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To avoid jeopardising the gains of the past year, he has recommended a 45-day halt in July to a series of troop withdrawals. After that pause, he will assess conditions on the ground to determine whether security is sufficient to bring more troops home.
He resisted any sort of timetable to bring the troops home, a position advocated by Democrats.
The US now has 160 000 troops in Iraq. Under plans announced last year, the Pentagon is pulling five combat brigades—or about 20 000 troops—out by mid-July, bringing the force level down to what it was before the troop increase.
The end result is that more than 100 000 US troops could still be in Iraq until Bush leaves office in January 2009, leaving the US presence to the next president to handle.
Illinois Senator Obama told Petraeus and Crocker at a Senate foreign relations committee hearing that Washington needs to increase pressure on Iraqis to resolve their differences.
“Increased pressure in a measured way, in my mind, and this is where we disagree, includes a timetable for withdrawal. Nobody’s asking for a precipitous withdrawal, but I do think that it has to be a measured but increased pressure, and a diplomatic surge that includes Iran,” Obama said.
New York Senator Clinton, who is battling Obama for the Democratic party presidential nomination, told Petraeus at an armed services committee hearing that the US should begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq to focus on problems elsewhere.
“I think it’s time to begin an orderly process of withdrawing our troops, start rebuilding our military, and focusing on the challenges posed by Afghanistan, the global terrorist groups and other problems that confront Americans,” she said.
But Arizona Republican Senator McCain said he saw a genuine prospect of success in Iraq and warned that defeat could require US troops to return in a broader war.
“We’re no longer staring into the abyss of defeat and we can now look ahead to the genuine process of success,” said McCain, a strong supporter of the US presence who has clinched his party’s presidential nomination.
The unflappable Petraeus, dressed in a medal-bedecked uniform, and the urbane Crocker faced tough questioning and critical comments all day long. Even Republicans sounded frustrated by the pace of progress in Iraq.
“I think what people want a sense of is what the end is going to look like,” said Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker.
Crocker said he shared the frustration. “If you decide ... that we just don’t want to do this any more, then we certainly owe ourselves a very serious discussion of ‘then what?’ What are the consequences? Because my experiences in the Middle East ... frankly are that things can get really, really bad indeed,” he said.
Crocker also said major changes in US policy could allow al-Qaeda to gain strength in Iraq and permit Iran to increase its influence. “I remain convinced that a major departure from our current engagement would bring failure,” he said.
Petraeus’s plan to stop troop withdrawals drew a rebuke from the armed services committee chairperson, Michigan Democratic Senator Carl Levin. He called it “an open-ended pause” that would represent “the next page in a war plan with no exit strategy”.
Levin demanded to know how many US troops would be in Iraq at the end of 2008.
“Sir, I can’t give you an estimate,” said Petraeus.
Protesters several times interrupted the proceedings, providing an edgy atmosphere inside a Capitol Hill hearing room packed with news media and onlookers.
Ngata said he’d like to make up his mind for sure sometime in June. Some of his other offers are Tennessee, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, Washington, LSU, Michigan and Alabama.
According to stats from MaxPreps, Ngata last season rushed for 874 yards and 10 touchdowns, caught 36 passes for 666 yards and 10 touchdowns and had 1,725 all-purpose yards.
Giving kids a monthly allowance isn't just good parenting — it could be good government.
A new study from King's College London makes a strong case that giving families a set amount of money each month to use toward childcare — essentially a basic income for kids — could have profound implications for how disadvantaged children turn out as adults.
According to the study, which comprised more than 1,000 people tracked from ages 3 to 38, certain markers of early brain health can predict with startling accuracy which kids would sink deeper into poverty as adults, develop drug addictions, and commit crimes.
If the kids' parents had been able to provide more secure households (like with a basic income), the research suggests, the subjects whose brain health declined might have been guided toward healthier, brighter futures.
Clinical psychologist and co-author Terrie Moffitt says about 20% of the population uses 80% of the money given to public assistance services — a version of the Pareto Principle, which states that 80% of a system's output usually comes from 20% of its parts.
Basic income supporters view those kinds of imbalances as evidence that strengthening the social safety net is a win for everyone. If there is less of a need for public assistance programs, people won't need to pay as much in taxes to support them. Plus, the addition of all those people to the workforce means greater economic output and spending.
A childhood basic income isn't unheard of. In at least 10 countries, including Canada, Sweden, and the Netherlands, the government hands out money to couples who have kids. They're known as "child allowances" or "universal child benefits." The money reflects an understanding that raising kids is tough, expensive work. And no one checks the parents' income to make sure they qualify for the allowances either. The benefit is universal.
The research on basic income more generally hints at some lasting benefits. There is no data on first-world populations, but developing-world data (in places like Kenya and Honduras) reveal people enjoy lower stress levels and greater happiness when they can pay for a new roof or start a business. Recent data finds people buy drugs and alcohol less often as well.
Russ Whitehurst, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, has found through his own research that direct cash transfers to families and subsidies like daycare vouchers also trickle down to benefit kids. Specifically, they lead to higher youth achievement than nearly every other form of intervention, including popular programs like Head Start, Pre-K, and a push toward smaller class sizes.
According to Whitehurst's research, kids whose parents got money straight from the government, in the form of a big tax refund known as the Earned Income Tax Credit, did better on standardized tests as early as third grade and as late as college compared to similar kids in the other programs.
Whitehurst says it's easy to see why.
"If you're bringing home $21,000 and the government gives you another $3,000, that can be a big deal," he told Business Insider in August. "It can allow you repair your car when it breaks down and you need it to go to work. It can allow you to make a rent payment that, if you missed it, would mean having to change homes or being homeless."
The newest research suggests extra money might not just mean better grades, as Whitehurst's research finds, but improved health and lower odds of breaking the law. "This study really gives a pretty clear picture of what happens if you don't intervene," Moffitt told the Telegraph.
And based on the early available research, basic income gives a clear picture of what happens when you do.
Still mining the same vein of grotesque unease that’s been the hallmark of much of his storied career, Fritz The Cat and Cool World director Ralph Bakshi has released a nightmarish trailer for his latest short, Last Days Of Coney Island. Introduced by a voiceover from Bakshi, in which the animation legend waxes poetic on the untold stories of Brooklyn in the 1960s, the trailer wastes little time in waging a full-on assault on good taste, cutting almost immediately to the Zapruder footage of JFK getting shot in the head. Not content to show the assassination merely once, Bakshi cuts back to the shot again and again, interspersing it with sketchy animation of his vile, long-necked characters fighting and screeching at each other in a Bosch-esque vision of Hell.
If the trailer proves nothing else, it’s that Bakshi hasn’t lost his skill at provoking disgust, with his vibrantly awful creations leaving the kind of viscerally upset lump in the stomach that even his most gifted imitators—like Ren & Stimpy’s John Kricfalusi—struggle to reach. Funded by Kickstarter, Last Days Of Coney Island ugly madness will likely give Bakshi fans exactly what they hoped to see when they shelled out for more of his work.
Work can often get in the way of your sleeping schedule. But what if your work was sleeping? Well, that's the new opportunity Mattress Firm is offering to people across the country.
The mattress company is offering people a chance to be their Snoozetern, or snoozing intern. Your job is simply to sleep and test out different mattresses, sleeping styles, positions and completing activities that most people do in bed such as eat or binge watching.
You will also be expected to be all over Mattress Firm's social media pages by hosting Facebook Lives and posting to Instagram.
Mattress Firm is asking for everyone to apply for the internship by the end of July 17. To apply, you just have to make a video detailing why you'd be the perfect person to nap all day. If your video is selected, you will then be interviewed at Mattress Firm's BEDQuarters in Houston, Tex.
After that, the top three choices will be placed on the company's Instagram page and followers will vote for who they think is the best one.
The internship is in Houston. so if you are chosen, you will have to be able to get to work every day. It may require you to move to Texas, but getting paid to sleep might be worth it.
SAN JOSE (CN) – A federal judge Thursday appeared inclined to approve class settlements between Sony Pictures and another studio and their animation and visual effects workers.
Sony Pictures and Blue Sky Studios agreed to settle with the employees who claimed that seven major studios conspired to suppress their wages.
Sony and Blue Sky have agreed to settle the cases for $13 million and $5.9 million respectively.
Other studios, including Pixar, Dreamworks, Lucasfilm, Disney and ImageMovers Digital, continue to fight the case.
Lead plaintiffs Robert Nitsch, Georgia Cano and David Wentworth stand to receive $10,000 as a part of the settlement with Blue Sky; their entitlement relative to Sony was not stipulated.
Of the approximately 10,000 class members in line for a payday, 2,038 have worked at Sony and 578 have worked at Blue Sky, according to their attorney Brent Johnson.
The recovery for each of the class members averages $1,026.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh had a few technicalities she wanted corrected, including putting the burden on the plaintiffs’ attorneys to inform their clients of the process and any major changes to the settlement schedule.
The settlement as constructed urges people with questions to visit the court clerk’s office.
Koh didn’t see the point.
The plaintiffs agreed to strike that language and provide their phone number in its stead. Aside from a few other details it appeared everything was in order for Koh to issue the approval in coming weeks.
Nitsch’s September 2014 lawsuit claims major animation studios colluded to fix wages and restrict career opportunities for artists.
He claims Pixar and Lucasfilm agreed to notify each other when making an offer to an employee, and agreed not to offer higher pay if the employer made a counteroffer. He says Jobs and Catmull spread this kind of anti-competitive agreement throughout the animation industry.
The other studios used similar practices and pay structures, Nitsch says.
CLEVELAND—WOIO, the Gray Television-owned CBS affiliate serving the Cleveland-Akron, Ohio, market, last month deployed a new JVC ProHD Studio 4000 live production and streaming studio as a scaled-down, cost-effective control solution for its OTT media platforms, JVC said today.
Coverage was delivered via that station’s website, mobile apps and Facebook Live. It included double boxes, graphics, phone commentary from a reporter and other familiar production elements used in linear newscasts. One person ran the production system via touchscreens, and special workflows were developed to provide “rather comprehensive” coverage, said Maupin.
The ProHD Studio 4000 is located in the WOIO newsroom. The self-contained setup includes a dedicated JVC KY-PZ100 robotic PTZ camera suspended from the ceiling in front of the production workspace. An operator can also serve as on-camera talent. A 70-inch LCD monitor provides a video backdrop, and newsroom personnel are prevented from accidentally walking in front of the camera during a live webcast by a retractable rope.
Learning to use the new system was easy for operators, said Brian Sinclair, WOIO assistant news direction. A second touchscreen was added to the system to allow operators to access WOIO’s virtual router control panel and ENPS via a separate computer. A keyboard and mouse are only used to type CG content or to search the station’s ENPS system.
Individual sources assigned to the ProHD Studio 4000’s four inputs include the PTZ camera and an NDI source and two content sources routed through the stations video router. An operator can add graphics, bugs, archival footage, live Skype feeds and web pages during a webcast as well as adjust audio levels.
The station intends to make extensive use of the ProHD Studio 4000. ““We want our digital platforms to have as much live breaking coverage as we can provide,” Sinclair said. “We’re hoping the JVC system can make a difference in the market with obvious viewer benefit,” he said.
Merseyrail is calling on union bosses to call off strike action planned for the final day of the Open.
Guards from the train service, and those on other networks including Northern Rail, are planning their next round of industrial action for Sunday, July 23rd.
More than 200,000 fans are expected to attend the event over the course of the week, with tickets for the Sunday the most sought after.
The strike follows the most recent one on Monday and is the latest in a series as part of the ongoing row over the planned introduction of driver-only trains.
Merseyrail managing director, Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde, has now slammed the planned strike as ‘disgraceful’ and accused union bosses of not caring about the region.
He said: “It is disgraceful that the RMT Executive should deliberately target major events that the city region has worked so hard to bring to Merseyside. As we saw with Aintree Saturday in April, the RMT Executive thinks nothing of doing down the Liverpool city region in its proudest moments. Only one out of the 20 members of the RMT National Executive Committee covers the Liverpool city region.
"They don’t care about the economic and reputational damage that they cause.
The increasingly-bitter dispute has seen both sides accuse the other of being unwilling to negotiate.
The RMT Union says introucding driver-only trains would jeopardise passenger safety.
Announcing the latest action, RMT General Secretary MicK Cash said: “Merseyrail are completely ignoring the clear wishes of their own passengers, who overwhelmingly oppose the idea of Driver Only Operated trains on their network.
Quite how Auntie plans to fill this much-loved but now vacant slot in their April schedule has yet to be announced but one suspects it may feature antiques or Tom Jones in a spinney chair – which, when you think about it, is almost the same thing.
The corporation is jettisoning sport from the schedules like a nervous hot air balloon pilot chucking sandbags from his basket and when the sport goes, inevitably so do the presenters, which in this case will be Clare Balding.
Just a week after performing a sterling job at the Boat Race – ankle deep in the murky lappings of the Thames – Balding was back where she belonged among the iron-shoed beasts that make this four-mile event so compelling.
Not one for the comfy sofa, Balders is hands on. When she’s not quizzing trainers or stacking up bags of sugar to demonstrate weight advantage, you suspect she’s in the stables shovelling steaming mounds of garden goodness.
It’s believed that with the demise of Auntie’s horse racing coverage Clare will also be packing her bags for Channel 4, where she may well team up with pundit John McCririck.
Now, Balding and McCririck may sound like conditions that could affect the elderly but the only ones suffering will be the BBC for losing another national treasure.
WAUSAU – The Loyal girls basketball team celebrated the program’s first WIAA state title after the Greyhounds rallied from a 13-point deficit with roughly 10 minutes left in the Division 5 championship game.
Two key seniors from that team, Morgan Reinwand and Karsyn Rueth, were named all-state players in Division 5 by the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association on Monday. Rueth averaged 15.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.3 assists this season for the Greyhounds, while Reinwand averaged a team-high 17.2 points per game.
The two were among five local players named all-state across all five divisions. Three other players were honorable mention selections.
It’s the second straight year that Rueth has been an all-state selection. Rueth and Reinwand are among four local players who were first-team selections in Division 5.
Tri-County junior Amber Baehman was selected for a season in which she led the Penguins to a 24-2 record and the sectional semifinals. Baehman averaged 21 points, 12.7 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 3.6 steals this winter.
Owen-Withee sophomore Jennifer Wendler was also named all-state in a season in which she averaged 23.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game for the Blackhawks. Wendler had a season-high 47-point performance against Greenwood on Feb. 9. The performance was the second-highest single-game output in the state, ranking just behind Northland Pines' Lexi Smith, who had 48 points in early January against West Iron, Mich.
Smith made first-team all-state in Division 3 as did Wittenberg-Birnamwood's Taylor Nier in Division 4. The Chargers senior averaged 15.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game for the Chargers this winter. Wittenberg-Birnamwood finished with a 24-2 record and reached the state semifinal.
Marathon's Amanda Kind was a honorable mention selection in Division 4 in a season in which she helped the Raiders win the Marawood Conference south Division title and reach a regional final. Marshfield senior Ema Fehrenbach and Newman Catholic senior Lauren Fech were honroable mention picks in Division 1 and 5, respectively, as well. .
Fehrenbach was selected the Wisconsin Valley Conference player of the year as she averaged 17.7 points per game this winter.
Fech averaged 13.9 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game this season for the Cardinals, who finished second in the Marawood Conference South.
Grace Beyer, so., Mukwonago*; Erin Howard, jr., Madison East; Jayda Jensen, jr., Sun Prairie; Bria Lemirande, sr., Middleton; Sydney Levy, jr., Appleton North; Alex Luehring, sr., Verona; Chloe Marotta, jr., Homestead; Lizzie Miller, sr., De Pere; Sydnee Roby, so,., Milwaukee King*; Kenzie Schmitz, sr., Germantown.
Kari Brekke, jr., Appleton North; Caroline Busch, sr., Brookfield Central; Ema Fehrenbach, sr., Marshfield; Grace Gilmore sr., Arrowhead; Abby Guidinger, sr., Kettle Moraine; Lexi Hanley, sr., Chippewa falls; Caitlyn Harper, jr., Arrowhead; Maddie Re, sr., Bay Port.
Morgan Allen, sr., Hortonville; Bailey Eichner, sr., Cudahy; Brehna Evans, jr., West De Pere; Emily Higgins, jr., Pulaski; Julia Hintz, so., New Berlin Eisenhower; Brooke Olson, jr., Rice Lake; Hailey Oskey, jr., Seymour.
Brooke Geier, sr., Kewaunee; Makeena Haase, sr., Freedom; Brooklyn Liegel, sr., Richland Center; Elizabeth Lutz, sr., Marshall; Tori Martell, sr., Somerset; Katie Meriggioli, sr., Madison Edgewood; Estella Moschkau, sr., Madison Edgewood*; Madelyn Neff, jr., Hayward; Lexi Smith, sr., Northland Pines; Myriama Smith-Traore, sr., Whitewater.
Breanna Butler, sr., Milwaukee School of Languages; Sydney Flier, jr., Waupun; Emily Hafemann, sr., Martin Luther; Danielle Nennig, sr., Wrightstown; Chelsea Olson, sr., Westby; Rebekah Schumacher, sr., Whitewater; Jazmine Young, jr., Dominican; Chandler Zwiefelhofer, sr., Bloomer.
Hannah Anderson, sr., Regis; Mikayla Brouette, sr., Pardeeville; Sidney Cooks, sr., Kenosha St. Joseph*; Lexi Donarski, fr., Aquinas; Taylor Nier, sr., Wittenberg-Birnamwood; Ambree Schlooser, sr., Durand; Sydney Staver, sr., Mineral Point; Caitlin Tipton, sr., Laconia; Katie Van Scyoc, sr., Lourdes Academy*; Sam Yancy, sr., Howards Grove.
Amber Baehman, jr., Tri-County; Kailey Ketz, so., Clayton; Brianna Leahy, jr., Shullsburg; Alison Leslie, so., Clayton; Natalie Luezinger, fr., Black Hawk; Morgan Reinwand, sr., Loyal; Karsyn Rueth, sr., Loyal; Jennifer Wendler, so., Owen-Withee; Shemera Williams, so., Milwaukee Academy of Science; Emma Wittmershaus, jr., Bangor.
Lauren Fech, sr., Newman Catholic; Caitlyn Hiller, sr., Mercer; Dakota Hutzler, sr.,. Rio; Makaylee Kuhn, so., Hilbert; Jordan Ludescher, jr., Flambeau; Julia Peplinski, jr., Hutisford; Hattie Rennert, sr., Shullsburg; Abby Shane, sr., Heritage Christian; Jessica Slowik, jr., Elcho; Josie Verbick, sr., McDonell Central.
It was New Year's Eve, and a massive number of people and motorbikes were clogging the city's streets like nothing we'd seen before. HCMC has a population of almost eight million people, and it felt like every one of them was either driving through the heart of District 1 on a motorbike or walking toward Công viên 23 Tháng 9 (Park September 23) to get a good view of the upcoming New Year's concert and fireworks show. Crowds have never really been my thing, so the idea of wading through all that was a little daunting, but that ice cream fondue platter was waiting for us, so we stepped into the fray.
After about fifteen minutes of negotiating crowds and dodging motorbikes, we got to Ben Thanh Market, right across the street from the park where the concert was about to take place. The streets around the market were filled (and I do mean filled) with motorbikes parked side-by-side across the width of the roads. People were just lying on top of their bikes — which is a sight to see — waiting for the show and the fireworks to begin.
We'd been warned repeatedly by people and by signs about pickpockets, so I was being very aware of my wallet. I could feel it in my pocket as I stepped over the tires of a pair of bikes that were parked almost on top of each other. But this spot wasn't an easy place for my daughter to get through. She had to wriggle her way between the bikes. After we were through, she looked distraught, so we stopped for a moment. I asked her if she was okay. She nodded, but I could tell she was not happy. I squeezed her hand then started walking again, and as soon as I took my next step, I realized my pocket was a little light. I felt for my wallet, but it was gone. Just like that.
I stood there, looking around. The thief was surely still in the area (there was no way anyone could run through that crowd) and was most likely one of the people lounging on top of their parked motorbikes. It could have easily been any of at least a dozen people. Even more likely, it was the work of a team and my wallet had been handed off down the line and was nowhere near me.