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<p>Alabama's defense not only delivered some payback to Clemson but a strong statement entering the national championship game.</p>
<p>For all the injuries and departed stars, the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide's 'D' still is tops in college football.</p>
<p>The defense certainly looked the part Monday night's 24-6 Sugar Bowl <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-4-alabama-dominates-no-1-clemson-24-6-sugar-bowl" type="external">throttling of No. 1 Clemson</a> , which had been 'Bama's Kryptonite the past two years with quarterback Deshaun Watson running the show.</p>
<p>Alabama coach Nick Saban said the only comparable defensive effort he can remember in his nearly 11-year tenure came in the 2011 national championship game against LSU, a 21-0 win.</p>
<p>"I thought the defense played with sort of a ferocious, relentless, I won't be denied kind of attitude in the way they competed in the game," Saban said Tuesday. "I'd say those two probably rank up there with the best of them."</p>
<p>This <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/alabama-hoping-linebackers-coalesces-after-season-flux" type="external">injury-riddled group</a> powered the Tide to a national championship matchup with <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/s-e-c-s-e-c-alabama-vs-georgia-national-championship" type="external">fellow Southeastern Conference power No. 3 Georgia</a> in Atlanta with Monday night's 24-6 victory. The next big challenge will be contending with Georgia's <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/georgias-chubb-michel-make-history-eclipsing-1000-yards" type="external">dual 1,000-yard rushers</a> Nick Chubb and Sony Michel next Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.</p>
<p>That Sugar Bowl performance wasn't just payback, but an emphatic reminder that this Alabama defense is still awfully formidable even if it has been far from full-strength since a string of injuries that began in the opener against Florida State.</p>
<p>"We had wanted to prove ourselves to the world, because I think we felt a little disrespected," said defensive tackle Da'Ron Payne, one of the main contributors in that performance.</p>
<p>The game turned on two - three, really - huge plays by defenders Payne and Mack Wilson in a whirlwind span of the third quarter. Payne made an interception and then caught a touchdown pass after coming in for the goal line package. Mack Wilson, who had been out with a foot injury late in the regular season, then scored on a pick-six 13 seconds later.</p>
<p>Plus, the defense racked up five sacks of Kelly Bryant. Saban said the defensive line played as well as it had all year.</p>
<p>"During the week, coach put emphasis on just being destructive in our pass rushing and just keeping in our pass rushing lanes and making sure that we get after them," Payne said afterward. "And I think we did a good job of locking in during the practice and just getting after them as a whole defense."</p>
<p>The defense is still far from 100 percent. Linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton and safety Hootie Jones remain out. Linebacker Anfernee Jennings' status is uncertain with a sprained left knee sustained in the Sugar Bowl, and Saban said he and guard Lester Cotton (right knee) were being evaluated Tuesday in Birmingham.</p>
<p>Plus, seven of last season's stars having moved on to the NFL and defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt's pending departure as <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/alabamas-pruitt-doing-double-duty-sugar-bowl" type="external">Tennessee's new head coach</a> .</p>
<p>With all that, Alabama still leads the nation in run, scoring and total defense and ranks third against the pass.</p>
<p>The Tide exorcised some demons against Bryant and the Tigers. A Watson-less offense that had <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/watson-gone-alabama-poised-redemption-vs-clemson" type="external">abused Alabama for 1,000-plus yards</a> combined in the past two national championship games produced just 188 total yards and 64 on the ground.</p>
<p>"It was awesome," said linebacker Christian Miller, who missed most of the season with a biceps injury. "From outside in, everybody played tremendous. Our goal was to come out and play fast, physical and relentless and get back to how we started the season off."</p>
<p>The next challenge: A top-10 rushing offense that ran wild in a 54-48 overtime <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/dawgs-run-wild-georgia-beats-oklahoma-54-48-rose-bowl" type="external">victory over No. 2 Oklahoma</a> in the Rose Bowl.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: http://collegefootball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>Alabama's defense not only delivered some payback to Clemson but a strong statement entering the national championship game.</p>
<p>For all the injuries and departed stars, the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide's 'D' still is tops in college football.</p>
<p>The defense certainly looked the part Monday night's 24-6 Sugar Bowl <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-4-alabama-dominates-no-1-clemson-24-6-sugar-bowl" type="external">throttling of No. 1 Clemson</a> , which had been 'Bama's Kryptonite the past two years with quarterback Deshaun Watson running the show.</p>
<p>Alabama coach Nick Saban said the only comparable defensive effort he can remember in his nearly 11-year tenure came in the 2011 national championship game against LSU, a 21-0 win.</p>
<p>"I thought the defense played with sort of a ferocious, relentless, I won't be denied kind of attitude in the way they competed in the game," Saban said Tuesday. "I'd say those two probably rank up there with the best of them."</p>
<p>This <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/alabama-hoping-linebackers-coalesces-after-season-flux" type="external">injury-riddled group</a> powered the Tide to a national championship matchup with <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/s-e-c-s-e-c-alabama-vs-georgia-national-championship" type="external">fellow Southeastern Conference power No. 3 Georgia</a> in Atlanta with Monday night's 24-6 victory. The next big challenge will be contending with Georgia's <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/georgias-chubb-michel-make-history-eclipsing-1000-yards" type="external">dual 1,000-yard rushers</a> Nick Chubb and Sony Michel next Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.</p>
<p>That Sugar Bowl performance wasn't just payback, but an emphatic reminder that this Alabama defense is still awfully formidable even if it has been far from full-strength since a string of injuries that began in the opener against Florida State.</p>
<p>"We had wanted to prove ourselves to the world, because I think we felt a little disrespected," said defensive tackle Da'Ron Payne, one of the main contributors in that performance.</p>
<p>The game turned on two - three, really - huge plays by defenders Payne and Mack Wilson in a whirlwind span of the third quarter. Payne made an interception and then caught a touchdown pass after coming in for the goal line package. Mack Wilson, who had been out with a foot injury late in the regular season, then scored on a pick-six 13 seconds later.</p>
<p>Plus, the defense racked up five sacks of Kelly Bryant. Saban said the defensive line played as well as it had all year.</p>
<p>"During the week, coach put emphasis on just being destructive in our pass rushing and just keeping in our pass rushing lanes and making sure that we get after them," Payne said afterward. "And I think we did a good job of locking in during the practice and just getting after them as a whole defense."</p>
<p>The defense is still far from 100 percent. Linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton and safety Hootie Jones remain out. Linebacker Anfernee Jennings' status is uncertain with a sprained left knee sustained in the Sugar Bowl, and Saban said he and guard Lester Cotton (right knee) were being evaluated Tuesday in Birmingham.</p>
<p>Plus, seven of last season's stars having moved on to the NFL and defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt's pending departure as <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/alabamas-pruitt-doing-double-duty-sugar-bowl" type="external">Tennessee's new head coach</a> .</p>
<p>With all that, Alabama still leads the nation in run, scoring and total defense and ranks third against the pass.</p>
<p>The Tide exorcised some demons against Bryant and the Tigers. A Watson-less offense that had <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/watson-gone-alabama-poised-redemption-vs-clemson" type="external">abused Alabama for 1,000-plus yards</a> combined in the past two national championship games produced just 188 total yards and 64 on the ground.</p>
<p>"It was awesome," said linebacker Christian Miller, who missed most of the season with a biceps injury. "From outside in, everybody played tremendous. Our goal was to come out and play fast, physical and relentless and get back to how we started the season off."</p>
<p>The next challenge: A top-10 rushing offense that ran wild in a 54-48 overtime <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/dawgs-run-wild-georgia-beats-oklahoma-54-48-rose-bowl" type="external">victory over No. 2 Oklahoma</a> in the Rose Bowl.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: http://collegefootball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
|
No. 4 Alabama's defense delivers payback, big statement
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/6f5bf4b779b747128a200f3a67e5e077
|
2018-01-02
| 2least
|
No. 4 Alabama's defense delivers payback, big statement
<p>Alabama's defense not only delivered some payback to Clemson but a strong statement entering the national championship game.</p>
<p>For all the injuries and departed stars, the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide's 'D' still is tops in college football.</p>
<p>The defense certainly looked the part Monday night's 24-6 Sugar Bowl <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-4-alabama-dominates-no-1-clemson-24-6-sugar-bowl" type="external">throttling of No. 1 Clemson</a> , which had been 'Bama's Kryptonite the past two years with quarterback Deshaun Watson running the show.</p>
<p>Alabama coach Nick Saban said the only comparable defensive effort he can remember in his nearly 11-year tenure came in the 2011 national championship game against LSU, a 21-0 win.</p>
<p>"I thought the defense played with sort of a ferocious, relentless, I won't be denied kind of attitude in the way they competed in the game," Saban said Tuesday. "I'd say those two probably rank up there with the best of them."</p>
<p>This <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/alabama-hoping-linebackers-coalesces-after-season-flux" type="external">injury-riddled group</a> powered the Tide to a national championship matchup with <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/s-e-c-s-e-c-alabama-vs-georgia-national-championship" type="external">fellow Southeastern Conference power No. 3 Georgia</a> in Atlanta with Monday night's 24-6 victory. The next big challenge will be contending with Georgia's <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/georgias-chubb-michel-make-history-eclipsing-1000-yards" type="external">dual 1,000-yard rushers</a> Nick Chubb and Sony Michel next Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.</p>
<p>That Sugar Bowl performance wasn't just payback, but an emphatic reminder that this Alabama defense is still awfully formidable even if it has been far from full-strength since a string of injuries that began in the opener against Florida State.</p>
<p>"We had wanted to prove ourselves to the world, because I think we felt a little disrespected," said defensive tackle Da'Ron Payne, one of the main contributors in that performance.</p>
<p>The game turned on two - three, really - huge plays by defenders Payne and Mack Wilson in a whirlwind span of the third quarter. Payne made an interception and then caught a touchdown pass after coming in for the goal line package. Mack Wilson, who had been out with a foot injury late in the regular season, then scored on a pick-six 13 seconds later.</p>
<p>Plus, the defense racked up five sacks of Kelly Bryant. Saban said the defensive line played as well as it had all year.</p>
<p>"During the week, coach put emphasis on just being destructive in our pass rushing and just keeping in our pass rushing lanes and making sure that we get after them," Payne said afterward. "And I think we did a good job of locking in during the practice and just getting after them as a whole defense."</p>
<p>The defense is still far from 100 percent. Linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton and safety Hootie Jones remain out. Linebacker Anfernee Jennings' status is uncertain with a sprained left knee sustained in the Sugar Bowl, and Saban said he and guard Lester Cotton (right knee) were being evaluated Tuesday in Birmingham.</p>
<p>Plus, seven of last season's stars having moved on to the NFL and defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt's pending departure as <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/alabamas-pruitt-doing-double-duty-sugar-bowl" type="external">Tennessee's new head coach</a> .</p>
<p>With all that, Alabama still leads the nation in run, scoring and total defense and ranks third against the pass.</p>
<p>The Tide exorcised some demons against Bryant and the Tigers. A Watson-less offense that had <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/watson-gone-alabama-poised-redemption-vs-clemson" type="external">abused Alabama for 1,000-plus yards</a> combined in the past two national championship games produced just 188 total yards and 64 on the ground.</p>
<p>"It was awesome," said linebacker Christian Miller, who missed most of the season with a biceps injury. "From outside in, everybody played tremendous. Our goal was to come out and play fast, physical and relentless and get back to how we started the season off."</p>
<p>The next challenge: A top-10 rushing offense that ran wild in a 54-48 overtime <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/dawgs-run-wild-georgia-beats-oklahoma-54-48-rose-bowl" type="external">victory over No. 2 Oklahoma</a> in the Rose Bowl.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: http://collegefootball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
<p>Alabama's defense not only delivered some payback to Clemson but a strong statement entering the national championship game.</p>
<p>For all the injuries and departed stars, the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide's 'D' still is tops in college football.</p>
<p>The defense certainly looked the part Monday night's 24-6 Sugar Bowl <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/no-4-alabama-dominates-no-1-clemson-24-6-sugar-bowl" type="external">throttling of No. 1 Clemson</a> , which had been 'Bama's Kryptonite the past two years with quarterback Deshaun Watson running the show.</p>
<p>Alabama coach Nick Saban said the only comparable defensive effort he can remember in his nearly 11-year tenure came in the 2011 national championship game against LSU, a 21-0 win.</p>
<p>"I thought the defense played with sort of a ferocious, relentless, I won't be denied kind of attitude in the way they competed in the game," Saban said Tuesday. "I'd say those two probably rank up there with the best of them."</p>
<p>This <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/alabama-hoping-linebackers-coalesces-after-season-flux" type="external">injury-riddled group</a> powered the Tide to a national championship matchup with <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/s-e-c-s-e-c-alabama-vs-georgia-national-championship" type="external">fellow Southeastern Conference power No. 3 Georgia</a> in Atlanta with Monday night's 24-6 victory. The next big challenge will be contending with Georgia's <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/georgias-chubb-michel-make-history-eclipsing-1000-yards" type="external">dual 1,000-yard rushers</a> Nick Chubb and Sony Michel next Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.</p>
<p>That Sugar Bowl performance wasn't just payback, but an emphatic reminder that this Alabama defense is still awfully formidable even if it has been far from full-strength since a string of injuries that began in the opener against Florida State.</p>
<p>"We had wanted to prove ourselves to the world, because I think we felt a little disrespected," said defensive tackle Da'Ron Payne, one of the main contributors in that performance.</p>
<p>The game turned on two - three, really - huge plays by defenders Payne and Mack Wilson in a whirlwind span of the third quarter. Payne made an interception and then caught a touchdown pass after coming in for the goal line package. Mack Wilson, who had been out with a foot injury late in the regular season, then scored on a pick-six 13 seconds later.</p>
<p>Plus, the defense racked up five sacks of Kelly Bryant. Saban said the defensive line played as well as it had all year.</p>
<p>"During the week, coach put emphasis on just being destructive in our pass rushing and just keeping in our pass rushing lanes and making sure that we get after them," Payne said afterward. "And I think we did a good job of locking in during the practice and just getting after them as a whole defense."</p>
<p>The defense is still far from 100 percent. Linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton and safety Hootie Jones remain out. Linebacker Anfernee Jennings' status is uncertain with a sprained left knee sustained in the Sugar Bowl, and Saban said he and guard Lester Cotton (right knee) were being evaluated Tuesday in Birmingham.</p>
<p>Plus, seven of last season's stars having moved on to the NFL and defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt's pending departure as <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/alabamas-pruitt-doing-double-duty-sugar-bowl" type="external">Tennessee's new head coach</a> .</p>
<p>With all that, Alabama still leads the nation in run, scoring and total defense and ranks third against the pass.</p>
<p>The Tide exorcised some demons against Bryant and the Tigers. A Watson-less offense that had <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/watson-gone-alabama-poised-redemption-vs-clemson" type="external">abused Alabama for 1,000-plus yards</a> combined in the past two national championship games produced just 188 total yards and 64 on the ground.</p>
<p>"It was awesome," said linebacker Christian Miller, who missed most of the season with a biceps injury. "From outside in, everybody played tremendous. Our goal was to come out and play fast, physical and relentless and get back to how we started the season off."</p>
<p>The next challenge: A top-10 rushing offense that ran wild in a 54-48 overtime <a href="https://collegefootball.ap.org/article/dawgs-run-wild-georgia-beats-oklahoma-54-48-rose-bowl" type="external">victory over No. 2 Oklahoma</a> in the Rose Bowl.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>More AP college football: http://collegefootball.ap.org and <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Top25" type="external">https://twitter.com/AP_Top25</a></p>
| 598,800 |
<p>Soccer has been a life-long passion for Rory Molleda. (Photo courtesy D.C. United)</p>
<p>Rory Molleda knew growing up that he wanted to work in professional sports. He spent his youth attending D.C. United games and right out of college, he landed an internship with the organization.&#160;Six months later, he was offered the position of team coordinator and his lifelong dream came true.</p>
<p>Molleda was born in Venezuela and grew up in a soccer family. His father was a professional soccer player in Spain and Venezuela and his mother played soccer at Virginia Tech. When he was 5, the family moved to Alexandria, Va.</p>
<p>Except for a short stint in ice hockey, his main sport was soccer and he was part of a travel team playing year-round by age 10. When it came time for college, he ended up picking Guilford College, a small liberal arts school in North Carolina.</p>
<p>“It was big switch for me after attending high school at Robinson which has 4,500 students. Guilford has an enrollment of 1,200 and 30 percent of the students are athletes,” Molleda says. “The campus has a hippie feel and it was like living in a bubble. It’s different from the rest of North Carolina.”</p>
<p>Molleda, who plays left midfielder and left wing, didn’t get a lot of game time during his first two years at Guilford. His time spent on the bench didn’t detract from what it meant to him to be part of a team.</p>
<p>“It was great to contribute as a player my last two years,” Molleda says. “But it was those first two years, traveling with the team; it meant just as much to not play.”</p>
<p>He says he had great support from his family who came to games, with his mom often coaching him from the sidelines. During his senior year, his sister began her four-year stint playing soccer for Hofstra University.</p>
<p>After graduating with a sports management and Spanish double major in 2013, he moved back to the area and began his internship with D.C. United in operations, assisting with youth soccer tournaments. He sent his resume out to 60 organizations before the offer came from United. He coordinates the logistics of team travel.</p>
<p>“My office is in the locker room and I get to hang out with professional athletes every day,” Molleda says. “I am also traveling with the team once a month and am the person responsible for setting the players up to succeed in their away games. It’s very rewarding.”</p>
<p>As for his own soccer career, he began playing soccer with Metro Sports shortly after arriving back in the D.C. area. In 2016, he spotted the LGBT-based Federal Triangles Soccer Club at Capital Pride and signed up for a couple of their teams in the District Sports leagues. This past summer he played in their Summer of Freedom league for the first time.</p>
<p>“I didn’t come out until after college and I had no idea that gay soccer was a thing,” Molleda says. “It is special to have so much in common with a group of people. Joining the Federal Triangles has had a positive impact on me and has changed my life.”</p>
<p>Along with playing several nights a week with the Triangles, Molleda also gets to play soccer at work once a week with office workers, trainers and coaches. He initially struggled with what it meant to be gay in the world of professional sports but has taken some inspiration from openly gay LA Galaxy player Robbie Rogers.</p>
<p>“A co-worker asked about the HRC sticker on my car and I lied,” Molleda says. “Since that moment I don’t live in fear anymore. I am just living my life and doing the things I want to do.”</p>
<p>Molleda says that making an announcement at work would be a distraction from the team and he prefers to let it happen naturally. Recently three United players walked by while he was in line at Nellie’s Sports Bar and they just waved and said, “Hey.”</p>
<p>“There have been support moments, especially from Ben Olsen (United head coach), and I consider that a good affirmation of acceptance,” Molleda says. “We all want normalcy in our sports environment and I am incredibly happy to be a part of this team.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Alexandria</a> <a href="" type="internal">Ben Olsen</a> <a href="" type="internal">Capital Pride</a> <a href="" type="internal">D.C. United</a> <a href="" type="internal">District Sports leagues</a> <a href="" type="internal">Federal Triangles Soccer Club</a> <a href="" type="internal">FTSC Summer of Freedom League</a> <a href="" type="internal">Guilford College</a> <a href="" type="internal">Hofstra University</a> <a href="" type="internal">HRC</a> <a href="" type="internal">LA Galaxy</a> <a href="" type="internal">Metro Sports</a> <a href="" type="internal">Nellie's Sports Bar</a> <a href="" type="internal">North Carolina</a> <a href="" type="internal">Robbie Rogers</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rory Molleda</a> <a href="" type="internal">soccer</a> <a href="" type="internal">Spain</a> <a href="" type="internal">Summer of Freedom League</a> <a href="" type="internal">Venezuela</a> <a href="" type="internal">Virginia Tech</a></p>
|
Soccer lover calls D.C. United career ‘very rewarding’
| false |
http://washingtonblade.com/2017/09/08/soccer-lover-rory-molleda/
| 3left-center
|
Soccer lover calls D.C. United career ‘very rewarding’
<p>Soccer has been a life-long passion for Rory Molleda. (Photo courtesy D.C. United)</p>
<p>Rory Molleda knew growing up that he wanted to work in professional sports. He spent his youth attending D.C. United games and right out of college, he landed an internship with the organization.&#160;Six months later, he was offered the position of team coordinator and his lifelong dream came true.</p>
<p>Molleda was born in Venezuela and grew up in a soccer family. His father was a professional soccer player in Spain and Venezuela and his mother played soccer at Virginia Tech. When he was 5, the family moved to Alexandria, Va.</p>
<p>Except for a short stint in ice hockey, his main sport was soccer and he was part of a travel team playing year-round by age 10. When it came time for college, he ended up picking Guilford College, a small liberal arts school in North Carolina.</p>
<p>“It was big switch for me after attending high school at Robinson which has 4,500 students. Guilford has an enrollment of 1,200 and 30 percent of the students are athletes,” Molleda says. “The campus has a hippie feel and it was like living in a bubble. It’s different from the rest of North Carolina.”</p>
<p>Molleda, who plays left midfielder and left wing, didn’t get a lot of game time during his first two years at Guilford. His time spent on the bench didn’t detract from what it meant to him to be part of a team.</p>
<p>“It was great to contribute as a player my last two years,” Molleda says. “But it was those first two years, traveling with the team; it meant just as much to not play.”</p>
<p>He says he had great support from his family who came to games, with his mom often coaching him from the sidelines. During his senior year, his sister began her four-year stint playing soccer for Hofstra University.</p>
<p>After graduating with a sports management and Spanish double major in 2013, he moved back to the area and began his internship with D.C. United in operations, assisting with youth soccer tournaments. He sent his resume out to 60 organizations before the offer came from United. He coordinates the logistics of team travel.</p>
<p>“My office is in the locker room and I get to hang out with professional athletes every day,” Molleda says. “I am also traveling with the team once a month and am the person responsible for setting the players up to succeed in their away games. It’s very rewarding.”</p>
<p>As for his own soccer career, he began playing soccer with Metro Sports shortly after arriving back in the D.C. area. In 2016, he spotted the LGBT-based Federal Triangles Soccer Club at Capital Pride and signed up for a couple of their teams in the District Sports leagues. This past summer he played in their Summer of Freedom league for the first time.</p>
<p>“I didn’t come out until after college and I had no idea that gay soccer was a thing,” Molleda says. “It is special to have so much in common with a group of people. Joining the Federal Triangles has had a positive impact on me and has changed my life.”</p>
<p>Along with playing several nights a week with the Triangles, Molleda also gets to play soccer at work once a week with office workers, trainers and coaches. He initially struggled with what it meant to be gay in the world of professional sports but has taken some inspiration from openly gay LA Galaxy player Robbie Rogers.</p>
<p>“A co-worker asked about the HRC sticker on my car and I lied,” Molleda says. “Since that moment I don’t live in fear anymore. I am just living my life and doing the things I want to do.”</p>
<p>Molleda says that making an announcement at work would be a distraction from the team and he prefers to let it happen naturally. Recently three United players walked by while he was in line at Nellie’s Sports Bar and they just waved and said, “Hey.”</p>
<p>“There have been support moments, especially from Ben Olsen (United head coach), and I consider that a good affirmation of acceptance,” Molleda says. “We all want normalcy in our sports environment and I am incredibly happy to be a part of this team.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Alexandria</a> <a href="" type="internal">Ben Olsen</a> <a href="" type="internal">Capital Pride</a> <a href="" type="internal">D.C. United</a> <a href="" type="internal">District Sports leagues</a> <a href="" type="internal">Federal Triangles Soccer Club</a> <a href="" type="internal">FTSC Summer of Freedom League</a> <a href="" type="internal">Guilford College</a> <a href="" type="internal">Hofstra University</a> <a href="" type="internal">HRC</a> <a href="" type="internal">LA Galaxy</a> <a href="" type="internal">Metro Sports</a> <a href="" type="internal">Nellie's Sports Bar</a> <a href="" type="internal">North Carolina</a> <a href="" type="internal">Robbie Rogers</a> <a href="" type="internal">Rory Molleda</a> <a href="" type="internal">soccer</a> <a href="" type="internal">Spain</a> <a href="" type="internal">Summer of Freedom League</a> <a href="" type="internal">Venezuela</a> <a href="" type="internal">Virginia Tech</a></p>
| 598,801 |
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<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Roberto E. Rosales/Journal</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Gabriel Holguin has a little something cooking on Lomas Boulevard in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>The first-time restaurateur is planning an upscale Spanish-style tapas eatery called The Cellar at 1025 Lomas NW near 11th Street. Holguin said it was inspired in part by similar restaurants he saw while stationed with the U.S. military in upstate New York.</p>
<p>“(I) wanted to bring something like that here, because I didn’t see it here,” said Holguin, whose own restaurant experience includes everything from washing dishes to managing various eateries in his hometown of El Paso.</p>
<p>The Cellar will seat about 40 and also offer New Mexico beers and wines.</p>
<p>Work continues at the site —a onetime video store — that Holguin said will feature a “rustic industrial” aesthetic with handmade furniture. Holguin said he aims to open in early 2015.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
New Spanish tapas restaurant coming to Lomas Boulevard
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/513357/new-spanish-tapas-restaurant-coming-to-lomas-boulevard.html
| 2least
|
New Spanish tapas restaurant coming to Lomas Boulevard
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Roberto E. Rosales/Journal</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Gabriel Holguin has a little something cooking on Lomas Boulevard in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>The first-time restaurateur is planning an upscale Spanish-style tapas eatery called The Cellar at 1025 Lomas NW near 11th Street. Holguin said it was inspired in part by similar restaurants he saw while stationed with the U.S. military in upstate New York.</p>
<p>“(I) wanted to bring something like that here, because I didn’t see it here,” said Holguin, whose own restaurant experience includes everything from washing dishes to managing various eateries in his hometown of El Paso.</p>
<p>The Cellar will seat about 40 and also offer New Mexico beers and wines.</p>
<p>Work continues at the site —a onetime video store — that Holguin said will feature a “rustic industrial” aesthetic with handmade furniture. Holguin said he aims to open in early 2015.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 598,802 |
|
<p>After having ignored thousands upon thousands of court cases requesting justice during the reign of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean judges association has apologized at last for its inaction. Wednesday, the organization publicly recognized that judicial officials had failed their country during Pinochet’s 17-year rule. An estimated 3,200 people were killed under the dictator, and many more disappeared between 1973 and 1990. Authorities also believe 38,000 victims were ruthlessly tortured.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/09/20139563848456632.html" type="external">Al-Jazeera</a> offers more details regarding the statement issued nearly 40 years after Pinochet’s military coup:</p>
<p>“To those who were victims of state abuse …the time has come to ask for the forgiveness of victims … and of Chilean society,” said the Chilean Judges’ Association.</p>
<p>It said the judges had ignored the plight of victims who had demanded their intervention.</p>
<p />
<p>“It must be said and recognised clearly and completely: the court system and especially the Supreme Court at that time, failed in their roles as safeguards of basic human rights, and to protest those who were victims of state abuse,” the judges said.</p>
<p>Chilean courts rejected about 5,000 cases seeking help on locating missing loved ones abducted or killed by the authorities, saying they had no information about their fate.</p>
<p>Hernan Larrain, a senator and former leader of the conservative Independent Democratic Union, has also asked for <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23967816" type="external">forgiveness</a> on behalf of his party, stating, “This is my voice for reconciliation.”</p>
<p>Although the apologies are long overdue, they are positive steps toward acknowledging the suffering.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi</a></p>
|
It’s Never Too Late for Chilean Officials to Say Sorry
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/its-never-too-late-for-chilean-officials-to-say-sorry/
|
2013-09-05
| 4left
|
It’s Never Too Late for Chilean Officials to Say Sorry
<p>After having ignored thousands upon thousands of court cases requesting justice during the reign of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean judges association has apologized at last for its inaction. Wednesday, the organization publicly recognized that judicial officials had failed their country during Pinochet’s 17-year rule. An estimated 3,200 people were killed under the dictator, and many more disappeared between 1973 and 1990. Authorities also believe 38,000 victims were ruthlessly tortured.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/09/20139563848456632.html" type="external">Al-Jazeera</a> offers more details regarding the statement issued nearly 40 years after Pinochet’s military coup:</p>
<p>“To those who were victims of state abuse …the time has come to ask for the forgiveness of victims … and of Chilean society,” said the Chilean Judges’ Association.</p>
<p>It said the judges had ignored the plight of victims who had demanded their intervention.</p>
<p />
<p>“It must be said and recognised clearly and completely: the court system and especially the Supreme Court at that time, failed in their roles as safeguards of basic human rights, and to protest those who were victims of state abuse,” the judges said.</p>
<p>Chilean courts rejected about 5,000 cases seeking help on locating missing loved ones abducted or killed by the authorities, saying they had no information about their fate.</p>
<p>Hernan Larrain, a senator and former leader of the conservative Independent Democratic Union, has also asked for <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23967816" type="external">forgiveness</a> on behalf of his party, stating, “This is my voice for reconciliation.”</p>
<p>Although the apologies are long overdue, they are positive steps toward acknowledging the suffering.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi</a></p>
| 598,803 |
<p>The tangle of traffic that knots up downtown Kabul almost every day is one of the few hints of the invisible killer stalking the city.</p>
<p>Another is the large number of pedestrians who cover their faces with masks or scarves.&#160;Shamshullah is one of them, unmasking only to answer a question.</p>
<p>“I cover my face because of all the dust and pollution, to try to ward off the illness,” he said.</p>
<p>He has real reason to worry.</p>
<p>See a photogallery of the scene in Kabul <a href="http://www.theworld.org/2012/04/kabul-air-pollution/" type="external">at TheWorld.org</a>.</p>
<p>The Afghanistan government estimates air pollution is responsible for 3,000 deaths every year in Kabul.</p>
<p>That's nearly as many as civilians killed in Afghanistan last year as a result of the ongoing war.&#160;Vehicles are a big part of the problem.</p>
<p>Most of the tens of thousands of them that choke the city’s roads are old, run on leaded gasoline and have dodgy exhaust systems.&#160;They also drive over a lot of unpaved roads, kicking up clouds of dust.</p>
<p>And all these polluting cars are crammed into a city that is badly overcrowded.</p>
<p>Ghulam Mohammed Malikyar, a senior adviser at Afghanistan’s Environmental Protection Agency, believes Kabul’s population of five million is five times too big.</p>
<p>“Kabul is built for maximum one million population," he said. "The geographical limitation – it is very very limited city in a mountainous area,” he said. “During the past 30 years most people from rural area migrated to Kabul city because of security or education or other purposes.”</p>
<p>The city’s swelling size has led to other sources of pollution as well, Malikyar said.</p>
<p>People build illegal homes, then use diesel generators to power them.&#160;Those who can’t afford a generator will burn tires, plastic bags or other garbage as fuel.</p>
<p>The result is a nearly permanent, smoky haze over the city.</p>
<p>As recently as the 1980s, Kabul was known for its crystal clear air and spectacular views of the snow-capped mountains that rise up around it.</p>
<p>Malkiyar is saddened by the fact that they are rarely visible these days.</p>
<p>“Of course, I was a child here and I was raised in this situation. I was involved in environmental protection since 1992, so from that time to now I see the changes – many changes,” he said.</p>
<p>Those changes have a human cost, one that can be seen in a Kabul hospital, where Noor Ahmad lies on a bed, as an IV drips antibiotics into his arm.</p>
<p>His doctor, Naseetar Zanaksay, who is seeing an increasing number of patients like Ahmad, said he came to the hospital after feeling ill for weeks.</p>
<p>In fact, he said he has been coughing so much he has been unable to sleep at night.</p>
<p>According to Afghanistan’s health ministry, cases involving respiratory problems tripled between 2005 and 2011 to nearly 500,000.</p>
<p>A 2006 report from a United Nations environmental program found that 60 percent of Kabul residents were exposed to high concentrations of dangerous particulate matter, nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide. It's only gotten worse since.</p>
<p>Zanaksay said even as his list of patients grows, he does not see any real efforts to tackle the problem.</p>
<p>“Sometime as a doctor we think this is sad for us, but there is no way to solve the problem, or how to control the diseases,” he said.</p>
<p>In fact, the government is making some effort to solve the problem. It has tried to ban older cars with damaged exhaust systems and it has proposed emission standards for vehicles and industry.&#160;Last year, it even started closing government offices one day a week to try to reduce traffic.</p>
<p>Still, the EPA’s Malikyar said there is one critical part still missing.</p>
<p>“Of course, political will and political support is very low,” he said.</p>
<p>That is not surprising, perhaps, in a country torn apart by decades of war and facing many more immediate challenges than an enemy that is not easy to see.</p>
<p>Still, Malikyar said, it means there is not nearly enough money to tackle the problem.&#160;Recently, for example, Kabul installed a new air quality monitoring station.</p>
<p>Malikyar said the city would need ten more to do the job properly.</p>
|
In Kabul, civilian death toll from polluted air rivals that of war violence
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2012-04-24/kabul-civilian-death-toll-polluted-air-rivals-war-violence
|
2012-04-24
| 3left-center
|
In Kabul, civilian death toll from polluted air rivals that of war violence
<p>The tangle of traffic that knots up downtown Kabul almost every day is one of the few hints of the invisible killer stalking the city.</p>
<p>Another is the large number of pedestrians who cover their faces with masks or scarves.&#160;Shamshullah is one of them, unmasking only to answer a question.</p>
<p>“I cover my face because of all the dust and pollution, to try to ward off the illness,” he said.</p>
<p>He has real reason to worry.</p>
<p>See a photogallery of the scene in Kabul <a href="http://www.theworld.org/2012/04/kabul-air-pollution/" type="external">at TheWorld.org</a>.</p>
<p>The Afghanistan government estimates air pollution is responsible for 3,000 deaths every year in Kabul.</p>
<p>That's nearly as many as civilians killed in Afghanistan last year as a result of the ongoing war.&#160;Vehicles are a big part of the problem.</p>
<p>Most of the tens of thousands of them that choke the city’s roads are old, run on leaded gasoline and have dodgy exhaust systems.&#160;They also drive over a lot of unpaved roads, kicking up clouds of dust.</p>
<p>And all these polluting cars are crammed into a city that is badly overcrowded.</p>
<p>Ghulam Mohammed Malikyar, a senior adviser at Afghanistan’s Environmental Protection Agency, believes Kabul’s population of five million is five times too big.</p>
<p>“Kabul is built for maximum one million population," he said. "The geographical limitation – it is very very limited city in a mountainous area,” he said. “During the past 30 years most people from rural area migrated to Kabul city because of security or education or other purposes.”</p>
<p>The city’s swelling size has led to other sources of pollution as well, Malikyar said.</p>
<p>People build illegal homes, then use diesel generators to power them.&#160;Those who can’t afford a generator will burn tires, plastic bags or other garbage as fuel.</p>
<p>The result is a nearly permanent, smoky haze over the city.</p>
<p>As recently as the 1980s, Kabul was known for its crystal clear air and spectacular views of the snow-capped mountains that rise up around it.</p>
<p>Malkiyar is saddened by the fact that they are rarely visible these days.</p>
<p>“Of course, I was a child here and I was raised in this situation. I was involved in environmental protection since 1992, so from that time to now I see the changes – many changes,” he said.</p>
<p>Those changes have a human cost, one that can be seen in a Kabul hospital, where Noor Ahmad lies on a bed, as an IV drips antibiotics into his arm.</p>
<p>His doctor, Naseetar Zanaksay, who is seeing an increasing number of patients like Ahmad, said he came to the hospital after feeling ill for weeks.</p>
<p>In fact, he said he has been coughing so much he has been unable to sleep at night.</p>
<p>According to Afghanistan’s health ministry, cases involving respiratory problems tripled between 2005 and 2011 to nearly 500,000.</p>
<p>A 2006 report from a United Nations environmental program found that 60 percent of Kabul residents were exposed to high concentrations of dangerous particulate matter, nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide. It's only gotten worse since.</p>
<p>Zanaksay said even as his list of patients grows, he does not see any real efforts to tackle the problem.</p>
<p>“Sometime as a doctor we think this is sad for us, but there is no way to solve the problem, or how to control the diseases,” he said.</p>
<p>In fact, the government is making some effort to solve the problem. It has tried to ban older cars with damaged exhaust systems and it has proposed emission standards for vehicles and industry.&#160;Last year, it even started closing government offices one day a week to try to reduce traffic.</p>
<p>Still, the EPA’s Malikyar said there is one critical part still missing.</p>
<p>“Of course, political will and political support is very low,” he said.</p>
<p>That is not surprising, perhaps, in a country torn apart by decades of war and facing many more immediate challenges than an enemy that is not easy to see.</p>
<p>Still, Malikyar said, it means there is not nearly enough money to tackle the problem.&#160;Recently, for example, Kabul installed a new air quality monitoring station.</p>
<p>Malikyar said the city would need ten more to do the job properly.</p>
| 598,804 |
<p />
<p>Almost exactly a year after Salman bin Albdulaziz Al Saud, king of&#160;Saudi Arabia, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and head of the&#160;House of Saud, hurriedly left his millionaire’s mansion near Cannes with&#160;his 1,000 servants to continue his vacation in Morocco, the kingdom’s&#160;cash is not flowing so smoothly for the tens of thousands of sub-continental expatriates sweating away on his great&#160;building sites.</p>
<p>Almost unreported outside the Kingdom, the country’s big construction&#160;magnates – including that of the Binladen group – have not been paid by&#160;the Saudi government for major&#160;construction projects&#160;and a portion of&#160;the army of Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and other workers have&#160;received no wages, some of them for up to seven months.</p>
<p>Indian and Pakistani embassies approached the Saudi government,&#160;pleading that their&#160;workers&#160;should be paid. Economists who adopt the&#160;same lickspittle attitude towards the Saudi monarchy as the British&#160;Government, constantly point out that the authorities have been&#160;overwhelmed by the collapse of oil prices. They usually prefer not to&#160;mention something at which the rest of the world remains aghast: deputy&#160;crown prince and defence minister Mohamed bin Salman’s wasteful and&#160;hopeless war in Yemen. Since the king’s favourite son launched this&#160;preposterous campaign against the Houthis last year, supporting the&#160;internationally recognized Yemeni president against Shia Muslim rebels,&#160;aircraft flown by Saudi and Emirati pilots (aided by British technical&#160;“experts” on the ground) have bombed even more hospitals, clinics and&#160;medical warehouses than America has destroyed in Serbia and&#160;Afghanistan combined since 1999.</p>
<p>The result? A country with 16 per cent of the world’s proven oil reserves,&#160;whose Aramco oil&#160;company&#160;makes more than $1bn a day and now&#160;records a budget deficit of $100bn, cannot pay its bills. At first, the&#160;Yemen fiasco was called “Operation Decisive Storm”, which – once it&#160;proved the longest and least decisive Arab “storm” in the Middle East’s&#160;recent history – was changed to “Operation Restore Hope”. And the&#160;bombing went on, just as it did in the pre-“hope” “storm”, along with the&#160;help of the UK’s “experts”. No wonder the very same deputy crown&#160;prince Mohamed announced this year that state spending on salaries&#160;would be lowered, yet individual earnings would rise.</p>
<p>In Pakistan, whose soldiers make up a large number of the “Saudi”&#160;armed forces, there has been outrage, parliamentarians are asking why&#160;three Saudi&#160;companies&#160;have not paid salaries for eight months, refusing&#160;even to provide food for their employees. In some cases, the Pakistanis&#160;have paid their own nationals for food supplies.</p>
<p>In Saudi Arabia itself, the government seems unable to cope with the&#160;crisis. The&#160;Arab News&#160;says that 31,000 Saudi and other foreign workers&#160;have lodged complaints with the government’s labour ministry over&#160;unpaid wages. On one occasion, the Indian consulate and local Indian&#160;expatriates brought food to the workers so that their people should not&#160;starve. The overall figure that the government owes the construction&#160;companies&#160;owed may be billions of dollars.</p>
<p>Overtly xenophobic comments have emerged in the Saudi press. Writing&#160;in the&#160;Saudi Gazette, Abdulrtahman Saad Al-Araabi said: “Many expats&#160;hate us and are angry because we are a rich country. Some of them go so&#160;far as to say that we, Saudis, do not deserve these blessings and the&#160;money we have. That is the reason why some of them become violent&#160;when they do not get paid on time.”</p>
<p>Well, I suppose some people are paying a lot of cash to the Jabhat al-Nusra (recently re-named Jabhat Fateh al-Shamal-Nusrah) or Al-Qaeda&#160;or Isis lads out there in the line of fire in Syria.</p>
<p>Embassy staff from the Philippines, France and many countries in the&#160;Middle East, have raised the problems with the Saudi government.&#160;Typical of their responses has been that of Saudi Oger which said it had&#160;been “affected by current circumstances [sic] which resulted in some&#160;delays in delays in fulfilling our commitments to our employees”.</p>
<p>The Saudi government insisted&#160;the company&#160;paid its employees. Many&#160;of them, it should be added, are Lebanese whose Sunni Muslims come&#160;from the Sunni areas of Lebanon who traditionally vote for the Sunni&#160;leader’s son Saad.</p>
<p>An official of the company made the extraordinary statement that “the&#160;company’s situation is unstable due to the scrapping [sic] of many of its&#160;projects it was to execute,” Meanwhile, workers at United Seemac&#160;construction company are complaining they have not been paid for&#160;months – or even granted permission to leave the country. Some had&#160;apparently not been paid for more than a year and a half. Unlike the big&#160;companies such as Binladen and Oger, these men – and they are indeed&#160;mostly men – are consumed into the smaller employees. “All the&#160;attention is on the big companies – it’s easy to ignore us because we are&#160;not so many people.”</p>
<p>All in all, a dodgy scenario in our beloved monarchy-dictatorship, whose&#160;war against the Shia Houthis – and the Shia Hezbollah, the Shia/Alawite&#160;regime in Damascus and Iran – is unending. Wasn’t there an equally&#160;dodgy Al-Yamamah arms deal with the Saudis a few years ago? No cash&#160;flow problems then. And what does “yamamah” mean in Arabic?&#160;“Dove”? Let us go no further.</p>
|
Saudi Arabia: Can’t Pay Its Bills, Yet Funds War on Yemen
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2016/09/12/saudia-arabia-cant-pay-its-bills-yet-funds-war-on-yemen/
|
2016-09-12
| 4left
|
Saudi Arabia: Can’t Pay Its Bills, Yet Funds War on Yemen
<p />
<p>Almost exactly a year after Salman bin Albdulaziz Al Saud, king of&#160;Saudi Arabia, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and head of the&#160;House of Saud, hurriedly left his millionaire’s mansion near Cannes with&#160;his 1,000 servants to continue his vacation in Morocco, the kingdom’s&#160;cash is not flowing so smoothly for the tens of thousands of sub-continental expatriates sweating away on his great&#160;building sites.</p>
<p>Almost unreported outside the Kingdom, the country’s big construction&#160;magnates – including that of the Binladen group – have not been paid by&#160;the Saudi government for major&#160;construction projects&#160;and a portion of&#160;the army of Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and other workers have&#160;received no wages, some of them for up to seven months.</p>
<p>Indian and Pakistani embassies approached the Saudi government,&#160;pleading that their&#160;workers&#160;should be paid. Economists who adopt the&#160;same lickspittle attitude towards the Saudi monarchy as the British&#160;Government, constantly point out that the authorities have been&#160;overwhelmed by the collapse of oil prices. They usually prefer not to&#160;mention something at which the rest of the world remains aghast: deputy&#160;crown prince and defence minister Mohamed bin Salman’s wasteful and&#160;hopeless war in Yemen. Since the king’s favourite son launched this&#160;preposterous campaign against the Houthis last year, supporting the&#160;internationally recognized Yemeni president against Shia Muslim rebels,&#160;aircraft flown by Saudi and Emirati pilots (aided by British technical&#160;“experts” on the ground) have bombed even more hospitals, clinics and&#160;medical warehouses than America has destroyed in Serbia and&#160;Afghanistan combined since 1999.</p>
<p>The result? A country with 16 per cent of the world’s proven oil reserves,&#160;whose Aramco oil&#160;company&#160;makes more than $1bn a day and now&#160;records a budget deficit of $100bn, cannot pay its bills. At first, the&#160;Yemen fiasco was called “Operation Decisive Storm”, which – once it&#160;proved the longest and least decisive Arab “storm” in the Middle East’s&#160;recent history – was changed to “Operation Restore Hope”. And the&#160;bombing went on, just as it did in the pre-“hope” “storm”, along with the&#160;help of the UK’s “experts”. No wonder the very same deputy crown&#160;prince Mohamed announced this year that state spending on salaries&#160;would be lowered, yet individual earnings would rise.</p>
<p>In Pakistan, whose soldiers make up a large number of the “Saudi”&#160;armed forces, there has been outrage, parliamentarians are asking why&#160;three Saudi&#160;companies&#160;have not paid salaries for eight months, refusing&#160;even to provide food for their employees. In some cases, the Pakistanis&#160;have paid their own nationals for food supplies.</p>
<p>In Saudi Arabia itself, the government seems unable to cope with the&#160;crisis. The&#160;Arab News&#160;says that 31,000 Saudi and other foreign workers&#160;have lodged complaints with the government’s labour ministry over&#160;unpaid wages. On one occasion, the Indian consulate and local Indian&#160;expatriates brought food to the workers so that their people should not&#160;starve. The overall figure that the government owes the construction&#160;companies&#160;owed may be billions of dollars.</p>
<p>Overtly xenophobic comments have emerged in the Saudi press. Writing&#160;in the&#160;Saudi Gazette, Abdulrtahman Saad Al-Araabi said: “Many expats&#160;hate us and are angry because we are a rich country. Some of them go so&#160;far as to say that we, Saudis, do not deserve these blessings and the&#160;money we have. That is the reason why some of them become violent&#160;when they do not get paid on time.”</p>
<p>Well, I suppose some people are paying a lot of cash to the Jabhat al-Nusra (recently re-named Jabhat Fateh al-Shamal-Nusrah) or Al-Qaeda&#160;or Isis lads out there in the line of fire in Syria.</p>
<p>Embassy staff from the Philippines, France and many countries in the&#160;Middle East, have raised the problems with the Saudi government.&#160;Typical of their responses has been that of Saudi Oger which said it had&#160;been “affected by current circumstances [sic] which resulted in some&#160;delays in delays in fulfilling our commitments to our employees”.</p>
<p>The Saudi government insisted&#160;the company&#160;paid its employees. Many&#160;of them, it should be added, are Lebanese whose Sunni Muslims come&#160;from the Sunni areas of Lebanon who traditionally vote for the Sunni&#160;leader’s son Saad.</p>
<p>An official of the company made the extraordinary statement that “the&#160;company’s situation is unstable due to the scrapping [sic] of many of its&#160;projects it was to execute,” Meanwhile, workers at United Seemac&#160;construction company are complaining they have not been paid for&#160;months – or even granted permission to leave the country. Some had&#160;apparently not been paid for more than a year and a half. Unlike the big&#160;companies such as Binladen and Oger, these men – and they are indeed&#160;mostly men – are consumed into the smaller employees. “All the&#160;attention is on the big companies – it’s easy to ignore us because we are&#160;not so many people.”</p>
<p>All in all, a dodgy scenario in our beloved monarchy-dictatorship, whose&#160;war against the Shia Houthis – and the Shia Hezbollah, the Shia/Alawite&#160;regime in Damascus and Iran – is unending. Wasn’t there an equally&#160;dodgy Al-Yamamah arms deal with the Saudis a few years ago? No cash&#160;flow problems then. And what does “yamamah” mean in Arabic?&#160;“Dove”? Let us go no further.</p>
| 598,805 |
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. nuclear commander was quoted as saying on Saturday that he would resist President Donald Trump if he ordered an “illegal” launch of nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>CBS News said Air Force General John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), told an audience at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada that he had given a lot of thought to what he would say if he received such an order.</p>
<p>“I think some people think we’re stupid,” Hyten said in response to a question about such a scenario. “We’re not stupid people. We think about these things a lot. When you have this responsibility, how do you not think about it?”</p>
<p>CBS said Hyten, who is responsible for overseeing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, explained the process that would follow such a command.</p>
<p>“As head of STRATCOM, I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do,” he said.</p>
<p>“And if it’s illegal, guess what’s going to happen? I’m going to say, ‘Mr. President, that’s illegal.’ And guess what he’s going to do? He’s going to say, ‘What would be legal?’ And we’ll come up (with) options, with a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that’s the way it works. It’s not that complicated.”</p>
<p>Hyten said running through scenarios of how to react in the event of an illegal order was standard practice, and added: “If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail. You could go to jail for the rest of your life.”</p>
<p>The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hyten’s remarks.</p>
<p>They came after questions by U.S. senators, including Democrats and Trump’s fellow Republicans, about Trump’s authority to wage war, use nuclear weapons and enter into or end international agreements, amid concern that tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs could lead to hostilities.</p>
<p>Trump has traded insults and threats with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and threatened in his maiden United Nations address to “totally destroy” the country of 26 million people if it threatened the United States.</p>
<p>Some senators want legislation to alter the nuclear authority of the U.S. president and a Senate committee on Tuesday held the first congressional hearing in more than four decades on the president’s authority to launch a nuclear strike.</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>
|
U.S. nuclear general says would resist 'illegal' Trump strike order: CBS
| false |
https://newsline.com/u-s-nuclear-general-says-would-resist-039illegal039-trump-strike-order-cbs/
|
2017-11-18
| 1right-center
|
U.S. nuclear general says would resist 'illegal' Trump strike order: CBS
<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. nuclear commander was quoted as saying on Saturday that he would resist President Donald Trump if he ordered an “illegal” launch of nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>CBS News said Air Force General John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), told an audience at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada that he had given a lot of thought to what he would say if he received such an order.</p>
<p>“I think some people think we’re stupid,” Hyten said in response to a question about such a scenario. “We’re not stupid people. We think about these things a lot. When you have this responsibility, how do you not think about it?”</p>
<p>CBS said Hyten, who is responsible for overseeing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, explained the process that would follow such a command.</p>
<p>“As head of STRATCOM, I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do,” he said.</p>
<p>“And if it’s illegal, guess what’s going to happen? I’m going to say, ‘Mr. President, that’s illegal.’ And guess what he’s going to do? He’s going to say, ‘What would be legal?’ And we’ll come up (with) options, with a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that’s the way it works. It’s not that complicated.”</p>
<p>Hyten said running through scenarios of how to react in the event of an illegal order was standard practice, and added: “If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail. You could go to jail for the rest of your life.”</p>
<p>The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hyten’s remarks.</p>
<p>They came after questions by U.S. senators, including Democrats and Trump’s fellow Republicans, about Trump’s authority to wage war, use nuclear weapons and enter into or end international agreements, amid concern that tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs could lead to hostilities.</p>
<p>Trump has traded insults and threats with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and threatened in his maiden United Nations address to “totally destroy” the country of 26 million people if it threatened the United States.</p>
<p>Some senators want legislation to alter the nuclear authority of the U.S. president and a Senate committee on Tuesday held the first congressional hearing in more than four decades on the president’s authority to launch a nuclear strike.</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>
| 598,806 |
<p>Arlington Memorial 47, Poultney 13</p>
<p>Bellows Free Academy of St. Albans 52, Burlington 38</p>
<p>Champlain Valley Union 43, St. Johnsbury Academy 35</p>
<p>Enosburg Falls 52, Milton 30</p>
<p>Lake Region Union 51, Missisquoi Valley Union 36</p>
<p>North Country Union 59, Mount Mansfield Union 35</p>
<p>Proctor 42, Leland &amp; Gray Union 26</p>
<p>South Burlington 54, Essex 48</p>
<p>West Rutland 60, Black River 10</p>
<p>Arlington Memorial 47, Poultney 13</p>
<p>Bellows Free Academy of St. Albans 52, Burlington 38</p>
<p>Champlain Valley Union 43, St. Johnsbury Academy 35</p>
<p>Enosburg Falls 52, Milton 30</p>
<p>Lake Region Union 51, Missisquoi Valley Union 36</p>
<p>North Country Union 59, Mount Mansfield Union 35</p>
<p>Proctor 42, Leland &amp; Gray Union 26</p>
<p>South Burlington 54, Essex 48</p>
<p>West Rutland 60, Black River 10</p>
|
Tuesday’s Scores
| false |
https://apnews.com/2a568b54df024538b948e9ac1272e31f
|
2018-01-10
| 2least
|
Tuesday’s Scores
<p>Arlington Memorial 47, Poultney 13</p>
<p>Bellows Free Academy of St. Albans 52, Burlington 38</p>
<p>Champlain Valley Union 43, St. Johnsbury Academy 35</p>
<p>Enosburg Falls 52, Milton 30</p>
<p>Lake Region Union 51, Missisquoi Valley Union 36</p>
<p>North Country Union 59, Mount Mansfield Union 35</p>
<p>Proctor 42, Leland &amp; Gray Union 26</p>
<p>South Burlington 54, Essex 48</p>
<p>West Rutland 60, Black River 10</p>
<p>Arlington Memorial 47, Poultney 13</p>
<p>Bellows Free Academy of St. Albans 52, Burlington 38</p>
<p>Champlain Valley Union 43, St. Johnsbury Academy 35</p>
<p>Enosburg Falls 52, Milton 30</p>
<p>Lake Region Union 51, Missisquoi Valley Union 36</p>
<p>North Country Union 59, Mount Mansfield Union 35</p>
<p>Proctor 42, Leland &amp; Gray Union 26</p>
<p>South Burlington 54, Essex 48</p>
<p>West Rutland 60, Black River 10</p>
| 598,807 |
<p>Full video of the hearing appears below (Mr. Kurtz’s testimony begins at the 41:05 mark):</p>
<p>I am honored by the opportunity to testify before this subcommittee on the issue of First Amendment protections at public college and university campuses. After briefly outlining the scope of the challenge to freedom of speech in today’s academy, I intend to focus on three key questions. First, how is it that the condition of free speech at our college campuses continues to deteriorate so markedly, despite broad public support for freedom of speech? Second, what steps can state legislatures take to help protect freedom of speech at our public university systems? And third, what steps can Congress take to protect freedom of speech in our public university systems, and perhaps even at private secular colleges and universities as well?</p>
<p>By now it should be clear that freedom of speech, that cornerstone of our liberty and most fundamental constitutional right, is under siege on America’s college campuses. Speakers who challenge campus orthodoxies are rarely sought out, are frequently disinvited when called, and are often shouted down while on campus. Speech codes that substantially limit First Amendment rights are widespread. New devices like “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” shelter students from the give-and-take of discussion and debate. When protesters disrupt visiting speakers or break in on meetings to take them over and list demands, administrators often look the other way. Students have come to take it for granted that they will face no discipline for such disruptions. Administrators themselves often disinvite controversial speakers and limit the exercise of liberty to narrow “free speech zones.” University boards of trustees rarely act to curb these administrative abuses. Substantial sections of the faculty have abandoned the defense of free speech. The classic advocates of liberty of thought and discussion are far less widely taught than in the past. Surveys show that student support for restrictive speech codes and speaker bans has reached disturbing levels. In short, as both a deeply held commitment and a living tradition, freedom of speech is in dying on our college campuses.</p>
<p>Yet how is it possible that despite broad public support for First Amendment rights, the condition of free speech on our college campuses should be so precarious? Since the rise of so-called safe spaces and trigger warnings over the last few years, concern about campus freedom of speech has grown among liberals and conservatives alike. &#160;Especially since the demonstrations that swept across college campuses in the fall of 2015, the issue has moved back onto the front pages. Opinion leaders from numerous points along the political spectrum have energetically defended freedom of speech and condemned the many campus-based assaults on it. Organizations like the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) have actively and very often successfully defended campus freedom of speech for years, and never more so than today. I shudder to think where we would be without these organizations. Yet despite the best efforts of public writers, and despite the necessary work of groups like FIRE and ADF to defend it, the position of freedom of speech on our college campuses continues to deteriorate. How is that possible?</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; The Importance of Discipline</p>
<p>I believe that a critically important part of the answer to this question lies in the failure of administrators to discipline students who silence or disrupt visiting speakers or their fellow students. However problematic safe spaces and trigger warnings may be; however important it is to overturn campus speech codes and so-called free speech zones; so long as students are permitted to silence the speech of visiting speakers or their fellow students without disciplinary consequences, the growing threat to campus free speech will never be overcome.</p>
<p>The destructive effects of speaker shout downs, meeting takeovers or, say, acts like the destruction of a run of conservative student newspapers, go far beyond their statistical occurrence. A university may host numerous visiting speakers who conform to campus orthodoxies without incident. Yet even a single case in which a visiting speaker who clashes with campus orthodoxies is shouted down sends a powerful signal to students and faculty who would also challenge those orthodoxies to keep silent. And between news reports and social media, silencing incidents on a single campus that draw no disciplinary response have the potential to send a chilling and dangerous message of intimidation across the entire country.</p>
<p>For every widely publicized speaker shout-down, many others occur that are not nationally known yet deeply damage the condition of free expression on their campuses nevertheless. And every speaker shout-down, whether nationally publicized or not, spawns countless cases of student and faculty self-censorship that are never publicized or noted. Each silencing incident, moreover, makes it far less likely that speakers who depart from campus orthodoxies will be invited in the first place, or will accept an invitation when offered. Each act of silencing that escapes discipline also encourages students to believe that they can continue to attack and disrupt the speech of others.</p>
<p>In short, the failure to discipline direct attacks on the free expression of others creates a kind of low-grade anarchy on campus, a world in which intimidation rules and violence can never be far behind.</p>
<p>All of this means that there is no substitute for well-enforced policies of administrative discipline for incidents in which protesters go beyond legitimate bounds and silence the expression of others. Keep in mind that when a speaker is shouted down, not only are his expressive rights violated but so are the rights of all who wish to listen violated as well. And as I have just argued, even this does not begin to describe the long-term campus-wide chilling effects of the failure to discipline those who interfere with the free speech rights of others.</p>
<p>Friends of free speech often invoke Yale’s Woodward Report of 1974, widely acknowledged as the classic defense of campus free expression. Yet many forget that the Woodward Report, issued in response to a series of speaker disinvitations and shout-downs over the previous decade, was centrally concerned with the subject of discipline for students who interfere with the free speech rights of others. The Woodward Report created a discipline policy which remains in Yale’s regulations to this day, and focused as well on strategies by which administrators could deter shout-downs by warning students of disciplinary consequences. The Woodward report made it clear that however necessary it is to educate students in the core principles of freedom of speech, liberty of thought and discussion can never be secure on campus without disciplining students who go beyond the bounds of legitimate protest to silence the speech of others.</p>
<p>And keep in mind that the Woodward Report was widely praised on all sides, perhaps especially by political liberals. That means liberal opinion has traditionally been completely comfortable with the need to discipline protesters who block and silence the speech of others. Of course peaceful protests are an American tradition and a fundamental expression of liberty. The right to peaceful protest must certainly be protected. But shouting down a speaker in a way that prevents him from expressing his own opinion or being heard by others is an exercise in the suppression of liberty, not free speech.</p>
<p>Sadly, administrators in our day are extremely reluctant to impose discipline on students who interfere with the free speech rights of others. Sometimes this may be because administrators sympathize with the views of the protesters. Perhaps more often, administrators are reluctant to impose discipline out of a fear that continued controversy will keep their school on the front pages.</p>
<p>What’s clear, in any case, is that despite the fact that public colleges and universities are obligated to protect the First Amendment rights of their students, administrators all too often fail to enforce those rights.</p>
<p>This means the freedom of speech will never be secure at our public colleges and universities until counter-pressures are brought to bear upon administrators who remain reluctant to discipline those who violate the free speech rights of others. The key potential sources of such counter-pressures are public scrutiny, university system boards of trustees, state legislatures, and the federal Congress.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; State Legislative Solutions</p>
<p>Along with James Manley and Jonathan Butcher of Arizona’s Goldwater Institute, I recently co-authored a report that offers and explains model state-level legislation designed to protect First Amendment speech rights on America’s public college and university campuses. That report, entitled “Campus Free Speech: A Legislative Proposal,” is published by the Goldwater Institute. (Brief excerpts from that report are adapted in this testimony, and the full report will be provided to the subcommittee for inclusion in the record along with this testimony.)</p>
<p>The Goldwater proposal does several things. 1) It creates an official University policy that strongly affirms the importance of free expression, nullifying any existing restrictive speech codes in the process. 2) It prevents administrators from dis-inviting speakers, no matter how controversial, whom members of the campus community wish to hear from. 3) It establishes a system of disciplinary sanctions for students and anyone else who interferes with the free speech rights of others. 4) It allows persons whose free-speech rights have been improperly infringed by the University to recover court costs and attorney’s fees. 5) It reaffirms the principle that universities, at the official institutional level, ought to remain neutral on issues of public controversy to encourage the widest possible range of opinion and dialogue within the university itself. 6) It ensures that students will be informed of the official policy on free expression. 7) It authorizes a special subcommittee of the university board of trustees to issue a yearly report to the public, the trustees, the governor, and the legislature on the administrative handling of free-speech issues.</p>
<p>The full legislative proposal explains each of these provisions in detail. Here I want to focus on the way in which several of these provisions work together to address the critical problem of discipline for those who suppress the speech of others. This is particularly important because, although there are several legislative proposals in various states designed to restore and protect campus free speech, only the Goldwater proposal systematically addresses the central problem of discipline for those who interfere with the expressive rights of others.</p>
<p>The Goldwater proposal instructs state university system boards of trustees to devise a range of disciplinary sanctions for anyone under the jurisdiction of the institution who interferes with the free expression of others. Since it is vitally important that the free-speech rights of protesters be fully protected, not only does the Goldwater proposal strongly affirm the right to protest, it also ensures that students subject to disciplinary hearings for interfering with the speech of others will enjoy very strong due process rights. In fact the due process rights guaranteed under the Goldwater proposal are significantly stronger than the law currently requires. This ensures that students accused of violating the expressive rights of others will be afforded very strong protection for their own expressive rights.</p>
<p>At the same time, students who have twice been found responsible for infringing the expressive rights of others will be subject to particularly strong penalties: suspension for a minimum of one year or expulsion. Suspension and expulsion were also prominently included as penalties in the Woodward Report, it should be noted.</p>
<p>Importantly, the Goldwater proposal ensures that the discipline policy and its accompanying sanctions will be fully explained to new students at freshman orientation, along with a statement articulating the fundamental principles of free speech. This educational effort is designed both to teach students about the importance of free-speech and to deter them from suppressing the speech of others.</p>
<p>Crucially, the Goldwater proposal also sets up an oversight system in which university system boards of trustees create a committee to issue an annual report on the administrative handling of discipline. The report is to be submitted to the public, the trustees, the governor, and the legislature. This means that administrators who might be inclined to look the other way when demonstrators suppress the speech of others will now be concerned with how their actions will sit with the public, and with those who hold authority over their jobs and the university’s purse strings.</p>
<p>Taken together, then, the Goldwater proposal’s provisions on student discipline, freshman orientation, and trustee oversight create an interlocking set of incentives designed to break the vicious cycle of speech suppression and even violence that has held the American academy in its grip of late. And again, note that of the many existing state legislative proposals dealing with campus free speech, only the Goldwater proposal creates a powerful yet fair system of disciplinary sanctions, along with a system of education and oversight designed to create counter-pressures on administrators who might otherwise do nothing when protesters silence others.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Federal Legislative Solutions</p>
<p>While the Goldwater proposal offers the best legislative solution at the state level, there is much that Congress could do to safeguard freedom of speech on America’s public college and university campuses, and on private secular campuses as well. I have outlined a possible federal approach to campus free speech in some detail in a piece entitled, “Federal Funding and Campus Free Speech: A Proposal,” published at National Review Online. (Excerpts from this piece are adapted in this testimony.)</p>
<p>Congress has the option of requiring public colleges and universities, and even private secular colleges and universities seeking to qualify for federal student loans under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, to file a pledge with the Department of Education to uphold student speech and association rights. This idea was first floated by the National Association of Scholars, and I have fleshed it out in some detail in my own proposal.</p>
<p>So, for example, colleges wishing to qualify for federal student aid could be required to: 1) Agree not to maintain any regulation or policy that prohibits expression that would be permitted by the First Amendment in society at large. (This would effectively ban restrictive “speech codes” at those schools.) 2) Agree that their campus is open to any speaker whom students, student groups, or members of the faculty have invited. (This would prevent most speaker disinvitations.) 3) Agree to establish, maintain, and utilize a system of sanctions to discipline students, or anyone else under the jurisdiction of the college or university, who interferes with the expressive rights of others. The accused could be assured of robust due process rights as well. 4) Agree to inform all students, faculty members, and employees annually of university policies on free speech and on the discipline of those who interfere with the expressive rights of others, thereby deterring shout-downs. 5) Agree not to impose excessive security fees on campus groups hosting visiting speakers as a means of censoring speech. (Subsequent guidance from the Secretary of Education can help define “excessive.”) 6) Agree to submit an annual report on steps taken to uphold their speech and association commitments, detailing any instances in which such speech and association rights have been violated by administrative actions or policies, by students, or by faculty, and detailing steps taken to discipline intentional disruptions of speech, and to better protect the rights of speech and association in the future. This report shall be made public and its veracity subject to investigation by the Department of Education.</p>
<p>In such cases where the Secretary of Education found a particular college or university to be out of compliance with its pledge, that school could be put on probation for a period of two years, during which time prospective students would be notified of the finding. If, after two years, the school had not returned to compliance, the Secretary of Education could suspend its eligibility for federal student aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act.</p>
<p>The two-year probation period would allow time for prospective students to be warned away from applying to a school that might lose its eligibility for federal student aid. In the meantime, federal aid to students currently enrolled in out-of-compliance schools could be grandfathered in. The result would be that no students would lose their federal aid in such cases. The consequences of lost eligibility would be felt instead by the school itself.</p>
<p>Just as very few schools currently fall out of compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act or Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments, it is likely that only in very rare cases would a school fail to come back into compliance with its free-speech obligations within the two-year period of probation.</p>
<p>Private religious schools should be exempted from this scheme, just as they are from the requirements of Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments. This would be in acknowledgement of the First Amendment’s protections for religious freedom.</p>
<p>The first duty of a legislature is to protect the rights of its citizens. Congress already insists that colleges eligible for federal aid protect their students from discrimination by race or sex. Freedom of speech is a comparably fundamental civil right, yet is not being properly protected on American college or university campuses, be they public or private. Yet the federal Higher Education Act already contains provisions that could serve as a foundation for the legislation I described above.</p>
<p>In Title I, Part B, Section 112 of the Higher Education Act, Congress affirms the importance of “student speech and association rights,” while also affirming the ability of private religious colleges, under the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty, to impose certain limits on speech.</p>
<p>And while Title I, Section 112 of HEA does not directly call for disciplining students who have interfered with the free-speech rights of others, it does assume that such discipline policies will be enacted, since this section explicitly permits colleges to sanction students who willfully disrupt “a lecture, class, speech, presentation, or performance.”</p>
<p>In an ideal world, federal protection of First Amendment rights on college campuses with not be necessary. Instead, administrators and faculty members would vigilantly enforce these rights, reaffirming their importance and defending them with necessary policies and regulations, just as Yale did with the Woodward Report of 1974.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, in our current circumstances, administrators regularly fail to enforce First Amendment rights, and substantial sections of the faculty have abandoned the classic liberal commitment to freedom of speech. This problem, moreover, has been festering for decades and has lately continued to worsen. With a problem this systemic and long-standing, the time for federal action may at last have arrived.</p>
<p>In short, the long-standing and rapidly worsening crisis of free speech on America’s college campuses has reached the point where it can and should be addressed by state and federal legislation. Unless such legislation vigorously addresses not only restrictive campus speech codes and so-called free speech zones, but the problem of administrative discipline for those who silence the speech of others, the crisis of campus free speech will not be overcome.</p>
<p>Stanley Kurtz is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p>
|
Congressional Testimony: Hearing on First Amendment Protections on Public College and University Campuses
| false |
https://eppc.org/publications/congressional-testimony-hearing-first-amendment-campus-stanley-kurtz/
| 1right-center
|
Congressional Testimony: Hearing on First Amendment Protections on Public College and University Campuses
<p>Full video of the hearing appears below (Mr. Kurtz’s testimony begins at the 41:05 mark):</p>
<p>I am honored by the opportunity to testify before this subcommittee on the issue of First Amendment protections at public college and university campuses. After briefly outlining the scope of the challenge to freedom of speech in today’s academy, I intend to focus on three key questions. First, how is it that the condition of free speech at our college campuses continues to deteriorate so markedly, despite broad public support for freedom of speech? Second, what steps can state legislatures take to help protect freedom of speech at our public university systems? And third, what steps can Congress take to protect freedom of speech in our public university systems, and perhaps even at private secular colleges and universities as well?</p>
<p>By now it should be clear that freedom of speech, that cornerstone of our liberty and most fundamental constitutional right, is under siege on America’s college campuses. Speakers who challenge campus orthodoxies are rarely sought out, are frequently disinvited when called, and are often shouted down while on campus. Speech codes that substantially limit First Amendment rights are widespread. New devices like “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” shelter students from the give-and-take of discussion and debate. When protesters disrupt visiting speakers or break in on meetings to take them over and list demands, administrators often look the other way. Students have come to take it for granted that they will face no discipline for such disruptions. Administrators themselves often disinvite controversial speakers and limit the exercise of liberty to narrow “free speech zones.” University boards of trustees rarely act to curb these administrative abuses. Substantial sections of the faculty have abandoned the defense of free speech. The classic advocates of liberty of thought and discussion are far less widely taught than in the past. Surveys show that student support for restrictive speech codes and speaker bans has reached disturbing levels. In short, as both a deeply held commitment and a living tradition, freedom of speech is in dying on our college campuses.</p>
<p>Yet how is it possible that despite broad public support for First Amendment rights, the condition of free speech on our college campuses should be so precarious? Since the rise of so-called safe spaces and trigger warnings over the last few years, concern about campus freedom of speech has grown among liberals and conservatives alike. &#160;Especially since the demonstrations that swept across college campuses in the fall of 2015, the issue has moved back onto the front pages. Opinion leaders from numerous points along the political spectrum have energetically defended freedom of speech and condemned the many campus-based assaults on it. Organizations like the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) have actively and very often successfully defended campus freedom of speech for years, and never more so than today. I shudder to think where we would be without these organizations. Yet despite the best efforts of public writers, and despite the necessary work of groups like FIRE and ADF to defend it, the position of freedom of speech on our college campuses continues to deteriorate. How is that possible?</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; The Importance of Discipline</p>
<p>I believe that a critically important part of the answer to this question lies in the failure of administrators to discipline students who silence or disrupt visiting speakers or their fellow students. However problematic safe spaces and trigger warnings may be; however important it is to overturn campus speech codes and so-called free speech zones; so long as students are permitted to silence the speech of visiting speakers or their fellow students without disciplinary consequences, the growing threat to campus free speech will never be overcome.</p>
<p>The destructive effects of speaker shout downs, meeting takeovers or, say, acts like the destruction of a run of conservative student newspapers, go far beyond their statistical occurrence. A university may host numerous visiting speakers who conform to campus orthodoxies without incident. Yet even a single case in which a visiting speaker who clashes with campus orthodoxies is shouted down sends a powerful signal to students and faculty who would also challenge those orthodoxies to keep silent. And between news reports and social media, silencing incidents on a single campus that draw no disciplinary response have the potential to send a chilling and dangerous message of intimidation across the entire country.</p>
<p>For every widely publicized speaker shout-down, many others occur that are not nationally known yet deeply damage the condition of free expression on their campuses nevertheless. And every speaker shout-down, whether nationally publicized or not, spawns countless cases of student and faculty self-censorship that are never publicized or noted. Each silencing incident, moreover, makes it far less likely that speakers who depart from campus orthodoxies will be invited in the first place, or will accept an invitation when offered. Each act of silencing that escapes discipline also encourages students to believe that they can continue to attack and disrupt the speech of others.</p>
<p>In short, the failure to discipline direct attacks on the free expression of others creates a kind of low-grade anarchy on campus, a world in which intimidation rules and violence can never be far behind.</p>
<p>All of this means that there is no substitute for well-enforced policies of administrative discipline for incidents in which protesters go beyond legitimate bounds and silence the expression of others. Keep in mind that when a speaker is shouted down, not only are his expressive rights violated but so are the rights of all who wish to listen violated as well. And as I have just argued, even this does not begin to describe the long-term campus-wide chilling effects of the failure to discipline those who interfere with the free speech rights of others.</p>
<p>Friends of free speech often invoke Yale’s Woodward Report of 1974, widely acknowledged as the classic defense of campus free expression. Yet many forget that the Woodward Report, issued in response to a series of speaker disinvitations and shout-downs over the previous decade, was centrally concerned with the subject of discipline for students who interfere with the free speech rights of others. The Woodward Report created a discipline policy which remains in Yale’s regulations to this day, and focused as well on strategies by which administrators could deter shout-downs by warning students of disciplinary consequences. The Woodward report made it clear that however necessary it is to educate students in the core principles of freedom of speech, liberty of thought and discussion can never be secure on campus without disciplining students who go beyond the bounds of legitimate protest to silence the speech of others.</p>
<p>And keep in mind that the Woodward Report was widely praised on all sides, perhaps especially by political liberals. That means liberal opinion has traditionally been completely comfortable with the need to discipline protesters who block and silence the speech of others. Of course peaceful protests are an American tradition and a fundamental expression of liberty. The right to peaceful protest must certainly be protected. But shouting down a speaker in a way that prevents him from expressing his own opinion or being heard by others is an exercise in the suppression of liberty, not free speech.</p>
<p>Sadly, administrators in our day are extremely reluctant to impose discipline on students who interfere with the free speech rights of others. Sometimes this may be because administrators sympathize with the views of the protesters. Perhaps more often, administrators are reluctant to impose discipline out of a fear that continued controversy will keep their school on the front pages.</p>
<p>What’s clear, in any case, is that despite the fact that public colleges and universities are obligated to protect the First Amendment rights of their students, administrators all too often fail to enforce those rights.</p>
<p>This means the freedom of speech will never be secure at our public colleges and universities until counter-pressures are brought to bear upon administrators who remain reluctant to discipline those who violate the free speech rights of others. The key potential sources of such counter-pressures are public scrutiny, university system boards of trustees, state legislatures, and the federal Congress.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; State Legislative Solutions</p>
<p>Along with James Manley and Jonathan Butcher of Arizona’s Goldwater Institute, I recently co-authored a report that offers and explains model state-level legislation designed to protect First Amendment speech rights on America’s public college and university campuses. That report, entitled “Campus Free Speech: A Legislative Proposal,” is published by the Goldwater Institute. (Brief excerpts from that report are adapted in this testimony, and the full report will be provided to the subcommittee for inclusion in the record along with this testimony.)</p>
<p>The Goldwater proposal does several things. 1) It creates an official University policy that strongly affirms the importance of free expression, nullifying any existing restrictive speech codes in the process. 2) It prevents administrators from dis-inviting speakers, no matter how controversial, whom members of the campus community wish to hear from. 3) It establishes a system of disciplinary sanctions for students and anyone else who interferes with the free speech rights of others. 4) It allows persons whose free-speech rights have been improperly infringed by the University to recover court costs and attorney’s fees. 5) It reaffirms the principle that universities, at the official institutional level, ought to remain neutral on issues of public controversy to encourage the widest possible range of opinion and dialogue within the university itself. 6) It ensures that students will be informed of the official policy on free expression. 7) It authorizes a special subcommittee of the university board of trustees to issue a yearly report to the public, the trustees, the governor, and the legislature on the administrative handling of free-speech issues.</p>
<p>The full legislative proposal explains each of these provisions in detail. Here I want to focus on the way in which several of these provisions work together to address the critical problem of discipline for those who suppress the speech of others. This is particularly important because, although there are several legislative proposals in various states designed to restore and protect campus free speech, only the Goldwater proposal systematically addresses the central problem of discipline for those who interfere with the expressive rights of others.</p>
<p>The Goldwater proposal instructs state university system boards of trustees to devise a range of disciplinary sanctions for anyone under the jurisdiction of the institution who interferes with the free expression of others. Since it is vitally important that the free-speech rights of protesters be fully protected, not only does the Goldwater proposal strongly affirm the right to protest, it also ensures that students subject to disciplinary hearings for interfering with the speech of others will enjoy very strong due process rights. In fact the due process rights guaranteed under the Goldwater proposal are significantly stronger than the law currently requires. This ensures that students accused of violating the expressive rights of others will be afforded very strong protection for their own expressive rights.</p>
<p>At the same time, students who have twice been found responsible for infringing the expressive rights of others will be subject to particularly strong penalties: suspension for a minimum of one year or expulsion. Suspension and expulsion were also prominently included as penalties in the Woodward Report, it should be noted.</p>
<p>Importantly, the Goldwater proposal ensures that the discipline policy and its accompanying sanctions will be fully explained to new students at freshman orientation, along with a statement articulating the fundamental principles of free speech. This educational effort is designed both to teach students about the importance of free-speech and to deter them from suppressing the speech of others.</p>
<p>Crucially, the Goldwater proposal also sets up an oversight system in which university system boards of trustees create a committee to issue an annual report on the administrative handling of discipline. The report is to be submitted to the public, the trustees, the governor, and the legislature. This means that administrators who might be inclined to look the other way when demonstrators suppress the speech of others will now be concerned with how their actions will sit with the public, and with those who hold authority over their jobs and the university’s purse strings.</p>
<p>Taken together, then, the Goldwater proposal’s provisions on student discipline, freshman orientation, and trustee oversight create an interlocking set of incentives designed to break the vicious cycle of speech suppression and even violence that has held the American academy in its grip of late. And again, note that of the many existing state legislative proposals dealing with campus free speech, only the Goldwater proposal creates a powerful yet fair system of disciplinary sanctions, along with a system of education and oversight designed to create counter-pressures on administrators who might otherwise do nothing when protesters silence others.</p>
<p>&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; Federal Legislative Solutions</p>
<p>While the Goldwater proposal offers the best legislative solution at the state level, there is much that Congress could do to safeguard freedom of speech on America’s public college and university campuses, and on private secular campuses as well. I have outlined a possible federal approach to campus free speech in some detail in a piece entitled, “Federal Funding and Campus Free Speech: A Proposal,” published at National Review Online. (Excerpts from this piece are adapted in this testimony.)</p>
<p>Congress has the option of requiring public colleges and universities, and even private secular colleges and universities seeking to qualify for federal student loans under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, to file a pledge with the Department of Education to uphold student speech and association rights. This idea was first floated by the National Association of Scholars, and I have fleshed it out in some detail in my own proposal.</p>
<p>So, for example, colleges wishing to qualify for federal student aid could be required to: 1) Agree not to maintain any regulation or policy that prohibits expression that would be permitted by the First Amendment in society at large. (This would effectively ban restrictive “speech codes” at those schools.) 2) Agree that their campus is open to any speaker whom students, student groups, or members of the faculty have invited. (This would prevent most speaker disinvitations.) 3) Agree to establish, maintain, and utilize a system of sanctions to discipline students, or anyone else under the jurisdiction of the college or university, who interferes with the expressive rights of others. The accused could be assured of robust due process rights as well. 4) Agree to inform all students, faculty members, and employees annually of university policies on free speech and on the discipline of those who interfere with the expressive rights of others, thereby deterring shout-downs. 5) Agree not to impose excessive security fees on campus groups hosting visiting speakers as a means of censoring speech. (Subsequent guidance from the Secretary of Education can help define “excessive.”) 6) Agree to submit an annual report on steps taken to uphold their speech and association commitments, detailing any instances in which such speech and association rights have been violated by administrative actions or policies, by students, or by faculty, and detailing steps taken to discipline intentional disruptions of speech, and to better protect the rights of speech and association in the future. This report shall be made public and its veracity subject to investigation by the Department of Education.</p>
<p>In such cases where the Secretary of Education found a particular college or university to be out of compliance with its pledge, that school could be put on probation for a period of two years, during which time prospective students would be notified of the finding. If, after two years, the school had not returned to compliance, the Secretary of Education could suspend its eligibility for federal student aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act.</p>
<p>The two-year probation period would allow time for prospective students to be warned away from applying to a school that might lose its eligibility for federal student aid. In the meantime, federal aid to students currently enrolled in out-of-compliance schools could be grandfathered in. The result would be that no students would lose their federal aid in such cases. The consequences of lost eligibility would be felt instead by the school itself.</p>
<p>Just as very few schools currently fall out of compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act or Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments, it is likely that only in very rare cases would a school fail to come back into compliance with its free-speech obligations within the two-year period of probation.</p>
<p>Private religious schools should be exempted from this scheme, just as they are from the requirements of Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments. This would be in acknowledgement of the First Amendment’s protections for religious freedom.</p>
<p>The first duty of a legislature is to protect the rights of its citizens. Congress already insists that colleges eligible for federal aid protect their students from discrimination by race or sex. Freedom of speech is a comparably fundamental civil right, yet is not being properly protected on American college or university campuses, be they public or private. Yet the federal Higher Education Act already contains provisions that could serve as a foundation for the legislation I described above.</p>
<p>In Title I, Part B, Section 112 of the Higher Education Act, Congress affirms the importance of “student speech and association rights,” while also affirming the ability of private religious colleges, under the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty, to impose certain limits on speech.</p>
<p>And while Title I, Section 112 of HEA does not directly call for disciplining students who have interfered with the free-speech rights of others, it does assume that such discipline policies will be enacted, since this section explicitly permits colleges to sanction students who willfully disrupt “a lecture, class, speech, presentation, or performance.”</p>
<p>In an ideal world, federal protection of First Amendment rights on college campuses with not be necessary. Instead, administrators and faculty members would vigilantly enforce these rights, reaffirming their importance and defending them with necessary policies and regulations, just as Yale did with the Woodward Report of 1974.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, in our current circumstances, administrators regularly fail to enforce First Amendment rights, and substantial sections of the faculty have abandoned the classic liberal commitment to freedom of speech. This problem, moreover, has been festering for decades and has lately continued to worsen. With a problem this systemic and long-standing, the time for federal action may at last have arrived.</p>
<p>In short, the long-standing and rapidly worsening crisis of free speech on America’s college campuses has reached the point where it can and should be addressed by state and federal legislation. Unless such legislation vigorously addresses not only restrictive campus speech codes and so-called free speech zones, but the problem of administrative discipline for those who silence the speech of others, the crisis of campus free speech will not be overcome.</p>
<p>Stanley Kurtz is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.</p>
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<p>Last year was tough for my son. He was in a new school in a new city. He was happy to have any friend. Now he would like to get out of this friendship. He’s not interested in hurting anyone’s feelings and he has found value in this friendship, but he feels trapped. Can he leave this friendship gracefully?</p>
<p>A: It is wonderful that your son has brought this situation to you, his parents who know him better than anyone else and can help him navigate the waters surrounding this relationship. It will be important for you to have a heart-to-heart conversation with him so that with your guidance he can figure out what he will do.</p>
<p>I see you discussing two options which may or may not end the friendship, but that will set your son on the solid ground he desires. First your son has to decide how he is comfortable standing his ground. Is he willing to take on this friend with respectful counterpoints of his own, and can he keep emotion out of it so that arguments don’t turn to fights? This is difficult even for adults, but it something you and your son can consider together.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>If he would rather avoid that kind of confrontation, he does need to be willing to respectfully say to his friend, “I don’t agree with what you’re saying. I’m not willing to argue with you, but I’m also not going to provide you with an audience.” Then he must get up and walk away.</p>
<p>Have this conversation or series of conversations with your son before school begins and have him prepare for how he will respond to the friend’s very first confrontational display of the new year and for any that follow. Through your discussions it’s likely you will develop other tactics for dealing with the situation.</p>
<p>Since it’s your son who has to carry it out, it will be important that he decide the option he’ll follow. No option will be easy, but thinking about it, having a plan and carrying it through will give your son a confidence that is being sapped by the current state of the friendship.</p>
<p>While the friendship can continue, your son’s new approach will change it. The friend will have two options. He can decide to control what he has to say in order to sustain and maintain the friendship. He also can decide that voicing his own opinions to a receptive audience is more important than the friendship.</p>
<p>From either situation, the friendship or lack thereof will develop naturally. And in either instance your son removes himself from the upsetting aspects of the friendship and can move forward knowing that he has dealt with the situation respectfully and maintained his own integrity.</p>
<p>This is an essential family conversation. It is important for parents to take the responsibility to help children understand how to work through a difficult relationship and feel strongly they’ve done the right thing for the right reason.</p>
<p>Can he leave this friendship gracefully? Yes, he can, and in doing so he can develop valuable skills he will use throughout his life; while you, as parents, have the tremendous opportunity to strengthen your connection as a family.</p>
<p>Connections and good manners never go out of style.</p>
<p>Post your comments or ask a question about etiquette at thelmadomenici.com. Thelma Domenici is CEO of Thelma Domenici &amp; Associates, offering corporate coaching and contemporary social skills development programs to all ages.</p>
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<p>Last year was tough for my son. He was in a new school in a new city. He was happy to have any friend. Now he would like to get out of this friendship. He’s not interested in hurting anyone’s feelings and he has found value in this friendship, but he feels trapped. Can he leave this friendship gracefully?</p>
<p>A: It is wonderful that your son has brought this situation to you, his parents who know him better than anyone else and can help him navigate the waters surrounding this relationship. It will be important for you to have a heart-to-heart conversation with him so that with your guidance he can figure out what he will do.</p>
<p>I see you discussing two options which may or may not end the friendship, but that will set your son on the solid ground he desires. First your son has to decide how he is comfortable standing his ground. Is he willing to take on this friend with respectful counterpoints of his own, and can he keep emotion out of it so that arguments don’t turn to fights? This is difficult even for adults, but it something you and your son can consider together.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>If he would rather avoid that kind of confrontation, he does need to be willing to respectfully say to his friend, “I don’t agree with what you’re saying. I’m not willing to argue with you, but I’m also not going to provide you with an audience.” Then he must get up and walk away.</p>
<p>Have this conversation or series of conversations with your son before school begins and have him prepare for how he will respond to the friend’s very first confrontational display of the new year and for any that follow. Through your discussions it’s likely you will develop other tactics for dealing with the situation.</p>
<p>Since it’s your son who has to carry it out, it will be important that he decide the option he’ll follow. No option will be easy, but thinking about it, having a plan and carrying it through will give your son a confidence that is being sapped by the current state of the friendship.</p>
<p>While the friendship can continue, your son’s new approach will change it. The friend will have two options. He can decide to control what he has to say in order to sustain and maintain the friendship. He also can decide that voicing his own opinions to a receptive audience is more important than the friendship.</p>
<p>From either situation, the friendship or lack thereof will develop naturally. And in either instance your son removes himself from the upsetting aspects of the friendship and can move forward knowing that he has dealt with the situation respectfully and maintained his own integrity.</p>
<p>This is an essential family conversation. It is important for parents to take the responsibility to help children understand how to work through a difficult relationship and feel strongly they’ve done the right thing for the right reason.</p>
<p>Can he leave this friendship gracefully? Yes, he can, and in doing so he can develop valuable skills he will use throughout his life; while you, as parents, have the tremendous opportunity to strengthen your connection as a family.</p>
<p>Connections and good manners never go out of style.</p>
<p>Post your comments or ask a question about etiquette at thelmadomenici.com. Thelma Domenici is CEO of Thelma Domenici &amp; Associates, offering corporate coaching and contemporary social skills development programs to all ages.</p>
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<p>training in specialized fields such as logistics, security, information technology, personnel management and administration. They understand the complexities of doing business with the U.S. government, and the importance of following instructions and protocol.</p>
<p>Veterans have a mission-driven mind-set and work well under pressure. They appreciate the need for teamwork and leadership.</p>
<p>Once they retire from military service, vets can use these skill and experiences to secure good private sector jobs. But many prefer to re-enter the civilian workforce as their own bosses.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Sharing intel</p>
<p>To raise awareness of the business opportunities and programs for veterans, the U.S. Small Business Administration's Veterans Business Outreach Center in New Mexico is sponsoring the Southwest Veterans Business Conference this Friday in Albuquerque. The conference is oriented toward vets who are contemplating business ownership and those who are launching or building a business.</p>
<p>Participants will hear from a variety of experts and service providers at panel discussions and whole-group gatherings. In between, they can attend workshops and breakout sessions on a variety of themes that match their interests and needs.</p>
<p>Some of what they learn at these huddles might be new to them, such as the basics of being an entrepreneur in the Southwest, how to choose a business structure and how to do financial planning for business. They'll hear about special low-interest loans and other resources designed to help them succeed.</p>
<p>But other topics exploit lessons from the military experience: Breakout sessions on franchise opportunities, working with prime contractors and doing business with government bodies, for instance, tap into the types of structured procedures the military follows when purchasing from private contractors or conducting real or simulated campaigns.</p>
<p>At a Learn During Lunch forum, fellow veterans who have built successful businesses share lessons and strategies. One of these is Chris Sweetin, a retired Air Force master sergeant who built 3D Security Training Solutions into New Mexico's largest security training organization. Sweeten attributes much of his success to the SBA's Boots to Business training program, which leverages the agency's resource partners - Small Business Development Centers, Women's Business Centers and SCORE - to help service members start a small business or otherwise find self-employment in their post-military life.</p>
<p>Ready to hire</p>
<p>Several agencies and institutions helping to underwrite the conference are sending representatives to talk about current and future employment, and contracting opportunities; they'll also be available throughout the day for individual discussions. These key sponsors are Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, the city of Albuquerque and FranNet, an organization that matches parent companies with potential franchisees.</p>
<p>Finance New Mexico assists individuals and businesses with obtaining skills and funding resources for their business or idea. To learn more, go to <a href="" type="external">www.FinanceNewMexico.org</a>.</p>
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<p>training in specialized fields such as logistics, security, information technology, personnel management and administration. They understand the complexities of doing business with the U.S. government, and the importance of following instructions and protocol.</p>
<p>Veterans have a mission-driven mind-set and work well under pressure. They appreciate the need for teamwork and leadership.</p>
<p>Once they retire from military service, vets can use these skill and experiences to secure good private sector jobs. But many prefer to re-enter the civilian workforce as their own bosses.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Sharing intel</p>
<p>To raise awareness of the business opportunities and programs for veterans, the U.S. Small Business Administration's Veterans Business Outreach Center in New Mexico is sponsoring the Southwest Veterans Business Conference this Friday in Albuquerque. The conference is oriented toward vets who are contemplating business ownership and those who are launching or building a business.</p>
<p>Participants will hear from a variety of experts and service providers at panel discussions and whole-group gatherings. In between, they can attend workshops and breakout sessions on a variety of themes that match their interests and needs.</p>
<p>Some of what they learn at these huddles might be new to them, such as the basics of being an entrepreneur in the Southwest, how to choose a business structure and how to do financial planning for business. They'll hear about special low-interest loans and other resources designed to help them succeed.</p>
<p>But other topics exploit lessons from the military experience: Breakout sessions on franchise opportunities, working with prime contractors and doing business with government bodies, for instance, tap into the types of structured procedures the military follows when purchasing from private contractors or conducting real or simulated campaigns.</p>
<p>At a Learn During Lunch forum, fellow veterans who have built successful businesses share lessons and strategies. One of these is Chris Sweetin, a retired Air Force master sergeant who built 3D Security Training Solutions into New Mexico's largest security training organization. Sweeten attributes much of his success to the SBA's Boots to Business training program, which leverages the agency's resource partners - Small Business Development Centers, Women's Business Centers and SCORE - to help service members start a small business or otherwise find self-employment in their post-military life.</p>
<p>Ready to hire</p>
<p>Several agencies and institutions helping to underwrite the conference are sending representatives to talk about current and future employment, and contracting opportunities; they'll also be available throughout the day for individual discussions. These key sponsors are Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, the city of Albuquerque and FranNet, an organization that matches parent companies with potential franchisees.</p>
<p>Finance New Mexico assists individuals and businesses with obtaining skills and funding resources for their business or idea. To learn more, go to <a href="" type="external">www.FinanceNewMexico.org</a>.</p>
<p />
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<p>That trend is expected to continue in the coming decades and is partly why New Mexico’s population growth is slowing, said University of New Mexico demographer Jack Baker.</p>
<p>The state’s birthrate has been fairly constant, and an aging population means there are more deaths each year, which depresses the overall population growth, according to Baker, a senior research scientist in geospatial and population studies.</p>
<p>Those over 65 increased by 12 percent from 2010 to 2013, compared with a national increase of 10 percent, according to Census Bureau estimates released last month.</p>
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<p>There was no growth among New Mexicans ages 18 to 64, and the population under 18 declined by 2 percent from 2010 to 2013, the agency reported.</p>
<p>New Mexico’s total population increased by 1 percent from 2010 to 2013, when it reached not quite 2.1 million. The nation as a whole grew at twice that rate.</p>
<p>There was a 0.1 percent population increase from 2012 to 2013 in New Mexico, the Census Bureau reported, and more people left the state than moved into it during that time.</p>
<p>“I think it’s a reflection of what’s happening with the economy because we were really failing to produce job growth,” said Lee Reynis, director of UNM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research.</p>
<p>New Mexico and 13 other states have experienced a net loss of people from migration from 2010 to 2013, according to the Census Bureau. Births and deaths are other components of population change.</p>
<p>Baker said an aging population and the migration losses are two trends that policymakers should focus on as they try to plan for New Mexico’s future.</p>
<p>“Probably we’re going to see really shallow growth over the next 10 years because more people are going to leave. Economic prospects are better elsewhere. If we don’t have jobs that can compete and will get them to stay, then we’re going to continue to see this,” Baker said.</p>
<p>By 2030, Baker said, roughly half of the state’s population will be over 65 and under 18. He describes that as a “double dependency” problem because those age groups demand services such as schools for young people and health care for the elderly.</p>
<p>As New Mexico confronts the costs of those services, the state will grapple with a shrinking working-age population – a major producer of tax revenue through their jobs and spending.</p>
<p>UNM estimates the state’s population will increase about 1.3 percent from 2010 to 2015. But the growth rate is expected to keep sliding and reach about 0.7 percent from 2035 to 2040.</p>
<p>“We have a saying, which is ‘demography is destiny,’ and really long-term trends tend to hold unless you really actively do something about it policy-related,” said Baker.</p>
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<p>That trend is expected to continue in the coming decades and is partly why New Mexico’s population growth is slowing, said University of New Mexico demographer Jack Baker.</p>
<p>The state’s birthrate has been fairly constant, and an aging population means there are more deaths each year, which depresses the overall population growth, according to Baker, a senior research scientist in geospatial and population studies.</p>
<p>Those over 65 increased by 12 percent from 2010 to 2013, compared with a national increase of 10 percent, according to Census Bureau estimates released last month.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>There was no growth among New Mexicans ages 18 to 64, and the population under 18 declined by 2 percent from 2010 to 2013, the agency reported.</p>
<p>New Mexico’s total population increased by 1 percent from 2010 to 2013, when it reached not quite 2.1 million. The nation as a whole grew at twice that rate.</p>
<p>There was a 0.1 percent population increase from 2012 to 2013 in New Mexico, the Census Bureau reported, and more people left the state than moved into it during that time.</p>
<p>“I think it’s a reflection of what’s happening with the economy because we were really failing to produce job growth,” said Lee Reynis, director of UNM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research.</p>
<p>New Mexico and 13 other states have experienced a net loss of people from migration from 2010 to 2013, according to the Census Bureau. Births and deaths are other components of population change.</p>
<p>Baker said an aging population and the migration losses are two trends that policymakers should focus on as they try to plan for New Mexico’s future.</p>
<p>“Probably we’re going to see really shallow growth over the next 10 years because more people are going to leave. Economic prospects are better elsewhere. If we don’t have jobs that can compete and will get them to stay, then we’re going to continue to see this,” Baker said.</p>
<p>By 2030, Baker said, roughly half of the state’s population will be over 65 and under 18. He describes that as a “double dependency” problem because those age groups demand services such as schools for young people and health care for the elderly.</p>
<p>As New Mexico confronts the costs of those services, the state will grapple with a shrinking working-age population – a major producer of tax revenue through their jobs and spending.</p>
<p>UNM estimates the state’s population will increase about 1.3 percent from 2010 to 2015. But the growth rate is expected to keep sliding and reach about 0.7 percent from 2035 to 2040.</p>
<p>“We have a saying, which is ‘demography is destiny,’ and really long-term trends tend to hold unless you really actively do something about it policy-related,” said Baker.</p>
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<p>There's been a lot of talk over the past few months about where Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) may or may not expand its manufacturing footprint. President Trump would <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/28/trump-and-apple-manufacturing-lets-try-a-carrot-in.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">naturally like it Opens a New Window.</a> if Apple brought some manufacturing jobs back home, despite the massive cost increases that would come along with such a move. But Apple has long faced challenges with expanding sales in India in part due to a government requirement that requires 30% of a product to be locally sourced in order to open single-branded retail stores.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Following <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/12/20/apple-inc-might-move-forward-with-manufacturing-in.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">reports Opens a New Window.</a> that the Mac maker was considering moving forward with having one of its contract manufacturing partners set up shop in India, The Wall Street Journal says the initiative is almost a go.</p>
<p>iPhone 7 Plus, which is not expected to be made in India. Image source: Apple.</p>
<p>Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron is reportedly in the final stages of moving forward with opening an iPhone manufacturing facility that will produce the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone SE. iPhone 6 and 6s production could commence in as little as four to six weeks, while the iPhone SE is scheduled to start being produced in roughly three months.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>By assembling iPhones in the country, retail prices should come down by approximately $100, as Apple should be able to avoid having to pay import duties. Apple's pricing still sits out of reach for many Indian consumers, so every little bit that it can do to incrementally reduce prices is welcome; the company has long suffered from single-digit market share in India.</p>
<p>And if manufacturing the handsets locally can help Apple meet the 30% local sourcing requirement, it could also pave the way for Apple retail stores, which are strategically important distribution channels where Apple can control and maintain consistent customer experiences.</p>
<p>Over the years, Apple has vaguely made comments that it wants to expand more in India, but we've only started to see meaningful action in the past year or two. The good news is that the company is already seeing results, and India is becoming one of its fastest-growing geographical markets. That may not say much since its business there is relatively small, so high growth rates aren't all that hard to hit, but CEO Tim Cook's comments throughout 2016 are certainly encouraging.</p>
<p>April 2016 earnings call:</p>
<p>July 2016 earnings call:</p>
<p>October 2016 earnings call:</p>
<p>On the January 2017 earnings call, Cook noted that despite India's move toward demonetization, which has hurt some companies there, Apple enjoyed "all-time record revenue results" in the country. It only goes up from here.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than AppleWhen 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=d42cf6d8-8a23-42b8-902d-954dc3b96eb5&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 Apple 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=d42cf6d8-8a23-42b8-902d-954dc3b96eb5&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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewCow/info.aspx" type="external">Evan Niu, CFA Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. 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>
|
Apple, Inc. Reportedly Preparing to Begin Manufacturing iPhones in India
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/23/apple-inc-reportedly-preparing-to-begin-manufacturing-iphones-in-india.html
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2017-03-23
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Apple, Inc. Reportedly Preparing to Begin Manufacturing iPhones in India
<p />
<p>There's been a lot of talk over the past few months about where Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) may or may not expand its manufacturing footprint. President Trump would <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/11/28/trump-and-apple-manufacturing-lets-try-a-carrot-in.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">naturally like it Opens a New Window.</a> if Apple brought some manufacturing jobs back home, despite the massive cost increases that would come along with such a move. But Apple has long faced challenges with expanding sales in India in part due to a government requirement that requires 30% of a product to be locally sourced in order to open single-branded retail stores.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Following <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/12/20/apple-inc-might-move-forward-with-manufacturing-in.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">reports Opens a New Window.</a> that the Mac maker was considering moving forward with having one of its contract manufacturing partners set up shop in India, The Wall Street Journal says the initiative is almost a go.</p>
<p>iPhone 7 Plus, which is not expected to be made in India. Image source: Apple.</p>
<p>Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron is reportedly in the final stages of moving forward with opening an iPhone manufacturing facility that will produce the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone SE. iPhone 6 and 6s production could commence in as little as four to six weeks, while the iPhone SE is scheduled to start being produced in roughly three months.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>By assembling iPhones in the country, retail prices should come down by approximately $100, as Apple should be able to avoid having to pay import duties. Apple's pricing still sits out of reach for many Indian consumers, so every little bit that it can do to incrementally reduce prices is welcome; the company has long suffered from single-digit market share in India.</p>
<p>And if manufacturing the handsets locally can help Apple meet the 30% local sourcing requirement, it could also pave the way for Apple retail stores, which are strategically important distribution channels where Apple can control and maintain consistent customer experiences.</p>
<p>Over the years, Apple has vaguely made comments that it wants to expand more in India, but we've only started to see meaningful action in the past year or two. The good news is that the company is already seeing results, and India is becoming one of its fastest-growing geographical markets. That may not say much since its business there is relatively small, so high growth rates aren't all that hard to hit, but CEO Tim Cook's comments throughout 2016 are certainly encouraging.</p>
<p>April 2016 earnings call:</p>
<p>July 2016 earnings call:</p>
<p>October 2016 earnings call:</p>
<p>On the January 2017 earnings call, Cook noted that despite India's move toward demonetization, which has hurt some companies there, Apple enjoyed "all-time record revenue results" in the country. It only goes up from here.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than AppleWhen 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=d42cf6d8-8a23-42b8-902d-954dc3b96eb5&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 Apple 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=d42cf6d8-8a23-42b8-902d-954dc3b96eb5&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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFNewCow/info.aspx" type="external">Evan Niu, CFA Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. 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>
| 598,812 |
<p />
<p>Gold and silver miner Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ: SSRI) made some big moves in 2016, including both acquisitions and assets sales. All that activity enhanced the company's production performance and didn't upend the improving cost trends of recent years. Investors should be pleased with the way Silver Standard implemented its growth plans last year. Here are some key takeaways.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Looking just at the big picture, Silver Standard produced a record amount of gold equivalent ounces in 2016. However, you need to dig in a little bit to get a full understanding of how that was achieved.</p>
<p>Image source: Silver Standard Resources.</p>
<p>For example, the company's two main mines in 2015 were Marigold and Pirquitas. Production was actually down slightly at Marigold, falling from around 207,000 ounces of gold in 2015 to a little over 205,000 ounces last year. Silver production at Pirquitas inched up less than 1% year over year to 10,422,000 ounces in 2016. In other words, its was basically steady as she goes at the company's core mines.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The big increase came from the acquisition of the Claude Resources, which was completed on May 31st last year. That deal added the SeaBee mine, which produced a little under 46,600 ounces of gold for Silver Standard in 2016. That deal was basically an all-stock transaction, with a cash component of just $200,000. Thus, Silver Standard was able to grow its business without destroying its balance sheet.</p>
<p>In fact, year over year, the company's cash position increased by around 50% to $327 million helped along by increased production and rising precious metals prices. For reference, the company's debt level only increased by around $8 million. So the increase in the company's bank account was a notable achievement.</p>
<p>The addition of Claude Resources looks like a pretty solid move production-wise, but it also helped on the cost front. When precious metals prices were high, all-in sustaining costs were less important because high spot prices for gold and silver covered up a lot of sins. For example, in the second quarter of 2014 Silver Standard's gold equivalent cash cost per ounce was $926.</p>
<p>Silver Standard's cash costs over time. Image source: Silver Standard Resources.</p>
<p>With falling commodity prices, however, miners across the industry, including Silver Standard Resources, were forced to cut back. The miner brought its cash costs down to $746 per ounce of gold equivalent by the end of 2015. And, despite the acquisition and sale of several assets, it didn't lose focus in 2016, further reducing that number to $653 per ounce of gold equivalent for all of last year.</p>
<p>Cash costs represent the general costs of operating a mine, so it's clear that Silver Standard didn't lose its focus when it added Claude Resources to the fold. However, a deeper dive is again needed, with a look at all-in sustaining costs. This measures both the cost of running a mine and the expenses required to maintain production. And the news here is less positive, but hardly bad, with all-in sustaining costs rising roughly 3% year over year in 2016 to $923 per gold equivalent ounce.</p>
<p>All-in sustaining costs at the company's Marigold mine actually jumped 7% in 2016. Pirquitas saw all-in sustaining costs decline around 18% (per silver ounce, in this case). But the bigger takeaway is that costs at the newly added SeaBee mine are nearly 15% lower than the costs at Marigold. That helped to keep overall all-in sustaining costs in check and, assuming the company can continue to run this mine as efficiently as it did last year, could continue to offset the higher costs at Marigold.</p>
<p>So, all in, Silver Standard Resources' 2016 results were a pretty good read. It managed to increase production, strengthen its balance sheet, and hold the line on costs. Those successes were achieved despite a major acquisition. In fact, the acquisition ended up helping a great deal on all fronts while also enhancing the company's future prospects.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Silver Standard ResourcesWhen 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=bb46eaf8-e44f-43bb-bb6f-b1ca7f54625a&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 Silver Standard Resources 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=bb46eaf8-e44f-43bb-bb6f-b1ca7f54625a&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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/ReubenGBrewer/info.aspx" type="external">Reuben Brewer Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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>
|
2016 Growth at Silver Standard Resources Inc. Didn't Break the Bank
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/28/2016-growth-at-silver-standard-resources-inc-didnt-break-bank.html
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2017-03-16
| 0right
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2016 Growth at Silver Standard Resources Inc. Didn't Break the Bank
<p />
<p>Gold and silver miner Silver Standard Resources (NASDAQ: SSRI) made some big moves in 2016, including both acquisitions and assets sales. All that activity enhanced the company's production performance and didn't upend the improving cost trends of recent years. Investors should be pleased with the way Silver Standard implemented its growth plans last year. Here are some key takeaways.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Looking just at the big picture, Silver Standard produced a record amount of gold equivalent ounces in 2016. However, you need to dig in a little bit to get a full understanding of how that was achieved.</p>
<p>Image source: Silver Standard Resources.</p>
<p>For example, the company's two main mines in 2015 were Marigold and Pirquitas. Production was actually down slightly at Marigold, falling from around 207,000 ounces of gold in 2015 to a little over 205,000 ounces last year. Silver production at Pirquitas inched up less than 1% year over year to 10,422,000 ounces in 2016. In other words, its was basically steady as she goes at the company's core mines.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The big increase came from the acquisition of the Claude Resources, which was completed on May 31st last year. That deal added the SeaBee mine, which produced a little under 46,600 ounces of gold for Silver Standard in 2016. That deal was basically an all-stock transaction, with a cash component of just $200,000. Thus, Silver Standard was able to grow its business without destroying its balance sheet.</p>
<p>In fact, year over year, the company's cash position increased by around 50% to $327 million helped along by increased production and rising precious metals prices. For reference, the company's debt level only increased by around $8 million. So the increase in the company's bank account was a notable achievement.</p>
<p>The addition of Claude Resources looks like a pretty solid move production-wise, but it also helped on the cost front. When precious metals prices were high, all-in sustaining costs were less important because high spot prices for gold and silver covered up a lot of sins. For example, in the second quarter of 2014 Silver Standard's gold equivalent cash cost per ounce was $926.</p>
<p>Silver Standard's cash costs over time. Image source: Silver Standard Resources.</p>
<p>With falling commodity prices, however, miners across the industry, including Silver Standard Resources, were forced to cut back. The miner brought its cash costs down to $746 per ounce of gold equivalent by the end of 2015. And, despite the acquisition and sale of several assets, it didn't lose focus in 2016, further reducing that number to $653 per ounce of gold equivalent for all of last year.</p>
<p>Cash costs represent the general costs of operating a mine, so it's clear that Silver Standard didn't lose its focus when it added Claude Resources to the fold. However, a deeper dive is again needed, with a look at all-in sustaining costs. This measures both the cost of running a mine and the expenses required to maintain production. And the news here is less positive, but hardly bad, with all-in sustaining costs rising roughly 3% year over year in 2016 to $923 per gold equivalent ounce.</p>
<p>All-in sustaining costs at the company's Marigold mine actually jumped 7% in 2016. Pirquitas saw all-in sustaining costs decline around 18% (per silver ounce, in this case). But the bigger takeaway is that costs at the newly added SeaBee mine are nearly 15% lower than the costs at Marigold. That helped to keep overall all-in sustaining costs in check and, assuming the company can continue to run this mine as efficiently as it did last year, could continue to offset the higher costs at Marigold.</p>
<p>So, all in, Silver Standard Resources' 2016 results were a pretty good read. It managed to increase production, strengthen its balance sheet, and hold the line on costs. Those successes were achieved despite a major acquisition. In fact, the acquisition ended up helping a great deal on all fronts while also enhancing the company's future prospects.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Silver Standard ResourcesWhen 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=bb46eaf8-e44f-43bb-bb6f-b1ca7f54625a&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 Silver Standard Resources 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=bb46eaf8-e44f-43bb-bb6f-b1ca7f54625a&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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/ReubenGBrewer/info.aspx" type="external">Reuben Brewer Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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>
| 598,813 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Juan Quintana, 41, was arrested Saturday night on robbery and child abuse charges after police said he pushed a 7-year-old boy to the ground and stole his bicycle.</p>
<p>Two boys, 7 and 9, flagged down an officer near the 500 block of Dallas SE at about 7:15 p.m. and said the youngest was robbed.</p>
<p>The boys, and another 12-year-old, said they were riding bikes near the 300 block of Charleston SE when Quintana approached and asked the 7-year-old for his bike so he could “do some tricks,” according to the complaint.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The boy said no.</p>
<p>Quintana asked if he could use the bike “to go to the store,” according to the complaint.</p>
<p>The boy said no.</p>
<p>Quintana then said he needed the bike to search for his wife.</p>
<p>Again, the boy said no, saying his father doesn’t want anyone else to ride the bike.</p>
<p>The child got off his bike, intending to push it home. He told police that Quintana pushed him to the ground and took the yellow and black “Chaos Thruster” bike, according to the complaint. Quintana gave the child a cellphone that didn’t work as a trade, according to police.</p>
<p>The two younger boys went searching for Quintana and found him on a nearby street. When Quintana saw them looking for him, he left the bike on the road and walked away. That’s when the boys flagged down an Albuquerque police officer, who later located Quintana and arrested him.</p>
<p>In addition to the charges involving the 7-year-old, Quintana was arrested on suspicion of violating his conditions of release for previous charges that included battery on a household member, according to jail records. He was being held without bond on Sunday.</p>
<p />
<p />
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Man accused of stealing 7-year-old’s bike
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/451517/man-accused-of-stealing-7yearolds-bike.html
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2014-08-25
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Man accused of stealing 7-year-old’s bike
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Juan Quintana, 41, was arrested Saturday night on robbery and child abuse charges after police said he pushed a 7-year-old boy to the ground and stole his bicycle.</p>
<p>Two boys, 7 and 9, flagged down an officer near the 500 block of Dallas SE at about 7:15 p.m. and said the youngest was robbed.</p>
<p>The boys, and another 12-year-old, said they were riding bikes near the 300 block of Charleston SE when Quintana approached and asked the 7-year-old for his bike so he could “do some tricks,” according to the complaint.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The boy said no.</p>
<p>Quintana asked if he could use the bike “to go to the store,” according to the complaint.</p>
<p>The boy said no.</p>
<p>Quintana then said he needed the bike to search for his wife.</p>
<p>Again, the boy said no, saying his father doesn’t want anyone else to ride the bike.</p>
<p>The child got off his bike, intending to push it home. He told police that Quintana pushed him to the ground and took the yellow and black “Chaos Thruster” bike, according to the complaint. Quintana gave the child a cellphone that didn’t work as a trade, according to police.</p>
<p>The two younger boys went searching for Quintana and found him on a nearby street. When Quintana saw them looking for him, he left the bike on the road and walked away. That’s when the boys flagged down an Albuquerque police officer, who later located Quintana and arrested him.</p>
<p>In addition to the charges involving the 7-year-old, Quintana was arrested on suspicion of violating his conditions of release for previous charges that included battery on a household member, according to jail records. He was being held without bond on Sunday.</p>
<p />
<p />
| 598,814 |
<p>ST. LOUIS (NDSU Athletics) -- North Dakota State's Easton Stick and Jalen Allison were named Missouri Valley Football Conference players of the week by the league office Sunday, Nov. 12, following NDSU's 49-14 home win over South Dakota.</p>
<p>Stick, a junior quarterback from Omaha, Neb., was named Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career after going 11 of 12 passing for a career-high 307 yards and one touchdown with no turnovers. Stick completed passes of 35, 40, 47, 55 and 77 yards as the Bison rolled up 647 yards of total offense and averaged 11.2 yards per play. He also rushed seven times for 39 yards and a TD. Stick completed his first 11 pass attempts, a career-high and fifth best in NDSU history.</p>
<p>Stick was also named FCS National Performer of the Week by the College Football Performance Awards.</p>
<p>Allison, a junior cornerback from Papillion, Neb., was named Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career after tying a career-high with 10 tackles including seven solos. He made two third-down stops to force punts and registered his third career sack to help the Bison defense hold USD to its lowest scoring output in two years.</p>
<p>North Dakota State (9-1, 6-1 MVFC) clinched its seventh straight conference championship and is scheduled to close out the regular season at Illinois State (6-4, 4-3 MVFC) at noon Saturday, Nov. 18, in Normal, Ill.</p>
|
NDSU's Stick, Allison Named Valley Football Players of the Week
| false |
http://valleynewslive.com/content/sports/NDSUs-Stick-Allison-Named-Valley-Football-Players-of-the-Week-457089873.html
|
2018-10-07
| 1right-center
|
NDSU's Stick, Allison Named Valley Football Players of the Week
<p>ST. LOUIS (NDSU Athletics) -- North Dakota State's Easton Stick and Jalen Allison were named Missouri Valley Football Conference players of the week by the league office Sunday, Nov. 12, following NDSU's 49-14 home win over South Dakota.</p>
<p>Stick, a junior quarterback from Omaha, Neb., was named Offensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career after going 11 of 12 passing for a career-high 307 yards and one touchdown with no turnovers. Stick completed passes of 35, 40, 47, 55 and 77 yards as the Bison rolled up 647 yards of total offense and averaged 11.2 yards per play. He also rushed seven times for 39 yards and a TD. Stick completed his first 11 pass attempts, a career-high and fifth best in NDSU history.</p>
<p>Stick was also named FCS National Performer of the Week by the College Football Performance Awards.</p>
<p>Allison, a junior cornerback from Papillion, Neb., was named Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in his career after tying a career-high with 10 tackles including seven solos. He made two third-down stops to force punts and registered his third career sack to help the Bison defense hold USD to its lowest scoring output in two years.</p>
<p>North Dakota State (9-1, 6-1 MVFC) clinched its seventh straight conference championship and is scheduled to close out the regular season at Illinois State (6-4, 4-3 MVFC) at noon Saturday, Nov. 18, in Normal, Ill.</p>
| 598,815 |
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<p>Using hammers and bolt cutters, peace activists repeatedly broke into weapon plants and damaged weapons in Sweden.&#160; Activists from the Swedish group OFOG/Avrusta admitted damaging twenty high explosive grenade launchers as well as internal parts to a Howitzer 77.&#160; Five people were arrested.&#160; Two remain in jail. Two activists who were arrested and released were re-arrested after they returned to the weapons plant to do more damage.&#160; A fifth person was arrested Saturday in another break in.&#160; All are facing trial on charges from criminal damage to trespass at places of national security.</p>
<p>Members of the Swedish peace and disarmament group OFOG/Avrusta say they have been preparing for more than a year to carry out the actions.&#160; OFOG, which loosely translates as the word mischief, is a network of activists working for a nuclear free and demilitarized world.&#160; Avrusta is Disarm in English.&#160; The group released information to the press announcing their actions and posted videos of their entry and damage on You Tube. See: <a href="http://www.ofog.org/avrusta_aktionsvideo" type="external">http://www.ofog.org/avrusta_aktionsvideo</a></p>
<p>At about 2:30 a.m. Thursday morning, activists approached the BAE Systems weapons facility in Karlskoga, Sweden, about 240 kilometers away from Stockholm.&#160; According to statements to the press, they used bolt cutters cut open a hole in the security fence and entered.&#160; They left behind a banner welcoming others which said “The door is open – you are free to start disarming.”&#160; The activists used hammers to damage internal parts like cooling aggregates and hydraulic cylinders for the Howitzer 77.&#160; A fully operational Howitzer 77 can fire 6 rounds every second for 20 minutes and has a firing range of 30 kilometers.&#160; Inside, media reports note that the duo managed to affix a poster to the door which said “In this factory are manufactured weapons that are used to wage wars – Disarmament is underway.”&#160; Disarmament activists, Cattis Laska, 24, and Pelle Strinlund, 37, were arrested and charged with trespassing and criminal damage.&#160; Laska is a youth leader and Strinlund is a writer.&#160; Both remain in jail pending a hearing.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, other activists entered a weapons facility run by Saab in Eskilstuna, Sweden, about 135 kilometers away.&#160; According to OFOG/Avrusta, they damaged twenty grenade launchers with hammers and then alerted guards to their presence.&#160; Anna Andersson, 26, and Martin Smedjeback, 35, were arrested and charged with trespass, severe criminal damage, and entering a protected national security area.&#160; Andersson is a web developer.&#160; Smedjeback is a trainer in non-violence.&#160; Both were released from jail on Friday.</p>
<p>The weapons damaged in the Saab plant were described as Carl Gustav type grenade launchers.&#160; These are shoulder mounted anti-tank weapons which can fire high explosive rounds.&#160; The weapons were reportedly found in boxes labeled for delivery to “US” and “New Delhi.”&#160; BAE has a long term contract with the Indian government for howitzers and grenade launchers, according to reports in the Hindu Times.</p>
<p>After being released from jail Friday, Andersson indicated she was glad to be going to trial.&#160; “I look forward to a chance to ethically and legally argue for our actions in court.&#160; I hope one day the arms manufacturers will be charged for the criminal damage that Swedish armaments cause in wars and conflicts around the world.”</p>
<p>In a surprise move early Saturday, Andersson and Smedjeback returned to the weapons plant where they were arrested again.&#160; They now remain in jail.</p>
<p>Also early Saturday morning, a fifth member of the group, Annika Spalde, 39, cut her way through the fence around a weapons plant in Karlskoga and hung a banner encouraging more disarmament actions.&#160; She was later arrested.&#160; She is charged with severe criminal damage and trespass in a place of national security.&#160; Spalde, who was later released, is a deacon in the Swedish church, an author and peace activist.</p>
<p>BAE Systems, owner of the Karlskoga plant, describes itself on its website as “the premier global defence and aerospace company” with 100,000 employees world-wide and annual sales of $31.4 billion.&#160; BAE authorities confirmed the break in.&#160; Curiously, BAE press people in the US reported “very minor” damage while the BAE security manager in Sweden told the press there that he estimated damage at 50,000 euros and was not certain whether the damage would create delays in scheduled deliveries of the weapons or not.</p>
<p>Saab, owner of the Eskilstuna plant, proclaims it serves the global market with products, services and solutions ranging from military defence to civil security.&#160; It says it has 13,700 employees and world-wide sales of $2.5 billion. Lasse Jonsson, spokesperson for Saab, told the media, “They have scrapped a quantity of weapons’ spare parts that awaited export. Only after the police investigation has been completed will we be able to calculate the exact extent of the damage caused.”</p>
<p>Maja Backlund, spokesperson for OFOG, was quoted in the Hindu Times: “Civil disobedience and action are most vital parts of democratic development. Our colleagues who breached the Saab factory managed to damage 25 grenade launchers of the Carl Gustav brand that are in extensive use in Kashmir and other war zones in India.”&#160; OFOG also claims that some of the weapons damaged were of the same type as used by the U.S. military in Iraq.</p>
<p>Members of OFOG claim Swedish weapons exports have risen 88 percent since the US invasion of Iraq.&#160; They further claim that the Swedish government is violating its policy of peace and neutrality by supplying warring countries with arms.</p>
<p>Deacon Spalde insisted these actions were necessary. “When your government supports an illegal war and sells arms to dictatorships, it’s time for ordinary citizens like us to take action.”</p>
<p>OFOG/Avrusta said “This action is the first disarmament campaign in the 21st century in Sweden.”&#160; At this point, the campaign says it consists of activists willing to risk arrest and another fifty support people.</p>
<p>“Our activists have prepared themselves for more than a year for this campaign,” said a group member who asked to remain anonymous.&#160; “They are ready to serve time in prison if Swedish society should fail to see that nonviolent civil disobedience to suspend the disastrous Swedish arms exports to wars and dictatorships is less of a breach of law than these amoral arms exports.”</p>
<p>More disarmament actions, OFOG/Avrusta promises, will be forthcoming.</p>
<p>BILL QUIGLEY is a human rights attorney and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans.&#160; Bill and others at Loyola are helping the Catholic Legal Immigration Network represent dozens of mothers arrested in Laurel, Mississippi.&#160; He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Your Ad Here</a> &#160;</p>
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Hammered by the Swedes
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2008/10/20/hammered-by-the-swedes/
|
2008-10-20
| 4left
|
Hammered by the Swedes
<p>Using hammers and bolt cutters, peace activists repeatedly broke into weapon plants and damaged weapons in Sweden.&#160; Activists from the Swedish group OFOG/Avrusta admitted damaging twenty high explosive grenade launchers as well as internal parts to a Howitzer 77.&#160; Five people were arrested.&#160; Two remain in jail. Two activists who were arrested and released were re-arrested after they returned to the weapons plant to do more damage.&#160; A fifth person was arrested Saturday in another break in.&#160; All are facing trial on charges from criminal damage to trespass at places of national security.</p>
<p>Members of the Swedish peace and disarmament group OFOG/Avrusta say they have been preparing for more than a year to carry out the actions.&#160; OFOG, which loosely translates as the word mischief, is a network of activists working for a nuclear free and demilitarized world.&#160; Avrusta is Disarm in English.&#160; The group released information to the press announcing their actions and posted videos of their entry and damage on You Tube. See: <a href="http://www.ofog.org/avrusta_aktionsvideo" type="external">http://www.ofog.org/avrusta_aktionsvideo</a></p>
<p>At about 2:30 a.m. Thursday morning, activists approached the BAE Systems weapons facility in Karlskoga, Sweden, about 240 kilometers away from Stockholm.&#160; According to statements to the press, they used bolt cutters cut open a hole in the security fence and entered.&#160; They left behind a banner welcoming others which said “The door is open – you are free to start disarming.”&#160; The activists used hammers to damage internal parts like cooling aggregates and hydraulic cylinders for the Howitzer 77.&#160; A fully operational Howitzer 77 can fire 6 rounds every second for 20 minutes and has a firing range of 30 kilometers.&#160; Inside, media reports note that the duo managed to affix a poster to the door which said “In this factory are manufactured weapons that are used to wage wars – Disarmament is underway.”&#160; Disarmament activists, Cattis Laska, 24, and Pelle Strinlund, 37, were arrested and charged with trespassing and criminal damage.&#160; Laska is a youth leader and Strinlund is a writer.&#160; Both remain in jail pending a hearing.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, other activists entered a weapons facility run by Saab in Eskilstuna, Sweden, about 135 kilometers away.&#160; According to OFOG/Avrusta, they damaged twenty grenade launchers with hammers and then alerted guards to their presence.&#160; Anna Andersson, 26, and Martin Smedjeback, 35, were arrested and charged with trespass, severe criminal damage, and entering a protected national security area.&#160; Andersson is a web developer.&#160; Smedjeback is a trainer in non-violence.&#160; Both were released from jail on Friday.</p>
<p>The weapons damaged in the Saab plant were described as Carl Gustav type grenade launchers.&#160; These are shoulder mounted anti-tank weapons which can fire high explosive rounds.&#160; The weapons were reportedly found in boxes labeled for delivery to “US” and “New Delhi.”&#160; BAE has a long term contract with the Indian government for howitzers and grenade launchers, according to reports in the Hindu Times.</p>
<p>After being released from jail Friday, Andersson indicated she was glad to be going to trial.&#160; “I look forward to a chance to ethically and legally argue for our actions in court.&#160; I hope one day the arms manufacturers will be charged for the criminal damage that Swedish armaments cause in wars and conflicts around the world.”</p>
<p>In a surprise move early Saturday, Andersson and Smedjeback returned to the weapons plant where they were arrested again.&#160; They now remain in jail.</p>
<p>Also early Saturday morning, a fifth member of the group, Annika Spalde, 39, cut her way through the fence around a weapons plant in Karlskoga and hung a banner encouraging more disarmament actions.&#160; She was later arrested.&#160; She is charged with severe criminal damage and trespass in a place of national security.&#160; Spalde, who was later released, is a deacon in the Swedish church, an author and peace activist.</p>
<p>BAE Systems, owner of the Karlskoga plant, describes itself on its website as “the premier global defence and aerospace company” with 100,000 employees world-wide and annual sales of $31.4 billion.&#160; BAE authorities confirmed the break in.&#160; Curiously, BAE press people in the US reported “very minor” damage while the BAE security manager in Sweden told the press there that he estimated damage at 50,000 euros and was not certain whether the damage would create delays in scheduled deliveries of the weapons or not.</p>
<p>Saab, owner of the Eskilstuna plant, proclaims it serves the global market with products, services and solutions ranging from military defence to civil security.&#160; It says it has 13,700 employees and world-wide sales of $2.5 billion. Lasse Jonsson, spokesperson for Saab, told the media, “They have scrapped a quantity of weapons’ spare parts that awaited export. Only after the police investigation has been completed will we be able to calculate the exact extent of the damage caused.”</p>
<p>Maja Backlund, spokesperson for OFOG, was quoted in the Hindu Times: “Civil disobedience and action are most vital parts of democratic development. Our colleagues who breached the Saab factory managed to damage 25 grenade launchers of the Carl Gustav brand that are in extensive use in Kashmir and other war zones in India.”&#160; OFOG also claims that some of the weapons damaged were of the same type as used by the U.S. military in Iraq.</p>
<p>Members of OFOG claim Swedish weapons exports have risen 88 percent since the US invasion of Iraq.&#160; They further claim that the Swedish government is violating its policy of peace and neutrality by supplying warring countries with arms.</p>
<p>Deacon Spalde insisted these actions were necessary. “When your government supports an illegal war and sells arms to dictatorships, it’s time for ordinary citizens like us to take action.”</p>
<p>OFOG/Avrusta said “This action is the first disarmament campaign in the 21st century in Sweden.”&#160; At this point, the campaign says it consists of activists willing to risk arrest and another fifty support people.</p>
<p>“Our activists have prepared themselves for more than a year for this campaign,” said a group member who asked to remain anonymous.&#160; “They are ready to serve time in prison if Swedish society should fail to see that nonviolent civil disobedience to suspend the disastrous Swedish arms exports to wars and dictatorships is less of a breach of law than these amoral arms exports.”</p>
<p>More disarmament actions, OFOG/Avrusta promises, will be forthcoming.</p>
<p>BILL QUIGLEY is a human rights attorney and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans.&#160; Bill and others at Loyola are helping the Catholic Legal Immigration Network represent dozens of mothers arrested in Laurel, Mississippi.&#160; He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Your Ad Here</a> &#160;</p>
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<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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| 598,817 |
<p>Just days after having to issue an embarrassing retraction, ABC News had to issue another correction for a report relating to the Trump-Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.</p>
<p>ABC News reported on Monday that Mueller’s team claimed that Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intel official as recently as last week — a claim that was not accurate, as the correction noted that the person was a “Russian intelligence-connected individual.” The difference could be significant — although a stupid move by Manafort either way — because a “Russian intel official” is a government official while a “Russian intelligence-connected individual” might not be.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/paul-manafort-worked-russian-intel-connected-individual-special/story?id=51573409" type="external">ABC News</a>, Mueller’s team said, ““Manafort worked on the draft with a long-time Russian colleague of Manafort’s, who is currently based in Russia and assessed to have ties to a Russian intelligence service.”</p>
<p>This is the second embarrassing correction ABC News has had to make in just the last few days.</p>
<p>On Friday, ABC News’ Brian Ross <a href="" type="internal">falsely reported</a> that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was prepared to testify that then-candidate Donald Trump instructed him to reach out to government officials — an announcement that sent the stock market tumbling 350-points.</p>
<p>However, after waiting the entire day, ABC News corrected their mistake as Ross admitted that the information regarding Flynn was not correct. In reality, Flynn is set to testify that president-elect Donald Trump instructed him to reach out to the Russian ambassador — a move that the Obama State Department said was <a href="" type="internal">normal and was not inappropriate</a>.</p>
<p>ABC News announced on Saturday that they were suspending Ross for four weeks without pay for the incident after the network experienced a significant amount of embarrassment for its lousy reporting.</p>
|
FAKE NEWS: ABC News Forced To Issue ANOTHER ‘Correction’ For Trump-Russia Reporting
| true |
https://dailywire.com/news/24312/fake-news-abc-news-forced-issue-another-correction-ryan-saavedra
|
2017-12-05
| 0right
|
FAKE NEWS: ABC News Forced To Issue ANOTHER ‘Correction’ For Trump-Russia Reporting
<p>Just days after having to issue an embarrassing retraction, ABC News had to issue another correction for a report relating to the Trump-Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.</p>
<p>ABC News reported on Monday that Mueller’s team claimed that Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intel official as recently as last week — a claim that was not accurate, as the correction noted that the person was a “Russian intelligence-connected individual.” The difference could be significant — although a stupid move by Manafort either way — because a “Russian intel official” is a government official while a “Russian intelligence-connected individual” might not be.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/paul-manafort-worked-russian-intel-connected-individual-special/story?id=51573409" type="external">ABC News</a>, Mueller’s team said, ““Manafort worked on the draft with a long-time Russian colleague of Manafort’s, who is currently based in Russia and assessed to have ties to a Russian intelligence service.”</p>
<p>This is the second embarrassing correction ABC News has had to make in just the last few days.</p>
<p>On Friday, ABC News’ Brian Ross <a href="" type="internal">falsely reported</a> that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was prepared to testify that then-candidate Donald Trump instructed him to reach out to government officials — an announcement that sent the stock market tumbling 350-points.</p>
<p>However, after waiting the entire day, ABC News corrected their mistake as Ross admitted that the information regarding Flynn was not correct. In reality, Flynn is set to testify that president-elect Donald Trump instructed him to reach out to the Russian ambassador — a move that the Obama State Department said was <a href="" type="internal">normal and was not inappropriate</a>.</p>
<p>ABC News announced on Saturday that they were suspending Ross for four weeks without pay for the incident after the network experienced a significant amount of embarrassment for its lousy reporting.</p>
| 598,818 |
<p>It’s a troubling moment for freedom of speech.</p>
<p>For years, the Right has suggested that the Left is the force most dangerous to freedom of speech. From college campuses to attempts to restrict election spending to the push for hate speech regulations, the Left sees freedom of speech as an obstacle.</p>
<p>Now many Republicans are reciprocating.</p>
<p>A new <a href="https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/u4wgpax6ng/econTabReport.pdf" type="external">YouGov poll</a> shows that a wide plurality of Republicans would be willing to permit courts to “shut down news media outlets for publishing or broadcasting stories that are biased or inaccurate.” The numbers: 45% of Republicans would favor such a policy, and 35% say they haven’t heard enough to say. That means that just 20% of Republicans would oppose such a policy. Among Democrats, just 18% favor such a policy, with 39% opposed and 43% saying they haven’t heard enough to decide. And among independents, 25% say they back such media shut downs, with 27% opposing and 48% deferring judgment. Overall, just 29% of Americans oppose such a policy.</p>
<p>When it comes to fining media outlets, the numbers are even worse. Just 12% of Republicans oppose such a policy; only 21% of independents oppose such a policy; overall, 80% of Americans either support such a policy (34%, including 55% of Republicans) or don’t know enough to say.</p>
<p>These are disastrous numbers for free speech. Now, Republicans obviously feel victimized by a Left-leaning media, and they have every reason to be angry; 79% of Republicans say that the media have been unfair to Trump, about the same number as say that the media should be restricted.</p>
<p>But the solution to that would be more Right-leaning media, more efforts to debunk, more efforts to check the impact of that media — not legal shut downs of media outlets they despise. President Trump's constant drumbeat of "fake news" about stories that merely oppose his agenda contributes to the sense of danger that now surrounds the First Amendment: if Republicans are willing to dismiss the First Amendment on grounds of "bias," and President Trump calls everything against him "bias," we're in some trouble.</p>
<p>But the First Amendment no longer means anything to the vast bulk of Americans. Overall, just 37% of Americans say that fining news outlets would violate the First Amendment; 40% of Republicans say it would not, to just 33% of Republicans who say it would. Thankfully, a plurality of Republicans (40%) say that shutting down news outlets outright would violate the First Amendment, compared to 35% who say it would not, and 25% who say they don’t know. But the fact that overall, just 45% of Americans think that actively shutting down media outlets violates the First Amendment should frighten us. And the fact that Republicans — the supposed guardians of freedom of speech — are talking about legal mechanisms to destroy media outlets they oppose is sheer madness.</p>
<p>Snowflakery isn’t just a province of the Left anymore. It’s present on all sides. And it’s going to destroy our Constitutional freedoms.</p>
|
This Insane Poll Shows Free Speech In America Is Dying
| true |
https://dailywire.com/news/19030/insane-poll-shows-free-speech-america-dying-ben-shapiro
|
2017-07-26
| 0right
|
This Insane Poll Shows Free Speech In America Is Dying
<p>It’s a troubling moment for freedom of speech.</p>
<p>For years, the Right has suggested that the Left is the force most dangerous to freedom of speech. From college campuses to attempts to restrict election spending to the push for hate speech regulations, the Left sees freedom of speech as an obstacle.</p>
<p>Now many Republicans are reciprocating.</p>
<p>A new <a href="https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/u4wgpax6ng/econTabReport.pdf" type="external">YouGov poll</a> shows that a wide plurality of Republicans would be willing to permit courts to “shut down news media outlets for publishing or broadcasting stories that are biased or inaccurate.” The numbers: 45% of Republicans would favor such a policy, and 35% say they haven’t heard enough to say. That means that just 20% of Republicans would oppose such a policy. Among Democrats, just 18% favor such a policy, with 39% opposed and 43% saying they haven’t heard enough to decide. And among independents, 25% say they back such media shut downs, with 27% opposing and 48% deferring judgment. Overall, just 29% of Americans oppose such a policy.</p>
<p>When it comes to fining media outlets, the numbers are even worse. Just 12% of Republicans oppose such a policy; only 21% of independents oppose such a policy; overall, 80% of Americans either support such a policy (34%, including 55% of Republicans) or don’t know enough to say.</p>
<p>These are disastrous numbers for free speech. Now, Republicans obviously feel victimized by a Left-leaning media, and they have every reason to be angry; 79% of Republicans say that the media have been unfair to Trump, about the same number as say that the media should be restricted.</p>
<p>But the solution to that would be more Right-leaning media, more efforts to debunk, more efforts to check the impact of that media — not legal shut downs of media outlets they despise. President Trump's constant drumbeat of "fake news" about stories that merely oppose his agenda contributes to the sense of danger that now surrounds the First Amendment: if Republicans are willing to dismiss the First Amendment on grounds of "bias," and President Trump calls everything against him "bias," we're in some trouble.</p>
<p>But the First Amendment no longer means anything to the vast bulk of Americans. Overall, just 37% of Americans say that fining news outlets would violate the First Amendment; 40% of Republicans say it would not, to just 33% of Republicans who say it would. Thankfully, a plurality of Republicans (40%) say that shutting down news outlets outright would violate the First Amendment, compared to 35% who say it would not, and 25% who say they don’t know. But the fact that overall, just 45% of Americans think that actively shutting down media outlets violates the First Amendment should frighten us. And the fact that Republicans — the supposed guardians of freedom of speech — are talking about legal mechanisms to destroy media outlets they oppose is sheer madness.</p>
<p>Snowflakery isn’t just a province of the Left anymore. It’s present on all sides. And it’s going to destroy our Constitutional freedoms.</p>
| 598,819 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio-area couple punished their young children by forcing one to eat and brush her teeth with cat feces, shocking the same child with a dog’s training collar and beating them all with a thorny switch, according to arrest warrants provided by the Bexar County sheriff’s office.</p>
<p>James Howard Chalkley, 32, was charged Monday with one count of injury to a child and his 22-year-old wife, Cheyanne, was charged with two counts of injury to a child. James Chalkley is the father of a 3-year-old boy and two girls who are 5 and 10. Cheyanne Chalkley is their stepmother.</p>
<p>The arrest warrants show a teacher noticed bruising on the 5-year-old in September. Child protective workers subsequently interviewed each of the girls, revealing the extent of the abuse, after which all of the children were removed from their home in Converse and placed in foster care.</p>
<p>The children told their foster mother about a time their father became angry because he believed the children had deliberately failed to clean up cat feces that he found in a closet. He smeared the animal waste on at least two of them, forced the 5-year-old to eat it and brushed her teeth with feces on a brush with such force that she bled, according to the warrants released Monday.</p>
<p>The 5-year-old also told authorities that her father used a dog’s shock collar on her that left green marks on her skin. Authorities say the children told them their father and stepmother struck them with a belt and switches from a lemon tree, some with thorns.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Investigators say James Chalkley at one point asked his wife if the punishments were too harsh, and she responded that she would hit them more if they were her children.</p>
<p>Online jail records don’t indicate if the Chalkleys have attorneys who could speak on their behalf.</p>
<p>Texas Child Protective Services had contact with the family on at least three occasions, according to the warrants. In one instance in 2016, the children had been left unsupervised. In January this year, the children had been stripped of their clothing, ordered outside and sprayed with cold water as a punishment for misbehavior. The case was closed and labelled as high-risk.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Sign up for the AP’s weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: <a href="http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv" type="external">http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv</a></p>
|
Warrant: Punished child forced to brush teeth with cat feces
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1085742/warrant-punished-child-forced-to-brush-teeth-with-cat-feces.html
|
2017-10-31
| 2least
|
Warrant: Punished child forced to brush teeth with cat feces
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio-area couple punished their young children by forcing one to eat and brush her teeth with cat feces, shocking the same child with a dog’s training collar and beating them all with a thorny switch, according to arrest warrants provided by the Bexar County sheriff’s office.</p>
<p>James Howard Chalkley, 32, was charged Monday with one count of injury to a child and his 22-year-old wife, Cheyanne, was charged with two counts of injury to a child. James Chalkley is the father of a 3-year-old boy and two girls who are 5 and 10. Cheyanne Chalkley is their stepmother.</p>
<p>The arrest warrants show a teacher noticed bruising on the 5-year-old in September. Child protective workers subsequently interviewed each of the girls, revealing the extent of the abuse, after which all of the children were removed from their home in Converse and placed in foster care.</p>
<p>The children told their foster mother about a time their father became angry because he believed the children had deliberately failed to clean up cat feces that he found in a closet. He smeared the animal waste on at least two of them, forced the 5-year-old to eat it and brushed her teeth with feces on a brush with such force that she bled, according to the warrants released Monday.</p>
<p>The 5-year-old also told authorities that her father used a dog’s shock collar on her that left green marks on her skin. Authorities say the children told them their father and stepmother struck them with a belt and switches from a lemon tree, some with thorns.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Investigators say James Chalkley at one point asked his wife if the punishments were too harsh, and she responded that she would hit them more if they were her children.</p>
<p>Online jail records don’t indicate if the Chalkleys have attorneys who could speak on their behalf.</p>
<p>Texas Child Protective Services had contact with the family on at least three occasions, according to the warrants. In one instance in 2016, the children had been left unsupervised. In January this year, the children had been stripped of their clothing, ordered outside and sprayed with cold water as a punishment for misbehavior. The case was closed and labelled as high-risk.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Sign up for the AP’s weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: <a href="http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv" type="external">http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv</a></p>
| 598,820 |
<p />
<p>Are SWAT teams and other forms of “paramilitary” policing becoming much too common in the United States? I ask because in Slate today, Daniel Engber <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2134152/?nav=tap3" type="external">writes</a> as an aside that “By the mid-1990s, more than 80 percent of American cities had active teams, as did more than half of all law enforcement agencies in the country with more than 50 officers.” He links to a <a href="http://www.ndsn.org/july97/swat.html" type="external">1997 study</a> by Peter Kraska, who found that the number of SWAT teams in America has not only risen dramatically since the 1980s, but that they’ve been used much more frequently:</p>
<p>Traditionally utilized for highly specialized action, such as barricaded suspects and hostage situations, the teams are increasingly engaged in traditional police work, especially work related to anti-drug efforts. The research shows that between 1990 and 1995 SWAT units were employed in their traditional roles for only a small number of occasions. Instead 75% of their activities were devoted to serving “high risk” warrants, such as “no-knock” warrants, mostly drug searches.</p>
<p>“In SWAT units formed since 1980, their use has increased by 538 percent,” said Kraska. He added that such units are now being deployed as full-time roaming patrols.</p>
<p>One survey respondent in the Kraska study described his department’s use of SWAT teams this way:</p>
<p>We’re into saturation patrols in hot spots. We do a lot of our work with the SWAT unit because we have bigger guns. We send out two, two-to-four-men cars, we look for minor violations and do jump-outs, either on people on the street or automobiles. After we jump-out the second car provides periphery cover with an ostentatious display of weaponry. We’re sending a clear message: if the shootings don’t stop, we’ll shoot someone.</p>
<p>“Ostentatious.” Many of these units have been trained by the military and armed by the Defense Department, as the “war on drugs” under Reagan increasingly involved the military in domestic law enforcement, thanks to a 1981 Congressional amendment to the Posse Comitatus Act, which authorized the military to “assist” civilian police in the enforcement of drug laws. According to a 1999 <a href="http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp50.pdf" type="external">CATO study</a>, that led, among other things, to this:</p>
<p>Between 1995 and 1997 the Department of Defense gave police departments 1.2 million pieces of military hardware, including 73 grenade launchers and 112 armored personnel carriers. The Los Angeles Police Department has acquired 600 Army surplus M-16s….</p>
<p>Of 459 SWAT teams across the country, 46 percent acquired their initial training from ‘police officers with special operations experience in the military,’ and 43 percent with ‘active-duty military experts in special operations.’ Almost 46 percent currently conducted training exercises with ‘active-duty military experts in special operations.’… Because of their close collaboration with the military, SWAT units are taking on the warrior mentality of our military’s special forces.</p>
<p>So that’s the basic state of play. But what of it? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? One police chief notes that “because of the extreme response tactics of the SWAT teams, they actually fire fewer shots.” This idea that more “specialized teams” lead to fewer casualties is a compelling one. Researcher Darrell Ross <a href="http://www.forcesciencenews.com/home/detail.html?serial=15" type="external">has found</a> that police shootings have declined dramatically since the 1970s, and credits, among other things, “more sophisticated police training. (I don’t know if anyone has critically examined Ross’ research yet—certainly groups like Human Rights Watch <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports98/police/uspo14.htm" type="external">have found</a> plenty of police brutality to go around in the United States even today, and of course causation is hard to determine.)</p>
<p>On the other hand, Kraska argues that the trend towards more SWAT teams and paramilitary police squads is “militarizing Mayberry” and undermining more “community-oriented” policing methods. Via Nexis, in 1995, the Boston Globe reported, “Cities such as Fresno, Calif., and Indianapolis routinely send officers into communities to patrol in full battle dress, giving these communities all the ambience of the West Bank.” And here’s a description from the San Francisco Bay Guardian of a SFPD raid in 1998:</p>
<p>Just before Dawn on Oct. 30 1998, 90 law-enforcement officers wearing black masks and fatigues and armed with assault rifles stormed the Martin Luther King Jr./Marcus Garvey Cooperative in the Western Addition. They used special “shock-lock” shotgun rounds to blow apartment doors off their hinges and cleared people out of rooms by throwing “flash-bang grenades,” which produce nonlethal explosions that terrify and disorient people.</p>
<p>At a Nov. 4 police commission meeting, a train of furious and sobbing residents from the raided housing complex – all of them African American – described how officers slapped them, stepped on their necks and put guns to their heads while other officers ransacked their homes. Weeping and terrified children, some as young as six, were handcuffed and separated from their parents. Some urinated in their pajamas. (Police chief Fred Lau told the San Francisco Chronicle that officers wanted to keep the kids from “running around.”)</p>
<p>Residents of the complex say the raid was a violation of their civil rights. Scores of people with no charges against them and no criminal records were put in disposable plastic “flex-cuffs.” Civil servants and grandmothers were held at gunpoint. One woman was hospitalized after a fit of seizures; other people were so distraught they couldn’t return to work for days….</p>
<p>The squad that raided the housing complex included agents from the San Francisco Police Department’s tactical squad and narcotics division, the District Attorney’s office, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. According to SFPD narcotics lieutenant Kitt Crenshaw, who initiated and planned the operation, the action was designed to “put fear in the hearts” of a gang called the Knock Out Posse. “The raid went off, more or less, without a hitch,” Crenshaw said. “I feel bad for the innocent women and children that were there, but in a way they do bear some responsibility for harboring drug dealers.”</p>
<p>No one died in this particular raid (except a pit bull, who was shot by the police), true, but there’s not a whole lot of “community policing” going on here, and these raids don’t always end “more or less, without a hitch.” In a 1996 raid on a suspected drug dealer’s home in Fitchburg, MA, a stun grenade used by the SWAT team set off a fire and left 24 people homeless. And it’s likely that regardless of the overall trend since the 1970s, “militarized” police departments can lead to more, rather than fewer, unnecessary deaths. In Albuquerque in 1999, after a series of controversial SWAT shooting that led to several wrongful death lawsuits, the police department hired Sam Walker of the University of Nebraska to investigate its practices. Walker <a href="http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n228.a09.html" type="external">found</a>:</p>
<p>The rate of killings by the police was just off the charts… They had an organizational culture that led them to escalate situations upward rather than de-escalating.</p>
<p>Albuquerque eventually dismantled its SWAT unit, and in the late ’90s cities such as Dallas and Seattle curtailed their own units, taking them off drug raids and suicide calls. (Apparently SWAT teams are used for suicide calls: In May of1999 in San Antonio, “A 48-year-old armed man was killed in a hail of gunfire early Saturday by a special operations police squad during what police said was an attempt to stop him from committing suicide.”)</p>
<p>In the larger scheme of things, the debate over whether SWAT teams are used too frequently or whether they reduce casualties seems like something of a second-order one. Ultimately, the United States has the largest prison population in the world and the highest rate of crime among industrialized nations, and it’s clear that what’s wrong here goes well beyond whether SWAT teams are used too often or too rarely. But it certainly ties into a lot of other important larger issues related to law enforcement—especially the ongoing war on drugs—and is worth looking at.</p>
<p />
|
SWAT Teams Everywhere
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/01/swat-teams-everywhere/
|
2006-01-13
| 4left
|
SWAT Teams Everywhere
<p />
<p>Are SWAT teams and other forms of “paramilitary” policing becoming much too common in the United States? I ask because in Slate today, Daniel Engber <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2134152/?nav=tap3" type="external">writes</a> as an aside that “By the mid-1990s, more than 80 percent of American cities had active teams, as did more than half of all law enforcement agencies in the country with more than 50 officers.” He links to a <a href="http://www.ndsn.org/july97/swat.html" type="external">1997 study</a> by Peter Kraska, who found that the number of SWAT teams in America has not only risen dramatically since the 1980s, but that they’ve been used much more frequently:</p>
<p>Traditionally utilized for highly specialized action, such as barricaded suspects and hostage situations, the teams are increasingly engaged in traditional police work, especially work related to anti-drug efforts. The research shows that between 1990 and 1995 SWAT units were employed in their traditional roles for only a small number of occasions. Instead 75% of their activities were devoted to serving “high risk” warrants, such as “no-knock” warrants, mostly drug searches.</p>
<p>“In SWAT units formed since 1980, their use has increased by 538 percent,” said Kraska. He added that such units are now being deployed as full-time roaming patrols.</p>
<p>One survey respondent in the Kraska study described his department’s use of SWAT teams this way:</p>
<p>We’re into saturation patrols in hot spots. We do a lot of our work with the SWAT unit because we have bigger guns. We send out two, two-to-four-men cars, we look for minor violations and do jump-outs, either on people on the street or automobiles. After we jump-out the second car provides periphery cover with an ostentatious display of weaponry. We’re sending a clear message: if the shootings don’t stop, we’ll shoot someone.</p>
<p>“Ostentatious.” Many of these units have been trained by the military and armed by the Defense Department, as the “war on drugs” under Reagan increasingly involved the military in domestic law enforcement, thanks to a 1981 Congressional amendment to the Posse Comitatus Act, which authorized the military to “assist” civilian police in the enforcement of drug laws. According to a 1999 <a href="http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp50.pdf" type="external">CATO study</a>, that led, among other things, to this:</p>
<p>Between 1995 and 1997 the Department of Defense gave police departments 1.2 million pieces of military hardware, including 73 grenade launchers and 112 armored personnel carriers. The Los Angeles Police Department has acquired 600 Army surplus M-16s….</p>
<p>Of 459 SWAT teams across the country, 46 percent acquired their initial training from ‘police officers with special operations experience in the military,’ and 43 percent with ‘active-duty military experts in special operations.’ Almost 46 percent currently conducted training exercises with ‘active-duty military experts in special operations.’… Because of their close collaboration with the military, SWAT units are taking on the warrior mentality of our military’s special forces.</p>
<p>So that’s the basic state of play. But what of it? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? One police chief notes that “because of the extreme response tactics of the SWAT teams, they actually fire fewer shots.” This idea that more “specialized teams” lead to fewer casualties is a compelling one. Researcher Darrell Ross <a href="http://www.forcesciencenews.com/home/detail.html?serial=15" type="external">has found</a> that police shootings have declined dramatically since the 1970s, and credits, among other things, “more sophisticated police training. (I don’t know if anyone has critically examined Ross’ research yet—certainly groups like Human Rights Watch <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports98/police/uspo14.htm" type="external">have found</a> plenty of police brutality to go around in the United States even today, and of course causation is hard to determine.)</p>
<p>On the other hand, Kraska argues that the trend towards more SWAT teams and paramilitary police squads is “militarizing Mayberry” and undermining more “community-oriented” policing methods. Via Nexis, in 1995, the Boston Globe reported, “Cities such as Fresno, Calif., and Indianapolis routinely send officers into communities to patrol in full battle dress, giving these communities all the ambience of the West Bank.” And here’s a description from the San Francisco Bay Guardian of a SFPD raid in 1998:</p>
<p>Just before Dawn on Oct. 30 1998, 90 law-enforcement officers wearing black masks and fatigues and armed with assault rifles stormed the Martin Luther King Jr./Marcus Garvey Cooperative in the Western Addition. They used special “shock-lock” shotgun rounds to blow apartment doors off their hinges and cleared people out of rooms by throwing “flash-bang grenades,” which produce nonlethal explosions that terrify and disorient people.</p>
<p>At a Nov. 4 police commission meeting, a train of furious and sobbing residents from the raided housing complex – all of them African American – described how officers slapped them, stepped on their necks and put guns to their heads while other officers ransacked their homes. Weeping and terrified children, some as young as six, were handcuffed and separated from their parents. Some urinated in their pajamas. (Police chief Fred Lau told the San Francisco Chronicle that officers wanted to keep the kids from “running around.”)</p>
<p>Residents of the complex say the raid was a violation of their civil rights. Scores of people with no charges against them and no criminal records were put in disposable plastic “flex-cuffs.” Civil servants and grandmothers were held at gunpoint. One woman was hospitalized after a fit of seizures; other people were so distraught they couldn’t return to work for days….</p>
<p>The squad that raided the housing complex included agents from the San Francisco Police Department’s tactical squad and narcotics division, the District Attorney’s office, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. According to SFPD narcotics lieutenant Kitt Crenshaw, who initiated and planned the operation, the action was designed to “put fear in the hearts” of a gang called the Knock Out Posse. “The raid went off, more or less, without a hitch,” Crenshaw said. “I feel bad for the innocent women and children that were there, but in a way they do bear some responsibility for harboring drug dealers.”</p>
<p>No one died in this particular raid (except a pit bull, who was shot by the police), true, but there’s not a whole lot of “community policing” going on here, and these raids don’t always end “more or less, without a hitch.” In a 1996 raid on a suspected drug dealer’s home in Fitchburg, MA, a stun grenade used by the SWAT team set off a fire and left 24 people homeless. And it’s likely that regardless of the overall trend since the 1970s, “militarized” police departments can lead to more, rather than fewer, unnecessary deaths. In Albuquerque in 1999, after a series of controversial SWAT shooting that led to several wrongful death lawsuits, the police department hired Sam Walker of the University of Nebraska to investigate its practices. Walker <a href="http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n228.a09.html" type="external">found</a>:</p>
<p>The rate of killings by the police was just off the charts… They had an organizational culture that led them to escalate situations upward rather than de-escalating.</p>
<p>Albuquerque eventually dismantled its SWAT unit, and in the late ’90s cities such as Dallas and Seattle curtailed their own units, taking them off drug raids and suicide calls. (Apparently SWAT teams are used for suicide calls: In May of1999 in San Antonio, “A 48-year-old armed man was killed in a hail of gunfire early Saturday by a special operations police squad during what police said was an attempt to stop him from committing suicide.”)</p>
<p>In the larger scheme of things, the debate over whether SWAT teams are used too frequently or whether they reduce casualties seems like something of a second-order one. Ultimately, the United States has the largest prison population in the world and the highest rate of crime among industrialized nations, and it’s clear that what’s wrong here goes well beyond whether SWAT teams are used too often or too rarely. But it certainly ties into a lot of other important larger issues related to law enforcement—especially the ongoing war on drugs—and is worth looking at.</p>
<p />
| 598,821 |
<p>In a huge victory for the grass-roots movement for a green-powered earth, Entergy has announced it will shut its Vermont Yankee reactor by the end of next year.</p>
<p>“It’s fantastic,” says longtime safe-energy activist Deb Katz. “This is such a win for the people, for the state of Vermont and for democracy.”</p>
<p>The Green Mountain State’s only commercial reactor was recently relicensed to operate another two decades. Entergy spent millions in legal fees to establish a right to resist Vermont’s attempt to shut Yankee on safety grounds. Announcing this shutdown just two weeks after an apparent victory in federal court indicates the legal battle was really a holding action to protect its other reactors.</p>
<p>But the decision also opened Entergy to other challenges, especially in front of Vermont’s Public Service Board. “Hidden in the federal ruling Entergy ostensibly won was a confirmation that the state, through the PSB, had the right to reject Vermont Yankee’s continued operation on reliability, economics and more.”</p>
<p />
<p>And, says Katz, “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission accepted our petition to pry open Entergy’s finances.”</p>
<p>This is the fifth shutdown announcement since 2013 began with 104 licensed U.S. reactors. Barring other closures — which now seem more likely — Yankee’s demise will bring us to 99. Nebraska’s Ft. Calhoun is still down after being flooded. As many as seven more proposed U.S. reactors have been canceled since January, turning the much-hyped “nuclear renaissance” into a rapidly rising rout. Upgrades at five other reactors have also been canceled.</p>
<p>Entergy’s double-reactor complex at Indian Point, north of New York City, is now under intense political fire. Water and other permits there and at the upstate Fitzpatrick reactor are being bitterly contested in Albany.</p>
<p>Entergy’s embattled Pilgrim reactor at Plymouth, south of Boston, recently had to reduce power due to global-warmed Cape Cod cooling water. Its Palisades reactor on Lake Michigan has been linked to heightened local cancer rates.</p>
<p>Entergy says Yankee’s closure will add more than $100 million to its cash flow over the next few years. Wisconsin’s Kewaunee has been shut for financial reasons by Dominion Power. Nuclear experts like Arnie Gundersen warn that funds set aside to decommission these dying reactors may be inadequate and that the process could take far longer than we are being told.</p>
<p>With gas relatively cheap and renewables dropping in price while rising in efficiency, the financial vise is tightening around the world’s remaining reactors.</p>
<p>As Amory Lovins has <a href="http://www.nukefree.org/amory-lovins-realities-german-switch-renewables" type="external">shown</a>, Germany’s decision to shut its nukes and transition to renewables looms large over a technology whose credibility has been decimated by the ongoing catastrophe at Fukushima.</p>
<p>Any talk of nuclear power being a solution for global warming has exploded with that <a href="" type="internal">disaster</a> and the rapid deterioration of the U.S. industry.</p>
<p>As Jon Wellinghoff, chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, <a href="http://www.nukefree.org/ferc-chair-solar-will-overtake-everything%20" type="external">puts it,</a> solar power is about to “overtake everything.”</p>
<p>The regional nonviolent movement to shut Vermont Yankee stretches back four decades. This victory was preceded by the 1990s closure of the nearby Yankee Rowe reactor, the cancellations of construction downwind at Seabrook Unit Two, of two proposed units at downriver Montague, and much, much more.</p>
<p>Thoroughly linked with national and international activism, the Yankee shutdown derived from the tireless work of seasoned campaigners who have never stopped. Like the recent victories at San Onofre and elsewhere, this New England campaign has been built around countless individual actions, organizing meetings, public hearings, marches, concerts, rallies, picket lines, nonviolent civil disobedience and a savvy, in-it-for-the-long-haul dedication from people for whom ridding the world of nuclear power is the only end point.</p>
<p>It stands a model for peaceful democratic social change that has cleared a visible path to a sustainable, socially just and ecologically sound planet on which to live.</p>
<p>Harvey Wasserman edits <a href="www.nukefree.org" type="external">www.nukefree.org</a>. He wrote “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/SOLARTOPIA-Green-Powered-Earth-A-D-2030/dp/0975340247" type="external">Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth</a>” and hosts the “Green Power and Wellness” show at Prn.fm. This article is dedicated to Tony Mathews.</p>
|
Vermont Yankee Joins the Tsunami of U.S. Reactor Shutdowns
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/vermont-yankee-joins-the-tsunami-of-u-s-reactor-shutdowns/
|
2013-08-29
| 4left
|
Vermont Yankee Joins the Tsunami of U.S. Reactor Shutdowns
<p>In a huge victory for the grass-roots movement for a green-powered earth, Entergy has announced it will shut its Vermont Yankee reactor by the end of next year.</p>
<p>“It’s fantastic,” says longtime safe-energy activist Deb Katz. “This is such a win for the people, for the state of Vermont and for democracy.”</p>
<p>The Green Mountain State’s only commercial reactor was recently relicensed to operate another two decades. Entergy spent millions in legal fees to establish a right to resist Vermont’s attempt to shut Yankee on safety grounds. Announcing this shutdown just two weeks after an apparent victory in federal court indicates the legal battle was really a holding action to protect its other reactors.</p>
<p>But the decision also opened Entergy to other challenges, especially in front of Vermont’s Public Service Board. “Hidden in the federal ruling Entergy ostensibly won was a confirmation that the state, through the PSB, had the right to reject Vermont Yankee’s continued operation on reliability, economics and more.”</p>
<p />
<p>And, says Katz, “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission accepted our petition to pry open Entergy’s finances.”</p>
<p>This is the fifth shutdown announcement since 2013 began with 104 licensed U.S. reactors. Barring other closures — which now seem more likely — Yankee’s demise will bring us to 99. Nebraska’s Ft. Calhoun is still down after being flooded. As many as seven more proposed U.S. reactors have been canceled since January, turning the much-hyped “nuclear renaissance” into a rapidly rising rout. Upgrades at five other reactors have also been canceled.</p>
<p>Entergy’s double-reactor complex at Indian Point, north of New York City, is now under intense political fire. Water and other permits there and at the upstate Fitzpatrick reactor are being bitterly contested in Albany.</p>
<p>Entergy’s embattled Pilgrim reactor at Plymouth, south of Boston, recently had to reduce power due to global-warmed Cape Cod cooling water. Its Palisades reactor on Lake Michigan has been linked to heightened local cancer rates.</p>
<p>Entergy says Yankee’s closure will add more than $100 million to its cash flow over the next few years. Wisconsin’s Kewaunee has been shut for financial reasons by Dominion Power. Nuclear experts like Arnie Gundersen warn that funds set aside to decommission these dying reactors may be inadequate and that the process could take far longer than we are being told.</p>
<p>With gas relatively cheap and renewables dropping in price while rising in efficiency, the financial vise is tightening around the world’s remaining reactors.</p>
<p>As Amory Lovins has <a href="http://www.nukefree.org/amory-lovins-realities-german-switch-renewables" type="external">shown</a>, Germany’s decision to shut its nukes and transition to renewables looms large over a technology whose credibility has been decimated by the ongoing catastrophe at Fukushima.</p>
<p>Any talk of nuclear power being a solution for global warming has exploded with that <a href="" type="internal">disaster</a> and the rapid deterioration of the U.S. industry.</p>
<p>As Jon Wellinghoff, chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, <a href="http://www.nukefree.org/ferc-chair-solar-will-overtake-everything%20" type="external">puts it,</a> solar power is about to “overtake everything.”</p>
<p>The regional nonviolent movement to shut Vermont Yankee stretches back four decades. This victory was preceded by the 1990s closure of the nearby Yankee Rowe reactor, the cancellations of construction downwind at Seabrook Unit Two, of two proposed units at downriver Montague, and much, much more.</p>
<p>Thoroughly linked with national and international activism, the Yankee shutdown derived from the tireless work of seasoned campaigners who have never stopped. Like the recent victories at San Onofre and elsewhere, this New England campaign has been built around countless individual actions, organizing meetings, public hearings, marches, concerts, rallies, picket lines, nonviolent civil disobedience and a savvy, in-it-for-the-long-haul dedication from people for whom ridding the world of nuclear power is the only end point.</p>
<p>It stands a model for peaceful democratic social change that has cleared a visible path to a sustainable, socially just and ecologically sound planet on which to live.</p>
<p>Harvey Wasserman edits <a href="www.nukefree.org" type="external">www.nukefree.org</a>. He wrote “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/SOLARTOPIA-Green-Powered-Earth-A-D-2030/dp/0975340247" type="external">Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth</a>” and hosts the “Green Power and Wellness” show at Prn.fm. This article is dedicated to Tony Mathews.</p>
| 598,822 |
<p />
<p />
<p>In the newly released footage of the Minnesota Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez's traffic stop of Philando Castille, there are signs of disturbing chaos, as a seemingly casual ticket over brake lights turns into a scene of death in a matter of seconds.</p>
<p>In the dashcam footage Officer Yanez can be seen stopping the vehicle driven by Philando Castille, with Yanez approaching the driver's window and calmly telling the driver that he's being stopped for a brake light being out.</p>
<p>The officer is friendly and respectful. When Yanez asks Castille for his ID however the climate quickly shifts from polite to serious as Castille can be heard saying, "Sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me.?</p>
<p>Officer Yanez can be seen the reach for his holster calmly in the event of immediate protection which is the protocol for such a situation and can be heard replying,? OK. Don't reach for it then." There is shouting, and Yanez screams "Don't pull it out!" before firing into the car.</p>
<p>According to Officer Yanez Castille continues to pull out the firearm even after being ordered not to. At which time in his own mind it was self-defense as he fired into the car. Seven times.</p>
<p>The video is very disturbing and not easy on the eyes. Yanez's accompanied backup Officer Joseph Kauser can be seen near the passenger side of the car jumping unexpectedly as the gunshots ring out.</p>
<p>Then the most heartbreaking moment occurs when the passenger, Diamond Reynolds, very own four-year-old daughter can be seen fleeing from the back seat of the car to the backup officer.</p>
<p>Yes, the child had to innocently witness the entire event regardless of whom was at fault. The unfortunate situation that will likely torment her for years to come.</p>
<p>Miss Reynolds during the moments after the shooting became infamous and hated for streaming the aftermath of the officer-involved shooting on Facebook Live. The video itself was seen over 250 million times. Philando Castille can be seen literally taking his last breaths in that now infamous video.</p>
<p>She drew sharp criticism from every perspective of the situation for her tone and rhetoric as the video was streaming. She seemingly cared more about the coverage on Facebook than her own boyfriend dying beside her.</p>
<p>The entire situation is horrible. The officer was a respected law enforcement agent who'd intended to simply write a ticket that day. It's clear in the video he felt his life was in danger and had the right to shoot, however it did seem as if he panicked a bit but it's not for any of us to determine how he actually felt at the time of the shooting as an unknown man was reaching for a gun.</p>
<p>Soon after other officers arrived and order Reynolds out of the car, and she gets out, hands held high. Soon, she is heard wailing.</p>
<p>A fellow officer speaks repeatedly to Yanez to get him away from the car: "I'm going to take your spot. I'm going to take your spot. Listen, listen, I'm going to take your spot." Yanez slowly walks away, and another officer says: "You all right? You all right? You're not hit any, are you?"</p>
<p>Yanez can be heard on the tape saying he wasn't sure where the gun was. Critics say that implied Castille wasn't trying to grab a gun. However, a gun was indeed recovered and Castille can be heard saying he had it on this tape.</p>
<p>In the trial, Yanez testified, "What I meant by that was I didn't know where the gun was up until I saw it in his right thigh area."</p>
<p>What's certain is that officers definitely need more training and to have a backup with them whenever approaching a vehicle. Such to prevent their own safety from being endangered as well as the lives of the public.</p>
<p>It's terribly tragic for Philando Castille family as well, including the child who witnessed the killing. All around just a horrible situation for all parties involved.</p>
<p>Yanez, who was found not guilty of manslaughter and other charges, had suggested the event has traumatized him. He is no longer employed with the police department.</p>
<p>The acquittal, however, sparked immediate protests that have been ongoing for days.</p>
<p>Source</p>
<p><a href="http://abc7chicago.com/news/dashcam-shows-officer-firing-7-shots-into-castile-car/2124612/" type="external">abc7chicago.com/news/dashcam-shows-officer-firing-7-shots-into-castile-car/2124612</a></p>
|
Disturbing Dashcam Footage Of Philando Castille Shooting Released
| true |
http://thegoldwater.com/news/4023-Disturbing-Dashcam-Footage-Of-Philando-Castille-Shooting-Released
|
2017-06-21
| 0right
|
Disturbing Dashcam Footage Of Philando Castille Shooting Released
<p />
<p />
<p>In the newly released footage of the Minnesota Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez's traffic stop of Philando Castille, there are signs of disturbing chaos, as a seemingly casual ticket over brake lights turns into a scene of death in a matter of seconds.</p>
<p>In the dashcam footage Officer Yanez can be seen stopping the vehicle driven by Philando Castille, with Yanez approaching the driver's window and calmly telling the driver that he's being stopped for a brake light being out.</p>
<p>The officer is friendly and respectful. When Yanez asks Castille for his ID however the climate quickly shifts from polite to serious as Castille can be heard saying, "Sir, I have to tell you, I do have a firearm on me.?</p>
<p>Officer Yanez can be seen the reach for his holster calmly in the event of immediate protection which is the protocol for such a situation and can be heard replying,? OK. Don't reach for it then." There is shouting, and Yanez screams "Don't pull it out!" before firing into the car.</p>
<p>According to Officer Yanez Castille continues to pull out the firearm even after being ordered not to. At which time in his own mind it was self-defense as he fired into the car. Seven times.</p>
<p>The video is very disturbing and not easy on the eyes. Yanez's accompanied backup Officer Joseph Kauser can be seen near the passenger side of the car jumping unexpectedly as the gunshots ring out.</p>
<p>Then the most heartbreaking moment occurs when the passenger, Diamond Reynolds, very own four-year-old daughter can be seen fleeing from the back seat of the car to the backup officer.</p>
<p>Yes, the child had to innocently witness the entire event regardless of whom was at fault. The unfortunate situation that will likely torment her for years to come.</p>
<p>Miss Reynolds during the moments after the shooting became infamous and hated for streaming the aftermath of the officer-involved shooting on Facebook Live. The video itself was seen over 250 million times. Philando Castille can be seen literally taking his last breaths in that now infamous video.</p>
<p>She drew sharp criticism from every perspective of the situation for her tone and rhetoric as the video was streaming. She seemingly cared more about the coverage on Facebook than her own boyfriend dying beside her.</p>
<p>The entire situation is horrible. The officer was a respected law enforcement agent who'd intended to simply write a ticket that day. It's clear in the video he felt his life was in danger and had the right to shoot, however it did seem as if he panicked a bit but it's not for any of us to determine how he actually felt at the time of the shooting as an unknown man was reaching for a gun.</p>
<p>Soon after other officers arrived and order Reynolds out of the car, and she gets out, hands held high. Soon, she is heard wailing.</p>
<p>A fellow officer speaks repeatedly to Yanez to get him away from the car: "I'm going to take your spot. I'm going to take your spot. Listen, listen, I'm going to take your spot." Yanez slowly walks away, and another officer says: "You all right? You all right? You're not hit any, are you?"</p>
<p>Yanez can be heard on the tape saying he wasn't sure where the gun was. Critics say that implied Castille wasn't trying to grab a gun. However, a gun was indeed recovered and Castille can be heard saying he had it on this tape.</p>
<p>In the trial, Yanez testified, "What I meant by that was I didn't know where the gun was up until I saw it in his right thigh area."</p>
<p>What's certain is that officers definitely need more training and to have a backup with them whenever approaching a vehicle. Such to prevent their own safety from being endangered as well as the lives of the public.</p>
<p>It's terribly tragic for Philando Castille family as well, including the child who witnessed the killing. All around just a horrible situation for all parties involved.</p>
<p>Yanez, who was found not guilty of manslaughter and other charges, had suggested the event has traumatized him. He is no longer employed with the police department.</p>
<p>The acquittal, however, sparked immediate protests that have been ongoing for days.</p>
<p>Source</p>
<p><a href="http://abc7chicago.com/news/dashcam-shows-officer-firing-7-shots-into-castile-car/2124612/" type="external">abc7chicago.com/news/dashcam-shows-officer-firing-7-shots-into-castile-car/2124612</a></p>
| 598,823 |
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<p />
<p>A criminal complaint filed in federal court shows Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers stopped agent Juan Pimentel, 47, on Nov. 18 near Marana, just north of Tucson.</p>
<p>The complaint says Pimentel was driving a rental car and identified himself as a Border Patrol agent when he was pulled over.</p>
<p>He consented to a search that resulted in the seizure of about 50 bundles of cocaine weighing 2 pounds each, the complaint states. The bundles were in four black suitcases.</p>
<p>The document says Pimentel initially told a state trooper the drugs weren't his, but later said he was going to be paid $50,000 to transport them to Chicago.</p>
<p>Pimentel has been charged with possession with intent to distribute. He remains detained in Arizona.</p>
<p>His attorney, Eric Manch, said Pimentel hasn't filed a plea because he has not been formally indicted. Manch noted his client is entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske announced the arrest during a news conference in Phoenix on Monday while talking about corruption within the agency.</p>
<p>"Let me tell you that when he is convicted or pleads guilty to that charge that the badge that he had as a United States Border Patrol agent will be destroyed - it will never be worn again by another Border Patrol agent," Kerlikowske said.</p>
<p>"So we have all of these significant and important issues that we're dealing with, plus making sure that we have the integrity and the trust and the credibility of the people we serve by addressing as aggressively as possible the issues of corruption."</p>
<p>Art Del Cueto, president of the Border Patrol union in the Tucson Sector, which comprises most of the Arizona, said agents normally take their oaths very seriously and are dedicated to protecting the border.</p>
<p>"The corruption always rears its ugly head, but it's not a direct view of the way all other agents are," he said. "Agents don't want to work with corrupt agents."</p>
|
Border Patrol agent had 110 pounds of cocaine in car
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/680765/border-patrol-agent-had-110-pounds-of-cocaine-in-car.html
| 2least
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Border Patrol agent had 110 pounds of cocaine in car
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<p />
<p>A criminal complaint filed in federal court shows Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers stopped agent Juan Pimentel, 47, on Nov. 18 near Marana, just north of Tucson.</p>
<p>The complaint says Pimentel was driving a rental car and identified himself as a Border Patrol agent when he was pulled over.</p>
<p>He consented to a search that resulted in the seizure of about 50 bundles of cocaine weighing 2 pounds each, the complaint states. The bundles were in four black suitcases.</p>
<p>The document says Pimentel initially told a state trooper the drugs weren't his, but later said he was going to be paid $50,000 to transport them to Chicago.</p>
<p>Pimentel has been charged with possession with intent to distribute. He remains detained in Arizona.</p>
<p>His attorney, Eric Manch, said Pimentel hasn't filed a plea because he has not been formally indicted. Manch noted his client is entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske announced the arrest during a news conference in Phoenix on Monday while talking about corruption within the agency.</p>
<p>"Let me tell you that when he is convicted or pleads guilty to that charge that the badge that he had as a United States Border Patrol agent will be destroyed - it will never be worn again by another Border Patrol agent," Kerlikowske said.</p>
<p>"So we have all of these significant and important issues that we're dealing with, plus making sure that we have the integrity and the trust and the credibility of the people we serve by addressing as aggressively as possible the issues of corruption."</p>
<p>Art Del Cueto, president of the Border Patrol union in the Tucson Sector, which comprises most of the Arizona, said agents normally take their oaths very seriously and are dedicated to protecting the border.</p>
<p>"The corruption always rears its ugly head, but it's not a direct view of the way all other agents are," he said. "Agents don't want to work with corrupt agents."</p>
| 598,824 |
|
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — World Cup soccer star Carli Lloyd, whose three goals in the 2015 final led the U.S. to a 5-2 victory over Japan, has a book deal.</p>
<p>The 33-year-old Lloyd is working on a memoir that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will release in fall 2016. The publisher announced Thursday that the book, currently untitled, will cover her rise from nearly quitting soccer in 2003 and her emphasis on physical and mental strength. An edition for young readers also is planned.</p>
<p>Earlier this summer, the midfielder and Olympic gold medalist scored six goals in seven women's World Cup matches, including a hat trick against Japan.</p>
<p>In a statement released through Houghton Mifflin, Lloyd says she looks forward to sharing her thoughts on a "long journey, sometimes rewarding, sometimes challenging, but worth every moment."</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — World Cup soccer star Carli Lloyd, whose three goals in the 2015 final led the U.S. to a 5-2 victory over Japan, has a book deal.</p>
<p>The 33-year-old Lloyd is working on a memoir that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will release in fall 2016. The publisher announced Thursday that the book, currently untitled, will cover her rise from nearly quitting soccer in 2003 and her emphasis on physical and mental strength. An edition for young readers also is planned.</p>
<p>Earlier this summer, the midfielder and Olympic gold medalist scored six goals in seven women's World Cup matches, including a hat trick against Japan.</p>
<p>In a statement released through Houghton Mifflin, Lloyd says she looks forward to sharing her thoughts on a "long journey, sometimes rewarding, sometimes challenging, but worth every moment."</p>
|
World Cup soccer star Carli Lloyd has book deal
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/d9c9664ed395444a9575d4a972707093
|
2015-08-20
| 2least
|
World Cup soccer star Carli Lloyd has book deal
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — World Cup soccer star Carli Lloyd, whose three goals in the 2015 final led the U.S. to a 5-2 victory over Japan, has a book deal.</p>
<p>The 33-year-old Lloyd is working on a memoir that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will release in fall 2016. The publisher announced Thursday that the book, currently untitled, will cover her rise from nearly quitting soccer in 2003 and her emphasis on physical and mental strength. An edition for young readers also is planned.</p>
<p>Earlier this summer, the midfielder and Olympic gold medalist scored six goals in seven women's World Cup matches, including a hat trick against Japan.</p>
<p>In a statement released through Houghton Mifflin, Lloyd says she looks forward to sharing her thoughts on a "long journey, sometimes rewarding, sometimes challenging, but worth every moment."</p>
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — World Cup soccer star Carli Lloyd, whose three goals in the 2015 final led the U.S. to a 5-2 victory over Japan, has a book deal.</p>
<p>The 33-year-old Lloyd is working on a memoir that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will release in fall 2016. The publisher announced Thursday that the book, currently untitled, will cover her rise from nearly quitting soccer in 2003 and her emphasis on physical and mental strength. An edition for young readers also is planned.</p>
<p>Earlier this summer, the midfielder and Olympic gold medalist scored six goals in seven women's World Cup matches, including a hat trick against Japan.</p>
<p>In a statement released through Houghton Mifflin, Lloyd says she looks forward to sharing her thoughts on a "long journey, sometimes rewarding, sometimes challenging, but worth every moment."</p>
| 598,825 |
<p>August 21, 2009</p>
<p>Kenneth Roth Executive Director Human Rights Watch</p>
<p>Dear Mr. Roth,</p>
<p>We are deeply concerned by the absence of statements and reports from your organization over the serious and systematic human rights abuses that have been committed under the Honduran coup regime over the past six weeks. It is disappointing to see that in the weeks since July 8, when Human Rights Watch issued its most recent press release on Honduras, that it has not raised the alarm over the extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions, physical assaults, and attacks on the press – many of which have been thoroughly documented – that have occurred in Honduras, in most cases by the coup regime against the supporters of the democratic and constitutional government of Manuel Zelaya. We call on your organization to fulfill your important role as a guardian of universal human rights and condemn, strongly and forcefully, the ongoing abuses being committed by the illegal regime in Honduras. We also ask that you conduct your own investigation of these crimes.</p>
<p>While Human Rights Watch was quick to condemn the illegal coup d’etat of June 28 and the human rights violations that occurred over the following week, which helped shine the spotlight of international media on these abuses, the absence of statements from your organization since the week following the coup has contributed to the failure of international media to report on subsequent abuses.</p>
<p>The coup regime’s violent repression in Honduras has not stopped. Well-respected human rights organizations in Honduras, such as the Committee for the Relatives of the Disappeared Detainees (COFADEH), and international human rights monitors have documented a series of politically-motivated killings, hundreds of arbitrary detentions, the violent repression of unarmed demonstrators, mass arrests of political opposition, and other violations of basic human rights under the coup regime. The killing of anti-coup activists has been documented in press reports, bringing to a total of ten people known or suspected to have been killed in connection to their political activities. Press freedom watchdogs such as Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists have issued releases decrying the regime’s attacks and threats against various journalists and the temporary closure and military occupation of news outlets. Various NGO’s have issued alerts regarding the politically motivated threats to individuals, and concern for people detained by the regime, but no such statements have come from Human Rights Watch.</p>
<p>This situation is all the more tragic in that the coup could easily be overturned, if the Obama administration sought to do so, by taking more decisive measures, such as canceling all U.S. visas and freezing U.S. bank accounts of leaders of the coup regime. Yet not only does the administration continue to prop up the regime with aid money through the Millennium Challenge Account and other sources, but the U.S. continues to train Honduran military students at the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) – the notorious institution formerly known as the School of the Americas. If the coup were overturned, and the democratically elected government restored, it is clear that the many rampant human rights abuses would immediately cease. If Human Rights Watch would raise its voice, it would be much more difficult for the Obama administration to ignore Honduras’ human rights situation and maintain financial and other support for its illegal regime.</p>
<p>We know that there are, sadly, innumerable urgent human rights crises around the world, all of which require your attention. Addressing the deteriorating situation in Honduras, however, is of paramount importance given its potential to serve as a precedent for other coups and the rise of other dictatorships, not just in Honduras, but throughout the region. History has shown that such coups leave deep scars on societies, and that far too often they have led to the rise of some of history’s most notorious rights abusers, such as in Pinochet’s Chile, Videla’s Argentina, and Cedras’ Haiti, to name but two. As human rights defenders with extensive experience in dealing with the appalling human consequences of these regimes, Human Rights Watch is clearly well placed to understand the urgency of condemning the Honduran regime’s abuses and to helping ensure the coup is overturned, that democracy is restored, and that political repression and other human rights abuses are stopped. Your colleagues in the Honduran human rights community are counting on you, as are the Honduran people. We hope you will raise your voice on Honduras.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Leisy Abrego University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow UC Irvine</p>
<p>Paul Almeida Associate Professor, Department of Sociology Texas A&amp;M University</p>
<p>Alejandro Alvarez Béjar Professor, Economic Faculty UNAM-Mexico</p>
<p>Tim Anderson Senior Lecturer in Political Economy University of Sydney Australia</p>
<p>Anthony Arnove Author and Editor Brooklyn, NY</p>
<p>Marc Becker Truman State University Kirksville, MO</p>
<p>Marjorie Becker Associate professor, Department of History University of Southern California</p>
<p>John Beverley Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies University of Pittsburgh</p>
<p>Larry Birns Director, Council on Hemispheric Affairs Washington, DC</p>
<p>Jefferson Boyer Professor of Anthropology (ethnography of Honduras) Appalachian State University</p>
<p>Jules Boykoff Associate Professor of Political Science Pacific University</p>
<p>Edward T. Brett Professor of History La Roche College, Pittsburgh, PA</p>
<p>Renate Bridenthal Professor of History, Emerita Brooklyn College, CUNY</p>
<p>Bob Buzzanco Professor of History University of Houston</p>
<p>Aviva Chomsky Professor of History and Coordinator, Latin American Studies Salem State College</p>
<p>Noam Chomsky Professor of Linguistics Massachusetts Institute of Technology</p>
<p>James D. Cockcroft SUNY Honorary Editor, Latin American Perspectives</p>
<p>Daniel Aldana Cohen Graduate Student New York University</p>
<p>Mike Davis Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing University of California-Riverside</p>
<p>Pablo Delano Professor of Fine Arts Trinity College , Hartford CT</p>
<p>Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Professor Emeritus California State University</p>
<p>Luis Duno-Gottberg Rice University</p>
<p>Les W. Field Professor of Anthropology The University of New Mexico</p>
<p>Dana Frank Professor of History University of California, Santa Cruz</p>
<p>Todd Gordon Department of Political Science York University, Toronto</p>
<p>Manu Goswami Department of History New York University</p>
<p>Jeff Gould Rudy Professor of History Indiana University</p>
<p>Greg Grandin Department of History New York University</p>
<p>Richard Grossman Department of History Northeastern Illinois University</p>
<p>Peter Hallward Professor of Modern European Philosophy Middlesex University, UK.</p>
<p>Nora Hamilton Professor, Political Science University of Southern California</p>
<p>Jim Handy Professor of History University of Saskatchewan</p>
<p>Tom Hayden Writer</p>
<p>Doug Henwood Editor and Publisher Left Business Observer</p>
<p>Eric Hershberg Simon Fraser University Vancouver, Canada</p>
<p>Kathryn Hicks Assistant Professor of Anthropology The University of Memphis</p>
<p>Irene B. Hodgson Professor of Spanish,&#160; Director of the Latin American Studies Minor Interim Director of the Academic Service Learning Semesters Xavier University</p>
<p>Forrest Hylton Assistant Professor of Political Science/Int’l. Relations Universidad de los Andes (Colombia)</p>
<p>Susanne Jonas Latin America and Latino Studies University of California, Santa Cruz</p>
<p>Rosemary A. Joyce Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Social Sciences, Professor and Chair of Anthropology University of California , Berkeley</p>
<p>Karen Kampwirth Knox College</p>
<p>Naomi Klein Journalist, syndicated columnist and author</p>
<p>Andrew H. Lee Librarian for History, European Studies, Iberian Studies, &amp; Politics Bobst Library New York University</p>
<p>Catherine LeGrand Associate Professor Dept. of History, McGill University.</p>
<p>Deborah Levenson Associate Professor of History Boston College</p>
<p>Frederick B. Mills Professor of Philosophy Bowie State University</p>
<p>Cynthia E. Milton Chaire de recherche du Canada en histoire de l’Amérique latine Canada Research Chair in Latin American History, Professeure agregée/Associate Professor, Département d’histoire Université de Montréal</p>
<p>Lena Mortensen Assistant Professor, Anthropology University of Toronto Scarborough</p>
<p>Carole Nagengast Professor Department of Anthropology University of New Mexico</p>
<p>Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy</p>
<p>Marysa Navarro Charles Collis Professor of History Dartmouth College</p>
<p>Sharon Erickson Nepstad Professor of Sociology University of New Mexico</p>
<p>Mary Nolan Professor, Department of History New York University</p>
<p>Elizabeth Oglesby Assistant Professor School of Geography and Development Center for Latin American Studies University of Arizona</p>
<p>Jocelyn Olcott Department of History Duke University</p>
<p>Christian Parenti Contributing Editor, The Nation Visiting Scholar CUNY Graduate Center</p>
<p>Ivette Perfecto Professor University of Michigan</p>
<p>Héctor Perla Jr. Assistant Professor Latin American and Latino Studies University of California, Santa Cruz</p>
<p>John Pilger Journalist and documentary filmmaker</p>
<p>Adrienne Pine Assistant Professor of Anthropology American University</p>
<p>Deborah Poole Professor, Anthropology Johns Hopkins University</p>
<p>Suyapa Portillo Pomona College History Dept.</p>
<p>Vijay Prashad George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies Trinity College</p>
<p>Margaret Randall Feminist poet, writer, photographer and social activist</p>
<p>Marcus Rediker Professor and Chair in the Department of History University of Pittsburgh</p>
<p>Gerardo Renique Associate Professor, Department of History City College of the City University of New York</p>
<p>Ken Roberts Professor, Department of Government Cornell University</p>
<p>Nancy Romer Professor of Psychology Brooklyn College City University of New York</p>
<p>Seth Sandronsky U.S. journalist</p>
<p>Aaron Schneider Assistant Professor Political Science Tulane University</p>
<p>Rebecca Schreiber Associate Professor, American Studies Department University of New Mexico</p>
<p>Ernesto Seman Journalist</p>
<p>Richard Stahler-Sholk Professor, Department of Political Science Eastern Michigan University</p>
<p>Julie Stewart Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology Assistant Investigator, Institute of Public and International Affairs University of Utah</p>
<p>Sylvia N. Tesh Lecturer, Latin American Studies University of Arizona.</p>
<p>Miguel Tinker Salas Professor of History Pomona College</p>
<p>Mayo C. Toruño Professor of Economics California State University, San Bernardino</p>
<p>Sheila R. Tully San Francisco State University</p>
<p>John Vandermeer Asa Gray Distinguished University Professor Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Michigan</p>
<p>Jocelyn S. Viterna Assistant Professor Departments of Sociology and Social Studies Harvard University</p>
<p>Steven S. Volk Professor, Department of History Director, Center for Teaching Innovation and Excellence (CTIE) Oberlin College</p>
<p>Maurice L. Wade Professor of Philosophy, International Studies, and Graduate Public Policy Studies Trinity College</p>
<p>Shannon Drysdale Walsh Fulbright-Hays Fellow Doctoral Candidate Department of Political Science University of Notre Dame</p>
<p>Jeffery R. Webber Assistant Professor, Political Science University of Regina, Canada</p>
<p>Barbara Weinstein Professor, Department of History New York University</p>
<p>Mark Weisbrot Co-Director Center for Economic and Policy Research</p>
<p>Gregory Wilpert Adjunct Professor of Political Science Brooklyn College</p>
<p>Sonja Wolf Institute of Social Research National Autonomous University of Mexico</p>
<p>John Womack, Jr. Professor of History, Emeritus Harvard University</p>
<p>Elisabeth Wood Professor of Political Science Yale University</p>
<p>Richard L. Wood Associate Professor Department of Sociology University of New Mexico</p>
<p>Marilyn B. Young Professor of History New York University</p>
<p>Marc Zimmerman Modern and Classical Languages University of Houston</p>
<p>[1] [1] Human Rights Watch, “Honduras: Evidence Suggests Soldiers Shot Into Unarmed Crowd.” July 8, 2009. Found at <a href="" type="internal">http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/07/08/honduras-evidence-suggests-soldiers-shot-unarmed-crowd.</a> [2] Human Rights Watch, “Honduras: Military Coup a Blow to Democracy.” June 28, 2009. Found at <a href="" type="internal">http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/06/28/honduras-military-coup-blow-democracy.</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
|
Why has Human Rights Watch Fallen Silent on Honduras?
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2009/08/24/why-has-human-rights-watch-fallen-silent-on-honduras/
|
2009-08-24
| 4left
|
Why has Human Rights Watch Fallen Silent on Honduras?
<p>August 21, 2009</p>
<p>Kenneth Roth Executive Director Human Rights Watch</p>
<p>Dear Mr. Roth,</p>
<p>We are deeply concerned by the absence of statements and reports from your organization over the serious and systematic human rights abuses that have been committed under the Honduran coup regime over the past six weeks. It is disappointing to see that in the weeks since July 8, when Human Rights Watch issued its most recent press release on Honduras, that it has not raised the alarm over the extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions, physical assaults, and attacks on the press – many of which have been thoroughly documented – that have occurred in Honduras, in most cases by the coup regime against the supporters of the democratic and constitutional government of Manuel Zelaya. We call on your organization to fulfill your important role as a guardian of universal human rights and condemn, strongly and forcefully, the ongoing abuses being committed by the illegal regime in Honduras. We also ask that you conduct your own investigation of these crimes.</p>
<p>While Human Rights Watch was quick to condemn the illegal coup d’etat of June 28 and the human rights violations that occurred over the following week, which helped shine the spotlight of international media on these abuses, the absence of statements from your organization since the week following the coup has contributed to the failure of international media to report on subsequent abuses.</p>
<p>The coup regime’s violent repression in Honduras has not stopped. Well-respected human rights organizations in Honduras, such as the Committee for the Relatives of the Disappeared Detainees (COFADEH), and international human rights monitors have documented a series of politically-motivated killings, hundreds of arbitrary detentions, the violent repression of unarmed demonstrators, mass arrests of political opposition, and other violations of basic human rights under the coup regime. The killing of anti-coup activists has been documented in press reports, bringing to a total of ten people known or suspected to have been killed in connection to their political activities. Press freedom watchdogs such as Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists have issued releases decrying the regime’s attacks and threats against various journalists and the temporary closure and military occupation of news outlets. Various NGO’s have issued alerts regarding the politically motivated threats to individuals, and concern for people detained by the regime, but no such statements have come from Human Rights Watch.</p>
<p>This situation is all the more tragic in that the coup could easily be overturned, if the Obama administration sought to do so, by taking more decisive measures, such as canceling all U.S. visas and freezing U.S. bank accounts of leaders of the coup regime. Yet not only does the administration continue to prop up the regime with aid money through the Millennium Challenge Account and other sources, but the U.S. continues to train Honduran military students at the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) – the notorious institution formerly known as the School of the Americas. If the coup were overturned, and the democratically elected government restored, it is clear that the many rampant human rights abuses would immediately cease. If Human Rights Watch would raise its voice, it would be much more difficult for the Obama administration to ignore Honduras’ human rights situation and maintain financial and other support for its illegal regime.</p>
<p>We know that there are, sadly, innumerable urgent human rights crises around the world, all of which require your attention. Addressing the deteriorating situation in Honduras, however, is of paramount importance given its potential to serve as a precedent for other coups and the rise of other dictatorships, not just in Honduras, but throughout the region. History has shown that such coups leave deep scars on societies, and that far too often they have led to the rise of some of history’s most notorious rights abusers, such as in Pinochet’s Chile, Videla’s Argentina, and Cedras’ Haiti, to name but two. As human rights defenders with extensive experience in dealing with the appalling human consequences of these regimes, Human Rights Watch is clearly well placed to understand the urgency of condemning the Honduran regime’s abuses and to helping ensure the coup is overturned, that democracy is restored, and that political repression and other human rights abuses are stopped. Your colleagues in the Honduran human rights community are counting on you, as are the Honduran people. We hope you will raise your voice on Honduras.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Leisy Abrego University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow UC Irvine</p>
<p>Paul Almeida Associate Professor, Department of Sociology Texas A&amp;M University</p>
<p>Alejandro Alvarez Béjar Professor, Economic Faculty UNAM-Mexico</p>
<p>Tim Anderson Senior Lecturer in Political Economy University of Sydney Australia</p>
<p>Anthony Arnove Author and Editor Brooklyn, NY</p>
<p>Marc Becker Truman State University Kirksville, MO</p>
<p>Marjorie Becker Associate professor, Department of History University of Southern California</p>
<p>John Beverley Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies University of Pittsburgh</p>
<p>Larry Birns Director, Council on Hemispheric Affairs Washington, DC</p>
<p>Jefferson Boyer Professor of Anthropology (ethnography of Honduras) Appalachian State University</p>
<p>Jules Boykoff Associate Professor of Political Science Pacific University</p>
<p>Edward T. Brett Professor of History La Roche College, Pittsburgh, PA</p>
<p>Renate Bridenthal Professor of History, Emerita Brooklyn College, CUNY</p>
<p>Bob Buzzanco Professor of History University of Houston</p>
<p>Aviva Chomsky Professor of History and Coordinator, Latin American Studies Salem State College</p>
<p>Noam Chomsky Professor of Linguistics Massachusetts Institute of Technology</p>
<p>James D. Cockcroft SUNY Honorary Editor, Latin American Perspectives</p>
<p>Daniel Aldana Cohen Graduate Student New York University</p>
<p>Mike Davis Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing University of California-Riverside</p>
<p>Pablo Delano Professor of Fine Arts Trinity College , Hartford CT</p>
<p>Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Professor Emeritus California State University</p>
<p>Luis Duno-Gottberg Rice University</p>
<p>Les W. Field Professor of Anthropology The University of New Mexico</p>
<p>Dana Frank Professor of History University of California, Santa Cruz</p>
<p>Todd Gordon Department of Political Science York University, Toronto</p>
<p>Manu Goswami Department of History New York University</p>
<p>Jeff Gould Rudy Professor of History Indiana University</p>
<p>Greg Grandin Department of History New York University</p>
<p>Richard Grossman Department of History Northeastern Illinois University</p>
<p>Peter Hallward Professor of Modern European Philosophy Middlesex University, UK.</p>
<p>Nora Hamilton Professor, Political Science University of Southern California</p>
<p>Jim Handy Professor of History University of Saskatchewan</p>
<p>Tom Hayden Writer</p>
<p>Doug Henwood Editor and Publisher Left Business Observer</p>
<p>Eric Hershberg Simon Fraser University Vancouver, Canada</p>
<p>Kathryn Hicks Assistant Professor of Anthropology The University of Memphis</p>
<p>Irene B. Hodgson Professor of Spanish,&#160; Director of the Latin American Studies Minor Interim Director of the Academic Service Learning Semesters Xavier University</p>
<p>Forrest Hylton Assistant Professor of Political Science/Int’l. Relations Universidad de los Andes (Colombia)</p>
<p>Susanne Jonas Latin America and Latino Studies University of California, Santa Cruz</p>
<p>Rosemary A. Joyce Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Social Sciences, Professor and Chair of Anthropology University of California , Berkeley</p>
<p>Karen Kampwirth Knox College</p>
<p>Naomi Klein Journalist, syndicated columnist and author</p>
<p>Andrew H. Lee Librarian for History, European Studies, Iberian Studies, &amp; Politics Bobst Library New York University</p>
<p>Catherine LeGrand Associate Professor Dept. of History, McGill University.</p>
<p>Deborah Levenson Associate Professor of History Boston College</p>
<p>Frederick B. Mills Professor of Philosophy Bowie State University</p>
<p>Cynthia E. Milton Chaire de recherche du Canada en histoire de l’Amérique latine Canada Research Chair in Latin American History, Professeure agregée/Associate Professor, Département d’histoire Université de Montréal</p>
<p>Lena Mortensen Assistant Professor, Anthropology University of Toronto Scarborough</p>
<p>Carole Nagengast Professor Department of Anthropology University of New Mexico</p>
<p>Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy</p>
<p>Marysa Navarro Charles Collis Professor of History Dartmouth College</p>
<p>Sharon Erickson Nepstad Professor of Sociology University of New Mexico</p>
<p>Mary Nolan Professor, Department of History New York University</p>
<p>Elizabeth Oglesby Assistant Professor School of Geography and Development Center for Latin American Studies University of Arizona</p>
<p>Jocelyn Olcott Department of History Duke University</p>
<p>Christian Parenti Contributing Editor, The Nation Visiting Scholar CUNY Graduate Center</p>
<p>Ivette Perfecto Professor University of Michigan</p>
<p>Héctor Perla Jr. Assistant Professor Latin American and Latino Studies University of California, Santa Cruz</p>
<p>John Pilger Journalist and documentary filmmaker</p>
<p>Adrienne Pine Assistant Professor of Anthropology American University</p>
<p>Deborah Poole Professor, Anthropology Johns Hopkins University</p>
<p>Suyapa Portillo Pomona College History Dept.</p>
<p>Vijay Prashad George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies Trinity College</p>
<p>Margaret Randall Feminist poet, writer, photographer and social activist</p>
<p>Marcus Rediker Professor and Chair in the Department of History University of Pittsburgh</p>
<p>Gerardo Renique Associate Professor, Department of History City College of the City University of New York</p>
<p>Ken Roberts Professor, Department of Government Cornell University</p>
<p>Nancy Romer Professor of Psychology Brooklyn College City University of New York</p>
<p>Seth Sandronsky U.S. journalist</p>
<p>Aaron Schneider Assistant Professor Political Science Tulane University</p>
<p>Rebecca Schreiber Associate Professor, American Studies Department University of New Mexico</p>
<p>Ernesto Seman Journalist</p>
<p>Richard Stahler-Sholk Professor, Department of Political Science Eastern Michigan University</p>
<p>Julie Stewart Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology Assistant Investigator, Institute of Public and International Affairs University of Utah</p>
<p>Sylvia N. Tesh Lecturer, Latin American Studies University of Arizona.</p>
<p>Miguel Tinker Salas Professor of History Pomona College</p>
<p>Mayo C. Toruño Professor of Economics California State University, San Bernardino</p>
<p>Sheila R. Tully San Francisco State University</p>
<p>John Vandermeer Asa Gray Distinguished University Professor Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Michigan</p>
<p>Jocelyn S. Viterna Assistant Professor Departments of Sociology and Social Studies Harvard University</p>
<p>Steven S. Volk Professor, Department of History Director, Center for Teaching Innovation and Excellence (CTIE) Oberlin College</p>
<p>Maurice L. Wade Professor of Philosophy, International Studies, and Graduate Public Policy Studies Trinity College</p>
<p>Shannon Drysdale Walsh Fulbright-Hays Fellow Doctoral Candidate Department of Political Science University of Notre Dame</p>
<p>Jeffery R. Webber Assistant Professor, Political Science University of Regina, Canada</p>
<p>Barbara Weinstein Professor, Department of History New York University</p>
<p>Mark Weisbrot Co-Director Center for Economic and Policy Research</p>
<p>Gregory Wilpert Adjunct Professor of Political Science Brooklyn College</p>
<p>Sonja Wolf Institute of Social Research National Autonomous University of Mexico</p>
<p>John Womack, Jr. Professor of History, Emeritus Harvard University</p>
<p>Elisabeth Wood Professor of Political Science Yale University</p>
<p>Richard L. Wood Associate Professor Department of Sociology University of New Mexico</p>
<p>Marilyn B. Young Professor of History New York University</p>
<p>Marc Zimmerman Modern and Classical Languages University of Houston</p>
<p>[1] [1] Human Rights Watch, “Honduras: Evidence Suggests Soldiers Shot Into Unarmed Crowd.” July 8, 2009. Found at <a href="" type="internal">http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/07/08/honduras-evidence-suggests-soldiers-shot-unarmed-crowd.</a> [2] Human Rights Watch, “Honduras: Military Coup a Blow to Democracy.” June 28, 2009. Found at <a href="" type="internal">http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/06/28/honduras-military-coup-blow-democracy.</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
| 598,826 |
<p>President Donald Trump has ruffled the delicate feathers of Africans by lampooning and calling their continent a shithole. Immediately, social media, talk shops, isiewu and mama put joints were overheated with angry cadences, righteous denunciations, condemnations and racial genuflections. I watched all the sentimental superficiality with amusement and Calvinistic calmness. What’s all the flex about, for shithole sake? What is the reason for the toxic words being bandied about POTUS? Sorry, POTUS is the acronym for President of the United States! When are we going to reclaim common sense from our fury and hysteria?</p>
<p>Be warned: this piece is not for hypocrites. If you are one, sign off. It is written, “Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed”. Yes, I may want to join the Afrocentric bandwagon and begin to lob rude and angry expletives on President Donald Trump, but because Africa is yet to weave its spell of greatness on me, I will not speak evil of POTUS. I will not be counted among the self-righteous mobsters who are defending Mother Africa from a man known for racist slur, bigotry, extremist views and for his preference for eugenics.</p>
<p>Again, it is written, “Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him”. I will not be counted as a foolish African who cannot embrace the truth, even if the truth is coming from a distant, Alpha white voice. My rage or your rage does not matter anyway. President Trump, whether you like it or not, will always force reaction, positive or negative, as long as he remains the POTUS. Rather today, I want my discretion to get the better part of my polemical rage against Trump.</p>
<p>My question is this: Is Trump’s angry prognosis of the African political, social, economic, cultural and relational conditions right or wrong? Is the POTUS right to dismiss a huge, developing, sunny and pulsating land of black people a shithole? Does he have the moral right to such vexatious description? Is he voicing out what the white race had known all along about the Africans? Is his categorization of Africa as a shithole a mere illusion or real? Are we to thank the POTUS for saying it as it really is or join the self-righteous Afrocentric lovers and ask for his grey head on a platter?</p>
<p>Let me state here that America, Europe and Africa are lands of manifest differences. The nobility and greatness of America and Europe is the vision of their founding fathers and mothers. America and Europe were founded on the notions of democracy, fairness, justice, equality and transparency. Most African nations after the euphoria of their independence were founded on evil democracy, political rascality, vote rigging, tribalism, nepotism, inequality, unfairness, zero vision, injustice, oppression, police and Army brutality, treasury looting, graft, bribery and corruption and incredible impunity. Since independence, these aberrations have remained the common universal truth left standing in most African nations.</p>
<p>So, the plain speaking POTUS acting like a health inspector and seeing the consequences of our short term vision since our independence, finds it difficult not to say it as it is. President Trump sees a catastrophic and monumental waste of resources, opportunities and talents on a scale unimaginable. What the POTUS sees about us is this: Africans are parasites, thieves, plunderers, cheats, greedy, selfish, dirty, brutish, wicked, backward thinking, irrational, felons, undemocratic and liars.&#160; Soyinka, Sophocles and Shakespeare would have written our ongoing conditions in Africa as a tragedy.</p>
<p>For example, Nigeria got her independence after a bloodless struggle from the European colonisers. Since that independence, leaders in Nigeria are yet to find a final solution to the gravitational incongruities between integrity and survival, honesty and duplicity, transparency and corruption, greed and content, selfishness and selflessness and accountability and impunity. Politicians in Nigeria are forever consumed by a sort of fever for corruption. There is a lofty distaste for honesty, patriotism and the desire to make Nigeria great. The social and political order in Nigeria is now dictated by rogues in uniform, ‘agbada’, Armani suits, ‘babanriga’, political thugs, third rate brains, moneybags, godfathers and well-heeled poster girls dotted across Abuja.</p>
<p>Now, if Nigeria, the self-described giant of Africa could be counted among the countries that have slide into the bottomless pit of failed states, what then is the fate of less resources-endowed African countries? Here we can see the connection being made by President Donald Trump between our poverty, backwardness and decay which then translate into a shithole. So the Trump-African implosion is this: “Why are we having these people from shithole countries come here?” &#160;The question is, how do we know shithole countries? What makes a country a shithole?</p>
<p>It is written, “He who covers his sins will not prosper but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy”. It may be troubling to say, but I must admit that many African nations are shithole, rat hole and even monkey hole. The greed-addicted forces that dominate many of Africa’s political, social, economic, legal and media institutions have colluded to make that beautiful continent into shithole. A critical mass of the population of most African nations are condemn to daily suffering and servitude. A continent where politicians steal brazenly, unaccountable, use terror to subvert the manifest destiny of their people is a shithole.</p>
<p>Nigeria is a senior shithole nation. Her shithole is larger, deeper and the noxious odor of its shithole stinks to high heavens. Nigeria’s elites and cabal are the biggest threat to the continued survival of poor Nigerians. Trump’s Africa is bleeding from a million cuts…from corruption, feudal mindset, brutality, political impunity, economic paralysis, hunger, diseases and total disregard for the vulnerable, weak, tired and old. In Africa, our domestic governance is through brute force and total disregard for any form of respect for the citizens’ fundamental human right. A continent so described is a shithole, rat hole and monkey hole.&#160; A nation of kidnappers, ritualists, occultists, lawless senators, politicians, zero safety net for the helpless is a shithole. A nation where its leaders run abroad from common cold is a shithole. A nation where politicians will empty the treasury and still walk around unmolested and unprosecuted is a shithole.</p>
<p>Let me thank the POTUS for letting the world know the conditions of Africa as a shithole. He has conscripted all Africans that may have been damaged and wounded by his insult into a new network of “Time’s Up”. His racist, demarcating, abhorrent and crude description of our continent is nothing short of a wakeup call on the current generations of all Africans to fight the stubborn forces of darkness and retrogression that have colluded for far too long to subject Africa, from the plain Angola to the greenery of Zimbabwe into a continent of sewer, shithole, rat hole and monkey hole.</p>
<p>Taju Tijani&#160;is a writer, raconteur, polemicist, devil’s advocate, provocateur and an online columnist for eagleonline.com.ng.&#160; He is a pundit and specialises in Nigeria’s social and political commentary. He edits the blog,&#160; <a href="http://www.ttsoundings.com/" type="external">www.ttsoundings.com</a>. &#160;He can be reached on&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
|
Trump: Of Shithole, Rat Hole and Monkey Hole
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2018/01/19/trump-of-shithole-rat-hole-and-monkey-hole/
|
2018-01-19
| 4left
|
Trump: Of Shithole, Rat Hole and Monkey Hole
<p>President Donald Trump has ruffled the delicate feathers of Africans by lampooning and calling their continent a shithole. Immediately, social media, talk shops, isiewu and mama put joints were overheated with angry cadences, righteous denunciations, condemnations and racial genuflections. I watched all the sentimental superficiality with amusement and Calvinistic calmness. What’s all the flex about, for shithole sake? What is the reason for the toxic words being bandied about POTUS? Sorry, POTUS is the acronym for President of the United States! When are we going to reclaim common sense from our fury and hysteria?</p>
<p>Be warned: this piece is not for hypocrites. If you are one, sign off. It is written, “Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed”. Yes, I may want to join the Afrocentric bandwagon and begin to lob rude and angry expletives on President Donald Trump, but because Africa is yet to weave its spell of greatness on me, I will not speak evil of POTUS. I will not be counted among the self-righteous mobsters who are defending Mother Africa from a man known for racist slur, bigotry, extremist views and for his preference for eugenics.</p>
<p>Again, it is written, “Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him”. I will not be counted as a foolish African who cannot embrace the truth, even if the truth is coming from a distant, Alpha white voice. My rage or your rage does not matter anyway. President Trump, whether you like it or not, will always force reaction, positive or negative, as long as he remains the POTUS. Rather today, I want my discretion to get the better part of my polemical rage against Trump.</p>
<p>My question is this: Is Trump’s angry prognosis of the African political, social, economic, cultural and relational conditions right or wrong? Is the POTUS right to dismiss a huge, developing, sunny and pulsating land of black people a shithole? Does he have the moral right to such vexatious description? Is he voicing out what the white race had known all along about the Africans? Is his categorization of Africa as a shithole a mere illusion or real? Are we to thank the POTUS for saying it as it really is or join the self-righteous Afrocentric lovers and ask for his grey head on a platter?</p>
<p>Let me state here that America, Europe and Africa are lands of manifest differences. The nobility and greatness of America and Europe is the vision of their founding fathers and mothers. America and Europe were founded on the notions of democracy, fairness, justice, equality and transparency. Most African nations after the euphoria of their independence were founded on evil democracy, political rascality, vote rigging, tribalism, nepotism, inequality, unfairness, zero vision, injustice, oppression, police and Army brutality, treasury looting, graft, bribery and corruption and incredible impunity. Since independence, these aberrations have remained the common universal truth left standing in most African nations.</p>
<p>So, the plain speaking POTUS acting like a health inspector and seeing the consequences of our short term vision since our independence, finds it difficult not to say it as it is. President Trump sees a catastrophic and monumental waste of resources, opportunities and talents on a scale unimaginable. What the POTUS sees about us is this: Africans are parasites, thieves, plunderers, cheats, greedy, selfish, dirty, brutish, wicked, backward thinking, irrational, felons, undemocratic and liars.&#160; Soyinka, Sophocles and Shakespeare would have written our ongoing conditions in Africa as a tragedy.</p>
<p>For example, Nigeria got her independence after a bloodless struggle from the European colonisers. Since that independence, leaders in Nigeria are yet to find a final solution to the gravitational incongruities between integrity and survival, honesty and duplicity, transparency and corruption, greed and content, selfishness and selflessness and accountability and impunity. Politicians in Nigeria are forever consumed by a sort of fever for corruption. There is a lofty distaste for honesty, patriotism and the desire to make Nigeria great. The social and political order in Nigeria is now dictated by rogues in uniform, ‘agbada’, Armani suits, ‘babanriga’, political thugs, third rate brains, moneybags, godfathers and well-heeled poster girls dotted across Abuja.</p>
<p>Now, if Nigeria, the self-described giant of Africa could be counted among the countries that have slide into the bottomless pit of failed states, what then is the fate of less resources-endowed African countries? Here we can see the connection being made by President Donald Trump between our poverty, backwardness and decay which then translate into a shithole. So the Trump-African implosion is this: “Why are we having these people from shithole countries come here?” &#160;The question is, how do we know shithole countries? What makes a country a shithole?</p>
<p>It is written, “He who covers his sins will not prosper but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy”. It may be troubling to say, but I must admit that many African nations are shithole, rat hole and even monkey hole. The greed-addicted forces that dominate many of Africa’s political, social, economic, legal and media institutions have colluded to make that beautiful continent into shithole. A critical mass of the population of most African nations are condemn to daily suffering and servitude. A continent where politicians steal brazenly, unaccountable, use terror to subvert the manifest destiny of their people is a shithole.</p>
<p>Nigeria is a senior shithole nation. Her shithole is larger, deeper and the noxious odor of its shithole stinks to high heavens. Nigeria’s elites and cabal are the biggest threat to the continued survival of poor Nigerians. Trump’s Africa is bleeding from a million cuts…from corruption, feudal mindset, brutality, political impunity, economic paralysis, hunger, diseases and total disregard for the vulnerable, weak, tired and old. In Africa, our domestic governance is through brute force and total disregard for any form of respect for the citizens’ fundamental human right. A continent so described is a shithole, rat hole and monkey hole.&#160; A nation of kidnappers, ritualists, occultists, lawless senators, politicians, zero safety net for the helpless is a shithole. A nation where its leaders run abroad from common cold is a shithole. A nation where politicians will empty the treasury and still walk around unmolested and unprosecuted is a shithole.</p>
<p>Let me thank the POTUS for letting the world know the conditions of Africa as a shithole. He has conscripted all Africans that may have been damaged and wounded by his insult into a new network of “Time’s Up”. His racist, demarcating, abhorrent and crude description of our continent is nothing short of a wakeup call on the current generations of all Africans to fight the stubborn forces of darkness and retrogression that have colluded for far too long to subject Africa, from the plain Angola to the greenery of Zimbabwe into a continent of sewer, shithole, rat hole and monkey hole.</p>
<p>Taju Tijani&#160;is a writer, raconteur, polemicist, devil’s advocate, provocateur and an online columnist for eagleonline.com.ng.&#160; He is a pundit and specialises in Nigeria’s social and political commentary. He edits the blog,&#160; <a href="http://www.ttsoundings.com/" type="external">www.ttsoundings.com</a>. &#160;He can be reached on&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
| 598,827 |
<p>Israel's ongoing conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip has for the umpteenth time exposed Iran as the true source of instability in the Middle East.</p>
<p>At a time when Western powers are working to reach a deal with Iran over its illicit nuclear program, events in Gaza need to serve as a warning of what will happen if they fail.</p>
<p>As the Israeli government has claimed for years, Iran is the main sponsor and one of the main supporters of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two terrorist organizations that have fired over 1,600 rockets into Israel over the past few days.</p>
<p>The M-75 rocket, which has been fired repeatedly into Tel Aviv and beyond, is a copy of Iran's Fajr-5 artillery rocket, manufactured in the Gaza Strip with assistance from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Hamas drones, shot down by the Israeli Air Force, appear to have been the Ababil, an unmanned aerial vehicle designed and manufactured in Iran.</p>
<p>These Iranian weapons were used against Israel at the same time that Iran's leadership was sitting with the P5+1 in Vienna to negotiate a deal over its nuclear program. While Secretary of State John Kerry sat with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, Hamas was firing barrages of Iranian rockets into Jerusalem.</p>
<p>For Israel, the message is clear. An Iran that provides, already today, its terror proxies with sophisticated rockets, drones, and other technology could one day hand off a crude nuclear device or dirty bomb to these same terrorists.</p>
<p>In addition, an Iranian regime with nuclear weapons is a regime more willing to take risks and to test the West's resolve. Deterrence will no longer work.</p>
<p>That is why Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip needs to be put into the correct context. While the terrorists against whom Israeli soldiers are fighting in Gaza are Palestinian, they are in reality proxies of Iran located on our western border.</p>
<p>Simply put—Israel is fighting Iran.</p>
<p>This is not new.</p>
<p>In Israel, we have watched for decades as Iran built up terror proxies along our borders. Hezbollah, the Shi'ite guerilla organization, is in possession of more than 100,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel, and it de facto controls Lebanon. In Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are responsible for ensuring the survival of Bashar al-Assad's regime, as well as the continued slaughter of innocent civilians.</p>
<p>And then there is Iran's global terror activity. This month marks the 20th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that left 85 dead and more than 300 wounded. Since then, countless Iranian plots have been foiled while others, like the 2012 bus bombing in Bulgaria which killed five Israeli tourists, have succeeded.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>The four-month extension to the nuclear talks needs to be used to push Iran up against the wall. Sanctions need to remain in place and, if needed, to be even intensified. The P5+1 cannot surrender to Iranian dictations or to pressure that will enable it to retain its nuclear infrastructure.</p>
<p>A deal that does not completely dismantle Iran's nuclear program will enable the regime to achieve what it has worked for all these years—to become a nuclear power.</p>
<p>Iran currently has about 19,000 centrifuges which, if operated together, can produce a bomb within six to seven weeks. If the deal being negotiated does not lead to the dismantling of these centrifuges, then, while it might take some time, Iran will ultimately get the bomb.</p>
<p>It will wait for the sanctions to be lifted, or for the world to be distracted with another international crisis. And then two or five years from now, it will break out toward a nuclear bomb.</p>
<p>If the centrifuges are taken away, the world will have three years—enough time to know if Iran is building a bomb, to form a global coalition to stop it, and, if needed, to take action.</p>
<p>Now, don’t be mistaken. While we in Israel prefer a peaceful resolution, we do not outsource our security. We will not sit on the sidelines and deposit our fate in the hands of others.</p>
<p>Our track record speaks for itself. In 1981, while the world condemned us, we sent our air force to destroy the Osirak reactor Saddam Hussein was building in Iraq. In 2007, we allegedly did the same in Syria.</p>
<p>We did so because we understood the severity of those threats. We acted because we felt a commitment, not just to ourselves but to the entire world.</p>
<p>An Iran that remains in possession of a viable nuclear program will threaten the world not just with nuclear weapons but also through the terror proxies it supports and finances across the globe.</p>
<p>The latest conflict in the Gaza Strip is just one example of what the world will continue to see if Iran, the real culprit, is not stopped for good.</p>
<p>Naftali Bennett is Israel's Minister of Economy and Chairman of the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) Party</p>
|
Why You Should Blame Iran For The Gaza Conflict
| true |
https://thedailybeast.com/why-you-should-blame-iran-for-the-gaza-conflict
|
2018-10-03
| 4left
|
Why You Should Blame Iran For The Gaza Conflict
<p>Israel's ongoing conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip has for the umpteenth time exposed Iran as the true source of instability in the Middle East.</p>
<p>At a time when Western powers are working to reach a deal with Iran over its illicit nuclear program, events in Gaza need to serve as a warning of what will happen if they fail.</p>
<p>As the Israeli government has claimed for years, Iran is the main sponsor and one of the main supporters of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two terrorist organizations that have fired over 1,600 rockets into Israel over the past few days.</p>
<p>The M-75 rocket, which has been fired repeatedly into Tel Aviv and beyond, is a copy of Iran's Fajr-5 artillery rocket, manufactured in the Gaza Strip with assistance from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Hamas drones, shot down by the Israeli Air Force, appear to have been the Ababil, an unmanned aerial vehicle designed and manufactured in Iran.</p>
<p>These Iranian weapons were used against Israel at the same time that Iran's leadership was sitting with the P5+1 in Vienna to negotiate a deal over its nuclear program. While Secretary of State John Kerry sat with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, Hamas was firing barrages of Iranian rockets into Jerusalem.</p>
<p>For Israel, the message is clear. An Iran that provides, already today, its terror proxies with sophisticated rockets, drones, and other technology could one day hand off a crude nuclear device or dirty bomb to these same terrorists.</p>
<p>In addition, an Iranian regime with nuclear weapons is a regime more willing to take risks and to test the West's resolve. Deterrence will no longer work.</p>
<p>That is why Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip needs to be put into the correct context. While the terrorists against whom Israeli soldiers are fighting in Gaza are Palestinian, they are in reality proxies of Iran located on our western border.</p>
<p>Simply put—Israel is fighting Iran.</p>
<p>This is not new.</p>
<p>In Israel, we have watched for decades as Iran built up terror proxies along our borders. Hezbollah, the Shi'ite guerilla organization, is in possession of more than 100,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel, and it de facto controls Lebanon. In Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are responsible for ensuring the survival of Bashar al-Assad's regime, as well as the continued slaughter of innocent civilians.</p>
<p>And then there is Iran's global terror activity. This month marks the 20th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that left 85 dead and more than 300 wounded. Since then, countless Iranian plots have been foiled while others, like the 2012 bus bombing in Bulgaria which killed five Israeli tourists, have succeeded.</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>The four-month extension to the nuclear talks needs to be used to push Iran up against the wall. Sanctions need to remain in place and, if needed, to be even intensified. The P5+1 cannot surrender to Iranian dictations or to pressure that will enable it to retain its nuclear infrastructure.</p>
<p>A deal that does not completely dismantle Iran's nuclear program will enable the regime to achieve what it has worked for all these years—to become a nuclear power.</p>
<p>Iran currently has about 19,000 centrifuges which, if operated together, can produce a bomb within six to seven weeks. If the deal being negotiated does not lead to the dismantling of these centrifuges, then, while it might take some time, Iran will ultimately get the bomb.</p>
<p>It will wait for the sanctions to be lifted, or for the world to be distracted with another international crisis. And then two or five years from now, it will break out toward a nuclear bomb.</p>
<p>If the centrifuges are taken away, the world will have three years—enough time to know if Iran is building a bomb, to form a global coalition to stop it, and, if needed, to take action.</p>
<p>Now, don’t be mistaken. While we in Israel prefer a peaceful resolution, we do not outsource our security. We will not sit on the sidelines and deposit our fate in the hands of others.</p>
<p>Our track record speaks for itself. In 1981, while the world condemned us, we sent our air force to destroy the Osirak reactor Saddam Hussein was building in Iraq. In 2007, we allegedly did the same in Syria.</p>
<p>We did so because we understood the severity of those threats. We acted because we felt a commitment, not just to ourselves but to the entire world.</p>
<p>An Iran that remains in possession of a viable nuclear program will threaten the world not just with nuclear weapons but also through the terror proxies it supports and finances across the globe.</p>
<p>The latest conflict in the Gaza Strip is just one example of what the world will continue to see if Iran, the real culprit, is not stopped for good.</p>
<p>Naftali Bennett is Israel's Minister of Economy and Chairman of the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) Party</p>
| 598,828 |
<p>Members of President Donald Trump’s administration that support his “Make America Great Again” agenda are being removed from the White House, according to former national security adviser Sebastian Gorka.</p>
<p>“The real believers, the real ‘MAGA’ fighters inside the building were being progressively boxed out, or fired from the (National Security Council) which was even more disturbing,” Gorka told <a href="http://freebeacon.com/national-security/gorka-bureaucrats-policymakers-opposing-trump-agenda/" type="external">The Washington Free Beacon</a> in an interview published Wednesday.</p>
<p>Gorka said he resigned from the White House because part of Trump’s agenda was regarding the threat of “radical Islamic terrorism,” but he said a Trump speech about Afghanistan on Aug.&#160;21 had references to radical Islamic terrorism removed.</p>
<p>“When you have a speech, a very significant national security speech on the longest war American has been engaged against jihadism, against al-Qaida, ISIS and the Taliban, and there is not one mention of radical Islamic terrorism, we have a serious problem,” the former adviser said.</p>
<p>“That’s when I realized I can do a lot more for the president on the outside of the building than I can on the inside of the building,”&#160;he&#160;added.</p>
<p>When officials at security council meetings did not mention the president’s agenda, Gorka said that was when he began to see that he needed to exit the position.</p>
<p>“The real moment when the scales fell from my eyes is when after I’d been to numerous National Security Council meetings — I wasn’t a member of the NSC, but I was invited to various key meetings … and you listen for an hour, or an hour and a half, and nobody, not one participant would mention the president, or what the president said, or what the president’s mission was,” Gorka said.</p>
<p>“I can’t tell you how many meetings I went to where I would have to remind everybody participating: This is what the president wants and this is the mission we’re here to serve.”</p>
<p>He also commented on Tuesday about the makeup of Trump’s administration, saying that the White House does not support his <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/Politics/sebastian-gorka-make-america-great-again-agenda-maga-resign/2017/08/29/id/810378/" type="external">“Make America Great Again” agenda.</a></p>
<p>The former adviser was forced out of his White House position, two administration officials said in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/us/politics/sebastian-gorka-leaves-white-house.html?_r=0" type="external">New York Times</a> report Friday.&#160;</p>
<p>He denied in the Free Beacon interview that he was fired. “I emailed Chief of Staff (John) Kelly after the Afghan speech the president gave last week. I requested a meeting with him for this Monday to tender my resignation. On Friday afternoon, I spoke to him on the phone and told him I had resigned as of that day … those are the facts of the matter,” Gorka said.</p>
|
Gorka: 'Real MAGA Fighters' Being Purged From WH
| false |
https://newsline.com/gorka-real-maga-fighters-being-purged-from-wh/
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2017-08-30
| 1right-center
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Gorka: 'Real MAGA Fighters' Being Purged From WH
<p>Members of President Donald Trump’s administration that support his “Make America Great Again” agenda are being removed from the White House, according to former national security adviser Sebastian Gorka.</p>
<p>“The real believers, the real ‘MAGA’ fighters inside the building were being progressively boxed out, or fired from the (National Security Council) which was even more disturbing,” Gorka told <a href="http://freebeacon.com/national-security/gorka-bureaucrats-policymakers-opposing-trump-agenda/" type="external">The Washington Free Beacon</a> in an interview published Wednesday.</p>
<p>Gorka said he resigned from the White House because part of Trump’s agenda was regarding the threat of “radical Islamic terrorism,” but he said a Trump speech about Afghanistan on Aug.&#160;21 had references to radical Islamic terrorism removed.</p>
<p>“When you have a speech, a very significant national security speech on the longest war American has been engaged against jihadism, against al-Qaida, ISIS and the Taliban, and there is not one mention of radical Islamic terrorism, we have a serious problem,” the former adviser said.</p>
<p>“That’s when I realized I can do a lot more for the president on the outside of the building than I can on the inside of the building,”&#160;he&#160;added.</p>
<p>When officials at security council meetings did not mention the president’s agenda, Gorka said that was when he began to see that he needed to exit the position.</p>
<p>“The real moment when the scales fell from my eyes is when after I’d been to numerous National Security Council meetings — I wasn’t a member of the NSC, but I was invited to various key meetings … and you listen for an hour, or an hour and a half, and nobody, not one participant would mention the president, or what the president said, or what the president’s mission was,” Gorka said.</p>
<p>“I can’t tell you how many meetings I went to where I would have to remind everybody participating: This is what the president wants and this is the mission we’re here to serve.”</p>
<p>He also commented on Tuesday about the makeup of Trump’s administration, saying that the White House does not support his <a href="https://www.newsmax.com/Politics/sebastian-gorka-make-america-great-again-agenda-maga-resign/2017/08/29/id/810378/" type="external">“Make America Great Again” agenda.</a></p>
<p>The former adviser was forced out of his White House position, two administration officials said in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/us/politics/sebastian-gorka-leaves-white-house.html?_r=0" type="external">New York Times</a> report Friday.&#160;</p>
<p>He denied in the Free Beacon interview that he was fired. “I emailed Chief of Staff (John) Kelly after the Afghan speech the president gave last week. I requested a meeting with him for this Monday to tender my resignation. On Friday afternoon, I spoke to him on the phone and told him I had resigned as of that day … those are the facts of the matter,” Gorka said.</p>
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<p>Talia Freedman Real Estate</p>
<p>Q: I’m thinking about buying a house and have been looking online and have seen a few houses. Nothing I see is exactly what I want. I know houses are selling quickly, but I don’t want to get into a situation where I feel pressured to decide on a house that is not quite perfect. How should I approach the process? I feel lost and nervous.</p>
<p>A: It’s true (depending on the exact area) houses are moving much more quickly than they had been a year, or even a month ago. The short answer is to have a clear idea of the house you want before seriously looking. Deciding which house is for you is much simpler if you have firm criteria. But that’s easier said than done. Often figuring out what you want (especially in a seller’s market) is a multi-step process and takes some work. It’s important to do this work if you’re going to find and buy a house in a rapidly moving market.</p>
<p>First, talk to a lender (or decide how much you want to spend if paying cash) and figure out what you can afford. Now you can consider what you want in a house: location, size, style, condition. Take a look in the MLS (the multiple listing service) or have your Realtor send you listings which meet your criteria and budget and get a sense of the market. If you’re one of the lucky, what you want is actually available in your price range. If so, great! Now you can start looking. But most people have to compromise on what they want based on what they can afford. You might need to change area to get the size and condition house you want, or change the house to get the area you want.</p>
<p>After you’ve determined what you want (and can afford) it’s time to get serious about finding a house. With prices on the rise and houses going quickly there is naturally some pressure to make decisions quickly after seeing a house. But you don’t want to be too rushed. After all, this is a big financial purchase, and you want to do it wisely. That said, houses can go quickly and you don’t want to miss out. When you’re thinking about “sleeping on it” ask yourself, “How will I feel if the house is gone tomorrow?” If the answer is “just fine,” then sleep on it. The house might not be the right one for you anyway. But if you will feel sad, panicked, or like crying … maybe go ahead and make an offer right away. You may not want to feel pressured, but that’s the market we’re in. You may not get to negotiate much. You may be in competition with multiple buyers. And you may need to move very quickly to get a house at all.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Talia Freedman is the owner of Talia Freedman and Co.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
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Do your homework, then start looking
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1040230/do-your-homework-then-start-looking.html
| 2least
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Do your homework, then start looking
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Talia Freedman Real Estate</p>
<p>Q: I’m thinking about buying a house and have been looking online and have seen a few houses. Nothing I see is exactly what I want. I know houses are selling quickly, but I don’t want to get into a situation where I feel pressured to decide on a house that is not quite perfect. How should I approach the process? I feel lost and nervous.</p>
<p>A: It’s true (depending on the exact area) houses are moving much more quickly than they had been a year, or even a month ago. The short answer is to have a clear idea of the house you want before seriously looking. Deciding which house is for you is much simpler if you have firm criteria. But that’s easier said than done. Often figuring out what you want (especially in a seller’s market) is a multi-step process and takes some work. It’s important to do this work if you’re going to find and buy a house in a rapidly moving market.</p>
<p>First, talk to a lender (or decide how much you want to spend if paying cash) and figure out what you can afford. Now you can consider what you want in a house: location, size, style, condition. Take a look in the MLS (the multiple listing service) or have your Realtor send you listings which meet your criteria and budget and get a sense of the market. If you’re one of the lucky, what you want is actually available in your price range. If so, great! Now you can start looking. But most people have to compromise on what they want based on what they can afford. You might need to change area to get the size and condition house you want, or change the house to get the area you want.</p>
<p>After you’ve determined what you want (and can afford) it’s time to get serious about finding a house. With prices on the rise and houses going quickly there is naturally some pressure to make decisions quickly after seeing a house. But you don’t want to be too rushed. After all, this is a big financial purchase, and you want to do it wisely. That said, houses can go quickly and you don’t want to miss out. When you’re thinking about “sleeping on it” ask yourself, “How will I feel if the house is gone tomorrow?” If the answer is “just fine,” then sleep on it. The house might not be the right one for you anyway. But if you will feel sad, panicked, or like crying … maybe go ahead and make an offer right away. You may not want to feel pressured, but that’s the market we’re in. You may not get to negotiate much. You may be in competition with multiple buyers. And you may need to move very quickly to get a house at all.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Talia Freedman is the owner of Talia Freedman and Co.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
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<p>MOUNT MORRIS, N.Y. (AP) — A dog stuck about halfway down a 400-foot cliff in a New York gorge has been rescued by a police officer who had to use ropes to reach the stranded canine.</p>
<p>The state parks office says visitors to Letchworth State Park reported hearing a dog barking in the area of the Genesee River gorge known as the Hogsback Overlook, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Rochester.</p>
<p>State Park Police Sgt. Ryan Clancy was lowered down by ropes Monday and hauled back up with the dog named Skippy, who had gone missing in the park two days earlier.</p>
<p>The 6-year-old hunting hound-border collie mix was returned to his owner, who lives near the park.</p>
<p><a href="#b136aae5-7993-47ae-8cd3-71838ce23750" type="external">© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</a> Learn more about our <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy" type="external">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms" type="external">Terms of Use</a>.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
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Dog stuck on 400-foot cliff rescued by cop using ropes
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1008005/dog-stuck-on-400-foot-cliff-rescued-by-cop-using-ropes.html
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2017-05-24
| 2least
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Dog stuck on 400-foot cliff rescued by cop using ropes
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>MOUNT MORRIS, N.Y. (AP) — A dog stuck about halfway down a 400-foot cliff in a New York gorge has been rescued by a police officer who had to use ropes to reach the stranded canine.</p>
<p>The state parks office says visitors to Letchworth State Park reported hearing a dog barking in the area of the Genesee River gorge known as the Hogsback Overlook, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Rochester.</p>
<p>State Park Police Sgt. Ryan Clancy was lowered down by ropes Monday and hauled back up with the dog named Skippy, who had gone missing in the park two days earlier.</p>
<p>The 6-year-old hunting hound-border collie mix was returned to his owner, who lives near the park.</p>
<p><a href="#b136aae5-7993-47ae-8cd3-71838ce23750" type="external">© 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</a> Learn more about our <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy" type="external">Privacy Policy</a> and <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms" type="external">Terms of Use</a>.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
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<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of oncology biopharma Incyte (NASDAQ: INCY) rose 8% today after it was announced that the stock will be joining the S&amp;P 500, replacing Spectra Energy, which is leaving the index after its acquisition by Enbridge closes next week.Of course, joining the major index also means that Incyte will be joining the S&amp;P 500's biotechnology sub-index.</p>
<p>Joining the S&amp;P 500 may not seem like a material development for the stock, but investors shouldn't dismiss today's move as meaningless. That's because being included in the index has real-world consequences. Fund managers and ETFs that allocate their holdings based on the composition of the S&amp;P 500 will need to adjust accordingly. That means funds will need to build up new positions in Incyte -- and today's move demonstrates they're not wasting time in doing so.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>That makes it likely for today's gains to have some staying power. In the longer term, it will increase the number of shares "locked up" by institutional investors, which could have the advantage of slightly lowering the stock's volatility, or beta. Of course, biopharma stocks can experience larger movements than stocks in other industries, but this should still have a not insignificant effect.</p>
<p>It's actually been a good week for Incyte investors. Just yesterday, the company announced a collaboration with the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The new partnership will explore novel immunotherapies and invest in better understanding cancer biology, which could lead to safer and more effective therapies. Although it's in the earliest stages, it shouldn't be overlooked, especially considering that the University of Pennsylvania pioneered several CAR-T products before they went mainstream.</p>
<p>Incyte will be a fine addition to the S&amp;P 500. It has a fast-growing drug franchise in Jakafi, a decent pipeline, and after a string of high-profile pipeline failures from competitors, faces close to zero competition for the drug's market opportunity. The company has staying power -- and so does today's move.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than IncyteWhen 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=00a98b01-f567-45d1-8e97-013fd8c5b28a&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 Incyte 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=00a98b01-f567-45d1-8e97-013fd8c5b28a&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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBlacknGold/info.aspx" type="external">Maxx Chatsko Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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 Incyte Rose as Much as 8% Today
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/24/here-why-incyte-rose-as-much-as-8-today.html
|
2017-03-16
| 0right
|
Here's Why Incyte Rose as Much as 8% Today
<p />
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Shares of oncology biopharma Incyte (NASDAQ: INCY) rose 8% today after it was announced that the stock will be joining the S&amp;P 500, replacing Spectra Energy, which is leaving the index after its acquisition by Enbridge closes next week.Of course, joining the major index also means that Incyte will be joining the S&amp;P 500's biotechnology sub-index.</p>
<p>Joining the S&amp;P 500 may not seem like a material development for the stock, but investors shouldn't dismiss today's move as meaningless. That's because being included in the index has real-world consequences. Fund managers and ETFs that allocate their holdings based on the composition of the S&amp;P 500 will need to adjust accordingly. That means funds will need to build up new positions in Incyte -- and today's move demonstrates they're not wasting time in doing so.</p>
<p>Image source: Getty Images.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>That makes it likely for today's gains to have some staying power. In the longer term, it will increase the number of shares "locked up" by institutional investors, which could have the advantage of slightly lowering the stock's volatility, or beta. Of course, biopharma stocks can experience larger movements than stocks in other industries, but this should still have a not insignificant effect.</p>
<p>It's actually been a good week for Incyte investors. Just yesterday, the company announced a collaboration with the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The new partnership will explore novel immunotherapies and invest in better understanding cancer biology, which could lead to safer and more effective therapies. Although it's in the earliest stages, it shouldn't be overlooked, especially considering that the University of Pennsylvania pioneered several CAR-T products before they went mainstream.</p>
<p>Incyte will be a fine addition to the S&amp;P 500. It has a fast-growing drug franchise in Jakafi, a decent pipeline, and after a string of high-profile pipeline failures from competitors, faces close to zero competition for the drug's market opportunity. The company has staying power -- and so does today's move.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than IncyteWhen 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=00a98b01-f567-45d1-8e97-013fd8c5b28a&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 Incyte 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=00a98b01-f567-45d1-8e97-013fd8c5b28a&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 February 6, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBlacknGold/info.aspx" type="external">Maxx Chatsko Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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>As CBS goes hog wild calling races and the Democrats pick up their third senate seat, it appears that Karl Rove’s election calculations that he drove home <a href="http://www.npr.org/about/press/061024_rove.html" type="external">in his interview</a> with NPR correspondent, Robert Siegel, on October 24, could be off. Despite all the polls showing quite the contrary, Rove was confident that he saw a Republican House and Senate in United States’ future because he used “THE math.” Read it here.</p>
<p />
<p>SIEGEL: I’m looking at all the same polls that you are looking at.</p>
<p>ROVE: No, you are not. I’m looking at 68 polls a week for candidates for the US House and US Senate, and Governor and you may be looking at 4-5 public polls a week that talk attitudes nationally.</p>
<p>SIEGEL: I don’t want to have you to call races…</p>
<p>ROVE: I’m looking at all of these Robert and adding them up. I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I’m entitled to THE math.</p>
<p>SIEGEL: I don’t know if we’re entitled to a different math but your…</p>
<p>ROVE: I said THE math.</p>
<p>Although it is way too early to tell if “THE Math” of Rove is wrong.</p>
<p>And really, what is it with these boys and their superfluous articles. Just for fun, here’s Bush discussing his use of “ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ0BtSLD3sc" type="external">the Google</a>.” It just never gets old…</p>
<p />
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Rove’s Election Predictions are Calculated with “THE Math”
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2006/11/roves-election-predictions-are-calculated-math/
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2006-11-08
| 4left
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Rove’s Election Predictions are Calculated with “THE Math”
<p />
<p>As CBS goes hog wild calling races and the Democrats pick up their third senate seat, it appears that Karl Rove’s election calculations that he drove home <a href="http://www.npr.org/about/press/061024_rove.html" type="external">in his interview</a> with NPR correspondent, Robert Siegel, on October 24, could be off. Despite all the polls showing quite the contrary, Rove was confident that he saw a Republican House and Senate in United States’ future because he used “THE math.” Read it here.</p>
<p />
<p>SIEGEL: I’m looking at all the same polls that you are looking at.</p>
<p>ROVE: No, you are not. I’m looking at 68 polls a week for candidates for the US House and US Senate, and Governor and you may be looking at 4-5 public polls a week that talk attitudes nationally.</p>
<p>SIEGEL: I don’t want to have you to call races…</p>
<p>ROVE: I’m looking at all of these Robert and adding them up. I add up to a Republican Senate and Republican House. You may end up with a different math but you are entitled to your math and I’m entitled to THE math.</p>
<p>SIEGEL: I don’t know if we’re entitled to a different math but your…</p>
<p>ROVE: I said THE math.</p>
<p>Although it is way too early to tell if “THE Math” of Rove is wrong.</p>
<p>And really, what is it with these boys and their superfluous articles. Just for fun, here’s Bush discussing his use of “ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ0BtSLD3sc" type="external">the Google</a>.” It just never gets old…</p>
<p />
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<p>There’s never been a better time to be a small business owner looking to market your business. The number of tools available to marketers is dizzying. Best of all, most of them are inexpensive. Here are five marketing technologies we think every small business could benefit from.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Appy Pie Today’s savvy business owners are jumping on the app bandwagon. But before you hire a developer to build a costly mobile app for your company, check out a more affordable option.</p>
<p>Appy Pie is a mobile app maker that allows individuals with no technical expertise to create custom apps for their businesses. And with monthly plans ranging from $12 to $40, this cloud-based service is affordable for any size business.</p>
<p>For $25 a month — the cost of the “Gold” plan — Appy Pie will help you design and publish a custom app that your customers can download from iTunes and Google Play.</p>
<p>You’ll be able to send daily push notifications to customers and view your app stats with Google Analytics. Appy Pie will also soon allow you to sell products via your business’s app, a boon in the age of mobile shopping.</p>
<p>Tinder Box TinderBox, a Web-based proposal generating program, can help deliver your company’s message to customers concisely and clearly. The app allows businesses to create, manage and track the sales documents that form the basis of your marketing strategy.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Streamlining contracts, proposals and collateral is the best way to ensure that you’re sending a uniform message to clients and customers. This app is designed to help you keep all your employees, from sales reps to marketing pros, on the same page.</p>
<p>TinderBox doesn’t publish pricing plans on its website, but according to BestVendor, monthly rates for the app run between $90 and $250.</p>
<p>Slide.ly Now that your business is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you can just sit back and watch the customers pour in, right? Wrong.</p>
<p>Social media marketing is only as effective as you make it. So if you want to get noticed online, try using an app that grabs customers’ attention.</p>
<p>Slide.ly is a Web-based app that lets you, a savvy business person, make unique slideshows and share them via popular social media sites.</p>
<p>Simply choose pictures from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr or Google, set them to music, add some special effects and post your slideshow to your company’s social media pages.</p>
<p>Whether you want to promote a product or generate buzz about a sale or event, Slide.ly provides a dynamic platform for interacting with customers. And the best part about this app? It’s free.</p>
<p>engajer Businesses now have a virtual way of creating dynamic presentations that educate clients and customers. engajer is a Web-based app that allows for personal marketing via pre-recorded videos.</p>
<p>The app lets you create interconnecting 30-second video segments that lead watchers through an interactive menu of Q&amp;As.</p>
<p>The app also has tools for marketing that provide valuable insight into which of your strategies are the most effective at communicating messages to customers.</p>
<p>And with engajer, businesses can quickly and easily post videos directly to social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. For information on pricing, check the company’s website.</p>
<p>Crushpath You don’t need an elevator to make a good pitch. What you do need is Crushpath.</p>
<p>This Web app lets you build a simple, one-page website with information about your business and then share it with potential customers and clients via email or social media sites.</p>
<p>Users can tailor their pitch sites depending on their desired outcome. So if you have a particular product or event you want to promote, Crushpath’s site layout lets you do that. Or, if you’d rather gear your pitch to a particular customer base, you can go that route as well.</p>
<p>Crushpath sites can be viewed by anyone who searches for your business on the Internet, so your page can generate leads even when you’re not actively promoting it. The app also allows users to keep track of leads, so you’ll never have to worry about a missed opportunity.</p>
<p>And one of the greatest things about this marketing tool is its low cost. For $9 a month, Crushpa</p>
|
5 Must-Have Tech Tools for Small Business Marketing
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2013/04/26/5-must-have-tech-tools-for-small-business-marketing.html
|
2016-04-07
| 0right
|
5 Must-Have Tech Tools for Small Business Marketing
<p />
<p>There’s never been a better time to be a small business owner looking to market your business. The number of tools available to marketers is dizzying. Best of all, most of them are inexpensive. Here are five marketing technologies we think every small business could benefit from.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Appy Pie Today’s savvy business owners are jumping on the app bandwagon. But before you hire a developer to build a costly mobile app for your company, check out a more affordable option.</p>
<p>Appy Pie is a mobile app maker that allows individuals with no technical expertise to create custom apps for their businesses. And with monthly plans ranging from $12 to $40, this cloud-based service is affordable for any size business.</p>
<p>For $25 a month — the cost of the “Gold” plan — Appy Pie will help you design and publish a custom app that your customers can download from iTunes and Google Play.</p>
<p>You’ll be able to send daily push notifications to customers and view your app stats with Google Analytics. Appy Pie will also soon allow you to sell products via your business’s app, a boon in the age of mobile shopping.</p>
<p>Tinder Box TinderBox, a Web-based proposal generating program, can help deliver your company’s message to customers concisely and clearly. The app allows businesses to create, manage and track the sales documents that form the basis of your marketing strategy.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Streamlining contracts, proposals and collateral is the best way to ensure that you’re sending a uniform message to clients and customers. This app is designed to help you keep all your employees, from sales reps to marketing pros, on the same page.</p>
<p>TinderBox doesn’t publish pricing plans on its website, but according to BestVendor, monthly rates for the app run between $90 and $250.</p>
<p>Slide.ly Now that your business is on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you can just sit back and watch the customers pour in, right? Wrong.</p>
<p>Social media marketing is only as effective as you make it. So if you want to get noticed online, try using an app that grabs customers’ attention.</p>
<p>Slide.ly is a Web-based app that lets you, a savvy business person, make unique slideshows and share them via popular social media sites.</p>
<p>Simply choose pictures from Facebook, Instagram, Flickr or Google, set them to music, add some special effects and post your slideshow to your company’s social media pages.</p>
<p>Whether you want to promote a product or generate buzz about a sale or event, Slide.ly provides a dynamic platform for interacting with customers. And the best part about this app? It’s free.</p>
<p>engajer Businesses now have a virtual way of creating dynamic presentations that educate clients and customers. engajer is a Web-based app that allows for personal marketing via pre-recorded videos.</p>
<p>The app lets you create interconnecting 30-second video segments that lead watchers through an interactive menu of Q&amp;As.</p>
<p>The app also has tools for marketing that provide valuable insight into which of your strategies are the most effective at communicating messages to customers.</p>
<p>And with engajer, businesses can quickly and easily post videos directly to social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. For information on pricing, check the company’s website.</p>
<p>Crushpath You don’t need an elevator to make a good pitch. What you do need is Crushpath.</p>
<p>This Web app lets you build a simple, one-page website with information about your business and then share it with potential customers and clients via email or social media sites.</p>
<p>Users can tailor their pitch sites depending on their desired outcome. So if you have a particular product or event you want to promote, Crushpath’s site layout lets you do that. Or, if you’d rather gear your pitch to a particular customer base, you can go that route as well.</p>
<p>Crushpath sites can be viewed by anyone who searches for your business on the Internet, so your page can generate leads even when you’re not actively promoting it. The app also allows users to keep track of leads, so you’ll never have to worry about a missed opportunity.</p>
<p>And one of the greatest things about this marketing tool is its low cost. For $9 a month, Crushpa</p>
| 598,834 |
<p />
<p>For pure, unbridled Wal-Mart bashing, <a href="http://www.brennancenter.org/programs/downloads/aboutwalmart.pdf" type="external">this compilation</a> (PDF) of figures, studies, and talking points from the Brennan Center for Justice has all the information you need. It’s not fair and balanced, but has some great tidbits as: “In a study of over 3,000 counties, researchers found that counties with more Wal-Mart stores had a larger increase (or a smaller reduction) in the poverty rate between 1987 and 1999 than did counties with fewer or no Wal-Mart stores.”</p>
<p />
|
Wal-Mart By the Numbers
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2005/09/wal-mart-numbers/
|
2005-09-19
| 4left
|
Wal-Mart By the Numbers
<p />
<p>For pure, unbridled Wal-Mart bashing, <a href="http://www.brennancenter.org/programs/downloads/aboutwalmart.pdf" type="external">this compilation</a> (PDF) of figures, studies, and talking points from the Brennan Center for Justice has all the information you need. It’s not fair and balanced, but has some great tidbits as: “In a study of over 3,000 counties, researchers found that counties with more Wal-Mart stores had a larger increase (or a smaller reduction) in the poverty rate between 1987 and 1999 than did counties with fewer or no Wal-Mart stores.”</p>
<p />
| 598,835 |
<p />
<p>The stock market mounted a last-minute rally to keep its string of winning days alive, as all three major market benchmarks recovered from losses during most of the day to close higher. The performance again showed the complete confidence that investors seem to have in the market's longer-term future, despite the fact that some believe that stocks have generally risen too quickly and have been hoping for a pullback. Enough investors seem to be waiting for an opportunity to buy that losses have generally been muted and short-lived. Moreover, some good news sent many individual stocks higher, and Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN), RH (NYSE: RH), and Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ: AAOI) were among the top performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so well.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Nordstrom shares rose 6% after the company reported its fourth-quarter financial results on Thursday afternoon. The high-end department store retailer said that its sales rose 3%, pushing net income up by 12% from year-ago levels. However, comparable-store sales fell by 0.9% during the quarter, capping a year in which comps fell 0.4% overall. The discount Nordstrom Rack brand continued to carry the load for the retailer, while the namesake Nordstrom premium stores saw even worse performance on the top line. Despite guidance that was tepid at best, investors were pleased with Nordstrom's record full-year sales in 2016, and they seem to believe that the premium retailer will be able to keep its reputation intact even while facing considerable headwinds looking ahead.</p>
<p>Image source: Restoration Hardware.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Investors celebrated the retailer formerly known as Restoration Hardware's preliminary performance results for its most recent quarter, sending the stock higher by 24%. The home furnishings retailer said that it expects adjusted net revenue to come in at $590 million, which is near the top end of its previous guidance range. Moreover, adjusted earnings of $0.68 per share would be higher than most investors had expected, and also near the top of its $0.60 to $0.70 per share prediction from late last year. CEO Gary Friedman noted that RH is "now through the most uncertain stage of our transformation" and that the moves it has made to launch new businesses and creating a membership model "will strengthen our brand and position the business for accelerated growth in 2017 and beyond." Investors agreed, and although plenty of questions remain, RH has gotten beaten down so far that even a bit of good news was enough to make shareholders happy.</p>
<p>Finally, shares of Applied Optoelectronics jumped 23%. The provider of fiber-optic network products for data centers, cable broadband, and telecom providers had another record year, with fourth-quarter revenue soaring 60% from year-ago levels. Adjusted net income nearly quadrupled to $0.84 per share, and the company expects first-quarter results to be similarly upbeat as 2017 begins. CEO Dr. Thompson Lin attributed the positive performance to Applied Optoelectronics' ability to manufacture key products internally, and efforts to streamline its manufacturing process to make it as efficient as possible have paid off handsomely. With the transition to 100G continuing in 2017, Applied Optoelectronics believes it can keep making headway well into the future.</p>
<p>Offer from The Motley Fool: The 10 best stocks to buy nowMotley Fool co-founders Tom and David Gardner have spent more than a decade beating the market. In fact, the newsletter they run, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the S&amp;P 500!*</p>
<p>Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/sa-bbn-usat?aid=8867&amp;source=isausttxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=sa-bbn-evergreen&amp;ftm_pit=6830&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here to get access to the full list! Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of 1/30/2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGalagan/info.aspx" type="external">Dan Caplinger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Nordstrom and RH. 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 Nordstrom, RH, and Applied Optoelectronics Jumped Today
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/02/24/why-nordstrom-rh-and-applied-optoelectronics-jumped-today.html
|
2017-03-16
| 0right
|
Why Nordstrom, RH, and Applied Optoelectronics Jumped Today
<p />
<p>The stock market mounted a last-minute rally to keep its string of winning days alive, as all three major market benchmarks recovered from losses during most of the day to close higher. The performance again showed the complete confidence that investors seem to have in the market's longer-term future, despite the fact that some believe that stocks have generally risen too quickly and have been hoping for a pullback. Enough investors seem to be waiting for an opportunity to buy that losses have generally been muted and short-lived. Moreover, some good news sent many individual stocks higher, and Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN), RH (NYSE: RH), and Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ: AAOI) were among the top performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so well.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Nordstrom shares rose 6% after the company reported its fourth-quarter financial results on Thursday afternoon. The high-end department store retailer said that its sales rose 3%, pushing net income up by 12% from year-ago levels. However, comparable-store sales fell by 0.9% during the quarter, capping a year in which comps fell 0.4% overall. The discount Nordstrom Rack brand continued to carry the load for the retailer, while the namesake Nordstrom premium stores saw even worse performance on the top line. Despite guidance that was tepid at best, investors were pleased with Nordstrom's record full-year sales in 2016, and they seem to believe that the premium retailer will be able to keep its reputation intact even while facing considerable headwinds looking ahead.</p>
<p>Image source: Restoration Hardware.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Investors celebrated the retailer formerly known as Restoration Hardware's preliminary performance results for its most recent quarter, sending the stock higher by 24%. The home furnishings retailer said that it expects adjusted net revenue to come in at $590 million, which is near the top end of its previous guidance range. Moreover, adjusted earnings of $0.68 per share would be higher than most investors had expected, and also near the top of its $0.60 to $0.70 per share prediction from late last year. CEO Gary Friedman noted that RH is "now through the most uncertain stage of our transformation" and that the moves it has made to launch new businesses and creating a membership model "will strengthen our brand and position the business for accelerated growth in 2017 and beyond." Investors agreed, and although plenty of questions remain, RH has gotten beaten down so far that even a bit of good news was enough to make shareholders happy.</p>
<p>Finally, shares of Applied Optoelectronics jumped 23%. The provider of fiber-optic network products for data centers, cable broadband, and telecom providers had another record year, with fourth-quarter revenue soaring 60% from year-ago levels. Adjusted net income nearly quadrupled to $0.84 per share, and the company expects first-quarter results to be similarly upbeat as 2017 begins. CEO Dr. Thompson Lin attributed the positive performance to Applied Optoelectronics' ability to manufacture key products internally, and efforts to streamline its manufacturing process to make it as efficient as possible have paid off handsomely. With the transition to 100G continuing in 2017, Applied Optoelectronics believes it can keep making headway well into the future.</p>
<p>Offer from The Motley Fool: The 10 best stocks to buy nowMotley Fool co-founders Tom and David Gardner have spent more than a decade beating the market. In fact, the newsletter they run, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the S&amp;P 500!*</p>
<p>Tom and David just revealed their ten top stock picks for investors to buy right now.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.fool.com/mms/mark/sa-bbn-usat?aid=8867&amp;source=isausttxt0000002&amp;ftm_cam=sa-bbn-evergreen&amp;ftm_pit=6830&amp;ftm_veh=article_pitch&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here to get access to the full list! Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of 1/30/2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFGalagan/info.aspx" type="external">Dan Caplinger Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Nordstrom and RH. 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>
| 598,836 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Boys Basketball Clayton 69, Tucumcari 33 Cliff 78, Cloudcroft 49 Eldorado 75, Cibola 59 EP Cathedral, Texas 61, Deming 40 Escalante 77, Mesa Vista 41 Gallup 72, Grants 58 Hope Christian 75, Hobbs 72 Logan 71, Grady 45 Magdalena 77, Foothill 44 Portales 65, NMMI 25 Santa Fe Prep 71, Penasco 47 Texico 73, Santa Rosa 66 Tohatchi 85, Navajo Pine 65 Tse Yi Gai 61, Santa Fe Waldorf School 54</p>
<p>Girls Basketball Clayton 55, Tucumcari 36 Clovis 63, Goddard 25 Floyd 58, Jal 48 Gallup 72, Grants 58 Hobbs 68, Hope Christian 36 Hot Springs 42, Deming 27 Jemez Valley 102, Alamo-Navajo 37 Logan 90, Grady 19 Mayfield 46, Alamogordo 32 Mayfield 73, Cleveland 35 Piedra Vista 72, Aztec 30 Roswell 44, Las Cruces 32 Shiprock 79, Thoreau 34 Springer 47, Fort Sumner 35 Tse Yi Gai 59, Santa Fe Waldorf School 36 Valencia 43, Belen 33</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
Prep basketball scores for Saturday, Feb. 1
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/346613/prep-basketball-scores-for-saturday-feb-1.html
| 2least
|
Prep basketball scores for Saturday, Feb. 1
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>Boys Basketball Clayton 69, Tucumcari 33 Cliff 78, Cloudcroft 49 Eldorado 75, Cibola 59 EP Cathedral, Texas 61, Deming 40 Escalante 77, Mesa Vista 41 Gallup 72, Grants 58 Hope Christian 75, Hobbs 72 Logan 71, Grady 45 Magdalena 77, Foothill 44 Portales 65, NMMI 25 Santa Fe Prep 71, Penasco 47 Texico 73, Santa Rosa 66 Tohatchi 85, Navajo Pine 65 Tse Yi Gai 61, Santa Fe Waldorf School 54</p>
<p>Girls Basketball Clayton 55, Tucumcari 36 Clovis 63, Goddard 25 Floyd 58, Jal 48 Gallup 72, Grants 58 Hobbs 68, Hope Christian 36 Hot Springs 42, Deming 27 Jemez Valley 102, Alamo-Navajo 37 Logan 90, Grady 19 Mayfield 46, Alamogordo 32 Mayfield 73, Cleveland 35 Piedra Vista 72, Aztec 30 Roswell 44, Las Cruces 32 Shiprock 79, Thoreau 34 Springer 47, Fort Sumner 35 Tse Yi Gai 59, Santa Fe Waldorf School 36 Valencia 43, Belen 33</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 598,837 |
|
<p />
<p>Image source: Stratasys.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What: March was an especially kind month to 3D printing stocks. Stratasys' stock gained 27.9%, while shares of 3D Systems ended 36.9% higher. Both moves were fueled by better than expected fourth-quarter earnings released during the month.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/SSYS" type="external">SSYS</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>So what: Stratasys' fourth-quarter revenue fell 20.2% year over year to $173.4 million, which translated to an adjusted earnings loss of $0.01 per share. These results compared favorably to Wall Street expectations, which called for Stratasys to generate $168.3 million in revenue and lose an adjusted $0.08 per share during the fourth-quarter.</p>
<p>Despite beating expectations, Stratasys' earnings reflected continued weakness in the 3D printing sector. Throughout 2015, Stratasys and 3D Systems experienced a notable slowdown in customer spending that negatively affected their performance. Stratasys believes this slowdown was caused by customers purchasing more 3D printers than they needed in previous years, which essentially created an oversupply of 3D printing capacity in the marketplace and prompted a slowdown in demand.</p>
<p>Overall, Stratasys' 3D printer sales fell 37% year over year. By comparison, 3D Systems' hardware sells fell 16.1% in the fourth quarter. This fall in hardware sales undermines Stratasys' razor-and-blade model as a long-term growth driver. Without strong 3D printer sales, the idea that Stratasys can drive long-term earnings growth through the recurring sale of high-margin consumables, loses some credibility.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Now what: Stratasys believes that the uncertainty surrounding 3D printing demand is likely to continue this year. Management issued 2016 full-year revenue guidance that calls for sales to increase by 2.7% at the midpoint of the $700 million to $730 million range. The company is also in the process of restructuring its business to improve its operating performance and financial flexibility.</p>
<p>In other words, there's a lot of uncertainty currently surrounding Stratasys' stock -- internally and externally. Until the demand picture improves and Stratasys' restructuring efforts show meaningful progress, investors should buckle up for more volatility.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/06/why-stratasys-stock-jumped-279-in-march.aspx" type="external">Why Stratasys Stock Jumped 27.9% in March Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTopDown/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Steve Heller Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of 3D Systems. The Motley Fool recommends 3D Systems and Stratasys. 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>
|
Why Stratasys Stock Jumped 27.9% in March
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/06/why-stratasys-stock-jumped-27-in-march.html
|
2016-04-06
| 0right
|
Why Stratasys Stock Jumped 27.9% in March
<p />
<p>Image source: Stratasys.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What: March was an especially kind month to 3D printing stocks. Stratasys' stock gained 27.9%, while shares of 3D Systems ended 36.9% higher. Both moves were fueled by better than expected fourth-quarter earnings released during the month.</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/SSYS" type="external">SSYS</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a></p>
<p>So what: Stratasys' fourth-quarter revenue fell 20.2% year over year to $173.4 million, which translated to an adjusted earnings loss of $0.01 per share. These results compared favorably to Wall Street expectations, which called for Stratasys to generate $168.3 million in revenue and lose an adjusted $0.08 per share during the fourth-quarter.</p>
<p>Despite beating expectations, Stratasys' earnings reflected continued weakness in the 3D printing sector. Throughout 2015, Stratasys and 3D Systems experienced a notable slowdown in customer spending that negatively affected their performance. Stratasys believes this slowdown was caused by customers purchasing more 3D printers than they needed in previous years, which essentially created an oversupply of 3D printing capacity in the marketplace and prompted a slowdown in demand.</p>
<p>Overall, Stratasys' 3D printer sales fell 37% year over year. By comparison, 3D Systems' hardware sells fell 16.1% in the fourth quarter. This fall in hardware sales undermines Stratasys' razor-and-blade model as a long-term growth driver. Without strong 3D printer sales, the idea that Stratasys can drive long-term earnings growth through the recurring sale of high-margin consumables, loses some credibility.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Now what: Stratasys believes that the uncertainty surrounding 3D printing demand is likely to continue this year. Management issued 2016 full-year revenue guidance that calls for sales to increase by 2.7% at the midpoint of the $700 million to $730 million range. The company is also in the process of restructuring its business to improve its operating performance and financial flexibility.</p>
<p>In other words, there's a lot of uncertainty currently surrounding Stratasys' stock -- internally and externally. Until the demand picture improves and Stratasys' restructuring efforts show meaningful progress, investors should buckle up for more volatility.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/06/why-stratasys-stock-jumped-279-in-march.aspx" type="external">Why Stratasys Stock Jumped 27.9% in March Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFTopDown/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Steve Heller Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of 3D Systems. The Motley Fool recommends 3D Systems and Stratasys. 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>
| 598,838 |
<p>A new wind turbine design has no exposed blades which could injure birds or bats. Plus it is silent and more powerful than traditional turbines.</p>
<p>This <a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2012/09/04/bird-safe-wind-turbines-may-soon-take-flight/" type="external">turbine design</a> utilizes no exposed turbine blades, but instead a form of air compression cone technology. It’s name? Catching Wind Power® Compressed Air Enclosed Wind Turbine.</p>
|
Bird safe wind turbine
| false |
https://ivn.us/2012/09/05/bird-safe-wind-turbine/
|
2012-09-05
| 2least
|
Bird safe wind turbine
<p>A new wind turbine design has no exposed blades which could injure birds or bats. Plus it is silent and more powerful than traditional turbines.</p>
<p>This <a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2012/09/04/bird-safe-wind-turbines-may-soon-take-flight/" type="external">turbine design</a> utilizes no exposed turbine blades, but instead a form of air compression cone technology. It’s name? Catching Wind Power® Compressed Air Enclosed Wind Turbine.</p>
| 598,839 |
<p />
<p>The Federal Communications Commission sent a letter to AT&amp;T Inc. to express concerns over the telecom company's practice of exempting its own streaming video services from data-usage caps for its wireless customers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Dallas telecom giant, which agreed to buy Time Warner Inc. for $85.4 billion last month, began the practice known as "zero-rating" with its own DirecTV's video app in September. AT&amp;T has said it plans to do the same for its over-the-top service DirecTV Now when it launches later this month.</p>
<p>AT&amp;T's practice "may obstruct competition and harm consumers by constraining their ability to access existing and future mobile video services not affiliated with AT&amp;T," Jon Wilkins, the head of the FCC's wireless division, wrote in a letter to Robert Quinn, AT&amp;T's head of external and legislative affairs.</p>
<p>In a statement responding to the letter, Mr. Quinn argued that consumers benefit from the program because it lets others pay for data use. "We welcome any video provider that wishes to sponsor its content in the same 'data free' way," he said. "We'll do so on equal terms at our lowest wholesale rates."</p>
<p>AT&amp;T says zero-rating promotes competition. It says it offers any company that wants to be zero-rated the same payment terms available to its DirecTV subsidiary. But the FCC is arguing that the in-house payments made by DirecTV don't require any net outlays by the parent company, and so can't be compared with AT&amp;T's rivals paying for the same privilege.</p>
|
FCC Cracks Down on AT&T
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/11/10/fcc-cracks-down-on-at-t.html
|
2016-11-10
| 0right
|
FCC Cracks Down on AT&T
<p />
<p>The Federal Communications Commission sent a letter to AT&amp;T Inc. to express concerns over the telecom company's practice of exempting its own streaming video services from data-usage caps for its wireless customers.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Dallas telecom giant, which agreed to buy Time Warner Inc. for $85.4 billion last month, began the practice known as "zero-rating" with its own DirecTV's video app in September. AT&amp;T has said it plans to do the same for its over-the-top service DirecTV Now when it launches later this month.</p>
<p>AT&amp;T's practice "may obstruct competition and harm consumers by constraining their ability to access existing and future mobile video services not affiliated with AT&amp;T," Jon Wilkins, the head of the FCC's wireless division, wrote in a letter to Robert Quinn, AT&amp;T's head of external and legislative affairs.</p>
<p>In a statement responding to the letter, Mr. Quinn argued that consumers benefit from the program because it lets others pay for data use. "We welcome any video provider that wishes to sponsor its content in the same 'data free' way," he said. "We'll do so on equal terms at our lowest wholesale rates."</p>
<p>AT&amp;T says zero-rating promotes competition. It says it offers any company that wants to be zero-rated the same payment terms available to its DirecTV subsidiary. But the FCC is arguing that the in-house payments made by DirecTV don't require any net outlays by the parent company, and so can't be compared with AT&amp;T's rivals paying for the same privilege.</p>
| 598,840 |
<p>WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new prime minister reshuffled his Cabinet on Tuesday, ousting the controversial ministers of foreign affairs, defense and the environment in a move aimed at mending relations with partners in the European Union.</p>
<p>Mateusz Morawiecki, who became prime minister in December replacing Beata Szydlo, is seeking to improve Poland’s deteriorating position in the EU and head off possible EU sanctions.</p>
<p>Later in the day, the office of the European Commission’s head, Jean-Claude Juncker, said the two had a “friendly” and “constructive” dinner in Brussels and would be seeking to make progress on better ties by the end of February.</p>
<p>EU leaders have raised a series of concerns over Poland’s changes to its justice system, government-approved logging in an old forest and refusal to take in migrants under an EU plan. They have opened a sanctioning procedure that could strip Poland of its EU voting rights.</p>
<p>Morawiecki said at a news conference sought to explain to Juncker the goal of the changes in the justice system and that they are long-awaited and necessary.</p>
<p>“I said that our intentions are aimed at making the system more efficient, more just and more objective” as well as transparent and cost-efficient, he said.</p>
<p>Other themes included energy and climate policy as well as the approximately 1 million Ukrainians fleeing the conflict with Russia who have been given refuge in Poland.</p>
<p>In making his government reshuffle, Morawiecki seemed to have persuaded Poland’s most powerful politician, ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, that the Cabinet ministers most criticized by EU leaders and by the opposition should go.</p>
<p>“We are not and we don’t want to be a dogmatic, doctrinal government, or a government of socialist or neo-liberal extremities,” Morawiecki said during a swearing-in ceremony for the new ministers at the Presidential Palace.</p>
<p>He said he wants Poland to have an important role in a strong Europe.</p>
<p>The composition of the new government suggests Poland is attempting a more conciliatory approach to the EU.</p>
<p>“I see it as a continuation of the drive to calm the situation and the emotions in areas where conflict was not needed” including the environment and the defense sectors, said Malgorzata Bonikowska, head of the Centre for International Relations think tank.</p>
<p>The removals of Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski and Environment Minister Jan Szyszko, whose decision to cut trees in the pristine Bialowieza Forest has led to a procedure against Poland at the European Court of Justice, shows a will to mend fences within the EU. They were respectively replaced by Jacek Czaputowicz, the deputy foreign minister, and by a government economic expert, Henryk Kowalczyk.</p>
<p>The new defense minister is Mariusz Blaszczak, the former interior minister, replacing a minister blamed for abruptly cancelling a deal to buy French-made helicopters.</p>
<p>Morawiecki kept Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, the author of the sweeping reform of the justice system, in a sign that he backs the changes.</p>
<p>New finance and development ministers were also appointed as the jobs were vacated by Morawiecki when he became prime minister.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.</p>
<p>WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new prime minister reshuffled his Cabinet on Tuesday, ousting the controversial ministers of foreign affairs, defense and the environment in a move aimed at mending relations with partners in the European Union.</p>
<p>Mateusz Morawiecki, who became prime minister in December replacing Beata Szydlo, is seeking to improve Poland’s deteriorating position in the EU and head off possible EU sanctions.</p>
<p>Later in the day, the office of the European Commission’s head, Jean-Claude Juncker, said the two had a “friendly” and “constructive” dinner in Brussels and would be seeking to make progress on better ties by the end of February.</p>
<p>EU leaders have raised a series of concerns over Poland’s changes to its justice system, government-approved logging in an old forest and refusal to take in migrants under an EU plan. They have opened a sanctioning procedure that could strip Poland of its EU voting rights.</p>
<p>Morawiecki said at a news conference sought to explain to Juncker the goal of the changes in the justice system and that they are long-awaited and necessary.</p>
<p>“I said that our intentions are aimed at making the system more efficient, more just and more objective” as well as transparent and cost-efficient, he said.</p>
<p>Other themes included energy and climate policy as well as the approximately 1 million Ukrainians fleeing the conflict with Russia who have been given refuge in Poland.</p>
<p>In making his government reshuffle, Morawiecki seemed to have persuaded Poland’s most powerful politician, ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, that the Cabinet ministers most criticized by EU leaders and by the opposition should go.</p>
<p>“We are not and we don’t want to be a dogmatic, doctrinal government, or a government of socialist or neo-liberal extremities,” Morawiecki said during a swearing-in ceremony for the new ministers at the Presidential Palace.</p>
<p>He said he wants Poland to have an important role in a strong Europe.</p>
<p>The composition of the new government suggests Poland is attempting a more conciliatory approach to the EU.</p>
<p>“I see it as a continuation of the drive to calm the situation and the emotions in areas where conflict was not needed” including the environment and the defense sectors, said Malgorzata Bonikowska, head of the Centre for International Relations think tank.</p>
<p>The removals of Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski and Environment Minister Jan Szyszko, whose decision to cut trees in the pristine Bialowieza Forest has led to a procedure against Poland at the European Court of Justice, shows a will to mend fences within the EU. They were respectively replaced by Jacek Czaputowicz, the deputy foreign minister, and by a government economic expert, Henryk Kowalczyk.</p>
<p>The new defense minister is Mariusz Blaszczak, the former interior minister, replacing a minister blamed for abruptly cancelling a deal to buy French-made helicopters.</p>
<p>Morawiecki kept Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, the author of the sweeping reform of the justice system, in a sign that he backs the changes.</p>
<p>New finance and development ministers were also appointed as the jobs were vacated by Morawiecki when he became prime minister.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.</p>
|
Polish PM reshuffles his Cabinet to warm EU ties
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https://apnews.com/1ddac3e1f5a54163b52c626f60e4111b
|
2018-01-09
| 2least
|
Polish PM reshuffles his Cabinet to warm EU ties
<p>WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new prime minister reshuffled his Cabinet on Tuesday, ousting the controversial ministers of foreign affairs, defense and the environment in a move aimed at mending relations with partners in the European Union.</p>
<p>Mateusz Morawiecki, who became prime minister in December replacing Beata Szydlo, is seeking to improve Poland’s deteriorating position in the EU and head off possible EU sanctions.</p>
<p>Later in the day, the office of the European Commission’s head, Jean-Claude Juncker, said the two had a “friendly” and “constructive” dinner in Brussels and would be seeking to make progress on better ties by the end of February.</p>
<p>EU leaders have raised a series of concerns over Poland’s changes to its justice system, government-approved logging in an old forest and refusal to take in migrants under an EU plan. They have opened a sanctioning procedure that could strip Poland of its EU voting rights.</p>
<p>Morawiecki said at a news conference sought to explain to Juncker the goal of the changes in the justice system and that they are long-awaited and necessary.</p>
<p>“I said that our intentions are aimed at making the system more efficient, more just and more objective” as well as transparent and cost-efficient, he said.</p>
<p>Other themes included energy and climate policy as well as the approximately 1 million Ukrainians fleeing the conflict with Russia who have been given refuge in Poland.</p>
<p>In making his government reshuffle, Morawiecki seemed to have persuaded Poland’s most powerful politician, ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, that the Cabinet ministers most criticized by EU leaders and by the opposition should go.</p>
<p>“We are not and we don’t want to be a dogmatic, doctrinal government, or a government of socialist or neo-liberal extremities,” Morawiecki said during a swearing-in ceremony for the new ministers at the Presidential Palace.</p>
<p>He said he wants Poland to have an important role in a strong Europe.</p>
<p>The composition of the new government suggests Poland is attempting a more conciliatory approach to the EU.</p>
<p>“I see it as a continuation of the drive to calm the situation and the emotions in areas where conflict was not needed” including the environment and the defense sectors, said Malgorzata Bonikowska, head of the Centre for International Relations think tank.</p>
<p>The removals of Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski and Environment Minister Jan Szyszko, whose decision to cut trees in the pristine Bialowieza Forest has led to a procedure against Poland at the European Court of Justice, shows a will to mend fences within the EU. They were respectively replaced by Jacek Czaputowicz, the deputy foreign minister, and by a government economic expert, Henryk Kowalczyk.</p>
<p>The new defense minister is Mariusz Blaszczak, the former interior minister, replacing a minister blamed for abruptly cancelling a deal to buy French-made helicopters.</p>
<p>Morawiecki kept Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, the author of the sweeping reform of the justice system, in a sign that he backs the changes.</p>
<p>New finance and development ministers were also appointed as the jobs were vacated by Morawiecki when he became prime minister.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.</p>
<p>WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new prime minister reshuffled his Cabinet on Tuesday, ousting the controversial ministers of foreign affairs, defense and the environment in a move aimed at mending relations with partners in the European Union.</p>
<p>Mateusz Morawiecki, who became prime minister in December replacing Beata Szydlo, is seeking to improve Poland’s deteriorating position in the EU and head off possible EU sanctions.</p>
<p>Later in the day, the office of the European Commission’s head, Jean-Claude Juncker, said the two had a “friendly” and “constructive” dinner in Brussels and would be seeking to make progress on better ties by the end of February.</p>
<p>EU leaders have raised a series of concerns over Poland’s changes to its justice system, government-approved logging in an old forest and refusal to take in migrants under an EU plan. They have opened a sanctioning procedure that could strip Poland of its EU voting rights.</p>
<p>Morawiecki said at a news conference sought to explain to Juncker the goal of the changes in the justice system and that they are long-awaited and necessary.</p>
<p>“I said that our intentions are aimed at making the system more efficient, more just and more objective” as well as transparent and cost-efficient, he said.</p>
<p>Other themes included energy and climate policy as well as the approximately 1 million Ukrainians fleeing the conflict with Russia who have been given refuge in Poland.</p>
<p>In making his government reshuffle, Morawiecki seemed to have persuaded Poland’s most powerful politician, ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, that the Cabinet ministers most criticized by EU leaders and by the opposition should go.</p>
<p>“We are not and we don’t want to be a dogmatic, doctrinal government, or a government of socialist or neo-liberal extremities,” Morawiecki said during a swearing-in ceremony for the new ministers at the Presidential Palace.</p>
<p>He said he wants Poland to have an important role in a strong Europe.</p>
<p>The composition of the new government suggests Poland is attempting a more conciliatory approach to the EU.</p>
<p>“I see it as a continuation of the drive to calm the situation and the emotions in areas where conflict was not needed” including the environment and the defense sectors, said Malgorzata Bonikowska, head of the Centre for International Relations think tank.</p>
<p>The removals of Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski and Environment Minister Jan Szyszko, whose decision to cut trees in the pristine Bialowieza Forest has led to a procedure against Poland at the European Court of Justice, shows a will to mend fences within the EU. They were respectively replaced by Jacek Czaputowicz, the deputy foreign minister, and by a government economic expert, Henryk Kowalczyk.</p>
<p>The new defense minister is Mariusz Blaszczak, the former interior minister, replacing a minister blamed for abruptly cancelling a deal to buy French-made helicopters.</p>
<p>Morawiecki kept Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, the author of the sweeping reform of the justice system, in a sign that he backs the changes.</p>
<p>New finance and development ministers were also appointed as the jobs were vacated by Morawiecki when he became prime minister.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.</p>
| 598,841 |
<p>NORTH KOREA BOMB TEST RATCHETS NUCLEAR FEARS: LIVE BLOG</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 5:15 PM ET</p>
<p>Signing off</p>
<p>This live blog is now closed, but please <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/breaking-news" type="external">check here</a> for developments.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 5:00 PM ET</p>
<p>Chinese netizens amused by 'naughty' Kim</p>
<p>While the Chinese government has voiced its opposition to the North Korea nuclear test, the Chinese public viewed the proceedings with a decidedly lighter air.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/12/the_laughingstock_next_door_north_korea_china_satire" type="external">Foreign Policy magazine wrote</a>:</p>
<p>"He's so naughty!" chided one web user, while another suggested that the resulting earthquake came from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un eating too much and falling on his posterior.</p>
<p>It wasn't the first time Kim had been the butt of jokes in China. After North Korea's successful missile launch on Dec. 12, many expressed joy and pride on behalf of the North Korean masses. "The brigade members plowing the hills of Seipo County were so inspired by the successful launch of the second Earth observation satellite that they opened up thousands of hectares of wasteland in just a few days," one message from a popular satirist nicknamed Miss Choi in Pyongyang read, pretending to be oblivious to North Korea's failed rocket launch test in April. "Big Brother [China], please step up your effort, or we will surpass you!"</p>
<p>Not everyone was in on the joke. A journalist at China's independent-minded newspaper Southern Weekly said, "Isn't laughing at North Korea like the pot calling the kettle black?"</p>
<p>Read <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/12/the_laughingstock_next_door_north_korea_china_satire" type="external">the whole story here</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 3:24 PM ET</p>
<p>The Kim dynasty in 2013</p>
<p>The Feb. 12, 2013 nuclear test dashed any remaining hopes for change under Kim Jong Un. What does that mean for people unlucky enough to be born in North Korea?</p>
<p>GlobalPost's in-depth series, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/series/next-kim" type="external">"Next of Kim," takes a look</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 3:15 PM ET</p>
<p>Plutonium v. Uranium</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/02/12/why-its-so-hard-to-tell-if-north-korea-used-a-plutonium-or-much-scarier-uranium-bomb/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost" type="external">The Washington Post wrote</a> that the biggest question coming out of North Korea's nuclear test is whether the country used plutonium or uranium as its nuclear material. There are four reasons, said The Post, that the answer to that question matters:</p>
<p>1. North Korea would have two ways to build a bomb, which means a potentially larger arsenal.</p>
<p>2. The country has a natural supply of uranium and can enrich to bomb-making levels in secret; plutonium is limited and is much tougher to hide. So its weaponized uranium would be tougher to keep track of and easier to make in larger quantities.</p>
<p>3. Iran uses uranium in its nuclear program, so North Korea could share research and lessons from the nuclear test with Tehran.</p>
<p>4. Uranium is easier to ship abroad, meaning North Korea could more easily sell it.</p>
<p>Read more about the importance of answering that question <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/02/12/why-its-so-hard-to-tell-if-north-korea-used-a-plutonium-or-much-scarier-uranium-bomb/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/isis-statement-on-north-korean-nuclear-test/10" type="external">Institute for Science and International Security commented</a> on the other significant detail of this nuclear test: North Korea's claims about its miniaturization capability.</p>
<p>It should not come as a surprise to the international community that North Korea may now have the capability to explode a miniaturized nuclear device. ISIS (and key members of the U.S. intelligence community) have assessed for some time that North Korea likely has the capability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon for its 800 mile range Nodong missile. Although more information is needed to make a sound assessment, this test could, as North Korea has stated, demonstrate this capability.</p>
<p>Read the <a href="http://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/isis-statement-on-north-korean-nuclear-test/10" type="external">full report here</a>.</p>
<p>Check out more about nuclear sites in North Korea from the BBC:</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 2:55 PM ET</p>
<p>Obama talks to South Korean president</p>
<p>President Obama spoke to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to "consult and coordinate" their response to North Korea's nuclear test, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/12/readout-presidents-call-republic-korea-president-lee-myung-bak" type="external">the White House said in a statement</a>.</p>
<p>Obama and Lee "condemned this highly provocative violation of North Korea’s international obligations," the statement said.</p>
<p>They agreed to work closely together, including at the United Nations Security Council, to seek a range of measures aimed at impeding North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and reducing the risk of proliferation. President Obama unequivocally reaffirmed that the United States remains steadfast in its defense commitments to the Republic of Korea, including the extended deterrence offered by the U.S. nuclear umbrella.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 2:40 PM ET</p>
<p>State Dept: North Korea told US a test was coming</p>
<p>North Korea warned the US of its upcoming nuclear test prior to Tuesday, but had not indicated when the test would take place, the US State Department said this afternoon.</p>
<p>"The DPRK did inform us at the State Department of their intention to conduct a nuclear test, without citing any specific timing," <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/12/us-korea-north-usa-advise-idUSBRE91B1AB20130212" type="external">spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said</a>.</p>
<p>Also on Tuesday, US Ambassador to the UN <a href="http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/204033.htm" type="external">Susan Rice told reporters</a>that the US is seeking "to augment the sanctions regime that is already quite strong."</p>
<p>In response, a reporter asked Rice: "With financial sanctions? Sanctions on the financial institutions? Anything more in significant action?"</p>
<p>She answered: "All of those categories are areas that we think are ripe for appropriate further action."</p>
<p>Read the full text of Rice's remarks <a href="http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/204033.htm" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 2:15 PM ET</p>
<p>China is 'strongly dissatisfied'</p>
<p>North Korea’s nuclear test may pose the greatest challenge to its cautious ally China, where many still see their impoverished Stalinist neighbor as a buffer against Western countries.</p>
<p>It’s the first major foreign policy test for Xi Jinping, the new head of the Communist Party in China, which had urged North Korea not to go ahead with its plans.</p>
<p>The initial reaction, posted on a Foreign Ministry website, was muted. It said the Chinese government expressed “staunch opposition” to the test and “strongly urges” North Korea to hold its promise to abandon its nuclear program.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/12/us-korea-north-idUSBRE91B04820130212" type="external">Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said</a> China was "strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed" to the test and urged North Korea to "stop any rhetoric or acts that could worsen situations and return to the right course of dialogue and consultation as soon as possible".</p>
<p>Yang later summoned North Korean ambassador Ji Jae Ryong to state China’s opposition to the test.</p>
<p>China observers are closely watching Xi’s response for early signs of his foreign policy. He’s said he wants Beijing and Washington to develop a “new type of relationship between two great powers.”</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 1:35 PM ET</p>
<p>Israel condemns nuclear test, Iran calls for nuclear weapons-free world</p>
<p>GlobalPost's senior correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky reported from Jerusalem:</p>
<p>Iran said it “disapproves” of North Korea's nuclear test and called for a world without nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>Locked in its own bitter standoff with Western countries over suspicions it’s developing a secret nuclear weapons program, Tehran said all weapons of mass destruction and nuclear arms "should be destroyed."</p>
<p>"We need to come to the point where no country has any nuclear weapons," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.</p>
<p>Iran strenuously denies accusations it’s developing nuclear weapons, saying it is interested only in civil nuclear energy. “All countries should have the right to make use of nuclear activities for peaceful purposes," Mehmanparast said.</p>
<p>Tehran was among a small handful of countries that congratulated North Korea on its successful launch of a satellite into earth orbit last December, but denied helping prepare the launch.</p>
<p>A 2011 UN sanctions report said Tehran and Pyongyang were suspected of sharing ballistic missile technology.</p>
<p>In Israel, the Foreign Ministry said it strongly condemned North Korea’s nuclear test, saying in a statement that it “joins the international community in expressing the grave danger that this act poses to regional stability and international peace and security.”</p>
<p>“These actions by the DPRK, in violation of its international obligations, must be met with a swift response by the international community,” the statement continued.</p>
<p>Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor also questioned Iran’s call to ban nuclear arms. “Iran's credibility in nuclear issues can only and exclusively be vouched for by the International Atomic Energy Agency,” he said in an interview. “Since that is not precisely the case, I refer any Iranian with ideas about nuclear disarmament to the IAEA."</p>
<p>He also said <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/world/middleeast/iran-converts-enriched-uranium-to-reactor-fuel-reports-say.html" type="external">a New York Times story on Tuesday</a> that reported Iran had converted some of its stockpiled enriched uranium into nuclear fuel may be old news. He said Defense Minister Ehud Barak had said two months ago that Iran had repurposed some of its enriched uranium for research uses, saying it had "taken them a bit further away from the red line" because it’s more difficult to refine nuclear fuel to weapons-grade purity.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 1:05 PM ET</p>
<p>Major embarrassment for Obama?</p>
<p>Whether it was intentional or not, North Korea's test happened on the eve of US President Obama's State of the Union speech. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/north-koreas-nuke-test-pokes-obama-in-the-eye-on-the-eve-of-the-sotu/273082/" type="external">told National Journal</a> that North Korea's test would not alter Obama's nonproliferation message, but National Journal noted that it might be seen as a major embarrassment for Obama.</p>
<p>According to his advisers, Obama was set to make nonproliferation a key goal in his second term.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/us/politics/obama-to-renew-drive-for-cuts-in-nuclear-arms.html?_r=0" type="external">The New York Times wrote</a> on Monday that Obama was expected to renew a commitment to disarmament which he made in a landmark speech in Prague in April 2009. He was expected to announce a draw down of the number of deployed strategic warheads, which currently numbers 1,700.</p>
<p>Obama, administration officials say, is unlikely to discuss specific numbers in the address, but White House officials are looking at a cut that would take the arsenal of deployed weapons to just above 1,000. Currently there are about 1,700, and the new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia that passed the Senate at the end of 2009 calls for a limit of roughly 1,550 by 2018.</p>
<p>National Journal noted that in the immediate aftermath of the test, White House officials have sought to play down the Times article, saying it exaggerated the Obama administration's willingness to go forward with the cuts.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 12:30 PM ET</p>
<p>What does North Korea's nuclear test reveal?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130212/what-does-north-koreas-nuclear-test-reveal" type="external">Agence France-Presse</a> — North Korea's nuclear test opens a rare, limited window for expert evaluation of its atomic weapons program, with an added urgency lent by Pyongyang's claim to have detonated a "miniaturized" device.</p>
<p>Seismic monitors and "sniffer" planes capable of collecting radioactive evidence of Tuesday's test will provide the forensic material for analysts to try to determine the exact yield and nature of the underground explosion.</p>
<p>Pyongyang said the "high-level" test involved a "miniaturized and lighter atomic bomb" with a much greater yield than the plutonium devices it detonated in 2006 and 2009. Miniaturization is needed to fit a warhead on a missile.</p>
<p>South Korea's defense ministry said seismic data suggested the explosive yield was significantly higher than the two previous tests at six to seven kilotons.</p>
<p>One key question analysts will be looking to answer was whether the North has switched from plutonium to a new and self-sustaining nuclear weaponization program using uranium.</p>
<p>Judging the type of fissile material requires the detection and analysis of xenon gases produced in the atomic explosion.</p>
<p>"These aren't necessarily easy to find and, if the test was well contained, may not be found at all," said Paul Carroll, program director at the Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation based in California.</p>
<p>"The miniaturization claim is provocative because that's exactly the technology we don't want them to have," Carroll said, adding that it was a very difficult claim to confirm or refute.</p>
<p>The same six-seven kiloton yield could equally be achieved with a small, efficient device or a very large, inefficient one, with seismic data unable to differentiate between the two, he said.</p>
<p>Proof that the North had mastered warhead miniaturization would be an alarming game changer -- especially given its successful rocket launch in December which marked a major step forward in ballistic prowess.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 12:15 PM ET</p>
<p>UN vows action on 'grave violation'</p>
<p>After their meeting this morning, the <a href="http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2013/02/security-council-condemns-nuclear-test-by-north-korea/" type="external">United Nations Security Council vowed to respond</a> to North Korea's nuclear test.</p>
<p>&#160;"The members of the Security Council strongly condemned this test, which is a grave violation of Security Council resolution 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009) and 2087 (2013), and therefore there continues to exist a clear threat to international peace and security."</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2013/02/security-council-condemns-nuclear-test-by-north-korea/" type="external">body said it will begin working immediately</a>on a resolution containing "appropriate measures."</p>
<p>A spokesman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon <a href="http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=6596" type="external">said in a statement</a>:</p>
<p>"The Secretary-General condemns the underground nuclear weapon test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) today. It is a clear and grave violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions.</p>
<p>"The Secretary-General is gravely concerned about the negative impact of this deeply destabilizing act on regional stability as well as the global efforts for nuclear non-proliferation."</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 11:30 AM ET</p>
<p>NATO joins chorus of condemnation</p>
<p>BRUSSELS —&#160;NATO has condemned North Korea’s nuclear test "in the strongest terms" and called on Pyongyang to immediately bring such "provocative actions" to an end.</p>
<p>"This irresponsible act, along with the December missile launch, poses a grave threat to international and regional peace, security and stability," the alliance said in a statement.</p>
<p>Europe was united in its condemnation, holding out the threat of more sanctions through the UN.</p>
<p>President Francois Hollande said France would work to secure "firm action" from the UN Security Council in response. "North Korea must unconditionally abstain from any act that risks heightening tension in the Korean peninsula and impact on peace and international security," he said in a statement.</p>
<p>"The international community must respond with a clear stance to this fresh provocation," Germany's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Further sanctions against the regime in Pyongyang must be considered."</p>
<p>Poland's Foreign Minister Radislaw Sikorski was quoted as saying the North Korea test underscored the importance of developing anti-missile technology. He also suggested China should increase pressure on the DPRK regime.</p>
<p>"Without [China's] support, without the border open to trade and the movement of people, the regime [in North Korea] might not survive more than a few months,” Sikorski told Polish radio.</p>
<p>The European Union issued its own statement saying it would "work with key partners and the wider international community to build a firm and unified response aiming at demonstrating to the DPRK that there are consequences for its continued violations of UNSC Resolutions.”&#160;—&#160;Paul Ames, GlobalPost</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 11:15 AM ET</p>
<p>Japan says North Korean nuclear test is 'totally unacceptable'</p>
<p>TOKYO —&#160;Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an emergency security meeting to discuss Japan’s response to North Korea’s nuclear test on Monday after the United States warned it was imminent.</p>
<p>Having already implemented a raft of bilateral and UN-led sanctions following previous North Korean rocket launches and nuclear tests, however, Tokyo’s options for further action seem fairly limited.</p>
<p>Abe joined other world leaders condemning the test. "The nuclear test by North Korea is totally unacceptable, as it constitutes a grave threat to Japan's security, represents a grave challenge to the international disarmament and non-proliferation regime centered on the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and seriously undermines the peace and security of Northeast Asia,” he said.</p>
<p>"I have ordered that we consider every possible way to address this issue, including our own sanctions, while co-operating with other countries,” he added.</p>
<p>Later on Tuesday, he said in a statement that Japan would tighten immigration controls for officials from a pro-Pyongyang association of Korean residents in Japan.</p>
<p>The top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said Tokyo was also considering additional financial measures against North Korea.</p>
<p>Japan introduced a range of sanctions against the North after its nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, including a ban on all exports and imports, and on North Korean ships entering Japanese ports.</p>
<p>Tokyo considers itself among the countries most at risk from North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program.</p>
<p>A US ally in the region, Japan is still the target of bitter resentment among many Koreans on both sides of the demilitarized zone dividing North and South over its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945.</p>
<p>In a meeting with Washington’s ambassador to Tokyo, John Roos, Abe vowed to work with the United States in pushing a new round of sanctions through the UN Security Council.</p>
<p>The test “threatens … peace and security not only for Japan but for the United States,” the Kyodo news agency reported Roos as saying.</p>
<p>A hawk who has represented the families of <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/japan/090316/abduction-espionage-alleged-murder-and-intrigue-the-korean-peninsula?page=full" type="external">Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents during the Cold War</a>, Abe was elected prime minister in December, and&#160;vowed to take a tough stance against North Korea.</p>
<p>He’s expected to discuss the North’s nuclear program and Northeast Asian security during talks with president Obama in Washington next week. —&#160;Justin McCurry, GlobalPost</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 10:40 AM ET</p>
<p>North Korea isn't sorry, and has the US in its sights</p>
<p>"This is the wrong step in the wrong direction," Tibor Toth, the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, <a href="http://www.ntn24.com/news/node/20999" type="external">told Reuters</a>. "This is a challenge to this norm observed by the international community of not carrying out nuclear weapons explosions."</p>
<p>Unverified estimates indicate that Tuesday's test may have been twice the size of a test by the Hermit Kingdom in 2009.</p>
<p>But Pyongyang is defiant, threatening " <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57568865/north-korea-nuke-test-just-a-first-response-aimed-at-u.s/" type="external">second and third measures of greater intensity</a>" if the US doesn't soften what the North takes to be an aggressive stance.</p>
<p><a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/interactive/ap-interactive-north-korea" type="external">Check out the Associated Press's comprehensive interactive graphics</a> about North Korea's nuclear history and capability.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 9:50 AM ET</p>
<p>US estimates size of North Korea's tested bomb at 'several kilotons'</p>
<p><a href="http://web1.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130212/urgent-us-intel-probable-nkorea-test-several-kilotons" type="external">Agence France-Presse</a> —&#160;US intelligence agencies believe North Korea "probably" conducted an underground nuclear test with a yield of several kilotons, the office of the Director of National Intelligence said Tuesday.</p>
<p>"The explosion yield was approximately several kilotons. Analysis of the event continues," the office said in a statement, confirming the blast had taken place in the area of North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site.</p>
<p>GlobalPost's Geoffrey Cain earlier reported from Seoul that the South Korean Defense Ministry estimated the detonated bomb to have measured six to eight kilotons.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 9:35 AM ET</p>
<p>What does nuclear bomb testing do to the planet?</p>
<p>Even bombs tested underground, as North Korea's was, can have serious impact on the environment.</p>
<p>National Geographic wrote last year:</p>
<p>"If tunnels are dug deeply and securely, radiation from a blast can be completely contained, said intelligence analyst John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. If not, explosions can burst through the surface and release contaminants. Or the vaporization of rock in the blast can create subsurface cavities that in turn create surface craters.</p>
<p>"In some cases radiation can seep out slowly during the weeks after a test."</p>
<p>Read <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120411-north-korea-rocket-test-nuclear-weapon-world-science/" type="external">more of their report here</a>.</p>
<p>Watch declassified video of US nuclear tests from <a href="http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Hardtack1.html" type="external">1958's "Operation Hardtack"</a>:</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 9:16 AM ET</p>
<p>Koreas may be the latest joiners to drone warfare</p>
<p>News of North Korea's third <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-appears-carry-out-third-nuclear-test" type="external">nuclear weapons test</a>is coupled Tuesday with a much subtler arms escalation — the reported beginnings of drone development in North and South Korea.</p>
<p>Last week <a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2012/02/05/17/0401000000AEN20120205000900315F.HTML" type="external">news</a>&#160;of a possible North Korean drone program broke, and&#160; <a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/02/11/55/0301000000AEN20130211003500315F.HTML" type="external">Yonhap news agency reported</a> Monday the South Korean military wants to develop drone helicopters.</p>
<p>"The military is considering using unmanned combat helicopters to destroy North Korea's military bases used for infiltration, including artillery bases and a naval base for air-cushioned vessels," an&#160; <a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/02/11/55/0301000000AEN20130211003500315F.HTML" type="external">unnamed military source told Yonhap</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-and-south-korea-indicate-drone-development" type="external">Read the rest of this report from GlobalPost's news desk</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 9:03 AM ET</p>
<p>UN Security Council meeting on North Korea's test</p>
<p>The UN Security Council was due to begin an emergency meeting at 9 a.m. to discuss its response to North Korea's nuclear test. As we wait for details to emerge from their session, here are some reports from the morning to help catch you up:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>[ <a href="//storify.com/globalpost/north-korea-conducts-third-nuclear-test" type="external">View the story "North Korea conducts third nuclear test " on Storify</a>]</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 6:18 AM ET</p>
<p>Even China is angry</p>
<p>SEOUL, South Korea — After North Korea's test, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak immediately convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. The United Nations Security Council is set to discuss the matter at a 9 a.m. meeting in New York on Tuesday.</p>
<p>International condemnation of the test poured in — <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-china-condemns-north-korea-nuclear-20130212,0,566507.story" type="external">even from China</a>, North Korea's most powerful friend. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/world/asia/north-korea-nuclear-test.html?hp&amp;_r=0" type="external">US President Barack Obama called for</a>"swift and credible action by the international community," while China urged "all parties to respond calmly," <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-china-condemns-north-korea-nuclear-20130212,0,566507.story" type="external">according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry</a>.</p>
<p>South Korea immediately condemned the test as a violation of UN resolutions, and as an "unacceptable threat," <a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/02/12/4/0301000000AEN20130212010800315F.HTML" type="external">wrote</a> the Yonhap News Agency.</p>
<p>On the ground, however, most Koreans carried on with their day without giving much thought to the blast, GlobalPost's Geoffrey Cain reported.&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-appears-carry-out-third-nuclear-test" type="external">Read more from this report</a>.</p>
<p>Other reactions from around the world:</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/12/us-japan-economy-abe-idUSBRE91B0AJ20130212" type="external">Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe</a> called the test a "grave threat" to Japan's safety. The government convened a national security meeting and is contemplating imposing unilateral sanctions on North Korea, according to local media.</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130212/nato-condemns-irresponsible-nkorea-nuclear-test" type="external">NATO</a> said the test was an "irresponsible act" and a "grave threat to international and regional peace, security and stability."</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21421841" type="external">Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov</a> urged North Korea to "abandon its nuclear arms program" and resume talks with other countries.</p>
<p>• <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/foreign-secretary-condemns-reports-of-north-korean-nuclear-tests" type="external">William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary</a>, called for a "robust response" from the UN Security Council.</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.bfmtv.com/politique/essai-nucleaire-nord-coreen-hollande-condamne-lessai-nucleaire-446402.html" type="external">French President François Hollande</a> said he would back "firm action" by the UN.</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130212/iran-calls-end-all-nuclear-arms-after-n-korea-test" type="external">Iran's Foreign Ministry</a> said all nuclear weapons should be destroyed, but commented that "all countries should have the right to make use of nuclear activities for peaceful purposes."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-nuclear-test-barack-obama-national-security" type="external">Read more about the world</a> <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-nuclear-test-barack-obama-national-security" type="external">'s</a> <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-nuclear-test-barack-obama-national-security" type="external">&#160;reaction here</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 1:33 AM ET</p>
<p>North Korea detonates underground bomb in third nuclear test, threatens further action</p>
<p>North Korea has admitted carrying out a third nuclear test, hours after US seismologists detected a 4.9-magnitude earthquake in the hermit kingdom.</p>
<p>The heightened seismic activity came at 11:57 a.m. near the Chinese border. The South Korean Defense Ministry estimates the detonated bomb to have measured six to eight kilotons.</p>
<p>According to monitors at the <a href="http://newsroom.ctbto.org/" type="external">Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization</a> in Vienna, the resulting blast was twice as powerful as North Korea's last nuclear test in 2009.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1253756/1/.html" type="external">North Korean Foreign Ministry said</a> the latest test was "only the first action," and threatened more could follow.</p>
<p>"If the US further complicates the situation with continued hostility, we will be left with no choice but to take even stronger second or third rounds of action," the ministry announced in a statement.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-appears-carry-out-third-nuclear-test" type="external">Read more from Geoffrey Cain in Seoul and GlobalPost's news desk.</a></p>
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North Korea detonates bomb in 3rd nuclear test (LIVE BLOG)
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North Korea detonates bomb in 3rd nuclear test (LIVE BLOG)
<p>NORTH KOREA BOMB TEST RATCHETS NUCLEAR FEARS: LIVE BLOG</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 5:15 PM ET</p>
<p>Signing off</p>
<p>This live blog is now closed, but please <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/breaking-news" type="external">check here</a> for developments.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 5:00 PM ET</p>
<p>Chinese netizens amused by 'naughty' Kim</p>
<p>While the Chinese government has voiced its opposition to the North Korea nuclear test, the Chinese public viewed the proceedings with a decidedly lighter air.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/12/the_laughingstock_next_door_north_korea_china_satire" type="external">Foreign Policy magazine wrote</a>:</p>
<p>"He's so naughty!" chided one web user, while another suggested that the resulting earthquake came from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un eating too much and falling on his posterior.</p>
<p>It wasn't the first time Kim had been the butt of jokes in China. After North Korea's successful missile launch on Dec. 12, many expressed joy and pride on behalf of the North Korean masses. "The brigade members plowing the hills of Seipo County were so inspired by the successful launch of the second Earth observation satellite that they opened up thousands of hectares of wasteland in just a few days," one message from a popular satirist nicknamed Miss Choi in Pyongyang read, pretending to be oblivious to North Korea's failed rocket launch test in April. "Big Brother [China], please step up your effort, or we will surpass you!"</p>
<p>Not everyone was in on the joke. A journalist at China's independent-minded newspaper Southern Weekly said, "Isn't laughing at North Korea like the pot calling the kettle black?"</p>
<p>Read <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/02/12/the_laughingstock_next_door_north_korea_china_satire" type="external">the whole story here</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 3:24 PM ET</p>
<p>The Kim dynasty in 2013</p>
<p>The Feb. 12, 2013 nuclear test dashed any remaining hopes for change under Kim Jong Un. What does that mean for people unlucky enough to be born in North Korea?</p>
<p>GlobalPost's in-depth series, <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/series/next-kim" type="external">"Next of Kim," takes a look</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 3:15 PM ET</p>
<p>Plutonium v. Uranium</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/02/12/why-its-so-hard-to-tell-if-north-korea-used-a-plutonium-or-much-scarier-uranium-bomb/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost" type="external">The Washington Post wrote</a> that the biggest question coming out of North Korea's nuclear test is whether the country used plutonium or uranium as its nuclear material. There are four reasons, said The Post, that the answer to that question matters:</p>
<p>1. North Korea would have two ways to build a bomb, which means a potentially larger arsenal.</p>
<p>2. The country has a natural supply of uranium and can enrich to bomb-making levels in secret; plutonium is limited and is much tougher to hide. So its weaponized uranium would be tougher to keep track of and easier to make in larger quantities.</p>
<p>3. Iran uses uranium in its nuclear program, so North Korea could share research and lessons from the nuclear test with Tehran.</p>
<p>4. Uranium is easier to ship abroad, meaning North Korea could more easily sell it.</p>
<p>Read more about the importance of answering that question <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/02/12/why-its-so-hard-to-tell-if-north-korea-used-a-plutonium-or-much-scarier-uranium-bomb/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/isis-statement-on-north-korean-nuclear-test/10" type="external">Institute for Science and International Security commented</a> on the other significant detail of this nuclear test: North Korea's claims about its miniaturization capability.</p>
<p>It should not come as a surprise to the international community that North Korea may now have the capability to explode a miniaturized nuclear device. ISIS (and key members of the U.S. intelligence community) have assessed for some time that North Korea likely has the capability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon for its 800 mile range Nodong missile. Although more information is needed to make a sound assessment, this test could, as North Korea has stated, demonstrate this capability.</p>
<p>Read the <a href="http://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/isis-statement-on-north-korean-nuclear-test/10" type="external">full report here</a>.</p>
<p>Check out more about nuclear sites in North Korea from the BBC:</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 2:55 PM ET</p>
<p>Obama talks to South Korean president</p>
<p>President Obama spoke to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to "consult and coordinate" their response to North Korea's nuclear test, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/12/readout-presidents-call-republic-korea-president-lee-myung-bak" type="external">the White House said in a statement</a>.</p>
<p>Obama and Lee "condemned this highly provocative violation of North Korea’s international obligations," the statement said.</p>
<p>They agreed to work closely together, including at the United Nations Security Council, to seek a range of measures aimed at impeding North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and reducing the risk of proliferation. President Obama unequivocally reaffirmed that the United States remains steadfast in its defense commitments to the Republic of Korea, including the extended deterrence offered by the U.S. nuclear umbrella.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 2:40 PM ET</p>
<p>State Dept: North Korea told US a test was coming</p>
<p>North Korea warned the US of its upcoming nuclear test prior to Tuesday, but had not indicated when the test would take place, the US State Department said this afternoon.</p>
<p>"The DPRK did inform us at the State Department of their intention to conduct a nuclear test, without citing any specific timing," <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/12/us-korea-north-usa-advise-idUSBRE91B1AB20130212" type="external">spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said</a>.</p>
<p>Also on Tuesday, US Ambassador to the UN <a href="http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/204033.htm" type="external">Susan Rice told reporters</a>that the US is seeking "to augment the sanctions regime that is already quite strong."</p>
<p>In response, a reporter asked Rice: "With financial sanctions? Sanctions on the financial institutions? Anything more in significant action?"</p>
<p>She answered: "All of those categories are areas that we think are ripe for appropriate further action."</p>
<p>Read the full text of Rice's remarks <a href="http://usun.state.gov/briefing/statements/204033.htm" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 2:15 PM ET</p>
<p>China is 'strongly dissatisfied'</p>
<p>North Korea’s nuclear test may pose the greatest challenge to its cautious ally China, where many still see their impoverished Stalinist neighbor as a buffer against Western countries.</p>
<p>It’s the first major foreign policy test for Xi Jinping, the new head of the Communist Party in China, which had urged North Korea not to go ahead with its plans.</p>
<p>The initial reaction, posted on a Foreign Ministry website, was muted. It said the Chinese government expressed “staunch opposition” to the test and “strongly urges” North Korea to hold its promise to abandon its nuclear program.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/12/us-korea-north-idUSBRE91B04820130212" type="external">Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said</a> China was "strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed" to the test and urged North Korea to "stop any rhetoric or acts that could worsen situations and return to the right course of dialogue and consultation as soon as possible".</p>
<p>Yang later summoned North Korean ambassador Ji Jae Ryong to state China’s opposition to the test.</p>
<p>China observers are closely watching Xi’s response for early signs of his foreign policy. He’s said he wants Beijing and Washington to develop a “new type of relationship between two great powers.”</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 1:35 PM ET</p>
<p>Israel condemns nuclear test, Iran calls for nuclear weapons-free world</p>
<p>GlobalPost's senior correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky reported from Jerusalem:</p>
<p>Iran said it “disapproves” of North Korea's nuclear test and called for a world without nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>Locked in its own bitter standoff with Western countries over suspicions it’s developing a secret nuclear weapons program, Tehran said all weapons of mass destruction and nuclear arms "should be destroyed."</p>
<p>"We need to come to the point where no country has any nuclear weapons," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters.</p>
<p>Iran strenuously denies accusations it’s developing nuclear weapons, saying it is interested only in civil nuclear energy. “All countries should have the right to make use of nuclear activities for peaceful purposes," Mehmanparast said.</p>
<p>Tehran was among a small handful of countries that congratulated North Korea on its successful launch of a satellite into earth orbit last December, but denied helping prepare the launch.</p>
<p>A 2011 UN sanctions report said Tehran and Pyongyang were suspected of sharing ballistic missile technology.</p>
<p>In Israel, the Foreign Ministry said it strongly condemned North Korea’s nuclear test, saying in a statement that it “joins the international community in expressing the grave danger that this act poses to regional stability and international peace and security.”</p>
<p>“These actions by the DPRK, in violation of its international obligations, must be met with a swift response by the international community,” the statement continued.</p>
<p>Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor also questioned Iran’s call to ban nuclear arms. “Iran's credibility in nuclear issues can only and exclusively be vouched for by the International Atomic Energy Agency,” he said in an interview. “Since that is not precisely the case, I refer any Iranian with ideas about nuclear disarmament to the IAEA."</p>
<p>He also said <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/world/middleeast/iran-converts-enriched-uranium-to-reactor-fuel-reports-say.html" type="external">a New York Times story on Tuesday</a> that reported Iran had converted some of its stockpiled enriched uranium into nuclear fuel may be old news. He said Defense Minister Ehud Barak had said two months ago that Iran had repurposed some of its enriched uranium for research uses, saying it had "taken them a bit further away from the red line" because it’s more difficult to refine nuclear fuel to weapons-grade purity.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 1:05 PM ET</p>
<p>Major embarrassment for Obama?</p>
<p>Whether it was intentional or not, North Korea's test happened on the eve of US President Obama's State of the Union speech. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/north-koreas-nuke-test-pokes-obama-in-the-eye-on-the-eve-of-the-sotu/273082/" type="external">told National Journal</a> that North Korea's test would not alter Obama's nonproliferation message, but National Journal noted that it might be seen as a major embarrassment for Obama.</p>
<p>According to his advisers, Obama was set to make nonproliferation a key goal in his second term.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/us/politics/obama-to-renew-drive-for-cuts-in-nuclear-arms.html?_r=0" type="external">The New York Times wrote</a> on Monday that Obama was expected to renew a commitment to disarmament which he made in a landmark speech in Prague in April 2009. He was expected to announce a draw down of the number of deployed strategic warheads, which currently numbers 1,700.</p>
<p>Obama, administration officials say, is unlikely to discuss specific numbers in the address, but White House officials are looking at a cut that would take the arsenal of deployed weapons to just above 1,000. Currently there are about 1,700, and the new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia that passed the Senate at the end of 2009 calls for a limit of roughly 1,550 by 2018.</p>
<p>National Journal noted that in the immediate aftermath of the test, White House officials have sought to play down the Times article, saying it exaggerated the Obama administration's willingness to go forward with the cuts.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 12:30 PM ET</p>
<p>What does North Korea's nuclear test reveal?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130212/what-does-north-koreas-nuclear-test-reveal" type="external">Agence France-Presse</a> — North Korea's nuclear test opens a rare, limited window for expert evaluation of its atomic weapons program, with an added urgency lent by Pyongyang's claim to have detonated a "miniaturized" device.</p>
<p>Seismic monitors and "sniffer" planes capable of collecting radioactive evidence of Tuesday's test will provide the forensic material for analysts to try to determine the exact yield and nature of the underground explosion.</p>
<p>Pyongyang said the "high-level" test involved a "miniaturized and lighter atomic bomb" with a much greater yield than the plutonium devices it detonated in 2006 and 2009. Miniaturization is needed to fit a warhead on a missile.</p>
<p>South Korea's defense ministry said seismic data suggested the explosive yield was significantly higher than the two previous tests at six to seven kilotons.</p>
<p>One key question analysts will be looking to answer was whether the North has switched from plutonium to a new and self-sustaining nuclear weaponization program using uranium.</p>
<p>Judging the type of fissile material requires the detection and analysis of xenon gases produced in the atomic explosion.</p>
<p>"These aren't necessarily easy to find and, if the test was well contained, may not be found at all," said Paul Carroll, program director at the Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation based in California.</p>
<p>"The miniaturization claim is provocative because that's exactly the technology we don't want them to have," Carroll said, adding that it was a very difficult claim to confirm or refute.</p>
<p>The same six-seven kiloton yield could equally be achieved with a small, efficient device or a very large, inefficient one, with seismic data unable to differentiate between the two, he said.</p>
<p>Proof that the North had mastered warhead miniaturization would be an alarming game changer -- especially given its successful rocket launch in December which marked a major step forward in ballistic prowess.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 12:15 PM ET</p>
<p>UN vows action on 'grave violation'</p>
<p>After their meeting this morning, the <a href="http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2013/02/security-council-condemns-nuclear-test-by-north-korea/" type="external">United Nations Security Council vowed to respond</a> to North Korea's nuclear test.</p>
<p>&#160;"The members of the Security Council strongly condemned this test, which is a grave violation of Security Council resolution 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009) and 2087 (2013), and therefore there continues to exist a clear threat to international peace and security."</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2013/02/security-council-condemns-nuclear-test-by-north-korea/" type="external">body said it will begin working immediately</a>on a resolution containing "appropriate measures."</p>
<p>A spokesman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon <a href="http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=6596" type="external">said in a statement</a>:</p>
<p>"The Secretary-General condemns the underground nuclear weapon test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) today. It is a clear and grave violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions.</p>
<p>"The Secretary-General is gravely concerned about the negative impact of this deeply destabilizing act on regional stability as well as the global efforts for nuclear non-proliferation."</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 11:30 AM ET</p>
<p>NATO joins chorus of condemnation</p>
<p>BRUSSELS —&#160;NATO has condemned North Korea’s nuclear test "in the strongest terms" and called on Pyongyang to immediately bring such "provocative actions" to an end.</p>
<p>"This irresponsible act, along with the December missile launch, poses a grave threat to international and regional peace, security and stability," the alliance said in a statement.</p>
<p>Europe was united in its condemnation, holding out the threat of more sanctions through the UN.</p>
<p>President Francois Hollande said France would work to secure "firm action" from the UN Security Council in response. "North Korea must unconditionally abstain from any act that risks heightening tension in the Korean peninsula and impact on peace and international security," he said in a statement.</p>
<p>"The international community must respond with a clear stance to this fresh provocation," Germany's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Further sanctions against the regime in Pyongyang must be considered."</p>
<p>Poland's Foreign Minister Radislaw Sikorski was quoted as saying the North Korea test underscored the importance of developing anti-missile technology. He also suggested China should increase pressure on the DPRK regime.</p>
<p>"Without [China's] support, without the border open to trade and the movement of people, the regime [in North Korea] might not survive more than a few months,” Sikorski told Polish radio.</p>
<p>The European Union issued its own statement saying it would "work with key partners and the wider international community to build a firm and unified response aiming at demonstrating to the DPRK that there are consequences for its continued violations of UNSC Resolutions.”&#160;—&#160;Paul Ames, GlobalPost</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 11:15 AM ET</p>
<p>Japan says North Korean nuclear test is 'totally unacceptable'</p>
<p>TOKYO —&#160;Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an emergency security meeting to discuss Japan’s response to North Korea’s nuclear test on Monday after the United States warned it was imminent.</p>
<p>Having already implemented a raft of bilateral and UN-led sanctions following previous North Korean rocket launches and nuclear tests, however, Tokyo’s options for further action seem fairly limited.</p>
<p>Abe joined other world leaders condemning the test. "The nuclear test by North Korea is totally unacceptable, as it constitutes a grave threat to Japan's security, represents a grave challenge to the international disarmament and non-proliferation regime centered on the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and seriously undermines the peace and security of Northeast Asia,” he said.</p>
<p>"I have ordered that we consider every possible way to address this issue, including our own sanctions, while co-operating with other countries,” he added.</p>
<p>Later on Tuesday, he said in a statement that Japan would tighten immigration controls for officials from a pro-Pyongyang association of Korean residents in Japan.</p>
<p>The top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, said Tokyo was also considering additional financial measures against North Korea.</p>
<p>Japan introduced a range of sanctions against the North after its nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, including a ban on all exports and imports, and on North Korean ships entering Japanese ports.</p>
<p>Tokyo considers itself among the countries most at risk from North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program.</p>
<p>A US ally in the region, Japan is still the target of bitter resentment among many Koreans on both sides of the demilitarized zone dividing North and South over its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945.</p>
<p>In a meeting with Washington’s ambassador to Tokyo, John Roos, Abe vowed to work with the United States in pushing a new round of sanctions through the UN Security Council.</p>
<p>The test “threatens … peace and security not only for Japan but for the United States,” the Kyodo news agency reported Roos as saying.</p>
<p>A hawk who has represented the families of <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/japan/090316/abduction-espionage-alleged-murder-and-intrigue-the-korean-peninsula?page=full" type="external">Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents during the Cold War</a>, Abe was elected prime minister in December, and&#160;vowed to take a tough stance against North Korea.</p>
<p>He’s expected to discuss the North’s nuclear program and Northeast Asian security during talks with president Obama in Washington next week. —&#160;Justin McCurry, GlobalPost</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 10:40 AM ET</p>
<p>North Korea isn't sorry, and has the US in its sights</p>
<p>"This is the wrong step in the wrong direction," Tibor Toth, the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, <a href="http://www.ntn24.com/news/node/20999" type="external">told Reuters</a>. "This is a challenge to this norm observed by the international community of not carrying out nuclear weapons explosions."</p>
<p>Unverified estimates indicate that Tuesday's test may have been twice the size of a test by the Hermit Kingdom in 2009.</p>
<p>But Pyongyang is defiant, threatening " <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57568865/north-korea-nuke-test-just-a-first-response-aimed-at-u.s/" type="external">second and third measures of greater intensity</a>" if the US doesn't soften what the North takes to be an aggressive stance.</p>
<p><a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/interactive/ap-interactive-north-korea" type="external">Check out the Associated Press's comprehensive interactive graphics</a> about North Korea's nuclear history and capability.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 9:50 AM ET</p>
<p>US estimates size of North Korea's tested bomb at 'several kilotons'</p>
<p><a href="http://web1.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130212/urgent-us-intel-probable-nkorea-test-several-kilotons" type="external">Agence France-Presse</a> —&#160;US intelligence agencies believe North Korea "probably" conducted an underground nuclear test with a yield of several kilotons, the office of the Director of National Intelligence said Tuesday.</p>
<p>"The explosion yield was approximately several kilotons. Analysis of the event continues," the office said in a statement, confirming the blast had taken place in the area of North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site.</p>
<p>GlobalPost's Geoffrey Cain earlier reported from Seoul that the South Korean Defense Ministry estimated the detonated bomb to have measured six to eight kilotons.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 9:35 AM ET</p>
<p>What does nuclear bomb testing do to the planet?</p>
<p>Even bombs tested underground, as North Korea's was, can have serious impact on the environment.</p>
<p>National Geographic wrote last year:</p>
<p>"If tunnels are dug deeply and securely, radiation from a blast can be completely contained, said intelligence analyst John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. If not, explosions can burst through the surface and release contaminants. Or the vaporization of rock in the blast can create subsurface cavities that in turn create surface craters.</p>
<p>"In some cases radiation can seep out slowly during the weeks after a test."</p>
<p>Read <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120411-north-korea-rocket-test-nuclear-weapon-world-science/" type="external">more of their report here</a>.</p>
<p>Watch declassified video of US nuclear tests from <a href="http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Hardtack1.html" type="external">1958's "Operation Hardtack"</a>:</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 9:16 AM ET</p>
<p>Koreas may be the latest joiners to drone warfare</p>
<p>News of North Korea's third <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-appears-carry-out-third-nuclear-test" type="external">nuclear weapons test</a>is coupled Tuesday with a much subtler arms escalation — the reported beginnings of drone development in North and South Korea.</p>
<p>Last week <a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2012/02/05/17/0401000000AEN20120205000900315F.HTML" type="external">news</a>&#160;of a possible North Korean drone program broke, and&#160; <a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/02/11/55/0301000000AEN20130211003500315F.HTML" type="external">Yonhap news agency reported</a> Monday the South Korean military wants to develop drone helicopters.</p>
<p>"The military is considering using unmanned combat helicopters to destroy North Korea's military bases used for infiltration, including artillery bases and a naval base for air-cushioned vessels," an&#160; <a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/02/11/55/0301000000AEN20130211003500315F.HTML" type="external">unnamed military source told Yonhap</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-and-south-korea-indicate-drone-development" type="external">Read the rest of this report from GlobalPost's news desk</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 9:03 AM ET</p>
<p>UN Security Council meeting on North Korea's test</p>
<p>The UN Security Council was due to begin an emergency meeting at 9 a.m. to discuss its response to North Korea's nuclear test. As we wait for details to emerge from their session, here are some reports from the morning to help catch you up:</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>[ <a href="//storify.com/globalpost/north-korea-conducts-third-nuclear-test" type="external">View the story "North Korea conducts third nuclear test " on Storify</a>]</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 6:18 AM ET</p>
<p>Even China is angry</p>
<p>SEOUL, South Korea — After North Korea's test, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak immediately convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. The United Nations Security Council is set to discuss the matter at a 9 a.m. meeting in New York on Tuesday.</p>
<p>International condemnation of the test poured in — <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-china-condemns-north-korea-nuclear-20130212,0,566507.story" type="external">even from China</a>, North Korea's most powerful friend. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/world/asia/north-korea-nuclear-test.html?hp&amp;_r=0" type="external">US President Barack Obama called for</a>"swift and credible action by the international community," while China urged "all parties to respond calmly," <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-china-condemns-north-korea-nuclear-20130212,0,566507.story" type="external">according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry</a>.</p>
<p>South Korea immediately condemned the test as a violation of UN resolutions, and as an "unacceptable threat," <a href="http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/02/12/4/0301000000AEN20130212010800315F.HTML" type="external">wrote</a> the Yonhap News Agency.</p>
<p>On the ground, however, most Koreans carried on with their day without giving much thought to the blast, GlobalPost's Geoffrey Cain reported.&#160; <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-appears-carry-out-third-nuclear-test" type="external">Read more from this report</a>.</p>
<p>Other reactions from around the world:</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/12/us-japan-economy-abe-idUSBRE91B0AJ20130212" type="external">Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe</a> called the test a "grave threat" to Japan's safety. The government convened a national security meeting and is contemplating imposing unilateral sanctions on North Korea, according to local media.</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130212/nato-condemns-irresponsible-nkorea-nuclear-test" type="external">NATO</a> said the test was an "irresponsible act" and a "grave threat to international and regional peace, security and stability."</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21421841" type="external">Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov</a> urged North Korea to "abandon its nuclear arms program" and resume talks with other countries.</p>
<p>• <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/foreign-secretary-condemns-reports-of-north-korean-nuclear-tests" type="external">William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary</a>, called for a "robust response" from the UN Security Council.</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.bfmtv.com/politique/essai-nucleaire-nord-coreen-hollande-condamne-lessai-nucleaire-446402.html" type="external">French President François Hollande</a> said he would back "firm action" by the UN.</p>
<p>• <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130212/iran-calls-end-all-nuclear-arms-after-n-korea-test" type="external">Iran's Foreign Ministry</a> said all nuclear weapons should be destroyed, but commented that "all countries should have the right to make use of nuclear activities for peaceful purposes."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-nuclear-test-barack-obama-national-security" type="external">Read more about the world</a> <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-nuclear-test-barack-obama-national-security" type="external">'s</a> <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-nuclear-test-barack-obama-national-security" type="external">&#160;reaction here</a>.</p>
<p>UPDATE: 2/12/13 1:33 AM ET</p>
<p>North Korea detonates underground bomb in third nuclear test, threatens further action</p>
<p>North Korea has admitted carrying out a third nuclear test, hours after US seismologists detected a 4.9-magnitude earthquake in the hermit kingdom.</p>
<p>The heightened seismic activity came at 11:57 a.m. near the Chinese border. The South Korean Defense Ministry estimates the detonated bomb to have measured six to eight kilotons.</p>
<p>According to monitors at the <a href="http://newsroom.ctbto.org/" type="external">Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization</a> in Vienna, the resulting blast was twice as powerful as North Korea's last nuclear test in 2009.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1253756/1/.html" type="external">North Korean Foreign Ministry said</a> the latest test was "only the first action," and threatened more could follow.</p>
<p>"If the US further complicates the situation with continued hostility, we will be left with no choice but to take even stronger second or third rounds of action," the ministry announced in a statement.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130212/north-korea-appears-carry-out-third-nuclear-test" type="external">Read more from Geoffrey Cain in Seoul and GlobalPost's news desk.</a></p>
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<p>On Monday, as <a href="" type="internal">I explained in a previous article</a>, Judge Thomas Hogan refused the habeas corpus petition of Musa’ab al-Madhwani, a Yemeni who had been tortured in the CIA’s “Dark Prison” near Kabul, and who was described by the judge as a “model prisoner” who was not dangerous. Judge Hogan made his ruling partly on the basis that al-Madhwani had received military training at the al-Farouq camp in Afghanistan, which was associated with Osama bin Laden in the years before the 9/11 attacks, but just two days later, Judge Ricardo Urbina (who <a href="" type="internal">ordered the release of the Uighurs</a> last October) granted the habeas petition of another Yemeni, Saeed Hatim, who had also trained at al-Farouq, but who told his interrogators that he “did not like anything about the training.”</p>
<p>The reasons for Judge Urbina’s decision on Wednesday are not yet clear, as an unclassified version of his ruling has not yet been made available, but elements of Saeed Hatim’s story are available from the Unclassified Summaries of Evidence for his Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) at Guantánamo, part of a process conducted in 2004-05 to ascertain whether the prisoners had been correctly designated as “enemy combatants,” who could be held without charge or trial, and his Administrative Review Boards (ARBs), held every year as part of a process to determine whether prisoners could be approved for release.</p>
<p>These were <a href="" type="internal">shamefully one-sided affairs</a>, in which the authorities relied on classified evidence that was not disclosed to the prisoners, who were also prevented from having any legal representation. However, they often provide the only insight available into the prisoners’ stories, and in the case of Saeed Hatim, who was 25 years old at the time of his capture, they provide what appears to be a relatively coherent narrative, although it may, of course, be revealed as a tissue of lies, produced as a result of threats and coercion, when Judge Urbina’s ruling is made public.</p>
<p>In statements made by Hatim during his CSRT, or attributed to him by interrogators in submissions for his ARBs, which he did not attend, he apparently explained that he had “never held a job for more than six months” and “relied upon his father and older brother for financial support,” and stated that he went to Afghanistan in spring 2001, because he had “heard there was a lot of justice in that part of the world,” and also because, like several others who ended up in Guantánamo, he thought that he would find a way to fight in Chechnya. He “stated he became interested in Russia’s war in Chechnya because he witnessed the oppression on the television.” Explaining that he “was outraged about what the Russians were doing to the Chechens,” he “decided to travel there to fight jihad alongside his Muslim brothers.”</p>
<p>Hatim admitted attending al-Farouq, but said that he soon left the camp “because it was not what he expected.” He explained that he “faked a fever telling the people he was ill and needed to seek medical care,” and complained that “the trainers were always yelling at him, the food was terrible, and he was forced to sleep on the ground.” He added that “he did not like anything about the training and wanted to quit on the first day.”</p>
<p>Acknowledging that he was obliged to “put his decision to fight in Chechnya on the back burner for a while,” but insisting that he “did not want to partake in the war in Afghanistan because it was a civil war in which Muslims were fighting other Muslims,” he nevertheless reportedly ended up at “a place of re-supply for the front lines near Bagram,” where, on at least one occasion, he apparently traveled to the front lines to deliver food to the Taliban soldiers fighting the Northern Alliance. He also apparently spent some time in a number of guest houses, which, in the US authorities’ opinion, were associated with al-Qaeda and the Taliban.</p>
<p>He added, however, that once the US-led invasion began, and Kabul was being bombed, he made his way to the eastern city of Jalalabad, where he took a cab to the Pakistani border, meeting up with an Afghan who escorted him to a Pakistani police station. From there, soon after, his long ordeal in US custody began.</p>
<p>I await Judge Urbina’s ruling with some interest, primarily, as I mentioned above, to discover whether this account bears any resemblance to the story uncovered by the judge in what, despite the persistent fog of classified evidence that clouds so many of the Guantánamo cases, will undoubtedly be the first time that something close to an objective analysis of his case has been undertaken, after eight years in US custody.</p>
<p>At present, however, Judge Urbina’s ruling means little to Saeed Hatim, as the Obama administration has demonstrated that it is extremely unwilling to release any of the Yemenis who now make up nearly half of Guantánamo’s population of 210 prisoners — even those who have won their habeas petitions in the US courts. Just one Yemeni has been released since Barack Obama became President, even though, by my reckoning, Yemenis account for somewhere between 50 and 60 of <a href="" type="internal">the 115 prisoners who have been cleared for release</a> by the inter-agency Task Force <a href="" type="internal">established by President Obama</a> on his second day in office.</p>
<p>The administration’s reluctance to release Yemenis was explained by officials in September, around the time that the only Yemeni to secure his release under Obama — Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, who <a href="" type="internal">won his habeas petition in May</a>, after a devastating dissection of the government’s supposed evidence by Judge Gladys Kessler — was <a href="" type="internal">finally released</a>. On that occasion, the officials stated that “Even if Mr. Ahmed was not dangerous in 2002 … Guantánamo itself might have radicalized him, exposing him to militants and embittering him against the United States.”</p>
<p>As <a href="" type="internal">I explained at the time</a>:</p>
<p>The officials have valid fears about political instability in Yemen, and the existence of terrorist groups, even though the Yemeni authorities have stated that none of the 16 Yemenis returned from Guantánamo “have joined terrorist groups,” but whatever their fears, they do not seem to have reflected that, if their rationale for not releasing any of the Yemenis from Guantánamo was extended to the US prison system, it would mean that no prisoner would ever be released at the end of their sentence, because prison “might have radicalized” them, and also, of course, that it would lead to no prisoner ever being released from Guantánamo.</p>
<p>On that note, it is, I hope, time for this nonsense to end, and for Saeed Hatim, a demonstrably insignificant figure in the “War on Terror,” to be returned to his homeland, along with all the other cleared prisoners. It’s not difficult. Just find a large enough plane, fly them home, and drop them off. At the time of writing, I’m pleased to note that the <a href="" type="internal">Washington Post</a> is reporting that, “according to sources with independent knowledge of the matter,” six Yemenis, along with four Afghans, “will be transferred out of Guantánamo Bay in the near future,” and that this transfer “could be a prelude to the release of dozens more detainees to Yemen.” I certainly hope that this is the case; otherwise, we may as well all stop pretending that being cleared by a court, or by the administration’s own Task Force, means anything at all.</p>
<p>ANDY WORTHINGTON is a British journalist and historian, and the author of ‘ <a href="" type="internal">The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison’</a> (published by Pluto Press). Visit his website at: <a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/" type="external">www.andyworthington.co.uk</a> He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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The Case of the Unwilling Yemeni Recruit
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https://counterpunch.org/2009/12/18/the-case-of-the-unwilling-yemeni-recruit/
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2009-12-18
| 4left
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The Case of the Unwilling Yemeni Recruit
<p>On Monday, as <a href="" type="internal">I explained in a previous article</a>, Judge Thomas Hogan refused the habeas corpus petition of Musa’ab al-Madhwani, a Yemeni who had been tortured in the CIA’s “Dark Prison” near Kabul, and who was described by the judge as a “model prisoner” who was not dangerous. Judge Hogan made his ruling partly on the basis that al-Madhwani had received military training at the al-Farouq camp in Afghanistan, which was associated with Osama bin Laden in the years before the 9/11 attacks, but just two days later, Judge Ricardo Urbina (who <a href="" type="internal">ordered the release of the Uighurs</a> last October) granted the habeas petition of another Yemeni, Saeed Hatim, who had also trained at al-Farouq, but who told his interrogators that he “did not like anything about the training.”</p>
<p>The reasons for Judge Urbina’s decision on Wednesday are not yet clear, as an unclassified version of his ruling has not yet been made available, but elements of Saeed Hatim’s story are available from the Unclassified Summaries of Evidence for his Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) at Guantánamo, part of a process conducted in 2004-05 to ascertain whether the prisoners had been correctly designated as “enemy combatants,” who could be held without charge or trial, and his Administrative Review Boards (ARBs), held every year as part of a process to determine whether prisoners could be approved for release.</p>
<p>These were <a href="" type="internal">shamefully one-sided affairs</a>, in which the authorities relied on classified evidence that was not disclosed to the prisoners, who were also prevented from having any legal representation. However, they often provide the only insight available into the prisoners’ stories, and in the case of Saeed Hatim, who was 25 years old at the time of his capture, they provide what appears to be a relatively coherent narrative, although it may, of course, be revealed as a tissue of lies, produced as a result of threats and coercion, when Judge Urbina’s ruling is made public.</p>
<p>In statements made by Hatim during his CSRT, or attributed to him by interrogators in submissions for his ARBs, which he did not attend, he apparently explained that he had “never held a job for more than six months” and “relied upon his father and older brother for financial support,” and stated that he went to Afghanistan in spring 2001, because he had “heard there was a lot of justice in that part of the world,” and also because, like several others who ended up in Guantánamo, he thought that he would find a way to fight in Chechnya. He “stated he became interested in Russia’s war in Chechnya because he witnessed the oppression on the television.” Explaining that he “was outraged about what the Russians were doing to the Chechens,” he “decided to travel there to fight jihad alongside his Muslim brothers.”</p>
<p>Hatim admitted attending al-Farouq, but said that he soon left the camp “because it was not what he expected.” He explained that he “faked a fever telling the people he was ill and needed to seek medical care,” and complained that “the trainers were always yelling at him, the food was terrible, and he was forced to sleep on the ground.” He added that “he did not like anything about the training and wanted to quit on the first day.”</p>
<p>Acknowledging that he was obliged to “put his decision to fight in Chechnya on the back burner for a while,” but insisting that he “did not want to partake in the war in Afghanistan because it was a civil war in which Muslims were fighting other Muslims,” he nevertheless reportedly ended up at “a place of re-supply for the front lines near Bagram,” where, on at least one occasion, he apparently traveled to the front lines to deliver food to the Taliban soldiers fighting the Northern Alliance. He also apparently spent some time in a number of guest houses, which, in the US authorities’ opinion, were associated with al-Qaeda and the Taliban.</p>
<p>He added, however, that once the US-led invasion began, and Kabul was being bombed, he made his way to the eastern city of Jalalabad, where he took a cab to the Pakistani border, meeting up with an Afghan who escorted him to a Pakistani police station. From there, soon after, his long ordeal in US custody began.</p>
<p>I await Judge Urbina’s ruling with some interest, primarily, as I mentioned above, to discover whether this account bears any resemblance to the story uncovered by the judge in what, despite the persistent fog of classified evidence that clouds so many of the Guantánamo cases, will undoubtedly be the first time that something close to an objective analysis of his case has been undertaken, after eight years in US custody.</p>
<p>At present, however, Judge Urbina’s ruling means little to Saeed Hatim, as the Obama administration has demonstrated that it is extremely unwilling to release any of the Yemenis who now make up nearly half of Guantánamo’s population of 210 prisoners — even those who have won their habeas petitions in the US courts. Just one Yemeni has been released since Barack Obama became President, even though, by my reckoning, Yemenis account for somewhere between 50 and 60 of <a href="" type="internal">the 115 prisoners who have been cleared for release</a> by the inter-agency Task Force <a href="" type="internal">established by President Obama</a> on his second day in office.</p>
<p>The administration’s reluctance to release Yemenis was explained by officials in September, around the time that the only Yemeni to secure his release under Obama — Alla Ali Bin Ali Ahmed, who <a href="" type="internal">won his habeas petition in May</a>, after a devastating dissection of the government’s supposed evidence by Judge Gladys Kessler — was <a href="" type="internal">finally released</a>. On that occasion, the officials stated that “Even if Mr. Ahmed was not dangerous in 2002 … Guantánamo itself might have radicalized him, exposing him to militants and embittering him against the United States.”</p>
<p>As <a href="" type="internal">I explained at the time</a>:</p>
<p>The officials have valid fears about political instability in Yemen, and the existence of terrorist groups, even though the Yemeni authorities have stated that none of the 16 Yemenis returned from Guantánamo “have joined terrorist groups,” but whatever their fears, they do not seem to have reflected that, if their rationale for not releasing any of the Yemenis from Guantánamo was extended to the US prison system, it would mean that no prisoner would ever be released at the end of their sentence, because prison “might have radicalized” them, and also, of course, that it would lead to no prisoner ever being released from Guantánamo.</p>
<p>On that note, it is, I hope, time for this nonsense to end, and for Saeed Hatim, a demonstrably insignificant figure in the “War on Terror,” to be returned to his homeland, along with all the other cleared prisoners. It’s not difficult. Just find a large enough plane, fly them home, and drop them off. At the time of writing, I’m pleased to note that the <a href="" type="internal">Washington Post</a> is reporting that, “according to sources with independent knowledge of the matter,” six Yemenis, along with four Afghans, “will be transferred out of Guantánamo Bay in the near future,” and that this transfer “could be a prelude to the release of dozens more detainees to Yemen.” I certainly hope that this is the case; otherwise, we may as well all stop pretending that being cleared by a court, or by the administration’s own Task Force, means anything at all.</p>
<p>ANDY WORTHINGTON is a British journalist and historian, and the author of ‘ <a href="" type="internal">The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison’</a> (published by Pluto Press). Visit his website at: <a href="http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/" type="external">www.andyworthington.co.uk</a> He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
| 598,843 |
<p>For the week ended Apr 23, in percent. * denotes revision.</p>
<p>NOTE: Averages for are based on the number of planted acres, not</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>the number of states.</p>
<p>CONDITION:</p>
<p>very poor poor fair good excellent</p>
<p>04/23 04/16 04/23 04/16 04/23 04/16 04/23 04/16 04/23 04/16</p>
<p>Ark 2 1 5 3 20 21 60 63 13 12</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Cali 0 0 0 0 0 0 55 55 45 45</p>
<p>Colo 6 6 16 17 36 36 35 33 7 8</p>
<p>Idah 1 0 4 2 27 29 49 57 19 12</p>
<p>Ill 2 2 4 4 20 20 58 60 16 14</p>
<p>Ind 1 1 3 3 24 25 57 57 15 14</p>
<p>Kans 4 4 12 12 32 33 45 45 7 6</p>
<p>Mich 2 2 9 10 24 24 55 51 10 13</p>
<p>Mo 0 0 2 2 28 32 62 58 8 8</p>
<p>Mont 1 1 5 5 28 27 53 55 13 12</p>
<p>Nebr 1 1 8 8 37 38 47 46 7 7</p>
<p>NC 1 1 9 9 26 25 58 59 6 6</p>
<p>Ohio 0 0 2 2 18 18 61 61 19 19</p>
<p>Okla 4 5 11 12 41 40 40 40 4 3</p>
<p>Ore 1 2 4 4 10 13 65 63 20 18</p>
<p>SD 0 0 9 6 35 41 55 52 1 1</p>
<p>Texas 2 2 13 13 43 43 35 35 7 7</p>
<p>Wash 1 1 2 2 14 12 67 68 16 17</p>
<p>18-state</p>
<p>Avg 3 3 10 10 33 33 45 46 9 8</p>
<p>yr-ago 1 2 7 7 33 34 50 48 9 9</p>
<p>PROGRESS:</p>
<p>--Headed--</p>
<p>04/23 04/16 2016 Avg</p>
<p>Ark 96 89 54 44</p>
<p>Cali 90 59 83 80</p>
<p>Colo 0 0 0 0</p>
<p>Idah 0 0 3 1</p>
<p>Ill 28 3 2 12</p>
<p>Ind 18 3 3 5</p>
<p>Kans 25 9 20 17</p>
<p>Mich 0 0 0 0</p>
<p>Mo 56 23 20 19</p>
<p>Mont 0 0 0 0</p>
<p>Nebr 0 0 0 0</p>
<p>NC 59 21 37 37</p>
<p>Ohio 1 0 0 0</p>
<p>Okla 65 40 52 47</p>
<p>Ore 0 0 0 1</p>
<p>SD 0 0 0 0</p>
<p>Texas 67 51 48 50</p>
<p>Wash 0 0 4 1</p>
<p>18-state</p>
<p>Avg 32 19 24 23</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 24, 2017 16:17 ET (20:17 GMT)</p>
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USDA Crop Progress: Winter Wheat Condition/Progress-Apr 24
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http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/04/24/usda-crop-progress-winter-wheat-conditionprogress-apr-24.html
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2017-04-24
| 0right
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USDA Crop Progress: Winter Wheat Condition/Progress-Apr 24
<p>For the week ended Apr 23, in percent. * denotes revision.</p>
<p>NOTE: Averages for are based on the number of planted acres, not</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>the number of states.</p>
<p>CONDITION:</p>
<p>very poor poor fair good excellent</p>
<p>04/23 04/16 04/23 04/16 04/23 04/16 04/23 04/16 04/23 04/16</p>
<p>Ark 2 1 5 3 20 21 60 63 13 12</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Cali 0 0 0 0 0 0 55 55 45 45</p>
<p>Colo 6 6 16 17 36 36 35 33 7 8</p>
<p>Idah 1 0 4 2 27 29 49 57 19 12</p>
<p>Ill 2 2 4 4 20 20 58 60 16 14</p>
<p>Ind 1 1 3 3 24 25 57 57 15 14</p>
<p>Kans 4 4 12 12 32 33 45 45 7 6</p>
<p>Mich 2 2 9 10 24 24 55 51 10 13</p>
<p>Mo 0 0 2 2 28 32 62 58 8 8</p>
<p>Mont 1 1 5 5 28 27 53 55 13 12</p>
<p>Nebr 1 1 8 8 37 38 47 46 7 7</p>
<p>NC 1 1 9 9 26 25 58 59 6 6</p>
<p>Ohio 0 0 2 2 18 18 61 61 19 19</p>
<p>Okla 4 5 11 12 41 40 40 40 4 3</p>
<p>Ore 1 2 4 4 10 13 65 63 20 18</p>
<p>SD 0 0 9 6 35 41 55 52 1 1</p>
<p>Texas 2 2 13 13 43 43 35 35 7 7</p>
<p>Wash 1 1 2 2 14 12 67 68 16 17</p>
<p>18-state</p>
<p>Avg 3 3 10 10 33 33 45 46 9 8</p>
<p>yr-ago 1 2 7 7 33 34 50 48 9 9</p>
<p>PROGRESS:</p>
<p>--Headed--</p>
<p>04/23 04/16 2016 Avg</p>
<p>Ark 96 89 54 44</p>
<p>Cali 90 59 83 80</p>
<p>Colo 0 0 0 0</p>
<p>Idah 0 0 3 1</p>
<p>Ill 28 3 2 12</p>
<p>Ind 18 3 3 5</p>
<p>Kans 25 9 20 17</p>
<p>Mich 0 0 0 0</p>
<p>Mo 56 23 20 19</p>
<p>Mont 0 0 0 0</p>
<p>Nebr 0 0 0 0</p>
<p>NC 59 21 37 37</p>
<p>Ohio 1 0 0 0</p>
<p>Okla 65 40 52 47</p>
<p>Ore 0 0 0 1</p>
<p>SD 0 0 0 0</p>
<p>Texas 67 51 48 50</p>
<p>Wash 0 0 4 1</p>
<p>18-state</p>
<p>Avg 32 19 24 23</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>April 24, 2017 16:17 ET (20:17 GMT)</p>
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<p>Rana Abdelhamid was just 15, walking to a volunteer job in Queens, New York, when a man came up behind her and tried to yank off her headscarf, or hijab.&#160;</p>
<p>“I just remember he was taller than me because I remember him hovering over me,” she says, “and he was wearing almost like a bomber jacket.”</p>
<p>What he couldn’t have known was that his 5-foot-1 target was a black belt in Shotokan karate. Abdelhamid pivoted to face her attacker, deflected his grab, and was able to escape unharmed — physically at least.</p>
<p>“The look he had in his eyes and the hate he was carrying towards me was something that followed me around for a long time,” she says.</p>
<p>But the incident also gave her an idea. She began knocking on the doors of mosques, offering self-defense classes for Muslim women. Eventually she founded the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/wearewisewomen/photos/?ref=page_internal" type="external">Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment</a>, WISE, which has offered classes in seven cities. More than 1,000 women have signed up.</p>
<p>Today, demand for the classes is surging. Anti-Muslim hate crimes in the United States posted a <a href="" type="external">67 percent increase in 2015</a>, according to the FBI. And experts and advocates say divisive rhetoric during the presidential campaign&#160;added fuel.</p>
<p>In the days following the election, a man reportedly threatened to cut the throat of an off-duty police officer in New York who was wearing a hijab. In California, a college student said she struggled to breathe when an attacker grabbed her hijab from behind.</p>
<p>“I remember the day after [the election], I didn’t feel comfortable taking public transportation, to be honest. I would take a lot of Ubers,” Abdelhamid says. “And then when I was in New York I would wear my hijab differently so it looks more fashion-y, less Muslim.”</p>
<p>Concern that an attacker might target Muslim women for wearing a hijab is one of the reasons women come&#160;to this self-defense class. Abdelhamid’s team at WISE has devised three techniques for deflecting a “hijab grab,” depending on whether an attacker approaches from behind, the side, or the front.</p>
<p>Abdelhamid tells women to tuck their chin if they’re attacked, to avoid the scarf tightening around their neck, choking them.</p>
<p>Women are often pressured to be soft-spoken, says Pallavi Mittal, an instructor at a recent self-defense class for Muslim women in Washington, DC. When they need to draw attention to themselves, sometimes their voices fail them.</p>
<p>“Even when our instincts are telling us that it’s not a safe environment, or there’s something like the heebie-jeebies. We often still are in that socially conditioned mode,” Mittal says. “It’s really important to use your voice and be heard ... to shout, and say clearly, ‘No.'”</p>
<p>In a chilly church basement under fluorescent lights, Mittal coaches a dozen students on kicks, elbow jabs and strikes. She volunteers her time, and the class is free.</p>
<p>Some students wear street clothes, some sweats, and some hijabs.</p>
<p>“I’m not fearful for myself. I am for my children,” says Mirriam Shah, who brought her two daughters, 4 and 12, to the class. “I want them to experience the America that I love.”</p>
<p>Shah says she’d like to help her daughters face the world head-on. And she says her faith offers a few role models.</p>
<p>“Hadija, Zaineb, Fatima,” she says, listing several. “Look up those women. They are fierce, they are strong. They were not in the shadows. They did not take a step back. They were diplomats. They were revolutionaries.”</p>
<p>Instructional self-defense videos are also cropping up online. One of them, featuring a Chicago-based Muslim woman, Zaineb Abdulla, has had more than 3.7 million views.</p>
<p>“Besides these techniques, I think the most important thing these women should be able to take away from these classes is just their own power,” Abdelhamid says. “Both their agency over their voice, [and] their body.”</p>
<p>This story was produced in collaboration with <a href="http://interfaithradio.org/" type="external">Interfaith Voices</a>.</p>
|
How to deflect a 'hijab grab' and other lessons from a Muslim black belt
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2016-12-28/how-deflect-hijab-grab-and-other-lessons-muslim-black-belt
|
2016-12-29
| 3left-center
|
How to deflect a 'hijab grab' and other lessons from a Muslim black belt
<p>Rana Abdelhamid was just 15, walking to a volunteer job in Queens, New York, when a man came up behind her and tried to yank off her headscarf, or hijab.&#160;</p>
<p>“I just remember he was taller than me because I remember him hovering over me,” she says, “and he was wearing almost like a bomber jacket.”</p>
<p>What he couldn’t have known was that his 5-foot-1 target was a black belt in Shotokan karate. Abdelhamid pivoted to face her attacker, deflected his grab, and was able to escape unharmed — physically at least.</p>
<p>“The look he had in his eyes and the hate he was carrying towards me was something that followed me around for a long time,” she says.</p>
<p>But the incident also gave her an idea. She began knocking on the doors of mosques, offering self-defense classes for Muslim women. Eventually she founded the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/wearewisewomen/photos/?ref=page_internal" type="external">Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment</a>, WISE, which has offered classes in seven cities. More than 1,000 women have signed up.</p>
<p>Today, demand for the classes is surging. Anti-Muslim hate crimes in the United States posted a <a href="" type="external">67 percent increase in 2015</a>, according to the FBI. And experts and advocates say divisive rhetoric during the presidential campaign&#160;added fuel.</p>
<p>In the days following the election, a man reportedly threatened to cut the throat of an off-duty police officer in New York who was wearing a hijab. In California, a college student said she struggled to breathe when an attacker grabbed her hijab from behind.</p>
<p>“I remember the day after [the election], I didn’t feel comfortable taking public transportation, to be honest. I would take a lot of Ubers,” Abdelhamid says. “And then when I was in New York I would wear my hijab differently so it looks more fashion-y, less Muslim.”</p>
<p>Concern that an attacker might target Muslim women for wearing a hijab is one of the reasons women come&#160;to this self-defense class. Abdelhamid’s team at WISE has devised three techniques for deflecting a “hijab grab,” depending on whether an attacker approaches from behind, the side, or the front.</p>
<p>Abdelhamid tells women to tuck their chin if they’re attacked, to avoid the scarf tightening around their neck, choking them.</p>
<p>Women are often pressured to be soft-spoken, says Pallavi Mittal, an instructor at a recent self-defense class for Muslim women in Washington, DC. When they need to draw attention to themselves, sometimes their voices fail them.</p>
<p>“Even when our instincts are telling us that it’s not a safe environment, or there’s something like the heebie-jeebies. We often still are in that socially conditioned mode,” Mittal says. “It’s really important to use your voice and be heard ... to shout, and say clearly, ‘No.'”</p>
<p>In a chilly church basement under fluorescent lights, Mittal coaches a dozen students on kicks, elbow jabs and strikes. She volunteers her time, and the class is free.</p>
<p>Some students wear street clothes, some sweats, and some hijabs.</p>
<p>“I’m not fearful for myself. I am for my children,” says Mirriam Shah, who brought her two daughters, 4 and 12, to the class. “I want them to experience the America that I love.”</p>
<p>Shah says she’d like to help her daughters face the world head-on. And she says her faith offers a few role models.</p>
<p>“Hadija, Zaineb, Fatima,” she says, listing several. “Look up those women. They are fierce, they are strong. They were not in the shadows. They did not take a step back. They were diplomats. They were revolutionaries.”</p>
<p>Instructional self-defense videos are also cropping up online. One of them, featuring a Chicago-based Muslim woman, Zaineb Abdulla, has had more than 3.7 million views.</p>
<p>“Besides these techniques, I think the most important thing these women should be able to take away from these classes is just their own power,” Abdelhamid says. “Both their agency over their voice, [and] their body.”</p>
<p>This story was produced in collaboration with <a href="http://interfaithradio.org/" type="external">Interfaith Voices</a>.</p>
| 598,845 |
<p>Is Obama Planning A False Flag Event? Suspicion and Secrecy Swirl Around Inda Trip</p>
<p>"Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: [this shall be] the portion of their cup." Psalm 11:6 Something here is not right. Obama and his team are planning what could be the strangest state visit trip in United States history. Consider this just in from the Daily Paul website - "Obama is leaving the country just after the election. He is taking his wife and kids as well as 3,000 other people for this India trip. They are taking 40 planes, armored cars, helicopters, security forces, and a blank check book. They are planning on spending $200 million per day. At least that is what they are admitting to." <a href="javascript:;" type="external">source - Daily Paul</a> Has Hollywood hidden warnings to major attacks in movies and television? Watch and decide.... What is a false flag event? False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and can be used in peace-time. <a href="javascript:;" type="external">source - Wikipedia</a> "Not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur as the President of the United States of America." - Daily Mail UK Obama's upcoming trip to India will involve the following:</p>
<p>Now, all conspiracy theories aside, does this sound right to YOU? If you are honest you will have to say that no, it does not. But what it does sound like is that Obama and the entire guts that run this country are planning to leave the United States in a hurry. Now consider this from the Daily Mail UK: "The entourage will be the biggest ever in terms of logistics and manpower for any US president. The president himself will be ferried around in a black Cadillac - dubbed 'Barack Mobile' - which has its own built in communications centre - to enable Obama to be in touch with the White House, US vice president and the US strategic command The car also has the US nuke launch codes and the nuclear switch for the president. It can also withstand a chemical or germ warfare or even a bomb attack. Obama will be accompanied on the trip by US first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha, according to Indian newspaper Headlines Today. Earlier, Obama's daughters Sasha and Malia were not to be part of the trip. But Michelle's opinion prevailed and now the girls will accompany the first American couple to India, according to the paper." <a href="javascript:;" type="external">source - Daily Mail UK</a> Looks like to me that they are packing up and leaving...and then there's this from a few weeks ago:</p> Something here is not right. What is a false flag event? Obama's upcoming trip to India will involve the following:
|
Is Obama Planning A False Flag Event? Suspicion and Secrecy Swirl Around Inda Trip
| true |
http://nowtheendbegins.com/pages/obama/obama-plans-suspicious-visit-to-india.htm
| 0right
|
Is Obama Planning A False Flag Event? Suspicion and Secrecy Swirl Around Inda Trip
<p>Is Obama Planning A False Flag Event? Suspicion and Secrecy Swirl Around Inda Trip</p>
<p>"Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: [this shall be] the portion of their cup." Psalm 11:6 Something here is not right. Obama and his team are planning what could be the strangest state visit trip in United States history. Consider this just in from the Daily Paul website - "Obama is leaving the country just after the election. He is taking his wife and kids as well as 3,000 other people for this India trip. They are taking 40 planes, armored cars, helicopters, security forces, and a blank check book. They are planning on spending $200 million per day. At least that is what they are admitting to." <a href="javascript:;" type="external">source - Daily Paul</a> Has Hollywood hidden warnings to major attacks in movies and television? Watch and decide.... What is a false flag event? False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and can be used in peace-time. <a href="javascript:;" type="external">source - Wikipedia</a> "Not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur as the President of the United States of America." - Daily Mail UK Obama's upcoming trip to India will involve the following:</p>
<p>Now, all conspiracy theories aside, does this sound right to YOU? If you are honest you will have to say that no, it does not. But what it does sound like is that Obama and the entire guts that run this country are planning to leave the United States in a hurry. Now consider this from the Daily Mail UK: "The entourage will be the biggest ever in terms of logistics and manpower for any US president. The president himself will be ferried around in a black Cadillac - dubbed 'Barack Mobile' - which has its own built in communications centre - to enable Obama to be in touch with the White House, US vice president and the US strategic command The car also has the US nuke launch codes and the nuclear switch for the president. It can also withstand a chemical or germ warfare or even a bomb attack. Obama will be accompanied on the trip by US first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha, according to Indian newspaper Headlines Today. Earlier, Obama's daughters Sasha and Malia were not to be part of the trip. But Michelle's opinion prevailed and now the girls will accompany the first American couple to India, according to the paper." <a href="javascript:;" type="external">source - Daily Mail UK</a> Looks like to me that they are packing up and leaving...and then there's this from a few weeks ago:</p> Something here is not right. What is a false flag event? Obama's upcoming trip to India will involve the following:
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<p />
<p>That means they would miss the first eight days of early voting - offered in county clerks' offices - but be able to vote after that, through the June 7 primary election.</p>
<p>The Legislature this year passed, and the governor signed, a bill allowing 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they will be 18 by the time of the general election.</p>
<p>Because of the May 18 effective date, there was some uncertainty about how the new law would apply to this year's election. But Secretary of State Brad Winter clarified it in a memo dated April 9 he sent to county clerks.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>He told the Journal that after consulting with the attorney general, it was determined that 17-year-olds who will turn 18 on or before the general election on Nov. 8 "and who have timely and properly registered to vote" will be able to do so beginning May 18, when the law takes effect.</p>
<p>Voter registration for the primary ends May 10, so 17-year-olds would have to register on or before that date in order to be able to vote as of May 18.</p>
<p>"That's crucial," said state Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, a former state elections director and the executive director of the County Clerks Affiliate of the New Mexico Association of Counties. "They must have submitted their voter registration on paper or online as of May 10."</p>
<p>And they have to be registered either as Democrats or Republicans; New Mexicans not affiliated with either party can't vote in the primary.</p>
<p>Nor does state law allow the same 17-year-olds to vote in any other election - local bond elections, for example. The primary is different because it's essentially the nominating process for parties for the general election.</p>
<p>There already are hundreds of 17-year-olds in the pipeline to vote who will turn 18 by Nov. 8, according to the secretary of state. That's because current law already allows 17-year-olds to fill out voter registration forms, which are then held in a suspense status until they turn 18.</p>
<p>"Democracy only works if everyone participates, and allowing these new voters to participate is a win for our state," said Viki Harrison, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico.</p>
<p>"And even though the best-case scenario of allowing them to vote on the first day of early voting didn't happen, we are very happy that they will have from May 18 until the primary on June 7 to vote," she said.</p>
<p />
<p />
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Some 17-year-old New Mexicans can vote as of May 18
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https://abqjournal.com/756668/sos-some-17-year-olds-can-vote-as-of-may-18.html
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2016-04-13
| 2least
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Some 17-year-old New Mexicans can vote as of May 18
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<p />
<p>That means they would miss the first eight days of early voting - offered in county clerks' offices - but be able to vote after that, through the June 7 primary election.</p>
<p>The Legislature this year passed, and the governor signed, a bill allowing 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they will be 18 by the time of the general election.</p>
<p>Because of the May 18 effective date, there was some uncertainty about how the new law would apply to this year's election. But Secretary of State Brad Winter clarified it in a memo dated April 9 he sent to county clerks.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>He told the Journal that after consulting with the attorney general, it was determined that 17-year-olds who will turn 18 on or before the general election on Nov. 8 "and who have timely and properly registered to vote" will be able to do so beginning May 18, when the law takes effect.</p>
<p>Voter registration for the primary ends May 10, so 17-year-olds would have to register on or before that date in order to be able to vote as of May 18.</p>
<p>"That's crucial," said state Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, a former state elections director and the executive director of the County Clerks Affiliate of the New Mexico Association of Counties. "They must have submitted their voter registration on paper or online as of May 10."</p>
<p>And they have to be registered either as Democrats or Republicans; New Mexicans not affiliated with either party can't vote in the primary.</p>
<p>Nor does state law allow the same 17-year-olds to vote in any other election - local bond elections, for example. The primary is different because it's essentially the nominating process for parties for the general election.</p>
<p>There already are hundreds of 17-year-olds in the pipeline to vote who will turn 18 by Nov. 8, according to the secretary of state. That's because current law already allows 17-year-olds to fill out voter registration forms, which are then held in a suspense status until they turn 18.</p>
<p>"Democracy only works if everyone participates, and allowing these new voters to participate is a win for our state," said Viki Harrison, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico.</p>
<p>"And even though the best-case scenario of allowing them to vote on the first day of early voting didn't happen, we are very happy that they will have from May 18 until the primary on June 7 to vote," she said.</p>
<p />
<p />
| 598,847 |
<p />
<p>When one of your surrogates can’t think of a single difference between you and the President on economic issues, you’re in serious trouble.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Did Sanford have a momentary lapse? Sure. But if Blitzer had given Sanford 20 minutes, he wouldn’t have found a substantive difference between McCain and Bush other than McCain’s lower tolerance for pork, which, because earmark spending is a relatively small portion of the federal budget, is more a good government issue than an economic one. On taxes, trade, CEO salaries, and so on, McCain and Bush are nearly identical. <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/11/blunt-v-romney-on-3rd-bush-term/" type="external">Other McCain surrogates</a> have <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKm87MV_u_4" type="external">admitted as much</a>.</p>
<p />
|
Dep’t of Surrogate Follies: Oops, McCain = Bush
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2008/07/dept-surrogate-follies-oops-mccain-bush/
|
2008-07-13
| 4left
|
Dep’t of Surrogate Follies: Oops, McCain = Bush
<p />
<p>When one of your surrogates can’t think of a single difference between you and the President on economic issues, you’re in serious trouble.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Did Sanford have a momentary lapse? Sure. But if Blitzer had given Sanford 20 minutes, he wouldn’t have found a substantive difference between McCain and Bush other than McCain’s lower tolerance for pork, which, because earmark spending is a relatively small portion of the federal budget, is more a good government issue than an economic one. On taxes, trade, CEO salaries, and so on, McCain and Bush are nearly identical. <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/11/blunt-v-romney-on-3rd-bush-term/" type="external">Other McCain surrogates</a> have <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKm87MV_u_4" type="external">admitted as much</a>.</p>
<p />
| 598,848 |
<p>BERLIN — "I'm in the exhibit."</p>
<p>A weird thing to say. Or maybe I just didn't say it right in German. Whichever, the frazzled young woman at the coat check thought I just didn't want to wait in the longest line I've ever seen at Berlin's Jewish Museum.</p>
<p>I felt bad cutting, but it was a good 40 minutes and I had 15. The back-and-forth continued, the confusion mounting until at last a native speaker intervened: "He means, he is the exhibit."</p>
<p>It was my turn to do what many of my Jewish friends here have already done: sit in an open-faced, plastic box ("throne" as another cheerfully called it) for two hours to field questions from curious museum-goers. The human installation comes at the end of a new, head-turning exhibit, "The Whole Truth: Everything you always wanted to know about Jews."</p>
<p>The concept is as simple as it is bold. In a country rich in Jewish history but lacking actual Jews, put it all on the table -- true and false, complementary and denigrating, the stereotypes, questions, preconceived notions and, maybe most of all, the 'nothing at all' that most pointedly reveals the Holocaust’s stubborn presence.</p>
<p>Adolf Eichmann was my first thought when I learned exactly how the Museum was to present the living history portion of the exhibit. Justin Timberlake — well known in the US for putting something else in a box on Saturday Night Live — was the next.</p>
<p>The concept <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/world/europe/berlin-exhibition-on-judaism-hits-a-nerve.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" type="external">hasn't gone down easy</a> with everyone in the Jewish community (does anything?), and I was immediately sympathetic to the critics' cries. A person in a box? A Jew, like an animal in a zoo, to be observed and pointed at? Isn’t this what Hitler wanted in his Museum of an Extinct Race?</p>
<p>We Jews are already an odd bunch — a minority in number but not in presence, cut off from the mainstream while still influencing it, with a long history of unrelenting persecution leading to a recent history of uncalibrated power. Is such a presentation really the way to go?</p>
<p>I went in skeptical, ambivalent at best, motivated however by the chance to be part of the larger Jewish and Berlin communities. Two hours later, seeing the response and better understanding the context into which the box has been dropped, I became convinced: This is a necessary and overdue exhibit not to be outright dismissed.</p>
<p>When a pair of 20-something, English-speaking Jews asked the first question, they didn’t realize they were setting up to explain the exhibit's very intention. They just thought the questions printed on the walls were primitive and distasteful, and couldn’t understand why the museum would use them.</p>
<p>What they didn’t know was where they came from: not from the curator’s imagination but from guest comments. The exhibit simply recognizes what’s already out there and wants to confront it (and maybe have some fun, too).</p>
<p>Of course it’s simple, even superficial. Like Pesach’s child who does not know how to ask, this exhibit has been created for a society confronted ad nauseam by what it did to the Jews with very little regard to what Jews are doing today. For most Germans, the only Jew they know is a dead Jew.</p>
<p>The concept of a current, evolving, vibrant, diverse Jewish culture, in Germany and elsewhere, has been largely overshadowed by the necessary reminder of the Holocaust and the ongoing antics in the Middle East.</p>
<p>A Jew in a box may be a contrived way to force interaction between Jew and non-Jew, and Germany needs many such boxes. But as the text on the wall next to the box reads, many Jews, not only but especially in Germany, already feel like a curiosity. If the box reflects and represents the experiences of people, then the Museum is doing what museums exist to do.</p>
<p>In my two hours, the questions were mostly specific to me: Who are you? Why are you here? How did you come to participate in this? The simplest question was also the hardest to answer: What kind of Jew are you? I grew up conservative, kept (and to some extent still keep) kosher, had a bar mitzvah, can read and write but can’t speak Hebrew, try to go to synagogue a few times a month, and love having shabbat dinner with friends and celebrating most of the holidays.</p>
<p>But I don’t really believe in God, the Torah is just a nice story with a lot of savagery and counting and my girlfriend isn’t Jewish.</p>
<p>Does that make me religious? Far from it. Reform? No thanks. Observant? Perhaps. Traditional? Not sure what that is, exactly. A bagel connoisseur? Definitely. So, what kind of Jew am I? Good question.</p>
<p>It is this very complexity I realized the box adds to the exhibit’s otherwise simplicity, even self-aware irony. Each Jew who sits there is a little bit but not at all like every other Jew who sits there. Taken as a whole, we see Jews like any other group: difficult to homogenize, worthy of respect and not above criticism.</p>
<p>A visitor’s greatest takeaway? Maybe the Jews are on to something: the only good answer to a question is another question.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Bill Glucroft is a writer and provides communication services to companies around Berlin. &#160;</p>
|
'Jew in a Box' museum exhibit provokes questions in Berlin
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2013-04-09/jew-box-museum-exhibit-provokes-questions-berlin
|
2013-04-09
| 3left-center
|
'Jew in a Box' museum exhibit provokes questions in Berlin
<p>BERLIN — "I'm in the exhibit."</p>
<p>A weird thing to say. Or maybe I just didn't say it right in German. Whichever, the frazzled young woman at the coat check thought I just didn't want to wait in the longest line I've ever seen at Berlin's Jewish Museum.</p>
<p>I felt bad cutting, but it was a good 40 minutes and I had 15. The back-and-forth continued, the confusion mounting until at last a native speaker intervened: "He means, he is the exhibit."</p>
<p>It was my turn to do what many of my Jewish friends here have already done: sit in an open-faced, plastic box ("throne" as another cheerfully called it) for two hours to field questions from curious museum-goers. The human installation comes at the end of a new, head-turning exhibit, "The Whole Truth: Everything you always wanted to know about Jews."</p>
<p>The concept is as simple as it is bold. In a country rich in Jewish history but lacking actual Jews, put it all on the table -- true and false, complementary and denigrating, the stereotypes, questions, preconceived notions and, maybe most of all, the 'nothing at all' that most pointedly reveals the Holocaust’s stubborn presence.</p>
<p>Adolf Eichmann was my first thought when I learned exactly how the Museum was to present the living history portion of the exhibit. Justin Timberlake — well known in the US for putting something else in a box on Saturday Night Live — was the next.</p>
<p>The concept <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/world/europe/berlin-exhibition-on-judaism-hits-a-nerve.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0" type="external">hasn't gone down easy</a> with everyone in the Jewish community (does anything?), and I was immediately sympathetic to the critics' cries. A person in a box? A Jew, like an animal in a zoo, to be observed and pointed at? Isn’t this what Hitler wanted in his Museum of an Extinct Race?</p>
<p>We Jews are already an odd bunch — a minority in number but not in presence, cut off from the mainstream while still influencing it, with a long history of unrelenting persecution leading to a recent history of uncalibrated power. Is such a presentation really the way to go?</p>
<p>I went in skeptical, ambivalent at best, motivated however by the chance to be part of the larger Jewish and Berlin communities. Two hours later, seeing the response and better understanding the context into which the box has been dropped, I became convinced: This is a necessary and overdue exhibit not to be outright dismissed.</p>
<p>When a pair of 20-something, English-speaking Jews asked the first question, they didn’t realize they were setting up to explain the exhibit's very intention. They just thought the questions printed on the walls were primitive and distasteful, and couldn’t understand why the museum would use them.</p>
<p>What they didn’t know was where they came from: not from the curator’s imagination but from guest comments. The exhibit simply recognizes what’s already out there and wants to confront it (and maybe have some fun, too).</p>
<p>Of course it’s simple, even superficial. Like Pesach’s child who does not know how to ask, this exhibit has been created for a society confronted ad nauseam by what it did to the Jews with very little regard to what Jews are doing today. For most Germans, the only Jew they know is a dead Jew.</p>
<p>The concept of a current, evolving, vibrant, diverse Jewish culture, in Germany and elsewhere, has been largely overshadowed by the necessary reminder of the Holocaust and the ongoing antics in the Middle East.</p>
<p>A Jew in a box may be a contrived way to force interaction between Jew and non-Jew, and Germany needs many such boxes. But as the text on the wall next to the box reads, many Jews, not only but especially in Germany, already feel like a curiosity. If the box reflects and represents the experiences of people, then the Museum is doing what museums exist to do.</p>
<p>In my two hours, the questions were mostly specific to me: Who are you? Why are you here? How did you come to participate in this? The simplest question was also the hardest to answer: What kind of Jew are you? I grew up conservative, kept (and to some extent still keep) kosher, had a bar mitzvah, can read and write but can’t speak Hebrew, try to go to synagogue a few times a month, and love having shabbat dinner with friends and celebrating most of the holidays.</p>
<p>But I don’t really believe in God, the Torah is just a nice story with a lot of savagery and counting and my girlfriend isn’t Jewish.</p>
<p>Does that make me religious? Far from it. Reform? No thanks. Observant? Perhaps. Traditional? Not sure what that is, exactly. A bagel connoisseur? Definitely. So, what kind of Jew am I? Good question.</p>
<p>It is this very complexity I realized the box adds to the exhibit’s otherwise simplicity, even self-aware irony. Each Jew who sits there is a little bit but not at all like every other Jew who sits there. Taken as a whole, we see Jews like any other group: difficult to homogenize, worthy of respect and not above criticism.</p>
<p>A visitor’s greatest takeaway? Maybe the Jews are on to something: the only good answer to a question is another question.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Bill Glucroft is a writer and provides communication services to companies around Berlin. &#160;</p>
| 598,849 |
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<p>NEW YORK — An activist investor has bought a “meaningful” stake in Barnes &amp; Noble Inc. and is urging the bookseller to sell itself.</p>
<p>Sandell Asset Management Corp. CEO Thomas E. Sandell, in a letter to Barnes &amp; Noble’s board, said “the public market for retail stocks is contributing to a risky and inhospitable environment” and the company would be better served if it were private or part of a larger company.</p>
<p>He did not disclose the amount of Sandell’s stake.</p>
<p>Shares of Barnes &amp; Noble jumped 70 cents, or 9.9 percent, to $7.83 in early Tuesday trading.</p>
<p>In the letter to board, Sandell said the company is the only “truly national bookstore chain” and compared its locations to “beachfront property.” He said the company could get more than $12 per share.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
Investor urges Barnes & Noble to seek a sale, shares jump
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1037956/investor-urges-barnes-noble-to-seek-a-sale-shares-jump.html
| 2least
|
Investor urges Barnes & Noble to seek a sale, shares jump
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<p>NEW YORK — An activist investor has bought a “meaningful” stake in Barnes &amp; Noble Inc. and is urging the bookseller to sell itself.</p>
<p>Sandell Asset Management Corp. CEO Thomas E. Sandell, in a letter to Barnes &amp; Noble’s board, said “the public market for retail stocks is contributing to a risky and inhospitable environment” and the company would be better served if it were private or part of a larger company.</p>
<p>He did not disclose the amount of Sandell’s stake.</p>
<p>Shares of Barnes &amp; Noble jumped 70 cents, or 9.9 percent, to $7.83 in early Tuesday trading.</p>
<p>In the letter to board, Sandell said the company is the only “truly national bookstore chain” and compared its locations to “beachfront property.” He said the company could get more than $12 per share.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 598,850 |
|
<p />
<p>In order to register to vote in Florida, you must:</p>
<p>If the information on the application is not true, the applicant can be convicted of a felony of the third degree and fined up to $5,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 5 years.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">US Congress District 19 - We have a plan!</a>November 30, 2009In "Conservative Blogs"</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">US Congressional District 19 Candidate Cards</a>December 7, 2009In "Conservative Blogs"</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Support Joe Negron - True Conservative</a>July 29, 2014In "Conservative Blogs"</p>
|
Register To Vote In Florida - The Best Tool!
| true |
http://libertyfederation.org/register-to-vote-this-is-your-strongest-defense/
|
2009-11-30
| 0right
|
Register To Vote In Florida - The Best Tool!
<p />
<p>In order to register to vote in Florida, you must:</p>
<p>If the information on the application is not true, the applicant can be convicted of a felony of the third degree and fined up to $5,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 5 years.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="" type="internal">US Congress District 19 - We have a plan!</a>November 30, 2009In "Conservative Blogs"</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">US Congressional District 19 Candidate Cards</a>December 7, 2009In "Conservative Blogs"</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Support Joe Negron - True Conservative</a>July 29, 2014In "Conservative Blogs"</p>
| 598,851 |
<p>Spring Prayer by DAVID MOSER</p>
<p>Where do you get your life seed I give you soil and water neither mine to give and a pot made from soil and water neither light nor warmth within</p>
<p>Grow I say filling your grave with water wiping my hands washing the soil away with water I am water mostly I am grown Grow up to be like me seed</p>
<p>Lift your thin shoots to the sky in a joyful noise the lands rejoice in your coming seed the fruits and grains and legumes of your modest success sing</p>
<p>Soon enough it will be autumn seed and in my need I will harvest you bred of my knowing the seeds of sweat broken on my brow like bread in communion with the dead</p>
<p>There is blood in any harvest seed you fill my cup with hunger the stark stems of consumption do you sanctify my thirst is it thirst that makes you green</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Guest By DAVID MOSER</p>
<p>Where shall I sit? Shall I sit? Am I worthy to sit in your presence? May my shadow sit with me? Is it asking too much in its silence? Shall I leave it like boots at the door? I count it as nothing to lead or to follow the darkness it gathers around me. It never escapes me. Is my shadow a gift or a burden? Shall I kneel in the hall until bidden to sit? Shall I wait till the candles are lit to awaken more shadows like moths to a moon? Is there room at the table? Am I coarse, merely fit for the stable? Are my manners your manners? My image your image? Imagine. Will you notice my presence beside you? Have all of your sides now been taken? Have you sides to sit next to? Is my knowledge your knowledge? My presence your presence? Is my shadow yours?</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>In the Dark By DAVID MOSER</p>
<p>Rising from darkness into which to fall where the deftly daunted senses stiffen</p>
<p>maybe on Monday with missing windows maybe on Friday with swaying keyholes maybe on Sunday with reckoning pews</p>
<p>each tree topples into its own shadow as a fouled stream veils its varicose voice even the deaf have begun to listen</p>
<p>to the iron roar of the smithy where scowling is hammered into sentences clamoring steel like a sword forged of nails</p>
<p>flashing from its scabbard at last shedding a dusting of rust bent on renewing the darkness to all but begin again</p>
<p>David Moser&#160;lives in Washington, DC.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Editorial Note:&#160;(Please Read Closely Before Submitting) To submit to Poets’ Basement, send an e-mail to&#160;CounterPunch’s poetry editor, Marc Beaudin at&#160; <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>&#160;with your name, the titles being submitted, and your website url or e-mail address (if you’d like this to appear with your work).&#160; Also indicate whether or not your poems have been previously published and where.&#160; For translations, include poem in original language and documentation of granted reprint/translation rights.&#160; Attach up to 5 poems&#160;and&#160;a short bio, written in 3rd person, as a single Word Document&#160;(.doc or .rtf attachments only; no .docx).&#160; Expect a response within one month (occasionally longer during periods of heavy submissions).</p>
<p>Poems accepted for online publication will be considered for possible inclusion of an upcoming print anthology.</p>
<p>For more details, tips and suggestions, visit&#160; <a href="http://crowvoicejournal.blogspot.com/" type="external">CrowVoiceJournal.blogspot.com</a>and check the links on the top right. Thanks!</p>
|
Poet’s Basement
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2011/08/19/poets-basement-4/
|
2011-08-19
| 4left
|
Poet’s Basement
<p>Spring Prayer by DAVID MOSER</p>
<p>Where do you get your life seed I give you soil and water neither mine to give and a pot made from soil and water neither light nor warmth within</p>
<p>Grow I say filling your grave with water wiping my hands washing the soil away with water I am water mostly I am grown Grow up to be like me seed</p>
<p>Lift your thin shoots to the sky in a joyful noise the lands rejoice in your coming seed the fruits and grains and legumes of your modest success sing</p>
<p>Soon enough it will be autumn seed and in my need I will harvest you bred of my knowing the seeds of sweat broken on my brow like bread in communion with the dead</p>
<p>There is blood in any harvest seed you fill my cup with hunger the stark stems of consumption do you sanctify my thirst is it thirst that makes you green</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Guest By DAVID MOSER</p>
<p>Where shall I sit? Shall I sit? Am I worthy to sit in your presence? May my shadow sit with me? Is it asking too much in its silence? Shall I leave it like boots at the door? I count it as nothing to lead or to follow the darkness it gathers around me. It never escapes me. Is my shadow a gift or a burden? Shall I kneel in the hall until bidden to sit? Shall I wait till the candles are lit to awaken more shadows like moths to a moon? Is there room at the table? Am I coarse, merely fit for the stable? Are my manners your manners? My image your image? Imagine. Will you notice my presence beside you? Have all of your sides now been taken? Have you sides to sit next to? Is my knowledge your knowledge? My presence your presence? Is my shadow yours?</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>In the Dark By DAVID MOSER</p>
<p>Rising from darkness into which to fall where the deftly daunted senses stiffen</p>
<p>maybe on Monday with missing windows maybe on Friday with swaying keyholes maybe on Sunday with reckoning pews</p>
<p>each tree topples into its own shadow as a fouled stream veils its varicose voice even the deaf have begun to listen</p>
<p>to the iron roar of the smithy where scowling is hammered into sentences clamoring steel like a sword forged of nails</p>
<p>flashing from its scabbard at last shedding a dusting of rust bent on renewing the darkness to all but begin again</p>
<p>David Moser&#160;lives in Washington, DC.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Editorial Note:&#160;(Please Read Closely Before Submitting) To submit to Poets’ Basement, send an e-mail to&#160;CounterPunch’s poetry editor, Marc Beaudin at&#160; <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a>&#160;with your name, the titles being submitted, and your website url or e-mail address (if you’d like this to appear with your work).&#160; Also indicate whether or not your poems have been previously published and where.&#160; For translations, include poem in original language and documentation of granted reprint/translation rights.&#160; Attach up to 5 poems&#160;and&#160;a short bio, written in 3rd person, as a single Word Document&#160;(.doc or .rtf attachments only; no .docx).&#160; Expect a response within one month (occasionally longer during periods of heavy submissions).</p>
<p>Poems accepted for online publication will be considered for possible inclusion of an upcoming print anthology.</p>
<p>For more details, tips and suggestions, visit&#160; <a href="http://crowvoicejournal.blogspot.com/" type="external">CrowVoiceJournal.blogspot.com</a>and check the links on the top right. Thanks!</p>
| 598,852 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE — A 10-year veteran of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office was arrested for driving drunk in Northern New Mexico Saturday.</p>
<p>Leonard Martinez, 36, is charged with aggravated DWI and failing to maintain traffic lanes after he was pulled over by a State Police officer in Ojo Caliente and refused to take breath tests. SFCSO spokesman Juan Rios said Martinez, who started with the department in October 2007, has been put on desk duty pending an internal investigation.</p>
<p>Leonard Martinez</p>
<p>According to a criminal complaint filed in Taos Magistrate Court, an officer patrolling in Ojo Caliente around 6 p.m. Saturday got behind a pickup truck that was pulling a trailer with two all-terrain vehicles that crossed the center line several times. The officer pulled the truck over and later wrote that he could smell alcohol as soon as the windows were rolled down. There was a male in the driver’s seat with a female passenger. “As I spoke with the male, I could see his eyes were bloodshot and watery from across the cab of the vehicle and also noticed he was slightly slurring his words,” Officer James Tremann wrote.</p>
<p>Tremann wrote that the driver, later identified as Martinez, was having a hard time following field sobriety test instructions and was swaying while he was standing. Martinez said he had a beer “quite a bit earlier.”</p>
<p>When asked what Martinez does for work, he first replied, “I work behind a desk.” He later said he was a Santa Fe County deputy.</p>
<p>Martinez refused to take a breath test and was arrested. State Police notified the SFCSO of the incident, according to the complaint. He was released on his own recognizance by Taos Magistrate Judge Jeff Shannon and is not allowed to drink alcohol or enter liquor establishments.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
Santa Fe County deputy arrested for DWI
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1103004/santa-fe-county-deputy-arrested-for-dwi.html
| 2least
|
Santa Fe County deputy arrested for DWI
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA FE — A 10-year veteran of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office was arrested for driving drunk in Northern New Mexico Saturday.</p>
<p>Leonard Martinez, 36, is charged with aggravated DWI and failing to maintain traffic lanes after he was pulled over by a State Police officer in Ojo Caliente and refused to take breath tests. SFCSO spokesman Juan Rios said Martinez, who started with the department in October 2007, has been put on desk duty pending an internal investigation.</p>
<p>Leonard Martinez</p>
<p>According to a criminal complaint filed in Taos Magistrate Court, an officer patrolling in Ojo Caliente around 6 p.m. Saturday got behind a pickup truck that was pulling a trailer with two all-terrain vehicles that crossed the center line several times. The officer pulled the truck over and later wrote that he could smell alcohol as soon as the windows were rolled down. There was a male in the driver’s seat with a female passenger. “As I spoke with the male, I could see his eyes were bloodshot and watery from across the cab of the vehicle and also noticed he was slightly slurring his words,” Officer James Tremann wrote.</p>
<p>Tremann wrote that the driver, later identified as Martinez, was having a hard time following field sobriety test instructions and was swaying while he was standing. Martinez said he had a beer “quite a bit earlier.”</p>
<p>When asked what Martinez does for work, he first replied, “I work behind a desk.” He later said he was a Santa Fe County deputy.</p>
<p>Martinez refused to take a breath test and was arrested. State Police notified the SFCSO of the incident, according to the complaint. He was released on his own recognizance by Taos Magistrate Judge Jeff Shannon and is not allowed to drink alcohol or enter liquor establishments.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 598,853 |
|
<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ These Florida lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>12-14-23-29-34</p>
<p>(twelve, fourteen, twenty-three, twenty-nine, thirty-four)</p>
<p>Lucky Money</p>
<p>10-29-31-35, Lucky Ball: 5</p>
<p>(ten, twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-five; Lucky Ball: five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $550,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>17-18-33-46-60, Mega Ball: 24, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(seventeen, eighteen, thirty-three, forty-six, sixty; Mega Ball: twenty-four; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Pick 2 Evening</p>
<p>8-3</p>
<p>(eight, three)</p>
<p>Pick 2 Midday</p>
<p>7-5</p>
<p>(seven, five)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>7-8-3</p>
<p>(seven, eight, three)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>5-9-6</p>
<p>(five, nine, six)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>3-6-4-4</p>
<p>(three, six, four, four)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Midday</p>
<p>7-6-7-1</p>
<p>(seven, six, seven, one)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Evening</p>
<p>5-5-5-7-6</p>
<p>(five, five, five, seven, six)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Midday</p>
<p>3-9-2-6-3</p>
<p>(three, nine, two, six, three)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ These Florida lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>12-14-23-29-34</p>
<p>(twelve, fourteen, twenty-three, twenty-nine, thirty-four)</p>
<p>Lucky Money</p>
<p>10-29-31-35, Lucky Ball: 5</p>
<p>(ten, twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-five; Lucky Ball: five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $550,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>17-18-33-46-60, Mega Ball: 24, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(seventeen, eighteen, thirty-three, forty-six, sixty; Mega Ball: twenty-four; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Pick 2 Evening</p>
<p>8-3</p>
<p>(eight, three)</p>
<p>Pick 2 Midday</p>
<p>7-5</p>
<p>(seven, five)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>7-8-3</p>
<p>(seven, eight, three)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>5-9-6</p>
<p>(five, nine, six)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>3-6-4-4</p>
<p>(three, six, four, four)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Midday</p>
<p>7-6-7-1</p>
<p>(seven, six, seven, one)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Evening</p>
<p>5-5-5-7-6</p>
<p>(five, five, five, seven, six)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Midday</p>
<p>3-9-2-6-3</p>
<p>(three, nine, two, six, three)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
|
FL Lottery
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/c38e13ab0cc648dcb674aa1d0a4e5acc
|
2018-01-13
| 2least
|
FL Lottery
<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ These Florida lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>12-14-23-29-34</p>
<p>(twelve, fourteen, twenty-three, twenty-nine, thirty-four)</p>
<p>Lucky Money</p>
<p>10-29-31-35, Lucky Ball: 5</p>
<p>(ten, twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-five; Lucky Ball: five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $550,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>17-18-33-46-60, Mega Ball: 24, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(seventeen, eighteen, thirty-three, forty-six, sixty; Mega Ball: twenty-four; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Pick 2 Evening</p>
<p>8-3</p>
<p>(eight, three)</p>
<p>Pick 2 Midday</p>
<p>7-5</p>
<p>(seven, five)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>7-8-3</p>
<p>(seven, eight, three)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>5-9-6</p>
<p>(five, nine, six)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>3-6-4-4</p>
<p>(three, six, four, four)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Midday</p>
<p>7-6-7-1</p>
<p>(seven, six, seven, one)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Evening</p>
<p>5-5-5-7-6</p>
<p>(five, five, five, seven, six)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Midday</p>
<p>3-9-2-6-3</p>
<p>(three, nine, two, six, three)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) _ These Florida lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Fantasy 5</p>
<p>12-14-23-29-34</p>
<p>(twelve, fourteen, twenty-three, twenty-nine, thirty-four)</p>
<p>Lucky Money</p>
<p>10-29-31-35, Lucky Ball: 5</p>
<p>(ten, twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-five; Lucky Ball: five)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $550,000</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>17-18-33-46-60, Mega Ball: 24, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(seventeen, eighteen, thirty-three, forty-six, sixty; Mega Ball: twenty-four; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $45 million</p>
<p>Pick 2 Evening</p>
<p>8-3</p>
<p>(eight, three)</p>
<p>Pick 2 Midday</p>
<p>7-5</p>
<p>(seven, five)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Evening</p>
<p>7-8-3</p>
<p>(seven, eight, three)</p>
<p>Pick 3 Midday</p>
<p>5-9-6</p>
<p>(five, nine, six)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Evening</p>
<p>3-6-4-4</p>
<p>(three, six, four, four)</p>
<p>Pick 4 Midday</p>
<p>7-6-7-1</p>
<p>(seven, six, seven, one)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Evening</p>
<p>5-5-5-7-6</p>
<p>(five, five, five, seven, six)</p>
<p>Pick 5 Midday</p>
<p>3-9-2-6-3</p>
<p>(three, nine, two, six, three)</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
| 598,854 |
<p>Ron Sachs/DPA/ZUMAPRESS.com</p>
<p />
<p>In a blistering <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130414/OPINION01/304140002/Editorial-Regress-Kentucky" type="external">editorial</a> on Sunday, the Louisville&#160;Courier-Journal, the largest newspaper in Kentucky,&#160;weighed in on the controversy kicked up by the&#160;Mother Jones&#160; <a href="" type="internal">article</a> disclosing a tape that captured&#160;Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell and his campaign aides at a private strategy session laughing about using actor/activist&#160;Ashley Judd’s past struggles with depression and her religious views as political ammunition, should Judd&#160;challenge McConnell for his seat. The newspaper&#160;derided the super-PAC that reportedly was connected to the tape, but it unloaded on McConnell, who is up for reelection next year:</p>
<p>The contents of the audio are as despicable as they are damaging, leaving Mr. McConnell unable to defend them. Instead, he blustered he was the victim of “Watergate style”&#160;bugging by left-leaning enemies and demanded an FBI investigation.</p>
<p>The paper, which McConnell targeted for a “Whac-A-Mole” offensive at that meeting, blasted McConnell for ducking the true issue at hand:</p>
<p>Mr. McConnell has masterfully diverted public attention from the offensive content of the tape—which is the real story here—to his outrage over how it was obtained. McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton called the tactics “comparable only to Richard Nixon’s efforts to bug Democratic Party Headquarters.”</p>
<p>But how it was obtained—reportedly by at least one member of Progress Kentucky recording it outside the closed door of the McConnell campaign meeting—falls short of the “Watergate style”&#160;bugging Mr. McConnell and staff conjured up.</p>
<p>The tape, the newspaper contended, was just another reason why Kentucky needs to replace the five-term senator:</p>
<p>He has long ceased to serve the state, instead serving the corporate interests he counts on for contributions and leading obstruction that continues to plague Congress. He needs a credible opponent and a serious effort by people ready to advance the interests of Kentucky and its citizens.</p>
<p>With his I’m-the-victim act, McConnell may have nudged the narrative in his favor, but he&#160;did not win over the&#160;Courier-Journal.</p>
<p />
|
Louisville Courier-Journal: McConnell Tape Contents Are “Despicable” and the “Real Story”
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/courier-journal-mcconnell-tape-despicable-judd/
|
2013-04-15
| 4left
|
Louisville Courier-Journal: McConnell Tape Contents Are “Despicable” and the “Real Story”
<p>Ron Sachs/DPA/ZUMAPRESS.com</p>
<p />
<p>In a blistering <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130414/OPINION01/304140002/Editorial-Regress-Kentucky" type="external">editorial</a> on Sunday, the Louisville&#160;Courier-Journal, the largest newspaper in Kentucky,&#160;weighed in on the controversy kicked up by the&#160;Mother Jones&#160; <a href="" type="internal">article</a> disclosing a tape that captured&#160;Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell and his campaign aides at a private strategy session laughing about using actor/activist&#160;Ashley Judd’s past struggles with depression and her religious views as political ammunition, should Judd&#160;challenge McConnell for his seat. The newspaper&#160;derided the super-PAC that reportedly was connected to the tape, but it unloaded on McConnell, who is up for reelection next year:</p>
<p>The contents of the audio are as despicable as they are damaging, leaving Mr. McConnell unable to defend them. Instead, he blustered he was the victim of “Watergate style”&#160;bugging by left-leaning enemies and demanded an FBI investigation.</p>
<p>The paper, which McConnell targeted for a “Whac-A-Mole” offensive at that meeting, blasted McConnell for ducking the true issue at hand:</p>
<p>Mr. McConnell has masterfully diverted public attention from the offensive content of the tape—which is the real story here—to his outrage over how it was obtained. McConnell campaign manager Jesse Benton called the tactics “comparable only to Richard Nixon’s efforts to bug Democratic Party Headquarters.”</p>
<p>But how it was obtained—reportedly by at least one member of Progress Kentucky recording it outside the closed door of the McConnell campaign meeting—falls short of the “Watergate style”&#160;bugging Mr. McConnell and staff conjured up.</p>
<p>The tape, the newspaper contended, was just another reason why Kentucky needs to replace the five-term senator:</p>
<p>He has long ceased to serve the state, instead serving the corporate interests he counts on for contributions and leading obstruction that continues to plague Congress. He needs a credible opponent and a serious effort by people ready to advance the interests of Kentucky and its citizens.</p>
<p>With his I’m-the-victim act, McConnell may have nudged the narrative in his favor, but he&#160;did not win over the&#160;Courier-Journal.</p>
<p />
| 598,855 |
<p>MIAMI (AP) - When Hurricane Irma rolled across the Florida Keys this fall, it wasn't just the motels and marinas, Tom Thumbs, stilt houses and shell shacks strung along the island chain that got slammed.</p>
<p>Underwater, the storm pushed around massive amounts of sand, uncovering ancient reefs and burying some closer to its path. Some channels got filled, others reconfigured. Buoys that marked navigation or provided moorings for boaters got ripped free - some 800 alone in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary will need to be surveyed. Debris, from boats to fence posts to propeller-snagging utility lines, created new underwater hazards.</p>
<p>Navigation, never easy among the mud banks and seagrass flats or maze of islands, took on new challenges.</p>
<p>Now the Sanctuary that stretches from the north end of Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas is teaming up with the boating industry to undertake the daunting task of mapping the changes. Beginning Jan. 19 through February, the Sanctuary is asking boaters to report changes to Navionics, an Italian company that produces navigational charts. Navionics also helped chart changes in the northeast after Superstorm Sandy.</p>
<p>"We cannot get all the information we need by ourselves. So we need to work with partners," said Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent Sarah Fangman, who oversees a staff of less than three dozen, including a six-man buoy team responsible for about 2,800 square miles.</p>
<p>For mariners, changes after a storm are par for the course, but Irma was a rare Cat 4 storm that made landfall, and the first to hit the Keys with such fury since Donna crossed Marathon with 140 mph winds in 1960. Hurricane-force winds stretched 160 miles. Tropical storm winds reached 440 miles. After Irma crossed Cudjoe Key, before and after satellite photos showed a dramatic bright halo of water clouded with sand all along the coastline, from the Treasure Coast to Cape Coral.</p>
<p>Much of the damage underwater reflected the damage above ground, with the worst impacts near Big Pine in the Lower Keys, and to a lesser degree, Marathon to Key Largo, Fangman said. Areas around Key West and Boca Chica suffered less damage, along with Key Largo to the north.</p>
<p>Damage to marine life, and especially the imperiled reef tract, which has shrunk to half its original size and battled disease and warming waters in recent years, is still being assessed. The sanctuary is working with Everglades National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other agencies to determine what damage may be lasting and what parts of the reef can rebound. In October, the Sanctuary teamed up with Mote Marine Lab to ask divers to report damage. They are also keeping a close eye on sponges, which feed by filtering water and got walloped by the prolonged turbidity, Fangman said.</p>
<p>As the seasons change and lower winter tides roll in, changes to the bottom are likely to become more obvious, said Capt. Steven Friedman, commodore of the Florida Keys Fishing Guide Association and a guide in the Upper Keys.</p>
<p>"A lot of it's sort of navigational aids in Everglades National Park," he said. "They have markers and posts that are down, in the channels and waterways we navigate."</p>
<p>Friedman had not heard of an increase in groundings, although tournaments that focus on flats fishing in shallow Florida Bay won't start in earnest until Spring. Most offshore winter tournaments are still on schedule. Only one, the Key Largo Sailfish Challenge, will "take a rest," according to a Facebook post, because of Irma. For guides and anglers who often leave before daybreak, markers can be critical.</p>
<p>"Seasoned boaters know what to look for, but even then when it's not light out, that's what's concerning," he said. "You gotta be able to read the water and be careful in any scenario, especially after a storm."</p>
<p>Fangman said the buoy team is in the process of surveying markers, but with a team of just six, it has largely focused on the most popular and heavily-trafficked spots.</p>
<p>"We haven't gotten them all replaced yet, but every chance they get when the weather is good they're checking," she said.</p>
<p>It's not yet clear how bottom changes will be addressed, she said. If debris is blocking a channel, it will likely be removed, she said. But if it's filled, dredging could be a more complicated fix. Whether to dredge would be decided by the U.S. Coast Guard, which maintains channels.</p>
<p>"Mother nature has a way of moving things around," she said. "We can try to put them back where we think they go, but Mother Nature has her own way."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Miami Herald, <a href="http://www.herald.com" type="external">http://www.herald.com</a></p>
<p>MIAMI (AP) - When Hurricane Irma rolled across the Florida Keys this fall, it wasn't just the motels and marinas, Tom Thumbs, stilt houses and shell shacks strung along the island chain that got slammed.</p>
<p>Underwater, the storm pushed around massive amounts of sand, uncovering ancient reefs and burying some closer to its path. Some channels got filled, others reconfigured. Buoys that marked navigation or provided moorings for boaters got ripped free - some 800 alone in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary will need to be surveyed. Debris, from boats to fence posts to propeller-snagging utility lines, created new underwater hazards.</p>
<p>Navigation, never easy among the mud banks and seagrass flats or maze of islands, took on new challenges.</p>
<p>Now the Sanctuary that stretches from the north end of Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas is teaming up with the boating industry to undertake the daunting task of mapping the changes. Beginning Jan. 19 through February, the Sanctuary is asking boaters to report changes to Navionics, an Italian company that produces navigational charts. Navionics also helped chart changes in the northeast after Superstorm Sandy.</p>
<p>"We cannot get all the information we need by ourselves. So we need to work with partners," said Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent Sarah Fangman, who oversees a staff of less than three dozen, including a six-man buoy team responsible for about 2,800 square miles.</p>
<p>For mariners, changes after a storm are par for the course, but Irma was a rare Cat 4 storm that made landfall, and the first to hit the Keys with such fury since Donna crossed Marathon with 140 mph winds in 1960. Hurricane-force winds stretched 160 miles. Tropical storm winds reached 440 miles. After Irma crossed Cudjoe Key, before and after satellite photos showed a dramatic bright halo of water clouded with sand all along the coastline, from the Treasure Coast to Cape Coral.</p>
<p>Much of the damage underwater reflected the damage above ground, with the worst impacts near Big Pine in the Lower Keys, and to a lesser degree, Marathon to Key Largo, Fangman said. Areas around Key West and Boca Chica suffered less damage, along with Key Largo to the north.</p>
<p>Damage to marine life, and especially the imperiled reef tract, which has shrunk to half its original size and battled disease and warming waters in recent years, is still being assessed. The sanctuary is working with Everglades National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other agencies to determine what damage may be lasting and what parts of the reef can rebound. In October, the Sanctuary teamed up with Mote Marine Lab to ask divers to report damage. They are also keeping a close eye on sponges, which feed by filtering water and got walloped by the prolonged turbidity, Fangman said.</p>
<p>As the seasons change and lower winter tides roll in, changes to the bottom are likely to become more obvious, said Capt. Steven Friedman, commodore of the Florida Keys Fishing Guide Association and a guide in the Upper Keys.</p>
<p>"A lot of it's sort of navigational aids in Everglades National Park," he said. "They have markers and posts that are down, in the channels and waterways we navigate."</p>
<p>Friedman had not heard of an increase in groundings, although tournaments that focus on flats fishing in shallow Florida Bay won't start in earnest until Spring. Most offshore winter tournaments are still on schedule. Only one, the Key Largo Sailfish Challenge, will "take a rest," according to a Facebook post, because of Irma. For guides and anglers who often leave before daybreak, markers can be critical.</p>
<p>"Seasoned boaters know what to look for, but even then when it's not light out, that's what's concerning," he said. "You gotta be able to read the water and be careful in any scenario, especially after a storm."</p>
<p>Fangman said the buoy team is in the process of surveying markers, but with a team of just six, it has largely focused on the most popular and heavily-trafficked spots.</p>
<p>"We haven't gotten them all replaced yet, but every chance they get when the weather is good they're checking," she said.</p>
<p>It's not yet clear how bottom changes will be addressed, she said. If debris is blocking a channel, it will likely be removed, she said. But if it's filled, dredging could be a more complicated fix. Whether to dredge would be decided by the U.S. Coast Guard, which maintains channels.</p>
<p>"Mother nature has a way of moving things around," she said. "We can try to put them back where we think they go, but Mother Nature has her own way."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Miami Herald, <a href="http://www.herald.com" type="external">http://www.herald.com</a></p>
|
South Florida charts may be off in the wake of a hurricane
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/b3966a81b77e4ee0b71211b6792c7572
|
2018-01-06
| 2least
|
South Florida charts may be off in the wake of a hurricane
<p>MIAMI (AP) - When Hurricane Irma rolled across the Florida Keys this fall, it wasn't just the motels and marinas, Tom Thumbs, stilt houses and shell shacks strung along the island chain that got slammed.</p>
<p>Underwater, the storm pushed around massive amounts of sand, uncovering ancient reefs and burying some closer to its path. Some channels got filled, others reconfigured. Buoys that marked navigation or provided moorings for boaters got ripped free - some 800 alone in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary will need to be surveyed. Debris, from boats to fence posts to propeller-snagging utility lines, created new underwater hazards.</p>
<p>Navigation, never easy among the mud banks and seagrass flats or maze of islands, took on new challenges.</p>
<p>Now the Sanctuary that stretches from the north end of Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas is teaming up with the boating industry to undertake the daunting task of mapping the changes. Beginning Jan. 19 through February, the Sanctuary is asking boaters to report changes to Navionics, an Italian company that produces navigational charts. Navionics also helped chart changes in the northeast after Superstorm Sandy.</p>
<p>"We cannot get all the information we need by ourselves. So we need to work with partners," said Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent Sarah Fangman, who oversees a staff of less than three dozen, including a six-man buoy team responsible for about 2,800 square miles.</p>
<p>For mariners, changes after a storm are par for the course, but Irma was a rare Cat 4 storm that made landfall, and the first to hit the Keys with such fury since Donna crossed Marathon with 140 mph winds in 1960. Hurricane-force winds stretched 160 miles. Tropical storm winds reached 440 miles. After Irma crossed Cudjoe Key, before and after satellite photos showed a dramatic bright halo of water clouded with sand all along the coastline, from the Treasure Coast to Cape Coral.</p>
<p>Much of the damage underwater reflected the damage above ground, with the worst impacts near Big Pine in the Lower Keys, and to a lesser degree, Marathon to Key Largo, Fangman said. Areas around Key West and Boca Chica suffered less damage, along with Key Largo to the north.</p>
<p>Damage to marine life, and especially the imperiled reef tract, which has shrunk to half its original size and battled disease and warming waters in recent years, is still being assessed. The sanctuary is working with Everglades National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other agencies to determine what damage may be lasting and what parts of the reef can rebound. In October, the Sanctuary teamed up with Mote Marine Lab to ask divers to report damage. They are also keeping a close eye on sponges, which feed by filtering water and got walloped by the prolonged turbidity, Fangman said.</p>
<p>As the seasons change and lower winter tides roll in, changes to the bottom are likely to become more obvious, said Capt. Steven Friedman, commodore of the Florida Keys Fishing Guide Association and a guide in the Upper Keys.</p>
<p>"A lot of it's sort of navigational aids in Everglades National Park," he said. "They have markers and posts that are down, in the channels and waterways we navigate."</p>
<p>Friedman had not heard of an increase in groundings, although tournaments that focus on flats fishing in shallow Florida Bay won't start in earnest until Spring. Most offshore winter tournaments are still on schedule. Only one, the Key Largo Sailfish Challenge, will "take a rest," according to a Facebook post, because of Irma. For guides and anglers who often leave before daybreak, markers can be critical.</p>
<p>"Seasoned boaters know what to look for, but even then when it's not light out, that's what's concerning," he said. "You gotta be able to read the water and be careful in any scenario, especially after a storm."</p>
<p>Fangman said the buoy team is in the process of surveying markers, but with a team of just six, it has largely focused on the most popular and heavily-trafficked spots.</p>
<p>"We haven't gotten them all replaced yet, but every chance they get when the weather is good they're checking," she said.</p>
<p>It's not yet clear how bottom changes will be addressed, she said. If debris is blocking a channel, it will likely be removed, she said. But if it's filled, dredging could be a more complicated fix. Whether to dredge would be decided by the U.S. Coast Guard, which maintains channels.</p>
<p>"Mother nature has a way of moving things around," she said. "We can try to put them back where we think they go, but Mother Nature has her own way."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Miami Herald, <a href="http://www.herald.com" type="external">http://www.herald.com</a></p>
<p>MIAMI (AP) - When Hurricane Irma rolled across the Florida Keys this fall, it wasn't just the motels and marinas, Tom Thumbs, stilt houses and shell shacks strung along the island chain that got slammed.</p>
<p>Underwater, the storm pushed around massive amounts of sand, uncovering ancient reefs and burying some closer to its path. Some channels got filled, others reconfigured. Buoys that marked navigation or provided moorings for boaters got ripped free - some 800 alone in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary will need to be surveyed. Debris, from boats to fence posts to propeller-snagging utility lines, created new underwater hazards.</p>
<p>Navigation, never easy among the mud banks and seagrass flats or maze of islands, took on new challenges.</p>
<p>Now the Sanctuary that stretches from the north end of Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas is teaming up with the boating industry to undertake the daunting task of mapping the changes. Beginning Jan. 19 through February, the Sanctuary is asking boaters to report changes to Navionics, an Italian company that produces navigational charts. Navionics also helped chart changes in the northeast after Superstorm Sandy.</p>
<p>"We cannot get all the information we need by ourselves. So we need to work with partners," said Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent Sarah Fangman, who oversees a staff of less than three dozen, including a six-man buoy team responsible for about 2,800 square miles.</p>
<p>For mariners, changes after a storm are par for the course, but Irma was a rare Cat 4 storm that made landfall, and the first to hit the Keys with such fury since Donna crossed Marathon with 140 mph winds in 1960. Hurricane-force winds stretched 160 miles. Tropical storm winds reached 440 miles. After Irma crossed Cudjoe Key, before and after satellite photos showed a dramatic bright halo of water clouded with sand all along the coastline, from the Treasure Coast to Cape Coral.</p>
<p>Much of the damage underwater reflected the damage above ground, with the worst impacts near Big Pine in the Lower Keys, and to a lesser degree, Marathon to Key Largo, Fangman said. Areas around Key West and Boca Chica suffered less damage, along with Key Largo to the north.</p>
<p>Damage to marine life, and especially the imperiled reef tract, which has shrunk to half its original size and battled disease and warming waters in recent years, is still being assessed. The sanctuary is working with Everglades National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other agencies to determine what damage may be lasting and what parts of the reef can rebound. In October, the Sanctuary teamed up with Mote Marine Lab to ask divers to report damage. They are also keeping a close eye on sponges, which feed by filtering water and got walloped by the prolonged turbidity, Fangman said.</p>
<p>As the seasons change and lower winter tides roll in, changes to the bottom are likely to become more obvious, said Capt. Steven Friedman, commodore of the Florida Keys Fishing Guide Association and a guide in the Upper Keys.</p>
<p>"A lot of it's sort of navigational aids in Everglades National Park," he said. "They have markers and posts that are down, in the channels and waterways we navigate."</p>
<p>Friedman had not heard of an increase in groundings, although tournaments that focus on flats fishing in shallow Florida Bay won't start in earnest until Spring. Most offshore winter tournaments are still on schedule. Only one, the Key Largo Sailfish Challenge, will "take a rest," according to a Facebook post, because of Irma. For guides and anglers who often leave before daybreak, markers can be critical.</p>
<p>"Seasoned boaters know what to look for, but even then when it's not light out, that's what's concerning," he said. "You gotta be able to read the water and be careful in any scenario, especially after a storm."</p>
<p>Fangman said the buoy team is in the process of surveying markers, but with a team of just six, it has largely focused on the most popular and heavily-trafficked spots.</p>
<p>"We haven't gotten them all replaced yet, but every chance they get when the weather is good they're checking," she said.</p>
<p>It's not yet clear how bottom changes will be addressed, she said. If debris is blocking a channel, it will likely be removed, she said. But if it's filled, dredging could be a more complicated fix. Whether to dredge would be decided by the U.S. Coast Guard, which maintains channels.</p>
<p>"Mother nature has a way of moving things around," she said. "We can try to put them back where we think they go, but Mother Nature has her own way."</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Miami Herald, <a href="http://www.herald.com" type="external">http://www.herald.com</a></p>
| 598,856 |
<p>President Trump said “it’s not a crime” for his 2016 election campaign to collude with Russia despite such interaction never happening.</p>
<p>“I watched Alan Dershowitz the other day, he said, No. 1, there is no collusion, No. 2, collusion is not a crime, but even if it was a crime, there was no collusion,” he told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/us/politics/trump-interview-excerpts.html" type="external">The New York Times</a> Thursday, referencing the lawyer and media personality.</p>
<p>“And he said that very strongly,” Trump continued. “He said there was no collusion. And he has studied this thing very closely. I’ve seen him a number of times.”</p>
<p>“There is no collusion, and even if there was, it’s not a crime. But there’s no collusion. I don’t even go that far.”</p>
<p>Dershowitz earlier this month argued that Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey was not obstruction of justice as the president has a right to fire the bureau’s leader.</p>
<p>One of Trump’s top lawyers earlier this month charged that it does not matter if Trump campaign members colluded with Russia as “there is no crime of collusion.”</p>
<p>“For something to be a crime, there has to be a statue that you claim is violated,” Jay Sekulow told The New Yorker.</p>
<p>“There is not a statue that refers to criminal collusion,” he added. “There is no crime of collusion.”</p>
<p>Trump’s remarks come amid Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.</p>
<p>Mueller’s probe includes possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign, and it can also investigate related matters that appear, such as the crime of obstruction of justice.</p>
<p>Trump sacked Comey last May amid the FBI’s examination of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.</p>
<p>Comey testified in June that he believes Trump directed him to end the FBI’s scrutiny of Flynn before his ouster.</p>
<p>“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” he told the Senate Intelligence Committee.</p>
<p>Comey was quoting Trump off a memo detailing a meeting earlier in the year between both men in the Oval Office.</p>
<p>Flynn pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI about his past conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.</p>
<p>Flynn’s guilty plea sparked renewed debate over whether Trump possibly obstructed justice by canning Comey.</p>
|
Trump said 'it's not a crime' even if there was collusion with Russia
| false |
https://circa.com/story/2017/12/29/politics/trump-says-its-not-a-crime-even-if-there-was-russia-collusion
|
2017-12-29
| 1right-center
|
Trump said 'it's not a crime' even if there was collusion with Russia
<p>President Trump said “it’s not a crime” for his 2016 election campaign to collude with Russia despite such interaction never happening.</p>
<p>“I watched Alan Dershowitz the other day, he said, No. 1, there is no collusion, No. 2, collusion is not a crime, but even if it was a crime, there was no collusion,” he told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/us/politics/trump-interview-excerpts.html" type="external">The New York Times</a> Thursday, referencing the lawyer and media personality.</p>
<p>“And he said that very strongly,” Trump continued. “He said there was no collusion. And he has studied this thing very closely. I’ve seen him a number of times.”</p>
<p>“There is no collusion, and even if there was, it’s not a crime. But there’s no collusion. I don’t even go that far.”</p>
<p>Dershowitz earlier this month argued that Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey was not obstruction of justice as the president has a right to fire the bureau’s leader.</p>
<p>One of Trump’s top lawyers earlier this month charged that it does not matter if Trump campaign members colluded with Russia as “there is no crime of collusion.”</p>
<p>“For something to be a crime, there has to be a statue that you claim is violated,” Jay Sekulow told The New Yorker.</p>
<p>“There is not a statue that refers to criminal collusion,” he added. “There is no crime of collusion.”</p>
<p>Trump’s remarks come amid Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.</p>
<p>Mueller’s probe includes possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign, and it can also investigate related matters that appear, such as the crime of obstruction of justice.</p>
<p>Trump sacked Comey last May amid the FBI’s examination of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.</p>
<p>Comey testified in June that he believes Trump directed him to end the FBI’s scrutiny of Flynn before his ouster.</p>
<p>“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” he told the Senate Intelligence Committee.</p>
<p>Comey was quoting Trump off a memo detailing a meeting earlier in the year between both men in the Oval Office.</p>
<p>Flynn pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI about his past conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.</p>
<p>Flynn’s guilty plea sparked renewed debate over whether Trump possibly obstructed justice by canning Comey.</p>
| 598,857 |
<p>Not long ago I pulled my car up alongside a tiny wooden church in the woods, a stark white frame box my family built in 1840. And as always, an honest-to-god chill went through me, for the ancestral ghosts presumably hovering over the graves there. From the wide open front door the Pentecostal preacher’s message echoed from within the plain wooden walls: “Thank you Gawd for giving us strawng leaders like President Bush during this crieeesis. Praise you Lord and guide him in this battle with Satan’s Muslim armies.” If I had chosen to go back down the road a mile or so to the sprawling new Bible Baptist church—complete with school facilities, professional sound system and in-house television production—I could have heard approximately the same exhortation. Usually offered at the end of a prayer for sons and daughters of members in the congregation serving in Iraq, it can be heard in any of the thousands upon thousands of praise temples across our republic.</p>
<p>After a lifetime of identity conflict, I have come to accept that, blood-wise, if not politically or spiritually, these are my people. And as a leftist it is very clear to me these days why urban liberals not only fail to understand these people, but do not even know they exist, other than as some general lump of ignorant, intolerant voters called “the religious right,” or the “Christian Right,” or “neocon Christians.” But until progressives come to understand what these people read, hear, are told and deeply believe, we cannot understand American politics, much less be effective. Given fundamentalist Christianity’s inherent cultural isolation, it is nearly impossible for most enlightened Americans to imagine, in honest human terms, what fundamentalist Americans believe, let alone understand why we should all care.</p>
<p>For liberals to examine the current fundamentalist phenomenon in America is accept some hard truths. For starters, we libs are even more embattled than most of us choose to believe. Any significant liberal and progressive support is limited to a few urban pockets on each coast and along the upper edge of the Midwestern tier states. Most of the rest of the nation, the much vaunted heartland, is the dominion of the conservative and charismatic Christian. Turf-wise, it’s pretty much their country, which is to say it presently belongs to George W. Bush for some valid reasons. Remember: He did not have to steal the entire election, just a little piece of it in Florida. Evangelical born-again Christians of one stripe or another were then, and are now, 40% of the electorate, and they support Bush 3-1. And as long as their clergy and their worst instincts tell them to, they will keep on voting for him, or someone like him, regardless of what we view as his arrogant folly and sub-intelligence. Forget about changing their minds. These Christians do not read the same books we do, they do not get their information from anything remotely resembling reasonably balanced sources, and in fact, consider even CBS and NBC super-liberal networks of porn and the Devil’s lies. Given how fundamentalists see the modern world, they may as well be living in Iraq or Syria, with whom they share approximately the same Bronze Age religious tenets. They believe in God, Rumsfeld’s Holy War and their absolute duty as God’s chosen nation to kick Muslim ass up one side and down the other. In other words, just because millions of Christians appear to be dangerously nuts does not mean they are marginal.</p>
<p>Having been born into a Southern Pentecostal/Baptist family of many generations, and living in this fundamentalist social landscape means that I gaze into the maw of neocon Christianity daily. Hell, sometimes hourly. My brother is a fundamentalist preacher, as are a couple of my nephews, as were many of my ancestors going back to god-knows-when. My entire family is born-again; their lives are completely focused inside their own religious community, and on the time when Jesus returns to earth—Armageddon and The Rapture.</p>
<p>Only another liberal born into a fundamentalist clan can understand what a strange, sometimes downright hellish family circumstance it is—how such a family can love you deeply, yet despise everything you believe in, see you as a humanist instrument of Satan, and still be right there for you when your back goes out or a divorce shatters your life. As a socialist and a half-assed lefty activist, obviously I do not find much conversational fat to chew around the Thanksgiving table. Politically and spiritually, we may be said to be dire enemies. Love and loathing coexist side by side. There is talk, but no communication. In fact, there are times when it all has science fiction overtonestimes when it seems we are speaking to one another through an unearthly veil, wherein each party knows it is speaking to an alien. There is a sort of high eerie mental whine in the air. This is the sound of mutually incomprehensible worlds hurtling toward destiny, passing with great psychological friction, obvious to all, yet acknowledged by none. Between such times, I wait rather anxiously and strive for change, for relief from what feels like an increased stifling of personal liberty, beauty, art, and self-realization in America. They wait in spooky calmness for Jesus. They believe that, until Jesus does arrive, our “satanic humanist state and federal legal systems” should be replaced with pure “Biblical Law.” This belief is called Christian Reconstructionism. Though it has always been around in some form, it began expanding rapidly about 1973, with the publication of R. J. Rushdoony’s, Institutes of Biblical Law (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1982).</p>
<p>Time out please In a nod toward fairness and tolerance—begging the question of whether liberals are required to tolerate the intolerant—I will say this: Fundamentalists are “good people.” In daily life, they are warm-hearted and generous to a fault. They live with feet on the ground (albeit with eyes cast heavenward) and with genuine love and concern for their neighbors. After spending 30 years in progressive western cities such as Boulder, Colorado and Eugene, Oregon, I would have to say that conservative Christians actually do what liberals usually only talk about. They visit the sick and the elderly, give generously of their time and money to help those in need, and put unimaginable amounts of love and energy into their families, even as Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh blare in the background. Their good works extend internationally-were it not for American Christians, there would be little health care on the African continent and other similar places. OK, that’s the best I can do in showing due respect for the extreme Christian Right. Now to get back to the Christian Reconstructionists…</p>
<p>Establishing a Savage Eden</p>
<p>Christian Reconstruction is blunt stuff, hard and unforgiving as a gravestone.</p>
<p>Capital punishment, central to the Reconstructionist ideal, calls for the death penalty in a wide range of crimes, including abandonment of the faith, blasphemy, heresy, witchcraft, astrology, adultery, sodomy, homosexuality, striking a parent, and ”unchastity before marriage” (but for women only.) Biblically correct methods of execution include stoning, the sword, hanging, and burning. Stoning is preferred, according to Gary North, the self-styled Reconstructionist economist, because stones are plentiful and cheap. Biblical Law would also eliminate labor unions, civil rights laws, and public schools. Leading Reconstruction theologian David Chilton declares, “The Christian goal for the world is the universal development of Biblical theocratic republics” Incidentally, said Republic of Jesus would not only be a legal hell, but an ecological one as well—Reconstructionist doctrine calls for the scrapping of environmental protection of all kinds, because there will be no need for this planet earth once The Rapture occurs. You may not have heard of Rushdoony or Chilton or North, but taken either separately or together, they have directly and indirectly influenced far more contemporary American minds than Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal and Howard Zinn combined.</p>
<p>A moreover covert movement, although slightly more public of late, Christian Reconstructionism and Dominionism have for decades exerted one hell of an influence through its scores of books, publications and classes taught in colleges and universities. Over the past 30 years their doctrine has permeated not only the religious right, but mainstream churches as well, via the charismatic movement. The radical Christian right’s impact on politics and religion in this nation has been massive, with many mainstream churches pushed rightward by its pervasiveness without even knowing it. Clearly the Methodist church down the street from my house does not understand what it has become. Other mainstream churches with more progressive leadership, simply flinch and bow to the radicals at every turn. They have to, if they want to retain members these days. Further complicating matters is that leading Recoconstruction thinkers, along with their fellow travelers, the Dominionists, are all but invisible to non-fundamentalist America. (I will spare you the agony of the endless doctrinal hair-splitting that comes with making fundamentalist distinctions of any sort—I would not do that to a dog. But if you are disposed toward self-punishment, you can take it upon yourself to learn the differences between Dominionism, Pretribulationism, Midtribulationism, and Posttribulationism, Premillennialism, Millennialism I recommend the writings of the British author and scholar George Monbiot, who has put the entire maddening scheme of it all together—corporate implications, governmental and psychological meaning—in a couple of excellent books.)</p>
<p>Fundamentalists such as my family have no idea how thoroughly they have been orchestrated by agenda-driven Christian media and other innovations of the past few decades. They probably would not care now, even if they knew. Like most of their tribe (dare we say class, in a nation that so vehemently denies it has a class system?) they want to embrace some simple foundational truth that will rationalize all the conflict and confusion of a postmodern world. Some handbook that will neatly explain everything, make all their difficult decisions for them. And among these classic American citizens, prone toward religious zealotry since the Great Awakening of the 18th Century, what rock could appear more dependable upon which to cling than the infallible Holy Bible? From there it was a short step for Christian Dominionist leaders to conclude that such magnificent infallibility should be enforced upon all other people, in the same spirit as the Catholic Spanish Conquistadors or the Arab Muslim Moors before them. It’s an old, old story, a brutal one mankind cannot seem to shake.</p>
<p>Christian Reconstruction and Dominionist strategists make clear in their writings that homeschooling and Christian academies have been and continue to create the Rightist Christian cadres of the future, enabling them to place ever-increasing numbers of believers in positions of governmental influence. The training of Christian cadres is far more sophisticated than the average liberal realizes. There now stretches a network of dozens of campuses across the nation, each with its strange cultish atmosphere of smiling Christian pod people, most of them clones of Jerry Fallwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. But how many outsiders know the depth and specificity of political indoctrination in these schools? For example, Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, a college exclusively for Christian homeschoolers, offers programs in strategic government intelligence, legal training and foreign policy, all with a strict, Bible-based “Christian worldview.” Patrick Henry is so heavily funded by the Christian right it can offer classes below cost. In the Bush administration, seven percent of all internships are handed out to Patrick Henry students, along with many others distributed among similar religious rightist colleges. The Bush administration also recruits from the faculties of these schools, i.e. the appointments of right-wing Christian activist Kay Coles James, former dean of the Pat Robertson School of government, as director of the U.S. office of personnel. What better position than the personnel office from which to recruit more fundamentalists? Scratch any of these supposed academics and you will find a Christian zealot. I know because I have made the mistake of inviting a few of these folks to cocktail parties. One university department head told me he is moving to rural Mississippi where he can better recreate the lifestyle of the antebellum South, and its “Confederate Christian values.” It gets real strange real quick.</p>
<p>Lest the these Christians be underestimated, remember that it was their strategists whose “stealth ideology” managed the takeover of the Republican Party in the early 1990s. That takeover now looks mild in light of today’s neocon Christian implantations in the White House, the Pentagon and the Supreme Court and other federal entities. As much as liberals screech in protest, few understand the depth and breadth of the Rightist Christian takeover underway. They catch the scent but never behold the beast itself. Yesterday I heard a liberal Washington-based political pundit on NPR say the Radical Christian right’s local and regional political action peak was a past fixture of the Reagan era. I laughed out loud (it was a bitter laugh) and wondered if he had ever driven 20 miles eastward on U.S. Route 50 into the suburbs of Maryland, Virginia or West Virginia. The fellow on NPR was a perfect example of the need for liberal pundits to get their heads out of their asses, get outside the city, quit cruising the Internet and meet some Americans who do not mirror their own humanist educations and backgrounds.</p>
<p>If they did, they would grasp the importance The Rapture has taken on in American national and international politics. Despite the media’s shallow interpretation of The Rapture’s significance, it is a hell of a lot more than just a couple hundred million Left Behind books sold. The most significant thing about the Left Behind series is that, although they are classified as “fiction,” most fundamentalist readers I know accept the series as an absolute reality soon coming to a godless planet near you. It helps to understand that everything is literal in the Fundamentalist voter universe.</p>
<p>I’ll Fly Away, Oh Lordy (But you won’t.)</p>
<p>Yes, when The Rapture comes Christians with the right credentials will fly away. But you and I, dear reader, will probably be among those who suffer a thousand-year plague of boils. So stock up on antibiotics, because according to the “Rapture Index” it is damned near here. See for yourself at <a href="http://www.raptureready.com/" type="external">http://www.raptureready.com</a>. Part gimmick, part fanatical obsession, the index is a compilation of such things as floods, interest rates, oil prices, global turmoil As I write this the index stands at 144, just one point below critical mass, when people like us will be smitten under a sky filled with deliriously happy naked flying Christians.</p>
<p>But to blow The Rapture off as amusing-if-scary fantasy is not being honest on my part. Cheap glibness has always been my vice, so I must say this: Personally, I’ve lived with The Rapture as the psychologically imprinted backdrop of my entire life. In fact, my own father believed in it until the day he died, and the last time I saw him alive we talked about The Rapture. And when he asked me, “Will you be saved?” Will you be there with me on Canaan’s shore after The Rapture?” I was forced to feign belief in it to give a dying man inner solace. But that was the spiritual stuff of families, and living and dying, religion in its rightful place, the way it is supposed to be, personal and intimate—not political. Thus, until the advent of the of the new radical Christian influence, I’d certainly never heard The Rapture spoken about in the context of a Texan being selected by God to prepare its way.</p>
<p>Now however, this apocalyptic belief, yearning really, drives an American Christian polity in the service of a grave and unnerving agenda. The psuedo-scriptural has become an apocalyptic game plan for earthly political action: To wit, the messiah can only return to earth after an apocalypse in Israel called Armageddon, which the fundamentalists are promoting with all their power so that The Rapture can take place. The first requirement was establishment of the state of Israel. Done. The next is Israel’s occupation of the Middle East as a return of its “Biblical lands,” which in the radical Christian scheme of things, means more wars. These Christian conservatives believe peace cannot ever lead to The Rapture, and indeed impedes the 1,000 year Reign of Christ. So anyone promoting peace is an enemy, a tool of Satan, hence the fundamentalist support for any and all wars Middle Eastern, in which their own kids die a death often viewed by Christian parents as a holy martyrdom of its own kind. “He (or she) died protecting this country’s Christian values.” One hears it over and over from parents of those killed. The final scenario of the Rapture has the “saved” Christians settling onto a cloud after the long float upward, from whence they watch a Rambo Jesus wipe out the remnants of the human race. Then in a mop-up operation by God, the Jews are also annihilated, excepting a few who convert to Christianity. The Messiah returns to earth. End of story. Incidentally, the Muslim version, I was surprised to learn recently, is almost exactly the same, but with Muslims doing the cloud-sitting.</p>
<p>If we are lucky as a nation, this period in American history will be remembered as just another very dark time we managed to get through. Otherwise, one shudders to think of the logical outcome. No wonder the left is depressed. Meanwhile, our best thinkers on the left ask us to consider our perpetual U.S. imperial war as a fascist, military/corporate war, and indeed it is that too. But tens of millions of hardworking, earnest American Christians see it as far more than that. They see a war against all that is un-Biblical, the goal of which is complete world conquest, or put in Christian terminology, “dominion.” They will have no less than the “inevitable victory God has promised his new chosen people,” according to the Recon masters of the covert kingdom. Screw the Jews, they blew their chance. If perpetual war is what it will take, then let it be perpetual. After all, perpetual war is exactly what the Bible promised. Like it or not, this is the reality (or prevailing unreality) with which we are faced. The 2004 elections, regardless of outcome, will not change that. Nor will it necessarily bring ever-tolerant liberals to openly acknowledge what is truly happening in this country, the thing that has been building for a long, long time—a holy war, a covert Christian jihad for control of America and the entire world. Millions of Americans are under the spell of an extraordinarily dangerous mass psychosis. Pardon me, but religious tolerance be damned. Somebody had to say it.</p>
<p>JOE BAGEANT is a senior editor at the Primedia History Group and writes from Winchester, Virginia. He may be contacted at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
|
Thy Will be Done, On Earth as It is in Texas
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2004/05/25/thy-will-be-done-on-earth-as-it-is-in-texas/
|
2004-05-25
| 4left
|
Thy Will be Done, On Earth as It is in Texas
<p>Not long ago I pulled my car up alongside a tiny wooden church in the woods, a stark white frame box my family built in 1840. And as always, an honest-to-god chill went through me, for the ancestral ghosts presumably hovering over the graves there. From the wide open front door the Pentecostal preacher’s message echoed from within the plain wooden walls: “Thank you Gawd for giving us strawng leaders like President Bush during this crieeesis. Praise you Lord and guide him in this battle with Satan’s Muslim armies.” If I had chosen to go back down the road a mile or so to the sprawling new Bible Baptist church—complete with school facilities, professional sound system and in-house television production—I could have heard approximately the same exhortation. Usually offered at the end of a prayer for sons and daughters of members in the congregation serving in Iraq, it can be heard in any of the thousands upon thousands of praise temples across our republic.</p>
<p>After a lifetime of identity conflict, I have come to accept that, blood-wise, if not politically or spiritually, these are my people. And as a leftist it is very clear to me these days why urban liberals not only fail to understand these people, but do not even know they exist, other than as some general lump of ignorant, intolerant voters called “the religious right,” or the “Christian Right,” or “neocon Christians.” But until progressives come to understand what these people read, hear, are told and deeply believe, we cannot understand American politics, much less be effective. Given fundamentalist Christianity’s inherent cultural isolation, it is nearly impossible for most enlightened Americans to imagine, in honest human terms, what fundamentalist Americans believe, let alone understand why we should all care.</p>
<p>For liberals to examine the current fundamentalist phenomenon in America is accept some hard truths. For starters, we libs are even more embattled than most of us choose to believe. Any significant liberal and progressive support is limited to a few urban pockets on each coast and along the upper edge of the Midwestern tier states. Most of the rest of the nation, the much vaunted heartland, is the dominion of the conservative and charismatic Christian. Turf-wise, it’s pretty much their country, which is to say it presently belongs to George W. Bush for some valid reasons. Remember: He did not have to steal the entire election, just a little piece of it in Florida. Evangelical born-again Christians of one stripe or another were then, and are now, 40% of the electorate, and they support Bush 3-1. And as long as their clergy and their worst instincts tell them to, they will keep on voting for him, or someone like him, regardless of what we view as his arrogant folly and sub-intelligence. Forget about changing their minds. These Christians do not read the same books we do, they do not get their information from anything remotely resembling reasonably balanced sources, and in fact, consider even CBS and NBC super-liberal networks of porn and the Devil’s lies. Given how fundamentalists see the modern world, they may as well be living in Iraq or Syria, with whom they share approximately the same Bronze Age religious tenets. They believe in God, Rumsfeld’s Holy War and their absolute duty as God’s chosen nation to kick Muslim ass up one side and down the other. In other words, just because millions of Christians appear to be dangerously nuts does not mean they are marginal.</p>
<p>Having been born into a Southern Pentecostal/Baptist family of many generations, and living in this fundamentalist social landscape means that I gaze into the maw of neocon Christianity daily. Hell, sometimes hourly. My brother is a fundamentalist preacher, as are a couple of my nephews, as were many of my ancestors going back to god-knows-when. My entire family is born-again; their lives are completely focused inside their own religious community, and on the time when Jesus returns to earth—Armageddon and The Rapture.</p>
<p>Only another liberal born into a fundamentalist clan can understand what a strange, sometimes downright hellish family circumstance it is—how such a family can love you deeply, yet despise everything you believe in, see you as a humanist instrument of Satan, and still be right there for you when your back goes out or a divorce shatters your life. As a socialist and a half-assed lefty activist, obviously I do not find much conversational fat to chew around the Thanksgiving table. Politically and spiritually, we may be said to be dire enemies. Love and loathing coexist side by side. There is talk, but no communication. In fact, there are times when it all has science fiction overtonestimes when it seems we are speaking to one another through an unearthly veil, wherein each party knows it is speaking to an alien. There is a sort of high eerie mental whine in the air. This is the sound of mutually incomprehensible worlds hurtling toward destiny, passing with great psychological friction, obvious to all, yet acknowledged by none. Between such times, I wait rather anxiously and strive for change, for relief from what feels like an increased stifling of personal liberty, beauty, art, and self-realization in America. They wait in spooky calmness for Jesus. They believe that, until Jesus does arrive, our “satanic humanist state and federal legal systems” should be replaced with pure “Biblical Law.” This belief is called Christian Reconstructionism. Though it has always been around in some form, it began expanding rapidly about 1973, with the publication of R. J. Rushdoony’s, Institutes of Biblical Law (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1982).</p>
<p>Time out please In a nod toward fairness and tolerance—begging the question of whether liberals are required to tolerate the intolerant—I will say this: Fundamentalists are “good people.” In daily life, they are warm-hearted and generous to a fault. They live with feet on the ground (albeit with eyes cast heavenward) and with genuine love and concern for their neighbors. After spending 30 years in progressive western cities such as Boulder, Colorado and Eugene, Oregon, I would have to say that conservative Christians actually do what liberals usually only talk about. They visit the sick and the elderly, give generously of their time and money to help those in need, and put unimaginable amounts of love and energy into their families, even as Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh blare in the background. Their good works extend internationally-were it not for American Christians, there would be little health care on the African continent and other similar places. OK, that’s the best I can do in showing due respect for the extreme Christian Right. Now to get back to the Christian Reconstructionists…</p>
<p>Establishing a Savage Eden</p>
<p>Christian Reconstruction is blunt stuff, hard and unforgiving as a gravestone.</p>
<p>Capital punishment, central to the Reconstructionist ideal, calls for the death penalty in a wide range of crimes, including abandonment of the faith, blasphemy, heresy, witchcraft, astrology, adultery, sodomy, homosexuality, striking a parent, and ”unchastity before marriage” (but for women only.) Biblically correct methods of execution include stoning, the sword, hanging, and burning. Stoning is preferred, according to Gary North, the self-styled Reconstructionist economist, because stones are plentiful and cheap. Biblical Law would also eliminate labor unions, civil rights laws, and public schools. Leading Reconstruction theologian David Chilton declares, “The Christian goal for the world is the universal development of Biblical theocratic republics” Incidentally, said Republic of Jesus would not only be a legal hell, but an ecological one as well—Reconstructionist doctrine calls for the scrapping of environmental protection of all kinds, because there will be no need for this planet earth once The Rapture occurs. You may not have heard of Rushdoony or Chilton or North, but taken either separately or together, they have directly and indirectly influenced far more contemporary American minds than Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal and Howard Zinn combined.</p>
<p>A moreover covert movement, although slightly more public of late, Christian Reconstructionism and Dominionism have for decades exerted one hell of an influence through its scores of books, publications and classes taught in colleges and universities. Over the past 30 years their doctrine has permeated not only the religious right, but mainstream churches as well, via the charismatic movement. The radical Christian right’s impact on politics and religion in this nation has been massive, with many mainstream churches pushed rightward by its pervasiveness without even knowing it. Clearly the Methodist church down the street from my house does not understand what it has become. Other mainstream churches with more progressive leadership, simply flinch and bow to the radicals at every turn. They have to, if they want to retain members these days. Further complicating matters is that leading Recoconstruction thinkers, along with their fellow travelers, the Dominionists, are all but invisible to non-fundamentalist America. (I will spare you the agony of the endless doctrinal hair-splitting that comes with making fundamentalist distinctions of any sort—I would not do that to a dog. But if you are disposed toward self-punishment, you can take it upon yourself to learn the differences between Dominionism, Pretribulationism, Midtribulationism, and Posttribulationism, Premillennialism, Millennialism I recommend the writings of the British author and scholar George Monbiot, who has put the entire maddening scheme of it all together—corporate implications, governmental and psychological meaning—in a couple of excellent books.)</p>
<p>Fundamentalists such as my family have no idea how thoroughly they have been orchestrated by agenda-driven Christian media and other innovations of the past few decades. They probably would not care now, even if they knew. Like most of their tribe (dare we say class, in a nation that so vehemently denies it has a class system?) they want to embrace some simple foundational truth that will rationalize all the conflict and confusion of a postmodern world. Some handbook that will neatly explain everything, make all their difficult decisions for them. And among these classic American citizens, prone toward religious zealotry since the Great Awakening of the 18th Century, what rock could appear more dependable upon which to cling than the infallible Holy Bible? From there it was a short step for Christian Dominionist leaders to conclude that such magnificent infallibility should be enforced upon all other people, in the same spirit as the Catholic Spanish Conquistadors or the Arab Muslim Moors before them. It’s an old, old story, a brutal one mankind cannot seem to shake.</p>
<p>Christian Reconstruction and Dominionist strategists make clear in their writings that homeschooling and Christian academies have been and continue to create the Rightist Christian cadres of the future, enabling them to place ever-increasing numbers of believers in positions of governmental influence. The training of Christian cadres is far more sophisticated than the average liberal realizes. There now stretches a network of dozens of campuses across the nation, each with its strange cultish atmosphere of smiling Christian pod people, most of them clones of Jerry Fallwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. But how many outsiders know the depth and specificity of political indoctrination in these schools? For example, Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, a college exclusively for Christian homeschoolers, offers programs in strategic government intelligence, legal training and foreign policy, all with a strict, Bible-based “Christian worldview.” Patrick Henry is so heavily funded by the Christian right it can offer classes below cost. In the Bush administration, seven percent of all internships are handed out to Patrick Henry students, along with many others distributed among similar religious rightist colleges. The Bush administration also recruits from the faculties of these schools, i.e. the appointments of right-wing Christian activist Kay Coles James, former dean of the Pat Robertson School of government, as director of the U.S. office of personnel. What better position than the personnel office from which to recruit more fundamentalists? Scratch any of these supposed academics and you will find a Christian zealot. I know because I have made the mistake of inviting a few of these folks to cocktail parties. One university department head told me he is moving to rural Mississippi where he can better recreate the lifestyle of the antebellum South, and its “Confederate Christian values.” It gets real strange real quick.</p>
<p>Lest the these Christians be underestimated, remember that it was their strategists whose “stealth ideology” managed the takeover of the Republican Party in the early 1990s. That takeover now looks mild in light of today’s neocon Christian implantations in the White House, the Pentagon and the Supreme Court and other federal entities. As much as liberals screech in protest, few understand the depth and breadth of the Rightist Christian takeover underway. They catch the scent but never behold the beast itself. Yesterday I heard a liberal Washington-based political pundit on NPR say the Radical Christian right’s local and regional political action peak was a past fixture of the Reagan era. I laughed out loud (it was a bitter laugh) and wondered if he had ever driven 20 miles eastward on U.S. Route 50 into the suburbs of Maryland, Virginia or West Virginia. The fellow on NPR was a perfect example of the need for liberal pundits to get their heads out of their asses, get outside the city, quit cruising the Internet and meet some Americans who do not mirror their own humanist educations and backgrounds.</p>
<p>If they did, they would grasp the importance The Rapture has taken on in American national and international politics. Despite the media’s shallow interpretation of The Rapture’s significance, it is a hell of a lot more than just a couple hundred million Left Behind books sold. The most significant thing about the Left Behind series is that, although they are classified as “fiction,” most fundamentalist readers I know accept the series as an absolute reality soon coming to a godless planet near you. It helps to understand that everything is literal in the Fundamentalist voter universe.</p>
<p>I’ll Fly Away, Oh Lordy (But you won’t.)</p>
<p>Yes, when The Rapture comes Christians with the right credentials will fly away. But you and I, dear reader, will probably be among those who suffer a thousand-year plague of boils. So stock up on antibiotics, because according to the “Rapture Index” it is damned near here. See for yourself at <a href="http://www.raptureready.com/" type="external">http://www.raptureready.com</a>. Part gimmick, part fanatical obsession, the index is a compilation of such things as floods, interest rates, oil prices, global turmoil As I write this the index stands at 144, just one point below critical mass, when people like us will be smitten under a sky filled with deliriously happy naked flying Christians.</p>
<p>But to blow The Rapture off as amusing-if-scary fantasy is not being honest on my part. Cheap glibness has always been my vice, so I must say this: Personally, I’ve lived with The Rapture as the psychologically imprinted backdrop of my entire life. In fact, my own father believed in it until the day he died, and the last time I saw him alive we talked about The Rapture. And when he asked me, “Will you be saved?” Will you be there with me on Canaan’s shore after The Rapture?” I was forced to feign belief in it to give a dying man inner solace. But that was the spiritual stuff of families, and living and dying, religion in its rightful place, the way it is supposed to be, personal and intimate—not political. Thus, until the advent of the of the new radical Christian influence, I’d certainly never heard The Rapture spoken about in the context of a Texan being selected by God to prepare its way.</p>
<p>Now however, this apocalyptic belief, yearning really, drives an American Christian polity in the service of a grave and unnerving agenda. The psuedo-scriptural has become an apocalyptic game plan for earthly political action: To wit, the messiah can only return to earth after an apocalypse in Israel called Armageddon, which the fundamentalists are promoting with all their power so that The Rapture can take place. The first requirement was establishment of the state of Israel. Done. The next is Israel’s occupation of the Middle East as a return of its “Biblical lands,” which in the radical Christian scheme of things, means more wars. These Christian conservatives believe peace cannot ever lead to The Rapture, and indeed impedes the 1,000 year Reign of Christ. So anyone promoting peace is an enemy, a tool of Satan, hence the fundamentalist support for any and all wars Middle Eastern, in which their own kids die a death often viewed by Christian parents as a holy martyrdom of its own kind. “He (or she) died protecting this country’s Christian values.” One hears it over and over from parents of those killed. The final scenario of the Rapture has the “saved” Christians settling onto a cloud after the long float upward, from whence they watch a Rambo Jesus wipe out the remnants of the human race. Then in a mop-up operation by God, the Jews are also annihilated, excepting a few who convert to Christianity. The Messiah returns to earth. End of story. Incidentally, the Muslim version, I was surprised to learn recently, is almost exactly the same, but with Muslims doing the cloud-sitting.</p>
<p>If we are lucky as a nation, this period in American history will be remembered as just another very dark time we managed to get through. Otherwise, one shudders to think of the logical outcome. No wonder the left is depressed. Meanwhile, our best thinkers on the left ask us to consider our perpetual U.S. imperial war as a fascist, military/corporate war, and indeed it is that too. But tens of millions of hardworking, earnest American Christians see it as far more than that. They see a war against all that is un-Biblical, the goal of which is complete world conquest, or put in Christian terminology, “dominion.” They will have no less than the “inevitable victory God has promised his new chosen people,” according to the Recon masters of the covert kingdom. Screw the Jews, they blew their chance. If perpetual war is what it will take, then let it be perpetual. After all, perpetual war is exactly what the Bible promised. Like it or not, this is the reality (or prevailing unreality) with which we are faced. The 2004 elections, regardless of outcome, will not change that. Nor will it necessarily bring ever-tolerant liberals to openly acknowledge what is truly happening in this country, the thing that has been building for a long, long time—a holy war, a covert Christian jihad for control of America and the entire world. Millions of Americans are under the spell of an extraordinarily dangerous mass psychosis. Pardon me, but religious tolerance be damned. Somebody had to say it.</p>
<p>JOE BAGEANT is a senior editor at the Primedia History Group and writes from Winchester, Virginia. He may be contacted at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>Lenny Fresquez said he received a letter from the NYSAC, acknowledging that de Randamie landed illegal blows after the horn at the end of the second and third rounds — but stating that no change of the outcome would be made. Referee Todd Anderson had the authority to deduct a point from de Randamie on either occasion, but did not do so.</p>
<p>Holm lost by unanimous decision in a bout for the newly minted UFC women’s featherweight title.</p>
<p>Fresquez said he hopes de Randamie, with the UFC’s cooperation, makes good on her pledge to give Holm a rematch.</p>
<p>The commission’s decision was first reported by mmafighting.com. An NYSAC official told MMA Fighting that the commission determined “there was no clear error or violation of statute or rule by Referee Todd Anderson. Therefore, the scoring and outcome of the bout will not be modified.</p>
<p>Fresquez told the Journal that the Holm camp accepts the commission’s decision and will go no further with the appeal.</p>
<p>“That process will end now,” Frequez said. “… We will move forward, respect the decision and now we’ll wait for Germaine to keep her word (regarding the rematch).”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>De Randamie said after the fight and later on a conference call that she has ligament damage in her hand and at some point will have to undergo surgery. Doctors will determine, she said, whether she can fight again before having the surgery.</p>
<p>Brazilian fighter Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino is considered by many observers likely to get the first shot at de Randamie and the featherweight title.</p>
<p>“I’m sure that’s what they want,” Fresquez said, referring to the UFC. “But Germaine’s already spoken. She’s the champion, and she wants to fight Holly.</p>
<p>“I hope she sticks to her guns, and we’ll get this thing settled.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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MMA: Holm appeal denied
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https://abqjournal.com/958998/mma-holm-appeal-denied.html
| 2least
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MMA: Holm appeal denied
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<p />
<p>Lenny Fresquez said he received a letter from the NYSAC, acknowledging that de Randamie landed illegal blows after the horn at the end of the second and third rounds — but stating that no change of the outcome would be made. Referee Todd Anderson had the authority to deduct a point from de Randamie on either occasion, but did not do so.</p>
<p>Holm lost by unanimous decision in a bout for the newly minted UFC women’s featherweight title.</p>
<p>Fresquez said he hopes de Randamie, with the UFC’s cooperation, makes good on her pledge to give Holm a rematch.</p>
<p>The commission’s decision was first reported by mmafighting.com. An NYSAC official told MMA Fighting that the commission determined “there was no clear error or violation of statute or rule by Referee Todd Anderson. Therefore, the scoring and outcome of the bout will not be modified.</p>
<p>Fresquez told the Journal that the Holm camp accepts the commission’s decision and will go no further with the appeal.</p>
<p>“That process will end now,” Frequez said. “… We will move forward, respect the decision and now we’ll wait for Germaine to keep her word (regarding the rematch).”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>De Randamie said after the fight and later on a conference call that she has ligament damage in her hand and at some point will have to undergo surgery. Doctors will determine, she said, whether she can fight again before having the surgery.</p>
<p>Brazilian fighter Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino is considered by many observers likely to get the first shot at de Randamie and the featherweight title.</p>
<p>“I’m sure that’s what they want,” Fresquez said, referring to the UFC. “But Germaine’s already spoken. She’s the champion, and she wants to fight Holly.</p>
<p>“I hope she sticks to her guns, and we’ll get this thing settled.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
| 598,859 |
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<p>In the wake of the economic recovery in 1983-84, a kind of euphoria spread through some, but by no means all, of the upper reaches of American society. John Naisbitt, author of the widely read book Megatrends, wrote at the end of 1984 that "job creation is one of America's great untold stories." Indeed, he predicted that the United States was close to a time of labor shortages.</p>
<p />
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The Perils of a Dual Economy
| true |
https://dissentmagazine.org/article/the-perils-of-a-dual-economy
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2018-10-03
| 4left
|
The Perils of a Dual Economy
<p>In the wake of the economic recovery in 1983-84, a kind of euphoria spread through some, but by no means all, of the upper reaches of American society. John Naisbitt, author of the widely read book Megatrends, wrote at the end of 1984 that "job creation is one of America's great untold stories." Indeed, he predicted that the United States was close to a time of labor shortages.</p>
<p />
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<p>Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., portrayed his vote in favor of the legislation as an effort to keep the government running. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, has pronounced the bill dead on arrival in the Senate. It now appears that a federal government shutdown will occur at midnight Monday.</p>
<p>For more information on how a shutdown wouldl affect New Mexico, check out <a href="" type="internal">our story</a> from Saturday’s front-page.</p>
<p>“Tonight, the House has voted for a second time to prevent a government shutdown, and to protect American families and businesses from a costly and unworkable law,” Pearce said in a statement issued after midnight on Saturday. “The Senate wasted a full week before taking action on the House’s first vote to prevent a shutdown, and only&#160;yesterday&#160;voted on a continuing resolution that continues to fund the President’s unworkable and costly healthcare bill.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“The Administration has already granted a delay for businesses—American families deserve the same treatment.&#160; We can all agree that a shutdown would be bad for New Mexico, bad for the middle class, and bad for the country.&#160; I urge the Senate to return to work and act quickly.&#160; There is still time to join the House and save American families from more unnecessary burdens, confusion, and hardship.”</p>
<p>New Mexico’s Democratic House members, who opposed the Republican bill, saw the vote much differently.</p>
<p>“House Republicans, led by an extremist faction of their party,&#160;tonight&#160;voted to all but ensure a government shutdown,” said Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham in a statement. “On&#160;Friday, the Senate acted in a reasonable, responsible way to keep the government open while we work on the significant fiscal issues facing our country. But instead of adopting that commonsense Senate-passed continuing resolution, House Republicans have decided that proving a futile ideological point is more important than the wellbeing of New Mexico families, veterans, seniors and public employees.</p>
<p>“The purpose of a continuing resolution should be simple: to keep the government open. House Republicans, however, are attempting to use this continuing resolution to extract their ideological demands, holding the American economy hostage in the process.</p>
<p>“It’s time for House Republicans to stop playing political games that would harm New Mexicans, and instead work with Democrats to create jobs and reduce the deficit in a balanced way.”</p>
<p>Rep. Ben Ray Lujan sounded a similar note.</p>
<p>“House Republicans seem determined to shut down the government if they do not get their way,” Lujan said. “Despite the fact that the Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress, upheld by the Supreme Court, and the repeal agenda was rejected by voters last November, House Republicans are willing to make the American people pay the price for their ideological demands.</p>
<p>“Their obsession with undermining a law that ends discrimination for pre-existing conditions, expands care to millions of unemployed Americans, and strengthens Medicare is dangerously close to causing a government shutdown that would cause thousands of New Mexico’s federal employees to be furloughed – taking money out of their pockets – and halt services for the most vulnerable in our communities.</p>
<p>“It’s long past time for Tea Party Republicans in the House to stop creating one manufactured crisis after another that harms our economy and New Mexico’s families and get serious about doing what is in the best interest of the American people, not the most extreme elements of one party.”</p>
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N.M. House delegation comments on shutdown vote
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https://abqjournal.com/271598/n-m-house-delegation-comments-on-shutdown-vote.html
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2013-09-29
| 2least
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N.M. House delegation comments on shutdown vote
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<p />
<p>Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., portrayed his vote in favor of the legislation as an effort to keep the government running. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, has pronounced the bill dead on arrival in the Senate. It now appears that a federal government shutdown will occur at midnight Monday.</p>
<p>For more information on how a shutdown wouldl affect New Mexico, check out <a href="" type="internal">our story</a> from Saturday’s front-page.</p>
<p>“Tonight, the House has voted for a second time to prevent a government shutdown, and to protect American families and businesses from a costly and unworkable law,” Pearce said in a statement issued after midnight on Saturday. “The Senate wasted a full week before taking action on the House’s first vote to prevent a shutdown, and only&#160;yesterday&#160;voted on a continuing resolution that continues to fund the President’s unworkable and costly healthcare bill.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“The Administration has already granted a delay for businesses—American families deserve the same treatment.&#160; We can all agree that a shutdown would be bad for New Mexico, bad for the middle class, and bad for the country.&#160; I urge the Senate to return to work and act quickly.&#160; There is still time to join the House and save American families from more unnecessary burdens, confusion, and hardship.”</p>
<p>New Mexico’s Democratic House members, who opposed the Republican bill, saw the vote much differently.</p>
<p>“House Republicans, led by an extremist faction of their party,&#160;tonight&#160;voted to all but ensure a government shutdown,” said Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham in a statement. “On&#160;Friday, the Senate acted in a reasonable, responsible way to keep the government open while we work on the significant fiscal issues facing our country. But instead of adopting that commonsense Senate-passed continuing resolution, House Republicans have decided that proving a futile ideological point is more important than the wellbeing of New Mexico families, veterans, seniors and public employees.</p>
<p>“The purpose of a continuing resolution should be simple: to keep the government open. House Republicans, however, are attempting to use this continuing resolution to extract their ideological demands, holding the American economy hostage in the process.</p>
<p>“It’s time for House Republicans to stop playing political games that would harm New Mexicans, and instead work with Democrats to create jobs and reduce the deficit in a balanced way.”</p>
<p>Rep. Ben Ray Lujan sounded a similar note.</p>
<p>“House Republicans seem determined to shut down the government if they do not get their way,” Lujan said. “Despite the fact that the Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress, upheld by the Supreme Court, and the repeal agenda was rejected by voters last November, House Republicans are willing to make the American people pay the price for their ideological demands.</p>
<p>“Their obsession with undermining a law that ends discrimination for pre-existing conditions, expands care to millions of unemployed Americans, and strengthens Medicare is dangerously close to causing a government shutdown that would cause thousands of New Mexico’s federal employees to be furloughed – taking money out of their pockets – and halt services for the most vulnerable in our communities.</p>
<p>“It’s long past time for Tea Party Republicans in the House to stop creating one manufactured crisis after another that harms our economy and New Mexico’s families and get serious about doing what is in the best interest of the American people, not the most extreme elements of one party.”</p>
| 598,861 |
<p>On Friday morning, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Gorsuch’s nomination followed months of acrimony between the Republicans and Democrats after the GOP-led Senate exercised its privilege and refused to consider Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick B. Garland to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016.</p>
<p>President Trump had stated during the 2016 presidential campaign that he intended to nominate someone in Scalia’s conservative mold, a feat he achieved with the nomination of Gorsuch, who is only 49 years old.</p>
<p>Gorsuch’s nomination was assured once the GOP invoked the so-called nuclear option to obviate the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/filibusters_and_debate_curbs/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" type="external">filibuster</a> waged by the Democrats, who sought to deny Gorsuch the 60 votes required to advance to a final vote. The use of the nuclear option allowed Gorsuch to pass with a simple majority vote; he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/07/us/politics/gorsuch-confirmation-vote.html" type="external">received</a> 53 votes endorsing his nomination with 45 opposing him.</p>
<p>Gorsuch, a graduate of Columbia, Harvard and Oxford, served as a law clerk in 1993 and 1994 to Justice Byron R. White, who died in 2002, and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, later joining the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver in 2006.</p>
<p>Gorsuch’s reputation as an originalist preceded his nomination, triggering consternation among Democrats who want to bend the Constitution to their will, as articulated during his nomination process by California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2017/03/20/grassley-tells-gorsuch-not-to-worry-about-dems-recycled-attacks-n2301551" type="external">said</a> originalism “ignores the intent of the framers … It’s a framework on which to build. I firmly believe the Constitution is a living document that evolves as our country evolves.”</p>
<p>The politicization of the nominating process for a Supreme Court Justice was launched by Democrats in the brutal treatment of Judge Robert Bork in 1987; former vice-president Joe Biden, then a senator, played a vital part in that nefarious effort. Bork later discussed the events in detail in his book The Tempting of America. The Democrats continued their political attacks on a Supreme Court nomination when Judge Clarence Thomas was nominated to the court in 1991.</p>
<p>Ironically, considering the Democrats’ whining about the GOP refusing to consider Garland’s nomination, it was <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2017/03/31/joe-biden-seems-to-have-forgotten-about-the-biden-rule-n2306918" type="external">Biden</a>, in 1992, when he was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, giving a <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4581754/biden-senate-hearings-scotus-vacancy-election-year" type="external">speech</a> on the Senate floor arguing that standards for considering a Supreme Court nominee in an election year should be different. He said:</p>
<p>Some will criticize such a decision and say that it was nothing more than an attempt to save a seat on the court in hopes that a Democrat will be permitted to fill it, but that would not be our intention. It would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is underway, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over.</p>
<p>Gorsuch’s nomination was assured once the GOP invoked the so-called nuclear option to obviate the filibuster waged by the Democrats.</p>
<p>The first significant case likely facing Gorsuch will be Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, which revolves around equal protection principles and the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion.</p>
|
BREAKING: Trump’s Supreme Court Pick Gorsuch Confirmed By Senate
| true |
https://dailywire.com/news/15222/breaking-trumps-supreme-court-pick-gorsuch-hank-berrien
|
2017-04-07
| 0right
|
BREAKING: Trump’s Supreme Court Pick Gorsuch Confirmed By Senate
<p>On Friday morning, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Gorsuch’s nomination followed months of acrimony between the Republicans and Democrats after the GOP-led Senate exercised its privilege and refused to consider Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick B. Garland to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February 2016.</p>
<p>President Trump had stated during the 2016 presidential campaign that he intended to nominate someone in Scalia’s conservative mold, a feat he achieved with the nomination of Gorsuch, who is only 49 years old.</p>
<p>Gorsuch’s nomination was assured once the GOP invoked the so-called nuclear option to obviate the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/filibusters_and_debate_curbs/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" type="external">filibuster</a> waged by the Democrats, who sought to deny Gorsuch the 60 votes required to advance to a final vote. The use of the nuclear option allowed Gorsuch to pass with a simple majority vote; he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/07/us/politics/gorsuch-confirmation-vote.html" type="external">received</a> 53 votes endorsing his nomination with 45 opposing him.</p>
<p>Gorsuch, a graduate of Columbia, Harvard and Oxford, served as a law clerk in 1993 and 1994 to Justice Byron R. White, who died in 2002, and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, later joining the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver in 2006.</p>
<p>Gorsuch’s reputation as an originalist preceded his nomination, triggering consternation among Democrats who want to bend the Constitution to their will, as articulated during his nomination process by California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2017/03/20/grassley-tells-gorsuch-not-to-worry-about-dems-recycled-attacks-n2301551" type="external">said</a> originalism “ignores the intent of the framers … It’s a framework on which to build. I firmly believe the Constitution is a living document that evolves as our country evolves.”</p>
<p>The politicization of the nominating process for a Supreme Court Justice was launched by Democrats in the brutal treatment of Judge Robert Bork in 1987; former vice-president Joe Biden, then a senator, played a vital part in that nefarious effort. Bork later discussed the events in detail in his book The Tempting of America. The Democrats continued their political attacks on a Supreme Court nomination when Judge Clarence Thomas was nominated to the court in 1991.</p>
<p>Ironically, considering the Democrats’ whining about the GOP refusing to consider Garland’s nomination, it was <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2017/03/31/joe-biden-seems-to-have-forgotten-about-the-biden-rule-n2306918" type="external">Biden</a>, in 1992, when he was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, giving a <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4581754/biden-senate-hearings-scotus-vacancy-election-year" type="external">speech</a> on the Senate floor arguing that standards for considering a Supreme Court nominee in an election year should be different. He said:</p>
<p>Some will criticize such a decision and say that it was nothing more than an attempt to save a seat on the court in hopes that a Democrat will be permitted to fill it, but that would not be our intention. It would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the political season is underway, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over.</p>
<p>Gorsuch’s nomination was assured once the GOP invoked the so-called nuclear option to obviate the filibuster waged by the Democrats.</p>
<p>The first significant case likely facing Gorsuch will be Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, which revolves around equal protection principles and the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion.</p>
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<p>Three boom-and-bust cycles between 1982 and 1996 hammered Superior, Ariz. The town’s population shrank by nearly two-thirds to 2,800, about a quarter of whom live in poverty. Most of the businesses on the town’s Main Street are boarded up. (Courtesy of Resolution Copper Mining)</p>
<p>SUPERIOR, Ariz. – Leslie Martin’s boutique is among the few businesses on Superior’s Main Street not boarded up, making it one of the last places where locals can still gather to talk.</p>
<p>And she plans to keep it that way by asking visitors to leave whenever they bring up an uncomfortable subject: the Resolution Copper mine.</p>
<p>“My store’s a little Switzerland,” said Martin, who insisted on stepping outside even to explain the rules. “It’s off-limits to mine discussion. It’s just a rule I set right away because it got loud in there.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It figures to get louder now that Congress has approved the transfer of 2,400 acres of national forest to a subsidiary of two foreign mining companies. The transfer ended a nearly decadelong fight over access to the federally protected land and ignited a feud that has split families, ended lifelong friendships and turned miners and former miners against one another.</p>
<p>On one side is Resolution Copper Mining, which is owned by the British-Australian company Rio Tinto Group and Melbourne, Australia-based BHP Billiton Ltd.</p>
<p>Resolution Copper says a milewide copper ore body 7,000 feet below the ground outside Superior is among the largest and richest in the world.</p>
<p>And bringing it to the surface, the company says, will create 3,700 jobs and have an economic impact of $61.4 billion over 60 years – numbers that have many residents in the blighted town 60 miles southeast of Phoenix rallying behind the company.</p>
<p>On the other side is a coalition of environmentalists, Native Americans and even former miners whose families have worked Arizona’s Copper Triangle for generations.</p>
<p>Tony Acosta, a former miner whose family has been in the business nearly 60 years, said copper once gave the town stability and a sense of unity. But the Resolution Copper project has changed all that.</p>
<p>“It’s divided the town,” he said.</p>
<p>Roy Chavez, a former mayor of Superior, Ariz., and a miner himself, says Resolution Copper’s method of extraction is harmful to the environment. A company spokesman insists it is eco-friendly. (Anna Jeffrey/For The Los Angeles Times)</p>
<p>‘It’s just an evil project’</p>
<p>At the center of the debate is Roy Chavez, a former three-term mayor and self-proclaimed rabble-rouser who delights in driving around the crimson center of red-state Arizona in a pickup adorned with Barack Obama bumper stickers.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But if his political beliefs are deeply felt, he is practically evangelical when it comes to opposing the proposed mine.</p>
<p>“It’s just an evil project – environmentally and socio-economically. The project is completely unimaginable,” said Chavez, who, with the conviction and practiced patience of the politician he once was, frequently approaches strangers with a handshake, a pamphlet and an argument against the mine.</p>
<p>Chavez’s family has been mining in Arizona for nearly 100 years, and he also spent much of his life below the ground, digging out copper from the ore bodies that ring Superior.</p>
<p>He’s not opposed to mining, but he is against this mine, at this time, in this place.</p>
<p>“I support the industry,” Chavez said. “I just can’t support this project and the way they’re going about it.”</p>
<p>The area around Superior is breathtakingly gorgeous, with rock towers carved by erosion, paloverde trees and pines framed at dusk by pastel sunsets. It’s why the place has served as the backdrop for nearly a dozen Hollywood films. It’s also why, 60 years ago, President Dwight Eisenhower banned mining on 760 acres of federal land just outside town.</p>
<p>But after failing more than a dozen times over nearly 10 years to get Congress to lift the ban, Arizona’s congressional delegation got around that roadblock in December by inserting the land deal into a must-pass military spending bill.</p>
<p>The end run angered environmentalists and Native American groups who say the mine would destroy the environment and erase cultural and religious sites considered sacred by the Apache.</p>
<p>These rails lead to an entrance to an underground copper mine just outside Superior, Ariz. (Courtesy of Resolution Copper Mining)</p>
<p>‘Block cave’ mining</p>
<p>Much of that opposition focuses on how Resolution Copper plans to extract the ore, using a relatively new practice called “block cave” mining. Unlike open-pit mining, which extracts ore from above, block-cave mining captures ore from below.</p>
<p>Caverns are excavated underneath the ore and, through gravity or blasting, the ore body collapses and fills the caverns. The ore is then transported through tunnels to the surface.</p>
<p>But as the ore deposits collapse, the ground above subsides. Resolution Copper has conceded that working the area below Oak Flat, a rare desert riparian area four miles outside Superior, will create a crater more than two miles wide and 1,000 feet deep.</p>
<p>It will also produce more than 1.3 billion tons of mudlike waste tailings – basically dirt, often toxic, left over after the copper has been extracted.</p>
<p>The record of Resolution’s parent companies wasn’t exactly stellar coming into this project.</p>
<p>Environmental groups say Rio Tinto’s Bingham Canyon copper mine outside Salt Lake City is a source of major environmental contamination that has resulted in water pollution and damage to fish and wildlife habitat. And that was before an April 2013 landslide in which 165 million tons of earth slipped, triggering 16 small earthquakes and burying more than 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel, oil, coolant and grease as well as a container holding thousands of pounds of explosives.</p>
<p>Critics also take issue with claims that the expansion of the Resolution mine will save Superior, saying that much of the $1 billion in annual economic activity will benefit other communities because the vast majority of the 3,700 workers hired will be commuters.</p>
<p>Boom and bust</p>
<p>Mining has always run in boom-and-bust cycles and when the bust came to Superior – and it came three times between 1982 and 1996 – it was merciless, eliminating thousands of jobs, closing businesses and bankrupting families. The town’s only traffic light was unplugged. And the population shrank by nearly two-thirds to 2,800, about a quarter of whom live in poverty.</p>
<p>Resolution Copper takes issues with many of the doomsday scenarios.</p>
<p>“Yeah, mines dig deep holes. And they cause destruction. That’s true,” company spokesman Dave Richins said. But “you can do things that make it not as bad. These guys want to be the 21st-century miners. They want to do it right.”</p>
<p>Resolution Copper concedes that working the area below Oak Flat, a rare desert riparian area four miles outside Superior, will create a crater more than two miles wide and 1,000 feet deep. (Courtesy of Resolution Copper Mining)</p>
<p>Copper, Richins said, is essential to the development of many renewable-energy sources. And using the block-cave method to extract it is eco-friendly because given the depth of the ore body – 3,500 to 7,000 feet – a traditional open-pit mine would not be feasible and, if it were attempted, would cause far greater destruction.</p>
<p>The project could also significantly lessen the country’s dependence on foreign sources of copper, something the American Resources Policy Network, a public-policy research organization, warns threatens the economy and national security.</p>
<p>The International Copper Study Group said worldwide demand for copper had exceeded supply in each of the last five years. Resolution Copper expects the mine to produce as much as a billion pounds of copper annually, about a quarter of the nation’s copper requirement.</p>
<p>“You’re going to see a tremendous boom in Superior,” Richins said. “The thing that is of advantage to us is the Copper Triangle has a lot of well-qualified, talented mining individuals that live there – from multiple generations. We want those people working at our mine.</p>
<p>“There’s not a lot of jobs in Superior now. We’ll change that.”</p>
<p>Before that happens, though, the mine must undergo a lengthy permitting process with the U.S. Forest Service as well as years of construction before any copper can be hauled to the surface.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Resolution Copper says the majority of residents in and around Superior are in favor of the project. Chavez and the mine’s opponents say the town is on their side.</p>
<p />
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Blighted Arizona town faces a tough choice with mine
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https://abqjournal.com/541669/blighted-arizona-town-faces-a-tough-choice-with-mine.html
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Blighted Arizona town faces a tough choice with mine
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<p>Three boom-and-bust cycles between 1982 and 1996 hammered Superior, Ariz. The town’s population shrank by nearly two-thirds to 2,800, about a quarter of whom live in poverty. Most of the businesses on the town’s Main Street are boarded up. (Courtesy of Resolution Copper Mining)</p>
<p>SUPERIOR, Ariz. – Leslie Martin’s boutique is among the few businesses on Superior’s Main Street not boarded up, making it one of the last places where locals can still gather to talk.</p>
<p>And she plans to keep it that way by asking visitors to leave whenever they bring up an uncomfortable subject: the Resolution Copper mine.</p>
<p>“My store’s a little Switzerland,” said Martin, who insisted on stepping outside even to explain the rules. “It’s off-limits to mine discussion. It’s just a rule I set right away because it got loud in there.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>It figures to get louder now that Congress has approved the transfer of 2,400 acres of national forest to a subsidiary of two foreign mining companies. The transfer ended a nearly decadelong fight over access to the federally protected land and ignited a feud that has split families, ended lifelong friendships and turned miners and former miners against one another.</p>
<p>On one side is Resolution Copper Mining, which is owned by the British-Australian company Rio Tinto Group and Melbourne, Australia-based BHP Billiton Ltd.</p>
<p>Resolution Copper says a milewide copper ore body 7,000 feet below the ground outside Superior is among the largest and richest in the world.</p>
<p>And bringing it to the surface, the company says, will create 3,700 jobs and have an economic impact of $61.4 billion over 60 years – numbers that have many residents in the blighted town 60 miles southeast of Phoenix rallying behind the company.</p>
<p>On the other side is a coalition of environmentalists, Native Americans and even former miners whose families have worked Arizona’s Copper Triangle for generations.</p>
<p>Tony Acosta, a former miner whose family has been in the business nearly 60 years, said copper once gave the town stability and a sense of unity. But the Resolution Copper project has changed all that.</p>
<p>“It’s divided the town,” he said.</p>
<p>Roy Chavez, a former mayor of Superior, Ariz., and a miner himself, says Resolution Copper’s method of extraction is harmful to the environment. A company spokesman insists it is eco-friendly. (Anna Jeffrey/For The Los Angeles Times)</p>
<p>‘It’s just an evil project’</p>
<p>At the center of the debate is Roy Chavez, a former three-term mayor and self-proclaimed rabble-rouser who delights in driving around the crimson center of red-state Arizona in a pickup adorned with Barack Obama bumper stickers.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But if his political beliefs are deeply felt, he is practically evangelical when it comes to opposing the proposed mine.</p>
<p>“It’s just an evil project – environmentally and socio-economically. The project is completely unimaginable,” said Chavez, who, with the conviction and practiced patience of the politician he once was, frequently approaches strangers with a handshake, a pamphlet and an argument against the mine.</p>
<p>Chavez’s family has been mining in Arizona for nearly 100 years, and he also spent much of his life below the ground, digging out copper from the ore bodies that ring Superior.</p>
<p>He’s not opposed to mining, but he is against this mine, at this time, in this place.</p>
<p>“I support the industry,” Chavez said. “I just can’t support this project and the way they’re going about it.”</p>
<p>The area around Superior is breathtakingly gorgeous, with rock towers carved by erosion, paloverde trees and pines framed at dusk by pastel sunsets. It’s why the place has served as the backdrop for nearly a dozen Hollywood films. It’s also why, 60 years ago, President Dwight Eisenhower banned mining on 760 acres of federal land just outside town.</p>
<p>But after failing more than a dozen times over nearly 10 years to get Congress to lift the ban, Arizona’s congressional delegation got around that roadblock in December by inserting the land deal into a must-pass military spending bill.</p>
<p>The end run angered environmentalists and Native American groups who say the mine would destroy the environment and erase cultural and religious sites considered sacred by the Apache.</p>
<p>These rails lead to an entrance to an underground copper mine just outside Superior, Ariz. (Courtesy of Resolution Copper Mining)</p>
<p>‘Block cave’ mining</p>
<p>Much of that opposition focuses on how Resolution Copper plans to extract the ore, using a relatively new practice called “block cave” mining. Unlike open-pit mining, which extracts ore from above, block-cave mining captures ore from below.</p>
<p>Caverns are excavated underneath the ore and, through gravity or blasting, the ore body collapses and fills the caverns. The ore is then transported through tunnels to the surface.</p>
<p>But as the ore deposits collapse, the ground above subsides. Resolution Copper has conceded that working the area below Oak Flat, a rare desert riparian area four miles outside Superior, will create a crater more than two miles wide and 1,000 feet deep.</p>
<p>It will also produce more than 1.3 billion tons of mudlike waste tailings – basically dirt, often toxic, left over after the copper has been extracted.</p>
<p>The record of Resolution’s parent companies wasn’t exactly stellar coming into this project.</p>
<p>Environmental groups say Rio Tinto’s Bingham Canyon copper mine outside Salt Lake City is a source of major environmental contamination that has resulted in water pollution and damage to fish and wildlife habitat. And that was before an April 2013 landslide in which 165 million tons of earth slipped, triggering 16 small earthquakes and burying more than 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel, oil, coolant and grease as well as a container holding thousands of pounds of explosives.</p>
<p>Critics also take issue with claims that the expansion of the Resolution mine will save Superior, saying that much of the $1 billion in annual economic activity will benefit other communities because the vast majority of the 3,700 workers hired will be commuters.</p>
<p>Boom and bust</p>
<p>Mining has always run in boom-and-bust cycles and when the bust came to Superior – and it came three times between 1982 and 1996 – it was merciless, eliminating thousands of jobs, closing businesses and bankrupting families. The town’s only traffic light was unplugged. And the population shrank by nearly two-thirds to 2,800, about a quarter of whom live in poverty.</p>
<p>Resolution Copper takes issues with many of the doomsday scenarios.</p>
<p>“Yeah, mines dig deep holes. And they cause destruction. That’s true,” company spokesman Dave Richins said. But “you can do things that make it not as bad. These guys want to be the 21st-century miners. They want to do it right.”</p>
<p>Resolution Copper concedes that working the area below Oak Flat, a rare desert riparian area four miles outside Superior, will create a crater more than two miles wide and 1,000 feet deep. (Courtesy of Resolution Copper Mining)</p>
<p>Copper, Richins said, is essential to the development of many renewable-energy sources. And using the block-cave method to extract it is eco-friendly because given the depth of the ore body – 3,500 to 7,000 feet – a traditional open-pit mine would not be feasible and, if it were attempted, would cause far greater destruction.</p>
<p>The project could also significantly lessen the country’s dependence on foreign sources of copper, something the American Resources Policy Network, a public-policy research organization, warns threatens the economy and national security.</p>
<p>The International Copper Study Group said worldwide demand for copper had exceeded supply in each of the last five years. Resolution Copper expects the mine to produce as much as a billion pounds of copper annually, about a quarter of the nation’s copper requirement.</p>
<p>“You’re going to see a tremendous boom in Superior,” Richins said. “The thing that is of advantage to us is the Copper Triangle has a lot of well-qualified, talented mining individuals that live there – from multiple generations. We want those people working at our mine.</p>
<p>“There’s not a lot of jobs in Superior now. We’ll change that.”</p>
<p>Before that happens, though, the mine must undergo a lengthy permitting process with the U.S. Forest Service as well as years of construction before any copper can be hauled to the surface.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Resolution Copper says the majority of residents in and around Superior are in favor of the project. Chavez and the mine’s opponents say the town is on their side.</p>
<p />
| 598,863 |
|
<p>your email</p>
<p>your name</p>
<p>recipient(s) email (comma separated)</p>
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<p>message</p>
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<p>Tuft's Medical Center nurses on the picket line. (Sarah Betancourt) &#160;</p>
<p>Tufts Medical Center nurses went back to work on Monday after launching the first Boston nurses’ strike in more than three decades—to demand better patient-safety protections and more competitive compensation. Despite the collective action, the roughly 1,200 nurses who walked out still face barriers to a satisfactory resolution.</p>
<p>On July 12, at least 1,200 Tufts nurses, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) union, waged a one-day strike after more than 30 bargaining sessions with the hospital. Nurses in the bargaining unit told In These Times that major points of contention included pensions and safe staffing.</p>
<p>Tufts hired 320 U.S. Nursing Corp. temporary nurses, a travel nurse staffing agency based in Colorado, to fill in. Rhonda Mann, director of communications for Tufts, said in a statement, "The nurse staffing company that provides replacements required Tufts to guarantee those nurses with five days of work.”</p>
<p>This claim was used to justify management’s four-day lockout of nurses.</p>
<p>Beth Taglieri, 41, has been a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse for 18 years, including four at Tufts. She told In These Times that she was concerned about leaving her patients with agency nurses during the strike. "They don't know our system, and it's hard to know how they will treat your patients,” she said.</p>
<p>According to Taglieri, the union has negotiated with the hospital administration in the past, but the two sides were too far apart this time.</p>
<p>The union cites lower starting wages and poor pension plans as the key barriers to Tufts’ retention of nurses after they are trained. Tufts nurses make between $32.50-$63.00 per hour, depending on experience. In contrast, top-tier nurses at Boston’s highest paying hospital make $70.27.</p>
<p>The nurses recommended a multi-employer benefit plan that they say could save Tufts&#160;$96 million to spend on staffing and pensions. But the hospital rejected this proposal, claiming it would be more expensive.</p>
<p>Taglieri argues that improvements to pensions and wages would ultimately benefit the hospital. "We get that it's expensive to run a hospital. We're not blind to that,” she underscored. “But we've been seeing more turnover. We need to provide enough nurses for the patients we care for. If a mom comes in and delivers a baby three months early in an emergency, we need to be prepared.”</p>
<p>Mann denied that Tufts has had high turnover rates over the past two years, telling In These Times, “Absolutely not. Our retention rate for nurses is 94 percent…one of the highest in the country.”</p>
<p>Wages and pensions were not the only points of contention. The union had pitched a proposal that the hospital maintain a ratio of one nurse to one patient to comply with a 2014 Massachusetts law <a href="http://www.mass.gov/anf/budget-taxes-and-procurement/oversight-agencies/health-policy-commission/nurse-staffing/" type="external">for safe staffing of intensive care units</a>, which limits scheduling ICU nurses to one or two patients, depending on their severity.</p>
<p>Jennifer Johnson, spokesperson for the MNA, told In These Times, "It became apparent it’s hard to achieve because of expense. They withdrew that proposal, and the union made a major concession with that. What we asked for instead was additional resources, and improvements for charge nurses."</p>
<p>Anne Asci, 56, has been employed at Tufts for 36 years as an intravenous transfusion (IV) nurse. She works with oncology patients with hard-to-reach veins and outpatients who just need someone to remove their IVs before going home.</p>
<p>She described her work to ITT as sometimes putting in over 30 IV lines a day. “We staff two nurses for 10-hour coverage from 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.”</p>
<p>Other nurses said that once there were 10 to 12 IV nurses on a floor at Tufts, but now there are only a handful, and none overnight. To relieve staffing issues, Tufts proposed increasing charge nurse hours in medical and surgical units from 32 to 52 hours a week.</p>
<p>Tufts’ argument is that money is tight. According to an online post from chief nursing Officer Terry Hudson-Jinks, the hospital is recovering from a $15 million loss in fiscal year 2015.</p>
<p>Yet, Taglieri insists the hospital can do better. "We do have pretty good staffing within the NICU. It's the adult side where we have concerns,” she said. “We don't have a lot of room to absorb new admissions. For instance, we've had five or six admissions in 12 hours, but if each nurse has patients, who will care for the emergency patients in labor? Other hospitals have more of a cushion."</p>
<p>Some patients backed the nurses’ collective action. In 2010, Shannon Kitterick Deibel’s son Brody was transported to Tufts with a blockage in his intestines when he was only a few months old. She and her husband were waiting to hear about a surgery when a nurse stopped into their room. "That's when we met our nurse and hero, Ann Marie. She made my husband I feel like it was going to be ok." Brody underwent a nine-hour surgery days later to fix his intestines, and stayed in the hospital for a month.</p>
<p>Describing her son's release from surgery on a ventilator, Diebel said, "The nurse took my hand and held it like it was her own child. Everyone in that unit was not there to just make a paycheck, but to impact another life.”</p>
<p>When asked about her feelings toward the nurses in light of the strike, Diebel replied: "I love them."</p>
|
Boston Nurses Are Bringing Back the Strike
| true |
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/20347/boston_nurses_strike_workers_rights_unions_Tufts_wages
|
2017-07-20
| 4left
|
Boston Nurses Are Bringing Back the Strike
<p>your email</p>
<p>your name</p>
<p>recipient(s) email (comma separated)</p>
<p />
<p>message</p>
<p>captcha</p>
<p />
<p>Tuft's Medical Center nurses on the picket line. (Sarah Betancourt) &#160;</p>
<p>Tufts Medical Center nurses went back to work on Monday after launching the first Boston nurses’ strike in more than three decades—to demand better patient-safety protections and more competitive compensation. Despite the collective action, the roughly 1,200 nurses who walked out still face barriers to a satisfactory resolution.</p>
<p>On July 12, at least 1,200 Tufts nurses, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) union, waged a one-day strike after more than 30 bargaining sessions with the hospital. Nurses in the bargaining unit told In These Times that major points of contention included pensions and safe staffing.</p>
<p>Tufts hired 320 U.S. Nursing Corp. temporary nurses, a travel nurse staffing agency based in Colorado, to fill in. Rhonda Mann, director of communications for Tufts, said in a statement, "The nurse staffing company that provides replacements required Tufts to guarantee those nurses with five days of work.”</p>
<p>This claim was used to justify management’s four-day lockout of nurses.</p>
<p>Beth Taglieri, 41, has been a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse for 18 years, including four at Tufts. She told In These Times that she was concerned about leaving her patients with agency nurses during the strike. "They don't know our system, and it's hard to know how they will treat your patients,” she said.</p>
<p>According to Taglieri, the union has negotiated with the hospital administration in the past, but the two sides were too far apart this time.</p>
<p>The union cites lower starting wages and poor pension plans as the key barriers to Tufts’ retention of nurses after they are trained. Tufts nurses make between $32.50-$63.00 per hour, depending on experience. In contrast, top-tier nurses at Boston’s highest paying hospital make $70.27.</p>
<p>The nurses recommended a multi-employer benefit plan that they say could save Tufts&#160;$96 million to spend on staffing and pensions. But the hospital rejected this proposal, claiming it would be more expensive.</p>
<p>Taglieri argues that improvements to pensions and wages would ultimately benefit the hospital. "We get that it's expensive to run a hospital. We're not blind to that,” she underscored. “But we've been seeing more turnover. We need to provide enough nurses for the patients we care for. If a mom comes in and delivers a baby three months early in an emergency, we need to be prepared.”</p>
<p>Mann denied that Tufts has had high turnover rates over the past two years, telling In These Times, “Absolutely not. Our retention rate for nurses is 94 percent…one of the highest in the country.”</p>
<p>Wages and pensions were not the only points of contention. The union had pitched a proposal that the hospital maintain a ratio of one nurse to one patient to comply with a 2014 Massachusetts law <a href="http://www.mass.gov/anf/budget-taxes-and-procurement/oversight-agencies/health-policy-commission/nurse-staffing/" type="external">for safe staffing of intensive care units</a>, which limits scheduling ICU nurses to one or two patients, depending on their severity.</p>
<p>Jennifer Johnson, spokesperson for the MNA, told In These Times, "It became apparent it’s hard to achieve because of expense. They withdrew that proposal, and the union made a major concession with that. What we asked for instead was additional resources, and improvements for charge nurses."</p>
<p>Anne Asci, 56, has been employed at Tufts for 36 years as an intravenous transfusion (IV) nurse. She works with oncology patients with hard-to-reach veins and outpatients who just need someone to remove their IVs before going home.</p>
<p>She described her work to ITT as sometimes putting in over 30 IV lines a day. “We staff two nurses for 10-hour coverage from 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.”</p>
<p>Other nurses said that once there were 10 to 12 IV nurses on a floor at Tufts, but now there are only a handful, and none overnight. To relieve staffing issues, Tufts proposed increasing charge nurse hours in medical and surgical units from 32 to 52 hours a week.</p>
<p>Tufts’ argument is that money is tight. According to an online post from chief nursing Officer Terry Hudson-Jinks, the hospital is recovering from a $15 million loss in fiscal year 2015.</p>
<p>Yet, Taglieri insists the hospital can do better. "We do have pretty good staffing within the NICU. It's the adult side where we have concerns,” she said. “We don't have a lot of room to absorb new admissions. For instance, we've had five or six admissions in 12 hours, but if each nurse has patients, who will care for the emergency patients in labor? Other hospitals have more of a cushion."</p>
<p>Some patients backed the nurses’ collective action. In 2010, Shannon Kitterick Deibel’s son Brody was transported to Tufts with a blockage in his intestines when he was only a few months old. She and her husband were waiting to hear about a surgery when a nurse stopped into their room. "That's when we met our nurse and hero, Ann Marie. She made my husband I feel like it was going to be ok." Brody underwent a nine-hour surgery days later to fix his intestines, and stayed in the hospital for a month.</p>
<p>Describing her son's release from surgery on a ventilator, Diebel said, "The nurse took my hand and held it like it was her own child. Everyone in that unit was not there to just make a paycheck, but to impact another life.”</p>
<p>When asked about her feelings toward the nurses in light of the strike, Diebel replied: "I love them."</p>
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<p />
<p>On his MSNBC show in 2009, Schultz said that “there are parallels” between “some of the things Hitler was saying and some of the things that were at the CPAC convention.” He added, “They are not Americans.” In 2011, per CNN, Schultz called Trump a racist and said “nobody” wanted him to become president.</p>
<p>Schultz now hosts a nightly show on RT, which is a propaganda arm of Russia and funded by the Kremlin. At what for decades has been the signature cattle call on the right, he praised Trump as someone who “is not bought and paid for by anyone.” Then he expounded on what he sees as the horrors of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and NAFTA.</p>
<p>Alluding to the intelligence community’s determination that his patrons in Moscow interfered with the presidential election in an effort to boost Trump, Schultz said during an afternoon panel: “Full disclosure: The Russians did not tell Hillary Clinton not to go to Wisconsin. They didn’t tell her not to go to Michigan either.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>No one booed. Instead, heads nodded. The times, they are a changin’.</p>
<p>The Trumpists are triumphant at a conference where not long ago they were viewed as figures of the fringe. Stephen Bannon, as head of Breitbart News, hosted forums outside CPAC in 2013 and 2014 called “The Uninvited.” Intended as counter-programming, he brought in guests with very controversial views about Islam and immigration that could never get speaking slots at the main conference.</p>
<p>Now the White House chief strategist, and intellectual force behind Trump’s agenda, Bannon got a rock star’s reception when he arrived Thursday. “I think one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history was his immediate withdrawal from TPP,” Bannon said, referring to the president. “It got us out of a trade deal and let our sovereignty come back to ourselves!”</p>
<p>Bannon threw around terms like “globalist” and “corporatist” as he touted Trump’s “economic nationalist agenda.” Rolling back trade deals, he explained, is part of a broader push toward “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”</p>
<p>Reince Priebus, who viewed Trump anxiously when he announced his candidacy two years ago but is now White House chief of staff, told the crowd that The Donald will be “one of the greatest presidents that ever served this country.” Channeling his boss, he said the president has already “put in the best cabinet in the history of cabinets.” Then he led the crowd in chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump.”</p>
<p>They are all Trumpists now. . .</p>
<p>— Forty years ago this month, speaking at the same conference, Ronald Reagan offered a searing critique of Marxist-Leninism that could be read today as an indictment of Trumpism. “All the facts of the real world have to be fitted to the Procrustean bed of Marx and Lenin,” he explained. “If the facts don’t happen to fit the ideology, the facts are chopped off and discarded. I consider this to be the complete opposite to principled conservatism. When a conservative states that the free market is the best mechanism ever devised by the mind of man to meet material needs, he is merely stating what a careful examination of the real world has told him is the truth. When a conservative says that totalitarian communism is an absolute enemy of human freedom, he is not theorizing. He is reporting the ugly reality captured so unforgettably in the writings of Alexander Solzhenitsyn.”</p>
<p>Reagan’s 1977 CPAC speech remains one of the most important political addresses he ever delivered. Fresh off his loss to Gerald Ford in the Republican primaries, and Jimmy Carter’s victory in the general, the former California governor went on to presciently outline a vision for “A New Republican Party” that would unite fiscal, social and national security conservatives in common cause. His clarion call helped win him his party’s nomination in 1980, ushered in the first political realignment since Franklin Roosevelt and allowed the GOP to win five of the next seven presidential elections.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>— Alas, the Reagan Era is over. And if you needed another data point that the Party of Reagan has been hijacked, this week’s “conservative” confab offers many. Reagan embraced freedom in all of its forms – from the aspirations of Eastern Europeans looking to throw off the yoke of their Russian overlords to open markets and, to a lesser degree, open borders.</p>
<p>It’s always fraught to speculate on what a historical figure, who died 13 years ago, would say about current events. But based on a decade of closely studying the 40th president, including countless hours reviewing his archives, it seems safe to stipulate the following: Reagan would frown upon the dark portrait that Trump paints of his shining city upon a hill. He would be disturbed by his protectionist and isolationist rhetoric. And he would be aghast at the 45th president repeatedly drawing false moral equivalency between the United States and Russia.</p>
<p>Reagan would never have suggested that Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent who presides over an authoritarian regime, is a stronger leader than Barack Obama. Among the many words Trump says that would never have come out of Reagan’s mouth: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, you think our country is so innocent?”</p>
<p>But it’s much more than that: The Reagan Revolution was always more about ideas than a cult of personality built around a single man.</p>
<p>— Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said during her appearance at CPAC Thursday that by the time Trump addresses the group, the conference will be known as “TPAC.” As in the Trump Political Action Conference.</p>
<p>Conway’s line “spoke volumes about the way that the Republican Party has been altered by the rise of Trump, and it sparked alarm even among attendees at the conference,” Yahoo’s Jon Ward reports. Two quotes from his piece:</p>
<p>“I think that’s dangerous,” said Sarah Markley, a student at Grove City College near Pittsburgh. “I think that we should first stick to our principles and look for somebody who embodies those.”</p>
<p>“I think that’s dangerous,” said Sarah Markley, a student at Grove City College near Pittsburgh. “I think that we should first stick to our principles and look for somebody who embodies those.”</p>
<p>Conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin also bristled: “It’s conservative political action conference. That’s what it is. It’ll be that 10 years from now. When I worked for Reagan, we didn’t call it RPAC. So I would remind them about that.”</p>
<p>Conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin also bristled: “It’s conservative political action conference. That’s what it is. It’ll be that 10 years from now. When I worked for Reagan, we didn’t call it RPAC. So I would remind them about that.”</p>
|
The Daily 202: As Trumpism coopts CPAC, the Reagan era ends
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/956669/the-daily-202-as-trumpism-coopts-cpac-the-reagan-era-ends.html
| 2least
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The Daily 202: As Trumpism coopts CPAC, the Reagan era ends
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>On his MSNBC show in 2009, Schultz said that “there are parallels” between “some of the things Hitler was saying and some of the things that were at the CPAC convention.” He added, “They are not Americans.” In 2011, per CNN, Schultz called Trump a racist and said “nobody” wanted him to become president.</p>
<p>Schultz now hosts a nightly show on RT, which is a propaganda arm of Russia and funded by the Kremlin. At what for decades has been the signature cattle call on the right, he praised Trump as someone who “is not bought and paid for by anyone.” Then he expounded on what he sees as the horrors of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and NAFTA.</p>
<p>Alluding to the intelligence community’s determination that his patrons in Moscow interfered with the presidential election in an effort to boost Trump, Schultz said during an afternoon panel: “Full disclosure: The Russians did not tell Hillary Clinton not to go to Wisconsin. They didn’t tell her not to go to Michigan either.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>No one booed. Instead, heads nodded. The times, they are a changin’.</p>
<p>The Trumpists are triumphant at a conference where not long ago they were viewed as figures of the fringe. Stephen Bannon, as head of Breitbart News, hosted forums outside CPAC in 2013 and 2014 called “The Uninvited.” Intended as counter-programming, he brought in guests with very controversial views about Islam and immigration that could never get speaking slots at the main conference.</p>
<p>Now the White House chief strategist, and intellectual force behind Trump’s agenda, Bannon got a rock star’s reception when he arrived Thursday. “I think one of the most pivotal moments in modern American history was his immediate withdrawal from TPP,” Bannon said, referring to the president. “It got us out of a trade deal and let our sovereignty come back to ourselves!”</p>
<p>Bannon threw around terms like “globalist” and “corporatist” as he touted Trump’s “economic nationalist agenda.” Rolling back trade deals, he explained, is part of a broader push toward “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”</p>
<p>Reince Priebus, who viewed Trump anxiously when he announced his candidacy two years ago but is now White House chief of staff, told the crowd that The Donald will be “one of the greatest presidents that ever served this country.” Channeling his boss, he said the president has already “put in the best cabinet in the history of cabinets.” Then he led the crowd in chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump.”</p>
<p>They are all Trumpists now. . .</p>
<p>— Forty years ago this month, speaking at the same conference, Ronald Reagan offered a searing critique of Marxist-Leninism that could be read today as an indictment of Trumpism. “All the facts of the real world have to be fitted to the Procrustean bed of Marx and Lenin,” he explained. “If the facts don’t happen to fit the ideology, the facts are chopped off and discarded. I consider this to be the complete opposite to principled conservatism. When a conservative states that the free market is the best mechanism ever devised by the mind of man to meet material needs, he is merely stating what a careful examination of the real world has told him is the truth. When a conservative says that totalitarian communism is an absolute enemy of human freedom, he is not theorizing. He is reporting the ugly reality captured so unforgettably in the writings of Alexander Solzhenitsyn.”</p>
<p>Reagan’s 1977 CPAC speech remains one of the most important political addresses he ever delivered. Fresh off his loss to Gerald Ford in the Republican primaries, and Jimmy Carter’s victory in the general, the former California governor went on to presciently outline a vision for “A New Republican Party” that would unite fiscal, social and national security conservatives in common cause. His clarion call helped win him his party’s nomination in 1980, ushered in the first political realignment since Franklin Roosevelt and allowed the GOP to win five of the next seven presidential elections.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>— Alas, the Reagan Era is over. And if you needed another data point that the Party of Reagan has been hijacked, this week’s “conservative” confab offers many. Reagan embraced freedom in all of its forms – from the aspirations of Eastern Europeans looking to throw off the yoke of their Russian overlords to open markets and, to a lesser degree, open borders.</p>
<p>It’s always fraught to speculate on what a historical figure, who died 13 years ago, would say about current events. But based on a decade of closely studying the 40th president, including countless hours reviewing his archives, it seems safe to stipulate the following: Reagan would frown upon the dark portrait that Trump paints of his shining city upon a hill. He would be disturbed by his protectionist and isolationist rhetoric. And he would be aghast at the 45th president repeatedly drawing false moral equivalency between the United States and Russia.</p>
<p>Reagan would never have suggested that Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent who presides over an authoritarian regime, is a stronger leader than Barack Obama. Among the many words Trump says that would never have come out of Reagan’s mouth: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, you think our country is so innocent?”</p>
<p>But it’s much more than that: The Reagan Revolution was always more about ideas than a cult of personality built around a single man.</p>
<p>— Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said during her appearance at CPAC Thursday that by the time Trump addresses the group, the conference will be known as “TPAC.” As in the Trump Political Action Conference.</p>
<p>Conway’s line “spoke volumes about the way that the Republican Party has been altered by the rise of Trump, and it sparked alarm even among attendees at the conference,” Yahoo’s Jon Ward reports. Two quotes from his piece:</p>
<p>“I think that’s dangerous,” said Sarah Markley, a student at Grove City College near Pittsburgh. “I think that we should first stick to our principles and look for somebody who embodies those.”</p>
<p>“I think that’s dangerous,” said Sarah Markley, a student at Grove City College near Pittsburgh. “I think that we should first stick to our principles and look for somebody who embodies those.”</p>
<p>Conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin also bristled: “It’s conservative political action conference. That’s what it is. It’ll be that 10 years from now. When I worked for Reagan, we didn’t call it RPAC. So I would remind them about that.”</p>
<p>Conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin also bristled: “It’s conservative political action conference. That’s what it is. It’ll be that 10 years from now. When I worked for Reagan, we didn’t call it RPAC. So I would remind them about that.”</p>
| 598,865 |
|
<p>ACORN provided only counseling to the activists and no fraud or harm came to the government as a result of the sessions. The article did not mention that there is no evidence the ACORN employees provided anything beyond the counseling sessions to conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe and Townhall.com columnist Hannah Giles, who dressed as a pimp and prostitute and secretly videotaped the sessions. It also did not report that the government was not defrauded in anyway as a result of the employees' actions, despite reporting that Congress voted to "defund the organization, handing conservative Republicans a major victory." The article added that conservatives "have long seen the liberal group -- which offers housing and other services, including voter registration, to the poor -- as a shady operation devoted to electing liberals and siphoning off taxpayer money for a permanent underclass."</p>
<p>Interactions occurred at a small percentage of total number of ACORN offices nationwide. O'Keefe and Giles have <a href="http://biggovernment.com/tag/acorn-prostitute-video/" type="external">posted video</a> of interactions with ACORN employees at five offices. The Post did not report that those offices represent a fraction of ACORN locations nationwide. According to its <a href="http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12345" type="external">website</a>, ACORN has more than 100 offices, with locations in 41 states and the District of Columbia.</p>
<p>Some of the videotapes may have been taken illegally. The Post did not report that in secretly videotaping their conversations with ACORN employees, O'Keefe and Giles <a href="/research/2009/09/16/ny-times-baltimore-sun-ignore-possible-illegali/154679" type="external">may have violated</a> state criminal statutes in Maryland and California.</p>
<p>Post reported activists removed from Philadelphia ACORN office but "disputed" ACORN's "account" of length of time they were in the office. From the article:</p>
<p>In Philadelphia, Neil Herrmann, ACORN's lead organizer there, said the couple was kicked out after talking to a counselor "for a few minutes." They called to set up an appointment the day before the visit.</p>
<p>"At first when the counselor came," she wasn't going to take them back," Herrmann said. "But they had made an appointment. When he mentioned the 13-year-old girls, they were asked to leave."</p>
<p>O'Keefe disputed Herrmann's account, saying "we talked to them for more than a few minutes."</p>
<p>ACORN emailed a copy of a Philadelphia police report dated July 24 to The Post to verify its account that police were called and the couple was shown the door. O'Keefe is named on the report. [Post, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091704805_pf.html" type="external">9/18/09</a>]</p>
<p>The Post ignored that O'Keefe and Breitbart previously claimed they were never turned away. Contrary to the Post's suggestion that O'Keefe only disputed the amount of time the filmmakers spent at the Philadelphia office, both O'Keefe and BigGovernment.com publisher Breitbart have claimed they were never turned away at all. As Media Matters for America has <a href="/research/2009/09/17/police-report-filed-by-acorn-exposes-false-clai/154723" type="external">documented</a>, during the September 13 edition of Fox News' America's News HQ, senior correspondent Eric Shawn asked O'Keefe, "ACORN says that you went to, what, five other places around the country where they kicked you out. ... [D]id you find ethical, honest ACORN employees in any of the places that you went to that kicked you out and said, 'No, we're not going to do this. We're not going to cooperate. We're not going to have ACORN help you'?" O'Keefe responded that the people at ACORN are "liars" and that he "[a]bsolutely" wanted an apology and later added: "[N]one of the facilities kicked us out. That's a lie." Breitbart also has claimed, "There's no place, as ACORN tried to state, that kicked them out based upon the premise that they were doing something nefarious."</p>
<p>Giles and Flynn have similarly argued that all ACORN offices visited were complicit. On the September 16 edition of Fox News' Hannity, Sean Hannity asked Giles, "[Y]ou didn't go into one office, and they said, 'We're not going to help you do anything like that?' " Giles responded, "No." According to a September 16 <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&amp;id=33581" type="external">article</a> on the conservative website Human Events, Mike Flynn, the editor-in-chief of BigGovernment.com, said in an exclusive interview: "It's not even just one random employee, it's so comprehensive, it's everywhere [O'Keefe] went. What shocks me is when you watch the videos, they don't even flinch."</p>
<p>The Post reported "O'Keefe dismissed" ACORN's claim "that the videos were doctored" but ignored evidence that they were. The Post reported that "ACORN has said that the videos were manipulated" and added that O'Keefe dismissed [ACORN CEO Bertha] Lewis's assertion that the videos were doctored. 'They've lied every step of the way,' he said." But one video reportedly "left out" an ACORN employee's statement that it would have nothing to do with prostitution business. According to a <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0909/17/ldt.01.html" type="external">report</a> by CNN's Casey Wian on the September 17 edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight, the filmmakers edited San Bernardino ACORN organizer Tresa Kaelke's statement from one of the videos that ACORN would not associate itself with prostitution. Wian said: "Left out of the originally released tape but included in a transcript the filmmakers later released is Kaelke's statement that ACORN would have nothing to do with their prostitution business."</p>
<p>Post highlights Breitbart's connections with the video; ignores Fox News' involvement. From the Post article:</p>
<p>When O'Keefe had filmed the first two videos -- in the District and Baltimore -- a friend urged him to share his project with Andrew Breitbart, a conservative Internet entrepreneur who had plans to launch an anti-liberal site called BigGovernment.com. Breitbart said he was skeptical after a June phone call with O'Keefe about what he had, but when the video was rolling in his basement office in Los Angeles in late July, Breitbart said, he gasped.</p>
<p>Breitbart, who also has a column that appears in the Washington Times, advised O'Keefe to roll out the videos one by one, rather than at once. He said he predicted the mainstream media would try to ignore the story, and after a day "poof, it would be over."</p>
<p>"When I saw these videos, I couldn't help thinking, this is the Abu Ghraib of the Great Society," said Breitbart, who put the videos on BigGovernment.com. "Everybody that is a conservative news junkie thinks that ACORN is the most important institution for us to uncover to the American public."</p>
<p>The strategy worked. As ACORN's fortunes have fallen, those of O'Keefe and Giles have risen. O'Keefe said he has received hundreds of requests for interviews and his inbox has thousands of e-mails. Giles and O'Keefe have become Facebook sensations, with fan clubs and testimonial walls. "Hannah Giles is HOTT!" reads the motto of one of her fan club sites. "Beware the Acorn Exterminator!" [Post, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091704805_pf.html" type="external">9/18/09</a>]</p>
<p>In promoting videos, Breitbart gave Fox the "exclusive." During the <a href="/research/2009/09/15/beck-relies-heavily-on-drudge-proteacutegeacute/154604" type="external">September 9 edition</a> of his Fox News program, Glenn Beck previewed an "exclusive" that would air on his program the next day, which he claimed would make "things change a lot for those in power, " and aired snippets of O'Keefe's video in the ACORN Baltimore office. Beck suggested the video was the "exclusive stuff" that he predicted the media would be "talking about" instead of health care. On September 10, Beck interviewed Giles and credited Breitbart for starting the story, calling him "one of the "great journalists of our time."</p>
<p>Fox News frequently mentioned Breitbart and his website in reporting on video. For instance, on September 10, the website <a href="/research/2009/09/15/beck-relies-heavily-on-drudge-proteacutegeacute/154604" type="external">was mentioned</a> on programs such as Glenn Beck, The O'Reilly Factor (according to a Nexis search), Hannity, Happening Now, America's Newsroom, and Special Report. Mediaite.com's Robert Quigley <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/could-andrew-breitbart-become-the-rights-arianna-huffington/" type="external">wrote</a> on September 10 that Breitbart knows "how to promote: he went on Fox News this morning [on America's Newsroom] to discuss his 'exclusive' (and happened to mention his website a decent handful of times during the interview), and he got his video placed as the top story on Foxnews.com, ahead of arguably bigger stories like Joe Wilson's outburst during Obama's healthcare speech last night."</p>
<p>Fox News repeatedly falsely reported ACORN employee killed her former husband. Fox News repeatedly promoted the fake claim that an ACORN employee killed her former husband without fact-checking the allegation or indicating that it had contacted ACORN for a response. On September 15 and 16, Fox News <a href="/research/2009/09/16/fox-news-runs-with-san-bernardino-acorn-video-w/154671" type="external">devoted significant programming</a> to O'Keefe and Giles' video of their interactions with Tresa Kaelke, who claimed she murdered her ex-husband and gave advice on how to run a brothel. After the video was released, Kaelke stated that she had merely been attempting to "shock them as much as they were shocking me," and the San Bernardino police confirmed that investigators found former husbands "alive and well."</p>
<p>Hannity asked Giles if she had verified the murder, and Giles said: "[W]e're working on that." On his Fox News show, Hannity asked Giles, "Have you ever checked to see if in fact she had a husband that was killed?" Giles stated, "[W]e're working on that." Hannity later stated, "So she's on tape admitting that she plotted to kill and had her husband killed, but we don't know if it's true yet." During a later segment, country music singer John Rich said, "[W]hat kind of screening process are they going through that they let a lady who admits to killing her husband standing right there?"</p>
<p>From the September 17 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight:</p>
<p>WIAN: The video comes on the heels of one from an ACORN office in San Bernardino. An employee there said she previously worked as a madam, offered business advice on running a brothel, and claims she got away with killing her husband, a story she now says she made up to play along with her visitors.</p>
<p>KAELKE: I apologize for that to ACORN. But it was a joke. It's still a joke. Nothing was true. And that's all there is to it.</p>
<p>WIAN: Left out of the originally released tape, but included in a transcript the filmmakers later released, is Kaelke's statement that ACORN would have nothing to do with their prostitution business.</p>
|
Wash. Post ignores ACORN filmmakers' credibility problems
| true |
http://mediamatters.org/research/200909180016
|
2009-09-18
| 4left
|
Wash. Post ignores ACORN filmmakers' credibility problems
<p>ACORN provided only counseling to the activists and no fraud or harm came to the government as a result of the sessions. The article did not mention that there is no evidence the ACORN employees provided anything beyond the counseling sessions to conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe and Townhall.com columnist Hannah Giles, who dressed as a pimp and prostitute and secretly videotaped the sessions. It also did not report that the government was not defrauded in anyway as a result of the employees' actions, despite reporting that Congress voted to "defund the organization, handing conservative Republicans a major victory." The article added that conservatives "have long seen the liberal group -- which offers housing and other services, including voter registration, to the poor -- as a shady operation devoted to electing liberals and siphoning off taxpayer money for a permanent underclass."</p>
<p>Interactions occurred at a small percentage of total number of ACORN offices nationwide. O'Keefe and Giles have <a href="http://biggovernment.com/tag/acorn-prostitute-video/" type="external">posted video</a> of interactions with ACORN employees at five offices. The Post did not report that those offices represent a fraction of ACORN locations nationwide. According to its <a href="http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=12345" type="external">website</a>, ACORN has more than 100 offices, with locations in 41 states and the District of Columbia.</p>
<p>Some of the videotapes may have been taken illegally. The Post did not report that in secretly videotaping their conversations with ACORN employees, O'Keefe and Giles <a href="/research/2009/09/16/ny-times-baltimore-sun-ignore-possible-illegali/154679" type="external">may have violated</a> state criminal statutes in Maryland and California.</p>
<p>Post reported activists removed from Philadelphia ACORN office but "disputed" ACORN's "account" of length of time they were in the office. From the article:</p>
<p>In Philadelphia, Neil Herrmann, ACORN's lead organizer there, said the couple was kicked out after talking to a counselor "for a few minutes." They called to set up an appointment the day before the visit.</p>
<p>"At first when the counselor came," she wasn't going to take them back," Herrmann said. "But they had made an appointment. When he mentioned the 13-year-old girls, they were asked to leave."</p>
<p>O'Keefe disputed Herrmann's account, saying "we talked to them for more than a few minutes."</p>
<p>ACORN emailed a copy of a Philadelphia police report dated July 24 to The Post to verify its account that police were called and the couple was shown the door. O'Keefe is named on the report. [Post, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091704805_pf.html" type="external">9/18/09</a>]</p>
<p>The Post ignored that O'Keefe and Breitbart previously claimed they were never turned away. Contrary to the Post's suggestion that O'Keefe only disputed the amount of time the filmmakers spent at the Philadelphia office, both O'Keefe and BigGovernment.com publisher Breitbart have claimed they were never turned away at all. As Media Matters for America has <a href="/research/2009/09/17/police-report-filed-by-acorn-exposes-false-clai/154723" type="external">documented</a>, during the September 13 edition of Fox News' America's News HQ, senior correspondent Eric Shawn asked O'Keefe, "ACORN says that you went to, what, five other places around the country where they kicked you out. ... [D]id you find ethical, honest ACORN employees in any of the places that you went to that kicked you out and said, 'No, we're not going to do this. We're not going to cooperate. We're not going to have ACORN help you'?" O'Keefe responded that the people at ACORN are "liars" and that he "[a]bsolutely" wanted an apology and later added: "[N]one of the facilities kicked us out. That's a lie." Breitbart also has claimed, "There's no place, as ACORN tried to state, that kicked them out based upon the premise that they were doing something nefarious."</p>
<p>Giles and Flynn have similarly argued that all ACORN offices visited were complicit. On the September 16 edition of Fox News' Hannity, Sean Hannity asked Giles, "[Y]ou didn't go into one office, and they said, 'We're not going to help you do anything like that?' " Giles responded, "No." According to a September 16 <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&amp;id=33581" type="external">article</a> on the conservative website Human Events, Mike Flynn, the editor-in-chief of BigGovernment.com, said in an exclusive interview: "It's not even just one random employee, it's so comprehensive, it's everywhere [O'Keefe] went. What shocks me is when you watch the videos, they don't even flinch."</p>
<p>The Post reported "O'Keefe dismissed" ACORN's claim "that the videos were doctored" but ignored evidence that they were. The Post reported that "ACORN has said that the videos were manipulated" and added that O'Keefe dismissed [ACORN CEO Bertha] Lewis's assertion that the videos were doctored. 'They've lied every step of the way,' he said." But one video reportedly "left out" an ACORN employee's statement that it would have nothing to do with prostitution business. According to a <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0909/17/ldt.01.html" type="external">report</a> by CNN's Casey Wian on the September 17 edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight, the filmmakers edited San Bernardino ACORN organizer Tresa Kaelke's statement from one of the videos that ACORN would not associate itself with prostitution. Wian said: "Left out of the originally released tape but included in a transcript the filmmakers later released is Kaelke's statement that ACORN would have nothing to do with their prostitution business."</p>
<p>Post highlights Breitbart's connections with the video; ignores Fox News' involvement. From the Post article:</p>
<p>When O'Keefe had filmed the first two videos -- in the District and Baltimore -- a friend urged him to share his project with Andrew Breitbart, a conservative Internet entrepreneur who had plans to launch an anti-liberal site called BigGovernment.com. Breitbart said he was skeptical after a June phone call with O'Keefe about what he had, but when the video was rolling in his basement office in Los Angeles in late July, Breitbart said, he gasped.</p>
<p>Breitbart, who also has a column that appears in the Washington Times, advised O'Keefe to roll out the videos one by one, rather than at once. He said he predicted the mainstream media would try to ignore the story, and after a day "poof, it would be over."</p>
<p>"When I saw these videos, I couldn't help thinking, this is the Abu Ghraib of the Great Society," said Breitbart, who put the videos on BigGovernment.com. "Everybody that is a conservative news junkie thinks that ACORN is the most important institution for us to uncover to the American public."</p>
<p>The strategy worked. As ACORN's fortunes have fallen, those of O'Keefe and Giles have risen. O'Keefe said he has received hundreds of requests for interviews and his inbox has thousands of e-mails. Giles and O'Keefe have become Facebook sensations, with fan clubs and testimonial walls. "Hannah Giles is HOTT!" reads the motto of one of her fan club sites. "Beware the Acorn Exterminator!" [Post, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091704805_pf.html" type="external">9/18/09</a>]</p>
<p>In promoting videos, Breitbart gave Fox the "exclusive." During the <a href="/research/2009/09/15/beck-relies-heavily-on-drudge-proteacutegeacute/154604" type="external">September 9 edition</a> of his Fox News program, Glenn Beck previewed an "exclusive" that would air on his program the next day, which he claimed would make "things change a lot for those in power, " and aired snippets of O'Keefe's video in the ACORN Baltimore office. Beck suggested the video was the "exclusive stuff" that he predicted the media would be "talking about" instead of health care. On September 10, Beck interviewed Giles and credited Breitbart for starting the story, calling him "one of the "great journalists of our time."</p>
<p>Fox News frequently mentioned Breitbart and his website in reporting on video. For instance, on September 10, the website <a href="/research/2009/09/15/beck-relies-heavily-on-drudge-proteacutegeacute/154604" type="external">was mentioned</a> on programs such as Glenn Beck, The O'Reilly Factor (according to a Nexis search), Hannity, Happening Now, America's Newsroom, and Special Report. Mediaite.com's Robert Quigley <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/could-andrew-breitbart-become-the-rights-arianna-huffington/" type="external">wrote</a> on September 10 that Breitbart knows "how to promote: he went on Fox News this morning [on America's Newsroom] to discuss his 'exclusive' (and happened to mention his website a decent handful of times during the interview), and he got his video placed as the top story on Foxnews.com, ahead of arguably bigger stories like Joe Wilson's outburst during Obama's healthcare speech last night."</p>
<p>Fox News repeatedly falsely reported ACORN employee killed her former husband. Fox News repeatedly promoted the fake claim that an ACORN employee killed her former husband without fact-checking the allegation or indicating that it had contacted ACORN for a response. On September 15 and 16, Fox News <a href="/research/2009/09/16/fox-news-runs-with-san-bernardino-acorn-video-w/154671" type="external">devoted significant programming</a> to O'Keefe and Giles' video of their interactions with Tresa Kaelke, who claimed she murdered her ex-husband and gave advice on how to run a brothel. After the video was released, Kaelke stated that she had merely been attempting to "shock them as much as they were shocking me," and the San Bernardino police confirmed that investigators found former husbands "alive and well."</p>
<p>Hannity asked Giles if she had verified the murder, and Giles said: "[W]e're working on that." On his Fox News show, Hannity asked Giles, "Have you ever checked to see if in fact she had a husband that was killed?" Giles stated, "[W]e're working on that." Hannity later stated, "So she's on tape admitting that she plotted to kill and had her husband killed, but we don't know if it's true yet." During a later segment, country music singer John Rich said, "[W]hat kind of screening process are they going through that they let a lady who admits to killing her husband standing right there?"</p>
<p>From the September 17 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight:</p>
<p>WIAN: The video comes on the heels of one from an ACORN office in San Bernardino. An employee there said she previously worked as a madam, offered business advice on running a brothel, and claims she got away with killing her husband, a story she now says she made up to play along with her visitors.</p>
<p>KAELKE: I apologize for that to ACORN. But it was a joke. It's still a joke. Nothing was true. And that's all there is to it.</p>
<p>WIAN: Left out of the originally released tape, but included in a transcript the filmmakers later released, is Kaelke's statement that ACORN would have nothing to do with their prostitution business.</p>
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<p>Former Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson on Donald Trump's potential V.P. pick, the next steps in Trump's campaign and Bernie Sanders' win in Indiana.</p>
<p>Dr. Ben Carson’s endorsement of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is going strong. During an interview on the FOX Business Network’s Mornings with Maria, Carson reacted to Trump praising his former GOP rivals during his Indiana victory speech.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“He is not the monster that people clearly try to portray him [as],” he said.</p>
<p>Carson also discussed how Trump will win over black voters.</p>
<p>“The messaging has been lacking for Republicans. We are going to be talking about [how to] provide ladders of opportunity so that people can climb that ladder and become highly successful portions of the fabric of America.”</p>
<p>New exit polls among Indiana voters revealed the GOP campaign has mostly divided the party and the Democratic campaign has energized its party. Carson says while the process has been “very raucous,” Hillary Clinton will help unite Republicans.</p>
<p>“You would have thought that after 2012 we would have learned the lesson – but we didn’t. But now we just have some bigger wounds that have to be healed but I think that the healing balm, the sap, the ointment will be Hillary Clinton. When people begin to think about her and what she represents and the progressive ideology and how it’s going to destroy our financial underpinnings and our position in the world and empower our enemies.”</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>While he has discussed potential options for Trump’s vice presidential pick, Carson would not disclose details of their private conversation.</p>
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Ben Carson: Clinton Will Heal the GOP
<p>Former Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson on Donald Trump's potential V.P. pick, the next steps in Trump's campaign and Bernie Sanders' win in Indiana.</p>
<p>Dr. Ben Carson’s endorsement of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is going strong. During an interview on the FOX Business Network’s Mornings with Maria, Carson reacted to Trump praising his former GOP rivals during his Indiana victory speech.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>“He is not the monster that people clearly try to portray him [as],” he said.</p>
<p>Carson also discussed how Trump will win over black voters.</p>
<p>“The messaging has been lacking for Republicans. We are going to be talking about [how to] provide ladders of opportunity so that people can climb that ladder and become highly successful portions of the fabric of America.”</p>
<p>New exit polls among Indiana voters revealed the GOP campaign has mostly divided the party and the Democratic campaign has energized its party. Carson says while the process has been “very raucous,” Hillary Clinton will help unite Republicans.</p>
<p>“You would have thought that after 2012 we would have learned the lesson – but we didn’t. But now we just have some bigger wounds that have to be healed but I think that the healing balm, the sap, the ointment will be Hillary Clinton. When people begin to think about her and what she represents and the progressive ideology and how it’s going to destroy our financial underpinnings and our position in the world and empower our enemies.”</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>While he has discussed potential options for Trump’s vice presidential pick, Carson would not disclose details of their private conversation.</p>
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<p>In a message to the state Senate, Martinez said legislation that she signed Wednesday to help rural hospitals cover the cost of caring for the indigent and those who don't pay their bills leaves "a $10 to $11 million funding gap. Ultimately, this may result in hospitals receiving lower payments than we believe to be necessary."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The law requires most New Mexico counties to provide $24 million to a Safety Net Care Pool to support the hospitals, but the state had been counting on legislators to require a $36 million contribution.</p>
<p>Neither Bernalillo nor Sandoval counties are required to contribute to the pool.</p>
<p>The 29 hospitals to receive funds from the pool were formerly funded with supplemental Medicaid payments through the federal Sole Community Provider program. That program ended last year.</p>
<p>Since each dollar of state or local funding for the pool is matched by federal dollars, hospitals would likely lose more than $40 million, according to the New Mexico Hospital Association.</p>
<p>Martinez said she has instructed the Human Services Department "to closely examine its budget for (fiscal year 2015) to maximize the federal funding available under this program, given the shortfall from the counties, to increase payments to these hospitals."</p>
<p>HSD is already budgeted to provide $9 million to the program.</p>
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<p>In a message to the state Senate, Martinez said legislation that she signed Wednesday to help rural hospitals cover the cost of caring for the indigent and those who don't pay their bills leaves "a $10 to $11 million funding gap. Ultimately, this may result in hospitals receiving lower payments than we believe to be necessary."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The law requires most New Mexico counties to provide $24 million to a Safety Net Care Pool to support the hospitals, but the state had been counting on legislators to require a $36 million contribution.</p>
<p>Neither Bernalillo nor Sandoval counties are required to contribute to the pool.</p>
<p>The 29 hospitals to receive funds from the pool were formerly funded with supplemental Medicaid payments through the federal Sole Community Provider program. That program ended last year.</p>
<p>Since each dollar of state or local funding for the pool is matched by federal dollars, hospitals would likely lose more than $40 million, according to the New Mexico Hospital Association.</p>
<p>Martinez said she has instructed the Human Services Department "to closely examine its budget for (fiscal year 2015) to maximize the federal funding available under this program, given the shortfall from the counties, to increase payments to these hospitals."</p>
<p>HSD is already budgeted to provide $9 million to the program.</p>
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<p>LONDON (AP) — England will prepare for the World Cup with friendlies against Nigeria and Costa Rica before flying to Russia.</p>
<p>Gareth Southgate's side will play Nigeria at Wembley Stadium on June 2 and head to northern England to take on Costa Rica five days later.</p>
<p>Southgate says a 0-0 draw against Brazil in a November friendly "acted as a reminder that we need to challenge ourselves in different ways as a team."</p>
<p>England opens its World Cup campaign on June 18 against Tunisia in Volgograd and also plays Panama and Belgium in the group stage.</p>
<p>Southgate says "we want to expose the team to different styles and different experiences."</p>
<p>England has friendlies in March at Wembley against two teams that failed to qualify for the World Cup: the Netherlands and Italy.</p>
<p>LONDON (AP) — England will prepare for the World Cup with friendlies against Nigeria and Costa Rica before flying to Russia.</p>
<p>Gareth Southgate's side will play Nigeria at Wembley Stadium on June 2 and head to northern England to take on Costa Rica five days later.</p>
<p>Southgate says a 0-0 draw against Brazil in a November friendly "acted as a reminder that we need to challenge ourselves in different ways as a team."</p>
<p>England opens its World Cup campaign on June 18 against Tunisia in Volgograd and also plays Panama and Belgium in the group stage.</p>
<p>Southgate says "we want to expose the team to different styles and different experiences."</p>
<p>England has friendlies in March at Wembley against two teams that failed to qualify for the World Cup: the Netherlands and Italy.</p>
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<p>LONDON (AP) — England will prepare for the World Cup with friendlies against Nigeria and Costa Rica before flying to Russia.</p>
<p>Gareth Southgate's side will play Nigeria at Wembley Stadium on June 2 and head to northern England to take on Costa Rica five days later.</p>
<p>Southgate says a 0-0 draw against Brazil in a November friendly "acted as a reminder that we need to challenge ourselves in different ways as a team."</p>
<p>England opens its World Cup campaign on June 18 against Tunisia in Volgograd and also plays Panama and Belgium in the group stage.</p>
<p>Southgate says "we want to expose the team to different styles and different experiences."</p>
<p>England has friendlies in March at Wembley against two teams that failed to qualify for the World Cup: the Netherlands and Italy.</p>
<p>LONDON (AP) — England will prepare for the World Cup with friendlies against Nigeria and Costa Rica before flying to Russia.</p>
<p>Gareth Southgate's side will play Nigeria at Wembley Stadium on June 2 and head to northern England to take on Costa Rica five days later.</p>
<p>Southgate says a 0-0 draw against Brazil in a November friendly "acted as a reminder that we need to challenge ourselves in different ways as a team."</p>
<p>England opens its World Cup campaign on June 18 against Tunisia in Volgograd and also plays Panama and Belgium in the group stage.</p>
<p>Southgate says "we want to expose the team to different styles and different experiences."</p>
<p>England has friendlies in March at Wembley against two teams that failed to qualify for the World Cup: the Netherlands and Italy.</p>
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<p>* Dollar sags but manages to hold above 3-year lows</p>
<p>* US govt shutdown seen to have been priced in</p>
<p>* Treasury yields at 3-1/2-yr highs, support dollar</p>
<p>* Pound slips after 7 days of gains on weak UK retail sales (Adds details and quotes, updates prices)</p>
<p>By Shinichi Saoshiro</p>
<p>TOKYO, Jan 22 (Reuters) - The dollar regained some footing on Monday after slipping earlier on a U.S. government shutdown, supported by higher Treasury yields, while investors took a relatively calm view of the Washington wrangling.</p>
<p>The U.S. government shutdown took effect at midnight on Friday after Democrats and Republicans, locked in a bitter dispute over immigration and border security, failed to agree on a last-minute deal to fund government operations.</p>
<p>In order to break the impasse, Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate held talks on Sunday. The Senate was expected to vote at 0600 GMT on whether to advance a measure to fund the government through Feb. 8.</p>
<p>“The market is accustomed with what is taking place in U.S. politics. It is not reading too far into the shutdown, which is more like a political show,” said Koji Fukaya, president of FPG Securities in Tokyo.</p>
<p>The dollar’s index against a basket of six other major currencies initially dipped to hit 90.155 but was last up 0.07 percent at 90.634, managing to hold above the three-year trough of 90.113 set on Thursday.</p>
<p>The euro was mostly flat at $1.2227 after dipping to$1.2275, and failing to regain a three-year peak of $1.2323 that it scaled on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“The dollar’s losses have been limited as negotiations going into Friday were proving difficult and the market had time to price in a U.S. government shutdown,” said Shin Kadota, senior strategist at Barclays in Tokyo.</p>
<p>“The shutdown is also not expected to last a very long time. That said, if the shut down stretches out to several weeks, then we would have to start worrying about the negative impact on the U.S. economy.”</p>
<p>The dollar pared its earlier losses and was little changed at 110.810 yen, still some distance from a four-month low of 110.190 plumbed on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The greenback received some support from higher U.S. yields.</p>
<p>The 10-year Treasury yield extended Friday’s rise and touched a 3-1/2-year high of 2.672 percent. The debt market had been on the defensive through much of last week in the wake of a rally in risk asset markets.</p>
<p>“A reverse correlation has been in place for a while between Treasury yields and the dollar, but there are signs that the disconnect between the two is finally beginning to reverse,” Fukaya at FPG Securities said.</p>
<p>The Australian dollar climbed 0.1 percent to $0.7994 and the New Zealand dollar also advanced 0.1 percent, to $0.7284.</p>
<p>The pound dipped 0.25 percent to $1.3868, pulling away from a 1-1/2-year top of $1.3942 reached on Wednesday following Friday’s disappointing UK retail sales data.</p>
<p>Before Friday’s fall sterling had gained for seven straight sessions against the dollar, with traders welcoming positive noises from the European Union about negotiations for Britain’s exit.</p>
<p>Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Eric Meijer</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks began the new quarter on Monday with modest gains following a strong performance by global equities last week, while the dollar held steady ahead of key economic indicators.</p> FILE PHOTO: A man looks at an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
<p>MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.15 percent.</p>
<p>South Korea’s KOSPI was flat and Japan’s Nikkei advanced 0.5 percent. Shanghai was up 0.3 percent.</p>
<p>Wall Street surged last Thursday as technology stocks rebounded, ending a tumultuous first quarter on a high note.</p>
<p>Many major financial centers were closed for the Good Friday Easter holiday. Markets in Australia, Hong Kong, Britain and Germany remained shut on Monday while the U.S. market will resume trading.</p>
<p>MSCI’s world equity index ended up 1.2 percent last week. But it lost about 1.5 percent in the first quarter, pushed away from record highs as tensions over global trade escalated, turmoil in the White House deepened and market-leading technology firms wobbled on fears of regulation and other issues.</p>
<p>“We expect strong and broad-based growth to continue globally,” wrote strategists at Barclays.</p>
<p>But they warned that there were looming risks: “Trade protectionism, U.S. economic policy uncertainty, concerns about higher cross-market volatility and risk premium in core rates markets call for a more tactical approach to risk assets.”</p>
<p>While last month’s fears of an all-out global trade war have abated somewhat, tensions between the United States and China over tit-for-tat tariffs kept investors on edge.</p>
<p>China on Monday imposed tariffs on U.S. products including frozen pork, wine and certain fruits and nuts in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.</p>
<p>In currencies, the dollar was steady at 106.350 yen, while the euro was almost unchanged at $1.2317.</p>
<p>The greenback had gained about 0.6 percent against a basket of six major currencies last week helped by a combination of factors including perceived progress on North Korea issues.</p>
<p>The dollar index still lost more than 2 percent last quarter, marking its fifth straight quarter of declines.</p>
<p>“A list of important indicators will be released this week, which could help steady market sentiment even though U.S.-China trade concerns and other geopolitical risks continue to linger in the background,” said Koji Fukaya, president at FPG Securities in Tokyo.</p>
<p>U.S. data due this week include Monday’s Institute for Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing index, Wednesday’s ISM non-manufacturing index and the non-farm payrolls report on Friday.</p>
<p>Crude oil prices extended gains, lifted by a drop in U.S. drilling activity as well as by expectations that the United States could re-introduce sanctions against Iran. [O/R]</p>
<p>U.S. drillers cut seven oil rigs in the week to March 29, bringing the total count down to 797. It was the first time in three weeks that the rig-count fell.</p>
<p>U.S. crude futures rose 0.3 percent to $65.14 a barrel and Brent advanced 0.5 percent to $69.67 a barrel.</p>
<p>“Investors took their cue from falling U.S drilling counts,” Wang Xiao, head of crude oil research with Guotai Junan Futures said.</p>
<p>“But increasing trade friction between China and U.S. is likely to rock global markets and tarnish bullish sentiment in crude oil markets.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Shri Navaratnam &amp; Sam Holmes</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell on the first trading day of the new quarter as China’s decision to raise import tariffs on U.S. products rekindled global trade war fears and technology stocks showed little signs of recovery.</p> FILE PHOTO - Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>Nasdaq futures NQc1 pointed to a 0.6 percent decline at the open on Monday, as big names including 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>) fell in premarket trading.</p>
<p>China, late on Sunday, said it would increase tariffs by up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products, from frozen pork and wine to certain fruits and nuts, escalating a spat between the world’s biggest economies. The move came in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump is separately preparing to impose tariffs of more than $50 billion targeting “largely high-technology” Chinese products.</p>
<p>At 7:18 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were down 113 points, or 0.47 percent, with 28,512 contracts changing hands.</p>
<p>S&amp;P 500 e-minis ESc1 were down 11 points, or 0.42 percent, with 78,340 contracts traded.</p>
<p>Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were down 58.25 points, or 0.88 percent, on volume of 32,382 contracts.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 159.79 FB.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) FB.O AMZN.O .SPX .DJI TSLA.O
<p>Amazon fell 1.5 percent after Trump launched his second attack over the weekend, accusing the world’s biggest online retailer of getting unfairly cheap rates from the U.S. Postal Service and not paying enough tax.</p>
<p>Facebook was down marginally as the data scandal last month continued to weigh. On Monday, brokerage Pivotal Research slashed its price target to $138 from $152.</p>
<p>After stellar gains in 2017 and early this year, the S&amp;P technology index .SPLRCT posted its worst performance in March in nearly two years.</p>
<p>Hit by concerns about a possible trade war, rising interest rates and valuations in the technology sector, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> and the Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> posted their worst declines in more than two years in the quarter ended March.</p>
<p>Nervous stock investors are hoping an unusually U.S. strong earnings season can restore some of the optimism that characterized equity markets last year.</p>
<p>Tesla ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) shares fell about 5 percent after the electric car maker said the Model X vehicle that crashed was on Autopilot. The company also announced a recall.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Monday it would buy the remaining shares of Ele.me, a major platform in China’s food delivery market, as it competes with Tencent Holdings Ltd services for offline consumers.</p> Drivers of the food delivery service Ele.me prepare to start their morning shift after an internal security check in Beijing, China, September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
<p>Alibaba and affiliate Ant Small &amp; Micro Financial Services Group Co Ltd currently own approximately 43 percent of Ele.me, and the latest deal will value the startup a $9.5 billion, said Alibaba in a statement.</p>
<p>Ele.me, which roughly translates as “Hungry?”, is part of a fast-growing and competitive e-commerce market in China driven by consumers eager to use smartphones to make purchases from groceries to cinema tickets.</p>
<p>In August Ele.me bought major rival Baidu deliveries from Baidu Inc. For Alibaba, the latest acquisition enlarges the e-commerce firm’s food delivery empire, which also includes delivery platform Koubei, as it competes with Meituan Dianping, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd.</p> FILE PHOTO: A sign of Alibaba Group is seen during the fourth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China, December 3, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
<p>Alibaba and Meituan are both investing heavily in offline services, including deliveries, mobile payments and unstaffed stores, to tap a wider demographic as China’s online commerce market shows signs of slowing.</p>
<p>Ele.me will continue to operate under its own brand following the acquisition, said Alibaba, but will combine some functionalities with Koubei.</p>
<p>As part of the deal Alibaba will install Alibaba Vice President Wang Lei as chief executive at Ele.me, while the current chief executive and founder of Ele.me will become chairman and serve as a special advisor to Alibaba on new retail strategies.</p>
<p>Reporting by Cate Cadell in BEIJING and Ismail Shakil in BENGALURU; Editing by Sunil Nair</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose towards $70 a barrel on Monday, lifted by a drop in drilling activity in the United States and concerns that Washington could reintroduce sanctions against Iran.</p> FILE PHOTO: Crude oil storage tanks are seen from above at the Cushing oil hub, in Cushing, Oklahoma, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo
<p>U.S. drillers cut seven oil rigs in the week to March 29, bringing the total down to 797, the first decline in three weeks. The rig count is closely watched as an indicator of future U.S. oil output.</p>
<p>Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 58 cents to $69.92 a barrel at 0850 GMT. It was still below its 2018 high of $71.28 reached on Jan. 25. U.S. crude added 38 cents to $65.32.</p>
<p>Trading volume was lower than normal as many countries were still on Easter holiday.</p>
<p>“The market is set for a re-test of the highs of 2018,” said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix.</p>
<p>“The Iranian factor is going to be a very significant input for the next four weeks. It is going to be an underlying support for the whole month.”</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pull out of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Tehran under which Iranian oil exports have risen. He has given the European signatories a May 12 deadline to “fix the terrible flaws” of the deal.</p>
<p>Oil has risen from a multi-year low near $27 in January 2016, helped by production cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia, which started in 2017 and is due to run until the end of 2018.</p>
<p>The revival in prices has helped to support a surge in U.S. drilling, which has boosted U.S. production to a record 10.43 million barrels per day (bpd), taking it past top exporter Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>Russian oil output rose in March despite the output deal, to 10.97 million bpd from 10.95 million bpd in February, Russian Energy Ministry data showed, putting Russia ahead of the United States as the world’s biggest crude producer.</p>
<p>Also potentially weighing on markets were rising trade tensions between the United States and China.</p>
<p>China increased tariffs by up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products from Monday, escalating a spat between the world’s biggest economies in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.</p>
<p>“Investors took their cue from falling U.S drilling counts,” said Wang Xiao of Guotai Junan Futures. “But increasing trade friction between China and the U.S. is likely to rock global markets and tarnish bullish sentiment in crude oil markets.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Meng Meng in BEIJING and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Susan Fenton</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
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FOREX-Dollar regains footing after U.S. govt shutdown, higher yields support Asia stocks start new quarter on front foot, dollar steady Stock futures slip as trade concerns, tech worries persist Alibaba to buy remaining shares in food delivery app Ele.me Oil creeps up towards $70 on lower U.S. drilling, Iran sanctions concern
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FOREX-Dollar regains footing after U.S. govt shutdown, higher yields support Asia stocks start new quarter on front foot, dollar steady Stock futures slip as trade concerns, tech worries persist Alibaba to buy remaining shares in food delivery app Ele.me Oil creeps up towards $70 on lower U.S. drilling, Iran sanctions concern
<p>* Dollar sags but manages to hold above 3-year lows</p>
<p>* US govt shutdown seen to have been priced in</p>
<p>* Treasury yields at 3-1/2-yr highs, support dollar</p>
<p>* Pound slips after 7 days of gains on weak UK retail sales (Adds details and quotes, updates prices)</p>
<p>By Shinichi Saoshiro</p>
<p>TOKYO, Jan 22 (Reuters) - The dollar regained some footing on Monday after slipping earlier on a U.S. government shutdown, supported by higher Treasury yields, while investors took a relatively calm view of the Washington wrangling.</p>
<p>The U.S. government shutdown took effect at midnight on Friday after Democrats and Republicans, locked in a bitter dispute over immigration and border security, failed to agree on a last-minute deal to fund government operations.</p>
<p>In order to break the impasse, Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate held talks on Sunday. The Senate was expected to vote at 0600 GMT on whether to advance a measure to fund the government through Feb. 8.</p>
<p>“The market is accustomed with what is taking place in U.S. politics. It is not reading too far into the shutdown, which is more like a political show,” said Koji Fukaya, president of FPG Securities in Tokyo.</p>
<p>The dollar’s index against a basket of six other major currencies initially dipped to hit 90.155 but was last up 0.07 percent at 90.634, managing to hold above the three-year trough of 90.113 set on Thursday.</p>
<p>The euro was mostly flat at $1.2227 after dipping to$1.2275, and failing to regain a three-year peak of $1.2323 that it scaled on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“The dollar’s losses have been limited as negotiations going into Friday were proving difficult and the market had time to price in a U.S. government shutdown,” said Shin Kadota, senior strategist at Barclays in Tokyo.</p>
<p>“The shutdown is also not expected to last a very long time. That said, if the shut down stretches out to several weeks, then we would have to start worrying about the negative impact on the U.S. economy.”</p>
<p>The dollar pared its earlier losses and was little changed at 110.810 yen, still some distance from a four-month low of 110.190 plumbed on Wednesday.</p>
<p>The greenback received some support from higher U.S. yields.</p>
<p>The 10-year Treasury yield extended Friday’s rise and touched a 3-1/2-year high of 2.672 percent. The debt market had been on the defensive through much of last week in the wake of a rally in risk asset markets.</p>
<p>“A reverse correlation has been in place for a while between Treasury yields and the dollar, but there are signs that the disconnect between the two is finally beginning to reverse,” Fukaya at FPG Securities said.</p>
<p>The Australian dollar climbed 0.1 percent to $0.7994 and the New Zealand dollar also advanced 0.1 percent, to $0.7284.</p>
<p>The pound dipped 0.25 percent to $1.3868, pulling away from a 1-1/2-year top of $1.3942 reached on Wednesday following Friday’s disappointing UK retail sales data.</p>
<p>Before Friday’s fall sterling had gained for seven straight sessions against the dollar, with traders welcoming positive noises from the European Union about negotiations for Britain’s exit.</p>
<p>Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Eric Meijer</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks began the new quarter on Monday with modest gains following a strong performance by global equities last week, while the dollar held steady ahead of key economic indicators.</p> FILE PHOTO: A man looks at an electronic stock quotation board outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
<p>MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.15 percent.</p>
<p>South Korea’s KOSPI was flat and Japan’s Nikkei advanced 0.5 percent. Shanghai was up 0.3 percent.</p>
<p>Wall Street surged last Thursday as technology stocks rebounded, ending a tumultuous first quarter on a high note.</p>
<p>Many major financial centers were closed for the Good Friday Easter holiday. Markets in Australia, Hong Kong, Britain and Germany remained shut on Monday while the U.S. market will resume trading.</p>
<p>MSCI’s world equity index ended up 1.2 percent last week. But it lost about 1.5 percent in the first quarter, pushed away from record highs as tensions over global trade escalated, turmoil in the White House deepened and market-leading technology firms wobbled on fears of regulation and other issues.</p>
<p>“We expect strong and broad-based growth to continue globally,” wrote strategists at Barclays.</p>
<p>But they warned that there were looming risks: “Trade protectionism, U.S. economic policy uncertainty, concerns about higher cross-market volatility and risk premium in core rates markets call for a more tactical approach to risk assets.”</p>
<p>While last month’s fears of an all-out global trade war have abated somewhat, tensions between the United States and China over tit-for-tat tariffs kept investors on edge.</p>
<p>China on Monday imposed tariffs on U.S. products including frozen pork, wine and certain fruits and nuts in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.</p>
<p>In currencies, the dollar was steady at 106.350 yen, while the euro was almost unchanged at $1.2317.</p>
<p>The greenback had gained about 0.6 percent against a basket of six major currencies last week helped by a combination of factors including perceived progress on North Korea issues.</p>
<p>The dollar index still lost more than 2 percent last quarter, marking its fifth straight quarter of declines.</p>
<p>“A list of important indicators will be released this week, which could help steady market sentiment even though U.S.-China trade concerns and other geopolitical risks continue to linger in the background,” said Koji Fukaya, president at FPG Securities in Tokyo.</p>
<p>U.S. data due this week include Monday’s Institute for Supply Management (ISM) manufacturing index, Wednesday’s ISM non-manufacturing index and the non-farm payrolls report on Friday.</p>
<p>Crude oil prices extended gains, lifted by a drop in U.S. drilling activity as well as by expectations that the United States could re-introduce sanctions against Iran. [O/R]</p>
<p>U.S. drillers cut seven oil rigs in the week to March 29, bringing the total count down to 797. It was the first time in three weeks that the rig-count fell.</p>
<p>U.S. crude futures rose 0.3 percent to $65.14 a barrel and Brent advanced 0.5 percent to $69.67 a barrel.</p>
<p>“Investors took their cue from falling U.S drilling counts,” Wang Xiao, head of crude oil research with Guotai Junan Futures said.</p>
<p>“But increasing trade friction between China and U.S. is likely to rock global markets and tarnish bullish sentiment in crude oil markets.”</p>
<p>Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Shri Navaratnam &amp; Sam Holmes</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell on the first trading day of the new quarter as China’s decision to raise import tariffs on U.S. products rekindled global trade war fears and technology stocks showed little signs of recovery.</p> FILE PHOTO - Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
<p>Nasdaq futures NQc1 pointed to a 0.6 percent decline at the open on Monday, as big names including 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>) fell in premarket trading.</p>
<p>China, late on Sunday, said it would increase tariffs by up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products, from frozen pork and wine to certain fruits and nuts, escalating a spat between the world’s biggest economies. The move came in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump is separately preparing to impose tariffs of more than $50 billion targeting “largely high-technology” Chinese products.</p>
<p>At 7:18 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were down 113 points, or 0.47 percent, with 28,512 contracts changing hands.</p>
<p>S&amp;P 500 e-minis ESc1 were down 11 points, or 0.42 percent, with 78,340 contracts traded.</p>
<p>Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were down 58.25 points, or 0.88 percent, on volume of 32,382 contracts.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">Facebook Inc</a> 159.79 FB.O Nasdaq +0.00 (+0.00%) FB.O AMZN.O .SPX .DJI TSLA.O
<p>Amazon fell 1.5 percent after Trump launched his second attack over the weekend, accusing the world’s biggest online retailer of getting unfairly cheap rates from the U.S. Postal Service and not paying enough tax.</p>
<p>Facebook was down marginally as the data scandal last month continued to weigh. On Monday, brokerage Pivotal Research slashed its price target to $138 from $152.</p>
<p>After stellar gains in 2017 and early this year, the S&amp;P technology index .SPLRCT posted its worst performance in March in nearly two years.</p>
<p>Hit by concerns about a possible trade war, rising interest rates and valuations in the technology sector, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> and the Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> posted their worst declines in more than two years in the quarter ended March.</p>
<p>Nervous stock investors are hoping an unusually U.S. strong earnings season can restore some of the optimism that characterized equity markets last year.</p>
<p>Tesla ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=TSLA.O" type="external">TSLA.O</a>) shares fell about 5 percent after the electric car maker said the Model X vehicle that crashed was on Autopilot. The company also announced a recall.</p>
<p>Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>(Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Monday it would buy the remaining shares of Ele.me, a major platform in China’s food delivery market, as it competes with Tencent Holdings Ltd services for offline consumers.</p> Drivers of the food delivery service Ele.me prepare to start their morning shift after an internal security check in Beijing, China, September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
<p>Alibaba and affiliate Ant Small &amp; Micro Financial Services Group Co Ltd currently own approximately 43 percent of Ele.me, and the latest deal will value the startup a $9.5 billion, said Alibaba in a statement.</p>
<p>Ele.me, which roughly translates as “Hungry?”, is part of a fast-growing and competitive e-commerce market in China driven by consumers eager to use smartphones to make purchases from groceries to cinema tickets.</p>
<p>In August Ele.me bought major rival Baidu deliveries from Baidu Inc. For Alibaba, the latest acquisition enlarges the e-commerce firm’s food delivery empire, which also includes delivery platform Koubei, as it competes with Meituan Dianping, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd.</p> FILE PHOTO: A sign of Alibaba Group is seen during the fourth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, China, December 3, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
<p>Alibaba and Meituan are both investing heavily in offline services, including deliveries, mobile payments and unstaffed stores, to tap a wider demographic as China’s online commerce market shows signs of slowing.</p>
<p>Ele.me will continue to operate under its own brand following the acquisition, said Alibaba, but will combine some functionalities with Koubei.</p>
<p>As part of the deal Alibaba will install Alibaba Vice President Wang Lei as chief executive at Ele.me, while the current chief executive and founder of Ele.me will become chairman and serve as a special advisor to Alibaba on new retail strategies.</p>
<p>Reporting by Cate Cadell in BEIJING and Ismail Shakil in BENGALURU; Editing by Sunil Nair</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose towards $70 a barrel on Monday, lifted by a drop in drilling activity in the United States and concerns that Washington could reintroduce sanctions against Iran.</p> FILE PHOTO: Crude oil storage tanks are seen from above at the Cushing oil hub, in Cushing, Oklahoma, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo
<p>U.S. drillers cut seven oil rigs in the week to March 29, bringing the total down to 797, the first decline in three weeks. The rig count is closely watched as an indicator of future U.S. oil output.</p>
<p>Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 58 cents to $69.92 a barrel at 0850 GMT. It was still below its 2018 high of $71.28 reached on Jan. 25. U.S. crude added 38 cents to $65.32.</p>
<p>Trading volume was lower than normal as many countries were still on Easter holiday.</p>
<p>“The market is set for a re-test of the highs of 2018,” said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix.</p>
<p>“The Iranian factor is going to be a very significant input for the next four weeks. It is going to be an underlying support for the whole month.”</p>
<p>U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pull out of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Tehran under which Iranian oil exports have risen. He has given the European signatories a May 12 deadline to “fix the terrible flaws” of the deal.</p>
<p>Oil has risen from a multi-year low near $27 in January 2016, helped by production cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia, which started in 2017 and is due to run until the end of 2018.</p>
<p>The revival in prices has helped to support a surge in U.S. drilling, which has boosted U.S. production to a record 10.43 million barrels per day (bpd), taking it past top exporter Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>Russian oil output rose in March despite the output deal, to 10.97 million bpd from 10.95 million bpd in February, Russian Energy Ministry data showed, putting Russia ahead of the United States as the world’s biggest crude producer.</p>
<p>Also potentially weighing on markets were rising trade tensions between the United States and China.</p>
<p>China increased tariffs by up to 25 percent on 128 U.S. products from Monday, escalating a spat between the world’s biggest economies in response to U.S. duties on imports of aluminum and steel.</p>
<p>“Investors took their cue from falling U.S drilling counts,” said Wang Xiao of Guotai Junan Futures. “But increasing trade friction between China and the U.S. is likely to rock global markets and tarnish bullish sentiment in crude oil markets.”</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Meng Meng in BEIJING and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; Editing by Susan Fenton</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
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<p>If you are thinking about reviewing your investment portfolio, you should know what stocks you should consider selling. Many investors believe buying at the right price is important; yet, selling at the right price is also vital. Selling stocks which have appreciated in value, lock in your actual profits. There are a variety of reasons why you, as an investor, may want to sell a stock. However, before you decide to make changes in your investment portfolio, make sure you have a clear idea of which stocks you should sell and which ones you should keep. Some of the reasons to consider selling a stock include:</p>
<p>1. Business Model Changes</p>
<p>Many people decide to invest in stock based upon the attractiveness of the company’s business model. When there is material change to a company’s business model that makes the stock less attractive, based on your initial decision, it may be a good time to consider selling.</p>
<p>2. Concentration</p>
<p>When a single stock appreciates and becomes a significant portion of an overall portfolio, investor’s should consider trimming a portion of the stock to help reduce single stock risk. When one stock comprises a large percentage of your portfolio, you face higher company specific risk.</p>
<p>3. Company Fundamentals</p>
<p>If a company’s fundamentals, such as earnings, revenue, cash flow or profit margins show signs of deterioration, it may be time to sell shares. The qualities that once made the stock standout may be long gone. Always pay close attention to company fundamentals; the longer one waits to sell the more significant the losses may become.</p>
<p>4. Missing Expectations</p>
<p>When a company consistently falls short of expectations for earnings or revenue, it is generally a good time to consider liquidating your position. Regularly missing expectations is a red flag that the management is having difficulty operating the business.</p>
<p>5. Disruptive Innovations</p>
<p>Sometimes a competitor provides innovation that is disruptive to a specific industry. This could have a real impact on the value of stock an investor may own. There are some stark examples of this; for example, Netflix, with their unique business model, put <a href="https://arstechnica.com/business/2012/10/too-little-too-late-blockbuster-gives-up-on-trying-to-beat-netflix/" type="external">Blockbuster</a> and other movie rental companies out of business, Amazon’s online book selling put other <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/business/barnes-noble-taking-on-amazon-in-the-fight-of-its-life.html" type="external">major book sellers out of business</a> and Apple’s smartphones have almost destroyed former industry leader <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/31/blackberry-posts-smaller-quarterly-loss-as-costs-fall.html" type="external">Blackberry</a>. As an investor, it is important to notice when an innovation begins to completely transform an entire industry.</p>
<p>6. Regulatory Problems</p>
<p>When a company is under investigation for serious violations, either by the <a href="https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin.shtml" type="external">Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)</a> or another regulatory agency, it is likely time to sell your shares. Make sure you take the time to learn the basis of the potential violations; not all investigations are going to end badly, but be prepared for the worst. Essentially, it is important to review news and quarterly reports for signs of trouble. Another indicator to look for with regards to regulatory issues are any updates to the “Risk Factors” in a company’s filings.</p>
<p>7. Unexpected Management Changes</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-ceo-idUSKBN19C0G6" type="external">unexpected or unexplained resignation</a> of key management figures could signal potentially significant internal problems within a company. Without a very convincing reason for the abrupt departure of C-Suite executives, one may consider liquidating your holdings.</p>
<p>8. Numerous Acquisitions</p>
<p>Most companies focus on one or several related businesses; for example, Dell Computers makes, markets and sells computers. Multiple acquisitions outside of a company’s field of expertise could indicate problems in the core business. Companies that try to diversify away from their core business may be indicating competitive difficulties in their core business. These should be considered candidates for sale.</p>
<p>#9. The best reason to sell is because your investment has been successful, you are ready to cash out and fortunately, there are new and more attractive investment opportunities available.</p>
<p>Conventional wisdom dictates that holding onto investments over the long-term yields better returns. However, this does not mean that you should just invest and forget about the specific stock positions you have taken. If you’re investing in individual stocks, it is important to avoid emotion and stick to the facts. Knowing when to sell can be even more important than knowing when to buy.</p>
<p>Aash M. Shah, CFA is a senior portfolio manager at Summit Global Investments, an SEC registered investment adviser specializing in low volatility investment strategies. Learn more at <a href="http://www.summitglobalinvestments.com/" type="external">www.summitglobalinvestments.com</a>.</p>
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9 Signs It's Time To Sell A Stock
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https://newsline.com/9-signs-its-time-to-sell-a-stock/
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2017-09-18
| 1right-center
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9 Signs It's Time To Sell A Stock
<p>If you are thinking about reviewing your investment portfolio, you should know what stocks you should consider selling. Many investors believe buying at the right price is important; yet, selling at the right price is also vital. Selling stocks which have appreciated in value, lock in your actual profits. There are a variety of reasons why you, as an investor, may want to sell a stock. However, before you decide to make changes in your investment portfolio, make sure you have a clear idea of which stocks you should sell and which ones you should keep. Some of the reasons to consider selling a stock include:</p>
<p>1. Business Model Changes</p>
<p>Many people decide to invest in stock based upon the attractiveness of the company’s business model. When there is material change to a company’s business model that makes the stock less attractive, based on your initial decision, it may be a good time to consider selling.</p>
<p>2. Concentration</p>
<p>When a single stock appreciates and becomes a significant portion of an overall portfolio, investor’s should consider trimming a portion of the stock to help reduce single stock risk. When one stock comprises a large percentage of your portfolio, you face higher company specific risk.</p>
<p>3. Company Fundamentals</p>
<p>If a company’s fundamentals, such as earnings, revenue, cash flow or profit margins show signs of deterioration, it may be time to sell shares. The qualities that once made the stock standout may be long gone. Always pay close attention to company fundamentals; the longer one waits to sell the more significant the losses may become.</p>
<p>4. Missing Expectations</p>
<p>When a company consistently falls short of expectations for earnings or revenue, it is generally a good time to consider liquidating your position. Regularly missing expectations is a red flag that the management is having difficulty operating the business.</p>
<p>5. Disruptive Innovations</p>
<p>Sometimes a competitor provides innovation that is disruptive to a specific industry. This could have a real impact on the value of stock an investor may own. There are some stark examples of this; for example, Netflix, with their unique business model, put <a href="https://arstechnica.com/business/2012/10/too-little-too-late-blockbuster-gives-up-on-trying-to-beat-netflix/" type="external">Blockbuster</a> and other movie rental companies out of business, Amazon’s online book selling put other <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/business/barnes-noble-taking-on-amazon-in-the-fight-of-its-life.html" type="external">major book sellers out of business</a> and Apple’s smartphones have almost destroyed former industry leader <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/31/blackberry-posts-smaller-quarterly-loss-as-costs-fall.html" type="external">Blackberry</a>. As an investor, it is important to notice when an innovation begins to completely transform an entire industry.</p>
<p>6. Regulatory Problems</p>
<p>When a company is under investigation for serious violations, either by the <a href="https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin.shtml" type="external">Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)</a> or another regulatory agency, it is likely time to sell your shares. Make sure you take the time to learn the basis of the potential violations; not all investigations are going to end badly, but be prepared for the worst. Essentially, it is important to review news and quarterly reports for signs of trouble. Another indicator to look for with regards to regulatory issues are any updates to the “Risk Factors” in a company’s filings.</p>
<p>7. Unexpected Management Changes</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-ceo-idUSKBN19C0G6" type="external">unexpected or unexplained resignation</a> of key management figures could signal potentially significant internal problems within a company. Without a very convincing reason for the abrupt departure of C-Suite executives, one may consider liquidating your holdings.</p>
<p>8. Numerous Acquisitions</p>
<p>Most companies focus on one or several related businesses; for example, Dell Computers makes, markets and sells computers. Multiple acquisitions outside of a company’s field of expertise could indicate problems in the core business. Companies that try to diversify away from their core business may be indicating competitive difficulties in their core business. These should be considered candidates for sale.</p>
<p>#9. The best reason to sell is because your investment has been successful, you are ready to cash out and fortunately, there are new and more attractive investment opportunities available.</p>
<p>Conventional wisdom dictates that holding onto investments over the long-term yields better returns. However, this does not mean that you should just invest and forget about the specific stock positions you have taken. If you’re investing in individual stocks, it is important to avoid emotion and stick to the facts. Knowing when to sell can be even more important than knowing when to buy.</p>
<p>Aash M. Shah, CFA is a senior portfolio manager at Summit Global Investments, an SEC registered investment adviser specializing in low volatility investment strategies. Learn more at <a href="http://www.summitglobalinvestments.com/" type="external">www.summitglobalinvestments.com</a>.</p>
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<p>Published time: 22 Jul, 2017 18:31Edited time: 22 Jul, 2017 19:12</p>
<p>Israeli police have used force to disperse Palestinian worshippers near the Lion’s Gate in Jerusalem. RT Arabic correspondent Dalia Nammari was caught up in the violence.</p>
<p>In a video shot by RT Arabic, crowds of worshippers can be seen trying to flee, as clouds of smoke fill the air and Israeli police move&#160;in.</p>
<p>Nammari says she received a blow to her back from an Israeli soldier.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>Saturday’s protest started as hundreds of Palestinians held their evening prayers outside the al-Aqsa Mosque, refusing to be subjected to the new Israeli security measures there.</p>
<p>The Israelis claim the extra security measures are necessary to help prevent terrorism, but the protesters accuse the government of using the terror threat as a pretext to assert Tel Aviv’s authority over the mosque, the third most sacred site in Islam.</p>
<p>The decision to install metal detectors came after two border police officers were killed in an attack at the site last Friday.</p>
<p>Three Palestinians were <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/397088-palestinian-teen-shot-clashes/" type="external">shot dead</a> during protests in Jerusalem on Friday, while the Palestinian Authority has frozen all contact with the Israeli government over the dispute. The same day three members of a Jewish family were murdered in a <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/397152-two-people-stabbed-to-death-israel/" type="external">stabbing attack</a> at a settlement on the West Bank.</p>
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Israeli police clash with Palestinians in Jerusalem, RT Arabic reporter caught in violence (VIDEO)
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https://newsline.com/israeli-police-clash-with-palestinians-in-jerusalem-rt-arabic-reporter-caught-in-violence-video/
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2017-07-22
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Israeli police clash with Palestinians in Jerusalem, RT Arabic reporter caught in violence (VIDEO)
<p>Published time: 22 Jul, 2017 18:31Edited time: 22 Jul, 2017 19:12</p>
<p>Israeli police have used force to disperse Palestinian worshippers near the Lion’s Gate in Jerusalem. RT Arabic correspondent Dalia Nammari was caught up in the violence.</p>
<p>In a video shot by RT Arabic, crowds of worshippers can be seen trying to flee, as clouds of smoke fill the air and Israeli police move&#160;in.</p>
<p>Nammari says she received a blow to her back from an Israeli soldier.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
<p>Saturday’s protest started as hundreds of Palestinians held their evening prayers outside the al-Aqsa Mosque, refusing to be subjected to the new Israeli security measures there.</p>
<p>The Israelis claim the extra security measures are necessary to help prevent terrorism, but the protesters accuse the government of using the terror threat as a pretext to assert Tel Aviv’s authority over the mosque, the third most sacred site in Islam.</p>
<p>The decision to install metal detectors came after two border police officers were killed in an attack at the site last Friday.</p>
<p>Three Palestinians were <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/397088-palestinian-teen-shot-clashes/" type="external">shot dead</a> during protests in Jerusalem on Friday, while the Palestinian Authority has frozen all contact with the Israeli government over the dispute. The same day three members of a Jewish family were murdered in a <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/397152-two-people-stabbed-to-death-israel/" type="external">stabbing attack</a> at a settlement on the West Bank.</p>
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<p>SANTA FE - A scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory has been tapped to help New Mexico with complex issues related to energy and water science.</p>
<p>The state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department says Jeri Sullivan Graham will lead the Brackish Water Work Group.</p>
<p>One of the group's overarching goals is to identify the state's brackish water resources and find ways to make it more available and usable as a buffer against drought.</p>
<p>New Mexico is entering its fourth year of extremely dry conditions. The latest map shows nearly two-thirds of the state is dealing with severe drought or worse.</p>
<p>Graham's position will be funded by the lab through September.</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez said she had asked the U.S. Energy Department for support in developing water reuse in New Mexico.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
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LANL scientist to help with water woes
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https://abqjournal.com/376542/scientist-to-help-with-water-woes.html
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LANL scientist to help with water woes
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<p>SANTA FE - A scientist from Los Alamos National Laboratory has been tapped to help New Mexico with complex issues related to energy and water science.</p>
<p>The state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department says Jeri Sullivan Graham will lead the Brackish Water Work Group.</p>
<p>One of the group's overarching goals is to identify the state's brackish water resources and find ways to make it more available and usable as a buffer against drought.</p>
<p>New Mexico is entering its fourth year of extremely dry conditions. The latest map shows nearly two-thirds of the state is dealing with severe drought or worse.</p>
<p>Graham's position will be funded by the lab through September.</p>
<p>Gov. Susana Martinez said she had asked the U.S. Energy Department for support in developing water reuse in New Mexico.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 598,873 |
|
<p>The Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/221a6e200cd547a5962179d3f27c02d4/Ex-judge-admits-to-giving-light-sentences-for-nude-photos" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>An Arkansas judge who gave lighter sentences to men guilty of minor crimes in return for nude photographs or sexual favors could get a bit of leniency himself after admitting Thursday that he engaged in what one state official called one of Arkansas’ worst-ever cases of judicial misconduct.</p>
<p>Joseph Boeckman had faced possible sentences of 260 years in prison and $2.5 million in fines if convicted of all charges in a 21-count indictment alleging he abused the power of his office for years. He pleaded guilty to two counts under a plea bargain that calls for him to face about 2½ to 3 years in prison for wire fraud and witness tampering.</p>
<p>As a district court judge in Cross County, 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Little Rock, Boeckmann mainly handled lower-level offenses such as traffic tickets and misdemeanors from 2008 to last year. Dozens of men who had passed through his court accused the judge of misconduct dating to his time as a prosecutor decades ago. Some said they posed nude in exchange for money to pay their fines.</p>
|
ARKANSAS: Judge Pleads Guilty To Giving Men Lighter Sentences In Return For Sexual Favors, Nude Photos
| true |
http://joemygod.com/2017/10/05/arkansas-judge-pleads-guilty-giving-men-lighter-sentences-return-sexual-favors-nude-photos/
|
2017-10-05
| 4left
|
ARKANSAS: Judge Pleads Guilty To Giving Men Lighter Sentences In Return For Sexual Favors, Nude Photos
<p>The Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/221a6e200cd547a5962179d3f27c02d4/Ex-judge-admits-to-giving-light-sentences-for-nude-photos" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>An Arkansas judge who gave lighter sentences to men guilty of minor crimes in return for nude photographs or sexual favors could get a bit of leniency himself after admitting Thursday that he engaged in what one state official called one of Arkansas’ worst-ever cases of judicial misconduct.</p>
<p>Joseph Boeckman had faced possible sentences of 260 years in prison and $2.5 million in fines if convicted of all charges in a 21-count indictment alleging he abused the power of his office for years. He pleaded guilty to two counts under a plea bargain that calls for him to face about 2½ to 3 years in prison for wire fraud and witness tampering.</p>
<p>As a district court judge in Cross County, 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Little Rock, Boeckmann mainly handled lower-level offenses such as traffic tickets and misdemeanors from 2008 to last year. Dozens of men who had passed through his court accused the judge of misconduct dating to his time as a prosecutor decades ago. Some said they posed nude in exchange for money to pay their fines.</p>
| 598,874 |
<p>1861—The first major oil well in the world started pumping. Christened “Empire,” it stood on Funk Farm in Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>1908—The Anglo-Persian Oil Company discovered oil in Iran. This was the first major oil field in the Middle East. APOC would become the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, then British Petroleum, in 1954.</p>
<p>1913—Inspired by disassembly lines inside Chicago slaughterhouses, the Ford Motor Company perfected the assembly line. From this point on, a man must strive to become as efficient and mechanical as a machine.</p>
<p>1927—The Turkish Petroleum Company struck oil in Iraq. Despite its name, TPC was a conglomerate of European companies, with the biggest shareholder the Anglo-Persian Company, i.e., British Petroleum.</p>
<p>1933—In New Jersey, the first drive-in theater opened. Thanks to the car, even a lumpen could have his private carriage. Now, he also had a private box in a theater.</p>
<p>1944—The G.I. Bill helped returning veterans to buy homes, with stipulations that these were detached and in homogenous neighborhoods, i.e., the white suburbs. Like many American laws, this was designed to enrich real estate, car and oil interests.</p>
<p>1953—The C.I.A. orchestrated a coup against the democratically-elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh, after he had nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, i.e., British Petroleum.</p>
<p>1956—President Eisenhower began the largest public works project in history, the Interstate. What it is is a generous and continuous system of multi-laned highways. It is never intersected, not even once, by a lesser road. One needs not pause on one’s life’s journey as long as one’s traveling on the Interstate. It is eternity made real and proven, a diagram of heaven (or hell) for the wordless masses.</p>
<p>1962—The Beverly Hillbillies debuted, to become one of the most popular television series of all time. Resonating deeply within the American psyche, its premise might as well be our national myth: a family of hicks struck it rich through oil.</p>
<p>1963—The C.I.A. orchestrated a coup against Abdul Karim Kassem of Iraq. Kassem had begun nationalizing foreign oil companies, most prominently the Iraq Petroleum Company, formerly known as Turkish Petroleum, i.e., British Petroleum.</p>
<p>1967—In “The Graduate,” Mr. McGuire advised Ben, “I just want to say one word to you—just one word.”</p>
<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>
<p>“Are you listening?”</p>
<p>“Yes, I am.”</p>
<p>“Plastics.”</p>
<p>“Exactly how do you mean?”</p>
<p>“There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?”</p>
<p>“Yes, I will.”</p>
<p>Plastic is oil, hardened. By 2010, there would be plastic patches the size of Texas to choke both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.</p>
<p>Thanks to the chemical phthalate in plastic, male genitals are shrinking worldwide, and sperm counts are way down, though not low enough, unfortunately, to slow down this full-throttle-ahead “love” boat. World population is approaching seven billion, with about 30,000 people starving to death each day.</p>
<p>1990—The Gulf War ignited. Eyeing Kuwait’s rich oil fields, Iraq attacked its tiny neighbor. Iraq was bankrupt after its eight-year-long war with Iran. During this previous conflict, the U.S. openly backed Iraq even as it sold weapons to Iran in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.</p>
<p>2000—Saddam Hussein announced that Iraq would now only accept euros, and not dollars, for its oil exports. This prompted the U.S. to invade 18 months later.</p>
<p>2001—Dick Cheney, “The American way of life is not negotiable.” Before becoming vice president, Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, an oil services company.</p>
<p>Ari Fleisher, Press Secretary to President Bush, was asked, “Does the President believe that, given the amount of energy Americans consume per capita, how much it exceeds any other citizen in any other country in the world, does the President believe we need to correct our lifestyles to address the energy problem?”</p>
<p>He answered, “That’s a big no. The President believes that it’s an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one.”</p>
<p>With 1/21 of the world’s population and less than 3% of its oil reserve, the U.S. uses 25% of the world’s oil .</p>
<p>Draped in cheap oil and sweating oil, under an increasingly hot sun, we steer oil cars, on oil, towards oil jobs. Before meals, we pray and take oil pills. To feel upper or downer, we chug a lug oil.</p>
<p>2003—Using various pretexts, none convincingly and long since discarded, the U.S. invaded Iraq. The invading force was mostly Anglo. Augmenting 248,000 Americans, the United Kingdom contributed 45,000 troops, Australia 2,000 and Poland 194.</p>
<p>2008—During a debate between Vice Presidential candidates, Joe Biden said, “The only answer is drill, drill, drill. Drill we must,” only to be corrected by Sarah Palin, “The chant is drill, baby, drill! And that’s what we hear all across this country in our rallies, because people are so hungry for domestic sources of energy to be tapped into.”</p>
<p>2009—Thanks to the U.S. invasion, British Petroleum could do business again in Iraq after 37 years.</p>
<p>2010—Floating 5,000 feet above the ocean floor, a British Petroleum rig was drilling 30,000 feet into the earth’s crust when it exploded, then sank over its drill hole. 210,000 gallons a day are spilling as I’m writing this, and they won’t be capped any time soon. This is no tanker breaking up, my friends, but the raped earth spewing what we’ve been demanding so relentlessly for over a century now. A monstrous ecocide, this is too fitting an end to our reckless oil ride.</p>
<p>LINH DINH is the author of two books of stories and five of poems, with a novel, Love Like Hate, scheduled for July. He’s tracking our deteriorating socialscape through his frequently updated photo blog, <a href="http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/" type="external">State of the Union</a>.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
|
This Oil Ride
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2010/05/05/this-oil-ride/
|
2010-05-05
| 4left
|
This Oil Ride
<p>1861—The first major oil well in the world started pumping. Christened “Empire,” it stood on Funk Farm in Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>1908—The Anglo-Persian Oil Company discovered oil in Iran. This was the first major oil field in the Middle East. APOC would become the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, then British Petroleum, in 1954.</p>
<p>1913—Inspired by disassembly lines inside Chicago slaughterhouses, the Ford Motor Company perfected the assembly line. From this point on, a man must strive to become as efficient and mechanical as a machine.</p>
<p>1927—The Turkish Petroleum Company struck oil in Iraq. Despite its name, TPC was a conglomerate of European companies, with the biggest shareholder the Anglo-Persian Company, i.e., British Petroleum.</p>
<p>1933—In New Jersey, the first drive-in theater opened. Thanks to the car, even a lumpen could have his private carriage. Now, he also had a private box in a theater.</p>
<p>1944—The G.I. Bill helped returning veterans to buy homes, with stipulations that these were detached and in homogenous neighborhoods, i.e., the white suburbs. Like many American laws, this was designed to enrich real estate, car and oil interests.</p>
<p>1953—The C.I.A. orchestrated a coup against the democratically-elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh, after he had nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, i.e., British Petroleum.</p>
<p>1956—President Eisenhower began the largest public works project in history, the Interstate. What it is is a generous and continuous system of multi-laned highways. It is never intersected, not even once, by a lesser road. One needs not pause on one’s life’s journey as long as one’s traveling on the Interstate. It is eternity made real and proven, a diagram of heaven (or hell) for the wordless masses.</p>
<p>1962—The Beverly Hillbillies debuted, to become one of the most popular television series of all time. Resonating deeply within the American psyche, its premise might as well be our national myth: a family of hicks struck it rich through oil.</p>
<p>1963—The C.I.A. orchestrated a coup against Abdul Karim Kassem of Iraq. Kassem had begun nationalizing foreign oil companies, most prominently the Iraq Petroleum Company, formerly known as Turkish Petroleum, i.e., British Petroleum.</p>
<p>1967—In “The Graduate,” Mr. McGuire advised Ben, “I just want to say one word to you—just one word.”</p>
<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>
<p>“Are you listening?”</p>
<p>“Yes, I am.”</p>
<p>“Plastics.”</p>
<p>“Exactly how do you mean?”</p>
<p>“There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?”</p>
<p>“Yes, I will.”</p>
<p>Plastic is oil, hardened. By 2010, there would be plastic patches the size of Texas to choke both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.</p>
<p>Thanks to the chemical phthalate in plastic, male genitals are shrinking worldwide, and sperm counts are way down, though not low enough, unfortunately, to slow down this full-throttle-ahead “love” boat. World population is approaching seven billion, with about 30,000 people starving to death each day.</p>
<p>1990—The Gulf War ignited. Eyeing Kuwait’s rich oil fields, Iraq attacked its tiny neighbor. Iraq was bankrupt after its eight-year-long war with Iran. During this previous conflict, the U.S. openly backed Iraq even as it sold weapons to Iran in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.</p>
<p>2000—Saddam Hussein announced that Iraq would now only accept euros, and not dollars, for its oil exports. This prompted the U.S. to invade 18 months later.</p>
<p>2001—Dick Cheney, “The American way of life is not negotiable.” Before becoming vice president, Cheney was CEO of Halliburton, an oil services company.</p>
<p>Ari Fleisher, Press Secretary to President Bush, was asked, “Does the President believe that, given the amount of energy Americans consume per capita, how much it exceeds any other citizen in any other country in the world, does the President believe we need to correct our lifestyles to address the energy problem?”</p>
<p>He answered, “That’s a big no. The President believes that it’s an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one.”</p>
<p>With 1/21 of the world’s population and less than 3% of its oil reserve, the U.S. uses 25% of the world’s oil .</p>
<p>Draped in cheap oil and sweating oil, under an increasingly hot sun, we steer oil cars, on oil, towards oil jobs. Before meals, we pray and take oil pills. To feel upper or downer, we chug a lug oil.</p>
<p>2003—Using various pretexts, none convincingly and long since discarded, the U.S. invaded Iraq. The invading force was mostly Anglo. Augmenting 248,000 Americans, the United Kingdom contributed 45,000 troops, Australia 2,000 and Poland 194.</p>
<p>2008—During a debate between Vice Presidential candidates, Joe Biden said, “The only answer is drill, drill, drill. Drill we must,” only to be corrected by Sarah Palin, “The chant is drill, baby, drill! And that’s what we hear all across this country in our rallies, because people are so hungry for domestic sources of energy to be tapped into.”</p>
<p>2009—Thanks to the U.S. invasion, British Petroleum could do business again in Iraq after 37 years.</p>
<p>2010—Floating 5,000 feet above the ocean floor, a British Petroleum rig was drilling 30,000 feet into the earth’s crust when it exploded, then sank over its drill hole. 210,000 gallons a day are spilling as I’m writing this, and they won’t be capped any time soon. This is no tanker breaking up, my friends, but the raped earth spewing what we’ve been demanding so relentlessly for over a century now. A monstrous ecocide, this is too fitting an end to our reckless oil ride.</p>
<p>LINH DINH is the author of two books of stories and five of poems, with a novel, Love Like Hate, scheduled for July. He’s tracking our deteriorating socialscape through his frequently updated photo blog, <a href="http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/" type="external">State of the Union</a>.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
<p />
| 598,875 |
<p>The Taliban say they have reached a preliminary agreement to set up a political office, possibly in Qatar, as part of Western plans to end the war in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>A statement confirmed the move, which has been backed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.</p>
<p>Marco Werman talks to David Roberts of the Royal United Services Institute in Qatar about the proposed Taliban office.</p>
|
Why the Taliban are Backing the Qatar Office Proposal
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2012-01-04/why-taliban-are-backing-qatar-office-proposal
|
2012-01-04
| 3left-center
|
Why the Taliban are Backing the Qatar Office Proposal
<p>The Taliban say they have reached a preliminary agreement to set up a political office, possibly in Qatar, as part of Western plans to end the war in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>A statement confirmed the move, which has been backed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.</p>
<p>Marco Werman talks to David Roberts of the Royal United Services Institute in Qatar about the proposed Taliban office.</p>
| 598,876 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Metropolitan Detention Center inmate hid in a laundry basket to make an escape this afternoon. The laundry basket was headed to the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Assessment and Treatment Services (MATS) center on Zuni SE to retrieve laundry at 4:30 p.m. When an MDC officer opened the back door of the laundry truck, the inmate Kevin Perkins, 28, jumped out of the basket and ran north. MATS staff called Albuquerque Police Department and went to the inmate’s last known address in search of Perkins. Shortly after, APD received a breaking and entering phone call at an assisted living complex north of the MATS facility. Police secured the complex and found a broken window where the escapee broke into one of the housing units. Officers followed a trail of blood, found Perkins and arrested him. After being cleared medically, Perkins will be returned to the jail.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
Laundry basket MDC escapee caught
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/426257/laundry-basket-mdc-escapee-caught.html
| 2least
|
Laundry basket MDC escapee caught
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Metropolitan Detention Center inmate hid in a laundry basket to make an escape this afternoon. The laundry basket was headed to the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Assessment and Treatment Services (MATS) center on Zuni SE to retrieve laundry at 4:30 p.m. When an MDC officer opened the back door of the laundry truck, the inmate Kevin Perkins, 28, jumped out of the basket and ran north. MATS staff called Albuquerque Police Department and went to the inmate’s last known address in search of Perkins. Shortly after, APD received a breaking and entering phone call at an assisted living complex north of the MATS facility. Police secured the complex and found a broken window where the escapee broke into one of the housing units. Officers followed a trail of blood, found Perkins and arrested him. After being cleared medically, Perkins will be returned to the jail.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 598,877 |
|
<p>Nov. 28 (UPI) — Toronto FC’s Greg Vanney has been named the MLS Coach of the Year.</p>
<p>Vanney, 43, led Toronto FC to a record-breaking season in 2017, piling up 69 points, the most in a season in MLS history. Toronto FC also posted a 20-5-9 record. Vanney’s squad faces the Columbus Crew at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in an MLS Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference Championship match at BMO Field in Toronto, Ontario.</p>
<p>That series is currently tied at 0-0 going into the second leg.</p>
<p>The third-year head coach was awarded with the honor on Monday. He owns a 51-35-26 record as Toronto’s leading man,</p>
<p>Gerardo “Tata” Martino, Veljko Paunovic, Patrick Viera, Carl Robinson and Gregg Berhalter finished behind Vanney in the voting, done by MLS club management, media and current MLS players.</p>
<p>Toronto FC is loaded with talent, including the likes of Sebastian Giovinco, Jozy Altidor, Victor Vazquez and Unites States Men’s National Team captain <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Michael_Bradley/" type="external">Michael Bradley</a>.</p>
<p>Vanney became Toronto FC boss on Aug. 31, 2014. He re-signed with a multi-year extension on July 14. He holds franchise records for matches managed, wins and playoff wins. He has also led the squad to three consecutive MLS Cup Playoffs appearances. He was a six-time Coach of the Week this season.</p>
<p>“Since taking over as our head coach, Greg and his staff have worked tirelessly to build a championship caliber team on-field, setting many records along the way,” Toronto FC Sr. Vice-President, Soccer Operations &amp; General Manager Tim Bezbatchenko said <a href="https://www.torontofc.ca/post/2017/11/27/greg-vanney-named-2017-mls-coach-year" type="external">in a news release</a>.</p>
<p>“On behalf of everyone at Toronto FC we want to express how proud we are of Greg for this well-deserved honour.”</p>
|
Greg Vanney: Toronto FC boss named MLS Coach of the Year
| false |
https://newsline.com/greg-vanney-toronto-fc-boss-named-mls-coach-of-the-year/
|
2017-11-28
| 1right-center
|
Greg Vanney: Toronto FC boss named MLS Coach of the Year
<p>Nov. 28 (UPI) — Toronto FC’s Greg Vanney has been named the MLS Coach of the Year.</p>
<p>Vanney, 43, led Toronto FC to a record-breaking season in 2017, piling up 69 points, the most in a season in MLS history. Toronto FC also posted a 20-5-9 record. Vanney’s squad faces the Columbus Crew at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in an MLS Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference Championship match at BMO Field in Toronto, Ontario.</p>
<p>That series is currently tied at 0-0 going into the second leg.</p>
<p>The third-year head coach was awarded with the honor on Monday. He owns a 51-35-26 record as Toronto’s leading man,</p>
<p>Gerardo “Tata” Martino, Veljko Paunovic, Patrick Viera, Carl Robinson and Gregg Berhalter finished behind Vanney in the voting, done by MLS club management, media and current MLS players.</p>
<p>Toronto FC is loaded with talent, including the likes of Sebastian Giovinco, Jozy Altidor, Victor Vazquez and Unites States Men’s National Team captain <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Michael_Bradley/" type="external">Michael Bradley</a>.</p>
<p>Vanney became Toronto FC boss on Aug. 31, 2014. He re-signed with a multi-year extension on July 14. He holds franchise records for matches managed, wins and playoff wins. He has also led the squad to three consecutive MLS Cup Playoffs appearances. He was a six-time Coach of the Week this season.</p>
<p>“Since taking over as our head coach, Greg and his staff have worked tirelessly to build a championship caliber team on-field, setting many records along the way,” Toronto FC Sr. Vice-President, Soccer Operations &amp; General Manager Tim Bezbatchenko said <a href="https://www.torontofc.ca/post/2017/11/27/greg-vanney-named-2017-mls-coach-year" type="external">in a news release</a>.</p>
<p>“On behalf of everyone at Toronto FC we want to express how proud we are of Greg for this well-deserved honour.”</p>
| 598,878 |
<p />
<p>What: ImmunoGen reported its fiscal third-quarter earnings on Friday, and fell as much as 22%, but it wasn't the biotech's revenue or loss that has investors hitting the sell button.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>So what: For the record, ImmunoGen reported revenue of $19.7 million, up from $11.4million in the year-ago quarter, thanks to a $10 million milestone earned from its partner Bayer. And the biotech lost $31.9 million, more than the $21.6million it lost a year ago -- but still completely reasonable given that ImmonGen has $182.9 million sitting in the bank.</p>
<p>IMMUNOGEN'S ANTIBODY DRUG CANDIDATES DELIVER TOXIC PAYLOAD TO TUMOR CELLS.IMAGE SOURCE: IMMUNOGEN.</p>
<p>Instead of the earnings numbers, it appears that investors are concerned with ImmunoGen's disclosure of its plan to change the design of the next clinical trial for its lead-pipeline candidate, mirvetuximab soravtansine. The ovarian cancer trial, dubbed FORWARD I, was previously designed as a two-stage, phase II trial with response rate as the primary endpoint, but ImmunoGen has decided to change it to a single-stage phase 3 trial with progression-free survival as the primary endpoint.</p>
<p>There are a couple of changes here, so let's break it down:</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>If the new trial produces positive data, the changes will end up being a good move because the number of potential patients in the U.S. increases to 5,000 to 7,000 compared to 2,000 to 3,000 with the old enrollment criteria.</p>
<p>But there are risks associated with the change because ImmunoGen is generating a hypothesis based on a subset of the patients in the earlier trial, and testing the hypothesis in the FORWARD I trial. Investors are worried that the observed benefit by earlier-stage patients is just an artifact.</p>
<p>That view is confounded by management's disclosure that the response rate in the overall population of the phase 1 trial is "a little below 30%" compared to a response rate of 35% that was previously disclosed for the first set of patients enrolled in the phase 1 trial. Management hinted that the subset of phase 1 patients who would be eligible for the new phase 3 had a higher response rate; but we'll have to wait until the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in June to see the breakdown of the data.</p>
<p>Now what: This summer, investors will be focused on the ASCO data, while management will be working toward getting the new trial design approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Assuming the FDA signs off, ImmunoGen thinks it can start enrollment in FORWARD I by the end of the year, so it'll be awhile before we get the data, and know if investors are overreacting to the changes.</p>
<p>Beyond mirvetuximab soravtansine, management updated investors on the rest of the company's pipeline. The phase 1 trial for IMGN779 in patients with acute myeloid leukemia has begun enrolling patients. And the company expects to start enrolling shortly for the phase 2 trial testing IMGN529 in combination with rituximabin diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.</p>
<p>With no meaningful revenue, ImmunoGen remains a waiting game, albeit one that may have a little less certainty after today's announcement.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/29/why-immunogen-inc-was-down-today-hint-it-wasnt-ear.aspx" type="external">Why ImmunoGen, Inc. Was Down Today (Hint: It Wasn't Earnings) Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBiologyFool/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Brian Orelli Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends ImmunoGen. 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>
|
Why ImmunoGen, Inc. Was Down Today (Hint: It Wasn't Earnings)
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/04/29/why-immunogen-inc-was-down-today-hint-it-wasnt-earnings.html
|
2016-04-29
| 0right
|
Why ImmunoGen, Inc. Was Down Today (Hint: It Wasn't Earnings)
<p />
<p>What: ImmunoGen reported its fiscal third-quarter earnings on Friday, and fell as much as 22%, but it wasn't the biotech's revenue or loss that has investors hitting the sell button.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>So what: For the record, ImmunoGen reported revenue of $19.7 million, up from $11.4million in the year-ago quarter, thanks to a $10 million milestone earned from its partner Bayer. And the biotech lost $31.9 million, more than the $21.6million it lost a year ago -- but still completely reasonable given that ImmonGen has $182.9 million sitting in the bank.</p>
<p>IMMUNOGEN'S ANTIBODY DRUG CANDIDATES DELIVER TOXIC PAYLOAD TO TUMOR CELLS.IMAGE SOURCE: IMMUNOGEN.</p>
<p>Instead of the earnings numbers, it appears that investors are concerned with ImmunoGen's disclosure of its plan to change the design of the next clinical trial for its lead-pipeline candidate, mirvetuximab soravtansine. The ovarian cancer trial, dubbed FORWARD I, was previously designed as a two-stage, phase II trial with response rate as the primary endpoint, but ImmunoGen has decided to change it to a single-stage phase 3 trial with progression-free survival as the primary endpoint.</p>
<p>There are a couple of changes here, so let's break it down:</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>If the new trial produces positive data, the changes will end up being a good move because the number of potential patients in the U.S. increases to 5,000 to 7,000 compared to 2,000 to 3,000 with the old enrollment criteria.</p>
<p>But there are risks associated with the change because ImmunoGen is generating a hypothesis based on a subset of the patients in the earlier trial, and testing the hypothesis in the FORWARD I trial. Investors are worried that the observed benefit by earlier-stage patients is just an artifact.</p>
<p>That view is confounded by management's disclosure that the response rate in the overall population of the phase 1 trial is "a little below 30%" compared to a response rate of 35% that was previously disclosed for the first set of patients enrolled in the phase 1 trial. Management hinted that the subset of phase 1 patients who would be eligible for the new phase 3 had a higher response rate; but we'll have to wait until the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in June to see the breakdown of the data.</p>
<p>Now what: This summer, investors will be focused on the ASCO data, while management will be working toward getting the new trial design approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Assuming the FDA signs off, ImmunoGen thinks it can start enrollment in FORWARD I by the end of the year, so it'll be awhile before we get the data, and know if investors are overreacting to the changes.</p>
<p>Beyond mirvetuximab soravtansine, management updated investors on the rest of the company's pipeline. The phase 1 trial for IMGN779 in patients with acute myeloid leukemia has begun enrolling patients. And the company expects to start enrolling shortly for the phase 2 trial testing IMGN529 in combination with rituximabin diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.</p>
<p>With no meaningful revenue, ImmunoGen remains a waiting game, albeit one that may have a little less certainty after today's announcement.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/04/29/why-immunogen-inc-was-down-today-hint-it-wasnt-ear.aspx" type="external">Why ImmunoGen, Inc. Was Down Today (Hint: It Wasn't Earnings) Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFBiologyFool/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Brian Orelli Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends ImmunoGen. 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>
| 598,879 |
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<p />
<p>2:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Police in suburban Phoenix say they’re looking for two suspects in connection with a shooting inside a Walmart store that wounded two men.</p>
<p>Glendale police also say they’ve determined Wednesday morning’s shooting wasn’t random and the shooter and the victims know each other.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>One suspect is between 25-30 years old and believed to be the shooter and the other suspect is a teenager.</p>
<p>Officers were called to a shooting scene inside the store around 11 a.m. and found two men with gunshot wounds that are not life-threatening.</p>
<p>News video showed a person being wheeled from the store on a gurney to an ambulance. The person appeared to be sitting up.</p>
<p>The names and ages of the victims haven’t been released.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>12:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Glendale police now say both people who were shot inside a Walmart store suffered non-life threatening injuries.</p>
<p>They say they’re still searching for the shooter in Wednesday morning’s incident.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Officers were called to a shooting scene inside the store around 11 a.m. and found two people with gunshot wounds.</p>
<p>News video showed a person being wheeled from the store on a gurney to an ambulance. The person appeared to be sitting up in the gurney.</p>
<p>The names and ages of the two victims haven’t been released yet.</p>
<p>Police say the suspect was seen leaving the area in a vehicle.</p>
<p>12:15 p.m.</p>
<p>Glendale police say they are searching for a suspect who shot and wounded two people inside a Walmart store in the city.</p>
<p>They say officers were called to a shooting scene inside the store around 11 a.m. Wednesday and found two people with gunshot wounds.</p>
<p>Police say person was transported to a hospital with a life-threatening injury and the other person sustained a gunshot wound that’s not life-threatening.</p>
<p>The names and ages of the two victims haven’t been released yet.</p>
<p>Police say the suspect was seen leaving the area in a vehicle.</p>
<p>10:50 a.m.</p>
<p>Glendale police say there’s been a shooting at a Wal-Mart store and that there are two victims.</p>
<p>Those victims’ conditions aren’t known but news video showed a person being wheeled from the store on a gurney to an ambulance. The person appeared to be sitting up.</p>
<p>Police did not release additional information on the situation, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
|
The Latest: Police say 2 shot, wounded at Walmart in Arizona
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/904361/the-latest-police-say-2-shot-wounded-at-walmart-in-arizona.html
| 2least
|
The Latest: Police say 2 shot, wounded at Walmart in Arizona
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>2:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Police in suburban Phoenix say they’re looking for two suspects in connection with a shooting inside a Walmart store that wounded two men.</p>
<p>Glendale police also say they’ve determined Wednesday morning’s shooting wasn’t random and the shooter and the victims know each other.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>One suspect is between 25-30 years old and believed to be the shooter and the other suspect is a teenager.</p>
<p>Officers were called to a shooting scene inside the store around 11 a.m. and found two men with gunshot wounds that are not life-threatening.</p>
<p>News video showed a person being wheeled from the store on a gurney to an ambulance. The person appeared to be sitting up.</p>
<p>The names and ages of the victims haven’t been released.</p>
<p>__</p>
<p>12:30 p.m.</p>
<p>Glendale police now say both people who were shot inside a Walmart store suffered non-life threatening injuries.</p>
<p>They say they’re still searching for the shooter in Wednesday morning’s incident.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Officers were called to a shooting scene inside the store around 11 a.m. and found two people with gunshot wounds.</p>
<p>News video showed a person being wheeled from the store on a gurney to an ambulance. The person appeared to be sitting up in the gurney.</p>
<p>The names and ages of the two victims haven’t been released yet.</p>
<p>Police say the suspect was seen leaving the area in a vehicle.</p>
<p>12:15 p.m.</p>
<p>Glendale police say they are searching for a suspect who shot and wounded two people inside a Walmart store in the city.</p>
<p>They say officers were called to a shooting scene inside the store around 11 a.m. Wednesday and found two people with gunshot wounds.</p>
<p>Police say person was transported to a hospital with a life-threatening injury and the other person sustained a gunshot wound that’s not life-threatening.</p>
<p>The names and ages of the two victims haven’t been released yet.</p>
<p>Police say the suspect was seen leaving the area in a vehicle.</p>
<p>10:50 a.m.</p>
<p>Glendale police say there’s been a shooting at a Wal-Mart store and that there are two victims.</p>
<p>Those victims’ conditions aren’t known but news video showed a person being wheeled from the store on a gurney to an ambulance. The person appeared to be sitting up.</p>
<p>Police did not release additional information on the situation, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.</p>
| 598,880 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Dr. Cheryl Willman, director and CEO of the University of New Mexico Cancer Center, and other oncologists will discuss developments in cancer treatments from 2-4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Jewish Community Center, 5520 Wyoming NE.</p>
<p>Dr. Itzhak Nir, a UNMH surgeon, and Dr. Michael Binder, cancer service line director at Presbyterian Hospital, will focus on cancer advances in New Mexico and Israel. Cost is $18 in advance or $20 at the door. For reservations, call 348-4455 or visit <a href="http://www.jccabq.org" type="external">jccabq.org</a> and link to “cancer breakthroughs.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
Oncologists share latest information
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/339547/oncologists-share-latest-information.html
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Oncologists share latest information
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Dr. Cheryl Willman, director and CEO of the University of New Mexico Cancer Center, and other oncologists will discuss developments in cancer treatments from 2-4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Jewish Community Center, 5520 Wyoming NE.</p>
<p>Dr. Itzhak Nir, a UNMH surgeon, and Dr. Michael Binder, cancer service line director at Presbyterian Hospital, will focus on cancer advances in New Mexico and Israel. Cost is $18 in advance or $20 at the door. For reservations, call 348-4455 or visit <a href="http://www.jccabq.org" type="external">jccabq.org</a> and link to “cancer breakthroughs.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 598,881 |
|
<p>Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12535240@N05/"&gt;carlfbagge&lt;/a&gt; (Creative Commons)</p>
<p />
<p>“There is not going to be an environmental disaster,” is <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/02/brazil-amazon-rainforest-hydroelectric-dam" type="external">quite a way to launch</a> a renewable energy project. The quote is from Carlos Minc, Brazil’s environment minister, at the announcement of the South American country’s plan to move forward with the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon.</p>
<p>Current estimates indicate that the <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/brazil-confirms-huge-and-controversial-hydroelectric-dam-in-the-amazon.php?campaign=th_rss&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+treehuggersite+(Treehugger)" type="external">11,000 megawatt dam</a>&#160;on the Xingu River, the world’s third largest, will flood nearly 100 square miles of Brazil’s rain forest and cost more than $17 billion. This environmental impact has caused many critics, including <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9C4VF400&amp;show_article=1" type="external">pop star Sting</a>, to claim that the dam places an undue burden on Brazil’s indigenous people.&#160;“We are opposed to dams on the Xingu and will fight to protect our river,” said Megaron Tuxucumarrae, a leader of the Kyapo Indians of the Amazon Basin. “We want to make sure that Belo Monte does not destroy the ecosystems and the biodiversity that we have taken care of for millennia.”</p>
<p>Some anti-dam activists have worried that, in addition to harming their forests, the project could displace indigenous populations. Minc rejects these concerns. “Not a single Indian will be displaced,” <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/02/brazil-amazon-rainforest-hydroelectric-dam" type="external">he said</a>. “They will be indirectly affected, but they will not have to leave indigenous lands.”</p>
<p>The claim sounds reassuring, but it’s difficult to take at face value since the Brazilian government has made a practice of moving indigenous people off their land in the name of conservation. As <a href="/environment/2009/11/gms-money-trees" type="external">Mark Schapiro reports</a> for Mother Jones, the Brazilian “green police” is feared for displacing the Guarani Indians as part of their conservation strategy in the Guaraquecaba Environmental Protection Area, a 50,000 acre rain forest funded by General Motors, Chevron, and American Electric Power.</p>
<p>Robert Messias, the head of Brazil’s environmental agency, told the Amazon paper Diario do Para that the dam’s construction will <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/02/brazil-amazon-rainforest-hydroelectric-dam" type="external">impact nearly 12,000 indigenous people</a> but that they would eventually benefit from the project. “The conditions outlined in the license are designed so that the local population have a superior quality of life…at the end of the construction,” he said.</p>
<p />
|
Will Brazil’s New Dam Displace Indigenous People?
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2010/02/will-brazils-new-dam-displace-indigenous-people/
|
2010-02-02
| 4left
|
Will Brazil’s New Dam Displace Indigenous People?
<p>Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/12535240@N05/"&gt;carlfbagge&lt;/a&gt; (Creative Commons)</p>
<p />
<p>“There is not going to be an environmental disaster,” is <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/02/brazil-amazon-rainforest-hydroelectric-dam" type="external">quite a way to launch</a> a renewable energy project. The quote is from Carlos Minc, Brazil’s environment minister, at the announcement of the South American country’s plan to move forward with the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon.</p>
<p>Current estimates indicate that the <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/brazil-confirms-huge-and-controversial-hydroelectric-dam-in-the-amazon.php?campaign=th_rss&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+treehuggersite+(Treehugger)" type="external">11,000 megawatt dam</a>&#160;on the Xingu River, the world’s third largest, will flood nearly 100 square miles of Brazil’s rain forest and cost more than $17 billion. This environmental impact has caused many critics, including <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9C4VF400&amp;show_article=1" type="external">pop star Sting</a>, to claim that the dam places an undue burden on Brazil’s indigenous people.&#160;“We are opposed to dams on the Xingu and will fight to protect our river,” said Megaron Tuxucumarrae, a leader of the Kyapo Indians of the Amazon Basin. “We want to make sure that Belo Monte does not destroy the ecosystems and the biodiversity that we have taken care of for millennia.”</p>
<p>Some anti-dam activists have worried that, in addition to harming their forests, the project could displace indigenous populations. Minc rejects these concerns. “Not a single Indian will be displaced,” <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/02/brazil-amazon-rainforest-hydroelectric-dam" type="external">he said</a>. “They will be indirectly affected, but they will not have to leave indigenous lands.”</p>
<p>The claim sounds reassuring, but it’s difficult to take at face value since the Brazilian government has made a practice of moving indigenous people off their land in the name of conservation. As <a href="/environment/2009/11/gms-money-trees" type="external">Mark Schapiro reports</a> for Mother Jones, the Brazilian “green police” is feared for displacing the Guarani Indians as part of their conservation strategy in the Guaraquecaba Environmental Protection Area, a 50,000 acre rain forest funded by General Motors, Chevron, and American Electric Power.</p>
<p>Robert Messias, the head of Brazil’s environmental agency, told the Amazon paper Diario do Para that the dam’s construction will <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/02/brazil-amazon-rainforest-hydroelectric-dam" type="external">impact nearly 12,000 indigenous people</a> but that they would eventually benefit from the project. “The conditions outlined in the license are designed so that the local population have a superior quality of life…at the end of the construction,” he said.</p>
<p />
| 598,882 |
<p>RACINE, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a Wisconsin couple accused of stealing a Salvation Army donation kettle that had $200.</p>
<p>Racine County prosecutors say in a criminal complaint that 34-year-old Alicia Wojtowicz admitted to police she stole the kettle from a Walgreens in Caledonia after officers found it in her garage. Wojtowicz told police she took the kettle on Dec. 21 in a minivan driven by 35-year-old Jacob Doppke.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/kenosha-couple-charged-with-stealing-salvation-army-donation-kettle/article_0db1067d-41da-5e51-8fcf-c9a81d6d2b0e.html" type="external">The Kanosha News</a> reports Doppke told officers he and Wojtowicz are "heavy heroin users" but said he wasn't involved in the theft.</p>
<p>The Kenosha couple is charged with theft and entry into a locked coin box. Prosecutors say they were identified by people who saw a police Facebook post asking for help.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Kenosha News, <a href="http://www.kenoshanews.com" type="external">http://www.kenoshanews.com</a></p>
<p>RACINE, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a Wisconsin couple accused of stealing a Salvation Army donation kettle that had $200.</p>
<p>Racine County prosecutors say in a criminal complaint that 34-year-old Alicia Wojtowicz admitted to police she stole the kettle from a Walgreens in Caledonia after officers found it in her garage. Wojtowicz told police she took the kettle on Dec. 21 in a minivan driven by 35-year-old Jacob Doppke.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/kenosha-couple-charged-with-stealing-salvation-army-donation-kettle/article_0db1067d-41da-5e51-8fcf-c9a81d6d2b0e.html" type="external">The Kanosha News</a> reports Doppke told officers he and Wojtowicz are "heavy heroin users" but said he wasn't involved in the theft.</p>
<p>The Kenosha couple is charged with theft and entry into a locked coin box. Prosecutors say they were identified by people who saw a police Facebook post asking for help.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Kenosha News, <a href="http://www.kenoshanews.com" type="external">http://www.kenoshanews.com</a></p>
|
Couple charged in theft of Salvation Army kettle
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/aa21ae1656104b1e92e6e58369807f8a
|
2017-12-28
| 2least
|
Couple charged in theft of Salvation Army kettle
<p>RACINE, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a Wisconsin couple accused of stealing a Salvation Army donation kettle that had $200.</p>
<p>Racine County prosecutors say in a criminal complaint that 34-year-old Alicia Wojtowicz admitted to police she stole the kettle from a Walgreens in Caledonia after officers found it in her garage. Wojtowicz told police she took the kettle on Dec. 21 in a minivan driven by 35-year-old Jacob Doppke.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/kenosha-couple-charged-with-stealing-salvation-army-donation-kettle/article_0db1067d-41da-5e51-8fcf-c9a81d6d2b0e.html" type="external">The Kanosha News</a> reports Doppke told officers he and Wojtowicz are "heavy heroin users" but said he wasn't involved in the theft.</p>
<p>The Kenosha couple is charged with theft and entry into a locked coin box. Prosecutors say they were identified by people who saw a police Facebook post asking for help.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Kenosha News, <a href="http://www.kenoshanews.com" type="external">http://www.kenoshanews.com</a></p>
<p>RACINE, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a Wisconsin couple accused of stealing a Salvation Army donation kettle that had $200.</p>
<p>Racine County prosecutors say in a criminal complaint that 34-year-old Alicia Wojtowicz admitted to police she stole the kettle from a Walgreens in Caledonia after officers found it in her garage. Wojtowicz told police she took the kettle on Dec. 21 in a minivan driven by 35-year-old Jacob Doppke.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.kenoshanews.com/news/local/kenosha-couple-charged-with-stealing-salvation-army-donation-kettle/article_0db1067d-41da-5e51-8fcf-c9a81d6d2b0e.html" type="external">The Kanosha News</a> reports Doppke told officers he and Wojtowicz are "heavy heroin users" but said he wasn't involved in the theft.</p>
<p>The Kenosha couple is charged with theft and entry into a locked coin box. Prosecutors say they were identified by people who saw a police Facebook post asking for help.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Kenosha News, <a href="http://www.kenoshanews.com" type="external">http://www.kenoshanews.com</a></p>
| 598,883 |
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<p />
<p>I am writing in regard to your editorial in Monday’s Journal titled “Horse Doping at N.M. Tracks Is a Real Loser.”</p>
<p>Your editorial has a large misstatement in it. Your editorial urges the New Mexico Racing Commission to adopt the Association of Racing Commissioners International model rules “without delay.” As has been printed in your news section numerous times over the past few months, the commission adopted those rules long ago, and they actually went into effect on July 31.</p>
<p>Ruidoso Downs Race Track supported the adoption of those rules and is pleased with the State Racing Commission’s active steps. Furthermore, our chairman of the board, R.D. Hubbard, announced Labor Day weekend new house rules for Ruidoso that will deny stalls and exclude from our private property those who have broken the rules involving Class 1 or Class 2 drugs.</p>
<p>As Mr. Hubbard said, “the sign is out that drug offenders are not welcome at Ruidoso Downs Race Track and in New Mexico.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>We are happy to report that since the stricter testing went into effect on opening weekend of our season, there have been no positive tests for Class 1 drugs and only two elevated caffeine tests throughout the rest of the summer.</p>
<p>We just concluded a record Labor Day weekend in which more than 50,000 people attended the races and a record horse sale completed our sale season in which more than $20 million worth of horses was purchased.</p>
<p>It is obvious that fans and owners, some of which were ready to leave the business because of illegal drugs, are reinvigorated by the stricter testing, commission rules and house rules.</p>
|
Race Tracks Follow New Rules
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/128472/race-tracks-follow-new-rules.html
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2012-09-06
| 2least
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Race Tracks Follow New Rules
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>I am writing in regard to your editorial in Monday’s Journal titled “Horse Doping at N.M. Tracks Is a Real Loser.”</p>
<p>Your editorial has a large misstatement in it. Your editorial urges the New Mexico Racing Commission to adopt the Association of Racing Commissioners International model rules “without delay.” As has been printed in your news section numerous times over the past few months, the commission adopted those rules long ago, and they actually went into effect on July 31.</p>
<p>Ruidoso Downs Race Track supported the adoption of those rules and is pleased with the State Racing Commission’s active steps. Furthermore, our chairman of the board, R.D. Hubbard, announced Labor Day weekend new house rules for Ruidoso that will deny stalls and exclude from our private property those who have broken the rules involving Class 1 or Class 2 drugs.</p>
<p>As Mr. Hubbard said, “the sign is out that drug offenders are not welcome at Ruidoso Downs Race Track and in New Mexico.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>We are happy to report that since the stricter testing went into effect on opening weekend of our season, there have been no positive tests for Class 1 drugs and only two elevated caffeine tests throughout the rest of the summer.</p>
<p>We just concluded a record Labor Day weekend in which more than 50,000 people attended the races and a record horse sale completed our sale season in which more than $20 million worth of horses was purchased.</p>
<p>It is obvious that fans and owners, some of which were ready to leave the business because of illegal drugs, are reinvigorated by the stricter testing, commission rules and house rules.</p>
| 598,884 |
<p>Journal Article - Journal of Dispute Resolution</p>
<p />
<p>The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is deeply paradoxical: the basic outline of a deal is reasonably clear and yet this violent conflict persists with over 4,000 causalities since the collapse of the last significant effort to bring peace in 2000. The paper suggests that this paradox stems from internal conflicts on each side. It focuses on the internal conflict among Israeli Jews over the future of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. The paper describes the settlements today and argues that beneath the debate about their future, this tension implicates the core identity of some, but not all, the protagonists. The paper further reviews the history of the settlement movement, and shows how, in the face of opposition, a determined minority (the national religious settlers) promoted and vastly expanded the settlements. The paper then offers an explanation for why the national religious settlers have wielded such disproportionate influence in the Israeli political system. The paper ties the discussion to Prime Minister Sharon's proposed limited withdrawal from Gaza and the northern West Bank by the summer of 2005, and shows how the settlers, drawing on their sources of influence, are attempting to block any evacuation of settlements. In the concluding section, the paper focuses on the current conflict over Prime Minister Sharon's proposal and offers suggestions about how the internal conflict might best be managed.</p>
<p />
<p>To view full text please see PDF below (login may be required).</p>
<p />
|
Discord 'Behind the Table': The Internal Conflict Among Israeli Jews Concerning the Future of Settlements in the West Bank and Gaza
| false |
http://belfercenter.org/publication/discord-behind-table-internal-conflict-among-israeli-jews-concerning-future-settlements
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2005-05-01
| 2least
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Discord 'Behind the Table': The Internal Conflict Among Israeli Jews Concerning the Future of Settlements in the West Bank and Gaza
<p>Journal Article - Journal of Dispute Resolution</p>
<p />
<p>The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is deeply paradoxical: the basic outline of a deal is reasonably clear and yet this violent conflict persists with over 4,000 causalities since the collapse of the last significant effort to bring peace in 2000. The paper suggests that this paradox stems from internal conflicts on each side. It focuses on the internal conflict among Israeli Jews over the future of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. The paper describes the settlements today and argues that beneath the debate about their future, this tension implicates the core identity of some, but not all, the protagonists. The paper further reviews the history of the settlement movement, and shows how, in the face of opposition, a determined minority (the national religious settlers) promoted and vastly expanded the settlements. The paper then offers an explanation for why the national religious settlers have wielded such disproportionate influence in the Israeli political system. The paper ties the discussion to Prime Minister Sharon's proposed limited withdrawal from Gaza and the northern West Bank by the summer of 2005, and shows how the settlers, drawing on their sources of influence, are attempting to block any evacuation of settlements. In the concluding section, the paper focuses on the current conflict over Prime Minister Sharon's proposal and offers suggestions about how the internal conflict might best be managed.</p>
<p />
<p>To view full text please see PDF below (login may be required).</p>
<p />
| 598,885 |
<p>How do you choose what to remember, and what to forget?&#160; Maybe you don’t choose, consciously — at least, not always.&#160;We all have moments we’d like to forget — bad decisions, moments in life, or chapters in life, we wish we could just erase or, at least, make sure no one thinks less of you because it happened.</p>
<p>What happens when a whole society tries to bury a memory?&#160; Plenty have tried.&#160; Americans have, at different times in history, papered over massacres of Native Americans, treatment of slaves, the Civil War itself. Ask a Northerner and a Southerner what that was all about, and even today, they’re likely to give different answers.&#160;Some of the current red state/blue state, left/alt right divisions can arguably be traced back to the very different stories different groups have told themselves about what America is and should be, and what role they’ve played in trying to achieve the kind of America they want.</p>
<p />
<p>Soldiers in US Civil War</p>
<p>Public domain</p>
<p>To an important degree, we are the stories we tell ourselves. And how collective&#160;memories are formed&#160;not only shapes an understanding of the past, but&#160;also a path into the future.</p>
<p>Memories of atrocities are especially tricky. If you were a victim, you might try to forget, or make sure everyone remembers — like Holocaust survivors, who hope that remembering that past ensures it won’t be repeated.</p>
<p>Book cover of "Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland"&#160;by Jan Gross</p>
<p>Jan Gross</p>
<p>Perpetrators, on the other hand, would often just as soon bury the past. Nothing to see here, nothing to remember — move on.&#160; Or, the memory gets changed from something shameful into something less toxic.</p>
<p>In the Polish village of Jedwabne, where neighbors filled a barn with hundreds of Jewish women and children in July 1941 and then set it on fire (after killing many Jewish men and boys and putting their bodies in the same barn), the story villagers long told was that the massacre happened, but the Nazis did it.</p>
<p>And that worked, for awhile. A monument to the dead on the outskirts of the village bore an inscription that blamed the Germans for Jedwabne’s Jewish dead. And then, in the year 2000, Polish-born American historian Jan Gross refuted that story in his book Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland. In his research, he dug into the history of the incident&#160;and found strong evidence that Germans hadn’t killed the Jews of Jedwabne; their neighbors had.</p>
<p>This wasn’t the story the villagers of Jedwabne had told themselves about what their relatives and neighbors did. And not everyone there was ready or willing to absorb this new story. So when Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski came to Jedwabne with lots of international journalists on July 10, 2001, the 60th anniversary of the massacre, to install a new monument and apologize to the Jewish people, many of Jedwabne’s residents stayed home.</p>
<p>Nina Porzucki, cohost of The World in Words podcast, went to Jedwabne to talk to villagers about this atrocity, and about how the history of it has been told over time. Her experience there, augmented by interviews with Jan Gross, is the focus of this Whose Century Is It episode.</p>
<p />
<p>Urszula Sławiec (left), and&#160;Nina Porzucki (center) reporting in Jedwabne, Poland at the site of the Jewish monument commemorating the massacre&#160;of Jedwabne's Jews on July 10,&#160;1941.&#160;</p>
<p>Piotr Wójcik</p>
<p>Why focus on an atrocity that happened 75 years, in a podcast that looks forward into the 21st century? Because the past is present. The past shapes an important part of who we are. And the past can provide a warning to those who choose to heed it.</p>
<p>Germany has been active in facing its past, trying to be vigilant against its darker impulses. And even there, the Alternative for Germany nationalist party has gained ground. In Poland, as elsewhere around Europe, full-throated opposition to immigrants and refugees has become more common. In 2015, Poles elected the right-wing, nationalist Law &amp; Justice Party, with its platform of “Poland First.”&#160; Its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, talked about refugees spreading disease — eerily like how European anti-Semites talked about Jews before the Holocaust.</p>
<p>Hate speech can lead to more hate speech, making normal the ‘otherizing’ of human beings. From there, violence against those ‘others’ is easier. Just think of what happened in Rwanda in 1994.&#160;Hutus had been told for years that their Tutsi neighbors were "cockroaches,"&#160;and that they needed to "clear the brush."&#160;That ended up meaning hacking 800,000 of their Tutsi neighbors to death with machetes in just three months.</p>
<p />
<p>Kigali, Rwanda</p>
<p>Mary Kay Magistad</p>
<p>Atrocities like this, and the Holocaust, and smaller-scale incidents like the massacre in Jedwabne, and the shooting of an Indian tech working having an after-work drink with a friend in Kansas, have the power to shock, because they are rare. People&#160;don’t normally do this to each other.</p>
<p>But many people, perhaps most of us, have it in us to act in ways we couldn’t imagine possible in normal times.&#160;Many people, if they believe their lives or interests are threatened, will lash out. Many people, if given a green light, will express baser feelings that, at other times, they know to keep to themselves. Take as an example Iowa Rep. Steve King, tweeting, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”</p>
<p>The pushback he got from other Republicans might have shut him up for now, but with Donald Trump as president, and Steve Bannon as one of his key advisers, King seems to have thought he saw a green light flashing.</p>
<p />
<p>In a screengrab from the WSB Atlanta news website, Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison and a friend wear KKK costumes to a Halloween party.</p>
<p>And so we’re left to face our demons, in America, in Europe, in the white developed West, as the rest of the world catches up and increasingly expects the comforts, rights and dignity we’ve enjoyed for a couple of centuries. If we were them, we’d expect the same thing. If they were us, perhaps they’d act the same way.</p>
<p>But what keeps peace, in the world, and between people, is tolerance and respect. &#160;American is&#160;a country built around that concept, even if it's lived&#160;imperfectly. Moving away from those basic principles is a slippery slope to dark deeds.&#160; Just ask the villagers of Jedwabne. Not that many of them would tell you.</p>
<p>*****</p>
<p>For more on this subject, check out <a href="http://www.facinghistory.org" type="external">Facing History &amp; Ourselves</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">this</a>&#160;2011 story by Mary Kay Magistad on how Rwanda has been&#160;doing in facing its own past.</p>
<p>For more of Nina Porzucki's stories from Poland, listen to:&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Unearthing photos and memories of life in the Lodz ghetto</a></p>
<p>I <a href="" type="internal">n Communist Poland, the punk thing to do was to sing in English</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Fighting for press freedom with the Polish national anthem</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Poland's right-wing government thinks this WWII museum isn't 'glorious' enough</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Policing the language of the Holocaust in Poland</a></p>
<p>Correction: A previous version of this story contained a photo that was&#160;incorrectly identified as depicting the Jedwabne barn burning, where an estimated 340 Jews were killed. It actually depicted the burning, at the end of World War II, of a building in Germany's Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Some 50,000 people, mostly Jews, died in that camp.</p>
|
How a massacre of a village's Jews by their neighbors in WWII Poland is remembered — and misremembered
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2017-03-24/massacre-villages-jews-their-neighbors-wwii-poland-remembered-and-misremembered
|
2017-03-24
| 3left-center
|
How a massacre of a village's Jews by their neighbors in WWII Poland is remembered — and misremembered
<p>How do you choose what to remember, and what to forget?&#160; Maybe you don’t choose, consciously — at least, not always.&#160;We all have moments we’d like to forget — bad decisions, moments in life, or chapters in life, we wish we could just erase or, at least, make sure no one thinks less of you because it happened.</p>
<p>What happens when a whole society tries to bury a memory?&#160; Plenty have tried.&#160; Americans have, at different times in history, papered over massacres of Native Americans, treatment of slaves, the Civil War itself. Ask a Northerner and a Southerner what that was all about, and even today, they’re likely to give different answers.&#160;Some of the current red state/blue state, left/alt right divisions can arguably be traced back to the very different stories different groups have told themselves about what America is and should be, and what role they’ve played in trying to achieve the kind of America they want.</p>
<p />
<p>Soldiers in US Civil War</p>
<p>Public domain</p>
<p>To an important degree, we are the stories we tell ourselves. And how collective&#160;memories are formed&#160;not only shapes an understanding of the past, but&#160;also a path into the future.</p>
<p>Memories of atrocities are especially tricky. If you were a victim, you might try to forget, or make sure everyone remembers — like Holocaust survivors, who hope that remembering that past ensures it won’t be repeated.</p>
<p>Book cover of "Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland"&#160;by Jan Gross</p>
<p>Jan Gross</p>
<p>Perpetrators, on the other hand, would often just as soon bury the past. Nothing to see here, nothing to remember — move on.&#160; Or, the memory gets changed from something shameful into something less toxic.</p>
<p>In the Polish village of Jedwabne, where neighbors filled a barn with hundreds of Jewish women and children in July 1941 and then set it on fire (after killing many Jewish men and boys and putting their bodies in the same barn), the story villagers long told was that the massacre happened, but the Nazis did it.</p>
<p>And that worked, for awhile. A monument to the dead on the outskirts of the village bore an inscription that blamed the Germans for Jedwabne’s Jewish dead. And then, in the year 2000, Polish-born American historian Jan Gross refuted that story in his book Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland. In his research, he dug into the history of the incident&#160;and found strong evidence that Germans hadn’t killed the Jews of Jedwabne; their neighbors had.</p>
<p>This wasn’t the story the villagers of Jedwabne had told themselves about what their relatives and neighbors did. And not everyone there was ready or willing to absorb this new story. So when Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski came to Jedwabne with lots of international journalists on July 10, 2001, the 60th anniversary of the massacre, to install a new monument and apologize to the Jewish people, many of Jedwabne’s residents stayed home.</p>
<p>Nina Porzucki, cohost of The World in Words podcast, went to Jedwabne to talk to villagers about this atrocity, and about how the history of it has been told over time. Her experience there, augmented by interviews with Jan Gross, is the focus of this Whose Century Is It episode.</p>
<p />
<p>Urszula Sławiec (left), and&#160;Nina Porzucki (center) reporting in Jedwabne, Poland at the site of the Jewish monument commemorating the massacre&#160;of Jedwabne's Jews on July 10,&#160;1941.&#160;</p>
<p>Piotr Wójcik</p>
<p>Why focus on an atrocity that happened 75 years, in a podcast that looks forward into the 21st century? Because the past is present. The past shapes an important part of who we are. And the past can provide a warning to those who choose to heed it.</p>
<p>Germany has been active in facing its past, trying to be vigilant against its darker impulses. And even there, the Alternative for Germany nationalist party has gained ground. In Poland, as elsewhere around Europe, full-throated opposition to immigrants and refugees has become more common. In 2015, Poles elected the right-wing, nationalist Law &amp; Justice Party, with its platform of “Poland First.”&#160; Its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, talked about refugees spreading disease — eerily like how European anti-Semites talked about Jews before the Holocaust.</p>
<p>Hate speech can lead to more hate speech, making normal the ‘otherizing’ of human beings. From there, violence against those ‘others’ is easier. Just think of what happened in Rwanda in 1994.&#160;Hutus had been told for years that their Tutsi neighbors were "cockroaches,"&#160;and that they needed to "clear the brush."&#160;That ended up meaning hacking 800,000 of their Tutsi neighbors to death with machetes in just three months.</p>
<p />
<p>Kigali, Rwanda</p>
<p>Mary Kay Magistad</p>
<p>Atrocities like this, and the Holocaust, and smaller-scale incidents like the massacre in Jedwabne, and the shooting of an Indian tech working having an after-work drink with a friend in Kansas, have the power to shock, because they are rare. People&#160;don’t normally do this to each other.</p>
<p>But many people, perhaps most of us, have it in us to act in ways we couldn’t imagine possible in normal times.&#160;Many people, if they believe their lives or interests are threatened, will lash out. Many people, if given a green light, will express baser feelings that, at other times, they know to keep to themselves. Take as an example Iowa Rep. Steve King, tweeting, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”</p>
<p>The pushback he got from other Republicans might have shut him up for now, but with Donald Trump as president, and Steve Bannon as one of his key advisers, King seems to have thought he saw a green light flashing.</p>
<p />
<p>In a screengrab from the WSB Atlanta news website, Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison and a friend wear KKK costumes to a Halloween party.</p>
<p>And so we’re left to face our demons, in America, in Europe, in the white developed West, as the rest of the world catches up and increasingly expects the comforts, rights and dignity we’ve enjoyed for a couple of centuries. If we were them, we’d expect the same thing. If they were us, perhaps they’d act the same way.</p>
<p>But what keeps peace, in the world, and between people, is tolerance and respect. &#160;American is&#160;a country built around that concept, even if it's lived&#160;imperfectly. Moving away from those basic principles is a slippery slope to dark deeds.&#160; Just ask the villagers of Jedwabne. Not that many of them would tell you.</p>
<p>*****</p>
<p>For more on this subject, check out <a href="http://www.facinghistory.org" type="external">Facing History &amp; Ourselves</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">this</a>&#160;2011 story by Mary Kay Magistad on how Rwanda has been&#160;doing in facing its own past.</p>
<p>For more of Nina Porzucki's stories from Poland, listen to:&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Unearthing photos and memories of life in the Lodz ghetto</a></p>
<p>I <a href="" type="internal">n Communist Poland, the punk thing to do was to sing in English</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Fighting for press freedom with the Polish national anthem</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Poland's right-wing government thinks this WWII museum isn't 'glorious' enough</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Policing the language of the Holocaust in Poland</a></p>
<p>Correction: A previous version of this story contained a photo that was&#160;incorrectly identified as depicting the Jedwabne barn burning, where an estimated 340 Jews were killed. It actually depicted the burning, at the end of World War II, of a building in Germany's Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Some 50,000 people, mostly Jews, died in that camp.</p>
| 598,886 |
<p />
<p />
<p>A first of its kind controversial childbirth has occurred in Canada, as a newborn Canadian baby has been issued a health card that doesn't contain a gender marker, in what would be the first case in the world.</p>
<p>The parent, who goes by the name Kori Doty, is a non-binary transgender person who identifies as neither male nor female. Doty's plan is to allow the child to discover their own gender without anyone telling it what it is.</p>
<p>The hospital where the child was born says the health card was issued with a "U" in the space for "sex", which could be for "undetermined" or "unassigned".</p>
<p>Now taking the battle to court, Kori Doty is fighting to omit the gender from the birth certificate. Being that Canada is already an ultra progressive social justice haven, it's likely Doty will win.</p>
<p>The nongendered child's name is Searyl Ali, born in November at a friend's home in British Columbia. Kori Doty, who prefers to use the pronoun "they", suggests that in their own opinion a simple visual inspection at birth is not substantial enough in order to be able to determine what gender that person will have or identify with later in their life.</p>
<p>They want to keep Searyl's sex off all official records and documents in order to not influence the child's decision as they grow older and mature.</p>
<p>Doty said that, "I'm raising Searyl in in such a way that until they have the sense of self and command of vocabulary to tell me who they are, I'm recognising them as a baby and trying to give them all the love and support to be a whole person that they can be outside of the restrictions that come with the boy box and the girl box.?</p>
<p>Kori Doty works as a community educator who is part of the Gender-Free ID Coalition. Doty said that, "Those who feel different to the gender designation assigned at birth face several problems later in life trying to change their documents."</p>
<p>"When I was born, doctors looked at my genitals and made assumptions about who I would be, and those assignments followed me and followed my identification throughout my life," Kori Doty said. "Those assumptions were incorrect, and I ended up having to do a lot of adjustments since then."</p>
<p>In the incredibly rare case of Searyl Atli, the parent said that health authorities are now refusing to issue any birth certificate without a "proper gender designation" and this means as the parent Doty must sue for a judicial review of the case.</p>
<p>The attorney representing the family, barbara findlay, is also controversial for choosing to spell her name without capital letters. In a recent interview, she told Global News, "The assignment of sex in this culture is done when a medical person lifts up the legs and looks at the baby's genitals. But we know that the baby's own gender identity will not develop for some years until after they're born."</p>
<p>All across Canadian media, there is a massive buzz over the report that the baby's health card could be the first in the world to not have a gender designation.</p>
<p />
<p>Source</p>
<p><a href="https://8ch.net/pol/res/10193369.html" type="external">8ch.net/pol/res/10193369.html</a></p>
|
First Baby Without 'Gender Identification' Born In Canada
| true |
http://thegoldwater.com/news/4685-First-Baby-Without-Gender-Identification-Born-In-Canada
|
2017-07-04
| 0right
|
First Baby Without 'Gender Identification' Born In Canada
<p />
<p />
<p>A first of its kind controversial childbirth has occurred in Canada, as a newborn Canadian baby has been issued a health card that doesn't contain a gender marker, in what would be the first case in the world.</p>
<p>The parent, who goes by the name Kori Doty, is a non-binary transgender person who identifies as neither male nor female. Doty's plan is to allow the child to discover their own gender without anyone telling it what it is.</p>
<p>The hospital where the child was born says the health card was issued with a "U" in the space for "sex", which could be for "undetermined" or "unassigned".</p>
<p>Now taking the battle to court, Kori Doty is fighting to omit the gender from the birth certificate. Being that Canada is already an ultra progressive social justice haven, it's likely Doty will win.</p>
<p>The nongendered child's name is Searyl Ali, born in November at a friend's home in British Columbia. Kori Doty, who prefers to use the pronoun "they", suggests that in their own opinion a simple visual inspection at birth is not substantial enough in order to be able to determine what gender that person will have or identify with later in their life.</p>
<p>They want to keep Searyl's sex off all official records and documents in order to not influence the child's decision as they grow older and mature.</p>
<p>Doty said that, "I'm raising Searyl in in such a way that until they have the sense of self and command of vocabulary to tell me who they are, I'm recognising them as a baby and trying to give them all the love and support to be a whole person that they can be outside of the restrictions that come with the boy box and the girl box.?</p>
<p>Kori Doty works as a community educator who is part of the Gender-Free ID Coalition. Doty said that, "Those who feel different to the gender designation assigned at birth face several problems later in life trying to change their documents."</p>
<p>"When I was born, doctors looked at my genitals and made assumptions about who I would be, and those assignments followed me and followed my identification throughout my life," Kori Doty said. "Those assumptions were incorrect, and I ended up having to do a lot of adjustments since then."</p>
<p>In the incredibly rare case of Searyl Atli, the parent said that health authorities are now refusing to issue any birth certificate without a "proper gender designation" and this means as the parent Doty must sue for a judicial review of the case.</p>
<p>The attorney representing the family, barbara findlay, is also controversial for choosing to spell her name without capital letters. In a recent interview, she told Global News, "The assignment of sex in this culture is done when a medical person lifts up the legs and looks at the baby's genitals. But we know that the baby's own gender identity will not develop for some years until after they're born."</p>
<p>All across Canadian media, there is a massive buzz over the report that the baby's health card could be the first in the world to not have a gender designation.</p>
<p />
<p>Source</p>
<p><a href="https://8ch.net/pol/res/10193369.html" type="external">8ch.net/pol/res/10193369.html</a></p>
| 598,887 |
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<p />
<p>A spokesman for Groupon confirmed the job cuts by email on Friday morning but did not provide a total number.</p>
<p>“We’ve had a small number of position eliminations in our Chicago office,” he wrote. “These actions are a part of our continued efforts to streamline our operations and increase our overall efficiency and effectiveness. … We’ve provided affected employees with severance and transition assistance.”</p>
<p>He said the cuts at the e-commerce marketplace included about 30 positions in the editorial group.</p>
<p>Separately, the company announced in February that it is laying off the remaining 95 employees of LivingSocial, the onetime competitor it acquired in late 2016. The effective layoff date for those employees, based in Washington, D.C., is April 24.</p>
<p>The company had 8,300 employees globally at the end of 2016. It employed 1,950 in Chicago as of last August.</p>
<p>Nasdaq was closed for trading in observance of Good Friday. Groupon shares closed at $3.66 Thursday, down about 3 percent for the day. The stock is up about 5 percent for the year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2017 Chicago Tribune</p>
<p>Visit the Chicago Tribune at <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com" type="external">www.chicagotribune.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</p>
<p>_____</p>
|
Groupon cuts about 100 jobs, most in Chicago
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/988034/groupon-cuts-about-100-jobs-most-in-chicago.html
| 2least
|
Groupon cuts about 100 jobs, most in Chicago
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>A spokesman for Groupon confirmed the job cuts by email on Friday morning but did not provide a total number.</p>
<p>“We’ve had a small number of position eliminations in our Chicago office,” he wrote. “These actions are a part of our continued efforts to streamline our operations and increase our overall efficiency and effectiveness. … We’ve provided affected employees with severance and transition assistance.”</p>
<p>He said the cuts at the e-commerce marketplace included about 30 positions in the editorial group.</p>
<p>Separately, the company announced in February that it is laying off the remaining 95 employees of LivingSocial, the onetime competitor it acquired in late 2016. The effective layoff date for those employees, based in Washington, D.C., is April 24.</p>
<p>The company had 8,300 employees globally at the end of 2016. It employed 1,950 in Chicago as of last August.</p>
<p>Nasdaq was closed for trading in observance of Good Friday. Groupon shares closed at $3.66 Thursday, down about 3 percent for the day. The stock is up about 5 percent for the year.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>©2017 Chicago Tribune</p>
<p>Visit the Chicago Tribune at <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com" type="external">www.chicagotribune.com</a></p>
<p>Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</p>
<p>_____</p>
| 598,888 |
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<p />
<p>Albuquerque’s pro tournament, held at Tanoan Country Club, wrapped its 13th year Sunday.&#160; It’s a fun time, the ColemanVision, and it offers a good dose of first-rate tennis. But this year one of my strongest memories will be of fathers making fools of themselves in the company of their daughters.</p>
<p>Tennis parents have a long history of sometimes getting too involved in their children’s matches. That involvement gets worse, it seems, when those kids turn professional and more is at stake.</p>
<p>Moms are difficult, as crabby Samantha Stevenson, mother of Alexandra, reveals at nearly every tournament.&#160; But when dads are in charge, real troubles can occur.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Many learned this from reading Andre Agassi’s autobiography that came out last year. Mike Agassi seldom had a kind word as he pushed young Andre along, goading him to the breaking point to be a winner. When young Andre left a tournament with a runner-up trophy in his hands, the old man grabbed it from him and tossed it into a Dumpster.</p>
<p>Twenty years ago I saw close up perhaps the worst tennis father of all-time. Jim Pierce was father to a then promising young teen, Mary Pierce. The Pierces, who had once lived in Albuquerque, had returned to the city where Mary gained a spot in the main draw of the&#160; now-gone Virginia Slims at the now-gone Tennis Complex. Jim Pierce was a burly, sour, tough-talking guy with a gruff manner for everyone, most especially his precocious daughter Mary. &#160;</p>
<p>During their practices together, I heard Jim Pierce chew out Mary repeatedly. He said things to her you’d never say to a mad dog that had just bit your ankle.</p>
<p>Such destructive conduct soon caught up with Jim Pierce, for the women’s tour eventually barred him from tournaments for two years.</p>
<p>Without her father as coach, Mary Pierce settled down and reached six Grand Slam singles finals, winning two — the Australian Open and the French. Happily, I seem to recall that the two have since made peace.</p>
<p>Unhappily, overbearing “coaching” dads made life miserable for Jennifer Capriati and Andrea Jaeger, to name just two. Mirjana Lucic, singles winner at this year’s ColemanVision, stopped playing tennis completely for four years because of an abusive father, USA Today and other publications have reported.</p>
<p>Many players at the ColemanVision, particularly younger ones, travel with their fathers who are also their coaches, either full- or part-time. Several of these daughters scream and wail and slam rackets and bash balls. What do their dads do when this happens? Nothing, that I could tell. If Serena Williams can blow her top on national TV, if she can launch f-bombs and make threats, why can’t my kid?</p>
<p>The most distressing scene at the ColemanVision featured Michelle Larcher de Brito, 17. In her first-round singles match, she came unglued over a bad call and let out a string of curse words. Was that English? Was that Portuguese? Didn’t matter, she should not have said what she did. When she was penalized a point that caused her to lose a game, and ultimately the match, her shrieking reached Santa Fe.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Afterward, when I approached Michelle’s father, Antonio, and asked him why his daughter did not shake hands with her opponent and the chair umpire, obligatory etiquette after any tennis match, win or lose, all I got was a shrug.</p>
<p>It didn’t bother him, so it didn’t bother her.</p>
<p>Where is the parenting here?&#160; I’ll tell you where: It doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>Michelle Larcher de Brito is a decent kiddo, though she appears to blame everybody but herself for the decline of her game. In truth, she should probably blame her father, who coaches her and lets her behave any which way she wants. &#160;</p>
<p>Roger Federer, I’ve read, had a monstrous temper as a boy on a tennis court&#160; He got so angry at one point, his father reportedly took away young Roger’s rackets, locked them up and told him he couldn’t hit a forehand for a while.</p>
<p>Why can’t more parents do that? &#160;</p>
<p>Albuquerque’s Steve Otero, whose talented 16-year-old daughter Gabrielle played in this year’s ColemanVision qualifier, tries to strike a sensible balance between her natural progression and his own wishes. Steve is not a demanding tennis dad, but being a former player, he wants Gabby to do well.&#160; To that end, he recently turned over some of Gabrielle’s coaching&#160; to Johnny Parkes, the former UNM star. Steve still calls the shots, but he knows that a good parent at some point has to step back and let a daughter or son grow into a responsible and accountable adult.</p>
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Finding Fault With Parent-Coaches
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/232761/finding-fault-with-parent-coaches.html
| 2least
|
Finding Fault With Parent-Coaches
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Albuquerque’s pro tournament, held at Tanoan Country Club, wrapped its 13th year Sunday.&#160; It’s a fun time, the ColemanVision, and it offers a good dose of first-rate tennis. But this year one of my strongest memories will be of fathers making fools of themselves in the company of their daughters.</p>
<p>Tennis parents have a long history of sometimes getting too involved in their children’s matches. That involvement gets worse, it seems, when those kids turn professional and more is at stake.</p>
<p>Moms are difficult, as crabby Samantha Stevenson, mother of Alexandra, reveals at nearly every tournament.&#160; But when dads are in charge, real troubles can occur.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Many learned this from reading Andre Agassi’s autobiography that came out last year. Mike Agassi seldom had a kind word as he pushed young Andre along, goading him to the breaking point to be a winner. When young Andre left a tournament with a runner-up trophy in his hands, the old man grabbed it from him and tossed it into a Dumpster.</p>
<p>Twenty years ago I saw close up perhaps the worst tennis father of all-time. Jim Pierce was father to a then promising young teen, Mary Pierce. The Pierces, who had once lived in Albuquerque, had returned to the city where Mary gained a spot in the main draw of the&#160; now-gone Virginia Slims at the now-gone Tennis Complex. Jim Pierce was a burly, sour, tough-talking guy with a gruff manner for everyone, most especially his precocious daughter Mary. &#160;</p>
<p>During their practices together, I heard Jim Pierce chew out Mary repeatedly. He said things to her you’d never say to a mad dog that had just bit your ankle.</p>
<p>Such destructive conduct soon caught up with Jim Pierce, for the women’s tour eventually barred him from tournaments for two years.</p>
<p>Without her father as coach, Mary Pierce settled down and reached six Grand Slam singles finals, winning two — the Australian Open and the French. Happily, I seem to recall that the two have since made peace.</p>
<p>Unhappily, overbearing “coaching” dads made life miserable for Jennifer Capriati and Andrea Jaeger, to name just two. Mirjana Lucic, singles winner at this year’s ColemanVision, stopped playing tennis completely for four years because of an abusive father, USA Today and other publications have reported.</p>
<p>Many players at the ColemanVision, particularly younger ones, travel with their fathers who are also their coaches, either full- or part-time. Several of these daughters scream and wail and slam rackets and bash balls. What do their dads do when this happens? Nothing, that I could tell. If Serena Williams can blow her top on national TV, if she can launch f-bombs and make threats, why can’t my kid?</p>
<p>The most distressing scene at the ColemanVision featured Michelle Larcher de Brito, 17. In her first-round singles match, she came unglued over a bad call and let out a string of curse words. Was that English? Was that Portuguese? Didn’t matter, she should not have said what she did. When she was penalized a point that caused her to lose a game, and ultimately the match, her shrieking reached Santa Fe.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Afterward, when I approached Michelle’s father, Antonio, and asked him why his daughter did not shake hands with her opponent and the chair umpire, obligatory etiquette after any tennis match, win or lose, all I got was a shrug.</p>
<p>It didn’t bother him, so it didn’t bother her.</p>
<p>Where is the parenting here?&#160; I’ll tell you where: It doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>Michelle Larcher de Brito is a decent kiddo, though she appears to blame everybody but herself for the decline of her game. In truth, she should probably blame her father, who coaches her and lets her behave any which way she wants. &#160;</p>
<p>Roger Federer, I’ve read, had a monstrous temper as a boy on a tennis court&#160; He got so angry at one point, his father reportedly took away young Roger’s rackets, locked them up and told him he couldn’t hit a forehand for a while.</p>
<p>Why can’t more parents do that? &#160;</p>
<p>Albuquerque’s Steve Otero, whose talented 16-year-old daughter Gabrielle played in this year’s ColemanVision qualifier, tries to strike a sensible balance between her natural progression and his own wishes. Steve is not a demanding tennis dad, but being a former player, he wants Gabby to do well.&#160; To that end, he recently turned over some of Gabrielle’s coaching&#160; to Johnny Parkes, the former UNM star. Steve still calls the shots, but he knows that a good parent at some point has to step back and let a daughter or son grow into a responsible and accountable adult.</p>
| 598,889 |
|
<p>Pro-Russian forces surrounded the parliament building in <a href="" type="internal">Ukraine's Crimea</a>on Thursday after lamwakers <a href="" type="internal">voted to join Russia</a> and set a referendum within 10 days.</p>
<p>The Cossacks were once the patrolmen of Russia's borderlands and now back <a href="" type="internal">pro-Moscow forces controlling Crimea</a>.</p>
<p>The Kremlin <a href="" type="internal">has stuck to its line that no active-duty Russian troops</a> were part of the apparent takeover of Crimea over the weekend. But American officials have brushed off Russia's denials almost incredulously.</p>
<p>Earlier, Russian Prime Minister <a href="" type="internal">Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow was simplifying procedures</a> for native Russian speakers who have lived in Russia or the former Soviet Union to gain Russian citizenship.</p>
<p>Ed Flanagan of NBC News contributed to this report.</p>
|
Pro-Russia Forces Surround Parliament in Ukraine’s Crimea
| false |
http://nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/pro-russia-forces-surround-parliament-ukraines-crimea-n45786
|
2014-03-06
| 3left-center
|
Pro-Russia Forces Surround Parliament in Ukraine’s Crimea
<p>Pro-Russian forces surrounded the parliament building in <a href="" type="internal">Ukraine's Crimea</a>on Thursday after lamwakers <a href="" type="internal">voted to join Russia</a> and set a referendum within 10 days.</p>
<p>The Cossacks were once the patrolmen of Russia's borderlands and now back <a href="" type="internal">pro-Moscow forces controlling Crimea</a>.</p>
<p>The Kremlin <a href="" type="internal">has stuck to its line that no active-duty Russian troops</a> were part of the apparent takeover of Crimea over the weekend. But American officials have brushed off Russia's denials almost incredulously.</p>
<p>Earlier, Russian Prime Minister <a href="" type="internal">Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow was simplifying procedures</a> for native Russian speakers who have lived in Russia or the former Soviet Union to gain Russian citizenship.</p>
<p>Ed Flanagan of NBC News contributed to this report.</p>
| 598,890 |
<p>Reuters <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-usa-ukraine-idUSKBN1A51UH" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>Exxon Mobil Corp sued the U.S. government on Thursday, blasting as “unlawful” and “capricious” a $2 million fine levied against it for a three-year-old oil joint venture with Russia’s Rosneft.</p>
<p>The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday morning slapped the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer with the fine for “reckless disregard” of U.S. sanctions in dealings with Russia in 2014 when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was Exxon’s chief executive.</p>
<p>The lawsuit and the Treasury’s unusually detailed statement on Exxon’s conduct represented an extraordinary confrontation between a major American company and the U.S. government, made all the more striking because Exxon’s former CEO is now in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.</p>
<p>Exxon took the government to court despite the fact that the fine, the maximum allowed, would have a minor impact on the company, which made $7.84 billion in profit last year.</p>
|
ExxonMobil Sues Feds Over $2M Fine Levied For Violating Russian Sanctions When Tillerson Was CEO
| true |
http://joemygod.com/2017/07/21/exxonmobil-sues-feds-2m-fine-levied-violating-russian-sanctions-tillerson-ceo/
|
2017-07-21
| 4left
|
ExxonMobil Sues Feds Over $2M Fine Levied For Violating Russian Sanctions When Tillerson Was CEO
<p>Reuters <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-exxon-mobil-usa-ukraine-idUSKBN1A51UH" type="external">reports</a>:</p>
<p>Exxon Mobil Corp sued the U.S. government on Thursday, blasting as “unlawful” and “capricious” a $2 million fine levied against it for a three-year-old oil joint venture with Russia’s Rosneft.</p>
<p>The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday morning slapped the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer with the fine for “reckless disregard” of U.S. sanctions in dealings with Russia in 2014 when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was Exxon’s chief executive.</p>
<p>The lawsuit and the Treasury’s unusually detailed statement on Exxon’s conduct represented an extraordinary confrontation between a major American company and the U.S. government, made all the more striking because Exxon’s former CEO is now in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.</p>
<p>Exxon took the government to court despite the fact that the fine, the maximum allowed, would have a minor impact on the company, which made $7.84 billion in profit last year.</p>
| 598,891 |
<p><a href="//videos/37/62216" type="external" /></p>
<p>RUSH: Judy in Delaware, Ohio. Great to have you on the program. Hi.</p>
<p>CALLER: Hello, Rush. I’m a first-time caller. I enjoy your show very much. My point is all the optics and everything around this, Ohio has early absentee balloting starting next Tuesday, September the 30th. We don’t wait ’til November the 4th to elect. We have five weeks of voting before that.</p>
<p>RUSH: I know.</p>
<p>CALLER: And that’s my comment.</p>
<p>RUSH: It’s to afford a greater opportunity to cheat and engage in fraud, and it’s a way for the Democrats to find out what they need when Election Day comes —</p>
<p>CALLER: Exactly.</p>
<p><a href="http://twoifbytea.com/" type="external" />RUSH: — where they need the votes from, and how they’re gonna get ’em, and so forth, or if they do. Yeah, this early voting, that’s a whole other subject. But that’s, to me, an open invitation for fraud.</p>
<p>CALLER: Right. But we have all of this now on our plate, you know?</p>
<p>RUSH: Yeah, so your point is —</p>
<p>CALLER: All the optics, the imagery and everything.</p>
<p>RUSH: Yeah. Your point is that all this imagery and the optics are going to influence the way people vote if they vote early, before we even really know whether this thing is successful or not, right?</p>
<p>CALLER: Exactly. You’re right on.</p>
<p>RUSH: Well, that’s only because you explained it so well. I was able to follow you and understand. You did a great job, a great job explaining your point.</p>
<p>CALLER: I and my grandkids are looking very much forward to <a href="http://twoifbytea.com/" type="external">another chapter of Rush Revere</a>.</p>
<p>RUSH: You are?</p>
<p>CALLER: Yeees.</p>
<p>RUSH: Oh-ho, cool! Well, you know, I can’t… Every day… There’s a story <a href="" type="internal">in the Stack today,</a> I wasn’t gonna mention this, now —</p>
<p>CALLER: I’m sorry.</p>
<p>RUSH: No, no! No, no. No, no. It’s good. I’m glad you did.</p>
<p>CALLER: (laughing)</p>
<p>RUSH: There’s a story in the Stack. Denver, students in Denver… I’ve got so many damn Stacks, I can’t keep track of what I’ve got anymore. Students in Denver are protesting that they’re being taught capitalism and free markets. They’re literally protesting and walking out of class! They’re fed up that they’re being “propagandized,” they say, with pro-America themes, in Denver! I shouldn’t say “in Denver!” I should say “in Denver” as though it would be expected.</p>
<p>But I saw the story today and I said, “This is why. It’s exactly why there is a Rush Revere time-travel adventure series.” Anyway, yeah. Judy, I really appreciate you saying so and that you’re expressing hope that there will be another chapter. Be confident. You can allow your hope to become ontological certitude, but I can’t say any more for just a little while.</p>
<p>CALLER: Thank you.</p>
<p>RUSH: But I can tell you this: It’s so good!</p>
<p>CALLER: Oh, I can’t wait.</p>
<p>RUSH: I shouldn’t say this, but, “Oh, it’s so good!” I’m chomping at the bit. But I can’t wait. Just hang in there, be cool and be patient.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: “Denver school students,” we’re talking junior high and high school, “walked out of school in protest over the curriculum teaching free-market capitalism and respect for authority.”</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: It’s an AP story out of Arvada, Colorado. “Hundreds of students walked out of classrooms around suburban Denver on Tuesday in protest over a conservative-led school board proposal to focus history education on topics that promote citizenship, patriotism and respect for authority, providing a show of civil disobedience that the new standards would aim to downplay.” And of course the AP just loves reporting this. Oh, man, you can just see AP salivating here.</p>
<p>“The youth protest in the state’s second-largest school district follows a sick-out from teachers that shut down two high schools in the politically and economically diverse area that has become a key political battleground. Student participants said their demonstration was organized by word of mouth and social media. Many waved American flags and carried signs, including messages that read ‘There is nothing more patriotic than protest.’ ‘I don’t think my education should be censored. We should be able to know what happened in our past,’ said Tori Leu, a 17-year-old student who protested at Ralston Valley High School in Arvada.</p>
<p>“The school board proposal that triggered the walkout calls of instructional materials that present positive aspects of the nation and its heritage. It would establish a committee to regularly review texts and course plans, starting with Advanced Placement history, to make sure materials ‘promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights’ and don’t ‘encourage or condone civil disorder, social strike or disregard of the law.'”</p>
<p>Now, I can remember, honestly can, I can remember a time where you wouldn’t have to state that that was the curriculum or part of it. It was just assumed that you would teach the truth of American history. That you would teach being proud of your country. That you would teach patriotism. That you would teach the benefits of the free market system, which is how every one of you little skulls full of mush is gonna make something of yourself someday.</p>
<p>The free market system is where they hand out chances for success, by the way. There isn’t a socialist system out there that hands out chances for success unless you happen to be one of the precious very few in leadership positions in socialism, and they don’t pass out chances for success. What they do is give you dibs on other people’s money that you can take and use as your own. It’s called taxes.</p>
<p>So the students protested and walked out of classrooms in protest over this proposal to focus history education on citizenship, patriotism, and free market systems, capitalism, if you will. The students walked out. Now, they have a right to walk out, I guess. That’s what everybody says. “Well, you certainly have that right.” I’m not interested in that. What interests me in this is what are these kids learning at home? And it’s patently obvious, isn’t it?</p>
<p>But at the same time we’ve got a poll here that 72% of the American people think that we’re still in a recession, and they’re ticked off because they don’t think they have an equal chance at success. Here we have a bunch of students walking out because they don’t want to be taught about the benefits of the free market system. And they apparently don’t want to be taught patriotism, citizenship, and the truth of American history. They want to learn protest. They want to learn human rights. They want to learn socialism. They want to learn all these other things that are contraindicated by our own Constitution and national history.</p>
<p>Folks, look, this is exactly why the idea that my wife had that I should write children’s books on American history, the truth of American history, this is exactly why it appealed to me. This is exactly why. This is just one of many examples, but this perhaps may be one of the most blatant examples of this that I’ve run across in a while. “The proposal from Julie Williams, part of the board’s conservative majority, has not been voted on and was put on hold last week. She didn’t return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.” Probably because she knows it’ll be distorted, taken out of context, and misused.</p>
<p>She “previously told Chalkbeat Colorado, a school news website, that she recognizes there are negative events that are part of US history that need to be taught. ‘There are things we may not be proud of as Americans,’ she said. ‘But we shouldn’t be encouraging our kids to think that America is a bad place.'” Exactly, and that’s precisely what the left is doing!</p>
<p>That’s how we ended up electing a guy who even today, at his speech to the UN, apologized to those thugs and dictators in the audience over what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. Did you know that? You know, Obama’s up there; he’s lecturing everybody on human rights and civil rights and how we gotta do this right and we gotta do that right — we gotta be nice here, nice there — and then he said, “Now, look.</p>
<p>“We’ve got our own problems here. You saw it! You saw it in Ferguson, a small town in Missouri.” He’s essentially saying, “Look, I’m gonna preach to you even though I don’t have the moral authority. I don’t have the moral authority because my own country sucks, but I’m still gonna tell you what I think we ought to do.” He just undercuts his own message.</p>
<p>There is a pent-up, fervent desire by people on the left to impugn this country and its founding and its history to as many young skulls full of mush as possible. You know, the truth of American history, I got that covered with the books. I’m cool. But this business of telling young people…? Sorry. This instance of having young people protest and walk out of school because they don’t want to learn about economic freedom?</p>
<p>That is a concern.</p>
<p>They all want to be successful. I guaran-damn-tee you they do, and probably a lot of these kids are gonna be future people running around asking, “What happened to my chance for success? There’s an unequal chance for success.” Well, yeah, you rejected learning about it when you were in school in Colorado, because the capitalist system is where the chance for success is, and it’s where it’s passed out!</p>
<p>The free market system is where you find opportunity. The free market system is where you find opportunity to innovate, to create, to invent, to succeed. That’s where it lives. And now we get kids arriving at school suspicious of it, hating it, and I guarantee you they’re being lied to about it by their parents or whoever. A casual glance at the history of the world… I mentioned this stat to you yesterday. It’s a stunning stat.</p>
<p>Fifty percent of the world’s wealth has been created by United States. Now, people like this think it’s been stolen. They don’t think we’ve created anything. We’ve stolen it. We’ve engaged in wars for oil, and we’ve conquered countries and we’ve stolen their stuff and we brought it back and we’ve used it and then given it to the Koch brothers — and before that we gave it to Halliburton, and before that we gave it to Exxon.</p>
<p>Yeah, so now these kids are running around saying, “Okay, where do I go for my chance of success?” I’ll tell you what: When you find the guy in your town that’s responsible for gasoline prices, that’s the guy you go to for your chance for success. But how silly is that? I mean people think that there’s a single person in charge of gasoline prices. They’ve been made to believe that. (interruption) Oh, they’ll come around.</p>
<p>Snerdley said, “These kids have been brainwashed this early. What are the chances of them coming around?” I don’t know. It’s 50-50. There’s a chance they’ll come around. Some do; some don’t. Sometimes people in the clutches of the left end up being strangled and smothered and they just sit there and live their lives underneath the pillow.</p>
<p>They’re looking at life through a fog filled with resentment at all the success they see, thinking that everybody that’s enjoying success is somehow cheating somebody else, which leads to a very bad outlook. It leads to that lack of appreciation, acknowledgement, respect, for the things people do to become successful. On that, an obscene profit break. I think it’s appropriate.</p>
|
Denver Students Protest Pro-Capitalist Curriculum
| true |
http://rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2014/09/24/denver_students_protest_pro_capitalist_curriculum
|
2014-09-24
| 0right
|
Denver Students Protest Pro-Capitalist Curriculum
<p><a href="//videos/37/62216" type="external" /></p>
<p>RUSH: Judy in Delaware, Ohio. Great to have you on the program. Hi.</p>
<p>CALLER: Hello, Rush. I’m a first-time caller. I enjoy your show very much. My point is all the optics and everything around this, Ohio has early absentee balloting starting next Tuesday, September the 30th. We don’t wait ’til November the 4th to elect. We have five weeks of voting before that.</p>
<p>RUSH: I know.</p>
<p>CALLER: And that’s my comment.</p>
<p>RUSH: It’s to afford a greater opportunity to cheat and engage in fraud, and it’s a way for the Democrats to find out what they need when Election Day comes —</p>
<p>CALLER: Exactly.</p>
<p><a href="http://twoifbytea.com/" type="external" />RUSH: — where they need the votes from, and how they’re gonna get ’em, and so forth, or if they do. Yeah, this early voting, that’s a whole other subject. But that’s, to me, an open invitation for fraud.</p>
<p>CALLER: Right. But we have all of this now on our plate, you know?</p>
<p>RUSH: Yeah, so your point is —</p>
<p>CALLER: All the optics, the imagery and everything.</p>
<p>RUSH: Yeah. Your point is that all this imagery and the optics are going to influence the way people vote if they vote early, before we even really know whether this thing is successful or not, right?</p>
<p>CALLER: Exactly. You’re right on.</p>
<p>RUSH: Well, that’s only because you explained it so well. I was able to follow you and understand. You did a great job, a great job explaining your point.</p>
<p>CALLER: I and my grandkids are looking very much forward to <a href="http://twoifbytea.com/" type="external">another chapter of Rush Revere</a>.</p>
<p>RUSH: You are?</p>
<p>CALLER: Yeees.</p>
<p>RUSH: Oh-ho, cool! Well, you know, I can’t… Every day… There’s a story <a href="" type="internal">in the Stack today,</a> I wasn’t gonna mention this, now —</p>
<p>CALLER: I’m sorry.</p>
<p>RUSH: No, no! No, no. No, no. It’s good. I’m glad you did.</p>
<p>CALLER: (laughing)</p>
<p>RUSH: There’s a story in the Stack. Denver, students in Denver… I’ve got so many damn Stacks, I can’t keep track of what I’ve got anymore. Students in Denver are protesting that they’re being taught capitalism and free markets. They’re literally protesting and walking out of class! They’re fed up that they’re being “propagandized,” they say, with pro-America themes, in Denver! I shouldn’t say “in Denver!” I should say “in Denver” as though it would be expected.</p>
<p>But I saw the story today and I said, “This is why. It’s exactly why there is a Rush Revere time-travel adventure series.” Anyway, yeah. Judy, I really appreciate you saying so and that you’re expressing hope that there will be another chapter. Be confident. You can allow your hope to become ontological certitude, but I can’t say any more for just a little while.</p>
<p>CALLER: Thank you.</p>
<p>RUSH: But I can tell you this: It’s so good!</p>
<p>CALLER: Oh, I can’t wait.</p>
<p>RUSH: I shouldn’t say this, but, “Oh, it’s so good!” I’m chomping at the bit. But I can’t wait. Just hang in there, be cool and be patient.</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: “Denver school students,” we’re talking junior high and high school, “walked out of school in protest over the curriculum teaching free-market capitalism and respect for authority.”</p>
<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT</p>
<p>RUSH: It’s an AP story out of Arvada, Colorado. “Hundreds of students walked out of classrooms around suburban Denver on Tuesday in protest over a conservative-led school board proposal to focus history education on topics that promote citizenship, patriotism and respect for authority, providing a show of civil disobedience that the new standards would aim to downplay.” And of course the AP just loves reporting this. Oh, man, you can just see AP salivating here.</p>
<p>“The youth protest in the state’s second-largest school district follows a sick-out from teachers that shut down two high schools in the politically and economically diverse area that has become a key political battleground. Student participants said their demonstration was organized by word of mouth and social media. Many waved American flags and carried signs, including messages that read ‘There is nothing more patriotic than protest.’ ‘I don’t think my education should be censored. We should be able to know what happened in our past,’ said Tori Leu, a 17-year-old student who protested at Ralston Valley High School in Arvada.</p>
<p>“The school board proposal that triggered the walkout calls of instructional materials that present positive aspects of the nation and its heritage. It would establish a committee to regularly review texts and course plans, starting with Advanced Placement history, to make sure materials ‘promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights’ and don’t ‘encourage or condone civil disorder, social strike or disregard of the law.'”</p>
<p>Now, I can remember, honestly can, I can remember a time where you wouldn’t have to state that that was the curriculum or part of it. It was just assumed that you would teach the truth of American history. That you would teach being proud of your country. That you would teach patriotism. That you would teach the benefits of the free market system, which is how every one of you little skulls full of mush is gonna make something of yourself someday.</p>
<p>The free market system is where they hand out chances for success, by the way. There isn’t a socialist system out there that hands out chances for success unless you happen to be one of the precious very few in leadership positions in socialism, and they don’t pass out chances for success. What they do is give you dibs on other people’s money that you can take and use as your own. It’s called taxes.</p>
<p>So the students protested and walked out of classrooms in protest over this proposal to focus history education on citizenship, patriotism, and free market systems, capitalism, if you will. The students walked out. Now, they have a right to walk out, I guess. That’s what everybody says. “Well, you certainly have that right.” I’m not interested in that. What interests me in this is what are these kids learning at home? And it’s patently obvious, isn’t it?</p>
<p>But at the same time we’ve got a poll here that 72% of the American people think that we’re still in a recession, and they’re ticked off because they don’t think they have an equal chance at success. Here we have a bunch of students walking out because they don’t want to be taught about the benefits of the free market system. And they apparently don’t want to be taught patriotism, citizenship, and the truth of American history. They want to learn protest. They want to learn human rights. They want to learn socialism. They want to learn all these other things that are contraindicated by our own Constitution and national history.</p>
<p>Folks, look, this is exactly why the idea that my wife had that I should write children’s books on American history, the truth of American history, this is exactly why it appealed to me. This is exactly why. This is just one of many examples, but this perhaps may be one of the most blatant examples of this that I’ve run across in a while. “The proposal from Julie Williams, part of the board’s conservative majority, has not been voted on and was put on hold last week. She didn’t return a call from The Associated Press seeking comment.” Probably because she knows it’ll be distorted, taken out of context, and misused.</p>
<p>She “previously told Chalkbeat Colorado, a school news website, that she recognizes there are negative events that are part of US history that need to be taught. ‘There are things we may not be proud of as Americans,’ she said. ‘But we shouldn’t be encouraging our kids to think that America is a bad place.'” Exactly, and that’s precisely what the left is doing!</p>
<p>That’s how we ended up electing a guy who even today, at his speech to the UN, apologized to those thugs and dictators in the audience over what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. Did you know that? You know, Obama’s up there; he’s lecturing everybody on human rights and civil rights and how we gotta do this right and we gotta do that right — we gotta be nice here, nice there — and then he said, “Now, look.</p>
<p>“We’ve got our own problems here. You saw it! You saw it in Ferguson, a small town in Missouri.” He’s essentially saying, “Look, I’m gonna preach to you even though I don’t have the moral authority. I don’t have the moral authority because my own country sucks, but I’m still gonna tell you what I think we ought to do.” He just undercuts his own message.</p>
<p>There is a pent-up, fervent desire by people on the left to impugn this country and its founding and its history to as many young skulls full of mush as possible. You know, the truth of American history, I got that covered with the books. I’m cool. But this business of telling young people…? Sorry. This instance of having young people protest and walk out of school because they don’t want to learn about economic freedom?</p>
<p>That is a concern.</p>
<p>They all want to be successful. I guaran-damn-tee you they do, and probably a lot of these kids are gonna be future people running around asking, “What happened to my chance for success? There’s an unequal chance for success.” Well, yeah, you rejected learning about it when you were in school in Colorado, because the capitalist system is where the chance for success is, and it’s where it’s passed out!</p>
<p>The free market system is where you find opportunity. The free market system is where you find opportunity to innovate, to create, to invent, to succeed. That’s where it lives. And now we get kids arriving at school suspicious of it, hating it, and I guarantee you they’re being lied to about it by their parents or whoever. A casual glance at the history of the world… I mentioned this stat to you yesterday. It’s a stunning stat.</p>
<p>Fifty percent of the world’s wealth has been created by United States. Now, people like this think it’s been stolen. They don’t think we’ve created anything. We’ve stolen it. We’ve engaged in wars for oil, and we’ve conquered countries and we’ve stolen their stuff and we brought it back and we’ve used it and then given it to the Koch brothers — and before that we gave it to Halliburton, and before that we gave it to Exxon.</p>
<p>Yeah, so now these kids are running around saying, “Okay, where do I go for my chance of success?” I’ll tell you what: When you find the guy in your town that’s responsible for gasoline prices, that’s the guy you go to for your chance for success. But how silly is that? I mean people think that there’s a single person in charge of gasoline prices. They’ve been made to believe that. (interruption) Oh, they’ll come around.</p>
<p>Snerdley said, “These kids have been brainwashed this early. What are the chances of them coming around?” I don’t know. It’s 50-50. There’s a chance they’ll come around. Some do; some don’t. Sometimes people in the clutches of the left end up being strangled and smothered and they just sit there and live their lives underneath the pillow.</p>
<p>They’re looking at life through a fog filled with resentment at all the success they see, thinking that everybody that’s enjoying success is somehow cheating somebody else, which leads to a very bad outlook. It leads to that lack of appreciation, acknowledgement, respect, for the things people do to become successful. On that, an obscene profit break. I think it’s appropriate.</p>
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<p>The DC Center for the LGBT Community’s Anti-Violence Project is offering a special training session on Sunday, Nov. 19, called “Bystanders Who Won’t Stand By: Skills Based Intervention Training.”</p>
<p>The three-hour training session, among other things, will provide “creative strategies for responding to incidents of harassment and ways to de-escalate aggressive behavior,” according to a write-up on the D.C. Center’s website.</p>
<p>“We believe in building a culture of active bystanders through whose actions we reduce verbal and physical violence and oppression, while promoting community and respect,” the write-up says. “Get trained and equip yourself with ways you can play a role in stopping harassment and violence.”</p>
<p>The training session will be held from 12-3 p.m. at the D.C. Center’s offices in the Reeves Center municipal building at 2000 14th St., N.W. A $10 fee is requested but “no one will be turned away,” the write-up says.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Anti-Violence Project</a> <a href="" type="internal">Bystanders Who Won’t Stand By: Skills Based Intervention Training</a> <a href="" type="internal">D.C.</a> <a href="" type="internal">DC Center</a> <a href="" type="internal">DC Center for the LGBT Community</a> <a href="" type="internal">District of Columbia</a> <a href="" type="internal">Reeves Center</a></p>
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DC Center offers ‘Bystander Intervention’ training
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http://washingtonblade.com/2017/11/15/anti-violence-program/
| 3left-center
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DC Center offers ‘Bystander Intervention’ training
<p>The DC Center for the LGBT Community’s Anti-Violence Project is offering a special training session on Sunday, Nov. 19, called “Bystanders Who Won’t Stand By: Skills Based Intervention Training.”</p>
<p>The three-hour training session, among other things, will provide “creative strategies for responding to incidents of harassment and ways to de-escalate aggressive behavior,” according to a write-up on the D.C. Center’s website.</p>
<p>“We believe in building a culture of active bystanders through whose actions we reduce verbal and physical violence and oppression, while promoting community and respect,” the write-up says. “Get trained and equip yourself with ways you can play a role in stopping harassment and violence.”</p>
<p>The training session will be held from 12-3 p.m. at the D.C. Center’s offices in the Reeves Center municipal building at 2000 14th St., N.W. A $10 fee is requested but “no one will be turned away,” the write-up says.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Anti-Violence Project</a> <a href="" type="internal">Bystanders Who Won’t Stand By: Skills Based Intervention Training</a> <a href="" type="internal">D.C.</a> <a href="" type="internal">DC Center</a> <a href="" type="internal">DC Center for the LGBT Community</a> <a href="" type="internal">District of Columbia</a> <a href="" type="internal">Reeves Center</a></p>
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<p>Consumers increased their borrowing by $13.7 billion in September to a seasonally adjusted $3.05 trillion, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday. That is a record and follows a gain of $14.2 billion in August.</p>
<p>The increase was driven entirely by higher borrowing for auto and student loans, which rose $15.8 billion. Credit card debt fell $2.1 billion following a decline of $885 million in August.</p>
<p>The string of declines in credit card debt will likely hold back consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic growth.</p>
<p>The measure of auto loans and student loans has risen 8.5 percent from a year ago and has increased in every month but one since May 2010.</p>
<p>But credit card debt is essentially where it was a year ago. And it is 17.2 percent below its peak hit in July 2008 – seven months after the Great Recession began.</p>
<p>Slow job growth and small wage gains have made many Americans more reluctant to charge goods and services.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But at the same time, the weak economy is persuading more people to go back to school to learn new skills. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York quarterly report on consumer credit shows student loan debt has been the biggest driver of borrowing since the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009.</p>
<p>Analysts had hoped that consumers would step up spending and help drive faster economic growth in the final three months of the year.</p>
<p>But a partial government shutdown in October lasted 16 days and left thousands of government workers temporarily without paychecks.</p>
<p>That disruption is expected to hold back growth in the fourth quarter. Many economists believe the overall economy is growing at a rate just below 2 percent in this quarter, down from growth of 2.8 percent in the July-September quarter.</p>
<p>The Fed’s borrowing report tracks credit card debt, auto loans and student loans but not mortgages, home equity loans and other loans secured by real estate.</p>
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Americans cut back on credit card use in September
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https://abqjournal.com/296385/americans-cut-back-on-credit-card-use-in-september.html
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2013-11-07
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Americans cut back on credit card use in September
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<p />
<p>Consumers increased their borrowing by $13.7 billion in September to a seasonally adjusted $3.05 trillion, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday. That is a record and follows a gain of $14.2 billion in August.</p>
<p>The increase was driven entirely by higher borrowing for auto and student loans, which rose $15.8 billion. Credit card debt fell $2.1 billion following a decline of $885 million in August.</p>
<p>The string of declines in credit card debt will likely hold back consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic growth.</p>
<p>The measure of auto loans and student loans has risen 8.5 percent from a year ago and has increased in every month but one since May 2010.</p>
<p>But credit card debt is essentially where it was a year ago. And it is 17.2 percent below its peak hit in July 2008 – seven months after the Great Recession began.</p>
<p>Slow job growth and small wage gains have made many Americans more reluctant to charge goods and services.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>But at the same time, the weak economy is persuading more people to go back to school to learn new skills. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York quarterly report on consumer credit shows student loan debt has been the biggest driver of borrowing since the Great Recession officially ended in June 2009.</p>
<p>Analysts had hoped that consumers would step up spending and help drive faster economic growth in the final three months of the year.</p>
<p>But a partial government shutdown in October lasted 16 days and left thousands of government workers temporarily without paychecks.</p>
<p>That disruption is expected to hold back growth in the fourth quarter. Many economists believe the overall economy is growing at a rate just below 2 percent in this quarter, down from growth of 2.8 percent in the July-September quarter.</p>
<p>The Fed’s borrowing report tracks credit card debt, auto loans and student loans but not mortgages, home equity loans and other loans secured by real estate.</p>
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<p>A prominent psychoanalyst <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/06/21/watch-why-trump-fans-wont-dump-him-now/" type="external">took</a> to explaining the question of why on Earth people are still with Trump, let alone why they ever got behind him in the first place, in terms that will likely make sense to most of us.</p>
<p>In the characterization of&#160;Dr. Justin Frank, Trump supporters are — quite simply — like the children of abused parents or like anyone else who is in an abusive relationship. At some point, these people had an emotional need fulfilled by the “abuser,” who in this case is the wildly volatile and deceptive president of the United States.</p>
<p>Once that individual is revealed for who they really are, the natural human impulse gets engaged to avoid being proved wrong. Thus, a child of an abusive parent might be compelled to rationalize their parent’s behavior and concurrently, a Trump supporter might be compelled to assert that their political leader isn’t really an incompetent liar after all.</p>
<p>Dr. Frank explained it like this:</p>
<p>‘The people&#160;who were Trump supporters were hungry… and they needed something. And Trump&#160;seemed to provide them with that. And once you provide that for someone they are going to stay&#160;loyal to you regardless of what you do after that, unless you really turn your back on them.’</p>
<p>As Frank went on:</p>
<p>‘It’s like a child of an abused parent, or a child who is going to defend his mother&#160;against whatever attacks happen, because he touched people in a very deep core when he spoke to them.’</p>
<p>As Frank went on to explain — making perfect sense — the emotional underpinnings to the choice of Trump voters to stick with “their man” really aren’t affected by evidence or facts. They have chosen their way, politically speaking and that’s that.</p>
<p>As he acknowledges, Frank’s explanation leaves the Democrats in a terrible predicament. If Democrats had been paying attention to the emotional needs of Trump voters before he ever came around, then perhaps he would not be the President.</p>
<p>However, Trump addressed voters’ emotions in ways that the Democrats were not. The only real way for Democrats to recover from the Trump wave is for them to address the “hunger” inherent in American voters.</p>
<p>You can watch one of the videos of Trump supporters speaking with CNN that sparked Dr. Frank’s comments below:</p>
<p />
<p>Featured Image via&#160;Screenshot from the <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ppqd6_trump-supporters-agree-neither-trump-nor-comey-lied-they-blame-the-media-instead_news" type="external">Video</a>.</p>
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Prominent Psychoanalyst Reveals Sobering Revelation About Trump Supporters
| true |
http://bipartisanreport.com/2017/06/21/prominent-psychoanalyst-reveals-sobering-revelation-about-trump-supporters/
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2017-06-21
| 4left
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Prominent Psychoanalyst Reveals Sobering Revelation About Trump Supporters
<p>A prominent psychoanalyst <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/06/21/watch-why-trump-fans-wont-dump-him-now/" type="external">took</a> to explaining the question of why on Earth people are still with Trump, let alone why they ever got behind him in the first place, in terms that will likely make sense to most of us.</p>
<p>In the characterization of&#160;Dr. Justin Frank, Trump supporters are — quite simply — like the children of abused parents or like anyone else who is in an abusive relationship. At some point, these people had an emotional need fulfilled by the “abuser,” who in this case is the wildly volatile and deceptive president of the United States.</p>
<p>Once that individual is revealed for who they really are, the natural human impulse gets engaged to avoid being proved wrong. Thus, a child of an abusive parent might be compelled to rationalize their parent’s behavior and concurrently, a Trump supporter might be compelled to assert that their political leader isn’t really an incompetent liar after all.</p>
<p>Dr. Frank explained it like this:</p>
<p>‘The people&#160;who were Trump supporters were hungry… and they needed something. And Trump&#160;seemed to provide them with that. And once you provide that for someone they are going to stay&#160;loyal to you regardless of what you do after that, unless you really turn your back on them.’</p>
<p>As Frank went on:</p>
<p>‘It’s like a child of an abused parent, or a child who is going to defend his mother&#160;against whatever attacks happen, because he touched people in a very deep core when he spoke to them.’</p>
<p>As Frank went on to explain — making perfect sense — the emotional underpinnings to the choice of Trump voters to stick with “their man” really aren’t affected by evidence or facts. They have chosen their way, politically speaking and that’s that.</p>
<p>As he acknowledges, Frank’s explanation leaves the Democrats in a terrible predicament. If Democrats had been paying attention to the emotional needs of Trump voters before he ever came around, then perhaps he would not be the President.</p>
<p>However, Trump addressed voters’ emotions in ways that the Democrats were not. The only real way for Democrats to recover from the Trump wave is for them to address the “hunger” inherent in American voters.</p>
<p>You can watch one of the videos of Trump supporters speaking with CNN that sparked Dr. Frank’s comments below:</p>
<p />
<p>Featured Image via&#160;Screenshot from the <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5ppqd6_trump-supporters-agree-neither-trump-nor-comey-lied-they-blame-the-media-instead_news" type="external">Video</a>.</p>
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<p><a href="" type="internal" />Vanessa Beeley <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire</a></p>
<p>“Thank you very much. It’s a great honor and pleasure for us to have a man I’ve admired – most of us have admired – for many years, a man who – U.S. Naval, served in Vietnam, won the Purple Heart – I mean, three Purple Hearts, the bronze medal, the silver medal, has been a senator, candidate for president, and now our Secretary of State.”</p>
<p>These accolades were the opening salvo from Walter Isaacson in a conversation with US Secretary of State, John Kerry.&#160; A conversation held in front of an audience, June 28th 2016, at the Aspen Ideas Festival held in Colorado and recorded by the <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/06/259165.htm" type="external">US State Department.</a></p>
<p>What John Kerry said in this conversation effectively demolishes the foundations of US “regime change” policy in Syria and its support of the so called “moderate rebels”.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Background on Ahrar al Sham ~ The Favourite US Terrorists</p>
<p>Many of you may remember the 21st Century article <a href="" type="internal">US Smoke and Mirrors to Protect Terrorist Proxies in Syria</a>.&#160; In this article <a href="https://yallalabarra.wordpress.com/2016/05/07/aleppo-intermingling-jaish-al-fateh-and-an-oblivious-us-state-department/" type="external">Yalla la Barra</a> explained the US State Department policy of shielding their “moderate rebel” gangs under the Ahrar al Sham umbrella which served to detach them from the Al Nusra/Al Qaeda body of terrorism and to designate them a branch of US friendly “opposition” conveniently “intermingled” with Al Nusra thus prohibiting Russian targeting of Al Nusra just in case they hit one of the moderates in the process.</p>
<p>“Throughout the two and a half months that have passed since the start of the Cessation of Hostilities (CoH), the State Department has refused to acknowledge that the US backed rebel factions &#160;are fighting in Aleppo and elsewhere alongside Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria.</p>
<p>There has not been a single press briefing where the spokesman has not accused Russia and Syria of targeting US backed rebel factions and civilians.</p>
<p>Whether it’s John Kirby or Mark Toner, the spokesman keeps talking about intermingling between the “moderates” and the Al-Qaeda affiliate and that the Russians/Syrians need to be able to separate the two. At the the <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/04/256566.htm#SYRIA" type="external">press briefing</a> of&#160;April 25, 2016 Mr Kirby said:</p>
<p>“So again, I go back to what I said before. We want to see the cessation observed by all parties. As I said in my answer to Said, we’re not blind to the fact that it’s a very dynamic situation in Aleppo and that there is intermingling. We’ve said that for a while now…”&#160; ~ US Smoke and Mirrors to Protect Terrorist Proxies in Syria</p>
<p>As a further reminder here is the video of Mark Toner’s painful explanation of the “intermingling” of terrorist factions:</p>
<p>In July 2015, former US Ambassador to Syria and suspected <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pentagon-s-salvador-option-the-deployment-of-death-squads-in-iraq-and-syria/26043" type="external">death squad</a> creator, Robert Ford had this to say about Ahrar al Sham in an article penned by Ford and Ali el Yassir, entitled appropriately, <a href="http://www.mei.edu/content/at/yes-talk-syria%E2%80%99s-ahrar-al-sham" type="external">Yes, Talk with Syria’s Ahrar al Sham.</a></p>
<p>“Moreover, lumping Ahrar and Nusra together is intellectually sloppy, especially when they exhibit ideological and political differences…. Our refusal even to talk with groups like Ahrar further reduces the little influence Americans still have in Syria. As the Assad regime steadily weakens, the administration keeps trying to lead the opposition from behind, hoping for an opposition white knight to appear. Instead, because Islamist groups like Ahrar strongly influence decisions about the fate of Syria, Washington will be left behind.”</p>
<p>Ford insisted on dialogue with Ahrar al Sham, he also attempted to divorce them from Al Nusra/Al Qaeda, somehow whitewashing their brutality by highlighting their nationalism, a claim that is bizarre in the extreme when one considers how few Syrians, if any, actually belong to the group which consists predominantly of foreign mercenaries as do <a href="" type="internal">90% of the “armed opposition</a>” inside Syria.</p>
<p>UK educated leader of Ahrar al Sham, Labib Al Nahhas, has even been given a platform on the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-deadly-consequences-of-mislabeling-syrias-revolutionaries/2015/07/10/6dec139e-266e-11e5-aae2-6c4f59b050aa_story.html" type="external">Washington Post:</a></p>
<p>“The group to which I belong, Ahrar al-Sham, is one example. Our name means “Free Men of Syria.” We consider ourselves a mainstream Sunni Islamic group that is led by Syrians and fights for Syrians. We are fighting for justice for the Syrian people. Yet we have been falsely accused of having organizational links to al-Qaeda and of espousing al-Qaeda’s ideology.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11752714/Im-a-Syrian-and-I-fight-Isil-every-day.-We-need-more-than-bombs-from-the-West-to-win-this-battle.html" type="external">The Telegraph</a>:</p>
<p>“By Labib Al Nahhas, Foreign Affairs Director at Ahrar Al Sham: Ahrar Al-Sham, as a mainstream Sunni Islamist group deeply rooted in the revolutionary landscape, is forging that alternative. But those expecting a “perfect” Sunni alternative according to Western liberal standard are sure to be disappointed.</p>
<p>As we should all know by now, political systems and models of government cannot be imported into the Middle East and expected to flourish where historical experiences, political cultures and social structures are so radically different. There needs to be a major role for religion and local custom in any political arrangement that emerges out of the debris of conflict, and it should be one that corresponds with the prevailing beliefs of the majority of Syrians. ”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/22/ex-uk-student-clocks-up-air-miles-on-mission-to-rebrand-syrian-islamists" type="external">The Guardian</a>:</p>
<p>“A Spanish citizen who studied in Birmingham and headed a tech company based in a London suburb is leading efforts to rebrand one of Syria’s most prominent armed Islamist opposition groups. Labib al-Nahhas is the “foreign affairs minister” for Ahrar al-Sham, agroup that has fought in alliances with al-Qaida’s Syrian franchise, and aims to establish a Sunni theocracy in Syria.</p>
<p>One of its original leaders also had <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/523" type="external">personal connections with Osama bin Laden</a>. After graduating he spent time in France, the Netherlands and the US, as well as the UK, where official documents list him as director of a company based in a west London suburb. But in 2010 he moved back to Syria, finding a job in the telecoms industry.”</p>
<p>Ahrar al Sham as a group have had their virtues extolled by other prominent mainstream media outfits.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>“The Ahrar al Sham is part of a broad coalition of Syrian opposition groups, the Islamic Front. And it is among the most powerful force and better organized,” says the <a href="http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1268586" type="external">BBC’s Middle East correspondent, Jim Muir.</a></p>
<p>Professor Scott Lucas at <a href="http://eaworldview.com/2016/06/syria-feature-who-is-assassinating-the-rebels-of-ahrar-al-sham/" type="external">EA Worldview</a>:</p>
<p>Recent efforts by Ahrar al-Sham to portray itself as a moderate group may be linked to the increasing number of assassination attacks. According to Syrian journalist Akil Housain, the movement is in the process of purging its traditional leadership, which is considered more radical, and replacing it with younger leaders. This process has apparently angered Ahrar al-Sham ally and Al Qa’eda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra.</p>
<p>Charles Lister: Supreme “Moderate” Myth Creator:</p>
<p>“The editorial’s author was someone I have come to know very well personally amid Syria’s conflict. Labib al-Nahhas is Ahrar al-Sham’s “head of foreign political relations.” Better known as Abu Ezzeddine, Nahhas is an ordinarily clean-shaven young man from Syria’s central city of Homs. Originally a political official in the Homs-based faction Liwa al-Haq, Nahhas has risen in stature since his group merged with Ahrar al-Sham in December 2014.</p>
<p>A fluent English speaker and a seat-holder on the Executive Council of Syria’s Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), his ability to combine an understanding of both Western (he has spent time in both the United States and Europe) and Syrian mindsets has demonstrated a level of political capacity often lacking in Syrian armed revolutionary circles.” ~ writing for the Qatari funded <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2015/07/14-syrian-islamists-us-issues-lister" type="external">Brookings Institute</a></p>
<p>Al Nahhas was even allowed to enter the US on a European passport in Dec 2015&#160;even though the US State Department claimed it “didnt know”.</p>
<p>“Labib al Nahhas, who calls himself “a chief of Foreign Political Relations at Ahrar al-Sham,” arrived in the US capital for a visit lasting a few days in December, according to McClatchy DC news. The <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article78962527.html" type="external">report</a>&#160;cites “four people with direct knowledge of the trip.”</p>
<p>As one of them told the network’s reporter, Nahhas arrived in the US to speak with “third parties” even though he would not elaborate further. The other speakers revealed a few more details about the visit, saying that Nahhas had been in Washington to meet with lobbyists and Middle East researchers.” ~ <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/344159-syrian-al-qaeda-linked-visited/" type="external">RT</a></p>
<p>Ahrar Al Sham the bloodthirsty “moderates”</p>
<p>Ahrar al Sham as a stand-alone “moderate” US backed group has been responsible for some of the most hideous ethnic cleansing of Syria’s minorities.&#160; It has mercilessly and brutally terrorised the Shia villages of Kafarya and Foua, placing them under partial siege since 2011 and full siege since March 2015.</p>
<p>Over 1700 civilians, many women and children, have been massacred by these self-proclaimed “free men of the Levant” and Kafarya and Foua continues to suffer daily shelling and sniping.&#160; I was told by a resident of al Foua that Ahrar al Sham do not even behave like Muslims, the bodies of their own dead are put on display to drive fear into the hearts of the villagers already starving and imprisoned.</p>
<p>The UN has failed to deliver humanitarian aid to Kafarya and Foua on numerous occasions deterred by the threat of the Ahrar al Sham checkpoints which are considered too serious a security risk.</p>
<p>Read more on Kafarya and Foua:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">The 21st Century Wire Syria Files</a></p>
<p>In May 2016, Ahrar al Sham massacred scores of Alawite villagers in Al Zara and kidnapped others.&#160; Claims that they did not harm anyone who did not resist were cited <a href="https://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/al-zara-massacre-2/" type="external">by Reuters</a>and other western media outlets but witness and survivor statements told a different story. One <a href="https://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/al-zara-massacre-2/" type="external">photo that circulated</a>after this horrifying mass murder showed Ahrar al Sham fighters standing over the dismembered and bloodied corpses of women.</p>
<p>Ahrar al Sham made no effort to deny this image, they merely stated that these women had taken up arms and as such were legitimate victims of their bloodlust, a claim seemingly endorsed by western media pundits who staunchly stood by their “moderate” killers.</p>
<p>“Strangers came to our village. Most of them were foreigners, we understood that they weren’t from Syria from the way they looked. They attacked our village, many were killed. My brother is among the dead, his children were wounded. They killed entire families,” said <a href="https://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/al-zara-massacre-2/" type="external">Ahmad Muhammad al Qasem.</a></p>
<p>They perpetrated a massacre,” said another villager, Munzer Qasem. “I heard of two or three entire families killed. Abu Naval’s family was killed. He was an old man and was killed together with his daughters. They were slaughtered in their own house.” ~ <a href="" type="external">Syrian Free Press</a></p>
<p>Ahrar al Sham were also implicated in the mass suicide bombing, May 2016,&#160; that claimed the lives of over a hundred civilians and severely injured many more in the coastal towns of Jableh and Tartous that are also refuge to huge numbers of internally displaced Syrian refugees.&#160; The western and gulf media was quick to claim ISIS responsibility for the attacks but local residents and TV Channels informed us that Ahrar al Sham had already taken responsibility.</p>
<p>The western protection of its assets was again demonstrated by its eagerness to distance these crimes and mass murder of civilians from its terrorist forces operating under the Ahrar al Sham umbrella.</p>
<p>Ahrar al Sham has been complicit in a multitude of crimes against humanity in Syria, according to many it is actually even more brutal than ISIS in its extremism and targeting and ethnic cleansing of minorities such as the Alawites and Shia muslims.&#160; The US defense of Ahrar al Sham as a “moderate opposition” and its platforming of Ahrar al Shams desire for an Islamic state has underpinned their “regime change” policy in Syria.</p>
<p>The John Kerry Grenade</p>
<p>Lets now return to the discourse between Walter Isaacson and John Kerry.&#160; During this conversation, Kerry makes two astounding statements that completely overturn the US dialectic regarding Ahrar al Sham.</p>
<p>1: “Everybody knows the threat. We’ve all awakened to the news that I just announced to you. How many times have you awakened to it? Vicious attacks perpetrated by a lone wolf or by a group, inspired on the internet or otherwise. From Orlando to San Bernardino to the Philippines and Bali, we’ve seen pictures and we’ve heard testimony of shocking crimes committed by al-Qaida, by Boko Haram, by Jaysh al-Islam, by Ahrar al-Sham, by al-Shabaab, Daesh, other groups against innocent civilians, against journalists, and against teachers particularly.”</p>
<p>Media error: Format(s) not supported or source(s) not found</p>
<p>2: “But the most important thing, frankly, is seeing if we can reach an understanding with the Russians about how to, number one, deal with Daesh and al-Nusrah. Al-Nusrah is the other group there – Jabhat al-Nusrah. They are a designated terrorist group by the United Nations. And there are a couple of subgroups underneath the two designated – Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusrah – Jaysh al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham particularly – who brush off and fight with that – alongside these other two sometimes to fight the Assad regime.”</p>
<p />
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<p />
<p>In one fell swoop, Kerry has demolished the US State Department argument for not targeting their pet killers in Syria. Is this a deliberate shoe in the face of the US and by default, Saudi interests and operatives in the region? Was it a genuine moment of honesty for the usually duplicitous and hypocritical Kerry?</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> The Washington Post reaction certainly seems to point to the latter as they swung into damage limitation mode:</p>
<p>“But then Kerry, perhaps accidentally, threw two other Syrian rebel groups under the bus by calling them “subgroups” of the terrorists.</p>
<p>“There are a couple of subgroups underneath the two designated — Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra — Jaysh al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham particularly — who brush off and fight with that — alongside these other two sometimes to fight the Assad regime,” he said, referring to two rebel groups that the United States has not named as terrorist groups until now…..</p>
<p>Two administration officials who work on Syria told me that Kerry’s naming of the Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham as “subgroups” of the terrorist organizations was not only inaccurate but potentially harmful to U.S. government efforts to convince the Russians and the Syrian government not to attack them.</p>
<p>“For months, we’ve been arguing to make sure the Russians and the Syrian regime don’t equate these groups with the terrorists,” one senior administration official told me. “Kerry’s line yields that point.”</p>
<p>Another U.S. official simply emailed, “Baffled. SMH[Shaking my head].” ~ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/kerry-touts-the-russian-line-on-syrian-rebel-groups/2016/07/11/e7ba7dcc-4798-11e6-90a8-fb84201e0645_story.html" type="external">Washington Post</a></p>
<p>Probably unwittingly the author Josh Rogin ends the article on a comedic note:</p>
<p>“Kerry muddied the waters. That’s typically Moscow’s job.”</p>
<p>Perhaps we are seeing a genuine face saving exercise on behalf of the Americans under Russia’s tutelage and the Washington Post has not been informed?</p>
<p>Undeniably, among those responsible for muddying the water on the Syrian narrative and advocating the murder of its people are the western media who have formed a battalion of war harpies and sectarian propagandists intent upon facilitating the mass slaughter of the Syrian people in service of NATO’s oil and geo-political interests in Syria and the region.</p>
<p>Certainly Kerry’s “slip of the tongue” should not go unnoticed and should be used to remind the media of their accessory to murder when they are finally brought to justice for their role in the “dirty war on Syria”.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Author Vanessa Beeley is a contributor to 21WIRE, and since 2011, she has spent most of her time in the Middle East reporting on events there – as a independent researcher, writer, photographer and peace activist. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Syria Solidarity Movement, and a volunteer with the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine. See more of her work at her personal blog <a href="https://thewallwillfall.wordpress.com/" type="external">The Wall Will Fall</a>.</p>
<p>READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Syria Files</a></p>
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SYRIA SHOCKER: John Kerry Torpedoes US ‘Moderate Rebel’ Narrative
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http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/07/12/syria-john-kerry-torpedoes-us-moderate-rebel-sham/
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2016-07-12
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SYRIA SHOCKER: John Kerry Torpedoes US ‘Moderate Rebel’ Narrative
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Vanessa Beeley <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire</a></p>
<p>“Thank you very much. It’s a great honor and pleasure for us to have a man I’ve admired – most of us have admired – for many years, a man who – U.S. Naval, served in Vietnam, won the Purple Heart – I mean, three Purple Hearts, the bronze medal, the silver medal, has been a senator, candidate for president, and now our Secretary of State.”</p>
<p>These accolades were the opening salvo from Walter Isaacson in a conversation with US Secretary of State, John Kerry.&#160; A conversation held in front of an audience, June 28th 2016, at the Aspen Ideas Festival held in Colorado and recorded by the <a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/06/259165.htm" type="external">US State Department.</a></p>
<p>What John Kerry said in this conversation effectively demolishes the foundations of US “regime change” policy in Syria and its support of the so called “moderate rebels”.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>Background on Ahrar al Sham ~ The Favourite US Terrorists</p>
<p>Many of you may remember the 21st Century article <a href="" type="internal">US Smoke and Mirrors to Protect Terrorist Proxies in Syria</a>.&#160; In this article <a href="https://yallalabarra.wordpress.com/2016/05/07/aleppo-intermingling-jaish-al-fateh-and-an-oblivious-us-state-department/" type="external">Yalla la Barra</a> explained the US State Department policy of shielding their “moderate rebel” gangs under the Ahrar al Sham umbrella which served to detach them from the Al Nusra/Al Qaeda body of terrorism and to designate them a branch of US friendly “opposition” conveniently “intermingled” with Al Nusra thus prohibiting Russian targeting of Al Nusra just in case they hit one of the moderates in the process.</p>
<p>“Throughout the two and a half months that have passed since the start of the Cessation of Hostilities (CoH), the State Department has refused to acknowledge that the US backed rebel factions &#160;are fighting in Aleppo and elsewhere alongside Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria.</p>
<p>There has not been a single press briefing where the spokesman has not accused Russia and Syria of targeting US backed rebel factions and civilians.</p>
<p>Whether it’s John Kirby or Mark Toner, the spokesman keeps talking about intermingling between the “moderates” and the Al-Qaeda affiliate and that the Russians/Syrians need to be able to separate the two. At the the <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/04/256566.htm#SYRIA" type="external">press briefing</a> of&#160;April 25, 2016 Mr Kirby said:</p>
<p>“So again, I go back to what I said before. We want to see the cessation observed by all parties. As I said in my answer to Said, we’re not blind to the fact that it’s a very dynamic situation in Aleppo and that there is intermingling. We’ve said that for a while now…”&#160; ~ US Smoke and Mirrors to Protect Terrorist Proxies in Syria</p>
<p>As a further reminder here is the video of Mark Toner’s painful explanation of the “intermingling” of terrorist factions:</p>
<p>In July 2015, former US Ambassador to Syria and suspected <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pentagon-s-salvador-option-the-deployment-of-death-squads-in-iraq-and-syria/26043" type="external">death squad</a> creator, Robert Ford had this to say about Ahrar al Sham in an article penned by Ford and Ali el Yassir, entitled appropriately, <a href="http://www.mei.edu/content/at/yes-talk-syria%E2%80%99s-ahrar-al-sham" type="external">Yes, Talk with Syria’s Ahrar al Sham.</a></p>
<p>“Moreover, lumping Ahrar and Nusra together is intellectually sloppy, especially when they exhibit ideological and political differences…. Our refusal even to talk with groups like Ahrar further reduces the little influence Americans still have in Syria. As the Assad regime steadily weakens, the administration keeps trying to lead the opposition from behind, hoping for an opposition white knight to appear. Instead, because Islamist groups like Ahrar strongly influence decisions about the fate of Syria, Washington will be left behind.”</p>
<p>Ford insisted on dialogue with Ahrar al Sham, he also attempted to divorce them from Al Nusra/Al Qaeda, somehow whitewashing their brutality by highlighting their nationalism, a claim that is bizarre in the extreme when one considers how few Syrians, if any, actually belong to the group which consists predominantly of foreign mercenaries as do <a href="" type="internal">90% of the “armed opposition</a>” inside Syria.</p>
<p>UK educated leader of Ahrar al Sham, Labib Al Nahhas, has even been given a platform on the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-deadly-consequences-of-mislabeling-syrias-revolutionaries/2015/07/10/6dec139e-266e-11e5-aae2-6c4f59b050aa_story.html" type="external">Washington Post:</a></p>
<p>“The group to which I belong, Ahrar al-Sham, is one example. Our name means “Free Men of Syria.” We consider ourselves a mainstream Sunni Islamic group that is led by Syrians and fights for Syrians. We are fighting for justice for the Syrian people. Yet we have been falsely accused of having organizational links to al-Qaeda and of espousing al-Qaeda’s ideology.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11752714/Im-a-Syrian-and-I-fight-Isil-every-day.-We-need-more-than-bombs-from-the-West-to-win-this-battle.html" type="external">The Telegraph</a>:</p>
<p>“By Labib Al Nahhas, Foreign Affairs Director at Ahrar Al Sham: Ahrar Al-Sham, as a mainstream Sunni Islamist group deeply rooted in the revolutionary landscape, is forging that alternative. But those expecting a “perfect” Sunni alternative according to Western liberal standard are sure to be disappointed.</p>
<p>As we should all know by now, political systems and models of government cannot be imported into the Middle East and expected to flourish where historical experiences, political cultures and social structures are so radically different. There needs to be a major role for religion and local custom in any political arrangement that emerges out of the debris of conflict, and it should be one that corresponds with the prevailing beliefs of the majority of Syrians. ”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/22/ex-uk-student-clocks-up-air-miles-on-mission-to-rebrand-syrian-islamists" type="external">The Guardian</a>:</p>
<p>“A Spanish citizen who studied in Birmingham and headed a tech company based in a London suburb is leading efforts to rebrand one of Syria’s most prominent armed Islamist opposition groups. Labib al-Nahhas is the “foreign affairs minister” for Ahrar al-Sham, agroup that has fought in alliances with al-Qaida’s Syrian franchise, and aims to establish a Sunni theocracy in Syria.</p>
<p>One of its original leaders also had <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/523" type="external">personal connections with Osama bin Laden</a>. After graduating he spent time in France, the Netherlands and the US, as well as the UK, where official documents list him as director of a company based in a west London suburb. But in 2010 he moved back to Syria, finding a job in the telecoms industry.”</p>
<p>Ahrar al Sham as a group have had their virtues extolled by other prominent mainstream media outfits.</p>
<p>BBC:</p>
<p>“The Ahrar al Sham is part of a broad coalition of Syrian opposition groups, the Islamic Front. And it is among the most powerful force and better organized,” says the <a href="http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1268586" type="external">BBC’s Middle East correspondent, Jim Muir.</a></p>
<p>Professor Scott Lucas at <a href="http://eaworldview.com/2016/06/syria-feature-who-is-assassinating-the-rebels-of-ahrar-al-sham/" type="external">EA Worldview</a>:</p>
<p>Recent efforts by Ahrar al-Sham to portray itself as a moderate group may be linked to the increasing number of assassination attacks. According to Syrian journalist Akil Housain, the movement is in the process of purging its traditional leadership, which is considered more radical, and replacing it with younger leaders. This process has apparently angered Ahrar al-Sham ally and Al Qa’eda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra.</p>
<p>Charles Lister: Supreme “Moderate” Myth Creator:</p>
<p>“The editorial’s author was someone I have come to know very well personally amid Syria’s conflict. Labib al-Nahhas is Ahrar al-Sham’s “head of foreign political relations.” Better known as Abu Ezzeddine, Nahhas is an ordinarily clean-shaven young man from Syria’s central city of Homs. Originally a political official in the Homs-based faction Liwa al-Haq, Nahhas has risen in stature since his group merged with Ahrar al-Sham in December 2014.</p>
<p>A fluent English speaker and a seat-holder on the Executive Council of Syria’s Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), his ability to combine an understanding of both Western (he has spent time in both the United States and Europe) and Syrian mindsets has demonstrated a level of political capacity often lacking in Syrian armed revolutionary circles.” ~ writing for the Qatari funded <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2015/07/14-syrian-islamists-us-issues-lister" type="external">Brookings Institute</a></p>
<p>Al Nahhas was even allowed to enter the US on a European passport in Dec 2015&#160;even though the US State Department claimed it “didnt know”.</p>
<p>“Labib al Nahhas, who calls himself “a chief of Foreign Political Relations at Ahrar al-Sham,” arrived in the US capital for a visit lasting a few days in December, according to McClatchy DC news. The <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article78962527.html" type="external">report</a>&#160;cites “four people with direct knowledge of the trip.”</p>
<p>As one of them told the network’s reporter, Nahhas arrived in the US to speak with “third parties” even though he would not elaborate further. The other speakers revealed a few more details about the visit, saying that Nahhas had been in Washington to meet with lobbyists and Middle East researchers.” ~ <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/344159-syrian-al-qaeda-linked-visited/" type="external">RT</a></p>
<p>Ahrar Al Sham the bloodthirsty “moderates”</p>
<p>Ahrar al Sham as a stand-alone “moderate” US backed group has been responsible for some of the most hideous ethnic cleansing of Syria’s minorities.&#160; It has mercilessly and brutally terrorised the Shia villages of Kafarya and Foua, placing them under partial siege since 2011 and full siege since March 2015.</p>
<p>Over 1700 civilians, many women and children, have been massacred by these self-proclaimed “free men of the Levant” and Kafarya and Foua continues to suffer daily shelling and sniping.&#160; I was told by a resident of al Foua that Ahrar al Sham do not even behave like Muslims, the bodies of their own dead are put on display to drive fear into the hearts of the villagers already starving and imprisoned.</p>
<p>The UN has failed to deliver humanitarian aid to Kafarya and Foua on numerous occasions deterred by the threat of the Ahrar al Sham checkpoints which are considered too serious a security risk.</p>
<p>Read more on Kafarya and Foua:&#160; <a href="" type="internal">The 21st Century Wire Syria Files</a></p>
<p>In May 2016, Ahrar al Sham massacred scores of Alawite villagers in Al Zara and kidnapped others.&#160; Claims that they did not harm anyone who did not resist were cited <a href="https://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/al-zara-massacre-2/" type="external">by Reuters</a>and other western media outlets but witness and survivor statements told a different story. One <a href="https://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/al-zara-massacre-2/" type="external">photo that circulated</a>after this horrifying mass murder showed Ahrar al Sham fighters standing over the dismembered and bloodied corpses of women.</p>
<p>Ahrar al Sham made no effort to deny this image, they merely stated that these women had taken up arms and as such were legitimate victims of their bloodlust, a claim seemingly endorsed by western media pundits who staunchly stood by their “moderate” killers.</p>
<p>“Strangers came to our village. Most of them were foreigners, we understood that they weren’t from Syria from the way they looked. They attacked our village, many were killed. My brother is among the dead, his children were wounded. They killed entire families,” said <a href="https://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/al-zara-massacre-2/" type="external">Ahmad Muhammad al Qasem.</a></p>
<p>They perpetrated a massacre,” said another villager, Munzer Qasem. “I heard of two or three entire families killed. Abu Naval’s family was killed. He was an old man and was killed together with his daughters. They were slaughtered in their own house.” ~ <a href="" type="external">Syrian Free Press</a></p>
<p>Ahrar al Sham were also implicated in the mass suicide bombing, May 2016,&#160; that claimed the lives of over a hundred civilians and severely injured many more in the coastal towns of Jableh and Tartous that are also refuge to huge numbers of internally displaced Syrian refugees.&#160; The western and gulf media was quick to claim ISIS responsibility for the attacks but local residents and TV Channels informed us that Ahrar al Sham had already taken responsibility.</p>
<p>The western protection of its assets was again demonstrated by its eagerness to distance these crimes and mass murder of civilians from its terrorist forces operating under the Ahrar al Sham umbrella.</p>
<p>Ahrar al Sham has been complicit in a multitude of crimes against humanity in Syria, according to many it is actually even more brutal than ISIS in its extremism and targeting and ethnic cleansing of minorities such as the Alawites and Shia muslims.&#160; The US defense of Ahrar al Sham as a “moderate opposition” and its platforming of Ahrar al Shams desire for an Islamic state has underpinned their “regime change” policy in Syria.</p>
<p>The John Kerry Grenade</p>
<p>Lets now return to the discourse between Walter Isaacson and John Kerry.&#160; During this conversation, Kerry makes two astounding statements that completely overturn the US dialectic regarding Ahrar al Sham.</p>
<p>1: “Everybody knows the threat. We’ve all awakened to the news that I just announced to you. How many times have you awakened to it? Vicious attacks perpetrated by a lone wolf or by a group, inspired on the internet or otherwise. From Orlando to San Bernardino to the Philippines and Bali, we’ve seen pictures and we’ve heard testimony of shocking crimes committed by al-Qaida, by Boko Haram, by Jaysh al-Islam, by Ahrar al-Sham, by al-Shabaab, Daesh, other groups against innocent civilians, against journalists, and against teachers particularly.”</p>
<p>Media error: Format(s) not supported or source(s) not found</p>
<p>2: “But the most important thing, frankly, is seeing if we can reach an understanding with the Russians about how to, number one, deal with Daesh and al-Nusrah. Al-Nusrah is the other group there – Jabhat al-Nusrah. They are a designated terrorist group by the United Nations. And there are a couple of subgroups underneath the two designated – Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusrah – Jaysh al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham particularly – who brush off and fight with that – alongside these other two sometimes to fight the Assad regime.”</p>
<p />
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<p />
<p>In one fell swoop, Kerry has demolished the US State Department argument for not targeting their pet killers in Syria. Is this a deliberate shoe in the face of the US and by default, Saudi interests and operatives in the region? Was it a genuine moment of honesty for the usually duplicitous and hypocritical Kerry?</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> The Washington Post reaction certainly seems to point to the latter as they swung into damage limitation mode:</p>
<p>“But then Kerry, perhaps accidentally, threw two other Syrian rebel groups under the bus by calling them “subgroups” of the terrorists.</p>
<p>“There are a couple of subgroups underneath the two designated — Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra — Jaysh al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham particularly — who brush off and fight with that — alongside these other two sometimes to fight the Assad regime,” he said, referring to two rebel groups that the United States has not named as terrorist groups until now…..</p>
<p>Two administration officials who work on Syria told me that Kerry’s naming of the Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham as “subgroups” of the terrorist organizations was not only inaccurate but potentially harmful to U.S. government efforts to convince the Russians and the Syrian government not to attack them.</p>
<p>“For months, we’ve been arguing to make sure the Russians and the Syrian regime don’t equate these groups with the terrorists,” one senior administration official told me. “Kerry’s line yields that point.”</p>
<p>Another U.S. official simply emailed, “Baffled. SMH[Shaking my head].” ~ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/kerry-touts-the-russian-line-on-syrian-rebel-groups/2016/07/11/e7ba7dcc-4798-11e6-90a8-fb84201e0645_story.html" type="external">Washington Post</a></p>
<p>Probably unwittingly the author Josh Rogin ends the article on a comedic note:</p>
<p>“Kerry muddied the waters. That’s typically Moscow’s job.”</p>
<p>Perhaps we are seeing a genuine face saving exercise on behalf of the Americans under Russia’s tutelage and the Washington Post has not been informed?</p>
<p>Undeniably, among those responsible for muddying the water on the Syrian narrative and advocating the murder of its people are the western media who have formed a battalion of war harpies and sectarian propagandists intent upon facilitating the mass slaughter of the Syrian people in service of NATO’s oil and geo-political interests in Syria and the region.</p>
<p>Certainly Kerry’s “slip of the tongue” should not go unnoticed and should be used to remind the media of their accessory to murder when they are finally brought to justice for their role in the “dirty war on Syria”.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Author Vanessa Beeley is a contributor to 21WIRE, and since 2011, she has spent most of her time in the Middle East reporting on events there – as a independent researcher, writer, photographer and peace activist. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Syria Solidarity Movement, and a volunteer with the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine. See more of her work at her personal blog <a href="https://thewallwillfall.wordpress.com/" type="external">The Wall Will Fall</a>.</p>
<p>READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire Syria Files</a></p>
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<p>The case before the justices Wednesday involves a former driver for United Parcel Service who wanted a temporary assignment to avoid lifting heavy packages after she became pregnant in 2006.</p>
<p>UPS refused to accommodate driver Peggy Young, who did not return to work until two months after she delivered her baby.</p>
<p>The court is weighing whether the company’s actions violated the 36-year-old federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Young says she should have been offered light-duty work because some UPS workers were.</p>
<p>The Atlanta-based package delivery company says it will voluntarily offer pregnant women light duty starting in January. But the company contends it complied with the law in Young’s case.</p>
<p>The question at the Supreme Court is whether UPS was required to accommodate Young, 42, because it gave temporary assignments to some workers, including those who were injured on the job or had a condition that was covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act.</p>
<p>More than 120 Democrats are backing legislation that would change federal law to make explicit the requirement to accommodate pregnant women. Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey said the bill is modeled after the landmark disabilities law. “It would make sure that pregnant workers have the same measure of protection,” Casey said, before the start of a rally outside the court Wednesday in support of Young.</p>
<p>The Obama administration and an unusual array of liberal and conservative interest groups are backing Young, who lives with her 7-year-old daughter, Triniti, in Lorton, Virginia.</p>
<p>Young’s dispute with UPS arose after she gave her supervisor a doctor’s note recommending that she not lift packages heavier than 20 pounds. Young said she dealt almost exclusively with overnight letters, but UPS said its drivers must be able to lift packages weighing up to 70 pounds. Young left the company in 2009.</p>
<p>The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is among those on UPS’ side. The chamber says many of its members do provide additional benefits to pregnant workers, but says policies at thousands of companies would be upended if the court were to rule for Young. Lower federal courts have rejected her claim.</p>
<p>Since the justices agreed in July to hear the case, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated guidance to employers to make clear that they should accommodate people in Young’s situation. Yet the U.S. Postal Service, an independent federal agency, maintains the practice that UPS has now abandoned, UPS said in court papers. The Postal Service declined to comment.</p>
<p>A decision in Young v. UPS, 12-1226, is expected by late June.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Follow Mark Sherman on Twitter at: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/shermancourt" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/shermancourt</a></p>
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Justices to hear pregnancy discrimination case
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Justices to hear pregnancy discrimination case
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<p />
<p>The case before the justices Wednesday involves a former driver for United Parcel Service who wanted a temporary assignment to avoid lifting heavy packages after she became pregnant in 2006.</p>
<p>UPS refused to accommodate driver Peggy Young, who did not return to work until two months after she delivered her baby.</p>
<p>The court is weighing whether the company’s actions violated the 36-year-old federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Young says she should have been offered light-duty work because some UPS workers were.</p>
<p>The Atlanta-based package delivery company says it will voluntarily offer pregnant women light duty starting in January. But the company contends it complied with the law in Young’s case.</p>
<p>The question at the Supreme Court is whether UPS was required to accommodate Young, 42, because it gave temporary assignments to some workers, including those who were injured on the job or had a condition that was covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act.</p>
<p>More than 120 Democrats are backing legislation that would change federal law to make explicit the requirement to accommodate pregnant women. Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey said the bill is modeled after the landmark disabilities law. “It would make sure that pregnant workers have the same measure of protection,” Casey said, before the start of a rally outside the court Wednesday in support of Young.</p>
<p>The Obama administration and an unusual array of liberal and conservative interest groups are backing Young, who lives with her 7-year-old daughter, Triniti, in Lorton, Virginia.</p>
<p>Young’s dispute with UPS arose after she gave her supervisor a doctor’s note recommending that she not lift packages heavier than 20 pounds. Young said she dealt almost exclusively with overnight letters, but UPS said its drivers must be able to lift packages weighing up to 70 pounds. Young left the company in 2009.</p>
<p>The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is among those on UPS’ side. The chamber says many of its members do provide additional benefits to pregnant workers, but says policies at thousands of companies would be upended if the court were to rule for Young. Lower federal courts have rejected her claim.</p>
<p>Since the justices agreed in July to hear the case, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated guidance to employers to make clear that they should accommodate people in Young’s situation. Yet the U.S. Postal Service, an independent federal agency, maintains the practice that UPS has now abandoned, UPS said in court papers. The Postal Service declined to comment.</p>
<p>A decision in Young v. UPS, 12-1226, is expected by late June.</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Follow Mark Sherman on Twitter at: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/shermancourt" type="external">http://www.twitter.com/shermancourt</a></p>
| 598,897 |
|
<p>After a surprisingly strong June, investors now turn their attention to the start of July and the third quarter. For all the talk about the summer months being unkind to stocks, July defies that conventional wisdom. Over the past two decades, the S&amp;P 500 has notched an average July gain of 0.3 percent.</p>
<p>However, the benchmark U.S. equity index has risen in just 45 percent of those Julys, according to <a href="http://charts.equityclock.com/sp-500-index-seasonal-chart" type="external">EquityClock.com</a>, so the seventh month of the year has the potential to be a split decision for equities. As is the case with arrival of each new month, July brings tactical opportunities at the sector level.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Using the Sector SPDR exchange-traded funds as the instruments of choice, data suggest financial services names perform well in July. Going back to 1999, the first full year of trading for the original nine sector SPDR ETFs, the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLF) is the best-performing SPDR in July, according to <a href="http://www.cxoadvisory.com/4408/calendar-effects/sector-performance-by-calendar-month/" type="external">CXO Advisory</a>. XLF averages a July gain of almost one percent, according to CXO.</p>
<p>Related Link: <a href="http://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/16/06/8132884/calendar-could-be-good-news-for-these-commodities-etfs" type="external">Calendar Could Be Good News For These Commodities ETFs</a></p>
<p>Stung by the disappointment of the Federal Reserve once again passing on raising interest rates and the Brexit shocker, XLF lost nearly 4 percent in June, but the ETF finished the last week of the month higher. Results of the Fed's most recent stress tests boosted XLF as it is apparent many of the ETF's holdings are in increasingly improving positions to return cash to shareholders via <a href="http://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/16/06/8152583/financial-services-etfs-could-prove-resilient" type="external">dividends and buybacks</a>.</p>
<p>Keeping with the theme of investors favoring defensive, lower beta sectors this year, the Consumer Staples Select Sect. SPDR (ETF)(NYSE:XLP) is the second-best SPDR in July, according to CXO data. XLP has already won this year's best-performing sector ETFs with a gain of nearly 10.5 percent. The largest consumer staples ETF hit an all-time high on Thursday along with three other staples ETFs.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>In terms of the sectors to avoid this month, there are some interesting elements to consider. The Utilities SPDR (ETF) (NYSE:XLU) is, historically, the second-worst SPDR in July and that is interesting because XLU is one of the two best sector SPDR ETFs in June, August and September.</p>
<p>CXO data indicate the Energy Select Sector SPDR (ETF) (NYSE:XLE) is the worst-performing sector SPDR ETF this month, averaging a July loss of about half a percent. That too is interesting because oil is one of the best-performing commodities during the third quarter.</p>
<p>Disclosure: Todd Shriber owns shares of XLF.</p>
<p>2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.</p>
|
July's Best Sector ETF Ideas
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/07/01/july-best-sector-etf-ideas.html
|
2016-07-01
| 0right
|
July's Best Sector ETF Ideas
<p>After a surprisingly strong June, investors now turn their attention to the start of July and the third quarter. For all the talk about the summer months being unkind to stocks, July defies that conventional wisdom. Over the past two decades, the S&amp;P 500 has notched an average July gain of 0.3 percent.</p>
<p>However, the benchmark U.S. equity index has risen in just 45 percent of those Julys, according to <a href="http://charts.equityclock.com/sp-500-index-seasonal-chart" type="external">EquityClock.com</a>, so the seventh month of the year has the potential to be a split decision for equities. As is the case with arrival of each new month, July brings tactical opportunities at the sector level.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Using the Sector SPDR exchange-traded funds as the instruments of choice, data suggest financial services names perform well in July. Going back to 1999, the first full year of trading for the original nine sector SPDR ETFs, the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLF) is the best-performing SPDR in July, according to <a href="http://www.cxoadvisory.com/4408/calendar-effects/sector-performance-by-calendar-month/" type="external">CXO Advisory</a>. XLF averages a July gain of almost one percent, according to CXO.</p>
<p>Related Link: <a href="http://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/16/06/8132884/calendar-could-be-good-news-for-these-commodities-etfs" type="external">Calendar Could Be Good News For These Commodities ETFs</a></p>
<p>Stung by the disappointment of the Federal Reserve once again passing on raising interest rates and the Brexit shocker, XLF lost nearly 4 percent in June, but the ETF finished the last week of the month higher. Results of the Fed's most recent stress tests boosted XLF as it is apparent many of the ETF's holdings are in increasingly improving positions to return cash to shareholders via <a href="http://www.benzinga.com/trading-ideas/long-ideas/16/06/8152583/financial-services-etfs-could-prove-resilient" type="external">dividends and buybacks</a>.</p>
<p>Keeping with the theme of investors favoring defensive, lower beta sectors this year, the Consumer Staples Select Sect. SPDR (ETF)(NYSE:XLP) is the second-best SPDR in July, according to CXO data. XLP has already won this year's best-performing sector ETFs with a gain of nearly 10.5 percent. The largest consumer staples ETF hit an all-time high on Thursday along with three other staples ETFs.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>In terms of the sectors to avoid this month, there are some interesting elements to consider. The Utilities SPDR (ETF) (NYSE:XLU) is, historically, the second-worst SPDR in July and that is interesting because XLU is one of the two best sector SPDR ETFs in June, August and September.</p>
<p>CXO data indicate the Energy Select Sector SPDR (ETF) (NYSE:XLE) is the worst-performing sector SPDR ETF this month, averaging a July loss of about half a percent. That too is interesting because oil is one of the best-performing commodities during the third quarter.</p>
<p>Disclosure: Todd Shriber owns shares of XLF.</p>
<p>2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.</p>
| 598,898 |
<p>Has Cuba connected to the world internet?</p>
<p>Activity from an undersea fiber optic cable owned by Cuba seems to be picking up, and some are suspecting as much.</p>
<p>But since the traffic is likely only one-way, it may be premature to herald Cuba's entry into the world wide web.</p>
<p>Cuba constructed an undersea cable connecting it to the <a href="http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2011/02/09/el-cable-de-fibra-optica-ya-esta-en-santiago-de-cuba/" type="external">world internet via Venezuela two years ago</a>, but doesn't appear to have done anything with it until now, <a href="http://www.renesys.com/blog/2013/01/cuban-mystery-cable-activated.shtml" type="external">writes bloggers for Renesys</a>, the Internet Intelligence Authority.</p>
<p>By all accounts, they continued to rely on a wonky high latency satellite service, funneled through three different ISPs.</p>
<p>Read more from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/cuba/130111/cuba-travel-passport-restrictions-exit-visa" type="external">Cuba opens the gates, hoping for a trickle, not a flood</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.renesys.com/blog/2013/01/cuban-mystery-cable-activated.shtml" type="external">But then, Renesys began to pick up indications</a> that the Cuban cable was finally being used, albeit in one direction only.</p>
<p>In other words, Cuba may be receiving signals more quickly, but sending them out at the same sluggish pace.</p>
<p>GlobalPost's senior correspondent in Cuba, Nick Miroff, reports:</p>
<p>There hasn't been any noticeable improvement to Cuba's dial-up internet service so far, and that's the only way to get online here, with a few exceptions.</p>
<p>Still, if the routing company's analysis is accurate, it could be the first sign of a Great Leap Forward for the country that ranks as the least-connected in the Western Hemisphere.</p>
<p>The island's internet usage rates and connection speeds are lower than most countries in sub-Saharan Africa — perhaps not surprising for a country with an oppressive communist past.</p>
<p>But even if Cuba has finally flipped the switch, island internet users will have to wait to see the benefits, Miroff reports.</p>
<p>"Only foreigners and privileged Cubans are allowed to access the web from their homes, and again, that's via dial-up. There are no internet cafes along Havana boulevards, and the only way most web users here can go online is by going to a tourist hotel and paying rates far beyond the means of ordinary Cubans," Miroff said.</p>
<p>Cuban authorities have said they're going to prioritize 'social access' to the web, meaning their plan is to wire up schools, libraries, workplaces and other institutions first.</p>
<p>But many here will also be eager to see if the state telecom finally allows Cubans to get data service on their mobile devices. Even as late model iPhones and other flashy mobile devices have become a status symbol here, they're only good for making phone calls and text messages.</p>
<p>Will the government change that, and bring Cuba in the 21st century? Maybe. But then again, that's what seemed to be happening two years ago when the cable was completed. And Cubans are still waiting.</p>
<p>Renesys reportedly picked up the signal that the cable may be in effect on the same day that Cuba ceased to require exist visas for its nationals when they traveled overseas — another possible sign that a long-awaited liberalization of the Cuban economy may soon be afoot under Raul Castro's leadership.</p>
<p>Read more from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/cuba/120627/us-embargo-google-analytics-cuban-internet-access" type="external">How the US keeps Cuba offline</a></p>
<p>It's unclear what effect the exist visa liberalization will have on the Cuban economy, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/9801095/Cuba-ends-exit-visa-requirement.html" type="external">although the Telegraph</a>reported a number of phone-calls from Cubans to foreign embassies earlier this month, hoping to take advantage of the new rules.</p>
<p>Cuba is known for being none-too-friendly for dissident bloggers, as evidenced <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/01/02/midnight_in_havana" type="external">by the October arrest of Yoani Sanchez,</a> an outspoken critic of the government and the mind behind the widely acclaimed <a href="http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/" type="external">Generation Y blog.</a></p>
<p>Nick Miroff contributed to this report from Havana.</p>
|
Cuba may have activated submarine internet cable — but reports are varied
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2013-01-21/cuba-may-have-activated-submarine-internet-cable-reports-are-varied
|
2013-01-21
| 3left-center
|
Cuba may have activated submarine internet cable — but reports are varied
<p>Has Cuba connected to the world internet?</p>
<p>Activity from an undersea fiber optic cable owned by Cuba seems to be picking up, and some are suspecting as much.</p>
<p>But since the traffic is likely only one-way, it may be premature to herald Cuba's entry into the world wide web.</p>
<p>Cuba constructed an undersea cable connecting it to the <a href="http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2011/02/09/el-cable-de-fibra-optica-ya-esta-en-santiago-de-cuba/" type="external">world internet via Venezuela two years ago</a>, but doesn't appear to have done anything with it until now, <a href="http://www.renesys.com/blog/2013/01/cuban-mystery-cable-activated.shtml" type="external">writes bloggers for Renesys</a>, the Internet Intelligence Authority.</p>
<p>By all accounts, they continued to rely on a wonky high latency satellite service, funneled through three different ISPs.</p>
<p>Read more from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/cuba/130111/cuba-travel-passport-restrictions-exit-visa" type="external">Cuba opens the gates, hoping for a trickle, not a flood</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.renesys.com/blog/2013/01/cuban-mystery-cable-activated.shtml" type="external">But then, Renesys began to pick up indications</a> that the Cuban cable was finally being used, albeit in one direction only.</p>
<p>In other words, Cuba may be receiving signals more quickly, but sending them out at the same sluggish pace.</p>
<p>GlobalPost's senior correspondent in Cuba, Nick Miroff, reports:</p>
<p>There hasn't been any noticeable improvement to Cuba's dial-up internet service so far, and that's the only way to get online here, with a few exceptions.</p>
<p>Still, if the routing company's analysis is accurate, it could be the first sign of a Great Leap Forward for the country that ranks as the least-connected in the Western Hemisphere.</p>
<p>The island's internet usage rates and connection speeds are lower than most countries in sub-Saharan Africa — perhaps not surprising for a country with an oppressive communist past.</p>
<p>But even if Cuba has finally flipped the switch, island internet users will have to wait to see the benefits, Miroff reports.</p>
<p>"Only foreigners and privileged Cubans are allowed to access the web from their homes, and again, that's via dial-up. There are no internet cafes along Havana boulevards, and the only way most web users here can go online is by going to a tourist hotel and paying rates far beyond the means of ordinary Cubans," Miroff said.</p>
<p>Cuban authorities have said they're going to prioritize 'social access' to the web, meaning their plan is to wire up schools, libraries, workplaces and other institutions first.</p>
<p>But many here will also be eager to see if the state telecom finally allows Cubans to get data service on their mobile devices. Even as late model iPhones and other flashy mobile devices have become a status symbol here, they're only good for making phone calls and text messages.</p>
<p>Will the government change that, and bring Cuba in the 21st century? Maybe. But then again, that's what seemed to be happening two years ago when the cable was completed. And Cubans are still waiting.</p>
<p>Renesys reportedly picked up the signal that the cable may be in effect on the same day that Cuba ceased to require exist visas for its nationals when they traveled overseas — another possible sign that a long-awaited liberalization of the Cuban economy may soon be afoot under Raul Castro's leadership.</p>
<p>Read more from GlobalPost: <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/cuba/120627/us-embargo-google-analytics-cuban-internet-access" type="external">How the US keeps Cuba offline</a></p>
<p>It's unclear what effect the exist visa liberalization will have on the Cuban economy, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/9801095/Cuba-ends-exit-visa-requirement.html" type="external">although the Telegraph</a>reported a number of phone-calls from Cubans to foreign embassies earlier this month, hoping to take advantage of the new rules.</p>
<p>Cuba is known for being none-too-friendly for dissident bloggers, as evidenced <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/01/02/midnight_in_havana" type="external">by the October arrest of Yoani Sanchez,</a> an outspoken critic of the government and the mind behind the widely acclaimed <a href="http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/" type="external">Generation Y blog.</a></p>
<p>Nick Miroff contributed to this report from Havana.</p>
| 598,899 |
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