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ACIDIC Rocks the Next Generation of Youth Intensity
If you had any questions about whether or not the youth of America are spending time creating great music, those answers are about to be answered to the hilt. ACIDIC is an intense group of youth that is rocking the scene with new music and the next generation of rocking intensity. They have a new album out and this interview will feature why you should own it and tell your friends about it.
Thomas: When and why did you start playing together as a group?
Matt: I joined in 2008 with Michael because I’d never been in a band that was in clubs and actually out there playing. I wanted to be in a professional band playing around L.A., and that’s what we started doing. And it just blossomed from there.
Max: I joined in late 2013. Zane Taylor, my longtime friend and our old tour manager at the time, told me that ACIDIC was looking for a bassist. Did I know anybody? I was a guitarist in another band, but I tried out because I thought, hey I’ve got nothing to lose, maybe they’ll like me! And they did! And then I joined. Besides, the sound of touring got me interested. It’s something I’ve wanted all my life and dreamed of doing, but joining this band finally gave me that opportunity.
Mike: I wanted to start playing because I had a passion for music, and had a desire to communicate that to a broader audience. We all coalesced and it has been a great match. I started the project in 2007 and we have been in our current formation since 2014.
Thomas: Why is making music at this time important for society?
Matt: I think music is a way to break from society in a sense. Life is very serious and music is an escape – it lets you get away from all the seriousness for a bit and breathe some fresh air into your mind, and it helps you stay normal.
Max: Music gives a voice to people who normally wouldn’t have the power to be heard. It allows people people to say anything they want with no restrictions. Seems like people respond to music a lot more than just to an article or a book or some such thing. People connect with music on a very deep level, so I think that’s what has the power to change things if someone really wants to change them. The whole medium of art and performance and talent is what people are tapping into and it resonates with people very intimately. It hits the heart.
Mike: With so much uncertainty propagating in America and the broader international community, I believe that music is going to play a fundamental role in expressing the true voice of the majority of people and will become the group conscience of our society. Music is freedom of speech, and freedom of expression. Music is cathartic and therapeutic. Music can give a snapshot of someone’s emotional pitch. Music can influence generations of people to rise up against tyranny. I think true change is going to have it’s genesis in music and art.
Thomas: Before the collection of songs came together (Creatures), what songs did you mostly play together?
Matt: Songs we played before “Creatures”? All the “Copper Man” songs, like the title track, and “Drive Thru,” “Monster,” “Strata Red,” the whole load. I’ve been in the band from the start, so for me it’s all of ’em.
Max: Before “Creatures,” it was “Strata Red,” our version of the Beatles’ “Come Together,” and just jamming. Everything off of the “Copper Man” album, like “Drive Thru,” Monster” especially, and some of the older songs. The one I had to practice the most was “Satellite” from the “Copper Man” album cuts that was the toughest for me to play.
Mike: We mostly played songs off our previous albums with the exception of adding a good cover song in every set.
Thomas: What made you select these songs for the Creatures?
Matt: We took time and wanted to get a different kind of sound than we had before. We were at it working on “Creatures” for about a year. We went for this rocky kind of gritty sound but also put in some effects and things we hadn’t tried before, to add a little flare and deepen it up. We all worked on the songs together and polished them and everyone had a lot of input, and then it all came together for the album.
Max: The songs that were the best, the ones we liked, each of us had a say in what we liked. I cowrote several of the songs with Michael Gossard. But Matt cowrote with us and Josh had a hand in it, too. One way or other, it was all kind of a group effort to think of what would be the best and what would mesh together better, regardless who wrote what or how much of any given song. In the end, it’s the four of us all having input, whether it’s lyrics or especially the different music parts.
Mike: Creatures was challenging album to write. It took about a year of sending ideas back and forth between the artists and the producer to make it write. We also enlisted the help of a good friend of our’s, Rob Bonfiglio, who is a prolific writer in his own right. We selected these songs because they fit together more cohesively than anything else and were the cream of the crop.
Thomas: Describe the most challenging song(s) to play together, and why?
Matt: Right now we have this new punk song that we just wrote, and it’s not only so much of a challenge but it’s also quite different than what we’ve played before. A lot different, and so you have to adjust and work and play it and play it and play it to get the feel of it. But it’s fun to play, too, even though it’s the most challenging so far.
Max: Mike’s new punk rock song that we just wrote that we haven’t named yet because it’s so fast! Brand new! Fast and crazed! There’s a few changes in it that get difficult to blend. The speed of the song makes it tough for everyone to stay in the pocket. But when we do it’s AWESOME!
Mike: Our most challenging song to play is the song “Beautiful.” It has quite a bit of dynamic range, and emotion. It takes artful performance to get just right. There is also a myriad of background vocals and choosing the best ones to replicate live is definitely a process.
Thomas: Who most influenced you as a musician, and as a group?
Matt: For groups, I’d probably say there are some bands we all listen to that have definitely influenced us. Hard to think of them all! But in general, especially in the beginning, Green Day and the Beatles were universal basics. We all have these different influences from bands out there, because we all bring our own individual tastes into the mix. MY greatest influences are many different drummers, but maybe the strongest influence has been a fellow drummer and close friend Jonny Udell of Warner Drive. He really opened me up and taught me different things from all his experience, because he’s a little older and he’s been at it longer. Those little niches you have to know and master, to make it to the next step and help you get better as a musical craftsman. He really helped get me to the next level as a drummer.
Max: Personally, my two biggest influences are probably George Harrison of the Beatles, and Bradley Nowell of Sublime, kind of because George was so deep with the philosophical ideas in his writing, and his ability to make a simple guitar line sound so good, to make it the predominantly theme of the song. Bradley – the cuts of his lyrics and the way he lived his life when he was still around. As a group – we’ve kinda Green Day and Jane’s Addiction among others, but for stage presence, definitely the Red Hot Chili Peppers – with that wild energetic vibe. By now, we’ve certainly got a wild energetic vibe all of our own!
Mike: I was influenced a lot by the band Green Day. I watched their concert DVD “Bullet in a Bible” on repeat as a kid. I was also influenced by bands like the Beatles and the rolling stones. I love to watch a talented musician rocking out in their true element!
Thomas: Do you think artists nowadays have too many influences from other artists due to the internet? Or does it benefit creativity?
Matt: I do think that having the asset of the internet, you do hear all kinds of stuff both good and bad. Because anybody can just put anything out there that they want, for free, so you get exposed to everything! It allows people to see what’s out there and strive to be different than what IS out there. But it’s also easy to start copying what other people are doing and not really use it to explore and develop what you can bring it it, yourself, if you’re not careful. I think it both helps and hurts.
Max: With everything there’s give and take. This is a yes and no. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be influenced by another artist, maybe you make a song that sounds like somebody else’s but you give it a different take. It’s hard to say – but I do think because of the access to the internet, a lot more musical material and everything else – a lot of sub-par stuff is allowed to be put on there. Because of the free access, anybody can put anything up there so some is just outstanding and some other stuff is diluted content. It’s not bad to be influenced, unless you get tempted by something harmful!
Mike: I think increased volume of influences increases creativity and the generative nature of music. Having more choice of what to listen to and watch also creates the effect of diversifying the music artists write so that there is a broader range of artistic expression within music. It is also true, that is something is truly wide ranging and reaches a broad audience, and has the propensity to be immensely well accepted, it will still make a large splash.
Thomas: How did the internet and listening to the vast sea of music influence what you do today?
Matt: Listening to all the music that’s come out and all that, we had to keep up with what’s going on and we have to see what’s happening what’s new in the world. The internet is a great way to find all that out. We’ve been using that as our tool to fine-tune the parts of the band and our music that we want to focus on, because we’re always trying to improve and expand.
Max: Luckily, for me, I’m different because I never got into downloading music unlike most of the people I know. So I was not too into just finding out who the new new people were and grabbing all the music I could. I always listened to CDs. And I still buy CDS. My car only has a CD player, so that’s just how it is. I have my iPhone but I never got too deluged with just tons and tons of music via download. I like a lot of different genres. Different influences from every genre. Internet may not have impacted me as much as other people.
Mike: I have the opportunity to listen to dozens of different artists every day rather than buying a new record or CD every day, week, or month, or having to make a mixtape. It has made me much more accepting of different types of music, and world music. My writing style has also evolved out of the box because of the wide range of influence.
Thomas: Many artists like to teach their music after it’s published. Would you hope other musicians would learn your music?
Matt: Yeah! If someone came to me and showed me they knew how to play “Copper Man,” for example, I’d be really stoked! I would think “Copper Man” is an easy song for just about anybody to learn. And besides, it’s fun! Might be one of the funnest songs we have!
Max: Never really thought of that! I think it’d be cool if somebody came up to me and said “Oh I learned your song,” or “your song helped me get the bass or the guitar better.” I wouldn’t even say that’s one of my goals, haven’t really thought about it. I’d just want someone to listen to my music, period. That’s enough for me.
Mike: I would be honored if people learned the music. I believe that is the ultimate compliment.
Thomas: What do you think makes the group so solid, not just in the studio, but also in performances?
Matt: I would say what probably makes us really solid is our personalities. We’re all easygoing people and nobody’s too high-maintenance or has an ego complex. It’s really easy to get along with all of us. We’re kind of like brothers by now, which is what happens when you all squeeze into something like our little old tour van for a few thousand miles!
Max: Practice! Lotta practice! Gotta keep practicing. That’s the main thing. Don’t ever assume you’re already good enough, always be willing to keep practicing, keep working on it. That, and maintaining a positive attitude. Those two things could get you further than you could ever imagine.
Mike: We practice frequently and try to communicate as honestly as possible. I think that lends a good energy to our general performance. We try to maintain a strong friendship as well as a good working relationship.
Thomas: What do you think is next for the group?
Matt: We’re just making new music and we’re trying to keep it going. It’s a dog-eat-dog business and you’ve just gotta keep going and keep pushing. Right now our music is gonna be what gets us there and we’re just gonna keep doing until something hits for us.
Max: Hopefully overseas tours and another album, and playing as many shows as possible. That’s what I hope and what I foresee. We’re already working on new songs, and they’re better than ever!
Mike: I think we are setting our sights on new material and possible overseas touring.
Thomas: What do you want audiences to get most out of each performance?
Matt: I want people to go away from our shows feeling happy and like they’ve had a good time. Nowadays everyone wants to go out to these dance clubs for a party and stuff. But I like to think WE bring the party back to rock ‘n’ roll! I hope people see us and realize how much you can enjoy rock when you’re at a club ‘n’ stuff, seeing a live show. We always have a good time onstage and we always hope it’s contagious. And it must be, because that’s what we keep hearing from people who’ve been to see us.
Max: Just the point of our show is give the audience a good experience. A good time. I want them to have fun, and see the energy that we bring and enjoy that we’re playing super hard and that they like the music! I hope they just have a blast watching us and get down. I hope it makes them dance because if they’re dancing then you know they’re having a good time.
Mike: I want people to sponge in the high energy we bring and I would like the audience to feel the professional tightness that we work to display.
Thomas: Will you be shooting any new videos? If so, what are some concepts you have?
Matt: Not sure about any new videos on the horizon but I wouldn’t want to give anything away even if I did know! We always try to surprise people and come out with something new and innovative. We don’t want to do more of what we just did.
Max: I hope we do. The next video will be based on whatever song we want to push next, and with the “Creatures” album it’s kinda hard to decide because all the songs are so strong. But we do have footage we could be editing down – a mini tour log that we have the footage for. Hopefully I can get it edited down, and maybe make it into a web series like a tour log.
Mike: We will be shooting new video when we have another single or when we have a new album. Until then we will continue to push our current material.
Thomas: What have you learned most to this point being a musician?
Matt: I learned a lot. At first I wanted to do it because music was fun and a way not to have to do a regular job, and a way for me to get popular and get people to know me because I play music. But you learn as you go on and we’ve toured around the country for 5-6 years so far. I’ve learned that I’m not doing a good job OR doing justice to the music or doing right by the audience unless I care, and that no one is gonna care unless I do! They can tell. They can feel it. They know if your performance is honest and your heart is in it or if you’re just kinda phoning it in. I’m more attuned now than I’ve ever been, sort of like being one with the drums. I find I’m taking a lot more pride in my playing and I enjoy what I play so much. And I’m having fun making music.
Max: What I’ve learned is that, if you want to do something, music or anything really but definitely in music, just go out and try! Do it! Practice. Give up anything you need to give up, to go do it. Because spending the money you need to get out on tour, or being in debt, whatever problems you think you have from it, they’re miniscule. Whatever it takes, go fulfill your dreams. Go do it and fulfill your dreams, as long as it’s not something that hurts people. Material possessions and all that worldly stuff – it doesn’t matter. It’s the doing that counts. Do it. Try it. Risk it. It’s much better than getting old and thinking back and wishing you had when you were young, now that your time is up.
Mike: I have learned that progress is the true nature of this business. I have learned to try to be more humble and I have learned to listen more. This has been an instructive process and a great 8 years and I look forward to the future!
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Join Shirin Ebadi opposing attack on Iran
Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work on behalf of human rights, women's rights, and children's rights in Iran. She is a critic of the current Iranian government, and lives in exile. In a message written for RootsAction, Ebadi opposes any attack on Iran:
"Not only military attack but even threat of military attack would slow down the progress of democracy in Iran because the government, under the pretext of safeguarding national security, would further intensify its crackdown on pro-democracy activists and critics. Moreover, such an eventuality would incite people's nationalist sentiment, which would cause them to forget their criticisms of the government.
"I also oppose economic sanctions against Iran because they would increase poverty and deteriorate the economic situation of the people. I favor sanctions that do not harm the people. For instance, the E.U. and U.S. have imposed sanctions on a number of human rights violators in Iran. It has been declared that they cannot enter Europe and the U.S., and their assets would be frozen should they have any on the aforementioned territories.
"That list should be expanded. Moreover, companies that have sold equipment and software intended for use by the Iranian authorities in the monitoring or interception of internet and telephone communications should be penalized. These kinds of sanctions will weaken the Iranian government without being harmful to the people. We should try to adopt more targeted sanctions to punish the government for its violation of human rights." --Shirin Ebadi
A decade ago, government lies and media spin brought the disaster of the Iraq war. Don't let the same thing happen again.
RootsAction will deliver this petition to leaders of the U.S. and Israeli governments, insisting that all diplomatic avenues be pursued and opposing any military attack on Iran.
We call upon the leaders of the governments of the United States and Israel to end their threats of launching a military attack on Iran. Instead, leaders should engage in genuine diplomatic dialogue. We unequivocally oppose any attack on Iran.
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Home » Canadian history • History and Policy • Theme Week
The Family as Tax Dodge, Again
September 21, 2017 September 15, 2017 No Comments on The Family as Tax Dodge, Again
By Shirley Tillotson
This is the fourth in a five part theme week marking the centenary of income tax in Canada.
Here we are again. If you’ve studied history or lived a decade or two after forty, you’ve noticed that some battles are fought over and over and over again. Those repetitive, “I can’t believe we’re still debating this!” struggles mark itchy, scratchy places in our society, the places where the imperatives of institutions and “common sense,” markets and human needs contradict each other. So “same old, same old” really means “this is hot stuff.” In the history of the income tax, much of the hot stuff shows up around family. And sure enough, family matters appear in the federal government’s current proposals to make income taxation more fair. One aspect of the Morneau proposals targets the use of the breadwinner / homemaker / children family as a tax dodge. Or, to be less provocative, one might say the proposals target the use of one kind of family as a means to minimize tax, perfectly legal. Opposition MP Michelle Rempel moans, how can a government “change the rules” and call the change “fair”? Is the finance minister calling people who follow the rules “crooks”?
Amid all this heat, a bit of tax history might be calming. The distinction between what is avoidance – legal – and what is evasion – illegal – has changed before, and will no doubt change again. Rempel presents herself as defending law-abiding folk who face the shutting down of ordinary good business practices, ways of saving and spending that are both legitimate and socially useful. But those practices are not natural rights. They are more like tactics in a sport. They are merely ways of using current law to the taxpayer’s best advantage: tax avoidance practices, also called tax planning. As the world changes, so may tax law, in the future as it has in the past. The boundary between avoidance and evasion is historical, driven by events and our responses to them.
In the Anglo-Canadian world, a landmark event in the 1930s pretty much invented the distinction between avoidance and evasion. On May 7, 1935, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council found against the Internal Revenue and for the taxpayer in the appeal of the despicable (for other reasons) Hugh (“Bendor”) Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster. Westminster had reduced his income tax assessment by an accounting move that the person on the street can hardly have regarded as fair, and that the tax authority thought was evasion. The majority of the JCPC called it avoidance. Westminster had figured out that, if he paid his approximately 100 household and estate staff one way (by means of income from annuities) rather than another (ordinary wages), he could significantly reduce his taxable income, and avoid a surtax.
Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster
by Walter L. Colls, circa 1902 © National Portrait Gallery
Westminster was enormously wealthy. His family owned much of Mayfair and Belgravia in London. He ostentatiously enjoyed his wealth, revelling in Rolls Royces, yachts, horses, mansions, and gifts of lavish gems to a series of girlfriends and wives including, for a time, Coco Chanel. To his credit was a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) earned in active combat during the Great War. To his shame was keen support for Hitler during the 1930s and 1940s and a hatred of homosexuality that makes Lord Alfred Douglas’s dad look like a member of PFLAG. Westminster was an active member of Britain’s extreme and anti-Semitic right in the interwar years, and a tailor-made villain for tax history. No mere government was going to make Benny Grosvenor pay some ridiculous surtax on high incomes.
Even if we don’t much like the man, Westminster, the decision in Westminster usefully established a tax filer’s right to arrange his or her business affairs so as to pay the least tax legally required, a right to avoid that defends all of us against the risk of overweening tax administration. But Westminster was also the charter case of aggressive tax planning. Before the change in statutory interpretation led by Westminster, the tax authority was allowed to investigate whether a business transaction (paying a salary, renting a property, borrowing or investing money) had a real economic purpose – substance – or whether it was just moving money around to avoid a proper tax liability. After Westminster, tax authorities had to invent new ways to determine whether a tax filer was, like the Duke, doing one thing and calling it another, taking advantage of words in the tax statute to produce a result contrary to the legislators’ intentions.
One new way that governments found to shut down clever tax schemes in the 1930s was the gift tax. Is a so-called “gift” really a gift when the giver is your rich uncle Edwin, who signs over to you the deed on one of his apartment buildings on the understanding that you’ll loan him back the rental revenue at zero interest for an indefinite term? You don’t earn much from your job slinging donuts, so your tax liability on the rents will be smaller than Edwin’s would have been. When Edwin in the end gets that rental income and pays “your” tax bill, he’ll still be keeping more of his money. And he’ll owe you at least a favour. In June 1935, the Canadian federal government started levying a tax on “gifts” like that one. According to a new rule in the Income War Tax Act, the generous “giver” of this sort would have to pay the government a percentage of the value of the gift (ranging from 2 per cent to 10 per cent).[1] Uncle Eddy could still give his niece (or even one of his employees) that income property, but he’d have to fork over some cash up front for the tax advantage that he was busy arranging.
Toronto Daily Star, 23 March 1935
A number of countries enacted gift taxes in the 1930s, precisely to close the kind of gate through which the Duke of Westminster had escaped. As credit markets crashed and worker misery grew to near-revolutionary levels, governments powered up their tax enforcement efforts and raised taxes on the poor, the middling, and the rich alike. Wealthy Canadians began, like Westminster, to “give” previously undeclared income-earning assets to people within their control, to prevent the assets’ being discovered and so to avoid the subsequent tax bill. Facing the newfound earnestness of the state’s effort to enforce the tax law, various Uncle Eddies felt a strong incentive to divide some property among lower earning kin, and thus legally to minimize their income taxes.
Today, the tax authority has more precise methods (attribution rules) to track who really should pay the tax on income-generating property that is transferred within families. However much more precise, those rules still address the same question as did the gift tax of 1935. Is it right for the highest earner in a family to “sprinkle” some of his (or, less often, her) income among offspring (or nieces or grandchildren) and spouse, so as to reduce the overall income tax paid by the family as an economic unit? Our law has tended to say no, because sprinkling and splitting shrinks the overall tax base in ways that benefit only some kinds of families and mostly higher income earners.
Income sprinkling benefits substantially only those families that have just one member who earns a lot (or who has lots of investment income). Childless single people, families that live on a smaller single income, or families with two similar incomes can’t reduce their taxes much or at all in that way. The truly small business person, even if married with kids – the donut franchisee versus the plastic surgeon – sees only a small dollar amount by way of benefit. Tax scholars call splitting and sprinkling an “upside-down subsidy” – a tax expenditure that benefits taxpayers more and more as you go up the income scale. All taxpayers, happily or grudgingly, subsidize the tax reduction that is enjoyed by those who can use family for this purpose.
Despite its dubious and discriminatory impact, the appeal of this tax avoidance strategy seems never to die. It was enthusiastically pursued in the 1950s but successfully opposed by federal tax policy makers, both Liberal and Progressive Conservative. In the 1960s, tax reformers tried to make family income sharing less selective (but lost the fight), and an argument for marital wealth splitting (as distinct from income splitting) is still being made and is worth exploring.[2] In 2014, disagreements on a simplistic form of marital income splitting divided Steven Harper (in favour) and his finance minister, Jim Flaherty (against). Regardless of party, finance ministers aren’t terribly keen on the sprinkling and splitting – these practices erode the revenue and don’t serve a broad economic objective.
Now, a Liberal finance minister proposes reforms that will take away one of the few remaining routes to income-sprinkling. It isn’t an especially partisan move: Morneau proposes merely to extend the reach of a penalty against income sprinkling to children that, though introduced by the Liberals in 1999, was bolstered by the Conservatives in their 2014 budget. In tax planning circles, that penalty is called the “kiddie tax.” The kiddie tax was a bit like the gift tax of 1935. It doesn’t prohibit transferring income to one’s minor children, aged 17 or under. It just makes it prohibitively expensive to do so, by charging a Tax On Split Income (the TOSI, as the kiddie tax is called in scholarly circles). Morneau now proposes to apply the same tax to income sprinkling among children aged 18 to 24.
Perhaps Morneau has noticed that there has been a change in the life course of young middle-class adults, who are now less likely to be independent in their early 20s. A tax law change might reflect this kind of social change in family relationships. Or maybe Morneau is just trying to stem a substantial drain on the federal revenue that resulted when, in 2005, Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario government handed doctors a tax shelter (not then available in every province) by allowing them to make their practices into private corporations and cut their tax rate by something like 30%.[3] Federalism complicates tax policy, to put it mildly.
For reasons such as these, tax laws sometimes must be changed. The overall project of a progressive rate tax on personal income is to collect a revenue in ways that reasonably reflect earners’ and investors’ ability to pay. Governments may miscalculate ability to pay, and taxpayers should let them know if that happens. Efforts to follow in the Duke of Westminster’s footsteps are one way to protest. But to think that a particular method of tax avoidance is a right, rather than just an opportunity arising from possibly short-lived circumstance, is to misunderstand the forces that are constantly at work on tax law. When the McGuinty government gave Ontario’s doctors a new tax break, he was allowing them to take a bite out of the federal income tax revenue. I’d be surprised if McGuinty worked that out with the federal government of the day; by constitutional law, he didn’t have to. And when some doctors, along with lawyers and others with personal corporations, used them to sprinkle income among their young adult children, they cannot be entirely surprised if the childless among them do no see a valid equity argument expressed in their chosen form of protest.
I would not accuse Ontario’s doctors or small businesses of being crooks. Few among us will forego a rich tax advantage that the law offers us. Our governments don’t expect us to. But when something in the world changes and, as a result, inequities arise among taxpayers, we might lose a tax advantage. In fact, it’s kind of the job of a government to see that we do. And when inequities are related to the kind of family we live in, we should especially expect our governments to be alert. Family and tax laws have a long, and sometimes suspect, history together.
Shirley Tillotson is an adjunct member of the Dalhousie University Department of History and an Inglis Professor of the University of King’s College. Her most recent book is Give and Take: The Citizen-Taxpayer and the Rise of Canadian Democracy (UBC Press, October 2017).
[1] Charitable gifts were exempt from the tax, as were gifts totalling less than $4,000 in value. There was no giving assets to the wife and kids to avoid tax: all such property was already taxed in the hands of the father and husband.
[2] Lisa Phillips, “Cracking the Conjugal Myths: What does it mean for the attribution rules?” Canadian Tax Journal, 50, 3 (2002), at 1031
[3] Detailed evidence on the impact of Ontario’s 2001 incorporation measure is provided in Michael Wolfson and Scott Legree, “Policy Forum: Private Corporations, Professionals, and Income Splitting: Recent Canadian Experience,” 63, 3 (2015), at 717
Canadian history, History and Policy, Theme Week Income Tax
← History Slam Episode 104: Taxation and Democracy The Use and Abuse of Boredom →
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World Famous Israeli Novelist Amos Oz
No Comments on World Famous Israeli Novelist Amos OzPosted in The Story By mosozPosted on May 15, 2019 May 15, 2019
“My beloved father has simply passed away from cancer after a swift deterioration,” stated his daughter Fania Oz-Salzberger in a brief assertion. He’s survived by his spouse Nili Zuckerman and his three kids. Born in Jerusalem in the course of the Mandatory Palestine of 1939, his name was Amos Klausner in his youth. The famed writer lived as a younger man for a time on Kibbutz Hulda, and as an grownup in the northern Negev desert metropolis of Arad. He took on the identify “Oz” – “courage” – and used his words to specific his beliefs about his world after first finishing his service in the IDF. Amoz Oz started writing at age 22.
He Dies At Age 79
He received dozens of literary honors, was an Israel Prize awardee, and a recipient of Germany’s Goethe Award. His numerous books have been printed around the globe and translated into forty five languages however though he was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, it was an honor he by no means achieved. Speaking 4 years ago at a conference held at Herzliya’s Interdisciplinary Center, Oz mentioned, “If there are usually not two states here quick, there can be one state right here. And it will likely be Arab from the sea to the Jordan River. If there is such a state, I envy neither our youngsters or our grandchildren…. My Zionist place to begin has all the time been simple: We aren’t alone in Israel and in Jerusalem, and neither are the Palestinians. We can not change into one joyful family. There is one other manner: They don’t seem to be going wherever, they have nowhere to go; now we have nowhere to go. “A story of love and mild and now, nice darkness. The glory of our Creator. Rest in peace, our dear good friend Amos.
There are numerous such examples. This incestuous relationship has served Wall Street extraordinarily well. Matt Taibbi in his article, “Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail? ” discusses the corrupt lack of prosecution of Wall Street bankers and buyers who value this nation and the world losses within the trillions of dollars and degraded the world economic system as effectively. The brand new York Times additionally has an excellent investigation on why the S.E.C. 1.5 Trillion underneath both the Bush and Obama administrations to avoid wasting Wall Street from monetary collapse. Mary L. Schapiro-Commissioner of the S.E.C. Martin Gruenberg: Acting Chairman of the F.D.I.C. His predecessor was Sheila C. Blair, additionally (Jewish. Gary Gensler-Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (C.F.T.C.) also has regulatory oversight of Wall Street. Mr. Gensler labored for Goldman Sachs, entered Government as prime official in the Treasury Department. Ben Bernanke – Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank is. Timothy Geithner – Secretary of the Treasury.
Jewish Government officials overseeing Jewish bankers, investors, financiers on Wall Street is the sweetest deal of all-go ahead steal, share the money with us, and we’ll protect and supply a cowl up. In actual fact, we’ll send you Trillions of dollars to bail you out and make you worthwhile again. Because we’re tribal brethren and could care less about the American people or the world. Vanity Fair magazine in its October 2007 difficulty revealed a list of “the world’s most highly effective people”. A listing of the one hundred most influential rich women and men who span the business, monetary, and banking sectors, the media, film studios, publishers and so on. These powerful folks have the influence to form our world and our world view of each other. They could make or break governments, shape and affect world economies, launch wars and devastate nations.
These are the few who can actually form and mold our future. Peter Beinart (Jewish) in his e book, “The Crisis of Zionism” (2012, Times Books) additionally attests to Jewish Power. “The shift from Jewish powerlessness to Jewish energy has been so profound, and in historical phrases so fast, that it has outpaced the way in which many Jews think about themselves”.
e shift from Jewish powerlessness to Jewish energy has been so profound, and in historical phrases so fast, that it has outpaced the way in which many Jews think about themselves”.
About The Novelist Named Anne Tyler
How The Books Inspire Your Imagination
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HomeNews and announcementsNew Bishop Ready to Take Up Office
New Bishop Ready to Take Up Office
Media Release Thursday 7 February 2019
On Saturday 9 February, the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch will celebrate the ordination and installation of their ninth Bishop in two separate festive services. Last year it was announced that the Reverend Dr Peter Carrell, a Cantabrian and well-respected Bible scholar and priest, would become the new Anglican Bishop this year.
The activity of ordaining and installing the new Bishop of Christchurch will be a time for Anglicans to celebrate and focus on the joy of new leadership, strength and unity of purpose, and a refreshed desire for engaging with their communities.
Diocesan Manager Edwin Boyce has been working with a team to plan the events since the announcement in August last year.
“We wanted to make this a day of celebration. It’s a time for us and the communities we live in and among, to celebrate as we re-focus on a central tenet of the Christian faith, ‘love your neighbour’. Part of that is building enhanced relationships that both honour the past and reflect our passion for the future,” says Mr Boyce.
‘Togetherness’ will be at the heart of the this celebration as people from parish groups across Ōtautahi Christchurch, the Diocesan territories, and the public come as one with church leaders of many faiths, government, iwi, community and business leaders, to welcome and support this new beginning.
The Dean of Christchurch, Dean Lawrence Kimberley, is particularly excited to welcome the new Bishop, which also coincides with visible progress being made on site at 100 Cathedral Square.
“Christchurch began with a special relationship to Anglicanism, with our founding forebears bringing their faith-based approach to life with them when building the city. This unique event will be a joyful combination of different aspects of Anglicanism. Its inclusiveness demonstrates love for friends and neighbours including welcoming those who are hard to love. It extends to work colleagues, visitors from far and near, and our tūrangawaewae, the places we are connected to and belong,” says the Dean.
The Anglican Church consists of three strands: Tikanga Māori, Tikanga Pākehā and Tikanga Pasifika will all be participating in the celebrations.
The two services – one to ordain Rev’d Dr Carrell as a Bishop, and one to install him as the Ninth Bishop of Christchurch – will take place at Christchurch Boys’ High School auditorium in the morning, and in the Square, in front of the cathedral steps in the afternoon, respectively.
Anglicans from all over the Diocese, which extends between South and North Canterbury, across to Westland and the Chatham Islands, will be celebrating either at the event itself or by tuning in to a live feed being streamed for both events.
Bishop-elect, Rev’d Dr Carrell, has been preparing himself for the role over the last few months and is ready to take on the challenge.
“Stepping into this role is a privilege and an honour. I am grateful for all the support, prayer and aroha I have been receiving and that no doubt will continue. I am excited and yearn for the Diocese to move forward and thrive.
“I want to be known as someone who works together with the Diocese, the city, the council, local iwi, other faiths, and in our local communities and whanau groups. Faith needs to be practical and lead to action.
“I invite anyone interested to join with us at the Installation Service in the Square at 3:00 pm. All are welcome to come down and celebrate with us together.”
Rev’d Dr Carrell has stepped down from his previous roles as Director of Theology House, Director of Education for the Diocese of Christchurch, and Archdeacon for Pegasus (East Christchurch), and new personnel are now in place.
Peter has a wide and deep knowledge of the Diocese into which he was baptised and ordained, including serving as Archdeacon of South Canterbury (2014–18) and Archdeacon of Mid Canterbury (2015–18). He is a priest with strong gifts and experience in communicating the Christian faith through speaking and writing.
Details of the two events are outlined below:
The Ordination Service: This will take place at Christchurch Boys High School Auditorium where representatives from both the Province and the Diocese, Tikanga Maori and Tikanga Pacifica will be present. The service begins at 11:00 am and is a ticketed event. Bishop Richard Wallace, O Te Waipounamu, will be speaking at this service.
The Installation Service: Following the Ordination Service, Bishop Peter will be installed as Ninth Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Christchurch in a brief, and less formal service, in Cathedral Square. The Installation Service will begin at 3:00 pm and anyone is welcome to attend this out-door event, which will take place in all weather. The Mayor, Leanne Dalziel will be speaking at this event.
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Swatch's Financials
Now, in this post, we get into the really nitty gritty details of investing: financials and revenue and margins and numbers and ratios. This is really the bread and butter of stock analysis which is also perhaps the most difficult part for most laypeople. As alluded to in the previous posts, I would usually like to pick up a few important numbers and ratios out of the financial statements. Most of the time, it would give a really good sense of how the company is doing. I have posted in details what all these numbers meant like a million years ago. You can find the old descriptions in the labels: Financial Statement Analysis and Financial Ratios. For your convenience, I have also added hyperlinks at the relevant paragraphs below. But for Swatch today, I would just do a quick commentary on what’s interesting.
Here’s an updated version of the cheat sheet that I would normally use. As you might be able to tell, I have added some colours and made it look prettier in order to compete with Serina Wee. I hope our beloved media will take some pics here too!
Swatch's Cheatsheet
First, let’s explain the structure. I have divided this table into a few parts, the titles for these parts are in red and underlined. The pure financials are PL, BS, CF. If you do not know what they stand for, I suggest you message Serina Wee on Facebook for a crash course, she would be able to help since she is a certified accountant and a devoted Christian. Of course, you should also make known to her that you will be joining City Harvest tomorrow and pledge 50% of your household income to support her wardrobe.
Well, short of pledging 50% of your income to support Serina Wee’s wardrobe, which isn’t really a bad thing since you will be doing a big favour to all Singaporean guys watching her strut down Supreme Court, you can read the posts I wrote a million years ago under the in the labels: Financial Statement Analysis and Financial Ratios. I just need a Like for my Facebook page on the right of this post.
You are most welcome :) Ok, jokes aside. So the financials are PL, BS and CF. The other segments are:
Stock related: which relates to stock information and the numbers used to calculate its valuation and the all important target price (TP) or intrinsic value.
Stakeholders: who are the big owners and managers of this company.
Comps: how does it compare with industry peers in terms of valuation.
So we see a bunch of no.s all over. I guess it would be easiest to focus on those numbers in blue. Basically these are derived numbers ie they are formulas in Excel rather than hard coded. What does it mean? Take dividend yield which is at 1.4%. It is simply DPS or dividend per share of CHF (Swiss Franc) 8 divided by its share price of CHF 587, ie no.s in blue are derived from other no.s in the spreadsheet.
So as you can see, Swatch is pretty much a top notch business. GPM or gross margin at 80% and OPM or operating margin of over 20%, these are some of the highest margins in any industry. Essentially, when you pay $10,000 for an Omega watch, the cost to produce it in the Swiss watch factory would only be $2,000. *Gasp!* That’s why the gross margin is 80%. Well, since OPM is 20%, it then means that the cost to do marketing like getting James Bond to wear it, putting it in a fancy retail store on Orchard Road and finally packaging it nicely in a wooden oak box, these add up to another $6,000, which is the difference between the gross profit and the operating profit. So Swatch only makes $2,000 at the operating level for every $10,000 Omega watch that it sells.
Then there’s the ROE or Return on Equity, which measures the growth rate of the business. For Swatch it’s 21%, another world-class number. How’s your salary increment this year? If I read the published stats, it’s about 5%? For every year that passes, the capital base in Swatch grows 4x faster than our salaries. So if your savings pool is large enough, you have to think really hard if you should work or you should just put all your money in Swatch. Well, that’s another topic. But even when compared to peers like Tiffany (ROE 16%) and Richemont (20%), Swatch’s ROE is still superior.
The other measure I like to look at is the FCF yield which stands for free cash flow yield. This is basically cash the business churns out after it has re-invested back in the business, divided by the market cap. So it means that if you buy Swatch now, it churns out 3% cash for you, in theory. In reality, it pays out 1.4% as dividends to shareholders. This two no.s then compares whether the dividend is sustainable. If you see a dividend yield higher than the FCF yield, it means dividend cut akan datang (or coming soon).
FCF yield of 3% is actually considered low in most circumstances which means that the stock is expensive. Cheap stocks give close to 10% FCF yield, like Microsoft or Apple, the maker of iPhone 5S, which stands for Same and 5C for which stands for Cheap. Even Singaporeans’ infatuation with the 5C dream would not save Apple. Tim Cook probably needs to seek divine help from Serina Wee.
So Apple 10% FCF yield vs Swatch 3% FCF yield? Shouldn’t we buy Apple? Things are cheap for a reason. Just comparing the plain FCF yields ignores the growth angle. Swatch has a sustainable ROE of 21% while Microsoft or Apple would probably see its ROE decline over time. This means that whatever cash Swatch’s business can churn out, that amount should grow at 21% per annum. For Microsoft or Apple, the cash churned out would decline over time. Hence it’s not really an apples-to-apples comparison (no pun intended :).
Now growing at 21% is powerful. Remember compound interest is the Eighth Wonder. This means that in 2 to 3 years, Swatch’s FCF yield based on today’s price is then 6%. And in 4 to 6 years, it would be 9%. That is not far from the 10% for the 2 loser techland dinosaurs described above. And Swatch's free cash flow will continue to grow after six years, into perpetuity as long as people don't stop buying luxury watches and diamonds.
Finally, we should talk about how we get to Swatch’s target price or intrinsic value of CHF 650. There’s no rocket science here. I simply used the EPS or earnings per share of CHF 36 multiplied by 18x. Why 18x? This is actually at the high end of what I would pay for. (I have advocated paying not more than 18x PE) But 18x should be justifiable for such a great franchise with strong growth, brand recognition and all the business moats we have discussed.
Now do take note that intrinsic value is just a number. The most important point about investing is the margin of safety. At CHF 587, the margin of safety is a mere 10%. Ben Graham, the father of value investing, would want 30%, so this is definitely not enough for him. But Warren Buffett also did say that if the business is great, not just good but great, then it’s ok to buy even with no margin of safety.
Investing is an art and I would leave it to you and your artistic talent to determine what is a good entry price for Swatch. For me, although I started the analysis and bought it way cheaper, I believe Swatch still offers upside at today’s price. I would advocate buying a toehold for now and if it falls, it’s a chance to load the truck! Hopefully we would make enough to fund Serina’s wardrobe in time!
PS: For those who have no idea who’s Serina Wee, where have you been dude? Here’s her pic below.
Singapore's hottest accused criminal
Labels: Swatch
Swatch's Management
Swatch Group came about via a series of mergers around the time of the near death experience of the Swiss watch industry in the early 1980s and was finally helmed by this legendary guy called Nicolas Hayek, a Lebanese who later became a Swiss. His kids, Nick Junior and Nayla Hayek - a brother and sister tag-team, run the Swatch Group today. Nick Senior passed away in 2010 but he created a lasting legacy by rescuing and reinventing the whole Swiss watch industry.
Nick started his own management consulting firm called Hayek Engineering in the early 1960s and became very successful in consulting and helping to turn around ailing companies all over Europe. Hayek Engineering corporate philosophy embodies Nick’s belief that an entrepreneur is essentially an artist. This is not different with investing which is also an art. Also, an investor should also manage his portfolio with an almost artistic creativity to make outsized returns.
In Nick's own words,
An entrepreneur is first of all an artist, full of fantasy and inventions. He or she needs to be able to communicate, be open to new ideas and able to question everything. – Not only our society but also oneself. An entrepreneur ought to be captured by the beauty of and sensitive to the outcome of our planet. This attitude does not only allow him or her to create new products and more jobs, it also allows for the creation of true values and riches for all people. It is also necessary if one wants to overcome all obstacles using courage and fantasy…
This is how Nicolas Hayek approached entrepreneurship and by 1979, Hayek Engineering had 300 clients in 30 countries and Nick was well regarded as a true entrepreneur and on top of that, a teacher to other entrepreneurs. Today the company still exists as a niche consulting firm headed by Nayla Hayek, Nick’s daughter.
So that was all before Nick got involved in Swatch. Then, in the early 1980s, the onslaught of the cheap Japanese quartz watches drove the mechanical Swiss watch industry to the brink of bankruptcy. A lot of watchmakers and their movement companies were going bankrupt. At age 52, Nick was roped in to oversee the liquidation of two of these companies: ASUAG and SSIH but he thought and decided there could be a way out for the Swiss watch industry.
At the same time, Swatch was created by a group of entrepreneurs led by another guy called Ernst Thomke who was also trying to rescue ETA, a very important Swiss watch movement company. Nick then joined hands with Ernst and a group of investors to form a Swiss watch giant called SMH, which later changed its name to Swatch Group.
Swatch Group today is an integrated watchmaker producing 50% of the world's high end mechanical watch movements and owns a slew of brands including Breguet, Harry Winston, Blancpain, Glashütte Original, Jaquet Droz, Léon Hatot, Omega, Tiffany & Co. (watches), Longines, Rado, Union Glashütte, Tissot, Calvin Klein watches and jewellery, Balmain, Certina, Mido, Hamilton and needless to say, Swatch.
On its website, Swatch also lists all its production companies. Some of which are critical to the development of the human race. Like Nivarox-FAR, one of Swatch Group companies that produced the world's smallest springs and gears for impeccably accurate time-keeping in mechanical watches.
Swatch Group production companies
ETA, Nivarox-FAR, François Golay, Comadur, Rubattel et Weyermann, MOM Le Prélet, Universo, Manufacture Ruedin, Simon Et Membrez, Lascor, Novi, Swatch Group Assembly, DYB, EM Microelectronic, Renata, Micro Crystal, Oscilloquartz and Swiss Timing.
We already know the turnaround story. Swatch was driven by innovation: funky, fashion styled cheap watches that managed to beat the Japanese in their own game. Nick’s masterstroke came with the re-positioning mechanical watches as luxury products. The Swiss mechanical watch became a symbol of art, a reflection of the owner’s appreciation of craftsmanship, a mark of personal achievement, a family heirloom and everything else (including a status symbol, a wealth flaunt and a bragging right). It worked. Swiss watches became the luxury item of choice for successful men and now women as well. A multi-billion dollar industry was born.
Today Nick Jr is the CEO and Nayla is the Chairwoman of Swatch Group. While lacking the larger-than-life charisma of their father, both brother and sister are respectable business people in their own right and have created value for shareholders. Nick Jr seemed to be very interested in movies and his profile says nothing about his achievement in the company. But as CEO of the Group, he holds his own ground and his views on the watch industry and the Chinese consumer are highly sought after. Nayla appears to be the more serious and capable of the two and she recently took on an additional role as the CEO of Harry Winston, the newly acquired diamond ring and jewellery specialist.
The following is a picture of the Chairwoman of Swatch Group and CEO of Harry Winston.
After she became the CEO of Harry Winston, she decided to help a Singapore church pastor and his tone-deaf wife launch a Hollywood music career by siphoning some money from the church fund. Since she was an accomplished accountant, this was child's play to her. She successfully did so for seven years until the whole scheme was found out by the authorities. This picture was taken as she attended court hearings.
Ok just kidding. For the un-initiated, that's Singapore's hottest criminal-in-question Serina Wee who is currently involved in the City Harvest saga. Apparently, she is so hot she singled-handled converted the courtroom to Christianity.
So much for jokes. Let's get back to Swatch. The following is a real picture of Nayla Hayek.
Nayla Hayek, Chairwoman of Swatch Group
Well, she would have rivalled Serina in her younger days. At 62 today, she and her brother are diligently continuing their father's legacy. They have managed to surround themselves with very capable people: PhDs, lawyers, engineers and MBAs to help them run the Swatch Group. It suffices to note that they have not done anything drastically detrimental to shareholders and should continue to help us grow the company in the foreseeable future. Together the Hayek family still owns 20% of Swatch and their interests are aligned with the minority shareholders.
"Patience is a Virtue."
I was googling around for this topic and as usual, Wikipedia came to the rescue. Sadly, it's still loss-making because donation somehow doesn't work on the internet. Google should just buy them out.
So what did Wiki says about Patience? It's actually part of the seven heavenly virtues which are counterparts of the more famous seven deadly sins, protrayed in the cult movie starring Brad Pitt and promoted Kevin Spacy and Gwyneth Paltrow to stardom. Patience is described in more context than our current world usage: usually like waiting patiently for someone or for the MRT to actually move smoothly. Accordingly, it is about endurance, moderation, grace and forgiveness. The counterpart in the sins is wrath.
In investing, the masters have talked about this over and over. And this is the Nth time I am re-learning this lesson as well. Baseball is the favourite analogy. It is known that the best baseball players do not anyhow swing. They wait for the perfect pitch. When the pitcher screws up and throws a slow ball, in the right zone, they swing the bat and hit that sayonara home run. In buying stocks, it's the same. You don't just buy when Singtel drops 10%. You wait for something to happen or some crisis for the stock to fall really, really cheap. Actually it's sort of happening now with some of our Indonesia exposed names like Jardine Cycle and Carriage.
And you swing when the slow fat pitch comes. Like when Jardine drops to $30, when it's PE hits 8x and its dividend yield goes up to like 6%. Imagine! 8x and 6% for the No.1 auto and motorcycle distributor in Indonesia where both auto and motorcycle market would likely be in the Top 5 globally in the next few years.
These opportunities do not come often. Usually once every few years. The last time Jardine was this cheap was 2011 when the Greek tragedy hit. As for Singtel, the No.1 stock in market cap in Singapore, the last time it was cheap enough was Lehman, that's half a decade ago. So as patient value investors, most of the time we should really just do nothing. It's called "sit-on-your-ass investing" according to Buffett. To deploy capital over mediocre opportunities simply just doesn't cut it, especially if we are trying to hit 8%pa kind of return.
Ok, that's patience in investing, but what about patience in life?
I think this could be the more important lesson. Patience in life could work in various circumstances:
1. When we are preparing to do something bigger. Hence needing the patience to remain in the current situation for longer, allowing more time for training and mastery.
2. In facing our adversaries, one of the best weapon is patience. Wait for them to commit mistakes. But we need to do our part in maintaining our best. The wait would usually take months if not years. Although sometimes we ought to leave the mud-house especially when the bosses are not on the right side. Choose not to wrestle pigs, if possible.
3. To garner support for change, sometimes it take years for things to move. Like the changes in our education system. Together with others (more prominent opinion leaders and education specialists), I have discussed about revamping PSLE a few years ago in a few series of posts on Education. Finally, something would be done. Well, at least, PM Lee promised.
Being patient in situations is not about admitting defeat. It is taking a step back to leap forward. It is taking time to strategize, recognizing that the time to act is not now. Recall the old battle scenes before machine guns were invented. The army needs time to reload their guns. So you cannot fire when the enemy is coming until they get near enough. Patience makes the difference.
Of course, there is a spectrum to everything. Pulling patience past its limit is cowardice. Unwilling to act after waiting and the opportune moment passed. That would also be a grave mistake. How do we know when is the right moment then?
Oh, we know. We ALL know. When the stock hits 6% dividend but we fail to act even though we already decided we must buy when it hits that price. We didn't because our balls shrunk and we say let's wait. It's the same feeling as seeing the girl leaving and our balls shrunk and we say, "next time I'll ask for her number."
To sum up, we need a suitable amount of patience to succeed in investing and in life. Train up and be prepared. Focus and wait for the opportune moment. Then seize the day! George Savile, an English statesman who lived 400 years ago also summed it up pretty nicely, "A man who is a Master of Patience, is a Master of Everything Else."
Labels: Education, Investment Philosophy
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Auto Warranty TCPA Settlement Website
How to Report a Change of Address
This official website is maintained by the Settlement Administrator in the action entitled, Mey v. Interstate National Dealer Services, Inc., et al., Case No.: 1:14-CV-01846-ELR-RGV, (the “Lawsuit”), which is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
The information contained on this website is only a summary of information presented in more detail in the Notice of Proposed Settlement of Class Action (the "Notice"). You may download a full copy of the Notice by clicking here or you may call the MEY V. INTERSTATE TCPA Settlement Helpline at 866-963-9977 to request a copy of the Notice by mail.
The Court has preliminarily approved a proposed Settlement related to claims brought on behalf of persons who received calls allegedly made by or on behalf of Interstate National Dealer Services, Inc. (“Interstate”) to (a) telephone numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry, and/or (b) wireless telephone numbers. The Lawsuit alleges these calls violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (the TCPA). Interstate maintains that it did not make any unsolicited telemarketing calls, or authorize any service providers to do so. It also maintains that it has strong, meritorious defenses to the claims alleged in the Lawsuit and that it was prepared to vigorously defend all aspects of the Lawsuit. Nonetheless, Interstate has agreed to the Settlement to avoid the further expense, inconvenience, and distraction of burdensome litigation.
The Settlement Class includes all persons who were identified as someone who may have received one of these phone calls since June 12, 2010. Specifically, you are a Settlement Class Member if, between June 12, 2010, and January 28, 2016: (a) more than one telephone solicitation was allegedly initiated or made by or on behalf of Interstate within a twelve-month period to your telephone number that, at the time of the calls, was listed on the National Do Not Call Registry; and/or (b) a call was allegedly initiated or made by or on behalf of Interstate to your cellular telephone number.
If you are a Settlement Class Member and you submit a Claims Form by March 24, 2016, you may qualify for a cash payment from the $4.2 million cash settlement fund.
Your legal rights are affected whether you act or do not act. Please read the complete notice carefully.
Your Legal Rights and Options in this Settlement:
SUBMIT A CLAIM FORM
No later than March 24, 2016
The deadline to submit a Claim Form has passed.
EXCLUDE YOURSELF
The deadline to request exclusion from the Settlement has passed.
The deadline to object to the Settlement has passed.
ATTEND THE HEARING
June 7, 2016 at 10:00 a.m.
Attendance at the hearing is not necessary. If you want to be heard orally (either personally or through counsel) in opposition to the Settlement, you must file a timely objection as set forth above.
If you do nothing, and the Court approves the Settlement, you will be bound by all of the Settlement terms, including the releases of claims.
These rights and options—and the deadlines to exercise them—are explained in the Notice.
The Court in charge of this case still has to decide whether to finally approve the Settlement. Payments will be made if the Court approves the Settlement and after appeals, if any, are resolved.
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The Man With the Golden Gun
ActionAdventureThriller
The Man with the Golden Gun is a 1974 British spy film, the ninth entry in the James Bond series and the second to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. A loose adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel of same name, the film has Bond sent after the Solex Agitator, a device that can harness the power of the sun, while facing the assassin Francisco Scaramanga, the "Man with the Golden Gun". The action culminates in a duel between them that settles the fate of the Solex. The Man with the Golden Gun was the fourth and final film in the series directed by Guy Hamilton. The script was written by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz. The film was set in the face of the 1973 energy crisis, a dominant theme in the script. Britain had still not yet fully overcome the crisis when the film was released in December 1974. The film also reflects the then popular martial arts film craze, with several kung fu scenes and a predominantly Asian location, being shot in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Macau. Part of the film is also set in Beirut, Lebanon, making it the first Bond film to include a Middle Eastern location. The film saw mixed reviews. Christopher Lee's performance as Scaramanga, intended to be a villain of similar skill and ability to Bond, was praised, but reviewers criticised the film as a whole, particularly the comedic approach, and some critics described it as the lowest point in the canon. Although the film was profitable, it is the fourth lowest grossing Bond film in the series. It was also the last film to be co-produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, with Saltzman selling his 50% stake in Danjaq, LLC, the parent company of Eon Productions, after the release of the film.
Roger Moore (James Bond)Christopher Lee (Francisco Scaramanga)Britt Ekland (Mary Goodnight)Christopher LeeBritt EklandSir Roger MooreRoger MooreMaud Adams
Guy Hamilton
Tom MankiewiczRichard Maibaum
You can see "The Man With the Golden Gun" on the VOD website:
"The Man With the Golden Gun" is movie produced at 1974. See what information about this film we collected at our service. You can also check other movies in the same genres by click at genre name. If you are interests movies released at 1974 you can click at year. You can also check other movies with the same cas or with the same writer and director. This is very simple, just click at the name. You can also find posters, still photos and trailers connected whith this production.
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Burmester, K. (2011). Analytical Framework for Conjecture-based Whole-class Mathematical Discourse.
Burmester, K. (2011). Triangulating Evidence to Investigate the Validity of Measures: Evidence from Discussion during Instruction, Cognitive Interviews, and Written Assessments. ERIC.
Claesgens, J. (2007). Measuring the development of conceptual understanding in chemistry (phd). University of California, Berkeley.
Kennedy, C. (2000). What Influences Student Learning in an Online Course? (No. BEAR Research Note). University of California, Berkeley.
Kennedy, C., & Wilson, M.. (2006). Using Progress Variables to Interpret Student Achievement and Progress. University of California, Berkeley.
Kennedy, C. (1998). Turning the Tables: Engaging Teachers in the Learning Process. (No. BEAR Research Note). University of California, Berkeley.
Wilson, M., Sloane, K., Roberts, L., & Henke, R.. (1995). SEPUP Course I, Issues, Evidence and You: Achievement evidence from the pilot implementation. University of California, Berkeley.
Wilson, M., Roberts, L., Samson, S., & Sloane, K.. (2000). SEPUP Assessment Resources Handbook (No. BEAR Report Series). University of California, Berkeley.
Kennedy, C. (2003). A Primer on Design Matrices (No. BEAR Research Note). University of California, Berkeley.
Kennedy, C. (1998). Online Education: Pathway or Barrier to Academic Equity. (No. BEAR Research Note). University of California, Berkeley.
Draney, K., & Peres, D.. (1998). Multidimensional modeling of complex science assessment data (No. BEAR Report Series). University of California, Berkeley.
Brown, N. J. S. (2005). The multidimensional measure of conceptual complexity. University of California, Berkeley.
Kennedy, C. (2000). Measuring Student Variables Useful in the Study of Performance in an Online Learning Environment (No. BEAR Research Note). University of California, Berkeley.
Brown, N. J. S. (2004). Interpreting Ordered Partition Model Parameters from ConQuest. University of California, Berkeley.
Wilson, M., & Xie, Y.. (2004). The Imperial vs Metric Study. University of California, Berkeley.
Wilson, M., & Case, H.. (1997). An Examination of Variation in Rater Severity Over Time: A Study in Rater Drift. University of California, Berkeley.
Wilson, M., & Draney, K.. (1997). Developing maps for student progress in the SEPUP Assessment System. University of California, Berkeley.
Sloane, K., Wilson, M., & Samson, S.. (1996). Designing an embedded assessment system: From principles to practice. University of California, Berkeley.
Kennedy, C. (2005). Constructing measurement models for MRCML estimation: A primer for using the BEAR scoring engine. University of California, Berkeley.
Kennedy, C. (1998). Conflicting Purposes of Higher Education: Will Improving Access to Higher Education Undermine Quality? (No. BEAR Research Note). University of California, Berkeley.
Kennedy, C. (2005). The BEAR assessment system: A brief summary for the classroom context. University of California, Berkeley.
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Awesome Ends with Me Sneak Peek
Posted on September 4, 2013 by Jamie
***CONTEST CLOSED***
Thank you for all of your awesome comments! We love to hear them and we love that we have a winner in abm234 thanks to Random.org. I will send out an email so that they can collect their prize. Looking forward to what the girls have in store for us next week. I bet it’s AWESOME!
Are you ready for some awesome? Tabatha and Lena have this super cool, super rich, super awesome collection for us this week. I don’t know about you, but I like to surround myself with awesomeness and this kit is just that…awesomeness all compiled into a cool collection. Here is a little peek of what’s in store this week:
If you’d like a chance to win Lena and Tabatha’s kit before it’s for sale just leave us a comment on this post. Wednesday night at around 9 pm PST we’ll choose ONE winner using random.org and email the lucky person links to download the kit before it’s available for sale!
71 thoughts on “Awesome Ends with Me Sneak Peek”
Theresa on September 4, 2013 at 8:11 am said:
Wow – great colors and love the “awesome ends with me” word art!
Brendap on September 4, 2013 at 9:10 am said:
Looks like an Awesome kit! Thanks for the chance.
Michelle on September 4, 2013 at 9:21 am said:
The colors are gorgeous! Thank you for the chance to win!
Julie Stanczak on September 4, 2013 at 9:43 am said:
Looks “awesome”, can’t wait to see the whole kit! Thanks for the chance to win!
mscrafts8 on September 4, 2013 at 9:52 am said:
Wow – this looks AWESOME!! Love it!! Thanks for the chance to win it!
Di on September 4, 2013 at 10:20 am said:
Stunning preview. Thx for the chance! :)))
Karen K. on September 4, 2013 at 12:13 pm said:
Love these fall-looking colors! Thanks for the chance!
Netsky on September 4, 2013 at 1:26 pm said:
Love the name! That is so clever! Really like the color scheme too. Thank you for the chance to win it!
Jen L on September 4, 2013 at 2:06 pm said:
love love love the colors! thanks for always giving a chance to win! You guys are fabulous! 🙂
Christine Elizabeth on September 4, 2013 at 2:06 pm said:
LOVE LOVE !!!!! thanks for the chance to win
Stephanie on September 4, 2013 at 2:06 pm said:
Oh my! I think I love each kit more and more! Thanks for the chance to win!
Tanja Blaufelder on September 4, 2013 at 2:09 pm said:
The kit looks very pretty! Thank you so much for the chance to win!!
Jarmila on September 4, 2013 at 2:11 pm said:
Thanks for the lovely chance.
Jill Garrison on September 4, 2013 at 2:12 pm said:
Love everything you all do!
Cindy on September 4, 2013 at 2:12 pm said:
Looks like a great theme and very fitting for my kiddos!
Jacqui on September 4, 2013 at 2:12 pm said:
another great one. Love the colors
Cassie K on September 4, 2013 at 2:13 pm said:
Love the colors, love the name. Thanks for a chance to win such a beautiful kit! 😀
Robin on September 4, 2013 at 2:17 pm said:
Thanks so much for the chance to win your awesome new kit!
Carolyn on September 4, 2013 at 2:18 pm said:
Mary on September 4, 2013 at 2:18 pm said:
Your kits are wonderful! Looks like another awesome kit! Thanks for the chance at winning. 🙂
Rae Brown on September 4, 2013 at 2:19 pm said:
Wow! Lovin the colors! Thanks for the opportunity to win!!!
Suzan on September 4, 2013 at 2:19 pm said:
Love the title of this collection and the colors too thanks for the chance
shelby on September 4, 2013 at 2:21 pm said:
DoggiNo on September 4, 2013 at 2:23 pm said:
Love the rich colors !
tamie on September 4, 2013 at 2:23 pm said:
fantastic peek, tyvm for chance to win
Missy on September 4, 2013 at 2:23 pm said:
Love the name. Looks amazing 🙂
Emily on September 4, 2013 at 2:25 pm said:
Loooove these colors! Definitely grabbing this kit when it hits the shop, LOL!
Mo0nie on September 4, 2013 at 2:27 pm said:
WOw,that is so amazing. Thanks a lot for the chance 😀
Karen Diebolt on September 4, 2013 at 2:29 pm said:
What an awesome giveaway. I love the colors.
Emily Humphries on September 4, 2013 at 2:32 pm said:
gina on September 4, 2013 at 2:33 pm said:
Love the colors! Can’t wait to see the rest 🙂
Mosley on September 4, 2013 at 2:35 pm said:
Great colors, love them and can’t wait to see the whole kit. Thanks for the chance to win!
Darinka on September 4, 2013 at 2:38 pm said:
This looks awesome ^^
Penny on September 4, 2013 at 2:39 pm said:
So much fun. Love the colors. Thanks for the chance to win.
Emily H on September 4, 2013 at 2:39 pm said:
Fall colors!! love em!
Nicole on September 4, 2013 at 2:39 pm said:
Such a cute sneak peek!!! 🙂 Can’t wait to see the whole kit! Thanks for the chance to win!
Ivy Peralta on September 4, 2013 at 2:42 pm said:
Love that colors! Awesome web page love it since i discovered…
Kay on September 4, 2013 at 2:43 pm said:
Loving these colors! Can’t wait to see the full kit!
karla on September 4, 2013 at 2:45 pm said:
Perfect kit for my awesome, cool kids! 🙂 Thank you for the chance to win!
catschwartz on September 4, 2013 at 2:47 pm said:
Looks like another great kit! I am glad some of the kits coordinate with each other too! Thanks for the chance to win!
Sherri on September 4, 2013 at 2:54 pm said:
Love the colors!! Can’t wait to see the whole kit!
origami on September 4, 2013 at 2:57 pm said:
Awesome kit!!! Love the colors and patterns!!!
Brittney on September 4, 2013 at 3:00 pm said:
Oh man, I’m loving everything I can see, can’t wait to see the whole thing! Love the colors, as always! Thanks for the chance!
Leontine on September 4, 2013 at 3:03 pm said:
Yay, love the colors of this one!
Sheila Irish on September 4, 2013 at 3:12 pm said:
LOVE the colors! Thank you for the chance to win!
Shawna W on September 4, 2013 at 3:29 pm said:
Thanks for the chance to win – love, love, love the kit. My husband’s motto as a high school teacher – “Today – be awesome”. What a perfect kit 😀
Jennifer bc on September 4, 2013 at 3:31 pm said:
I just love these colors!
Romina on September 4, 2013 at 3:41 pm said:
Lovely! Thanks for the chance!!!
Lorry on September 4, 2013 at 3:56 pm said:
Kimberly F on September 4, 2013 at 3:57 pm said:
looks like another awesome kit!!
Christie on September 4, 2013 at 4:28 pm said:
Awesome, thanks for the chance
SharonB on September 4, 2013 at 4:30 pm said:
Definitely looks Awesome!!…thanks for the chance to win.
Alquafea on September 4, 2013 at 4:33 pm said:
Great looking kit. Thanks for the chance to win.
Rhadonda on September 4, 2013 at 4:37 pm said:
Colors look great. Sweetness!
Love it…thanks for the chance as always.
Debbie on September 4, 2013 at 5:21 pm said:
Love the chance to win. thanks so much
Meagan43 on September 4, 2013 at 5:21 pm said:
Love those colors
Lindsay on September 4, 2013 at 5:50 pm said:
Can’t wait to see the next reveal!
Cori D on September 4, 2013 at 6:13 pm said:
I think I’m going to love the colors in there! Can’t wait to see it! Thank you for the chance to win it!
Teri on September 4, 2013 at 6:22 pm said:
Love it! Colours and name too.
andrea f on September 4, 2013 at 6:34 pm said:
great summer palette…and one paper that reminds me of a quilt pattern…ooo this could be very fun! thanks for the chance to win!
fl_connie on September 4, 2013 at 6:42 pm said:
Looks like another of your fabulous kits! Thanks for a chance to win it!
Ana on September 4, 2013 at 6:54 pm said:
Thanks for the chance!!!
StaceyL on September 4, 2013 at 7:25 pm said:
Awesome Ends with Me . . .HA! Love it:)
stacey on September 4, 2013 at 7:50 pm said:
the kit is gorgeous! thank you so much for the chance!
Christie ~Chippi~ on September 4, 2013 at 7:58 pm said:
Very cool! I hope I’m not too late. I’ve lost track of the time difference 😛 Thanks for the chance to win!
Leia on September 4, 2013 at 8:07 pm said:
I want this one – wow, great colors and patterns!!! <3 Thank you for the chance to win! 🙂
Sylvia on September 4, 2013 at 8:24 pm said:
I do I do.
helen on September 4, 2013 at 9:53 pm said:
Love it! I have a “coolest kid ever” I’d love to use this for!
michelle on September 4, 2013 at 11:37 pm said:
i love the beautiful fall colors. thanks for the chance
Emma Doan on September 4, 2013 at 11:43 pm said:
Awesome! Love this kit 😡
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Army Air Defence celebrates 25th Raising Day
New Delhi: The Army Air Defence Corps on Wednesday celebrated its 25th Raising Day, with Adjutant General and Senior Colonel Commandant Lt General Ashwani Kumar along with Lt General P.S. Jaggi and veterans laying wreaths at the Amar Jawan Jyoti here to pay homage to the braves in a solemn ceremony.
The Corps of Army Air Defence was raised on January 10, 1994, and since then has grown in stature and has proved its mettle in all major conflicts in the past, an official statement said.The Corps is now going through a transformative period of modernisation with the induction of new weapon systems and upgradation of the existing ones.
The raising of the Akash Regiments and planned induction of MRSAM have been game changers in the battle of skies, providing the ground forces with more freedom, manoeuvrability and security. "In the next few years, the Corps will transform into a technologically advanced combat force," the statement said.
Army,Air Defence,Commandant,MRSAM,transform
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Chris Jury signed 8x10 Eric Catchpole in Lovejoy photograph. Signed by Chris Jury in black marker pen, Chris Jury was one of the main characters playing Eric Catchpole in the brilliant TV series Lovejoy.
Lovejoy is a British television comedy-drama mystery series, based on the picaresque novels by John Grant, under the pen name Jonathan Gash. The show, which ran to 71 episodes over six series, was originally broadcast on BBC1 between 10 January 1986 and 4 December 1994, although there was a five year gap between the first and second series. It was adapted for television by Ian La Frenais.
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The Dressmaker 05 January 2018
2015 drama, dir. Jocelyn Moorhouse, Kate Winslet, Judy Davis: IMDb / allmovie. In 1950s rural Australia, Tilly Dunnage is coming home to upend the small town that threw her out as a child.
The trailer made it look like Tamara Drewe or Cold Comfort Farm transplanted to Australia, the sophisticated urban woman confusing the rurals, and there's certainly some of that here; but while there's comedy, there's a whole lot more anger. Tilly was sent away for a reason that she can't quite remember, but she's sure it's not resolved even now.
I'm not going to talk much about the story, though, because it's worth coming to it unexpectedly; there are moments of discovery that I am sure will lose their force on a re-watch. Yes, there's turning of the local geese into swans. But there's also the uncovering of the town's many semi-open secrets, and resolution of them, and whether the resolutions are for good or ill they do at least allow things to move forward.
There's something here that one rarely sees in the world of male filmmakers: real complexity to and differentiation of the female characters, as well as a fair amount of female gaze (largely at Liam Hemsworth as Teddy, the local hunk who decides he has a crush on Tilly). Even when she's about to kiss Teddy, Tilly can't quite relax, always has to be aware of the potential for things to go suddenly and horribly wrong, and this is wordlessly but superbly portrayed by Winslet. Combine this with much of the visual and auditory grammar of a spaghetti Western, and this is a film that clearly brings its own material as well as being an adaptation of a book. (Indeed, certain events surrounding the ending are deliberately changed, in a way that makes more sense to me than the novel's version.)
The film was a success in Australia, but barely promoted elsewhere. Now that she's Old (over 40!), Hollywood would clearly much rather have Winslet, known for her tough female characters, playing simple villainous roles like Jeanine in Divergent or Irina in the utterly disposable crime thriller Triple 9, nice safe scenery-chewers who get what's coming to them.
Trailer here; MaryAnn Johanson's review here.
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Asteroid-Smashing Mission Picks Space Rock Target
A mission that aims to slam a spacecraft into a near-Earth asteroid now officially has a target — a space rock called Didymos.
The joint European/U.S. Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment mission, or AIDA, will work to intercept Didymos in 2022, when the space rock is about 6.8 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth, European Space Agency officials announced Friday (Feb. 22).
Didymos is actually a binary system, in which a 2,625-foot-wide (800 meters) asteroid and a 490-foot (150 m) space rock orbit each other. Didymos poses no threat to Earth in the foreseeable future.
The proposed asteroid-smashing AIDA mission will send one small probe crashing into the smaller asteroid at about 14,000 mph (22,530 kph) while another spacecraft records the dramatic encounter. Meanwhile, Earth-based instruments will record so-called ”ground-truthing” observations.
The goal is to learn more about how humanity could ward off a potentially dangerous space rock. The necessity of developing a viable deflection strategy was underlined in many people’s minds by the events of last Friday (Feb. 15), when the 130-foot (40 m) asteroid 2012 DA14 gave Earth a historically close shave just hours after a 55-foot (17 m) object exploded above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,200 people and damaging thousands of buildings.
The AIDA impact will unleash about as much energy as that released when a big piece of space junk hits a satellite, researchers said, so the mission could also help improve models of space-debris collisions.
“The project has value in many areas, from applied science and exploration to asteroid resource utilization,” Andy Cheng, AIDA lead at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a statement.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has asked scientists around the world to propose experiments that AIDA could carry in space or that could increase its scientific return from the ground. Researchers have until March 15 to pitch their ideas.
Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory is providing AIDA’s impactor, which is called DART (short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test). The observing spacecraft is known as AIM (Asteroid Impact Monitor) and will come from ESA.
Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook and Google+.
Title Post: Asteroid-Smashing Mission Picks Space Rock Target
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/asteroid-smashing-mission-picks-space-rock-target/
Link To Post : Asteroid-Smashing Mission Picks Space Rock Target
Vatican 'Gay lobby'? Probably not
Benedict XVI not stepping down under pressure from 'gay lobby,' Allen says
Allen: Benedict is a man who prefers the life of the mind to the nuts and bolts of government
However, he says, much of the pope's time has been spent putting out fires
Editor's note: John L. Allen Jr. is CNN's senior Vatican analyst and senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter.
(CNN) -- Suffice it to say that of all possible storylines to emerge, heading into the election of a new pope, sensational charges of a shadowy "gay lobby" (possibly linked to blackmail), whose occult influence may have been behind the resignation of Benedict XVI, would be right at the bottom of the Vatican's wish list.
Proof of the Vatican's irritation came with a blistering statement Saturday complaining of "unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories," even suggesting the media is trying to influence the papal election.
Two basic questions have to be asked about all this. First, is there really a secret dossier about a network of people inside the Vatican who are linked by their sexual orientation, as Italian newspaper reports have alleged? Second, is this really why Benedict XVI quit?
John L. Allen Jr.
The best answers, respectively, are "maybe" and "probably not."
It's a matter of record that at the peak of last year's massive Vatican leaks crisis, Benedict XVI created a commission of three cardinals to investigate the leaks. They submitted an eyes-only report to the pope in mid-December, which has not been made public.
It's impossible to confirm whether that report looked into the possibility that people protecting secrets about their sex lives were involved with the leaks, but frankly, it would be surprising if it didn't.
There are certainly compelling reasons to consider the hypothesis. In 2007, a Vatican official was caught by an Italian TV network on hidden camera arranging a date through a gay-oriented chat room, and then taking the young man back to his Vatican apartment. In 2010, a papal ceremonial officer was caught on a wiretap arranging liaisons through a Nigerian member of a Vatican choir. Both episodes played out in full public view, and gave the Vatican a black eye.
In that context, it would be a little odd if the cardinals didn't at least consider the possibility that insiders leading a double life might be vulnerable to pressure to betray the pope's confidence. That would apply not just to sex, but also potential conflicts of other sorts too, such as financial interests.
Vatican officials have said Benedict may authorize giving the report to the 116 cardinals who will elect his successor, so they can factor it into their deliberations. The most immediate fallout is that the affair is likely to strengthen the conviction among many cardinals that the next pope has to lead a serious house-cleaning inside the Vatican's bureaucracy.
It seems a stretch, however, to suggest this is the real reason Benedict is leaving. For the most part, one should probably take the pope at his word, that old age and fatigue are the motives for his decision.
That said, it's hard not to suspect that the meltdowns and controversies that have dogged Benedict XVI for the last eight years are in the background of why he's so tired. In 2009, at the height of another frenzy surrounding the lifting of the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying traditionalist bishop, Benedict dispatched a plaintive letter to the bishops of the world, voicing hurt for the way he'd been attacked and apologizing for the Vatican's mishandling of the situation.
Even if Benedict didn't resign because of any specific crisis, including this latest one, such anguish must have taken its toll. Benedict is a teaching pope, a man who prefers the life of the mind to the nuts and bolts of government, yet an enormous share of his time and energy has been consumed trying to put out internal fires.
It's hard to know why Benedict XVI is stepping off the stage, but I doubt it is because of a "gay lobby."
Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.
Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John L. Allen Jr.
State lawmaker's bill seeks to limit use of drones to fight crime
SPRINGFIELD — As the Obama administration comes under fire for its use of unmanned drones in foreign lands, a state senator is pressing to have Illinois join the national debate on whether states should regulate drones to ensure the high-tech snooping isn't used to invade the privacy of ordinary citizens on U.S. soil.
Democratic Sen. Daniel Biss has introduced legislation that would require police to get a search warrant before using a drone to gather evidence. Along with banning the use of lethal and nonlethal weapons on the drones — except in emergencies — the proposal would require information a drone gathers to be destroyed unless it is part of an investigation.
Under the legislation, Illinois would step up to combat the issue of drones flying over U.S. airspace. President Barack Obama signed a Federal Aviation Administration mandate last year requesting the agency integrate unmanned aircraft into the national system.
With the possibility of drones becoming the latest aircraft traversing the skies, Biss said this is "the exact moment states should be looking into" unmanned aircraft legislation.
"We're heading into a world where technology surveillance is unreal," the Evanston lawmaker said.
More than 20 states are pursuing similar legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. While some states are trying to regulate unmanned aircraft use, others are trying to impose moratoriums that ban them, Biss said.
Virginia lawmakers approved a two-year moratorium on the aircraft in the state last week to allow time for a study. The legislation awaits the governor's signature.
In Illinois, authorities in Cook and Champaign counties are considering the use of drones to combat crime.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is in the "exploratory stages" of looking into drone technology for future operations, spokesman Frank Bilecki said. If the county were to employ any drones, they would be "specifically for law enforcement use" and not to invade personal privacy, Bilecki said.
Dart's thinking is that drones would be cheaper to use and cost less taxpayer money than using helicopters for aerial operations, Bilecki said. A small, unmanned aircraft used for search and rescue can cost on average between $38,000 and $50,000, much less than in years past, said James Hill, president of AirCover Integrated Solutions, a California-based drone manufacturer.
To gain traction at the Capitol, Biss potentially might have to overcome resistance from law enforcement leaders. To that end, Biss said he's talking with police chiefs, the Illinois State Police and other police agencies to iron out any wrinkles.
The American Civil Liberties Union thinks the time is ripe to look at drone regulations.
"Technology is changing," said Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the ACLU's Illinois chapter. "And the idea is we need to get ahead of the technology to be better prepared."
raguerrero2@tribune.com
Investors face another Washington deadline
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors face another Washington-imposed deadline on government spending cuts next week, but it's not generating the same level of fear as two months ago when the "fiscal cliff" loomed large.
Investors in sectors most likely to be affected by the cuts, like defense, seem untroubled that the budget talks could send stocks tumbling.
Talks on the U.S. budget crisis began again this week leading up to the March 1 deadline for the so-called sequestration when $85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts are scheduled to take effect.
"It's at this point a political hot button in Washington but a very low level investor concern," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The fight pits President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats against congressional Republicans.
Stocks rallied in early January after a compromise temporarily avoided the fiscal cliff, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index <.spx> has risen 6.3 percent since the start of the year.
But the benchmark index lost steam this week, posting its first week of losses since the start of the year. Minutes on Wednesday from the last Federal Reserve meeting, which suggested the central bank may slow or stop its stimulus policy sooner than expected, provided the catalyst.
National elections in Italy on Sunday and Monday could also add to investor concern. Most investors expect a government headed by Pier Luigi Bersani to win and continue with reforms to tackle Italy's debt problems. However, a resurgence by former leader Silvio Berlusconi has raised doubts.
"Europe has been in the last six months less of a topic for the stock market, but the problems haven't gone away. This may bring back investor attention to that," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.
OPTIONS BULLS TARGET GAINS
The spending cuts, if they go ahead, could hit the defense industry particularly hard.
Yet in the options market, bulls were targeting gains in Lockheed Martin Corp , the Pentagon's biggest supplier.
Calls on the stock far outpaced puts, suggesting that many investors anticipate the stock to move higher. Overall options volume on the stock was 2.8 times the daily average with 17,000 calls and 3,360 puts traded, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert.
"The upside call buying in Lockheed solidifies the idea that option investors are not pricing in a lot of downside risk in most defense stocks from the likely impact of sequestration," said Jared Woodard, a founder of research and advisory firm condoroptions.com in Forest, Virginia.
The stock ended up 0.6 percent at $88.12 on Friday.
If lawmakers fail to reach an agreement on reducing the U.S. budget deficit in the next few days, a sequester would include significant cuts in defense spending. Companies such as General Dynamics Corp and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp could be affected.
General Dynamics Corp shares rose 1.2 percent to $67.32 and Smith & Wesson added 4.6 percent to $9.18 on Friday.
EYES ON GDP DATA, APPLE
The latest data on fourth-quarter U.S. gross domestic product is expected on Thursday, and some analysts predict an upward revision following trade data that showed America's deficit shrank in December to its narrowest in nearly three years.
U.S. GDP unexpectedly contracted in the fourth quarter, according to an earlier government estimate, but analysts said there was no reason for panic, given that consumer spending and business investment picked up.
Investors will be looking for any hints of changes in the Fed's policy of monetary easing when Fed Chairman Ben Bernake speaks before congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Shares of Apple will be watched closely next week when the company's annual stockholders' meeting is held.
On Friday, a U.S. judge handed outspoken hedge fund manager David Einhorn a victory in his battle with the iPhone maker, blocking the company from moving forward with a shareholder vote on a controversial proposal to limit the company's ability to issue preferred stock.
(Additional reporting by Doris Frankel; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
Dozens hurt after crash debris hits Daytona stands
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — With the start of the Daytona 500 just hours away, NASCAR officials still have some cleaning up to do amid growing questions about fan safety.
The season opener will go off as planned Sunday less than 24 hours after at least 33 people were injured when a car flew into the fence during a NASCAR race at Daytona International Speedway, sending a tire and large pieces of debris sailing into the stands.
"Just seeing the carnage on the racetrack, it was truly unbelievable," driver Justin Allgaier said.
The final-lap accident Saturday marred the second-tier Nationwide Series race on the eve of a spectacle often called the Super Bowl of motorsports. Late into the night, track workers were scrambling to repair a huge section of fence that separates fans from the high-speed track.
Speedway President Joie Chitwood III has a news conference scheduled for Sunday morning to give the latest update on repairs and any safety changes that could be made before the "Great American Race."
The 12-car crash began about 200 feet from the start-finish line as the front-runners approached the checkered flag. Leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski for the win, triggering a horrific pileup that could have been much worse.
The front end of Larson's No. 32 car was sheared off, and his burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence. Parts and pieces of his car sprayed into the stands, including a tire that cleared the top of the fence and landed midway up the spectator section closest to the track.
The 20-year-old Larson stood in shock a few feet from his car as fans in the stands waved frantically for help. Smoke from the burning engine briefly clouded the area, and emergency vehicles descended on the scene.
Ambulance sirens could be heard wailing behind the grandstands at a time the race winner would typically be doing celebratory burnouts.
"It was freaky. When I looked to my right, the accident happened," Rick Harpster of Orange Park said. "I looked over and I saw a tire fly straight over the fence into the stands, but after that I didn't see anything else. That was the worst thing I have seen, seeing that tire fly into the stands. I knew it was going to be severe."
Shannan Devine of Egg Harbor Township, N.J., was sitting about 250 feet from where the car smashed into the fence and could see plumes of smoke directly in front of her.
"I didn't know if there was a car on top of people. I didn't know what to think," she said. "I'm an emotional person and I immediately started to cry. It was very scary. Absolutely scary. I love the speed of the sport. But it's so dangerous."
Chitwood said 14 fans were treated on site and 14 others were taken to hospitals. Local officials said 19 people were taken to neighboring hospitals, including two who were in critical but stable condition.
Because of potential injuries, race winner Tony Stewart skipped the traditional victory celebration.
Stewart, who won for the 19th time at Daytona and seventh time in the last nine season-opening Nationwide races, was in no mood to celebrate.
"The important thing is what is going on on the frontstretch right now," said Stewart, a three-time NASCAR champion. "We've always known, and since racing started, this is a dangerous sport. But it's hard. We assume that risk, but it's hard when the fans get caught up in it.
"So as much as we want to celebrate right now and as much as this is a big deal to us, I'm more worried about the drivers and the fans that are in the stands right now because that was ... I could see it all in my mirror, and it didn't look good from where I was at."
There were at least five stretchers carrying injured people out of the stands, and a helicopter flew overhead.
Officials turned their attention to the track and the wreckage after injured were treated.
A forklift plucked Larson's engine out of the fence, and workers carried the tire out of the stands.
It was a chaotic finish to a race that was stopped for nearly 20 minutes five laps from the finish by a 13-car accident that sent driver Michael Annett to a hospital. His Richard Petty Motorsports team said he would be held overnight with bruising to his chest.
The race resumed with three laps to go, and the final accident occurred with Smith trying to hold off Keselowski through the final turn.
"It's Daytona. You want to go for the win here," Smith said. "I don't know how you can play it any different, other than concede second place, and I wasn't willing to do that today. Our job is to put them in position to win, and it was, and it didn't work out."
As the cars began wrecking all around Smith and Keselowski, Stewart slid through for the win, but Larson plowed into Keselowski and his car was sent airborne into the fence. When Larson's car came to a stop, it was missing its entire front end. Larson, who made his Daytona debut this week, stood with his hands on his hips before finally making the mandatory trip to the care center.
"I took a couple big hits there and saw my engine was gone," Larson said. "Just hope everybody's all right."
It appeared fans were lined up along the fence when Larson's car got airborne. But Chitwood said there was a buffer, adding there would be no changes to the seating before the Daytona 500.
"We don't anticipate moving any of our fans," Chitwood said. "We had our safety protocols in place. Our security maintained a buffer that separates the fans from the fencing area. With the fencing being prepared tonight to our safety protocols, we expect to go racing tomorrow with no changes."
Keselowski watched a replay of the accident and said it could cast a pall on the Daytona 500.
"I think until we know exactly the statuses of everyone involved, it's hard to lock yourself into the 500," Keselowski said. "Hopefully, we'll know soon and hopefully everyone's OK. And if that's the case, we'll staring focusing on Sunday."
AP Sports Writers Jenna Fryer, Dan Gelston and Jerome Minerva in Daytona Beach and Associated Press writer Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.
The Oscars just don't matter
Best: Billy Crystal
Best: Johnny Carson
Best: Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin
Best: Bob Hope
Best: Whoopi Goldberg
Honorable mention: Jon Stewart
Worst: David Letterman
Worst: Chris Rock
Worst: Chevy Chase
Worst: Jerry Lewis
Worst: Anne Hathaway and James Franco
Dean Obeidallah would love an Oscar, but thinks they mostly don't matter in long run
He says telecast not the draw it once was, and winning doesn't mean bigger box office
He says for stars win often doesn't mean work; award season makes Oscars anticlimatic
Obeidallah: Why not give Oscar awards first, then follow with smaller awards later?
Editor's note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is a political comedian and frequent commentator on various TV networks including CNN. He is the editor of the politics blog "The Dean's Report" and co-director of the upcoming documentary, "The Muslims Are Coming!" Follow him on Twitter: @deanofcomedy.
(CNN) -- If I won an Oscar, I'd carry it around it with me everywhere. I'd start every conversation with, "Well, as an Oscar winner..." I'd wear a pin that says, "Ask me about my Oscar." I might even get a tattoo on my neck of the golden figurine.
But that's just me. Because beyond the personal thrill of winning, the Oscars don't matter. The golden statue is increasingly becoming nothing more than a shiny paperweight.
Dean Obeidallah
And I say this as someone who loves movies, appreciates the talented people who make them and has long watched the awards show. But in three categories the Academy Awards have lost their luster: the TV telecast, the box office impact of the awards on movies and their effect on people's acting careers.
Are viewers particularly interested in watching the Oscars? Not so much. TV ratings show pretty clearly that percentage of people watching the Academy Awards has trended downward over the years. For example, in 2000, nearly 47% of the people watching TV on Oscar night watched the Academy Awards. It has not been that high since, and in 2012, the number had fallen to 34%. In fact, the 2012 Grammy awards had higher overall ratings than that year's Oscar telecast.
Why? There's almost no surprise left. Viewers have a fairly good idea of who will win every big award after the parade of award shows that queue up in the weeks before the Oscars. There are so many! The Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Director's Guild, Producers Guild, the guys who run the deli by my apartment award show, etc. Oscar night feels more like a coronation than an actual awards show.
The only Oscar surprise this year -- and it's not one that will help the TV ratings -- is the Academy voters' bizarre snub of Ben Affleck for a Best Director nomination for his film "Argo." Affleck won Best Director honors at this year's Golden Globes, as well as at the Director's Guild, SAG and Producer's Guild awards. He even won the best director prize at the British Academy Awards. Apparently, the Academy voters still won't forgive Affleck for the stinker "Gigli."
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In the category of how much does an Oscar help your film at the box office, the envelope says: Not much. Sure, there's an "Oscar bump," but look at the 2009 Best Picture winner, "The Hurt Locker." It ended up grossing only $17 million in the United States. Keep in mind that $100 million in domestic box office receipts is generally considered a hit. $17 million is a bomb.
Also last year's Oscar winner for Best Picture, "The Artist," ended up earning approximately $45 million in U.S. theaters. No boffo hit there.
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And here's something that the Academy Awards hate to hear: Winning a Golden Globe has proven to be much more profitable for a movie than winning an Oscar. That is at least according to a recent analysis that looked at award-wining films over the past 12 years. Edmund Helmer, a statistician whose website, BoxOfficeQuant.com, analyzes film industry statistics found that movies that won an Academy Award had on average a $3 million bump in box office sales. However, Golden Globe winners saw on average a pop of $14 million. Pretty big dollar difference.
And in the category of how much does an Oscar help your acting career, there's no denying it can help. But Oscar gold doesn't always translate into personal gold. Many talented actors and actress have won this coveted award only to find themselves with little film work a few years later. I'm talking Oscar winners like Mira Sorvino, Joe Pesci, Louis Gossett Jr. and Kim Basinger.
Williams: Django, in chains
Perhaps the most glaring example of this is actress/comedian Mo'Nique, who won the 2009 Best Supporting Actress award for her role in "Precious." According to the Internet Movie Date Base (IMDb), her only movie since her Oscar triumph went straight to video.
Conversely, there's a long list of amazingly talented actors and actresses who have yet to win an Oscar. A partial list includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise, Gary Oldman, Johnny Depp and Annette Benning.
Obviously, Academy Awards organizers have little impact on some of these issues. But one change they can consider is moving the Oscars up to take place before the other award shows -- like states in the presidential primaries. At least then the Academy Awards will provide real drama as to winners and losers.
Despite knowing the likely winners, I'm still looking forward to watching Sunday's Oscars. This year's host is the very funny Seth Macfarlane. Although I think the funniest moment of the awards' show may be when Russell Crowe sings a song from "Les Misérables."
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dean Obeidallah.
2 hurt, 19 arrested in melee near Ford City Mall
Two people suffered minor injuries and police arrested 19 teenagers during a disturbance involving crowds of young people Saturday at Ford City Mall on the Southwest Side, authorities said.
About 4:45 p.m., a large group of disruptive teens ran yelling through the mall, which is located at 7601 S. Cicero Ave., according to a mall official.
Officials closed the mall minutes later, but the chaotic scene continued outside, where police found between 100 and 200 people damaging vehicles in the shopping center's parking lot, according to a police report.
Two people were taken to hospitals, according to Chicago Fire Department Chief Joe Roccasalva, a department spokesman.
A CTA bus driver suffered minor injuries and was taken to Holy Cross Hospital, said Roccasalva, who added he did not know what happened to him.
A “kid’’ was also hurt, and that person was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, also in good condition, Roccasalva said.
About 50 police squad cars assigned to multiple South Side districts, including Chicago Lawn, Englewood and Deering, and a helicopter responded to the scene, police said.
Traffic came to a standstill as teenagers jumped on cars, both parked and moving, according to a police report obtained by the Tribune. Many of those involved ignored orders to disperse, and police arrested 19 people between the ages of 13 and 17, according to police.
The teenagers all face minor misdemeanor charges.
Officers did their best to control the disturbance, "trying to get everyone out of there safely," Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Veejay Zala said.
During the disturbance the CTA had to reroute the No. 79 buses, which travel on 79th Street, as well as other buses in the immediate area.
Earlier in the afternoon, members of the teen band Mindless Behavior had appeared at the mall food court from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. to promote their new release, "All Around the World," said John Sarama, the mall's senior general manager.
The band's autograph signing drew approximately 1,000 parents and children, primarily mothers and girls between the ages of 6 and 13, Sarama said.
About 45 minutes after the band left, the chaos began, Sarama said.
"A group of older youths came into the mall with the intent of causing havoc and chaos and were running through the mall, screaming, yelling and so forth," he said.
Security staff contacted the police department, and mall officials closed the mall about 5 p.m., Sarama said.
The mall did not sustain any property damage apart from a single broken planter, and it will reopen Sunday at 11 a.m. as usual, Sarama said.
In the meantime, mall officials are at a loss as they try to understand what happened.
"Ford City is a family-oriented mall," he said. "We have not had an incident like this [in the past], and I’m still in a little bit of a state of shock actually.
"What would make these youths comes here to try and cause this kind of commotion and trouble?" he continued. "I don’t know. But they did have a plan in mind."
Tribune reporter Adam Sege contributed.
rsobol@tribune.com
Italians head to polls in crucial vote for euro zone
ROME (Reuters) - Italians began voting on Sunday in one of the most closely watched elections in years, with markets nervous about whether it will produce a strong government to pull Italy out of recession and help resolve the euro zone debt crisis.
A huge final rally by anti-establishment-comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo on Friday before a campaigning ban kicked in has highlighted public anger at traditional parties and added to uncertainty about the election outcome.
Voters started casting their ballots at 0700 GMT. Polling booths will remain open until 2100 GMT on Sunday and between 0600-1400 GMT on Monday. Exit polls will come out soon after voting ends and official results are expected by early Tuesday.
The election is being followed closely by financial markets with memories still fresh of the potentially catastrophic debt crisis that brought technocrat Prime Minister Mario Monti to power more than a year ago.
Italy, the euro zone's third-largest economy, is stuck in deep recession, struggling under a public debt burden second only to Greece's in the 17-member currency bloc and with a public weary of more than a year of harsh austerity policies.
Final polls published two weeks ago showed center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani with a 5-point lead, but analysts disagree about whether he will be able to form a stable majority that can push though the economic reforms Italy needs.
Bersani is now thought to be just a few points ahead of center-right rival Silvio Berlusconi, the four-times prime minister who has promised tax refunds and staged a media blitz in an attempt to win back voters.
BERLUSCONI CRITICISM
Berlusconi hogged the headlines on Sunday after he broke the campaign silence the previous evening attack magistrates, saying they were "more dangerous than the Sicilian mafia" and had invented allegations he held sex parties to discredit him.
The 76-year-old billionaire, who faces several trials on charges ranging from fraud to sex with an underage prostitute, was criticized by his election rivals for making the comments after the campaigning ban had come into force.
While the center left is still expected to gain control of the lower house, thanks to rules that guarantee a strong majority to whichever party wins the most votes nationally, a much closer battle will be fought in the Senate, which any government also needs to control to be able to pass laws.
Seats in the upper house are awarded on a region-by-region basis, meaning that support in key regions can decisively influence the overall result.
Pollsters still believe the most likely outcome is a center-left government headed by Bersani and possibly backed by Monti, who is leading a centrist coalition.
But strong campaigning by Berlusconi and the fiery Grillo, who has drawn tens of thousands to his election rallies, have thrown the election wide open, causing concern that there may be no clear winner.
Surveys have shown up to 5 million voters are expected to make up their minds at the last minute, adding to uncertainty.
Italy's Interior Ministry urged some 47 million eligible voters to not let bad weather forecasts put them off, and said it was prepared to handle snowy conditions in some northern regions to ensure everyone had a chance to vote.
STAGNANT ECONOMY
Whatever government emerges from the vote will have the task of pulling Italy out of its longest recession for 20 years and reviving an economy largely stagnant for two decades.
The main danger for Italy and the euro zone is a weak government incapable of taking firm action, which would rattle investors and could ignite a new debt crisis.
Monti replaced Berlusconi in November 2011 after Italy came close to Greek-style financial meltdown while the center-right government was embroiled in scandals.
The former European Commissioner launched a tough program of spending cuts, tax hikes and pension reforms which won widespread international backing and helped restore Italy's credibility abroad after the scandals of the Berlusconi era.
Italy's borrowing costs have since fallen sharply after the European Central Bank pledged it was prepared to support countries undertaking reforms by buying unlimited quantities of their bonds on the markets.
But economic austerity has fuelled anger among Italians grappling with rising unemployment and shrinking disposable incomes, encouraging many to turn to Grillo, who has tapped into a national mood of disenchantment.
(Editing by Alison Williams)
Exxon lifts force majeure on Nigerian Qua Iboe crude
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp has lifted a force majeure on the Nigerian Qua Iboe crude stream put in place on February 7, the company said in a statement on Friday.
The company said that pipeline work had prompted the declaration.
“Mobil Producing Nigeria, operator of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC)/MPN Joint Venture today confirms that it has lifted the Force Majeure it declared on February 7, 2013,” the company said in a statement.
“We express gratitude to all customers, purchasers and Joint Venture partner, the NNPC for their understanding during the temporary disruption in supply,” it said.
Earlier on Friday, trade sources said exports of the key benchmark grade will be down by nearly 40 percent in April as the force majeure had cut oil flows from Africa’s top producer.
The country will export around 222,000 barrels per day of Qua Iboe in April, trade sources said, down from a planned 368,000 bpd in March.
A trade source said that around four Qua Iboe cargoes from March had been deferred to April and that delays were between four and 12 days.
The OPEC member suffered major outages late last year due to rampant oil theft and the worst floods Nigeria had seen in 50 years.
Nigeria typically produces around 2 million to 2.4 million bpd, and its oil is sold to customers in the United States and Asia.
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Analysis: Italian election explained
Austerity-hit Italy chooses new leader
Silvio Berlusconi is campaigning to win his old job back for the fourth time
The eurozone's third largest economy is hurting, with unemployment surpassing 11%
Pier Luigi Bersani of the center-left Democratic Party is expected to narrowly win
Italy's political system encourages the forming of alliances
(CNN) -- Little more than a year after he resigned in disgrace as prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi is campaigning to win his old job back -- for the fourth time.
Berlusconi, the septuagenarian playboy billionaire nicknamed "Il Cavaliere," has been trailing in polls behind his center-left rival, Per Luigi Bersani.
But the controversial media tycoon's rise in the polls in recent weeks, combined with widespread public disillusionment and the quirks of Italy's complex electoral system, means that nothing about the race is a foregone conclusion.
Why have the elections been called now?
Italian parliamentarians are elected for five-year terms, with the current one due to end in April. However in December, Berlusconi's People of Freedom Party (PdL) withdrew its support from the reformist government led by Mario Monti, saying it was pursuing policies that "were too German-centric." Monti subsequently resigned and the parliament was dissolved.
Berlusconi -- the country's longest serving post-war leader -- had resigned the prime ministerial office himself amidst a parliamentary revolt in November 2011. He left at a time of personal and national crisis, as Italy grappled with sovereign debt problems and Berlusconi faced criminal charges of tax fraud, for which he was subsequently convicted. He remains free pending an appeal. He was also embroiled in a scandal involving a young nightclub dancer - which led him to be charged with paying for sex with an underage prostitute.
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He was replaced by Monti, a respected economist and former European Commissioner, who was invited by Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano to lead a cabinet of unelected technocrats. Monti's government implemented a program of tax rises and austerity measures in an attempt to resolve Italy's economic crisis.
Who are the candidates?
The election is a four-horse race between political coalitions led by Bersani, Berlusconi, Monti, and the anti-establishment movement led by ex-comedian Beppe Grillo. Polls are banned within two weeks of election day, but the most recent ones had Bersani holding onto a slender lead over Berlusconi, followed by Grillo in distant third.
READ MORE: Will Monte Paschi banking scandal throw open Italy's election race?
The center-left alliance is dominated by the Democratic Party, led by Bersani. He is a former Minister of Economic Development in Romano Prodi's government from 2006-8 -- and has held a comfortable lead in polls, but that appears to be gradually being eroded by Berlusconi.
Italy's political system encourages the forming of alliances, and the Democratic Party has teamed with the more left-wing Left Ecology Freedom party.
The 61-year-old Bersani comes across as "bluff and homespun, and that's part of his appeal -- or not, depending on your point of view," said political analyst James Walston, department chair of international relations at the American University of Rome.
He described Bersani, a former communist, as a "revised apparatchik," saying the reform-minded socialist was paradoxically "far more of a free marketeer than even people on the right."
Bersani has vowed to continue with Monti's austerity measures and reforms, albeit with some adjustments, if he wins.
At second place in the polls is the center-right alliance led by Berlusconi's PdL, in coalition with the right-wing, anti-immigration Northern League.
Berlusconi has given conflicting signals as to whether he is running for the premiership, indicating that he would seek the job if his coalition won, but contradicting that on other occasions.
In a recent speech, he proposed himself as Economy and Industry Minister, and the PdL Secretary Angelino Alfano as prime minister.
Roberto Maroni, leader of the Northern League, has said the possibility of Berlusconi becoming prime minister is explicitly ruled out by the electoral pact between the parties, but the former premier has repeatedly said he plays to win, and observers believe he is unlikely to pass up the chance to lead the country again if the opportunity presents itself.
Berlusconi has been campaigning as a Milan court weighs his appeal against a tax fraud conviction, for which he was sentenced to four years in jail last year. The verdict will be delivered after the elections; however, under the Italian legal system, he is entitled to a further appeal in a higher court. Because the case dates to July 2006, the statute of limitations will expire this year, meaning there is a good chance none of the defendants will serve any prison time.
He is also facing charges in the prostitution case (and that he tried to pull strings to get her out of jail when she was accused of theft) -- and in a third case stands accused of revealing confidential court information relating to an investigation into a bank scandal in 2005.
Despite all this, he retains strong political support from his base.
"Italy is a very forgiving society, it's partly to do with Roman Catholicism," said Walston. "There's sort of a 'live and let live' idea."
Monti, the country's 69-year-old technocrat prime minister, who had never been a politician before he was appointed to lead the government, has entered the fray to lead a centrist coalition committed to continuing his reforms. The alliance includes Monti's Civic Choice for Monti, the Christian Democrats and a smaller centre-right party, Future and Freedom for Italy.
As a "senator for life," Monti is guaranteed a seat in the senate and does not need to run for election himself, but he is hitting the hustings on behalf of his party.
In a climate of widespread public disillusionment with politics, comedian and blogger Beppe Grillo is also making gains by capturing the protest vote with his Five Star Movement. Grillo has railed against big business and the corruption of Italy's political establishment, and holds broadly euro-skeptical and pro-environmental positions.
How will the election be conducted?
Italy has a bicameral legislature and a voting system which even many Italians say they find confusing.
Voters will be electing 315 members of the Senate, and 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies. Both houses hold the same powers, although the Senate is referred to as the upper house.
Under the country's closed-list proportional representation system, each party submits ranked lists of its candidates, and is awarded seats according to the proportion of votes won -- provided it passes a minimum threshold of support.
Seats in the Chamber of Deputies are on a national basis, while seats in the senate are allocated on a regional one.
The party with the most votes are awarded a premium of bonus seats to give them a working majority.
The prime minister needs the support of both houses to govern.
Who is likely to be the next prime minister?
On current polling, Bersani's bloc looks the likely victor in the Chamber of Deputies. But even if he maintains his lead in polls, he could fall short of winning the Senate, because of the rules distributing seats in that house on a regional basis.
Crucial to victory in the Senate is winning the region of Lombardy, the industrial powerhouse of the north of Italy which generates a fifth of the country's wealth and is a traditional support base for Berlusconi. Often compared to the U.S. state of Ohio for the "kingmaker" role it plays in elections, Lombardy has more Senate seats than any other region.
If no bloc succeeds in controlling both houses, the horse-trading begins in search of a broader coalition.
Walston said that a coalition government between the blocs led by Bersani and Monti seemed "almost inevitable," barring something "peculiar" happening in the final stages of the election campaign.
Berlusconi, he predicted, would "get enough votes to cause trouble."
What are the main issues?
There's only really one issue on the agenda at this election.
The eurozone's third largest economy is hurting, with unemployment surpassing 11% -- and hitting 37% for young people.
Voters are weighing the question of whether to continue taking Monti's bitter medicine of higher taxation and austerity measures, while a contentious property tax is also proving a subject of vexed debate.
Walston said the dilemma facing Italians was deciding between "who's going to look after the country better, or who's going to look after my pocket better."
He said it appeared voters held far greater confidence in the ability of Monti and Bersani to fix the economy, while those swayed by appeals to their own finances may be more likely to support Berlusconi.
But he said it appeared that few undecided voters had any faith in Berlusconi's ability to follow through on his pledges, including a recent promise to reverse the property tax.
What are the ramifications of the election for Europe and the wider world?
Improving the fortunes of the world's eighth largest economy is in the interests of Europe, and in turn the global economy.
Italy's woes have alarmed foreign investors. However, financial commentator Nicholas Spiro, managing director of consultancy Spiro Sovereign Strategy, says the European Central Bank's bond-buying program has gone a long way to mitigating investors' concerns about the instability of Italian politics.
Why is political instability so endemic to Italy?
Italy has had more than 60 governments since World War II -- in large part as a by-product of a system designed to prevent the rise of another dictator.
Parties can be formed and make their way on to the political main stage with relative ease -- as witnessed by the rise of Grillo's Five Star Movement, the protest party which was formed in 2009 but in local and regional elections has even outshone Berlusoni's party at times.
Others point to enduringly strong regional identities as part of the recipe for the country's political fluidity.
READ MORE: Italian Elections 2013: Fame di sapere (hunger for knowledge)
Jail officers accused of ordering an inmate beaten
Two Cook County Jail officers overseeing a psychiatric ward ordered two inmates to beat up another inmate who had angered them and then tried to cover it up by claiming the battered victim attempted suicide, prosecutors said Friday.
"This is what happens to you (expletive) when you step out of line. You disrespect us, we disrespect you," prosecutors said the officers announced to the entire tier after the beating last February.
Delphia Sawyer, 31, and Pamela Bruce, 30, both six-year veterans with the sheriff's office, were charged with official misconduct, obstructing justice, perjury and mob action. Judge Edward Harmening set bail at $50,000 each and ordered them to turn over any firearms.
A photograph taken of the victim, Kyle Pillischafske, on the day after shows he sustained two black eyes and severe swelling on his face. Prosecutors said the damage took place despite the officers yelling for the two inmates to hit Pillischafske with "body shots" so his injuries would be less visible.
The inmate's mother, Morgan Pillischafske, of Mount Prospect, told the Tribune that she was shocked when she learned about the beating and later heard from her son that he thought he was going to die. He had been doing well there, receiving treatment for his bipolar disorder while awaiting trial on an aggravated battery charge, she said.
"Not only did these guards mistreat Kyle, they took advantage of two other inmates as well, all because they were supposedly called a name," she said Friday in a telephone interview. "You have to have thicker skin than that."
Sawyer and Bruce were working the 3 to 11 p.m. shift in the psychiatric tier in maximum-security Division 10 when inmates tried to light a makeshift cigarette in an electrical outlet, sparking a small fire and cutting power to part of the tier, Assistant State's Attorney Nicholas Trutenko said.
The officers, believing Pillischafske was partly to blame, confronted him, prompting a heated exchange, the prosecutor said.
The officers instructed "two of the larger inmates" to go into his cell and beat him, Trutenko said.
Sawyer and Bruce are alleged to have stood watch while the two inmates struck Pillischafske in the face and head. They then joined in, hitting him with their radios and kicking him in the side, the prosecutor said.
To cover up their misconduct, the officers misled a supervisor to believe that Pillischafske hurt himself by banging his head against a shower wall during a suicide attempt, the charges alleged.
The two later lied repeatedly to a grand jury investigating the beating, Trutenko said.
After their arrest Thursday, both officers were stripped of police powers and suspended with pay pending an internal disciplinary hearing next week, said Frank Bilecki, the sheriff's spokesman.
A lawsuit filed by Pillischafske against the officers, the county and Sheriff Tom Dart is pending in federal court.
Bruce, of Chicago, and Sawyer, of Justice, are both married mothers of two and have no criminal records or disciplinary history with the Sheriff's Department, according to their attorneys.
Peter Hickey, Sawyer's attorney, noted she was in charge of a very volatile tier of "psychiatrically disturbed patients."
"These aren't choir boys from St. Patrick's parish," Hickey told the judge.
Pillischafske, now 19, was jailed at the time of the beating on a charge he intentionally caused a car crash in a botched suicide attempt, injuring a woman in the other car. He pleaded guilty a few weeks later to aggravated battery and was sentenced to probation, court records show.
Pillischafske's mother said despite her son's mental health issues, he is a "pretty likable kid" who loves music, plays bass guitar and is hoping to go to college.
"Kyle needs to move on from this," she said. "The whole thing was very unfortunate."
jmeisner@tribune.com
Abe vows to revive Japanese economy, sees no escalation with China
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Americans on Friday "I am back and so is Japan" and vowed to get the world's third biggest economy growing again and to do more to bolster security and the rule of law in an Asia roiled by territorial disputes.
Abe had firm words for China in a policy speech to a top Washington think-tank, but also tempered his remarks by saying he had no desire to escalate a row over islets in the East China Sea that Tokyo controls and Beijing claims.
"No nation should make any miscalculation about firmness of our resolve. No one should ever doubt the robustness of the Japan-U.S. alliance," he told the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"At the same time, I have absolutely no intention to climb up the escalation ladder," Abe said in a speech in English.
After meeting U.S. President Barack Obama on his first trip to Washington since taking office in December in a rare comeback to Japan's top job, he said he told Obama that Tokyo would handle the islands issue "in a calm manner."
"We will continue to do so and we have always done so," he said through a translator, while sitting next to Obama in the White House Oval Office.
Tension surged in 2012, raising fears of an unintended military incident near the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Washington says the islets fall under a U.S.-Japan security pact, but it is eager to avoid a clash in the region.
Abe said he and Obama "agreed that we have to work together to maintain the freedom of the seas and also that we would have to create a region which is governed based not on force but based on an international law."
Abe, whose troubled first term ended after just one year when he abruptly quit in 2007, has vowed to revive Japan's economy with a mix of hyper-easy monetary policy, big spending, and structural reform. The hawkish leader is also boosting Japan's defense spending for the first time in 11 years.
"Japan is not, and will never be, a tier-two country," Abe said in his speech. "So today ... I make a pledge. I will bring back a strong Japan, strong enough to do even more good for the betterment of the world."
'ABENOMICS' TO BOOST TRADE
The Japanese leader stressed that his "Abenomics" recipe would be good for the United States, China and other trading partners.
"Soon, Japan will export more, but it will import more as well," Abe said in the speech. "The U.S. will be the first to benefit, followed by China, India, Indonesia and so on."
Abe said Obama welcomed his economic policy, while Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said the two leaders did not discuss currencies, in a sign that the U.S. does not oppose "Abenomics" despite concern that Japan is weakening its currency to export its way out of recession.
The United States and Japan agreed language during Abe's visit that could set the stage for Tokyo to join negotiations soon on a U.S.-led regional free trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
In a carefully worded statement following the meeting between Obama and Abe, the two countries reaffirmed that "all goods would be subject to negotiations if Japan joins the talks with the United States and 10 other countries.
At the same time, the statement envisions a possible outcome where the United States could maintain tariffs on Japanese automobiles and Japan could still protect its rice sector.
"Recognizing that both countries have bilateral trade sensitivities, such as certain agricultural products for Japan and certain manufactured products for the United States, the two governments confirm that, as the final outcome will be determined during the negotiations, it is not required to make a prior commitment to unilaterally eliminate all tariffs upon joining the TPP negotiations," the statement said.
Abe repeated that Japan would not provide any aid for North Korea unless it abandoned its nuclear and missile programs and released Japanese citizens abducted decades ago to help train spies.
Pyongyang admitted in 2002 that its agents had kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s. Five have been sent home, but Japan wants better information about eight who Pyongyang says are dead and others Tokyo believes were also kidnapped.
Abe also said he hoped to have a meeting with new Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who takes over as president next month, and would dispatch Finance Minister Taro Aso to attend the inauguration of incoming South Korean President Park Geun-hye next week.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Doug Palmer; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Paul Simao)
European shares, euro rebound from steep losses
LONDON (Reuters) - European shares and the euro on bounced off their previous session's steep falls early on Friday despite unease over European economic forecasts, ECB crisis loan repayment data and Italian elections at the weekend.
The German Ifo business climate indicator for February rose to 107.4 from 104.2, helping to lift the mood after Thursday's disappointing PMI data rattled markets.
It will be followed by new European Commission economic forecasts at 1000 GMT which should show whether there are any signs of recovery outside of Germany. They will also show how far off-track the likes of Spain, France and Portugal are from meeting their deficit targets this year.
European shares on the FTSEurofirst 300 <.fteu3> rose 0.7 percent to recoup some of Thursday's 1.5 percent slump, albeit remaining on course for a third weekly loss in four.
London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> were up 0.7, 1.1 and 0.6 percent respectively, helping lift MSCI's world share index <.miwd00000pus> 0.2 percent as markets recovered from 2013 lows.
"The markets took a heavy dive earlier this week, but they're showing signs of a partial recovery," said Berkeley Futures associate director Richard Griffiths.
"The fact that traders are still buying on the dips shows that they're hoping that the global economic recovery will continue, although it will take time."
In the currency market, the euro extended gains after the German data, climbing 0.3 percent to just above $1.32 following its one percent drop this week.
The dollar <.dxy> was broadly lower, as weak data helped dampen talk of the Federal Reserve winding down its support after its minutes this week showed a minority of its members were questioning the impact of its measures.
Other than the economy, the focus will be on the weekend election in Italy. There is raft of Italian data due out including inflation and consumer confidence numbers for January.
The European Central Bank will also publish details at around 1100 GMT on how much banks plan to repay of its second batch of crisis loans when they get the first chance to return the money next week.
German Bund futures hovered around four-week highs in early trading at 143.40. Italian elections run the risk of producing a fragmented parliament which could hamper the future government's reform efforts. Bunds are seen holding firm at least until the results come out.
"(The) extension of (the) risk averse environment depends on key event risk, particularly (this) weekend's Italian elections," Credit Agricole said in a note.
(Additional reporting by Thuy Ong in Sydney and Florence Tan and Rujun Shen in Singapore; editing by John Mair and Philippa Fletcher)
4 Things to Know About Gina McCarthy, Obama’s Pick to Head EPA
Title Post: 4 Things to Know About Gina McCarthy, Obama’s Pick to Head EPA
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Link To Post : 4 Things to Know About Gina McCarthy, Obama’s Pick to Head EPA
Obama a marker on post-racial path
Donna Brazile says Black History Month is a time to note crossroads the nation has faced.
Donna Brazile: Black History Month themed crossroads, "tied to two pivotal U.S. events
Emancipation Proclamation, March on Washington were crossroads, she says
She says crossroad decisions are threaded along U.S. road to post-racial society
Brazile: We're not there yet, but re-election of Obama a harbinger
Editor's note: Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor and a Democratic strategist, is vice chairwoman for voter registration and participation at the Democratic National Committee. She is a nationally syndicated columnist, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and author of "Cooking with Grease." She was manager for the Gore-Lieberman presidential campaign in 2000.
(CNN) -- Politicians and historians love to use the word "crossroads."
It's become as American, and cliched, as "Mom's apple pie." The historian Shelby Foote, wrote, "The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things. ... It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads."
I have been thinking about the word, because this year's Black History Month theme is "At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality: The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington." Two pivotal events that shaped modern American history.
A "crossroads" is literally the intersection of two or more roads -- two or more paths to get to the same place. Metaphorically, it refers to the place -- the moment -- of a critical decision. Shall we go forward together? Shall we separate? Shall we fight?
We mark history's crossroads not by road signs but by the documents that identify them. The Declaration of Independence is certainly one. Who has not memorized the opening of the second paragraph? "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Political philosopher John Locke's original term was, "Life, liberty, and property." Thomas Jefferson borrowed the phrase, changing "property" to "the pursuit of happiness." He understood that "happiness" -- being significant -- was more important than property, and that a "right to property" too often meant a "right" to own someone else, i.e. slavery.
Locke rejected the "divine right of kings." He argued instead that God invested each person with an innate equality -- the right to be on this Earth and to be free -- free to pursue dreams. On the way to his first inauguration, Abraham Lincoln stopped at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to celebrate Washington's birthday. He told the assembled crowd, "I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence."
Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 was another crossroads, one that required Lincoln, and the nation, to walk a long road of personal and national growth. "All men are created equal" had to take on a deeper meaning. Frederick Douglass, one of Lincoln's "guides" on his journey, later said the quality he most admired in Lincoln was his political courage.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis once acknowledged to an Atlantic Monthly writer that Lincoln's Emancipation resulted in the self-liberation of "two millions of our slaves."
A journey of a hundred years brought us to another crossroads -- the 1963 March on Washington. While "property in man" no longer existed, millions of Americans were unable to pursue their dream, or to live with full equality.
James Farmer, a leading civil rights activist who was in jail in my home state of Louisiana, sent a message to the quarter-million in attendance that summer day, saying his people would not be free "until the dogs stop biting us in the South and the rats stop biting us in the North."
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, like the Declaration, resonates. It echoes through the years in the heartbeats of Americans. The "pursuit of happiness" is more than pleasure, for we often take great pains in the pursuit. Rather, the pursuit of happiness is the freedom to pursue our dreams, to make meaning in and find the unique significance of our lives.
That is something we can only do when, in the bonds of fellowship and shared history, we nurture our dreams. The caged bird sings of freedom, but the freed bird sings of dreams. Today, we are 150 years further down the road to realizing the American creed of equality and freedom. We reached a crossroads in 2008 with the election of our first African-American president. We chose to continue on the road to a "post-racial" society.
We're not there yet. But in 2012, when we could have chosen to travel down another road, one that led to further economic inequality, we chose instead to continue the realization of equality and freedom, and to the unfettered pursuit of dreams for each American.
In some ways, the re-election of President Obama is more significant than his election four years ago. I say this not because I'm a Democrat, but because this time, the dog-whistles of racism were called out and condemned by people of faith and goodwill on both sides of the aisle.
During the next four years, we'll come to more crossroads. I pray, and believe, we will take the road to freedom and equality for each child, man and woman in America.
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Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Donna Brazile.
Storm begins to coat Chicago area with snow
A tear drops from the eye of DePaul University student Sam Henning as she is hit by a stiff breeze on West Wacker Drive. Tears protest eyes from drying out in cold, windy weather. (John J. Kim, Chicago Tribune /February 19, 2013)
12:51 a.m. CST, February 22, 2013
Between and inch-and-a-half and two-and-a-half inches of snow has fallen across much of the Chicago region, though the snow is expected to turn to freezing drizzle in the next couple hours.
Meteorologists have scaled back their predictions on snow fall totals from the storm, though.
Illinois State Police described conditions as "horrible" and have responded to about 15 crashes already.
State Police are in a "snow plan" and aren't responding to accidents without injuries - those are supposed to be reported later.
"It will be tapering off from the south in the next couple hours, possibly some freezing drizzle across whole area," said Mark Ratzer, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. "We may end up coming in a little less."
The city of Chicago has sent 199 plows to work clearing main thoroughfares, according to the streets and sanitation department.
Check back for more information.
chicagobreaking@tribune.com
Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking
Syrian opposition says Assad cannot be part of deal
CAIRO (Reuters) - The opposition Syrian National Coalition is willing to negotiate a peace deal to end the country's civil war but President Bashar al-Assad must step down and cannot be a party to any settlement, members agreed after debating a controversial initiative by their president.
The meeting of the 70-member Western, Arab and Turkish-backed coalition began on Thursday before Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem is due for talks in Moscow, one of Assad's last foreign allies, and as U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi renews efforts for a deal.
After an angry late night session in which coalition president Moaz Alkhatib came under strong criticism from Islamist and liberal members alike for proposing talks with Assad's government without setting what they described as clear goals, the coalition adopted a political document that demands Assad's removal and trial for the bloodshed, members said.
A draft document seen by Reuters that was circulated for debate said Assad cannot be party to any political solution and has to be tried, but did not directly call for his removal.
"We have adopted the political document that sets the parameters for any talks. The main addition to the draft is a clause about the necessity of Assad stepping step down," said Abdelbasset Sida, a member of the coalition's 12 member politburo who has criticized Alkhatib for acting alone.
"We removed a clause about a need for Russian and U.S. involvement in any talks and added that the coalition's leadership has to be consulted before launching any future initiatives," he added.
Still, the agreement marked a softening of tone by the coalition because previously it had insisted that Assad must step down before any talks with his government could begin.
In an indication that Syria's strongman remains defiant, Brahimi said Assad had told him he will remain president until his term ends in 2014 and then run for re-election.
Brahimi told al-Arabiya television he wants to see a transitional government formed in Syria that would not answer to any higher authority and lasts until U.N.-supervised elections take place in the country.
"I am of the view that U.N. peacekeepers should come to Syria as happened in other countries," Brahimi said.
BOMB, AIR STRIKES
The opposition front convened in Cairo on a day when a car bomb jolted central Damascus, killing 53 people, wounding 200 and incinerating cars on a busy highway close to the Russian Embassy and offices of the ruling Baath Party.
Syrian state television blamed the suicide blast on "terrorists". Central Damascus has been relatively insulated from the 23-month conflict that has killed around 70,000 people, but the bloodshed has shattered suburbs around the capital.
In the southern city of Deraa near the border with Jordan, activists said warplanes bombed the old quarter for the first time since March 2011, when the town set in a wheat-growing plain rose up against Assad, starting a national revolt.
A rebel officer in the Tawheed al-Janoub brigade which led an offensive this week in Deraa said there were at least five air strikes on Thursday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 18 people were killed, including eight rebel fighters.
Coalition member Munther Makhos, who was forced into exile in the 1970s for his opposition to Assad's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, said supplies from Iran and Russia were giving government forces an awesome firepower advantage.
"It would be surreal to imagine that a political solution is possible. Bashar al-Assad will not send his deputy to negotiate his removal. But we are keeping the door open," Makhos said.
Makhos is the only Alawite in the Islamist-dominated coalition. The Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam which accounts for about 10 percent of Syria's population but makes up most of the intelligence apparatus and dominates the army and the political system, has generally remained behind Assad.
With Alawites feeling increasingly threatened by a violent Sunni backlash, Alkhatib, a cleric from Damascus who played a role in the peaceful protest movement against Assad at the beginning of the uprising in 2011, has been calling on Alawites to join the revolution, saying their participation will help preserve the social fabric of the country.
Alkhatib's supporters say the initiative has popular support inside Syria from people who want to see a peaceful departure of Assad and a halt to the war that has increasingly pitted his fellow Alawites against Syria's Sunni Muslim majority.
But rebel fighters on the ground, over whom Alkhatib has little control, are generally against the proposal.
The Syrian Islamic Liberation Front, which represents armed brigades, said in a statement it was opposed to Alkhatib's initiative because it ignored the revolt's goal of "the downfall of the regime and all its symbols".
"We are demanding his accountability for the bloodshed and destruction he has wreaked. I think the message is clear enough," said veteran opposition campaigner Walid al-Bunni, who supports Alkhatib.
Alkhatib formulated the initiative in broad terms last month after talks with the Russian and Iranian foreign ministers in Munich but without consulting the coalition, catching the umbrella organization by surprise.
Among Alkhatib's critics is the Muslim Brotherhood, the only organized group in the political opposition.
A Brotherhood source said the group will not scuttle the proposal because it was confident Assad is not interested in a negotiated exit, which could help convince the international community to support the armed struggle for his removal.
"Russia is key," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We are showing the international community that we are willing to take criticism from the street but the problem is Assad and his inner circle. They do not want to leave."
PLAY FOR RUSSIA
Russia hopes Alkhatib will visit soon in search of a breakthrough. Bunni said Alkhatib would not go to Moscow without the coalition's approval and that he would not be there at the same time as Moualem.
"In my opinion Alkhatib should not go to Moscow until Russia stops sending arms shipments to the Assad regime," Bunni said.
Formal backing by the coalition for Alkhatib's initiative gives it more weight internationally and undermines Assad supporters' argument that the opposition is too divided to be considered a serious player, opposition sources said.
Coalition members and diplomats based in the region said Brahimi asked Alkhatib in Cairo last week to seek full coalition backing for his plan, which resembles the U.N. envoy's own ideas for a negotiated settlement.
One diplomat in contact with the opposition and the United Nations had said a coalition approval of Alkhatib's initiative could help change the position of Russia, which has blocked several United Nations Security Council resolutions on Syria.
The diplomat said only a U.N. resolution could force Assad to the negotiating table, and a U.N. "stabilization force" may still be needed to prevent an all-out slide into a civil war.
"Brahimi has little hope that Assad will agree to any serious talks," the diplomat said. "Differences are narrowing between the United States and Russia about Syria but Moscow remains the main obstacle for Security Council action."
(Editing by Paul Taylor and Mohammad Zargham)
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South Coast Rifle Association Council meeting, 15 August 1900
Topic: MilitiaRC - NSW
South Coast Rifle Association Council
Meeting, 15 August 1900
South Coast Rifle Association 400 yard range on Kendall's Beach.
[From: Town and Country Journal, 23 June 1900, p. 26.]
The following item was extracted from the Town and Country Journal, 25 August 1900, p. 54.
RIFLE SHOOTING.
The first meeting for the year of the South Coast Rifle Association's Council was held at Kiama on August 15, Major H. H. Honey presiding, and there being also present: Lieutenant Stevensen, Sergeant Bales and G. Knight (Kiama) ; Messrs. G. Lindsay and C. W Prott (Wollongong); and Mr. J. Sharpe (Gerringong). The treasurer's statement showed a credit balance of £217, which, considering the difficulties surrounding a first prize meeting, is most satisfactory. The membership of the association (915) is a record for a provincial association, and there was also a record number of competitors at the prize meeting. Major Honey was elected chairman for the year, and Lieutenant Stevensen hon. treasurer. The dates for the next prize meeting were fixed for March 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23, 1901. The association decided to place £200 at fixed deposit in the Government Savings Bank. It was resolved to at once apply to the Minister for Defence for the current year's grant of £250, and to ask him to push on with the resumption of the land for the range. Mr. R. O. Kendall and Miss C. Kendal were granted an honorarium of £5 for allowing the association to proceed with a prize meeting before the land was resumed.
The Coolamon Rifle Club promises to be a success, and already about 40 persons have signified their intention joining, including many of the leading men of the town.
1. The South Coast Rifle Association Council was formed at Kiama in June 1899.
2. For information about C. W Prott (Wollongong), see:
Charles William Prott, 1851 - 1926
3. Coolamon Rifle Club was eventually formed on 27 August 1900, and affiliated with “G” Company, 1st Infantry Regiment which was located at Wagga Wagga.
New South Wales Rifles Clubs, 1893 - 1901
New South Wales Rifles Clubs
Citation: South Coast Rifle Association Council meeting, 15 August 1900
Updated: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 10:42 AM EADT
Order Of Battle of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, September 1918, Part 4, XXI CORPS
Topic: AIF & MEF & EEF
Order Of Battle of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, September 1918
Part 4, XXI CORPS
As part of the Official British War History of the Great War, Captain Cyril Falls was commissioned to produce a commentary on the Sinai, Palestine and Syrian operations that took place. In 1930, his finished work, Military Operations Egypt and Palestine from June 1917 to the end of the war, produced in two parts, was published in London. The book included Appendix 2 which specifically detailed the Order Of Battle of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, October 1917 and is extracted below. Falls makes the comment that this Order of Battle was not as comprehensive as that produced in the earlier volume.
Falls, C, Military Operations Egypt and Palestine from June 1917 to the end of the war, Part II, London, 1930, Appendix 3 pp. 669 - 672:
XXI CORPS.
G.O.C. -
Lieut. General Sir E. S. Bulfin, K.C.B., C.V.O.
Br.-General, General Staff. -
Br. General H. F. Salt, D.S.O.
Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster General -
Br. General St. G. B. Armstrong.
G.O.C. Royal Artillery -
Br. General H. A. D. Simpson Baikie, C.B., C.M.G.
Chief Engineer -
Br. General R. P. T. Hawksley, D.S.O.
3rd (Lahore) Division.
Major-General A. R. Hoskins, C.M.G., D.S.O.
7th Brigade
Br. General S. R. Davidson, C.M.G.
1/Connaught Rangers.
27th Punjabis.
2/7th Gurkha Rifles.
91st Punjabis.
Br. General S. M. Edwardes, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.
1/Manchester Regt.
59th Scinde Rifles (F.F.).
47th Sikhs.
2/124th Baluchistan Infantry.
Br. General C. C. Luard, C.M.G.
2/Dorsetshire Regt.
93rd Infantry.
1/1st Gurkha Rifles.
105th Mahratta L.I.
IV Brigade R.F.A. (7th, 14th, B/69th Btys.).
VIII Brigade R.F.A. (372nd, 373rd, and 428th Btys.).
LIII Brigade R.F.A. (66th, 374th, and 430th Btys.).
65th Field Coy. R.E.
20th and 21st Coys. Sappers and Miners.
1/34th Sikh Pioneers.
7th (Meerut) or "(Indian)" Division.
Major General Sir V. B. Fane, K.C.I.E., C.B.
19th Brigade
Br. General G. A. Weir, D.S.O.
1/Seaforth Highlanders.
92nd Punjabis.
125th Napier's Rifles.
21st Brigade
Br. General A. G. Kemball.
2/R. Highlanders.
1st Guides Infantry.
28th Brigade (F.F.)
Br. General C. H. Davies, C.M.G., D.S.O.
2/Leicestershire Regt.
53rd Sikhs (F.F.).
51st Sikhs (F.F.).
56th Punjabi Rifles (F.F.).
261st Brigade R.F.A. ("A," "B," and "C" Btys.).
262nd Brigade R.F.A. ("A," "B," and 438th Btys.).
264th Brigade R.F.A. (422nd, 423rd, and "C" Btys.).
522nd Field Coy. R.E. 3rd and 4th Coys. Sappers and Miners.
121st Pioneers.
54th (East Anglian) Division.
Major General S. W. Hare, C.B.
161st Brigade
Br. General H. B. H. Orpen-Palmer, D.S.O.
1/4th Essex Regt.
162nd Brigade
Br. General A. Mudge, C.M.G.
1/5th Bedfordshire Regt.
1/10th London Regt.
1/4th Northamptonshire Regt.
163rd Brigade
G.O.C. - Br. General A. J. McNeill, D.S.O.
1/4th Norfolk Regt.
1/5th Suffolk Regt.
1/8th Hampshire Regt.
Artillery -
270th Brigade R.F.A. ("A" and "C" Btys.).
271st Brigade R.F.A. ("A" and "B" Btys.).
272nd Brigade R.F.A. ("B" and "C" Btys.).
Engineers -
484th, 486th, 495th Field Coys. R.E.
60th Division.
Major General J. S. M. Shea, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.
179th Brigade
Br. General E. T. Humphreys, D.S.O.
2/19th Punjabis.
3/151st Punjabi Rifles.
2/127th Baluchi L.I.
Br. General C. F. Watson, C.M.G., D.S.O.
2nd Guides Infantry.
1/50th Kumaon Rifles.
Br. General E. C. Da Costa, C.M.G., D.S.O.
2/22nd London Regt.
2/97th Deccan Infantry
130th Baluchis.
2/152nd Indian Infantry.
302nd Brigade R.F.A. (" A," " B," and 413th Btys.).
303rd Brigade R.F.A. ("A," "B," and "C" Btys.).
519th and 521st Field Coys. R.E.
No. 1 Coy. Sappers and Miners.
2/107th Pioneers.
G.O.C. –
Major General P. C. Palin, C. B., C.M.G.
Br. Br. General H. J. Huddleston, C.M.G., D.S.O., M.C.
1/4th Wiltshire Regt.
2/3rd Gurkha Rifles.
3rd Kashmir I.S. Infantry.
Br. General the Hon. E. M. Colston, C.M.G., D.S.O., M.V.O.
1/5th Somerset L.I.
2/154th Indian Infantry.
Br. General C. A. H. Maclean, D.S.O.
1/4th Duke of Cornwall's L.I.
58th Vaughan's Rifles (F.F.).
123rd Outram's Rifles.
XXXVII Brigade R.F.A. (389th 390th, and 405th Btys.).
172nd Brigade R.F.A. (391st, 392nd, and 406th Btys.).
1st S. African F.A. Brigade ("A," "B," and "C" Btys.).
496th Field Coy. R.E., 10th and 16th Coys. Sappers and Miners.
2/32nd Sikh Pioneers.
Détachement Français de Palestine et Syrie.
[Note: Under the orders of G.O.C. 54th Division.]
Commander -
Colonel P, de Piépape, C.B.
Régiment de Marche de Tirailleurs
7me Bn. 1er Tirailleurs Algériens.
9me Bn. 2me Tirailleurs Algériens.
Régiment de Marche de la Légion d'Orient
1 er and 2me Bns. Arméniens.
Also 1 Territorial Bn., 1 Coy. Syrians, 1 Sqdn. dismounted Spahis.
1 x 80-mm., 1 x 75-mm., and 1 x 65-mm. (mountain) Btys.
Corps Troops.
Mounted Troops -
Composite Regt.
1 Sqdn. Duke of Lancs. Yeo.,
2 Sqdns. 1/1st Herts. Yeo.
XCV Brigade R.G.A. (181st Heavy Bty., 304th, 314th, 383rd, and 422nd Siege Btys.) And 1 section captured 150-mm. howitzers.
XCVI Brigade R.G.A. (189th and 202nd Heavy Btys., 378th and 394th Siege Btys.)
100th Brigade R.G.A. (15th Heavy Bty., 134th and 334th Siege Btys., 1 Section [1 x 6-in. gun] 43rd Siege Bty., 1 Section
300th Siege Bty.). Also 1 improvised 4.7-in. battery.
102nd Brigade R.G.A. (91st Heavy Bty., 209th, 380th, 440th Siege Btys., 1 Section [1 6-in. gun] 43rd Siege Bty., 1 Section 300th Siege Bty. )
VIII Mountain Brigade R.G.A. (11th [3.7-in. hows.], 13th [3.7-in. hows.], and 17th [2.75-in.] Btys.).
Note: Attached 54th Division on the 19th September, and 7th Division on the 20th.
IX Mountain Brigade R.G.A. (10th [3.7-in. hows.], 12th [3.7-in. hows.], and 16th [2.75-in.] Btys.).
Note: Attached 54th Division on the 19th September, and 3rd Division on the 20th.
Previous: Order Of Battle of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, September 1918, Part 3, XX CORPS
Next: Order Of Battle of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, September 1918, Part 5, Chaytor's Force
AIF & MEF & EEF, Contents
AIF, MEF and the EEF
Citation: Order Of Battle of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, September 1918, Part 4, XXI CORPS
Updated: Saturday, 21 November 2009 5:50 AM EAST
Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Formation
Egyptian Expeditionary Force
The following is extracted from the seminal work of Major A. F. Becke, R.F.A. (Retired), Hon. M.A. (Oxon.) which now is the Great War British standard reference called: History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence: Order Of Battle, Part 4, the Army Council, G.H.Q.s, Armies, and Corps, 1914-1918, published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1945, from pp. 33 - 34.
This entry is presented "as is". A table of abbreviations employed is found at the commencement of this section. Additionally, where necessary regarding Becke's understanding of Australian units is inaccurate, an explanatory note is added.
In August, 1914, Turkey was still regarded by Egypt as the suzerain power, although for some years there had been a British occupation of the country. When war broke out between England and Germany on the 4th August [Two days previously Germany and Turkey signed an offensive and defensive treaty.] the British Force in Egypt was 1 Cavalry Regiment, 1 R.H.A. Battery, 1 Mountain Battery, R.G.A., 1 Field Company R.E., 4 Infantry Battalions, and detachments of A.S.C., R.A.M.C., A.V.C., A.O.C., and Military Mounted Police. [The units were: 3/Dragoon Gds., "T" Battery (XI Bde. R.H.A.), No. 7 Mtn. Bty. R.G.A., No. 2 Fd. Coy. R.E., 2/Devon., 1/Worc., 2/North'n., and 2/Gordon H. Since 30 October 1912 the Force in Egypt had been commanded by Major-General Hon. J. H. G. Byng. On 8 September 1914 Lieut.-General Sir John G. Maxwell took over command of the Force in Egypt and Maj.-Gen. Byng then returned to England, and proceeded to raise the 3rd Cavalry Division at Ludgershall; this Cavalry Division disembarked at Ostend on 8 October 1914.] In addition, one Battalion [1/Suffolk Regt.] and detachments of R.G.A., A.S.C., and R.A.M.C. were stationed at Khartoum, under the command of General Sir F. R. Wingate, Governor-General of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. This Battalion furnished half-a-company to garrison Cyprus.
Relations with Turkey soon became strained, and on the 30th October the Allies presented an ultimatum to her, and at the same time severed diplomatic relations. On the 5th November a formal declaration of war followed.
The Khedive of Egypt was openly pro-Turk, and he had been in Turkey since August, 1914. In order to secure Egypt and retain control over the all-important Suez Canal, the British Government deposed the Khedive on the 18th December, declared a protectorate over Egypt, and raised the Khedive's Uncle to the throne, with the title of Sultan of Egypt. At the same time the title of the British Representative was changed from Consul-General to High Commissioner.
Briefly, this was the sequence of events which led, as troops became available, to the gradual building-up of a considerable expeditionary force in this near-eastern theatre of war, and led in turn to Egypt, Sinai, and eventually Palestine and Syria becoming battle-grounds in the Great War.
At the end of August the Egyptian Camel Corps was moved to the eastern boundary to cover the Suez Canal. When early in September the Lahore Division passed through the Canal on its way from India to France it dropped the III Mountain Artillery Brigade and the Sirhind Infantry Brigade to reinforce the garrison of the Canal Zone. It became possible, therefore, to release the seasoned regular units which had formed the peacetime garrison, and they all returned to England and joined new divisions, which were assembling there, prior to reinforcing the B.E.F. on the Western Front. [3/Dgn. Gds. joined 3rd Cavalry Division; "T" R.H.A. and 2/Gordon H. the 7th Division; 2nd Fd. Coy. R.E., 2/Devon., 1/Worc., and 2/North'n. the 8th Division; and the 1/Suffolk the 28th Division.] On the 25th September, 42nd (East Lancashire) T.F. Division [Received the number 42nd on 26 May 1915.] reached Alexandria. The division was sent to Egypt for two reasons: to strengthen the garrison and to complete its war-training. Some six weeks later the Indian troops allocated for the defence of Egypt began to disembark at Suez : Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade, Bikanir Camel Corps Lucknow Infantry Brigade (from Lucknow Division), and the Imperial Service Infantry Brigade. This released the Sirhind Infantry Brigade, which left to rejoin the Lahore Division in France. The Indian garrison in Egypt was now organized in two divisions (10th & 11th Indian), and the defence of the Canal was entrusted to them and the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade, together with 3 mountain batteries from India, two field artillery brigades of the 42nd Division, a pack-gun battery from the Egyptian Army, and the guns of those English and French warships which were anchored in the canal to serve as floating batteries. Early in December a partly trained Australian and New Zealand contingent also reached Egypt and reinforced the hurriedly assembled garrison.
Meanwhile, during November, 1914, the Turks occupied el 'Arish (in Sinai), and the immediate threat to the Canal line was only too clear ; whilst in Southern Arabia the opposing forces had already clashed. From this time onwards the British forces which were assembled in Egypt were continuously engaged: at first in localized operations to cover that country and the Canal Zone; then, in 1917, in delivering those blows which, by the end of the following year, resulted in Turkey suing for peace.
AIF and the EEF
Citation: Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Formation
Updated: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 7:39 PM EADT
Order Of Battle of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, September 1918, Part 5, Chaytor's Force
Part 5, Chaytor's Force
Falls, C, Military Operations Egypt and Palestine from June 1917 to the end of the war, Part II, London, 1930, Appendix 3 p. 673:
Chaytor's Force.
Major-General Sir E. W. C. Chaytor, K.C.M.G., C.B.
(With Staff of A. and N.Z. Mounted Division.)
Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division.
1st Australian Light Horse Brigade
Br. General C. F. Cox, C.B.
1st Regt. A.L.H.
2nd Regt. A.L.H.
3rd Regt. A.L.H.
2nd Australian Light Horse Brigade
Br. General G. de L. Ryrie, C.M.G.
5th Regt. A.L.H.
New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade
Br. General W. Meldrum, C.B., D.S.O.
Auckland M.R. Regt.
Canterbury M.R. Regt.
Wellington M.R. Regt.
XVIII Brigade R.H.A. (Inverness, Ayr, and Somerset Btys.).
A. and N.Z. Field Sqdn.
20th Indian Brigade
Br. General E. R. B. Murray.
Alwar I.S. Infantry.
Patiala I.S. Infantry.
Gwalior I.S. Infantry.
38/R. Fusiliers.
1/British West Indies Regt.
75th Bty. R.F.A.,
[Note: From 10th Divisional Artillery.].
29th and 32nd (2.75-in.) Indian Mountain Btys..
195th Heavy Bty. R.G.A.,
[Note: Also 2 Sections captured 75-mm. guns and 1 Section 150-mm. howitzers.].
Previous: Order Of Battle of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, September 1918, Part 4, XXI CORPS
Next: Order Of Battle of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, September 1918, Part 6, General Headquarters Troops
Citation: Order Of Battle of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, September 1918, Part 5, Chaytor's Force
Updated: Monday, 20 July 2009 11:57 AM EADT
The Rifle Club Movement, Contents
Topic: MilitiaRC - Rifle Clubs
The Rifle Club Movement
While Australia was with the winning side toward the closure of the South African War, one element of this war becomes remarkably clear in the development of Australian military policy, the ability of the individual Boer as a guerrilla fighter in resisting the British war machine. Seeing that Australia suffered analogous conditions as that of the Boers, viz., little money for defence, low population numbers and vast areas to defend; it was only natural to take the successful strategies from the war and apply it to the local conditions. The Commonwealth impetus for funding the Rifle Club Movement came from this conflict.
Diamond Jubilee, 1897, Phil Fargher's Diary
Diamond Jubilee, 1897, Phil Fargher's Experience
A letter from Colonel JC Hoad, DAG seeking to establish a uniform standard of Australian rifle shooting, 26 March 1902
A speech by Field Marshal Lord Roberts at Bisley arguing for military support of rifle clubs, July 1902
The Rifle Club Movement: A DISTINCT FACTOR IN THE DEFENCE PROBLEM.
Rifle Club Construction Works - 1910 Military Order No. 9, p. 18
Rifle Clubs, AIF Attestation Papers, Question 11
Philip Fargher
Australian Rifle Clubs
The Australian Militia, 1899 - 1920
Citation: The Rifle Club Movement, Contents
Updated: Monday, 22 June 2009 12:32 AM EADT
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Gable: Global Climate Change, Cities, and the Presidential Campaign
Global Climate Change, Cities, and the Presidential Campaign
By Alex Gable
Perhaps especially if you live in a city with its urban heat islands hotter than surrounding areas, on or near a coast, underneath even a thin blanket of smog, you need to be concerned about the commentary in U.S. politics on the subject of climate change.
Summers in the city are already hot – but according to the EPA, average global temperatures are expected to increase from 0.5°F to 8.6°F by 2100, with the lower end representing the most aggressive mitigation efforts. Average sea levels are expected to rise anywhere from approximately 4 inches to 5 feet by 2100, depending on mitigation levels. Such sea levels could flood parts of many coastal cities, perhaps even submerging a few.
If that isn’t concerning, then consider that pollution will continue to increase, leading to more respiratory problems among humans, especially in cities. There will be an increase in severity and frequency of severe weather events, including hurricanes like Sandy, which did enormous damage to New York City, and droughts at levels 2 and 3, which the usually wet areas of the Northeast are facing this year.
Add the increasing frequency of fires like those around San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and city life could begin to look like hell on earth because of climate change. The devastation will be most prominent in and around cities, where there are high densities of very diverse populations of humans, as well as large amounts of pollution already. If you need an example of pollution taking its toll, look at Beijing, Mexico City, New Delhi, and (increasingly) Los Angeles and New York.
According to the 2014 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sea levels have risen by approximately 0.2m, almost 8 inches, since 1900, temperatures have risen approximately 1.0 Celsius, and global carbon dioxide emissions have risen approximately sevenfold. Climate change is happening.
So let’s see what the candidates are saying: In 2012, Donald Trump tweeted, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” Similar skepticism can be seen in his more recent tweets, but since beginning his campaign, Trump has announced more concrete plans for his climate change policy. In a speech to the North Dakota Petroleum Council in May 2016, he said he would “cancel the Paris Climate Agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.” This would not spell a good future for climate change containment efforts.
Hillary Clinton has said that “Climate change is real and we can save our planet while creating millions of good-paying clean energy jobs.” Clinton has proposed plans to combat and mitigate climate change. In 2016, Clinton notes that she “will launch a clean energy challenge to partner with states, cities, and rural America to accelerate clean energy deployment, building efficiency, and clean transportation.”
Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, has expressed an interest in a less-intrusive plan: taxing carbon emissions. He prefers a carbon tax because he believes “that it can accomplish all these things in a very free market way.”
In 2015, President Obama said, “No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.” I’d add that no challenge poses a greater threat to cities than climate change.
Alex is a junior physics major at Ithaca College. He plans to go to graduate school to pursue a degree in astrophysics. He is from Owego, NY. In his free time he likes playing video games with friends when he's not going on hikes and enjoying nature.
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Permanent Link: http://blogs.babson.edu/news/2010/03/27/babson-energy-and-environmental-conference-no-room-to-waste-in-the-future/
News & Announcements Blog / News
Babson Energy and Environmental Conference: No Room To Waste In The Future
By Michael Chmura | March 27, 2010
On the surface, Millipore and Harvest Power don’t have much in common.
Millipore is an international biosciences company that makes laboratory testing equipment. Harvest Power is a young startup that converts food waste in to natural gas and high quality soil products.
Yet, when the CEO/Founders of the two companies took the stage at Knight Auditorium at the Babson Energy and Environmental Conference, it became clear both leaders aim to differentiate by cutting waste.
Martin Madaus, the CEO and founder of Millipore, and Paul Sellew, co-founder and CEO of Harvest Power, were the closing keynote speakers in Babson’s day-long sustainability event. Led by WBUR radio host Tom Ashbrook, both delved into the way their companies have made gains in profitability and corporate social responsibility through eliminating waste.
In Madaus’ case, 70 percent of his company’s products are consumables, which require a lot of energy to manufacture and create a lot of waste when they have reached the end of their useful life. In 2006, he implemented a top-down strategy to cut energy consumption and waste, and expected resistance within his ranks. Instead, Madaus was amazed to find most of his workers were on-board.
“The company wanted to do this, and I didn’t know,” he said.
By 2011, Madaus aims to cut energy use and waste by 20% by targeting manufacturing, facilities and transportation. Though the challenge has been difficult, he said the company is on track in part due to the gains made in the U.S.
Sellew also aims to save electricity and reduce waste by taking full-advantage of the stored solar energy in food waste. Using an anaerobic process, Harvest Energy converts food waste into natural gas, which in turn is converted into electricity, and soil products that can be used on farms, gardens and lawns. His company has opened the first power plant in North America fueled by compost.
Sellew said similar facilities could produce up to 20 percent of the U.S. electricity need if we divert all of our food waste and pulp paper waste away from landfills and into composters.
“If it’s not going to consumption, I think the highest and best use is conversion back into energy and high quality soil products,” Sellew said.
Yet Madaus said the biggest challenge to these initiatives in the U.S. is attitude. While recycling and the green movement became popular in his native Germany back in the ‘70s, “that level of pressure does not exist in the U.S.A… (but) the awareness is increasing now and I think there is an opportunity.”
– Andrew Lightman M’11
Director of Public Relations at Babson College
Select AuthorAffairs, StudentChmura, MichaelHebard, JMiles, EmilyPR, Babson CollegePublic Relations, Babson CollegeRadicioni, Brianna
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İnteresting News
Oil prices to go down – Mexico to open access to fields to private companies from 2015
Mexico has submitted the plan, according to which it will open access to the oil fields to the private companies. They could apply for participation in the projects next year. The authorities hope that the new rules will promote energy boom in the country. Pemex state company will remain the biggest energy company in Mexico, but the period of its monopoly will come to the end.
Private companies will be able to fight for the right to develop both onshore and offshore fields as well shale fields. The Mexican government will put 109 oil blocs to the first round of the tenders. According to the Mexican government, in the next four years it will be able to attract about $50 billion of investments. The shelf of the Gulf of Mexico is the most promising section for oil fields exploration.
It is going to involve big US companies, but Pemex does not extract oil there. ExxonMobil has already welcomed this step.
Mexican company is criticized for a big staff and corruption. During the last decade volume of its oil production decreased by about 1 million barrels to 2.5 million barrels a day. Several years ago Pemex gave leadership in the energy field in the South America to Brazilian Petrobras. Last year Brazilian company had a profit of $141 billion, while Mexican – $123 billion.
LUKOIL expands presence in the Gulf of Mexico
China to invest $5 billion into Mexican Pemex company’s projects
Energy majors look at diverse ways to stay relevant
Why Chevron Is More Successful Than ExxonMobil
Petrobras and Similar Oil Companies Are Struggling. Now What?
Saudi Oil Gambit Moves to Phase Two
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Spirits of Just Men: Mountaineers, Liquor Bosses, and Lawmen in the Moonshine Capital of the World
Home » Spirits of Just Men: Mountaineers, Liquor Bosses, and Lawmen in the Moonshine Capital of the World
Author: Charles D. Thompson, Jr.
Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2011. 269p.
Reviewer: Mercer L. Sullivan | November 2011
This historical study of illegal liquor production in the Appalachians provides a fascinating account of a storied form of illegal enterprise that challenges stereotypes of a marginalized population while bringing a much-needed political economic perspective to the study of crime. In order to account for how Franklin County, Virginia, gained a national reputation during the first half of the 20th Century as "the moonshine capital of the world," the author combines personal reminiscences about his own family with analyses of primary documents from the period and cogent summaries of immigration history and national trends in agricultural development, alcohol regulation, and law enforcement. Though it focuses on moonshining, the book’s larger purpose and considerable achievement is that of portraying a regional culture from the earliest days of its development through its virtual extinction by mid-century as World War II drew the last hold-outs of mountain agriculture into the modern economy and much of the area formerly populated by hardscrabble farmers reverted to leafy woodlands surrounding the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway.
The author begins and ends in overtly personal terms, recounting how he discovered only as adult that his beloved grandfather had been peripherally involved in the moonshine business when he was younger, as a driver for the area’s principal export. Though he toiled all his life on the family farm, he was never able to make ends meet without outside employment such as delivering newspapers well into middle age. Hard as his grandfather worked and as upstanding a citizen in most ways as one could imagine, he was one of the few who managed to hold onto a family farm over the years, as modern agribusiness drove down prices and made the way of life of mountain farmers increasingly untenable. His grandfather held on not just because he worked hard but because he had one of the better pieces of land. He had been able to acquire that land as a young man by risking his life transporting illegal whiskey. On discovering this, the author began to study his area as a serious historian, gradually uncovering the central role of moonshining in that local area over a period of decades.
Though a few local businessmen, corrupt politicians and law enforcement officers raked off most of the considerable profits, the moonshine business was pervasive throughout the area, touching most families directly or indirectly. Most of these families were and remained poverty-stricken. For the vast majority, their ties to moonshine production were only a sideline to the unremitting backbreaking toil of working farms that supplied most of their food but little in the way of cash crops, increasingly little as time went by. They risked their lives and prison terms for the barest minimum of cash to purchase goods in the market economy. For their trouble, they gained a reputation in the nation’s capital as ripe targets for successive Federally initiated law enforcement campaigns to stamp out their illegal activity, first during Prohibition and then subsequently as tax evaders threatening the corporate consolidation of the national liquor industry.
The author arranges much of this story around three criminal trials that drew national attention at the time and were the subject of extensive journalistic coverage. This included a series of magazine articles by the novelist Sherwood Anderson, who had gone to live in the Appalachians in the 1920’s. First came a conspiracy trial in 1935, followed by a jury tampering trial related to the original conspiracy the following year and then by a murder trial for the killing a law enforcement officer who had been suspected of being willing to testify against the ringleaders in the conspiracy trial. Despite many convictions, the man who appears to be have been the chief conspirator, county prosecutor Carter Lee, putative descendent of Robert E. Lee, was himself never convicted. He continued in office and died of natural causes in 1958.
These stories, while highly entertaining and informative, have been told before, by Sherwood Anderson and others. By themselves, they do not justify the present work. They function here as a template for telling a story much more complex than one of whodunit and who ended up taking the rap. This is the story of the history and culture of the region and the way that an isolated regional culture could become the fulcrum of a nation’s struggles with agricultural development and deeply divided attitudes about alcohol production and consumption.
It is the way these aspects of U.S. history emerge through close examination of one mountain county and primary documents from and about a selected handful of its residents that provides the considerable interest of this book for scholars interested in patterns of crime and justice.
After the opening familial reminiscences, the book starts rather ponderously with several repetitions of it’s major theme: that the "illegal spirits" at the center of the notorious trials were in fact produced by "just men" who worked hard, supported their families, cooperated in communal labor, received no government services, and desperately needed the small amount of cash available to them through illegal liquor production and practically no other avenue. The fact that this particular area, rather than many other areas sharing similar conditions, gained the reputation, apparently well-deserved, as the "moonshine capital of the world" appears to be due mostly to the organizing of their efforts into an export industry by a few scheming liquor bosses and lawmen who seized the opportunities presented first by Prohibition and then by taxation and corporatization of the liquor industry after Prohibition.
The book grows steadily more interesting as the author moves the story first back to the British Isles and the immigration of land-starved farmers from Scotland to Ireland to the Southern Appalachians and then forward from the late 19th to the mid-20th Century. Two themes are central to this cultural history: the search for land and ongoing cultural expertise in distilling spirits. At each step along the way, the people who came to be called Scots-Irish were squeezed out of their land and simultaneously persecuted for making whiskey and exploited by these same persecutors who wanted to drink it.
By the arrival of Prohibition, this process had already been going on for centuries. After they had settled in the Southern Appalachians, these people learned to substitute corn for wheat and barley and developed a preference for the taste of corn whiskey, which they made quite legally for their own consumption for decades. As thirsty urban Americans began to make and consume rotgut whisky and bathtub gin during Prohibition, the reputation of Appalachian corn whiskey soared. It was made in small batches by meticulous craftsmen who only survived on their poor mountainous landholdings by virtue of their highly developed and diverse craft skills. As the sale of small individual amounts to outsiders became consolidated into a much more organized enterprise controlled by local politicians and law enforcement, however, the quality began to decline. The community also frayed as what had once been a cottage industry became riven by paid or intimidated informants and lawmen protecting some while sacrificing others to keep the proponents of the Federally led crackdown happy.
One of the author’s most intriguing observations is that, from today’s vantage point, the traditional corn whiskey of the area was exactly the kind of artisanal production now so much in vogue among upper-middle-class consumers and patrons of urban farmers’ markets. During the New Deal, Federal agriculture officials paid lip service to promoting economic development in mountain areas, but of course the idea of encouraging them to make whiskey was out of the question in terms of the political discourse of the time.
Much of the story comes in descriptions of the trials and the participants. Two key individuals who receive separate chapters were both religious leaders who testified as character witnesses for one of the men convicted in the jury-tampering trial, Amos Rakes. Though they may have been sincerely skeptical that Rakes had any part in bribing the jurors who exonerated the District Attorney who was the ringleader of the entire enterprise, both these religious leaders knew quite well that Rakes had been producing moonshine for a long time. Nonetheless, he was in every other way a "just man" who supported his family and his neighbors and their own churches. They may have been ambivalent about the moonshine trade and preached regularly against drunkenness, but they resented the persecution of the "just men" in their community who were only struggling to survive.
These two religious leaders were very different from each other and, in some ways, rivals for the spiritual allegiance of the local people. One, Elder Goode, was a Primitive Baptist, a hard-pressed local farmer himself who received no pay for his arduous work preaching and ministering at four widely separated churches in different corners of the county. Primitive Baptists were highly conservative about many things, but, unlike many modern Baptists, not particularly disapproving of whiskey as long as not consumed in excess. The other leader was an Episcopalian missionary, Miss Ora Harrison, who came into the community from a nearby city separated from the mountains by only a few miles but also by a wide cultural gap. She was part of the Social Gospel movement of the time that sought to educate and modernize the backwards mountain people. She founded a mission and school that endured for decades and provided the main source of education for local children for many years. Though their community and church backgrounds were at odds in many ways – the locals suspicious of outsiders, the outsiders seeking to civilize the locals – the two leaders actually got along well personally and cooperated in many ventures, including flirting with perjury by testifying, unsuccessfully, on behalf of Amos Rakes.
Elder Goode was for many years prone to write down daily notes about all aspects of life on calendars that his family saved. Miss Ora was highly educated and wrote many letters. These two sources of primary documents provide much of the structure on which the rest of the story is built. Combining these with other sources, the author describes in detail such things as just how corn whiskey was made and how law enforcement agents went about trying either to stamp it out or, alternatively, make it look like they were.
The result of this synthesis of personal reminiscence, incisive summaries of secondary historical sources, and analyses of primary documents is a rare portrait of illegal enterprise and how it is situated in a particular historical, ecological, and cultural context. It would be facile to compare it directly with the illegal drug trade in today’s inner cities. There are too many differences. There are also many striking similarities.
Mercer L. Sullivan, Associate Professor, Rutgers School of Criminal Justice
Spirits of Just Men: Mountaineers, Liquor Bosses, and Lawmen in the Moonshine Capital of the World2011-11-012016-08-14https://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/logo.pngCriminal Law and Criminal Justice Book Reviewshttps://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/spirits_of_just_men.jpg200px200px
The Steal: A Cultural History of ShopliftingBooks, Reviews in Brief
Public Criminology?Books, Full Reviews
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