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>For Syrian refugees living in tents, however, it has brought cold and misery. The United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands of refugees are <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25359136" type="external">now at risk</a> due to the storm, which heralded blizzards and freezing rain.&#160;</p>
<p>Around 838,000 of the Syrians who fled the civil war now live in refugee camps in Lebanon, where the only thing standing between them and the elements is a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25362816?ocid=socialflow_twitter_bbcworld" type="external">thin plastic tent</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>In Jordan, another 120,000 refugees tried to reinforce their tents after the winds toppled 10 tents on Thursday. Several parts of the Zaatari refugee camp were flooded due to the storm, and some refugees had to be <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/winter-snow-storm-slams-syria-refugees" type="external">evacuated to safer parts of the camp</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>The severe weather has also <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Dec-13/240952-un-plans-syria-airlift-as-humanitarian-crisis-grows.ashx#axzz2nAyLiIwd" type="external">delayed aid shipments</a> from the UN that were meant to fly from Iraq to Syria.</p>
|
Snow storm, low temperatures bring misery to Syrian refugees
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2013-12-13/snow-storm-low-temperatures-bring-misery-syrian-refugees
|
2013-12-13
| 3left-center
|
Snow storm, low temperatures bring misery to Syrian refugees
<p>The winter storm that hit the Middle East may have brought surprise, beauty and joy to Israelis and Egyptians — the latter seeing snow for the <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/cairo-sees-first-snow-years-cold-snap-hits-142519974.html" type="external">first time in years</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>For Syrian refugees living in tents, however, it has brought cold and misery. The United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands of refugees are <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25359136" type="external">now at risk</a> due to the storm, which heralded blizzards and freezing rain.&#160;</p>
<p>Around 838,000 of the Syrians who fled the civil war now live in refugee camps in Lebanon, where the only thing standing between them and the elements is a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25362816?ocid=socialflow_twitter_bbcworld" type="external">thin plastic tent</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>In Jordan, another 120,000 refugees tried to reinforce their tents after the winds toppled 10 tents on Thursday. Several parts of the Zaatari refugee camp were flooded due to the storm, and some refugees had to be <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/winter-snow-storm-slams-syria-refugees" type="external">evacuated to safer parts of the camp</a>.&#160;</p>
<p>The severe weather has also <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/Dec-13/240952-un-plans-syria-airlift-as-humanitarian-crisis-grows.ashx#axzz2nAyLiIwd" type="external">delayed aid shipments</a> from the UN that were meant to fly from Iraq to Syria.</p>
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<p />
<p>Plamen Atanassov (Courtesy of UNM)</p>
<p>The National Academy of Inventors named Dr. Cheryl L. Willman and Plamen B. Atanassov on Tuesday as 2017 Fellows, distinguishing them as some of the most-impactful researchers among some 250 universities and research institutions worldwide. Willman is a distinguished professor of pathology and director and CEO of UNM’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. Atanassov is a distinguished professor of chemical and biological engineering and director of the UNM Center for Micro Engineered Materials.</p>
<p>They’re among 155 inventors worldwide named as fellows this year. The annual distinction recognizes academic researchers who have demonstrated a “prolific spirit of innovation” through inventions that impact quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.</p>
<p>Three other UNM researchers have received it in past years.</p>
<p>Dr. Cheryl L. Willman (Courtesy of UNM)</p>
<p>“Dr. Willman and Dr. Atanassov have had a tremendous impact on fostering a culture of innovation … that is felt on local, national and international levels,” said UNM Chief Economic Development Officer Lisa Kuuttila.</p>
<p>Willman has used next-generation genomic sequencing to study the genetic makeup of leukemia, leading to discovery of genetic mutations in many cancer-stricken children and adults that block the benefits of traditional chemotherapy. The research found particularly high rates of mutation among Hispanic and Native American children and adults.</p>
<p>That led to development of new pharmaceuticals to specifically target and inhibit mutated cells, allowing traditional chemotherapy to work. Willman’s team at UNM did extensive laboratory experiments with the drugs, followed by five national clinical studies through the National Cancer Institute.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Atanassov has developed a non-metal catalyst for hydrogen fuel cells that could dramatically cut the costs of producing them. Today’s fuel cells use platinum as a catalyst, which is rare and extremely expensive.</p>
<p>Atanassov’s work, done in collaboration with other UNM researchers and scientists at Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd., contributed to development of non-metal catalysts by Albuquerque startup company Pajarito Powder LLC. Daihatsu, Japan’s oldest automaker and a member of the Toyota Group, has developed demonstration hydrogen fuel cells vehicles with UNM’s technology.</p>
<p>“It humbles me,” Atanassov said of the NAI award. “I don’t think of it as a singular recognition of me personally, but of all the researchers and supporters who contributed to our innovation.”</p>
<p>Willman said she’s gratified to see UNM discoveries directly helping patients.</p>
<p>“I’m proud of the work we’ve done,” she said. “The NAI award acknowledges our work as innovative and important with the potential for huge impacts.”</p>
|
Two UNM researchers win international recognition
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1105242/two-unm-researchers-win-international-recognition.html
| 2least
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Two UNM researchers win international recognition
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Plamen Atanassov (Courtesy of UNM)</p>
<p>The National Academy of Inventors named Dr. Cheryl L. Willman and Plamen B. Atanassov on Tuesday as 2017 Fellows, distinguishing them as some of the most-impactful researchers among some 250 universities and research institutions worldwide. Willman is a distinguished professor of pathology and director and CEO of UNM’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. Atanassov is a distinguished professor of chemical and biological engineering and director of the UNM Center for Micro Engineered Materials.</p>
<p>They’re among 155 inventors worldwide named as fellows this year. The annual distinction recognizes academic researchers who have demonstrated a “prolific spirit of innovation” through inventions that impact quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.</p>
<p>Three other UNM researchers have received it in past years.</p>
<p>Dr. Cheryl L. Willman (Courtesy of UNM)</p>
<p>“Dr. Willman and Dr. Atanassov have had a tremendous impact on fostering a culture of innovation … that is felt on local, national and international levels,” said UNM Chief Economic Development Officer Lisa Kuuttila.</p>
<p>Willman has used next-generation genomic sequencing to study the genetic makeup of leukemia, leading to discovery of genetic mutations in many cancer-stricken children and adults that block the benefits of traditional chemotherapy. The research found particularly high rates of mutation among Hispanic and Native American children and adults.</p>
<p>That led to development of new pharmaceuticals to specifically target and inhibit mutated cells, allowing traditional chemotherapy to work. Willman’s team at UNM did extensive laboratory experiments with the drugs, followed by five national clinical studies through the National Cancer Institute.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Atanassov has developed a non-metal catalyst for hydrogen fuel cells that could dramatically cut the costs of producing them. Today’s fuel cells use platinum as a catalyst, which is rare and extremely expensive.</p>
<p>Atanassov’s work, done in collaboration with other UNM researchers and scientists at Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd., contributed to development of non-metal catalysts by Albuquerque startup company Pajarito Powder LLC. Daihatsu, Japan’s oldest automaker and a member of the Toyota Group, has developed demonstration hydrogen fuel cells vehicles with UNM’s technology.</p>
<p>“It humbles me,” Atanassov said of the NAI award. “I don’t think of it as a singular recognition of me personally, but of all the researchers and supporters who contributed to our innovation.”</p>
<p>Willman said she’s gratified to see UNM discoveries directly helping patients.</p>
<p>“I’m proud of the work we’ve done,” she said. “The NAI award acknowledges our work as innovative and important with the potential for huge impacts.”</p>
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<p />
<p>The matter was on the agenda for a Finance Committee meeting last week but was postponed due to the unavailability of two members of the committee.</p>
<p>In addition to the public hearing, the committee will hear a presentation on the city's final accounting report for the $30.3 million parks and trail bond and a presentation from the state Auditor's Office regarding the scope of work covered by an audit of the bond spending to be conducted by an independent accounting firm yet to be selected.</p>
<p>The matter garnered public attention after an Albuquerque accounting firm's report released in March found numerous issues with regard to how the city handled accounting and spent money allocated to improving parks and trails. The report by REDW, LLC said that in some cases changes to the implementation plan were not approved, there were no policies and procedures for accounting, inadequate internal controls and missing records.</p>
<p>It has also come to light that city maintenance workers were paid with bond funds.</p>
<p>The REDW report says of the 25 projects it reviewed work performed in-house was overspent by $2 million.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The firm's report said that while it found no evidence of fraud, waste or abuse, that it "cannot assert that all laws were followed."</p>
<p>City staff has maintained that "every penny" of the bond money was spent appropriately, that mistakes "do not appear to be indicative of larger systemic problems, violations of law, or misappropriation of funds," and that problems with accounting have been corrected.</p>
<p>The City Council has called for a full audit on the bond spending but has not selected a firm to conduct the audit, which will be overseen by the state Auditor's Office.</p>
<p>The Finance Committee meeting will be held in the city council chambers at City Hall, beginning at 6 p.m. on July 27.</p>
<p>To accommodate the time change, the Public Works Committee has moved up its regularly scheduled meeting to 4 p.m. that day.</p>
|
Public hearing on Santa Fe parks and trails bond spending scheduled for July 27.
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/615480/public-hearing-on-santa-fe-parks-and-trails-bond-spending-scheduled-for-july-27.html
| 2least
|
Public hearing on Santa Fe parks and trails bond spending scheduled for July 27.
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The matter was on the agenda for a Finance Committee meeting last week but was postponed due to the unavailability of two members of the committee.</p>
<p>In addition to the public hearing, the committee will hear a presentation on the city's final accounting report for the $30.3 million parks and trail bond and a presentation from the state Auditor's Office regarding the scope of work covered by an audit of the bond spending to be conducted by an independent accounting firm yet to be selected.</p>
<p>The matter garnered public attention after an Albuquerque accounting firm's report released in March found numerous issues with regard to how the city handled accounting and spent money allocated to improving parks and trails. The report by REDW, LLC said that in some cases changes to the implementation plan were not approved, there were no policies and procedures for accounting, inadequate internal controls and missing records.</p>
<p>It has also come to light that city maintenance workers were paid with bond funds.</p>
<p>The REDW report says of the 25 projects it reviewed work performed in-house was overspent by $2 million.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The firm's report said that while it found no evidence of fraud, waste or abuse, that it "cannot assert that all laws were followed."</p>
<p>City staff has maintained that "every penny" of the bond money was spent appropriately, that mistakes "do not appear to be indicative of larger systemic problems, violations of law, or misappropriation of funds," and that problems with accounting have been corrected.</p>
<p>The City Council has called for a full audit on the bond spending but has not selected a firm to conduct the audit, which will be overseen by the state Auditor's Office.</p>
<p>The Finance Committee meeting will be held in the city council chambers at City Hall, beginning at 6 p.m. on July 27.</p>
<p>To accommodate the time change, the Public Works Committee has moved up its regularly scheduled meeting to 4 p.m. that day.</p>
| 4,746 |
|
<p>I am an abolitionist. Abolition is a plot against racial capitalism which is all capitalism, not just some of it.&#160; It is a plot in a narrative sense.&#160; It is a plot in which the arc of change is always going resolutely towards freedom.&#160; It is a plot in a geographic sense.&#160; It is a plot in which we aim to make all space, not just some space, free in two senses.&#160; Free in the sense it cannot be alienated which is to say it cannot be sold by anybody to anybody, and free in the sense of non-exclusion – no boundary, no border, which would keep somebody in or keep somebody out.</p>
<p>— Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore,&#160;Rustbelt Abolitionist Radio</p>
<p>February 21st&#160;is a special.&#160; On this day in 1803, Colonel Edward Marcus Despard was executed in London as a traitor.&#160; His comrade and partner, Catherine, was among the thousands who witnessed the hanging and decapitation. She had helped him in the days preceding to write the address which he delivered from the gallows. He explained that he was a friend to the poor and oppressed and trusted that “the principles of freedom, of humanity, and of justice will finally triumph over falsehood, tyranny, and delusion.”</p>
<p>He was Irish.&#160; Just a couple years earlier Ireland’s political independence was extinguished with the creation of the U.K.&#160; She was African-American who came from Jamaica or Honduras.&#160; They were abolitionists in the senses explained by Professor Gilmore, that is, they bent the arc of change towards freedom, and they crossed boundaries and borders.&#160; Racial capitalism was changing by increasing its spaces and increasing its numbers.</p>
<p>The mode of production shifted from exploiting slaves producing sugar (this had led to the victory in Haiti in 1803) to a mode of production exploiting slaves who produce cotton (Louisiana Purchase of 1803 which opened up the Mississippi lands and river). English textile factories required Irish labor especially in women and children to spin and weave the cotton.&#160; Labor was bought and sold, or alienated.&#160; The steam-engine and the cotton [en]gin[e] alienated labor in a second sense by turning it into punishment.</p>
<p>Slaves were kidnapped from Africa; proletarians in England were created by Enclosure Acts taking their commons.&#160; The number of enclosure acts of 1803 had never been exceeded; the number of slaves embarking on British ships had never been as numerous as in 1803.&#160; Slaves in the cotton belt increased their productivity thanks to “pushing system,” which maintained discipline by the technology of the whip.&#160; The factory proletariat in England was disciplined by the penitentiary which was a new architectural system of forced labor and solitary confinement.&#160; Like many efforts to systematize and hide cruelty it was called “reform.”&#160; The products of the cotton picker and the cotton spinner were carried by the sailor; and the cotton picker and cotton spinner were kept in line by police.&#160; This interlocking system of discipline, production, enclosure, and mechanization met resistance:&#160; in 1797 the sailors mutinied; in 1798 the United Irishmen rebelled; in 1800 Gabriel Prosser led a huge slave revolt in Virginia.</p>
<p>The interlocking economic system was made possible by new political systems, namely the U.S.A. (1789) and the U.K. (1800), both ruled by circles of landlords, merchants, and bankers.&#160; Alien and Sedition Acts were passed in the U.S.A. as the land itself was surveyed into squares.&#160; In the U.K. acts against assembly and acts forbidding trade unions were passed in addition the acts enclosing the commons.&#160; Bankers sealed the U.S.A./U.K. “special relationship” of land robbery and slavery.</p>
<p>Ned Despard was imprisoned five years earlier in 1798 without trial in one of the first penitentiaries, Cold Bath Fields in London. He was confined in solitary cell of six by seven feet to subsist on bread and water, without pen, ink, paper, or books, and to sleep on a plank with wind, rain and snow blowing through the window bars.&#160; He was one of many.&#160; Catherine sprang to his aid.</p>
<p>She visited him, delivered food, and carried messages.&#160; She wrote letters to the press describing his conditions.&#160; She spoke to the odious governor of the prison; she wrote the sly chief of the secret service; she appealed the evangelical chief magistrate; she petitioned the Home Secretary and future prime minister.&#160; She button-holed Members of Parliament.&#160; She worked with the wives of other political prisoners.&#160; Her efforts bore fruit.&#160; Some prisoners escaped, demonstrations were held outside its walls. The authorities were frightened of her.&#160; They impugned her intelligence and denied her literacy:&#160; a woman’s writing was no good, people of color could not write.&#160; When they could not attack what she was saying they disallowed it by condemning her spelling “mistakes” and her grammatical “errors.” How do you like that?!</p>
<p>Remember Catherine!&#160; Be an Abolitionist!&#160; Bend the arc of freedom!</p>
|
Catherine Despard, Abolitionist
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2017/02/22/catherine-despard-abolitionist/
|
2017-02-22
| 4left
|
Catherine Despard, Abolitionist
<p>I am an abolitionist. Abolition is a plot against racial capitalism which is all capitalism, not just some of it.&#160; It is a plot in a narrative sense.&#160; It is a plot in which the arc of change is always going resolutely towards freedom.&#160; It is a plot in a geographic sense.&#160; It is a plot in which we aim to make all space, not just some space, free in two senses.&#160; Free in the sense it cannot be alienated which is to say it cannot be sold by anybody to anybody, and free in the sense of non-exclusion – no boundary, no border, which would keep somebody in or keep somebody out.</p>
<p>— Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore,&#160;Rustbelt Abolitionist Radio</p>
<p>February 21st&#160;is a special.&#160; On this day in 1803, Colonel Edward Marcus Despard was executed in London as a traitor.&#160; His comrade and partner, Catherine, was among the thousands who witnessed the hanging and decapitation. She had helped him in the days preceding to write the address which he delivered from the gallows. He explained that he was a friend to the poor and oppressed and trusted that “the principles of freedom, of humanity, and of justice will finally triumph over falsehood, tyranny, and delusion.”</p>
<p>He was Irish.&#160; Just a couple years earlier Ireland’s political independence was extinguished with the creation of the U.K.&#160; She was African-American who came from Jamaica or Honduras.&#160; They were abolitionists in the senses explained by Professor Gilmore, that is, they bent the arc of change towards freedom, and they crossed boundaries and borders.&#160; Racial capitalism was changing by increasing its spaces and increasing its numbers.</p>
<p>The mode of production shifted from exploiting slaves producing sugar (this had led to the victory in Haiti in 1803) to a mode of production exploiting slaves who produce cotton (Louisiana Purchase of 1803 which opened up the Mississippi lands and river). English textile factories required Irish labor especially in women and children to spin and weave the cotton.&#160; Labor was bought and sold, or alienated.&#160; The steam-engine and the cotton [en]gin[e] alienated labor in a second sense by turning it into punishment.</p>
<p>Slaves were kidnapped from Africa; proletarians in England were created by Enclosure Acts taking their commons.&#160; The number of enclosure acts of 1803 had never been exceeded; the number of slaves embarking on British ships had never been as numerous as in 1803.&#160; Slaves in the cotton belt increased their productivity thanks to “pushing system,” which maintained discipline by the technology of the whip.&#160; The factory proletariat in England was disciplined by the penitentiary which was a new architectural system of forced labor and solitary confinement.&#160; Like many efforts to systematize and hide cruelty it was called “reform.”&#160; The products of the cotton picker and the cotton spinner were carried by the sailor; and the cotton picker and cotton spinner were kept in line by police.&#160; This interlocking system of discipline, production, enclosure, and mechanization met resistance:&#160; in 1797 the sailors mutinied; in 1798 the United Irishmen rebelled; in 1800 Gabriel Prosser led a huge slave revolt in Virginia.</p>
<p>The interlocking economic system was made possible by new political systems, namely the U.S.A. (1789) and the U.K. (1800), both ruled by circles of landlords, merchants, and bankers.&#160; Alien and Sedition Acts were passed in the U.S.A. as the land itself was surveyed into squares.&#160; In the U.K. acts against assembly and acts forbidding trade unions were passed in addition the acts enclosing the commons.&#160; Bankers sealed the U.S.A./U.K. “special relationship” of land robbery and slavery.</p>
<p>Ned Despard was imprisoned five years earlier in 1798 without trial in one of the first penitentiaries, Cold Bath Fields in London. He was confined in solitary cell of six by seven feet to subsist on bread and water, without pen, ink, paper, or books, and to sleep on a plank with wind, rain and snow blowing through the window bars.&#160; He was one of many.&#160; Catherine sprang to his aid.</p>
<p>She visited him, delivered food, and carried messages.&#160; She wrote letters to the press describing his conditions.&#160; She spoke to the odious governor of the prison; she wrote the sly chief of the secret service; she appealed the evangelical chief magistrate; she petitioned the Home Secretary and future prime minister.&#160; She button-holed Members of Parliament.&#160; She worked with the wives of other political prisoners.&#160; Her efforts bore fruit.&#160; Some prisoners escaped, demonstrations were held outside its walls. The authorities were frightened of her.&#160; They impugned her intelligence and denied her literacy:&#160; a woman’s writing was no good, people of color could not write.&#160; When they could not attack what she was saying they disallowed it by condemning her spelling “mistakes” and her grammatical “errors.” How do you like that?!</p>
<p>Remember Catherine!&#160; Be an Abolitionist!&#160; Bend the arc of freedom!</p>
| 4,747 |
<p>Virginia Baptists are partnering with Baptists in Europe to support church planters across that continent as well as in war-torn Iraq.</p>
<p>Approximately 60 indigenous church planters in 21 countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East are being supported by the Indigenous Missions Project, a ministry of the European Baptist Federation.</p>
<p>Recently partners of the IMP—including repressentatives of the Baptist General Association of Virginia—met at the Valpre Retreat Center in Lyons, France, just prior to the annual general meeting of the European Baptist Federation.</p>
<p>Representing Virginia Baptists were Jerry Jones, team leader of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's glocal missions and evangelism team, and his wife, Jenny; and Rudy and Helen Wood, who have been leaders in Virginia Baptist mission endeavors.</p>
<p>Through Kingdom Advance New Initiative funds in the BGAV budget, Virginia Baptists are supporting seven of the IMP's 60 church planters—in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Russia and Iraq.</p>
<p>“Virginia Baptists can rejoice at having the privilege of being participants in this crucial work,” said Jones.</p>
<p>At the IMP's fall meeting, Daniel Trusiewicz, who directs the project, introduced Volodia Omelchuk, a church planter in Kiev, Ukraine. Volodia is one of many church planters in the countries that formerly constituted the Soviet Union. He held the group's attention with his testimony of the Lord's work both within himself and in Kiev. The 33-year-old, a former drug and alcohol abuser, became a believer whose faith led him into ministry.</p>
<p>Volodia's church offers an example of what indigenous work produces. Currently there are nine groups meeting regularly, including one for those seeking freedom from drug addiction, HIV-infected persons, a discipling group for new Christians and a youth group. For the moment they are able to talk openly about Jesus and to conduct Bible study and youth clubs in the public schools.</p>
<p>The church's aim is to start two new churches next year. The congregation is growing so rapidly that the 100 who attend have outgrown the rented facility in which they meet; yet, their goal is to double that number within a year. Seventy-five percent of those attending are 30 years of age or younger.</p>
<p>Trusiewicz followed Volodia's report with a description of the present status of the IMP, which is in itself a fulfillment of the dream first expressed by Theo Angelov, former president of the European Baptist Federation.</p>
<p>Among the IMP's newest projects are a work in Armenia which is seeing great success; projects in Hungary and Romania among the Roma (Gypsy) people; and new churches in Iraq, including one in Baghdad to which 200 people come for worship weekly and which is mother church to two other church plants.</p>
<p>Work in countries where Islam is strong requires courage and patience. Trusiewicz requested prayer for places like Tajikistan, where people as recently as 10 years ago received the New Testament in their own language for the first time. Baptists are now distributing the Scriptures there with the hope that this will lead to churches being formed.</p>
<p>Under the IMP's plan a church planter is contracted for a five-year period and funded fully for about two and one-half years. As churches develop to support the local work, funding is gradually decreased. The goal is to double the number of planters in the next two years.</p>
<p>Indigenous church planters “hit the ground running” because they are a part of the culture, understanding the ways of their people and speaking their language. As they develop leadership within a congregation of believers, they can then move on to an area where there is no church and start anew. This approach is not only more successful but is by far more cost-effective than traditional church planting methods.</p>
|
Virginia Baptists assist Europeans in supporting church planters
| false |
https://baptistnews.com/article/virginiabaptistsassisteuropeansinsupportingchurchplanters/
| 3left-center
|
Virginia Baptists assist Europeans in supporting church planters
<p>Virginia Baptists are partnering with Baptists in Europe to support church planters across that continent as well as in war-torn Iraq.</p>
<p>Approximately 60 indigenous church planters in 21 countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East are being supported by the Indigenous Missions Project, a ministry of the European Baptist Federation.</p>
<p>Recently partners of the IMP—including repressentatives of the Baptist General Association of Virginia—met at the Valpre Retreat Center in Lyons, France, just prior to the annual general meeting of the European Baptist Federation.</p>
<p>Representing Virginia Baptists were Jerry Jones, team leader of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's glocal missions and evangelism team, and his wife, Jenny; and Rudy and Helen Wood, who have been leaders in Virginia Baptist mission endeavors.</p>
<p>Through Kingdom Advance New Initiative funds in the BGAV budget, Virginia Baptists are supporting seven of the IMP's 60 church planters—in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Russia and Iraq.</p>
<p>“Virginia Baptists can rejoice at having the privilege of being participants in this crucial work,” said Jones.</p>
<p>At the IMP's fall meeting, Daniel Trusiewicz, who directs the project, introduced Volodia Omelchuk, a church planter in Kiev, Ukraine. Volodia is one of many church planters in the countries that formerly constituted the Soviet Union. He held the group's attention with his testimony of the Lord's work both within himself and in Kiev. The 33-year-old, a former drug and alcohol abuser, became a believer whose faith led him into ministry.</p>
<p>Volodia's church offers an example of what indigenous work produces. Currently there are nine groups meeting regularly, including one for those seeking freedom from drug addiction, HIV-infected persons, a discipling group for new Christians and a youth group. For the moment they are able to talk openly about Jesus and to conduct Bible study and youth clubs in the public schools.</p>
<p>The church's aim is to start two new churches next year. The congregation is growing so rapidly that the 100 who attend have outgrown the rented facility in which they meet; yet, their goal is to double that number within a year. Seventy-five percent of those attending are 30 years of age or younger.</p>
<p>Trusiewicz followed Volodia's report with a description of the present status of the IMP, which is in itself a fulfillment of the dream first expressed by Theo Angelov, former president of the European Baptist Federation.</p>
<p>Among the IMP's newest projects are a work in Armenia which is seeing great success; projects in Hungary and Romania among the Roma (Gypsy) people; and new churches in Iraq, including one in Baghdad to which 200 people come for worship weekly and which is mother church to two other church plants.</p>
<p>Work in countries where Islam is strong requires courage and patience. Trusiewicz requested prayer for places like Tajikistan, where people as recently as 10 years ago received the New Testament in their own language for the first time. Baptists are now distributing the Scriptures there with the hope that this will lead to churches being formed.</p>
<p>Under the IMP's plan a church planter is contracted for a five-year period and funded fully for about two and one-half years. As churches develop to support the local work, funding is gradually decreased. The goal is to double the number of planters in the next two years.</p>
<p>Indigenous church planters “hit the ground running” because they are a part of the culture, understanding the ways of their people and speaking their language. As they develop leadership within a congregation of believers, they can then move on to an area where there is no church and start anew. This approach is not only more successful but is by far more cost-effective than traditional church planting methods.</p>
| 4,748 |
|
<p>Someone has renamed Donald Trump's midtown Manhattan building on Google Maps, and the new moniker isn't very flattering.</p>
<p>Instead of Trump Tower, it's "Dump Tower."</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>WPIX-TV reports (http://bit.ly/2fGwiAb) that users of the mapping service began noticing the new name for the Fifth Avenue building on Saturday and some took to social media to report it.</p>
<p>Trump, the Republican president-elect, has not yet commented on it. Trump has been using Trump Tower as his transition headquarters.</p>
<p>Google could not be immediately reached for comment.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: WPIX-TV, http://www.wb11.com</p>
|
Trump Tower becomes 'Dump Tower' on Google Maps
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/11/26/trump-tower-becomes-dump-tower-on-google-maps.html
|
2016-11-27
| 0right
|
Trump Tower becomes 'Dump Tower' on Google Maps
<p>Someone has renamed Donald Trump's midtown Manhattan building on Google Maps, and the new moniker isn't very flattering.</p>
<p>Instead of Trump Tower, it's "Dump Tower."</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>WPIX-TV reports (http://bit.ly/2fGwiAb) that users of the mapping service began noticing the new name for the Fifth Avenue building on Saturday and some took to social media to report it.</p>
<p>Trump, the Republican president-elect, has not yet commented on it. Trump has been using Trump Tower as his transition headquarters.</p>
<p>Google could not be immediately reached for comment.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: WPIX-TV, http://www.wb11.com</p>
| 4,749 |
<p>HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnam has found faults with the central State Bank of Vietnam, including poor supervision of credit organizations and inefficiency in preventing corruption, the government said on Saturday.</p>
<p>The announcement, which was published on the government’s website, came amid an intensifying crackdown on corruption that has pushed many state executives and government officials into the spotlight.</p>
<p>The Government Inspectorate found the bank slow and not complying with regulations when publicizing its properties and revenues, the report said, without elaborating.</p>
<p>Government officials have to reveal their incomes and properties to the public.</p>
<p>Inspectors also pointed out violations by SBV’s banking supervision agency, a department in charge of overseeing and examining credit organizations, from 2010 to 2015.</p>
<p>“Credit organizations had several faults but during inspection, the supervising department did not promptly detect them to deal with and prevent them,” the government said.</p>
<p>The inspectorate has called for the state bank governor to investigate groups and individuals behind the violations.</p>
<p>Vietnam’s crackdown on corruption and mismanagement, with a focus on inefficient state-owned companies, earlier led to the rare dismissal of a member of the politburo and the sacking of a vice-minister.</p>
<p>Four more officials from a scandal hit state-oil firm are being prosecuted over links to investment losses in a local bank.</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>
|
Vietnam says violations found at central bank in war on graft
| false |
https://newsline.com/vietnam-says-violations-found-at-central-bank-in-war-on-graft/
|
2017-09-02
| 1right-center
|
Vietnam says violations found at central bank in war on graft
<p>HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnam has found faults with the central State Bank of Vietnam, including poor supervision of credit organizations and inefficiency in preventing corruption, the government said on Saturday.</p>
<p>The announcement, which was published on the government’s website, came amid an intensifying crackdown on corruption that has pushed many state executives and government officials into the spotlight.</p>
<p>The Government Inspectorate found the bank slow and not complying with regulations when publicizing its properties and revenues, the report said, without elaborating.</p>
<p>Government officials have to reveal their incomes and properties to the public.</p>
<p>Inspectors also pointed out violations by SBV’s banking supervision agency, a department in charge of overseeing and examining credit organizations, from 2010 to 2015.</p>
<p>“Credit organizations had several faults but during inspection, the supervising department did not promptly detect them to deal with and prevent them,” the government said.</p>
<p>The inspectorate has called for the state bank governor to investigate groups and individuals behind the violations.</p>
<p>Vietnam’s crackdown on corruption and mismanagement, with a focus on inefficient state-owned companies, earlier led to the rare dismissal of a member of the politburo and the sacking of a vice-minister.</p>
<p>Four more officials from a scandal hit state-oil firm are being prosecuted over links to investment losses in a local bank.</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>
| 4,750 |
<p>Here’s one form of big government that even some Republicans on Capitol Hill can apparently embrace: On Tuesday, the Senate passed a bill designed to crack down on food regulation practices in the U.S. after recent batches of tainted foodstuffs were unleashed on the public. –KA</p>
<p>The New York Times:</p>
<p>The legislation, which passed by a vote of 73 to 25, would greatly strengthen the Food and Drug Administration, an agency that in recent decades focused more on policing medical products than ensuring the safety of foods. The bill is intended to get the government to crack down on unsafe foods before they harm people rather than after outbreaks occur.</p>
<p>Despite unusual bipartisan support on Capitol Hill and a strong push from the Obama administration, the bill could still die because there might not be enough time for the usual haggling between the Senate and House of Representatives, which passed its own version last year. Top House Democrats said that they would consider simply passing the Senate version to speed approval.</p>
<p />
<p>Both versions of the bill would grant the F.D.A. new powers to recall tainted foods, increase inspections, demand accountability from food companies and oversee farming. But neither version would consolidate overlapping functions at the Department of Agriculture and nearly a dozen other federal agencies that oversee various aspects of food safety, making coordination among the agencies a continuing challenge.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/health/policy/01food.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss" type="external">Read more</a></p>
|
Senate Votes to Beef Up the FDA
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/senate-votes-to-beef-up-the-fda/
|
2010-12-01
| 4left
|
Senate Votes to Beef Up the FDA
<p>Here’s one form of big government that even some Republicans on Capitol Hill can apparently embrace: On Tuesday, the Senate passed a bill designed to crack down on food regulation practices in the U.S. after recent batches of tainted foodstuffs were unleashed on the public. –KA</p>
<p>The New York Times:</p>
<p>The legislation, which passed by a vote of 73 to 25, would greatly strengthen the Food and Drug Administration, an agency that in recent decades focused more on policing medical products than ensuring the safety of foods. The bill is intended to get the government to crack down on unsafe foods before they harm people rather than after outbreaks occur.</p>
<p>Despite unusual bipartisan support on Capitol Hill and a strong push from the Obama administration, the bill could still die because there might not be enough time for the usual haggling between the Senate and House of Representatives, which passed its own version last year. Top House Democrats said that they would consider simply passing the Senate version to speed approval.</p>
<p />
<p>Both versions of the bill would grant the F.D.A. new powers to recall tainted foods, increase inspections, demand accountability from food companies and oversee farming. But neither version would consolidate overlapping functions at the Department of Agriculture and nearly a dozen other federal agencies that oversee various aspects of food safety, making coordination among the agencies a continuing challenge.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/health/policy/01food.html?partner=rss&amp;emc=rss" type="external">Read more</a></p>
| 4,751 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Attorney General Hector Balderas</p>
<p>SANTA FE — State Attorney General Hector Balderas is backing legislation aimed at making it more difficult for teachers accused of abusing a child to move from one district to another, unnoticed by authorities.</p>
<p>The proposal, Senate Bill 87, expands the circumstances under which someone must report suspected child abuse or neglect. It makes it clear that the abuse must be reported to authorities, even if the suspect is a school employee, not the child’s parent or guardian.</p>
<p>In a news conference Monday, Balderas cited the case of Gary Gregor — a teacher who moved among different school districts after he was accused of impropriety. Gregor, a former elementary school teacher in Española, now faces charges of child molestation.</p>
<p>He has pleaded not guilty.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Balderas and Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, are asking Republican Gov. Susana Martinez to add the bill to this year’s legislative session. It can’t be considered otherwise.</p>
<p>“We must now protect the next generation of students,” Balderas said Monday in a news conference.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
|
AG seeks to expand child abuse reporting law
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1122909/ag-seeks-to-expand-child-abuse-reporting-law.html
|
2018-01-22
| 2least
|
AG seeks to expand child abuse reporting law
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Attorney General Hector Balderas</p>
<p>SANTA FE — State Attorney General Hector Balderas is backing legislation aimed at making it more difficult for teachers accused of abusing a child to move from one district to another, unnoticed by authorities.</p>
<p>The proposal, Senate Bill 87, expands the circumstances under which someone must report suspected child abuse or neglect. It makes it clear that the abuse must be reported to authorities, even if the suspect is a school employee, not the child’s parent or guardian.</p>
<p>In a news conference Monday, Balderas cited the case of Gary Gregor — a teacher who moved among different school districts after he was accused of impropriety. Gregor, a former elementary school teacher in Española, now faces charges of child molestation.</p>
<p>He has pleaded not guilty.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Balderas and Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, are asking Republican Gov. Susana Martinez to add the bill to this year’s legislative session. It can’t be considered otherwise.</p>
<p>“We must now protect the next generation of students,” Balderas said Monday in a news conference.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
| 4,752 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Qualcomm.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Qualcomm, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: QCOM)stock price jumped 30.09% in 2016, according to data provided by <a href="http://marketintelligence.spglobal.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence</a>, thanks topositive news for the company'spatent licensing division, a midyear earnings beat, and Qualcomm's bid to buy NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI).</p>
<p>Image source: YCharts.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Qualcomm's stock began ticking up in early 2016 after the company announced it was seeing improvements to itsQualcomm technology licensing (QTL) division. That was very welcome news to investors, as the company's most profitable division had been hit hard by smartphone makers, mainly in China, who refused to pay the 3G and 4G licensing fees that Qualcomm has come to rely on.</p>
<p>The company said in February that it expected $8 billion from its QTL division in 2016, with that number hitting $10 billion by 2020.</p>
<p>Then, in July, Qualcomm's stock price got another shot in the arm when the company easily beat analyst estimates and improved QTL revenue in the fiscal third quarter. Total revenue grew by 3.6% year over year to $6.04 billion -- beating the average analyst estimate by about $400 million -- and QTL revenue jumped 6% on a yearly basis.</p>
<p>The company also forecast optimistic earnings for the fiscal fourth quarter, further solidifying the idea that Qualcomm was leaving its most difficult days behind.</p>
<p>The last major jump came toward the end of September on rumors (that later proved true) that Qualcomm was in talks to buy chipmaker NXP Semiconductors.The purchase of NXP could help Qualcomm transition beyond the slowing smartphone market and focus more of its attention on the growing Internet of Things and self-driving car markets.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the investor optimism from 2016 hasn't exactly spilled into this year. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) officially charged Qualcomm for antitrust patent licensing practices last month. That came around the same time that Apple launched two patent licensing lawsuits against the company as well..The effect from the iPhone maker's and FTC's litigation has sent Qualcomm's stock tumbling more than 16% since the beginning of the year.</p>
<p>With the company just beginning the process of tackling these lawsuits -- and having just gotten out of similar patent licensing problems in 2016 -- it would appear that Qualcomm investors may be gearing up for a rocky 2017.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than QualcommWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d43571d8-6a31-436b-a010-5d3fa98fd8ac&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks</a> for investors to buy right now... and Qualcomm wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d43571d8-6a31-436b-a010-5d3fa98fd8ac&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewsie/info.aspx" type="external">Chris Neiger</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends AAPL and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on AAPL and short January 2018 $95 calls on AAPL. The Motley Fool recommends NXP Semiconductors. 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</a>.</p>
|
Why Qualcomm, Inc. Stock Spiked 30% in 2016
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/15/why-qualcomm-inc-stock-spiked-30-in-2016.html
|
2017-02-15
| 0right
|
Why Qualcomm, Inc. Stock Spiked 30% in 2016
<p />
<p>Image source: Qualcomm.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Qualcomm, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: QCOM)stock price jumped 30.09% in 2016, according to data provided by <a href="http://marketintelligence.spglobal.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence</a>, thanks topositive news for the company'spatent licensing division, a midyear earnings beat, and Qualcomm's bid to buy NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI).</p>
<p>Image source: YCharts.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Qualcomm's stock began ticking up in early 2016 after the company announced it was seeing improvements to itsQualcomm technology licensing (QTL) division. That was very welcome news to investors, as the company's most profitable division had been hit hard by smartphone makers, mainly in China, who refused to pay the 3G and 4G licensing fees that Qualcomm has come to rely on.</p>
<p>The company said in February that it expected $8 billion from its QTL division in 2016, with that number hitting $10 billion by 2020.</p>
<p>Then, in July, Qualcomm's stock price got another shot in the arm when the company easily beat analyst estimates and improved QTL revenue in the fiscal third quarter. Total revenue grew by 3.6% year over year to $6.04 billion -- beating the average analyst estimate by about $400 million -- and QTL revenue jumped 6% on a yearly basis.</p>
<p>The company also forecast optimistic earnings for the fiscal fourth quarter, further solidifying the idea that Qualcomm was leaving its most difficult days behind.</p>
<p>The last major jump came toward the end of September on rumors (that later proved true) that Qualcomm was in talks to buy chipmaker NXP Semiconductors.The purchase of NXP could help Qualcomm transition beyond the slowing smartphone market and focus more of its attention on the growing Internet of Things and self-driving car markets.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the investor optimism from 2016 hasn't exactly spilled into this year. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) officially charged Qualcomm for antitrust patent licensing practices last month. That came around the same time that Apple launched two patent licensing lawsuits against the company as well..The effect from the iPhone maker's and FTC's litigation has sent Qualcomm's stock tumbling more than 16% since the beginning of the year.</p>
<p>With the company just beginning the process of tackling these lawsuits -- and having just gotten out of similar patent licensing problems in 2016 -- it would appear that Qualcomm investors may be gearing up for a rocky 2017.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than QualcommWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d43571d8-6a31-436b-a010-5d3fa98fd8ac&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks</a> for investors to buy right now... and Qualcomm wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=d43571d8-6a31-436b-a010-5d3fa98fd8ac&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewsie/info.aspx" type="external">Chris Neiger</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends AAPL and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on AAPL and short January 2018 $95 calls on AAPL. The Motley Fool recommends NXP Semiconductors. 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</a>.</p>
| 4,753 |
<p>Public Citizen Arbitration Campaign Manager Amanda Werner on why she dressed up as 'Monopoly Man' during the Equifax Senate hearing.</p>
<p>Public Citizen Arbitration Campaign Manager Amanda Werner attended former Equifax CEO Richard Smith’s Senate hearing while dressed as ‘Monopoly Man.’</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“My number one priority and the reason that I dressed up as the ‘Monopoly Man’ was to call attention to Equifax and Wells Fargo’s use of forced arbitration as essentially [a] ‘get out of jail free’ card when they break the law,” Werner told the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney.</p>
<p>In addition, Werner says there is a bill in the Senate the organization is trying to stop.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately the Senate is currently trying to pass legislation that would take away consumers’ right to sue companies like Equifax and Wells Fargo and we’re trying to stop that.”</p>
<p>According to Werner, it’s not about being opposed to arbitration, but consumers being able to have a choice of what works best for them.</p>
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<p>“It’s not that we don’t want arbitration, it’s that we want consumers to be able to choose whether they pursue arbitration or they join together with other consumers in a class-action lawsuit,” Werner said on Varney &amp; Co.</p>
<p>When Varney asked if she wanted Equifax run out of business, Werner responded, “I think that we definitely need a better system for credit reporting.&#160; Right now, the way that it works is that consumers are essentially the product of these credit reporting bureaus, we’re not actually their customers, so they don’t feel accountable to us in any way.&#160; And right now Equifax, I think, has shown the dangers of that.”</p>
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Monopoly Man: Equifax can't use 'get out of jail free' card when they break the law
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2017/10/10/monopoly-man-equifax-cant-use-get-out-jail-free-card-when-break-law.html
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2017-10-10
| 0right
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Monopoly Man: Equifax can't use 'get out of jail free' card when they break the law
<p>Public Citizen Arbitration Campaign Manager Amanda Werner on why she dressed up as 'Monopoly Man' during the Equifax Senate hearing.</p>
<p>Public Citizen Arbitration Campaign Manager Amanda Werner attended former Equifax CEO Richard Smith’s Senate hearing while dressed as ‘Monopoly Man.’</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“My number one priority and the reason that I dressed up as the ‘Monopoly Man’ was to call attention to Equifax and Wells Fargo’s use of forced arbitration as essentially [a] ‘get out of jail free’ card when they break the law,” Werner told the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney.</p>
<p>In addition, Werner says there is a bill in the Senate the organization is trying to stop.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately the Senate is currently trying to pass legislation that would take away consumers’ right to sue companies like Equifax and Wells Fargo and we’re trying to stop that.”</p>
<p>According to Werner, it’s not about being opposed to arbitration, but consumers being able to have a choice of what works best for them.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“It’s not that we don’t want arbitration, it’s that we want consumers to be able to choose whether they pursue arbitration or they join together with other consumers in a class-action lawsuit,” Werner said on Varney &amp; Co.</p>
<p>When Varney asked if she wanted Equifax run out of business, Werner responded, “I think that we definitely need a better system for credit reporting.&#160; Right now, the way that it works is that consumers are essentially the product of these credit reporting bureaus, we’re not actually their customers, so they don’t feel accountable to us in any way.&#160; And right now Equifax, I think, has shown the dangers of that.”</p>
| 4,754 |
<p>BERLIN (AP) — Europe could see a surge in “climate refugees” as global warming increases poverty and hardship elsewhere in the world, scientists said Thursday.</p>
<p>Experts have long warned that rising temperatures and extreme weather could increase the number of people in poor countries seeking refuge in richer, more temperate nations, but the phenomenon has previously only been studied at a small scale.</p>
<p>In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers examined asylum applications in the EU between 2000 and 2014 from 103 countries around the world. This preceded the spike in migration to Europe from war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2015 and 2016 that prompted a political backlash against migrants in many European countries.</p>
<p>“We find a statistically significant relationship between fluctuations in asylum applications and weather anomalies,” the U.S.-based authors wrote of the 15-year period.</p>
<p>They concluded that the number of applications increased the more a country of origin’s average temperature diverged from 20 C (68 F) — the best temperature for growing crops. Higher temperatures were more likely to increase the numbers than lower temperatures, they found.</p>
<p>“It’s the first study that draws a link between temperature and international migration on a global scale, and finds a link,” said Jacob Schewe, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany who wasn’t involved in the study.</p>
<p>Working from a baseline average of 351,000 applications a year, the study concludes that the number of asylum-seekers to the EU could rise by more than a quarter by 2100 even if global warming slows. However, if emissions of greenhouse gases continue at current rates, asylum request could almost triple to over a million a year by the end of the century.</p>
<p>Although economic hardship isn’t usually seen as grounds for asylum in most European countries, the study found an increase in requests being granted to migrants from countries that had experienced weather shocks.</p>
<p>The authors, Wolfram Schlenker and Anouch Missirian of Columbia University, said their study doesn’t account for other factors — such as the outbreak of conflicts — that may impact asylum applications. They argue climate change should be seen as a “threat multiplier” that can increase other factors which might cause people to abandon their homes, including war, economic stress and famine.</p>
<p>Schlenker said the impact of climate change on agriculture may also not be immediate.</p>
<p>“It might be that you have a one-year bad weather shock, but if you have some crops stored you can basically overcome that,” he said in a telephone interview. “But if it gets permanently hot in the future and you never get a good crop again then you might move.”</p>
<p>Schlenker said the findings should be a wakeup call for rich countries that think they are insulated from the worst effects of global warming.</p>
<p>“A lot of people argue that climate impact will mainly hit developing countries, but this shows it will have big spillover effect,” he said.</p>
<p>The study received funding from the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter</a></p>
<p>BERLIN (AP) — Europe could see a surge in “climate refugees” as global warming increases poverty and hardship elsewhere in the world, scientists said Thursday.</p>
<p>Experts have long warned that rising temperatures and extreme weather could increase the number of people in poor countries seeking refuge in richer, more temperate nations, but the phenomenon has previously only been studied at a small scale.</p>
<p>In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers examined asylum applications in the EU between 2000 and 2014 from 103 countries around the world. This preceded the spike in migration to Europe from war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2015 and 2016 that prompted a political backlash against migrants in many European countries.</p>
<p>“We find a statistically significant relationship between fluctuations in asylum applications and weather anomalies,” the U.S.-based authors wrote of the 15-year period.</p>
<p>They concluded that the number of applications increased the more a country of origin’s average temperature diverged from 20 C (68 F) — the best temperature for growing crops. Higher temperatures were more likely to increase the numbers than lower temperatures, they found.</p>
<p>“It’s the first study that draws a link between temperature and international migration on a global scale, and finds a link,” said Jacob Schewe, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany who wasn’t involved in the study.</p>
<p>Working from a baseline average of 351,000 applications a year, the study concludes that the number of asylum-seekers to the EU could rise by more than a quarter by 2100 even if global warming slows. However, if emissions of greenhouse gases continue at current rates, asylum request could almost triple to over a million a year by the end of the century.</p>
<p>Although economic hardship isn’t usually seen as grounds for asylum in most European countries, the study found an increase in requests being granted to migrants from countries that had experienced weather shocks.</p>
<p>The authors, Wolfram Schlenker and Anouch Missirian of Columbia University, said their study doesn’t account for other factors — such as the outbreak of conflicts — that may impact asylum applications. They argue climate change should be seen as a “threat multiplier” that can increase other factors which might cause people to abandon their homes, including war, economic stress and famine.</p>
<p>Schlenker said the impact of climate change on agriculture may also not be immediate.</p>
<p>“It might be that you have a one-year bad weather shock, but if you have some crops stored you can basically overcome that,” he said in a telephone interview. “But if it gets permanently hot in the future and you never get a good crop again then you might move.”</p>
<p>Schlenker said the findings should be a wakeup call for rich countries that think they are insulated from the worst effects of global warming.</p>
<p>“A lot of people argue that climate impact will mainly hit developing countries, but this shows it will have big spillover effect,” he said.</p>
<p>The study received funding from the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter</a></p>
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Climate change predicted to drive more migrants to Europe
| false |
https://apnews.com/d2e85b3fe7924f72bc876b1e7d22b6da
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2017-12-21
| 2least
|
Climate change predicted to drive more migrants to Europe
<p>BERLIN (AP) — Europe could see a surge in “climate refugees” as global warming increases poverty and hardship elsewhere in the world, scientists said Thursday.</p>
<p>Experts have long warned that rising temperatures and extreme weather could increase the number of people in poor countries seeking refuge in richer, more temperate nations, but the phenomenon has previously only been studied at a small scale.</p>
<p>In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers examined asylum applications in the EU between 2000 and 2014 from 103 countries around the world. This preceded the spike in migration to Europe from war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2015 and 2016 that prompted a political backlash against migrants in many European countries.</p>
<p>“We find a statistically significant relationship between fluctuations in asylum applications and weather anomalies,” the U.S.-based authors wrote of the 15-year period.</p>
<p>They concluded that the number of applications increased the more a country of origin’s average temperature diverged from 20 C (68 F) — the best temperature for growing crops. Higher temperatures were more likely to increase the numbers than lower temperatures, they found.</p>
<p>“It’s the first study that draws a link between temperature and international migration on a global scale, and finds a link,” said Jacob Schewe, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany who wasn’t involved in the study.</p>
<p>Working from a baseline average of 351,000 applications a year, the study concludes that the number of asylum-seekers to the EU could rise by more than a quarter by 2100 even if global warming slows. However, if emissions of greenhouse gases continue at current rates, asylum request could almost triple to over a million a year by the end of the century.</p>
<p>Although economic hardship isn’t usually seen as grounds for asylum in most European countries, the study found an increase in requests being granted to migrants from countries that had experienced weather shocks.</p>
<p>The authors, Wolfram Schlenker and Anouch Missirian of Columbia University, said their study doesn’t account for other factors — such as the outbreak of conflicts — that may impact asylum applications. They argue climate change should be seen as a “threat multiplier” that can increase other factors which might cause people to abandon their homes, including war, economic stress and famine.</p>
<p>Schlenker said the impact of climate change on agriculture may also not be immediate.</p>
<p>“It might be that you have a one-year bad weather shock, but if you have some crops stored you can basically overcome that,” he said in a telephone interview. “But if it gets permanently hot in the future and you never get a good crop again then you might move.”</p>
<p>Schlenker said the findings should be a wakeup call for rich countries that think they are insulated from the worst effects of global warming.</p>
<p>“A lot of people argue that climate impact will mainly hit developing countries, but this shows it will have big spillover effect,” he said.</p>
<p>The study received funding from the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter</a></p>
<p>BERLIN (AP) — Europe could see a surge in “climate refugees” as global warming increases poverty and hardship elsewhere in the world, scientists said Thursday.</p>
<p>Experts have long warned that rising temperatures and extreme weather could increase the number of people in poor countries seeking refuge in richer, more temperate nations, but the phenomenon has previously only been studied at a small scale.</p>
<p>In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers examined asylum applications in the EU between 2000 and 2014 from 103 countries around the world. This preceded the spike in migration to Europe from war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2015 and 2016 that prompted a political backlash against migrants in many European countries.</p>
<p>“We find a statistically significant relationship between fluctuations in asylum applications and weather anomalies,” the U.S.-based authors wrote of the 15-year period.</p>
<p>They concluded that the number of applications increased the more a country of origin’s average temperature diverged from 20 C (68 F) — the best temperature for growing crops. Higher temperatures were more likely to increase the numbers than lower temperatures, they found.</p>
<p>“It’s the first study that draws a link between temperature and international migration on a global scale, and finds a link,” said Jacob Schewe, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany who wasn’t involved in the study.</p>
<p>Working from a baseline average of 351,000 applications a year, the study concludes that the number of asylum-seekers to the EU could rise by more than a quarter by 2100 even if global warming slows. However, if emissions of greenhouse gases continue at current rates, asylum request could almost triple to over a million a year by the end of the century.</p>
<p>Although economic hardship isn’t usually seen as grounds for asylum in most European countries, the study found an increase in requests being granted to migrants from countries that had experienced weather shocks.</p>
<p>The authors, Wolfram Schlenker and Anouch Missirian of Columbia University, said their study doesn’t account for other factors — such as the outbreak of conflicts — that may impact asylum applications. They argue climate change should be seen as a “threat multiplier” that can increase other factors which might cause people to abandon their homes, including war, economic stress and famine.</p>
<p>Schlenker said the impact of climate change on agriculture may also not be immediate.</p>
<p>“It might be that you have a one-year bad weather shock, but if you have some crops stored you can basically overcome that,” he said in a telephone interview. “But if it gets permanently hot in the future and you never get a good crop again then you might move.”</p>
<p>Schlenker said the findings should be a wakeup call for rich countries that think they are insulated from the worst effects of global warming.</p>
<p>“A lot of people argue that climate impact will mainly hit developing countries, but this shows it will have big spillover effect,” he said.</p>
<p>The study received funding from the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter</a></p>
| 4,755 |
<p>Photo by Martha Coakley, &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/31783441@N05/4253860789/sizes/m/in/photostream/"&gt;via Flickr&lt;/a&gt;.</p>
<p />
<p>The kick-off of the 112th Congress on Wednesday also marked the end of an era in the House—the demise of a committee devoted solely to climate change and energy issues. The Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, created by Nancy Pelosi in 2006, has been shuttered under the new Republican leadership. In the final days of the committee, staffers <a href="http://globalwarming.house.gov/mediacenter/pressreleases_2008?id=0346#main_content" type="external">released a report</a> on what the committee accomplished in its brief tenure—an epitaph of sorts.</p>
<p>Tackling issues from the politicization of climate science to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, the committee held 80 hearings and briefings. It played a role in shaping policy for the 2007 energy bill, the 2009 stimulus package (which included $90 billion in energy, efficiency, and other green elements), and, of course, the 2009 climate bill (the one that never became law, of course, because the Senate didn’t act on it).</p>
<p>The final report concludes with the question of whether the United States will respond to all the information that the committee has compiled during its lifespan on the climate and energy challenge:</p>
<p>Someday, our children and grandchildren will look back on the record of the Select Committee. That record will reflect a respectful and rigorous debate and an unprecedented understanding of the challenges before us. Whether or not they will see that this generation has taken the bold action required by these challenges remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Select Committee Chair Ed Markey (D-Mass.) will now serve as the ranking member of the natural resources committee, so I’m sure we will be hearing more on the subject from him in the next two years.</p>
<p>There had been some <a href="" type="internal">talk among Republicans</a> of keeping the committee alive so it could be used to mock climate change and harass scientists, but leadership put the kibosh on that idea. It went out on a high note, and on its own terms, so I suppose we can take some small comfort in that.</p>
<p />
|
RIP, Select Committee on Global Warming
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/rip-select-committee-global-warming/
|
2011-01-06
| 4left
|
RIP, Select Committee on Global Warming
<p>Photo by Martha Coakley, &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/31783441@N05/4253860789/sizes/m/in/photostream/"&gt;via Flickr&lt;/a&gt;.</p>
<p />
<p>The kick-off of the 112th Congress on Wednesday also marked the end of an era in the House—the demise of a committee devoted solely to climate change and energy issues. The Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, created by Nancy Pelosi in 2006, has been shuttered under the new Republican leadership. In the final days of the committee, staffers <a href="http://globalwarming.house.gov/mediacenter/pressreleases_2008?id=0346#main_content" type="external">released a report</a> on what the committee accomplished in its brief tenure—an epitaph of sorts.</p>
<p>Tackling issues from the politicization of climate science to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, the committee held 80 hearings and briefings. It played a role in shaping policy for the 2007 energy bill, the 2009 stimulus package (which included $90 billion in energy, efficiency, and other green elements), and, of course, the 2009 climate bill (the one that never became law, of course, because the Senate didn’t act on it).</p>
<p>The final report concludes with the question of whether the United States will respond to all the information that the committee has compiled during its lifespan on the climate and energy challenge:</p>
<p>Someday, our children and grandchildren will look back on the record of the Select Committee. That record will reflect a respectful and rigorous debate and an unprecedented understanding of the challenges before us. Whether or not they will see that this generation has taken the bold action required by these challenges remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Select Committee Chair Ed Markey (D-Mass.) will now serve as the ranking member of the natural resources committee, so I’m sure we will be hearing more on the subject from him in the next two years.</p>
<p>There had been some <a href="" type="internal">talk among Republicans</a> of keeping the committee alive so it could be used to mock climate change and harass scientists, but leadership put the kibosh on that idea. It went out on a high note, and on its own terms, so I suppose we can take some small comfort in that.</p>
<p />
| 4,756 |
<p />
<p>Introduction by Tom Engelhardt</p>
<p>The Tipping Point</p>
<p>And so we barge through another door marked “Open With Caution” and into yet another wing of our new age of extremity whose rooms now seem to extend in all directions forever. And this descent into barbarism is being reported to us in the anodyne language of embedded war reporters.</p>
<p>In the meantime, back in Bush’s Washington, we seem to have drifted out of the Persian Gulf and down the Mekong River into the Land That Time Forgot (but that Americans can never quite get out of their brains) — a.k.a. Vietnam. There’s our President receiving reports from his generals on our “progress” in a country suffering the sort of regression that in a human being would leave you hospitalized, if not locked away for life. Shades of General William Westmoreland and President Lyndon Baines Johnson.</p>
<p>Then, there are our fighting commanders offering pep talks invoking the glorious tradition of Hue, the former Vietnamese imperial capital which, in the bitterest siege of that war, was all but leveled; finally, there’s our Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld back at his old stand-up lectern talking about how we’re just possibly reaching the <a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20041108-secdef1541.html" type="external">“tipping” point</a> in Iraq — where public opinion will shift over to us. (For those who remember, the long slide downhill in Vietnam was greased with such “points,” including the famed “crossover point” when we would kill more of the enemy than they could replace, or as General Westmoreland put it famously at the National Press Club in November 1967: “We have reached an important point when the end begins to come into view.” It turned out to be the end of the beginning of the beginning of the end, if I remember rightly.)</p>
<p>It’s not, as I’ve argued before, that Iraq and Vietnam are simple analogs, but that our leaders can’t get Vietnam off the brain. It’s the collective correlative of a guilty conscience for an administration otherwise completely lacking one; and filled, Colin Powell excepted, with people who were unwilling to have anything to do with the Vietnam War in their own earlier lives.</p>
<p>In the meantime, our <a href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000707275" type="external">re-embedded reporters</a> return to the kind of docility and general boosterism that was the hallmark of the early Vietnam years. In our press, extremity only fits others. So our journalists can report on the barbaric extremity of enemy acts — the beheadings, kidnappings, “hostage slaughterhouses” and the like — in an appropriate way. But our role in the roiling extremity that is Iraq remains largely beyond them. It’s cleansed from the very language they automatically employ. Nothing startling here, of course. This is, after all, but a “balanced” press version of American exceptionalism.</p>
<p>Recently the always interesting Anatol Lieven published a new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195168402/nationbooks08" type="external">America Right or Wrong</a> (which I soon plan to read). It sports the subtitle, “An Anatomy of American Nationalism.” While Lieven is identified on the book jacket as a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington D.C., the subtitle is a pure giveaway as to his un-American-ness. (The poor sap is a Brit, I think.) If he were an American journalist he would never have linked the word “nationalism” (a state of unreasonable zeal for one’s own land) to “American.” Americans, it’s well known, are “patriotic” or, if driven toward the dreaded moniker “nationalistic,” then “super-patriotic.” It’s well known here, just taken for granted, that only foreigners are “nationalistic,” or worse yet, “nationalists.”</p>
<p>Similarly, in Iraq, <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick11092004.html" type="external">the FFs</a> or “foreign fighters” are invariably Syrians, Saudis, Yemenis, Tunisians and other mad Muslims who slip across borders into places like Falluja to fight us. Americans, who boldly invade to liberate, cannot be FFs ever. Our good intentions evidently leave us implicitly at home wherever we go and whatever we do, though no one could deny that American troops are by definition “foreign fighters” in Iraq and, to judge by news reports, increasingly feel that way. (Here I issue a challenge: Any reader who can find a passage written by an American journalist in any mainstream news report in any of our major papers since the invasion of Iraq which refers to American troops as “foreigners” even once will get the Tomdispatch all-expenses-paid trip to sunny Abu Ghraib.)</p>
<p>Similarly, in a recent New York Times front-page story by Edward Wong and Eric Schmitt, large numbers of the rebels and jihadists in Falluja were said, both in the headline ( <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/10/international/middleeast/10insurgency.html?ex=1101200813&amp;ei=1&amp;en=779addce6fedd094" type="external">The Insurgents: Rebel Fighters Who Fled Attack May Now Be Active Elsewhere</a>) and in first sentence, to have “fled.” (“Insurgent leaders in Falluja probably fled before the American-led offensive and may be coordinating attacks in Iraq that have left scores dead over the past few days, according to American military officials here.”) Now, maybe they did flee, but assumedly neither those military officials, nor Wong and Schmitt were actually there to watch them fleeing. The only relevant quote in the piece, from a cell-phone interview with a “midlevel commander” of the insurgency speaks of “leaving” Falluja. Since the American offensive was long announced and coordinated fighting has broken out elsewhere in the Sunni areas of Iraq, it would be as logical to speak of the Fallujan fighters “redeploying” (as American troops brought to Falluja did). But flight, of course, implies cowardice.</p>
<p>Similarly, former American generals, now TV consultants, have flocked back onto TV to decry the rebels and jihadists for being so cowardly as to mix in with the civilian population (as guerrillas invariably do). They should, the implication is, come out and fight like men. No American journalist would ever claim, however, that American pilots in AC-130 gunships or jets attacking Falluja are cowardly, though they are obviously using another type of cover. War, of course, is like that. Each side tends to use the advantages it has. Guerillas not mixing with the population are likely to find themselves not manly or brave but dead, as many undoubtedly now are in Falluja, when facing American fire power in anything like the open or isolation.</p>
<p>But American exceptionalism — the deep belief that our motives are uniquely pure, our goals singularly above reproach — means that descriptions of our actions don’t fit any of the language categories in which we put those we fight. This is essential to our war coverage — and largely unexamined. When, for instance, our planes destroy or our troops capture a clinic or hospital, as we did in our first and second acts in Falluja, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/international/middleeast/08hospital.html?ex=1101201539&amp;ei=1&amp;en=648927aec9ff9022" type="external">the reporting</a> on this may be grim — patients and doctors rousted from hospital rooms, thrown on the floor and handcuffed — and yet because Americans have done this, there will be no mention of the Geneva Conventions which such an act almost certainly contravenes. (The Fourth Geneva Convention contains <a href="http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/7c4d08d9b287a42141256739003e636b/6756482d86146898c125641e004aa3c5" type="external">this clear passage</a>: “Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.”) Similar acts — the dropping of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 pound bombs in major urban areas (sometimes to kill a single sniper) or the turning back of men trying to flee Falluja (because we have no way of telling whether they are civilians or fighters) — lead similarly down a steep but unacknowledged path to Hell.</p>
<p>Last night on the prime-time news, a video was run of an American tank blowing the minaret off a mosque (where, again contravening the Geneva Conventions, one or more snipers were hidden). The only comment or commentary offered was a brief interview with an American soldier on the scene offering the completely understandable ground-level view that this was “no holds barred” warfare and his troops had to be protected. But, folks, we’re talking about the so- called City of a Thousand Mosques. Imagine an al Qaeda sniper in the steeple of an American church or cathedral and how Americans might react.</p>
<p>Or let’s imagine this: If American claims are accurate and (like the Russians before they went in and leveled the Chechnyan capital of Grozny), we did our best to get civilians out of Falluja, possibly a couple of hundred thousand of them, where did they go? Tens of thousands of refugees, homeless and desperate? Where are the articles about them? Who is thinking about what will happen when they finally return to a city in ruins, to homes that may no longer exist in neighborhoods that have been pounded into rubble in areas possibly lacking the most basic services or functioning hospitals? These are, as Naomi Klein points out on the Alternet website, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/20459/" type="external">the future “voters” of Sunni Iraq</a>.</p>
<p>The decision by American strategists to “take” Falluja the second time around leads us directly into the charnel house of history. Unfortunately, even to think reasonably about what’s unfolding in Iraq you need to leave the American press behind. Only elsewhere in the world are the obvious analogies to Falluja (or Iraq) today coming to mind. Take the Russian destruction of the city of Grozny from whose ruins so many years later guerillas still ambush Russian troops, as described by <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1108-26.htm" type="external">former Australian diplomat Tony Kevin</a> in the Sydney Morning Herald; or the eerie and depressing parallels — right down to the beheadings — to the Algerian independence struggle against the French (“the first campaign in which poorly equipped Muslim mujaheddin licked one of the top Western armies”) as described by <a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,11314459,00.html" type="external">Alistair Horne in The Spectator</a>, the conservative British publication; or the Syrian destruction of the city of Hama as considered by Charles Glass in <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=580937" type="external">the British Independent</a>.</p>
<p>Only <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5058189-103550,00.html" type="external">elsewhere</a> (or <a href="http://newstandardnews.net/content/?items=1208&amp;printmode=true" type="external">on the Internet</a>) are you likely to find mention of the Geneva Conventions when <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK11Ak03.html" type="external">hospitals are taken</a> or mosques blown apart. Only elsewhere is the language of American war-making and war reporting <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5057424-103550,00.html" type="external">questioned</a> or the efficacy (no less morality) of bombing civilian populations in major urban centers considered.</p>
<p>The other day CNN had a report on the recent actions of the French military in the Ivory Coast. In the headline and the subsequent report, the French were lambasted for their “hypocrisy” in opposing our actions in Iraq and yet acting like the former colonial masters they are in the Ivory Coast. I assure you, however, that you can search the American press or television in vain for a single report that might link the word “hypocrisy” to the Bush administration for any of its actions. It’s just not in our journalistic dictionary, and that dictionary ensures that, even as our leaders push ever further into the age of extremism — remember, Alberto Gonzales, just nominated as our next Attorney General, oversaw the White House effort to create a legalistic framework for an offshore torture regime — it’s nearly impossible for American readers to grasp the extremity of the situation.</p>
<p>Depending on what news report you read, American troops have by now taken 50% or 70% or 90% of Falluja. The real question, though, is 50-70-90% of what? In the meantime, after initially upbeat reports, it looks like there will be <a href="http://www.nbc10.com/news/3910446/detail.html" type="external">significant American casualties</a> in Falluja, which means growing anger and frustration, which means ever more extreme acts on the ground.</p>
<p>So here’s an old Vietnam-era word that might have been worth bringing back as our Fallujan offensive began: “escalation.” The widespread destruction in Falluja represents an escalation of our Iraq war. It represents an extremity of behavior (on both sides), horrific in itself, for which there will be a cost as yet unknown. As small-scale running battles, assassinations, and car bombings now shake Mosul, Samarra, and other cities in Sunni Iraq, we see yet more doors marked “Open With Caution,” or even “Do Not Enter,” before us, and yet more tanks and jets and angry soldiers, and more frustrated American commanders and strategists ready to barge through them.</p>
<p>What we need now is not our usual set of embedded reporters, but the artist Hieronymous Bosch back from the grave to paint us the necessary pictures. After all, we’ve already seen what the liberation of Najaf and Falluja look like. But what will Iraq look like after we’ve liberated Samarra and Mosul and who knows where else — and the insurgency only grows? Below, Mark Levine considers four possible scenarios from our now Fallujanized world and what they tell us about Iraq and ourselves.</p>
<p />
<p>By Mark LeVine</p>
<p>As American forces penetrate ever deeper and more destructively into the city of Falluja, each of the major players in this violent drama is engaged in a complex, constantly shifting calculus involving ways of turning events to their advantage. Of the many possible outcomes to the battle of Falluja, the four which seem most plausible follow, starting with the one that might be viewed most positively by the Bush administration. In sum, they offer us a grim picture of how the window of success has closed on American strategists in Iraq. Even the “best” outcomes below (from the administration’s point of view) have lost the trappings of freedom and democracy that helped justify the invasion nineteen months ago.</p>
<p>The Hama Solution: In 1982, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad put down a potential nationwide revolt of religious activists associated with the Muslim Brotherhood by killing upwards of 20,000 people in the city of Hama, essentially flattening its central districts in the process. In an Iraqi version of the “Hama solution,” the Americans and their Iraqi allies would take Falluja relatively quickly — at whatever cost to its essential infrastructure — in the process killing the majority of the resistance fighters in the city along with uncounted civilians who were too poor, young, old or infirm to flee before the invasion. Falluja would then act as a terrifying example to other rebellious Iraqi cities. The end, however temporary, of Mutaqa al-Sadr’s Shia insurgency in the early fall increased the likelihood of success for such a move, freeing up as it did American troops from Najaf in the south and from the Shi’i slum of Sadr City in Baghdad. At the same time, the many month-long threat of a massive attack on Falluja seems to have created fracture lines in the resistance between indigenous groups seeking political solutions that might avoid mass civilian casualties and smaller groups of foreign jihadists, unbound by local ties and determined to fight to the death.</p>
<p>On the other hand, all those months of saber rattling evidently allowed many local fighters and jihadist leaders to leave the city before the invasion began, a troublesome development for American strategists and the interim government of Iyad Allawi as they seek to pacify the larger Sunni Triangle in time for announced elections in January. In the last week, after all, insurgents reoccupied the city center of Ramadi, attacked fiercely in Samarra, fought it out in Baghdad neighborhoods, and left authority in Mosul tottering, while American troops were occupied with the battle of Falluja — and these were just a few of the many indications that, no matter what happens in Falluja, the insurgency is anything but defeated.</p>
<p>Yet if enough resistance fighters are killed to reclaim Falluja and sap the force of the insurgency in other cities, American strategists can at least hope to be on their way to a limited pacification of Sunni Iraq. Sunni leaders might next be bought off or co-opted and enough followers, fighters, and civilians, killed elsewhere to quiet the country for the next several months. Iraq would then have its “successful” election, and the Bush Administration would breathe a huge sigh of relief. So would Prime Minister Allawi who, according to a senior Iraqi official with whom I’ve spoken in recent days, is still livid that the Americans bypassed him to negotiate an end to the siege of Najaf. (According to my source, the bandaged hand Allawi sported during his recent trip to New York came from “banging his hands on the wall” after leaning of a secret meeting between American Ambassador John Negroponte and Shiite rebel leaders.) In one fashion or another, in this scenario, “democracy” would mean an extension of the Allawi government via a limited and managed election.</p>
<p>The ongoing, seemingly ceaseless violence in the Palestinian Occupied Territories under Israeli occupation reminds us that pacifying an occupied population is an endless job. But if, as the Bush administration now hopes, the insurgency can simply be tamped down, when it resurfaces next spring it will be the problem of an elected Iraqi government. American troops, in the meanwhile, would largely be withdrawn to a dozen or more major bases lowering American casualties; yet they could be called back into action any time violence threatened to get out of hand. Iraq would then take its place beside Colombia, Israel, and Sri Lanka, to name only a few of the many countries plagued by ongoing but “manageable” political violence — while the United States would remain astride the second largest oil reserves in the world. This is today the best option available to the Bush administration.</p>
<p>The Jenin Scenario: If Falluja is largely subdued but low-level fighting continues for weeks or months in its back streets, chaos and anarchy might increase across the country, forcing a curtailment or postponement of the January elections, and yet the overall situation might not spin completely out of American control. The Allawi government would remain more or less in power in Baghdad and American troops could continue to occupy the country indefinitely (under the argument that the United States can’t leave Iraq in the midst of chaos). The insurgency would be slowly exhausted over a longer period of time, laying the groundwork for a post-independence system favorable to American interests.</p>
<p>Here, the example of the 2002 Israeli siege of the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin might prove the model for the present Falluja campaign. It stirred up incredible anger, violence, and chaos in Palestinian society and outrage internationally, but when the dust settled — as it usually does –Israel’s strategic position was actually stronger than before.</p>
<p>Even if the dust doesn’t settle quite as advantageously in Iraq, or settle at all, Bush Administration hawks could turn the ensuing low-level chaos to their immediate advantage by allowing it, or encouraging it to spread to Syria (near whose border the U.S. recently staged a bloody invasion of the Iraqi town of Tal Afar) or Iran (already in the sights of senior Administration officials, regardless of any nuclear deal its leaders may sign with the Europeans). In fact, it is well known that Israeli operatives have been working with Kurds in both border regions to gauge the feasibility of such a scenario. In the meantime, according to Iraqi officials I’ve spoken with, American oil companies are quietly exploring the 90% of Iraq where oil deposits have yet to be tapped, free of potentially embarrassing scrutiny by a media focused on urban violence rather than desert oil. American casualties would also remain limited; media attention modest; and so a Jenin scenario would be seen, under the circumstances, as a quiet but significant victory by the Bush administration.</p>
<p>The “British” Solution (or 1920 Revisited): If the invasion of Falluja backfires — if the fighting drags on and, for instance, there is evidence of large-scale civilian casualties, perhaps broadcast to the world by a dreaded al-Jazeera reporter via video phone — Iraqi public opinion might be inflamed to the point of sparking a more general Sunni or yet more significantly Sunni-Shi’i revolt. This actually happened in 1920 when occupying British troops tried to use massive force to pacify the country and the results were devastating for the occupiers (as well as the occupied); or if the resistance in Falluja proves more resilient or better armed than American military officials assume it to be and is capable of dragging out the fighting until a desperate compromise solution along the lines of the deal to end the Najaf siege becomes inevitable, a revolt might also be encouraged; or if the insurgents, with months to plan, left only a minimal force in Falluja to fight a delaying action against the Americans and their Iraqi allies and are able to conduct a larger, sustained insurgency across Sunni (and parts of Shiite) Iraq, as seems increasingly likely, the result could be the same.</p>
<p>Any one of these developments or any combination of them would destroy what is left of the credibility of the Americans and of the Interim Iraqi Government. If not contained, the present insurgency, facing overwhelming and relatively indiscriminate American power, could spark a more general revolt, joined by significant number of Shi’ites (whose leaders, unlike during the first siege of Falluja in April, have so far remained relatively quiet). It would capitalize on the intense anger felt by a country that has seen as many as 100,000 of its citizens killed in the last eighteen months. With the political costs of retreat almost incalculable, the Bush administration in turn might ratchet up the violence (as it did in Vietnam) before considering real withdrawal strategies, hoping that the prospect of tens of thousands of further deaths in the next year would lead Iraqis to accept some continued American military presence in the country and, most important, a continued hand in the management of the country’s petroleum resources.</p>
<p>The “French” Scenario: Any version of the “British” solution might, sooner or later, lead the Bush administration into the thickets of the even more unsettling “French” scenario. In this, a growing awareness of the human toll of the occupation, coupled with levels of political corruption that are already staggering would lend force to a desire to internationalize the next phase of Iraq’s transition to full sovereignty. (A former top Allawi aide, who recently escaped the country, summed up Iraqi despair on the issue of corruption in lamenting to me that “the new regime is the same as Saddam’s, just with different faces.”) The “French” scenario might involve the intercession of France, Germany, and Spain, joined by UN Secretary General Kofi Anan and supported by a resurgent worldwide anti-war movement aroused by the ongoing horrors of Iraq. With the insurgency still under way, pressure would be applied for a cease-fire coupled with an internationalization of the transition to sovereignty based on the complete failure of the United States and the Allawi government to stabilize the country. French President Chirac’s stated desire to build a counterweight to U.S. power and Kofi Anan’s rising displeasure with U.S. actions could encourage such a development, as could the resignation of the Sunni members of the interim government and a full-scale Sunni boycott of any future American-organized elections. While the United States and the British would likely veto any Security Council resolution to mandate such a move, the groundswell of support for it could lead to major changes in the management of the occupation in the lead-up to elections.</p>
<p>If all four outcomes described above are striking for what they reveal about the narrowing of the Bush Administration’s grand vision of a democratic and prosperous Iraq, the last one — a kind of final humiliation — would certainly be fiercely resisted by American officials and the Allawi government (nor would some factions of the insurgency be any too pleased by the possibility).</p>
<p>The wild card in the current crisis is the Iraqi people who, since the toppling of the Hussein regime, have more often than not remained horrified spectators while their country’s political landscape has been reshaped. This passivity, though understandable given the Iraqi experience over the previous two decades, has proved as disastrous for them and their country as the passivity of Palestinians was during the crucial early years of the Oslo peace process (which in actuality allowed Israel to increase significantly its West Bank and Gaza settlements, while Yasir Arafat cemented his autocratic and corrupt rule virtually cost-free).</p>
<p>Ayatollah Ali Sistani’s call for a massive nonviolent mobilization to end the siege of Najaf and the success of women’s groups in preventing a rollback of their social rights, both demonstrate that the Iraqi people can become active shapers of their own destiny. Were the Shiites to pour into the streets nationwide, as they did in Najaf in response to Sistani, the Iraqi situation would immediately take on a different look and the American occupation might find its days quickly numbered. But can Iraqi society challenge the violent calculus of American military planners and insurgents alike with a vision of a future free of occupation and autocracy, corruption and extremism? More than wishing the Iraqis well, the international community needs to get its hands dirty to ensure that they have a fighting chance.</p>
<p>Mark LeVine is professor of modern Middle Eastern history, culture, and Islamic studies at the University of California Irvine and author of the forthcoming books <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1851683658/nationbooks08" type="external">Why They Don’t Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520243714/nationbooks08" type="external">Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Struggle for Palestine, 1880-1948</a>, He is also the editor with Viggo Mortensen and Pilar Perez of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0972143696/nationbooks08" type="external">Twilight of Empire: Responses to Occupation</a>. He last spent time in Iraq in the early spring of this year.</p>
<p>Copyright C2004 Mark LeVine</p>
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<p>This piece first appeared at <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external">Tomdispatch.com</a>.</p>
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Four Times Falluja Equals?
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https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/11/four-times-falluja-equals/
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2004-11-11
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Four Times Falluja Equals?
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<p>Introduction by Tom Engelhardt</p>
<p>The Tipping Point</p>
<p>And so we barge through another door marked “Open With Caution” and into yet another wing of our new age of extremity whose rooms now seem to extend in all directions forever. And this descent into barbarism is being reported to us in the anodyne language of embedded war reporters.</p>
<p>In the meantime, back in Bush’s Washington, we seem to have drifted out of the Persian Gulf and down the Mekong River into the Land That Time Forgot (but that Americans can never quite get out of their brains) — a.k.a. Vietnam. There’s our President receiving reports from his generals on our “progress” in a country suffering the sort of regression that in a human being would leave you hospitalized, if not locked away for life. Shades of General William Westmoreland and President Lyndon Baines Johnson.</p>
<p>Then, there are our fighting commanders offering pep talks invoking the glorious tradition of Hue, the former Vietnamese imperial capital which, in the bitterest siege of that war, was all but leveled; finally, there’s our Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld back at his old stand-up lectern talking about how we’re just possibly reaching the <a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20041108-secdef1541.html" type="external">“tipping” point</a> in Iraq — where public opinion will shift over to us. (For those who remember, the long slide downhill in Vietnam was greased with such “points,” including the famed “crossover point” when we would kill more of the enemy than they could replace, or as General Westmoreland put it famously at the National Press Club in November 1967: “We have reached an important point when the end begins to come into view.” It turned out to be the end of the beginning of the beginning of the end, if I remember rightly.)</p>
<p>It’s not, as I’ve argued before, that Iraq and Vietnam are simple analogs, but that our leaders can’t get Vietnam off the brain. It’s the collective correlative of a guilty conscience for an administration otherwise completely lacking one; and filled, Colin Powell excepted, with people who were unwilling to have anything to do with the Vietnam War in their own earlier lives.</p>
<p>In the meantime, our <a href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000707275" type="external">re-embedded reporters</a> return to the kind of docility and general boosterism that was the hallmark of the early Vietnam years. In our press, extremity only fits others. So our journalists can report on the barbaric extremity of enemy acts — the beheadings, kidnappings, “hostage slaughterhouses” and the like — in an appropriate way. But our role in the roiling extremity that is Iraq remains largely beyond them. It’s cleansed from the very language they automatically employ. Nothing startling here, of course. This is, after all, but a “balanced” press version of American exceptionalism.</p>
<p>Recently the always interesting Anatol Lieven published a new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195168402/nationbooks08" type="external">America Right or Wrong</a> (which I soon plan to read). It sports the subtitle, “An Anatomy of American Nationalism.” While Lieven is identified on the book jacket as a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington D.C., the subtitle is a pure giveaway as to his un-American-ness. (The poor sap is a Brit, I think.) If he were an American journalist he would never have linked the word “nationalism” (a state of unreasonable zeal for one’s own land) to “American.” Americans, it’s well known, are “patriotic” or, if driven toward the dreaded moniker “nationalistic,” then “super-patriotic.” It’s well known here, just taken for granted, that only foreigners are “nationalistic,” or worse yet, “nationalists.”</p>
<p>Similarly, in Iraq, <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick11092004.html" type="external">the FFs</a> or “foreign fighters” are invariably Syrians, Saudis, Yemenis, Tunisians and other mad Muslims who slip across borders into places like Falluja to fight us. Americans, who boldly invade to liberate, cannot be FFs ever. Our good intentions evidently leave us implicitly at home wherever we go and whatever we do, though no one could deny that American troops are by definition “foreign fighters” in Iraq and, to judge by news reports, increasingly feel that way. (Here I issue a challenge: Any reader who can find a passage written by an American journalist in any mainstream news report in any of our major papers since the invasion of Iraq which refers to American troops as “foreigners” even once will get the Tomdispatch all-expenses-paid trip to sunny Abu Ghraib.)</p>
<p>Similarly, in a recent New York Times front-page story by Edward Wong and Eric Schmitt, large numbers of the rebels and jihadists in Falluja were said, both in the headline ( <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/10/international/middleeast/10insurgency.html?ex=1101200813&amp;ei=1&amp;en=779addce6fedd094" type="external">The Insurgents: Rebel Fighters Who Fled Attack May Now Be Active Elsewhere</a>) and in first sentence, to have “fled.” (“Insurgent leaders in Falluja probably fled before the American-led offensive and may be coordinating attacks in Iraq that have left scores dead over the past few days, according to American military officials here.”) Now, maybe they did flee, but assumedly neither those military officials, nor Wong and Schmitt were actually there to watch them fleeing. The only relevant quote in the piece, from a cell-phone interview with a “midlevel commander” of the insurgency speaks of “leaving” Falluja. Since the American offensive was long announced and coordinated fighting has broken out elsewhere in the Sunni areas of Iraq, it would be as logical to speak of the Fallujan fighters “redeploying” (as American troops brought to Falluja did). But flight, of course, implies cowardice.</p>
<p>Similarly, former American generals, now TV consultants, have flocked back onto TV to decry the rebels and jihadists for being so cowardly as to mix in with the civilian population (as guerrillas invariably do). They should, the implication is, come out and fight like men. No American journalist would ever claim, however, that American pilots in AC-130 gunships or jets attacking Falluja are cowardly, though they are obviously using another type of cover. War, of course, is like that. Each side tends to use the advantages it has. Guerillas not mixing with the population are likely to find themselves not manly or brave but dead, as many undoubtedly now are in Falluja, when facing American fire power in anything like the open or isolation.</p>
<p>But American exceptionalism — the deep belief that our motives are uniquely pure, our goals singularly above reproach — means that descriptions of our actions don’t fit any of the language categories in which we put those we fight. This is essential to our war coverage — and largely unexamined. When, for instance, our planes destroy or our troops capture a clinic or hospital, as we did in our first and second acts in Falluja, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/international/middleeast/08hospital.html?ex=1101201539&amp;ei=1&amp;en=648927aec9ff9022" type="external">the reporting</a> on this may be grim — patients and doctors rousted from hospital rooms, thrown on the floor and handcuffed — and yet because Americans have done this, there will be no mention of the Geneva Conventions which such an act almost certainly contravenes. (The Fourth Geneva Convention contains <a href="http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/7c4d08d9b287a42141256739003e636b/6756482d86146898c125641e004aa3c5" type="external">this clear passage</a>: “Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.”) Similar acts — the dropping of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 pound bombs in major urban areas (sometimes to kill a single sniper) or the turning back of men trying to flee Falluja (because we have no way of telling whether they are civilians or fighters) — lead similarly down a steep but unacknowledged path to Hell.</p>
<p>Last night on the prime-time news, a video was run of an American tank blowing the minaret off a mosque (where, again contravening the Geneva Conventions, one or more snipers were hidden). The only comment or commentary offered was a brief interview with an American soldier on the scene offering the completely understandable ground-level view that this was “no holds barred” warfare and his troops had to be protected. But, folks, we’re talking about the so- called City of a Thousand Mosques. Imagine an al Qaeda sniper in the steeple of an American church or cathedral and how Americans might react.</p>
<p>Or let’s imagine this: If American claims are accurate and (like the Russians before they went in and leveled the Chechnyan capital of Grozny), we did our best to get civilians out of Falluja, possibly a couple of hundred thousand of them, where did they go? Tens of thousands of refugees, homeless and desperate? Where are the articles about them? Who is thinking about what will happen when they finally return to a city in ruins, to homes that may no longer exist in neighborhoods that have been pounded into rubble in areas possibly lacking the most basic services or functioning hospitals? These are, as Naomi Klein points out on the Alternet website, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/20459/" type="external">the future “voters” of Sunni Iraq</a>.</p>
<p>The decision by American strategists to “take” Falluja the second time around leads us directly into the charnel house of history. Unfortunately, even to think reasonably about what’s unfolding in Iraq you need to leave the American press behind. Only elsewhere in the world are the obvious analogies to Falluja (or Iraq) today coming to mind. Take the Russian destruction of the city of Grozny from whose ruins so many years later guerillas still ambush Russian troops, as described by <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1108-26.htm" type="external">former Australian diplomat Tony Kevin</a> in the Sydney Morning Herald; or the eerie and depressing parallels — right down to the beheadings — to the Algerian independence struggle against the French (“the first campaign in which poorly equipped Muslim mujaheddin licked one of the top Western armies”) as described by <a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,11314459,00.html" type="external">Alistair Horne in The Spectator</a>, the conservative British publication; or the Syrian destruction of the city of Hama as considered by Charles Glass in <a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=580937" type="external">the British Independent</a>.</p>
<p>Only <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5058189-103550,00.html" type="external">elsewhere</a> (or <a href="http://newstandardnews.net/content/?items=1208&amp;printmode=true" type="external">on the Internet</a>) are you likely to find mention of the Geneva Conventions when <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK11Ak03.html" type="external">hospitals are taken</a> or mosques blown apart. Only elsewhere is the language of American war-making and war reporting <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5057424-103550,00.html" type="external">questioned</a> or the efficacy (no less morality) of bombing civilian populations in major urban centers considered.</p>
<p>The other day CNN had a report on the recent actions of the French military in the Ivory Coast. In the headline and the subsequent report, the French were lambasted for their “hypocrisy” in opposing our actions in Iraq and yet acting like the former colonial masters they are in the Ivory Coast. I assure you, however, that you can search the American press or television in vain for a single report that might link the word “hypocrisy” to the Bush administration for any of its actions. It’s just not in our journalistic dictionary, and that dictionary ensures that, even as our leaders push ever further into the age of extremism — remember, Alberto Gonzales, just nominated as our next Attorney General, oversaw the White House effort to create a legalistic framework for an offshore torture regime — it’s nearly impossible for American readers to grasp the extremity of the situation.</p>
<p>Depending on what news report you read, American troops have by now taken 50% or 70% or 90% of Falluja. The real question, though, is 50-70-90% of what? In the meantime, after initially upbeat reports, it looks like there will be <a href="http://www.nbc10.com/news/3910446/detail.html" type="external">significant American casualties</a> in Falluja, which means growing anger and frustration, which means ever more extreme acts on the ground.</p>
<p>So here’s an old Vietnam-era word that might have been worth bringing back as our Fallujan offensive began: “escalation.” The widespread destruction in Falluja represents an escalation of our Iraq war. It represents an extremity of behavior (on both sides), horrific in itself, for which there will be a cost as yet unknown. As small-scale running battles, assassinations, and car bombings now shake Mosul, Samarra, and other cities in Sunni Iraq, we see yet more doors marked “Open With Caution,” or even “Do Not Enter,” before us, and yet more tanks and jets and angry soldiers, and more frustrated American commanders and strategists ready to barge through them.</p>
<p>What we need now is not our usual set of embedded reporters, but the artist Hieronymous Bosch back from the grave to paint us the necessary pictures. After all, we’ve already seen what the liberation of Najaf and Falluja look like. But what will Iraq look like after we’ve liberated Samarra and Mosul and who knows where else — and the insurgency only grows? Below, Mark Levine considers four possible scenarios from our now Fallujanized world and what they tell us about Iraq and ourselves.</p>
<p />
<p>By Mark LeVine</p>
<p>As American forces penetrate ever deeper and more destructively into the city of Falluja, each of the major players in this violent drama is engaged in a complex, constantly shifting calculus involving ways of turning events to their advantage. Of the many possible outcomes to the battle of Falluja, the four which seem most plausible follow, starting with the one that might be viewed most positively by the Bush administration. In sum, they offer us a grim picture of how the window of success has closed on American strategists in Iraq. Even the “best” outcomes below (from the administration’s point of view) have lost the trappings of freedom and democracy that helped justify the invasion nineteen months ago.</p>
<p>The Hama Solution: In 1982, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad put down a potential nationwide revolt of religious activists associated with the Muslim Brotherhood by killing upwards of 20,000 people in the city of Hama, essentially flattening its central districts in the process. In an Iraqi version of the “Hama solution,” the Americans and their Iraqi allies would take Falluja relatively quickly — at whatever cost to its essential infrastructure — in the process killing the majority of the resistance fighters in the city along with uncounted civilians who were too poor, young, old or infirm to flee before the invasion. Falluja would then act as a terrifying example to other rebellious Iraqi cities. The end, however temporary, of Mutaqa al-Sadr’s Shia insurgency in the early fall increased the likelihood of success for such a move, freeing up as it did American troops from Najaf in the south and from the Shi’i slum of Sadr City in Baghdad. At the same time, the many month-long threat of a massive attack on Falluja seems to have created fracture lines in the resistance between indigenous groups seeking political solutions that might avoid mass civilian casualties and smaller groups of foreign jihadists, unbound by local ties and determined to fight to the death.</p>
<p>On the other hand, all those months of saber rattling evidently allowed many local fighters and jihadist leaders to leave the city before the invasion began, a troublesome development for American strategists and the interim government of Iyad Allawi as they seek to pacify the larger Sunni Triangle in time for announced elections in January. In the last week, after all, insurgents reoccupied the city center of Ramadi, attacked fiercely in Samarra, fought it out in Baghdad neighborhoods, and left authority in Mosul tottering, while American troops were occupied with the battle of Falluja — and these were just a few of the many indications that, no matter what happens in Falluja, the insurgency is anything but defeated.</p>
<p>Yet if enough resistance fighters are killed to reclaim Falluja and sap the force of the insurgency in other cities, American strategists can at least hope to be on their way to a limited pacification of Sunni Iraq. Sunni leaders might next be bought off or co-opted and enough followers, fighters, and civilians, killed elsewhere to quiet the country for the next several months. Iraq would then have its “successful” election, and the Bush Administration would breathe a huge sigh of relief. So would Prime Minister Allawi who, according to a senior Iraqi official with whom I’ve spoken in recent days, is still livid that the Americans bypassed him to negotiate an end to the siege of Najaf. (According to my source, the bandaged hand Allawi sported during his recent trip to New York came from “banging his hands on the wall” after leaning of a secret meeting between American Ambassador John Negroponte and Shiite rebel leaders.) In one fashion or another, in this scenario, “democracy” would mean an extension of the Allawi government via a limited and managed election.</p>
<p>The ongoing, seemingly ceaseless violence in the Palestinian Occupied Territories under Israeli occupation reminds us that pacifying an occupied population is an endless job. But if, as the Bush administration now hopes, the insurgency can simply be tamped down, when it resurfaces next spring it will be the problem of an elected Iraqi government. American troops, in the meanwhile, would largely be withdrawn to a dozen or more major bases lowering American casualties; yet they could be called back into action any time violence threatened to get out of hand. Iraq would then take its place beside Colombia, Israel, and Sri Lanka, to name only a few of the many countries plagued by ongoing but “manageable” political violence — while the United States would remain astride the second largest oil reserves in the world. This is today the best option available to the Bush administration.</p>
<p>The Jenin Scenario: If Falluja is largely subdued but low-level fighting continues for weeks or months in its back streets, chaos and anarchy might increase across the country, forcing a curtailment or postponement of the January elections, and yet the overall situation might not spin completely out of American control. The Allawi government would remain more or less in power in Baghdad and American troops could continue to occupy the country indefinitely (under the argument that the United States can’t leave Iraq in the midst of chaos). The insurgency would be slowly exhausted over a longer period of time, laying the groundwork for a post-independence system favorable to American interests.</p>
<p>Here, the example of the 2002 Israeli siege of the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin might prove the model for the present Falluja campaign. It stirred up incredible anger, violence, and chaos in Palestinian society and outrage internationally, but when the dust settled — as it usually does –Israel’s strategic position was actually stronger than before.</p>
<p>Even if the dust doesn’t settle quite as advantageously in Iraq, or settle at all, Bush Administration hawks could turn the ensuing low-level chaos to their immediate advantage by allowing it, or encouraging it to spread to Syria (near whose border the U.S. recently staged a bloody invasion of the Iraqi town of Tal Afar) or Iran (already in the sights of senior Administration officials, regardless of any nuclear deal its leaders may sign with the Europeans). In fact, it is well known that Israeli operatives have been working with Kurds in both border regions to gauge the feasibility of such a scenario. In the meantime, according to Iraqi officials I’ve spoken with, American oil companies are quietly exploring the 90% of Iraq where oil deposits have yet to be tapped, free of potentially embarrassing scrutiny by a media focused on urban violence rather than desert oil. American casualties would also remain limited; media attention modest; and so a Jenin scenario would be seen, under the circumstances, as a quiet but significant victory by the Bush administration.</p>
<p>The “British” Solution (or 1920 Revisited): If the invasion of Falluja backfires — if the fighting drags on and, for instance, there is evidence of large-scale civilian casualties, perhaps broadcast to the world by a dreaded al-Jazeera reporter via video phone — Iraqi public opinion might be inflamed to the point of sparking a more general Sunni or yet more significantly Sunni-Shi’i revolt. This actually happened in 1920 when occupying British troops tried to use massive force to pacify the country and the results were devastating for the occupiers (as well as the occupied); or if the resistance in Falluja proves more resilient or better armed than American military officials assume it to be and is capable of dragging out the fighting until a desperate compromise solution along the lines of the deal to end the Najaf siege becomes inevitable, a revolt might also be encouraged; or if the insurgents, with months to plan, left only a minimal force in Falluja to fight a delaying action against the Americans and their Iraqi allies and are able to conduct a larger, sustained insurgency across Sunni (and parts of Shiite) Iraq, as seems increasingly likely, the result could be the same.</p>
<p>Any one of these developments or any combination of them would destroy what is left of the credibility of the Americans and of the Interim Iraqi Government. If not contained, the present insurgency, facing overwhelming and relatively indiscriminate American power, could spark a more general revolt, joined by significant number of Shi’ites (whose leaders, unlike during the first siege of Falluja in April, have so far remained relatively quiet). It would capitalize on the intense anger felt by a country that has seen as many as 100,000 of its citizens killed in the last eighteen months. With the political costs of retreat almost incalculable, the Bush administration in turn might ratchet up the violence (as it did in Vietnam) before considering real withdrawal strategies, hoping that the prospect of tens of thousands of further deaths in the next year would lead Iraqis to accept some continued American military presence in the country and, most important, a continued hand in the management of the country’s petroleum resources.</p>
<p>The “French” Scenario: Any version of the “British” solution might, sooner or later, lead the Bush administration into the thickets of the even more unsettling “French” scenario. In this, a growing awareness of the human toll of the occupation, coupled with levels of political corruption that are already staggering would lend force to a desire to internationalize the next phase of Iraq’s transition to full sovereignty. (A former top Allawi aide, who recently escaped the country, summed up Iraqi despair on the issue of corruption in lamenting to me that “the new regime is the same as Saddam’s, just with different faces.”) The “French” scenario might involve the intercession of France, Germany, and Spain, joined by UN Secretary General Kofi Anan and supported by a resurgent worldwide anti-war movement aroused by the ongoing horrors of Iraq. With the insurgency still under way, pressure would be applied for a cease-fire coupled with an internationalization of the transition to sovereignty based on the complete failure of the United States and the Allawi government to stabilize the country. French President Chirac’s stated desire to build a counterweight to U.S. power and Kofi Anan’s rising displeasure with U.S. actions could encourage such a development, as could the resignation of the Sunni members of the interim government and a full-scale Sunni boycott of any future American-organized elections. While the United States and the British would likely veto any Security Council resolution to mandate such a move, the groundswell of support for it could lead to major changes in the management of the occupation in the lead-up to elections.</p>
<p>If all four outcomes described above are striking for what they reveal about the narrowing of the Bush Administration’s grand vision of a democratic and prosperous Iraq, the last one — a kind of final humiliation — would certainly be fiercely resisted by American officials and the Allawi government (nor would some factions of the insurgency be any too pleased by the possibility).</p>
<p>The wild card in the current crisis is the Iraqi people who, since the toppling of the Hussein regime, have more often than not remained horrified spectators while their country’s political landscape has been reshaped. This passivity, though understandable given the Iraqi experience over the previous two decades, has proved as disastrous for them and their country as the passivity of Palestinians was during the crucial early years of the Oslo peace process (which in actuality allowed Israel to increase significantly its West Bank and Gaza settlements, while Yasir Arafat cemented his autocratic and corrupt rule virtually cost-free).</p>
<p>Ayatollah Ali Sistani’s call for a massive nonviolent mobilization to end the siege of Najaf and the success of women’s groups in preventing a rollback of their social rights, both demonstrate that the Iraqi people can become active shapers of their own destiny. Were the Shiites to pour into the streets nationwide, as they did in Najaf in response to Sistani, the Iraqi situation would immediately take on a different look and the American occupation might find its days quickly numbered. But can Iraqi society challenge the violent calculus of American military planners and insurgents alike with a vision of a future free of occupation and autocracy, corruption and extremism? More than wishing the Iraqis well, the international community needs to get its hands dirty to ensure that they have a fighting chance.</p>
<p>Mark LeVine is professor of modern Middle Eastern history, culture, and Islamic studies at the University of California Irvine and author of the forthcoming books <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1851683658/nationbooks08" type="external">Why They Don’t Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520243714/nationbooks08" type="external">Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Struggle for Palestine, 1880-1948</a>, He is also the editor with Viggo Mortensen and Pilar Perez of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0972143696/nationbooks08" type="external">Twilight of Empire: Responses to Occupation</a>. He last spent time in Iraq in the early spring of this year.</p>
<p>Copyright C2004 Mark LeVine</p>
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<p>This piece first appeared at <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external">Tomdispatch.com</a>.</p>
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<p>“We’d do well to think before we post”: That’s the advice that the editors of the Columbia Journalism Review offer to bloggers in their <a href="http://www.cjr.org/editorial/a_question_of_velocity.php" type="external">March/April editorial</a>. <a href="http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/04/women_under_the_sea.php" type="external">Matt Yglesias</a> (of Atlantic fame) and <a href="http://feministing.com/archives/008953.html#comments" type="external">Ann Friedman</a> (of Feministing) would do well to heed it. Both bloggers appear to have been taken in by a cleverly-done April Fools’ prank. At first glance, <a href="http://www.subsim.com/new_york_times_sub_article.htm" type="external">this “New York Times” article</a> about the Navy creating all-female crews for two submarines seems fairly believable. It mimics Times style fairly convincingly, and the page looks right. But the URL isn’t quite right, the “multimedia” links don’t work, and the “related stories” include several other April Fools’-related items. And that’s before you even get to the content of the story, which includes a photo of “Rev. Dusty Boats,” is written by “Seymor Conch and James Boswell,” and contains the requisite sentence about “mixing with seamen”. And then there’s this over-the-top “quote”:</p>
<p>I went to submarines to get a breather from my wife and her mother. Especially her mother. Now I have to spend 60 days underwater with women? You know how long they take in the bathroom.</p>
<p>Would anyone who actually thinks that way about his wife and mother-in-law tell it to the New York Times? The quote came at the end of the story; perhaps Ygelsias and Friedman, fine bloggers both, didn’t quite get there. Friedman has already acknowledged she was “belatedly gotten”. Is Yglesias trying to pull a fast one on his readers, or has he, too, been “got”?</p>
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Think Before You Blog
<p />
<p>“We’d do well to think before we post”: That’s the advice that the editors of the Columbia Journalism Review offer to bloggers in their <a href="http://www.cjr.org/editorial/a_question_of_velocity.php" type="external">March/April editorial</a>. <a href="http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/04/women_under_the_sea.php" type="external">Matt Yglesias</a> (of Atlantic fame) and <a href="http://feministing.com/archives/008953.html#comments" type="external">Ann Friedman</a> (of Feministing) would do well to heed it. Both bloggers appear to have been taken in by a cleverly-done April Fools’ prank. At first glance, <a href="http://www.subsim.com/new_york_times_sub_article.htm" type="external">this “New York Times” article</a> about the Navy creating all-female crews for two submarines seems fairly believable. It mimics Times style fairly convincingly, and the page looks right. But the URL isn’t quite right, the “multimedia” links don’t work, and the “related stories” include several other April Fools’-related items. And that’s before you even get to the content of the story, which includes a photo of “Rev. Dusty Boats,” is written by “Seymor Conch and James Boswell,” and contains the requisite sentence about “mixing with seamen”. And then there’s this over-the-top “quote”:</p>
<p>I went to submarines to get a breather from my wife and her mother. Especially her mother. Now I have to spend 60 days underwater with women? You know how long they take in the bathroom.</p>
<p>Would anyone who actually thinks that way about his wife and mother-in-law tell it to the New York Times? The quote came at the end of the story; perhaps Ygelsias and Friedman, fine bloggers both, didn’t quite get there. Friedman has already acknowledged she was “belatedly gotten”. Is Yglesias trying to pull a fast one on his readers, or has he, too, been “got”?</p>
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<p>If Michael Dell refuses to join its potential buyout offer, private-equity giant Blackstone (NYSE:BX) is reportedly “aggressively” recruiting Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) exec Mark Hurd to lead a privately held Dell.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The emergence of Hurd as a potential centerpiece of a Dell management team would appear to bolster the chances of a rival bid emerging to trump the $24.4 billion offer from Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners.</p>
<p>According to Fortune, Blackstone is seriously considering waging an offer to trump the pending management bid and is using back channels to reach out to potential CEO replacements in case Michael Dell sticks with Silver Lake.</p>
<p>Hurd, the former Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) CEO and current president of Oracle, is on that shortlist of potential CEOs, the magazine reported.</p>
<p>It’s not clear if Hurd, who was fired by H-P in 2010 following a sexual-harassment and expense-account scandal, would be interested in the job but Blackstone’s informal recruiting effort has been “aggressive,” Fortune said.</p>
<p>Oracle, which reported worse-than-expected results after Wednesday’s close, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Blackstone didn’t respond to a request for comment either.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Shares of Round Rock, Texas-based Dell gained 0.49% to $14.40 in after-hours trading on Wednesday, climbing further past the $13.65 offer price in the Silver Lake bid.</p>
<p>The CEO shortlist also includes former Compaq Computer chief Michael Capellas, who currently serves as an advisor to private-equity firm KKR (NYSE:KKR), Fortune reported.</p>
<p>No matter who Blackstone likes as the next Dell CEO, the clock is ticking to making a formal offer. Dell’s special committee has set a Friday deadline to receive a superior bid or a letter of interest before the go-shop period expires.</p>
<p>While H-P, Lenovo and billionaire Carl Icahn have reportedly expressed some interest in Dell, Blackstone appears to be the most serious known potential bidder at this point.</p>
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Report: Blackstone Wants Oracle Exec Mark Hurd to Lead Dell
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http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/03/20/report-blackstone-wants-oracle-exec-mark-hurd-to-lead-dell-bid.html
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Report: Blackstone Wants Oracle Exec Mark Hurd to Lead Dell
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<p>If Michael Dell refuses to join its potential buyout offer, private-equity giant Blackstone (NYSE:BX) is reportedly “aggressively” recruiting Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) exec Mark Hurd to lead a privately held Dell.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The emergence of Hurd as a potential centerpiece of a Dell management team would appear to bolster the chances of a rival bid emerging to trump the $24.4 billion offer from Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners.</p>
<p>According to Fortune, Blackstone is seriously considering waging an offer to trump the pending management bid and is using back channels to reach out to potential CEO replacements in case Michael Dell sticks with Silver Lake.</p>
<p>Hurd, the former Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) CEO and current president of Oracle, is on that shortlist of potential CEOs, the magazine reported.</p>
<p>It’s not clear if Hurd, who was fired by H-P in 2010 following a sexual-harassment and expense-account scandal, would be interested in the job but Blackstone’s informal recruiting effort has been “aggressive,” Fortune said.</p>
<p>Oracle, which reported worse-than-expected results after Wednesday’s close, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Blackstone didn’t respond to a request for comment either.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Shares of Round Rock, Texas-based Dell gained 0.49% to $14.40 in after-hours trading on Wednesday, climbing further past the $13.65 offer price in the Silver Lake bid.</p>
<p>The CEO shortlist also includes former Compaq Computer chief Michael Capellas, who currently serves as an advisor to private-equity firm KKR (NYSE:KKR), Fortune reported.</p>
<p>No matter who Blackstone likes as the next Dell CEO, the clock is ticking to making a formal offer. Dell’s special committee has set a Friday deadline to receive a superior bid or a letter of interest before the go-shop period expires.</p>
<p>While H-P, Lenovo and billionaire Carl Icahn have reportedly expressed some interest in Dell, Blackstone appears to be the most serious known potential bidder at this point.</p>
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<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s justice ministry on Tuesday designated Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA) as “foreign agents” under a new law rushed through parliament in response to what Moscow said was unacceptable U.S. pressure on Russian media.</p>
<p>The ministry said in a statement on its website that it had decided to designate U.S. government-sponsored VOA and RFE/RL, along with seven separate Russian or local-language news outlets run by RFE/RL, as “fulfilling the role of foreign agents.”</p>
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<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>
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Russia designates RFE/RL and Voice of America as 'foreign agents'
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s justice ministry on Tuesday designated Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA) as “foreign agents” under a new law rushed through parliament in response to what Moscow said was unacceptable U.S. pressure on Russian media.</p>
<p>The ministry said in a statement on its website that it had decided to designate U.S. government-sponsored VOA and RFE/RL, along with seven separate Russian or local-language news outlets run by RFE/RL, as “fulfilling the role of foreign agents.”</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>
| 4,760 |
<p />
<p>The military has been collecting and analyzing a vast array of financial and other personal data as part of its new terrorist-tracking program. Imagine how useful it'd be for journalists if a similar&#160;database existed that was open for public perusing. Well, an MIT researcher is attempting to create just that.</p>
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<p>Ryan McKinley, a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, has built a site called Open Government Information Awareness, at <a href="http://opengov.media.mit.edu/" type="external">http://opengov.media.mit.edu/</a>.</p>
<p>The site gathers information from other websites and online databases on everything from politicians to agencies. But even more novel is that it allows any individual to add information about just about anyone or anything.</p>
<p>"The premise of GIA is that individual citizens have the right to know details about government, while government has the power to know details about citizens," McKinley says on the site. "Our goal is to develop a technology which empowers citizens to form a sort of intelligence agency; gathering, sorting, and acting on information they gather about the government. Only by employing such technologies can we hope to have a government 'by the people, and for the people.'"</p>
<p>Right now, the site is divided into categories including Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Industry, and Local. The only information on the site so far is from public sites and databases -- such as OpenSecrets.org. McKinley <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23552-2003Jul7.html" type="external">told The Washington Post</a> he wanted to "seed" the site with such information to give people a sense of what was possible.</p>
<p>McKinley built two clever features into the system to help keep the information as accurate as possible. The first one enables users to rank the credibility of other contributors. The second feature automatically notifies the subject of a submission -- whether individual or organization -- and asks it to respond. They can confirm or deny the submission -- and denials are noted, though the submissions are not purged.</p>
<p>"For instance, say a scandal breaks, but the politician in question is later exonerated because of a specific fact," McKinley says on the site. "Users can poll the system to see if that fact was logged, and find out who contributed that fact, and when they did, without knowing their real name. They can then rank the credibility of that contributor, and ask the system to notify them if he or she makes further contributions in the future. Thus, they can learn whether they trust or mistrust a contributor, while the contributor still retains anonymity."</p>
<p>As more information gets added to the site over time -- from databases and from individuals -- the Open Government Information Awareness site has the potential to be a great source of ideas and data for journalists. I, for one, hope it catches on.</p>
<p>SUBMIT YOUR TIPS FOR PUBLICATION: What websites do you find most useful in your reporting? Send a brief note with your name, affiliation, and a description of a favorite site to poynter @&#160;jondube.com&#160;and I may publish them in future columns.</p>
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<p>Coming Tuesday: Sree SreenivasanComing next Friday: Jonathan Dube</p>
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2003-07-10
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Government Information
<p />
<p>The military has been collecting and analyzing a vast array of financial and other personal data as part of its new terrorist-tracking program. Imagine how useful it'd be for journalists if a similar&#160;database existed that was open for public perusing. Well, an MIT researcher is attempting to create just that.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Ryan McKinley, a researcher at the MIT Media Lab, has built a site called Open Government Information Awareness, at <a href="http://opengov.media.mit.edu/" type="external">http://opengov.media.mit.edu/</a>.</p>
<p>The site gathers information from other websites and online databases on everything from politicians to agencies. But even more novel is that it allows any individual to add information about just about anyone or anything.</p>
<p>"The premise of GIA is that individual citizens have the right to know details about government, while government has the power to know details about citizens," McKinley says on the site. "Our goal is to develop a technology which empowers citizens to form a sort of intelligence agency; gathering, sorting, and acting on information they gather about the government. Only by employing such technologies can we hope to have a government 'by the people, and for the people.'"</p>
<p>Right now, the site is divided into categories including Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Industry, and Local. The only information on the site so far is from public sites and databases -- such as OpenSecrets.org. McKinley <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23552-2003Jul7.html" type="external">told The Washington Post</a> he wanted to "seed" the site with such information to give people a sense of what was possible.</p>
<p>McKinley built two clever features into the system to help keep the information as accurate as possible. The first one enables users to rank the credibility of other contributors. The second feature automatically notifies the subject of a submission -- whether individual or organization -- and asks it to respond. They can confirm or deny the submission -- and denials are noted, though the submissions are not purged.</p>
<p>"For instance, say a scandal breaks, but the politician in question is later exonerated because of a specific fact," McKinley says on the site. "Users can poll the system to see if that fact was logged, and find out who contributed that fact, and when they did, without knowing their real name. They can then rank the credibility of that contributor, and ask the system to notify them if he or she makes further contributions in the future. Thus, they can learn whether they trust or mistrust a contributor, while the contributor still retains anonymity."</p>
<p>As more information gets added to the site over time -- from databases and from individuals -- the Open Government Information Awareness site has the potential to be a great source of ideas and data for journalists. I, for one, hope it catches on.</p>
<p>SUBMIT YOUR TIPS FOR PUBLICATION: What websites do you find most useful in your reporting? Send a brief note with your name, affiliation, and a description of a favorite site to poynter @&#160;jondube.com&#160;and I may publish them in future columns.</p>
<p />
<p>Coming Tuesday: Sree SreenivasanComing next Friday: Jonathan Dube</p>
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<p>Why six years after police killed an unarmed black man and the city was rocked by riots, has everything in Cincinnati come down to the building of a jail? How did the liberals’ darling Todd Portune end up joing hands with cnservative moral crusader Sheriff Simon Leis? Why has the Democratic Party placed all of its chips on 800 more jail beds in a city and a county with a declining population? Why have not only Democrats and Republicans, but also the corporations and the labor unions joined together to build a jail that is opposed by the NAACP and most black Cincinnatians? How did what began as a search for racial reconciliation lead to a jail that is to many here the emblem, that is, both the symbol and the reality of racial discrimination?</p>
<p>In April 2001 Cincinnati was shocked by a police officer’s killing of 19-year-old, unarmed black man named Timothy Thomas and then convulsed by an inner-city riot with arson and looting, a black urban rebellion much like one that had taken place thirty years before. The city-suddenly shaken by the realization that in three decades it had made no progress whatsoever in race relations-came all at once to its feet with gasp. Pastors, priests and rabbis summoned their congregations who prayed for understanding, reconciliation and peace.</p>
<p>The city council showed sudden new interest in long-neglected issues of poverty and housing. Mayor Charles Luken created a blue-ribbon commission charged with improving police-community relations. After a suit by the Black United Front and the ACLU, a Federal judge took charge of overseeing the reform of the Cincinnati police under the Collaborative Agreement. There were promises of summer jobs for youth and pledges to bring economic development to the old, inner-city neighborhoods of Cincinnati.</p>
<p>African American groups, with little faith in such promises, called for another boycott of Cincinnati-in addition to the one already enforced by the gay community-until the local government could create economic and social justice for the Cincinnati’s black people. City Hall responded with a public relations campaign proclaiming that Cincinnati was all the things they wished it were and that we knew it was not. The gay and black boycotts continued for years, until gays won and blacks gave up, but by then the white power structure had tasted victory at Taste of Cincinnati and Oktoberfest and blacks had forgotten the boycott and returned to the Black Family Reunion. Progress and Poverty</p>
<p>For the last six years the city has wrestled with its identity, and there was some undeniable progress. The notorious city ordinance prohibiting gays and lesbians from invoking civil rights law to defend themselves from discrimination was overturned in a referendum. In what was clearly a vote against the old white power structure, the city elected Mark Mallory, an African American, to be its mayor, defeating Councilman David Pepper. SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign brought union organization, higher wages, and health benefits to some of the city’s lowest paid workers. We even passed by referendum a no smoking ordinance for bars and restaurants to protect the health of workers and the public, despite the tobacco lobby’s attempt to confuse us with a look-alike proposition,</p>
<p>Yet after six years, things had not improved much in the neighborhoods, and in some ways they have gotten worse. Cincinnati and Hamilton County employers continued to move further out into the surrounding suburbs in both Ohio and neighboring Kentucky. Cincinnati’s unemployment rate is now 5 percent and black unemployment over 10 percent, while unemployment for black teenagers has reached a staggering 30 percent. Poverty seems to have become endemic.</p>
<p>In 2007 Cincinnati, a city of 317,000 people, 53 percent of them white and 42 percent black, won the title of third poorest city in the nation after Detroit and Buffalo. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that Cincinnati had 27.8 percent of its residents living in poverty, up from number 8 in 2006 with 25 percent among the poor, and up from number 22 in 2004 with 19.6 living in poverty. In many black neighborhoods the poverty level is much higher than almost one third in poverty in the city.</p>
<p>The poverty hits children hard. The river city has a scandalous infant morality rate of 13.1 per 1,000-about the same as Jamaica and French Guiana. The Hamilton County is not far behind with a rate of 10.5, far worse than that for Ohio at 7.6 or the United States at 6.8 per 1,000. (Just to put things in perspective, the rate for Sweden with a national health care system is 3.2 per 1,000.) Cincinnati’s high school drop out rate is reported between 50 or 75 percent, depending on who’s counting and how. Students who were once dropouts, for example, have now become part of the virtual education program that has yet to prove it works.</p>
<p>Interestingly, according to the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services, violent crime in Cincinnati rose at the slowest rate in the state in 2006, just 1.2 percent. But, while other violent crimes were down, murder in Cincinnati went up an alarming 10 percent-presumably driven by the violence of drug gangs-though that 10 percent was less than half the increase in Cleveland and Columbus where murders rose by over 20 percent. With these sorts of problems, perhaps it is not surprising that Cincinnati’s population has been declining for decades and Hamilton County’s for the last several years as people have moved to distant counties or across the state line to Kentucky where the past of the segregated city is mirrored in the present of the big houses and green lawns of the segregated suburbs. Now It Has All Come Down to a Jail</p>
<p>As is apparent to all, Cincinnati and Hamilton County have many problems-yet strangely enough as we approach the November election the one problem that occupies center stage, the one issue that has been the focus of attention is not education, employment, improving race relations, or that vague but inspiring notion of social justice, but rather the building of a new county jail. The construction of a new Hamilton County jail has become the central issue in local politics and the focus of an unprecedented cooperation between liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans. Urged on by David Pepper, son of a Proctor &amp; Gamble CEO, Democrat Todd Portune of the County Commission, has embraced the notorious right-wing sheriff Republican Simon Leis, and the three together have pledged to build a new jail come hell or high water.</p>
<p>Other things are going on of course. There has been Operation Vortex/Operation Take Back Our Streets a joint effort by the Cincinnati Police Department and the Hamilton County Sheriffs to drive criminals out of Over-the-Rhine in order to make the area more attractive to investors and developers. Those developers, led by 3CDC, the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation, which has more or less replaced the city’s defunct planning department, smile upon the removal of poor blacks to make way for the creative class, the young, the hip, the childless, the folks with surplus expendable income. The operation has turned Vine St., Over-the-Rhine’s principal thoroughfare, into the main street of a ghost town and has driven crime into nearby communities and even into the suburbs. A new arts center has become the anchor for investors, developers and the creative class-but most of them have yet to arrive.</p>
<p>Then too there’s the decade old off-again, on-again Banks Project, a multi-million dollar commercial and residential development project planned to be built on the Ohio River. The city’s elite and investors debated whether or not to have 30-story towers along Second Street that might block the view of corporate leaders sitting in the mahogany rooms of an older generation of skyscrapers. The Banks-if it ever gets built-will be an expansion of Cincinnati’s downtown meant to attract Fortune Five Hundred companies and to employ that creative class that if all goes as planned will live among the boutiques and trendy restaurants of the new Over-the-Rhine where once German immigrants, the Appalachians, and African Americans lived.</p>
<p>But the central struggle isn’t being fought over 3CDC’s makeover of Over-the-Rhine, nor over the multimillion dollar Banks Project. Like a chess match where for several moves everything seems focused on what might otherwise simply be an insignificant pawn, so in Cincinnati all of the powers-that-be and all of the people that oppose them have focused their energies on the issue of the new Hamilton County Jail that-in a city and county with declining population-would add 800 prisoner beds. The Odd Fellows: Leis-Pepper-Portune</p>
<p>Sherrif Simon Leis, a conservative moral crusader who closed down Last Tango in Paris when it was to be shown at a Cincinnati theater in 1972 and convicted Larry Flynt of Hustler magazine of obscenity in 1977, is the heavy in this drama. Leis’s central role in closing down the exhibition Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment at the Contemporary Arts Center in 1990 brought him national notoriety and the opprobrium of artists, intellectuals, and those who valued First Amendment rights. Several months later a jury found the Maplethorpe photographs were not obscene and a decade later Mapplethorpe’s photos were shown in Cincinnati in a retrospective. The times had changed and even Cincinnati had changed, but Leis held on to his power and sought to expand it. At the center of his ambitions was a new county jail that he has fought for throughout the last 15 years.</p>
<p>Leis and his various Republican and Democratic allies have argued that the jail is necessary to replace or supplement already existing jail space, some of it older space renovated only a few years ago and some of it relatively new, including the modern Justice Center finished in 1985. The immediate principal beneficiary of a new jail would be Leis who would oversee the new expanded facility and a much larger budget. The Sheriff’s opponents counter that the county has enough jail space if only it were properly administered. The jail they point out regularly houses alcohol and drug abusers accused of pissing in the park, the homeless found sleeping on the streets, the mentally ill found wandering the city lost in their psychotic fears and fantasies, and many poor people who would be released if they could make bail or if there were a functioning night court. Leis, however, wants a bigger jail not a better run one.</p>
<p>Last year Leis’s fellow Republican Phil Heimlich put forward the plan for a bigger jail with the 800 additional beds to be paid for by a regressive sales tax. Carl Lindner, the multimillionaire, former owner of Chiquita Brands, and dominant figure in the Republican Party, backed up Leis and Heimlich. The County Commissioners-then two Republicans and one Democrat-put the issue to the voters as a referendum on the November 2006 ballot. But the people didn’t want it. Conservatives argued that it cost too much, while progressives argued that the jail was no way to fight crime and the regressive sales tax was no way to pay for it. Cincinnati Progressive Action, a small group of local activists, created No Jail Tax PAC and carried out an educational campaign stressing the need for education, jobs, and facilities for mental health and drug and alcohol addiction. While Lindner and other backs of the jail put up $250,000, No Jail Tax opponents raised about $1,000 to oppose it. Voters left, right and center went to the polls in large numbers and defeated the jail tax.</p>
<p>Hemilich’s jail went down to defeat, so did Heimlich himself, and former mayoral candidate Democrat David Pepper, Jr., a Cincinnati City Councilman who had originally introduced what became one of the country’s harshest anti-marijuana laws, was elected to the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners. Leis, Pepper and Portune then took up the jail issue anew, now adding some modest mental health and drug treatment programs for jail prisoners, but still calling for the additional 800 beds. And, as with Heimlich’s jail, the new facility would be financed by a regressive sales tax-an even larger tax-falling heaviest on working people and the poor. Portune and Pepper then passed the measure at the three-member Board meeting over the contrary vote from Republican Pat DeWine, imposing a new jail on citizens who had only a few months before rejected a similar proposal. Two white men had voted for a jail that if built would, like every other jail and prison in the country, house an inordinate number of black people. Voters, however, still had the right to put the measure on the ballot, and immediately the organizing began.</p>
<p>Furious that the commissioners had voted for the jail when only a few months before it had gone down to defeat in a county-wide referendum, critics of the jail tax launched a campaign for another referendum. Opponents of the jail were led by the NAACP and included Cincinnati Progressive Action and the Green Party on the left and COAST (Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes), various Republican officials, and the Libertarian Party on the right. Those groups created a tacit alliance and cooperated in circulating petitions to give citizens the right to vote on the jail in the November 2007 election. Leis, Pepper and Portune responded by taking their case to dozens of groups around the county, urging voters not so sign the petitions which, they said, would only delay the inevitable. But citizens rushed to sign the petitions at local church fairs, block parties, and summer festivals. The opposing groups, led by the NAACP’s grassroots activists, collected over 54,000 signatures, with 38,961 of them declared valid, 10,000 more than the number needed to put the issue on the ballot. The Jail: The Democratic Party Stakes All its Chips</p>
<p>The Democratic Party has decided to make the jail the issue of the election, invoking party to discipline to keep the unions, the social service agencies, and new city council candidates in line. Pepper and Portune prove to be a potent pair, the Janus face of the Democratic Party. Pepper’s face turns toward the corporate powers. It was Pepper, son of a P&amp;G CEO, who played a crucial role on the Cincinnati City Council in multimillion dollar concessions to keep Convergys and Kroger from leaving Cincinnati. Portune’s face turns toward the social service agencies and other do-gooders who have depended upon him during the Republican lean years to keep them afloat. Pepper and Portune, having added some in-jail mental health and substance abuse programs, claim that building a new, bigger jail is now a progressive measure. Now known as Issue 27, the jail proposal, would raise the county’s sales tax a half-cent for eight years, lower it a quarter-cent for seven years and then eliminate it after 15 years. The tax would build a new $198 million, 1,800-bed jail an $11 million juvenile detention facility. Hamilton County, its population still declining, would have the biggest jail in Ohio.</p>
<p>The Democratic Party plays a powerful in Cincinnati’s labor and social movements-not in providing leadership, but in exerting discipline over those that might get out of line. Democrats have told the unions that they must not only support the party’s candidates but also its jail tax. So unions that one might expect to a progressive position-such as the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers or the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists-have toed the line. The Building Trades, of course, can be counted on to support building anything so long as it provides jobs for their almost all white membership. Similarly Todd Portune has made it clear to social service organizations that serve the poor and that he has often lobbied for that he expects them to support the jail. Liberal Democratic City Council candidates have also been told that they will be expected to support the jail or loose the party’s support.</p>
<p>The only major organization in the city that has had the courage to stand up to the Democratic Party on this issue is the NAACP chapter led by Christopher Smitherman. Smitherman, a stockbroker, a fiscal conservative and a former city councilman, infuriated the establishment and especially the police department when he attempted to use his seat on the city council to examine the institutional racism of the city. Smitherman’s demands for answers to police killings and his suggestion that the police department was controlled by an old white boys network of former graduates of the once-white West Side’s Elder High School Hamilton led to accusations by County Prosecutor Michael K. Allen that Smitherman himself was involved in “racial profiling.” Shocked an angered by the reaction to his attempts to get at the truth of Cincinnati’s racism, Smitherman became the council’s angry young man. The media turned on him and Smitherman went down to defeat in the 2007 elections.</p>
<p>More determined than ever to fight the racism of the white establishment, Smitherman then ran for president of the NAACP promising to make the organization a more aggressive presence in the region, winning only after a bitter organizational and legal battle with his opponent Edith Thrower. Smitherman, whose moderate politics were long ago overtaken by his sense of indignation at the racist treatment of African Americans in Cincinnati, has proven to be one of the few people in the city with the courage to speak out and to act, no matter what the establishment thinks, conservative or liberal. At the same time his essentially conservative political views make it possible for him to work with the right-wing Republican anti-tax crowd led by Pat DeWine. Smitherman seems not to realize that his conservative worldview and his search for racial justice are at odds, but thankfully it is the latter that seems to drive him.</p>
<p>Smitherman speaks for many black Cincinnatians when he says, “Until the justice system is fair in Hamilton County, the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP cannot support building a new jail. The NAACP knows well that the sentences and punishments for African Americans are harsher and longer. It is this disparity in the justice system that underscores the discrimination of African-American people in Hamilton County and across the nation.” (Kevin Osborne, “Jail Break,” City Beat, Sept. 12, 2007.)</p>
<p>The Cincinnati Democrats, locked in the embrace of Republican Sheriff Leis and apparently oblivious to the racial divide that they are exacerbating, have turned the jail into the central political issue for November. What explains this strange turn of events? Some speculate that Portune and Pepper must believe that their alliance with Leis on this issue will make it feasible for them to portray themselves as the party of law and order and therefore to win enough independent and Republican votes to turn their two-to-one majority on the County Commission into a permanent state of affairs. Portune will certainly find it a lot easier to run for office in the next election if he doesn’t have to contend with Sheriff Leis and Carl Lindner.</p>
<p>In any case, Pepper and Portune seem to be able to count on Cincinnati’s Democratic Party which during the last national election became a much better organized and more disciplined outfit. Whether or not that democratic organization can deliver the voters, particularly black voters remains to be seen. As they take the case to the people, the new liberal activists of the party organization may wonder if a Democratic Party victory on this issue is really worth it if in the end it means that Simon Leis has a bigger jail and a bigger budget and that black Cincinnati feels betrayed. What will Cincinnatians say to themselves six years after Timothy Thomas was killed and the riots broke out, that we have a bigger jail? And here we thought all that soul searching had something to do with racial and social justice.</p>
<p>DAN La BOTZ is a Cincinnati-based teacher, writer and activist. He is a member of Cincinnati Progressive Action (CPA) and No Jail Tax PAC (nojailtax.org).</p>
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Cincinnati Six Years After the Killings and the Riots
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https://counterpunch.org/2007/10/05/cincinnati-six-years-after-the-killings-and-the-riots/
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2007-10-05
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Cincinnati Six Years After the Killings and the Riots
<p>Why six years after police killed an unarmed black man and the city was rocked by riots, has everything in Cincinnati come down to the building of a jail? How did the liberals’ darling Todd Portune end up joing hands with cnservative moral crusader Sheriff Simon Leis? Why has the Democratic Party placed all of its chips on 800 more jail beds in a city and a county with a declining population? Why have not only Democrats and Republicans, but also the corporations and the labor unions joined together to build a jail that is opposed by the NAACP and most black Cincinnatians? How did what began as a search for racial reconciliation lead to a jail that is to many here the emblem, that is, both the symbol and the reality of racial discrimination?</p>
<p>In April 2001 Cincinnati was shocked by a police officer’s killing of 19-year-old, unarmed black man named Timothy Thomas and then convulsed by an inner-city riot with arson and looting, a black urban rebellion much like one that had taken place thirty years before. The city-suddenly shaken by the realization that in three decades it had made no progress whatsoever in race relations-came all at once to its feet with gasp. Pastors, priests and rabbis summoned their congregations who prayed for understanding, reconciliation and peace.</p>
<p>The city council showed sudden new interest in long-neglected issues of poverty and housing. Mayor Charles Luken created a blue-ribbon commission charged with improving police-community relations. After a suit by the Black United Front and the ACLU, a Federal judge took charge of overseeing the reform of the Cincinnati police under the Collaborative Agreement. There were promises of summer jobs for youth and pledges to bring economic development to the old, inner-city neighborhoods of Cincinnati.</p>
<p>African American groups, with little faith in such promises, called for another boycott of Cincinnati-in addition to the one already enforced by the gay community-until the local government could create economic and social justice for the Cincinnati’s black people. City Hall responded with a public relations campaign proclaiming that Cincinnati was all the things they wished it were and that we knew it was not. The gay and black boycotts continued for years, until gays won and blacks gave up, but by then the white power structure had tasted victory at Taste of Cincinnati and Oktoberfest and blacks had forgotten the boycott and returned to the Black Family Reunion. Progress and Poverty</p>
<p>For the last six years the city has wrestled with its identity, and there was some undeniable progress. The notorious city ordinance prohibiting gays and lesbians from invoking civil rights law to defend themselves from discrimination was overturned in a referendum. In what was clearly a vote against the old white power structure, the city elected Mark Mallory, an African American, to be its mayor, defeating Councilman David Pepper. SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign brought union organization, higher wages, and health benefits to some of the city’s lowest paid workers. We even passed by referendum a no smoking ordinance for bars and restaurants to protect the health of workers and the public, despite the tobacco lobby’s attempt to confuse us with a look-alike proposition,</p>
<p>Yet after six years, things had not improved much in the neighborhoods, and in some ways they have gotten worse. Cincinnati and Hamilton County employers continued to move further out into the surrounding suburbs in both Ohio and neighboring Kentucky. Cincinnati’s unemployment rate is now 5 percent and black unemployment over 10 percent, while unemployment for black teenagers has reached a staggering 30 percent. Poverty seems to have become endemic.</p>
<p>In 2007 Cincinnati, a city of 317,000 people, 53 percent of them white and 42 percent black, won the title of third poorest city in the nation after Detroit and Buffalo. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that Cincinnati had 27.8 percent of its residents living in poverty, up from number 8 in 2006 with 25 percent among the poor, and up from number 22 in 2004 with 19.6 living in poverty. In many black neighborhoods the poverty level is much higher than almost one third in poverty in the city.</p>
<p>The poverty hits children hard. The river city has a scandalous infant morality rate of 13.1 per 1,000-about the same as Jamaica and French Guiana. The Hamilton County is not far behind with a rate of 10.5, far worse than that for Ohio at 7.6 or the United States at 6.8 per 1,000. (Just to put things in perspective, the rate for Sweden with a national health care system is 3.2 per 1,000.) Cincinnati’s high school drop out rate is reported between 50 or 75 percent, depending on who’s counting and how. Students who were once dropouts, for example, have now become part of the virtual education program that has yet to prove it works.</p>
<p>Interestingly, according to the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services, violent crime in Cincinnati rose at the slowest rate in the state in 2006, just 1.2 percent. But, while other violent crimes were down, murder in Cincinnati went up an alarming 10 percent-presumably driven by the violence of drug gangs-though that 10 percent was less than half the increase in Cleveland and Columbus where murders rose by over 20 percent. With these sorts of problems, perhaps it is not surprising that Cincinnati’s population has been declining for decades and Hamilton County’s for the last several years as people have moved to distant counties or across the state line to Kentucky where the past of the segregated city is mirrored in the present of the big houses and green lawns of the segregated suburbs. Now It Has All Come Down to a Jail</p>
<p>As is apparent to all, Cincinnati and Hamilton County have many problems-yet strangely enough as we approach the November election the one problem that occupies center stage, the one issue that has been the focus of attention is not education, employment, improving race relations, or that vague but inspiring notion of social justice, but rather the building of a new county jail. The construction of a new Hamilton County jail has become the central issue in local politics and the focus of an unprecedented cooperation between liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans. Urged on by David Pepper, son of a Proctor &amp; Gamble CEO, Democrat Todd Portune of the County Commission, has embraced the notorious right-wing sheriff Republican Simon Leis, and the three together have pledged to build a new jail come hell or high water.</p>
<p>Other things are going on of course. There has been Operation Vortex/Operation Take Back Our Streets a joint effort by the Cincinnati Police Department and the Hamilton County Sheriffs to drive criminals out of Over-the-Rhine in order to make the area more attractive to investors and developers. Those developers, led by 3CDC, the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation, which has more or less replaced the city’s defunct planning department, smile upon the removal of poor blacks to make way for the creative class, the young, the hip, the childless, the folks with surplus expendable income. The operation has turned Vine St., Over-the-Rhine’s principal thoroughfare, into the main street of a ghost town and has driven crime into nearby communities and even into the suburbs. A new arts center has become the anchor for investors, developers and the creative class-but most of them have yet to arrive.</p>
<p>Then too there’s the decade old off-again, on-again Banks Project, a multi-million dollar commercial and residential development project planned to be built on the Ohio River. The city’s elite and investors debated whether or not to have 30-story towers along Second Street that might block the view of corporate leaders sitting in the mahogany rooms of an older generation of skyscrapers. The Banks-if it ever gets built-will be an expansion of Cincinnati’s downtown meant to attract Fortune Five Hundred companies and to employ that creative class that if all goes as planned will live among the boutiques and trendy restaurants of the new Over-the-Rhine where once German immigrants, the Appalachians, and African Americans lived.</p>
<p>But the central struggle isn’t being fought over 3CDC’s makeover of Over-the-Rhine, nor over the multimillion dollar Banks Project. Like a chess match where for several moves everything seems focused on what might otherwise simply be an insignificant pawn, so in Cincinnati all of the powers-that-be and all of the people that oppose them have focused their energies on the issue of the new Hamilton County Jail that-in a city and county with declining population-would add 800 prisoner beds. The Odd Fellows: Leis-Pepper-Portune</p>
<p>Sherrif Simon Leis, a conservative moral crusader who closed down Last Tango in Paris when it was to be shown at a Cincinnati theater in 1972 and convicted Larry Flynt of Hustler magazine of obscenity in 1977, is the heavy in this drama. Leis’s central role in closing down the exhibition Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment at the Contemporary Arts Center in 1990 brought him national notoriety and the opprobrium of artists, intellectuals, and those who valued First Amendment rights. Several months later a jury found the Maplethorpe photographs were not obscene and a decade later Mapplethorpe’s photos were shown in Cincinnati in a retrospective. The times had changed and even Cincinnati had changed, but Leis held on to his power and sought to expand it. At the center of his ambitions was a new county jail that he has fought for throughout the last 15 years.</p>
<p>Leis and his various Republican and Democratic allies have argued that the jail is necessary to replace or supplement already existing jail space, some of it older space renovated only a few years ago and some of it relatively new, including the modern Justice Center finished in 1985. The immediate principal beneficiary of a new jail would be Leis who would oversee the new expanded facility and a much larger budget. The Sheriff’s opponents counter that the county has enough jail space if only it were properly administered. The jail they point out regularly houses alcohol and drug abusers accused of pissing in the park, the homeless found sleeping on the streets, the mentally ill found wandering the city lost in their psychotic fears and fantasies, and many poor people who would be released if they could make bail or if there were a functioning night court. Leis, however, wants a bigger jail not a better run one.</p>
<p>Last year Leis’s fellow Republican Phil Heimlich put forward the plan for a bigger jail with the 800 additional beds to be paid for by a regressive sales tax. Carl Lindner, the multimillionaire, former owner of Chiquita Brands, and dominant figure in the Republican Party, backed up Leis and Heimlich. The County Commissioners-then two Republicans and one Democrat-put the issue to the voters as a referendum on the November 2006 ballot. But the people didn’t want it. Conservatives argued that it cost too much, while progressives argued that the jail was no way to fight crime and the regressive sales tax was no way to pay for it. Cincinnati Progressive Action, a small group of local activists, created No Jail Tax PAC and carried out an educational campaign stressing the need for education, jobs, and facilities for mental health and drug and alcohol addiction. While Lindner and other backs of the jail put up $250,000, No Jail Tax opponents raised about $1,000 to oppose it. Voters left, right and center went to the polls in large numbers and defeated the jail tax.</p>
<p>Hemilich’s jail went down to defeat, so did Heimlich himself, and former mayoral candidate Democrat David Pepper, Jr., a Cincinnati City Councilman who had originally introduced what became one of the country’s harshest anti-marijuana laws, was elected to the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners. Leis, Pepper and Portune then took up the jail issue anew, now adding some modest mental health and drug treatment programs for jail prisoners, but still calling for the additional 800 beds. And, as with Heimlich’s jail, the new facility would be financed by a regressive sales tax-an even larger tax-falling heaviest on working people and the poor. Portune and Pepper then passed the measure at the three-member Board meeting over the contrary vote from Republican Pat DeWine, imposing a new jail on citizens who had only a few months before rejected a similar proposal. Two white men had voted for a jail that if built would, like every other jail and prison in the country, house an inordinate number of black people. Voters, however, still had the right to put the measure on the ballot, and immediately the organizing began.</p>
<p>Furious that the commissioners had voted for the jail when only a few months before it had gone down to defeat in a county-wide referendum, critics of the jail tax launched a campaign for another referendum. Opponents of the jail were led by the NAACP and included Cincinnati Progressive Action and the Green Party on the left and COAST (Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes), various Republican officials, and the Libertarian Party on the right. Those groups created a tacit alliance and cooperated in circulating petitions to give citizens the right to vote on the jail in the November 2007 election. Leis, Pepper and Portune responded by taking their case to dozens of groups around the county, urging voters not so sign the petitions which, they said, would only delay the inevitable. But citizens rushed to sign the petitions at local church fairs, block parties, and summer festivals. The opposing groups, led by the NAACP’s grassroots activists, collected over 54,000 signatures, with 38,961 of them declared valid, 10,000 more than the number needed to put the issue on the ballot. The Jail: The Democratic Party Stakes All its Chips</p>
<p>The Democratic Party has decided to make the jail the issue of the election, invoking party to discipline to keep the unions, the social service agencies, and new city council candidates in line. Pepper and Portune prove to be a potent pair, the Janus face of the Democratic Party. Pepper’s face turns toward the corporate powers. It was Pepper, son of a P&amp;G CEO, who played a crucial role on the Cincinnati City Council in multimillion dollar concessions to keep Convergys and Kroger from leaving Cincinnati. Portune’s face turns toward the social service agencies and other do-gooders who have depended upon him during the Republican lean years to keep them afloat. Pepper and Portune, having added some in-jail mental health and substance abuse programs, claim that building a new, bigger jail is now a progressive measure. Now known as Issue 27, the jail proposal, would raise the county’s sales tax a half-cent for eight years, lower it a quarter-cent for seven years and then eliminate it after 15 years. The tax would build a new $198 million, 1,800-bed jail an $11 million juvenile detention facility. Hamilton County, its population still declining, would have the biggest jail in Ohio.</p>
<p>The Democratic Party plays a powerful in Cincinnati’s labor and social movements-not in providing leadership, but in exerting discipline over those that might get out of line. Democrats have told the unions that they must not only support the party’s candidates but also its jail tax. So unions that one might expect to a progressive position-such as the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers or the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists-have toed the line. The Building Trades, of course, can be counted on to support building anything so long as it provides jobs for their almost all white membership. Similarly Todd Portune has made it clear to social service organizations that serve the poor and that he has often lobbied for that he expects them to support the jail. Liberal Democratic City Council candidates have also been told that they will be expected to support the jail or loose the party’s support.</p>
<p>The only major organization in the city that has had the courage to stand up to the Democratic Party on this issue is the NAACP chapter led by Christopher Smitherman. Smitherman, a stockbroker, a fiscal conservative and a former city councilman, infuriated the establishment and especially the police department when he attempted to use his seat on the city council to examine the institutional racism of the city. Smitherman’s demands for answers to police killings and his suggestion that the police department was controlled by an old white boys network of former graduates of the once-white West Side’s Elder High School Hamilton led to accusations by County Prosecutor Michael K. Allen that Smitherman himself was involved in “racial profiling.” Shocked an angered by the reaction to his attempts to get at the truth of Cincinnati’s racism, Smitherman became the council’s angry young man. The media turned on him and Smitherman went down to defeat in the 2007 elections.</p>
<p>More determined than ever to fight the racism of the white establishment, Smitherman then ran for president of the NAACP promising to make the organization a more aggressive presence in the region, winning only after a bitter organizational and legal battle with his opponent Edith Thrower. Smitherman, whose moderate politics were long ago overtaken by his sense of indignation at the racist treatment of African Americans in Cincinnati, has proven to be one of the few people in the city with the courage to speak out and to act, no matter what the establishment thinks, conservative or liberal. At the same time his essentially conservative political views make it possible for him to work with the right-wing Republican anti-tax crowd led by Pat DeWine. Smitherman seems not to realize that his conservative worldview and his search for racial justice are at odds, but thankfully it is the latter that seems to drive him.</p>
<p>Smitherman speaks for many black Cincinnatians when he says, “Until the justice system is fair in Hamilton County, the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP cannot support building a new jail. The NAACP knows well that the sentences and punishments for African Americans are harsher and longer. It is this disparity in the justice system that underscores the discrimination of African-American people in Hamilton County and across the nation.” (Kevin Osborne, “Jail Break,” City Beat, Sept. 12, 2007.)</p>
<p>The Cincinnati Democrats, locked in the embrace of Republican Sheriff Leis and apparently oblivious to the racial divide that they are exacerbating, have turned the jail into the central political issue for November. What explains this strange turn of events? Some speculate that Portune and Pepper must believe that their alliance with Leis on this issue will make it feasible for them to portray themselves as the party of law and order and therefore to win enough independent and Republican votes to turn their two-to-one majority on the County Commission into a permanent state of affairs. Portune will certainly find it a lot easier to run for office in the next election if he doesn’t have to contend with Sheriff Leis and Carl Lindner.</p>
<p>In any case, Pepper and Portune seem to be able to count on Cincinnati’s Democratic Party which during the last national election became a much better organized and more disciplined outfit. Whether or not that democratic organization can deliver the voters, particularly black voters remains to be seen. As they take the case to the people, the new liberal activists of the party organization may wonder if a Democratic Party victory on this issue is really worth it if in the end it means that Simon Leis has a bigger jail and a bigger budget and that black Cincinnati feels betrayed. What will Cincinnatians say to themselves six years after Timothy Thomas was killed and the riots broke out, that we have a bigger jail? And here we thought all that soul searching had something to do with racial and social justice.</p>
<p>DAN La BOTZ is a Cincinnati-based teacher, writer and activist. He is a member of Cincinnati Progressive Action (CPA) and No Jail Tax PAC (nojailtax.org).</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
| 4,762 |
<p>They call it the " <a href="http://arizonapain.com/trigeminal-neuralgia-suicide-disease/" type="external">suicide disease</a>," and for good reason. Through the only option the desperate feel they have left, there are <a href="http://arizonapain.com/trigeminal-neuralgia-suicide-disease/" type="external">reports</a> that up to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2434821/Trigeminal-Neuralgia-First-kiss-years-father-suffered-agonising-pain-slightest-touch.html" type="external">25% of sufferers</a> take their own lives as a means to escape what <a href="https://endtn.blogspot.com/2014_02_01_archive.html" type="external">even skeptics of that 25% number</a> (and I hope they are right) describe as "one of the most painful afflictions known to mankind." The medical name is Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) and my wife has had it for 11 years.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://healthandlovepage.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Trigeminal-Neuralgia-Facial-Pain-Causes-and-Treatments.jpg" type="external">trigeminal nerve</a> is the largest in your face. It starts near your temple and branches out like three fingers 1) just above your eye, 2) through the top of your cheek, and 3) into your lower jaw. No one yet knows what causes TN. There is no cure. My wife describes the pain as both intensely sharp and searing, like a burn.</p>
<p>Some sufferers of TN are hit with waves of attacks. There is pain and then relief. It comes and goes, comes and goes. My wife isn't so lucky. There is no "goes." The pain arrived 11 years ago and has never-ever gone away.</p>
<p>TN is so rare, it took years for her to be diagnosed. God, it was awful. During those years, it took every bit of concentration she had just to keep her job, to drive a car. The pain was so intense, she didn't have the concentration to do what she loves most, read. Maybe she would get a couple hours of sleep, but only because of complete exhaustion. My only memory of those years is helplessly watching her wince in constant, unbearable, inescapable pain.</p>
<p>The pain in her teeth was so intense, brushing was unbearable. She could only (barely) eat soft foods. Applying make-up, even a powder, was pure agony. And those were the good days, the days when she could at least barely function. The sudden flare-ups that intensified the pain could last for days and sent us time and again to the emergency room. A shot followed by relief followed by two lost days of sleep followed by waking up to the nightmare-cycle all over again.</p>
<p>Eventually she was correctly diagnosed. There were good doctors and doctors so bad, so insulting, so sure she was just another junkie looking for drugs that it took a call to 911 to get me and my rage out of their office. There were surgeries -- nerve blocks, a <a href="https://www.ucsfhealth.org/treatments/gamma_knife/" type="external">Gamma Knife</a>, and finally a nerve stimulator <a href="http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120914/Trigeminal-Nerve-Stimulation-an-interview-with-Dr-Leon-Ekchian-President-and-CEO-of-NeuroSigma.aspx" type="external">implanted in her face</a>.</p>
<p>The stimulator hit a sweet spot, but only with the help of powerful painkillers, those dreaded opioids we are hearing so much about today. Thanks to both, though, for a number of years, my wife was able to live a normal life. Oh, the pain was always there, but it was manageable. There were still flare-ups and reluctant trips to the emergency room, but normal life usually returned afterwards.</p>
<p>This pain medication is expensive, the side-effects are terrible and none of your business, but well worth it. And when the pain is this real, there is no high, no lift, no euphoria, and no concern about addiction. To us, these opiods are miracle drugs, magic pills that gave us our normal life back.</p>
<p>Except, thanks to the cause du jour, life today isn't so normal.</p>
<p>About 18 months ago, a series of medical calamities that took precedent over her TN, hit my wife. I won't bore you with the details, but after a number of surgeries, nearly a month in the hospital, and months of physical therapy, she has fully recovered.</p>
<p>The only problem is that during those 18 months, the laws changed or the regulations changed or something changed… The word "opioid" suddenly became a buzzword -- a scarlet letter like "tobacco" or "trans fat." This crisis, this epidemic, this national emergency of addiction and overdose has become one of those rare issues Left and Right can rally around. Huzzah!</p>
<p>Well, not everyone is celebrating the feelzgood. You see, down here on the ground there remains the smallest and most vulnerable minority there is: The Individual, that one person who doesn't fit into your Box or your Solution or The Cause of the Moment, no matter how worthy that cause might be. And that person is suffering, and right now that person is my wife.</p>
<p>Because the drive is so beautiful, we actually don't mind that every time she needs a prescription refilled. North Carolina requires my wife see a certified pain specialist whose office is nearly two hours away. We're not blind to the problem. Up here in the mountains we know all about the Pillbillies and the Hillbilly Heroin. We're not unsympathetic. We're willing to serve a greater good through some inconvenience of our own.</p>
<p>Besides, her doctor is great, the kind of professional you want monitoring such a thing.</p>
<p>But now her doctor's hands are tied.</p>
<p>For whatever bureaucratic reason, he can no longer provide her with the dosage that keeps her comfortable, that allow her to live a normal life.</p>
<p>And so, after recovering from 18 months of that fresh hell, she was dropped right back into the old hell, the crippling, inescapable facial pain that steals her concentration, puts her on soft foods, and means a life of inescapable, unbearable pain. For the last three months, outside of a few hours of normalcy here and there when it magically became bearable, my wife is a wincing, immobile zombie living in a world of her own agony.</p>
<p>Yesterday, after an emergency trip to her doctor, she got what we both know will only be temporary relief, and she reveled in it with some real food and a trip to the gym. Right now, as I write these very words, I can hear her humming as she putters in her kitchen -- a sweet sound no one should ever take for granted. She's hoping to get in another workout and maybe get her hair done before the pain wipes her out again.</p>
<p>She's even hoping to drive her new car. We've had it three months. She's never driven it.</p>
<p>We haven't given up. We will never give up.</p>
<p>Tomorrow, there will be another surgery, another nerve block. Hopefully, it will work. Hopefully, afterwards the pain medication she's now allowed will be enough. Maybe it will cure her completely and she will never have to take another pill again.</p>
<p>I don't know.</p>
<p>What I do know is that it doesn't have to be this way.</p>
<p>Normal life is just a prescription away.</p>
<p>But she can't have that because no matter how good your intentions or cause, one size does not fit all.</p>
<p>Follow John Nolte on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NolteNC" type="external">@NolteNC</a>. Follow his Facebook Page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JohnNolteNC/?skip_nax_wizard=true" type="external">here</a>.</p>
|
The Other Side of the Opioid Debate -- The Individual
| true |
https://dailywire.com/news/14947/other-side-opioid-debate-individual-john-nolte
|
2017-03-30
| 0right
|
The Other Side of the Opioid Debate -- The Individual
<p>They call it the " <a href="http://arizonapain.com/trigeminal-neuralgia-suicide-disease/" type="external">suicide disease</a>," and for good reason. Through the only option the desperate feel they have left, there are <a href="http://arizonapain.com/trigeminal-neuralgia-suicide-disease/" type="external">reports</a> that up to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2434821/Trigeminal-Neuralgia-First-kiss-years-father-suffered-agonising-pain-slightest-touch.html" type="external">25% of sufferers</a> take their own lives as a means to escape what <a href="https://endtn.blogspot.com/2014_02_01_archive.html" type="external">even skeptics of that 25% number</a> (and I hope they are right) describe as "one of the most painful afflictions known to mankind." The medical name is Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) and my wife has had it for 11 years.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://healthandlovepage.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Trigeminal-Neuralgia-Facial-Pain-Causes-and-Treatments.jpg" type="external">trigeminal nerve</a> is the largest in your face. It starts near your temple and branches out like three fingers 1) just above your eye, 2) through the top of your cheek, and 3) into your lower jaw. No one yet knows what causes TN. There is no cure. My wife describes the pain as both intensely sharp and searing, like a burn.</p>
<p>Some sufferers of TN are hit with waves of attacks. There is pain and then relief. It comes and goes, comes and goes. My wife isn't so lucky. There is no "goes." The pain arrived 11 years ago and has never-ever gone away.</p>
<p>TN is so rare, it took years for her to be diagnosed. God, it was awful. During those years, it took every bit of concentration she had just to keep her job, to drive a car. The pain was so intense, she didn't have the concentration to do what she loves most, read. Maybe she would get a couple hours of sleep, but only because of complete exhaustion. My only memory of those years is helplessly watching her wince in constant, unbearable, inescapable pain.</p>
<p>The pain in her teeth was so intense, brushing was unbearable. She could only (barely) eat soft foods. Applying make-up, even a powder, was pure agony. And those were the good days, the days when she could at least barely function. The sudden flare-ups that intensified the pain could last for days and sent us time and again to the emergency room. A shot followed by relief followed by two lost days of sleep followed by waking up to the nightmare-cycle all over again.</p>
<p>Eventually she was correctly diagnosed. There were good doctors and doctors so bad, so insulting, so sure she was just another junkie looking for drugs that it took a call to 911 to get me and my rage out of their office. There were surgeries -- nerve blocks, a <a href="https://www.ucsfhealth.org/treatments/gamma_knife/" type="external">Gamma Knife</a>, and finally a nerve stimulator <a href="http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120914/Trigeminal-Nerve-Stimulation-an-interview-with-Dr-Leon-Ekchian-President-and-CEO-of-NeuroSigma.aspx" type="external">implanted in her face</a>.</p>
<p>The stimulator hit a sweet spot, but only with the help of powerful painkillers, those dreaded opioids we are hearing so much about today. Thanks to both, though, for a number of years, my wife was able to live a normal life. Oh, the pain was always there, but it was manageable. There were still flare-ups and reluctant trips to the emergency room, but normal life usually returned afterwards.</p>
<p>This pain medication is expensive, the side-effects are terrible and none of your business, but well worth it. And when the pain is this real, there is no high, no lift, no euphoria, and no concern about addiction. To us, these opiods are miracle drugs, magic pills that gave us our normal life back.</p>
<p>Except, thanks to the cause du jour, life today isn't so normal.</p>
<p>About 18 months ago, a series of medical calamities that took precedent over her TN, hit my wife. I won't bore you with the details, but after a number of surgeries, nearly a month in the hospital, and months of physical therapy, she has fully recovered.</p>
<p>The only problem is that during those 18 months, the laws changed or the regulations changed or something changed… The word "opioid" suddenly became a buzzword -- a scarlet letter like "tobacco" or "trans fat." This crisis, this epidemic, this national emergency of addiction and overdose has become one of those rare issues Left and Right can rally around. Huzzah!</p>
<p>Well, not everyone is celebrating the feelzgood. You see, down here on the ground there remains the smallest and most vulnerable minority there is: The Individual, that one person who doesn't fit into your Box or your Solution or The Cause of the Moment, no matter how worthy that cause might be. And that person is suffering, and right now that person is my wife.</p>
<p>Because the drive is so beautiful, we actually don't mind that every time she needs a prescription refilled. North Carolina requires my wife see a certified pain specialist whose office is nearly two hours away. We're not blind to the problem. Up here in the mountains we know all about the Pillbillies and the Hillbilly Heroin. We're not unsympathetic. We're willing to serve a greater good through some inconvenience of our own.</p>
<p>Besides, her doctor is great, the kind of professional you want monitoring such a thing.</p>
<p>But now her doctor's hands are tied.</p>
<p>For whatever bureaucratic reason, he can no longer provide her with the dosage that keeps her comfortable, that allow her to live a normal life.</p>
<p>And so, after recovering from 18 months of that fresh hell, she was dropped right back into the old hell, the crippling, inescapable facial pain that steals her concentration, puts her on soft foods, and means a life of inescapable, unbearable pain. For the last three months, outside of a few hours of normalcy here and there when it magically became bearable, my wife is a wincing, immobile zombie living in a world of her own agony.</p>
<p>Yesterday, after an emergency trip to her doctor, she got what we both know will only be temporary relief, and she reveled in it with some real food and a trip to the gym. Right now, as I write these very words, I can hear her humming as she putters in her kitchen -- a sweet sound no one should ever take for granted. She's hoping to get in another workout and maybe get her hair done before the pain wipes her out again.</p>
<p>She's even hoping to drive her new car. We've had it three months. She's never driven it.</p>
<p>We haven't given up. We will never give up.</p>
<p>Tomorrow, there will be another surgery, another nerve block. Hopefully, it will work. Hopefully, afterwards the pain medication she's now allowed will be enough. Maybe it will cure her completely and she will never have to take another pill again.</p>
<p>I don't know.</p>
<p>What I do know is that it doesn't have to be this way.</p>
<p>Normal life is just a prescription away.</p>
<p>But she can't have that because no matter how good your intentions or cause, one size does not fit all.</p>
<p>Follow John Nolte on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NolteNC" type="external">@NolteNC</a>. Follow his Facebook Page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JohnNolteNC/?skip_nax_wizard=true" type="external">here</a>.</p>
| 4,763 |
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<p />
<p>Martinez runs Mesilla Pedicab Co., pedaling the first of what he hopes may someday become a fleet of cute little human-powered buggies. You may have spotted him carrying tourists around the Mesilla Plaza, or transporting festival-goers on historic site trips around the picturesque adobe village.</p>
<p>“I started operations in March and a second cab is coming soon. I’m hoping to grow to about four cabs, eventually,” said Martinez, 38.</p>
<p>He lives with his wife and two kids in El Paso, but spends much of his time in Las Cruces.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I’m a graduate student at NMSU and I’m going for my master’s degree in art history. I got my bachelor’s degree in art history from NMSU, too, and liked living there. My son was born in Las Cruces.”</p>
<p>His enthusiasm for history and bicycles made his pedicab business “a good fit for me,” he said.</p>
<p>When he’s pedaling his passengers, Martinez says they’ll discuss history, architecture or the layout of Mesilla.</p>
<p>“Sometimes, we go a little bit into the neighborhoods and pecan orchards. We start at the church (Basilica of San Albino) and go from every cardinal direction. People get to see some examples of what’s happening in Mesilla, some of the older and new things,” said Martinez, adding that visitors seem particularly interested in new homes and buildings.</p>
<p>“It’s a nice (densely populated) area with low-traffic roads that are pretty open to a pedicab. I’m a big fan of Mesilla.”</p>
<p>His fares come from throughout Texas and New Mexico, with some surprises: a tourist from another country or a Mesilla business or shop owner “who just wants to see what it’s like.”</p>
<p>His pedicab can pull at least 600 pounds. His typical fares are “one parent and a couple of kids, or couples. Two adults fit well and three are still comfortable.”</p>
<p>He said he learns things from his passengers, too, and has yet to tire of duties as pedicab captain. Electric power assists are available, but he prefers “people power” on Mesilla’s mostly flat terrain.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“You have to be enthusiastic about biking, and I’m open to interacting with other people and the beautiful weather here. I really just enjoy it.” After two days of peddling, guess how he likes to relax and wind down?</p>
<p>“I like to get home and ride my other bikes. I’ve been riding mountain bikes for the past 20 years. I still have the first mountain bike I bought and there are eight bikes at home for the whole family.”</p>
<p>He said a well-designed pedicab “does a lot of the work, but by late Sunday I’m worn out. The best way to unwind is to ride my other bikes. And I exercise to try to warm up for the weekend.”</p>
<p>Business has been good and he has put in an order for a second pedicab.</p>
<p>“I’ve done some festivals like the Border Book Festival and I plan to spend the summer and the fall doing special events like Labor Day weekend and Day of the Dead,” said Martinez, who also served as trade show coordinator for the Border Book Festival.</p>
<p>Some people want the grand tour “and some just want a quick ride to the parking lot. I start with a $15 rate, but we can negotiate.”</p>
<p>For now, he’s offering rides from 10 a.m. “to about 6 or 7 p.m.,” depending on demand for his services, on Saturdays and Sundays on the Mesilla Plaza.</p>
<p>“Right now, most people just wave me down,” he said, but you can book a ride in advance by calling him at 915-257-5185 or Tweet him at mesillapedicab.</p>
|
Pushing ahead to success
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/118528/pushing-ahead-to-success.html
|
2012-07-16
| 2least
|
Pushing ahead to success
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Martinez runs Mesilla Pedicab Co., pedaling the first of what he hopes may someday become a fleet of cute little human-powered buggies. You may have spotted him carrying tourists around the Mesilla Plaza, or transporting festival-goers on historic site trips around the picturesque adobe village.</p>
<p>“I started operations in March and a second cab is coming soon. I’m hoping to grow to about four cabs, eventually,” said Martinez, 38.</p>
<p>He lives with his wife and two kids in El Paso, but spends much of his time in Las Cruces.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“I’m a graduate student at NMSU and I’m going for my master’s degree in art history. I got my bachelor’s degree in art history from NMSU, too, and liked living there. My son was born in Las Cruces.”</p>
<p>His enthusiasm for history and bicycles made his pedicab business “a good fit for me,” he said.</p>
<p>When he’s pedaling his passengers, Martinez says they’ll discuss history, architecture or the layout of Mesilla.</p>
<p>“Sometimes, we go a little bit into the neighborhoods and pecan orchards. We start at the church (Basilica of San Albino) and go from every cardinal direction. People get to see some examples of what’s happening in Mesilla, some of the older and new things,” said Martinez, adding that visitors seem particularly interested in new homes and buildings.</p>
<p>“It’s a nice (densely populated) area with low-traffic roads that are pretty open to a pedicab. I’m a big fan of Mesilla.”</p>
<p>His fares come from throughout Texas and New Mexico, with some surprises: a tourist from another country or a Mesilla business or shop owner “who just wants to see what it’s like.”</p>
<p>His pedicab can pull at least 600 pounds. His typical fares are “one parent and a couple of kids, or couples. Two adults fit well and three are still comfortable.”</p>
<p>He said he learns things from his passengers, too, and has yet to tire of duties as pedicab captain. Electric power assists are available, but he prefers “people power” on Mesilla’s mostly flat terrain.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“You have to be enthusiastic about biking, and I’m open to interacting with other people and the beautiful weather here. I really just enjoy it.” After two days of peddling, guess how he likes to relax and wind down?</p>
<p>“I like to get home and ride my other bikes. I’ve been riding mountain bikes for the past 20 years. I still have the first mountain bike I bought and there are eight bikes at home for the whole family.”</p>
<p>He said a well-designed pedicab “does a lot of the work, but by late Sunday I’m worn out. The best way to unwind is to ride my other bikes. And I exercise to try to warm up for the weekend.”</p>
<p>Business has been good and he has put in an order for a second pedicab.</p>
<p>“I’ve done some festivals like the Border Book Festival and I plan to spend the summer and the fall doing special events like Labor Day weekend and Day of the Dead,” said Martinez, who also served as trade show coordinator for the Border Book Festival.</p>
<p>Some people want the grand tour “and some just want a quick ride to the parking lot. I start with a $15 rate, but we can negotiate.”</p>
<p>For now, he’s offering rides from 10 a.m. “to about 6 or 7 p.m.,” depending on demand for his services, on Saturdays and Sundays on the Mesilla Plaza.</p>
<p>“Right now, most people just wave me down,” he said, but you can book a ride in advance by calling him at 915-257-5185 or Tweet him at mesillapedicab.</p>
| 4,764 |
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<p>Rianne Trujillo, a student at New Mexico Highlands University, collaborated with a laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop an automated cough monitor that aims to alert parents of children afflicted with cystic fibrosis to a coughing spasm.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Thanks to the work of an enterprising Highlands University graduate student, young sufferers of cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic disease, today have reason to hope for a better future.</p>
<p>Rianne Trujillo, a student in Highland’s software system design program, collaborated with a laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop an automated cough monitor for children afflicted with the disease.</p>
<p>Cystic fibrosis affects the lungs, digestive system and sweat glands. Its name stems from fibrous scar tissue that develops in the pancreas, a main target. It affects the ability to move salt and water in and out of cells, causing the lungs and pancreas to secrete abnormally thick mucus that blocks passageways. When that mucus blocks the airways to the lungs, it can be deadly. Persistent cough is a chief symptom.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Trujillo, 26, a native of Las Vegas, N.M., who lives in Albuquerque, developed the prototype of the monitor. She will be travelling to MIT next month to present the device to her “client,” the MIT laboratory.</p>
<p>“Anyone can build it,” said the young woman, who has no familial ties to cystic fibrosis.</p>
<p>Her prototype is a cuff designed to be worn by children. Its electronic components cost less than $50. The three primary components are an open-source microcontroller that programs data, an accelerometer or motion detector and a microphone. Trujillo figured out which components would work best together.</p>
<p>Not only could the device alert parents to a coughing spasm, but also, eventually, provide physicians with data to help them come up with the correct medical response.</p>
<p>“The initial concept is to have a device that is wearable by kids and for parents to keep track of data, so that they and doctors can determine the best treatment,” Trujillo said. “The next version will record the data. Now, we’re just tracking in real time; it’s not stored. The next version will include a card or app.”</p>
<p>“Rianne’s ability to marry the physical computing with the needs of the patient were outstanding,” said José Gómez-Márquez, a medical device designer who directs the MIT Little Devices Lab. “The notion to include multiple sensors created a fail-safe pathway for detection and patient monitoring.”</p>
<p>One goal of the lab is to “democratize” medical technologies, Gómez-Márquez said. “Devices like Rianne’s will inspire our students to know that we can get there one step at a time, one device at a time.”</p>
<p>The next phase of development will likely be a patch worn on the child’s body, said Trujillo, who earned a BFA degree in media arts at Highlands in 2011. On Monday, she is scheduled to defend her master’s thesis in software system design.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It was her academic adviser, media arts professor Miriam Langer, who put her in contact with MIT.</p>
<p>Langer called Trujillo an exceptionally creative, thoughtful and methodical developer.</p>
<p>“Rapid prototyping like Rianne accomplished requires a very creative approach to problem-solving,” Langer said.</p>
<p>Gómez-Márquez first contacted Langer in September to see if she could recommend a student who could develop the cough monitor. Langer’s immediate choice was Trujillo.</p>
<p>“When they came back three weeks later with a prototype that was not only functioning, but also generating smart data, I was blown away,” Gómez-Márquez said.</p>
<p>His Little Devices Lab routinely collaborates with Ivy League universities – Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth – but Highlands is the first school it has worked with in the western United States.</p>
<p>“I’m looking forward to further collaborations,” he said.</p>
<p />
<p />
|
NM student works with MIT to create cough monitor
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/561737/nm-student-mit-create-cough-monitor.html
| 2least
|
NM student works with MIT to create cough monitor
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Rianne Trujillo, a student at New Mexico Highlands University, collaborated with a laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop an automated cough monitor that aims to alert parents of children afflicted with cystic fibrosis to a coughing spasm.</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Thanks to the work of an enterprising Highlands University graduate student, young sufferers of cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic disease, today have reason to hope for a better future.</p>
<p>Rianne Trujillo, a student in Highland’s software system design program, collaborated with a laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop an automated cough monitor for children afflicted with the disease.</p>
<p>Cystic fibrosis affects the lungs, digestive system and sweat glands. Its name stems from fibrous scar tissue that develops in the pancreas, a main target. It affects the ability to move salt and water in and out of cells, causing the lungs and pancreas to secrete abnormally thick mucus that blocks passageways. When that mucus blocks the airways to the lungs, it can be deadly. Persistent cough is a chief symptom.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Trujillo, 26, a native of Las Vegas, N.M., who lives in Albuquerque, developed the prototype of the monitor. She will be travelling to MIT next month to present the device to her “client,” the MIT laboratory.</p>
<p>“Anyone can build it,” said the young woman, who has no familial ties to cystic fibrosis.</p>
<p>Her prototype is a cuff designed to be worn by children. Its electronic components cost less than $50. The three primary components are an open-source microcontroller that programs data, an accelerometer or motion detector and a microphone. Trujillo figured out which components would work best together.</p>
<p>Not only could the device alert parents to a coughing spasm, but also, eventually, provide physicians with data to help them come up with the correct medical response.</p>
<p>“The initial concept is to have a device that is wearable by kids and for parents to keep track of data, so that they and doctors can determine the best treatment,” Trujillo said. “The next version will record the data. Now, we’re just tracking in real time; it’s not stored. The next version will include a card or app.”</p>
<p>“Rianne’s ability to marry the physical computing with the needs of the patient were outstanding,” said José Gómez-Márquez, a medical device designer who directs the MIT Little Devices Lab. “The notion to include multiple sensors created a fail-safe pathway for detection and patient monitoring.”</p>
<p>One goal of the lab is to “democratize” medical technologies, Gómez-Márquez said. “Devices like Rianne’s will inspire our students to know that we can get there one step at a time, one device at a time.”</p>
<p>The next phase of development will likely be a patch worn on the child’s body, said Trujillo, who earned a BFA degree in media arts at Highlands in 2011. On Monday, she is scheduled to defend her master’s thesis in software system design.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It was her academic adviser, media arts professor Miriam Langer, who put her in contact with MIT.</p>
<p>Langer called Trujillo an exceptionally creative, thoughtful and methodical developer.</p>
<p>“Rapid prototyping like Rianne accomplished requires a very creative approach to problem-solving,” Langer said.</p>
<p>Gómez-Márquez first contacted Langer in September to see if she could recommend a student who could develop the cough monitor. Langer’s immediate choice was Trujillo.</p>
<p>“When they came back three weeks later with a prototype that was not only functioning, but also generating smart data, I was blown away,” Gómez-Márquez said.</p>
<p>His Little Devices Lab routinely collaborates with Ivy League universities – Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth – but Highlands is the first school it has worked with in the western United States.</p>
<p>“I’m looking forward to further collaborations,” he said.</p>
<p />
<p />
| 4,765 |
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<p>International rescue teams are heading to Indonesia in a last-ditch effort to free trapped earthquake survivors. More than 1,000 people are already known to have died after the 7.6-magnitude quake two days ago, the UN says. Rescue efforts are focused on the city of Padang but aid workers and reporters said that in rural areas thousands more buildings had been destroyed and whole villages flattened. Marco Werman gets an update from the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Padang.</p>
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Indonesia rescue effort
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2009-10-05/indonesia-rescue-effort
|
2009-10-05
| 3left-center
|
Indonesia rescue effort
<p>International rescue teams are heading to Indonesia in a last-ditch effort to free trapped earthquake survivors. More than 1,000 people are already known to have died after the 7.6-magnitude quake two days ago, the UN says. Rescue efforts are focused on the city of Padang but aid workers and reporters said that in rural areas thousands more buildings had been destroyed and whole villages flattened. Marco Werman gets an update from the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Padang.</p>
| 4,766 |
<p>Two new LifeWay stores, one in Lynchburg and one in Fredericksburg are scheduled to open in the Thanksgiving to Christmas time frame.</p>
<p>The Lynchburg store, containing 6,300 square feet, will be located on Ward's Road across from the Wal-Mart near River Ridge Mall. George Barth will manage the store, which is scheduled to be dedicated Nov. 10, at 9 a.m. and to have its grand opening Nov. 11 through Dec. 9.</p>
<p>In Fredericksburg, Gene Edgerly will manage a store to open in the Central Park Shopping Center on Central Park Boulevard behind the Chick-Fil-A. The 5,250 square foot store will welcome customers to its grand opening Dec. 2-16. Dedication of the store will be held Dec. 1, at 9 a.m.</p>
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LifeWay to open two new stores in Virginia
| false |
https://baptistnews.com/article/lifewaytoopentwonewstoresinvirginia/
| 3left-center
|
LifeWay to open two new stores in Virginia
<p>Two new LifeWay stores, one in Lynchburg and one in Fredericksburg are scheduled to open in the Thanksgiving to Christmas time frame.</p>
<p>The Lynchburg store, containing 6,300 square feet, will be located on Ward's Road across from the Wal-Mart near River Ridge Mall. George Barth will manage the store, which is scheduled to be dedicated Nov. 10, at 9 a.m. and to have its grand opening Nov. 11 through Dec. 9.</p>
<p>In Fredericksburg, Gene Edgerly will manage a store to open in the Central Park Shopping Center on Central Park Boulevard behind the Chick-Fil-A. The 5,250 square foot store will welcome customers to its grand opening Dec. 2-16. Dedication of the store will be held Dec. 1, at 9 a.m.</p>
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<p>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time Friday that he is under federal investigation as part of the expanding probe into Russia’s election meddling. He lashed out at a top Justice Department official overseeing the inquiry, reflecting his mounting frustration with the unrelenting controversy that has consumed his early presidency.</p>
<p>“I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt,” the president wrote on Twitter.</p>
<p>His morning missive apparently referred to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general whose role leading the federal investigation has become increasingly complicated. The White House has used a memo he wrote to justify Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, but that Trump action may now be part of the probe. Thursday night, Rosenstein issued an unusual statement complaining about leaks in the case.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Trump advisers and confidants describe the president as increasingly angry over the investigation, yelling at television sets in the White House carrying coverage and insisting he is the target of a conspiracy to discredit — and potentially end — his presidency. Some of his ire is aimed at Rosenstein and investigative special counsel Robert Mueller, both of whom the president believes are biased against him, associates say.</p>
<p>Dianne Feinstein, top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she was “increasingly concerned” that Trump will fire both Mueller and Rosenstein.</p>
<p>“The message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn’t apply to him and that anyone who thinks otherwise will be fired,” Feinstein said. “That’s undemocratic on its face and a blatant violation of the president’s oath of office.”</p>
<p>Aides have counseled the president to stay off Twitter and focus on other aspects of his job. They have tried to highlight the positive reviews he received Wednesday when he made a statesman-like appearance in the White House to address the nation after Rep. Steve Scalise was shot during a congressional baseball practice.</p>
<p>Yet Trump’s angry tweets on Friday underscored the near-impossible challenge his advisers and legal team have in trying to get him to avoid weighing in on an active probe.</p>
<p>The president has denied that he has any nefarious ties to Russia and has also disputed that he’s attempted to block the investigation into his campaign’s possible role in Russia’s election-related hacking. It was unclear whether his tweet about being under investigation was based on direct knowledge or new media reports that suggest Mueller is examining whether the president obstructed justice by firing Comey.</p>
<p>The tweets came shortly after Rosenstein issued his unusual statement that appeared to be warning about the accuracy of such reports.</p>
<p>“Americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations,” Rosenstein said. “The Department of Justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The department would not comment on the record on whether Trump, who has repeatedly complained about leaks on the case, requested the statement. But a department official said no one asked for the statement and Rosenstein acted on his own. The official demanded anonymity because the official was not authorized to be named discussing the deliberations.</p>
<p>Trump has told associates he has the legal authority to fire Mueller. What is clear is that he could order the Justice Department to ax Mueller, which may result in Rosenstein’s departure and would certainly intensify the uproar over the investigation. Though some in the White House have preached caution, fearing a repeat of the firestorm over Comey’s firing, many in Trump’s orbit — including his son Donald Trump Jr. and adviser Newt Gingrich — have deemed Mueller biased and worthy of dismissal.</p>
<p>Several White House officials and Trump associates insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the president’s views of the unfolding investigation.</p>
<p>Rosenstein has been overseeing the Russia probe since shortly after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself. But Rosenstein, too, may ultimately have to hand off oversight given his role in Trump’s decision to fire Comey.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, Rosenstein told The Associated Press that “if anything that I did winds up being relevant to his investigation then, as Director Mueller and I discussed, if there’s a need from me to recuse, I will.”</p>
<p>Trump’s tweets came after the top lawyer for his transition team warned the organization’s officials to preserve all records and other materials related to the Russia probe. An official of Trump’s transition confirmed the lawyer’s internal order, which was sent Thursday.</p>
<p>The order from the general counsel for the transition team casts a wide net on documents that could shed light on ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and representatives of Russia’s government. The order also covers separate inquiries into several key Trump associates including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, campaign adviser Paul Manafort, foreign policy aide Carter Page and outside adviser Roger Stone.</p>
<p>The White House has directed questions for details to outside legal counsel, which has not responded.</p>
<p>Vice President Mike Pence has also hired a private lawyer to represent his interests in the expanding probe. Pence headed the Trump transition until Inauguration Day.</p>
<p>Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, also has retained an attorney to represent him. Cohen has worked for Trump since the mid-2000s and was active in the campaign. He has already been subpoenaed by the House intelligence committee.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Steve Braun, Sadie Gurman, Eric Tucker, Mary Clare Jalonick and Vivian Salama contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Julie Pace at <a href="http://twitter.com/jpaceDC" type="external">http://twitter.com/jpaceDC</a> and Jonathan Lemire at <a href="http://twitter.com/JonLemire" type="external">http://twitter.com/JonLemire</a></p>
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Trump acknowledges for first time he’s under investigation
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1018791/trump-appears-to-confirm-hes-under-investigation.html
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2017-06-16
| 2least
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Trump acknowledges for first time he’s under investigation
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time Friday that he is under federal investigation as part of the expanding probe into Russia’s election meddling. He lashed out at a top Justice Department official overseeing the inquiry, reflecting his mounting frustration with the unrelenting controversy that has consumed his early presidency.</p>
<p>“I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt,” the president wrote on Twitter.</p>
<p>His morning missive apparently referred to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general whose role leading the federal investigation has become increasingly complicated. The White House has used a memo he wrote to justify Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, but that Trump action may now be part of the probe. Thursday night, Rosenstein issued an unusual statement complaining about leaks in the case.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Trump advisers and confidants describe the president as increasingly angry over the investigation, yelling at television sets in the White House carrying coverage and insisting he is the target of a conspiracy to discredit — and potentially end — his presidency. Some of his ire is aimed at Rosenstein and investigative special counsel Robert Mueller, both of whom the president believes are biased against him, associates say.</p>
<p>Dianne Feinstein, top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she was “increasingly concerned” that Trump will fire both Mueller and Rosenstein.</p>
<p>“The message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn’t apply to him and that anyone who thinks otherwise will be fired,” Feinstein said. “That’s undemocratic on its face and a blatant violation of the president’s oath of office.”</p>
<p>Aides have counseled the president to stay off Twitter and focus on other aspects of his job. They have tried to highlight the positive reviews he received Wednesday when he made a statesman-like appearance in the White House to address the nation after Rep. Steve Scalise was shot during a congressional baseball practice.</p>
<p>Yet Trump’s angry tweets on Friday underscored the near-impossible challenge his advisers and legal team have in trying to get him to avoid weighing in on an active probe.</p>
<p>The president has denied that he has any nefarious ties to Russia and has also disputed that he’s attempted to block the investigation into his campaign’s possible role in Russia’s election-related hacking. It was unclear whether his tweet about being under investigation was based on direct knowledge or new media reports that suggest Mueller is examining whether the president obstructed justice by firing Comey.</p>
<p>The tweets came shortly after Rosenstein issued his unusual statement that appeared to be warning about the accuracy of such reports.</p>
<p>“Americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations,” Rosenstein said. “The Department of Justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The department would not comment on the record on whether Trump, who has repeatedly complained about leaks on the case, requested the statement. But a department official said no one asked for the statement and Rosenstein acted on his own. The official demanded anonymity because the official was not authorized to be named discussing the deliberations.</p>
<p>Trump has told associates he has the legal authority to fire Mueller. What is clear is that he could order the Justice Department to ax Mueller, which may result in Rosenstein’s departure and would certainly intensify the uproar over the investigation. Though some in the White House have preached caution, fearing a repeat of the firestorm over Comey’s firing, many in Trump’s orbit — including his son Donald Trump Jr. and adviser Newt Gingrich — have deemed Mueller biased and worthy of dismissal.</p>
<p>Several White House officials and Trump associates insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the president’s views of the unfolding investigation.</p>
<p>Rosenstein has been overseeing the Russia probe since shortly after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself. But Rosenstein, too, may ultimately have to hand off oversight given his role in Trump’s decision to fire Comey.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, Rosenstein told The Associated Press that “if anything that I did winds up being relevant to his investigation then, as Director Mueller and I discussed, if there’s a need from me to recuse, I will.”</p>
<p>Trump’s tweets came after the top lawyer for his transition team warned the organization’s officials to preserve all records and other materials related to the Russia probe. An official of Trump’s transition confirmed the lawyer’s internal order, which was sent Thursday.</p>
<p>The order from the general counsel for the transition team casts a wide net on documents that could shed light on ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and representatives of Russia’s government. The order also covers separate inquiries into several key Trump associates including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, campaign adviser Paul Manafort, foreign policy aide Carter Page and outside adviser Roger Stone.</p>
<p>The White House has directed questions for details to outside legal counsel, which has not responded.</p>
<p>Vice President Mike Pence has also hired a private lawyer to represent his interests in the expanding probe. Pence headed the Trump transition until Inauguration Day.</p>
<p>Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, also has retained an attorney to represent him. Cohen has worked for Trump since the mid-2000s and was active in the campaign. He has already been subpoenaed by the House intelligence committee.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writers Steve Braun, Sadie Gurman, Eric Tucker, Mary Clare Jalonick and Vivian Salama contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Julie Pace at <a href="http://twitter.com/jpaceDC" type="external">http://twitter.com/jpaceDC</a> and Jonathan Lemire at <a href="http://twitter.com/JonLemire" type="external">http://twitter.com/JonLemire</a></p>
| 4,768 |
<p>U.S. stocks are drifting mostly lower in early trading as the market comes off its latest record high. Major markets in Europe rallied after a European Central Bank official said it would step up its stimulus program.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average shed 4 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 18,297 as of 10:19 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday. The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 lost one point to 2,129, and the Nasdaq composite picked up one point to 5,080.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>MORE HOUSES: Builders started work on new houses at the fastest pace in seven years, the government reported early Tuesday. The Commerce Department said that housing starts jumped 20.2 percent to an annual rate of 1.14 million homes, the fastest clip since November 2007.</p>
<p>REACTION: The housing report drove up homebuilders' stocks: PulteGroup, Lennar and D.R. Horton all climbed 1 percent. "The housing market comes back in the spring, is what realtors always say, and boy is this true today," said Christopher Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank, in a note to clients.</p>
<p>TIGHT BUDGET: Before the market opened, Wal-Mart Stores turned in sluggish sales and a drop in quarterly earnings as raises for workers and a rising dollar put pressure on its profits. Overall results for the world's largest retailer came up short of Wall Street's estimates. Wal-Mart's stock sank $2.60, or 3 percent, to $77.26.</p>
<p>POW: Take-Two Interactive, which makes the "Grand Theft Auto" video games, surged 15 percent after reporting earnings that were sharply higher than analysts had expected. The company's stock jumped $3.69 to $27.89.</p>
<p>EUROPE: Germany's DAX added 1.9 percent, while France's CAC 40 rose 1.9 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.4 percent.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>TO THE RESCUE: Investors were cheered by an ECB official's remark that the central bank would step up its bond-buying stimulus program in May and June in anticipation of slow trading in July and August. The program tends to boost stock and bond markets and weaken the euro, which fell in currency markets Tuesday.</p>
<p>Greece was also in focus after its finance minister said he expects an agreement with bailout creditors within the next week, potentially saving the cash-strapped country from defaulting on its debts. The talks have run on for almost four months.</p>
<p>ASIA'S DAY: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 3.1 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.4 percent. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.7 percent.</p>
<p>CRUDE: Benchmark U.S. crude fell for a third day running, losing $1.37 to $58.06 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.</p>
<p>BONDS &amp; DOLLARS: U.S. government bond prices fell, driving the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note up to 2.28 percent from 2.24 percent. The euro lost strength against the dollar, falling to $1.1155 from $1.1303. The dollar rose to 120.44 yen from 120.01 yen.</p>
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US stock indexes drift in early trading as market comes off its latest record highs; Oil falls
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/05/19/us-stock-indexes-drift-in-early-trading-as-market-comes-off-its-latest-record.html
|
2016-03-09
| 0right
|
US stock indexes drift in early trading as market comes off its latest record highs; Oil falls
<p>U.S. stocks are drifting mostly lower in early trading as the market comes off its latest record high. Major markets in Europe rallied after a European Central Bank official said it would step up its stimulus program.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average shed 4 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 18,297 as of 10:19 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday. The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 lost one point to 2,129, and the Nasdaq composite picked up one point to 5,080.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>MORE HOUSES: Builders started work on new houses at the fastest pace in seven years, the government reported early Tuesday. The Commerce Department said that housing starts jumped 20.2 percent to an annual rate of 1.14 million homes, the fastest clip since November 2007.</p>
<p>REACTION: The housing report drove up homebuilders' stocks: PulteGroup, Lennar and D.R. Horton all climbed 1 percent. "The housing market comes back in the spring, is what realtors always say, and boy is this true today," said Christopher Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank, in a note to clients.</p>
<p>TIGHT BUDGET: Before the market opened, Wal-Mart Stores turned in sluggish sales and a drop in quarterly earnings as raises for workers and a rising dollar put pressure on its profits. Overall results for the world's largest retailer came up short of Wall Street's estimates. Wal-Mart's stock sank $2.60, or 3 percent, to $77.26.</p>
<p>POW: Take-Two Interactive, which makes the "Grand Theft Auto" video games, surged 15 percent after reporting earnings that were sharply higher than analysts had expected. The company's stock jumped $3.69 to $27.89.</p>
<p>EUROPE: Germany's DAX added 1.9 percent, while France's CAC 40 rose 1.9 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.4 percent.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>TO THE RESCUE: Investors were cheered by an ECB official's remark that the central bank would step up its bond-buying stimulus program in May and June in anticipation of slow trading in July and August. The program tends to boost stock and bond markets and weaken the euro, which fell in currency markets Tuesday.</p>
<p>Greece was also in focus after its finance minister said he expects an agreement with bailout creditors within the next week, potentially saving the cash-strapped country from defaulting on its debts. The talks have run on for almost four months.</p>
<p>ASIA'S DAY: The Shanghai Composite Index rose 3.1 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.4 percent. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.7 percent.</p>
<p>CRUDE: Benchmark U.S. crude fell for a third day running, losing $1.37 to $58.06 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.</p>
<p>BONDS &amp; DOLLARS: U.S. government bond prices fell, driving the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note up to 2.28 percent from 2.24 percent. The euro lost strength against the dollar, falling to $1.1155 from $1.1303. The dollar rose to 120.44 yen from 120.01 yen.</p>
| 4,769 |
<p>As a booming metropolitan city, Delhi draws Indians from around the country. Students and young professionals converge on the capital for opportunities they cannot access in their hometowns, but finding work is often not the hardest thing for these people.</p>
<p>Finding apartments is worse.</p>
<p>Delhi lacks high-rise apartment buildings, so people have to find property owners who rent out apartments in their own house. These landlords often pick tenants based on their own biases against professions, religions, ethnicities, class&#160;and even diets.</p>
<p>“We were going to see an apartment in Delhi, and this person looked at us from the balcony and refused to open the door,” said Priya Konsam, a banker who is now based in Mumbai. “They said they won’t rent to people from the northeast.”</p>
<p>Indians from different regions are often recognizable by their facial characteristics, and people from northeastern states suffer discrimination and harassment in Delhi.</p>
<p>Konsam has also faced questions about her diet from a landlord.</p>
<p>“They asked me if I eat meat, then they asked me what kinds of meat I eat,” she said.</p>
<p>According to Sarita Bhardwaj, a broker in Delhi, landlords are also hesitant to rent to people from India’s northeast now because of stricter laws against discrimination.</p>
<p>“The law favors them if they complain so landlords are afraid to rent to them,” she said.</p>
<p>Kekuchina Nsarangbe, a marketing consultant in Delhi who also hails from that region, was told by a landlord that they only rent to “pure vegetarians” and “pure Brahmins.” The implication was that even eating eggs,&#160;or being born to&#160;a lower status than the&#160;highest Hindu caste, would not be permitted.</p>
<p>Nsarangbe also faced discrimination for being a single woman.</p>
<p>“I was climbing the stairs to see a fourth-floor apartment, when an elderly couple on the first floor asked the broker if I will be living alone,” she said.</p>
<p>The couple then went on to ask the broker if Nsarangbe would be out late, and if she would bring men to the apartment.</p>
<p>“These were not even the landlords, they were the neighbors! I refused to see the apartment,” she said.</p>
<p>Anandita Sharma, a lawyer based in Delhi, was also refused an apartment that was being rented to “families only.”</p>
<p>“I have come across apartment posts that ask tenants to be home by 10 p.m.,” she said. “My last landlord did not allow boys to go up to our apartment, so any men had to be declared ‘cousins.’”</p>
<p>Sharma bears the additional burden of being a lawyer, a profession that most landlords frown upon because they expect lawyers to be litigious.</p>
<p>“I found a great apartment, but when the broker found out what I do, he told me to say I worked at a [multinational company],” she said. When Sharma refused to lie about her job, the broker told her to find another apartment, as convincing the landlords to rent to a lawyer would be impossible.</p>
<p>Raies Ul-Haq Ahmad Sikander has been refused apartments for being a lawyer, a single man, a Muslim and a Kashmiri.</p>
<p>“I finalized an apartment and paid a reservation fee, but the landlady saw my ID and suddenly withdrew her consent,” Sikander said. When he insisted on finding out why she had a change of heart, she said she doesn’t rent to people from Kashmir.</p>
<p>“Brokers told me to say I am a student instead of a lawyer, but they still wouldn’t rent to me because I am from Srinagar [in Kashmir],” said Sikander. “They questioned why I wanted to live alone and why I didn’t have any friends to live with when I had lived in Delhi for a few years already.”</p>
<p>Another broker told Sikander not to waste his time, as many landlords won’t rent to Muslims.</p>
<p>“Even if you show your documents, police verification and local references, people suspect a single Kashmiri man,” he said. “They see single Muslims as potential terrorists.”</p>
<p>Muslim families may be shunned because they eat meat, but Sikander has found the opposite to be true too.</p>
<p>“Muslim landlords will often not rent to non-Muslims, because they suspect tenants would drink alcohol and eat pork,” Sikander said. He was even turned away by a fellow Kashmiri Muslim, because he is single.</p>
<p>“People think bachelors are unstable and undisciplined,” Sikander&#160;said. “No one is there to look after them and they have no one to look after, so they will party, host strangers, keep late hours.”</p>
<p>He has found that even neighbors and shopkeepers keep tabs on opposite-sex visitors of single men and women, while no one questions a married man.</p>
<p>Bhardwaj concurs that four out of five landlords will turn away single men because “they disturb the family atmosphere.”</p>
<p>“Nowadays single women do that too, there is no difference,” Bhardwaj said. “They drink and they party, so landlords avoid them as well.”</p>
<p>Kanika Jha, a development professional in Delhi, had heard many anecdotes about unmarried couples facing trouble while looking for apartments. Her fiancé made it clear to every broker and landlord that Jha would only move in once they were married in October.</p>
<p>“We told the landlord that we are happy to share our wedding card and our parents’ phone number if you want it,” Jha said. “We were overly cautious because we didn’t want to miss out on the good apartments.”</p>
<p>Many apartment listings specify that they are for “expats only,” renting exclusively to non-Indian tenants.</p>
<p>“A broker inquired if I was an Indian American, because that would be the only way I could rent an expat-only apartment I was interested in,” said Sharma.</p>
<p>Bhardwaj explained that landlords think foreign nationals are more reliable for regular rent payments. They pay for repair work themselves and the home suffers lesser wear because they tend to stay out and travel more. The rent, of course, is higher for expat apartments.</p>
<p>However, all foreigners are not viewed with favor. Delhi’s rampant <a href="" type="internal">racism</a> seeps into apartment leasing as well.</p>
<p>“I had finalized an apartment and when I went to meet the landlady to sign the contract, she said the apartment was no longer available,” said a man from West Africa who works with an international NGO in Delhi. His broker later told him the apartment was available, but the landlady hadn’t realized he was black until she met him.</p>
<p>One landlord shouted at the broker from the balcony for bringing “a black” the moment he got out of the car, and another rejected the man because he eats meat. One landlord began lecturing him about what was expected of him.</p>
<p>“He told me I shouldn’t bring women home, I shouldn’t drink alcohol and I shouldn’t host parties,” he said. “He lectured me like I was a kid and threatened to call the police directly if I violated any of his rules — that was very frustrating.”</p>
<p>Racist stereotypes fuel this discrimination against African nationals.</p>
<p>Such extreme discrimination has caused the formation of black and Afghan neighborhoods in Delhi, as the apartment options are limited.</p>
<p>“Only those who are poor and own old houses rent to these people, as their entire income is now dependent on rent,” said Bhardwaj.</p>
<p>Nimisha Jaiswal reported this story from Delhi.</p>
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If you’re single, a lawyer or Muslim, Delhi’s apartments aren’t for you
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2017-09-12/if-you-re-single-lawyer-or-muslim-delhi-s-apartments-aren-t-you
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2017-09-12
| 3left-center
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If you’re single, a lawyer or Muslim, Delhi’s apartments aren’t for you
<p>As a booming metropolitan city, Delhi draws Indians from around the country. Students and young professionals converge on the capital for opportunities they cannot access in their hometowns, but finding work is often not the hardest thing for these people.</p>
<p>Finding apartments is worse.</p>
<p>Delhi lacks high-rise apartment buildings, so people have to find property owners who rent out apartments in their own house. These landlords often pick tenants based on their own biases against professions, religions, ethnicities, class&#160;and even diets.</p>
<p>“We were going to see an apartment in Delhi, and this person looked at us from the balcony and refused to open the door,” said Priya Konsam, a banker who is now based in Mumbai. “They said they won’t rent to people from the northeast.”</p>
<p>Indians from different regions are often recognizable by their facial characteristics, and people from northeastern states suffer discrimination and harassment in Delhi.</p>
<p>Konsam has also faced questions about her diet from a landlord.</p>
<p>“They asked me if I eat meat, then they asked me what kinds of meat I eat,” she said.</p>
<p>According to Sarita Bhardwaj, a broker in Delhi, landlords are also hesitant to rent to people from India’s northeast now because of stricter laws against discrimination.</p>
<p>“The law favors them if they complain so landlords are afraid to rent to them,” she said.</p>
<p>Kekuchina Nsarangbe, a marketing consultant in Delhi who also hails from that region, was told by a landlord that they only rent to “pure vegetarians” and “pure Brahmins.” The implication was that even eating eggs,&#160;or being born to&#160;a lower status than the&#160;highest Hindu caste, would not be permitted.</p>
<p>Nsarangbe also faced discrimination for being a single woman.</p>
<p>“I was climbing the stairs to see a fourth-floor apartment, when an elderly couple on the first floor asked the broker if I will be living alone,” she said.</p>
<p>The couple then went on to ask the broker if Nsarangbe would be out late, and if she would bring men to the apartment.</p>
<p>“These were not even the landlords, they were the neighbors! I refused to see the apartment,” she said.</p>
<p>Anandita Sharma, a lawyer based in Delhi, was also refused an apartment that was being rented to “families only.”</p>
<p>“I have come across apartment posts that ask tenants to be home by 10 p.m.,” she said. “My last landlord did not allow boys to go up to our apartment, so any men had to be declared ‘cousins.’”</p>
<p>Sharma bears the additional burden of being a lawyer, a profession that most landlords frown upon because they expect lawyers to be litigious.</p>
<p>“I found a great apartment, but when the broker found out what I do, he told me to say I worked at a [multinational company],” she said. When Sharma refused to lie about her job, the broker told her to find another apartment, as convincing the landlords to rent to a lawyer would be impossible.</p>
<p>Raies Ul-Haq Ahmad Sikander has been refused apartments for being a lawyer, a single man, a Muslim and a Kashmiri.</p>
<p>“I finalized an apartment and paid a reservation fee, but the landlady saw my ID and suddenly withdrew her consent,” Sikander said. When he insisted on finding out why she had a change of heart, she said she doesn’t rent to people from Kashmir.</p>
<p>“Brokers told me to say I am a student instead of a lawyer, but they still wouldn’t rent to me because I am from Srinagar [in Kashmir],” said Sikander. “They questioned why I wanted to live alone and why I didn’t have any friends to live with when I had lived in Delhi for a few years already.”</p>
<p>Another broker told Sikander not to waste his time, as many landlords won’t rent to Muslims.</p>
<p>“Even if you show your documents, police verification and local references, people suspect a single Kashmiri man,” he said. “They see single Muslims as potential terrorists.”</p>
<p>Muslim families may be shunned because they eat meat, but Sikander has found the opposite to be true too.</p>
<p>“Muslim landlords will often not rent to non-Muslims, because they suspect tenants would drink alcohol and eat pork,” Sikander said. He was even turned away by a fellow Kashmiri Muslim, because he is single.</p>
<p>“People think bachelors are unstable and undisciplined,” Sikander&#160;said. “No one is there to look after them and they have no one to look after, so they will party, host strangers, keep late hours.”</p>
<p>He has found that even neighbors and shopkeepers keep tabs on opposite-sex visitors of single men and women, while no one questions a married man.</p>
<p>Bhardwaj concurs that four out of five landlords will turn away single men because “they disturb the family atmosphere.”</p>
<p>“Nowadays single women do that too, there is no difference,” Bhardwaj said. “They drink and they party, so landlords avoid them as well.”</p>
<p>Kanika Jha, a development professional in Delhi, had heard many anecdotes about unmarried couples facing trouble while looking for apartments. Her fiancé made it clear to every broker and landlord that Jha would only move in once they were married in October.</p>
<p>“We told the landlord that we are happy to share our wedding card and our parents’ phone number if you want it,” Jha said. “We were overly cautious because we didn’t want to miss out on the good apartments.”</p>
<p>Many apartment listings specify that they are for “expats only,” renting exclusively to non-Indian tenants.</p>
<p>“A broker inquired if I was an Indian American, because that would be the only way I could rent an expat-only apartment I was interested in,” said Sharma.</p>
<p>Bhardwaj explained that landlords think foreign nationals are more reliable for regular rent payments. They pay for repair work themselves and the home suffers lesser wear because they tend to stay out and travel more. The rent, of course, is higher for expat apartments.</p>
<p>However, all foreigners are not viewed with favor. Delhi’s rampant <a href="" type="internal">racism</a> seeps into apartment leasing as well.</p>
<p>“I had finalized an apartment and when I went to meet the landlady to sign the contract, she said the apartment was no longer available,” said a man from West Africa who works with an international NGO in Delhi. His broker later told him the apartment was available, but the landlady hadn’t realized he was black until she met him.</p>
<p>One landlord shouted at the broker from the balcony for bringing “a black” the moment he got out of the car, and another rejected the man because he eats meat. One landlord began lecturing him about what was expected of him.</p>
<p>“He told me I shouldn’t bring women home, I shouldn’t drink alcohol and I shouldn’t host parties,” he said. “He lectured me like I was a kid and threatened to call the police directly if I violated any of his rules — that was very frustrating.”</p>
<p>Racist stereotypes fuel this discrimination against African nationals.</p>
<p>Such extreme discrimination has caused the formation of black and Afghan neighborhoods in Delhi, as the apartment options are limited.</p>
<p>“Only those who are poor and own old houses rent to these people, as their entire income is now dependent on rent,” said Bhardwaj.</p>
<p>Nimisha Jaiswal reported this story from Delhi.</p>
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<p />
<p>In his article of Jan. 19, professor Micha Gisser discusses some solid economic points about our economy that would mostly be true if we were still on a gold standard. Fortunately, since 1971 we have had a fiat currency with a floating exchange rate.</p>
<p>Consequently, we can always service our debt and have no chance of becoming another Greece, and the Fed, not the external market, establishes the interest rates on the Treasury securities that constitute our public debt (and net private savings).</p>
<p>Further, there is no reason to believe that a 100 percent debt-to-GDP ratio or more is a matter of great concern. There would be concern for a household, but not for a government that issues its own sovereign currency.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Fed might decide to raise interest rates in anticipation of inflation. But, inflation is a very distant threat when there is excess productive capacity, which we have with millions unemployed. The production lost from those unemployed resources is gone forever.</p>
<p>Gisser cites some past administrations to bolster the idea that tax decreases increase federal revenue. But, he doesn’t tell the whole story. Sometimes tax decreases work the other way.</p>
<p>Not mentioned by Gisser were the rapid rises in deficit after both the Reagan tax cut of 1981 and the Bush II tax cut of 2001. Not noticed by most critics of public debt is that private debt soared to 300 percent of GDP at the height of the crisis.</p>
<p>It was the private sector that couldn’t pay its bills.</p>
<p>The non-intuitive fact is that the economy cannot be managed effectively by looking at tax revenues and deficits. By simple accounting identity, high government deficits correspond to high private saving and net foreign imports.</p>
<p>The government has no control over the private sector’s desire to save or to import.</p>
<p>Consequently, the deficit is largely beyond government control. Better metrics would be unemployment, use of productive capacity and inflation.</p>
<p>Contrary to media and political hype, our large deficits are not due to profligate government spending but to high unemployment. Austerity, which passes for responsible fiscal policy, is actually irresponsible as it tends to increase unemployment.</p>
<p>A country that issues its own currency has both the ability and responsibility to spend counter-cyclically to economic cycles to maintain a healthy economy.</p>
|
High Debt Ratio Not a Big Deal
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/163264/high-debt-ratio-not-a-big-deal.html
|
2013-01-25
| 2least
|
High Debt Ratio Not a Big Deal
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>In his article of Jan. 19, professor Micha Gisser discusses some solid economic points about our economy that would mostly be true if we were still on a gold standard. Fortunately, since 1971 we have had a fiat currency with a floating exchange rate.</p>
<p>Consequently, we can always service our debt and have no chance of becoming another Greece, and the Fed, not the external market, establishes the interest rates on the Treasury securities that constitute our public debt (and net private savings).</p>
<p>Further, there is no reason to believe that a 100 percent debt-to-GDP ratio or more is a matter of great concern. There would be concern for a household, but not for a government that issues its own sovereign currency.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Fed might decide to raise interest rates in anticipation of inflation. But, inflation is a very distant threat when there is excess productive capacity, which we have with millions unemployed. The production lost from those unemployed resources is gone forever.</p>
<p>Gisser cites some past administrations to bolster the idea that tax decreases increase federal revenue. But, he doesn’t tell the whole story. Sometimes tax decreases work the other way.</p>
<p>Not mentioned by Gisser were the rapid rises in deficit after both the Reagan tax cut of 1981 and the Bush II tax cut of 2001. Not noticed by most critics of public debt is that private debt soared to 300 percent of GDP at the height of the crisis.</p>
<p>It was the private sector that couldn’t pay its bills.</p>
<p>The non-intuitive fact is that the economy cannot be managed effectively by looking at tax revenues and deficits. By simple accounting identity, high government deficits correspond to high private saving and net foreign imports.</p>
<p>The government has no control over the private sector’s desire to save or to import.</p>
<p>Consequently, the deficit is largely beyond government control. Better metrics would be unemployment, use of productive capacity and inflation.</p>
<p>Contrary to media and political hype, our large deficits are not due to profligate government spending but to high unemployment. Austerity, which passes for responsible fiscal policy, is actually irresponsible as it tends to increase unemployment.</p>
<p>A country that issues its own currency has both the ability and responsibility to spend counter-cyclically to economic cycles to maintain a healthy economy.</p>
| 4,771 |
<p>Men on motorbikes stormed a primary school in Nigeria today and opened fire on the teachers. Four teachers have been wounded. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but the Boko Haram group is the most likely suspect, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/12/us-nigeria-violence-islamists-idUSBRE92B0TF20130312?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=worldNews&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29" type="external">Reuters reported</a>. The group's nickname literally translates into "Western education is sinful" and has targeted schools before.&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/nigeria/130310/islamists-kill-7-foreign-hostages-nigeria" type="external">&#160;Islamists kill 7 foreign hostages in Nigeria</a></p>
<p>"They made the teachers lie down on the ground, then there were gunshot sounds and everyone scampered to safety," Hauwa Jinjiri, a trader working on the school premises who witnessed the attack, told Reuters.&#160;</p>
<p>"The gunmen shot and injured four teachers including the headmaster and fled but we have opened an investigation into the attack and have deployed policemen...for a manhunt," Kano state Police Commissioner Musa Daura <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g8ZjZfGvOsx4gEY0hYMR36RhLRIQ?docId=CNG.761408237903b3acfcebd888f022344e.21" type="external">told Agence France Presse</a>.</p>
<p>The attack comes just several days after <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/nigeria/130310/islamists-kill-7-foreign-hostages-nigeria" type="external">Islamists killed 7 foreign hostages in Nigeria</a>.&#160;</p>
|
Nigeria: Teachers wounded in primary school shooting
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2013-03-12/nigeria-teachers-wounded-primary-school-shooting
|
2013-03-12
| 3left-center
|
Nigeria: Teachers wounded in primary school shooting
<p>Men on motorbikes stormed a primary school in Nigeria today and opened fire on the teachers. Four teachers have been wounded. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but the Boko Haram group is the most likely suspect, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/12/us-nigeria-violence-islamists-idUSBRE92B0TF20130312?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=worldNews&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29" type="external">Reuters reported</a>. The group's nickname literally translates into "Western education is sinful" and has targeted schools before.&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/nigeria/130310/islamists-kill-7-foreign-hostages-nigeria" type="external">&#160;Islamists kill 7 foreign hostages in Nigeria</a></p>
<p>"They made the teachers lie down on the ground, then there were gunshot sounds and everyone scampered to safety," Hauwa Jinjiri, a trader working on the school premises who witnessed the attack, told Reuters.&#160;</p>
<p>"The gunmen shot and injured four teachers including the headmaster and fled but we have opened an investigation into the attack and have deployed policemen...for a manhunt," Kano state Police Commissioner Musa Daura <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g8ZjZfGvOsx4gEY0hYMR36RhLRIQ?docId=CNG.761408237903b3acfcebd888f022344e.21" type="external">told Agence France Presse</a>.</p>
<p>The attack comes just several days after <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/nigeria/130310/islamists-kill-7-foreign-hostages-nigeria" type="external">Islamists killed 7 foreign hostages in Nigeria</a>.&#160;</p>
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Man who sued Air Force&#160;to talk&#160;at&#160;UNM Law School today.</p>
<p>Albuquerque lawyer Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate and former Reagan White House attorney, will speak on "The Fight To Keep Church and State Separate" at 5:30 p.m. today at the University of New Mexico School of Law, room 2401. The talk is sponsored by Ecumenical Voices for Democracy and three chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.</p>
<p>Weinstein filed suit in U.S. District Court today claiming&#160; Air Force Academy senior officers and cadets have illegally imposed Christianity on others at the school. For details, go to The Associated Press <a href="../../../../news/apmikey01-06-05.htm" type="external">story</a> on the Web page.Weinstein, who has had two sons at the Air Force Academy, made national headlines this spring demanding a congressional investigation into what he called "a constitutional train wreck" at the academy.Weinstein alleged that academy leadership had failed to deal with what he said was systemic religious bigotry — principally by evangelical Christians — at the institution.Academy officials, Weinstein told Journal columnist Jim Belshaw last June, "continue to view (reports of discrimination) as a religious issue and it’s not … It’s a constitutional issue."The Air Force in May named a task force headed by Lt. Gen. Roger A. Brady, deputy chief of staff for personnel, to look into the "religious climate" at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.The task force reported in June that its investigation found "well-intended but wrong" expressions of faith by some instructors and senior officers, CNN reported in June."The root of this problem is not overt religious discrimination, but a failure to fully accommodate all members’ needs and a lack of awareness over where the line is drawn between permissible and impermissible expression of beliefs," CNN quoted the report’s conclusion.Weinstein told Belshaw in June that he was never interviewed by the task force but said someone from the task force did call to demand he stop criticizing them. Tonight’s talk is free and open to the public.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
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10:40am — AF Acad. Critic To Speak
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https://abqjournal.com/21767/1040am-af-acad-critic-to-speak.html
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10:40am — AF Acad. Critic To Speak
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Man who sued Air Force&#160;to talk&#160;at&#160;UNM Law School today.</p>
<p>Albuquerque lawyer Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force Academy graduate and former Reagan White House attorney, will speak on "The Fight To Keep Church and State Separate" at 5:30 p.m. today at the University of New Mexico School of Law, room 2401. The talk is sponsored by Ecumenical Voices for Democracy and three chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.</p>
<p>Weinstein filed suit in U.S. District Court today claiming&#160; Air Force Academy senior officers and cadets have illegally imposed Christianity on others at the school. For details, go to The Associated Press <a href="../../../../news/apmikey01-06-05.htm" type="external">story</a> on the Web page.Weinstein, who has had two sons at the Air Force Academy, made national headlines this spring demanding a congressional investigation into what he called "a constitutional train wreck" at the academy.Weinstein alleged that academy leadership had failed to deal with what he said was systemic religious bigotry — principally by evangelical Christians — at the institution.Academy officials, Weinstein told Journal columnist Jim Belshaw last June, "continue to view (reports of discrimination) as a religious issue and it’s not … It’s a constitutional issue."The Air Force in May named a task force headed by Lt. Gen. Roger A. Brady, deputy chief of staff for personnel, to look into the "religious climate" at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.The task force reported in June that its investigation found "well-intended but wrong" expressions of faith by some instructors and senior officers, CNN reported in June."The root of this problem is not overt religious discrimination, but a failure to fully accommodate all members’ needs and a lack of awareness over where the line is drawn between permissible and impermissible expression of beliefs," CNN quoted the report’s conclusion.Weinstein told Belshaw in June that he was never interviewed by the task force but said someone from the task force did call to demand he stop criticizing them. Tonight’s talk is free and open to the public.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
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<p>Shares of energy producers declined amid doubts about the sustainability of the recent oil rally.</p>
<p>Oil futures held near two-year highs in the wake of OPEC production data. Crude output by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries dropped by 0.46%, to 32.59 million barrels a day in October, compared with the month prior. The rebound in oil prices over recent months propelled the energy sector to the strongest growth rate of any of the 10 Standard &amp; Poor's 500 sectors in the third quarter.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"Energy earnings more than doubled year/year as the sector continued to stabilize on the back of a 13% year-to-date increase in Brent crude prices," said analysts at brokerage Goldman Sachs in a research note.</p>
<p>Rob Curran, [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 13, 2017 17:00 ET (22:00 GMT)</p>
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Energy Lower as Traders Doubt Oil Rally -- Energy Roundup
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/11/13/energy-lower-as-traders-doubt-oil-rally-energy-roundup.html
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2017-11-13
| 0right
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Energy Lower as Traders Doubt Oil Rally -- Energy Roundup
<p>Shares of energy producers declined amid doubts about the sustainability of the recent oil rally.</p>
<p>Oil futures held near two-year highs in the wake of OPEC production data. Crude output by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries dropped by 0.46%, to 32.59 million barrels a day in October, compared with the month prior. The rebound in oil prices over recent months propelled the energy sector to the strongest growth rate of any of the 10 Standard &amp; Poor's 500 sectors in the third quarter.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>"Energy earnings more than doubled year/year as the sector continued to stabilize on the back of a 13% year-to-date increase in Brent crude prices," said analysts at brokerage Goldman Sachs in a research note.</p>
<p>Rob Curran, [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>November 13, 2017 17:00 ET (22:00 GMT)</p>
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<p />
<p>The coffee chain says the mobile tipping option, which it announced more than a year ago, will be available on its updated app for iPhones starting March 19. The rollout comes as the company's app has surged in popularity, with roughly one out of every 10 purchases now made with a mobile device.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>After paying with the app, Starbucks says, customers will be able to leave a tip of 50 cents, $1 or $2 anytime within two hours of the transaction. The tipping option will only be available at 7,000 of the roughly 11,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. that are owned by the company.</p>
<p>The move puts a spotlight on what can be a sensitive topic for customers, workers and even Starbucks, which has faced lawsuits over how it divvies up the contents of tip jars among workers. Some customers are happy to tip for friendly service, knowing that baristas don't earn much. Others say that they already fork over enough money and shouldn't be made to feel like they should throw money into a tip jar as well.</p>
<p>Zee Lemke, who has worked as a Starbucks barista in Wisconsin for more than three years, said most customers nevertheless leave tips. She said tips generally add between $1.50 and $2 to her hourly pay of $9.05. But she noted that there's no rule on how much baristas can expect to earn from tips.</p>
<p>"It varies a lot from store to store, even in the same city," Lemke said. At the drive-thru location where she works, she said, tips go down when it's cold out and people are less likely to reach out and put money in the secured tip box that hangs off a ledge.</p>
<p>Lemke, 30, said mobile tipping has the potential to boost the amount she earns. Still, she doesn't like the idea of employers relying on tips to compensate workers.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>"It's a way of claiming workers make more than you're paying them," she said.</p>
<p>Starbucks, meanwhile, has been pushing to get people to sign up for its mobile app and rewards program, which helps boost the number of times people are likely to visit its stores. The Seattle-based company says the addition of the mobile tipping option is a response to demand from customers, many of whom no longer carry around much cash.</p>
<p>"We asked our customers what they thought would be easiest and best," Adam Brotman, chief digital officer for Starbucks, said in a phone interview. There are no plans to bring the mobile tipping option to stores licensed to other operators, however.</p>
<p>Exactly how Starbucks divides up the tip jars varies. Shannon Liss Riordan, an attorney who represented baristas in lawsuits saying shift supervisors shouldn't share in tips, said the cash is typically distributed on a weekly basis.</p>
<p>"They keep it in a safe and dole it out to employees - based on the number of hours worked," she said.</p>
<p>As for the tips earned through mobile payments, Starbucks said they'll be paid out to workers in cash in line with however they receive their regular tips.</p>
<p>""</p>
<p>Follow Candice Choi at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/candicechoi" type="external">www.twitter.com/candicechoi</a></p>
|
50 cents, $1 or $2? Starbucks adding digital tips
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/366879/50-cents-1-or-2-starbucks-adding-digital-tips.html
| 2least
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50 cents, $1 or $2? Starbucks adding digital tips
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The coffee chain says the mobile tipping option, which it announced more than a year ago, will be available on its updated app for iPhones starting March 19. The rollout comes as the company's app has surged in popularity, with roughly one out of every 10 purchases now made with a mobile device.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>After paying with the app, Starbucks says, customers will be able to leave a tip of 50 cents, $1 or $2 anytime within two hours of the transaction. The tipping option will only be available at 7,000 of the roughly 11,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. that are owned by the company.</p>
<p>The move puts a spotlight on what can be a sensitive topic for customers, workers and even Starbucks, which has faced lawsuits over how it divvies up the contents of tip jars among workers. Some customers are happy to tip for friendly service, knowing that baristas don't earn much. Others say that they already fork over enough money and shouldn't be made to feel like they should throw money into a tip jar as well.</p>
<p>Zee Lemke, who has worked as a Starbucks barista in Wisconsin for more than three years, said most customers nevertheless leave tips. She said tips generally add between $1.50 and $2 to her hourly pay of $9.05. But she noted that there's no rule on how much baristas can expect to earn from tips.</p>
<p>"It varies a lot from store to store, even in the same city," Lemke said. At the drive-thru location where she works, she said, tips go down when it's cold out and people are less likely to reach out and put money in the secured tip box that hangs off a ledge.</p>
<p>Lemke, 30, said mobile tipping has the potential to boost the amount she earns. Still, she doesn't like the idea of employers relying on tips to compensate workers.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>"It's a way of claiming workers make more than you're paying them," she said.</p>
<p>Starbucks, meanwhile, has been pushing to get people to sign up for its mobile app and rewards program, which helps boost the number of times people are likely to visit its stores. The Seattle-based company says the addition of the mobile tipping option is a response to demand from customers, many of whom no longer carry around much cash.</p>
<p>"We asked our customers what they thought would be easiest and best," Adam Brotman, chief digital officer for Starbucks, said in a phone interview. There are no plans to bring the mobile tipping option to stores licensed to other operators, however.</p>
<p>Exactly how Starbucks divides up the tip jars varies. Shannon Liss Riordan, an attorney who represented baristas in lawsuits saying shift supervisors shouldn't share in tips, said the cash is typically distributed on a weekly basis.</p>
<p>"They keep it in a safe and dole it out to employees - based on the number of hours worked," she said.</p>
<p>As for the tips earned through mobile payments, Starbucks said they'll be paid out to workers in cash in line with however they receive their regular tips.</p>
<p>""</p>
<p>Follow Candice Choi at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/candicechoi" type="external">www.twitter.com/candicechoi</a></p>
| 4,775 |
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<p>SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the "Pick Four-Midday" game were:</p>
<p>6-8-7-1, Fireball: 2</p>
<p>(six, eight, seven, one; Fireball: two)</p>
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the "Pick Four-Midday" game were:</p>
<p>6-8-7-1, Fireball: 2</p>
<p>(six, eight, seven, one; Fireball: two)</p>
|
Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick Four-Midday' game
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/61abcc134aa54f478265a885485cd29b
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2018-01-16
| 2least
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Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick Four-Midday' game
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the "Pick Four-Midday" game were:</p>
<p>6-8-7-1, Fireball: 2</p>
<p>(six, eight, seven, one; Fireball: two)</p>
<p>SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the "Pick Four-Midday" game were:</p>
<p>6-8-7-1, Fireball: 2</p>
<p>(six, eight, seven, one; Fireball: two)</p>
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<p>“This has to be your stupidest column yet,” reader Paul Correa opined recently, while Anthony Mainolfa wrote about the same column: “Your column almost brought tears to my eyes.”</p>
<p>Ah, diversity.</p>
<p>Because I was ill most of last week, I had extra time to read through many of the emails and letters – the good ones and the bad – that had piled up. And since I was ill most of last week, now is as good a time as any to share the old mailbag.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Sleep well: A Sept. 13 column on the death of 17-year-old Carlos Atencio of complications from and confusion over sleep apnea inspired donations that brought a fund to pay for funeral expenses to well over $1,200.</p>
<p>Some of you also shared your personal stories of living with the sleep disorder and sleeping with a continuous positive airway pressure machine, or CPAP, to keep the airwaves open and the oxygen flowing.</p>
<p>Mike Santullo said he was prompted to have a sleep study 15 years ago when friends noticed him nodding off repeatedly as they watched a movie. At one point, his breathing stopped for 40 seconds.</p>
<p>During the sleep study, he learned he was having no fewer than 90 breathing disruptions a night. He has worn his CPAP every night ever since.</p>
<p>“Don’t ignore these symptoms,” he wrote. “They can only get worse if you do. Please make an appointment. … The life you save might be your own.”</p>
<p>Happily ever after: Most of you who responded to an Aug. 30 column on the sudden evolution of same-sex marriage in parts of New Mexico were joyous over the ability of many happy couples to finally tie the knot legally.</p>
<p>Oh, there were a few of you who took me to task over my theology lesson on other “abominations” as listed in the Bible that appear to matter much less to those folks who are evangelically opposed to same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>“Why didn’t you quote Jesus when he was asked about marriage?” John Hyland objected. “Is polygamy OK? Father marrying daughter OK? Why not if there’s love?”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Careful traveling on that slippery slope, John. You never know where you might end up.</p>
<p>And for the record, I can quote Jesus: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”</p>
<p>That, I think, says it all.</p>
<p>The nicest response to that column came in a thank you card from Anthony Gonzales and Mark Johnson, the couple featured in a photo accompanying the column as they exchanged vows during a group wedding ceremony Aug. 27 at Civic Plaza.</p>
<p>“You captured our joy and that momentous day perfectly,” they wrote.</p>
<p>Actually, it was Journal photographer Jim Thompson who captured that beautiful moment on film. I provided the vehicle to get it in the paper and wrote about the folks who made that historical day happen.</p>
<p>Aw, shoot: Not surprisingly, I received a huge response to the Sept. 2 column in which I updated my love-hate-fear-loathing-appreciating affair with a gun.</p>
<p>As I explained, I bought a shiny Ruger pistol almost a year ago, and in that year I have fired it exactly … never.</p>
<p>I had second thoughts, I explained, troubled as I am by the continuous violence begotten at the end of the barrel.</p>
<p>Most of you were positively giddy at my seeming denunciation of firearms, though in fact I am more ambivalent than anti-gun.</p>
<p>“The calculus that applies here is remarkably simple: the more guns, the more gun deaths and injuries,” Joe and Linda Mullins wrote. “In our already gun-saturated state and nation, every additional easily available gun added to the mix increases the chances that someone will get shot.”</p>
<p>But others thought I had not given guns a fair, er, shot.</p>
<p>“Shoot the gun,” Ken Cogan advised. “Practicing will harm no one, and it’s actually quite fun. Doing so commits you to no horrible act in the future, but failure to be prepared very well could.”</p>
<p>Others thought I was too liberal, too scared or too silly to own a gun. I was not worthy to be a gun owner, some said. Better I should get an airsoft gun or bear Mace – anything but a butter knife under the pillow, unless I planned to keep crackers there as well.</p>
<p>Harrumph.</p>
<p>And then there were the kind souls who thought I might simply need more gun education to attain gun appreciation. Folks like David and Nena-Joy Zeuch offered to provide training or take me out to the range to show me the “fun side of the shooting sports, free from human-torso-shaped targets and discussions of stopping power and the mental preparation and training necessary to be ready to kill another human being in self-defense or defense of a loved one.”</p>
<p>Well, when you put it that way, how can I refuse?</p>
<p>Thanks for writing, folks. See you on the shooting range.</p>
<p>UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jolinegkg" type="external">@jolinegkg</a>. Go to <a href="" type="internal">www.ABQjournal.com</a>/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.</p>
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Good news, bad news: The readers write
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https://abqjournal.com/267629/good-news-bad-news-the-readers-write.html
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2013-09-23
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Good news, bad news: The readers write
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<p />
<p>“This has to be your stupidest column yet,” reader Paul Correa opined recently, while Anthony Mainolfa wrote about the same column: “Your column almost brought tears to my eyes.”</p>
<p>Ah, diversity.</p>
<p>Because I was ill most of last week, I had extra time to read through many of the emails and letters – the good ones and the bad – that had piled up. And since I was ill most of last week, now is as good a time as any to share the old mailbag.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Sleep well: A Sept. 13 column on the death of 17-year-old Carlos Atencio of complications from and confusion over sleep apnea inspired donations that brought a fund to pay for funeral expenses to well over $1,200.</p>
<p>Some of you also shared your personal stories of living with the sleep disorder and sleeping with a continuous positive airway pressure machine, or CPAP, to keep the airwaves open and the oxygen flowing.</p>
<p>Mike Santullo said he was prompted to have a sleep study 15 years ago when friends noticed him nodding off repeatedly as they watched a movie. At one point, his breathing stopped for 40 seconds.</p>
<p>During the sleep study, he learned he was having no fewer than 90 breathing disruptions a night. He has worn his CPAP every night ever since.</p>
<p>“Don’t ignore these symptoms,” he wrote. “They can only get worse if you do. Please make an appointment. … The life you save might be your own.”</p>
<p>Happily ever after: Most of you who responded to an Aug. 30 column on the sudden evolution of same-sex marriage in parts of New Mexico were joyous over the ability of many happy couples to finally tie the knot legally.</p>
<p>Oh, there were a few of you who took me to task over my theology lesson on other “abominations” as listed in the Bible that appear to matter much less to those folks who are evangelically opposed to same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>“Why didn’t you quote Jesus when he was asked about marriage?” John Hyland objected. “Is polygamy OK? Father marrying daughter OK? Why not if there’s love?”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Careful traveling on that slippery slope, John. You never know where you might end up.</p>
<p>And for the record, I can quote Jesus: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”</p>
<p>That, I think, says it all.</p>
<p>The nicest response to that column came in a thank you card from Anthony Gonzales and Mark Johnson, the couple featured in a photo accompanying the column as they exchanged vows during a group wedding ceremony Aug. 27 at Civic Plaza.</p>
<p>“You captured our joy and that momentous day perfectly,” they wrote.</p>
<p>Actually, it was Journal photographer Jim Thompson who captured that beautiful moment on film. I provided the vehicle to get it in the paper and wrote about the folks who made that historical day happen.</p>
<p>Aw, shoot: Not surprisingly, I received a huge response to the Sept. 2 column in which I updated my love-hate-fear-loathing-appreciating affair with a gun.</p>
<p>As I explained, I bought a shiny Ruger pistol almost a year ago, and in that year I have fired it exactly … never.</p>
<p>I had second thoughts, I explained, troubled as I am by the continuous violence begotten at the end of the barrel.</p>
<p>Most of you were positively giddy at my seeming denunciation of firearms, though in fact I am more ambivalent than anti-gun.</p>
<p>“The calculus that applies here is remarkably simple: the more guns, the more gun deaths and injuries,” Joe and Linda Mullins wrote. “In our already gun-saturated state and nation, every additional easily available gun added to the mix increases the chances that someone will get shot.”</p>
<p>But others thought I had not given guns a fair, er, shot.</p>
<p>“Shoot the gun,” Ken Cogan advised. “Practicing will harm no one, and it’s actually quite fun. Doing so commits you to no horrible act in the future, but failure to be prepared very well could.”</p>
<p>Others thought I was too liberal, too scared or too silly to own a gun. I was not worthy to be a gun owner, some said. Better I should get an airsoft gun or bear Mace – anything but a butter knife under the pillow, unless I planned to keep crackers there as well.</p>
<p>Harrumph.</p>
<p>And then there were the kind souls who thought I might simply need more gun education to attain gun appreciation. Folks like David and Nena-Joy Zeuch offered to provide training or take me out to the range to show me the “fun side of the shooting sports, free from human-torso-shaped targets and discussions of stopping power and the mental preparation and training necessary to be ready to kill another human being in self-defense or defense of a loved one.”</p>
<p>Well, when you put it that way, how can I refuse?</p>
<p>Thanks for writing, folks. See you on the shooting range.</p>
<p>UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a> or follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jolinegkg" type="external">@jolinegkg</a>. Go to <a href="" type="internal">www.ABQjournal.com</a>/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>Kirtland Air Force Base and the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce will hold a job fair on Wednesday (Aug. 4) at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>The job fair, which is free and open to the public, will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a news release from the base.</p>
<p>Thomas Berardinelli, 377th Air Base Wing executive director, said the fair “will provide information on a variety of job opportunities at Kirtland AFB and other federal agencies in the Albuquerque area as well as contractors who do business with Kirtland on a daily basis.”</p>
<p>The news release said that in addition to job information booths, personnel specialists will be available to provide instructions on navigating through <a href="http://www.usajobs.gov/" type="external">USAJOBS</a>, the official website for all federal government vacancies.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Classes on writing a résumé and on interview techniques also will be available throughout the day, according to the news release.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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Job Fair Will Be Held Wednesday in ABQ
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https://abqjournal.com/8658/job-fair-will-be-held-wednesday-in-abq.html
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Job Fair Will Be Held Wednesday in ABQ
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<p />
<p>Kirtland Air Force Base and the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce will hold a job fair on Wednesday (Aug. 4) at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>The job fair, which is free and open to the public, will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a news release from the base.</p>
<p>Thomas Berardinelli, 377th Air Base Wing executive director, said the fair “will provide information on a variety of job opportunities at Kirtland AFB and other federal agencies in the Albuquerque area as well as contractors who do business with Kirtland on a daily basis.”</p>
<p>The news release said that in addition to job information booths, personnel specialists will be available to provide instructions on navigating through <a href="http://www.usajobs.gov/" type="external">USAJOBS</a>, the official website for all federal government vacancies.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Classes on writing a résumé and on interview techniques also will be available throughout the day, according to the news release.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>Vandals defaced a statue of Francis Scott Key in Baltimore Tuesday night, scrawling "racist anthem" on the memorial's base and splashing it with red and black paint, <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-key-statue-painted-20170913-story.html" type="external">the Baltimore Sun</a> reports.</p>
<p>Authorities also say two stanzas of the third verse of Key's "Star Spangled Banner," the national anthem, were scrawled on the ground, in an apparent effort to explain why poor Francis was the latest target in a string of statue defacing incidents:</p>
<p>No refuge could save, Hireling or slave,</p>
<p>From terror of flight, Or gloom of grave.</p>
<p>Baltimore police say they're investigating, but they have no suspects.</p>
<p>Key's memorial is one of only a handful of statues left standing in Baltimore; last week, the city government ordered all statues honoring Confederate generals or Maryland's Confederate legacy removed. But apparently, taking those down wasn't enough for Baltimore's rampaging social justice warriors, who have moved the goalposts on what they consider to be "offensive" monuments.</p>
<p>Of course, its not like Key wasn't on their radar. Plenty of controversy has surrounded the national anthem since former 49ers second string quarterback, the now-unemployed Colin Kaepernick, began kneeling during the anthem during NFL games, in protest of both the nation's and the anthem's "racist history."</p>
<p>But, of course, Key isn't a figure from the Civil War, and he wrote the now-famous song while staring at a flag that had survived a vicious British attack on a Baltimore fortress during the War of 1812.</p>
<p>Some historians do point to the above stanzas as evidence that Key was, himself a "racist," but most scholars contend it's not clear whom Key is referring to when he says "hireling or slave." It could be a reference to American slaves, but <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/08/28/colin-kaepernick-is-righter-than-you-know-the-national-anthem-is-a-celebration-of-slavery/" type="external">more likely, it's a reference to British ones</a>; the British conscripted black slaves to fight with its Army during the War of 1812 with the promise of freedom if they helped the British win. One of two slave units was involved in the very battle Key witnessed.</p>
<p>Of course, Key was also a slaveholder, not uncommon of landowners at the time.</p>
<p>But that doesn't necessarily mean Key's statues have to come down. It just means that, as competent, functioning adults, we should be capable of understanding that our founding heroes weren't all good all the time, particularly by modern standards. We can't erase our history, but we can understand it in context.</p>
|
'Racist Anthem': Francis Scott Key Memorial Vandalized In Baltimore
| true |
https://dailywire.com/news/21017/racist-anthem-francis-scott-key-memorial-emily-zanotti
|
2017-09-13
| 0right
|
'Racist Anthem': Francis Scott Key Memorial Vandalized In Baltimore
<p>Vandals defaced a statue of Francis Scott Key in Baltimore Tuesday night, scrawling "racist anthem" on the memorial's base and splashing it with red and black paint, <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-key-statue-painted-20170913-story.html" type="external">the Baltimore Sun</a> reports.</p>
<p>Authorities also say two stanzas of the third verse of Key's "Star Spangled Banner," the national anthem, were scrawled on the ground, in an apparent effort to explain why poor Francis was the latest target in a string of statue defacing incidents:</p>
<p>No refuge could save, Hireling or slave,</p>
<p>From terror of flight, Or gloom of grave.</p>
<p>Baltimore police say they're investigating, but they have no suspects.</p>
<p>Key's memorial is one of only a handful of statues left standing in Baltimore; last week, the city government ordered all statues honoring Confederate generals or Maryland's Confederate legacy removed. But apparently, taking those down wasn't enough for Baltimore's rampaging social justice warriors, who have moved the goalposts on what they consider to be "offensive" monuments.</p>
<p>Of course, its not like Key wasn't on their radar. Plenty of controversy has surrounded the national anthem since former 49ers second string quarterback, the now-unemployed Colin Kaepernick, began kneeling during the anthem during NFL games, in protest of both the nation's and the anthem's "racist history."</p>
<p>But, of course, Key isn't a figure from the Civil War, and he wrote the now-famous song while staring at a flag that had survived a vicious British attack on a Baltimore fortress during the War of 1812.</p>
<p>Some historians do point to the above stanzas as evidence that Key was, himself a "racist," but most scholars contend it's not clear whom Key is referring to when he says "hireling or slave." It could be a reference to American slaves, but <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/08/28/colin-kaepernick-is-righter-than-you-know-the-national-anthem-is-a-celebration-of-slavery/" type="external">more likely, it's a reference to British ones</a>; the British conscripted black slaves to fight with its Army during the War of 1812 with the promise of freedom if they helped the British win. One of two slave units was involved in the very battle Key witnessed.</p>
<p>Of course, Key was also a slaveholder, not uncommon of landowners at the time.</p>
<p>But that doesn't necessarily mean Key's statues have to come down. It just means that, as competent, functioning adults, we should be capable of understanding that our founding heroes weren't all good all the time, particularly by modern standards. We can't erase our history, but we can understand it in context.</p>
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<p>"I advise everybody not to save: Spend your money. Most people save all their lives and leave it to somebody else. Money is to be enjoyed." -- Hedy Lamarr</p>
<p>Hedy Lamarr became famous as an actress, co-starring in hits with fellows such as Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, but she was&#160;also a respected inventor, having developed a radio guidance system for torpedoes, used in World War II. She doesn't appear to have the most money sense, though, if she didn't believe in saving. Most Americans will need to save throughout their working lives to enjoy their lives and especially their retirements.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>If you're getting close to retiring or are starting to think about it, here are some key things to know.</p>
<p>Although many of us count the months and years left until we retire, retirement won't be as much fun for some of us as we expected. A 2012 study&#160;from the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that more than 10% of retirees were completely dissatisfied with retirement, with only 49% finding their retirement "very satisfying."</p>
<p>You may be tired of working, but the routine of having a place to go and things to do every day may have been serving you very well. Don't be surprised if you miss your workplace and find yourself restless in retirement. Retirees and seniors watch&#160;more television than anyone else, but that can be isolating and dangerous for their health. It's important to stay active for your physical health, as that can&#160;keep your bones and heart strong. Being social has been shown to pay big dividends, too, such as keeping you mentally and physically healthier and possibly keeping dementia at bay. Online resources can help a lot. At Meetup.com, for example, you can find and join groups of people with shared interests, such as gardening, theater, hiking, or playing board games. Online dating sites, meanwhile, can serve older singles as well as young ones.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Don't assume that your retirement will last about 20 to 25 years, perhaps from age 65 to 85 or 90. More and more Americans are living well beyond that, sometimes even to 100 and beyond. Be sure to consider the possibility that your retirement might last for 35 years or more -- especially if you retire early. That's a long time. You'll not only need to keep yourself healthy and active as much as possible during that time, but you'll also need your money to be able to last a long time.</p>
<p>One reason to plan conservatively is that you don't know how much healthcare will cost you in retirement. According to Fidelity Investments, a 65-year-old couple retiring this year will spend, on average, about $260,000 out of pocket on healthcare in retirement. And that's just the average! Many people will spend much more, though many will also spend less. You can increase your odds of spending less by getting and staying as healthy as possible, exercising, and eating nutritious foods.</p>
<p>One way to ensure that you don't run out of money before you run out of breath is to buy a deferred fixed annuity, sometimes called longevity insurance. As opposed to an immediate fixed annuity, it doesn't start paying immediately. Instead, the insurer agrees to start paying at a future point, such as when you turn a certain age. For example, a 70-year-old man might spend $50,000 for an annuity that will start paying him about $1,600 per month for the rest of his life beginning at age 85.</p>
<p>You might also consider buying one or more <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/01/09/the-pros-and-cons-of-annuities.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">fixed immediate annuities Opens a New Window.</a>, to generate dependable income for the rest of your life. It's kind of like buying yourself a pension. (Variable or indexed annuities can be very problematic, but fixed annuities are simpler, typically with fewer restrictions and fees.) Check out the kind of fixed annuity income you might buy at recent interest rates:</p>
<p>If you don't seem to have enough saved to carry you through retirement, you can make your situation better by cutting back on your spending if you have to. A little Googling will turn up lots of suggestions, such as making extra money from part-time tutoring, relocating to a less expensive home or region, and seeking senior discounts -- which can not only give you a break going to the movies but might also reduce your property taxes. There are lots of ways to <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/06/25/12-ways-you-can-get-more-money-in-retirement.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">increase your income in retirement Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>It's true that as we approach and enter retirement, it's smart to think about shifting some assets from stocks to bonds or more stable securities. But that doesn't mean retirees can't keep a significant portion of their portfolio in the stock market, where it's likely to grow the fastest over many years. Remember that if you have 20 years of retirement ahead of you, a big chunk of your money that you won't need for at least 10 years might remain in stocks.</p>
<p>Be sure to enroll in Medicare on time -- in the month of your 65th birthday or the three months before or after it -- or you may face higher premiums for the rest of your life. Look beyond the "original" Medicare package of Part A and Part B coverage, which many people augment with Part D prescription coverage and Medigap supplemental coverage, and consider <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/01/15/should-you-get-a-medicare-advantage-plan.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Medicare Advantage plans Opens a New Window.</a>. Offered by private insurance companies and regulated by the federal government, they're required to offer at least as much coverage as original Medicare and they often offer more, such as dental, vision, and/or prescription coverage. They may cost you less out of pocket, too. Look into them and run the numbers.</p>
<p>You may be used to just paying taxes on income from your paycheck, but in retirement it's common to receive income from a variety of sources that receive different tax treatments. If you have savings in a regular, taxable brokerage account, for example, you'll face capital gains tax rates on any assets you sell. That's currently 15% for most people for long-term gains (and qualified dividends) and your ordinary income tax rate for short-term gains. Retirement savings accounts get different treatments, too. Money withdrawn from a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k) will be tax-free if you follow the rules. Money taken from a traditional IRA or 401(k) is treated as ordinary income. Even your Social Security income -- up to 85% of it -- can be taxed, if your income exceeds a specified level.</p>
<p>There are some special tax breaks for older folks. For example, those aged 65 or older can use a higher standard deduction than the rest of us. For 2017, the standard deduction is $6,350 for a single filer and $12,700 for those married and filing jointly. But someone who is 65 or older can add an extra&#160;$1,250 or $1,550, depending on whether you're married and/or blind. Your property taxes might be reduced, too, if you're past a certain age. Check with your local tax authorities.</p>
<p>Being deliberate and strategic about when you start collecting Social Security can really pay off. More people begin collecting benefits at 62, the earliest age at which they can do so, than at any other age, but the longer you can delay starting, the bigger your checks will be. It's not generally a huge mistake to start early, though, because while the checks will be smaller, there will be more of them. Starting to collect at 62 can help you be ready to retire sooner. Still, if you can delay and you think you may live an extra-long life, bigger checks can be handy.</p>
<p>If you're married, look into spousal strategies, as they can be extra powerful. For example, if you've earned a lot less over your working life than your spouse, your spouse's benefit checks are likely to be larger. The two of you might, if possible, start collecting your checks early while delaying collecting your spouse's checks, so that they can grow larger. Eventually, when one of you dies, the surviving spouse will get to collect the larger benefit checks.</p>
<p>Finally, understand that no matter how independent you've been for many decades, you'll probably eventually find yourself needing help in retirement. Brace yourself for that, because it can sometimes be hard. Know to expect it and perhaps practice asking for help now and then.</p>
<p>Don't leave your retirement to chance. A little thinking and planning now can make your future decades more successful. It can be smart to consult a financial advisor, too, for help strategizing about your overall retirement plans as well as your Social Security strategy.</p>
<p>The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after.&#160; <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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About to Retire? Read This First
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http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/11/about-to-retire-read-this-first.html
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2017-07-01
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About to Retire? Read This First
<p>"I advise everybody not to save: Spend your money. Most people save all their lives and leave it to somebody else. Money is to be enjoyed." -- Hedy Lamarr</p>
<p>Hedy Lamarr became famous as an actress, co-starring in hits with fellows such as Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, but she was&#160;also a respected inventor, having developed a radio guidance system for torpedoes, used in World War II. She doesn't appear to have the most money sense, though, if she didn't believe in saving. Most Americans will need to save throughout their working lives to enjoy their lives and especially their retirements.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>If you're getting close to retiring or are starting to think about it, here are some key things to know.</p>
<p>Although many of us count the months and years left until we retire, retirement won't be as much fun for some of us as we expected. A 2012 study&#160;from the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that more than 10% of retirees were completely dissatisfied with retirement, with only 49% finding their retirement "very satisfying."</p>
<p>You may be tired of working, but the routine of having a place to go and things to do every day may have been serving you very well. Don't be surprised if you miss your workplace and find yourself restless in retirement. Retirees and seniors watch&#160;more television than anyone else, but that can be isolating and dangerous for their health. It's important to stay active for your physical health, as that can&#160;keep your bones and heart strong. Being social has been shown to pay big dividends, too, such as keeping you mentally and physically healthier and possibly keeping dementia at bay. Online resources can help a lot. At Meetup.com, for example, you can find and join groups of people with shared interests, such as gardening, theater, hiking, or playing board games. Online dating sites, meanwhile, can serve older singles as well as young ones.</p>
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<p>Don't assume that your retirement will last about 20 to 25 years, perhaps from age 65 to 85 or 90. More and more Americans are living well beyond that, sometimes even to 100 and beyond. Be sure to consider the possibility that your retirement might last for 35 years or more -- especially if you retire early. That's a long time. You'll not only need to keep yourself healthy and active as much as possible during that time, but you'll also need your money to be able to last a long time.</p>
<p>One reason to plan conservatively is that you don't know how much healthcare will cost you in retirement. According to Fidelity Investments, a 65-year-old couple retiring this year will spend, on average, about $260,000 out of pocket on healthcare in retirement. And that's just the average! Many people will spend much more, though many will also spend less. You can increase your odds of spending less by getting and staying as healthy as possible, exercising, and eating nutritious foods.</p>
<p>One way to ensure that you don't run out of money before you run out of breath is to buy a deferred fixed annuity, sometimes called longevity insurance. As opposed to an immediate fixed annuity, it doesn't start paying immediately. Instead, the insurer agrees to start paying at a future point, such as when you turn a certain age. For example, a 70-year-old man might spend $50,000 for an annuity that will start paying him about $1,600 per month for the rest of his life beginning at age 85.</p>
<p>You might also consider buying one or more <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/01/09/the-pros-and-cons-of-annuities.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">fixed immediate annuities Opens a New Window.</a>, to generate dependable income for the rest of your life. It's kind of like buying yourself a pension. (Variable or indexed annuities can be very problematic, but fixed annuities are simpler, typically with fewer restrictions and fees.) Check out the kind of fixed annuity income you might buy at recent interest rates:</p>
<p>If you don't seem to have enough saved to carry you through retirement, you can make your situation better by cutting back on your spending if you have to. A little Googling will turn up lots of suggestions, such as making extra money from part-time tutoring, relocating to a less expensive home or region, and seeking senior discounts -- which can not only give you a break going to the movies but might also reduce your property taxes. There are lots of ways to <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/06/25/12-ways-you-can-get-more-money-in-retirement.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">increase your income in retirement Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>It's true that as we approach and enter retirement, it's smart to think about shifting some assets from stocks to bonds or more stable securities. But that doesn't mean retirees can't keep a significant portion of their portfolio in the stock market, where it's likely to grow the fastest over many years. Remember that if you have 20 years of retirement ahead of you, a big chunk of your money that you won't need for at least 10 years might remain in stocks.</p>
<p>Be sure to enroll in Medicare on time -- in the month of your 65th birthday or the three months before or after it -- or you may face higher premiums for the rest of your life. Look beyond the "original" Medicare package of Part A and Part B coverage, which many people augment with Part D prescription coverage and Medigap supplemental coverage, and consider <a href="https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/01/15/should-you-get-a-medicare-advantage-plan.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Medicare Advantage plans Opens a New Window.</a>. Offered by private insurance companies and regulated by the federal government, they're required to offer at least as much coverage as original Medicare and they often offer more, such as dental, vision, and/or prescription coverage. They may cost you less out of pocket, too. Look into them and run the numbers.</p>
<p>You may be used to just paying taxes on income from your paycheck, but in retirement it's common to receive income from a variety of sources that receive different tax treatments. If you have savings in a regular, taxable brokerage account, for example, you'll face capital gains tax rates on any assets you sell. That's currently 15% for most people for long-term gains (and qualified dividends) and your ordinary income tax rate for short-term gains. Retirement savings accounts get different treatments, too. Money withdrawn from a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k) will be tax-free if you follow the rules. Money taken from a traditional IRA or 401(k) is treated as ordinary income. Even your Social Security income -- up to 85% of it -- can be taxed, if your income exceeds a specified level.</p>
<p>There are some special tax breaks for older folks. For example, those aged 65 or older can use a higher standard deduction than the rest of us. For 2017, the standard deduction is $6,350 for a single filer and $12,700 for those married and filing jointly. But someone who is 65 or older can add an extra&#160;$1,250 or $1,550, depending on whether you're married and/or blind. Your property taxes might be reduced, too, if you're past a certain age. Check with your local tax authorities.</p>
<p>Being deliberate and strategic about when you start collecting Social Security can really pay off. More people begin collecting benefits at 62, the earliest age at which they can do so, than at any other age, but the longer you can delay starting, the bigger your checks will be. It's not generally a huge mistake to start early, though, because while the checks will be smaller, there will be more of them. Starting to collect at 62 can help you be ready to retire sooner. Still, if you can delay and you think you may live an extra-long life, bigger checks can be handy.</p>
<p>If you're married, look into spousal strategies, as they can be extra powerful. For example, if you've earned a lot less over your working life than your spouse, your spouse's benefit checks are likely to be larger. The two of you might, if possible, start collecting your checks early while delaying collecting your spouse's checks, so that they can grow larger. Eventually, when one of you dies, the surviving spouse will get to collect the larger benefit checks.</p>
<p>Finally, understand that no matter how independent you've been for many decades, you'll probably eventually find yourself needing help in retirement. Brace yourself for that, because it can sometimes be hard. Know to expect it and perhaps practice asking for help now and then.</p>
<p>Don't leave your retirement to chance. A little thinking and planning now can make your future decades more successful. It can be smart to consult a financial advisor, too, for help strategizing about your overall retirement plans as well as your Social Security strategy.</p>
<p>The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after.&#160; <a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/ecap-foolcom-social-security?aid=8727&amp;source=irreditxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=ryr-ss-intro-report&amp;ftm_pit=3186&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=7fe3de0a-59d5-11e7-a1c4-0050569d4be0&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>BEIJING (AP) — Manufacturing in China grew at a slightly slower pace in December than the previous month, a Chinese government survey showed Sunday, following government controls on bank lending.</p>
<p>The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the country’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 51.6 from 51.8 in November.</p>
<p>The index is based on a 100-point index on which the 50 mark divides expansion from contraction.</p>
<p>The survey found production and new orders were only slightly lower than in November but at 54 and 53.4 showed steady growth.</p>
<p>Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician with the National Bureau of Statistics, said the data showed a continued improvement in the economic environment at home and abroad.</p>
<p>The PMI is a widely watched indicator of essential parts of China’s economy, which expanded at a still-robust 6.8 percent annual pace in the third quarter.</p>
<p>The latest economic growth rate is a tick lower than the 6.9 percent growth in the previous three-month period.</p>
<p>Chinese economic growth has been unexpectedly strong this year, but economists forecast activity will weaken as Beijing tightens up on bank lending to clamp down on rising debt that analyst say is the biggest threat to the country’s economic stability.</p>
<p>Since then, regulators have tightened controls over asset management companies and reined in the growth of a micro-lending industry. That triggered a fall in Chinese stocks.</p>
<p>Analysts also expect that manufacturing growth will also be affected in the coming months by restrictions on factory production in some areas and especially in heavy industries to reduce pollution.</p>
<p>BEIJING (AP) — Manufacturing in China grew at a slightly slower pace in December than the previous month, a Chinese government survey showed Sunday, following government controls on bank lending.</p>
<p>The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the country’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 51.6 from 51.8 in November.</p>
<p>The index is based on a 100-point index on which the 50 mark divides expansion from contraction.</p>
<p>The survey found production and new orders were only slightly lower than in November but at 54 and 53.4 showed steady growth.</p>
<p>Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician with the National Bureau of Statistics, said the data showed a continued improvement in the economic environment at home and abroad.</p>
<p>The PMI is a widely watched indicator of essential parts of China’s economy, which expanded at a still-robust 6.8 percent annual pace in the third quarter.</p>
<p>The latest economic growth rate is a tick lower than the 6.9 percent growth in the previous three-month period.</p>
<p>Chinese economic growth has been unexpectedly strong this year, but economists forecast activity will weaken as Beijing tightens up on bank lending to clamp down on rising debt that analyst say is the biggest threat to the country’s economic stability.</p>
<p>Since then, regulators have tightened controls over asset management companies and reined in the growth of a micro-lending industry. That triggered a fall in Chinese stocks.</p>
<p>Analysts also expect that manufacturing growth will also be affected in the coming months by restrictions on factory production in some areas and especially in heavy industries to reduce pollution.</p>
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Chinese manufacturing growth slows slightly in December
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https://apnews.com/4934a4c2f609429fb0cc6e9ee200084a
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2017-12-31
| 2least
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Chinese manufacturing growth slows slightly in December
<p>BEIJING (AP) — Manufacturing in China grew at a slightly slower pace in December than the previous month, a Chinese government survey showed Sunday, following government controls on bank lending.</p>
<p>The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the country’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 51.6 from 51.8 in November.</p>
<p>The index is based on a 100-point index on which the 50 mark divides expansion from contraction.</p>
<p>The survey found production and new orders were only slightly lower than in November but at 54 and 53.4 showed steady growth.</p>
<p>Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician with the National Bureau of Statistics, said the data showed a continued improvement in the economic environment at home and abroad.</p>
<p>The PMI is a widely watched indicator of essential parts of China’s economy, which expanded at a still-robust 6.8 percent annual pace in the third quarter.</p>
<p>The latest economic growth rate is a tick lower than the 6.9 percent growth in the previous three-month period.</p>
<p>Chinese economic growth has been unexpectedly strong this year, but economists forecast activity will weaken as Beijing tightens up on bank lending to clamp down on rising debt that analyst say is the biggest threat to the country’s economic stability.</p>
<p>Since then, regulators have tightened controls over asset management companies and reined in the growth of a micro-lending industry. That triggered a fall in Chinese stocks.</p>
<p>Analysts also expect that manufacturing growth will also be affected in the coming months by restrictions on factory production in some areas and especially in heavy industries to reduce pollution.</p>
<p>BEIJING (AP) — Manufacturing in China grew at a slightly slower pace in December than the previous month, a Chinese government survey showed Sunday, following government controls on bank lending.</p>
<p>The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the country’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 51.6 from 51.8 in November.</p>
<p>The index is based on a 100-point index on which the 50 mark divides expansion from contraction.</p>
<p>The survey found production and new orders were only slightly lower than in November but at 54 and 53.4 showed steady growth.</p>
<p>Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician with the National Bureau of Statistics, said the data showed a continued improvement in the economic environment at home and abroad.</p>
<p>The PMI is a widely watched indicator of essential parts of China’s economy, which expanded at a still-robust 6.8 percent annual pace in the third quarter.</p>
<p>The latest economic growth rate is a tick lower than the 6.9 percent growth in the previous three-month period.</p>
<p>Chinese economic growth has been unexpectedly strong this year, but economists forecast activity will weaken as Beijing tightens up on bank lending to clamp down on rising debt that analyst say is the biggest threat to the country’s economic stability.</p>
<p>Since then, regulators have tightened controls over asset management companies and reined in the growth of a micro-lending industry. That triggered a fall in Chinese stocks.</p>
<p>Analysts also expect that manufacturing growth will also be affected in the coming months by restrictions on factory production in some areas and especially in heavy industries to reduce pollution.</p>
| 4,781 |
<p>CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio businessman who has lived in the United States for 38 years and had been granted a temporary stay of deportation to his native Jordan was taken into custody Tuesday by federal immigration officials.</p>
<p>Youngstown businessman Amer Othman was arrested at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in in suburban Cleveland, said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, who attended the check-in. Ryan, a Democrat, called the government’s action “a shameful failure of justice.”</p>
<p>ICE said Othman’s immigration case has undergone exhaustive judicial review at multiple levels of the nation’s courts over the past decade and the courts have held he does not have a legal basis to remain in this country.</p>
<p>“Mr. Othman will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States,” ICE said in a statement.</p>
<p>Othman was to be deported Jan. 7 but received a temporary stay a few weeks ago while his case was re-examined.</p>
<p>Ryan said Othman has no criminal record and poses zero flight risk and treating him “like an animal” flies in the face of the values ICE “is supposedly defending.”</p>
<p>“The Trump administration didn’t even give Amer an opportunity to say goodbye to his wife and four daughters,” Ryan said.</p>
<p>Othman opened a deli in Youngstown in 2011 and a hookah bar in 2015. Youngstown Mayor Jamael “Tito” Brown, a Democrat, has called Othman a “pioneer for the downtown renaissance” and said his deportation would be a loss for their city.</p>
<p>Othman, who’s known as Al Adi, has said he believes he still belongs in the U.S.</p>
<p>His attorney, David Leopold, said taking him into custody was “a mean-spirited, nasty decision” made “for no other reason than to humiliate” him, The Vindicator newspaper reported.</p>
<p>Othman, 57, came to the U.S. when he was 19 and obtained his green card through his first wife. His application for a second green card was denied in the 1990s, when officials claimed his first marriage was fraudulent.</p>
<p>However, a court affidavit shows his ex-wife said she signed the original statement claiming a fraudulent marriage under duress when Immigration and Naturalization Service officials went to her home.</p>
<p>Ryan and others have worked to try to help Othman remain in the United States. The congressman said he will continue to work with his colleagues and the Department of Homeland Security.</p>
<p>“This fight,” Ryan said, “is not over.”</p>
<p>CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio businessman who has lived in the United States for 38 years and had been granted a temporary stay of deportation to his native Jordan was taken into custody Tuesday by federal immigration officials.</p>
<p>Youngstown businessman Amer Othman was arrested at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in in suburban Cleveland, said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, who attended the check-in. Ryan, a Democrat, called the government’s action “a shameful failure of justice.”</p>
<p>ICE said Othman’s immigration case has undergone exhaustive judicial review at multiple levels of the nation’s courts over the past decade and the courts have held he does not have a legal basis to remain in this country.</p>
<p>“Mr. Othman will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States,” ICE said in a statement.</p>
<p>Othman was to be deported Jan. 7 but received a temporary stay a few weeks ago while his case was re-examined.</p>
<p>Ryan said Othman has no criminal record and poses zero flight risk and treating him “like an animal” flies in the face of the values ICE “is supposedly defending.”</p>
<p>“The Trump administration didn’t even give Amer an opportunity to say goodbye to his wife and four daughters,” Ryan said.</p>
<p>Othman opened a deli in Youngstown in 2011 and a hookah bar in 2015. Youngstown Mayor Jamael “Tito” Brown, a Democrat, has called Othman a “pioneer for the downtown renaissance” and said his deportation would be a loss for their city.</p>
<p>Othman, who’s known as Al Adi, has said he believes he still belongs in the U.S.</p>
<p>His attorney, David Leopold, said taking him into custody was “a mean-spirited, nasty decision” made “for no other reason than to humiliate” him, The Vindicator newspaper reported.</p>
<p>Othman, 57, came to the U.S. when he was 19 and obtained his green card through his first wife. His application for a second green card was denied in the 1990s, when officials claimed his first marriage was fraudulent.</p>
<p>However, a court affidavit shows his ex-wife said she signed the original statement claiming a fraudulent marriage under duress when Immigration and Naturalization Service officials went to her home.</p>
<p>Ryan and others have worked to try to help Othman remain in the United States. The congressman said he will continue to work with his colleagues and the Department of Homeland Security.</p>
<p>“This fight,” Ryan said, “is not over.”</p>
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Ohio businessman given deportation stay taken into custody
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https://apnews.com/2084dccfda9b49c392361b1e772dbf8b
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2018-01-17
| 2least
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Ohio businessman given deportation stay taken into custody
<p>CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio businessman who has lived in the United States for 38 years and had been granted a temporary stay of deportation to his native Jordan was taken into custody Tuesday by federal immigration officials.</p>
<p>Youngstown businessman Amer Othman was arrested at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in in suburban Cleveland, said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, who attended the check-in. Ryan, a Democrat, called the government’s action “a shameful failure of justice.”</p>
<p>ICE said Othman’s immigration case has undergone exhaustive judicial review at multiple levels of the nation’s courts over the past decade and the courts have held he does not have a legal basis to remain in this country.</p>
<p>“Mr. Othman will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States,” ICE said in a statement.</p>
<p>Othman was to be deported Jan. 7 but received a temporary stay a few weeks ago while his case was re-examined.</p>
<p>Ryan said Othman has no criminal record and poses zero flight risk and treating him “like an animal” flies in the face of the values ICE “is supposedly defending.”</p>
<p>“The Trump administration didn’t even give Amer an opportunity to say goodbye to his wife and four daughters,” Ryan said.</p>
<p>Othman opened a deli in Youngstown in 2011 and a hookah bar in 2015. Youngstown Mayor Jamael “Tito” Brown, a Democrat, has called Othman a “pioneer for the downtown renaissance” and said his deportation would be a loss for their city.</p>
<p>Othman, who’s known as Al Adi, has said he believes he still belongs in the U.S.</p>
<p>His attorney, David Leopold, said taking him into custody was “a mean-spirited, nasty decision” made “for no other reason than to humiliate” him, The Vindicator newspaper reported.</p>
<p>Othman, 57, came to the U.S. when he was 19 and obtained his green card through his first wife. His application for a second green card was denied in the 1990s, when officials claimed his first marriage was fraudulent.</p>
<p>However, a court affidavit shows his ex-wife said she signed the original statement claiming a fraudulent marriage under duress when Immigration and Naturalization Service officials went to her home.</p>
<p>Ryan and others have worked to try to help Othman remain in the United States. The congressman said he will continue to work with his colleagues and the Department of Homeland Security.</p>
<p>“This fight,” Ryan said, “is not over.”</p>
<p>CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio businessman who has lived in the United States for 38 years and had been granted a temporary stay of deportation to his native Jordan was taken into custody Tuesday by federal immigration officials.</p>
<p>Youngstown businessman Amer Othman was arrested at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in in suburban Cleveland, said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, who attended the check-in. Ryan, a Democrat, called the government’s action “a shameful failure of justice.”</p>
<p>ICE said Othman’s immigration case has undergone exhaustive judicial review at multiple levels of the nation’s courts over the past decade and the courts have held he does not have a legal basis to remain in this country.</p>
<p>“Mr. Othman will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States,” ICE said in a statement.</p>
<p>Othman was to be deported Jan. 7 but received a temporary stay a few weeks ago while his case was re-examined.</p>
<p>Ryan said Othman has no criminal record and poses zero flight risk and treating him “like an animal” flies in the face of the values ICE “is supposedly defending.”</p>
<p>“The Trump administration didn’t even give Amer an opportunity to say goodbye to his wife and four daughters,” Ryan said.</p>
<p>Othman opened a deli in Youngstown in 2011 and a hookah bar in 2015. Youngstown Mayor Jamael “Tito” Brown, a Democrat, has called Othman a “pioneer for the downtown renaissance” and said his deportation would be a loss for their city.</p>
<p>Othman, who’s known as Al Adi, has said he believes he still belongs in the U.S.</p>
<p>His attorney, David Leopold, said taking him into custody was “a mean-spirited, nasty decision” made “for no other reason than to humiliate” him, The Vindicator newspaper reported.</p>
<p>Othman, 57, came to the U.S. when he was 19 and obtained his green card through his first wife. His application for a second green card was denied in the 1990s, when officials claimed his first marriage was fraudulent.</p>
<p>However, a court affidavit shows his ex-wife said she signed the original statement claiming a fraudulent marriage under duress when Immigration and Naturalization Service officials went to her home.</p>
<p>Ryan and others have worked to try to help Othman remain in the United States. The congressman said he will continue to work with his colleagues and the Department of Homeland Security.</p>
<p>“This fight,” Ryan said, “is not over.”</p>
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<p>Between 20 and 30 residents participated during Tuesday’s strategic planning meeting, held at Loma Colorado Main Library. The evening event was created by the city and hosted by Patrick Ibarra of the Mejorando Group. Residents at the event responded to three questions: what do you most enjoy about Rio Rancho, what are Rio Rancho’s biggest challenges, and what do residents want from the city’s strategic plan. All responses were written on a large notepad by Ibarra, before being placed alongside the walls of the conference room.</p>
<p>Ibarra said the public event was like a tool for city elected officials to narrow in on what constituents want, comparing officials to cooks creating a recipe book.</p>
<p>“The strategic plan will help clarify what that recipe is,” he said. “They’re going into the kitchen of their community and trying to figure out what it is that people want to eat?”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>On the long list of things residents enjoyed about the city were: the city’s school system, nearby hospitals and health care, the area’s low crime rate and residential housing values.</p>
<p>“I feel our community is good for raising families,” Aaron Fleming said, praising the city’s schools and Parks and Recreation department.</p>
<p>Tom Carter said he moved from Chicago to Rio Rancho more than 30 years ago for the area’s climate and clean air, saying the city’s thin air helped his son’s asthma. Carter, a school bus attendant, said he was concerned about the school district’s lack of state funds.</p>
<p>“School funding is a real big problem right now,” Carter said. “The budget for transportation is inadequate and I don’t know what they’re doing in Santa Fe about it because we’re $800,000 short and that $800,000 has to come out of the school budget rather than transportation (budget).”</p>
<p>Fixing the city’s road conditions was near the top of the residents list of city challenges, with paving residential dirt roads considered as a priority.</p>
<p>Several residents said the city should continue to grow its economy and offer residents more job opportunities. To do so, Ibarra said, residents should consider how Rio Rancho could attract more businesses to the area.</p>
<p>“I’ve worked in cities in every time zone of the United States and we were all ‘centrally located,’ that’s what we said. We all had great schools, we all had great parks, we all had wonderful festivals – in other words, we were like everybody else,” Ibarra said. “How do you make yourself as a community distinctive to be a place to invest, both residentially and economically?”</p>
<p>City residents who could not attend the event can still comment on the city’s planning online at <a href="http://rrnm.gov/2017sp" type="external">rrnm.gov/2017sp</a>. Online questions include: what are Rio Rancho’s biggest challenges; what are the city’s greatest strengths; what city services would residents like to see more of; what issues are important to the city’s future; and what’s the city’s potential in the next five years.</p>
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Residents discuss roads, schools at strategic plan meeting
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https://abqjournal.com/966893/residents-discuss-roads-schools-at-strategic-plan-meeting.html
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2017-03-11
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Residents discuss roads, schools at strategic plan meeting
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<p />
<p>Between 20 and 30 residents participated during Tuesday’s strategic planning meeting, held at Loma Colorado Main Library. The evening event was created by the city and hosted by Patrick Ibarra of the Mejorando Group. Residents at the event responded to three questions: what do you most enjoy about Rio Rancho, what are Rio Rancho’s biggest challenges, and what do residents want from the city’s strategic plan. All responses were written on a large notepad by Ibarra, before being placed alongside the walls of the conference room.</p>
<p>Ibarra said the public event was like a tool for city elected officials to narrow in on what constituents want, comparing officials to cooks creating a recipe book.</p>
<p>“The strategic plan will help clarify what that recipe is,” he said. “They’re going into the kitchen of their community and trying to figure out what it is that people want to eat?”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>On the long list of things residents enjoyed about the city were: the city’s school system, nearby hospitals and health care, the area’s low crime rate and residential housing values.</p>
<p>“I feel our community is good for raising families,” Aaron Fleming said, praising the city’s schools and Parks and Recreation department.</p>
<p>Tom Carter said he moved from Chicago to Rio Rancho more than 30 years ago for the area’s climate and clean air, saying the city’s thin air helped his son’s asthma. Carter, a school bus attendant, said he was concerned about the school district’s lack of state funds.</p>
<p>“School funding is a real big problem right now,” Carter said. “The budget for transportation is inadequate and I don’t know what they’re doing in Santa Fe about it because we’re $800,000 short and that $800,000 has to come out of the school budget rather than transportation (budget).”</p>
<p>Fixing the city’s road conditions was near the top of the residents list of city challenges, with paving residential dirt roads considered as a priority.</p>
<p>Several residents said the city should continue to grow its economy and offer residents more job opportunities. To do so, Ibarra said, residents should consider how Rio Rancho could attract more businesses to the area.</p>
<p>“I’ve worked in cities in every time zone of the United States and we were all ‘centrally located,’ that’s what we said. We all had great schools, we all had great parks, we all had wonderful festivals – in other words, we were like everybody else,” Ibarra said. “How do you make yourself as a community distinctive to be a place to invest, both residentially and economically?”</p>
<p>City residents who could not attend the event can still comment on the city’s planning online at <a href="http://rrnm.gov/2017sp" type="external">rrnm.gov/2017sp</a>. Online questions include: what are Rio Rancho’s biggest challenges; what are the city’s greatest strengths; what city services would residents like to see more of; what issues are important to the city’s future; and what’s the city’s potential in the next five years.</p>
<p />
| 4,783 |
<p>ZUMA</p>
<p />
<p>This is how it was supposed to be for Mitt Romney.</p>
<p>The first presidential debate, on Wednesday night in Denver, demonstrated that it is difficult to defend progress regarding a sluggish economy and far easier to decry the status quo and promise to do better than the guy in charge. Romney repeatedly described President Obama’s actions as failures because the economy remains troubled and claimed he would be the white knight that rides to the rescue. He displayed conviction and passion as he did so, tossing out purported facts and repeatedly referring to Americans he or Ann have met who have shared tales of hardship.</p>
<p>His case against Obama was simply stated: “It’s not working: 23 million out of work, 1 out of 6 in poverty…The path we are taking is not working. It is time for a new path.” Since he entered the race, Romney has wanted this attack to be the organizing principle of the election. But other things got in the way: his lousy campaign skills, his record at Bain Capital, his personal finances (and refusal to release years of his tax returns), his never-ending flubs. Yet once Romney was on the stage with Obama and the topic was the economy, he finally had the chance to spotlight this argument.</p>
<p>Romney looked delighted to be at the debate, assertively accusing Obama of underperformance. Obama came across as more tentative. He certainly had the harder argument to make: saying the economy is moving in the right direction when that movement is not fast enough for millions. But even Obama’s assaults on Romney’s archly conservative policies lacked focus and vigor.</p>
<p>The usual talking points were hurled back and forth. Yet Romney appeared better able to turn his into more specific attacks on Obama, particularly because the president was in a awkward position: How do you defend yourself from the charge that you should have done more? Obama pointed to accomplishments and positive developments in the economy, tax cuts for the middle class, his successful rescue of the auto industry. But that didn’t fully answer Romney’s bottom-line accusation.</p>
<p>The president was also placed at a disadvantage when Romney adopted what might be called the Monty Python defense. Obama repeatedly accused the former Massachusetts governor of proposing a $5 trillion tax cut that would likely increase the deficit, force massive cuts in government spending on education, health care, research, environmental programs, and the like, and lead to higher tax bills for the middle class. In response, Romney essentially said, “It does not.”</p>
<p>Obama referred to studies that supported this conclusion. Romney said that there are other studies that say it does not. When Obama insisted he was accurately describing Romney’s plan, Romney said, no you’re not, and claimed that he would not pass any tax plan that added more to the deficit. Obama said that there was no way Romney could lower tax rates and remain revenue neutral without removing deductions that would hike the tax bill for middle-income families. Nope, Romney said, not so: “I will not add to the deficit with my tax plan.”</p>
<p>Romney was throwing his tax proposal under the bus. But Obama didn’t appear to have a good response to this reality-defying tactic. He wasn’t able to nail Romney squarely for his long-running evasions regarding the deductions he would eliminate to make up for the revenue lost due to lowered tax rates. Romney seemed to be engaged in magical thinking concerning his economic plan—and perhaps discerning viewers picked up on this—but Obama couldn’t quite rattle him.</p>
<p>This was the overall dynamic of the night. Romney stuck to his overall point—Obama has failed to fully resurrect the economy—and he bobbed and weaved in response to Obama’s assault on his assorted positions. When the president asserted that Romney’s budget plan would lead to large cuts in education, Medicaid, and other programs—as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&amp;id=3658" type="external">has found</a>—Romney merely denied it. On Medicare, Romney stuck with his campaign’s <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/aug/29/paul-ryan/paul-ryan-said-president-obama-funneled-716-billio/" type="external">false charge</a>and partially neutralized Obama’s assault on the Romney-Ryan plan that would weaken (and perhaps end) the Medicare guarantee. Romney also fibbed his way through the discussion of Obamacare, especially concerning preexisting conditions. Still, Obama did not score obvious points on that front.</p>
<p>Throughout the campaign, Obama has tried to depict the election as a choice between two visions of how the nation should move forward. At the start of the debate, he pitted his “economic patriotism”—in which the country together invests in education, innovation, and infrastructure to ensure a solid economy in the years ahead—against what he called Romney’s “top-down” economic policies that are premised on the belief that if taxes are cut for the rich and regulations are lifted on corporations, the economy will rev up. But he never seemed to place Romney on the defensive on this mega-theme. On other occasions, Obama has presented this case much more effectively.</p>
<p>Turning Obama’s choice message on its head, Romney basically agreed, Yes, there are two choices: what you got now, or what I’ll give you. And promises are easier to sell than actualities—particularly when they are not bound by facts.</p>
<p>At the start of the campaign, the conventional wisdom was that Obama could have a difficult time winning reelection, given the lousy economy and polls indicating widespread public unease. Yet Romney’s liabilities ensured a competitive race. This first debate showed how challenging the fundamental dynamics are for Obama.</p>
<p>With the president failing to bring his A-game to Denver—and neither he nor moderator Jim Lehrer referred to Romney’s <a href="" type="internal">47 percent rant</a>—Romney took full advantage of the occasion. But given there are so few undecided voters at this point, Romney’s strong performance in a debate that didn’t generate much news or memorable exchanges may not move the needle much. (How many undecideds watched this wonkish debate?) But now that the pundits are once happily declaring, “We have a horse race again,” the Obama crew will have to make sure the president sharpens his case. In a way, he’s always had the tougher sell. This first debate was a painful reminder of that.</p>
<p />
|
“We Have a Horse Race Again”
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/romney-obama-debate-october-3/
|
2012-10-03
| 4left
|
“We Have a Horse Race Again”
<p>ZUMA</p>
<p />
<p>This is how it was supposed to be for Mitt Romney.</p>
<p>The first presidential debate, on Wednesday night in Denver, demonstrated that it is difficult to defend progress regarding a sluggish economy and far easier to decry the status quo and promise to do better than the guy in charge. Romney repeatedly described President Obama’s actions as failures because the economy remains troubled and claimed he would be the white knight that rides to the rescue. He displayed conviction and passion as he did so, tossing out purported facts and repeatedly referring to Americans he or Ann have met who have shared tales of hardship.</p>
<p>His case against Obama was simply stated: “It’s not working: 23 million out of work, 1 out of 6 in poverty…The path we are taking is not working. It is time for a new path.” Since he entered the race, Romney has wanted this attack to be the organizing principle of the election. But other things got in the way: his lousy campaign skills, his record at Bain Capital, his personal finances (and refusal to release years of his tax returns), his never-ending flubs. Yet once Romney was on the stage with Obama and the topic was the economy, he finally had the chance to spotlight this argument.</p>
<p>Romney looked delighted to be at the debate, assertively accusing Obama of underperformance. Obama came across as more tentative. He certainly had the harder argument to make: saying the economy is moving in the right direction when that movement is not fast enough for millions. But even Obama’s assaults on Romney’s archly conservative policies lacked focus and vigor.</p>
<p>The usual talking points were hurled back and forth. Yet Romney appeared better able to turn his into more specific attacks on Obama, particularly because the president was in a awkward position: How do you defend yourself from the charge that you should have done more? Obama pointed to accomplishments and positive developments in the economy, tax cuts for the middle class, his successful rescue of the auto industry. But that didn’t fully answer Romney’s bottom-line accusation.</p>
<p>The president was also placed at a disadvantage when Romney adopted what might be called the Monty Python defense. Obama repeatedly accused the former Massachusetts governor of proposing a $5 trillion tax cut that would likely increase the deficit, force massive cuts in government spending on education, health care, research, environmental programs, and the like, and lead to higher tax bills for the middle class. In response, Romney essentially said, “It does not.”</p>
<p>Obama referred to studies that supported this conclusion. Romney said that there are other studies that say it does not. When Obama insisted he was accurately describing Romney’s plan, Romney said, no you’re not, and claimed that he would not pass any tax plan that added more to the deficit. Obama said that there was no way Romney could lower tax rates and remain revenue neutral without removing deductions that would hike the tax bill for middle-income families. Nope, Romney said, not so: “I will not add to the deficit with my tax plan.”</p>
<p>Romney was throwing his tax proposal under the bus. But Obama didn’t appear to have a good response to this reality-defying tactic. He wasn’t able to nail Romney squarely for his long-running evasions regarding the deductions he would eliminate to make up for the revenue lost due to lowered tax rates. Romney seemed to be engaged in magical thinking concerning his economic plan—and perhaps discerning viewers picked up on this—but Obama couldn’t quite rattle him.</p>
<p>This was the overall dynamic of the night. Romney stuck to his overall point—Obama has failed to fully resurrect the economy—and he bobbed and weaved in response to Obama’s assault on his assorted positions. When the president asserted that Romney’s budget plan would lead to large cuts in education, Medicaid, and other programs—as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&amp;id=3658" type="external">has found</a>—Romney merely denied it. On Medicare, Romney stuck with his campaign’s <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/aug/29/paul-ryan/paul-ryan-said-president-obama-funneled-716-billio/" type="external">false charge</a>and partially neutralized Obama’s assault on the Romney-Ryan plan that would weaken (and perhaps end) the Medicare guarantee. Romney also fibbed his way through the discussion of Obamacare, especially concerning preexisting conditions. Still, Obama did not score obvious points on that front.</p>
<p>Throughout the campaign, Obama has tried to depict the election as a choice between two visions of how the nation should move forward. At the start of the debate, he pitted his “economic patriotism”—in which the country together invests in education, innovation, and infrastructure to ensure a solid economy in the years ahead—against what he called Romney’s “top-down” economic policies that are premised on the belief that if taxes are cut for the rich and regulations are lifted on corporations, the economy will rev up. But he never seemed to place Romney on the defensive on this mega-theme. On other occasions, Obama has presented this case much more effectively.</p>
<p>Turning Obama’s choice message on its head, Romney basically agreed, Yes, there are two choices: what you got now, or what I’ll give you. And promises are easier to sell than actualities—particularly when they are not bound by facts.</p>
<p>At the start of the campaign, the conventional wisdom was that Obama could have a difficult time winning reelection, given the lousy economy and polls indicating widespread public unease. Yet Romney’s liabilities ensured a competitive race. This first debate showed how challenging the fundamental dynamics are for Obama.</p>
<p>With the president failing to bring his A-game to Denver—and neither he nor moderator Jim Lehrer referred to Romney’s <a href="" type="internal">47 percent rant</a>—Romney took full advantage of the occasion. But given there are so few undecided voters at this point, Romney’s strong performance in a debate that didn’t generate much news or memorable exchanges may not move the needle much. (How many undecideds watched this wonkish debate?) But now that the pundits are once happily declaring, “We have a horse race again,” the Obama crew will have to make sure the president sharpens his case. In a way, he’s always had the tougher sell. This first debate was a painful reminder of that.</p>
<p />
| 4,784 |
<p>Book - MIT Press</p>
<p />
<p>Kosovo, after its incorporation into the Serbian Republic of Yugoslavia, became increasingly restive during the 1990s as Yugoslavia plunged into internal war and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian residents (Kosovars) sought autonomy. In March 1999, NATO forces began airstrikes against targets in Kosovo and Serbia in an effort to protect Kosovars against persecution. The bombing campaign ended in June 1999, and Kosovo was placed under transitional UN administration while negotiations on its status ensued. Kosovo eventually declared independence in 2008. Despite internal political tension and economic problems, the new nation has been recognized by many other countries and most of its inhabitants welcome its separation from Serbia.</p>
<p>In Liberating Kosovo, David Phillips offers a compelling account of the negotiations and military actions that culminated in Kosovo's independence. Drawing on his own participation in the diplomatic process and interviews with leading participants, Phillips chronicles Slobodan Milosevic's rise to power, the sufferings of the Kosovars, and the events that led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia. He analyzes how NATO, the United Nations, and the United States employed diplomacy, aerial bombing, and peacekeeping forces to set in motion the process that led to independence for Kosovo. He also offers important insights into a critical issue in contemporary international politics: how and when the United States, other nations, and NGOs should act to prevent ethnic cleansing and severe human-rights abuses.</p>
<p />
|
Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U.S. Intervention
| false |
http://belfercenter.org/publication/liberating-kosovo-coercive-diplomacy-and-us-intervention
| 2least
|
Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and U.S. Intervention
<p>Book - MIT Press</p>
<p />
<p>Kosovo, after its incorporation into the Serbian Republic of Yugoslavia, became increasingly restive during the 1990s as Yugoslavia plunged into internal war and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian residents (Kosovars) sought autonomy. In March 1999, NATO forces began airstrikes against targets in Kosovo and Serbia in an effort to protect Kosovars against persecution. The bombing campaign ended in June 1999, and Kosovo was placed under transitional UN administration while negotiations on its status ensued. Kosovo eventually declared independence in 2008. Despite internal political tension and economic problems, the new nation has been recognized by many other countries and most of its inhabitants welcome its separation from Serbia.</p>
<p>In Liberating Kosovo, David Phillips offers a compelling account of the negotiations and military actions that culminated in Kosovo's independence. Drawing on his own participation in the diplomatic process and interviews with leading participants, Phillips chronicles Slobodan Milosevic's rise to power, the sufferings of the Kosovars, and the events that led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia. He analyzes how NATO, the United Nations, and the United States employed diplomacy, aerial bombing, and peacekeeping forces to set in motion the process that led to independence for Kosovo. He also offers important insights into a critical issue in contemporary international politics: how and when the United States, other nations, and NGOs should act to prevent ethnic cleansing and severe human-rights abuses.</p>
<p />
| 4,785 |
|
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>At a time when even the Wall Street Journal has disappeared into the maw of a huge media conglomerate, the New York Times remains an independent newspaper. But it doesn’t show any independence in reporting or in thought.</p>
<p>The Times issued a mea culpa for letting its reporter, Judith Miller, misinform readers about Iraq, thus helping the neoconservatives set the stage for their invasion. Now the Times’ reporting on Iran seems to be repeating the mistake. After the US commits another act of naked aggression by bombing Iran, will the Times publish another mea culpa?</p>
<p>The Times editorials also serve as conduits for propaganda. On August 13, a Times editorial jumped on China for “irresponsible threats” that threaten free trade. The Times’ editorialists do not understand that the offshoring of American jobs, which the Times mistakenly thinks is free trade, is a far greater threat to America than a reminder from the Chinese, who are tired of US bullying, that China is America’s banker.</p>
<p>Let’s briefly review the “China threat” and then turn to the real problem.</p>
<p>Members of the US government believe, as do many Americans, that the Chinese currency is undervalued relative to the US dollar and that this is the reason for America’s large trade deficit with China. Pressure continues to be applied to China to revalue its currency in order to reduce its trade advantage over goods made in the US.</p>
<p>The pressure put on China is misdirected. The exchange rate is not the main cause of the US trade deficit with China. The costs of labor, regulation and harassment are far lower in China, and US corporations have offshored their production to China in order to benefit from these lower costs. When a company shifts its production from the US to a foreign country, it transforms US Fross Domestic Product (GDP) into imports. Every time a US company offshores goods and services, it adds to the US trade deficit.</p>
<p>Clearly, it is a mistake for the US government and economists to think of the imbalance as if it were produced by Chinese companies underselling goods produced by US companies in America. The imbalance is the result of US companies producing their goods in China and selling them in America. Many believe the solution is to force China to revalue its currency, thereby driving up the prices of 70 per cent of the goods on Wal-Mart shelves.</p>
<p>Mysteriously, members of the US government believe that it would help US consumers, who are as dependent on imported manufactured goods as they are on imported energy, to be charged higher prices.</p>
<p>China believes that the exchange rate is not the cause of US offshoring and opposes any rapid change in its currency’s value. In a message issued in order to tell the US to ease off the public bullying, China reminded Washington that the US doesn’t hold all the cards.</p>
<p>The NYT editorial expresses the concern that China’s “threat” will cause protectionist US lawmakers to stick on tariffs and start a trade war. “Free trade, free market” economists rush to tell us how bad this would be for US consumers: A tariff would raise the price of consumer goods.</p>
<p>The free market economists don’t tell us that dollar depreciation would have the same effect. Goods made in China would go up 30 per cent in price if a 30 per cent tariff was placed on them, and the goods would go up 30 percent in price if the value of the Chinese currency rises 30 per cent against the dollar.</p>
<p>So, why all the fuss about tariffs?</p>
<p>The fuss about tariffs makes even less sense once one realizes that the purpose of tariffs is to protect domestically produced goods from cheaper imports. However, US tariffs today would be imposed on the offshored production of US firms. In the era of offshoring, corporations are not a constituency for tariffs.</p>
<p>Tariffs would benefit American labor, something that the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Republican Party would strongly oppose. A wage equalization tariff would wipe out much of the advantage of offshoring. Profits would come down, and with lower profits would come lower CEO compensation and shareholder returns. Obviously, the corporate interests and Wall Street do not want any tariffs.</p>
<p>The NYT and “free trade” economists haven’t caught on, because they mistakenly think that offshoring is trade. In fact, offshoring is labor arbitrage. US labor is simply removed from production functions that produce goods and services for US markets and replaced with foreign labor. No trade is involved. Instead of being produced in America, US brand names sold in America are produced in China.</p>
<p>It is not China’s fault that American corporations have so little regard for their employees and fellow citizens that they destroy their economic opportunities and give them to foreigners instead.</p>
<p>It is paradoxical that everyone is blaming China for the behavior of American firms. What is China supposed to do, close its borders to foreign capital?</p>
<p>When free market economists align, as they have done, with foreigners against American citizens, they destroy their credibility and the future of economic freedom. Recently the Independent Institute, with which I am associated, stressed that free market associations “have defended completely open immigration and free markets in labor,” emphasizing that 500 economists signed the Independent Institute’s Open Letter on Immigration in behalf of open immigration.</p>
<p>Such a policy is satisfying to some in its ideological purity. But what it means in practice is that the Americans, who are displaced in their professional and manufacturing jobs by offshoring and work visas for foreigners, also cannot find work in the unskilled and semi-skilled jobs taken over by illegal immigrants. A free market policy that gives the bird to American labor is not going to win acceptance by the population. Such a policy serves only the owners of capital and its senior managers.</p>
<p>Free market economists will dispute this conclusion. They claim that offshoring and unrestricted immigration provide consumers with cheaper prices in the market place. What the free market economists do not say is that offshoring and unrestricted immigration also provide US citizens with lower incomes, fewer job opportunities, and less satisfying jobs. There is no evidence that consumer prices fall by more than incomes so that US citizens can be said to benefit materially. The psychological experience of a citizen losing his career to a foreigner is alienating.</p>
<p>The free market economists ignore the fact that a country that offshores its production also offshores its jobs. It becomes dependent on goods and services made in foreign countries, but lacks sufficient export earnings with which to pay for them. A country whose workforce is being reallocated, under pressure of offshoring, to domestic services has nothing to trade for its imports. That is why the US trade deficit has exploded to over $800 billion annually.</p>
<p>Among all the countries of the world, only the US can get away with exploding trade deficits. The reason is that the US inherited from Great Britain, exhausted by two world wars, the reserve currency role. To be the reserve currency country means that your currency is the accepted means of payment to settle international accounts. Countries pay their oil import bills in dollars and settle the deficits in their trade accounts in dollars.</p>
<p>The enormous and continuing US deficits are wearing out the US dollar as reserve currency. A time will come when the US cannot pay for the imports, on which it has become ever more dependent, by flooding the world with ever more dollars.</p>
<p>Offshoring and free market ideology are turning the US into a third world country. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one-quarter of all new US jobs created between June 2006 and June 2007 were for waitresses and bartenders. Almost all of the net new US jobs in the 21st century have been in domestic services.</p>
<p>Free market economists simply ignore the facts and proceed with their ideological justifications of open borders, a policy that is rapidly destroying the ladders of upward mobility for the US population.</p>
<p>PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of <a href="" type="internal">The Tyranny of Good Intentions.</a>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
|
China is not the Problem
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2007/08/17/china-is-not-the-problem/
|
2007-08-17
| 4left
|
China is not the Problem
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>At a time when even the Wall Street Journal has disappeared into the maw of a huge media conglomerate, the New York Times remains an independent newspaper. But it doesn’t show any independence in reporting or in thought.</p>
<p>The Times issued a mea culpa for letting its reporter, Judith Miller, misinform readers about Iraq, thus helping the neoconservatives set the stage for their invasion. Now the Times’ reporting on Iran seems to be repeating the mistake. After the US commits another act of naked aggression by bombing Iran, will the Times publish another mea culpa?</p>
<p>The Times editorials also serve as conduits for propaganda. On August 13, a Times editorial jumped on China for “irresponsible threats” that threaten free trade. The Times’ editorialists do not understand that the offshoring of American jobs, which the Times mistakenly thinks is free trade, is a far greater threat to America than a reminder from the Chinese, who are tired of US bullying, that China is America’s banker.</p>
<p>Let’s briefly review the “China threat” and then turn to the real problem.</p>
<p>Members of the US government believe, as do many Americans, that the Chinese currency is undervalued relative to the US dollar and that this is the reason for America’s large trade deficit with China. Pressure continues to be applied to China to revalue its currency in order to reduce its trade advantage over goods made in the US.</p>
<p>The pressure put on China is misdirected. The exchange rate is not the main cause of the US trade deficit with China. The costs of labor, regulation and harassment are far lower in China, and US corporations have offshored their production to China in order to benefit from these lower costs. When a company shifts its production from the US to a foreign country, it transforms US Fross Domestic Product (GDP) into imports. Every time a US company offshores goods and services, it adds to the US trade deficit.</p>
<p>Clearly, it is a mistake for the US government and economists to think of the imbalance as if it were produced by Chinese companies underselling goods produced by US companies in America. The imbalance is the result of US companies producing their goods in China and selling them in America. Many believe the solution is to force China to revalue its currency, thereby driving up the prices of 70 per cent of the goods on Wal-Mart shelves.</p>
<p>Mysteriously, members of the US government believe that it would help US consumers, who are as dependent on imported manufactured goods as they are on imported energy, to be charged higher prices.</p>
<p>China believes that the exchange rate is not the cause of US offshoring and opposes any rapid change in its currency’s value. In a message issued in order to tell the US to ease off the public bullying, China reminded Washington that the US doesn’t hold all the cards.</p>
<p>The NYT editorial expresses the concern that China’s “threat” will cause protectionist US lawmakers to stick on tariffs and start a trade war. “Free trade, free market” economists rush to tell us how bad this would be for US consumers: A tariff would raise the price of consumer goods.</p>
<p>The free market economists don’t tell us that dollar depreciation would have the same effect. Goods made in China would go up 30 per cent in price if a 30 per cent tariff was placed on them, and the goods would go up 30 percent in price if the value of the Chinese currency rises 30 per cent against the dollar.</p>
<p>So, why all the fuss about tariffs?</p>
<p>The fuss about tariffs makes even less sense once one realizes that the purpose of tariffs is to protect domestically produced goods from cheaper imports. However, US tariffs today would be imposed on the offshored production of US firms. In the era of offshoring, corporations are not a constituency for tariffs.</p>
<p>Tariffs would benefit American labor, something that the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Republican Party would strongly oppose. A wage equalization tariff would wipe out much of the advantage of offshoring. Profits would come down, and with lower profits would come lower CEO compensation and shareholder returns. Obviously, the corporate interests and Wall Street do not want any tariffs.</p>
<p>The NYT and “free trade” economists haven’t caught on, because they mistakenly think that offshoring is trade. In fact, offshoring is labor arbitrage. US labor is simply removed from production functions that produce goods and services for US markets and replaced with foreign labor. No trade is involved. Instead of being produced in America, US brand names sold in America are produced in China.</p>
<p>It is not China’s fault that American corporations have so little regard for their employees and fellow citizens that they destroy their economic opportunities and give them to foreigners instead.</p>
<p>It is paradoxical that everyone is blaming China for the behavior of American firms. What is China supposed to do, close its borders to foreign capital?</p>
<p>When free market economists align, as they have done, with foreigners against American citizens, they destroy their credibility and the future of economic freedom. Recently the Independent Institute, with which I am associated, stressed that free market associations “have defended completely open immigration and free markets in labor,” emphasizing that 500 economists signed the Independent Institute’s Open Letter on Immigration in behalf of open immigration.</p>
<p>Such a policy is satisfying to some in its ideological purity. But what it means in practice is that the Americans, who are displaced in their professional and manufacturing jobs by offshoring and work visas for foreigners, also cannot find work in the unskilled and semi-skilled jobs taken over by illegal immigrants. A free market policy that gives the bird to American labor is not going to win acceptance by the population. Such a policy serves only the owners of capital and its senior managers.</p>
<p>Free market economists will dispute this conclusion. They claim that offshoring and unrestricted immigration provide consumers with cheaper prices in the market place. What the free market economists do not say is that offshoring and unrestricted immigration also provide US citizens with lower incomes, fewer job opportunities, and less satisfying jobs. There is no evidence that consumer prices fall by more than incomes so that US citizens can be said to benefit materially. The psychological experience of a citizen losing his career to a foreigner is alienating.</p>
<p>The free market economists ignore the fact that a country that offshores its production also offshores its jobs. It becomes dependent on goods and services made in foreign countries, but lacks sufficient export earnings with which to pay for them. A country whose workforce is being reallocated, under pressure of offshoring, to domestic services has nothing to trade for its imports. That is why the US trade deficit has exploded to over $800 billion annually.</p>
<p>Among all the countries of the world, only the US can get away with exploding trade deficits. The reason is that the US inherited from Great Britain, exhausted by two world wars, the reserve currency role. To be the reserve currency country means that your currency is the accepted means of payment to settle international accounts. Countries pay their oil import bills in dollars and settle the deficits in their trade accounts in dollars.</p>
<p>The enormous and continuing US deficits are wearing out the US dollar as reserve currency. A time will come when the US cannot pay for the imports, on which it has become ever more dependent, by flooding the world with ever more dollars.</p>
<p>Offshoring and free market ideology are turning the US into a third world country. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one-quarter of all new US jobs created between June 2006 and June 2007 were for waitresses and bartenders. Almost all of the net new US jobs in the 21st century have been in domestic services.</p>
<p>Free market economists simply ignore the facts and proceed with their ideological justifications of open borders, a policy that is rapidly destroying the ladders of upward mobility for the US population.</p>
<p>PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of <a href="" type="internal">The Tyranny of Good Intentions.</a>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p><a href="http://d1o2xrel38nv1n.cloudfront.net/files/2014/09/CPC-vs-Clinic-Map-1-1024x429.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>If you follow Feministing, you probably know about crisis pregnancy centers. We’ve written <a href="" type="internal">on&#160;numerous occasions</a> about these facilities run by anti-choicers that usually disguise themselves as health care facilities but serve the purpose of preventing folks facing unintended or unwanted pregnancies from accessing abortion services. Their coded language can be hard to distinguish even for those of us who’ve spent time on campaigns to increase access to reproductive health care, and for most people&#160;they can be impossible to tell apart from actual health care facilities. Because of this, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas just released <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/" type="external">a new site</a> exposing crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in the state.</p>
<p>Developed by investigating 16 CPCs across the state,&#160; <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/cpcs-exposed/" type="external">CPCs Exposed</a>&#160;reveals the&#160;tactics these centers employ to manipulate and deceive the folks who have the unfortunate experience of ending up at one seeking abortion care. The site shows that&#160;CPCs take advantage of mandatory ultrasound laws to manipulate people into continuing their pregnancies, delay them from accessing health care services, deceive them to stop them from getting accurate information about all their pregnancy options, attempt to scare them out of choosing abortion, and are just not equipped to handle the nuances of unintended pregnancy.</p>
<p>The site is currently both <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/read-others-stories/" type="external">sharing</a> and <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/tell-your-story/" type="external">collecting</a> stories of people’s experiences with crisis pregnancy centers, as well as providing resources on <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/get-real-help/" type="external">where to get real help</a> and an opportunity to <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/take-action/" type="external">take action by joining their CPC watch</a>.</p>
<p>Don’t miss it!</p>
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Texas crisis pregnancy centers exposed
| true |
http://feministing.com/2014/09/25/texas-crisis-pregnancy-centers-exposed/
| 4left
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Texas crisis pregnancy centers exposed
<p><a href="http://d1o2xrel38nv1n.cloudfront.net/files/2014/09/CPC-vs-Clinic-Map-1-1024x429.jpg" type="external" /></p>
<p>If you follow Feministing, you probably know about crisis pregnancy centers. We’ve written <a href="" type="internal">on&#160;numerous occasions</a> about these facilities run by anti-choicers that usually disguise themselves as health care facilities but serve the purpose of preventing folks facing unintended or unwanted pregnancies from accessing abortion services. Their coded language can be hard to distinguish even for those of us who’ve spent time on campaigns to increase access to reproductive health care, and for most people&#160;they can be impossible to tell apart from actual health care facilities. Because of this, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas just released <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/" type="external">a new site</a> exposing crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in the state.</p>
<p>Developed by investigating 16 CPCs across the state,&#160; <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/cpcs-exposed/" type="external">CPCs Exposed</a>&#160;reveals the&#160;tactics these centers employ to manipulate and deceive the folks who have the unfortunate experience of ending up at one seeking abortion care. The site shows that&#160;CPCs take advantage of mandatory ultrasound laws to manipulate people into continuing their pregnancies, delay them from accessing health care services, deceive them to stop them from getting accurate information about all their pregnancy options, attempt to scare them out of choosing abortion, and are just not equipped to handle the nuances of unintended pregnancy.</p>
<p>The site is currently both <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/read-others-stories/" type="external">sharing</a> and <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/tell-your-story/" type="external">collecting</a> stories of people’s experiences with crisis pregnancy centers, as well as providing resources on <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/get-real-help/" type="external">where to get real help</a> and an opportunity to <a href="http://txpregnancy.org/take-action/" type="external">take action by joining their CPC watch</a>.</p>
<p>Don’t miss it!</p>
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<p>KIRKUK, Iraq —&#160;”The Iraqi army cannot take Mosul alone,” said a peshmerga commander, speaking at a base southwest of Kirkuk. “We will find out today if we will join the fight.”</p>
<p>As the leader of a brigade on the eastern frontier of the Islamic State’s territory, roughly 200km south of Mosul,&#160;the question of whether Kurdish fighters would join Baghdad in its highly anticipated offensive to retake Iraq’s second city was one the commander had been following closely.</p>
<p>The answer came a few hours later from Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, where the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was paying his first visit since taking office last year.</p>
<p>At a joint press conference with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/06/uk-mideast-crisis-iraq-idUKKBN0MX0K820150406" type="external">on Monday</a>, Abadi announced that the Iraqi army would work together with the peshmerga to oust the Islamic State from Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.</p>
<p>"Our visit to Erbil today is to coordinate and cooperate on a joint plan to liberate the people of Nineveh," Abadi said.</p>
<p>Barzani added: “We have reached consensus to cooperate in clearing the country of terror.”</p>
<p>The battle for Mosul was always going to be a tough one. The Islamic State (IS) took control of the city of more than one million people in June last year, and declared its caliphate shortly after. Since then, the majority Sunni city has become a stronghold for the group, home to the largest population under its control.</p>
<p>US officials <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/20/middleeast/iraq-isis/" type="external">estimated back in February</a> that a force of around 25,000 Iraqi soldiers would take part in the operation for Mosul, and gave a timeframe of April or May. That date now appears to have been optimistic — but the meeting between Barzani and Abadi brings the offensive a step closer.</p>
<p>Nineveh province sits in the northwest corner of Iraq, stretching from the border with Syria to east of Mosul and covering both Iraqi territory and parts of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.</p>
<p>Until now, the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces have fought parallel battles against IS, with little coordination as they faced their shared enemy from different sides of the same frontline.</p>
<p>The Iraqi army, backed by Shia militias, has pushed north into IS territory from Baghdad. With the help of US airstrikes, the joint force recaptured the city of Tikrit from the militant group last week, a significant victory and one of the first major cities to be retaken in the government’s campaign to win back territory. Meanwhile, Kurdish forces man the frontlines to the north, in the Sinjar area, and to the west, around Kirkuk &#160;— where they have also had success in recent weeks.</p>
<p>“We have had no cooperation with the Iraqi army,” said Jamal Mohamad Omar, another peshmerga commander operating in the Sinjar area of Nineveh province, to the west of Mosul, on Sunday. “They do not exist in this area. Maybe in upper level [ranks] there is some cooperation, but in the field the cooperation is not there.”</p>
<p>The lack of coordination between Baghdad and Erbil has complicated the fight against IS in Iraq. The frontline snakes east from the Syrian border to Mosul, then south toward Tikrit. A big push into the last IS holdouts in Sinjar by Kurdish forces, for example, would be difficult without a simultaneous push from Iraqi forces from the south.</p>
<p>“There are many parts to the front line, many sides,” said Mohamad Omar, ahead of the meeting in Erbil. “If [Iraqi and Kurdish forces] have a relationship it is better for both of us. Now we have Mosul surrounded from different sides, so if this continues it will be better.”</p>
<p>Even if the Islamic State’s various enemies present a united front, the battle for Mosul will probably be a messy one.</p>
<p>It is unlikely the city will be recaptured without significant air support from the US-led coalition currently supporting anti-IS forces in Syria and Iraq. The Syrian city of Kobani was largely leveled by coalition airstrikes in the offensive to recapture it from IS in January. Heavy bombing in a city as densely populated as Mosul is likely to result in high civilian casualties.</p>
<p>There is also the added humanitarian crisis that will inevitably follow such a large operation. Aid agencies told <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/war-with-isis-fears-that-the-looming-battle-for-mosul-will-unleash-a-million-refugees-10077591.html" type="external">The Independent</a> last month that an offensive against Mosul could send “hundreds of thousands” fleeing, exacerbating an already severe refugee crisis.</p>
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Iraq's army and Kurds will join forces to retake Mosul
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/iraqs-army-and-kurds-will-join-forces-retake-mosul
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Iraq's army and Kurds will join forces to retake Mosul
<p>KIRKUK, Iraq —&#160;”The Iraqi army cannot take Mosul alone,” said a peshmerga commander, speaking at a base southwest of Kirkuk. “We will find out today if we will join the fight.”</p>
<p>As the leader of a brigade on the eastern frontier of the Islamic State’s territory, roughly 200km south of Mosul,&#160;the question of whether Kurdish fighters would join Baghdad in its highly anticipated offensive to retake Iraq’s second city was one the commander had been following closely.</p>
<p>The answer came a few hours later from Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, where the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was paying his first visit since taking office last year.</p>
<p>At a joint press conference with Kurdish President Massoud Barzani <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/06/uk-mideast-crisis-iraq-idUKKBN0MX0K820150406" type="external">on Monday</a>, Abadi announced that the Iraqi army would work together with the peshmerga to oust the Islamic State from Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.</p>
<p>"Our visit to Erbil today is to coordinate and cooperate on a joint plan to liberate the people of Nineveh," Abadi said.</p>
<p>Barzani added: “We have reached consensus to cooperate in clearing the country of terror.”</p>
<p>The battle for Mosul was always going to be a tough one. The Islamic State (IS) took control of the city of more than one million people in June last year, and declared its caliphate shortly after. Since then, the majority Sunni city has become a stronghold for the group, home to the largest population under its control.</p>
<p>US officials <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/20/middleeast/iraq-isis/" type="external">estimated back in February</a> that a force of around 25,000 Iraqi soldiers would take part in the operation for Mosul, and gave a timeframe of April or May. That date now appears to have been optimistic — but the meeting between Barzani and Abadi brings the offensive a step closer.</p>
<p>Nineveh province sits in the northwest corner of Iraq, stretching from the border with Syria to east of Mosul and covering both Iraqi territory and parts of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.</p>
<p>Until now, the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces have fought parallel battles against IS, with little coordination as they faced their shared enemy from different sides of the same frontline.</p>
<p>The Iraqi army, backed by Shia militias, has pushed north into IS territory from Baghdad. With the help of US airstrikes, the joint force recaptured the city of Tikrit from the militant group last week, a significant victory and one of the first major cities to be retaken in the government’s campaign to win back territory. Meanwhile, Kurdish forces man the frontlines to the north, in the Sinjar area, and to the west, around Kirkuk &#160;— where they have also had success in recent weeks.</p>
<p>“We have had no cooperation with the Iraqi army,” said Jamal Mohamad Omar, another peshmerga commander operating in the Sinjar area of Nineveh province, to the west of Mosul, on Sunday. “They do not exist in this area. Maybe in upper level [ranks] there is some cooperation, but in the field the cooperation is not there.”</p>
<p>The lack of coordination between Baghdad and Erbil has complicated the fight against IS in Iraq. The frontline snakes east from the Syrian border to Mosul, then south toward Tikrit. A big push into the last IS holdouts in Sinjar by Kurdish forces, for example, would be difficult without a simultaneous push from Iraqi forces from the south.</p>
<p>“There are many parts to the front line, many sides,” said Mohamad Omar, ahead of the meeting in Erbil. “If [Iraqi and Kurdish forces] have a relationship it is better for both of us. Now we have Mosul surrounded from different sides, so if this continues it will be better.”</p>
<p>Even if the Islamic State’s various enemies present a united front, the battle for Mosul will probably be a messy one.</p>
<p>It is unlikely the city will be recaptured without significant air support from the US-led coalition currently supporting anti-IS forces in Syria and Iraq. The Syrian city of Kobani was largely leveled by coalition airstrikes in the offensive to recapture it from IS in January. Heavy bombing in a city as densely populated as Mosul is likely to result in high civilian casualties.</p>
<p>There is also the added humanitarian crisis that will inevitably follow such a large operation. Aid agencies told <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/war-with-isis-fears-that-the-looming-battle-for-mosul-will-unleash-a-million-refugees-10077591.html" type="external">The Independent</a> last month that an offensive against Mosul could send “hundreds of thousands” fleeing, exacerbating an already severe refugee crisis.</p>
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<p>Chelsea Clinton joined the ranks of celebrities-turned-journalists on November 14 when it was announced that she was hired by NBC News as a special correspondent.</p>
<p>Clinton is not the first former first daughter to join the NBC network; Jenna Bush, daughter of former President George W. Bush, works as a correspondent for NBC's "Today" show.</p>
<p>Other famous public figures in this elite group include Meghan McCain and former politician Eliot Spitzer. Click through the slideshow above to see more.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/111114/chelsea-clinton-nbc-news-special-correspondent-brian-williams" type="external">Chelsea Clinton hired by NBC News as special correspondent</a></p>
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Chelsea Clinton becomes latest celebrity turned journalist (PHOTOS)
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https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-14/chelsea-clinton-becomes-latest-celebrity-turned-journalist-photos
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2011-11-14
| 3left-center
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Chelsea Clinton becomes latest celebrity turned journalist (PHOTOS)
<p>Chelsea Clinton joined the ranks of celebrities-turned-journalists on November 14 when it was announced that she was hired by NBC News as a special correspondent.</p>
<p>Clinton is not the first former first daughter to join the NBC network; Jenna Bush, daughter of former President George W. Bush, works as a correspondent for NBC's "Today" show.</p>
<p>Other famous public figures in this elite group include Meghan McCain and former politician Eliot Spitzer. Click through the slideshow above to see more.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/111114/chelsea-clinton-nbc-news-special-correspondent-brian-williams" type="external">Chelsea Clinton hired by NBC News as special correspondent</a></p>
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<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 4 Evening" game were:</p>
<p>6-8-0-7, Wild: 5</p>
<p>(six, eight, zero, seven; Wild: five)</p>
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 4 Evening" game were:</p>
<p>6-8-0-7, Wild: 5</p>
<p>(six, eight, zero, seven; Wild: five)</p>
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Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 4 Evening' game
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https://apnews.com/amp/0416c38583534b6ca4524c8887d17249
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2018-01-17
| 2least
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Winning numbers drawn in 'Pick 4 Evening' game
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 4 Evening" game were:</p>
<p>6-8-0-7, Wild: 5</p>
<p>(six, eight, zero, seven; Wild: five)</p>
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday evening's drawing of the Pennsylvania Lottery's "Pick 4 Evening" game were:</p>
<p>6-8-0-7, Wild: 5</p>
<p>(six, eight, zero, seven; Wild: five)</p>
| 4,790 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Brian Gonzales, 34 (Courtesy Doreen Morris)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — On July 26, 34-year-old Brian Gonzales was found shot to death in his Northwest Albuquerque apartment with a rifle beside him.</p>
<p>At the time, police released few details about the crime, and they did not answer questions this week.</p>
<p>But documents recently obtained by the Journal give a few more clues about the scene.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Office of the Medical Investigator determined Gonzales’ death was a homicide. An autopsy report shows he was shot in the back of the head from an indeterminate range.</p>
<p>According to court documents, police found several cellphones on the table near Gonzales’ body as well as a large quantity of pills in a Ziploc bag. Detectives say they found what appeared to be a ledger that could have been used to keep track of drug sales, and the bedroom on the second story “appeared to have been torn apart and was in disarray.”</p>
<p>Police spokesman Fred Duran did not respond to several questions about the case, including if there were any suspects, what the motive for the killing might be, and if the house had been broken into.</p>
<p>But Gonzales’ mother, Doreen Morris, said she didn’t notice anything missing or signs of a fight in her son’s apartment on the 4400 block of 12th Street NW. She said she doesn’t think Gonzales was killed by a stranger.</p>
<p>“It was in his house, and they got in so he must have let them in,” she said. “It was someone he knew, I’m pretty sure of that. As far as who, though, I have no clue.”</p>
<p>Morris said Gonzales had moved into the apartment about six months before his death in order to be closer to his 8-year-old daughter, for whom he was trying to get shared custody. She said he also had an 11-year-old son.</p>
<p>Morris said the family waited to tell Gonzales’ daughter her father was dead because it was the girl’s birthday the following weekend.</p>
<p>“He had a gift for her already, so we gave it to her,” she said. “It was some clothes and a stuffed monkey she wanted.”</p>
<p>Morris said she hasn’t heard any updates from police about the case but is hopeful that someone will come forward with information.</p>
<p>“It’s just devastating, to say the least,” she said. “I still wake up every morning and have to tell myself it’s really true.”</p>
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Documents: Man found dead in Northwest ABQ apartment last July had been shot
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https://abqjournal.com/880932/documents-man-found-dead-in-northwest-abq-apartment-last-july-had-been-shot.html
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Documents: Man found dead in Northwest ABQ apartment last July had been shot
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Brian Gonzales, 34 (Courtesy Doreen Morris)</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — On July 26, 34-year-old Brian Gonzales was found shot to death in his Northwest Albuquerque apartment with a rifle beside him.</p>
<p>At the time, police released few details about the crime, and they did not answer questions this week.</p>
<p>But documents recently obtained by the Journal give a few more clues about the scene.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Office of the Medical Investigator determined Gonzales’ death was a homicide. An autopsy report shows he was shot in the back of the head from an indeterminate range.</p>
<p>According to court documents, police found several cellphones on the table near Gonzales’ body as well as a large quantity of pills in a Ziploc bag. Detectives say they found what appeared to be a ledger that could have been used to keep track of drug sales, and the bedroom on the second story “appeared to have been torn apart and was in disarray.”</p>
<p>Police spokesman Fred Duran did not respond to several questions about the case, including if there were any suspects, what the motive for the killing might be, and if the house had been broken into.</p>
<p>But Gonzales’ mother, Doreen Morris, said she didn’t notice anything missing or signs of a fight in her son’s apartment on the 4400 block of 12th Street NW. She said she doesn’t think Gonzales was killed by a stranger.</p>
<p>“It was in his house, and they got in so he must have let them in,” she said. “It was someone he knew, I’m pretty sure of that. As far as who, though, I have no clue.”</p>
<p>Morris said Gonzales had moved into the apartment about six months before his death in order to be closer to his 8-year-old daughter, for whom he was trying to get shared custody. She said he also had an 11-year-old son.</p>
<p>Morris said the family waited to tell Gonzales’ daughter her father was dead because it was the girl’s birthday the following weekend.</p>
<p>“He had a gift for her already, so we gave it to her,” she said. “It was some clothes and a stuffed monkey she wanted.”</p>
<p>Morris said she hasn’t heard any updates from police about the case but is hopeful that someone will come forward with information.</p>
<p>“It’s just devastating, to say the least,” she said. “I still wake up every morning and have to tell myself it’s really true.”</p>
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<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The chief financial officer of the Oklahoma State Department of Health says he was on the job only a few weeks before he started to notice major problems with how the agency was handling its finances.</p>
<p>CFO Mike Romero, who was hired at DHS in April, testified for more than three hours Friday before a special House committee investigating financial problems at the agency.</p>
<p>Romero says he first became concerned about vague financial documents being presented to the agency's governing board. He also said agency leaders perpetuated a culture of fear in which veteran employees were afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.</p>
<p>Several top officials at the agency have been fired or resigned, and lawmakers have appropriated $30 million to keep the agency afloat.</p>
<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The chief financial officer of the Oklahoma State Department of Health says he was on the job only a few weeks before he started to notice major problems with how the agency was handling its finances.</p>
<p>CFO Mike Romero, who was hired at DHS in April, testified for more than three hours Friday before a special House committee investigating financial problems at the agency.</p>
<p>Romero says he first became concerned about vague financial documents being presented to the agency's governing board. He also said agency leaders perpetuated a culture of fear in which veteran employees were afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.</p>
<p>Several top officials at the agency have been fired or resigned, and lawmakers have appropriated $30 million to keep the agency afloat.</p>
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Chief financial officer testifies on health agency problems
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https://apnews.com/amp/f1abe1a2a771455d9fb204f82ca612ff
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2018-01-12
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Chief financial officer testifies on health agency problems
<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The chief financial officer of the Oklahoma State Department of Health says he was on the job only a few weeks before he started to notice major problems with how the agency was handling its finances.</p>
<p>CFO Mike Romero, who was hired at DHS in April, testified for more than three hours Friday before a special House committee investigating financial problems at the agency.</p>
<p>Romero says he first became concerned about vague financial documents being presented to the agency's governing board. He also said agency leaders perpetuated a culture of fear in which veteran employees were afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.</p>
<p>Several top officials at the agency have been fired or resigned, and lawmakers have appropriated $30 million to keep the agency afloat.</p>
<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The chief financial officer of the Oklahoma State Department of Health says he was on the job only a few weeks before he started to notice major problems with how the agency was handling its finances.</p>
<p>CFO Mike Romero, who was hired at DHS in April, testified for more than three hours Friday before a special House committee investigating financial problems at the agency.</p>
<p>Romero says he first became concerned about vague financial documents being presented to the agency's governing board. He also said agency leaders perpetuated a culture of fear in which veteran employees were afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.</p>
<p>Several top officials at the agency have been fired or resigned, and lawmakers have appropriated $30 million to keep the agency afloat.</p>
| 4,792 |
<p>SEOUL, Jan 25 (Reuters) - North Korea advertised a new “world-level” tourist project in coastal Kangwon province on Thursday, a statement that coincides with plans by Winter Olympics host South Korea to participate in joint sporting and cultural events in the area.</p>
<p>The announcement appears aimed at capitalising on international publicity ahead of next month’s Games in Pyeongchang by boosting tourism in North Korea, one of the areas of economic activity yet to be fully choked by international sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programmes.</p>
<p>“When the tourist area is built, it will satisfy the demand of domestic and foreign tourists and will be the most ideal place to link various tourist destinations to the Wonsan-Mt Kumgang international tourist zone,” North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency said in a statement.</p>
<p>The statement did not provide specifics of the resort, but described the geographic features of the area, including a “famous sandy beach”, and said the project would put the country’s tourism “on world level”.</p>
<p>This week, South Korean officials travelled to the Wonsan area to inspect facilities at the Masik Pass ski resort and the nearby Kalma airport, which has yet to see any international flights two years after it opened in September 2015.</p>
<p>As part of unity activities surrounding the Olympics, the two countries agreed to hold joint ski training at Masik Pass and a cultural event at Mount Kumgang.</p>
<p>South Korea’s offer to send a delegation to the resorts risks giving leader Kim Jong Un’s regime legitimacy and some much needed cash, North Korean defectors and experts say.</p>
<p>Already facing criticism for plans to march under a unity flag and field a combined Korean ice hockey team, the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in may come under further pressure if it is seen to be endorsing Kim’s luxury getaway on North Korea’s east coast.</p>
<p>Wonsan and Kalma airport are also important defence areas, used for large-scale artillery drills and as the launch site for dozens of missile tests in recent years.</p>
<p>In April last year, for example, Kim used the beach near Wonsan’s new airport to unleash an artillery drill described by state media as the country’s largest ever.</p>
<p>Experts say that tourism is an important part of Kim’s plans to boost the North Korean economy. It is one of a shrinking range of North Korean cash sources not specifically targeted by international sanctions.</p>
<p>Joint ventures with the state are banned, however, making attracting international investment in North Korea’s tourism industry difficult.</p>
<p>Last year, America banned its citizens from visiting North Korea and there are no up-to-date statistics on current visitors.</p>
<p>China said more than 237,000 Chinese visited in 2012 but it stopped publishing the statistics in 2013. For comparison, eight million Chinese visited South Korea in 2016. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Nick Macfie)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Finland is the world’s happiest country, according to an annual survey issued on Wednesday that found Americans were getting less happy even as their country became richer.</p> FILE PHOTO: Tia Rope and Joonas Saukkonen (L) and Katja Hyvarinen and Jukka Podduikin, all of Finland, compete during the Wife Carrying World Championships in Sonkajarvi, Finland July 2, 2016. Lehtikuva/Timo Hartikainen/via REUTERS/File Photo
<p>Burundi came bottom in the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) 2018 World Happiness Report which ranked 156 countries according to things such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.</p>
<p>Taking the harsh, dark winters in their stride, Finns said access to nature, safety, childcare, good schools and free healthcare were among the best things about in their country.</p>
<p>“I’ve joked with the other Americans that we are living the American dream here in Finland,” said Brianna Owens, who moved from the United States and is now a teacher in Espoo, Finland’s second biggest city with a population of around 280,000.</p>
<p>“I think everything in this society is set up for people to be successful, starting with university and transportation that works really well,” Owens told Reuters.</p>
<p>Finland, rose from fifth place last year to oust Norway from the top spot. The 2018 top-10, as ever dominated by the Nordics, is: Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.</p>
<p>The United States came in at 18th, down from 14th place last year. Britain was 19th and the United Arab Emirates 20th.</p>
<p>One chapter of the 170-page report is dedicated to emerging health problems such as obesity, depression and the opioid crisis, particularly in the United States where the prevalence of all three has grown faster than in most other countries.</p>
<p>While U.S. income per capita has increased markedly over the last half century, happiness has been hit by weakened social support networks, a perceived rise in corruption in government and business and declining confidence in public institutions.</p> FILE PHOTO: People sit on the steps of Helsinki Cathedral on a sunny day in Helsinki, Finland, May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo
<p>“We obviously have a social crisis in the United States: more inequality, less trust, less confidence in government,” the head of the SDSN, Professor Jeffrey Sachs of New York’s Columbia University, told Reuters as the report was launched at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences.</p>
<p>“It’s pretty stark right now. The signs are not good for the U.S. It is getting richer and richer but not getting happier.”</p>
<p>Asked how the current political situation in the United States could affect future happiness reports, Sachs said:</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>“Time will tell, but I would say that in general that when confidence in government is low, when perceptions of corruption are high, inequality is high and health conditions are worsening ... that is not conducive to good feelings.”</p>
<p>For the first time since it was started in 2012, the report, which uses a variety of polling organizations, official figures and research methods, ranked the happiness of foreign-born immigrants in 117 countries.</p>
<p>Finland took top honors in that category too, giving the country a statistical double-gold status.</p>
<p>The foreign-born were least happy in Syria, which has been mired in civil war for seven years.</p>
<p>“The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born,” said Professor John Helliwell of Canada’s University of British Columbia.</p>
<p>“Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations converge towards those of other residents in their new countries,” he said.</p>
<p>“Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose.”</p>
<p>Reporting By Philip Pullella; Additional reporting by Reuters television in Finland; Editing by Robin Pomeroy</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) - Japan’s foreign minister said on Wednesday he personally regretted the departure of “frank, trustworthy” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ahead of a proposed summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.</p>
<p>Trump fired Tillerson on Tuesday after a series of public rifts over policy on North Korea and other issues, replacing him with loyalist Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo.</p>
<p>“He (Tillerson) was a frank, trustworthy counterpart and I thought we would deal with the North Korea issue together, but personally, I feel that this situation that has developed is unfortunate,” Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono told reporters in Tokyo.</p>
<p>“For sure, America holds the key, so I want to meet his successor as secretary of state soon and exchange views on North Korea and other matters,” Kono said.</p>
<p>Critics expressed dismay at the decision to swap out top diplomats so soon before the unprecedented potential meeting between Kim and Trump, and worried that Pompeo would encourage Trump to be hawkish on North Korea.</p>
<p>South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha decided to go ahead with a planned trip to Washington to discuss North Korea despite Tillerson’s departure, the ministry said in a text message. An official had earlier said she would cancel the visit.</p>
<p>Other South Korean officials, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that while Pompeo was known to have hardline views on North Korea, he was a seasoned politician and seemed to know how to compromise.</p>
<p>“We’re aware that Pompeo was one of the strongest voices in the talk of military action and fed Trump related assessments, but things have since changed a lot,” one senior official said, referring to upcoming inter-Korean talks and the prospect of a Kim-Trump summit. “So, we will see.”</p>
<p>Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China hopes the change in personnel will not impact the development of relations and important areas of cooperation.</p>
<p>“We of course hope that the positive momentum on the Korean peninsula, including the political will for talks of both the United States and North Korea, will be maintained,” Lu told a daily news briefing.</p> Slideshow (3 Images) CHINA CONTACT CRUCIAL
<p>Shares in Japanese defense equipment makers rose sharply on speculation that geopolitical tensions may rise after the firing of Tillerson and Pompeo’s appointment. Ishikawa Seisakusho ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=6208.T" type="external">6208.T</a>) surged as much as 15 percent, while Howa Machinery ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=6203.T" type="external">6203.T</a>) jumped 11 percent.</p>
<p>Jia Qingguo, an expert on Chinese diplomacy at Peking University in Beijing, said China may see positive outcomes from the change when it comes to the U.S. position on the Belt and Road initiative, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy initiative.</p>
<p>“Tillerson has at times been quite critical of China, including of Belt and Road,” Jia said. “Trump is not as hawkish on China as many assume. He has tried to communicate and to cut a deal.”</p>
<p>Coming from the CIA, Pompeo is more likely to see China as a threat but his views will probably soften, Jia said.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=6208.T" type="external">Ishikawa Seisakusho Ltd</a> 2239.0 6208.T Tokyo Stock Exchange -11.00 (-0.49%) 6208.T 6203.T
<p>“Once you are in the secretary of state position, you need to be more pragmatic and take into account the huge stakes involved, so the impact will not be as big as some people expect.”</p>
<p>Most important for China was that Pompeo makes contact with his Chinese counterparts to ensure a smooth meeting between Kim and Trump as soon as possible, said Ruan Zongze, a former Chinese diplomat now with the China Institute of International Studies, a think tank affiliated with the Foreign Ministry.</p>
<p>“Time is short. There are a lot things to do. Every day is very important,” he said.</p>
<p>Pompeo is also known for his hawkish views on trade. He takes over as the chief U.S. diplomat as the United States is finalizing the imposition of hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum that have upset a number of Asian trading partners.</p>
<p>Close ally Australia, which is working through an exemption from the U.S. tariffs, welcomed Pompeo’s appointment.</p>
<p>“We know him very well,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters. “He’s&#160;a great friend of Australia. The transition will be absolutely&#160;seamless. Our relationship with the United States, as you know, is&#160;outstanding at so many levels from&#160;the president and myself, right&#160;through the military, intelligence, diplomacy and business.”</p>
<p>South Korea is the largest supplier of steel to the United States not to have secured an exemption from the tariffs and is facing pressure from Trump over the two countries’ free-trade deal.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-trump-tillerson-kremlin/russia-hopes-for-constructive-ties-with-u-s-after-tillerson-firing-kremlin-idUSKCN1GQ10M" type="external">Russia hopes for constructive ties with U.S. after Tillerson firing: Kremlin</a>
<p>“It is our joint understanding with the United States that strong cooperation be maintained through close communication between South Korea and the United States regardless of U.S. personnel changes as there are important issues, including the North Korea nuclear issue, the U.S.-South Korea alliance and trade matters,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Colin Packham in SYDNEY, Elaine Lies and Ayai Tomisawa in TOKYO, Josh Smith and Christine Kim in SEOUL, and Christian Shepherd in BEIJING; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Paul Tait and Michael Perry</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TOKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - A gaunt, 92-year-old man in a wheelchair sunbathes in a narrow courtyard, motionless, his eyes closed. Nearby, a few dozen other elderly men with short grey hair exercise slowly as an instructor gently calls out, “Don’t strain yourselves.”</p>
<p>The man in the wheelchair is not in a nursing home.</p>
<p>He is in prison, serving a life sentence for murder and rape. The others nearby are serving time for serious crimes too, including murder.</p>
<p>Their prison, in Tokushima, 520 km (325 miles) west of Tokyo, converted a building to house elderly inmates, putting itself at the forefront of an effort to cope with Japan’s greying prisoner population.</p>
<p>The number of prisoners aged 60 or older has risen 7 percent from a decade ago to 9,308, and made up 19 percent of the entire prison population in Japan in 2016. That compares with only 6 percent of that age bracket in the United States, and about 11 percent in South Korea.</p>
<p>A sizeable chunk of elderly inmates are repeat offenders, which experts say reflects the difficulties of finding jobs after release and coping with the uncertainty freedom brings.</p>
<p>“I have a heart condition and used to collapse often at the (prison) factory,” said an 81-year-old inmate at Tokushima, imprisoned for life for killing a taxi driver and injuring another person six decades ago. Prison rules forbid publishing his name.</p>
<p>He and about two dozen other prisoners live, eat and work in the special building set aside for elderly prisoners who cannot do regular work such as making shoes and underwear.</p>
<p>In a rare look inside a Japanese prison, Reuters visited the Tokushima facility and interviewed inmates who spend most of their days in large cells that sleep four or five, engaged in paper-folding projects and other light tasks.</p>
<p>Workers chop up noodles and other foods for those who have difficulty chewing and swallowing. The prison also employs a caregiver trained in working with the elderly for those in its hospital ward, including the 92-year-old man serving a life sentence.</p>
<p>Despite his life sentence, the 81-year-old has been released twice on parole, but wound up back in prison after being caught drinking alcohol, a parole violation. He hopes he will be paroled again so he can see his 103-year-old mother.</p>
<p>“I want to get out of the prison while she’s still alive,” he said. “That’s all I want.”</p> NO TALKING
<p>The Ministry of Justice said it didn’t have information on what changes prisons have made to adapt to elderly prisoners, as such decisions are up to each facility.</p>
<p>Calls to 13 of Japan’s major prisons showed that none of the others has a separate facility where aged prisoners are allowed to sleep and work in their cells, instead of marching every morning to a prison factory. But many have taken steps.</p> A 92-year-old man in a wheel chair, imprisoned for life in the Tokushima prison, for murder, rape and other offences, exercises with a care worker in a courtyard at the Tokushima prison in Tokushima, Japan, March 2, 2018. Picture taken March 2, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
<p>When the prison in Takamatsu, a city in western Japan, built a new three-story building in 2010, for example, it set aside the first floor for elderly prisoners. There is no difference in the floor level between cells and hallways, to assist inmates with impaired mobility.</p>
<p>The Tokushima prison tries to ensure that ageing prisoners stay healthy without making conditions too comfortable, said Kenji Yamaguchi, the treatment director there.</p>
<p>Talking is forbidden during working hours, cells have no air conditioning, and prisoners can only bathe twice a week in winter and three times a week in summer.</p>
<p>“As they await their eventual release, we also want to see them leave in good health,” Yamaguchi said. “Some may think we are cutting them too much slack. But their freedom is still restricted considerably. It’s not exactly a comfortable life.”</p> Slideshow (20 Images) ‘MEALS AND A ROOM’
<p>But returning to life “on the outside” can be tough for older men.</p>
<p>About a quarter of inmates 65 and older end up back in prison within two years, the highest of any age group, according to government data tracking those released in 2015.</p>
<p>“If you are young, you can find a job and have a chance to lead a normal life,” said Yasuyuki Deguchi, a professor at Tokyo Future University. “The lack of employment opportunities combined with labelling as an ex-convict makes reintegration difficult for the elderly.”</p>
<p>Of those jailed in 2016, 36 percent of those older than 60 were in prison for at least the sixth time, far higher than the 16 percent for all prisoners incarcerated that year. The next biggest group is first-time offenders, who accounted for 29 percent of prisoners 60 and older.</p>
<p>Police data in South Korea show that about 15 percent of those aged 65 or older who committed a crime in 2016 had been convicted at least five times already.</p>
<p>A 71-year-old ex-prisoner who was in jail seven times for theft and fraud said a lack of jobs and shelter drove him to back to crime.</p>
<p>“There are few jobs once you’ve passed 65. As long as you’ve got a job and a place to live in, you can get by. Without them, you turn to shoplifting and stealing just to put food in your mouth,” he said.</p>
<p>“I personally know people who willingly go back to prison,” said the man, who is staying at a halfway house in Tokyo after being released from prison in October.&#160;“As long as you are in prison, you get meals and a room.”</p>
<p>Seven and a half years through a 13-year sentence for murder, a man in his early 70s in the Tokushima prison said he was already bracing for the day he gets out.</p>
<p>“To be honest, I feel nothing but anxiety,” he said. “I have misgivings and concerns that it’s going to be difficult adaptation to the outside world. I don’t even know anything about smart phones.</p>
<p>“I must try not to think that I could be better off staying here.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Takashi Umekawa; Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Linda Sieg, Malcolm Foster and Gerry Doyle</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May’s response to Russia after a nerve agent attack on British soil is unlikely to trouble Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin unduly, despite the expression of outrage that greeted it in Moscow.</p> Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street, in London, March 13, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
<p>After the first known use of a military-grade nerve toxin on British soil since World War Two, May expelled 23 Russian spies using diplomatic cover and promised to freeze Russian State assets if they were used to threaten British interests.</p>
<p>May also said Britain would work on new powers to defend against hostile state activity, beef up counter espionage powers and cut back official participation in the soccer World Cup. Other measures may be considered, she said.</p>
<p>But her announcement, just days before an election in which Putin, a former KGB officer, is expected to coast to a fourth term, gave no examples of Russian officials or companies that would be targeted or barred from London’s financial center.</p>
<p>London remains open to Russian investment, albeit with a political chill. Other than the expulsions, May went no further than current EU sanctions which include travel restrictions and asset freezes against 150 people and 38 companies.</p>
<p>“The Kremlin will understand this as a very mild response,” said Mathieu Boulègue, a Russia expert at Chatham House think-tank in London. “Putin is unlikely to be worried by this.”</p>
<p>A senior British government official said further options remained on the table: “Economic, diplomatic, legislative, and our security capabilities can all be brought to bear if needed.”</p>
<p>But after days of full-volume rhetoric from London about the suspected Russian attack and a midnight deadline that Moscow scorned, May has shown just how little appetite Britain has for a fight on the eve of Brexit.</p>
<p>While the United States and European Union joined criticism of Moscow - albeit with a delayed response from U.S. President Donald Trump - there was little evidence of appetite in Paris, Berlin or Washington for anything beyond a scolding.</p> Russian president Vladimir Putin addresses the audience during a rally marking the fourth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea, March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
<p>Russia denied any involvement in the attack and simply declined to say anything about how a Soviet-era nerve toxin ended up striking down a former double agent on the normally genteel streets of the English city of Salisbury.</p>
<p>The foreign ministry described May’s measures as a flagrant provocation and promised a speedy response.</p>
<p>If Russia - or Russians - were behind the nerve attack, some of their aims may have been achieved: Britain has shown just how little power it is willing to exercise while every Kremlin opponent will be more nervous about retribution.</p>
<p>For many Russian experts, the attack on Sergei Skripal, a former GRU military intelligence officer who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to MI6, was a test for Britain after years of turning a blind eye to the reality of modern Russia.</p>
<p>Part of that policy is due to money.</p>
<p>One of the biggest exports since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union was money and London, as one of the top two financial capitals in the world, is a major beneficiary.</p> Related Video
<p>London, or Londongrad as it is sometimes dubbed, is the Western capital of choice for the oligarchs and Russian officials who flaunt their wealth across Europe’s most luxurious destinations.</p>
<p>France, with its own business ties to Russia, has been more muted on the issue of Russian involvement in the attack on Skripal than Germany or the United States.</p>
<p>“Britain has tied itself up in knots,” said a French official who spoke on condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>“It’s had a very open policy on Russian private investment and émigrés for years and now it wants European to offer support in taking steps against Moscow. This is for them (Britain) to respond to. It’s shocking that it happened, but ultimately it’s up to Britain.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Paris and Elizabeth Piper in London; editing by Philippa Fletcher</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
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N.Korea trumpets "world-level" tourist project ahead of Olympics Finland is world's happiest country, U.S. discontent grows: U.N. report Tokyo bids farewell to 'trustworthy' Tillerson, Seoul awaits seasoned Pompeo Aging Japan: Prisons cope with swelling ranks of elderly inmates British PM May expels 23 Russian spies but stops well short of bothering Putin
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2018-01-25
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N.Korea trumpets "world-level" tourist project ahead of Olympics Finland is world's happiest country, U.S. discontent grows: U.N. report Tokyo bids farewell to 'trustworthy' Tillerson, Seoul awaits seasoned Pompeo Aging Japan: Prisons cope with swelling ranks of elderly inmates British PM May expels 23 Russian spies but stops well short of bothering Putin
<p>SEOUL, Jan 25 (Reuters) - North Korea advertised a new “world-level” tourist project in coastal Kangwon province on Thursday, a statement that coincides with plans by Winter Olympics host South Korea to participate in joint sporting and cultural events in the area.</p>
<p>The announcement appears aimed at capitalising on international publicity ahead of next month’s Games in Pyeongchang by boosting tourism in North Korea, one of the areas of economic activity yet to be fully choked by international sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programmes.</p>
<p>“When the tourist area is built, it will satisfy the demand of domestic and foreign tourists and will be the most ideal place to link various tourist destinations to the Wonsan-Mt Kumgang international tourist zone,” North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency said in a statement.</p>
<p>The statement did not provide specifics of the resort, but described the geographic features of the area, including a “famous sandy beach”, and said the project would put the country’s tourism “on world level”.</p>
<p>This week, South Korean officials travelled to the Wonsan area to inspect facilities at the Masik Pass ski resort and the nearby Kalma airport, which has yet to see any international flights two years after it opened in September 2015.</p>
<p>As part of unity activities surrounding the Olympics, the two countries agreed to hold joint ski training at Masik Pass and a cultural event at Mount Kumgang.</p>
<p>South Korea’s offer to send a delegation to the resorts risks giving leader Kim Jong Un’s regime legitimacy and some much needed cash, North Korean defectors and experts say.</p>
<p>Already facing criticism for plans to march under a unity flag and field a combined Korean ice hockey team, the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in may come under further pressure if it is seen to be endorsing Kim’s luxury getaway on North Korea’s east coast.</p>
<p>Wonsan and Kalma airport are also important defence areas, used for large-scale artillery drills and as the launch site for dozens of missile tests in recent years.</p>
<p>In April last year, for example, Kim used the beach near Wonsan’s new airport to unleash an artillery drill described by state media as the country’s largest ever.</p>
<p>Experts say that tourism is an important part of Kim’s plans to boost the North Korean economy. It is one of a shrinking range of North Korean cash sources not specifically targeted by international sanctions.</p>
<p>Joint ventures with the state are banned, however, making attracting international investment in North Korea’s tourism industry difficult.</p>
<p>Last year, America banned its citizens from visiting North Korea and there are no up-to-date statistics on current visitors.</p>
<p>China said more than 237,000 Chinese visited in 2012 but it stopped publishing the statistics in 2013. For comparison, eight million Chinese visited South Korea in 2016. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Nick Macfie)</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Finland is the world’s happiest country, according to an annual survey issued on Wednesday that found Americans were getting less happy even as their country became richer.</p> FILE PHOTO: Tia Rope and Joonas Saukkonen (L) and Katja Hyvarinen and Jukka Podduikin, all of Finland, compete during the Wife Carrying World Championships in Sonkajarvi, Finland July 2, 2016. Lehtikuva/Timo Hartikainen/via REUTERS/File Photo
<p>Burundi came bottom in the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) 2018 World Happiness Report which ranked 156 countries according to things such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.</p>
<p>Taking the harsh, dark winters in their stride, Finns said access to nature, safety, childcare, good schools and free healthcare were among the best things about in their country.</p>
<p>“I’ve joked with the other Americans that we are living the American dream here in Finland,” said Brianna Owens, who moved from the United States and is now a teacher in Espoo, Finland’s second biggest city with a population of around 280,000.</p>
<p>“I think everything in this society is set up for people to be successful, starting with university and transportation that works really well,” Owens told Reuters.</p>
<p>Finland, rose from fifth place last year to oust Norway from the top spot. The 2018 top-10, as ever dominated by the Nordics, is: Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.</p>
<p>The United States came in at 18th, down from 14th place last year. Britain was 19th and the United Arab Emirates 20th.</p>
<p>One chapter of the 170-page report is dedicated to emerging health problems such as obesity, depression and the opioid crisis, particularly in the United States where the prevalence of all three has grown faster than in most other countries.</p>
<p>While U.S. income per capita has increased markedly over the last half century, happiness has been hit by weakened social support networks, a perceived rise in corruption in government and business and declining confidence in public institutions.</p> FILE PHOTO: People sit on the steps of Helsinki Cathedral on a sunny day in Helsinki, Finland, May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo
<p>“We obviously have a social crisis in the United States: more inequality, less trust, less confidence in government,” the head of the SDSN, Professor Jeffrey Sachs of New York’s Columbia University, told Reuters as the report was launched at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences.</p>
<p>“It’s pretty stark right now. The signs are not good for the U.S. It is getting richer and richer but not getting happier.”</p>
<p>Asked how the current political situation in the United States could affect future happiness reports, Sachs said:</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>“Time will tell, but I would say that in general that when confidence in government is low, when perceptions of corruption are high, inequality is high and health conditions are worsening ... that is not conducive to good feelings.”</p>
<p>For the first time since it was started in 2012, the report, which uses a variety of polling organizations, official figures and research methods, ranked the happiness of foreign-born immigrants in 117 countries.</p>
<p>Finland took top honors in that category too, giving the country a statistical double-gold status.</p>
<p>The foreign-born were least happy in Syria, which has been mired in civil war for seven years.</p>
<p>“The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born,” said Professor John Helliwell of Canada’s University of British Columbia.</p>
<p>“Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations converge towards those of other residents in their new countries,” he said.</p>
<p>“Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose.”</p>
<p>Reporting By Philip Pullella; Additional reporting by Reuters television in Finland; Editing by Robin Pomeroy</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) - Japan’s foreign minister said on Wednesday he personally regretted the departure of “frank, trustworthy” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ahead of a proposed summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.</p>
<p>Trump fired Tillerson on Tuesday after a series of public rifts over policy on North Korea and other issues, replacing him with loyalist Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo.</p>
<p>“He (Tillerson) was a frank, trustworthy counterpart and I thought we would deal with the North Korea issue together, but personally, I feel that this situation that has developed is unfortunate,” Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono told reporters in Tokyo.</p>
<p>“For sure, America holds the key, so I want to meet his successor as secretary of state soon and exchange views on North Korea and other matters,” Kono said.</p>
<p>Critics expressed dismay at the decision to swap out top diplomats so soon before the unprecedented potential meeting between Kim and Trump, and worried that Pompeo would encourage Trump to be hawkish on North Korea.</p>
<p>South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha decided to go ahead with a planned trip to Washington to discuss North Korea despite Tillerson’s departure, the ministry said in a text message. An official had earlier said she would cancel the visit.</p>
<p>Other South Korean officials, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that while Pompeo was known to have hardline views on North Korea, he was a seasoned politician and seemed to know how to compromise.</p>
<p>“We’re aware that Pompeo was one of the strongest voices in the talk of military action and fed Trump related assessments, but things have since changed a lot,” one senior official said, referring to upcoming inter-Korean talks and the prospect of a Kim-Trump summit. “So, we will see.”</p>
<p>Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China hopes the change in personnel will not impact the development of relations and important areas of cooperation.</p>
<p>“We of course hope that the positive momentum on the Korean peninsula, including the political will for talks of both the United States and North Korea, will be maintained,” Lu told a daily news briefing.</p> Slideshow (3 Images) CHINA CONTACT CRUCIAL
<p>Shares in Japanese defense equipment makers rose sharply on speculation that geopolitical tensions may rise after the firing of Tillerson and Pompeo’s appointment. Ishikawa Seisakusho ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=6208.T" type="external">6208.T</a>) surged as much as 15 percent, while Howa Machinery ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=6203.T" type="external">6203.T</a>) jumped 11 percent.</p>
<p>Jia Qingguo, an expert on Chinese diplomacy at Peking University in Beijing, said China may see positive outcomes from the change when it comes to the U.S. position on the Belt and Road initiative, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy initiative.</p>
<p>“Tillerson has at times been quite critical of China, including of Belt and Road,” Jia said. “Trump is not as hawkish on China as many assume. He has tried to communicate and to cut a deal.”</p>
<p>Coming from the CIA, Pompeo is more likely to see China as a threat but his views will probably soften, Jia said.</p>
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<p>“Once you are in the secretary of state position, you need to be more pragmatic and take into account the huge stakes involved, so the impact will not be as big as some people expect.”</p>
<p>Most important for China was that Pompeo makes contact with his Chinese counterparts to ensure a smooth meeting between Kim and Trump as soon as possible, said Ruan Zongze, a former Chinese diplomat now with the China Institute of International Studies, a think tank affiliated with the Foreign Ministry.</p>
<p>“Time is short. There are a lot things to do. Every day is very important,” he said.</p>
<p>Pompeo is also known for his hawkish views on trade. He takes over as the chief U.S. diplomat as the United States is finalizing the imposition of hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum that have upset a number of Asian trading partners.</p>
<p>Close ally Australia, which is working through an exemption from the U.S. tariffs, welcomed Pompeo’s appointment.</p>
<p>“We know him very well,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters. “He’s&#160;a great friend of Australia. The transition will be absolutely&#160;seamless. Our relationship with the United States, as you know, is&#160;outstanding at so many levels from&#160;the president and myself, right&#160;through the military, intelligence, diplomacy and business.”</p>
<p>South Korea is the largest supplier of steel to the United States not to have secured an exemption from the tariffs and is facing pressure from Trump over the two countries’ free-trade deal.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-usa-trump-tillerson-kremlin/russia-hopes-for-constructive-ties-with-u-s-after-tillerson-firing-kremlin-idUSKCN1GQ10M" type="external">Russia hopes for constructive ties with U.S. after Tillerson firing: Kremlin</a>
<p>“It is our joint understanding with the United States that strong cooperation be maintained through close communication between South Korea and the United States regardless of U.S. personnel changes as there are important issues, including the North Korea nuclear issue, the U.S.-South Korea alliance and trade matters,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Colin Packham in SYDNEY, Elaine Lies and Ayai Tomisawa in TOKYO, Josh Smith and Christine Kim in SEOUL, and Christian Shepherd in BEIJING; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Paul Tait and Michael Perry</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TOKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - A gaunt, 92-year-old man in a wheelchair sunbathes in a narrow courtyard, motionless, his eyes closed. Nearby, a few dozen other elderly men with short grey hair exercise slowly as an instructor gently calls out, “Don’t strain yourselves.”</p>
<p>The man in the wheelchair is not in a nursing home.</p>
<p>He is in prison, serving a life sentence for murder and rape. The others nearby are serving time for serious crimes too, including murder.</p>
<p>Their prison, in Tokushima, 520 km (325 miles) west of Tokyo, converted a building to house elderly inmates, putting itself at the forefront of an effort to cope with Japan’s greying prisoner population.</p>
<p>The number of prisoners aged 60 or older has risen 7 percent from a decade ago to 9,308, and made up 19 percent of the entire prison population in Japan in 2016. That compares with only 6 percent of that age bracket in the United States, and about 11 percent in South Korea.</p>
<p>A sizeable chunk of elderly inmates are repeat offenders, which experts say reflects the difficulties of finding jobs after release and coping with the uncertainty freedom brings.</p>
<p>“I have a heart condition and used to collapse often at the (prison) factory,” said an 81-year-old inmate at Tokushima, imprisoned for life for killing a taxi driver and injuring another person six decades ago. Prison rules forbid publishing his name.</p>
<p>He and about two dozen other prisoners live, eat and work in the special building set aside for elderly prisoners who cannot do regular work such as making shoes and underwear.</p>
<p>In a rare look inside a Japanese prison, Reuters visited the Tokushima facility and interviewed inmates who spend most of their days in large cells that sleep four or five, engaged in paper-folding projects and other light tasks.</p>
<p>Workers chop up noodles and other foods for those who have difficulty chewing and swallowing. The prison also employs a caregiver trained in working with the elderly for those in its hospital ward, including the 92-year-old man serving a life sentence.</p>
<p>Despite his life sentence, the 81-year-old has been released twice on parole, but wound up back in prison after being caught drinking alcohol, a parole violation. He hopes he will be paroled again so he can see his 103-year-old mother.</p>
<p>“I want to get out of the prison while she’s still alive,” he said. “That’s all I want.”</p> NO TALKING
<p>The Ministry of Justice said it didn’t have information on what changes prisons have made to adapt to elderly prisoners, as such decisions are up to each facility.</p>
<p>Calls to 13 of Japan’s major prisons showed that none of the others has a separate facility where aged prisoners are allowed to sleep and work in their cells, instead of marching every morning to a prison factory. But many have taken steps.</p> A 92-year-old man in a wheel chair, imprisoned for life in the Tokushima prison, for murder, rape and other offences, exercises with a care worker in a courtyard at the Tokushima prison in Tokushima, Japan, March 2, 2018. Picture taken March 2, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
<p>When the prison in Takamatsu, a city in western Japan, built a new three-story building in 2010, for example, it set aside the first floor for elderly prisoners. There is no difference in the floor level between cells and hallways, to assist inmates with impaired mobility.</p>
<p>The Tokushima prison tries to ensure that ageing prisoners stay healthy without making conditions too comfortable, said Kenji Yamaguchi, the treatment director there.</p>
<p>Talking is forbidden during working hours, cells have no air conditioning, and prisoners can only bathe twice a week in winter and three times a week in summer.</p>
<p>“As they await their eventual release, we also want to see them leave in good health,” Yamaguchi said. “Some may think we are cutting them too much slack. But their freedom is still restricted considerably. It’s not exactly a comfortable life.”</p> Slideshow (20 Images) ‘MEALS AND A ROOM’
<p>But returning to life “on the outside” can be tough for older men.</p>
<p>About a quarter of inmates 65 and older end up back in prison within two years, the highest of any age group, according to government data tracking those released in 2015.</p>
<p>“If you are young, you can find a job and have a chance to lead a normal life,” said Yasuyuki Deguchi, a professor at Tokyo Future University. “The lack of employment opportunities combined with labelling as an ex-convict makes reintegration difficult for the elderly.”</p>
<p>Of those jailed in 2016, 36 percent of those older than 60 were in prison for at least the sixth time, far higher than the 16 percent for all prisoners incarcerated that year. The next biggest group is first-time offenders, who accounted for 29 percent of prisoners 60 and older.</p>
<p>Police data in South Korea show that about 15 percent of those aged 65 or older who committed a crime in 2016 had been convicted at least five times already.</p>
<p>A 71-year-old ex-prisoner who was in jail seven times for theft and fraud said a lack of jobs and shelter drove him to back to crime.</p>
<p>“There are few jobs once you’ve passed 65. As long as you’ve got a job and a place to live in, you can get by. Without them, you turn to shoplifting and stealing just to put food in your mouth,” he said.</p>
<p>“I personally know people who willingly go back to prison,” said the man, who is staying at a halfway house in Tokyo after being released from prison in October.&#160;“As long as you are in prison, you get meals and a room.”</p>
<p>Seven and a half years through a 13-year sentence for murder, a man in his early 70s in the Tokushima prison said he was already bracing for the day he gets out.</p>
<p>“To be honest, I feel nothing but anxiety,” he said. “I have misgivings and concerns that it’s going to be difficult adaptation to the outside world. I don’t even know anything about smart phones.</p>
<p>“I must try not to think that I could be better off staying here.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Takashi Umekawa; Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Linda Sieg, Malcolm Foster and Gerry Doyle</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May’s response to Russia after a nerve agent attack on British soil is unlikely to trouble Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin unduly, despite the expression of outrage that greeted it in Moscow.</p> Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street, in London, March 13, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
<p>After the first known use of a military-grade nerve toxin on British soil since World War Two, May expelled 23 Russian spies using diplomatic cover and promised to freeze Russian State assets if they were used to threaten British interests.</p>
<p>May also said Britain would work on new powers to defend against hostile state activity, beef up counter espionage powers and cut back official participation in the soccer World Cup. Other measures may be considered, she said.</p>
<p>But her announcement, just days before an election in which Putin, a former KGB officer, is expected to coast to a fourth term, gave no examples of Russian officials or companies that would be targeted or barred from London’s financial center.</p>
<p>London remains open to Russian investment, albeit with a political chill. Other than the expulsions, May went no further than current EU sanctions which include travel restrictions and asset freezes against 150 people and 38 companies.</p>
<p>“The Kremlin will understand this as a very mild response,” said Mathieu Boulègue, a Russia expert at Chatham House think-tank in London. “Putin is unlikely to be worried by this.”</p>
<p>A senior British government official said further options remained on the table: “Economic, diplomatic, legislative, and our security capabilities can all be brought to bear if needed.”</p>
<p>But after days of full-volume rhetoric from London about the suspected Russian attack and a midnight deadline that Moscow scorned, May has shown just how little appetite Britain has for a fight on the eve of Brexit.</p>
<p>While the United States and European Union joined criticism of Moscow - albeit with a delayed response from U.S. President Donald Trump - there was little evidence of appetite in Paris, Berlin or Washington for anything beyond a scolding.</p> Russian president Vladimir Putin addresses the audience during a rally marking the fourth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea, March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
<p>Russia denied any involvement in the attack and simply declined to say anything about how a Soviet-era nerve toxin ended up striking down a former double agent on the normally genteel streets of the English city of Salisbury.</p>
<p>The foreign ministry described May’s measures as a flagrant provocation and promised a speedy response.</p>
<p>If Russia - or Russians - were behind the nerve attack, some of their aims may have been achieved: Britain has shown just how little power it is willing to exercise while every Kremlin opponent will be more nervous about retribution.</p>
<p>For many Russian experts, the attack on Sergei Skripal, a former GRU military intelligence officer who betrayed dozens of Russian agents to MI6, was a test for Britain after years of turning a blind eye to the reality of modern Russia.</p>
<p>Part of that policy is due to money.</p>
<p>One of the biggest exports since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union was money and London, as one of the top two financial capitals in the world, is a major beneficiary.</p> Related Video
<p>London, or Londongrad as it is sometimes dubbed, is the Western capital of choice for the oligarchs and Russian officials who flaunt their wealth across Europe’s most luxurious destinations.</p>
<p>France, with its own business ties to Russia, has been more muted on the issue of Russian involvement in the attack on Skripal than Germany or the United States.</p>
<p>“Britain has tied itself up in knots,” said a French official who spoke on condition of anonymity.</p>
<p>“It’s had a very open policy on Russian private investment and émigrés for years and now it wants European to offer support in taking steps against Moscow. This is for them (Britain) to respond to. It’s shocking that it happened, but ultimately it’s up to Britain.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Paris and Elizabeth Piper in London; editing by Philippa Fletcher</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
| 4,793 |
<p>At least 147 people were killed and many more wounded when a wall collapsed at the Chamunda Devi temple in Jodhpur, India, setting off a stampede of devotees there to observe the Hindu Navaratra festival on Tuesday.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>There have been a number of recent deadly stampedes at Indian temples.</p>
<p>At least 147 people were killed and many more wounded when a wall collapsed at the Chamunda Devi temple in Jodhpur, India, setting off a stampede of panicked devotees there to observe the Hindu Navaratra festival.</p>
<p />
<p>The BBC’s Damian Grammaticas in Delhi says this is the fourth time this year that lives had been lost – probably needlessly – during a stampede at a religious festival in India.</p>
<p>He says crowd control at such events is usually rudimentary and the police simply not trained in effective crowd management.</p>
<p>Last month 140 pilgrims were killed in a stampede at a mountain temple in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7643373.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p>
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More Than 140 Killed in Stampede at Indian Temple
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/more-than-140-killed-in-stampede-at-indian-temple/
|
2008-10-01
| 4left
|
More Than 140 Killed in Stampede at Indian Temple
<p>At least 147 people were killed and many more wounded when a wall collapsed at the Chamunda Devi temple in Jodhpur, India, setting off a stampede of devotees there to observe the Hindu Navaratra festival on Tuesday.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>There have been a number of recent deadly stampedes at Indian temples.</p>
<p>At least 147 people were killed and many more wounded when a wall collapsed at the Chamunda Devi temple in Jodhpur, India, setting off a stampede of panicked devotees there to observe the Hindu Navaratra festival.</p>
<p />
<p>The BBC’s Damian Grammaticas in Delhi says this is the fourth time this year that lives had been lost – probably needlessly – during a stampede at a religious festival in India.</p>
<p>He says crowd control at such events is usually rudimentary and the police simply not trained in effective crowd management.</p>
<p>Last month 140 pilgrims were killed in a stampede at a mountain temple in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7643373.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p>
| 4,794 |
<p>Photo Credit: Nenad Novacic / Shutterstock</p>
<p>FEMA says it is not their responsibility to distribute food and water to Puerto Rican survivors of Maria and Irma, according to a&#160; <a href="//www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/d-block-puerto-rico-1067297859792" type="external">recent report by Rachel Maddow</a>.&#160; They can’t be serious?! Oh yes, they are.&#160; &#160;</p>
<p />
<p>That was the response Rachel got when FEMA was asked&#160;why it has been almost 3 weeks since the last hurricane hit Aibonito, a small town high in the mountains about an hour south of San Juan, and FEMA has yet to deliver a single bottle of water.</p>
<p>FEMA claims the roads aren’t passable, &#160; For the record, when I say “about an hour south” I mean Google Maps puts the drive —&#160;right now —&#160;at 1 hour and 5 minutes if I take the autopista (highway).&#160; BUT it also says there are portions of the road that are closed.&#160; Soooo you have to take route 173 and that takes 1 hour and 24 minutes.&#160; Maybe Google is wrong, right?&#160; It would be nice if someone on the ground could actually make the trip…. oh wait…&#160;what’s that?&#160;&#160;The MSNBC film crew already made the trip and&#160;it took them “about an hour and a half.”&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>As the MSNBC&#160;video shows, they got there no problem because the road was clear.&#160;No bridges out, no trees in the way, no mudslides, no raging rivers.&#160; Not even bad hombres.&#160;I realize the last menace&#160;would be Mexicans and there shouldn’t be any Mexicans clogging up the roads in Puerto Rico right now. But we all know to the Trump Klan, Puerto Ricans are just Island Mexicans, so they probably worry about that sort of thing.</p>
<p>Presented with the fact of Maddow’s team having video evidence directly contradicting their claims,&#160; FEMA&#160;then&#160;dropped this&#160;bombshell:&#160;Apparently, FEMA&#160;says&#160;it is the mayor’s job to distribute food and water. They are just there to help people fill out paperwork. Forget the fact that about half of the people in Puerto Rico have no access to clean water. Forget the fact that it is <a href="https://www.telemundopr.com/noticias/destacados/Confirman-muertes-por-Leptospirosis-en-Puerto-Rico_TLMD---Puerto-Rico-449937663.html" type="external">&#160;now confirmed that people are dying</a>&#160;from waterborne diseases like leptospirosis because they lack potable water. Forget the fact mayors in small towns didn’t even have satellite phones until a couple days ago.&#160; Forget the fact mayors don’t have fleets of trucks at their disposal. They sure as hell don’t have gas for the trucks they do have.&#160; Oh…&#160;and when they do, look out the window because the situation can always change on you.&#160; That picture above was from Monday in downtown Santurce, on&#160;Fernández Juncos, looking towards Isla Grande airport in Miramar.&#160; Good thing FEMA doesn’t have to deal with that.&#160; We’d really be screwed.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s just too damn bad.&#160; A real tragedy.&#160; If only there was something we could do. If only FEMA could help.&#160; Yeah, I know.&#160; That’s hard to swallow. Especially when FOX News&#160; <a href="//www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/fema-distributes-food-water-in-polk-co" type="external">reported THIS about FEMA in Lakeland, FL</a>&#160;responding to the crisis following a recent hurricane that hit there</p>
<p>LAKELAND (FOX 13)&#160;- People who are worn out from Hurricane Irma are getting help in Polk County.</p>
<p>On Friday, FEMA starting handing out free food and water at 11 different sites around the county, including Victory Church.</p>
<p>A long line of cars formed at 8 a.m., and continued throughout the day. Many of the people who came still don’t have electricity.</p>
<p>The difference?&#160; Unlike Aibonito, Lakeland is&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeland,_Florida#Demographics" type="external">over 70% white, and that is the darkest part of Polk County.</a>&#160; But I’m sure that has&#160;nothing&#160;&#160;to do with it.&#160; While we are pretending this isn’t the most racist federal government in 70 years, explain something to me Mike Pence, you shameless hypocrite.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-latest-virgin-islands-governor-praises-maria-response/2017/10/06/da6a085a-aab0-11e7-9a98-07140d2eed02_story.html?utm_term=.a06a2e183f3e" type="external">When you stood in a House of God in Puerto Rico and declared from the pulpit</a>&#160;after reading scripture:</p>
<p>“We are with you today, we are with you tomorrow.”</p>
<p>Were you being literal?&#160; Did you only mean you were with Puerto Ricans until October 8th?&#160; I ask because shortly after you went off to do your Sunday Football PR stunt, you guys let the Jones Act reactivate. Not only did you throw up a choke point&#160;on every domestic relief operation heading towards Puerto Rico,&#160;you also raised&#160;the prices on EVERYTHING coming in to Puerto Rico at a time when people are desperately trying to get stuff to family and friends stranded on an island. In the middle of water. Big water. Ocean water.&#160; You know this isn’t like Lakeland Florida where folks can drive to Georgia if they need to.&#160; Way to go, douchebag.</p>
<p>I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked by this.&#160; I mean, yeah you guys are a bunch of white supremacists and all, but this sure doesn’t sound like the Christian thing to do.&#160; Especially from a guy who has the balls to let his wife lead a church in prayer after reading a bible passage that says:</p>
<p>“Love one another with mutual affection.”&#160;</p>
<p>I’ll be honest.&#160; I’m not shocked.&#160; Not even a little bit.&#160; This confirms what I have been saying all along.&#160;</p>
<p>The game plan in Puerto Rico is clear.</p>
<p>The sons of bitches are going to grind those poor bastards into dust, trigger a mass exodus of those who can afford to leave, and then swoop in and buy up the land at fire sale prices so they can build high priced condos to use as real estate for their next international money laundering scheme.</p>
<p>What surprises me? There are still Puerto Ricans who think the most racist government in 70 years is going to help them.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
|
FEMA: 'Not Our Job to Deliver Water and Food' to Puerto Ricans
| true |
https://alternet.org/news-amp-politics/fema-not-our-job-deliver-water-and-food?src%3Dnewsletter1083840
|
2017-10-12
| 4left
|
FEMA: 'Not Our Job to Deliver Water and Food' to Puerto Ricans
<p>Photo Credit: Nenad Novacic / Shutterstock</p>
<p>FEMA says it is not their responsibility to distribute food and water to Puerto Rican survivors of Maria and Irma, according to a&#160; <a href="//www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/d-block-puerto-rico-1067297859792" type="external">recent report by Rachel Maddow</a>.&#160; They can’t be serious?! Oh yes, they are.&#160; &#160;</p>
<p />
<p>That was the response Rachel got when FEMA was asked&#160;why it has been almost 3 weeks since the last hurricane hit Aibonito, a small town high in the mountains about an hour south of San Juan, and FEMA has yet to deliver a single bottle of water.</p>
<p>FEMA claims the roads aren’t passable, &#160; For the record, when I say “about an hour south” I mean Google Maps puts the drive —&#160;right now —&#160;at 1 hour and 5 minutes if I take the autopista (highway).&#160; BUT it also says there are portions of the road that are closed.&#160; Soooo you have to take route 173 and that takes 1 hour and 24 minutes.&#160; Maybe Google is wrong, right?&#160; It would be nice if someone on the ground could actually make the trip…. oh wait…&#160;what’s that?&#160;&#160;The MSNBC film crew already made the trip and&#160;it took them “about an hour and a half.”&#160;&#160;</p>
<p>As the MSNBC&#160;video shows, they got there no problem because the road was clear.&#160;No bridges out, no trees in the way, no mudslides, no raging rivers.&#160; Not even bad hombres.&#160;I realize the last menace&#160;would be Mexicans and there shouldn’t be any Mexicans clogging up the roads in Puerto Rico right now. But we all know to the Trump Klan, Puerto Ricans are just Island Mexicans, so they probably worry about that sort of thing.</p>
<p>Presented with the fact of Maddow’s team having video evidence directly contradicting their claims,&#160; FEMA&#160;then&#160;dropped this&#160;bombshell:&#160;Apparently, FEMA&#160;says&#160;it is the mayor’s job to distribute food and water. They are just there to help people fill out paperwork. Forget the fact that about half of the people in Puerto Rico have no access to clean water. Forget the fact that it is <a href="https://www.telemundopr.com/noticias/destacados/Confirman-muertes-por-Leptospirosis-en-Puerto-Rico_TLMD---Puerto-Rico-449937663.html" type="external">&#160;now confirmed that people are dying</a>&#160;from waterborne diseases like leptospirosis because they lack potable water. Forget the fact mayors in small towns didn’t even have satellite phones until a couple days ago.&#160; Forget the fact mayors don’t have fleets of trucks at their disposal. They sure as hell don’t have gas for the trucks they do have.&#160; Oh…&#160;and when they do, look out the window because the situation can always change on you.&#160; That picture above was from Monday in downtown Santurce, on&#160;Fernández Juncos, looking towards Isla Grande airport in Miramar.&#160; Good thing FEMA doesn’t have to deal with that.&#160; We’d really be screwed.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s just too damn bad.&#160; A real tragedy.&#160; If only there was something we could do. If only FEMA could help.&#160; Yeah, I know.&#160; That’s hard to swallow. Especially when FOX News&#160; <a href="//www.fox13news.com/news/local-news/fema-distributes-food-water-in-polk-co" type="external">reported THIS about FEMA in Lakeland, FL</a>&#160;responding to the crisis following a recent hurricane that hit there</p>
<p>LAKELAND (FOX 13)&#160;- People who are worn out from Hurricane Irma are getting help in Polk County.</p>
<p>On Friday, FEMA starting handing out free food and water at 11 different sites around the county, including Victory Church.</p>
<p>A long line of cars formed at 8 a.m., and continued throughout the day. Many of the people who came still don’t have electricity.</p>
<p>The difference?&#160; Unlike Aibonito, Lakeland is&#160; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeland,_Florida#Demographics" type="external">over 70% white, and that is the darkest part of Polk County.</a>&#160; But I’m sure that has&#160;nothing&#160;&#160;to do with it.&#160; While we are pretending this isn’t the most racist federal government in 70 years, explain something to me Mike Pence, you shameless hypocrite.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-latest-virgin-islands-governor-praises-maria-response/2017/10/06/da6a085a-aab0-11e7-9a98-07140d2eed02_story.html?utm_term=.a06a2e183f3e" type="external">When you stood in a House of God in Puerto Rico and declared from the pulpit</a>&#160;after reading scripture:</p>
<p>“We are with you today, we are with you tomorrow.”</p>
<p>Were you being literal?&#160; Did you only mean you were with Puerto Ricans until October 8th?&#160; I ask because shortly after you went off to do your Sunday Football PR stunt, you guys let the Jones Act reactivate. Not only did you throw up a choke point&#160;on every domestic relief operation heading towards Puerto Rico,&#160;you also raised&#160;the prices on EVERYTHING coming in to Puerto Rico at a time when people are desperately trying to get stuff to family and friends stranded on an island. In the middle of water. Big water. Ocean water.&#160; You know this isn’t like Lakeland Florida where folks can drive to Georgia if they need to.&#160; Way to go, douchebag.</p>
<p>I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked by this.&#160; I mean, yeah you guys are a bunch of white supremacists and all, but this sure doesn’t sound like the Christian thing to do.&#160; Especially from a guy who has the balls to let his wife lead a church in prayer after reading a bible passage that says:</p>
<p>“Love one another with mutual affection.”&#160;</p>
<p>I’ll be honest.&#160; I’m not shocked.&#160; Not even a little bit.&#160; This confirms what I have been saying all along.&#160;</p>
<p>The game plan in Puerto Rico is clear.</p>
<p>The sons of bitches are going to grind those poor bastards into dust, trigger a mass exodus of those who can afford to leave, and then swoop in and buy up the land at fire sale prices so they can build high priced condos to use as real estate for their next international money laundering scheme.</p>
<p>What surprises me? There are still Puerto Ricans who think the most racist government in 70 years is going to help them.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
| 4,795 |
<p>Four people have been hospitalized in Spain to try to stem the spread of Ebola after a Spanish nurse became the first person in the world known to have contracted the virus outside of Africa, health authorities said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The nurse, who tested positive for the virus on Monday, her husband, who is showing no symptoms of the disease, and two other people are being closely monitored in hospital, health officials told a news conference in Madrid.</p>
<p>One of those hospitalized is a health worker who has diarrhea but no fever. The other is a Spaniard who traveled from Nigeria, said Rafael Perez-Santamaria, head of the Carlos III Hospital where the infected nurse treated two Spanish missionaries who contracted the disease in Africa.</p>
<p>With concerns growing around the world of the Ebola pandemic spreading beyond West Africa, the Spanish officials sought to reassure the public that they were tackling the threat.</p>
<p>Twenty-two people who came into contact with the nurse are being monitored, Perez-Santamaria said. They have not been isolated but they are having their temperature taken twice a day to check for signs of infection.</p>
<p>Officials said they were still investigating how the nurse was infected.</p>
<p>She went on holiday after the second of the missionaries she had been caring for died on Sept. 25, although, they stressed, she had not left Madrid.</p>
<p>She began feeling ill on Sept. 30 and was diagnosed with Ebola on Monday.</p>
<p>"This has taken us by surprise," said Perez-Santamaria. "We are revising our protocols, improving them."</p>
<p>A spokesman for the European Commission said the case would be discussed at an EU Health Security Committee meeting on Wednesday.</p>
<p>"The priority remains to find out what actually happened," he said.</p>
<p>Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at Britain's University of Nottingham, said the nurse should not have contracted the deadly disease if appropriate containment and control measures had been taken.</p>
<p>"It will be crucial to find out what went wrong in this case so necessary measures can be taken to ensure it doesn't happen again," he told Reuters.</p>
<p>The nurse is being treated with antibodies from previous infected patients, Perez-Santamaria said.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Editing by Julien Toyer and Robin Pomeroy)</p>
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4 people are hospitalized in Spain after first Ebola transmission outside of Africa
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2014-10-07/4-people-are-hospitalized-spain-after-first-ebola-transmission-outside-africa
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2014-10-07
| 3left-center
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4 people are hospitalized in Spain after first Ebola transmission outside of Africa
<p>Four people have been hospitalized in Spain to try to stem the spread of Ebola after a Spanish nurse became the first person in the world known to have contracted the virus outside of Africa, health authorities said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The nurse, who tested positive for the virus on Monday, her husband, who is showing no symptoms of the disease, and two other people are being closely monitored in hospital, health officials told a news conference in Madrid.</p>
<p>One of those hospitalized is a health worker who has diarrhea but no fever. The other is a Spaniard who traveled from Nigeria, said Rafael Perez-Santamaria, head of the Carlos III Hospital where the infected nurse treated two Spanish missionaries who contracted the disease in Africa.</p>
<p>With concerns growing around the world of the Ebola pandemic spreading beyond West Africa, the Spanish officials sought to reassure the public that they were tackling the threat.</p>
<p>Twenty-two people who came into contact with the nurse are being monitored, Perez-Santamaria said. They have not been isolated but they are having their temperature taken twice a day to check for signs of infection.</p>
<p>Officials said they were still investigating how the nurse was infected.</p>
<p>She went on holiday after the second of the missionaries she had been caring for died on Sept. 25, although, they stressed, she had not left Madrid.</p>
<p>She began feeling ill on Sept. 30 and was diagnosed with Ebola on Monday.</p>
<p>"This has taken us by surprise," said Perez-Santamaria. "We are revising our protocols, improving them."</p>
<p>A spokesman for the European Commission said the case would be discussed at an EU Health Security Committee meeting on Wednesday.</p>
<p>"The priority remains to find out what actually happened," he said.</p>
<p>Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at Britain's University of Nottingham, said the nurse should not have contracted the deadly disease if appropriate containment and control measures had been taken.</p>
<p>"It will be crucial to find out what went wrong in this case so necessary measures can be taken to ensure it doesn't happen again," he told Reuters.</p>
<p>The nurse is being treated with antibodies from previous infected patients, Perez-Santamaria said.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Editing by Julien Toyer and Robin Pomeroy)</p>
| 4,796 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>So much for that “post-racial society” that we keep hearing about. The most recent injustice? Three African American teens were arrested for standing outside a store in downtown Rochester, New York. If this were not an egregious enough example of police racism, these young men were there for one reason and one reason alone: WAITING FOR THEIR SCHOOL BUS.</p>
<p>But that didn’t matter as a Rochester police officers arrested the three boys — Raliek Redd, 16, Deaquon Carelock, 16, and Wan’Tauhjs Weathers, 17 — all star athletes at Edison Tech high school. The three were guilty of waiting to be taken to a basketball game when the white officer decided they needed to be made an example of for their blatant standing in front of a store with predominantly white shoppers.</p>
<p>The cop told the youths to disperse, but they explained that they were waiting for their bus to be taken to a school game. The officer said hew as giving them one last warning to leave and then he arrested them.</p>
<p>“We tried to tell them that we were waiting for the bus,”&#160;Wan’Tauhjs explained WHEC. “We weren’t catching a city bus,” he said further, “we were catching a yellow bus. He didn’t care. He arrested us anyways.”</p>
<p>Jacob Scott, the varsity basketball coach of the teens, saw what was happening and got involved, trying to reason with the racist cop.</p>
<p>“He goes on to say, ‘If you don’t disperse, you’re going to get booked as well,”&#160;Scott told the local news. “I said, ‘Sir, I’m the adult. I’m their varsity basketball coach. How can you book me? What am I doing wrong? Matter of fact, what are these guys doing wrong?'”</p>
<p>Surprisingly, the local school board has come to the defense of the boys and their coach, calling this institutionalized police racism “nothing new.”</p>
<p>“I’m very concerned about a pattern of young people being abused by police authority,” Rochester City School Board Member Mary Adams&#160;is quoted as saying. “To me, this seems like a really clear case, part of a pattern.”</p>
<p>The boys have been charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing a sidewalk. Racism is alive and well. SPREAD THE WORD and DEMAND JUSTICE!</p>
<p>(Article by Shante Wooten; image via local WHEC)</p>
|
Three Teens Arrested For Waiting For The School Bus While Black
| true |
http://politicalblindspot.com/three-teens-arrested-for-waiting-for-the-school-bus-while-black/
|
2013-12-02
| 4left
|
Three Teens Arrested For Waiting For The School Bus While Black
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>So much for that “post-racial society” that we keep hearing about. The most recent injustice? Three African American teens were arrested for standing outside a store in downtown Rochester, New York. If this were not an egregious enough example of police racism, these young men were there for one reason and one reason alone: WAITING FOR THEIR SCHOOL BUS.</p>
<p>But that didn’t matter as a Rochester police officers arrested the three boys — Raliek Redd, 16, Deaquon Carelock, 16, and Wan’Tauhjs Weathers, 17 — all star athletes at Edison Tech high school. The three were guilty of waiting to be taken to a basketball game when the white officer decided they needed to be made an example of for their blatant standing in front of a store with predominantly white shoppers.</p>
<p>The cop told the youths to disperse, but they explained that they were waiting for their bus to be taken to a school game. The officer said hew as giving them one last warning to leave and then he arrested them.</p>
<p>“We tried to tell them that we were waiting for the bus,”&#160;Wan’Tauhjs explained WHEC. “We weren’t catching a city bus,” he said further, “we were catching a yellow bus. He didn’t care. He arrested us anyways.”</p>
<p>Jacob Scott, the varsity basketball coach of the teens, saw what was happening and got involved, trying to reason with the racist cop.</p>
<p>“He goes on to say, ‘If you don’t disperse, you’re going to get booked as well,”&#160;Scott told the local news. “I said, ‘Sir, I’m the adult. I’m their varsity basketball coach. How can you book me? What am I doing wrong? Matter of fact, what are these guys doing wrong?'”</p>
<p>Surprisingly, the local school board has come to the defense of the boys and their coach, calling this institutionalized police racism “nothing new.”</p>
<p>“I’m very concerned about a pattern of young people being abused by police authority,” Rochester City School Board Member Mary Adams&#160;is quoted as saying. “To me, this seems like a really clear case, part of a pattern.”</p>
<p>The boys have been charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing a sidewalk. Racism is alive and well. SPREAD THE WORD and DEMAND JUSTICE!</p>
<p>(Article by Shante Wooten; image via local WHEC)</p>
| 4,797 |
<p>STONY BROOK, N.Y. (AP) — For one suburban New York family, Christmas Eve is turning into a tradition of very special deliveries.</p>
<p>Newsday <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/baby-christmas-eve-1.15628056?pts=267015" type="external">says</a> Stony Brook residents Jacki and Josh Grossman had their second son on Sunday, four years after their first son arrived.</p>
<p>Baby Elliott and older brother Oliver were delivered at Stony Brook University Hospital by Dr. Phil Schoenfeld. The doctor has worked Christmas Eve at the hospital for the past 17 years.</p>
<p>Jacki Grossman says she “couldn’t feel more blessed” than to have her boys share such a special day. She says, “It must have been meant to be.”</p>
<p>Oliver says he doesn’t mind sharing his birthday with his new brother. His mother says he ran around the hospital spreading the news.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Newsday, <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external">http://www.newsday.com</a></p>
<p>STONY BROOK, N.Y. (AP) — For one suburban New York family, Christmas Eve is turning into a tradition of very special deliveries.</p>
<p>Newsday <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/baby-christmas-eve-1.15628056?pts=267015" type="external">says</a> Stony Brook residents Jacki and Josh Grossman had their second son on Sunday, four years after their first son arrived.</p>
<p>Baby Elliott and older brother Oliver were delivered at Stony Brook University Hospital by Dr. Phil Schoenfeld. The doctor has worked Christmas Eve at the hospital for the past 17 years.</p>
<p>Jacki Grossman says she “couldn’t feel more blessed” than to have her boys share such a special day. She says, “It must have been meant to be.”</p>
<p>Oliver says he doesn’t mind sharing his birthday with his new brother. His mother says he ran around the hospital spreading the news.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Newsday, <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external">http://www.newsday.com</a></p>
|
Special delivery: Family welcomes 2nd Christmas Eve baby
| false |
https://apnews.com/6cf159ab388b48399579b584e2eb6034
|
2017-12-27
| 2least
|
Special delivery: Family welcomes 2nd Christmas Eve baby
<p>STONY BROOK, N.Y. (AP) — For one suburban New York family, Christmas Eve is turning into a tradition of very special deliveries.</p>
<p>Newsday <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/baby-christmas-eve-1.15628056?pts=267015" type="external">says</a> Stony Brook residents Jacki and Josh Grossman had their second son on Sunday, four years after their first son arrived.</p>
<p>Baby Elliott and older brother Oliver were delivered at Stony Brook University Hospital by Dr. Phil Schoenfeld. The doctor has worked Christmas Eve at the hospital for the past 17 years.</p>
<p>Jacki Grossman says she “couldn’t feel more blessed” than to have her boys share such a special day. She says, “It must have been meant to be.”</p>
<p>Oliver says he doesn’t mind sharing his birthday with his new brother. His mother says he ran around the hospital spreading the news.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Newsday, <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external">http://www.newsday.com</a></p>
<p>STONY BROOK, N.Y. (AP) — For one suburban New York family, Christmas Eve is turning into a tradition of very special deliveries.</p>
<p>Newsday <a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/baby-christmas-eve-1.15628056?pts=267015" type="external">says</a> Stony Brook residents Jacki and Josh Grossman had their second son on Sunday, four years after their first son arrived.</p>
<p>Baby Elliott and older brother Oliver were delivered at Stony Brook University Hospital by Dr. Phil Schoenfeld. The doctor has worked Christmas Eve at the hospital for the past 17 years.</p>
<p>Jacki Grossman says she “couldn’t feel more blessed” than to have her boys share such a special day. She says, “It must have been meant to be.”</p>
<p>Oliver says he doesn’t mind sharing his birthday with his new brother. His mother says he ran around the hospital spreading the news.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Newsday, <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.newsday.com" type="external">http://www.newsday.com</a></p>
| 4,798 |
<p>COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — No. 17 Texas A&amp;M trailed No. 6 Tennessee by two points late in overtime when Aggies guard Danni Williams, with three free throws upcoming, did her best to keep her composure.</p>
<p>“I thought I was going to throw up,” Williams admitted afterward with a grin. “I knew I just needed to breathe and relax, and treat them like everyday free throws.”</p>
<p>Williams coolly sank all three and scored seven points total in overtime, and the Aggies toppled the Lady Vols 79-76 on Thursday night to hand Tennessee its first defeat of the season.</p>
<p>The Aggies (14-4, 3-1 Southeastern Conference), who led 69-62 with 6:41 left in regulation, missed 18 consecutive shots from the field late in the game before recovering in the extra period thanks to Williams’ clutch free throw shooting.</p>
<p>She made all five of her attempts from the line in overtime, including when she was fouled on a 3-point attempt with the Aggies trailing 76-74 and 7.8 seconds remaining.</p>
<p>“Yes, we were dead tired and, yes, I probably should have subbed more,” Texas A&amp;M coach Gary Blair said. “But this team is used to playing those kinds of minutes, and every possession was so important.”</p>
<p>Following a timeout, Tennessee had the ball on its end of the court with a chance to win, but Evina Westbrook threw a pass along the left side that bounced out of bounds in front of the Lady Vols bench, resulting in a turnover.</p>
<p>“You’ve got to at least get a shot off there, and we didn’t,” Tennessee coach Holly Warlick said. “It’s another learning opportunity for us.”</p>
<p>Williams was fouled with 0.4 seconds left and made both free throws. She and Khaalia Hillsman each scored 22 points to lead A&amp;M, and Chennedy Carter added 21.</p>
<p>Mercedes Russell led the Lady Vols (15-1, 3-1) with 21.</p>
<p>“It was a battle,” Hillsman said of her touted showdown with Russell in the paint. “Just back and forth.”</p>
<p>So was the game. The lead changed 17 times and the teams were tied on 10 occasions in an edge-of-your-seat contest.</p>
<p>“We’ll go back and get better,” Warlick said. “Hats off to A&amp;M, they battled and they got the win. Both teams were getting after it. It was a fun game, and our young kids will learn from this.”</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M won against a top-10 team for the first time since Nov. 30, 2014, when the Aggies defeated No. 8 Duke 63-59 in College Station.</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>Tennessee: All is certainly not lost for the Lady Vols, despite their first setback of the season. Texas A&amp;M won a national title under Blair in 2011, so the Aggies are no pushovers in league play. Tennessee will no doubt learn from the tight loss and continue pushing on in trying to win its ninth national championship, and first since 2008.</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies needed this one to boost their confidence, considering their two previous victories in SEC play came against unranked opponents in Kentucky and Auburn.</p>
<p>POLL IMPLICATIONS</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies won their third straight and are bound to climb in the rankings after beating the No. 6 team.</p>
<p>Tennessee: The Lady Vols might drop a bit from No. 6, but pollsters will keep in mind it was a tight game on the road against a quality foe.</p>
<p>STAT OF THE NIGHT</p>
<p>Tennessee kept it close by outscoring A&amp;M 16-0 off the bench.</p>
<p>HE SAID IT</p>
<p>“We’re not in this thing to win games. We’re in this thing to win championships.” — Blair on handing Tennessee its first loss.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Tennessee: The Lady Vols’ challenging road schedule continues when they play at No. 9 South Carolina on Sunday.</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies play a second consecutive home game when Georgia visits Reed Arena on Sunday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p><a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a>For more AP college basketball coverage: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and</p>
<p>COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — No. 17 Texas A&amp;M trailed No. 6 Tennessee by two points late in overtime when Aggies guard Danni Williams, with three free throws upcoming, did her best to keep her composure.</p>
<p>“I thought I was going to throw up,” Williams admitted afterward with a grin. “I knew I just needed to breathe and relax, and treat them like everyday free throws.”</p>
<p>Williams coolly sank all three and scored seven points total in overtime, and the Aggies toppled the Lady Vols 79-76 on Thursday night to hand Tennessee its first defeat of the season.</p>
<p>The Aggies (14-4, 3-1 Southeastern Conference), who led 69-62 with 6:41 left in regulation, missed 18 consecutive shots from the field late in the game before recovering in the extra period thanks to Williams’ clutch free throw shooting.</p>
<p>She made all five of her attempts from the line in overtime, including when she was fouled on a 3-point attempt with the Aggies trailing 76-74 and 7.8 seconds remaining.</p>
<p>“Yes, we were dead tired and, yes, I probably should have subbed more,” Texas A&amp;M coach Gary Blair said. “But this team is used to playing those kinds of minutes, and every possession was so important.”</p>
<p>Following a timeout, Tennessee had the ball on its end of the court with a chance to win, but Evina Westbrook threw a pass along the left side that bounced out of bounds in front of the Lady Vols bench, resulting in a turnover.</p>
<p>“You’ve got to at least get a shot off there, and we didn’t,” Tennessee coach Holly Warlick said. “It’s another learning opportunity for us.”</p>
<p>Williams was fouled with 0.4 seconds left and made both free throws. She and Khaalia Hillsman each scored 22 points to lead A&amp;M, and Chennedy Carter added 21.</p>
<p>Mercedes Russell led the Lady Vols (15-1, 3-1) with 21.</p>
<p>“It was a battle,” Hillsman said of her touted showdown with Russell in the paint. “Just back and forth.”</p>
<p>So was the game. The lead changed 17 times and the teams were tied on 10 occasions in an edge-of-your-seat contest.</p>
<p>“We’ll go back and get better,” Warlick said. “Hats off to A&amp;M, they battled and they got the win. Both teams were getting after it. It was a fun game, and our young kids will learn from this.”</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M won against a top-10 team for the first time since Nov. 30, 2014, when the Aggies defeated No. 8 Duke 63-59 in College Station.</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>Tennessee: All is certainly not lost for the Lady Vols, despite their first setback of the season. Texas A&amp;M won a national title under Blair in 2011, so the Aggies are no pushovers in league play. Tennessee will no doubt learn from the tight loss and continue pushing on in trying to win its ninth national championship, and first since 2008.</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies needed this one to boost their confidence, considering their two previous victories in SEC play came against unranked opponents in Kentucky and Auburn.</p>
<p>POLL IMPLICATIONS</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies won their third straight and are bound to climb in the rankings after beating the No. 6 team.</p>
<p>Tennessee: The Lady Vols might drop a bit from No. 6, but pollsters will keep in mind it was a tight game on the road against a quality foe.</p>
<p>STAT OF THE NIGHT</p>
<p>Tennessee kept it close by outscoring A&amp;M 16-0 off the bench.</p>
<p>HE SAID IT</p>
<p>“We’re not in this thing to win games. We’re in this thing to win championships.” — Blair on handing Tennessee its first loss.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Tennessee: The Lady Vols’ challenging road schedule continues when they play at No. 9 South Carolina on Sunday.</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies play a second consecutive home game when Georgia visits Reed Arena on Sunday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p><a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a>For more AP college basketball coverage: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and</p>
|
No. 17 Texas A&M women hand No. 6 Tennessee 1st loss, 79-76
| false |
https://apnews.com/b4f97fbd243f40c1ae0cfa673f71a60f
|
2018-01-12
| 2least
|
No. 17 Texas A&M women hand No. 6 Tennessee 1st loss, 79-76
<p>COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — No. 17 Texas A&amp;M trailed No. 6 Tennessee by two points late in overtime when Aggies guard Danni Williams, with three free throws upcoming, did her best to keep her composure.</p>
<p>“I thought I was going to throw up,” Williams admitted afterward with a grin. “I knew I just needed to breathe and relax, and treat them like everyday free throws.”</p>
<p>Williams coolly sank all three and scored seven points total in overtime, and the Aggies toppled the Lady Vols 79-76 on Thursday night to hand Tennessee its first defeat of the season.</p>
<p>The Aggies (14-4, 3-1 Southeastern Conference), who led 69-62 with 6:41 left in regulation, missed 18 consecutive shots from the field late in the game before recovering in the extra period thanks to Williams’ clutch free throw shooting.</p>
<p>She made all five of her attempts from the line in overtime, including when she was fouled on a 3-point attempt with the Aggies trailing 76-74 and 7.8 seconds remaining.</p>
<p>“Yes, we were dead tired and, yes, I probably should have subbed more,” Texas A&amp;M coach Gary Blair said. “But this team is used to playing those kinds of minutes, and every possession was so important.”</p>
<p>Following a timeout, Tennessee had the ball on its end of the court with a chance to win, but Evina Westbrook threw a pass along the left side that bounced out of bounds in front of the Lady Vols bench, resulting in a turnover.</p>
<p>“You’ve got to at least get a shot off there, and we didn’t,” Tennessee coach Holly Warlick said. “It’s another learning opportunity for us.”</p>
<p>Williams was fouled with 0.4 seconds left and made both free throws. She and Khaalia Hillsman each scored 22 points to lead A&amp;M, and Chennedy Carter added 21.</p>
<p>Mercedes Russell led the Lady Vols (15-1, 3-1) with 21.</p>
<p>“It was a battle,” Hillsman said of her touted showdown with Russell in the paint. “Just back and forth.”</p>
<p>So was the game. The lead changed 17 times and the teams were tied on 10 occasions in an edge-of-your-seat contest.</p>
<p>“We’ll go back and get better,” Warlick said. “Hats off to A&amp;M, they battled and they got the win. Both teams were getting after it. It was a fun game, and our young kids will learn from this.”</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M won against a top-10 team for the first time since Nov. 30, 2014, when the Aggies defeated No. 8 Duke 63-59 in College Station.</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>Tennessee: All is certainly not lost for the Lady Vols, despite their first setback of the season. Texas A&amp;M won a national title under Blair in 2011, so the Aggies are no pushovers in league play. Tennessee will no doubt learn from the tight loss and continue pushing on in trying to win its ninth national championship, and first since 2008.</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies needed this one to boost their confidence, considering their two previous victories in SEC play came against unranked opponents in Kentucky and Auburn.</p>
<p>POLL IMPLICATIONS</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies won their third straight and are bound to climb in the rankings after beating the No. 6 team.</p>
<p>Tennessee: The Lady Vols might drop a bit from No. 6, but pollsters will keep in mind it was a tight game on the road against a quality foe.</p>
<p>STAT OF THE NIGHT</p>
<p>Tennessee kept it close by outscoring A&amp;M 16-0 off the bench.</p>
<p>HE SAID IT</p>
<p>“We’re not in this thing to win games. We’re in this thing to win championships.” — Blair on handing Tennessee its first loss.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Tennessee: The Lady Vols’ challenging road schedule continues when they play at No. 9 South Carolina on Sunday.</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies play a second consecutive home game when Georgia visits Reed Arena on Sunday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p><a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a>For more AP college basketball coverage: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and</p>
<p>COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — No. 17 Texas A&amp;M trailed No. 6 Tennessee by two points late in overtime when Aggies guard Danni Williams, with three free throws upcoming, did her best to keep her composure.</p>
<p>“I thought I was going to throw up,” Williams admitted afterward with a grin. “I knew I just needed to breathe and relax, and treat them like everyday free throws.”</p>
<p>Williams coolly sank all three and scored seven points total in overtime, and the Aggies toppled the Lady Vols 79-76 on Thursday night to hand Tennessee its first defeat of the season.</p>
<p>The Aggies (14-4, 3-1 Southeastern Conference), who led 69-62 with 6:41 left in regulation, missed 18 consecutive shots from the field late in the game before recovering in the extra period thanks to Williams’ clutch free throw shooting.</p>
<p>She made all five of her attempts from the line in overtime, including when she was fouled on a 3-point attempt with the Aggies trailing 76-74 and 7.8 seconds remaining.</p>
<p>“Yes, we were dead tired and, yes, I probably should have subbed more,” Texas A&amp;M coach Gary Blair said. “But this team is used to playing those kinds of minutes, and every possession was so important.”</p>
<p>Following a timeout, Tennessee had the ball on its end of the court with a chance to win, but Evina Westbrook threw a pass along the left side that bounced out of bounds in front of the Lady Vols bench, resulting in a turnover.</p>
<p>“You’ve got to at least get a shot off there, and we didn’t,” Tennessee coach Holly Warlick said. “It’s another learning opportunity for us.”</p>
<p>Williams was fouled with 0.4 seconds left and made both free throws. She and Khaalia Hillsman each scored 22 points to lead A&amp;M, and Chennedy Carter added 21.</p>
<p>Mercedes Russell led the Lady Vols (15-1, 3-1) with 21.</p>
<p>“It was a battle,” Hillsman said of her touted showdown with Russell in the paint. “Just back and forth.”</p>
<p>So was the game. The lead changed 17 times and the teams were tied on 10 occasions in an edge-of-your-seat contest.</p>
<p>“We’ll go back and get better,” Warlick said. “Hats off to A&amp;M, they battled and they got the win. Both teams were getting after it. It was a fun game, and our young kids will learn from this.”</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M won against a top-10 team for the first time since Nov. 30, 2014, when the Aggies defeated No. 8 Duke 63-59 in College Station.</p>
<p>BIG PICTURE</p>
<p>Tennessee: All is certainly not lost for the Lady Vols, despite their first setback of the season. Texas A&amp;M won a national title under Blair in 2011, so the Aggies are no pushovers in league play. Tennessee will no doubt learn from the tight loss and continue pushing on in trying to win its ninth national championship, and first since 2008.</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies needed this one to boost their confidence, considering their two previous victories in SEC play came against unranked opponents in Kentucky and Auburn.</p>
<p>POLL IMPLICATIONS</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies won their third straight and are bound to climb in the rankings after beating the No. 6 team.</p>
<p>Tennessee: The Lady Vols might drop a bit from No. 6, but pollsters will keep in mind it was a tight game on the road against a quality foe.</p>
<p>STAT OF THE NIGHT</p>
<p>Tennessee kept it close by outscoring A&amp;M 16-0 off the bench.</p>
<p>HE SAID IT</p>
<p>“We’re not in this thing to win games. We’re in this thing to win championships.” — Blair on handing Tennessee its first loss.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Tennessee: The Lady Vols’ challenging road schedule continues when they play at No. 9 South Carolina on Sunday.</p>
<p>Texas A&amp;M: The Aggies play a second consecutive home game when Georgia visits Reed Arena on Sunday.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p><a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external" /> <a href="http://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">http://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a>For more AP college basketball coverage: <a href="http://collegebasketball.ap.org" type="external">http://collegebasketball.ap.org</a> and</p>
| 4,799 |
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