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The obvious problem in Sessions’ comments, made to conservative talk show host Mark Levin (and unearthed by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski), is that Hawaii is a state like every other and has been in the union for 58 years, as Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, helpfully pointed out. Are newer states inferior to older ones? |
There is also the Trump administration habit of trying to discredit any judge who rules against it, the stuff of autocratic regimes. Members of the executive branch have every right to criticize and appeal lower-court decisions, but what Sessions suggested is that Derrick Watson, the federal judge in question, somehow ... |
Hawaii has been a special place in conservative demonology because many on the right, once they had to concede that President Obama was actually born there and not in Kenya, wanted to hold on to the idea that he came into the world in a location that was, well, different. |
And Sessions may have picked up his anti-Hawaii cues from right-wing media, which reported that Obama had “unexpectedly” flown alone to Hawaii on March 13, two days before Watson issued his ruling, and that Watson just happened to go to Harvard Law School with the former president. |
The conservativetreehouse.com blog asked: “Coincidences? Or did President Obama travel to Hawaii to initiate, facilitate, or participate in the decision by Judge Watson?” On March 16, Rush Limbaugh got the story out there and then insisted that he wouldn’t traffic in speculation. “I want to mention also Barack Obama ha... |
Sessions has started switching the Justice Department’s stance on voting rights cases, away from minority plaintiffs and in favor of states that passed discriminatory measures such as voter ID laws restricting access to the ballot. The new DOJ stance did not stop District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos from declaring earli... |
Sessions also ordered department officials to review reform agreements between its civil rights division and troubled police forces nationwide, an Obama-era initiative aimed at restoring community confidence in the police after a series of shootings of unarmed black men. |
And as Sari Horwitz reported in The Washington Post, Sessions is bringing back the old war on drugs, thus stopping in its tracks a once-promising criminal justice reform movement of conservatives, liberals and libertarians concerned with over-incarceration, particularly in African-American communities. |
You don’t have to live on an island to worry about what Sessions is doing in the name of justice. |
That was the message as buyers from the Netherlands landed in Norfolk to attend the Local Flavours event at the Norfolk Showground, where 120 exhibitors showcased the best of East Anglian produce to potential new customers. |
Despite feeling that their nation had “lost a friend at the Brussels table” after the Brexit vote, the Dutch delegation saw light at the end of the tunnel for British suppliers – particularly those in East Anglia, due to its close proximity and established links. |
Tim Heddema, agricultural counsellor to the Netherlands, said: “What this country and the Netherlands have in common is that consumers both want high quality, speciality products. |
“I visited the Royal Norfolk Show last year and was very impressed by the agri-tech farmers use here, which is much what’s happening in our nation. |
“The relationship between here and the Dutch market is already so well organised that they will be ready, and because of this trade could improve in comparison to other countries. |
Mr Wood said there could be opportunities outside the food industry for boosting Anglo-Dutch trade, such as “by looking at the European North Sea Alliance and Norfolk’s wind farms”. |
Becky Norton, account manager with KLM, said the short flights between Norwich and Amsterdam could facilitate increased trade. “It’s our most regular flight out of Norwich Airport, and if the demand was there we could see more flights leaving Norwich for the Netherlands,” she said. |
Although Supreme Court scrapped Section 377 and decriminalised homosexuality, still a lot needs to change to create an inclusive society. Healthy discourses about gender among the young population in educational institutes can help in changing the outlook across nation. |
Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, has introduced India's first gender-neutral hostel for gender-inclusive campus. "Classes are gender neutral where knowledge is imparted without any discrimination. Similarly, living spaces should not be governed by gender," says Aroh Akunth, who identifies as a Dalit qu... |
Aroh is of an opinion that the notice at TISS hostel, which said that "transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming persons can apply for rooms in the gender-neutral hostel", completely disregarded the year-long mobilisation as there is still segregation- not on the basis of heterogeneity-but on the basis of gender. ... |
A large number of people belonging to LGBTQ+ community undergo violence, discrimination and uncomfortable situations in university campuses. "Educational institutes play a vital role in educating the public and education is not just about text, but about teaching ways of living daily life," said Akkai Padmashali, trans... |
"Usually, students studying in elite institutes have better exposure to be comfortable with their gender identity. But, for a stigma-free society with freedom of gender-expression, working-class colleges and government hostels need to adopt a liberal approach," added Padmashali, who also believes that gender-neutrality... |
Anurag Kalia, an openly gay software engineer and an alumnus of IIT Roorkee, who initiated a LGBT support group at the institute, draws a co-relation between self-acceptance and discriminatory environment. He recollects instances where most his friends at IIT-R were girls and he could not spend enough time with them, e... |
Dana Milbank on how the government criminalizes reporting, Sharon Stapel on homophobia in America, Jarrod Shanahan on why we believe in conspiracies, Ma Jian on the brutality of China's one-child policy, and Emily Bazelon on who to blame for tax-dodging corporations. |
Dana Milbank at The Washington Post on how the government criminalizes reporting The Department of Justice's ongoing investigation of Fox News reporter James Rosen "is as flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush's administration, and it uses technology to silence critics in a way Richar... |
Sharon Stapel at The Guardian on homophobia in America Sharon Stapel observes how political rhetoric and actual violence converge in the discussion of gay people in the United States. "In 2013, it is still lawful to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity," she notes. " ... Th... |
Jarrod Shanahan at The New Inquiry on why we believe in conspiracies What underlies the conspiracies that people believe in? Jarrod Shanahan searches for a common thread between stories of new world orders, shadowy billionaires, and secretive organizations. "The conspiracy fills the seeming vacuum at the center of soci... |
Ma Jian at The New York Times on the brutality of China's one-child policy Ma Jian reports on how China's one-child policy, which limits the number of children certain couples may raise, damages both individuals and society. "Almost every one of the pregnant women I spoke to had suffered a mandatory abortion. ... The o... |
Emily Bazelon at Slate on who to blame for tax-dodging corporations Don't blame the Internal Revenue Service for failing to capture as much tax revenue as possible — Emily Bazelon shows how our tax agency is only as effective as we want it to be, especially when it comes to taxing global companies like Apple: "When it ... |
Campbell Soup, which has operated in Sacramento since 1947, is closing its factory, letting 720 workers go. It is one of several company shutdowns there. |
If you've enjoyed listening to my Chronicle colleague C.W. Nevius on KGO Radio for the past 15 months, be sure to tune in Friday. It's his last day after more than a year of "Open Mic With C.W. Nevius" on 810 AM. |
No reflection on Chuck, nor on other contributors being let go with little warning. They simply got caught up in the latest changes at what was once the Bay Area's top radio station. |
"We looked at a list of features and decided we didn't need all of them, but will focus instead on putting on a good news program," said a KGO executive. The executive denied reports that staff layoffs were also planned. |
However, with ratings continuing to decline, there's considerable anxiety in the newsroom about the future, I'm told by insiders. |
In January, News and Program Director Paul Hosley, who had been brought in to help turn the ship around two years earlier, was let go. Hosley engineered the shift from mostly talk to mostly news soon after longtime President and General Manager Mickey Luckoff abruptly quit in late 2010 with a blast at KGO's out-of-stat... |
Citadel was acquired by Cumulus Media, the nation's second-biggest radio station operator, in 2011. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cumulus oversaw the shift to an "all-news" format, resulting in the departure of a number of popular Bay Area radio personalities. |
Listener displeasure, which was loud at the time, washed over into the ratings. The No. 1 station in the Bay Area for 27 years, KGO was overtaken by all-news KCBS-AM in 2010, a slide that has gathered momentum since. |
KGO slumped to 16th in the Bay Area with a 2.6 audience share, according to an Arbitron survey of listeners 12 years and older published in January. It now rates a decidedly negative 1.5 stars on Yelp. |
Despite rumors that Cumulus is contemplating a return to KGO's all-talk format, the executive said no major programming changes are in the works now "or in the foreseeable future." |
"It was a lot of fun while it lasted," said Nevius, who was given 90-second and 60-second spots, five days a week, to riff on any number of topics. |
"I just want it known that I've decided I want to spend more time with my family," he said with a smile. |
Half-full, half-empty: State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, has been busy on the legislative front lately. |
On Wednesday, he introduced a bill expanding the availability of online courses throughout California's state college and university systems. Last month, he took over the push to reform California's environmental laws, one of Gov. Jerry Brown's top priorities. |
At the same time, however, his constituents have been taking hit after hit from outside corporations. |
On Wednesday, Coca-Cola said it is shutting down its bottling plant, a fixture in Sacramento for 87 years, putting 60 employees out of work. |
"We have excess capacity," said a company spokesman, who thought perhaps some employees could find jobs at Coke facilities in the Central Valley. |
Last month, the first batch of 720 workers punched out for the last time at a Campbell's Soup factory in Sacramento. It had been there since 1947. |
"It's mind-boggling, you know, to lose all these jobs," one worker told the CBS station there. "You kind of think about what else is out there, should you leave the state?" |
In September, Comcast said it was closing a call center in Steinberg's district, one of three call centers to be relocated, throwing 1,000 Californians out of work. |
"A Comcast representative told my office the reason behind it is a corporate restructuring to make their call centers more efficient," Steinberg said at the time. However, a Comcast executive was quoted as saying the centers were being moved because of "the high cost of doing business in California." |
Steinberg's appeals to Comcast were to no avail. |
Yep, California's economy is on the comeback trail. Too bad so many folks in the state capital aren't feeling it. |
Business trip: The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce is on the jobs and money hunt in Washington, D.C. |
A chamber delegation, including business leaders and city officials, is in the nation's capital this week, looking for federal assistance for various job-creating projects, such as the Transbay Center, Central Subway, Mission Bay and high-speed rail. |
It's also reminding policymakers and administrators of the importance to San Francisco of issues like clean energy, technology, immigration reform, health care reform and support for small business. |
No doubt the delegates from an Obama-friendly city will be listened to receptively. Concrete results in the age of sequestration might be another matter. |
In the past half year, innumerable un-sourced articles have pushed the idea that President Obama is using his last months in office to prepare a vicious, last-minute ambush of Israel at the United Nations. |
He almost certainly isn’t — and never was. |
Indeed, in a bizarre convergence of left and right, each side of the political aisle wanted the story to be true for their own reasons. This combination of wishcasting and fearmongering gave us a narrative that never should’ve taken hold. |
It’s time to correct it. |
Let’s be clear: Had Hillary Clinton won the election, any brash act would have hobbled her attempts to allay tensions in the US-Israel relationship. With Donald Trump’s victory, it’s difficult to imagine Israel is anywhere near the top of Obama’s agenda for the fraught days before he hands over power, nor would Trump h... |
The GOP-led Senate went so far as to call on Obama to preemptively announce his intention to veto any (so far non-existent) “one-sided” UN Security Council resolution. |
Meanwhile, the left has pushed the same idea as a fantasy in which Obama has “only one option on Israel-Palestine,” in the words of one leftwing writer — the same UN Security Council resolution, which in the dovish scenario would form Obama’s final payback for eight years of Netanyahu insolence. |
This idea received establishment approval in October, when The New York Times, disregarding almost seven decades of American policy toward Israel, called on Obama to support such a UN resolution. |
As Carter knows, that’s impossible for any president to accomplish in six weeks. |
Even in the age of fake news, it’s rare that a scheme as improbable as this is so widely reported, and comes to embody the hopes of such wide a range of the commentariat. |
Moreover, Obama appears to have already said his final word on the matter. |
Instead, it is very likely that Obama answered the question in his misunderstood September eulogy for former Israeli President Shimon Peres, whose death provided Obama with an opportunity to make a final major public statement on Israel. |
“Shimon’s story, the story of Israel, the experience of the Jewish people, I believe it is universal,” the president concluded, defining himself, for all intents and purposes, as an Israeli. |
How likely is it that Obama is spending the waning days of his presidency lying in wait, twitching for the moment he can ensnare Israel at the United Nations? Not very likely. It never was. |
Noga Tarnopolsky is a writer covering international politics. She currently lives in Jerusalem, Israel. |
A man has appeared in court today in connection with a fatal collision in Linton. |
Ricardas Taraska, 23, of Pinder Road, Norwich, has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving and failing to stop and report a road collision. |
He was brought before Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on Friday morning, and the case was sent to Cambridge Crown Court. |
Taraska will next appear on September 28 at Cambridge Crown Court. |
The collision happened in the early hours of Wednesday morning. |
You want to be ranked first in the world game up people? Come and see the Balloons Crush!This is a similar POP STAR eliminate the stars of the game.You can see the game in real time global rankings, and advance scientific friends, so exciting it!Click to remove the same balloons. Eliminate once more, and finally the re... |
LEXINGTON, Va. -- Winthrop freshman Hamilton Bennett suffered another hard-luck loss on Saturday, throwing his first career complete game and striking out 10 but falling to 0-6 after a 5-4 loss at VMI. |
"He threw (eight) innings and had nine baserunners. They just strung five baserunners together in one inning." |
Winthrop (10-16, 1-1 Big South Conference) couldn't make a 4-0 advantage in the fourth inning last when Bennett was tagged with two straight hits. A.J. Yoder, Tanner Biagini and Jordan Ballard each hit doubles to tie the game at 4 before the Eagles stopped the damage. |
The loss spoiled the afterglow of an 11-3 conference-opening win the day before and also the continued hot bat of captain Billy Froehlich. The senior drove in two runs on two hits while Kevin Nolan (nine games) and Eddie Tisdale (10) each extended their hitting streaks. |
Freshman Eddie Rohan also hit his fourth homer of the season. |
The Eagles and Keydets finish the series at 1 p.m. today. Senior Ryan Mullins is expected to start. |
• NOTE --Hudak announced the addition of another game against Lipscomb. |
With the addition of a 6 p.m. match-up on May 2, the Eagles and the Bisons will now play four games as opposed as the originally scheduled three-game series. |
The May 3 doubleheader has been moved to 3 p.m., while game on May 4 remains at 2 p.m. |
M S, 45, from Bangladesh said he made more money by giving people lifts than his regular day job as a technician. |
DUBAI // Illegal taxis and buses in Dubai are popular among those on a small budget and with those wanting to make extra money, service providers and users say. |
M S, 45, from Bangladesh, who has been a UAE resident for 10 years, said he made more money by giving people lifts than his regular day job as a technician. |
He offered round trips from Dubai to Abu Dhabi for Dh250, while a regular taxi will charge about Dh350 for a one-way trip. |
About 7,000 vehicles were caught between January 1 and June 18 for illegal carpooling, which is transporting passengers without a permit. |
Such carpooling constituted a threat to the public transport system in the emirate, negatively affected the level of service and entailed financial losses for the taxi franchise companies, the Roads and Transport Authority said. |
A carpool provider said people opted to use his service for the sole reason that it was cheap. He transported more than 600 people across Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, he said. |
“Illegal carpooling is usually used by the mid-income group. They don’t have their own cars and taxis are very expensive,” he said. “Buses and metros do not go everywhere, and most of the year, one cannot walk outside. |
She was aware it was illegal but said she had no other option financially as she had a family to support. |
The Dubai Executive Council introduced resolution No 6 of 2016 as part of a plan to revamp the transport sector in the emirate and organise the activity of transporting passengers in taxis and limousines in a further effort to curb illegal carpooling. |
“The resolution prohibits transporting passengers in vehicles not licensed for this purpose within the emirate or from Dubai to any other emirate,” said Abdulla Al Ali, chief executive of the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority’s public transport agency. |
Fines for these offences amounted to Dh20,000 for individuals and Dh50,000 for companies. Fines were doubled for repeated breaches. |
It may be spring, but in terms of the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, winter has just arrived. |
The hotly-anticipated Season 8 premiere finally happened last night (April 14) and social media practically exploded in turn. After years of seeing this saga through, it's finally all come down to this for fans, and the first episode of its final season had fans going practically insane. |
According to Twitter, the season premiere launch managed to amass over 5 million tweets about the premiere alone. That makes it the most tweeted-about episode the series has seen since its debut. Whatever your reaction to the first episode of Season 8, one of the most exciting parts of a new season has always been watc... |
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