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As Donald Trump and Senate Republicans dramatically shift the federal courts to the far-right, Americans should expect to see a whole lot more rulings like this one for the next several decades.
Opinion: December 30, 2010 at 12:00a.m.
The United States could energize the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations _ presently on hold _ by recognizing Palestine formally as a state and establishing full diplomatic relations with it.
The United States cannot pretend to be impartial between the two parties it is trying to bring together when it relegates one of them to a second-class status. The Obama administration portrays itself as an “honest broker” between Israel and Palestine, but withholding formal recognition from Palestine forces Palestine ...
In recent months the Palestinian government has been on a diplomatic offensive, seeking recognition from states that so far have not accorded it. With recognitions in recent weeks by Brazil and Argentina, some 105 states now formally recognize Palestine at the diplomatic level.
The Palestinian push for diplomatic recognition and diplomatic relations is not new. Many states recognized Palestine after the Palestinian declaration of statehood and independence of 1988.
The United States acknowledges Palestine’s entitlement to its territory, so it actually deals with Palestine in a practical sense as a state. Palestine has a mission office in Washington, which the United States raised last summer to the status of a “general delegation.” That means relations are just short of full dipl...
One reason diplomatic recognition is important just now is that Israel claims to hold a veto over Palestine’s statehood. Israel says that one of the items to be negotiated in the on-again off-again bilateral talks is whether Palestine is a state.
In other words, there will be no Palestine state unless and until the Palestinian side agrees to terms for an overall resolution that are acceptable to Israel. Israel hopes to extract concessions in return for putting its imprimatur on the Palestine state. When the Palestinian National Authority refers to Palestine as ...
Israel’s position that Palestine statehood is to be negotiated is inaccurate. The negotiations are conducted under a 1993 Israel-Palestine agreement signed at the White House. The 1993 agreement specifies the issues to be negotiated.
Statehood is not one of them. The two states are to fix a border between them, leading to an Israeli withdrawal from the territory of Palestine. There remain difficult issues to be resolved en route to an Israeli-Palestinian peace. Palestine’s statehood is not one of them.
As the Palestinian National Authority holds, Palestine has been a state for nearly a century. Until World War I, Palestine was part of the Arab territories of the Turkish empire. After Turkey lost that war, it relinquished those territories.
The 1923 peace treaty specified that the Arab territories were established as states, and they were placed on a temporary basis under the supervision of the League of Nations.
When an Israeli state was formed in the bulk of Palestine’s territory in 1948, Egypt and Jordan took the remaining Palestine territory under their protection. In 1988, Palestine re-asserted itself and was quickly recognized by other states. Palestine has embassies all over the world.
Diplomatic recognition of Palestine by the United States would not bring peace tomorrow. But it might lead to Palestine’s admission to membership in the United Nations, which would make it easier for Palestine to negotiate for itself.
U.S. diplomatic relations with Palestine would make clear that Israel has nothing to say on the issue of Palestine’s statehood. A major non-issue would be eliminated from the Israeli-Palestinian discussion.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said in recent days that the U.S. may make so-called “bridging” proposals to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Creative approaches are indeed needed. Formal U.S. formal recognition of Palestine should be one of them.
John B. Quigley is a distinguished professor of law at The Ohio State University’s Moritz College Law and the author of more than a dozen critically acclaimed books on various aspects of the law. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Harrison LaChance, left, a former Utah State signee, poses with his grandfather Hugh Gregson. LaChance recently reaffirmed his switch from the Aggies and his desire to be a part of BYU's football program.
PROVO — Harris LaChance is grateful, excited and eager for a chance.
A week after two Herriman High recruits decommitted from BYU and posted on social media they would sign with the University of Utah, LaChance reaffirmed his desire to play for Kalani Sitake and wear BYU colors. LaChance helps coach the two players who decommitted, Jaren Kump and Tevita Fotu, at Herriman and said the op...
“I can’t wait to enroll in January and be part of the football program,” said LaChance, a defensive and offensive lineman who signed with Utah State before serving an LDS Church mission in Nashville, Tennessee.
He returned from church service June 7. When USU didn’t have a scholarship available for fall — but would in January — he opened up his recruiting, looking into Utah and BYU before accepting a scholarship from Sitake to enroll in January.
LaChance is 6-foot-8 and a former defensive end who is targeted to play offensive tackle in college. A former all-state player at Herriman who also played basketball and rugby, LaChance came home last summer at 222 pounds. After four months working out with a private trainer at The Art of Training, he now weighs 260 an...
“I think I can play at 280,” he said.
I interviewed him in the Orem living room of his grandfather, Hugh Gregson, former president of the Provo LDS mission. LaChance towers above the man who stepped in and helped support him when his mother was raising kids as a single mother. Gregson is 6-foot-6.
LaChance explained that in high school he was offered scholarships to Utah State, Weber State, Southern Utah, Nevada, Hawaii, Idaho and UNLV when he was at Herriman and received recruiting attention from Pac-12 schools and Wisconsin before signing with the Aggies in February 2015.
He obtained contact information for BYU assistant head coach Ed Lamb and Utah coach Justin Ena. Thing is, he got them mixed up. During the process of finding out who was interested, he made a decision to go to BYU. He called who he thought was Lamb but was Ena and announced his decision to go to BYU. “Well, you’d bette...
Meanwhile, in conversations with Wells about his decision, Wells wasn’t exactly pleased with the move and asked LaChance to reconsider and enroll in January in Logan. “I’d made up my mind,” said LaChance.
Those familiar with LaChance’s game say he has an impressive motor and is very active and self-driven. He doesn’t back down from physical play but welcomes the fight. He can do the NFL combine 225-pound bench lift 21 times and his height and athleticism give him skills to play tackle and be effective.
As Herriman High takes, it also gives.
With a burnt-out police van, Euston station closed off and a running battle between police and protesters - Reclaim the Streets is back in the headlines again.
The last time it made a mark was on 18 June, in the Carnival Against Capitalism demonstration which wreaked havoc in the City of London.
But while Reclaim the Streets is widely seen as a new organisation, it can trace its roots back to the early 1980s when anarchists first turned their attention to the City of London with the Stop the City and Bash the Rich protests.
RTS first surfaced under its own name in 1995 with a demonstration in Camden, north London.
Their method of protest - turning "the streets" into playgrounds - became its hallmark of later protests around the country.
Thanks to RTS, no UK road has been free of risk of being turned into a giant sandpit or dug up for impromptu tree planting.
From inner city streets to motorways, RTS became a force to be reckoned with, albeit very difficult to deal with.
There are no spokespeople or leaders of RTS, an umbrella for a loose collection of groups, from eco-warriors, roads protesters and anarchist groups to campaigners against Third World debt.
In fact it prides itself on being a "disorganisation" in which everyone "can reclaim their own lives".
Its flag sums up the group's beliefs - green for ecology, black for anarchism, and red for communism.
But the main enemy is capitalism, represented in all its forms, including the car.
For RTS, cars are more than smelly things that clog the street.
According to its website: "The struggle for car-free space must not be separated from the struggle against global capitalism - for in truth the former is encapsulated in the latter.
"The streets are as full of capitalism as of cars and the pollution of capitalism is much more insidious."
Michael Lessing of RTS said: "Our policy is to unite against global capitalism and just as capitalism has no conscience, we have decided to have a conscience."
Of the violence at Euston, he said the fight against capitalism included the "police force of capitalism".
"It would be better if people did not fight, but it would also be better if capitalism did not set people against other people, rather than co-operate together."
The lack of leaders has resulted in RTS being branded secretive, but in fact, it is quite open and advertises its weekly meetings with a phone number on its website.
What makes it new, according to Peter Waddington, professor of political sociology at Reading University and an expert on protest politics, is its lack of aims.
"With organisations like Greenpeace, you know what the objectives are, but RTS does not have a clear policy agenda - it's a kind of rage against capitalism or against the modern world.
"It is a representation of discontent rather than a clear attempt to do something about it."
But perhaps this is where its strength lies.
"You can pitch for a protest which covers a broad range of interests and therefore a broad range of people," said Mr Waddington.
Perhaps with such a broad range of people involved, RTS would have trouble mobilising its supporters.
But 10,000 people attended the J18 protest in the City, causing more than �2m of damage.
There's a wide range of websites disseminating information on actions with RTS the British link in a loose coalition of groups called People's Global Action.
These came together, via the internet, for co-ordinated events like last year's Global Street Party in 20 countries in May last year, the first so-called "transnational" protest and for the World Trade Organisation protests which culminated in the UK, at Euston.
And while Seattle and Euston are still reeling from the WTO protests, activists including RTS is already planning a similar global action for May Day 2000.
You never know what you’re going to get in the morning mail: a glossy catalogue, a piece of political literature, some junk mail.
Or, in the case of Bruce Ratner’s latest mailing to thousands of Brooklyn residents, a little bit of all three.
The man who wants to build 17 skyscrapers in between low-rise Fort Greene and Prospect Heights sent out his latest flyer this week, painting Atlantic Yards as an urban utopia.
But it’s just a four-color fantasy.
Indeed, the flyer offers no renderings of the 17 Frank Gehry-designed, Vegas-style towers. Instead, it showcases the very low-rise Brooklyn that Ratner’s project would overwhelm.
Page 3: Atlantic Yards will “create thousands of needed apartments, office space [and] local retail space.” Yes, apartments are needed, but if office space is so badly needed, why are all the top floors along Fulton Street being prepped for residential conversions? And if Brooklyn is so desperate for more retail space,...
Page 10: Ratner claims that his community benefits agreement was negotiated by eight local organizations. But only two of them — ACORN and the New York State Association of Minority Contractors — existed before the deal was inked, as the New York Observer has reported.
. << Nice brownstones, Bruce! Too bad Atlantic Yards doesn’t include any of them.
. << This project is between Fort Greene and Prospect Heights. Calling it “Downtown” is just an attempt to justify 17 skyscrapers.
Posted: 2014-11-25 05:53:00 by Metro Networks, Inc.
(Portland, OR) -- An arrest was made after several Portland Police horses were released from their stables. Authorities say the animals were let loose last night from stables on Northwest Naito Parkway, after a 24-year-old man broke into the barn. Five horses that got out of the building were later safely located. The ...
VINCENT JANSSEN will reportedly have a medical at Tottenham today.
Janssen, 22, is expected in London ahead of his £18.8million move from Dutch side AZ Alkmaar.
The Holland international was top scorer in the Eredivisie last season with 27 goals.
And Sky Sports claim Spurs have reached an agreement with AZ over a transfer fee after having an initial £16.5m bid rejected.
Tottenham have already signed midfielder Victor Wanyama from Southampton this summer and are said to be eyeing further deals as manager Mauricio Pochettino seeks to bolster his squad ahead of their Champions League campaign next season.
Inter Milan's Mauro Icardi has been linked with the club and is reportedly available, while Holland midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum is said to be ready to beg Newcastle bosses to let him leave for Spurs.
For the Federal Government, maybe the third time will be the charm.
According to the statistics, 800,000 foreclosed homeowners are still missing out on $500 million in compensation.
Replacement checks are being mailed this week to borrowers eligible for payment under the Independent Foreclosure Review Payment Agreements and who have not yet cashed or deposited their check, the Federal Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced Wednesday.
The checks are being sent by the paying agent, Rust Consulting, to replace uncashed checks that have now expired.
Rust has previously come under scrutiny for problems related to the issuance of checks.
The payments ranged from several hundred dollars to $125,000 plus lost equity.
Beginning in April 2013, payments were mailed to all of the nearly 4.2 million in-scope borrowers of these servicers. As of January 2015, more than 3.4 million of these checks, totaling more than $3.1 billion, had been cashed or deposited. This represents approximately 87% of the total amount of funds these servicers w...
Nearly 600,000 checks mailed to borrowers of these 13 servicers remain outstanding, and have now expired. As part of the agencies’ ongoing efforts to reach these borrowers, the paying agent was directed to conduct additional searches of updated addresses. The current mailing represents the third attempt directed by the...
After January 2013, similar agreements were reached with federal bank regulatory agencies that provided cash payments to borrowers whose homes were in any stage of the foreclosure process in 2009 or 2010 and whose mortgages were serviced by GMAC Mortgage and EverBank.
As of year-end 2014, payments were mailed to all of the in-scope borrowers of these two servicers.
Replacement checks for borrowers of GMAC Mortgage who have not yet cashed or deposited their checks are expected to be mailed by Rust Consulting, Inc., by May 2015.
Y-H Percival Zhang, chief science officer of Cell-Free BioInnovations and an associate professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech, contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
It might seem strange to use an ingredient found in cupcakes and cookies as an energy source, but most living cells break down sugar to produce energy. And, interestingly, the energy density of sugar is significantly higher than that of current lithium-ion batteries.
Recently, my colleagues and I successfully demonstrated the concept of a sugar biobattery that can completely convert the chemical energy in sugar substrates into electricity.
Working under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, we reported the findings in the January 2014 issue of Nature Communications.
This nature-inspired biobattery is a type of enzymatic fuel cell (EFC) — an electrobiochemical device that converts chemical energy from fuels such as starch and glycogen into electricity. While EFCs operate under the same general principles as traditional fuel cells, they use enzymes instead of noble-metal catalysts t...
For example, the complex sugar hexose — upon complete oxidation — can release 24 electrons per glucose molecule during oxidation, whereas hydrogen (a fuel used in traditional fuel cells) releases only two electrons. Until now, however, EFCs have been limited to releasing just two to four electrons per glucose molecule.
As my colleague Zhiguang Zhu, a senior scientist at Cell-Free BioInnovations, has said, our team is not the first to propose using sugar as the fuel in the biobattery. However, we are first to demonstrate the complete oxidation of the biobattery's sugar so we achieve a near-theoretical energy conversion yield that no o...
For our battery, we constructed a synthetic catabolic pathway (a series of metabolic reactions that break down complex organic molecules) containing 13 enzymes to completely oxidize the glucose units of maltodextrin, yielding nearly 24 electrons per glucose molecule.
We put specific thermostable enzymes into one vessel to constitute a synthetic enzymatic pathway that can perform a cascade of biological reactions to completely "burn" the sugar, converting it into carbon dioxide, water and electricity.
Unlike natural catabolic pathways for the oxidation of glucose in cells, the designed synthetic pathway does not require costly and unstable cofactors, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP, critical for energy processes in human cells), coenzyme A, or a cellular membrane.
Instead, we used two redox enzymes that generate reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) from sugar metabolites. NADH, a reducing agent involved in redox reactions, is a natural electron mediator that carries electrons from one molecule to another. We also used ten other enzymes responsible for sustaining meta...
In addition to its superior energy density, the sugar biobattery is also less costly than the lithium-ion battery, refillable, environmentally friendly, and nonflammable. While we continue to work on extending the lifetime, increasing the power density, and reducing the cost of electrode materials for such a battery, w...
This technology was funded through the NSF Small Business Innovation Research Program. This article was prepared by the National Science Foundation in partnership with CEP. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are...

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