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<p>“The quality of journalism and the quality of democracy go hand in hand.”</p>
<p>Bill Moyers, host of the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service’s weekly news commentary “Now,” on the occasion of his retirement Dec. 17.</p>
<p>“The essence of freedom of the press is the defense of freedom of thought.”</p>
<p>Ninfa Deándar, director of the Mexican independent daily El Manana, during her presentation at the Border Conference: Both Sides of the Story Nov. 19.</p>
<p>Cold-blooded killings of journalists in Mexico in 2004 transformed the barely established Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (Cepet) into an activist organization defending the very lives of its constituents. With death at the doorstep, the group sought solidarity from representatives of the U.S. media in a border conference to fortify the free press. But only a week later another Mexican journalist was gunned down.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the United States eight reporters were facing prison terms for exercising the prerogative to protect their sources’ anonymity. Dozens of professional associations north of the border subscribed to actions on their behalf, taking a stand in a U.S. political climate of rapidly eroding press freedom. The lines remain to be clearly drawn to connect the dots between Mexican and U.S. struggles over freedom-of-information and freedom-of-the-press issues. More give and take between members of the Fourth Estate from both countries would strengthen the mutual cause. In turn, it would guard against ongoing assaults on the North American public’s right to know.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>An Initiative to Protect Journalists and the Right to Know</p>
<p>The non-profit Cepet morphed out of the independent Reporters and Editors initiative, formed in 2001 to provide a national discussion forum in cyberspace for Mexican journalists about concerns of their profession. The new center’s stated role is to “promote independent investigative and public interest journalism, through seminars, workshops, conferences, and initiatives that contribute to that end.”</p>
<p>Circumstances soon thrust it into the limelight with other groups around the hemisphere dedicated to human rights and the public’s right to know. Even before the outbreak of unresolved killings of Mexican journalists turned to a rash this past year, Cepet began focusing attention on the violent repression of journalists. It marshaled other groups to establish an Accountability Commission after Roberto Mora García, editorial director of the daily El Manana, was fatally stabbed 26 times as he arrived home from putting the paper to bed in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, on March 19.</p>
<p>The crime shivered the timbers of the Texas border state’s struggling independent news market, which was already shaken by the earlier killing of the director of El Manana. The murder, set as it was in a climate of lawlessness, corruption, and drug trafficking, made headlines throughout Latin America and the southwestern United States . The U.S. State Department was drawn into the case when one of the suspects, U.S. citizen Mario Medina Vázquez, 23, was tortured and later also died of multiple stab wounds in the Mexican jail where he was held for trial.</p>
<p>The Accountability Commission brought together the Centro de Estudios Fronterizos y de Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (Cefprodhac), Libertad de Información (Limac), PEN Club Mexico, Periodistas Frente a la Corrupción (PFC), Reporteros sin Fronteras (RSF), and Cepet. Their members and others signed a declaration and a letter to Mexican President Vicente Fox demanding justice and an end to impunity. They found themselves doing the same thing all over again when Francisco Ortíz Franco, who was a co-editor, co-founder, and editorialist of the weekly Zeta newspaper in Tijuana, Baja California, was shot to death by gunmen in broad daylight on June 22.</p>
<p>His killing drew condemnation from the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP), Periodistas Frente a la Corrupción, RSF, Federación Internacional de Periodistas (FIP), Writers in Prison Committee, and PEN International.</p>
<p>Then, freelance columnist Francisco Arratia Saldierna, 55, died of severe beating and torture in the Tamaulipas border city of Matamoros on Aug. 31. His death was followed by the Sept. 8 preliminary identification in Acapulco, Guerrero, of a burned body as that of Leodegario Aguilera Lucas, editor of Mundo Político magazine in the state capital of Chilpancingo, who had been reported missing three months earlier. Authorities later said the remains could not be positively identified as Aguilera Lucas’s.</p>
<p>Mexico has now become the most dangerous country on the continent for journalists, according to Cepet. At its website, the declarations and signatures on letters to authorities have mounted. “As long as the aggression against journalists continues and the journalists’ killers are on the loose, freedom of expression in Mexico is on the line,” said one letter. Signatures poured in from around the nation, and from Argentina, Brazil, the Caribbean, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Spain, and the United States.</p>
<p>Cepet provided a web-based form for making commitments to participate in a national protest. The event on Oct. 11 involved an unprecedented 16 simultaneous marches and demonstrations in 10 states. It featured a Declaration Against Violence Against Journalists and for Full Freedom of Expression in Mexico . Some state governments, such as those of Zacatecas, Michoacan, and Nuevo Leon, responded by ratifying their commitment to the declaration. On Dec. 23, the nongovernmental Accountability Commission ended the horrific year with an announcement that it had submitted the Mora case to the official National Human Rights Commission due to multiple irregularities.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Acting on Deep Background</p>
<p>The Accountability Commission was the first independent organization of its kind in the history of Mexican journalism. Made up of both domestic and international members, the group has vowed to follow up on the process of justice in first Mora’s case, then the others. The large number of pre-existing groups that mobilized to form the Accountability Commission reflects the grassroots response to a crisis. The growth in institutionalized crime in Mexico over at least two decades has led to a situation in which journalists who dare to investigate it risk being transformed into more of its victims. The 2004 killings are reminiscent of violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Unión de Periodistas Democráticos (UPD) presented Mexico ‘s National Human Rights Commission with a list of 55 murdered journalists.</p>
<p>According to former UPD leader Eduardo Valle, the root of the evil is Mexico ‘s conversion to a “narco-democracy.” Veteran U.S. Mexico watcher Cristopher Whalen adds that “narco-elites” wield their wealth and influence over national and local politics in far greater proportion than legal corporations. El Manana Director Ninfa Deándar told 100 participants at Cepet’s binational conference, held in Nuevo Laredo, Nov. 19-20, that “the aggression against freedom” that results from “drug trafficking and violence” are due to “the influence of ferocious, unleashed capitalism,” adding, “There’s never been a situation as delicate as right now.” Cepet founder Leonarda Reyes notes Mexican officials have endorsed the World Bank’s estimate that 9.5% of GDP ends up in corrupt hands and other estimates put drug dealing profits at $5 billion annually.</p>
<p>Mora was writing about this when his life was snuffed away. “The current state of terror that reigns, due to this force of criminals that appears to be at or above the level of the government, is a reality and has a price that society should confront,” he wrote in one of his editorials. “If we don’t want these forces to govern our lives, we first must gather the courage to re-establish control by the citizens and not by the criminals.”</p>
<p>Zeta Director Jesús Blancornelas, whose chauffer was shot to death in an attempt on the newspaperman’s life 1997, linked the Ortíz killing to his investigative writing about corruption and drug trafficking. Zeta co-founder Héctor Félix Miranda had also been killed in 1988. Arratia’s political commentaries were published in the column “Portavoz” by several local periodicals in Tamaulipas. One of his editors said the nature of his torture suggested he could have been killed because of his work as a journalist.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>U.S. Journalists Face Off Against Threats to Free Press</p>
<p>With these journalists’ purviews close to the United States , Cepet established a Border Initiative, culminating in the “Border Conference: Both Sides of the Story,” for Mexican and U.S. journalists to share their perspectives.</p>
<p>Among the 10 points on the Mexican protesters’ list of demands Oct. 11 was one that hit close to home for their U.S. colleagues, calling for “Congress to ratify initiatives that recognize professional secrecy, so that journalists can protect sources of information from threats to their lives or dangers of any other kind.”</p>
<p>The United States already has such initiatives in place, and U.S. journalists periodically find themselves in the position of writing articles about the lack of such protections in the rest of the world. But in 2004, a handful of federal judges deemed eight journalists guilty of contempt of court for refusing to reveal confidential sources. In what NBC proclaimed as a “sad day for journalism” on Dec. 9, the first of the accused was sentenced to six-months’ house arrest; health problems saved Rhode Island TV reporter Jim Taricani, 55, from the maximum term of six months in prison. The rest of the condemned could be going to jail when their sentence hearings come up.</p>
<p>Raising suspicions that the Fourth Estate was being subjugated to the systematic abridgement of the Bill of Rights with the administration of the new U.S.A. Patriot Act, this assault on freedom of the press drew unprecedented wrath from U.S. professional associations. As if by a domino effect, the Canadian news media experienced similar challenges, and the Canadian Newspaper Association responded.</p>
<p>The attack on journalistic confidentiality was accompanied by official assaults on the public’s right to know. Taken together, they revealed a policy in the United States to roll back in practice hard-won access to information guarantees. National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System faced down federal funding cutbacks that would effectively gag them. A bill materialized to prohibit disclosure of and exempt earth science data gathered by satellite from inquiries under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Food and Drug Administration attempted to increase exemptions from FOIA requests. Efforts were made by top administration to suppress a key global warming report. The Department of Homeland Security moved to keep prying reporters away from what it called “critical infrastructure information” on everything from water supplies to the banking system. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission squelched information dissemination by a shut-down of its web-based public records database. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a regulation forbidding the public release of some data relating to unsafe motor vehicles. Federal intelligence reform legislation sought to increase official secrecy.</p>
<p>But that was only the tip of the iceberg. The Federal Communications Commission dawdled over demands for reinstating controls over monopolization of media outlets. Meanwhile, private corporate bias in coverage grew exaggerated, catering to advertisers’ interests and investors’ profit motives in what Mexican journalists consider nothing more than another form of corruption called “commercial censorship.”</p>
<p>These broadsides created a rare U.S. mobilization of constitutional First Amendment defenders. In one example of their actions, the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government filed an administrative complaint against the Department of Homeland Security for chipping away at the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Among the more than one dozen signatories to the coalition’s comments are the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Associated Press Managing Editors, the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the National Press Club. In another prime case, the coalition mustered 40 organizations and 4,000 individual journalists to sign a statement of support for the colleagues cited in contempt of court for protecting their sources in the interest of informing the public. Some wording included in the statement: “For well over a century, reporters have recognized an ethical duty to protect their confidential sources [without which] valuable information about government conduct will not reach the public.”</p>
<p>Just as the profession has been forced to go to bat for existing legal protections in the United States, many of those protections remain to be created in Mexico. Raising a ruckus about it is a first step, but ultimately reform to strengthen Mexico’s judicial branch will be a deciding factor, San Antonio Express News Editor Robert Rivard observed at the border conference. His Texas daily’s former Mexican correspondent Phillip True was killed in Mexico in a case in which Rivard details pitiful corruption in the justice system.</p>
<p>Indeed, as if to highlight Rivard’s point, only one week after the binational conference raised the issue of the deadly assaults on journalists in Mexico, another was killed. Photographer Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández, of the daily El Debate, was shot point-blank in front of his wife and two children while dining at a restaurant in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, on Nov. 27. Authorities said they suspected members of a drug ring are responsible.</p>
<p>While working to protect journalists, Cepet also continues its efforts to improve the quality of Mexican media coverage and to promote the implementation and use of Mexico ‘s new equivalent of the FOIA, the Federal Transparency and Public Governmental Information Access Law. The center receives support for its training sessions from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas , located at the University of Texas in Austin . For its border conference it also collaborated with Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE) and IRE’s Mexican affiliate, the Center for Investigative Journalists.</p>
<p>Were it not for cross-border support from journalists and nongovernmental organizations, Deándar says, her entire staff might already be dead. But much more collaboration is needed. The border conference was merely a reference point, albeit a notable one, on the road to building the cross-boundary connections important in strengthening freedom of the press and freedom of access to information.</p>
<p>TALLI NAUMAN is the <a href="http://www.irc-online.org/" type="external">International Relations Center’s</a> editor at large and Americas Program associate.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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Killing Journalists
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2005/01/10/killing-journalists/
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2005-01-10
| 4left
|
Killing Journalists
<p>“The quality of journalism and the quality of democracy go hand in hand.”</p>
<p>Bill Moyers, host of the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service’s weekly news commentary “Now,” on the occasion of his retirement Dec. 17.</p>
<p>“The essence of freedom of the press is the defense of freedom of thought.”</p>
<p>Ninfa Deándar, director of the Mexican independent daily El Manana, during her presentation at the Border Conference: Both Sides of the Story Nov. 19.</p>
<p>Cold-blooded killings of journalists in Mexico in 2004 transformed the barely established Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (Cepet) into an activist organization defending the very lives of its constituents. With death at the doorstep, the group sought solidarity from representatives of the U.S. media in a border conference to fortify the free press. But only a week later another Mexican journalist was gunned down.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the United States eight reporters were facing prison terms for exercising the prerogative to protect their sources’ anonymity. Dozens of professional associations north of the border subscribed to actions on their behalf, taking a stand in a U.S. political climate of rapidly eroding press freedom. The lines remain to be clearly drawn to connect the dots between Mexican and U.S. struggles over freedom-of-information and freedom-of-the-press issues. More give and take between members of the Fourth Estate from both countries would strengthen the mutual cause. In turn, it would guard against ongoing assaults on the North American public’s right to know.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>An Initiative to Protect Journalists and the Right to Know</p>
<p>The non-profit Cepet morphed out of the independent Reporters and Editors initiative, formed in 2001 to provide a national discussion forum in cyberspace for Mexican journalists about concerns of their profession. The new center’s stated role is to “promote independent investigative and public interest journalism, through seminars, workshops, conferences, and initiatives that contribute to that end.”</p>
<p>Circumstances soon thrust it into the limelight with other groups around the hemisphere dedicated to human rights and the public’s right to know. Even before the outbreak of unresolved killings of Mexican journalists turned to a rash this past year, Cepet began focusing attention on the violent repression of journalists. It marshaled other groups to establish an Accountability Commission after Roberto Mora García, editorial director of the daily El Manana, was fatally stabbed 26 times as he arrived home from putting the paper to bed in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, on March 19.</p>
<p>The crime shivered the timbers of the Texas border state’s struggling independent news market, which was already shaken by the earlier killing of the director of El Manana. The murder, set as it was in a climate of lawlessness, corruption, and drug trafficking, made headlines throughout Latin America and the southwestern United States . The U.S. State Department was drawn into the case when one of the suspects, U.S. citizen Mario Medina Vázquez, 23, was tortured and later also died of multiple stab wounds in the Mexican jail where he was held for trial.</p>
<p>The Accountability Commission brought together the Centro de Estudios Fronterizos y de Promoción de los Derechos Humanos (Cefprodhac), Libertad de Información (Limac), PEN Club Mexico, Periodistas Frente a la Corrupción (PFC), Reporteros sin Fronteras (RSF), and Cepet. Their members and others signed a declaration and a letter to Mexican President Vicente Fox demanding justice and an end to impunity. They found themselves doing the same thing all over again when Francisco Ortíz Franco, who was a co-editor, co-founder, and editorialist of the weekly Zeta newspaper in Tijuana, Baja California, was shot to death by gunmen in broad daylight on June 22.</p>
<p>His killing drew condemnation from the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP), Periodistas Frente a la Corrupción, RSF, Federación Internacional de Periodistas (FIP), Writers in Prison Committee, and PEN International.</p>
<p>Then, freelance columnist Francisco Arratia Saldierna, 55, died of severe beating and torture in the Tamaulipas border city of Matamoros on Aug. 31. His death was followed by the Sept. 8 preliminary identification in Acapulco, Guerrero, of a burned body as that of Leodegario Aguilera Lucas, editor of Mundo Político magazine in the state capital of Chilpancingo, who had been reported missing three months earlier. Authorities later said the remains could not be positively identified as Aguilera Lucas’s.</p>
<p>Mexico has now become the most dangerous country on the continent for journalists, according to Cepet. At its website, the declarations and signatures on letters to authorities have mounted. “As long as the aggression against journalists continues and the journalists’ killers are on the loose, freedom of expression in Mexico is on the line,” said one letter. Signatures poured in from around the nation, and from Argentina, Brazil, the Caribbean, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Spain, and the United States.</p>
<p>Cepet provided a web-based form for making commitments to participate in a national protest. The event on Oct. 11 involved an unprecedented 16 simultaneous marches and demonstrations in 10 states. It featured a Declaration Against Violence Against Journalists and for Full Freedom of Expression in Mexico . Some state governments, such as those of Zacatecas, Michoacan, and Nuevo Leon, responded by ratifying their commitment to the declaration. On Dec. 23, the nongovernmental Accountability Commission ended the horrific year with an announcement that it had submitted the Mora case to the official National Human Rights Commission due to multiple irregularities.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Acting on Deep Background</p>
<p>The Accountability Commission was the first independent organization of its kind in the history of Mexican journalism. Made up of both domestic and international members, the group has vowed to follow up on the process of justice in first Mora’s case, then the others. The large number of pre-existing groups that mobilized to form the Accountability Commission reflects the grassroots response to a crisis. The growth in institutionalized crime in Mexico over at least two decades has led to a situation in which journalists who dare to investigate it risk being transformed into more of its victims. The 2004 killings are reminiscent of violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Unión de Periodistas Democráticos (UPD) presented Mexico ‘s National Human Rights Commission with a list of 55 murdered journalists.</p>
<p>According to former UPD leader Eduardo Valle, the root of the evil is Mexico ‘s conversion to a “narco-democracy.” Veteran U.S. Mexico watcher Cristopher Whalen adds that “narco-elites” wield their wealth and influence over national and local politics in far greater proportion than legal corporations. El Manana Director Ninfa Deándar told 100 participants at Cepet’s binational conference, held in Nuevo Laredo, Nov. 19-20, that “the aggression against freedom” that results from “drug trafficking and violence” are due to “the influence of ferocious, unleashed capitalism,” adding, “There’s never been a situation as delicate as right now.” Cepet founder Leonarda Reyes notes Mexican officials have endorsed the World Bank’s estimate that 9.5% of GDP ends up in corrupt hands and other estimates put drug dealing profits at $5 billion annually.</p>
<p>Mora was writing about this when his life was snuffed away. “The current state of terror that reigns, due to this force of criminals that appears to be at or above the level of the government, is a reality and has a price that society should confront,” he wrote in one of his editorials. “If we don’t want these forces to govern our lives, we first must gather the courage to re-establish control by the citizens and not by the criminals.”</p>
<p>Zeta Director Jesús Blancornelas, whose chauffer was shot to death in an attempt on the newspaperman’s life 1997, linked the Ortíz killing to his investigative writing about corruption and drug trafficking. Zeta co-founder Héctor Félix Miranda had also been killed in 1988. Arratia’s political commentaries were published in the column “Portavoz” by several local periodicals in Tamaulipas. One of his editors said the nature of his torture suggested he could have been killed because of his work as a journalist.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>U.S. Journalists Face Off Against Threats to Free Press</p>
<p>With these journalists’ purviews close to the United States , Cepet established a Border Initiative, culminating in the “Border Conference: Both Sides of the Story,” for Mexican and U.S. journalists to share their perspectives.</p>
<p>Among the 10 points on the Mexican protesters’ list of demands Oct. 11 was one that hit close to home for their U.S. colleagues, calling for “Congress to ratify initiatives that recognize professional secrecy, so that journalists can protect sources of information from threats to their lives or dangers of any other kind.”</p>
<p>The United States already has such initiatives in place, and U.S. journalists periodically find themselves in the position of writing articles about the lack of such protections in the rest of the world. But in 2004, a handful of federal judges deemed eight journalists guilty of contempt of court for refusing to reveal confidential sources. In what NBC proclaimed as a “sad day for journalism” on Dec. 9, the first of the accused was sentenced to six-months’ house arrest; health problems saved Rhode Island TV reporter Jim Taricani, 55, from the maximum term of six months in prison. The rest of the condemned could be going to jail when their sentence hearings come up.</p>
<p>Raising suspicions that the Fourth Estate was being subjugated to the systematic abridgement of the Bill of Rights with the administration of the new U.S.A. Patriot Act, this assault on freedom of the press drew unprecedented wrath from U.S. professional associations. As if by a domino effect, the Canadian news media experienced similar challenges, and the Canadian Newspaper Association responded.</p>
<p>The attack on journalistic confidentiality was accompanied by official assaults on the public’s right to know. Taken together, they revealed a policy in the United States to roll back in practice hard-won access to information guarantees. National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System faced down federal funding cutbacks that would effectively gag them. A bill materialized to prohibit disclosure of and exempt earth science data gathered by satellite from inquiries under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Food and Drug Administration attempted to increase exemptions from FOIA requests. Efforts were made by top administration to suppress a key global warming report. The Department of Homeland Security moved to keep prying reporters away from what it called “critical infrastructure information” on everything from water supplies to the banking system. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission squelched information dissemination by a shut-down of its web-based public records database. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a regulation forbidding the public release of some data relating to unsafe motor vehicles. Federal intelligence reform legislation sought to increase official secrecy.</p>
<p>But that was only the tip of the iceberg. The Federal Communications Commission dawdled over demands for reinstating controls over monopolization of media outlets. Meanwhile, private corporate bias in coverage grew exaggerated, catering to advertisers’ interests and investors’ profit motives in what Mexican journalists consider nothing more than another form of corruption called “commercial censorship.”</p>
<p>These broadsides created a rare U.S. mobilization of constitutional First Amendment defenders. In one example of their actions, the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government filed an administrative complaint against the Department of Homeland Security for chipping away at the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Among the more than one dozen signatories to the coalition’s comments are the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Associated Press Managing Editors, the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the National Press Club. In another prime case, the coalition mustered 40 organizations and 4,000 individual journalists to sign a statement of support for the colleagues cited in contempt of court for protecting their sources in the interest of informing the public. Some wording included in the statement: “For well over a century, reporters have recognized an ethical duty to protect their confidential sources [without which] valuable information about government conduct will not reach the public.”</p>
<p>Just as the profession has been forced to go to bat for existing legal protections in the United States, many of those protections remain to be created in Mexico. Raising a ruckus about it is a first step, but ultimately reform to strengthen Mexico’s judicial branch will be a deciding factor, San Antonio Express News Editor Robert Rivard observed at the border conference. His Texas daily’s former Mexican correspondent Phillip True was killed in Mexico in a case in which Rivard details pitiful corruption in the justice system.</p>
<p>Indeed, as if to highlight Rivard’s point, only one week after the binational conference raised the issue of the deadly assaults on journalists in Mexico, another was killed. Photographer Gregorio Rodríguez Hernández, of the daily El Debate, was shot point-blank in front of his wife and two children while dining at a restaurant in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, on Nov. 27. Authorities said they suspected members of a drug ring are responsible.</p>
<p>While working to protect journalists, Cepet also continues its efforts to improve the quality of Mexican media coverage and to promote the implementation and use of Mexico ‘s new equivalent of the FOIA, the Federal Transparency and Public Governmental Information Access Law. The center receives support for its training sessions from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas , located at the University of Texas in Austin . For its border conference it also collaborated with Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE) and IRE’s Mexican affiliate, the Center for Investigative Journalists.</p>
<p>Were it not for cross-border support from journalists and nongovernmental organizations, Deándar says, her entire staff might already be dead. But much more collaboration is needed. The border conference was merely a reference point, albeit a notable one, on the road to building the cross-boundary connections important in strengthening freedom of the press and freedom of access to information.</p>
<p>TALLI NAUMAN is the <a href="http://www.irc-online.org/" type="external">International Relations Center’s</a> editor at large and Americas Program associate.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
| 5,200 |
<p>Dr. Heiner Flassbeck graduated in April 1976 in economics from Saarland University, Germany, concentrating on money and credit, business cycle theory and general philosophy of science; obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from the Free University, Berlin, Germany in July 1987. 2005 he was appointed honorary professor at the University of Hamburg.</p>
<p>Employment started at the German Council of Economic Experts, Wiesbaden between 1976 and 1980, followed by the Federal Ministry of Economics, Bonn until January 1986; chief macroeconomist in the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin between 1988 and 1998, and State Secretary (Vice Minister) from October 1998 to April 1999 at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Bonn, responsible for international affairs, the EU and IMF.</p>
<p>Worked at UNCTAD since 2000; from 2003 to December 2012 he was Director of the Division on Globalisation and Development Strategies. He was the principal author of the team preparing UNCTAD's Trade and Development Report, with specialization in macroeconomics, exchange rate policies, and international finance. Since January 2013 he is Director of Flassbeck-Economics, a consultancy for global macroeconomic questions (www.flassbeck-economics.com). Co-authored ACT NOW! The Global Manifesto for Economic Policy published in 2013 in Germany.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Washington. On December 8 and 9, the leaders of the European Union met in Paris, tried to hammer out an agreement that would solve the euro crisis. Well, they came to some kind of agreement, but it's questionable how much did they actually solve and were they in fact even addressing the right problem. Now joining us to unpack all of this is Heiner Flassbeck. Mr. Flassbeck served since 2006 as director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and he was the vice minister from October 1998 to April 1999 at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Bonn, responsible for international affairs, the European Union, and IMF. Heiner's joining us from Geneva. Thanks for joining us. Now, let's start with what exactly was the agreement the European leaders came to and did they actually solve anything.
<p />
<p />DR. HEINER FLASSBECK, DIRECTOR, DIVISION ON GLOBALIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES, UNCTAD: Well, there's agreement. First of all, this is about more austerity for Europe. It's an agreement that more or less all the countries in the eurozone and some others are going for more austerity, are going to cut down public expenditure, and that they are going to try to improve what they call--improve the competitiveness. But that means wage cuts, further wage cuts.
<p />
<p />JAY: You mentioned wage cuts and the whole issue of wages. I did little exercise. I took the documents of the Toronto G-20, I did the same thing with the G-20 documents from Cannes and Paris, and I can't find the use of the word wages in those documents. The whole issue of wages and their connection to the root causes of this crisis is not talked about very much. What do you make of it?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: Well, I think the root of this crisis is not a violation of rules of fiscal discipline, of degrees of public debt in the eurozone, different degrees of public debt. What I think is the core of the issue is a divergence of wage development. Unit labor costs have diverged dramatically in the last ten years. They did not follow the commonly agreed inflation target in Europe. They--on the one hand, Southern Europe went beyond this inflation target of 2 percent, but more so Germany went below this target by a very wide margin. And this has led to an overall gap in competitiveness inside the eurozone, where you cannot depreciate or appreciate any more, of something like 25 percent between Germany and Southern Europe and 20 percent between Germany and France.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, you pointed out, in one of the talks I saw that you gave, that controlling inflation really is the raison d'etre of the European Monetary Union. It's all about controlling inflation and hitting this 2 percent inflation target. But you've also said that going below this 2 percent target is as dangerous as going over it. AOnd that's what Germany did--they went below it. But that essentially meant cutting wages or freezing wages. Is that not what it meant, an attack on wages?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: Yeah, it was a dramatic pressure, political pressure on the unions, on wage agreements that we had never before in Germany. First of all, it started at the end of the '90s with the tripartite agreement putting government, unions, and employer associations--. But then, on top of that, the red-green, paradoxically, the red-green government put another big pound of pressure on the unions by restricting the possibility to negotiate certain wages for low skill by reducing unemployment contributions and so on. So in that way, wage flexibility has increased dramatically. It was part of the program that everybody called labor--increase your labor market flexibility. And that is exactly what is asked for now from the other Europeans.
<p />
<p />JAY: The reason the red-green government did this is they thought this would reduce unemployment. Was that the idea?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: That was the idea. They had clearly what we call as economists a neoclassical approach. They tried to improve employment by wage cutting and pressure on the wage negotiations. But it dramatically failed; in terms of the domestic market, it dramatically failed. The only thing what happened and that could be expected [incompr.] all reasonable economists would have expected that if you go into a currency union at the same time and the other countries do have no chance to depreciate their currency, well, the end is that you beggar your neighbors. And that is exactly what happened. And so we have huge current account surpluses in Germany and huge current account deficits in the other countries. The unfortunate thing is that we cannot correct it anymore by exchange rate changes.
<p />
<p />JAY: And this greatly benefits benefited Germany, at least the German elite, as Germany was competing neck-to-neck with China for being the world's leading exporter. And, of course, most of those German exports went, actually, within the European Union.
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: Yeah, as I said, overall it failed. It benefited only the export industry, that's right, and a certain kind of elite--that's right also. But overall German growth was weak over the time. Germany in the first ten years in the eurozone was the worst country in terms of growth and in terms of employment. But only--if you do something like that, you know the increase, the improvement in competitiveness accumulates over time. So you start with, say, a difference of 2 percent, and after ten years you have, as I said, 25 percent. So under these conditions you have 25 percent premium over your competitors, over the other countries. Then the increases, the benefits that you get in the export industry are accelerating. And this is why Germany at the end was extremely strong and the others extremely weak.
<p />
<p />JAY: On Thursday, President Obama said that European crisis wasn't so difficult to solve. He said there's plenty of wealth in Europe; if they want to, they can solve it. Now, of course, you could say the same thing about the United States. They're up in arms about a deficit and debt in the United States. And one could say there's plenty of wealth here; if they wanted to get rid of the debt, they could solve it. But there's no political will to do so. But, at any rate, what he's saying also applies to Europe. They don't seem to want to go where the money is. And let's assume that this doesn't change and the wealth stays in very few hands and they keep pushing austerity policies. Then where does this lead? Are we into a decade of recession or more?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: I think the most probable outcome that we are facing now, not only in Europe, but in--as you said, in the United States and in Japan, is something like the Japanese two lost decades that started at the beginning of the '90s, because we're heading for deflation, clearly, deflation in Europe and stagnation, because wages are not rising anymore. Wages are cut in the South. In Germany they're not rising very much. That leads immediately to faltering domestic demand. On the export side, we cannot expect very much from, as I said, the United States and Japan. China cannot do it alone. So we're really in a trap, in a trap that will not be--you will not be able to escape if you do not [have] radical changes in overall policy in Europe and, maybe, in the United States.
<p />
<p />JAY: Now, what you're saying is not like some state secret. This austerity policies are going to lead to a deeper recession, and the European leaders have to know this. I mean, you can see this even in the business press. I was seeing today in the Canadian business press some of the more conservative columnists are actually calling for stimulus in Europe. So the European financiers, the politicians, they know this is leading into a recession, but they're going there anyway. How does this benefit them?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: Well, it's not benefiting, and I think they really do not understand. Some may understand, but the majority of the political leaders, I think, really do not understand. In Germany, to be frank, people are talking all the time about the Swabian housewife, which means you do not spend too much, you're saving a lot of your income, and this is the model for our policy. So they really take a micro model for the macroeconomy and they do not understand that the macroeconomy is functioning in a totally different way. So it's not just about who benefits or not. It's--the core of it, in my view, is economists, the majority of economists, the mainstream in economics, strongly believes still that saving is a good thing. They do not understand the kind of Keynesian restriction or the Keynesian arguments against the saving approach. And even more important is that all good economists, so to say, on earth believe that wage flexibility is a good thing, and they do not understand fully that wage flexibility, first of all, leads to falling demand and not in the first round [incompr.] to rising employment. So you have a demand restriction, you have a demand constraint, and that demand constraint will be very difficult to overcome. I mean, look at the discussion in the United States. It's quite similar to the European discussion. The people really do not take care of the very low wages of the family income expectation that are, as far as I see, at the lowest level in United States ever. And to overcome this you need a huge fiscal stimulus, and even that may not be possible. And this is exactly an analogy to the Japanese--beginning of the Japanese two lost decades.
<p />
<p />JAY: If the underlying issue is wages, then doesn't there need to be something done about raising wages, not just government stimulus?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: I think you need a mixture, you need a reasonable mixture. You need stimulus from the government side. But given the political opposition against further stimuli, you need in addition something like incomes policy, or at least more freedom to unite for the workers to do what is necessary. But, you see, the point is, in the United States, if unemployment is high--and that was the case at the beginning of this century in Germany also--if unemployment is high, it's very difficult to negotiate for higher wages. Then the government has to give a strong signal, either through minimum wages or other instruments, say, wages in the public sector or so, to make clear that people can expect that they have their part in the productivity increase in the future. We have a totally new situation, I think, in the capitalist system that we have never seen in 30, 40 years before, namely that we really have an age of diminished expectations, so to say, of the average people. And these diminished expectations, so to say, naturally lead to a stagnative mood, and we have to overcome that by a very heterodox, unorthodox instrument. Just monetary policy does not work anymore. Fiscal policy is politically blocked. So you need to think hard about other instruments.
<p />
<p />JAY: Last time we were in a moment like this, if you look historically at the 20th century, a moment like this led to quite tragic consequences. How dangerous are things now?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: I think it's extremely dangerous. We should not take democracy as something natural or given. If you look at Southern Europe, people are on the streets every day. The riots are getting harder to fight and the governments really do not know what to do anymore. So if you put people into such a situation where they're really desperate about the outlook, where they're desperate about their kids' future and so on, then people are doing things that might look quite unreasonable. But it's just the result of their desperation. And so far, I think G-20 could be the forum to act, but in a more rigorous and a totally different way. I have been following G-20 in the last year, and it was, unfortunately, a very bureaucratic affair. I would hope that the leaders come together one more time, and to see that they need a bigger approach, a broader approach, and they have to face not only some minor economic question, but they're facing a big, challenging century, a question of a century, in terms of overall politics.
<p />
<p />JAY: When you look at the documents of the G-20 in Toronto and in Cannes, they're completely committed to austerity measures. Some kind of actual measures to spur growth are not really even being discussed with any seriousness. They seem committed that the real issue is making sure the bondholders get repaid and the bondholders are satisfied, and that seems to be as far as they'll go. They seem to be reconciled to years of recession.
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: I think they have to realize that the bondholders are not so stupid. If you look at the much-criticized--in Europe, much-criticized opinion from Standard &amp; Poor's this week about the rating of Europe as a whole, the eurozone as a whole, then Standard &amp; Poor's has said something quite reasonable. They said just austerity is not enough, so if you just go for austerity, then we have to downgrade you, because the overall situation is deteriorating. And what was not clearly in the cards last year in the negotiation of the G-20 was this dramatic development in the real economy. And this has changed the situation. So this should be a wake-up call for everyone to go more serious than ever into negotiations about who could stimulate and who has to do some austerity, even at this very critical circumstances. So there was a fruitful discussion at the beginning of last year, but it faded away and it didn't have the political momentum. So I very much hope that we will have some political leaders somewhere in the world who understand how serious the situation really is.
<p />
<p />JAY: Thanks very much for joining us. And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network. And don't forget the donate buttons. We're in the midst of our end of 2011 fundraising campaign, and if you don't click that, we can't do this.
<p />
<p />End of Transcript
<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.
|
Eurocrisis: "Democracy is Not a Given"
| true |
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D7694
|
2011-12-11
| 4left
|
Eurocrisis: "Democracy is Not a Given"
<p>Dr. Heiner Flassbeck graduated in April 1976 in economics from Saarland University, Germany, concentrating on money and credit, business cycle theory and general philosophy of science; obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from the Free University, Berlin, Germany in July 1987. 2005 he was appointed honorary professor at the University of Hamburg.</p>
<p>Employment started at the German Council of Economic Experts, Wiesbaden between 1976 and 1980, followed by the Federal Ministry of Economics, Bonn until January 1986; chief macroeconomist in the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin between 1988 and 1998, and State Secretary (Vice Minister) from October 1998 to April 1999 at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Bonn, responsible for international affairs, the EU and IMF.</p>
<p>Worked at UNCTAD since 2000; from 2003 to December 2012 he was Director of the Division on Globalisation and Development Strategies. He was the principal author of the team preparing UNCTAD's Trade and Development Report, with specialization in macroeconomics, exchange rate policies, and international finance. Since January 2013 he is Director of Flassbeck-Economics, a consultancy for global macroeconomic questions (www.flassbeck-economics.com). Co-authored ACT NOW! The Global Manifesto for Economic Policy published in 2013 in Germany.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Washington. On December 8 and 9, the leaders of the European Union met in Paris, tried to hammer out an agreement that would solve the euro crisis. Well, they came to some kind of agreement, but it's questionable how much did they actually solve and were they in fact even addressing the right problem. Now joining us to unpack all of this is Heiner Flassbeck. Mr. Flassbeck served since 2006 as director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and he was the vice minister from October 1998 to April 1999 at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Bonn, responsible for international affairs, the European Union, and IMF. Heiner's joining us from Geneva. Thanks for joining us. Now, let's start with what exactly was the agreement the European leaders came to and did they actually solve anything.
<p />
<p />DR. HEINER FLASSBECK, DIRECTOR, DIVISION ON GLOBALIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES, UNCTAD: Well, there's agreement. First of all, this is about more austerity for Europe. It's an agreement that more or less all the countries in the eurozone and some others are going for more austerity, are going to cut down public expenditure, and that they are going to try to improve what they call--improve the competitiveness. But that means wage cuts, further wage cuts.
<p />
<p />JAY: You mentioned wage cuts and the whole issue of wages. I did little exercise. I took the documents of the Toronto G-20, I did the same thing with the G-20 documents from Cannes and Paris, and I can't find the use of the word wages in those documents. The whole issue of wages and their connection to the root causes of this crisis is not talked about very much. What do you make of it?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: Well, I think the root of this crisis is not a violation of rules of fiscal discipline, of degrees of public debt in the eurozone, different degrees of public debt. What I think is the core of the issue is a divergence of wage development. Unit labor costs have diverged dramatically in the last ten years. They did not follow the commonly agreed inflation target in Europe. They--on the one hand, Southern Europe went beyond this inflation target of 2 percent, but more so Germany went below this target by a very wide margin. And this has led to an overall gap in competitiveness inside the eurozone, where you cannot depreciate or appreciate any more, of something like 25 percent between Germany and Southern Europe and 20 percent between Germany and France.
<p />
<p />JAY: Well, you pointed out, in one of the talks I saw that you gave, that controlling inflation really is the raison d'etre of the European Monetary Union. It's all about controlling inflation and hitting this 2 percent inflation target. But you've also said that going below this 2 percent target is as dangerous as going over it. AOnd that's what Germany did--they went below it. But that essentially meant cutting wages or freezing wages. Is that not what it meant, an attack on wages?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: Yeah, it was a dramatic pressure, political pressure on the unions, on wage agreements that we had never before in Germany. First of all, it started at the end of the '90s with the tripartite agreement putting government, unions, and employer associations--. But then, on top of that, the red-green, paradoxically, the red-green government put another big pound of pressure on the unions by restricting the possibility to negotiate certain wages for low skill by reducing unemployment contributions and so on. So in that way, wage flexibility has increased dramatically. It was part of the program that everybody called labor--increase your labor market flexibility. And that is exactly what is asked for now from the other Europeans.
<p />
<p />JAY: The reason the red-green government did this is they thought this would reduce unemployment. Was that the idea?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: That was the idea. They had clearly what we call as economists a neoclassical approach. They tried to improve employment by wage cutting and pressure on the wage negotiations. But it dramatically failed; in terms of the domestic market, it dramatically failed. The only thing what happened and that could be expected [incompr.] all reasonable economists would have expected that if you go into a currency union at the same time and the other countries do have no chance to depreciate their currency, well, the end is that you beggar your neighbors. And that is exactly what happened. And so we have huge current account surpluses in Germany and huge current account deficits in the other countries. The unfortunate thing is that we cannot correct it anymore by exchange rate changes.
<p />
<p />JAY: And this greatly benefits benefited Germany, at least the German elite, as Germany was competing neck-to-neck with China for being the world's leading exporter. And, of course, most of those German exports went, actually, within the European Union.
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: Yeah, as I said, overall it failed. It benefited only the export industry, that's right, and a certain kind of elite--that's right also. But overall German growth was weak over the time. Germany in the first ten years in the eurozone was the worst country in terms of growth and in terms of employment. But only--if you do something like that, you know the increase, the improvement in competitiveness accumulates over time. So you start with, say, a difference of 2 percent, and after ten years you have, as I said, 25 percent. So under these conditions you have 25 percent premium over your competitors, over the other countries. Then the increases, the benefits that you get in the export industry are accelerating. And this is why Germany at the end was extremely strong and the others extremely weak.
<p />
<p />JAY: On Thursday, President Obama said that European crisis wasn't so difficult to solve. He said there's plenty of wealth in Europe; if they want to, they can solve it. Now, of course, you could say the same thing about the United States. They're up in arms about a deficit and debt in the United States. And one could say there's plenty of wealth here; if they wanted to get rid of the debt, they could solve it. But there's no political will to do so. But, at any rate, what he's saying also applies to Europe. They don't seem to want to go where the money is. And let's assume that this doesn't change and the wealth stays in very few hands and they keep pushing austerity policies. Then where does this lead? Are we into a decade of recession or more?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: I think the most probable outcome that we are facing now, not only in Europe, but in--as you said, in the United States and in Japan, is something like the Japanese two lost decades that started at the beginning of the '90s, because we're heading for deflation, clearly, deflation in Europe and stagnation, because wages are not rising anymore. Wages are cut in the South. In Germany they're not rising very much. That leads immediately to faltering domestic demand. On the export side, we cannot expect very much from, as I said, the United States and Japan. China cannot do it alone. So we're really in a trap, in a trap that will not be--you will not be able to escape if you do not [have] radical changes in overall policy in Europe and, maybe, in the United States.
<p />
<p />JAY: Now, what you're saying is not like some state secret. This austerity policies are going to lead to a deeper recession, and the European leaders have to know this. I mean, you can see this even in the business press. I was seeing today in the Canadian business press some of the more conservative columnists are actually calling for stimulus in Europe. So the European financiers, the politicians, they know this is leading into a recession, but they're going there anyway. How does this benefit them?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: Well, it's not benefiting, and I think they really do not understand. Some may understand, but the majority of the political leaders, I think, really do not understand. In Germany, to be frank, people are talking all the time about the Swabian housewife, which means you do not spend too much, you're saving a lot of your income, and this is the model for our policy. So they really take a micro model for the macroeconomy and they do not understand that the macroeconomy is functioning in a totally different way. So it's not just about who benefits or not. It's--the core of it, in my view, is economists, the majority of economists, the mainstream in economics, strongly believes still that saving is a good thing. They do not understand the kind of Keynesian restriction or the Keynesian arguments against the saving approach. And even more important is that all good economists, so to say, on earth believe that wage flexibility is a good thing, and they do not understand fully that wage flexibility, first of all, leads to falling demand and not in the first round [incompr.] to rising employment. So you have a demand restriction, you have a demand constraint, and that demand constraint will be very difficult to overcome. I mean, look at the discussion in the United States. It's quite similar to the European discussion. The people really do not take care of the very low wages of the family income expectation that are, as far as I see, at the lowest level in United States ever. And to overcome this you need a huge fiscal stimulus, and even that may not be possible. And this is exactly an analogy to the Japanese--beginning of the Japanese two lost decades.
<p />
<p />JAY: If the underlying issue is wages, then doesn't there need to be something done about raising wages, not just government stimulus?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: I think you need a mixture, you need a reasonable mixture. You need stimulus from the government side. But given the political opposition against further stimuli, you need in addition something like incomes policy, or at least more freedom to unite for the workers to do what is necessary. But, you see, the point is, in the United States, if unemployment is high--and that was the case at the beginning of this century in Germany also--if unemployment is high, it's very difficult to negotiate for higher wages. Then the government has to give a strong signal, either through minimum wages or other instruments, say, wages in the public sector or so, to make clear that people can expect that they have their part in the productivity increase in the future. We have a totally new situation, I think, in the capitalist system that we have never seen in 30, 40 years before, namely that we really have an age of diminished expectations, so to say, of the average people. And these diminished expectations, so to say, naturally lead to a stagnative mood, and we have to overcome that by a very heterodox, unorthodox instrument. Just monetary policy does not work anymore. Fiscal policy is politically blocked. So you need to think hard about other instruments.
<p />
<p />JAY: Last time we were in a moment like this, if you look historically at the 20th century, a moment like this led to quite tragic consequences. How dangerous are things now?
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: I think it's extremely dangerous. We should not take democracy as something natural or given. If you look at Southern Europe, people are on the streets every day. The riots are getting harder to fight and the governments really do not know what to do anymore. So if you put people into such a situation where they're really desperate about the outlook, where they're desperate about their kids' future and so on, then people are doing things that might look quite unreasonable. But it's just the result of their desperation. And so far, I think G-20 could be the forum to act, but in a more rigorous and a totally different way. I have been following G-20 in the last year, and it was, unfortunately, a very bureaucratic affair. I would hope that the leaders come together one more time, and to see that they need a bigger approach, a broader approach, and they have to face not only some minor economic question, but they're facing a big, challenging century, a question of a century, in terms of overall politics.
<p />
<p />JAY: When you look at the documents of the G-20 in Toronto and in Cannes, they're completely committed to austerity measures. Some kind of actual measures to spur growth are not really even being discussed with any seriousness. They seem committed that the real issue is making sure the bondholders get repaid and the bondholders are satisfied, and that seems to be as far as they'll go. They seem to be reconciled to years of recession.
<p />
<p />FLASSBECK: I think they have to realize that the bondholders are not so stupid. If you look at the much-criticized--in Europe, much-criticized opinion from Standard &amp; Poor's this week about the rating of Europe as a whole, the eurozone as a whole, then Standard &amp; Poor's has said something quite reasonable. They said just austerity is not enough, so if you just go for austerity, then we have to downgrade you, because the overall situation is deteriorating. And what was not clearly in the cards last year in the negotiation of the G-20 was this dramatic development in the real economy. And this has changed the situation. So this should be a wake-up call for everyone to go more serious than ever into negotiations about who could stimulate and who has to do some austerity, even at this very critical circumstances. So there was a fruitful discussion at the beginning of last year, but it faded away and it didn't have the political momentum. So I very much hope that we will have some political leaders somewhere in the world who understand how serious the situation really is.
<p />
<p />JAY: Thanks very much for joining us. And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network. And don't forget the donate buttons. We're in the midst of our end of 2011 fundraising campaign, and if you don't click that, we can't do this.
<p />
<p />End of Transcript
<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.
| 5,201 |
<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrlunch/" type="external">Michael Pittman</a> / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">CC BY-SA 2.0</a></p>
<p>In an <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/10/barack-obama-on-5-days-that-shaped-his-presidency.html" type="external">interview</a> with New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait, President Obama agreed with one of the most significant critiques of his drone war, that its precedent could encourage future presidents to engage comfortably in perpetual covert wars “all over the world” — just as he did.</p>
<p>As Obama put it, his precedent risks creating “institutional comfort and inertia with what looks like a pretty antiseptic way of disposing of enemies.” He said he looked at “the way in which the number of drone strikes was going up and the routineness with which, early in my presidency, you were seeing both DOD and CIA and our intelligence teams think about this. … And it troubled me, because I think you could see, over the horizon, a situation in which, without Congress showing much interest in restraining actions with authorizations that were written really broadly, you end up with a president who can carry on perpetual wars all over the world, and a lot of them covert, without any accountability or democratic debate.”</p>
<p>At The Intercept, Ryan Devereaux and Alex Emmons <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/10/03/obama-worries-future-presidents-will-wage-perpetual-covert-drone-war/" type="external">report</a> that “the alarming changes that Obama describes as over the horizon are already here.”</p>
<p />
<p>“What’s so interesting is that President Obama acknowledges this problem — that future presidents will be empowered to kill globally, and in secret. What he doesn’t acknowledge is how much of a role his administration had in making that a bizarre normal,” Naureen Shah, director of national security and human rights at Amnesty International, told The Intercept.</p>
<p>“There is something so strange about the person who many would say is very responsible for this situation actually acknowledging it and saying he tried to plan for it,” Shah added. “What we’ll be left with from the Obama administration is a far more dangerous precedent of secret, global killings than what we started with.”</p>
<p>From the very beginning of his presidency, Obama tightly embraced legal arguments, including the “state secrets privilege,” to deflect inquiries into the government’s&#160;use of lethal force in foreign countries; he fought vigorously for years to keep his rationale for assassinating an American citizen secret; he never explained how the U.S. came to kill that same American citizen’s 16-year-old son; and he has never once forced his premier intelligence agency to publicly answer for the deaths of non-Western civilians — of which there have been many — during an eight-year covert bombing campaign.</p>
<p>In the New York magazine interview, Obama gave human rights groups and “the left” credit for pushing him on issues of transparency in targeted killing — but at the same time indicated they had little impact on his own decisions.</p>
<p>“I’m glad the left pushes me on this,” Obama said. “I’ve said to my staff and I’ve said to my joint chiefs, I’ve said in the Situation Room: I don’t ever want to get to the point where we’re that comfortable with killing. It’s not why I wanted to be president, to kill people.”</p>
<p>“Do I think that the critiques are fair or fully informed?” the president went on to say. “Not always. Sometimes they are. Much of the time they’re not. To give you the most basic example: People, I think, don’t always recognize the degree to which the civilian-casualty rate, or the rate at which innocents are killed, in these precision strikes is significantly lower than what happens in a conventional war.”</p>
<p><a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/10/03/obama-worries-future-presidents-will-wage-perpetual-covert-drone-war/" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p>.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a></p>
|
Obama Acknowledges Future Presidents May Wage Perpetual, Secret Drone War
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/obama-acknowledges-future-presidents-may-wage-perpetual-secret-drone-war/
|
2016-10-05
| 4left
|
Obama Acknowledges Future Presidents May Wage Perpetual, Secret Drone War
<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrlunch/" type="external">Michael Pittman</a> / <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" type="external">CC BY-SA 2.0</a></p>
<p>In an <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/10/barack-obama-on-5-days-that-shaped-his-presidency.html" type="external">interview</a> with New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait, President Obama agreed with one of the most significant critiques of his drone war, that its precedent could encourage future presidents to engage comfortably in perpetual covert wars “all over the world” — just as he did.</p>
<p>As Obama put it, his precedent risks creating “institutional comfort and inertia with what looks like a pretty antiseptic way of disposing of enemies.” He said he looked at “the way in which the number of drone strikes was going up and the routineness with which, early in my presidency, you were seeing both DOD and CIA and our intelligence teams think about this. … And it troubled me, because I think you could see, over the horizon, a situation in which, without Congress showing much interest in restraining actions with authorizations that were written really broadly, you end up with a president who can carry on perpetual wars all over the world, and a lot of them covert, without any accountability or democratic debate.”</p>
<p>At The Intercept, Ryan Devereaux and Alex Emmons <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/10/03/obama-worries-future-presidents-will-wage-perpetual-covert-drone-war/" type="external">report</a> that “the alarming changes that Obama describes as over the horizon are already here.”</p>
<p />
<p>“What’s so interesting is that President Obama acknowledges this problem — that future presidents will be empowered to kill globally, and in secret. What he doesn’t acknowledge is how much of a role his administration had in making that a bizarre normal,” Naureen Shah, director of national security and human rights at Amnesty International, told The Intercept.</p>
<p>“There is something so strange about the person who many would say is very responsible for this situation actually acknowledging it and saying he tried to plan for it,” Shah added. “What we’ll be left with from the Obama administration is a far more dangerous precedent of secret, global killings than what we started with.”</p>
<p>From the very beginning of his presidency, Obama tightly embraced legal arguments, including the “state secrets privilege,” to deflect inquiries into the government’s&#160;use of lethal force in foreign countries; he fought vigorously for years to keep his rationale for assassinating an American citizen secret; he never explained how the U.S. came to kill that same American citizen’s 16-year-old son; and he has never once forced his premier intelligence agency to publicly answer for the deaths of non-Western civilians — of which there have been many — during an eight-year covert bombing campaign.</p>
<p>In the New York magazine interview, Obama gave human rights groups and “the left” credit for pushing him on issues of transparency in targeted killing — but at the same time indicated they had little impact on his own decisions.</p>
<p>“I’m glad the left pushes me on this,” Obama said. “I’ve said to my staff and I’ve said to my joint chiefs, I’ve said in the Situation Room: I don’t ever want to get to the point where we’re that comfortable with killing. It’s not why I wanted to be president, to kill people.”</p>
<p>“Do I think that the critiques are fair or fully informed?” the president went on to say. “Not always. Sometimes they are. Much of the time they’re not. To give you the most basic example: People, I think, don’t always recognize the degree to which the civilian-casualty rate, or the rate at which innocents are killed, in these precision strikes is significantly lower than what happens in a conventional war.”</p>
<p><a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/10/03/obama-worries-future-presidents-will-wage-perpetual-covert-drone-war/" type="external">Read more</a></p>
<p>.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a></p>
| 5,202 |
<p>A 40-year-old man was arrested Monday and charged with arson in the Clayton Fire, which is blamed for having destroyed more than 175 homes and other structures in northern California, authorities said.</p>
<p>Damin Anthony Pashilk of Clearlake, Calif., was booked into the Lake County Jail on 17 counts in connection to several fires over the past year, including the Clayton Fire, according to Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin and Ken Pimlott, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CAL FIRE.</p>
<p>That fire, which has burned more than 4,000 acres, remained just 5 percent contained Monday night, although fire officials said no other structures were immediately threatened. More than 1,000 personnel are fighting the fire, which broke out about 6 p.m. (9 p.m. ET) Saturday near Clayton Creek, south of Lower Lake.</p>
<p>"It is a tragic thing whenever we identify any individual who intentionally starts a fire," Pimlott said at a community meeting Monday night.</p>
<p>"The community has suffered significantly," Pimlott added, saying damage from the fire was estimated to have topped $10 million.</p>
<p>The fast-moving wildfire had spread to more than 6 square miles in an area about 90 miles north of San Francisco, <a href="http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/More-Than-100-Structures-Destroyed-in-Lake-County-Clayton-Fire-CalFire-390185701.html" type="external">NBC Bay Area reported</a>, prompting Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency.</p>
<p>"Our goal is to just hold it back," said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for CAL FIRE. "We don't want it to get any closer to these homes than it did yesterday."</p>
|
California Man Charged With Clayton Fire and Other Blazes
| false |
http://nbcnews.com/storyline/western-wildfires/california-man-held-connection-clayton-fire-other-blazes-n631546
|
2016-08-16
| 3left-center
|
California Man Charged With Clayton Fire and Other Blazes
<p>A 40-year-old man was arrested Monday and charged with arson in the Clayton Fire, which is blamed for having destroyed more than 175 homes and other structures in northern California, authorities said.</p>
<p>Damin Anthony Pashilk of Clearlake, Calif., was booked into the Lake County Jail on 17 counts in connection to several fires over the past year, including the Clayton Fire, according to Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin and Ken Pimlott, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CAL FIRE.</p>
<p>That fire, which has burned more than 4,000 acres, remained just 5 percent contained Monday night, although fire officials said no other structures were immediately threatened. More than 1,000 personnel are fighting the fire, which broke out about 6 p.m. (9 p.m. ET) Saturday near Clayton Creek, south of Lower Lake.</p>
<p>"It is a tragic thing whenever we identify any individual who intentionally starts a fire," Pimlott said at a community meeting Monday night.</p>
<p>"The community has suffered significantly," Pimlott added, saying damage from the fire was estimated to have topped $10 million.</p>
<p>The fast-moving wildfire had spread to more than 6 square miles in an area about 90 miles north of San Francisco, <a href="http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/More-Than-100-Structures-Destroyed-in-Lake-County-Clayton-Fire-CalFire-390185701.html" type="external">NBC Bay Area reported</a>, prompting Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency.</p>
<p>"Our goal is to just hold it back," said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for CAL FIRE. "We don't want it to get any closer to these homes than it did yesterday."</p>
| 5,203 |
<p>A look at Nasdaq 10 most-active stocks at 1 p.m.:</p>
<p>Apple Inc. rose 1.2 percent to $95.12 with 32,254,400 shares traded.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>BlackBerry Ltd. rose 5.1 percent to $11.16 with 23,160,000 shares traded.</p>
<p>Cisco Systems Inc. fell .2 percent to $25.15 with 10,427,000 shares traded.</p>
<p>Facebook Inc. fell 1.2 percent to $65.51 with 17,443,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>GT Advanced Technologies Inc. fell 13.5 percent to $16.91 with 19,802,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>Intel Corp. fell .4 percent to $31.01 with 10,827,200 shares traded.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Micron Technology Inc. fell 2.1 percent to $33.04 with 13,920,000 shares traded.</p>
<p>Microsoft Corp. rose .7 percent to $42.09 with 11,538,500 shares traded.</p>
<p>NewLead Holdings Ltd. fell 6.2 percent to $.14 with 50,396,100 shares traded.</p>
<p>Sirius XM Radio Inc. fell 1.2 percent to $3.42 with 24,527,700 shares traded.</p>
|
Nasdaq's 10 most active stocks at 1 p.m.
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/04/27/nasdaq-10-most-active-stocks-at-1-pm.html
|
2016-03-05
| 0right
|
Nasdaq's 10 most active stocks at 1 p.m.
<p>A look at Nasdaq 10 most-active stocks at 1 p.m.:</p>
<p>Apple Inc. rose 1.2 percent to $95.12 with 32,254,400 shares traded.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>BlackBerry Ltd. rose 5.1 percent to $11.16 with 23,160,000 shares traded.</p>
<p>Cisco Systems Inc. fell .2 percent to $25.15 with 10,427,000 shares traded.</p>
<p>Facebook Inc. fell 1.2 percent to $65.51 with 17,443,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>GT Advanced Technologies Inc. fell 13.5 percent to $16.91 with 19,802,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>Intel Corp. fell .4 percent to $31.01 with 10,827,200 shares traded.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Micron Technology Inc. fell 2.1 percent to $33.04 with 13,920,000 shares traded.</p>
<p>Microsoft Corp. rose .7 percent to $42.09 with 11,538,500 shares traded.</p>
<p>NewLead Holdings Ltd. fell 6.2 percent to $.14 with 50,396,100 shares traded.</p>
<p>Sirius XM Radio Inc. fell 1.2 percent to $3.42 with 24,527,700 shares traded.</p>
| 5,204 |
<p>Director Roman Polanski’s 1977 sex crime case has become an international and intergenerational saga, now that members of at least four governments have become involved, the former minor in question has grown up and requested that the issue be put to rest, and the original judge has been dead since 1993. However, after Polanski’s arrest last Saturday in Zurich, it’s clear this drama is far from over.</p>
<p>The filmmaker, 76, who holds French and Polish citizenship, was en route to accept a lifetime achievement award last weekend when he was detained by Swiss police — a move that angered some of his allies from the entertainment industry and added yet another controversial chapter to his tumultuous life story and, as the Los Angeles Times’ Patrick Goldstein <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2009/09/roman-polanski-still-being-stalked-by-la-county-prosecutors.html" type="external">noted</a> on Sunday, made Polanski a fugitive once again. He will probably contest an expected extradition request from the United States, but according to his lawyer, Polanski’s in a “fighting mood.” –KA</p>
<p>Update: Click <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/article/petition-release-roman-polanski-7901" type="external">here</a> to see a petition signed by dozens of Polanski’s allies in the international entertainment community, including Pedro Almodovar, Wes Anderson, Jeanne Moreau, Monica Bellucci and Wim Wenders.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p />
<p>Mr Polanski’s agent, Jeff Berg, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the arrest was “surprising because Roman for the last 12, 15 years has lived in Switzerland, he has a home, he travels there, he works there”.</p>
<p>Justice spokesman Guido Balmer said the difference with this particular trip was that authorities knew exactly when and where Mr Polanski would arrive.</p>
<p>Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said that because of agreements with the US, “when Mr Polanski arrived we had no choice from a legal point of view but to arrest him”.</p>
<p>Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley comments on Roman Polanski’s arrest</p>
<p>The Swiss media has rounded on the authorities.</p>
<p>“Switzerland let a guest walk into a nasty trap. We should be ashamed,” said tabloid newspaper Blick.</p>
<p>Daily paper Le Temps said Switzerland had “shocked film buffs and friends of the arts with its kindly and efficient co-operation with US justice. It has angered Poland and France”.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8279466.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p>
|
Polanski Preps for a Fight After Arrest
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/polanski-preps-for-a-fight-after-arrest/
|
2009-09-29
| 4left
|
Polanski Preps for a Fight After Arrest
<p>Director Roman Polanski’s 1977 sex crime case has become an international and intergenerational saga, now that members of at least four governments have become involved, the former minor in question has grown up and requested that the issue be put to rest, and the original judge has been dead since 1993. However, after Polanski’s arrest last Saturday in Zurich, it’s clear this drama is far from over.</p>
<p>The filmmaker, 76, who holds French and Polish citizenship, was en route to accept a lifetime achievement award last weekend when he was detained by Swiss police — a move that angered some of his allies from the entertainment industry and added yet another controversial chapter to his tumultuous life story and, as the Los Angeles Times’ Patrick Goldstein <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2009/09/roman-polanski-still-being-stalked-by-la-county-prosecutors.html" type="external">noted</a> on Sunday, made Polanski a fugitive once again. He will probably contest an expected extradition request from the United States, but according to his lawyer, Polanski’s in a “fighting mood.” –KA</p>
<p>Update: Click <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/article/petition-release-roman-polanski-7901" type="external">here</a> to see a petition signed by dozens of Polanski’s allies in the international entertainment community, including Pedro Almodovar, Wes Anderson, Jeanne Moreau, Monica Bellucci and Wim Wenders.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p />
<p>Mr Polanski’s agent, Jeff Berg, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the arrest was “surprising because Roman for the last 12, 15 years has lived in Switzerland, he has a home, he travels there, he works there”.</p>
<p>Justice spokesman Guido Balmer said the difference with this particular trip was that authorities knew exactly when and where Mr Polanski would arrive.</p>
<p>Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said that because of agreements with the US, “when Mr Polanski arrived we had no choice from a legal point of view but to arrest him”.</p>
<p>Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley comments on Roman Polanski’s arrest</p>
<p>The Swiss media has rounded on the authorities.</p>
<p>“Switzerland let a guest walk into a nasty trap. We should be ashamed,” said tabloid newspaper Blick.</p>
<p>Daily paper Le Temps said Switzerland had “shocked film buffs and friends of the arts with its kindly and efficient co-operation with US justice. It has angered Poland and France”.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8279466.stm" type="external">Read more</a></p>
| 5,205 |
<p>President Trump just admitted that Ausralia’s universal healthcare system is “much better” than America’s mere hours after House Republicans voted to&#160;repeal Obamacare.</p>
<p>The comments came during Trump’s long-delayed sit-down with Australia’s&#160;Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. At first&#160;it seemed like a typical&#160;Trumpian&#160;bashing of Obamacare:</p>
<p>“The premiums are going to come down very substantially. Deductibles are going to come down. It’s going to be fantastic health care,” Trump said of Republican’s recently-passed American Health Care Act, also known as “Trumpcare.”</p>
<p>But then Trump pivoted into lavish praise of Australia’s healthcare system, which offers free healthcare to its citizens funded largely by taxes, with&#160;wealthy citizens paying extra. This system is&#160;essentially the very opposite of Trumpcare, which cuts $880 billion from Medicaid and gives&#160;$594 billion in tax cuts to the wealthy.</p>
<p>“Right now Obamacare is failing,” Trump continued. “I shouldn’t say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia, because you have better health care than we do.&#160;We’re going to have great health care very soon.”</p>
<p>Trump’s comments, and Bernie Sanders’ reaction, can be seen below:</p>
<p />
<p>In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Bernie Sanders cackled uproariously after viewing the footage.</p>
<p>“Thank you Mr. President,” Sanders said gleefully. “Let us move to a Medicare for all system that does what every other major country on earth does: guarantee health care to all people at a fraction of the cost per capita what we spend. Thank you Mr. President. We’ll quote you on the floor of the Senate.”</p>
|
Trump Just Praised Australia’s Universal Healthcare Moments After Republicans Voted to Repeal Obamacare
| true |
http://resistancereport.com/news/trump-praised-australias-universal-healthcare-moments-obamacare/
|
2017-05-04
| 4left
|
Trump Just Praised Australia’s Universal Healthcare Moments After Republicans Voted to Repeal Obamacare
<p>President Trump just admitted that Ausralia’s universal healthcare system is “much better” than America’s mere hours after House Republicans voted to&#160;repeal Obamacare.</p>
<p>The comments came during Trump’s long-delayed sit-down with Australia’s&#160;Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. At first&#160;it seemed like a typical&#160;Trumpian&#160;bashing of Obamacare:</p>
<p>“The premiums are going to come down very substantially. Deductibles are going to come down. It’s going to be fantastic health care,” Trump said of Republican’s recently-passed American Health Care Act, also known as “Trumpcare.”</p>
<p>But then Trump pivoted into lavish praise of Australia’s healthcare system, which offers free healthcare to its citizens funded largely by taxes, with&#160;wealthy citizens paying extra. This system is&#160;essentially the very opposite of Trumpcare, which cuts $880 billion from Medicaid and gives&#160;$594 billion in tax cuts to the wealthy.</p>
<p>“Right now Obamacare is failing,” Trump continued. “I shouldn’t say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia, because you have better health care than we do.&#160;We’re going to have great health care very soon.”</p>
<p>Trump’s comments, and Bernie Sanders’ reaction, can be seen below:</p>
<p />
<p>In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Bernie Sanders cackled uproariously after viewing the footage.</p>
<p>“Thank you Mr. President,” Sanders said gleefully. “Let us move to a Medicare for all system that does what every other major country on earth does: guarantee health care to all people at a fraction of the cost per capita what we spend. Thank you Mr. President. We’ll quote you on the floor of the Senate.”</p>
| 5,206 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>He had recently suffered a series of strokes, said a daughter, Erika Schickel.</p>
<p>By his count, Schickel was the author of 39 books and, remarkably, the creator of an equal number of documentary films. Most of them were biographies of Hollywood figures, from directors D.W. Griffith and Woody Allen to the swashbuckling silent-era star Douglas Fairbanks and the transformational midcentury actor Marlon Brando.</p>
<p>Schickel made perhaps his greatest impact as a weekly film critic. He began his career in 1965 at Life magazine, during what he later characterized as a golden age of filmmaking: Hollywood was experimenting with new subject matter, delving into topics of sex and violence in films such as “The Graduate” (1967) and “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967), and foreign directors such as Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa were rivaling their American counterparts in popular attention and critical acclaim.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Whether as a cause or as a consequence, it was also an era in which film critics such as Pauline Kael of the New Yorker and Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice became popular figures in their own right, forceful personalities who dueled in print each week over the merits of the latest Stanley Kubrick picture or the accuracy of the auteur theory of filmmaking.</p>
<p>Schickel was, if not always a central character in these critical battles, never far out of the fray. At Life and then at Time, a fellow Henry Luce-owned publication that he joined in 1972, he commanded one of the largest print audiences in America, reaching more than 4 million weekly readers each week with reviews that often strayed from popular assessments and critical consensus.</p>
<p>His first major work of film scholarship, the 1968 Walt Disney biography “The Disney Version,” fit squarely in this category, excoriating Disney films as trite fantasies that pandered to “the subliterates of our society.”</p>
<p>“As capitalism,” he wrote, the Disney film empire “is a work of genius; as culture, it is mostly a horror.” The book divided critics, some of whom considered it overly harsh, but has remained a touchstone of Disney scholarship, with The Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley praising it in 2003 as “the last word on that particular contribution to American self-delusion and escapism.”</p>
<p>His writing was replete with references to earlier Hollywood films and figures, and was sometimes highly personal. He began “Brando,” his 1991 biography of the actor, with a “Dear Marlon Brando” letter that apologized for delving into the actor’s private life. Later in the book, he described the impact of Brando’s performance in “The Wild One” (1953), as an outlaw biker, this way: “Oh, Lord, it was glorious. We were thrilled down to our toes curling cowardly in our white bucks.”</p>
<p>For every actor or film Schickel praised, there seemed to be at least two he was happy to take down a notch. Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” (1957), an existential drama starring Death incarnate, “made my teeth ache,” he wrote. Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller “Vertigo” (1958) was overrated; the drama of World War II homecoming “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946) was “undeniably lying and sentimental.”</p>
<p>His occasional bile was not without purpose. “In his criticism and films,” said Post film critic Ann Hornaday, “he always seemed to be making a passionate, unfailingly erudite stand against diminishing standards, both in the movies themselves and the way viewers watch and think about them.”</p>
<p>Richard Warren Schickel was born in Milwaukee on Feb. 10, 1933, and grew up in nearby Wauwatosa, Wis. His father worked in advertising and his mother was a homemaker.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Schickel’s home life was dominated by his grandfather, a lawyer who encouraged young Richard to read widely and, by the time he was 10, paid for his subscriptions to the New Yorker, the Saturday Evening Post and Time magazine, where Schickel became enthralled by what he called the “snappy authority” of film critic James Agee.</p>
<p>“I have to believe that it was not just the prose that attracted me,” Schickel wrote in a 2003 memoir, “Good Morning, Mr. Zip Zip Zip,” that took its title from a song his father sang at bedtime. “There was something about the act of criticism itself – its assertiveness, its ability to subvert the sometimes pompous, often expensive, object under review – that appealed to me.”</p>
<p>He studied history at the University of Wisconsin and, after receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1956, went east to New York, where he found a job reporting at Sports Illustrated.</p>
<p>Although Schickel was not unathletic – a tennis player, he volleyed with Sarris on the court as in print, and in 1975 wrote “The World of Tennis,” a layman’s account of the sport – he found his talents better suited to criticism. “Truth to tell,” he wrote in a 2015 memoir, “Keepers,” “it’s easy work.”</p>
<p>He was an editor at Look and the art magazine Show, where he reviewed books, before joining Life as a film critic. At Time, he worked for many years with fellow film critic Richard Corliss, who died in 2015. He later joined the online news outlet Truthdig.</p>
<p>His wife of six years, the former Carol Rubinstein, died in 1991. An earlier marriage to Julia Carroll Whedon ended in divorce. Survivors include two daughters from his first marriage, Erika Schickel of Los Angeles and Jessica Schickel Vild of Chagrin Falls, Ohio; a stepdaughter, Ali Rubinstein of Los Angeles; and four grandchildren.</p>
<p>In recent years, Schickel expressed dismay at the state of American filmmaking, lamenting in particular the work and business model of the major film studios. “We used to have genres in movies,” he told the Erie Times-News in 2006. “Now we have franchises deliberately repeating the beats of what has preceded it.”</p>
<p>“What we have is a mix of crud,” he added, “and stuff that aspires to be great statements.”</p>
|
Richard Schickel, encyclopedic film scholar and Time magazine critic, dies at 84
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/953803/richard-schickel-encyclopedic-film-scholar-and-time-magazine-critic-dies-at-84.html
| 2least
|
Richard Schickel, encyclopedic film scholar and Time magazine critic, dies at 84
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>He had recently suffered a series of strokes, said a daughter, Erika Schickel.</p>
<p>By his count, Schickel was the author of 39 books and, remarkably, the creator of an equal number of documentary films. Most of them were biographies of Hollywood figures, from directors D.W. Griffith and Woody Allen to the swashbuckling silent-era star Douglas Fairbanks and the transformational midcentury actor Marlon Brando.</p>
<p>Schickel made perhaps his greatest impact as a weekly film critic. He began his career in 1965 at Life magazine, during what he later characterized as a golden age of filmmaking: Hollywood was experimenting with new subject matter, delving into topics of sex and violence in films such as “The Graduate” (1967) and “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967), and foreign directors such as Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa were rivaling their American counterparts in popular attention and critical acclaim.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Whether as a cause or as a consequence, it was also an era in which film critics such as Pauline Kael of the New Yorker and Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice became popular figures in their own right, forceful personalities who dueled in print each week over the merits of the latest Stanley Kubrick picture or the accuracy of the auteur theory of filmmaking.</p>
<p>Schickel was, if not always a central character in these critical battles, never far out of the fray. At Life and then at Time, a fellow Henry Luce-owned publication that he joined in 1972, he commanded one of the largest print audiences in America, reaching more than 4 million weekly readers each week with reviews that often strayed from popular assessments and critical consensus.</p>
<p>His first major work of film scholarship, the 1968 Walt Disney biography “The Disney Version,” fit squarely in this category, excoriating Disney films as trite fantasies that pandered to “the subliterates of our society.”</p>
<p>“As capitalism,” he wrote, the Disney film empire “is a work of genius; as culture, it is mostly a horror.” The book divided critics, some of whom considered it overly harsh, but has remained a touchstone of Disney scholarship, with The Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley praising it in 2003 as “the last word on that particular contribution to American self-delusion and escapism.”</p>
<p>His writing was replete with references to earlier Hollywood films and figures, and was sometimes highly personal. He began “Brando,” his 1991 biography of the actor, with a “Dear Marlon Brando” letter that apologized for delving into the actor’s private life. Later in the book, he described the impact of Brando’s performance in “The Wild One” (1953), as an outlaw biker, this way: “Oh, Lord, it was glorious. We were thrilled down to our toes curling cowardly in our white bucks.”</p>
<p>For every actor or film Schickel praised, there seemed to be at least two he was happy to take down a notch. Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal” (1957), an existential drama starring Death incarnate, “made my teeth ache,” he wrote. Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller “Vertigo” (1958) was overrated; the drama of World War II homecoming “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946) was “undeniably lying and sentimental.”</p>
<p>His occasional bile was not without purpose. “In his criticism and films,” said Post film critic Ann Hornaday, “he always seemed to be making a passionate, unfailingly erudite stand against diminishing standards, both in the movies themselves and the way viewers watch and think about them.”</p>
<p>Richard Warren Schickel was born in Milwaukee on Feb. 10, 1933, and grew up in nearby Wauwatosa, Wis. His father worked in advertising and his mother was a homemaker.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Schickel’s home life was dominated by his grandfather, a lawyer who encouraged young Richard to read widely and, by the time he was 10, paid for his subscriptions to the New Yorker, the Saturday Evening Post and Time magazine, where Schickel became enthralled by what he called the “snappy authority” of film critic James Agee.</p>
<p>“I have to believe that it was not just the prose that attracted me,” Schickel wrote in a 2003 memoir, “Good Morning, Mr. Zip Zip Zip,” that took its title from a song his father sang at bedtime. “There was something about the act of criticism itself – its assertiveness, its ability to subvert the sometimes pompous, often expensive, object under review – that appealed to me.”</p>
<p>He studied history at the University of Wisconsin and, after receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1956, went east to New York, where he found a job reporting at Sports Illustrated.</p>
<p>Although Schickel was not unathletic – a tennis player, he volleyed with Sarris on the court as in print, and in 1975 wrote “The World of Tennis,” a layman’s account of the sport – he found his talents better suited to criticism. “Truth to tell,” he wrote in a 2015 memoir, “Keepers,” “it’s easy work.”</p>
<p>He was an editor at Look and the art magazine Show, where he reviewed books, before joining Life as a film critic. At Time, he worked for many years with fellow film critic Richard Corliss, who died in 2015. He later joined the online news outlet Truthdig.</p>
<p>His wife of six years, the former Carol Rubinstein, died in 1991. An earlier marriage to Julia Carroll Whedon ended in divorce. Survivors include two daughters from his first marriage, Erika Schickel of Los Angeles and Jessica Schickel Vild of Chagrin Falls, Ohio; a stepdaughter, Ali Rubinstein of Los Angeles; and four grandchildren.</p>
<p>In recent years, Schickel expressed dismay at the state of American filmmaking, lamenting in particular the work and business model of the major film studios. “We used to have genres in movies,” he told the Erie Times-News in 2006. “Now we have franchises deliberately repeating the beats of what has preceded it.”</p>
<p>“What we have is a mix of crud,” he added, “and stuff that aspires to be great statements.”</p>
| 5,207 |
|
<p />
<p>Steven Mnuchin, who was nominated by Donald Trump as the next Treasury secretary, is stepping down from the board at Sears.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Mnuchin, 53, has been on the Sears Holdings Corp. board for more than 11 years, according to the company. He was the Yale roommate of Sears Chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert.</p>
<p>Mnuchin was tapped in May to head Trump's campaign finance operation, and said this week that he had been asked by Trump to head the Treasury.</p>
<p>Sears, based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, said Mnuchin's departure reduces the number of board members to nine.</p>
|
Incoming Treasury Sec. Mnuchin steps down from Sears board
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/02/incoming-treasury-sec-mnuchin-steps-down-from-sears-board.html
|
2016-12-02
| 0right
|
Incoming Treasury Sec. Mnuchin steps down from Sears board
<p />
<p>Steven Mnuchin, who was nominated by Donald Trump as the next Treasury secretary, is stepping down from the board at Sears.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Mnuchin, 53, has been on the Sears Holdings Corp. board for more than 11 years, according to the company. He was the Yale roommate of Sears Chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert.</p>
<p>Mnuchin was tapped in May to head Trump's campaign finance operation, and said this week that he had been asked by Trump to head the Treasury.</p>
<p>Sears, based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, said Mnuchin's departure reduces the number of board members to nine.</p>
| 5,208 |
<p />
<p>The American people might benefit from a visit to Gamblers Anonymous, but when it comes to choosing the next president, they definitely don’t need a shrink.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then American voters are clearly sane, if not sober. After two terms of President Obama’s “hope and change” that, as I see it, delivered little of either, the people are ready to roll the dice.</p>
<p>American voters are finally so fed up with politics as usual that they’ve actually developed an uncharacteristically voracious appetite for risk.</p>
<p>If the 2016 primaries are any indication, the electorate seems willing to take a flyer on a casino magnate slash reality TV star and a full-blown socialist who seems to think we can tax our way to prosperity. Wonder what the Vegas odds were on that combination just eight months ago? Somewhere between slim and none, I’m guessing.</p>
<p>Nobody knows who’ll be left standing come November, but back when Donald Trump stood in his eponymous tower and announced his candidacy and the citizens of this great land had yet to “Feel the Bern,” who in their right mind thought the Donald and Bernie Sanders would be anywhere near this close to the White House?</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong. From the day the guy most known for the phrase “You’re fired!” stood for the cameras and proclaimed without a trace of humility, “ <a href="" type="internal">I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created</a>,” I knew he meant every word, and that his attitude and message could resonate with the American people.</p>
<p>But I never expected him to become the odds-on favorite to win the Republican nomination. And while Sanders is still a long shot to beat the venerable Hilary Clinton, the very fact that their delegate count is practically neck and neck at 51 to 52 (not counting superdelegates) just a week from Super Tuesday is quite a shocker.</p>
<p>We usually associate entrepreneurs, entertainers and athletes with risk-takers, not Joe six-pack and his middle-class friends in the fat part of the American bell curve. Clearly, the powerful populist movement behind Trump and Sanders demonstrates that many if not most of us are through – as in put a fork in us, we’re done – with the dysfunction and incompetence of the political establishment in Washington.</p>
<p>Make no mistake. When it comes to these two candidates, we are gambling Vegas style.</p>
<p>Let’s start with Trump. Yes, some of his <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/31/news/companies/donald-trump-bankruptcy/" type="external">businesses have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring Opens a New Window.</a>. Four times, to be exact. No, nobody knows if he means to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, hit <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/07/donald-trump-says-he-favors-big-tariffs-on-chinese-exports/" type="external">China with a 45% tariff Opens a New Window.</a> or boycott Apple’s products. And even his supporters aren’t sure if he’s serious when he calls people idiots, dumb, neurotic, or bimbos.</p>
<p>While it’s certainly his right to say he thinks it’s disgraceful for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-fabricated-fight-between-pope-francis-and-donald-trump/2016/02/19/07073806-d74a-11e5-be55-2cc3c1e4b76b_story.html" type="external">the Pope to question his Christianity Opens a New Window.</a> and for <a href="" type="internal">Apple CEO Tim Cook to decline to help the FBI</a> unlock an iPhone linked to the San Bernardino terror attack, even <a href="http://www.newser.com/story/220916/trump-ill-act-more-presidential-pretty-soon.html" type="external">Trump recently admitted that he probably needs to start acting more presidential Opens a New Window.</a> … pretty soon.</p>
<p>That leaves us to wonder if the man with an increasingly decent chance of becoming the next resident of the White House just shoots off his mouth and asks questions later, or maybe he really is the type of leader who’s prone to Ready, Fire, Aim, in that order. If it’s the latter, is it not risky to have his finger on the proverbial button?</p>
<p>And what about Sanders? Is it better or worse that the lifelong socialist means every word he says about <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/how-bernie-pays-for-his-proposals/" type="external">making college tuition free Opens a New Window.</a>, expanding health care coverage to all Americans through a single-payer system, spending $1 trillion on infrastructure, expanding Social Security and providing 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for all workers?</p>
<p>By some estimates, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/price-tag-of-bernie-sanders-proposals-18-trillion-1442271511" type="external">Sanders’ social programs would cost upwards of $18 trillion Opens a New Window.</a>. He plans to pay for some of this unprecedented government expansion with $6.5 trillion in across-the-board tax increases that would weigh most heavily on big business and the wealthy. But I can’t see how it wouldn’t end up expanding our already astronomical national debt of $19 trillion.</p>
<p>The very notion of abandoning the core principles of personal responsibility and free-market capitalism that made America the greatest nation on Earth by setting into motion a massive plan to redistribute wealth and reengineer the economy has got to be about the riskiest bet of all time.</p>
<p>This new appetite for risk reveals just how done the electorate is with the status quo in Washington. This is what people do when you’ve pushed them too far for too long. If this isn’t a wake-up call to the permanent political class – that we’re willing to try almost anything rather than sit back and watch you muck up our country – then maybe it is time to throw the bums out and start over.</p>
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Americans Gamble on Trump and Sanders
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/02/23/americans-gamble-on-trump-and-sanders.html
|
2016-03-04
| 0right
|
Americans Gamble on Trump and Sanders
<p />
<p>The American people might benefit from a visit to Gamblers Anonymous, but when it comes to choosing the next president, they definitely don’t need a shrink.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then American voters are clearly sane, if not sober. After two terms of President Obama’s “hope and change” that, as I see it, delivered little of either, the people are ready to roll the dice.</p>
<p>American voters are finally so fed up with politics as usual that they’ve actually developed an uncharacteristically voracious appetite for risk.</p>
<p>If the 2016 primaries are any indication, the electorate seems willing to take a flyer on a casino magnate slash reality TV star and a full-blown socialist who seems to think we can tax our way to prosperity. Wonder what the Vegas odds were on that combination just eight months ago? Somewhere between slim and none, I’m guessing.</p>
<p>Nobody knows who’ll be left standing come November, but back when Donald Trump stood in his eponymous tower and announced his candidacy and the citizens of this great land had yet to “Feel the Bern,” who in their right mind thought the Donald and Bernie Sanders would be anywhere near this close to the White House?</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong. From the day the guy most known for the phrase “You’re fired!” stood for the cameras and proclaimed without a trace of humility, “ <a href="" type="internal">I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created</a>,” I knew he meant every word, and that his attitude and message could resonate with the American people.</p>
<p>But I never expected him to become the odds-on favorite to win the Republican nomination. And while Sanders is still a long shot to beat the venerable Hilary Clinton, the very fact that their delegate count is practically neck and neck at 51 to 52 (not counting superdelegates) just a week from Super Tuesday is quite a shocker.</p>
<p>We usually associate entrepreneurs, entertainers and athletes with risk-takers, not Joe six-pack and his middle-class friends in the fat part of the American bell curve. Clearly, the powerful populist movement behind Trump and Sanders demonstrates that many if not most of us are through – as in put a fork in us, we’re done – with the dysfunction and incompetence of the political establishment in Washington.</p>
<p>Make no mistake. When it comes to these two candidates, we are gambling Vegas style.</p>
<p>Let’s start with Trump. Yes, some of his <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/31/news/companies/donald-trump-bankruptcy/" type="external">businesses have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring Opens a New Window.</a>. Four times, to be exact. No, nobody knows if he means to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, hit <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/07/donald-trump-says-he-favors-big-tariffs-on-chinese-exports/" type="external">China with a 45% tariff Opens a New Window.</a> or boycott Apple’s products. And even his supporters aren’t sure if he’s serious when he calls people idiots, dumb, neurotic, or bimbos.</p>
<p>While it’s certainly his right to say he thinks it’s disgraceful for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-fabricated-fight-between-pope-francis-and-donald-trump/2016/02/19/07073806-d74a-11e5-be55-2cc3c1e4b76b_story.html" type="external">the Pope to question his Christianity Opens a New Window.</a> and for <a href="" type="internal">Apple CEO Tim Cook to decline to help the FBI</a> unlock an iPhone linked to the San Bernardino terror attack, even <a href="http://www.newser.com/story/220916/trump-ill-act-more-presidential-pretty-soon.html" type="external">Trump recently admitted that he probably needs to start acting more presidential Opens a New Window.</a> … pretty soon.</p>
<p>That leaves us to wonder if the man with an increasingly decent chance of becoming the next resident of the White House just shoots off his mouth and asks questions later, or maybe he really is the type of leader who’s prone to Ready, Fire, Aim, in that order. If it’s the latter, is it not risky to have his finger on the proverbial button?</p>
<p>And what about Sanders? Is it better or worse that the lifelong socialist means every word he says about <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/how-bernie-pays-for-his-proposals/" type="external">making college tuition free Opens a New Window.</a>, expanding health care coverage to all Americans through a single-payer system, spending $1 trillion on infrastructure, expanding Social Security and providing 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for all workers?</p>
<p>By some estimates, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/price-tag-of-bernie-sanders-proposals-18-trillion-1442271511" type="external">Sanders’ social programs would cost upwards of $18 trillion Opens a New Window.</a>. He plans to pay for some of this unprecedented government expansion with $6.5 trillion in across-the-board tax increases that would weigh most heavily on big business and the wealthy. But I can’t see how it wouldn’t end up expanding our already astronomical national debt of $19 trillion.</p>
<p>The very notion of abandoning the core principles of personal responsibility and free-market capitalism that made America the greatest nation on Earth by setting into motion a massive plan to redistribute wealth and reengineer the economy has got to be about the riskiest bet of all time.</p>
<p>This new appetite for risk reveals just how done the electorate is with the status quo in Washington. This is what people do when you’ve pushed them too far for too long. If this isn’t a wake-up call to the permanent political class – that we’re willing to try almost anything rather than sit back and watch you muck up our country – then maybe it is time to throw the bums out and start over.</p>
| 5,209 |
<p />
<p>Johnson &amp; Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) reported its 2017 first-quarter results on Tuesday morning. The healthcare giant again beat earnings estimates, just as it did throughout 2016.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Investors heard a lot from Johnson &amp; Johnson about what went right and what went wrong in the first quarter, as well as some of the company's plans for the future. However, J&amp;J's management team didn't answer every question that shareholders might have had. Here are three things that the company didn't tell you in its first-quarter earnings update.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>On the surface, Johnson &amp; Johnson's consumer business segment numbers looked mediocre but not too bad. The company reported worldwide consumer sales of $3.2 billion in the first quarter, up 1% year over year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>What those figures mask, however, is where that small amount of growth came from. Excluding the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, consumer segment sales actually decreased by 2.3%. Consumer sales in the U.S. were worse than in international markets, with domestic sales dropping 2.9% while international sales fell 1.9%.</p>
<p>Joseph Wolk, vice president of investor relations, talked about a lot of macroeconomic factors affecting the consumer segment in the company's earnings call. However, Johnson &amp; Johnson is experiencing broad category declines in several parts of its consumer business, including baby care, Listerine oral care, and wound care/other.</p>
<p>When will Johnson &amp; Johnson's consumer business return to real growth? It's not certain. The company thinks that the introduction of new products could boost sales by around 2% in 2017 from current levels. Even with these new launches, though, CFO Dominic Caruso expects the consumer segment will post a similar performance to 2016 and could do worse if the category declines continue.</p>
<p>An even bigger concern relates to pharmaceuticals growth. Over 46% of Johnson &amp; Johnson's total revenue comes from its pharmaceuticals business. In the first quarter of 2017, sales for the segment grew at a snail's pace -- only 0.8% higher than the prior-year period.</p>
<p>J&amp;J does have several products with strong growth, including multiple myeloma drug Darzalex and blood cancer drug Imbruvica. However, sales for its top-selling drug, the anti-inflammatory Remicade, are falling. The company also reported lower first-quarter sales for diabetes drug Invokana, blood thinner Xarelto, and prostate cancer drug Zytiga.</p>
<p>Granted, Johnson &amp; Johnson did have favorable prior period price adjustments in the first quarter of 2016 that make year-over-year comparisons look worse. But the company nonetheless still appears to have some significant issues in its pharmaceuticals segment.</p>
<p>Part of the problem is the need to provide discounts to payers, particularly for Invokana. Competition is another major challenge. Remicade is losing market share to biosimilar competition in Europe. Although Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is now selling a biosimilar to Remicade in the U.S., J&amp;J hasn't been impacted too much -- at least not yet. Generic competition in the U.S. is, however, hurting sales of ADHD drug Concerta.</p>
<p>Johnson &amp; Johnson didn't elaborate on how it plans to overcome all of these issues in its first-quarter update. However, the company has scheduled a pharmaceuticals business review for May 17. Perhaps these problems and their solutions will be addressed then.</p>
<p>J&amp;J's management team mentioned the pending Actelion acquisition several times during the company's earnings conference call. The $30 billion transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2017.</p>
<p>Johnson &amp; Johnson raised its 2017 revenue outlook by $700 million as a result of the anticipated Actelion closure. It also increased its adjusted earnings guidance from $7 per share to $7.15 per share.</p>
<p>Upward revisions to guidance are great, but there's still a big unanswered question: How long will it actually take for the Actelion buyout to pay off? J&amp;J didn't really address the question when it first announced plans to buy the Swiss biotech and didn't in the first-quarter update.</p>
<p>There has been considerable skepticism about the price tag paid for Actelion. With several of Johnson &amp; Johnson's existing drugs struggling, the addition of the smaller company'spulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) franchise could help. However, so could plenty of other deals that wouldn't have been as expensive.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Johnson &amp; JohnsonWhen 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-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=b9aa4838-7701-4e8a-8017-5f54dd6f09e8&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Johnson &amp; Johnson 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-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=b9aa4838-7701-4e8a-8017-5f54dd6f09e8&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFishBiz/info.aspx" type="external">Keith Speights Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Pfizer. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Johnson &amp; Johnson. 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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3 Things Johnson & Johnson Didn't Tell You in Its Q1 Earnings Update
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/04/21/3-things-johnson-johnson-didnt-tell-in-its-q1-earnings-update.html
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2017-04-21
| 0right
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3 Things Johnson & Johnson Didn't Tell You in Its Q1 Earnings Update
<p />
<p>Johnson &amp; Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) reported its 2017 first-quarter results on Tuesday morning. The healthcare giant again beat earnings estimates, just as it did throughout 2016.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Investors heard a lot from Johnson &amp; Johnson about what went right and what went wrong in the first quarter, as well as some of the company's plans for the future. However, J&amp;J's management team didn't answer every question that shareholders might have had. Here are three things that the company didn't tell you in its first-quarter earnings update.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>On the surface, Johnson &amp; Johnson's consumer business segment numbers looked mediocre but not too bad. The company reported worldwide consumer sales of $3.2 billion in the first quarter, up 1% year over year.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>What those figures mask, however, is where that small amount of growth came from. Excluding the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, consumer segment sales actually decreased by 2.3%. Consumer sales in the U.S. were worse than in international markets, with domestic sales dropping 2.9% while international sales fell 1.9%.</p>
<p>Joseph Wolk, vice president of investor relations, talked about a lot of macroeconomic factors affecting the consumer segment in the company's earnings call. However, Johnson &amp; Johnson is experiencing broad category declines in several parts of its consumer business, including baby care, Listerine oral care, and wound care/other.</p>
<p>When will Johnson &amp; Johnson's consumer business return to real growth? It's not certain. The company thinks that the introduction of new products could boost sales by around 2% in 2017 from current levels. Even with these new launches, though, CFO Dominic Caruso expects the consumer segment will post a similar performance to 2016 and could do worse if the category declines continue.</p>
<p>An even bigger concern relates to pharmaceuticals growth. Over 46% of Johnson &amp; Johnson's total revenue comes from its pharmaceuticals business. In the first quarter of 2017, sales for the segment grew at a snail's pace -- only 0.8% higher than the prior-year period.</p>
<p>J&amp;J does have several products with strong growth, including multiple myeloma drug Darzalex and blood cancer drug Imbruvica. However, sales for its top-selling drug, the anti-inflammatory Remicade, are falling. The company also reported lower first-quarter sales for diabetes drug Invokana, blood thinner Xarelto, and prostate cancer drug Zytiga.</p>
<p>Granted, Johnson &amp; Johnson did have favorable prior period price adjustments in the first quarter of 2016 that make year-over-year comparisons look worse. But the company nonetheless still appears to have some significant issues in its pharmaceuticals segment.</p>
<p>Part of the problem is the need to provide discounts to payers, particularly for Invokana. Competition is another major challenge. Remicade is losing market share to biosimilar competition in Europe. Although Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) is now selling a biosimilar to Remicade in the U.S., J&amp;J hasn't been impacted too much -- at least not yet. Generic competition in the U.S. is, however, hurting sales of ADHD drug Concerta.</p>
<p>Johnson &amp; Johnson didn't elaborate on how it plans to overcome all of these issues in its first-quarter update. However, the company has scheduled a pharmaceuticals business review for May 17. Perhaps these problems and their solutions will be addressed then.</p>
<p>J&amp;J's management team mentioned the pending Actelion acquisition several times during the company's earnings conference call. The $30 billion transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2017.</p>
<p>Johnson &amp; Johnson raised its 2017 revenue outlook by $700 million as a result of the anticipated Actelion closure. It also increased its adjusted earnings guidance from $7 per share to $7.15 per share.</p>
<p>Upward revisions to guidance are great, but there's still a big unanswered question: How long will it actually take for the Actelion buyout to pay off? J&amp;J didn't really address the question when it first announced plans to buy the Swiss biotech and didn't in the first-quarter update.</p>
<p>There has been considerable skepticism about the price tag paid for Actelion. With several of Johnson &amp; Johnson's existing drugs struggling, the addition of the smaller company'spulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) franchise could help. However, so could plenty of other deals that wouldn't have been as expensive.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Johnson &amp; JohnsonWhen 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-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=b9aa4838-7701-4e8a-8017-5f54dd6f09e8&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Johnson &amp; Johnson 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-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=b9aa4838-7701-4e8a-8017-5f54dd6f09e8&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFFishBiz/info.aspx" type="external">Keith Speights Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Pfizer. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Johnson &amp; Johnson. 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>
| 5,210 |
<p>Andrew Ross Sorkin (New York Times, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/business/dealbook/how-trump-could-ease-his-conflict-of-interest-problem.html?" type="external">11/28/16</a>): “Some of your critics will deride the corporate monitor as mere window dressing.” And those critics would be right.</p>
<p>Donald Trump is about to become president and immediately begin violating the Constitution. The Constitution explicitly prohibits the president from taking payments and gifts from foreign governments. (Can we stop using the term “ <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emolument" type="external">emolument</a>“? No one has used it for a hundred years. We want to be clear on what the Constitution means.)</p>
<p>Donald Trump is right now and will continue to be taking payments and gifts from foreign governments in the form of benefits to his properties, unless he dumps the stuff. This is about as clear a violation of the constitutional provision imaginable, so why on Earth do we have Andrew Ross Sorkin (New York Times, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/business/dealbook/how-trump-could-ease-his-conflict-of-interest-problem.html" type="external">11/28/16</a>) approvingly accepting Donald Trump’s nonsense claim in his letter to Mr. Trump?</p>
<p>You understand the conundrum. “In theory, I don’t have to do anything” to distance yourself from your business holdings, you told journalists at the New York Times last week, “but I would like to do something — I would like to try and formalize something.”</p>
<p>This is wrong. Trump absolutely does have to do something. It’s not a question of his being a nice guy. This is a constitutional provision. The Constitution sets the rules on who can be president and how they conduct themselves. Just as it says the president must be at least 35 years old and must be a native-born citizen, it also says the president can’t take payments from foreign governments.</p>
<p>Perhaps even more incredible than Sorkin’s misrepresentation of the Constitution, his plan is just a bad joke.</p>
<p>Voluntarily agree to hire what is known as a “corporate monitor,” an independent overseer with unfettered access to your organizations who will provide regular reports to the public about any possible instances of conflicts.</p>
<p>Okay, let’s get this one straight. Donald Trump can’t keep himself from tweeting out loony claims about massive vote fraud in the middle of the night. He routinely makes personal attacks on his critics without any evidence. This guy is going to defer to a “corporate monitor” in his actions as president?</p>
<p>So when President Erdogan in Turkey gives favorable treatment to Trump’s golf courses there, is the corporate monitor going to be able to know if this affects Donald Trump’s decision to look the other way as he locks up all his political opponents? If Scotland decides to ban the wind turbines near his resort, will the corporate monitor know if this affects his attitude towards Scottish independence? And, as a practical matter, do we really believe that Trump would be constantly checking in with his corporate monitor anyhow?</p>
<p>Sorkin’s proposal is a complete joke. If we give a damn about the Constitution, Donald Trump has to sell off his empire and place his assets in a blind trust, just like every other president has done for the last half century. (I explain how he could do this <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/ending-trump-s-conflict-of-interest-problem-in-three-easy-steps" type="external">here</a>.) If he chooses not to do this, then Trump is constitutionally unable to be president, just as if he was born in Kenya. It’s that simple.</p>
<p>Economist Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. A version of this post originally appeared on CEPR’s blog Beat the Press ( <a href="http://www.cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/pain-versus-gain-argentina-greece-and-paul-volcker" type="external">4/30/15</a>).</p>
<p>You can send a message to the New York Times at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>, or write to public editor Liz Spayd at&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>&#160;(Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes" type="external">@NYTimes</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/spaydl" type="external">@SpaydL</a>). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.</p>
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If We Care About the Constitution, Trump Has to Sell His Empire
| true |
http://fair.org/home/if-we-care-about-the-constitution-trump-has-to-sell-his-empire/
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2016-11-30
| 4left
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If We Care About the Constitution, Trump Has to Sell His Empire
<p>Andrew Ross Sorkin (New York Times, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/business/dealbook/how-trump-could-ease-his-conflict-of-interest-problem.html?" type="external">11/28/16</a>): “Some of your critics will deride the corporate monitor as mere window dressing.” And those critics would be right.</p>
<p>Donald Trump is about to become president and immediately begin violating the Constitution. The Constitution explicitly prohibits the president from taking payments and gifts from foreign governments. (Can we stop using the term “ <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emolument" type="external">emolument</a>“? No one has used it for a hundred years. We want to be clear on what the Constitution means.)</p>
<p>Donald Trump is right now and will continue to be taking payments and gifts from foreign governments in the form of benefits to his properties, unless he dumps the stuff. This is about as clear a violation of the constitutional provision imaginable, so why on Earth do we have Andrew Ross Sorkin (New York Times, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/business/dealbook/how-trump-could-ease-his-conflict-of-interest-problem.html" type="external">11/28/16</a>) approvingly accepting Donald Trump’s nonsense claim in his letter to Mr. Trump?</p>
<p>You understand the conundrum. “In theory, I don’t have to do anything” to distance yourself from your business holdings, you told journalists at the New York Times last week, “but I would like to do something — I would like to try and formalize something.”</p>
<p>This is wrong. Trump absolutely does have to do something. It’s not a question of his being a nice guy. This is a constitutional provision. The Constitution sets the rules on who can be president and how they conduct themselves. Just as it says the president must be at least 35 years old and must be a native-born citizen, it also says the president can’t take payments from foreign governments.</p>
<p>Perhaps even more incredible than Sorkin’s misrepresentation of the Constitution, his plan is just a bad joke.</p>
<p>Voluntarily agree to hire what is known as a “corporate monitor,” an independent overseer with unfettered access to your organizations who will provide regular reports to the public about any possible instances of conflicts.</p>
<p>Okay, let’s get this one straight. Donald Trump can’t keep himself from tweeting out loony claims about massive vote fraud in the middle of the night. He routinely makes personal attacks on his critics without any evidence. This guy is going to defer to a “corporate monitor” in his actions as president?</p>
<p>So when President Erdogan in Turkey gives favorable treatment to Trump’s golf courses there, is the corporate monitor going to be able to know if this affects Donald Trump’s decision to look the other way as he locks up all his political opponents? If Scotland decides to ban the wind turbines near his resort, will the corporate monitor know if this affects his attitude towards Scottish independence? And, as a practical matter, do we really believe that Trump would be constantly checking in with his corporate monitor anyhow?</p>
<p>Sorkin’s proposal is a complete joke. If we give a damn about the Constitution, Donald Trump has to sell off his empire and place his assets in a blind trust, just like every other president has done for the last half century. (I explain how he could do this <a href="http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/ending-trump-s-conflict-of-interest-problem-in-three-easy-steps" type="external">here</a>.) If he chooses not to do this, then Trump is constitutionally unable to be president, just as if he was born in Kenya. It’s that simple.</p>
<p>Economist Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. A version of this post originally appeared on CEPR’s blog Beat the Press ( <a href="http://www.cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/pain-versus-gain-argentina-greece-and-paul-volcker" type="external">4/30/15</a>).</p>
<p>You can send a message to the New York Times at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>, or write to public editor Liz Spayd at&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>&#160;(Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes" type="external">@NYTimes</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/spaydl" type="external">@SpaydL</a>). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.</p>
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<p />
<p>The French government has sent an emergency mission to try to quell tensions in the territory of a quarter-million people before Monday’s general strike by some 27 unions.</p>
<p>Protests have already blocked roads to neighboring Brazil and Suriname, and shuttered many businesses and schools. Air France canceled all flights Sunday and Monday because of the strike. Flights from regional airlines to the city of Cayenne were canceled.</p>
<p>As tensions mounted, French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced plans to send a high-level ministerial mission before week’s end aimed at signing a pact addressing anger over high crime, the cost of living and the quality of health care and other social services.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Collective of 500 Brothers, the group largely behind the protests, has been demanding that the French government send a minister to negotiate with them. The group, initially created to focus on fighting crime, includes dozens of men wearing black clothes and black hoods to hide their faces.</p>
<p>The unrest is a reminder of the deep economic, social and racial divides between France’s mainland and its former colonies from the Caribbean to the South Pacific that remain French today. Some territories use the euro currency, and they all depend heavily on imported goods and policy decisions made in Paris.</p>
<p>Candidates for France’s two-round April-May presidential election have urged aid or intervention in Guiana, as the concerns of overseas voters suddenly entered the spotlight.</p>
<p>Ericka Bareigts, the French government minister for overseas holdings, called for calm Monday, and said on RTL radio that the government mission has made progress on demands from fishermen and farmers. However, she said “conditions for dialogue are not met” for her to visit Guiana herself.</p>
<p>The ambitious pact includes aid to the agriculture sector, the construction of a penitentiary and a new court to meet demands and security needs.</p>
<p>French Guiana senator Antoine Karam told BFM-TV the population has been ignored despite grave problems, such as 50 percent unemployment among young people and 30 percent of the population lacking drinking water or electricity in their homes.</p>
<p>“We’re not treated in the same way as the mainland French,” he said, despite French Guiana being the site of Europe’s Ariane rocket launches.</p>
<p>A visit by Segolene Royal, the French minister of ecology, to the territory on March 17 was cut short after masked demonstrators from the Collective of 500 Brothers stormed a regional conference on biodiversity she was attending in Cayenne.</p>
<p>Protests also disrupted the planned launch last week of an Ariane 5 rocket from the space center in Kourou that was carrying a South Korean satellite and a Brazilian satellite.</p>
<p>The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning because of the potential for the protests to turn violent, saying its citizens should avoid travel to French Guiana.</p>
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Strikes to hit French Guiana as tensions paralyze territory
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/976874/strikes-to-hit-french-guiana-as-tensions-paralyze-territory.html
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2017-03-27
| 2least
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Strikes to hit French Guiana as tensions paralyze territory
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<p />
<p>The French government has sent an emergency mission to try to quell tensions in the territory of a quarter-million people before Monday’s general strike by some 27 unions.</p>
<p>Protests have already blocked roads to neighboring Brazil and Suriname, and shuttered many businesses and schools. Air France canceled all flights Sunday and Monday because of the strike. Flights from regional airlines to the city of Cayenne were canceled.</p>
<p>As tensions mounted, French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced plans to send a high-level ministerial mission before week’s end aimed at signing a pact addressing anger over high crime, the cost of living and the quality of health care and other social services.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Collective of 500 Brothers, the group largely behind the protests, has been demanding that the French government send a minister to negotiate with them. The group, initially created to focus on fighting crime, includes dozens of men wearing black clothes and black hoods to hide their faces.</p>
<p>The unrest is a reminder of the deep economic, social and racial divides between France’s mainland and its former colonies from the Caribbean to the South Pacific that remain French today. Some territories use the euro currency, and they all depend heavily on imported goods and policy decisions made in Paris.</p>
<p>Candidates for France’s two-round April-May presidential election have urged aid or intervention in Guiana, as the concerns of overseas voters suddenly entered the spotlight.</p>
<p>Ericka Bareigts, the French government minister for overseas holdings, called for calm Monday, and said on RTL radio that the government mission has made progress on demands from fishermen and farmers. However, she said “conditions for dialogue are not met” for her to visit Guiana herself.</p>
<p>The ambitious pact includes aid to the agriculture sector, the construction of a penitentiary and a new court to meet demands and security needs.</p>
<p>French Guiana senator Antoine Karam told BFM-TV the population has been ignored despite grave problems, such as 50 percent unemployment among young people and 30 percent of the population lacking drinking water or electricity in their homes.</p>
<p>“We’re not treated in the same way as the mainland French,” he said, despite French Guiana being the site of Europe’s Ariane rocket launches.</p>
<p>A visit by Segolene Royal, the French minister of ecology, to the territory on March 17 was cut short after masked demonstrators from the Collective of 500 Brothers stormed a regional conference on biodiversity she was attending in Cayenne.</p>
<p>Protests also disrupted the planned launch last week of an Ariane 5 rocket from the space center in Kourou that was carrying a South Korean satellite and a Brazilian satellite.</p>
<p>The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning because of the potential for the protests to turn violent, saying its citizens should avoid travel to French Guiana.</p>
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<p>North Korea carried out its second nuclear test on Monday and said it was “on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The test sparked international condemnation and protests in South Korea, while the U.N. Security Council called an emergency session to discuss the incident.</p>
<p>BBC News:</p>
<p>So, North Korea has carried out what it had been threatening to do for weeks, another atomic test.</p>
<p>The announcement broadcast on its state media said the detonation, which rattled the Korean peninsula with the magnitude of an earthquake measuring 4.5, was “in defence of the nation, the country and socialism.”</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8067368.stm" type="external">Read More</a></p>
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North Korea Tests Its Nuclear Might
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/north-korea-tests-its-nuclear-might/
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2009-05-25
| 4left
|
North Korea Tests Its Nuclear Might
<p>North Korea carried out its second nuclear test on Monday and said it was “on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The test sparked international condemnation and protests in South Korea, while the U.N. Security Council called an emergency session to discuss the incident.</p>
<p>BBC News:</p>
<p>So, North Korea has carried out what it had been threatening to do for weeks, another atomic test.</p>
<p>The announcement broadcast on its state media said the detonation, which rattled the Korean peninsula with the magnitude of an earthquake measuring 4.5, was “in defence of the nation, the country and socialism.”</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8067368.stm" type="external">Read More</a></p>
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<p />
<p>Most stock markets around the world gained Tuesday, as the recent global market rout showed signs of easing.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>European stocks climbed sharply, while U.S. stock futures surged, shrugging off another sharp drop in Chinese stocks. Treasurys slipped, as the fierce demand for haven assets faded.</p>
<p>The moves came after stocks around the world tumbled on Monday as concerns about a slowdown in China's economic growth rattled investors.</p>
<p>There was no letup in the selling in Chinese markets Tuesday. Shares in Shanghai closed 7.6% lower as the index fell below 3000 for the first time since December, following the worst one-day loss in more than eight years on Monday. Japan's Nikkei closed 4.0% lower after staging a short-lived recovery.</p>
<p>But elsewhere, markets steadied.</p>
<p>The Stoxx Europe 600 index was 2.8% higher midmorning, following a 5.3% slump on Monday. Germany's DAX rose 2.6%, France's CAC 40 climbed 2.9%, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was 2.3% higher.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>U.S. stock futures indicated opening gains of around 3% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&amp;P 500. Still, the scale of the gains was small compared with Monday's wild swings in the market. Changes in futures aren't necessarily reflected in market moves after the opening bell.</p>
<p>The Dow plunged more than 1000 points at Monday's open, before closing 3.6% lower.</p>
<p>"I suspect things will calm down in the short term," said Guy Foster, head of research at wealth manager Brewin Dolphin.</p>
<p>The indiscriminate nature of Monday's selloff displayed an "air of irrationality," he added.</p>
<p>Oil prices also steadied, with Brent crude 2.2% higher at $43.63 a barrel.</p>
<p>In currency markets, the dollar rebounded slightly from its big losses on Monday. The euro was down 0.4% against the buck at $1.1547. The dollar strengthened 0.6% against the yen to Yen119.387.</p>
<p>In bond markets, U.S. 10-year Treasury yields climbed 0.05 percentage point to 2.05%, having dipped below 2% on Monday for the first time since April. Yields rise as prices fall.</p>
<p>Investors are left grappling with the question of whether the selloff is over.</p>
<p>Worries about China have stirred concerns that the world economy faces the prospect of a rise in U.S. interest rates in a relatively fragile state, according to Scott Jamieson, head of multiasset investing at Kames Capital, which manages GBP52 billion of assets.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve is still expected to lift rates from record lows in the coming months.</p>
<p>"The world economy isn't robust enough to deal with that uncertainty. I don't think we are out of the woods yet," said Mr. Jamieson.</p>
|
Global Markets Mostly Higher After China Rout
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/08/25/global-markets-mostly-higher-after-china-rout.html
|
2016-07-06
| 0right
|
Global Markets Mostly Higher After China Rout
<p />
<p>Most stock markets around the world gained Tuesday, as the recent global market rout showed signs of easing.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>European stocks climbed sharply, while U.S. stock futures surged, shrugging off another sharp drop in Chinese stocks. Treasurys slipped, as the fierce demand for haven assets faded.</p>
<p>The moves came after stocks around the world tumbled on Monday as concerns about a slowdown in China's economic growth rattled investors.</p>
<p>There was no letup in the selling in Chinese markets Tuesday. Shares in Shanghai closed 7.6% lower as the index fell below 3000 for the first time since December, following the worst one-day loss in more than eight years on Monday. Japan's Nikkei closed 4.0% lower after staging a short-lived recovery.</p>
<p>But elsewhere, markets steadied.</p>
<p>The Stoxx Europe 600 index was 2.8% higher midmorning, following a 5.3% slump on Monday. Germany's DAX rose 2.6%, France's CAC 40 climbed 2.9%, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was 2.3% higher.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>U.S. stock futures indicated opening gains of around 3% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&amp;P 500. Still, the scale of the gains was small compared with Monday's wild swings in the market. Changes in futures aren't necessarily reflected in market moves after the opening bell.</p>
<p>The Dow plunged more than 1000 points at Monday's open, before closing 3.6% lower.</p>
<p>"I suspect things will calm down in the short term," said Guy Foster, head of research at wealth manager Brewin Dolphin.</p>
<p>The indiscriminate nature of Monday's selloff displayed an "air of irrationality," he added.</p>
<p>Oil prices also steadied, with Brent crude 2.2% higher at $43.63 a barrel.</p>
<p>In currency markets, the dollar rebounded slightly from its big losses on Monday. The euro was down 0.4% against the buck at $1.1547. The dollar strengthened 0.6% against the yen to Yen119.387.</p>
<p>In bond markets, U.S. 10-year Treasury yields climbed 0.05 percentage point to 2.05%, having dipped below 2% on Monday for the first time since April. Yields rise as prices fall.</p>
<p>Investors are left grappling with the question of whether the selloff is over.</p>
<p>Worries about China have stirred concerns that the world economy faces the prospect of a rise in U.S. interest rates in a relatively fragile state, according to Scott Jamieson, head of multiasset investing at Kames Capital, which manages GBP52 billion of assets.</p>
<p>The Federal Reserve is still expected to lift rates from record lows in the coming months.</p>
<p>"The world economy isn't robust enough to deal with that uncertainty. I don't think we are out of the woods yet," said Mr. Jamieson.</p>
| 5,214 |
<p />
<p>Dear To Her Credit,</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>I'm trying to talk my brother into adding me to his American Express Gold card. If he adds me to his credit card as an authorized user, does my activity show on his credit report? For example, if I spend a certain amount does it change his debt-utilization ratio, even though I pay off the balance every month? Also, what if he doesn't activate his card? Does that mean I won't be able to activate my card unless he activates his?</p>
<p>- Ashley</p>
<p>Dear Ashley,</p>
<p>There's only one credit card account, even when an authorized user is added. The credit card company doesn't keep track of who spent what, or who made a payment. All the charges are on one statement. If you buy things on your brother's account as an authorized user, your activity will definitely show up -- on both his statements and his credit report.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The AmEx Gold card is a <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/glossary/term-charge-card.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">charge card</a> that requires all charges to be paid in full each month, not a credit card that allows you to carry a balance. When the account is looked at for credit scoring purposes, <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/jeremy-simon-credit-score-charge-card-amex-1508.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">charge cards are excluded from credit utilization calculations</a>. So you don't need to worry about the utilization -- since no balances are allowed, no credit is ever utilized and the ratio doesn't exist. Just worry about paying it off monthly, without fail. Should the two of you fail to pay off a charge card bill in full, that may generate a late payment report to the credit bureaus, which will negatively affect your credit reports.</p>
<p>If it were a regular credit card, even if you pay it off every month, your charges would affect your brother's credit utilization ratio. You never know when the bank will report to the credit bureau. It could be the day before you make a payment, when the account has its highest balance.</p>
<p>To keep a credit utilization ratio at its optimal level, it's best to keep the balance low throughout the month when the cardholder especially wants a good credit score. If it's been paid off faithfully every month, simply stop using the card, or make more than one payment during the month. That way, the balance is low when the credit card company reports to the bureaus.</p>
<p>You also asked about activation. Banks have different card activation policies with some more liberal than others about how cards get switched on.</p>
<p>I think a bigger question still remains -- should your brother add you to his American Express Gold card? If your brother were asking me, I would say no. If he wants to help you, there are other ways he can do that. Entangling family finances is one of the quickest ways I know to mess up both family and finances. If you can't get your own credit card, there's a reason, even if it's just lack of income and credit history. If he adds you to his card, you'll be practicing your credit skills on his credit. It's like asking to borrow his new car to take your first driving lessons. It may be too much to ask.</p>
<p>From your perspective, having him add you to his card has some advantages. Besides having a card to use, you can start to build up a credit history of your own. You're doing what's called " <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/glossary/term-piggybacking.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">piggybacking</a>" -- being added as an authorized user so the good credit history of the card shows up on your credit report. That can help you qualify for your own credit, and be on your own.</p>
<p>In the meantime, however, you have a new card to watch over. If you've never had a credit card before, you can't imagine how quickly those charges add up the first month you own it. If you're like many people, you'll scan the statement over and over, wondering how all those little tiny charges could add up to such a big total. It's bad enough when it happens on your first card, and you're the only person it affects. But if you're using your brother's card, and you've promised to pay it off every month, it will be twice as stressful.</p>
<p>Despite the advantages of getting credit quickly by using your brother's card, I recommend that you either get your own card or do without for now. You've gotten by this long without one.</p>
<p>You may be able to get a debit card or a prepaid card if you don't qualify for a credit card yet. Pay your bills faithfully, and soon you'll qualify for your own credit -- even a gold card of your own, if that's what you want.</p>
<p>See related: <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/sticker-activate-new-credit-card-1282.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">Think you can't use a not-yet-activated card? Think again</a>, <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/cosign-guarantor-joint-account-differences-1267.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">Rules differ on shared accounts</a></p>
|
Credit Scoring Rules Different on Charge Cards
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/06/20/credit-scoring-rules-different-on-charge-cards.html
|
2016-03-05
| 0right
|
Credit Scoring Rules Different on Charge Cards
<p />
<p>Dear To Her Credit,</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>I'm trying to talk my brother into adding me to his American Express Gold card. If he adds me to his credit card as an authorized user, does my activity show on his credit report? For example, if I spend a certain amount does it change his debt-utilization ratio, even though I pay off the balance every month? Also, what if he doesn't activate his card? Does that mean I won't be able to activate my card unless he activates his?</p>
<p>- Ashley</p>
<p>Dear Ashley,</p>
<p>There's only one credit card account, even when an authorized user is added. The credit card company doesn't keep track of who spent what, or who made a payment. All the charges are on one statement. If you buy things on your brother's account as an authorized user, your activity will definitely show up -- on both his statements and his credit report.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The AmEx Gold card is a <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/glossary/term-charge-card.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">charge card</a> that requires all charges to be paid in full each month, not a credit card that allows you to carry a balance. When the account is looked at for credit scoring purposes, <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/jeremy-simon-credit-score-charge-card-amex-1508.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">charge cards are excluded from credit utilization calculations</a>. So you don't need to worry about the utilization -- since no balances are allowed, no credit is ever utilized and the ratio doesn't exist. Just worry about paying it off monthly, without fail. Should the two of you fail to pay off a charge card bill in full, that may generate a late payment report to the credit bureaus, which will negatively affect your credit reports.</p>
<p>If it were a regular credit card, even if you pay it off every month, your charges would affect your brother's credit utilization ratio. You never know when the bank will report to the credit bureau. It could be the day before you make a payment, when the account has its highest balance.</p>
<p>To keep a credit utilization ratio at its optimal level, it's best to keep the balance low throughout the month when the cardholder especially wants a good credit score. If it's been paid off faithfully every month, simply stop using the card, or make more than one payment during the month. That way, the balance is low when the credit card company reports to the bureaus.</p>
<p>You also asked about activation. Banks have different card activation policies with some more liberal than others about how cards get switched on.</p>
<p>I think a bigger question still remains -- should your brother add you to his American Express Gold card? If your brother were asking me, I would say no. If he wants to help you, there are other ways he can do that. Entangling family finances is one of the quickest ways I know to mess up both family and finances. If you can't get your own credit card, there's a reason, even if it's just lack of income and credit history. If he adds you to his card, you'll be practicing your credit skills on his credit. It's like asking to borrow his new car to take your first driving lessons. It may be too much to ask.</p>
<p>From your perspective, having him add you to his card has some advantages. Besides having a card to use, you can start to build up a credit history of your own. You're doing what's called " <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/glossary/term-piggybacking.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">piggybacking</a>" -- being added as an authorized user so the good credit history of the card shows up on your credit report. That can help you qualify for your own credit, and be on your own.</p>
<p>In the meantime, however, you have a new card to watch over. If you've never had a credit card before, you can't imagine how quickly those charges add up the first month you own it. If you're like many people, you'll scan the statement over and over, wondering how all those little tiny charges could add up to such a big total. It's bad enough when it happens on your first card, and you're the only person it affects. But if you're using your brother's card, and you've promised to pay it off every month, it will be twice as stressful.</p>
<p>Despite the advantages of getting credit quickly by using your brother's card, I recommend that you either get your own card or do without for now. You've gotten by this long without one.</p>
<p>You may be able to get a debit card or a prepaid card if you don't qualify for a credit card yet. Pay your bills faithfully, and soon you'll qualify for your own credit -- even a gold card of your own, if that's what you want.</p>
<p>See related: <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/sticker-activate-new-credit-card-1282.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">Think you can't use a not-yet-activated card? Think again</a>, <a href="http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/cosign-guarantor-joint-account-differences-1267.php?aid=52aae854" type="external">Rules differ on shared accounts</a></p>
| 5,215 |
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<p />
<p>They called it a “die in” and “White coats for black lives.”</p>
<p>The first 11 minutes represented the 11 times that Eric Garner, the black Staten Island man who was killed in July by a police chokehold, gasped, “I can’t breathe.” The New York medical examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide, but earlier this month a grand jury declined to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the white officer who killed him.</p>
<p>University of New Mexico medical student Natasha Beachum holds a sign aloft just before she and dozens of other students lay down on the ground in a “die in” to protest an apparent lack of compassion for African-Americans killed by white police. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>Another four minutes on the cement went by, representing the more than four hours that the body of Michael Brown, a black teenager killed by a white police officer, lay on the street in Ferguson, Mo., in August. In November, a grand jury decided not to indict the officer, Darren Wilson.</p>
<p>With the sun struggling to break through an overcast sky, another minute on the ground went by. About 15 people watched from a nearby balcony, whispering when they spoke, as if they were in church or a library.</p>
<p>The protesters fidgeted a little but otherwise remained still. That minute represented the deaths attributed to what has been called an overzealous use of lethal force by Albuquerque police, who earlier this year entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to change policies and greatly upgrade the training of officers.</p>
<p>The final minute the students lay on the hard concrete symbolized a moment to reflect. It was a chance “for us, as future (medical) providers, to take one minute of introspection to see how we and our biases may contribute to social injustice,” said Dukens LaBaze, an organizer of the event and one of the white-coaters.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Most of the students lay down with placards resting on their bodies. Many of the signs read “I can’t breathe.”</p>
<p>Others were more elaborate. Tristen Adams wore a sign that read “The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the responsibility.”</p>
<p>Another medical student, Carmela Smith, carried a different message: “The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world” – a quote of Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, a global advocacy group for health care for the poor.</p>
<p>“White coats for black lives” is a national movement, with similar demonstrations taking place at medical schools across the country, LaBaze said. [photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000EgjAxb5nLsQ” g_name=”UNMH” width=”600″ f_fullscreen=”t” bgtrans=”t” pho_credit=”iptc” twoup=”f” f_bbar=”t” f_bbarbig=”f” fsvis=”f” f_show_caption=”t” crop=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_l=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_show_slidenum=”t” f_topbar=”f” f_show_watermark=”t” img_title=”casc” linkdest=”c” trans=”xfade” target=”_self” tbs=”5000″ f_link=”t” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”t” f_ap=”t” f_up=”f” height=”400″ btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” ]</p>
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UNM students protest perceived police racism
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https://abqjournal.com/511934/medical-students-in-antipolice-protest.html
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UNM students protest perceived police racism
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<p>They called it a “die in” and “White coats for black lives.”</p>
<p>The first 11 minutes represented the 11 times that Eric Garner, the black Staten Island man who was killed in July by a police chokehold, gasped, “I can’t breathe.” The New York medical examiner ruled Garner’s death a homicide, but earlier this month a grand jury declined to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the white officer who killed him.</p>
<p>University of New Mexico medical student Natasha Beachum holds a sign aloft just before she and dozens of other students lay down on the ground in a “die in” to protest an apparent lack of compassion for African-Americans killed by white police. (Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>Another four minutes on the cement went by, representing the more than four hours that the body of Michael Brown, a black teenager killed by a white police officer, lay on the street in Ferguson, Mo., in August. In November, a grand jury decided not to indict the officer, Darren Wilson.</p>
<p>With the sun struggling to break through an overcast sky, another minute on the ground went by. About 15 people watched from a nearby balcony, whispering when they spoke, as if they were in church or a library.</p>
<p>The protesters fidgeted a little but otherwise remained still. That minute represented the deaths attributed to what has been called an overzealous use of lethal force by Albuquerque police, who earlier this year entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to change policies and greatly upgrade the training of officers.</p>
<p>The final minute the students lay on the hard concrete symbolized a moment to reflect. It was a chance “for us, as future (medical) providers, to take one minute of introspection to see how we and our biases may contribute to social injustice,” said Dukens LaBaze, an organizer of the event and one of the white-coaters.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Most of the students lay down with placards resting on their bodies. Many of the signs read “I can’t breathe.”</p>
<p>Others were more elaborate. Tristen Adams wore a sign that read “The world is not changing if you don’t shoulder the responsibility.”</p>
<p>Another medical student, Carmela Smith, carried a different message: “The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world” – a quote of Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, a global advocacy group for health care for the poor.</p>
<p>“White coats for black lives” is a national movement, with similar demonstrations taking place at medical schools across the country, LaBaze said. [photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000EgjAxb5nLsQ” g_name=”UNMH” width=”600″ f_fullscreen=”t” bgtrans=”t” pho_credit=”iptc” twoup=”f” f_bbar=”t” f_bbarbig=”f” fsvis=”f” f_show_caption=”t” crop=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_l=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_show_slidenum=”t” f_topbar=”f” f_show_watermark=”t” img_title=”casc” linkdest=”c” trans=”xfade” target=”_self” tbs=”5000″ f_link=”t” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”t” f_ap=”t” f_up=”f” height=”400″ btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” ]</p>
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<p>Photo Credit: uplift_the_world / Shutterstock.com</p>
<p>We’ve all heard Donald Trump bloviate on and on about the big, beautiful wall he absolutely, no-chance-in-hell will actually build. Everyone knows Trump has repeatedly claimed he’s going to deport 11 million immigrants, which he definitely will not be doing. We are now all aware that Trump says he’s going pull the U.S. out of NATO, ban Muslim immigration and do&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spKkzjD1SEU" type="external">so much winning</a>&#160;that America gets sick of winning, which is con-man-speak for “none of these things are actually going to happen.”</p>
<p>Yes, those are Donald Trump’s greatest hits, but what about the deep cuts? Do you know what Donald Trump says he’s going to do on the tech front? How about where he plans to vacation? Even Trump’s lesser-known promises are as filled to bursting with nuttiness as the ones you’ve already come to know.</p>
<p>Here’s a list of nine of Donald Trump’s lesser known yet equally crazy campaign promises.</p>
<p>1. Address Iran’s Supreme Leader as 'Hey, Baby.'</p>
<p>Donald Trump does not have time to call you by your name. That is because he is too busy kicking ass and taking names and then turning them into insults and calling you by those instead. Like when he called deaf actress Marlee Matlin “ <a href="//www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/13/donald-trump-called-deaf-apprentice-marlee-matlin-retarded.html" type="external">retarded</a>,” reporter Jennifer Lin “that&#160; <a href="//www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jennifer-lin-even-more-sexism_us_57f26d82e4b0c2407cdebaa6" type="external">cunt</a>,” one of his own African-American supporters a “ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFSCI_0UJko" type="external">thug</a>,” rapper Lil Jon “Uncle&#160; <a href="//www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/lil-jon-confirms-donald-trump-called-him-uncle-tom-w445133" type="external">Tom</a>,” or his then-pregnant wife Melania a “monster” and a “ <a href="//www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-melania-trump_us_57f92a2ae4b0e655eab4cc5b" type="external">blimp</a>.” (It works for tragedies, too, like when he called 9/11 his preferred name,&#160; <a href="//people.com/celebrity/donald-trump-accidentally-refers-to-911-as-7-eleven-at-new-york-rally/" type="external">7-Eleven</a>.) He has also promised that when he meets the Ayatollah Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, he will never use his official title, but will instead call him “baby.”</p>
<p>“I guarantee you I will be never calling him the Supreme Leader,”&#160; <a href="//www.cbsnews.com/news/election-2016-candidate-quotes-of-the-day-oct-26-2015/" type="external">Trump told</a>&#160;a New Hampshire crowd. “He's not going to be called—I'll say, 'Hey baby, how ya doing?' I will never call him the Supreme Leader."</p>
<p>2. Never be in a bicycle race.</p>
<p>In the late 1980s, Donald Trump tried to establish an American rival to the Tour de France, which he called—you’ll never guess—the Tour de Trump. (In&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbHNk5oZQK8" type="external">the video</a>&#160;below, after talking about how “tremendous” it’s going to be, he demurs when asked about a future political career saying, “I like to tell the truth. I’m not sure that a great politician can always tell the truth.” Ugh, this guy.) Like&#160; <a href="//gawker.com/a-complete-list-of-donald-trump-s-business-disasters-1764151188" type="external">so</a>&#160; <a href="//www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/donald-trumps-13-biggest-business-failures-20160314" type="external">many</a>&#160;Trump steaks, universities, vodkas, boardgames, airlines, magazines, bottled waters and travel sites, Tour de Trump ultimately flopped.</p>
<p>Perhaps still embittered by that failure, Trump took a little time out of his&#160; presidential bid announcement &#160;unhinged, racist rant about Mexicans and immigrants to stick it to Secretary of State John Kerry, who&#160; <a href="//heavy.com/news/2015/05/john-kerry-bike-bicycle-bicycling-injury-crash-accident-france-helicopter-switzerland-hospital-condition-broken-femur-photo-trip/" type="external">broke his leg</a>&#160;in a cycling accident last year. Embedded in his criticism of the Iran deal, Trump also promised never to ride a bike in a race.</p>
<p>“We won't be using a man like Secretary Kerry that has absolutely no concept of negotiation, who's making a horrible and laughable deal, who's just being tapped along as they make weapons right now, and then goes into a bicycle race at 72 years old, and falls and breaks his leg.”</p>
<p>“I won't be doing that. And I promise I will never be in a bicycle race. That I can tell you.”</p>
<p />
<p>3. Get rid of gun-free zones in schools.</p>
<p>The Trump sons, Eric and Donald Jr., are well known for their love of taking rare, beautiful, endangered creatures and&#160; <a href="//assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2308096.1438190981!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/hunt30n-8-web.jpg" type="external">snuffing</a>&#160;out&#160; <a href="//assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2308091.1438190976!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1200/hunt30n-13-web.jpg" type="external">their</a>&#160; <a href="//cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2015/07/29/donald-trump-s-sons-killed-exotic-animals/jcr:content/image.img.2000.jpg/1438199792921.cached.jpg" type="external">lives</a>&#160;for&#160; <a href="//assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2311900.1438466021!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/stasi2n-3-web.jpg" type="external">sport</a>. At a rally in Nevada, the elder Trump, who&#160; <a href="//www.businessinsider.com/trump-i-always-carry-a-gun-2016-2" type="external">claims he</a>&#160;never leaves home without his gun,&#160; <a href="//www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/transcript-trumps-winning-winning-winning-speech/2266681" type="external">talked about</a>&#160;how much he and the boys love “the rifle stuff.”</p>
<p>“[Eric’s] getting better than me so I'm a little jealous. And Don...you were all over, right? He loves the rifle stuff. This is serious rifle. This is serious NRA, both of them, both of them. We love the Second Amendment folks, nobody loves it more than us, so just remember that.”</p>
<p>Trump’s love of guns—very deep, you’re not gonna believe how deep—has allowed him to recognize that the one problem with American schools is the glaring lack of “serious rifle.” To remedy that, the candidate has promised one of his very first missions in office will be to ensure students from pre-kindergarten to college are virtually surrounded by an arsenal of guns.</p>
<p>"I will get rid of gun-free zones on schools," Trump told Vermont supporters in January, according to the&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/01/08/donald-trump-i-will-get-rid-of-gun-free-zones-on-schools/" type="external">Washington Post</a>. "My first day, it gets signed, okay? My first day. There's no more gun-free zones."</p>
<p>This sounds like a well thought out idea, totally rooted in common sense, with no obvious predictable likelihood of going tragically wrong.</p>
<p>4. Make everybody say 'Merry Christmas.'</p>
<p>One thing that used to make America great was its complete contempt and disregard for the religions of non-Christian heathens. As we all know, the left has declared war on all that was once sacred in this country, including the birthday of baby Jesus. Trump is a very pious man who is cool with bragging about sex crimes but offended by Starbucks taking the phrase "Merry Christmas" off its holiday cups. That’s why when he takes office, you’d better forget you ever heard the phrases “Happy Holidays” and “Seasons Greetings.”</p>
<p>“If I become president, we’re all gonna be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again, that I can tell you,” Trump&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giU4TyVJ7v8" type="external">told his</a>&#160;assembled flock of wackadoos in Illinois.</p>
<p>Later on the campaign trail, Trump again proved his religiousness by comparing his own book with the Bible. “We love the Bible. It’s the best,” Trump&#160; <a href="//thehill.com/homenews/campaign/264419-trump-makes-pitch-to-iowa-evangelicals" type="external">sayeth</a>&#160;at a rally in Iowa. “We love&#160;The Art of the Deal, but the Bible is far, far superior, yes.”</p>
<p>Jesus wept.</p>
<p>No, seriously. Like, heaving, shoulder-shaking sobs.</p>
<p />
<p>5. Fight against ISIS with 'cyber.'</p>
<p>Maybe Trump is so ahead of the curve on technology that he’s very far behind, which explains why he sounds like a character in a 1980s straight-to-video movie when he talks about cybersecurity. During the first presidential debate against rival Hillary Clinton, Trump tackled a question about the issue with a long answer highlighting his knowledge about “the cyber,” and what may have been an endorsement of his 10-year-old son as Cyber Tzar of the United States.</p>
<p>“As far as the cyber, I agree to parts of what Secretary Clinton said. We should be better than anybody else and perhaps we're not,” Trump, who was just getting started,&#160; <a href="//www.pcmag.com/news/348211/heres-what-clinton-trump-said-about-cyber-during-the-deb" type="external">said</a>. “And I think Secretary Clinton and myself would agree very much, when you look at what ISIS is doing with the internet, they're beating us at our own game. ISIS. So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is a, it is a huge problem.”</p>
<p>You might think that sounds like an answer given by someone who has never seen a computer before, and you might think wrong. Because Donald Trump has seen his own son using computers and he can tell just by looking—try not to get lost in the tech-speak here—that he is “unbelievable” at cyber.</p>
<p>“I have a son,” Trump continued. “He's 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it's unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it's hardly doable. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing, but that's true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better...and certainly cyber is one of them.”</p>
<p>A fitting response from the candidate whose 2005 book&#160; <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kDAfGw0yeV0C&amp;pg=PR18&amp;lpg=PR18&amp;dq=Don%27t+take+vacations.+What%27s+the+point?+If+you%27re+not+enjoying+your+work,+you%27re+in+the+wrong+job&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=o24tZeYXGH&amp;sig=74bTGNtq5oxJ6FEW7QOCC-I5Egc&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjr0bKlro3QAhUGPiYKHYsQBLgQ6AEIQzAH#v=onepage&amp;q=Don't%20take%20vacations.%20What's%20the%20point%3F%20If%20you're%20not%20enjoying%20your%20work%2C%20you're%20in%20the%20wrong%20job&amp;f=false" type="external">Think Like a Billionaire</a>&#160;suggests most technology is “unnecessary and expensive,” and who brags he doesn’t “have a computer on my desk.” Trump also declared that “email is for wimps.”</p>
<p>6. Fight against ISIS by censoring the internet.</p>
<p>Trump has incredibly forward-thinking ideas about how to stop the radicalization of Americans by ISIS via the internet.</p>
<p>Just kidding. He wants to censor the thing and actually thinks Bill Gates (and probably his 10-year-old son) is going to help him do it.</p>
<p>“We’re losing a lot of people because of the internet,” Trump&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcmiHx5Yf2I" type="external">said</a>&#160;at a rally in South Carolina last year. “And we have to do something. We have to go see Bill Gates, and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. We have to talk to them, maybe in certain areas, [about] closing that internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, 'Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are foolish people...We’ve gotta maybe do something with the internet.”</p>
<p>This sounds easy. As president, Trump can probably just order Bill Gates and maybe some other nerds—I am sure this what Trump calls them—to turn out the lights on parts of the internet. It is such advanced, technologically-competent thinking that it will probably confuse even Bill Gates, but visionaries gonna visionary.</p>
<p />
<p>7. Drop Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl out of a plane on top of the Taliban. Or on top of ISIS. One or the other.</p>
<p>Trump brings up Sgt. Bergdahl&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3ci0S0RjXw" type="external">with</a>&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wkuefh3g4E" type="external">surprising</a>&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLaYgmO3Ed8" type="external">frequency</a>&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DjhjVj-1qs" type="external">in his</a>&#160;speeches, and when he does, he mostly sticks to a well-worn script. First he refers to Bergdahl as a “dirty, rotten traitor.” Then he laments the trade that brought Bergdahl home and returned five Guantanamo detainees. Then he talks wistfully about the “old days,” when Bergdahl would’ve been shot for deserting. ( <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3ci0S0RjXw" type="external">Sometimes</a>, he pantomimes shooting Bergdahl, to the crowd’s delight.) Then he says he’d return Bergdahl to the Taliban by dropping him from a plane.</p>
<p>“I’d actually give him back [to the Taliban]. I’d fly over, drop him right on top, you know, just,&#160;bing,” he told a crowd in South Carolina that absolutely&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLaYgmO3Ed8" type="external">ate it up</a>.</p>
<p>Another time, in Oklahoma,&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLaYgmO3Ed8" type="external">he told the</a>&#160;assembled, “As far as I’m concerned, we take him, we fly him over to the area—nice, heavily dense area loaded up with ISIS—and before we bomb the hell out of ISIS, we drop Bergdahl right in the middle of it.”</p>
<p>You can see in the clip below that the audience loved this little joke, and responds by laughing their heads off.</p>
<p>I wonder if they've heard the one about the rich kid who&#160; <a href="//www.politifact.com/punditfact/article/2015/jul/21/was-trump-draft-dodger/" type="external">never volunteered</a>&#160;to serve, and was given five draft deferments&#160; <a href="//thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/290105-trump-got-five-draft-deferments-during-vietnam" type="external">from Vietnam</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>8. Never leave the White House.</p>
<p>In&#160; <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kDAfGw0yeV0C&amp;pg=PR18&amp;lpg=PR18&amp;dq=Don%27t+take+vacations.+What%27s+the+point?+If+you%27re+not+enjoying+your+work,+you%27re+in+the+wrong+job&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=o24tZeYXGH&amp;sig=74bTGNtq5oxJ6FEW7QOCC-I5Egc&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjr0bKlro3QAhUGPiYKHYsQBLgQ6AEIQzAH#v=onepage&amp;q=Don't%20take%20vacations.%20What's%20the%20point%3F%20If%20you're%20not%20enjoying%20your%20work%2C%20you're%20in%20the%20wrong%20job&amp;f=false" type="external">Think Like A Billionaire</a>, Trump includes this bit of advice: “Don't take vacations. &#160;What's the point? If you're not enjoying your work, you're in the wrong job.”</p>
<p>Get it? Vacations are for losers. After the White House is done being completely gold-plated, and the 17-foot-tall letters spelling out TRUMP are firmly affixed, President Trump will move in and never leave again until his term is up.</p>
<p>"I would not be a president who took vacations,” Trump told&#160; <a href="//thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/245884-trump-i-would-rarely-leave-the-white-house" type="external">the Hill</a>. “I would not be a president that takes time off.”</p>
<p>Trump plans to spend most of his time working in the Oval Office, which he plans to have converted into a gigantic locker room.</p>
<p>9. Sue every woman who has accused him of sexual assault or abuse.</p>
<p>At least&#160; <a href="//people.com/politics/every-sexual-assault-accusation-against-donald-trump/" type="external">15 women</a>&#160;have come forward with charges of sexual abuse and impropriety against Trump (not including his&#160; <a href="//www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/27/ex-wife-donald-trump-made-feel-violated-during-sex.html" type="external">first wife Ivanka</a>, who accused him of marital rape during their divorce). If Trump’s character witness is himself, speaking on a&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koTrmin5n0g" type="external">2005 video</a>, or anytime over the last 30 years, this should’ve been an open-and-shut case. Instead, Trump is now presto-chango promising to sue the women who have stepped forward.</p>
<p>In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in a speech billed as a catalog of what he plans to get done in his first 100 days in office, Trump painted his accusers as political actors and outlined a policy of revenge.</p>
<p>“They’re trying to poison the mind of the American voter,” Trump&#160; <a href="//thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/302329-trump-threatens-to-sue-women-accusing-him" type="external">said</a>. “Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. Total fabrication, the events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”</p>
<p>Except no, they actually won’t. Attorney Gloria Allred responded by calling Trump’s bluff.</p>
<p>“Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Trump,” Allred reportedly&#160; <a href="//www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/10/23/lawyers_for_trump_accusers_say_they_are_not_afraid_of_lawsuit_threats.html" type="external">stated</a>. “If you sue the accusers, the lawyers who represent these women will have the opportunity to depose you. In plain English, you will be required to testify under oath and the women’s lawyers will welcome the opportunity to question you under oath. You may find the questions may include all the women with whom you have had sexual interaction.”</p>
<p>In the end, Trump used the case to turn himself into a populist martyr, fighting for the little guy.</p>
<p>“If [the media] can fight somebody like me, who has unlimited resources to fight back, just look at what they can do to you—your jobs, your security, your education, your health care, the violation of religious liberty, the theft of your Second Amendment, the loss of your factories, your homes, and much more.”&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>Kali&#160;Holloway is a senior writer and the associate editor of media and culture at AlterNet.</p>
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9 of Trump's Lesser Known Yet Equally Ridiculous Campaign Promises
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http://alternet.org/election-2016/9-trumps-lesser-known-yet-equally-ridiculous-campaign-promises
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2016-11-03
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9 of Trump's Lesser Known Yet Equally Ridiculous Campaign Promises
<p>Photo Credit: uplift_the_world / Shutterstock.com</p>
<p>We’ve all heard Donald Trump bloviate on and on about the big, beautiful wall he absolutely, no-chance-in-hell will actually build. Everyone knows Trump has repeatedly claimed he’s going to deport 11 million immigrants, which he definitely will not be doing. We are now all aware that Trump says he’s going pull the U.S. out of NATO, ban Muslim immigration and do&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spKkzjD1SEU" type="external">so much winning</a>&#160;that America gets sick of winning, which is con-man-speak for “none of these things are actually going to happen.”</p>
<p>Yes, those are Donald Trump’s greatest hits, but what about the deep cuts? Do you know what Donald Trump says he’s going to do on the tech front? How about where he plans to vacation? Even Trump’s lesser-known promises are as filled to bursting with nuttiness as the ones you’ve already come to know.</p>
<p>Here’s a list of nine of Donald Trump’s lesser known yet equally crazy campaign promises.</p>
<p>1. Address Iran’s Supreme Leader as 'Hey, Baby.'</p>
<p>Donald Trump does not have time to call you by your name. That is because he is too busy kicking ass and taking names and then turning them into insults and calling you by those instead. Like when he called deaf actress Marlee Matlin “ <a href="//www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/13/donald-trump-called-deaf-apprentice-marlee-matlin-retarded.html" type="external">retarded</a>,” reporter Jennifer Lin “that&#160; <a href="//www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jennifer-lin-even-more-sexism_us_57f26d82e4b0c2407cdebaa6" type="external">cunt</a>,” one of his own African-American supporters a “ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFSCI_0UJko" type="external">thug</a>,” rapper Lil Jon “Uncle&#160; <a href="//www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/lil-jon-confirms-donald-trump-called-him-uncle-tom-w445133" type="external">Tom</a>,” or his then-pregnant wife Melania a “monster” and a “ <a href="//www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-melania-trump_us_57f92a2ae4b0e655eab4cc5b" type="external">blimp</a>.” (It works for tragedies, too, like when he called 9/11 his preferred name,&#160; <a href="//people.com/celebrity/donald-trump-accidentally-refers-to-911-as-7-eleven-at-new-york-rally/" type="external">7-Eleven</a>.) He has also promised that when he meets the Ayatollah Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, he will never use his official title, but will instead call him “baby.”</p>
<p>“I guarantee you I will be never calling him the Supreme Leader,”&#160; <a href="//www.cbsnews.com/news/election-2016-candidate-quotes-of-the-day-oct-26-2015/" type="external">Trump told</a>&#160;a New Hampshire crowd. “He's not going to be called—I'll say, 'Hey baby, how ya doing?' I will never call him the Supreme Leader."</p>
<p>2. Never be in a bicycle race.</p>
<p>In the late 1980s, Donald Trump tried to establish an American rival to the Tour de France, which he called—you’ll never guess—the Tour de Trump. (In&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbHNk5oZQK8" type="external">the video</a>&#160;below, after talking about how “tremendous” it’s going to be, he demurs when asked about a future political career saying, “I like to tell the truth. I’m not sure that a great politician can always tell the truth.” Ugh, this guy.) Like&#160; <a href="//gawker.com/a-complete-list-of-donald-trump-s-business-disasters-1764151188" type="external">so</a>&#160; <a href="//www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/donald-trumps-13-biggest-business-failures-20160314" type="external">many</a>&#160;Trump steaks, universities, vodkas, boardgames, airlines, magazines, bottled waters and travel sites, Tour de Trump ultimately flopped.</p>
<p>Perhaps still embittered by that failure, Trump took a little time out of his&#160; presidential bid announcement &#160;unhinged, racist rant about Mexicans and immigrants to stick it to Secretary of State John Kerry, who&#160; <a href="//heavy.com/news/2015/05/john-kerry-bike-bicycle-bicycling-injury-crash-accident-france-helicopter-switzerland-hospital-condition-broken-femur-photo-trip/" type="external">broke his leg</a>&#160;in a cycling accident last year. Embedded in his criticism of the Iran deal, Trump also promised never to ride a bike in a race.</p>
<p>“We won't be using a man like Secretary Kerry that has absolutely no concept of negotiation, who's making a horrible and laughable deal, who's just being tapped along as they make weapons right now, and then goes into a bicycle race at 72 years old, and falls and breaks his leg.”</p>
<p>“I won't be doing that. And I promise I will never be in a bicycle race. That I can tell you.”</p>
<p />
<p>3. Get rid of gun-free zones in schools.</p>
<p>The Trump sons, Eric and Donald Jr., are well known for their love of taking rare, beautiful, endangered creatures and&#160; <a href="//assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2308096.1438190981!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/hunt30n-8-web.jpg" type="external">snuffing</a>&#160;out&#160; <a href="//assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2308091.1438190976!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_1200/hunt30n-13-web.jpg" type="external">their</a>&#160; <a href="//cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2015/07/29/donald-trump-s-sons-killed-exotic-animals/jcr:content/image.img.2000.jpg/1438199792921.cached.jpg" type="external">lives</a>&#160;for&#160; <a href="//assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2311900.1438466021!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/stasi2n-3-web.jpg" type="external">sport</a>. At a rally in Nevada, the elder Trump, who&#160; <a href="//www.businessinsider.com/trump-i-always-carry-a-gun-2016-2" type="external">claims he</a>&#160;never leaves home without his gun,&#160; <a href="//www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/transcript-trumps-winning-winning-winning-speech/2266681" type="external">talked about</a>&#160;how much he and the boys love “the rifle stuff.”</p>
<p>“[Eric’s] getting better than me so I'm a little jealous. And Don...you were all over, right? He loves the rifle stuff. This is serious rifle. This is serious NRA, both of them, both of them. We love the Second Amendment folks, nobody loves it more than us, so just remember that.”</p>
<p>Trump’s love of guns—very deep, you’re not gonna believe how deep—has allowed him to recognize that the one problem with American schools is the glaring lack of “serious rifle.” To remedy that, the candidate has promised one of his very first missions in office will be to ensure students from pre-kindergarten to college are virtually surrounded by an arsenal of guns.</p>
<p>"I will get rid of gun-free zones on schools," Trump told Vermont supporters in January, according to the&#160; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/01/08/donald-trump-i-will-get-rid-of-gun-free-zones-on-schools/" type="external">Washington Post</a>. "My first day, it gets signed, okay? My first day. There's no more gun-free zones."</p>
<p>This sounds like a well thought out idea, totally rooted in common sense, with no obvious predictable likelihood of going tragically wrong.</p>
<p>4. Make everybody say 'Merry Christmas.'</p>
<p>One thing that used to make America great was its complete contempt and disregard for the religions of non-Christian heathens. As we all know, the left has declared war on all that was once sacred in this country, including the birthday of baby Jesus. Trump is a very pious man who is cool with bragging about sex crimes but offended by Starbucks taking the phrase "Merry Christmas" off its holiday cups. That’s why when he takes office, you’d better forget you ever heard the phrases “Happy Holidays” and “Seasons Greetings.”</p>
<p>“If I become president, we’re all gonna be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again, that I can tell you,” Trump&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giU4TyVJ7v8" type="external">told his</a>&#160;assembled flock of wackadoos in Illinois.</p>
<p>Later on the campaign trail, Trump again proved his religiousness by comparing his own book with the Bible. “We love the Bible. It’s the best,” Trump&#160; <a href="//thehill.com/homenews/campaign/264419-trump-makes-pitch-to-iowa-evangelicals" type="external">sayeth</a>&#160;at a rally in Iowa. “We love&#160;The Art of the Deal, but the Bible is far, far superior, yes.”</p>
<p>Jesus wept.</p>
<p>No, seriously. Like, heaving, shoulder-shaking sobs.</p>
<p />
<p>5. Fight against ISIS with 'cyber.'</p>
<p>Maybe Trump is so ahead of the curve on technology that he’s very far behind, which explains why he sounds like a character in a 1980s straight-to-video movie when he talks about cybersecurity. During the first presidential debate against rival Hillary Clinton, Trump tackled a question about the issue with a long answer highlighting his knowledge about “the cyber,” and what may have been an endorsement of his 10-year-old son as Cyber Tzar of the United States.</p>
<p>“As far as the cyber, I agree to parts of what Secretary Clinton said. We should be better than anybody else and perhaps we're not,” Trump, who was just getting started,&#160; <a href="//www.pcmag.com/news/348211/heres-what-clinton-trump-said-about-cyber-during-the-deb" type="external">said</a>. “And I think Secretary Clinton and myself would agree very much, when you look at what ISIS is doing with the internet, they're beating us at our own game. ISIS. So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is a, it is a huge problem.”</p>
<p>You might think that sounds like an answer given by someone who has never seen a computer before, and you might think wrong. Because Donald Trump has seen his own son using computers and he can tell just by looking—try not to get lost in the tech-speak here—that he is “unbelievable” at cyber.</p>
<p>“I have a son,” Trump continued. “He's 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it's unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it's hardly doable. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing, but that's true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better...and certainly cyber is one of them.”</p>
<p>A fitting response from the candidate whose 2005 book&#160; <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kDAfGw0yeV0C&amp;pg=PR18&amp;lpg=PR18&amp;dq=Don%27t+take+vacations.+What%27s+the+point?+If+you%27re+not+enjoying+your+work,+you%27re+in+the+wrong+job&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=o24tZeYXGH&amp;sig=74bTGNtq5oxJ6FEW7QOCC-I5Egc&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjr0bKlro3QAhUGPiYKHYsQBLgQ6AEIQzAH#v=onepage&amp;q=Don't%20take%20vacations.%20What's%20the%20point%3F%20If%20you're%20not%20enjoying%20your%20work%2C%20you're%20in%20the%20wrong%20job&amp;f=false" type="external">Think Like a Billionaire</a>&#160;suggests most technology is “unnecessary and expensive,” and who brags he doesn’t “have a computer on my desk.” Trump also declared that “email is for wimps.”</p>
<p>6. Fight against ISIS by censoring the internet.</p>
<p>Trump has incredibly forward-thinking ideas about how to stop the radicalization of Americans by ISIS via the internet.</p>
<p>Just kidding. He wants to censor the thing and actually thinks Bill Gates (and probably his 10-year-old son) is going to help him do it.</p>
<p>“We’re losing a lot of people because of the internet,” Trump&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcmiHx5Yf2I" type="external">said</a>&#160;at a rally in South Carolina last year. “And we have to do something. We have to go see Bill Gates, and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. We have to talk to them, maybe in certain areas, [about] closing that internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, 'Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are foolish people...We’ve gotta maybe do something with the internet.”</p>
<p>This sounds easy. As president, Trump can probably just order Bill Gates and maybe some other nerds—I am sure this what Trump calls them—to turn out the lights on parts of the internet. It is such advanced, technologically-competent thinking that it will probably confuse even Bill Gates, but visionaries gonna visionary.</p>
<p />
<p>7. Drop Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl out of a plane on top of the Taliban. Or on top of ISIS. One or the other.</p>
<p>Trump brings up Sgt. Bergdahl&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3ci0S0RjXw" type="external">with</a>&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wkuefh3g4E" type="external">surprising</a>&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLaYgmO3Ed8" type="external">frequency</a>&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DjhjVj-1qs" type="external">in his</a>&#160;speeches, and when he does, he mostly sticks to a well-worn script. First he refers to Bergdahl as a “dirty, rotten traitor.” Then he laments the trade that brought Bergdahl home and returned five Guantanamo detainees. Then he talks wistfully about the “old days,” when Bergdahl would’ve been shot for deserting. ( <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3ci0S0RjXw" type="external">Sometimes</a>, he pantomimes shooting Bergdahl, to the crowd’s delight.) Then he says he’d return Bergdahl to the Taliban by dropping him from a plane.</p>
<p>“I’d actually give him back [to the Taliban]. I’d fly over, drop him right on top, you know, just,&#160;bing,” he told a crowd in South Carolina that absolutely&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLaYgmO3Ed8" type="external">ate it up</a>.</p>
<p>Another time, in Oklahoma,&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLaYgmO3Ed8" type="external">he told the</a>&#160;assembled, “As far as I’m concerned, we take him, we fly him over to the area—nice, heavily dense area loaded up with ISIS—and before we bomb the hell out of ISIS, we drop Bergdahl right in the middle of it.”</p>
<p>You can see in the clip below that the audience loved this little joke, and responds by laughing their heads off.</p>
<p>I wonder if they've heard the one about the rich kid who&#160; <a href="//www.politifact.com/punditfact/article/2015/jul/21/was-trump-draft-dodger/" type="external">never volunteered</a>&#160;to serve, and was given five draft deferments&#160; <a href="//thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/290105-trump-got-five-draft-deferments-during-vietnam" type="external">from Vietnam</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>8. Never leave the White House.</p>
<p>In&#160; <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=kDAfGw0yeV0C&amp;pg=PR18&amp;lpg=PR18&amp;dq=Don%27t+take+vacations.+What%27s+the+point?+If+you%27re+not+enjoying+your+work,+you%27re+in+the+wrong+job&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=o24tZeYXGH&amp;sig=74bTGNtq5oxJ6FEW7QOCC-I5Egc&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjr0bKlro3QAhUGPiYKHYsQBLgQ6AEIQzAH#v=onepage&amp;q=Don't%20take%20vacations.%20What's%20the%20point%3F%20If%20you're%20not%20enjoying%20your%20work%2C%20you're%20in%20the%20wrong%20job&amp;f=false" type="external">Think Like A Billionaire</a>, Trump includes this bit of advice: “Don't take vacations. &#160;What's the point? If you're not enjoying your work, you're in the wrong job.”</p>
<p>Get it? Vacations are for losers. After the White House is done being completely gold-plated, and the 17-foot-tall letters spelling out TRUMP are firmly affixed, President Trump will move in and never leave again until his term is up.</p>
<p>"I would not be a president who took vacations,” Trump told&#160; <a href="//thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/245884-trump-i-would-rarely-leave-the-white-house" type="external">the Hill</a>. “I would not be a president that takes time off.”</p>
<p>Trump plans to spend most of his time working in the Oval Office, which he plans to have converted into a gigantic locker room.</p>
<p>9. Sue every woman who has accused him of sexual assault or abuse.</p>
<p>At least&#160; <a href="//people.com/politics/every-sexual-assault-accusation-against-donald-trump/" type="external">15 women</a>&#160;have come forward with charges of sexual abuse and impropriety against Trump (not including his&#160; <a href="//www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/27/ex-wife-donald-trump-made-feel-violated-during-sex.html" type="external">first wife Ivanka</a>, who accused him of marital rape during their divorce). If Trump’s character witness is himself, speaking on a&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koTrmin5n0g" type="external">2005 video</a>, or anytime over the last 30 years, this should’ve been an open-and-shut case. Instead, Trump is now presto-chango promising to sue the women who have stepped forward.</p>
<p>In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in a speech billed as a catalog of what he plans to get done in his first 100 days in office, Trump painted his accusers as political actors and outlined a policy of revenge.</p>
<p>“They’re trying to poison the mind of the American voter,” Trump&#160; <a href="//thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/302329-trump-threatens-to-sue-women-accusing-him" type="external">said</a>. “Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. Total fabrication, the events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”</p>
<p>Except no, they actually won’t. Attorney Gloria Allred responded by calling Trump’s bluff.</p>
<p>“Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Trump,” Allred reportedly&#160; <a href="//www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/10/23/lawyers_for_trump_accusers_say_they_are_not_afraid_of_lawsuit_threats.html" type="external">stated</a>. “If you sue the accusers, the lawyers who represent these women will have the opportunity to depose you. In plain English, you will be required to testify under oath and the women’s lawyers will welcome the opportunity to question you under oath. You may find the questions may include all the women with whom you have had sexual interaction.”</p>
<p>In the end, Trump used the case to turn himself into a populist martyr, fighting for the little guy.</p>
<p>“If [the media] can fight somebody like me, who has unlimited resources to fight back, just look at what they can do to you—your jobs, your security, your education, your health care, the violation of religious liberty, the theft of your Second Amendment, the loss of your factories, your homes, and much more.”&#160;</p>
<p />
<p>Kali&#160;Holloway is a senior writer and the associate editor of media and culture at AlterNet.</p>
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<p>Image source: <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/plane-passengers-airplane-flight-691084/" type="external">Pixabay Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Everybody loves taking a vacation, but the grim reality is that not everyone likes flying with today's airlines.</p>
<p>From the prospect of long lines at the check-in counter to cramped and uncomfortable seats on an airplane, the prospect of flying isn't exactly viewed as a joy. Yet for airlines capable of exceeding consumers' arguably low expectations, the rewards can be enormous. If an airline can deliver in enough areas that are important to customers, they're more liable to stay loyal to that brand.</p>
<p>The importance of brand loyaltyKeeping customers loyal is important to all businesses, including the airline industry, for two key reasons. First, consumers who are happy with their experience are likely to recommend an airline to their friends and family. The industry can bombard consumers with advertisements all they'd like, but nothing hits home with consumers more than a recommendation from someone they know.</p>
<p>Image source: Flickr user <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thearchive/7066366" type="external">Nick Coombe Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Second, there's the ideathat loyal customers are often higher-margin customers. This isn't to say that loyal customers aren't cost-conscious; I think everyone would like to save money if offered the chance. However, loyal customers tend to be less reliant on sales and specials when booking with an airline, meaning they're far more likely to generate better profits.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>But figuring out which airline flies the highest in terms of customer loyalty and engagement isn't easy. For that we'll turn to Brand Keys' 21st annual <a href="http://brandkeys.com/portfolio/customer-loyalty-engagement-index/" type="external">Customer Loyalty Engagement Index Opens a New Window.</a> to get our answer. Using its proprietary formula, this New York-based research firm surveyed more than 42,000 people to decipher which airlines are flying high in terms of loyalty and engagement, and which are stuck at the gate.</p>
<p>Big surprises abound Before we continue, I should note that Brand Keys' rankings include only seven airlines. The reason this figure is so low is that Brand Keys requires a certain number of survey responses on a company before including it in its analysis. This year only seven airlines qualified.</p>
<p>Image source: Delta Air Lines.</p>
<p>Now for the nitty-gritty: namely, that this year's rankings held a number of surprises relative to last year's results.</p>
<p>You could say that in the <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/03/22/when-it-comes-time-to-fly-this-is-the-airline-amer.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">previous year Opens a New Window.</a>,the rankings went according to expectations. The major airlines ranked toward the bottom of the list, and regional or national airlines that have a smaller feel stood out for their efforts to engage consumers and build brand loyalty. However, an abrupt shift occurred in this year's rankings. The major airlines moved up, and one popular national airline dove.</p>
<p>A major change? Two notable leapers in this year's results were Delta Air Lines in the No. 3 spot, and United Airlines, part of United Continental Holdings , in the No. 4 spot. In 2015 these two airlines ranked fifth and eighth (which was dead last), respectively.</p>
<p>One possible reason for the improvement in customer loyalty could be an adjustment to their respective loyalty reward programs. Following a trend that some regional and national airlines enacted, Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus both announced in 2014 that they would begin rewarding their cardholders based on the amount they spend rather than the number of miles flown. What we could be seeing is satisfaction improving among elite-level passengers at these airlines who are receiving the top perks, although the irony is that most passengers overall will receive fewer points under the new system compared to the previous rewards program.</p>
<p>Image source: Flickr user <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rodeime/7350916412" type="external">Roderick Eime Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, I'd contend that lower fuel prices could wind up playing a key role moving forward, especially for United. Because jet fuel costs have plummeted year over year, airlines like United are rolling in the dough. Although fares aren't being cut, United has been reinvesting in a newer fleet of planes, and it's planning to bring back free snacks to its passengers in economy class for the first time since 2008.Neither the new planes nor the snacks weighed into Brand Keys' 2016 survey, as the planes aren't due for delivery until 2017, and free snacks only began on flights in February, but these small gestures could go a long way to improving consumers' in-flight experience.</p>
<p>A surprising fall On the other end of the spectrum, Southwest Airlines , which tied with WestJet for third in last year's rankings, surprisingly dropped into a tie for fifth with WestJet this year. (American Airlines Groupbrought up the tail in this year's rankings.)</p>
<p>The reason for Southwest's plunge isn't cut-and-dried, but I suspect it's tied to two factors. First, the aforementioned drop in jet fuel prices could allow the majors to be more cost-competitive with national airlines like Southwest. With deeper pockets than Southwest, the majors have an opportunity to wow their larger customer base (remember, majors hit more hubs and routes) with price cuts. This isn't to say Southwest isn't benefiting as well from lower fuel costs, but the wow factor would likely come from the majors cutting prices.</p>
<p>Fares, in general, only dropped by 1% in the first half of 2015 compared to the first half of 2014, but considering that airline profits are surging near record highs, the majors have the cash on hand to consider being more price- and reward-competitive with airlines like Southwest.</p>
<p>Image source: Southwest Airlines.</p>
<p>The other possible issue here is that Southwest announced an adjustment to its loyalty rewards program last year. Southwest's loyalty program had rewarded points based on fare price since 2011, the last time it changed its rewards program. Last year, though, it announced that varying factors, which included destination, time, day of travel, and demand, could influence how many loyalty points consumers earned on a flight. Doing this makes it impossible for loyal Southwest customers to know in advance both what their accumulated points are worthas well as what a booked flight might be worth in terms of points earned.</p>
<p>Flying highThe final shiftfor readers in this year's airline loyalty rankings involved a flip-flop for the top spot between Air Canada and JetBlue . After taking the runner-up spot last year, JetBlue ascends to America's top airline in terms of loyalty and engagement in 2016, with Air Canada descending to a respectable second-place finish.</p>
<p>Why is JetBlue king of the skies? According to <a href="http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Travel-Rewards/airline-rewards/" type="external">U.S. News &amp; World Report Opens a New Window.</a>, it's because the company has one of the best rewards program in the airline industry.</p>
<p>Image source: JetBlue.</p>
<p>First, points earned don't have an expiration date under the TrueBlue Rewards program. This allows the company to more effectively reward its customers, and serves as a broadly attractive lure to increase TrueBlue membership. Secondly, consumers can rack up TrueBlue points very quickly. Add-ons, such as booking seats with more legroom or bringing a pet along, can earn consumers bonus points on top of just those earned when booking a flight. Finally, JetBlue allows your points to be donated to a charity of your choice, which is a nice personal touch. The rewards system isn't perfect, but compared to its peers, JetBlue has done an excellent job of attracting and retaining loyal customers.</p>
<p>JetBlue also got aggressive with its loyalty program in 2014, which may have translated into high-quality member additions. JetBlue appealed to fliers in six competing loyalty programsand attempted to lure them into a TrueBlue membership with the Mosaic challenge, a 90-day contest that packed on the rewards for elite customers willing to jump ship for JetBlue.</p>
<p>Finally, I'd credit JetBlue's comparatively young fleet as a reason for its success in attracting loyal consumers. According to <a href="http://www.airfleets.net/ageflotte/fleet-age.htm" type="external">AirFleets.net Opens a New Window.</a>, the average age of an airplane in JetBlue's fleet is 8.5 years. In comparison, the average age of United's and Delta's fleets is 13.6 years and 17.1 years, respectively. Newer planes are not only more fuel efficient and likely to be in the sky as opposed to in the garage needing maintenance, but they also are more likely to feature innovative technologies that can improve the in-flight experience, such as seat-back television screens.</p>
<p>Over the next three years, based on Wall Street's estimates, JetBlue's sales are projected to expand by a total of 27% to $8.1 billion, while its full-year EPS is forecast to grow by 55% to $3.07. With strong customer loyalty driving this growth, it could be time for long-term-minded value investors to give JetBlue some serious consideration.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/28/surprising-airline-now-leading-in-customer-loyalty.aspx" type="external">The Surprising Airline That's Now Leading in Customer Loyalty Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFUltraLong/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Sean Williams Opens a New Window.</a>has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/tmfultralong.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, track every pick he makes under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/trackultralong.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TrackUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/TMFUltraLong" type="external">@TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>.The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2017 $35 calls on American Airlines Group. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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The Surprising Airline That's Now Leading in Customer Loyalty
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http://foxbusiness.com/investing/2016/02/28/surprising-airline-that-now-leading-in-customer-loyalty.html
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2016-03-27
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The Surprising Airline That's Now Leading in Customer Loyalty
<p />
<p>Image source: <a href="https://pixabay.com/en/plane-passengers-airplane-flight-691084/" type="external">Pixabay Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Everybody loves taking a vacation, but the grim reality is that not everyone likes flying with today's airlines.</p>
<p>From the prospect of long lines at the check-in counter to cramped and uncomfortable seats on an airplane, the prospect of flying isn't exactly viewed as a joy. Yet for airlines capable of exceeding consumers' arguably low expectations, the rewards can be enormous. If an airline can deliver in enough areas that are important to customers, they're more liable to stay loyal to that brand.</p>
<p>The importance of brand loyaltyKeeping customers loyal is important to all businesses, including the airline industry, for two key reasons. First, consumers who are happy with their experience are likely to recommend an airline to their friends and family. The industry can bombard consumers with advertisements all they'd like, but nothing hits home with consumers more than a recommendation from someone they know.</p>
<p>Image source: Flickr user <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thearchive/7066366" type="external">Nick Coombe Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Second, there's the ideathat loyal customers are often higher-margin customers. This isn't to say that loyal customers aren't cost-conscious; I think everyone would like to save money if offered the chance. However, loyal customers tend to be less reliant on sales and specials when booking with an airline, meaning they're far more likely to generate better profits.</p>
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<p>But figuring out which airline flies the highest in terms of customer loyalty and engagement isn't easy. For that we'll turn to Brand Keys' 21st annual <a href="http://brandkeys.com/portfolio/customer-loyalty-engagement-index/" type="external">Customer Loyalty Engagement Index Opens a New Window.</a> to get our answer. Using its proprietary formula, this New York-based research firm surveyed more than 42,000 people to decipher which airlines are flying high in terms of loyalty and engagement, and which are stuck at the gate.</p>
<p>Big surprises abound Before we continue, I should note that Brand Keys' rankings include only seven airlines. The reason this figure is so low is that Brand Keys requires a certain number of survey responses on a company before including it in its analysis. This year only seven airlines qualified.</p>
<p>Image source: Delta Air Lines.</p>
<p>Now for the nitty-gritty: namely, that this year's rankings held a number of surprises relative to last year's results.</p>
<p>You could say that in the <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/03/22/when-it-comes-time-to-fly-this-is-the-airline-amer.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">previous year Opens a New Window.</a>,the rankings went according to expectations. The major airlines ranked toward the bottom of the list, and regional or national airlines that have a smaller feel stood out for their efforts to engage consumers and build brand loyalty. However, an abrupt shift occurred in this year's rankings. The major airlines moved up, and one popular national airline dove.</p>
<p>A major change? Two notable leapers in this year's results were Delta Air Lines in the No. 3 spot, and United Airlines, part of United Continental Holdings , in the No. 4 spot. In 2015 these two airlines ranked fifth and eighth (which was dead last), respectively.</p>
<p>One possible reason for the improvement in customer loyalty could be an adjustment to their respective loyalty reward programs. Following a trend that some regional and national airlines enacted, Delta SkyMiles and United MileagePlus both announced in 2014 that they would begin rewarding their cardholders based on the amount they spend rather than the number of miles flown. What we could be seeing is satisfaction improving among elite-level passengers at these airlines who are receiving the top perks, although the irony is that most passengers overall will receive fewer points under the new system compared to the previous rewards program.</p>
<p>Image source: Flickr user <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rodeime/7350916412" type="external">Roderick Eime Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, I'd contend that lower fuel prices could wind up playing a key role moving forward, especially for United. Because jet fuel costs have plummeted year over year, airlines like United are rolling in the dough. Although fares aren't being cut, United has been reinvesting in a newer fleet of planes, and it's planning to bring back free snacks to its passengers in economy class for the first time since 2008.Neither the new planes nor the snacks weighed into Brand Keys' 2016 survey, as the planes aren't due for delivery until 2017, and free snacks only began on flights in February, but these small gestures could go a long way to improving consumers' in-flight experience.</p>
<p>A surprising fall On the other end of the spectrum, Southwest Airlines , which tied with WestJet for third in last year's rankings, surprisingly dropped into a tie for fifth with WestJet this year. (American Airlines Groupbrought up the tail in this year's rankings.)</p>
<p>The reason for Southwest's plunge isn't cut-and-dried, but I suspect it's tied to two factors. First, the aforementioned drop in jet fuel prices could allow the majors to be more cost-competitive with national airlines like Southwest. With deeper pockets than Southwest, the majors have an opportunity to wow their larger customer base (remember, majors hit more hubs and routes) with price cuts. This isn't to say Southwest isn't benefiting as well from lower fuel costs, but the wow factor would likely come from the majors cutting prices.</p>
<p>Fares, in general, only dropped by 1% in the first half of 2015 compared to the first half of 2014, but considering that airline profits are surging near record highs, the majors have the cash on hand to consider being more price- and reward-competitive with airlines like Southwest.</p>
<p>Image source: Southwest Airlines.</p>
<p>The other possible issue here is that Southwest announced an adjustment to its loyalty rewards program last year. Southwest's loyalty program had rewarded points based on fare price since 2011, the last time it changed its rewards program. Last year, though, it announced that varying factors, which included destination, time, day of travel, and demand, could influence how many loyalty points consumers earned on a flight. Doing this makes it impossible for loyal Southwest customers to know in advance both what their accumulated points are worthas well as what a booked flight might be worth in terms of points earned.</p>
<p>Flying highThe final shiftfor readers in this year's airline loyalty rankings involved a flip-flop for the top spot between Air Canada and JetBlue . After taking the runner-up spot last year, JetBlue ascends to America's top airline in terms of loyalty and engagement in 2016, with Air Canada descending to a respectable second-place finish.</p>
<p>Why is JetBlue king of the skies? According to <a href="http://travel.usnews.com/Rankings/Travel-Rewards/airline-rewards/" type="external">U.S. News &amp; World Report Opens a New Window.</a>, it's because the company has one of the best rewards program in the airline industry.</p>
<p>Image source: JetBlue.</p>
<p>First, points earned don't have an expiration date under the TrueBlue Rewards program. This allows the company to more effectively reward its customers, and serves as a broadly attractive lure to increase TrueBlue membership. Secondly, consumers can rack up TrueBlue points very quickly. Add-ons, such as booking seats with more legroom or bringing a pet along, can earn consumers bonus points on top of just those earned when booking a flight. Finally, JetBlue allows your points to be donated to a charity of your choice, which is a nice personal touch. The rewards system isn't perfect, but compared to its peers, JetBlue has done an excellent job of attracting and retaining loyal customers.</p>
<p>JetBlue also got aggressive with its loyalty program in 2014, which may have translated into high-quality member additions. JetBlue appealed to fliers in six competing loyalty programsand attempted to lure them into a TrueBlue membership with the Mosaic challenge, a 90-day contest that packed on the rewards for elite customers willing to jump ship for JetBlue.</p>
<p>Finally, I'd credit JetBlue's comparatively young fleet as a reason for its success in attracting loyal consumers. According to <a href="http://www.airfleets.net/ageflotte/fleet-age.htm" type="external">AirFleets.net Opens a New Window.</a>, the average age of an airplane in JetBlue's fleet is 8.5 years. In comparison, the average age of United's and Delta's fleets is 13.6 years and 17.1 years, respectively. Newer planes are not only more fuel efficient and likely to be in the sky as opposed to in the garage needing maintenance, but they also are more likely to feature innovative technologies that can improve the in-flight experience, such as seat-back television screens.</p>
<p>Over the next three years, based on Wall Street's estimates, JetBlue's sales are projected to expand by a total of 27% to $8.1 billion, while its full-year EPS is forecast to grow by 55% to $3.07. With strong customer loyalty driving this growth, it could be time for long-term-minded value investors to give JetBlue some serious consideration.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/28/surprising-airline-now-leading-in-customer-loyalty.aspx" type="external">The Surprising Airline That's Now Leading in Customer Loyalty Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFUltraLong/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Sean Williams Opens a New Window.</a>has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/tmfultralong.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, track every pick he makes under the screen name <a href="http://caps.fool.com/player/trackultralong.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">TrackUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/TMFUltraLong" type="external">@TMFUltraLong Opens a New Window.</a>.The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2017 $35 calls on American Airlines Group. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p />
<p>Earlier this week, the official newspaper of the Ku Klux Klan published an article declaring its support for Republican nominee Donald Trump. In response, the presidential hopeful's campaign denounced the publication's message and maintained that Trump is against any form of hate.</p>
<p>The Crusader, which is a quarterly publication that refers to itself as the main voice of the country's white resistance movement, recently ran an article written by Pastor Thomas Rob, a national director for the Ku Klux Clan.</p>
<p>In his article, Robb broke down what he perceives as the real message behind Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again." For the KKK official, he believes the U.S. only became great in the first place primarily due to the racial background of its forefathers.</p>
<p>Robb then went on to discuss white supremacy in the country and his issues with the LGBT community, VOX reported.</p>
<p>However, almost immediately after the article was published, Trump's campaign responded by rejecting The Crusader's support for him. According to his camp, the views presented by Robb in his article do not reflect Trump's platform nor the opinions of his other supporters.</p>
<p>"Mr. Trump and the campaign denounces hate in any form," a representative from the candidate's campaign said in a statement to CNN. "The publication is repulsive and their views do not represent the tens of millions of Americans who are uniting behind our campaign."</p>
<p>Robb, on the other hand, has not yet issued a statement in response to the message released by Trump's campaign. However, he noted that although The Crusader was not officially endorsing Trump through the article, it is still an avid supporter of his candidacy.</p>
<p>But, based on the statement issued by Trump's camp, it is maintaining its stance against white nationalists who spread hate messages. Recently, his campaigned distanced itself from a white nationalist group in Utah that slandered independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin.</p>
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Donald Trump Rejects Support from KKK Newspaper, Calls is Repulsive
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http://thegoldwater.com/news/361-Donald-Trump-Rejects-Support-from-KKK-Newspaper-Calls-is-Repulsive
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2016-11-03
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Donald Trump Rejects Support from KKK Newspaper, Calls is Repulsive
<p />
<p />
<p>Earlier this week, the official newspaper of the Ku Klux Klan published an article declaring its support for Republican nominee Donald Trump. In response, the presidential hopeful's campaign denounced the publication's message and maintained that Trump is against any form of hate.</p>
<p>The Crusader, which is a quarterly publication that refers to itself as the main voice of the country's white resistance movement, recently ran an article written by Pastor Thomas Rob, a national director for the Ku Klux Clan.</p>
<p>In his article, Robb broke down what he perceives as the real message behind Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again." For the KKK official, he believes the U.S. only became great in the first place primarily due to the racial background of its forefathers.</p>
<p>Robb then went on to discuss white supremacy in the country and his issues with the LGBT community, VOX reported.</p>
<p>However, almost immediately after the article was published, Trump's campaign responded by rejecting The Crusader's support for him. According to his camp, the views presented by Robb in his article do not reflect Trump's platform nor the opinions of his other supporters.</p>
<p>"Mr. Trump and the campaign denounces hate in any form," a representative from the candidate's campaign said in a statement to CNN. "The publication is repulsive and their views do not represent the tens of millions of Americans who are uniting behind our campaign."</p>
<p>Robb, on the other hand, has not yet issued a statement in response to the message released by Trump's campaign. However, he noted that although The Crusader was not officially endorsing Trump through the article, it is still an avid supporter of his candidacy.</p>
<p>But, based on the statement issued by Trump's camp, it is maintaining its stance against white nationalists who spread hate messages. Recently, his campaigned distanced itself from a white nationalist group in Utah that slandered independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin.</p>
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<p>En Marche’s Emmanuel Macron will be the next president of France. After a contentious first round, which led to a run-off vote, Macron secured more than enough votes Sunday to win the second-run elections against former National Front leader Marine Le Pen. It wasn’t even close. In fact, Macron slightly outperformed the polls, winning a whopping 65.1% of the vote against Le Pen’s measly 34.9%. Macron's huge victory comes one day after the 39-year-old's campaign team alleged that it had been the victim of a massive cyber attack.</p>
<p>"The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and co-ordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information," read a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-macron-leaks-idUSKBN1812AZ" type="external">statement</a> released by Macron's self-founded political party. Early indications suggest that Russia may have been behind the attack. In an effort to undermine pro-NATO, pro-European Union candidate Macron, Russian hackers may have leaked Macron's largely innocuous emails. Le Pen placed rapprochement and better relations with Russia at the centerpiece of her foreign policy campaign, drawing quiet support from Kremlin officials.</p>
<p>While the numbers are currently in flux, they will likely stick relatively closely to what has been initially reported.</p>
<p>Le Pen <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-france-presidential-election-20170507-story.html" type="external">conceded</a> defeat shortly after the polls closed, suggesting that the country has “chosen continuity” over radical change.</p>
<p>As The Daily Wire <a href="" type="internal">noted</a> after the first round runoff election on April 23, dark horse Le Pen’s probability of winning was quite low, if not negligible.</p>
<p>With just two candidates remaining in the running, Macron was always expected to secure a double-digit victory. Nearly every poll across Europe had him at at least 60%.</p>
<p>For example, here’s the Ipsos poll from April 23:</p>
<p>The Ipsos poll was within the margin of error, in terms of accuracy.</p>
<p>While it's true that pollsters got both Donald Trump's unexpected presidential victory and Brexit wrong, that never meant that history would repeat itself in France.</p>
<p>With Le Pen dealt a stinging defeat, the powerful winds of populism didn’t cross the English Channel and hit French shores.</p>
<p>“A Macron victory would mark the third time in six months — following elections in Austria and the Netherlands — that European voters have shot down far-right populists who want to restore borders across Europe,” <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-france-presidential-election-20170507-story.html" type="external">reports</a> The Chicago Tribune. “The victory of a candidate — Macron — who championed European unity could strengthen the EU's hand in its complex divorce proceedings with Britain, which voted last year to leave the bloc.”</p>
<p>For now, Le-Pen’s brand of welfare-state promoting, xenophobic far-right European populism ( <a href="" type="internal">not to be confused with American conservatism</a>) and Euro-skepticism has been stopped in its tracks, waiting to fight another day in the years to come.</p>
<p>“Many French voters backed Macron reluctantly, not because they agreed with his politics but simply to keep out Le Pen and her far-right National Front party, still tainted by its anti-Semitic and racist history,” <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-france-presidential-election-20170507-story.html" type="external">adds</a> the Tribune.</p>
<p>If Macron fails to stabilize the economy, build a strong coalition and fortify France's national security infrastructure against Islamic terrorist attacks, then Le Pen's popularity will only surge, giving her a realistic shot at unseating him in five years (French presidential elections used to be held every seven years. Now, they're held every five years).</p>
<p>Notably, Le Pen’s performance so far has taken the far-right National Front mainstream, a political feat inconceivable last election cycle. Even if she loses (and all indications suggest that she likely will lose in a landslide), Le Pen and her opposition movement (anti-Islamist, anti-immigrant, anti-EU, anti-globalization, anti-trade) won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. The National Front has shown that it could compete at the highest level of French electoral politics, thanks in large part to the refugee and terrorism crises plaguing the country.</p>
<p>This isn’t to say, however, that this election was simply about immigration. In fact, most voters listed economic concerns as their top priority.</p>
<p>In a battle between Le Pen’s socialist-inspired economic nationalism and Macron’s European-minded globalization, the latter ultimately won out.</p>
<p>A supporter of free trade, Macron “promised to cut corporate tax rates gradually to 25% from the current 33%,” according to CNN Money. “He also wants to slash local housing taxes for the majority of French people.”</p>
<p>“He has pledged to cut public spending by €60 billion ($64 billion) a year, partly by making the government more efficient,” <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/23/news/economy/french-election-macron-le-pen-eu-nationalist/" type="external">adds</a> CNN. “He said he would cut up to 120,000 government employees by not filling positions as workers retire.”</p>
<p>In his victory speech on Sunday, Macron embraced his “En Marche,” or “forward,” message, declaring that “a new page of our longer history is turned” in France.</p>
<p>We’ll have to wait and see how that translates into economic, immigration, and national security policy.</p>
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Macron Wins French Presidential Election In Massive Landslide Against Le Pen. It Wasn’t Even Close.
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https://dailywire.com/news/16144/macron-wins-french-presidential-election-massive-joshua-yasmeh
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2017-05-07
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Macron Wins French Presidential Election In Massive Landslide Against Le Pen. It Wasn’t Even Close.
<p>En Marche’s Emmanuel Macron will be the next president of France. After a contentious first round, which led to a run-off vote, Macron secured more than enough votes Sunday to win the second-run elections against former National Front leader Marine Le Pen. It wasn’t even close. In fact, Macron slightly outperformed the polls, winning a whopping 65.1% of the vote against Le Pen’s measly 34.9%. Macron's huge victory comes one day after the 39-year-old's campaign team alleged that it had been the victim of a massive cyber attack.</p>
<p>"The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and co-ordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information," read a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-macron-leaks-idUSKBN1812AZ" type="external">statement</a> released by Macron's self-founded political party. Early indications suggest that Russia may have been behind the attack. In an effort to undermine pro-NATO, pro-European Union candidate Macron, Russian hackers may have leaked Macron's largely innocuous emails. Le Pen placed rapprochement and better relations with Russia at the centerpiece of her foreign policy campaign, drawing quiet support from Kremlin officials.</p>
<p>While the numbers are currently in flux, they will likely stick relatively closely to what has been initially reported.</p>
<p>Le Pen <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-france-presidential-election-20170507-story.html" type="external">conceded</a> defeat shortly after the polls closed, suggesting that the country has “chosen continuity” over radical change.</p>
<p>As The Daily Wire <a href="" type="internal">noted</a> after the first round runoff election on April 23, dark horse Le Pen’s probability of winning was quite low, if not negligible.</p>
<p>With just two candidates remaining in the running, Macron was always expected to secure a double-digit victory. Nearly every poll across Europe had him at at least 60%.</p>
<p>For example, here’s the Ipsos poll from April 23:</p>
<p>The Ipsos poll was within the margin of error, in terms of accuracy.</p>
<p>While it's true that pollsters got both Donald Trump's unexpected presidential victory and Brexit wrong, that never meant that history would repeat itself in France.</p>
<p>With Le Pen dealt a stinging defeat, the powerful winds of populism didn’t cross the English Channel and hit French shores.</p>
<p>“A Macron victory would mark the third time in six months — following elections in Austria and the Netherlands — that European voters have shot down far-right populists who want to restore borders across Europe,” <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-france-presidential-election-20170507-story.html" type="external">reports</a> The Chicago Tribune. “The victory of a candidate — Macron — who championed European unity could strengthen the EU's hand in its complex divorce proceedings with Britain, which voted last year to leave the bloc.”</p>
<p>For now, Le-Pen’s brand of welfare-state promoting, xenophobic far-right European populism ( <a href="" type="internal">not to be confused with American conservatism</a>) and Euro-skepticism has been stopped in its tracks, waiting to fight another day in the years to come.</p>
<p>“Many French voters backed Macron reluctantly, not because they agreed with his politics but simply to keep out Le Pen and her far-right National Front party, still tainted by its anti-Semitic and racist history,” <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-france-presidential-election-20170507-story.html" type="external">adds</a> the Tribune.</p>
<p>If Macron fails to stabilize the economy, build a strong coalition and fortify France's national security infrastructure against Islamic terrorist attacks, then Le Pen's popularity will only surge, giving her a realistic shot at unseating him in five years (French presidential elections used to be held every seven years. Now, they're held every five years).</p>
<p>Notably, Le Pen’s performance so far has taken the far-right National Front mainstream, a political feat inconceivable last election cycle. Even if she loses (and all indications suggest that she likely will lose in a landslide), Le Pen and her opposition movement (anti-Islamist, anti-immigrant, anti-EU, anti-globalization, anti-trade) won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. The National Front has shown that it could compete at the highest level of French electoral politics, thanks in large part to the refugee and terrorism crises plaguing the country.</p>
<p>This isn’t to say, however, that this election was simply about immigration. In fact, most voters listed economic concerns as their top priority.</p>
<p>In a battle between Le Pen’s socialist-inspired economic nationalism and Macron’s European-minded globalization, the latter ultimately won out.</p>
<p>A supporter of free trade, Macron “promised to cut corporate tax rates gradually to 25% from the current 33%,” according to CNN Money. “He also wants to slash local housing taxes for the majority of French people.”</p>
<p>“He has pledged to cut public spending by €60 billion ($64 billion) a year, partly by making the government more efficient,” <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/23/news/economy/french-election-macron-le-pen-eu-nationalist/" type="external">adds</a> CNN. “He said he would cut up to 120,000 government employees by not filling positions as workers retire.”</p>
<p>In his victory speech on Sunday, Macron embraced his “En Marche,” or “forward,” message, declaring that “a new page of our longer history is turned” in France.</p>
<p>We’ll have to wait and see how that translates into economic, immigration, and national security policy.</p>
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<p>A series of suicide bombings and shoot-outs between the police and the Islamist opponents of Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan’s authoritarian President, have put the U.S. in a quandary over how to respond to the crackdown that’s sure to follow. The U.S. relies on Uzbek military installations for its operations in Afghanistan, but human rights groups say that Karimov has used his allegiance to President Bush’s “war on terror” as a cover for political repression.</p>
<p>For Karimov, the unrest is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the attacks indicate that his police state has not succeeded in crushing the opposition completely – it may be banned, but it is still capable of mounting successful terrorist attacks, as it did in 1999. Back then, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan — a group designated as a terrorist organization by U.S. and Britain — was blamed.</p>
<p>This time, the government is suggesting, less plausibly, that Hizb ut-Tahrir –- a group advocating the formation of Islamist state in Uzbekistan and the rest of Central Asia — is the mastermind behind the bombings. As the Guardian <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1182214,00.html" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“Hizbut Tahrir denied any involvement in the blast and is very protective of its peaceful image. And while the U.S. State Department has showed concern over HT’s increasingly hardline rhetoric, Washington and London have yet to declare them a terrorist group. It does seem baffling that, under the omniscient controls of a police state, they can turn from leaflets and prayer to launching a small war on the Uzbek authorities quite so quickly.”</p>
<p>The good news for Karimov is that the attacks give him a pretext to continue his brutal crackdown on political opponents like members of Hizb ut-Tahrir , without the U.S. and others complaining too loudly. In a</p>
<p><a href="http://hrw.org/reports/2004/uzbekistan0304/2.htm#_Toc65397893" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://hrw.org/reports/2004/uzbekistan0304/2.htm#_Toc65397893" type="external">report</a> released this week, Human Rights Watch argues that Karimov’s “campaign of religious persecution has resulted in the arrest, torture, public degradation, and incarceration in grossly inhumane conditions of an estimated 7,000 people.”</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2924.htm" type="external">U.S. State Department,</a> in its country profile of Uzbekistan, says that:</p>
<p />
<p>“Uzbekistan is not a democracy and does not have a free press. Many opponents of the government have fled, and others have been arrested. The government severely represses those it suspects of Islamic extremism…With few options for religious instruction, some young Muslims have turn to underground extremist Islamic movements. The police force and the intelligence service use torture as a routine investigation technique. The government has begun to bring to trial some officers accused of torture…The government has granted amnesty to approximately 2000 political and nonpolitical prisoners over the past 2 years. In 2002 and the beginning of 2003 the government has arrested fewer suspected Islamic extremists than in the past. Finally, in a move welcomed by the international community, the Government of Uzbekistan ended prior censorship, though the media remain tightly controlled.”</p>
<p>Before the bombings, Uzbekistan was bracing for a possible withdrawal of</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/international/asia/30UZBE.html?ex=1081227600&amp;en=b630b8e4bed390b2&amp;ei=5062&amp;partner=GOOGLE" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/international/asia/30UZBE.html?ex=1081227600&amp;en=b630b8e4bed390b2&amp;ei=5062&amp;partner=GOOGLE" type="external">50 million dollars</a> of U.S. aid as punishment for its poor human rights record. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has also considered cutting off aid unless Uzbekistan makes progress, which Uzbek officials, pointing to changes in the country’s criminal code that punish the <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40327&amp;SelectRegion=Central_Asia&amp;SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN" type="external">use of torture</a>, say it has. The EBRD will issue its decision on whether Uzbekistan qualifies for aid in April.</p>
<p>The U.S. government is due to come out with an annual review of Uzbekistan’s human rights record in April as well — progress on which is tied to aid eligibility. Karimov’s opponents are suspicious of the timing of the attacks, so close to international reviews of Uzbekistan’s human rights record, and some who have suggested that the government itself may have masterminded the attacks to deflect international criticism.</p>
<p>The Uzbek government has been quick to draw comparisons between the recent attacks and those targeted at U.S. troops and allies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Terrorism is terrorism, they argue. At least <a href="http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&amp;sid=akwt7SWKyUcc&amp;refer=asia" type="external">42 people</a> have died in the wave of attacks that began over the weekend. Several female suicide-bombers in the capital blew themselves up at a bazaar in the capital, Tashkent, while in another incident up to 20 suspected militants <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3581341.stm" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3581341.stm" type="external">blew themselves up</a> during an run-in with the police. Increased police presence, following the attacks, may not necessarily improve the situation, since, as the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3581341.stm" type="external">BBC</a> reports, “all of the attacks seem to be directed at police targets and now there are lone officers dotted around Tashkent’s streets, highly visible and vulnerable to attack.”</p>
<p>One big reason the U.S. is unlikely to withdraw aid is its interests in Uzbekistan’s neighbor: Afghanistan. There are hundreds of U.S. troops using Uzbekistan’s military bases for U.S. operations in Afghanistan. The U.S. says that the attacks point to the necessity of further U.S.-Uzbek military cooperation.</p>
<p><a href="http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&amp;sid=akwt7SWKyUcc&amp;refer=asia" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&amp;sid=akwt7SWKyUcc&amp;refer=asia" type="external">U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell</a> has offered U.S. help in the investigation of the attacks in a telephone call to Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Soquid Safayev. The White House spokesman</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3918100,00.html" type="external">Scott McClellan</a> said that:</p>
<p />
<p>“These attacks only strengthen our resolve to defeat terrorists wherever they hide and strike, working in close cooperation with Uzbekistan and our other partners in the global war on terror.”</p>
<p>Karimov gained the post of First Party Secretary in 1989 in what was then <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/03/30/uzbek.president.reut/" type="external">Soviet Uzbekistan</a>, and he has refused to relinquish his power ever since. Just as Karimov successfully insulated the republic from the political reforms of the Gorbachev era, opposition has not figured much in the politics of independent Uzbekistan. Around <a href="http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uz.html#People" type="external">88 percent</a> of the republic’s population is Muslim, mostly Sunni. Karimov’s secular regime brands pretty much all of the religious opposition as “Wahhabis” — regardless of whether they are or not. The ban on groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir also suggests that Karimov considers Islamic parties the most serious threat to his monopoly on power. Following the bombings,</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/03/b85a6520-35a2-478d-89d4-08eb3dc5e7d3.html" type="external">Karimov</a> said that:</p>
<p />
<p>“If we look back at the events one by one and try to draw a lesson, I would say that all these attacks were very well planned in advance and the preparation, in all aspects, was from outside. The support came from extremist centers which have large funds and opportunities.”</p>
<p>Karimov singled out Hizb ut-Tahrir — a group formed in Jerusalem in 1952 — as the prime suspect. Hizb ut-Tahrir advocates the formation of an Islamic state — the caliphate, which would include the Central Asian state, in which “all of life’s affairs in society are administered according to the <a href="http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/english/" type="external">Shari’ah rules</a>.” The group’s London representatives have condoned the attacks and rejected Karimov’s charges.</p>
<p>The IMU, which has carried out the 1999 bombings, would have been a more believable suspect, but years of government persecution, as well as the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, have severely weakened the group. As the <a href="http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2551988" type="external">Economist</a> points out:</p>
<p />
<p>“…the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, grew during the 1990s. Its initial objective was the overthrow of Mr Karimov…and the replacement of his regime with an Islamic republic—though it has since broadened its objectives to seeking Islamic government across all of Central Asia. In 1999 and 2000, it made armed incursions into Uzbekistan from its bases in Tajikistan and northern Afghanistan, where it was believed to have 2,000 fighters by 2000. The group is thought to have been largely wiped out during the American-led intervention in Afghanistan in 2001. It lost its main sponsor, the Taliban, while its bases were destroyed and its leader, Juma Namangani, was reportedly killed during the battle for the Afghan city of Kunduz. Remnants of the IMU are believed to be scattered across the border area between Afghanistan and Tajikistan.”</p>
<p>If Hizb ut-Tahrir was not involved in the bombings as it insists and the IMU too weakened and scattered to carry them out, that leaves the possibility of involvement by a third party. An article in <a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav033004.shtml" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav033004.shtml" type="external">EurasiaNet</a>, has emphasized that some of the suicide bombings took place near a bazaar and a store — places where the police regularly and openly elicit bribes. As</p>
<p><a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav033004.shtml" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav033004.shtml" type="external">EurasiaNet</a> reports:</p>
<p />
<p>“There is a growing belief among Uzbeks that the attacks constitute a reprisal against a rapacious police force. Fueling this view is the fact that most of the attacks to date have targeted police officers, while avoiding strikes at government buildings and other strategic installations….</p>
<p>At bazaars across Uzbekistan, police brutality is on display every day. This EurasiaNet correspondent was at the Chorsu bazaar in Tashkent recently, observing numerous police shakedowns of vendors, many of whom operate illegally to evade punitive government taxation. These shakedowns were conducted in plain view. In one particularly troubling incident, a police officer viciously kicked an elderly woman who did not move out of the way fast enough.”</p>
<p>Uzbekistan’s lack of democratic progress and economic reform as well as its strategic importance are reflective of the foreign policy dilemmas the U.S. faces in Central Asia as a whole. Since the end of the Cold War, traditional U.S. military bases in Germany, Italy, and Japan are fading in importance as access to bases in Central Asia are becoming key to the U.S.’s “war on terror.” As the <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040321-wo%20%20rld-bases.htm" type="external">San Francisco Chronicle</a> reports:</p>
<p />
<p>“The policy has involved not just resorting to military action, or the threat of action, but constructing an arc of new facilities in such places as Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Qatar and Djibouti that the Pentagon calls “lily pads.” They are seen not merely as a means of defending the host countries — the traditional Cold War role of such installations — but as jumping-off points for future “preventive wars” and military missions.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040321-world-bases.htm" type="external">Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz</a> says that these military installations:</p>
<p />
<p>“…send a message to everybody, including strategically important countries like Uzbekistan, that we have a capacity to come back in and will come back in — we’re not just going to forget about them.”</p>
<p>Whether the U.S. is going to forget about Uzbekistan’s political repression — which has arguably fuelled support for extremist Islamist groups opposed to Karimov — is an open question.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/international/asia/30UZBE.html?ex=1081227600&amp;en=b630b8e4bed390b2&amp;ei=5062&amp;partner=GOOGLE" type="external">David Lewis</a>, the head of Human Rights Watch’s Central Asia Project says:</p>
<p />
<p>“The regime has been given too much of a free ride because it is seen as a partner against terrorism and Islamist extremism…But engagement with it must become much more critical in order to stem the serious, potentially long-term damage being done to the West’s credibility in this predominantly Muslim region.”</p>
<p />
|
Uzbekistan
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2004/04/uzbekistan/
|
2004-04-01
| 4left
|
Uzbekistan
<p />
<p>A series of suicide bombings and shoot-outs between the police and the Islamist opponents of Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan’s authoritarian President, have put the U.S. in a quandary over how to respond to the crackdown that’s sure to follow. The U.S. relies on Uzbek military installations for its operations in Afghanistan, but human rights groups say that Karimov has used his allegiance to President Bush’s “war on terror” as a cover for political repression.</p>
<p>For Karimov, the unrest is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, the attacks indicate that his police state has not succeeded in crushing the opposition completely – it may be banned, but it is still capable of mounting successful terrorist attacks, as it did in 1999. Back then, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan — a group designated as a terrorist organization by U.S. and Britain — was blamed.</p>
<p>This time, the government is suggesting, less plausibly, that Hizb ut-Tahrir –- a group advocating the formation of Islamist state in Uzbekistan and the rest of Central Asia — is the mastermind behind the bombings. As the Guardian <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1182214,00.html" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p />
<p>“Hizbut Tahrir denied any involvement in the blast and is very protective of its peaceful image. And while the U.S. State Department has showed concern over HT’s increasingly hardline rhetoric, Washington and London have yet to declare them a terrorist group. It does seem baffling that, under the omniscient controls of a police state, they can turn from leaflets and prayer to launching a small war on the Uzbek authorities quite so quickly.”</p>
<p>The good news for Karimov is that the attacks give him a pretext to continue his brutal crackdown on political opponents like members of Hizb ut-Tahrir , without the U.S. and others complaining too loudly. In a</p>
<p><a href="http://hrw.org/reports/2004/uzbekistan0304/2.htm#_Toc65397893" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://hrw.org/reports/2004/uzbekistan0304/2.htm#_Toc65397893" type="external">report</a> released this week, Human Rights Watch argues that Karimov’s “campaign of religious persecution has resulted in the arrest, torture, public degradation, and incarceration in grossly inhumane conditions of an estimated 7,000 people.”</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2924.htm" type="external">U.S. State Department,</a> in its country profile of Uzbekistan, says that:</p>
<p />
<p>“Uzbekistan is not a democracy and does not have a free press. Many opponents of the government have fled, and others have been arrested. The government severely represses those it suspects of Islamic extremism…With few options for religious instruction, some young Muslims have turn to underground extremist Islamic movements. The police force and the intelligence service use torture as a routine investigation technique. The government has begun to bring to trial some officers accused of torture…The government has granted amnesty to approximately 2000 political and nonpolitical prisoners over the past 2 years. In 2002 and the beginning of 2003 the government has arrested fewer suspected Islamic extremists than in the past. Finally, in a move welcomed by the international community, the Government of Uzbekistan ended prior censorship, though the media remain tightly controlled.”</p>
<p>Before the bombings, Uzbekistan was bracing for a possible withdrawal of</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/international/asia/30UZBE.html?ex=1081227600&amp;en=b630b8e4bed390b2&amp;ei=5062&amp;partner=GOOGLE" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/international/asia/30UZBE.html?ex=1081227600&amp;en=b630b8e4bed390b2&amp;ei=5062&amp;partner=GOOGLE" type="external">50 million dollars</a> of U.S. aid as punishment for its poor human rights record. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has also considered cutting off aid unless Uzbekistan makes progress, which Uzbek officials, pointing to changes in the country’s criminal code that punish the <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40327&amp;SelectRegion=Central_Asia&amp;SelectCountry=UZBEKISTAN" type="external">use of torture</a>, say it has. The EBRD will issue its decision on whether Uzbekistan qualifies for aid in April.</p>
<p>The U.S. government is due to come out with an annual review of Uzbekistan’s human rights record in April as well — progress on which is tied to aid eligibility. Karimov’s opponents are suspicious of the timing of the attacks, so close to international reviews of Uzbekistan’s human rights record, and some who have suggested that the government itself may have masterminded the attacks to deflect international criticism.</p>
<p>The Uzbek government has been quick to draw comparisons between the recent attacks and those targeted at U.S. troops and allies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Terrorism is terrorism, they argue. At least <a href="http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&amp;sid=akwt7SWKyUcc&amp;refer=asia" type="external">42 people</a> have died in the wave of attacks that began over the weekend. Several female suicide-bombers in the capital blew themselves up at a bazaar in the capital, Tashkent, while in another incident up to 20 suspected militants <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3581341.stm" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3581341.stm" type="external">blew themselves up</a> during an run-in with the police. Increased police presence, following the attacks, may not necessarily improve the situation, since, as the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3581341.stm" type="external">BBC</a> reports, “all of the attacks seem to be directed at police targets and now there are lone officers dotted around Tashkent’s streets, highly visible and vulnerable to attack.”</p>
<p>One big reason the U.S. is unlikely to withdraw aid is its interests in Uzbekistan’s neighbor: Afghanistan. There are hundreds of U.S. troops using Uzbekistan’s military bases for U.S. operations in Afghanistan. The U.S. says that the attacks point to the necessity of further U.S.-Uzbek military cooperation.</p>
<p><a href="http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&amp;sid=akwt7SWKyUcc&amp;refer=asia" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&amp;sid=akwt7SWKyUcc&amp;refer=asia" type="external">U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell</a> has offered U.S. help in the investigation of the attacks in a telephone call to Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister Soquid Safayev. The White House spokesman</p>
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3918100,00.html" type="external">Scott McClellan</a> said that:</p>
<p />
<p>“These attacks only strengthen our resolve to defeat terrorists wherever they hide and strike, working in close cooperation with Uzbekistan and our other partners in the global war on terror.”</p>
<p>Karimov gained the post of First Party Secretary in 1989 in what was then <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/03/30/uzbek.president.reut/" type="external">Soviet Uzbekistan</a>, and he has refused to relinquish his power ever since. Just as Karimov successfully insulated the republic from the political reforms of the Gorbachev era, opposition has not figured much in the politics of independent Uzbekistan. Around <a href="http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uz.html#People" type="external">88 percent</a> of the republic’s population is Muslim, mostly Sunni. Karimov’s secular regime brands pretty much all of the religious opposition as “Wahhabis” — regardless of whether they are or not. The ban on groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir also suggests that Karimov considers Islamic parties the most serious threat to his monopoly on power. Following the bombings,</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/03/b85a6520-35a2-478d-89d4-08eb3dc5e7d3.html" type="external">Karimov</a> said that:</p>
<p />
<p>“If we look back at the events one by one and try to draw a lesson, I would say that all these attacks were very well planned in advance and the preparation, in all aspects, was from outside. The support came from extremist centers which have large funds and opportunities.”</p>
<p>Karimov singled out Hizb ut-Tahrir — a group formed in Jerusalem in 1952 — as the prime suspect. Hizb ut-Tahrir advocates the formation of an Islamic state — the caliphate, which would include the Central Asian state, in which “all of life’s affairs in society are administered according to the <a href="http://www.hizb-ut-tahrir.org/english/" type="external">Shari’ah rules</a>.” The group’s London representatives have condoned the attacks and rejected Karimov’s charges.</p>
<p>The IMU, which has carried out the 1999 bombings, would have been a more believable suspect, but years of government persecution, as well as the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, have severely weakened the group. As the <a href="http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2551988" type="external">Economist</a> points out:</p>
<p />
<p>“…the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, grew during the 1990s. Its initial objective was the overthrow of Mr Karimov…and the replacement of his regime with an Islamic republic—though it has since broadened its objectives to seeking Islamic government across all of Central Asia. In 1999 and 2000, it made armed incursions into Uzbekistan from its bases in Tajikistan and northern Afghanistan, where it was believed to have 2,000 fighters by 2000. The group is thought to have been largely wiped out during the American-led intervention in Afghanistan in 2001. It lost its main sponsor, the Taliban, while its bases were destroyed and its leader, Juma Namangani, was reportedly killed during the battle for the Afghan city of Kunduz. Remnants of the IMU are believed to be scattered across the border area between Afghanistan and Tajikistan.”</p>
<p>If Hizb ut-Tahrir was not involved in the bombings as it insists and the IMU too weakened and scattered to carry them out, that leaves the possibility of involvement by a third party. An article in <a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav033004.shtml" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav033004.shtml" type="external">EurasiaNet</a>, has emphasized that some of the suicide bombings took place near a bazaar and a store — places where the police regularly and openly elicit bribes. As</p>
<p><a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav033004.shtml" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav033004.shtml" type="external">EurasiaNet</a> reports:</p>
<p />
<p>“There is a growing belief among Uzbeks that the attacks constitute a reprisal against a rapacious police force. Fueling this view is the fact that most of the attacks to date have targeted police officers, while avoiding strikes at government buildings and other strategic installations….</p>
<p>At bazaars across Uzbekistan, police brutality is on display every day. This EurasiaNet correspondent was at the Chorsu bazaar in Tashkent recently, observing numerous police shakedowns of vendors, many of whom operate illegally to evade punitive government taxation. These shakedowns were conducted in plain view. In one particularly troubling incident, a police officer viciously kicked an elderly woman who did not move out of the way fast enough.”</p>
<p>Uzbekistan’s lack of democratic progress and economic reform as well as its strategic importance are reflective of the foreign policy dilemmas the U.S. faces in Central Asia as a whole. Since the end of the Cold War, traditional U.S. military bases in Germany, Italy, and Japan are fading in importance as access to bases in Central Asia are becoming key to the U.S.’s “war on terror.” As the <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040321-wo%20%20rld-bases.htm" type="external">San Francisco Chronicle</a> reports:</p>
<p />
<p>“The policy has involved not just resorting to military action, or the threat of action, but constructing an arc of new facilities in such places as Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Qatar and Djibouti that the Pentagon calls “lily pads.” They are seen not merely as a means of defending the host countries — the traditional Cold War role of such installations — but as jumping-off points for future “preventive wars” and military missions.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040321-world-bases.htm" type="external">Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz</a> says that these military installations:</p>
<p />
<p>“…send a message to everybody, including strategically important countries like Uzbekistan, that we have a capacity to come back in and will come back in — we’re not just going to forget about them.”</p>
<p>Whether the U.S. is going to forget about Uzbekistan’s political repression — which has arguably fuelled support for extremist Islamist groups opposed to Karimov — is an open question.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/international/asia/30UZBE.html?ex=1081227600&amp;en=b630b8e4bed390b2&amp;ei=5062&amp;partner=GOOGLE" type="external">David Lewis</a>, the head of Human Rights Watch’s Central Asia Project says:</p>
<p />
<p>“The regime has been given too much of a free ride because it is seen as a partner against terrorism and Islamist extremism…But engagement with it must become much more critical in order to stem the serious, potentially long-term damage being done to the West’s credibility in this predominantly Muslim region.”</p>
<p />
| 5,221 |
<p>The convenient emergence and sudden disappearance of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi signals an end of an era. Though Washington and London insist on telling us that the ‘good news’ don’t necessary mean an end to Iraq’s bloodshed, the giddiness in British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s voice, profusely conveys the greater hope that Iraq’s occupiers pin on the killing of this obscure character.</p>
<p>As a young man, Al-Zarqawi’s joined Afghanistan’s Mujahidin militias against the Russian occupation in the 1980’s. Following the Russian defeat, Al-Zarqawi returned to Jordan. He, like other returnees of various Arab countries clashed with his government and was sentenced to many years in prison for conspiracy charges to achieve a regime change. An amnesty by late King Hussein set him free after spending seven years in prison.</p>
<p>As odd as it may seem, certainty over the man’s life, legacy and death ends right here. The rest, concluded with his dramatic demise is shrouded with inconsistencies, state propaganda and half-truths, for reasons that will become obvious.</p>
<p>It has been argued that al-Zarqawi took serious issues with al-Qaeda’s ideological, tactical or other preferences. Most accounts seem to suggest an initial conflict between the two groups, a claim further validating by an alleged letter uncovered by the US military in Iraq in 2005. In the letter, addressed to al-Zarqawi, Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri warned al-Zarqawi of carrying out more sectarian attacks against the Shia population, saying that such violence was eroding support for al-Qaeda.</p>
<p>By unveiling the letter, the Americans were hoping to establish their early claim that al-Zarqawi was in fact al-Qaeda’s man in Iraq. Once again, both al-Qaeda and al-Zarqawi audio recordings popped up, almost stimulatingly to suggest that such an alliance was in fact struck.</p>
<p>Again, if true, this further undermines earlier allegations made by top US officials that such an alliance had always been there. Murky ‘evidence’ presented by former US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations in February 2003 was the first to propose such a connection, as if the man was foretelling the future. Powell concluded – in what was later widely recognized as ‘hyped’ if not altogether concocted US intelligence in the US administration’s desperate attempt to find its proverbial ‘smoking gun’, thus justifying the war and invasion of Iraq – that Zarqawi was an associate of Bin Laden who sought refuge in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.</p>
<p>Powell’s case for war had omitted as seemingly immaterial the reports that al-Zarqawi left Afghanistan in 2001 to join Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish Sunni group – fighting its own battles in northern Iraq. Al-Zarqawi apparently chose northern Iraq to avoid an immanent clash with Iraq’s security forces under Saddam Hussein, as secularist Saddam has historically clamped down on Islamic activists and had no room, nor need to accommodate them. Linking al-Qaeda to al-Zarqawi, then to Saddam’s government was one of the most forceful arguments that the US administration used to sell their unwarranted war to the public. In retrospect, such an argument was yet another lie; like others, notwithstanding WMDs, and proved to be a concoction of the ever lucid imagination of US neoconservative zealots and their media allies.</p>
<p>But not that al-Zarqawi, or his myth has yet outlived its usefulness. To the contrary, the plot thickens when al-Zarqawi – that once petty criminal of the al-Zarqa town in Jordan – made his official entry to the Iraqi scene, turning almost immediately into a mythical menace, along with a few armed men battling two of the world’s greatest forces: beheading foreigners, slaying Iraqi police recruits, assassinating government officials, blowing up religious shrines, attacking worshipers in Shia festivals, detonating up to three intricate car bombs stimulatingly, always managing to escape at the last minute, almost always unscathed. One of those miraculous escapes reportedly took place in the town of Falluja, where he was apparently hiding. Only after destroying most of the town and butchering thousands of its people, did Iraqi police, at the behest of their US commanders declare that al-Zarqawi managed to evade capture just minutes before a raid on his hideout.</p>
<p>Al-Zarqawi was the leader of ‘Tawhid wal Jihad’, an Islamic military group incepted specifically to battle Americans in Iraq.</p>
<p>The group officially merged with Bin Laden’s in 2004. Bin Laden named him the Prince of al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers, and business carried on as usual with the world’s most active terrorist now representing the world’s most notorious terrorist group, joining hands in a relentless war against “Shia, Christians and Jews”, as simplistically worded by BBC International world affairs analyst.</p>
<p>Al-Zarqawi or his myth, whether incidentally or by design, has perhaps served as the greatest propaganda tool ever utilized by the Americans, months before the invasion of Iraq and most likely long after his passing. He successfully alienated many anti-war camps throughout the world, notwithstanding many Arabs and Sunni Muslims who, rightfully, believed that his tactics were savage, un-Islamic and self-defeating. He gave rise to the widely circulated argument that the US’ war is that between forces of civilization and forces of darkness, with an Arab Muslim male flawlessly representing the latter. He concurred the shaky allegation that the source of instability in Iraq was the presence of foreign Arab fighters, which helped sever inner-Arab ties and focused the pressure against Syria, accused of allowing such movement of fighters across its borders. He helped widen the chasm between Iraqis forces and sects, even those who believe in the legitimacy of their struggle against occupation.</p>
<p>While his death may indeed signal an end to various pretexts used and abused by the US administration, military and media, his absence nonetheless will have its rewards, however, temporary. One of which is the very rare opportunity that allowed Bush, Blair and US-installed Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki to declare the full formation of the ‘first democratic Iraqi government’ and the death of a menace, or a myth called al-Zarqawi, both at the same time: Western TV analysts happily jumped at the opportunity to analyze the relations between the two innocently timed declarations; US military generals displayed to journalists – for the sake of transparency of information – how al-Zarqawi was blown up; Iraqi police too put on a dancing and firing in the air show for the cameras; the oil market stabilized a bit and sighs of relief poured in from various world capitals.</p>
<p>Al-Zarqawi, or his myth has apparently outlived his usefulness. The Iraq conflict seems to be going in a new direction, though its success or failure is unknown. A new media menace will have to be concocted to suit new US policies in Iraq and around the region. Al-Zarqawi is dead; another al-Zarqawi is being born.</p>
<p>RAMZY BAROUD is the author of The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle (Pluto Press, London).</p>
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Al-Zarqawi’s Death Reconsidered
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https://counterpunch.org/2006/06/21/al-zarqawi-s-death-reconsidered/
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2006-06-21
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Al-Zarqawi’s Death Reconsidered
<p>The convenient emergence and sudden disappearance of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi signals an end of an era. Though Washington and London insist on telling us that the ‘good news’ don’t necessary mean an end to Iraq’s bloodshed, the giddiness in British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s voice, profusely conveys the greater hope that Iraq’s occupiers pin on the killing of this obscure character.</p>
<p>As a young man, Al-Zarqawi’s joined Afghanistan’s Mujahidin militias against the Russian occupation in the 1980’s. Following the Russian defeat, Al-Zarqawi returned to Jordan. He, like other returnees of various Arab countries clashed with his government and was sentenced to many years in prison for conspiracy charges to achieve a regime change. An amnesty by late King Hussein set him free after spending seven years in prison.</p>
<p>As odd as it may seem, certainty over the man’s life, legacy and death ends right here. The rest, concluded with his dramatic demise is shrouded with inconsistencies, state propaganda and half-truths, for reasons that will become obvious.</p>
<p>It has been argued that al-Zarqawi took serious issues with al-Qaeda’s ideological, tactical or other preferences. Most accounts seem to suggest an initial conflict between the two groups, a claim further validating by an alleged letter uncovered by the US military in Iraq in 2005. In the letter, addressed to al-Zarqawi, Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri warned al-Zarqawi of carrying out more sectarian attacks against the Shia population, saying that such violence was eroding support for al-Qaeda.</p>
<p>By unveiling the letter, the Americans were hoping to establish their early claim that al-Zarqawi was in fact al-Qaeda’s man in Iraq. Once again, both al-Qaeda and al-Zarqawi audio recordings popped up, almost stimulatingly to suggest that such an alliance was in fact struck.</p>
<p>Again, if true, this further undermines earlier allegations made by top US officials that such an alliance had always been there. Murky ‘evidence’ presented by former US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations in February 2003 was the first to propose such a connection, as if the man was foretelling the future. Powell concluded – in what was later widely recognized as ‘hyped’ if not altogether concocted US intelligence in the US administration’s desperate attempt to find its proverbial ‘smoking gun’, thus justifying the war and invasion of Iraq – that Zarqawi was an associate of Bin Laden who sought refuge in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.</p>
<p>Powell’s case for war had omitted as seemingly immaterial the reports that al-Zarqawi left Afghanistan in 2001 to join Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish Sunni group – fighting its own battles in northern Iraq. Al-Zarqawi apparently chose northern Iraq to avoid an immanent clash with Iraq’s security forces under Saddam Hussein, as secularist Saddam has historically clamped down on Islamic activists and had no room, nor need to accommodate them. Linking al-Qaeda to al-Zarqawi, then to Saddam’s government was one of the most forceful arguments that the US administration used to sell their unwarranted war to the public. In retrospect, such an argument was yet another lie; like others, notwithstanding WMDs, and proved to be a concoction of the ever lucid imagination of US neoconservative zealots and their media allies.</p>
<p>But not that al-Zarqawi, or his myth has yet outlived its usefulness. To the contrary, the plot thickens when al-Zarqawi – that once petty criminal of the al-Zarqa town in Jordan – made his official entry to the Iraqi scene, turning almost immediately into a mythical menace, along with a few armed men battling two of the world’s greatest forces: beheading foreigners, slaying Iraqi police recruits, assassinating government officials, blowing up religious shrines, attacking worshipers in Shia festivals, detonating up to three intricate car bombs stimulatingly, always managing to escape at the last minute, almost always unscathed. One of those miraculous escapes reportedly took place in the town of Falluja, where he was apparently hiding. Only after destroying most of the town and butchering thousands of its people, did Iraqi police, at the behest of their US commanders declare that al-Zarqawi managed to evade capture just minutes before a raid on his hideout.</p>
<p>Al-Zarqawi was the leader of ‘Tawhid wal Jihad’, an Islamic military group incepted specifically to battle Americans in Iraq.</p>
<p>The group officially merged with Bin Laden’s in 2004. Bin Laden named him the Prince of al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers, and business carried on as usual with the world’s most active terrorist now representing the world’s most notorious terrorist group, joining hands in a relentless war against “Shia, Christians and Jews”, as simplistically worded by BBC International world affairs analyst.</p>
<p>Al-Zarqawi or his myth, whether incidentally or by design, has perhaps served as the greatest propaganda tool ever utilized by the Americans, months before the invasion of Iraq and most likely long after his passing. He successfully alienated many anti-war camps throughout the world, notwithstanding many Arabs and Sunni Muslims who, rightfully, believed that his tactics were savage, un-Islamic and self-defeating. He gave rise to the widely circulated argument that the US’ war is that between forces of civilization and forces of darkness, with an Arab Muslim male flawlessly representing the latter. He concurred the shaky allegation that the source of instability in Iraq was the presence of foreign Arab fighters, which helped sever inner-Arab ties and focused the pressure against Syria, accused of allowing such movement of fighters across its borders. He helped widen the chasm between Iraqis forces and sects, even those who believe in the legitimacy of their struggle against occupation.</p>
<p>While his death may indeed signal an end to various pretexts used and abused by the US administration, military and media, his absence nonetheless will have its rewards, however, temporary. One of which is the very rare opportunity that allowed Bush, Blair and US-installed Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki to declare the full formation of the ‘first democratic Iraqi government’ and the death of a menace, or a myth called al-Zarqawi, both at the same time: Western TV analysts happily jumped at the opportunity to analyze the relations between the two innocently timed declarations; US military generals displayed to journalists – for the sake of transparency of information – how al-Zarqawi was blown up; Iraqi police too put on a dancing and firing in the air show for the cameras; the oil market stabilized a bit and sighs of relief poured in from various world capitals.</p>
<p>Al-Zarqawi, or his myth has apparently outlived his usefulness. The Iraq conflict seems to be going in a new direction, though its success or failure is unknown. A new media menace will have to be concocted to suit new US policies in Iraq and around the region. Al-Zarqawi is dead; another al-Zarqawi is being born.</p>
<p>RAMZY BAROUD is the author of The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle (Pluto Press, London).</p>
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<p>BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq has been invited to attend the Syria peace talks due in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi at the end of the month, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a tweet on Monday.</p> FILE PHOTO: Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi speaks during a ceremony in Najaf, Iraq January 7, 2018. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
<p>It received an invitation from the Russian government to attend the conference as an observer, according to a statement from the Iraqi ambassador to Russia, Haidar Hadi, published on Abadi’s twitter account.</p>
<p>Iraq, which shares more than 500 km (310 miles) of border with Syria, had insisted it should attend the meeting, Abadi said in another tweet.</p>
<p>Abadi proclaimed victory last month over Islamic State, the hardline group which established in 2014 what it called a caliphate over parts of Iraq and Syria.</p>
<p>Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea will hold their first summit in more than a decade on April 27, South Korean officials said on Thursday, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged his commitment to denuclearization as tensions ease between the old foes.</p>
<p>South Korean officials, who announced the date after high-level talks with North Korean counterparts, said the agenda would largely be denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and improving inter-Korean relations.</p>
<p>The two Koreas had agreed to hold the summit at the border truce village of Panmunjom when South Korean President Moon Jae-in sent a delegation to Pyongyang this month to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.</p>
<p>Thursday’s meeting was the first high-level dialogue between the two Koreas since the delegation returned from the North.</p>
<p>The two sides said in a joint statement they would hold a working-level meeting on April 4 to discuss details of the summit, such as staffing support, security and news releases.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-northkorea-missiles-china-southkorea/beijing-envoy-says-kim-jong-uns-china-visit-will-help-toward-denuclearization-idUSKBN1H50YM" type="external">Beijing envoy says Kim Jong Un's China visit will help toward denuclearization</a>
<a href="/article/us-northkorea-missiles-ioc/ioc-chief-bach-arrives-to-north-korea-to-stay-until-saturday-idUSKBN1H50VC" type="external">IOC chief Bach arrives to North Korea, to stay until Saturday</a>
<a href="/article/us-northkorea-missiles-russia-meeting/russia-foreign-ministry-working-on-north-korea-meetings-in-moscow-idUSKBN1H51T5" type="external">Russia foreign ministry working on North Korea meetings in Moscow</a>
<p>“We still have a fair number of issues to resolve on a working level for preparations over the next month,” said Ri Son Gwon, the chairman of North Korea’s committee for the peaceful reunification of the country in closing remarks to the South Korean delegation.</p>
<p>“But if the two sides deeply understand the historic significance and meaning of this summit and give their all, we will be able to solve all problems swiftly and amicably,” Ri added.</p>
<p>Tension over North Korea’s tests of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile surged last year and raised fears of U.S. military action in response to North Korea’s threat to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States.</p>
<p>But tension has eased significantly since North Korea decided to send athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February. The neighbours are technically still at war after the 1950-53 conflict ended with a ceasefire, not a truce.</p>
<p>China commended both sides for their efforts to improve ties.</p>
<p>“We hope the momentum of dialogue can continue and that the peaceful situation also can last,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a briefing.</p>
<p>United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was encouraged by the recent developments with North Korea.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;“I believe that in this world where unfortunately so many problems seem not to have a solution, I think there is here an opportunity for a peaceful solution to something that a few months ago was haunting us as the biggest danger we were facing,” Guterres told reporters on Thursday.</p> ‘RESOLVE PROBLEMS’
<p>Kim is scheduled to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in May to discuss denuclearization, although a time and place have not been set.</p>
<p>Kim met Chinese President Xi Jinping in a surprise visit to Beijing this week, his first trip outside the isolated North since he came to power in 2011.</p>
<p>Even more surprising was Kim’s pledge to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. That commitment was reported by Chinese state media, although North Korea’s official media made no mention of it, or Kim’s anticipated meeting with Trump.</p>
<p>A senior Chinese official visiting Seoul on Thursday to brief South Korea on Kim’s visit to Beijing said it should help ease tension and lead to the denuclearization of the peninsula.</p> South Korean delegation led by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon cross the concrete border as they leave after their meeting at the truce village of Panmunjom, North Korea March 29, 2018. Korea Pool/Yonhap via REUTERS
<p>“We believe his visit will help the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, ensure peace and security of the Korean peninsula and resolve problems regarding the peninsula through political negotiations and discussions,” Yang Jiechi said in opening remarks during a meeting with South Korea’s National Security Office head, Chung Eui-yong.</p>
<p>Yang, a top Chinese diplomat, is scheduled to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday.</p>
<p>South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon told reporters Kim’s visit to China was not discussed with North Korean officials in their Thursday talks.</p>
<p>Trump and Kim had exchanged insults and veiled threats of war in recent months but the U.S. leader made the surprising announcement this month that he was prepared to meet Kim to discuss the crisis over the North’s development of weapons.</p>
<p>The North Korean leader’s engagement with the international community has sparked speculation that he may try to meet other leaders. Japan’s Asahi newspaper said Japan had sounded out the North Korean government about a summit.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono left open the possibility that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might meet Kim at some point. Kono said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that Japan was closely watching preparations for the North-South Korean summit and the Trump-Kim meeting.</p>
<p>Xi promised that Beijing would uphold its friendship with North Korea after his meeting with Kim.</p>
<p>Trump wrote on Twitter he had received a message from Xi late on Tuesday that his meeting with Kim “went very well” and that Kim looked forward to meeting the U.S. president.</p>
<p>Reporting by Christine Kim; Additional reporting by Michael Martina in BEIJING and Michelle Nichols at the UNITED NATIONS; Editing by Robert Birsel and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>HANOI/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Dozens of Chinese naval vessels are exercising this week with an aircraft carrier in a large show of force off Hainan island in the South China Sea, satellite images obtained by Reuters show.</p>
<p>The images, provided by Planet Labs Inc, confirm a Chinese carrier group has entered the vital trade waterway as part of what the Chinese navy earlier described as combat drills that were part of routine annual exercises.</p>
<p>The Liaoning carrier group last week traversed the Taiwan Strait, according to the Taiwanese defense ministry.</p>
<p>The photos, taken on Monday, show what appear to be at least 40 ships and submarines flanking the carrier Liaoning in what some analysts described as an unusually large display of the Chinese military’s growing naval might.</p>
<p>Sailing in a line formation more suited to visual propaganda than hard military maneuvers, the flotilla was headed by what appeared to be submarines, with aircraft above.</p>
<p>Jeffrey Lewis, a security expert at the California-based based Middlebury Institute of Strategic Studies, said the images showed the first confirmation that the carrier was joining the drills.</p>
<p>“It’s an incredible picture,” he said. “That’s the big news to me. Confirmation that, yes, the carrier participated in the exercise.”</p>
<p>While the Liaoning has previously entered the South China Sea as part of drills in uncontested training grounds south of Hainan, its annual exercises are closely watched by regional and international powers eyeing Beijing’s growing military might.</p>
<p>It is unclear where the flotilla was headed, or how long operations will last. China’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.</p>
<p>Collin Koh, a security expert at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, described the deployment as unusual for its size and scope.</p> Satellite photo dated March 26, 2018 shows Chinese ships south of Hainan, China. Planet Labs/Handout via REUTERS
<p>“Judging by the images, it does seem they are keen to show that elements of the South Sea Fleet are able to routinely join up with the carrier strike group from Dalian in the north,” he said.</p>
<p>“It does seem they want to show inter-fleet interoperability - something the (Chinese) navy has been quietly working on for some time.”</p>
<p>Chinese naval and coast guard forces have expanded rapidly in recent years and now patrol the vast swathes of the South China Sea, but little is known about their combat readiness and co-ordination.</p>
<p>Koh said as well as the destroyers, frigates and submarines that would ordinarily support a carrier, the flotilla appeared to include a large oiler for re-supply as well as smaller corvettes and possibly fast attack catamarans.</p> Satellite photo dated March 26, 2018 shows Chinese ships south of Hainan, China. Planet Labs/Handout via REUTERS
<p>“While it highlights an extensive ability to deploy, we are still left to guess at the PLAN’s combat readiness,” Koh said.</p>
<p>As well as Vietnam, China’s claims in the South China Sea are disputed by the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei while Taiwan also has claims.</p>
<p>The exercises come amid fresh signs of tension in the resource-rich waterway, with Vietnam recently halting oil exploration off its coast by Spanish firm Repsol under pressure from Beijing.</p>
<p>Beijing also objected to a so-called freedom of navigation patrol by a U.S. warship last week close to one of its artificial islands in the Spratlys archipelago further south.</p>
<p>Reporting By Greg Torode and James Pearson, additional reporting by Ben Blanchard. Editing by Lincoln Feast.</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - For a regime obsessed with secrecy, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s decision to travel to Beijing on a distinctive green armored train was an all-but-dead giveaway that he was making his first journey abroad since assuming power in 2011.</p> FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves from a train, as he paid an unofficial visit to China, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang March 28, 2018. KCNA/via Reuters/File Photo
<p>The historic visit sent officials scrambling to obscure the identity of the 21-car train and its occupants as it meandered across roughly 1,100 km (680 miles) of track through northeast China, causing rare delays along the way and triggering a growing frenzy of speculation as it neared the Chinese capital.</p>
<p>The train arrived at Beijing Station on Monday afternoon and left the following afternoon, with the identity of its occupants only announced on Wednesday morning - after it had crossed back into North Korea at the city of Sinuiju.</p>
<p>Clues that something unusual was afoot emerged in the border city of Dandong, just across the Yalu River from North Korea and linked to the isolated country by the Sino-Korea Friendship Bridge. That bridge bears a single rail track which, it turned out, carried Kim’s train into China late on Sunday.</p>
<p>The Daily NK, a Seoul-based website staffed by North Korean defectors, reported that boards supported by scaffolding had been set up on the platform at Dandong’s train station, blocking what is ordinarily an open view, before two trains passed through the station between 10:20 and 10:40 p.m. on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Yao Jun, who sells car parts in Dandong, said the station was locked down again on Tuesday night, an unusual occurrence. Kim returned to North Korea in the early hours of Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Now we know for next time - if the train station is in lockdown then that means Kim Jong Un has come to China,” Yao told Reuters.</p>
<p>At least one Dandong hotel was told by Chinese authorities not to book rooms facing the bridge, while tours from China into the North were canceled on Sunday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. A local resident said that a wedding party along the river on Sunday had been told not to set off firecrackers.</p>
<p>By Monday morning sighting rumors and pictures were making the rounds on Chinese social media, before being blocked or deleted by censors, while railway bureaus began warning travelers to expect delays or cancellations on Monday and Tuesday.</p>
<p>The disruptions were noteworthy in a country with a vast rail network that prides itself on its efficiency, with 98.8 percent of trains departing on time in 2016 and 95.4 percent arriving on schedule, and prompted complaints online.</p>
<p>Zhao Jian, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University who researches the country’s railway system, said Kim’s train traveled on the regular track network, rather than on the tracks used by the country’s high-speed trains.</p>
<p>“Passenger and freight traffic would have been affected,” he said.</p>
<p>A person answering the official phone line at Dandong station on Thursday stressed that everything had been “normal” this week, and asked, “who told you the station was closed?”</p>
<p>An official in the international cooperation department of the China Railway Corporation declined immediate comment on Kim’s visit.</p> MANCHURIA AND THE GREAT WALL&#160;&#160;&#160;
<p>China has not disclosed the route taken by Kim in the train - green with a yellow stripe resembling one used by his late father, Kim Jong Il, on his last visit to China in 2011.</p> FILE PHOTO: A train believed to be carrying a senior North Korean delegation leaves the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, China March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
<p>Based on photos from the elder Kim’s visit, the only visible difference between the two trains was a license plate. The younger Kim’s license plate showed DF0002; the plate on the train used by his father displayed DF0001.</p>
<p>North Korean state media showed Kim and his entourage, including his wife Ri Sol Ju, seated on stuffed pink sofas inside the train carriage with Song Tao, the head of the Chinese Communist Party’s international affairs department, during their inbound stop in Dandong.</p>
<p>There are at least two likely rail routes between Dandong and Beijing, and an ordinary service takes at least 14 hours, according to Chinese railway timetables. The route is also covered by China’s high-speed trains, which travel on separate tracks, in just over six hours.</p>
<p>But social media posts made by local railway bureaus and ordinary users on social media suggest a surge in delays around the route from Dandong that heads north to Shenyang, in the region previously known as Manchuria. The route then snakes west along the Hebei province coast towards Beijing.</p>
<p>On Monday morning, Weibo users at rail stations in Tangshan and Tianjin began complaining of unexpected cancellations to regular services bound for Beijing, which they said were made without explanation.</p>
<p>In a Weibo post published at 5:14 p.m. on Monday and since deleted, the Beijing Railway Bureau told travelers waiting at stations in Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang to expect delays of up to two hours for trains from Shenyang and Qinhuangdao.</p> Kim Jong Un secretly met with China's Xi Jinping
<p>On Tuesday evening, a Twitter user with the handle “2018you333” posted a grainy video of a train with a single horizontal stripe hurtling across an empty car underpass, which the user said was taken at the Shanhai Pass area, 300 km east of Beijing and a major pass in the Great Wall of China.</p>
<p>“Let’s guess where this distinguished guest is coming from!”, the post said.</p>
<p>Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the video.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Michael Martina, Philip Wen and the Shanghai and Beijing newsrooms; Editing by Tony Munroe and Alex Richardson</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
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Iraq invited to attend Syria talks in Sochi as observer, Abadi says North, South Korea fix April date for first summit in years Exclusive: Satellite images reveal show of force by Chinese navy in South China Sea Secrecy, delays surrounded North Korea leader's slow train to China
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https://reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-syria-russia/iraq-invited-to-attend-syria-talks-in-sochi-as-observer-abadi-says-idUSKBN1FB29V
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2018-01-22
| 2least
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Iraq invited to attend Syria talks in Sochi as observer, Abadi says North, South Korea fix April date for first summit in years Exclusive: Satellite images reveal show of force by Chinese navy in South China Sea Secrecy, delays surrounded North Korea leader's slow train to China
<p>BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq has been invited to attend the Syria peace talks due in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi at the end of the month, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a tweet on Monday.</p> FILE PHOTO: Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi speaks during a ceremony in Najaf, Iraq January 7, 2018. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
<p>It received an invitation from the Russian government to attend the conference as an observer, according to a statement from the Iraqi ambassador to Russia, Haidar Hadi, published on Abadi’s twitter account.</p>
<p>Iraq, which shares more than 500 km (310 miles) of border with Syria, had insisted it should attend the meeting, Abadi said in another tweet.</p>
<p>Abadi proclaimed victory last month over Islamic State, the hardline group which established in 2014 what it called a caliphate over parts of Iraq and Syria.</p>
<p>Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea will hold their first summit in more than a decade on April 27, South Korean officials said on Thursday, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged his commitment to denuclearization as tensions ease between the old foes.</p>
<p>South Korean officials, who announced the date after high-level talks with North Korean counterparts, said the agenda would largely be denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and improving inter-Korean relations.</p>
<p>The two Koreas had agreed to hold the summit at the border truce village of Panmunjom when South Korean President Moon Jae-in sent a delegation to Pyongyang this month to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.</p>
<p>Thursday’s meeting was the first high-level dialogue between the two Koreas since the delegation returned from the North.</p>
<p>The two sides said in a joint statement they would hold a working-level meeting on April 4 to discuss details of the summit, such as staffing support, security and news releases.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-northkorea-missiles-china-southkorea/beijing-envoy-says-kim-jong-uns-china-visit-will-help-toward-denuclearization-idUSKBN1H50YM" type="external">Beijing envoy says Kim Jong Un's China visit will help toward denuclearization</a>
<a href="/article/us-northkorea-missiles-ioc/ioc-chief-bach-arrives-to-north-korea-to-stay-until-saturday-idUSKBN1H50VC" type="external">IOC chief Bach arrives to North Korea, to stay until Saturday</a>
<a href="/article/us-northkorea-missiles-russia-meeting/russia-foreign-ministry-working-on-north-korea-meetings-in-moscow-idUSKBN1H51T5" type="external">Russia foreign ministry working on North Korea meetings in Moscow</a>
<p>“We still have a fair number of issues to resolve on a working level for preparations over the next month,” said Ri Son Gwon, the chairman of North Korea’s committee for the peaceful reunification of the country in closing remarks to the South Korean delegation.</p>
<p>“But if the two sides deeply understand the historic significance and meaning of this summit and give their all, we will be able to solve all problems swiftly and amicably,” Ri added.</p>
<p>Tension over North Korea’s tests of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile surged last year and raised fears of U.S. military action in response to North Korea’s threat to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States.</p>
<p>But tension has eased significantly since North Korea decided to send athletes to the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February. The neighbours are technically still at war after the 1950-53 conflict ended with a ceasefire, not a truce.</p>
<p>China commended both sides for their efforts to improve ties.</p>
<p>“We hope the momentum of dialogue can continue and that the peaceful situation also can last,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a briefing.</p>
<p>United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was encouraged by the recent developments with North Korea.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;“I believe that in this world where unfortunately so many problems seem not to have a solution, I think there is here an opportunity for a peaceful solution to something that a few months ago was haunting us as the biggest danger we were facing,” Guterres told reporters on Thursday.</p> ‘RESOLVE PROBLEMS’
<p>Kim is scheduled to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in May to discuss denuclearization, although a time and place have not been set.</p>
<p>Kim met Chinese President Xi Jinping in a surprise visit to Beijing this week, his first trip outside the isolated North since he came to power in 2011.</p>
<p>Even more surprising was Kim’s pledge to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. That commitment was reported by Chinese state media, although North Korea’s official media made no mention of it, or Kim’s anticipated meeting with Trump.</p>
<p>A senior Chinese official visiting Seoul on Thursday to brief South Korea on Kim’s visit to Beijing said it should help ease tension and lead to the denuclearization of the peninsula.</p> South Korean delegation led by Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon cross the concrete border as they leave after their meeting at the truce village of Panmunjom, North Korea March 29, 2018. Korea Pool/Yonhap via REUTERS
<p>“We believe his visit will help the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, ensure peace and security of the Korean peninsula and resolve problems regarding the peninsula through political negotiations and discussions,” Yang Jiechi said in opening remarks during a meeting with South Korea’s National Security Office head, Chung Eui-yong.</p>
<p>Yang, a top Chinese diplomat, is scheduled to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday.</p>
<p>South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon told reporters Kim’s visit to China was not discussed with North Korean officials in their Thursday talks.</p>
<p>Trump and Kim had exchanged insults and veiled threats of war in recent months but the U.S. leader made the surprising announcement this month that he was prepared to meet Kim to discuss the crisis over the North’s development of weapons.</p>
<p>The North Korean leader’s engagement with the international community has sparked speculation that he may try to meet other leaders. Japan’s Asahi newspaper said Japan had sounded out the North Korean government about a summit.</p> Slideshow (4 Images)
<p>Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono left open the possibility that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might meet Kim at some point. Kono said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that Japan was closely watching preparations for the North-South Korean summit and the Trump-Kim meeting.</p>
<p>Xi promised that Beijing would uphold its friendship with North Korea after his meeting with Kim.</p>
<p>Trump wrote on Twitter he had received a message from Xi late on Tuesday that his meeting with Kim “went very well” and that Kim looked forward to meeting the U.S. president.</p>
<p>Reporting by Christine Kim; Additional reporting by Michael Martina in BEIJING and Michelle Nichols at the UNITED NATIONS; Editing by Robert Birsel and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>HANOI/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Dozens of Chinese naval vessels are exercising this week with an aircraft carrier in a large show of force off Hainan island in the South China Sea, satellite images obtained by Reuters show.</p>
<p>The images, provided by Planet Labs Inc, confirm a Chinese carrier group has entered the vital trade waterway as part of what the Chinese navy earlier described as combat drills that were part of routine annual exercises.</p>
<p>The Liaoning carrier group last week traversed the Taiwan Strait, according to the Taiwanese defense ministry.</p>
<p>The photos, taken on Monday, show what appear to be at least 40 ships and submarines flanking the carrier Liaoning in what some analysts described as an unusually large display of the Chinese military’s growing naval might.</p>
<p>Sailing in a line formation more suited to visual propaganda than hard military maneuvers, the flotilla was headed by what appeared to be submarines, with aircraft above.</p>
<p>Jeffrey Lewis, a security expert at the California-based based Middlebury Institute of Strategic Studies, said the images showed the first confirmation that the carrier was joining the drills.</p>
<p>“It’s an incredible picture,” he said. “That’s the big news to me. Confirmation that, yes, the carrier participated in the exercise.”</p>
<p>While the Liaoning has previously entered the South China Sea as part of drills in uncontested training grounds south of Hainan, its annual exercises are closely watched by regional and international powers eyeing Beijing’s growing military might.</p>
<p>It is unclear where the flotilla was headed, or how long operations will last. China’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.</p>
<p>Collin Koh, a security expert at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, described the deployment as unusual for its size and scope.</p> Satellite photo dated March 26, 2018 shows Chinese ships south of Hainan, China. Planet Labs/Handout via REUTERS
<p>“Judging by the images, it does seem they are keen to show that elements of the South Sea Fleet are able to routinely join up with the carrier strike group from Dalian in the north,” he said.</p>
<p>“It does seem they want to show inter-fleet interoperability - something the (Chinese) navy has been quietly working on for some time.”</p>
<p>Chinese naval and coast guard forces have expanded rapidly in recent years and now patrol the vast swathes of the South China Sea, but little is known about their combat readiness and co-ordination.</p>
<p>Koh said as well as the destroyers, frigates and submarines that would ordinarily support a carrier, the flotilla appeared to include a large oiler for re-supply as well as smaller corvettes and possibly fast attack catamarans.</p> Satellite photo dated March 26, 2018 shows Chinese ships south of Hainan, China. Planet Labs/Handout via REUTERS
<p>“While it highlights an extensive ability to deploy, we are still left to guess at the PLAN’s combat readiness,” Koh said.</p>
<p>As well as Vietnam, China’s claims in the South China Sea are disputed by the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei while Taiwan also has claims.</p>
<p>The exercises come amid fresh signs of tension in the resource-rich waterway, with Vietnam recently halting oil exploration off its coast by Spanish firm Repsol under pressure from Beijing.</p>
<p>Beijing also objected to a so-called freedom of navigation patrol by a U.S. warship last week close to one of its artificial islands in the Spratlys archipelago further south.</p>
<p>Reporting By Greg Torode and James Pearson, additional reporting by Ben Blanchard. Editing by Lincoln Feast.</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - For a regime obsessed with secrecy, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s decision to travel to Beijing on a distinctive green armored train was an all-but-dead giveaway that he was making his first journey abroad since assuming power in 2011.</p> FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves from a train, as he paid an unofficial visit to China, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang March 28, 2018. KCNA/via Reuters/File Photo
<p>The historic visit sent officials scrambling to obscure the identity of the 21-car train and its occupants as it meandered across roughly 1,100 km (680 miles) of track through northeast China, causing rare delays along the way and triggering a growing frenzy of speculation as it neared the Chinese capital.</p>
<p>The train arrived at Beijing Station on Monday afternoon and left the following afternoon, with the identity of its occupants only announced on Wednesday morning - after it had crossed back into North Korea at the city of Sinuiju.</p>
<p>Clues that something unusual was afoot emerged in the border city of Dandong, just across the Yalu River from North Korea and linked to the isolated country by the Sino-Korea Friendship Bridge. That bridge bears a single rail track which, it turned out, carried Kim’s train into China late on Sunday.</p>
<p>The Daily NK, a Seoul-based website staffed by North Korean defectors, reported that boards supported by scaffolding had been set up on the platform at Dandong’s train station, blocking what is ordinarily an open view, before two trains passed through the station between 10:20 and 10:40 p.m. on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Yao Jun, who sells car parts in Dandong, said the station was locked down again on Tuesday night, an unusual occurrence. Kim returned to North Korea in the early hours of Wednesday.</p>
<p>“Now we know for next time - if the train station is in lockdown then that means Kim Jong Un has come to China,” Yao told Reuters.</p>
<p>At least one Dandong hotel was told by Chinese authorities not to book rooms facing the bridge, while tours from China into the North were canceled on Sunday, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. A local resident said that a wedding party along the river on Sunday had been told not to set off firecrackers.</p>
<p>By Monday morning sighting rumors and pictures were making the rounds on Chinese social media, before being blocked or deleted by censors, while railway bureaus began warning travelers to expect delays or cancellations on Monday and Tuesday.</p>
<p>The disruptions were noteworthy in a country with a vast rail network that prides itself on its efficiency, with 98.8 percent of trains departing on time in 2016 and 95.4 percent arriving on schedule, and prompted complaints online.</p>
<p>Zhao Jian, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University who researches the country’s railway system, said Kim’s train traveled on the regular track network, rather than on the tracks used by the country’s high-speed trains.</p>
<p>“Passenger and freight traffic would have been affected,” he said.</p>
<p>A person answering the official phone line at Dandong station on Thursday stressed that everything had been “normal” this week, and asked, “who told you the station was closed?”</p>
<p>An official in the international cooperation department of the China Railway Corporation declined immediate comment on Kim’s visit.</p> MANCHURIA AND THE GREAT WALL&#160;&#160;&#160;
<p>China has not disclosed the route taken by Kim in the train - green with a yellow stripe resembling one used by his late father, Kim Jong Il, on his last visit to China in 2011.</p> FILE PHOTO: A train believed to be carrying a senior North Korean delegation leaves the Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, China March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
<p>Based on photos from the elder Kim’s visit, the only visible difference between the two trains was a license plate. The younger Kim’s license plate showed DF0002; the plate on the train used by his father displayed DF0001.</p>
<p>North Korean state media showed Kim and his entourage, including his wife Ri Sol Ju, seated on stuffed pink sofas inside the train carriage with Song Tao, the head of the Chinese Communist Party’s international affairs department, during their inbound stop in Dandong.</p>
<p>There are at least two likely rail routes between Dandong and Beijing, and an ordinary service takes at least 14 hours, according to Chinese railway timetables. The route is also covered by China’s high-speed trains, which travel on separate tracks, in just over six hours.</p>
<p>But social media posts made by local railway bureaus and ordinary users on social media suggest a surge in delays around the route from Dandong that heads north to Shenyang, in the region previously known as Manchuria. The route then snakes west along the Hebei province coast towards Beijing.</p>
<p>On Monday morning, Weibo users at rail stations in Tangshan and Tianjin began complaining of unexpected cancellations to regular services bound for Beijing, which they said were made without explanation.</p>
<p>In a Weibo post published at 5:14 p.m. on Monday and since deleted, the Beijing Railway Bureau told travelers waiting at stations in Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang to expect delays of up to two hours for trains from Shenyang and Qinhuangdao.</p> Kim Jong Un secretly met with China's Xi Jinping
<p>On Tuesday evening, a Twitter user with the handle “2018you333” posted a grainy video of a train with a single horizontal stripe hurtling across an empty car underpass, which the user said was taken at the Shanhai Pass area, 300 km east of Beijing and a major pass in the Great Wall of China.</p>
<p>“Let’s guess where this distinguished guest is coming from!”, the post said.</p>
<p>Reuters was unable to verify the authenticity of the video.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Michael Martina, Philip Wen and the Shanghai and Beijing newsrooms; Editing by Tony Munroe and Alex Richardson</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
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<p />
<p>McCain’s newest ad is the fourth in the past week to invoke Hillary Clinton’s primary-era criticisms of Barack Obama. This time, though, it’s a double whammy. McCain is also going the scare tactic route, using images of tanks, missiles, and masked men under the words, “Uncertainty. Dangerous aggression. Rogue nations. Radicalism.” It quotes Clinton questioning Obama’s readiness to be Commander-in-Chief and ends with, “Hillary’s right. John McCain for president.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="/kevin-drum/2008/08/youtube.html" type="external">Kevin</a> argues that until we know this ad is running widely, we should treat it like a flyer or blog post put out by two-bit crazies. I tend to disagree. (1) The very first “celebrity” attack ads against Obama weren’t widely circulated, but the McCain campaign’s internal polling or focus groups must have told them they were on to something because that meme exploded over the course of late summer. If Democrats are going to keep hurtful frames from dominating the campaign for weeks or months at a time, they need to look at and respond to new McCain approaches in their nascent stages. And (2) these ads are excellent examples of how to go negative well. The Democrats look like they need every lesson they can get in that respect.</p>
<p />
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This Just In: Republicans Really Good at Attack Ads
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/08/just-republicans-really-good-attack-ads/
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2008-08-26
| 4left
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This Just In: Republicans Really Good at Attack Ads
<p />
<p>McCain’s newest ad is the fourth in the past week to invoke Hillary Clinton’s primary-era criticisms of Barack Obama. This time, though, it’s a double whammy. McCain is also going the scare tactic route, using images of tanks, missiles, and masked men under the words, “Uncertainty. Dangerous aggression. Rogue nations. Radicalism.” It quotes Clinton questioning Obama’s readiness to be Commander-in-Chief and ends with, “Hillary’s right. John McCain for president.”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="/kevin-drum/2008/08/youtube.html" type="external">Kevin</a> argues that until we know this ad is running widely, we should treat it like a flyer or blog post put out by two-bit crazies. I tend to disagree. (1) The very first “celebrity” attack ads against Obama weren’t widely circulated, but the McCain campaign’s internal polling or focus groups must have told them they were on to something because that meme exploded over the course of late summer. If Democrats are going to keep hurtful frames from dominating the campaign for weeks or months at a time, they need to look at and respond to new McCain approaches in their nascent stages. And (2) these ads are excellent examples of how to go negative well. The Democrats look like they need every lesson they can get in that respect.</p>
<p />
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<p>8:16 p.m. — Montgomery was reopened around 7:45 p.m., according to police.</p>
<p>—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-</p>
<p>Police say a car crash has closed westbound Montgomery near Juan Tabo because power lines are lying across the road.</p>
<p>No further information was immediately available.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
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Crash closes westbound Montgomery
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/339658/crash-closes-westbound-montgomery.html
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2014-01-19
| 2least
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Crash closes westbound Montgomery
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<p>8:16 p.m. — Montgomery was reopened around 7:45 p.m., according to police.</p>
<p>—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-</p>
<p>Police say a car crash has closed westbound Montgomery near Juan Tabo because power lines are lying across the road.</p>
<p>No further information was immediately available.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 5,225 |
<p>Stevie Wonder will cancel his scheduled appearance at a US fundraiser for "friends" of the Israeli military after facing flack from pro-Palestinian activists, <a href="http://forward.com/articles/166877/stevie-wonder-pulls-out-of-idf-fundraiser/" type="external">JTA reported Wednesday</a>.</p>
<p>Just days after Israel's offensive in Gaza, it was <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/411735/stevie-wonder-to-perform-in-support-of-the-israeli-defense-forces/" type="external">announced</a> this week that the singer was due to perform at this year's <a href="https://www.fidf.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=1119" type="external">Friends of the Israel Defense Forces benefit</a>, which takes place in Los Angeles on Dec. 6.</p>
<p>Grammy-winning producer and composer David Foster was scheduled to conduct an orchestra to accompany the headliner, <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/256103#.ULZdCoVMjlE" type="external">according to Arutz Sheva</a>. It is unclear who might now replace the R&amp;B legend as the fundraiser's main attraction.</p>
<p>JTA wrote of Wonder's reported change of heart:</p>
<p>"Wonder's representatives will claim that he did not know the nature of the group, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and that he believes such a performance would be incongruent with his status as a UN "Messenger of Peace," according to a source who has read email exchanges between Wonder's representatives and organizers of the event."</p>
<p>With tickets listed at $1,000 a head, the event is expected to raise millions of dollars for FIDF (one recent gala in New York raised $26 million, <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4203091,00.html" type="external">Ynet News reported</a>).</p>
<p>The US-based organization <a href="https://www.fidf.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=194" type="external">describes its mission</a> as helping to support "educational, social, cultural, and recreational programs and facilities for the young men and women soldiers of Israel who defend the Jewish homeland," as well as fallen soldiers' families.</p>
<p>The proceeds from the LA concert will go to the <a href="http://www.fidf.org/page.aspx?pid=1090" type="external">Negev Wellbeing and Educational Centers</a>, an FIDF project to build sports facilities, a library and synagogues on the IDF's new training campus in the Negev desert.</p>
<p>The event's co-host, billionaire TV and movie producer Haim Saban, <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4311366,00.html" type="external">described it to Ynet</a> as "our opportunity to thank the soldiers who defend the state."</p>
<p>The soldiers defended it most recently in <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/israel-and-palestine/121122/israel-hamas-cease-fire-holding-so-far" type="external">Operation Pillar of Defense</a>, the week-long offensive in Gaza that killed over 150 Palestinians, more than 100 of them civilians. Six Israelis died, four civilians and two soldiers.</p>
<p>The timing hasn't been lost on activists, who questioned why Stevie would have chosen now to befriend the IDF.</p>
<p>More than 4,000 people signed <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/stevie-wonder-don-t-play-at-the-idf-gala-fundraiser-in-la-on-dec-6th" type="external">an online petition</a> asking Wonder not to perform, "as a conscientious American advocate for human rights and dignity."</p>
<p>The petition, hosted by <a href="http://www.change.org" type="external">Change.org</a>, compares Israel to South Africa in the time of apartheid, which Wonder himself was arrested for protesting in 1985.</p>
<p>Check out the photo gallery above to see other celebrities who have made friends with the Israeli military.</p>
|
Stevie Wonder cancels 'Friends of the Israel Defense Forces' appearance after angering activists (PHOTOS)
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2012-11-28/stevie-wonder-cancels-friends-israel-defense-forces-appearance-after-angering
|
2012-11-28
| 3left-center
|
Stevie Wonder cancels 'Friends of the Israel Defense Forces' appearance after angering activists (PHOTOS)
<p>Stevie Wonder will cancel his scheduled appearance at a US fundraiser for "friends" of the Israeli military after facing flack from pro-Palestinian activists, <a href="http://forward.com/articles/166877/stevie-wonder-pulls-out-of-idf-fundraiser/" type="external">JTA reported Wednesday</a>.</p>
<p>Just days after Israel's offensive in Gaza, it was <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/411735/stevie-wonder-to-perform-in-support-of-the-israeli-defense-forces/" type="external">announced</a> this week that the singer was due to perform at this year's <a href="https://www.fidf.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=1119" type="external">Friends of the Israel Defense Forces benefit</a>, which takes place in Los Angeles on Dec. 6.</p>
<p>Grammy-winning producer and composer David Foster was scheduled to conduct an orchestra to accompany the headliner, <a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/256103#.ULZdCoVMjlE" type="external">according to Arutz Sheva</a>. It is unclear who might now replace the R&amp;B legend as the fundraiser's main attraction.</p>
<p>JTA wrote of Wonder's reported change of heart:</p>
<p>"Wonder's representatives will claim that he did not know the nature of the group, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and that he believes such a performance would be incongruent with his status as a UN "Messenger of Peace," according to a source who has read email exchanges between Wonder's representatives and organizers of the event."</p>
<p>With tickets listed at $1,000 a head, the event is expected to raise millions of dollars for FIDF (one recent gala in New York raised $26 million, <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4203091,00.html" type="external">Ynet News reported</a>).</p>
<p>The US-based organization <a href="https://www.fidf.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=194" type="external">describes its mission</a> as helping to support "educational, social, cultural, and recreational programs and facilities for the young men and women soldiers of Israel who defend the Jewish homeland," as well as fallen soldiers' families.</p>
<p>The proceeds from the LA concert will go to the <a href="http://www.fidf.org/page.aspx?pid=1090" type="external">Negev Wellbeing and Educational Centers</a>, an FIDF project to build sports facilities, a library and synagogues on the IDF's new training campus in the Negev desert.</p>
<p>The event's co-host, billionaire TV and movie producer Haim Saban, <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4311366,00.html" type="external">described it to Ynet</a> as "our opportunity to thank the soldiers who defend the state."</p>
<p>The soldiers defended it most recently in <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/israel-and-palestine/121122/israel-hamas-cease-fire-holding-so-far" type="external">Operation Pillar of Defense</a>, the week-long offensive in Gaza that killed over 150 Palestinians, more than 100 of them civilians. Six Israelis died, four civilians and two soldiers.</p>
<p>The timing hasn't been lost on activists, who questioned why Stevie would have chosen now to befriend the IDF.</p>
<p>More than 4,000 people signed <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/stevie-wonder-don-t-play-at-the-idf-gala-fundraiser-in-la-on-dec-6th" type="external">an online petition</a> asking Wonder not to perform, "as a conscientious American advocate for human rights and dignity."</p>
<p>The petition, hosted by <a href="http://www.change.org" type="external">Change.org</a>, compares Israel to South Africa in the time of apartheid, which Wonder himself was arrested for protesting in 1985.</p>
<p>Check out the photo gallery above to see other celebrities who have made friends with the Israeli military.</p>
| 5,226 |
<p>A small group of rich people who own most of Honduras and its politicians enlist the military to kidnap the elected president at gunpoint and take him into exile. They then arrest thousands of people opposed to the coup, shut down and intimidate independent media, shoot and kill some demonstrators, torture and beat many others. This goes on for more than four months, including more than two of the three months legally designated for electoral campaigning. Then the dictatorship holds an “election.”</p>
<p>Should other countries recognize the results of such an election, to be held on November 29th? Latin America says absolutely not; the United States is saying, well, “yes we can”– if we can get away with it.</p>
<p>“There has been a sharp rise in police beatings, mass arrests of demonstrators and intimidation of human rights defenders,” since President Zelaya slipped back into Honduras and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy, wrote Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch, the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and human rights groups worldwide have also condemned the violence and repression perpetrated by the Honduran dictatorship.</p>
<p>On November 5, the 25 nations of the Rio Group, which includes virtually all of Latin America, declared that they would not recognize the results of the November 29th elections in Honduras if the elected President Manuel Zelaya were not first restored.</p>
<p>Why is it that Latin American governments can recognize this threat to democracy but Washington cannot? One reason is that many of the governments are run by people who have lived under dictatorships. President Lula da Silva of Brazil was imprisoned by the Brazilian dictatorship in the 1980s. President Michele Bachelet of Chile was tortured in prison under the brutal Pinochet dictatorship that was installed with the help of the Nixon administration. The presidents of Bolivia, Argentina, Guatemala, and others have all lived through the repression of right-wing dictatorships.</p>
<p>Nor is this threat merely a thing of the past. Just two weeks ago the President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, had to fire most of the military leadership because of credible evidence that they were conspiring with the political opposition. This is one of the consequences of not reversing the Honduran military coup of June 28th.</p>
<p>Here in the United States we have been subjected to a relentless campaign of lies and distortions intended to justify the coup, which have been taken up by Republican supporters of the dictatorship, as well as by hired guns like Lanny Davis, a close associate of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Perhaps the biggest lie, repeated thousands of times in the news reporting and op-eds of the major media, was that Zelaya was overthrown because he was trying to extend his term of office. In fact, the non-binding referendum that Zelaya proposed had nothing to do with term limits. And even if this poll of the electorate had led eventually to a new constitution, any legal changes would have been far too late for Zelaya to stay in office beyond January 29.</p>
<p>Another surreal part of the whole political discussion has been the attempt to portray Zelaya, who was merely delivering on his campaign promises to the Honduran electorate, as a pawn of some foreign power – conveniently chosen to be the much-demonized Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The anti-communist hysteria of 1950s McCarthyism is still the model for these uncreative political hacks.</p>
<p>What a disgrace it will be to our country if the Obama team follows through on its current strategy and recognizes these “elections!” It’s hard to imagine a stronger statement than that human rights and democracy in this hemisphere count for zero in the political calculations of this administration.</p>
<p>MARK WEISBROT is an economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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Honduran Dictatorship is a Threat to Democracy in the Hemisphere
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2009/11/23/honduran-dictatorship-is-a-threat-to-democracy-in-the-hemisphere/
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2009-11-23
| 4left
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Honduran Dictatorship is a Threat to Democracy in the Hemisphere
<p>A small group of rich people who own most of Honduras and its politicians enlist the military to kidnap the elected president at gunpoint and take him into exile. They then arrest thousands of people opposed to the coup, shut down and intimidate independent media, shoot and kill some demonstrators, torture and beat many others. This goes on for more than four months, including more than two of the three months legally designated for electoral campaigning. Then the dictatorship holds an “election.”</p>
<p>Should other countries recognize the results of such an election, to be held on November 29th? Latin America says absolutely not; the United States is saying, well, “yes we can”– if we can get away with it.</p>
<p>“There has been a sharp rise in police beatings, mass arrests of demonstrators and intimidation of human rights defenders,” since President Zelaya slipped back into Honduras and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy, wrote Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch, the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and human rights groups worldwide have also condemned the violence and repression perpetrated by the Honduran dictatorship.</p>
<p>On November 5, the 25 nations of the Rio Group, which includes virtually all of Latin America, declared that they would not recognize the results of the November 29th elections in Honduras if the elected President Manuel Zelaya were not first restored.</p>
<p>Why is it that Latin American governments can recognize this threat to democracy but Washington cannot? One reason is that many of the governments are run by people who have lived under dictatorships. President Lula da Silva of Brazil was imprisoned by the Brazilian dictatorship in the 1980s. President Michele Bachelet of Chile was tortured in prison under the brutal Pinochet dictatorship that was installed with the help of the Nixon administration. The presidents of Bolivia, Argentina, Guatemala, and others have all lived through the repression of right-wing dictatorships.</p>
<p>Nor is this threat merely a thing of the past. Just two weeks ago the President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, had to fire most of the military leadership because of credible evidence that they were conspiring with the political opposition. This is one of the consequences of not reversing the Honduran military coup of June 28th.</p>
<p>Here in the United States we have been subjected to a relentless campaign of lies and distortions intended to justify the coup, which have been taken up by Republican supporters of the dictatorship, as well as by hired guns like Lanny Davis, a close associate of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Perhaps the biggest lie, repeated thousands of times in the news reporting and op-eds of the major media, was that Zelaya was overthrown because he was trying to extend his term of office. In fact, the non-binding referendum that Zelaya proposed had nothing to do with term limits. And even if this poll of the electorate had led eventually to a new constitution, any legal changes would have been far too late for Zelaya to stay in office beyond January 29.</p>
<p>Another surreal part of the whole political discussion has been the attempt to portray Zelaya, who was merely delivering on his campaign promises to the Honduran electorate, as a pawn of some foreign power – conveniently chosen to be the much-demonized Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The anti-communist hysteria of 1950s McCarthyism is still the model for these uncreative political hacks.</p>
<p>What a disgrace it will be to our country if the Obama team follows through on its current strategy and recognizes these “elections!” It’s hard to imagine a stronger statement than that human rights and democracy in this hemisphere count for zero in the political calculations of this administration.</p>
<p>MARK WEISBROT is an economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.</p>
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<p>Second-wave feminism had durable offshoots and has left a formidable legacy, particularly compared with other movements that have had intensive peaks and then quickly died out.</p>
<p>This piece <a href="http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/when-women-revolted/" type="external">first appeared</a> in Waging NonViolence.</p>
<p>Fifty years ago, feminist organizing in the United States entered a vibrant new phase of activity. While pinning down an exact starting date is a controversial endeavor, several major events in the late 1960s heralded the birth of what is often called second-wave feminism. The year 1966 saw the establishment of the National Organization of Women, or NOW, while 1967 featured both the introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment into the Senate and groundbreaking pickets at the New York Times opposing sex-segregated job ads. Then, in 1968, protests at the Miss America pageant set off a whirlwind period that marked the movement’s most intensive use of direct action. It also announced the existence of radical feminism, a branch of the movement with an agenda and attitude distinct from the organizing of liberal groups such as NOW.</p>
<p>In the decades since, our society has been transformed by feminism. Changes wrought by the movement have afforded new generations the freedom to transgress once-rigid gender roles, and they have provided hundreds of millions of women with opportunities for personal fulfillment, degrees of independence and professional accomplishment that were routinely denied their forebears. That said, the vision of equality and liberation promoted by radical feminism is still far from being fully realized.</p>
<p>It is no small irony that, in 2017, Donald Trump, the former owner of the Miss USA franchise and an infamous fount of sexist behavior, will become the nation’s president.</p>
<p>The elevation of Hillary Clinton to the White House was meant to be a high point for American women. Instead, the 2016 election pointed to the need for a renewed vision of radical feminism—one that goes beyond corporate feminism’s focus on the presence of women in executive suites and high political office, and that instead speaks powerfully to women who work multiple jobs for low wages and who may lack adequate health care, decent housing and affordable childcare.</p>
<p>Many progressives are rightly dismayed at what Trump’s presidency might suggest about the persistence of sexism 50 years after the emergence of the women’s liberation movement. What will be significant in facing the horrors of the Trump administration will be whether this dismay can be channeled into a revitalized grassroots movement to confront the sexism and racism that Trump embodies, the newly emboldened threat to reproductive rights and the coming attacks on the social safety net.</p>
<p>The fact that upwards of 100,000 people are expected to attend the Women’s March on Washington, taking place the weekend of Trump’s inauguration—and that tens of thousands more plan to participate in parallel marches throughout the country—suggests that such a movement can find a energetic base of support. Those organizing this base should draw lessons from the upheaval of 50 years ago—the history of which is too little known, even among progressives.</p>
<p>Looking back at this period of revolt, we can ask: How did it erupt? Why did it end? And what did it accomplish?</p>
<p>On September 7, 1968, nearly 400 members of a group called New York Radical Women famously disrupted the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City. Judith Ford, the former Miss Illinois—who had performed on a trampoline earlier in the competition—was being crowned the new Miss America. Just as she began giving her acceptance speech, the action started. Feminists who had snuck inside the pageant hall unfurled a banner reading “Women’s Liberation.” Meanwhile, on the boardwalk outside, hundreds of women symbolically <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/12/women-direct-action-suffragette" type="external">deposited</a> “instruments of female torture”—including bras, high heels, mops and pots and pans—into a large trash bin to express their view that the pageant commodified women for the profit of men. Flo Kennedy, an African-American activist and lawyer who handled legal defense for the women arrested, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=olq0CAAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PA306&amp;pg=PA158#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">fought</a> to include the pageant’s racism in the protest and arranged for support from a local black-owned resort, which served as a staging ground for the disruption.</p>
<p>The banner drop was broadcast into homes nationwide on live network television. As the protest grabbed national headlines, group member Carol Hanisch declared, “Millions of Americans now know there is a Women’s Liberation struggle.”</p>
<p>It was the start of something significant. Following the Miss America protest, feminists unleashed a series of high-profile demonstrations and guerrilla theater stunts with lasting implications. When considering the movement’s use of disruptive protest, the time between September 1968 and August 1970 is particularly noteworthy, marking a two-year period when the movement successfully captured media attention and made women’s liberation into a widely recognized phenomenon. Defying expectations of “ladylike” behavior, feminists gave name to forms of sexism and discrimination that had been previously unacknowledged in the mainstream—raising issues ranging from sexual harassment and discriminatory hiring, to sexist media representation and barriers to reproductive freedom, to unequal pay and a lack of publicly supported childcare.</p>
<p>Interestingly, this period of unusually high-profile public action often goes unrecognized. As civil resistance scholar April Carter <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=OqJMHf438OEC&amp;lpg=PA90&amp;ots=S3t2_RawrN&amp;dq=%22April%20Carter%22%20%22liberal%20states%22%20%22feminist%20movements%22&amp;pg=PA90#v=onepage&amp;q=%22April%20Carter%22%20%22liberal%20states%22%20%22feminist%20movements%22&amp;f=false" type="external">notes</a>, direct action protest is not often associated with second-wave feminism, especially in comparison with the racial justice and anti-war movements of the same era. The central role of consciousness-raising groups and the frequent references to Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique&#160;as the book that changed women’s lives have contributed the image of second-wave feminism as an “inward-facing” movement. Popular iconography of the movement often includes a group of women sitting together in their living rooms, or a tattered copy of Friedan’s book. Political scientist Joyce Gelb <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=OqJMHf438OEC&amp;q=%22protest+has+never+been+employed+as+a+central+tool%22#v=snippet&amp;q=%22protest%20has%20never%20been%20employed%20as%20a%20central%20tool%22&amp;f=false" type="external">writes</a>, “While most analysts see protest as central to the activities of social movements … protest has never been employed as a central tool by most feminists.”</p>
<p>There is some truth in this characterization. Instead of prioritizing direct action or mass mobilization, different branches of second-wave feminism focused on other forms of social movement activity—namely, lobbying and lawsuits on the part of more mainstream groups, and consciousness-raising on the part of many radicals. By the early 1970s, these established themselves as the dominant forms of organizing in the movement, and they contributed to securing significant social and legal advances.</p>
<p>However, the intense period of direct action between 1968 and 1970 also had important consequences, and there is good reason to remember the militant and creative wave of protests that commenced five decades prior to today’s Women’s March on Washington.</p>
<p>While much social movement theory stresses the importance of long-term organizing, scholar Frances Fox Piven has highlighted the critical role of disruptive protest. She argues that relatively short-lived moments of concentrated upheaval have been vital in producing transformative change in U.S. history. “The drama of such events,” Piven <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=aKt8f_PpRSQC&amp;lpg=PA1&amp;dq=%22propels%20new%20issues%20to%20the%20center%20of%20political%20debate%22&amp;pg=PA1#v=onepage&amp;q=%22propels%20new%20issues%20to%20the%20center%20of%20political%20debate%22&amp;f=false" type="external">writes</a>, “combined with the disorder that results, propels new issues to the center of political debate, issues that were previously suppressed by the managers of political parties that depend on welding together majorities.”</p>
<p>A variety of other theorists and activists have also recognized the power of what Saul Alinsky protégé Nicholas von Hoffman—in the wake of the 1961 Freedom Rides—dubbed the “moment of the whirlwind.” In these times, the normal rules of incremental campaigning seem to be suspended. Unexpected crises, political scandals or dramatic public actions—such as the Freedom Rides or the Miss America protests—become “trigger events” that capture public attention and spur heightened levels of social movement activity. These, in turn, create the potential for new triggers.</p>
<p>The period of intensive public protest that commenced in 1968 can be seen as just such a whirlwind. Putting feminism on the national agenda in a way it had not been before, it expanded the range of issues around which mainstream groups were willing to campaign. And it fueled a generative moment in which dozens of new groups, publications and collectives emerged. While liberal advocacy organizations were important in securing some of the landmark legal and political victories of second-wave feminism, and radical consciousness-raising groups and alternative spaces solidified the social and cultural legacy of the movement, each of these approaches benefited in important ways from the surge in protest activity at the end of the 1960s.</p>
<p>Critiquing liberal feminists’ pursuit of formal equality for women within the existing system, radical feminists took aim at traditional conceptions of social and family life, and they linked feminism to a leftist dissatisfaction with America’s political and economic power structures. Theatrical protest did much to bring this perspective to a wide audience, successfully capitalizing on media interest in the new wave.</p>
<p>Following the Miss America action, membership in New York Radical Women soared. While previous meetings, on average, had around 35 participants, attendance <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=H7bA8Z57PwMC&amp;source=gbs_book_other_versions" type="external">rose</a> to around 200 people. Ultimately, the organization seeded new groups, including Redstockings and the Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, or WITCH. The latter aimed to take up where the anti-war Yippies left off, launching a series of feminist street theater stunts. The participants called their actions “zaps.”</p>
<p>One famous zap took place on Halloween—Oct.&#160;31, 1968—when WITCH announced itself to the world with a piece of anti-capitalist guerilla theater that named the market economy as a target of feminist critique. As historian Annelise Orleck <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3fZBAAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PA109&amp;pg=PA109#v=onepage&amp;q=%22called%20on%20supernatural%20forces%22&amp;f=false" type="external">describes</a> in her book “Rethinking American Women’s Activism,” the group’s members marched down Wall Street in pointed hats, fright makeup and rags, calling “on supernatural forces to produce a decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.” Activists rejoiced the next day when the Dow mysteriously dropped five points.</p>
<p>Some five months later, in February 1969, approximately 150 WITCH members descended on the New York Bridal Fair in Madison Square Garden to protest traditional gender roles, consumerism&#160;and the institution of marriage. Among other actions at the fair, activists <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=apmWBAAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT75&amp;lpg=PT75&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=C5uWEHfKX7&amp;sig=H81ImZNXJ11646dvBIjgo5Kp3Zw&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjauMv7xeTNAhWIKCYKHQi4CU8Q6AEISjAI#v=onepage&amp;q=%22free%20human%20beings%22&amp;f=false" type="external">donned</a> black veils and performed an “Un-Wedding” ceremony to pronounce themselves “Free Human Beings.” Similar disruptions of bridal events took place in other cities, including San Diego and San Francisco.</p>
<p>Also in February 1969, the group Redstockings disrupted a New York State Legislature hearing on abortion. The hearing featured a panel of “expert witnesses” which turned out to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hdjNDvvlFbEC&amp;pg=RA4-PT49&amp;lpg=RA4-PT49&amp;dq=madison+square+garden+bridal+fair&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=l49YtcAkPo&amp;sig=wt3zfiPHCEQ56liQjPbcnRJXf0g&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjauMv7xeTNAhWIKCYKHQi4CU8Q6AEIPTAE#v=onepage&amp;q=nun&amp;f=false" type="external">consist</a> of 14 men and just one woman—a nun. Faced with boisterous protest, the hearing quickly adjourned. Redstockings proceeded to organize its own abortion speakout the next month in the West Village, where a dozen women testified with actual expertise about their abortions before an audience of 300. Writer and activist Ellen Willis <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6zaVkAjBuPEC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PA142#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">compared</a> the speakout to the teach-ins that had effectively mobilized public opinion against the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>Throughout the year, autonomous WITCH “covens” staged other demonstrations around the country. Activists scattered hair and nails around a building at the University of Chicago to protest the firing of a feminist professor, heckled politicians in Washington, D.C., and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iU97L2XVGN4C&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PT83#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">interrupted</a> the Milwaukee press club Gridiron Dinner to highlight the “boys’ club” dynamic within the media industry and to protest the way in which advertising enforced traditional gender roles.</p>
<p>On Jan.&#160;7, 1970, 60 women at the University of California-Berkeley <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/American_Patriotism_American_Protest.html?id=jhmQvhJMUagC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&amp;q=harmon%20gym&amp;f=false" type="external">assembled</a> to denounce the fact that karate classes on the campus were open only to men. The group marched into the men’s locker room at a university gymnasium, then extended protests to the chancellor’s office, demanding not only access to self-defense training, but also an end to employment discrimination, the creation of women’s history courses and free childcare for employees and students at the university.</p>
<p>Other high-profile actions in the Bay Area took place around the same time. These included an invasion of the editorial offices of the San Francisco Chronicle with demands for equal employment of women and an end to sexist advertising; a demonstration that targeted the Pacific Telephone Company’s San Francisco office for its refusal to hire women as telephone installers; and several occupations of radio stations, where activists insisted on more programming by and about women.</p>
<p>In early 1970, a collective of radical women in Washington, D.C., attended Senate hearings on the negative health impacts of the birth control pill, which at the time contained harmful doses of hormones. Sitting in the Senate chamber, the feminists became incensed as one male expert after another was called to testify, without a single woman being asked to share her experience on the pill. The women first raised their hands quietly to intervene, then stood with hands up. When still unacknowledged, they began yelling, “Why are you using women as guinea pigs?” and “Why are you letting the drug companies murder us for their profit and convenience?” Their televised protest turned the hearings into a major public spectacle, with 87 percent of women between the ages of 21 and 45 <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/e_hearings.html" type="external">reporting</a> that they were paying attention. In the end, not only did drug companies <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=f8mxEGQ5bu0C&amp;lpg=PA28&amp;pg=PA28#v=onepage&amp;f=false" type="external">lower</a> hormone levels in the pill but, after continued pressure from the nascent women’s health movement, the FDA began mandating that companies insert disclosure sheets about dosage and side effects into prescription medication—a major change in industry practice that we now take for granted.</p>
<p>In February 1970, New York City feminists staged a takeover of the underground newspaper Rat, protesting what they saw as its use of sexism under the disguise of provocation. They produced a “liberated” issue that included organizer Robin Morgan’s famous essay condemning sexism on the left, entitled “Goodbye to All That.” The essay pinpointed a political shift that many feminists were experiencing. Rather than seeing themselves primarily as activists in the civil rights and anti-war movements, they began naming sexism as a central source of oppression and embracing a political identity as women. Refusing to view feminist struggles as somehow peripheral to the core concerns of progressive politics, Morgan <a href="http://blog.fair-use.org/2007/09/29/goodbye-to-all-that-by-robin-morgan-1970/" type="external">asserted</a>: “Women are the real left.”</p>
<p>The following month, in March, some 200 radical women, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iU97L2XVGN4C&amp;lpg=PT83&amp;pg=PT87#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">dressed</a> in what they called “revolutionary disguise”—traditional skirts and blouses rather than their usual jeans—made their way into the offices of the Ladies Home Journal. With a circulation of 14 million, the Journal was the most widely read women’s magazine in the country, yet its senior editorial staff was made of almost all men. As the occupation commenced, one observer wrote, “In an office which normally had seating room for a dozen, there suddenly were women everywhere, standing, sitting on the floor, draped over the table and the windowsills and spilled out into the halls.” The occupation lasted for 11 hours, during which time the women helped themselves to the cigars from editor-in-chief John Mack Carter’s corner office and demanded both that the magazine make changes to incorporate feminist perspectives and that it hire more women and people of color.</p>
<p>Ultimately they won the right to publish an eight-page insert on women’s liberation in the magazine, which ran in the August issue. The impact of the occupation could be seen in subsequent years when traditional women’s magazines often excerpted feminist books and offered more sympathetic coverage of the movement than most mainstream sources. Years later, Carter looked back on the action and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7JdjAwAAQBAJ&amp;q=%22confrontation+is+certainly+effective%22#v=snippet&amp;q=%22confrontation%20is%20certainly%20effective%22&amp;f=false" type="external">admitted</a> being chastened: “Confrontation is certainly effective on the confrontee,” he quipped.</p>
<p>Even groups perceived as more moderate undertook confrontational actions during this period. Members of NOW organized a “ <a href="http://www.feminist.org/research/chronicles/fc1968.html" type="external">flush-in</a>” of Colgate-Palmolive’s cleaning products to highlight the company’s discriminatory policies, demonstrated at the Los Angeles Hall of Justice to protest prosecutions of abortion doctors, and <a href="http://www.feminist.org/research/chronicles/fc1970.html" type="external">disrupted</a> Senate proceedings in Washington, D.C., to demand hearings on the Equal Rights Amendment (which were ultimately held later in the year).</p>
<p>The two-year rush of action culminated in the Women’s Strike for Equality on Aug.&#160;26, 1970, organized by NOW, in which as many as 50,000 women <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6zaVkAjBuPEC&amp;lpg=PA198&amp;ots=zNTCtkcxXR&amp;dq=Alice%20Echols%20%22Women%27s%20Strike%20for%20Equality%22%2050%2C000&amp;pg=PA198#v=onepage&amp;q=Alice%20Echols%20%22Women%27s%20Strike%20for%20Equality%22%2050,000&amp;f=false" type="external">marched</a> in New York City, with thousands more joining solidarity marches in cities across the country. The strike was the largest-ever women’s protest in the United States history. And while the radical branch of the movement had generally been suspicious of mass mobilizations—seeing them as having a limited impact in curtailing the Vietnam War—the Women’s Strike for Equality marked an important moment of unity between liberal and radical groups, which came together around core demands for abortion rights, equal pay and free childcare.</p>
<p>This listing of protests represents only a sampling of the activity that took place, and it must be viewed with several caveats in mind.</p>
<p>First, any attempt to set a fixed starting point or end date of this wave of feminist direct action is debatable, as noteworthy protests took place both before and after. The year prior to the Miss America actions, NOW began picketing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to win employment protection for women and demonstrated outside the New York Times to denounce its sex-segregated job ads. Moreover, a number of earlier actions—such as the Jeanette Rankin Brigade’s mock funeral procession for “Traditional Womanhood” at a January 1968 march against the Vietnam War—marked the separation of radical feminism from other currents of the New Left.</p>
<p>Significant protests also coalesced after 1970, although in less frequent bursts. These included a 1971 <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/column/women-at-harvard/article/2012/3/2/women-feminist-harvard/" type="external">building occupation</a> in Cambridge that lasted 10 days and resulted in the establishment of the Cambridge Women’s Center. A protest in 1975 became the first march to assemble under the name Take Back the Night. And, at several moments at the close of the decade, there were significant marches in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, with the largest events <a href="http://now.org/about/history/history-of-marches-and-mass-actions/" type="external">rallying</a> as many as 100,000 people.</p>
<p>Another caveat relates to the composition of the movement. Press reports tended to focus on protests by groups of largely white, college-educated women in coastal cities, and to overlook protests by women of color. As second-wave feminism surged, the media was eager anoint a few telegenic celebrity feminists as spokespeople, rather than to highlight the work of organizers. Gloria Steinem, a freelance journalist with few ties to movement work when she began writing about feminism, became a glamorous representation of media-friendly feminism, albeit one who came from working-class roots and had some radical sympathies. For many years, Steinem made a point of appearing on stage with African-American feminists, most prominently Flo Kennedy and Dorothy Pitman Hughes, a founder of Ms. magazine and organizer of the first battered women shelter in New York City, but Hughes never became a household name.</p>
<p>As scholar Stephanie Gilmore has <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Feminist_Coalitions.html?id=k20ArNB42csC" type="external">noted</a>, the belief that the second wave was dominated by white, middle-class women—and therefore preoccupied with issues of concern to them—has been widespread for decades now. This story highlights the real alienation many women of color felt from some feminist organizations. Yet, as Gilmore’s thorough study of feminist coalitions demonstrates, it also conceals the multiracial activism and organizing by women of color that flourished during the period.</p>
<p>In terms of direct action, the welfare rights movement also made use of boisterous and disruptive protest in the closing years of the 1960s. Agitating for the rights of welfare recipients and for a guaranteed annual income, activists from the National Welfare Rights Organization turned to sit-ins and office takeovers when less abrasive lobbying tactics came up short. In 1968, activists <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=aHfZBAAAQBAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=orleck&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjy6sOgw73RAhXDdVAKHVDFCgQQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">organized</a> a series of direct actions called “Brood Mare Stampedes,” a reference to a term an angry senator had used to refer to pro-welfare demonstrators, most of whom were women of color. Early National Welfare Rights Organization leaders such as George Wiley preferred to frame welfare rights issues in economic terms, rather than as women’s issues. Yet the women of color who came to lead the group by the early 1970s increasingly highlighted connections with feminism. Johnnie Tillmon, the organization’s chairperson, wrote in 1971 that the members of the welfare rights movement represented “the front line troops of women’s freedom.” In 1972 she <a href="http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2002/tillmon.asp" type="external">penned</a> a famous article for Ms. magazine entitled “Welfare is a Women’s Issue,” memorably comparing the ill treatment of welfare recipients to a “supersexist marriage” in which one turns in “a man” for “the man.”</p>
<p>These caveats notwithstanding, the Miss America disruption initiated a concentrated period that, in hindsight, marked the high point for nonviolent direct action in the second-wave feminism—an outburst of protest that was not replicated with the same intensity before or afterward. Confrontational and provocative, these actions were often derided and mocked at the time, yet they were incredibly effective in shifting public discussion and recruiting more activists to the cause. Zaps, disruptions and occupations between the fall of 1968 and the summer of 1970 went far in creating a whirlwind moment for women’s liberation—a period that can be compared to the year following the 1999 Seattle protests for the movement against corporate globalization, the spring of 2006 for the immigrant rights movement, or the fall of 2011 for Occupy Wall Street.</p>
<p>So why did this whirlwind end?</p>
<p>In part, this is simply the nature of disruptive movements. Frances Fox Piven <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZbzNwRUZeH0C&amp;q=%22burst+forth%22#v=snippet&amp;q=%22burst%20forth%22&amp;f=false" type="external">argues</a> that moments of intensive unrest tend to be short lived, as protest movements “burst forth, often quite suddenly and surprisingly,” then subside. One factor is simple exhaustion: Peak levels of mobilization cannot be sustained forever, and interest from outside parties often drops off over time. In the case of second-wave feminism, the ever fickle mainstream media’s move to turn its attention elsewhere dampened the impact of protest. As longtime activist and co-founder of the New York Radical Feminists Ann Snitow explains, “At first there was a sense that things were bursting out everywhere, and it was exhilarating. We were on the cover of every magazine. But then the media turned the lights off when they realized, ‘these women who we liked to make fun of are actually serious.' ” While concerted organizing continued during the opening years of the 1970s, feminist groups could no longer rely on the press to amplify their efforts.</p>
<p>Another factor is that changing political conditions—often the result of movements securing some initial victories—can cool organizing. Evidence of this pattern can be seen in the second wave: From 1969 to 1973, radicals in Chicago formed the Jane collective, a network that trained activists to perform their own safe but illegal abortions. Members estimated that they performed 11,000 abortions during this time. However, codification of national abortion rights in 1973, with the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, brought an end to this civil disobedience. Initial movement success also led to backlash, as conservatives began organizing in earnest to block feminist advances.</p>
<p>Still other factors, more specific to feminist organizing of the period, led to a shift. Robin Morgan <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=apmWBAAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;dq=going%20too%20far%20robin%20morgan&amp;pg=PP1#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">writes</a> in her 1978 memoir “Going Too Far” that, by the end of 1969, WITCH members in New York were feeling self-critical about how some of their actions had alienated mainstream women, such as the brides-to-be at the bridal fair. The activists moved toward doing consciousness-raising rather than high-profile zaps—undertaking internal organizing rather than agitating in the streets. Within a year, the “mother coven” of WITCH disbanded altogether.</p>
<p>Consciousness-raising was initially seen as an activist intellectual project that would build the knowledge base necessary for collective action. Writer and activist Kathie Sarachild, generally credited with coining the term, traced its origins to educational practices within the civil rights movement. Women meeting in small groups, sharing common experiences, and seeing their personal problems as part of a wider political struggle afforded a powerfully liberating experience to tens of thousands of women. As Susan Brownmiller has argued, the tenets of this process of collective politicization would later become so common as to seem routine and unexceptional. Yet, she <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/In_Our_Time.html?id=oMohu95EEFMC" type="external">writes</a>, “I can attest that in New York City during the late ’60s and early ’70s, nothing was more exciting, or more intellectually stimulating, than to sit in a room with a bunch of women who were working to uncover their collective truths.”</p>
<p>Consciousness-raising groups spread rapidly in the early 1970s, and they served as a vital organizing tool for the movement. Yet scholars such as Jo Freeman have <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Waves_of_Protest.html?id=BO6D9qdVs3sC" type="external">argued</a> that, over time, the predominance of consciousness-raising among radicals at the expense of other activity contributed to an inward turn. “Consciousness-raising was supposed to be the means to an end,” Freeman writes. Yet it soon “practically took over the younger branch of the movement as its sole raison d’etre.” Rather than strategizing on how to shift public opinion, many consciousness-raising groups became internally focused. This move, Freeman contends, “altered the movement’s immediate targets from the general public to that of women in the consciousness-raising groups” themselves.</p>
<p>In her book “Daring to Be Bad,” a history of radical feminism, Alice Echols <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6zaVkAjBuPEC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PA142#v=onepage&amp;q=%22the%20movement%20turned%20its%20attention%20away%20from%20opposing%20male%20supremacy%20to%20creating%20a%20female%20counterculture%22&amp;f=false" type="external">describes</a> a related shift in the 1970s from radical to “cultural feminism,” wherein “the movement turned its attention away from opposing male supremacy to creating a female counterculture.” She adds, “concomitantly, the focus became one of personal rather than social transformation.”</p>
<p>Freeman, who has famously written about the “tyranny of structurelessness” <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Waves_of_Protest.html?id=BO6D9qdVs3sC" type="external">argues</a> that the small, unstructured and non-hierarchical group—modeled after those used for consciousness-raising—became the movement’s norm, and that these “frequently became closed, encapsulated units.” Moreover, it was not uncommon within these groups for the movement’s suspicion of traditional, hierarchical leadership to morph into a suspicion of all leadership. This produced a culture of interpersonal “trashing” and led to the expulsion of many prominent women activists from the organizations they helped found.</p>
<p>Not all efforts ended in self-isolation. The many alternative institutions created by local groups—including women’s centers, bookstores, battered women’s shelters, small presses and rape crisis centers—created critical spaces in which to recruit new members and sustain a movement culture. Particularly outside of large coastal cities, in places where opportunities for engagement could be sparse, these institutions provided lifelines for thousands of women who would otherwise have been cut off from movement activity.</p>
<p>Yet the reality of encapsulation did have negative consequences. As the 70s progressed, attempts to sway public opinion and influence public policy were left largely to the more established liberal organizations. With the strident, headline-grabbing presence of the movement’s radical wing diminishing, these organizations resumed less confrontational lobbying efforts. Moreover, liberals were unable to benefit from a “radical flank” effect, in which the presence of radicals on the public stage could make them look more reasonable and their positions easier to accommodate. By the mid- to late-1970s, as conservatives organized a determined counteroffensive, liberals were forced into an increasingly defensive posture.</p>
<p>Describing the impact of whirlwind moments in social movements, political scientist Aristide Zolberg <a href="http://pscourses.ucsd.edu/ps200b/Zolberg%20Moments%20of%20Madness.pdf" type="external">writes</a>, “stepped-up participation is like a flood tide which loosens up much of the soil but leaves alluvial deposits in its wake.” Although the impact of movement eruptions are not always as directly traceable as those of traditional lobbying campaigns, these outbreaks can go far in shifting the terrain of political debate and opening new opportunities for progress. After they pass, those seeking to institutionalize change can harvest from richer soil.</p>
<p>Alice Echols <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6zaVkAjBuPEC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PA142#v=snippet&amp;q=%22talk%20of%20women%27s%20liberation%20%28or%20more%20often%2C%20women%27s%20lib%29%20was%20everywhere%22&amp;f=false" type="external">writes</a> that, by 1970, “talk of women’s liberation (or more often, women’s lib) was everywhere.” This translated into concrete gains. On each of the three demands that provided points of unity between liberals and radicals during the Women’s Strike for Equality—abortion rights, equal pay and free childcare—the early ’70s proved to be times of substantial progress.</p>
<p>Coming of age in an era when even contraception was often unavailable to unmarried women, many feminists spoke of the prospect of unplanned pregnancy as a constant fear in their early adult lives and as a galvanizing force for their activism. Thus, securing abortion rights was a pivotal gain of the period. In 1970, the state of New York passed the most progressive abortion law in the country. Wider progress followed in 1973 with the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, which marked a sea change in reproductive rights.</p>
<p>Feminists also realized significant gains on issues of employment and educational discrimination. In 1972, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act strengthened language in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that forbade discrimination on the basis of sex. This shift allowed feminists to effectively pressure the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to take action against employers. Furthermore, the year 1972 saw the expansion of the 1963 Equal Pay Act, as well as the enactment of Title IX, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program—including sports. As one telling statistic shows, women made up just 20 percent of college undergraduates in 1950, but constituted a majority by 1990.</p>
<p>Childcare was a final issue on which the new political landscape presented important paths to progress. As historian Rosalyn Baxandall has <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Feminist_Memoir_Project.html?id=csGUOUsPK_gC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">argued</a>, one of the most prominent and inaccurate myths regarding feminists activists of the late 1960s and 1970s was that they were uninterested in or even hostile to mothers and their kids, and therefore unconcerned with issues related to childcare. In fact, childcare was a demand of many early actions, including the Ladies Home Journal sit-in. Amid movement pressure, it was also the subject of extensive legislative hearings between 1968 and 1971. These led to the Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971, a piece of legislation that would have established universal childcare, with centers funded by the federal government. This represented a truly sweeping proposition by today’s standards, and it is remarkable to note that the bill passed through both houses of Congress. Unfortunately, it was vetoed by President Nixon, who explicitly objected to its collectivism.</p>
<p>As Nixon’s veto indicates, feminists were by no means able to score all the wins they wanted—and the gains they did make would be targets of later conservative backlash. As the 1970s progressed, and the disruptive peak of second-wave feminism receded, liberals had considerably less success on their own than when their radical flank was most visible. Just three years after Roe, the abortion rights movement suffered a major defeat with the passage of the Hyde amendment, which prohibited the use of Medicaid funding for abortion and which was later expanded to include further restrictions. On the employment front, the difficulty of proving discrimination claims under existing law made lawsuits by liberal groups a slow, piecemeal effort. The shift by liberals to focusing on the Equal Rights Amendment proved vulnerable to counterattack by conservatives, who successfully prevented it from clearing the high bar required for ratification. Finally, as right-wing legislators became more and more vocal in their opposition to universal childcare, and as the Carter White House proved to be a lukewarm ally, feminist advocates were unable to push beyond their success from earlier in the decade.</p>
<p>Such limits notwithstanding, second-wave feminism had durable offshoots and has left a formidable legacy, particularly compared with other movements that have had intensive peaks and then quickly died out. In addition to legally implemented changes, feminism has brought about myriad social and cultural shifts. The women’s health movement, best known for the huge success of the collectively-produced Our Bodies, Ourselves,&#160;was highly effective in challenging the patriarchal treatment of women by their doctors. The proliferation of women’s studies programs and feminist scholarship has exposed countless people to women’s liberation struggles throughout history—something that would have been unthinkable when early second-wave activists burned their diplomas to showcase the disconnect between their educations and lived experiences. And the movement gave name to problems of domestic violence, sexual harassment and sexual assault, which were once viewed not as social issues at all, but simply as facts of life.</p>
<p>Not only have later generations of feminists been able to build on this foundation, but activists from the second wave also went on to become key players in advocating for a variety of other causes in the late ’70s and the ’80s, with feminist perspectives influencing the organizing models and direct action tactics. These include the peace and anti-nuclear movements, campaigns against nuclear power, the Central American solidarity movement, radical environmentalism and the struggle for LGBT rights. Feminist “zaps,” for example, became important models for disruptions by ACT UP during the height of the AIDS crisis.</p>
<p>The coming years promise grave challenges. Yet it is worth remembering that the activists who launched the whirlwind of feminist action in the late 1960s faced sexism that was not only pervasive but almost entirely uncontroversial in mainstream opinion. A revived feminist movement in the Trump era—tasked with confronting historic economic inequality, an openly racist president and an administration promising policies harmful to the great majority of women—should be no less ambitious, unapologetic and disruptive.</p>
<p>Laura Tanenbaum is an Associate Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY whose work has appeared in publications including Jacobin, Dissent and the New York Times. Mark Engler is a writer based in Philadelphia and an editorial board member at Dissent. His latest book is "This Is an Uprising."</p>
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This Weekend Isn’t the First Time Women Have Revolted
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http://inthesetimes.com/article/19822/when-women-revolted-1960s-second-wave-childcare-equal-pay-feminism
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2017-01-20
| 4left
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This Weekend Isn’t the First Time Women Have Revolted
<p>Second-wave feminism had durable offshoots and has left a formidable legacy, particularly compared with other movements that have had intensive peaks and then quickly died out.</p>
<p>This piece <a href="http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/when-women-revolted/" type="external">first appeared</a> in Waging NonViolence.</p>
<p>Fifty years ago, feminist organizing in the United States entered a vibrant new phase of activity. While pinning down an exact starting date is a controversial endeavor, several major events in the late 1960s heralded the birth of what is often called second-wave feminism. The year 1966 saw the establishment of the National Organization of Women, or NOW, while 1967 featured both the introduction of the Equal Rights Amendment into the Senate and groundbreaking pickets at the New York Times opposing sex-segregated job ads. Then, in 1968, protests at the Miss America pageant set off a whirlwind period that marked the movement’s most intensive use of direct action. It also announced the existence of radical feminism, a branch of the movement with an agenda and attitude distinct from the organizing of liberal groups such as NOW.</p>
<p>In the decades since, our society has been transformed by feminism. Changes wrought by the movement have afforded new generations the freedom to transgress once-rigid gender roles, and they have provided hundreds of millions of women with opportunities for personal fulfillment, degrees of independence and professional accomplishment that were routinely denied their forebears. That said, the vision of equality and liberation promoted by radical feminism is still far from being fully realized.</p>
<p>It is no small irony that, in 2017, Donald Trump, the former owner of the Miss USA franchise and an infamous fount of sexist behavior, will become the nation’s president.</p>
<p>The elevation of Hillary Clinton to the White House was meant to be a high point for American women. Instead, the 2016 election pointed to the need for a renewed vision of radical feminism—one that goes beyond corporate feminism’s focus on the presence of women in executive suites and high political office, and that instead speaks powerfully to women who work multiple jobs for low wages and who may lack adequate health care, decent housing and affordable childcare.</p>
<p>Many progressives are rightly dismayed at what Trump’s presidency might suggest about the persistence of sexism 50 years after the emergence of the women’s liberation movement. What will be significant in facing the horrors of the Trump administration will be whether this dismay can be channeled into a revitalized grassroots movement to confront the sexism and racism that Trump embodies, the newly emboldened threat to reproductive rights and the coming attacks on the social safety net.</p>
<p>The fact that upwards of 100,000 people are expected to attend the Women’s March on Washington, taking place the weekend of Trump’s inauguration—and that tens of thousands more plan to participate in parallel marches throughout the country—suggests that such a movement can find a energetic base of support. Those organizing this base should draw lessons from the upheaval of 50 years ago—the history of which is too little known, even among progressives.</p>
<p>Looking back at this period of revolt, we can ask: How did it erupt? Why did it end? And what did it accomplish?</p>
<p>On September 7, 1968, nearly 400 members of a group called New York Radical Women famously disrupted the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City. Judith Ford, the former Miss Illinois—who had performed on a trampoline earlier in the competition—was being crowned the new Miss America. Just as she began giving her acceptance speech, the action started. Feminists who had snuck inside the pageant hall unfurled a banner reading “Women’s Liberation.” Meanwhile, on the boardwalk outside, hundreds of women symbolically <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/12/women-direct-action-suffragette" type="external">deposited</a> “instruments of female torture”—including bras, high heels, mops and pots and pans—into a large trash bin to express their view that the pageant commodified women for the profit of men. Flo Kennedy, an African-American activist and lawyer who handled legal defense for the women arrested, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=olq0CAAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PA306&amp;pg=PA158#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">fought</a> to include the pageant’s racism in the protest and arranged for support from a local black-owned resort, which served as a staging ground for the disruption.</p>
<p>The banner drop was broadcast into homes nationwide on live network television. As the protest grabbed national headlines, group member Carol Hanisch declared, “Millions of Americans now know there is a Women’s Liberation struggle.”</p>
<p>It was the start of something significant. Following the Miss America protest, feminists unleashed a series of high-profile demonstrations and guerrilla theater stunts with lasting implications. When considering the movement’s use of disruptive protest, the time between September 1968 and August 1970 is particularly noteworthy, marking a two-year period when the movement successfully captured media attention and made women’s liberation into a widely recognized phenomenon. Defying expectations of “ladylike” behavior, feminists gave name to forms of sexism and discrimination that had been previously unacknowledged in the mainstream—raising issues ranging from sexual harassment and discriminatory hiring, to sexist media representation and barriers to reproductive freedom, to unequal pay and a lack of publicly supported childcare.</p>
<p>Interestingly, this period of unusually high-profile public action often goes unrecognized. As civil resistance scholar April Carter <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=OqJMHf438OEC&amp;lpg=PA90&amp;ots=S3t2_RawrN&amp;dq=%22April%20Carter%22%20%22liberal%20states%22%20%22feminist%20movements%22&amp;pg=PA90#v=onepage&amp;q=%22April%20Carter%22%20%22liberal%20states%22%20%22feminist%20movements%22&amp;f=false" type="external">notes</a>, direct action protest is not often associated with second-wave feminism, especially in comparison with the racial justice and anti-war movements of the same era. The central role of consciousness-raising groups and the frequent references to Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique&#160;as the book that changed women’s lives have contributed the image of second-wave feminism as an “inward-facing” movement. Popular iconography of the movement often includes a group of women sitting together in their living rooms, or a tattered copy of Friedan’s book. Political scientist Joyce Gelb <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=OqJMHf438OEC&amp;q=%22protest+has+never+been+employed+as+a+central+tool%22#v=snippet&amp;q=%22protest%20has%20never%20been%20employed%20as%20a%20central%20tool%22&amp;f=false" type="external">writes</a>, “While most analysts see protest as central to the activities of social movements … protest has never been employed as a central tool by most feminists.”</p>
<p>There is some truth in this characterization. Instead of prioritizing direct action or mass mobilization, different branches of second-wave feminism focused on other forms of social movement activity—namely, lobbying and lawsuits on the part of more mainstream groups, and consciousness-raising on the part of many radicals. By the early 1970s, these established themselves as the dominant forms of organizing in the movement, and they contributed to securing significant social and legal advances.</p>
<p>However, the intense period of direct action between 1968 and 1970 also had important consequences, and there is good reason to remember the militant and creative wave of protests that commenced five decades prior to today’s Women’s March on Washington.</p>
<p>While much social movement theory stresses the importance of long-term organizing, scholar Frances Fox Piven has highlighted the critical role of disruptive protest. She argues that relatively short-lived moments of concentrated upheaval have been vital in producing transformative change in U.S. history. “The drama of such events,” Piven <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=aKt8f_PpRSQC&amp;lpg=PA1&amp;dq=%22propels%20new%20issues%20to%20the%20center%20of%20political%20debate%22&amp;pg=PA1#v=onepage&amp;q=%22propels%20new%20issues%20to%20the%20center%20of%20political%20debate%22&amp;f=false" type="external">writes</a>, “combined with the disorder that results, propels new issues to the center of political debate, issues that were previously suppressed by the managers of political parties that depend on welding together majorities.”</p>
<p>A variety of other theorists and activists have also recognized the power of what Saul Alinsky protégé Nicholas von Hoffman—in the wake of the 1961 Freedom Rides—dubbed the “moment of the whirlwind.” In these times, the normal rules of incremental campaigning seem to be suspended. Unexpected crises, political scandals or dramatic public actions—such as the Freedom Rides or the Miss America protests—become “trigger events” that capture public attention and spur heightened levels of social movement activity. These, in turn, create the potential for new triggers.</p>
<p>The period of intensive public protest that commenced in 1968 can be seen as just such a whirlwind. Putting feminism on the national agenda in a way it had not been before, it expanded the range of issues around which mainstream groups were willing to campaign. And it fueled a generative moment in which dozens of new groups, publications and collectives emerged. While liberal advocacy organizations were important in securing some of the landmark legal and political victories of second-wave feminism, and radical consciousness-raising groups and alternative spaces solidified the social and cultural legacy of the movement, each of these approaches benefited in important ways from the surge in protest activity at the end of the 1960s.</p>
<p>Critiquing liberal feminists’ pursuit of formal equality for women within the existing system, radical feminists took aim at traditional conceptions of social and family life, and they linked feminism to a leftist dissatisfaction with America’s political and economic power structures. Theatrical protest did much to bring this perspective to a wide audience, successfully capitalizing on media interest in the new wave.</p>
<p>Following the Miss America action, membership in New York Radical Women soared. While previous meetings, on average, had around 35 participants, attendance <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=H7bA8Z57PwMC&amp;source=gbs_book_other_versions" type="external">rose</a> to around 200 people. Ultimately, the organization seeded new groups, including Redstockings and the Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, or WITCH. The latter aimed to take up where the anti-war Yippies left off, launching a series of feminist street theater stunts. The participants called their actions “zaps.”</p>
<p>One famous zap took place on Halloween—Oct.&#160;31, 1968—when WITCH announced itself to the world with a piece of anti-capitalist guerilla theater that named the market economy as a target of feminist critique. As historian Annelise Orleck <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3fZBAAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PA109&amp;pg=PA109#v=onepage&amp;q=%22called%20on%20supernatural%20forces%22&amp;f=false" type="external">describes</a> in her book “Rethinking American Women’s Activism,” the group’s members marched down Wall Street in pointed hats, fright makeup and rags, calling “on supernatural forces to produce a decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.” Activists rejoiced the next day when the Dow mysteriously dropped five points.</p>
<p>Some five months later, in February 1969, approximately 150 WITCH members descended on the New York Bridal Fair in Madison Square Garden to protest traditional gender roles, consumerism&#160;and the institution of marriage. Among other actions at the fair, activists <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=apmWBAAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT75&amp;lpg=PT75&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=C5uWEHfKX7&amp;sig=H81ImZNXJ11646dvBIjgo5Kp3Zw&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjauMv7xeTNAhWIKCYKHQi4CU8Q6AEISjAI#v=onepage&amp;q=%22free%20human%20beings%22&amp;f=false" type="external">donned</a> black veils and performed an “Un-Wedding” ceremony to pronounce themselves “Free Human Beings.” Similar disruptions of bridal events took place in other cities, including San Diego and San Francisco.</p>
<p>Also in February 1969, the group Redstockings disrupted a New York State Legislature hearing on abortion. The hearing featured a panel of “expert witnesses” which turned out to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hdjNDvvlFbEC&amp;pg=RA4-PT49&amp;lpg=RA4-PT49&amp;dq=madison+square+garden+bridal+fair&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=l49YtcAkPo&amp;sig=wt3zfiPHCEQ56liQjPbcnRJXf0g&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjauMv7xeTNAhWIKCYKHQi4CU8Q6AEIPTAE#v=onepage&amp;q=nun&amp;f=false" type="external">consist</a> of 14 men and just one woman—a nun. Faced with boisterous protest, the hearing quickly adjourned. Redstockings proceeded to organize its own abortion speakout the next month in the West Village, where a dozen women testified with actual expertise about their abortions before an audience of 300. Writer and activist Ellen Willis <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6zaVkAjBuPEC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PA142#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">compared</a> the speakout to the teach-ins that had effectively mobilized public opinion against the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>Throughout the year, autonomous WITCH “covens” staged other demonstrations around the country. Activists scattered hair and nails around a building at the University of Chicago to protest the firing of a feminist professor, heckled politicians in Washington, D.C., and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iU97L2XVGN4C&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PT83#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">interrupted</a> the Milwaukee press club Gridiron Dinner to highlight the “boys’ club” dynamic within the media industry and to protest the way in which advertising enforced traditional gender roles.</p>
<p>On Jan.&#160;7, 1970, 60 women at the University of California-Berkeley <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/American_Patriotism_American_Protest.html?id=jhmQvhJMUagC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&amp;q=harmon%20gym&amp;f=false" type="external">assembled</a> to denounce the fact that karate classes on the campus were open only to men. The group marched into the men’s locker room at a university gymnasium, then extended protests to the chancellor’s office, demanding not only access to self-defense training, but also an end to employment discrimination, the creation of women’s history courses and free childcare for employees and students at the university.</p>
<p>Other high-profile actions in the Bay Area took place around the same time. These included an invasion of the editorial offices of the San Francisco Chronicle with demands for equal employment of women and an end to sexist advertising; a demonstration that targeted the Pacific Telephone Company’s San Francisco office for its refusal to hire women as telephone installers; and several occupations of radio stations, where activists insisted on more programming by and about women.</p>
<p>In early 1970, a collective of radical women in Washington, D.C., attended Senate hearings on the negative health impacts of the birth control pill, which at the time contained harmful doses of hormones. Sitting in the Senate chamber, the feminists became incensed as one male expert after another was called to testify, without a single woman being asked to share her experience on the pill. The women first raised their hands quietly to intervene, then stood with hands up. When still unacknowledged, they began yelling, “Why are you using women as guinea pigs?” and “Why are you letting the drug companies murder us for their profit and convenience?” Their televised protest turned the hearings into a major public spectacle, with 87 percent of women between the ages of 21 and 45 <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/peopleevents/e_hearings.html" type="external">reporting</a> that they were paying attention. In the end, not only did drug companies <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=f8mxEGQ5bu0C&amp;lpg=PA28&amp;pg=PA28#v=onepage&amp;f=false" type="external">lower</a> hormone levels in the pill but, after continued pressure from the nascent women’s health movement, the FDA began mandating that companies insert disclosure sheets about dosage and side effects into prescription medication—a major change in industry practice that we now take for granted.</p>
<p>In February 1970, New York City feminists staged a takeover of the underground newspaper Rat, protesting what they saw as its use of sexism under the disguise of provocation. They produced a “liberated” issue that included organizer Robin Morgan’s famous essay condemning sexism on the left, entitled “Goodbye to All That.” The essay pinpointed a political shift that many feminists were experiencing. Rather than seeing themselves primarily as activists in the civil rights and anti-war movements, they began naming sexism as a central source of oppression and embracing a political identity as women. Refusing to view feminist struggles as somehow peripheral to the core concerns of progressive politics, Morgan <a href="http://blog.fair-use.org/2007/09/29/goodbye-to-all-that-by-robin-morgan-1970/" type="external">asserted</a>: “Women are the real left.”</p>
<p>The following month, in March, some 200 radical women, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=iU97L2XVGN4C&amp;lpg=PT83&amp;pg=PT87#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">dressed</a> in what they called “revolutionary disguise”—traditional skirts and blouses rather than their usual jeans—made their way into the offices of the Ladies Home Journal. With a circulation of 14 million, the Journal was the most widely read women’s magazine in the country, yet its senior editorial staff was made of almost all men. As the occupation commenced, one observer wrote, “In an office which normally had seating room for a dozen, there suddenly were women everywhere, standing, sitting on the floor, draped over the table and the windowsills and spilled out into the halls.” The occupation lasted for 11 hours, during which time the women helped themselves to the cigars from editor-in-chief John Mack Carter’s corner office and demanded both that the magazine make changes to incorporate feminist perspectives and that it hire more women and people of color.</p>
<p>Ultimately they won the right to publish an eight-page insert on women’s liberation in the magazine, which ran in the August issue. The impact of the occupation could be seen in subsequent years when traditional women’s magazines often excerpted feminist books and offered more sympathetic coverage of the movement than most mainstream sources. Years later, Carter looked back on the action and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7JdjAwAAQBAJ&amp;q=%22confrontation+is+certainly+effective%22#v=snippet&amp;q=%22confrontation%20is%20certainly%20effective%22&amp;f=false" type="external">admitted</a> being chastened: “Confrontation is certainly effective on the confrontee,” he quipped.</p>
<p>Even groups perceived as more moderate undertook confrontational actions during this period. Members of NOW organized a “ <a href="http://www.feminist.org/research/chronicles/fc1968.html" type="external">flush-in</a>” of Colgate-Palmolive’s cleaning products to highlight the company’s discriminatory policies, demonstrated at the Los Angeles Hall of Justice to protest prosecutions of abortion doctors, and <a href="http://www.feminist.org/research/chronicles/fc1970.html" type="external">disrupted</a> Senate proceedings in Washington, D.C., to demand hearings on the Equal Rights Amendment (which were ultimately held later in the year).</p>
<p>The two-year rush of action culminated in the Women’s Strike for Equality on Aug.&#160;26, 1970, organized by NOW, in which as many as 50,000 women <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6zaVkAjBuPEC&amp;lpg=PA198&amp;ots=zNTCtkcxXR&amp;dq=Alice%20Echols%20%22Women%27s%20Strike%20for%20Equality%22%2050%2C000&amp;pg=PA198#v=onepage&amp;q=Alice%20Echols%20%22Women%27s%20Strike%20for%20Equality%22%2050,000&amp;f=false" type="external">marched</a> in New York City, with thousands more joining solidarity marches in cities across the country. The strike was the largest-ever women’s protest in the United States history. And while the radical branch of the movement had generally been suspicious of mass mobilizations—seeing them as having a limited impact in curtailing the Vietnam War—the Women’s Strike for Equality marked an important moment of unity between liberal and radical groups, which came together around core demands for abortion rights, equal pay and free childcare.</p>
<p>This listing of protests represents only a sampling of the activity that took place, and it must be viewed with several caveats in mind.</p>
<p>First, any attempt to set a fixed starting point or end date of this wave of feminist direct action is debatable, as noteworthy protests took place both before and after. The year prior to the Miss America actions, NOW began picketing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to win employment protection for women and demonstrated outside the New York Times to denounce its sex-segregated job ads. Moreover, a number of earlier actions—such as the Jeanette Rankin Brigade’s mock funeral procession for “Traditional Womanhood” at a January 1968 march against the Vietnam War—marked the separation of radical feminism from other currents of the New Left.</p>
<p>Significant protests also coalesced after 1970, although in less frequent bursts. These included a 1971 <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/column/women-at-harvard/article/2012/3/2/women-feminist-harvard/" type="external">building occupation</a> in Cambridge that lasted 10 days and resulted in the establishment of the Cambridge Women’s Center. A protest in 1975 became the first march to assemble under the name Take Back the Night. And, at several moments at the close of the decade, there were significant marches in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, with the largest events <a href="http://now.org/about/history/history-of-marches-and-mass-actions/" type="external">rallying</a> as many as 100,000 people.</p>
<p>Another caveat relates to the composition of the movement. Press reports tended to focus on protests by groups of largely white, college-educated women in coastal cities, and to overlook protests by women of color. As second-wave feminism surged, the media was eager anoint a few telegenic celebrity feminists as spokespeople, rather than to highlight the work of organizers. Gloria Steinem, a freelance journalist with few ties to movement work when she began writing about feminism, became a glamorous representation of media-friendly feminism, albeit one who came from working-class roots and had some radical sympathies. For many years, Steinem made a point of appearing on stage with African-American feminists, most prominently Flo Kennedy and Dorothy Pitman Hughes, a founder of Ms. magazine and organizer of the first battered women shelter in New York City, but Hughes never became a household name.</p>
<p>As scholar Stephanie Gilmore has <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Feminist_Coalitions.html?id=k20ArNB42csC" type="external">noted</a>, the belief that the second wave was dominated by white, middle-class women—and therefore preoccupied with issues of concern to them—has been widespread for decades now. This story highlights the real alienation many women of color felt from some feminist organizations. Yet, as Gilmore’s thorough study of feminist coalitions demonstrates, it also conceals the multiracial activism and organizing by women of color that flourished during the period.</p>
<p>In terms of direct action, the welfare rights movement also made use of boisterous and disruptive protest in the closing years of the 1960s. Agitating for the rights of welfare recipients and for a guaranteed annual income, activists from the National Welfare Rights Organization turned to sit-ins and office takeovers when less abrasive lobbying tactics came up short. In 1968, activists <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=aHfZBAAAQBAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=orleck&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjy6sOgw73RAhXDdVAKHVDFCgQQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">organized</a> a series of direct actions called “Brood Mare Stampedes,” a reference to a term an angry senator had used to refer to pro-welfare demonstrators, most of whom were women of color. Early National Welfare Rights Organization leaders such as George Wiley preferred to frame welfare rights issues in economic terms, rather than as women’s issues. Yet the women of color who came to lead the group by the early 1970s increasingly highlighted connections with feminism. Johnnie Tillmon, the organization’s chairperson, wrote in 1971 that the members of the welfare rights movement represented “the front line troops of women’s freedom.” In 1972 she <a href="http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2002/tillmon.asp" type="external">penned</a> a famous article for Ms. magazine entitled “Welfare is a Women’s Issue,” memorably comparing the ill treatment of welfare recipients to a “supersexist marriage” in which one turns in “a man” for “the man.”</p>
<p>These caveats notwithstanding, the Miss America disruption initiated a concentrated period that, in hindsight, marked the high point for nonviolent direct action in the second-wave feminism—an outburst of protest that was not replicated with the same intensity before or afterward. Confrontational and provocative, these actions were often derided and mocked at the time, yet they were incredibly effective in shifting public discussion and recruiting more activists to the cause. Zaps, disruptions and occupations between the fall of 1968 and the summer of 1970 went far in creating a whirlwind moment for women’s liberation—a period that can be compared to the year following the 1999 Seattle protests for the movement against corporate globalization, the spring of 2006 for the immigrant rights movement, or the fall of 2011 for Occupy Wall Street.</p>
<p>So why did this whirlwind end?</p>
<p>In part, this is simply the nature of disruptive movements. Frances Fox Piven <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZbzNwRUZeH0C&amp;q=%22burst+forth%22#v=snippet&amp;q=%22burst%20forth%22&amp;f=false" type="external">argues</a> that moments of intensive unrest tend to be short lived, as protest movements “burst forth, often quite suddenly and surprisingly,” then subside. One factor is simple exhaustion: Peak levels of mobilization cannot be sustained forever, and interest from outside parties often drops off over time. In the case of second-wave feminism, the ever fickle mainstream media’s move to turn its attention elsewhere dampened the impact of protest. As longtime activist and co-founder of the New York Radical Feminists Ann Snitow explains, “At first there was a sense that things were bursting out everywhere, and it was exhilarating. We were on the cover of every magazine. But then the media turned the lights off when they realized, ‘these women who we liked to make fun of are actually serious.' ” While concerted organizing continued during the opening years of the 1970s, feminist groups could no longer rely on the press to amplify their efforts.</p>
<p>Another factor is that changing political conditions—often the result of movements securing some initial victories—can cool organizing. Evidence of this pattern can be seen in the second wave: From 1969 to 1973, radicals in Chicago formed the Jane collective, a network that trained activists to perform their own safe but illegal abortions. Members estimated that they performed 11,000 abortions during this time. However, codification of national abortion rights in 1973, with the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, brought an end to this civil disobedience. Initial movement success also led to backlash, as conservatives began organizing in earnest to block feminist advances.</p>
<p>Still other factors, more specific to feminist organizing of the period, led to a shift. Robin Morgan <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=apmWBAAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;dq=going%20too%20far%20robin%20morgan&amp;pg=PP1#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">writes</a> in her 1978 memoir “Going Too Far” that, by the end of 1969, WITCH members in New York were feeling self-critical about how some of their actions had alienated mainstream women, such as the brides-to-be at the bridal fair. The activists moved toward doing consciousness-raising rather than high-profile zaps—undertaking internal organizing rather than agitating in the streets. Within a year, the “mother coven” of WITCH disbanded altogether.</p>
<p>Consciousness-raising was initially seen as an activist intellectual project that would build the knowledge base necessary for collective action. Writer and activist Kathie Sarachild, generally credited with coining the term, traced its origins to educational practices within the civil rights movement. Women meeting in small groups, sharing common experiences, and seeing their personal problems as part of a wider political struggle afforded a powerfully liberating experience to tens of thousands of women. As Susan Brownmiller has argued, the tenets of this process of collective politicization would later become so common as to seem routine and unexceptional. Yet, she <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/In_Our_Time.html?id=oMohu95EEFMC" type="external">writes</a>, “I can attest that in New York City during the late ’60s and early ’70s, nothing was more exciting, or more intellectually stimulating, than to sit in a room with a bunch of women who were working to uncover their collective truths.”</p>
<p>Consciousness-raising groups spread rapidly in the early 1970s, and they served as a vital organizing tool for the movement. Yet scholars such as Jo Freeman have <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Waves_of_Protest.html?id=BO6D9qdVs3sC" type="external">argued</a> that, over time, the predominance of consciousness-raising among radicals at the expense of other activity contributed to an inward turn. “Consciousness-raising was supposed to be the means to an end,” Freeman writes. Yet it soon “practically took over the younger branch of the movement as its sole raison d’etre.” Rather than strategizing on how to shift public opinion, many consciousness-raising groups became internally focused. This move, Freeman contends, “altered the movement’s immediate targets from the general public to that of women in the consciousness-raising groups” themselves.</p>
<p>In her book “Daring to Be Bad,” a history of radical feminism, Alice Echols <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6zaVkAjBuPEC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PA142#v=onepage&amp;q=%22the%20movement%20turned%20its%20attention%20away%20from%20opposing%20male%20supremacy%20to%20creating%20a%20female%20counterculture%22&amp;f=false" type="external">describes</a> a related shift in the 1970s from radical to “cultural feminism,” wherein “the movement turned its attention away from opposing male supremacy to creating a female counterculture.” She adds, “concomitantly, the focus became one of personal rather than social transformation.”</p>
<p>Freeman, who has famously written about the “tyranny of structurelessness” <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Waves_of_Protest.html?id=BO6D9qdVs3sC" type="external">argues</a> that the small, unstructured and non-hierarchical group—modeled after those used for consciousness-raising—became the movement’s norm, and that these “frequently became closed, encapsulated units.” Moreover, it was not uncommon within these groups for the movement’s suspicion of traditional, hierarchical leadership to morph into a suspicion of all leadership. This produced a culture of interpersonal “trashing” and led to the expulsion of many prominent women activists from the organizations they helped found.</p>
<p>Not all efforts ended in self-isolation. The many alternative institutions created by local groups—including women’s centers, bookstores, battered women’s shelters, small presses and rape crisis centers—created critical spaces in which to recruit new members and sustain a movement culture. Particularly outside of large coastal cities, in places where opportunities for engagement could be sparse, these institutions provided lifelines for thousands of women who would otherwise have been cut off from movement activity.</p>
<p>Yet the reality of encapsulation did have negative consequences. As the 70s progressed, attempts to sway public opinion and influence public policy were left largely to the more established liberal organizations. With the strident, headline-grabbing presence of the movement’s radical wing diminishing, these organizations resumed less confrontational lobbying efforts. Moreover, liberals were unable to benefit from a “radical flank” effect, in which the presence of radicals on the public stage could make them look more reasonable and their positions easier to accommodate. By the mid- to late-1970s, as conservatives organized a determined counteroffensive, liberals were forced into an increasingly defensive posture.</p>
<p>Describing the impact of whirlwind moments in social movements, political scientist Aristide Zolberg <a href="http://pscourses.ucsd.edu/ps200b/Zolberg%20Moments%20of%20Madness.pdf" type="external">writes</a>, “stepped-up participation is like a flood tide which loosens up much of the soil but leaves alluvial deposits in its wake.” Although the impact of movement eruptions are not always as directly traceable as those of traditional lobbying campaigns, these outbreaks can go far in shifting the terrain of political debate and opening new opportunities for progress. After they pass, those seeking to institutionalize change can harvest from richer soil.</p>
<p>Alice Echols <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=6zaVkAjBuPEC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PA142#v=snippet&amp;q=%22talk%20of%20women%27s%20liberation%20%28or%20more%20often%2C%20women%27s%20lib%29%20was%20everywhere%22&amp;f=false" type="external">writes</a> that, by 1970, “talk of women’s liberation (or more often, women’s lib) was everywhere.” This translated into concrete gains. On each of the three demands that provided points of unity between liberals and radicals during the Women’s Strike for Equality—abortion rights, equal pay and free childcare—the early ’70s proved to be times of substantial progress.</p>
<p>Coming of age in an era when even contraception was often unavailable to unmarried women, many feminists spoke of the prospect of unplanned pregnancy as a constant fear in their early adult lives and as a galvanizing force for their activism. Thus, securing abortion rights was a pivotal gain of the period. In 1970, the state of New York passed the most progressive abortion law in the country. Wider progress followed in 1973 with the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, which marked a sea change in reproductive rights.</p>
<p>Feminists also realized significant gains on issues of employment and educational discrimination. In 1972, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act strengthened language in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that forbade discrimination on the basis of sex. This shift allowed feminists to effectively pressure the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to take action against employers. Furthermore, the year 1972 saw the expansion of the 1963 Equal Pay Act, as well as the enactment of Title IX, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program—including sports. As one telling statistic shows, women made up just 20 percent of college undergraduates in 1950, but constituted a majority by 1990.</p>
<p>Childcare was a final issue on which the new political landscape presented important paths to progress. As historian Rosalyn Baxandall has <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Feminist_Memoir_Project.html?id=csGUOUsPK_gC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" type="external">argued</a>, one of the most prominent and inaccurate myths regarding feminists activists of the late 1960s and 1970s was that they were uninterested in or even hostile to mothers and their kids, and therefore unconcerned with issues related to childcare. In fact, childcare was a demand of many early actions, including the Ladies Home Journal sit-in. Amid movement pressure, it was also the subject of extensive legislative hearings between 1968 and 1971. These led to the Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971, a piece of legislation that would have established universal childcare, with centers funded by the federal government. This represented a truly sweeping proposition by today’s standards, and it is remarkable to note that the bill passed through both houses of Congress. Unfortunately, it was vetoed by President Nixon, who explicitly objected to its collectivism.</p>
<p>As Nixon’s veto indicates, feminists were by no means able to score all the wins they wanted—and the gains they did make would be targets of later conservative backlash. As the 1970s progressed, and the disruptive peak of second-wave feminism receded, liberals had considerably less success on their own than when their radical flank was most visible. Just three years after Roe, the abortion rights movement suffered a major defeat with the passage of the Hyde amendment, which prohibited the use of Medicaid funding for abortion and which was later expanded to include further restrictions. On the employment front, the difficulty of proving discrimination claims under existing law made lawsuits by liberal groups a slow, piecemeal effort. The shift by liberals to focusing on the Equal Rights Amendment proved vulnerable to counterattack by conservatives, who successfully prevented it from clearing the high bar required for ratification. Finally, as right-wing legislators became more and more vocal in their opposition to universal childcare, and as the Carter White House proved to be a lukewarm ally, feminist advocates were unable to push beyond their success from earlier in the decade.</p>
<p>Such limits notwithstanding, second-wave feminism had durable offshoots and has left a formidable legacy, particularly compared with other movements that have had intensive peaks and then quickly died out. In addition to legally implemented changes, feminism has brought about myriad social and cultural shifts. The women’s health movement, best known for the huge success of the collectively-produced Our Bodies, Ourselves,&#160;was highly effective in challenging the patriarchal treatment of women by their doctors. The proliferation of women’s studies programs and feminist scholarship has exposed countless people to women’s liberation struggles throughout history—something that would have been unthinkable when early second-wave activists burned their diplomas to showcase the disconnect between their educations and lived experiences. And the movement gave name to problems of domestic violence, sexual harassment and sexual assault, which were once viewed not as social issues at all, but simply as facts of life.</p>
<p>Not only have later generations of feminists been able to build on this foundation, but activists from the second wave also went on to become key players in advocating for a variety of other causes in the late ’70s and the ’80s, with feminist perspectives influencing the organizing models and direct action tactics. These include the peace and anti-nuclear movements, campaigns against nuclear power, the Central American solidarity movement, radical environmentalism and the struggle for LGBT rights. Feminist “zaps,” for example, became important models for disruptions by ACT UP during the height of the AIDS crisis.</p>
<p>The coming years promise grave challenges. Yet it is worth remembering that the activists who launched the whirlwind of feminist action in the late 1960s faced sexism that was not only pervasive but almost entirely uncontroversial in mainstream opinion. A revived feminist movement in the Trump era—tasked with confronting historic economic inequality, an openly racist president and an administration promising policies harmful to the great majority of women—should be no less ambitious, unapologetic and disruptive.</p>
<p>Laura Tanenbaum is an Associate Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY whose work has appeared in publications including Jacobin, Dissent and the New York Times. Mark Engler is a writer based in Philadelphia and an editorial board member at Dissent. His latest book is "This Is an Uprising."</p>
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<p>Just about everyone is giving President-elect Barack Obama advice based on one interpretation or another of what his victory really means. Obama should be wary of any counsel that the advice-givers had in mind before a single vote was counted.</p>
<p>The worst advice will come from his conservative adversaries, the people who called him a socialist a few days before the election and insisted a few days later that he won because he was really a conservative. The older among them declared after the 1980 election that the 51 percent of the vote won by Ronald Reagan represented an ideological revolution, but argue now that Obama’s somewhat larger majority has no philosophical implications.</p>
<p>These conservatives are trying to stop Obama from pursuing any of the ideas that he campaigned on — universal access to health care, a government-led green revolution, redistributive tax policies, a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, more robust economic regulation.</p>
<p>Their gimmick is to insist that the United States is still a center-right country because more Americans call themselves conservative than liberal. What this analysis ignores is that Americans have clearly moved to the left of where they were four, eight or 10 years ago.</p>
<p />
<p>The public’s desire for more government action to heal the economy and guarantee health insurance coverage, along with its new skepticism about the deregulation of business, suggests that we are a moderate country that now leans slightly and warily left. But that wariness means that progressives should avoid offering advice based on the assumption that an ideological revolution has already been consummated. They should not imitate the triumphalism of Karl Rove and his acolytes, who interpreted President Bush’s 50.7 percent victory in 2004 as the prelude to an enduring Republican majority.</p>
<p>Fundamentally, ours is a non-ideological nation. Many who would like the government to act more boldly still need to be persuaded of government’s capacity to succeed.</p>
<p>Here again, Obama’s situation closely resembles Reagan’s. Like our 40th president, Obama has been authorized to move in a new direction. If Reagan had the voters’ permission to move away from strategies associated with liberalism, Obama has sanction to move away from conservative policies. Reagan was judged by the results of his choices, and Obama will be, too.</p>
<p>Yet Reagan offers another lesson: His first moves were bold, and Obama should not fear following his example. The president-elect is hearing that his greatest mistake would be something called “overreach.” Democrats in Congress, it’s implied, are hungry to impose wacky left-wing schemes that Obama must resist.</p>
<p>In fact, timidity is a far greater danger than overreaching, simply because it’s quite easy to be cautious. And anyone who thinks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her followers are ultra-leftist ideologues has been asleep for the past two years. As Pelosi noted in an interview in her office last week, her moves have been shaped by a Democratic House caucus that includes both staunch liberals and resolute moderates. She knows where election victories come from.</p>
<p>“We have some fairly sophisticated people here who understand that you win seats in the middle,” she said, noting that Democrats did not win their majority in 2006 and then expand it this year “by espousing far left views.” The priorities of congressional Democrats, she added, are close to those of the new president.</p>
<p>That’s true, and it underscores the fact that you don’t have to be “far left” to be bold. This is something that Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff and no ideologue, understands. In interviews Sunday on both ABC and CBS, Emanuel made clear that Obama’s overarching priority is to right the economy and that his other objectives fit snugly into that framework.</p>
<p>He sees Obama acting in four areas of concern to a middle class that “is working harder, earning less and paying more.” The list: health care, energy, tax reform and education. All are issues on which Obama should not be afraid to be audacious.</p>
<p>The economic crisis, Emanuel said, provides “an opportunity to finally do what Washington for years has postponed.” Here, the model is Franklin Roosevelt, who in the 1930s saw the objectives of economic recovery and greater social justice as closely linked.</p>
<p>President-elect Obama can spend most of his time fretting nervously about the shortcomings of past presidents and how to avoid their errors. Or he can think hopefully about truly successful presidents and how their daring changed the country. Is there any doubt as to which of these would more usefully engage his imagination?</p>
<p>E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is postchat(at)aol.com.</p>
<p>© 2008, Washington Post Writers Group</p>
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The Danger in Timidity
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https://truthdig.com/articles/the-danger-in-timidity/
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2008-11-11
| 4left
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The Danger in Timidity
<p>Just about everyone is giving President-elect Barack Obama advice based on one interpretation or another of what his victory really means. Obama should be wary of any counsel that the advice-givers had in mind before a single vote was counted.</p>
<p>The worst advice will come from his conservative adversaries, the people who called him a socialist a few days before the election and insisted a few days later that he won because he was really a conservative. The older among them declared after the 1980 election that the 51 percent of the vote won by Ronald Reagan represented an ideological revolution, but argue now that Obama’s somewhat larger majority has no philosophical implications.</p>
<p>These conservatives are trying to stop Obama from pursuing any of the ideas that he campaigned on — universal access to health care, a government-led green revolution, redistributive tax policies, a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, more robust economic regulation.</p>
<p>Their gimmick is to insist that the United States is still a center-right country because more Americans call themselves conservative than liberal. What this analysis ignores is that Americans have clearly moved to the left of where they were four, eight or 10 years ago.</p>
<p />
<p>The public’s desire for more government action to heal the economy and guarantee health insurance coverage, along with its new skepticism about the deregulation of business, suggests that we are a moderate country that now leans slightly and warily left. But that wariness means that progressives should avoid offering advice based on the assumption that an ideological revolution has already been consummated. They should not imitate the triumphalism of Karl Rove and his acolytes, who interpreted President Bush’s 50.7 percent victory in 2004 as the prelude to an enduring Republican majority.</p>
<p>Fundamentally, ours is a non-ideological nation. Many who would like the government to act more boldly still need to be persuaded of government’s capacity to succeed.</p>
<p>Here again, Obama’s situation closely resembles Reagan’s. Like our 40th president, Obama has been authorized to move in a new direction. If Reagan had the voters’ permission to move away from strategies associated with liberalism, Obama has sanction to move away from conservative policies. Reagan was judged by the results of his choices, and Obama will be, too.</p>
<p>Yet Reagan offers another lesson: His first moves were bold, and Obama should not fear following his example. The president-elect is hearing that his greatest mistake would be something called “overreach.” Democrats in Congress, it’s implied, are hungry to impose wacky left-wing schemes that Obama must resist.</p>
<p>In fact, timidity is a far greater danger than overreaching, simply because it’s quite easy to be cautious. And anyone who thinks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her followers are ultra-leftist ideologues has been asleep for the past two years. As Pelosi noted in an interview in her office last week, her moves have been shaped by a Democratic House caucus that includes both staunch liberals and resolute moderates. She knows where election victories come from.</p>
<p>“We have some fairly sophisticated people here who understand that you win seats in the middle,” she said, noting that Democrats did not win their majority in 2006 and then expand it this year “by espousing far left views.” The priorities of congressional Democrats, she added, are close to those of the new president.</p>
<p>That’s true, and it underscores the fact that you don’t have to be “far left” to be bold. This is something that Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff and no ideologue, understands. In interviews Sunday on both ABC and CBS, Emanuel made clear that Obama’s overarching priority is to right the economy and that his other objectives fit snugly into that framework.</p>
<p>He sees Obama acting in four areas of concern to a middle class that “is working harder, earning less and paying more.” The list: health care, energy, tax reform and education. All are issues on which Obama should not be afraid to be audacious.</p>
<p>The economic crisis, Emanuel said, provides “an opportunity to finally do what Washington for years has postponed.” Here, the model is Franklin Roosevelt, who in the 1930s saw the objectives of economic recovery and greater social justice as closely linked.</p>
<p>President-elect Obama can spend most of his time fretting nervously about the shortcomings of past presidents and how to avoid their errors. Or he can think hopefully about truly successful presidents and how their daring changed the country. Is there any doubt as to which of these would more usefully engage his imagination?</p>
<p>E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is postchat(at)aol.com.</p>
<p>© 2008, Washington Post Writers Group</p>
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<p>Leo Panitch is the Senior Scholar and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at York University. He is the author of many books, the most recent of which include UK Deutscher Memorial Prize winner The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire, In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives, , <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Renewing-Socialism-Democracy-Strategy-Imagination/dp/0813398215" type="external">Renewing Socialism: Democracy, Strategy and Imagination</a> and The End of Parliamentary Socialism: From New Left to New Labour. He is also a co-editor of the Socialist Register, whose 2017 volume, which will be released in time for the Labour Party Conference and launched in London in November, is entitled Rethinking Revolution</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore.
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<p />A Canadian story has broken through American news networks, and it isn't often that happens. It's a story about the mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford. He's in the news because apparently he was in a video smoking crack cocaine--at least that's what he's been accused of.
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<p />But is this a bit of a tip of the iceberg, a reflection, perhaps, on what happens to some right-wing politicians who come in with all kinds of rhetoric about smaller government and cleaning things up and leave office with a trail of, essentially, corruption scandal?
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<p />Now joining us to talk about all of this--and we're going to try to dig a little deeper than what we've seen in the press--is Leo Panitch. Leo's a Canada research chair in comparative political economy, a distinguished research professor of political science at York University in Toronto. He's the coauthor with Sam Gindin of The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire.
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<p />Thanks for joining us again, Leo.
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<p />LEO PANITCH, PROF. POLITICAL SCIENCE, YORK UNIVERSITY: Hi, Paul. Welcome back to Canada.
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<p />JAY: Thank you. So give us a little bit of outline. First of all, what's been going on with Ford? And then also there's a lot going on in terms of scandal around prime minister Stephen Harper.
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<p />PANITCH: Yeah. It's kind of a pleasure to see. And I'm sure that all of your left-wing American viewers will be surprised by all of this, since they tend to have this highly romantic notion of Canada as their Sweden. In fact, we have a federal government, a national government which is far to the right of most governments in the advanced capitalist countries.
<p />
<p />And here in Toronto we elected a couple of years ago a very far-right mayor, who ran on no taxes, small government, get the city council out of our pockets, truly, truly reactionary on almost any dimension you could name. And he now is all over the American talk shows. It's over a video that has been seen by a couple of Toronto Star reporters, as well as a Gawker reporter, which shows him apparently smoking crack with two young black men, both of whom were shot, one of whom was killed, shortly after the video was taken. So this has, you know, blown up.
<p />
<p />But he has been in constant trouble. It would almost be a Keystone Cops routine were it not so sad that North America's third- or fourth-largest city is run by such a bozo, who has no politics other than lower-taxes rhetoric and has actually overseen the privatization of half of garbage collection in Toronto, opposes the extension of public transit insofar as it would involve any additional taxes, talks a good line about doing away with congestion, which is horrific in Toronto, by building more subways while at the same time says he's going to end the war on cars. So it's been an appalling, an appalling record.
<p />
<p />That this has blown up in his face is rather nice to see in a way. It's not the worst he's done, whatever he smoked, although all kinds of dirt is coming out about his family's very far right wing connections, something alleged about his sister having been close to someone in the Ku Klux Klan at some point. And apparently when his older brother, who's clearly the brains in the family and a councilor at the city level here, was apparently a drug dealer, so it is said in a Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper, massive story in last Saturday.
<p />
<p />JAY: Alleging that his brother was a big hashish dealer, that in a kind of dry--.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: As a young man.
<p />
<p />JAY: Yeah, as a young man operating--.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: As a young man. Actually, not just dealer in a drive-up way, but actually a intermediary with rather large amounts being passed through him. But, you know, that's in the past. The horrific stuff is the kind of culture of know-nothing populist politics that they run on a no-tax platform, at the cost, of course, of civil political discourse and at the cost of the very needed public services that a city of this size desperately needs to have. And one can see that the ruling class of this city, those who own the banks and effectively own Canada, find this all very distasteful as well.
<p />
<p />So, you know, whether, you know, that kind of populism in the midst of this kind of economic instability could give rise in Canada or elsewhere to populist figures who might get reelected precisely because they operate on this kind [incompr.] platform is something to be worried about. It's unedifying to have to face this every day.
<p />
<p />JAY: Right. Now, it seems to me interesting that The Globe and Mail can dig up this stuff about his brother Doug and his alleged hashish-dealing network. He wasn't just a dealer, as you said. He's running, actually, other people, and he was running a bunch of dealers, alleged. His sister's alleged connection to Ku Klux Klan or some other right-wing politics, they can dig it up now, but they didn't dig it up at the time of the election of Ford, which they could have. They have the resources. If they can do it now, they could have done it then. I guess what I'm getting at here is the Toronto elite didn't mind this populist figure, didn't really care what his history was. If they get him elected and they can bring this kind of right politics, they were fine with that. It just that it got out of control for them.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: Yeah. I mean, it's not to say, I think, that they didn't find him distasteful, but that's right. I think that's right. They would have preferred a more establishment figure, like a very famous Canadian Conservative like John Tory, who keeps on running and losing in all kinds of arenas. But, yes, you're right, of course. That's absolutely true.
<p />
<p />And here in Ontario, in any case, we have an extremely right-wing government fully supported by the ruling class of this province and city in the 1990s, which this guy, Rob Ford's father, was a member of the legislature for. And our prime minister, Harper, who is himself somewhat to the right of Attila the Hun, and his finance minister, Flaherty, are said to be quite good friends with the family and have attended on a number of occasion the famous barbecues in the back yard of the mansion that the Ford family runs every year.
<p />
<p />JAY: And speaking of Prime Minister Harper, he's in the middle of his own scandal. What's going on there?
<p />
<p />PANITCH: Well, you know, he came in on the basis of a right-wing populist party having--which he was associated with, having merged with the traditional Conservative Party of Canada. And insofar as they split the vote, it was always the Liberal Party that was the government of Canada. It was called the government party.
<p />
<p />But once they combined, Harper managed to squeak in with a number of minority governments and then a majority government in the last election. His base is often very far right, coming from the Tea Party constituency. He himself is not an unsophisticated right-wing economist who--he used to head a think tank funded by the insurance industry here. And he has both on foreign policy and in terms of economic policy been one of the most right-wing governments around.
<p />
<p />JAY: So tell us what's been happening. He has a scandal in the Senate.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: And the scandal is ironic, because one of the elements of him getting elected on a populist platform was he wanted to do away with the Senate or have it elected by each of the provinces. When he couldn't pull that off because it would involve a massive constitutional change that's very difficult to do, he started in a very cynical way packing the Senate with Tory propagandists, two of whom are former journalists who you know probably very well, Paul, Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy, who in the last election campaign were really the dogs, more than any others, for the Tory campaign, running vicious propaganda.
<p />
<p />Now, it turns out that these people have been taking advantage of the Senate benefits. Some of the time they were campaigning for the Conservative Party in the last election, they were claiming that they were sitting in the Senate and therefore getting the benefits that go with appearing in the Senate. They have been claiming that they live in the province that they were appointed to represent and collect an enormous amount of travel benefits for doing so, but in fact spend all of their time in central Canada. And this has become a major scandal. What became even worse was that the chief of staff of the prime minister's office handed Mike Duffy $90,000 to partly repay some of his ill-gotten expense claims and [crosstalk]
<p />
<p />JAY: Yeah, 'cause he got caught and had to repay the Senate some of this money.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: The chief of staff resigned, took blame for this when this was publicly exposed. Harper took off for South America to shill for Canadian mining companies there. But even there he was dogged by reporters asking him how he, who is a complete control freak, who has centralized power in the prime minister's office like no one else historically in Canada, how it could be that he didn't know what his chief of staff was doing. So this is much bigger now than just the Senate scandal. The question is what was the coverup that the prime minister's office was engaged in.
<p />
<p />JAY: And this tells you something about Canadian television news, too. Mike Duffy, with CTV--now, for American viewers, CTV is the biggest privately owned channel in Canada--CTV's Ottawa correspondent, who's reporting on Ottawa news, is Mike Duffy. And after he retires as a journalist, he becomes this hack for the Tories in the Senate.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: That's right. And the same applies to Pamela Wallin, who was a major figure first with CTV and then for a smaller channel, had her own show, and was appointed to the New York consulate, more than Duffy in the 1970s was a propaganda dog for the Conservatives like no one else in the last election.
<p />
<p />JAY: So is this going to hurt Harper's image? I mean, part of the reason he won a majority government: he was able to give this sense of being a good governor, managed the economy well, managed things. And one of the things that helped sink the Liberals was supposed to be Chrétien corruption that kind of reverberated through to his successors. Do you think it's going to actually dent him?
<p />
<p />PANITCH: I think that in terms of massive corruption this is small potatoes relative to the kinds of scandals that the Liberals got caught with their pants down on. And that also applies to the Toronto case. So it's not so much, you know, feathering one's own bed, what's involved here on the part of the figures in office themselves, not in any massive terms, but it certainly raises all kinds of moral question.
<p />
<p />And, of course, it does expose in a deeper sense the way in which these kinds of right-wing politicians who run on such a program of probity, defending the market against the unethical state, these kinds of politicians often appoint people who are in it for the take. And, you know, it's often the case that those who scream loudest against government expenditure are the first ones to try to accumulate on the basis of getting a government contract. That's an old story in the case of the Liberal parties, but it's--really it applies equally, of course, to the kinds of businesses that support governments like Harper's or Ford's at a local level.
<p />
<p />JAY: Yeah, they yell smaller government as they raid the treasury.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: That's right. In fact, the reason they yell smaller government--and what they mean by that, of course, is certain kinds of public expenditure. They don't want money spent on collective public services, they don't want money spent on the poor, they don't want money spent on education, unless they can get a contract in the public school system. They want the money spent on the kinds of things that would allow them to make sales at a global level. We see this, by the way, in the bond markets. Their opposition to public expenditure is all about ensuring that when governments have any money in their pockets, they will pay off the interest on their bonds before they save somebody from starvation or build them some public housing to have a roof over their heads.
<p />
<p />JAY: Thanks for joining us, Leo.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: Great to talk to you, Paul.
<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.
|
Scandal and Corruption in Canada's Right Wing Governments
| true |
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D767%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D10245
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2013-05-28
| 4left
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Scandal and Corruption in Canada's Right Wing Governments
<p>Leo Panitch is the Senior Scholar and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at York University. He is the author of many books, the most recent of which include UK Deutscher Memorial Prize winner The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire, In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives, , <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Renewing-Socialism-Democracy-Strategy-Imagination/dp/0813398215" type="external">Renewing Socialism: Democracy, Strategy and Imagination</a> and The End of Parliamentary Socialism: From New Left to New Labour. He is also a co-editor of the Socialist Register, whose 2017 volume, which will be released in time for the Labour Party Conference and launched in London in November, is entitled Rethinking Revolution</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore.
<p />
<p />A Canadian story has broken through American news networks, and it isn't often that happens. It's a story about the mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford. He's in the news because apparently he was in a video smoking crack cocaine--at least that's what he's been accused of.
<p />
<p />But is this a bit of a tip of the iceberg, a reflection, perhaps, on what happens to some right-wing politicians who come in with all kinds of rhetoric about smaller government and cleaning things up and leave office with a trail of, essentially, corruption scandal?
<p />
<p />Now joining us to talk about all of this--and we're going to try to dig a little deeper than what we've seen in the press--is Leo Panitch. Leo's a Canada research chair in comparative political economy, a distinguished research professor of political science at York University in Toronto. He's the coauthor with Sam Gindin of The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire.
<p />
<p />Thanks for joining us again, Leo.
<p />
<p />LEO PANITCH, PROF. POLITICAL SCIENCE, YORK UNIVERSITY: Hi, Paul. Welcome back to Canada.
<p />
<p />JAY: Thank you. So give us a little bit of outline. First of all, what's been going on with Ford? And then also there's a lot going on in terms of scandal around prime minister Stephen Harper.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: Yeah. It's kind of a pleasure to see. And I'm sure that all of your left-wing American viewers will be surprised by all of this, since they tend to have this highly romantic notion of Canada as their Sweden. In fact, we have a federal government, a national government which is far to the right of most governments in the advanced capitalist countries.
<p />
<p />And here in Toronto we elected a couple of years ago a very far-right mayor, who ran on no taxes, small government, get the city council out of our pockets, truly, truly reactionary on almost any dimension you could name. And he now is all over the American talk shows. It's over a video that has been seen by a couple of Toronto Star reporters, as well as a Gawker reporter, which shows him apparently smoking crack with two young black men, both of whom were shot, one of whom was killed, shortly after the video was taken. So this has, you know, blown up.
<p />
<p />But he has been in constant trouble. It would almost be a Keystone Cops routine were it not so sad that North America's third- or fourth-largest city is run by such a bozo, who has no politics other than lower-taxes rhetoric and has actually overseen the privatization of half of garbage collection in Toronto, opposes the extension of public transit insofar as it would involve any additional taxes, talks a good line about doing away with congestion, which is horrific in Toronto, by building more subways while at the same time says he's going to end the war on cars. So it's been an appalling, an appalling record.
<p />
<p />That this has blown up in his face is rather nice to see in a way. It's not the worst he's done, whatever he smoked, although all kinds of dirt is coming out about his family's very far right wing connections, something alleged about his sister having been close to someone in the Ku Klux Klan at some point. And apparently when his older brother, who's clearly the brains in the family and a councilor at the city level here, was apparently a drug dealer, so it is said in a Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper, massive story in last Saturday.
<p />
<p />JAY: Alleging that his brother was a big hashish dealer, that in a kind of dry--.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: As a young man.
<p />
<p />JAY: Yeah, as a young man operating--.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: As a young man. Actually, not just dealer in a drive-up way, but actually a intermediary with rather large amounts being passed through him. But, you know, that's in the past. The horrific stuff is the kind of culture of know-nothing populist politics that they run on a no-tax platform, at the cost, of course, of civil political discourse and at the cost of the very needed public services that a city of this size desperately needs to have. And one can see that the ruling class of this city, those who own the banks and effectively own Canada, find this all very distasteful as well.
<p />
<p />So, you know, whether, you know, that kind of populism in the midst of this kind of economic instability could give rise in Canada or elsewhere to populist figures who might get reelected precisely because they operate on this kind [incompr.] platform is something to be worried about. It's unedifying to have to face this every day.
<p />
<p />JAY: Right. Now, it seems to me interesting that The Globe and Mail can dig up this stuff about his brother Doug and his alleged hashish-dealing network. He wasn't just a dealer, as you said. He's running, actually, other people, and he was running a bunch of dealers, alleged. His sister's alleged connection to Ku Klux Klan or some other right-wing politics, they can dig it up now, but they didn't dig it up at the time of the election of Ford, which they could have. They have the resources. If they can do it now, they could have done it then. I guess what I'm getting at here is the Toronto elite didn't mind this populist figure, didn't really care what his history was. If they get him elected and they can bring this kind of right politics, they were fine with that. It just that it got out of control for them.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: Yeah. I mean, it's not to say, I think, that they didn't find him distasteful, but that's right. I think that's right. They would have preferred a more establishment figure, like a very famous Canadian Conservative like John Tory, who keeps on running and losing in all kinds of arenas. But, yes, you're right, of course. That's absolutely true.
<p />
<p />And here in Ontario, in any case, we have an extremely right-wing government fully supported by the ruling class of this province and city in the 1990s, which this guy, Rob Ford's father, was a member of the legislature for. And our prime minister, Harper, who is himself somewhat to the right of Attila the Hun, and his finance minister, Flaherty, are said to be quite good friends with the family and have attended on a number of occasion the famous barbecues in the back yard of the mansion that the Ford family runs every year.
<p />
<p />JAY: And speaking of Prime Minister Harper, he's in the middle of his own scandal. What's going on there?
<p />
<p />PANITCH: Well, you know, he came in on the basis of a right-wing populist party having--which he was associated with, having merged with the traditional Conservative Party of Canada. And insofar as they split the vote, it was always the Liberal Party that was the government of Canada. It was called the government party.
<p />
<p />But once they combined, Harper managed to squeak in with a number of minority governments and then a majority government in the last election. His base is often very far right, coming from the Tea Party constituency. He himself is not an unsophisticated right-wing economist who--he used to head a think tank funded by the insurance industry here. And he has both on foreign policy and in terms of economic policy been one of the most right-wing governments around.
<p />
<p />JAY: So tell us what's been happening. He has a scandal in the Senate.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: And the scandal is ironic, because one of the elements of him getting elected on a populist platform was he wanted to do away with the Senate or have it elected by each of the provinces. When he couldn't pull that off because it would involve a massive constitutional change that's very difficult to do, he started in a very cynical way packing the Senate with Tory propagandists, two of whom are former journalists who you know probably very well, Paul, Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy, who in the last election campaign were really the dogs, more than any others, for the Tory campaign, running vicious propaganda.
<p />
<p />Now, it turns out that these people have been taking advantage of the Senate benefits. Some of the time they were campaigning for the Conservative Party in the last election, they were claiming that they were sitting in the Senate and therefore getting the benefits that go with appearing in the Senate. They have been claiming that they live in the province that they were appointed to represent and collect an enormous amount of travel benefits for doing so, but in fact spend all of their time in central Canada. And this has become a major scandal. What became even worse was that the chief of staff of the prime minister's office handed Mike Duffy $90,000 to partly repay some of his ill-gotten expense claims and [crosstalk]
<p />
<p />JAY: Yeah, 'cause he got caught and had to repay the Senate some of this money.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: The chief of staff resigned, took blame for this when this was publicly exposed. Harper took off for South America to shill for Canadian mining companies there. But even there he was dogged by reporters asking him how he, who is a complete control freak, who has centralized power in the prime minister's office like no one else historically in Canada, how it could be that he didn't know what his chief of staff was doing. So this is much bigger now than just the Senate scandal. The question is what was the coverup that the prime minister's office was engaged in.
<p />
<p />JAY: And this tells you something about Canadian television news, too. Mike Duffy, with CTV--now, for American viewers, CTV is the biggest privately owned channel in Canada--CTV's Ottawa correspondent, who's reporting on Ottawa news, is Mike Duffy. And after he retires as a journalist, he becomes this hack for the Tories in the Senate.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: That's right. And the same applies to Pamela Wallin, who was a major figure first with CTV and then for a smaller channel, had her own show, and was appointed to the New York consulate, more than Duffy in the 1970s was a propaganda dog for the Conservatives like no one else in the last election.
<p />
<p />JAY: So is this going to hurt Harper's image? I mean, part of the reason he won a majority government: he was able to give this sense of being a good governor, managed the economy well, managed things. And one of the things that helped sink the Liberals was supposed to be Chrétien corruption that kind of reverberated through to his successors. Do you think it's going to actually dent him?
<p />
<p />PANITCH: I think that in terms of massive corruption this is small potatoes relative to the kinds of scandals that the Liberals got caught with their pants down on. And that also applies to the Toronto case. So it's not so much, you know, feathering one's own bed, what's involved here on the part of the figures in office themselves, not in any massive terms, but it certainly raises all kinds of moral question.
<p />
<p />And, of course, it does expose in a deeper sense the way in which these kinds of right-wing politicians who run on such a program of probity, defending the market against the unethical state, these kinds of politicians often appoint people who are in it for the take. And, you know, it's often the case that those who scream loudest against government expenditure are the first ones to try to accumulate on the basis of getting a government contract. That's an old story in the case of the Liberal parties, but it's--really it applies equally, of course, to the kinds of businesses that support governments like Harper's or Ford's at a local level.
<p />
<p />JAY: Yeah, they yell smaller government as they raid the treasury.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: That's right. In fact, the reason they yell smaller government--and what they mean by that, of course, is certain kinds of public expenditure. They don't want money spent on collective public services, they don't want money spent on the poor, they don't want money spent on education, unless they can get a contract in the public school system. They want the money spent on the kinds of things that would allow them to make sales at a global level. We see this, by the way, in the bond markets. Their opposition to public expenditure is all about ensuring that when governments have any money in their pockets, they will pay off the interest on their bonds before they save somebody from starvation or build them some public housing to have a roof over their heads.
<p />
<p />JAY: Thanks for joining us, Leo.
<p />
<p />PANITCH: Great to talk to you, Paul.
<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.
| 5,230 |
<p>So you want to quit smoking? The key may be bribery, new research has found.</p>
<p>People try all sorts of methods to get themselves to put down the cigarette, whether it be going cold turkey or using nicotine patches or whatever. But it may be money that’s the key to getting smokers to quit for good, according to an <a href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/health_and_science/smokers-have-better-luck-quitting-when-own-money-wagered/article_2935b788-9356-5e02-b7d3-4d74c771f95a.html" type="external">Associated Press report</a>.</p>
<p>A study lead by Dr. Scott Halpern of the University of Pennsylvania found that when smokers were forced to part with $150 if they failed to quit over a period of six months were more likely to quit than those who didn’t have cash on the line.</p>
<p>And it worked even better than those who were promised cash rewards if they were able to stop smoking, indicating that we are far more motivated not to lose money we already have than to get more money.</p>
<p>A senior author on the study, Dr. Kevin Volpp, said that researchers wanted to see if there was any difference between promising monetary rewards to people to get them to quit for six months — up to $800 — and losing a much smaller amount. Although participation was high in the rewards program — 90 percent of the 1,000 smokers surveyed signed up — the success rate was not.</p>
<p>But another group of 1,000 smokers were asked to put down $150 as a deposit, which they would lose if they failed to complete the course (although they would get $650 if they completed it). This wasn’t a very attractive option, and only 14 percent of people signed up.</p>
<p>And then there were 500 who weren’t offered any cash incentive but got counseling and nicotine replacement therapy.</p>
<p>When all was said and done, it was the unpopular option of plunking down one’s own money that got the best results, with half of them going the six full months without smoking. Just 17 percent of the rewards-only group were as successful. Meanwhile, a tiny 6 percent of those who didn’t get any cash incentives ended up quitting.</p>
<p />
|
Bribery is the key to quitting smoking, says surprising new study
| false |
http://natmonitor.com/2015/05/18/bribery-is-the-key-to-quitting-smoking-says-surprising-new-study/
|
2015-05-18
| 3left-center
|
Bribery is the key to quitting smoking, says surprising new study
<p>So you want to quit smoking? The key may be bribery, new research has found.</p>
<p>People try all sorts of methods to get themselves to put down the cigarette, whether it be going cold turkey or using nicotine patches or whatever. But it may be money that’s the key to getting smokers to quit for good, according to an <a href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/health_and_science/smokers-have-better-luck-quitting-when-own-money-wagered/article_2935b788-9356-5e02-b7d3-4d74c771f95a.html" type="external">Associated Press report</a>.</p>
<p>A study lead by Dr. Scott Halpern of the University of Pennsylvania found that when smokers were forced to part with $150 if they failed to quit over a period of six months were more likely to quit than those who didn’t have cash on the line.</p>
<p>And it worked even better than those who were promised cash rewards if they were able to stop smoking, indicating that we are far more motivated not to lose money we already have than to get more money.</p>
<p>A senior author on the study, Dr. Kevin Volpp, said that researchers wanted to see if there was any difference between promising monetary rewards to people to get them to quit for six months — up to $800 — and losing a much smaller amount. Although participation was high in the rewards program — 90 percent of the 1,000 smokers surveyed signed up — the success rate was not.</p>
<p>But another group of 1,000 smokers were asked to put down $150 as a deposit, which they would lose if they failed to complete the course (although they would get $650 if they completed it). This wasn’t a very attractive option, and only 14 percent of people signed up.</p>
<p>And then there were 500 who weren’t offered any cash incentive but got counseling and nicotine replacement therapy.</p>
<p>When all was said and done, it was the unpopular option of plunking down one’s own money that got the best results, with half of them going the six full months without smoking. Just 17 percent of the rewards-only group were as successful. Meanwhile, a tiny 6 percent of those who didn’t get any cash incentives ended up quitting.</p>
<p />
| 5,231 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — In an order that undercuts protections for LGBT people, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a sweeping directive to agencies Friday to do as much as possible to accommodate those who say their religious freedoms are being violated.</p>
<p>The guidance, an attempt to deliver on President Donald Trump’s pledge to his evangelical and other religious supporters, effectively lifts a burden from religious objectors to prove that their beliefs about marriage or other topics are sincerely held.</p>
<p>Under the new policy, a claim of a violation of religious freedom would be enough to override concerns for the civil rights of LGBT people and anti-discrimination protections for women and others. The guidelines are so sweeping that experts on religious liberty are calling them a legal powder-keg that could prompt wide-ranging lawsuits against the government.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“This is putting the world on notice: You better take these claims seriously,” said Robin Fretwell Wilson, a law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “This is a signal to the rest of these agencies to rethink the protections they have put in place on sexual orientation and gender identity.”</p>
<p>Trump announced plans for the directive last May in a Rose Garden ceremony where he was surrounded by religious leaders. Since then, religious conservatives have anxiously awaited the Justice Department guidance, hoping for greatly strengthened protections for their beliefs amid the rapid acceptance of LGBT rights. Religious liberty experts said they would have to see how the guidance would be applied by individual agencies, both in crafting regulations and deciding how to enforce them. But experts said the directive clearly tilted the balance very far in favor of people of faith who do not want to recognize same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>“Except in the narrowest circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law,” Sessions wrote. “To the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law, religious observance and practice should be reasonably accommodated in all government activity.”</p>
<p>The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm, called it “a great day for religious freedom.” The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights group, called the guidelines an “all-out assault” on civil rights and a “sweeping license to discriminate.”</p>
<p>The new document lays the groundwork for legal positions that the Trump administration intends to take in future religious freedom cases, envisioning sweeping protections for faith-based beliefs and practices in private workplaces, at government jobs, in awarding government grants and in running prisons.</p>
<p>In issuing the memo, Sessions is injecting the department into a thicket of highly charged legal questions that have repeatedly reached the U.S. Supreme Court, most notably in the 2014 Hobby Lobby case that said corporations with religious objections could opt out of a health law requirement to cover contraceptives for women.</p>
<p>The memo makes clear the Justice Department’s support of that opinion in noting that the primary religious freedom law — the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 — protects the rights not only of people to worship as they choose but also of corporations, companies and private firms.</p>
<p>In what is likely to be one of the more contested aspects of the document, the Justice Department states that religious organizations can hire workers based on religious beliefs and an employee’s willingness “to adhere to a code of conduct.” Many conservative Christian schools and faith-based agencies require employees to adhere to moral codes that ban sex outside marriage and same-sex relationships, among other behavior.</p>
<p>The document also says the government improperly infringes on individuals’ religious liberty by banning an aspect of their practice or by forcing them to take an action that contradicts their faith. As an example, Justice Department lawyers say government efforts to require employers to provide contraceptives to their workers “substantially burdens their religious practice.” Separately Friday, the Health and Human Services Department allowed more employers with religious objections to opt out of the birth control coverage rule in the Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>Session’s directive affirms Trump’s earlier directive to the Internal Revenue Service not to enforce the Johnson Amendment, which bars churches and tax-exempt groups from endorsing political candidates. The policy has only rarely been enforced in the past.</p>
<p>The department’s civil rights division will now be involved in reviewing all agency actions to make sure they don’t conflict with federal law regarding religious liberty. Tony Perkins, head of the conservative Family Research Council, in a statement lauding Trump, said his group has set up a hotline for federal employees and others who feel they’ve faced discrimination over their religious beliefs.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Zoll reported from New York.</p>
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AG directive protects religious objectors to LGBT rights
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1074380/ag-directive-protects-religious-objectors-to-lgbt-rights.html
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2017-10-06
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AG directive protects religious objectors to LGBT rights
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — In an order that undercuts protections for LGBT people, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a sweeping directive to agencies Friday to do as much as possible to accommodate those who say their religious freedoms are being violated.</p>
<p>The guidance, an attempt to deliver on President Donald Trump’s pledge to his evangelical and other religious supporters, effectively lifts a burden from religious objectors to prove that their beliefs about marriage or other topics are sincerely held.</p>
<p>Under the new policy, a claim of a violation of religious freedom would be enough to override concerns for the civil rights of LGBT people and anti-discrimination protections for women and others. The guidelines are so sweeping that experts on religious liberty are calling them a legal powder-keg that could prompt wide-ranging lawsuits against the government.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“This is putting the world on notice: You better take these claims seriously,” said Robin Fretwell Wilson, a law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “This is a signal to the rest of these agencies to rethink the protections they have put in place on sexual orientation and gender identity.”</p>
<p>Trump announced plans for the directive last May in a Rose Garden ceremony where he was surrounded by religious leaders. Since then, religious conservatives have anxiously awaited the Justice Department guidance, hoping for greatly strengthened protections for their beliefs amid the rapid acceptance of LGBT rights. Religious liberty experts said they would have to see how the guidance would be applied by individual agencies, both in crafting regulations and deciding how to enforce them. But experts said the directive clearly tilted the balance very far in favor of people of faith who do not want to recognize same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>“Except in the narrowest circumstances, no one should be forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law,” Sessions wrote. “To the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law, religious observance and practice should be reasonably accommodated in all government activity.”</p>
<p>The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm, called it “a great day for religious freedom.” The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights group, called the guidelines an “all-out assault” on civil rights and a “sweeping license to discriminate.”</p>
<p>The new document lays the groundwork for legal positions that the Trump administration intends to take in future religious freedom cases, envisioning sweeping protections for faith-based beliefs and practices in private workplaces, at government jobs, in awarding government grants and in running prisons.</p>
<p>In issuing the memo, Sessions is injecting the department into a thicket of highly charged legal questions that have repeatedly reached the U.S. Supreme Court, most notably in the 2014 Hobby Lobby case that said corporations with religious objections could opt out of a health law requirement to cover contraceptives for women.</p>
<p>The memo makes clear the Justice Department’s support of that opinion in noting that the primary religious freedom law — the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 — protects the rights not only of people to worship as they choose but also of corporations, companies and private firms.</p>
<p>In what is likely to be one of the more contested aspects of the document, the Justice Department states that religious organizations can hire workers based on religious beliefs and an employee’s willingness “to adhere to a code of conduct.” Many conservative Christian schools and faith-based agencies require employees to adhere to moral codes that ban sex outside marriage and same-sex relationships, among other behavior.</p>
<p>The document also says the government improperly infringes on individuals’ religious liberty by banning an aspect of their practice or by forcing them to take an action that contradicts their faith. As an example, Justice Department lawyers say government efforts to require employers to provide contraceptives to their workers “substantially burdens their religious practice.” Separately Friday, the Health and Human Services Department allowed more employers with religious objections to opt out of the birth control coverage rule in the Affordable Care Act.</p>
<p>Session’s directive affirms Trump’s earlier directive to the Internal Revenue Service not to enforce the Johnson Amendment, which bars churches and tax-exempt groups from endorsing political candidates. The policy has only rarely been enforced in the past.</p>
<p>The department’s civil rights division will now be involved in reviewing all agency actions to make sure they don’t conflict with federal law regarding religious liberty. Tony Perkins, head of the conservative Family Research Council, in a statement lauding Trump, said his group has set up a hotline for federal employees and others who feel they’ve faced discrimination over their religious beliefs.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Zoll reported from New York.</p>
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<p>Following a summit this week, leaders from 19 national anti-doping organizations also called for Russia to be stripped of the right to host major sports events, a measure which would affect next year’s World Cup.</p>
<p>Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, who oversees sports policy in the country, accused the group of meddling in politics.</p>
<p>“The people who should be analyzing urine have started pressuring the people who take political decisions,” Mutko said in comments to Russian news agency R-Sport. “Russian sports are among the cleanest in the world.”</p>
<p>The British anti-doping agency is in charge of collecting samples in Russia, and the number of positive tests in the country dropped last year. The Russian anti-doping agency remains suspended following allegations of corruption.</p>
<p>Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov accused the foreign anti-doping agencies of trying to usurp the powers of international sports bodies.</p>
<p>“Federations and Olympic committees, as you know, develop sports,” Kolobkov told state news agency Tass. “So I’d ask people to do their own jobs and not to put themselves in the position of various sports organizations.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The call for extra sports sanctions on Russia follows last month’s publication of a report by anti-doping investigator Richard McLaren. The report accused Russia of operating a wide-ranging doping cover-up which included illicit sample swaps at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.</p>
<p>The Russian government strongly denies ever having supported performance-enhancing drug use.</p>
<p>The national anti-doping agencies for the United States, Germany and Japan were among those who recommended the extra sanctions on Russia, though the British agency was not listed as a signatory.</p>
<p>While arguing for Russian teams to be banned, the agencies said individual Russian athletes could compete as “neutrals” if they can show they are clean. A similar system is already used in track and field, where Russia has been suspended since November 2015.</p>
<p>National anti-doping agencies do not have the power to exclude Russian teams or move competitions from Russia, though some, such as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, are influential voices in global sports administration.</p>
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Russia defends record over calls for wide-ranging doping ban
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https://abqjournal.com/925373/russia-defends-record-over-calls-for-wide-ranging-doping-ban.html
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Russia defends record over calls for wide-ranging doping ban
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Following a summit this week, leaders from 19 national anti-doping organizations also called for Russia to be stripped of the right to host major sports events, a measure which would affect next year’s World Cup.</p>
<p>Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, who oversees sports policy in the country, accused the group of meddling in politics.</p>
<p>“The people who should be analyzing urine have started pressuring the people who take political decisions,” Mutko said in comments to Russian news agency R-Sport. “Russian sports are among the cleanest in the world.”</p>
<p>The British anti-doping agency is in charge of collecting samples in Russia, and the number of positive tests in the country dropped last year. The Russian anti-doping agency remains suspended following allegations of corruption.</p>
<p>Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov accused the foreign anti-doping agencies of trying to usurp the powers of international sports bodies.</p>
<p>“Federations and Olympic committees, as you know, develop sports,” Kolobkov told state news agency Tass. “So I’d ask people to do their own jobs and not to put themselves in the position of various sports organizations.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The call for extra sports sanctions on Russia follows last month’s publication of a report by anti-doping investigator Richard McLaren. The report accused Russia of operating a wide-ranging doping cover-up which included illicit sample swaps at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.</p>
<p>The Russian government strongly denies ever having supported performance-enhancing drug use.</p>
<p>The national anti-doping agencies for the United States, Germany and Japan were among those who recommended the extra sanctions on Russia, though the British agency was not listed as a signatory.</p>
<p>While arguing for Russian teams to be banned, the agencies said individual Russian athletes could compete as “neutrals” if they can show they are clean. A similar system is already used in track and field, where Russia has been suspended since November 2015.</p>
<p>National anti-doping agencies do not have the power to exclude Russian teams or move competitions from Russia, though some, such as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, are influential voices in global sports administration.</p>
| 5,233 |
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<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Fire.jpg" type="external" />RANCHO CUCAMONGA, California - A wildfire that forced the evacuation of at least 1,100 homes grew to 800 acres on Wednesday, fanned by gusty Santa Ana winds that pushed it through foothills east of Los Angeles. Although no homes were in immediate danger, the homes were under mandatory evacuation [?]</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/d94553e9a85f474db4b06383523b66dd/US--Southern-California-Wildfires" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.therepublic.com</a></p>
<p />
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Southern California Wildfire Grows To 800 Acres
| true |
http://politicalillusionsexposed.com/southern-california-wildfire-grows-from-200-to-800-acres-amid-evacuations-of-1100-homes/
| 0right
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Southern California Wildfire Grows To 800 Acres
<p><a href="http://pienews.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Fire.jpg" type="external" />RANCHO CUCAMONGA, California - A wildfire that forced the evacuation of at least 1,100 homes grew to 800 acres on Wednesday, fanned by gusty Santa Ana winds that pushed it through foothills east of Los Angeles. Although no homes were in immediate danger, the homes were under mandatory evacuation [?]</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/d94553e9a85f474db4b06383523b66dd/US--Southern-California-Wildfires" type="external">Click here to view original web page at www.therepublic.com</a></p>
<p />
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<p>Poor showings from several big technology companies including Apple and Microsoft weighed on the stock market in early trading Wednesday. The slide comes as investors are focusing on corporate earnings in a light week for major economic data.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 17 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,902 as of 10:09 a.m. Eastern Time. The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index slipped three points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,116. The Nasdaq composite lost 32 points, or 0.6 percent, to 5,175.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>APPLE WORRIES: Apple sank 4.7 percent a day after the company gave a cautious outlook for the current quarter and didn't provide much detail on how its new smartwatch was doing. The stock $6.14 to 124.64.</p>
<p>BAD CALL: Microsoft reported a hefty quarterly loss late Tuesday reflecting an expense of $8.4 billion related to its purchase of the Nokia phone business over a year ago. The stock was down 36 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $46.92.</p>
<p>MONSTER QUARTER: Coca-Cola shares rose in early trading after the beverage maker reported a higher profit in the second quarter as it raised prices, cut costs and benefited from a gain related to its purchase of a stake in energy drink maker Monster Beverage. Coca-Cola gained 31 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $41.50.</p>
<p>EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS: Whirlpool jumped 6 percent on news that the appliance maker's second-quarter earnings beat Wall Street's expectations. The stock rose $10.88 to $177.09.</p>
<p>OVERSEAS MARKETS: In Europe, Germany's DAX was down 0.5 percent, while the CAC-40 in France fell 0.3 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 1.3 percent. In Asia, stocks closed mostly lower. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.2 percent and South Korea's Kospi lost 0.9 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 1 percent.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>ANOTHER GREEK VOTE: Though fears of a Greek exit from the euro have faded somewhat following last week's decision by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to back further austerity measures in return for a third bailout of the country, some hurdles remain to be cleared. On Wednesday, Greek lawmakers have to back further economic reforms demanded by international creditors in return for the new bailout.</p>
<p>ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude slipped 86 cents to $50 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, fell 75 cents at $56.29 a barrel in London.</p>
<p>BONDS: U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.31 percent from 2.33 percent.</p>
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Technology stocks sink in early trading after weak showings from Apple, Microsoft and others
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/07/22/technology-stocks-sink-in-early-trading-after-weak-showings-from-apple.html
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2016-03-06
| 0right
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Technology stocks sink in early trading after weak showings from Apple, Microsoft and others
<p>Poor showings from several big technology companies including Apple and Microsoft weighed on the stock market in early trading Wednesday. The slide comes as investors are focusing on corporate earnings in a light week for major economic data.</p>
<p>KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 17 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,902 as of 10:09 a.m. Eastern Time. The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index slipped three points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,116. The Nasdaq composite lost 32 points, or 0.6 percent, to 5,175.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>APPLE WORRIES: Apple sank 4.7 percent a day after the company gave a cautious outlook for the current quarter and didn't provide much detail on how its new smartwatch was doing. The stock $6.14 to 124.64.</p>
<p>BAD CALL: Microsoft reported a hefty quarterly loss late Tuesday reflecting an expense of $8.4 billion related to its purchase of the Nokia phone business over a year ago. The stock was down 36 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $46.92.</p>
<p>MONSTER QUARTER: Coca-Cola shares rose in early trading after the beverage maker reported a higher profit in the second quarter as it raised prices, cut costs and benefited from a gain related to its purchase of a stake in energy drink maker Monster Beverage. Coca-Cola gained 31 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $41.50.</p>
<p>EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS: Whirlpool jumped 6 percent on news that the appliance maker's second-quarter earnings beat Wall Street's expectations. The stock rose $10.88 to $177.09.</p>
<p>OVERSEAS MARKETS: In Europe, Germany's DAX was down 0.5 percent, while the CAC-40 in France fell 0.3 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 1.3 percent. In Asia, stocks closed mostly lower. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.2 percent and South Korea's Kospi lost 0.9 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 1 percent.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>ANOTHER GREEK VOTE: Though fears of a Greek exit from the euro have faded somewhat following last week's decision by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to back further austerity measures in return for a third bailout of the country, some hurdles remain to be cleared. On Wednesday, Greek lawmakers have to back further economic reforms demanded by international creditors in return for the new bailout.</p>
<p>ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude slipped 86 cents to $50 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, fell 75 cents at $56.29 a barrel in London.</p>
<p>BONDS: U.S. government bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.31 percent from 2.33 percent.</p>
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<p>In late January, 13 seniors from North Lawndale College Prep Charter High School sit seminar-style around a group of tables, talking with deans Chris Kelly and John Horan about how to stay focused through senior year.</p>
<p>“All my brothers and sisters, when they were in senior year, they dropped out,” one girl recalls. “I feel like I’m tuned into their vibrations, so I need to stay focused on my goal.” She adds that her entire family is planning to attend her graduation.</p>
<p>“Do you feel some pressure because of that?” Horan asks her.</p>
<p>“Yeah, a lot of pressure to stay in school,” she replies.</p>
<p>Horan asks the class how many will be the first in their families to go to college. Six or seven hands go up.</p>
<p>“I’m the first son to go to college,” Obi Henderson notes with a smile. His older sister was in the first graduating class at the school and is now a sophomore at Hampton University.</p>
<p>Another boy jumps in to say he’s also feeling a lot of pressure from his mother. “I’m gonna be her only child who goes to college,” he tells them, saying his two sisters got pregnant at a young age and his brother is not pursuing education.</p>
<p>Such issues are what sparked the creation of North Lawndale College Prep. The school’s founders initially envisioned an elementary school but switched gears when parents and local principals told them that what the neighborhood really needed was a college-focused high school, one that would help teens address the problems that could easily sidetrack them from college.</p>
<p>Now, word is spreading through North Lawndale and into other West Side neighborhoods that the school offers young people, regardless of their test scores, a solid chance at a high school diploma and a college degree.</p>
<p>The school, which enrolls just 350 students, got its start as an idea floated by the board of Chicago’s I Have a Dream Foundation, which provided support to elementary students throughout their high school years, with the goal of getting them into college. (I Have a Dream is no longer operating in Chicago.) Horan, then executive director of the foundation, says the board asked him where he’d like to be in five years. “I’d really like to work at a school,” he told them. Horan recalls board member Burt Kaplan of National Bedding/Serta Mattress suggesting I Have a Dream start a school.</p>
<p>Limited high school options</p>
<p>North Lawndale surfaced as a likely location because I Have a Dream had three projects underway in the vicinity. The proposal for a charter elementary was accepted in January 1997, but word from the community spurred the founders to retool it.</p>
<p>Principal Mattie Tyson of Johnson Elementary was among those pushing for a high school. Some of her students had been adopted by United Airlines through I Have a Dream, and she wanted them, and all her students, to have better high school choices. “I saw it really as an opportunity to grow a high school for my graduates,” she says. “I don’t like throwing my kids to the wolves. That’s what I think happens when they go out there and they don’t get the support they need.”</p>
<p>Horan recalls that 100 to 150 people showed up at focus meetings at Johnson about the proposed school. “They felt the grade schools were pretty good but there were limited high school options,” he says.</p>
<p>The only high school within North Lawndale’s official borders is Collins High, one of five high schools put on intervention in 2000. North Lawndale’s youth also live in the attendance areas for Manley High, just north of the border in East Garfield Park, and Farragut High to the south in Little Village. Both have been on academic probation since 1996.</p>
<p>Collins and Farragut are both within walking distance of the home of North Lawndale College Prep parent and board member Shari Johnson. “If North Lawndale hadn’t opened, my child wouldn’t have gone to either one of those,” she says, though she herself graduated from Farragut. (In recent years, Manley has significantly increased the number of seniors going on to college through a partnership with the Umoja Student Development Corp. However, last year’s dropout rate was 27 percent.)</p>
<p>The community input spurred the partners from I Have a Dream and the Steans Family Foundation to become the only group in Chicago to ever return a charter. “Greg Richmond asked, ‘Are you sure you want to do this? People are killing for these things,'” Horan recalls. But their retooled proposal for a high school sailed through in December 1997.</p>
<p>The board spent the summer of 1998 scouring the neighborhood for an alternate site after Tyson pulled out of a plan to open the charter inside Johnson, citing lack of space. Chair Greg Darnieder, then Steans’ executive director, found one in an unlikely place—Howland Elementary, a deteriorating school where the principal was one of 11 suddenly removed by Paul Vallas that summer.</p>
<p>Darnieder approached brand-new interim Principal Millicent ReChord, from Disney Elementary on the North Side. “I had nothing to lose,” he says. “I didn’t know [ReChord] from a hole in the wall. I thought maybe in the absurdity of it all there [could be] a mutual vision.”</p>
<p>Miraculously, there was. “They had the vision, and I welcomed them,” says ReChord, who now works for the city’s youth arts program, Gallery 37, but remains on the charter’s board. “I just saw where it was going to be a miracle place for these kids.”</p>
<p>“About two weeks before school started, we found out it was going to be at Howland,” says Shari Johnson. “I was really happy then.” Howland is across the street from her home.</p>
<p>ReChord says it was a tougher sell to convince the Howland community that having the charter in the building was a plus. “They saw it as an invasion, as a loss,” she says. “I would sit up at night thinking of ways to help them understand this is not a takeover.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, rumors ran rampant that Howland would be closed. There was even talk that the building was going to be torn down so Pacific Garden Mission, a homeless shelter, could be relocated there. “That was a big slap in the face,” says Richard Townsell, the executive director of the North Lawndale Christian Development Corp., who sits on North Lawndale College Prep’s board and lives in the neighborhood.</p>
<p>ReChord credits the charter’s board for pushing CPS into renovating Howland, which needed work in the west wing, gym and auditorium. “They’re an active group of people who believe in the mission. There is nothing that will stop them. … The push was unrelenting to provide a safe and clean space for these kids to learn,” ReChord says</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Lawndale Community Church allowed the charter to use its gym for basketball and its sanctuary for assemblies. The charter’s board itself spent about a million dollars in rehab money, some borrowed from the Illinois Facilities Fund, says board member Robin Steans.</p>
<p>Though fixing up the facility was a hard fight, creating a workable leadership structure was an even greater challenge. The school cycled through three principals in its first two years and finally settled on sharing leadership among three deans: Horan for student life and community affairs, Kelly for operations and finance, and Anika Spratley for curriculum and instruction. Last year, the school also hired Josephine Gomez, formerly a teacher leader at Manley, to provide additional curriculum guidance.</p>
<p>The charter’s greatest strength has been to give students social support and challenging life experiences to help them stretch and grow. Through Phoenix Rising, students get summer opportunities targeted to each grade level. Freshmen attend outdoor wilderness experiences in places like Colorado, where they are exposed to a drastically different environment and learn survival skills.</p>
<p>Sophomores attend college summer programs, and juniors are placed in internships with major businesses, law firms and other companies.</p>
<p>The counselor-student ratio is 1 to 105, significantly lower than in Chicago Public Schools, and counselors stay with their students for four years. Students also take a course called College Prep for four years, which gives them a chance to explore college choices and develop insight into themselves and their lives.</p>
<p>Parents of early graduates say they are delighted with their children’s experience. “I am really happy she was a part of that,” says Rosie Patton, whose daughter Jackie graduated in the first class and now attends the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. “She received a lot of opportunities she would not have gotten from the quote-unquote, regular public high schools, and that I’m proud of.”</p>
<p>North Lawndale’s staff says frequent turnover among elementary school counselors hinders efforts to forge tighter relationships with the local elementary schools, although Tyson and other area principals and counselors do encourage their students to apply.</p>
<p>When former students from Dvorak Elementary returned to tell Principal Leonard Moore about the charter’s college counseling component, Moore was impressed. “They told me it really helps them stay focused,” he says. “I thought that was unique.”</p>
<p>To contact Maureen Kelleher, call (312) 673-3882 or send an e-mail to [email protected].</p>
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North Lawndale: Charter gives kids a vision for college
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http://chicagoreporter.com/north-lawndale-charter-gives-kids-vision-college/
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2005-10-05
| 3left-center
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North Lawndale: Charter gives kids a vision for college
<p>In late January, 13 seniors from North Lawndale College Prep Charter High School sit seminar-style around a group of tables, talking with deans Chris Kelly and John Horan about how to stay focused through senior year.</p>
<p>“All my brothers and sisters, when they were in senior year, they dropped out,” one girl recalls. “I feel like I’m tuned into their vibrations, so I need to stay focused on my goal.” She adds that her entire family is planning to attend her graduation.</p>
<p>“Do you feel some pressure because of that?” Horan asks her.</p>
<p>“Yeah, a lot of pressure to stay in school,” she replies.</p>
<p>Horan asks the class how many will be the first in their families to go to college. Six or seven hands go up.</p>
<p>“I’m the first son to go to college,” Obi Henderson notes with a smile. His older sister was in the first graduating class at the school and is now a sophomore at Hampton University.</p>
<p>Another boy jumps in to say he’s also feeling a lot of pressure from his mother. “I’m gonna be her only child who goes to college,” he tells them, saying his two sisters got pregnant at a young age and his brother is not pursuing education.</p>
<p>Such issues are what sparked the creation of North Lawndale College Prep. The school’s founders initially envisioned an elementary school but switched gears when parents and local principals told them that what the neighborhood really needed was a college-focused high school, one that would help teens address the problems that could easily sidetrack them from college.</p>
<p>Now, word is spreading through North Lawndale and into other West Side neighborhoods that the school offers young people, regardless of their test scores, a solid chance at a high school diploma and a college degree.</p>
<p>The school, which enrolls just 350 students, got its start as an idea floated by the board of Chicago’s I Have a Dream Foundation, which provided support to elementary students throughout their high school years, with the goal of getting them into college. (I Have a Dream is no longer operating in Chicago.) Horan, then executive director of the foundation, says the board asked him where he’d like to be in five years. “I’d really like to work at a school,” he told them. Horan recalls board member Burt Kaplan of National Bedding/Serta Mattress suggesting I Have a Dream start a school.</p>
<p>Limited high school options</p>
<p>North Lawndale surfaced as a likely location because I Have a Dream had three projects underway in the vicinity. The proposal for a charter elementary was accepted in January 1997, but word from the community spurred the founders to retool it.</p>
<p>Principal Mattie Tyson of Johnson Elementary was among those pushing for a high school. Some of her students had been adopted by United Airlines through I Have a Dream, and she wanted them, and all her students, to have better high school choices. “I saw it really as an opportunity to grow a high school for my graduates,” she says. “I don’t like throwing my kids to the wolves. That’s what I think happens when they go out there and they don’t get the support they need.”</p>
<p>Horan recalls that 100 to 150 people showed up at focus meetings at Johnson about the proposed school. “They felt the grade schools were pretty good but there were limited high school options,” he says.</p>
<p>The only high school within North Lawndale’s official borders is Collins High, one of five high schools put on intervention in 2000. North Lawndale’s youth also live in the attendance areas for Manley High, just north of the border in East Garfield Park, and Farragut High to the south in Little Village. Both have been on academic probation since 1996.</p>
<p>Collins and Farragut are both within walking distance of the home of North Lawndale College Prep parent and board member Shari Johnson. “If North Lawndale hadn’t opened, my child wouldn’t have gone to either one of those,” she says, though she herself graduated from Farragut. (In recent years, Manley has significantly increased the number of seniors going on to college through a partnership with the Umoja Student Development Corp. However, last year’s dropout rate was 27 percent.)</p>
<p>The community input spurred the partners from I Have a Dream and the Steans Family Foundation to become the only group in Chicago to ever return a charter. “Greg Richmond asked, ‘Are you sure you want to do this? People are killing for these things,'” Horan recalls. But their retooled proposal for a high school sailed through in December 1997.</p>
<p>The board spent the summer of 1998 scouring the neighborhood for an alternate site after Tyson pulled out of a plan to open the charter inside Johnson, citing lack of space. Chair Greg Darnieder, then Steans’ executive director, found one in an unlikely place—Howland Elementary, a deteriorating school where the principal was one of 11 suddenly removed by Paul Vallas that summer.</p>
<p>Darnieder approached brand-new interim Principal Millicent ReChord, from Disney Elementary on the North Side. “I had nothing to lose,” he says. “I didn’t know [ReChord] from a hole in the wall. I thought maybe in the absurdity of it all there [could be] a mutual vision.”</p>
<p>Miraculously, there was. “They had the vision, and I welcomed them,” says ReChord, who now works for the city’s youth arts program, Gallery 37, but remains on the charter’s board. “I just saw where it was going to be a miracle place for these kids.”</p>
<p>“About two weeks before school started, we found out it was going to be at Howland,” says Shari Johnson. “I was really happy then.” Howland is across the street from her home.</p>
<p>ReChord says it was a tougher sell to convince the Howland community that having the charter in the building was a plus. “They saw it as an invasion, as a loss,” she says. “I would sit up at night thinking of ways to help them understand this is not a takeover.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, rumors ran rampant that Howland would be closed. There was even talk that the building was going to be torn down so Pacific Garden Mission, a homeless shelter, could be relocated there. “That was a big slap in the face,” says Richard Townsell, the executive director of the North Lawndale Christian Development Corp., who sits on North Lawndale College Prep’s board and lives in the neighborhood.</p>
<p>ReChord credits the charter’s board for pushing CPS into renovating Howland, which needed work in the west wing, gym and auditorium. “They’re an active group of people who believe in the mission. There is nothing that will stop them. … The push was unrelenting to provide a safe and clean space for these kids to learn,” ReChord says</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Lawndale Community Church allowed the charter to use its gym for basketball and its sanctuary for assemblies. The charter’s board itself spent about a million dollars in rehab money, some borrowed from the Illinois Facilities Fund, says board member Robin Steans.</p>
<p>Though fixing up the facility was a hard fight, creating a workable leadership structure was an even greater challenge. The school cycled through three principals in its first two years and finally settled on sharing leadership among three deans: Horan for student life and community affairs, Kelly for operations and finance, and Anika Spratley for curriculum and instruction. Last year, the school also hired Josephine Gomez, formerly a teacher leader at Manley, to provide additional curriculum guidance.</p>
<p>The charter’s greatest strength has been to give students social support and challenging life experiences to help them stretch and grow. Through Phoenix Rising, students get summer opportunities targeted to each grade level. Freshmen attend outdoor wilderness experiences in places like Colorado, where they are exposed to a drastically different environment and learn survival skills.</p>
<p>Sophomores attend college summer programs, and juniors are placed in internships with major businesses, law firms and other companies.</p>
<p>The counselor-student ratio is 1 to 105, significantly lower than in Chicago Public Schools, and counselors stay with their students for four years. Students also take a course called College Prep for four years, which gives them a chance to explore college choices and develop insight into themselves and their lives.</p>
<p>Parents of early graduates say they are delighted with their children’s experience. “I am really happy she was a part of that,” says Rosie Patton, whose daughter Jackie graduated in the first class and now attends the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. “She received a lot of opportunities she would not have gotten from the quote-unquote, regular public high schools, and that I’m proud of.”</p>
<p>North Lawndale’s staff says frequent turnover among elementary school counselors hinders efforts to forge tighter relationships with the local elementary schools, although Tyson and other area principals and counselors do encourage their students to apply.</p>
<p>When former students from Dvorak Elementary returned to tell Principal Leonard Moore about the charter’s college counseling component, Moore was impressed. “They told me it really helps them stay focused,” he says. “I thought that was unique.”</p>
<p>To contact Maureen Kelleher, call (312) 673-3882 or send an e-mail to [email protected].</p>
| 5,236 |
<p>After Barack Obama’s Oscar-week fundraising <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/22/wobama22.xml" type="external">blitz</a> last month, the&#160;’08 race has heated up for Democratic presidential candidates going a-courtin’ in Hollywood. But the backing of celebrities can be a blessing and a curse, as George Clooney notes in Friday’s L.A. Times, hinting that he will help Obama however he can — even if that means “staying completely away from him.” Sounding like one of his own adoring fans, Clooney says, “I’ve never been around anyone who can literally take someone’s breath away.”</p>
<p>L.A. Times:</p>
<p>Although the actor may not be campaigning publicly for Obama at the moment, he is certainly working for him behind the scenes.</p>
<p>“I spend a lot of time talking with other people, and I tell them, ‘You really have to educate yourself on Obama because the guy is real,’&#160;” he said. “He fascinates me. People say, ‘Oh, he’s too young,’ you know. But you cannot learn or teach leadership. You either have it or you don’t.”</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/celebrity/la-et-cause30mar30,1,367107.story?track=rss" type="external">Read more</a> (Registration wall)</p>
|
Picking Teams in Hollywood
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/picking-teams-in-hollywood/
|
2007-03-30
| 4left
|
Picking Teams in Hollywood
<p>After Barack Obama’s Oscar-week fundraising <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/22/wobama22.xml" type="external">blitz</a> last month, the&#160;’08 race has heated up for Democratic presidential candidates going a-courtin’ in Hollywood. But the backing of celebrities can be a blessing and a curse, as George Clooney notes in Friday’s L.A. Times, hinting that he will help Obama however he can — even if that means “staying completely away from him.” Sounding like one of his own adoring fans, Clooney says, “I’ve never been around anyone who can literally take someone’s breath away.”</p>
<p>L.A. Times:</p>
<p>Although the actor may not be campaigning publicly for Obama at the moment, he is certainly working for him behind the scenes.</p>
<p>“I spend a lot of time talking with other people, and I tell them, ‘You really have to educate yourself on Obama because the guy is real,’&#160;” he said. “He fascinates me. People say, ‘Oh, he’s too young,’ you know. But you cannot learn or teach leadership. You either have it or you don’t.”</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/celebrity/la-et-cause30mar30,1,367107.story?track=rss" type="external">Read more</a> (Registration wall)</p>
| 5,237 |
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Prosecutors said Friday they were asking a Pennsylvania appeals court to reconsider its dismissal of some criminal charges against three former Penn State administrators accused of covering up sex abuse complaints against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.</p>
<p>The attorney general’s office said it was making a sealed filing to ask the full Superior Court to overturn last month’s decision throwing out several of the more serious allegations against Graham Spanier, Gary Schultz and Tim Curley.</p>
<p>A three-judge panel ruled that grand jury testimony by Cynthia Baldwin, then the university’s general counsel, violated the three men’s right to legal representation.</p>
<p>That ruling dismissed charges of perjury, obstruction and conspiracy, but left in place charges of failure to report suspected child abuse and endangering the welfare of children, as well as a perjury count against Curley.</p>
<p>Prosecutors want the full court to uphold a decision by a county judge in Harrisburg that Baldwin’s actions were not improper, a ruling that had seemed to clear the way for trial after several years of legal disputes. Schultz and Curley were first charged with Sandusky more than four years ago, and Spanier was charged in late 2012.</p>
<p>Spanier is the school’s former president and remains a tenured faculty member. Schultz was a vice president and Curley the athletic director — both men are now retired. All three men have vigorously disputed the allegations.</p>
<p>Sandusky, who spent decades as a defensive coach at Penn State under Joe Paterno, was convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence. He maintains his innocence and is pursuing an appeal.</p>
<p>Spanier’s lawyer declined comment. Attorneys for Curley and Schultz didn’t return messages. Superior Court is an intermediate appellate court, and its decisions can be appealed to the state Supreme Court.</p>
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Prosecutors said Friday they were asking a Pennsylvania appeals court to reconsider its dismissal of some criminal charges against three former Penn State administrators accused of covering up sex abuse complaints against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.</p>
<p>The attorney general’s office said it was making a sealed filing to ask the full Superior Court to overturn last month’s decision throwing out several of the more serious allegations against Graham Spanier, Gary Schultz and Tim Curley.</p>
<p>A three-judge panel ruled that grand jury testimony by Cynthia Baldwin, then the university’s general counsel, violated the three men’s right to legal representation.</p>
<p>That ruling dismissed charges of perjury, obstruction and conspiracy, but left in place charges of failure to report suspected child abuse and endangering the welfare of children, as well as a perjury count against Curley.</p>
<p>Prosecutors want the full court to uphold a decision by a county judge in Harrisburg that Baldwin’s actions were not improper, a ruling that had seemed to clear the way for trial after several years of legal disputes. Schultz and Curley were first charged with Sandusky more than four years ago, and Spanier was charged in late 2012.</p>
<p>Spanier is the school’s former president and remains a tenured faculty member. Schultz was a vice president and Curley the athletic director — both men are now retired. All three men have vigorously disputed the allegations.</p>
<p>Sandusky, who spent decades as a defensive coach at Penn State under Joe Paterno, was convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence. He maintains his innocence and is pursuing an appeal.</p>
<p>Spanier’s lawyer declined comment. Attorneys for Curley and Schultz didn’t return messages. Superior Court is an intermediate appellate court, and its decisions can be appealed to the state Supreme Court.</p>
|
Prosecutors seek to restore Penn State officials’ charges
| false |
https://apnews.com/45a5f051048f4da3a5a361217317e159
|
2016-02-05
| 2least
|
Prosecutors seek to restore Penn State officials’ charges
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Prosecutors said Friday they were asking a Pennsylvania appeals court to reconsider its dismissal of some criminal charges against three former Penn State administrators accused of covering up sex abuse complaints against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.</p>
<p>The attorney general’s office said it was making a sealed filing to ask the full Superior Court to overturn last month’s decision throwing out several of the more serious allegations against Graham Spanier, Gary Schultz and Tim Curley.</p>
<p>A three-judge panel ruled that grand jury testimony by Cynthia Baldwin, then the university’s general counsel, violated the three men’s right to legal representation.</p>
<p>That ruling dismissed charges of perjury, obstruction and conspiracy, but left in place charges of failure to report suspected child abuse and endangering the welfare of children, as well as a perjury count against Curley.</p>
<p>Prosecutors want the full court to uphold a decision by a county judge in Harrisburg that Baldwin’s actions were not improper, a ruling that had seemed to clear the way for trial after several years of legal disputes. Schultz and Curley were first charged with Sandusky more than four years ago, and Spanier was charged in late 2012.</p>
<p>Spanier is the school’s former president and remains a tenured faculty member. Schultz was a vice president and Curley the athletic director — both men are now retired. All three men have vigorously disputed the allegations.</p>
<p>Sandusky, who spent decades as a defensive coach at Penn State under Joe Paterno, was convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence. He maintains his innocence and is pursuing an appeal.</p>
<p>Spanier’s lawyer declined comment. Attorneys for Curley and Schultz didn’t return messages. Superior Court is an intermediate appellate court, and its decisions can be appealed to the state Supreme Court.</p>
<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Prosecutors said Friday they were asking a Pennsylvania appeals court to reconsider its dismissal of some criminal charges against three former Penn State administrators accused of covering up sex abuse complaints against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.</p>
<p>The attorney general’s office said it was making a sealed filing to ask the full Superior Court to overturn last month’s decision throwing out several of the more serious allegations against Graham Spanier, Gary Schultz and Tim Curley.</p>
<p>A three-judge panel ruled that grand jury testimony by Cynthia Baldwin, then the university’s general counsel, violated the three men’s right to legal representation.</p>
<p>That ruling dismissed charges of perjury, obstruction and conspiracy, but left in place charges of failure to report suspected child abuse and endangering the welfare of children, as well as a perjury count against Curley.</p>
<p>Prosecutors want the full court to uphold a decision by a county judge in Harrisburg that Baldwin’s actions were not improper, a ruling that had seemed to clear the way for trial after several years of legal disputes. Schultz and Curley were first charged with Sandusky more than four years ago, and Spanier was charged in late 2012.</p>
<p>Spanier is the school’s former president and remains a tenured faculty member. Schultz was a vice president and Curley the athletic director — both men are now retired. All three men have vigorously disputed the allegations.</p>
<p>Sandusky, who spent decades as a defensive coach at Penn State under Joe Paterno, was convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence. He maintains his innocence and is pursuing an appeal.</p>
<p>Spanier’s lawyer declined comment. Attorneys for Curley and Schultz didn’t return messages. Superior Court is an intermediate appellate court, and its decisions can be appealed to the state Supreme Court.</p>
| 5,238 |
<p />
<p>Article created by the <a href="" type="external">The Century Foundation</a>.</p>
<p>Yesterday, the Massachusetts House and Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill that would make the state the first to require all residents to have health insurance coverage. If signed by Governor Mitt Romney and successfully implemented, the Bay State could be the first U.S. state to achieve near-universal coverage. (Hawaii has a universal access law and employer coverage mandate on the books, but hasn’t come close to getting all its residents covered.)</p>
<p>The bill’s passage, which happened with stunning speed, boosts tremendously the cause of national universal health insurance coverage. As Governor Romney—whose presidential aspirations, not incidentally, also got a boost—rightly pointed out, it helps trump the perception that universal coverage must go hand in hand with big tax hikes and big government expansions. This perception (though substantially false) helped sink the Clinton plan. The Massachusetts bill calls for just $125 million in new state spending and finances the program through a combination of federal reimbursements, payments by employers who don’t offer coverage, and new premiums or tax assessments from individuals who could afford coverage but choose not to buy it.</p>
<p>Even more impressive than the plan’s intricate financing is the consensus, even if it proves short-lived, among legislators, health industry, and public advocacy groups that the bill is worthwhile. The head of the Massachusetts group that has promoted the main single-payer alternative to this approach called it “an important, meaningful step forward.” The CEO of Tufts Health Plan, one of the state’s biggest insurers, said that the bill was “definitely a major advance.” To be sure, Tufts and other insurers stand to gain members through new subsidized insurance plans, and big employers won’t have to pay a steep payroll tax if they don’t offer coverage. But even though industry lobbyists and health reform advocacy groups lobbied fiercely on behalf of their respective plans, they were willing to compromise on a good alternative that pleases no one completely. At least for the moment, getting care to those who need it took precedence over ideology. <a href="/commentary/columns/2006/03/universal_coverage.html" type="external">Such flexibility</a> needs to carry over to a national debate. Perhaps it will.</p>
<p>Policy types are salivating over seeing how several key features of this type work in practice. For instance, a number of analysts (including <a href="http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=PB&amp;pubid=532" type="external">this author</a>) have recommended that individual mandates and a government agency that oversees and works directly with private health plans (this umpire’s role is called the Connector in this bill) be prominent features of a workable national plan. These ideas now exist mainly on paper and not in real life, but they are well worth trying.</p>
<p>Those are the headlines, here’s the fine print. Massachusetts has several features that are very advantageous to reaching universal coverage. These will be hard to replicate in many states. The state has very high rates of public and private coverage and one of the lowest percentages of uninsured residents in the country. Just over 11 percent of the state’s residents now lack coverage, compared with over 16 percent nationwide and as high as 25 percent in some states. Rates of private coverage in Massachusetts also substantially exceed the national average. Almost two-thirds of employers offer health insurance to their employers, compared with 56 percent nationally. With fewer people outside the existing system, the costs of getting to universal coverage are more modest.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen if employers will stay on board if health care costs continue to go up and the costs of covering employees or paying penalties rise. Many employers continue to complain that the bill does little to contain the cost of care. This could be a huge red flag. For the moment, Romney is finessing the issue by saying that the “pay or play” provisions will affect relatively few employers, and that he will veto any effort to make employers pay a larger share. But if employers start dropping coverage or if the financing seems to falter, this issue will be revisited early and often.</p>
<p>Ambitious state health reform efforts have foundered in the past because state revenues fluctuate significantly from year to year, and states cannot readily run budget deficits to smooth over ups and downs in the revenue cycle. In 1988, the Massachusetts legislature actually passed another universal coverage plan that never materialized because it was never funded. (Some of the public health program expansions that survived this truncated legislation were building blocks for the current reforms.) Uncertainty over sustained revenue streams is one of several reasons—the constraints of federal ERISA laws on seeking employer mandates is another—why it would be hard to reach universal coverage nationwide on a state-by-state basis. Massachusetts may prove to be no exception. As Eileen McNamara <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/05/promises_to_watch/" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/05/promises_to_watch/" type="external">correctly notes</a> in the Boston Globe, without an earmarked source of revenue the promise to subsidize care for the poor—a critical element of the plan—easily could fall prey to annual budget politics.</p>
<p>However, these concerns pale in comparison to the main take-home message. Massachusetts brings to national attention a vital trend—state leadership on health care reform—that hasn’t gotten enough front-page play. Inside the Beltway, leaders express gloom about the prospects for comprehensive reform and dither over relative minutiae such as annual Medicare payment updates to providers. From Massachusetts to Illinois (Healthy Kids) to Maine (Dirigo health plan) state legislators are implementing actual legislation that moves toward universal coverage. It’s time for these smaller steps to galvanize a national debate.</p>
<p />
|
Another Massachusetts Miracle?
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/04/another-massachusetts-miracle/
|
2006-04-06
| 4left
|
Another Massachusetts Miracle?
<p />
<p>Article created by the <a href="" type="external">The Century Foundation</a>.</p>
<p>Yesterday, the Massachusetts House and Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill that would make the state the first to require all residents to have health insurance coverage. If signed by Governor Mitt Romney and successfully implemented, the Bay State could be the first U.S. state to achieve near-universal coverage. (Hawaii has a universal access law and employer coverage mandate on the books, but hasn’t come close to getting all its residents covered.)</p>
<p>The bill’s passage, which happened with stunning speed, boosts tremendously the cause of national universal health insurance coverage. As Governor Romney—whose presidential aspirations, not incidentally, also got a boost—rightly pointed out, it helps trump the perception that universal coverage must go hand in hand with big tax hikes and big government expansions. This perception (though substantially false) helped sink the Clinton plan. The Massachusetts bill calls for just $125 million in new state spending and finances the program through a combination of federal reimbursements, payments by employers who don’t offer coverage, and new premiums or tax assessments from individuals who could afford coverage but choose not to buy it.</p>
<p>Even more impressive than the plan’s intricate financing is the consensus, even if it proves short-lived, among legislators, health industry, and public advocacy groups that the bill is worthwhile. The head of the Massachusetts group that has promoted the main single-payer alternative to this approach called it “an important, meaningful step forward.” The CEO of Tufts Health Plan, one of the state’s biggest insurers, said that the bill was “definitely a major advance.” To be sure, Tufts and other insurers stand to gain members through new subsidized insurance plans, and big employers won’t have to pay a steep payroll tax if they don’t offer coverage. But even though industry lobbyists and health reform advocacy groups lobbied fiercely on behalf of their respective plans, they were willing to compromise on a good alternative that pleases no one completely. At least for the moment, getting care to those who need it took precedence over ideology. <a href="/commentary/columns/2006/03/universal_coverage.html" type="external">Such flexibility</a> needs to carry over to a national debate. Perhaps it will.</p>
<p>Policy types are salivating over seeing how several key features of this type work in practice. For instance, a number of analysts (including <a href="http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=PB&amp;pubid=532" type="external">this author</a>) have recommended that individual mandates and a government agency that oversees and works directly with private health plans (this umpire’s role is called the Connector in this bill) be prominent features of a workable national plan. These ideas now exist mainly on paper and not in real life, but they are well worth trying.</p>
<p>Those are the headlines, here’s the fine print. Massachusetts has several features that are very advantageous to reaching universal coverage. These will be hard to replicate in many states. The state has very high rates of public and private coverage and one of the lowest percentages of uninsured residents in the country. Just over 11 percent of the state’s residents now lack coverage, compared with over 16 percent nationwide and as high as 25 percent in some states. Rates of private coverage in Massachusetts also substantially exceed the national average. Almost two-thirds of employers offer health insurance to their employers, compared with 56 percent nationally. With fewer people outside the existing system, the costs of getting to universal coverage are more modest.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen if employers will stay on board if health care costs continue to go up and the costs of covering employees or paying penalties rise. Many employers continue to complain that the bill does little to contain the cost of care. This could be a huge red flag. For the moment, Romney is finessing the issue by saying that the “pay or play” provisions will affect relatively few employers, and that he will veto any effort to make employers pay a larger share. But if employers start dropping coverage or if the financing seems to falter, this issue will be revisited early and often.</p>
<p>Ambitious state health reform efforts have foundered in the past because state revenues fluctuate significantly from year to year, and states cannot readily run budget deficits to smooth over ups and downs in the revenue cycle. In 1988, the Massachusetts legislature actually passed another universal coverage plan that never materialized because it was never funded. (Some of the public health program expansions that survived this truncated legislation were building blocks for the current reforms.) Uncertainty over sustained revenue streams is one of several reasons—the constraints of federal ERISA laws on seeking employer mandates is another—why it would be hard to reach universal coverage nationwide on a state-by-state basis. Massachusetts may prove to be no exception. As Eileen McNamara <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/05/promises_to_watch/" type="external" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/05/promises_to_watch/" type="external">correctly notes</a> in the Boston Globe, without an earmarked source of revenue the promise to subsidize care for the poor—a critical element of the plan—easily could fall prey to annual budget politics.</p>
<p>However, these concerns pale in comparison to the main take-home message. Massachusetts brings to national attention a vital trend—state leadership on health care reform—that hasn’t gotten enough front-page play. Inside the Beltway, leaders express gloom about the prospects for comprehensive reform and dither over relative minutiae such as annual Medicare payment updates to providers. From Massachusetts to Illinois (Healthy Kids) to Maine (Dirigo health plan) state legislators are implementing actual legislation that moves toward universal coverage. It’s time for these smaller steps to galvanize a national debate.</p>
<p />
| 5,239 |
<p>US President Barack Obama's&#160; <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24524308" type="external">expected meeting with congressional leaders</a> Monday afternoon on debt ceiling talks was postponed.</p>
<p>Obama was set to meet Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/usa-fiscal-obama-idUSL1N0I40PK20131014" type="external">around 3 p.m. Monday</a>&#160;to discuss ways to end a political impasse that has resulted in a government shutdown now entering its third week and the looming debt ceiling deadline.</p>
<p>The meeting was postponed to give senators time to work on a deal that could end the partial government shutdown and raise the government debt ceiling beyond the $16.7 trillion limit.&#160;</p>
<p>"We've made tremendous progress," <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/deal-to-raise-u-s-debt-end-shutdown-near-senate-leaders-say-1.2053969" type="external">Reid was quoted by the Associated Press as saying</a> after a day of negotiations with lawmakers.</p>
<p>"Perhaps tomorrow will be a bright day."&#160;</p>
<p>Unidentified sources reportedly close to the talks have been leaking details of the emerging deal to the media.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/14/republicans-accuse-dems-overplaying-hand-as-budget-debate-shifts-to-sequester/" type="external">Fox News reported</a>&#160;the proposal&#160;would raise&#160;the debt limit through February and fund federal agencies until Jan. 15 in order to allow time for budget talks to take place.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/government-shutdown-debt-ceiling-default-update-98260.html" type="external">But unnamed sources told Politico</a> that the proposal was to extend the debt limit until Feb. 7 and reopen the government until Jan. 15.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/us-markets-global-idUSBRE96S00E20131014" type="external">Reuters was told by an unidentified source</a> that the plan under discussion would increase the government's borrowing authority through to at least mid-Feburary and fund government agencies until mid-January.</p>
<p>The talks led&#160;by Reid and McConnell also foresee several minor tweaks to the Affordable Healthcare Act but nothing on the scale first proposed by Republicans, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/all-eyes-on-us-stock-markets-as-debt-deadline-draws-closer/2013/10/14/4a2a9992-34be-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html" type="external">the Washington Post reported.</a>&#160; <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/deal-to-raise-u-s-debt-end-shutdown-near-senate-leaders-say-1.2053969" type="external">The AP said</a> it might involve scrapping a $63 fee that companies must pay for each person they cover.&#160;</p>
<p>The United States could default on its debt unless lawmakers agree to raise the debt ceiling by Thursday.</p>
<p>US and European stocks fell Monday, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-14/european-stock-futures-drop-on-u-s-debt-talks-stalemate.html" type="external">according to&#160;Bloomberg</a>, as concerns grew over the nation's ability to up its borrowing limit.</p>
<p>Weekend debt talks in Washington produced no results, although Republican Sen. Susan Collins said senators were "making very good progress" on a new agreement, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24524308" type="external">the BBC reported</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/usa-fiscal-obama-idUSL1N0I40PK20131014" type="external">The White House repeated</a> its warning Monday that Obama will not "pay a ransom for Congress reopening the government and raising the debt limit," a statement that it has made since the beginning of the government shutdown.</p>
<p>"The president continues to urge Congress to pass a bill that raises the debt ceiling and lends the certainty our businesses and the economy needs," <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/usa-fiscal-obama-idUSL1N0I40PK20131014" type="external">the statement said</a>.</p>
<p>Here's video from Politico on ongoing efforts in Washington:</p>
<p>#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }</p>
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Congress inches toward deal as debt deadline looms
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2013-10-14/congress-inches-toward-deal-debt-deadline-looms
|
2013-10-14
| 3left-center
|
Congress inches toward deal as debt deadline looms
<p>US President Barack Obama's&#160; <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24524308" type="external">expected meeting with congressional leaders</a> Monday afternoon on debt ceiling talks was postponed.</p>
<p>Obama was set to meet Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/usa-fiscal-obama-idUSL1N0I40PK20131014" type="external">around 3 p.m. Monday</a>&#160;to discuss ways to end a political impasse that has resulted in a government shutdown now entering its third week and the looming debt ceiling deadline.</p>
<p>The meeting was postponed to give senators time to work on a deal that could end the partial government shutdown and raise the government debt ceiling beyond the $16.7 trillion limit.&#160;</p>
<p>"We've made tremendous progress," <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/deal-to-raise-u-s-debt-end-shutdown-near-senate-leaders-say-1.2053969" type="external">Reid was quoted by the Associated Press as saying</a> after a day of negotiations with lawmakers.</p>
<p>"Perhaps tomorrow will be a bright day."&#160;</p>
<p>Unidentified sources reportedly close to the talks have been leaking details of the emerging deal to the media.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/14/republicans-accuse-dems-overplaying-hand-as-budget-debate-shifts-to-sequester/" type="external">Fox News reported</a>&#160;the proposal&#160;would raise&#160;the debt limit through February and fund federal agencies until Jan. 15 in order to allow time for budget talks to take place.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/government-shutdown-debt-ceiling-default-update-98260.html" type="external">But unnamed sources told Politico</a> that the proposal was to extend the debt limit until Feb. 7 and reopen the government until Jan. 15.&#160;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/us-markets-global-idUSBRE96S00E20131014" type="external">Reuters was told by an unidentified source</a> that the plan under discussion would increase the government's borrowing authority through to at least mid-Feburary and fund government agencies until mid-January.</p>
<p>The talks led&#160;by Reid and McConnell also foresee several minor tweaks to the Affordable Healthcare Act but nothing on the scale first proposed by Republicans, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/all-eyes-on-us-stock-markets-as-debt-deadline-draws-closer/2013/10/14/4a2a9992-34be-11e3-80c6-7e6dd8d22d8f_story.html" type="external">the Washington Post reported.</a>&#160; <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/deal-to-raise-u-s-debt-end-shutdown-near-senate-leaders-say-1.2053969" type="external">The AP said</a> it might involve scrapping a $63 fee that companies must pay for each person they cover.&#160;</p>
<p>The United States could default on its debt unless lawmakers agree to raise the debt ceiling by Thursday.</p>
<p>US and European stocks fell Monday, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-14/european-stock-futures-drop-on-u-s-debt-talks-stalemate.html" type="external">according to&#160;Bloomberg</a>, as concerns grew over the nation's ability to up its borrowing limit.</p>
<p>Weekend debt talks in Washington produced no results, although Republican Sen. Susan Collins said senators were "making very good progress" on a new agreement, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24524308" type="external">the BBC reported</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/usa-fiscal-obama-idUSL1N0I40PK20131014" type="external">The White House repeated</a> its warning Monday that Obama will not "pay a ransom for Congress reopening the government and raising the debt limit," a statement that it has made since the beginning of the government shutdown.</p>
<p>"The president continues to urge Congress to pass a bill that raises the debt ceiling and lends the certainty our businesses and the economy needs," <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/14/usa-fiscal-obama-idUSL1N0I40PK20131014" type="external">the statement said</a>.</p>
<p>Here's video from Politico on ongoing efforts in Washington:</p>
<p>#next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }</p>
| 5,240 |
<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's six-week tax amnesty period is underway, giving taxpayers with unreported or underreported tax debts an opportunity to pay a reduced amount of interest and avoid owing further penalties if they settle up.</p>
<p>The state Department of Taxation is accepting <a href="http://www.ohiotaxamnesty.gov/PrepareAndApply" type="external">applications</a> for the amnesty program for residents and businesses until Feb. 15. During the amnesty window, eligible taxpayers who fully pay their delinquencies will pay half the normal interest and no extra penalties.</p>
<p>It applies only to tax delinquencies that were due before May 1, 2017, and are currently unknown to the department. Because of that, the department isn't sure how many taxpayers might be eligible or what the total of their delinquencies might be.</p>
<p>The department says Ohio's last amnesty period, offered in 2012, brought in $27 million.</p>
<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's six-week tax amnesty period is underway, giving taxpayers with unreported or underreported tax debts an opportunity to pay a reduced amount of interest and avoid owing further penalties if they settle up.</p>
<p>The state Department of Taxation is accepting <a href="http://www.ohiotaxamnesty.gov/PrepareAndApply" type="external">applications</a> for the amnesty program for residents and businesses until Feb. 15. During the amnesty window, eligible taxpayers who fully pay their delinquencies will pay half the normal interest and no extra penalties.</p>
<p>It applies only to tax delinquencies that were due before May 1, 2017, and are currently unknown to the department. Because of that, the department isn't sure how many taxpayers might be eligible or what the total of their delinquencies might be.</p>
<p>The department says Ohio's last amnesty period, offered in 2012, brought in $27 million.</p>
|
Ohioans can apply for amnesty to settle unreported tax debts
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/30a81036bd0f41659a54a2dfb61891e2
|
2018-01-03
| 2least
|
Ohioans can apply for amnesty to settle unreported tax debts
<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's six-week tax amnesty period is underway, giving taxpayers with unreported or underreported tax debts an opportunity to pay a reduced amount of interest and avoid owing further penalties if they settle up.</p>
<p>The state Department of Taxation is accepting <a href="http://www.ohiotaxamnesty.gov/PrepareAndApply" type="external">applications</a> for the amnesty program for residents and businesses until Feb. 15. During the amnesty window, eligible taxpayers who fully pay their delinquencies will pay half the normal interest and no extra penalties.</p>
<p>It applies only to tax delinquencies that were due before May 1, 2017, and are currently unknown to the department. Because of that, the department isn't sure how many taxpayers might be eligible or what the total of their delinquencies might be.</p>
<p>The department says Ohio's last amnesty period, offered in 2012, brought in $27 million.</p>
<p>COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's six-week tax amnesty period is underway, giving taxpayers with unreported or underreported tax debts an opportunity to pay a reduced amount of interest and avoid owing further penalties if they settle up.</p>
<p>The state Department of Taxation is accepting <a href="http://www.ohiotaxamnesty.gov/PrepareAndApply" type="external">applications</a> for the amnesty program for residents and businesses until Feb. 15. During the amnesty window, eligible taxpayers who fully pay their delinquencies will pay half the normal interest and no extra penalties.</p>
<p>It applies only to tax delinquencies that were due before May 1, 2017, and are currently unknown to the department. Because of that, the department isn't sure how many taxpayers might be eligible or what the total of their delinquencies might be.</p>
<p>The department says Ohio's last amnesty period, offered in 2012, brought in $27 million.</p>
| 5,241 |
<p>Moving to prevent more insurance chaos this fall, the nation's new health care chief on Friday revamped the management of HealthCare.gov.</p>
<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell appointed a new high-level operations manager to closely supervise the online portal to coverage under President Barack Obama's health care law.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>She also announced that she's hiring a CEO and a technology leader to specifically handle all aspects of the health law's coverage expansion. The CEO would be able to take concerns directly to Burwell.</p>
<p>The changes will "further instill ongoing accountability for reaching milestones, measuring results and delivering results for the American people," Burwell said in a statement.</p>
<p>"This is a good move that should have occurred two years ago," said Robert Laszewski, an industry consultant often critical of Obama's overhaul.</p>
<p>Hiring a CEO for HealthCare.gov had been strongly urged by the Center for American Progress, a think tank with close ties to the White House.</p>
<p>Eight million people have signed up for coverage through new markets offering subsidized private insurance. But last fall's open enrollment launch was paralyzed by technology problems, creating a major political embarrassment for the White House.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>A rescue effort led by management consultant Jeff Zients got HealthCare.gov working reasonably well by the end of November. But Zients reported that his team found hundreds of software bugs and insufficient computing equipment. He also blamed "inadequate management oversight" that got in the way of identifying and fixing problems.</p>
<p>The new operations manager Burwell appointed on Friday is a contractor who worked closely with Zients to turn the website around. Andy Slavitt is a vice president of Optum, a technology company whose subsidiary built the one part of HealthCare.gov said to have worked well — a federal data hub that helps verify the personal information of people applying for health insurance. Optum is owned by UnitedHealth, the nation's largest insurer.</p>
<p>In his new role, Slavitt will oversee operational issues involving major HHS programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Until the new overhaul CEO and technology leader are in place, Slavitt will keep a particularly close eye on preparations for the insurance overhaul's next open enrollment season.</p>
<p>That's only five months away, and there's still a lot of work to be done. Among the issues facing Burwell:</p>
<p>— AUTOMATIC RE-ENROLLMENT. If you're happy with your HealthCare.gov plan, and you don't have changes in income or family status, can you just check a box and keep everything the same for 2015? Because of the complexity of the law, it may not be as easy.</p>
<p>If those already enrolled have to complete another cumbersome application, it could jam the website and call centers at a time when millions of first-timers will also be trying to sign up.</p>
<p>— E-COMMERCE 101. HealthCare.gov got low marks for customer friendliness during 2014's open enrollment. Many consumers had a hard time finding out whether their doctors and hospitals participated in a particular plan, or whether their medications were covered. Consumer groups are clamoring for improvements.</p>
<p>— "BACK ROOM" PROBLEMS. Many of the glitches affecting the consumer part of HealthCare.gov got straightened out, but insurers say they still face numerous technology issues. There's no streamlined process for consumers to report life changes, no automated system for paying premium subsidies to the plans.</p>
<p>— MEDICAID. Originally, the federal website was supposed to automatically transfer details on low-income people eligible for Medicaid to their state program. But more work was needed, and a backup system is still in use while technical issues between the feds and the states get tackled.</p>
|
HHS Secretary Burwell revamps management of HealthCare.gov to head off problems this fall
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/06/20/health-secretary-sylvia-burwell-moves-to-revamp-management-health-overhaul-law.html
|
2016-03-05
| 0right
|
HHS Secretary Burwell revamps management of HealthCare.gov to head off problems this fall
<p>Moving to prevent more insurance chaos this fall, the nation's new health care chief on Friday revamped the management of HealthCare.gov.</p>
<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell appointed a new high-level operations manager to closely supervise the online portal to coverage under President Barack Obama's health care law.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>She also announced that she's hiring a CEO and a technology leader to specifically handle all aspects of the health law's coverage expansion. The CEO would be able to take concerns directly to Burwell.</p>
<p>The changes will "further instill ongoing accountability for reaching milestones, measuring results and delivering results for the American people," Burwell said in a statement.</p>
<p>"This is a good move that should have occurred two years ago," said Robert Laszewski, an industry consultant often critical of Obama's overhaul.</p>
<p>Hiring a CEO for HealthCare.gov had been strongly urged by the Center for American Progress, a think tank with close ties to the White House.</p>
<p>Eight million people have signed up for coverage through new markets offering subsidized private insurance. But last fall's open enrollment launch was paralyzed by technology problems, creating a major political embarrassment for the White House.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>A rescue effort led by management consultant Jeff Zients got HealthCare.gov working reasonably well by the end of November. But Zients reported that his team found hundreds of software bugs and insufficient computing equipment. He also blamed "inadequate management oversight" that got in the way of identifying and fixing problems.</p>
<p>The new operations manager Burwell appointed on Friday is a contractor who worked closely with Zients to turn the website around. Andy Slavitt is a vice president of Optum, a technology company whose subsidiary built the one part of HealthCare.gov said to have worked well — a federal data hub that helps verify the personal information of people applying for health insurance. Optum is owned by UnitedHealth, the nation's largest insurer.</p>
<p>In his new role, Slavitt will oversee operational issues involving major HHS programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Until the new overhaul CEO and technology leader are in place, Slavitt will keep a particularly close eye on preparations for the insurance overhaul's next open enrollment season.</p>
<p>That's only five months away, and there's still a lot of work to be done. Among the issues facing Burwell:</p>
<p>— AUTOMATIC RE-ENROLLMENT. If you're happy with your HealthCare.gov plan, and you don't have changes in income or family status, can you just check a box and keep everything the same for 2015? Because of the complexity of the law, it may not be as easy.</p>
<p>If those already enrolled have to complete another cumbersome application, it could jam the website and call centers at a time when millions of first-timers will also be trying to sign up.</p>
<p>— E-COMMERCE 101. HealthCare.gov got low marks for customer friendliness during 2014's open enrollment. Many consumers had a hard time finding out whether their doctors and hospitals participated in a particular plan, or whether their medications were covered. Consumer groups are clamoring for improvements.</p>
<p>— "BACK ROOM" PROBLEMS. Many of the glitches affecting the consumer part of HealthCare.gov got straightened out, but insurers say they still face numerous technology issues. There's no streamlined process for consumers to report life changes, no automated system for paying premium subsidies to the plans.</p>
<p>— MEDICAID. Originally, the federal website was supposed to automatically transfer details on low-income people eligible for Medicaid to their state program. But more work was needed, and a backup system is still in use while technical issues between the feds and the states get tackled.</p>
| 5,242 |
<p>Huffington Post Living with the secret of Deep Throat's identity has been hell, says Nora Ephron (left). "I have dealt with the situation by pretty much telling just about anyone who asked me, including total strangers, who Deep Throat was. I knew that Deep Throat was Mark Felt because I figured it out. Carl Bernstein, to whom I was married for a brief time, certainly would never have told me; he was far too intelligent to tell me a secret like that." But the clues to Deep Throat's identity were clear, she says. &gt; <a href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000943898" type="external">WP's Downie learned Deep Throat's identity several months ago (E&amp;P)</a></p>
|
Ephron: The clues to Deep Throat's identity were clear
| false |
https://poynter.org/news/ephron-clues-deep-throats-identity-were-clear
|
2005-06-01
| 2least
|
Ephron: The clues to Deep Throat's identity were clear
<p>Huffington Post Living with the secret of Deep Throat's identity has been hell, says Nora Ephron (left). "I have dealt with the situation by pretty much telling just about anyone who asked me, including total strangers, who Deep Throat was. I knew that Deep Throat was Mark Felt because I figured it out. Carl Bernstein, to whom I was married for a brief time, certainly would never have told me; he was far too intelligent to tell me a secret like that." But the clues to Deep Throat's identity were clear, she says. &gt; <a href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000943898" type="external">WP's Downie learned Deep Throat's identity several months ago (E&amp;P)</a></p>
| 5,243 |
<p>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha child care provider accused of abusing a 4-year-old girl in her care and later arrested in Iowa has been sentenced to two years in prison.</p>
<p>Television station <a href="http://bit.ly/2n6o6vh" type="external">KETV reports</a> that 59-year-old Lynn Rowe was sentenced Tuesday in Douglas County District Court for child abuse.</p>
<p>Rowe had pleaded no contest to the charge in November.</p>
<p>Police say the girl's parents reported last April that Rowe had abused their daughter while the girl was at Rowe's day care. Officials say the report was made after a worker at the day care recorded Rowe hitting the girl. Rowe was being sought on an arrest warrant when she turned up in Missouri Valley, Iowa, where she was arrested.</p>
<p>The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services shut down Lynn's Learning Center.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KETV-TV, <a href="http://www.ketv.com" type="external">http://www.ketv.com</a></p>
<p>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha child care provider accused of abusing a 4-year-old girl in her care and later arrested in Iowa has been sentenced to two years in prison.</p>
<p>Television station <a href="http://bit.ly/2n6o6vh" type="external">KETV reports</a> that 59-year-old Lynn Rowe was sentenced Tuesday in Douglas County District Court for child abuse.</p>
<p>Rowe had pleaded no contest to the charge in November.</p>
<p>Police say the girl's parents reported last April that Rowe had abused their daughter while the girl was at Rowe's day care. Officials say the report was made after a worker at the day care recorded Rowe hitting the girl. Rowe was being sought on an arrest warrant when she turned up in Missouri Valley, Iowa, where she was arrested.</p>
<p>The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services shut down Lynn's Learning Center.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KETV-TV, <a href="http://www.ketv.com" type="external">http://www.ketv.com</a></p>
|
Ex-Omaha child care provider sentenced for child abuse
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/60d81d5ae79a4167973773def9015150
|
2018-01-23
| 2least
|
Ex-Omaha child care provider sentenced for child abuse
<p>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha child care provider accused of abusing a 4-year-old girl in her care and later arrested in Iowa has been sentenced to two years in prison.</p>
<p>Television station <a href="http://bit.ly/2n6o6vh" type="external">KETV reports</a> that 59-year-old Lynn Rowe was sentenced Tuesday in Douglas County District Court for child abuse.</p>
<p>Rowe had pleaded no contest to the charge in November.</p>
<p>Police say the girl's parents reported last April that Rowe had abused their daughter while the girl was at Rowe's day care. Officials say the report was made after a worker at the day care recorded Rowe hitting the girl. Rowe was being sought on an arrest warrant when she turned up in Missouri Valley, Iowa, where she was arrested.</p>
<p>The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services shut down Lynn's Learning Center.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KETV-TV, <a href="http://www.ketv.com" type="external">http://www.ketv.com</a></p>
<p>OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha child care provider accused of abusing a 4-year-old girl in her care and later arrested in Iowa has been sentenced to two years in prison.</p>
<p>Television station <a href="http://bit.ly/2n6o6vh" type="external">KETV reports</a> that 59-year-old Lynn Rowe was sentenced Tuesday in Douglas County District Court for child abuse.</p>
<p>Rowe had pleaded no contest to the charge in November.</p>
<p>Police say the girl's parents reported last April that Rowe had abused their daughter while the girl was at Rowe's day care. Officials say the report was made after a worker at the day care recorded Rowe hitting the girl. Rowe was being sought on an arrest warrant when she turned up in Missouri Valley, Iowa, where she was arrested.</p>
<p>The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services shut down Lynn's Learning Center.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: KETV-TV, <a href="http://www.ketv.com" type="external">http://www.ketv.com</a></p>
| 5,244 |
<p>Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:</p>
<p>1. <a href="" type="internal">TRUMP REJECTS IMMIGRATION DEAL IN VULGAR TERMS</a></p>
<p>The president questions why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa rather than places like Norway.</p>
<p>2. <a href="" type="internal">AFRICA AWAKES TO PROFANE TRUMP COMMENTS</a></p>
<p>While many African governments hesitated at criticism, media outlets and the continent’s young, increasingly connected population were not being shy.</p>
<p>3. <a href="" type="internal">CALIFORNIA MUDSLIDES TAKE LIVES OF ELDERLY, YOUNG</a></p>
<p>The oldest victim was Jim Mitchell, who had celebrated his 89th birthday the day before and died with his wife of more than 50 years, Alice. The youngest, 3-year-old Kailly Benitez, was one of four children killed.</p>
<p>4. <a href="" type="internal">TRUMP POISED FOR FIRST MEDICAL CHECK-UP AS PRESIDENT</a></p>
<p>The exam is taking on outsized importance given the tone of some of his tweets, comments attributed to some of his close advisers and Trump’s recent slurring of words on national TV.</p>
<p>5. <a href="" type="internal">MIXED BAG FOR WALMART EMPLOYEES</a></p>
<p>Walmart boosted its starting salary for U.S. workers and handed out bonuses. But the company is also closing dozens of Sam’s Club stores — a move that could cost thousands of jobs.</p>
<p>6. <a href="" type="internal">‘ME TOO’ MOVEMENT PRESENTS DIFFERENT CHALLENGE FOR BILL COSBY</a></p>
<p>The entertainer faces a retrial in less than 90 days in a vastly different cultural climate, one in which powerful men are being toppled by allegations of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>7. <a href="" type="internal">MAN WHO AIDED HOSPITAL PATIENT DISCHARGED IN GOWN SHOCKED</a></p>
<p>Imamu Baraka tells the AP he recorded the events on his cellphone, fearing no one would believe him reporting a woman wheeled out in 30-degree temperatures and left at a Baltimore bus stop.</p>
<p>8. <a href="" type="internal">HOW MEDIA COMPANIES MAY BE IMPACTED BY FACEBOOK CHANGES</a></p>
<p>The social media giant is tweaking what people see to make their time on it more “meaningful,” a move that could hurt publishers and news organizations that rely on it to spread their content.</p>
<p>9. <a href="" type="internal">SEXUAL MISCONDUCT SCANDAL RATTLES CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS</a></p>
<p>James Franco captures an acting award hours after a report detailed new misconduct allegations against “The Disaster Artist” star and director.</p>
<p>10. <a href="" type="internal">AUSTRALIAN OPEN NOW A FITNESS TEST</a></p>
<p>Before tennis’ first major has even begun, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are nursing injuries and Serena Williams already decided not to defend her title.</p>
<p>Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:</p>
<p>1. <a href="" type="internal">TRUMP REJECTS IMMIGRATION DEAL IN VULGAR TERMS</a></p>
<p>The president questions why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa rather than places like Norway.</p>
<p>2. <a href="" type="internal">AFRICA AWAKES TO PROFANE TRUMP COMMENTS</a></p>
<p>While many African governments hesitated at criticism, media outlets and the continent’s young, increasingly connected population were not being shy.</p>
<p>3. <a href="" type="internal">CALIFORNIA MUDSLIDES TAKE LIVES OF ELDERLY, YOUNG</a></p>
<p>The oldest victim was Jim Mitchell, who had celebrated his 89th birthday the day before and died with his wife of more than 50 years, Alice. The youngest, 3-year-old Kailly Benitez, was one of four children killed.</p>
<p>4. <a href="" type="internal">TRUMP POISED FOR FIRST MEDICAL CHECK-UP AS PRESIDENT</a></p>
<p>The exam is taking on outsized importance given the tone of some of his tweets, comments attributed to some of his close advisers and Trump’s recent slurring of words on national TV.</p>
<p>5. <a href="" type="internal">MIXED BAG FOR WALMART EMPLOYEES</a></p>
<p>Walmart boosted its starting salary for U.S. workers and handed out bonuses. But the company is also closing dozens of Sam’s Club stores — a move that could cost thousands of jobs.</p>
<p>6. <a href="" type="internal">‘ME TOO’ MOVEMENT PRESENTS DIFFERENT CHALLENGE FOR BILL COSBY</a></p>
<p>The entertainer faces a retrial in less than 90 days in a vastly different cultural climate, one in which powerful men are being toppled by allegations of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>7. <a href="" type="internal">MAN WHO AIDED HOSPITAL PATIENT DISCHARGED IN GOWN SHOCKED</a></p>
<p>Imamu Baraka tells the AP he recorded the events on his cellphone, fearing no one would believe him reporting a woman wheeled out in 30-degree temperatures and left at a Baltimore bus stop.</p>
<p>8. <a href="" type="internal">HOW MEDIA COMPANIES MAY BE IMPACTED BY FACEBOOK CHANGES</a></p>
<p>The social media giant is tweaking what people see to make their time on it more “meaningful,” a move that could hurt publishers and news organizations that rely on it to spread their content.</p>
<p>9. <a href="" type="internal">SEXUAL MISCONDUCT SCANDAL RATTLES CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS</a></p>
<p>James Franco captures an acting award hours after a report detailed new misconduct allegations against “The Disaster Artist” star and director.</p>
<p>10. <a href="" type="internal">AUSTRALIAN OPEN NOW A FITNESS TEST</a></p>
<p>Before tennis’ first major has even begun, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are nursing injuries and Serena Williams already decided not to defend her title.</p>
|
10 Things to Know for Today
| false |
https://apnews.com/c5da161b2b5742a1a8c3aadc6d7d4ef9
|
2018-01-12
| 2least
|
10 Things to Know for Today
<p>Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:</p>
<p>1. <a href="" type="internal">TRUMP REJECTS IMMIGRATION DEAL IN VULGAR TERMS</a></p>
<p>The president questions why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa rather than places like Norway.</p>
<p>2. <a href="" type="internal">AFRICA AWAKES TO PROFANE TRUMP COMMENTS</a></p>
<p>While many African governments hesitated at criticism, media outlets and the continent’s young, increasingly connected population were not being shy.</p>
<p>3. <a href="" type="internal">CALIFORNIA MUDSLIDES TAKE LIVES OF ELDERLY, YOUNG</a></p>
<p>The oldest victim was Jim Mitchell, who had celebrated his 89th birthday the day before and died with his wife of more than 50 years, Alice. The youngest, 3-year-old Kailly Benitez, was one of four children killed.</p>
<p>4. <a href="" type="internal">TRUMP POISED FOR FIRST MEDICAL CHECK-UP AS PRESIDENT</a></p>
<p>The exam is taking on outsized importance given the tone of some of his tweets, comments attributed to some of his close advisers and Trump’s recent slurring of words on national TV.</p>
<p>5. <a href="" type="internal">MIXED BAG FOR WALMART EMPLOYEES</a></p>
<p>Walmart boosted its starting salary for U.S. workers and handed out bonuses. But the company is also closing dozens of Sam’s Club stores — a move that could cost thousands of jobs.</p>
<p>6. <a href="" type="internal">‘ME TOO’ MOVEMENT PRESENTS DIFFERENT CHALLENGE FOR BILL COSBY</a></p>
<p>The entertainer faces a retrial in less than 90 days in a vastly different cultural climate, one in which powerful men are being toppled by allegations of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>7. <a href="" type="internal">MAN WHO AIDED HOSPITAL PATIENT DISCHARGED IN GOWN SHOCKED</a></p>
<p>Imamu Baraka tells the AP he recorded the events on his cellphone, fearing no one would believe him reporting a woman wheeled out in 30-degree temperatures and left at a Baltimore bus stop.</p>
<p>8. <a href="" type="internal">HOW MEDIA COMPANIES MAY BE IMPACTED BY FACEBOOK CHANGES</a></p>
<p>The social media giant is tweaking what people see to make their time on it more “meaningful,” a move that could hurt publishers and news organizations that rely on it to spread their content.</p>
<p>9. <a href="" type="internal">SEXUAL MISCONDUCT SCANDAL RATTLES CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS</a></p>
<p>James Franco captures an acting award hours after a report detailed new misconduct allegations against “The Disaster Artist” star and director.</p>
<p>10. <a href="" type="internal">AUSTRALIAN OPEN NOW A FITNESS TEST</a></p>
<p>Before tennis’ first major has even begun, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are nursing injuries and Serena Williams already decided not to defend her title.</p>
<p>Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:</p>
<p>1. <a href="" type="internal">TRUMP REJECTS IMMIGRATION DEAL IN VULGAR TERMS</a></p>
<p>The president questions why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa rather than places like Norway.</p>
<p>2. <a href="" type="internal">AFRICA AWAKES TO PROFANE TRUMP COMMENTS</a></p>
<p>While many African governments hesitated at criticism, media outlets and the continent’s young, increasingly connected population were not being shy.</p>
<p>3. <a href="" type="internal">CALIFORNIA MUDSLIDES TAKE LIVES OF ELDERLY, YOUNG</a></p>
<p>The oldest victim was Jim Mitchell, who had celebrated his 89th birthday the day before and died with his wife of more than 50 years, Alice. The youngest, 3-year-old Kailly Benitez, was one of four children killed.</p>
<p>4. <a href="" type="internal">TRUMP POISED FOR FIRST MEDICAL CHECK-UP AS PRESIDENT</a></p>
<p>The exam is taking on outsized importance given the tone of some of his tweets, comments attributed to some of his close advisers and Trump’s recent slurring of words on national TV.</p>
<p>5. <a href="" type="internal">MIXED BAG FOR WALMART EMPLOYEES</a></p>
<p>Walmart boosted its starting salary for U.S. workers and handed out bonuses. But the company is also closing dozens of Sam’s Club stores — a move that could cost thousands of jobs.</p>
<p>6. <a href="" type="internal">‘ME TOO’ MOVEMENT PRESENTS DIFFERENT CHALLENGE FOR BILL COSBY</a></p>
<p>The entertainer faces a retrial in less than 90 days in a vastly different cultural climate, one in which powerful men are being toppled by allegations of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>7. <a href="" type="internal">MAN WHO AIDED HOSPITAL PATIENT DISCHARGED IN GOWN SHOCKED</a></p>
<p>Imamu Baraka tells the AP he recorded the events on his cellphone, fearing no one would believe him reporting a woman wheeled out in 30-degree temperatures and left at a Baltimore bus stop.</p>
<p>8. <a href="" type="internal">HOW MEDIA COMPANIES MAY BE IMPACTED BY FACEBOOK CHANGES</a></p>
<p>The social media giant is tweaking what people see to make their time on it more “meaningful,” a move that could hurt publishers and news organizations that rely on it to spread their content.</p>
<p>9. <a href="" type="internal">SEXUAL MISCONDUCT SCANDAL RATTLES CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS</a></p>
<p>James Franco captures an acting award hours after a report detailed new misconduct allegations against “The Disaster Artist” star and director.</p>
<p>10. <a href="" type="internal">AUSTRALIAN OPEN NOW A FITNESS TEST</a></p>
<p>Before tennis’ first major has even begun, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are nursing injuries and Serena Williams already decided not to defend her title.</p>
| 5,245 |
<p>At least 20 people are reported to have been killed and dozens injured in Syria a day after world leaders issued coordinated statements condemning President Bashar al-Assad over his five-month crackdown on dissent.</p>
<p>Activists said soldiers, tanks and <a href="http://www.necn.com/08/19/11/At-least-20-now-reported-dead-in-Syria/landing_nation.html?&amp;apID=68d3aeafb04b4dbb8a726b68829ffa40" type="external">armored personnel carriers</a>were still being deployed in restive cities, according to NECN.</p>
<p>Syrian security forces reportedly opened fire on thousands of protesters who poured into the streets after Friday prayers, with demonstrations taking place in Damascus, the central city of Homs, and other areas.&#160;Activists also reported a wave of arrests.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>On Thursday, the U.S. and the leaders of Britain, France and Germany and the European Union&#160;called for Assad to resign, saying that his suppression of his people had made him unfit to lead.</p>
<p>President Barack Obama is also giving his administration authority to impose new sanctions against Syria.</p>
<p>Assad had also assured U.N. Secretary-General <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/activists-syrian-security-forces-shoot-at-protesters-killing-2-as-arrests-continue/2011/08/19/gIQAwccCPJ_story.html" type="external">Ban Ki-moon</a> that military and police operations had stopped, the Washington Post reports.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>The <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/08/170673.htm" type="external">U.S. State Department</a> on Thursday announced a series of measures against the Assad regime, including the "strongest set of sanctions to date targeting the Syrian Government."</p>
<p>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:</p>
<p>"The transition to democracy in Syria has begun, and it's time for Assad to get out of the way."</p>
<p>She added that while "it is up to the Syrian people to choose their own leaders in a democratic system based on the rule of law," the U.S. will "we will do our part to support their aspirations for a Syria that is democratic, just, and inclusive."&#160;</p>
<p>Republican presidential candidate <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iH7m-NRFqht7iH30zLcu4BB1xEAA?docId=5580f48c0a0843009742cc9b9f50ff34" type="external">Michele Bachmann</a>, meanwhile, accused Obama of moving "too late and with too little force" on Syria, which she maintains is "seeking to become a nuclear-armed nation," the AP reports.</p>
<p>"This is yet one more instance of President Obama leading from behind on foreign policy," Bachmann told reporters in South Carolina, where Bachmann is in the middle of a three-day campaign swing after her narrow win Saturday in the Iowa straw poll.</p>
<p>The Minnesota congresswoman has, according to the AP, "been emphasizing her foreign policy credentials as a member of the House Intelligence Committee and has been sharply critical of Obama's handling of Libya and Israel."</p>
<p>She said Obama should have "acted weeks ago to call on President Assad to step down when his regime started slaughtering and oppressing his own Syrian people."</p>
<p>At very least, Bachmann said, he should expel the Syrian ambassador in the U.S. and "immediately withdraw the United States ambassador to Syria."</p>
<p>"Better late than never is no way to conduct United States foreign policy," she reportedly said.</p>
<p>Syria's U.N. envoy, meantime, has accused the U.S. of trying to instigate insurrection, the BBC reports.&#160;</p>
<p>Bashar Ja'afari said the U.S. was "waging a humanitarian and diplomatic war" against Syria, together with some other <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14586004" type="external">U.N. Security Council</a> members.</p>
|
Reports of more deaths in Syria despite world condemnation of Assad (VIDEO)
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2011-08-19/reports-more-deaths-syria-despite-world-condemnation-assad-video
|
2011-08-19
| 3left-center
|
Reports of more deaths in Syria despite world condemnation of Assad (VIDEO)
<p>At least 20 people are reported to have been killed and dozens injured in Syria a day after world leaders issued coordinated statements condemning President Bashar al-Assad over his five-month crackdown on dissent.</p>
<p>Activists said soldiers, tanks and <a href="http://www.necn.com/08/19/11/At-least-20-now-reported-dead-in-Syria/landing_nation.html?&amp;apID=68d3aeafb04b4dbb8a726b68829ffa40" type="external">armored personnel carriers</a>were still being deployed in restive cities, according to NECN.</p>
<p>Syrian security forces reportedly opened fire on thousands of protesters who poured into the streets after Friday prayers, with demonstrations taking place in Damascus, the central city of Homs, and other areas.&#160;Activists also reported a wave of arrests.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>On Thursday, the U.S. and the leaders of Britain, France and Germany and the European Union&#160;called for Assad to resign, saying that his suppression of his people had made him unfit to lead.</p>
<p>President Barack Obama is also giving his administration authority to impose new sanctions against Syria.</p>
<p>Assad had also assured U.N. Secretary-General <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/activists-syrian-security-forces-shoot-at-protesters-killing-2-as-arrests-continue/2011/08/19/gIQAwccCPJ_story.html" type="external">Ban Ki-moon</a> that military and police operations had stopped, the Washington Post reports.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>The <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/08/170673.htm" type="external">U.S. State Department</a> on Thursday announced a series of measures against the Assad regime, including the "strongest set of sanctions to date targeting the Syrian Government."</p>
<p>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:</p>
<p>"The transition to democracy in Syria has begun, and it's time for Assad to get out of the way."</p>
<p>She added that while "it is up to the Syrian people to choose their own leaders in a democratic system based on the rule of law," the U.S. will "we will do our part to support their aspirations for a Syria that is democratic, just, and inclusive."&#160;</p>
<p>Republican presidential candidate <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iH7m-NRFqht7iH30zLcu4BB1xEAA?docId=5580f48c0a0843009742cc9b9f50ff34" type="external">Michele Bachmann</a>, meanwhile, accused Obama of moving "too late and with too little force" on Syria, which she maintains is "seeking to become a nuclear-armed nation," the AP reports.</p>
<p>"This is yet one more instance of President Obama leading from behind on foreign policy," Bachmann told reporters in South Carolina, where Bachmann is in the middle of a three-day campaign swing after her narrow win Saturday in the Iowa straw poll.</p>
<p>The Minnesota congresswoman has, according to the AP, "been emphasizing her foreign policy credentials as a member of the House Intelligence Committee and has been sharply critical of Obama's handling of Libya and Israel."</p>
<p>She said Obama should have "acted weeks ago to call on President Assad to step down when his regime started slaughtering and oppressing his own Syrian people."</p>
<p>At very least, Bachmann said, he should expel the Syrian ambassador in the U.S. and "immediately withdraw the United States ambassador to Syria."</p>
<p>"Better late than never is no way to conduct United States foreign policy," she reportedly said.</p>
<p>Syria's U.N. envoy, meantime, has accused the U.S. of trying to instigate insurrection, the BBC reports.&#160;</p>
<p>Bashar Ja'afari said the U.S. was "waging a humanitarian and diplomatic war" against Syria, together with some other <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14586004" type="external">U.N. Security Council</a> members.</p>
| 5,246 |
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Ashton Agar has been added to an expanded 14-man Australia squad for the fifth and final Ashes test against England, starting in Sydney on January 4.</p>
<p>The left-arm spinner was given the nod ahead of Steve O'Keefe and Jon Holland as a possible partner for Australia's first-choice spinner Nathan Lyon for the series finale.</p>
<p>Australia used just one specialist spinner for each of the first four tests but almost always calls in a second for tests at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia's most spin-friendly wicket.</p>
<p>Agar made a memorable test debut against England in 2013, scoring 98 batting at No. 11, but has played only three tests since after struggling to cement a place in the team.</p>
<p>The 14-man squad also included fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who helped Australia regain the Ashes by winning the first three tests.</p>
<p>Starc missed the fourth test in Melbourne because of a foot injury and although he is hoping to play in Sydney, he is racing against time to recover.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Australia squad: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Jackson Bird, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb.</p>
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Ashton Agar has been added to an expanded 14-man Australia squad for the fifth and final Ashes test against England, starting in Sydney on January 4.</p>
<p>The left-arm spinner was given the nod ahead of Steve O'Keefe and Jon Holland as a possible partner for Australia's first-choice spinner Nathan Lyon for the series finale.</p>
<p>Australia used just one specialist spinner for each of the first four tests but almost always calls in a second for tests at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia's most spin-friendly wicket.</p>
<p>Agar made a memorable test debut against England in 2013, scoring 98 batting at No. 11, but has played only three tests since after struggling to cement a place in the team.</p>
<p>The 14-man squad also included fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who helped Australia regain the Ashes by winning the first three tests.</p>
<p>Starc missed the fourth test in Melbourne because of a foot injury and although he is hoping to play in Sydney, he is racing against time to recover.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Australia squad: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Jackson Bird, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb.</p>
|
Australia add Agar for final Ashes test
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/b3e3ae925b33498f904b6a14c94b840a
|
2017-12-30
| 2least
|
Australia add Agar for final Ashes test
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Ashton Agar has been added to an expanded 14-man Australia squad for the fifth and final Ashes test against England, starting in Sydney on January 4.</p>
<p>The left-arm spinner was given the nod ahead of Steve O'Keefe and Jon Holland as a possible partner for Australia's first-choice spinner Nathan Lyon for the series finale.</p>
<p>Australia used just one specialist spinner for each of the first four tests but almost always calls in a second for tests at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia's most spin-friendly wicket.</p>
<p>Agar made a memorable test debut against England in 2013, scoring 98 batting at No. 11, but has played only three tests since after struggling to cement a place in the team.</p>
<p>The 14-man squad also included fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who helped Australia regain the Ashes by winning the first three tests.</p>
<p>Starc missed the fourth test in Melbourne because of a foot injury and although he is hoping to play in Sydney, he is racing against time to recover.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Australia squad: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Jackson Bird, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb.</p>
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Ashton Agar has been added to an expanded 14-man Australia squad for the fifth and final Ashes test against England, starting in Sydney on January 4.</p>
<p>The left-arm spinner was given the nod ahead of Steve O'Keefe and Jon Holland as a possible partner for Australia's first-choice spinner Nathan Lyon for the series finale.</p>
<p>Australia used just one specialist spinner for each of the first four tests but almost always calls in a second for tests at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia's most spin-friendly wicket.</p>
<p>Agar made a memorable test debut against England in 2013, scoring 98 batting at No. 11, but has played only three tests since after struggling to cement a place in the team.</p>
<p>The 14-man squad also included fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who helped Australia regain the Ashes by winning the first three tests.</p>
<p>Starc missed the fourth test in Melbourne because of a foot injury and although he is hoping to play in Sydney, he is racing against time to recover.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>Australia squad: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Jackson Bird, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb.</p>
| 5,247 |
<p>By Swati Pandey</p>
<p>SYDNEY (Reuters) – hovered around $9,600 in volatile trade on Friday, after tumbling about 15 percent from an all-time high hit this week as some investors warned ominously of a bubble and further falls in the stratospheric cryptocurrency.</p>
<p>Bitcoin was down 2.8 percent at $9,612 in early Asian trading on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, from a record peak of $11,395 set on Wednesday. On Thursday, it went as low as $9,000. ().</p>
<p>The latest slide has tempered an astronomical rise in recent months: Bitcoin was up almost 1,100 percent year-to-date on Wednesday. As of 0200 GMT, it was still up around more than 900 percent.</p>
<p>One wealth manager said technical chart analysis was predicting deeper falls.</p>
<p>“A correction could bring bitcoin back to its previous level of chart support of around $7,500. That’s over a 20 percent drop from its current price,” said Shane Chanel, equities and derivatives adviser at ASR Wealth.</p>
<p>“Without everyday utility, pure speculation is driving prices at the moment. Traders are forced to use technical indicators to make buy and sell decisions.”</p>
<p>Bitcoin’s rise has been fueled by signs that the digital currency is slowly gaining traction in the mainstream investment world, as well as by increasing public awareness.</p>
<p>In the past week, Google (NASDAQ:) searches for “bitcoin” exceeded searches for “Trump” for the first time, data from Googleshowed, even though U.S. President Donald Trump has been prominently in the news this week.</p>
<p>Several large market exchanges including Nasdaq, CBOEHoldings and CME Group (NASDAQ:) — the world’s largest derivatives exchange — have said they are planning to provide futurescontracts based on bitcoin.</p>
<p>Bitcoin’s rapid ascent has prompted warnings from a stream of prominent investors that it had reached bubble territory.</p>
<p>The deputy governor of the Bank of England on Wednesday said investors should “do their homework” before investing in the digital currency.</p>
<p>Despite its massive fall this week, bitcoin still ended November 54.6 percent higher, its best monthly performance since a near 66 percent gain in August.</p>
<p>The cryptocurrency has posted monthly losses only three times in 2017. One industry watcher predicted further rises were in the offing as demand for bitcoin is set to outpace supply.</p>
<p>“The number of bitcoins that can be mined is limited to 21 million, of which 16.5 million bitcoins are already in circulation,” said Siddharth Agarwal, lead financial analyst at research firm GlobalData.</p>
<p>“As bitcoin mining becomes increasingly difficult, this could further drive bitcoin prices upwards. As a result, bitcoin could emerge as the new asset class for high-risk modern investors.”</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>
|
Bitcoin pauses below record peak; gained 55 percent in November
| false |
https://newsline.com/bitcoin-pauses-below-record-peak-gained-55-percent-in-november/
|
2017-11-30
| 1right-center
|
Bitcoin pauses below record peak; gained 55 percent in November
<p>By Swati Pandey</p>
<p>SYDNEY (Reuters) – hovered around $9,600 in volatile trade on Friday, after tumbling about 15 percent from an all-time high hit this week as some investors warned ominously of a bubble and further falls in the stratospheric cryptocurrency.</p>
<p>Bitcoin was down 2.8 percent at $9,612 in early Asian trading on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, from a record peak of $11,395 set on Wednesday. On Thursday, it went as low as $9,000. ().</p>
<p>The latest slide has tempered an astronomical rise in recent months: Bitcoin was up almost 1,100 percent year-to-date on Wednesday. As of 0200 GMT, it was still up around more than 900 percent.</p>
<p>One wealth manager said technical chart analysis was predicting deeper falls.</p>
<p>“A correction could bring bitcoin back to its previous level of chart support of around $7,500. That’s over a 20 percent drop from its current price,” said Shane Chanel, equities and derivatives adviser at ASR Wealth.</p>
<p>“Without everyday utility, pure speculation is driving prices at the moment. Traders are forced to use technical indicators to make buy and sell decisions.”</p>
<p>Bitcoin’s rise has been fueled by signs that the digital currency is slowly gaining traction in the mainstream investment world, as well as by increasing public awareness.</p>
<p>In the past week, Google (NASDAQ:) searches for “bitcoin” exceeded searches for “Trump” for the first time, data from Googleshowed, even though U.S. President Donald Trump has been prominently in the news this week.</p>
<p>Several large market exchanges including Nasdaq, CBOEHoldings and CME Group (NASDAQ:) — the world’s largest derivatives exchange — have said they are planning to provide futurescontracts based on bitcoin.</p>
<p>Bitcoin’s rapid ascent has prompted warnings from a stream of prominent investors that it had reached bubble territory.</p>
<p>The deputy governor of the Bank of England on Wednesday said investors should “do their homework” before investing in the digital currency.</p>
<p>Despite its massive fall this week, bitcoin still ended November 54.6 percent higher, its best monthly performance since a near 66 percent gain in August.</p>
<p>The cryptocurrency has posted monthly losses only three times in 2017. One industry watcher predicted further rises were in the offing as demand for bitcoin is set to outpace supply.</p>
<p>“The number of bitcoins that can be mined is limited to 21 million, of which 16.5 million bitcoins are already in circulation,” said Siddharth Agarwal, lead financial analyst at research firm GlobalData.</p>
<p>“As bitcoin mining becomes increasingly difficult, this could further drive bitcoin prices upwards. As a result, bitcoin could emerge as the new asset class for high-risk modern investors.”</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>
| 5,248 |
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Latest on Gov. John Bel Edwards' budget proposal for next year (all times local):</p>
<p>1 p.m.</p>
<p>Republican lawmakers are pushing back against suggestions they need to replace the entire $1 billion in expiring sales taxes to keep from enacting devastating cuts across Louisiana's budget.</p>
<p>The comments came Monday as Gov. John Bel Edwards presented his worst-case scenario budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year to lawmakers. As required, the budget proposal assumes the taxes won't be replaced.</p>
<p>Edwards is proposing to offset the expiring sales taxes with another tax package.</p>
<p>Rep. Rick Edmonds, of Baton Rouge, said changes to the federal tax code will generate additional dollars for the state treasury that should lower the budget gap.</p>
<p>Sen. Sharon Hewitt, of Slidell, says there are more opportunities to shrink the size of government. She questioned if the state needs to deliver all the services it currently offers.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:50 a.m.</p>
<p>The $25.3 billion worst-case scenario Louisiana operating budget outlined by Gov. John Bel Edwards would shutter health services and eliminate 80 percent of financing for the TOPS college tuition program.</p>
<p>Edwards' spending plan for the year beginning July 1 assumes lawmakers will refuse to replace $1 billion in expiring sales taxes and force widespread slashing across state government. He's required to submit a budget accounting only for dollars expected to be available.</p>
<p>The Democratic governor hopes the cuts won't happen, saying they would be devastating. Instead, Edwards wants lawmakers to pass a replacement tax package.</p>
<p>About two-thirds of the cut, $660 million, would hit health programs, ballooning to $2.3 billion with lost federal cash. TOPS would lose $233 million of its financing. College campuses would take an additional $26 million reduction.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5 a.m.</p>
<p>Gov. John Bel Edwards is readying to unveil his worst-case scenario budget, which assumes lawmakers will refuse to replace $1 billion in expiring sales taxes and force widespread slashing across state government.</p>
<p>The Democrat warned the proposal would be devastating to Louisiana residents. He presents it to the Legislature's joint budget committee Monday.</p>
<p>Edwards is required to submit a plan for the budget year starting July 1 that only accounts for the dollars expected to be available. The proposal won't include expiring sales taxes Edwards wants replaced with other taxes.</p>
<p>He's said cuts would balloon to $2.8 billion with lost federal matching dollars.</p>
<p>Public college campuses, the TOPS tuition program and safety-net health care programs are expected to face deep reductions.</p>
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Latest on Gov. John Bel Edwards' budget proposal for next year (all times local):</p>
<p>1 p.m.</p>
<p>Republican lawmakers are pushing back against suggestions they need to replace the entire $1 billion in expiring sales taxes to keep from enacting devastating cuts across Louisiana's budget.</p>
<p>The comments came Monday as Gov. John Bel Edwards presented his worst-case scenario budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year to lawmakers. As required, the budget proposal assumes the taxes won't be replaced.</p>
<p>Edwards is proposing to offset the expiring sales taxes with another tax package.</p>
<p>Rep. Rick Edmonds, of Baton Rouge, said changes to the federal tax code will generate additional dollars for the state treasury that should lower the budget gap.</p>
<p>Sen. Sharon Hewitt, of Slidell, says there are more opportunities to shrink the size of government. She questioned if the state needs to deliver all the services it currently offers.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:50 a.m.</p>
<p>The $25.3 billion worst-case scenario Louisiana operating budget outlined by Gov. John Bel Edwards would shutter health services and eliminate 80 percent of financing for the TOPS college tuition program.</p>
<p>Edwards' spending plan for the year beginning July 1 assumes lawmakers will refuse to replace $1 billion in expiring sales taxes and force widespread slashing across state government. He's required to submit a budget accounting only for dollars expected to be available.</p>
<p>The Democratic governor hopes the cuts won't happen, saying they would be devastating. Instead, Edwards wants lawmakers to pass a replacement tax package.</p>
<p>About two-thirds of the cut, $660 million, would hit health programs, ballooning to $2.3 billion with lost federal cash. TOPS would lose $233 million of its financing. College campuses would take an additional $26 million reduction.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5 a.m.</p>
<p>Gov. John Bel Edwards is readying to unveil his worst-case scenario budget, which assumes lawmakers will refuse to replace $1 billion in expiring sales taxes and force widespread slashing across state government.</p>
<p>The Democrat warned the proposal would be devastating to Louisiana residents. He presents it to the Legislature's joint budget committee Monday.</p>
<p>Edwards is required to submit a plan for the budget year starting July 1 that only accounts for the dollars expected to be available. The proposal won't include expiring sales taxes Edwards wants replaced with other taxes.</p>
<p>He's said cuts would balloon to $2.8 billion with lost federal matching dollars.</p>
<p>Public college campuses, the TOPS tuition program and safety-net health care programs are expected to face deep reductions.</p>
|
The Latest: GOP lawmakers push against replacing full $1B
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/4ab22b40344a46f0acf82b1245aa42ef
|
2018-01-22
| 2least
|
The Latest: GOP lawmakers push against replacing full $1B
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Latest on Gov. John Bel Edwards' budget proposal for next year (all times local):</p>
<p>1 p.m.</p>
<p>Republican lawmakers are pushing back against suggestions they need to replace the entire $1 billion in expiring sales taxes to keep from enacting devastating cuts across Louisiana's budget.</p>
<p>The comments came Monday as Gov. John Bel Edwards presented his worst-case scenario budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year to lawmakers. As required, the budget proposal assumes the taxes won't be replaced.</p>
<p>Edwards is proposing to offset the expiring sales taxes with another tax package.</p>
<p>Rep. Rick Edmonds, of Baton Rouge, said changes to the federal tax code will generate additional dollars for the state treasury that should lower the budget gap.</p>
<p>Sen. Sharon Hewitt, of Slidell, says there are more opportunities to shrink the size of government. She questioned if the state needs to deliver all the services it currently offers.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:50 a.m.</p>
<p>The $25.3 billion worst-case scenario Louisiana operating budget outlined by Gov. John Bel Edwards would shutter health services and eliminate 80 percent of financing for the TOPS college tuition program.</p>
<p>Edwards' spending plan for the year beginning July 1 assumes lawmakers will refuse to replace $1 billion in expiring sales taxes and force widespread slashing across state government. He's required to submit a budget accounting only for dollars expected to be available.</p>
<p>The Democratic governor hopes the cuts won't happen, saying they would be devastating. Instead, Edwards wants lawmakers to pass a replacement tax package.</p>
<p>About two-thirds of the cut, $660 million, would hit health programs, ballooning to $2.3 billion with lost federal cash. TOPS would lose $233 million of its financing. College campuses would take an additional $26 million reduction.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5 a.m.</p>
<p>Gov. John Bel Edwards is readying to unveil his worst-case scenario budget, which assumes lawmakers will refuse to replace $1 billion in expiring sales taxes and force widespread slashing across state government.</p>
<p>The Democrat warned the proposal would be devastating to Louisiana residents. He presents it to the Legislature's joint budget committee Monday.</p>
<p>Edwards is required to submit a plan for the budget year starting July 1 that only accounts for the dollars expected to be available. The proposal won't include expiring sales taxes Edwards wants replaced with other taxes.</p>
<p>He's said cuts would balloon to $2.8 billion with lost federal matching dollars.</p>
<p>Public college campuses, the TOPS tuition program and safety-net health care programs are expected to face deep reductions.</p>
<p>BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Latest on Gov. John Bel Edwards' budget proposal for next year (all times local):</p>
<p>1 p.m.</p>
<p>Republican lawmakers are pushing back against suggestions they need to replace the entire $1 billion in expiring sales taxes to keep from enacting devastating cuts across Louisiana's budget.</p>
<p>The comments came Monday as Gov. John Bel Edwards presented his worst-case scenario budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year to lawmakers. As required, the budget proposal assumes the taxes won't be replaced.</p>
<p>Edwards is proposing to offset the expiring sales taxes with another tax package.</p>
<p>Rep. Rick Edmonds, of Baton Rouge, said changes to the federal tax code will generate additional dollars for the state treasury that should lower the budget gap.</p>
<p>Sen. Sharon Hewitt, of Slidell, says there are more opportunities to shrink the size of government. She questioned if the state needs to deliver all the services it currently offers.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>9:50 a.m.</p>
<p>The $25.3 billion worst-case scenario Louisiana operating budget outlined by Gov. John Bel Edwards would shutter health services and eliminate 80 percent of financing for the TOPS college tuition program.</p>
<p>Edwards' spending plan for the year beginning July 1 assumes lawmakers will refuse to replace $1 billion in expiring sales taxes and force widespread slashing across state government. He's required to submit a budget accounting only for dollars expected to be available.</p>
<p>The Democratic governor hopes the cuts won't happen, saying they would be devastating. Instead, Edwards wants lawmakers to pass a replacement tax package.</p>
<p>About two-thirds of the cut, $660 million, would hit health programs, ballooning to $2.3 billion with lost federal cash. TOPS would lose $233 million of its financing. College campuses would take an additional $26 million reduction.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>5 a.m.</p>
<p>Gov. John Bel Edwards is readying to unveil his worst-case scenario budget, which assumes lawmakers will refuse to replace $1 billion in expiring sales taxes and force widespread slashing across state government.</p>
<p>The Democrat warned the proposal would be devastating to Louisiana residents. He presents it to the Legislature's joint budget committee Monday.</p>
<p>Edwards is required to submit a plan for the budget year starting July 1 that only accounts for the dollars expected to be available. The proposal won't include expiring sales taxes Edwards wants replaced with other taxes.</p>
<p>He's said cuts would balloon to $2.8 billion with lost federal matching dollars.</p>
<p>Public college campuses, the TOPS tuition program and safety-net health care programs are expected to face deep reductions.</p>
| 5,249 |
<p />
<p>Coffee is grown around the world, from Kenya to Costa Rica, and is the world’s second-most valuable commodity after oil — but it may be in danger of extinction.</p>
<p>According to NEW SCIENTIST, the crops on those far-flung plantations nearly all derive from a handful of varieties of the arabica bean. Because there’s so little genetic variablity among the cultivated plants, they’re highly vulnerable to disease; coffee rust, for instance, devastated the Brazilian crop in the 1970s.</p>
<p>Until now, growers have always been able to get new stock from southwest Ethiopia, the genetic home of the arabica, where there are hundreds of varieties and arabica bushes make up much of the forest undergrowth. In the past 30 years, though, those forests have been cleared for lumber, plantations, and settlement by Ethiopians displaced by drought in other parts of the country. As a result, the forests have been drastically reduced, leaving their future, and that of your morning caffeine jolt, in jeopardy.</p>
<p />
|
Endangered espresso
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2000/06/endangered-espresso/
|
2000-06-23
| 4left
|
Endangered espresso
<p />
<p>Coffee is grown around the world, from Kenya to Costa Rica, and is the world’s second-most valuable commodity after oil — but it may be in danger of extinction.</p>
<p>According to NEW SCIENTIST, the crops on those far-flung plantations nearly all derive from a handful of varieties of the arabica bean. Because there’s so little genetic variablity among the cultivated plants, they’re highly vulnerable to disease; coffee rust, for instance, devastated the Brazilian crop in the 1970s.</p>
<p>Until now, growers have always been able to get new stock from southwest Ethiopia, the genetic home of the arabica, where there are hundreds of varieties and arabica bushes make up much of the forest undergrowth. In the past 30 years, though, those forests have been cleared for lumber, plantations, and settlement by Ethiopians displaced by drought in other parts of the country. As a result, the forests have been drastically reduced, leaving their future, and that of your morning caffeine jolt, in jeopardy.</p>
<p />
| 5,250 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>In the event that either Colón or Lujan Grisham, or their challengers for that matter, had occasion to come under investigation by the AG’s Office, Balderas would not only have a real conflict of interest, but also the attorneys in his office or any special prosecutor he might appoint would automatically inherit at the very least a potential and/or perceived conflict of interest.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, we got a preview of what could happen: Attorney A. Blair Dunn sent Balderas a letter requesting his office investigate how Colón’s key competitor, state auditor Tim Keller, was handling in-kind contributions. Dunn, who should know the proper authority for the Keller complaint is the seven-member city of Albuquerque Board of Ethics, sent similar letters to Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Albuquerque City Clerk Natalie Howard and Albuquerque City Attorney Jessica Hernandez.</p>
<p>The timing of the request – months after Keller’s campaign began filing finance reports, but so late in the election cycle that a ruling is unlikely before the Oct. 3 election – was clearly intentional, but that’s how the game is played these days.</p>
<p>Had the complaint belonged in Balderas’ office, our AG would have had to handle the hot potato of an investigation of a guy running against his personal pick. There’s just no way that plays well.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Publicly endorsing candidates puts Balderas in a difficult situation: Sure, he wants to help colleagues win votes, and his high-profile endorsement could likely sway some undecided voters – but he compromises his office by doing so. Should Colón win his campaign, any city cases going to Balderas could be perceived as biased in favor of the mayor. Likewise, should Keller or any of Colón’s other six challengers prevail in the race, an opposite bias could be inferred. Ditto for Lujan Grisham and her fellow gubernatorial candidates.</p>
<p>The higher road for anyone charged with ensuring that justice is fairly administered to everyone – candidate or not – is to forgo endorsing individual candidates for office. Balderas should focus on his official duties and forgo politics, at least until his next campaign.</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: Balderas’ endorsements set office up for conflict
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1064530/balderas-endorsements.html
| 2least
|
Editorial: Balderas’ endorsements set office up for conflict
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>In the event that either Colón or Lujan Grisham, or their challengers for that matter, had occasion to come under investigation by the AG’s Office, Balderas would not only have a real conflict of interest, but also the attorneys in his office or any special prosecutor he might appoint would automatically inherit at the very least a potential and/or perceived conflict of interest.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, we got a preview of what could happen: Attorney A. Blair Dunn sent Balderas a letter requesting his office investigate how Colón’s key competitor, state auditor Tim Keller, was handling in-kind contributions. Dunn, who should know the proper authority for the Keller complaint is the seven-member city of Albuquerque Board of Ethics, sent similar letters to Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Albuquerque City Clerk Natalie Howard and Albuquerque City Attorney Jessica Hernandez.</p>
<p>The timing of the request – months after Keller’s campaign began filing finance reports, but so late in the election cycle that a ruling is unlikely before the Oct. 3 election – was clearly intentional, but that’s how the game is played these days.</p>
<p>Had the complaint belonged in Balderas’ office, our AG would have had to handle the hot potato of an investigation of a guy running against his personal pick. There’s just no way that plays well.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Publicly endorsing candidates puts Balderas in a difficult situation: Sure, he wants to help colleagues win votes, and his high-profile endorsement could likely sway some undecided voters – but he compromises his office by doing so. Should Colón win his campaign, any city cases going to Balderas could be perceived as biased in favor of the mayor. Likewise, should Keller or any of Colón’s other six challengers prevail in the race, an opposite bias could be inferred. Ditto for Lujan Grisham and her fellow gubernatorial candidates.</p>
<p>The higher road for anyone charged with ensuring that justice is fairly administered to everyone – candidate or not – is to forgo endorsing individual candidates for office. Balderas should focus on his official duties and forgo politics, at least until his next campaign.</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 />
| 5,251 |
|
<p>Shares of Hexcel Corp. dropped 1.9% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the composites company provided a 2017 profit and sales outlook that was below expectations. The company expects earnings per share for next year in the range of $2.64 to $2.76, compared with the FactSet consensus of $2.79. Revenue is expected to be $2.05 billion to $2.15 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $2.16 billion. For its commercial aerospace business, which comprised over 70% of sales, the company expects sales growth in the mid-single digit percentage range in 2017, while the FactSet consensus implies 6.9% growth. The stock has run up 12% year to date through Monday, while the S&amp;P 500 has gained 10%.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
|
Hexcel's Stock Falls After Downbeat Profit And Sales Outlook
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/13/hexcel-stock-falls-after-downbeat-profit-and-sales-outlook.html
|
2016-12-13
| 0right
|
Hexcel's Stock Falls After Downbeat Profit And Sales Outlook
<p>Shares of Hexcel Corp. dropped 1.9% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the composites company provided a 2017 profit and sales outlook that was below expectations. The company expects earnings per share for next year in the range of $2.64 to $2.76, compared with the FactSet consensus of $2.79. Revenue is expected to be $2.05 billion to $2.15 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $2.16 billion. For its commercial aerospace business, which comprised over 70% of sales, the company expects sales growth in the mid-single digit percentage range in 2017, while the FactSet consensus implies 6.9% growth. The stock has run up 12% year to date through Monday, while the S&amp;P 500 has gained 10%.</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
| 5,252 |
<p>“But today, we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We are the inheritors of the true builders of our nation. The dispossessed, we are millions, and we thereby call upon our brothers and sisters to join this struggle as the only path, so that we will not die of hunger due to the insatiable ambition of a dictatorship led by a clique of traitors who represent the most conservative and sell-out groups. For hundreds of years we have been asking for and believing in promises that were never kept. We were always told to be patient and to wait for better times. They told us to be prudent, that the future would be different. But we see now that this isn’t true. Everything is the same or worse now than when our grandparents and parents lived. Our people are still dying from hunger and curable diseases, and live with ignorance, illiteracy and lack of culture. And we realize that if we don’t fight, our children can expect the same. And it is not fair. Necessity brought us together, and we said “Enough!” We no longer have the time or the will to wait for others to solve our problems.”</p>
<p>How honestly these words represent the Nepalese people’s struggle for freedom and democracy, for self-determination. But the people who uttered these words lived very far from Nepal, and perhaps the majority of them knew nothing about the Nepalese people and their struggle. These were the words of the Zapatistas declaring war against the Mexican state from Lacandona Jungle (December 31 1993). They expressed the sentiments of not only the Mexican Indians but of everyone who are waging the “struggle that is necessary to meet the demands that never have been met by [the] State [in their region]: work, land, shelter, food, health care, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice and peace”.</p>
<p>On April 9, the 4-day general strike in Nepal was supposed to end, but it continued. An activist said, “The Nepali people want the king to abdicate and he needs to go. There is no other option, otherwise the country will continue to see riots and demonstrations.”</p>
<p>Guardian reports, “On the border with India, hundreds of demonstrators stormed government buildings to declare Nepal’s Chitwan district the kingdom’s “first republic”. Troops later drove them out. It has also been reported that students in smaller towns have taken to the streets with the slogan “death to Gyanendra”.”</p>
<p>The New York Times informs what the editor of the Nepali Times wrote, “As we write this on Sunday noon, public anger is boiling overThis is a surprising uprising: even without the parties, neighborhoods have got together to set up road barricades, stoning police and pouring out into the streets to defy curfews. Each day that passes, the pro-democracy chariot is picking up momentum.”</p>
<p>This saying strangely connects once again the struggles on the two corners of the globe with each other. Well-known Marxist Harry Cleaver noted in 1994 in his Introduction to ‘Zapatistas! Documents of the New Mexican Revolution’, “Today, the social equivalent of an earthquake is rumbling through Mexican society. Every day brings reports of people moving to action. Campesinos [villagers] and Indigenous peoples completely independent of the EZLN [Zapatista Army of National Liberation] are taking up its battle cries and occupying municipal government buildings, blockading banks, seizing lands and demanding “Libertad.” Students and workers are being inspired not just to “support the campesinos” but to launch their own strikes throughout the Mexican social factory.”</p>
<p>A prominent pro-democracy and peace activist, Mathura P Shrestha (a retired professor and former Secretary of Health, aged 72), arrested for endangering the security and sovereignty of the country poses Lokatantra (full democracy) against formal democracy in his interview to Lucia de Vries, “Lokatantra is the rule of the people. Nepal was democratic until four hundred years ago. People didn’t vote but they talked until a consensus was reached. Only the powerful voted What I am researching now is how the dictatorship of the proletariat can be transformed into the rule of the proletariat. If a constituent assembly is properly elected we can establish the rule of the people. I do not think ceremonial monarchy goes together with lokatantra”</p>
<p>But the US State Department still chants, “Dialogue between Nepal’s constitutional political forces, the King and opposition political parties is the only effective way to return Nepal to democracy and address its Maoist insurgency”. It refuses to acknowledge that insurgency is general, just backed by the Maoists and democrats. India too refuses to listen to the unrest in Nepal and demonstrations of solidarity in its own streets.</p>
<p>But, again stealing words from Cleaver, “[L]earning to listen is not always easy, even today. To clear the way, we have to learn to cut through the “noise” of official discourse, to recognize and avoid debates over how to “solve” the crisis within the old frameworks. We have to learn to decode the official jargon, to cut through the euphemisms that cloak the “business as usual”.”</p>
<p>On April 8, “the rallies occurred on the 16th anniversary of Nepal’s first pro-democracy movement, when the present king’s brother and predecessor, Birendra, accepted demands for parliamentary elections. Political activists say the king needs to “understand the public”. (Guardian) Officially three people died in Nepal in police firings, and Nepalese Home Minister vows, “We will get stricter now to preserve law and order and keep the situation normal”(BBC), as the general strike becomes indefinite.</p>
<p>The Nepalese Royalty’s pig-headedness has proved at least to the Nepalese people, what Baburam Bhattarai said in his reply to the International Crisis Group in 2003, “Laat ko bhoot baat le mandaina” (the devil of force won’t listen to persuasion).</p>
<p>And, today the Nepali says in her own way: YA BASTA! Enough is enough!!! A protester told Reuters news agency, “We are not afraid of bullets, we have to get democracy at any cost and we will get it.” (BBC)</p>
<p>[For latest news and views on Nepal, visit International Nepal Solidarity Network’s website, <a href="http://www.insn.org/" type="external">http://www.insn.org/</a>]</p>
<p>PRATYUSH CHANDRA can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
|
Nepalis Say, "Ya Basta!"
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2006/04/11/nepalis-say-quot-ya-basta-quot/
|
2006-04-11
| 4left
|
Nepalis Say, "Ya Basta!"
<p>“But today, we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We are the inheritors of the true builders of our nation. The dispossessed, we are millions, and we thereby call upon our brothers and sisters to join this struggle as the only path, so that we will not die of hunger due to the insatiable ambition of a dictatorship led by a clique of traitors who represent the most conservative and sell-out groups. For hundreds of years we have been asking for and believing in promises that were never kept. We were always told to be patient and to wait for better times. They told us to be prudent, that the future would be different. But we see now that this isn’t true. Everything is the same or worse now than when our grandparents and parents lived. Our people are still dying from hunger and curable diseases, and live with ignorance, illiteracy and lack of culture. And we realize that if we don’t fight, our children can expect the same. And it is not fair. Necessity brought us together, and we said “Enough!” We no longer have the time or the will to wait for others to solve our problems.”</p>
<p>How honestly these words represent the Nepalese people’s struggle for freedom and democracy, for self-determination. But the people who uttered these words lived very far from Nepal, and perhaps the majority of them knew nothing about the Nepalese people and their struggle. These were the words of the Zapatistas declaring war against the Mexican state from Lacandona Jungle (December 31 1993). They expressed the sentiments of not only the Mexican Indians but of everyone who are waging the “struggle that is necessary to meet the demands that never have been met by [the] State [in their region]: work, land, shelter, food, health care, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice and peace”.</p>
<p>On April 9, the 4-day general strike in Nepal was supposed to end, but it continued. An activist said, “The Nepali people want the king to abdicate and he needs to go. There is no other option, otherwise the country will continue to see riots and demonstrations.”</p>
<p>Guardian reports, “On the border with India, hundreds of demonstrators stormed government buildings to declare Nepal’s Chitwan district the kingdom’s “first republic”. Troops later drove them out. It has also been reported that students in smaller towns have taken to the streets with the slogan “death to Gyanendra”.”</p>
<p>The New York Times informs what the editor of the Nepali Times wrote, “As we write this on Sunday noon, public anger is boiling overThis is a surprising uprising: even without the parties, neighborhoods have got together to set up road barricades, stoning police and pouring out into the streets to defy curfews. Each day that passes, the pro-democracy chariot is picking up momentum.”</p>
<p>This saying strangely connects once again the struggles on the two corners of the globe with each other. Well-known Marxist Harry Cleaver noted in 1994 in his Introduction to ‘Zapatistas! Documents of the New Mexican Revolution’, “Today, the social equivalent of an earthquake is rumbling through Mexican society. Every day brings reports of people moving to action. Campesinos [villagers] and Indigenous peoples completely independent of the EZLN [Zapatista Army of National Liberation] are taking up its battle cries and occupying municipal government buildings, blockading banks, seizing lands and demanding “Libertad.” Students and workers are being inspired not just to “support the campesinos” but to launch their own strikes throughout the Mexican social factory.”</p>
<p>A prominent pro-democracy and peace activist, Mathura P Shrestha (a retired professor and former Secretary of Health, aged 72), arrested for endangering the security and sovereignty of the country poses Lokatantra (full democracy) against formal democracy in his interview to Lucia de Vries, “Lokatantra is the rule of the people. Nepal was democratic until four hundred years ago. People didn’t vote but they talked until a consensus was reached. Only the powerful voted What I am researching now is how the dictatorship of the proletariat can be transformed into the rule of the proletariat. If a constituent assembly is properly elected we can establish the rule of the people. I do not think ceremonial monarchy goes together with lokatantra”</p>
<p>But the US State Department still chants, “Dialogue between Nepal’s constitutional political forces, the King and opposition political parties is the only effective way to return Nepal to democracy and address its Maoist insurgency”. It refuses to acknowledge that insurgency is general, just backed by the Maoists and democrats. India too refuses to listen to the unrest in Nepal and demonstrations of solidarity in its own streets.</p>
<p>But, again stealing words from Cleaver, “[L]earning to listen is not always easy, even today. To clear the way, we have to learn to cut through the “noise” of official discourse, to recognize and avoid debates over how to “solve” the crisis within the old frameworks. We have to learn to decode the official jargon, to cut through the euphemisms that cloak the “business as usual”.”</p>
<p>On April 8, “the rallies occurred on the 16th anniversary of Nepal’s first pro-democracy movement, when the present king’s brother and predecessor, Birendra, accepted demands for parliamentary elections. Political activists say the king needs to “understand the public”. (Guardian) Officially three people died in Nepal in police firings, and Nepalese Home Minister vows, “We will get stricter now to preserve law and order and keep the situation normal”(BBC), as the general strike becomes indefinite.</p>
<p>The Nepalese Royalty’s pig-headedness has proved at least to the Nepalese people, what Baburam Bhattarai said in his reply to the International Crisis Group in 2003, “Laat ko bhoot baat le mandaina” (the devil of force won’t listen to persuasion).</p>
<p>And, today the Nepali says in her own way: YA BASTA! Enough is enough!!! A protester told Reuters news agency, “We are not afraid of bullets, we have to get democracy at any cost and we will get it.” (BBC)</p>
<p>[For latest news and views on Nepal, visit International Nepal Solidarity Network’s website, <a href="http://www.insn.org/" type="external">http://www.insn.org/</a>]</p>
<p>PRATYUSH CHANDRA can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
| 5,253 |
<p />
<p>At Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC) Feb. 9 investor meeting, the company talked a little bit about chip manufacturing -- arguably, the company's core competency. Though the company didn't dedicate a whole presentation to chip-manufacturing technology as it has in recent years -- apparently, the company will be doing an entirely separate presentation sometime in the first half of this year -- Intel executive Murthy Renduchintala did take the opportunity to highlight that the company has a three-year lead over competing chip manufacturers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In this column, I'd like to put that claim under the microscope and see if it checks out.</p>
<p>Check out the following slide from Intel:</p>
<p>Intel logic-cell area competitive comparison. Image source: Intel.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The focus of this presentation was on a metric that Intel calls "effective logic cell area" -- essentially, the lower the number, the better.</p>
<p>The company claims that its 14-nanometer technology, which went into high-volume production in the first half of 2014, will have had clear leadership in this metric until Intel's competition -- Samsung (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE: TSM) -- release their 10-nanometer technologies in the first half of this year.Intel's chart seems to suggest that those 10-nanometer technologies will offer comparable logic-cell areas to Intel's 14-nanometer technology -- though the chart indicates that Intel's 14-nanometer technology will be slightly behind on this metric.</p>
<p>During his presentation, Renduchintala also indicated that he expects that Intel will "continue to maintain a three-year lead, even after [Intel's] competitors release their 10-nanometer plans during the course of this year."</p>
<p>Intel has made a reasonable case for why its 14-nanometer technology is more comparable to competing 10-nanometer technologies than to competing 14/16-nanometer technologies -- at least when it comes to logic-cell area.Intel has also done a good job explaining why its 10-nanometer technology should give the company a significant logic-cell area lead over competing 10-nanometer technologies. Intel's chart also indicates, quite honestly, that its 10-nanometer technology will go into production a few quarters later than competing 10-nanometer technologies.</p>
<p>What the chart is missing, however, is information regarding competing 7-nanometer technologies. It's not clear when Samsung intends to go into mass production on its 7-nanometer technology, but TSMC has said that it intends to go into mass production on its 7-nanometer technology in the first half of 2018.Presumably, this technology will be shipping in very high volumes in support of Apple's 2018 iPhone.</p>
<p>TSMC is claiming a significant area reduction for its 7-nanometer technology relative to its 10-nanometer technology -- EETimes reports a 1.63 times increase in routed gate density for TSMC's 7-nanometer tech compared to its 10-nanometer tech -- so it seems likely that Intel will have far less of a lead during its 10-nanometer generation than it did during its 14-nanometer generation.</p>
<p>At this point, I'm struggling to see how Intel can justify its claim that, in terms of logic-cell density, it will be able to maintain a three-year lead over TSMC, as it looks as though Intel's lead will shrink generation over generation.</p>
<p>Intel is expected to do a full day's worth of presentations related to chip-manufacturing technology at some point in the first half of this year. I hope the company will provide more detail about its future technology plans -- both 10-nanometer and 7-nanometer -- as well as, perhaps, a more detailed and comprehensive competitive comparison.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than IntelWhen 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=b3adb269-d924-4ca2-9a05-e2887dfed030&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 Intel 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=b3adb269-d924-4ca2-9a05-e2887dfed030&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/aeassa/info.aspx" type="external">Ashraf Eassa</a> owns shares of Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. 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>
|
Intel Corporation Claims 3-Year Manufacturing Tech Lead
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/14/intel-corporation-claims-3-year-manufacturing-tech-lead.html
|
2017-02-14
| 0right
|
Intel Corporation Claims 3-Year Manufacturing Tech Lead
<p />
<p>At Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC) Feb. 9 investor meeting, the company talked a little bit about chip manufacturing -- arguably, the company's core competency. Though the company didn't dedicate a whole presentation to chip-manufacturing technology as it has in recent years -- apparently, the company will be doing an entirely separate presentation sometime in the first half of this year -- Intel executive Murthy Renduchintala did take the opportunity to highlight that the company has a three-year lead over competing chip manufacturers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>In this column, I'd like to put that claim under the microscope and see if it checks out.</p>
<p>Check out the following slide from Intel:</p>
<p>Intel logic-cell area competitive comparison. Image source: Intel.</p>
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<p>The focus of this presentation was on a metric that Intel calls "effective logic cell area" -- essentially, the lower the number, the better.</p>
<p>The company claims that its 14-nanometer technology, which went into high-volume production in the first half of 2014, will have had clear leadership in this metric until Intel's competition -- Samsung (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE: TSM) -- release their 10-nanometer technologies in the first half of this year.Intel's chart seems to suggest that those 10-nanometer technologies will offer comparable logic-cell areas to Intel's 14-nanometer technology -- though the chart indicates that Intel's 14-nanometer technology will be slightly behind on this metric.</p>
<p>During his presentation, Renduchintala also indicated that he expects that Intel will "continue to maintain a three-year lead, even after [Intel's] competitors release their 10-nanometer plans during the course of this year."</p>
<p>Intel has made a reasonable case for why its 14-nanometer technology is more comparable to competing 10-nanometer technologies than to competing 14/16-nanometer technologies -- at least when it comes to logic-cell area.Intel has also done a good job explaining why its 10-nanometer technology should give the company a significant logic-cell area lead over competing 10-nanometer technologies. Intel's chart also indicates, quite honestly, that its 10-nanometer technology will go into production a few quarters later than competing 10-nanometer technologies.</p>
<p>What the chart is missing, however, is information regarding competing 7-nanometer technologies. It's not clear when Samsung intends to go into mass production on its 7-nanometer technology, but TSMC has said that it intends to go into mass production on its 7-nanometer technology in the first half of 2018.Presumably, this technology will be shipping in very high volumes in support of Apple's 2018 iPhone.</p>
<p>TSMC is claiming a significant area reduction for its 7-nanometer technology relative to its 10-nanometer technology -- EETimes reports a 1.63 times increase in routed gate density for TSMC's 7-nanometer tech compared to its 10-nanometer tech -- so it seems likely that Intel will have far less of a lead during its 10-nanometer generation than it did during its 14-nanometer generation.</p>
<p>At this point, I'm struggling to see how Intel can justify its claim that, in terms of logic-cell density, it will be able to maintain a three-year lead over TSMC, as it looks as though Intel's lead will shrink generation over generation.</p>
<p>Intel is expected to do a full day's worth of presentations related to chip-manufacturing technology at some point in the first half of this year. I hope the company will provide more detail about its future technology plans -- both 10-nanometer and 7-nanometer -- as well as, perhaps, a more detailed and comprehensive competitive comparison.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than IntelWhen 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=b3adb269-d924-4ca2-9a05-e2887dfed030&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 Intel 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=b3adb269-d924-4ca2-9a05-e2887dfed030&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/aeassa/info.aspx" type="external">Ashraf Eassa</a> owns shares of Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. 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>
| 5,254 |
<p>Republican opposition to the GOP health care bill swelled to near-fatal numbers Sunday as Sen. Susan Collins all but closed the door on supporting the last-ditch effort to scrap the Obama health care law and Sen. Ted Cruz said that "right now" he doesn't back it.</p>
<p>In a late bid to win votes and stave off defeat, Republicans were adding $14.5 billion to the measure for states, according to documents obtained late Sunday by The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>White House legislative liaison Marc Short and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the measure's sponsors, said Republicans would press ahead with a vote this week. But the comments by Collins and Cruz left the Republican drive to uproot President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act dangling by an increasingly fraying thread.</p>
<p>A vote must occur this week for Republicans to prevail with their narrow Senate majority. Next Sunday, protections expire against a Democratic filibuster, bill-killing delays that Republicans lack the votes to overcome.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump seemed to distance himself from the showdown, saying his "primary focus" was his party's drive to cut taxes.</p>
<p>"I don't know what they're doing," Trump told reporters about the bill's GOP opponents as he prepared to fly back to Washington after a weekend at his New Jersey golf club. "But you know what? Eventually we'll win, whether it's now or later."</p>
<p>Two GOP senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona, have already said they oppose the legislation. All Democrats will vote against it. "No" votes from three of the 52 GOP senators would kill the party's effort to deliver on its perennial vow to repeal "Obamacare" and would reprise the party's politically jarring failure to accomplish that this summer.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Collins cited the bill's cuts in the Medicaid program for low-income people and the likelihood that it would result in many losing health coverage and paying higher premiums. The Maine moderate also criticized a provision letting states make it easier for insurers to raise premiums on people with pre-existing medical conditions.</p>
<p>"It's very difficult for me to envision a scenario where I would end up voting for this bill," said Collins.</p>
<p>The conservative Cruz also voiced opposition, underscoring the bill's problems with both ends of the GOP spectrum.</p>
<p>"Right now, they don't have my vote," Cruz said at a festival in Austin, Texas. He suggested the measure doesn't do enough to reduce premiums by allowing insurers to sell less comprehensive coverage than Obama's law allows.</p>
<p>Cruz said he doesn't think fellow conservative Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, backs the GOP bill. Lee spokesman Conn Carroll said Lee wants "technical changes" but hasn't finalized his position.</p>
<p>A chart Republicans circulated Sunday said the legislation's grants would provide 14 percent more for Arizona than under Obama's law, 4 percent more for Kentucky 49 percent more for Texas and 3 percent more for Alaska, home to home to undecided GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and Maine, home to Sen. Collins, would get 43 percent more." Some extra money is specifically directed at sparsely populated states.</p>
<p>The numbers are misleading, partly because they omit GOP Medicaid cuts from clamping per-person spending caps on the program, said Matt House, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. In a statement, Schumer said the measure would "throw our health insurance system into chaos."</p>
<p>"We're moving forward and we'll see what happens next week," Graham said earlier Sunday.</p>
<p>Paul said even though the bill transforms federal health care dollars into block grants states would control, the GOP bill left too much of that spending intact.</p>
<p>"Block granting Obamacare doesn't make it go away," Paul said.</p>
<p>McCain has complained that Republicans should have worked with Democrats in reshaping the country's $3 trillion-a-year health care system and cited uncertainty over the bill's impact on consumers.</p>
<p>Murkowski has remained uncommitted, saying she's studying the bill's impact on Alaska. Her state's officials released a report Friday citing "unique challenges" and deep cuts the measure would impose on the state. She and Collins were the only Republicans who voted "no" on four pivotal votes on earlier versions of the GOP legislation in July.</p>
<p>Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he intends to have a vote this week but has stopped short of firmly committing to it. The White House's Short said he expects a vote Wednesday.</p>
<p>The bill would repeal much of the 2010 law, including its tax penalties on people who don't buy insurance and on larger employers not offering coverage to workers. States could loosen coverage requirements under the law's mandates, including prohibiting insurers from charging seriously ill people higher premiums and letting them sell policies covering fewer services.</p>
<p>It would eliminate Obama's expansion of Medicaid and the subsidies the law provides millions of people to reduce their premiums and out of pocket costs, substituting block grants to states.</p>
<p>Collins was on CBS' "Face the Nation" and CNN's "State of the Union," Graham appeared on ABC's "This Week" and Paul was on NBC's "Meet the Press," and Short was on CBS, NBC and "Fox News Sunday."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Catherine Lucey in Somerset, New Jersey, contributed to this report.</p>
|
Republicans make desperate bid to save health care bill
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/24/sen-collins-likely-against-gop-health-bill-in-latest-blow.html
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2017-09-24
| 0right
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Republicans make desperate bid to save health care bill
<p>Republican opposition to the GOP health care bill swelled to near-fatal numbers Sunday as Sen. Susan Collins all but closed the door on supporting the last-ditch effort to scrap the Obama health care law and Sen. Ted Cruz said that "right now" he doesn't back it.</p>
<p>In a late bid to win votes and stave off defeat, Republicans were adding $14.5 billion to the measure for states, according to documents obtained late Sunday by The Associated Press.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>White House legislative liaison Marc Short and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the measure's sponsors, said Republicans would press ahead with a vote this week. But the comments by Collins and Cruz left the Republican drive to uproot President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act dangling by an increasingly fraying thread.</p>
<p>A vote must occur this week for Republicans to prevail with their narrow Senate majority. Next Sunday, protections expire against a Democratic filibuster, bill-killing delays that Republicans lack the votes to overcome.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump seemed to distance himself from the showdown, saying his "primary focus" was his party's drive to cut taxes.</p>
<p>"I don't know what they're doing," Trump told reporters about the bill's GOP opponents as he prepared to fly back to Washington after a weekend at his New Jersey golf club. "But you know what? Eventually we'll win, whether it's now or later."</p>
<p>Two GOP senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona, have already said they oppose the legislation. All Democrats will vote against it. "No" votes from three of the 52 GOP senators would kill the party's effort to deliver on its perennial vow to repeal "Obamacare" and would reprise the party's politically jarring failure to accomplish that this summer.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Collins cited the bill's cuts in the Medicaid program for low-income people and the likelihood that it would result in many losing health coverage and paying higher premiums. The Maine moderate also criticized a provision letting states make it easier for insurers to raise premiums on people with pre-existing medical conditions.</p>
<p>"It's very difficult for me to envision a scenario where I would end up voting for this bill," said Collins.</p>
<p>The conservative Cruz also voiced opposition, underscoring the bill's problems with both ends of the GOP spectrum.</p>
<p>"Right now, they don't have my vote," Cruz said at a festival in Austin, Texas. He suggested the measure doesn't do enough to reduce premiums by allowing insurers to sell less comprehensive coverage than Obama's law allows.</p>
<p>Cruz said he doesn't think fellow conservative Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, backs the GOP bill. Lee spokesman Conn Carroll said Lee wants "technical changes" but hasn't finalized his position.</p>
<p>A chart Republicans circulated Sunday said the legislation's grants would provide 14 percent more for Arizona than under Obama's law, 4 percent more for Kentucky 49 percent more for Texas and 3 percent more for Alaska, home to home to undecided GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and Maine, home to Sen. Collins, would get 43 percent more." Some extra money is specifically directed at sparsely populated states.</p>
<p>The numbers are misleading, partly because they omit GOP Medicaid cuts from clamping per-person spending caps on the program, said Matt House, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. In a statement, Schumer said the measure would "throw our health insurance system into chaos."</p>
<p>"We're moving forward and we'll see what happens next week," Graham said earlier Sunday.</p>
<p>Paul said even though the bill transforms federal health care dollars into block grants states would control, the GOP bill left too much of that spending intact.</p>
<p>"Block granting Obamacare doesn't make it go away," Paul said.</p>
<p>McCain has complained that Republicans should have worked with Democrats in reshaping the country's $3 trillion-a-year health care system and cited uncertainty over the bill's impact on consumers.</p>
<p>Murkowski has remained uncommitted, saying she's studying the bill's impact on Alaska. Her state's officials released a report Friday citing "unique challenges" and deep cuts the measure would impose on the state. She and Collins were the only Republicans who voted "no" on four pivotal votes on earlier versions of the GOP legislation in July.</p>
<p>Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he intends to have a vote this week but has stopped short of firmly committing to it. The White House's Short said he expects a vote Wednesday.</p>
<p>The bill would repeal much of the 2010 law, including its tax penalties on people who don't buy insurance and on larger employers not offering coverage to workers. States could loosen coverage requirements under the law's mandates, including prohibiting insurers from charging seriously ill people higher premiums and letting them sell policies covering fewer services.</p>
<p>It would eliminate Obama's expansion of Medicaid and the subsidies the law provides millions of people to reduce their premiums and out of pocket costs, substituting block grants to states.</p>
<p>Collins was on CBS' "Face the Nation" and CNN's "State of the Union," Graham appeared on ABC's "This Week" and Paul was on NBC's "Meet the Press," and Short was on CBS, NBC and "Fox News Sunday."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Catherine Lucey in Somerset, New Jersey, contributed to this report.</p>
| 5,255 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>New Mexico’s endowment funds dropped in value during the last quarter as stock markets declined around the globe.</p>
<p>The State Investment Council reports the Land Grant Permanent Fund had a negative return of 6.4 percent from March through June. The fund had a quarter-ending value of nearly $9 billion. That’s down about a half billion dollars for the quarter.</p>
<p>The Severance Tax Permanent Fund also had a negative return, losing 7.1 percent for the quarter. It was valued at almost $3.4 billion at the end of June. That’s down more than a quarter of a billion dollars for the quarter.</p>
<p>The permanent funds provide yearly distributions of money for general government operations, schools and other public institutions.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
State’s Permanent Funds Suffer Losses as Markets Slump
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/8676/states-permanent-funds-suffer-losses-as-markets-slump.html
| 2least
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State’s Permanent Funds Suffer Losses as Markets Slump
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>New Mexico’s endowment funds dropped in value during the last quarter as stock markets declined around the globe.</p>
<p>The State Investment Council reports the Land Grant Permanent Fund had a negative return of 6.4 percent from March through June. The fund had a quarter-ending value of nearly $9 billion. That’s down about a half billion dollars for the quarter.</p>
<p>The Severance Tax Permanent Fund also had a negative return, losing 7.1 percent for the quarter. It was valued at almost $3.4 billion at the end of June. That’s down more than a quarter of a billion dollars for the quarter.</p>
<p>The permanent funds provide yearly distributions of money for general government operations, schools and other public institutions.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 5,256 |
|
<p />
<p>Twitter announced on Thursday the launch of its standalone music application, called Twitter #music, which suggests artists and songs to users based on their accounts on the microblogging service.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>According to a company blog post, the app is available through Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store and will be rolled out on the web Thursday morning. Twitter said it plans to bring the service to Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android.</p>
<p>Twitter #music uses three providers, Apple’s iTunes, Spotify and Rdio. App users will hear preview clips from iTunes by default.&#160; Users of Spotify or Rdio can log into their accounts and hear full tracks.</p>
<p>Twitter confirmed last year’s acquisition of music recommendation service We Are Hunted. According to All Things Digital, the microblogging service began to work on the new music app at that time.</p>
<p>Last week, Twitter confirmed last year’s acquisition of music recommendation service We Are Hunted. According to All Things Digital, the company began to work on its new music app at that time.</p>
|
Twitter Launches Music App
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/04/18/twitter-launches-music-app.html
|
2016-03-06
| 0right
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Twitter Launches Music App
<p />
<p>Twitter announced on Thursday the launch of its standalone music application, called Twitter #music, which suggests artists and songs to users based on their accounts on the microblogging service.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>According to a company blog post, the app is available through Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store and will be rolled out on the web Thursday morning. Twitter said it plans to bring the service to Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android.</p>
<p>Twitter #music uses three providers, Apple’s iTunes, Spotify and Rdio. App users will hear preview clips from iTunes by default.&#160; Users of Spotify or Rdio can log into their accounts and hear full tracks.</p>
<p>Twitter confirmed last year’s acquisition of music recommendation service We Are Hunted. According to All Things Digital, the microblogging service began to work on the new music app at that time.</p>
<p>Last week, Twitter confirmed last year’s acquisition of music recommendation service We Are Hunted. According to All Things Digital, the company began to work on its new music app at that time.</p>
| 5,257 |
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>You’ve got to hand it to President and Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush. Only last month, virtually the entire world was in agreement that Saddam Hussein was one of the world’s great villains. Not only was there near universal condemnation of his domestic tyranny, there were also rigorous sanctions being applied against his regime, and the U.N. was conducting an aggressive campaign of searching out and destroying his more dangerous weapons.</p>
<p>Now, in less than a week, our benighted own maximum leader has managed to do something that this grotesque megalomaniac had failed to accomplish for 30 years despite billions of oil dollars spent on arms and millions more spent on blanketing his country with statues and murals: He has made the Butcher of Baghdad into a hero of Third World resistance.</p>
<p>Incredibly, the U.S. military’s massive, illegal invasion of Iraq has almost overnight galvanized at least some of the people of Iraq into death-defying guerrilla fighters willing to take on Apache helicopters and Abrams tanks of the most powerful military machine the world has ever known with hand-held weapons, and has reportedly even convinced exiled opponents of Hussein to sneak back into the country to help defend their country against the aggressors.</p>
<p>And it can only get worse.</p>
<p>Each Iraqi fighter killed now leaves behind a grieving family that can be counted on to harbor a blood hatred for the countries that caused their loss. Ergo: more recruits for Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and those “Al Qaeda-type” organizations.</p>
<p>Each nomad family driven from its home by American troops holds bitter thoughts of revenge.</p>
<p>Each family that watches its home demolished by American or British cannons will remember the loss. Each family that loses a child or a parent to American bombs will become a potential enemy.</p>
<p>None of this can be very comforting to think about for the American troops who will have to serve as occupiers over the coming months and years if things go well for America–or for their families back home.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, across the vast stretches of northern Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, and on out into the island nations of the Pacific, Islamic peoples watching on television the wholesale destruction of one of Islam’s oldest regions, are cheering the astonishing and indeed inspiring resistance being displayed by the vastly outgunned Iraqis.</p>
<p>In a few short days of battle, the War on Iraq has become a no-win situation for the U.S.</p>
<p>If America wins at this point after an inevitably bloody battle for Baghdad, the resulting country will be ungovernable, except under the most brutal of martial law regimes–a quagmire-type situation that promises an endless string of American casualties and another grim monument to insanity on the increasingly crowded Washington Mall.</p>
<p>If America loses–something that is at least being contemplated by some military experts because of the inability of the military to secure the 350-mile supply line from the Persian Gulf to the Baghdad front line–it could signal the end of American superpower status in the world, spurring nations around the globe to resist American threats and imperial demands.</p>
<p>If there is a stalemate, with the slaughter continuing on both sides and no likelihood of a resolution of the fight, the pressures from around the world, from Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, for a cease-fire will become irresistible, even as the peace movement at home will mushroom. Bush bet mightily on this war to secure his position as a powerful leader, harkening to the ill-conceived advice of a group of narrow-minded ideologues with little knowledge of either military strategy or Middle East history.</p>
<p>Now he appears doomed to become another Lyndon Johnson, throwing more and more ordinance at and spilling more and more blood in a country far from home, while his political future drains away. In the wake of the 9-11 terror attacks on America, George Bush looked unstoppable for a second term as president.</p>
<p>No longer.</p>
<p>DAVID LINDORFF is the author of Killing Time, an investigation into the death penalty case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. <a href="http://www.nwuphilly.org/dave.html" type="external">Find out more about Lindorff on his website.</a></p>
<p>Yesterday’s Features</p>
<p>Pablo Mukherjee <a href="" type="internal">Watch Their Lips</a></p>
<p>David Krieger <a href="" type="internal">Shock But Not Awe</a></p>
<p>Linda Heard <a href="" type="internal">Winning Hearts and Minds Bush—————-Style</a></p>
<p>Imad Jadaa <a href="" type="internal">The Beautiful Face of America</a></p>
<p>Adam Engel <a href="" type="internal">Buckets of Blood</a></p>
<p>Patrick Cockburn <a href="" type="internal">Kurds Unimpressed</a></p>
<p>DAVID LINDORFF <a href="" type="internal">POWs, Torture and Hypocrisy</a></p>
<p>Robert Fisk <a href="" type="internal">The Coup That Didn’t Happen</a></p>
<p>April Hurley, MD <a href="" type="internal">A Doctor’s Outrage in Baghdad</a></p>
<p>Gloria Bergen <a href="" type="internal">Chretien’s Shame</a></p>
<p>Reema Abu Hamdieh <a href="" type="internal">The Smell of Death Surrounds Me</a></p>
<p>Website of the War <a href="http://www.iraqbodycount.net/" type="external">Iraq Body Count</a></p>
<p>Keep CounterPunch Alive: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/Donations.html" type="external">Make a Tax—————-Deductible Donation Today Online!</a></p>
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|
Bombing Saddam into Glory
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2003/03/28/bombing-saddam-into-glory/
|
2003-03-28
| 4left
|
Bombing Saddam into Glory
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>You’ve got to hand it to President and Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush. Only last month, virtually the entire world was in agreement that Saddam Hussein was one of the world’s great villains. Not only was there near universal condemnation of his domestic tyranny, there were also rigorous sanctions being applied against his regime, and the U.N. was conducting an aggressive campaign of searching out and destroying his more dangerous weapons.</p>
<p>Now, in less than a week, our benighted own maximum leader has managed to do something that this grotesque megalomaniac had failed to accomplish for 30 years despite billions of oil dollars spent on arms and millions more spent on blanketing his country with statues and murals: He has made the Butcher of Baghdad into a hero of Third World resistance.</p>
<p>Incredibly, the U.S. military’s massive, illegal invasion of Iraq has almost overnight galvanized at least some of the people of Iraq into death-defying guerrilla fighters willing to take on Apache helicopters and Abrams tanks of the most powerful military machine the world has ever known with hand-held weapons, and has reportedly even convinced exiled opponents of Hussein to sneak back into the country to help defend their country against the aggressors.</p>
<p>And it can only get worse.</p>
<p>Each Iraqi fighter killed now leaves behind a grieving family that can be counted on to harbor a blood hatred for the countries that caused their loss. Ergo: more recruits for Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and those “Al Qaeda-type” organizations.</p>
<p>Each nomad family driven from its home by American troops holds bitter thoughts of revenge.</p>
<p>Each family that watches its home demolished by American or British cannons will remember the loss. Each family that loses a child or a parent to American bombs will become a potential enemy.</p>
<p>None of this can be very comforting to think about for the American troops who will have to serve as occupiers over the coming months and years if things go well for America–or for their families back home.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, across the vast stretches of northern Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, and on out into the island nations of the Pacific, Islamic peoples watching on television the wholesale destruction of one of Islam’s oldest regions, are cheering the astonishing and indeed inspiring resistance being displayed by the vastly outgunned Iraqis.</p>
<p>In a few short days of battle, the War on Iraq has become a no-win situation for the U.S.</p>
<p>If America wins at this point after an inevitably bloody battle for Baghdad, the resulting country will be ungovernable, except under the most brutal of martial law regimes–a quagmire-type situation that promises an endless string of American casualties and another grim monument to insanity on the increasingly crowded Washington Mall.</p>
<p>If America loses–something that is at least being contemplated by some military experts because of the inability of the military to secure the 350-mile supply line from the Persian Gulf to the Baghdad front line–it could signal the end of American superpower status in the world, spurring nations around the globe to resist American threats and imperial demands.</p>
<p>If there is a stalemate, with the slaughter continuing on both sides and no likelihood of a resolution of the fight, the pressures from around the world, from Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, for a cease-fire will become irresistible, even as the peace movement at home will mushroom. Bush bet mightily on this war to secure his position as a powerful leader, harkening to the ill-conceived advice of a group of narrow-minded ideologues with little knowledge of either military strategy or Middle East history.</p>
<p>Now he appears doomed to become another Lyndon Johnson, throwing more and more ordinance at and spilling more and more blood in a country far from home, while his political future drains away. In the wake of the 9-11 terror attacks on America, George Bush looked unstoppable for a second term as president.</p>
<p>No longer.</p>
<p>DAVID LINDORFF is the author of Killing Time, an investigation into the death penalty case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. <a href="http://www.nwuphilly.org/dave.html" type="external">Find out more about Lindorff on his website.</a></p>
<p>Yesterday’s Features</p>
<p>Pablo Mukherjee <a href="" type="internal">Watch Their Lips</a></p>
<p>David Krieger <a href="" type="internal">Shock But Not Awe</a></p>
<p>Linda Heard <a href="" type="internal">Winning Hearts and Minds Bush—————-Style</a></p>
<p>Imad Jadaa <a href="" type="internal">The Beautiful Face of America</a></p>
<p>Adam Engel <a href="" type="internal">Buckets of Blood</a></p>
<p>Patrick Cockburn <a href="" type="internal">Kurds Unimpressed</a></p>
<p>DAVID LINDORFF <a href="" type="internal">POWs, Torture and Hypocrisy</a></p>
<p>Robert Fisk <a href="" type="internal">The Coup That Didn’t Happen</a></p>
<p>April Hurley, MD <a href="" type="internal">A Doctor’s Outrage in Baghdad</a></p>
<p>Gloria Bergen <a href="" type="internal">Chretien’s Shame</a></p>
<p>Reema Abu Hamdieh <a href="" type="internal">The Smell of Death Surrounds Me</a></p>
<p>Website of the War <a href="http://www.iraqbodycount.net/" type="external">Iraq Body Count</a></p>
<p>Keep CounterPunch Alive: <a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/Donations.html" type="external">Make a Tax—————-Deductible Donation Today Online!</a></p>
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| 5,258 |
<p>Philippines, for decades a limping invalid, poor and suffering from countless ailments, is now suddenly finding itself at the vanguard, reshuffling the entire Asia Pacific, sending Western imperialists packing.</p>
<p>In Manila, where the US used to roam unopposed, now Russian warships are calling on goodwill and symbolic visits.</p>
<p>On January 6 2017, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte boarded the Russian anti-submarine combat vessel Admiral Tributs, chatted with its officers, and then declared, loudly and clearly: “Friends, long live! That’s from the heart; I hope you can come back more often.”</p>
<p>Definitely, Russians will be happy to come back!</p>
<p>Associated Press (AP) reported on January 6:</p>
<p>“Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who accompanied Duterte on the ship tour, expressed optimism about “the start of a partnership” between the two countries’ defense establishments when he met with Russian navy officials Thursday night.</p>
<p>“May our common aspirations for regional and global peace and security enable us to become good partners, cooperating and coordinating towards tranquil and safe seas for all,” Lorenzana said on board the Admiral Tributs.</p>
<p>He said during his trip to Russia in early December, he agreed with Russian defense officials to finalize a memorandum of understanding that will be the basis of future military engagements, including joint military exercises, so it can be signed during Duterte’s planned trip to Russia…”</p>
<p>President Duterte openly admires Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is planning to visit Moscow in April and he has already expressed his hope that Russia would become his country’s ‘ally and protector’.</p>
<p>The Philippines is also rapidly moving closer to China. There is significant improvement of bilateral relationships. Tension over disputed territories in the South China Sea is being gradually defused, and Manila is increasingly considering Beijing as its new and powerful ally, investor and partner, definitely not as an enemy.</p>
<p>While he is lashing at the US, the EU and the UN, (calling President Barack Obama “son-of-a-whore”, and telling him to “go to hell!”), Mr. Duterte defines China as “the kindest nation”.</p>
<p>This sort of rhetoric, let alone policies, can never be overlooked or forgiven by the West.</p>
<p>A couple consisting of leading Philippine Academics, Eduardo and Teresa Tadem, explained the new direction of their country’s foreign policy:</p>
<p>“The trend is clear: away from the West, towards China and Russia. We think that he [Duterte] will soon reach a territorial agreement with China. Plenty of goodwill is now coming from President Xi Jinping. Things are done quietly, but some great concessions are already visible: our fishermen are allowed to return to the disputed area. China is pledging foreign aid, investment, and it is promising to make our railways work again.”</p>
<p>However, Dr. Reynaldo Ileto, a leading Filipino historian, is concerned about Duterte’s survival, should he move too quickly with the regional realignment:</p>
<p>“He cannot break up with the United States too abruptly… he’d be killed.”</p>
<p>For a while, in Manila, we were discussing the pattern established; the way the West treats the ‘rebellious’ countries and their governments: Ukraine, Brazil, and even the former President of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo.</p>
<p>“Arroyo moved closer to China”, explained Dr. Ileto: “They got her indicted for corruption. Only Duterte managed to release her.”</p>
<p>Antagonizing China, even provoking it into a military conflict, has been the mainstay of US foreign policy in Asia, at least during the later years of the Obama administration. This dangerous trend will most likely continue, even accelerate, after Donald Trump takes over the Presidency of the US.</p>
<p>President Duterte’s stubborn determination to reach a peaceful arrangement with China may put him squarely on the hit list of the Western Empire.</p>
<p>Prof. Roland Simbulan from the Department of Social Sciences of the University of the Philippines confirms what Dr. Ileto suggested above:</p>
<p>“If Duterte moves too fast, he will be overthrown, by the military. He is an outsider. Police and army hold grudges against him. Many top military commanders here were trained by the US, and often even corrupted by the US. Duterte’s anti-US and anti-imperialist policy goes beyond rhetoric; it is real. He is confrontational, he is against the US foreign policy towards the Philippines and the world.”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>However, President Duterte is not only a self-proclaimed socialist, he is also a pragmatist.</p>
<p>For him, this is the best time to take advantage of confusion caused by the upcoming administration of Donald Trump and its frequent anti-Asian outbursts.</p>
<p>Japan’s MP, Shinzo Abe, is looking for new allies in the Asia Pacific and beyond. His country is in disarray, horrified by Trump and his doctrines.</p>
<p>China and Russia may be Mr. Duterte’s two new soul mates, but the deep pockets of Tokyo cannot be fully neglected either.</p>
<p>During his two-day visit to the Philippines, Mr. Abe pledged to provide 1 trillion yen ($8.7 billion) in funding and investment. He also promised to assist with deteriorated infrastructure, and to help the Philippines with the maritime security vessels and aircraft. Japan is the Philippines’ largest provider of aid, a substantial source of remittances.</p>
<p>Japan’s help is not expected to be altruistic. It is clearly understood by the analysts that Mr. Abe is now using his subtle diplomatic skills and financial incentives in order to seduce President Duterte into returning back to the US-Japan camp, and even abandoning the new alliance that is being presently forged between the Philippines, China, Russia and possibly Vietnam.</p>
<p>It is a complex and dangerous game, which at the end of the road may lead to a war, even to a global conflict. There is absolutely no doubt on which side Japan has been standing.</p>
<p>Both Japan and the Philippines have territorial disputes with China, but while the Philippines is lately opting for compromise and peaceful settlement, Japan is increasingly choosing a confrontational path.</p>
<p>PM Shinzo Abe is well aware of the fact that later this year, the Philippines will be hosting the ASEAN meeting and therefore in a position to control the focus and influence the language of the joint communiqués. That is why he is willing to eat simple cakes and (at least metaphorically) sing his sweet and seductive songs in Duterte’s humble home in Davao.</p>
<p>It is highly unlikely that President Duterte would scale down his cooperation with Beijing just in order to get his hands on a few more secondhand coastguard vessels, or for an extra dose of foreign aid. However, he is likely to continue maintaining his close relationship with Tokyo, as his country has been doing for decades. To emphasize it, he declared during his meeting with the PM Shinzo Abe:</p>
<p>“In Tokyo, I said that Japan deserves its own rightful place in the constellation of the Philippines’ friends… Tonight, let me reiterate that Japan is a friend closer than a brother. That means that Japan is a friend unlike any other.”</p>
<p>Perhaps, or maybe not…</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>This is an extremely critical moment for Asia. China and Russia are rising, while old allies of the West, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are either in decline or in distress. The Philippines and Vietnam are calculating their next moves. Thailand, Malaysia and even Indonesia are suddenly uncertain about their previously staunch pro-Western stands.</p>
<p>Father of the imperialist ‘Pivot to Asia’, President Barack Obama, is stepping down. Aggressive and anti-Asian leader Donald Trump is ascending to the throne. When it comes to the Empire and its involvement in Asia, things are getting from bad to worse.</p>
<p>It is clear that the West is not willing to tolerate the leadership of Beijing even on China’s own continent.</p>
<p>Now Washington has to deal with one more obstacle to its complete rule. Once fully obedient and submissive, a poor former US colony, the Philippines, is suddenly roaring, flexing its muscle, negotiating independently for the best deals available, and searching for its own destiny. Just one year ago all this would be unimaginable, but it is happening now.</p>
<p>The entire Asian continent is watching and so is, most likely, the entire political, military and intelligence establishment of the West.</p>
<p>The process is very quick (dangerously quick, say many in Manila), and Washington can hardly keep up with the changes. President Duterte is governing his complex country for only six months, and there are already many fundamental developments.</p>
<p>Russian warships are visiting Manila and future joint exercises are being discussed, even planned. China and the Philippines are talking peace, friendship, cooperation and even railways. Vietnam and the Philippines are moving closer. Japan is suddenly coming as a humble friend, not as an economic bully.</p>
<p>For the Philippines, 2017 will be decisive: the country will establish itself as one of the main catalysts of the changes in Asia, or it could collapse, be destroyed, from outside or from inside, with substantial external ‘help’.</p>
<p>This piece was originally published by NEO.</p>
|
The Asian Realignment
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2017/01/25/the-asian-realignment/
|
2017-01-25
| 4left
|
The Asian Realignment
<p>Philippines, for decades a limping invalid, poor and suffering from countless ailments, is now suddenly finding itself at the vanguard, reshuffling the entire Asia Pacific, sending Western imperialists packing.</p>
<p>In Manila, where the US used to roam unopposed, now Russian warships are calling on goodwill and symbolic visits.</p>
<p>On January 6 2017, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte boarded the Russian anti-submarine combat vessel Admiral Tributs, chatted with its officers, and then declared, loudly and clearly: “Friends, long live! That’s from the heart; I hope you can come back more often.”</p>
<p>Definitely, Russians will be happy to come back!</p>
<p>Associated Press (AP) reported on January 6:</p>
<p>“Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who accompanied Duterte on the ship tour, expressed optimism about “the start of a partnership” between the two countries’ defense establishments when he met with Russian navy officials Thursday night.</p>
<p>“May our common aspirations for regional and global peace and security enable us to become good partners, cooperating and coordinating towards tranquil and safe seas for all,” Lorenzana said on board the Admiral Tributs.</p>
<p>He said during his trip to Russia in early December, he agreed with Russian defense officials to finalize a memorandum of understanding that will be the basis of future military engagements, including joint military exercises, so it can be signed during Duterte’s planned trip to Russia…”</p>
<p>President Duterte openly admires Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is planning to visit Moscow in April and he has already expressed his hope that Russia would become his country’s ‘ally and protector’.</p>
<p>The Philippines is also rapidly moving closer to China. There is significant improvement of bilateral relationships. Tension over disputed territories in the South China Sea is being gradually defused, and Manila is increasingly considering Beijing as its new and powerful ally, investor and partner, definitely not as an enemy.</p>
<p>While he is lashing at the US, the EU and the UN, (calling President Barack Obama “son-of-a-whore”, and telling him to “go to hell!”), Mr. Duterte defines China as “the kindest nation”.</p>
<p>This sort of rhetoric, let alone policies, can never be overlooked or forgiven by the West.</p>
<p>A couple consisting of leading Philippine Academics, Eduardo and Teresa Tadem, explained the new direction of their country’s foreign policy:</p>
<p>“The trend is clear: away from the West, towards China and Russia. We think that he [Duterte] will soon reach a territorial agreement with China. Plenty of goodwill is now coming from President Xi Jinping. Things are done quietly, but some great concessions are already visible: our fishermen are allowed to return to the disputed area. China is pledging foreign aid, investment, and it is promising to make our railways work again.”</p>
<p>However, Dr. Reynaldo Ileto, a leading Filipino historian, is concerned about Duterte’s survival, should he move too quickly with the regional realignment:</p>
<p>“He cannot break up with the United States too abruptly… he’d be killed.”</p>
<p>For a while, in Manila, we were discussing the pattern established; the way the West treats the ‘rebellious’ countries and their governments: Ukraine, Brazil, and even the former President of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo.</p>
<p>“Arroyo moved closer to China”, explained Dr. Ileto: “They got her indicted for corruption. Only Duterte managed to release her.”</p>
<p>Antagonizing China, even provoking it into a military conflict, has been the mainstay of US foreign policy in Asia, at least during the later years of the Obama administration. This dangerous trend will most likely continue, even accelerate, after Donald Trump takes over the Presidency of the US.</p>
<p>President Duterte’s stubborn determination to reach a peaceful arrangement with China may put him squarely on the hit list of the Western Empire.</p>
<p>Prof. Roland Simbulan from the Department of Social Sciences of the University of the Philippines confirms what Dr. Ileto suggested above:</p>
<p>“If Duterte moves too fast, he will be overthrown, by the military. He is an outsider. Police and army hold grudges against him. Many top military commanders here were trained by the US, and often even corrupted by the US. Duterte’s anti-US and anti-imperialist policy goes beyond rhetoric; it is real. He is confrontational, he is against the US foreign policy towards the Philippines and the world.”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>However, President Duterte is not only a self-proclaimed socialist, he is also a pragmatist.</p>
<p>For him, this is the best time to take advantage of confusion caused by the upcoming administration of Donald Trump and its frequent anti-Asian outbursts.</p>
<p>Japan’s MP, Shinzo Abe, is looking for new allies in the Asia Pacific and beyond. His country is in disarray, horrified by Trump and his doctrines.</p>
<p>China and Russia may be Mr. Duterte’s two new soul mates, but the deep pockets of Tokyo cannot be fully neglected either.</p>
<p>During his two-day visit to the Philippines, Mr. Abe pledged to provide 1 trillion yen ($8.7 billion) in funding and investment. He also promised to assist with deteriorated infrastructure, and to help the Philippines with the maritime security vessels and aircraft. Japan is the Philippines’ largest provider of aid, a substantial source of remittances.</p>
<p>Japan’s help is not expected to be altruistic. It is clearly understood by the analysts that Mr. Abe is now using his subtle diplomatic skills and financial incentives in order to seduce President Duterte into returning back to the US-Japan camp, and even abandoning the new alliance that is being presently forged between the Philippines, China, Russia and possibly Vietnam.</p>
<p>It is a complex and dangerous game, which at the end of the road may lead to a war, even to a global conflict. There is absolutely no doubt on which side Japan has been standing.</p>
<p>Both Japan and the Philippines have territorial disputes with China, but while the Philippines is lately opting for compromise and peaceful settlement, Japan is increasingly choosing a confrontational path.</p>
<p>PM Shinzo Abe is well aware of the fact that later this year, the Philippines will be hosting the ASEAN meeting and therefore in a position to control the focus and influence the language of the joint communiqués. That is why he is willing to eat simple cakes and (at least metaphorically) sing his sweet and seductive songs in Duterte’s humble home in Davao.</p>
<p>It is highly unlikely that President Duterte would scale down his cooperation with Beijing just in order to get his hands on a few more secondhand coastguard vessels, or for an extra dose of foreign aid. However, he is likely to continue maintaining his close relationship with Tokyo, as his country has been doing for decades. To emphasize it, he declared during his meeting with the PM Shinzo Abe:</p>
<p>“In Tokyo, I said that Japan deserves its own rightful place in the constellation of the Philippines’ friends… Tonight, let me reiterate that Japan is a friend closer than a brother. That means that Japan is a friend unlike any other.”</p>
<p>Perhaps, or maybe not…</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>This is an extremely critical moment for Asia. China and Russia are rising, while old allies of the West, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are either in decline or in distress. The Philippines and Vietnam are calculating their next moves. Thailand, Malaysia and even Indonesia are suddenly uncertain about their previously staunch pro-Western stands.</p>
<p>Father of the imperialist ‘Pivot to Asia’, President Barack Obama, is stepping down. Aggressive and anti-Asian leader Donald Trump is ascending to the throne. When it comes to the Empire and its involvement in Asia, things are getting from bad to worse.</p>
<p>It is clear that the West is not willing to tolerate the leadership of Beijing even on China’s own continent.</p>
<p>Now Washington has to deal with one more obstacle to its complete rule. Once fully obedient and submissive, a poor former US colony, the Philippines, is suddenly roaring, flexing its muscle, negotiating independently for the best deals available, and searching for its own destiny. Just one year ago all this would be unimaginable, but it is happening now.</p>
<p>The entire Asian continent is watching and so is, most likely, the entire political, military and intelligence establishment of the West.</p>
<p>The process is very quick (dangerously quick, say many in Manila), and Washington can hardly keep up with the changes. President Duterte is governing his complex country for only six months, and there are already many fundamental developments.</p>
<p>Russian warships are visiting Manila and future joint exercises are being discussed, even planned. China and the Philippines are talking peace, friendship, cooperation and even railways. Vietnam and the Philippines are moving closer. Japan is suddenly coming as a humble friend, not as an economic bully.</p>
<p>For the Philippines, 2017 will be decisive: the country will establish itself as one of the main catalysts of the changes in Asia, or it could collapse, be destroyed, from outside or from inside, with substantial external ‘help’.</p>
<p>This piece was originally published by NEO.</p>
| 5,259 |
<p>PHOENIX (AZ)Arizona Daily SunPHOENIX -- Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien insisted Tuesday he did nothing wrong despite his admission to Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley that he let priests accused of molesting children work with minors.</p>
<p>In an interview with Capitol Media Services, the bishop said he agreed to the 14-point settlement with Romley to finally end the year-long investigation. "That's a long time to be under scrutiny,'' he said.</p>
<p>O'Brien did not deny that he transferred priests who had allegations of sexual misconduct from parish to parish. And he acknowledged that the nature of the charges were not always disclosed to local officials or parishioners.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>But that, he said, does not mean he believes he acted improperly.</p>
<p>"I never intentionally assigned a priest to a parish where I thought he was going to offend,'' the bishop said.</p>
|
Bishop says he did no wrong
| false |
https://poynter.org/news/bishop-says-he-did-no-wrong
|
2003-06-04
| 2least
|
Bishop says he did no wrong
<p>PHOENIX (AZ)Arizona Daily SunPHOENIX -- Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien insisted Tuesday he did nothing wrong despite his admission to Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley that he let priests accused of molesting children work with minors.</p>
<p>In an interview with Capitol Media Services, the bishop said he agreed to the 14-point settlement with Romley to finally end the year-long investigation. "That's a long time to be under scrutiny,'' he said.</p>
<p>O'Brien did not deny that he transferred priests who had allegations of sexual misconduct from parish to parish. And he acknowledged that the nature of the charges were not always disclosed to local officials or parishioners.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>But that, he said, does not mean he believes he acted improperly.</p>
<p>"I never intentionally assigned a priest to a parish where I thought he was going to offend,'' the bishop said.</p>
| 5,260 |
<p>Sixty-three people <a href="http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/05/31/memorial-day-weekend-violence-shootings/" type="external">were shot</a> - of whom 6 were killed including a 15-year-old girl - over the Memorial Day weekend in Chicago.</p>
<p>Last year’s saw 55 people shot - of whom 12 were killed - over the same holiday weekend.</p>
<p>Witnesses were uncooperative with law enforcement investigations.</p>
<p>Four of the 63 people shot were caught in a crossfire while two males began shooting at each other. The four people were made up of a 52-year-old man, a 30-year-old man, and two women aged 18 and 19. All four were shot in their lower extremities and were listed in good condition as of early Tuesday.</p>
<p>Chicago’s murder rate <a href="" type="internal">has risen 84 percent</a> since the previous year when comparing the period of January to March.</p>
<p>Violent crime <a href="" type="internal">has risen across major cities</a> in 2016 when compared with 2015, with 141 homicides in Chicago during the year’s first quarter. Chicago saw 83 homicides during the first quarter of last year.</p>
<p>The Windy City’s mayor <a href="https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160531/garfield-park/6-killed-63-wounded-memorial-day-weekend-shootings-police-say" type="external">commented</a> on the shootings and killings.</p>
<p />
<p>"It's unacceptable," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a Tuesday morning news conference at City Hall. "Memorial Day is a time when we begin our summer. Families should be able to enjoy the time in their backyard, their barbecues, the beaches, and a lot of families did. But a lot of individual families did not."</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p>
|
Chicago: War Zone For Memorial Day Weekend
| true |
https://dailywire.com/news/6185/chicago-war-zone-memorial-day-weekend-robert-kraychik
|
2016-05-31
| 0right
|
Chicago: War Zone For Memorial Day Weekend
<p>Sixty-three people <a href="http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/05/31/memorial-day-weekend-violence-shootings/" type="external">were shot</a> - of whom 6 were killed including a 15-year-old girl - over the Memorial Day weekend in Chicago.</p>
<p>Last year’s saw 55 people shot - of whom 12 were killed - over the same holiday weekend.</p>
<p>Witnesses were uncooperative with law enforcement investigations.</p>
<p>Four of the 63 people shot were caught in a crossfire while two males began shooting at each other. The four people were made up of a 52-year-old man, a 30-year-old man, and two women aged 18 and 19. All four were shot in their lower extremities and were listed in good condition as of early Tuesday.</p>
<p>Chicago’s murder rate <a href="" type="internal">has risen 84 percent</a> since the previous year when comparing the period of January to March.</p>
<p>Violent crime <a href="" type="internal">has risen across major cities</a> in 2016 when compared with 2015, with 141 homicides in Chicago during the year’s first quarter. Chicago saw 83 homicides during the first quarter of last year.</p>
<p>The Windy City’s mayor <a href="https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160531/garfield-park/6-killed-63-wounded-memorial-day-weekend-shootings-police-say" type="external">commented</a> on the shootings and killings.</p>
<p />
<p>"It's unacceptable," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a Tuesday morning news conference at City Hall. "Memorial Day is a time when we begin our summer. Families should be able to enjoy the time in their backyard, their barbecues, the beaches, and a lot of families did. But a lot of individual families did not."</p>
<p>Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k" type="external">Twitter</a>.</p>
| 5,261 |
<p />
<p>Shares of BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) retreated another 2% Wednesday morning after Citigroup (NYSE:C) issued a “sell” rating on the struggling smartphone maker due to a lack of options for a turnaround.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The bearish analyst research underscores the extremely difficult position BlackBerry finds itself in due to bleeding cash, a depleted market position and a continued brain drain.</p>
<p>“We see no clear-cut strategy, simple or otherwise, to help BBRY out of the strategic box it finds itself in,” Citi analyst Ehud Gelblum wrote in a note issued Tuesday afternoon.</p>
<p>Gelblum assumed coverage with a “sell” rating on the Canadian smartphone maker and set a $4 price target, which represents a 33% plunge from the company’s Tuesday close at $5.97.</p>
<p>Citi said even simply shutting BlackBerry down would come close to wiping out the company’s cash balance, which the current valuation is based on. Separation and shut-down costs could approach $1 billion and purchase commitments would add another $2.9 billion for BlackBerry, which has cash balances of $2.6 billion plus a $1 billion investment from Prem Watsa’s Fairfax, Citi said.</p>
<p>“Short of a longshot turnaround and commercialization of the BBM business, we see few options for the company,” Gelblum wrote. “We are dubious as to which aspects of the handset business, software or hardware, Blackberry could successfully compete in.”</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>BlackBerry would be worth more in a breakup scenario, but the current management does not appear to be following this strategy, Citi said.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, BlackBerry’s <a href="" type="internal">tentative $4.7 billion sale to Watsa’s group imploded</a> and no other suitors have placed a formal bid.</p>
<p>The Canadian government reportedly <a href="" type="internal">shot down efforts by Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group to acquire BlackBerry due to national-security jitters.</a></p>
<p>Shares of Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry fell 2.19% to $5.84 Wednesday morning, deepening its 2013 plunge to 50%.</p>
|
Citigroup Slaps 'Sell' Rating on BlackBerry Amid Dwindling Options
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/12/11/citigroup-slaps-sell-rating-on-blackberry-amid-dwindling-options.html
|
2016-03-06
| 0right
|
Citigroup Slaps 'Sell' Rating on BlackBerry Amid Dwindling Options
<p />
<p>Shares of BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) retreated another 2% Wednesday morning after Citigroup (NYSE:C) issued a “sell” rating on the struggling smartphone maker due to a lack of options for a turnaround.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The bearish analyst research underscores the extremely difficult position BlackBerry finds itself in due to bleeding cash, a depleted market position and a continued brain drain.</p>
<p>“We see no clear-cut strategy, simple or otherwise, to help BBRY out of the strategic box it finds itself in,” Citi analyst Ehud Gelblum wrote in a note issued Tuesday afternoon.</p>
<p>Gelblum assumed coverage with a “sell” rating on the Canadian smartphone maker and set a $4 price target, which represents a 33% plunge from the company’s Tuesday close at $5.97.</p>
<p>Citi said even simply shutting BlackBerry down would come close to wiping out the company’s cash balance, which the current valuation is based on. Separation and shut-down costs could approach $1 billion and purchase commitments would add another $2.9 billion for BlackBerry, which has cash balances of $2.6 billion plus a $1 billion investment from Prem Watsa’s Fairfax, Citi said.</p>
<p>“Short of a longshot turnaround and commercialization of the BBM business, we see few options for the company,” Gelblum wrote. “We are dubious as to which aspects of the handset business, software or hardware, Blackberry could successfully compete in.”</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>BlackBerry would be worth more in a breakup scenario, but the current management does not appear to be following this strategy, Citi said.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, BlackBerry’s <a href="" type="internal">tentative $4.7 billion sale to Watsa’s group imploded</a> and no other suitors have placed a formal bid.</p>
<p>The Canadian government reportedly <a href="" type="internal">shot down efforts by Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group to acquire BlackBerry due to national-security jitters.</a></p>
<p>Shares of Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry fell 2.19% to $5.84 Wednesday morning, deepening its 2013 plunge to 50%.</p>
| 5,262 |
<p>If you are a military member or spouse, please come join me this Thursday at the Fox and Friends plaza in Midtown Manhattan for a live career fair featuring some of the largest companies in the nation that are focused on getting you Deployed to Employed.</p>
<p>Until then, I’ve got five companies today that are looking for qualified candidates in technology, food service, and finance.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Happy hunting!</p>
<p>CC</p>
<p>SITEL – An outsourced customer-care service company that supports some of the world’s best-known brands with customer acquisition, customer care, technical support and social media programs.</p>
<p>GATE GOURMET&#160;-&#160;The world’s largest independent provider of catering and provisioning services for the airline industry.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>TIGERDIRECT – North American reseller of Consumer and Business electronics and systems -- everything from home security and automation to laptops, computers, and software</p>
<p>FIREHOUSE SUBS – Fast-casual chain and the only restaurant concept using a steaming method to create hot subs.</p>
<p>EDWARD JONES – Provides financial services for nearly 7 million clients in the U.S. and Canada.</p>
|
Hired!
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2014/01/09/hired.html
|
2016-03-04
| 0right
|
Hired!
<p>If you are a military member or spouse, please come join me this Thursday at the Fox and Friends plaza in Midtown Manhattan for a live career fair featuring some of the largest companies in the nation that are focused on getting you Deployed to Employed.</p>
<p>Until then, I’ve got five companies today that are looking for qualified candidates in technology, food service, and finance.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Happy hunting!</p>
<p>CC</p>
<p>SITEL – An outsourced customer-care service company that supports some of the world’s best-known brands with customer acquisition, customer care, technical support and social media programs.</p>
<p>GATE GOURMET&#160;-&#160;The world’s largest independent provider of catering and provisioning services for the airline industry.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>TIGERDIRECT – North American reseller of Consumer and Business electronics and systems -- everything from home security and automation to laptops, computers, and software</p>
<p>FIREHOUSE SUBS – Fast-casual chain and the only restaurant concept using a steaming method to create hot subs.</p>
<p>EDWARD JONES – Provides financial services for nearly 7 million clients in the U.S. and Canada.</p>
| 5,263 |
<p />
<p>A list of the 24 Democratic-held House seats that the Republican Party is targeting in ’08 was released today, and it provided the Campaign Finance Institute with everything it needed to go to town.</p>
<p>The folks there compared the fundraising and cash-on-hand for the supposedly weak Democratic incumbents and their Republican challengers. Take a look at these numbers.</p>
<p>Arizona 8 Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) – $1,317,357 on hand Timothy Bee (R) – $161,246 on hand</p>
<p>California 11 Rep. Jerry McNerney (D) – $924,605 on hand Dean Andal (R) – $471,190 on hand</p>
<p>Kentucky 3 Rep. John Yarmuth (D) – $659,231 on hand Erwin Roberts (R) – $95,076 on hand</p>
<p>Texas 23 Rep. Ciro Rodriquez (D) – $661,224 on hand Francisco “Quico” Canseco (R) – $45,430 on hand</p>
<p>These numbers, lopsided as they are, were more or less chosen at random. In no race does the Republican challenger have more money than the Dem incumbent; in only one, New Hampshire’s 1st, is it even close. Usually, the Democrat has anywhere from two to six times the cash on hand. The exception is Oregon’s 5th, where there is no incumbent.</p>
<p>Check out the full list <a href="http://www.cfinst.org/pr/prRelease.aspx?ReleaseID=185" type="external">here</a>. And check out how much each of the major party organs have <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/parties/index.asp?cycle=2008&amp;type=C" type="external">here</a>. There is a serious problem for the GOP. It’s what I meant when I said John McCain has to <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/03/7471_mccain.html" type="external">rebuild the Death Star</a>.</p>
<p />
|
House Races Across the Country: Time for the GOP to Scare Up Some Dollars
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/03/house-races-across-country-time-gop-scare-some-dollars/
|
2008-03-06
| 4left
|
House Races Across the Country: Time for the GOP to Scare Up Some Dollars
<p />
<p>A list of the 24 Democratic-held House seats that the Republican Party is targeting in ’08 was released today, and it provided the Campaign Finance Institute with everything it needed to go to town.</p>
<p>The folks there compared the fundraising and cash-on-hand for the supposedly weak Democratic incumbents and their Republican challengers. Take a look at these numbers.</p>
<p>Arizona 8 Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) – $1,317,357 on hand Timothy Bee (R) – $161,246 on hand</p>
<p>California 11 Rep. Jerry McNerney (D) – $924,605 on hand Dean Andal (R) – $471,190 on hand</p>
<p>Kentucky 3 Rep. John Yarmuth (D) – $659,231 on hand Erwin Roberts (R) – $95,076 on hand</p>
<p>Texas 23 Rep. Ciro Rodriquez (D) – $661,224 on hand Francisco “Quico” Canseco (R) – $45,430 on hand</p>
<p>These numbers, lopsided as they are, were more or less chosen at random. In no race does the Republican challenger have more money than the Dem incumbent; in only one, New Hampshire’s 1st, is it even close. Usually, the Democrat has anywhere from two to six times the cash on hand. The exception is Oregon’s 5th, where there is no incumbent.</p>
<p>Check out the full list <a href="http://www.cfinst.org/pr/prRelease.aspx?ReleaseID=185" type="external">here</a>. And check out how much each of the major party organs have <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/parties/index.asp?cycle=2008&amp;type=C" type="external">here</a>. There is a serious problem for the GOP. It’s what I meant when I said John McCain has to <a href="/mojoblog/archives/2008/03/7471_mccain.html" type="external">rebuild the Death Star</a>.</p>
<p />
| 5,264 |
<p>The virtual currency Bitcoin suffered steep devaluation on Wednesday, falling from $266 to $105 and inducing a sell-off before leveling out at $120 on Thursday.</p>
<p>Bitcoin users began furiously searching for an explanation Wednesday as the value of Bitcoin tumbled. Theories included government conspiracies to devalue Bitcoin; attempted market manipulation by hackers; DDoS attacks or a simple market self-correction.&#160;</p>
<p>While many were quick to declare an end to the Bitcoin bubble, Bitcoin has still retained significant value. Even following Wednesday’s panic, Bitcoin’s value has still increased by approximately $20 since its April 1 valuation at $100.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-grid/value-bitcoin-explodes-upward-former-bitcoin-gambling-addict" type="external">As value of Bitcoin explodes upward, former Bitcoin gambling addict laments losses</a></p>
<p>"Most transactions are still coming from affluent regions, like the United States and northern Europe. What we are seeing is not a Cyprus bubble," Bitcoin foundation member Jon Matonis pointed told the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/apr/10/bitcoin-new-high-losing-160" type="external">Guardian</a>.</p>
<p>Mt. Gox, the world’s largest Bitcoin currency exchange, explained that a large influx of new accounts early Wednesday caused their system to experience heavy amounts of lag. In spite of calls to remain calm, as the time for transactions to process lengthened, users — suspecting a market crash — began selling large amounts of Bitcoin.&#160;</p>
<p>On Thursday afternoon, Mt. Gox <a href="https://mtgox.com/press_release_20130411.html" type="external">suspended</a> Bitcoin trading until 2 a.m. GMT Friday to allow for market "cooldown."</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-grid/ddos-attack-strengthens-us-banks-scramble-mitigate-website-outa" type="external">As DDoS attack strengthens, US Banks scramble to mitigate website outages</a></p>
<p>“… We would like to reassure you but no we were not last night victim of a DDoS but instead victim of our own success!” read a statement released by Mt. Gox on Thursday.&#160;</p>
<p>“Indeed the rather astonishing amount of new account opened in the last few days added to the existing one plus the number of trade made a huge impact on the overall system that started to lag. As expected in such situation people started to panic, started to sell Bitcoin in mass (Panic Sale) resulting in an increase of trade that ultimately froze the trade engine!” read the statement.</p>
<p>Bitcoin users were quick to condemn Mt. Gox for waiting until hours after the crash to inform users why transactions were so slow — since that slowness had only worsened the panic.&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-grid/redditor-uses-forum-confess-alleged-murder" type="external">Redditor uses forum to confess to alleged murder</a></p>
<p>Calling Mt. Gox a de facto Bitcoin central bank, many users are encouraging other Bitcoin advocates to take their business to <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1c4k1w/help_phase_out_mt_gox/" type="external">other currency exchanges</a>, hoping to avoid another crash induced by a lack of information from exchange platforms.</p>
<p>“Right now MtGox acts more and more like a central bank. It sets the price of Bitcoin. If it breaks, the price breaks too (goes down). And again people start talking about decentralized exchanges. We already have a lot of exchanges. Just start using them! Arbitrage traders/bots will do the rest,” wrote one user of&#160; <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=173251.0" type="external">bitcointalk.org</a>, a popular Bitcoin discussion forum.&#160;</p>
<p>Users across the internet also called on the Bitcoin community to begin using alternatives to Mt. Gox.</p>
|
Bitcoin survives sell-off, returns to last week's valuation
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2013-04-11/bitcoin-survives-sell-returns-last-weeks-valuation
|
2013-04-11
| 3left-center
|
Bitcoin survives sell-off, returns to last week's valuation
<p>The virtual currency Bitcoin suffered steep devaluation on Wednesday, falling from $266 to $105 and inducing a sell-off before leveling out at $120 on Thursday.</p>
<p>Bitcoin users began furiously searching for an explanation Wednesday as the value of Bitcoin tumbled. Theories included government conspiracies to devalue Bitcoin; attempted market manipulation by hackers; DDoS attacks or a simple market self-correction.&#160;</p>
<p>While many were quick to declare an end to the Bitcoin bubble, Bitcoin has still retained significant value. Even following Wednesday’s panic, Bitcoin’s value has still increased by approximately $20 since its April 1 valuation at $100.</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-grid/value-bitcoin-explodes-upward-former-bitcoin-gambling-addict" type="external">As value of Bitcoin explodes upward, former Bitcoin gambling addict laments losses</a></p>
<p>"Most transactions are still coming from affluent regions, like the United States and northern Europe. What we are seeing is not a Cyprus bubble," Bitcoin foundation member Jon Matonis pointed told the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/apr/10/bitcoin-new-high-losing-160" type="external">Guardian</a>.</p>
<p>Mt. Gox, the world’s largest Bitcoin currency exchange, explained that a large influx of new accounts early Wednesday caused their system to experience heavy amounts of lag. In spite of calls to remain calm, as the time for transactions to process lengthened, users — suspecting a market crash — began selling large amounts of Bitcoin.&#160;</p>
<p>On Thursday afternoon, Mt. Gox <a href="https://mtgox.com/press_release_20130411.html" type="external">suspended</a> Bitcoin trading until 2 a.m. GMT Friday to allow for market "cooldown."</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-grid/ddos-attack-strengthens-us-banks-scramble-mitigate-website-outa" type="external">As DDoS attack strengthens, US Banks scramble to mitigate website outages</a></p>
<p>“… We would like to reassure you but no we were not last night victim of a DDoS but instead victim of our own success!” read a statement released by Mt. Gox on Thursday.&#160;</p>
<p>“Indeed the rather astonishing amount of new account opened in the last few days added to the existing one plus the number of trade made a huge impact on the overall system that started to lag. As expected in such situation people started to panic, started to sell Bitcoin in mass (Panic Sale) resulting in an increase of trade that ultimately froze the trade engine!” read the statement.</p>
<p>Bitcoin users were quick to condemn Mt. Gox for waiting until hours after the crash to inform users why transactions were so slow — since that slowness had only worsened the panic.&#160;</p>
<p>More from GlobalPost:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-grid/redditor-uses-forum-confess-alleged-murder" type="external">Redditor uses forum to confess to alleged murder</a></p>
<p>Calling Mt. Gox a de facto Bitcoin central bank, many users are encouraging other Bitcoin advocates to take their business to <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1c4k1w/help_phase_out_mt_gox/" type="external">other currency exchanges</a>, hoping to avoid another crash induced by a lack of information from exchange platforms.</p>
<p>“Right now MtGox acts more and more like a central bank. It sets the price of Bitcoin. If it breaks, the price breaks too (goes down). And again people start talking about decentralized exchanges. We already have a lot of exchanges. Just start using them! Arbitrage traders/bots will do the rest,” wrote one user of&#160; <a href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=173251.0" type="external">bitcointalk.org</a>, a popular Bitcoin discussion forum.&#160;</p>
<p>Users across the internet also called on the Bitcoin community to begin using alternatives to Mt. Gox.</p>
| 5,265 |
<p>WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange weighed in on last Sunday night’s deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas, and he pointed out that the FBI has a sordid history of targeting mentally ill and emotionally unstable individuals.</p>
<p>“Almost all ‘terror’ plots are created by the FBI as part of its business model,”&#160;Assange wrote.</p>
<p />
<p>Arguably one of the world’s most respected journalists, whom members of the federal government want to label a spy, Assange linked his comments to a Business Insider story written by Caroline Simone titled,&#160;“The FBI is ‘manufacturing terrorism cases’ on a greater scale than ever before.”&#160;Simone wrote an echo piece from the New York Times which indicated that 67% of terrorism criminal cases also involved evidence provided by undercover FBI agents.</p>
<p>Simone wrote an echo piece for the New York Times, which indicated that 67 percent of terrorism criminal cases also involved evidence provided by undercover FBI agents.</p>
<p>Sami Osmakac is one such poor and emotionally unstable individual, also referenced in Assange’s tweet, who the FBI groomed to be one of their nabbed terrorists.&#160; <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2015/3/19/how_the_fbi_created_a_terrorist" type="external">Democracy Now</a>&#160;covered the Osmakac case and provided a synopsis:</p>
<p>“How the FBI Created a Terrorist.” That’s the subtitle of a new exposé in The Intercept by Trevor Aaronson, a journalist who investigates the FBI’s use of informants in sting operations. The article tells the story of Sami Osmakac, a mentally disturbed, financially unstable young man who was targeted by an elaborately orchestrated FBI sting in early 2012. The operation involved a paid informant who hired Osmakac for a job, when he was too broke to afford inert government weapons. The FBI provided the weapons seen in a so-called martyrdom video Osmakac filmed before he planned to deliver what he believed was a car bomb to a bar in Tampa, Florida. His family believes Osmakac never would have initiated such a plot without the FBI.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/us/fbi-isis-terrorism-stings.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=us&amp;region=rank&amp;module=package&amp;version=highlights&amp;contentPlacement=2&amp;pgtype=sectionfront&amp;_r=0" type="external">&#160;New York Times</a>‘ Eric Lichtblau wrote:</p>
<p>The F.B.I. has significantly increased its use of stings in terrorism cases, employing agents and informants to pose as jihadists, bomb makers, gun dealers or online “friends” in hundreds of investigations into Americans suspected of supporting the Islamic State, records and interviews show.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the list of individuals the FBI has entrapped, as some have charged, also includes dozens of individuals who are either mentally ill or emotionally unstable.</p>
<p>“They’re manufacturing terrorism cases,” said Michael German, a former undercover agent with the F.B.I. who researches national security law at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. In many of the recent prosecutions, he said, “these people are five steps away from being a danger to the United States.</p>
<p>Critics such as Michael German should know, he used to work for the FBI as an undercover agent. German charges that if left alone, those so-called terrorists would likely not hurt anyone. However, the FBI disagrees. They contend if they wait around and do nothing, those individuals with terrorist leanings will act on their plans and impulses.</p>
<p>Ironically enough, Fox News’ Judge Napolitano agrees. He addressed the FBI’s controversial practice of latching on to emotionally unstable individuals, befriending them, giving them a terror plot to conduct, empowering them to conduct it, and giving them the final pushes needed to carry out those terror plots. Here’s the segment below:</p>
<p />
<p>Napolitano accurately reported that all of the attempted terror plots the FBI has interrupted, were, in his words,&#160;“created by the Feds.”&#160;In other words, they manufacture a terror plot, locate a willing participant to be characterized as the bad guy “terrorist,” and then foil the plot just as it is about to be carried out.</p>
<p>Do you remember the “shoe bomber,” the “underwear bomber” and the “Times Square bomber“? The individuals at the heart of those foiled terror plots were, in Napolitano’s words “bumbling fools,” or bad actors in the FBI’s planned foiled terrorist operations, but who were stopped concerned citizens—not the FBI.</p>
<p>But Napolitano calls the&#160;“more&#160;curious cases,” the ones who the FBI groomed, empowered and unsurprisingly nabbed just before they carried out their attacks. The judge charges the FBI “befriended, cajoled, and persuaded them”&#160;to attack Americans. Doesn’t that make them a State-sponsor of terrorism, albeit foiled terrorism?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there is inherent risk involved with arming potential terrorists for a FBI-sponsored terror sting. Sometimes those plots don’t go as plan and there is always a potential for the bad actor to actually be successful with going through with the terrorist attack.</p>
<p>It is still too early to know if Paddock was one such bad actor in an FBI terror sting operation gone bad. According to the lead FBI agent in the “1-October” case, <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x63kjsm" type="external">&#160;Aaron Rouse</a>, the FBI is tracking down every lead both in the U.S. and overseas, and if people want to report any information, they should contact the FBI directly.</p>
<p>Taken together, Assange’s tweet, combined with the accurate reporting of left-leaning New York Times and right-leaning Fox News, a vivid picture emerges. The left, the right, and the independent are all becoming aware of just how dangerous the FBI’s anti-terrorism stings can be, especially if Paddock’s murderous rampage is revealed to be the work of an FBI sting operation gone bad.</p>
<p>Bad actors are needed, after all, to continue the endless War on Terror, and they are useful in creating revenue for the FBI, Assange contended. He wrote that they are especially needed for “taxes” and represent a “stable” and legitimate “threat.” Assange also added the plot, execute, intercept model the FBI currently uses is their “business model.” Without it, presumably, their business fails.</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://thefreethoughtproject.com/assange-las-vegas-shooting-fbi-terrorism/" type="external">The Free Thought Project</a></p>
<p>Jack Burns is an educator, journalist, investigative reporter, and advocate of natural medicine.</p>
<p />
<p />
|
Assange Warns About Vegas Shooting: ‘Almost All Terror Plots are Created by the FBI’
| true |
http://dcclothesline.com/2017/10/09/assange-warns-about-vegas-shooting-almost-all-terror-plots-are-created-by-the-fbi-2/
|
2017-10-09
| 0right
|
Assange Warns About Vegas Shooting: ‘Almost All Terror Plots are Created by the FBI’
<p>WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange weighed in on last Sunday night’s deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas, and he pointed out that the FBI has a sordid history of targeting mentally ill and emotionally unstable individuals.</p>
<p>“Almost all ‘terror’ plots are created by the FBI as part of its business model,”&#160;Assange wrote.</p>
<p />
<p>Arguably one of the world’s most respected journalists, whom members of the federal government want to label a spy, Assange linked his comments to a Business Insider story written by Caroline Simone titled,&#160;“The FBI is ‘manufacturing terrorism cases’ on a greater scale than ever before.”&#160;Simone wrote an echo piece from the New York Times which indicated that 67% of terrorism criminal cases also involved evidence provided by undercover FBI agents.</p>
<p>Simone wrote an echo piece for the New York Times, which indicated that 67 percent of terrorism criminal cases also involved evidence provided by undercover FBI agents.</p>
<p>Sami Osmakac is one such poor and emotionally unstable individual, also referenced in Assange’s tweet, who the FBI groomed to be one of their nabbed terrorists.&#160; <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2015/3/19/how_the_fbi_created_a_terrorist" type="external">Democracy Now</a>&#160;covered the Osmakac case and provided a synopsis:</p>
<p>“How the FBI Created a Terrorist.” That’s the subtitle of a new exposé in The Intercept by Trevor Aaronson, a journalist who investigates the FBI’s use of informants in sting operations. The article tells the story of Sami Osmakac, a mentally disturbed, financially unstable young man who was targeted by an elaborately orchestrated FBI sting in early 2012. The operation involved a paid informant who hired Osmakac for a job, when he was too broke to afford inert government weapons. The FBI provided the weapons seen in a so-called martyrdom video Osmakac filmed before he planned to deliver what he believed was a car bomb to a bar in Tampa, Florida. His family believes Osmakac never would have initiated such a plot without the FBI.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/us/fbi-isis-terrorism-stings.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=us&amp;region=rank&amp;module=package&amp;version=highlights&amp;contentPlacement=2&amp;pgtype=sectionfront&amp;_r=0" type="external">&#160;New York Times</a>‘ Eric Lichtblau wrote:</p>
<p>The F.B.I. has significantly increased its use of stings in terrorism cases, employing agents and informants to pose as jihadists, bomb makers, gun dealers or online “friends” in hundreds of investigations into Americans suspected of supporting the Islamic State, records and interviews show.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the list of individuals the FBI has entrapped, as some have charged, also includes dozens of individuals who are either mentally ill or emotionally unstable.</p>
<p>“They’re manufacturing terrorism cases,” said Michael German, a former undercover agent with the F.B.I. who researches national security law at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. In many of the recent prosecutions, he said, “these people are five steps away from being a danger to the United States.</p>
<p>Critics such as Michael German should know, he used to work for the FBI as an undercover agent. German charges that if left alone, those so-called terrorists would likely not hurt anyone. However, the FBI disagrees. They contend if they wait around and do nothing, those individuals with terrorist leanings will act on their plans and impulses.</p>
<p>Ironically enough, Fox News’ Judge Napolitano agrees. He addressed the FBI’s controversial practice of latching on to emotionally unstable individuals, befriending them, giving them a terror plot to conduct, empowering them to conduct it, and giving them the final pushes needed to carry out those terror plots. Here’s the segment below:</p>
<p />
<p>Napolitano accurately reported that all of the attempted terror plots the FBI has interrupted, were, in his words,&#160;“created by the Feds.”&#160;In other words, they manufacture a terror plot, locate a willing participant to be characterized as the bad guy “terrorist,” and then foil the plot just as it is about to be carried out.</p>
<p>Do you remember the “shoe bomber,” the “underwear bomber” and the “Times Square bomber“? The individuals at the heart of those foiled terror plots were, in Napolitano’s words “bumbling fools,” or bad actors in the FBI’s planned foiled terrorist operations, but who were stopped concerned citizens—not the FBI.</p>
<p>But Napolitano calls the&#160;“more&#160;curious cases,” the ones who the FBI groomed, empowered and unsurprisingly nabbed just before they carried out their attacks. The judge charges the FBI “befriended, cajoled, and persuaded them”&#160;to attack Americans. Doesn’t that make them a State-sponsor of terrorism, albeit foiled terrorism?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there is inherent risk involved with arming potential terrorists for a FBI-sponsored terror sting. Sometimes those plots don’t go as plan and there is always a potential for the bad actor to actually be successful with going through with the terrorist attack.</p>
<p>It is still too early to know if Paddock was one such bad actor in an FBI terror sting operation gone bad. According to the lead FBI agent in the “1-October” case, <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x63kjsm" type="external">&#160;Aaron Rouse</a>, the FBI is tracking down every lead both in the U.S. and overseas, and if people want to report any information, they should contact the FBI directly.</p>
<p>Taken together, Assange’s tweet, combined with the accurate reporting of left-leaning New York Times and right-leaning Fox News, a vivid picture emerges. The left, the right, and the independent are all becoming aware of just how dangerous the FBI’s anti-terrorism stings can be, especially if Paddock’s murderous rampage is revealed to be the work of an FBI sting operation gone bad.</p>
<p>Bad actors are needed, after all, to continue the endless War on Terror, and they are useful in creating revenue for the FBI, Assange contended. He wrote that they are especially needed for “taxes” and represent a “stable” and legitimate “threat.” Assange also added the plot, execute, intercept model the FBI currently uses is their “business model.” Without it, presumably, their business fails.</p>
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://thefreethoughtproject.com/assange-las-vegas-shooting-fbi-terrorism/" type="external">The Free Thought Project</a></p>
<p>Jack Burns is an educator, journalist, investigative reporter, and advocate of natural medicine.</p>
<p />
<p />
| 5,266 |
<p>LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Mohamed Salah scored twice to match Roger Hunt's club record for goals scored before the turn of the year as Liverpool came from behind to beat Leicester 2-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.</p>
<p>Salah's second-half double took his tally for the season to 23 goals, the same as Hunt had in the 1961-62 campaign. Seventeen of the Egypt forward's goals have come in the league.</p>
<p>With defender Virgil van Dijk — recently signed for $100 million — watching in the directors' box, Liverpool had been trailing to a third-minute goal by Jamie Vardy, who scored for the fifth straight match against the Reds.</p>
<p>Joel Matip, who might end up losing his place to Van Dijk, made a pass that was picked up by Leicester's Vicente Iborra and the midfielder slid a ball inside left back Andrew Robertson. Riyad Mahrez had plenty of time to square for Vardy to fire into an empty net.</p>
<p>Salah had four decent chances before equalizing eight minutes into the second half, running onto Sadio Mane's back-heel and holding off Christian Fuchs and Daniel Amartey to pick his spot beyond goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.</p>
<p>He grabbed the winner in the 76th after another backheel, this time from James Milner. Salah turned Harry Maguire before beating Schmeichel inside his near post for his 17th goal in his last 17 appearances.</p>
<p>Liverpool stayed in fourth place after 21 games.</p>
<p>LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Mohamed Salah scored twice to match Roger Hunt's club record for goals scored before the turn of the year as Liverpool came from behind to beat Leicester 2-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.</p>
<p>Salah's second-half double took his tally for the season to 23 goals, the same as Hunt had in the 1961-62 campaign. Seventeen of the Egypt forward's goals have come in the league.</p>
<p>With defender Virgil van Dijk — recently signed for $100 million — watching in the directors' box, Liverpool had been trailing to a third-minute goal by Jamie Vardy, who scored for the fifth straight match against the Reds.</p>
<p>Joel Matip, who might end up losing his place to Van Dijk, made a pass that was picked up by Leicester's Vicente Iborra and the midfielder slid a ball inside left back Andrew Robertson. Riyad Mahrez had plenty of time to square for Vardy to fire into an empty net.</p>
<p>Salah had four decent chances before equalizing eight minutes into the second half, running onto Sadio Mane's back-heel and holding off Christian Fuchs and Daniel Amartey to pick his spot beyond goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.</p>
<p>He grabbed the winner in the 76th after another backheel, this time from James Milner. Salah turned Harry Maguire before beating Schmeichel inside his near post for his 17th goal in his last 17 appearances.</p>
<p>Liverpool stayed in fourth place after 21 games.</p>
|
Salah double inspires Liverpool to 2-1 win over Leicester
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/b6cda5a14a944b05b6e9ed11b57d025f
|
2017-12-30
| 2least
|
Salah double inspires Liverpool to 2-1 win over Leicester
<p>LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Mohamed Salah scored twice to match Roger Hunt's club record for goals scored before the turn of the year as Liverpool came from behind to beat Leicester 2-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.</p>
<p>Salah's second-half double took his tally for the season to 23 goals, the same as Hunt had in the 1961-62 campaign. Seventeen of the Egypt forward's goals have come in the league.</p>
<p>With defender Virgil van Dijk — recently signed for $100 million — watching in the directors' box, Liverpool had been trailing to a third-minute goal by Jamie Vardy, who scored for the fifth straight match against the Reds.</p>
<p>Joel Matip, who might end up losing his place to Van Dijk, made a pass that was picked up by Leicester's Vicente Iborra and the midfielder slid a ball inside left back Andrew Robertson. Riyad Mahrez had plenty of time to square for Vardy to fire into an empty net.</p>
<p>Salah had four decent chances before equalizing eight minutes into the second half, running onto Sadio Mane's back-heel and holding off Christian Fuchs and Daniel Amartey to pick his spot beyond goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.</p>
<p>He grabbed the winner in the 76th after another backheel, this time from James Milner. Salah turned Harry Maguire before beating Schmeichel inside his near post for his 17th goal in his last 17 appearances.</p>
<p>Liverpool stayed in fourth place after 21 games.</p>
<p>LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Mohamed Salah scored twice to match Roger Hunt's club record for goals scored before the turn of the year as Liverpool came from behind to beat Leicester 2-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.</p>
<p>Salah's second-half double took his tally for the season to 23 goals, the same as Hunt had in the 1961-62 campaign. Seventeen of the Egypt forward's goals have come in the league.</p>
<p>With defender Virgil van Dijk — recently signed for $100 million — watching in the directors' box, Liverpool had been trailing to a third-minute goal by Jamie Vardy, who scored for the fifth straight match against the Reds.</p>
<p>Joel Matip, who might end up losing his place to Van Dijk, made a pass that was picked up by Leicester's Vicente Iborra and the midfielder slid a ball inside left back Andrew Robertson. Riyad Mahrez had plenty of time to square for Vardy to fire into an empty net.</p>
<p>Salah had four decent chances before equalizing eight minutes into the second half, running onto Sadio Mane's back-heel and holding off Christian Fuchs and Daniel Amartey to pick his spot beyond goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.</p>
<p>He grabbed the winner in the 76th after another backheel, this time from James Milner. Salah turned Harry Maguire before beating Schmeichel inside his near post for his 17th goal in his last 17 appearances.</p>
<p>Liverpool stayed in fourth place after 21 games.</p>
| 5,267 |
<p>What happens in the eurozone doesn't always stay in the eurozone.</p>
<p>On Thursday, the European Central Bank is expected to begin unwinding its extraordinary monetary stimulus, a process that will drag central banks from Ivory Coast to Switzerland in its wake.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>That could have a knock-on effect on markets, as investors buy and sell assets in the countries whose monetary policy is most closely linked to the ECB.</p>
<p>The ECB's influence has become second to only the Federal Reserve in influencing transactions and markets abroad. Over $2 trillion in international bonds -- debt securities sold outside of the issuer's home country -- are denominated in euros, for instance.</p>
<p>Then there are the central banks in Africa and countries that border the eurozone whose currencies either track or are hugely influenced by the euro, meaning they often have to mirror what the ECB does.</p>
<p>That has left large swaths of Europe with low rates even as other countries, including the U.S. and Canada, increase theirs.</p>
<p>Analysts predict the ECB will announce on Thursday that it will begin tapering its bond purchases, a move that will also hint at when it will start raising rates.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"The biggest factor for these places is the strength of the euro," said Piotr Matys, emerging market foreign exchange strategist at Rabobank, "We'll be watching closely how the currency reacts; that will set the tone for all these other markets."</p>
<p>When it comes to raising rates, central banks in many countries appear to be waiting for the ECB to move first.</p>
<p>Over much of Eastern Europe, interest rates are still at post-financial crisis lows. Hungary even has negative interest rates, the only emerging-market country in the world to do so.</p>
<p>Even nations with stronger economic growth than the eurozone have had to resist raising interest rates. Raising them would likely boost their currency against the euro, making their goods less competitive while importing the eurozone's low inflation.</p>
<p>Switzerland's economy has grown by around 11% in real terms since the beginning of 2008, compared to just 4% for the eurozone. But at minus 0.75% the Swiss National Bank's deposit rate is even lower than in the ECB's minus 0.4% rate.</p>
<p>"The SNB won't act for as long as the ECB doesn't act, they just don't want a strong Swiss franc," said Christophe Donay, head of macro research and asset allocation at Pictet Wealth Management.</p>
<p>A strong Swiss franc has helped to hold down inflation for years, complicating the job for the country's central bankers.</p>
<p>Low inflation in the eurozone means muted price gains in its imports, keeping inflation lower in the non-euro countries that buy them. A rate increase would likely strengthen their currencies, encouraging even more imports from the monetary union, and putting even more downward pressure on inflation.</p>
<p>To be sure, many analysts believe investors have already priced in what the ECB will do on Thursday.</p>
<p>But for some, signals of tighter ECB monetary policy would offer an opening to make bullish bets on Eastern European currencies, like the Polish zloty. That is because as the ECB tightens policy it will boost the euro, dragging the currencies that track it higher, they say.</p>
<p>In debt markets, Marcin Kujawski, emerging Europe economist at Nomura, believes Romania is the most exposed to tapering from the ECB.</p>
<p>"About half of their debt is foreign currency-denominated, mostly in euros, and about half is owned by nonresidents," he said.</p>
<p>When a country issues debt in a foreign currency, it is exposed to any appreciation in its value. Repaying investors in euros will cost an increasing amount of Romanian leu if the rollback of ECB bond-buying drives the euro higher.</p>
<p>In 2016, emerging market issuers around the world sold 121 bonds denominated in euros, more than at any time since 1999, the single currency's first year. Mexican oil giant Pemex issued the largest ever emerging market euro-denominated bond, with a EUR4.25 billion issue in February.</p>
<p>For 14 countries in Africa, the link with the euro is even tighter.</p>
<p>There are two monetary unions that peg their currencies -- the central and west African franc -- to the euro. Both have their own central banks and interest rates that move independently of the ECB, but shifts in the euro's value have an economic knock-on effect.</p>
<p>When the ECB introduced negative interest rates and started buying bonds, between March 2014 and March 2015, the euro fell from around $1.39 to as low as $1.05 against the dollar. That offered a lift to countries using the African francs, which followed the euro lower making their exports more competitive. But if the euro rises as the ECB tightens policy, that would have the opposite affect.</p>
<p>"They appreciate against the dollar when the euro does, and that raises questions about the impact on their economies," said Victor Lopes, senior economist covering sub-Saharan Africa at Standard Chartered.</p>
<p>Write to Mike Bird at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 22, 2017 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)</p>
|
ECB Stimulus Unwind Could Have Broad Knock-On Effect
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/22/ecb-stimulus-unwind-could-have-broad-knock-on-effect.html
|
2017-10-22
| 0right
|
ECB Stimulus Unwind Could Have Broad Knock-On Effect
<p>What happens in the eurozone doesn't always stay in the eurozone.</p>
<p>On Thursday, the European Central Bank is expected to begin unwinding its extraordinary monetary stimulus, a process that will drag central banks from Ivory Coast to Switzerland in its wake.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>That could have a knock-on effect on markets, as investors buy and sell assets in the countries whose monetary policy is most closely linked to the ECB.</p>
<p>The ECB's influence has become second to only the Federal Reserve in influencing transactions and markets abroad. Over $2 trillion in international bonds -- debt securities sold outside of the issuer's home country -- are denominated in euros, for instance.</p>
<p>Then there are the central banks in Africa and countries that border the eurozone whose currencies either track or are hugely influenced by the euro, meaning they often have to mirror what the ECB does.</p>
<p>That has left large swaths of Europe with low rates even as other countries, including the U.S. and Canada, increase theirs.</p>
<p>Analysts predict the ECB will announce on Thursday that it will begin tapering its bond purchases, a move that will also hint at when it will start raising rates.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>"The biggest factor for these places is the strength of the euro," said Piotr Matys, emerging market foreign exchange strategist at Rabobank, "We'll be watching closely how the currency reacts; that will set the tone for all these other markets."</p>
<p>When it comes to raising rates, central banks in many countries appear to be waiting for the ECB to move first.</p>
<p>Over much of Eastern Europe, interest rates are still at post-financial crisis lows. Hungary even has negative interest rates, the only emerging-market country in the world to do so.</p>
<p>Even nations with stronger economic growth than the eurozone have had to resist raising interest rates. Raising them would likely boost their currency against the euro, making their goods less competitive while importing the eurozone's low inflation.</p>
<p>Switzerland's economy has grown by around 11% in real terms since the beginning of 2008, compared to just 4% for the eurozone. But at minus 0.75% the Swiss National Bank's deposit rate is even lower than in the ECB's minus 0.4% rate.</p>
<p>"The SNB won't act for as long as the ECB doesn't act, they just don't want a strong Swiss franc," said Christophe Donay, head of macro research and asset allocation at Pictet Wealth Management.</p>
<p>A strong Swiss franc has helped to hold down inflation for years, complicating the job for the country's central bankers.</p>
<p>Low inflation in the eurozone means muted price gains in its imports, keeping inflation lower in the non-euro countries that buy them. A rate increase would likely strengthen their currencies, encouraging even more imports from the monetary union, and putting even more downward pressure on inflation.</p>
<p>To be sure, many analysts believe investors have already priced in what the ECB will do on Thursday.</p>
<p>But for some, signals of tighter ECB monetary policy would offer an opening to make bullish bets on Eastern European currencies, like the Polish zloty. That is because as the ECB tightens policy it will boost the euro, dragging the currencies that track it higher, they say.</p>
<p>In debt markets, Marcin Kujawski, emerging Europe economist at Nomura, believes Romania is the most exposed to tapering from the ECB.</p>
<p>"About half of their debt is foreign currency-denominated, mostly in euros, and about half is owned by nonresidents," he said.</p>
<p>When a country issues debt in a foreign currency, it is exposed to any appreciation in its value. Repaying investors in euros will cost an increasing amount of Romanian leu if the rollback of ECB bond-buying drives the euro higher.</p>
<p>In 2016, emerging market issuers around the world sold 121 bonds denominated in euros, more than at any time since 1999, the single currency's first year. Mexican oil giant Pemex issued the largest ever emerging market euro-denominated bond, with a EUR4.25 billion issue in February.</p>
<p>For 14 countries in Africa, the link with the euro is even tighter.</p>
<p>There are two monetary unions that peg their currencies -- the central and west African franc -- to the euro. Both have their own central banks and interest rates that move independently of the ECB, but shifts in the euro's value have an economic knock-on effect.</p>
<p>When the ECB introduced negative interest rates and started buying bonds, between March 2014 and March 2015, the euro fell from around $1.39 to as low as $1.05 against the dollar. That offered a lift to countries using the African francs, which followed the euro lower making their exports more competitive. But if the euro rises as the ECB tightens policy, that would have the opposite affect.</p>
<p>"They appreciate against the dollar when the euro does, and that raises questions about the impact on their economies," said Victor Lopes, senior economist covering sub-Saharan Africa at Standard Chartered.</p>
<p>Write to Mike Bird at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>October 22, 2017 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)</p>
| 5,268 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>A package of chicken-free strips from the company Beyond Meat is displayed Nov. 4 in El Segundo, Calif. The product, “plant-based protein made from soybeans and peas,” has attracted investment from Bill Gates and Twitter founder Biz Stone. (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times/MCT)</p>
<p>Ethan Brown held up one of his ready-to-eat vegetarian chicken strips and peeled off stringy strands that mimicked the moist meat of the real thing.</p>
<p>“That’s the beauty. That’s absolutely everything,” said Brown, founder of Beyond Meat, admiring the filaments of faux chicken at a cafe near the company’s Southern California headquarters.</p>
<p>The company gets close to creating that authentic but elusive texture by blasting soy and pea proteins through an alternating cascade of high heat and high pressure in a stainless steel machine.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The result is mock meat that replicates the genuine product enough to make people forget the tastes of springy tofu turkey, MSG-laden veggie burgers and plasticky facon – fake bacon, for the uninitiated.</p>
<p>So convincing is Brown’s imitation poultry that it has attracted investment from tech giants such as Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates, Twitter Inc. co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers. Whole Foods Market helped refine the product before rolling it out at its stores last year.</p>
<p>“I thought they were just another boutique business selling overpriced products to well-heeled vegetarians at Whole Foods. But I was blown away when they came to meet me,” Stone said.</p>
<p>“They pitched really big thinking. They said they weren’t just going after the meat market; they wanted to be meat. They said their competitors are the people who make chicken.”</p>
<p>Brown, who started out in the energy industry, sees mock meat not only as a much healthier alternative, but also as a way to reduce methane and other harmful gases emitted by animals and to ease a meat shortage predicted to occur by midcentury.</p>
<p>Beyond Meat and other makers of such substitutes are chasing increasingly discerning palates by cooking up grub that captures more of the bite and appearance of animal flesh.</p>
<p>Match Meats of St. Louis, for instance, offers a line of vegan ground-meat substitutes. Field Roast of Seattle takes inspiration from traditional charcuterie to offer vegan products such as Wild Rice Cranberry Fig Roast en Croute and White Truffle Country Paté.</p>
<p>All are fighting for a piece of the meat-alternatives market, which has grown 8 percent from 2010 through last year to $553 million, according to research firm Mintel.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Janet Corvin, 52, has been a vegetarian since she was a child but still desires the taste and texture – the mouth feel – of meat. She turns to the fake stuff at least six times a week. Vegetables alone just won’t do.</p>
<p>“It’s got a flavor and texture we all learn to like,” Corvin said recently as she stood in front of the mock-meat section at a Whole Foods in Glendale, Calif. “It’s salty; it’s greasy. We all crave grease.”</p>
<p>Brown doesn’t expect everyone to be like Corvin. But he hopes enough people switch from animal protein to a plant-based version to make a difference in the long run.</p>
<p>The effort to improve mock meat comes as studies warn that real meat may not be a sustainable source of protein.</p>
<p>The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization projects global meat consumption will rise 73 percent by 2050, putting massive strains on the world’s water and grain supplies.</p>
<p />
|
Substitute-meat makers’ art imitates life
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/307753/substitutemeat-makers-art-imitates-life.html
| 2least
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Substitute-meat makers’ art imitates life
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>A package of chicken-free strips from the company Beyond Meat is displayed Nov. 4 in El Segundo, Calif. The product, “plant-based protein made from soybeans and peas,” has attracted investment from Bill Gates and Twitter founder Biz Stone. (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times/MCT)</p>
<p>Ethan Brown held up one of his ready-to-eat vegetarian chicken strips and peeled off stringy strands that mimicked the moist meat of the real thing.</p>
<p>“That’s the beauty. That’s absolutely everything,” said Brown, founder of Beyond Meat, admiring the filaments of faux chicken at a cafe near the company’s Southern California headquarters.</p>
<p>The company gets close to creating that authentic but elusive texture by blasting soy and pea proteins through an alternating cascade of high heat and high pressure in a stainless steel machine.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The result is mock meat that replicates the genuine product enough to make people forget the tastes of springy tofu turkey, MSG-laden veggie burgers and plasticky facon – fake bacon, for the uninitiated.</p>
<p>So convincing is Brown’s imitation poultry that it has attracted investment from tech giants such as Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates, Twitter Inc. co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers. Whole Foods Market helped refine the product before rolling it out at its stores last year.</p>
<p>“I thought they were just another boutique business selling overpriced products to well-heeled vegetarians at Whole Foods. But I was blown away when they came to meet me,” Stone said.</p>
<p>“They pitched really big thinking. They said they weren’t just going after the meat market; they wanted to be meat. They said their competitors are the people who make chicken.”</p>
<p>Brown, who started out in the energy industry, sees mock meat not only as a much healthier alternative, but also as a way to reduce methane and other harmful gases emitted by animals and to ease a meat shortage predicted to occur by midcentury.</p>
<p>Beyond Meat and other makers of such substitutes are chasing increasingly discerning palates by cooking up grub that captures more of the bite and appearance of animal flesh.</p>
<p>Match Meats of St. Louis, for instance, offers a line of vegan ground-meat substitutes. Field Roast of Seattle takes inspiration from traditional charcuterie to offer vegan products such as Wild Rice Cranberry Fig Roast en Croute and White Truffle Country Paté.</p>
<p>All are fighting for a piece of the meat-alternatives market, which has grown 8 percent from 2010 through last year to $553 million, according to research firm Mintel.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Janet Corvin, 52, has been a vegetarian since she was a child but still desires the taste and texture – the mouth feel – of meat. She turns to the fake stuff at least six times a week. Vegetables alone just won’t do.</p>
<p>“It’s got a flavor and texture we all learn to like,” Corvin said recently as she stood in front of the mock-meat section at a Whole Foods in Glendale, Calif. “It’s salty; it’s greasy. We all crave grease.”</p>
<p>Brown doesn’t expect everyone to be like Corvin. But he hopes enough people switch from animal protein to a plant-based version to make a difference in the long run.</p>
<p>The effort to improve mock meat comes as studies warn that real meat may not be a sustainable source of protein.</p>
<p>The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization projects global meat consumption will rise 73 percent by 2050, putting massive strains on the world’s water and grain supplies.</p>
<p />
| 5,269 |
|
<p>Jan 24 (Reuters) - Pcm Inc:</p>
<p>* PCM ACQUIRES EPOCH UNIVERSAL, A TECHNOLOGY LEADER IN COLLABORATION SOLUTIONS</p>
<p>* PCM INC - ‍ AS PART OF ACQUISITION, EPOCH UNIVERSAL’S PRESIDENT AND CEO, PAUL HARROLD, IS JOINING PCM AS ITS VICE PRESIDENT OF COLLABORATION​</p>
<p>* PCM INC - HAS ACQUIRED CERTAIN ASSETS OF EPOCH UNIVERSAL, INC</p>
<p>* PCM INC - ‍ EPOCH UNIVERSAL OPERATIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAM, INCLUDING CTO HAVE AGREED TO POSITIONS WITH PCM​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - The consultancy at the heart of a storm over Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) data greatly exaggerated its role in Donald Trump’s 2016 U.S. presidential victory and would not have been able to sway an election result, the academic who provided the data said.</p>
<p>Facebook has been rocked this week by a whistleblower who said that Cambridge Analytica, a British-based firm hired by Trump for his election campaign, had improperly accessed information on millions of Facebook users to build detailed profiles on American voters.</p>
<p>The revelation has knocked nearly $50 billion off Facebook’s stock market value in two days and hit the shares of Twitter and Snap over fears that a failure by big tech firms to protect personal data could deter advertisers and users, and invite tougher regulation.</p>
<p>Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have both blamed Aleksandr Kogan, a psychologist at Cambridge University who gathered the data by running a survey app on Facebook.</p>
<p>Kogan told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Wednesday that he was being made a scapegoat by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, saying the services provided by the political consultancy had been greatly exaggerated.</p>
<p>“I think what Cambridge Analytica has tried to sell is magic, and they’ve made claims that this is incredibly accurate and it tells you everything there is to tell about you. But I think the reality is it’s not that,” he said.</p>
<p>Kogan’s smartphone application, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists”.</p>
<p>Facebook says Kogan then violated its policies by passing the data to Cambridge Analytica for commercial use, saying on Friday he “lied to us”. Cambridge Analytica said it destroyed the data once it realized the information did not adhere to data protection rules.</p>
<p>Kogan said the events of the last week had been a “total shell shock”. “My view is that I’m being basically used as a scapegoat by both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica,” he said.</p>
<p>“We thought we were doing something that was really normal and we were assured by Cambridge Analytica that everything was perfectly legal and within the limits of the terms of service.”</p>
<p>Cambridge Analytica has denied various allegations made about its business practices in recent media reports.</p> Slideshow (3 Images) PERSONALITY TEST
<p>Alexander Nix, the head of Cambridge Analytica, said in a secretly recorded video broadcast on Tuesday that his company had played a decisive role in Trump’s election victory.</p>
<p>“We did all the research. We did all the data. We did all the analytics. We did all the targeting. We ran all the digital campaign and our data informed their strategy,” Nix told an undercover reporter working for Britain’s Channel 4 News.</p>
<p>Nix was suspended by the company shortly before the video was broadcast.</p>
<p>Kogan said he had gathered the data in 2014 because he wanted to model human behavior through social media. He was then approached by Cambridge Analytica who provided the legal advice around the use of the data, he added.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 168.15 FB.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) FB.O
<p>Around 270,000 people downloaded the app, Facebook said. The app scored the results of each quiz and gathered up data from test-takers’ Facebook accounts. However, it also pulled down the data of their Facebook friends, vastly increasing the size of the sample.</p>
<p>Kogan put the number of app users as closer to 200,000.</p>
<p>The researcher said, in total, he passed the data of around 30 million American Facebook users to SCL, a government and military contractor that is an affiliate of Cambridge Analytica. Media reports have put the total number of Facebook profiles collected at around 50 million users.</p>
<p>Kogan said it was possible it was used in the U.S. presidential election campaign but he did not have any knowledge of that. Asked by the BBC if he was willing to cooperate with lawmakers investigating the case, he said “absolutely” and added he had tried to be as cooperative as possible. “I think there’s a really big question here in terms of how do social media platforms actually use everybody’s data,” he said.</p>
<p>U.S. and European lawmakers have demanded an explanation of how Cambridge Analytica gained access to user data in 2014 and why Facebook failed to inform its users.</p>
<p>Facebook said it had been told by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the leading U.S. consumer regulator, that it would receive a letter this week with questions about the data acquired by Cambridge Analytica. It said it had no indication of a formal investigation.</p>
<p>Canada’s data protection authority joined the list of regulators saying they were investigating Facebook on Wednesday.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-germany/germany-wants-clarity-from-facebook-after-reports-of-data-abuse-idUSKBN1GX1E3" type="external">Germany wants clarity from Facebook after reports of data abuse</a>
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-brexit/brexit-campaigner-banks-says-cambridge-analytica-pitched-but-we-did-not-hire-them-idUSKBN1GX19R" type="external">Brexit campaigner Banks says: Cambridge Analytica pitched but we did not hire them</a>
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-may/british-pm-may-backs-cambridge-analytica-investigation-idUSKBN1GX1KQ" type="external">British PM May backs Cambridge Analytica investigation</a>
<p>The Office of the Privacy Commissioner wants to determine whether the personal information of Canadian citizens was scooped up in the haul of Facebook member profiles used by Cambridge Analytica to target tens of millions of U.S. voters.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Eric Auchard; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and David Stamp</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime minister Theresa May on Wednesday backed an investigation into Cambridge Analytica, the consultancy at the heart of a storm over the use of Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) data.</p> Britain's Prime Minister, Theresa May, leaves 10 Downing Street, in central London, Britain March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 168.15 FB.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) FB.O
<p>“What we have seen in Cambridge Analytica, the allegations are clearly very concerning, it is absolutely right that they should be properly investigated,” May told parliament. She said she was not aware of any current contracts between the government and Cambridge Analytica or its parent group.</p>
<p>Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, writing by William James. Editing by Andrew MacAskill</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Cloud storage firm Dropbox Inc [DBX.O] on Wednesday raised the price range for its initial public offering by $2 as investors bid strongly for the first big tech IPO this year ahead of final pricing expected on Thursday.</p> The DropBox logo is seen in this illustration photo July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration
<p>The company now expects the offering to be priced between $18 and $20 per share, up from its previous range of $16 to $18. <a href="http://bit.ly/2ubO2LU" type="external">bit.ly/2ubO2LU</a></p>
<p>The new price range suggests the San Francisco company, co-founded in 2007 by Andrew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, will hit the public market valued at up to $7.85 billion and the IPO will raise up to $720 million.</p>
<p>“The initial file price range was quite conservative relative to the valuations placed on comparable firms, such as Box,” said Jay Ritter, an IPO expert and professor at the University of Florida.</p>
<p>Despite the bump in price, Dropbox’s valuation is still well below the $10 billion that it commanded in a 2014 private funding round.</p>
<p>Sources had told Reuters on Monday that the offering was oversubscribed.</p>
<p>Dropbox’s IPO is being closely watched by the investment world for signs of the strength of enthusiasm for tech unicorns - young companies valued at more than $1 billion.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">Alphabet Inc</a> 1095.8 GOOGL.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) GOOGL.O MSFT.O AMZN.O BOX.N
<p>The company has 500 million users and competes with Alphabet Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) Google, Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>). Box Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BOX.N" type="external">BOX.N</a>) is its main rival.</p>
<p>The order book for the IPO closes at midday on Wednesday and the pricing is expected on Thursday.</p>
<p>The stock will make its market debut on the Nasdaq on Friday.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sweta Singh and Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed rules on Wednesday to make digital companies pay their fair share of tax, with U.S. tech giants such as Google ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>), Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) and Amazon ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) set to foot a large chunk of the bill.</p> European Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici holds a news conference at the EU Commission's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
<p>Under the Commission’s plan, companies with significant digital revenues in Europe will pay a 3 percent tax on their turnover on various online services in the European Union, bringing in an estimated 5 billion euros ($6.1 billion).</p>
<p>If backed by EU states and lawmakers, whose support is far from certain, the tax would apply to large firms with annual worldwide revenue above 750 million euros ($920.9 million) annual “taxable” EU revenues above 50 million euros.</p>
<p>The tax, designed as a short-term measure before the EU finds a way to tax profits based on where they do business, could also encompass other high-profile U.S. firms such as Airbnb and Uber [UBER.UL].</p>
<p>It is designed to apply to activities in which users play a role in value creation - whether via online advertising, such as in search engines or social media, via online trading or in the sale of data about users.</p>
<p>The legislation comes as the United States unsettles Europe with its own tax reform and the threat of a trade war along with reports that Facebook user data was accessed by a consultancy to help President Donald Trump win the 2016 election.</p>
<p>EU antitrust authorities have also been busy investigating the business practices of Amazon, Google and Apple, leading to accusations, which the Commission denies, that it is targeting Silicon Valley.</p> DEEP DIVISIONS
<p>The Commission said that top digital firms, whose average revenue growth of 14 percent far exceeded that of other multinationals, faced an effective tax rate of 9.5 percent, less than half the level of traditional companies.</p>
<p>The proposals require backing from the European Parliament and the 28 EU countries, but they are divided on the issue. EU tax reforms need the backing of all member states to become law.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>Large EU states have accused the tech firms of paying too little tax in the bloc by routing some of their profits to low-tax member states such as Ireland and Luxembourg.</p>
<p>U.S. tech companies themselves have said they are paying tax in line with national and international laws and, in some cases, that the tax should be paid in the United States on profits repatriated there.</p>
<p>The proposal is to tax companies according to where their digital users are based.</p>
<p>A senior EU diplomatic predicted it would be hard to push through the legislation, among the most important for the bloc, because of deep divisions between larger countries set to gain more tax income and smaller ones set to lose.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">Alphabet Inc</a> 1095.8 GOOGL.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) GOOGL.O FB.O AMZN.O
<p>Smaller countries also fear becoming less attractive to multinational firms.</p>
<p>Ireland has warned that the proposals risk merely re-slicing the tax cake, rather than actually taxing more. Some countries also believe that smaller companies should also face a bill.</p>
<p>Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said that the EU would prefer globally agreed rules, but that the amount of profits currently going untaxed was unacceptable.</p>
<p>The tax would to apply to online advertising sales, which would bring in companies such as Google and Facebook, to platforms offering services such as interaction with other users or online sales and to those selling data generated from users.</p>
<p>The tax would be collected in countries where the users are located.</p>
<p>Tech industry groups have complained that it is wrong to tax revenues as that would unduly hit companies, such as Amazon, with thinner margins.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.8145 euros)</p>
<p>Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Alison Williams</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
|
BRIEF-PCM Acquires Epoch Universal Academic behind Facebook breach says political influence was exaggerated British PM May backs Cambridge Analytica investigation Dropbox raises IPO price range by $2 on strong demand EU proposes online turnover tax for big tech firms
| false |
https://reuters.com/article/brief-pcm-acquires-epoch-universal/brief-pcm-acquires-epoch-universal-idUSASB0C24K
|
2018-01-24
| 2least
|
BRIEF-PCM Acquires Epoch Universal Academic behind Facebook breach says political influence was exaggerated British PM May backs Cambridge Analytica investigation Dropbox raises IPO price range by $2 on strong demand EU proposes online turnover tax for big tech firms
<p>Jan 24 (Reuters) - Pcm Inc:</p>
<p>* PCM ACQUIRES EPOCH UNIVERSAL, A TECHNOLOGY LEADER IN COLLABORATION SOLUTIONS</p>
<p>* PCM INC - ‍ AS PART OF ACQUISITION, EPOCH UNIVERSAL’S PRESIDENT AND CEO, PAUL HARROLD, IS JOINING PCM AS ITS VICE PRESIDENT OF COLLABORATION​</p>
<p>* PCM INC - HAS ACQUIRED CERTAIN ASSETS OF EPOCH UNIVERSAL, INC</p>
<p>* PCM INC - ‍ EPOCH UNIVERSAL OPERATIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAM, INCLUDING CTO HAVE AGREED TO POSITIONS WITH PCM​ Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - The consultancy at the heart of a storm over Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) data greatly exaggerated its role in Donald Trump’s 2016 U.S. presidential victory and would not have been able to sway an election result, the academic who provided the data said.</p>
<p>Facebook has been rocked this week by a whistleblower who said that Cambridge Analytica, a British-based firm hired by Trump for his election campaign, had improperly accessed information on millions of Facebook users to build detailed profiles on American voters.</p>
<p>The revelation has knocked nearly $50 billion off Facebook’s stock market value in two days and hit the shares of Twitter and Snap over fears that a failure by big tech firms to protect personal data could deter advertisers and users, and invite tougher regulation.</p>
<p>Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have both blamed Aleksandr Kogan, a psychologist at Cambridge University who gathered the data by running a survey app on Facebook.</p>
<p>Kogan told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Wednesday that he was being made a scapegoat by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, saying the services provided by the political consultancy had been greatly exaggerated.</p>
<p>“I think what Cambridge Analytica has tried to sell is magic, and they’ve made claims that this is incredibly accurate and it tells you everything there is to tell about you. But I think the reality is it’s not that,” he said.</p>
<p>Kogan’s smartphone application, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists”.</p>
<p>Facebook says Kogan then violated its policies by passing the data to Cambridge Analytica for commercial use, saying on Friday he “lied to us”. Cambridge Analytica said it destroyed the data once it realized the information did not adhere to data protection rules.</p>
<p>Kogan said the events of the last week had been a “total shell shock”. “My view is that I’m being basically used as a scapegoat by both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica,” he said.</p>
<p>“We thought we were doing something that was really normal and we were assured by Cambridge Analytica that everything was perfectly legal and within the limits of the terms of service.”</p>
<p>Cambridge Analytica has denied various allegations made about its business practices in recent media reports.</p> Slideshow (3 Images) PERSONALITY TEST
<p>Alexander Nix, the head of Cambridge Analytica, said in a secretly recorded video broadcast on Tuesday that his company had played a decisive role in Trump’s election victory.</p>
<p>“We did all the research. We did all the data. We did all the analytics. We did all the targeting. We ran all the digital campaign and our data informed their strategy,” Nix told an undercover reporter working for Britain’s Channel 4 News.</p>
<p>Nix was suspended by the company shortly before the video was broadcast.</p>
<p>Kogan said he had gathered the data in 2014 because he wanted to model human behavior through social media. He was then approached by Cambridge Analytica who provided the legal advice around the use of the data, he added.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 168.15 FB.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) FB.O
<p>Around 270,000 people downloaded the app, Facebook said. The app scored the results of each quiz and gathered up data from test-takers’ Facebook accounts. However, it also pulled down the data of their Facebook friends, vastly increasing the size of the sample.</p>
<p>Kogan put the number of app users as closer to 200,000.</p>
<p>The researcher said, in total, he passed the data of around 30 million American Facebook users to SCL, a government and military contractor that is an affiliate of Cambridge Analytica. Media reports have put the total number of Facebook profiles collected at around 50 million users.</p>
<p>Kogan said it was possible it was used in the U.S. presidential election campaign but he did not have any knowledge of that. Asked by the BBC if he was willing to cooperate with lawmakers investigating the case, he said “absolutely” and added he had tried to be as cooperative as possible. “I think there’s a really big question here in terms of how do social media platforms actually use everybody’s data,” he said.</p>
<p>U.S. and European lawmakers have demanded an explanation of how Cambridge Analytica gained access to user data in 2014 and why Facebook failed to inform its users.</p>
<p>Facebook said it had been told by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the leading U.S. consumer regulator, that it would receive a letter this week with questions about the data acquired by Cambridge Analytica. It said it had no indication of a formal investigation.</p>
<p>Canada’s data protection authority joined the list of regulators saying they were investigating Facebook on Wednesday.</p> Related Coverage
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-germany/germany-wants-clarity-from-facebook-after-reports-of-data-abuse-idUSKBN1GX1E3" type="external">Germany wants clarity from Facebook after reports of data abuse</a>
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-brexit/brexit-campaigner-banks-says-cambridge-analytica-pitched-but-we-did-not-hire-them-idUSKBN1GX19R" type="external">Brexit campaigner Banks says: Cambridge Analytica pitched but we did not hire them</a>
<a href="/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica-may/british-pm-may-backs-cambridge-analytica-investigation-idUSKBN1GX1KQ" type="external">British PM May backs Cambridge Analytica investigation</a>
<p>The Office of the Privacy Commissioner wants to determine whether the personal information of Canadian citizens was scooped up in the haul of Facebook member profiles used by Cambridge Analytica to target tens of millions of U.S. voters.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Eric Auchard; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and David Stamp</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime minister Theresa May on Wednesday backed an investigation into Cambridge Analytica, the consultancy at the heart of a storm over the use of Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) data.</p> Britain's Prime Minister, Theresa May, leaves 10 Downing Street, in central London, Britain March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 168.15 FB.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) FB.O
<p>“What we have seen in Cambridge Analytica, the allegations are clearly very concerning, it is absolutely right that they should be properly investigated,” May told parliament. She said she was not aware of any current contracts between the government and Cambridge Analytica or its parent group.</p>
<p>Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, writing by William James. Editing by Andrew MacAskill</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Cloud storage firm Dropbox Inc [DBX.O] on Wednesday raised the price range for its initial public offering by $2 as investors bid strongly for the first big tech IPO this year ahead of final pricing expected on Thursday.</p> The DropBox logo is seen in this illustration photo July 28, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration
<p>The company now expects the offering to be priced between $18 and $20 per share, up from its previous range of $16 to $18. <a href="http://bit.ly/2ubO2LU" type="external">bit.ly/2ubO2LU</a></p>
<p>The new price range suggests the San Francisco company, co-founded in 2007 by Andrew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, will hit the public market valued at up to $7.85 billion and the IPO will raise up to $720 million.</p>
<p>“The initial file price range was quite conservative relative to the valuations placed on comparable firms, such as Box,” said Jay Ritter, an IPO expert and professor at the University of Florida.</p>
<p>Despite the bump in price, Dropbox’s valuation is still well below the $10 billion that it commanded in a 2014 private funding round.</p>
<p>Sources had told Reuters on Monday that the offering was oversubscribed.</p>
<p>Dropbox’s IPO is being closely watched by the investment world for signs of the strength of enthusiasm for tech unicorns - young companies valued at more than $1 billion.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">Alphabet Inc</a> 1095.8 GOOGL.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) GOOGL.O MSFT.O AMZN.O BOX.N
<p>The company has 500 million users and competes with Alphabet Inc’s ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>) Google, Microsoft Corp ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=MSFT.O" type="external">MSFT.O</a>), Amazon.com Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>). Box Inc ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BOX.N" type="external">BOX.N</a>) is its main rival.</p>
<p>The order book for the IPO closes at midday on Wednesday and the pricing is expected on Thursday.</p>
<p>The stock will make its market debut on the Nasdaq on Friday.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sweta Singh and Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission proposed rules on Wednesday to make digital companies pay their fair share of tax, with U.S. tech giants such as Google ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">GOOGL.O</a>), Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) and Amazon ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AMZN.O" type="external">AMZN.O</a>) set to foot a large chunk of the bill.</p> European Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici holds a news conference at the EU Commission's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
<p>Under the Commission’s plan, companies with significant digital revenues in Europe will pay a 3 percent tax on their turnover on various online services in the European Union, bringing in an estimated 5 billion euros ($6.1 billion).</p>
<p>If backed by EU states and lawmakers, whose support is far from certain, the tax would apply to large firms with annual worldwide revenue above 750 million euros ($920.9 million) annual “taxable” EU revenues above 50 million euros.</p>
<p>The tax, designed as a short-term measure before the EU finds a way to tax profits based on where they do business, could also encompass other high-profile U.S. firms such as Airbnb and Uber [UBER.UL].</p>
<p>It is designed to apply to activities in which users play a role in value creation - whether via online advertising, such as in search engines or social media, via online trading or in the sale of data about users.</p>
<p>The legislation comes as the United States unsettles Europe with its own tax reform and the threat of a trade war along with reports that Facebook user data was accessed by a consultancy to help President Donald Trump win the 2016 election.</p>
<p>EU antitrust authorities have also been busy investigating the business practices of Amazon, Google and Apple, leading to accusations, which the Commission denies, that it is targeting Silicon Valley.</p> DEEP DIVISIONS
<p>The Commission said that top digital firms, whose average revenue growth of 14 percent far exceeded that of other multinationals, faced an effective tax rate of 9.5 percent, less than half the level of traditional companies.</p>
<p>The proposals require backing from the European Parliament and the 28 EU countries, but they are divided on the issue. EU tax reforms need the backing of all member states to become law.</p> Slideshow (3 Images)
<p>Large EU states have accused the tech firms of paying too little tax in the bloc by routing some of their profits to low-tax member states such as Ireland and Luxembourg.</p>
<p>U.S. tech companies themselves have said they are paying tax in line with national and international laws and, in some cases, that the tax should be paid in the United States on profits repatriated there.</p>
<p>The proposal is to tax companies according to where their digital users are based.</p>
<p>A senior EU diplomatic predicted it would be hard to push through the legislation, among the most important for the bloc, because of deep divisions between larger countries set to gain more tax income and smaller ones set to lose.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=GOOGL.O" type="external">Alphabet Inc</a> 1095.8 GOOGL.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) GOOGL.O FB.O AMZN.O
<p>Smaller countries also fear becoming less attractive to multinational firms.</p>
<p>Ireland has warned that the proposals risk merely re-slicing the tax cake, rather than actually taxing more. Some countries also believe that smaller companies should also face a bill.</p>
<p>Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said that the EU would prefer globally agreed rules, but that the amount of profits currently going untaxed was unacceptable.</p>
<p>The tax would to apply to online advertising sales, which would bring in companies such as Google and Facebook, to platforms offering services such as interaction with other users or online sales and to those selling data generated from users.</p>
<p>The tax would be collected in countries where the users are located.</p>
<p>Tech industry groups have complained that it is wrong to tax revenues as that would unduly hit companies, such as Amazon, with thinner margins.</p>
<p>($1 = 0.8145 euros)</p>
<p>Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Alison Williams</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
| 5,270 |
<p>UPDATE: I’ve reached out to the Human Rights Campaign and they dispute the below-linked New York Times story. According to HRC spokesman Brandon Lorenz, Hillary Clinton “remains the morning speaker” on Saturday.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton was scheduled to address Human Rights Campaign staffers and supporters on Saturday in advance of their annual gala in Washington DC, but the HRC gig has reportedly been canceled so that she can appear during the opening monologue of Saturday Night Live. Via the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/10/01/hillary-clinton-saturday-night-live/" type="external">New York Times</a>:</p>
<p>Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to appear on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, the latest — and highest stakes — appearance of her current push to show her funny, personable side as the campaign heads into the critical first Democratic debate and she faces headwinds in Iowa and New Hampshire and a potential challenge from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. In a top-secret appearance that her campaign would not confirm, Mrs. Clinton will meet her comedic counterpart, Kate McKinnon, who has portrayed the former first lady to effusive praise as the latest “S.N.L.” member to don a blonde wig and attempt to bring to life the character of Mrs. Clinton.</p>
<p>In order to appear, Mrs. Clinton turned down the chance to give the keynote address to the influential Human Rights Campaign, the country’s most powerful lesbian and gay rights group, which will allow her to make the debut “S.N.L.” appearance of her 2016 campaign, said several people with knowledge of her schedule who could not discuss private planning for attribution. She is expected to pop in to join Ms. McKinnon as part of the so-called cold open skit, these people said. A spokeswoman for NBC declined to comment. Both the show and NBC were hoping to make the appearance a splashy surprise. The show’s creator, Lorne Michaels, is well known for being tight-lipped about guests and has even changed the lineup at the last minute, which is still a possibility with Mrs. Clinton, whose own schedule is also fluid, these people said.</p>
<p>NOTE: Contrary to the above report and as I <a href="" type="internal">mentioned</a> last month, Clinton was scheduled to speak to at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters on Saturday morning and was not slated to deliver the keynote address at that evening’s gala. Joe Biden is the scheduled keynote speaker.</p>
|
REPORT: Hillary Clinton Ditches HRC For SNL UPDATE: HRC Disputes Cancellation Claim
| true |
http://joemygod.com/2015/10/01/report-hillary-clinton-ditches-hrc-for-snl/
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2015-10-01
| 4left
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REPORT: Hillary Clinton Ditches HRC For SNL UPDATE: HRC Disputes Cancellation Claim
<p>UPDATE: I’ve reached out to the Human Rights Campaign and they dispute the below-linked New York Times story. According to HRC spokesman Brandon Lorenz, Hillary Clinton “remains the morning speaker” on Saturday.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton was scheduled to address Human Rights Campaign staffers and supporters on Saturday in advance of their annual gala in Washington DC, but the HRC gig has reportedly been canceled so that she can appear during the opening monologue of Saturday Night Live. Via the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/10/01/hillary-clinton-saturday-night-live/" type="external">New York Times</a>:</p>
<p>Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to appear on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, the latest — and highest stakes — appearance of her current push to show her funny, personable side as the campaign heads into the critical first Democratic debate and she faces headwinds in Iowa and New Hampshire and a potential challenge from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. In a top-secret appearance that her campaign would not confirm, Mrs. Clinton will meet her comedic counterpart, Kate McKinnon, who has portrayed the former first lady to effusive praise as the latest “S.N.L.” member to don a blonde wig and attempt to bring to life the character of Mrs. Clinton.</p>
<p>In order to appear, Mrs. Clinton turned down the chance to give the keynote address to the influential Human Rights Campaign, the country’s most powerful lesbian and gay rights group, which will allow her to make the debut “S.N.L.” appearance of her 2016 campaign, said several people with knowledge of her schedule who could not discuss private planning for attribution. She is expected to pop in to join Ms. McKinnon as part of the so-called cold open skit, these people said. A spokeswoman for NBC declined to comment. Both the show and NBC were hoping to make the appearance a splashy surprise. The show’s creator, Lorne Michaels, is well known for being tight-lipped about guests and has even changed the lineup at the last minute, which is still a possibility with Mrs. Clinton, whose own schedule is also fluid, these people said.</p>
<p>NOTE: Contrary to the above report and as I <a href="" type="internal">mentioned</a> last month, Clinton was scheduled to speak to at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters on Saturday morning and was not slated to deliver the keynote address at that evening’s gala. Joe Biden is the scheduled keynote speaker.</p>
| 5,271 |
<p>The Monteleone family opened Barone’s Italian Restaurant in Valley Glen 70 years ago, and has seen its share of employee turnover.</p>
<p>But Tom Monteleone got a nasty lesson in California’s employee relations law last week.</p>
<p>One of his cooks was terminated after a few weeks of erratic behavior. The cook, who had been with Barone’s for 25 years, fought back, Monteleone said. The employee retained an attorney, found&#160;a doctor to diagnose him with a work-related injury and alleged he had cumulative trauma.</p>
<p>The law permits employees to claim that repetitive stress over a period of time has caused damage and entitles them to cash.</p>
<p />
<p>Source: Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California</p>
<p />
<p>All states permit some form of such claims, but California is widely seen as the most permissive and lucrative in such awards.&#160;When the worker comp claims awards increased in 2010, cumulative injury claims were cited as a cause in <a href="http://www.wcirb.com/sites/default/files/documents/january_2015_update_indemnity_claim_frequency_report_complete.pdf" type="external">a report</a> released in January&#160;by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California.</p>
<p>One of the primary&#160;reasons is a provision of the state code doesn’t allow for a report date for an injury when it considers a cumulative trauma claim. Among the largest increases among cumulative claims is so-called “late reported,” regarding injuries that had not previously been reported.</p>
<p>Therefore, Barone’s fired employee was allowed&#160;by a panel of the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board to walk away with a five-figure payday from Monteleone.</p>
<p>It was done so at the behest of the&#160;state, which gave&#160;the worker $25,000. Monteleone had asked that he allow his lawyer to contest the departed employee’s allegations but was refused.</p>
<p>“They don’t even ask me if I want to settle, I don’t get to challenge whatever he says,” Monteleone said. “It’s between the insurance company lawyer and the employee.”</p>
<p>His insurance bill increases to pay a portion of the $25,000 over a three-year period, he figures. Start adding up these claims and it&#160;begins to amount to something.</p>
<p>Which is what Monteleone sees happening.&#160;A couple years ago, he fired two employees who were stealing from him. Shortly after terminating the employees, he received a notice that both workers were filing a claim, again under the state’s cumulative trauma provision.</p>
<p>Both won five-figure payouts.</p>
<p>“The law is clear and it’s unique to California,”said Dan Pondella, the insurance agent who&#160;handles&#160;Monteleone’s workers compensation policy. “Anyone can claim cumulative trauma and get paid, even if they worked for years and never said a word. And in this case, even if they get fired for stealing.”</p>
<p>Pondella blames the attorney lobby and state lawmakers for failing to buck the heavy influence and create a better state for employers.</p>
<p>“I would say at least 80 percent of our clients have had cumulative trauma cases,” Pondella said. “Manufacturing firms can move, and they go to Texas where the workman’s compensation insurance is a third of what it is here. Someone like Tom, who is running a family business that has been here for generations, he can’t move so easy. Instead, if he wants to stay in business, he now has to pay that extra amount for the next three years.”</p>
<p>The focus of business advocacy groups like the California Small Business Association as pertains to worker’s compensation is a larger look.</p>
<p>“When it comes to those kind of claims, the employer doesn’t have a leg to stand on,” said Lynn DellaCroce, an agent with HUB International Insurance Services in Santa Maria. She said Monteleone was “damn lucky” to get off for $25,000.</p>
<p>Like other worker’s comp claims, the judge in the case relies on state law, which allows that if 1 percent of your injury can be attributed to employment, your claim, if it satisfies other criteria, is valid.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1994-01-13/business/fi-11460_1_cumulative-trauma" type="external">state in 1994</a> enacted reforms that required employers to establish a procedure to chronicle potential cumulative injuries, which are attributed to repetitive movement.</p>
<p>At the time, proponents of the change claimed it would benefit employers through prevention. Much of the focus then was on carpal tunnel syndrome, which arose as more computer-related work including typing became more common. But loopholes and questionable – – albeit successful — claims have provided dubious benefits employers.</p>
<p>There are 24 worker’s compensation appeals boards around the state, where claims are heard. California employers pay out the highest worker’s compensation insurance rates in the U.S., according to a <a href="http://www.cbs.state.or.us/external/dir/wc_cost/files/report_summary.pdf" type="external">national study</a>. There are numerous reasons to apply for payments, most prevalently from actual on-the-job injuries. Wedged in there are claims&#160;for cumulative trauma. California is considered the most liberal in the nation when it comes to handing these awards out, with a ready base of lawyers and doctors set up to establish the malady.</p>
<p>The last attempt to temper the state’s cumulative trauma law <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/03-04/bill/asm/ab_2251-2300/ab_2287_bill_20040219_introduced.pdf" type="external">came in 2004</a> from then-state Assembly Member Guy Houston, R-San Ramon. The measure died immediately.</p>
<p>“It’s a law that penalizes the employer when, if I had been advised that there were problems that someone was having, I could have done something about it,” Monteleone said. “But the state just goes along with whatever is alleged.”</p>
|
Cumulative trauma law bedevils employers, hands fired employees a payday
| false |
https://calwatchdog.com/2015/09/30/cumulative-trauma-law-bdevils-employers-hands-fired-employees-payday/
|
2018-09-20
| 3left-center
|
Cumulative trauma law bedevils employers, hands fired employees a payday
<p>The Monteleone family opened Barone’s Italian Restaurant in Valley Glen 70 years ago, and has seen its share of employee turnover.</p>
<p>But Tom Monteleone got a nasty lesson in California’s employee relations law last week.</p>
<p>One of his cooks was terminated after a few weeks of erratic behavior. The cook, who had been with Barone’s for 25 years, fought back, Monteleone said. The employee retained an attorney, found&#160;a doctor to diagnose him with a work-related injury and alleged he had cumulative trauma.</p>
<p>The law permits employees to claim that repetitive stress over a period of time has caused damage and entitles them to cash.</p>
<p />
<p>Source: Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California</p>
<p />
<p>All states permit some form of such claims, but California is widely seen as the most permissive and lucrative in such awards.&#160;When the worker comp claims awards increased in 2010, cumulative injury claims were cited as a cause in <a href="http://www.wcirb.com/sites/default/files/documents/january_2015_update_indemnity_claim_frequency_report_complete.pdf" type="external">a report</a> released in January&#160;by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California.</p>
<p>One of the primary&#160;reasons is a provision of the state code doesn’t allow for a report date for an injury when it considers a cumulative trauma claim. Among the largest increases among cumulative claims is so-called “late reported,” regarding injuries that had not previously been reported.</p>
<p>Therefore, Barone’s fired employee was allowed&#160;by a panel of the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board to walk away with a five-figure payday from Monteleone.</p>
<p>It was done so at the behest of the&#160;state, which gave&#160;the worker $25,000. Monteleone had asked that he allow his lawyer to contest the departed employee’s allegations but was refused.</p>
<p>“They don’t even ask me if I want to settle, I don’t get to challenge whatever he says,” Monteleone said. “It’s between the insurance company lawyer and the employee.”</p>
<p>His insurance bill increases to pay a portion of the $25,000 over a three-year period, he figures. Start adding up these claims and it&#160;begins to amount to something.</p>
<p>Which is what Monteleone sees happening.&#160;A couple years ago, he fired two employees who were stealing from him. Shortly after terminating the employees, he received a notice that both workers were filing a claim, again under the state’s cumulative trauma provision.</p>
<p>Both won five-figure payouts.</p>
<p>“The law is clear and it’s unique to California,”said Dan Pondella, the insurance agent who&#160;handles&#160;Monteleone’s workers compensation policy. “Anyone can claim cumulative trauma and get paid, even if they worked for years and never said a word. And in this case, even if they get fired for stealing.”</p>
<p>Pondella blames the attorney lobby and state lawmakers for failing to buck the heavy influence and create a better state for employers.</p>
<p>“I would say at least 80 percent of our clients have had cumulative trauma cases,” Pondella said. “Manufacturing firms can move, and they go to Texas where the workman’s compensation insurance is a third of what it is here. Someone like Tom, who is running a family business that has been here for generations, he can’t move so easy. Instead, if he wants to stay in business, he now has to pay that extra amount for the next three years.”</p>
<p>The focus of business advocacy groups like the California Small Business Association as pertains to worker’s compensation is a larger look.</p>
<p>“When it comes to those kind of claims, the employer doesn’t have a leg to stand on,” said Lynn DellaCroce, an agent with HUB International Insurance Services in Santa Maria. She said Monteleone was “damn lucky” to get off for $25,000.</p>
<p>Like other worker’s comp claims, the judge in the case relies on state law, which allows that if 1 percent of your injury can be attributed to employment, your claim, if it satisfies other criteria, is valid.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1994-01-13/business/fi-11460_1_cumulative-trauma" type="external">state in 1994</a> enacted reforms that required employers to establish a procedure to chronicle potential cumulative injuries, which are attributed to repetitive movement.</p>
<p>At the time, proponents of the change claimed it would benefit employers through prevention. Much of the focus then was on carpal tunnel syndrome, which arose as more computer-related work including typing became more common. But loopholes and questionable – – albeit successful — claims have provided dubious benefits employers.</p>
<p>There are 24 worker’s compensation appeals boards around the state, where claims are heard. California employers pay out the highest worker’s compensation insurance rates in the U.S., according to a <a href="http://www.cbs.state.or.us/external/dir/wc_cost/files/report_summary.pdf" type="external">national study</a>. There are numerous reasons to apply for payments, most prevalently from actual on-the-job injuries. Wedged in there are claims&#160;for cumulative trauma. California is considered the most liberal in the nation when it comes to handing these awards out, with a ready base of lawyers and doctors set up to establish the malady.</p>
<p>The last attempt to temper the state’s cumulative trauma law <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/03-04/bill/asm/ab_2251-2300/ab_2287_bill_20040219_introduced.pdf" type="external">came in 2004</a> from then-state Assembly Member Guy Houston, R-San Ramon. The measure died immediately.</p>
<p>“It’s a law that penalizes the employer when, if I had been advised that there were problems that someone was having, I could have done something about it,” Monteleone said. “But the state just goes along with whatever is alleged.”</p>
| 5,272 |
<p>NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s main opposition Congress party on Monday elevated Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the country’s most fabled political dynasty, as its president, preparing to challenge the dominance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of national polls in 2019.</p>
<p>In a long-awaited move, Gandhi, the great-grandson of India’s founding prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was elected unopposed to head the party. He will take the reins from his mother Sonia, the party’s longest-serving president, since 1998.</p>
<p>“The entire Indian National Congress family would like to convey our best wishes to incoming President Rahul Gandhi, and wish him a successful tenure as he continues to lead from the front,” the party said on its official Twitter handle.</p>
<p>Television broadcast images of party supporters celebrating the news outside Congress offices in the capital, New Delhi, and the financial hub of Mumbai.</p>
<p>Ever since Congress was defeated heavily in the 2014 national election by Modi’s party, Gandhi has struggled to convince voters, as well as many within his party, of his leadership skills.</p>
<p>But Gandhi was now geared up for the next challenge, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Monday.</p>
<p>“The entire country has lots of expectations from Rahul Gandhi,” Azad told reporters. “Much before he was elected he has shown his mettle. He knows his responsibility.”</p>
<p>Modi’s depiction of the 47-year-old as an undeserving “prince” has helped sideline Gandhi since the last national election, during which time Congress has suffered some of its worst results in local elections.</p>
<p>The news coincides with state polls in Modi’s western home state of Gujarat that are shaping as a test for the prime minister, who has been facing criticism for slowing economic growth and poor implementation of a nationwide sales tax.</p>
<p>The Congress hopes a round of state elections offers the party, and Gandhi, a shot at revival ahead of the next national elections, due in 2019.</p>
<p>Still, Modi remains immensely popular.</p>
<p>Nearly nine of 10 Indians have a favourable opinion of him and more than two-thirds are satisfied with the direction in which he is taking the country, a Pew survey found in November.</p>
<p>Modi’s favourable rating was 30 points more than Gandhi’s, the poll showed.</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>
|
India's Rahul Gandhi appointed president of Congress party
| false |
https://newsline.com/india039s-rahul-gandhi-appointed-president-of-congress-party/
|
2017-12-11
| 1right-center
|
India's Rahul Gandhi appointed president of Congress party
<p>NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s main opposition Congress party on Monday elevated Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the country’s most fabled political dynasty, as its president, preparing to challenge the dominance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of national polls in 2019.</p>
<p>In a long-awaited move, Gandhi, the great-grandson of India’s founding prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was elected unopposed to head the party. He will take the reins from his mother Sonia, the party’s longest-serving president, since 1998.</p>
<p>“The entire Indian National Congress family would like to convey our best wishes to incoming President Rahul Gandhi, and wish him a successful tenure as he continues to lead from the front,” the party said on its official Twitter handle.</p>
<p>Television broadcast images of party supporters celebrating the news outside Congress offices in the capital, New Delhi, and the financial hub of Mumbai.</p>
<p>Ever since Congress was defeated heavily in the 2014 national election by Modi’s party, Gandhi has struggled to convince voters, as well as many within his party, of his leadership skills.</p>
<p>But Gandhi was now geared up for the next challenge, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Monday.</p>
<p>“The entire country has lots of expectations from Rahul Gandhi,” Azad told reporters. “Much before he was elected he has shown his mettle. He knows his responsibility.”</p>
<p>Modi’s depiction of the 47-year-old as an undeserving “prince” has helped sideline Gandhi since the last national election, during which time Congress has suffered some of its worst results in local elections.</p>
<p>The news coincides with state polls in Modi’s western home state of Gujarat that are shaping as a test for the prime minister, who has been facing criticism for slowing economic growth and poor implementation of a nationwide sales tax.</p>
<p>The Congress hopes a round of state elections offers the party, and Gandhi, a shot at revival ahead of the next national elections, due in 2019.</p>
<p>Still, Modi remains immensely popular.</p>
<p>Nearly nine of 10 Indians have a favourable opinion of him and more than two-thirds are satisfied with the direction in which he is taking the country, a Pew survey found in November.</p>
<p>Modi’s favourable rating was 30 points more than Gandhi’s, the poll showed.</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>
| 5,273 |
<p>Detective Jack Mook of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, thought he was content as a bachelor, serving the city as an officer, and volunteering in his free time. That was until he met two young boys that changed all that.</p>
<p>When Detective Mook noticed the brothers had stopped showing up at the boxing gym where he coached, he went looking for them. He soon discovered why the boys had stopped showing up. They were in an abusive foster care situation. So Jack set about to find them a better home.</p>
<p>Turns out, his home was that better home.</p>
<p>Jack's story went viral when CBS's Steve Hartman ran a story about him, and the letters came rolling in, especially from women.</p>
<p>In the video above, Steve shares an update that takes Jack and his two sons from a small family to a Brady Bunch-sized one.</p>
<p>To see Hartman's original story on Jack and the boys, click below. (Warning: a few tissues may be required)...</p>
<p>#Family</p>
|
Big-Hearted Cop Has His Life Changed One More Time
| true |
https://dailywire.com/news/2660/big-hearted-cop-has-his-life-changed-one-more-time-chase-stephens
|
2016-01-16
| 0right
|
Big-Hearted Cop Has His Life Changed One More Time
<p>Detective Jack Mook of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, thought he was content as a bachelor, serving the city as an officer, and volunteering in his free time. That was until he met two young boys that changed all that.</p>
<p>When Detective Mook noticed the brothers had stopped showing up at the boxing gym where he coached, he went looking for them. He soon discovered why the boys had stopped showing up. They were in an abusive foster care situation. So Jack set about to find them a better home.</p>
<p>Turns out, his home was that better home.</p>
<p>Jack's story went viral when CBS's Steve Hartman ran a story about him, and the letters came rolling in, especially from women.</p>
<p>In the video above, Steve shares an update that takes Jack and his two sons from a small family to a Brady Bunch-sized one.</p>
<p>To see Hartman's original story on Jack and the boys, click below. (Warning: a few tissues may be required)...</p>
<p>#Family</p>
| 5,274 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ATLANTA — Atlanta area commuters crowded aboard mass transit trains and fewer cars hit the road Monday as public schools went on spring break, easing fears of fierce gridlock after last week’s fiery collapse of a key interstate bridge.</p>
<p>Acknowledging the spike in train and bus riders, Georgia’s governor pledged state financial assistance for agencies providing more frequent transit service and said he’s seeking more federal aid for that same purpose.</p>
<p>Monday morning’s rush hour traffic in the Southeast’s largest city appeared lighter than usual as the first full workweek opened since Thursday’s inferno cut off downtown Atlanta’s key highway link to its northern suburbs.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But state officials warned that may not be the case when schools resume normal schedules. They urged private companies to allow employees to work from home and asked commuters to consider mass transit.</p>
<p>The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority reported a big rush hour jump in passengers on its northern rail lines Monday morning, up 50 to 73 percent as many commuters sought to avoid the highways altogether.</p>
<p>Friday saw traffic snarls and long delays as drivers sought to bypass the bridge collapse on side streets. Overall, fewer cars were on the road than on a typical Monday because all metro Atlanta public schools are out for spring break this week.</p>
<p>Motorist Randy Kessler said he left his home north of the city to drive downtown around 7 a.m., slightly earlier than usual. He said he didn’t experience any major traffic heading south, but saw more traffic going north.</p>
<p>“This is going to help in the long run,” said Kessler, a divorce lawyer. “It reminds me of the (1996) Olympics when people were terrified about driving downtown, but it was lightest traffic ever. It made people carpool more. I think Atlanta needed a little kick in the butt. We needed something to change our habits to make us rethink our daily commute.”</p>
<p>Crews are working around the clock to remove scorched debris from the collapsed bridge. A portion of Interstate 85 remains closed as drivers are being redirected to alternate routes to bypass the wrecked bridge.</p>
<p>The closed section of I-85 is a key link to some of the city’s biggest suburbs. It carries about 400,000 vehicles a day in a city where there are surprisingly few alternative routes for its size.</p>
<p>Officials pledged after the collapse of the 350-foot section of Interstate 85 that a replacement bridge would be built as soon as possible, but that could take months.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>On Monday, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal promised financial help from the state to transit agencies seeing increased ridership and released a letter seeking more financial aid dedicated to transit agencies from the federal government.</p>
<p>U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao last week released $10 million for the initial repair work, and the Federal Highway Administration promised more in emergency repair funds.</p>
<p>Deal also requested Monday that federal authorities waive various regulations and potentially lower the cost of repairs. The state also hopes to use financial incentives for private contractors and state employees to speed up completion.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Deal said state employees are being urged to work from home or use transit to reach government buildings clustered downtown. He urged private companies to follow the state’s lead.</p>
<p>Authorities said the fire was started by a man who had talked about smoking crack prior to the fire that broke out under the bridge in an area north of downtown Atlanta where the state of Georgia stores noncombustible construction materials. The blaze grew quickly with smoke billowing high above the city’s skyline before the bridge collapsed. Firefighters had already scrambled to safety and no one was hurt.</p>
<p>Basil Eleby was charged with first-degree arson and first-degree property damage. He remains in jail on a $200,000 bond. Two other people with him were charged with criminal trespass, authorities said.</p>
<p>Georgia Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry said Monday that his agency will evaluate “all things” connected to the fire, including storage locations of construction materials.</p>
<p>“We certainly will be looking at all things to make sure that we never have a catastrophic event like this again,” McMurry said.</p>
<p>McMurry said investigators in Eleby’s case and with the National Transportation Safety Board have requested that crews preserve some evidence from the site. He didn’t provide details.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been edited to clarify that authorities said the suspect talked about smoking crack prior to the fire rather than that he smoked it.</p>
|
Atlanta after major bridge collapse: jump in mass transit
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/981348/atlanta-begins-1st-full-workweek-since-major-bridge-collapse.html
|
2017-04-03
| 2least
|
Atlanta after major bridge collapse: jump in mass transit
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ATLANTA — Atlanta area commuters crowded aboard mass transit trains and fewer cars hit the road Monday as public schools went on spring break, easing fears of fierce gridlock after last week’s fiery collapse of a key interstate bridge.</p>
<p>Acknowledging the spike in train and bus riders, Georgia’s governor pledged state financial assistance for agencies providing more frequent transit service and said he’s seeking more federal aid for that same purpose.</p>
<p>Monday morning’s rush hour traffic in the Southeast’s largest city appeared lighter than usual as the first full workweek opened since Thursday’s inferno cut off downtown Atlanta’s key highway link to its northern suburbs.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But state officials warned that may not be the case when schools resume normal schedules. They urged private companies to allow employees to work from home and asked commuters to consider mass transit.</p>
<p>The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority reported a big rush hour jump in passengers on its northern rail lines Monday morning, up 50 to 73 percent as many commuters sought to avoid the highways altogether.</p>
<p>Friday saw traffic snarls and long delays as drivers sought to bypass the bridge collapse on side streets. Overall, fewer cars were on the road than on a typical Monday because all metro Atlanta public schools are out for spring break this week.</p>
<p>Motorist Randy Kessler said he left his home north of the city to drive downtown around 7 a.m., slightly earlier than usual. He said he didn’t experience any major traffic heading south, but saw more traffic going north.</p>
<p>“This is going to help in the long run,” said Kessler, a divorce lawyer. “It reminds me of the (1996) Olympics when people were terrified about driving downtown, but it was lightest traffic ever. It made people carpool more. I think Atlanta needed a little kick in the butt. We needed something to change our habits to make us rethink our daily commute.”</p>
<p>Crews are working around the clock to remove scorched debris from the collapsed bridge. A portion of Interstate 85 remains closed as drivers are being redirected to alternate routes to bypass the wrecked bridge.</p>
<p>The closed section of I-85 is a key link to some of the city’s biggest suburbs. It carries about 400,000 vehicles a day in a city where there are surprisingly few alternative routes for its size.</p>
<p>Officials pledged after the collapse of the 350-foot section of Interstate 85 that a replacement bridge would be built as soon as possible, but that could take months.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>On Monday, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal promised financial help from the state to transit agencies seeing increased ridership and released a letter seeking more financial aid dedicated to transit agencies from the federal government.</p>
<p>U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao last week released $10 million for the initial repair work, and the Federal Highway Administration promised more in emergency repair funds.</p>
<p>Deal also requested Monday that federal authorities waive various regulations and potentially lower the cost of repairs. The state also hopes to use financial incentives for private contractors and state employees to speed up completion.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Deal said state employees are being urged to work from home or use transit to reach government buildings clustered downtown. He urged private companies to follow the state’s lead.</p>
<p>Authorities said the fire was started by a man who had talked about smoking crack prior to the fire that broke out under the bridge in an area north of downtown Atlanta where the state of Georgia stores noncombustible construction materials. The blaze grew quickly with smoke billowing high above the city’s skyline before the bridge collapsed. Firefighters had already scrambled to safety and no one was hurt.</p>
<p>Basil Eleby was charged with first-degree arson and first-degree property damage. He remains in jail on a $200,000 bond. Two other people with him were charged with criminal trespass, authorities said.</p>
<p>Georgia Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry said Monday that his agency will evaluate “all things” connected to the fire, including storage locations of construction materials.</p>
<p>“We certainly will be looking at all things to make sure that we never have a catastrophic event like this again,” McMurry said.</p>
<p>McMurry said investigators in Eleby’s case and with the National Transportation Safety Board have requested that crews preserve some evidence from the site. He didn’t provide details.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>This story has been edited to clarify that authorities said the suspect talked about smoking crack prior to the fire rather than that he smoked it.</p>
| 5,275 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>CARLSBAD, N.M. — Authorities in New Mexico say three people were found dead in a battery tank explosion.</p>
<p>The explosion was reported Friday morning near Carlsbad in far southeastern New Mexico.</p>
<p>The Eddy County sheriff’s office says it took about three hours to contain the blaze before the bodies were found, though they haven’t been identified.</p>
<p>A tank battery is used to store and process oil wells.</p>
<p>It’s unclear what caused the explosion.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
3 dead in Carlsbad-area explosion Friday
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1057687/3-dead-in-carlsbad-area-explosion-friday.html
| 2least
|
3 dead in Carlsbad-area explosion Friday
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>CARLSBAD, N.M. — Authorities in New Mexico say three people were found dead in a battery tank explosion.</p>
<p>The explosion was reported Friday morning near Carlsbad in far southeastern New Mexico.</p>
<p>The Eddy County sheriff’s office says it took about three hours to contain the blaze before the bodies were found, though they haven’t been identified.</p>
<p>A tank battery is used to store and process oil wells.</p>
<p>It’s unclear what caused the explosion.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 5,276 |
|
<p>DHHS announced partnerships with key national organizations to support LGBT outreach and enrollment efforts during 2016 Open Enrollment.</p>
<p>SAN DIEGO — With the Dec. 15 deadline for coverage starting in January fast approaching, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week announced partnerships with key national organizations to support LGBT outreach and enrollment efforts during 2016 Open Enrollment, the <a href="http://www.sdgln.com/health/2015/12/08/hhs-partners-lgbt-organizations-promote-open-enrollment-activities-during-lgbt-wee#sthash.65RwOyD9.mBeHaLj2.dpbs" type="external">San Diego Gay &amp; Lesbian News reports</a>.</p>
<p>As part of LGBT Week of Action from Dec. 7-11, Out2Enroll and other organizations held enrollment activities and provided in-person assistance across the country. Additionally, partners leveraged social media campaigns to ask their members and affiliates to sign up for an affordable health plan for 2016 through the Health Insurance Marketplace.</p>
<p>“This administration has made historic progress for the LGBT community, ensuring that people cannot be denied health coverage because of their gender identity, sexual orientation, or pre-existing conditions,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell in the San Diego Gay &amp; Lesbian News article.&#160; “We are proud to continue that progress and work with our national partners to give more LGBT Americans and their families access to quality, affordable health coverage.”</p>
<p>Health disparities for LGBT people, such as lack of health care coverage, poverty and other barriers to care, have been widely reported.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Department of Health and Human Services</a> <a href="" type="internal">DHHS</a> <a href="" type="internal">Health Insurance Marketplace</a> <a href="" type="internal">LGBT</a> <a href="" type="internal">Out2Enroll</a> <a href="" type="internal">San Diego Gay &amp; Lesbian News</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sylvia M. Burwell</a></p>
|
Health insurance coverage effort targets gays
| false |
http://washingtonblade.com/2015/12/11/health-insurance-coverage-effort-targets-gays/
| 3left-center
|
Health insurance coverage effort targets gays
<p>DHHS announced partnerships with key national organizations to support LGBT outreach and enrollment efforts during 2016 Open Enrollment.</p>
<p>SAN DIEGO — With the Dec. 15 deadline for coverage starting in January fast approaching, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week announced partnerships with key national organizations to support LGBT outreach and enrollment efforts during 2016 Open Enrollment, the <a href="http://www.sdgln.com/health/2015/12/08/hhs-partners-lgbt-organizations-promote-open-enrollment-activities-during-lgbt-wee#sthash.65RwOyD9.mBeHaLj2.dpbs" type="external">San Diego Gay &amp; Lesbian News reports</a>.</p>
<p>As part of LGBT Week of Action from Dec. 7-11, Out2Enroll and other organizations held enrollment activities and provided in-person assistance across the country. Additionally, partners leveraged social media campaigns to ask their members and affiliates to sign up for an affordable health plan for 2016 through the Health Insurance Marketplace.</p>
<p>“This administration has made historic progress for the LGBT community, ensuring that people cannot be denied health coverage because of their gender identity, sexual orientation, or pre-existing conditions,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell in the San Diego Gay &amp; Lesbian News article.&#160; “We are proud to continue that progress and work with our national partners to give more LGBT Americans and their families access to quality, affordable health coverage.”</p>
<p>Health disparities for LGBT people, such as lack of health care coverage, poverty and other barriers to care, have been widely reported.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Department of Health and Human Services</a> <a href="" type="internal">DHHS</a> <a href="" type="internal">Health Insurance Marketplace</a> <a href="" type="internal">LGBT</a> <a href="" type="internal">Out2Enroll</a> <a href="" type="internal">San Diego Gay &amp; Lesbian News</a> <a href="" type="internal">Sylvia M. Burwell</a></p>
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<p>Well, apparently, we are at War.</p>
<p>That’s what we’ve been told over the last four years anyway: we are at War with Terrorism. Now, most people I know, protested against this “War”. We didn’t want to be a part of it, we didn’t want our soldiers to fight it, and we didn’t want the politicians that wanted to fight it.</p>
<p>We still don’t want to be in this “War”.</p>
<p>Now as I understand it, unless I’m very much mistaken (and that would be highly unusual), quite a lot of civilians on the “other side” of this War have been killed since it began.</p>
<p>We don’t know exactly how many, because apparently our politicians don’t count civilian dead, or as they referred to the individual human lives destroyed and mutilated by this War: Collateral Damage. We suspect it to be in the high thousands, and some estimates put at above a hundred thousand dead Iraqis, killed by the “War on Terror”. However many it is, it’s a lot of Collateral Damage.</p>
<p>And now, on Thursday, some civilians on “our side” of the “War on Terror” were killed. Not hundreds of thousands, not thousands, actually somewhere around 50, with several hundred more seriously injured.</p>
<p>And you know what? I suspect we’ll get to learn the names of every single Londoner killed on Thursday, because by the sounds of things, they are going to be counted very carefully.</p>
<p>Because of course, by the standards of the Western protagonists of the “War on Terror”, apparently Thursday’s dead Londoners were not Collateral Damage. Being the actual target, rather than incidental targets is morally so much worse.</p>
<p>Apparently, 50 Western civilians killed deliberately is much worse than 10,000 Arab civilians killed accidentally, not least of all because of the despicable methods used to kill them.</p>
<p>What would make the “other side” in the “War on Terror” more morally acceptable, apparently, would be if they lined up in uniformed ranks, and fought regiment to regiment, division to division, army to army. You know: a fair fight; a man’s fight; an honourable fight. Because all this using whatever tactics and opportunities that are available to those opposing the greatest military power the World has ever seen, is just downright unsporting. It’s not cricket; it’s not playing the White Man; it is Evil.</p>
<p>Apparently…</p>
<p>Of course, by now, we’re well into Ultra-Vicious Circle territory.</p>
<p>If those on the “other side” of the “War on Terror” actually used conventional, contemporary methods of warfare, they would no longer be labelled “Terrorists”, and would no longer be the targets of the “War on Terror”; and so wouldn’t have to fight at all.</p>
<p>But they have been targeted; and they are fighting back; and they are using the only methods that stand a chance of penetrating the kind of cigar-smoke-thick fog of irrational “resolve” possessed and paraded by politicians in the U.S. and the U.K. And because they are using those methods, they will continue to be targets of the “War on Terror”. Because they will continue to be targets of the “War on Terror”, they will continue to use the methods they do on the other targets in the “War on Terror”.</p>
<p>And throughout all of this, civilians in the Middle East and in the West (at least in those countries actively promulgating the “War on Terror”) will continue to be converted into Collateral Damage.</p>
<p>You know what? Whatever the death toll in Iraq since 2003, caused by our invading troops, I reckon we Londoners got off pretty lightly. Civilians are being turned into the same Collateral Damage numbers in Iraq as were created in London on Thursday, every day.</p>
<p>And so, Londoners aren’t feeling aggrieved. Londoners aren’t feeling outraged or hysterical. That’s not the London way. Londoners are having the same feelings we’ve felt every Time in the last 1,000 years that our Dear Leaders have decided to risk turning us into Collateral Damage by taking us to War. We have never expected the “other side” to take all the death we’ve so nobly dispatched to them, without sending at least some of it back our way. What happened on Thursday was an inevitable consequence of Tony Blair’s decision to back the United States in the “War on Terror”.</p>
<p>I suspect our Dear Leader’s response to Thursday’s attacks however, will be to encourage his Capo di Tutti Capo in Washington to create even more Collateral Damage, over there on the “other side”. And from thence, well, I refer you to the Ultra-Vicious Circle above.</p>
<p>No-one in London is outraged by Thursday’s attacks; because every Londoner is streetwise enough to know that if you’re going to give it, you’ve got to expect to take it. We Londoners can take it ­ we can take most anything: ask anyone who lived through the Blitz and the IRA ­ but that doesn’t mean we have to take it. Not when a change of democratic leadership and a reversal of militaristic policy could effect our safety so much more simply.</p>
<p>Now that those of us on “this side” of the “War on Terror” have had a taste of the medicine we’ve been dishing out to the “other side”, maybe we’ll get around to agreeing that we are not gonna take it anymore.</p>
<p>Maybe we will realise that the only way to stop a person fighting to defend their home and their Loved ones, is to stop attacking their homes and their Loved ones. I can’t think of any other way you can get them to stop, short of exterminating them all. And who wants that kind of Spiritual debt on their conscience?</p>
<p>Londoners aren’t outraged by Thursday’s attacks, but we do now feel a greater solidarity with all those Iraqis whose lives have been destroyed by the Terrorist Politicians on our side.</p>
<p>We understand fully now what is meant by Collateral Damage.</p>
<p>STEPHEN WINSPEAR lives in London. He can be reached at: <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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|
Collateral Damage
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2005/07/09/collateral-damage/
|
2005-07-09
| 4left
|
Collateral Damage
<p>Well, apparently, we are at War.</p>
<p>That’s what we’ve been told over the last four years anyway: we are at War with Terrorism. Now, most people I know, protested against this “War”. We didn’t want to be a part of it, we didn’t want our soldiers to fight it, and we didn’t want the politicians that wanted to fight it.</p>
<p>We still don’t want to be in this “War”.</p>
<p>Now as I understand it, unless I’m very much mistaken (and that would be highly unusual), quite a lot of civilians on the “other side” of this War have been killed since it began.</p>
<p>We don’t know exactly how many, because apparently our politicians don’t count civilian dead, or as they referred to the individual human lives destroyed and mutilated by this War: Collateral Damage. We suspect it to be in the high thousands, and some estimates put at above a hundred thousand dead Iraqis, killed by the “War on Terror”. However many it is, it’s a lot of Collateral Damage.</p>
<p>And now, on Thursday, some civilians on “our side” of the “War on Terror” were killed. Not hundreds of thousands, not thousands, actually somewhere around 50, with several hundred more seriously injured.</p>
<p>And you know what? I suspect we’ll get to learn the names of every single Londoner killed on Thursday, because by the sounds of things, they are going to be counted very carefully.</p>
<p>Because of course, by the standards of the Western protagonists of the “War on Terror”, apparently Thursday’s dead Londoners were not Collateral Damage. Being the actual target, rather than incidental targets is morally so much worse.</p>
<p>Apparently, 50 Western civilians killed deliberately is much worse than 10,000 Arab civilians killed accidentally, not least of all because of the despicable methods used to kill them.</p>
<p>What would make the “other side” in the “War on Terror” more morally acceptable, apparently, would be if they lined up in uniformed ranks, and fought regiment to regiment, division to division, army to army. You know: a fair fight; a man’s fight; an honourable fight. Because all this using whatever tactics and opportunities that are available to those opposing the greatest military power the World has ever seen, is just downright unsporting. It’s not cricket; it’s not playing the White Man; it is Evil.</p>
<p>Apparently…</p>
<p>Of course, by now, we’re well into Ultra-Vicious Circle territory.</p>
<p>If those on the “other side” of the “War on Terror” actually used conventional, contemporary methods of warfare, they would no longer be labelled “Terrorists”, and would no longer be the targets of the “War on Terror”; and so wouldn’t have to fight at all.</p>
<p>But they have been targeted; and they are fighting back; and they are using the only methods that stand a chance of penetrating the kind of cigar-smoke-thick fog of irrational “resolve” possessed and paraded by politicians in the U.S. and the U.K. And because they are using those methods, they will continue to be targets of the “War on Terror”. Because they will continue to be targets of the “War on Terror”, they will continue to use the methods they do on the other targets in the “War on Terror”.</p>
<p>And throughout all of this, civilians in the Middle East and in the West (at least in those countries actively promulgating the “War on Terror”) will continue to be converted into Collateral Damage.</p>
<p>You know what? Whatever the death toll in Iraq since 2003, caused by our invading troops, I reckon we Londoners got off pretty lightly. Civilians are being turned into the same Collateral Damage numbers in Iraq as were created in London on Thursday, every day.</p>
<p>And so, Londoners aren’t feeling aggrieved. Londoners aren’t feeling outraged or hysterical. That’s not the London way. Londoners are having the same feelings we’ve felt every Time in the last 1,000 years that our Dear Leaders have decided to risk turning us into Collateral Damage by taking us to War. We have never expected the “other side” to take all the death we’ve so nobly dispatched to them, without sending at least some of it back our way. What happened on Thursday was an inevitable consequence of Tony Blair’s decision to back the United States in the “War on Terror”.</p>
<p>I suspect our Dear Leader’s response to Thursday’s attacks however, will be to encourage his Capo di Tutti Capo in Washington to create even more Collateral Damage, over there on the “other side”. And from thence, well, I refer you to the Ultra-Vicious Circle above.</p>
<p>No-one in London is outraged by Thursday’s attacks; because every Londoner is streetwise enough to know that if you’re going to give it, you’ve got to expect to take it. We Londoners can take it ­ we can take most anything: ask anyone who lived through the Blitz and the IRA ­ but that doesn’t mean we have to take it. Not when a change of democratic leadership and a reversal of militaristic policy could effect our safety so much more simply.</p>
<p>Now that those of us on “this side” of the “War on Terror” have had a taste of the medicine we’ve been dishing out to the “other side”, maybe we’ll get around to agreeing that we are not gonna take it anymore.</p>
<p>Maybe we will realise that the only way to stop a person fighting to defend their home and their Loved ones, is to stop attacking their homes and their Loved ones. I can’t think of any other way you can get them to stop, short of exterminating them all. And who wants that kind of Spiritual debt on their conscience?</p>
<p>Londoners aren’t outraged by Thursday’s attacks, but we do now feel a greater solidarity with all those Iraqis whose lives have been destroyed by the Terrorist Politicians on our side.</p>
<p>We understand fully now what is meant by Collateral Damage.</p>
<p>STEPHEN WINSPEAR lives in London. He can be reached at: <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>&#160;</p>
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| 5,278 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — Santa Fe Police are asking for help identifying a woman who is shopping using a stolen credit card.</p>
<p>The suspect spent more than $1,800 at stores such as Wal-Mart, Payless shoe store, gas stations, Hastings and fast food restaurants, according to a police report. The card has been used between May 8 and May 25 throughout Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Alcalde.</p>
<p>The owner of the card believes it was stolen on May 8 near Cordova and St, Francis Drive. The suspect could face fraud charges.</p>
<p>The suspect’s picture was captured from a Wal-Mart surveillance camera.</p>
<p>Anyone with information is asked to call police at either 505-955-5222 or 505-428-3710.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
Police seek help in card theft case
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/215582/police-seek-help-in-card-theft-case.html
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2013-06-28
| 2least
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Police seek help in card theft case
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — Santa Fe Police are asking for help identifying a woman who is shopping using a stolen credit card.</p>
<p>The suspect spent more than $1,800 at stores such as Wal-Mart, Payless shoe store, gas stations, Hastings and fast food restaurants, according to a police report. The card has been used between May 8 and May 25 throughout Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Alcalde.</p>
<p>The owner of the card believes it was stolen on May 8 near Cordova and St, Francis Drive. The suspect could face fraud charges.</p>
<p>The suspect’s picture was captured from a Wal-Mart surveillance camera.</p>
<p>Anyone with information is asked to call police at either 505-955-5222 or 505-428-3710.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 5,279 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Cigna ranked highest in the Southwest region for member satisfaction with health plans, according to the recently released J.D. Power 2015 Member Health Plan Study.</p>
<p>Cigna received a rank of 676 on a 1,000-point scale, while United Healthcare received 665; Presbyterian Health Plan, 656; and Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico, 626.</p>
<p>The study, now in its ninth year, measures satisfaction among members of 134 health plans in 18 regions nationwide. It examines six factors: coverage and benefits; provider choice; information and communications; claims processing; cost and customer service. The Southwest region includes Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.</p>
<p>Nationwide, satisfaction was highest among plan members in California, where the regional average was 695, and lowest in New England, which had an average of 664. The Southwest regional average was 665.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
Cigna ranks No. 1 in Southwest for member satisfaction
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/559521/cigna-ranks-no-1-in-southwest-for-member-satisfaction.html
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Cigna ranks No. 1 in Southwest for member satisfaction
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Cigna ranked highest in the Southwest region for member satisfaction with health plans, according to the recently released J.D. Power 2015 Member Health Plan Study.</p>
<p>Cigna received a rank of 676 on a 1,000-point scale, while United Healthcare received 665; Presbyterian Health Plan, 656; and Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico, 626.</p>
<p>The study, now in its ninth year, measures satisfaction among members of 134 health plans in 18 regions nationwide. It examines six factors: coverage and benefits; provider choice; information and communications; claims processing; cost and customer service. The Southwest region includes Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada.</p>
<p>Nationwide, satisfaction was highest among plan members in California, where the regional average was 695, and lowest in New England, which had an average of 664. The Southwest regional average was 665.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 5,280 |
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<p>CLOVIS, N.M. — The trial of a New Mexico mother facing charges for having an incestuous relationship with her 20-year-old son is set to begin.</p>
<p>The Eastern New Mexico News reports (https://goo.gl/wclasW) jury selection in the case against 37-year-old Monica Mares is scheduled for Wednesday in Clovis.</p>
<p>Jury selection also is slated March 23 in the case involving her son, 20-year-old Caleb Peterson.</p>
<p>Mares and Peterson made international headlines last year following an interview with the British paper the Daily Mail. They told the newspaper they made their relationship public to raise awareness about “Genetic Sexual Attraction.”</p>
<p>The mother and son are facing separate jury trials on one count each of incest.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Clovis News Journal, <a href="http://www.cnjonline.com" type="external">http://www.cnjonline.com</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
Trial for New Mexico mom in son incest case set to begin
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/965250/trial-for-new-mexico-mom-in-son-incest-case-set-to-begin.html
| 2least
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Trial for New Mexico mom in son incest case set to begin
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>CLOVIS, N.M. — The trial of a New Mexico mother facing charges for having an incestuous relationship with her 20-year-old son is set to begin.</p>
<p>The Eastern New Mexico News reports (https://goo.gl/wclasW) jury selection in the case against 37-year-old Monica Mares is scheduled for Wednesday in Clovis.</p>
<p>Jury selection also is slated March 23 in the case involving her son, 20-year-old Caleb Peterson.</p>
<p>Mares and Peterson made international headlines last year following an interview with the British paper the Daily Mail. They told the newspaper they made their relationship public to raise awareness about “Genetic Sexual Attraction.”</p>
<p>The mother and son are facing separate jury trials on one count each of incest.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Clovis News Journal, <a href="http://www.cnjonline.com" type="external">http://www.cnjonline.com</a></p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 5,281 |
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<p>Deutsche Bank AG has explored a possible merger with rival German lender Commerzbank AG , <a href="http://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/banken/deutsche-bank-gedankenspiele-zur-commerzbank-a-1110215.html" type="external">Manager Magazin reported on Wednesday Opens a New Window.</a>, without citing any sources. The German magazine said the merger talks were only theoretical and at a very early stage. It was unclear whether the discussions will be resumed. The publication also said the bank was considering other options to bolster profitability, including a possible reintegration of its Postbank branches that were put up for sale. Deutsche Bank has recently struggled to stay profitable, reporting a 98% slide in profits in the second quarter, hurt by a weak performance in its trading and investment banking units. Its shares plunged to a record low in July after the U.K.'s Brexit vote fueled uncertainty in Europe. Shares of Deutsche Bank were up 1.8% on Wednesday, while Commerzbank rose 4%. Spokesperson from both Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank declined to comment on the report</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
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Deutsche Bank Explored Merger With Commerzbank: Report
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/08/31/deutsche-bank-explored-merger-with-commerzbank-report.html
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2016-08-31
| 0right
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Deutsche Bank Explored Merger With Commerzbank: Report
<p>Deutsche Bank AG has explored a possible merger with rival German lender Commerzbank AG , <a href="http://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/banken/deutsche-bank-gedankenspiele-zur-commerzbank-a-1110215.html" type="external">Manager Magazin reported on Wednesday Opens a New Window.</a>, without citing any sources. The German magazine said the merger talks were only theoretical and at a very early stage. It was unclear whether the discussions will be resumed. The publication also said the bank was considering other options to bolster profitability, including a possible reintegration of its Postbank branches that were put up for sale. Deutsche Bank has recently struggled to stay profitable, reporting a 98% slide in profits in the second quarter, hurt by a weak performance in its trading and investment banking units. Its shares plunged to a record low in July after the U.K.'s Brexit vote fueled uncertainty in Europe. Shares of Deutsche Bank were up 1.8% on Wednesday, while Commerzbank rose 4%. Spokesperson from both Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank declined to comment on the report</p>
<p>Copyright © 2016 MarketWatch, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
| 5,282 |
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — England won the toss and elected to bowl Sunday in the series-opening one-day cricket international against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.</p>
<p>After losing the Ashes test series 4-0, England returns to a format in which in has some hope of matching world champion Australia. The teams are in second and third places on world ODI rankings with 114 points apiece.</p>
<p>Australia selected a predictable lineup with the young fast bowler Andrew Tye selected to make his ODI debut after playing seven T20s.</p>
<p>England picked Alex Hales to bat at No. 3 ahead of test captain Joe Root and ODI captain Eoin Morgan. The speedster Mark Wood will play for the first time on tour after not being called on during the test series, joining Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett in the England pace attack.</p>
<p>England also included spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Australia: David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith (captain), Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Tim Paine, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye.</p>
<p>England: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (captain), Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood.</p>
<p>Umpires: Simon Fry, Australia, and Chris Gaffaney, New Zealand.</p>
<p>TV Umpire: Kumar Dharmasena, Sri Lanka. Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle, Sri Lanka.</p>
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — England won the toss and elected to bowl Sunday in the series-opening one-day cricket international against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.</p>
<p>After losing the Ashes test series 4-0, England returns to a format in which in has some hope of matching world champion Australia. The teams are in second and third places on world ODI rankings with 114 points apiece.</p>
<p>Australia selected a predictable lineup with the young fast bowler Andrew Tye selected to make his ODI debut after playing seven T20s.</p>
<p>England picked Alex Hales to bat at No. 3 ahead of test captain Joe Root and ODI captain Eoin Morgan. The speedster Mark Wood will play for the first time on tour after not being called on during the test series, joining Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett in the England pace attack.</p>
<p>England also included spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Australia: David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith (captain), Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Tim Paine, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye.</p>
<p>England: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (captain), Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood.</p>
<p>Umpires: Simon Fry, Australia, and Chris Gaffaney, New Zealand.</p>
<p>TV Umpire: Kumar Dharmasena, Sri Lanka. Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle, Sri Lanka.</p>
|
England wins toss, bowls in 1st ODI vs Australia
| false |
https://apnews.com/c6e3ffc29faa42c1a36761d2a0ea0567
|
2018-01-14
| 2least
|
England wins toss, bowls in 1st ODI vs Australia
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — England won the toss and elected to bowl Sunday in the series-opening one-day cricket international against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.</p>
<p>After losing the Ashes test series 4-0, England returns to a format in which in has some hope of matching world champion Australia. The teams are in second and third places on world ODI rankings with 114 points apiece.</p>
<p>Australia selected a predictable lineup with the young fast bowler Andrew Tye selected to make his ODI debut after playing seven T20s.</p>
<p>England picked Alex Hales to bat at No. 3 ahead of test captain Joe Root and ODI captain Eoin Morgan. The speedster Mark Wood will play for the first time on tour after not being called on during the test series, joining Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett in the England pace attack.</p>
<p>England also included spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Australia: David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith (captain), Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Tim Paine, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye.</p>
<p>England: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (captain), Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood.</p>
<p>Umpires: Simon Fry, Australia, and Chris Gaffaney, New Zealand.</p>
<p>TV Umpire: Kumar Dharmasena, Sri Lanka. Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle, Sri Lanka.</p>
<p>MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — England won the toss and elected to bowl Sunday in the series-opening one-day cricket international against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.</p>
<p>After losing the Ashes test series 4-0, England returns to a format in which in has some hope of matching world champion Australia. The teams are in second and third places on world ODI rankings with 114 points apiece.</p>
<p>Australia selected a predictable lineup with the young fast bowler Andrew Tye selected to make his ODI debut after playing seven T20s.</p>
<p>England picked Alex Hales to bat at No. 3 ahead of test captain Joe Root and ODI captain Eoin Morgan. The speedster Mark Wood will play for the first time on tour after not being called on during the test series, joining Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett in the England pace attack.</p>
<p>England also included spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.</p>
<p>____</p>
<p>Australia: David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith (captain), Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Tim Paine, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye.</p>
<p>England: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (captain), Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood.</p>
<p>Umpires: Simon Fry, Australia, and Chris Gaffaney, New Zealand.</p>
<p>TV Umpire: Kumar Dharmasena, Sri Lanka. Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle, Sri Lanka.</p>
| 5,283 |
<p>President Barack Obama has urged Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and Hu Jintao of China to support US efforts to pressure Iran to stop its sensitive nuclear activities, but failed to win endorsement from either man.</p>
<p>Obama met separately on Saturday with both presidents on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim economic summit in in Honolulu, Hawaii, <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=142281515" type="external">The Associated Press</a> reports.</p>
<p>Russia and China - veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council - remain a roadblock in the US push to tighten international sanctions on Iran.</p>
<p>However, after meeting with Medvedev, Obama said he and the Russian president reaffirmed their intention to shape a "common response" to Iranian nuclear activities, <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Obama-Urges-Medvedev-Hu-to-Support-US-Pressure-on-Iran-133762703.html" type="external">VOA</a>reports, adding that: "Before talking with Hu, the U.S. president said he and the Chinese leader want to ensure that Iran abides by 'international rules and norms.'"</p>
<p>NPR interpreted&#160;Obama's comments as being "broad enough to portray a united front without yielding any clear indication of progress."</p>
<p>Medvedev, for his part, was largely silent on Iran during his remarks, merely acknowledging that the subject was discussed. Hu did not mention Iran at all.</p>
<p>A U.N. nuclear agency report released Tuesday that found "credible" evidence existed of Iranian efforts to design an advanced nuclear weapon.</p>
<p>Iran responded to the report by accusing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for siding with what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called "absurd" US accusations that its atomic ambitions were not peaceful.</p>
<p>(GlobalPost reports:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/111109/iran-wont-retreat-nuclear-program-ahmadinejad" type="external">Iran will not retreat from nuclear program, says Ahmadinejad</a>)</p>
<p>Western powers, meantime, have warned that Iran faces more sanctions if it fails to address their concerns.</p>
<p>Obama, who has tried to increase pressure on Iran through the U.N. and unilateral U.S. sanctions, has hinted that military action is an option.</p>
<p>Republican presidential hopefuls, who have sharply criticized Obama's approach to Iran's nuclear ambitions as too weak, disagreed during a campaign debate on whether the US would be justified in a pre-emptive military strike, the AP reports.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich said in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on Saturday that they "would be willing to go to war to keep Iran from attaining nuclear weapons if all other strategies failed," <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57323686-503544/romney-gingrich-at-gop-debate-wed-go-to-war-to-keep-iran-from-getting-nuclear-weapons/" type="external">CBS News</a> reported.</p>
<p>However,&#160;Ron Paul strongly disagreed, stressing the need to go to Congress before taking military action, while&#160;Herman Cain also seemed opposed to an attack, saying the U.S. should "increase sanctions, deploy ballistic missile warships in the region and assist the opposition movement."</p>
|
Obama urges Dmitry Medvedev and Hu Jintao to support US pressure on Iran (VIDEO)
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2011-11-13/obama-urges-dmitry-medvedev-and-hu-jintao-support-us-pressure-iran-video
|
2011-11-13
| 3left-center
|
Obama urges Dmitry Medvedev and Hu Jintao to support US pressure on Iran (VIDEO)
<p>President Barack Obama has urged Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and Hu Jintao of China to support US efforts to pressure Iran to stop its sensitive nuclear activities, but failed to win endorsement from either man.</p>
<p>Obama met separately on Saturday with both presidents on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim economic summit in in Honolulu, Hawaii, <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=142281515" type="external">The Associated Press</a> reports.</p>
<p>Russia and China - veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council - remain a roadblock in the US push to tighten international sanctions on Iran.</p>
<p>However, after meeting with Medvedev, Obama said he and the Russian president reaffirmed their intention to shape a "common response" to Iranian nuclear activities, <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Obama-Urges-Medvedev-Hu-to-Support-US-Pressure-on-Iran-133762703.html" type="external">VOA</a>reports, adding that: "Before talking with Hu, the U.S. president said he and the Chinese leader want to ensure that Iran abides by 'international rules and norms.'"</p>
<p>NPR interpreted&#160;Obama's comments as being "broad enough to portray a united front without yielding any clear indication of progress."</p>
<p>Medvedev, for his part, was largely silent on Iran during his remarks, merely acknowledging that the subject was discussed. Hu did not mention Iran at all.</p>
<p>A U.N. nuclear agency report released Tuesday that found "credible" evidence existed of Iranian efforts to design an advanced nuclear weapon.</p>
<p>Iran responded to the report by accusing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for siding with what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called "absurd" US accusations that its atomic ambitions were not peaceful.</p>
<p>(GlobalPost reports:&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/111109/iran-wont-retreat-nuclear-program-ahmadinejad" type="external">Iran will not retreat from nuclear program, says Ahmadinejad</a>)</p>
<p>Western powers, meantime, have warned that Iran faces more sanctions if it fails to address their concerns.</p>
<p>Obama, who has tried to increase pressure on Iran through the U.N. and unilateral U.S. sanctions, has hinted that military action is an option.</p>
<p>Republican presidential hopefuls, who have sharply criticized Obama's approach to Iran's nuclear ambitions as too weak, disagreed during a campaign debate on whether the US would be justified in a pre-emptive military strike, the AP reports.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich said in Spartanburg, South Carolina, on Saturday that they "would be willing to go to war to keep Iran from attaining nuclear weapons if all other strategies failed," <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57323686-503544/romney-gingrich-at-gop-debate-wed-go-to-war-to-keep-iran-from-getting-nuclear-weapons/" type="external">CBS News</a> reported.</p>
<p>However,&#160;Ron Paul strongly disagreed, stressing the need to go to Congress before taking military action, while&#160;Herman Cain also seemed opposed to an attack, saying the U.S. should "increase sanctions, deploy ballistic missile warships in the region and assist the opposition movement."</p>
| 5,284 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — An autopsy performed on a newborn found partially buried in a yard in the Eldorado subdivision south of Santa Fe on Thursday revealed that the baby was a female, but few other details were learned.</p>
<p>“The autopsy result is that the death is still undetermined,” Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Maj. Ken Johnson said on Friday, shortly after receiving the report from the Office of the Medical Investigator. “They (OMI) will be conducting further testing to see if there’s anything that will give a cause of death. Those tests probably won’t be back for a few weeks.”</p>
<p>Johnson said the other detail learned from the autopsy was that the baby was in its 35th week of fetal development.</p>
<p>Johnson said that a 21-year-old woman who lives in the area and had been identified as a person of interest was indeed the mother.</p>
<p>“She’s claiming the baby was a stillborn birth,” he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The sheriff’s department is not releasing the woman’s name because no charges have been filed. Johnson said the police report was being turned over to the District Attorney’s Office for evaluation.</p>
<p>The baby was found about 9 a.m. Thursday near Fonda Place in Eldorado by a man walking his dogs.</p>
<p>The man said the dogs alerted him to a spot where he found what appeared to be an arm and leg sticking out of the ground.</p>
<p>Johnson told the Journal on Thursday that the body had been completely buried but somehow became partially exhumed. He said the baby had been buried approximately two weeks and was badly decomposed by the time it was discovered.</p>
|
Mom Says Baby Girl Was Stillborn
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/119548/mom-says-baby-girl-was-stillborn.html
|
2012-07-21
| 2least
|
Mom Says Baby Girl Was Stillborn
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>SANTA FE, N.M. — An autopsy performed on a newborn found partially buried in a yard in the Eldorado subdivision south of Santa Fe on Thursday revealed that the baby was a female, but few other details were learned.</p>
<p>“The autopsy result is that the death is still undetermined,” Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Maj. Ken Johnson said on Friday, shortly after receiving the report from the Office of the Medical Investigator. “They (OMI) will be conducting further testing to see if there’s anything that will give a cause of death. Those tests probably won’t be back for a few weeks.”</p>
<p>Johnson said the other detail learned from the autopsy was that the baby was in its 35th week of fetal development.</p>
<p>Johnson said that a 21-year-old woman who lives in the area and had been identified as a person of interest was indeed the mother.</p>
<p>“She’s claiming the baby was a stillborn birth,” he said.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The sheriff’s department is not releasing the woman’s name because no charges have been filed. Johnson said the police report was being turned over to the District Attorney’s Office for evaluation.</p>
<p>The baby was found about 9 a.m. Thursday near Fonda Place in Eldorado by a man walking his dogs.</p>
<p>The man said the dogs alerted him to a spot where he found what appeared to be an arm and leg sticking out of the ground.</p>
<p>Johnson told the Journal on Thursday that the body had been completely buried but somehow became partially exhumed. He said the baby had been buried approximately two weeks and was badly decomposed by the time it was discovered.</p>
| 5,285 |
<p>&amp;amp;lt;i&amp;amp;gt;This post originally ran on &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://robertreich.org/post/120107784670" title="Robert Reich’s Web page"&amp;amp;gt;Robert Reich’s Web page&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;.&amp;amp;lt;/i&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;One big reason America was far more equal in the 1950s and 1960s than&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; now is unions were stronger then. That gave workers bargaining power to get a fair share of the economy’s gains – and unions helped improve wages and working conditions for everyone. &amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;But as union membership has weakened – from more than a third of all&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; private-sector workers belonging unions in the 1950s to fewer than 7 percent&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; today – the bargaining power of average workers has all but disappeared.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;In fact, the decline of the American middle class mirrors almost exactly the decline of American labor union membership.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;div class="sidebar__ad-label"&amp;amp;gt;Advertisement&amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;broadstreet-zone zone-id="58577"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/broadstreet-zone&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;So how do we strengthen unions? &amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;First, make it easier to form a union, with a simple majority of&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; workers voting up or down.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Right now, long delays and procedural hurdles give&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; big employers plenty of time to whip up campaigns against unions, even&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; threatening they’ll close down and move somewhere else if a union is voted in. &amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Second, build in real penalties on companies that violate labor laws&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; by firing workers who try to organize a union or intimidating others.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;These&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; moves are illegal, but nowadays the worst that can happen is employers get&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; slapped on the wrist. If found guilty they have to repay lost wages to the&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; workers they fire. Some employers treat this as a cost of doing business. That must be stopped. &amp;amp;nbsp;Penalties should be large enough to stop this illegality. &amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Finally – this one has been in the news lately, and if you only&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; remember one thing, remember this: We must enact a federal law that pre-empts&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; so-called state “right-to-work” laws.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Don’t be fooled by the “right to work”&amp;amp;nbsp;name. These laws&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; allow workers to get all the benefits of having a union without paying union&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; dues. It’s a back door destroying unions. If no one pays dues, unions have no&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; way to provide any union benefits. And that means lower wages. &amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;In fact, wages in right-to-work states are lower&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; on average than wages in non-right-to-work states, by an average of about $1500&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; a year. Workers in right-to-work states are also less likely to have&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; employer-sponsored health insurance and pension coverage.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;When unions are&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; weakened by right-to-work laws, all of a state’s workers are hurt.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;American workers need a union to bargain on their behalf. Low-wage&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; workers in big-box retail stores and fast-food chains need a union even more.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;If&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; we want average Americans to get a fair share of the gains from economic&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; growth, they need to be able to unionize.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;</p>
|
VIDEO: Strengthening Unions and Pre-Empting State 'Right-to-Work' Laws Is Step 7 to Save the Economy
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/video-strengthening-unions-and-pre-empting-state-right-to-work-laws-is-step-7-to-save-the-economy/
|
2015-06-03
| 4left
|
VIDEO: Strengthening Unions and Pre-Empting State 'Right-to-Work' Laws Is Step 7 to Save the Economy
<p>&amp;amp;lt;i&amp;amp;gt;This post originally ran on &amp;amp;lt;a href="http://robertreich.org/post/120107784670" title="Robert Reich’s Web page"&amp;amp;gt;Robert Reich’s Web page&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;.&amp;amp;lt;/i&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;One big reason America was far more equal in the 1950s and 1960s than&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; now is unions were stronger then. That gave workers bargaining power to get a fair share of the economy’s gains – and unions helped improve wages and working conditions for everyone. &amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;But as union membership has weakened – from more than a third of all&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; private-sector workers belonging unions in the 1950s to fewer than 7 percent&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; today – the bargaining power of average workers has all but disappeared.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;In fact, the decline of the American middle class mirrors almost exactly the decline of American labor union membership.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;div class="sidebar__ad-label"&amp;amp;gt;Advertisement&amp;amp;lt;/div&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;broadstreet-zone zone-id="58577"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/broadstreet-zone&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;So how do we strengthen unions? &amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;First, make it easier to form a union, with a simple majority of&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; workers voting up or down.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Right now, long delays and procedural hurdles give&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; big employers plenty of time to whip up campaigns against unions, even&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; threatening they’ll close down and move somewhere else if a union is voted in. &amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Second, build in real penalties on companies that violate labor laws&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; by firing workers who try to organize a union or intimidating others.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;These&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; moves are illegal, but nowadays the worst that can happen is employers get&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; slapped on the wrist. If found guilty they have to repay lost wages to the&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; workers they fire. Some employers treat this as a cost of doing business. That must be stopped. &amp;amp;nbsp;Penalties should be large enough to stop this illegality. &amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Finally – this one has been in the news lately, and if you only&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; remember one thing, remember this: We must enact a federal law that pre-empts&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; so-called state “right-to-work” laws.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Don’t be fooled by the “right to work”&amp;amp;nbsp;name. These laws&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; allow workers to get all the benefits of having a union without paying union&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; dues. It’s a back door destroying unions. If no one pays dues, unions have no&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; way to provide any union benefits. And that means lower wages. &amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;In fact, wages in right-to-work states are lower&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; on average than wages in non-right-to-work states, by an average of about $1500&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; a year. Workers in right-to-work states are also less likely to have&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; employer-sponsored health insurance and pension coverage.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;When unions are&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; weakened by right-to-work laws, all of a state’s workers are hurt.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;American workers need a union to bargain on their behalf. Low-wage&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; workers in big-box retail stores and fast-food chains need a union even more.&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;If&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; we want average Americans to get a fair share of the gains from economic&amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt; growth, they need to be able to unionize.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;</p>
| 5,286 |
<p />
<p>Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Monday completed its roughly $50 billion acquisition of BG Group PLC, giving the Ango-Dutch oil company a dominant footprint offshore Brazil--one of the most prized oil plays in the world, but one that presents a number of challenges for foreign oil players.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It is the culmination of nearly a year of painstaking deal-making that sent Shell executives flying around the world to convince investors of the viability of the acquisition amid a persistent slump in oil prices.</p>
<p>On Monday, speaking from Brazil, Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said it was a "momentous day" and that the combined company will be "more attractive for shareholders," "more resilient" to fluctuating oil prices and "more predictable" for investors.</p>
<p>The prize for Mr. van Beurden is significant. The acquisition of UK-based BG will bolster Shell's already significant position in the fast-growing liquefied natural gas market and turn it into the largest foreign oil company in Brazil. That Mr. van Beurden chose Brazil as the location in which to make to his first remarks at the helm of the combined company highlights the importance of the country's oil and gas market.</p>
<p>Brazil is a "top three" country for Shell, Mr. van Beurden said, and in terms of oil exploration and production Brazil will be "the most valuable country in our portfolio," adding that Brazil "will remain a key destination country for us for investment dollars for at least a decade."</p>
<p>Shell already has numerous investments in Brazil and its roots in the country go back over a century, but the company must confront a host of new challenges here, and is betting that a Brazilian oil sector fresh off a massive corruption scandal and a turbulent political scene is worth the trouble.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Shell's main partner in Brazil is state-run oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, which is the world's most-indebted oil company and which is still dealing with the fallout from a massive corruption scandal in which several senior executives were arrested.</p>
<p>Petrobras by law controls the majority of the country's prized pre-salt oil reserves, trapped deep under thick layers of rock and salt beneath the waters offshore Brazil and which are a kind of El Dorado within the oil industry. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Brazil holds 15 billion barrels of proved oil reserves, second only to Venezuela in South America.</p>
<p>Though the assets Shell is acquiring in Brazil are world class oil fields that can be profitable even at relatively low crude prices, the scandal buffeting Petrobras and the political climate in Brazil creates numerous challenges.</p>
<p>"There are multiple risks," said Jefferies analyst Jason Gammel, noting the impact of the continuing scandal on Petrobras, recent government proposals to substantially increase taxes on oil and gas production, and Petrobras' massive debt load.</p>
<p>"Petrobras' ability to finance itself is certainly a risk," Mr. Gammel said.</p>
<p>After the discovery of the pre-salt reserves, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff made a number of changes to the oil industry in an attempt to give Petrobras a competitive advantage and to tap into oil revenue for social programs. A new law required Petrobras to hold at least a 30% stake and be the sole operator of the pre-salt fields. Foreign companies were required to use more local materials and companies for projects, which drove up costs. Oil field auctions became less predictable. That soured the outlook in Brazil for several oil companies, some of which left the country.</p>
<p>But Shell's substantial investments here, and now its purchase of BG, mean that is must stick it out.</p>
<p>On Monday Mr. van Beurden said that while he hasn't met with Ms. Rousseff since the BG deal was announced to advocate for change, it "would make sense" for Brazil to ease the pre-salt field restrictions, and that if the government did so Shell would be "ready to step up and play a role" in investment and development of the fields.</p>
<p>He added that Shell isn't exposed to the corruption scandal involving Petrobras, and that the company factored in any potential slow-down in the country's oil industry due the scandal before the BG acquisition.</p>
<p>BG was an early mover in Brazil, investing in exploration in the oil-rich Santos basin when it was still viewed as unproven frontier province. It was rewarded with a series of blockbuster discoveries thought to contain billions of barrels of oil. Last year, its high margin oil production in the country rose to record levels.</p>
<p>It is a boost Shell sorely needs. The company's reserves dropped 20% last year as low oil prices erased 1.4 billion barrels from the volume of oil and gas it expects to develop. The BG acquisition will help dampen the impact of that, boosting Shell's production by around 20% and increasing its reserves 25%.</p>
|
Shell Completes BG Buy
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/02/15/shell-completes-bg-buy.html
|
2016-07-06
| 0right
|
Shell Completes BG Buy
<p />
<p>Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Monday completed its roughly $50 billion acquisition of BG Group PLC, giving the Ango-Dutch oil company a dominant footprint offshore Brazil--one of the most prized oil plays in the world, but one that presents a number of challenges for foreign oil players.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>It is the culmination of nearly a year of painstaking deal-making that sent Shell executives flying around the world to convince investors of the viability of the acquisition amid a persistent slump in oil prices.</p>
<p>On Monday, speaking from Brazil, Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said it was a "momentous day" and that the combined company will be "more attractive for shareholders," "more resilient" to fluctuating oil prices and "more predictable" for investors.</p>
<p>The prize for Mr. van Beurden is significant. The acquisition of UK-based BG will bolster Shell's already significant position in the fast-growing liquefied natural gas market and turn it into the largest foreign oil company in Brazil. That Mr. van Beurden chose Brazil as the location in which to make to his first remarks at the helm of the combined company highlights the importance of the country's oil and gas market.</p>
<p>Brazil is a "top three" country for Shell, Mr. van Beurden said, and in terms of oil exploration and production Brazil will be "the most valuable country in our portfolio," adding that Brazil "will remain a key destination country for us for investment dollars for at least a decade."</p>
<p>Shell already has numerous investments in Brazil and its roots in the country go back over a century, but the company must confront a host of new challenges here, and is betting that a Brazilian oil sector fresh off a massive corruption scandal and a turbulent political scene is worth the trouble.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Shell's main partner in Brazil is state-run oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, which is the world's most-indebted oil company and which is still dealing with the fallout from a massive corruption scandal in which several senior executives were arrested.</p>
<p>Petrobras by law controls the majority of the country's prized pre-salt oil reserves, trapped deep under thick layers of rock and salt beneath the waters offshore Brazil and which are a kind of El Dorado within the oil industry. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Brazil holds 15 billion barrels of proved oil reserves, second only to Venezuela in South America.</p>
<p>Though the assets Shell is acquiring in Brazil are world class oil fields that can be profitable even at relatively low crude prices, the scandal buffeting Petrobras and the political climate in Brazil creates numerous challenges.</p>
<p>"There are multiple risks," said Jefferies analyst Jason Gammel, noting the impact of the continuing scandal on Petrobras, recent government proposals to substantially increase taxes on oil and gas production, and Petrobras' massive debt load.</p>
<p>"Petrobras' ability to finance itself is certainly a risk," Mr. Gammel said.</p>
<p>After the discovery of the pre-salt reserves, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff made a number of changes to the oil industry in an attempt to give Petrobras a competitive advantage and to tap into oil revenue for social programs. A new law required Petrobras to hold at least a 30% stake and be the sole operator of the pre-salt fields. Foreign companies were required to use more local materials and companies for projects, which drove up costs. Oil field auctions became less predictable. That soured the outlook in Brazil for several oil companies, some of which left the country.</p>
<p>But Shell's substantial investments here, and now its purchase of BG, mean that is must stick it out.</p>
<p>On Monday Mr. van Beurden said that while he hasn't met with Ms. Rousseff since the BG deal was announced to advocate for change, it "would make sense" for Brazil to ease the pre-salt field restrictions, and that if the government did so Shell would be "ready to step up and play a role" in investment and development of the fields.</p>
<p>He added that Shell isn't exposed to the corruption scandal involving Petrobras, and that the company factored in any potential slow-down in the country's oil industry due the scandal before the BG acquisition.</p>
<p>BG was an early mover in Brazil, investing in exploration in the oil-rich Santos basin when it was still viewed as unproven frontier province. It was rewarded with a series of blockbuster discoveries thought to contain billions of barrels of oil. Last year, its high margin oil production in the country rose to record levels.</p>
<p>It is a boost Shell sorely needs. The company's reserves dropped 20% last year as low oil prices erased 1.4 billion barrels from the volume of oil and gas it expects to develop. The BG acquisition will help dampen the impact of that, boosting Shell's production by around 20% and increasing its reserves 25%.</p>
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<p />
<p>The current volatility in the markets might spook investors, but sometimes you just can't help feeling enthusiastic about some stocks. It could be a recent development, a macro catalyst, disruptive industry trends, companies' growth goals, or simply valuation just about anything could get an investor excited. That's the case with three of our contributors right now, who seem to be drooling over General Motors (NYSE: GM), Interactive Brokers(NASDAQ: IBKR), and PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG). They have their reasons. Let's let them explain.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBargainBin/info.aspx" type="external">Tim Green Opens a New Window.</a> (General Motors): The market seems to just hate General Motors. The company expects to produce between $6.00 and $6.50 in adjusted earnings this year, putting the forward price-to-earnings ratio at just 5.4 at the midpoint of that range. Now, this measly valuation is in part due to the expectation that GM's earnings will decline as the U.S. automobile market cools down. But the intensity of this pessimism seems extreme, and that has me excited about the stock.</p>
<p>When some stocks get us excited. Image source: Getty Images</p>
<p>GM is a far healthier and more efficient company today than it was before its restructuring during the financial crisis. The balance sheet is solid, with more than $20 billion of cash and just $11.3 billion of debt associated with the automotive business (the rest is tied to GM Financial). GM is capable of breaking even in the U.S. if annual vehicle sales fall as low as 10 million, according to the company. That would be a steep decline from the 17.6 million sold in 2016.</p>
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<p>I fully expect GM's earnings to decline at some point, perhaps this year if it misses its guidance, or perhaps next year. GM stock certainly doesn't deserve a market multiple based on its peak earnings. But investors seem to be betting on a dramatic decline in earnings, ignoring all the progress the company has made since its restructuring. I don't know how far GM's earnings will fall, or when that decline will occur. But there's a lot more uncertainty than there is risk.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFValueMagnet/activity.aspx" type="external">Jordan Wathen Opens a New Window.</a>(Interactive Brokers): If nearly universal commission cuts in February were any indication, the discount-brokerage industry is on a fast track toward lower prices, and lower profits for the majority of the industry. Of the major players, I think Interactive Brokershas the potential to be the biggest winner.</p>
<p>Interactive Brokers' brokerage-driven business model should continue to pick up active and sophisticated investors and traders thanks to its position as the low-cost leader for larger clients. Interactive Brokers' white-label brokerage services add some interesting upside potential to a reasonably priced base case.</p>
<p>In very simple terms, so-called introducing brokerscan effectively resell Interactive Brokers' services to retail clients at marked up prices. The introducing broker does all the legwork -- finding new clients, servicing their accounts, and providing customer service -- while Interactive Brokers simply processes trades through its existing infrastructure.</p>
<p>If the future is a world where trading costs trend toward zero, Interactive Brokers' position as a low-cost producer could make it a very vital piece of the brokerage industry and enable it to collect a small share of revenue on virtually every trade sent through a discount broker. That may be a long way off -- some brokers have more incentive to push prices down than others -- but it's a bet I've made for myself, and it's precisely the reason I've committed to holding on to my Interactive Brokers shares for the long haul.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Nehams/info.aspx" type="external">Neha Chamaria Opens a New Window.</a> (PPG): How can a company that manufactures something as dull as coatings and fiberglass ever be exciting? Ask PPG investors right now. I've been watching this coatings specialist closely ever since it made a surprising unsolicited $22.1 billion bid to take over arch Dutch rival Akzo Nobel famous for its Dulux paint brand -- around a month ago.</p>
<p>A lot has happened since, with Akzo Nobel rebuffing PPG's second sweetened bid worth roughly $24 billion, but PPG hasn't given up just yet. That Akzo Nobel's major shareholders have been urging management to consider the proposal only tilts the game in PPG's favor. Of course, things have gotten a bit murky now, with activist investor Elliot Advisors seeking dismissal of Akzo Nobel's chairman, but that's a different story.</p>
<p>Akzo Nobel has licensed its Dulux brand to PPG Architectural Coatings Canada, Inc. for use in Canada. Image source: PPG</p>
<p>What has me excited is that PPG's big move reflects its aggressive intention to remain the leader in a consolidating industry even as Sherwin-Williams merges with Valspar to topple PPG as the world's leading paints and coatings company. If PPG and Akzo merge, they'd be at least 1.5 times bigger than Sherwin-Valspar in terms of sales.</p>
<p>Even if this deals fall through, I'd expect PPG to eye other opportunities. That means what you have here is a boring company that's desperate to grow so big that it continues to dominate its industry, come what may. What's not to get excited about here? And once you consider that PPG has been around and paid dividends for more than a century, has consistently earned double-digit returns on invested capital and equity, is comfortably free cash flow-positive, and has increased its dividends for 45 straight years, you know there's a lot of value to be unlocked from this boring stock going forward.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than PPG IndustriesWhen 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-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=6b443a3a-66c4-47f8-af74-8d84b42a4823&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and PPG Industries 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-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=6b443a3a-66c4-47f8-af74-8d84b42a4823&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFValueMagnet/info.aspx" type="external">Jordan Wathen Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Interactive Brokers. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Nehams/info.aspx" type="external">Neha Chamaria</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBargainBin/info.aspx" type="external">Timothy Green</a> owns shares of General Motors. The Motley Fool recommends Interactive Brokers and Sherwin-Williams. 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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Why We're Excited About These 3 Top Stocks
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2017-04-17
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Why We're Excited About These 3 Top Stocks
<p />
<p>The current volatility in the markets might spook investors, but sometimes you just can't help feeling enthusiastic about some stocks. It could be a recent development, a macro catalyst, disruptive industry trends, companies' growth goals, or simply valuation just about anything could get an investor excited. That's the case with three of our contributors right now, who seem to be drooling over General Motors (NYSE: GM), Interactive Brokers(NASDAQ: IBKR), and PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG). They have their reasons. Let's let them explain.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBargainBin/info.aspx" type="external">Tim Green Opens a New Window.</a> (General Motors): The market seems to just hate General Motors. The company expects to produce between $6.00 and $6.50 in adjusted earnings this year, putting the forward price-to-earnings ratio at just 5.4 at the midpoint of that range. Now, this measly valuation is in part due to the expectation that GM's earnings will decline as the U.S. automobile market cools down. But the intensity of this pessimism seems extreme, and that has me excited about the stock.</p>
<p>When some stocks get us excited. Image source: Getty Images</p>
<p>GM is a far healthier and more efficient company today than it was before its restructuring during the financial crisis. The balance sheet is solid, with more than $20 billion of cash and just $11.3 billion of debt associated with the automotive business (the rest is tied to GM Financial). GM is capable of breaking even in the U.S. if annual vehicle sales fall as low as 10 million, according to the company. That would be a steep decline from the 17.6 million sold in 2016.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>I fully expect GM's earnings to decline at some point, perhaps this year if it misses its guidance, or perhaps next year. GM stock certainly doesn't deserve a market multiple based on its peak earnings. But investors seem to be betting on a dramatic decline in earnings, ignoring all the progress the company has made since its restructuring. I don't know how far GM's earnings will fall, or when that decline will occur. But there's a lot more uncertainty than there is risk.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFValueMagnet/activity.aspx" type="external">Jordan Wathen Opens a New Window.</a>(Interactive Brokers): If nearly universal commission cuts in February were any indication, the discount-brokerage industry is on a fast track toward lower prices, and lower profits for the majority of the industry. Of the major players, I think Interactive Brokershas the potential to be the biggest winner.</p>
<p>Interactive Brokers' brokerage-driven business model should continue to pick up active and sophisticated investors and traders thanks to its position as the low-cost leader for larger clients. Interactive Brokers' white-label brokerage services add some interesting upside potential to a reasonably priced base case.</p>
<p>In very simple terms, so-called introducing brokerscan effectively resell Interactive Brokers' services to retail clients at marked up prices. The introducing broker does all the legwork -- finding new clients, servicing their accounts, and providing customer service -- while Interactive Brokers simply processes trades through its existing infrastructure.</p>
<p>If the future is a world where trading costs trend toward zero, Interactive Brokers' position as a low-cost producer could make it a very vital piece of the brokerage industry and enable it to collect a small share of revenue on virtually every trade sent through a discount broker. That may be a long way off -- some brokers have more incentive to push prices down than others -- but it's a bet I've made for myself, and it's precisely the reason I've committed to holding on to my Interactive Brokers shares for the long haul.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Nehams/info.aspx" type="external">Neha Chamaria Opens a New Window.</a> (PPG): How can a company that manufactures something as dull as coatings and fiberglass ever be exciting? Ask PPG investors right now. I've been watching this coatings specialist closely ever since it made a surprising unsolicited $22.1 billion bid to take over arch Dutch rival Akzo Nobel famous for its Dulux paint brand -- around a month ago.</p>
<p>A lot has happened since, with Akzo Nobel rebuffing PPG's second sweetened bid worth roughly $24 billion, but PPG hasn't given up just yet. That Akzo Nobel's major shareholders have been urging management to consider the proposal only tilts the game in PPG's favor. Of course, things have gotten a bit murky now, with activist investor Elliot Advisors seeking dismissal of Akzo Nobel's chairman, but that's a different story.</p>
<p>Akzo Nobel has licensed its Dulux brand to PPG Architectural Coatings Canada, Inc. for use in Canada. Image source: PPG</p>
<p>What has me excited is that PPG's big move reflects its aggressive intention to remain the leader in a consolidating industry even as Sherwin-Williams merges with Valspar to topple PPG as the world's leading paints and coatings company. If PPG and Akzo merge, they'd be at least 1.5 times bigger than Sherwin-Valspar in terms of sales.</p>
<p>Even if this deals fall through, I'd expect PPG to eye other opportunities. That means what you have here is a boring company that's desperate to grow so big that it continues to dominate its industry, come what may. What's not to get excited about here? And once you consider that PPG has been around and paid dividends for more than a century, has consistently earned double-digit returns on invested capital and equity, is comfortably free cash flow-positive, and has increased its dividends for 45 straight years, you know there's a lot of value to be unlocked from this boring stock going forward.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than PPG IndustriesWhen 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-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=6b443a3a-66c4-47f8-af74-8d84b42a4823&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and PPG Industries 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-dyn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=6b443a3a-66c4-47f8-af74-8d84b42a4823&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of April 3, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFValueMagnet/info.aspx" type="external">Jordan Wathen Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Interactive Brokers. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/Nehams/info.aspx" type="external">Neha Chamaria</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. <a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBargainBin/info.aspx" type="external">Timothy Green</a> owns shares of General Motors. The Motley Fool recommends Interactive Brokers and Sherwin-Williams. 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>Published time: 20 Jul, 2017 00:20Edited time: 20 Jul, 2017 00:27</p>
<p>Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona has been diagnosed with brain cancer after checking into a hospital for a blood clot near his left eye. Doctors discovered a glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor.</p>
<p>“The Senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team,” a Wednesday evening statement from McCain’s office read. Chemotherapy and radiation may be the next step, according to the statement.</p>
<p>McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain, confirmed the news, which she called a “shock” in a statement released Wednesday evening.</p>
<p>“It is an experience familiar to us, given my father’s previous battle with cancer,” she said, adding, “It won’t surprise you to learn that in all this, the one of us who is most confident and calm is my father.”</p>
<p>CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES</p>
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Sen. John McCain diagnosed with brain cancer
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https://newsline.com/sen-john-mccain-diagnosed-with-brain-cancer/
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2017-07-19
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Sen. John McCain diagnosed with brain cancer
<p>Published time: 20 Jul, 2017 00:20Edited time: 20 Jul, 2017 00:27</p>
<p>Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona has been diagnosed with brain cancer after checking into a hospital for a blood clot near his left eye. Doctors discovered a glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor.</p>
<p>“The Senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team,” a Wednesday evening statement from McCain’s office read. Chemotherapy and radiation may be the next step, according to the statement.</p>
<p>McCain’s daughter, Meghan McCain, confirmed the news, which she called a “shock” in a statement released Wednesday evening.</p>
<p>“It is an experience familiar to us, given my father’s previous battle with cancer,” she said, adding, “It won’t surprise you to learn that in all this, the one of us who is most confident and calm is my father.”</p>
<p>CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES</p>
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<p>Geoffrey Scovil, 42, also was charged with obstructing a child abuse investigation and assault on a peace officer Saturday night.</p>
<p>According to a police report, the 3-year-old told police that his father bit him and also admitted that he’d hit “Daddy” with the cue while they were playing pool.</p>
<p>“This is what caused Mr. Scovil to bite (the boy) out of frustration,” the police report says.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The confrontation between the boy and his father took place at the Cowgirl BBQ.</p>
<p>Police found Scovil after officers were twice called to Ellie’s Yoberri Park on West San Francisco Street downtown.</p>
<p>About 8:20 p.m., an officer went to the frozen yogurt store on a report of a man bleeding from his face and a child with blood and swelling on his face who’d been there with a woman. As the officer patrolled the Plaza area looking for the group, a woman flagged him down to say she’d seen the three people and that the man and child “looked bad.”</p>
<p>The officer went back to Ellie’s a second time after someone found a bag that the family group left behind.</p>
<p>This time, an employee reported that the man and woman appeared very drunk, and the little boy seemed afraid of the man. She said the woman with them was so intoxicated she couldn’t keep her eyes open. The bag contained clothes, food, one shoe and an iPhone.</p>
<p>Using numbers on the phone, the police tracked Scovil, the child and Kathleen Love, 44, to a casita home on Catron Street by about 10:30 p.m. Officers found vomit along with scattered playing cards and tampons near the doorway.</p>
<p>After officers were allowed inside, they found Scovil and Love to be drunk and the 3-year-old had “a fresh bite mark” on his right cheek, the police report states.</p>
<p>The adults insisted the child was not bitten, and Love became angry and started yelling for police to leave. Scovil also started yelling and at one point brought his hand back as though he were about to strike one of the officers. The officers made him sit down and handcuffed him.</p>
<p>Scovil, who also grabbed one of the officer’s hands, at first insisted he did not bite his child, but then said he may have or couldn’t remember. He said he’d been drinking and playing pool at the Cowgirl since noon.</p>
<p>After the boy told police that it was “Daddy” who bit him after he’d hit his father with a pool cue, Scovil was arrested and booked in the Santa Fe County jail.</p>
<p>He was released Sunday afternoon after posting a $10,000 surety bond.</p>
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NM attorney accused of biting 3-year-old son’s face
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https://abqjournal.com/272434/nm-attorney-accused-of-biting-3-year-old-sons-face.html
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NM attorney accused of biting 3-year-old son’s face
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<p />
<p>Geoffrey Scovil, 42, also was charged with obstructing a child abuse investigation and assault on a peace officer Saturday night.</p>
<p>According to a police report, the 3-year-old told police that his father bit him and also admitted that he’d hit “Daddy” with the cue while they were playing pool.</p>
<p>“This is what caused Mr. Scovil to bite (the boy) out of frustration,” the police report says.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The confrontation between the boy and his father took place at the Cowgirl BBQ.</p>
<p>Police found Scovil after officers were twice called to Ellie’s Yoberri Park on West San Francisco Street downtown.</p>
<p>About 8:20 p.m., an officer went to the frozen yogurt store on a report of a man bleeding from his face and a child with blood and swelling on his face who’d been there with a woman. As the officer patrolled the Plaza area looking for the group, a woman flagged him down to say she’d seen the three people and that the man and child “looked bad.”</p>
<p>The officer went back to Ellie’s a second time after someone found a bag that the family group left behind.</p>
<p>This time, an employee reported that the man and woman appeared very drunk, and the little boy seemed afraid of the man. She said the woman with them was so intoxicated she couldn’t keep her eyes open. The bag contained clothes, food, one shoe and an iPhone.</p>
<p>Using numbers on the phone, the police tracked Scovil, the child and Kathleen Love, 44, to a casita home on Catron Street by about 10:30 p.m. Officers found vomit along with scattered playing cards and tampons near the doorway.</p>
<p>After officers were allowed inside, they found Scovil and Love to be drunk and the 3-year-old had “a fresh bite mark” on his right cheek, the police report states.</p>
<p>The adults insisted the child was not bitten, and Love became angry and started yelling for police to leave. Scovil also started yelling and at one point brought his hand back as though he were about to strike one of the officers. The officers made him sit down and handcuffed him.</p>
<p>Scovil, who also grabbed one of the officer’s hands, at first insisted he did not bite his child, but then said he may have or couldn’t remember. He said he’d been drinking and playing pool at the Cowgirl since noon.</p>
<p>After the boy told police that it was “Daddy” who bit him after he’d hit his father with a pool cue, Scovil was arrested and booked in the Santa Fe County jail.</p>
<p>He was released Sunday afternoon after posting a $10,000 surety bond.</p>
| 5,290 |
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<p>A look at Nasdaq 10 most-active stocks at the close of trading:</p>
<p>Apple Inc. rose .6 percent to $93.52 with 37,030,600 shares traded.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>BlackBerry Ltd. rose 2.7 percent to $10.52 with 23,386,500 shares traded.</p>
<p>Cisco Systems Inc. rose .9 percent to $25.08 with 34,115,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>Facebook Inc. rose 1.1 percent to $68.06 with 32,600,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>GoPro Inc. rose 20.3 percent to $48.80 with 38,590,900 shares traded.</p>
<p>Intel Corp. rose .3 percent to $30.98 with 27,522,900 shares traded.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>MannKind Corp. fell 5.8 percent to $10.32 with 20,337,600 shares traded.</p>
<p>Micron Technology Inc. rose 3.1 percent to $33.98 with 35,654,600 shares traded.</p>
<p>Microsoft Corp. rose .4 percent to $41.87 with 26,230,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>Sirius XM Radio Inc. fell .7 percent to $3.44 with 53,926,800 shares traded.</p>
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Nasdaq's 10 most active stocks at the close of trading
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http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/01/28/nasdaq-10-most-active-stocks-at-close-trading.html
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2016-03-05
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Nasdaq's 10 most active stocks at the close of trading
<p>A look at Nasdaq 10 most-active stocks at the close of trading:</p>
<p>Apple Inc. rose .6 percent to $93.52 with 37,030,600 shares traded.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>BlackBerry Ltd. rose 2.7 percent to $10.52 with 23,386,500 shares traded.</p>
<p>Cisco Systems Inc. rose .9 percent to $25.08 with 34,115,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>Facebook Inc. rose 1.1 percent to $68.06 with 32,600,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>GoPro Inc. rose 20.3 percent to $48.80 with 38,590,900 shares traded.</p>
<p>Intel Corp. rose .3 percent to $30.98 with 27,522,900 shares traded.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>MannKind Corp. fell 5.8 percent to $10.32 with 20,337,600 shares traded.</p>
<p>Micron Technology Inc. rose 3.1 percent to $33.98 with 35,654,600 shares traded.</p>
<p>Microsoft Corp. rose .4 percent to $41.87 with 26,230,700 shares traded.</p>
<p>Sirius XM Radio Inc. fell .7 percent to $3.44 with 53,926,800 shares traded.</p>
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Terry Laudick, the CEO of Nusenda Credit Union, was given the University of New Mexico’s presidential award of distinction on Friday.</p>
<p>Laudick was recognized for what the university characterized as “outstanding career achievement, scholarly excellence, leadership in profession, noteworthy public service, and humanitarian endeavors.”</p>
<p>Laudick was named CEO of what was then New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union in 2000. Today, Nusenda is the largest credit union in the state and boasts $1.8 billion in assets and over 160,000 members.</p>
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Nusenda chief gets UNM distinction award
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Nusenda chief gets UNM distinction award
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Terry Laudick, the CEO of Nusenda Credit Union, was given the University of New Mexico’s presidential award of distinction on Friday.</p>
<p>Laudick was recognized for what the university characterized as “outstanding career achievement, scholarly excellence, leadership in profession, noteworthy public service, and humanitarian endeavors.”</p>
<p>Laudick was named CEO of what was then New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union in 2000. Today, Nusenda is the largest credit union in the state and boasts $1.8 billion in assets and over 160,000 members.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
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<p>Libya's defense minister retracted his Tuesday resignation hours after he tendered it in protest of a weeklong armed siege on the ministries of justice and foreign affairs in Tripoli.&#160;</p>
<p>Defense Minister Mohammed al-Bargathi called the siege — a move by armed groups to exclude all former Gaddafi-era officials from government — an assault on democracy.</p>
<p>"I will never be able to accept that politics can be practiced by the power of weapons ... This is an assault against the democracy I have sworn to protect," <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/07/us-libya-politics-idUSBRE9460BW20130507" type="external">said Bargathi</a>, a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22434077" type="external">former Benghazi air force commander</a> who retired in 1994, when dictator Muammar Gaddafi was still in power.</p>
<p>But hours later,&#160;Bargathi reversed his decision, with Prime Minister Ali&#160;Zeidan's office issuing <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22434077#TWEET747108" type="external">a statement saying</a>: "The cabinet would like to clarify that the resignation was not officially presented to the prime minister."</p>
<p>"The prime minister has asked the defense minister to renounce it and [he] has confirmed that he will continue his work and expressed his understanding of the present circumstances in the country," the statement added.&#160;</p>
<p>The news came as Deborah Kay Jones on Tuesday spoke with United States senators during her confirmation hearing to replace former US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stephens.&#160;</p>
<p>Jones, a career diplomat who has served in Kuwait, Syria, Turkey, Ethiopia and Iraq, will be the first ambassador there since last year's attack on the US consulate in Benghazi which claimed Stevens' life, along with three other Americans.</p>
<p>Sen. John McCain said in the hearing that the ministry sieges highlight the need for security in Libya, while also stating that he continues to believe "there remains a desire for democracy and freedom."</p>
<p>On Sunday, Libya's besieged parliament banned from office senior officials who had served under Gaddafi's more than 40-year reign. The Political Isolation Law could exclude <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/07/us-libya-politics-idUSBRE9460BW20130507" type="external">u</a> <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/07/us-libya-politics-idUSBRE9460BW20130507" type="external">p to 40 deputies</a>and remove Prime Minister Ali Zeidan from office. After the vote some armed groups left, but some remained, and the siege drags on.</p>
<p>"The adoption of the law on political exclusion is a major step in the right direction. But we will take our time to examine certain aspects of the law," <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/05/2013572836221462.html" type="external">said Osama Kaabar</a>, a militia group leader and vice president of the Superior Council of Libyan Revolutionaries.</p>
<p>Almost two years after Gaddafi's fall, Bargathi's resignation highlights Libya's struggle to rebuild its government, and secure itself against armed groups left over from the revolution without a functioning army.</p>
<p>A parliament spokesman acknowledged Sunday that the gunman around the ministries could not be forced to leave. "We hope the siege of the ministries will stop now, but it is not in our hands," <a href="http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/05/18070094-libyan-parliament-bans-ex-gaddafi-officials-from-office" type="external">said Omar Hmaiden</a>.</p>
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Libyan defense minister Barghathi retracts resignation
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https://pri.org/stories/2013-05-07/libyan-defense-minister-barghathi-retracts-resignation
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2013-05-07
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Libyan defense minister Barghathi retracts resignation
<p>Libya's defense minister retracted his Tuesday resignation hours after he tendered it in protest of a weeklong armed siege on the ministries of justice and foreign affairs in Tripoli.&#160;</p>
<p>Defense Minister Mohammed al-Bargathi called the siege — a move by armed groups to exclude all former Gaddafi-era officials from government — an assault on democracy.</p>
<p>"I will never be able to accept that politics can be practiced by the power of weapons ... This is an assault against the democracy I have sworn to protect," <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/07/us-libya-politics-idUSBRE9460BW20130507" type="external">said Bargathi</a>, a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22434077" type="external">former Benghazi air force commander</a> who retired in 1994, when dictator Muammar Gaddafi was still in power.</p>
<p>But hours later,&#160;Bargathi reversed his decision, with Prime Minister Ali&#160;Zeidan's office issuing <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22434077#TWEET747108" type="external">a statement saying</a>: "The cabinet would like to clarify that the resignation was not officially presented to the prime minister."</p>
<p>"The prime minister has asked the defense minister to renounce it and [he] has confirmed that he will continue his work and expressed his understanding of the present circumstances in the country," the statement added.&#160;</p>
<p>The news came as Deborah Kay Jones on Tuesday spoke with United States senators during her confirmation hearing to replace former US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stephens.&#160;</p>
<p>Jones, a career diplomat who has served in Kuwait, Syria, Turkey, Ethiopia and Iraq, will be the first ambassador there since last year's attack on the US consulate in Benghazi which claimed Stevens' life, along with three other Americans.</p>
<p>Sen. John McCain said in the hearing that the ministry sieges highlight the need for security in Libya, while also stating that he continues to believe "there remains a desire for democracy and freedom."</p>
<p>On Sunday, Libya's besieged parliament banned from office senior officials who had served under Gaddafi's more than 40-year reign. The Political Isolation Law could exclude <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/07/us-libya-politics-idUSBRE9460BW20130507" type="external">u</a> <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/07/us-libya-politics-idUSBRE9460BW20130507" type="external">p to 40 deputies</a>and remove Prime Minister Ali Zeidan from office. After the vote some armed groups left, but some remained, and the siege drags on.</p>
<p>"The adoption of the law on political exclusion is a major step in the right direction. But we will take our time to examine certain aspects of the law," <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/05/2013572836221462.html" type="external">said Osama Kaabar</a>, a militia group leader and vice president of the Superior Council of Libyan Revolutionaries.</p>
<p>Almost two years after Gaddafi's fall, Bargathi's resignation highlights Libya's struggle to rebuild its government, and secure itself against armed groups left over from the revolution without a functioning army.</p>
<p>A parliament spokesman acknowledged Sunday that the gunman around the ministries could not be forced to leave. "We hope the siege of the ministries will stop now, but it is not in our hands," <a href="http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/05/18070094-libyan-parliament-bans-ex-gaddafi-officials-from-office" type="external">said Omar Hmaiden</a>.</p>
| 5,293 |
<p>Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) controls about 99% of&#160;the data center CPU market with its flagship Xeon chips. But over the past few years, the growth of that unit has been throttled by slower enterprise spending and longer upgrade cycles.</p>
<p>That slowdown has been a dead weight on Intel's top line, and a major factor in&#160; <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/23/should-you-follow-these-analysts-out-of-intel-stoc.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">analysts downgrading Opens a New Window.</a> the stock. But that slowdown could also be great news for three disruptive players in the data center market -- NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), AMD (NASDAQ: AMD), and Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>NVIDIA's high-end Tesla GPUs are now widely used in data centers for machine learning and other AI-related tasks. That's because GPUs are generally faster than stand-alone CPUs at those tasks. As a result, NVIDIA's data center revenue surged 186% annually to $409 million last quarter and&#160;accounted for over a fifth of the company's top line.</p>
<p>But looking ahead, NVIDIA's data center plans look even more disruptive. It recently unveiled its DGX-1 supercomputer, which puts&#160;"400 servers" into a single box powered by eight Tesla V100 GPUs and two 20-core Intel Xeon E5-2698 processors. Its $149,000 price tag looks steep, but it's certainly cheaper, more power efficient, and occupies less space than 400 servers.</p>
<p>NVIDIA's growth in this market has triggered alarm bells at Intel. Its new "Knights Landing" Xeon Phi CPUs aim to deliver comparable machine learning performance as&#160;NVIDIA's GPUs, but it's unclear if NVIDIA's growing list of data center GPU customers -- which includes&#160;Facebook, IBM, and Baidu&#160;-- will give Intel a chance.</p>
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<p>AMD already landed a <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/11/heres-why-the-best-is-yet-to-come-for-advanced-mic.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">solid punch Opens a New Window.</a> against Intel earlier this year with Ryzen, its new PC chip, which offers comparable performance as Intel's current-gen chips at much lower prices. But it's also targeting Intel's data center market with its new Epyc chips. AMD claims that the Eypc offers 45% more cores, 122% more bandwidth, and 60% greater I/O bandwidth than Intel's comparable Xeon chips, but at much lower price points.</p>
<p>To make matters worse for Intel, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Baidu recently announced that they would install Epyc chips in their data centers. These tech giants support AMD because breaking up Intel's near-monopoly in data center chips would result in healthier competition and lower market prices.</p>
<p>This represents a major strategic shift from AMD's previous server strategy, which attempted to use ARM-based "microservers" to&#160;carve out a niche with smaller businesses. While that effort failed, going head-to-head with Intel in the high-end market with the support of major data center operators might actually work.</p>
<p>While AMD is assaulting the x86 server market, Qualcomm -- the biggest mobile chipmaker in the world -- is making a major move against Intel with high-powered ARM chips. It recently launched the&#160;ARM-based Centriq 2400, the world's first 10nm SoC, in a bid to dent Intel's data center dominance.</p>
<p>As we saw with AMD's microserver efforts, ARM chips couldn't challenge Intel's Xeons in the past because they mainly focused on lower-end niche markets. But the Centriq represents an aggressive push into the high-end market to directly challenge Intel. Qualcomm is jumping ahead of Intel in terms of architecture (Intel is still shipping 14nm chips), and the 48 cores on the Centriq's Falkor CPU represent double the core&#160;count of Intel's E7 Broadwell processors.</p>
<p>Just as with AMD, major tech companies are backing Qualcomm's efforts. Microsoft, for example, partnered with Qualcomm to power its Azure cloud platform and&#160;Windows Server with Centriq SoCs. The message is clear -- big data center operators will likely partner with any chipmaker that has a shot at disrupting Intel's data center dominance.</p>
<p>Challengers like NVIDIA, AMD, and Qualcomm have put Intel in a tough position. It must beef up the Xeon's machine learning capabilities so data center operators don't buy GPUs and postpone CPU upgrades, and it must defend its turf against direct challengers like Epyc and Centriq -- which are backed by industry giants like Microsoft. Unless Intel formulates a clear game plan for countering these threats, its data center growth could remain dismal and throttle its top line growth for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than IntelWhen 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=77b0e7e9-9a1d-44d2-a8fe-f64e65e7cccf&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Intel 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=77b0e7e9-9a1d-44d2-a8fe-f64e65e7cccf&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 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/TMFSunLion/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Leo Sun Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Baidu and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Baidu, Facebook, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. 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=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
|
3 Companies Rewriting the Rules of Data Centers
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/07/13/3-companies-rewriting-rules-data-centers.html
|
2017-07-13
| 0right
|
3 Companies Rewriting the Rules of Data Centers
<p>Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) controls about 99% of&#160;the data center CPU market with its flagship Xeon chips. But over the past few years, the growth of that unit has been throttled by slower enterprise spending and longer upgrade cycles.</p>
<p>That slowdown has been a dead weight on Intel's top line, and a major factor in&#160; <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/06/23/should-you-follow-these-analysts-out-of-intel-stoc.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">analysts downgrading Opens a New Window.</a> the stock. But that slowdown could also be great news for three disruptive players in the data center market -- NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), AMD (NASDAQ: AMD), and Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>NVIDIA's high-end Tesla GPUs are now widely used in data centers for machine learning and other AI-related tasks. That's because GPUs are generally faster than stand-alone CPUs at those tasks. As a result, NVIDIA's data center revenue surged 186% annually to $409 million last quarter and&#160;accounted for over a fifth of the company's top line.</p>
<p>But looking ahead, NVIDIA's data center plans look even more disruptive. It recently unveiled its DGX-1 supercomputer, which puts&#160;"400 servers" into a single box powered by eight Tesla V100 GPUs and two 20-core Intel Xeon E5-2698 processors. Its $149,000 price tag looks steep, but it's certainly cheaper, more power efficient, and occupies less space than 400 servers.</p>
<p>NVIDIA's growth in this market has triggered alarm bells at Intel. Its new "Knights Landing" Xeon Phi CPUs aim to deliver comparable machine learning performance as&#160;NVIDIA's GPUs, but it's unclear if NVIDIA's growing list of data center GPU customers -- which includes&#160;Facebook, IBM, and Baidu&#160;-- will give Intel a chance.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>AMD already landed a <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/11/heres-why-the-best-is-yet-to-come-for-advanced-mic.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">solid punch Opens a New Window.</a> against Intel earlier this year with Ryzen, its new PC chip, which offers comparable performance as Intel's current-gen chips at much lower prices. But it's also targeting Intel's data center market with its new Epyc chips. AMD claims that the Eypc offers 45% more cores, 122% more bandwidth, and 60% greater I/O bandwidth than Intel's comparable Xeon chips, but at much lower price points.</p>
<p>To make matters worse for Intel, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Baidu recently announced that they would install Epyc chips in their data centers. These tech giants support AMD because breaking up Intel's near-monopoly in data center chips would result in healthier competition and lower market prices.</p>
<p>This represents a major strategic shift from AMD's previous server strategy, which attempted to use ARM-based "microservers" to&#160;carve out a niche with smaller businesses. While that effort failed, going head-to-head with Intel in the high-end market with the support of major data center operators might actually work.</p>
<p>While AMD is assaulting the x86 server market, Qualcomm -- the biggest mobile chipmaker in the world -- is making a major move against Intel with high-powered ARM chips. It recently launched the&#160;ARM-based Centriq 2400, the world's first 10nm SoC, in a bid to dent Intel's data center dominance.</p>
<p>As we saw with AMD's microserver efforts, ARM chips couldn't challenge Intel's Xeons in the past because they mainly focused on lower-end niche markets. But the Centriq represents an aggressive push into the high-end market to directly challenge Intel. Qualcomm is jumping ahead of Intel in terms of architecture (Intel is still shipping 14nm chips), and the 48 cores on the Centriq's Falkor CPU represent double the core&#160;count of Intel's E7 Broadwell processors.</p>
<p>Just as with AMD, major tech companies are backing Qualcomm's efforts. Microsoft, for example, partnered with Qualcomm to power its Azure cloud platform and&#160;Windows Server with Centriq SoCs. The message is clear -- big data center operators will likely partner with any chipmaker that has a shot at disrupting Intel's data center dominance.</p>
<p>Challengers like NVIDIA, AMD, and Qualcomm have put Intel in a tough position. It must beef up the Xeon's machine learning capabilities so data center operators don't buy GPUs and postpone CPU upgrades, and it must defend its turf against direct challengers like Epyc and Centriq -- which are backed by industry giants like Microsoft. Unless Intel formulates a clear game plan for countering these threats, its data center growth could remain dismal and throttle its top line growth for the foreseeable future.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than IntelWhen 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=77b0e7e9-9a1d-44d2-a8fe-f64e65e7cccf&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Intel 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=77b0e7e9-9a1d-44d2-a8fe-f64e65e7cccf&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of July 6, 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/TMFSunLion/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Leo Sun Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Baidu and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Baidu, Facebook, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. 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=4e39fe8e-66e6-11e7-a3aa-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
| 5,294 |
<p>Next school year, CPS is taking a gamble that its “turnaround” strategy will transform six underperforming schools with new principals, teachers and curricula. Signaling that the strategy is here to stay, the district created the new turnarounds office, led by Anderson, a one-time engineer who joined CPS as a Broad Foundation fellow. Data and Research Editor John Myers sat down with Anderson to talk about the challenges ahead.</p>
<p>When you look at the performance of a school, the first thing everyone looks at is state assessments. There’s a lot more that goes into it—attendance, the number of violent incidents, teacher attendance, community engagement. We’ve seen those things improving, and we want to accelerate that progress.</p>
<p>One challenge is, how are you going to find the staff?&#160; One of the ways is by leveraging the human resources efforts of the district. Another is partnering with the New Teacher Project, Teach for America, local universities and AUSL. We have the same challenges of finding specialists, such as special education and math teachers. By partnering together, we’re not going to fight over the same people.&#160;</p>
<p>Just from one data point—parental involvement—it’s very different. There’s a lot more independence, more social ills, more pressure on a child. Part of our strategy to address social and emotional needs is being able to have targeted solutions at every stage of that child’s educational career.</p>
<p>One of the main differences is with regard to staff.&#160; AUSL will use staff from its training academies. Our philosophy is to hire people with more experience. We’ve been screening for leaders who’ve actually turned around schools, while AUSL found highly energetic, great leaders who haven’t necessarily been principals. Their philosophy is, “We know we’re nimble enough to provide support on a case-by-case basis a lot quicker than the district.”</p>
<p>CEO Arne Duncan wants to have consistent incentives. One of the things we’re thinking about is performance contracts for principals based on ratings on a myriad of different metrics.</p>
<p>It could be. You want it to really feel like a new environment.</p>
<p>Those schools haven’t performed at the rate we love to see, but there are a number of schools performing even worse. So, the jury’s still out.</p>
<p>For FY08, the district may be putting up about $500,000 per school. The high schools may be closer to $750,000. We think we can sustain that for three to five years.</p>
<p>One thing parents said is, “You’ve got to have some dialogue with the students.” We need to discuss the challenges that they’re seeing—what are the attachment issues they may have with existing staff—and try to address that. We’re really committed to making sure that happens.</p>
|
Q&A with Alan Anderson
| false |
http://chicagoreporter.com/qa-alan-anderson/
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2008-04-22
| 3left-center
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Q&A with Alan Anderson
<p>Next school year, CPS is taking a gamble that its “turnaround” strategy will transform six underperforming schools with new principals, teachers and curricula. Signaling that the strategy is here to stay, the district created the new turnarounds office, led by Anderson, a one-time engineer who joined CPS as a Broad Foundation fellow. Data and Research Editor John Myers sat down with Anderson to talk about the challenges ahead.</p>
<p>When you look at the performance of a school, the first thing everyone looks at is state assessments. There’s a lot more that goes into it—attendance, the number of violent incidents, teacher attendance, community engagement. We’ve seen those things improving, and we want to accelerate that progress.</p>
<p>One challenge is, how are you going to find the staff?&#160; One of the ways is by leveraging the human resources efforts of the district. Another is partnering with the New Teacher Project, Teach for America, local universities and AUSL. We have the same challenges of finding specialists, such as special education and math teachers. By partnering together, we’re not going to fight over the same people.&#160;</p>
<p>Just from one data point—parental involvement—it’s very different. There’s a lot more independence, more social ills, more pressure on a child. Part of our strategy to address social and emotional needs is being able to have targeted solutions at every stage of that child’s educational career.</p>
<p>One of the main differences is with regard to staff.&#160; AUSL will use staff from its training academies. Our philosophy is to hire people with more experience. We’ve been screening for leaders who’ve actually turned around schools, while AUSL found highly energetic, great leaders who haven’t necessarily been principals. Their philosophy is, “We know we’re nimble enough to provide support on a case-by-case basis a lot quicker than the district.”</p>
<p>CEO Arne Duncan wants to have consistent incentives. One of the things we’re thinking about is performance contracts for principals based on ratings on a myriad of different metrics.</p>
<p>It could be. You want it to really feel like a new environment.</p>
<p>Those schools haven’t performed at the rate we love to see, but there are a number of schools performing even worse. So, the jury’s still out.</p>
<p>For FY08, the district may be putting up about $500,000 per school. The high schools may be closer to $750,000. We think we can sustain that for three to five years.</p>
<p>One thing parents said is, “You’ve got to have some dialogue with the students.” We need to discuss the challenges that they’re seeing—what are the attachment issues they may have with existing staff—and try to address that. We’re really committed to making sure that happens.</p>
| 5,295 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Harmony Gold Mining (NYSE: HMY) plunged on Friday morning, diving down 12% by 10:45 a.m. EST.</p>
<p>Yesterday Harmony Gold Mining reported record quarterly revenue of $374 million thanks to high gold prices and a 10% increase in production. That combination, along with strong gold and currency hedges, yielded a profit of $97 million. In fact, hedgesalone added $17 million to the bottom line during the quarter.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Therein lies one of Harmony Gold Mining's problems going forward, according to analysts at Citi, who downgraded the stock to a sell today. Citi cited rising costs and the upcoming roll-off of Harmony's currency and gold price hedges leading to "sharply lower" earnings in the future.</p>
<p>Another factor contributing to today's sell-off is the sinking price of gold, which was down 2.5%, to $1,234 an ounce, by mid-morning and took most gold stocks with it. Weighing on the price are the election results in the U.S., which are causing the U.S. dollar to strengthen and the price of gold to slump. These two factors are a particularlyheavy weight for South African gold miners, which is whyGold Fields (NYSE: GFI) and Randgold Resources (NASDAQ: GOLD) joined Harmony and slumped sharply in recent days:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/HMY" type="external">HMY</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The unexpected U.S. election results are causing fierce headwinds to blow against South African gold miners this week. That has analysts concerned that Harmony Gold's earnings will tumble this year because the hedges it had in place to protect against these headwinds are winding down. Due to this, Harmony and its South African gold mining peersGold Fieldsand Randgold Resources could be very volatileuntil the market has a better feel for how the Trump presidency will impact currencies and demand for gold by investors.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Harmony Gold Mining When 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=2c68ae5f-9aaf-4b98-87de-13d2c517e81a&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">ten best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Harmony Gold Mining 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=2c68ae5f-9aaf-4b98-87de-13d2c517e81a&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of November 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx" type="external">Matt DiLallo Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&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>
|
Here's Why Harmony Gold Mining Co.'s Stock Lost Its Luster Today
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/11/here-why-harmony-gold-mining-co-stock-lost-its-luster-today.html
|
2016-11-11
| 0right
|
Here's Why Harmony Gold Mining Co.'s Stock Lost Its Luster Today
<p />
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Harmony Gold Mining (NYSE: HMY) plunged on Friday morning, diving down 12% by 10:45 a.m. EST.</p>
<p>Yesterday Harmony Gold Mining reported record quarterly revenue of $374 million thanks to high gold prices and a 10% increase in production. That combination, along with strong gold and currency hedges, yielded a profit of $97 million. In fact, hedgesalone added $17 million to the bottom line during the quarter.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Therein lies one of Harmony Gold Mining's problems going forward, according to analysts at Citi, who downgraded the stock to a sell today. Citi cited rising costs and the upcoming roll-off of Harmony's currency and gold price hedges leading to "sharply lower" earnings in the future.</p>
<p>Another factor contributing to today's sell-off is the sinking price of gold, which was down 2.5%, to $1,234 an ounce, by mid-morning and took most gold stocks with it. Weighing on the price are the election results in the U.S., which are causing the U.S. dollar to strengthen and the price of gold to slump. These two factors are a particularlyheavy weight for South African gold miners, which is whyGold Fields (NYSE: GFI) and Randgold Resources (NASDAQ: GOLD) joined Harmony and slumped sharply in recent days:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/HMY" type="external">HMY</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>The unexpected U.S. election results are causing fierce headwinds to blow against South African gold miners this week. That has analysts concerned that Harmony Gold's earnings will tumble this year because the hedges it had in place to protect against these headwinds are winding down. Due to this, Harmony and its South African gold mining peersGold Fieldsand Randgold Resources could be very volatileuntil the market has a better feel for how the Trump presidency will impact currencies and demand for gold by investors.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Harmony Gold Mining When 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=2c68ae5f-9aaf-4b98-87de-13d2c517e81a&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">ten best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Harmony Gold Mining 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=2c68ae5f-9aaf-4b98-87de-13d2c517e81a&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of November 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFmd19/info.aspx" type="external">Matt DiLallo Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&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>
| 5,296 |
<p>The findings of a toxin in the drinking water supply of 400,000 people in Ohio and southeastern Michigan a week ago is putting a big spotlight on how it got there.</p>
<p>Scientists and farmers agree that phosphorus from agriculture runoff is feeding the blue-green algae blooms on Lake Erie linked to the toxin.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Political leaders are calling for more studies to find out why the blooms are increasing and how to control them. But a number of environmental groups say it's time for strict regulations on the agriculture industry.</p>
<p>Researchers say it is clear phosphorus is coming from farmland, but it's much more difficult to pin down exactly where and why.</p>
<p>Ohio's agriculture leaders say they're committed to finding those answers and research is underway to see what works best.</p>
|
Researchers are trying to identify the role of farms in algae linked to tainted drinking water
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/08/10/researchers-are-trying-to-identify-role-farms-in-algae-linked-to-tainted.html
|
2016-03-09
| 0right
|
Researchers are trying to identify the role of farms in algae linked to tainted drinking water
<p>The findings of a toxin in the drinking water supply of 400,000 people in Ohio and southeastern Michigan a week ago is putting a big spotlight on how it got there.</p>
<p>Scientists and farmers agree that phosphorus from agriculture runoff is feeding the blue-green algae blooms on Lake Erie linked to the toxin.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Political leaders are calling for more studies to find out why the blooms are increasing and how to control them. But a number of environmental groups say it's time for strict regulations on the agriculture industry.</p>
<p>Researchers say it is clear phosphorus is coming from farmland, but it's much more difficult to pin down exactly where and why.</p>
<p>Ohio's agriculture leaders say they're committed to finding those answers and research is underway to see what works best.</p>
| 5,297 |
<p />
<p>Image source: Vera Bradley, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRA) were down 11.7% as of 3:30 p.m. EST Wednesday after the luggage and handbag design company released weaker-than-expected fiscal third-quarter 2017 results.</p>
<p>Quarterly revenue was flat from the same year-ago period, at $126.7 million, below the company's guidance of $128 million to $133 million. That translated to adjusted net income of $7.2 million, or $0.20 per share, down from adjusted net income of $10.3 million, or $0.27 per share in last year's fiscal Q3.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>More specifically within Vera Bradley's top line, direct segment revenue climbed 2.3% year over year, to $86.1 million, as new store growth more than offset a 5% decline in comparable sales, while indirect segment revenue fell 4.6%, to $40.6 million, as lower orders from specialty retail accounts were only partially offset by strength at certain key department store and non-department store accounts.</p>
<p>Vera Bradley CEO Robert Wallstrom noted consumer engagement has improved thanks to his company's new brand positioning, from marketing initiatives and the opening of a new SoHo flagship store.</p>
<p>"However, the overall retail environment remains challenging," Wallstrom said. "Third-quarter diluted EPS was modestly below our guidance range, primarily due to continued weakness in the specialty channel and incremental promotional activity in our factory stores."</p>
<p>Sales at verabradley.com were also weaker-than-expected due to lower levels of retirement product.</p>
<p>For the current quarter, Vera Bradley expects revenue of $135 million to $140 million, down from $154.1 million in the same year-ago period. That should result in diluted earnings per share of $0.23 to $0.25, down from $0.82 per share in last year's fiscal Q4. By comparison, analysts' consensus estimates called for higher fiscal Q4 revenue of $158.8 million, and higher earnings per share of $0.47.</p>
<p>This was a disappointing quarter, followed by an underwhelming outlook for the key holiday period. As such, it's no surprise to see shares of Vera Bradley plunging Wednesday.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Vera Bradley When 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=3f2b340e-dd12-437b-9220-cf9fa6cb85f3&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Vera Bradley 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=3f2b340e-dd12-437b-9220-cf9fa6cb85f3&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of Nov. 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx" type="external">Steve Symington Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&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>
|
Why Vera Bradley, Inc. Stock Plunged Today
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/12/07/why-vera-bradley-inc-stock-plunged-today.html
|
2016-12-07
| 0right
|
Why Vera Bradley, Inc. Stock Plunged Today
<p />
<p>Image source: Vera Bradley, Inc.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRA) were down 11.7% as of 3:30 p.m. EST Wednesday after the luggage and handbag design company released weaker-than-expected fiscal third-quarter 2017 results.</p>
<p>Quarterly revenue was flat from the same year-ago period, at $126.7 million, below the company's guidance of $128 million to $133 million. That translated to adjusted net income of $7.2 million, or $0.20 per share, down from adjusted net income of $10.3 million, or $0.27 per share in last year's fiscal Q3.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>More specifically within Vera Bradley's top line, direct segment revenue climbed 2.3% year over year, to $86.1 million, as new store growth more than offset a 5% decline in comparable sales, while indirect segment revenue fell 4.6%, to $40.6 million, as lower orders from specialty retail accounts were only partially offset by strength at certain key department store and non-department store accounts.</p>
<p>Vera Bradley CEO Robert Wallstrom noted consumer engagement has improved thanks to his company's new brand positioning, from marketing initiatives and the opening of a new SoHo flagship store.</p>
<p>"However, the overall retail environment remains challenging," Wallstrom said. "Third-quarter diluted EPS was modestly below our guidance range, primarily due to continued weakness in the specialty channel and incremental promotional activity in our factory stores."</p>
<p>Sales at verabradley.com were also weaker-than-expected due to lower levels of retirement product.</p>
<p>For the current quarter, Vera Bradley expects revenue of $135 million to $140 million, down from $154.1 million in the same year-ago period. That should result in diluted earnings per share of $0.23 to $0.25, down from $0.82 per share in last year's fiscal Q4. By comparison, analysts' consensus estimates called for higher fiscal Q4 revenue of $158.8 million, and higher earnings per share of $0.47.</p>
<p>This was a disappointing quarter, followed by an underwhelming outlook for the key holiday period. As such, it's no surprise to see shares of Vera Bradley plunging Wednesday.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Vera Bradley When 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=3f2b340e-dd12-437b-9220-cf9fa6cb85f3&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Vera Bradley 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=3f2b340e-dd12-437b-9220-cf9fa6cb85f3&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of Nov. 7, 2016</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx" type="external">Steve Symington Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=isiedilnk018048&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>
| 5,298 |
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|
Friends Like These
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2008/11/03/friends-like-these/
|
2008-11-03
| 4left
|
Friends Like These
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<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1425714641/counterpunchmaga" type="external">CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed</a></p>
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| 5,299 |
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