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"Knowing that I don't always have to put it on the perfect spot helps a lot," Elia said. "I know that my guys are going to go get it."
West Brook will look to have big games from their star wide receivers in the state championship against Longview on Saturday at AT&T Stadium.
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) � Republican Dave Spence has put an additional $1 million into his campaign to oust Democratic Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, placing them on nearly equal financial footing for the final push before the Nov. 6 election.
Online campaign finance records show that Spence has now loaned or given his campaign $6 million since declaring his candidacy last year. The latest contribution is dated Friday, one day after his campaign reported a cash balance of $285,817.
The additional money gives Spence nearly $1.3 million as of Friday for his campaign. Nixon's finance report shows he had nearly $1.6 million in his campaign account as of Thursday.
Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster and Republican challenger Ed Martin both reported raising more than $300,000 during the recent period. Koster still had $1.3 million remaining in his campaign account as of Thursday, while Martin had just $22,719.
Democratic State Treasurer Clint Zweifel reported $737,628 remaining in his campaign account as of Thursday, compared with $348,565 for Republican challenger Cole McNary.
In the race for secretary of state, Democratic state Rep. Jason Kander and Republican state Rep. Shane Schoeller both raised less than $300,000 in the recent period, Kander's campaign reported $722,890 on hand as of Thursday, compared with $126,099 for Schoeller.
On Naha, Okinawa, winds hit 85 miles per hour, and tropical storm force winds of 39 miles per hour to 74 miles per hour lashed the island, including major U.S. military installations like Kadena Air Base, for almost an entire day.
This is the second straight weekend to feature a typhoon in Japan. Last weekend, Typhoon Phanfone struck the country, dumping anywhere from six to 20 inches of rain, and bringing 70 mile per hour winds to Tokyo.
With all eyes on “America,” rumors that the reality show’s judge David Hasselhoff may have fallen off the wagon – again – is kind of a bid deal.
RadarOnline.com broke the story Sunday that daughter Hayley found Hasselhoff out-cold with a potentially lethal blood alcohol level of 0.39.
Then, TMZ pointed the blame in the direction of Hasselhoff’s ex Pamela Bach, saying Bach exaggerated the story and that Hasselhoff’s drinking level was nowhere near the number initially reported.
Today, a source close to Hasselhoff tells Access Hollywood that the “Baywatch” star is “fine and well and happy,” and was actually out to dinner with girlfriend Kimberly to celebrate his father’s 80th birthday on Sunday.
So, which is it: Is this a repeat of Hasselhoff’s disastrous video from two years ago when kids, Taylor-Ann, 18, and Hayley, 16, caught him falling-down-drunk and leaked it? Or can we chalk up these rumors to a simple case of the revenge-seeking ex? Stay tuned for updates.
YouTube has announced that its web-based video player will now use HTML5 instead of Adobe Flash by default, after working on the transition for the past four years.
A number of technical issues needed to be ironed out before the switch could be made, but YouTube’s decision to use HTML5 should provide benefits for developers, content creators and consumers alike.
Amongst a number of limitations, HTML5 previously lacked support for Adaptive Bitrate (ABR), which helps videos play with reduced buffering. Now that this issue has been overcome, HTML5 can become YouTube's primary video platform.
ABR has been shown to reduce buffering by more than 50 percent globally and by as much as 80 per cent on congested networks. It also enables YouTube to run MediaSource Extensions meaning live streaming should run more smoothly on games consoles like the Xbox One and PS4, as well as other devices like Google’s Chromecast.
YouTube will also be able to reduce video loading times, file sizes and bandwidth used, as HTML5 supports the VP9 codec, which also ensures higher quality video resolution.
Richard Leider, engineering manager at YouTube, explained that the advancements made to the HTML5 platform had benefits not just for his company but the entire industry.
YouTube began offering HTML5 functionality in an experimental stage in 2010, but it had not become the default video platform until today’s announcement. You can find out more regarding the switch to HTML5 via YouTube's developer blog post here.
In this April 21, 2008 file photo, oil tankers are seen moored near the Chevron refinery in Richmond, Calif.
Every day across Ohio, consumers and businesses are feeling the effects of increased crude oil production through more stable energy supplies. Domestic production has been a boon to Ohio's economy, as energy costs are key to Ohio manufacturers' ability to outperform their international competitors.
The question now being debated in Congress is whether or not to lift the decades-old ban on the export of crude oil. The debate has focused on the economic impact, but it is the national security ramifications that should be driving this discussion.
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (Republican of Ohio) has called for more cautious approaches to this issue.
As I have said in my own testimony before Congress, caution is definitely needed. The real-world consequences of lifting the ban are simply too substantial to ignore.
Lifting the crude oil export ban ensures continued reliance on oil imports since exporting domestic crude directly threatens American energy independence and national security. I have experienced firsthand -- particularly in my command of the U.S.S. Cole when it was attacked by al-Qaida terrorists -- the devastating effects of reliance on imported oil when our forward-deployed assets are placed in harm's way to safeguard that oil.
Military assets do not run on crude oil. They mobilize on petroleum products, like gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. So, a change in export policy that undermines our robust refining base directly constrains the operational flexibility necessary for the modern projection of force.
As numerous national security experts and U.S. presidents have observed over the course of decades, there are significant national security risks associated with greater oil imports. As the American people have unfortunately come to experience, reliance on unfriendly or dangerous regimes threatens the sustainability of U.S. power projection capabilities by undermining the competitiveness of U.S. refineries.
Additionally, lifting the crude export ban will have second-order effects on U.S. allies, like Nigeria, whose economies rely on crude oil production to survive. Since Nigeria produces nearly the same type of crude oil as the United States, it is the country most likely to suffer if significant U.S. crude oil exports materialize. A protracted decline in oil revenues threatens Nigeria's economic vitality.
Should the Nigerian economy continue to weaken, the consequences for international security would be dire. Boko Haram could grow in influence and manpower, filling the vacuum created by potential economic collapse. Nigeria would present a fertile training ground for extremists preparing to launch attacks against the U.S. mainland. The safety of American civilians and military personnel across northern Africa would be placed at risk.
Advocates contend that exports are necessary in order to effectively influence international markets, but this influence is best achieved by sustained production, not exports. A strong domestic refining base provides the United States with significant national security benefits. When refiners have access to reliable domestic oil supplies, significant cost savings translate into a more favorable price outlook for both refiners and U.S. consumers.
Precipitously lifting the regulation of exports would not confer equal strategic benefits. All credible economic studies on the subject project that the vast majority of U.S. crude oil exports purchased on world oil markets would make their way to Asia, not Europe. Indeed, the No. 1 beneficiary of lifting the ban is likely to be China, a nation whose recent activities in the Pacific and South China Sea reflect more the actions of a rival hegemon for security dominance in the Trans-Pacific region than a responsible international partner.
While tempting from the perspective of gaining a commercial foothold in a new market arena, the national security implications of changing the existing policy regulating the export of crude oil is rife with unknown and probably unintended consequences that must be fully considered and addressed. The day may come when the United States is in a position to change our crude oil export policy, but for the sake of national security, that day is not today.
Retired U.S. Navy Cdr. Kirk S. Lippold spent 26 years in the Navy and was in command of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 when it was attacked in the Aden, Yemen, harbor by al-Qaida-linked terrorist suicide bombers, killing 17 U.S. sailors and wounding more than three dozen. He now leads Lippold Strategies, a consulting firm in Nevada.
[India], Jan 11 (ANI): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed a charge sheet against Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in a competent court here in connection with the infamous Saradha scam.
The CBI filed the sixth supplementary charge sheet in line with the Supreme Court's 2014 order, featuring the names of Nalini Chidambaram and one company, in connection with the ponzi scam.
Charges against Nalini include entering into a criminal conspiracy with Sudipta Sen, the proprietor of Saradha Group of companies, and other accused of committing the offenses of cheating and misappropriation of funds.
The Saradha Group financial scandal was a major scam caused by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme run by the conglomerate. The multi-crore-rupee chit fund scam allegedly involves several key leaders.
In the international solar race, it looks like Germany might be winning. The European nation generated a stunning 5.1 tWh in July, breaking all previously-set records. Oh, and that last record? Also set by Germany. So yeah, it's safe to say that Germany is taking solar power very, very seriously, along with other forms of alternative energy like wind (the nation set another record in January by generating 5 tWh of wind power). See full article.
Early in 2019, 100 randomly selected lower-income residents of Stockton, Calif., will start to receive $500 a month. In exchange, they’ll need to do, well, absolutely nothing, and can spend the money on absolutely anything.
This is free money, in every sense — and quite possibly a model for a not-so-distant-future U.S. economy, where a big share of Americans are retired and robots handle more jobs. In this America, men, women and children receive a government-guaranteed regular payment — a universal basic income — regardless of age or how much money they make, simply because they are Americans.
That is, if Americans can get beyond their ingrained belief that taking money for doing nothing — even to supplement their paychecks — is un-American.
In many ways Stockton, whose pilot program runs 18 months, is a perfect petri dish in which to rethink and innovate on the centuries-old dilemma of how to give more money to those who need it most. This racially diverse city of about 315,000, 80 miles from far wealthier Silicon Valley and San Francisco, was walloped in the 2008 financial crisis — the median home price plunged almost 70% — and declared bankruptcy in 2012. Though it emerged from that bankruptcy in 2015, Stockton is a stark example of how uneven the U.S. economy’s decade-long recovery has been. The city’s median household income is about $46,000, almost 25% below the national average. One in four Stockton residents lives in poverty. Unemployment, which approached 20% in December 2009, is currently 7.5%, still almost twice the state average.
Michael Tubbs, mayor of Stockton, Calif., endorses a form of universal basic income for the city.
Stockton’s progressive, Stanford University-educated mayor, 28-year-old Michael Tubbs, is a Stockton native raised by a single working mother. In an interview recently in his bright, modern office reflecting a revitalized downtown Stockton, Tubbs said he was skeptical at first about basic income, but has since become “more and more convinced” that the guaranteed money can make a meaningful difference.
In the U.S., the rich are taking more; not so in Europe.
Yet basic income in the U.S., characterized as a utopian solution by its true believers but as welfare, socialism or worse by its detractors, has gone nowhere. Basic income did enjoy a bit of a heyday in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s and was even embraced in conservative circles; free-market economist Milton Friedman went so far in 1962 as to propose a negative federal income tax that would guarantee a basic income to the poorest Americans while also incentivizing work. Other ideals of the era — the four-day workweek, the 30-hour workweek, the all but limitless vacation allotment — have fallen by the wayside, even as U.S. labor conditions have worsened.
Since then, political will for basic income has been essentially nonexistent in the U.S. on a national level, though Hillary Clinton said in her memoir, “What Happened,” that she considered making basic income for all Americans a 2016 presidential campaign promise. The closest the U.S. has ever come to implementing a guaranteed income was the Family Assistance Plan in 1969. This legislation, inspired by Friedman’s idea, would have given $1,600 a year (about $11,000 today) to every family of four with no income. It passed the House but not the Senate. The driving force behind this radical notion? Republican President Richard Nixon.
By 2030, automation will have displaced 73 million U.S. workers.
Half a century later, basic income is getting a high-tech, data-driven makeover built for today’s world. Notably, some of Silicon Valley’s elites are sharing their fortunes and time to find ways to guarantee all Americans a regular supplemental income, regardless of need. The Stockton program, for example, is funded by a $1 million grant from the Economic Security Project in New York, a private effort that includes Chris Hughes, a Facebook FB, -0.28% co-founder. Basic income also has support from high-profile entrepreneurs including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Tesla’s TSLA, +0.75% Elon Musk and Virgin Group’s Richard Branson.
Their motivation stems largely from concern about the future: the impact that technology, robots and artificial intelligence will have on how people live and work. As union membership has been nearly halved to 11.1% of American workers in the past 35 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, protections are few and far between. A 2017 report from New York–based business consultant McKinsey & Co. estimates that by 2030 automation will have displaced 73 million U.S. workers, with up to 54 million — one-third of the U.S. workforce — needing upgraded skills and new jobs.
By 2030, one-third of the U.S. workforce will need upgraded skills and new jobs.
Can ‘free money’ be made palatable to a public that is highly derisive of government handouts?
First, advocates must change American society’s mostly negative reaction to basic income. Can “free money” be made palatable to a public that is highly derisive of government handouts?
In fact, when proposed as a way to counter job losses to technology, basic income finds firmer support. A Northeastern University/Gallup poll taken in October 2017 shows Americans about evenly split on a guaranteed minimum income for workers whose jobs are replaced by artificial intelligence, with 48% in favor and 52% opposed. Additionally, 46% of respondents said that, under those circumstances, they would pay higher personal income taxes, while 80% agreed that companies profiting from AI should pay more taxes to help finance a national UBI program.
Still, a true UBI — money for nothing, for everyone — is a different story. To tell it in a way people will hear, some proponents suggest that basic income be presented and structured as a universal dividend. Much as stockholders are given a share of a company’s wealth, Americans would receive a common share of the national wealth. Unlike Social Security, this dividend would have no age requirement. It would be your right as a resident of the U.S. Call it an American Independence Dividend.
In the corporate world, of course, dividends are sacrosanct. Mature companies are prodded to part with cash that isn’t being used to grow the business or buy back shares. For example, stockholders pressured Apple AAPL, +0.36% to share its massive cash hoard, which the company agreed to do in 2012. Apple has since increased its dividend payout annually and now is seen as a reliable option for dividend-focused investors.
Where will the money come from? That’s the multi-trillion-dollar question.
The corollary for a government is that a mature country such as the U.S. could offer a dividend to its citizen shareholders. But where will the money come from?
That’s the multi-trillion-dollar question. Financing a common national dividend by increasing the federal debt or raising personal income taxes would be a tough sell. Alternatives include expanding the earned-income tax credit, a longstanding, popular federal program that currently benefits 26 million working American families and individuals. Also discussed is a tax on shared resources; Clinton, for example, contemplated taxes on oil and gas drawn from public lands, financial transactions and carbon.
Hughes, the Facebook co-founder, has endorsed modernizing the earned-income credit to give recipients more money in his recent book, “Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn.” He also has put forward a unique idea to shower every adult American with cash: a data dividend, paid for from a national fund created by a tax on large companies that profit from internet searching and surfing.
Perhaps the boldest plan yet to provide Americans with a universal basic income is the American Solidarity Fund (ASF), a dividend-paying social wealth fund for the U.S. that its creator, Matt Bruenig, founder of the People’s Policy Project, unveiled in August.
Every American over the age of 17 would be given one share of the ASF, which could not be sold and would pay a regular dividend.
The ASF would be capitalized primarily with taxes and fees on private wealth, publicly traded companies and financial transactions. A public entity would manage the fund and its investments.
A one-time 3% tax on the market capitalization of U.S. public companies would seed the fund with around $1 trillion in cash or stock. For example, Apple and Amazon.com AMZN, -0.17% each currently valued at around $1 trillion, would kick in roughly $30 billion apiece.
Then, an ongoing market-cap tax of 0.5% would keep money flowing into the ASF. The fund would also receive proceeds from a 5% tax on initial public stock offerings, and a 3% tax on mergers and acquisitions. The plan also includes smaller taxes on stock, bond and derivatives trades.
The ASF could also issue government bonds with a low interest rate and invest the proceeds in stock-index funds with the potential for higher returns. For example, the interest rate on one-year Treasurys averaged about 3% between 1990 and 2017, while the S&P 500’s total annualized gain averaged more than 11%, Bruenig observed. Had the ASF existed then, it would have realized this 8-percentage-point difference in return.
A stock-owning social wealth fund could also benefit from the government’s requiring the Federal Reserve to buy stocks instead of Treasury bonds with the money it prints. The Bank of Japan has done this for several years, Bruenig pointed out.
The Alaska Permanent Fund is the gold standard for what basic income advocates believe the U.S. can achieve as a nation.
Alaska’s template for the U.S.
Sharing the wealth, collective ownership and being handed a dividend check simply because of where you live runs counter to the rugged individualism that many see as a key feature of the American character. In fact, residents of one U.S. state with a reputation for being rugged and individualistic have been tapping a social wealth fund for almost 40 years.
The Alaska Permanent Fund is the gold standard for what basic-income advocates believe the U.S. can achieve as a nation. A Republican governor, Jay Hammond, led a campaign in the mid-1970s for Alaskans to partake in the profits that companies made from the state’s oil and other natural resources.
Every man, woman and child in the state has since received a royalty share from this revenue through Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), which made its first payout in 1982. The dividend amount changes year to year; in 2018, the PFD is $1,600 and available to anyone who has lived in Alaska for at least one calendar year — $6,400 for a family of four — no strings attached.
Moreover, research shows the PFD does not discourage people from working; the dividend is treated primarily as a bonus — most recipients use the cash to pay bills or save it.
Not incidentally, Alaska, helped by the PFD supplement, has the lowest level of income inequality of any U.S. state.
Americans’ rising financial insecurity due to automation and artificial intelligence is an obvious catalyst for the creation of a social wealth fund envisioned by the likes of the People’s Policy Project’s Bruenig. But if a universal, national dividend has a place in the future of Americans’ money, a groundswell of grass-roots support will need to grow among those who would benefit.
That’s what happened with Social Security, which came about after millions of retirees banded together in the early 1930s to support a government pension to care for them in old age. As their numbers and clout swelled, lawmakers listened; President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935.
Barnes, whose proposal for an Alaska-like national fund appealed to Clinton, said he believes that a 21st-century version of the Social Security movement would lead to a universal dividend for Americans.
Jonathan Burton is a commentary editor at MarketWatch.
WATCH: Sixteen-year-old Calgarian Riley White was born with radial hypoplasia, a condition that affects the growth in his right arm and thumb. Despite being told from a young age he may not be able to play sports, he’s become a national champion in wrestling. Kevin Smith has more.
Riley White was born with radial hypoplasia, a condition that affects the growth in his right arm and thumb. When he was young, doctors told his parents he’d be lucky to dress himself and tie his own shoes, let alone play sports.
That is an understatement. In Grade 8, White took up wrestling and now, as an 11th grader at Crescent Heights High School, he’s already become a national champion and is looking forward to testing his skills against the world’s best.
16-year-old Riley White trains at Crescent Heights High School in Calgary. April 30th 2018.
Later in May, White will compete in the cadet Pan Am Games in Guatemala City, and possibly the world championships and junior Olympics this summer.
White’s parents, Michael and Deb, are amazed at their son’s accomplishments. They love watching him compete and are proud he’s never been injured.
Michelle Hayden-Ritco is White’s coach at Crescent Heights High School. She says he spends 40 hours a week mastering his wrestling moves and she’s excited to see what level he reaches.
Travelling around the world to compete in wrestling also comes with a huge price tag for parents.
White has played a variety of sports growing up, and he’s even driving himself to wrestling practice after school and on weekends.
A GoFundMe page has been started to make sure the cost of travelling to international events isn’t another obstacle White has to overcome.
As of Monday afternoon, almost $2,000 had been raised to support his dream of one day being an Olympic champion.
Meningitis is an infection of the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. Both bacteria and viruses can cause it. Viral meningitis is the more common form, but bacterial meningitis is more dangerous.
Each year, almost four hundred thousand children under the age of five die from meningitis caused by a bacterium known as Hib. Millions more suffer hearing loss, brain damage or other disabilities as a result of the disease.
Hib, or Haemophilus influenzae type b, requires intensive treatment with antibiotics. But most of the children are poor and live in developing countries.
Hib vaccines for babies have been available since nineteen ninety-one. But for most of that time, their use was limited to industrial countries, mostly because of cost.
Uganda began widespread child vaccinations against Hib in two thousand two. Now, a study has found that in areas where cases were counted, the disease rate fell by eighty-five percent in the first four years. Then it fell to zero in two thousand six.
Scientists from the government, the World Health Organization, a French agency and others have been studying the campaign. They estimate that the program now prevents thirty thousand severe infections and five thousand deaths in children under five each year. Their report is to be published next month in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
The GAVI Alliance paid for the vaccines. GAVI was formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. This alliance of private and public interests was created in two thousand to widen the availability of immunizations.
With GAVI support, Uganda provided sixteen and a half million doses of Hib vaccine nationwide from two thousand two to two thousand six.

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