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<p />
<p>Home Depot (NYSE:HD) will install solar panels on the rooftops of 50 stores in a partnership with General Electric (NYSE:GE) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The home-improvement retailer said the project will cut each store’s use of the electric grid by 30% to 35% annually—the equivalent of powering 2,300 U.S. homes. The average Home Depot store roof is 104,000 square feet and can accommodate 1,000 solar panels. Construction of the mini solar farms will continue throughout 2017.</p>
<p>Home Depot is working with GE subsidiary Current, a power management company, on 20 solar installations in New Jersey and eight in Connecticut, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The other 22 locations are located in California and New York, and eight of those stores will use Tesla Powerpacks to store energy.</p>
<p>Home Depot, which employs more than 400,000 associates at 2,282 stores, said the new solar farms will lift the company’s alternative energy usage to more than 130 megawatts. It has set a goal of hitting 135 megawatts by 2020. Home Depot also operates two wind farms, leases roof space in Delaware and Maryland and uses fuel cells at more than 170 stores and distribution centers.</p>
<p>David Hawkins, Home Depot’s vice president of labor and operations, said alternative energy projects “reduce carbon emissions while also lowering our energy costs.”</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) started a similar solar-power program earlier this year. The e-commerce giant will have solar panels atop 15 fulfillment centers by the end of 2017, and it expects to have 50 warehouses using solar power by 2020.</p>
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Home Depot turning 50 store rooftops into solar farms
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/08/17/home-depot-turning-50-store-rooftops-into-solar-farms.html
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2017-08-17
| 0right
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Home Depot turning 50 store rooftops into solar farms
<p />
<p>Home Depot (NYSE:HD) will install solar panels on the rooftops of 50 stores in a partnership with General Electric (NYSE:GE) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The home-improvement retailer said the project will cut each store’s use of the electric grid by 30% to 35% annually—the equivalent of powering 2,300 U.S. homes. The average Home Depot store roof is 104,000 square feet and can accommodate 1,000 solar panels. Construction of the mini solar farms will continue throughout 2017.</p>
<p>Home Depot is working with GE subsidiary Current, a power management company, on 20 solar installations in New Jersey and eight in Connecticut, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The other 22 locations are located in California and New York, and eight of those stores will use Tesla Powerpacks to store energy.</p>
<p>Home Depot, which employs more than 400,000 associates at 2,282 stores, said the new solar farms will lift the company’s alternative energy usage to more than 130 megawatts. It has set a goal of hitting 135 megawatts by 2020. Home Depot also operates two wind farms, leases roof space in Delaware and Maryland and uses fuel cells at more than 170 stores and distribution centers.</p>
<p>David Hawkins, Home Depot’s vice president of labor and operations, said alternative energy projects “reduce carbon emissions while also lowering our energy costs.”</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) started a similar solar-power program earlier this year. The e-commerce giant will have solar panels atop 15 fulfillment centers by the end of 2017, and it expects to have 50 warehouses using solar power by 2020.</p>
| 7,100 |
<p>By David Ljunggren and Dave Graham</p>
<p>MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Negotiators at high stakes talks to update NAFTA have so far kept their tempers but are not making much progress on tough U.S. demands that could sink the 1994 trade pact, a well-placed source said on Saturday.</p>
<p>Officials from the United States, Canada and Mexico are meeting in Mexico City for the fifth of seven planned rounds to update the North American Free Trade Agreement, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from.</p>
<p>Time is running short to seal a deal by the deadline of end-March 2018. Officials say next year’s Mexican presidential election means talks after that date will not be possible.</p>
<p>The U.S. administration has made a series of demands that the other members say are unacceptable, such as a five-year sunset clause and tightening so-called rules of origin to boost the North American content of autos to 85 percent from the current 62.5 percent.</p>
<p>“It is very slow moving but there are no fireworks,” said a Canadian source with knowledge of the talks, adding there had “not been much conversation at all” on the more contentious U.S. proposals.</p>
<p>Officials have so far discussed other issues such as labor, gender,&#160;intellectual property, energy and telecommunications but it is too soon to say whether there will be any breakthroughs during this round, added the source. The talks are due to end next Tuesday.</p>
<p>Though the mood in the fifth round has been calmer than the tense scenes seen last month during the fourth round in Arlington, Virginia, the negotiations are now beyond the halfway point of an initial schedule with few clear signs of process.</p>
<p>Mexican officials say they hope chapters on telecommunications and e-commerce will be concluded in the fifth round, but there has been no indication of this yet.</p>
<p>Although negotiators are scheduled to discuss rules of origin every day starting Saturday, the source said detailed talks on boosting North American content would not be held before the end of the round.</p>
<p>Canada and Mexico say the new rules of origin are unworkable and would damage the highly-integrated auto industry.</p>
<p>“I hope the United States understands there are things … that Mexico won’t accept, and (I hope) the negotiating process becomes more rational,” Moises Kalach, head of the international negotiating arm of Mexico’s CCE business lobby, told Reuters late on Friday.</p>
<p>The U.S. Trade Representative’s office on Friday revised its official objectives to conform to demands that it currently has on the negotiating table.</p>
<p>The move prompted U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, to remove a “hold” he had put in place to block the confirmation of two Trump administration nominees for deputy USTR positions, a Wyden aide said.</p>
<p>Wyden complained the trade office had been keeping members of Congress “in the dark” about its tactics and was not in compliance with U.S. trade negotiating laws.</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>
|
'No fireworks' at NAFTA talks, but few signs of progress: source
| false |
https://newsline.com/039no-fireworks039-at-nafta-talks-but-few-signs-of-progress-source/
|
2017-11-18
| 1right-center
|
'No fireworks' at NAFTA talks, but few signs of progress: source
<p>By David Ljunggren and Dave Graham</p>
<p>MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Negotiators at high stakes talks to update NAFTA have so far kept their tempers but are not making much progress on tough U.S. demands that could sink the 1994 trade pact, a well-placed source said on Saturday.</p>
<p>Officials from the United States, Canada and Mexico are meeting in Mexico City for the fifth of seven planned rounds to update the North American Free Trade Agreement, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from.</p>
<p>Time is running short to seal a deal by the deadline of end-March 2018. Officials say next year’s Mexican presidential election means talks after that date will not be possible.</p>
<p>The U.S. administration has made a series of demands that the other members say are unacceptable, such as a five-year sunset clause and tightening so-called rules of origin to boost the North American content of autos to 85 percent from the current 62.5 percent.</p>
<p>“It is very slow moving but there are no fireworks,” said a Canadian source with knowledge of the talks, adding there had “not been much conversation at all” on the more contentious U.S. proposals.</p>
<p>Officials have so far discussed other issues such as labor, gender,&#160;intellectual property, energy and telecommunications but it is too soon to say whether there will be any breakthroughs during this round, added the source. The talks are due to end next Tuesday.</p>
<p>Though the mood in the fifth round has been calmer than the tense scenes seen last month during the fourth round in Arlington, Virginia, the negotiations are now beyond the halfway point of an initial schedule with few clear signs of process.</p>
<p>Mexican officials say they hope chapters on telecommunications and e-commerce will be concluded in the fifth round, but there has been no indication of this yet.</p>
<p>Although negotiators are scheduled to discuss rules of origin every day starting Saturday, the source said detailed talks on boosting North American content would not be held before the end of the round.</p>
<p>Canada and Mexico say the new rules of origin are unworkable and would damage the highly-integrated auto industry.</p>
<p>“I hope the United States understands there are things … that Mexico won’t accept, and (I hope) the negotiating process becomes more rational,” Moises Kalach, head of the international negotiating arm of Mexico’s CCE business lobby, told Reuters late on Friday.</p>
<p>The U.S. Trade Representative’s office on Friday revised its official objectives to conform to demands that it currently has on the negotiating table.</p>
<p>The move prompted U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, to remove a “hold” he had put in place to block the confirmation of two Trump administration nominees for deputy USTR positions, a Wyden aide said.</p>
<p>Wyden complained the trade office had been keeping members of Congress “in the dark” about its tactics and was not in compliance with U.S. trade negotiating laws.</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>
| 7,101 |
<p />
<p>A person was shot and four officers were injured during a second night of protests Wednesday following the fatal police shooting of a black man the day before.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The protester was shot by a civilian downtown just after 8 p.m., according to the city of&#160;Charlotte, and was on life support as of late Wednesday. The&#160;Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department "did not fire the shot," the city said in a tweet.</p>
<p>The officer injuries weren't life threatening,&#160;Charlotte&#160;police said in a tweet.</p>
<p>Gov. Pat McCrory, a former&#160;Charlotte&#160;mayor, condemned violent protests in a statement, and said the state highway patrol was sending troopers to help the&#160;Charlotte&#160;police force as needed. He later declared a state of emergency.</p>
<p>The evening began peacefully with a vigil at a 6-acre downtown park. But as some protesters left the park and marched through the streets, they faced off with police in riot gear, holding their hands in the air, chanting, "Hands up, don't shoot." Others approached the officers' face masks, saying, "Why do you keep killing us?"</p>
<p>Shortly thereafter, protesters confronted police downtown and appeared to throw water bottles and chase police cars. Police responded with tear gas. When a man fell in the street, it was initially unclear whether he had been shot by police or someone in the crowd.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Violent protests continued toward midnight Wednesday in the central business district, a few yards from the Ritz-Carlton hotel that is host to many Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo &amp; Co. executives, whose skyscrapers are nearby, and a block from the arena where basketball legend Michael Jordan's&#160;Charlotte&#160;Hornets play. Windows at restaurants and major hotels were smashed, and police in riot gear sought to regain control of the streets.</p>
<p>The bus and streetcar station a few blocks away closed early, a rare event in a city which the mayor has said takes pride in its ability to talk through problems in "the&#160;Charlotte&#160;way."</p>
<p>The violent protests began a day earlier, after Keith Lamont Scott was shot by a police officer in a north&#160;Charlotteapartment complex parking lot.</p>
<p>Police officers on Wednesday morning repeated their account that Keith Lamont Scott was armed with a gun and ignored their commands to drop his weapon.</p>
<p>But some local civil-rights leaders said they remained skeptical of the police account of the officers' encounter with Mr. Scott. His family members have said on social media that police accosted him while he read a book in his car and waited to pick up one of his children from school.</p>
<p>"It's confusing with all these reports coming out," said Tennille Fadel, a 33-year-old freelance fashion designer who joined mourners who left candles and white and red roses in the apartment complex parking lot near where Mr. Scott was fatally shot. She said the larger issue to her was law enforcement's attitude toward black people.</p>
<p>"I feel it's a deep-rooted thing," she said.</p>
<p>The protests on Tuesday left 16 police officers injured and damaged police and other vehicles. A local Wal-Mart Stores Inc. location was looted, police said. Protesters on Tuesday had chanted that Mr. Scott had a book, not a gun.</p>
<p>The continued protests on Wednesday weren't what the Scott family said they wanted. Rakeyia Scott, Mr. Scott's widow, said in a statement earlier Wednesday evening that the family has "more questions than answers" about his death. But she had asked that all protests be peaceful ones, saying: "Please do not hurt people or members of law enforcement, damage property or take things that do not belong to you in the name of protesting."</p>
<p>The Wal-Mart remained closed Wednesday, with lines of grocery carts blocking the parking lot entrances and security guards standing in front of the doors. The&#160;Charlotte&#160;Chamber of Commerce asked businesses to chain down or remove outdoor chairs, tables and planters in case of protests Wednesday night. Many downtown employers sent workers home by no later than 5 p.m. as a precaution.</p>
<p>Charlotte&#160;officials hoped a day of talking with local pastors and civic leaders would help forestall further violence. "We are calling for peace, we are calling for calm, we are calling for dialogue," Mayor Jennifer Roberts said.</p>
<p>On Wednesday morning,&#160;Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said that Mr. Scott was "posing a threat" to officers who approached him in a parking lot in northeastern&#160;Charlotte.</p>
<p>Officers were seeking to serve a warrant on another man when they approached Mr. Scott, who got out of his car with a gun, got back in the car and then out again, police said. Mr. Scott was shot by Officer Brentley Vinson, a black officer with two years' experience on the force, in the presence of several other officers, the chief said.</p>
<p>Chief Putney said the initial investigation, including a review of body and dashboard camera footage, shed doubt on the version of events described by Mr. Scott's family. "The story's a little bit different as to how it's been portrayed so far. A handgun was seized," he said. "We did not find a book that was made reference to," Chief Putney added.</p>
<p>Civil-rights advocates said the&#160;Charlotte&#160;shooting was further evidence of systemic policing problems nationwide.</p>
<p>It makes little difference that the&#160;Charlotte&#160;officer was black rather than white, as was the case in Baton Rouge and elsewhere, said Justin Bamberg, an attorney representing the family of Alton Sterling, the man shot in Baton Rouge, and the family of Walter Scott, who was killed in 2015 by a white North Charleston, S.C., police officer.</p>
<p>"It's not about race," Mr. Bamberg said. "It's the powerful versus the powerless."</p>
<p>"We have a problem throughout the country," Mr. Bamberg said. "Do people truly understand the value of human life?"</p>
<p>Mr. Scott's death comes at the tail end of a long summer of simmering tension nationally between minority communities and law enforcement. Police fatally shot black men in Baton Rouge, La., and Falcon Heights, Minn., in July. The U.S. Justice Department recently opened an investigation into the fatal police shooting Friday of an unarmed black man in Tulsa, Okla.</p>
<p>The incident also follows deadly attacks on police this summer that left five officers dead in Dallas and three in Baton Rouge. In Philadelphia on Friday night, a police sergeant survived after a man who expressed hatred for police shot her several times in an ambush, according to officials.</p>
<p>Locally, Tuesday's shooting comes amid lingering tension regarding the dismissal of charges last year against a white&#160; <a type="external" href="" />Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer in the shooting of Jonathan Ferrell, an unarmed black man who was fatally shot after he knocked on a door seeking help after a car wreck.</p>
<p>Scott Calvert contributed to this article.</p>
<p>Write to Valerie Bauerlein at [email protected] and Cameron McWhirter at [email protected]</p>
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One Person Shot, State of Emergency in Charlotte
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/09/22/one-person-shot-state-emergency-in-charlotte.html
|
2016-09-22
| 0right
|
One Person Shot, State of Emergency in Charlotte
<p />
<p>A person was shot and four officers were injured during a second night of protests Wednesday following the fatal police shooting of a black man the day before.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The protester was shot by a civilian downtown just after 8 p.m., according to the city of&#160;Charlotte, and was on life support as of late Wednesday. The&#160;Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department "did not fire the shot," the city said in a tweet.</p>
<p>The officer injuries weren't life threatening,&#160;Charlotte&#160;police said in a tweet.</p>
<p>Gov. Pat McCrory, a former&#160;Charlotte&#160;mayor, condemned violent protests in a statement, and said the state highway patrol was sending troopers to help the&#160;Charlotte&#160;police force as needed. He later declared a state of emergency.</p>
<p>The evening began peacefully with a vigil at a 6-acre downtown park. But as some protesters left the park and marched through the streets, they faced off with police in riot gear, holding their hands in the air, chanting, "Hands up, don't shoot." Others approached the officers' face masks, saying, "Why do you keep killing us?"</p>
<p>Shortly thereafter, protesters confronted police downtown and appeared to throw water bottles and chase police cars. Police responded with tear gas. When a man fell in the street, it was initially unclear whether he had been shot by police or someone in the crowd.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Violent protests continued toward midnight Wednesday in the central business district, a few yards from the Ritz-Carlton hotel that is host to many Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo &amp; Co. executives, whose skyscrapers are nearby, and a block from the arena where basketball legend Michael Jordan's&#160;Charlotte&#160;Hornets play. Windows at restaurants and major hotels were smashed, and police in riot gear sought to regain control of the streets.</p>
<p>The bus and streetcar station a few blocks away closed early, a rare event in a city which the mayor has said takes pride in its ability to talk through problems in "the&#160;Charlotte&#160;way."</p>
<p>The violent protests began a day earlier, after Keith Lamont Scott was shot by a police officer in a north&#160;Charlotteapartment complex parking lot.</p>
<p>Police officers on Wednesday morning repeated their account that Keith Lamont Scott was armed with a gun and ignored their commands to drop his weapon.</p>
<p>But some local civil-rights leaders said they remained skeptical of the police account of the officers' encounter with Mr. Scott. His family members have said on social media that police accosted him while he read a book in his car and waited to pick up one of his children from school.</p>
<p>"It's confusing with all these reports coming out," said Tennille Fadel, a 33-year-old freelance fashion designer who joined mourners who left candles and white and red roses in the apartment complex parking lot near where Mr. Scott was fatally shot. She said the larger issue to her was law enforcement's attitude toward black people.</p>
<p>"I feel it's a deep-rooted thing," she said.</p>
<p>The protests on Tuesday left 16 police officers injured and damaged police and other vehicles. A local Wal-Mart Stores Inc. location was looted, police said. Protesters on Tuesday had chanted that Mr. Scott had a book, not a gun.</p>
<p>The continued protests on Wednesday weren't what the Scott family said they wanted. Rakeyia Scott, Mr. Scott's widow, said in a statement earlier Wednesday evening that the family has "more questions than answers" about his death. But she had asked that all protests be peaceful ones, saying: "Please do not hurt people or members of law enforcement, damage property or take things that do not belong to you in the name of protesting."</p>
<p>The Wal-Mart remained closed Wednesday, with lines of grocery carts blocking the parking lot entrances and security guards standing in front of the doors. The&#160;Charlotte&#160;Chamber of Commerce asked businesses to chain down or remove outdoor chairs, tables and planters in case of protests Wednesday night. Many downtown employers sent workers home by no later than 5 p.m. as a precaution.</p>
<p>Charlotte&#160;officials hoped a day of talking with local pastors and civic leaders would help forestall further violence. "We are calling for peace, we are calling for calm, we are calling for dialogue," Mayor Jennifer Roberts said.</p>
<p>On Wednesday morning,&#160;Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney said that Mr. Scott was "posing a threat" to officers who approached him in a parking lot in northeastern&#160;Charlotte.</p>
<p>Officers were seeking to serve a warrant on another man when they approached Mr. Scott, who got out of his car with a gun, got back in the car and then out again, police said. Mr. Scott was shot by Officer Brentley Vinson, a black officer with two years' experience on the force, in the presence of several other officers, the chief said.</p>
<p>Chief Putney said the initial investigation, including a review of body and dashboard camera footage, shed doubt on the version of events described by Mr. Scott's family. "The story's a little bit different as to how it's been portrayed so far. A handgun was seized," he said. "We did not find a book that was made reference to," Chief Putney added.</p>
<p>Civil-rights advocates said the&#160;Charlotte&#160;shooting was further evidence of systemic policing problems nationwide.</p>
<p>It makes little difference that the&#160;Charlotte&#160;officer was black rather than white, as was the case in Baton Rouge and elsewhere, said Justin Bamberg, an attorney representing the family of Alton Sterling, the man shot in Baton Rouge, and the family of Walter Scott, who was killed in 2015 by a white North Charleston, S.C., police officer.</p>
<p>"It's not about race," Mr. Bamberg said. "It's the powerful versus the powerless."</p>
<p>"We have a problem throughout the country," Mr. Bamberg said. "Do people truly understand the value of human life?"</p>
<p>Mr. Scott's death comes at the tail end of a long summer of simmering tension nationally between minority communities and law enforcement. Police fatally shot black men in Baton Rouge, La., and Falcon Heights, Minn., in July. The U.S. Justice Department recently opened an investigation into the fatal police shooting Friday of an unarmed black man in Tulsa, Okla.</p>
<p>The incident also follows deadly attacks on police this summer that left five officers dead in Dallas and three in Baton Rouge. In Philadelphia on Friday night, a police sergeant survived after a man who expressed hatred for police shot her several times in an ambush, according to officials.</p>
<p>Locally, Tuesday's shooting comes amid lingering tension regarding the dismissal of charges last year against a white&#160; <a type="external" href="" />Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer in the shooting of Jonathan Ferrell, an unarmed black man who was fatally shot after he knocked on a door seeking help after a car wreck.</p>
<p>Scott Calvert contributed to this article.</p>
<p>Write to Valerie Bauerlein at [email protected] and Cameron McWhirter at [email protected]</p>
| 7,102 |
<p>U.S. stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday, extending their recovery from a six-day sell-off that was triggered by concerns about the health of the Chinese economy.</p>
<p>Investors were encouraged by the biggest gain in China's main stock index in eight weeks and a U.S. government report indicating that the economy expanded at a much faster pace than previously estimated.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>For the day:</p>
<p>The Dow gained 369.26 points, or 2.3 percent, to 16,654.77.</p>
<p>The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index rose 47.15 points, or 2.4 percent, to 1,987.66.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq composite added 115.17 points, or 2.5 percent, to 4,812.71.</p>
<p>For the week:</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The Dow is up 195.02 points, or 1.2 percent.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 index is up 16.77 points, or 0.9 percent.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq is up 106.67 points, or 2.3 percent.</p>
<p>For the year:</p>
<p>The Dow is down 1,168.30 points, or 6.6 percent.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 index is down 71.24 points, or 3.5 percent.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq is up 76.65 points, or 1.6 percent.</p>
|
How the Dow Jones industrial average and other major indexes fared on Thursday
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2014/09/18/how-dow-jones-industrial-average-and-other-major-indexes-fared-on-thursday.html
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2016-03-06
| 0right
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How the Dow Jones industrial average and other major indexes fared on Thursday
<p>U.S. stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday, extending their recovery from a six-day sell-off that was triggered by concerns about the health of the Chinese economy.</p>
<p>Investors were encouraged by the biggest gain in China's main stock index in eight weeks and a U.S. government report indicating that the economy expanded at a much faster pace than previously estimated.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>For the day:</p>
<p>The Dow gained 369.26 points, or 2.3 percent, to 16,654.77.</p>
<p>The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index rose 47.15 points, or 2.4 percent, to 1,987.66.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq composite added 115.17 points, or 2.5 percent, to 4,812.71.</p>
<p>For the week:</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The Dow is up 195.02 points, or 1.2 percent.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 index is up 16.77 points, or 0.9 percent.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq is up 106.67 points, or 2.3 percent.</p>
<p>For the year:</p>
<p>The Dow is down 1,168.30 points, or 6.6 percent.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 index is down 71.24 points, or 3.5 percent.</p>
<p>The Nasdaq is up 76.65 points, or 1.6 percent.</p>
| 7,103 |
<p>This morning Cornell University Economics Professor Steven Kyle said that the Bush tax cuts should end for the wealthy and middle class alike.</p>
<p>“Let them [the tax cuts] all expire. My view is that the situation was not broken in the year 2000. They should not have passed the massive tax cuts at that time.”</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Kyle thinks that there are two big problems that we are looking at right now, “one short run, one long run” as he put it.</p>
<p>“The short run is that we are in danger of sliding back into a double-dip recession,” said Kyle.</p>
<p>To counter the threat of a double-dip, Kyle would like to see a stimulus or a jobs bill put in place right now.</p>
<p>As for the long run, Kyle said, “We need to convince the markets that we are serious about fiscal stability in the long run… and just letting the tax cuts expire would do that easily.”</p>
<p>Charles Payne fired back at Professor Kyle, saying that he thinks the “exact opposite” is the case.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“I think the markets are falling apart because they anticipate this gigantic tax increase just in the middle of a recession that doesn’t want to go away,” said Payne.</p>
<p>Watch the rest of the fireworks at foxbusiness.com!</p>
<p>The biggest tax increase in U.S. history is less than five months away.</p>
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Let Bush Tax Cuts Expire?
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/politics/2010/08/16/let-bush-tax-cuts-expire.html
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2016-03-18
| 0right
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Let Bush Tax Cuts Expire?
<p>This morning Cornell University Economics Professor Steven Kyle said that the Bush tax cuts should end for the wealthy and middle class alike.</p>
<p>“Let them [the tax cuts] all expire. My view is that the situation was not broken in the year 2000. They should not have passed the massive tax cuts at that time.”</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Kyle thinks that there are two big problems that we are looking at right now, “one short run, one long run” as he put it.</p>
<p>“The short run is that we are in danger of sliding back into a double-dip recession,” said Kyle.</p>
<p>To counter the threat of a double-dip, Kyle would like to see a stimulus or a jobs bill put in place right now.</p>
<p>As for the long run, Kyle said, “We need to convince the markets that we are serious about fiscal stability in the long run… and just letting the tax cuts expire would do that easily.”</p>
<p>Charles Payne fired back at Professor Kyle, saying that he thinks the “exact opposite” is the case.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>“I think the markets are falling apart because they anticipate this gigantic tax increase just in the middle of a recession that doesn’t want to go away,” said Payne.</p>
<p>Watch the rest of the fireworks at foxbusiness.com!</p>
<p>The biggest tax increase in U.S. history is less than five months away.</p>
| 7,104 |
<p>President Donald Trump’s allies are worried that the most damaging of the many recent departures from his White House may be that of Keith Schiller, a little-known former bodyguard who’s one of the president’s closest confidants outside his family.</p>
<p>Schiller is leaving the White House soon to return to the private security business, according to three people familiar with his plans, for a job that will pay far more than his $165,000 government salary. His title, director of Oval Office operations, hardly begins to describe his importance to Trump, who is “crushed” by his planned departure, according to one person close to the president.</p>
<p>Multiple people interviewed described Schiller as an emotional anchor for the president in a White House often marked by turmoil. Schiller has worked for Trump for nearly two decades, and within the West Wing he serves as the president’s protector, gate-keeper and&#160;wing man, according to people close to Schiller and Trump. Most of the people requested anonymity to candidly discuss relationships between the president and his aides.</p>
<p>“He’s a confidant and friend,” said Stuart Jolly, a former national field director for Trump’s presidential campaign. Trump “trusts Keith, and Keith trusts him. Trust is a really big deal at that level.”</p>
<p>Schiller has also acted as Trump’s hatchet-man. It was Schiller who told James Comey that the president had decided to fire him as&#160;FBI director. Two weeks ago, after Trump was angered by preparations for a rally in Phoenix, Schiller delivered the message to another longtime aide, George Gigicos, that Trump no longer wanted him to organize such events, according to three people familiar with the matter.</p>
<p>Schiller declined to comment.</p>
<p>Schiller never planned to stay in the position for long because of its lower pay and longer hours, according to two people who know him. But his exit may have been accelerated by the appointment in July of retired Marine general John Kelly as Trump’s chief of staff. Since taking the job, Kelly has sought to tighten access to the Oval Office, control information flowing to the president and install a more formal regime within the White House.</p>
<p>Schiller has told friends that working under Kelly is very different, and that he doesn’t like the job as much. He has said he believes that Kelly doesn’t like Trump personally and is serving as chief of staff predominantly out of a sense of duty to country, according to three people familiar with his views. That has been deeply demoralizing for Schiller, who is accustomed to Trump being surrounded by devoted employees, two people said.</p>
<p>Schiller lost his privilege to walk into the Oval Office at any time when Kelly took over. And he now views his job as somewhat redundant, people close to him said. The president has Secret Service to protect him, valets to fetch what he needs, aides to dial his phone — people to handle every facet of Oval Office operations.</p>
<p>Two people close to Trump said they worry that Schiller’s departure will leave the president and the West Wing off-balance, given the deep relationship the two men share. These people said that Schiller’s exit could put Trump on a collision course with Kelly, who does not understand as well how Trump likes to operate.</p>
<p>Trump’s allies may have more personal concerns. Schiller is a contact for Trump friends who want to reach the president.&#160;And campaign staffers knew the best way to get Trump’s ear was to slip a note to Schiller — especially if they wanted to bypass Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, whom Schiller didn’t always get along with.</p>
<p>On many days, Schiller is the first and last aide Trump sees. During the campaign, Schiller heard nearly every conversation and phone call as he sat in cars by Trump’s side, traveling between rallies, former campaign aides said.</p>
<p>Schiller served in the Navy and as a New York City police officer before becoming a part-time body guard for Trump in 1999. He was named head of security for the Trump Organization in 2004. He knows most employees at the company and shares his opinion of all staffers, inside and outside the White House, with the president.</p>
<p>Discontent among Trump friends and allies outside the White House has grown as Kelly has sought to streamline and professionalize the Oval Office. The new chief of staff has imposed new protocols for getting face time or ideas in front of the president —&#160;cutting off a cadre of trusted regulars whose advice and conversation Trump relished.</p>
<p>Doors in the building that were once open are now literally closed, including those leading from the West Wing lobby and anterooms and halls to the Oval Office, serving as a symbol of the more limited access to Trump.</p>
<p>“It was like a fraternity house the first six months and now it’s a military compound — it’s a fort,” one former aide said.</p>
<p>Schiller doesn’t entirely disagree with Kelly’s changes, one ally said. And Trump has remarked that a more regimented schedule has provided him time to think, read and reflect, a White House official said. &#160;</p>
<p>Once Schiller leaves, the only comparable loyalists remaining in the West Wing will be Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, communications aide Hope Hicks, and digital aide Dan Scavino. But none currently fills the role of peer and friend that Schiller holds.</p>
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Key Trump Aide's Departure Is Said to Rattle President's Allies
| false |
https://newsline.com/key-trump-aides-departure-is-said-to-rattle-presidents-allies/
|
2017-09-05
| 1right-center
|
Key Trump Aide's Departure Is Said to Rattle President's Allies
<p>President Donald Trump’s allies are worried that the most damaging of the many recent departures from his White House may be that of Keith Schiller, a little-known former bodyguard who’s one of the president’s closest confidants outside his family.</p>
<p>Schiller is leaving the White House soon to return to the private security business, according to three people familiar with his plans, for a job that will pay far more than his $165,000 government salary. His title, director of Oval Office operations, hardly begins to describe his importance to Trump, who is “crushed” by his planned departure, according to one person close to the president.</p>
<p>Multiple people interviewed described Schiller as an emotional anchor for the president in a White House often marked by turmoil. Schiller has worked for Trump for nearly two decades, and within the West Wing he serves as the president’s protector, gate-keeper and&#160;wing man, according to people close to Schiller and Trump. Most of the people requested anonymity to candidly discuss relationships between the president and his aides.</p>
<p>“He’s a confidant and friend,” said Stuart Jolly, a former national field director for Trump’s presidential campaign. Trump “trusts Keith, and Keith trusts him. Trust is a really big deal at that level.”</p>
<p>Schiller has also acted as Trump’s hatchet-man. It was Schiller who told James Comey that the president had decided to fire him as&#160;FBI director. Two weeks ago, after Trump was angered by preparations for a rally in Phoenix, Schiller delivered the message to another longtime aide, George Gigicos, that Trump no longer wanted him to organize such events, according to three people familiar with the matter.</p>
<p>Schiller declined to comment.</p>
<p>Schiller never planned to stay in the position for long because of its lower pay and longer hours, according to two people who know him. But his exit may have been accelerated by the appointment in July of retired Marine general John Kelly as Trump’s chief of staff. Since taking the job, Kelly has sought to tighten access to the Oval Office, control information flowing to the president and install a more formal regime within the White House.</p>
<p>Schiller has told friends that working under Kelly is very different, and that he doesn’t like the job as much. He has said he believes that Kelly doesn’t like Trump personally and is serving as chief of staff predominantly out of a sense of duty to country, according to three people familiar with his views. That has been deeply demoralizing for Schiller, who is accustomed to Trump being surrounded by devoted employees, two people said.</p>
<p>Schiller lost his privilege to walk into the Oval Office at any time when Kelly took over. And he now views his job as somewhat redundant, people close to him said. The president has Secret Service to protect him, valets to fetch what he needs, aides to dial his phone — people to handle every facet of Oval Office operations.</p>
<p>Two people close to Trump said they worry that Schiller’s departure will leave the president and the West Wing off-balance, given the deep relationship the two men share. These people said that Schiller’s exit could put Trump on a collision course with Kelly, who does not understand as well how Trump likes to operate.</p>
<p>Trump’s allies may have more personal concerns. Schiller is a contact for Trump friends who want to reach the president.&#160;And campaign staffers knew the best way to get Trump’s ear was to slip a note to Schiller — especially if they wanted to bypass Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, whom Schiller didn’t always get along with.</p>
<p>On many days, Schiller is the first and last aide Trump sees. During the campaign, Schiller heard nearly every conversation and phone call as he sat in cars by Trump’s side, traveling between rallies, former campaign aides said.</p>
<p>Schiller served in the Navy and as a New York City police officer before becoming a part-time body guard for Trump in 1999. He was named head of security for the Trump Organization in 2004. He knows most employees at the company and shares his opinion of all staffers, inside and outside the White House, with the president.</p>
<p>Discontent among Trump friends and allies outside the White House has grown as Kelly has sought to streamline and professionalize the Oval Office. The new chief of staff has imposed new protocols for getting face time or ideas in front of the president —&#160;cutting off a cadre of trusted regulars whose advice and conversation Trump relished.</p>
<p>Doors in the building that were once open are now literally closed, including those leading from the West Wing lobby and anterooms and halls to the Oval Office, serving as a symbol of the more limited access to Trump.</p>
<p>“It was like a fraternity house the first six months and now it’s a military compound — it’s a fort,” one former aide said.</p>
<p>Schiller doesn’t entirely disagree with Kelly’s changes, one ally said. And Trump has remarked that a more regimented schedule has provided him time to think, read and reflect, a White House official said. &#160;</p>
<p>Once Schiller leaves, the only comparable loyalists remaining in the West Wing will be Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, communications aide Hope Hicks, and digital aide Dan Scavino. But none currently fills the role of peer and friend that Schiller holds.</p>
| 7,105 |
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<p>SANTA ROSA, N.M. (AP) — Authorities say an Arkansas man was killed while riding his motorcycle on a New Mexico interstate.</p>
<p>New Mexico State Police say 56-year-old Thomas Farina, of Texarkana, was traveling westbound on Interstate 40 near Santa Rosa shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday when he failed to negotiate a curve.</p>
<p>Police say Farina veered onto the shoulder, where he lost control and crashed.</p>
<p>Farina was pronounced dead at the scene.</p>
<p>Police say he was not wearing a helmet.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
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Arkansas motorcyclist killed riding in New Mexico
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/466321/arkansas-motorcyclist-killed-riding-in-new-mexico.html
| 2least
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Arkansas motorcyclist killed riding in New Mexico
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>SANTA ROSA, N.M. (AP) — Authorities say an Arkansas man was killed while riding his motorcycle on a New Mexico interstate.</p>
<p>New Mexico State Police say 56-year-old Thomas Farina, of Texarkana, was traveling westbound on Interstate 40 near Santa Rosa shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday when he failed to negotiate a curve.</p>
<p>Police say Farina veered onto the shoulder, where he lost control and crashed.</p>
<p>Farina was pronounced dead at the scene.</p>
<p>Police say he was not wearing a helmet.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 7,106 |
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Prosecutors have dropped their case — at least temporarily — against David Correia, who was accused of battery on a police officer during a protest at City Hall.</p>
<p>Kayla Anderson, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors are still reviewing the case and could present it to a grand jury.</p>
<p>“Basically, we needed more time,” she said.</p>
<p>Correia said he considered the temporary dismissal a partial acknowledgement from the District Attorney’s Office that he didn’t act criminally.</p>
<p>“The only thing to review is all the videos of the events,” he said. “And all the videos show I didn’t do what the criminal complaint said I did.</p>
<p>“I’m waiting for (the District Attorney’s Office) to dismiss the case (permanently), and hopefully that happens soon.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
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Charges against UNM professor dropped
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/449436/charges-dropped-against-unm-professor.html
| 2least
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Charges against UNM professor dropped
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Prosecutors have dropped their case — at least temporarily — against David Correia, who was accused of battery on a police officer during a protest at City Hall.</p>
<p>Kayla Anderson, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office, said prosecutors are still reviewing the case and could present it to a grand jury.</p>
<p>“Basically, we needed more time,” she said.</p>
<p>Correia said he considered the temporary dismissal a partial acknowledgement from the District Attorney’s Office that he didn’t act criminally.</p>
<p>“The only thing to review is all the videos of the events,” he said. “And all the videos show I didn’t do what the criminal complaint said I did.</p>
<p>“I’m waiting for (the District Attorney’s Office) to dismiss the case (permanently), and hopefully that happens soon.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 7,107 |
|
<p />
<p>Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) needs the new iPhone X to be a hit in China, where its sales have been slumping for years -- which means it needs more Shirley Wangs.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The 29-year-old hospital administrator says she won't be dissuaded by the base price of 8,388 yuan, or nearly $1,300, about $300 more than the phone will cost in the U.S.</p>
<p>"I'm a big fan of iPhones," said Ms. Wang, who was shopping near the Apple Store in Beijing's tony Sanlitun district Wednesday. "A lot of my friends will buy them, too."</p>
<p>But in a country where domestic smartphones start at about $100, that may not be enough. Even the two lower-priced models Apple is rolling out--the 5,888 yuan iPhone 8 and larger-screened 6,688 iPhone 8 Plus--are beyond reach of many Chinese consumers.</p>
<p>"It's too pricey," said Mo Jia, an analyst for market researcher Canalys.</p>
<p>Apple was at one time the top seller in China, the world's biggest smartphone market, and its brand still carries a matchless cachet for the status-conscious. But its market share has fallen to about 7%, from an estimated 16.5% in late 2014, as domestic rivals have made big technological strides--and offered models adapted to local tastes.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Still, greater China, which includes the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, accounted for 22% of Apple's sales last year--trailing only the U.S. and Europe.</p>
<p>"China is hugely important, both in terms of its market size now and future growth," said Duncan Clark, founder of tech consultancy BDA China. "China is also a global test bed."</p>
<p>"What Apple really needs with the iPhone in China is two things," said Ian Fogg, a senior director at consulting firm IHS Markit: to offer something "demonstrably different" than Chinese makers, and to overcome the challenges of being an overseas brand.</p>
<p>The market leader in China is Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies Co., whose share has doubled in the past three years, reaching 21% in the second quarter, according to Canalys. It is zeroing in on Apple's target high-end consumer. Earlier this year it launched its flagship P10 phone, which carries a price tag of nearly $700 and features that include an improved dual-lens camera developed in partnership with German camera maker Leica.</p>
<p>Coming next month: Huawei's Mate 10 smartphone, expected to have a new processor capable of photo-enhancing artificial intelligence and to offer faster charging and a longer battery life. A price hasn't yet been announced, though Huawei typically undercuts Apple.</p>
<p>China's Xiaomi Inc. on Monday introduced its costliest phone yet, the 4,000 yuan Mi Mix 2, featuring a full-screen display. Vivo, China's No. 3 smartphone maker, is set to launch its X20 full-screen phone later this year.</p>
<p>To win back Chinese market share, Apple tailored a number of features on its latest operating system to Chinese consumers--including a built-in ability to scan the country's ubiquitous QR codes, used to shop and send money across China. Users can also ask Siri to pull up their WeChat QR codes, used to connect with friends on the app. It also includes features like dictation in Shanghainese, and Chinese traffic cameras on Apple maps.</p>
<p>Apple also added the ability to use a phone number rather than an email address as Apple ID, after realizing how rarely email is used in China compared with texts and WeChat.</p>
<p>Notably, Apple is launching the ability for friends to pay each other on iMessage via Apple Pay in the U.S., but not in other markets. Apple Pay operates in China, but the mobile-payment market is dominated by domestic systems Alipay and WeChat Pay.</p>
<p>Whether Apple's efforts bear fruit won't be known for weeks, or even months. The two iPhone 8 models will go on sale Sept. 22, but the iPhone X--plagued by production difficulties this summer--won't hit shelves until Nov. 3.</p>
<p>Xia Giang, a 30-year-old startup founder, is taking a wait-and-see approach.</p>
<p>"Maybe I'll buy it," Mr. Xia said. "Money isn't an issue, but I want to know if my friends like it. I'll let them try it first and then decide."</p>
<p>By Dan Strumpf and Alyssa Abkowitz</p>
|
China challenge for the iPhone X: Ending Apple's long sales slide
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/13/china-challenge-for-iphone-x-ending-apples-long-sales-slide.html
|
2017-09-13
| 0right
|
China challenge for the iPhone X: Ending Apple's long sales slide
<p />
<p>Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) needs the new iPhone X to be a hit in China, where its sales have been slumping for years -- which means it needs more Shirley Wangs.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The 29-year-old hospital administrator says she won't be dissuaded by the base price of 8,388 yuan, or nearly $1,300, about $300 more than the phone will cost in the U.S.</p>
<p>"I'm a big fan of iPhones," said Ms. Wang, who was shopping near the Apple Store in Beijing's tony Sanlitun district Wednesday. "A lot of my friends will buy them, too."</p>
<p>But in a country where domestic smartphones start at about $100, that may not be enough. Even the two lower-priced models Apple is rolling out--the 5,888 yuan iPhone 8 and larger-screened 6,688 iPhone 8 Plus--are beyond reach of many Chinese consumers.</p>
<p>"It's too pricey," said Mo Jia, an analyst for market researcher Canalys.</p>
<p>Apple was at one time the top seller in China, the world's biggest smartphone market, and its brand still carries a matchless cachet for the status-conscious. But its market share has fallen to about 7%, from an estimated 16.5% in late 2014, as domestic rivals have made big technological strides--and offered models adapted to local tastes.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Still, greater China, which includes the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, accounted for 22% of Apple's sales last year--trailing only the U.S. and Europe.</p>
<p>"China is hugely important, both in terms of its market size now and future growth," said Duncan Clark, founder of tech consultancy BDA China. "China is also a global test bed."</p>
<p>"What Apple really needs with the iPhone in China is two things," said Ian Fogg, a senior director at consulting firm IHS Markit: to offer something "demonstrably different" than Chinese makers, and to overcome the challenges of being an overseas brand.</p>
<p>The market leader in China is Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies Co., whose share has doubled in the past three years, reaching 21% in the second quarter, according to Canalys. It is zeroing in on Apple's target high-end consumer. Earlier this year it launched its flagship P10 phone, which carries a price tag of nearly $700 and features that include an improved dual-lens camera developed in partnership with German camera maker Leica.</p>
<p>Coming next month: Huawei's Mate 10 smartphone, expected to have a new processor capable of photo-enhancing artificial intelligence and to offer faster charging and a longer battery life. A price hasn't yet been announced, though Huawei typically undercuts Apple.</p>
<p>China's Xiaomi Inc. on Monday introduced its costliest phone yet, the 4,000 yuan Mi Mix 2, featuring a full-screen display. Vivo, China's No. 3 smartphone maker, is set to launch its X20 full-screen phone later this year.</p>
<p>To win back Chinese market share, Apple tailored a number of features on its latest operating system to Chinese consumers--including a built-in ability to scan the country's ubiquitous QR codes, used to shop and send money across China. Users can also ask Siri to pull up their WeChat QR codes, used to connect with friends on the app. It also includes features like dictation in Shanghainese, and Chinese traffic cameras on Apple maps.</p>
<p>Apple also added the ability to use a phone number rather than an email address as Apple ID, after realizing how rarely email is used in China compared with texts and WeChat.</p>
<p>Notably, Apple is launching the ability for friends to pay each other on iMessage via Apple Pay in the U.S., but not in other markets. Apple Pay operates in China, but the mobile-payment market is dominated by domestic systems Alipay and WeChat Pay.</p>
<p>Whether Apple's efforts bear fruit won't be known for weeks, or even months. The two iPhone 8 models will go on sale Sept. 22, but the iPhone X--plagued by production difficulties this summer--won't hit shelves until Nov. 3.</p>
<p>Xia Giang, a 30-year-old startup founder, is taking a wait-and-see approach.</p>
<p>"Maybe I'll buy it," Mr. Xia said. "Money isn't an issue, but I want to know if my friends like it. I'll let them try it first and then decide."</p>
<p>By Dan Strumpf and Alyssa Abkowitz</p>
| 7,108 |
<p />
<p />
<p>Families too often are divided by U.S. immigration policies, but on a small patch of land that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, separated families can reunite, at least for a few hours.</p>
<p>The patch of land is actually two parks, Playas de Tijuana, in Mexico, and Friendship Park directly across from it in San Diego County.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">“Un pequeño oasis: Familias inmigrantes comparten en un parque en la frontera entre los Estados Unidos y México”</a></p>
<p>On weekends, Friendship Park opens its gates for four hours to families from around the country to visit with friends and relatives in Mexico. They are allowed through the outer fence to visit though a secondary fence.</p>
<p>A mother can talk with her son, who was deported years ago. Grandparents can connect with their grandchildren, perhaps for the last time. A dad can spend time with his toddler-aged son.</p>
<p>These visits to the park have become a part of the regular routine for some <a href="" type="internal">families who are separated by the border</a>.</p>
<p>On the U.S. side, visits, however, are under the supervision of Border Patrol agents, who keep a close eye on the park. Visitors are not supposed to hold hands, embrace, or make contact through the fence. They often cannot see each other too well through tightly woven grates in the wall.</p>
<p>After a couple embraced through a narrow opening in the wall in February, the park was shut down.</p>
<p>Even with these restrictions, families travel from around the country to Friendship Park to connect and share news. Over the years, a community has grown around the two parks, which is home to the Binational Friendship Garden of Native Plants, morning yoga classes and a beach.</p>
<p>“The wall represents this fractured society, the separation of the family network, a breakdown of the values we should have not only in this country, but how we should treat each other as human beings,” said Pedro Rios, who leads visits to the park and runs the <a href="https://afsc.org/program/san-diego-us-mexico-border-program" type="external">San Diego U.S.-Mexico Border Program</a>, which is part of the <a href="https://afsc.org" type="external">American Friends Service Committee</a>.</p>
<p>Families have been coming to the park for more than a century. Over the years, however, the border has slowly become more tightly controlled. Initially an unsecured area, the U.S. ran barbed wire across the border after World War II, according to a <a href="http://www.friendshippark.org/#!history/c20x9" type="external">history</a> of the park by <a href="http://www.friendshippark.org" type="external">Friends of Friendship Park</a>.</p>
<p>In the early 1990s, the U.S. built a fence, and added a second wall in 2008, according to the history.</p>
<p>Despite these walls, Friendship Park offers some hope for the future of immigration policy, which has been marked by divisive debates and controversial ideas in recent months. On the presidential campaign trail, candidates have called for new restrictions on immigrants, and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has proposed <a href="" type="internal">building a new wall</a> along the U.S.-Mexico border.</p>
<p>In June, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) plan and his expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Rulings by lower courts suspended the programs, and the high court could hear arguments next month.</p>
<p>Friends of Friendship Park, meanwhile, are working on plans to make the park more accessible, including restoring a road to the park that often washes out during the winter, forcing visitors to walk more than a mile.</p>
<p>These changes could begin transforming a symbol of border security into a place of family.</p>
<p>___________</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Paul Nyhan</a>&#160;is the senior writer for Equal Voice News. He has worked as a journalist at Bloomberg News, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Congressional Quarterly. He has covered social policy for more than 20 years. Photography by Mike Kane for Equal Voice News. To read each photo caption, click on the small buttons at the bottom right of the gallery.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">Contact author</a></p>
<p>&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">American Friends Service Committee</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Friends of Friendship Park</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Friendship Park</a>, <a href="" type="internal">immigrant families</a>, <a href="" type="internal">immigrants</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Playas de Tijuana</a>, <a href="" type="internal">San Diego</a>, <a href="" type="internal">U.S.-Mexico border</a></p>
|
A Small Oasis: A Border Park Keeps Immigrants Connected
| true |
http://equalvoiceforfamilies.org/a-small-oasis-a-border-park-keeps-immigrants-connected/
| 4left
|
A Small Oasis: A Border Park Keeps Immigrants Connected
<p />
<p />
<p>Families too often are divided by U.S. immigration policies, but on a small patch of land that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, separated families can reunite, at least for a few hours.</p>
<p>The patch of land is actually two parks, Playas de Tijuana, in Mexico, and Friendship Park directly across from it in San Diego County.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">“Un pequeño oasis: Familias inmigrantes comparten en un parque en la frontera entre los Estados Unidos y México”</a></p>
<p>On weekends, Friendship Park opens its gates for four hours to families from around the country to visit with friends and relatives in Mexico. They are allowed through the outer fence to visit though a secondary fence.</p>
<p>A mother can talk with her son, who was deported years ago. Grandparents can connect with their grandchildren, perhaps for the last time. A dad can spend time with his toddler-aged son.</p>
<p>These visits to the park have become a part of the regular routine for some <a href="" type="internal">families who are separated by the border</a>.</p>
<p>On the U.S. side, visits, however, are under the supervision of Border Patrol agents, who keep a close eye on the park. Visitors are not supposed to hold hands, embrace, or make contact through the fence. They often cannot see each other too well through tightly woven grates in the wall.</p>
<p>After a couple embraced through a narrow opening in the wall in February, the park was shut down.</p>
<p>Even with these restrictions, families travel from around the country to Friendship Park to connect and share news. Over the years, a community has grown around the two parks, which is home to the Binational Friendship Garden of Native Plants, morning yoga classes and a beach.</p>
<p>“The wall represents this fractured society, the separation of the family network, a breakdown of the values we should have not only in this country, but how we should treat each other as human beings,” said Pedro Rios, who leads visits to the park and runs the <a href="https://afsc.org/program/san-diego-us-mexico-border-program" type="external">San Diego U.S.-Mexico Border Program</a>, which is part of the <a href="https://afsc.org" type="external">American Friends Service Committee</a>.</p>
<p>Families have been coming to the park for more than a century. Over the years, however, the border has slowly become more tightly controlled. Initially an unsecured area, the U.S. ran barbed wire across the border after World War II, according to a <a href="http://www.friendshippark.org/#!history/c20x9" type="external">history</a> of the park by <a href="http://www.friendshippark.org" type="external">Friends of Friendship Park</a>.</p>
<p>In the early 1990s, the U.S. built a fence, and added a second wall in 2008, according to the history.</p>
<p>Despite these walls, Friendship Park offers some hope for the future of immigration policy, which has been marked by divisive debates and controversial ideas in recent months. On the presidential campaign trail, candidates have called for new restrictions on immigrants, and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has proposed <a href="" type="internal">building a new wall</a> along the U.S.-Mexico border.</p>
<p>In June, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) plan and his expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Rulings by lower courts suspended the programs, and the high court could hear arguments next month.</p>
<p>Friends of Friendship Park, meanwhile, are working on plans to make the park more accessible, including restoring a road to the park that often washes out during the winter, forcing visitors to walk more than a mile.</p>
<p>These changes could begin transforming a symbol of border security into a place of family.</p>
<p>___________</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Paul Nyhan</a>&#160;is the senior writer for Equal Voice News. He has worked as a journalist at Bloomberg News, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Congressional Quarterly. He has covered social policy for more than 20 years. Photography by Mike Kane for Equal Voice News. To read each photo caption, click on the small buttons at the bottom right of the gallery.&#160;&#160;</p>
<p><a href="" type="external">Contact author</a></p>
<p>&#160;&#160; <a href="" type="internal">American Friends Service Committee</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Friends of Friendship Park</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Friendship Park</a>, <a href="" type="internal">immigrant families</a>, <a href="" type="internal">immigrants</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Playas de Tijuana</a>, <a href="" type="internal">San Diego</a>, <a href="" type="internal">U.S.-Mexico border</a></p>
| 7,109 |
|
<p>In a recent academic publication by InterVarsity Press, Liturgical Theology, Simon Chan presents an intriguing case for the use of liturgy. With the center of the church shifting from Western Europe and North America to the southern hemisphere, perhaps it is fitting that Professor Chan lives in Singapore.</p>
<p>Chan points out that one of the distinctive advantages of liturgy is the communication of the Christian faith from generation to generation. For example, the Apostle's Creed dates from the early centuries of Christianity, and using it on a regular basis is a reminder of the truths we hold dear as Christians, for our own benefit and as a witness to others.</p>
<p>In his paper entitled “An Awkward Church,” Douglas John Hall of McGill University says, “We now have two or three generations of people in and around the churches who are not only unfamiliar with the fundamental teachings of the Christian tradition, but largely ignorant even of the Scriptures.”</p>
<p>The use of liturgy requires discipline on the part of both clergy and laity, lest it become rote and meaningless recitation. But rightly used, it can be valuable in worship, enabling the congregation to have a more significant role in the worship experience. It does require thought, and serious thinking is a rare commodity in our day!</p>
<p>A few years ago, my wife and I attended her home church, Park Street Church in Boston. The worship service had more liturgy than she had ever remembered, yet the church was packed with young adults and young families, many of them students and staff from area colleges (Harvard, MIT, etc.), including many from an Asian background. In fact, half the churches in the Boston area worship in a language other than English, serving the large immigrant population.</p>
<p>Sometimes we Baptists have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. We tend to avoid any form of liturgy—I believe, to our detriment. Many Baptist churches avoid the Lord's Prayer and the Doxology, and some consider a responsive reading too formal. Are we on the verge of a return to the “spectator worship” which characterized large Protestant churches in the mid-19th century? Of watching theater performed rather than being involved with hymns and Scriptures and prayers?</p>
<p>Recently, while on vacation in Virginia Beach, we attended First Presbyterian (please forgive us, First Baptist, right next door!). The liturgy used in the service was very meaningful, especially the use of the Apostle's Creed. On Christmas Sunday, we attended Coral Ridge Presbyterian in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which perhaps was more formal than liturgical. But in this age of informality, the formal worship was most refreshing. In both churches, the use of traditional hymns accompanied by pipe organs was heartwarming. And to me, the reciting of the Apostle's Creed is always a meaningful worship experience.</p>
<p>Another important aspect of liturgical churches is the study of a catechism, enabling prospective members to learn about the Christian faith and what will be expected of them as church members. In most Baptist churches, walk the aisle and you're in!</p>
<p>Our MCEF (Mechanicsville Churches Emergency Functions) meetings are currently led by an Episcopal clergyman, and he begins our meetings with a simple liturgical touch—“The Lord be with you.” As committee members from various denominations, we have learned to respond, “And with you.” It is a warm blessing, and a marvelous way to begin any gathering of God's people!</p>
<p>So I leave you with these questions: Is there a future for liturgical worship in our Baptist churches? Is it too late to retrieve the baby? As you ponder these thoughts, “The Lord be with you!”</p>
|
FIRST HAND: What is the future of liturgical worship?
| false |
https://baptistnews.com/article/firsthandwhatisthefutureofliturgicalworship/
| 3left-center
|
FIRST HAND: What is the future of liturgical worship?
<p>In a recent academic publication by InterVarsity Press, Liturgical Theology, Simon Chan presents an intriguing case for the use of liturgy. With the center of the church shifting from Western Europe and North America to the southern hemisphere, perhaps it is fitting that Professor Chan lives in Singapore.</p>
<p>Chan points out that one of the distinctive advantages of liturgy is the communication of the Christian faith from generation to generation. For example, the Apostle's Creed dates from the early centuries of Christianity, and using it on a regular basis is a reminder of the truths we hold dear as Christians, for our own benefit and as a witness to others.</p>
<p>In his paper entitled “An Awkward Church,” Douglas John Hall of McGill University says, “We now have two or three generations of people in and around the churches who are not only unfamiliar with the fundamental teachings of the Christian tradition, but largely ignorant even of the Scriptures.”</p>
<p>The use of liturgy requires discipline on the part of both clergy and laity, lest it become rote and meaningless recitation. But rightly used, it can be valuable in worship, enabling the congregation to have a more significant role in the worship experience. It does require thought, and serious thinking is a rare commodity in our day!</p>
<p>A few years ago, my wife and I attended her home church, Park Street Church in Boston. The worship service had more liturgy than she had ever remembered, yet the church was packed with young adults and young families, many of them students and staff from area colleges (Harvard, MIT, etc.), including many from an Asian background. In fact, half the churches in the Boston area worship in a language other than English, serving the large immigrant population.</p>
<p>Sometimes we Baptists have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. We tend to avoid any form of liturgy—I believe, to our detriment. Many Baptist churches avoid the Lord's Prayer and the Doxology, and some consider a responsive reading too formal. Are we on the verge of a return to the “spectator worship” which characterized large Protestant churches in the mid-19th century? Of watching theater performed rather than being involved with hymns and Scriptures and prayers?</p>
<p>Recently, while on vacation in Virginia Beach, we attended First Presbyterian (please forgive us, First Baptist, right next door!). The liturgy used in the service was very meaningful, especially the use of the Apostle's Creed. On Christmas Sunday, we attended Coral Ridge Presbyterian in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which perhaps was more formal than liturgical. But in this age of informality, the formal worship was most refreshing. In both churches, the use of traditional hymns accompanied by pipe organs was heartwarming. And to me, the reciting of the Apostle's Creed is always a meaningful worship experience.</p>
<p>Another important aspect of liturgical churches is the study of a catechism, enabling prospective members to learn about the Christian faith and what will be expected of them as church members. In most Baptist churches, walk the aisle and you're in!</p>
<p>Our MCEF (Mechanicsville Churches Emergency Functions) meetings are currently led by an Episcopal clergyman, and he begins our meetings with a simple liturgical touch—“The Lord be with you.” As committee members from various denominations, we have learned to respond, “And with you.” It is a warm blessing, and a marvelous way to begin any gathering of God's people!</p>
<p>So I leave you with these questions: Is there a future for liturgical worship in our Baptist churches? Is it too late to retrieve the baby? As you ponder these thoughts, “The Lord be with you!”</p>
| 7,110 |
|
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/talkradionews/5954788934/sizes/m/in/photostream/"&gt;Talk Radio News&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko resigned on Monday, ending what had been months of fighting both over and within the panel charged with regulating the US nuclear industry.</p>
<p>“After an incredibly productive three years as Chairman, I have decided this is the appropriate time to continue my efforts to ensure public safety in a different forum,” he <a href="http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2012/12-060.pdf" type="external">said in a statement</a>. “This is the right time to pass along the public safety torch to a new chairman who will keep a strong focus on carrying out the vital mission of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”</p>
<p>Jaczko had served on the commission for nearly 8 years, and Obama tapped him to serve as its chairman in May 2009. He’d been under fire from the nuclear industry, as well as its allies in Congress and on commission. In the past years, battles over building a waste repository at Yucca Mountain and safety changes in response to the <a href="" type="internal">Fukushima disaster</a> in Japan had put pressure on Jaczko, a reform-minded regulator who had worked for Rep. Ed Markey and Sen. Harry Reid before joining the NRC, to resign.</p>
<p>Jaczko’s main opponent on the panel was William Magwood, an Obama appointee <a href="" type="internal">and nuclear industry insider</a>&#160;who had <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/gregory-jaczko-nuclear-regulatory-commission_n_1140404.html" type="external">waged a campaign</a> to push the chairman out. Magwood had previously worked for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, a major provider of nuclear fuel, technology, plant design, and equipment, and had a record of championing expansion of the industry. He and the three other more industry-sympathetic commissioners accused Jaczko of mismanaging the commission. They&#160; <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70228.html" type="external">expressed “grave concerns”</a>&#160;about his leadership in a letter to the White House, and said he “intimidated and bullied” NRC&#160;staff.</p>
<p>But critics of the nuclear industry were fans of the chairman. “Jaczko did all he could to stand up to the political and economic influence of the nuclear industry and set commonsense reforms to make the industry safer post-Fukushima,” said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program in a statement. “But it wasn’t enough. The other commissioners didn’t want to be so tough on industry.”</p>
<p>The White House will need to appoint a new chairman to replace Jaczko.</p>
<p />
|
Nuclear Regulator Resigns Under Industry Pressure
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2012/05/reform-minded-nuclear-regulator-resigns/
|
2012-05-21
| 4left
|
Nuclear Regulator Resigns Under Industry Pressure
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/talkradionews/5954788934/sizes/m/in/photostream/"&gt;Talk Radio News&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p />
<p>Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko resigned on Monday, ending what had been months of fighting both over and within the panel charged with regulating the US nuclear industry.</p>
<p>“After an incredibly productive three years as Chairman, I have decided this is the appropriate time to continue my efforts to ensure public safety in a different forum,” he <a href="http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2012/12-060.pdf" type="external">said in a statement</a>. “This is the right time to pass along the public safety torch to a new chairman who will keep a strong focus on carrying out the vital mission of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”</p>
<p>Jaczko had served on the commission for nearly 8 years, and Obama tapped him to serve as its chairman in May 2009. He’d been under fire from the nuclear industry, as well as its allies in Congress and on commission. In the past years, battles over building a waste repository at Yucca Mountain and safety changes in response to the <a href="" type="internal">Fukushima disaster</a> in Japan had put pressure on Jaczko, a reform-minded regulator who had worked for Rep. Ed Markey and Sen. Harry Reid before joining the NRC, to resign.</p>
<p>Jaczko’s main opponent on the panel was William Magwood, an Obama appointee <a href="" type="internal">and nuclear industry insider</a>&#160;who had <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/gregory-jaczko-nuclear-regulatory-commission_n_1140404.html" type="external">waged a campaign</a> to push the chairman out. Magwood had previously worked for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, a major provider of nuclear fuel, technology, plant design, and equipment, and had a record of championing expansion of the industry. He and the three other more industry-sympathetic commissioners accused Jaczko of mismanaging the commission. They&#160; <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70228.html" type="external">expressed “grave concerns”</a>&#160;about his leadership in a letter to the White House, and said he “intimidated and bullied” NRC&#160;staff.</p>
<p>But critics of the nuclear industry were fans of the chairman. “Jaczko did all he could to stand up to the political and economic influence of the nuclear industry and set commonsense reforms to make the industry safer post-Fukushima,” said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program in a statement. “But it wasn’t enough. The other commissioners didn’t want to be so tough on industry.”</p>
<p>The White House will need to appoint a new chairman to replace Jaczko.</p>
<p />
| 7,111 |
<p>A Texas woman has been accused of mailing homemade explosives to former president Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R, that could have maimed or killed them, according to documents filed in federal court last week in Houston.</p>
<p>Julia Poff, 46, mailed the devices in October 2016, along with a third package that she sent to the Social Security Administration, according to the indictment. Of the three packages, only Abbott opened his. It did not detonate because “he did not open it as designed,” according to court documents.</p>
<p>Had the devices exploded, they would have caused “severe burns and death” to the politicians, who federal investigators believe Poff targeted for multiple reasons. She was known to dislike Obama, the investigators said, and was “upset with Greg Abbott” because “she had not received support from her ex-husband,” according to the documents. Poff had also previously applied for Social Security benefits, but was denied, the documents said.</p>
<p>Investigators traced the devices to Poff after examining several of their components, including a cigarette box and a salad dressing cap. The cigarettes were bought at a truck stop near Poff’s home in Brookshire, Texas, 30 miles west of Houston. The salad dressing was a brand Poff was known to have bought for an “anniversary dinner,” the indictment said.</p>
<p>Most tellingly, the court documents noted, hair belonging to one of Poff’s two cats was found under the address label of the package sent to Obama.</p>
<p>Poff has been charged with six counts, including mailing injurious articles and transporting explosives with the intent to kill and injure. She has also been charged with defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food stamps, and falsely declaring bankruptcy – issues that came up during the course of the investigation.</p>
<p>The charges come at a time of heightened vigilance for many politicians. In July, <a href="" type="internal">66-year-old James Hodgkinson</a> opened fire at a practice for the Congressional Baseball Game, seriously injuring House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and several others. And earlier this month, <a href="" type="internal">a neighbor of Sen. Rand Paul,</a> <a href="" type="internal">R-Ky.</a>, attacked him in his yard, breaking six of the senator’s ribs.</p>
<p>According to Nathan Kalmoe, an assistant professor of political science at Monmouth College, who has studied political violence, an individual’s support for such acts is often influenced by both her personality and the political environment.</p>
<p>“Many worry that political rhetoric is fueling the fire,” Kalmoe wrote in The Washington Post. “My findings suggest this concern is valid.”</p>
|
Woman charged for mailing explosives to Obama, Texas governor
| false |
https://reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/woman-charged-for-mailing-explosives-to-obama-texas-governor/
|
2017-11-23
| 1right-center
|
Woman charged for mailing explosives to Obama, Texas governor
<p>A Texas woman has been accused of mailing homemade explosives to former president Barack Obama and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R, that could have maimed or killed them, according to documents filed in federal court last week in Houston.</p>
<p>Julia Poff, 46, mailed the devices in October 2016, along with a third package that she sent to the Social Security Administration, according to the indictment. Of the three packages, only Abbott opened his. It did not detonate because “he did not open it as designed,” according to court documents.</p>
<p>Had the devices exploded, they would have caused “severe burns and death” to the politicians, who federal investigators believe Poff targeted for multiple reasons. She was known to dislike Obama, the investigators said, and was “upset with Greg Abbott” because “she had not received support from her ex-husband,” according to the documents. Poff had also previously applied for Social Security benefits, but was denied, the documents said.</p>
<p>Investigators traced the devices to Poff after examining several of their components, including a cigarette box and a salad dressing cap. The cigarettes were bought at a truck stop near Poff’s home in Brookshire, Texas, 30 miles west of Houston. The salad dressing was a brand Poff was known to have bought for an “anniversary dinner,” the indictment said.</p>
<p>Most tellingly, the court documents noted, hair belonging to one of Poff’s two cats was found under the address label of the package sent to Obama.</p>
<p>Poff has been charged with six counts, including mailing injurious articles and transporting explosives with the intent to kill and injure. She has also been charged with defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food stamps, and falsely declaring bankruptcy – issues that came up during the course of the investigation.</p>
<p>The charges come at a time of heightened vigilance for many politicians. In July, <a href="" type="internal">66-year-old James Hodgkinson</a> opened fire at a practice for the Congressional Baseball Game, seriously injuring House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and several others. And earlier this month, <a href="" type="internal">a neighbor of Sen. Rand Paul,</a> <a href="" type="internal">R-Ky.</a>, attacked him in his yard, breaking six of the senator’s ribs.</p>
<p>According to Nathan Kalmoe, an assistant professor of political science at Monmouth College, who has studied political violence, an individual’s support for such acts is often influenced by both her personality and the political environment.</p>
<p>“Many worry that political rhetoric is fueling the fire,” Kalmoe wrote in The Washington Post. “My findings suggest this concern is valid.”</p>
| 7,112 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Police Department on Friday pulled nearly 400 Ford Explorer SUVs from its patrol fleet over worries about exhaust fumes inside the vehicles.</p>
<p>Ford Motor Co. responded by promising to repair the vehicles, even as it continues to investigate the cause of the problem.</p>
<p>The move comes as U.S. auto safety regulators investigate complaints of exhaust fume problems in more than 1.3 million Explorers from the 2011 through 2017 model years. In Austin, more than 60 officers have reported health problems since February and more than 20 were found to have measurable carbon monoxide in their systems, city officials said Friday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We need to remove these vehicles immediately,” interim City Manager Elaine Hart said “We need to keep (officers) safe as well as our community.”</p>
<p>The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found more than 2,700 complaints of exhaust odors in the passenger compartment and fears of carbon monoxide in an investigation started a year ago. Among the complaints were three crashes and 41 injuries, mostly loss of consciousness, nausea and headaches.</p>
<p>Many of the complaints came from police departments, which use the Police Interceptor version of the Explorer in patrol fleets. Police complaints included two crashes with injuries and one injury allegation due to carbon monoxide exposure.</p>
<p>While several large police departments have been aware of the issue and installed carbon monoxide detectors in their vehicles, Austin appears to be first major city to pull large numbers of police Explorers off the road.</p>
<p>In a statement released late Friday, Ford said it has discovered holes and unsealed spaces in the back of some Police Interceptors that had equipment installed after leaving Ford’s factory. Ford said police and fire departments routinely drill holes in the backs of vehicles to add customized lighting, radios and other equipment.</p>
<p>Ford said it will cover the cost of repairs to any Police Interceptor that may have this concern, regardless of age, mileage or modifications.</p>
<p>The company said it will check for holes and seal them, recalibrate the air conditioning to bring in more fresh air during heavy acceleration and check engine codes to see if the vehicles have a damaged exhaust manifold.</p>
<p>“There is nothing we take more seriously than providing you with the safest and most reliable vehicles,” said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s executive vice president of product development.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Non-police customers should take their Explorers to a Ford dealer to address the issue, the company said.</p>
<p>The decision by Austin police left the city scrambling to find replacement cars for more than half of its patrol fleet.</p>
<p>The Police Department said it will move equipment from the Explorers to about 200 Ford Taurus and Crown Victoria models, many of which will be unmarked, and have them ready for patrol ready by Monday. Interim Police Chief Brian Manley said Austin will have just as many officers on patrol, but that they will ride in pairs. The city will closely track response time to emergency calls.</p>
<p>“There will be a concern there will be a spike in crime,” Manley said. “But for those criminals who think they can take advantage of the circumstances, remember we now have a whole fleet of unmarked vehicles on patrol.”</p>
<p>The city installed carbon monoxide alarms after officers began reporting getting sick while in the vehicles, and parked 60 of them when the alarms activated. Of the 20 officers found to have elevated levels of carbon monoxide, three have not been able to return to work.</p>
<p>The NHTSA has said nearly 800 people have complained to the government about fumes, while Ford has received more than 2,000 complaints and warranty claims. The agency tested multiple vehicles at its Ohio research center, and made field inspections of police vehicles involved in crashes. As of Thursday, the agency had found no evidence or data to support claims that injuries or crash allegations were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. The agency said it had early tests that suggest carbon monoxide levels may be higher in certain driving conditions, but the significance and effect of those levels remain under investigation.</p>
<p>The NHTSA says its investigation suggests the Police Interceptor is experiencing exhaust manifold cracks that are hard to detect and may explain exhaust odors. Investigators are evaluating the cause, frequency and safety consequences of the cracks, and whether Explorers used by civilians are experiencing cracked manifolds, the agency said.</p>
<p>“There have been a number of police departments that have looked at this problem. Most have not had (Austin’s) experience and those that have had issues have been able to resolve them,” said Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. “I have not heard of any other department having the number of problems that Austin is experiencing.”</p>
<p>Sean Kane, president of Safety Research and Strategies Inc., a Massachusetts firm that does auto testing for plaintiffs’ lawyers and other clients, said he expects other law enforcement agencies will now check their patrol fleets and may face the same dilemma as Austin about how to maintain patrols.</p>
<p>“It’s not an easy decision whether you’re a large city or small town,” he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Auto Writers Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit and contributed to this report.</p>
|
Fumes force Austin police to pull Ford Explorers off patrol
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1039988/fumes-force-austin-police-to-pull-ford-explorers-off-patrol.html
|
2017-07-28
| 2least
|
Fumes force Austin police to pull Ford Explorers off patrol
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Police Department on Friday pulled nearly 400 Ford Explorer SUVs from its patrol fleet over worries about exhaust fumes inside the vehicles.</p>
<p>Ford Motor Co. responded by promising to repair the vehicles, even as it continues to investigate the cause of the problem.</p>
<p>The move comes as U.S. auto safety regulators investigate complaints of exhaust fume problems in more than 1.3 million Explorers from the 2011 through 2017 model years. In Austin, more than 60 officers have reported health problems since February and more than 20 were found to have measurable carbon monoxide in their systems, city officials said Friday.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>“We need to remove these vehicles immediately,” interim City Manager Elaine Hart said “We need to keep (officers) safe as well as our community.”</p>
<p>The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found more than 2,700 complaints of exhaust odors in the passenger compartment and fears of carbon monoxide in an investigation started a year ago. Among the complaints were three crashes and 41 injuries, mostly loss of consciousness, nausea and headaches.</p>
<p>Many of the complaints came from police departments, which use the Police Interceptor version of the Explorer in patrol fleets. Police complaints included two crashes with injuries and one injury allegation due to carbon monoxide exposure.</p>
<p>While several large police departments have been aware of the issue and installed carbon monoxide detectors in their vehicles, Austin appears to be first major city to pull large numbers of police Explorers off the road.</p>
<p>In a statement released late Friday, Ford said it has discovered holes and unsealed spaces in the back of some Police Interceptors that had equipment installed after leaving Ford’s factory. Ford said police and fire departments routinely drill holes in the backs of vehicles to add customized lighting, radios and other equipment.</p>
<p>Ford said it will cover the cost of repairs to any Police Interceptor that may have this concern, regardless of age, mileage or modifications.</p>
<p>The company said it will check for holes and seal them, recalibrate the air conditioning to bring in more fresh air during heavy acceleration and check engine codes to see if the vehicles have a damaged exhaust manifold.</p>
<p>“There is nothing we take more seriously than providing you with the safest and most reliable vehicles,” said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s executive vice president of product development.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Non-police customers should take their Explorers to a Ford dealer to address the issue, the company said.</p>
<p>The decision by Austin police left the city scrambling to find replacement cars for more than half of its patrol fleet.</p>
<p>The Police Department said it will move equipment from the Explorers to about 200 Ford Taurus and Crown Victoria models, many of which will be unmarked, and have them ready for patrol ready by Monday. Interim Police Chief Brian Manley said Austin will have just as many officers on patrol, but that they will ride in pairs. The city will closely track response time to emergency calls.</p>
<p>“There will be a concern there will be a spike in crime,” Manley said. “But for those criminals who think they can take advantage of the circumstances, remember we now have a whole fleet of unmarked vehicles on patrol.”</p>
<p>The city installed carbon monoxide alarms after officers began reporting getting sick while in the vehicles, and parked 60 of them when the alarms activated. Of the 20 officers found to have elevated levels of carbon monoxide, three have not been able to return to work.</p>
<p>The NHTSA has said nearly 800 people have complained to the government about fumes, while Ford has received more than 2,000 complaints and warranty claims. The agency tested multiple vehicles at its Ohio research center, and made field inspections of police vehicles involved in crashes. As of Thursday, the agency had found no evidence or data to support claims that injuries or crash allegations were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. The agency said it had early tests that suggest carbon monoxide levels may be higher in certain driving conditions, but the significance and effect of those levels remain under investigation.</p>
<p>The NHTSA says its investigation suggests the Police Interceptor is experiencing exhaust manifold cracks that are hard to detect and may explain exhaust odors. Investigators are evaluating the cause, frequency and safety consequences of the cracks, and whether Explorers used by civilians are experiencing cracked manifolds, the agency said.</p>
<p>“There have been a number of police departments that have looked at this problem. Most have not had (Austin’s) experience and those that have had issues have been able to resolve them,” said Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. “I have not heard of any other department having the number of problems that Austin is experiencing.”</p>
<p>Sean Kane, president of Safety Research and Strategies Inc., a Massachusetts firm that does auto testing for plaintiffs’ lawyers and other clients, said he expects other law enforcement agencies will now check their patrol fleets and may face the same dilemma as Austin about how to maintain patrols.</p>
<p>“It’s not an easy decision whether you’re a large city or small town,” he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>AP Auto Writers Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit and contributed to this report.</p>
| 7,113 |
<p>Charges against a teenage boy, who allegedly had oral sex with a woman who passed out from drinking, <a href="http://www.ocdw.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/State-v.-RZM.pdf" type="external">may not proceed</a>, according to an opinion by Oklahoma’s highest criminal court. The opinion, which was handed down last month but <a href="http://oklahomawatch.org/2016/04/23/appeals-court-sodomy-law-doesnt-apply-to-cases-with-unconscious-victims/" type="external">began to receive press attention this week</a>, appears to turn on an oversight in Oklahoma’s criminal law.</p>
<p>The case involves a 17-year-old, identified only as R.Z.M. in the court’s opinion, who was drinking and smoking marijuana in a Tulsa park with a 16-year-old female classmate. This classmate reportedly became so drunk that she was unable to walk, was slipping in and out of consciousness, and had to be carried to a car. Sometime after these events, a blood test found her blood-alcohol level to be&#160;.341, over four times the legal limit to drive a car in Oklahoma.</p>
<p>After R.Z.M.’s DNA was found on the young victim, he claimed that she had consensual oral sex with him. After prosecutors charged R.Z.M. with “Forcible Sodomy,” a lower court ruled that this crime “cannot occur where a victim is so intoxicated as to be completely unconscious at the time of the sexual act of oral copulation.” The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest court on criminal matters, <a href="http://www.ocdw.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/State-v.-RZM.pdf" type="external">agreed with this decision</a>.</p>
<p>Though prosecutors criticized the court’s decision, responsibility for this outcome appears to rest with Oklahoma’s legislature and not with its judiciary. Although Oklahoma’s rape law permits a conviction when “ <a href="http://law.justia.com/codes/oklahoma/2014/title-21/section-21-1114" type="external">the victim is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act and this fact is known to the accused</a>,” that law defines rape only to include “an act of sexual intercourse involving vaginal or anal penetration.” Because the alleged victim in this case was penetrated orally, R.Z.M.’s alleged actions do not constitute rape in Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Although the state’s “Forcible Sodomy” law is not explicitly limited to vaginal or anal penetration, that law does not include the language applying to unconscious victims. Thus, the court determined that it could not be applied to R.Z.M.’s case. If Oklahoma lawmakers wish for people like R.Z.M. to be convicted in the future, they will likely need to update the forcible sodomy law to bring it in line with the state’s rape law.</p>
<p>Indeed, as a window into just how antiquated that “forcible sodomy” law is, it only refers to the acts prohibited by the law using the euphemistic phrase “ <a href="http://law.justia.com/codes/oklahoma/2014/title-21/section-21-886" type="external">the detestable and abominable crime against nature</a>.”</p>
|
Oklahoma Court Rules That Having Oral Sex With A Passed Out Woman Is Not Rape
| true |
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/04/28/3773579/a-courts-revolting-leniency-to-men-who-sexually-prey-on-passed-out-drunk-women/
|
2016-04-28
| 4left
|
Oklahoma Court Rules That Having Oral Sex With A Passed Out Woman Is Not Rape
<p>Charges against a teenage boy, who allegedly had oral sex with a woman who passed out from drinking, <a href="http://www.ocdw.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/State-v.-RZM.pdf" type="external">may not proceed</a>, according to an opinion by Oklahoma’s highest criminal court. The opinion, which was handed down last month but <a href="http://oklahomawatch.org/2016/04/23/appeals-court-sodomy-law-doesnt-apply-to-cases-with-unconscious-victims/" type="external">began to receive press attention this week</a>, appears to turn on an oversight in Oklahoma’s criminal law.</p>
<p>The case involves a 17-year-old, identified only as R.Z.M. in the court’s opinion, who was drinking and smoking marijuana in a Tulsa park with a 16-year-old female classmate. This classmate reportedly became so drunk that she was unable to walk, was slipping in and out of consciousness, and had to be carried to a car. Sometime after these events, a blood test found her blood-alcohol level to be&#160;.341, over four times the legal limit to drive a car in Oklahoma.</p>
<p>After R.Z.M.’s DNA was found on the young victim, he claimed that she had consensual oral sex with him. After prosecutors charged R.Z.M. with “Forcible Sodomy,” a lower court ruled that this crime “cannot occur where a victim is so intoxicated as to be completely unconscious at the time of the sexual act of oral copulation.” The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest court on criminal matters, <a href="http://www.ocdw.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/State-v.-RZM.pdf" type="external">agreed with this decision</a>.</p>
<p>Though prosecutors criticized the court’s decision, responsibility for this outcome appears to rest with Oklahoma’s legislature and not with its judiciary. Although Oklahoma’s rape law permits a conviction when “ <a href="http://law.justia.com/codes/oklahoma/2014/title-21/section-21-1114" type="external">the victim is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act and this fact is known to the accused</a>,” that law defines rape only to include “an act of sexual intercourse involving vaginal or anal penetration.” Because the alleged victim in this case was penetrated orally, R.Z.M.’s alleged actions do not constitute rape in Oklahoma.</p>
<p>Although the state’s “Forcible Sodomy” law is not explicitly limited to vaginal or anal penetration, that law does not include the language applying to unconscious victims. Thus, the court determined that it could not be applied to R.Z.M.’s case. If Oklahoma lawmakers wish for people like R.Z.M. to be convicted in the future, they will likely need to update the forcible sodomy law to bring it in line with the state’s rape law.</p>
<p>Indeed, as a window into just how antiquated that “forcible sodomy” law is, it only refers to the acts prohibited by the law using the euphemistic phrase “ <a href="http://law.justia.com/codes/oklahoma/2014/title-21/section-21-886" type="external">the detestable and abominable crime against nature</a>.”</p>
| 7,114 |
<p>This is my last ditch effort to show the hypocrisy within President Bush’s administration regarding its policies toward Iraq and its President, Saddam Hussein, just as the United States and Britain prepares to invade the country.</p>
<p>It was only five years ago when Vice President Dick Cheney, as chief executive of the oil-field supply corporation, Halliburton Co., was engaged in secret business dealings with Saddam’s regime by selling Iraq oil production equipment and spare parts to get the Iraqi oil fields up and running, according to confidential United Nations records.</p>
<p>During the 2000 presidential campaign, Cheney adamantly denied such dealings. While he acknowledged that his company did business with Libya and Iran through foreign subsidiaries, Cheney said, “Iraq’s different.” He claimed that he imposed a “firm policy” prohibiting any unit of Halliburton against trading with Iraq.</p>
<p>“I had a firm policy that we wouldn’t do anything in Iraq, even arrangements that were supposedly legal,” Cheney said on the ABC-TV news program “This Week” on July 30, 2000. “We’ve not done any business in Iraq since U.N. sanctions were imposed on Iraq in 1990, and I had a standing policy that I wouldn’t do that.”</p>
<p>But it turns out that Cheney was lying. It’s only through the sale of Iraqi oil that Saddam would be able to afford to obtain such weapons. If Saddam was in fact building nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, which some news reports allege could be used against American and British troops, Cheney is partially responsible.</p>
<p>The Washington Post first reported Halliburton’s trade with Iraq in February 2000. But U.N. records obtained by The Post two years ago showed that the dealings were more extensive than originally reported and than Vice President Cheney has acknowledged.</p>
<p>As secretary of defense in the first Bush administration, Cheney helped to lead a multinational coalition against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War and to devise a comprehensive economic embargo to isolate Saddam Hussein’s government. After Cheney was named chief executive of Halliburton in 1995, he promised to maintain a hard line against Baghdad.</p>
<p>But his stance changed when it appeared that Halliburton was headed for financial disaster in the mid-1990s.</p>
<p>Cheney said sanctions against countries such as Iraq were hurting corporations such as Halliburton.</p>
<p>“We seem to be sanction-happy as a government,” Cheney said at an energy conference in April 1996, reported in the oil industry publication Petroleum Finance Week. “The problem is that the good Lord didn’t see fit to always put oil and gas resources where there are democratic governments,” he observed during his conference presentation.</p>
<p>Sanctions make U.S. businesses “the bystander who gets hit when a train wreck occurs,” Cheney told Petroleum Finance Week. “While virtually every other country sees the need for sanctions against Iraq and Saddam Hussein’s regime there, Cheney sees general agreement that the measures have not been very effective despite their having most of the international community’s support. An individual country’s embargo, such as that of the United States against Iran, has virtually no effect since the target country simply signs a contract with a non- U.S. business,” the publication reported</p>
<p>“That’s exactly what happened when the government told Conoco Inc. that it could not develop an oil field there,” Cheney told Petroleum Finance Week. Total S.A. “simply took it over.”</p>
<p>In 1998, Cheney oversaw Halliburton’s acquisition of Dresser Industries Inc., the unit that sold oil equipment to Iraq through two subsidiaries of a joint venture with another large U.S. equipment maker, Ingersoll-Rand Co.</p>
<p>The Halliburton subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., sold water and sewage treatment pumps, spare parts for oil facilities and pipeline equipment to Baghdad through French affiliates from the first half of 1997 to the summer of 2000, U.N. records show. Ingersoll Dresser Pump also signed contracts — later blocked by the United States — to help repair an Iraqi oil terminal that U.S.-led military forces destroyed in the GGulf War, the Post reported in a June 2001 story.</p>
<p>The Halliburton subsidiaries and several other American and foreign oil supply companies helped Iraq increase its crude exports from $4 billion in 1997 to nearly $18 billion in 2000. Since the program began, Iraq has exported oil worth more than $40 billion.</p>
<p>U.S. and European officials have argued that the increase in production also expanded Saddam’s ability to use some of that money for weapons, luxury goods and palaces. Security Council diplomats estimate that Iraq may be skimming off as much as 10 percent of the proceeds from the oil-for-food program, according to the Post.</p>
<p>During his tenure as chief executive of Halliburton, Cheney pushed the U.N. Security Council, after he became vice president; to end an 11-year embargo on sales of civilian goods, including oil related equipment, to Iraq. Cheney has said sanctions against countries like Iraq unfairly punish U.S. companies.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, Halliburton was chosen as one of the companies to rebuild Iraq’s dilapidated oil fields following a U.S. led attack on the country.</p>
<p>U.N. documents show that Halliburton’s affiliates have had controversial, dealings with the Iraqi regime during Cheney’s tenure at the company. The Clinton administration blocked one of the deals Halliburton was trying to push through. That deal, between Halliburton subsidiary Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co. and Iraq, included agreements by the firm to sell $760,000 in spare parts, compressors and firefighting equipment to refurbish an offshore oil terminal, Khor al Amaya.</p>
<p>The Clinton administration blocked the sale because it was “not authorized under the oil-for-food deal,” according to U.N. documents. Under the oil-for-food program, Iraq is allowed to export crude oil and the money is supposed to be used to help remove some of the hardships on Iraqi civilians affected by the U.N. sanctions.</p>
<p>JASON LEOPOLD broke the story (later taken up by the LA Times, Nightline and the Sunday Herald without credit) for CounterPunch on the Project for a New American Century’s push for war with Iraq.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
|
War, Hypocrisy and Profits
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2003/03/19/war-hypocrisy-and-profits/
|
2003-03-19
| 4left
|
War, Hypocrisy and Profits
<p>This is my last ditch effort to show the hypocrisy within President Bush’s administration regarding its policies toward Iraq and its President, Saddam Hussein, just as the United States and Britain prepares to invade the country.</p>
<p>It was only five years ago when Vice President Dick Cheney, as chief executive of the oil-field supply corporation, Halliburton Co., was engaged in secret business dealings with Saddam’s regime by selling Iraq oil production equipment and spare parts to get the Iraqi oil fields up and running, according to confidential United Nations records.</p>
<p>During the 2000 presidential campaign, Cheney adamantly denied such dealings. While he acknowledged that his company did business with Libya and Iran through foreign subsidiaries, Cheney said, “Iraq’s different.” He claimed that he imposed a “firm policy” prohibiting any unit of Halliburton against trading with Iraq.</p>
<p>“I had a firm policy that we wouldn’t do anything in Iraq, even arrangements that were supposedly legal,” Cheney said on the ABC-TV news program “This Week” on July 30, 2000. “We’ve not done any business in Iraq since U.N. sanctions were imposed on Iraq in 1990, and I had a standing policy that I wouldn’t do that.”</p>
<p>But it turns out that Cheney was lying. It’s only through the sale of Iraqi oil that Saddam would be able to afford to obtain such weapons. If Saddam was in fact building nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, which some news reports allege could be used against American and British troops, Cheney is partially responsible.</p>
<p>The Washington Post first reported Halliburton’s trade with Iraq in February 2000. But U.N. records obtained by The Post two years ago showed that the dealings were more extensive than originally reported and than Vice President Cheney has acknowledged.</p>
<p>As secretary of defense in the first Bush administration, Cheney helped to lead a multinational coalition against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War and to devise a comprehensive economic embargo to isolate Saddam Hussein’s government. After Cheney was named chief executive of Halliburton in 1995, he promised to maintain a hard line against Baghdad.</p>
<p>But his stance changed when it appeared that Halliburton was headed for financial disaster in the mid-1990s.</p>
<p>Cheney said sanctions against countries such as Iraq were hurting corporations such as Halliburton.</p>
<p>“We seem to be sanction-happy as a government,” Cheney said at an energy conference in April 1996, reported in the oil industry publication Petroleum Finance Week. “The problem is that the good Lord didn’t see fit to always put oil and gas resources where there are democratic governments,” he observed during his conference presentation.</p>
<p>Sanctions make U.S. businesses “the bystander who gets hit when a train wreck occurs,” Cheney told Petroleum Finance Week. “While virtually every other country sees the need for sanctions against Iraq and Saddam Hussein’s regime there, Cheney sees general agreement that the measures have not been very effective despite their having most of the international community’s support. An individual country’s embargo, such as that of the United States against Iran, has virtually no effect since the target country simply signs a contract with a non- U.S. business,” the publication reported</p>
<p>“That’s exactly what happened when the government told Conoco Inc. that it could not develop an oil field there,” Cheney told Petroleum Finance Week. Total S.A. “simply took it over.”</p>
<p>In 1998, Cheney oversaw Halliburton’s acquisition of Dresser Industries Inc., the unit that sold oil equipment to Iraq through two subsidiaries of a joint venture with another large U.S. equipment maker, Ingersoll-Rand Co.</p>
<p>The Halliburton subsidiaries, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., sold water and sewage treatment pumps, spare parts for oil facilities and pipeline equipment to Baghdad through French affiliates from the first half of 1997 to the summer of 2000, U.N. records show. Ingersoll Dresser Pump also signed contracts — later blocked by the United States — to help repair an Iraqi oil terminal that U.S.-led military forces destroyed in the GGulf War, the Post reported in a June 2001 story.</p>
<p>The Halliburton subsidiaries and several other American and foreign oil supply companies helped Iraq increase its crude exports from $4 billion in 1997 to nearly $18 billion in 2000. Since the program began, Iraq has exported oil worth more than $40 billion.</p>
<p>U.S. and European officials have argued that the increase in production also expanded Saddam’s ability to use some of that money for weapons, luxury goods and palaces. Security Council diplomats estimate that Iraq may be skimming off as much as 10 percent of the proceeds from the oil-for-food program, according to the Post.</p>
<p>During his tenure as chief executive of Halliburton, Cheney pushed the U.N. Security Council, after he became vice president; to end an 11-year embargo on sales of civilian goods, including oil related equipment, to Iraq. Cheney has said sanctions against countries like Iraq unfairly punish U.S. companies.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, Halliburton was chosen as one of the companies to rebuild Iraq’s dilapidated oil fields following a U.S. led attack on the country.</p>
<p>U.N. documents show that Halliburton’s affiliates have had controversial, dealings with the Iraqi regime during Cheney’s tenure at the company. The Clinton administration blocked one of the deals Halliburton was trying to push through. That deal, between Halliburton subsidiary Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co. and Iraq, included agreements by the firm to sell $760,000 in spare parts, compressors and firefighting equipment to refurbish an offshore oil terminal, Khor al Amaya.</p>
<p>The Clinton administration blocked the sale because it was “not authorized under the oil-for-food deal,” according to U.N. documents. Under the oil-for-food program, Iraq is allowed to export crude oil and the money is supposed to be used to help remove some of the hardships on Iraqi civilians affected by the U.N. sanctions.</p>
<p>JASON LEOPOLD broke the story (later taken up by the LA Times, Nightline and the Sunday Herald without credit) for CounterPunch on the Project for a New American Century’s push for war with Iraq.</p>
<p>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
| 7,115 |
<p>DETROIT (AP) - With record speed, the Detroit Red Wings finally won in overtime.</p>
<p>Andreas Athanasiou scored 6 seconds into the extra period to give Detroit a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night. The goal tied an NHL record for fastest overtime goal in the regular season. The Red Wings improved to 1-6 in games decided in overtime, although they have won three shootouts.</p>
<p>"I think we're just playing good hockey right now, trying to make the most of what I get," Athanasiou said. "Anytime I get a chance I'm trying to make something happen. Anytime I can help the team out it's definitely a good feeling."</p>
<p>Detroit has won three in a row for the first time this season.</p>
<p>Athanasiou scored twice and also had a penalty shot stopped in the third period. Dylan Larkin took the opening faceoff in overtime and, after the puck went forward a bit, both Athanasiou and Ottawa standout Erik Karlsson reached for it.</p>
<p>Athanasiou was able to control it and skated in behind Karlsson on a breakaway. He beat goalie Craig Anderson <a href="https://twitter.com/NHL/status/948767917302341632" type="external">with a backhander</a> high to the glove side.</p>
<p>"The puck was bouncing a little bit and I kind of saw Karlsson's stick on the left side of me, so I figured I'd go to the backhand again and try to get it up over his pad and fortunately it worked out," Athanasiou said.</p>
<p>The most recent player to score 6 seconds into overtime in the regular season was Washington's Alex Ovechkin on Dec. 15, 2006, at Atlanta.</p>
<p>Ryan Dzingel scored for the Senators, who lost for the 18th time in 22 games.</p>
<p>The Red Wings opened the scoring in the first period after <a href="https://twitter.com/NHL/status/948729756257841153" type="external">a clever play</a> by Anthony Mantha. The Detroit forward was in front of the net when he shot the puck backward through his legs, forcing Anderson to make a save. Athanasiou put away the rebound to make it 1-0.</p>
<p>Athanasiou and Martin Frk had good chances to double Detroit's advantage in the middle of the second period, but they couldn't convert, and the Senators tied it just 39 seconds into the third. Darren Helm mishandled the puck in front of his own net, and Dzingel pounced on it and beat goalie Jimmy Howard.</p>
<p>The play was reviewed for possible goaltender interference, but the goal stood.</p>
<p>Athanasiou drew a penalty shot with 9:19 remaining in regulation, but Anderson calmly <a href="https://www.nhl.com/video/andersons-penalty-shot-save/t-291089498/c-56381803" type="external">made the save</a> . Detroit had a chance to win it late in the third, but Anderson turned aside two shots by Helm, and Danny DeKeyser hit the pipe with about 20 seconds to play.</p>
<p>"That was two good old American goalies having a great game tonight," Anderson said. "It was fun to play in a game like that."</p>
<p>NOTES: The goalies had 33 saves each. ... Mantha returned after missing two games with a lower-body injury. ... Detroit went on the power play in the second period, but Mike Green of the Red Wings was called for holding almost immediately after it started. Rather than try to score during the delayed penalty, Ottawa tried to keep the puck and waste as much time as possible before Detroit could force a whistle. The delayed penalty wasn't called until there were 7 seconds left in Detroit's power play. "Great job by them," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "That was unreal. It's got to go down as one of the worst two minutes of power play in the history of mankind."</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Senators: Host the San Jose Sharks on Friday night.</p>
<p>Red Wings: Host the Florida Panthers on Friday night.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP NHL coverage: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Noah Trister at <a href="http://www.Twitter.com/noahtrister" type="external">www.Twitter.com/noahtrister</a></p>
<p>DETROIT (AP) - With record speed, the Detroit Red Wings finally won in overtime.</p>
<p>Andreas Athanasiou scored 6 seconds into the extra period to give Detroit a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night. The goal tied an NHL record for fastest overtime goal in the regular season. The Red Wings improved to 1-6 in games decided in overtime, although they have won three shootouts.</p>
<p>"I think we're just playing good hockey right now, trying to make the most of what I get," Athanasiou said. "Anytime I get a chance I'm trying to make something happen. Anytime I can help the team out it's definitely a good feeling."</p>
<p>Detroit has won three in a row for the first time this season.</p>
<p>Athanasiou scored twice and also had a penalty shot stopped in the third period. Dylan Larkin took the opening faceoff in overtime and, after the puck went forward a bit, both Athanasiou and Ottawa standout Erik Karlsson reached for it.</p>
<p>Athanasiou was able to control it and skated in behind Karlsson on a breakaway. He beat goalie Craig Anderson <a href="https://twitter.com/NHL/status/948767917302341632" type="external">with a backhander</a> high to the glove side.</p>
<p>"The puck was bouncing a little bit and I kind of saw Karlsson's stick on the left side of me, so I figured I'd go to the backhand again and try to get it up over his pad and fortunately it worked out," Athanasiou said.</p>
<p>The most recent player to score 6 seconds into overtime in the regular season was Washington's Alex Ovechkin on Dec. 15, 2006, at Atlanta.</p>
<p>Ryan Dzingel scored for the Senators, who lost for the 18th time in 22 games.</p>
<p>The Red Wings opened the scoring in the first period after <a href="https://twitter.com/NHL/status/948729756257841153" type="external">a clever play</a> by Anthony Mantha. The Detroit forward was in front of the net when he shot the puck backward through his legs, forcing Anderson to make a save. Athanasiou put away the rebound to make it 1-0.</p>
<p>Athanasiou and Martin Frk had good chances to double Detroit's advantage in the middle of the second period, but they couldn't convert, and the Senators tied it just 39 seconds into the third. Darren Helm mishandled the puck in front of his own net, and Dzingel pounced on it and beat goalie Jimmy Howard.</p>
<p>The play was reviewed for possible goaltender interference, but the goal stood.</p>
<p>Athanasiou drew a penalty shot with 9:19 remaining in regulation, but Anderson calmly <a href="https://www.nhl.com/video/andersons-penalty-shot-save/t-291089498/c-56381803" type="external">made the save</a> . Detroit had a chance to win it late in the third, but Anderson turned aside two shots by Helm, and Danny DeKeyser hit the pipe with about 20 seconds to play.</p>
<p>"That was two good old American goalies having a great game tonight," Anderson said. "It was fun to play in a game like that."</p>
<p>NOTES: The goalies had 33 saves each. ... Mantha returned after missing two games with a lower-body injury. ... Detroit went on the power play in the second period, but Mike Green of the Red Wings was called for holding almost immediately after it started. Rather than try to score during the delayed penalty, Ottawa tried to keep the puck and waste as much time as possible before Detroit could force a whistle. The delayed penalty wasn't called until there were 7 seconds left in Detroit's power play. "Great job by them," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "That was unreal. It's got to go down as one of the worst two minutes of power play in the history of mankind."</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Senators: Host the San Jose Sharks on Friday night.</p>
<p>Red Wings: Host the Florida Panthers on Friday night.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP NHL coverage: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Noah Trister at <a href="http://www.Twitter.com/noahtrister" type="external">www.Twitter.com/noahtrister</a></p>
|
Athanasiou scores 6 seconds into OT, Detroit tops Ottawa 2-1
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/538c297a1e024e25971e6db1de3ba4f4
|
2018-01-04
| 2least
|
Athanasiou scores 6 seconds into OT, Detroit tops Ottawa 2-1
<p>DETROIT (AP) - With record speed, the Detroit Red Wings finally won in overtime.</p>
<p>Andreas Athanasiou scored 6 seconds into the extra period to give Detroit a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night. The goal tied an NHL record for fastest overtime goal in the regular season. The Red Wings improved to 1-6 in games decided in overtime, although they have won three shootouts.</p>
<p>"I think we're just playing good hockey right now, trying to make the most of what I get," Athanasiou said. "Anytime I get a chance I'm trying to make something happen. Anytime I can help the team out it's definitely a good feeling."</p>
<p>Detroit has won three in a row for the first time this season.</p>
<p>Athanasiou scored twice and also had a penalty shot stopped in the third period. Dylan Larkin took the opening faceoff in overtime and, after the puck went forward a bit, both Athanasiou and Ottawa standout Erik Karlsson reached for it.</p>
<p>Athanasiou was able to control it and skated in behind Karlsson on a breakaway. He beat goalie Craig Anderson <a href="https://twitter.com/NHL/status/948767917302341632" type="external">with a backhander</a> high to the glove side.</p>
<p>"The puck was bouncing a little bit and I kind of saw Karlsson's stick on the left side of me, so I figured I'd go to the backhand again and try to get it up over his pad and fortunately it worked out," Athanasiou said.</p>
<p>The most recent player to score 6 seconds into overtime in the regular season was Washington's Alex Ovechkin on Dec. 15, 2006, at Atlanta.</p>
<p>Ryan Dzingel scored for the Senators, who lost for the 18th time in 22 games.</p>
<p>The Red Wings opened the scoring in the first period after <a href="https://twitter.com/NHL/status/948729756257841153" type="external">a clever play</a> by Anthony Mantha. The Detroit forward was in front of the net when he shot the puck backward through his legs, forcing Anderson to make a save. Athanasiou put away the rebound to make it 1-0.</p>
<p>Athanasiou and Martin Frk had good chances to double Detroit's advantage in the middle of the second period, but they couldn't convert, and the Senators tied it just 39 seconds into the third. Darren Helm mishandled the puck in front of his own net, and Dzingel pounced on it and beat goalie Jimmy Howard.</p>
<p>The play was reviewed for possible goaltender interference, but the goal stood.</p>
<p>Athanasiou drew a penalty shot with 9:19 remaining in regulation, but Anderson calmly <a href="https://www.nhl.com/video/andersons-penalty-shot-save/t-291089498/c-56381803" type="external">made the save</a> . Detroit had a chance to win it late in the third, but Anderson turned aside two shots by Helm, and Danny DeKeyser hit the pipe with about 20 seconds to play.</p>
<p>"That was two good old American goalies having a great game tonight," Anderson said. "It was fun to play in a game like that."</p>
<p>NOTES: The goalies had 33 saves each. ... Mantha returned after missing two games with a lower-body injury. ... Detroit went on the power play in the second period, but Mike Green of the Red Wings was called for holding almost immediately after it started. Rather than try to score during the delayed penalty, Ottawa tried to keep the puck and waste as much time as possible before Detroit could force a whistle. The delayed penalty wasn't called until there were 7 seconds left in Detroit's power play. "Great job by them," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "That was unreal. It's got to go down as one of the worst two minutes of power play in the history of mankind."</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Senators: Host the San Jose Sharks on Friday night.</p>
<p>Red Wings: Host the Florida Panthers on Friday night.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP NHL coverage: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Noah Trister at <a href="http://www.Twitter.com/noahtrister" type="external">www.Twitter.com/noahtrister</a></p>
<p>DETROIT (AP) - With record speed, the Detroit Red Wings finally won in overtime.</p>
<p>Andreas Athanasiou scored 6 seconds into the extra period to give Detroit a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night. The goal tied an NHL record for fastest overtime goal in the regular season. The Red Wings improved to 1-6 in games decided in overtime, although they have won three shootouts.</p>
<p>"I think we're just playing good hockey right now, trying to make the most of what I get," Athanasiou said. "Anytime I get a chance I'm trying to make something happen. Anytime I can help the team out it's definitely a good feeling."</p>
<p>Detroit has won three in a row for the first time this season.</p>
<p>Athanasiou scored twice and also had a penalty shot stopped in the third period. Dylan Larkin took the opening faceoff in overtime and, after the puck went forward a bit, both Athanasiou and Ottawa standout Erik Karlsson reached for it.</p>
<p>Athanasiou was able to control it and skated in behind Karlsson on a breakaway. He beat goalie Craig Anderson <a href="https://twitter.com/NHL/status/948767917302341632" type="external">with a backhander</a> high to the glove side.</p>
<p>"The puck was bouncing a little bit and I kind of saw Karlsson's stick on the left side of me, so I figured I'd go to the backhand again and try to get it up over his pad and fortunately it worked out," Athanasiou said.</p>
<p>The most recent player to score 6 seconds into overtime in the regular season was Washington's Alex Ovechkin on Dec. 15, 2006, at Atlanta.</p>
<p>Ryan Dzingel scored for the Senators, who lost for the 18th time in 22 games.</p>
<p>The Red Wings opened the scoring in the first period after <a href="https://twitter.com/NHL/status/948729756257841153" type="external">a clever play</a> by Anthony Mantha. The Detroit forward was in front of the net when he shot the puck backward through his legs, forcing Anderson to make a save. Athanasiou put away the rebound to make it 1-0.</p>
<p>Athanasiou and Martin Frk had good chances to double Detroit's advantage in the middle of the second period, but they couldn't convert, and the Senators tied it just 39 seconds into the third. Darren Helm mishandled the puck in front of his own net, and Dzingel pounced on it and beat goalie Jimmy Howard.</p>
<p>The play was reviewed for possible goaltender interference, but the goal stood.</p>
<p>Athanasiou drew a penalty shot with 9:19 remaining in regulation, but Anderson calmly <a href="https://www.nhl.com/video/andersons-penalty-shot-save/t-291089498/c-56381803" type="external">made the save</a> . Detroit had a chance to win it late in the third, but Anderson turned aside two shots by Helm, and Danny DeKeyser hit the pipe with about 20 seconds to play.</p>
<p>"That was two good old American goalies having a great game tonight," Anderson said. "It was fun to play in a game like that."</p>
<p>NOTES: The goalies had 33 saves each. ... Mantha returned after missing two games with a lower-body injury. ... Detroit went on the power play in the second period, but Mike Green of the Red Wings was called for holding almost immediately after it started. Rather than try to score during the delayed penalty, Ottawa tried to keep the puck and waste as much time as possible before Detroit could force a whistle. The delayed penalty wasn't called until there were 7 seconds left in Detroit's power play. "Great job by them," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "That was unreal. It's got to go down as one of the worst two minutes of power play in the history of mankind."</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Senators: Host the San Jose Sharks on Friday night.</p>
<p>Red Wings: Host the Florida Panthers on Friday night.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>For more AP NHL coverage: <a href="" type="internal">https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey</a></p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Noah Trister at <a href="http://www.Twitter.com/noahtrister" type="external">www.Twitter.com/noahtrister</a></p>
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<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The recently renamed Desert Rose Playhouse took a step backwards with their double bill of one-act plays by Christopher Durang. “The Actor’s Nightmare” (1981) and “’Dentity Crisis” (1978) are sophomoric examples of the playwright’s comic skills. Truth to tell, each would suffice as a “Saturday Night Live” skit to fill the twelve minutes between commercials.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The premise of “The Actor’s Nightmare” is simple. Actor George Spelvin (the fictitious name sometimes used in programs) dreams that he is an accountant inexplicably backstage before a production starring some of the greatest names in English theater. Meg, the stage manager, tells him that he will have to go on for the famous American actor (and brother of Lincoln’s assassin) Edwin Booth who has broken both legs in an auto accident. (Get it? “Break a leg!”) George knows no lines nor rehearsed any play, and the humor comes when he is thrust into scenes from plays as diverse as Noël Coward’s “Private Lives,” Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame,” and Robert Bolt’s “A Man For All Seasons.” Meg dons a maid’s uniform to come onstage and give George occasional lines (why doesn’t she give him the script?), and he improvises pastiches of famous Shakespeare lines (“Out, out, damn spot! I come to wive it wealthily in Padua”), recites the Pledge of Allegiance, and sings the alphabet song while filling stage time. Durang also includes an attack on Catholic education as George, taught by nuns and priests, is not willing to be martyred while paying future saint Thomas More. Durang’s “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You,” which this play was written to accompany, better exemplifies his attitudes toward Catholicism. Georgia Athearn’s direction and the cast of mostly newcomers don’t help the evening. It is difficult to judge Matthew Fasano’s portrayal of George since he is supposed to be an amateur lost on stage. Judi Romero, Julie Nagle, and Ken Orth provide support, but Teddy Eggleston’s costumes are better than her acting here.</p>
<p>“’Dentity Crisis” is the convoluted story of Jane (Kristina Neville), a petulant teen who has recently attempted suicide. Her mother Edith (Michelle Jones) claims to have invented cheese while in France and tries to humor her daughter. We are told by Jane’s doctor (Yannig Morin/Robyn Wells) and his spouse (who undergo sex changes mid-play) that her sexual repression prevents her from distinguishing among her brother, father, grandfather, and a French Count (all played by Karl Turba). The result is not Absurdist, just absurd–a reviewer’s nightmare.</p>
<p>If You Go WHAT: One-Act Plays by Christopher Durang WHEN: Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through November 4 WHERE: The Desert Rose Playhouse, 6921-E Montgomery NE HOW MUCH: $10 general public, $8 seniors and students. Call 881-0503 for ticket information</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
One-Act Plays by Christopher Durang
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/616/one-act-plays-by-christopher-durang.html
| 2least
|
One-Act Plays by Christopher Durang
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The recently renamed Desert Rose Playhouse took a step backwards with their double bill of one-act plays by Christopher Durang. “The Actor’s Nightmare” (1981) and “’Dentity Crisis” (1978) are sophomoric examples of the playwright’s comic skills. Truth to tell, each would suffice as a “Saturday Night Live” skit to fill the twelve minutes between commercials.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>The premise of “The Actor’s Nightmare” is simple. Actor George Spelvin (the fictitious name sometimes used in programs) dreams that he is an accountant inexplicably backstage before a production starring some of the greatest names in English theater. Meg, the stage manager, tells him that he will have to go on for the famous American actor (and brother of Lincoln’s assassin) Edwin Booth who has broken both legs in an auto accident. (Get it? “Break a leg!”) George knows no lines nor rehearsed any play, and the humor comes when he is thrust into scenes from plays as diverse as Noël Coward’s “Private Lives,” Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame,” and Robert Bolt’s “A Man For All Seasons.” Meg dons a maid’s uniform to come onstage and give George occasional lines (why doesn’t she give him the script?), and he improvises pastiches of famous Shakespeare lines (“Out, out, damn spot! I come to wive it wealthily in Padua”), recites the Pledge of Allegiance, and sings the alphabet song while filling stage time. Durang also includes an attack on Catholic education as George, taught by nuns and priests, is not willing to be martyred while paying future saint Thomas More. Durang’s “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You,” which this play was written to accompany, better exemplifies his attitudes toward Catholicism. Georgia Athearn’s direction and the cast of mostly newcomers don’t help the evening. It is difficult to judge Matthew Fasano’s portrayal of George since he is supposed to be an amateur lost on stage. Judi Romero, Julie Nagle, and Ken Orth provide support, but Teddy Eggleston’s costumes are better than her acting here.</p>
<p>“’Dentity Crisis” is the convoluted story of Jane (Kristina Neville), a petulant teen who has recently attempted suicide. Her mother Edith (Michelle Jones) claims to have invented cheese while in France and tries to humor her daughter. We are told by Jane’s doctor (Yannig Morin/Robyn Wells) and his spouse (who undergo sex changes mid-play) that her sexual repression prevents her from distinguishing among her brother, father, grandfather, and a French Count (all played by Karl Turba). The result is not Absurdist, just absurd–a reviewer’s nightmare.</p>
<p>If You Go WHAT: One-Act Plays by Christopher Durang WHEN: Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through November 4 WHERE: The Desert Rose Playhouse, 6921-E Montgomery NE HOW MUCH: $10 general public, $8 seniors and students. Call 881-0503 for ticket information</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 7,117 |
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<p>Russia has been relegated to provisional IBU member status, but retained its right to host the final stage of the 2017-18 Biathlon World Cup, the executive board of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) ruled in an extraordinary session Sunday.</p>
<p>“The IBU Executive Board herewith relegates the RBU (Russian Biathlon union) to provisional membership… With limited membership rights” over doping violations, a <a href="http://www.biathlonworld.com/news/detail/ibu-press-release-7" type="external">statement</a> by the IBU read. The ruling makes Russia ineligible to take part in the IBU Congresses and to nominate a representative to the organization’s governing bodies.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/412359-cramer-russian-olympic-ban/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Russia’s status as full member will only be reconsidered at the end of the 2017-2018 season (which concludes in March) and if the International Olympic Committee lifts its ban on Russia – supposing no new doping violations are uncovered, and if the country cooperates with the relevant anti-doping international investigations, the IBU said.</p>
<p>Despite the move, Russia’s Viktor Maigurov will maintain his position as IBU first vice-president, Anders Besseberg, IBU chief, said during a news conference in the Austrian resort of Hochfilzen.</p>
<p>The IBU decided not to cut the Russian national team’s quota at the Biathlon World Cup, Besseberg said. Russia has also maintained its right to host the final stage of the 2017-18 Biathlon World Cup, scheduled for March 20- 25 in the Siberian city of Tyumen.</p>
<p>“The decisions of the IBU Executive Board are adequate and satisfactory for [the] Russian Biathlon Union in the current situation,” Maigurov, who is also an RBU board member, told <a href="http://www.sport-express.ru/biathlon/news/viktor-maygurov-resheniya-ispolkoma-ibu-adekvatnye-dlya-sbr-1346979/" type="external">Sport-Express</a>. According to the double Olympic biathlon bronze medalist, the issue of Russia maintaining the Tyumen stage of the World Cup was decided during a vote. “There were some voices in favor and some against. In the end, we were allowed to keep all of the events,” he said.</p>
<p>The IBU executive board met to discuss the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision regarding Russia’s participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and said it “accepted and will implement in time” the ruling by the Olympic bosses.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/412041-ioc-russia-ban-pyeongchang-details/" type="external">READ MORE: Yes to athletes, No to officials, Maybe to closing ceremony: Details of IOC Olympic ruling on Russia</a></p>
<p>Last week, the IOC blocked Russia from sending an official delegation to PyeongChang 2018, but granted ‘clean’ Russian athletes the right to take part in the Olympics independently, without their national flag and anthem.</p>
<p>The decision was based on the investigation by the IOC Disciplinary Commission led by Denis Oswald, which, according to Olympic chiefs, confirmed “the systematic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russia.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/412369-ioc-decision-against-russia-not/" type="external">READ MORE: ‘IOC decision is against Russia, not just athletes’ – 3-time Olympic champion Irina Rodnina</a></p>
<p>Russia has blasted the ruling as unfair and politically motivated, put President Vladimir Putin said the country “will not impose any blockade, will not bar our Olympians from taking part [in the games], if any of them would like to participate on their own.”</p>
<p>Putin said the larger part of accusations against Russia were based “on evidence, which has not been proven and is largely unfounded” as well as statements by fugitive former Russian anti-doping official Grigory Rodchenkov, whom the Putin described as “a man whose moral and ethical values and mental state raise many questions.”</p>
|
IBU relegates Russia to provisional member, but keeps it as final Biathlon World Cup stage
| false |
https://newsline.com/ibu-relegates-russia-to-provisional-member-but-keeps-it-as-final-biathlon-world-cup-stage/
|
2017-12-10
| 1right-center
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IBU relegates Russia to provisional member, but keeps it as final Biathlon World Cup stage
<p>Russia has been relegated to provisional IBU member status, but retained its right to host the final stage of the 2017-18 Biathlon World Cup, the executive board of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) ruled in an extraordinary session Sunday.</p>
<p>“The IBU Executive Board herewith relegates the RBU (Russian Biathlon union) to provisional membership… With limited membership rights” over doping violations, a <a href="http://www.biathlonworld.com/news/detail/ibu-press-release-7" type="external">statement</a> by the IBU read. The ruling makes Russia ineligible to take part in the IBU Congresses and to nominate a representative to the organization’s governing bodies.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/412359-cramer-russian-olympic-ban/" type="external" /></p>
<p>Russia’s status as full member will only be reconsidered at the end of the 2017-2018 season (which concludes in March) and if the International Olympic Committee lifts its ban on Russia – supposing no new doping violations are uncovered, and if the country cooperates with the relevant anti-doping international investigations, the IBU said.</p>
<p>Despite the move, Russia’s Viktor Maigurov will maintain his position as IBU first vice-president, Anders Besseberg, IBU chief, said during a news conference in the Austrian resort of Hochfilzen.</p>
<p>The IBU decided not to cut the Russian national team’s quota at the Biathlon World Cup, Besseberg said. Russia has also maintained its right to host the final stage of the 2017-18 Biathlon World Cup, scheduled for March 20- 25 in the Siberian city of Tyumen.</p>
<p>“The decisions of the IBU Executive Board are adequate and satisfactory for [the] Russian Biathlon Union in the current situation,” Maigurov, who is also an RBU board member, told <a href="http://www.sport-express.ru/biathlon/news/viktor-maygurov-resheniya-ispolkoma-ibu-adekvatnye-dlya-sbr-1346979/" type="external">Sport-Express</a>. According to the double Olympic biathlon bronze medalist, the issue of Russia maintaining the Tyumen stage of the World Cup was decided during a vote. “There were some voices in favor and some against. In the end, we were allowed to keep all of the events,” he said.</p>
<p>The IBU executive board met to discuss the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision regarding Russia’s participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and said it “accepted and will implement in time” the ruling by the Olympic bosses.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/412041-ioc-russia-ban-pyeongchang-details/" type="external">READ MORE: Yes to athletes, No to officials, Maybe to closing ceremony: Details of IOC Olympic ruling on Russia</a></p>
<p>Last week, the IOC blocked Russia from sending an official delegation to PyeongChang 2018, but granted ‘clean’ Russian athletes the right to take part in the Olympics independently, without their national flag and anthem.</p>
<p>The decision was based on the investigation by the IOC Disciplinary Commission led by Denis Oswald, which, according to Olympic chiefs, confirmed “the systematic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russia.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/sport/412369-ioc-decision-against-russia-not/" type="external">READ MORE: ‘IOC decision is against Russia, not just athletes’ – 3-time Olympic champion Irina Rodnina</a></p>
<p>Russia has blasted the ruling as unfair and politically motivated, put President Vladimir Putin said the country “will not impose any blockade, will not bar our Olympians from taking part [in the games], if any of them would like to participate on their own.”</p>
<p>Putin said the larger part of accusations against Russia were based “on evidence, which has not been proven and is largely unfounded” as well as statements by fugitive former Russian anti-doping official Grigory Rodchenkov, whom the Putin described as “a man whose moral and ethical values and mental state raise many questions.”</p>
| 7,118 |
<p>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ These Arkansas lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Cash 3 Evening</p>
<p>7-3-6</p>
<p>(seven, three, six)</p>
<p>Cash 3 Midday</p>
<p>0-7-4</p>
<p>(zero, seven, four)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Evening</p>
<p>8-3-7-3</p>
<p>(eight, three, seven, three)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Midday</p>
<p>2-1-5-9</p>
<p>(two, one, five, nine)</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>Natural State Jackpot</p>
<p>03-12-13-33-38</p>
<p>(three, twelve, thirteen, thirty-three, thirty-eight)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $65,000</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
<p>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ These Arkansas lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Cash 3 Evening</p>
<p>7-3-6</p>
<p>(seven, three, six)</p>
<p>Cash 3 Midday</p>
<p>0-7-4</p>
<p>(zero, seven, four)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Evening</p>
<p>8-3-7-3</p>
<p>(eight, three, seven, three)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Midday</p>
<p>2-1-5-9</p>
<p>(two, one, five, nine)</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>Natural State Jackpot</p>
<p>03-12-13-33-38</p>
<p>(three, twelve, thirteen, thirty-three, thirty-eight)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $65,000</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
|
AR Lottery
| false |
https://apnews.com/940fb93f34a7498499b08fa18ec64844
|
2018-01-13
| 2least
|
AR Lottery
<p>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ These Arkansas lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Cash 3 Evening</p>
<p>7-3-6</p>
<p>(seven, three, six)</p>
<p>Cash 3 Midday</p>
<p>0-7-4</p>
<p>(zero, seven, four)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Evening</p>
<p>8-3-7-3</p>
<p>(eight, three, seven, three)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Midday</p>
<p>2-1-5-9</p>
<p>(two, one, five, nine)</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>Natural State Jackpot</p>
<p>03-12-13-33-38</p>
<p>(three, twelve, thirteen, thirty-three, thirty-eight)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $65,000</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
<p>LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) _ These Arkansas lotteries were drawn Friday:</p>
<p>Cash 3 Evening</p>
<p>7-3-6</p>
<p>(seven, three, six)</p>
<p>Cash 3 Midday</p>
<p>0-7-4</p>
<p>(zero, seven, four)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Evening</p>
<p>8-3-7-3</p>
<p>(eight, three, seven, three)</p>
<p>Cash 4 Midday</p>
<p>2-1-5-9</p>
<p>(two, one, five, nine)</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>Natural State Jackpot</p>
<p>03-12-13-33-38</p>
<p>(three, twelve, thirteen, thirty-three, thirty-eight)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $65,000</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $50 million</p>
| 7,119 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>As the tense race between Los Angeles city councilwoman Janice Hahn and businessman Craig Huey comes to a close today, Independents in California’s 36th congressional district will be able to demonstrate their electoral prowess in a campaign that’s been closer than expected.</p>
<p>The latest <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/polling/2011/7/8/CA-36/38/wsI21" type="external">poll numbers</a> from Public Policy Polling demonstrate that Hahn’s projected advantage over her opponent Huey is currently down to single digits, holding to as much as an eight point advantage. In the poll, she leads Huey by 52%- 44%. Still undecided is a small but potentially influential 4%. Throw in a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9% and Huey’s proximity to Hahn could be a lot closer than expected.&#160;</p>
<p>This is where Independent voters can play a significant role in influencing an election that came as a result of the newly implemented top-two open primary system. Human Events conservative political reporter John Gizzi has <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=44707" type="external">noted</a> that while Democrats outnumber Republicans by 45%-27% district wide, another 20% of registered voters in the district are registered as “Decline to State.” In essence, Independents could make up a sizable chunk of the winning candidate’s share of votes.</p>
<p>California voters as a whole have traditionally been faithful to liberal candidates, and with the South Bay’s constituents leaning Democrat by a double digit margin over Republican, Hahn has pulled in the big whigs like former president Bill Clinton to help fundraise.&#160; However, if Independents pull for Huey in the end, then this very contest could be viewed as a vote against the political establishment. Even with President Clinton endorsing Hahn, it is a bit surprising that the race is as close as it is at this point.&#160;Gizzi has noted that the 36th district has ordinarily been very blue, having voted for now President Barack Obama by a 30 point margin and for candidate John Kerry by 20 points.</p>
<p>The Daily Kos, which initially commissioned the Public Policy Polling data, is banking on election day turnout to favor Hahn and propel her to victory. In its <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/11/993391/-CA-36:-Janice-Hahn-%28D%29-leads-by-8-for-tomorrows-special-election?detail=hide" type="external">blog post</a> citing poll data, however, the liberal blog seems to conveniently gloss over the fact that Independent voters favor Huey over Hahn by 50%-40%. Ten percent of Independents polled for today’s race are still undecided.&#160;</p>
<p>The Public Policy Poll’s sample included 619 likely voters and was conducted July 8, 2011- July 10, 2011.</p>
|
Independents could be the deciding factor in today’s CD-36 special election
| false |
https://ivn.us/2011/07/12/independents-could-be-deciding-factor-todays-cd-36-special-election/
|
2011-07-12
| 2least
|
Independents could be the deciding factor in today’s CD-36 special election
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>As the tense race between Los Angeles city councilwoman Janice Hahn and businessman Craig Huey comes to a close today, Independents in California’s 36th congressional district will be able to demonstrate their electoral prowess in a campaign that’s been closer than expected.</p>
<p>The latest <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/polling/2011/7/8/CA-36/38/wsI21" type="external">poll numbers</a> from Public Policy Polling demonstrate that Hahn’s projected advantage over her opponent Huey is currently down to single digits, holding to as much as an eight point advantage. In the poll, she leads Huey by 52%- 44%. Still undecided is a small but potentially influential 4%. Throw in a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9% and Huey’s proximity to Hahn could be a lot closer than expected.&#160;</p>
<p>This is where Independent voters can play a significant role in influencing an election that came as a result of the newly implemented top-two open primary system. Human Events conservative political reporter John Gizzi has <a href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=44707" type="external">noted</a> that while Democrats outnumber Republicans by 45%-27% district wide, another 20% of registered voters in the district are registered as “Decline to State.” In essence, Independents could make up a sizable chunk of the winning candidate’s share of votes.</p>
<p>California voters as a whole have traditionally been faithful to liberal candidates, and with the South Bay’s constituents leaning Democrat by a double digit margin over Republican, Hahn has pulled in the big whigs like former president Bill Clinton to help fundraise.&#160; However, if Independents pull for Huey in the end, then this very contest could be viewed as a vote against the political establishment. Even with President Clinton endorsing Hahn, it is a bit surprising that the race is as close as it is at this point.&#160;Gizzi has noted that the 36th district has ordinarily been very blue, having voted for now President Barack Obama by a 30 point margin and for candidate John Kerry by 20 points.</p>
<p>The Daily Kos, which initially commissioned the Public Policy Polling data, is banking on election day turnout to favor Hahn and propel her to victory. In its <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/11/993391/-CA-36:-Janice-Hahn-%28D%29-leads-by-8-for-tomorrows-special-election?detail=hide" type="external">blog post</a> citing poll data, however, the liberal blog seems to conveniently gloss over the fact that Independent voters favor Huey over Hahn by 50%-40%. Ten percent of Independents polled for today’s race are still undecided.&#160;</p>
<p>The Public Policy Poll’s sample included 619 likely voters and was conducted July 8, 2011- July 10, 2011.</p>
| 7,120 |
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<p>In this image taken from video provided by BP PLC at 12:23 a.m. EDT, Saturday Sept. 4, 2010 Aug. 3, 2010 shows the blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico being raised to the surface. The last-ditch safety device that didn’t stop the 2010 BP oil spill had multiple failures, wasn’t tested properly, and still poses a risk for many rigs drilling today, another federal investigation board concludes. The report issued Thursday by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board zeroes in on what went wrong with the blowout preventer and blames bad management and operations. They found two different sets of wrong wiring, a dead battery and a bent pipe in the hulking failsafe device. And that they said led to the dumping of 172 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/BP PLC) NO SALES</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — The key last-ditch safety device that failed to prevent the 2010 BP oil spill remains a potentially catastrophic problem today for some offshore drilling, according to a federal safety board investigation.</p>
<p>The report issued Thursday by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board details the multiple failures and improper testing of the blowout preventer and blames bad management and operations for the breakdown. They found faulty wiring, a dead battery and a bent pipe in the hulking device.</p>
<p>“The problems with this blowout preventer were worse than we understood,” safety board managing director Daniel Horowitz said in an interview. “And there are still hazards out there that need to be improved if we are to prevent this from happening again.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The safety board, like the National Transportation Safety Board, can investigate but has no regulatory power. It recommended new safety standards and regulations in its report.</p>
<p>If the offshore oil drilling industry doesn’t adopt them and regulators don’t tighten up oversight of these devices, it “opens the possibility of another catastrophic accident,” lead investigator Cheryl MacKenzie said at a news conference Thursday.</p>
<p>But investigators also noted that the industry is working on new designs that could fix many of the problems the safety board outlined. And the American Petroleum Institute issued a statement saying the report “ignores the tremendous strides made to enhance the safety of offshore operations.”</p>
<p>The nation’s worst offshore oil spill followed an explosion that killed 11 workers at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The blowout preventer anchored to the top of the underwater well should have stopped the leak.</p>
<p>In such emergencies, the device uses multiple mechanisms — including clamps and quick-release blades — to try to choke off the oil flowing up from a pipe and disconnect the rig from the well. It can operate automatically when pressure or electricity is cut off or manually.</p>
<p>The one that failed was 9 years old, nearly 57 feet tall and weighed about 400 tons. After it broke down, an estimated 172 million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf for 87 days.</p>
<p>Robert Bea, a professor of engineering and expert in oil pipelines at the University of California Berkeley, praised the report and said blowout preventers are like cruise ship lifeboats, used only in last resort but crucial. In this case, and potentially in some others still out there, a blowout preventer may be “deeply flawed” or full of holes, said Bea, who was not involved in the new study.</p>
<p>Various investigations have found that the cause of the initial explosion involved multiple screw-ups with cement, drilling mud, fluid pressure, botched tests, management problems and poor decisions. The blowout preventer sealed the well temporarily, but then it failed and that caused the massive spill, the new 166-page report found.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The report faulted well owner BP and rig operator Transocean. The problem, said safety board investigator Mary Beth Mulcahy, was that they didn’t test the blowout preventer’s individual safety systems but the device as a whole. It turned out there were two sets of faulty wiring that caused problems and a dead battery.</p>
<p>Mulcahy said the companies were following a testing standard set by the industry, not the individual testing suggested by the manufacturer.</p>
<p>The safety board also found that the drill pipe in the mechanism bent far earlier in the accident and from a different cause than determined by a presidential oil spill commission. It is the type of bending that could happen even if operators are doing everything right, Mulcahy said.</p>
<p>The board said the same device design is being used on at least 30 rigs worldwide and some general problems with operations and testing could affect other types of preventers.</p>
<p>Donald Boesch, a University of Maryland professor who was on the presidential oil spill commission, agreed with the latest investigation. He said the chemical safety board was able to do what his board didn’t do, a hands-on testing of the device.</p>
<p>The two companies involved in rig operations blamed each other. BP spokesman Geoff Morrell said all of the evidence “demonstrates that Transocean owned the rig’s blowout preventer and was responsible for its maintenance.”</p>
<p>Transocean spokesman Brian Kennedy noted that BP pleaded guilty to 12 felony counts from the accident while Transocean did to only one misdemeanor violation of the Clean Water Act.</p>
<p>Kennedy also said the blowout preventer “had been tested successfully in accordance with regulatory requirements and activated as intended at the time of the incident, but was unable to seal the well because immense pressure buckled the drill pipe.”</p>
<p>Transocean was fined $1.4 billion while BP was fined $1.3 billion and ordered to pay an additional $2.6 billion for environmental and research work</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>Chemical Safety Board: <a href="http://www.csb.gov/" type="external">http://www.csb.gov/</a></p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Seth Borenstein can be followed at <a href="http://twitter.com/borenbears" type="external">http://twitter.com/borenbears</a></p>
|
Board: Oil drilling risks remain from device woes
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/411222/board-oil-drilling-risks-remain-from-device-woes.html
| 2least
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Board: Oil drilling risks remain from device woes
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>In this image taken from video provided by BP PLC at 12:23 a.m. EDT, Saturday Sept. 4, 2010 Aug. 3, 2010 shows the blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico being raised to the surface. The last-ditch safety device that didn’t stop the 2010 BP oil spill had multiple failures, wasn’t tested properly, and still poses a risk for many rigs drilling today, another federal investigation board concludes. The report issued Thursday by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board zeroes in on what went wrong with the blowout preventer and blames bad management and operations. They found two different sets of wrong wiring, a dead battery and a bent pipe in the hulking failsafe device. And that they said led to the dumping of 172 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/BP PLC) NO SALES</p>
<p>WASHINGTON — The key last-ditch safety device that failed to prevent the 2010 BP oil spill remains a potentially catastrophic problem today for some offshore drilling, according to a federal safety board investigation.</p>
<p>The report issued Thursday by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board details the multiple failures and improper testing of the blowout preventer and blames bad management and operations for the breakdown. They found faulty wiring, a dead battery and a bent pipe in the hulking device.</p>
<p>“The problems with this blowout preventer were worse than we understood,” safety board managing director Daniel Horowitz said in an interview. “And there are still hazards out there that need to be improved if we are to prevent this from happening again.”</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The safety board, like the National Transportation Safety Board, can investigate but has no regulatory power. It recommended new safety standards and regulations in its report.</p>
<p>If the offshore oil drilling industry doesn’t adopt them and regulators don’t tighten up oversight of these devices, it “opens the possibility of another catastrophic accident,” lead investigator Cheryl MacKenzie said at a news conference Thursday.</p>
<p>But investigators also noted that the industry is working on new designs that could fix many of the problems the safety board outlined. And the American Petroleum Institute issued a statement saying the report “ignores the tremendous strides made to enhance the safety of offshore operations.”</p>
<p>The nation’s worst offshore oil spill followed an explosion that killed 11 workers at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The blowout preventer anchored to the top of the underwater well should have stopped the leak.</p>
<p>In such emergencies, the device uses multiple mechanisms — including clamps and quick-release blades — to try to choke off the oil flowing up from a pipe and disconnect the rig from the well. It can operate automatically when pressure or electricity is cut off or manually.</p>
<p>The one that failed was 9 years old, nearly 57 feet tall and weighed about 400 tons. After it broke down, an estimated 172 million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf for 87 days.</p>
<p>Robert Bea, a professor of engineering and expert in oil pipelines at the University of California Berkeley, praised the report and said blowout preventers are like cruise ship lifeboats, used only in last resort but crucial. In this case, and potentially in some others still out there, a blowout preventer may be “deeply flawed” or full of holes, said Bea, who was not involved in the new study.</p>
<p>Various investigations have found that the cause of the initial explosion involved multiple screw-ups with cement, drilling mud, fluid pressure, botched tests, management problems and poor decisions. The blowout preventer sealed the well temporarily, but then it failed and that caused the massive spill, the new 166-page report found.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The report faulted well owner BP and rig operator Transocean. The problem, said safety board investigator Mary Beth Mulcahy, was that they didn’t test the blowout preventer’s individual safety systems but the device as a whole. It turned out there were two sets of faulty wiring that caused problems and a dead battery.</p>
<p>Mulcahy said the companies were following a testing standard set by the industry, not the individual testing suggested by the manufacturer.</p>
<p>The safety board also found that the drill pipe in the mechanism bent far earlier in the accident and from a different cause than determined by a presidential oil spill commission. It is the type of bending that could happen even if operators are doing everything right, Mulcahy said.</p>
<p>The board said the same device design is being used on at least 30 rigs worldwide and some general problems with operations and testing could affect other types of preventers.</p>
<p>Donald Boesch, a University of Maryland professor who was on the presidential oil spill commission, agreed with the latest investigation. He said the chemical safety board was able to do what his board didn’t do, a hands-on testing of the device.</p>
<p>The two companies involved in rig operations blamed each other. BP spokesman Geoff Morrell said all of the evidence “demonstrates that Transocean owned the rig’s blowout preventer and was responsible for its maintenance.”</p>
<p>Transocean spokesman Brian Kennedy noted that BP pleaded guilty to 12 felony counts from the accident while Transocean did to only one misdemeanor violation of the Clean Water Act.</p>
<p>Kennedy also said the blowout preventer “had been tested successfully in accordance with regulatory requirements and activated as intended at the time of the incident, but was unable to seal the well because immense pressure buckled the drill pipe.”</p>
<p>Transocean was fined $1.4 billion while BP was fined $1.3 billion and ordered to pay an additional $2.6 billion for environmental and research work</p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Online:</p>
<p>Chemical Safety Board: <a href="http://www.csb.gov/" type="external">http://www.csb.gov/</a></p>
<p>——</p>
<p>Seth Borenstein can be followed at <a href="http://twitter.com/borenbears" type="external">http://twitter.com/borenbears</a></p>
| 7,121 |
|
<p>Guns on sale / AP</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Washington Free Beacon Staff</a>January 17, 2013 10:54 am</p>
<p>President Barack Obama's&#160; <a href="" type="internal">proposed ban</a> on assault weapons may face a road block for the sheer reason that no one seems to know exactly what defines them.</p>
<p>According to the&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/us/even-defining-assault-weapons-is-complicated.html" type="external">New York Times</a>, the label of "assault weapon" applied to firearms available to civilians is so vague and politicized that it may be impossible to find a definition comprehensive enough to banish them from the market.</p>
<p>Obama's decision to go after "military-style weapons" adds to the confusion:</p>
<p>The most basic criteria have to do with a firearm’s ability to fire multiple rounds quickly. Because of this, the firearms included under any assault weapons ban are usually semiautomatic, meaning that a new round is automatically reloaded into the chamber but is not fired until the trigger is pulled again. The weapons also have detachable magazines, allowing them to fire 10, 20, 30 rounds or more without the need to insert a new magazine.</p>
<p>After that, however, the definition becomes more difficult. In calling for a renewed ban, Mr. Obama on Wednesday singled out "military style" weapons.</p>
<p>Those could include features like a pistol grip, designed to allow a weapon to be fired from the hip; a collapsible or folding stock, which allows the weapon to be shortened and perhaps concealed; a flash suppressor, which keeps the gun’s user from being blinded by muzzle flashes; a muzzle brake, which helps decrease recoil; and a threaded barrel, which can accept a silencer or a suppressor. Bayonet lugs or grenade launchers are also sometimes included.</p>
<p>But there is disagreement about which features are worrisome enough to include in a ban. And existing state bans differ in how many features they allow.</p>
|
No One Knows What an Assault Weapon Is
| true |
http://freebeacon.com/no-one-knows-what-an-assault-weapon-is/
|
2013-01-17
| 0right
|
No One Knows What an Assault Weapon Is
<p>Guns on sale / AP</p>
<p>BY: <a href="" type="internal">Washington Free Beacon Staff</a>January 17, 2013 10:54 am</p>
<p>President Barack Obama's&#160; <a href="" type="internal">proposed ban</a> on assault weapons may face a road block for the sheer reason that no one seems to know exactly what defines them.</p>
<p>According to the&#160; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/us/even-defining-assault-weapons-is-complicated.html" type="external">New York Times</a>, the label of "assault weapon" applied to firearms available to civilians is so vague and politicized that it may be impossible to find a definition comprehensive enough to banish them from the market.</p>
<p>Obama's decision to go after "military-style weapons" adds to the confusion:</p>
<p>The most basic criteria have to do with a firearm’s ability to fire multiple rounds quickly. Because of this, the firearms included under any assault weapons ban are usually semiautomatic, meaning that a new round is automatically reloaded into the chamber but is not fired until the trigger is pulled again. The weapons also have detachable magazines, allowing them to fire 10, 20, 30 rounds or more without the need to insert a new magazine.</p>
<p>After that, however, the definition becomes more difficult. In calling for a renewed ban, Mr. Obama on Wednesday singled out "military style" weapons.</p>
<p>Those could include features like a pistol grip, designed to allow a weapon to be fired from the hip; a collapsible or folding stock, which allows the weapon to be shortened and perhaps concealed; a flash suppressor, which keeps the gun’s user from being blinded by muzzle flashes; a muzzle brake, which helps decrease recoil; and a threaded barrel, which can accept a silencer or a suppressor. Bayonet lugs or grenade launchers are also sometimes included.</p>
<p>But there is disagreement about which features are worrisome enough to include in a ban. And existing state bans differ in how many features they allow.</p>
| 7,122 |
<p>Lesser known, an exclusive Occupy.com investigation reveals that Popovic and the Otpor! offshoot&#160; <a href="http://www.canvasopedia.org/" type="external">CANVAS</a>&#160;(Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies) have also maintained close ties with a Goldman Sachs executive and the private intelligence firm&#160; <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/" type="external">Stratfor</a>&#160;(Strategic Forecasting, Inc.), as well as the U.S. government. Popovic’s wife also worked at Stratfor for a year.</p>
<p>These revelations come in the aftermath of thousands of new emails released by&#160; <a href="http://wikileaks.org/the-gifiles.html" type="external">Wikileaks' “Global Intelligence Files.”</a>&#160;The emails reveal Popovic worked closely with Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based private firm that gathers intelligence on geopolitical events and activists for&#160; <a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/divide-and-conquer-unpacking-stratfors-rise-to-power/165933/" type="external">clients</a>&#160;ranging from the American Petroleum Institute and Archer Daniels Midland to Dow Chemical, Duke Energy, Northrop Grumman, Intel and Coca-Cola.</p>
<p>Referred to in emails under the moniker&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1751248" type="external">“SR501,”</a>&#160;Popovic was first approached by Stratfor in 2007 to give a lecture in the firm's office about events transpiring in Eastern Europe, according to a Stratfor source who asked to remain confidential for this story.</p>
<p>In one of the emails, Popovic forwarded information about activists harmed or killed by the&#160; <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/americas-arms-sales-bahrain-crackdown" type="external">U.S.-armed Bahraini government,</a>&#160;obtained from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights during the regime’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists in fall 2011. Popovic also&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=218642" type="external">penned a blueprint</a>&#160;for Stratfor on how to unseat the now-deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in September 2010.</p>
<p>Stratfor’s Global Activist Connector</p>
<p>Using his celebrated activist status, Popovic opened many doors for Stratfor to meet with activists globally. In turn, the information Stratfor intended to gain from Popovic’s contacts would serve as “actionable intelligence” —&#160; <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/28/wikileaks_leaked_emails_expose_inner_workings" type="external">the firm billed itself as a “Shadow CIA”</a>&#160;— for its corporate clients.</p>
<p>Popovic passed information to Stratfor about on-the-ground activist events in countries around the world, ranging from the&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=3480597%20" type="external">Philippines</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1673040" type="external">Libya</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1691011%20" type="external">Tunisia</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1224078" type="external">Vietnam</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1693898" type="external">Iran</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1827085" type="external">Azerbaijan</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1713995" type="external">Egypt</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1760407" type="external">Tibet</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1770369%20" type="external">Zimbabwe</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1682143" type="external">Poland and Belarus</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=5532122" type="external">Georgia</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=216045" type="external">Bahrain</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1755262" type="external">Venezuela</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1216255" type="external">Malaysia</a>. Often, the emails reveal, Popovic passed on the information to Stratfor without the consent of the activists and likely without the activists ever knowing that their emails were being shuttled to the private security firm.</p>
<p>In the U.S., this investigation's co-author, Carl Gibson (representing US Uncut), and the Yes Men’s Andy Bichlbaum had a meeting with Popovic shortly after their two respective groups used a&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK7ONKs8-Cs" type="external">media hoax</a>&#160;to play a prank on General Electric, ridiculing the company over its&#160; <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2012/04/warren-ge-pays-no-taxes/" type="external">non-payment of U.S. taxes</a>.</p>
<p>The pair gave Popovic information about both groups’ plans for the coming year and news later came out that Stratfor&#160; <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/28/wikileaks_private_spies_stratfor_helped_dow" type="external">closely monitored the Yes Men’s activities</a>. (The below photograph taken by Bichlbaum in April 2011 shows Popovic (L) and US Uncut’s Carl Gibson.)</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>During the Arab Spring, in Egypt in January 2011, Popovic&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=118017" type="external">received an interview invitation</a>&#160;for an appearance on CNN. The first people he turned to for talking points were Stratfor employees, who&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1695077" type="external">provided him with five talking points</a>&#160;to lead with.</p>
<p>Stratfor said Popovic’s main use for the firm was his vast array of grassroots activist contacts around the world.</p>
<p>“A little reminder that the main utility in this contact is his ability to connect us to the troublemakers around the world that he is in touch with. His own ability to discern situation on the ground may be limited, he mainly has initial contact with an asset and then lets them do their own thing,”&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1751248%20" type="external">reads a May 2010 email</a>&#160;written by former Stratfor Eurasia Analyst Marko Papic. “He does himself have information that may be useful from time to time. But, the idea is to gather a network of contacts through CANVAS, contacts that we can then contact independently.”</p>
<p>Popovic was so well-received by Stratfor that&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1724637%20" type="external">he even got his wife, Marijah, a job there</a>. She worked for a year from March 2010&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=462924%20" type="external">through March 2011</a>&#160;as the weekend open source intelligence analyst at Stratfor.&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1710196" type="external">The other candidate for the job, Jelena Tancic, also worked for CANVAS</a>.</p>
<p>“The Canvas guy [Popovic] is a friend/source [for Stratfor], and recommended her to us,”&#160; <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/about/analysts/scott-stewart" type="external">Stratfor’s Vice President of Analysis Scott Stewart</a>&#160;said in a&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=384127" type="external">March 2010 email</a>, leaving out that the two were dating at the time.</p>
<p>Popovic and his wife grew so close to Stratfor, in fact, that Popovic&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=104475" type="external">invited numerous members of the Stratfor staff to their wedding</a>&#160;in Belgrade, Serbia.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p />
<p>Helping Stratfor Manufacture Revolutions</p>
<p>Stratfor saw Popovic’s main value not only as a source for intelligence on global revolutionary and activist movements, but also as someone who, if needed, could help overthrow leaders of countries hostile to U.S. geopolitical and financial interests. So useful was Popovic to Stratfor that the firm gave him a free subscription, dubbed “ <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=43955" type="external">legit sources we use all the time as a company</a>” by Papic.</p>
<p>In a&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1760436" type="external">June 2011 email</a>, Papic referred to Popovic as a “great friend” of his and described him as a “Serb activist who travels the world fomenting revolution.”</p>
<p>“They...basically go around the world trying to topple dictators and autocratic governments (ones that U.S. does not like ;),”&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1767848" type="external">Papic says in one email</a>. Replying to a follow up to that email, he states, “They just go and set up shop in a country and try to bring the government down. When used properly, more powerful than an aircraft carrier battle group.”</p>
<p>In response to the “aircraft battle group” email,&#160; <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/about/analysts/fred-burton" type="external">Stratfor Vice President of Intelligence Fred Burton</a>&#160;sardonically said that perhaps they could be&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1767848" type="external">sent into Iran</a>. Emails also reveal Popovic&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1674908" type="external">served as an information source</a>&#160;intermediary for&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1699694" type="external">on-the-ground activists</a>&#160;in Iran, also informing Stratfor of the&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1122331" type="external">funding struggle for “democracy programs”&#160;</a>there, as the U.S. government pushed a “soft power” agenda.</p>
<p>Another March 2010 email from Stewart to Burton said that CANVAS was&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=379065" type="external">“trying to get rid of Chavez,”</a>&#160;referring to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In 2007, CANVAS&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=5488062" type="external">trained activists to overthrow Chavez</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>“If I remember correctly, we use hushmail communication to contact him regarding Venezuela due to the sensitivity of using a revolutionary NGO as a source considering we have clients who operate in country,”&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1642571" type="external">Papic said in a January 2011 email</a>&#160;of Popovic.</p>
<p>Stratfor grew so enamored of CANVAS’s ability to foment regime change abroad that it&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1174110" type="external">invited Popovic to its Austin headquarters in 2010 to give seminars</a>&#160;on the subject, and paid for his trip there.</p>
<p>CANVAS’s Goldman Sachs Cash</p>
<p><a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1765749" type="external">One of CANVAS’s major allies is Muneer Satter</a>, a former Goldman Sachs executive who&#160; <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-15/goldman-mezzanine-chief-muneer-satter-said-to-step-down.html" type="external">stepped down from that position in June 2012</a>and now owns Satter Investment Management LLC.&#160; <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/about/executives/shea-morenz" type="external">Stratfor CEO Shea Morenz</a>&#160;worked for ten years at Goldman Sachs as well, where he served as Managing Director in the Investment Management Division and Region Head for Private Wealth Management for the Southwest Region.</p>
<p>Satter is meanwhile a major funder of the Republican Party,&#160; <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/donor_detail.php?cycle=2012&amp;id=Satter+Investment+Management&amp;type=B&amp;super=N" type="external">giving over $300,000 to Karl Rove’s Super PAC</a>&#160;Crossroads GPS before the 2012 election, and&#160; <a href="http://blogs.rollcall.com/moneyline/democratic-governors-raise-13-million-republicans-raise-24-million/" type="external">another $100,000 to the Republican Governors Association</a>&#160;in the first half of 2013 prior to the 2014 mid-term elections.</p>
<p>Living in a&#160; <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-05-19/business/0205180226_1_mansion-goldman-sachs-lake-michigan" type="external">massive, $9.5 million mansion</a>&#160;in Chicago's North Shore suburb of Lake Michigan, Muneer also&#160; <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/obama/inaug_2009.php" type="external">gave $50,000 toward President Obama’s inaugural fund</a>&#160;in 2009.</p>
<p />
<p>When it came time to connect Muneer with the global intelligence firm, Popovic served as the middle man&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1756086" type="external">introducing Satter to Stratfor Chairman George Friedman</a>.</p>
<p>"Whenever I want to understand the details behind world events, I turn to Stratfor,” reads an endorsement from Satter&#160; <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/about/clients" type="external">on Stratfor's website</a>. “They have the most detailed and insightful analysis of world affairs and are miles ahead of mainstream media."</p>
<p>Otpor!: A Counter-History</p>
<p>To understand how Popovic came to aide Stratfor in its intelligence-gathering efforts, it’s crucial to examine Otpor! and CANVAS critically. A close examination demonstrates that Popovic was a natural choice to be a Stratfor informant and close advisor.</p>
<p>Often&#160; <a href="http://wagingnonviolence.org/2013/11/stratfor-canvas/" type="external">valorized by grassroots activists</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/16/revolution_u" type="external">Western media</a>, there was far more to the “Bulldozer Revolution” that led to the overthrow of Milošević and subsequent Eastern European regimes than meets the eye.</p>
<p>“In principle, [Serbia] was an overt operation, funded by congressional appropriations of around $10 million for fiscal 1999 and $31 million for 2000. Some Americans involved in the anti-Milosevic effort said they were aware of CIA activity at the fringes of the campaign, but had trouble finding out what the agency was up to,” explained a 2000&#160; <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/843903/u-s-adviceguidedmilosevicopposition.pdf" type="external">investigative piece appearing in The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>“The lead role was taken by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government's foreign assistance agency, which channeled the funds through commercial contractors and nonprofit groups such as NDI and its Republican counterpart, the International Republican Institute (IRI).”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Papic’s statement about CANVAS being “more powerful than an aircraft carrier” wasn’t mere hyperbole, but was based on the Otpor! Serbia experience in the late-1990s.</p>
<p>“In fact between 1997 and 2000 the National Endowment for Democracy and US government may have accomplished what NATO’s 37,000 bombing sorties had been unable to do: oust Milosevic, replace him with their favoured candidate Vojislav Kostunica and promote a neoliberal vision for Serbia,”&#160; <a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/promoting-polyarchy-in-serbia-by-michael-barker.html" type="external">independent scholar Michael Barker wrote for Z Magazine</a>. “In much the same way as corporate front groups and astroturf groups recruit genuinely committed supporters, strategically useful social movements can potentially dominate civil society when provided with the right resources (massive financial and professional backing).”</p>
<p />
<p>Otpor! was so successful that it was&#160; <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/nov/26/ukraine.usa" type="external">ushered into Ukraine to help manufacture regime change</a>&#160;there in 2004,&#160; <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1056498.html" type="external">using the template applied originally in Serbia</a>&#160;with&#160; <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1056498.html" type="external">$65 million</a>&#160;in cash from the U.S. government.</p>
<p>"We trained them in how to set up an organization, how to open local chapters, how to create a 'brand,' how to create a logo, symbols, and key messages," an Otpor! activist&#160; <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1056498.html" type="external">told U.S.-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty</a>. "We trained them in how to identify the key weaknesses in society and what people's most pressing problems were—what might be a motivating factor for people, and above all young people, to go to the ballot box and in this way shape their own destiny."</p>
<p>The overthrow of Milošević was accompanied by U.S.-funding for the creation of a robust media apparatus in Serbia, and Popovic’s wife worked at one of the U.S.-funded radio and TV outlets as a journalist and anchor&#160; <a href="http://www.b92.net/eng/" type="external">B92</a>&#160;from 2004-2009.</p>
<p>“By helping Radio B92 and linking it with a network of radio stations (ANEM), international assistance undermined the regime’s direct and indirect control over news and information,” a&#160; <a href="http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNACU777.pdf" type="external">January 2004 policy paper released by USAID explained</a>. “In Serbia, independent media supported by USAID and other international donors facilitated the regime change.”</p>
<p>Critics point out that what happened in Eastern Europe was regime change, not revolution in any real sense of the term.</p>
<p>“[They] were not revolutions at all; actually, they were little more than intra-elite power transfers,’” Portland State University Professor of Urban Studies and Planning,&#160; <a href="http://www.pdx.edu/profile/gerald-sussman" type="external">Gerald Sussman</a>, explained in his book, “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Branding-Democracy-Frontiers-Political-Communication/dp/1433105314" type="external">Branded Democracy: U.S. Regime Change in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe</a>.”</p>
<p>“Modern tactics of electioneering were employed to cast regime change as populist, which took advantage of the unstable and vulnerable situations in those regions following the breakup of the Soviet Union,” he wrote.</p>
<p>Given Otpor!’s ties to powerful factions in the U.S. government, perhaps it’s unsurprising that Popovic felt comfortable&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1734126" type="external">giving a lecture to the Air Force Academy in May 2010</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1725157" type="external">attending a National Security Council meeting in December 2009</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>A powerful individual who&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1746019" type="external">lobbied the U.S. government to give money to CANVAS</a>&#160;early on was Michael McFaul,&#160; <a href="http://moscow.usembassy.gov/ambassador.html" type="external">the current U.S. Ambassador to Russia for the State Department</a>&#160;and someone who “worked closely with” Popovic while&#160; <a href="http://www.hoover.org/fellows/9889" type="external">serving as a Senior Fellow</a>&#160;at the <a href="http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Hoover_Institution" type="external">right-wing Hoover Institution</a>&#160;at Stanford University.</p>
<p>Critics Chime In, Popovic Responds</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_al-Khawaja" type="external">Maryam Alkhawaja</a>, director of the&#160; <a href="http://www.bahrainrights.org/" type="external">Bahrain Center for Human Rights</a>, said she had known Popovic for several years as an activist and had no knowledge of his outside relationships before the Wikileaks release of Stratfor emails.</p>
<p>“Srdja is someone I’ve met more than once. He was very supportive of the Bahrain revolution, supportive of the human rights fight,” Alkhawaja said in a phone interview. “When he gave me their information, that’s what surprised me the most.”</p>
<p>Alkhawaja said that at the time she wasn’t aware of what kind of firm Stratfor was, but she became immediately suspicious after reading Stratfor’s questions to her. She never corresponded with Stratfor due to what she felt was the suspicious nature of the emails coming from the firm.</p>
<p>“It was a series of really weird intelligence agency-like questions, given that they knew I was working in a human rights group. They were asking questions like, who’s funding the party coalition, how many members do they have, questions that even I didn’t know the answers to,” she said. “The fact that they asked questions like that, made me question the motive behind&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=216045" type="external">the email I received</a>. Thats why I never responded.”</p>
<p>“Whenever we get emails like that or were contacted by people who seemed very interested in asking intelligence agency-like questions, we usually block them, because we know they probably work for the government,” Alkhawaja continued. “Journalists know the kind of work we do so they wouldn’t ask those questions in the first place. I just found the email very weird and thats why I actually never responded.”</p>
<p>In a Skype interview, one of Otpor!’s co-founders, who left the movement and asked to maintain his confidentiality, said his primary concern from the Wikileaks emails was that Popovic was giving out activists’ information to a third party without their prior consent.</p>
<p>An interview with Popovic sang a different tune about CANVAS. He stated, “We definitely wouldn’t jeopardize any of our activists' safety, so we always follow their lead and never expose them to anybody without their consent.”</p>
<p>Popovic also said CANVAS would speak to anyone and everyone—without any discrimination—about nonviolent direct action.</p>
<p>“CANVAS will present anywhere — to those committed to activism and nonviolent struggle, but also to those who still live in the Cold War era and think that tanks and planes and nukes shape the world, not the common people leading popular movements,” he said.</p>
<p>“If we can persuade any decision maker in the world, in Washington, Kremlin, Tel Aviv or Damascus that it is nonviolent struggle that they should embrace and respect – not foreign military intervention, or oppression over own population – we would do that.”</p>
<p>Yet, given Popovic’s track-record—and specifically, who buttered his bread during the long professional career he pursued in activism—critics say Popovic fit like a glove at Stratfor.</p>
<p>“A group of Serbs cannot lead a protest movement anywhere outside Serbia, but his techniques are nonetheless instrumental in helping achieve certain political aims,” Professor Sussman said in an interview. “He also serves as an intelligence gatherer in the process—of use to private and state intelligence agencies. That's what Stratfor saw as his use.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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Exposed: Globally Renowned Activist Collaborated With Intelligence Firm Stratfor
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http://occupy.com/article/exposed-globally-renowned-activist-collaborated-intelligence-firm-stratfor
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Exposed: Globally Renowned Activist Collaborated With Intelligence Firm Stratfor
<p>Lesser known, an exclusive Occupy.com investigation reveals that Popovic and the Otpor! offshoot&#160; <a href="http://www.canvasopedia.org/" type="external">CANVAS</a>&#160;(Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies) have also maintained close ties with a Goldman Sachs executive and the private intelligence firm&#160; <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/" type="external">Stratfor</a>&#160;(Strategic Forecasting, Inc.), as well as the U.S. government. Popovic’s wife also worked at Stratfor for a year.</p>
<p>These revelations come in the aftermath of thousands of new emails released by&#160; <a href="http://wikileaks.org/the-gifiles.html" type="external">Wikileaks' “Global Intelligence Files.”</a>&#160;The emails reveal Popovic worked closely with Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based private firm that gathers intelligence on geopolitical events and activists for&#160; <a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/divide-and-conquer-unpacking-stratfors-rise-to-power/165933/" type="external">clients</a>&#160;ranging from the American Petroleum Institute and Archer Daniels Midland to Dow Chemical, Duke Energy, Northrop Grumman, Intel and Coca-Cola.</p>
<p>Referred to in emails under the moniker&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1751248" type="external">“SR501,”</a>&#160;Popovic was first approached by Stratfor in 2007 to give a lecture in the firm's office about events transpiring in Eastern Europe, according to a Stratfor source who asked to remain confidential for this story.</p>
<p>In one of the emails, Popovic forwarded information about activists harmed or killed by the&#160; <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/americas-arms-sales-bahrain-crackdown" type="external">U.S.-armed Bahraini government,</a>&#160;obtained from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights during the regime’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists in fall 2011. Popovic also&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=218642" type="external">penned a blueprint</a>&#160;for Stratfor on how to unseat the now-deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in September 2010.</p>
<p>Stratfor’s Global Activist Connector</p>
<p>Using his celebrated activist status, Popovic opened many doors for Stratfor to meet with activists globally. In turn, the information Stratfor intended to gain from Popovic’s contacts would serve as “actionable intelligence” —&#160; <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/28/wikileaks_leaked_emails_expose_inner_workings" type="external">the firm billed itself as a “Shadow CIA”</a>&#160;— for its corporate clients.</p>
<p>Popovic passed information to Stratfor about on-the-ground activist events in countries around the world, ranging from the&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=3480597%20" type="external">Philippines</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1673040" type="external">Libya</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1691011%20" type="external">Tunisia</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1224078" type="external">Vietnam</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1693898" type="external">Iran</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1827085" type="external">Azerbaijan</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1713995" type="external">Egypt</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1760407" type="external">Tibet</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1770369%20" type="external">Zimbabwe</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1682143" type="external">Poland and Belarus</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=5532122" type="external">Georgia</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=216045" type="external">Bahrain</a>,&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1755262" type="external">Venezuela</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1216255" type="external">Malaysia</a>. Often, the emails reveal, Popovic passed on the information to Stratfor without the consent of the activists and likely without the activists ever knowing that their emails were being shuttled to the private security firm.</p>
<p>In the U.S., this investigation's co-author, Carl Gibson (representing US Uncut), and the Yes Men’s Andy Bichlbaum had a meeting with Popovic shortly after their two respective groups used a&#160; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK7ONKs8-Cs" type="external">media hoax</a>&#160;to play a prank on General Electric, ridiculing the company over its&#160; <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2012/04/warren-ge-pays-no-taxes/" type="external">non-payment of U.S. taxes</a>.</p>
<p>The pair gave Popovic information about both groups’ plans for the coming year and news later came out that Stratfor&#160; <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/28/wikileaks_private_spies_stratfor_helped_dow" type="external">closely monitored the Yes Men’s activities</a>. (The below photograph taken by Bichlbaum in April 2011 shows Popovic (L) and US Uncut’s Carl Gibson.)</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>During the Arab Spring, in Egypt in January 2011, Popovic&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=118017" type="external">received an interview invitation</a>&#160;for an appearance on CNN. The first people he turned to for talking points were Stratfor employees, who&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1695077" type="external">provided him with five talking points</a>&#160;to lead with.</p>
<p>Stratfor said Popovic’s main use for the firm was his vast array of grassroots activist contacts around the world.</p>
<p>“A little reminder that the main utility in this contact is his ability to connect us to the troublemakers around the world that he is in touch with. His own ability to discern situation on the ground may be limited, he mainly has initial contact with an asset and then lets them do their own thing,”&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1751248%20" type="external">reads a May 2010 email</a>&#160;written by former Stratfor Eurasia Analyst Marko Papic. “He does himself have information that may be useful from time to time. But, the idea is to gather a network of contacts through CANVAS, contacts that we can then contact independently.”</p>
<p>Popovic was so well-received by Stratfor that&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1724637%20" type="external">he even got his wife, Marijah, a job there</a>. She worked for a year from March 2010&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=462924%20" type="external">through March 2011</a>&#160;as the weekend open source intelligence analyst at Stratfor.&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1710196" type="external">The other candidate for the job, Jelena Tancic, also worked for CANVAS</a>.</p>
<p>“The Canvas guy [Popovic] is a friend/source [for Stratfor], and recommended her to us,”&#160; <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/about/analysts/scott-stewart" type="external">Stratfor’s Vice President of Analysis Scott Stewart</a>&#160;said in a&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=384127" type="external">March 2010 email</a>, leaving out that the two were dating at the time.</p>
<p>Popovic and his wife grew so close to Stratfor, in fact, that Popovic&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=104475" type="external">invited numerous members of the Stratfor staff to their wedding</a>&#160;in Belgrade, Serbia.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p />
<p>Helping Stratfor Manufacture Revolutions</p>
<p>Stratfor saw Popovic’s main value not only as a source for intelligence on global revolutionary and activist movements, but also as someone who, if needed, could help overthrow leaders of countries hostile to U.S. geopolitical and financial interests. So useful was Popovic to Stratfor that the firm gave him a free subscription, dubbed “ <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=43955" type="external">legit sources we use all the time as a company</a>” by Papic.</p>
<p>In a&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1760436" type="external">June 2011 email</a>, Papic referred to Popovic as a “great friend” of his and described him as a “Serb activist who travels the world fomenting revolution.”</p>
<p>“They...basically go around the world trying to topple dictators and autocratic governments (ones that U.S. does not like ;),”&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1767848" type="external">Papic says in one email</a>. Replying to a follow up to that email, he states, “They just go and set up shop in a country and try to bring the government down. When used properly, more powerful than an aircraft carrier battle group.”</p>
<p>In response to the “aircraft battle group” email,&#160; <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/about/analysts/fred-burton" type="external">Stratfor Vice President of Intelligence Fred Burton</a>&#160;sardonically said that perhaps they could be&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1767848" type="external">sent into Iran</a>. Emails also reveal Popovic&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1674908" type="external">served as an information source</a>&#160;intermediary for&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1699694" type="external">on-the-ground activists</a>&#160;in Iran, also informing Stratfor of the&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1122331" type="external">funding struggle for “democracy programs”&#160;</a>there, as the U.S. government pushed a “soft power” agenda.</p>
<p>Another March 2010 email from Stewart to Burton said that CANVAS was&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=379065" type="external">“trying to get rid of Chavez,”</a>&#160;referring to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In 2007, CANVAS&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=5488062" type="external">trained activists to overthrow Chavez</a>.</p>
<p />
<p>“If I remember correctly, we use hushmail communication to contact him regarding Venezuela due to the sensitivity of using a revolutionary NGO as a source considering we have clients who operate in country,”&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1642571" type="external">Papic said in a January 2011 email</a>&#160;of Popovic.</p>
<p>Stratfor grew so enamored of CANVAS’s ability to foment regime change abroad that it&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1174110" type="external">invited Popovic to its Austin headquarters in 2010 to give seminars</a>&#160;on the subject, and paid for his trip there.</p>
<p>CANVAS’s Goldman Sachs Cash</p>
<p><a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1765749" type="external">One of CANVAS’s major allies is Muneer Satter</a>, a former Goldman Sachs executive who&#160; <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-15/goldman-mezzanine-chief-muneer-satter-said-to-step-down.html" type="external">stepped down from that position in June 2012</a>and now owns Satter Investment Management LLC.&#160; <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/about/executives/shea-morenz" type="external">Stratfor CEO Shea Morenz</a>&#160;worked for ten years at Goldman Sachs as well, where he served as Managing Director in the Investment Management Division and Region Head for Private Wealth Management for the Southwest Region.</p>
<p>Satter is meanwhile a major funder of the Republican Party,&#160; <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/donor_detail.php?cycle=2012&amp;id=Satter+Investment+Management&amp;type=B&amp;super=N" type="external">giving over $300,000 to Karl Rove’s Super PAC</a>&#160;Crossroads GPS before the 2012 election, and&#160; <a href="http://blogs.rollcall.com/moneyline/democratic-governors-raise-13-million-republicans-raise-24-million/" type="external">another $100,000 to the Republican Governors Association</a>&#160;in the first half of 2013 prior to the 2014 mid-term elections.</p>
<p>Living in a&#160; <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-05-19/business/0205180226_1_mansion-goldman-sachs-lake-michigan" type="external">massive, $9.5 million mansion</a>&#160;in Chicago's North Shore suburb of Lake Michigan, Muneer also&#160; <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/obama/inaug_2009.php" type="external">gave $50,000 toward President Obama’s inaugural fund</a>&#160;in 2009.</p>
<p />
<p>When it came time to connect Muneer with the global intelligence firm, Popovic served as the middle man&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1756086" type="external">introducing Satter to Stratfor Chairman George Friedman</a>.</p>
<p>"Whenever I want to understand the details behind world events, I turn to Stratfor,” reads an endorsement from Satter&#160; <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/about/clients" type="external">on Stratfor's website</a>. “They have the most detailed and insightful analysis of world affairs and are miles ahead of mainstream media."</p>
<p>Otpor!: A Counter-History</p>
<p>To understand how Popovic came to aide Stratfor in its intelligence-gathering efforts, it’s crucial to examine Otpor! and CANVAS critically. A close examination demonstrates that Popovic was a natural choice to be a Stratfor informant and close advisor.</p>
<p>Often&#160; <a href="http://wagingnonviolence.org/2013/11/stratfor-canvas/" type="external">valorized by grassroots activists</a>&#160;and&#160; <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/16/revolution_u" type="external">Western media</a>, there was far more to the “Bulldozer Revolution” that led to the overthrow of Milošević and subsequent Eastern European regimes than meets the eye.</p>
<p>“In principle, [Serbia] was an overt operation, funded by congressional appropriations of around $10 million for fiscal 1999 and $31 million for 2000. Some Americans involved in the anti-Milosevic effort said they were aware of CIA activity at the fringes of the campaign, but had trouble finding out what the agency was up to,” explained a 2000&#160; <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/843903/u-s-adviceguidedmilosevicopposition.pdf" type="external">investigative piece appearing in The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>“The lead role was taken by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government's foreign assistance agency, which channeled the funds through commercial contractors and nonprofit groups such as NDI and its Republican counterpart, the International Republican Institute (IRI).”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" />Papic’s statement about CANVAS being “more powerful than an aircraft carrier” wasn’t mere hyperbole, but was based on the Otpor! Serbia experience in the late-1990s.</p>
<p>“In fact between 1997 and 2000 the National Endowment for Democracy and US government may have accomplished what NATO’s 37,000 bombing sorties had been unable to do: oust Milosevic, replace him with their favoured candidate Vojislav Kostunica and promote a neoliberal vision for Serbia,”&#160; <a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/promoting-polyarchy-in-serbia-by-michael-barker.html" type="external">independent scholar Michael Barker wrote for Z Magazine</a>. “In much the same way as corporate front groups and astroturf groups recruit genuinely committed supporters, strategically useful social movements can potentially dominate civil society when provided with the right resources (massive financial and professional backing).”</p>
<p />
<p>Otpor! was so successful that it was&#160; <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/nov/26/ukraine.usa" type="external">ushered into Ukraine to help manufacture regime change</a>&#160;there in 2004,&#160; <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1056498.html" type="external">using the template applied originally in Serbia</a>&#160;with&#160; <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1056498.html" type="external">$65 million</a>&#160;in cash from the U.S. government.</p>
<p>"We trained them in how to set up an organization, how to open local chapters, how to create a 'brand,' how to create a logo, symbols, and key messages," an Otpor! activist&#160; <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1056498.html" type="external">told U.S.-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty</a>. "We trained them in how to identify the key weaknesses in society and what people's most pressing problems were—what might be a motivating factor for people, and above all young people, to go to the ballot box and in this way shape their own destiny."</p>
<p>The overthrow of Milošević was accompanied by U.S.-funding for the creation of a robust media apparatus in Serbia, and Popovic’s wife worked at one of the U.S.-funded radio and TV outlets as a journalist and anchor&#160; <a href="http://www.b92.net/eng/" type="external">B92</a>&#160;from 2004-2009.</p>
<p>“By helping Radio B92 and linking it with a network of radio stations (ANEM), international assistance undermined the regime’s direct and indirect control over news and information,” a&#160; <a href="http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNACU777.pdf" type="external">January 2004 policy paper released by USAID explained</a>. “In Serbia, independent media supported by USAID and other international donors facilitated the regime change.”</p>
<p>Critics point out that what happened in Eastern Europe was regime change, not revolution in any real sense of the term.</p>
<p>“[They] were not revolutions at all; actually, they were little more than intra-elite power transfers,’” Portland State University Professor of Urban Studies and Planning,&#160; <a href="http://www.pdx.edu/profile/gerald-sussman" type="external">Gerald Sussman</a>, explained in his book, “ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Branding-Democracy-Frontiers-Political-Communication/dp/1433105314" type="external">Branded Democracy: U.S. Regime Change in Post-Soviet Eastern Europe</a>.”</p>
<p>“Modern tactics of electioneering were employed to cast regime change as populist, which took advantage of the unstable and vulnerable situations in those regions following the breakup of the Soviet Union,” he wrote.</p>
<p>Given Otpor!’s ties to powerful factions in the U.S. government, perhaps it’s unsurprising that Popovic felt comfortable&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1734126" type="external">giving a lecture to the Air Force Academy in May 2010</a>, and&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1725157" type="external">attending a National Security Council meeting in December 2009</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>A powerful individual who&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=1746019" type="external">lobbied the U.S. government to give money to CANVAS</a>&#160;early on was Michael McFaul,&#160; <a href="http://moscow.usembassy.gov/ambassador.html" type="external">the current U.S. Ambassador to Russia for the State Department</a>&#160;and someone who “worked closely with” Popovic while&#160; <a href="http://www.hoover.org/fellows/9889" type="external">serving as a Senior Fellow</a>&#160;at the <a href="http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Hoover_Institution" type="external">right-wing Hoover Institution</a>&#160;at Stanford University.</p>
<p>Critics Chime In, Popovic Responds</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_al-Khawaja" type="external">Maryam Alkhawaja</a>, director of the&#160; <a href="http://www.bahrainrights.org/" type="external">Bahrain Center for Human Rights</a>, said she had known Popovic for several years as an activist and had no knowledge of his outside relationships before the Wikileaks release of Stratfor emails.</p>
<p>“Srdja is someone I’ve met more than once. He was very supportive of the Bahrain revolution, supportive of the human rights fight,” Alkhawaja said in a phone interview. “When he gave me their information, that’s what surprised me the most.”</p>
<p>Alkhawaja said that at the time she wasn’t aware of what kind of firm Stratfor was, but she became immediately suspicious after reading Stratfor’s questions to her. She never corresponded with Stratfor due to what she felt was the suspicious nature of the emails coming from the firm.</p>
<p>“It was a series of really weird intelligence agency-like questions, given that they knew I was working in a human rights group. They were asking questions like, who’s funding the party coalition, how many members do they have, questions that even I didn’t know the answers to,” she said. “The fact that they asked questions like that, made me question the motive behind&#160; <a href="http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=216045" type="external">the email I received</a>. Thats why I never responded.”</p>
<p>“Whenever we get emails like that or were contacted by people who seemed very interested in asking intelligence agency-like questions, we usually block them, because we know they probably work for the government,” Alkhawaja continued. “Journalists know the kind of work we do so they wouldn’t ask those questions in the first place. I just found the email very weird and thats why I actually never responded.”</p>
<p>In a Skype interview, one of Otpor!’s co-founders, who left the movement and asked to maintain his confidentiality, said his primary concern from the Wikileaks emails was that Popovic was giving out activists’ information to a third party without their prior consent.</p>
<p>An interview with Popovic sang a different tune about CANVAS. He stated, “We definitely wouldn’t jeopardize any of our activists' safety, so we always follow their lead and never expose them to anybody without their consent.”</p>
<p>Popovic also said CANVAS would speak to anyone and everyone—without any discrimination—about nonviolent direct action.</p>
<p>“CANVAS will present anywhere — to those committed to activism and nonviolent struggle, but also to those who still live in the Cold War era and think that tanks and planes and nukes shape the world, not the common people leading popular movements,” he said.</p>
<p>“If we can persuade any decision maker in the world, in Washington, Kremlin, Tel Aviv or Damascus that it is nonviolent struggle that they should embrace and respect – not foreign military intervention, or oppression over own population – we would do that.”</p>
<p>Yet, given Popovic’s track-record—and specifically, who buttered his bread during the long professional career he pursued in activism—critics say Popovic fit like a glove at Stratfor.</p>
<p>“A group of Serbs cannot lead a protest movement anywhere outside Serbia, but his techniques are nonetheless instrumental in helping achieve certain political aims,” Professor Sussman said in an interview. “He also serves as an intelligence gatherer in the process—of use to private and state intelligence agencies. That's what Stratfor saw as his use.”</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>President Trump’s legal team expects that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will ask to interview him during his Russia investigation, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/initial-talks-underway-about-trump-interview-mueller-russia-probe-n835506" type="external">NBC News</a>.</p>
<p>NBC News on Monday reported that three people familiar with the matter say Trump’s legal team is discussing a range of potential options for the format of such an encounter.</p>
<p>Trump’s team is seeking clarification on whether Mueller would directly interview the president during his probe of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential race.</p>
<p>The group is also looking for information on the legal standard for when a president can be interviewed and the location of such an event.</p>
<p>The topics and duration of such a conversation are other concerns, and two sources told NBC News that Trump’s team is seeking possible compromises for avoiding an interview entirely.</p>
<p>One person said it is a possibility that Trump’s legal team suggests he submits written responses in lieu of an interview.</p>
<p>Another individual familiar with Trump’s legal strategy said another idea under consideration is Trump signing an affidavit on the matter.</p>
<p>The affidavit would state that Trump is innocent of any wrongdoing and deny any collusion between himself and Russia.</p>
<p>NBC News on Monday reported it is unclear what such a document would state about Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey last year.</p>
<p>Trump’s decision to oust Comey came as he was leading the FBI’s examination of Russian interference in the 2016 race.</p>
<p>The move prompted Mueller’s appointment as special counsel, and it has also lead some of Trump’s critics to suggest he obstructed justice at the time.</p>
<p>Mueller’s investigation includes whether Russia and Trump’s 2016 election campaign colluded at the time.</p>
<p>Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion occurred, and he has labeled the probe a “witch hunt” against him and his administration.</p>
<p>A person familiar with Trump’s legal team said internal talks about Mueller’s probe interviewing Trump began last October.</p>
<p>Paul Manafort, who was Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, was indicted at the time for money laundering in relation to his business dealings with Ukraine.</p>
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Talks reportedly are underway about a Trump interview in Robert Mueller's Russia probe
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https://circa.com/story/2018/01/08/politics/trump-interview-in-robert-mueller-russia-investigation-options-being-discussed
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2018-01-08
| 1right-center
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Talks reportedly are underway about a Trump interview in Robert Mueller's Russia probe
<p>President Trump’s legal team expects that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will ask to interview him during his Russia investigation, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/initial-talks-underway-about-trump-interview-mueller-russia-probe-n835506" type="external">NBC News</a>.</p>
<p>NBC News on Monday reported that three people familiar with the matter say Trump’s legal team is discussing a range of potential options for the format of such an encounter.</p>
<p>Trump’s team is seeking clarification on whether Mueller would directly interview the president during his probe of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential race.</p>
<p>The group is also looking for information on the legal standard for when a president can be interviewed and the location of such an event.</p>
<p>The topics and duration of such a conversation are other concerns, and two sources told NBC News that Trump’s team is seeking possible compromises for avoiding an interview entirely.</p>
<p>One person said it is a possibility that Trump’s legal team suggests he submits written responses in lieu of an interview.</p>
<p>Another individual familiar with Trump’s legal strategy said another idea under consideration is Trump signing an affidavit on the matter.</p>
<p>The affidavit would state that Trump is innocent of any wrongdoing and deny any collusion between himself and Russia.</p>
<p>NBC News on Monday reported it is unclear what such a document would state about Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey last year.</p>
<p>Trump’s decision to oust Comey came as he was leading the FBI’s examination of Russian interference in the 2016 race.</p>
<p>The move prompted Mueller’s appointment as special counsel, and it has also lead some of Trump’s critics to suggest he obstructed justice at the time.</p>
<p>Mueller’s investigation includes whether Russia and Trump’s 2016 election campaign colluded at the time.</p>
<p>Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion occurred, and he has labeled the probe a “witch hunt” against him and his administration.</p>
<p>A person familiar with Trump’s legal team said internal talks about Mueller’s probe interviewing Trump began last October.</p>
<p>Paul Manafort, who was Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, was indicted at the time for money laundering in relation to his business dealings with Ukraine.</p>
| 7,124 |
<p>Swiss luxury goods company Richemont SA (CFR.EB) said Tuesday its first-half earnings are expected to show a strong increase, partly due to exceptional items booked in the same period a year ago.</p>
<p>Richemont's operating profit for the six months ended Sept. 30 showed an increase of approximately 45% against the comparative period, while net profit for the period is expected to rise by about 80%, the company said. In the same period, sales rose 10% on a reported basis and 12% on a constant currency basis.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The increases mostly reflect the non-recurrence of the exceptional inventory buybacks in the prior-year period, improved trading performance and the positive net impact of period-end exchange rates, Richemont said.</p>
<p>The announcement was prompted by Swiss regulatory rules, which require companies to report immediately when the foreseeable profit or loss for a period is expected to deviate substantially from that of the prior-year period.</p>
<p>Richemont reports first-half results on Nov. 10.</p>
<p>Write to Sarah Sloat at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>October 17, 2017 02:22 ET (06:22 GMT)</p>
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Richemont First-Half Earnings Increase Strongly
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http://foxbusiness.com/features/2017/10/17/richemont-first-half-earnings-increase-strongly.html
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2017-10-17
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Richemont First-Half Earnings Increase Strongly
<p>Swiss luxury goods company Richemont SA (CFR.EB) said Tuesday its first-half earnings are expected to show a strong increase, partly due to exceptional items booked in the same period a year ago.</p>
<p>Richemont's operating profit for the six months ended Sept. 30 showed an increase of approximately 45% against the comparative period, while net profit for the period is expected to rise by about 80%, the company said. In the same period, sales rose 10% on a reported basis and 12% on a constant currency basis.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The increases mostly reflect the non-recurrence of the exceptional inventory buybacks in the prior-year period, improved trading performance and the positive net impact of period-end exchange rates, Richemont said.</p>
<p>The announcement was prompted by Swiss regulatory rules, which require companies to report immediately when the foreseeable profit or loss for a period is expected to deviate substantially from that of the prior-year period.</p>
<p>Richemont reports first-half results on Nov. 10.</p>
<p>Write to Sarah Sloat at [email protected]</p>
<p>(END) Dow Jones Newswires</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>October 17, 2017 02:22 ET (06:22 GMT)</p>
| 7,125 |
<p>FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A higher speed passenger train is set to begin service in South Florida.</p>
<p>The Brightline train will begin introductory service on Saturday, with round-trip fares starting at $20 between its Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach stations. Officials tell local news outlets the company will make 10 round trips daily and nine trips on weekends. Service will start as early as 6 a.m.</p>
<p>A $10 one-way ticket will buy a seat in the 66-seat Smart Coach. One-way tickets are $15 in the more spacious 50-seat Select Coach.</p>
<p>Brightline is launching its mobile app and a website to buy tickets, check schedules and get other information.</p>
<p>A Miami station is scheduled to open later this year. Eventually, the train will run between Miami and Orlando.</p>
<p>FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A higher speed passenger train is set to begin service in South Florida.</p>
<p>The Brightline train will begin introductory service on Saturday, with round-trip fares starting at $20 between its Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach stations. Officials tell local news outlets the company will make 10 round trips daily and nine trips on weekends. Service will start as early as 6 a.m.</p>
<p>A $10 one-way ticket will buy a seat in the 66-seat Smart Coach. One-way tickets are $15 in the more spacious 50-seat Select Coach.</p>
<p>Brightline is launching its mobile app and a website to buy tickets, check schedules and get other information.</p>
<p>A Miami station is scheduled to open later this year. Eventually, the train will run between Miami and Orlando.</p>
|
Higher speed passenger train service begins in South Florida
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/142d187dac0b45e6a7bdc27a5934c806
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2018-01-11
| 2least
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Higher speed passenger train service begins in South Florida
<p>FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A higher speed passenger train is set to begin service in South Florida.</p>
<p>The Brightline train will begin introductory service on Saturday, with round-trip fares starting at $20 between its Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach stations. Officials tell local news outlets the company will make 10 round trips daily and nine trips on weekends. Service will start as early as 6 a.m.</p>
<p>A $10 one-way ticket will buy a seat in the 66-seat Smart Coach. One-way tickets are $15 in the more spacious 50-seat Select Coach.</p>
<p>Brightline is launching its mobile app and a website to buy tickets, check schedules and get other information.</p>
<p>A Miami station is scheduled to open later this year. Eventually, the train will run between Miami and Orlando.</p>
<p>FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A higher speed passenger train is set to begin service in South Florida.</p>
<p>The Brightline train will begin introductory service on Saturday, with round-trip fares starting at $20 between its Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach stations. Officials tell local news outlets the company will make 10 round trips daily and nine trips on weekends. Service will start as early as 6 a.m.</p>
<p>A $10 one-way ticket will buy a seat in the 66-seat Smart Coach. One-way tickets are $15 in the more spacious 50-seat Select Coach.</p>
<p>Brightline is launching its mobile app and a website to buy tickets, check schedules and get other information.</p>
<p>A Miami station is scheduled to open later this year. Eventually, the train will run between Miami and Orlando.</p>
| 7,126 |
<p>LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A western Nebraska man and convicted sex offender has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors say 38-year-old Bobby Joe Ansley, of Mullen, was sentenced Friday in Lincoln's federal court.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the Nebraska State Patrol received tips in February 2016 about images of sexually explicit conduct involving minors being attached to Ansley's email address. After investigation, the patrol searched Ansley's home and seized an external hard drive that held 1,950 images of child pornography, many including prepubescent children.</p>
<p>Ansley had previously been convicted in 2003 of aggravated sexual abuse in California.</p>
<p>LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A western Nebraska man and convicted sex offender has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors say 38-year-old Bobby Joe Ansley, of Mullen, was sentenced Friday in Lincoln's federal court.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the Nebraska State Patrol received tips in February 2016 about images of sexually explicit conduct involving minors being attached to Ansley's email address. After investigation, the patrol searched Ansley's home and seized an external hard drive that held 1,950 images of child pornography, many including prepubescent children.</p>
<p>Ansley had previously been convicted in 2003 of aggravated sexual abuse in California.</p>
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Western Nebraska man sentenced to 10 years for child porn
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/e664fe5fa8b34a9b9027e55ddfbf364a
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2018-01-13
| 2least
|
Western Nebraska man sentenced to 10 years for child porn
<p>LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A western Nebraska man and convicted sex offender has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors say 38-year-old Bobby Joe Ansley, of Mullen, was sentenced Friday in Lincoln's federal court.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the Nebraska State Patrol received tips in February 2016 about images of sexually explicit conduct involving minors being attached to Ansley's email address. After investigation, the patrol searched Ansley's home and seized an external hard drive that held 1,950 images of child pornography, many including prepubescent children.</p>
<p>Ansley had previously been convicted in 2003 of aggravated sexual abuse in California.</p>
<p>LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A western Nebraska man and convicted sex offender has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography.</p>
<p>Federal prosecutors say 38-year-old Bobby Joe Ansley, of Mullen, was sentenced Friday in Lincoln's federal court.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the Nebraska State Patrol received tips in February 2016 about images of sexually explicit conduct involving minors being attached to Ansley's email address. After investigation, the patrol searched Ansley's home and seized an external hard drive that held 1,950 images of child pornography, many including prepubescent children.</p>
<p>Ansley had previously been convicted in 2003 of aggravated sexual abuse in California.</p>
| 7,127 |
<p>A billboard company in St. Augustine Beach, Florida is taking heat over a billboard displayed on A1A and Seashore Avenue that reads: “Islam Bloody Islam, Doomed by its Doctrine!”</p>
<p>“It really doesn’t represent what this community stands for so I wanted to get out here as soon as I could with a contrasting opinion,” local resident John Poage told <a href="http://www.news4jax.com/news/florida/st-johns-county/st-augustine-beach/thousands-sign-petition-to-remove-islam-bloody-islam-billboard" type="external">WJXT</a>.</p>
<p>Poage toted his own sign with him to stand by the billboard after seeing a post about it on Facebook.</p>
<p>“You can tell the community is not really behind that kind of fear,” he said.</p>
<p>The billboard gained international attention online recently, in part through a <a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/593/867/017/demand-the-removal-of-offensive-billboard/?taf_id=24006877&amp;cid=fb_na" type="external">petition</a> started by Becky Williams calling on the billboard company, St. John’s Outdoor Advertising, to take the message down.</p>
<p>“We should be outraged that a billboard with this message could in any way represent our community as a whole,” Williams wrote in the petition. “It is of the utmost importance that we stand against messages and movements that isolate, judge and threaten an entire sect of people who share our hometown.</p>
<p>“Please sign and share: take down offensive ‘Islam Bloody Islam, Doomed by Its Doctrine’ billboard.”</p>
<p>The petition had 5,598 out of a goal of 6,000 supporters Tuesday morning. Florida residents accounted for 2,217 of the signatures, and several locals condemned the message in the petition’s comments section.</p>
<p>“For a billboard as intolerant and offensive as this to be shown in the town I call home is absolutely disgusting and cannot be tolerated. This billboard in and of itself is promoting violence to those who follow Islam,” Sydney Simkins wrote. “This is not freedom of speech, this is dangerous hate. If the billboard said the same about Christianity, it would have been taken down the minute after it was put up.”</p>
<p>“As a lifelong resident of this community I find this sign to be beyond disgusting and offensive. Hate and divisiveness are the very things tearing this nation apart,” Joann Janson wrote. “I refuse to stand by quietly while someone engages in conduct that reflects so poorly on a community that is vibrant in its diversity. Take down this sign now!”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/st-augustine-residents-petition-to-remove-islam-bloody-islam-billboard/206703595" type="external">CBS 47</a> noted that the petition has gained supporters from as far away as the United Kingdom, India, France and Nigeria.</p>
<p>The news site contacted St. John’s Outdoor Advertising about the billboard, but the owner declined an on camera interview and would not disclose who paid for the message, though he did mention it was an individual and not a church or organization.</p>
<p>Local followers of Islam told WJXT they were surprised by the sign, and are concerned it could instigate violence.</p>
<p>“Hate speech leads to hate crimes, so yes we do have freedom of speech and anybody can post or say anything they want, but in St. Augustine, we love everyone,” Islamic Center of St. Augustine Imam Anas Benjelloun said.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Poage is hoping his counter protest will turn things around.</p>
<p>“I love to see more people in the conversation, and I don’t want to blow this out of proportion,” he said. “It’s just not appropriate for St. Augustine.”</p>
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‘Islam Bloody Islam’ billboard roils Florida town
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http://theamericanmirror.com/islam-bloody-islam-billboard-roils-florida-town/
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2016-04-12
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‘Islam Bloody Islam’ billboard roils Florida town
<p>A billboard company in St. Augustine Beach, Florida is taking heat over a billboard displayed on A1A and Seashore Avenue that reads: “Islam Bloody Islam, Doomed by its Doctrine!”</p>
<p>“It really doesn’t represent what this community stands for so I wanted to get out here as soon as I could with a contrasting opinion,” local resident John Poage told <a href="http://www.news4jax.com/news/florida/st-johns-county/st-augustine-beach/thousands-sign-petition-to-remove-islam-bloody-islam-billboard" type="external">WJXT</a>.</p>
<p>Poage toted his own sign with him to stand by the billboard after seeing a post about it on Facebook.</p>
<p>“You can tell the community is not really behind that kind of fear,” he said.</p>
<p>The billboard gained international attention online recently, in part through a <a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/593/867/017/demand-the-removal-of-offensive-billboard/?taf_id=24006877&amp;cid=fb_na" type="external">petition</a> started by Becky Williams calling on the billboard company, St. John’s Outdoor Advertising, to take the message down.</p>
<p>“We should be outraged that a billboard with this message could in any way represent our community as a whole,” Williams wrote in the petition. “It is of the utmost importance that we stand against messages and movements that isolate, judge and threaten an entire sect of people who share our hometown.</p>
<p>“Please sign and share: take down offensive ‘Islam Bloody Islam, Doomed by Its Doctrine’ billboard.”</p>
<p>The petition had 5,598 out of a goal of 6,000 supporters Tuesday morning. Florida residents accounted for 2,217 of the signatures, and several locals condemned the message in the petition’s comments section.</p>
<p>“For a billboard as intolerant and offensive as this to be shown in the town I call home is absolutely disgusting and cannot be tolerated. This billboard in and of itself is promoting violence to those who follow Islam,” Sydney Simkins wrote. “This is not freedom of speech, this is dangerous hate. If the billboard said the same about Christianity, it would have been taken down the minute after it was put up.”</p>
<p>“As a lifelong resident of this community I find this sign to be beyond disgusting and offensive. Hate and divisiveness are the very things tearing this nation apart,” Joann Janson wrote. “I refuse to stand by quietly while someone engages in conduct that reflects so poorly on a community that is vibrant in its diversity. Take down this sign now!”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/st-augustine-residents-petition-to-remove-islam-bloody-islam-billboard/206703595" type="external">CBS 47</a> noted that the petition has gained supporters from as far away as the United Kingdom, India, France and Nigeria.</p>
<p>The news site contacted St. John’s Outdoor Advertising about the billboard, but the owner declined an on camera interview and would not disclose who paid for the message, though he did mention it was an individual and not a church or organization.</p>
<p>Local followers of Islam told WJXT they were surprised by the sign, and are concerned it could instigate violence.</p>
<p>“Hate speech leads to hate crimes, so yes we do have freedom of speech and anybody can post or say anything they want, but in St. Augustine, we love everyone,” Islamic Center of St. Augustine Imam Anas Benjelloun said.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Poage is hoping his counter protest will turn things around.</p>
<p>“I love to see more people in the conversation, and I don’t want to blow this out of proportion,” he said. “It’s just not appropriate for St. Augustine.”</p>
| 7,128 |
<p>If you don’t know who Charles Manson is, then I don’t know where you were living these past few decades.</p>
<p>For those who don’t, Manson is known to be the leader of a cult that made his followers believe that they will be saved in favor of the others. This family then set off to do crimes that were ordered by Manson.</p>
<p>He is serving a life sentence for his role in nine murders. He <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manson" type="external">ordered</a> a number of his followers that are called the Manson Family to kill nine people in 1969. He has been locked up in California since 1971, he is now 82.</p>
<p>News emerged last night that Manson was <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/notorious-killer-cult-leader-charles-9559749" type="external">taken out of prison</a> to be treated in a hospital about 100 miles away from where he has been held for almost 50 years.</p>
<p>The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation released a statement that it was against privacy laws to announce anything about the inmate’s health.</p>
<p>Although sources leak that Mason was indeed “seriously ill.”</p>
<p>Among the nine that was murdered, pregnant actress Sharon Tate was also murdered by Manson’s family. She was 8-months pregnant, click here to see the <a href="http://www.thebeststuffonline.net/goosebumps-these-chilling-photos-were-taken-moments-before-death/" type="external">last photo of her</a>, just hours before being murdered.</p>
<p>The family member that personally stabbed Tate was Charles Watson.</p>
<p />
<p>Tate was murdered inside their Beverly Hills home along with her 3 friends who were staying during that time.</p>
<p>Image via <a href="https://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=i&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=images&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi4jPKqyqfRAhUDH5QKHQYKA2MQjB0IBg&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.psych2go.net%2Fthe-mystique-of-manson-why-society-is-still-fascinated-with-charles-manson%2F&amp;psig=AFQjCNEskH3Y6JF-4p5pRLWLWH35zeUFRg&amp;ust=1483588009169956" type="external">Psych2go</a>.</p>
|
Charles Manson Is Out Of Prison And May Not Make It Back
| true |
http://offthemainpage.com/2017/01/04/charles-manson-is-out-of-prison-and-may-not-make-it-back/
|
2017-01-04
| 4left
|
Charles Manson Is Out Of Prison And May Not Make It Back
<p>If you don’t know who Charles Manson is, then I don’t know where you were living these past few decades.</p>
<p>For those who don’t, Manson is known to be the leader of a cult that made his followers believe that they will be saved in favor of the others. This family then set off to do crimes that were ordered by Manson.</p>
<p>He is serving a life sentence for his role in nine murders. He <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manson" type="external">ordered</a> a number of his followers that are called the Manson Family to kill nine people in 1969. He has been locked up in California since 1971, he is now 82.</p>
<p>News emerged last night that Manson was <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/notorious-killer-cult-leader-charles-9559749" type="external">taken out of prison</a> to be treated in a hospital about 100 miles away from where he has been held for almost 50 years.</p>
<p>The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation released a statement that it was against privacy laws to announce anything about the inmate’s health.</p>
<p>Although sources leak that Mason was indeed “seriously ill.”</p>
<p>Among the nine that was murdered, pregnant actress Sharon Tate was also murdered by Manson’s family. She was 8-months pregnant, click here to see the <a href="http://www.thebeststuffonline.net/goosebumps-these-chilling-photos-were-taken-moments-before-death/" type="external">last photo of her</a>, just hours before being murdered.</p>
<p>The family member that personally stabbed Tate was Charles Watson.</p>
<p />
<p>Tate was murdered inside their Beverly Hills home along with her 3 friends who were staying during that time.</p>
<p>Image via <a href="https://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=i&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=images&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi4jPKqyqfRAhUDH5QKHQYKA2MQjB0IBg&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.psych2go.net%2Fthe-mystique-of-manson-why-society-is-still-fascinated-with-charles-manson%2F&amp;psig=AFQjCNEskH3Y6JF-4p5pRLWLWH35zeUFRg&amp;ust=1483588009169956" type="external">Psych2go</a>.</p>
| 7,129 |
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<p>At El Paso 7:05 p.m. Probable pitchers: Isotopes LHP Sam Howard (4-2, 3.88) vs. Chihuahuas RHP Kyle Lloyd (0-3, 7.03). Radio: 610 AM. Tuesday: El Paso’s Ryan Schimpf and Chase d’Arnaud hit homers in a 4-2 victory over the Isotopes to open Albuquerque’s eight-game road trip. Rameil Tapia had four of the Isotopes’ 10 hits and an RBI. Monday: The Isotopes scored five times in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat Fresno 7-3 in a game delayed two-plus hours because of rain. Transaction: The parent Colorado Rockies optioned LHP Zac Rosscup to Albuquerque. Next home game: Aug. 24 vs. Salt Lake, 6:35 p.m.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
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‘Topes today Aug. 16
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/1048750/topes-today-aug-16-2.html
| 2least
|
‘Topes today Aug. 16
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<p>At El Paso 7:05 p.m. Probable pitchers: Isotopes LHP Sam Howard (4-2, 3.88) vs. Chihuahuas RHP Kyle Lloyd (0-3, 7.03). Radio: 610 AM. Tuesday: El Paso’s Ryan Schimpf and Chase d’Arnaud hit homers in a 4-2 victory over the Isotopes to open Albuquerque’s eight-game road trip. Rameil Tapia had four of the Isotopes’ 10 hits and an RBI. Monday: The Isotopes scored five times in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat Fresno 7-3 in a game delayed two-plus hours because of rain. Transaction: The parent Colorado Rockies optioned LHP Zac Rosscup to Albuquerque. Next home game: Aug. 24 vs. Salt Lake, 6:35 p.m.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 7,130 |
|
<p>MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - A West Virginia man has been sentenced to one year and nine months in federal prison for filing false insurance claims totaling more than $354,000.</p>
<p>Thirty-six-year-old Daniel Lichtman of Kearneysville was sentenced for mail fraud Tuesday in federal court in Martinsburg. Lichtman was ordered to pay full restitution.</p>
<p>He was accused of making fraudulent business insurance claims for damages to equipment from power surges that didn't occur. Authorities say he also created false invoices for repairs and used fictitious names.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the crime occurred in November 2013 in Berkeley County.</p>
<p>MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - A West Virginia man has been sentenced to one year and nine months in federal prison for filing false insurance claims totaling more than $354,000.</p>
<p>Thirty-six-year-old Daniel Lichtman of Kearneysville was sentenced for mail fraud Tuesday in federal court in Martinsburg. Lichtman was ordered to pay full restitution.</p>
<p>He was accused of making fraudulent business insurance claims for damages to equipment from power surges that didn't occur. Authorities say he also created false invoices for repairs and used fictitious names.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the crime occurred in November 2013 in Berkeley County.</p>
|
West Virginia man sentenced for fraudulent insurance claims
| false |
https://apnews.com/7428726837cb4223866843781cbb361e
|
2018-01-24
| 2least
|
West Virginia man sentenced for fraudulent insurance claims
<p>MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - A West Virginia man has been sentenced to one year and nine months in federal prison for filing false insurance claims totaling more than $354,000.</p>
<p>Thirty-six-year-old Daniel Lichtman of Kearneysville was sentenced for mail fraud Tuesday in federal court in Martinsburg. Lichtman was ordered to pay full restitution.</p>
<p>He was accused of making fraudulent business insurance claims for damages to equipment from power surges that didn't occur. Authorities say he also created false invoices for repairs and used fictitious names.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the crime occurred in November 2013 in Berkeley County.</p>
<p>MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - A West Virginia man has been sentenced to one year and nine months in federal prison for filing false insurance claims totaling more than $354,000.</p>
<p>Thirty-six-year-old Daniel Lichtman of Kearneysville was sentenced for mail fraud Tuesday in federal court in Martinsburg. Lichtman was ordered to pay full restitution.</p>
<p>He was accused of making fraudulent business insurance claims for damages to equipment from power surges that didn't occur. Authorities say he also created false invoices for repairs and used fictitious names.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say the crime occurred in November 2013 in Berkeley County.</p>
| 7,131 |
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067401927X/102-0318547-1797715?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=wwweppcorg-20&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creativeASIN=067401927X" type="external">The Case Against Perfection</a>by Michael SandelHarvard University Press, 128 pages, $18.95</p>
<p>Debates about biotechnology tend to be about means. We argue about the limits of what we may do in pursuit of science or medicine. The ends to which new technological powers are put are far less frequently questioned.</p>
<p>In The Case Against Perfection (Harvard University Press, 128 pages, $18.95), Harvard political scientist Michael Sandel seeks to question those ends. Everyone agrees that curing disease is worthwhile, he acknowledges, but what about going beyond cures to improvements of the human whole, aiming not to heal what is broken but to perfect our nature and make human beings — in bioethicist Carl Elliott’s evocative phrase — “better than well”?</p>
<p>This brief book is an extended version of an essay Mr. Sandel published in the Atlantic Monthly in 2004, which in turn was an extension of a paper he wrote for the President’s Council on Bioethics two years earlier. Mr. Sandel was a member of the council from 2001 until 2006 (and I served on the council’s staff for some of that time). His paper was part of the council’s “Beyond Therapy” project, which culminated in a report under that title in 2003. Strangely, Mr. Sandel never directs his readers to that document, which addresses many of the issues he takes up.</p>
<p>The Case Against Perfection explores two arenas in particular: the enhancement of athletes using new biotechnologies, and the genetic selection (and someday perhaps genetic design) of children before birth. With the passion of a sports fan who knows what he likes, Mr. Sandel argues for the integrity of sport as a profound human endeavor. He insists that what we value about athletes has as much to do with natural gifts as superior effort, and that the threat posed by enhancement technologies is, perhaps counterintuitively, a threat to nature more than effort. “To acknowledge the giftedness of life,” he writes,</p>
<p>is to recognize that our talents and powers are not wholly our own doing, nor even fully ours, despite the efforts we expend to develop and to exercise them. It is also to recognize that not everything in the world is open to any use we may desire or devise. An appreciation of the giftedness of life constrains the Promethean project and conduces to a certain humility.</p>
<p>Such humility before the great human mysteries is also at the heart of Mr. Sandel’s critique of what he calls “modern eugenics.” Parental selection and someday parental design of the next generation may not be coercive like early 20th-century eugenics, but, Mr. Sandel argues, it is no less misguided. “The problem with eugenics and genetic engineering,” he writes, “is that they represent the one-sided triumph of willfulness over giftedness, of dominion over reverence, of molding over beholding.” This is of course a deeply conservative sentiment, and while Mr. Sandel is no conservative, he certainly shows himself to be a different kind of liberal than we are accustomed to nowadays.</p>
<p>Mr. Sandel describes three problems with the posture of mastery he finds behind the quest for biotechnological enhancement: It makes us less humble, it makes us responsible for too much, and it diminishes our identification with our fellow man.</p>
<p>The last point is especially intriguing. Mr. Sandel worries that advances in our ability to control human traits will cause us to identify to a diminished degree with those less fortunate, as we lose our ability to put ourselves in their shoes. Yet he never explores the underlying cause of such a failure of solidarity: a loss of faith in the essential liberal principle of human equality.</p>
<p>This oversight is especially evident in his discussion of eugenics. Mr. Sandel is surely right to argue that coercion was never the deepest problem with eugenics, but nor was willfulness its deepest flaw. The most crucial contention of the eugenics movement was not that the state must enforce a collective duty to improve the race, nor that human power would bring an end to human failings, but rather that science had shown the principle of human equality to be unfounded. It is that insight that was rejected when eugenics was finally put aside after World War II. And it is unfortunately that insight that threatens again to rear its head, and to do so, now as then, in particular among progressives.</p>
<p>Mr. Sandel is right to note that when we lose our appreciation for the gifted character of life we lose our humility, and therefore our sympathy, too. But he fails to see that the same attitude informs an implicit rejection of human equality — a rejection he himself evinces in an epilogue to the book devoted to the stem cell debate.</p>
<p>The epilogue feels abrupt and forced. One can hardly escape the conclusion that having voiced fairly conservative views about biotechnology, Mr. Sandel feels compelled to varnish his liberal credentials before signing off. The author’s depth and care disappear, replaced by parlor tricks and patently unsupportable logical leaps. Rather than hubris, he directs his censure at mere inconsistency, arguing that opponents of abortion rights and embryo research really believed what they said, they would picket in vitro fertilization clinics and hold funerals for embryos. And having criticized inconsistency, he then asserts his own position as follows:</p>
<p>Genetic engineering to create designer babies is the ultimate expression of the hubris that marks the loss of reverence for life as a gift. But stem cell research to cure debilitating disease, using unimplanted blastocysts, is a noble exercise of our human ingenuity to promote healing and to play our part in repairing the given world.</p>
<p>The epilogue’s contortions of logic and argument are almost enough to nullify the reader’s sense — built up in the earlier chapters — that behind this book is a serious man contending with serious issues.</p>
<p>But only almost. None of us is immune to blind spots, and thoughtful contention with great questions ought not be dismissed merely because the contender chooses to be less than thoughtful on other questions. Nobody’s perfect, and Mr. Sandel’s book makes an instructive and engaging case that that nobody should be.</p>
<p>— Mr. Levin is director of the Bioethics and American Democracy program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and senior editor of the New Atlantis magazine.</p>
|
The Hubris of Genetic Enhancement
| false |
https://eppc.org/publications/the-hubris-of-genetic-enhancement/
| 1right-center
|
The Hubris of Genetic Enhancement
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067401927X/102-0318547-1797715?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=wwweppcorg-20&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creativeASIN=067401927X" type="external">The Case Against Perfection</a>by Michael SandelHarvard University Press, 128 pages, $18.95</p>
<p>Debates about biotechnology tend to be about means. We argue about the limits of what we may do in pursuit of science or medicine. The ends to which new technological powers are put are far less frequently questioned.</p>
<p>In The Case Against Perfection (Harvard University Press, 128 pages, $18.95), Harvard political scientist Michael Sandel seeks to question those ends. Everyone agrees that curing disease is worthwhile, he acknowledges, but what about going beyond cures to improvements of the human whole, aiming not to heal what is broken but to perfect our nature and make human beings — in bioethicist Carl Elliott’s evocative phrase — “better than well”?</p>
<p>This brief book is an extended version of an essay Mr. Sandel published in the Atlantic Monthly in 2004, which in turn was an extension of a paper he wrote for the President’s Council on Bioethics two years earlier. Mr. Sandel was a member of the council from 2001 until 2006 (and I served on the council’s staff for some of that time). His paper was part of the council’s “Beyond Therapy” project, which culminated in a report under that title in 2003. Strangely, Mr. Sandel never directs his readers to that document, which addresses many of the issues he takes up.</p>
<p>The Case Against Perfection explores two arenas in particular: the enhancement of athletes using new biotechnologies, and the genetic selection (and someday perhaps genetic design) of children before birth. With the passion of a sports fan who knows what he likes, Mr. Sandel argues for the integrity of sport as a profound human endeavor. He insists that what we value about athletes has as much to do with natural gifts as superior effort, and that the threat posed by enhancement technologies is, perhaps counterintuitively, a threat to nature more than effort. “To acknowledge the giftedness of life,” he writes,</p>
<p>is to recognize that our talents and powers are not wholly our own doing, nor even fully ours, despite the efforts we expend to develop and to exercise them. It is also to recognize that not everything in the world is open to any use we may desire or devise. An appreciation of the giftedness of life constrains the Promethean project and conduces to a certain humility.</p>
<p>Such humility before the great human mysteries is also at the heart of Mr. Sandel’s critique of what he calls “modern eugenics.” Parental selection and someday parental design of the next generation may not be coercive like early 20th-century eugenics, but, Mr. Sandel argues, it is no less misguided. “The problem with eugenics and genetic engineering,” he writes, “is that they represent the one-sided triumph of willfulness over giftedness, of dominion over reverence, of molding over beholding.” This is of course a deeply conservative sentiment, and while Mr. Sandel is no conservative, he certainly shows himself to be a different kind of liberal than we are accustomed to nowadays.</p>
<p>Mr. Sandel describes three problems with the posture of mastery he finds behind the quest for biotechnological enhancement: It makes us less humble, it makes us responsible for too much, and it diminishes our identification with our fellow man.</p>
<p>The last point is especially intriguing. Mr. Sandel worries that advances in our ability to control human traits will cause us to identify to a diminished degree with those less fortunate, as we lose our ability to put ourselves in their shoes. Yet he never explores the underlying cause of such a failure of solidarity: a loss of faith in the essential liberal principle of human equality.</p>
<p>This oversight is especially evident in his discussion of eugenics. Mr. Sandel is surely right to argue that coercion was never the deepest problem with eugenics, but nor was willfulness its deepest flaw. The most crucial contention of the eugenics movement was not that the state must enforce a collective duty to improve the race, nor that human power would bring an end to human failings, but rather that science had shown the principle of human equality to be unfounded. It is that insight that was rejected when eugenics was finally put aside after World War II. And it is unfortunately that insight that threatens again to rear its head, and to do so, now as then, in particular among progressives.</p>
<p>Mr. Sandel is right to note that when we lose our appreciation for the gifted character of life we lose our humility, and therefore our sympathy, too. But he fails to see that the same attitude informs an implicit rejection of human equality — a rejection he himself evinces in an epilogue to the book devoted to the stem cell debate.</p>
<p>The epilogue feels abrupt and forced. One can hardly escape the conclusion that having voiced fairly conservative views about biotechnology, Mr. Sandel feels compelled to varnish his liberal credentials before signing off. The author’s depth and care disappear, replaced by parlor tricks and patently unsupportable logical leaps. Rather than hubris, he directs his censure at mere inconsistency, arguing that opponents of abortion rights and embryo research really believed what they said, they would picket in vitro fertilization clinics and hold funerals for embryos. And having criticized inconsistency, he then asserts his own position as follows:</p>
<p>Genetic engineering to create designer babies is the ultimate expression of the hubris that marks the loss of reverence for life as a gift. But stem cell research to cure debilitating disease, using unimplanted blastocysts, is a noble exercise of our human ingenuity to promote healing and to play our part in repairing the given world.</p>
<p>The epilogue’s contortions of logic and argument are almost enough to nullify the reader’s sense — built up in the earlier chapters — that behind this book is a serious man contending with serious issues.</p>
<p>But only almost. None of us is immune to blind spots, and thoughtful contention with great questions ought not be dismissed merely because the contender chooses to be less than thoughtful on other questions. Nobody’s perfect, and Mr. Sandel’s book makes an instructive and engaging case that that nobody should be.</p>
<p>— Mr. Levin is director of the Bioethics and American Democracy program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and senior editor of the New Atlantis magazine.</p>
| 7,132 |
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<p />
<p>The Las Cruces Sun-News reports ( <a href="http://goo.gl/q7UYuS)" type="external">http://goo.gl/q7UYuS)</a> Las Cruces Public Schools Chief Finance Officer Terry Dean says despite the price the district has cobbled together financial resources to keep construction on schedule.</p>
<p>Officials say several seemingly insignificant policy changes contributed to more than half of the overage on the $84 million project.</p>
<p>The New Mexico Public Schools Facilities Authority reduced the square footage required per student but district officials say that change was made after the project began.</p>
<p>Dean said the district decided to proceed with the construction as designed.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The PSFA pays for 65 percent of projects out of state funding. Districts must pay the remaining 35 percent with money raised through local bonds and levies.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Las Cruces Sun-News, <a href="http://www.lcsun-news.com" type="external">http://www.lcsun-news.com</a></p>
|
Officials: Las Cruces High School $10M over budget
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/731716/officials-las-cruces-high-school-10m-over-budget.html
|
2016-02-28
| 2least
|
Officials: Las Cruces High School $10M over budget
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The Las Cruces Sun-News reports ( <a href="http://goo.gl/q7UYuS)" type="external">http://goo.gl/q7UYuS)</a> Las Cruces Public Schools Chief Finance Officer Terry Dean says despite the price the district has cobbled together financial resources to keep construction on schedule.</p>
<p>Officials say several seemingly insignificant policy changes contributed to more than half of the overage on the $84 million project.</p>
<p>The New Mexico Public Schools Facilities Authority reduced the square footage required per student but district officials say that change was made after the project began.</p>
<p>Dean said the district decided to proceed with the construction as designed.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The PSFA pays for 65 percent of projects out of state funding. Districts must pay the remaining 35 percent with money raised through local bonds and levies.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: Las Cruces Sun-News, <a href="http://www.lcsun-news.com" type="external">http://www.lcsun-news.com</a></p>
| 7,133 |
<p>Deborah Lynch, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, says that when contract talks start with the Board of Education she will demand a pay increase that is higher than the “paltry” raises the union got the last time around. “We’ve made that promise to our members,” she says.</p>
<p>But even the 3 percent raise that kicked off the last contract would be a steep challenge for the School Board, which is facing its worst budget year in a decade. Attorney James Franczek, the board’s chief labor negotiator, sums up the situation succinctly: “Expenses are going up. Revenues are going to be down. It’s going to be a bear.”</p>
<p>Franczek, Lynch and even some outside observers say they are confident the two sides will forge a contract without a strike. These optimists note that the union and board already have found common ground on a difficult issue, restoration of bargaining rights the legislature took away from the union in 1995.</p>
<p>But the financial prospects are bleak.</p>
<p>Raising salaries 3 percent while maintaining the status quo in other areas of the contract would cost the board about $142 million, according to current CPS estimates. That includes:</p>
<p>$57 million for increases in the CTU salary schedule.</p>
<p>$34 million for “natural growth” costs, including pay hikes based on seniority and increases in pension costs.</p>
<p>$15 million in raises for other board employees, who historically have gotten what the CTU gets.</p>
<p>$36 million for rising health insurance costs.</p>
<p>But the board can’t count on anywhere near that much new revenue. CPS budget officials say that new local revenues, limited by the state’s property tax cap law, will come in at $36 to $54 million. Federal revenues are a question mark.</p>
<p>Further, the state’s budget crunch could mean that CPS will take in less money next year than this year. Without new revenues, the state will have to cut its budget by an estimated 23 percent, state budget watchers say. A proportionate cut in state funding for CPS would amount to a $345 million loss.</p>
<p>“We have to work real hard with the union to generate new revenue sources,” says schools chief Arne Duncan.</p>
<p>But neither Duncan nor Lynch has promising suggestions.</p>
<p>Despite the pledge of Gov. Rod Blagojevich not to raise taxes, Duncan says he would go first to Springfield.</p>
<p>The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a local think tank that monitors state budget and tax policy, has developed a list of measures the state could take to generate new revenue, short of raising the sales and income tax rates. But those measures would generate, at most, $1.6 billion in new money, which is less than a third of the state’s projected $5 billion revenue shortfall.</p>
<p>Blagojevich says he has his own list of money-saving measures, but his still-unspecified suggestions would total just $1.2 billion. And powerful legislators have already raised questions about the kinds of cuts the governor has in mind.</p>
<p>“We’re going to be walking on a tightrope until all this is over,” says Andrea Ingram, who tracks tax and budget policy for the advocacy group Voices for Illinois Children. “Everybody who was involved last year understands that right up until the last minute, the winners and losers were flipping with regularity.”</p>
<p>Asked how she thinks the Chicago School Board might come up with more money, Lynch first suggests cutting administrative positions. She reasons there are a lot to cut because few schools can claim the pupil-teacher ratio that the School Board boasts for the system as a whole. Counting all employees with a teaching certificate, including administrators, the ratio is 22 to 1 in elementary schools, according to the board’s web site.</p>
<p>“We’ve seen a quadrupling in the last year-and-a-half of the number of people making over $100,000,” Lynch adds. Some of the higher-paid administrators are in the new area instructional offices (AIOs), a realm that Lynch suggests may be overstaffed. “There are new titles and job descriptions emerging around that model,” she says.</p>
<p>Duncan isn’t buying her line of thinking. “We cut 400 positions in the last two years,” he says, emphasizing that teacher positions were spared. He adds that the new instructional leaders are essential for improving achievement. “I think the system we had [with six regional offices] was unworkable. God couldn’t do that job well. Getting some absolute star principals, who are respected by their peers, and giving them a manageable number of schools to work with and letting them focus just on instruction will pay dividends in the long run.”</p>
<p>Lynch says the after-school program is another place to look for cuts. “Many of our members believe they’re bleeding the day program,” she says. By beefing up programs during the school day, CPS could “reduce the need for after-school remediation, so that kids can get it right the first time.”</p>
<p>Duncan doesn’t buy that one either. “Obviously, we’ll look at everything, but the after-school program has been really effective,” he says, giving credit for last year’s rise in test scores to a bump in after-school programming. And parents are fans, he says.</p>
<p>“Parents really appreciate it. Those non-school hours are times, as you know, of real anxiety for parents.” Teachers too. “We employ thousands of teachers during the non-school hours, so it’s a way for teachers to pick up additional pay from us.”</p>
<p>Neither Duncan nor Lynch mentioned a recent report that found that the board gets little bang for the $123 million central office spends on professional development for teachers. The biggest single item, accounting for $56 million, is the eight professional development days required by the board-union contract. Asked whether those days might be a source of savings, both Duncan and Lynch said only that they would consider it.</p>
<p>Pate’s roadblock</p>
<p>Former State Senate President James “Pate” Phillip (R-Wood Dale) also threw a wrench into negotiations when he held up legislation that the CTU said was necessary for talks to begin.</p>
<p>The board and the union spent much of the summer hammering out an agreement that would partially restore the union’s bargaining rights over class size and other issues, and they spent much of the fall bringing the city’s business community on board. But their legislation failed to pass in the veto session when Phillip refused to let it be called for a vote.</p>
<p>Lynch says she won’t sit down at the bargaining table until that measure becomes law. With Democrats in control of both legislative houses and the governor’s mansion, that’s sure to happen, but Lynch says that even with the bill getting “fast-track” treatment, it probably won’t be before early March. That leaves less than four months before the CTU contract expires June 30.</p>
<p>With so much riding on state legislative action, negotiations are expected to go down to the wire and possibly right up to the start of the 2003-2004 school year. “It’s hard to nail down an agreement when you don’t know what the revenues are going to be,” notes Northwestern University researcher G. Alfred Hess Jr., a longtime watcher of board-union relations.</p>
<p>Despite the difficulties, board negotiator Franczek says he’s expecting things to work out. “The good news is, you’ve got people who are optimistic and positive and want to see it work,” he says. “And so, chances are, it’ll work.”</p>
<p>Duncan says he’s looking forward to negotiations. “Our relationship is in a better place than it’s ever been,” says Duncan. “I think we’re coming into this with a spirit of partnership that we haven’t had previously.”</p>
<p>Outsiders caution that good will is not enough.</p>
<p>Hess sees lots of common ground between Duncan and Lynch, including a shared commitment to professional development for teachers. “But that doesn’t mean that they can necessarily resolve these fundamental issues.”</p>
<p>“You’ve got new people bargaining, and there’s always a learning curve,” notes Ald. Patrick O’Connor (40th), who chairs the City Council’s education committee. Having veterans like Franczek on board doesn’t change that, he says. “Even though you may have the same attorneys in there, their clients will be hearing a lot of this stuff for the first time.</p>
<p>“The one thing I’d encourage all of them to do is to agree on the finances—because that makes the conversations real,” says O’Connor. “You can posture, say what you want, but there’s a difference between what you want and what’s actually in the cookie jar. I hope they have enough trust in each other to say, ‘Here’s where our books are, now let’s sit down and talk about it.'”</p>
<p>If the issue of the area instructional offices is any indication, that isn’t happening. CPS officials have said that creation of the area instructional offices—an area where Lynch believes trims could be found—did not increase costs. Their printed budget shows the area offices costing $1.2 million less and having 20 fewer staffers than did the regional offices they replaced. But a Catalyst analysis of the district’s line-item, electronic budget file shows that more than 20 regional staffers were simply moved to other budget lines or placed in central office positions that support the new area offices.</p>
<p>However, even a frank discussion on finances is unlikely to produce quick agreement, O’Connor says. “I don’t think the union leadership can afford to salt it away quickly. When there’s a change in leadership, people think, ‘We’ve got to hit a home run here because we’re new.’ They went through this change because people said the other guys were rolling over. If they come back and say, ‘Well, we got a contract,’ people will say, ‘Hey, what happened to stamping our feet?'”</p>
<p>The fiscal situation “can be plain as day, and they’ll still have to go through a certain amount of exercise,” O’Connor says.</p>
<p>O’Connor also warns that Lynch’s promises could come back to haunt her. “When you make promises before you know what the numbers are, you risk breaking the promise if you’re going to negotiate reasonably,” he explains. “Unless she sees some numbers that are different from what we see, or unless the state’s going to come through with more money, those promises are going to be real hard to deliver on.”</p>
<p>There are still other pressures on the union. “No public-sector union people want strikes right now,” says John Ayers, executive director of Leadership for Quality Education, a business-backed school reform group. “It does more harm than good, and they’ve learned that. How many [American Federation of Teachers] strikes have there been in the last 10 years? Not many. Partly that’s because there’s been a diminution of labor solidarity, but partly it’s because they have a big public perception problem: For teachers, as professionals, burning wood in garbage cans and screaming obscenities is not a good image.”</p>
<p>If there were a strike, “the union would win points with its membership, but I’m not sure how it would stand with people of Chicago and downstate,” says Jeffery Mirel, a history professor and dean of the education school at the University of Michigan. “Teacher unions are not high on everybody’s gift list. Teachers are, but not teacher unions.”</p>
<p>Teacher unions in Michigan took it on the chin in the 1990s, as then-Gov. John Engler outlawed strikes, in effect, by imposing enormous fines on striking teachers and unions. “The public was not outraged” by Engler’s anti-union actions, says Mirel. “Had he been able to run again, he’d have won, and his antipathy to the union was something he stood proudly on. That’s not likely to happen with a Democratic legislature and a Democratic governor, but as we know, things change.”</p>
<p>Despite the budget woes and other pressures, few sources think a strike is likely. For one, the board also has a strong incentive to avoid a breakdown in negotiations: A strike—especially if it were long or resulted in only a one-year contract—would disrupt 10 years of relative stability and threaten Mayor Daley’s longtime dream of keeping middle-class families in the city and its public schools.</p>
<p>Longtime observers note that when push comes to shove, the district finds money in its enormous budget, which is now $3.5 billion. And the union has accepted such sleight of hand as raises that begin mid year and, therefore, cost less at the outset. In the words of Carolyn Nordstrom, president of Chicago United, a business organization that promotes racial diversity and equity: “What I’ve learned about Chicago is that budget magic happens.”</p>
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Lots of will, few ways to provide staff raises
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http://chicagoreporter.com/lots-will-few-ways-provide-staff-raises/
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2005-08-04
| 3left-center
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Lots of will, few ways to provide staff raises
<p>Deborah Lynch, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, says that when contract talks start with the Board of Education she will demand a pay increase that is higher than the “paltry” raises the union got the last time around. “We’ve made that promise to our members,” she says.</p>
<p>But even the 3 percent raise that kicked off the last contract would be a steep challenge for the School Board, which is facing its worst budget year in a decade. Attorney James Franczek, the board’s chief labor negotiator, sums up the situation succinctly: “Expenses are going up. Revenues are going to be down. It’s going to be a bear.”</p>
<p>Franczek, Lynch and even some outside observers say they are confident the two sides will forge a contract without a strike. These optimists note that the union and board already have found common ground on a difficult issue, restoration of bargaining rights the legislature took away from the union in 1995.</p>
<p>But the financial prospects are bleak.</p>
<p>Raising salaries 3 percent while maintaining the status quo in other areas of the contract would cost the board about $142 million, according to current CPS estimates. That includes:</p>
<p>$57 million for increases in the CTU salary schedule.</p>
<p>$34 million for “natural growth” costs, including pay hikes based on seniority and increases in pension costs.</p>
<p>$15 million in raises for other board employees, who historically have gotten what the CTU gets.</p>
<p>$36 million for rising health insurance costs.</p>
<p>But the board can’t count on anywhere near that much new revenue. CPS budget officials say that new local revenues, limited by the state’s property tax cap law, will come in at $36 to $54 million. Federal revenues are a question mark.</p>
<p>Further, the state’s budget crunch could mean that CPS will take in less money next year than this year. Without new revenues, the state will have to cut its budget by an estimated 23 percent, state budget watchers say. A proportionate cut in state funding for CPS would amount to a $345 million loss.</p>
<p>“We have to work real hard with the union to generate new revenue sources,” says schools chief Arne Duncan.</p>
<p>But neither Duncan nor Lynch has promising suggestions.</p>
<p>Despite the pledge of Gov. Rod Blagojevich not to raise taxes, Duncan says he would go first to Springfield.</p>
<p>The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a local think tank that monitors state budget and tax policy, has developed a list of measures the state could take to generate new revenue, short of raising the sales and income tax rates. But those measures would generate, at most, $1.6 billion in new money, which is less than a third of the state’s projected $5 billion revenue shortfall.</p>
<p>Blagojevich says he has his own list of money-saving measures, but his still-unspecified suggestions would total just $1.2 billion. And powerful legislators have already raised questions about the kinds of cuts the governor has in mind.</p>
<p>“We’re going to be walking on a tightrope until all this is over,” says Andrea Ingram, who tracks tax and budget policy for the advocacy group Voices for Illinois Children. “Everybody who was involved last year understands that right up until the last minute, the winners and losers were flipping with regularity.”</p>
<p>Asked how she thinks the Chicago School Board might come up with more money, Lynch first suggests cutting administrative positions. She reasons there are a lot to cut because few schools can claim the pupil-teacher ratio that the School Board boasts for the system as a whole. Counting all employees with a teaching certificate, including administrators, the ratio is 22 to 1 in elementary schools, according to the board’s web site.</p>
<p>“We’ve seen a quadrupling in the last year-and-a-half of the number of people making over $100,000,” Lynch adds. Some of the higher-paid administrators are in the new area instructional offices (AIOs), a realm that Lynch suggests may be overstaffed. “There are new titles and job descriptions emerging around that model,” she says.</p>
<p>Duncan isn’t buying her line of thinking. “We cut 400 positions in the last two years,” he says, emphasizing that teacher positions were spared. He adds that the new instructional leaders are essential for improving achievement. “I think the system we had [with six regional offices] was unworkable. God couldn’t do that job well. Getting some absolute star principals, who are respected by their peers, and giving them a manageable number of schools to work with and letting them focus just on instruction will pay dividends in the long run.”</p>
<p>Lynch says the after-school program is another place to look for cuts. “Many of our members believe they’re bleeding the day program,” she says. By beefing up programs during the school day, CPS could “reduce the need for after-school remediation, so that kids can get it right the first time.”</p>
<p>Duncan doesn’t buy that one either. “Obviously, we’ll look at everything, but the after-school program has been really effective,” he says, giving credit for last year’s rise in test scores to a bump in after-school programming. And parents are fans, he says.</p>
<p>“Parents really appreciate it. Those non-school hours are times, as you know, of real anxiety for parents.” Teachers too. “We employ thousands of teachers during the non-school hours, so it’s a way for teachers to pick up additional pay from us.”</p>
<p>Neither Duncan nor Lynch mentioned a recent report that found that the board gets little bang for the $123 million central office spends on professional development for teachers. The biggest single item, accounting for $56 million, is the eight professional development days required by the board-union contract. Asked whether those days might be a source of savings, both Duncan and Lynch said only that they would consider it.</p>
<p>Pate’s roadblock</p>
<p>Former State Senate President James “Pate” Phillip (R-Wood Dale) also threw a wrench into negotiations when he held up legislation that the CTU said was necessary for talks to begin.</p>
<p>The board and the union spent much of the summer hammering out an agreement that would partially restore the union’s bargaining rights over class size and other issues, and they spent much of the fall bringing the city’s business community on board. But their legislation failed to pass in the veto session when Phillip refused to let it be called for a vote.</p>
<p>Lynch says she won’t sit down at the bargaining table until that measure becomes law. With Democrats in control of both legislative houses and the governor’s mansion, that’s sure to happen, but Lynch says that even with the bill getting “fast-track” treatment, it probably won’t be before early March. That leaves less than four months before the CTU contract expires June 30.</p>
<p>With so much riding on state legislative action, negotiations are expected to go down to the wire and possibly right up to the start of the 2003-2004 school year. “It’s hard to nail down an agreement when you don’t know what the revenues are going to be,” notes Northwestern University researcher G. Alfred Hess Jr., a longtime watcher of board-union relations.</p>
<p>Despite the difficulties, board negotiator Franczek says he’s expecting things to work out. “The good news is, you’ve got people who are optimistic and positive and want to see it work,” he says. “And so, chances are, it’ll work.”</p>
<p>Duncan says he’s looking forward to negotiations. “Our relationship is in a better place than it’s ever been,” says Duncan. “I think we’re coming into this with a spirit of partnership that we haven’t had previously.”</p>
<p>Outsiders caution that good will is not enough.</p>
<p>Hess sees lots of common ground between Duncan and Lynch, including a shared commitment to professional development for teachers. “But that doesn’t mean that they can necessarily resolve these fundamental issues.”</p>
<p>“You’ve got new people bargaining, and there’s always a learning curve,” notes Ald. Patrick O’Connor (40th), who chairs the City Council’s education committee. Having veterans like Franczek on board doesn’t change that, he says. “Even though you may have the same attorneys in there, their clients will be hearing a lot of this stuff for the first time.</p>
<p>“The one thing I’d encourage all of them to do is to agree on the finances—because that makes the conversations real,” says O’Connor. “You can posture, say what you want, but there’s a difference between what you want and what’s actually in the cookie jar. I hope they have enough trust in each other to say, ‘Here’s where our books are, now let’s sit down and talk about it.'”</p>
<p>If the issue of the area instructional offices is any indication, that isn’t happening. CPS officials have said that creation of the area instructional offices—an area where Lynch believes trims could be found—did not increase costs. Their printed budget shows the area offices costing $1.2 million less and having 20 fewer staffers than did the regional offices they replaced. But a Catalyst analysis of the district’s line-item, electronic budget file shows that more than 20 regional staffers were simply moved to other budget lines or placed in central office positions that support the new area offices.</p>
<p>However, even a frank discussion on finances is unlikely to produce quick agreement, O’Connor says. “I don’t think the union leadership can afford to salt it away quickly. When there’s a change in leadership, people think, ‘We’ve got to hit a home run here because we’re new.’ They went through this change because people said the other guys were rolling over. If they come back and say, ‘Well, we got a contract,’ people will say, ‘Hey, what happened to stamping our feet?'”</p>
<p>The fiscal situation “can be plain as day, and they’ll still have to go through a certain amount of exercise,” O’Connor says.</p>
<p>O’Connor also warns that Lynch’s promises could come back to haunt her. “When you make promises before you know what the numbers are, you risk breaking the promise if you’re going to negotiate reasonably,” he explains. “Unless she sees some numbers that are different from what we see, or unless the state’s going to come through with more money, those promises are going to be real hard to deliver on.”</p>
<p>There are still other pressures on the union. “No public-sector union people want strikes right now,” says John Ayers, executive director of Leadership for Quality Education, a business-backed school reform group. “It does more harm than good, and they’ve learned that. How many [American Federation of Teachers] strikes have there been in the last 10 years? Not many. Partly that’s because there’s been a diminution of labor solidarity, but partly it’s because they have a big public perception problem: For teachers, as professionals, burning wood in garbage cans and screaming obscenities is not a good image.”</p>
<p>If there were a strike, “the union would win points with its membership, but I’m not sure how it would stand with people of Chicago and downstate,” says Jeffery Mirel, a history professor and dean of the education school at the University of Michigan. “Teacher unions are not high on everybody’s gift list. Teachers are, but not teacher unions.”</p>
<p>Teacher unions in Michigan took it on the chin in the 1990s, as then-Gov. John Engler outlawed strikes, in effect, by imposing enormous fines on striking teachers and unions. “The public was not outraged” by Engler’s anti-union actions, says Mirel. “Had he been able to run again, he’d have won, and his antipathy to the union was something he stood proudly on. That’s not likely to happen with a Democratic legislature and a Democratic governor, but as we know, things change.”</p>
<p>Despite the budget woes and other pressures, few sources think a strike is likely. For one, the board also has a strong incentive to avoid a breakdown in negotiations: A strike—especially if it were long or resulted in only a one-year contract—would disrupt 10 years of relative stability and threaten Mayor Daley’s longtime dream of keeping middle-class families in the city and its public schools.</p>
<p>Longtime observers note that when push comes to shove, the district finds money in its enormous budget, which is now $3.5 billion. And the union has accepted such sleight of hand as raises that begin mid year and, therefore, cost less at the outset. In the words of Carolyn Nordstrom, president of Chicago United, a business organization that promotes racial diversity and equity: “What I’ve learned about Chicago is that budget magic happens.”</p>
| 7,134 |
<p />
<p>Fewer students are only one of DeVry's current challenges.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What:Shares ofDeVry Education Group Inc. are down 13.2% at 2 p.m. EDT on June 2, following the announcement that CFO Timothy Wiggins would be leaving the company at the end of the month and would be replaced by Patrick Unzicker, who has been vice president, treasurer, and chief accounting officer at the for-profit educator.</p>
<p>So what:Another executive leaving the company after last week's <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/05/25/devry-education-group-inc-stock-down-14-following.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">surprise departure Opens a New Window.</a> of longtime CEO Daniel Hamburger isn't reassuring, considering the legal challenges the company is facing, to go along with what has become a very weak environment for the entire for-profit education industry. Wall Street analysts seem to agree, with Credit Suisse lowering its rating on DeVry's stock, and cutting its target price from $25 to $17.</p>
<p>Now what:Uncertainty is Mister Market's arch nemesis, and there's nothing like seemingly sudden big changes in the executive suite, along with potential legal problems -- a la DeVry's current battle with the FTC -- to send a company's stock tumbling:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/DV" type="external">DV</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Factor in what many are calling an ill-advised, expensive acquisition last week -- the company paid $330 million for a $40 million revenue business; that's eight times sales -- andall of a sudden there's a lot of uncertainty around the company's direction.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The good news? Both the new CEO (multiyear board member) and the new CFO (longtime executive at DeVry) are experienced and familiar with the company, so it's not like the reins have been handed over to complete strangers. However, it's clear that there's been discord in the leadership ranks, with so much change so quickly.</p>
<p>Putting together the sudden and major changes in top leadership with the uncertainty around the FTC case, and what looks like a questionable investment that could mean less-than-stellar capital allocation plans going forward: it's probably best to stay on the sidelines until some of the dust clears, we have a better idea of how this management team plans to move the business forward, and we know the outcome of the FTC case.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/02/devry-education-group-inc-stock-down-13-what-inves.aspx" type="external">DeVry Education Group Inc. Stock Down 13%: What Investors Should Know Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/elihpaudio/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Jason Hall Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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DeVry Education Group Inc. Stock Down 13%: What Investors Should Know
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/02/devry-education-group-inc-stock-down-13-what-investors-should-know.html
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2016-06-02
| 0right
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DeVry Education Group Inc. Stock Down 13%: What Investors Should Know
<p />
<p>Fewer students are only one of DeVry's current challenges.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>What:Shares ofDeVry Education Group Inc. are down 13.2% at 2 p.m. EDT on June 2, following the announcement that CFO Timothy Wiggins would be leaving the company at the end of the month and would be replaced by Patrick Unzicker, who has been vice president, treasurer, and chief accounting officer at the for-profit educator.</p>
<p>So what:Another executive leaving the company after last week's <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/05/25/devry-education-group-inc-stock-down-14-following.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">surprise departure Opens a New Window.</a> of longtime CEO Daniel Hamburger isn't reassuring, considering the legal challenges the company is facing, to go along with what has become a very weak environment for the entire for-profit education industry. Wall Street analysts seem to agree, with Credit Suisse lowering its rating on DeVry's stock, and cutting its target price from $25 to $17.</p>
<p>Now what:Uncertainty is Mister Market's arch nemesis, and there's nothing like seemingly sudden big changes in the executive suite, along with potential legal problems -- a la DeVry's current battle with the FTC -- to send a company's stock tumbling:</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/DV" type="external">DV</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Factor in what many are calling an ill-advised, expensive acquisition last week -- the company paid $330 million for a $40 million revenue business; that's eight times sales -- andall of a sudden there's a lot of uncertainty around the company's direction.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The good news? Both the new CEO (multiyear board member) and the new CFO (longtime executive at DeVry) are experienced and familiar with the company, so it's not like the reins have been handed over to complete strangers. However, it's clear that there's been discord in the leadership ranks, with so much change so quickly.</p>
<p>Putting together the sudden and major changes in top leadership with the uncertainty around the FTC case, and what looks like a questionable investment that could mean less-than-stellar capital allocation plans going forward: it's probably best to stay on the sidelines until some of the dust clears, we have a better idea of how this management team plans to move the business forward, and we know the outcome of the FTC case.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/02/devry-education-group-inc-stock-down-13-what-inves.aspx" type="external">DeVry Education Group Inc. Stock Down 13%: What Investors Should Know Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/elihpaudio/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Jason Hall Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services <a href="http://www.fool.com/shop/newsletters/index.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">free for 30 days Opens a New Window.</a>. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that <a href="http://wiki.fool.com/Motley?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">considering a diverse range of insights Opens a New Window.</a> makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/help/index.htm?display=about02" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
| 7,135 |
<p>Authorities have begun moving thousands of refugees from North Africa off the Italian island of Lampedus to other parts of the country. Lampedusa is closer to Tunisia than to Italy itself and has been overwhelmed by people fleeing the uprisings. Italian officials say they’re dealing with a humanitarian crisis and worry they’ll run out of food and water. They’re also scolding the rest of Europe for not helping more.</p>
<p>More than 6,000 North African refugees have been huddling in camps on Lampedusa. That’s more than the native population of the island. Italy’s Health Ministry has called the situation a ticking time bomb, as both residents and refugees complain — sometimes loudly — about inadequate conditions.</p>
<p>Last week Italian authorities began evacuating thousands of refugees to other parts of Italy by boat. But rough seas put the operation on hold until Monday. Also hampering the effort, officials say, is the reticence of other Italian regions to take people in.</p>
<p>Cono Galipo heads Lampedusa’s immigrant holding center. He says fellow Italians might be more open to resettling refugees if other parts of Europe shared the burden too.</p>
<p>“I believe Europe as well as Italy has to make an effort to take the refugees from Lampedusa,” he said. “The effort has to be robust.”</p>
<p>But so far Italy’s neighbors have been slow to react. European Union officials in Brussels point that they have given several million dollars to help with the refugee crisis. But Italy wants EU countries to share the human burden.</p>
<p>So far none have offered to take in refugees. The highest profile European visitor to Lampedusa to date has been the far-right French politician Marine Le Pen. Le Pen&#160;wants&#160;the EU to help Italy, but not by accepting refugees. Rather, she said, Europe should seal its borders to stop immigrants from being smuggled north.</p>
<p>“Europe cannot handle any more clandestine immigration,” she said on a visit to the island’s immigrant holding center. “ We Europeans are impoverished enough and already have a lot of immigrants who come legally.”</p>
<p>Le Pen’s anti-immigrant message is finding larger audiences across Europe these days, with high unemployment still battering the continent. That partly explains why Italy’s neighbors have been quicker to commit fighter jets to defend civilians in Libya than to take in those fleeing the same conflict.</p>
<p>At an immigrant asylum office in Barcelona, Spain, for example, foreigners of mainly African origin line up to argue why they should be allowed to stay. Spain is Europe’s other gateway from Africa.</p>
<p>Local asylum attorney Jose Luis Numba said so far Spain has not received asylum seekers from the ongoing North African and Middle East revolutions, but he believes it will soon enough. He said Europe should embrace the refugees, while supporting democratic change in their home countries.</p>
<p>“These people are going to get their freedom at home,” he said. “So while we might see a big wave of immigration now it will only last for a short while. Once the situation stabilizes in North Africa we’ll see the flow of people come back into the balance we’re looking for.”</p>
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Italy calls for help with refugees
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https://pri.org/stories/2011-04-04/italy-calls-help-refugees
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2011-04-04
| 3left-center
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Italy calls for help with refugees
<p>Authorities have begun moving thousands of refugees from North Africa off the Italian island of Lampedus to other parts of the country. Lampedusa is closer to Tunisia than to Italy itself and has been overwhelmed by people fleeing the uprisings. Italian officials say they’re dealing with a humanitarian crisis and worry they’ll run out of food and water. They’re also scolding the rest of Europe for not helping more.</p>
<p>More than 6,000 North African refugees have been huddling in camps on Lampedusa. That’s more than the native population of the island. Italy’s Health Ministry has called the situation a ticking time bomb, as both residents and refugees complain — sometimes loudly — about inadequate conditions.</p>
<p>Last week Italian authorities began evacuating thousands of refugees to other parts of Italy by boat. But rough seas put the operation on hold until Monday. Also hampering the effort, officials say, is the reticence of other Italian regions to take people in.</p>
<p>Cono Galipo heads Lampedusa’s immigrant holding center. He says fellow Italians might be more open to resettling refugees if other parts of Europe shared the burden too.</p>
<p>“I believe Europe as well as Italy has to make an effort to take the refugees from Lampedusa,” he said. “The effort has to be robust.”</p>
<p>But so far Italy’s neighbors have been slow to react. European Union officials in Brussels point that they have given several million dollars to help with the refugee crisis. But Italy wants EU countries to share the human burden.</p>
<p>So far none have offered to take in refugees. The highest profile European visitor to Lampedusa to date has been the far-right French politician Marine Le Pen. Le Pen&#160;wants&#160;the EU to help Italy, but not by accepting refugees. Rather, she said, Europe should seal its borders to stop immigrants from being smuggled north.</p>
<p>“Europe cannot handle any more clandestine immigration,” she said on a visit to the island’s immigrant holding center. “ We Europeans are impoverished enough and already have a lot of immigrants who come legally.”</p>
<p>Le Pen’s anti-immigrant message is finding larger audiences across Europe these days, with high unemployment still battering the continent. That partly explains why Italy’s neighbors have been quicker to commit fighter jets to defend civilians in Libya than to take in those fleeing the same conflict.</p>
<p>At an immigrant asylum office in Barcelona, Spain, for example, foreigners of mainly African origin line up to argue why they should be allowed to stay. Spain is Europe’s other gateway from Africa.</p>
<p>Local asylum attorney Jose Luis Numba said so far Spain has not received asylum seekers from the ongoing North African and Middle East revolutions, but he believes it will soon enough. He said Europe should embrace the refugees, while supporting democratic change in their home countries.</p>
<p>“These people are going to get their freedom at home,” he said. “So while we might see a big wave of immigration now it will only last for a short while. Once the situation stabilizes in North Africa we’ll see the flow of people come back into the balance we’re looking for.”</p>
| 7,136 |
<p>Even in summer, Iceland is known for often being extremely cold and windy. But Icelanders are used to the cold, and the wind wouldn’t be such a problem … if it weren’t for the trampolines.</p>
<p>Icelanders love trampolines. Pass through Reykjavik and you’re sure to see a surprising number of them in people’s backyards. And while trampolines may seem like they’re all fun and games, they have the potential to do some serious damage. This means that, just before a storm, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/logreglan/posts/186030751460481" type="external">police</a> or <a href="http://grapevine.is/news/2013/06/26/secure-your-trampolines-high-wind-warning-in-effect" type="external">fire department</a> in Reykjavik often have to issue flying trampoline warnings.</p>
<p>You read that right:&#160;Flying. Trampoline. Warnings.</p>
<p>An officer who works for the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police was quick to point out that it’s not just trampolines that the police must warn residents about. They also ask&#160;people to secure loose items like trash bins, chairs and tables when it’s windy.</p>
<p>However, trampolines (or trampólín, in t <a href="" type="internal">he most excellent Icelandic language</a>) can cause pretty significant damage. It’s “not uncommon” for the trampolines to “fly around and break windows, or damage cars,” he said by telephone.&#160;Hence the warnings to lock them up, or bring them inside.</p>
<p>Sigrun Davidsdottir, an Icelandic journalist, tweeted that the police issued these warnings for good reason.&#160;"I've never seen so many trampolines in any country; in every other garden, not only in Reykjavík!" she <a href="https://twitter.com/sigrunda/status/617012065488760832" type="external">said</a>.</p>
<p>Despite the risks, why do Icelanders love trampolines so much? Mostly, because it’s fun for kids, the officer said. When parents want to relax on the porch, or work in their gardens, the trampoline can serve as “kind of a babysitter,” he said.</p>
<p>Jon Baldur Hlidberg,&#160;a natural history illustrator from&#160;Rekyjavik,&#160;has&#160;a different idea. It might be because Icelanders love to see the horizon; but, with the rise of cities, they&#160;need to rise above tall buildings&#160;to catch a glimpse, he said on Facebook. Or, he said,&#160;"maybe it's because trampolines in a sense, mimic the drop and rise of the small viking ship at sea."</p>
<p>Hlidberg also said Icelanders are by nature "strong-headed and defiant." He thinks that may be&#160;why people in Iceland like to have trampolines, despite the risks. He, for one, never gave in to the "numerous trampoline requests" from his three children.</p>
<p>A footnote: If you've read this far, you deserve to see this: Baby goats, discovering a trampoline.</p>
|
Iceland issues flying trampoline warnings
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2015-07-03/its-bird-its-plane-its-trampoline
|
2015-07-03
| 3left-center
|
Iceland issues flying trampoline warnings
<p>Even in summer, Iceland is known for often being extremely cold and windy. But Icelanders are used to the cold, and the wind wouldn’t be such a problem … if it weren’t for the trampolines.</p>
<p>Icelanders love trampolines. Pass through Reykjavik and you’re sure to see a surprising number of them in people’s backyards. And while trampolines may seem like they’re all fun and games, they have the potential to do some serious damage. This means that, just before a storm, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/logreglan/posts/186030751460481" type="external">police</a> or <a href="http://grapevine.is/news/2013/06/26/secure-your-trampolines-high-wind-warning-in-effect" type="external">fire department</a> in Reykjavik often have to issue flying trampoline warnings.</p>
<p>You read that right:&#160;Flying. Trampoline. Warnings.</p>
<p>An officer who works for the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police was quick to point out that it’s not just trampolines that the police must warn residents about. They also ask&#160;people to secure loose items like trash bins, chairs and tables when it’s windy.</p>
<p>However, trampolines (or trampólín, in t <a href="" type="internal">he most excellent Icelandic language</a>) can cause pretty significant damage. It’s “not uncommon” for the trampolines to “fly around and break windows, or damage cars,” he said by telephone.&#160;Hence the warnings to lock them up, or bring them inside.</p>
<p>Sigrun Davidsdottir, an Icelandic journalist, tweeted that the police issued these warnings for good reason.&#160;"I've never seen so many trampolines in any country; in every other garden, not only in Reykjavík!" she <a href="https://twitter.com/sigrunda/status/617012065488760832" type="external">said</a>.</p>
<p>Despite the risks, why do Icelanders love trampolines so much? Mostly, because it’s fun for kids, the officer said. When parents want to relax on the porch, or work in their gardens, the trampoline can serve as “kind of a babysitter,” he said.</p>
<p>Jon Baldur Hlidberg,&#160;a natural history illustrator from&#160;Rekyjavik,&#160;has&#160;a different idea. It might be because Icelanders love to see the horizon; but, with the rise of cities, they&#160;need to rise above tall buildings&#160;to catch a glimpse, he said on Facebook. Or, he said,&#160;"maybe it's because trampolines in a sense, mimic the drop and rise of the small viking ship at sea."</p>
<p>Hlidberg also said Icelanders are by nature "strong-headed and defiant." He thinks that may be&#160;why people in Iceland like to have trampolines, despite the risks. He, for one, never gave in to the "numerous trampoline requests" from his three children.</p>
<p>A footnote: If you've read this far, you deserve to see this: Baby goats, discovering a trampoline.</p>
| 7,137 |
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the impact of the federal government shutdown (all times local):</p>
<p>5 p.m.</p>
<p>A U.S. government shutdown that has forced scores of federal agencies and outposts to close their doors has prompted the New York state government to step in and pay to open the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island for visitors.</p>
<p>Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (KWOH’-moh) says his state will spend $65,000 a day beginning Monday for the federal employees who operate the sites, which have been closed since the federal government shut down at midnight Friday.</p>
<p>The partial government shutdown also has created uncertainty for Army and Air Force bases’ civilian employees. Civilian workers for the Department of Defense are scheduled to find out Monday if they’ll be furloughed.</p>
<p>Around the nation, union leaders say government workers are struggling with the uncertainty that comes with not knowing when or if they’ll get paid.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:35 a.m.</p>
<p>Closed attractions like the Statue of Liberty and suspended services such as the American Forces Network are examples of victims of the government shutdown.</p>
<p>Federal services fall into two categories during a shutdown, essential and non-essential. Essential services such as the mail and Social Security checks continue. Non-essential services like processing of new veterans benefits claims are suspended until funding is restored.</p>
<p>The air traffic control system stays up and running, as do the FBI, Customs and Border Protection and veterans hospitals. Active-duty troops will stay at their posts during a shutdown. But those serving abroad and expecting the American Forces Network to broadcast radio and television programming will miss the NFL playoffs.</p>
<p>Almost half the 2 million civilian federal workers will be barred from doing their jobs.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the impact of the federal government shutdown (all times local):</p>
<p>5 p.m.</p>
<p>A U.S. government shutdown that has forced scores of federal agencies and outposts to close their doors has prompted the New York state government to step in and pay to open the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island for visitors.</p>
<p>Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (KWOH’-moh) says his state will spend $65,000 a day beginning Monday for the federal employees who operate the sites, which have been closed since the federal government shut down at midnight Friday.</p>
<p>The partial government shutdown also has created uncertainty for Army and Air Force bases’ civilian employees. Civilian workers for the Department of Defense are scheduled to find out Monday if they’ll be furloughed.</p>
<p>Around the nation, union leaders say government workers are struggling with the uncertainty that comes with not knowing when or if they’ll get paid.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:35 a.m.</p>
<p>Closed attractions like the Statue of Liberty and suspended services such as the American Forces Network are examples of victims of the government shutdown.</p>
<p>Federal services fall into two categories during a shutdown, essential and non-essential. Essential services such as the mail and Social Security checks continue. Non-essential services like processing of new veterans benefits claims are suspended until funding is restored.</p>
<p>The air traffic control system stays up and running, as do the FBI, Customs and Border Protection and veterans hospitals. Active-duty troops will stay at their posts during a shutdown. But those serving abroad and expecting the American Forces Network to broadcast radio and television programming will miss the NFL playoffs.</p>
<p>Almost half the 2 million civilian federal workers will be barred from doing their jobs.</p>
|
The Latest: US government shutdown prompts state to step in
| false |
https://apnews.com/ec411e785d8f490b97905ab9aa589ca8
|
2018-01-21
| 2least
|
The Latest: US government shutdown prompts state to step in
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the impact of the federal government shutdown (all times local):</p>
<p>5 p.m.</p>
<p>A U.S. government shutdown that has forced scores of federal agencies and outposts to close their doors has prompted the New York state government to step in and pay to open the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island for visitors.</p>
<p>Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (KWOH’-moh) says his state will spend $65,000 a day beginning Monday for the federal employees who operate the sites, which have been closed since the federal government shut down at midnight Friday.</p>
<p>The partial government shutdown also has created uncertainty for Army and Air Force bases’ civilian employees. Civilian workers for the Department of Defense are scheduled to find out Monday if they’ll be furloughed.</p>
<p>Around the nation, union leaders say government workers are struggling with the uncertainty that comes with not knowing when or if they’ll get paid.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:35 a.m.</p>
<p>Closed attractions like the Statue of Liberty and suspended services such as the American Forces Network are examples of victims of the government shutdown.</p>
<p>Federal services fall into two categories during a shutdown, essential and non-essential. Essential services such as the mail and Social Security checks continue. Non-essential services like processing of new veterans benefits claims are suspended until funding is restored.</p>
<p>The air traffic control system stays up and running, as do the FBI, Customs and Border Protection and veterans hospitals. Active-duty troops will stay at their posts during a shutdown. But those serving abroad and expecting the American Forces Network to broadcast radio and television programming will miss the NFL playoffs.</p>
<p>Almost half the 2 million civilian federal workers will be barred from doing their jobs.</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the impact of the federal government shutdown (all times local):</p>
<p>5 p.m.</p>
<p>A U.S. government shutdown that has forced scores of federal agencies and outposts to close their doors has prompted the New York state government to step in and pay to open the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island for visitors.</p>
<p>Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (KWOH’-moh) says his state will spend $65,000 a day beginning Monday for the federal employees who operate the sites, which have been closed since the federal government shut down at midnight Friday.</p>
<p>The partial government shutdown also has created uncertainty for Army and Air Force bases’ civilian employees. Civilian workers for the Department of Defense are scheduled to find out Monday if they’ll be furloughed.</p>
<p>Around the nation, union leaders say government workers are struggling with the uncertainty that comes with not knowing when or if they’ll get paid.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>12:35 a.m.</p>
<p>Closed attractions like the Statue of Liberty and suspended services such as the American Forces Network are examples of victims of the government shutdown.</p>
<p>Federal services fall into two categories during a shutdown, essential and non-essential. Essential services such as the mail and Social Security checks continue. Non-essential services like processing of new veterans benefits claims are suspended until funding is restored.</p>
<p>The air traffic control system stays up and running, as do the FBI, Customs and Border Protection and veterans hospitals. Active-duty troops will stay at their posts during a shutdown. But those serving abroad and expecting the American Forces Network to broadcast radio and television programming will miss the NFL playoffs.</p>
<p>Almost half the 2 million civilian federal workers will be barred from doing their jobs.</p>
| 7,138 |
<p />
<p>What: Shares of online jewelry retailer Blue Nile(NASDAQ: NILE) sank 25% in February, according to data provided by <a href="https://www.capitaliq.com/home.aspx" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>, leaving shareholders trailing the broader market over the last year (the stock had been trouncing indexes by 30 percentage points as recently as December).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/NILE" type="external">NILE</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>So what: Investors <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/11/shares-plunge-as-blue-nile-inc-reins-in-its-growth.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">reacted harshly Opens a New Window.</a> to the company's fourth-quarter results. Sales for the holiday period declined by 5%, which left Blue Nile at just $480 million of revenue for all of 2015, compared to management's forecast of $493 million. Engagement jewelry sales fell 8% in Q4, marking a significant slowdown from the prior quarter's 7% uptick.</p>
<p>Nile is hardly alone in that struggle, though. Jewelry giant Tiffany's (NYSE: TIF) holiday sales fell 5% as well, which the company blamed on "restrained consumer spending tied to challenging and uncertain global economic conditions."</p>
<p>As for earnings, Blue Nile held the line on pricing and raised its profitability in the process. Gross margin improved from 18.1% of sales to 19.4%.</p>
<p>Now what: Consistent with rival Tiffany's forecast, Blue Nile management sees more weakness in the global jewel market this year -- annual sales are projected to show no improvement and weigh in at $480 million. For a growth stock, that uninspiring outlook was enough to sink shares last month.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Image source: Blue Nile.</p>
<p>The company expects to keep booking modest profit margin gains in 2016 while expanding its Webroom concept that allows customers to handle jewelry before making their purchase decisions.</p>
<p>Investors smarting from the business' lower growth potential also received a key financial consolation: Blue Nile initiated a dividend to the tune of 80% of last year's earnings. Without promising that it will be a regular payout, management said they would assess the company's capital position each year when determining whether to issue a dividend, and how much of the prior year's earnings to pay out to shareholders.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/09/why-blue-nile-inc-stock-plunged-25-in-february.aspx" type="external">Why Blue Nile Inc. Stock Plunged 25% in February Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSigma/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Demitrios Kalogeropoulos Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Blue Nile. 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 Blue Nile Inc. Stock Plunged 25% in February
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/03/09/why-blue-nile-inc-stock-plunged-25-in-february.html
|
2016-03-09
| 0right
|
Why Blue Nile Inc. Stock Plunged 25% in February
<p />
<p>What: Shares of online jewelry retailer Blue Nile(NASDAQ: NILE) sank 25% in February, according to data provided by <a href="https://www.capitaliq.com/home.aspx" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>, leaving shareholders trailing the broader market over the last year (the stock had been trouncing indexes by 30 percentage points as recently as December).</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p><a href="http://ycharts.com/companies/NILE" type="external">NILE</a> data by <a href="http://ycharts.com" type="external">YCharts Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>So what: Investors <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/11/shares-plunge-as-blue-nile-inc-reins-in-its-growth.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">reacted harshly Opens a New Window.</a> to the company's fourth-quarter results. Sales for the holiday period declined by 5%, which left Blue Nile at just $480 million of revenue for all of 2015, compared to management's forecast of $493 million. Engagement jewelry sales fell 8% in Q4, marking a significant slowdown from the prior quarter's 7% uptick.</p>
<p>Nile is hardly alone in that struggle, though. Jewelry giant Tiffany's (NYSE: TIF) holiday sales fell 5% as well, which the company blamed on "restrained consumer spending tied to challenging and uncertain global economic conditions."</p>
<p>As for earnings, Blue Nile held the line on pricing and raised its profitability in the process. Gross margin improved from 18.1% of sales to 19.4%.</p>
<p>Now what: Consistent with rival Tiffany's forecast, Blue Nile management sees more weakness in the global jewel market this year -- annual sales are projected to show no improvement and weigh in at $480 million. For a growth stock, that uninspiring outlook was enough to sink shares last month.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Image source: Blue Nile.</p>
<p>The company expects to keep booking modest profit margin gains in 2016 while expanding its Webroom concept that allows customers to handle jewelry before making their purchase decisions.</p>
<p>Investors smarting from the business' lower growth potential also received a key financial consolation: Blue Nile initiated a dividend to the tune of 80% of last year's earnings. Without promising that it will be a regular payout, management said they would assess the company's capital position each year when determining whether to issue a dividend, and how much of the prior year's earnings to pay out to shareholders.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/03/09/why-blue-nile-inc-stock-plunged-25-in-february.aspx" type="external">Why Blue Nile Inc. Stock Plunged 25% in February Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSigma/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Demitrios Kalogeropoulos Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Blue Nile. 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>
| 7,139 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The adults had taken this 16-year-old from California to Arizona and were heading for Las Vegas. The girl gave Otto the California phone number of her grandmother, who immediately told him the girl might have been in prostitution since she was 15. Trained in interview techniques for such situations, and experienced at noticing people who somehow do not belong together, Otto correctly suspected DMST – domestic minor sex trafficking.</p>
<p>Trooper Mitch Jergenson, 46, stopped a car driven by a man whose passenger was a 17-year-old girl he had gotten to know via Facebook and other social media. He had paid for her ticket from California to Phoenix and was taking her to Las Vegas. She said she was going to be a “model,” then said she was going to work in a strip club. This, says Jergenson, is “the start of a process” whereby minors often wind up working the streets. “Las Vegas has strict regulations, but … .”</p>
<p>Sgt. Scott Reutter, 47, who watches the motels near the Phoenix intersection of I-17 and I-10, where prostitutes are active, approached a young girl talking to an older man. She said she was 22. Reutter, whose daughters are 22 and 19, thought she was “14, maybe 15.” She had been a runaway for 17 months, since she was 13, and said that if she were returned to the custody of child services she would run again. After a 10-minute hearing, she was returned. She immediately ran, and did so repeatedly. To be in law enforcement is often to feel condemned to bailing an ocean with a thimble.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Frank Milstead, too, knows how Sisyphus felt. When nature designed him, it had a director of the Department of Public Safety in mind. Large and laconic, he is the 54-year-old son of a Phoenix cop and, although he spent some time doing stand-up comedy, he knows in the marrow of his bones that “there are so many people out there who want to take advantage of other people.”</p>
<p>It is unclear how many victims of DMST there are because for many reasons the crime is not often reported by its victims. They are, Milstead says, usually abducted, sort of, from “some environment where nobody missed them,” adding, however, that traffickers cannot control “people who are unwilling.”</p>
<p>But many trafficked minors, “who no one had made to feel valuable,” are, Milstead says, “chronic runaways” with attenuated capacities for self-determination. They are products of poor or nonexistent parenting; their traffickers provide food, shelter, a simulacrum of caring, and drugs that produce dependency. Milstead guesses that 80 percent are addicted. Hence, they engage in “survival sex.”</p>
<p>Milstead’s troopers patrol motel parking lots and get to know those who do the motels’ housekeeping and notice suspicious activity. Big sporting events, of which Phoenix has many – the Super Bowl, the Final Four, NCAA championship football games – attract traffickers. Troopers also watch bars and nightclubs where minors are offered for sex, and, increasingly, monitor the internet and social media.</p>
<p>The website Backpage, whose founders live in Arizona, began as a place for normal classified advertising but, a U.S. Senate investigation concluded, found its most lucrative business being a sexual marketplace. The New York Times reports that law enforcement officials say Backpage’s “dating section” often “used teasers like ‘Amber alert’ and ‘Lolita’ to signal that children were for sale.” According to the Times, “In the midst of a Senate investigation, a federal grand jury inquiry in Arizona, two federal lawsuits and criminal charges in California accusing Backpage’s operators of pimping children, the website abruptly bowed to pressure in January and replaced its sex ads with the word ‘Censored’ in red.”</p>
<p>Holding up his smartphone, Milstead, whose vocation reinforces his inclination to look on the dark side, says: “Leaving your kid alone at night in his room with this? You might as well leave him or her in the city park downtown. Anything is available on a phone.”</p>
<p>Will’s columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion – look for the syndicated columnist link. E-mail: [email protected]; copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
|
Sick sex trafficking of our children is alive and well
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/991025/sick-sex-trafficking-of-our-children-is-alive-and-well.html
| 2least
|
Sick sex trafficking of our children is alive and well
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The adults had taken this 16-year-old from California to Arizona and were heading for Las Vegas. The girl gave Otto the California phone number of her grandmother, who immediately told him the girl might have been in prostitution since she was 15. Trained in interview techniques for such situations, and experienced at noticing people who somehow do not belong together, Otto correctly suspected DMST – domestic minor sex trafficking.</p>
<p>Trooper Mitch Jergenson, 46, stopped a car driven by a man whose passenger was a 17-year-old girl he had gotten to know via Facebook and other social media. He had paid for her ticket from California to Phoenix and was taking her to Las Vegas. She said she was going to be a “model,” then said she was going to work in a strip club. This, says Jergenson, is “the start of a process” whereby minors often wind up working the streets. “Las Vegas has strict regulations, but … .”</p>
<p>Sgt. Scott Reutter, 47, who watches the motels near the Phoenix intersection of I-17 and I-10, where prostitutes are active, approached a young girl talking to an older man. She said she was 22. Reutter, whose daughters are 22 and 19, thought she was “14, maybe 15.” She had been a runaway for 17 months, since she was 13, and said that if she were returned to the custody of child services she would run again. After a 10-minute hearing, she was returned. She immediately ran, and did so repeatedly. To be in law enforcement is often to feel condemned to bailing an ocean with a thimble.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Frank Milstead, too, knows how Sisyphus felt. When nature designed him, it had a director of the Department of Public Safety in mind. Large and laconic, he is the 54-year-old son of a Phoenix cop and, although he spent some time doing stand-up comedy, he knows in the marrow of his bones that “there are so many people out there who want to take advantage of other people.”</p>
<p>It is unclear how many victims of DMST there are because for many reasons the crime is not often reported by its victims. They are, Milstead says, usually abducted, sort of, from “some environment where nobody missed them,” adding, however, that traffickers cannot control “people who are unwilling.”</p>
<p>But many trafficked minors, “who no one had made to feel valuable,” are, Milstead says, “chronic runaways” with attenuated capacities for self-determination. They are products of poor or nonexistent parenting; their traffickers provide food, shelter, a simulacrum of caring, and drugs that produce dependency. Milstead guesses that 80 percent are addicted. Hence, they engage in “survival sex.”</p>
<p>Milstead’s troopers patrol motel parking lots and get to know those who do the motels’ housekeeping and notice suspicious activity. Big sporting events, of which Phoenix has many – the Super Bowl, the Final Four, NCAA championship football games – attract traffickers. Troopers also watch bars and nightclubs where minors are offered for sex, and, increasingly, monitor the internet and social media.</p>
<p>The website Backpage, whose founders live in Arizona, began as a place for normal classified advertising but, a U.S. Senate investigation concluded, found its most lucrative business being a sexual marketplace. The New York Times reports that law enforcement officials say Backpage’s “dating section” often “used teasers like ‘Amber alert’ and ‘Lolita’ to signal that children were for sale.” According to the Times, “In the midst of a Senate investigation, a federal grand jury inquiry in Arizona, two federal lawsuits and criminal charges in California accusing Backpage’s operators of pimping children, the website abruptly bowed to pressure in January and replaced its sex ads with the word ‘Censored’ in red.”</p>
<p>Holding up his smartphone, Milstead, whose vocation reinforces his inclination to look on the dark side, says: “Leaving your kid alone at night in his room with this? You might as well leave him or her in the city park downtown. Anything is available on a phone.”</p>
<p>Will’s columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion – look for the syndicated columnist link. E-mail: [email protected]; copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p />
| 7,140 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>BRYAN, Texas — A 33-year-old man has improved from critical to stable condition with gunshot wounds incurred when he approached Bryan police in a threatening manner.</p>
<p>Bryan authorities said in a statement that officers responded late Sunday to a disturbance call and were speaking with a woman when the man approached.</p>
<p>Police say he disregarded officers’ commands and made statements and movements that conveyed that he was armed. According to a police statement Monday, he pulled a black object from his back pocket and took a shooting stance, pointing at the officer.</p>
<p>The officer fired several shots at the man, wounding him and revealing the object in his hands as a cellphone.</p>
<p>The officer was placed on administrative leave pending investigation. The suspect, whose identify hasn’t been released, is hospitalized in stable condition.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
|
Police say man shot after displaying threatening behavior
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/948957/police-say-man-shot-after-displaying-threatening-behavior.html
|
2017-02-13
| 2least
|
Police say man shot after displaying threatening behavior
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>BRYAN, Texas — A 33-year-old man has improved from critical to stable condition with gunshot wounds incurred when he approached Bryan police in a threatening manner.</p>
<p>Bryan authorities said in a statement that officers responded late Sunday to a disturbance call and were speaking with a woman when the man approached.</p>
<p>Police say he disregarded officers’ commands and made statements and movements that conveyed that he was armed. According to a police statement Monday, he pulled a black object from his back pocket and took a shooting stance, pointing at the officer.</p>
<p>The officer fired several shots at the man, wounding him and revealing the object in his hands as a cellphone.</p>
<p>The officer was placed on administrative leave pending investigation. The suspect, whose identify hasn’t been released, is hospitalized in stable condition.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 7,141 |
<p>Jessica Desvarieux is a multimedia journalist who serves as the Capitol Hill correspondent for the Real News Network. Most recently, Jessica worked as a producer for the ABC Sunday morning program, This Week with Christianne Amanpour. Before moving to Washington DC, Jessica served as the Haiti corespondent for TIME Magazine and TIME.com. Previously, she was as an on-air reporter for New York tri-state cable outlet Regional News Network, where she worked before the 2010 earthquake struck her native country of Haiti. From March 2008 - September 2009, she lived in Egypt, where her work appeared in various media outlets like the Associated Press, Voice of America, and the International Herald Tribune - Daily News Egypt. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a Master of Science degree in journalism. She is proficient in French, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and has a working knowledge of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Follow her <a href="https://twitter.com/Jessica_Reports" type="external">@Jessica_Reports</a>.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Last week, President Obama kept his word and signed an executive order raising the minimum wage for new federal contracts. The order requires contractors to pay employees at least $10.10 an hour. At the signing, the president did not miss the opportunity to call Congress to do the same nationwide.
<p />
<p />BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: There's a right now in front of both the House and the Senate that would boost America's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour--just like I'm doing with this executive action. It's easy to remember: 10-10--10-10. Let's get that done. Raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 wouldn't just raise wages for minimum-wage workers, its effect would lift wages for about 28&#160;million Americans. It would lift millions of Americans out of poverty immediately. It would help millions more work their way out of poverty--without requiring a single dollar in new taxes or spending.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: But in this picture-perfect moment, you can see in the background a group of low-wage workers. One of them is Arthur Helms. As a Wendy's employee making about $9 an hour, Arthur's been on the front lines fighting for a higher wage before it became a talking point on Capitol Hill. He says this raise is a jump-start but not the finish line.
<p />
<p />ARTHUR HELMS, WENDY'S EMPLOYEE: Actually, I don't think $10 will get you out of poverty. I don't think $12 will get you out of poverty. I mean, $15 can be a better start. You know. But the $10, it's a jump-start.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: A jump-start is how many in the wage movement are framing the news, especially in light of major corporations, like the Gap, announcing that they will be raising their minimum wage to $10 an hour next year.
<p />
<p />But if you factor in the $8.7&#160;billion in cuts to food stamps, would raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour get a working parent out of poverty?
<p />
<p />The Real News sat down and did the math with Cheria Cash. She's a 31-year-old single mother who was hired full-time at McDonald's and on food stamps.
<p />
<p />CHERIA CASH, MCDONALD'S EMPLOYEE: I work at McDonald's in Pittsburg, P.A., and that's on the north side. And they pay me $7.70.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Making $7.70 an hour, Cheria says that she usually only gets 30 hours of work a week. That comes out to $231 of gross weekly income. After she pays Social Security, taxes, and Medicare, she says that she only takes home $380 every two weeks, or about $820 a month, if she works the full 52 weeks a year. She also has a teenage son and receives $326 a month in food stamps.
<p />
<p />Before she receives her earned income tax credit, her monthly income and food stamp benefits total $1,149.
<p />
<p />CASH: When you think about it, it's like, gosh, it costs more to get to work this week, and I didn't even make that much. You know? Like, I spend my whole check to get back and forth to work or to eat. You know? So it's not even about going out or anything like that. It's just basically surviving, you know?
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Now let's see how she survives with earning $10.10 an hour. Her weekly gross income would get boosted up to $303 a week. Her monthly income would jump to $1,076. With the same food stamp benefits of $326 a month, and not including the couple of thousands for earned income tax credit, Cheria would have $1,402 a month to live on.
<p />
<p />Fortunately for Cheria, she is not one of the 850,000 households who will see an average cut of about $90 a month to their benefits. That's according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, since she does not receive heating assistance.
<p />
<p />But after looking at both situations, we asked an economic analyst if Cheria has made it out of poverty by earning $10 an hour?
<p />
<p />DAVID COOPER, ECONOMIC ANALYST, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE: For a parent with one child, the federal poverty line is about $15,700. So right now she's definitely below the poverty line. If the federal minimum wage went up to $10.10, her income would go up significantly. Her pre-tax income annually would probably be right around that $15,700 mark. So she'd probably be just above the poverty line or right near it.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: But though Cheria seems to squeak right above the poverty line, David Cooper says that the federal poverty line is not the most accurate measure of the reality of today's cost of living.
<p />
<p />COOPER: The poverty line was developed in the late 1950s. And what they did at that time is they basically said, well, what does it cost to buy sort of your basic essential bundle of food? And people tend to spend about three times more than that in total on everything else that they're buying. So we'll set the poverty line at basically three times the cost of what it takes to buy food. Now this is food in the 1950s, and since then, you know, the prices on things like health care and housing in particular have gone up a lot faster than the price of food, but we've only adjusted the poverty line based on overall inflation. So that means that today's poverty line is really not a very accurate measure of what it actually takes for someone to live.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: To account for people's actual living costs, EPI devised a tool called the Family Budget Calculator. We decided to try it out based on Cheria's family size and the fact that she lives in the city of Pittsburg.
<p />
<p />COOPER: For one parent and one child, we estimate it takes an annual income of about $48,000 to have a modest but secure standard of living. Right now she has an income of about $12,000-$13,000 total.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: It's discrepancies like this one that have led to broad public support for raising the minimum wage. According to a Quinnipiac poll last month, 71&#160;percent of American voters support raising the minimum wage.
<p />
<p />But Republicans are ready to fight back the $10 wage, especially considering the recent report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
<p />
<p />The report states that the $10 an hour wage hike would get 900,000 families out of poverty and increase the incomes of 16.5&#160;million low-wage workers in an average week.
<p />
<p />But the wage hike could also cause the economy to lose half a million jobs.
<p />
<p />DOUG ELMENDORF, DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: The set of research studies in this area led us to conclude that an increase in the minimum wage would probably have a small negative effect on employment, but there was substantial uncertainty around that estimate, as we reported.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: The CBO's uncertainty is what Howard University economics professor William Spriggs points to as one of the weaknesses of the report.
<p />
<p />WILLIAM SPRIGGS, PROF. ECONOMICS, HOWARD UNIVERSITY: They cited many, many reviews of the literature on minimum wage, all of which show either no loss of jobs, small gains in jobs, or very tiny losses of jobs. And for them to have chosen a very sensitive reaction to the increase in the minimum wage just doesn't line up with the studies that they cite. So I'm taking their 500,000 with a huge grain of salt. For me, that's beyond the worst-case scenario. I would only give that a 2&#160;percent chance of happening.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Professor Spriggs says that raising the minimum wage would lift millions out of poverty. But it wouldn't get all full-time workers out of poverty. Therefore, he says, the minimum wage should really be pegged to productivity and start at $15 an hour.
<p />
<p />SPRIGGS: We really need it to be $15. The reason we need it to be $15 is the bigger picture here, is that wages for all workers have been stagnant if not falling back, even for skilled workers and the most skilled workers.
<p />
<p />So take electricians as an example. They don't face imports, 'cause if you're hiring an electrician, you can't import one, and they rarely face competition from people who migrate to this country. But even the top 10&#160;percent, the very highest paid electricians, have seen their wages go backwards this last decade.
<p />
<p />So even skilled workers in the United States are seeing their wages slide backwards. They aren't keeping up with productivity.
<p />
<p />And we know that the gap is over 30&#160;percent between where wages and productivity were in the late 1970s and where they are today. So if we had kept the minimum wage constant with productivity increases, then the minimum wage, if you had kept it from the 1970s to today, 1968 to today, the minimum wage would be somewhere close to $20 an hour.
<p />
<p />The $15 an hour says, okay, very low wage workers aren't as productive as is the average for the economy, so we think that they've only got about half as productive. They would get $15 an hour.
<p />
<p />And it's that gap between wages, between what people take home and what they're producing for companies, that is creating the underlying problem that we have in our economy, because if you can't make enough money to buy what you just made, it means I don't need you, 'cause I can't sell what you just made. So it's kind of common sense. It's what Henry Ford said. You know, I can have these really productive autoworkers on this line and I can make thousands of cars, but if nobody can buy the car, what does that mean? So I got to pay somebody so they can buy the cars. Same thing is true today. And we've walked away from the relationship between productivity and wages.
<p />
<p />Productivity is up. Wages are not. Gaining the minimum wage to $15 and then linking it to productivity would mean that we would have a way to restore the relationship between wages and productivity.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Workers like Cheria in the Fight for 15 say $15 an hour would allow them to invest in the future.
<p />
<p />CASH: If you give us $15, I know I'll be able to buy a pair of shoes more than once a year. I won't have to wait for my income tax money to buy stuff. I could actually save my income tax money and put that towards, like, my son's education.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Hopes for a $15 wage may seem farfetched, as Congress cannot settle on a $10 wage increase. But Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid says he will bring the minimum wage $10.10 bill to the Senate floor for a vote next month.
<p />
<p />Congress may attempt to compromise, considering the CBO's companion analysis of a $9 minimum wage.
<p />
<p />But considering $10 will barely get Cheria above the federal poverty line, $9 will certainly have her coming up short--again.
<p />
<p />For The Real News Network, Jessica Desvarieux, Washington.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
|
Will $10 Minimum Wage Get All Working Americans Out of Poverty?
| true |
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D31%26Itemid%3D74%26jumival%3D11510
|
2014-02-21
| 4left
|
Will $10 Minimum Wage Get All Working Americans Out of Poverty?
<p>Jessica Desvarieux is a multimedia journalist who serves as the Capitol Hill correspondent for the Real News Network. Most recently, Jessica worked as a producer for the ABC Sunday morning program, This Week with Christianne Amanpour. Before moving to Washington DC, Jessica served as the Haiti corespondent for TIME Magazine and TIME.com. Previously, she was as an on-air reporter for New York tri-state cable outlet Regional News Network, where she worked before the 2010 earthquake struck her native country of Haiti. From March 2008 - September 2009, she lived in Egypt, where her work appeared in various media outlets like the Associated Press, Voice of America, and the International Herald Tribune - Daily News Egypt. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a Master of Science degree in journalism. She is proficient in French, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and has a working knowledge of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Follow her <a href="https://twitter.com/Jessica_Reports" type="external">@Jessica_Reports</a>.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p /> JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Last week, President Obama kept his word and signed an executive order raising the minimum wage for new federal contracts. The order requires contractors to pay employees at least $10.10 an hour. At the signing, the president did not miss the opportunity to call Congress to do the same nationwide.
<p />
<p />BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: There's a right now in front of both the House and the Senate that would boost America's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour--just like I'm doing with this executive action. It's easy to remember: 10-10--10-10. Let's get that done. Raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 wouldn't just raise wages for minimum-wage workers, its effect would lift wages for about 28&#160;million Americans. It would lift millions of Americans out of poverty immediately. It would help millions more work their way out of poverty--without requiring a single dollar in new taxes or spending.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: But in this picture-perfect moment, you can see in the background a group of low-wage workers. One of them is Arthur Helms. As a Wendy's employee making about $9 an hour, Arthur's been on the front lines fighting for a higher wage before it became a talking point on Capitol Hill. He says this raise is a jump-start but not the finish line.
<p />
<p />ARTHUR HELMS, WENDY'S EMPLOYEE: Actually, I don't think $10 will get you out of poverty. I don't think $12 will get you out of poverty. I mean, $15 can be a better start. You know. But the $10, it's a jump-start.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: A jump-start is how many in the wage movement are framing the news, especially in light of major corporations, like the Gap, announcing that they will be raising their minimum wage to $10 an hour next year.
<p />
<p />But if you factor in the $8.7&#160;billion in cuts to food stamps, would raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour get a working parent out of poverty?
<p />
<p />The Real News sat down and did the math with Cheria Cash. She's a 31-year-old single mother who was hired full-time at McDonald's and on food stamps.
<p />
<p />CHERIA CASH, MCDONALD'S EMPLOYEE: I work at McDonald's in Pittsburg, P.A., and that's on the north side. And they pay me $7.70.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Making $7.70 an hour, Cheria says that she usually only gets 30 hours of work a week. That comes out to $231 of gross weekly income. After she pays Social Security, taxes, and Medicare, she says that she only takes home $380 every two weeks, or about $820 a month, if she works the full 52 weeks a year. She also has a teenage son and receives $326 a month in food stamps.
<p />
<p />Before she receives her earned income tax credit, her monthly income and food stamp benefits total $1,149.
<p />
<p />CASH: When you think about it, it's like, gosh, it costs more to get to work this week, and I didn't even make that much. You know? Like, I spend my whole check to get back and forth to work or to eat. You know? So it's not even about going out or anything like that. It's just basically surviving, you know?
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Now let's see how she survives with earning $10.10 an hour. Her weekly gross income would get boosted up to $303 a week. Her monthly income would jump to $1,076. With the same food stamp benefits of $326 a month, and not including the couple of thousands for earned income tax credit, Cheria would have $1,402 a month to live on.
<p />
<p />Fortunately for Cheria, she is not one of the 850,000 households who will see an average cut of about $90 a month to their benefits. That's according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, since she does not receive heating assistance.
<p />
<p />But after looking at both situations, we asked an economic analyst if Cheria has made it out of poverty by earning $10 an hour?
<p />
<p />DAVID COOPER, ECONOMIC ANALYST, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE: For a parent with one child, the federal poverty line is about $15,700. So right now she's definitely below the poverty line. If the federal minimum wage went up to $10.10, her income would go up significantly. Her pre-tax income annually would probably be right around that $15,700 mark. So she'd probably be just above the poverty line or right near it.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: But though Cheria seems to squeak right above the poverty line, David Cooper says that the federal poverty line is not the most accurate measure of the reality of today's cost of living.
<p />
<p />COOPER: The poverty line was developed in the late 1950s. And what they did at that time is they basically said, well, what does it cost to buy sort of your basic essential bundle of food? And people tend to spend about three times more than that in total on everything else that they're buying. So we'll set the poverty line at basically three times the cost of what it takes to buy food. Now this is food in the 1950s, and since then, you know, the prices on things like health care and housing in particular have gone up a lot faster than the price of food, but we've only adjusted the poverty line based on overall inflation. So that means that today's poverty line is really not a very accurate measure of what it actually takes for someone to live.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: To account for people's actual living costs, EPI devised a tool called the Family Budget Calculator. We decided to try it out based on Cheria's family size and the fact that she lives in the city of Pittsburg.
<p />
<p />COOPER: For one parent and one child, we estimate it takes an annual income of about $48,000 to have a modest but secure standard of living. Right now she has an income of about $12,000-$13,000 total.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: It's discrepancies like this one that have led to broad public support for raising the minimum wage. According to a Quinnipiac poll last month, 71&#160;percent of American voters support raising the minimum wage.
<p />
<p />But Republicans are ready to fight back the $10 wage, especially considering the recent report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
<p />
<p />The report states that the $10 an hour wage hike would get 900,000 families out of poverty and increase the incomes of 16.5&#160;million low-wage workers in an average week.
<p />
<p />But the wage hike could also cause the economy to lose half a million jobs.
<p />
<p />DOUG ELMENDORF, DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: The set of research studies in this area led us to conclude that an increase in the minimum wage would probably have a small negative effect on employment, but there was substantial uncertainty around that estimate, as we reported.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: The CBO's uncertainty is what Howard University economics professor William Spriggs points to as one of the weaknesses of the report.
<p />
<p />WILLIAM SPRIGGS, PROF. ECONOMICS, HOWARD UNIVERSITY: They cited many, many reviews of the literature on minimum wage, all of which show either no loss of jobs, small gains in jobs, or very tiny losses of jobs. And for them to have chosen a very sensitive reaction to the increase in the minimum wage just doesn't line up with the studies that they cite. So I'm taking their 500,000 with a huge grain of salt. For me, that's beyond the worst-case scenario. I would only give that a 2&#160;percent chance of happening.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Professor Spriggs says that raising the minimum wage would lift millions out of poverty. But it wouldn't get all full-time workers out of poverty. Therefore, he says, the minimum wage should really be pegged to productivity and start at $15 an hour.
<p />
<p />SPRIGGS: We really need it to be $15. The reason we need it to be $15 is the bigger picture here, is that wages for all workers have been stagnant if not falling back, even for skilled workers and the most skilled workers.
<p />
<p />So take electricians as an example. They don't face imports, 'cause if you're hiring an electrician, you can't import one, and they rarely face competition from people who migrate to this country. But even the top 10&#160;percent, the very highest paid electricians, have seen their wages go backwards this last decade.
<p />
<p />So even skilled workers in the United States are seeing their wages slide backwards. They aren't keeping up with productivity.
<p />
<p />And we know that the gap is over 30&#160;percent between where wages and productivity were in the late 1970s and where they are today. So if we had kept the minimum wage constant with productivity increases, then the minimum wage, if you had kept it from the 1970s to today, 1968 to today, the minimum wage would be somewhere close to $20 an hour.
<p />
<p />The $15 an hour says, okay, very low wage workers aren't as productive as is the average for the economy, so we think that they've only got about half as productive. They would get $15 an hour.
<p />
<p />And it's that gap between wages, between what people take home and what they're producing for companies, that is creating the underlying problem that we have in our economy, because if you can't make enough money to buy what you just made, it means I don't need you, 'cause I can't sell what you just made. So it's kind of common sense. It's what Henry Ford said. You know, I can have these really productive autoworkers on this line and I can make thousands of cars, but if nobody can buy the car, what does that mean? So I got to pay somebody so they can buy the cars. Same thing is true today. And we've walked away from the relationship between productivity and wages.
<p />
<p />Productivity is up. Wages are not. Gaining the minimum wage to $15 and then linking it to productivity would mean that we would have a way to restore the relationship between wages and productivity.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Workers like Cheria in the Fight for 15 say $15 an hour would allow them to invest in the future.
<p />
<p />CASH: If you give us $15, I know I'll be able to buy a pair of shoes more than once a year. I won't have to wait for my income tax money to buy stuff. I could actually save my income tax money and put that towards, like, my son's education.
<p />
<p />DESVARIEUX: Hopes for a $15 wage may seem farfetched, as Congress cannot settle on a $10 wage increase. But Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid says he will bring the minimum wage $10.10 bill to the Senate floor for a vote next month.
<p />
<p />Congress may attempt to compromise, considering the CBO's companion analysis of a $9 minimum wage.
<p />
<p />But considering $10 will barely get Cheria above the federal poverty line, $9 will certainly have her coming up short--again.
<p />
<p />For The Real News Network, Jessica Desvarieux, Washington.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
| 7,142 |
<p>When the President’s schedule was released for this weekend there was nothing on it. He wasn’t going to Mar-A-Lago, or a campaign rally in coal country, or to visit a bunch of wall prototypes in the California desert. He wasn’t occupied with Little Rocket Man or Russia’s assassinations in the U.K. And having just fired his Secretary of State, he is probably gonna avoid further dismantling his cabinet for a few days so he doesn’t appear to be unstable (too late). But this abundance of leisure time for Donald Trump is never a good sign. Idle tiny hands are the Devil’s plaything.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsCorpse/posts/2077506438930807" type="external" /></p>
<p>As expected, Trump filled the empty morning hours on Saturday with adventures on Twitter. Even after a year it is surprising and disturbing that the leader of the free world can occupy himself so frequently with mini-tantrums on social media. But there he was in the White House residence tweeting away. And the subject that was dominating his infantile thoughts was, as usual, himself.</p>
<p>Trump was clearly obsessed with the reaction to the firing of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Never mind that he likely directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to execute the petty and vindictive termination. The timing was obviously intended to deprive a twenty-year veteran of law enforcement of his rightfully earned pension. But the larger purpose was to discredit McCabe as a witness against Trump in the still unfolding legal melodrama. Unfortunately for Trump, though, his tweets only serve to exacerbate his guilt. For instance:</p>
<p />
<p>In this missive Trump is proving that the firing of McCabe was tied directly to the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. A major target of that probe is obstruction of justice partly demonstrated by Trump firing FBI Director James Comey. And if Trump thinks he’s making points by referencing “the hard working men and women of the FBI,” then he’s apparently unaware that those worker greatly admire and support Comey and McCabe, and resent they way they’ve been treated. Which leads us to this:</p>
<p />
<p>Once again Trump is connecting recent events to the Mueller inquiry. However, he falsely asserts that the House Intelligence Committee cleared him when it is only the bitterly partisan Republican members who signed onto the committee’s disinformation report. And Trump’s accusations against the FBI don’t do anything to help his legal cause. Nor does the last of his morning tweets:</p>
<p />
<p>Trump’s moaning about “fake news” is just becoming tedious and a satire of itself. All he’s doing is reminding everyone that the press is reporting what is actually happening and that Trump hates it when they do that. And in this tweet he unwisely asks the questions “How many lies? How many leaks?” Which most people are already asking, but about Trump. But the best part is where Trump notes that “Comey knew it all, and much more!” Indeed he does. And he’s anxious to share what he knows with the American people.</p>
<p />
<p>Trump, on the other hand, is desperate to keep Americans from learning about what he has done, and is doing. That’s why his attorney is calling for an abrupt end to the Mueller investigation. It’s why his other attorney is trying to gag Stormy Daniels. At every turn Trump is focused on keeping his affairs (both sexual and political) secret. That’s what legal professionals call “consciousness of guilt.” And it’s what Trump displays with each new tweet he posts. It’s almost as if he has a legal death wish. He must hate the White House so much that he’s doing everything he can to get out of it. If only he knew how much we would all like to help him do that.</p>
<p>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QSSMOES/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newscorpsecom-20&amp;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS" type="external">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.</a> Available now at Amazon.</p>
|
Saturday Tweetstorm: Is Donald Trump TRYING to Get Himself Impeached?
| true |
http://newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p%3D33938
| 4left
|
Saturday Tweetstorm: Is Donald Trump TRYING to Get Himself Impeached?
<p>When the President’s schedule was released for this weekend there was nothing on it. He wasn’t going to Mar-A-Lago, or a campaign rally in coal country, or to visit a bunch of wall prototypes in the California desert. He wasn’t occupied with Little Rocket Man or Russia’s assassinations in the U.K. And having just fired his Secretary of State, he is probably gonna avoid further dismantling his cabinet for a few days so he doesn’t appear to be unstable (too late). But this abundance of leisure time for Donald Trump is never a good sign. Idle tiny hands are the Devil’s plaything.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/NewsCorpse/posts/2077506438930807" type="external" /></p>
<p>As expected, Trump filled the empty morning hours on Saturday with adventures on Twitter. Even after a year it is surprising and disturbing that the leader of the free world can occupy himself so frequently with mini-tantrums on social media. But there he was in the White House residence tweeting away. And the subject that was dominating his infantile thoughts was, as usual, himself.</p>
<p>Trump was clearly obsessed with the reaction to the firing of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Never mind that he likely directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to execute the petty and vindictive termination. The timing was obviously intended to deprive a twenty-year veteran of law enforcement of his rightfully earned pension. But the larger purpose was to discredit McCabe as a witness against Trump in the still unfolding legal melodrama. Unfortunately for Trump, though, his tweets only serve to exacerbate his guilt. For instance:</p>
<p />
<p>In this missive Trump is proving that the firing of McCabe was tied directly to the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. A major target of that probe is obstruction of justice partly demonstrated by Trump firing FBI Director James Comey. And if Trump thinks he’s making points by referencing “the hard working men and women of the FBI,” then he’s apparently unaware that those worker greatly admire and support Comey and McCabe, and resent they way they’ve been treated. Which leads us to this:</p>
<p />
<p>Once again Trump is connecting recent events to the Mueller inquiry. However, he falsely asserts that the House Intelligence Committee cleared him when it is only the bitterly partisan Republican members who signed onto the committee’s disinformation report. And Trump’s accusations against the FBI don’t do anything to help his legal cause. Nor does the last of his morning tweets:</p>
<p />
<p>Trump’s moaning about “fake news” is just becoming tedious and a satire of itself. All he’s doing is reminding everyone that the press is reporting what is actually happening and that Trump hates it when they do that. And in this tweet he unwisely asks the questions “How many lies? How many leaks?” Which most people are already asking, but about Trump. But the best part is where Trump notes that “Comey knew it all, and much more!” Indeed he does. And he’s anxious to share what he knows with the American people.</p>
<p />
<p>Trump, on the other hand, is desperate to keep Americans from learning about what he has done, and is doing. That’s why his attorney is calling for an abrupt end to the Mueller investigation. It’s why his other attorney is trying to gag Stormy Daniels. At every turn Trump is focused on keeping his affairs (both sexual and political) secret. That’s what legal professionals call “consciousness of guilt.” And it’s what Trump displays with each new tweet he posts. It’s almost as if he has a legal death wish. He must hate the White House so much that he’s doing everything he can to get out of it. If only he knew how much we would all like to help him do that.</p>
<p>How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QSSMOES/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00QSSMOES&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=newscorpsecom-20&amp;linkId=TLI6JC2OYE22MUTS" type="external">Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.</a> Available now at Amazon.</p>
| 7,143 |
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<p><a href="http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/is-vladimir-putin-dead/vladimir-putin-2" type="external" />Russian President <a href="" type="internal">Vladimir Putin</a> has not been seen in public since March 5th, and the Internet is abuzz with rumors that he is either seriously ill or dead.&#160; So could it be possible that there is anything to these rumors?&#160; At this point, Russian officials insist that <a href="" type="internal">Putin</a> is just fine and that he isn’t even ill.&#160; But a trip that <a href="" type="internal">Putin</a> was supposed to make to meet with the presidents of Kazakhstan and Belarus was abruptly canceled.&#160; A speech that <a href="" type="internal">Putin</a> was supposed to make to his old friends at the Federal Security Service was also suspiciously canceled.&#160; So what in the world is going on here?&#160; Of course <a href="" type="internal">Putin</a> could put an immediate end to all of these rumors by appearing in public, but he has chosen not to do that so far.&#160; But why wouldn’t he?&#160; Is more going on inside Russia than meets the eye?</p>
<p>These rumors about Putin have been circulating in Russian media for a few days, but on Thursday they started exploding all over the Internet.&#160; The following is from&#160; <a href="http://www.debka.com/newsupdate/10758/" type="external">Debka</a>…</p>
<p>DEBKAfile reports that Russian websites Thursday morning began running unconfirmed reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had suddenly died. This has not been confirmed by any official in Moscow. But a short announcement of Putin’s death was seen briefly on Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s website early Thursday, only to be removed after 20 minutes.</p>
<p>Why would an announcement of Putin’s death show up on Dmitry Medvedev’s website?</p>
<p>That seems rather odd.</p>
<p>And another thing that raised eyebrows was when Putin’s planned visit to Kazakhstan&#160; <a href="http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN0M80KE20150312" type="external">was suddenly canceled</a>…</p>
<p>Vladimir Putin has postponed a visit to Kazakhstan, officials from both countries said on Wednesday, though the Kremlin dismissed another report that plans had changed because the Russian president was unwell.</p>
<p>Dauren Abayev, adviser and spokesman for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, announced the delay of the meeting between the two allies, originally scheduled for this week, without giving a reason or a new date.</p>
<p>Another Kazakh government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “It looks like he (Putin) has fallen ill.”</p>
<p>Of course the Kremlin is completely denying that there is anything wrong.</p>
<p>Here is more from&#160; <a href="http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/10763/" type="external">Debka</a>…</p>
<p>The Kremlin Thursday dismissed rumors that President Vladimir Putin was ill after he canceled a trip to Kazakhstan. The rumors flying through the Russian Internet claimed in fact that the 62-year old Russian leader had suddenly died. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked by Reuters if the president, who had not been seen on live TV since March 5, was in good health, replied “yes”.&#160;“He has meetings all the time,” he said by telephone. “He has meetings today, tomorrow. I don’t know which ones we will make public.” A Kemlin website photo of a Putin meeting on March 10 with a provincial government proved to be an old picture. Still, Russian financial markets were stable and the ruble improved in value.</p>
<p>And Putin’s own personal spokesman says that even though a scheduled speech to the Federal Security Service was canceled on Thursday, Putin is well enough to&#160; <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2015/Mar-12/290510-putins-spokesman-dismisses-rumors-about-poor-health.ashx" type="external">“break your hand”</a> with his handshake…</p>
<p>President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has dismissed rumors circulating on the Internet that the Russian leader is in poor health.</p>
<p>Dmitry Peskov told Ekho Moskvy radio station Thursday that the president was “absolutely” healthy, adding that the president’s handshake was still so strong it could “break your hand.” Peskov’s comment was a reference to the Kremlin’s usual response to regular queries about the fragile health of former President Boris Yeltsin, who had heart surgery during his tenure.</p>
<p>Peskov also said that Putin would not be appearing at a meeting with the Federal Security Service Thursday, which he often attends.</p>
<p>“Yes, he’s usually there,” Peskov said. “But this year he was not planning to be.”</p>
<p>So should we just trust that the Russian government is telling us the truth about this?</p>
<p>Would we trust our own government to tell us the truth?</p>
<p>Sadly, the cold, hard reality of the matter is that governments lie.&#160; That is what they do.&#160; So until Putin appears in public, doubts are going to remain.</p>
<p>And as&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/03/12/where-is-putin-russian-leaders-absence-sparks-rumors/" type="external">the Washington Post</a> has pointed out, we need to consider what has happened with previous Russian leaders…</p>
<p>There’s also a history here. At the end of the Soviet era, three separate Communist Party chiefs died suddenly in office, and during the end of Boris Yeltsin’s time as president of Russia, alcoholism and poor health led to a number of unexplained and embarrassing absences. Again, Putin is certainly no Yeltsin — he’s a black-belt in judo and known to be extremely health conscious — but many Russians now assume that the state would lie about the health of its leaders.</p>
<p>This all comes at a time when <a href="" type="internal">the western world is turning up the heat on Putin</a>.</p>
<p>For example,&#160; <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11461163/Britain-may-broadcast-Putins-financial-secrets-to-Russian-people.html" type="external">the Telegraph</a> is reporting that the UK is considering exposing the secrets behind Putin’s enormous wealth in an attempt to publicly embarrass him…</p>
<p>Britain may broadcast the financial secrets of Russia’s ruling elite as part of the information war against the Putin regime, the Foreign Secretary has indicated.</p>
<p>Philip Hammond said he was interested by the idea of publicizing the wealth of the Russian president’s inner circle in order to embarrass them in front of their people, as part of the response to the ongoing incursion into eastern Ukraine.</p>
<p>And the Obama administration has just made the decision to send drones and armored Humvees <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2989813/US-send-aid-small-drones-Ukraine.html" type="external">to Ukraine</a>…</p>
<p>The United States announced Wednesday that it is sending small unarmed drones, armored Humvees and other assistance to Ukraine in its fight against Russian-backed separatists – but for the first time the White House said arming Ukraine hasn’t been ruled out.</p>
<p>Some lawmakers are upset that lethal weapons haven’t already been included as part of $75 million in new aid announced Wednesday.</p>
<p>Asked during a White House press briefing to confirm that the U.S. won’t send weapons to the former Soviet nation, Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, ‘That’s not necessarily accurate.’</p>
<p>Needless to say, the Russians are not going to like that one bit.&#160; This is something I discussed in an article <a href="http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/virulently-anti-american-81-percent-of-russians-now-view-the-united-states-negatively" type="external">earlier this week</a>.</p>
<p>On the flip side, the Russian government is taking some bold stances recently as well.</p>
<p>For instance, this week a top Russian official suggested that Russia has the right to move nuclear weapons into Crimea and that a key nuclear weapons treaty with the United States&#160; <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nuclear-treaty-russia-may-breaking-200100168.html" type="external">may be in jeopardy</a>…</p>
<p>On the question of sending nuclear weapons into Crimea, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Mikhail Ulyanov as saying, “I don’t know if there are nuclear weapons there now. I don’t know about any plans, but in principle Russia can do it.” It’s a position that other Russian officials have articulated in the past. Ulyanov’s boss, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, made similar comments in December.</p>
<p>More surprising was Ulyanov’s warning about the status of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force Treaty, signed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1987. The deal was designed to eliminate the two countries’ stocks of nuclear and ballistic missiles with ranges of between 300 and 3,400 miles.</p>
<p>In addition, the Russians have formally announced that they are completely withdrawing <a href="http://rt.com/news/239409-russia-quits-conventional-europe/" type="external">from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe</a>…</p>
<p>Moscow has announced it is “completely” ending activities under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). Russia’s participation in the treaty was first halted in 2007.</p>
<p>“The Russian Federation has taken the decision to halt its participation in meetings of the [consulting group] from March 11, 2015. Therefore, Russia is ending its actions in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, announced in 2007, completely,” a statement from the Foreign Ministry said.</p>
<p>The <a href="" type="internal">war drums</a> are getting a little louder with each passing day.</p>
<p>Many people probably hope that if Putin’s time is over that it will help to calm things down a bit.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my research has led me to the conclusion that the exact opposite will probably be the case.</p>
<p>So what do you think?</p>
<p>Do you believe that Putin is ill or dead?</p>
<p>And where do you think <a href="" type="internal">things between the United States and Russia</a> will go from here?</p>
<p>Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…</p>
<p>Courtesy of Michael Snyder’s <a href="http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/is-vladimir-putin-dead" type="external">End of the American Dream</a>.</p>
<p>Editor’s Note: Michael Snyder’s article was first published late yesterday. <a href="http://www.infowars.com/video-where-is-vladimir-putin/" type="external">Paul Joseph Watson released this video</a>&#160;and analysis this morning:</p>
<p />
<p />
|
Is Vladimir Putin Dead?
| true |
http://dcclothesline.com/2015/03/13/is-vladimir-putin-dead/
| 0right
|
Is Vladimir Putin Dead?
<p><a href="http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/is-vladimir-putin-dead/vladimir-putin-2" type="external" />Russian President <a href="" type="internal">Vladimir Putin</a> has not been seen in public since March 5th, and the Internet is abuzz with rumors that he is either seriously ill or dead.&#160; So could it be possible that there is anything to these rumors?&#160; At this point, Russian officials insist that <a href="" type="internal">Putin</a> is just fine and that he isn’t even ill.&#160; But a trip that <a href="" type="internal">Putin</a> was supposed to make to meet with the presidents of Kazakhstan and Belarus was abruptly canceled.&#160; A speech that <a href="" type="internal">Putin</a> was supposed to make to his old friends at the Federal Security Service was also suspiciously canceled.&#160; So what in the world is going on here?&#160; Of course <a href="" type="internal">Putin</a> could put an immediate end to all of these rumors by appearing in public, but he has chosen not to do that so far.&#160; But why wouldn’t he?&#160; Is more going on inside Russia than meets the eye?</p>
<p>These rumors about Putin have been circulating in Russian media for a few days, but on Thursday they started exploding all over the Internet.&#160; The following is from&#160; <a href="http://www.debka.com/newsupdate/10758/" type="external">Debka</a>…</p>
<p>DEBKAfile reports that Russian websites Thursday morning began running unconfirmed reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had suddenly died. This has not been confirmed by any official in Moscow. But a short announcement of Putin’s death was seen briefly on Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s website early Thursday, only to be removed after 20 minutes.</p>
<p>Why would an announcement of Putin’s death show up on Dmitry Medvedev’s website?</p>
<p>That seems rather odd.</p>
<p>And another thing that raised eyebrows was when Putin’s planned visit to Kazakhstan&#160; <a href="http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN0M80KE20150312" type="external">was suddenly canceled</a>…</p>
<p>Vladimir Putin has postponed a visit to Kazakhstan, officials from both countries said on Wednesday, though the Kremlin dismissed another report that plans had changed because the Russian president was unwell.</p>
<p>Dauren Abayev, adviser and spokesman for Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, announced the delay of the meeting between the two allies, originally scheduled for this week, without giving a reason or a new date.</p>
<p>Another Kazakh government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “It looks like he (Putin) has fallen ill.”</p>
<p>Of course the Kremlin is completely denying that there is anything wrong.</p>
<p>Here is more from&#160; <a href="http://www.debka.com/newsupdatepopup/10763/" type="external">Debka</a>…</p>
<p>The Kremlin Thursday dismissed rumors that President Vladimir Putin was ill after he canceled a trip to Kazakhstan. The rumors flying through the Russian Internet claimed in fact that the 62-year old Russian leader had suddenly died. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked by Reuters if the president, who had not been seen on live TV since March 5, was in good health, replied “yes”.&#160;“He has meetings all the time,” he said by telephone. “He has meetings today, tomorrow. I don’t know which ones we will make public.” A Kemlin website photo of a Putin meeting on March 10 with a provincial government proved to be an old picture. Still, Russian financial markets were stable and the ruble improved in value.</p>
<p>And Putin’s own personal spokesman says that even though a scheduled speech to the Federal Security Service was canceled on Thursday, Putin is well enough to&#160; <a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2015/Mar-12/290510-putins-spokesman-dismisses-rumors-about-poor-health.ashx" type="external">“break your hand”</a> with his handshake…</p>
<p>President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has dismissed rumors circulating on the Internet that the Russian leader is in poor health.</p>
<p>Dmitry Peskov told Ekho Moskvy radio station Thursday that the president was “absolutely” healthy, adding that the president’s handshake was still so strong it could “break your hand.” Peskov’s comment was a reference to the Kremlin’s usual response to regular queries about the fragile health of former President Boris Yeltsin, who had heart surgery during his tenure.</p>
<p>Peskov also said that Putin would not be appearing at a meeting with the Federal Security Service Thursday, which he often attends.</p>
<p>“Yes, he’s usually there,” Peskov said. “But this year he was not planning to be.”</p>
<p>So should we just trust that the Russian government is telling us the truth about this?</p>
<p>Would we trust our own government to tell us the truth?</p>
<p>Sadly, the cold, hard reality of the matter is that governments lie.&#160; That is what they do.&#160; So until Putin appears in public, doubts are going to remain.</p>
<p>And as&#160; <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/03/12/where-is-putin-russian-leaders-absence-sparks-rumors/" type="external">the Washington Post</a> has pointed out, we need to consider what has happened with previous Russian leaders…</p>
<p>There’s also a history here. At the end of the Soviet era, three separate Communist Party chiefs died suddenly in office, and during the end of Boris Yeltsin’s time as president of Russia, alcoholism and poor health led to a number of unexplained and embarrassing absences. Again, Putin is certainly no Yeltsin — he’s a black-belt in judo and known to be extremely health conscious — but many Russians now assume that the state would lie about the health of its leaders.</p>
<p>This all comes at a time when <a href="" type="internal">the western world is turning up the heat on Putin</a>.</p>
<p>For example,&#160; <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11461163/Britain-may-broadcast-Putins-financial-secrets-to-Russian-people.html" type="external">the Telegraph</a> is reporting that the UK is considering exposing the secrets behind Putin’s enormous wealth in an attempt to publicly embarrass him…</p>
<p>Britain may broadcast the financial secrets of Russia’s ruling elite as part of the information war against the Putin regime, the Foreign Secretary has indicated.</p>
<p>Philip Hammond said he was interested by the idea of publicizing the wealth of the Russian president’s inner circle in order to embarrass them in front of their people, as part of the response to the ongoing incursion into eastern Ukraine.</p>
<p>And the Obama administration has just made the decision to send drones and armored Humvees <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2989813/US-send-aid-small-drones-Ukraine.html" type="external">to Ukraine</a>…</p>
<p>The United States announced Wednesday that it is sending small unarmed drones, armored Humvees and other assistance to Ukraine in its fight against Russian-backed separatists – but for the first time the White House said arming Ukraine hasn’t been ruled out.</p>
<p>Some lawmakers are upset that lethal weapons haven’t already been included as part of $75 million in new aid announced Wednesday.</p>
<p>Asked during a White House press briefing to confirm that the U.S. won’t send weapons to the former Soviet nation, Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, ‘That’s not necessarily accurate.’</p>
<p>Needless to say, the Russians are not going to like that one bit.&#160; This is something I discussed in an article <a href="http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/virulently-anti-american-81-percent-of-russians-now-view-the-united-states-negatively" type="external">earlier this week</a>.</p>
<p>On the flip side, the Russian government is taking some bold stances recently as well.</p>
<p>For instance, this week a top Russian official suggested that Russia has the right to move nuclear weapons into Crimea and that a key nuclear weapons treaty with the United States&#160; <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/nuclear-treaty-russia-may-breaking-200100168.html" type="external">may be in jeopardy</a>…</p>
<p>On the question of sending nuclear weapons into Crimea, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Mikhail Ulyanov as saying, “I don’t know if there are nuclear weapons there now. I don’t know about any plans, but in principle Russia can do it.” It’s a position that other Russian officials have articulated in the past. Ulyanov’s boss, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, made similar comments in December.</p>
<p>More surprising was Ulyanov’s warning about the status of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force Treaty, signed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union in 1987. The deal was designed to eliminate the two countries’ stocks of nuclear and ballistic missiles with ranges of between 300 and 3,400 miles.</p>
<p>In addition, the Russians have formally announced that they are completely withdrawing <a href="http://rt.com/news/239409-russia-quits-conventional-europe/" type="external">from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe</a>…</p>
<p>Moscow has announced it is “completely” ending activities under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). Russia’s participation in the treaty was first halted in 2007.</p>
<p>“The Russian Federation has taken the decision to halt its participation in meetings of the [consulting group] from March 11, 2015. Therefore, Russia is ending its actions in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, announced in 2007, completely,” a statement from the Foreign Ministry said.</p>
<p>The <a href="" type="internal">war drums</a> are getting a little louder with each passing day.</p>
<p>Many people probably hope that if Putin’s time is over that it will help to calm things down a bit.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my research has led me to the conclusion that the exact opposite will probably be the case.</p>
<p>So what do you think?</p>
<p>Do you believe that Putin is ill or dead?</p>
<p>And where do you think <a href="" type="internal">things between the United States and Russia</a> will go from here?</p>
<p>Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…</p>
<p>Courtesy of Michael Snyder’s <a href="http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/is-vladimir-putin-dead" type="external">End of the American Dream</a>.</p>
<p>Editor’s Note: Michael Snyder’s article was first published late yesterday. <a href="http://www.infowars.com/video-where-is-vladimir-putin/" type="external">Paul Joseph Watson released this video</a>&#160;and analysis this morning:</p>
<p />
<p />
| 7,144 |
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<p>OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ These Washington lotteries were drawn Tuesday:</p>
<p>Daily Game</p>
<p>7-7-4</p>
<p>(seven, seven, four)</p>
<p>Keno</p>
<p>20-21-25-26-28-29-31-35-37-41-46-48-49-54-55-57-60-61-64-70</p>
<p>(twenty, twenty-one, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-five, thirty-seven, forty-one, forty-six, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-seven, sixty, sixty-one, sixty-four, seventy)</p>
<p>Match 4</p>
<p>03-12-13-21</p>
<p>(three, twelve, thirteen, twenty-one)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>02-06-30-31-55, Mega Ball: 7, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(two, six, thirty, thirty-one, fifty-five; Mega Ball: seven; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $63 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $92 million</p>
<p>OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ These Washington lotteries were drawn Tuesday:</p>
<p>Daily Game</p>
<p>7-7-4</p>
<p>(seven, seven, four)</p>
<p>Keno</p>
<p>20-21-25-26-28-29-31-35-37-41-46-48-49-54-55-57-60-61-64-70</p>
<p>(twenty, twenty-one, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-five, thirty-seven, forty-one, forty-six, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-seven, sixty, sixty-one, sixty-four, seventy)</p>
<p>Match 4</p>
<p>03-12-13-21</p>
<p>(three, twelve, thirteen, twenty-one)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>02-06-30-31-55, Mega Ball: 7, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(two, six, thirty, thirty-one, fifty-five; Mega Ball: seven; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $63 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $92 million</p>
|
WA Lottery
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/d01fc248cf65462fa41f2f36be0a5dff
|
2018-01-24
| 2least
|
WA Lottery
<p>OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ These Washington lotteries were drawn Tuesday:</p>
<p>Daily Game</p>
<p>7-7-4</p>
<p>(seven, seven, four)</p>
<p>Keno</p>
<p>20-21-25-26-28-29-31-35-37-41-46-48-49-54-55-57-60-61-64-70</p>
<p>(twenty, twenty-one, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-five, thirty-seven, forty-one, forty-six, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-seven, sixty, sixty-one, sixty-four, seventy)</p>
<p>Match 4</p>
<p>03-12-13-21</p>
<p>(three, twelve, thirteen, twenty-one)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>02-06-30-31-55, Mega Ball: 7, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(two, six, thirty, thirty-one, fifty-five; Mega Ball: seven; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $63 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $92 million</p>
<p>OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ These Washington lotteries were drawn Tuesday:</p>
<p>Daily Game</p>
<p>7-7-4</p>
<p>(seven, seven, four)</p>
<p>Keno</p>
<p>20-21-25-26-28-29-31-35-37-41-46-48-49-54-55-57-60-61-64-70</p>
<p>(twenty, twenty-one, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty-one, thirty-five, thirty-seven, forty-one, forty-six, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-seven, sixty, sixty-one, sixty-four, seventy)</p>
<p>Match 4</p>
<p>03-12-13-21</p>
<p>(three, twelve, thirteen, twenty-one)</p>
<p>Mega Millions</p>
<p>02-06-30-31-55, Mega Ball: 7, Megaplier: 4</p>
<p>(two, six, thirty, thirty-one, fifty-five; Mega Ball: seven; Megaplier: four)</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $63 million</p>
<p>Powerball</p>
<p>Estimated jackpot: $92 million</p>
| 7,145 |
<p />
<p>As more and more people get their favorite TV shows and movies online, Disney is also learning to embrace the stream.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Walt Disney Co. once resisted offering channels like ESPN directly over the internet, preferring old-fashioned cable subscriptions. Its investors are fretting over ratings as more people cut the cord and cancel cable or satellite service. NFL game viewership is also down, and the contentious election drew viewers away from Disney networks like ABC to cable news networks.</p>
<p>Disney stock was down 9.6 percent for the year, at Thursday's closing. And a weaker-than-expected earnings report, which showed a drop in ESPN revenue, drove shares down another 2.6 percent in extended trading.</p>
<p>But Disney, which owns Marvel, Star Wars and its own Pixar and Disney Studios, is forging ahead with new streaming deals involving Netflix, Hulu and others.</p>
<p>"Disney is the one media company that can succeed in taking its brands directly to consumers," said Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente. He expects Disney could one day offer ESPN as a stand-alone service, for example, similar to HBO's $15-a-month "HBO Now."</p>
<p>Burbank, California-based Disney hasn't gone that far yet. But last quarter it took a $1 billion stake in BAMTech, which provides streaming for Major League Baseball. The company said it plans to use that technology to offer an ESPN streaming service that offers live game streaming and programming not offered on regular ESPN.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The BAMTech deal is a "great way for us to move ESPN and probably other Disney assets into digital, mobile platforms in a more effective way," Disney CEO Bob Iger said at a Goldman Sachs conference in New York in September.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the U.K. there is Disney Life, launched a year ago, a 10 pound ($15) monthly service that offers Disney movies, TV shows, e-books, and other children's content online.</p>
<p>"You can use that as a template for what they might do in the U.S.," Nomura's DiClemente said.</p>
<p>So far in the U.S., Disney has been working with streaming services Hulu and Netflix to bring its properties to the stream. Its deal with Netflix, inked in 2012, finally kicked in this September, and gives Netflix the right to stream Disney movies like "Zootopia" before others. Netflix is also the exclusive home for Marvel TV shows like "Jessica Jones" and "Luke Cage."</p>
<p>And last week, Hulu said there would be a Disney channel on its upcoming live online TV service. Disney owns part of Hulu, which is a joint venture between Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast's NBCUniversal and Time Warner.</p>
<p>In short, Disney is adapting to the stream, and those efforts will pay off eventually, DiClemente said.</p>
<p>Investors hope that day comes soon. Disney reported Thursday that fiscal fourth-quarter net income rose 10 percent to $1.77 billion, while sales fell 3 percent to $13.14 billion. But adjusted earnings amounted to $1.10 per share, which fell short of Wall Street estimates. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting $1.16 per share on revenue of $13.5 billion.</p>
<p>Disney said sales and operating income in media networks, its biggest unit, were down because of lower advertising and affiliate revenue from ESPN, along with higher programming costs. Disney Channels also saw lower results.</p>
<p>Revenue from Disney parks and resorts grew slightly, while the studios division saw revenue rise 2 percent to $1.81 billion. The company said the films "Finding Dory" and "Captain America: Civil War" are still drawing crowds, making up for the weaker-than-expected performance of "Pete's Dragon" and "Queen of Katwe."</p>
|
Disney embraces streaming as ratings sag
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2016/11/10/disney-embraces-streaming-as-ratings-sag.html
|
2016-11-11
| 0right
|
Disney embraces streaming as ratings sag
<p />
<p>As more and more people get their favorite TV shows and movies online, Disney is also learning to embrace the stream.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>The Walt Disney Co. once resisted offering channels like ESPN directly over the internet, preferring old-fashioned cable subscriptions. Its investors are fretting over ratings as more people cut the cord and cancel cable or satellite service. NFL game viewership is also down, and the contentious election drew viewers away from Disney networks like ABC to cable news networks.</p>
<p>Disney stock was down 9.6 percent for the year, at Thursday's closing. And a weaker-than-expected earnings report, which showed a drop in ESPN revenue, drove shares down another 2.6 percent in extended trading.</p>
<p>But Disney, which owns Marvel, Star Wars and its own Pixar and Disney Studios, is forging ahead with new streaming deals involving Netflix, Hulu and others.</p>
<p>"Disney is the one media company that can succeed in taking its brands directly to consumers," said Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente. He expects Disney could one day offer ESPN as a stand-alone service, for example, similar to HBO's $15-a-month "HBO Now."</p>
<p>Burbank, California-based Disney hasn't gone that far yet. But last quarter it took a $1 billion stake in BAMTech, which provides streaming for Major League Baseball. The company said it plans to use that technology to offer an ESPN streaming service that offers live game streaming and programming not offered on regular ESPN.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The BAMTech deal is a "great way for us to move ESPN and probably other Disney assets into digital, mobile platforms in a more effective way," Disney CEO Bob Iger said at a Goldman Sachs conference in New York in September.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in the U.K. there is Disney Life, launched a year ago, a 10 pound ($15) monthly service that offers Disney movies, TV shows, e-books, and other children's content online.</p>
<p>"You can use that as a template for what they might do in the U.S.," Nomura's DiClemente said.</p>
<p>So far in the U.S., Disney has been working with streaming services Hulu and Netflix to bring its properties to the stream. Its deal with Netflix, inked in 2012, finally kicked in this September, and gives Netflix the right to stream Disney movies like "Zootopia" before others. Netflix is also the exclusive home for Marvel TV shows like "Jessica Jones" and "Luke Cage."</p>
<p>And last week, Hulu said there would be a Disney channel on its upcoming live online TV service. Disney owns part of Hulu, which is a joint venture between Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast's NBCUniversal and Time Warner.</p>
<p>In short, Disney is adapting to the stream, and those efforts will pay off eventually, DiClemente said.</p>
<p>Investors hope that day comes soon. Disney reported Thursday that fiscal fourth-quarter net income rose 10 percent to $1.77 billion, while sales fell 3 percent to $13.14 billion. But adjusted earnings amounted to $1.10 per share, which fell short of Wall Street estimates. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting $1.16 per share on revenue of $13.5 billion.</p>
<p>Disney said sales and operating income in media networks, its biggest unit, were down because of lower advertising and affiliate revenue from ESPN, along with higher programming costs. Disney Channels also saw lower results.</p>
<p>Revenue from Disney parks and resorts grew slightly, while the studios division saw revenue rise 2 percent to $1.81 billion. The company said the films "Finding Dory" and "Captain America: Civil War" are still drawing crowds, making up for the weaker-than-expected performance of "Pete's Dragon" and "Queen of Katwe."</p>
| 7,146 |
<p>President Donald Trump outlined his principles of patriotism in a speech to the American Legion, saying Americans are not defined by their skin color. This after Trump was accused of failing to unequivocally condemn white nationalists in Charlottesville.</p>
<p>“We are one people, with one home and one great flag,” Trump addressed the American Legion, which describes itself as a “patriotic veterans organization” committed to mentoring youth, advocating patriotism and honor, supporting the military, and serving the veterans. Founded in 1919, it operates education programs such as Boys Nation and Girls Nation.</p>
<p>“We are not defined by the color of our skin, the figure on our paycheck, or the party of our politics. We are defined by our shared humanity, by the citizenship in this magnificent nation, and by the love that fills our hearts,” Trump said at the Legion’s convention in Reno, Nevada on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“It is time to heal the wounds that divide us.”</p>
<p>https://www.rt.com/usa/399712-trump-charlottesville-statement-race/</p>
<p>Over the past week, Trump had been under intense criticism for his remarks following the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, where alt-right marchers clashed with counter-protesters.</p>
<p>Although he condemned white supremacists, Trump blamed “both sides” for the violence, including the counter-protesters, which many saw as his failure to unequivocally condemn the white supremacists in Charlottesville.</p>
<p>https://www.rt.com/usa/400682-un-criticizes-trump-racism-charlottesville/</p>
<p>At the Legion’s convention, Trump pushed for strengthening the US military. He boasted about working with Congress to achieve “a dramatic increase” in military spending this year, which will go to the production of state-of-the-art defense missiles, as well as “new surveillance and long-range strike capabilities to prevent our enemies from launching [attacks] in the first place,” he said.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/400660-trump-afghanistan-may-army/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The Trump administration has made&#160;“incredible progress”&#160;in fixing&#160;“the broken”&#160;Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Trump told the convention before signing the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act, legislation intended to speed up resolution of veterans’ appeals.</p>
<p>The president cited the delivery of same-day emergency mental health services at VA medical centers, the opening of a White House hotline for veterans, as well as his <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/393761-trump-whistleblower-bill-signed/" type="external">signing of a bill</a> to hold VA accountable in June, among successes of his administration with regard to helping American veterans.</p>
<p>In July, Congress approved a spending allocation of $659 billion to fund the Pentagon and emergency war accounts. A total of $78.3 billion of the amount was allocated for veterans’ care – almost $4 billion above last year’s spending.</p>
<p>Trump’s address to the veterans also comes days after he announced that the US is not leaving Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The president said America’s new strategy in Afghanistan is to give the military the authority and resources to secure an “honorable and enduring outcome.” On Monday, after a months-long review process, the president announced that the US would continue fighting the 16-year war in Afghanistan, which is by far the longest-ever for the US. His statement was followed by Defense Secretary James Mattis saying that the Pentagon was working to send more troops to Afghanistan.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
|
‘We are one people’: Trump pushes civic nationalism in American Legion speech (VIDEO)
| false |
https://newsline.com/we-are-one-people-trump-pushes-civic-nationalism-in-american-legion-speech-video/
|
2017-08-23
| 1right-center
|
‘We are one people’: Trump pushes civic nationalism in American Legion speech (VIDEO)
<p>President Donald Trump outlined his principles of patriotism in a speech to the American Legion, saying Americans are not defined by their skin color. This after Trump was accused of failing to unequivocally condemn white nationalists in Charlottesville.</p>
<p>“We are one people, with one home and one great flag,” Trump addressed the American Legion, which describes itself as a “patriotic veterans organization” committed to mentoring youth, advocating patriotism and honor, supporting the military, and serving the veterans. Founded in 1919, it operates education programs such as Boys Nation and Girls Nation.</p>
<p>“We are not defined by the color of our skin, the figure on our paycheck, or the party of our politics. We are defined by our shared humanity, by the citizenship in this magnificent nation, and by the love that fills our hearts,” Trump said at the Legion’s convention in Reno, Nevada on Wednesday.</p>
<p>“It is time to heal the wounds that divide us.”</p>
<p>https://www.rt.com/usa/399712-trump-charlottesville-statement-race/</p>
<p>Over the past week, Trump had been under intense criticism for his remarks following the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, where alt-right marchers clashed with counter-protesters.</p>
<p>Although he condemned white supremacists, Trump blamed “both sides” for the violence, including the counter-protesters, which many saw as his failure to unequivocally condemn the white supremacists in Charlottesville.</p>
<p>https://www.rt.com/usa/400682-un-criticizes-trump-racism-charlottesville/</p>
<p>At the Legion’s convention, Trump pushed for strengthening the US military. He boasted about working with Congress to achieve “a dramatic increase” in military spending this year, which will go to the production of state-of-the-art defense missiles, as well as “new surveillance and long-range strike capabilities to prevent our enemies from launching [attacks] in the first place,” he said.</p>
<p>Read more</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/400660-trump-afghanistan-may-army/" type="external" /></p>
<p>The Trump administration has made&#160;“incredible progress”&#160;in fixing&#160;“the broken”&#160;Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Trump told the convention before signing the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act, legislation intended to speed up resolution of veterans’ appeals.</p>
<p>The president cited the delivery of same-day emergency mental health services at VA medical centers, the opening of a White House hotline for veterans, as well as his <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/393761-trump-whistleblower-bill-signed/" type="external">signing of a bill</a> to hold VA accountable in June, among successes of his administration with regard to helping American veterans.</p>
<p>In July, Congress approved a spending allocation of $659 billion to fund the Pentagon and emergency war accounts. A total of $78.3 billion of the amount was allocated for veterans’ care – almost $4 billion above last year’s spending.</p>
<p>Trump’s address to the veterans also comes days after he announced that the US is not leaving Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The president said America’s new strategy in Afghanistan is to give the military the authority and resources to secure an “honorable and enduring outcome.” On Monday, after a months-long review process, the president announced that the US would continue fighting the 16-year war in Afghanistan, which is by far the longest-ever for the US. His statement was followed by Defense Secretary James Mattis saying that the Pentagon was working to send more troops to Afghanistan.</p>
<p>[embedded content]</p>
| 7,147 |
<p>A clip quickly making its way across the internet appears to show the hilarious moment two idiot criminals attempt to stage a traffic accident and then hilariously sprint off like a couple of cartoon characters once they realized the entire fiasco was caught on tape.</p>
<p>In the video below dated July 2, one man pushes a motorized scooter in front of a moving car while his partner waits on the corner pretending to be a witness with his cellphone recording:</p>
<p>When the con-man sees that his victim has stopped her car before impact he rolls his scooter backward, ramming it into her car, and then proceeds to jump on the hood and windshield as if a crash is happening.</p>
<p>As The Daily Express <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/829326/Moped-insurance-scam-video-cash-for-crash-insurance-con" type="external">notes</a>:</p>
<p>As the female driver gets out of her vehicle, the alleged scammer appears to accuse her of crashing into him.</p>
<p>Another man can be seen on the street corner watching on as the incident unfolded, before walking over to seemingly check on the ‘crash victim’ while filming on a mobile phone.</p>
<p>The pair appears to be shouting at the woman as they attempt to blame her for the ‘accident’.</p>
<p>It is only when the woman tells the two men the whole thing has been caught on her action cam they make a swift getaway while attempting to disguise their identity.</p>
<p>As the bumbling alleged scammers dash from the scene, the driver phones to the police to report the incident — it is unknown if they were arrested.</p>
<p>The video, which appears to have been filmed on a residential street in the United Kingdom and was posted to Youtube on July 14, has amassed over 1 million views so far.</p>
<p>According to The Express, "Over 2,500 bogus claims are submitted each week, which would be worth £1.3billion over a year, according to the Association of British Insurers. A study by uSwitch has found that a quarter of innocent drivers hit by fraudulent claims have been unable to prove their innocence, leaving them facing skyrocketing bills."</p>
<p>All that's left to do now is attach the Benny Hill theme song to the end of the clip:</p>
|
LOL Video: Insurance Scammers Fake Accident But Quickly Flee Once They Spot The Dashcam
| true |
https://dailywire.com/news/18684/lol-video-insurance-scammers-fake-accident-quickly-chase-stephens
|
2017-07-17
| 0right
|
LOL Video: Insurance Scammers Fake Accident But Quickly Flee Once They Spot The Dashcam
<p>A clip quickly making its way across the internet appears to show the hilarious moment two idiot criminals attempt to stage a traffic accident and then hilariously sprint off like a couple of cartoon characters once they realized the entire fiasco was caught on tape.</p>
<p>In the video below dated July 2, one man pushes a motorized scooter in front of a moving car while his partner waits on the corner pretending to be a witness with his cellphone recording:</p>
<p>When the con-man sees that his victim has stopped her car before impact he rolls his scooter backward, ramming it into her car, and then proceeds to jump on the hood and windshield as if a crash is happening.</p>
<p>As The Daily Express <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/829326/Moped-insurance-scam-video-cash-for-crash-insurance-con" type="external">notes</a>:</p>
<p>As the female driver gets out of her vehicle, the alleged scammer appears to accuse her of crashing into him.</p>
<p>Another man can be seen on the street corner watching on as the incident unfolded, before walking over to seemingly check on the ‘crash victim’ while filming on a mobile phone.</p>
<p>The pair appears to be shouting at the woman as they attempt to blame her for the ‘accident’.</p>
<p>It is only when the woman tells the two men the whole thing has been caught on her action cam they make a swift getaway while attempting to disguise their identity.</p>
<p>As the bumbling alleged scammers dash from the scene, the driver phones to the police to report the incident — it is unknown if they were arrested.</p>
<p>The video, which appears to have been filmed on a residential street in the United Kingdom and was posted to Youtube on July 14, has amassed over 1 million views so far.</p>
<p>According to The Express, "Over 2,500 bogus claims are submitted each week, which would be worth £1.3billion over a year, according to the Association of British Insurers. A study by uSwitch has found that a quarter of innocent drivers hit by fraudulent claims have been unable to prove their innocence, leaving them facing skyrocketing bills."</p>
<p>All that's left to do now is attach the Benny Hill theme song to the end of the clip:</p>
| 7,148 |
<p>LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Banned from the 2016 Olympics for excessive doping, Bulgaria’s weightlifting team has appealed to sport’s highest court.</p>
<p>The Court of Arbitration for Sport says the Bulgarian federation also challenges a $500,000 fine and wants sanctions frozen pending the verdict.</p>
<p>No date is set for the appeal hearing.</p>
<p>The International Weightlifting Federation’s executive board barred Bulgaria last month as “not eligible to participate” in Rio de Janeiro in August.</p>
<p>In March, eight men and three women in the Bulgaria team tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol during training.</p>
<p>Bulgaria has a tainted record in Olympic weightlifting.</p>
<p>In 2008, the team was withdrawn weeks before the Beijing Games after 11 lifters tested positive for banned drugs.</p>
<p>In 2000, the team was sent home from Sydney and stripped of three medals.</p>
<p>LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Banned from the 2016 Olympics for excessive doping, Bulgaria’s weightlifting team has appealed to sport’s highest court.</p>
<p>The Court of Arbitration for Sport says the Bulgarian federation also challenges a $500,000 fine and wants sanctions frozen pending the verdict.</p>
<p>No date is set for the appeal hearing.</p>
<p>The International Weightlifting Federation’s executive board barred Bulgaria last month as “not eligible to participate” in Rio de Janeiro in August.</p>
<p>In March, eight men and three women in the Bulgaria team tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol during training.</p>
<p>Bulgaria has a tainted record in Olympic weightlifting.</p>
<p>In 2008, the team was withdrawn weeks before the Beijing Games after 11 lifters tested positive for banned drugs.</p>
<p>In 2000, the team was sent home from Sydney and stripped of three medals.</p>
|
Bulgaria weightlifting team appeals ban from 2016 Olympics
| false |
https://apnews.com/5b9559c27136479ba93e320ded97b3bc
|
2015-12-08
| 2least
|
Bulgaria weightlifting team appeals ban from 2016 Olympics
<p>LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Banned from the 2016 Olympics for excessive doping, Bulgaria’s weightlifting team has appealed to sport’s highest court.</p>
<p>The Court of Arbitration for Sport says the Bulgarian federation also challenges a $500,000 fine and wants sanctions frozen pending the verdict.</p>
<p>No date is set for the appeal hearing.</p>
<p>The International Weightlifting Federation’s executive board barred Bulgaria last month as “not eligible to participate” in Rio de Janeiro in August.</p>
<p>In March, eight men and three women in the Bulgaria team tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol during training.</p>
<p>Bulgaria has a tainted record in Olympic weightlifting.</p>
<p>In 2008, the team was withdrawn weeks before the Beijing Games after 11 lifters tested positive for banned drugs.</p>
<p>In 2000, the team was sent home from Sydney and stripped of three medals.</p>
<p>LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Banned from the 2016 Olympics for excessive doping, Bulgaria’s weightlifting team has appealed to sport’s highest court.</p>
<p>The Court of Arbitration for Sport says the Bulgarian federation also challenges a $500,000 fine and wants sanctions frozen pending the verdict.</p>
<p>No date is set for the appeal hearing.</p>
<p>The International Weightlifting Federation’s executive board barred Bulgaria last month as “not eligible to participate” in Rio de Janeiro in August.</p>
<p>In March, eight men and three women in the Bulgaria team tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol during training.</p>
<p>Bulgaria has a tainted record in Olympic weightlifting.</p>
<p>In 2008, the team was withdrawn weeks before the Beijing Games after 11 lifters tested positive for banned drugs.</p>
<p>In 2000, the team was sent home from Sydney and stripped of three medals.</p>
| 7,149 |
<p>TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will impose additional sanctions on North Korea in response to the continuing threat posed by the reclusive nation’s missile and nuclear programs, Japan’s top government spokesman said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The sanctions, mentioned by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a joint news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, will freeze the assets of nine organizations and 26 individuals, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.</p>
<p>“The North Korean missile and nuclear issue is a pressing threat unseen before. Its provocative actions, in which it has ignored the severe warnings of international society, are totally unacceptable,” he said.</p>
<p>The organizations are North Korean banks, several of them based in China, while the individuals are based in a number of nations, including China, Russia and Libya.</p>
<p>Suga said the move was taken in the wake of Trump’s visit as a way of demonstrating the determination of the two nations to stand together and increase pressure on Pyongyang.</p>
<p>Trump said on Monday that the United States stood in solidarity with Japan on North Korea and called North Korea’s ballistic missile launches over Japan “a threat to the civilized world and to international peace and stability.”</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>
|
Japan imposes additional sanctions on North Korea
| false |
https://newsline.com/japan-imposes-additional-sanctions-on-north-korea/
|
2017-11-06
| 1right-center
|
Japan imposes additional sanctions on North Korea
<p>TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will impose additional sanctions on North Korea in response to the continuing threat posed by the reclusive nation’s missile and nuclear programs, Japan’s top government spokesman said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>The sanctions, mentioned by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a joint news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, will freeze the assets of nine organizations and 26 individuals, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.</p>
<p>“The North Korean missile and nuclear issue is a pressing threat unseen before. Its provocative actions, in which it has ignored the severe warnings of international society, are totally unacceptable,” he said.</p>
<p>The organizations are North Korean banks, several of them based in China, while the individuals are based in a number of nations, including China, Russia and Libya.</p>
<p>Suga said the move was taken in the wake of Trump’s visit as a way of demonstrating the determination of the two nations to stand together and increase pressure on Pyongyang.</p>
<p>Trump said on Monday that the United States stood in solidarity with Japan on North Korea and called North Korea’s ballistic missile launches over Japan “a threat to the civilized world and to international peace and stability.”</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>
| 7,150 |
<p />
<p>Can we please stop calling it the “wealth gap”? The figures Oxfam recently reported on global inequality can only be described as a growing abyss between the world’s über rich and the rest of us.</p>
<p>The Guardian:</p>
<p>The charity’s research, published on Monday, shows that the share of the world’s wealth owned by the best-off 1% has increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% in 2014, while the least well-off 80% currently own just 5.5%.</p>
<p />
<p>Oxfam added that on current trends the richest 1% would own more than 50% of the world’s wealth by 2016.</p>
<p>Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International and one of the six co-chairs at this year’s WEF, said the increased concentration of wealth seen since the deep recession of 2008-09 was dangerous and needed to be reversed.</p>
<p>Read <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/19/global-wealth-oxfam-inequality-davos-economic-summit-switzerland" type="external">More</a>.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi Zapata</a></p>
|
The World's 1 Percent Will Own More Than the Other 99 Percent Combined by 2016
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/the-worlds-1-percent-will-own-more-than-the-other-99-percent-combined-by-2016/
|
2015-01-19
| 4left
|
The World's 1 Percent Will Own More Than the Other 99 Percent Combined by 2016
<p />
<p>Can we please stop calling it the “wealth gap”? The figures Oxfam recently reported on global inequality can only be described as a growing abyss between the world’s über rich and the rest of us.</p>
<p>The Guardian:</p>
<p>The charity’s research, published on Monday, shows that the share of the world’s wealth owned by the best-off 1% has increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% in 2014, while the least well-off 80% currently own just 5.5%.</p>
<p />
<p>Oxfam added that on current trends the richest 1% would own more than 50% of the world’s wealth by 2016.</p>
<p>Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International and one of the six co-chairs at this year’s WEF, said the increased concentration of wealth seen since the deep recession of 2008-09 was dangerous and needed to be reversed.</p>
<p>Read <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/19/global-wealth-oxfam-inequality-davos-economic-summit-switzerland" type="external">More</a>.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Natasha Hakimi Zapata</a></p>
| 7,151 |
<p>This week the U.S. House of Representatives will take up an economic stimulus package that indicates just how much the House has sold out to the big corporate and wealthy interests at the expense of poor and working class people. It is class warfare. According to a New York Times editorial on October 20, the bill has $54 billion in accelerated tax cuts with every penny going to the top 30% of taxpayers and half going to the top 5%. 80% of the benefits from the capital gains tax cuts would go to the top 2% of households, and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, only $2.3 billion of the $100 billion stimulus for 2002 would be spent on benefits for unemployed workers who would be the most likely to spend it to stimulate the economy.</p>
<p>It is also poor economics because it would lower rates on capital gains held more-than-one but less-than-five years and if investors took advantage of the lower rates to raise cash, share prices would drop. Elimination of the corporate alternative minimum tax would cost $25 billion in 2002 and would not guarantee any new investment, but would give a windfall to companies that usually find a way to elude taxes anyway. Such corporate tax breaks would reduce their taxes on the state level and force states to reduce spending, hindering economic recovery.</p>
<p>Unemployment in South Carolina climbed from 4.2% in August, 2000 to 5.4% in August, 2001, with 28 of our 46 counties having more than 6% and 9 counties over 10%. Since the August unemployment figures were reported, several other big layoffs have been announced. On October 19, the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisors, who are our state’s official economic forecasters, predicted a $310 million reduction in budget estimates for the current budget year. The reduction is the largest dollar amount in history and will result in 4.2% state budget cuts across-the-board.</p>
<p>For the past decade or so, the increasing income disparity between the wealthy and the poor and working class has been unprecedented in U.S. history. If the average pay for production workers had risen at the level as CEO pay, the annual workers salary would be $120,491.00 – not $24,668.00. The wealthiest 1% of Americans control about 38% of America’s wealth. The bottom 80% control 17% of America’s wealth. The top 1% of stock owners have 48% of stock holdings.</p>
<p>Congress already delivered a bonanza to the wealthy earlier this year when they passed the Bush tax cut plan that gave about 25% of the largesse to the richest 1% and well over 50% to those with incomes over $100,000.00. Congress should subsidize an increase in unemployment benefits that will give money to the poor and working class whose safety net was diminished by “welfare reform.” They will spend their money at the grass-roots level that will really stimulate the economy. Congress should increase spending for better public education, health care, housing, and transportation to benefit everyday people — the poor and working class.</p>
<p>Rather than declaring war on the poor and working class, Congress needs to declare war on our fossil fuel and nuclear energy dependency which has a lot do with the “War on Terrorism.” Saudi Arabia has been our biggest oil and military buddy in the Arab world for 70 years. 10 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia has also been identified as the major financier for the most radical, terroristic networks of Islamic fundamentalists, including Osama bin Laden’s Al Queda organization. To further substantiate how oil policy dominates our foreign policy, Chris Mondics reported for Knight Ridder Newspapers on October 21 that the U.S. government “actively supported a proposal by Houston-based energy developer Unocal to build a 1,000 mile pipeline through Afghanistan to link gas fields in Turkmenistan” and worked with the Taliban until 1998 to cut such a deal even though the U.S. knew of bin Laden’s terrorist activities.</p>
<p>Our only long-term solution is to develop renewable energy sources like the wind and the sun and encourage conservation, but the politicians who run our government are subservient to the giant energy cartels who control fossil fuel and nuclear power. They spend enormous sums to fight wars for oil and gas and subsidize about anything big energy asks for but they see no big campaign contributions in helping develop alternative sources of energy. For example, South Carolina’s U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham, who is running to replace the retiring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, voted against a $30 million increase in renewable energy programs in 1995, and against a $45 million dollar solar energy research and development bill in l996.</p>
<p>Hopefully, the South Carolina Congressional Delegation and the entire Congress will address the needs of the poor and working class in the stimulus bill debate this week and will also take a stand for conservation and renewable energy. CP</p>
|
War on the Poor
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2001/10/22/war-on-the-poor/
|
2001-10-22
| 4left
|
War on the Poor
<p>This week the U.S. House of Representatives will take up an economic stimulus package that indicates just how much the House has sold out to the big corporate and wealthy interests at the expense of poor and working class people. It is class warfare. According to a New York Times editorial on October 20, the bill has $54 billion in accelerated tax cuts with every penny going to the top 30% of taxpayers and half going to the top 5%. 80% of the benefits from the capital gains tax cuts would go to the top 2% of households, and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, only $2.3 billion of the $100 billion stimulus for 2002 would be spent on benefits for unemployed workers who would be the most likely to spend it to stimulate the economy.</p>
<p>It is also poor economics because it would lower rates on capital gains held more-than-one but less-than-five years and if investors took advantage of the lower rates to raise cash, share prices would drop. Elimination of the corporate alternative minimum tax would cost $25 billion in 2002 and would not guarantee any new investment, but would give a windfall to companies that usually find a way to elude taxes anyway. Such corporate tax breaks would reduce their taxes on the state level and force states to reduce spending, hindering economic recovery.</p>
<p>Unemployment in South Carolina climbed from 4.2% in August, 2000 to 5.4% in August, 2001, with 28 of our 46 counties having more than 6% and 9 counties over 10%. Since the August unemployment figures were reported, several other big layoffs have been announced. On October 19, the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisors, who are our state’s official economic forecasters, predicted a $310 million reduction in budget estimates for the current budget year. The reduction is the largest dollar amount in history and will result in 4.2% state budget cuts across-the-board.</p>
<p>For the past decade or so, the increasing income disparity between the wealthy and the poor and working class has been unprecedented in U.S. history. If the average pay for production workers had risen at the level as CEO pay, the annual workers salary would be $120,491.00 – not $24,668.00. The wealthiest 1% of Americans control about 38% of America’s wealth. The bottom 80% control 17% of America’s wealth. The top 1% of stock owners have 48% of stock holdings.</p>
<p>Congress already delivered a bonanza to the wealthy earlier this year when they passed the Bush tax cut plan that gave about 25% of the largesse to the richest 1% and well over 50% to those with incomes over $100,000.00. Congress should subsidize an increase in unemployment benefits that will give money to the poor and working class whose safety net was diminished by “welfare reform.” They will spend their money at the grass-roots level that will really stimulate the economy. Congress should increase spending for better public education, health care, housing, and transportation to benefit everyday people — the poor and working class.</p>
<p>Rather than declaring war on the poor and working class, Congress needs to declare war on our fossil fuel and nuclear energy dependency which has a lot do with the “War on Terrorism.” Saudi Arabia has been our biggest oil and military buddy in the Arab world for 70 years. 10 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia has also been identified as the major financier for the most radical, terroristic networks of Islamic fundamentalists, including Osama bin Laden’s Al Queda organization. To further substantiate how oil policy dominates our foreign policy, Chris Mondics reported for Knight Ridder Newspapers on October 21 that the U.S. government “actively supported a proposal by Houston-based energy developer Unocal to build a 1,000 mile pipeline through Afghanistan to link gas fields in Turkmenistan” and worked with the Taliban until 1998 to cut such a deal even though the U.S. knew of bin Laden’s terrorist activities.</p>
<p>Our only long-term solution is to develop renewable energy sources like the wind and the sun and encourage conservation, but the politicians who run our government are subservient to the giant energy cartels who control fossil fuel and nuclear power. They spend enormous sums to fight wars for oil and gas and subsidize about anything big energy asks for but they see no big campaign contributions in helping develop alternative sources of energy. For example, South Carolina’s U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham, who is running to replace the retiring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, voted against a $30 million increase in renewable energy programs in 1995, and against a $45 million dollar solar energy research and development bill in l996.</p>
<p>Hopefully, the South Carolina Congressional Delegation and the entire Congress will address the needs of the poor and working class in the stimulus bill debate this week and will also take a stand for conservation and renewable energy. CP</p>
| 7,152 |
<p><a href="" type="internal" />While both sides constantly complain about money in politics, how terrible our elected officials are and the inefficiencies of our government, the bottom line is we elect these people into office. &#160;Without our votes, most of these politicians would have never been elected.</p>
<p>Well, one of the biggest problems we have in this country is that the rich and powerful seem to control our government. &#160;Now most people might think that’s because of the cumulative millions these people donate every election cycle. &#160;And for the most part that’s fairly accurate. &#160;Time and time again it’s proven that in politics, those who have the most money almost always win.</p>
<p>But that’s not the only reason why the richest among us rule this country. &#160;They also vote much more often than poor and middle class Americans.</p>
<p>Just take a look at this chart of voter turnout for the 2008 Presidential election, which was put together as part of a <a href="http://www.demos.org/stacked-deck-how-dominance-politics-affluent-business-undermines-economic-mobility-america" type="external">larger, in-depth report by Demos.org</a>:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>In every income bracket of people making $30K or less per year, voter turnout is less than 50 percent. &#160;Yet on the opposite end, people making $75K or more per year have a voter turnout above 70 percent.</p>
<p>So it’s not just the money they’re donating that’s determining what type of government we have, it’s the rate at which they’re voting (and we’re not voting) which is also giving them the upper hand on selecting who represents us in our government.</p>
<p>Furthermore, as <a href="http://www.nonprofitvote.org/documents/2011/11/voter-participation-gaps-in-the-2010-midterm-election.pdf" type="external">this study by Nonprofit VOTE</a> points out, only 40% of those with a household income below $50K voted in the 2010 midterm elections. &#160;This is especially concerning seeing as how this year’s midterms are so vitally important if we want anything to get accomplished in President Obama’s final two years in office.</p>
<p>From Nonprofit VOTE’s report:</p>
<p>I cannot stress it enough – we must make voting a top priority. &#160;All these blogs, comments, pages, petitions, debates, discussions, political shows – none of them matter if we don’t get out and vote. &#160;Ask your neighbors if they need a ride to the polls – you’d be surprised how many people do need a little help but just don’t know who to ask. &#160;Make sure your friends and family are registered and aware of when and where to vote. &#160;These are things that many consider common sense, but a 40% voter turnout rate is just absolutely unacceptable and proves that not enough of us are doing these simple things.</p>
<p>The cliché&#160;saying really is true, “If you don’t get out and vote, then you really don’t have a right to bitch.” &#160;And we have far too many people (especially poor and middle class Americans) complaining about what’s going on in this country who aren’t doing anything about it.</p>
<p>Let’s change that. &#160;Because if we don’t, nothing in this country is ever going to change.</p>
<p>If you have a few minutes, I highly recommend checking out the <a href="http://www.demos.org/stacked-deck-how-dominance-politics-affluent-business-undermines-economic-mobility-america" type="external">complete report</a>&#160;that was just put together by Demos. &#160;It’s eye-opening, to say the least.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">I've Got a Message for Everyone Who's Sick and Tired of Our Current Government</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">President Obama Suggests Mandatory Voting, Conservatives Lose Their Minds</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Ted Cruz Calls Hillary Clinton and Democrats 'Bigots' for Defending Voting Rights</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p>
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This Voter Turnout Graph Shows Another Reason Why the Rich Continue to Control the Country
| true |
http://forwardprogressives.com/voter-turnout-graph-shows-reason-why-rich-continue-control-country/
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2014-04-17
| 4left
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This Voter Turnout Graph Shows Another Reason Why the Rich Continue to Control the Country
<p><a href="" type="internal" />While both sides constantly complain about money in politics, how terrible our elected officials are and the inefficiencies of our government, the bottom line is we elect these people into office. &#160;Without our votes, most of these politicians would have never been elected.</p>
<p>Well, one of the biggest problems we have in this country is that the rich and powerful seem to control our government. &#160;Now most people might think that’s because of the cumulative millions these people donate every election cycle. &#160;And for the most part that’s fairly accurate. &#160;Time and time again it’s proven that in politics, those who have the most money almost always win.</p>
<p>But that’s not the only reason why the richest among us rule this country. &#160;They also vote much more often than poor and middle class Americans.</p>
<p>Just take a look at this chart of voter turnout for the 2008 Presidential election, which was put together as part of a <a href="http://www.demos.org/stacked-deck-how-dominance-politics-affluent-business-undermines-economic-mobility-america" type="external">larger, in-depth report by Demos.org</a>:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>In every income bracket of people making $30K or less per year, voter turnout is less than 50 percent. &#160;Yet on the opposite end, people making $75K or more per year have a voter turnout above 70 percent.</p>
<p>So it’s not just the money they’re donating that’s determining what type of government we have, it’s the rate at which they’re voting (and we’re not voting) which is also giving them the upper hand on selecting who represents us in our government.</p>
<p>Furthermore, as <a href="http://www.nonprofitvote.org/documents/2011/11/voter-participation-gaps-in-the-2010-midterm-election.pdf" type="external">this study by Nonprofit VOTE</a> points out, only 40% of those with a household income below $50K voted in the 2010 midterm elections. &#160;This is especially concerning seeing as how this year’s midterms are so vitally important if we want anything to get accomplished in President Obama’s final two years in office.</p>
<p>From Nonprofit VOTE’s report:</p>
<p>I cannot stress it enough – we must make voting a top priority. &#160;All these blogs, comments, pages, petitions, debates, discussions, political shows – none of them matter if we don’t get out and vote. &#160;Ask your neighbors if they need a ride to the polls – you’d be surprised how many people do need a little help but just don’t know who to ask. &#160;Make sure your friends and family are registered and aware of when and where to vote. &#160;These are things that many consider common sense, but a 40% voter turnout rate is just absolutely unacceptable and proves that not enough of us are doing these simple things.</p>
<p>The cliché&#160;saying really is true, “If you don’t get out and vote, then you really don’t have a right to bitch.” &#160;And we have far too many people (especially poor and middle class Americans) complaining about what’s going on in this country who aren’t doing anything about it.</p>
<p>Let’s change that. &#160;Because if we don’t, nothing in this country is ever going to change.</p>
<p>If you have a few minutes, I highly recommend checking out the <a href="http://www.demos.org/stacked-deck-how-dominance-politics-affluent-business-undermines-economic-mobility-america" type="external">complete report</a>&#160;that was just put together by Demos. &#160;It’s eye-opening, to say the least.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">I've Got a Message for Everyone Who's Sick and Tired of Our Current Government</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">President Obama Suggests Mandatory Voting, Conservatives Lose Their Minds</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Ted Cruz Calls Hillary Clinton and Democrats 'Bigots' for Defending Voting Rights</a></p>
<p>0 Facebook comments</p>
| 7,153 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Albuquerque Police Department said AFD firefighter Tomas Maestas, 34, was arrested at the Imbibe nightclub early Sunday morning.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>According to a criminal complaint, Maestas spit on a police officer and refused to leave Imbibe after several directions to do so. He was charged with battery on a peace officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.</p>
<p>After learning of his arrest, AFD immediately placed Maestas on administrative assignment pending the outcome of an internal investigation. As such he will not be responding to any emergency calls. Once the investigation is complete, Maestas will receive appropriate disciplinary action if warranted.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
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UPDATED: Albuquerque Firefighter Arrested For Battery On A Police Officer
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/10232/updated-albuquerque-firefighter-arrested-for-battery-on-a-police-officer.html
| 2least
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UPDATED: Albuquerque Firefighter Arrested For Battery On A Police Officer
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Albuquerque Police Department said AFD firefighter Tomas Maestas, 34, was arrested at the Imbibe nightclub early Sunday morning.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>According to a criminal complaint, Maestas spit on a police officer and refused to leave Imbibe after several directions to do so. He was charged with battery on a peace officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.</p>
<p>After learning of his arrest, AFD immediately placed Maestas on administrative assignment pending the outcome of an internal investigation. As such he will not be responding to any emergency calls. Once the investigation is complete, Maestas will receive appropriate disciplinary action if warranted.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
| 7,154 |
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<p>Realty Income Corporation (NYSE: O) is the largest real estate investment trust, or REIT, specializing in net-leased freestanding retail properties. Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG) is not only the largest mall REIT, but is the largest REIT of any variety.</p>
<p>Since these two companies are leaders in different types of retail, they are a natural comparison, as they give investors who want to put money into retail real estate two very different strategies to invest in. I last <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/28/better-buy-realty-income-corporation-vs-simon-prop.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">compared the two Opens a New Window.</a> in February, and since that time, both stocks have dropped considerably -- Realty Income by 7% and Simon Property Group by 14%. With the lower valuations and headwinds facing the brick-and-mortar retail industry, let's take a look to see which is the better buy today.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/09/05/why-realty-income-is-a-retirees-dream-stock.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Realty Income Opens a New Window.</a> primarily invests in single-tenant, freestanding retail properties, which make up about 80% of the company's portfolio by income. The other 20% is primarily composed of industrial and office properties, and the company owns more than 5,000 properties in all, located in 49 states and Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>All of Realty Income's properties are leased to tenants on a long-term, net-lease basis. This arrangement has long initial lease terms (typically 15 years or more) with annual rent increases built in, and tenants are responsible for expenses such as property taxes, insurance, and certain maintenance costs.</p>
<p>Simon Property Group, on the other hand, invests in mall properties, including those under its "Premium Outlets" and "The Mills" brand names. The largest REIT in the market, Simon owns or has an interest in approximately 230 properties with about 190 million square feet of space. Unlike many mall operators, Simon has an excellent track record of treating its tenants as partners, and continually reinvesting in its properties to make sure they keep up with the latest consumer trends. In fact, Simon currently has redevelopment and expansion projects underway at 25 of its properties.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>One major difference between the two companies is their preferred growth mechanisms.</p>
<p>Realty Income grows entirely through acquisitions. The company employs a highly disciplined strategy to research and select attractive properties, and it has spent $9.6 billion on acquisitions since 2010.</p>
<p>While Simon Property Group acquires a property on occasion, the company's main growth engine is ground-up development, which is an additional potential driver of value. Think of it this way -- by building a property for less than its as-completed value, Simon can deliver instant equity to shareholders and earn higher returns than acquisitions could produce.</p>
<p>To be clear, I'm not saying that one method is inherently better. Both companies have produced fantastic returns for shareholders over the years. In fact, over the past 20 years, the total returns of the two stocks are quite close.</p>
<p>Both stocks take measures to mitigate any risk, but brick-and-mortar retail is facing a lot of headwinds, some of which could potentially affect these companies.</p>
<p>Realty Income specifically selects tenants that are e-commerce and recession-resistant. For example, service-based businesses like restaurants and theaters are naturally immune to online competitors. And discount-oriented businesses like dollar stores actually tend to do better in tough times. However, a small portion of the portfolio could be susceptible to online competition.</p>
<p>In Simon's case, its mall properties could potentially face retail headwinds, but Simon's attractive amenities and state-of-the-art facilities should help mitigate any risks. Still, malls are full of discretionary retail, which is the type of business most likely to run into trouble. One example is Starbucks' recent decision to close all of its Teavana stores, which had been performing poorly, including the 78 <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/30/mall-operator-sues-to-prevent-starbucks-from-closi.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">located in Simon's malls Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>However, it's also worth mentioning that outlet malls (like Simon's Premium Outlet properties) are actually doing quite well, and remain a growing area of retail. In fact, Simon opened four new outlet centers during the second quarter of 2017 alone.</p>
<p>Both stocks have strong histories of dividend increases, but Realty Income is the clear winner here. The company has increased its dividend for 79 quarters in a row, and has never slashed or skipped a payment. In fact, the company has paid 565 consecutive monthly dividends as of this writing.</p>
<p>In recent years, Simon has <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/29/this-stock-just-raised-its-dividend-by-94-and-trad.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">increased its dividend Opens a New Window.</a> at a more rapid pace, but when it comes to long-term dividend investing, consistency is king, and few REITs, if any, have a more consistent dividend track record.</p>
<p>Both stocks have relatively high dividend yields. Realty Income and Simon Property Group yield 4.3% and 4.5%, respectively, based on their current share price.</p>
<p>No head-to-head comparison would be complete without a look at valuation, so here's how these companies stack up in terms of price-to- <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/15/the-best-metric-for-comparing-reits.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">FFO Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Neither stock is particularly expensive right now, but Simon trades at a significantly lower valuation. To be clear, there's a good reason for this -- Simon is more vulnerable to retail bankruptcies and other headwinds facing the industry.</p>
<p>However, Simon is a top-notch mall operator and once the current retail headwinds blow over, the company should be just fine. Additionally, the outlet side of its business has lots of room to grow.</p>
<p>So, while Realty Income remains one of my favorite stocks, and one of the largest holdings in my own portfolio, if I were to buy one of these stocks today, Simon Property Group looks like the more compelling bargain.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Realty IncomeWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=71561247-21fd-465d-b828-e4fa861273ee&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Realty Income wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=71561247-21fd-465d-b828-e4fa861273ee&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of September 5, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFMathGuy/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Matthew Frankel Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Realty Income. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Starbucks. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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Better Buy: Realty Income Corporation vs. Simon Property Group
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/06/03/better-buy-realty-income-corporation-vs-simon-property-group.html
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2017-09-11
| 0right
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Better Buy: Realty Income Corporation vs. Simon Property Group
<p>Realty Income Corporation (NYSE: O) is the largest real estate investment trust, or REIT, specializing in net-leased freestanding retail properties. Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG) is not only the largest mall REIT, but is the largest REIT of any variety.</p>
<p>Since these two companies are leaders in different types of retail, they are a natural comparison, as they give investors who want to put money into retail real estate two very different strategies to invest in. I last <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/02/28/better-buy-realty-income-corporation-vs-simon-prop.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">compared the two Opens a New Window.</a> in February, and since that time, both stocks have dropped considerably -- Realty Income by 7% and Simon Property Group by 14%. With the lower valuations and headwinds facing the brick-and-mortar retail industry, let's take a look to see which is the better buy today.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/09/05/why-realty-income-is-a-retirees-dream-stock.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Realty Income Opens a New Window.</a> primarily invests in single-tenant, freestanding retail properties, which make up about 80% of the company's portfolio by income. The other 20% is primarily composed of industrial and office properties, and the company owns more than 5,000 properties in all, located in 49 states and Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>All of Realty Income's properties are leased to tenants on a long-term, net-lease basis. This arrangement has long initial lease terms (typically 15 years or more) with annual rent increases built in, and tenants are responsible for expenses such as property taxes, insurance, and certain maintenance costs.</p>
<p>Simon Property Group, on the other hand, invests in mall properties, including those under its "Premium Outlets" and "The Mills" brand names. The largest REIT in the market, Simon owns or has an interest in approximately 230 properties with about 190 million square feet of space. Unlike many mall operators, Simon has an excellent track record of treating its tenants as partners, and continually reinvesting in its properties to make sure they keep up with the latest consumer trends. In fact, Simon currently has redevelopment and expansion projects underway at 25 of its properties.</p>
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<p>One major difference between the two companies is their preferred growth mechanisms.</p>
<p>Realty Income grows entirely through acquisitions. The company employs a highly disciplined strategy to research and select attractive properties, and it has spent $9.6 billion on acquisitions since 2010.</p>
<p>While Simon Property Group acquires a property on occasion, the company's main growth engine is ground-up development, which is an additional potential driver of value. Think of it this way -- by building a property for less than its as-completed value, Simon can deliver instant equity to shareholders and earn higher returns than acquisitions could produce.</p>
<p>To be clear, I'm not saying that one method is inherently better. Both companies have produced fantastic returns for shareholders over the years. In fact, over the past 20 years, the total returns of the two stocks are quite close.</p>
<p>Both stocks take measures to mitigate any risk, but brick-and-mortar retail is facing a lot of headwinds, some of which could potentially affect these companies.</p>
<p>Realty Income specifically selects tenants that are e-commerce and recession-resistant. For example, service-based businesses like restaurants and theaters are naturally immune to online competitors. And discount-oriented businesses like dollar stores actually tend to do better in tough times. However, a small portion of the portfolio could be susceptible to online competition.</p>
<p>In Simon's case, its mall properties could potentially face retail headwinds, but Simon's attractive amenities and state-of-the-art facilities should help mitigate any risks. Still, malls are full of discretionary retail, which is the type of business most likely to run into trouble. One example is Starbucks' recent decision to close all of its Teavana stores, which had been performing poorly, including the 78 <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/08/30/mall-operator-sues-to-prevent-starbucks-from-closi.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">located in Simon's malls Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>However, it's also worth mentioning that outlet malls (like Simon's Premium Outlet properties) are actually doing quite well, and remain a growing area of retail. In fact, Simon opened four new outlet centers during the second quarter of 2017 alone.</p>
<p>Both stocks have strong histories of dividend increases, but Realty Income is the clear winner here. The company has increased its dividend for 79 quarters in a row, and has never slashed or skipped a payment. In fact, the company has paid 565 consecutive monthly dividends as of this writing.</p>
<p>In recent years, Simon has <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/04/29/this-stock-just-raised-its-dividend-by-94-and-trad.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">increased its dividend Opens a New Window.</a> at a more rapid pace, but when it comes to long-term dividend investing, consistency is king, and few REITs, if any, have a more consistent dividend track record.</p>
<p>Both stocks have relatively high dividend yields. Realty Income and Simon Property Group yield 4.3% and 4.5%, respectively, based on their current share price.</p>
<p>No head-to-head comparison would be complete without a look at valuation, so here's how these companies stack up in terms of price-to- <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/01/15/the-best-metric-for-comparing-reits.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">FFO Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Neither stock is particularly expensive right now, but Simon trades at a significantly lower valuation. To be clear, there's a good reason for this -- Simon is more vulnerable to retail bankruptcies and other headwinds facing the industry.</p>
<p>However, Simon is a top-notch mall operator and once the current retail headwinds blow over, the company should be just fine. Additionally, the outlet side of its business has lots of room to grow.</p>
<p>So, while Realty Income remains one of my favorite stocks, and one of the largest holdings in my own portfolio, if I were to buy one of these stocks today, Simon Property Group looks like the more compelling bargain.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Realty IncomeWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=71561247-21fd-465d-b828-e4fa861273ee&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Realty Income wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
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<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of September 5, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFMathGuy/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Matthew Frankel Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Realty Income. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Starbucks. The Motley Fool has a <a href="http://www.fool.com/Legal/fool-disclosure-policy.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=62289e22-94c8-11e7-a567-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>“It turns out that was a frozen pipe near the fountain that is leaking,” he told reporters Thursday, later adding that as far as they know, the new fountain is fine.</p>
<p>Mayor Tim Keller, left, listens as the city’s interim Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Rael talks Thursday about the deficit that Albuquerque faces and the problem with ART funding. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>During a speech to the Economic Forum on Wednesday morning, Keller said, “If you drive underneath, you will see why there’s no parking underneath (in) the parking garage because the new fountain leaks.”</p>
<p>Thursday’s news conference was called to elaborate on remarks he made at the forum on the budget deficit the city is facing, the fact that the federal funding for the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project has not yet materialized and the “working capital” problem the Albuquerque Police Department is facing because the overtime it’s having to pay is eating up money allocated for budgeted vacant positions.</p>
<p>Keller and interim Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Rael said the city is also having to replace a 911 transmitter system, which will cost an estimated $10 million. Keller said the city has to replace the system “for public safety reasons.”</p>
<p>“It’s an 800 megahertz system that allows the police department to communicate with the dispatchers and connects all our public safety agencies together,” Rael said. “The system that’s in place right now, we have just been informed that it needs to be replaced.”</p>
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<p>Rael said it will be a phased project.</p>
<p>“It’s not going to happen overnight because it is a major retooling of our communications system … It’s a large investment in public safety,” he said.</p>
<p>Keller said the city is looking at bonding options so that it doesn’t have to come up with the $10 million all at once.</p>
<p>Besides reiterating that the $75 million in anticipated federal funding for ART has not yet materialized, Rael said they have discovered a problem.</p>
<p>“There are some issues with accessibility to the platforms for the handicap community,” Rael said. “We’re getting a lot of concerns about it because they are in the median of the roadway facility and because you now have to cross traffic. We need to look at that and ensure that we have a reasonable access, or a safe access, and we will make that happen.”</p>
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Fountain ‘leak’ was actually a frozen pipe, mayor says
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Fountain ‘leak’ was actually a frozen pipe, mayor says
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<p>“It turns out that was a frozen pipe near the fountain that is leaking,” he told reporters Thursday, later adding that as far as they know, the new fountain is fine.</p>
<p>Mayor Tim Keller, left, listens as the city’s interim Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Rael talks Thursday about the deficit that Albuquerque faces and the problem with ART funding. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal)</p>
<p>During a speech to the Economic Forum on Wednesday morning, Keller said, “If you drive underneath, you will see why there’s no parking underneath (in) the parking garage because the new fountain leaks.”</p>
<p>Thursday’s news conference was called to elaborate on remarks he made at the forum on the budget deficit the city is facing, the fact that the federal funding for the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project has not yet materialized and the “working capital” problem the Albuquerque Police Department is facing because the overtime it’s having to pay is eating up money allocated for budgeted vacant positions.</p>
<p>Keller and interim Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Rael said the city is also having to replace a 911 transmitter system, which will cost an estimated $10 million. Keller said the city has to replace the system “for public safety reasons.”</p>
<p>“It’s an 800 megahertz system that allows the police department to communicate with the dispatchers and connects all our public safety agencies together,” Rael said. “The system that’s in place right now, we have just been informed that it needs to be replaced.”</p>
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<p>Rael said it will be a phased project.</p>
<p>“It’s not going to happen overnight because it is a major retooling of our communications system … It’s a large investment in public safety,” he said.</p>
<p>Keller said the city is looking at bonding options so that it doesn’t have to come up with the $10 million all at once.</p>
<p>Besides reiterating that the $75 million in anticipated federal funding for ART has not yet materialized, Rael said they have discovered a problem.</p>
<p>“There are some issues with accessibility to the platforms for the handicap community,” Rael said. “We’re getting a lot of concerns about it because they are in the median of the roadway facility and because you now have to cross traffic. We need to look at that and ensure that we have a reasonable access, or a safe access, and we will make that happen.”</p>
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<p>Susan Collins will remain in the Senate, and that means another Republican voice that refuses to vote for an extreme agenda. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/republican-collins-to-remain-in-the-senate-ending-speculation-about-bid-for-maine-governor/2017/10/13/222e4fd6-afd7-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.362f75823948" type="external">The Washington Post:</a></p>
<p>Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announced Friday that she will not run for governor in 2018, renewing her commitment to serve in a sharply polarized Senate where her centrist Republican positions have made her a key bulwark against much of President Trump’s agenda.</p>
<p>Ending months of speculation about her political future, Collins, who does not face reelection until 2020, opted to stick with the job she has held for the last two decades, even as other moderate GOP lawmakers including Rep. Charlie Dent (Pa.) and Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) are heading for the exits.</p>
<p>“The best way that I can contribute to these priorities is to remain a member of the United States Senate,” Collins told the business crowd, capping a speech in which she described her role as a bipartisan figure on such issues as health care and national security in Washington.</p>
<p>[...] Collins read aloud a letter from a Senate colleague: “The institution would suffer in your absence. There are very few who have the ability to bring about positive change; you are such a person.” Her final decision, she said, came down to “my sense of where I can do the most for the people of Maine and for the nation.”</p>
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Good News: Susan Collins Will Run For Reelection In Senate
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2017-10-13
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Good News: Susan Collins Will Run For Reelection In Senate
<p>Susan Collins will remain in the Senate, and that means another Republican voice that refuses to vote for an extreme agenda. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/republican-collins-to-remain-in-the-senate-ending-speculation-about-bid-for-maine-governor/2017/10/13/222e4fd6-afd7-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.362f75823948" type="external">The Washington Post:</a></p>
<p>Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announced Friday that she will not run for governor in 2018, renewing her commitment to serve in a sharply polarized Senate where her centrist Republican positions have made her a key bulwark against much of President Trump’s agenda.</p>
<p>Ending months of speculation about her political future, Collins, who does not face reelection until 2020, opted to stick with the job she has held for the last two decades, even as other moderate GOP lawmakers including Rep. Charlie Dent (Pa.) and Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) are heading for the exits.</p>
<p>“The best way that I can contribute to these priorities is to remain a member of the United States Senate,” Collins told the business crowd, capping a speech in which she described her role as a bipartisan figure on such issues as health care and national security in Washington.</p>
<p>[...] Collins read aloud a letter from a Senate colleague: “The institution would suffer in your absence. There are very few who have the ability to bring about positive change; you are such a person.” Her final decision, she said, came down to “my sense of where I can do the most for the people of Maine and for the nation.”</p>
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<p>Photo by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>Here we are a little more than a year into the Trump presidency and his administration’s body count is already, as The Donald might put it, “ <a href="" type="internal">unbelievable, perhaps record-setting</a>.”</p>
<p>Among the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-officials-left-trump-administration/story?id=49334453" type="external">casualtie</a>s are Secretary of State <a href="" type="internal">Rex Tillerson</a>; my former boss at Goldman Sachs, economic policy chief Gary Cohn; National Security Advisor Michael Flynn; FBI Director James Comey; White House Press Secretary and Communications Director Sean Spicer; four other communications directors including Hope Hicks who, having been <a href="" type="internal">Ivanka Trump’s confidante</a>, was elevated to the status of the president’s “ <a href="" type="internal">real daughter</a>” before her own White House exit; chief strategist Steve Bannon; Chief of Staff Reince Priebus; a bunch of other instant relics of Trumpian political history, and a partridge in a pear tree. (Actually, a <a href="" type="internal">200-year-old magnolia</a> uprooted from the White House grounds thanks to the first lady.)</p>
<p>Responding to Hope Hicks’ departure and, perhaps subliminally, the rumored future exile of son-in-law Jared Kushner, the president typically <a href="" type="internal">half-lamented and half-quipped</a>, “So many people have been leaving the White House. It’s invigorating, since you want turnover. I like chaos. It really is good. Who’s going to be the next to leave? Steve Miller or Melania?”</p>
<p>Melania has been unavailable for comment on her own possible future place among the fallen of the Trump era.&#160; Perhaps, though, she’ll hang around and offer her husband a little comfort in <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-says-hush-agreement-invalid-because-he-n854246" type="external">Stormy weather</a>, as rumors continue to circulate that his perfectly real daughter and her all-too-real husband may be ousted from the premises.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, personnel issues seem to be on the president’s mind these days.&#160; On March 6th, in the East Room of the White House and flanked by the Swedish prime minister, he <a href="" type="internal">boasted</a>, “So many people want to come in. I have a choice of anybody. I could take any position in the White House, and I’ll have a choice of the 10 top people having to do with that position. Everybody wants to be there.”</p>
<p>However, with constant media conjectures about yet more departures including National Security Advisor <a href="" type="internal">H.R. McMaster</a> and possibly even White House Chief of Staff <a href="" type="internal">John Kelly</a>, there seems to be a predisposition to move out of, not into, this Oval Office.&#160; In a remarkably short space of time, President Trump has already achieved a <a href="" type="internal">record 43%</a> turnover rate for top-level staff members, some of whom may be jumping ship in hopes of emerging with reputations relatively untarred, while avoiding lengthy prison sentences.</p>
<p>As collateral damage in his world mounts, it seems as if the only members of the Trump Empire, White House division, guaranteed job security are his lawyers and perhaps Treasury Secretary <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568584792/counterpunchmaga" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176348/tomgram%3A_nomi_prins%2C_you%2C_sir%2C_are_no_alexander_hamilton/" type="external">Steven Mnuchin</a>. Even that most nuclear of families — his — seemed in peril of exploding, as the countdown to Kushner’s exit approaches the zero hour. It looks as if we may all have scored front-row seats for the latest you’re-fired episode in the White House reality show.</p>
<p>Given the not-if-but-when nature of Kushner’s departure from the White House, it’s none too soon for media outlets to prepare themselves.&#160; With that in mind, here is a prospective political obituary for him.</p>
<p>Bringing Peace to a Riven World</p>
<p>The political career of Jared Kushner met a slow death from unparalleled incompetence, conflicts of interest, and financial sleights of hand. He is survived by his father-in-law Donald Trump and — though no one knows for how long — his wife, Ivanka. At age 37, he had held the role of White House senior adviser and assistant to the president since the day Donald Trump entered the Oval Office. Just two months later, his wife <a href="" type="internal">agreed</a> to take a similar advisory position.&#160; Though together they were reported to be worth a mere <a href="" type="internal">$740 million</a>, they generously offered to do their new jobs without pay from a sense of duty to country and the kindness of their hearts — and also perhaps to avoid running afoul of an anti-nepotism law passed in 1967 when Lyndon B. Johnson was president.</p>
<p>Jared’s year-plus in the White House proved another Trump-style record setter, a pro bono financial odyssey of a sort no previous White House had ever witnessed.&#160; While traveling the globe to carry out his “duties” and hobnob, negotiate, and pose for endless photo-ops with world leaders from Iraq, China, Israel, and a host of other countries — a role once upon a time filled by the secretary of state — the overworked adviser somehow found a few moments to cash in his diplomatic air-miles big time.</p>
<p>In his Rolodex of titles, he would also serve as head of a completely fabricated new entity, the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-announces-white-house-office-american-innovation-oai/" type="external">White House Office of American Innovation</a>. In both capacities, he stood ready to change the world, a goal he achieved handily — if the world you happen to be talking about was his own financial one. And that was no small thing.&#160; After all, it’s not easy to oversee and advance (or, in his case, even potentially depth charge) your private business interests while lending a hand running the country, not to speak of the world, and freeing your father-in-law to work on his golf stroke.</p>
<p>For example, Kushner attempted to <a href="" type="internal">extract</a> from investors in Qatar a modest half-billion dollars in bailout funds for a cratering Manhattan skyscraper, 666 Fifth Avenue, that he had purchased for his family business while still in the private sector. Unfortunately, that particular deal fell through, after which Kushner and his father-in-law happily backed the Saudis in their blockade and quarantine of Qatar.</p>
<p>Taking his business-oriented focus on the road as the White House liaison for <a href="" type="internal">peace in the Middle East</a>, Kushner was also tasked with the simple goal of brokering the settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict. His familiarity with the region was significant since, among other things, he had gotten at least four major loans from <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Kushners-Israeli-business-ties-examined-amid-loss-of-security-clearance-543936" type="external">Bank Hapoalim</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Israel’s largest bank</a>, for the Kushner family <a href="" type="internal">real estate company</a>. (Hapoalim is undergoing a criminal probe by the U.S. government for <a href="" type="internal">tax evasion services</a> it reportedly provided to its wealthy clients.) Shortly before President Trump’s visit to Israel in May 2017, Kushner Companies also received a <a href="" type="internal">$30 million investment</a> from Menora Mivtachim, one of Israel’s largest insurers — and what could be more peaceable than that? As everyone knows, Kushner himself left office just as peace was <a href="" type="internal">settling</a> over the region (and the U.S. was <a href="" type="internal">moving</a> its embassy to Jerusalem).</p>
<p>China, of course, had been a longtime target of Donald Trump until — in a similarly diplomatic frame of mind — Kushner helped organize a fabulous <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/327725-on-the-menu-at-trumps-dinner-with-chinese-president-steak" type="external">Dover sole dinner</a> at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club with Chinese President Xi Jinping last April.&#160; He would also prove to be a <a href="" type="internal">key figure</a> in smoothing the way for better relations with that rising global superpower — an approach that just happened to fit perfectly with the Kushner family business. &#160;Only a month after that dinner, for example, his sister, Nicole Meyer, was already <a href="" type="internal">reportedly pitching</a> the glories of One Journal Square, a Jersey City housing project the Kushner family owns that was in need of $150 million in investments, to a gathering of 100 potential Chinese investors at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Beijing. As part of that pitch, while dropping her brother’s name, she offered them a path into the U.S. EB-5 visa program, sometimes referred to as a “citizenship for sale” program, which they could enter through Kushner properties for a mere $500,000 each.</p>
<p>Building brilliantly on his Chinese portfolio, Jared Kushner, too, <a href="" type="internal">held</a> private meetings with elite potential Chinese investors in… well, properties like his family’s and spent copious time with <a href="" type="internal">the Chinese ambassador</a> to the U.S. during and after the election campaign. He allegedly also <a href="" type="internal">attended</a> high-level meetings with the chairman of Anbang Insurance Group during the Trump transition period.&#160; At the time, Anbang just coincidentally was considering making an investment in 666 Fifth Avenue.&#160; Unfortunately, no deal resulted. Since then, the company has been <a href="" type="internal">seized</a> by the Chinese government and its chairman prosecuted for “economic crimes.”&#160; For Kushner, refinancing that single building in New York proved no easier than making peace in the Middle East.</p>
<p>But give him credit: while advising the president, he never stopped looking out for those closest to him (i.e., his family) and never forgot his role as a junior mogul on the make.&#160; In the process, he entertained a cast of key bank executives.&#160; In an office only doors from the Oval Office, he <a href="" type="internal">regularly connected</a> with some of the biggest players on Wall Street, including those at bailout-prone Citigroup, scandal-ridden Deutsche Bank, and the asset-management goliath Blackstone Group. As the Wall Street Journal <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>, he also remained in undisclosed business relationships with Goldman Sachs, investor George Soros, and billionaire <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/peter-thiel/" type="external">venture capitalist</a> Peter Thiel. All three had business stakes in a “real-estate tech startup called Cadre that Kushner co-founded and currently partly owns.”</p>
<p>Being the statesman he was, however, there can be little doubt that Kushner attended such meetings purely to explore the state of banking and investment for the sake of the economic well-being of the American people. After all, no portfolio, from the secretary of state’s to <a href="" type="internal">infrastructure</a> and the <a href="" type="internal">opioid crisis</a>, was beyond his skills.</p>
<p>In his brief time in the White House, one thing can be said: his generosity of spirit was second to none. He opened his arms to any financial firm that wanted to help him put the United States on a path back to being great again.&#160; (Whatever multi-million-dollar loans to the Kushner family business occurred in the process surely represented no more than a random confluence of events.) Last November, for example, Apollo Global Management, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, <a href="" type="internal">loaned</a> $184 million to Kushner’s family real estate company in order to refinance a mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper. That was after its founder, an adviser to the Trump administration on “infrastructure,” met numerous times with Kushner in the White House.</p>
<p>When that sum proved less than adequate for the family’s dreams, a far larger company, one that the U.S government had bailed out during the financial crisis of 2007-2008, stepped in and offered his family firm an even bigger loan.&#160; It came from <a href="" type="internal">Citigroup</a>, which lent Kushner Companies $325 million to help finance office buildings in Brooklyn.&#160; As the New York Times <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>, “That loan was made in the spring of 2017, shortly after Mr. Kushner met in the White House with Citigroup’s chief executive, Michael L. Corbat.”</p>
<p>In all such situations, the appearance of impropriety was at best circumstantial. In his year-plus in the White House, Kushner unfortunately became the subject of “fake news,” above all by reporters pushing the absurd idea that his family business had somehow profited by his unpaid position in the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Death in a Revolving Door</p>
<p>Only in February did things start going truly badly for the young presidential adviser.&#160; Having held only an interim top-secret security clearance for more than a year while his background check stalled (reportedly due to fears that he might be <a href="" type="internal">manipulated</a> by foreign powers over his family’s finances), he was <a href="" type="internal">suddenly downgraded</a> to “secret” by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, considered anything but a “Javanka” ally. Such a functional demotion meant that he suddenly had less access to key documents and crucial information of governing than the <a href="" type="internal">White House calligrapher</a>.&#160; In the process, he got pummeled in the media (through no fault of his own, of course).</p>
<p>President Trump was <a href="" type="internal">reportedly</a> “frustrated” by that media browbeating, but no less so by Kushner himself.&#160; According to the New York Times, Trump now viewed his son-in-law “as a liability because of his legal entanglements, the investigations of the Kushner family’s real estate company, and the publicity over having his security clearance downgraded.” It even began to be <a href="" type="internal">rumored</a> that the president had privately asked Chief of Staff Kelly to begin the process of pushing not just Kushner but his own daughter out of the White House. Given the president’s well-documented predisposition to turn his back on former loyalists, that proved to be the end of the road.&#160; In Trumpian terms, Kushner quickly found himself not <a href="" type="internal">six feet out</a> of power, but six feet under it.</p>
<p>It was with deep regret that Jared Kushner left behind his cozy office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and his unfinished masterpiece: peace in the Middle East (and possibly the world). He did, however, retain the Washington residence that the first daughter and he had occupied for $15,000 a month. That humble abode was <a href="" type="internal">owned</a> by Chilean mogul Andrónico Luksic, whose mining company happens to be mired in a dispute with the U.S government over billions of dollars (which, it goes without saying, had no bearing on the Kushners’ choice of a dwelling).</p>
<p>In his post-political life, Kushner faces another problem he couldn’t solve while in the White House: by January 2019 the Kushner family organization needs to cough up $1.2 billion to save its flagship New York property from defaulting, a building that, despite Kushner’s well known savvy when it comes to… well, everything, has been <a href="" type="internal">losing money</a> since it was purchased for a record $ <a href="" type="internal">1.8 billion</a> in 2007. &#160;Fortunately, who knows better than the Trump family and by extension the Kushners that, after every possible investor is exhausted, bankruptcy court is always an option.</p>
<p>In the end, Kushner’s White House journey was through a door revolving around the instability of Donald Trump’s judgment.</p>
<p>And so Jared Kushner’s political career ended. Of course, he’ll always have, if not <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa-dGYjSq5k" type="external">Paris</a>, then Jerusalem and the odd&#160; <a href="" type="internal">trip to Mexico</a>.</p>
<p>He is survived in the White House by his father-in-law and, for the time being, his wife. Meanwhile, that revolving door continues to spin.</p>
<p>This column was originally published by <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a>.</p>
|
Jared Kushner, RIP: a Political Obituary for the President’s Son-in-Law
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2018/03/19/jared-kushner-rip-a-political-obituary-for-the-presidents-son-in-law/
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2018-03-19
| 4left
|
Jared Kushner, RIP: a Political Obituary for the President’s Son-in-Law
<p>Photo by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>Here we are a little more than a year into the Trump presidency and his administration’s body count is already, as The Donald might put it, “ <a href="" type="internal">unbelievable, perhaps record-setting</a>.”</p>
<p>Among the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-officials-left-trump-administration/story?id=49334453" type="external">casualtie</a>s are Secretary of State <a href="" type="internal">Rex Tillerson</a>; my former boss at Goldman Sachs, economic policy chief Gary Cohn; National Security Advisor Michael Flynn; FBI Director James Comey; White House Press Secretary and Communications Director Sean Spicer; four other communications directors including Hope Hicks who, having been <a href="" type="internal">Ivanka Trump’s confidante</a>, was elevated to the status of the president’s “ <a href="" type="internal">real daughter</a>” before her own White House exit; chief strategist Steve Bannon; Chief of Staff Reince Priebus; a bunch of other instant relics of Trumpian political history, and a partridge in a pear tree. (Actually, a <a href="" type="internal">200-year-old magnolia</a> uprooted from the White House grounds thanks to the first lady.)</p>
<p>Responding to Hope Hicks’ departure and, perhaps subliminally, the rumored future exile of son-in-law Jared Kushner, the president typically <a href="" type="internal">half-lamented and half-quipped</a>, “So many people have been leaving the White House. It’s invigorating, since you want turnover. I like chaos. It really is good. Who’s going to be the next to leave? Steve Miller or Melania?”</p>
<p>Melania has been unavailable for comment on her own possible future place among the fallen of the Trump era.&#160; Perhaps, though, she’ll hang around and offer her husband a little comfort in <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-says-hush-agreement-invalid-because-he-n854246" type="external">Stormy weather</a>, as rumors continue to circulate that his perfectly real daughter and her all-too-real husband may be ousted from the premises.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, personnel issues seem to be on the president’s mind these days.&#160; On March 6th, in the East Room of the White House and flanked by the Swedish prime minister, he <a href="" type="internal">boasted</a>, “So many people want to come in. I have a choice of anybody. I could take any position in the White House, and I’ll have a choice of the 10 top people having to do with that position. Everybody wants to be there.”</p>
<p>However, with constant media conjectures about yet more departures including National Security Advisor <a href="" type="internal">H.R. McMaster</a> and possibly even White House Chief of Staff <a href="" type="internal">John Kelly</a>, there seems to be a predisposition to move out of, not into, this Oval Office.&#160; In a remarkably short space of time, President Trump has already achieved a <a href="" type="internal">record 43%</a> turnover rate for top-level staff members, some of whom may be jumping ship in hopes of emerging with reputations relatively untarred, while avoiding lengthy prison sentences.</p>
<p>As collateral damage in his world mounts, it seems as if the only members of the Trump Empire, White House division, guaranteed job security are his lawyers and perhaps Treasury Secretary <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568584792/counterpunchmaga" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176348/tomgram%3A_nomi_prins%2C_you%2C_sir%2C_are_no_alexander_hamilton/" type="external">Steven Mnuchin</a>. Even that most nuclear of families — his — seemed in peril of exploding, as the countdown to Kushner’s exit approaches the zero hour. It looks as if we may all have scored front-row seats for the latest you’re-fired episode in the White House reality show.</p>
<p>Given the not-if-but-when nature of Kushner’s departure from the White House, it’s none too soon for media outlets to prepare themselves.&#160; With that in mind, here is a prospective political obituary for him.</p>
<p>Bringing Peace to a Riven World</p>
<p>The political career of Jared Kushner met a slow death from unparalleled incompetence, conflicts of interest, and financial sleights of hand. He is survived by his father-in-law Donald Trump and — though no one knows for how long — his wife, Ivanka. At age 37, he had held the role of White House senior adviser and assistant to the president since the day Donald Trump entered the Oval Office. Just two months later, his wife <a href="" type="internal">agreed</a> to take a similar advisory position.&#160; Though together they were reported to be worth a mere <a href="" type="internal">$740 million</a>, they generously offered to do their new jobs without pay from a sense of duty to country and the kindness of their hearts — and also perhaps to avoid running afoul of an anti-nepotism law passed in 1967 when Lyndon B. Johnson was president.</p>
<p>Jared’s year-plus in the White House proved another Trump-style record setter, a pro bono financial odyssey of a sort no previous White House had ever witnessed.&#160; While traveling the globe to carry out his “duties” and hobnob, negotiate, and pose for endless photo-ops with world leaders from Iraq, China, Israel, and a host of other countries — a role once upon a time filled by the secretary of state — the overworked adviser somehow found a few moments to cash in his diplomatic air-miles big time.</p>
<p>In his Rolodex of titles, he would also serve as head of a completely fabricated new entity, the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-announces-white-house-office-american-innovation-oai/" type="external">White House Office of American Innovation</a>. In both capacities, he stood ready to change the world, a goal he achieved handily — if the world you happen to be talking about was his own financial one. And that was no small thing.&#160; After all, it’s not easy to oversee and advance (or, in his case, even potentially depth charge) your private business interests while lending a hand running the country, not to speak of the world, and freeing your father-in-law to work on his golf stroke.</p>
<p>For example, Kushner attempted to <a href="" type="internal">extract</a> from investors in Qatar a modest half-billion dollars in bailout funds for a cratering Manhattan skyscraper, 666 Fifth Avenue, that he had purchased for his family business while still in the private sector. Unfortunately, that particular deal fell through, after which Kushner and his father-in-law happily backed the Saudis in their blockade and quarantine of Qatar.</p>
<p>Taking his business-oriented focus on the road as the White House liaison for <a href="" type="internal">peace in the Middle East</a>, Kushner was also tasked with the simple goal of brokering the settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict. His familiarity with the region was significant since, among other things, he had gotten at least four major loans from <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Kushners-Israeli-business-ties-examined-amid-loss-of-security-clearance-543936" type="external">Bank Hapoalim</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Israel’s largest bank</a>, for the Kushner family <a href="" type="internal">real estate company</a>. (Hapoalim is undergoing a criminal probe by the U.S. government for <a href="" type="internal">tax evasion services</a> it reportedly provided to its wealthy clients.) Shortly before President Trump’s visit to Israel in May 2017, Kushner Companies also received a <a href="" type="internal">$30 million investment</a> from Menora Mivtachim, one of Israel’s largest insurers — and what could be more peaceable than that? As everyone knows, Kushner himself left office just as peace was <a href="" type="internal">settling</a> over the region (and the U.S. was <a href="" type="internal">moving</a> its embassy to Jerusalem).</p>
<p>China, of course, had been a longtime target of Donald Trump until — in a similarly diplomatic frame of mind — Kushner helped organize a fabulous <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/327725-on-the-menu-at-trumps-dinner-with-chinese-president-steak" type="external">Dover sole dinner</a> at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club with Chinese President Xi Jinping last April.&#160; He would also prove to be a <a href="" type="internal">key figure</a> in smoothing the way for better relations with that rising global superpower — an approach that just happened to fit perfectly with the Kushner family business. &#160;Only a month after that dinner, for example, his sister, Nicole Meyer, was already <a href="" type="internal">reportedly pitching</a> the glories of One Journal Square, a Jersey City housing project the Kushner family owns that was in need of $150 million in investments, to a gathering of 100 potential Chinese investors at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Beijing. As part of that pitch, while dropping her brother’s name, she offered them a path into the U.S. EB-5 visa program, sometimes referred to as a “citizenship for sale” program, which they could enter through Kushner properties for a mere $500,000 each.</p>
<p>Building brilliantly on his Chinese portfolio, Jared Kushner, too, <a href="" type="internal">held</a> private meetings with elite potential Chinese investors in… well, properties like his family’s and spent copious time with <a href="" type="internal">the Chinese ambassador</a> to the U.S. during and after the election campaign. He allegedly also <a href="" type="internal">attended</a> high-level meetings with the chairman of Anbang Insurance Group during the Trump transition period.&#160; At the time, Anbang just coincidentally was considering making an investment in 666 Fifth Avenue.&#160; Unfortunately, no deal resulted. Since then, the company has been <a href="" type="internal">seized</a> by the Chinese government and its chairman prosecuted for “economic crimes.”&#160; For Kushner, refinancing that single building in New York proved no easier than making peace in the Middle East.</p>
<p>But give him credit: while advising the president, he never stopped looking out for those closest to him (i.e., his family) and never forgot his role as a junior mogul on the make.&#160; In the process, he entertained a cast of key bank executives.&#160; In an office only doors from the Oval Office, he <a href="" type="internal">regularly connected</a> with some of the biggest players on Wall Street, including those at bailout-prone Citigroup, scandal-ridden Deutsche Bank, and the asset-management goliath Blackstone Group. As the Wall Street Journal <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>, he also remained in undisclosed business relationships with Goldman Sachs, investor George Soros, and billionaire <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/peter-thiel/" type="external">venture capitalist</a> Peter Thiel. All three had business stakes in a “real-estate tech startup called Cadre that Kushner co-founded and currently partly owns.”</p>
<p>Being the statesman he was, however, there can be little doubt that Kushner attended such meetings purely to explore the state of banking and investment for the sake of the economic well-being of the American people. After all, no portfolio, from the secretary of state’s to <a href="" type="internal">infrastructure</a> and the <a href="" type="internal">opioid crisis</a>, was beyond his skills.</p>
<p>In his brief time in the White House, one thing can be said: his generosity of spirit was second to none. He opened his arms to any financial firm that wanted to help him put the United States on a path back to being great again.&#160; (Whatever multi-million-dollar loans to the Kushner family business occurred in the process surely represented no more than a random confluence of events.) Last November, for example, Apollo Global Management, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, <a href="" type="internal">loaned</a> $184 million to Kushner’s family real estate company in order to refinance a mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper. That was after its founder, an adviser to the Trump administration on “infrastructure,” met numerous times with Kushner in the White House.</p>
<p>When that sum proved less than adequate for the family’s dreams, a far larger company, one that the U.S government had bailed out during the financial crisis of 2007-2008, stepped in and offered his family firm an even bigger loan.&#160; It came from <a href="" type="internal">Citigroup</a>, which lent Kushner Companies $325 million to help finance office buildings in Brooklyn.&#160; As the New York Times <a href="" type="internal">reported</a>, “That loan was made in the spring of 2017, shortly after Mr. Kushner met in the White House with Citigroup’s chief executive, Michael L. Corbat.”</p>
<p>In all such situations, the appearance of impropriety was at best circumstantial. In his year-plus in the White House, Kushner unfortunately became the subject of “fake news,” above all by reporters pushing the absurd idea that his family business had somehow profited by his unpaid position in the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Death in a Revolving Door</p>
<p>Only in February did things start going truly badly for the young presidential adviser.&#160; Having held only an interim top-secret security clearance for more than a year while his background check stalled (reportedly due to fears that he might be <a href="" type="internal">manipulated</a> by foreign powers over his family’s finances), he was <a href="" type="internal">suddenly downgraded</a> to “secret” by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, considered anything but a “Javanka” ally. Such a functional demotion meant that he suddenly had less access to key documents and crucial information of governing than the <a href="" type="internal">White House calligrapher</a>.&#160; In the process, he got pummeled in the media (through no fault of his own, of course).</p>
<p>President Trump was <a href="" type="internal">reportedly</a> “frustrated” by that media browbeating, but no less so by Kushner himself.&#160; According to the New York Times, Trump now viewed his son-in-law “as a liability because of his legal entanglements, the investigations of the Kushner family’s real estate company, and the publicity over having his security clearance downgraded.” It even began to be <a href="" type="internal">rumored</a> that the president had privately asked Chief of Staff Kelly to begin the process of pushing not just Kushner but his own daughter out of the White House. Given the president’s well-documented predisposition to turn his back on former loyalists, that proved to be the end of the road.&#160; In Trumpian terms, Kushner quickly found himself not <a href="" type="internal">six feet out</a> of power, but six feet under it.</p>
<p>It was with deep regret that Jared Kushner left behind his cozy office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and his unfinished masterpiece: peace in the Middle East (and possibly the world). He did, however, retain the Washington residence that the first daughter and he had occupied for $15,000 a month. That humble abode was <a href="" type="internal">owned</a> by Chilean mogul Andrónico Luksic, whose mining company happens to be mired in a dispute with the U.S government over billions of dollars (which, it goes without saying, had no bearing on the Kushners’ choice of a dwelling).</p>
<p>In his post-political life, Kushner faces another problem he couldn’t solve while in the White House: by January 2019 the Kushner family organization needs to cough up $1.2 billion to save its flagship New York property from defaulting, a building that, despite Kushner’s well known savvy when it comes to… well, everything, has been <a href="" type="internal">losing money</a> since it was purchased for a record $ <a href="" type="internal">1.8 billion</a> in 2007. &#160;Fortunately, who knows better than the Trump family and by extension the Kushners that, after every possible investor is exhausted, bankruptcy court is always an option.</p>
<p>In the end, Kushner’s White House journey was through a door revolving around the instability of Donald Trump’s judgment.</p>
<p>And so Jared Kushner’s political career ended. Of course, he’ll always have, if not <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa-dGYjSq5k" type="external">Paris</a>, then Jerusalem and the odd&#160; <a href="" type="internal">trip to Mexico</a>.</p>
<p>He is survived in the White House by his father-in-law and, for the time being, his wife. Meanwhile, that revolving door continues to spin.</p>
<p>This column was originally published by <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a>.</p>
| 7,158 |
<p>After Ann “all I know how to do is hate” Coulter went on a <a href="" type="internal">Twitter tirade</a> against the “f—ing Jews” during the GOP debate, many took to their own Twitter accounts to give the professional Haterade saleswoman a piece of their mind.</p>
<p>The whole fiasco began when, during the Republican debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, several of the GOP candidates began speaking about their affinity towards Israel. While Republicans do love to pander to Israel like it’s their&#160;long-lost love from high school, she could’ve easily made that point, but instead she decided to go full anti-Semite and <a href="" type="internal">ask</a>:</p>
<p>“How many f*cking Jews do these people think there are in the United States?”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Okay, but why did you have to just go and throw the entire Jewish faith under the bus because you apparently don’t agree we should be focusing so much time and energy on our relationship with Israel?</p>
<p>The GOP definitely panders to the religious vote by always touting a strong relationship with Israel, but not once, EVER, has that been an invitation, by anyone, to go on an anti-Semitic rant. Even though we all know Coulter believes Christians are “ <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/10/11/columnist-ann-coulter-shocks-cable-tv-show-declaring-jews-need-to-be-perfected.html" type="external">perfected Jews</a>.”</p>
<p>Yeah, she’s not new to hating those of the Jewish faith. She said that way back in <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/10/11/columnist-ann-coulter-shocks-cable-tv-show-declaring-jews-need-to-be-perfected.html" type="external">October of 2007</a>.</p>
<p>One person who did NOT sit idly by as Coulter spilled her vile, hate-filled word vomit, was actor Seth Rogen, who happens to be Jewish.</p>
<p>He very poignantly said back to her:</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>And that’s really all you can say or spend time and energy on replying to her nonsensical, dimwitted poppycock.</p>
<p>“You’re a horrible f*cking idiot.”</p>
<p>She’s horrible and an idiot — a horrible f*cking idiot.</p>
<p>His words of wisdom didn’t end there. The next day he threw out a piece of knowledge for all those who think the world is currently out to get white people.</p>
<p />
<p>Indubitably.</p>
<p>Thank goodness for people like Seth Rogen&#160;and other people in positions to have their voice be loudly heard, for having the courage of their convictions to say what’s right. Sometimes it’s as simple as calling out f*cking idiots, because if no one does, it affirms the behavior of the f*cking idiot.</p>
<p>Don’t count on Coulter to simmer down in her hateful ways any time soon. It is, after all, how she makes her money. She writes book after book calling people stupid, or spewing racist, just plain awful propaganda. However, the reason we need to keep calling her out is as simple as “she needs to be called out.” Otherwise, we concede to the hate and that hate wins our approval when we say&#160;nothing.</p>
<p>Featured image: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seth_Rogen_2013.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a>/Gage Skidmore ( <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/13046101675/in/photostream/" type="external">flickr</a>)</p>
|
Seth Rogen Had A Few Choice Words For Ann Coulter After Her Anti-Semitic Rant
| true |
http://addictinginfo.org/2015/09/18/seth-rogen-had-a-few-choice-words-for-ann-coulter-after-her-anti-semitic-rant/
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2015-09-18
| 4left
|
Seth Rogen Had A Few Choice Words For Ann Coulter After Her Anti-Semitic Rant
<p>After Ann “all I know how to do is hate” Coulter went on a <a href="" type="internal">Twitter tirade</a> against the “f—ing Jews” during the GOP debate, many took to their own Twitter accounts to give the professional Haterade saleswoman a piece of their mind.</p>
<p>The whole fiasco began when, during the Republican debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, several of the GOP candidates began speaking about their affinity towards Israel. While Republicans do love to pander to Israel like it’s their&#160;long-lost love from high school, she could’ve easily made that point, but instead she decided to go full anti-Semite and <a href="" type="internal">ask</a>:</p>
<p>“How many f*cking Jews do these people think there are in the United States?”</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Okay, but why did you have to just go and throw the entire Jewish faith under the bus because you apparently don’t agree we should be focusing so much time and energy on our relationship with Israel?</p>
<p>The GOP definitely panders to the religious vote by always touting a strong relationship with Israel, but not once, EVER, has that been an invitation, by anyone, to go on an anti-Semitic rant. Even though we all know Coulter believes Christians are “ <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/10/11/columnist-ann-coulter-shocks-cable-tv-show-declaring-jews-need-to-be-perfected.html" type="external">perfected Jews</a>.”</p>
<p>Yeah, she’s not new to hating those of the Jewish faith. She said that way back in <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/10/11/columnist-ann-coulter-shocks-cable-tv-show-declaring-jews-need-to-be-perfected.html" type="external">October of 2007</a>.</p>
<p>One person who did NOT sit idly by as Coulter spilled her vile, hate-filled word vomit, was actor Seth Rogen, who happens to be Jewish.</p>
<p>He very poignantly said back to her:</p>
<p />
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>And that’s really all you can say or spend time and energy on replying to her nonsensical, dimwitted poppycock.</p>
<p>“You’re a horrible f*cking idiot.”</p>
<p>She’s horrible and an idiot — a horrible f*cking idiot.</p>
<p>His words of wisdom didn’t end there. The next day he threw out a piece of knowledge for all those who think the world is currently out to get white people.</p>
<p />
<p>Indubitably.</p>
<p>Thank goodness for people like Seth Rogen&#160;and other people in positions to have their voice be loudly heard, for having the courage of their convictions to say what’s right. Sometimes it’s as simple as calling out f*cking idiots, because if no one does, it affirms the behavior of the f*cking idiot.</p>
<p>Don’t count on Coulter to simmer down in her hateful ways any time soon. It is, after all, how she makes her money. She writes book after book calling people stupid, or spewing racist, just plain awful propaganda. However, the reason we need to keep calling her out is as simple as “she needs to be called out.” Otherwise, we concede to the hate and that hate wins our approval when we say&#160;nothing.</p>
<p>Featured image: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seth_Rogen_2013.jpg" type="external">Wikimedia Commons</a>/Gage Skidmore ( <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/13046101675/in/photostream/" type="external">flickr</a>)</p>
| 7,159 |
<p>The national outbreak of fungal meningitis related to therapeutic spinal injections officially became a historic health catastrophe this week as cases continued to pile up--more than a dozen new ones reported over the last 24 hours--and the FDA sent members of their Office of Criminal Investigation to seize whatever could still be seized from the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/17/us-usa-health-meningitis-idUSBRE8970TQ20121017" type="external">infamous New England Compounding Center (NECC)</a>.</p>
<p>The sad story grows sadder with <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/hai/outbreaks/meningitis-map.html" type="external">each update</a>. The count is now 247 cases and 19 deaths with many more certain to come. As with wars and other calamities, the surest evidence of continued trouble is a steady or increasing number of cases each day, as has occurred with this outbreak. There is no evidence yet that this one is petering out.</p>
<p>To review the details quickly--compounding companies are in-betweener concerns that buy already prepared (and heavily regulated) drugs from the big-shot pharmaceutical companies (Merck, Pfizer and those guys) and mixes the purchased drug, which comes as a powder, into a liquid or else makes a cream or a poultice of it. They have successfully flown below regulatory radar because they don't exactly make anything--they just add a little of this or that inert substance to <a href="" type="internal">the active ingredient</a>. What could possibly go wrong? And the people getting sick are those who, despite evidence of non-efficacy, continue to receive <a href="" type="internal">steroid shots</a> into the area outside the spine in hopes of obtaining relief from low back pain.</p>
<p>Furthermore, there is concern that NECC, the same compounding company that gave us fungal meningitis from contaminated steroid injections, might have shipped other contaminated products for additional medical uses. Right now this seems unlikely given the tiny drips and dribbles of cases rather than the oh-my-god-it's-worse than we ever feared crescendo we have seen with of the meningitis, one of the worst manufacture-related outbreaks of its type in the history of the United States.</p>
<p>How then did we get here--a federal agency storming a business to determine whether a criminal activity has occurred? (A lawyer for NECC said in a statement that “it is difficult to understand the purpose of this search, since we have been clear that [NECC] would provide, and has provided, anything requested. We’ve been clear that warrants weren’t needed.”) The exact details and the timing will probably never be known exactly, but this action suggests that rather than just a series of unfortunate events, a string of almost-trivial oversights that somehow tragically added up to a catastrophe, there is concern of willful negligence. (Or else the co-owners gave big time to Mitt the governor or Mitt the you-know-what, as they had to Republican senatorial candidate Scott Brown who returned the $10,000 -- though even <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/10/13/did-mass-senate-candidate-trade-10000-to-protect-meningitis-pharmacy" type="external">Forbes smells a semi-rat</a>. Obviously an investigation is not the same as proof of a crime; however, there must be deepening concern about just what was going on at NECC -- despite the fact they agreed to close up almost 3 weeks ago.</p>
<p>As with almost all medical calamities from thalidomide to Celebrex--a debate about regulation and the national pipedream that, like Goldilocks and her soup, there is an amount that is just right. There isn't --we either have too much regulation (the left's dream) or too little (the sound you hear is the right licking their lips). Like everything else in adulthood there is no real middle--one must overplay to one side or the other and suffer the consequences of such irrational exuberance in whichever direction you choose. From this perspective then, the point is not to examine the benefits of one approach but rather what happens if the approach is not taken. When looking strictly at the benefits side, deregulation makes perfect sense -- after all regulation is the most reviled of all bureaucratic endeavors. Since its demonization by Ronald Reagan, regulation has been a favorite punching bag for the right. They have a winner too; everyone knows that regulation sucks. It is clumsy and burdensome and it surely slows innovation. It adds costs and discouragement. As a doctor I work in perhaps the most regulated of all industries and it gets in the way every day. I hate this aspect of my work.</p>
<p>But I hate the danger of no regulation far more. And since the golden mean is not available, the choice is simple: better to suffer the slings and arrows of paperwork and inane-seeming inspections than to witness the hundreds of preventable family tragedies now occurring across the country. As annoying as he is--and he is very annoying, we continue to need the extremely nosy presence of dear old Uncle Sam.</p>
|
Why Regulation Matters: Investigating the Meningitis Outbreak
| true |
https://thedailybeast.com/why-regulation-matters-investigating-the-meningitis-outbreak
|
2018-10-06
| 4left
|
Why Regulation Matters: Investigating the Meningitis Outbreak
<p>The national outbreak of fungal meningitis related to therapeutic spinal injections officially became a historic health catastrophe this week as cases continued to pile up--more than a dozen new ones reported over the last 24 hours--and the FDA sent members of their Office of Criminal Investigation to seize whatever could still be seized from the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/17/us-usa-health-meningitis-idUSBRE8970TQ20121017" type="external">infamous New England Compounding Center (NECC)</a>.</p>
<p>The sad story grows sadder with <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/hai/outbreaks/meningitis-map.html" type="external">each update</a>. The count is now 247 cases and 19 deaths with many more certain to come. As with wars and other calamities, the surest evidence of continued trouble is a steady or increasing number of cases each day, as has occurred with this outbreak. There is no evidence yet that this one is petering out.</p>
<p>To review the details quickly--compounding companies are in-betweener concerns that buy already prepared (and heavily regulated) drugs from the big-shot pharmaceutical companies (Merck, Pfizer and those guys) and mixes the purchased drug, which comes as a powder, into a liquid or else makes a cream or a poultice of it. They have successfully flown below regulatory radar because they don't exactly make anything--they just add a little of this or that inert substance to <a href="" type="internal">the active ingredient</a>. What could possibly go wrong? And the people getting sick are those who, despite evidence of non-efficacy, continue to receive <a href="" type="internal">steroid shots</a> into the area outside the spine in hopes of obtaining relief from low back pain.</p>
<p>Furthermore, there is concern that NECC, the same compounding company that gave us fungal meningitis from contaminated steroid injections, might have shipped other contaminated products for additional medical uses. Right now this seems unlikely given the tiny drips and dribbles of cases rather than the oh-my-god-it's-worse than we ever feared crescendo we have seen with of the meningitis, one of the worst manufacture-related outbreaks of its type in the history of the United States.</p>
<p>How then did we get here--a federal agency storming a business to determine whether a criminal activity has occurred? (A lawyer for NECC said in a statement that “it is difficult to understand the purpose of this search, since we have been clear that [NECC] would provide, and has provided, anything requested. We’ve been clear that warrants weren’t needed.”) The exact details and the timing will probably never be known exactly, but this action suggests that rather than just a series of unfortunate events, a string of almost-trivial oversights that somehow tragically added up to a catastrophe, there is concern of willful negligence. (Or else the co-owners gave big time to Mitt the governor or Mitt the you-know-what, as they had to Republican senatorial candidate Scott Brown who returned the $10,000 -- though even <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/10/13/did-mass-senate-candidate-trade-10000-to-protect-meningitis-pharmacy" type="external">Forbes smells a semi-rat</a>. Obviously an investigation is not the same as proof of a crime; however, there must be deepening concern about just what was going on at NECC -- despite the fact they agreed to close up almost 3 weeks ago.</p>
<p>As with almost all medical calamities from thalidomide to Celebrex--a debate about regulation and the national pipedream that, like Goldilocks and her soup, there is an amount that is just right. There isn't --we either have too much regulation (the left's dream) or too little (the sound you hear is the right licking their lips). Like everything else in adulthood there is no real middle--one must overplay to one side or the other and suffer the consequences of such irrational exuberance in whichever direction you choose. From this perspective then, the point is not to examine the benefits of one approach but rather what happens if the approach is not taken. When looking strictly at the benefits side, deregulation makes perfect sense -- after all regulation is the most reviled of all bureaucratic endeavors. Since its demonization by Ronald Reagan, regulation has been a favorite punching bag for the right. They have a winner too; everyone knows that regulation sucks. It is clumsy and burdensome and it surely slows innovation. It adds costs and discouragement. As a doctor I work in perhaps the most regulated of all industries and it gets in the way every day. I hate this aspect of my work.</p>
<p>But I hate the danger of no regulation far more. And since the golden mean is not available, the choice is simple: better to suffer the slings and arrows of paperwork and inane-seeming inspections than to witness the hundreds of preventable family tragedies now occurring across the country. As annoying as he is--and he is very annoying, we continue to need the extremely nosy presence of dear old Uncle Sam.</p>
| 7,160 |
<p>Just saying her name sounds like a joke: Baroness Bertha Felicitas Sophie Freifrau von Suttner, Gräfin, née Countess Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau. And when she began talking about ending war in mid-nineteenth century Austria it wasn’t her name that was treated as a joke. Yet by the turn of the century, her idea seemed to be one whose time had come.</p>
<p>Bertha von Suttner’s novel “Ground Arms,” or “Lay Down Your Arms,” was widely described as the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” of war abolition. It was doing and would accomplish for war what Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book had for slavery. I can’t encourage you strongly enough to take a quick break from the inanities of presidential debates and football announcers and buy the book, borrow the book, or&#160; <a href="" type="internal">read it free online.</a></p>
<p>It was principally this book, along with years of activism, journalism, and organizational leadership in the peace movement (and not a single Iranian scientist’s murder) that won von Suttner the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize. The&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Nobel website</a>&#160;reads: “The effect of Die Waffen nieder [Lay Down Your Arms], published late in 1889, was … so real and the implied indictment of militarism so telling that the impact made on the reading public was tremendous.”</p>
<p>The impact was not so much the love of the novel’s characters. Nor was it a new understanding of how hellish war can be. The power of the impact, I think, came from the way the book framed war abolition within a story of advancing civilization. Humanity was developing, according to this story, after endless eons of fighting off ferocious beasts and fighting off ferocious humans. Violence was on the wane. The beasts were gone, and the humans were learning to speak and negotiate. City states were united as nations. Blood feuds were left behind. Dueling among individuals was being replaced by discussions, arbitrations, courts of law, and — more importantly — by a new conception of honor. No longer would disgrace fall on the man who tolerated an affront so much as on the buffoon who delivered it.</p>
<p>War itself was being civilized. The Red Cross was seeking to tend the wounded. Atrocities were being banned. Disputes among royals were being mocked by republicans as proper grounds for wars. Arbitration was proving itself as an alternative to slaughter. With slavery and pillage being left behind, with religion beginning to fade, with the technology of weaponry rapidly advancing, war was losing its economic motive, its theocratic justification, and its suitability as a test of individual skill or courage. The ending of war was an idea that went from fringe craziness to mainstream popularity during Bertha von Suttner’s lifetime, and in great measure because of her. The Nobel website reports:</p>
<p>“In August of 1913, already affected by beginning illness, the Baroness spoke at the International Peace Congress at The Hague where she was greatly honored as the “generalissimo” of the peace movement. In May of 1914 she was still able to take an interest in preparations being made for the twenty-first Peace Congress, planned for Vienna in September. But her illness – suspected cancer – developed rapidly thereafter, and she died on June 21, 1914, two months before the erupting of the world war she had warned and struggled against.”</p>
<p>When the idea of ending slavery came and developed and took hold and spread, it could not be stopped by the occurrence of a sudden catastrophic outbreak of slavery. Slavery is not like a hurricane. It was a practice that went on and could be ended. It might be brought back, but only slowly, not in a mad rush of passion before anyone had time to think it through. War was different. The ending of war was an idea whose time had come. And then time halted. Time froze. The evolution of civilization was instantly thrown into reverse.</p>
<p>In von Suttner’s novel, a crowd begins to sing pro-war songs in excitement over a new and exciting war, and her two main characters, husband and wife, converse:</p>
<p>“‘See, Martha,” exclaimed Frederick, ‘this spark which spreads from one to another, uniting this whole mass and making every heart beat higher, is love –‘</p>
<p>‘Do you believe so? It is a song inspiring hate.’</p>
<p>‘That makes no difference; a common hatred is but another form of love. When two or three or more are bound together by the same feeling, they love one another. When the time arrives for a nobler, broader aspiration than the interests of nationality, namely, the cause of humanity, then our ideal will be attained.’</p>
<p>‘Ah, when will that time come?’ I sighed.</p>
<p>‘When? One can speak but relatively. As a length of time compared with our personal existence — never; when compared with the existence of our race — tomorrow.'”</p>
<p>Peace activists, like suffragettes, and like reformers of all kinds in this period, accepted that they might not succeed during their lifetimes, that like Dr. Martin Luther King they might not make it to the mountain top, but they were completely and absolutely confident that in the coming decades or centuries victory would be won. No doubt, that confidence contributed to their willingness to work for their good causes despite the slow or invisible pace of progress.</p>
<p>Now, of course, we are up against environmental destruction and the potential for complete elimination of our species through war. We feel we do not have the time to toil slowly for our descendants’ inevitable advancement. But here’s the important point: we don’t need long. We as a culture reached the point of outgrowing war a century ago, and the course of progress was thrown off track. War makes absolutely no more sense today than male nipples or fathers giving away brides or the prohibition on ending a sentence with a preposition. War is an anachronism. It’s a freak meme traveled forward in time purely because of the power it has to disrupt cultural advancement.</p>
<p>World War I, once it had ended, only strengthened the drive to end war, but it also strengthened the opposing forces. World War II did the same, and the strength it gave to the pro-war forces was much greater. The idea of ending war was set aside as a dream because its time had come and it had not been fulfilled. Nothing looks weaker than an idea whose time has come and gone. But ending slavery remained a sensible cultural advance that had once appeared fantastic and naïve. So did ending feuds and duels and corporal punishment and infanticide and witch burning. Living in an environmentally sustainable manner is another idea whose time has come and is rapidly going. This idea cannot be fulfilled without ending war, but ending war missed its chance; and so environmentalism steers clear of pacifism, to its own serious — possibly fatal — detriment.</p>
<p>An idea whose time has come and gone is an idea that can be rapidly revived. Renaissance is a common concept because we have had cultural renaissances before. They require humility, and they require work, but they are far easier and more fruitful than trying to reinvent the wheel.</p>
<p>David Swanson&#160;is author of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">War is a Lie</a>. He lives in Virginia.</p>
|
What We Owe to Bertha Von Suttner
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2012/01/12/what-we-owe-to-bertha-von-suttner/
|
2012-01-12
| 4left
|
What We Owe to Bertha Von Suttner
<p>Just saying her name sounds like a joke: Baroness Bertha Felicitas Sophie Freifrau von Suttner, Gräfin, née Countess Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau. And when she began talking about ending war in mid-nineteenth century Austria it wasn’t her name that was treated as a joke. Yet by the turn of the century, her idea seemed to be one whose time had come.</p>
<p>Bertha von Suttner’s novel “Ground Arms,” or “Lay Down Your Arms,” was widely described as the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” of war abolition. It was doing and would accomplish for war what Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book had for slavery. I can’t encourage you strongly enough to take a quick break from the inanities of presidential debates and football announcers and buy the book, borrow the book, or&#160; <a href="" type="internal">read it free online.</a></p>
<p>It was principally this book, along with years of activism, journalism, and organizational leadership in the peace movement (and not a single Iranian scientist’s murder) that won von Suttner the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize. The&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Nobel website</a>&#160;reads: “The effect of Die Waffen nieder [Lay Down Your Arms], published late in 1889, was … so real and the implied indictment of militarism so telling that the impact made on the reading public was tremendous.”</p>
<p>The impact was not so much the love of the novel’s characters. Nor was it a new understanding of how hellish war can be. The power of the impact, I think, came from the way the book framed war abolition within a story of advancing civilization. Humanity was developing, according to this story, after endless eons of fighting off ferocious beasts and fighting off ferocious humans. Violence was on the wane. The beasts were gone, and the humans were learning to speak and negotiate. City states were united as nations. Blood feuds were left behind. Dueling among individuals was being replaced by discussions, arbitrations, courts of law, and — more importantly — by a new conception of honor. No longer would disgrace fall on the man who tolerated an affront so much as on the buffoon who delivered it.</p>
<p>War itself was being civilized. The Red Cross was seeking to tend the wounded. Atrocities were being banned. Disputes among royals were being mocked by republicans as proper grounds for wars. Arbitration was proving itself as an alternative to slaughter. With slavery and pillage being left behind, with religion beginning to fade, with the technology of weaponry rapidly advancing, war was losing its economic motive, its theocratic justification, and its suitability as a test of individual skill or courage. The ending of war was an idea that went from fringe craziness to mainstream popularity during Bertha von Suttner’s lifetime, and in great measure because of her. The Nobel website reports:</p>
<p>“In August of 1913, already affected by beginning illness, the Baroness spoke at the International Peace Congress at The Hague where she was greatly honored as the “generalissimo” of the peace movement. In May of 1914 she was still able to take an interest in preparations being made for the twenty-first Peace Congress, planned for Vienna in September. But her illness – suspected cancer – developed rapidly thereafter, and she died on June 21, 1914, two months before the erupting of the world war she had warned and struggled against.”</p>
<p>When the idea of ending slavery came and developed and took hold and spread, it could not be stopped by the occurrence of a sudden catastrophic outbreak of slavery. Slavery is not like a hurricane. It was a practice that went on and could be ended. It might be brought back, but only slowly, not in a mad rush of passion before anyone had time to think it through. War was different. The ending of war was an idea whose time had come. And then time halted. Time froze. The evolution of civilization was instantly thrown into reverse.</p>
<p>In von Suttner’s novel, a crowd begins to sing pro-war songs in excitement over a new and exciting war, and her two main characters, husband and wife, converse:</p>
<p>“‘See, Martha,” exclaimed Frederick, ‘this spark which spreads from one to another, uniting this whole mass and making every heart beat higher, is love –‘</p>
<p>‘Do you believe so? It is a song inspiring hate.’</p>
<p>‘That makes no difference; a common hatred is but another form of love. When two or three or more are bound together by the same feeling, they love one another. When the time arrives for a nobler, broader aspiration than the interests of nationality, namely, the cause of humanity, then our ideal will be attained.’</p>
<p>‘Ah, when will that time come?’ I sighed.</p>
<p>‘When? One can speak but relatively. As a length of time compared with our personal existence — never; when compared with the existence of our race — tomorrow.'”</p>
<p>Peace activists, like suffragettes, and like reformers of all kinds in this period, accepted that they might not succeed during their lifetimes, that like Dr. Martin Luther King they might not make it to the mountain top, but they were completely and absolutely confident that in the coming decades or centuries victory would be won. No doubt, that confidence contributed to their willingness to work for their good causes despite the slow or invisible pace of progress.</p>
<p>Now, of course, we are up against environmental destruction and the potential for complete elimination of our species through war. We feel we do not have the time to toil slowly for our descendants’ inevitable advancement. But here’s the important point: we don’t need long. We as a culture reached the point of outgrowing war a century ago, and the course of progress was thrown off track. War makes absolutely no more sense today than male nipples or fathers giving away brides or the prohibition on ending a sentence with a preposition. War is an anachronism. It’s a freak meme traveled forward in time purely because of the power it has to disrupt cultural advancement.</p>
<p>World War I, once it had ended, only strengthened the drive to end war, but it also strengthened the opposing forces. World War II did the same, and the strength it gave to the pro-war forces was much greater. The idea of ending war was set aside as a dream because its time had come and it had not been fulfilled. Nothing looks weaker than an idea whose time has come and gone. But ending slavery remained a sensible cultural advance that had once appeared fantastic and naïve. So did ending feuds and duels and corporal punishment and infanticide and witch burning. Living in an environmentally sustainable manner is another idea whose time has come and is rapidly going. This idea cannot be fulfilled without ending war, but ending war missed its chance; and so environmentalism steers clear of pacifism, to its own serious — possibly fatal — detriment.</p>
<p>An idea whose time has come and gone is an idea that can be rapidly revived. Renaissance is a common concept because we have had cultural renaissances before. They require humility, and they require work, but they are far easier and more fruitful than trying to reinvent the wheel.</p>
<p>David Swanson&#160;is author of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">War is a Lie</a>. He lives in Virginia.</p>
| 7,161 |
<p />
<p>From&#160; <a href="http://americannews.com/breaking-fbi-finally-makes-move-to-arrest-hillary-clinton/" type="external">American News</a></p>
<p>Well, this could be the end for Hillary Clinton. According to recent reports, the Clinton campaign is panicking now that the FBI is deeply investigating her.</p>
<p>This time, she's a suspect for espionage.</p>
<p>According to reports, the FBI is currently trying to determine whether the former Secretary of State violated federal laws by making false statements about the way she handled classified materials while in office.</p>
<p>"The agents involved are under a lot of pressure," one source told Fox News, who was quick to point out that this is a serious expansion in the investigation against Hillary.</p>
<p>"The problem for the defendant is when their statements cause the bureau to expand more time, energy, resources to de-conflict their statements with the evidence," FBI officer Timothy Gill told reporters.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>0 comments</p>
|
BREAKING: FBI moves to arrest Hillary
| true |
http://freedomsfinalstand.com/breaking-fbi-moves-to-arrest-hillary/
| 0right
|
BREAKING: FBI moves to arrest Hillary
<p />
<p>From&#160; <a href="http://americannews.com/breaking-fbi-finally-makes-move-to-arrest-hillary-clinton/" type="external">American News</a></p>
<p>Well, this could be the end for Hillary Clinton. According to recent reports, the Clinton campaign is panicking now that the FBI is deeply investigating her.</p>
<p>This time, she's a suspect for espionage.</p>
<p>According to reports, the FBI is currently trying to determine whether the former Secretary of State violated federal laws by making false statements about the way she handled classified materials while in office.</p>
<p>"The agents involved are under a lot of pressure," one source told Fox News, who was quick to point out that this is a serious expansion in the investigation against Hillary.</p>
<p>"The problem for the defendant is when their statements cause the bureau to expand more time, energy, resources to de-conflict their statements with the evidence," FBI officer Timothy Gill told reporters.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>0 comments</p>
| 7,162 |
|
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The move would serve as a stopgap measure that creates continuity at the Pentagon, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The decision is considered “all but a done deal,” according to one of the people familiar with the discussions. It also would keep Work in the job while the Pentagon prepares its first budget of the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Virtually all political appointees from the Obama administration are expected to leave their Defense Department jobs within days, including Army Secretary Eric Fanning, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Air Force Secretary Deborah James. The transition team has not yet announced nominees for several influential positions, including Navy secretary, Air Force secretary and undersecretary for policy. Trump last month nominated Vincent Viola, an Army veteran who became a billionaire after founding an electronic trading firm, for Army secretary.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for Work in the Pentagon referred comment to the Trump transition team. Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, said Monday in an email that he has “made it clear that no decisions have been finalized/announced” for deputy defense secretary. He declined to answer whether Work has been asked to stay in his current position.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Trump transition team has maintained that it is on track and ahead of schedule to assemble “the most qualified cabinet and administration in history.”</p>
<p>Mattis, who retired as the four-star chief of U.S. Central Command in 2013, is said to have rejected several candidates put forth by the Trump transition team, and to have expressed interest in appointing some senior defense officials who were part of the Obama administration.</p>
<p>Among them were Michèle Flournoy, who is currently the chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and the former undersecretary for policy under Obama, and was considered a frontrunner to become defense secretary if Hillary Clinton had become president. Mattis, who was a member of the CNAS think tank’s board of directors until recently, expressed interest in making Flournoy deputy defense secretary, but she declined, privately citing differences of opinion with Trump, people familiar with the process said.</p>
<p>“Given recent media speculation, we wanted to clarify Michèle Flournoy will remain as CEO of CNAS, a position in which she has exceeded our highest expectations,” said Kurt Campbell, the chairman of CNAS’s board of directors, in a statement after Flournoy reached her decision. “She has the utmost respect for General Mattis. While she had several conversations with General Mattis about how she could support his success as the nominee for Secretary of Defense, she has no plans to return government service at this time.”</p>
<p>Mattis has clashed with the Trump teams over who should be considered for jobs, according to a report Friday by a Washington Post columnist. The process allegedly became particularly contentious after Mattis learned through media reports that Trump had picked Viola for Army secretary.</p>
<p>Similar conflicts have been underway in the State Department transition, where a series of officials have been considered and apparently rejected as deputy to secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson.</p>
<p>Work, who turns 64 this month, has been deputy defense secretary since spring 2014. He previously served as CEO of CNAS before Flournoy and as the undersecretary of the Navy under Obama.</p>
<p>Work would add to the list of Marines in Trump’s administration. A retired colonel, he served 27 years as a field artillery officer before leaving active duty in 2001. He became an influential Washington defense analyst, serving as a senior official with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.</p>
<p>Under Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, Work has managed many of the day-to-day operations of the Pentagon and been a chief architect of the so-called Third Offset Strategy, a broad effort to ensure the U.S. military keeps a competitive advantage on the battlefield by incorporating technology in creative ways.</p>
|
Trump transition team weighs keeping on Obama’s deputy defense secretary
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/924141/trump-transition-team-weighs-keeping-on-obamas-deputy-defense-secretary.html
|
2017-01-09
| 2least
|
Trump transition team weighs keeping on Obama’s deputy defense secretary
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>The move would serve as a stopgap measure that creates continuity at the Pentagon, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The decision is considered “all but a done deal,” according to one of the people familiar with the discussions. It also would keep Work in the job while the Pentagon prepares its first budget of the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Virtually all political appointees from the Obama administration are expected to leave their Defense Department jobs within days, including Army Secretary Eric Fanning, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Air Force Secretary Deborah James. The transition team has not yet announced nominees for several influential positions, including Navy secretary, Air Force secretary and undersecretary for policy. Trump last month nominated Vincent Viola, an Army veteran who became a billionaire after founding an electronic trading firm, for Army secretary.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for Work in the Pentagon referred comment to the Trump transition team. Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary, said Monday in an email that he has “made it clear that no decisions have been finalized/announced” for deputy defense secretary. He declined to answer whether Work has been asked to stay in his current position.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The Trump transition team has maintained that it is on track and ahead of schedule to assemble “the most qualified cabinet and administration in history.”</p>
<p>Mattis, who retired as the four-star chief of U.S. Central Command in 2013, is said to have rejected several candidates put forth by the Trump transition team, and to have expressed interest in appointing some senior defense officials who were part of the Obama administration.</p>
<p>Among them were Michèle Flournoy, who is currently the chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and the former undersecretary for policy under Obama, and was considered a frontrunner to become defense secretary if Hillary Clinton had become president. Mattis, who was a member of the CNAS think tank’s board of directors until recently, expressed interest in making Flournoy deputy defense secretary, but she declined, privately citing differences of opinion with Trump, people familiar with the process said.</p>
<p>“Given recent media speculation, we wanted to clarify Michèle Flournoy will remain as CEO of CNAS, a position in which she has exceeded our highest expectations,” said Kurt Campbell, the chairman of CNAS’s board of directors, in a statement after Flournoy reached her decision. “She has the utmost respect for General Mattis. While she had several conversations with General Mattis about how she could support his success as the nominee for Secretary of Defense, she has no plans to return government service at this time.”</p>
<p>Mattis has clashed with the Trump teams over who should be considered for jobs, according to a report Friday by a Washington Post columnist. The process allegedly became particularly contentious after Mattis learned through media reports that Trump had picked Viola for Army secretary.</p>
<p>Similar conflicts have been underway in the State Department transition, where a series of officials have been considered and apparently rejected as deputy to secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson.</p>
<p>Work, who turns 64 this month, has been deputy defense secretary since spring 2014. He previously served as CEO of CNAS before Flournoy and as the undersecretary of the Navy under Obama.</p>
<p>Work would add to the list of Marines in Trump’s administration. A retired colonel, he served 27 years as a field artillery officer before leaving active duty in 2001. He became an influential Washington defense analyst, serving as a senior official with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.</p>
<p>Under Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, Work has managed many of the day-to-day operations of the Pentagon and been a chief architect of the so-called Third Offset Strategy, a broad effort to ensure the U.S. military keeps a competitive advantage on the battlefield by incorporating technology in creative ways.</p>
| 7,163 |
<p>When state lawmakers gave Mayor Richard M. Daley control of Chicago Public Schools in 1995, the deal included sweeping changes to the laws that controlled how the district spent its money. The biggest revenue shift came from combining several property tax levies—including one earmarked to pay for teacher pensions—into one fund that could be used to pay current operating expenses. That year, $62.2 million was diverted from pension payments to operating expenses. CPS also contributed $24 million to the teachers pension fund that year.</p>
<p>This was not the first time CPS had used pension funds for the regular budget. Between 1990 and 1993, Springfield transferred dedicated pension revenue to district operations in order to pay for teacher raises and bonuses. (The Chicago Teachers Union backed the move.) But for the two years prior to mayoral control of Chicago’s schools, the district had only been permitted to borrow from the fund, not divert payments.</p>
<p>At the time Vallas and his administration won kudos for fixing the district’s longstanding budget woes, but without this provision and others granting greater budget flexibility, they would have been unable to balance the budget.</p>
<p>See “New law lets board shift money to balance budget,” in “ <a href="http://catalystchicago.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/assets/19950901/6catsep1995.pdf" type="external">The New Regime</a>,” Catalyst September 1995</p>
<p>State law requires CPS to ensure teacher pension assets total at least 90 percent of what will be owed to retirees 35 years in the future. Between 1995 and 2005, CPS was able to continue diverting pension payments because investment returns kept the funded ratio above the 90 percent threshold. In 2006, the ratio fell below 90 percent and forced CPS to pay.</p>
<p>Like many other public pension systems across the country, Chicago Public Schools is struggling with the double whammy of the Great Recession and increasing numbers of longer-lived retirees. The effects of the squeeze were felt by 2009, when the district projected&#160;a deficit of $475 million. Then-CEO Ron Huberman labeled the required pension payment of $130 million as one of a number of “deficit drivers.”</p>
<p>See “ <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2010/03/primer-chicagos-teacher-pension/" type="external">A Primer on Chicago’s teacher pension</a>,” Catalyst March 2010 and&#160;“ <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2013/08/set-record-straight-teachers-pension-fund-problems/" type="external">Set the record straight on teachers pension fund problems</a>,” Catalyst August 2013</p>
<p>Earlier this week, after efforts to seek help from Springfield failed, CPS managed to swallow a massive $634 million pension payment. As the Chicago Sun-Times <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/734086/emanuel-cps-open-on-time-wont-specify-possible-cuts" type="external">reported</a>, the district made the payment through borrowing and a pledge to cut $200 million, including as many as 1,400 layoffs.</p>
<p>Previously, Springfield lawmakers passed a bill to raise fines on charter operators who make late payments to the teacher pension fund. (Charter operators must contribute to the pension fund for all full-time, certified teachers working in Chicago charter schools.) “My goal is to look under every rock for every cent that we can get,” said Jay Rehak, president of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund.</p>
<p>However, none of these fixes addresses the long-term structural problems. A recent <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w21293" type="external">working paper</a> from the National Bureau of Economic Research notes that Illinois’ poor history of making contributions to state public employee pensions means that pension reform is not enough to solve their structural problems—new revenues or additional spending cuts will have to be addressed.</p>
<p>For many years, the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund was insulated from these problems. One long-overlooked consequence of the 1995 reform law is that Chicago is now in similarly dire straights.&#160;Current unfunded liabilities to the fund now total almost $10 billion. As Charles Burbridge, new executive director of the fund, told Catalyst in a recent Q &amp; A, “Pension funding works when the employer pays for benefits as they are earned. When the employer doesn’t pay for those benefits, you get into problems.”</p>
<p>See “ <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2013/09/charters-face-steep-fines-late-teacher-pension-payments/" type="external">Charters to face steep fines for late teacher pension payments,</a> “ Catalyst September 2013 and&#160; <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2015/06/q-a-charles-burbridge-chicago-teachers-pension-fund/" type="external">Q&amp;A Charles Burbridge, Chicago Teachers Pension Fund</a> Catalyst June 2015</p>
<p>Photo: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-264841286/stock-photo-coins-in-glass-money-jar-with-pension-label-financial-concept-vintage-wooden-background-with.html?src=nLZz_jvh-D6i08v67OmMPw-3-61" type="external">Coins in jar</a>/Shutterstock.com</p>
|
Roots of the Chicago teacher pension crisis
| false |
http://chicagoreporter.com/roots-of-the-chicago-teacher-pension-crisis/
|
2015-07-02
| 3left-center
|
Roots of the Chicago teacher pension crisis
<p>When state lawmakers gave Mayor Richard M. Daley control of Chicago Public Schools in 1995, the deal included sweeping changes to the laws that controlled how the district spent its money. The biggest revenue shift came from combining several property tax levies—including one earmarked to pay for teacher pensions—into one fund that could be used to pay current operating expenses. That year, $62.2 million was diverted from pension payments to operating expenses. CPS also contributed $24 million to the teachers pension fund that year.</p>
<p>This was not the first time CPS had used pension funds for the regular budget. Between 1990 and 1993, Springfield transferred dedicated pension revenue to district operations in order to pay for teacher raises and bonuses. (The Chicago Teachers Union backed the move.) But for the two years prior to mayoral control of Chicago’s schools, the district had only been permitted to borrow from the fund, not divert payments.</p>
<p>At the time Vallas and his administration won kudos for fixing the district’s longstanding budget woes, but without this provision and others granting greater budget flexibility, they would have been unable to balance the budget.</p>
<p>See “New law lets board shift money to balance budget,” in “ <a href="http://catalystchicago.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/assets/19950901/6catsep1995.pdf" type="external">The New Regime</a>,” Catalyst September 1995</p>
<p>State law requires CPS to ensure teacher pension assets total at least 90 percent of what will be owed to retirees 35 years in the future. Between 1995 and 2005, CPS was able to continue diverting pension payments because investment returns kept the funded ratio above the 90 percent threshold. In 2006, the ratio fell below 90 percent and forced CPS to pay.</p>
<p>Like many other public pension systems across the country, Chicago Public Schools is struggling with the double whammy of the Great Recession and increasing numbers of longer-lived retirees. The effects of the squeeze were felt by 2009, when the district projected&#160;a deficit of $475 million. Then-CEO Ron Huberman labeled the required pension payment of $130 million as one of a number of “deficit drivers.”</p>
<p>See “ <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2010/03/primer-chicagos-teacher-pension/" type="external">A Primer on Chicago’s teacher pension</a>,” Catalyst March 2010 and&#160;“ <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2013/08/set-record-straight-teachers-pension-fund-problems/" type="external">Set the record straight on teachers pension fund problems</a>,” Catalyst August 2013</p>
<p>Earlier this week, after efforts to seek help from Springfield failed, CPS managed to swallow a massive $634 million pension payment. As the Chicago Sun-Times <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/734086/emanuel-cps-open-on-time-wont-specify-possible-cuts" type="external">reported</a>, the district made the payment through borrowing and a pledge to cut $200 million, including as many as 1,400 layoffs.</p>
<p>Previously, Springfield lawmakers passed a bill to raise fines on charter operators who make late payments to the teacher pension fund. (Charter operators must contribute to the pension fund for all full-time, certified teachers working in Chicago charter schools.) “My goal is to look under every rock for every cent that we can get,” said Jay Rehak, president of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund.</p>
<p>However, none of these fixes addresses the long-term structural problems. A recent <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w21293" type="external">working paper</a> from the National Bureau of Economic Research notes that Illinois’ poor history of making contributions to state public employee pensions means that pension reform is not enough to solve their structural problems—new revenues or additional spending cuts will have to be addressed.</p>
<p>For many years, the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund was insulated from these problems. One long-overlooked consequence of the 1995 reform law is that Chicago is now in similarly dire straights.&#160;Current unfunded liabilities to the fund now total almost $10 billion. As Charles Burbridge, new executive director of the fund, told Catalyst in a recent Q &amp; A, “Pension funding works when the employer pays for benefits as they are earned. When the employer doesn’t pay for those benefits, you get into problems.”</p>
<p>See “ <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2013/09/charters-face-steep-fines-late-teacher-pension-payments/" type="external">Charters to face steep fines for late teacher pension payments,</a> “ Catalyst September 2013 and&#160; <a href="http://catalyst-chicago.org/2015/06/q-a-charles-burbridge-chicago-teachers-pension-fund/" type="external">Q&amp;A Charles Burbridge, Chicago Teachers Pension Fund</a> Catalyst June 2015</p>
<p>Photo: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-264841286/stock-photo-coins-in-glass-money-jar-with-pension-label-financial-concept-vintage-wooden-background-with.html?src=nLZz_jvh-D6i08v67OmMPw-3-61" type="external">Coins in jar</a>/Shutterstock.com</p>
| 7,164 |
<p />
<p>By the Associated PressPublished on 10/9/2003</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Excerpt:</p>
<p>One journalism expert questioned the newspaper's decision.</p>
<p>"While I agree the coverage has been salacious and sensational and damaging I don't know that's the best approach," said Kelly McBride, on the ethics faculty at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank in St. Petersburg, Fla. "I think it would be better to acknowledge celebrity cases in a minimal way and then use the celebrity case as an excuse to delve into phenomenon of rape in our society."</p>
<p><a href="http://news.google.com/news?q=+%22kelly+mcbride%22+poynter" type="external">More of this article...Search Google News for more quotes by Kelly McBride...</a></p>
|
Aspen Daily Stops Coverage of Kobe Bryant Case
| false |
https://poynter.org/news/aspen-daily-stops-coverage-kobe-bryant-case
|
2003-10-23
| 2least
|
Aspen Daily Stops Coverage of Kobe Bryant Case
<p />
<p>By the Associated PressPublished on 10/9/2003</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Excerpt:</p>
<p>One journalism expert questioned the newspaper's decision.</p>
<p>"While I agree the coverage has been salacious and sensational and damaging I don't know that's the best approach," said Kelly McBride, on the ethics faculty at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank in St. Petersburg, Fla. "I think it would be better to acknowledge celebrity cases in a minimal way and then use the celebrity case as an excuse to delve into phenomenon of rape in our society."</p>
<p><a href="http://news.google.com/news?q=+%22kelly+mcbride%22+poynter" type="external">More of this article...Search Google News for more quotes by Kelly McBride...</a></p>
| 7,165 |
<p>I agree, as I <a href="" type="internal">already wrote</a>, that as these things are measured, Carly Fiorina “won” the debate. She was well prepared and well spoken; seemed to know what she was talking about; tugged at emotion when she mentioned having lost a child.</p>
<p>So that’s all fine. And I understand that pundits measure debate wins in odd ways. But, uh...did anybody listen to the substance of what she said? As Kate Brannen <a href="" type="internal">has already noted for the Beast</a>, Fiorina’s military buildup would add $500 billion to an already historically huge Pentagon budget. But it’s far worse than that. This woman is a crackpot warmonger who would start World War III. No—III and IV. I could barely believe what I was hearing.</p>
<p>Many have already picked apart what appear to be Fiorina’s flat-out lies about the Planned Parenthood videos. I haven’t watched those videos in their entirety, so I can’t say with personal authority. But Sarah Kliff of Vox has, and <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/9/16/9342165/carly-fiorina-planned-parenthood" type="external">Kliff writes</a> that all that business about a fetus with legs still kicking and people talking about needing to “harvest its brain” just isn’t true. Doesn’t exist. The charitable explanation, according to Kliff, is that Fiorina was confusing the Planned Parenthood videos with another that includes stock footage of the sort Fiorina described and maybe she confused them in her mind. Or maybe she didn’t. Maybe she just lied.</p>
<p>Anyway, that’s not what I’m chiefly concerned about. What I think we should be concerned about were her remarks about Iran and Russia. Let’s have a look.</p>
<p>Iran: “On Day One in the Oval Office, I will make two phone calls, the first to my good friend Bibi Netanyahu to reassure him we will stand with the state of Israel.</p>
<p>“The second, to the Supreme Leader, to tell him that unless and until he opens every military and every nuclear facility to real anytime, anywhere inspections by our people, not his, we, the United States of America, will make it as difficult as possible and move money around the global financial system.</p>
<p>“We can do that, we don’t need anyone’s cooperation to do it. And every ally and every adversary we have in this world will know that the United States in America is back in the leadership business, which is how we must stand with our allies.”</p>
<p>Well, this sounds great. Grrrrrr, Supreme Leader! But stop and think for a second. What is Ayatollah Khamenei going to say in response? Probably something like: “Very well, Madam President. Then you are abrogating the deal, I see. OK. Thank you. Have a nice century.” Iran will then stop honoring the deal, or even pretending to, and start building a nuclear weapon or six.</p>
<p>And note well: The rest of the world will blame us, the United States, and President Fiorina, for being the ones who first broke the deal. And, if she makes such a phone call, rightly so, because we will be the ones to have broken it. We can reimpose some sanctions unilaterally. But will the European Union and the United Nations reimpose theirs? Not bloody likely if we broke the deal. And countries like India, which is probably now lifting sanctions it had agreed to when the United States was leading a multilateral effort, may well start giving Iran nuclear-related technologies. These are just a few of the events that phone call could set in motion.</p>
<p>And soon enough Iran will have a bomb. Or, President Fiorina will start a war to prevent it.</p>
<p>That brings us to Russia, on which she said: “Having met Vladimir Putin, I wouldn’t talk to him at all. We’ve talked way too much to him.</p>
<p>“What I would do, immediately, is begin rebuilding the Sixth Fleet, I would begin rebuilding the missile defense program in Poland, I would conduct regular, aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states. I’d probably send a few thousand more troops into Germany. Vladimir Putin would get the message.”</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>So the president of the United States would just not talk to the president of Russia. Now, the president of Russia is a contemptible and dangerous quasi-fascist. But he is, you know, the president of Russia, a rather important country. I can’t remember an American president since Roosevelt who hasn’t talked to the head of the USSR or of post-Soviet Russia. Don’t these people remember that Ronald Reagan communicated with three Soviet premiers and talked directly with Mikhail Gorbachev? They don’t seem to remember now, but at the time, that was when <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/world/middleeast/long-before-obama-and-iran-conservatives-compared-reagan-to-neville-chamberlain-for-arms-deal-with-soviets.html?_r=0" type="external">Reagan lost them!</a></p>
<p>Fiorina seemed to get a lot of cred for name-dropping the Sixth Fleet. It shows that at least she read a briefing book, which is more than some of them do. And I will admit that I didn’t know (although I could logically have guessed) that the Sixth Fleet patrols the seas around Europe and Russia, from its base in Naples. So whoop de doo for her.</p>
<p>But this is what constitutes a good answer, just because she drops a little specific knowledge, even as she is essentially saying that her strategy as president with regard to one of the world’s two or three most dangerous and aggressive men is to surround him, provoke him, goad him into an act of war? That’s what “aggressive military exercises in the Baltic” states quite possibly ends up meaning. There’s this city in Estonia called Narva. Google it. It’s like 80 percent Russian or something. Putin has his little eye on it. World War III could start there, and all it would take is an errant American military shell landing in the wrong backyard. Or World War IV, in case President Fiorina has already started III in the Middle East.</p>
<p>The things you learn in campaigns. She’s an absolute madwoman.</p>
|
Carly Fiorina, Crackpot Warmonger
| true |
https://thedailybeast.com/carly-fiorina-crackpot-warmonger
|
2018-10-07
| 4left
|
Carly Fiorina, Crackpot Warmonger
<p>I agree, as I <a href="" type="internal">already wrote</a>, that as these things are measured, Carly Fiorina “won” the debate. She was well prepared and well spoken; seemed to know what she was talking about; tugged at emotion when she mentioned having lost a child.</p>
<p>So that’s all fine. And I understand that pundits measure debate wins in odd ways. But, uh...did anybody listen to the substance of what she said? As Kate Brannen <a href="" type="internal">has already noted for the Beast</a>, Fiorina’s military buildup would add $500 billion to an already historically huge Pentagon budget. But it’s far worse than that. This woman is a crackpot warmonger who would start World War III. No—III and IV. I could barely believe what I was hearing.</p>
<p>Many have already picked apart what appear to be Fiorina’s flat-out lies about the Planned Parenthood videos. I haven’t watched those videos in their entirety, so I can’t say with personal authority. But Sarah Kliff of Vox has, and <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/9/16/9342165/carly-fiorina-planned-parenthood" type="external">Kliff writes</a> that all that business about a fetus with legs still kicking and people talking about needing to “harvest its brain” just isn’t true. Doesn’t exist. The charitable explanation, according to Kliff, is that Fiorina was confusing the Planned Parenthood videos with another that includes stock footage of the sort Fiorina described and maybe she confused them in her mind. Or maybe she didn’t. Maybe she just lied.</p>
<p>Anyway, that’s not what I’m chiefly concerned about. What I think we should be concerned about were her remarks about Iran and Russia. Let’s have a look.</p>
<p>Iran: “On Day One in the Oval Office, I will make two phone calls, the first to my good friend Bibi Netanyahu to reassure him we will stand with the state of Israel.</p>
<p>“The second, to the Supreme Leader, to tell him that unless and until he opens every military and every nuclear facility to real anytime, anywhere inspections by our people, not his, we, the United States of America, will make it as difficult as possible and move money around the global financial system.</p>
<p>“We can do that, we don’t need anyone’s cooperation to do it. And every ally and every adversary we have in this world will know that the United States in America is back in the leadership business, which is how we must stand with our allies.”</p>
<p>Well, this sounds great. Grrrrrr, Supreme Leader! But stop and think for a second. What is Ayatollah Khamenei going to say in response? Probably something like: “Very well, Madam President. Then you are abrogating the deal, I see. OK. Thank you. Have a nice century.” Iran will then stop honoring the deal, or even pretending to, and start building a nuclear weapon or six.</p>
<p>And note well: The rest of the world will blame us, the United States, and President Fiorina, for being the ones who first broke the deal. And, if she makes such a phone call, rightly so, because we will be the ones to have broken it. We can reimpose some sanctions unilaterally. But will the European Union and the United Nations reimpose theirs? Not bloody likely if we broke the deal. And countries like India, which is probably now lifting sanctions it had agreed to when the United States was leading a multilateral effort, may well start giving Iran nuclear-related technologies. These are just a few of the events that phone call could set in motion.</p>
<p>And soon enough Iran will have a bomb. Or, President Fiorina will start a war to prevent it.</p>
<p>That brings us to Russia, on which she said: “Having met Vladimir Putin, I wouldn’t talk to him at all. We’ve talked way too much to him.</p>
<p>“What I would do, immediately, is begin rebuilding the Sixth Fleet, I would begin rebuilding the missile defense program in Poland, I would conduct regular, aggressive military exercises in the Baltic states. I’d probably send a few thousand more troops into Germany. Vladimir Putin would get the message.”</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>So the president of the United States would just not talk to the president of Russia. Now, the president of Russia is a contemptible and dangerous quasi-fascist. But he is, you know, the president of Russia, a rather important country. I can’t remember an American president since Roosevelt who hasn’t talked to the head of the USSR or of post-Soviet Russia. Don’t these people remember that Ronald Reagan communicated with three Soviet premiers and talked directly with Mikhail Gorbachev? They don’t seem to remember now, but at the time, that was when <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/world/middleeast/long-before-obama-and-iran-conservatives-compared-reagan-to-neville-chamberlain-for-arms-deal-with-soviets.html?_r=0" type="external">Reagan lost them!</a></p>
<p>Fiorina seemed to get a lot of cred for name-dropping the Sixth Fleet. It shows that at least she read a briefing book, which is more than some of them do. And I will admit that I didn’t know (although I could logically have guessed) that the Sixth Fleet patrols the seas around Europe and Russia, from its base in Naples. So whoop de doo for her.</p>
<p>But this is what constitutes a good answer, just because she drops a little specific knowledge, even as she is essentially saying that her strategy as president with regard to one of the world’s two or three most dangerous and aggressive men is to surround him, provoke him, goad him into an act of war? That’s what “aggressive military exercises in the Baltic” states quite possibly ends up meaning. There’s this city in Estonia called Narva. Google it. It’s like 80 percent Russian or something. Putin has his little eye on it. World War III could start there, and all it would take is an errant American military shell landing in the wrong backyard. Or World War IV, in case President Fiorina has already started III in the Middle East.</p>
<p>The things you learn in campaigns. She’s an absolute madwoman.</p>
| 7,166 |
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles authorities have announced murder charges for a man suspected of fatally stabbing a transgender woman whose body was found inside her burning home.</p>
<p>Police said at a news conference Tuesday that 29-year-old Kevyn Ramirez admitted stabbing Victoria Gutierrez in her house after a dispute and setting the fire earlier this month.</p>
<p>Lt. John Radtke said motivations for the killing are unclear and investigators are trying to determine if the killing may have been a hate crime.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said Ramirez and Gutierrez met online.</p>
<p>Ramirez is charged with murder during the commission of an attempted robbery and other counts.</p>
<p>Mariana Marroquin with the LA LGBT Center tells the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-fire-homicide-20180116-story.html" type="external">Los Angeles Times</a> that Gutierrez was active in the transgender community.</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles authorities have announced murder charges for a man suspected of fatally stabbing a transgender woman whose body was found inside her burning home.</p>
<p>Police said at a news conference Tuesday that 29-year-old Kevyn Ramirez admitted stabbing Victoria Gutierrez in her house after a dispute and setting the fire earlier this month.</p>
<p>Lt. John Radtke said motivations for the killing are unclear and investigators are trying to determine if the killing may have been a hate crime.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said Ramirez and Gutierrez met online.</p>
<p>Ramirez is charged with murder during the commission of an attempted robbery and other counts.</p>
<p>Mariana Marroquin with the LA LGBT Center tells the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-fire-homicide-20180116-story.html" type="external">Los Angeles Times</a> that Gutierrez was active in the transgender community.</p>
|
Murder charge in stabbing of LA woman found in burning home
| false |
https://apnews.com/7c0cf3124f9d427e99284c1ab3c5d4fa
|
2018-01-17
| 2least
|
Murder charge in stabbing of LA woman found in burning home
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles authorities have announced murder charges for a man suspected of fatally stabbing a transgender woman whose body was found inside her burning home.</p>
<p>Police said at a news conference Tuesday that 29-year-old Kevyn Ramirez admitted stabbing Victoria Gutierrez in her house after a dispute and setting the fire earlier this month.</p>
<p>Lt. John Radtke said motivations for the killing are unclear and investigators are trying to determine if the killing may have been a hate crime.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said Ramirez and Gutierrez met online.</p>
<p>Ramirez is charged with murder during the commission of an attempted robbery and other counts.</p>
<p>Mariana Marroquin with the LA LGBT Center tells the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-fire-homicide-20180116-story.html" type="external">Los Angeles Times</a> that Gutierrez was active in the transgender community.</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles authorities have announced murder charges for a man suspected of fatally stabbing a transgender woman whose body was found inside her burning home.</p>
<p>Police said at a news conference Tuesday that 29-year-old Kevyn Ramirez admitted stabbing Victoria Gutierrez in her house after a dispute and setting the fire earlier this month.</p>
<p>Lt. John Radtke said motivations for the killing are unclear and investigators are trying to determine if the killing may have been a hate crime.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said Ramirez and Gutierrez met online.</p>
<p>Ramirez is charged with murder during the commission of an attempted robbery and other counts.</p>
<p>Mariana Marroquin with the LA LGBT Center tells the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-fire-homicide-20180116-story.html" type="external">Los Angeles Times</a> that Gutierrez was active in the transgender community.</p>
| 7,167 |
<p>The Billion Dollar Candidate is counting his&#160;dollars like he always does, while telling you&#160;how to spend yours.&#160;</p>
<p>I don’t know about you, but I want these primaries to be over before they’ve begun, because I feel like we’re watching the down card fights, and we’re waiting for the prize fight.&#160; I’m not downplaying the importance of selecting our nominee, but I want&#160;the General Election to be here already.</p>
<p>And sometime prior to August 2012 (my guess by &#160; <a href="http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012-republican-primary-schedule/" type="external">late March</a>), when we know who the nominee will be and the <a href="" type="internal">Lombardi Rule</a> takes effect, I’m going all in.&#160; And when millions join me, the Billion Dollar Candidate will not seem quite so large.</p>
<p>Via the must-read <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/tobyharnden/status/91209552460124160" type="external">Toby Harnden</a>:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
|
Waiting for the Prize Fight
| true |
http://legalinsurrection.com/2011/07/waiting-for-the-prize-fight/
|
2011-07-13
| 0right
|
Waiting for the Prize Fight
<p>The Billion Dollar Candidate is counting his&#160;dollars like he always does, while telling you&#160;how to spend yours.&#160;</p>
<p>I don’t know about you, but I want these primaries to be over before they’ve begun, because I feel like we’re watching the down card fights, and we’re waiting for the prize fight.&#160; I’m not downplaying the importance of selecting our nominee, but I want&#160;the General Election to be here already.</p>
<p>And sometime prior to August 2012 (my guess by &#160; <a href="http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012-republican-primary-schedule/" type="external">late March</a>), when we know who the nominee will be and the <a href="" type="internal">Lombardi Rule</a> takes effect, I’m going all in.&#160; And when millions join me, the Billion Dollar Candidate will not seem quite so large.</p>
<p>Via the must-read <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/tobyharnden/status/91209552460124160" type="external">Toby Harnden</a>:</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal" /></p>
| 7,168 |
<p>ROME (AP) — Cagliari on the Italian island of Sardinia has been chosen as the proposed sailing venue in Rome's bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games.</p>
<p>Cagliari and Bari were on a shortlist of two after beating 15 other cities in the first phase.</p>
<p>In a statement Saturday, the organizing committee says Cagliari was chosen because it "offered the best weather-marine conditions with better intensity of wind and greater regularity."</p>
<p>It adds: "Other aspects such as the environmental situation of the city on a human scale, the travel time, the Olympic village and the international popularity as a city of sailing, had a positive influence on the decision."</p>
<p>Cagliari is 412 kilometers (256 miles) away from Rome. The Sardinian capital is in the south of the island.</p>
<p>ROME (AP) — Cagliari on the Italian island of Sardinia has been chosen as the proposed sailing venue in Rome's bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games.</p>
<p>Cagliari and Bari were on a shortlist of two after beating 15 other cities in the first phase.</p>
<p>In a statement Saturday, the organizing committee says Cagliari was chosen because it "offered the best weather-marine conditions with better intensity of wind and greater regularity."</p>
<p>It adds: "Other aspects such as the environmental situation of the city on a human scale, the travel time, the Olympic village and the international popularity as a city of sailing, had a positive influence on the decision."</p>
<p>Cagliari is 412 kilometers (256 miles) away from Rome. The Sardinian capital is in the south of the island.</p>
|
Cagliari chosen as sailing venue in Rome's Olympic bid
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/a3584d972b9340239b11863fab928ff3
|
2015-12-19
| 2least
|
Cagliari chosen as sailing venue in Rome's Olympic bid
<p>ROME (AP) — Cagliari on the Italian island of Sardinia has been chosen as the proposed sailing venue in Rome's bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games.</p>
<p>Cagliari and Bari were on a shortlist of two after beating 15 other cities in the first phase.</p>
<p>In a statement Saturday, the organizing committee says Cagliari was chosen because it "offered the best weather-marine conditions with better intensity of wind and greater regularity."</p>
<p>It adds: "Other aspects such as the environmental situation of the city on a human scale, the travel time, the Olympic village and the international popularity as a city of sailing, had a positive influence on the decision."</p>
<p>Cagliari is 412 kilometers (256 miles) away from Rome. The Sardinian capital is in the south of the island.</p>
<p>ROME (AP) — Cagliari on the Italian island of Sardinia has been chosen as the proposed sailing venue in Rome's bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games.</p>
<p>Cagliari and Bari were on a shortlist of two after beating 15 other cities in the first phase.</p>
<p>In a statement Saturday, the organizing committee says Cagliari was chosen because it "offered the best weather-marine conditions with better intensity of wind and greater regularity."</p>
<p>It adds: "Other aspects such as the environmental situation of the city on a human scale, the travel time, the Olympic village and the international popularity as a city of sailing, had a positive influence on the decision."</p>
<p>Cagliari is 412 kilometers (256 miles) away from Rome. The Sardinian capital is in the south of the island.</p>
| 7,169 |
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Like the glaring need for expanded instant replay in Major League Baseball.</p>
<p>The 2009 playoffs were marred by several blown calls by umpires, and earlier this season Jim Joyce famously cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game with a missed call.</p>
<p>Umpire Gary Cederstrom admitted he erred in June when he called a third strike on Johnny Damon that ended the Atlanta Braves' 4-3 win over the Tigers with the bases loaded. The pitch was clearly a ball and should have walked in the tying run.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The latest umpire screw-up happened Thursday night in Miami.</p>
<p>With the Philadelphia Phillies and Florida Marlins tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth, Florida had a runner on second with one out when Gaby Sanchez hit an apparent game-winner down the third base line. As the ball bounced on the chalk and then directly over the bag, umpire Bob Davidson immediately called the ball foul. He wasn't even paying attention to the ball anymore as it continued on and clearly landed in fair territory past the base.</p>
<p>Replays clearly showed ball landed inside the foul line behind the base, meaning Sanchez's hit should have scored Hanley Ramirez from second base. Florida manager Edwin Rodriguez argued and cursed and pleaded with Davidson to at least consult with the other members of the umpiring crew, but to no avail.</p>
<p>The call stood, Florida was unable to score and Carlos Ruiz homered leading off the 10th for the Phillies, who completed a three-game series sweep.</p>
<p>How ridiculous is the replay rule?</p>
<p>In the top of the 10th, Philadelphia's Ben Francisco hit a ball down that same foul line. But this one was reviewed because if it had been fair it would have been a home run.</p>
<p>Had the umpires had access to some sort of instant replay, there is no doubt the call would have been reversed. That is unless Davidson – who is refusing to admit he blew it – was in charge of that decision as well.</p>
<p>The Marlins should have won and more importantly to the other teams in the pennant chase, the Phillies should have lost.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>MLB wisely decided in August 2008 to use instant replays to check home run calls, but the rule needs to expand to allow umpires to check video to get other calls correct.</p>
<p>I know MLB commissioner Bud Selig is concerned about the ever-increasing game times in MLB and that more replays would slow the game even more. But if we have time to check a home run call, we have time for replay whenever it's justified.</p>
<p>The ultimate goal of baseball is to win the game and the goal for the umpires to get every call right. Selig apparently thinks that fans still just show up to drink, eat and watch guys smash home runs, but what actually puts fans in seats is a winning team.</p>
<p>Selig's home run lust that fueled the great record chase of 1998 cost MLB much of its integrity and has made a laughingstock of the records baseball fans used to hold so dear.</p>
<p>Now his umpires and stubborn refusal to make any more changes to the game he governs is threatening to hurt the game again.</p>
<p>The fact that MLB will use technology to make rulings only on home runs shows the league is not as far removed the home run-crazed steroid era as fans have thought.</p>
<p>It was a huge step for the old-fashioned Selig to even consider adding instant replay to America's most traditional sport. But why just check for home runs?</p>
<p>The steroid-induced home run bonanza in the late '90s that saved baseball may have convinced Selig that a home run is the only play worth slowing the game down for.</p>
<p>But the number of bad calls that have cost teams a win or altered history prove otherwise.</p>
|
Quit Letting Umpires Wreck National Pastime
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/232461/quit-letting-umpires-wreck-national-pastime.html
| 2least
|
Quit Letting Umpires Wreck National Pastime
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p />
<p>Like the glaring need for expanded instant replay in Major League Baseball.</p>
<p>The 2009 playoffs were marred by several blown calls by umpires, and earlier this season Jim Joyce famously cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game with a missed call.</p>
<p>Umpire Gary Cederstrom admitted he erred in June when he called a third strike on Johnny Damon that ended the Atlanta Braves' 4-3 win over the Tigers with the bases loaded. The pitch was clearly a ball and should have walked in the tying run.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>The latest umpire screw-up happened Thursday night in Miami.</p>
<p>With the Philadelphia Phillies and Florida Marlins tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth, Florida had a runner on second with one out when Gaby Sanchez hit an apparent game-winner down the third base line. As the ball bounced on the chalk and then directly over the bag, umpire Bob Davidson immediately called the ball foul. He wasn't even paying attention to the ball anymore as it continued on and clearly landed in fair territory past the base.</p>
<p>Replays clearly showed ball landed inside the foul line behind the base, meaning Sanchez's hit should have scored Hanley Ramirez from second base. Florida manager Edwin Rodriguez argued and cursed and pleaded with Davidson to at least consult with the other members of the umpiring crew, but to no avail.</p>
<p>The call stood, Florida was unable to score and Carlos Ruiz homered leading off the 10th for the Phillies, who completed a three-game series sweep.</p>
<p>How ridiculous is the replay rule?</p>
<p>In the top of the 10th, Philadelphia's Ben Francisco hit a ball down that same foul line. But this one was reviewed because if it had been fair it would have been a home run.</p>
<p>Had the umpires had access to some sort of instant replay, there is no doubt the call would have been reversed. That is unless Davidson – who is refusing to admit he blew it – was in charge of that decision as well.</p>
<p>The Marlins should have won and more importantly to the other teams in the pennant chase, the Phillies should have lost.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>MLB wisely decided in August 2008 to use instant replays to check home run calls, but the rule needs to expand to allow umpires to check video to get other calls correct.</p>
<p>I know MLB commissioner Bud Selig is concerned about the ever-increasing game times in MLB and that more replays would slow the game even more. But if we have time to check a home run call, we have time for replay whenever it's justified.</p>
<p>The ultimate goal of baseball is to win the game and the goal for the umpires to get every call right. Selig apparently thinks that fans still just show up to drink, eat and watch guys smash home runs, but what actually puts fans in seats is a winning team.</p>
<p>Selig's home run lust that fueled the great record chase of 1998 cost MLB much of its integrity and has made a laughingstock of the records baseball fans used to hold so dear.</p>
<p>Now his umpires and stubborn refusal to make any more changes to the game he governs is threatening to hurt the game again.</p>
<p>The fact that MLB will use technology to make rulings only on home runs shows the league is not as far removed the home run-crazed steroid era as fans have thought.</p>
<p>It was a huge step for the old-fashioned Selig to even consider adding instant replay to America's most traditional sport. But why just check for home runs?</p>
<p>The steroid-induced home run bonanza in the late '90s that saved baseball may have convinced Selig that a home run is the only play worth slowing the game down for.</p>
<p>But the number of bad calls that have cost teams a win or altered history prove otherwise.</p>
| 7,170 |
|
<p>As “Godzilla” storms the box office this weekend, observers note that the entertainment industry’s lust for high profits via mega-hits is narrowing the number and kinds of stories told and amplifying conformity among the public, Jennifer Rankin <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/18/blockbusters-survived-internet-age-godzilla" type="external">reports</a> at The Guardian.</p>
<p>In the book “Blockbusters,” published by Harvard University Press, author Anita Eberse writes that 70 percent of Warner Bros.’ 2010 revenue came from its four most expensive films — “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I” (budget $250 million), “Inception” ($175 million), “Clash of the Titans” ($125 million) and “Sex and the City” ($100 million). “The entertainment industry is moving more towards a winner-take-all-market,” Rankin quotes Eberse as writing.</p>
<p>Rankin points out that the phenomenon “is not restricted to the silver screen. The average high street bookshop may stock thousands of titles, but the profitable inventory is just 10 or 20 books. And Spotify reported in January that one in five of the four million songs on its music-streaming service had never been listened to. This is the flipside to a celebrated study from 2008, which found that just 52,000 tracks or 0.4% of the catalogue of online music stores accounted for eight out of 10 downloads.”</p>
<p>Andrew Bud, a co-author of a 2008 study on music streamed online, notes, as Rankin writes, that “popularity is infectious.” According to Bud, “Choices in music are not determined by availability; choices in music are determined by social forces. People listen to the things that [other] people listen to.”</p>
<p />
<p>To describe how people’s behavior changes “when faced with a stupendous number of choices,” Rankin cites Paul Ormerod, an economist who has studied online social networks. Ormerod says people “are more likely to copy and emulate [others] whose judgments they trust. In this model something starts to become popular not because of its objective qualities, but because it is already popular.”</p>
<p>Rankin adds: “Any YouTube visitor knows this,” and “The same dynamic drives people to click on ‘most-read’ lists on newspaper websites.”</p>
<p>Long-understood sociology shows that the resulting conformity is expressed in the evolution of a less vibrant and diverse culture and the virtual sameness of consumers’ — or citizens’ — thoughts, behaviors and speech.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p>
|
Will the Mighty Blockbuster Fail and the People Be Saved?
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/will-the-mighty-blockbuster-fail-and-the-people-be-saved/
|
2014-05-18
| 4left
|
Will the Mighty Blockbuster Fail and the People Be Saved?
<p>As “Godzilla” storms the box office this weekend, observers note that the entertainment industry’s lust for high profits via mega-hits is narrowing the number and kinds of stories told and amplifying conformity among the public, Jennifer Rankin <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/18/blockbusters-survived-internet-age-godzilla" type="external">reports</a> at The Guardian.</p>
<p>In the book “Blockbusters,” published by Harvard University Press, author Anita Eberse writes that 70 percent of Warner Bros.’ 2010 revenue came from its four most expensive films — “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I” (budget $250 million), “Inception” ($175 million), “Clash of the Titans” ($125 million) and “Sex and the City” ($100 million). “The entertainment industry is moving more towards a winner-take-all-market,” Rankin quotes Eberse as writing.</p>
<p>Rankin points out that the phenomenon “is not restricted to the silver screen. The average high street bookshop may stock thousands of titles, but the profitable inventory is just 10 or 20 books. And Spotify reported in January that one in five of the four million songs on its music-streaming service had never been listened to. This is the flipside to a celebrated study from 2008, which found that just 52,000 tracks or 0.4% of the catalogue of online music stores accounted for eight out of 10 downloads.”</p>
<p>Andrew Bud, a co-author of a 2008 study on music streamed online, notes, as Rankin writes, that “popularity is infectious.” According to Bud, “Choices in music are not determined by availability; choices in music are determined by social forces. People listen to the things that [other] people listen to.”</p>
<p />
<p>To describe how people’s behavior changes “when faced with a stupendous number of choices,” Rankin cites Paul Ormerod, an economist who has studied online social networks. Ormerod says people “are more likely to copy and emulate [others] whose judgments they trust. In this model something starts to become popular not because of its objective qualities, but because it is already popular.”</p>
<p>Rankin adds: “Any YouTube visitor knows this,” and “The same dynamic drives people to click on ‘most-read’ lists on newspaper websites.”</p>
<p>Long-understood sociology shows that the resulting conformity is expressed in the evolution of a less vibrant and diverse culture and the virtual sameness of consumers’ — or citizens’ — thoughts, behaviors and speech.</p>
<p>— Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Alexander Reed Kelly</a>.</p>
| 7,171 |
<p>July 28 (UPI) — The Trump administration walked an ethical line by using a “bag man” to threaten Alaska’s energy over a healthcare vote, a leader in the U.S. House said.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/U.S._Sen._Lisa_Murkowski/" type="external">U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski</a>, R-Alaska, joined two other Republican leaders in voting against the so-called “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act, the signature healthcare policy of former President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Barack_Obama/" type="external">Barack Obama</a>. The measure, a last-ditch effort to overhaul Obamacare, failed with a 51-49 vote <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/07/28/Senate-rejects-skinny-repeal-of-ACA-as-3-Republicans-vote-no/8371501221224/?utm_source=fp&amp;utm_campaign=ls&amp;utm_medium=1" type="external">early Friday</a> morning.</p>
<p>Ahead of the vote, U.S. Interior Secretary <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ryan-Zinke/" type="external">Ryan Zinke</a> spoke with Murkowski and fellow Sen. Dan Sullivan, who voted in favor of the repeal, and threatened to block plans for more oil development in Alaska if they didn’t stay on their side of the aisle in the repeal, various media outlets <a href="https://www.adn.com/politics/2017/07/26/trump-administration-signals-that-murkowskis-health-care-vote-could-have-energy-repercussions-for-alaska/" type="external">reported</a>.</p>
<p>Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat and ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee, said Zinke’s push was a low point for President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/" type="external">Donald Trump</a> and his administration in terms of ethical standards. Running the government, he said, means serving the people.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t mean you serve the president as a bag man for his political vendettas,” he said in <a href="http://democrats-naturalresources.house.gov/media/press-releases/grijalva-zinke-threats-against-alaska-over-trumpcare-vote-raise-ethical-questions-threaten-environment" type="external">a statement</a>. “Threatening to punish your rivals as political blackmail is something we’d see from the Kremlin.”</p>
<p>Before the vote, a group of 38 Republican Senators <a href="https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/36-senators-send-letter-to-secretary-zinke_in-support-of-new-ocs-five-year-leasing-program" type="external">sent a letter</a> to Zinke in support of a new five-year lease plan for offshore drilling.</p>
<p>“We support many of the steps the [Interior] Department has taken to strengthen and reinforce the United States’ position as an energy dominant superpower,” the letter read.</p>
<p>Offshore, Zinke’s department issued a request <a href="https://www.upi.com/Trump-administration-charts-path-to-energy-dominance/9231498815738/" type="external">last month</a> for information for a five-year lease plan that covers 10 potential leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and one in the Cook Inlet off the southern coast of Alaska. In June, Hilcorp Alaska LLC placed a high bid of $3 billion to tap Cook Inlet waters, a bid the federal government said was critical to U.S. interests.</p>
<p>A 2011 study from the U.S. Geological Survey put the reserve estimate at a mean 599 million barrels of oil and a mean 19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas for technically recoverable undiscovered resources onshore and in state waters that are part of the Cook Inlet.</p>
<p>Zinke’s threat to Murkowski is ironic, given that the Trump administration has signaled it would include parts of Alaska above the Arctic Circle in its broader lease plan. The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/07/28/daily-202-trump-s-hardball-tactics-backfire-as-skinny-repeal-goes-down/597a7cf630fb045fdaef0fd5/" type="external">reported Friday</a> that Murkowski, the chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, postponed some measures requested by the Interior Department.</p>
|
Alaska energy threat a new low, House leader says
| false |
https://newsline.com/alaska-energy-threat-a-new-low-house-leader-says/
|
2017-07-28
| 1right-center
|
Alaska energy threat a new low, House leader says
<p>July 28 (UPI) — The Trump administration walked an ethical line by using a “bag man” to threaten Alaska’s energy over a healthcare vote, a leader in the U.S. House said.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/U.S._Sen._Lisa_Murkowski/" type="external">U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski</a>, R-Alaska, joined two other Republican leaders in voting against the so-called “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act, the signature healthcare policy of former President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Barack_Obama/" type="external">Barack Obama</a>. The measure, a last-ditch effort to overhaul Obamacare, failed with a 51-49 vote <a href="https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/07/28/Senate-rejects-skinny-repeal-of-ACA-as-3-Republicans-vote-no/8371501221224/?utm_source=fp&amp;utm_campaign=ls&amp;utm_medium=1" type="external">early Friday</a> morning.</p>
<p>Ahead of the vote, U.S. Interior Secretary <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Ryan-Zinke/" type="external">Ryan Zinke</a> spoke with Murkowski and fellow Sen. Dan Sullivan, who voted in favor of the repeal, and threatened to block plans for more oil development in Alaska if they didn’t stay on their side of the aisle in the repeal, various media outlets <a href="https://www.adn.com/politics/2017/07/26/trump-administration-signals-that-murkowskis-health-care-vote-could-have-energy-repercussions-for-alaska/" type="external">reported</a>.</p>
<p>Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat and ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee, said Zinke’s push was a low point for President <a href="https://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/" type="external">Donald Trump</a> and his administration in terms of ethical standards. Running the government, he said, means serving the people.</p>
<p>“It doesn’t mean you serve the president as a bag man for his political vendettas,” he said in <a href="http://democrats-naturalresources.house.gov/media/press-releases/grijalva-zinke-threats-against-alaska-over-trumpcare-vote-raise-ethical-questions-threaten-environment" type="external">a statement</a>. “Threatening to punish your rivals as political blackmail is something we’d see from the Kremlin.”</p>
<p>Before the vote, a group of 38 Republican Senators <a href="https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/36-senators-send-letter-to-secretary-zinke_in-support-of-new-ocs-five-year-leasing-program" type="external">sent a letter</a> to Zinke in support of a new five-year lease plan for offshore drilling.</p>
<p>“We support many of the steps the [Interior] Department has taken to strengthen and reinforce the United States’ position as an energy dominant superpower,” the letter read.</p>
<p>Offshore, Zinke’s department issued a request <a href="https://www.upi.com/Trump-administration-charts-path-to-energy-dominance/9231498815738/" type="external">last month</a> for information for a five-year lease plan that covers 10 potential leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and one in the Cook Inlet off the southern coast of Alaska. In June, Hilcorp Alaska LLC placed a high bid of $3 billion to tap Cook Inlet waters, a bid the federal government said was critical to U.S. interests.</p>
<p>A 2011 study from the U.S. Geological Survey put the reserve estimate at a mean 599 million barrels of oil and a mean 19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas for technically recoverable undiscovered resources onshore and in state waters that are part of the Cook Inlet.</p>
<p>Zinke’s threat to Murkowski is ironic, given that the Trump administration has signaled it would include parts of Alaska above the Arctic Circle in its broader lease plan. The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/07/28/daily-202-trump-s-hardball-tactics-backfire-as-skinny-repeal-goes-down/597a7cf630fb045fdaef0fd5/" type="external">reported Friday</a> that Murkowski, the chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, postponed some measures requested by the Interior Department.</p>
| 7,172 |
<p>Last week I noted I wasn’t exactly optimistic about the market.&#160; In fact, I was worried enough I thought the downside may be tested again.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, whatever was bothering me was real, and as we all know, it was an ugly week.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>However, all hope is not lost.&#160; As you can see in a chart of the Dow below, all the market has really done is move sideways.&#160; (Albeit in a volatile fashion!)</p>
<p>Further expanding on the Dow chart, even the S&amp;P chart hints there may be support at the August lows.&#160; I don’t know if that area will hold, but I think it’s worth taking a shot on the long side, as we should see a bounce.</p>
<p>Finally, I talked about my concern over the V move AAPL had made last week.&#160; Those kind of sharp moves up always worry me, and at least this time, my fear was well-founded. However, I’m not all gloom.&#160; The chart below shows what I was looking at last week, but also points out an area – the downtrend line extended – where I think AAPL might fall to…but also where I’d buy.</p>
<p>Anyway, let’s keep out fingers crossed that the August lows hold next week.</p>
|
Stocks May Bounce Back From Last Week's Rout
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/08/31/stocks-may-bounce-back-from-last-weeks-rout.html
|
2016-03-07
| 0right
|
Stocks May Bounce Back From Last Week's Rout
<p>Last week I noted I wasn’t exactly optimistic about the market.&#160; In fact, I was worried enough I thought the downside may be tested again.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, whatever was bothering me was real, and as we all know, it was an ugly week.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>However, all hope is not lost.&#160; As you can see in a chart of the Dow below, all the market has really done is move sideways.&#160; (Albeit in a volatile fashion!)</p>
<p>Further expanding on the Dow chart, even the S&amp;P chart hints there may be support at the August lows.&#160; I don’t know if that area will hold, but I think it’s worth taking a shot on the long side, as we should see a bounce.</p>
<p>Finally, I talked about my concern over the V move AAPL had made last week.&#160; Those kind of sharp moves up always worry me, and at least this time, my fear was well-founded. However, I’m not all gloom.&#160; The chart below shows what I was looking at last week, but also points out an area – the downtrend line extended – where I think AAPL might fall to…but also where I’d buy.</p>
<p>Anyway, let’s keep out fingers crossed that the August lows hold next week.</p>
| 7,173 |
<p>By Julia DayThe Organ GrinderPublished: 1/19/06Excerpt:</p>
<p>The Reuters Foundation is giving £1.75m (approximately $3.12 million in U.S. dollars) over five years to establish an Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, which aims to become one of the most authoritative sources of reliable analysis of journalism worldwide...Challenging both worlds' traditional shrug of disinterest about the other, will be the new Institute's first challenge. But the increasingly pace of change in the news media often breeds a' react first and think after' attitude that cutting-edge research, analysis and trend-forecasting from Oxford could help address.In the US, the Poynter Institute already provides such a world-renowned forum... <a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2006/01/a_new_oxford_university_instit.html" type="external">More of this article...</a> <a href="http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&amp;tab=wn&amp;q=%22Poynter%20Institute%22" type="external">Search Google News for more headlines about the Poynter Institute...</a></p>
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A new Oxford University Institute: what journalism deserves?
| false |
https://poynter.org/news/new-oxford-university-institute-what-journalism-deserves
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2006-01-23
| 2least
|
A new Oxford University Institute: what journalism deserves?
<p>By Julia DayThe Organ GrinderPublished: 1/19/06Excerpt:</p>
<p>The Reuters Foundation is giving £1.75m (approximately $3.12 million in U.S. dollars) over five years to establish an Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, which aims to become one of the most authoritative sources of reliable analysis of journalism worldwide...Challenging both worlds' traditional shrug of disinterest about the other, will be the new Institute's first challenge. But the increasingly pace of change in the news media often breeds a' react first and think after' attitude that cutting-edge research, analysis and trend-forecasting from Oxford could help address.In the US, the Poynter Institute already provides such a world-renowned forum... <a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2006/01/a_new_oxford_university_instit.html" type="external">More of this article...</a> <a href="http://news.google.com/nwshp?hl=en&amp;tab=wn&amp;q=%22Poynter%20Institute%22" type="external">Search Google News for more headlines about the Poynter Institute...</a></p>
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| 7,174 |
<p>When challenged about airstrikes that kill civilians—whether from drones or jets with “smart” ordnance—the excuses given by government and military officials are twofold. Either it was a regrettable error or it was a regrettable side effect of targeting a known “bad guy”—an ISIS leader, al Shabaab terrorist, a Taliban boss or al Qaeda commander. Collateral damage. The LOADR response. Lipstick on a dead rat.</p>
<p>So committing a war crime is OK if you say it’s regrettable?</p>
<p>“Yeah, but those guys behead journalists and enslave girls.”</p>
<p>True that, and ISIS has well earned the hatred and disgust most decent people on Earth feel for them. As well, when the US military strafes and bombs hospitals, can we wonder at all why the US is hated with enough venom to overpower morality? Yes, it’s true, when the US slaughters civilians it calls it a mistake and when ISIS does so they crow like proud two-year-olds with zero sense of right and wrong. But my question is, when are the American people going to stop allowing our military—representing all of us in a democracy—to commit crimes against humanity?</p>
<p>The Obama administration claims that the only civilians worth worrying about are in countries not designated as war zones and that, <a href="" type="internal">in those countries</a> the US has only killed between “64 and 116 civilians in drone and other lethal air attacks against terrorism suspects.” Those nations presumably include Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan. No numbers need be given for Iraq, Afghanistan, nor Syria. Civilians there are presumably fair game.</p>
<p>At least four organizations are keeping independent tallies and all are far higher in their assertions of minimum civilian deaths in those designated non-war zones.</p>
<p>What of the broader picture?</p>
<p>The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University frames the largest study and tracks civilian deaths from military actions; their study estimates from documented accounts that as of March last year approximately 210,000 noncombatants have been killed in the Global War on Terror launched in October 2001.</p>
<p>So, at some point, we have to wonder; If the US intelligence services determine that an ISIS homegrown leader is living in a building in Queens or North Minneapolis or Beaverton, Oregon will it be OK then to target that building with a Hellfire missile launched from a Predator drone?</p>
<p>How ridiculous, right? We would never do that.</p>
<p>Except that we do, routinely, in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Pakistan. When will this stop?</p>
<p>It will stop when we are not only morally opposed to it but when we decide to be effective. Our violent response to terrorism escalates at every turn, guaranteeing that, in turn, terrorism against the US will also escalate. It is time to reject the idea that a nuanced, nonviolent approach is ineffective. Indeed, it’s a bit reminiscent of what Winston Churchill said about democracy, that it’s the worst form of government—except for all the rest. Nonviolence is the worst way to manage conflict—except for all the rest.</p>
<p>We not only create more terrorists when we accidentally or mistakenly take out a hospital, almost more importantly, we create a widening, deepening pool of sympathy for any sort of insurgency against the US. While it is true that sympathy and support for terrorists is nowhere near the support for armed insurgency—and there is a great deal of difference—why on Earth would we continue to essentially guarantee that this global war on terror is permanent?</p>
<p>Why indeed? There are those who gain in status, power, and money by a continuation of this godawful war. These are the people who lobby hardest for more war.</p>
<p>Those people should be absolutely ignored. We need to fix this with other methods. We can, and we should.</p>
<p>If the US would rethink its methods of conflict management it might come to solutions without bloodshed. Some of problem is simply who is asked to advise the deciders. In some countries the officials consult with expert scholars and practitioners of mediation, negotiation, humanitarian aid and sustainable development. Those countries keep the peace much better. Most—e.g. Norway, Denmark, Sweden—have better metrics of citizen well-being than we do in the US.</p>
<p>We can help. As an example in our hemisphere, the rebels and the government in Colombia waged a 52-year war, each side committing many atrocities and the well-being of the average Colombian suffered for more than a half-century. Finally, peace and conflict scholars from the Kroc Institute <a href="http://www.mediate.com/articles/LederachJP3.cfm" type="external">were invited to help</a>—the first time any academic program in our field was invited to do so in the West. They introduced new ideas and the happy outcome is that finally—finally—the Colombians have a signed peace accord. Yes, the voters narrowly rejected it, but the principals are back at the table, not the battlefield, to work on a more agreeable agreement.</p>
<p>Please. We have the knowledge to end this terrible dance of death known as war. Humankind now knows how. But do we have the will? Can we step up as voters and require our successful candidates to stop boasting about how tough and lethal they will be and instead insist that the successful candidate will explain and commit to a productive peace process that is proven to produce much more gain with far less pain?</p>
|
Rethinking Killing Civilians
| true |
https://counterpunch.org/2016/10/07/rethinking-killing-civilians/
|
2016-10-07
| 4left
|
Rethinking Killing Civilians
<p>When challenged about airstrikes that kill civilians—whether from drones or jets with “smart” ordnance—the excuses given by government and military officials are twofold. Either it was a regrettable error or it was a regrettable side effect of targeting a known “bad guy”—an ISIS leader, al Shabaab terrorist, a Taliban boss or al Qaeda commander. Collateral damage. The LOADR response. Lipstick on a dead rat.</p>
<p>So committing a war crime is OK if you say it’s regrettable?</p>
<p>“Yeah, but those guys behead journalists and enslave girls.”</p>
<p>True that, and ISIS has well earned the hatred and disgust most decent people on Earth feel for them. As well, when the US military strafes and bombs hospitals, can we wonder at all why the US is hated with enough venom to overpower morality? Yes, it’s true, when the US slaughters civilians it calls it a mistake and when ISIS does so they crow like proud two-year-olds with zero sense of right and wrong. But my question is, when are the American people going to stop allowing our military—representing all of us in a democracy—to commit crimes against humanity?</p>
<p>The Obama administration claims that the only civilians worth worrying about are in countries not designated as war zones and that, <a href="" type="internal">in those countries</a> the US has only killed between “64 and 116 civilians in drone and other lethal air attacks against terrorism suspects.” Those nations presumably include Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan. No numbers need be given for Iraq, Afghanistan, nor Syria. Civilians there are presumably fair game.</p>
<p>At least four organizations are keeping independent tallies and all are far higher in their assertions of minimum civilian deaths in those designated non-war zones.</p>
<p>What of the broader picture?</p>
<p>The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University frames the largest study and tracks civilian deaths from military actions; their study estimates from documented accounts that as of March last year approximately 210,000 noncombatants have been killed in the Global War on Terror launched in October 2001.</p>
<p>So, at some point, we have to wonder; If the US intelligence services determine that an ISIS homegrown leader is living in a building in Queens or North Minneapolis or Beaverton, Oregon will it be OK then to target that building with a Hellfire missile launched from a Predator drone?</p>
<p>How ridiculous, right? We would never do that.</p>
<p>Except that we do, routinely, in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Pakistan. When will this stop?</p>
<p>It will stop when we are not only morally opposed to it but when we decide to be effective. Our violent response to terrorism escalates at every turn, guaranteeing that, in turn, terrorism against the US will also escalate. It is time to reject the idea that a nuanced, nonviolent approach is ineffective. Indeed, it’s a bit reminiscent of what Winston Churchill said about democracy, that it’s the worst form of government—except for all the rest. Nonviolence is the worst way to manage conflict—except for all the rest.</p>
<p>We not only create more terrorists when we accidentally or mistakenly take out a hospital, almost more importantly, we create a widening, deepening pool of sympathy for any sort of insurgency against the US. While it is true that sympathy and support for terrorists is nowhere near the support for armed insurgency—and there is a great deal of difference—why on Earth would we continue to essentially guarantee that this global war on terror is permanent?</p>
<p>Why indeed? There are those who gain in status, power, and money by a continuation of this godawful war. These are the people who lobby hardest for more war.</p>
<p>Those people should be absolutely ignored. We need to fix this with other methods. We can, and we should.</p>
<p>If the US would rethink its methods of conflict management it might come to solutions without bloodshed. Some of problem is simply who is asked to advise the deciders. In some countries the officials consult with expert scholars and practitioners of mediation, negotiation, humanitarian aid and sustainable development. Those countries keep the peace much better. Most—e.g. Norway, Denmark, Sweden—have better metrics of citizen well-being than we do in the US.</p>
<p>We can help. As an example in our hemisphere, the rebels and the government in Colombia waged a 52-year war, each side committing many atrocities and the well-being of the average Colombian suffered for more than a half-century. Finally, peace and conflict scholars from the Kroc Institute <a href="http://www.mediate.com/articles/LederachJP3.cfm" type="external">were invited to help</a>—the first time any academic program in our field was invited to do so in the West. They introduced new ideas and the happy outcome is that finally—finally—the Colombians have a signed peace accord. Yes, the voters narrowly rejected it, but the principals are back at the table, not the battlefield, to work on a more agreeable agreement.</p>
<p>Please. We have the knowledge to end this terrible dance of death known as war. Humankind now knows how. But do we have the will? Can we step up as voters and require our successful candidates to stop boasting about how tough and lethal they will be and instead insist that the successful candidate will explain and commit to a productive peace process that is proven to produce much more gain with far less pain?</p>
| 7,175 |
<p>Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul won an influential straw poll of conservative activists' preference in the next GOP presidential nominee.</p>
<p>Thirty-one percent of attendees of the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference named Paul, the libertarian-minded, first-term senator, as their top choice for the Republican presidential nominee in 2016.</p>
<p>Texas Sen. Ted Cruz finished second at 11 percent, and longshot neuroscientist Ben Carson registered a surprising third place finish, at 9 percent.</p>
<p>The straw poll is traditionally an early benchmark of conservatives' passion for various Republican candidates for the presidency.</p>
<p>New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a favorite of establishment Republicans who has sometimes tangled with conservatives and who has struggled with a recent political scandal, finished in fourth place at 8 percent. Christie made an appearance at CPAC this year after organizers declined to invite him in 2013.</p>
<p>Other notable finishers: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 7, Rick Santorum at 7 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 6 percent, Rep. Paul Ryan at 3 percent and Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 3 percent.</p>
<p>The Paul family has often represented itself well in the CPAC straw poll. Fueled in part by fervent, college-aged supporters (participants aged 18-25 made up almost half of straw poll participants), Ron Paul won the event in 2009 and 2010. His son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, won his first straw poll last year.</p>
<p>But it's also an imperfect predictor of White House hopefuls' fortunes once they reach the Republican primaries. Mitt Romney won the straw poll in 2012, but over the significant criticism of other candidates who accused him of gaming the process. Sen. John McCain, the GOP's 2008 nominee, never won the straw poll.</p>
|
Rand Paul Wins CPAC Straw Poll
| false |
http://nbcnews.com/storyline/cpac/rand-paul-wins-cpac-straw-poll-n47996
|
2014-03-09
| 3left-center
|
Rand Paul Wins CPAC Straw Poll
<p>Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul won an influential straw poll of conservative activists' preference in the next GOP presidential nominee.</p>
<p>Thirty-one percent of attendees of the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference named Paul, the libertarian-minded, first-term senator, as their top choice for the Republican presidential nominee in 2016.</p>
<p>Texas Sen. Ted Cruz finished second at 11 percent, and longshot neuroscientist Ben Carson registered a surprising third place finish, at 9 percent.</p>
<p>The straw poll is traditionally an early benchmark of conservatives' passion for various Republican candidates for the presidency.</p>
<p>New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a favorite of establishment Republicans who has sometimes tangled with conservatives and who has struggled with a recent political scandal, finished in fourth place at 8 percent. Christie made an appearance at CPAC this year after organizers declined to invite him in 2013.</p>
<p>Other notable finishers: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 7, Rick Santorum at 7 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 6 percent, Rep. Paul Ryan at 3 percent and Texas Gov. Rick Perry at 3 percent.</p>
<p>The Paul family has often represented itself well in the CPAC straw poll. Fueled in part by fervent, college-aged supporters (participants aged 18-25 made up almost half of straw poll participants), Ron Paul won the event in 2009 and 2010. His son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, won his first straw poll last year.</p>
<p>But it's also an imperfect predictor of White House hopefuls' fortunes once they reach the Republican primaries. Mitt Romney won the straw poll in 2012, but over the significant criticism of other candidates who accused him of gaming the process. Sen. John McCain, the GOP's 2008 nominee, never won the straw poll.</p>
| 7,176 |
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Various ArtistsGod Don’t Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson Alligator &#160; Various ArtistsThe Rough Guide to Bottleneck Blues Alligator</p>
<p />
<p>The great gospel blues artist Blind Willie Johnson left behind a legacy of just 30 songs, recorded between 1927 and 1930, that drew their primal power from his ferociously raspy voice and thunderous acoustic slide guitar. Underscoring his lasting impact, the exciting tribute album God Don’t Never Change is a fitting salute, starring some obvious kindred spirits and a few surprises among the admirers. Rickie Lee Jones, Lucinda Williams and Tom Waits (whose skid-row vocal style seems directly descended from Johnson’s) hew closely to the spirit of the master, while Cowboy Junkies get uncharacteristically down and dirty on “Jesus Is Coming Soon” and veteran blues dude Luther Dickinson lends an unexpected delicacy to “Bye and Bye I’m Going to See the King,” with assistance from the Rising Star Fife &amp; Drum Band.” Ideally, this excellent set will also send listeners back to Johnson’s own timeless, still unsurpassed, recordings. &#160;</p>
<p>One good place to start is The Rough Guide to Bottleneck Blues, whose leadoff track is Johnson’s thrilling “It’s Nobody’s Fault but Mine” (later “borrowed” by Led Zeppelin). While the compilation doesn’t include the electric bottleneck playing popularized by Elmore James and Duane Allman, this 25-song feast is a fine survey of the varied sounds possible when country bluesmen applied anything from a glass bottleneck to a pocketknife to their acoustic guitar strings. Ranging from hauntingly tender to scarily brutal, highlights include Leadbelly’s “C.C. Rider,” a staple for R&amp;B artists and blues-rock bands through the years, the charming “The Hula Blues,” from Jim and Bob (The Genial Hawaiians), and “When the Saints Go Marching In,” by Blind Willie Davis. But there’s not a dud to be found. Here’s to a volume two. &#160; &#160;</p>
<p />
|
“God Don’t Never Change”: the Songs of Blind Willie Johnson
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2016/03/music-review-god-dont-never-change-and-rough-guide-bottleneck-blues/
|
2016-03-05
| 4left
|
“God Don’t Never Change”: the Songs of Blind Willie Johnson
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>Various ArtistsGod Don’t Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson Alligator &#160; Various ArtistsThe Rough Guide to Bottleneck Blues Alligator</p>
<p />
<p>The great gospel blues artist Blind Willie Johnson left behind a legacy of just 30 songs, recorded between 1927 and 1930, that drew their primal power from his ferociously raspy voice and thunderous acoustic slide guitar. Underscoring his lasting impact, the exciting tribute album God Don’t Never Change is a fitting salute, starring some obvious kindred spirits and a few surprises among the admirers. Rickie Lee Jones, Lucinda Williams and Tom Waits (whose skid-row vocal style seems directly descended from Johnson’s) hew closely to the spirit of the master, while Cowboy Junkies get uncharacteristically down and dirty on “Jesus Is Coming Soon” and veteran blues dude Luther Dickinson lends an unexpected delicacy to “Bye and Bye I’m Going to See the King,” with assistance from the Rising Star Fife &amp; Drum Band.” Ideally, this excellent set will also send listeners back to Johnson’s own timeless, still unsurpassed, recordings. &#160;</p>
<p>One good place to start is The Rough Guide to Bottleneck Blues, whose leadoff track is Johnson’s thrilling “It’s Nobody’s Fault but Mine” (later “borrowed” by Led Zeppelin). While the compilation doesn’t include the electric bottleneck playing popularized by Elmore James and Duane Allman, this 25-song feast is a fine survey of the varied sounds possible when country bluesmen applied anything from a glass bottleneck to a pocketknife to their acoustic guitar strings. Ranging from hauntingly tender to scarily brutal, highlights include Leadbelly’s “C.C. Rider,” a staple for R&amp;B artists and blues-rock bands through the years, the charming “The Hula Blues,” from Jim and Bob (The Genial Hawaiians), and “When the Saints Go Marching In,” by Blind Willie Davis. But there’s not a dud to be found. Here’s to a volume two. &#160; &#160;</p>
<p />
| 7,177 |
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - The relentless rise in global stocks should extend in the short-term as investors pump record amounts of cash into equities after a “super-frothy” start to 2018, strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday.</p>
<p>Investors ploughed $23.9 billion into stocks this week, bringing cumulative four-week inflows to their strongest ever level, BAML strategists said, citing EPFR data.</p>
<p>The record inflow to stocks reflected investors’ overwhelmingly optimistic view on equities as global indices continued to crank out new records, driving them to add risk and wary of being left out of the final leg of the bull run.</p>
<p>“Happy new ‘Fear of Missing Out’”, BAML strategists quipped.</p>
<p>This week’s equity inflows were the seventh largest on record, with $20.4 billion going into ETFs and $3.5 billion into mutual funds.</p>
<p>Actively managed funds enjoyed their best cumulative four-week inflows in four years, a sign the active method was beginning to claw back some ground from passive funds.</p>
<p>Europe’s equities continued their recovery from outflows suffered in December, drawing in $2.2 billion of investors’ cash, while the U.S. remained the clear leader with $6.4 billion flowing in.</p>
<p>Cyclical sectors continued to rule the roost with financials, tech and energy stocks drawing the greatest inflows.</p> GOING ON A BEAR HUNT
<p>Amid the new year exuberance, there were hints the market couldn’t keep going at its blistering pace.</p>
<p>On the S&amp;P 500’s current momentum — 133 percent annualized return — it would reach 6220 points by the end of the year, BAML strategists noted. It closed at 2798 on Thursday.</p>
<p>Investors still fretted about bond yields and inflation.</p>
<p>The most frequently asked question by institutions was “what level of bond yields will cause an equity correction”, while private clients were most concerned about how to position for inflation.</p>
<p>While bonds also drew strong inflows of $5.1 billion this week, TIPS (inflation-protected U.S. Treasury bonds) funds drew record inflows of $1.5 billion in a sign investors were growing more cautious about inflationary pressures.</p>
<p>Strong flows into financials stocks and big redemptions from real estate investment trusts were also incipient signs of inflation positioning.</p>
<p>BAML strategists pointed to slowing flows and hesitant price action in credit markets as signs of strain. “Credit is ‘glue’ keeping cross-asset bull market together,” they wrote, labeling the market a “clear bear catalyst”.</p>
<p>Issues including a potential U.S. government shutdown, NAFTA negotiations, and oil prices were noise to worry about, strategists said, but they wouldn’t affect bullish positioning unless they dented earnings or translated into higher rates.</p>
<p>Having pushed back their prediction for a big market correction for month after month last year, BAML’s strategists didn’t put a new date on the long-awaited sell-off.</p>
<p>Feedback from clients pointed to a correction occurring only when real GDP forecasts, wage inflation and 10-year U.S. Treasury yields all rise above 3 percent and the S&amp;P 500 reaches 3,000 points, they said.</p>
<p>In the meantime “frothy price action could continue,” strategists concluded, adding that their bull and bear indicator of market sentiment had risen to 7.4, near a sell signal.</p>
<p>Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Keith Weir</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dropped about 2 percent on Friday, with the Dow falling more than 570 points, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threat on Chinese imports fueled increasing concern over a U.S. trade war with China.</p>
<p>Stocks added to losses and hit session lows in afternoon trading after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank will likely need to keep hiking interest rates to keep inflation under control and said it was too soon to know if rising trade tensions would hit the U.S. economy.</p>
<p>Fears of a trade war since Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports more than a month ago have kept investors on edge over concerns that such protectionist measures would hit global economic growth.</p>
<p>“It’s a reaction to concerns about the administration’s approach to trade. The market has vacillated between writing it off as just talk and assuming there could be a serious problem,” said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.</p>
<p>He and others said investors also appeared to be reducing risk ahead of the weekend.</p>
<p>“If the market is down it often tends to accelerate on Friday. Investors don’t want to take the risk of coming in Monday after having something happen over the weekend,” Meckler said.</p>
<p>Trump late Thursday threatened to slap $100 billion more in tariffs on Chinese imports, while Beijing said it was fully prepared to respond with a “fierce counter strike”.</p>
<p>U.S. companies seen as more likely to be hit by trade tensions with China were among the biggest drags on the Dow, including Boeing ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">BA.N</a>), down 3.1 percent. The S&amp;P 500 industrials index .SPLRCI, down 2.7 percent, had the biggest losses among sectors, though selling was broad-based.</p>
<p>Chipmakers, which as a group rely on China for about a quarter of their revenue, also declined. The Philadelphia semiconductor index .SOX fell 3.1 percent.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> fell 572.46 points, or 2.34 percent, to 23,932.76, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> lost 58.37 points, or 2.19 percent, to 2,604.47 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> dropped 161.44 points, or 2.28 percent, to 6,915.11.</p>
<p>The trade war worries continued to pressure stocks even as Trump administration officials sought to dampen concerns. Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in various interviews that he learned of the new tariffs on Thursday night, but also said there are ongoing talks on trade between the United States and China.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in an interview on CNBC said he was cautiously hopeful the United States will reach an agreement with China on trade.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 ended just above its 200-day moving average after trading well below that key support level that is watched by technical analysts.</p> Slideshow (5 Images)
<p>Powell, who was speaking on the U.S. economic outlook in Chicago, also said the labor market appeared close to full employment. It was his first speech on the economic outlook since taking over as chairman on Feb. 5.</p>
<p>Before the session started, a Labor Department report showed nonfarm payrolls increased by a smaller-than-expected 103,000 last month. While annual growth in average hourly earnings rose to 2.7 percent, it stayed below the 3 percent that economists estimate is needed to lift inflation toward the Federal Reserve’s 2-percent target.</p>
<p>“There was a hope that if he had a more dovish tone that that might be a counterbalance to the trade headwinds out there,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut.</p>
<p>For the week, the S&amp;P 500 was down 1.4 percent, the Dow was down 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq was down 2.1 percent.</p>
<p>Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) share were down 1.3 percent. It backed for the first time proposed legislation requiring social media sites to disclose the identities of buyers of online political campaign ads and introduced a new verification process for people buying “issue” ads, which have been used to sow discord online.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">Boeing Co</a> 326.12 BA.N New York Stock Exchange -10.28 (-3.06%) BA.N .DJI .SPX .IXIC FB.O
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 3.77-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.59-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 posted two new 52-week highs and seven new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 40 new highs and 64 new lows.</p>
<p>About 7.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges. That compares with the 7.3 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York, and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>PARIS (Reuters) - Air France grounded just under a third of flights on Saturday as staff staged a walkout over pay, and travelers also braced for a fresh wave of train strikes starting later in the day, crippling much of France’s transport network.</p>
<p>The industrial action at France’s flag carrier - marking the fifth day of worker stoppages over the past month and a half - has began to overlap with nationwide rolling train strikes, as rail unions protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s reforms.</p>
<p>Air France had forecast that some 70 percent of flights would operate on Saturday.</p>
<p>Unions representing airline staff, locked in a dispute with Air France management over their request for a six percent pay rise, last week called four more strike days in April, in addition to stoppages planned for April 10 and 11.</p>
<p>Queues formed at Paris’ Roissy airport on Saturday as stranded passengers sought to rebook flights.</p>
<p>“We wasted one day here,” said Harinath Reddy, an Indian software engineer whose connecting flight in Paris between Nuremberg in Germany and Mumbai was canceled, causing him to miss another leg of his journey within India.</p>
<p>“If I have to book new ticket within a short time, it’s very expensive. And they are saying they cannot do anything about that. It’s totally ridiculous.”</p> Passengers arrive at the Air France check-in at Bordeaux-Merignac airport, as Air France pilots, cabin and ground crews unions call for a strike over salaries in Merignac near Bordeaux, France April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
<p>Train strikes due to start at 1900CET (17GMT) and lasting through to the early hours of Tuesday spelled more chaos for commuters and travelers at the beginning of some mid-term school holidays in France.</p>
<p>The rolling strikes, called in protest at Macron’s bid to modernize the state-run rail company SNCF, through a reform that would end job-for-life guarantees for workers, are set to last until June.</p>
<p>On Sunday, some 35 percent of the workers needed for the network to run smoothly were expected to be absent, SNCF officials said on Saturday. That compares to a 48 percent absentee rate during strikes last Tuesday and Wednesday.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>One in five high-speed TGV trains were set to run on Sunday, while three out of four international Eurostar and Thalys routes would be operational, the SNCF said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Michaela Cabrera and Myriam Rivet, Writing by Sarah White; Editing by Stephen Powell</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil and global equity markets tumbled on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump upped the ante in a trade dispute with China, reviving investor jitters about the impact a tariff war could have on the world economy.</p>
<p>MSCI’s gauge of worldwide equity markets fell more than 1 percent and stocks on Wall Street skidded more than 2 percent after Trump threatened late on Thursday to add another $100 billion of tariffs on Chinese goods.</p>
<p>China warned it was fully prepared to respond with a “fierce counter strike” of fresh trade measures if the United States follows through on Trump’s latest threat.</p>
<p>The U.S. equity rout picked up during a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in Chicago on the U.S. economy. Powell said it was too early to tell if the threatened tariffs would materialize or the effect they might have.</p>
<p>“What Powell is signaling to market participants is that the Fed is not swayed or rattled by equity market volatility at this point. That’s the reason for the additional selling pressure,” said Chad Morganlander, a portfolio manager at Washington Crossing Advisors in Florham Park, New Jersey.</p>
<p>“The Fed has the intestinal fortitude to wait until it creeps into credit conditions and causes financial stress,” he said.</p>
<p>The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which closed before Powell’s speech, fell 0.4 percent but ended the week 1.15 percent higher.</p>
<p>The STOXX Europe index of companies in 17 European countries fell 0.35 percent, with the trade-exposed auto sector the leading sectoral loser, down 1.7 percent.</p>
<p>Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei nudged down slightly to regain a measure of calm after an initial knee-jerk reaction to Trump’s latest tariff proposal.</p>
<p>Defensive stocks such as utilities or telecoms were among a handful of European sectors to end the day in higher.</p>
<p>MSCI’s all-country index of stock performance in 47 countries fell 1.2 percent, led lower by Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com and JPMorgan - the same as on the benchmark S&amp;P 500 index.</p>
<p>On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 572.46 points, or 2.34 percent, to 23,932.76. The S&amp;P 500 lost 58.37 points, or 2.19 percent, to 2,604.47 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 161.44 points, or 2.28 percent, to 6,915.11.</p>
<p>The market’s decline is due more to its current vulnerable state than the prospect of a trade war, said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at The Leuthold Group in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>“It’s got higher values; financial liquidity is contracting. You came into the year with a little too much optimism. You got rising rates going on, you got rising inflation fears,” he said.</p>
<p>Powell said the U.S. central bank will likely need to keep raising interest rates to keep inflation under control.</p>
<p>A weak U.S. unemployment report, which nonetheless highlighted underlying labor market strength, helped push U.S. Treasury prices higher as the economy created the fewest jobs in six months in March.</p> A trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange watches the stock market drop on his screen shortly before the closing bell in New York, U.S., April 6, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
<p>Oil prices tumbled, with U.S. crude falling more than 2 percent.</p>
<p>Brent crude futures fell $1.22 to settle at $67.11 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled down $1.48 at $62.06.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury and euro zone government bond yields dipped as the trade spat raised the prospect of a full-blown trade war between the world’s two largest economies.</p>
<p>The yield on 10-year German government debt, the euro zone benchmark, dipped 2.7 basis points in late trading to 0.494 percent, erasing much of Thursday’s rise.</p>
<p>Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 15/32 in price to push yields down to 2.7753 percent.</p>
<p>Mike Terwilliger, portfolio manager of Resource Liquid Alternatives for the Resource Credit Income Fund, said nearly every news event seems to register on the market’s Richter scale, though investors have been dealing with some relatively weighty challenges this year.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly before the closing bell in New York, U.S., April 6, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
<p>“The recent decline in Treasuries is largely ‘Tweet related’ versus some fundamental shift in the view of inflation or economic growth,” he said.</p>
<p>The dollar index fell 0.37 percent, with the euro up 0.36 percent to $1.2282. The Japanese yen firmed 0.45 percent at 106.90 per dollar.</p>
<p>U.S. gold futures for June delivery settled up 0.6 percent at $1,336.10 an ounce.</p>
<p>Reporting by Herbert Lash; additional reporting by April Joyner in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s public debt is falling faster than expected thanks to high tax revenues and should drop below the European Union’s target threshold next year, a year earlier than previously expected, magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.</p> FILE PHOTO - The Frankfurt skyline with its financial district is photographed on early evening in Frankfurt, Germany, March 25, 2018. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
<p>Citing the government’s new stability program, due to be agreed by the cabinet next Wednesday, Spiegel said the debt ratio was now projected to fall to just over 58 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 from 61 percent this year.</p>
<p>That would see the debt ratio drop below the EU Stability and Growth Pact threshold of 60 percent of GDP a year earlier than previously forecast.</p>
<p>Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Hugh Lawson</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
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Largest ever flows into stocks greet 'super-frothy' start to 2018: BAML Wall Street ends down 2 percent as U.S.-China trade fears intensify Air France strike hits flights as French brace for rail stoppages Oil, stocks slide on Trump's new trade salvo German public debt falling faster than expected - Spiegel
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2018-01-19
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Largest ever flows into stocks greet 'super-frothy' start to 2018: BAML Wall Street ends down 2 percent as U.S.-China trade fears intensify Air France strike hits flights as French brace for rail stoppages Oil, stocks slide on Trump's new trade salvo German public debt falling faster than expected - Spiegel
<p>LONDON (Reuters) - The relentless rise in global stocks should extend in the short-term as investors pump record amounts of cash into equities after a “super-frothy” start to 2018, strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday.</p>
<p>Investors ploughed $23.9 billion into stocks this week, bringing cumulative four-week inflows to their strongest ever level, BAML strategists said, citing EPFR data.</p>
<p>The record inflow to stocks reflected investors’ overwhelmingly optimistic view on equities as global indices continued to crank out new records, driving them to add risk and wary of being left out of the final leg of the bull run.</p>
<p>“Happy new ‘Fear of Missing Out’”, BAML strategists quipped.</p>
<p>This week’s equity inflows were the seventh largest on record, with $20.4 billion going into ETFs and $3.5 billion into mutual funds.</p>
<p>Actively managed funds enjoyed their best cumulative four-week inflows in four years, a sign the active method was beginning to claw back some ground from passive funds.</p>
<p>Europe’s equities continued their recovery from outflows suffered in December, drawing in $2.2 billion of investors’ cash, while the U.S. remained the clear leader with $6.4 billion flowing in.</p>
<p>Cyclical sectors continued to rule the roost with financials, tech and energy stocks drawing the greatest inflows.</p> GOING ON A BEAR HUNT
<p>Amid the new year exuberance, there were hints the market couldn’t keep going at its blistering pace.</p>
<p>On the S&amp;P 500’s current momentum — 133 percent annualized return — it would reach 6220 points by the end of the year, BAML strategists noted. It closed at 2798 on Thursday.</p>
<p>Investors still fretted about bond yields and inflation.</p>
<p>The most frequently asked question by institutions was “what level of bond yields will cause an equity correction”, while private clients were most concerned about how to position for inflation.</p>
<p>While bonds also drew strong inflows of $5.1 billion this week, TIPS (inflation-protected U.S. Treasury bonds) funds drew record inflows of $1.5 billion in a sign investors were growing more cautious about inflationary pressures.</p>
<p>Strong flows into financials stocks and big redemptions from real estate investment trusts were also incipient signs of inflation positioning.</p>
<p>BAML strategists pointed to slowing flows and hesitant price action in credit markets as signs of strain. “Credit is ‘glue’ keeping cross-asset bull market together,” they wrote, labeling the market a “clear bear catalyst”.</p>
<p>Issues including a potential U.S. government shutdown, NAFTA negotiations, and oil prices were noise to worry about, strategists said, but they wouldn’t affect bullish positioning unless they dented earnings or translated into higher rates.</p>
<p>Having pushed back their prediction for a big market correction for month after month last year, BAML’s strategists didn’t put a new date on the long-awaited sell-off.</p>
<p>Feedback from clients pointed to a correction occurring only when real GDP forecasts, wage inflation and 10-year U.S. Treasury yields all rise above 3 percent and the S&amp;P 500 reaches 3,000 points, they said.</p>
<p>In the meantime “frothy price action could continue,” strategists concluded, adding that their bull and bear indicator of market sentiment had risen to 7.4, near a sell signal.</p>
<p>Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Keith Weir</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dropped about 2 percent on Friday, with the Dow falling more than 570 points, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threat on Chinese imports fueled increasing concern over a U.S. trade war with China.</p>
<p>Stocks added to losses and hit session lows in afternoon trading after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank will likely need to keep hiking interest rates to keep inflation under control and said it was too soon to know if rising trade tensions would hit the U.S. economy.</p>
<p>Fears of a trade war since Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports more than a month ago have kept investors on edge over concerns that such protectionist measures would hit global economic growth.</p>
<p>“It’s a reaction to concerns about the administration’s approach to trade. The market has vacillated between writing it off as just talk and assuming there could be a serious problem,” said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.</p>
<p>He and others said investors also appeared to be reducing risk ahead of the weekend.</p>
<p>“If the market is down it often tends to accelerate on Friday. Investors don’t want to take the risk of coming in Monday after having something happen over the weekend,” Meckler said.</p>
<p>Trump late Thursday threatened to slap $100 billion more in tariffs on Chinese imports, while Beijing said it was fully prepared to respond with a “fierce counter strike”.</p>
<p>U.S. companies seen as more likely to be hit by trade tensions with China were among the biggest drags on the Dow, including Boeing ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">BA.N</a>), down 3.1 percent. The S&amp;P 500 industrials index .SPLRCI, down 2.7 percent, had the biggest losses among sectors, though selling was broad-based.</p>
<p>Chipmakers, which as a group rely on China for about a quarter of their revenue, also declined. The Philadelphia semiconductor index .SOX fell 3.1 percent.</p>
<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.DJI" type="external">.DJI</a> fell 572.46 points, or 2.34 percent, to 23,932.76, the S&amp;P 500 <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.SPX" type="external">.SPX</a> lost 58.37 points, or 2.19 percent, to 2,604.47 and the Nasdaq Composite <a href="/finance/markets/index?symbol=.IXIC" type="external">.IXIC</a> dropped 161.44 points, or 2.28 percent, to 6,915.11.</p>
<p>The trade war worries continued to pressure stocks even as Trump administration officials sought to dampen concerns. Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in various interviews that he learned of the new tariffs on Thursday night, but also said there are ongoing talks on trade between the United States and China.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in an interview on CNBC said he was cautiously hopeful the United States will reach an agreement with China on trade.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 ended just above its 200-day moving average after trading well below that key support level that is watched by technical analysts.</p> Slideshow (5 Images)
<p>Powell, who was speaking on the U.S. economic outlook in Chicago, also said the labor market appeared close to full employment. It was his first speech on the economic outlook since taking over as chairman on Feb. 5.</p>
<p>Before the session started, a Labor Department report showed nonfarm payrolls increased by a smaller-than-expected 103,000 last month. While annual growth in average hourly earnings rose to 2.7 percent, it stayed below the 3 percent that economists estimate is needed to lift inflation toward the Federal Reserve’s 2-percent target.</p>
<p>“There was a hope that if he had a more dovish tone that that might be a counterbalance to the trade headwinds out there,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut.</p>
<p>For the week, the S&amp;P 500 was down 1.4 percent, the Dow was down 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq was down 2.1 percent.</p>
<p>Facebook ( <a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=FB.O" type="external">FB.O</a>) share were down 1.3 percent. It backed for the first time proposed legislation requiring social media sites to disclose the identities of buyers of online political campaign ads and introduced a new verification process for people buying “issue” ads, which have been used to sow discord online.</p>
<a href="/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=BA.N" type="external">Boeing Co</a> 326.12 BA.N New York Stock Exchange -10.28 (-3.06%) BA.N .DJI .SPX .IXIC FB.O
<p>Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 3.77-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.59-to-1 ratio favored decliners.</p>
<p>The S&amp;P 500 posted two new 52-week highs and seven new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 40 new highs and 64 new lows.</p>
<p>About 7.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges. That compares with the 7.3 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.</p>
<p>Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York, and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and James Dalgleish</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>PARIS (Reuters) - Air France grounded just under a third of flights on Saturday as staff staged a walkout over pay, and travelers also braced for a fresh wave of train strikes starting later in the day, crippling much of France’s transport network.</p>
<p>The industrial action at France’s flag carrier - marking the fifth day of worker stoppages over the past month and a half - has began to overlap with nationwide rolling train strikes, as rail unions protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s reforms.</p>
<p>Air France had forecast that some 70 percent of flights would operate on Saturday.</p>
<p>Unions representing airline staff, locked in a dispute with Air France management over their request for a six percent pay rise, last week called four more strike days in April, in addition to stoppages planned for April 10 and 11.</p>
<p>Queues formed at Paris’ Roissy airport on Saturday as stranded passengers sought to rebook flights.</p>
<p>“We wasted one day here,” said Harinath Reddy, an Indian software engineer whose connecting flight in Paris between Nuremberg in Germany and Mumbai was canceled, causing him to miss another leg of his journey within India.</p>
<p>“If I have to book new ticket within a short time, it’s very expensive. And they are saying they cannot do anything about that. It’s totally ridiculous.”</p> Passengers arrive at the Air France check-in at Bordeaux-Merignac airport, as Air France pilots, cabin and ground crews unions call for a strike over salaries in Merignac near Bordeaux, France April 7, 2018. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
<p>Train strikes due to start at 1900CET (17GMT) and lasting through to the early hours of Tuesday spelled more chaos for commuters and travelers at the beginning of some mid-term school holidays in France.</p>
<p>The rolling strikes, called in protest at Macron’s bid to modernize the state-run rail company SNCF, through a reform that would end job-for-life guarantees for workers, are set to last until June.</p>
<p>On Sunday, some 35 percent of the workers needed for the network to run smoothly were expected to be absent, SNCF officials said on Saturday. That compares to a 48 percent absentee rate during strikes last Tuesday and Wednesday.</p> Slideshow (2 Images)
<p>One in five high-speed TGV trains were set to run on Sunday, while three out of four international Eurostar and Thalys routes would be operational, the SNCF said.</p>
<p>Reporting by Michaela Cabrera and Myriam Rivet, Writing by Sarah White; Editing by Stephen Powell</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil and global equity markets tumbled on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump upped the ante in a trade dispute with China, reviving investor jitters about the impact a tariff war could have on the world economy.</p>
<p>MSCI’s gauge of worldwide equity markets fell more than 1 percent and stocks on Wall Street skidded more than 2 percent after Trump threatened late on Thursday to add another $100 billion of tariffs on Chinese goods.</p>
<p>China warned it was fully prepared to respond with a “fierce counter strike” of fresh trade measures if the United States follows through on Trump’s latest threat.</p>
<p>The U.S. equity rout picked up during a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in Chicago on the U.S. economy. Powell said it was too early to tell if the threatened tariffs would materialize or the effect they might have.</p>
<p>“What Powell is signaling to market participants is that the Fed is not swayed or rattled by equity market volatility at this point. That’s the reason for the additional selling pressure,” said Chad Morganlander, a portfolio manager at Washington Crossing Advisors in Florham Park, New Jersey.</p>
<p>“The Fed has the intestinal fortitude to wait until it creeps into credit conditions and causes financial stress,” he said.</p>
<p>The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which closed before Powell’s speech, fell 0.4 percent but ended the week 1.15 percent higher.</p>
<p>The STOXX Europe index of companies in 17 European countries fell 0.35 percent, with the trade-exposed auto sector the leading sectoral loser, down 1.7 percent.</p>
<p>Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei nudged down slightly to regain a measure of calm after an initial knee-jerk reaction to Trump’s latest tariff proposal.</p>
<p>Defensive stocks such as utilities or telecoms were among a handful of European sectors to end the day in higher.</p>
<p>MSCI’s all-country index of stock performance in 47 countries fell 1.2 percent, led lower by Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com and JPMorgan - the same as on the benchmark S&amp;P 500 index.</p>
<p>On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 572.46 points, or 2.34 percent, to 23,932.76. The S&amp;P 500 lost 58.37 points, or 2.19 percent, to 2,604.47 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 161.44 points, or 2.28 percent, to 6,915.11.</p>
<p>The market’s decline is due more to its current vulnerable state than the prospect of a trade war, said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at The Leuthold Group in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>“It’s got higher values; financial liquidity is contracting. You came into the year with a little too much optimism. You got rising rates going on, you got rising inflation fears,” he said.</p>
<p>Powell said the U.S. central bank will likely need to keep raising interest rates to keep inflation under control.</p>
<p>A weak U.S. unemployment report, which nonetheless highlighted underlying labor market strength, helped push U.S. Treasury prices higher as the economy created the fewest jobs in six months in March.</p> A trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange watches the stock market drop on his screen shortly before the closing bell in New York, U.S., April 6, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
<p>Oil prices tumbled, with U.S. crude falling more than 2 percent.</p>
<p>Brent crude futures fell $1.22 to settle at $67.11 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled down $1.48 at $62.06.</p>
<p>U.S. Treasury and euro zone government bond yields dipped as the trade spat raised the prospect of a full-blown trade war between the world’s two largest economies.</p>
<p>The yield on 10-year German government debt, the euro zone benchmark, dipped 2.7 basis points in late trading to 0.494 percent, erasing much of Thursday’s rise.</p>
<p>Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 15/32 in price to push yields down to 2.7753 percent.</p>
<p>Mike Terwilliger, portfolio manager of Resource Liquid Alternatives for the Resource Credit Income Fund, said nearly every news event seems to register on the market’s Richter scale, though investors have been dealing with some relatively weighty challenges this year.</p> Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly before the closing bell in New York, U.S., April 6, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
<p>“The recent decline in Treasuries is largely ‘Tweet related’ versus some fundamental shift in the view of inflation or economic growth,” he said.</p>
<p>The dollar index fell 0.37 percent, with the euro up 0.36 percent to $1.2282. The Japanese yen firmed 0.45 percent at 106.90 per dollar.</p>
<p>U.S. gold futures for June delivery settled up 0.6 percent at $1,336.10 an ounce.</p>
<p>Reporting by Herbert Lash; additional reporting by April Joyner in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
<p>BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s public debt is falling faster than expected thanks to high tax revenues and should drop below the European Union’s target threshold next year, a year earlier than previously expected, magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.</p> FILE PHOTO - The Frankfurt skyline with its financial district is photographed on early evening in Frankfurt, Germany, March 25, 2018. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
<p>Citing the government’s new stability program, due to be agreed by the cabinet next Wednesday, Spiegel said the debt ratio was now projected to fall to just over 58 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 from 61 percent this year.</p>
<p>That would see the debt ratio drop below the EU Stability and Growth Pact threshold of 60 percent of GDP a year earlier than previously forecast.</p>
<p>Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Hugh Lawson</p> Our Standards:
<a href="" type="internal">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a>
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<p>Utah's Gov. Gary Herbert said Wednesday that a Salt Lake City suburb's efforts to entice a new Facebook data center with millions of dollars in tax breaks may have ended, and local officials declined comment on whether they are still trying to lure the center.</p>
<p>An initial plan to give Facebook about $240 million in tax breaks fell apart late last month after local leaders, including Salt Lake County's mayor and county council, said the offer was too generous.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>After the state school board agreed the package was pricey, city officials in West Jordan said on Aug. 23 it that they would end negotiations because they could not compete with tax breaks offered by Los Lunas, New Mexico.</p>
<p>The city then reversed course the next day, with officials saying they still thought attracting the Facebook center represented a good opportunity and planned to start fresh.</p>
<p>Officials have been quiet since then, and Herbert said Wednesday that "the issue seems to be dormant at best and maybe lost. We'll have to see what happens."</p>
<p>Herbert, speaking at a news conference taped Wednesday by KUED-TV for broadcast later, would not say whether he believed the project was a worthwhile investment, but said the state had a minimal role in trying to attract the project because the effort was driven by local officials.</p>
<p>West Jordan city spokeswoman Kim Wells said Wednesday that the city is still interested in the project but the city itself has not started any new negotiations.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Wells deferred further questions to the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, (EDCUtah) a private nonprofit group contracted to recruit businesses to the state by the Governor's Office of Economic Development.</p>
<p>Erin Laney, the director of Business Development at EDCUtah, declined to comment Wednesday.</p>
<p>Aimee Edwards, a spokeswoman for the Governor's Office of Economic Development, said her agency was not involved in any talks and had no comment.</p>
<p>Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, an early and outspoken critic of the deal, has said the offer already extended was too expensive for a project that would produce about 100 jobs.</p>
<p>Salt Lake County officials have heard nothing about the attempt to attract the Facebook center since Aug. 23, said his spokeswoman, Alyson Heyrend.</p>
<p>An emailed message seeking comment from Facebook was not immediately returned.</p>
<p>In New Mexico, state Rep. Alonzo Baldonado, a Republican whose district includes Los Lunas, said Wednesday he had not heard of any developments out of Utah. He reiterated his support for the project, saying construction of a data center in New Mexico could have a beneficial ripple effect for the economy.</p>
<p>"I think Facebook represents a really good opportunity for Los Lunas and the whole state of New Mexico to have a globally recognized company located here," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque contributed to this report.</p>
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Utah quiet on whether Facebook data project still alive
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Utah quiet on whether Facebook data project still alive
<p>Utah's Gov. Gary Herbert said Wednesday that a Salt Lake City suburb's efforts to entice a new Facebook data center with millions of dollars in tax breaks may have ended, and local officials declined comment on whether they are still trying to lure the center.</p>
<p>An initial plan to give Facebook about $240 million in tax breaks fell apart late last month after local leaders, including Salt Lake County's mayor and county council, said the offer was too generous.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>After the state school board agreed the package was pricey, city officials in West Jordan said on Aug. 23 it that they would end negotiations because they could not compete with tax breaks offered by Los Lunas, New Mexico.</p>
<p>The city then reversed course the next day, with officials saying they still thought attracting the Facebook center represented a good opportunity and planned to start fresh.</p>
<p>Officials have been quiet since then, and Herbert said Wednesday that "the issue seems to be dormant at best and maybe lost. We'll have to see what happens."</p>
<p>Herbert, speaking at a news conference taped Wednesday by KUED-TV for broadcast later, would not say whether he believed the project was a worthwhile investment, but said the state had a minimal role in trying to attract the project because the effort was driven by local officials.</p>
<p>West Jordan city spokeswoman Kim Wells said Wednesday that the city is still interested in the project but the city itself has not started any new negotiations.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Wells deferred further questions to the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, (EDCUtah) a private nonprofit group contracted to recruit businesses to the state by the Governor's Office of Economic Development.</p>
<p>Erin Laney, the director of Business Development at EDCUtah, declined to comment Wednesday.</p>
<p>Aimee Edwards, a spokeswoman for the Governor's Office of Economic Development, said her agency was not involved in any talks and had no comment.</p>
<p>Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, an early and outspoken critic of the deal, has said the offer already extended was too expensive for a project that would produce about 100 jobs.</p>
<p>Salt Lake County officials have heard nothing about the attempt to attract the Facebook center since Aug. 23, said his spokeswoman, Alyson Heyrend.</p>
<p>An emailed message seeking comment from Facebook was not immediately returned.</p>
<p>In New Mexico, state Rep. Alonzo Baldonado, a Republican whose district includes Los Lunas, said Wednesday he had not heard of any developments out of Utah. He reiterated his support for the project, saying construction of a data center in New Mexico could have a beneficial ripple effect for the economy.</p>
<p>"I think Facebook represents a really good opportunity for Los Lunas and the whole state of New Mexico to have a globally recognized company located here," he said.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Associated Press writer Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque contributed to this report.</p>
| 7,179 |
<p>Barclays will axe thousands of jobs and raise bonuses for its investment bankers this year, the under-fire British lender announced on Tuesday after posting a return to annual profits.</p>
<p>Chief executive Antony Jenkins, who has himself declined a huge bonus as Barclays is probed along with other banks over possible manipulation of foreign exchange trading, said that between 10,000 and 12,000 jobs would be cut worldwide this year.&#160;</p>
<p>Barclays said it paid 2.4 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) in incentive awards last year, raising bonuses at the investment bank by 13 percent despite a slump in its profits. The average bonus for the investment bank's 26,200 staff was 60,100 pounds.</p>
<p>Critics of the bonus hike said it showed Britain's biggest banks were still failing to heed the lessons of a financial crisis caused by dangerous risk taking and excessive pay.</p>
<p>Barclays, which is seeking to repair a reputation badly damaged by its role in the Libor interest rate-rigging scandal of 2012, increased the money available for staff bonuses by almost 10 percent to £2.378 billion ($3.907 billion, 2.858 billion euros).</p>
<p>While net profits rose, the investment bank unit reported a loss in the fourth quarter, while pre-tax earnings slumped as Barclays factored in restructuring costs and litigation charges.</p>
<p>Along with other British lenders, Barclays has been hit by massive compensation payouts to customers who were mis-sold insurance policies.</p>
<p>"Despite challenging conditions, our underlying performance has been resilient and momentum is building, as evidenced by the results," Jenkins said in comments accompanying the results.</p>
<p>Defending its bonus payouts, the bank said it was being competitive in "ensuring that Barclays has the right people in the right roles".</p>
<p>Barclays, which is Britain's second biggest bank after HSBC, announced on Tuesday that a strong performance by its retail arm helped lift group profit after tax to £540 million last year, compared with a net loss of £624 million in 2012.</p>
<p>"WE NEED THE BEST PEOPLE"</p>
<p>The higher bonuses lifted the compensation-to-income ratio in the investment bank to 43.2 percent last year from 40 percent in 2012. Jenkins, who gave up his own bonus for 2013, said he still aimed for a ratio in the "mid-30s" across the bank.</p>
<p>He defended the bigger bonus pot, saying the bank had to recruit the best staff to compete with global rivals and continued to have "constructive" talks with investors over pay.</p>
<p>"We need to recruit people from Singapore to San Francisco. We need the best people in the bank to drive long-term sustainable returns for our shareholders," Jenkins told reporters on a conference call.</p>
<p>"I understand that there will be some (people) who feel that this decision is the wrong one for Barclays. But it is the decision of the board and myself that this entirely is the right decision for the group and in the long-term interests of shareholders," he said.</p>
<p>But business leaders' group the Institute of Directors said the bank's bonus policy raised the question of whether it was being run for its shareholders, or its staff.</p>
<p>"It cannot be right in any business for the executive bonus pool to be nearly three times bigger than the total dividend pay out to the company's owners," said Roger Barker, the institute's director of corporate governance.</p>
<p>Britain's opposition Labor party said the pay-outs underlined the case for a new tax on banker bonuses, which it would use to fund work for unemployed young people.</p>
<p>INVESTMENT BANKING LOSS</p>
<p>Jenkins said banking was going through a "100-year transformation" as technology and cost pressures reshape the industry, and he was optimistic that Barclays was well set for a "pivotal" 2014.</p>
<p>The bank said 820 senior roles would go, and half of those were cut at the investment bank in the last two weeks. Half of the affected staff in the UK had already been notified.</p>
<p>It cut 7,650 jobs last year, including 1,400 in the investment bank, as part of a restructuring unveiled a year ago by Jenkins to cut 1.7 billion pounds of annual costs. There were 139,600 Barclays employees by the end of the year.</p>
<p>Investment bank income fell 9 percent last year to 10.7 billion due largely to a fall in fixed income.</p>
<p>The investment bank made a loss of 329 million in the fourth quarter, hit by restructuring costs, a 220-million-pound charge for litigation and regulatory penalties and a 333 million cost to pay a UK bank levy.</p>
<p>Revenue in the fourth quarter from fixed income, currencies and commodities fell 16 percent from a year ago, echoing the weak performance across investment banks and not as steep a fall as seen at big rival Deutsche Bank. Barclays' equities income rose 9 percent from a year ago, and advisory and underwriting income fell 5 percent.</p>
<p>Barclays had already released headline results showing its earnings dropped by a third last year to 5.2 billion pounds, falling short of analyst forecasts due to the investment bank's slump.</p>
<p>The bank is successfully cutting its balance sheet, analysts said, and 196 billion pounds in the second half of last year was more than double its target, helped by 55 billion due to foreign exchange movements. Barclays said it would aim to cut at least another 63 billion pounds to get the balance sheet below 1.3 trillion pounds, based on the UK regulator's calculation of leverage exposure.</p>
<p>Barclays said it expected to improve its leverage ratio to at least 3.5 percent by the end of next year, from just under 3 percent at the end of last year and 2.2 percent at the end of June. The UK regulator forced Barclays to raise 6 billion pounds from investors in October to improve the leverage ratio.</p>
<p>The bank said it remained committed to paying out 40-50 percent of its adjusted earnings in dividends.</p>
<p>SHARE PRICES SLIDE</p>
<p>Barclays shares slumped 1.91 percent to 269.75 pence on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was showing a gain of 0.79 percent at 6,643.34 points in morning deals.</p>
<p>"Underneath the Barclays bonnet, performances are mixed," said Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers.</p>
<p>"More positively, the capital cushion is now looking robust, the credit impairment position has improved further, the bank continues to pay a dividend unlike some of its rivals... and certain pockets of the business such as UK Retail made a robust contribution."</p>
<p>Retail banking veteran Jenkins replaced Bob Diamond, who stepped down as chief executive of Barclays in July 2012 after the bank was fined £290 million by British and US regulators over the attempted manipulation of the key interbank Libor interest rate.</p>
<p>US national Diamond was renowned for overseeing a culture of high bonuses at Barclays' investment banking division, which he headed before taking over as chief executive.</p>
<p>Barclays took the unusual step of posting its headline and adjusted pre-tax profits on Monday, a day earlier than scheduled, after figures were leaked to media.</p>
<p>While statutory pre-tax profits surged last year, adjusted earnings dropped and missed the bank's own forecast amid the group's cost-cutting.</p>
<p>Reported profit before tax hit £2.9 billion in 2013, while adjusted pre-tax profit, which the bank said took into account exceptional charges, slumped to £5.2 billion.</p>
<p>Barclays has set aside an additional £331 million in provisions to cover litigation and regulatory charges.</p>
<p>And last year it was forced into a huge £5.8-billion shares sale, or rights issue, to meet regulatory demands to strengthen its capital buffers.</p>
<p>"Barclays tried to stagger the bad news by unexpectedly revealing the headline (pre-tax profit) figure yesterday, but announcing jobs cuts and increasing the bonus pool has backfired on the bank's share price," said David Madden, market analyst at traders IG.</p>
<p>In a fresh blow, Britain's data watchdog on Sunday launched a probe after confidential files relating to Barclays customers were allegedly stolen then sold on to rogue brokers.</p>
|
Scandal-hit Barclays bank is cutting 12,000 jobs despite giving itself $3.9 billion in bonuses
| false |
https://pri.org/stories/2014-02-11/scandal-hit-barclays-bank-cutting-12000-jobs-despite-giving-itself-39-billion
|
2014-02-11
| 3left-center
|
Scandal-hit Barclays bank is cutting 12,000 jobs despite giving itself $3.9 billion in bonuses
<p>Barclays will axe thousands of jobs and raise bonuses for its investment bankers this year, the under-fire British lender announced on Tuesday after posting a return to annual profits.</p>
<p>Chief executive Antony Jenkins, who has himself declined a huge bonus as Barclays is probed along with other banks over possible manipulation of foreign exchange trading, said that between 10,000 and 12,000 jobs would be cut worldwide this year.&#160;</p>
<p>Barclays said it paid 2.4 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) in incentive awards last year, raising bonuses at the investment bank by 13 percent despite a slump in its profits. The average bonus for the investment bank's 26,200 staff was 60,100 pounds.</p>
<p>Critics of the bonus hike said it showed Britain's biggest banks were still failing to heed the lessons of a financial crisis caused by dangerous risk taking and excessive pay.</p>
<p>Barclays, which is seeking to repair a reputation badly damaged by its role in the Libor interest rate-rigging scandal of 2012, increased the money available for staff bonuses by almost 10 percent to £2.378 billion ($3.907 billion, 2.858 billion euros).</p>
<p>While net profits rose, the investment bank unit reported a loss in the fourth quarter, while pre-tax earnings slumped as Barclays factored in restructuring costs and litigation charges.</p>
<p>Along with other British lenders, Barclays has been hit by massive compensation payouts to customers who were mis-sold insurance policies.</p>
<p>"Despite challenging conditions, our underlying performance has been resilient and momentum is building, as evidenced by the results," Jenkins said in comments accompanying the results.</p>
<p>Defending its bonus payouts, the bank said it was being competitive in "ensuring that Barclays has the right people in the right roles".</p>
<p>Barclays, which is Britain's second biggest bank after HSBC, announced on Tuesday that a strong performance by its retail arm helped lift group profit after tax to £540 million last year, compared with a net loss of £624 million in 2012.</p>
<p>"WE NEED THE BEST PEOPLE"</p>
<p>The higher bonuses lifted the compensation-to-income ratio in the investment bank to 43.2 percent last year from 40 percent in 2012. Jenkins, who gave up his own bonus for 2013, said he still aimed for a ratio in the "mid-30s" across the bank.</p>
<p>He defended the bigger bonus pot, saying the bank had to recruit the best staff to compete with global rivals and continued to have "constructive" talks with investors over pay.</p>
<p>"We need to recruit people from Singapore to San Francisco. We need the best people in the bank to drive long-term sustainable returns for our shareholders," Jenkins told reporters on a conference call.</p>
<p>"I understand that there will be some (people) who feel that this decision is the wrong one for Barclays. But it is the decision of the board and myself that this entirely is the right decision for the group and in the long-term interests of shareholders," he said.</p>
<p>But business leaders' group the Institute of Directors said the bank's bonus policy raised the question of whether it was being run for its shareholders, or its staff.</p>
<p>"It cannot be right in any business for the executive bonus pool to be nearly three times bigger than the total dividend pay out to the company's owners," said Roger Barker, the institute's director of corporate governance.</p>
<p>Britain's opposition Labor party said the pay-outs underlined the case for a new tax on banker bonuses, which it would use to fund work for unemployed young people.</p>
<p>INVESTMENT BANKING LOSS</p>
<p>Jenkins said banking was going through a "100-year transformation" as technology and cost pressures reshape the industry, and he was optimistic that Barclays was well set for a "pivotal" 2014.</p>
<p>The bank said 820 senior roles would go, and half of those were cut at the investment bank in the last two weeks. Half of the affected staff in the UK had already been notified.</p>
<p>It cut 7,650 jobs last year, including 1,400 in the investment bank, as part of a restructuring unveiled a year ago by Jenkins to cut 1.7 billion pounds of annual costs. There were 139,600 Barclays employees by the end of the year.</p>
<p>Investment bank income fell 9 percent last year to 10.7 billion due largely to a fall in fixed income.</p>
<p>The investment bank made a loss of 329 million in the fourth quarter, hit by restructuring costs, a 220-million-pound charge for litigation and regulatory penalties and a 333 million cost to pay a UK bank levy.</p>
<p>Revenue in the fourth quarter from fixed income, currencies and commodities fell 16 percent from a year ago, echoing the weak performance across investment banks and not as steep a fall as seen at big rival Deutsche Bank. Barclays' equities income rose 9 percent from a year ago, and advisory and underwriting income fell 5 percent.</p>
<p>Barclays had already released headline results showing its earnings dropped by a third last year to 5.2 billion pounds, falling short of analyst forecasts due to the investment bank's slump.</p>
<p>The bank is successfully cutting its balance sheet, analysts said, and 196 billion pounds in the second half of last year was more than double its target, helped by 55 billion due to foreign exchange movements. Barclays said it would aim to cut at least another 63 billion pounds to get the balance sheet below 1.3 trillion pounds, based on the UK regulator's calculation of leverage exposure.</p>
<p>Barclays said it expected to improve its leverage ratio to at least 3.5 percent by the end of next year, from just under 3 percent at the end of last year and 2.2 percent at the end of June. The UK regulator forced Barclays to raise 6 billion pounds from investors in October to improve the leverage ratio.</p>
<p>The bank said it remained committed to paying out 40-50 percent of its adjusted earnings in dividends.</p>
<p>SHARE PRICES SLIDE</p>
<p>Barclays shares slumped 1.91 percent to 269.75 pence on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was showing a gain of 0.79 percent at 6,643.34 points in morning deals.</p>
<p>"Underneath the Barclays bonnet, performances are mixed," said Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers.</p>
<p>"More positively, the capital cushion is now looking robust, the credit impairment position has improved further, the bank continues to pay a dividend unlike some of its rivals... and certain pockets of the business such as UK Retail made a robust contribution."</p>
<p>Retail banking veteran Jenkins replaced Bob Diamond, who stepped down as chief executive of Barclays in July 2012 after the bank was fined £290 million by British and US regulators over the attempted manipulation of the key interbank Libor interest rate.</p>
<p>US national Diamond was renowned for overseeing a culture of high bonuses at Barclays' investment banking division, which he headed before taking over as chief executive.</p>
<p>Barclays took the unusual step of posting its headline and adjusted pre-tax profits on Monday, a day earlier than scheduled, after figures were leaked to media.</p>
<p>While statutory pre-tax profits surged last year, adjusted earnings dropped and missed the bank's own forecast amid the group's cost-cutting.</p>
<p>Reported profit before tax hit £2.9 billion in 2013, while adjusted pre-tax profit, which the bank said took into account exceptional charges, slumped to £5.2 billion.</p>
<p>Barclays has set aside an additional £331 million in provisions to cover litigation and regulatory charges.</p>
<p>And last year it was forced into a huge £5.8-billion shares sale, or rights issue, to meet regulatory demands to strengthen its capital buffers.</p>
<p>"Barclays tried to stagger the bad news by unexpectedly revealing the headline (pre-tax profit) figure yesterday, but announcing jobs cuts and increasing the bonus pool has backfired on the bank's share price," said David Madden, market analyst at traders IG.</p>
<p>In a fresh blow, Britain's data watchdog on Sunday launched a probe after confidential files relating to Barclays customers were allegedly stolen then sold on to rogue brokers.</p>
| 7,180 |
<p>CANTON, Mass. (AP) - So long strawberry banana smoothie. Goodbye steak and egg breakfast sandwich.</p>
<p>Dunkin? Donuts is cutting back on its food and drink offerings. The Boston Herald <a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2018/01/dunkin_drops_10_of_menu_offerings" type="external">reports</a> the new, simplified menu is expected to roll out in New England locations starting Monday before expanding nationwide in mid-March.</p>
<p>The Canton, Massachusetts-based company founded in 1950 says the reduction represents about 10 percent of its offerings and is meant to streamline service.</p>
<p>Among the casualties are less popular items and ones that are time-consuming to make, like smoothies, afternoon sandwiches and certain breakfast sandwiches.</p>
<p>The company announced earlier that it had removed artificial dyes from all doughnuts sold in the U.S. It plans to do the same for the rest of its U.S. food and drink offering by the end of the year.</p>
<p>CANTON, Mass. (AP) - So long strawberry banana smoothie. Goodbye steak and egg breakfast sandwich.</p>
<p>Dunkin? Donuts is cutting back on its food and drink offerings. The Boston Herald <a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2018/01/dunkin_drops_10_of_menu_offerings" type="external">reports</a> the new, simplified menu is expected to roll out in New England locations starting Monday before expanding nationwide in mid-March.</p>
<p>The Canton, Massachusetts-based company founded in 1950 says the reduction represents about 10 percent of its offerings and is meant to streamline service.</p>
<p>Among the casualties are less popular items and ones that are time-consuming to make, like smoothies, afternoon sandwiches and certain breakfast sandwiches.</p>
<p>The company announced earlier that it had removed artificial dyes from all doughnuts sold in the U.S. It plans to do the same for the rest of its U.S. food and drink offering by the end of the year.</p>
|
Dunkin? Donuts scaling back 10 percent of food, drink menu
| false |
https://apnews.com/00913acb08f844baa3713d2319540e01
|
2018-01-06
| 2least
|
Dunkin? Donuts scaling back 10 percent of food, drink menu
<p>CANTON, Mass. (AP) - So long strawberry banana smoothie. Goodbye steak and egg breakfast sandwich.</p>
<p>Dunkin? Donuts is cutting back on its food and drink offerings. The Boston Herald <a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2018/01/dunkin_drops_10_of_menu_offerings" type="external">reports</a> the new, simplified menu is expected to roll out in New England locations starting Monday before expanding nationwide in mid-March.</p>
<p>The Canton, Massachusetts-based company founded in 1950 says the reduction represents about 10 percent of its offerings and is meant to streamline service.</p>
<p>Among the casualties are less popular items and ones that are time-consuming to make, like smoothies, afternoon sandwiches and certain breakfast sandwiches.</p>
<p>The company announced earlier that it had removed artificial dyes from all doughnuts sold in the U.S. It plans to do the same for the rest of its U.S. food and drink offering by the end of the year.</p>
<p>CANTON, Mass. (AP) - So long strawberry banana smoothie. Goodbye steak and egg breakfast sandwich.</p>
<p>Dunkin? Donuts is cutting back on its food and drink offerings. The Boston Herald <a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2018/01/dunkin_drops_10_of_menu_offerings" type="external">reports</a> the new, simplified menu is expected to roll out in New England locations starting Monday before expanding nationwide in mid-March.</p>
<p>The Canton, Massachusetts-based company founded in 1950 says the reduction represents about 10 percent of its offerings and is meant to streamline service.</p>
<p>Among the casualties are less popular items and ones that are time-consuming to make, like smoothies, afternoon sandwiches and certain breakfast sandwiches.</p>
<p>The company announced earlier that it had removed artificial dyes from all doughnuts sold in the U.S. It plans to do the same for the rest of its U.S. food and drink offering by the end of the year.</p>
| 7,181 |
<p />
<p>Joel Best’s Stat-Spotting: A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data, belongs on the nightstand of anyone who regularly encounters statistics—which is to say, everyone. In my line of work as a fact-checker, the book’s case studies are even more of a must-read.</p>
<p>Take, for example, this health statistic, repeated on a number of websites: Each year, 20,000 people die from taking aspirin.</p>
<p>Best proffers a number of tips that challenge this factoid’s accuracy.</p>
<p>#1: If something sounds too shocking to be true, it probably is.</p>
<p>Check.</p>
<p>#2: Make sure sources aren’t biased.</p>
<p>The stat appears on a site titled What Doctors Don’t Tell You and a page promoting magnetic therapy as an alternative to (you guessed it) aspirin.</p>
<p>#3: Look for “botched translations”—numbers simplified to the point of inaccuracy.</p>
<p>Checking in with the FDA (a trusted source that appears to be the original), we find that an estimated 10,000-20,000 people die a year from NSAID (Nonsteroidal Inflammatory Drugs) complications. Aspirin is indeed an NSAID, but so are several other drugs, including ibuprofen. So this figure unfairly singles out aspirin, omits the “complications” modifier, and uses the highest figure from a broad number range. It’s also a stat from 1999.</p>
<p>Mate.</p>
<p>This example illustrates just how easy it is for a number to be misrepresented, and how it can quickly take on a life of its own. And Best reveals how even major publications and news networks propagate misinformation.</p>
<p>It’s tempting after reading Stat-Spotting to throw up your hands and turn against data entirely. But the tome successfully shows how to sort the muck from the truth, which is out there. And as Best says, “We need quantitative data—statistics—to guide us.”</p>
<p>In other words, we need stats to make sense of the world. We just need to know how to make sense of the stats.</p>
<p />
|
Books: Fact-check, Mate
| true |
https://motherjones.com/politics/2009/02/books-factcheck-mate/
|
2009-02-24
| 4left
|
Books: Fact-check, Mate
<p />
<p>Joel Best’s Stat-Spotting: A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data, belongs on the nightstand of anyone who regularly encounters statistics—which is to say, everyone. In my line of work as a fact-checker, the book’s case studies are even more of a must-read.</p>
<p>Take, for example, this health statistic, repeated on a number of websites: Each year, 20,000 people die from taking aspirin.</p>
<p>Best proffers a number of tips that challenge this factoid’s accuracy.</p>
<p>#1: If something sounds too shocking to be true, it probably is.</p>
<p>Check.</p>
<p>#2: Make sure sources aren’t biased.</p>
<p>The stat appears on a site titled What Doctors Don’t Tell You and a page promoting magnetic therapy as an alternative to (you guessed it) aspirin.</p>
<p>#3: Look for “botched translations”—numbers simplified to the point of inaccuracy.</p>
<p>Checking in with the FDA (a trusted source that appears to be the original), we find that an estimated 10,000-20,000 people die a year from NSAID (Nonsteroidal Inflammatory Drugs) complications. Aspirin is indeed an NSAID, but so are several other drugs, including ibuprofen. So this figure unfairly singles out aspirin, omits the “complications” modifier, and uses the highest figure from a broad number range. It’s also a stat from 1999.</p>
<p>Mate.</p>
<p>This example illustrates just how easy it is for a number to be misrepresented, and how it can quickly take on a life of its own. And Best reveals how even major publications and news networks propagate misinformation.</p>
<p>It’s tempting after reading Stat-Spotting to throw up your hands and turn against data entirely. But the tome successfully shows how to sort the muck from the truth, which is out there. And as Best says, “We need quantitative data—statistics—to guide us.”</p>
<p>In other words, we need stats to make sense of the world. We just need to know how to make sense of the stats.</p>
<p />
| 7,182 |
<p>NORTH HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) — Two men have been indicted on charges of stealing an ATV that belonged to a New Hampshire police chief.</p>
<p>The two face burglary, accomplice to theft and receiving stolen property charges.</p>
<p>Police say the men broke into a camper in October 2015 in Lisbon owned by the town’s police chief and took the key to his Polaris ATV. Then they allegedly drove away in the machine.</p>
<p>Police Chief Scott Pinson <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/local/north-haverhill-two-indicted-for-stealing-atv-belonging-to-police/article_6cacb3f8-9209-58fd-9632-19451305542c.html" type="external">tells</a> the Caledonian Record he can’t comment on the case because he’s a party to it.</p>
<p>It wasn’t immediately known if 37-year-old Kenneth England, of Franconia, and 23-year-old Michael Kinne, of Lisbon, had lawyers. Phone numbers could not be found for them.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Caledonian-Record, <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external">http://www.caledonianrecord.com</a></p>
<p>NORTH HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) — Two men have been indicted on charges of stealing an ATV that belonged to a New Hampshire police chief.</p>
<p>The two face burglary, accomplice to theft and receiving stolen property charges.</p>
<p>Police say the men broke into a camper in October 2015 in Lisbon owned by the town’s police chief and took the key to his Polaris ATV. Then they allegedly drove away in the machine.</p>
<p>Police Chief Scott Pinson <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/local/north-haverhill-two-indicted-for-stealing-atv-belonging-to-police/article_6cacb3f8-9209-58fd-9632-19451305542c.html" type="external">tells</a> the Caledonian Record he can’t comment on the case because he’s a party to it.</p>
<p>It wasn’t immediately known if 37-year-old Kenneth England, of Franconia, and 23-year-old Michael Kinne, of Lisbon, had lawyers. Phone numbers could not be found for them.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Caledonian-Record, <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external">http://www.caledonianrecord.com</a></p>
|
Man accused of stealing town police chief’s ATV
| false |
https://apnews.com/3de37210e74b4442becc5877a1a5464f
|
2018-01-25
| 2least
|
Man accused of stealing town police chief’s ATV
<p>NORTH HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) — Two men have been indicted on charges of stealing an ATV that belonged to a New Hampshire police chief.</p>
<p>The two face burglary, accomplice to theft and receiving stolen property charges.</p>
<p>Police say the men broke into a camper in October 2015 in Lisbon owned by the town’s police chief and took the key to his Polaris ATV. Then they allegedly drove away in the machine.</p>
<p>Police Chief Scott Pinson <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/local/north-haverhill-two-indicted-for-stealing-atv-belonging-to-police/article_6cacb3f8-9209-58fd-9632-19451305542c.html" type="external">tells</a> the Caledonian Record he can’t comment on the case because he’s a party to it.</p>
<p>It wasn’t immediately known if 37-year-old Kenneth England, of Franconia, and 23-year-old Michael Kinne, of Lisbon, had lawyers. Phone numbers could not be found for them.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Caledonian-Record, <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external">http://www.caledonianrecord.com</a></p>
<p>NORTH HAVERHILL, N.H. (AP) — Two men have been indicted on charges of stealing an ATV that belonged to a New Hampshire police chief.</p>
<p>The two face burglary, accomplice to theft and receiving stolen property charges.</p>
<p>Police say the men broke into a camper in October 2015 in Lisbon owned by the town’s police chief and took the key to his Polaris ATV. Then they allegedly drove away in the machine.</p>
<p>Police Chief Scott Pinson <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com/news/local/north-haverhill-two-indicted-for-stealing-atv-belonging-to-police/article_6cacb3f8-9209-58fd-9632-19451305542c.html" type="external">tells</a> the Caledonian Record he can’t comment on the case because he’s a party to it.</p>
<p>It wasn’t immediately known if 37-year-old Kenneth England, of Franconia, and 23-year-old Michael Kinne, of Lisbon, had lawyers. Phone numbers could not be found for them.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Information from: The Caledonian-Record, <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external" /> <a href="http://www.caledonianrecord.com" type="external">http://www.caledonianrecord.com</a></p>
| 7,183 |
<p />
<p>Before this year, there were no IRS-enforced standards governing the tax preparation industry. Almost anyone could prepare a tax return for compensation without any educational or other requirements. But that all changed this year. Now, all tax preparers are required to register with the Internal Revenue Service and obtain a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) that must be listed with their signatures on any tax returns they prepare for compensation. In addition, starting in 2013, all tax preparers must pass a tax exam and obtain 15 hours of continuing education every year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A number of federal and criminal statutes have been in place that impose fines on tax preparers for certain transgressions, such as tax fraud, identity theft or disclosing a client’s confidential information without authorization. So in a sense, there is some regulation in the industry, but they are after the fact.</p>
<p>Now, the IRS wants to qualify preparers from the start in order to minimize consumers’ risk. Aside from successful passing of the exam and the continuing education requirements, it will fingerprint and perform background checks on every tax preparer candidate. Those declined due to prior convictions will have the right to due process and appeal.</p>
<p>Some states do regulate the tax industry. For example, in Oregon and California, all compensated tax preparers must register with the state and fulfill continuing education requirements every year.</p>
<p>Enrolled agents, certified public accountants and tax attorneys are already required to be licensed. They must pass an exam and fulfill annual continuing education requirements. Not all preparers are happy with the new regulations, particularly those who offer low-cost preparation or work part-time. They claim the new exam fees and registration costs will drive them out of business.</p>
<p>Registration for a PTIN is $63, and the annual exam fee is expected to be around $125. Currently, the fee for the exam for enrolled agents (a one-time, multi-part exam) is $315. The IRS currently offers webinars and other continuing education classes at no or low cost through their Tax Practitioner Institute and National Forums.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The Institute of Justice is filing a lawsuit against the IRS claiming the regulations exceed its authority. The institute contends that the licensing unfairly targets independent tax return preparers, and will hurt—or even close—their businesses, and are an unconstitutional infringement on their economic liberties.</p>
<p>“Practice” before the IRS was originally meant to denote the professional practice of attorneys and CPAs in representing taxpayers in proceedings before the IRS—such as arguing their client’s case in a hearing before an IRS Appeals Officer—not simply preparing and filing a tax return,” the institute says in a statement.</p>
<p>According to Dan Alban, the attorney leading this lawsuit, some of the mega tax preparers requested an exemption from the licensing requirement.</p>
<p>While economic liberty and keeping government from overstepping its bounds are important issues so is continuing education for tax preparers. After all, tax law changes on a daily basis.</p>
<p><a href="http://mailto:[email protected]" type="external">Bonnie Lee Opens a New Window.</a> is an Enrolled Agent admitted to practice and representing taxpayers in all fifty states at all levels within the <a href="" type="internal">Internal Revenue Service</a>. She is the owner of Taxpertise in Sonoma, CA and the author of Entrepreneur Press book, “Taxpertise, The Complete Book of Dirty Little Secrets and Hidden Deductions for Small Business that the IRS Doesn't Want You to Know.” Follow Bonnie Lee on <a href="" type="internal">Twitter</a> at BLTaxpertise and at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/taxpertise.bonnielee." type="external">Facebook Opens a New Window.</a>.&#160;</p>
|
New Requirements for Tax Preparers
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/features/2012/03/15/new-requirements-for-tax-preparers.html
|
2017-02-08
| 0right
|
New Requirements for Tax Preparers
<p />
<p>Before this year, there were no IRS-enforced standards governing the tax preparation industry. Almost anyone could prepare a tax return for compensation without any educational or other requirements. But that all changed this year. Now, all tax preparers are required to register with the Internal Revenue Service and obtain a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) that must be listed with their signatures on any tax returns they prepare for compensation. In addition, starting in 2013, all tax preparers must pass a tax exam and obtain 15 hours of continuing education every year.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>A number of federal and criminal statutes have been in place that impose fines on tax preparers for certain transgressions, such as tax fraud, identity theft or disclosing a client’s confidential information without authorization. So in a sense, there is some regulation in the industry, but they are after the fact.</p>
<p>Now, the IRS wants to qualify preparers from the start in order to minimize consumers’ risk. Aside from successful passing of the exam and the continuing education requirements, it will fingerprint and perform background checks on every tax preparer candidate. Those declined due to prior convictions will have the right to due process and appeal.</p>
<p>Some states do regulate the tax industry. For example, in Oregon and California, all compensated tax preparers must register with the state and fulfill continuing education requirements every year.</p>
<p>Enrolled agents, certified public accountants and tax attorneys are already required to be licensed. They must pass an exam and fulfill annual continuing education requirements. Not all preparers are happy with the new regulations, particularly those who offer low-cost preparation or work part-time. They claim the new exam fees and registration costs will drive them out of business.</p>
<p>Registration for a PTIN is $63, and the annual exam fee is expected to be around $125. Currently, the fee for the exam for enrolled agents (a one-time, multi-part exam) is $315. The IRS currently offers webinars and other continuing education classes at no or low cost through their Tax Practitioner Institute and National Forums.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>The Institute of Justice is filing a lawsuit against the IRS claiming the regulations exceed its authority. The institute contends that the licensing unfairly targets independent tax return preparers, and will hurt—or even close—their businesses, and are an unconstitutional infringement on their economic liberties.</p>
<p>“Practice” before the IRS was originally meant to denote the professional practice of attorneys and CPAs in representing taxpayers in proceedings before the IRS—such as arguing their client’s case in a hearing before an IRS Appeals Officer—not simply preparing and filing a tax return,” the institute says in a statement.</p>
<p>According to Dan Alban, the attorney leading this lawsuit, some of the mega tax preparers requested an exemption from the licensing requirement.</p>
<p>While economic liberty and keeping government from overstepping its bounds are important issues so is continuing education for tax preparers. After all, tax law changes on a daily basis.</p>
<p><a href="http://mailto:[email protected]" type="external">Bonnie Lee Opens a New Window.</a> is an Enrolled Agent admitted to practice and representing taxpayers in all fifty states at all levels within the <a href="" type="internal">Internal Revenue Service</a>. She is the owner of Taxpertise in Sonoma, CA and the author of Entrepreneur Press book, “Taxpertise, The Complete Book of Dirty Little Secrets and Hidden Deductions for Small Business that the IRS Doesn't Want You to Know.” Follow Bonnie Lee on <a href="" type="internal">Twitter</a> at BLTaxpertise and at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/taxpertise.bonnielee." type="external">Facebook Opens a New Window.</a>.&#160;</p>
| 7,184 |
<p>BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand seized 3 tons of ivory hidden in tea leaf sacks from Kenya in the second-biggest bust in the country's history, one week after the biggest seizure, customs officials said Monday.</p>
<p>The 511 elephant tusks worth $6 million, bound for Laos, were seized upon arrival Saturday at a major port in Chonburi province in eastern Thailand. The bust came after customs officials received a tip-off in Laos and Thailand and tracked the containers from Kenya, Customs Department Director-General Somchai Sujjapongse told reporters.</p>
<p>The ivory, hidden among tea leaves, was shipped out of Kenya on March 24 and went through ports in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore before coming to Thailand, he said.</p>
<p>The bust came one week after Thai customs officials seized 4 tons of tusks that were smuggled from Congo and also destined for Laos in what they said was the nation's biggest seizure.</p>
<p>Somchai said that the tusks seized Saturday were "more beautiful and complete than the previous lot," and that they would likely have been distributed to buyers in China, Vietnam and Thailand had the shipment reached Laos.</p>
<p>Thailand is one of the top destinations for African ivory smuggling in Asia and could face international sanctions soon if it doesn't show progress in combatting the problem.</p>
<p>"After these two consecutive big busts ... the transnational crime networks must realize it is getting increasingly difficult to send their shipment past Thailand, but I think they will try to come up with the more complicated means, so we will have already prepared the measures to (tackle the issue)," Somchai said.</p>
<p>Poachers have killed tens of thousands of African elephants for their tusks in recent years to meet demand for ivory in Asia. China has imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory threatens the existence of Africa's elephants.</p>
<p>BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand seized 3 tons of ivory hidden in tea leaf sacks from Kenya in the second-biggest bust in the country's history, one week after the biggest seizure, customs officials said Monday.</p>
<p>The 511 elephant tusks worth $6 million, bound for Laos, were seized upon arrival Saturday at a major port in Chonburi province in eastern Thailand. The bust came after customs officials received a tip-off in Laos and Thailand and tracked the containers from Kenya, Customs Department Director-General Somchai Sujjapongse told reporters.</p>
<p>The ivory, hidden among tea leaves, was shipped out of Kenya on March 24 and went through ports in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore before coming to Thailand, he said.</p>
<p>The bust came one week after Thai customs officials seized 4 tons of tusks that were smuggled from Congo and also destined for Laos in what they said was the nation's biggest seizure.</p>
<p>Somchai said that the tusks seized Saturday were "more beautiful and complete than the previous lot," and that they would likely have been distributed to buyers in China, Vietnam and Thailand had the shipment reached Laos.</p>
<p>Thailand is one of the top destinations for African ivory smuggling in Asia and could face international sanctions soon if it doesn't show progress in combatting the problem.</p>
<p>"After these two consecutive big busts ... the transnational crime networks must realize it is getting increasingly difficult to send their shipment past Thailand, but I think they will try to come up with the more complicated means, so we will have already prepared the measures to (tackle the issue)," Somchai said.</p>
<p>Poachers have killed tens of thousands of African elephants for their tusks in recent years to meet demand for ivory in Asia. China has imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory threatens the existence of Africa's elephants.</p>
|
Thailand seizes 3 tons of elephant tusks smuggled from Kenya
| false |
https://apnews.com/amp/d7abcda30ac24d19896b70bb76416a81
|
2015-04-27
| 2least
|
Thailand seizes 3 tons of elephant tusks smuggled from Kenya
<p>BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand seized 3 tons of ivory hidden in tea leaf sacks from Kenya in the second-biggest bust in the country's history, one week after the biggest seizure, customs officials said Monday.</p>
<p>The 511 elephant tusks worth $6 million, bound for Laos, were seized upon arrival Saturday at a major port in Chonburi province in eastern Thailand. The bust came after customs officials received a tip-off in Laos and Thailand and tracked the containers from Kenya, Customs Department Director-General Somchai Sujjapongse told reporters.</p>
<p>The ivory, hidden among tea leaves, was shipped out of Kenya on March 24 and went through ports in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore before coming to Thailand, he said.</p>
<p>The bust came one week after Thai customs officials seized 4 tons of tusks that were smuggled from Congo and also destined for Laos in what they said was the nation's biggest seizure.</p>
<p>Somchai said that the tusks seized Saturday were "more beautiful and complete than the previous lot," and that they would likely have been distributed to buyers in China, Vietnam and Thailand had the shipment reached Laos.</p>
<p>Thailand is one of the top destinations for African ivory smuggling in Asia and could face international sanctions soon if it doesn't show progress in combatting the problem.</p>
<p>"After these two consecutive big busts ... the transnational crime networks must realize it is getting increasingly difficult to send their shipment past Thailand, but I think they will try to come up with the more complicated means, so we will have already prepared the measures to (tackle the issue)," Somchai said.</p>
<p>Poachers have killed tens of thousands of African elephants for their tusks in recent years to meet demand for ivory in Asia. China has imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory threatens the existence of Africa's elephants.</p>
<p>BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand seized 3 tons of ivory hidden in tea leaf sacks from Kenya in the second-biggest bust in the country's history, one week after the biggest seizure, customs officials said Monday.</p>
<p>The 511 elephant tusks worth $6 million, bound for Laos, were seized upon arrival Saturday at a major port in Chonburi province in eastern Thailand. The bust came after customs officials received a tip-off in Laos and Thailand and tracked the containers from Kenya, Customs Department Director-General Somchai Sujjapongse told reporters.</p>
<p>The ivory, hidden among tea leaves, was shipped out of Kenya on March 24 and went through ports in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore before coming to Thailand, he said.</p>
<p>The bust came one week after Thai customs officials seized 4 tons of tusks that were smuggled from Congo and also destined for Laos in what they said was the nation's biggest seizure.</p>
<p>Somchai said that the tusks seized Saturday were "more beautiful and complete than the previous lot," and that they would likely have been distributed to buyers in China, Vietnam and Thailand had the shipment reached Laos.</p>
<p>Thailand is one of the top destinations for African ivory smuggling in Asia and could face international sanctions soon if it doesn't show progress in combatting the problem.</p>
<p>"After these two consecutive big busts ... the transnational crime networks must realize it is getting increasingly difficult to send their shipment past Thailand, but I think they will try to come up with the more complicated means, so we will have already prepared the measures to (tackle the issue)," Somchai said.</p>
<p>Poachers have killed tens of thousands of African elephants for their tusks in recent years to meet demand for ivory in Asia. China has imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory threatens the existence of Africa's elephants.</p>
| 7,185 |
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<p />
<p>Red-hot Colorado State, which visits the Pit on Wednesday, climbed into this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll at No. 25. It's the first time the Rams (24-1, 14-0 Mountain West) have been nationally ranked since 2002 and the first time any MWC women's team has been ranked since San Diego State in 2010.</p>
<p>The Lobos and head coach Yvonne Sanchez took notice.</p>
<p>"I'm glad for (the Rams)," Sanchez said after Monday's practice at the Pit. "It was a long time coming. At 24-1 they certainly deserve to be ranked and it's nice to have them coming to the Pit. It'll be a lot of fun for our players and our fans."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Even before CSU moved into the rankings, Wednesday's matchup loomed as important for UNM (14-11, 7-7). The Lobos stand fifth in the Mountain West race, a game behind fourth-place San Jose State and one ahead of UNLV and Utah State. The top five finishers earn first-round byes and next month's conference tournament in Las Vegas, Nev.</p>
<p>New Mexico cannot catch Colorado State but a win over the Rams would greatly help the Lobos' cause in terms of potential tiebreakers. UNM already has split head-to-head games with San Jose State, UNLV and Utah State, and the next tiebreaker would be record against the top teams in the standings. CSU has swept San Jose State, UNLV and Utah State.</p>
<p>"If we win this game we'll win every tiebreaker," Sanchez said. "If you beat the best team in the league, it can also raise a few eyebrows and does wonders for your confidence."</p>
<p>But Sanchez and the Lobos understand beating the Rams is much easier said than done. CSU is riding a school-record 21-game winning streak with only a 49-48 loss to Penn on Nov. 24 marring its record.</p>
<p>The Rams' roster is loaded with experienced international players (nine of 15 were born outside the United States) who execute superbly on offense and capitalize on open shots. CSU shoots 45 percent from the field as a team.</p>
<p>"They just work well together," Lobo sophomore Cherise Beynon said of the Rams. "They know their roles, they're disciplined and they're really confident. Even in close games they're able to hit shots and make free throws when the game's on the line."</p>
<p>Such was the case Saturday when CSU came from behind in the fourth quarter to take a 62-57 win at Wyoming. But the Rams have also put many opponents away early. Their average margin of victory is 18.6 points and Saturday's contest marked the first time in eight games that they had trailed in a fourth quarter.</p>
<p>"CSU has it rolling, no question," Sanchez said. "We'll need to be at our absolute best, but I know our players are looking forward to the challenge."</p>
<p>Wednesday's game will be UNM's only regular-season meeting with CSU and its first against a ranked opponent this season.</p>
<p>UNDER THE WEATHER: None of the Lobos' three seniors practiced Monday as Bryce Owens and Khadijah Shumpert stayed home because of illness. Both are likely to return today, Sanchez said. Alexa Chavez, who is recovering from a leg injury, sat out practice but is expected to play Wednesday.</p>
|
Ranked Rams to visit UNM women
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/728467/ranked-rams-to-visit-unm-women.html
| 2least
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Ranked Rams to visit UNM women
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Red-hot Colorado State, which visits the Pit on Wednesday, climbed into this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll at No. 25. It's the first time the Rams (24-1, 14-0 Mountain West) have been nationally ranked since 2002 and the first time any MWC women's team has been ranked since San Diego State in 2010.</p>
<p>The Lobos and head coach Yvonne Sanchez took notice.</p>
<p>"I'm glad for (the Rams)," Sanchez said after Monday's practice at the Pit. "It was a long time coming. At 24-1 they certainly deserve to be ranked and it's nice to have them coming to the Pit. It'll be a lot of fun for our players and our fans."</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Even before CSU moved into the rankings, Wednesday's matchup loomed as important for UNM (14-11, 7-7). The Lobos stand fifth in the Mountain West race, a game behind fourth-place San Jose State and one ahead of UNLV and Utah State. The top five finishers earn first-round byes and next month's conference tournament in Las Vegas, Nev.</p>
<p>New Mexico cannot catch Colorado State but a win over the Rams would greatly help the Lobos' cause in terms of potential tiebreakers. UNM already has split head-to-head games with San Jose State, UNLV and Utah State, and the next tiebreaker would be record against the top teams in the standings. CSU has swept San Jose State, UNLV and Utah State.</p>
<p>"If we win this game we'll win every tiebreaker," Sanchez said. "If you beat the best team in the league, it can also raise a few eyebrows and does wonders for your confidence."</p>
<p>But Sanchez and the Lobos understand beating the Rams is much easier said than done. CSU is riding a school-record 21-game winning streak with only a 49-48 loss to Penn on Nov. 24 marring its record.</p>
<p>The Rams' roster is loaded with experienced international players (nine of 15 were born outside the United States) who execute superbly on offense and capitalize on open shots. CSU shoots 45 percent from the field as a team.</p>
<p>"They just work well together," Lobo sophomore Cherise Beynon said of the Rams. "They know their roles, they're disciplined and they're really confident. Even in close games they're able to hit shots and make free throws when the game's on the line."</p>
<p>Such was the case Saturday when CSU came from behind in the fourth quarter to take a 62-57 win at Wyoming. But the Rams have also put many opponents away early. Their average margin of victory is 18.6 points and Saturday's contest marked the first time in eight games that they had trailed in a fourth quarter.</p>
<p>"CSU has it rolling, no question," Sanchez said. "We'll need to be at our absolute best, but I know our players are looking forward to the challenge."</p>
<p>Wednesday's game will be UNM's only regular-season meeting with CSU and its first against a ranked opponent this season.</p>
<p>UNDER THE WEATHER: None of the Lobos' three seniors practiced Monday as Bryce Owens and Khadijah Shumpert stayed home because of illness. Both are likely to return today, Sanchez said. Alexa Chavez, who is recovering from a leg injury, sat out practice but is expected to play Wednesday.</p>
| 7,186 |
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<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Your résumé should reflect your unique experience and qualifications, and this may mean incorporating additional headings along with the basic, traditional headings of “Work Experience” and “Education.”</p>
<p>Work experience: After you list all your work experience, look at those positions you have held that are most relevant to the job opening and your career objective. Remember that work experience is not limited to paid work only. You can include internships, volunteer opportunities, and more. If you have two categories starting to form, relevant and additional, then you divide your work experience into these two areas, “Related Work Experience,” and “Additional (or Other) Work Experience.”</p>
<p>Usually your work experience begins with the most recent job first, and includes the job title, employer’s name, location of employment, dates of employment, and a bulleted list of job duties and requirements.</p>
<p>Education: Like work experience, education is usually listed most recent first. Include information such as the title of the degree, your major and program, and graduation month and year. Also, list the name of the educational institution and city and state. Degrees can be abbreviated or spelled out, but be consistent throughout your entire résumé. Include your GPA if it is something you would like to highlight.</p>
<p>Academic awards, scholarships, scholastic achievement, or educational highlights: This is a great résumé heading to showcase your academic career and works well as a separate heading from “Education” if you have several awards or highlights you want to include. Provide details about each but limit the descriptions to two to three bullets.</p>
<p>Additional Skills: An additional skills heading can include an overview of skill sets you have or can be specifically titled such as “Computer Skills,” or “Word Processing Skills.” Read the job advertisement to see if there is a heading you can use to directly tie into the employer’s needs.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Publications: Be sure to include any publications that emphasize your writing skills, artistry, or other skills that directly apply to the job you are applying for. Include both published work and publications that are in process. Only include published work that you are willing and able to provide to an interviewer or an interview panel.</p>
<p>Activities and honors: Depending on how many activities and honors you want to include, select those that best relate to your career objective and the job opportunity. List organizations by the full name and do not use abbreviations as they can stand for groups across very different industries. For example, NMA can stand for the “National Medical Association” or the “National Mining Association,” which represent very different industries.</p>
<p>You can create résumé headings as you see fit. The headings listed above are only a few of the possibilities.</p>
<p>The sequence of your headings is equally as important as the information that you chose to include. List the heading first that best applies to the job descriptions and employer needs, and then order the remaining headings accordingly. Your final product will be a tailored, well-structured résumé that represents all of your qualifications and experience.</p>
<p>This is a regular column written by the N.M. Department of Workforce Solutions. For more information, go to <a href="http://www.dws.state.nm.us" type="external">www.dws.state.nm.us</a>.</p>
|
Grabbing attention first goal of résumé
| false |
https://abqjournal.com/188491/grabbing-attention-first-goal-of-rsum.html
|
2013-04-14
| 2least
|
Grabbing attention first goal of résumé
<p>.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........</p>
<p />
<p>Your résumé should reflect your unique experience and qualifications, and this may mean incorporating additional headings along with the basic, traditional headings of “Work Experience” and “Education.”</p>
<p>Work experience: After you list all your work experience, look at those positions you have held that are most relevant to the job opening and your career objective. Remember that work experience is not limited to paid work only. You can include internships, volunteer opportunities, and more. If you have two categories starting to form, relevant and additional, then you divide your work experience into these two areas, “Related Work Experience,” and “Additional (or Other) Work Experience.”</p>
<p>Usually your work experience begins with the most recent job first, and includes the job title, employer’s name, location of employment, dates of employment, and a bulleted list of job duties and requirements.</p>
<p>Education: Like work experience, education is usually listed most recent first. Include information such as the title of the degree, your major and program, and graduation month and year. Also, list the name of the educational institution and city and state. Degrees can be abbreviated or spelled out, but be consistent throughout your entire résumé. Include your GPA if it is something you would like to highlight.</p>
<p>Academic awards, scholarships, scholastic achievement, or educational highlights: This is a great résumé heading to showcase your academic career and works well as a separate heading from “Education” if you have several awards or highlights you want to include. Provide details about each but limit the descriptions to two to three bullets.</p>
<p>Additional Skills: An additional skills heading can include an overview of skill sets you have or can be specifically titled such as “Computer Skills,” or “Word Processing Skills.” Read the job advertisement to see if there is a heading you can use to directly tie into the employer’s needs.</p>
<p>ADVERTISEMENT</p>
<p>Publications: Be sure to include any publications that emphasize your writing skills, artistry, or other skills that directly apply to the job you are applying for. Include both published work and publications that are in process. Only include published work that you are willing and able to provide to an interviewer or an interview panel.</p>
<p>Activities and honors: Depending on how many activities and honors you want to include, select those that best relate to your career objective and the job opportunity. List organizations by the full name and do not use abbreviations as they can stand for groups across very different industries. For example, NMA can stand for the “National Medical Association” or the “National Mining Association,” which represent very different industries.</p>
<p>You can create résumé headings as you see fit. The headings listed above are only a few of the possibilities.</p>
<p>The sequence of your headings is equally as important as the information that you chose to include. List the heading first that best applies to the job descriptions and employer needs, and then order the remaining headings accordingly. Your final product will be a tailored, well-structured résumé that represents all of your qualifications and experience.</p>
<p>This is a regular column written by the N.M. Department of Workforce Solutions. For more information, go to <a href="http://www.dws.state.nm.us" type="external">www.dws.state.nm.us</a>.</p>
| 7,187 |
<p>During the 2016 primary and general election races, all the talk was about the presidential match up between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and then businessman Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Both candidates swamped their primary opponents, and headed towards the much-anticipated general election.</p>
<p>We all know how that story ended, with Trump pulling an upset and defeating Clinton.</p>
<p>But the Trump-Clinton race was not the only hotly contested and contentious race of 2016. Yes, there were many close primary and general election races that garnered a lot of media attention nationwide, but the one race that seemed to drown out the rest was the Democratic congressional primary race between Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (pictured) and college professor Tim Canova.</p>
<p>Canova’s campaign against ‘DWS’ was vicious, to say the least, as he was trying to out-liberal Rep.Wasserman Schultz in their respective primary race.</p>
<p>The college professor harped on the former DNC Chairwoman’s perceived ongoing struggles and corruption with the Democratic Party, as well as the conspiracy theory that Clinton and Wasserman Schultz had “fixed” the presidential primary race against Senator Bernie Sanders.</p>
<p>The infamous Wikileaks emails all but proved those theories to be true.</p>
<p>But even after raising $3.8 million dollars and <a href="" type="internal">losing by a wide margin</a> to Wasserman Schultz in the primary, Canova’s political resilience continues.</p>
<p>Canova has just announced the he rematch congressional stalwart Wasserman Schultz, and plans on once again running on platform that demands “election integrity, transparency in verifying our votes.”</p>
<p>We caught up with Canova at the annual Democratic Party’s “Leadership Blue Gala” in Hollywood, Florida, where we asked him what his campaign was going to do different this time around.</p>
<p>Canova said the his campaign didn’t “have to do a lot differently,” just build on his base, adding that his biggest problem he had in 2016 was building up his name recognition.</p>
<p>Name recognition will not be Canova’s problem anymore.</p>
<p>Canova then pivoted and took some&#160; swipes at Rep. Wasserman Schultz, saying that the congresswoman has “failed” their political party.</p>
<p>The party needs new blood. Needs new focus. Needs a new direction, and she’s really associated with the politics that have failed the Democrats so badly.</p>
<p>We then asked him if he thought the recent email drama that Wasserman Schultz was involved in took a toll on her standing among Democrats, and if he thought she was vulnerable in 2018.</p>
<p>Tim Canova</p>
<p>I think Wasserman Schultz is one of the more controversial figures in this party right now. There are very few districts in the country she can go and campaign for Democrats and win votes for those candidates. Wherever she goes people remember how she conducted herself as head of the DNC. So. I don’t need to talk about it.</p>
<p>People know it, and she’s not popular as a result of that. And like I said a year ago, folks thought that we were going to have a Hillary Clinton Administration and Wasserman Schutlz might be playing a big role. Now they look at her and they see she was the head of the DNC that did such a poor job uniting Democrats. A DNC that apparently wanted Donald Trump, according to the Wikileaks memos. The DNC wanted Donald Trump, Ben Carson or Ted Cruz. They got what they wished for and now the country is suffering for it.”- Tim Canova</p>
<p>Wasserman Schultz’s office responded to the Shark Tank’s request for a response to Canova’s statements.</p>
<p>The congresswoman took a much different approach in her response, referring to Canova as just an opponent without even mentioning him by name.</p>
<p>Wasserman Schultz stuck to script and focused her attention on President Trump and the Republican-led U.S. Congress.</p>
<p>If you haven’t noticed, there is no love lose between these to politicos.</p>
<p>Here is Rep. Wasserman Schultz’s response to Canova:</p>
<p>“I have opponents every election, and embrace it as a chance to talk directly with voters and discuss what I’m working on to meet their needs. Next year’s race is no different.</p>
<p>So no matter who I face&#160;in the primary or the general election,&#160;I’ll focus on expanding affordable&#160;quality&#160;health&#160;care and protecting&#160;our environment,&#160;as well as advocating on behalf of&#160;the interests of working Americans, students,&#160;seniors, women&#160;and children.&#160;That will not ever change.”</p>
<p>What is different is that Democrats must unite to beat back the&#160;dangerous and damaging&#160;policies of the Trump-Republican agenda, and avoid the personal and destructive rhetoric that breeds the kind of hostility we just witnessed in Washington.”-Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz</p>
<p>Expect this race to get really ugly, really fast.</p>
<p>“Let’s get ready to rumbleeeeeeeeeee!!!!!”</p>
|
Wasserman Schultz-Canova Democratic Congressional Rematch is Official
| true |
http://shark-tank.com/2017/06/19/wasserman-schultz-canova-democratic-congressional-rematch-is-official/
| 0right
|
Wasserman Schultz-Canova Democratic Congressional Rematch is Official
<p>During the 2016 primary and general election races, all the talk was about the presidential match up between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and then businessman Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Both candidates swamped their primary opponents, and headed towards the much-anticipated general election.</p>
<p>We all know how that story ended, with Trump pulling an upset and defeating Clinton.</p>
<p>But the Trump-Clinton race was not the only hotly contested and contentious race of 2016. Yes, there were many close primary and general election races that garnered a lot of media attention nationwide, but the one race that seemed to drown out the rest was the Democratic congressional primary race between Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (pictured) and college professor Tim Canova.</p>
<p>Canova’s campaign against ‘DWS’ was vicious, to say the least, as he was trying to out-liberal Rep.Wasserman Schultz in their respective primary race.</p>
<p>The college professor harped on the former DNC Chairwoman’s perceived ongoing struggles and corruption with the Democratic Party, as well as the conspiracy theory that Clinton and Wasserman Schultz had “fixed” the presidential primary race against Senator Bernie Sanders.</p>
<p>The infamous Wikileaks emails all but proved those theories to be true.</p>
<p>But even after raising $3.8 million dollars and <a href="" type="internal">losing by a wide margin</a> to Wasserman Schultz in the primary, Canova’s political resilience continues.</p>
<p>Canova has just announced the he rematch congressional stalwart Wasserman Schultz, and plans on once again running on platform that demands “election integrity, transparency in verifying our votes.”</p>
<p>We caught up with Canova at the annual Democratic Party’s “Leadership Blue Gala” in Hollywood, Florida, where we asked him what his campaign was going to do different this time around.</p>
<p>Canova said the his campaign didn’t “have to do a lot differently,” just build on his base, adding that his biggest problem he had in 2016 was building up his name recognition.</p>
<p>Name recognition will not be Canova’s problem anymore.</p>
<p>Canova then pivoted and took some&#160; swipes at Rep. Wasserman Schultz, saying that the congresswoman has “failed” their political party.</p>
<p>The party needs new blood. Needs new focus. Needs a new direction, and she’s really associated with the politics that have failed the Democrats so badly.</p>
<p>We then asked him if he thought the recent email drama that Wasserman Schultz was involved in took a toll on her standing among Democrats, and if he thought she was vulnerable in 2018.</p>
<p>Tim Canova</p>
<p>I think Wasserman Schultz is one of the more controversial figures in this party right now. There are very few districts in the country she can go and campaign for Democrats and win votes for those candidates. Wherever she goes people remember how she conducted herself as head of the DNC. So. I don’t need to talk about it.</p>
<p>People know it, and she’s not popular as a result of that. And like I said a year ago, folks thought that we were going to have a Hillary Clinton Administration and Wasserman Schutlz might be playing a big role. Now they look at her and they see she was the head of the DNC that did such a poor job uniting Democrats. A DNC that apparently wanted Donald Trump, according to the Wikileaks memos. The DNC wanted Donald Trump, Ben Carson or Ted Cruz. They got what they wished for and now the country is suffering for it.”- Tim Canova</p>
<p>Wasserman Schultz’s office responded to the Shark Tank’s request for a response to Canova’s statements.</p>
<p>The congresswoman took a much different approach in her response, referring to Canova as just an opponent without even mentioning him by name.</p>
<p>Wasserman Schultz stuck to script and focused her attention on President Trump and the Republican-led U.S. Congress.</p>
<p>If you haven’t noticed, there is no love lose between these to politicos.</p>
<p>Here is Rep. Wasserman Schultz’s response to Canova:</p>
<p>“I have opponents every election, and embrace it as a chance to talk directly with voters and discuss what I’m working on to meet their needs. Next year’s race is no different.</p>
<p>So no matter who I face&#160;in the primary or the general election,&#160;I’ll focus on expanding affordable&#160;quality&#160;health&#160;care and protecting&#160;our environment,&#160;as well as advocating on behalf of&#160;the interests of working Americans, students,&#160;seniors, women&#160;and children.&#160;That will not ever change.”</p>
<p>What is different is that Democrats must unite to beat back the&#160;dangerous and damaging&#160;policies of the Trump-Republican agenda, and avoid the personal and destructive rhetoric that breeds the kind of hostility we just witnessed in Washington.”-Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz</p>
<p>Expect this race to get really ugly, really fast.</p>
<p>“Let’s get ready to rumbleeeeeeeeeee!!!!!”</p>
| 7,188 |
|
<p>Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council isn’t surprised that President Obama is open to the idea of a <a href="http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/09/obama-open-to-newspaper-bailou.html" type="external">newspaper bailout</a>, but Perkins knows a bad idea when he hears one.</p>
<p>He led this week’s edition of his “Washington Update” with a newspaper bailout blurb headlined “ <a href="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU09I17&amp;f=PG07J01" type="external">Bad News Bores</a>.” Perkins noted Obama’s contempt for new media outlets but also emphasized why those outlets are so important:</p>
<p>While it is not unusual for a president to seek favors for a constituency that overwhelmingly supported him, such a bailout would bring into question the partiality of the “mainstream media” even more. The president spoke in fear of the “blogosphere” being “all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context.”</p>
<p>First, it is always bad economic policy to reward outdated businesses that refuse to adapt. From Monica Lewinsky to Dan Rather it was the internet that broke the stories that “mainstream media” refused to. Additionally, it is online sources, including FRCAction’s own <a href="" type="internal">Cloakroom</a> blog, that are keeping the debate over health care honest and as transparent as possible.</p>
<p>Under such scrutiny, it is no wonder that other leading Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are also looking for ways to use federal tax dollars to bailout newspaper conglomerates. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of the press. It would be a shame if the media establishment gave away that freedom in exchange for a few coins.</p>
<p>Amen to that. But a few coins aren’t going to salvage the traditional media’s sinking reputation or deter the <a href="/on-target-blog/the-media-genius-of-andrew-breitbart/" type="external">new media watchdogs</a> who have been keeping them in check.</p>
|
The Rise Of New Media Watchdogs
| true |
http://aim.org/on-target-blog/the-rise-of-new-media-watchdogs/
|
2009-09-23
| 0right
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The Rise Of New Media Watchdogs
<p>Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council isn’t surprised that President Obama is open to the idea of a <a href="http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/09/obama-open-to-newspaper-bailou.html" type="external">newspaper bailout</a>, but Perkins knows a bad idea when he hears one.</p>
<p>He led this week’s edition of his “Washington Update” with a newspaper bailout blurb headlined “ <a href="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU09I17&amp;f=PG07J01" type="external">Bad News Bores</a>.” Perkins noted Obama’s contempt for new media outlets but also emphasized why those outlets are so important:</p>
<p>While it is not unusual for a president to seek favors for a constituency that overwhelmingly supported him, such a bailout would bring into question the partiality of the “mainstream media” even more. The president spoke in fear of the “blogosphere” being “all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context.”</p>
<p>First, it is always bad economic policy to reward outdated businesses that refuse to adapt. From Monica Lewinsky to Dan Rather it was the internet that broke the stories that “mainstream media” refused to. Additionally, it is online sources, including FRCAction’s own <a href="" type="internal">Cloakroom</a> blog, that are keeping the debate over health care honest and as transparent as possible.</p>
<p>Under such scrutiny, it is no wonder that other leading Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are also looking for ways to use federal tax dollars to bailout newspaper conglomerates. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of the press. It would be a shame if the media establishment gave away that freedom in exchange for a few coins.</p>
<p>Amen to that. But a few coins aren’t going to salvage the traditional media’s sinking reputation or deter the <a href="/on-target-blog/the-media-genius-of-andrew-breitbart/" type="external">new media watchdogs</a> who have been keeping them in check.</p>
| 7,189 |
<p>In <a href="http://www1.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2017/10/10/exclusive-attorney-general-sessions-tells-rsquo-s-faith-nation-christian-cake-bakers-have-a-ldquo-fundamental-right-and-ought-to-be-respected-rdquo" type="external">a new interview</a> with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Attorney General Sessions takes the position that the anti-gay baker whose case is headed to the Supreme Court has the right to discriminate against gay and bi people because of his religious beliefs.</p>
<p>In his remarks, Sessions admitted he shares the opinion that a baker who prepares a wedding cake somehow “participates” in the wedding ceremony, arguing that Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop has the “fundamental right” not to participate in something he doesn’t believe in.</p>
<p>Well what I would say to you now, while the matter is in litigation, but I would just say to you that too often we have ignored what the Constitution actually says. It says Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof. So the question is, the cake baker has more than just a personal view here. He has a religious view and he feels that he is not being able to freely exercise his religion by being required to participate in a ceremony in some fashion that he does not believe in. So we think that right is a fundamental right and ought to be respected as we work through this process.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www1.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2017/10/10/exclusive-attorney-general-sessions-tells-rsquo-s-faith-nation-christian-cake-bakers-have-a-ldquo-fundamental-right-and-ought-to-be-respected-rdquo" type="external">a segment cut</a> from the full interview as aired, Sessions also said that he believes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) protects Phillips, because it states that the government cannot impose a person’s religious belief “without a compelling reason to do so.” In other words, he believes there’s no compelling reason to protect a same-sex couple like David Mullins and Charlie Craig from discrimination because of their sexual orientation.</p>
<p>Of course in the 1990’s we passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act that said the government should not constrict a person’s religious belief without a compelling reason to do so. So we think that statute has been ignored too often and not respected sufficiently. And so when you consider those two things, then you’re getting not only greater protection for people’s religious beliefs, that I think should be given.</p>
<p>On a similar note, when asked about the Department of Justice’s <a href="" type="internal">new “religious freedom” guidance</a>, Sessions rejected the claim that it constitutes a license to discriminate. Referring back to the bakery case, he added, “Someone can make a cake, it’s not only one person in the world can make a cake.”</p>
<p>Under Sessions’ leadership, the Department of Justice <a href="" type="internal">filed a brief</a> taking Phillips’ side, but that brief actually made a different argument than the comments Sessions made in this interview. Indeed, the DOJ took no position on whether religious beliefs protect a right to discriminate, instead arguing the case on narrower free speech grounds by defining a wedding cake as expression. But the baker, represented by the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, certainly <a href="" type="internal">does make the religious argument</a>.</p>
<p>By claiming there’s no “compelling interest” to protect against anti-gay discrimination, Sessions is actually sounding a dog whistle that sexual orientation is less deserving of protection than other categories like race. That’s because the Supreme Court has long concluded that protecting against discrimination is, in fact, a compelling interest. Even in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/13-354_olp1.pdf" type="external">his decision</a> concluding that RFRA protects Hobby Lobby from having to provide contraception coverage to its female employees, even the very conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote that religion should not justify discrimination — at least when it comes to race:</p>
<p>The principal dissent raises the possibility that discrimination in hiring, for example on the basis of race, might be cloaked as religious practice to escape legal sanction.&#160;Our decision today provides no such shield. The Government has a compelling interest in providing an equal opportunity to participate in the workforce without regard to race, and prohibitions on racial discrimination are precisely tailored to achieve that critical goal.</p>
<p>Given Sessions’ long history of <a href="" type="internal">opposing civil rights</a> on the basis of race, he might disagree with even that conclusion, though it’s not likely he’d ever say so out loud. And given Alito’s consistent rulings against marriage equality, it seems likely he’ll be willing to circumvent his own reasoning to rule in Phillips’ favor. But siding with Phillips — as Sessions does and Alito probably will — requires believing that discrimination against someone because of their sexual orientation is more tolerable under law than discrimination against someone because of their race. In short, it’s inherently anti-gay.</p>
<p />
<p>In Phillips’ case, as well as a handful of other cases involving anti-gay wedding vendors, state courts have consistently upheld LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws, asserting that the government does, in fact, have a compelling interest to protect queer people from discrimination.</p>
|
Attorney General openly defends anti-gay discrimination
| true |
https://thinkprogress.org/sessions-baker-cbn-6a10f3a69df3/
|
2017-10-12
| 4left
|
Attorney General openly defends anti-gay discrimination
<p>In <a href="http://www1.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2017/10/10/exclusive-attorney-general-sessions-tells-rsquo-s-faith-nation-christian-cake-bakers-have-a-ldquo-fundamental-right-and-ought-to-be-respected-rdquo" type="external">a new interview</a> with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Attorney General Sessions takes the position that the anti-gay baker whose case is headed to the Supreme Court has the right to discriminate against gay and bi people because of his religious beliefs.</p>
<p>In his remarks, Sessions admitted he shares the opinion that a baker who prepares a wedding cake somehow “participates” in the wedding ceremony, arguing that Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop has the “fundamental right” not to participate in something he doesn’t believe in.</p>
<p>Well what I would say to you now, while the matter is in litigation, but I would just say to you that too often we have ignored what the Constitution actually says. It says Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof. So the question is, the cake baker has more than just a personal view here. He has a religious view and he feels that he is not being able to freely exercise his religion by being required to participate in a ceremony in some fashion that he does not believe in. So we think that right is a fundamental right and ought to be respected as we work through this process.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www1.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2017/10/10/exclusive-attorney-general-sessions-tells-rsquo-s-faith-nation-christian-cake-bakers-have-a-ldquo-fundamental-right-and-ought-to-be-respected-rdquo" type="external">a segment cut</a> from the full interview as aired, Sessions also said that he believes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) protects Phillips, because it states that the government cannot impose a person’s religious belief “without a compelling reason to do so.” In other words, he believes there’s no compelling reason to protect a same-sex couple like David Mullins and Charlie Craig from discrimination because of their sexual orientation.</p>
<p>Of course in the 1990’s we passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act that said the government should not constrict a person’s religious belief without a compelling reason to do so. So we think that statute has been ignored too often and not respected sufficiently. And so when you consider those two things, then you’re getting not only greater protection for people’s religious beliefs, that I think should be given.</p>
<p>On a similar note, when asked about the Department of Justice’s <a href="" type="internal">new “religious freedom” guidance</a>, Sessions rejected the claim that it constitutes a license to discriminate. Referring back to the bakery case, he added, “Someone can make a cake, it’s not only one person in the world can make a cake.”</p>
<p>Under Sessions’ leadership, the Department of Justice <a href="" type="internal">filed a brief</a> taking Phillips’ side, but that brief actually made a different argument than the comments Sessions made in this interview. Indeed, the DOJ took no position on whether religious beliefs protect a right to discriminate, instead arguing the case on narrower free speech grounds by defining a wedding cake as expression. But the baker, represented by the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom, certainly <a href="" type="internal">does make the religious argument</a>.</p>
<p>By claiming there’s no “compelling interest” to protect against anti-gay discrimination, Sessions is actually sounding a dog whistle that sexual orientation is less deserving of protection than other categories like race. That’s because the Supreme Court has long concluded that protecting against discrimination is, in fact, a compelling interest. Even in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/13-354_olp1.pdf" type="external">his decision</a> concluding that RFRA protects Hobby Lobby from having to provide contraception coverage to its female employees, even the very conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote that religion should not justify discrimination — at least when it comes to race:</p>
<p>The principal dissent raises the possibility that discrimination in hiring, for example on the basis of race, might be cloaked as religious practice to escape legal sanction.&#160;Our decision today provides no such shield. The Government has a compelling interest in providing an equal opportunity to participate in the workforce without regard to race, and prohibitions on racial discrimination are precisely tailored to achieve that critical goal.</p>
<p>Given Sessions’ long history of <a href="" type="internal">opposing civil rights</a> on the basis of race, he might disagree with even that conclusion, though it’s not likely he’d ever say so out loud. And given Alito’s consistent rulings against marriage equality, it seems likely he’ll be willing to circumvent his own reasoning to rule in Phillips’ favor. But siding with Phillips — as Sessions does and Alito probably will — requires believing that discrimination against someone because of their sexual orientation is more tolerable under law than discrimination against someone because of their race. In short, it’s inherently anti-gay.</p>
<p />
<p>In Phillips’ case, as well as a handful of other cases involving anti-gay wedding vendors, state courts have consistently upheld LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws, asserting that the government does, in fact, have a compelling interest to protect queer people from discrimination.</p>
| 7,190 |
<p>Tensions between the congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert Mueller are expected to become more pronounced as the various bodies all head into a more intense phase of their investigations into Russian election meddling and any collusion with associates of President Donald Trump, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/05/politics/russia-mueller-hill/index.html" type="external">CNN reported</a> on Tuesday.</p>
<p>There are three committees on Capitol Hill competing for information and witnesses in the probes, with very little communication among them, and this problem is expected to worsen as the investigations are set to intensify soon with additional hearings and the further gathering of crucial documents.</p>
<p>Sources say that the tension already has been apparent because Mueller’s team has mostly kept top congressmen out of the loop about the developments in its probe.</p>
<p>For its part, Congress, jealously guarding its oversight role, has mostly ignored Mueller’s requests to have the testimony of some key witnesses in public session so that he won’t be blocked from accessing information given to the committees privately.</p>
<p>Mueller also has some documents that congressmen are actively seeking, such as a draft memo that reportedly included Trump’s initial justification in his firing of then-FBI Director James Comey, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/article_email/trump-drafted-letter-on-why-he-wanted-comey-out-1504303851-lMyQjAxMTA3MTA1MTcwNTE1Wj/" type="external">The Wall Street Journal reported.</a></p>
<p>This failure to share information on various aspects of the probe has occurred even though Mueller privately met with leaders of the main three congressional committees investigating the Russian election meddling, in an effort to avoid conflicts with each other, according to CNN.</p>
<p>Sources are predicting new points of friction, because aides to each of the panels spent the August recess pouring over more than 20,0000 pages of documents from the Trump campaign about communications involving Russia, which probably will result in new witnesses and leads.</p>
<p>One area of specific interest centers around Trump attorney Michael Cohen and Russian-American businessman Felix Sater due to the revelation that they discussed efforts to move forward on a Trump Tower project in Moscow and sought help from the highest levels of the Kremlin, apparently contradicting the president’s repeated claims of not having any business in Russia.</p>
|
Russia Probes Could Add to Tensions Between Congress, Mueller
| false |
https://newsline.com/russia-probes-could-add-to-tensions-between-congress-mueller/
|
2017-09-05
| 1right-center
|
Russia Probes Could Add to Tensions Between Congress, Mueller
<p>Tensions between the congressional committees and Special Counsel Robert Mueller are expected to become more pronounced as the various bodies all head into a more intense phase of their investigations into Russian election meddling and any collusion with associates of President Donald Trump, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/05/politics/russia-mueller-hill/index.html" type="external">CNN reported</a> on Tuesday.</p>
<p>There are three committees on Capitol Hill competing for information and witnesses in the probes, with very little communication among them, and this problem is expected to worsen as the investigations are set to intensify soon with additional hearings and the further gathering of crucial documents.</p>
<p>Sources say that the tension already has been apparent because Mueller’s team has mostly kept top congressmen out of the loop about the developments in its probe.</p>
<p>For its part, Congress, jealously guarding its oversight role, has mostly ignored Mueller’s requests to have the testimony of some key witnesses in public session so that he won’t be blocked from accessing information given to the committees privately.</p>
<p>Mueller also has some documents that congressmen are actively seeking, such as a draft memo that reportedly included Trump’s initial justification in his firing of then-FBI Director James Comey, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/article_email/trump-drafted-letter-on-why-he-wanted-comey-out-1504303851-lMyQjAxMTA3MTA1MTcwNTE1Wj/" type="external">The Wall Street Journal reported.</a></p>
<p>This failure to share information on various aspects of the probe has occurred even though Mueller privately met with leaders of the main three congressional committees investigating the Russian election meddling, in an effort to avoid conflicts with each other, according to CNN.</p>
<p>Sources are predicting new points of friction, because aides to each of the panels spent the August recess pouring over more than 20,0000 pages of documents from the Trump campaign about communications involving Russia, which probably will result in new witnesses and leads.</p>
<p>One area of specific interest centers around Trump attorney Michael Cohen and Russian-American businessman Felix Sater due to the revelation that they discussed efforts to move forward on a Trump Tower project in Moscow and sought help from the highest levels of the Kremlin, apparently contradicting the president’s repeated claims of not having any business in Russia.</p>
| 7,191 |
<p>By Ellen Brown, Web of DebtThis piece first appeared at <a href="http://ellenbrown.com/2014/06/20/buying-up-the-planet-out-of-control-central-banks-on-a-corporate-buying-spree/" type="external">Web of Debt</a>.Finance is the new form of warfare – without the expense of a military overhead and an occupation against unwilling hosts. It is a competition in credit creation to buy foreign resources, real estate, public and privatized infrastructure, bonds and corporate stock ownership. Who needs an army when you can obtain the usual objective (monetary wealth and asset appropriation) simply by financial means?</p>
<p>— Dr. Michael Hudson, <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/10/11/why-the-u-s-has-launched-a-new-financial-world-war-and-how-the-the-rest-of-the-world-will-fight-back/" type="external">Counterpunch</a>, October 2010</p>
<p>When the US Federal Reserve bought an 80% stake in American International Group (AIG) in September 2008, the unprecedented $85 billion outlay was justified as necessary to bail out the world’s largest insurance company. Today, however, central banks are on a global corporate buying spree not to bail out bankrupt corporations but simply as an investment, to <a href="http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/markets/item/18520-central-banks-now-dominate-stock-market-study-finds" type="external">compensate</a> for the loss of bond income due to record-low interest rates. Indeed, central banks have become some of the world’s largest stock investors.</p>
<p>Central banks have the power to create national currencies with accounting entries, and they are traditionally very secretive. We are not allowed to peer into their books. It took a major lawsuit by Reuters and a congressional investigation to get the Fed to reveal the $16-plus trillion in loans it made to bail out giant banks and corporations after 2008.</p>
<p />
<p>What is to stop a foreign bank from simply printing its own currency and trading it on the currency market for dollars, to be invested in the US stock market or US real estate market? What is to stop central banks from printing up money competitively, in a mad rush to own the world’s largest companies?</p>
<p>Apparently not much. Central banks are for the most part unregulated, even by their own governments. As the Federal Reserve <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/about_14986.htm" type="external">observes</a> on its website:</p>
<p>[The Fed] is considered an independent central bank because its monetary policy decisions do not have to be approved by the President or anyone else in the executive or legislative branches of government, it does not receive funding appropriated by the Congress, and the terms of the members of the Board of Governors span multiple presidential and congressional terms.</p>
<p>As former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan <a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Not-answerable-to-anyone-30178042.html" type="external">quipped</a>, “Quite frankly it does not matter who is president as far as the Fed is concerned. There are no other agencies that can overrule the action we take.”</p>
<p>The Central Bank Buying Spree</p>
<p>That is how “independent” central banks operate, but it evidently not the US central bank that is gambling in the stock market. After extensive quantitative easing, the Fed has a $4.5 trillion balance sheet; but this sum is <a href="http://www.sott.net/article/280680-Shadow-QE-and-World-equity-markets" type="external">accounted</a> for as being invested conservatively in Treasuries and agency debt (although QE may have allowed Wall Street banks to <a href="http://ellenbrown.com/2013/08/26/the-leveraged-buyout-of-america/" type="external">invest the proceeds</a> in the stock market by devious means).</p>
<p>Which central banks, then, are investing in stocks? The biggest player turns out to be the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the Chinese central bank.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2014/06/15/david-marsh-new-force-in-world-markets-global-public-investors/10548183/" type="external">According</a> to a June 15th article in USA Today:</p>
<p>Evidence of equity-buying by central banks and other public sector investors has emerged from a large-scale survey compiled by Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), a global research and advisory group. The OMFIF research publication Global Public Investor (GPI) 2014, launched on June 17 is the first comprehensive survey of $29.1 trillion worth of investments held by 400 public sector institutions in 162 countries. The report focuses on investments by 157 central banks, 156 public pension funds and 87 sovereign funds, underlines growing similarities among different categories of public entities owning assets equivalent to 40% of world output.</p>
<p>The assets of these 400 Global Public Investors comprise $13.2 trillion (including gold) at central banks, $9.4 trillion at public pension funds and $6.5 trillion at sovereign wealth funds.</p>
<p>Public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are well known to be large holders of shares on international stock markets. But it seems they now have rivals from unexpected sources:</p>
<p>One is China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), part of the People’s Bank of China, the biggest overall public sector investor, with $3.9 trillion under management, well ahead of the Bank of Japan and Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), each with $1.3 trillion.</p>
<p>SAFE’s investments include significant holdings in Europe. The PBoC itself has been directly buying minority equity stakes in important European companies.</p>
<p>Another large public sector equity owner is Swiss National Bank, with $480 billion under management. The Swiss central bank had 15% of its foreign exchange assets – or $72 billion – in equities at the end of 2013.</p>
<p>Public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds invest their pension contributions and exchange reserves earned in foreign trade, which is fair enough. The justification for central banks to be playing the stock market is less obvious. Their stock purchases are justified as compensating for lost revenue caused by sharp drops in interest rates. But those drops were driven by central banks themselves; and the broad powers delegated to central banks were supposed to be for conducting “monetary policy,” not for generating investment returns. According to the OMFIF, central banks collectively now have $13.2 trillion in assets (including gold). That is nearly 20% of the value of all of the stock markets in the world, which comes to $62 trillion.From Monetary Policy to Asset Grabs</p>
<p>Central banks are allowed to create money out of nothing in order to conduct the monetary policies necessary to “regulate the value of the currency” and “maintain price stability.” Traditionally, this has been done with “open market operations,” in which money was either created by the central bank and used to buy federal securities (thereby adding money to the money supply) or federal securities were sold in exchange for currency (shrinking the money supply).</p>
<p>“Quantitative easing” is open market operations on steroids, to the tune of trillions of dollars. But the purpose is allegedly the same—to augment a money supply that shrank by trillions of dollars when the shadow banking system collapsed after 2008. The purpose is not supposed to be to earn an income for the central bank itself. Indeed, the U.S. central bank is required to return the interest earned on federal securities to the federal government, which paid the interest in the first place.</p>
<p>Further, as noted earlier, it is not the US Federal Reserve that has been massively investing in the stock market. It is the PBoC, which arguably is in a different position than the US Fed. It cannot print dollars or Euros. Rather, it acquires them from local merchants who have earned them legitimately in foreign trade.</p>
<p>However, the PBoC has done nothing to earn these dollars or Euros beyond printing yuan. It trades the yuan for the dollars earned by Chinese sellers, who need local currency to pay their workers and suppliers. The money involved in these transactions has thus doubled. The merchants have been paid in yuan and the central bank has an equivalent sum in dollars or Euros. That means the Chinese central bank’s holdings are created out of thin air no less than the Federal Reserve’s dollars are.</p>
<p>Battle of the Central Banks?</p>
<p>Western central banks have generally worked this scheme discreetly. Not so much the Chinese, whose blatant gaming of the system points up its flaws for all to see.</p>
<p>Georgetown University historian Professor Carroll Quigley styled himself the librarian of the international bankers. In his 1966 book Tragedy and Hope, he wrote that their aim was “nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.” This system was to be controlled “in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements,” central banks that “were themselves private corporations.”</p>
<p>It may be the Chinese, not acting in concert, who break up this cartel. The PBoC is no more transparent than the US Fed, but it is not an “independent” central bank. It is a government agency accountable to the Chinese government and acting on its behalf.</p>
<p>The Chinese have evidently figured out the game of the “independent” central bankers, and to be using it to their own advantage. If the Fed can do quantitative easing, so can the Chinese – and buy up our assets with the proceeds. Owning our corporations rather than our Treasuries helps the Chinese break up US dollar hegemony.</p>
<p>Whatever power plays are going on behind the scenes, it is increasingly clear that they are not serving we-the-people. Banks should not be the exclusive creators of money. We the people, through our representative governments, need to be issuing the national money supply directly, as was done in America under President Abraham Lincoln and in colonial times.</p>
<p>Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the <a href="http://publicbankinginstitute.org" type="external">Public Banking Institute</a> and the author of twelve books, including the best-selling <a href="http://www.webofdebt.com" type="external">Web of Debt</a>. Her latest book, <a href="http://publicbanksolution.com" type="external">The Public Bank Solution</a>, explores successful public banking models historically and globally.</p>
<p />
|
Out-of-Control Central Banks on a Corporate Buying Spree
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/out-of-control-central-banks-on-a-corporate-buying-spree/
|
2014-06-23
| 4left
|
Out-of-Control Central Banks on a Corporate Buying Spree
<p>By Ellen Brown, Web of DebtThis piece first appeared at <a href="http://ellenbrown.com/2014/06/20/buying-up-the-planet-out-of-control-central-banks-on-a-corporate-buying-spree/" type="external">Web of Debt</a>.Finance is the new form of warfare – without the expense of a military overhead and an occupation against unwilling hosts. It is a competition in credit creation to buy foreign resources, real estate, public and privatized infrastructure, bonds and corporate stock ownership. Who needs an army when you can obtain the usual objective (monetary wealth and asset appropriation) simply by financial means?</p>
<p>— Dr. Michael Hudson, <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/10/11/why-the-u-s-has-launched-a-new-financial-world-war-and-how-the-the-rest-of-the-world-will-fight-back/" type="external">Counterpunch</a>, October 2010</p>
<p>When the US Federal Reserve bought an 80% stake in American International Group (AIG) in September 2008, the unprecedented $85 billion outlay was justified as necessary to bail out the world’s largest insurance company. Today, however, central banks are on a global corporate buying spree not to bail out bankrupt corporations but simply as an investment, to <a href="http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/markets/item/18520-central-banks-now-dominate-stock-market-study-finds" type="external">compensate</a> for the loss of bond income due to record-low interest rates. Indeed, central banks have become some of the world’s largest stock investors.</p>
<p>Central banks have the power to create national currencies with accounting entries, and they are traditionally very secretive. We are not allowed to peer into their books. It took a major lawsuit by Reuters and a congressional investigation to get the Fed to reveal the $16-plus trillion in loans it made to bail out giant banks and corporations after 2008.</p>
<p />
<p>What is to stop a foreign bank from simply printing its own currency and trading it on the currency market for dollars, to be invested in the US stock market or US real estate market? What is to stop central banks from printing up money competitively, in a mad rush to own the world’s largest companies?</p>
<p>Apparently not much. Central banks are for the most part unregulated, even by their own governments. As the Federal Reserve <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/about_14986.htm" type="external">observes</a> on its website:</p>
<p>[The Fed] is considered an independent central bank because its monetary policy decisions do not have to be approved by the President or anyone else in the executive or legislative branches of government, it does not receive funding appropriated by the Congress, and the terms of the members of the Board of Governors span multiple presidential and congressional terms.</p>
<p>As former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan <a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Not-answerable-to-anyone-30178042.html" type="external">quipped</a>, “Quite frankly it does not matter who is president as far as the Fed is concerned. There are no other agencies that can overrule the action we take.”</p>
<p>The Central Bank Buying Spree</p>
<p>That is how “independent” central banks operate, but it evidently not the US central bank that is gambling in the stock market. After extensive quantitative easing, the Fed has a $4.5 trillion balance sheet; but this sum is <a href="http://www.sott.net/article/280680-Shadow-QE-and-World-equity-markets" type="external">accounted</a> for as being invested conservatively in Treasuries and agency debt (although QE may have allowed Wall Street banks to <a href="http://ellenbrown.com/2013/08/26/the-leveraged-buyout-of-america/" type="external">invest the proceeds</a> in the stock market by devious means).</p>
<p>Which central banks, then, are investing in stocks? The biggest player turns out to be the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the Chinese central bank.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2014/06/15/david-marsh-new-force-in-world-markets-global-public-investors/10548183/" type="external">According</a> to a June 15th article in USA Today:</p>
<p>Evidence of equity-buying by central banks and other public sector investors has emerged from a large-scale survey compiled by Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), a global research and advisory group. The OMFIF research publication Global Public Investor (GPI) 2014, launched on June 17 is the first comprehensive survey of $29.1 trillion worth of investments held by 400 public sector institutions in 162 countries. The report focuses on investments by 157 central banks, 156 public pension funds and 87 sovereign funds, underlines growing similarities among different categories of public entities owning assets equivalent to 40% of world output.</p>
<p>The assets of these 400 Global Public Investors comprise $13.2 trillion (including gold) at central banks, $9.4 trillion at public pension funds and $6.5 trillion at sovereign wealth funds.</p>
<p>Public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds are well known to be large holders of shares on international stock markets. But it seems they now have rivals from unexpected sources:</p>
<p>One is China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), part of the People’s Bank of China, the biggest overall public sector investor, with $3.9 trillion under management, well ahead of the Bank of Japan and Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), each with $1.3 trillion.</p>
<p>SAFE’s investments include significant holdings in Europe. The PBoC itself has been directly buying minority equity stakes in important European companies.</p>
<p>Another large public sector equity owner is Swiss National Bank, with $480 billion under management. The Swiss central bank had 15% of its foreign exchange assets – or $72 billion – in equities at the end of 2013.</p>
<p>Public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds invest their pension contributions and exchange reserves earned in foreign trade, which is fair enough. The justification for central banks to be playing the stock market is less obvious. Their stock purchases are justified as compensating for lost revenue caused by sharp drops in interest rates. But those drops were driven by central banks themselves; and the broad powers delegated to central banks were supposed to be for conducting “monetary policy,” not for generating investment returns. According to the OMFIF, central banks collectively now have $13.2 trillion in assets (including gold). That is nearly 20% of the value of all of the stock markets in the world, which comes to $62 trillion.From Monetary Policy to Asset Grabs</p>
<p>Central banks are allowed to create money out of nothing in order to conduct the monetary policies necessary to “regulate the value of the currency” and “maintain price stability.” Traditionally, this has been done with “open market operations,” in which money was either created by the central bank and used to buy federal securities (thereby adding money to the money supply) or federal securities were sold in exchange for currency (shrinking the money supply).</p>
<p>“Quantitative easing” is open market operations on steroids, to the tune of trillions of dollars. But the purpose is allegedly the same—to augment a money supply that shrank by trillions of dollars when the shadow banking system collapsed after 2008. The purpose is not supposed to be to earn an income for the central bank itself. Indeed, the U.S. central bank is required to return the interest earned on federal securities to the federal government, which paid the interest in the first place.</p>
<p>Further, as noted earlier, it is not the US Federal Reserve that has been massively investing in the stock market. It is the PBoC, which arguably is in a different position than the US Fed. It cannot print dollars or Euros. Rather, it acquires them from local merchants who have earned them legitimately in foreign trade.</p>
<p>However, the PBoC has done nothing to earn these dollars or Euros beyond printing yuan. It trades the yuan for the dollars earned by Chinese sellers, who need local currency to pay their workers and suppliers. The money involved in these transactions has thus doubled. The merchants have been paid in yuan and the central bank has an equivalent sum in dollars or Euros. That means the Chinese central bank’s holdings are created out of thin air no less than the Federal Reserve’s dollars are.</p>
<p>Battle of the Central Banks?</p>
<p>Western central banks have generally worked this scheme discreetly. Not so much the Chinese, whose blatant gaming of the system points up its flaws for all to see.</p>
<p>Georgetown University historian Professor Carroll Quigley styled himself the librarian of the international bankers. In his 1966 book Tragedy and Hope, he wrote that their aim was “nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.” This system was to be controlled “in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements,” central banks that “were themselves private corporations.”</p>
<p>It may be the Chinese, not acting in concert, who break up this cartel. The PBoC is no more transparent than the US Fed, but it is not an “independent” central bank. It is a government agency accountable to the Chinese government and acting on its behalf.</p>
<p>The Chinese have evidently figured out the game of the “independent” central bankers, and to be using it to their own advantage. If the Fed can do quantitative easing, so can the Chinese – and buy up our assets with the proceeds. Owning our corporations rather than our Treasuries helps the Chinese break up US dollar hegemony.</p>
<p>Whatever power plays are going on behind the scenes, it is increasingly clear that they are not serving we-the-people. Banks should not be the exclusive creators of money. We the people, through our representative governments, need to be issuing the national money supply directly, as was done in America under President Abraham Lincoln and in colonial times.</p>
<p>Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the <a href="http://publicbankinginstitute.org" type="external">Public Banking Institute</a> and the author of twelve books, including the best-selling <a href="http://www.webofdebt.com" type="external">Web of Debt</a>. Her latest book, <a href="http://publicbanksolution.com" type="external">The Public Bank Solution</a>, explores successful public banking models historically and globally.</p>
<p />
| 7,192 |
<p>California Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced on Twitter this morning that she will run for reelection in 2018.</p>
<p>For the last few weeks there’s been considerable speculation that Feinstein might retire in the face of a potential primary challenge from a progressive Democrat.</p>
<p>Just yesterday Feinstein <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/08/feinstein-poised-for-another-senate-run-says-shes-ready-for-good-fight.html" type="external">hedged somewhat</a> during an appearance on Fox News.</p>
<p>Feinstein, who had a pacemaker implanted in January, joined the Senate in 1992 after winning a special election. She is now the oldest U.S. senator and would be 91 at the end of another six-year term, if re-elected in November 2018.</p>
<p>The senator has been pressed recently by reporters about whether she’ll run again. “Well, we will see, won’t we?” she also said Sunday, when asked about another Senate campaign. Progressives are purportedly frustrated enough about her views on President Trump, DACA and single-payer health care to mount a challenge for her seat.</p>
<p />
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein Announces Reelection Bid
| true |
http://joemygod.com/2017/10/09/sen-dianne-feinstein-announces-reelection-bid/
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2017-10-09
| 4left
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein Announces Reelection Bid
<p>California Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced on Twitter this morning that she will run for reelection in 2018.</p>
<p>For the last few weeks there’s been considerable speculation that Feinstein might retire in the face of a potential primary challenge from a progressive Democrat.</p>
<p>Just yesterday Feinstein <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/08/feinstein-poised-for-another-senate-run-says-shes-ready-for-good-fight.html" type="external">hedged somewhat</a> during an appearance on Fox News.</p>
<p>Feinstein, who had a pacemaker implanted in January, joined the Senate in 1992 after winning a special election. She is now the oldest U.S. senator and would be 91 at the end of another six-year term, if re-elected in November 2018.</p>
<p>The senator has been pressed recently by reporters about whether she’ll run again. “Well, we will see, won’t we?” she also said Sunday, when asked about another Senate campaign. Progressives are purportedly frustrated enough about her views on President Trump, DACA and single-payer health care to mount a challenge for her seat.</p>
<p />
| 7,193 |
<p>James O'Keefe strikes again.</p>
<p>This time, O'Keefe crossed the United States/Mexico border dressed as Osama Bin Laden and exposed the extent of the crisis on the border. In the footage released Monday morning, O'Keefe is seen freely crossing between the United States and Mexico with no visible border control or border security. O'Keefe notes that there is even a foot bridge that extends over a 15 foot-wide river that serves as the border.&#160;</p>
<p>Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and President Barack Obama have&#160;repeatedly stated "the border is secure." As O'Keefe proves, it is not.&#160;</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/11/new-video-james-okeefe-crosses-the-border-as-osama-bin-laden/" type="external">Daily Caller</a>&#160;elaborated&#160;on the National Security threat that the open border creates:</p>
<p>O’Keefe’s work often distinguishes itself for proving taboo but accurate premises – in this case, that Islamic extremists are able to gain entry to the United States from Mexico, where drug cartels are linked to numerous terrorist organizations including Hezbollah and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the strongest al-Qaida-like organization in the heart of the Middle East.</p>
<p>This summer has seen a whirlwind of terrorist activity on the southern border, with dire anecdotes pouring out of local news stations but ignored by the mainstream press. Security contractors found a&#160; <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/07/08/Muslim-Prayer-Rug-Found-on-Arizona-Border-By-Independendent-American-Security-Contractors" type="external">Muslim prayer rug</a>&#160;on the Arizona border, where 300 extremists affiliated with al-Qaida’s Somalia syndicate al-Shabab&#160; <a href="http://gopthedailydose.com/2014/07/02/watch-muslim-terrorists-crossing-usmexican-border-leave-prayer-rug-behind/" type="external">recently</a> <a href="http://gopthedailydose.com/2014/07/02/watch-muslim-terrorists-crossing-usmexican-border-leave-prayer-rug-behind/" type="external">entered</a>the United States unaccounted for. Terrorist watch-list suspects&#160; <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/07/01/Report-Three-Illegals-On-Terrorist-Watch-List-Detained-Crossing-Border-In-Calif" type="external">were also</a> <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/07/01/Report-Three-Illegals-On-Terrorist-Watch-List-Detained-Crossing-Border-In-Calif" type="external">detained</a>trying to get into the country through California. Country music legend Charlie Daniels <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlieDaniels/status/486105772216967168" type="external">revealed</a>&#160;that, “I personally spoke with an Arizona law enforcement officer who had taken four what he called ‘Taliban’ out of the back of an 18 wheeler.”</p>
<p>Relevant on the contemporary merits, O’Keefe’s video also makes an important symbolic point thirteen confusing years after the attacks of 9/11. The terrorists we’re fighting today are more technologically savvy than their idol Osama bin Laden, the self-designed political figure who tried to fire history’s loudest shot. But their motives have not changed. And they have access to the United States.</p>
<p>Shortly after the video was released, Ryan Grim, a reporter for the&#160;Huffington Post,&#160;was quick to invent a false allegation regarding O'Keefe's legal standing:</p>
<p>O'Keefe quickly shot back:</p>
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James O'Keefe Exposes Extent of Border Crisis, Crosses US-Mexican Line Dressed as Bin Laden
| true |
http://truthrevolt.org/news/james-okeefe-exposes-extent-border-crisis-crosses-us-mexican-line-dressed-bin-laden
|
2018-10-03
| 0right
|
James O'Keefe Exposes Extent of Border Crisis, Crosses US-Mexican Line Dressed as Bin Laden
<p>James O'Keefe strikes again.</p>
<p>This time, O'Keefe crossed the United States/Mexico border dressed as Osama Bin Laden and exposed the extent of the crisis on the border. In the footage released Monday morning, O'Keefe is seen freely crossing between the United States and Mexico with no visible border control or border security. O'Keefe notes that there is even a foot bridge that extends over a 15 foot-wide river that serves as the border.&#160;</p>
<p>Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and President Barack Obama have&#160;repeatedly stated "the border is secure." As O'Keefe proves, it is not.&#160;</p>
<p>The&#160; <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/11/new-video-james-okeefe-crosses-the-border-as-osama-bin-laden/" type="external">Daily Caller</a>&#160;elaborated&#160;on the National Security threat that the open border creates:</p>
<p>O’Keefe’s work often distinguishes itself for proving taboo but accurate premises – in this case, that Islamic extremists are able to gain entry to the United States from Mexico, where drug cartels are linked to numerous terrorist organizations including Hezbollah and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the strongest al-Qaida-like organization in the heart of the Middle East.</p>
<p>This summer has seen a whirlwind of terrorist activity on the southern border, with dire anecdotes pouring out of local news stations but ignored by the mainstream press. Security contractors found a&#160; <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/07/08/Muslim-Prayer-Rug-Found-on-Arizona-Border-By-Independendent-American-Security-Contractors" type="external">Muslim prayer rug</a>&#160;on the Arizona border, where 300 extremists affiliated with al-Qaida’s Somalia syndicate al-Shabab&#160; <a href="http://gopthedailydose.com/2014/07/02/watch-muslim-terrorists-crossing-usmexican-border-leave-prayer-rug-behind/" type="external">recently</a> <a href="http://gopthedailydose.com/2014/07/02/watch-muslim-terrorists-crossing-usmexican-border-leave-prayer-rug-behind/" type="external">entered</a>the United States unaccounted for. Terrorist watch-list suspects&#160; <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/07/01/Report-Three-Illegals-On-Terrorist-Watch-List-Detained-Crossing-Border-In-Calif" type="external">were also</a> <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/07/01/Report-Three-Illegals-On-Terrorist-Watch-List-Detained-Crossing-Border-In-Calif" type="external">detained</a>trying to get into the country through California. Country music legend Charlie Daniels <a href="https://twitter.com/CharlieDaniels/status/486105772216967168" type="external">revealed</a>&#160;that, “I personally spoke with an Arizona law enforcement officer who had taken four what he called ‘Taliban’ out of the back of an 18 wheeler.”</p>
<p>Relevant on the contemporary merits, O’Keefe’s video also makes an important symbolic point thirteen confusing years after the attacks of 9/11. The terrorists we’re fighting today are more technologically savvy than their idol Osama bin Laden, the self-designed political figure who tried to fire history’s loudest shot. But their motives have not changed. And they have access to the United States.</p>
<p>Shortly after the video was released, Ryan Grim, a reporter for the&#160;Huffington Post,&#160;was quick to invent a false allegation regarding O'Keefe's legal standing:</p>
<p>O'Keefe quickly shot back:</p>
| 7,194 |
<p>Shares of&#160;Johnson Outdoors Inc.&#160;(NASDAQ: JOUT) were climbing last month after the recreation specialist posted another strong earnings report. The stock gained 10% in the two days following its Aug. 4 third-quarter report and finished August up 26%, according to data from <a href="https://marketintelligence.spglobal.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>As the chart below shows, the stock gained steadily over the first half of the month on momentum from the earnings report.</p>
<p>Revenue increased 11% to $155.3 million, beating estimates of $149 million, on the strength of new products in Fishing and other warm-weather recreation segments.</p>
<p>Fishing, which makes up the majority of the company's sales and also has the highest profit margins, grew 18% in the quarter to $104 million, and Diving sales climbed 17% thanks to new innovations.</p>
<p>Further down the income statement, operating income nearly doubled to $24.7 million as the company erased a loss last year in Diving and saw margins improve in all categories. Earnings per share more than doubled to $1.65 from $0.68, with the help of a lower tax rate, crushing estimates at $1.09. With an earnings beat of that size, it wasn't surprising to see the stock soar following the report.</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>CEO Helen Johnson-Leipold called the quarter's results "outstanding" and credited the company's "continued focus and investment on delivering market-winning innovation."</p>
<p>Johnson Outdoors did not issue guidance, but the maker of products including canoes and camping equipment looks poised to finish out the year on a strong note as the stock is now up 60% this year after <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/05/05/why-johnson-outdoors-inc-stock-surged-today.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=e57959cc-93e9-11e7-8dd1-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">two consecutive Opens a New Window.</a> blowout earnings report. With discretionary spending on recreation growing thanks to a strong economy and its impressive track record of innovation, Johnson Outdoors should continue to outperform the market.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Johnson OutdoorsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=96b5d4da-ad39-4f01-a3ff-c223bfc13319&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=e57959cc-93e9-11e7-8dd1-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Johnson Outdoors wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=96b5d4da-ad39-4f01-a3ff-c223bfc13319&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=e57959cc-93e9-11e7-8dd1-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of September 5, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFHobo/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=e57959cc-93e9-11e7-8dd1-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Jeremy Bowman Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the 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;uuid=e57959cc-93e9-11e7-8dd1-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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Why Johnson Outdoors Inc. Stock Surged 26%
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/07/why-johnson-outdoors-inc-stock-surged-26.html
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2017-09-07
| 0right
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Why Johnson Outdoors Inc. Stock Surged 26%
<p>Shares of&#160;Johnson Outdoors Inc.&#160;(NASDAQ: JOUT) were climbing last month after the recreation specialist posted another strong earnings report. The stock gained 10% in the two days following its Aug. 4 third-quarter report and finished August up 26%, according to data from <a href="https://marketintelligence.spglobal.com/" type="external">S&amp;P Global Market Intelligence Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>As the chart below shows, the stock gained steadily over the first half of the month on momentum from the earnings report.</p>
<p>Revenue increased 11% to $155.3 million, beating estimates of $149 million, on the strength of new products in Fishing and other warm-weather recreation segments.</p>
<p>Fishing, which makes up the majority of the company's sales and also has the highest profit margins, grew 18% in the quarter to $104 million, and Diving sales climbed 17% thanks to new innovations.</p>
<p>Further down the income statement, operating income nearly doubled to $24.7 million as the company erased a loss last year in Diving and saw margins improve in all categories. Earnings per share more than doubled to $1.65 from $0.68, with the help of a lower tax rate, crushing estimates at $1.09. With an earnings beat of that size, it wasn't surprising to see the stock soar following the report.</p>
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<p>CEO Helen Johnson-Leipold called the quarter's results "outstanding" and credited the company's "continued focus and investment on delivering market-winning innovation."</p>
<p>Johnson Outdoors did not issue guidance, but the maker of products including canoes and camping equipment looks poised to finish out the year on a strong note as the stock is now up 60% this year after <a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/05/05/why-johnson-outdoors-inc-stock-surged-today.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=e57959cc-93e9-11e7-8dd1-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">two consecutive Opens a New Window.</a> blowout earnings report. With discretionary spending on recreation growing thanks to a strong economy and its impressive track record of innovation, Johnson Outdoors should continue to outperform the market.</p>
<p>10 stocks we like better than Johnson OutdoorsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*</p>
<p>David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the <a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=96b5d4da-ad39-4f01-a3ff-c223bfc13319&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=e57959cc-93e9-11e7-8dd1-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">10 best stocks Opens a New Window.</a> for investors to buy right now... and Johnson Outdoors wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.</p>
<p><a href="http://infotron.fool.com/infotrack/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-foolcom-sa-bbn-static%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0010449%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D6312%26ftm_veh%3Dbbn_article_pitch&amp;impression=96b5d4da-ad39-4f01-a3ff-c223bfc13319&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=e57959cc-93e9-11e7-8dd1-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Click here Opens a New Window.</a> to learn about these picks!</p>
<p>*Stock Advisor returns as of September 5, 2017</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFHobo/info.aspx?&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;uuid=e57959cc-93e9-11e7-8dd1-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">Jeremy Bowman Opens a New Window.</a> has no position in any of the 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;uuid=e57959cc-93e9-11e7-8dd1-0050569d32b9&amp;utm_source=foxbusiness" type="external">disclosure policy Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
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<p>Markel Corporation released first-quarter 2016 results Tuesday after the market close. And though shares are little changed as of this writing, make no mistake: Investors should be pleased with the specialty insurer's solid start to the year.</p>
<p>Quarterly operating revenue climbed 5.7% year over year, to just less than $1.38 billion, and translated to a 17.3% decline in net income per diluted share, to $11.15. While we don't lend much credence to Wall Street's near-term oriented expectations, analysts' consensus estimates predicted revenue would increase just 1.9%, to $1.33 billion, and result in significantly lower net income of $6.79 per share.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Markel is a financial holding company, and arguably the best way to gauge its success is by measuring its long-term growth in book value per share. As of March 31, 2016, Markel's book value per share stood at $589.86, an increase of 5.1% from $561.23 at the end of 2015, and up 4.5% from $564.29 <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/05/06/how-markel-corporation-just-crushed-earnings-estim.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">this time one year ago Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Markel Executive Chairman Alan Kirshner added,</p>
<p>Investment performanceComprehensive income to shareholders climbed 40.9% year over year, to $397 million, driven primarily by unrealized gains on investments. Net investment income fell 1.7% year over year, to $91.3 million, given lower bond income on Markel's fixed maturity portfolio -- albeit primarily due to timing of maturities and purchases as compared to the same year-ago period.</p>
<p>Total invested assets stood at $18.5 billion at the quarter's end, up from $18.2 billion at the end of last quarter. Equity securities comprised just over $4.3 billion, or $23% of that total, up from 22% last quarter, and representing roughly 52% of shareholder's equity. During the subsequent conference call, Markel Chief Investment Officer (and now co-CEO) Tom Gayner made it a point to remind shareholders that Markel has historically invested between 50% and 80% of shareholders' equity in securities.</p>
<p>"Over the last year," Gayner explained, "we've had a higher degree of turnover in the portfolio than normal, which reflects our view that the landscape for business is changing at a faster pace than historically was the case. When refined, we tend to accumulate gradually and persistently over time."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Fixed maturities comprised just under 55% of invested assets at the quarter's end, up from 52% last quarter, while short-term investments, cash, and cash equivalents represented the remaining 22%. Net unrealized gains (net of taxes) climbed to $1.7 billion from $1.5 billion last quarter. As another reminder, by holding equities for long periods of time without selling, Gayner ensures net unrealized investment gains can trend upward over the long term, helping the company avoid an unnecessary tax bill, and more effectively compound shareholders' returns.</p>
<p>(Continued) Underwriting outperformanceMarkel's insurance businesses achieved another solidly profitable quarter. Markel's consolidated combined ratio remained steady from last quarter, at 88% -- meaning they earned $12 for every $100 in premiums they wrote -- including an 89% combined ratio from U.S. insurance, 95% from international insurance, and 82% from Markel's reinsurance operations.But this was also an increase from its evenbetter 83% consolidated combined ratio in last year's first quarter, driven mostly by less favorable developments on prior years' loss reserves.</p>
<p>Next, gross premium volume grew 11% year over year, to just over $1.39 billion, including a 20% increase in gross premiums from reinsurance, to $453.5 million, 11% growth from U.S. Insurance, to $647.8 million, and a slight increase from International Insurance, to $291.4 million. This includes one additional week of gross premium volume during the quarter as compared to the same year-ago period.</p>
<p>Non-insurance operationsFinally, with the non-insurance side of things over at Markel Ventures, operating revenue grew 16.7% year over year, to $286.5 million. This included a 20.2% year-over-year increase in manufacturing business revenue, to $192.7 million, 6.1% growth at non-manufacturing, to $93.8 million, a 27.8% decline in investment management business revenue, to $7.2 million, and a slight increase in "other" business revenue, to $6.3 million.</p>
<p>On the bottom line, Markel Ventures grew its net income to shareholders by 33.9%, to $14.1 million, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) increased 22.5%, to $41.1 million. Markel Ventures made no new acquisitions during the quarter, but did reveal that its total consideration for last quarter's acquisition of CapTechwas $60.6 million. Financial contributions from this acquisition were included this quarter.</p>
<p>In the end, there were no big surprises from Markel in today's report. Rather, investors were treated to another steady quarter with solid contributions from investments, insurance, and Markel Ventures alike. While the market's muted reaction might not show it, investors should be more than happy with these results.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/04/markel-corporation-starts-the-year-strong.aspx" type="external">Markel Corporation Starts the Year Strong Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Steve Symington Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Markel. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Markel. 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>
|
Markel Corporation Starts the Year Strong
| true |
http://foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/05/04/markel-corporation-starts-year-strong.html
|
2016-05-04
| 0right
|
Markel Corporation Starts the Year Strong
<p>Markel Corporation released first-quarter 2016 results Tuesday after the market close. And though shares are little changed as of this writing, make no mistake: Investors should be pleased with the specialty insurer's solid start to the year.</p>
<p>Quarterly operating revenue climbed 5.7% year over year, to just less than $1.38 billion, and translated to a 17.3% decline in net income per diluted share, to $11.15. While we don't lend much credence to Wall Street's near-term oriented expectations, analysts' consensus estimates predicted revenue would increase just 1.9%, to $1.33 billion, and result in significantly lower net income of $6.79 per share.</p>
<p>Continue Reading Below</p>
<p>Markel is a financial holding company, and arguably the best way to gauge its success is by measuring its long-term growth in book value per share. As of March 31, 2016, Markel's book value per share stood at $589.86, an increase of 5.1% from $561.23 at the end of 2015, and up 4.5% from $564.29 <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/05/06/how-markel-corporation-just-crushed-earnings-estim.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">this time one year ago Opens a New Window.</a>.</p>
<p>Markel Executive Chairman Alan Kirshner added,</p>
<p>Investment performanceComprehensive income to shareholders climbed 40.9% year over year, to $397 million, driven primarily by unrealized gains on investments. Net investment income fell 1.7% year over year, to $91.3 million, given lower bond income on Markel's fixed maturity portfolio -- albeit primarily due to timing of maturities and purchases as compared to the same year-ago period.</p>
<p>Total invested assets stood at $18.5 billion at the quarter's end, up from $18.2 billion at the end of last quarter. Equity securities comprised just over $4.3 billion, or $23% of that total, up from 22% last quarter, and representing roughly 52% of shareholder's equity. During the subsequent conference call, Markel Chief Investment Officer (and now co-CEO) Tom Gayner made it a point to remind shareholders that Markel has historically invested between 50% and 80% of shareholders' equity in securities.</p>
<p>"Over the last year," Gayner explained, "we've had a higher degree of turnover in the portfolio than normal, which reflects our view that the landscape for business is changing at a faster pace than historically was the case. When refined, we tend to accumulate gradually and persistently over time."</p>
<p>Advertisement</p>
<p>Fixed maturities comprised just under 55% of invested assets at the quarter's end, up from 52% last quarter, while short-term investments, cash, and cash equivalents represented the remaining 22%. Net unrealized gains (net of taxes) climbed to $1.7 billion from $1.5 billion last quarter. As another reminder, by holding equities for long periods of time without selling, Gayner ensures net unrealized investment gains can trend upward over the long term, helping the company avoid an unnecessary tax bill, and more effectively compound shareholders' returns.</p>
<p>(Continued) Underwriting outperformanceMarkel's insurance businesses achieved another solidly profitable quarter. Markel's consolidated combined ratio remained steady from last quarter, at 88% -- meaning they earned $12 for every $100 in premiums they wrote -- including an 89% combined ratio from U.S. insurance, 95% from international insurance, and 82% from Markel's reinsurance operations.But this was also an increase from its evenbetter 83% consolidated combined ratio in last year's first quarter, driven mostly by less favorable developments on prior years' loss reserves.</p>
<p>Next, gross premium volume grew 11% year over year, to just over $1.39 billion, including a 20% increase in gross premiums from reinsurance, to $453.5 million, 11% growth from U.S. Insurance, to $647.8 million, and a slight increase from International Insurance, to $291.4 million. This includes one additional week of gross premium volume during the quarter as compared to the same year-ago period.</p>
<p>Non-insurance operationsFinally, with the non-insurance side of things over at Markel Ventures, operating revenue grew 16.7% year over year, to $286.5 million. This included a 20.2% year-over-year increase in manufacturing business revenue, to $192.7 million, 6.1% growth at non-manufacturing, to $93.8 million, a 27.8% decline in investment management business revenue, to $7.2 million, and a slight increase in "other" business revenue, to $6.3 million.</p>
<p>On the bottom line, Markel Ventures grew its net income to shareholders by 33.9%, to $14.1 million, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) increased 22.5%, to $41.1 million. Markel Ventures made no new acquisitions during the quarter, but did reveal that its total consideration for last quarter's acquisition of CapTechwas $60.6 million. Financial contributions from this acquisition were included this quarter.</p>
<p>In the end, there were no big surprises from Markel in today's report. Rather, investors were treated to another steady quarter with solid contributions from investments, insurance, and Markel Ventures alike. While the market's muted reaction might not show it, investors should be more than happy with these results.</p>
<p>The article <a href="http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/05/04/markel-corporation-starts-the-year-strong.aspx" type="external">Markel Corporation Starts the Year Strong Opens a New Window.</a> originally appeared on Fool.com.</p>
<p><a href="http://my.fool.com/profile/TMFSymington/info.aspx?source=eptfxblnk0000004" type="external">Steve Symington Opens a New Window.</a> owns shares of Markel. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Markel. 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>
| 7,196 |
<p>Ben Stiller used to be one of my favorite comedians. He's lost my respect with his derogatory abuse of the word “retard” in his newest film, Tropic Thunder, which might better be named Topic Blunder.</p>
<p>If you think my grief is an overreaction, the film highlights a specific bias which I can't help but take personally. My son AJ, who has Down syndrome, had a rough year. The worst of it was losing his eyesight in his right eye from a case of undiagnosed juvenile glaucoma.</p>
<p>We, as his parents, grieve over that, as well as over events that aren't on his radar. He doesn't yet realize how many people will judge him for the things he cannot do, instead of marveling at the inspiring ways he often proves them wrong. He may not even realize how much we admire him for struggling to accomplish day-to-day tasks that people without his delay consider simple tasks.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>AJ didn't know about the announcement in the name of medical advancement last year of an earlier prenatal diagnostic test to target Down syndrome in the first trimester of pregnancy, with obvious intent. Then, to our dismay, an esteemed University of North Carolina professor, Albert Harris — in the business of training our future doctors — recommended that any fetus with Down syndrome be aborted. That professor later acknowledged that his opinions were based on an outdated 30-year-old perception, but the damage was done.</p>
<p>I'd much prefer society eradicate prejudice than eradicate all babies with Down syndrome. I could go into all the ways our son has made our lives better — and certainly our hearts bigger. Our lives would not be better if, as we were advised even before we declined the recommended test, we never had him. But society won't listen.</p>
<p>Call me humorless or too politically correct if you wish. Call me whatever you want. Mr. Stiller can claim to be poking fun at Hollywood, but he and officials with the movie perpetuate a repulsive mentality that sees human life as nothing more than a designer handbag accessory. Unfortunately, people who see the movie likely will not catch any subtle intent that those words are wrong. Sadly, phrases from this film will insidiously become ingrained in our culture.</p>
<p>So, we advocates fight on, and focus on all the inspirational stories we hear, despite the negativity that tries to demoralize us. We cheer as a Michael Phelps credits the inspiration of a young woman with Down syndrome for re-igniting his Olympic swimming goals. And we know what his mother means when she sighs about the teachers who told her that Michael, who was diagnosed with ADHD, would never focus on anything. We know better. It is not our children that are a burden, but the rejection from society. We will develop programs and build bridges to the community that people like Mr. Stiller insist on destroying with their disturbing and confusing messages. It does surprise me that Mr. Stiller apparently missed the kindergarten lesson about name-calling.</p>
<p>Words have meaning. I was raised not to use the “R” word because my mother told us it was disrespectful and people who used it as an insult were ignorant. (Substitute a racial slur every time Mr. Stiller says the “R” word in the film, and you will feel the physical assault and nausea we suffer). My father was decorated with Purple Hearts for fighting a Nazi regime that often ridiculed and made light of, but ultimately tried to marginalize and dehumanize a whole class of people, and erase them from the face of the earth.</p>
<p>These words hurt my son, who is adorable, hilarious and sensitive, has brought much joy into the world, and we expect will make meaningful contributions to society.</p>
<p>Andrea Higgins is a free-lance writer. She and her family live in Raleigh, N.C.</p>
|
SECOND OPINION: Don’t use the ‘R’ word
| false |
https://baptistnews.com/article/secondopiniondontusetherword/
| 3left-center
|
SECOND OPINION: Don’t use the ‘R’ word
<p>Ben Stiller used to be one of my favorite comedians. He's lost my respect with his derogatory abuse of the word “retard” in his newest film, Tropic Thunder, which might better be named Topic Blunder.</p>
<p>If you think my grief is an overreaction, the film highlights a specific bias which I can't help but take personally. My son AJ, who has Down syndrome, had a rough year. The worst of it was losing his eyesight in his right eye from a case of undiagnosed juvenile glaucoma.</p>
<p>We, as his parents, grieve over that, as well as over events that aren't on his radar. He doesn't yet realize how many people will judge him for the things he cannot do, instead of marveling at the inspiring ways he often proves them wrong. He may not even realize how much we admire him for struggling to accomplish day-to-day tasks that people without his delay consider simple tasks.</p>
<p />
<p />
<p />
<p>AJ didn't know about the announcement in the name of medical advancement last year of an earlier prenatal diagnostic test to target Down syndrome in the first trimester of pregnancy, with obvious intent. Then, to our dismay, an esteemed University of North Carolina professor, Albert Harris — in the business of training our future doctors — recommended that any fetus with Down syndrome be aborted. That professor later acknowledged that his opinions were based on an outdated 30-year-old perception, but the damage was done.</p>
<p>I'd much prefer society eradicate prejudice than eradicate all babies with Down syndrome. I could go into all the ways our son has made our lives better — and certainly our hearts bigger. Our lives would not be better if, as we were advised even before we declined the recommended test, we never had him. But society won't listen.</p>
<p>Call me humorless or too politically correct if you wish. Call me whatever you want. Mr. Stiller can claim to be poking fun at Hollywood, but he and officials with the movie perpetuate a repulsive mentality that sees human life as nothing more than a designer handbag accessory. Unfortunately, people who see the movie likely will not catch any subtle intent that those words are wrong. Sadly, phrases from this film will insidiously become ingrained in our culture.</p>
<p>So, we advocates fight on, and focus on all the inspirational stories we hear, despite the negativity that tries to demoralize us. We cheer as a Michael Phelps credits the inspiration of a young woman with Down syndrome for re-igniting his Olympic swimming goals. And we know what his mother means when she sighs about the teachers who told her that Michael, who was diagnosed with ADHD, would never focus on anything. We know better. It is not our children that are a burden, but the rejection from society. We will develop programs and build bridges to the community that people like Mr. Stiller insist on destroying with their disturbing and confusing messages. It does surprise me that Mr. Stiller apparently missed the kindergarten lesson about name-calling.</p>
<p>Words have meaning. I was raised not to use the “R” word because my mother told us it was disrespectful and people who used it as an insult were ignorant. (Substitute a racial slur every time Mr. Stiller says the “R” word in the film, and you will feel the physical assault and nausea we suffer). My father was decorated with Purple Hearts for fighting a Nazi regime that often ridiculed and made light of, but ultimately tried to marginalize and dehumanize a whole class of people, and erase them from the face of the earth.</p>
<p>These words hurt my son, who is adorable, hilarious and sensitive, has brought much joy into the world, and we expect will make meaningful contributions to society.</p>
<p>Andrea Higgins is a free-lance writer. She and her family live in Raleigh, N.C.</p>
| 7,197 |
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<p>Along with other Democrats and some Republicans cashing in on a modern day, electoral California “gold rush,” President Barack Obama has increasingly focused his fundraising efforts on California, where this past week the president attended five fundraisers during his third visit to the Golden State in just one month, <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/231107-obama-in-california-gold-rush" type="external">The Hill</a> reports.</p>
<p>President Obama’s visit this past Wednesday was the latest of sixteen total visits to <a href="" type="internal">California</a> since the president assumed office. Amie Parnes’ analysis at The Hill focuses mostly on how California voters, animated by social issues like legalizing gay marriage– which President Obama recently became the first US president to fully endorse– are providing the Obama campaign with a needed windfall as big finance donors on the East Coast cool to the president’s anti-Wall Street rhetoric as he heads into a general election against finance titan, Mitt Romney. Hollywood and Silicon Valley are where the Obama campaign is really striking gold with donors.</p>
<p>But another important aspect of this story is the irony of federal politicians making stops in California for campaign cash while California remains the nation’s biggest federal “donor state” –which is to say that more money is taken from California in federal taxes than it gets back in federal programs, projects, and subsidies. So the question for California voters to ask is: if California is so important to federal politicians for fundraising purposes, why doesn’t it get a better deal from its relationship with the federal government? If California voters continue to donate to federal candidates like President Obama, what’s going to be in it for California?</p>
|
Obama Campaign Increasingly Focusing Its Fundraising Efforts on California
| false |
https://ivn.us/2012/06/09/obama-campaign-increasingly-focusing-its-fundraising-efforts-on-california/
|
2012-06-09
| 2least
|
Obama Campaign Increasingly Focusing Its Fundraising Efforts on California
<p>Along with other Democrats and some Republicans cashing in on a modern day, electoral California “gold rush,” President Barack Obama has increasingly focused his fundraising efforts on California, where this past week the president attended five fundraisers during his third visit to the Golden State in just one month, <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/231107-obama-in-california-gold-rush" type="external">The Hill</a> reports.</p>
<p>President Obama’s visit this past Wednesday was the latest of sixteen total visits to <a href="" type="internal">California</a> since the president assumed office. Amie Parnes’ analysis at The Hill focuses mostly on how California voters, animated by social issues like legalizing gay marriage– which President Obama recently became the first US president to fully endorse– are providing the Obama campaign with a needed windfall as big finance donors on the East Coast cool to the president’s anti-Wall Street rhetoric as he heads into a general election against finance titan, Mitt Romney. Hollywood and Silicon Valley are where the Obama campaign is really striking gold with donors.</p>
<p>But another important aspect of this story is the irony of federal politicians making stops in California for campaign cash while California remains the nation’s biggest federal “donor state” –which is to say that more money is taken from California in federal taxes than it gets back in federal programs, projects, and subsidies. So the question for California voters to ask is: if California is so important to federal politicians for fundraising purposes, why doesn’t it get a better deal from its relationship with the federal government? If California voters continue to donate to federal candidates like President Obama, what’s going to be in it for California?</p>
| 7,198 |
<p>On this week’s “Left, Right &amp; Center,” usual suspects Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley and Matt Miller (Arianna Huffington is in Davos for the World Economic Forum) weigh in about President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address and ponder the timely and, to some, troubling question: Is bipartisanship dead?</p>
<p>KCRW:</p>
<p />
<p />
|
'Left, Right & Center': Whither Bipartisanship?
| true |
https://truthdig.com/articles/left-right-center-whither-bipartisanship/
|
2010-01-30
| 4left
|
'Left, Right & Center': Whither Bipartisanship?
<p>On this week’s “Left, Right &amp; Center,” usual suspects Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley and Matt Miller (Arianna Huffington is in Davos for the World Economic Forum) weigh in about President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address and ponder the timely and, to some, troubling question: Is bipartisanship dead?</p>
<p>KCRW:</p>
<p />
<p />
| 7,199 |
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