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http://fortune.com/2016/06/13/iphone-stock-apps/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160615232836id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/06/13/iphone-stock-apps/? | Apple Will Let You Remove Stock Apps You Don't Want on Your iPhone | 20160615232836 | I like my iPhone. I really do. What I don’t like are all those useless apps that Apple sticks on the phone and won’t let me remove.
I’m talking about apps like “Tips” or “Find My Friends,” which I’ve never used and, frankly, don’t even know what they do. In other cases, I know exactly what they do—hey there, Apple Maps—and wish I could be rid of them.
But, well, Apple has the upper hand. For years, these apps have sat there like weird blotches on my iPhone screen. One day, I stuffed them all into a folder named “Crapple” (I copied the name from a friend), which looks like this:
The folder reduces the clutter, but it’s still annoying to have it sitting there in the first place. Meanwhile, the zombie apps take up valuable memory space that I could use for videos or games or any darn thing besides crummy stock apps.
But just as I’d grown resigned to being stuck with the apps forever, Apple CEO Tim Cook surprised us all on Monday with a magnanimous gesture at the company’s annual developer conference.
“You are no longer children. You are free from the stupid apps,” he roared during the keynote. “You may delete them all!”
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Well, not really. But according to The Verge, a preview of the iPhone operating system, iOS 10, reveals that it will be possible for users to delete most of the stock apps, and reinstall them later if they so choose. The report also included screenshots that depict the little “x” delete icons attached to app icons, which until now, have been harder to dislodge than a stubborn case of bedbugs.
The public launch of iOS10 is reportedly on track for public launch later this year. So iPhone owners rejoice, you’ll soon have more memory and space on your screen.
And lest you think I’m being harsh on Apple, I should add the company announced a lot of cool-sounding stuff today, including payment options, a spiffy music redesign, and new lock screen and message features. | Apple is letting users act like grown-ups | 48.555556 | 0.666667 | 0.666667 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.aol.com/article/2015/12/09/wellness-wednesday-be-inspired-by-anna-victorias-fitness-journ/21281008/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160616001812id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2015/12/09/wellness-wednesday-be-inspired-by-anna-victorias-fitness-journ/21281008/ | Wellness Wednesday: Be inspired by Anna Victoria's fitness journey | 20160616001812 | If you've ever wanted to change your body but struggled to find the motivation, I would like to introduce you to Anna Victoria, the creator of the
and someone who used to be just like you (and me, a lot of days). Three short years ago, Anna Victoria decided she wanted to change her life. Having been someone who ate fast food three meals a day or had Goldfish for dinner, this was no small task.
"I was like, I can't survive off fast food anymore," Anna said when I first met her. What's so cool about Anna's decision to get healthy and get in shape is that it wasn't driven by her feeling unsatisfied with her physical appearance, she simply wanted to start treating her body a little bit better.
"A journey should never start because you hate yourself," she said. "It should start because you love yourself and you want to do something good for yourself."
Can you believe the photos above are Anna's before and after shots? In order to stay motivated, Anna created an Instagram account where she could track her progress through photos. She started the account back in 2012, before there were a lot of other fitness brands utilizing the photo sharing platform. Within six months, she had over 250,000 followers, and people started messaging her for advice.
"I really wanted to help people," Anna told me, "So I decided to write my first e-book, which was a 4-week nutrition and exercise plan for people to follow."
Obviously working out was a large part of Anna's lifestyle change, but for her, healthy eating was what really changed the game. Her approach is simple: it's not about reducing food intake -- you actually need a lot of food! -- it's about eating the
"You want to make sure that you feel energized and satisfied throughout the day," she said. Anna's perspective is great because she shows us that we can change our bodies without starving ourselves -- what a concept, eh?
As for the fitness part of her guides, the workouts are a series of high intensity circuits focused on strength training, and each daily workout is designed to take only 30 minutes. "The more muscle we have, the more fat we're able to burn," Anna said. "And as a result, people usually start to see results at about 8 weeks." Results aside, the exercises in her guides are designed to make us strong, and you wouldn't believe the kind of impact that can have on you mentally. Feeling physically strong can make a person feel confident in all other areas of life, too, so really, these guides are like a personal trainer, dietician and life coach all rolled into one!
The fitness guru encourages those who follow her guides to create social media accounts where they can connect with each other in the hopes that they'll help each other stay motivated and not lose faith in the weeks before they start seeing results. What's cool is that Anna has essentially created an online community of young women committed to changing their lives in a positive way.
So what's Anna's advice for getting started on her program? I was dying to know, of course. "My biggest piece of advice is to do an overhaul of your routine," she said. "Sit down and say, 'This is when I'm going to work out, this is where I'm going to fit in meal prep, etc.'."
"And acknowledge that you want to change," she emphasized. "Be aware that if you want to change your body, you have to change something about your lifestyle. But you don't need to overwhelm yourself either -- I'm guilty of looking at the big picture, but you have to look at it all in small, doable steps."
The proof is in the pudding with these fitness guides. Anna's not shy about sharing before and after photos of her body and she's completely honest about the challenges she faced when starting her own journey. And fun fact: she's getting married in a few months and is following her guides "religiously" for the wedding, so you can rest assured that the guides really do work. I just recently started the guides myself, and while I haven't been this sore since my days as a dancer, I feel energized and stronger already. Check back to see my progress with the guides next month!
If you're looking to eat a little healthier or amp up your workout routine,
might be just what you need -- and if you still need a little extra motivation, check out
where you can see before and after photos of the awesome women who use her guides! | Anna Victoria, creator of the Fit Body Guides, tells us how she changed her own life and how she's helping women around the world change theirs. | 31.333333 | 0.766667 | 1.366667 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://www.people.com/article/divorced-people-final-straw | http://web.archive.org/web/20160616191235id_/http://www.people.com/article/divorced-people-final-straw | Divorced People Answer 'What Was the Final Straw?' : People.com | 20160616191235 | Some relationships slowly fizzle out with a whimper, while others come to an explosive end when it's suddenly clear that the good times are too far bygone.
their marriages imploded thanks to these couldn't-be-overcome last straws.
"My wife put on 170 lbs. over 10 years. I never said anything and supported her attempts at weight loss. One day I was trying on an old Steelers jersey that didn't fit, because I had gained 15 lbs. in 10 years. I said, 'Well, i guess it's time to buy a bigger jersey.' Her response: 'We're not blowing money on a stupid jersey. You'll just have to lose weight.' F---ing. Done."
"She wasn't religious when we met. Ten years later she told me I was going to hell for believing in dinosaurs."
"When I came home to find her sister's husband naked in my bed."
"The day after my father died (which happened to be Thanksgiving Day) my husband erased and reset my phone. Everything on it gone. Pictures of my dad with my daughter, pictures that only I had. He did it knowing that I had not backed up my phone and it wasn't connected to the cloud either. I had called him 'the worst person in the world' because he requested a month of leave to visit my terminally ill father, got the leave, then decided to not buy a ticket to come visit. When I called him that, he decided to show me how much worse it could be. That was the final straw."
"It was pretty much the Emma Thompson storyline from
– peeked into a jewelry bag at what I thought was my Christmas gift, on Christmas morning got a goddamn Nook instead. I was confused until a week later, via Facebook snooping, I saw his 'friend' showing off the gift. Shortly before that, I'd seen suspicious footprints all over our floor and he denied anyone had been in the house."
"When I did all the chores for us to have a relaxing weekend. I vacuumed the apartment, cleaned everything, did the bathroom, went grocery shopping ($250+), washed two loads of clothes and hung them to dry, new bed sheets, made dinner that was on the table when she got home. And all during the day I sent her texts telling her what I did. Her reaction when she got home? WHY HAVEN'T YOU DONE THE DISHES?!"
"My husband was cheating. I found out, and instead of immediately dumping his ass, I said, 'Let's try to work this out, but you have to dump the girlfriend.' His response: 'But what if you and me don't work out?' DIRECT F---ING QUOTE. And THAT was the final straw."
"The last straw? The one they kept snorting coke with."
"When he handed me several spreadsheets laying out every time I stopped for a drink at McDonalds ($1) on my way to/from running errands accross the city in the desert. He then took my bank atm card and cut it up. Because I got a drink, I wasn't allowed to use or have any cash, it all had to be accounted for at all times. I couldnt handle living under a microscope anymore."
"Called to tell him my mom had just died and he said, 'Ok' and nothing else."
"Him leaving the hospital when I was in labor with our daughter because I was whiny. It stressed him out. For me to be whiny."
"The very last one was probably when I was on a vacation (visiting my hometown) by myself because my ex hated traveling and did whatever he could to avoid it. I was hiking along a gorgeous river with two good friends who are a couple, and watching them have so much fun together in nature. My ex hated being outdoors or doing anything involving exercise. I absolutely love both (yeah yeah ⦠why did I even fall in love with and marry him, but we did have some other things in common). When I saw my friends enjoying nature together, I felt so envious and I realized that would never be me and my significant other, if I stayed with my ex anyway."
"I came home early from work because of a migraine. Found him in bed with my best friend. Oddly, I was more hurt by her behavior than his. Broomed them both that day."
"She flew to Texas to spend spring break with a man she met on
"I can give the exact moment I knew I was done. It was 3 days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. I was a police officer in New Orleans and was standing on the levee at the NOLA/JP line. My wife and small child relocated to my father's house a few hundred miles away, but I was a police officer and could not evacuate with them. I had spent two days in a hotel surrounded by water and abandoned by my department. Myself and several other officers waded out and got transportation. After locating our supervisors, we managed to get some beef jerky and tuna to eat before taking a bath in someone's pool. We established a checkpoint at the NOLA/JP line. Someone passing through the checkpoint had a Nextel phone (which were the only cell phones that could get a signal out). I stood on top of the levee so I could get a good signal and managed to get a call to my wife. The only thing she did was complain about 'how hard' everything was on her without once asking me if I was safe or even if I was okay. I remember thinking to myself that I had married the most selfish, spoiled woman on the planet and that if I stayed with her then she was going to drive me to an early grave. Less than 12 months later we were divorced."
"I had been in hospital the night before and they had planned to do surgery for suspected appendicitis. It turned out not to be so acute so the surgery was cancelled and I was discharged and instructed to rest. By that morning, I hadn't eaten for almost two days. Husband comes to the hospital to pick me up. He sat in the car about a block away with the engine running, waiting for me to walk to where he was. He called his work to say he was taking the day off to look after me. In reality, he spent the day in bed or playing PC games. There was no food in the house and he refused to go grocery shopping because 'that was my job.' By now I'm super hungry and still in pain from the niggling appendix. I asked if he could sort dinner for us. He pretty much picked a fight with me over that. I said I didn't need this in my life and he responded, 'Well we can get a divorce if you want!' I said, 'Yes please. I've actually been thinking about that for a while.'"
"We had been fighting over some fundamental issues, and I moved out for a couple weeks. I told him I'd be back in 3 weeks, we'd discuss everything with clear heads, and move on in our relationship. When I came over to have that conversation, he didn't even turn off
. I quietly packed the rest of my stuff, and left. He regretted that decision soon after, and almost 3 years later still tries to get me back ... in between girlfriends."
"When our four year-old son started imitating what we yelled at each other during our increasingly frequent blowout fights."
"He mentioned divorce, kind of as a threat, as in 'If you're so unhappy, why don't we just get divorced then?' intending me to go 'No! We'll work it out, I'll try harderâ¦' etc. etc. etc. I responded the intended way, but it stuck in my mind: Suddenly, divorce became a possibility, and I had a way out. It was weird that him mentioning divorce as a way of bringing me back to him was what pushed me further away." | Some things just can't be forgiven | 235 | 0.714286 | 0.714286 | high | low | abstractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/03/12/obama-sxsw-apple-vs-fbi/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160617040619id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/03/12/obama-sxsw-apple-vs-fbi/ | What Obama Said About Apple vs. FBI | 20160617040619 | Addressing for the first time the issues raised by Apple APPL vs. FBI, President Obama spoke for nearly 12 minutes at South By Southwest Friday night about balancing privacy and security.
“All of us value our privacy, and this is a society that is built on a Constitution and a Bill Of Rights and a healthy skepticism about overreaching government power. Before smartphones were invented and to this day, if there is probable cause to think that you have abducted a child, or that you are engaging in a terrorist plot, or you are guilty of some serious crime, law enforcement can appear at your doorstep and say we have a warrant to search your home and can go into your bedroom and into your bedroom drawers to rifle through your underwear to see if there’s any evidence of wrongdoing.
“And we agree on that because we recognize that just like all of our other rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc, that there are going to be some constraints that we impose in order to ensure we are safe, secure and living in a civilized society.
“Now technology is evolving so rapidly that new questions are being asked, and I am of the view that there are very real reasons why we want to make sure the government can not just wily-nilly get into everybody’s iPhones or smartphones that are full of very personal information or very personal data.
“Let’s face it, the whole Snowden disclosure episode elevated peoples’ suspicion of this. So does popular culture, by the way, which makes it appear as if I’m in the Sit Room and I’m moving things. There’s some half a fingerprint and half an hour later I’m tracking the guy in the streets of Istanbul. It turns out it doesn’t work that way. Sometimes I’m just trying to get a connection.
“I will say, by the way, and I don’t want to go too far afield, but the Snowden issue vastly overstated the dangers to U.S. citizens in terms of spying because the fact of the matter is that our intelligence agencies are pretty scrupulous about U.S. persons, people on U.S. soil. What those disclosures did identify was excesses overseas, with respect to people who are not in this country. A lot of those have been fixed. Don’t take my word for it. There was an independent panel that just graded the reforms that we set up to avoid those charges.
“But I understand that that raised suspicions. So we’re concerned about privacy. We don’t want government to be looking through everybody’s phones willy-nilly without any kind of oversight or probable cause or a clear sense that it’s targeted at someone who might be a wrongdoer.
“What makes it even more complicated is the fact that we also want really strong encryption because part of us preventing terrorism or preventing people from disrupting the financial system or our air traffic control system or a whole other set of systems that are increasingly digitalized, is that hackers, state or non-state, can’t get in there and mess around.
“So we have two values, both of which are important, right?
“And the question we now have to ask is if technologically it is possible to make an impenetrable device or system where the encryption is so strong that there is no key, there’s no door at all? Then how do we apprehend the child pornographer? How do we solve or disrupt a terrorist plot? What mechanisms do we have available that even do simple things like tax enforcement? Because if in fact you can’t crack that at all, and government can’t get in, then everybody’s walking around with a Swiss bank account in their pocket. So there has to be some some concession to the need to be able to get to that information somehow.
“Now what folks who are on the encryption side will argue is any key whatsoever, even if it starts off as just being directed at one device, could end up being used on every device. That’s just the nature of these systems. That is a technical question. I am not a software engineer. It is, I think, technically true, but i think it it can be overstated.
“So the question now becomes, we as a society, setting aside the specific case between the FBI and Apple, setting aside the commercial interests, the concerns about what the could Chinese government do with this even if we trust the US government, setting aside all these questions, we’re going to have to make some decisions about how we balance these respective risks. And I’ve got a bunch of smart people sitting there talking about it, thinking about it. We have engaged the tech community aggressively to help solve this problem.
“My conclusion so far is that you cannot take an absolutist view on this. So if your argument is strong encryption no matter what, and we can and should create black boxes, that I do not think strikes the balances we’ve struck for 200 or 300 years and it’s fetishizing our phones above every other value. And that can’t be the right answer. I suspect the answer will come down to how can we create a system where the encryption is as strong as possible, the key as secure as possible, it’s accessible by the smallest number of people possible, for a subset of issues that we agree are important. How we design that is not something I have the expertise to do. But I caution…
“I am way on the civil liberties side of this thing. I anguish a lot over the decisions we make in terms of how we keep this country safe, and I am not interested in overdrawing the values that have made us an exceptional and great nation simply for expediency. But the dangers are real. Maintaining law and order in a civilized society is important. Protecting our kids is important. And so I would just caution against taking an absolutist perspective on this.
“Because we make compromises all the time. You know, I haven’t flown commercial in a while. But my understanding is that it’s not great fun going through security. But we make the concession. It’s a big intrusion on our privacy, but we recognize it as important. We have stops for drunk drivers. It’s an intrusion, but we think it’s the right thing to do.
“And this notion that somehow our data is different and can be walled off from those other trade-offs we make, I believe is incorrect. We do have to make sure, given the power of the Internet and how much our lives are digitalized, that it is narrow, and is constrained, and that there’s oversight.
“I’m confident that this is something that we can solve. But we’re going to need the tech community, the software designers, the people who care deeply about this stuff to help us solve it. Because what will happen is if everyone goes to their respective corners and the tech community says ‘Either we have strong, perfect encryption or else it’s Big Brother and an Orwellian world,’ what you’ll find is that after something really bad happens, the politics of this will swing, and they will become sloppy, and rushed, and it will go through Congress in ways that have not been thought through. And then you really will have dangers to our civil liberties because the people who understand this best, who care most about privacy and civil liberties, have sort of disengaged or taken a position that is not sustainable for the general public as a whole over time.”
You can watch President Obama’s full performance here. His remarks about encryption begin at the 37:00 mark; | The President cautioned against taking an "absolutist" position. | 136.272727 | 0.727273 | 1.272727 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.tmz.com/2012/04/27/road-trip-mia-amber-davis-yard-michael-yard-lawsuit-obese-fat-birth-control-pills | http://web.archive.org/web/20160618082818id_/http://www.tmz.com:80/2012/04/27/road-trip-mia-amber-davis-yard-michael-yard-lawsuit-obese-fat-birth-control-pills | 'Road Trip' Star's Widower -- Birth Control Pills Killed Her ... and I'm Suing | 20160618082818 | -- who famously played the big girl -- was TOO OBESE to have been on birth control pills and died as a result ... this according to her widower, who's suing Mia's doctors.
as a result of a pulmonary embolism ... one day after undergoing knee surgery.
But in his lawsuit, Mia's widower claims ... in the months before the surgery, Mia's OBGYN prescribed her birth control pills such as
... "drugs that greatly increase one's risk for a pulmonary embolism, especially when combined with [Mia's] other risk factors."
Mia's widower lists "obesity" as one of Mia's significant risk factors.
Mia's widower claims his wife's doctor SHOULD HAVE suggested condoms or other methods of birth control as an alternative ... because the drugs "greatly increased her risk for a pulmonary embolism and ultimately caused her death."
To make matters worse, Mia's widower claims Mia went to a family practitioner on April 18 to complain about knee pain. The doc allegedly cleared Mia for knee surgery ... despite a number of risk factors, including obesity, hyperlipidemia and the fact she was on Zenchent.
Mia's widower claims the doc "should have advised [Mia] to eliminate some of her other risk factors prior to clearing her for the surgery."
Mia underwent the surgery on May 9 ... and died the next day.
Mia's widower is suing both the OBGYN and the family practitioner for unspecified damages ... claiming, among other things, he should be compensated for the loss of love, companionship and moral support he suffered as a result of his wife's death. | "Road Trip" star Mia Amber Davis -- who famously played the big girl -- was TOO OBESE to have been on birth control pills and died as a result ... this… | 9.264706 | 0.823529 | 18.470588 | low | medium | extractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/06/16/team-building-entrepreneurs-business/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160619013621id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/06/16/team-building-entrepreneurs-business/ | Team Building Tips for Entrepreneurs | 20160619013621 | The Entrepreneur Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in America’s startup scene contribute answers to timely questions about entrepreneurship and careers. Today’s answer to the question “How do you build a strong team?” is written by Dale Chang, vice president of portfolio operations at Scale Venture Partners.
One of the most important parts of scaling a company is building the right team. This can be a big hurdle for an entrepreneur who is used to doing everything—engineering, marketing and sales, finance and operations—by his or herself. While letting go is hard, giving control to somebody else can actually be key to setting up your organization to scale and grow faster in the long run.
As your company gets bigger, you need to be comfortable with the fact that your job will get smaller and more focused. Eventually, you become a manager of people, and then a manager of managers. The team that you’ve built becomes the single-biggest factor in the success of your company.
Here are some of the factors that I think about when building teams:
Ambition When starting to scale a company, you need to find team members who have the hunger to make it happen. Experience is important, but without the burning desire to make things happen, the rate of innovation can really suffer. Find people who share the same amount of passion about your mission and harness that energy to lead.
Experience By building out a team, you are naturally driving a higher level of specialization and thus need to find people with experience and expertise within a particular domain. There is something to be said for hiring a team that has done it before. That being said, though, you don’t necessarily want to hire people who are so far beyond doing it themselves. In the early stages of a company, the grittiness and get-it-done attitude is really what will get you to your milestones.
See also: The Quality Every Leader Should Look for in Employees
Work style In addition to adding people with different skills, look for people with varied work styles and diverse backgrounds that complement you and the rest of your team. You’ll need to be very thoughtful about how you manage that, but diversity in thought and experience on your team tends to bring the best thinking and fastest pace of innovation.
Building a team isn’t only about assembling the people around you, however. It’s also about how you—the CEO, founder, and/or entrepreneur—work with the team to define the culture of the company. Each company will have its own culture, but for me, it comes down to three things:
Communication Be consistent and clear in your communications. Consistency prevents you from being perceived as leading with a flavor-of-the-week mentality. Clear communication helps your team understand what’s expected and how it’s measured.
Trust Be honest about the successes that the team has experienced, but even more importantly, be honest about the mistakes that you and the company have made. Honesty builds trust, which is exactly what you need in a period of change.
Alignment Make sure that the goals of the company cascade down to the team and are aligned with what they have control over. When the company succeeds, make sure that the team feels like they have succeeded. You’ll get much more out of your team if everyone feels like they are having a meaningful impact on the results of the business.
Be ready for turnover in your teams—it’s natural and healthy. Just as your company will change as it grows, so should the skills and talents that you need on your team to support that change. Some members of your team will be able to continually grow with the company and augment their existing skills with new ones that the company needs. Others won’t be able to make the shift and will move on to help others navigate the same challenges you’ve already weathered. Take these moments as opportunities to assess what new skills, experiences, and cultural aspects you need to drive the next phase of growth.
Dale Chang is the vice president of portfolio operations at Scale Venture Partners. In his role, Dale is a resource for guidance on evolving go-to-market strategies as well as providing best practices and benchmarks across the VC firm’s portfolio. | Take it from a venture capitalist. | 120.714286 | 0.857143 | 0.857143 | high | medium | abstractive |
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/tribeca-film-festival-born-9-11-haze-strong-article-1.2594762 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160619075924id_/http://www.nydailynews.com:80/entertainment/movies/tribeca-film-festival-born-9-11-haze-strong-article-1.2594762 | Tribeca Film Festival, born amid 9/11 haze, still strong | 20160619075924 | Robert De Niro and his producing partner Jane Rosenthal scripted a great comeback story — they just didn’t know they were signing on for all those sequels.
In 2001, as the dust and acrid smell from the Sept. 11 terror attacks weeks earlier still clung in the air in their neighborhood, the pair scrambled to help keep Tribeca businesses open at a time when New Yorkers were staying away.
So they pitched a film festival — and pulled it off in just 120 days.
“We were just talking about what we could do for the neighborhood,” De Niro told the Daily News last week. “We just thought it would be a nice thing to do.”
“Tribeca needed a new memory to look forward to,” adds Rosenthal.
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2016: HIGHLIGHTS, EVENTS, WHAT TO WATCH
There have been a lot of memories since the first Tribeca Film Festival launched in May 2002.
On Wednesday, the 15th annual edition of the festival will open with another 101 films, a dozen television projects, virtual reality and immersive storytelling projects ready for their close-ups. The festival, which runs April 13 to 24, will draw a constellation of stars — including Jodie Foster, Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey.
It helps to have De Niro and Rosenthal’s star-studded Rolodex.
“We changed the date at one point because we wanted ‘Star Wars: Episode II,’ so Bob called George (Lucas) and I remember he came into my office and said, ‘He doesn’t have it ready, he only has the first two reels,’” recalls Rosenthal. “He said if it’s another week later he could do it. And it worked out.”
The festival has grown from an estimated 150,000 attendees during its inaugural run to an expected 465,000-plus this year.
It isn’t just the neighborhood that’s prospered: the festival, like Sundance, has buoyed small filmmakers with much needed attention for their work.
For first-time director Bill Purple, whose gripping drama, “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” stars Jason Sudeikis and Jessica Biel, the fest champions “smaller, viably commercial projects that seek some sunlight in a forest of tentpoles.”
Fellow rookie helmer Priscilla Anany needs the attention for her drama “Children of the Mountains,” about a mother in rural Ghana struggling with the stigma of having a deformed child, which is playing at the festival.
If a distributor is impressed by the film, which is inspired by her own sickly aunt’s short and tragic life, it would mean paying back family who supported her film and launching a full-time career.
“It’s extremely important for a first-time filmmaker to get into Tribeca,” says the Ghana-born New Yorker. “It’s exciting to have my hometown celebrate my film — and it’s already started to open a lot of doors for me.”
There are plenty of success stories: Tribeca executive vice president Paula Weinstein cites Damian Chazelle’s first film, “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench” in 2009 as one of the festival’s proudest legacies. The acclaim helped pave the way for Chazelle to drum up the Oscar-nominated “Whiplash” a few years later.
“This festival has always been about storytelling and storytellers,” says Weinstein.
It hasn’t all gone according to script, though, for festival organizers. Last month, a controversial documentary, “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,” suggesting a link between vaccinations and autism, was pulled after a massive outcry. Andrew Wakefield, the documentarian behind the film, had been the author of a since-debunked scientific study on the subject in 1998.
“This movie seemed interesting to me,” says De Niro, whose son Elliot has autism. “There was so much controversy around it, it seemed and I didn't have an answer that made me convinced about the maker of the film that I could (defend it).
“If it was going to become something where the festival was going to be misperceived in a way that was somehow going to make it not as pure … I said okay, let’s pull that,” he adds. “And I still don’t know if that was the right decision. Because some people are pro and some are con.”
As Tribeca, the festival has grown bigger and the neighborhood has also gotten its own Hollywood ending.
“It’s hard to put our legacy in perspective,” says Rosenthal, who swears they never thought they would do a second film festival, much less a 15th. “The neighborhood would have recovered on its own, but I know what we did do is give people a reason to come downtown in early 2002, when people weren't coming.”
De Niro still cares about his old stomping grounds.
At the end of his interview with the Daily News, the Oscar winner pointed out his window to the Travelers Building, a luxury condo tower on Greenwich St.
“You know what irks me?” he said, “There’s a clock on top, which maybe you can see from Brooklyn or uptown or New Jersey … They built it and they didn’t even think of the people in the community who couldn't look up at that clock. How does it do anything for the neighborhood?” | Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal scripted a great comeback story — they just didn’t know they were signing on for sequels. | 43.625 | 1 | 14.333333 | high | high | extractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/05/11/why-chipotle-is-hiring-one-of-its-fiercest-critics/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160619083541id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/05/11/why-chipotle-is-hiring-one-of-its-fiercest-critics/ | Chipotle Hires Food Safety Experts From FDA and Dept. of Agrigculture | 20160619083541 | Chipotle Mexican Grill has retained two leading food safety experts – including a critic of the burrito chain’s early response to disease outbreaks last year – as it redoubles its efforts to guard against health scares.
David Acheson, a former official at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was brought on as an adviser, Chipotle told Reuters.
The company also confirmed it is working with David Theno, a food safety consultant and former Jack in the Box executive who is credited with fixing food safety at the fast-food chain following a deadly E. coli outbreak in the 1990s.
The two are respected among food safety experts, and their involvement may signal an expansion in Chipotle’s reforms. But the scope is not yet clear.
Spokesman Chris Arnold confirmed the consultants were retained last year but would not say when or detail their duties. As recently as early December, Acheson was sharply critical of the company’s initial response to the outbreaks.
In March, the company announced it had hired James Marsden, a former meat science professor at Kansas State University, as executive director of food safety. Arnold said Marsden would have “primary responsibility for our food safety programs.”
Expanding its complement of food safety experts is part of Chipotle’s effort to rebound from a spate of disease outbreaks – including E. coli, salmonella and norovirus – last year that crushed sales, repulsed customers and slashed $6 billion off its market valuation.
Chipotle’s ability to win back diners is vital to reviving sales and is expected to be a key topic at the company’s annual meeting on Wednesday.
“We have committed to establishing Chipotle as an industry leader in food safety, and we have assembled an extremely capable team to help us achieve that goal,” Arnold told Reuters.
Chipotle declined to make members of the team available for for interviews.
“If I had to put together a dream team to fix something, you could do a lot worse,” said Don Schaffner, a food science professor at Rutgers University. But, he added: “I’ve begun to wonder a little bit about too many cooks. Each of those guys is going to have a perspective on what to do to fix the problem.”
Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, said he expected the group’s focus “would likely be more on food safety preventive controls and less on food testing.”
Chipotle’s initial response emphasized testing ingredients for pathogens with the goal of stopping any source of illness from getting into its restaurants. The company touted a testing regime set up by another consultant, Mansour Samadpour, chief executive of IEH Laboratories & Consulting Group.
Acheson criticized the Chipotle for relying too heavily on that one approach. “I’m not a believer that you can test your way to safety,” he told Reuters in early December.
At the time, he said the focus should be on improving food sourcing and handling practices, including how suppliers are approved, “how they are leveraged in terms of training, storing, handling, and preparing of food.”
Arnold said Chipotle continues to work with the IEH testing firm. Its more recent changes have focused on food preparation. For instance, Chipotle said on its latest earnings call that it had started blanching bell peppers in an effort to kill germs.
The chain also has cut some small suppliers. Kenter Canyon Farms said it lost business providing oregano to Chipotle through a third-party distributor.
“When that whole scandal happened with the E. coli, when they revamped their food safety. They cut ties with a lot of growers,” said Mark Lopez, sales director for the farm.
Chipotle also began buying more red onions from Oregon-based River Point Farms, which said it is the country’s largest onion supplier, a source involved in the situation said.
The goal was to make it easier for Chipotle to trace the origins of the products, according to the source, who did not want to be identified. River Point declined to comment.
Chipotle’s Arnold said the chain would continue to support smaller farms, and has committed to spending $10 million to help them meet its standards. But he said the company has noted that it may be difficult for “some of our smaller suppliers to meet our heightened food safety standards.”
Big chains – including Yum Brands Inc, the parent of Taco Bell and KFC, and McDonald’s Corp – tend to work with a small number of large suppliers, which often have more resources and controls. | Part of the strategy to bounce back from its recent scandals. | 74.25 | 0.75 | 0.916667 | high | low | abstractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/05/18/youtube-vr-app/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160619091631id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/05/18/youtube-vr-app/ | YouTube Launches Dedicated App for VR Videos | 20160619091631 | Google is going all in on virtual reality as revealed at its annual developer conference Google I/O on Wednesday. The search giant’s video site YouTube is also making a big bet on VR, launching a dedicated new app for all VR videos and content.
The app is part of Daydream, Google’s new Android-based operating system for high-quality mobile VR. The software is designed to be used on smartphones that are created with the new mobile OS. The Internet giant also debuted a new hardware viewer and controller that work with Daydream phones and apps.
Daydream’s hardware adds to Google’s existing lightweight viewer Cardboard, a plastic and heavy-duty paper object that turned a smartphone running Google’s Android mobile operating system into a makeshift VR headset.
Google’s new YouTube app will work with both Cardboard as well as the Daydream viewer.
Google said that YouTube app for VR has been completely re-built for the Daydream platform. For example, voice search is a default feature for searching for videos within the app because the phone will be held by Google’s viewer around a user’s head. Similar to the core YouTube app, YouTube will also suggest VR content to users based on previously viewed content.
For more on Google, watch:
This isn’t the first time that YouTube is adding immersive content. YouTube originally debuted the ability to upload and watch 360-degree videos in March 2015.
Additionally, earlier this year, the online video site added the ability to post live 360-degree videos. Most recently, YouTube added a VR mode feature to its mobile app this past week, allowing users to watch anything in VR mode using Cardboard. | Google's video site is creating a new mobile destination for VR content. | 23.071429 | 0.785714 | 1.357143 | medium | medium | abstractive |
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/tera-wray-widow-wayne-static-dies-apparent-suicide-article-1.2498241 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160619094512id_/http://www.nydailynews.com:80/entertainment/gossip/tera-wray-widow-wayne-static-dies-apparent-suicide-article-1.2498241 | Tera Wray, widow of Wayne Static, dies from apparent suicide | 20160619094512 | The ex-porn star widow of Static-X front man Wayne Static has died from an apparent suicide, according to a report.
Tera Wray, 33, committed suicide Thursday, reports Blabbermouth.net — just 14 months after her industrial metal-rocker husband died at 48 from an alleged drug overdose.
Wray had been wrestling with depression ever since her husband’s death, according to Rik Marin, a Facebook commenter claiming to be a friend of hers.
Adult entertainment attorney Michael Fattorosi, who said he had exchanged emails with her on Tuesday, confirmed the somber news and eulogized Wray on Twitter.
“I’m so sad today,” he tweeted Friday. “My client & friend Tera Wray, former Pornstar and the widow of Wayne Static committed suicide yesterday.”
“Tera is once again with the love of her life, Wayne, & will be forever,” he added. “May they both find peace together for all of eternity. Godspeed Tera.”
Tera is once again with the love of her life, Wayne, & will be forever. May they both find peace together for all of eternity. Godspeed Tera
The Louisville-born actress left a suicide note instructing her roommate to call Fattorosi, he wrote on Facebook.
“I’ve been floored all day,” he said.
Static, who married Wray in 2008, died Nov. 1, 2014 after ingesting a potent cocktail of Xanax, oxycodone and alcohol, Blabbermouth.net reported at the time. The former adult film star was apparently the one to find him dead.
Fattorosi has not yet replied to the Daily News’ request for comment. | The ex-porn star widow of Static-X frontman Wayne Static has died from an apparent suicide, according to a report. | 12.68 | 0.96 | 11.84 | low | high | extractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/04/22/aeropostale-nyse-delist/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160619115646id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/04/22/aeropostale-nyse-delist/ | Aéropostale Has Been Delisted By the New York Stock Exchange | 20160619115646 | After shares of Aéropostale slid Thursday on bankruptcy fears, the company was delisted by the New York Stock Exchange early Friday.
That came after news that the retailer could file for bankruptcy as early as this month. Trading of the stock was froze not long after.
The beleaguered teen retailer reported that it had failed to meet the NYSE’s requirements to stay listed and would begin trading on the OTCQX Best Markets—an over-the-counter market—under the symbol AROP. That could make it harder for the company to raise capital. Aéropostale’s shares have slipped from an all-time high of $29.90 in 2010, to 15 cents when the stock stopped trading Thursday.
Aéropostale said it has no intention of appealing the delisting decision, which does not affect its stock price—excluding its effect on investor sentiment.
The company first received a delisting notification from the NYSE in November, when the Big Board said the retailer’s average market cap had fallen bellow $50 million in a 30-day period. The NYSE delists stocks that have fallen near or to the penny-stock category, since even small movements of those stocks can trigger bouts of volatility.
Aéropostale shares closed with a market cap of $12.15 million Thursday—a 99.6% nose dive since the company’s peak market cap of $3 billion in 2010.
The stock first slid below a dollar late August, and has continued dropping ever since as Aéropostale reported its third consecutive year of falling sales during its fourth-quarter earnings report last month. | Shares head to an OTC exchange. | 42.142857 | 0.714286 | 0.714286 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/city-health-department-busts-13-hookah-bars-blog-entry-1.2069318 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160619173342id_/http://www.nydailynews.com:80/blogs/dailypolitics/city-health-department-busts-13-hookah-bars-blog-entry-1.2069318 | City Health Department busts 13 hookah bars | 20160619173342 | An undercover sting by the city Health Department caught 13 hookah bars illegally serving pipes that contained tobacco - and the city is now moving to shut them down, officials said.
The city’s indoor smoking ban prohibits bars from serving shisha with tobacco — while allowing them to fill their popular water pipes with herbs and molasses.
But samples secretly taken at all 13 bars visited by NYU students working with Health Department investigators in Manhattan and Queens were found in lab tests to contain tobacco.
“These 13 hookah bars are knowingly flouting the law by serving tobacco-based shisha,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett. “We will not tolerate this willful disregard of New York City’s smoke-free air laws.”
She said the city has already moved to yank the hotspots’ permits. An administrative law judge will make the final call after a hearing.
The bars targeted included Parlay Cafe and 9A NYC Kitchen and Lounge in Harlem, and Luxor Lounge, Le Souk Harem, Falucka, Cozy Cafe, Sahara East, Cloister Cafe, and Kazuza in the East Village area.
Also on the list were Fayrooz Hookah Lounge and Bar, Melody Lounge, Layla Hookah Lounge, and Cloud 9 in Queens.
Mustafa Ali, manager at Sahara East, denied the charges. “It was a mistake,” he said. “We’re calling them to explain the situation.”
He blasted the city’s move to yank the business’s permit. “It’s absolutely not fair,” he said.
The Health Department targeted bars near colleges and those found online to be popular with kids, as well as bar that have received smoking violations in the past, a spokeswoman said.
The investigation was announced on the same day City Councilmembers introduced a bill to ban hookah sales at any business that gets less than 50% of its business from tobacco.
Hookah bars that get most of their cash from smoking would not be affected. | The city’s indoor smoking ban prohibits bars from serving shisha with tobacco — while allowing them to fill pipes with herbs and molasses. | 15.08 | 1 | 15.88 | low | high | extractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/01/15/oregon-minimum-wage/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160620060051id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/01/15/oregon-minimum-wage/ | Oregon’s Minimum Wage Compromise Exposes Urban-Rural Income Divide | 20160620060051 | For all the victories claimed by the movement for a nationwide $15 per hour minimum wage, none has come at the statewide level. Big cities like Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles have passed $15 minimum wages, and New York State is set to implement a $15 per hour minimum for fast-food workers. But no state has universally adopted the $15 per hour rate, and a new proposal in Oregon offers us one reason why.
On Thursday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown unveiled a plan to hike the minimum wage in Oregon. She wants to increase the minimum wage in Portland to $15.52 by 2022—higher than any current city rate—and raise the minimum wage to $13.50 elsewhere in the state by then.
The proposal was prompted, in part, by a ballot initiative to put a statewide $15 minimum wage to a vote in November 2016. Brown’s two-tiered hike, which could preempt the ballot effort, appeases wage advocates and labor unions in Portland while acknowledging that many rural areas in the state are still hurting from the recession. In announcing her plan, Brown said in a statement that it “establishes a higher minimum wage in the Portland metropolitan area, where the economy is growing faster and has traditionally been stronger, than in the rest of the state.”
New York used a similar approach when it implemented its wage hike for fast-food workers, requiring franchised restaurants in New York City to raise their hourly wage to $15 by the end of 2018, while giving the rest of the state until 2021 to reach that threshold.
The cost-of-living differences between cities and rural areas—or even the disparity in costs from one metro area to another—is an obvious hurdle in the push for statewide minimum wage proposals, such as the one New York Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced in September. Lawmakers, especially those representing constituents who live outside urban hubs, argue that minimum wage increases are harder for rural businesses to absorb and they often balk at blanket hikes.
Then again, the cost of living has always differed based on geography and states have managed to pass universal wage hikes in the past. Why is it such a big deal now?
Wage hikes that became law prior to the present-day Fight for $15 era were more incremental and a matter of legislative “horse trading,” says David Cooper, an economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute. But because the value of the federal minimum wage has eroded so much—it’s been $7.25 since 2009— recent efforts to increase minimum wages at the local, state, and federal levels have focused more on what a worker needs to earn to live comfortably in a certain geographic area. That—along with the attention given to the United States’ vast income inequality—has made the cost of living a more prominent talking point in legislative negotiations and among worker advocates, Cooper says.
That doesn’t mean that a statewide $15 minimum wage is impossible. It just means that if it occurs, it’ll likely mirror Brown’s proposal on Thursday and take a tiered approach to reaching that rate. Indeed, Cuomo’s proposal for an all-industry, statewide $15 minimum wage calls for the hike to take place more rapidly in New York City and at a slower pace for the rest of the state.
Exceptions to the tiered model could pop up if a state avoids the legislative process and instead introduces a ballot initiative to voters. That could happen soon in California, where there’s an effort to get a $15 statewide minimum wage ballot initiative before voters in November 2016.
“Raising the minimum wage is incredibly popular with the public,” Cooper says. “As a ballot initiative, it passes.” | The governor proposed an alternative to an across-the-board hike to $15 per hour. | 38.263158 | 0.789474 | 1.526316 | high | medium | mixed |
http://fortune.com/2016/03/09/inrix-buys-opencar/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160620064419id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/03/09/inrix-buys-opencar/ | Traffic Data Firm Buys Apple CarPlay, Google Rival OpenCar | 20160620064419 | Real-time traffic data company Inrix has acquired OpenCar, a software startup that built an in-car app platform that could challenge Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Automakers concerned with consumer privacy, control over user data, and cybersecurity have historically been leery of sharing car data with third-party technology providers like Apple and Google. That wariness was largely what spurred Daimler, Audi, and BMW to buy mapping technology unit Nokia HERE.
However, connected car platforms developed by Apple aapl and Google goog have been difficult for automakers to avoid.
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto allow drivers to integrate smartphones with a vehicle’s dashboard. In-car infotainment systems, which can be clunky and hard to use, often can’t match the functionality and look a smartphone.
In less than two years, Apple and Google have made significant inroads with automakers sensitive to the growing demand of tech-savvy consumers who want the same look, feel, and functionality of a smartphone in their car. A number of automakers—including Ford, Volvo, and BMW—have announced plans within the last year to integrate Apple CarPlay and Android Auto into new models.
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Still, automakers would prefer more control over the platforms, limiting customization options and requiring access to sensitive and valuable car data.
OpenCar’s framework could provide a welcome alternative. The platform lives in the car. Meaning, this isn’t about connecting your smartphone to your car. Instead, the company has developed an in-car app ecosystem. Unlike Apple and Google platform, OpenCar’s framework is fully controlled by the automaker. A car company can tweak the platform’s design as well as its touch and voice interfaces for different brands and models.
Seattle-based Inrix has also developed a driver-assistance platform that taps into its real-time traffic data and enables predictive routing based on where and when drivers go. The platform, called Autointelligent, creates a daily, personalized itinerary of anticipated trips by accessing the user’s calendar and contacts and provides pre-drive and drive time alerts based on route preferences, congestion, hazardous road conditions and vehicle sensor data, such as if the vehicle needs fuel. The platform integrates other Inrix services such as road weather alerts, routing for public transit and walking, and dynamic on- and off-street parking.
The OpenCar and new Inrix platforms can work together or apart, depending on the wants and needs of a customer. For example, an automaker could make OpenCar’s platform standard in all cars or add the Inrix driver-assistance system to just luxury models.
Connected cars took center stage at CES 2016. Watch:
The OpenCar platform isn’t on the market yet. Mazda, which has backed OpenCar through a strategic partnership for the past five years, is a customer. Audi, owned by VW Group, also publicly endorsed the platform.
The newly-acquired company is also working with a number of content partners, including Nuance, WCities, Glympse, iHeart, NPR, Gas Buddy, Rivet Radio, Stitcher, and Dash, according to Inrix.
“We’re excited to see additional competition in this important connected car segment,” said Marcus Keith, head of human-machine interface development at Audi, in a statement. “The combination of INRIX and OpenCar should be very compelling for bringing new applications.” | Inrix says its platform gives automakers control over data and design. | 55.75 | 0.833333 | 1.166667 | high | medium | abstractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/02/17/associated-press-launches-vr-news-channel/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160620163438id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/02/17/associated-press-launches-vr-news-channel/ | AMD Powers Associated Press Virtual Reality Channel | 20160620163438 | The Associated Press has launched a dedicated virtual reality site in collaboration with AMD to increase its focus on bringing 360-degree news storytelling to the growing number of mobile headsets in the global marketplace.
As a part of the collaboration, the AP will leverage AMD Radeon graphics and LiquidVR technology to create virtual reality content that will play on high-end platforms such as Facebook’s fb Oculus Rift, Sony’s sne PlayStation VR, and the HTC htc Vive. All of this content will also be available across mobile devices such as Google googl Cardboard, Samsung ssnlf Gear VR, and Mattel’s mat VR View Master.
“AP has a rich history of working with emerging technology over the past 170 years to bring the audience closer to the news,” says Paul Cheung, director of interactive and digital news production at the AP. “Virtual reality is one of the most immersive new approaches to storytelling, so it’s a natural fit with what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Cheung says the AP began exploring 360-degree news reporting last August with its behind-the-scenes look at UPS’s ups Worldport, a massive packaging and sorting facility in Louisville, Ky. The AP also collaborated with RYOT News to document the journey of migrants and refugees in Northern France hoping to make it across the English Channel to start a new life in the United Kingdom.
“Virtual reality comes up pretty often in our planning meetings,” Cheung says. “From the Oscars to the Olympics to a breaking news situation like ‘El Chapo’s’ escape, my team is constantly thinking about whether there’s a virtual reality opportunity to bring the audience closer to the news.”
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The current live-action 360-degree landscape is like the Wild West of production, as companies such as Nokia nok , Bubl, Jaunt (a Nokia partner), GoPro gpro , Lucid, Matterport, and Otoy launch new cameras. At the same time, there are challenges in postproduction in editing and “stitching” the 360-degree content together in a timely and cohesive manner.
Sasa Marinkovic, global head of VR marketing at AMD amd , says the tech company will provide the virtual reality expertise, state-of-art development platforms, and postproduction support creation of the AP’s 360-degree news experiences.
“Using VR technology, people will be able to able to walk around a scene, pause, rewind, and see historic events from different vantage points, to feel present at the event,” Marinkovic says. “Every detail can be thoroughly researched and reproduced. The technology can enable us to figuratively walk in another’s shoes, leading to greater understanding and empathy. We are witnessing the dawn of a new medium with VR that could revolutionize storytelling.”
The AP isn’t the first news organization to make the leap to virtual reality. Cheung says the initial success from The New York Times’ virtual reality app shows there is a sustainable interest from the audience to consume news in this new way.
“VR is generating a lot of excitement and experimentation among various media companies, and the amount of VR news content will surely grow,” Cheung says. “Importantly, my team is working closely with AP’s standards editor and other news leaders to ensure all the pieces adhere to AP’s journalistic standards.”
According to research firm Tractica, more than 200 million consumer virtual reality headsets will be sold worldwide by 2020. The company forecasts that consumer virtual reality hardware and content revenue will increase from $108.8 million in 2014 to $21.8 billion worldwide by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 142%.
Already, Google has sold or distributed over 5 million Cardboards worldwide, and Samsung has been selling out of its Gear VR devices. The upcoming consumer launches of Oculus Rift in March, the HTC Vive in April, and PlayStation VR this summer will add to this growing audience.
For more on the Oculus Rift, watch:
“With VR, I believe we can reach a diverse audience that cuts across age, race, geography, and interests,” Cheung says. “AP prides itself on covering a very wide variety of news topics, and our VR projects will aim to reflect that.”
With companies such as Facebook, Sony, Microsoft, AMD, Nvidia nvda , HTC, Samsung, and Intel intc investing billions of dollars into this emerging market, news organizations will continue to invest in virtual reality.
“l believe VR and 360 will be a natural extension of photos and videos, just like moving pictures going from black and white to color,” Cheung says. “It’s the way we see the world.” | 360-degree news service to bring presence to storytelling | 112.875 | 0.75 | 1.5 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Videos-show-shark-activity-near-Santa-Cruz-7726723.php | http://web.archive.org/web/20160620163756id_/http://www.sfgate.com:80/bayarea/article/Videos-show-shark-activity-near-Santa-Cruz-7726723.php | Aerial video shows sharks around surfers near Santa Cruz | 20160620163756 | Aerial footage taken recently near Santa Cruz had captured some chilling shark activity.
Santa Cruz-based tour-company Specialized Helicopters posted an aerial video to the company's Facebook page of sharks swimming near New Brighton State Beach in Capitola. The video shows sharks in clear waters and at one point captures how close the predators were to some people in the water, apparently surfers.
Chris Gularte, the director of operations at Specialized Helicopters, took the footage this month and said Thursday the sharks are still "out there every day."
Last year the same area saw a large influx of sharks. Some may recall Giancarlo Thomae's heart-pounding footage of a young Great White Shark swimming underneath his kayak.
Thomae, a local boat captain and marine biologist, said the sharks seem to be drawn to the warm water in the area and it's important for humans to remember sharks aren't actually their predator.
"These sharks aren't interested in people," Thomae said. "There are pretty much trying to avoid people, they don't want to have anything to do with humans."
Photo: Barcroft Media, Getty Images
A great white shark photographed for Michael Scholl's finprinting project in the sea off Dyer Island, South Africa.
A great white shark photographed for Michael Scholl's finprinting project in the sea off Dyer Island, South Africa.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in November 2015.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in November 2015.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in November 2015.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in November 2015.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in November 2015.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in November 2015.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in November 2015.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in November 2015.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in November 2015.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in November 2015.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft.
Sharks roaming off the coast of the the Bay Area were spotted by a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft.
A group of tourists got to witness the savagery of nature up close and personal in October 2015 as a great white shark munched on a seal just a few feet off a dock on Alcatraz Island.
A group of tourists got to witness the savagery of nature up close and personal in October 2015 as a great white shark munched on a seal just a few feet off a dock on Alcatraz Island.
Aerial video shows sharks around surfers near Santa Cruz | A recent video shows some chilling shark activity near Santa Cruz. Tour company Specialized Helicopters posted an aerial video to the company's Facebook page of sharks swimming near Brighton State Beach in Capitola. | 17.333333 | 0.972222 | 9.916667 | medium | high | extractive |
http://time.com/3930993/dylann-roof-council-of-conservative-citizens-charleston/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160620200728id_/http://time.com:80/3930993/dylann-roof-council-of-conservative-citizens-charleston/ | Dylann Roof Manifesto Council of Conservative Citizens | 20160620200728 | In 2012, the Council of Conservative Citizens started seeing a spike in traffic to its website. George Zimmerman was on trial for killing Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, after a confrontation in their Florida subdivision, and white supremacy organizations like the CCC had become vocal online defenders of Zimmerman’s innocence. Postings on the high-profile case attracted new visitors, and some of the curious became converts.
“When George Zimmerman was acquitted, white nationalists in the U.S. considered that to be a win for them,” says Stephen Piggott, who tracks white supremacist groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center. “The Council of Conservative Citizens’ website blew up. More people were going to the site, and Dylann Roof was one of those people.”
Since the Zimmerman trial, the CCC has been squarely focused on what it calls an epidemic of black-on-white crime. And when Roof Googled that phrase, he found the group’s website.
“I have never been the same since that day,” Roof wrote in a purported manifesto found online in the days after he opened fire at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C. and killed nine people. “There were pages upon pages of these brutal black on White murders. I was in disbelief. At this moment I realized that something was very wrong.”
That moment apparently sent Roof on the road that ended in the massacre at the historic black church.
For years, CCC was one of the most prominent white supremacist organizations in the U.S. Today, however, the group exists primarily online. CCC started in the 1950s in Mississippi as the Citizens’ Councils of America (also known as White Citizens’ Councils), which formed to fight against the integration of public schools following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
The group’s influence dwindled as legal segregation was largely eliminated. In an effort to broaden its appeal, the group changed its name to Council of Conservative Citizens in 1985, according to Piggott. The messaging shifted, too. The group talked less about maintaining overt segregation and more about fighting interracial marriage and halting immigration.
Throughout the 1990s, a number of prominent southern politicians addressed the group. Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, former Arkansas governor and current Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and U.S. Rep. Bob Barr all spoke at CCC annual conventions. In 2013, the SPLC reported that Roan Garcia Quintana, who was a CCC member, was on South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s campaign steering committee. The governor later asked him to resign.
On Monday, the Guardian reported that CCC president Earl Holt III gave thousands of dollars to three current Republican presidential candidates. Senator Ted Cruz said that he would be returning the donations. Senator Rand Paul and former Senator Rick Santorum have not commented on the donations, according to the New York Times.
Today, the CCC holds few events but appears to have a small but dedicated following online. While the SPLC estimates its members at less than 1,000, the CCC says it’s “in the thousands.”
“Every other group in the United States has organizations and publications,” says Jared Taylor, a CCC member and spokesman. “We believe whites also have that right. This is considered normal and encouraged with every group except whites.”
Taylor says that CCC members had never heard of Roof and that he never attended a meeting. The group has condemned the shooting, but they stand behind Roof’s ideology.
“For a young man like Dylann Roof to be constantly reminded of the sins of his ancestors, that’s going to make people hopping mad,” Taylor says. “Many people are angry about the genuine facts of interracial crime in the United States, but that anger should not by any means be channeled into violence.”
The group is particularly focused on crime perpetrated by African-Americans against white people. A CCC blog post from January said there were 361 black-on-white murders in 2014.
But according to the most recent numbers by the FBI, a majority of homicides are committed by whites against whites. In 2013, the FBI found that of the 3,005 white individuals murdered that year, 2,509 of the offenders were white and 409 were black.
The deadly shooting comes at a time of upheaval for the CCC. Gordon Baum, the president who helped the organization transition from the White Citizens Councils in the 1980s while maintaining much of its membership, died in March. Earl Holt, a longtime member, took over in May. Kyle Rogers, the CCC’s webmaster and one of its younger leaders, deleted his Twitter account after the attack. The SPLC says Rogers, who had 40,000 followers, was key to the group’s online resurgence. But CCC may see a resurgence of interest after being named in Roof’s manifesto.
“There certainly could be a boost in their membership,” Piggott says. “Their name is getting out there more than it was. You’ll have people defending them who will potentially want to help out and join.” | The Council of Conservative Citizens saw interest spike after Trayvon Martin | 88.545455 | 0.909091 | 2.909091 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/19/opinion/without-fear-or-favor.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160620215539id_/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/19/opinion/without-fear-or-favor.html | Without Fear or Favor | 20160620215539 | Exactly 100 years ago today, Adolph S. Ochs, the founding father of the modern Times, published a declaration of principles in these pages setting forth his goals for the respectable but failing newspaper he had just taken over. The 38-year-old publisher, who had already rescued a dying paper in Chattanooga, Tenn., now found himself pitted in New York against powerful, sensationalistic competitors in the heyday of yellow journalism. His statement envisioned a dignified and responsible alternative that would provide trustworthy news and opinion. One especially elegant and inspirational goal -- ''to give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved'' -- has held a place of honor at The Times ever since. Ochs's statement, reprinted below, was widely quoted at the time and remains a worthy credo for journalists everywhere, however difficult to fulfill.
To undertake the management of The New-York Times, with its great history for right doing, and to attempt to keep bright the lustre which Henry J. Raymond and George Jones $(the paper's founding publishers$) have given it is an extraordinary task. But if a sincere desire to conduct a high-standard newspaper, clean, dignified, and trustworthy, requires honesty, watchfulness, earnestness, industry, and practical knowledge applied with common sense, I entertain the hope that I can succeed in maintaining the high estimate that thoughtful, pure-minded people have ever had of The New-York Times.
It will be my earnest aim that The New-York Times give the news, all the news, in concise and attractive form, in language that is parliamentary in good society, and give it as early, if not earlier, than it can be learned through any other reliable medium; to give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved; to make of the columns of The New-York Times a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end to invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.
There will be no radical changes in the personnel of the present efficient staff. Mr. Charles R. Miller, who has so ably for many years presided over the editorial pages, will continue to be the editor; nor will there be a departure from the general tone and character and policies pursued with relation to public questions that have distinguished The New-York Times as a non-partisan newspaper -- unless it be, if possible, to intensify its devotion to the cause of sound money and tariff reform, opposition to wastefulness and peculation in administering public affairs, and in its advocacy of the lowest tax consistent with good government, and no more government than is absolutely necessary to protect society, maintain individual and vested rights, and assure the free exercise of a sound conscience. ADOLPH S. OCHS, New-York, Aug. 18, 1896 | Exactly 100 years ago today, Adolph S. Ochs, the founding father of the modern Times, published a declaration of principles in these pages setting forth his goals for the respectable but failing newspaper he had just taken over. The 38-year-old publisher, who had already rescued a dying paper in Chattanooga, Tenn., now found himself pitted in New York against powerful, sensationalistic competitors in the heyday of yellow journalism. His statement envisioned a dignified and responsible alternative that would provide trustworthy news and opinion. One especially elegant and inspirational goal -- ''to give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved'' -- has held a place of honor at The Times ever since. Ochs's statement, reprinted below, was widely quoted at the time and remains a worthy credo for journalists everywhere, however difficult to fulfill. | 3.381818 | 1 | 165 | low | high | extractive |
http://nypost.com/2015/11/30/knicks-porzingis-will-remember-dwight-howards-vicious-slam/amp/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160620234747id_/http://nypost.com/2015/11/30/knicks-porzingis-will-remember-dwight-howards-vicious-slam/amp/ | Knicks’ Porzingis will remember Dwight Howard’s vicious slam | 20160620234747 | November 30, 2015 | 1:01am
Dwight Howard slams one down as Kristaps Porzingis watches. Photo: Charles Wenzelberg
Overtime turned into a painful reality for the Knicks and rookie Kristaps Porzingis.
Kobe Bryant wrote an online poem Sunday titled “Dear Basketball’’ to announce he was saying goodbye to the sport after the season.
For nearly 3½ quarters Sunday, the Knicks were weaving a more pleasant fairy tale. The club soldiered on without an ill Carmelo Anthony and were whipping the Rockets by 14 points midway through the fourth quarter minus their lone All-Star.
Anthony had called it “a must-win,” but it turned into an unhappy ending, a choke job, their fourth straight loss and one very humbling moment for Porzingis, who got muscled out of the way and dunked on by center Dwight Howard on the first possession of overtime that paved the way for the Rockets’ 116-111 come-from-behind victory.
Porzingis had another 20 and 10 game against the Rockets (20 points, 13 rebounds, 8 of 13 shooting, two blocks in a career-high 40 minutes). But the burning memory was Howard’s power alley-oop slam on top of the 7-foot-3 Latvian’s head off a feed from Marcus Thornton that set the tone in the extra session. Reality check indeed.
“He dunked on me,’’ Porzingis said. “He got me. I was asking the guys, ‘When is the next game against Houston?’ But I got to wait until next season. It happens. He’s a great player. He dunked on me. I’m looking toward playing next time against him.’’
Porzingis wasn’t the same after Howard imposed his will on his skinny frame. He made a bucket in the opening minute of overtime, then didn’t attempt another shot. Nine days ago, when Porzingis notched seven blocks and five fourth-quarter offensive rebounds, Howard was resting on the second night of a back-to-back and not standing in his way.
Howard and Porzingis spoke briefly after the game.
“I didn’t even think about [the dunk], but after the game [Porzingis] said, ‘That was a nasty dunk,’ ” Howard said. “It was good playing against him. When they drew up the play, Marcus [Thornton] said, ‘You better go get it.’ ”
Howard said he realizes one monster dunk won’t deter Porzingis for long as he spoke with only flattery.
“Watching the draft, Knicks fans booed Porzingis,’’ Howard said. “But now it is a big love affair. Fans really embrace him. I like what he is doing on the floor. He is gifted. He’s going to be scary in a couple of years.’’
Without Anthony, Porzingis wasn’t ready to be the leading man in crunch time. Arron Afflalo did his best Anthony impersonation, scoring 31 points on 13-of-19 shooting in defeat.
This had all the makings of a wildly impressive victory, but it turned into another defeat and an 8-10 record. Anthony became a late scratch with an undisclosed illness. La La Vazquez, Anthony’s wife, tweeted that his young son, Kiyan, was taking care of Anthony, but the Knicks failed to take care of the ball in crunch time with 23 turnovers. In fact, they started playing like an aging Bryant.
“We obviously missed Melo,’’ Porzingis said. “Maybe the game surely would have been different with him.
“We played our [butts] off.”
Without their lone All-Star, the Knicks unified as a team for nearly four quarters. Lance Thomas started in Anthony’s place and did all the hustling, energetic stuff to make up for the absence of Anthony’s talent, even notching 15 points.
But the stars make the big-time shots and when Thomas squared up from 18 feet with 28 seconds left in regulation of a tie game, he shot an ugly brick. When the Knicks needed a 3-pointer to tie with 10 seconds left in overtime, Afflalo shot wide right. The Knicks retained possession, but Jose Calderon barely grazed the rim on his potential game-tying 3-point attempt.
The Knicks had that 14-point lead midway through the fourth, but two minutes later, after a stolen inbounds pass by Thornton (18 points), it was 91-89 with 5:29 left. Dread had engulfed the Garden, for good reason.
Yes, the bar has been set low, but the Knicks, even in defeat, are a band of feisty underdogs that fans are falling for hard. They are easy to root for, especially because of Porzingis.
Only a chronic injury, always a risk with supersized bigs, can derail Porzingis from becoming a future All-Star and staying in the race for rookie of the year with Karl-Anthony Towns and the suddenly troubled Jahlil Okafor. The latest is the Sixers rookie center was reportedly caught going 107 mph across the Ben Franklin Bridge. You will only find Porzingis speeding when running up and down the court in the Knicks’ Tarrytown facility, working on his fast-break skills.
The hardest thing to do in New York sports is to find something bad to write about the giant rookie, who has fascinated the fan base and pummeled Houston before Howard answered with his alley-oop message.
Porzingis’ response? “Dear Basketball: I can’t wait to get see Superman again.’’ | Dear Basketball: Overtime turned into a painful reality for the Knicks and rookie Kristaps Porzingis. Kobe Bryant wrote an online poem Sunday titled “Dear Basketball’’ to announce he was saying goo… | 28.621622 | 0.918919 | 9.567568 | medium | medium | extractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/11/why-nigeria-is-the-worlds-most-dangerous-place-to-be-a-geography/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160621025827id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/2016/04/11/why-nigeria-is-the-worlds-most-dangerous-place-to-be-a-geography/ | Why Nigeria is the world's most dangerous place to be... a geography teacher | 20160621025827 | Boko Haram is singling out geography teachers in its campaign of terror against Western education in Nigeria, it has been revealed.
Teachers of the subject have emerged as an unlikely top target for the group because their lessons contradict its bizarre worldview on how the Earth was created.
Boko Haram believes that the Earth is flat rather than spherical, and that rainfall is caused not by evaporation, but by God’s divine will.
As such, geography teachers are ranked alongside Nigerian security chiefs and senior politicians as prime candidates for assassination.
The threats to geographers are outlined in an extensive new report by Human Rights Watch, which lays bare the devastating impact wreaked by Boko Haram on Nigeria's school system.
It says that a total of 600 school staff have been murdered by Boko Haram since 2009, and that 19,000 have quit their jobs due to threats and attacks.
“Boko Haram insurgents have shown particular distaste for certain subjects like geography."
The report is timed to coincide with this Thursday's two year anniversary of Boko Haram's kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in Borno state in north-east Nigeria. They remain as hostages to this day.
The report says that in Borno, which is Boko Haram's main stronghold, schooling in 22 out of 27 local government areas has been closed down, depriving hundreds of thousands of children of the right to learn.
“In its brutal crusade against Western-style education, Boko Haram is robbing an entire generation of children in northeast Nigeria of their education,” said Mausi Segun, Human Rights Watch’s Nigeria researcher. | Boko Haram is singling out geography teachers in its campaign of terror against Western education in Nigeria, it has been revealed. | 13.521739 | 1 | 23 | low | high | extractive |
http://time.com/3859425/mad-men-don-draper-grandfather/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160621134556id_/http://time.com:80/3859425/mad-men-don-draper-grandfather/ | My Mom Is a Real-Life Sally Draper | 20160621134556 | Sometime in 2007, my aunt called my mom to tell her about a new show on AMC about an advertising man in the mid-20th century, with a house and family in Westchester County, New York, who makes a habit of taking liquid lunches with his colleagues. “You have to watch it,” she said. “It’s our childhood.”
My grandfather, James Wickersham, was not known for philandering or a bleak outlook on life, à la Mad Men‘s Don Draper. But otherwise, the similarities felt uncanny: He worked for McCann-Erickson, the firm that acquires Sterling Cooper & Partners in season seven, from 1956 to 1967, a hearty overlay of the years the show takes place. Like Don, his career began in the military, but he was a bit older, fighting in WWII rather than Korea. At McCann, he was sort of a fusion Don and Roger—he worked on the account side, not creative, but he often made the pitch to the client. At the same time, his work required him to wine and dine clients at restaurants like Lutèce. Like all of the Mad Men, he had a fully stocked bar in his office.
Grandpa joined McCann-Erickson with the title “account executive” and left as “chairman and chief operating officer of McCann/ITSM.” A few of his roles over the years were for different subsidiaries of McCann’s holding company, Interpublic. He isn’t around anymore to confirm any details, but our family remembers a few anecdotes from his pitching years. McCann wanted Don to work on Coca Cola; my grandfather actually did. He also worked on Standard Oil a.k.a. Esso (now Exxon) when its slogan was “Put a tiger in your tank.” He played a big role in the company’s work for the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign in 1964.
In a pitch to IBM that involved automating its systems, he filled in for a computer operator who got sick before the meeting. He was thoroughly briefed for his job as pinch hitter, but he stumbled on a simple question: “What language does your computer system use?” an IBM exec asked. “English?” he said with a smile. Everyone in the room apparently cracked up.
He had a lot of respect for the creative side, but could be dubious of ads he considered ineffective. My uncle recalls that while watching television with him growing up, my grandfather would say after clever-seeming ads ended, “Quick, tell me what the product was!” Often, he couldn’t remember.
At home in Rye (the town Betty moves to with the children when she marries Henry Francis), my grandmother, Mary, had a biography not too different from Betty’s. She was well educated—she had attended the University of Pennsylvania, but had to drop out to care for her younger siblings when her mother fell ill. She went on to work at a magazine, Farm Journal, and like Betty, she modeled—shoes, since she had tiny feet. She stopped working when she settled down, and like many intelligent women of that era, probably would have been happier if she had a life outside the home. She loved the socializing that went with her husband’s job, but she sometimes had Betty’s frostiness with the children—she clearly longed for intellectual stimulation outside motherhood, a case of the feminine mystique.
There were four children in the Wickersham family, not three like the Drapers. The first girl, my mother, is Sally. She calls herself “the original Sally Draper,” and plenty of the show’s scenes match her life. In an early episode, a very young Sally D. serves cocktails at a party at the Draper house. Sally W. and my aunt Sue did the same thing as children in Rye. They would pass out Scotch to the guests, many of them McCann employees, “until the cuteness wore off and we were sent to bed,” my mom says.
Like the young Miss Draper, Sally and Sue had white go-go boots with zippers up the back. Unlike Miss Draper, they were actually allowed to wear them (just not with short skirts).
Lots of female Mad Men fans ask themselves if they’re more of a Joan or a Peggy—the show practically invited such characterization in the early episode “Maidenform,” during a scene about an ad comparing Jackies and Marilyns.
I can easily identify with Peggy in 2015, but back then, would I have been the one in a million who actually broke a glass ceiling? Not likely, and to pretend I would is self-flattery. Odds are I’d be more like Betty and my grandmother: a brief career, marriage, and a quiet, suburban life. Odds are, most of us women would be.
Both my grandparents died when I was in elementary school, and I wish my grandfather had lived longer so I could have heard all of his pitch stories. But even more, I wish my grandmother had lived to see me work in magazines just as she had. We could have talked about her favorite president, Nixon, who has appeared on the cover of TIME more than anyone else, and whose resignation made her cry. And we could have discussed all the authors whose books we’ve seen Betty Draper read: Freud, Fitzgerald, Mary McCarthy. Maybe even Betty Friedan. | My grandpa was a Mad Man, with an ex-model wife to boot | 70.333333 | 0.733333 | 1 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/10658144/National-Insurance-reform-could-cost-us-dear.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160621153331id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/finance/personalfinance/tax/10658144/National-Insurance-reform-could-cost-us-dear.html | National Insurance reform could cost us dear | 20160621153331 | National Insurance is, in other words, another income tax and it is used in pretty much the same way, even though some subtle differences remain. There is, notionally, a National Insurance Fund from which the Government borrows for social spending whenever it is in surplus (as now) or tops up from general taxation when it is in deficit. In theory, part of the NI fund is hypothecated to help pay for the NHS, but it operates on a “pay as you go basis”.
To see how an unscrupulous chancellor can manipulate this confusion, we only need to think back to the 2002 Budget. Labour had promised in its manifesto the previous year not to increase income tax. So, instead, Gordon Brown raised NICs, ostensibly to pay for the NHS. This was a flagrant breach of electoral trust – but Labour got away with it because the two taxes were, in the public mind, different.
But in the 100 years or so since National Insurance was introduced as a basic social insurance scheme by David Lloyd George in 1911, those differences have been eroded almost to nothing. Every government over the past 40 years has considered integrating the tax and benefits system in order to achieve greater transparency and reduced administrative costs for employers. But they have always backed away, principally because they see the political dangers. It would, for instance, completely remove even a semblance of the contributory principle from social and welfare payments.
This trend is already evident with the classification of the state pension as a benefit, when many people would consider it to be an entitlement for which they have paid throughout their working lives. The reality is that the Government is under no contractual obligation to pay the state pension at a particular level or at a specified age, as recent reforms have demonstrated.
However, at least while lip-service is still being paid to the contributory principle, and people think they are investing in a rainy day fund to pay for their dotage, it is harder for the politicians to break their implied pension promises.
But there is one outstanding difference between NICs and income tax that should raise suspicions about any attempt to merge them. Pensions are subject to income tax but not to National Insurance contributions. Once the two are rolled together, what is to stop the government increasing the taxation of pensions? Indeed, perhaps that is why Mr Osborne is said to be “attracted” to the idea, since the Treasury appears to think that the growing number of better-off retired people have never had it so good and are ripe to have their feathers plucked.
Instead of dreaming up even more opportunities to fleece us, the Conservatives should be looking to the long-term unsustainability of the welfare state and aiming for greater private provision, more individual responsibility, less state interference and lower taxes. Rather than moving further away from the concept of a genuine social insurance system, we should be trying to establish one that the Treasury cannot plunder.
- Annuity calculator: See how much income you might get | A 'simpler’ tax system would provide politicians with yet another opportunity to pick our pockets | 32.555556 | 0.444444 | 0.444444 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/03/08/google-hires-chris-poole/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160621203603id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/03/08/google-hires-chris-poole/ | What Does Google Want With 4chan Founder Chris Poole? | 20160621203603 | Google goog has made a surprising and fascinating hire: Christopher Poole, better known to many as “moot”, the founder of infamous meme mine and troll haven 4chan.
“I can’t wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company,” Poole wrote on Tumblr.
Bradley Horowitz, Google’s vice president of “streams, photos and sharing,” confirmed the news on his Google+ page.
Poole founded 4chan in 2003, originally as an image-sharing hub for fans of Japanese anime. However, the service’s embrace of anonymity and rejection of censorship made it a risqué place, to put it beyond mildly. The more family-friendly memes to have emerged from 4chan include lolcats and rickrolling — others were outright racist, homophobic and anti-women. The hacktivist group Anonymous was born there.
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He quit the site at the start of 2015, in the wake of two notorious incidents that thrust the site into the public eye: the enthusiastic and repeated sharing of the hacked nude photos of celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence, and the “Gamergate” clash over sexism in video games.
When Poole tried to clamp down on illegal activities such as the dissemination of those photos, and the release of Gamergate targets’ personal information, 4chan users pushed back hard. He left, handing over the reins to some of the site’s volunteer administrators, and later in 2015 he sold 4chan to the Japanese creator of the site’s inspiration, 2channel.
Apart from 4chan, Poole also founded an imageboard website called Canvas in 2010, picking up Andreessen Horowitz funding. Canvas folded at the end of 2014 after failing to catch on.
Google, meanwhile, was pretty unsuccessful with its big social-networking effort, Google+.
For more on Anonymous watch our video.
In November, the company pulled back on its long-running attempt to make the Google+ the social glue that links all of Google’s disparate services, deciding instead to focus on interest-based communities and topic-based collections of posts. It had already split off the photo-sharing aspect of Google+ into a separate app earlier in the year.
What does Google want with Poole? Well, the company is surely aware of 4chan’s largely negative reputation, but there’s no denying that the site was successful at spawning memes that broke into the consciousness of regular web users and the media. Under Poole’s light-touch stewardship, 4chan was at its best a conduit for crowdsourced creativity. At its worst, it attracted attention for all the wrong reasons.
Google+ failed to divert many people’s attention at all, and probably didn’t cause many sleepless nights at its big rival, Facebook fb . Perhaps whatever Google is planning as its next social move will benefit from Poole’s expertise. The question is: will he bring his trademark mischievousness with him, or is it time for moot to settle down?
Here he is giving a TED talk back in 2011: | The 4chan founder has joined Google. So far there are few details, other than the fact that he will do something to do with communities. | 21.5 | 0.571429 | 0.571429 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/05/16/apple-ceo-tim-cook-china/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160621210652id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/05/16/apple-ceo-tim-cook-china/ | Here's Why Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Visiting China | 20160621210652 | Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook visited Beijing on Monday, days after announcing a $1 billion deal with ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing, and as the U.S. firm tries to reinvigorate sales in China, its second-largest market after the United States.
From weakening smartphone sales to the loss of an iPhone trademark dispute and the suspension of some of its online entertainment services, Apple has been facing a flurry of problems in recent weeks in China.
Cook has planned to meet high-level government officials, a source familiar with the matter said earlier this month.
At an Apple Store in central Beijing on Monday, Cook met with Didi Chuxing President Jean Liu, according to the ride-hailing company on Monday. Cook has said the investment would help Apple better understand the critical Chinese market.
Didi is working towards an IPO in the United States that would likely take place in 2018, a person with knowledge of the plan said on Monday.
Also present at the Apple Store meeting were executives from other app companies, including Meituan-Dianping, a group buying and order-in service firm.
Apple aapl did not immediately respond to a request for comment. | The nation is of growing importance to the company. | 22.7 | 0.7 | 0.9 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://nypost.com/2016/05/16/go-to-church-if-you-want-to-live-longer/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160622100302id_/http://nypost.com:80/2016/05/16/go-to-church-if-you-want-to-live-longer/ | Go to church if you want to live longer | 20160622100302 | Going to church could save your life — no, seriously!
A new study has found that women who worship more than once a week had a 33 percent lower mortality rate than those who stay at home.
“Our results suggest that there may be something important about religious service attendance beyond solitary spirituality,” explained Tyler VanderWeele, a professor of epidemiology at the T.H.Chan School of Public Health at Harvard and author of the study, which was published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
“Part of the benefit seems to be that attending religious services increases social support, discourages smoking, decreases depression, and helps people develop a more optimistic or hopeful outlook on life,” he said.
VanderWeele and his team analyzed data from 1992 to 2012 from the Nurses Health Study and found that of the 74,534 women surveyed,14,158 went to church more than once a week, 30,401 went weekly, 12,103 went less than once a week, and 17,872 never went.
The ladies were either Catholic or Protestant.
During this span, 13,537 women died — with 2,721 dying from cardiovascular disease and 4,479 from cancer.
Data showed that the women who attended church more than once a week were 27 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease — and 21 percent less likely to die from cancer — compared to women who stayed home.
When all was said and done, women who packed the pews at least two times a week had a 33% lower mortality risk and lived an average of five months longer than those who never went to church, the researchers said.
In addition to being beneficial to one’s health, the study shows that attending religious services regularly also reduces stress, keeps people feeling optimistic and even helps some find their soul mate.
During the 20-year research period, women who regularly attended religious services were more likely to be married, had fewer depressive symptoms and were also less likely to be smokers. | Going to church could save your life — no, seriously! A new study has found that women who worship more than once a week had a 33 percent lower mortality rate than those who stay at home. … | 8.386364 | 0.909091 | 21.090909 | low | medium | extractive |
http://time.com/3829722/free-coffee-pret-a-manger/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160622113105id_/http://time.com:80/3829722/free-coffee-pret-a-manger/ | How to Get Free Coffee at Pret a Manger | 20160622113105 | If you’ve ever dined at Pret A Manger, you might have received a free coffee, or noticed another customer getting one, for no reason at all. But it turns out there is a reason for this, and it’s all part of CEO’s Clive Schlee’s business strategy.
Schlee has given all employees the power to hand out free drinks (or even, sometimes, free food) to customers they like best. They can give out a limited number of items each week, and that means 28% of customers receive something free.
It just depends on whether or not the staff finds you attractive and likable.
“They will decide ‘I like the person on the bicycle’ or ‘I like the guy in that tie’ or ‘I fancy that girl or that boy,'” Schlee told the London Evening Standard. He said the company thought about offering loyalty cards, but ultimately “didn’t want to spend all that money building up some complicated Clubcard-style analysis.”
Occasionally giving customers free stuff is part of Schlee’s strategy to eventually become as big as McDonald’s or Starbucks, with shops all over the world.
So, next time you’re in Pret, try flashing an extra-special smile at the employees or wearing your cutest shirt. Maybe you’ll get a free cookie out of it. | Basically: look nice and be charming | 37.428571 | 0.142857 | 0.142857 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.tmz.com/2012/12/22/nip-tuck-dylan-walsh-divorce-settlement-final | http://web.archive.org/web/20160622180707id_/http://www.tmz.com:80/2012/12/22/nip-tuck-dylan-walsh-divorce-settlement-final | Dylan Walsh -- Ordered to Pay Ex-Wife HALF Of 'Nip/Tuck' Money | 20160622180707 | is officially divorced from his ex-wife -- but guy shoulda signed a pre-nup ... because the split's gonna cost him half of pretty much everything, including his "Nip/Tuck" money.
The divorce decree was signed by a judge last week -- and according to the divorce docs, Walsh agreed to pay his actress ex-wife
half of his royalties from "Nip/Tuck," a couple movies, an "SVU" episode, and more.
Meanwhile, Going agreed to pay him half of her royalties from work she did during their marriage -- including acting work on random shows like "CSI," and "Criminal Minds."
Since Walsh made out with more than Going, Walsh also agreed to ante up an extra $118,376 to even out the spoils.
As for their 9-year-old daughter -- Walsh and Going have agreed to split legal custody.
Walsh -- who makes $93,000 per episode on his new show "Unforgettable" -- has agreed to pay roughly $4,300 from each paycheck in child support. Oh yeah, he also has to pay a boat load of spousal support until 2015.
Walsh filed for divorce in 2010. They got married in 2004.
The lesson -- sign a pre-nup. | Former "Nip/Tuck" star Dylan Walsh is officially divorced from his ex-wife -- but guy shoulda signed a pre-nup ... because the split's gonna cost him half… | 6.702703 | 0.891892 | 20.405405 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.people.com/people/article/0%2C%2C20784620%2C00.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160623092751id_/http://www.people.com:80/people/article/0,,20784620,00.html | The Funniest Moments from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon : People.com | 20160623092751 | updated 02/07/2014 AT 12:45 PM EST
•originally published 02/07/2014 AT 10:00 AM EST
In his five years hosting
, Jimmy Fallon has mischievously mixed up the after-dark talk-show format.
Fallon has become the master of getting celebrities off the interview couch and on the show's stage to sing, dance and occasionally get egged.
bits that really delivered the laughs. | From the history of rap to the evolution of dance, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has taught us a lot | 3.47619 | 0.47619 | 0.761905 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/01/dc.madam/index.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160623121334id_/http://www.cnn.com:80/2008/POLITICS/05/01/dc.madam/index.html?eref=rss_us | 'D.C. Madam' found hanged | 20160623121334 | (CNN) -- Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the "D.C. Madam," was found dead in Florida on Thursday, according to Tarpon Springs police.
Deborah Jeane Palfrey was convicted of running a high-powered prostitution ring.
Palfrey hanged herself in a storage shed on her mother's property, where she had been staying, police said. Palfrey's mother, 76-year-old Blanche Palfrey, found the body, police said.
Palfrey was convicted April 15 in connection with a high-end prostitution ring catering to Washington's elite. She had said in interviews that she would kill herself before going to prison.
"Blanche Palfrey had awoken from a nap and began to search the residence for her daughter," police said. "When she went outside, she noticed a three-wheel bicycle had been moved that was normally kept in the shed." The older woman then saw her daughter's body hanging from a metal beam under the shed's roof, police said.
"The mother's obviously distraught," said Tarpon Springs police Capt. Jeffrey Young. "This is the hardest part in any type of situation like this, when you have a suicide. It's all the victims that are left behind."
Police earlier said "handwritten notes were found on scene that describes the victim's intention to take her life, and foul play does not appear to be involved."
The Pinellas County Medical Examiner's Office will determine the cause of death, police said. Watch police confirm death of "D.C. Madam" »
Palfrey's lawyers expressed sadness at news reports.
"I am devastated to hear about this," Montgomery Blair Sibley said before police confirmed the death. Her court-appointed lawyer Preston Burton said, "This is tragic news. My heart goes out to her mother."
She was found guilty of money laundering, racketeering and mail fraud and faced a maximum 55-year prison term at her sentencing, scheduled for July 24.
Prosecutors estimated that she would have received a sentence between 57 and 71 months, about six years, because of sentencing guidelines and other factors that would have been taken into account.
"I'm looking at 55 years in a federal penitentiary, and at my age, that is virtually a life sentence," Palfrey told CNN Radio's Ninette Sosa in March. "Realistically, we estimate between eight and 15 years. I'm also looking at the complete forfeiture of my entire life savings and work."
She said the government "went after me. They found out that I'm not who they thought I was, and instead of dropping the whole matter they decided to press forward and, what the heck, she's a woman, she's weak, we'll intimidate her, we'll humiliate her, we'll pounce on this poor lady and she'll give in."
Palfrey told writer Dan Moldea, who was helping her write a book, that she would commit suicide rather than return to jail, according to Time magazine.
"She had done time once before [for prostitution]," Moldea told Time. "And it damn near killed her."
Palfrey had made similar comments to ABC News in 2007, saying, "I sure as heck am not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone, you know, four to eight years."
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, which prosecuted Palfrey, said, "we extend our condolences to Ms. Palfrey's family."
At least one lawmaker, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, a Republican, turned up in the phone records of her business, Pamela Martin & Associates.
State Department official Randall Tobias resigned in May 2007 after confirming that he patronized Palfrey's business.
Palfrey argued her business was a legitimate, legal escort service.
"There's no violence, there's very little if any drug activity. There's very little if any fraud. Basically a bunch of benign women who want to make a living. This is not racketeering by any means -- this is running a business," she told CNN Radio in March. E-mail to a friend
CNN's Paul Courson and Kevin Bohn and CNN Radio's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report. | Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the "D.C. Madam," was found dead in Florida on Thursday, according to Tarpon Springs police. | 32.153846 | 1 | 26 | medium | high | extractive |
http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0%2C%2C20612225_20619159%2C00.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160624065302id_/http://www.people.com:80/people/package/article/0,,20612225_20619159,00.html | Misty May Treanor, Women's Beach Volleyball Final : People.com | 20160624065302 | Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings (top, left-right), Jennifer Kessy and April Ross
08/08/2012 AT 11:30 AM EDT
It will be an all-American showdown Wednesday when Team USA takes on Team USA in the women's beach volleyball final.
will play Jen Kessy and April Ross for the gold medal. It's the first time since 1996 – when beach volleyball
– that two teams from the same country have competed for the gold.
As both teams prep for
, get to know who's who on the beach volleyball court.
May-Treanor, 35, is on her way to her third consecutive Olympic gold, after winning in 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing. In Athens, May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings – who have played together for 11 years – took home the gold after seven matches. Then in Beijing, the duo made history when they became the first beach volleyball team to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals. After Beijing, May-Treanor ruptured her Achilles tendon while practicing for
, forcing her to drop out of the show. Although she recovered, May-Treanor did not compete for a year following the injury. With plans to retire after the London Games, Wednesday's final could be the last time for viewers to see May-Treanor play.
The 6'3" 34-year-old mother of two considers May-Treanor her volleyball hero. As a sophomore in high school, Walsh Jennings asked for May-Treanor's autograph after her team defeated May-Treanor's. The two would later meet again after their parents met during the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the idea of playing together was first proposed. At the Sydney Games, Walsh Jennings played with the women's indoor volleyball team and ranked fourth. Prior to teaming up with May-Treanor, Walsh had never played volleyball on the beach. Walsh Jennings and fellow beach volleyball player, Casey Jennings, tied the knot in 2009 and
, Joseph Michael, 3, and Sundance Thomas, 2.
The London 2012 Games mark Kessy's Olympic debut. However, the 35-year-old California native boasts a number of impressive accomplishments. In 2009, Kessy and partner Ross won the world championships. Then in 2010, Kessy became the sixth American woman to win over $1 million in career earnings. Kessy also
last spring, appearing in ads leading up to the London Games. âI have always dreamed of being a CoverGirl,â Kessy told PEOPLE in April, adding that when she was asked to be a face of the brand she "thought [she] was being punked."
At 30, Ross is the youngest player competing for the gold in Wednesday's final. While at USC, Ross was awarded four-time All-American and two-time NCAA champion. In 2001, tragedy struck when Ross lost her mother, Margie, to breast cancer. Sometimes while on the court, Ross will tap her chest twice and point to the sky as a tribute. Although they'll face off on Wednesday, Ross and May-Treanor share the same alma matter: they both attended Newport Harbor High School in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Kerri Walsh Talks About Her Last Olympics with Misty May-Treanor | Before Team USA takes on Team USA in the women's beach volleyball final, get to know the players | 31.5 | 0.9 | 9.3 | medium | medium | extractive |
http://www.aol.com/article/2015/11/10/the-most-efficient-us-airports/21262312/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160624113350id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2015/11/10/the-most-efficient-us-airports/21262312/ | The most efficient US airports | 20160624113350 | Flying somewhere this holiday season? You won't be alone. Nearly 1 million flights passed through U.S. airports in November and December last year. With air travel volumes still ascending, 2015 promises more of the same. That means
, longer lines at security and every traveler's nemesis: overbooked flights. And big crowds are just one reason holiday travel can be a drag.
Check out these 5 tips to save on holiday air travel.
Along with the aforementioned inconveniences, lost luggage and flight delays also rate among the biggest downers for travelers and nothing grounds the holiday spirit quite like a cancelled flight. Plus there's the large expense of travel during the holidays.
There are certainly ways to save money on travel (like by using rewards credit cards) and the obvious way to avoid these perils is to skip the traveling altogether and stay home for the holidays. If you must get out of dodge for a while, however, some airports will serve you better than others. SEE ALSO: How to save with your credit cards during the holiday
To find the most efficient U.S. airports, SmartAsset looked at data on the more than 5.85 million flights that crossed American skies over the past year. For the 100 largest airports by flight volume1 we analyzed seven different metrics of performance, including the average departure delay, the cancellation rate and the average time spent on the runway. (Read more about our methodology below.)
Use SmartAsset's credit card comparison tool to find great deals on travel rewards credit cards.
Portland's much-beloved airport rated in the top 20 for every single efficiency metric we considered. Just 0.4% of flights departing from PDX over the past year were cancelled, a fraction of the national average cancellation rate.
Even on the rare occasions that a flight is cancelled, travelers should find themselves fairly comfortable at PDX. The airport receives rave reviews for its dining and shopping amenities. Those who have some time on their hands might want to leave the airport altogether. Downtown Portland is easily reachable from PDX by light rail (one reason Portland is also a top city for conferences).
Thinking about an Alaskan voyage this winter but worried about travel issues? Rest easy. ANC is among the country's best airports. Just 0.7% of flights through ANC over the past year were cancelled. Likewise, Anchorage International has the lowest average departure delay of any airport in the country at just 7 minutes.
While Anchorage receives an average of 79 inches of snow per year, double the average in Chicago, the airport is never caught off-guard by winter weather. Plows are always at the ready to keep runways clear.
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3. SLC (Salt Lake City)
Thinking about a ski trip this winter? If you're wary of delayed or cancelled flights putting a freeze on your plans, Salt Lake City may be a good hub for any downhill adventures. Salt Lake City International Airport rated second or first in four of the metrics we considered in our analysis. It has the second lowest average departure delay and second lowest cancellation rate.
The second airport in the PNW to rank among the country's top five most efficient, Sea-Tac has the lowest cancellation rate of any major U.S. airport. Just 0.37% of flights out of SEA were cancelled over the past year. That is less than a quarter of the national average.
John Wayne International is the most efficient of several airports in the Los Angeles area. Others include LGB (Long Beach) and LAX (Los Angeles), which respectively ranked eighth and 44th in our analysis. Santa Ana edges both on its cancellation rate and the percentage of departing flights that are delayed by 60 or more minutes. Less than 1% of flights out of SNA are cancelled, while about 4.4% are delayed by an hour.
The top-ranked airport east of the Continental Divide, MSP serves as a major hub for Delta Airlines. It is also the largest airport in the upper Midwest, handling some 116,000 flights over the past year. Despite that volume, MSP rated in the top 15 of major U.S. airports in four of the metrics we considered.
Unsure how to choose a rewards credit card? We've got you covered.
The only areas in which it did not excel were related to taxi-time. On average, it takes flights out of MSP 17 minutes to take off after they leave the gate.
The second airport in Washington State to rank among the country's top 10, Spokane International (formerly Geiger Field) handles about 10,100 flights per year. Among the cities which have non-stop flights to and from Spokane are Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and Los Angeles. GEG rated third in SmartAsset's analysis for both the average length of delays and the percentage of departing flights that are delayed by an hour or more.
This Los Angeles-area airport is the smallest to crack the top 10, handling about 1.4 million passengers per year. As a result of local ordinances that restrict flight noise and frequency, it is unlikely to expand. Nonetheless, the airport has daily flights to a range of cities including Boston, New York and Austin. It also has the fourth lowest average departure delay of any of the country's largest 100 airports.
Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta International is easily America's busiest airport, handling about 375,000 flights per year. That's more than 1,000 flights per day, more than double the volume of all but four other U.S. airports. Nonetheless, despite that traffic, ATL performs quite well across the metrics SmartAsset analyzed.
It had the fifth lowest cancellation rate of any major airport in the U.S., with cancellations on just half a percent of all departing flights over the past year. It's major delay rate likewise ranked among the 20 lowest, with a mere 4.5% of flights leaving an hour or more after their scheduled departure from ATL.
Flying into (or out of) the Bay Area? If you're able to pick and choose your airport, San Jose International may be your best bet. It tops the airports in both San Francisco and Oakland for cancellation rates and the average length of departure delays. Arriving flights also reach their gate quickly at SJC, spending an average of just 4.2 minutes on the runway. That is the 9th lowest taxi-in time of any major airport.
To find the country's best airports, SmartAsset looked at flight data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. We analyzed each of the 5.85 million flights that departed from or arrived at a U.S. airport from August 2014 through July 2015. For each of the country's largest 100 airports we calculated the following six metrics:
In order to control for airport size, we also looked at the total volume of flights for each airport. All things being equal, an airport that handles 100,000 flights while rating well on the above metrics is more efficient than an airport that handles 50,000 flights.
After calculating these statistics for each airport, we ranked all 100 airports across all seven metrics. We then averaged those rankings, giving half weight to the taxi-in and taxi-out time for each airport and full weight to the other metrics. We assigned scores from 0 to 100 according to these average rankings. The top rated airport scored a 100, while the airport with the worst average ranking scored a 0.
Questions about our study? Contact us at blog@smartasset.com.
1. We did not include Hawaii in our analysis. The state's geographic isolation means that airports in Hawaii face significantly different operating conditions than airports on the mainland.
The post The Most Efficient U.S. Airports appeared first on SmartAsset Blog. | The average departure delay and cancellation percentage No. 1 airport on the list both rate in the top 5 lowest (aka best) among major US airports. | 49.933333 | 0.9 | 1.633333 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.tmz.com/2010/11/17/mel-gibson-moves-to-strip-oksana-grigorieva-of-child-custody-lucia-court/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160624134420id_/http://www.tmz.com:80/2010/11/17/mel-gibson-moves-to-strip-oksana-grigorieva-of-child-custody-lucia-court/ | Mel Gibson Tries to Strip Oksana Grigorieva of Child Custody | 20160624134420 | 's lawyers will appear in court on Monday and ask the judge in his custody war to award him sole custody of baby
... this according to court documents.
According to the documents, in addition to attempting to take custody away from
, Mel's lawyers will ask
to award her visitation, but only with a monitor. And Mel's lawyers want the judge to deny Oksana any overnight visits with the baby.
Mel's lawyers argue in the documents that Oksana's false and derogatory statements to the media about Mel and the attempt to sully his character show she is not acting in the best interests of Lucia. Oksana trashed Mel last night on "
As TMZ first reported, Judge Gordon has warned Oksana she could lose custody if she talked to the media. | TMZ has learned Mel Gibson's lawyers will appear in court on Monday and ask the judge in his custody war to award him sole custody of baby Lucia ... this… | 4.6875 | 0.90625 | 16.78125 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SF-woman-who-sought-to-have-embryos-preserved-6642106.php | http://web.archive.org/web/20160625005543id_/http://www.sfgate.com:80/bayarea/article/SF-woman-who-sought-to-have-embryos-preserved-6642106.php | S.F. woman who sought to have embryos preserved loses legal case | 20160625005543 | Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle
Mimi Lee arrives at San Francisco Superior Court for the second day of testimony in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 in her case against ex-husband Stephen Findley involving custody of their frozen embryos.
Mimi Lee arrives at San Francisco Superior Court for the second day of testimony in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 in her case against ex-husband Stephen Findley involving custody of their
Mimi Lee (left) arrives at San Francisco Superior Court with an unidentified woman for the second day of testimony in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 in her case against ex-husband Stephen Findley involving custody of their frozen embryos.
Mimi Lee (left) arrives at San Francisco Superior Court with an unidentified woman for the second day of testimony in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, July 14, 2015 in her case against ex-husband Stephen
Stephen Findley arrives at San Francisco Superior Court on McAllister Street for the third day of testimony in a trial against his ex-wife Mimi Lee involving custody of their frozen embryos in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, July 15, 2015.
Stephen Findley arrives at San Francisco Superior Court on McAllister Street for the third day of testimony in a trial against his ex-wife Mimi Lee involving custody of their frozen embryos in San Francisco,
Stephen Findley arrives at San Francisco Superior Court on McAllister Street for the third day of testimony in a trial against his ex-wife Mimi Lee involving custody of their frozen embryos in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, July 15, 2015.
Stephen Findley arrives at San Francisco Superior Court on McAllister Street for the third day of testimony in a trial against his ex-wife Mimi Lee involving custody of their frozen embryos in San Francisco,
S.F. woman who sought to have embryos preserved loses legal case
A judge ruled Wednesday that the frozen embryos of a divorced San Francisco couple must be thawed and destroyed despite the ex-wife’s desire — over her former husband’s objections — to use them to become pregnant.
The decision by Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo clarifies in an era of emerging reproductive technologies what happens to frozen embryos in California when one person in a dispute wants them and the other one doesn’t. The judge said that directives signed by the couple agreeing that the embryos be “thawed and discarded” in the event of a divorce must be respected.
“It is a disturbing consequence of modern biological technology that the fate of the nascent life, which the embryos in this case represent, must be determined in a court by reference to cold legal principles,” Massullo wrote in an 83-page tentative ruling. “However, only an infinitesimally small percentage of the four million frozen embryos currently in storage in the United States are destined to be implanted and brought to life.
“There must be rules to govern the disposition of the rest.”
The case heard this summer drew national attention as a test of spousal rights over frozen embryos.
Mimi Lee, 46, a former anesthesiologist turned musician, sought to use the embryos she and her former husband, investment analyst Stephen Findley, 45, froze prior to beginning treatment for breast cancer diagnosed just days before their September 2010 wedding. Given her age and the anti-hormone medications needed to treat the cancer, she was expected to be rendered infertile.
The couple, who have known each other since they were undergraduates at Harvard University, quickly opted to undergo in vitro fertilization to preserve their chance at having biological children. The IVF procedure involves extracting a woman’s eggs and fertilizing the ovum with sperm outside the body. The fertilized embryos can then be frozen in liquid nitrogen for future use.
Before the procedure, the couple signed an agreement with the UCSF Center for Reproductive Health that said the embryos would be given to one of them only in the event of the other’s death, but were to be destroyed in other circumstances, including divorce.
Lee’s therapies eradicated the cancer, but her marriage to Findley did not survive. Findley filed for divorce in August 2013. Lee, wanting to take advantage of her last chance to have biological children, brought the matter of the frozen embryos to court, arguing that the agreement they had signed was not binding and violated her right to procreate.
She testified in court that the agreement was hastily signed and that such directives are not set in stone. Her former husband told the judge the couple had discussed wanting to have children together only if they were married to each other.
In her ruling, Massullo said the contract was valid. “It is undisputed that Lee never informed Findley or UCSF that she believed she would unilaterally change the directives,” the judge wrote.
Lee did not respond to calls or e-mails. In a statement, her attorneys said Lee “is disappointed with the court’s tentative ruling and is evaluating her legal options.”
Findley’s attorneys did not respond to requests for comment. The parties have 15 days to file objections. The decision becomes final after the judge reviews the objections and makes any changes, if necessary, to the opinion.
Stanford medical ethicist David Magnus was not surprised at the ruling, considering that state courts in such cases have made similar rulings.
Magnus said the courts have been reluctant to enforce parenthood on someone who does not want to be a parent and have put great weight on contractual agreements made in advance. “It’s just hard to imagine any circumstance in this case where the court would have ruled differently than it did,” said Magnus, who directs the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics.
In a similar high-profile case working its way through a California court, the ex-fiance of Sofia Vergara has sued the actress to keep her from destroying the two frozen embryos the couple created in 2013.
Beverly Hills attorney Fred Silberberg, who is representing Vergara, agreed with Wednesday’s ruling in the Lee-Findley case, saying that one party should not have the option to change his or her mind after the fact.
“The fact that material is cryogenically preserved should not give one party the ability to force the other into unwanted parenthood or to have to relinquish their right to their biological child,” Silberberg said in a statement.
Victoria Colliver is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vcolliver@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @vcolliver | A judge ruled Wednesday that the frozen embryos of a divorced San Francisco couple must be thawed and destroyed despite the ex-wife’s desire — over her former husband’s objections — to use them to become pregnant. The decision by Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo clarifies in an era of emerging reproductive technologies what happens to frozen embryos in California when one person in a dispute wants them and the other one doesn’t. The judge said that directives signed by the couple agreeing that the embryos be “thawed and discarded” in the event of a divorce must be respected. “It is a disturbing consequence of modern biological technology that the fate of the nascent life, which the embryos in this case represent, must be determined in a court by reference to cold legal principles,” Massullo wrote in an 83-page tentative ruling. Mimi Lee, 46, a former anesthesiologist turned musician, sought to use the embryos she and her former husband, investment analyst Stephen Findley, 45, froze prior to beginning treatment for breast cancer diagnosed just days before their September 2010 wedding. The couple, who have known each other since they were undergraduates at Harvard University, quickly opted to undergo in vitro fertilization to preserve their chance at having biological children. Before the procedure, the couple signed an agreement with the UCSF Center for Reproductive Health that said the embryos would be given to one of them only in the event of the other’s death, but were to be destroyed in other circumstances, including divorce. Lee, wanting to take advantage of her last chance to have biological children, brought the matter of the frozen embryos to court, arguing that the agreement they had signed was not binding and violated her right to procreate. “The fact that material is cryogenically preserved should not give one party the ability to force the other into unwanted parenthood or to have to relinquish their right to their biological child,” Silberberg said in a statement. | 3.31383 | 0.978723 | 40.989362 | low | high | extractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/06/23/fiat-chrysler-recall-star-trek/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160625052925id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/06/23/fiat-chrysler-recall-star-trek/ | Auto Defect Cited in Death of 'Star Trek' Actor Is Getting a Quick Fix | 20160625052925 | Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said on Wednesday it is speeding up its software fix for 1.1 million recalled vehicles for rollaway risks like the recalled Jeep Grand Cherokee involved in the death of actor Anton Yelchin.
The company said that last week it began providing software required to service vehicles to its 2,400 U.S. dealers after initially telling owners that the fix would be ready in the fourth quarter of the year. On May 24, Fiat Chrysler told dealers the software would be ready no later than July or August.
The company will start notifying owners of the availability of the recall fix on Friday. Fiat Chrysler fcau said “advance planning is critical to efficient customer care and represents an acceleration—by several months—of the originally anticipated service launch.”
Reuters reported Tuesday that some dealers had already started scheduling repairs for vehicles. It is not clear how many vehicles have been repaired.
The software is available for the vehicles equipped with 3.6 liter and 5.7 liter engines, which account for a majority of the recalled vehicles. Fiat Chrysler said the software for the remaining vehicles will be available soon.
The upgraded software includes an “Auto Park” feature that “eliminates the possibility of the driver inadvertently failing to place the transmission into ‘PARK’ prior to exiting the vehicle,” according to a document sent to dealers first reported by the automotive website Jalopnik.
Yelchin, best known for playing Chekhov in “Star Trek” was killed when his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled away and pinned him against a fence and mailbox in Los Angeles, police said on Sunday.
Fiat Chrysler in April recalled more than 1.1 million cars and SUVs worldwide because vehicles may roll away after drivers exit, an issue linked to 41 injuries, 212 crashes and 308 reports of property damage.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which upgraded its probe into the issue in February, said earlier that its “investigation of the shifter in these vehicles showed it is clearly a safety issue that has led to hundreds of crashes and dozens of injuries.”
The Auto Defect Cited in Death of Star Trek Actor Is Getting A Quick Fix
The agency said it is monitoring investigations into Yelchin’s death by Los Angeles police and Fiat Chrysler. No determination has been made if the recall defect was to blame for Yelchin’s death. | Fiat Chrysler said it is speeding up a software fix for 1.1 million recalled vehicles. | 27.5625 | 1 | 4.75 | medium | high | mixed |
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/residents-trump-building-pool-less-summer-article-1.2684227 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160625183629id_/http://www.nydailynews.com:80/entertainment/gossip/confidential/residents-trump-building-pool-less-summer-article-1.2684227 | Residents in Trump building will have pool-less summer | 20160625183629 | Donald Trump is a high-energy candidate, but his pool is drained.
Residents at Trump Plaza Jersey City are furious that they will have to sweat out a long hot summer without their swimming pool, despite paying upward of $3,000 a month for a one-bedroom apartment.
Disappointed denizens at the 55-story luxury tower learned this week that construction would begin on the building’s seventh-floor deck, which houses their in-ground pool. Management has assured tenants that it “expects the job to be completed by the end of May 2017.”
“I moved to my apartment for the pool for my daughter and now they just told us they are closing for repairs,” says one tenant.
KING: Donald Trump is a pervert
Metropolis Nights magazine editor Chaunce Hayden — who lives across the street — suddenly loves the big gaudy tower to his north.
“I have neighbors asking if they can pay me $500 to use my pool for the summer,” laughs Hayden, who plans to write about his experience on his website Metnights.com. “I don’t know how he’s going to stop ISIS if he can’t put water in a pool, but he’s helping me make money.”
On Trump International Realty’s website, the tower is said to boast an “exquisite design, unparalleled service (and) superior amenities.”
Presumably that includes the “pool.”
Hillary Clinton hits back at Trump in North Carolina speech
“They have a fence around it — it’s a hole!” says Hayden. He claims that he was perilously close to renting an apartment in that Trump building before moving into a unit across the street instead. Hayden says he took a tour and found Trump’s building gaudy, despite its striking view of Manhattan.
“His units looked like his cuff links,” he recalls.
According to Hayden, the best advertising for his own unit’s pool is the amazing view from Trump’s monstrosity across the street.
“Their building looms over my pool, so they can watch me swimming all day,” he laughs.
Donald Trump hires Michele Bachmann, Jerry Falwell Jr.
A rep for Trump International Realty did not reply to a request for comment. | Donald Trump is a high-energy candidate, but his pool is drained. | 29.133333 | 1 | 15 | medium | high | extractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/06/25/mood-of-uncertainty-after-a-night-that-produced-as-many-question/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160627084955id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/business/2016/06/25/mood-of-uncertainty-after-a-night-that-produced-as-many-question/ | Mood of uncertainty after a night that produced as many questions as answers | 20160627084955 | Larger multinationals, by contrast, will benefit from the lower level of sterling particularly as their overseas profits will translate a portion of their profits back into sterling.
And yet already some price falls, such as banks and housebuilders, have been exaggerated in my view. Will houses really stop being built as a result of Thursday’s momentous decision?
And should banking shares, which have fallen sharply in the aftermath of the vote, be priced for a sharp recession and a significant increase in the level of bad debts? Will we look back and see these as potential buying opportunities?
It seems highly likely that ratings agencies will cut the UK’s sovereign AAA credit rating. Such cuts, and the associated increase in borrowing costs, are likely to impact negatively on an economy already impacted by twin deficits (the fiscal deficit, namely the shortfall between the Government’s expenditures and income, and the current account deficit, being the difference between the UK’s imports and exports).
So what of the reaction from central bankers? Details on the policy response to the referendum result are already emerging and are only likely to emerge further over time, which may add to the existing uncertainties.
While monetary easing by the Bank of England – either through interest rate cuts or, more likely, through a restarting of quantitative easing – seems probable, this is unlikely to be a sufficient standalone response to prevent contagion from the UK into other markets. This raises the question of whether governments globally will be forced into fiscal stimulus measures?
The political consequences are far-reaching too and, once again, the result of the vote raises many more questions than it answers.
Chief among these, in light of the announcement of David Cameron’s resignation, is what shape the Tory leadership contest will take.
In the likely scenario of a Boris Johnson versus Theresa May race, a lurch to the right of the political spectrum seems highly likely.
Meanwhile, the result of the vote in Scotland shows a very different picture from that of England, with voters north of the border choosing resoundingly to remain in the EU. As such, the likelihood of a break-up of the United Kingdom has increased significantly.
Further afield, already questions are being asked over whether the result of the UK vote will lead to more widespread calls for constitutional reform in other European countries. Italy, for example, already faces a referendum, on this very topic of constitutional reform as soon as October.
Nor would we be surprised to see amplified calls from, for example, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark to leave the EU. Should such anti-establishment sentiment gather momentum, we would anticipate a more co-ordinated policy response within the EU.
Within equity markets, as ever at times of market stress, emotional reactions will mean that price falls will overshoot; this is the very nature of stock markets.
And yet, we have already noted with interest that sterling has rallied from the lows in the immediate aftermath of the result, possibly the result of actions of overseas investors.
On a personal note, it is hard not to feel disappointed at the result, which we know is likely to lead to a difficult period and further volatility for UK equity investors.
The rise in prices of perceived safe havens such as gold, which has broken convincingly through the $1,300 per ounce level, and the sharp rally in UK 10-year Gilts is testimony to the fact that, for now, investors err on the side of caution.
But as every seasoned investor is reminded, the time to pick up stock is when no other buyer wants it. Perhaps this could be one such opportunity?
Richard Buxton is head of UK equities at Old Mutual Global Investors | For those of us who stayed up all night to watch events unfold on June 23 it has been an extremely long night, and one which poses as many questions as it answers. | 20.685714 | 0.571429 | 0.8 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://time.com/3858258/infant-childhood-antibiotics-adulthood-gut-bacteria-diseases-obesity/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160627160415id_/http://time.com:80/3858258/infant-childhood-antibiotics-adulthood-gut-bacteria-diseases-obesity/ | Use of Antibiotics in Infants Tied to Diseases in Adulthood | 20160627160415 | Illness may appear in adulthood because of antibiotic resistance we develop when doctors prescribe us antibiotics as newborns and infants, researchers say.
The antibiotics may alter infant gut bacteria, which are tied to everything from allergies and obesity to infectious diseases, according to a new study published in the scientific journal Cell Host & Microbe.
Researchers from the University of Minnesota found that antibiotics eliminated bacteria in the gut that enabled the growth of allergen-fighting immune cells. Antibiotics were also found to alter critical gut microbiota that determine our vulnerability to a number of infectious diseases.
“Over the past year we synthesized hundreds of studies and found evidence of strong correlations between antibiotic use, changes in gut bacteria, and disease in adulthood,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Dan Knights.
Antibiotics remain the most prevalent drug prescribed to children, accounting for approximately a quarter of all childhood medications. However, around 30% of prescriptions are deemed unnecessary.
“We think these findings help develop a roadmap for future research to determine the health consequences of antibiotic use and for recommendations for prescribing them,” Knights added. | By altering infant gut bacteria, antibiotics make us vulnerable to disease later | 16.384615 | 0.615385 | 1.538462 | medium | low | mixed |
http://www.people.com/article/john-oliver-brexit-donald-trump-last-week-tonight | http://web.archive.org/web/20160628000956id_/http://www.people.com/article/john-oliver-brexit-donald-trump-last-week-tonight | John Oliver Blasts Brexit, Donald Trump on Last Week Tonight : People.com | 20160628000956 | 06/27/2016 AT 12:30 PM EDT
is not happy with voters in his native United Kingdom – "a place," he says, "whose very name, after this week's events, is beginning to sound a bit sarcastic."
Oliver is referring of course to Britain's controversial vote to leave the European Union, a decision which the comedian completely eviscerated in the latest episode of his show,
"First, Britain was already independent. In fact, it's what many other countries celebrate their independence from," Oliver said. "Second, the sequel to the movie [
] actually opened this week, and features the wholesale destruction of London, which is beginning to feel pretty f---ing appropriate right now."
Oliver went on to skewer pro-Brexit campaigners Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, calling Farage, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party, the "three-time cover model for Punchable Face Magazine," and Johnson "a shaved orangutan with Owen Wilson's hair."
Oliver also said he wasn't as thrilled with Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation as he thought he'd be. "It's like catching an ice cream cone out of the air, because a child was hit by a car," he said. "I mean, I'll eat it – but it's tainted somehow." Oliver added that viewers should have no sympathy for Cameron because "the whole vote was his idea in the first place."
The comedian closed the segment by warning U.S. voters of the very real possibility of
"You might think, 'Well, that is not going to happen to us in America. We're not going to listen to some ridiculously haired buffoon peddling lies and nativism in the hopes of riding a protest vote into power,' " Oliver said. "Well, let Britain tell you it can happen. And when it does, there are no f---ing do-overs."
Oliver wasn't the only one picking apart the players on the Brexit stage. In a new campaign ad, presumptive Democratic nominee
unleashed a scathing – though far less colorful – critique of Trump's response to the Brexit tumult.
"Every president is tested by world events, but Donald Trump thinks about how his golf resort can profit from them," a voiceover says as the ad cuts to a clip of Trump celebrating the Brexit vote at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. "When the pound goes down, more people are coming to Turnberry, frankly," Trump says.
The ad closes with a message to voters: "In a volatile world, the last thing we need is a volatile president." | John Oliver called pro-Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson "a shaved orangutan with Owen Wilson's hair" | 27.368421 | 0.842105 | 5.052632 | medium | medium | mixed |
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/02/23/how-much-does-the-average-wedding-cost/21317215/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160628195115id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2016/02/23/how-much-does-the-average-wedding-cost/21317215/ | How much does the average wedding cost? | 20160628195115 | Your wedding day creates memories that last a lifetime. Unfortunately, those memories often come at a high price, and that price is on the rise. The average wedding cost has grown significantly in recent years, making it more difficult for couples to save enough money to pay for their dream weddings.
To see if there's a way around spending too much on your wedding day — without sacrificing what's important to you — we provide this breakdown of the average cost of a wedding, and what exactly goes into that amount.
Related: 5 Wedding Budget Questions You Need to Ask Your Fiance
If you and your significant other announced your engagement and are now preparing to tally the overall cost of your wedding, you might be shocked by the fact that the average cost of a wedding in the U.S. is equal to that of a brand-new car or a hefty down payment on a house.
According to a study conducted by The Knot, the average wedding cost about $31,213 in 2014, up from $29,858 in 2013. Despite the higher cost for weddings, however, couples are inviting fewer guests. In 2014, the average wedding had 136 guests, down from 149 in 2009.
Here's how much you can expect to spend on your wedding based on the number of guests you invite:
The truth is, a wedding doesn't need to cost anywhere near $31,213 -- a couple can cut wedding costs and still celebrate their nuptials in style. Here's how. With the average cost of a wedding estimated in the tens-of-thousands, here's a look at typical costs couples incur according to The Knot. Keep in mind these costs assume a wedding with 100 guests:
Related: 8 Tips for Haggling With Wedding Vendors Some people prefer to hire a professional wedding planner to handle the details of the event. When you factor in that wedding planner cost, your total spend will go up by another $1,973 on average.
Other items not mentioned in the list but that are not necessarily vital to a wedding include a videographer, rental car or limo, hair and makeup services, bridal shower, bachelor party and wedding favors.
A typical wedding encompasses a broad range of costs, depending on your preferences. However, just sticking to the low end of expenditures can get you a nice wedding that includes a lot of the major elements, most important being great food and music. View photos of 18 of the strangest bridesmaids photos:
How much does the average wedding cost?
The cost for each element of a wedding varies significantly depending on factors like location, the time of year you're getting married, and how far in advance you plan. Here's a look at the most expensive cities and the cheapest states to get married in the U.S.
Related: Why Millenials Put Mortgages Before Marriage
The first step in preparing for your wedding is actually setting up a wedding budget based on the number of people you plan to invite and the money you and your partner can save. The wedding budget should list must-haves along with a separate section for nice-to-have options — components that can be easily eliminated if they don't fit within your budget.
Next, call around to price everything from venues for the reception down to the cake and flowers. By acquiring estimates, you can quickly determine what's not necessary for your wedding. If you find some costs are too high, but you don't want to eliminate certain pieces of the puzzle, consider the following:
Send Out Electronic Wedding Invitations
Save some cash with eco-friendly save-the-date notices and invitations. There are a variety of designs and styles to choose from, so you can find something that suits your wedding. Beyond the classic Evite, sites like Greenvelope, Paperless Post and Punchbowl offer a great selection of electronic invitations — many of which are free.
Get Married on Thursday, Friday or Sunday
Saturday is the most popular day of the week for weddings, so venues charge a premium for that day. Hold your event on a weekday or a Sunday and you could snag your top-choice venue for much less money.
Have a Wedding in the Park
Many city parks allow people to have private gatherings at low costs, and sometimes for free — but scope out the area first to make sure it's spacious and suitable for well-dressed guests. You can go big on this idea while sticking to a small budget by considering national parks like the National Estuarine Research Reserves on the coasts. Many allow you to have your wedding on site for a small fee. For a special event in a natural setting, these reserves offer an unusual, low-cost option — and one that's beautiful to boot, certified financial planner Rebecca Schreiber of Pure Financial Education said.
Host the Reception at a Community Center
Many church basements are accustomed to holding large parties for dining functions. If you chose a church for your ceremony, you might be able to use the basement afterward to lower your costs. Community centers can also be a budget-friendly option. You won't have to skimp on style, depending on how you decorate and set up the venue, and you might be able to have the ceremony there, too.
If borrowing a gown is not an option, there are other routes you can take to beat the average wedding dress cost. Many wedding shops offer annual sales on gowns that can drop the cost as low as $100. Shop early and find a gown within your price range you're sure to love. If having a designer gown is a priority for you, check out options like Rent the Runway, which, for reasonable prices, rents out dresses that would normally cost thousands of dollars.
Instead of hiring a professional, cut the cost of a wedding photographer by asking a talented friend to take pictures and record video of the wedding and reception.
Rather than hire a traditional wedding DJ, rent or find a quality sound system and hook up an iPod to play hours of great music.
While most wedding party members have to pay for their own outfits, many brides and grooms still chip in for accessories and gifts. To cut costs (and headaches) associated with bridesmaids, groomsmen and ushers, eliminate the wedding rehearsal and dinner, or skip out on having a wedding party altogether.
Buy Low-Cost Invites, Table Decor and More
Consider purchasing table arrangements and more from budget stores. If electronic invitations aren't your style or if sending handwritten thank-you notes after the wedding is important to you, you can look for invitations or cards at the same kinds of stores.
"The number-one tip for saving on your wedding is not serving a sit-down meal," said Sara Margulis, founder and CEO of Honeyfund. Save a large portion of your food budget by reaching out to close family and friends and requesting they bring food (home cooked or store bought) to your affair in lieu of buying wedding gifts. This is an especially great option if you're close friends with a talented chef or baker. Another option is to put a fun, casual twist on the usual wedding fare by hiring a food truck to serve your party.
Ask a Friend to Officiate
Rather than hire someone to officiate your wedding, consider asking your own church pastor, who will likely be happy to take the job for free. You can thank him or her with a nice gift. You could also ask a friend to be ordained for your wedding and to officiate, in lieu of a physical wedding gift.
Trim Your Wedding Flowers Cost
Consider cutting your wedding-flowers cost by only placing flowers in key areas where photos will be taken. If your wedding party will carry flowers, consider putting those bouquets on double duty as centerpieces during the reception.
For every vendor you work with, brace yourself for negotiation. "Get ready to haggle," money-saving expert Andrea Woroch said. "Don't let your vendors know that they are your top choice, and ask if they can offer you a better rate or add value with free extras to make their offer a better value."
For her own wedding, she said, "My live band gave me $100 off the dinner music hour simply because I asked. The venue coordinator was able to throw in a free champagne toast and the hotel manager cut me a break on the cost of the hotel nights."
Even in high-cost cities like New York or Los Angeles, it's likely that you know people who have found ways to have a fantastic, low-cost wedding with absolutely no regrets. Margulis shared that she once attended a wedding that cost less than $1,500. "A public space for the ceremony, a small guest list and Mexican catering truck made it happen," she said.
Another option to consider is taking a vacation alone as husband and wife, and having the wedding and honeymoon in one trip. Plan your wedding during an off-peak season to save more. And if you want a really low-cost wedding, you can opt for a courthouse or home wedding with a few friends and family.
So, how much does a wedding cost? Regardless of figures and averages, keep in mind that you're in charge of how much you spend. You should feel free to spend any amount you want for your wedding as long as you can afford it; it's your big day and it should be as lavish as you desire.
However, if you want to cut corners on the cost of marrying the love of your life — or simply aren't interested in the frills of an extravagant wedding — you can still have a beautiful event within a modest wedding budget.
RELATED: Cities with the most expensive rent
How much does the average wedding cost?
7. Northern New Jersey, New Jersey
Ruth Sarreal contributed to the reporting for this article. More on GOBankingRates: Why You Should Invest at Least $5,000 Before 2016 What's the Tax Penalty for 401k Early Withdrawal? 10 Ways to Survive Rising Health Care Costs | To see if there?s a way around spending too much on your wedding day -- without sacrificing what?s important to you -- here's a breakdown of all the costs. | 63.741935 | 0.903226 | 4.580645 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Public-gets-a-view-of-what-keeps-the-San-7382284.php | http://web.archive.org/web/20160629025207id_/http://www.sfgate.com:80/bayarea/article/Public-gets-a-view-of-what-keeps-the-San-7382284.php | Public gets a view of what keeps San Francisco working | 20160629025207 | Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle
Pat Meagher shows elementary students, including Ella Schwartz, 10, how to operate a backhoe.
Pat Meagher shows elementary students, including Ella Schwartz, 10, how to operate a backhoe.
Public Works staff teach elementary school students how to fill potholes in a city operations yard.
Public Works staff teach elementary school students how to fill potholes in a city operations yard.
Clark Wilmerding, 10, practices filling a pothole on his own, one of many operations open house visitors learned about.
Clark Wilmerding, 10, practices filling a pothole on his own, one of many operations open house visitors learned about.
Public Works staff display their work equipment, including a bucket used by the urban forestry department in the operations yard during their open house.
Public Works staff display their work equipment, including a bucket used by the urban forestry department in the operations yard during their open house.
Public Works staff teach elementary students including Theodore Nielsen (A’s cap), 10, to fill potholes.
Public Works staff teach elementary students including Theodore Nielsen (A’s cap), 10, to fill potholes.
Public Works staff show graffiti painting on dividers to Diego Muro (left), 17, in the operations yard.
Public Works staff show graffiti painting on dividers to Diego Muro (left), 17, in the operations yard.
Public Works supervisor Patty Maloney gives plants to visitors at the operations yard during an open house.
Public Works supervisor Patty Maloney gives plants to visitors at the operations yard during an open house.
Public gets a view of what keeps San Francisco working
From 70 feet in the air, Brooke Bianco clutched the rim of a bucket cart as it jerked and jumped higher and higher.
“I can see bird nests up here,” she called down to her 10-year-old son, Luke Bianco. “This is so freaky. I have a bird’s-eye view of the birds. You never get to see this from the ground.”
Luke waved and inched forward in the line, eager for his ride in the bucket truck. A line of elementary students snaked behind him, heads craned up to look at Bianco.
They were among the more than 200 children and young adults who filled the San Francisco Public Works operations yard off Cesar Chavez Street Thursday to crawl through a sewer, build a planter or toolbox, fill potholes, and operate a backhoe. Hordes of tiny workers in bright yellow hard hats and plastic gloves learned the nitty-gritty of carpentry and street cleaning, metal work and tree trimming.
The event was part of Public Works Week and sought to showcase how skilled labor helps keep the city running. And, in a city fixated on technology, it was an introduction to types of work children might not have otherwise considered.
“We want kids to see that these are real, good-paying jobs,” said Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru. “There are a lot of opportunities. Nothing happens in this city without Public Works being involved. We fix and build, and deal with roads, trash, trees and graffiti. We rely on skilled laborers, and we need more of them.”
The department employs about 64 trade workers, including carpenters, locksmiths, electricians, painters, plumbers and metal workers. At one workstation, carpentry supervisor Jeffrey Soria helped students hammer together wooden planters. Soria, whose father was also a carpenter, has done the work for 25 years.
“So many times kids are glued to their phones or the technology part of things,” he said, sighing. “But if your toilet floods, you still call the plumber. And if your roof leaks, you call the roofer. Things like building a planter show kids that the field can be fun and that it’s necessary for the city to function and thrive.”
Jane Rudenko, a 9-year-old dressed all in pink, struggled to hold a rake nearly twice as tall as she is. Under the instruction of a volunteer, she used it to fill a square pothole with asphalt. Her mother, Masha Rudenko, recorded a video on her iPhone.
“Coming from Ukraine, I have an interesting perspective on all of this,” Masha Rudenko said. “I just want my daughter to see a little bit of everything. It’s very important to understand how the city works and how our streets stay clean and functioning. San Francisco does a great job.”
The hands-on experience drew shrieks and giggles from the groups of students, who also got to paint traffic pylons covered in graffiti and scoop up dirt with a backhoe. Ellie Griffiths-Barnhart, 10, planted rosemary and yellow marigolds in two pots, then scribbled her name on the side with permanent marker.
“This is really, really cool, but kind of a lot of work,” she said. “I poured asphalt, and someone has to figure out where it goes while the other person mixes it around. Planting the rosemary was my favorite part because my dad and I like to cook together.”
Others had already chosen the line of work. A large group of Treasure Island Job Corps students moved from station to station, trying to decide which trade they should focus on. Booths from different unions lined a walkway, and members were ready to provide advice.
Johnathen Dugue, 21, inspected a newly made planter, pointing out a gap where the boards didn’t perfectly come together.
“I would have measured this and made it a tighter fit,” he said. “I think carpentry is what I want to do. But this gives us a chance to explore what each trade does. It gives you a heads up as to what is out there. These kind of jobs are so necessary, and there is a huge market out there. It’s nice to know I’ll have a job doing something I love.”
Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LizzieJohnsonnn | From 70 feet in the air, Brooke Bianco clutched the rim of a bucket cart as it jerked and jumped higher and higher. A line of elementary students snaked behind him, heads craned up to look at Bianco. Hordes of tiny workers in bright yellow hard hats and plastic gloves learned the nitty-gritty of carpentry and street cleaning, metal work and tree trimming. The event was part of Public Works Week and sought to showcase how skilled labor helps keep the city running. “We want kids to see that these are real, good-paying jobs,” said Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru. The department employs about 64 trade workers, including carpenters, locksmiths, electricians, painters, plumbers and metal workers. At one workstation, carpentry supervisor Jeffrey Soria helped students hammer together wooden planters. Things like building a planter show kids that the field can be fun and that it’s necessary for the city to function and thrive. The hands-on experience drew shrieks and giggles from the groups of students, who also got to paint traffic pylons covered in graffiti and scoop up dirt with a backhoe. Booths from different unions lined a walkway, and members were ready to provide advice. | 4.991561 | 0.962025 | 23.21519 | low | high | extractive |
http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0%2C%2C20996464_21013585%2C00.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160629054048id_/http://www.people.com:80/people/package/article/0,,20996464_21013585,00.html | Swimmer Matt Grevers Talks Goals for Rio Olympics : People.com | 20160629054048 | 06/26/2016 AT 01:20 PM EDT
Most athletes never make it to even a single
Later this month at the Olympic trials in Omaha, Nebraska, swimmer Matt Grevers – a six-time Olympic medalist and four-time world champion – will try to make his third trip to the Games, this time
. He wants to relive the indescribable joy of representing his nation – and winning.
"It's the best feeling in the world," he tells PEOPLE.
Grevers' Olympic career started with disaster. In 2004, after training only indoors as a youth in suburban Chicago and at Northwestern University, Grevers was faced with an outdoor meet for his first Olympic trials. The unfamiliar glare of the sun disoriented him, and he swam into a lane marker, then overcompensated and hit the other side of the lane. He touched the wall in a disappointing seventh, his back dripping blood, and didn't qualify.
He spent the next three years building impressive stats in Big Ten, NCAA and Summer National meets – and never forgetting the 2004 disaster. In 2007, he moved to Tucson, Arizona, to train outdoors for the 2008 games. His move paid off. In Beijing he won gold in the 400m medley and freestyle relays, and silver in the 100m backstroke. Then came a decision.
"The way our sport is designed, we get serious every four years – we call them quadrenniums – so since last Olympics I had to decide, do I want to keep going? You pretty much go for four years or you retire after the last Olympics," says Grevers, who along with USA Swimming, is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds.
He kept going, and at the
in 2012, he achieved a goal he had cultivated since age 10: individual Olympic gold. He took the prize in the 100m backstroke, also claiming a repeat gold in the 400m medley relay and silver in the 400m freestyle relay.
"It took me 17 years to attain that goal – standing on the podium and having them put that medal around your neck and just thinking about all the lifestyle choices I made to get there and how much my family, friends and fiancée at the time had helped me get there," he says.
But still, he didn't retire. The fire was still burning, and physically Grevers remained at the top of his game.
"I had to make a new goal, so my new goal is to get the world record in the 100 meter long-course backstroke," Grevers explains. "On the way to that, I was actually able to get the short-course world record back in December. It was pretty cool. It gave me a taste of what a world record feels like, and I was very excited."
Grevers was tantalizingly close to breaking the long-course record in the 2012 Olympic trials, when he finished in 52.08 seconds, just 0.14 of a second shy of his teammate and former idol Aaron Piersol's 2009 mark. At the time, Grevers was focused on getting into the Olympics, but coming that close to the world record gave him a new goal – the long-course record.
And that's what has kept him motivated through four more years of training.
"It could take years of hard work just to drop a tenth of a second. So that's been on my mind and has been pushing me and making sure I get out of bed in the mornings when I don't really want to get out of bed," he tells PEOPLE.
Although Grevers' focus is razor sharp in the pool, he thinks he has been around so long because he puts the intensity aside when he's not working. Some athletes carry it everywhere they go, but that's not for everyone.
"Michael Phelps in 2008 was the most focused human being I have ever met, and he did something that wasn't supposed to be possible," Grevers says. "And so, as a swimmer, I don't understand how he did what he did. I don't think it'll ever happen again. He was so focused, it wouldn't work for me. I think I would get overwhelmed."
Whether Rio would be Grevers' last Olympic Games is anyone's guess. After two decades of competitive swimming, he knows no other life.
Rob Harris, who trains Grevers and other elite swimmers at University of Arizona, has watched the Olympian for three years and examined his career since before London. At 31, Grevers is older than most professionals, but he's also as strong as he's ever been. Only Grevers can make that call, Harris says.
"I think the sky's the limit for him," Harris adds. | "It's the best feeling in the world," Matt Grevers tells PEOPLE of winning gold at the Olympics | 44.47619 | 1 | 6.52381 | high | high | mixed |
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/18/obituaries/willie-mosconi-80-who-ruled-the-world-of-billiards-with-style.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160629101220id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1993/09/18/obituaries/willie-mosconi-80-who-ruled-the-world-of-billiards-with-style.html | Willie Mosconi, 80, Who Ruled The World of Billiards With Style | 20160629101220 | Willie Mosconi, acknowledged as one of the greatest pocket billiards players in the history of the sport, died on Thursday afternoon at his home in Haddon Heights, N.J. He was 80.
Mr. Mosconi died of a heart attack, said members of his immediate family.
"For hustlers like Minnesota Fats, billiards was just for fun," said Stanley Cohen, who, with Mr. Mosconi, wrote "Willie's Game" (McMillan), an autobiography published last March. "But for Willie Mosconi, billiards was strictly a business."
Mr. Mosconi, whose name is synonymous with billiards in the way that Babe Ruth's is synonymous with baseball, won the world pocket billiards championship 13 times in 15 years from 1941 through 1956, the year he retired from the professional circuit.
"There will never be another one like him," said his wife, Flora. "He reminded me of a ballet dancer going around the table. He was so quick, so smooth. He did everything so effortlessly. No one was more graceful or had more finesse." Made 526 Balls in a Row
His most heralded records include a high run of 526 straight balls in exhibition play, set in Springfield, Ill., in 1954; a high grand average of 18.34 in a world tournament in Chicago in 1950, and a best game in which he sank 150 balls in a row in one inning (a perfect game) against a disbelieving Jimmy Moore in Kinston, N.C., in 1956.
Born on June 27, 1913, in Philadelphia, Mr. Mosconi learned the game in his father's Philadelphia pool hall. Although his father locked up the cues, Willie, at the age of 6, would assemble potatoes on pool tables and shoot them with broomsticks into the pockets.
As he grew older and honed his skills, Mr. Mosconi was able to combine his great talents with movie-star good looks and tasteful attire. He was able to almost single-handedly establish billiards as a reputable pastime in the minds of the general public.
His efforts to disassociate billiards from the images of smoky basements, bars and parlors crawling with drunks and hustlers was the reason for his feuds over the years with his chief nemesis, Minnesota Fats, a quick-witted, flashy hustler whose real name is Rudolf Wanderone and who always taunted Mr. Mosconi but continually denied invitations to compete against him.
"My husband hated Minnesota Fats because he felt that he was always hurting the image of the game instead of helping it," said Flora Mosconi. "Willie thought so highly of the game that he never referred to it as 'pool.' He insisted on calling it billiards." A Role in 'The Hustler'
During the filming of "The Hustler" in 1961, which starred Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman as pool players who seek matches for money, Mr. Mosconi served as technical director and made several cameo appearances.
Over the years, Minnesota Fats bragged that the movie and the book "The Hustler," written by Walter Tevis, were based on his life.
"At that time, Minnesota Fats, who grew up in New York, was actually called Broadway Fats," said Mr. Cohen. "But after the movie, Broadway Fats changed his name to Minnesota Fats, the character played by Jackie Gleason. This really got Willie upset. He would ask Minnesota Fats if he had ever been to Minnesota."
After years of feuding, Minnesota Fats accepted an invitation to play Mr. Mosconi. The match received considerable attention, and was broadcast live on ABC's "Wide World of Sports" in 1978, with Howard Cosell serving as emcee. Both Mosconi and Minnesota Fats were 65 years old, but still in command of skills. An Easy Victory
Mosconi, dressed in his trademark sports jacket and slacks, his black shoes shining as always, easily defeated the talkative, disheveled Minnesota Fats. Mosconi's rapid-fire, extremely accurate shooting captured the imagination of those who were watching. For Mosconi, it was more than Willie defeats Minnesota. It was billiards defeats pool.
Along with his work on "The Hustler," Mr. Mosconi was featured in a 1948 documentary called "The Willie Mosconi Story." He later wrote "Willie Mosconi on Pocket Billiards" (Crown, 1959).
Besides his wife, Mr. Mosconi is survived by two daughters, Gloria Dickson and Candace Fritch; a son, William Mosconi, and five grandchildren.
Photos: Willie Mosconi playing in a championship billiards match in 1946; Mr. Mosconi in 1983. | Willie Mosconi, acknowledged as one of the greatest pocket billiards players in the history of the sport, died on Thursday afternoon at his home in Haddon Heights, N.J. He was 80. Mr. Mosconi died of a heart attack, said members of his immediate family. "For hustlers like Minnesota Fats, billiards was just for fun," said Stanley Cohen, who, with Mr. Mosconi, wrote "Willie's Game" (McMillan), an autobiography published last March. "But for Willie Mosconi, billiards was strictly a business." | 8.409524 | 0.980952 | 40.561905 | low | high | extractive |
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/07/07/money-makeover-penn-state-grad-vinny-ross-faces-big-student-debt-and-too-little-income/FJFDULKaduE79iNrQHryFJ/story.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160629112226id_/https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/07/07/money-makeover-penn-state-grad-vinny-ross-faces-big-student-debt-and-too-little-income/FJFDULKaduE79iNrQHryFJ/story.html?p1=Article_Related_Box_Article_More | Money Makeover: Penn State grad Vinny Ross faces big student debt and too little income | 20160629112226 | Vinny Ross took his first student loan in 2003, figuring that once he had his engineering degree, he’d earn enough to easily pay off what he owed. But by the time he graduated from Penn State in 2008, he’d switched his major to journalism and accumulated $148,000 in student debt.
The result: A crash course in the problems created by big student loans and too little income. With loan payments consuming about 30 percent of his $3,000 a month take-home pay, Ross had real worries about ever being able to afford more than a no-frills lifestyle. So Ross, 26, who writes technical user manuals for the Navy, applied for a Boston Globe Money Makeover, saying he needed help to dig out from his mountain of debt.
Fee-only financial planner Mary Hoey of Braver Wealth Management had no easy answers when she met with Ross at her Needham office. “The reality is that you have $130,000 of student debt remaining, and that isn’t going to just go away,” she said.
Based on his loan schedule, Ross had another 22 years before his loans would be paid off. That meant the Somerville resident would make his last student loan payment in June 2034 at the age of 48.
“My dad is 48,” said Ross, taking a moment to consider himself at that age. “And my mom turns 48 next month.”
But Hoey said Ross could shed his debt more quickly if he was willing to aggressively tighten his belt, accelerate his loan payments, and perhaps get a part-time job.
Her austerity plan started with ensuring Ross’s monthly loan payments were automatically deducted from his bank account. That would cut a quarter percentage point from the interest rate, lowering most of his loans to 3.52 percent.
Next, she told Ross to take advantage of current low interest rates and start putting an extra $5,000 toward his loans each year. “This is a huge window of opportunity,” she explained. “Rates are going to rise, and when they do, you want to have a lower loan balance.”
Hoey suggested Ross start by putting an extra $250 each month toward his loans, boosting payments to $1,127 from $877. The additional money, she said, could come from a weekend job or cutting back on discretionary expenses. The most likely areas to trim: the $311 a month he spends eating out and $152 in ATM withdrawals for miscellaneous purchases.
Since he is paid biweekly, there are two months a year when Ross receives three paychecks. During those months, Hoey said, he can take $1,000 from the third paycheck and put it toward his loans. Hoey cautioned that Ross needs to make sure that the lender puts extra payments towards principal, rather than using the money as an advance on the next monthly payment, which includes interest.
While student loan holders are often told to consolidate debt, Hoey said that’s a bad idea for Ross. Since most of his loans are from private lenders rather than the government, any consolidation would mean higher interest rates and stiff prepayment penalties.
So what’s the bottom line? Assuming Ross sticks with the program and interest rates don’t change, he should be able to pay off all his loans by September 2022, cutting nearly 12 years off his current repayment schedule. And even if interest rates rose 2 percentage points in 2014, Hoey said, it would only extend his last payment by one year.
Hoey's recommendations were equally aggressive when it came to other financial planning issues. She said Ross should start building an emergency fund by transferring $3,000 from his $8,500 in savings and then adding $100 each month until the emergency account reaches $6,500, enough to cover three months of essential expenses.
Turning to retirement, she said he should boost his company 401(k) plan contribution to 3 percent of income to take advantage of the company match. “And I want you to set up a Roth IRA,” she said, advising him to contribute $100 a month.
To finance these recommended changes, Ross would have to cut $576 from his monthly spending. That would leave him with $110 a month for discretionary expenses, including clothes, travel, hobbies, and movies. That’s not much money, Hoey said, noting a part-time job would provide some financial breathing room.
Still, the belt tightening and aggressive loan repayment would pay off. After 10 years, Hoey said, her projections show Ross would not only have paid off his school debt, but also have nearly $61,000 in retirement savings and another $21,000 in the bank.
Ross’s take on Hoey’s tough-love financial plan? “This is awesome,” he said. “I tried getting myself on a budget, but didn’t know if it was worth it.” With plan in hand, he said, it is.
Goal: Coming up with a plan to manage a mountain of student loan debt Ross graduated from college with a degree in journalism and $148,000 in loans. Faced with 22 more years of payments, he wanted help in finding the best way to pay off the debt. Fee only planner Mary Hoey of Braver Wealth Management, Needham, recommended that Ross:
- Boost annual loan repayment by $5,000 a year to cut nearly 12 years off the repayment schedule.
- Trim expenses by taking lunch instead of eating out and reducing ATM withdrawals.
- Start building an emergency fund and increase retirement savings.
- Get a part-time job to help make ends meet. | Vinny Ross graduated from Penn State in 2008, he’d switched his major to journalism and accumulated $148,000 in student debt.. With loan payments consuming about 30 percent of his $3,000 a month take-home pay, Ross had real worries about ever being able to afford more than a no-frills lifestyle. So Ross, 26, who writes technical user manuals for the Navy, applied for a Boston Globe Money Makeover, saying he needed help to dig out from his mountain of debt. | 11.526316 | 0.989474 | 57.747368 | low | high | extractive |
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/21/business/buffy-moving-to-upn-tries-to-be-wb-slayer.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160629114545id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2001/04/21/business/buffy-moving-to-upn-tries-to-be-wb-slayer.html | 'Buffy,' Moving to UPN, Tries to Be WB Slayer | 20160629114545 | In a rare case of a hit show leaving one broadcast network for another, ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'' a program that was crucial to the original success of the WB network, will move to UPN, its fiercest rival.
The move could prove to be a real blow to the WB network, owned by AOL Time Warner, and could be a boon to UPN, which is owned by Viacom Inc. and has struggled some to gain a solid foothold in prime time.
''Buffy'' is produced by 20th Century Fox Television, which is part of the News Corporation. News Corporation also owns the Fox broadcast network and will own several UPN affiliates once its agreement to buy the group of stations owned by Chris-Craft Inc. is completed.
That is expected to happen within the next couple of months.
Also, Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, is believed to be interested in buying a piece of UPN upon the completion of that deal.
Fox's decision to move ''Buffy'' to the WB's bitter rival exacerbated growing tensions between the network and the Fox studio, which also provides WB with ''Roswell'' and the ''Buffy'' spin-off, ''Angel.''
In a statement released last night, WB said, ''20th Television has made an inauspicious decision for the television industry by taking one of their own programs off of a nonaffiliated network and placing it on a network in which they have a large vested interest.''
But executives at the Fox studio said that the purchase of ''Buffy'' was about who would pay most for the program.
''If News Corporation didn't own a single UPN station we would have made the exact same deal,'' said Sandy Grushow, the chairman of the Fox Television Entertainment Group. ''We believe that there is enormous upside potential at UPN and given their passion for the show, given their commitment for the show, we believe they have every opportunity to raise the bar for Buffy.''
Fox said that UPN had ordered 44 episodes of ''Buffy,'' to be shown over the course of two years. Terms of the deal were not disclosed last night, but people close to the talks said that UPN would pay on the order of $2.3 million an episode.
In a statement, Dean Valentine, the UPN chief executive, said the acquisition of ''Buffy'' would start a new era ''in UPN's life and direction.''
The move is the ultimate outcome of a corporate game of chicken between the two sides that highlighted the new realities in Hollywood as its bigger players continue to consolidate in ways that create fragile partnerships.
''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is a defining program for the WB network. Watched by 4.4 million people each week, it revolves around the adventures of Buffy, a teenager born with vampire-slaying powers. The role is played by Sarah Michelle Gellar.
The program has been credited with making WB what it is today -- a leading network for young women. The network boasts a larger overall prime-time audience than UPN, which is geared more toward young men. Both networks started in 1995 as smaller alternatives to the large broadcast networks.
Given ''Buffy's'' success, 20th Century Fox had said that it wanted far more money from WB if it would renew its license agreement for the show, which expires at the end of this television season. It is said to be currently paying $1 million an episode.
In return for renewing the rights, Fox had been asking for more than $2 million, citing the program's continued ratings strength and high production costs.
WB's chief executive, Jamie Kellner, had said that Fox was asking for too much. The network ultimately offered $1.8 million an episode.
But Mr. Kellner appeared to have the Fox studio pinned into a corner. The most likely place for the program other than WB appeared to be the Fox broadcasting network. But if the Fox television studio had sold the program to its direct corporate sibling it could have sent a message that it would be willing to steal a show when it became a success. That could make the rival networks wary of doing business with the studio.
Besides the higher price from UPN, the deal has the advantage of helping News Corporation -- by aiding a network with which it is affiliated -- without making the company look as heavy-handed as it would if the show had been sold to the Fox network.
''Buffy'' will clearly help UPN. Perhaps best known for the World Wrestling Federation's ''Smackdown'' on Thursday nights, the network has been in need of a hit.
By having ''Buffy,'' UPN is expected to have new power with other producers in Hollywood. UPN could be helped further if WB chooses to let go of ''Angel,'' in which case UPN would pick it up.
It is unclear how much losing ''Buffy'' will hurt WB. Stacey Lynn Koerner, a media analyst at TN Media, said it might not suffer as much as might be expected. The network still has strong contenders in ''Felicity'' ''7th Heaven'' and ''Gilmore Girls,'' she said.
Photo: Sarah Michelle Gellar, who plays Buffy on the WB show, with James Marsters. (Jerry Wolfe/WB Television Network) | In a rare case of a hit show leaving one broadcast network for another, ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'' a program that was crucial to the original success of the WB network, will move to UPN, its fiercest rival. The move could prove to be a real blow to the WB network, owned by AOL Time Warner, and could be a boon to UPN, which is owned by Viacom Inc. and has struggled some to gain a solid foothold in prime time. | 11.287234 | 0.989362 | 46.010638 | low | high | extractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/03/03/corporate-responsibility/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160629202850id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/03/03/corporate-responsibility/ | How Corporate America Is Tackling Wildlife Trafficking | 20160629202850 | International criminal syndicates have been engineering industrial-scale killings of elephants, tigers, turtles and other fish and animal species. Traffickers are packaging and delivering illegally procured body parts to consumers in the U.S. and other wealthy nations in the form of jewelry and carvings made of ivory, fashion accessories made of exotic skins, and culinary “delicacies” from increasingly rare animals.
Major U.S. companies are as appalled as the rest of civil society at the scale of the killings, and the estimated $7 billion to $10 billion in annual illegal profits that are impacting our national security by financing terrorist organizations and corrupting and destabilizing governments around the world.
Bipartisan leaders in the Senate and House have joined with the Administration in recognizing that the United States is part of the problem. The National Strategy for Combatting Wildlife Trafficking, released two years ago by a cabinet-level task force, acknowledged that the U.S. is a major market for illegal wildlife products and that consumer demand in the U.S. is helping to fuel the killings. It called on the U.S. to help African nations stop poaching activities and disrupt the criminal networks that bring the illegal products to market. But the National Strategy put equal weight on the demand side of the equation, noting that “criminals will continue to kill wildlife and traffic in contraband so long as the potential profits remain so high.”
To tackle the demand issue, the National Strategy called for a coalition effort in which the government would partner with U.S. corporations and nongovernmental organizations to reduce domestic demand for illegally traded wildlife and wildlife products. The strategy challenged U.S. companies to raise awareness about the wildlife trafficking crisis, “reduce the risk of illegal products entering the supply chain” and “assure consumers that the products they purchase were obtained legally and sustainably.”
Corporate America is stepping up to help end the scourge of wildlife trafficking. Today, 16 U.S. companies are answering the call by announcing commitments to help stop trafficking activities in the United States. They are gathering under the umbrella of the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance, a coalition of companies and NGOs formed in response to the National Strategy and working in partnership with the government to stop the demand for illegal wildlife products in the U.S.
The commitments feature big name companies that are rising to the challenge. Leading the way for the fashion industry is Ralph Lauren rl ; for the e-commerce sector, eBay ebay , Etsy etsy and Google googl ; for the jewelry sector, Tiffany & Company, Signet and the Berkshire Hathaway companies, Richline and Rio Grande; for the auction industry, LiveAuctioneers.com; for the travel and hospitality sector, JetBlue, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Natural Habitat Adventures, and the Adventure Travel Trade Association. Discovery Communications is joining in the effort to educate U.S. consumers about the scourge of wildlife trafficking. So too are the Bronx Zoo and other members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, who will get the word out to the more than 180 million Americans who will visit our zoos and aquariums this year.
These companies are committing their brand names, supply chain expertise, marketing acumen, and communications networks to rid the U.S. of illegal wildlife trafficking. It is corporate social responsibility at its best, aligning the business community with the agencies that are responsible for catching illegal traffickers in the U.S. and the nongovernmental organizations active in this area, including Alliance members such as National Geographic, the World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society, WildAid, the African Wildlife Foundation, and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, among others.
David J. Hayes is chair of the U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance. He is a visiting lecturer at Stanford Law School, and the former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. | Social responsibility is not just an after thought. | 78.444444 | 0.444444 | 0.666667 | high | low | abstractive |
http://nypost.com/2010/02/22/kevin-smith-tim-burton-and-me/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160630014151id_/http://nypost.com:80/2010/02/22/kevin-smith-tim-burton-and-me/ | Kevin Smith, Tim Burton and Me | 20160630014151 | Inspired by Kevin Smith’s feud with Southwest Airlines and its proximity to this week’s opening of the director’s “Cop-Out,” my colleague Reed Tucker revisted the controversies that have preceded so many of Smith’s films into theaters Reed’s story doesn’t mention Smith’s famous accusation — a joke, he claimed later — that Tim Burton borrowed the ending of his “Planet of the Apes” remake from one of Kevin’s comic books. I reported this (and Burton’s famous retort, through a spokeswoman, that he never read comic books) for Page Six just before the release of Smith’s “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” in the summer of 2001. It received huge international pickup, far more than anything else I have ever written. At the time, I still considered myself a friend of Kevin’s, who I had met just after “Clerks” took Sundance by storm in 1995 (I lived a couple of towns away from the film’s setting, the Quick Stop in Leonardo, where Kevin was still working part time). He talked about Burton incident on The Tonight Show, calling me a friend, and my name came up again in a more elaborate version he did on “Table for Five.” It morphed into a full ten-minute standup routine for his college appearances. A clip is above, and below is a never-seen picture of the two of us on the set of “Jersey Girl.” We subsequently had a falling out when Kevin insisted I couldn’t visit the New Jersey location for “Clerks 2” unless I agreed not to write about it for The Post — he was mad at Page Six, for something I hadn’t written. There was no way I could agree to this condition, and we haven’t been in contact since. Five years have gone by and I now feel I can objectively review a film by someone I used to regard as friend. (He was the only filmmaker I ever regarded that way, incidentally; unlike some of my colleagues, I’m more comfortable maintaining a critical distance so I don’t have to worry about hurting people’s feelings). So my Friday review of “Cop-Out” will be the first Kevin Smith movie I’ve reviewed since his first, “Clerks,” 15 years ago. And next week I’ll be reviewing Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” | Inspired by Kevin Smith’s feud with Southwest Airlines and its proximity to this week’s opening of the director’s “Cop-Out,” my colleague Reed Tucker revisted the cont… | 12.184211 | 0.868421 | 10.868421 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/15/science/flick-of-a-frog-s-tongue-finding-secret-of-its-speed-james-p-sterba.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160630040234id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1982/06/15/science/flick-of-a-frog-s-tongue-finding-secret-of-its-speed-james-p-sterba.html | FLICK OF A FROG'S TONGUE | 20160630040234 | A frog's feast is invariably movable. Being extremely fussy eaters, both frogs and toads eschew insects and other small creatures that are unwilling to demonstrate their freshness by crawling, buzzing or flying.
They are connoisseurs of protein in motion, a snobbery made possible by the possession of tongues so fast that they lend deeper meaning to the word ''zap.'' They flip out two or three inches, snap onto a wayward snack and flip back in less than 15/100ths of a second, which is faster than most eyes in nature can follow movement.
How they do this has been one of the riveting, if minor, mysteries in zoology for more than a century. Published theories date from the early 1800's, but none were adequately tested - until now.
Using microcomputers, high-speed movie cameras and a technique called synchronized electromyography, two zoologists at the University of Michigan discounted one major hypothesis and developed evidence to support a second: that the tongue works like a catapult, with muscles perpendicular to each other stiffening to flick the tongue's sticky tip out toward a meal. 'Spectacular' Muscle Action
''This is really one of the more spectacular muscle actions in nature,'' said Carl Gans, a professor of zoology who specializes in studying muscles that do unusual things.
Writing in the June 18 issue of the journal Science, Dr. Gans and G.C. Gorniak, now an assistant professor of zoology at Florida State University at Tallahassee, discounted the hypothesis that the throats of frogs and toads work like a crossbow, in effect, cocking and then propelling the tongue toward its target.
The two scientists concentrated their study on Bufo marinus, or the common marine toad, which has throat and tongue structures similar to many common species of toads and frogs. Unlike, for example, snakes and people, frogs and toads have tongues that are attached backward, that is, to the front of the lower jaw instead of the back of the throat.
To study their tongues, the scientists first had to train the toads in their laboratory not to be distracted from eating by lights, cameras and wires, thinner than human hairs, that were connected to their tongue and throat muscles. Comfort and Food Do the Trick
''The trick is to make them feel comfortable, give them a place to hide and offer them food every day,'' Dr. Gans said in a telephone interview. The food was live beetle larvae.
''The whole body of a frog's tongue is loose and flaccid and the muscle fibers are mushy,'' Dr. Gans said. ''But as soon as they are stimulated, some fibers become rigid, forming a stiff muscle rod down the center of the tongue.''
At the same time, he explained, a second group of muscle fibers, arranged perpendicularly under the base of the tongue, stiffens and rises. This group catapults the tongue rod up, around and out like a spring propelling a mousetrap. ''This action propels the soft tissue at the end of the tongue outward like a wet dishrag,'' Dr. Gans said. ''It then slaps down on the food. The toad has everything out and back in before you can recognize that something has happened.'' Catapult Lever Effect Studied
Other muscle fibers are stimulated to pull the tongue back in. To discover the catapult lever effect, various tongue muscle groups were connected to machines that measure tiny increases in electrical voltage that occur when a muscle cell is stimulated by a signal from the toad's brain. By synchronizing these measurements with highspeed motion pictures (200 frames a second) of the tongue at work, they were able to isolate the major muscle groups involved in each action of the tongue.
They discovered that the hard cartilage tissue of the throat, called the hyoid, was not involved in the tongue flipping action.
Illustrations: Cartoon of a frog | A frog's feast is invariably movable. Being extremely fussy eaters, both frogs and toads eschew insects and other small creatures that are unwilling to demonstrate their freshness by crawling, buzzing or flying. They are connoisseurs of protein in motion, a snobbery made possible by the possession of tongues so fast that they lend deeper meaning to the word ''zap.'' They flip out two or three inches, snap onto a wayward snack and flip back in less than 15/100ths of a second, which is faster than most eyes in nature can follow movement. | 7.084906 | 0.990566 | 56.537736 | low | high | extractive |
http://www.tmz.com/2015/12/22/brittney-griner-gilbert-arenas-wnba | http://web.archive.org/web/20160630070640id_/http://www.tmz.com:80/2015/12/22/brittney-griner-gilbert-arenas-wnba | WNBA's Brittney Griner: SCREW GILBERT ARENAS ... I'll Never Forgive You | 20160630070640 | Will Brittney Griner ever consider forgiving Gilbert Arenas for the stupid sexist comments he made about the WNBA??
Griner says EVERYONE in the league knows what Gilbert said -- and personally, she doesn't ever want to see him at a WNBA game ever again.
Check out the clip ... she's pissed -- and quite frankly, can't really blame her. | Will Brittney Griner ever consider forgiving Gilbert Arenas for the stupid sexist comments he made about the WNBA?? "Hell no." Griner says EVERYONE in… | 2.333333 | 0.833333 | 13.9 | low | medium | extractive |
http://nypost.com/2011/11/08/getting-the-last-laugh/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160630100859id_/http://nypost.com:80/2011/11/08/getting-the-last-laugh/ | Getting the last laugh | 20160630100859 | Comedian Kathy Griffin likes to tell tales out of school — perhaps no more so than when she’s talking about what it means to be a high-level woman in the traditionally male-dominated field of comedy.
“Once I was in this meeting a few years ago with this guy, Ben Silverman,” says Griffin of the former NBC Entertainment chief. “And I was talking to him about going from my Bravo show to a more scripted show. And I was really complimenting him on ‘30 Rock,’ and I said, ‘What’s so great is it’s really proven that just like the shows I grew up with — “Phyllis” and “Mary Tyler Moore” and “Rhoda” and all these female-driven comedies — Tina [Fey] has kind of brought that back in a way that’s so wonderful and successful.’ ”
Griffin — who is one of three female headliners for the New York Comedy Festival, which marks the most women ever on the top billing of the lineup — gets right to the punch line about the closed-doors meeting. After she was told “30 Rock” didn’t make that much money, and after she countered that it had garnered so many Emmys, she heard a line she’ll never forget. “He said: ‘And — it’s really Alec [Baldwin]’s show,’ ” says Griffin, 51, laughing in disbelief. “It’s based on Tina Fey. It’s based on her life. She wrote it. It’s based on her own personal experience that no one ever had, which is to be the first female head writer on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ so I never forgot that phrase. ‘It’s really Alec’s show.’ So I was like, ‘Buh-bye, Ben. Thanks for your time. I’m going to go back to my little cable show and be really, really funny.’ ”
[A representative for Silverman said, “Ben denies Kathy’s statement and is proud that he has worked alongside super-talented comediennes including everyone from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to America Ferrera and Sofia Vergara.”]
Indeed, as Griffin knows better than most, to be a female comic is to work harder, jump higher and get past more misconceptions. Happily, though, it’s finally starting to pay off. Over the summer, Kristin Wiig’s movie “Bridesmaids” shattered box-office records. Highly rated female-centric comedies dominate the fall lineup, from “New Girl” on Fox to Whitney Cummings’ double-header with “Whitney” on NBC and “Two Broke Girls” on CBS. And over on E!, Chelsea Handler’s fempire only continues to grow as she wields unprecedented power in upcoming contract negotiations.
“We’ve entered a new age of the female comedian,” says Caroline Hirsch, the owner of Carolines on Broadway and organizer of the New York Comedy Festival, which runs tomorrow to Sunday.
“These are no shrinking violets.
We’re seeing a new generation of strong and influential female voices in comedy.”
Indeed, the success of “Bridesmaids,” which had a budget of only $32.5 million and boasted a spectacular $287 million in global ticket sales, flew directly in the face of these long-standing stereotypes.
“What really excites me about ‘Bridesmaids,’ ” Griffin says, “is the fact that so many of my straight dude friends were recommending it to me. They’re not [usually] going to see a chick flick.”
Griffin also points to the inspiration she sees in this season’s sitcom It girl, her friend 29-year-old Cummings. “She and I have been e-mailing back and forth a lot, and I said, ‘Look, it’s not lost on me that what you’re doing is unprecedented in the history of television. Which is basically to be doing the Seinfeld-ian model for starring in a network show that you’re also writing or co-writing. And then it’s doubly impressive to have another network show on the side that you’re co-writing with Michael Patrick King.’ ”
Of course, Cummings isn’t escaping without plenty of barbs along the way, including one viciously funny taunt from another festival headliner this year, Norm Macdonald. He said, in a thinly veiled reference to Cummings’ attendance on a Comedy Central roast in an interview he gave to “Opie & Anthony” this year: “Hey, guess what, there’s a young girl that’s middling attractive that swears a lot. Let’s get her.”
Cummings’ response? “Norm is hilarious,” she told a reporter.
Amy Schumer is yet another pretty, raunchy comic to break out of the celebrity roasts this year. Schumer, 30, just sold pilots to CBS and Comedy Central, and she’s also executive producing a reality series about women in comedy — so she knows whereof she speaks.
“I think people who say ‘Women aren’t funny’ are just sad and misinformed . . . I think they didn’t have sex until well after college and have an off relationship with their mothers,” she says. “This is a great time for women in comedy or just women in general. I love the things we are allowed to do now. Like vote and have consensual sex.”
A new documentary out next month on the subject, cheekily called “Women Aren’t Funny,” inspired by the infamous 2007 Christopher Hitchens essay in Vanity Fair, was created by a female comic who broke out on “Last Comic Standing,” Bonnie McFarlane and her comedian husband, Rich Vos.
Why do fewer women do stand-up? “Women like going to the bathroom together, so going on the road for three weeks alone isn’t usually at the top of their bucket lists,” says McFarlane, 42.
While Griffin calls Hitchens’ piece a “shock jock” tactic, McFarlane says, “I think guys say things like that to make women mad, and then point and say, ‘Look! See?’ ”
Comedic digs about women not being funny don’t bother Griffin.
“I don’t really get bothered by the old fogies who say chicks aren’t funny. A lot of people made a big fuss about Jerry Lewis [who said in 2000 he didn’t like ‘any’ female comedians], too. What bothers me is when a currently working executive who signs the checks and makes the decisions about what goes on a TV slate, when those people don’t think chicks are funny. But what’s great is that it’s finally getting to the place where it should be in comedy. Which is: You should be judged on whether or not you’re funny.
“I mean, I’m doing four hourlong specials for Bravo this year, and that’s a record,” she concludes of her mind-boggling feat of material generation that puts even a prolific comic like Chris Rock to shame. “It’s never been done — by a male or a female.”
7 p.m., Comics to Watch, Carolines on Broadway, 1626 Broadway, $16.50
8 p.m., “Stand Up for Heroes” (Jon Stewart, Ricky Gervais, Bruce Springsteen), Beacon Theatre, 2124 Broadway, $250 – $2,500
7:30 p.m., 10:15 p.m., Louis C.K., Beacon Theatre, 2124 Broadway, $29.50 – $52.50
7:30 p.m., Wanda Sykes, Town Hall, 143 W. 43rd St., $50.50 – $62.50
8 p.m., Louis C.K., St. George Theatre, 35 Hyatt St., Staten Island, $30- $50
8 p.m., Tracy Morgan, Beacon Theatre, 2124 Broadway, $34.50 – $62.50
8 p.m., Norm Macdonald, Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd St., $34.50 – $46.50
8 p.m., Kathy Griffin, Carnegie Hall, Seventh Avenue at 57th Street, $44 – $90
8 p.m., Sarah Silverman and Friends, BAM, 651 Fulton St., Brooklyn, $36 – $46
8 p.m., Jo Koy, Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd St., $32.50 – $38.50
— For more information, see nycomedyfestival.com | Wanda Sykes ( )Comedian Kathy Griffin likes to tell tales out of school — perhaps no more so than when she’s talking about what it means to be a high-level woman in the traditionally male-dominated… | 37.809524 | 0.97619 | 32.738095 | high | high | extractive |
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/after-christie-endorsement-maine-gov-paul-lepage-jumps-on-board-trump-train/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160630123922id_/http://www.cbsnews.com:80/news/after-christie-endorsement-maine-gov-paul-lepage-jumps-on-board-trump-train/ | After Christie endorsement, Maine gov. jumps on board Donald Trump train | 20160630123922 | Just hours after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gave his surprise endorsement to Republican front-runner Donald Trump, Maine Gov. Paul LePage joined in with his support, giving Trump the nod during a radio interview.
"I'll be very honest -- originally I said I'd like to see a governor," LePage, who initially endorsed Christie in the 2016 race, told New England radio host Howie Carr on Friday. "But unfortunately, the American people are not going a governor this year, so I'm gonna endorse Donald Trump."
LePage said he saw a bit of himself in the brash reality television star, and their similarities were what propelled his endorsement.
"I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular," said LePage, who has had no shortage of controversial comments during his tenure as Maine's Republican chief executive. "So I think I should support him since we're one of the same cloth."
Earlier on Friday, Christie, once a rival to for the GOP nomination and a vocal Trump critic, backed the New York businessman as "the best person to beat Hillary Clinton in November."
Christie, who dropped out of the White House race after a poor showing in New Hampshire's primary earlier this month, added that Trump was a "strong and resolute leader."
At his press conference Friday, Trump told reporters that "generally speaking I'm not big on endorsements." But of the New Jersey Republican's support, Trump said, "This was an endorsement that really meant a lot."
Whether he likes them or not, Trump also racked up his first congressional endorsements this week. New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins and California Rep. Duncan Hunter threw their weight behind the billionaire.
The endorsements come at a crucial time for the White House hopefuls. In just a few days time, voters will cast their ballots across 13 states and one American territory in the Super Tuesday nominating contests, which represent a sizable chunk of delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination. | Gov. Paul LePage gave his nod to Trump on a radio show Friday | 30.307692 | 0.923077 | 1.692308 | medium | medium | mixed |
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-sentencing-in-two-sailors-deaths-35-years-after-they-were-ambushed-in-puerto-rico/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160701074900id_/http://www.cbsnews.com:80/news/a-sentencing-in-two-sailors-deaths-35-years-after-they-were-ambushed-in-puerto-rico/ | A sentencing in two sailors' deaths - 35 years after they were ambushed in Puerto Rico | 20160701074900 | For more than 30 years, Patty Ball thought this moment would never come. At 28, she lost her husband in an ambush on a bus carrying a group of U.S. sailors in Puerto Rico.
Her husband, John Ball, was among 16 U.S. Navy personnel travelling on winding back roads near the Sabana Seca Naval Base when they were attacked by militants of the separatist group Los Macheteros on Dec. 3, 1979. Two American sailors were killed and 10 others were wounded.
Three decades later, she can still remember that day. It was early in the morning and she could hear sirens in the distance from her home in Puerto Rico.
"I knew something was wrong," said Ball, now 63 and living in Madison, Wisconsin. "You could hear it. The black car drove up and I knew it. And of course they said it, but I knew it."
Inside the bus the sailors were traveling in when they were caught in a hail of bullets
What she knew was that her husband had been killed, but for decades she didn't know who was responsible.
But on Thursday, Ball finally got the closure she needed. A federal judge at a Brooklyn courthouse sentenced Juan Galloza Acevedo, one of the men responsible for her husband's death, to five years in prison.
"I never expected anything to come of it," she said. "After all these years, they could never find anybody. I felt relief and hope there could be closure."
The team of communication specialists was on a routine trip from the base to a transmitting tower just outside of San Juan. Their bus slowed down when a pickup truck got in front of them. Suddenly another vehicle carrying five men pulled up alongside and opened fire with powerful assault weapons. The bus was caught in a hail of bullets. When the chaos subsided, John Ball, a cryptologic technician petty officer first class, and Emil White, a Navy radioman petty officer third class, were dead. Ten others were wounded.
The militant nationalist movement known as Los Macheteros claimed responsibility for the attack. In a communique, found in a phone booth near the scene of the ambush, it said the attack was in response for the deaths of two pro-independence youth activists killed by police a year earlier and the death of an anti-Navy activist who committed suicide while in a Florida prison.
Galloza Acevedo, now 78, was in the front passenger seat of the van that opened fire, according to agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In all 13 militants orchestrated and took part in the attack.
Last July, Galloza Acevedo admitted to agents his involvement in the ambush and agreed to cooperate. He pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, murder and robbery conspiracy for helping to plan and carry out the ambush.
During the sentencing, he expressed remorse and apologized to the families of the victims, including John Ball's wife and Warren Smith, a sailor who survived the attack
For years the FBI and NCIS worked the case, chasing all possible leads, before it eventually went cold.
"This case was made difficult by the fact that the group operates in secrecy, using code names and disguises, said NCIS Special Agent, Tim Quick. "We couldn't get anyone to cooperate, so it was hard to put together."
The case was reopened in 2001, following a decision in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to apply cold case homicide methodology to terrorist events.
With the help of technological advances, NCIS was able to get a DNA from some of the evidence collected from inside the bus and the militants' vehicles, such as ear buds, gloves and nylon pantyhose, which they used on door handles to eliminate fingerprint traces. The DNA profile led them back to Galloza Acevedo in Puerto Rico.
"It was the break we'd been looking for," Quick said. "We used that to get a federal search warrant to collect his DNA."
"More than bring someone to jail, we want to let the families know that we were working on this and that we never forgot about them," said Lou Eilopulos, director of the NCIS Office of Forensic Support.
Los Macheteros was a pro-independence organization who wanted the United States out of Puerto Rico and had cells on the mainland. Its members were also behind the 1983 robbery of a Wells Fargo depot in Hartford, Connecticut. They stole $7 million and used it to wage war against the United States. Victor Manuel Gerena, accused of being involved with the robbery, remains on the FBI's top ten most wanted list.
As the NCIS pressed on with their investigations, Patty Ball has found herself changed in ways she says she may not yet realize.
"The wound is opened up again and now you're processing how you're really thinking about the experience," she said. "It takes you back. It brings me to how it has so affected myself as a person and changed me and everything in my life."
At the time she had two children, a six-year-old son and five-year-old daughter. She and her daughter, Karen, attended the sentencing together.
"I'm so glad she was with me," said Ball. "I needed her for support and she needed me and to do this together was something we will share forever. It's hard for anyone to comprehend."
© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. | For one widow, relief and a wound re-opened after investigators tackle a cold case | 63.352941 | 0.764706 | 1 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-aid-in-dying-lapook/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160701092037id_/http://www.cbsnews.com:80/news/60-minutes-aid-in-dying-lapook/? | Should the terminally ill control how they die? | 20160701092037 | The following is a script from "Aid in Dying" which aired on March 13, 2016. Dr. Jon LaPook is the correspondent. Denise Cetta and Kevin Finnegan, producers.
Brittany Maynard was dying of brain cancer when she decided to drink a lethal prescription to end her life. She was just 29 years old. Her decision made her a symbol in the debate about how much we should be able to control the time and manner of our own death.
This is not euthanasia, when a doctor gives a patient a lethal injection. That's illegal in all 50 states. Aid-in-dying, or what opponents call "assisted suicide" and supporters call "death with dignity," relies on people taking the medication themselves. Oregon became the first state to legalize it 18 years ago, but because a nurse or doctor is rarely present, it's remained mostly a private affair, practiced behind closed doors. We wanted to hear from patients and family members who've experienced it and are fighting to make it legal nationwide.
Brittany Maynard had been married less than a year when the headaches began. This MRI revealed a deadly mass -- it turned out to be brain cancer so aggressive doctors gave her only six months to live.
[Brittany Maynard, CBS News interview: All evidence points to the fact that this cancer will kill me.]
Three weeks before she died, Brittany, bloated by medication used to control brain swelling, explained in an interview with CBS News why she was grateful to find a legal way to end her life.
Brittany Maynard: Being able to take a medication that allows me to slip into a sleep in five minutes and pass away most likely within the half hour sounds a lot better to me just as a human being, as a daughter, as a wife. And I think it sounded better to my family than reading about the alternative.
The alternative, husband Dan Diaz says, was for Brittany to endure weeks of agonizing decline.
Dan Diaz: Brittany said, "I'm not afraid to die. At this point I am not afraid of death. But I am afraid of being tortured to death."
Dr. Jon LaPook: What did she mean by being tortured, specifically? What was she afraid of?
Dan Diaz: So those symptoms that she knew was coming for her, the torture for her would've been losing her eyesight and not knowing now who's in the room. I mean, the seizures were bad enough as it was.
Dr. Jon LaPook: How about pain?
Dan Diaz: Pain was just constant.
But aid-in-dying medication wasn't legal in their home state of California. So in the spring of 2014, Brittany told Dan it was time to pack up and head to Oregon...the closest of four states where it was legal. Once she became an Oregon resident, Brittany had to make two verbal requests -- 15 days apart -- to a doctor, fill out this written form, and have two physicians confirm she was mentally competent and expected to have less than six months to live.
The medication often prescribed is secobarbital. A barbiturate that in small doses causes sleep, in large doses, death. Here in Oregon a patient comes in with a prescription and gets a bottle of 100 of these capsules. Each one has to be opened up individually and one by one the powder poured into a glass and the contents dissolved in water.
[Brittany holding the medication bottles
Brittany Maynard: This is the prescription for Death with Dignity.]
Since 1997, more than 1,500 prescriptions have been written in Oregon -- over a third who requested it, never took the medication.
Dan Diaz: I think people think, "Oh well, you apply for that medication. And then, you get that. And then, you're kinda done." No, no, no. You apply for that medication. You secure it. You put it in the cupboard. And you keep fighting. And we sent her packet of medical information to Duke and Mayo Clinic and UCLA and everywhere that we possibly could to see what's out there. So you have cancer, you fight.
Brittany's tumor kept growing - invading her brain, and causing seizures so violent they left her unable to speak for hours. She feared a stroke might soon leave her paralyzed and unable to take the lethal medication. So on November 1, 2014, she posted this photo on Facebook, said goodbye, and drank the five ounces that would end her life.
Dr. Jon LaPook: Do you mind sharing the last few moments you spent with her?
Dan Diaz: Um, we were um, in the room, in our bedroom. And I was right next to her. There's no, like, dark cloud looming. It-- it-- the feeling is simply of love and support. Within five minutes, Brittany fell asleep just like I've seen her do a thousand times before, very peacefully. Within 30 minutes, her breathing slowed to the point where she passed away.
Dan Diaz has kept in touch with Dr. Eric Walsh, the Oregon physician who prescribed the medication. Dr. Walsh couldn't talk about the specifics of Brittany's case due to patient privacy, but for the first time has agreed to discuss why he prescribed the medication to her, as well as to 19 others.
Dr. Eric Walsh: When somebody's facing the end of their life shouldn't they be in control? Shouldn't I be able to help them when they're suffering, and the burden of living becomes intolerable to them?
Dr. Jon LaPook: We hear a lot about statistics about the Oregon experience. But it's a lot of sort of statistical detail, and not a lot of emotion.
Dr. Eric Walsh: You're right, the statistics are very dry. Someone said that statistics are human stories with the tears washed off.
Dr. Jon LaPook: Tell me about your tears, perhaps once you're involved in this.
Dr. Eric Walsh: You know, we categorize tears into a single adjective. Tears of joy, tears of sorrow, tears of regret. But actually in the physician aid-in-dying these are tears that contain all of those adjectives.
Elizabeth Wallner looks healthy, but has advanced colon cancer that multiple surgeries, radiation and months of chemotherapy are barely keeping at bay. She sued the state of California for the right to end her life with medication.
Dr. Jon LaPook walks with Elizabeth Wallner, center, and Nathaniel Wallner, right
Dr. Jon LaPook: Why do you feel so strongly about legislation?
Elizabeth Wallner: Mostly, for my son. I remember-- you know, he was 15 when I was diagnosed. And I just remember this one time I was in the bathroom and he was taking care of me while I was getting sick and I looked over at him and his face was just absolutely devastated. And I just realized in that moment that I can only take so much and my family can only take so much.
Elizabeth Wallner: This child is my knight in shining armor.
Nathaniel Wallner, now 20, says he savors the time he has left with his mom, but is realistic about what lies ahead.
Nathaniel Wallner: Four and a half years of fighting cancer you've gone through enough pain and suffering.
Dr. Jon LaPook: I guess there's saying that, and there's feeling it for sure. And I can see it in your eyes. And then there's when the moment comes. Is there a little bit of a question mark in your head about how you'll feel then?
Nathaniel Wallner: I don't think so.
Dr. Jon LaPook: You've thought about this a lot.
Nathaniel Wallner:: Yeah. There isn't a day where I won't wish that there would be more time. But there will very easily be a day where I wish there was less suffering.
Elizabeth, who was raised Catholic, disagrees with those who say aid-in-dying goes against God's will.
Elizabeth Wallner: I don't believe in a God that would want me to suffer and struggle to death. I don't believe in an in-compassionate God. The only argument that I've heard that actually makes any sense is that there is some beauty in struggle. And I agree with that, there is beauty in struggle. But four and a half years, end of a struggle, I'm good, you know?
Oregon physician Dr. William Toffler, who's taken care of terminally ill patients for 40 years, worries doctors prescribing medication may not know people well enough and might miss signs of depression. He believes one reason Oregon's legislation is flawed is that the state isn't required to track what happens to people after they fill their prescription.
Dr. William Toffler: Ninety percent of the time here in Oregon there's no doctor present. So there's really a shroud of secrecy under this whole thing. The only cases that come to light really aren't very reassuring.
Dr. Toffler is referring to the fact that out of the nearly 1,000 people who've taken the medication, about 30 cases of complications have been reported to the Oregon Health Authority. Mostly vomiting ...and six patients regained consciousness at least once before dying.
Dr. William Toffler: It's basically corrupting the practice of medicine where we are no longer providers for the health and wellbeing of patients until they, they die naturally. But we're now actually hastening death by giving people massive overdoses. This is an inherent conflict of interest for doctors.
Dr. Toffler says he faced these issues with his own wife, Marlene, when she was dying of cancer two years ago.
Dr. William Toffler: Even with breathing difficulties, like my wife had with her terminal illness. And she had that fear. I had to help her to understand, "Marlene, we can get through this together. We've got medicines to help relieve the air hunger. It's not gonna be that bad." And it wasn't.
[Walsh making home hospice visit
Bob Williams: Hi Dr. Walsh, how are you?]
We joined Dr. Walsh as he visited one of his hospice patients, Robert Williams, at home. Dr. Walsh says the majority of his patients who are terminally ill receive hospice care, compassionate, professional end-of-life treatment that can include anti-anxiety drugs and powerful narcotics like morphine. Though usually extremely effective at keeping people comfortable, in rare instances, standard hospice care doesn't work well enough. In those cases, Dr. Walsh says, one option is something called palliative sedation.
Dr. Eric Walsh: When the physician decides that suffering is intolerable, the physician prescribes a medication which puts the patient in a coma.
Dr. Jon LaPook: Which is what?
Dr. Eric Walsh: Well, usually it's a barbiturate. The nurse administers it. It's given until the person is asleep. The person sleeps for three days, five days. I've had someone live 10 days, still excreting, still breathing, with the family at the bedside wondering, "When is this going to end?"
That was the kind of death Californian Jennifer Glass was adamant she did not want. Last year, battling lung cancer, she shared her fears in online videos.
Jennifer Glass: The idea that it will end by me drowning in my own lung fluid while my family watches me suffer; that is terrifying.]
But last August, when standard hospice care was no longer enough, Jennifer Glass was put in palliative sedation, which lasted five and a half days. Though for most people it leads to a peaceful death, Jennifer's husband, Harlan Seymour, says it did not work for her.
Harlan Seymour: There were times when she was gurgling, where she was foaming through the mo-- the mouth and nose. And I feel that she was suffering on the inside. That it was really a terror on the inside.
Dr. Jon LaPook: And what was it like for you to watch this?
Harlan Seymour: To be there and see my beautiful wife suffer and wither away and have difficulty breathing. It was heartbreaking.
Dan Diaz says he's grateful his last memories of his wife, Brittany Maynard, are of walking these woods in Oregon.
Dan Diaz: The last time I was here, Brittany was at my side. The last time I did anything here, it was her and me and with the dogs.
Before Brittany died, Dan promised her he'd work to make aid-in-dying legal in their home state of California. So he quit his job and teamed up with the organization compassion & choices. Last September, a bill was passed permitting aid-in-dying. It will go into effect this June.
Elizabeth Wallner says she will now be able to control not only her suffering -- but where, with whom and when she dies. Something she's grateful for since speaking with Dan Diaz and Harlan Seymour about their wives' final days.
Elizabeth Wallner: Those deaths were really, really different. And Jennifer died in pain, and in fear, and panicking, and thinking she was drowning.
Dr. Jon LaPook: Whereas Brittany?
Elizabeth Wallner: Brittany crawled into bed with her husband. He had her arms around her, and she was asleep in five minutes. And both women are gone. And yet the difference of what they left behind is so profound.
Dr. Jon LaPook: And it sounds like from what you're saying your decision to
perhaps take the medication will be a final act--
Dr. Jon LaPook: --of protecting your son.
Elizabeth Wallner: Absolutely. I just want him to remember me laughing and, you know, giving him a hard time, and telling him to brush his teeth, and knowing that I would-- I would, you know, walk across the sun for him.
© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Dr. Jon LaPook reports on aid-in-dying, a controversial practice that relies on the terminally ill taking a lethal dose of medication themselves | 102.074074 | 0.888889 | 2.518519 | high | medium | mixed |
http://nypost.com/2011/03/05/just-pour-fun/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160701095627id_/http://nypost.com:80/2011/03/05/just-pour-fun/ | Just pour fun | New York Post | 20160701095627 | Going wine tasting in the city may not be as rustic as drifting along the winding roads of the Napa Valley from winery to winery while savoring fancy fare and frolicking among oak trees, but it’s just as fun — and you don’t have to find a designated driver. With a slew of wine shops offering free tastings, we’ve devised a local itinerary for spending Saturday afternoons taking the subway to sip spirits. Whether you’re looking to savor something new or just peruse a wall of Pinots, tasting is a treat you can decide to do at the last minute. Take your own NYC wine-tasting tour, all free of charge, by following our efficient travel guide.
FOR THE G-RATED CROWD Bottlerocket, 5 W. 19th St.; 212-929-2323
* WHEN: Free tastings of two to four bottles every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.
*THE SCENE: Want to know what kind of wine to bring on a third date or to accompany red meat? This clever shop categorizes its bottles by these scenarios and more. “We’re always looking to try new things, and this store makes it so easy to go in without a clue and come out with the perfect bottle,” says Shelley Kermit, who drifted in to sample wines, then buy a bottle to bring to a friend’s house. “We’ve been educating the public since 2006 on different types of wines,” says owner Tom Geniesse. “We have them organized the old way — by country — and then in a way that helps people understand what they can pair with their wine.” This bright and spacious store goes beyond the basics, hosting shelves of cookbooks, as well as wine-related literature and magazines.
* INSIDER TIP: Let your little ones tag along — there’s a kid-friendly play area complete with a chalkboard — as well Geniesse’s very friendly dog, Otis.
CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE TO FIND YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD TASTINGS
FOR THE HEALTH NUT Chambers Street Wines, 148 Chambers St.; 212-227-1434
* WHEN: Visit this wine shop every Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 4 to 7 p.m. for a free pour of three to five wines.
* THE SCENE: This family-owned shop has been around since 2001, specializing in low-sulfur wines made without pesticides or herbicides. One apron-clad owner, Eben Lillie, describes his merchandise as “naturally made cult wines.” During our visit, we tasted four types of Jean-Francois Ganevat grapes in two reds and two whites from a respected grower in a mountainous region of France. TriBeCa resident and holistic health coach Jennifer Kass (above, in red-striped shirt) says this store is her favorite. “It is so nice to have a shop that’s aware of toxins and pollutants, because imported grapes are on the ‘dirty dozen’ list of foods to avoid, but you don’t have to worry about that in here.”
* INSIDER TIP: Organize your own tasting at the store (or office or home). The staff will bring the supplies and knowledge you’ll need to run a satisfying and delectable tasting. Check for details at chambersstwines.com, which doubles as the store’s blog.
FOR THE MALL RAT Chelsea Wine Vault, 75 Ninth Ave.; 212-462-4244
* WHEN: Sample five or six wines every Thursday and Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 2 to 5 p.m.
* THE SCENE: At a recent visit to the intimate tasting room next to the store, Matteo Bisol, the owner of Italian winery Bisol, discussed his vineyard, making this experience unique and informative. Wine consultant Elena Matt, of Vias Imports, poured five wines — two reds, two whites and a rosé — while discussing the region of Italy where Bisol comes from. “We’re doing four tastings here this month, once a week, and we’re offering a discount on the bottles that we’re tasting,” says Matt. This spot is a bit lo-fi — expect plastic cups instead of glasses.
* INSIDER TIP: After you’ve finished your tasting, load up on some sweet treats at Eleni’s bakery across the hall in the Chelsea Market.
FOR THE LOFT DWELLER Tribeca Wine Merchants,40 Hudson St.; 212-393-1400
* WHEN: Start your free tasting of four or five wines early — every Saturday from 2 to 6 p.m.
* THE SCENE: This laid-back store is the only one we found that offers snacks during its tastings! A platter of cheese and crackers helps to lure afternoon strollers into the store — and makes it easier to sip without getting too silly in the middle of the day. (Some wines also go down better with food.) Regular Edan Yacobovsky treks to TriBeCa from the West Village every week for a tasting, and says, “The people who work there are very helpful. It’s the best store I’ve found in terms of their selection and knowledge.”
* INSIDER TIP: This shop, like all the others we visited, is dog-friendly, so Fido can rest while you feast!
FOR THE HIPSTER September Wines, 100 Stanton St.; 212-388-0770
* WHEN: Visit septemberwines.com or become a Facebook friend to see which three or four wines will be poured every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m.
* THE SCENE: Three nights a week at his LES shop, owner Steve Flynn organizes tastings (with emphasis on the word tastings — “It’s not a bar,” Flynn says). Many samplers live in the neighborhood and are regular customers at this chummy place. The night we attended, Suzanne Reynolds, a sales rep with Vision Wine Brands, poured three Italian wines — one red, one sparkling and one white. “We try to offer something that people can compare, and these happen to be really well-priced, in the $10-to-$20 range,” she says. One regular taster — 27-year-old Ryan Lichtcsien, who lives in the neighborhood — sampled all three. “I live two blocks away, so I always come in here and look for a good value. Everyone that works here knows me and my dog, Mama,” he says.
* INSIDER TIP: This place is eco-friendly. The store makes annual donations to carbonfund.org, which supports carbon reduction.
FRIDAY FREEBIES If you’re looking to start the weekend early, these shops only serve free splashes on Friday.
* California Wine Merchants, 15 Bridge St., between Whitehall and Broad streets; 212-785-7285Stop by the store every Friday between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. for free tastings of three or four different wines.
* Frankly Wines, 66 West Broadway; 212-346-9544Pop in every Friday from 5 to 7:30 p.m. to try a higher-end bottle of wine, usually priced at more than $30. | Going wine tasting in the city may not be as rustic as drifting along the winding roads of the Napa Valley from winery to winery while savoring fancy fare and frolicking among oak trees, but it’s j… | 33.925 | 0.95 | 36.1 | medium | high | extractive |
http://www.foxsports.com/arizona/story/asu-unveils-desert-ice-alternate-uniforms-copper-accents-082015 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160701182742id_/http://www.foxsports.com/arizona/story/asu-unveils-desert-ice-alternate-uniforms-copper-accents-082015 | ASU unveils 'Desert Ice' alternate uniforms with bold copper accents | 20160701182742 | TEMPE, Ariz. -- Arizona State University and adidas unveiled on Thursday the Sun Devils' new Desert Ice alternate football uniforms that will debut when the Sun Devils take on Texas A&M at NRG Stadium in Houston in their Sept. 5 season opener.
The special edition uniform pays homage to the state's nickname and identity as the "Copper State." The Desert Ice design is centered around an oversized polished copper version of the pitchfork, which is highlighted with a metallic outline and prominently featured on the helmet and pants.
Additionally, the jersey features a polished copper shoulder pad design that incorporates a pitchfork spike theme into the stripes. To complete the look, the helmet and jersey feature matching polished copper numbers with metallic black outlines.
Copper, one of Arizona's '5 C's' -- Cattle, Copper, Citrus, Cotton and Climate -- was introduced as an official school color as part of a university-wide rebrand in 2011. The 5 C's represent the top driving forces that launched the economy and eventually the statehood of Arizona. Since 1910, Arizona has produced more copper than the other 49 states combined, lending to the name of the "Copper State." | Arizona State University and adidas unveiled on Thursday the Sun Devils' new 'Desert Ice' alternate football uniforms that will make their debut when the Sun Devils take on Texas A&M at NRG Stadium in Houston in their Sept. 5 season opener. | 5.022222 | 0.977778 | 14.266667 | low | high | extractive |
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-mcdonalds-joint-employer-trial-0310-biz-20160309-story.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160701232941id_/http://www.chicagotribune.com:80/business/ct-mcdonalds-joint-employer-trial-0310-biz-20160309-story.html | Is McDonald's responsible for franchise workers? Labor law hearing set to begin | 20160701232941 | Opening statements are set to begin Thursday in a long-awaited hearing to determine whether McDonald's is liable for alleged labor law violations at some of its franchised stores, a case that could force the fast-food giant to the bargaining table amid heavily publicized fights to improve working conditions.
The hearing, before an administrative law judge at the National Labor Relations Board in New York, comes nearly two years after the NLRB's general counsel determined that McDonald's could be held jointly liable with franchise operators who were accused of firing, threatening or penalizing workers who participated in strikes demanding a $15-an-hour minimum wage.
Oak Brook-based McDonald's has fought back against the joint-employer designation, saying it strikes at the heart of the franchise system. About 90 percent of McDonald's U.S. restaurants are franchised locations. The chain has long maintained franchisees are independent owner-operators responsible for setting employment conditions such as wages while adhering to corporate standards in areas such as food preparation and restaurant design.
Though attorneys for the fast-food workers say the ruling will affect only McDonald's, employers are watching the case closely. As companies increasingly use subcontractors and temp agencies, some say new interpretations of what it means to be a joint employer could make them accountable for the working conditions of their subcontractors' employees.
Franchisers are particularly concerned that a judgment against McDonald's could curtail franchise development.
"Locally owned small businesses are hoping they won't be the next 'test case' by the NLRB as part of a larger strategy orchestrated by activists targeting the franchising business model in a single-minded attempt to grow their membership," Robert Cresanti, president and CEO of the International Franchise Association, said in a statement.
The advocacy group says there are 3,000 brands that use the franchise model in the U.S., employing about 9 million people.
Ruling that McDonald's is a joint employer would allow labor unions to bargain directly with the company over the terms and conditions of employment, providing unions with new opportunities for organizing at a time their ranks are dwindling in the private sector, said Cesar Rosado, an associate professor of labor law at Chicago-Kent College of Law.
With much of the economy organized around the franchise model, such a decision would be "very significant," Rosado said.
"What's interesting about the McDonald's case is that it's the quintessential franchise," Rosado said. "If they find that McDonald's is a joint employer, it doesn't mean that all companies with franchises (could be considered) joint employers, but many of them are very likely going to be."
The New York hearing, also will address whether the stores that were charged with retaliating against employees violated labor law.
Hearings will later come to Chicago and Los Angeles to address the unfair labor practice complaints against the stores in each region, though dates have not been set. The losing party can appeal the decision to the five-member NLRB in Washington, D.C. That ruling can be appealed in federal court.
The case stems from strikes starting in November 2012, at the dawn of the union-backed Fight for $15 campaign, when some McDonald's workers walked off the job to rally for higher wages and better conditions.
The NLRB received 291 claims from workers who said they were punished for their pro-labor activities, and in December 2014 the agency issued 13 consolidated complaints against McDonald's and several franchisees alleging they retaliated against employees using threats, surveillance, reduction of hours, interrogations and firings.
While the NLRB did not specify the business practices it believes makes McDonald's a joint employer, attorneys representing the workers have maintained the company monitors and decides the minute-to-minute working conditions of employees at all stores, including through a software system telling franchises how many employees to use at a given hour.
"The facts are unique to McDonald's and will not affect other franchise operators," said Gwynne Wilcox, an attorney with Levy Ratner and counsel to fast-food workers.
But attorneys for the franchise industry say a new joint-employer standard established in August that could apply in the McDonald's case is so ambiguous that other brands could be pulled in if unions bring employment cases against them.
In a landmark 3-2 decision in August, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the Browning-Ferris recycling facility in California was a joint employer with a staffing agency it used to provide workers, using a broader definition of joint employer than had been used previously.
Under the former standard, a company was considered a joint employer if it had direct and immediate control over working conditions. Under the new standard, a company is a joint employer if it exercises indirect control over working conditions or reserves the authority to do so.
The NLRB said the old definition "failed to keep pace with changes in the workplace and economic circumstances." That includes a growing reliance on temporary workers employed through staffing agencies who enjoy few of the protections of a traditional employer relationship.
Browning-Ferris has appealed the ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
The new standard has created "tremendous uncertainty" in the franchise industry, which relies on a separation of ownership that gives franchisees the independence to set their own rules in hiring, firing and pay while the franchiser guides a uniform brand experience, said Norman Leon, chair of the franchise and distribution litigation group at DLA Piper.
"Certain franchisers are taking a look at the potential liability that accompanies this and considering reacquiring their franchise businesses when the agreements expire," he said.
Catherine Ruckelshaus, general counsel and program director of the nonprofit National Employment Law Project, disputes the notion that a joint-employment designation stifles franchising or disrupts business. Rather, companies and their franchisees would be watching for labor violations, meaning a greater chance of compliance, she said.
While a finding of joint employment in one case won't necessarily spread to other work sites, Ruckelhaus said, "I think it could put the corporate franchisers on notice that they may be" joint employers as well. | Opening statements are set to begin Thursday in a long-awaited hearing to determine whether McDonald's is liable for alleged labor law violations at some of its franchised stores, a case that could force the fast-food giant to the bargaining table amid heavily publicized fights to improve working conditions. | 21.563636 | 1 | 55 | medium | high | extractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/06/30/soros-brexit/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160702041929id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/06/30/soros-brexit/ | George Soros Is All Gloom and Doom about Brexit | 20160702041929 | The stock markets, particularly in Britain, have recovered. And some investors, including Carlyle CEO David Rubenstein, have said that Brexit “won’t be a calamity.”
George Soros, though, isn’t backing off his prediction of Brexaggedon.
The 85-year-old money manager highlighted “looming dangers” resulting from Brexit before the European Parliament in Brussels Thursday.
“First, it unleashed a crisis on the financial markets comparable only in severity to 2007 and ’08,” he said in a video recorded by CNBC. “This has been unfolding in slow motion, but Brexit is accelerating it.”
Soros also said Brexit is likely to increase the chance that there is deflation in Europe. “The eurozone has been lagging in the global recovery because of restrictive fiscal policies. Now it has to contend with an impending slowdown,” he said.
The Hungarian-American has made headlines recently for failing to take his own advice. Despite predicting that the pound would fall following Brexit, Soros Fund Management was reportedly betting that the sterling would in value against other currencies. Instead, the currency dived to a 31-year-low after the U.K. tallied the results of the referendum. The news came with a touch of irony as Soros rose to prominence in 1992 for making $1 billion bet that the pound would fall.
During his talk in Brussels, Soros added that Europe’s banking system had yet to recover fully from the financial crisis. Now banks will be “severely tested.”
For now at least, Brexit doesn’t look like it will be nearly as severe a test Soros is predicting. British stock markets have recovered their losses. And the U.S. stock market had solid days on Tuesday and Wednesday. Bond yields haven’t recovered, but they haven’t plummeted either.
Soros does have a reason to keep saying Brexaggedon is just around the corner. The legendary investor has reportedly come out of retirement to bet that the markets are headed for disaster this year.
But Soros is not all gloom and doom, or so he claims. Soros said the potential good news to come out of Brexit is that the vote is so devastating that it will “blow up the EU.”
See, things might not be so bad after all. | It has already been "unfolding in slow motion," the investor said. | 29.2 | 0.8 | 2.4 | medium | medium | mixed |
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/13/us/homelessness-tests-san-francisco-s-ideals.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160702043911id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1998/11/13/us/homelessness-tests-san-francisco-s-ideals.html | Homelessness Tests San Francisco's Ideals | 20160702043911 | SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 12— Three weeks ago, when someone started stalking homeless people here, bending over them as they slept in alleys and doorways and slashing their throats, a grim joke began making the rounds on the streets: the killer had been hired by the city.
After all, didnot the Mayor call the city's homelessness problem ''intractable'' and vow in his State of the City address last month to clear the homeless from public places?
''We figured the slasher was the one way to get us off the sidewalks,'' said Donald Behr, one of two homeless men leaning against the wall of a downtown Subway delicatessen early this morning. Mr. Behr and his friend slapped their knees at the humor of it.
Maybe they can afford to laugh. Early Tuesday, the police arrested a man for a knife attack on a homeless man who had been sleeping in a Chinatown alley. They have charged him with murder and attempted murder in all four recent knife attacks on homeless people in the city. The murder charge is for the killing of a longtime homeless woman named Shirley Dillahunt, whom, it is said, everyone loved.
The defendant is a 21-year-old Oakland man named Joshua Rudiger, who was said to have told the police that he was a vampire who drank his victims' blood.
But the arrest of Mr. Rudiger is unlikely to cool the debate that the slashings have rekindled in this live-and-let-live city over what to do about all the people with no place to call home.
The gallows humor that the slashings have inspired reflects the magnitude of the problem of homelessness and how it has emerged as a major issue for Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr., particularly as the homeless have become increasingly visible.
Mayor Brown, who was considered one of the few remaining liberal mayors of a major American city when he was elected three years ago, has enraged advocates for the homeless over his policies, starting with a decision last year to have the police forcibly remove hundreds of homeless people from Golden Gate Park. The anger was refueled with the city's latest plan to move homeless people in four tourist zones to shelters and to arrest those disobeying the law.
Last weekend, the Mayor was bombarded with three pies by a group calling itself the Bionic Baking Brigade, which said it wanted to call attention to the city's lack of solutions to the problem of homelessness. At the same time, members of the Coalition on Homelessness say that this city, of all cities, should know that the homeless need treatment programs, jobs and housing, not sweeps off the streets and jail time.
One point on which all agree is that there are incredible numbers of homeless people on San Francisco's streets. They huddle in doorways near the fanciest hotels of Nob Hill, sleep on the benches near all the big department stores on Union Square, camp out by the hundreds in the plaza by the Civic Center and crowd the corners of the Haight-Ashbury district. Some panhandle politely, rudely, quietly, loudly. Some talk to no one, or to everyone, or to themselves.
On any night, according to the Coalition on Homelessness, there may be 16,000 people on the streets here, twice as many as 10 years ago. That means San Francisco, the 13th largest city in the country, has the third highest population of the homeless, after New York and Los Angeles.
The common wisdom is that the city's tolerance and weather have lured them here from elsewhere. But the weather, at least, is not always great. It rains three months a year, starting now, and the rain is not soft and warm, as in Southern California, but mean and cold, the kind that sends tourists packing and commuters straight home from work.
Paul Boden, director of the Coalition on Homelessness and a board member of the National Coalition on Homelessness, said the notion that people moved to a place to be homeless was a myth.
''I don't know of one city in the country that doesn't say that it's a magnet and that homeless people come from somewhere else,'' Mr. Boden said. ''Fargo, N.D., was calling itself a magnet. It's kind of sad, actually.''
San Francisco's homeless people, like those everywhere, Mr. Boden said, are usually longtime residents. About a third are mentally ill, a third are drug addicts (or some mixture of the two) and the rest have been displaced from their homes through personal misfortunes like rising rents or loss of income. While the numbers of the homeless are rising all over the nation, largely because of a decrease in Federal benefits and public housing, Mr. Boden said, San Francisco's problem is exacerbated by its soaring housing prices, the highest in the country.
''The problem is the worst I've ever seen it,'' he said, ''and I've been doing this 16 years. We have 62 detox beds in the city and 1,200 people on the waiting list. We have 1,800 shelter beds and 140 families on the waiting list. The city doesn't even keep waiting lists for singles.''
Mayor Brown, with $60 million budgeted for services related to the homeless, has introduced job training programs and introduced an $11 million program for drug treatment on demand. But waiting lists are long for that, too.
Last Friday, the city began a police crackdown on those caught drinking, urinating, defecating or sleeping on the sidewalks, a mandate that would include just about all the homeless. Those arrested for public drunkenness three times within 60 days will face 30 days in jail unless they enroll in a substance abuse program. But there is no guarantee that they will get a bed in such a program if they want one, in which case they will simply be cited and released.
The city coordinator for the homeless, Terry Hill, said he was working on a variety of solutions, both short-term and long, for people in dire straits.
Donald Behr, who has lived on and off the streets in Oakland and San Francisco for five years, said he was in that category. Mr. Behr said he became homeless when his wife kicked him out of their apartment in Oakland after he developed a cocaine habit and was dismissed from his job.
''Half the people you step over have the same problem,'' he said. ''And there are more of us today than there used to be. That's for sure.''
Mr. Behr's friend, who would not give his name, said he was a drug addict with ''mental problems.''
''I need help,'' he said. ''But when I'm feeling good and go to get help, they tell me I don't need it. Then, when I go crazy, I'm too crazy to get help.''
At that, he and Mr. Behr laughed and laughed.
Photos: The number of homeless people on the streets of San Francisco has grown to be far out of proportion to the size of the city, the 13th most populous in the United States. Only New York and Los Angeles have larger numbers of the homeless, according to the Coalition on Homelessness. (Darcy Padilla for The New York Times)(pg. A26); On any night, thousands of homeless people are on San Francisco's streets. One is Glenda Janis, above, who is medically disabled. (Darcy Padilla for The New York Times)(pg. A1) | Three weeks ago, when someone started stalking homeless people here, bending over them as they slept in alleys and doorways and slashing their throats, a grim joke began making the rounds on the streets: the killer had been hired by the city. After all, didnot the Mayor call the city's homelessness problem ''intractable'' and vow in his State of the City address last month to clear the homeless from public places? | 17.722892 | 0.987952 | 41.373494 | medium | high | extractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/06/30/massachusetts-non-compete-passes/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160702061204id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/06/30/massachusetts-non-compete-passes/ | Reps Unanimously Approve Massachusetts Non-Compete Reform | 20160702061204 | Massachusetts state representatives on Wednesday voted unanimously in favor of a bill that would reform the use of non-compete agreements.
These contracts are used by employers to ensure that workers cannot go to a direct competitor for a year (or two or three, in some cases) after resigning or being terminated. Prospective employees have been expected to sign these contracts as a condition of employment and are on the books in 47 of the 50 states, although terms and enforcement vary widely.
The bill includes a “Garden Leave” provision that would require an employer to pay a former worker half salary for the duration of the agreement’s term once the employee leave the company if the agreement prevents him from working.
Non-compete contracts have been a burning issue in Massachusetts for years. Some local tech companies, including EMC emc , have invoked non-competes when employees decamp to competitors. Proponents argue they help companies protect their investments in training and educating employees. Opponents retort they restrict the free flow of labor and have cost Massachusetts jobs as hot young techies decamp to California where non-competes are not enforced.
This revised bill also would exempt interns, grad students, workers under 18 years old, hourly employees, and workers who are fired or laid off. It would also require that employers explicitly inform new employees about the clause. The term of non-competes would be limited to 12 months, according to BostInno and other reports.
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Reform advocates appear generally pleased with the outcome—although Jody Rose, head of the New England Venture Capital Association, sent out a mass email warning constituents that the bill as written contains a major loophole that employers can use to get around the Garden Leave penalties.
For more, read: Non-Competes Are Bad for You, Bad for Me, Bad for the Economy
The bill now heads to the Massachusetts State Senate. If that body has changes, the differing versions of the bill would have to be worked out between chambers. The current legislative year ends July 31. | Reps voted 150 to 0 in favor of new law. | 36.454545 | 0.636364 | 1.181818 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.people.com/article/jennifer-garner-to-be-honored-with-baby2baby-giving-tree-award | http://web.archive.org/web/20160702065846id_/http://www.people.com:80/article/jennifer-garner-to-be-honored-with-baby2baby-giving-tree-award | Jennifer Garner to Be Honored at the 2016 Baby2Baby Gala | 20160702065846 | 06/28/2016 AT 01:00 PM EDT
will be honored at the 2016 Baby2Baby Gala.
The actress – who is the mother of three children: Violet, 10, Seraphina, 7, and Samuel, 4 – will be presented with the Baby2Baby "Giving Tree Award" for her support of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit and ongoing dedication to children in need.
Baby2Baby co-presidents Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein said that when it came time to choose this year's recipient, they couldn't think of anyone more worthy of the award than Garner.
"We are so proud to honor Jennifer for her commitment to supporting low-income children" Patricof and Weinstein said in a statement. "She is quite possibly the biggest advocate for these issues we have ever come across."
"She has worked tirelessly for seven years to help combat children's poverty through education and leadership," they continued. "Just this past year, she helped us secure over 2 million diapers to distribute to the families in our program across the country. We are beyond grateful for her immeasurable contributions to children all over the world and to the children of Baby2Baby."
Garner will be presented with the award at the fifth Annual Baby2Baby Gala presented by John Paul Mitchell Systems on Nov. 12 in Los Angeles.
The actress joins past winners including
helps provide low-income children up to 12 years of age with diapers, clothing and all of the basic necessities that every child deserves. | Jennifer Garner will be presented with the award at the fifth annual gala on Nov. 12 | 17.875 | 1 | 8.25 | medium | high | extractive |
http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/news/fiat-chrysler-gear-shifters-blamed-266-crashes-66-injuries-article-1.2691254 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160702111720id_/http://www.nydailynews.com:80/autos/news/fiat-chrysler-gear-shifters-blamed-266-crashes-66-injuries-article-1.2691254 | Fiat Chrysler gear shifters blamed for 266 crashes, 66 injuries | 20160702111720 | Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ (FCA) monostable gear shifters, such as the one in the Jeep Grand Cherokee that killed Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin, were involved in 266 crashes that resulted in 68 injuries, according to the Associated Press.
The shifter, which has been deemed by many to be confusing, only moves forward and backward to toggle through its various gears, rather than sliding into a specific slot for each. To shift from drive to park requires three forward shifts; just one forward shift from drive puts the car in neutral.
Police and FCA are investigating the accident to determine if the shifter is to blame for Yelchin’s death.
The 27-year-old actor was found crushed between his SUV and a brick mailbox post at the bottom of his steep Los Angeles driveway. Yelchin was found at 1 a.m. on June 19; his car was running and in neutral.
In total, Fiat Chrysler has received 686 complaints about its shifters, according to a probe conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. To fix the shifter, FCA launched a 1.1 million-vehicle recall in April, which includes more than 800,000 2014-15 Jeep Grand Cherokee (including Yelchin’s SUV) as well as 2012-14 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 models.
FCA claims to have a software fix for the gear shifter ready for implementation. With the upgrade, the car will sound a warning alarm when the door is open and the car is not in park, though FCA also encourages drivers to use their parking brakes.
Some safety advocates have asked why it’s taken FCA so long to rollout a fix for the issue, but the company said it was in the process of sharing the fix for the affected 3.6- and 5.7-liter vehicles with its 2,427 dealers just before Yelchin’s death, according to the Associated Press. Previously the company had planned on introducing the fix in July or August.
The current fix is expected to cover most of the recalled vehicle, while a solution for the remainder is said to be forthcoming.
Did you find this article helpful? If so, please share it using the "Join the Conversation" buttons below, and thank you for visiting Daily News Autos. | FCA Gear shifters, like the one in the Jeep that killed Anton Yelton, began getting complaints shortly after they first went on sale. | 16.269231 | 0.615385 | 1.692308 | medium | low | mixed |
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-dance/2016/06/23/the-ticket-theater/cJUIiQxmsR4dprOPBswcoJ/story.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160702154906id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/arts/theater-dance/2016/06/23/the-ticket-theater/cJUIiQxmsR4dprOPBswcoJ/story.html | The Ticket: Theater | 20160702154906 | PETER AND THE STARCATCHER Turns out there is a cure for Peter Pan fatigue, and it can be found in Rick Elice’s whimsical, family-friendly prequel, which explores how an unnamed orphan was transformed into The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. There are no special effects to speak of in Spiro Veloudos’s high-spirited, low-tech, hard-to-resist production, unless you consider charm to be a special effect. Added bonus: The return to a Boston stage of the gifted Erica Spyres. Through June 26. Lyric Stage Company of Boston. 617-585-5678, www.lyricstage.com
MATILDA THE MUSICAL While it’s not as consistently transporting as the original Broadway production, the distinctive strengths of this rich, dark, and satisfyingly strange musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s novel still come through, including a superbly varied score by composer-lyricist Tim Minchin. There are strong performances by 9-year-old Sarah McKinley Austin as Matilda (the role rotates among several young performers) and Dan Chameroy as the bonkers Miss Trunchbull. Through June 26. Production by Royal Shakespeare Company and the Dodgers presented by Broadway in Boston at Boston Opera House. 800-982-2787, www.broadwayinboston.com
I WAS MOST ALIVE WITH YOU The world premiere of Craig Lucas’s intricate, frequently absorbing, occasionally sluggish new drama, enacted in spoken word and American Sign Language, about the struggles of a Southern California family to cope and to communicate when adversity hits, and hits, and hits again. Through June 26. Huntington Theatre Company at Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org
ALBATROSS In an adaptation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,’’ Benjamin Evett re-creates his solo performance as Coleridge’s anguished seaman, which won him an Elliot Norton Award from the Boston Theater Critics Association. Directed by Rick Lombardo. Through July 3. Gloucester Stage Company, Gloucester. 978-281-4433, www.gloucesterstage.com DON AUCOIN | Globe theater critic Don Aucoin’s guide to area productions, including “Matilda the Musical,’’ “I Was Most Alive With You,’’ “Peter and the Starcatcher,’’ and “Albatross.’’ | 9.897436 | 0.871795 | 2.358974 | low | medium | mixed |
http://nypost.com/2015/10/19/cuomo-might-lift-ban-on-commercial-surrogates-a-priority-for-gay-rights-advocates/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160702170010id_/http://nypost.com:80/2015/10/19/cuomo-might-lift-ban-on-commercial-surrogates-a-priority-for-gay-rights-advocates/ | Cuomo might lift surrogate-mom ban, a priority for gay-rights advocates | 20160702170010 | The Cuomo administration is weighing whether to lift the ban on commercial surrogacy in New York — a top priority of gay-rights advocates following the legalization of same-sex marriage, The Post has learned.
The governor’s Task Force on Life and the Law is quietly looking at lifting the prohibition, which has been in place since 1993.
“Gestational surrogate pregnancy contracts should be a viable option for potential parents. I don’t have moral qualms with the practice,” said Valerie Guttman Koch, an adviser to the task force, who confirmed that the panel is advising Cuomo on commercial surrogacy.
A state law would have to be approved by the Legislature and Cuomo to lift the ban on surrogacy contracts.
A bill called the Child-Parent Security Act, which has been introduced by state Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester), would legalize surrogacy through gestational pregnancies, in which a woman is paid to go through the pregnancy and deliver a child who is not genetically related — a practice opponents slam as “womb for rent.”
In this process, the pregnant woman, or carrier, does not use her own biological eggs. Instead, she is artificially impregnated with someone’s else’s egg and sperm through in vitro fertilization. She then hands the baby over to the legal parents after birth.
The proposal’s chances increase if Cuomo throws his support behind it.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in June vetoed a bill that would have legalized commercial surrogacy in the Garden State.
The ban has forced same-sex couples and infertile straight couples to travel out of state for the procedure, which can cost more than $100,000.
“Things have certainly shifted in terms of recognition of gay marriage,” said Nathan Schaefer, director of the New York Empire State Pride agenda, which supports lifting the ban. “There’s interest from more and more couples to pursue gestational surrogacy as an option to have children.”
Opponents claim gestational pregnancy exploits women and shows that modern medicine has run amok.
“Women didn’t get this far to be treated like breeding animals,” said Jennifer Lahl of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network.
“We try to get a mother and a baby to bond,” Lahl continued. “We’re against ripping the baby from the mother the moment he leaves the womb. It’s not good for the child.”
Supporters of surrogacy complain that New York’s law is outdated and discriminates against couples who want to have children.
The ban was put into place after the infamous “Baby M” case in New Jersey, when surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead reneged on a paid baby contract after she was inseminated with a man’s sperm and gave birth. The courts then invalidated the contract.
But in that case, Whitehead was the biological mother because her own eggs were used.
With medical advances, nearly all test-tube surrogate births today are done through gestational pregnancy. | The Cuomo administration is weighing whether to lift the ban on commercial surrogacy in New York — a top priority of gay-rights advocates following the legalization of same-sex marriage, The Post h… | 15.368421 | 0.947368 | 34.105263 | low | high | extractive |
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/18/us/small-study-challenges-role-of-oat-bran-in-reducing-cholesterol.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160702201526id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1990/01/18/us/small-study-challenges-role-of-oat-bran-in-reducing-cholesterol.html | Small Study Challenges Role of Oat Bran in Reducing Cholesterol | 20160702201526 | The value of eating oat bran has been challenged by a small study that found oat fiber no more effective in lowering people's cholesterol levels than foods made from low-fiber refined wheat flour, which produced far fewer unpleasant side effects.
On the basis of earlier studies, adding oat bran to the diet has been widely advertised recently as an aid in lowering cholesterol. Physicians and dietitians often recommend adding oat bran to the diet, and food producers have been using it to formulate a host of new products, from muffins and cereals to chips and beer.
The researchers said their study was the first to compare a diet with added oat bran to a diet with added low-fiber foods.
The new study, by Janis F. Swain with Ian L. Rouse, Christine B. Curley and Dr. Frank Sacks at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, found a 7.5 percent reduction in serum cholesterol over a six-week period in participants who added high-fiber oat bran to their diet. But they found the same effect in participants who added foods made from low-fiber refined wheat. Refined wheat is present in ordinary diets as enriched wheat flour, a white flour from which the fiber-rich bran has been removed. It is used to make white breads, cakes, muffins, cookies and cereals.
The researchers attributed the finding to the fact that study participants, who started out with normal cholesterol levels, ate considerably less fat and cholesterol when either of the carbohydrate supplements was added to their diets.
The findings, being published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, raise questions about the independent value of eating large amounts of oat bran and perhaps other foods rich in soluble fiber, which can cause gastrointestinal symptoms like flatulence and abdominal distention.
But the study does not directly contradict the conclusions of other researchers, who have shown that when oat bran was added to a diet already low in fats an additional reduction in serum cholesterol resulted that was not seen in a control group eating a low-fiber diet. In previous studies, the benefits of the bran were most apparent in people with cholesterol levels above 240.
In an editorial accompanying the new study, Dr. William E. Connor, an expert on cholesterol from Oregon Health Sciences University, said that while this was ''a superbly conducted study of normal people,'' further studies of patients with high blood cholesterol are needed.
Researchers from the Quaker Oats Company, the nation's leading producer of oat products, discounted the significance of the new study on the ground that it may have been too small, the diets of the participants were not carefully controlled, the participants averaged lower than normal cholesterol levels and the study was originally designed to measure the effects of oat bran on blood pressure, not on serum cholesterol. In addition, Quaker researchers said, the participants were already consuming a diet twice as high in fiber as the typical American and thus may have been less likely to show a benefit from a further increase in fiber.
But the Boston researchers maintain that their study was better designed than those that showed oat bran had an independent cholesterol-lowering effect.
''No other study used low-fiber foods as a dietary control when trying to assess the benefits of adding oat bran to a person's usual diet,'' Dr. Sacks said in a telephone interview. ''Our results suggest that any complex carbohydrate would be equally effective because the main benefit is that it displaces fatty foods in people's diets.''
Large Amount of Oat Bran
Dr. Sacks, a specialist in cardiovascular disease, said Ms. Swain, a dietitian, deliberately used a large amount of oat bran in the study to maximize the possibility of detecting a benefit. Each participant ate 100 grams, or three and a half ounces, of oat bran a day. This amount, about one cup of dry bran, would cook up into about three and a half cups of hot cereal. But in the study, the bran was disguised in muffins and main courses that were produced in a dietetic kitchen to resemble similar products made from refined wheat.
The 20 participants were not told which products they were eating in the different parts of the 15-week study. Each was given the oat bran products for six weeks of the study, and for another six-week period, each got the wheat products. During the oat bran part of the study, 18 of the 20 participants complained of gastrointestinal symptoms. Only one had such a complaint during the low-fiber diet period.
Quaker experts said, however, that it was not necessary to eat so much oat bran to obtain its cholesterol-lowering benefits.
''We have data showing that 100 grams a day of oat bran is more than two times higher than what is needed to get a cholesterol-lowering effect,'' said Dr. Steven L. Ink, group manager of nutrition and research services at Quaker. ''It's not reasonable to expect people to eat that amount.''
The newest Quaker product, for example, a ready-to-eat oat bran cereal, provides 20 grams of oat bran in a recommended one-ounce serving. That and a muffin or two containing another 20 grams of oat bran is enough for one day, Dr. Ink said. He also said that to limit the risk of gastrointestinal symptoms, oat bran should be gradually introduced into one's diet, not given in large amounts all at once.
The potential benefits of oat bran and other sources of soluble fiber in combating high cholesterol levels have been known for more than a decade. Most but not all studies have resulted in a statistically significant decline in people's cholesterol levels when soluble fiber was added to the diet.
In one study conducted in Chicago among 208 men and women with normal cholesterol levels, a 12-week fat-reduced diet lowered serum cholesterol by about 5 percent. When about 35 grams of oat bran or oatmeal a day was added to the low-fat diet, a further drop of about 6 percent occurred after six weeks on the high-fiber regimen as against a 1 percent drop among those not eating oat products.
Soluble fibers dissolve in water and are absorbed by the body. It is not known by what mechanism they may help lower cholesterol. The belief that they help the excretion of cholesterol from the body has not been borne out by carefully controlled studies.
In addition to oats, edible products rich in soluble fibers include dried beans and peas, raw carrots, barley, the brans of rice and corn, pectin-containing fruits like apples, grapefruit and cranberries, the plant extract guar gum (used as a food additive) and the laxative seed psyllium. Most of these foods also contain considerable amounts of insoluble fiber, which is not digested and absorbed by people. For example, 60 percent of the fiber in oat bran is insoluble, and it is this portion that is believed responsible for intestinal side effects.
Unlike most other cholesterol-lowering foods and drugs, soluble fiber seems to reduce total cholesterol by lowering only the so-called bad cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol. In the new Boston study, a similar effect was observed. Dr. Ink of Quaker pointed out that during the oat bran segment of the study, there was a slight improvement in people's cholesterol ratios, with the proportion of good high-density lipoprotein cholesterol rising in relation to the amount of LDL cholesterol in the blood. This effect was not seen following the wheat segment of the study. | LEAD: The value of eating oat bran has been challenged by a small study that found oat fiber no more effective in lowering people's cholesterol levels than foods made from low-fiber refined wheat flour, which produced far fewer unpleasant side effects. | 30.93617 | 0.957447 | 43.085106 | medium | high | extractive |
http://time.com/3426794/after-the-revolution-sitting-down-with-egyptian-president-abdul-fattah-al-sisi/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160702223419id_/http://time.com:80/3426794/after-the-revolution-sitting-down-with-egyptian-president-abdul-fattah-al-sisi/ | Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi Talks ISIS and Islam | 20160702223419 | A shorter version of this interview appeared in the Oct. 6 edition of TIME magazine:
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi won an election in May — but the former army chief has been essentially in charge of the country since ousting Egypt’s first democratically elected President, Mohamed Morsi, last summer. Al-Sisi remains mostly popular at home, where he is pushing reforms to jump-start Egypt’s moribund economy. But he’s been criticized for his crackdowns on Morsi’s Islamist supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood and on journalists and free speech in Egypt.
In one of his first interviews in the U.S., al-Sisi spoke with TIME on Sept. 23 about the America’s war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), Egypt’s economy and the influence of Islam in his life.
On U.S. action against ISIS: Imagine what would happen if you leave it without action. We still need more effort — it should not be limited to Iraq and ISIS. This is a threat not just to the Middle East but to the whole world … I want to be clear with you that this ideology constitutes a problem. There’s a fine line between extremism and killing. If we hadn’t saved Egypt, there would have been a major problem created. The U.S. did not pay attention to that.
On ousting Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood: You dealt with the developments in Egypt as a movement by the military. But the military was not thinking of making a coup. It was the Egyptian people who demanded that change of identity … A country like Egypt caught in a vicious cycle of extremism would be a threat to the whole world. The U.S. would have felt the need to destroy Egypt.
We have been fighting terrorism in the Sinai [Peninsula] for a year and four months. If the Muslim Brotherhood had been in office for another year, Sinai would have become something like Tora Bora [in Afghanistan]. It would have been civil war in Egypt. Egyptians wouldn’t have stood still, [and] on the other side, the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood were ready to fight.
On Egypt’s domestic challenges: Egypt has not faced problems of this scale for over 40 years. [We have] striking poverty, unemployment, idleness of the young people. This is fertile soil for problems. Our population growth is 2.6 million people a year. In 10 years time, we expect to have 30 million people more. This is a reason for the revolution in Egypt. They want change and to move forward to a brighter future. Unfortunately, Morsi did not deal with the magnitude of the problems. The government alone in Egypt won’t be able to tackle all of the problems, [but] Egypt cannot afford to fail. Two revolutions is more than enough.
On the future of the Muslim Brotherhood: Our first elections were free and fair. The result of that free choice was the Muslim Brotherhood and the Muslim Brotherhood was accepted. But I say that in any election to be held [in the future] the Muslim Brotherhood will not be fortunate to have a share.
On the risks of foreign jihadists in the battle against terrorism: Watch out for your citizens who join jihad. When they come back to their communities, they will pursue the same practices. This is why we can’t just limit the effort to the military. The actions taken over the past year are not enough to terminate this … No one country is immune to this ideology. The foreign fighters will come back to your country. I’m afraid it will be disastrous.
On the role of Islam in his life: I simply represent moderate Islam. I’m concerned about the challenges of poverty and ignorance in the Muslim world. I can’t be against Islam — I consider myself a devout Muslim — but the reality poses a challenge. | The ruler looks to revitalize Egypt's, but he's been criticized for his crackdowns on free speech. | 37.55 | 0.75 | 2.45 | high | low | mixed |
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/all-eyes-on-2-year-old-prince-george-in-new-royal-photo/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160703020928id_/http://www.cbsnews.com:80/news/all-eyes-on-2-year-old-prince-george-in-new-royal-photo/ | All eyes on 2-year-old Prince George in new royal photo | 20160703020928 | LONDON -- Britain's Prince George gets a boost in a photo for a new British stamp set -- thanks to some foam blocks and duct tape.
The toddler prince is pictured alongside his father Prince William, grandfather Prince Charles and great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II in stamps issued to mark the queen's 90th birthday on Thursday.
The adults are seated, but a smiling George stands atop four foam blocks secured with tape so that his head is at roughly the same height as the others.
The blocks can't be seen on the stamp, but a full-length version of the image by photographer Ranald Mackechnie was released by the Royal Mail on Wednesday.
The group photograph has been issued as a sheet that divides into four stamps, one for each of the royals.
The stamp outlines can be see below:
William was asked recently during an interview with Sky News if his son, George, has any sense yet that he's not part of an ordinary family -- whether William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, have begun to prepare him to accept the fact that he's in the line of succession.
"Well, as far as we're concerned, within our family unit we are a normal family," William said. "I love my children the same way any father does, and I hope George loves me the same way any son does to his father, so we are very normal in that sense.
"There'll be a time and a place to bring George up and understand how he fits in the world, but right now it's just a case of keeping a secure, stable environment around him and showing him as much love as I can as a father."
Queen Elizabeth II marks her 90th birthday on Thursday as Britons and many throughout the world celebrate her long and dignified reign.
"I think, in the queen I have an extraordinary example of somebody who's done an enormous amount of good and she's probably the best role model I could have in front of me," Prince William recently told the BBC.
She will celebrate again in June with national events to mark her official birthday.
Here are answers to some questions about the queen's extraordinary life and times:
WHY TWO BIRTHDAYS A YEAR? ISN'T ONE ENOUGH?
It may seem excessive, but the British monarch celebrates his or her birthday twice a year, once on the actual day (for Elizabeth, April 21), and once in early June, when the event can be marked with the gala Trooping the Color parade in central London. The June date is chosen in part because the famously fickle British weather just might produce a few sunny hours at that time of year. And the Buckingham Gardens are gloriously in bloom.
HOW DID ELIZABETH SPEND HER LAST DAY AS AN 89-YEAR OLD?
The monarch on Wednesday toured her local Windsor postal depot, which was renamed in her honor. "I have it on good authority that your own postmen and women will be especially busy with tomorrow's mailbag," Royal Mail Group chief executive Moya Greene said as she thanked the queen for coming to mark the 500th anniversary of the Royal Mail. A crowd waved the nation's flag in the sparkling sunshine as two Royal Mail choirs and another one from Bristol sang "Happy Birthday."
WHEN DID SHE BECOME QUEEN?
Elizabeth's life was changed forever in 1936 when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated so he could marry his divorced lover Wallis Simpson. This made her father the king and Elizabeth heir to the throne. King George VI's health failed, however, and he was too ill for a planned tour of the Commonwealth in 1952, so he sent Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, in his place. They were staying in a remote part of Kenya on Feb. 6, 1952, when she was told that the king had died. She automatically became queen upon her father's death, although the official coronation did not take place for more than a year.
HOW DID ELIZABETH WEATHER WORLD WAR II?
Elizabeth was a young princess during World War II, and her father King George VI was concerned for her safety as London came under the repeated German bombing raids known as The Blitz. She and her sister Princess Margaret were moved to Windsor Castle, 25 miles west of London for security reasons. She later persuaded her parents to let her serve in the Auxiliary Transport Service, where she learned how to drive and repair ambulances and trucks as part of the war effort. She was assigned number 230873 while in the service.
HAS THE QUEEN EVER COMPLAINED IN PUBLIC?
No, that's just not done. The closest Elizabeth has come to exhibiting human frailty to her subjects was in 1992, when she made a rare admission that her life, so picture perfect on the outside, was marred by the marital woes of three of her four children. She didn't complain in English, however, looking to Latin to proclaim it had been something of an "annus horribilus" -- a horrible year that included a disastrous fire at her beloved Windsor Castle.
WHAT WAS THE LOW POINT OF HER MONARCHY?
This would undoubtedly be the stormy days that followed Princess Diana's sudden death in a car crash in August 1997. The princess was tremendously popular, and many held the royal family responsible for her unpleasant divorce from Prince Charles. The queen was castigated in the press for not returning to London immediately after Diana's death and for not flying the royal standard atop the palace at half-staff as a sign of respect. Thousands of mourners placed flowers at the gates of Kensington Palace, Diana's residence, and many complained the queen was insensitive and out of touch.
(This item has been corrected to August 1997 from September 1997)
WHO WAS HER FAVORITE PRIME MINISTER?
You'd have to ask her. And she won't tell.
DOES THE QUEEN PLAN TO RETIRE?
The strong-willed and able-bodied queen has given no indication she plans to leave the throne, and has described her unique position as a "job for life." Her own mother lived to be 101, and was generally in fine fettle in her final years. Still, it is possible Elizabeth would step down if she developed severe problems that made it impossible for her to carry out her role.
PRINCE CHARLES IS ALREADY 67. COULD THE QUEEN ARRANGE THINGS SO GRANDSON PRINCE WILLIAM WOULD SUCCEED HER?
No. This is a constitutional monarchy, with rules of succession. | Toddler prince is pictured alongside his father, grandfather and great-grandmother for stamps issued to mark the queen's 90th birthday | 55.304348 | 1 | 6.565217 | high | high | mixed |
http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/22/solutions-education-gifted-oped-cx_hra_0123gifted.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160703023808id_/http://www.forbes.com:80/2008/01/22/solutions-education-gifted-oped-cx_hra_0123gifted.html | Do You Have A Gifted Child? | 20160703023808 | On what point can all experts in gifted education agree? A gifted child can be talented across so many different areas that often you need to look hard to find him or her. But one thing is clear–each is a truly extraordinary individual.
But there’s a scale that psychologists and schools can use to screen students for entrance into gifted programs. Called the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students, this tool lists dozens of characteristics of gifted children under categories that range from leadership and communication to math to art and music.
And, simplified, it can help every parent understand if they’ve produced a prodigy.
The scale is the product of Joseph S. Renzulli, a professor at the University of Connecticut, and a team of experts who have field-tested the system on K-12 students throughout the United States. Now the results are in.
Compared with their same-age peers, gifted children may have superior memories, a knack for creating original skits or the ability to concentrate intensely for long periods of time–to cite just a few characteristics of the children inventoried in the test. And though teachers and other educational professionals administer the scales, experts say that parents play a crucial role in the initial recognition of giftedness in their own children.
“Parents are a key, perhaps the key, in identifying gifted children,” says Dr. James T. Webb, co-author of A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children. “Their child is very curious, talks early and asks a lot of questions …. If they’re into chess, that’s all they want to do. If they have a tantrum, it’s over-the-top. If they have an imaginary friend, they don’t just have one or two. They have 10 or 11, and each has imaginary pets.”
Judy Galbraith, a specialist in guidance and counseling of the gifted, recalls a time when her second-grade student brought The Hobbit to class. “At first, I was a little skeptical that he was comprehending it,” she says. “But then he started to talk about what was happening, and the characters.” Gifted children can read for long periods of time, and they often seek out books or magazines that are above their age or grade level. According to Galbraith, who wrote a book called You Know Your Child Is Gifted When … to help parents navigate the overwhelming amount of research in the field, these kids can tear through several books a week.
“Keep in mind there are different levels of giftedness,” advises Dr. Edward R. Amend, a clinical psychologist who co-authored A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children. Amend works with a preteen who is taking a math class at a local university on topics more advanced than calculus. “That’s an extreme level of giftedness. It’s more normal to be one year, or two or three or four, ahead of kids in his or her class,” he adds.
The issue becomes even more complex in light of research that indicates kids can be gifted and learning disabled at the same time, says Webb. “Once you get up into the gifted range, particularly as you get into the upper reaches of the gifted range, you find an increasing span of abilities,” he says. “You may have a child who is 8 years old, a second grader, who is reading at a seventh-grade level, does math at a fifth-grade level, has visual/motor skills at a third-grade level and decision/judgment skills at a second- or third-grade level.”
Renzulli, who is also director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, warns parents that there is no such thing as the perfect identification system. It’s important to remember that a child can still be gifted if he or she possesses just some–not all–of the listed characteristics in the scales.
“As we do more research, the list keeps getting longer,” says Amend. “We would not expect a kid to have all these characteristics, but we would expect them to have more than one or two. We always recommend assessment to try to figure out where the kid’s strengths are and where the weaknesses are.”
Sometimes, though, identifying giftedness is as simple as pairing observation with common sense. “The little boy who called the flowers in his garden bougainvillea,” says Dr. Barbara Klein, an educational consultant in Los Angeles and author of Raising Gifted Kids: Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Exceptional Child Thrive. “You don’t have to give the Stanford Binet [intelligence test] to know that they are just very different children. Very special.”
Taking note of these characteristics is only the first step for parents, who must also figure out how to cultivate the potential in their child.
“It’s time to begin to look for more information,” says the University of Connecticut’s Dr. Robin Schader. “If your child has these characteristics, then the big question at the end of it is: What are you going to do with it? As a parent, it behooves you to be watching your child, to know your child really well and to do your reading.”
Comments are turned off for this post. | There are some handy checklists for parents to identify their child's potential. | 74.142857 | 0.714286 | 1.142857 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.people.com/article/lindsay-lohan-will-turn-christmas-lights-in-kettering-uk | http://web.archive.org/web/20160703120429id_/http://www.people.com/article/lindsay-lohan-will-turn-christmas-lights-in-kettering-uk | Lindsay Lohan Will Turn on Christmas Lights in U.K. City : People.com | 20160703120429 | updated 07/02/2016 AT 09:45 AM EDT
•originally published 07/01/2016 AT 07:40 PM EDT
Despite describing her tweets about Kettering, England, as "offensive," Conservative British Parliament member Philip Hollobone has asked
to turn on the town's Christmas lights, and the actress has accepted.
On Thursday, Lohan accepted the offer in a tweet in which she asks the MP to direct message her about the gig.
"@MPChrisGrayling and *philiphollobone Direct message me about your offer. Would be happy to light the Christmas tree in #Kettering," she wrote.
@MPChrisGrayling and #philiphollobone Direct message me about your offer. Would be happy to light the Christmas tree in #Kettering
Before the two were working together to light the night, they reportedly found themselves at odds when Lohan, a vocal opponent of Britain leaving the European Union, sent out a series of tweets questioning certain areas for their votes, the
"Sorry, Kettering where are you?" the
star reportedly wrote in one now-deleted tweet.
Hollobone was reportedly unhappy with the tweets, which he called "fierce and offensive," but saw her help with the Christmas lights as a way for her to "redeem her political reputation," while also raising money for charity.
Last week Britons voted to leave the EU following a close and controversial referendum.
Soon after the results were announced, many Britain residents voiced regret over the decision and wondered what they've got themselves into.
"Even though I voted to leave, this morning I woke up and I just – the reality did actually hit me," one voter told Britain's ITV News. "If I had the opportunity to vote again, it would be to stay."
Following the results, British Prime Minister David Cameron – a "remain" supporter – announced his resignation, vowing to do all he can to "steady the ship over the coming weeks and months." | Lindsay Lohan accepted an the offer via Twitter on Thursday | 37.5 | 0.6 | 1.2 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.tmz.com/2016/07/01/lisa-vanderpump-pump-glass-calamari-lawsuit/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160703180104id_/http://www.tmz.com:80/2016/07/01/lisa-vanderpump-pump-glass-calamari-lawsuit/ | Lisa Vanderpump Restaurant Sued ... Would You Like Glass in Your Calamari? | 20160703180104 | Lisa Vanderpump's restaurant is being sued by a customer who claims their garnish messed him up something fierce.
John Santos claims in a new lawsuit he was chowing down on calamari at Pump in WeHo when he felt a sharp pain in his mouth.
Santos says he realized in short order he was chomping on shards of glass, and it didn't take long for blood to ooze from his mouth.
John alleges he instantly alerted the manager, who scurried over and removed the plate.
Santos says he has medical bills from Urgent Care to prove his injuries. He's gunning for more than $25k.
Lisa's hubby, Ken Todd, tells us they serve 500 meals a day and nothing like this has ever happened. Ken seems suspicious, saying Santos came to the restaurant asking for a king's ransom.
Ken adds, Pump has an A rating. | Lisa Vanderpump's restaurant is being sued by a customer who claims their garnish messed him up something fierce. John Santos claims in a new lawsuit… | 5.862069 | 0.931034 | 14.793103 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/02/23/joe-biden-has-also-changed-his-mind-on-election-year-supreme-cou/21317123/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160703180955id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2016/02/23/joe-biden-has-also-changed-his-mind-on-election-year-supreme-cou/21317123/ | Joe Biden has also changed his mind on election year Supreme Court nominees | 20160703180955 | Since Antonin Scalia's death, there's been a heated discussion about who should get to pick his successor on the Supreme Court.
Senate Republicans think the next president should make the selection, while Senate Democrats have said the decision belongs to our current president. But that hasn't always been the case.
On Monday, C-SPAN released footage from 1992 of then-Sen. Joe Biden saying President George H.W. Bush shouldn't nominate a new justice until after the election was held.
SEE ALSO: Scalia's absence to be felt as US Supreme Court returns
Biden said, "President Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not — and not — name a nominee until after the November election is completed."
Fast-forward 24 years, and now Vice President Biden is making the opposite argument, saying the Senate should work with President Obama to determine a nominee. But he's hardly the first to change his view on the issue.
See more of Joe Biden through the years:
Joe Biden has also changed his mind on election year Supreme Court nominees
FILE- In this July 21, 2015, file photo, Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a roundtable discussion at the Advanced Manufacturing Center at Community College of Denver. Biden's associates have resumed discussions about a 2016 presidential run after largely shelving such deliberations during his son's illness and following his death earlier this year. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)
Democratic politician Joseph R. Biden Jr, the United States Senator from Delaware, circa 1980. He became the US Vice President in 2009 under President Barack Obama. (Photo by Nancy Shia/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, : US Senator Joe Biden(D-DE) briefs reporters prior to the 15 January start of the second day of the US Senate impeachment trial of US President Bill Clinton on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. House prosecutors will summarize their case against the president 15 January. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO/Luke FRAZZA (Photo credit should read LUKE FRAZZA/AFP/Getty Images)
392389 02: U.S. President George W. Bush meets with members of the Senate and House foreign policy leadership in the Cabinet room at the White House July 25, 2001 in Washington, DC. Seated next to the president is Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE). (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
UNITED STATES - MARCH 08: Joe Biden during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo By Douglas Graham/Roll Call/Getty Images)
UNITED STATES - MAY 12: Democrat vice chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), throws up his hands as he speaks during debate on the nomination of John Bolton as US Ambassador the the United Nations May 12, 2005 in Washington D.C. (Photo by Joe Marquette/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON - JULY 12: U.S. Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) speaks during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on 'North American Cooperation on the Border' on the Border' on Capitol Hill July 12, 2005 in Washington, DC. The committee discussed border security and how to work together to secure the borders with Mexico and Canada. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO -- Episode 3331 -- Pictured: (l-r) Senator Joe Biden during an interview with host Jay Leno on March 22, 2007 (Photo by Paul Drinkwater/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
ORANGEBURG, SC - APRIL 26: (L-R) U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson greet the crowd before the start of the first debate of the 2008 presidential campaign April 26, 2007 at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. The debate, featuring eight Democratic presidential candidates, comes 263 days before the first ballot will be cast in the Iowa caucus next January. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Vice President Joe Biden reacts as he enters the auditorium before speaking about the economy and the Obama administration's policies, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015, at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the economy and the Obama administration's policies, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015, at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Vice President Joe Biden smiles after being given a shirt by Drake Student Body President Joey Gale after speaking about the economy and the Obama administration's policies, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015, at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Vice President Joe Biden gestures as he makes a joke during a speech to mark the 40th anniversary of the Legal Services Corporation, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Former federal judge and former Rep. Abner Mikva, D-Ill, right, introduces Vice President Joe Biden to speak during a luncheon to mark the 40th anniversary of the Legal Services Corporation, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2012 file photo, Vice President Joe Biden visits with patrons over lunch at Cruisers Diner in Seaman, Ohio. Biden buddied up with bikers, posed for countless pictures at a pizza place. Obama goes airborne in a doozie of a bear hug with a pizza guy in Florida. Joe Biden cozies up with a biker chick in Ohio. Even the more reserved Mitt Romney seems to be loosening up some with people he meets on the campaign trail. Kissing babies and slapping backs are so yesterday. The 2012 candidates are putting their all into the campaign cliche of pressing the flesh. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 23: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (C) talks with mayors from across the country, including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, in the Roosevelt Room of teh White January 23, 2014 in Washington, DC. The U.S. Conference of Mayors is holding its annual conference in Washington this week. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In this Sept. 8, 2012, photo, Vice President Joe Biden exits Cardo's Pizza Restaurant with pizza in hand after greeting patrons in Jackson, Ohio. Biden buddied up with bikers, posed for countless pictures at a pizza place and downed an ice cream cone at a Dairy Queen over the weekend as he toured Ohio. Biden loves Ohio. The only question now is whether Ohio loves him _ and President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Vice President Joe Biden gestures during a speech to mark the 40th anniversary of the Legal Services Corporation, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Vice President Joe Biden addresses the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Centennial Celebration luncheon in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
US Vice President Joe Biden speaks during the Civil Society Forum on the sideline of the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC, on August 4, 2014. Washington aims to wake up US business to the opportunities in Africa with the landmark US-Africa Leaders Summit this week, as China and Europe steal a march on the world's fastest-growing continent. As many as four dozen African leaders, and hundreds of businessmen with them, will for their part be looking to see if US investors and traders can move beyond old stereotypes of a continent mired in conflict and corruption and recognize its huge potential. AFP PHOTO/Jewel Samad (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 18: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (R) swears in Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro (L) as his wife Erica and daughter Carina look on during a ceremonial swearing in ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building August 18, 2014 in Washington, DC. Castro, the former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, was officially sworn in on July 28. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 30: (AFP OUT) U.S. President Barack Obama (C), Robert McDonald (R) and Vice President Joe Biden walk back to the White House through LaFayette Park after President Obama announced his intention to nominate Robert McDonald to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs June 30, 2014 in Washington, DC. McDonald served as the chief executive of Procter & Gamble and will replace Eric Shinseki who resigned after allegations of delayed care came to light. (Photo by Dennis Brack-Pool/Getty Images)
US President Barack Obama speaks to US Vice President Joe Biden after Biden introduced him during a signing ceremony for H.R. 803, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, on July 22, 2014 in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House in Washington, DC. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
US Presidential Barack Obama speaks on immigration reform beside US Vice President Joe Biden (R) in the Rose Garden of the White House on June 30, 2014 in Washington, DC. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - MAY 28: Vice President of the United States Joe Biden takes a selfie after the commencement ceremony at Air Force Academy in Colorado Spring, May 28, 2014. Biden spoke during the ceremony. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
US Vice President Joe Biden gestures as he speaks at Ledra palace in the UN-patrolled Buffer Zone in Nicosia on May 22, 2014. Biden met Cyprus leaders Thursday to spur talks on ending the island's 40-year division and seek support for threatened sanctions against Russia despite the economic cost. AFP PHOTO/ ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS (Photo credit should read Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
US Vice President Joe Biden adresses a speech to students and officials at Cotroceni Palace, the Romanian Presidency headquarters in Bucharest on May 21, 2014. Tougher sanctions must be imposed on Russia if it undermines crucial presidential elections in Ukraine on May 25, 2014, US Vice President Joe Biden said in Bucharest. AFP PHOTO DANIEL MIHAILESCU (Photo credit should read DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 29: U.S Vice President Joe Biden speaks during an event on protecting students from sexual assault at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building April 29, 2014 in Washington, DC. During the event, Biden announced the release of the first report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
US Vice President Joe Biden (L) and outgoing Heath and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius applaud as President Barack Obama names Sylvia Mathews Burwell (R), his current budget director, to replace Sebelius in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington,DC on April 11, 2014. Sebelius resigned, paying the price for the chaotic initial rollout of the US president's signature health care law. AFP PHOTO/Nicholas KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
US Vice President Joe Biden waves upon arrival for a meeting with Lithuania's President in Vilnius on March 19, 2014. Biden meets today with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and Latvian leader as part of a tour to reassure NATO allies during the Ukraine crisis. AFP PHOTO / PETRAS MALUKAS (Photo credit should read PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP/Getty Images)
US Vice President Joe Biden listens during a meeting with the Polish Prime Minister in Warsaw, Poland on March 18, 2013. Biden arrived in Poland for talks with regional allies as Russia tightened its grip on the Ukraine's breakaway region of Crimea. AFP PHOTO / JANEK SKARZYNSKI (Photo credit should read JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
US Vice President Joe Biden arrives for a St. Patrick's Day reception in the East Room of the White House on March 14, 2014 in Washington. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
US Vice President Joe Biden during a joint press conference with Chile's President Sebastian Pinera (not framed) at La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, on March 10, 2014. AFP PHOTO/CLAUDIO REYES (Photo credit should read Claudio Reyes/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 27: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks during the Democratic National Committee's Winter Meeting at the Capitol Hilton February 27, 2014 in Washington, DC. Biden addressed the Association of State Democratic Chairs. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
THE VIEW - Joe Biden, the 47th Vice President of the United States, was the special guest, live, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 (11:00 a.m.-12:00 noon, ET). The Vice President discussed the Affordable Care Act and the importance of signing up for health insurance through the marketplace before the March 31 deadline. Vice President Biden sat down with The View hosts Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd and Jenny McCarthy as part of the shows continuing Red, White & View campaign, which is committed to political guests and discussions. 'The View' airs Monday-Friday (11:00 am-12:00 pm, ET) on the ABC Television Network. (Photo by Lou Rocco/ABC via Getty Images) SHERRI SHEPHERD, BARBARA WALTERS, VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, WHOOPI GOLDBERG, JENNY MCCARTHY
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, looks on as President Barack Obama speaks at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Jan. 31, 2014. Obama is meeting today with chief executive officers of companies from Bank of America Corp. to EBay Inc. who have committed to giving the long-term unemployed a better chance in the hiring process. Photographer: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg via Getty Images *** Barack Obama; Joe Biden
US Vice President Joe Biden gives two thumbs-up prior to US President Barack Obama delivering the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on January 28, 2014 at the US Capitol in Washington. AFP PHOTO/Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
In this Sept. 9, 2012, photo, Vice President Joe Biden shakes hands and takes photos with people in the audience at a campaign event at Milford High School in Milford, Ohio. Biden buddied up with bikers, posed for countless pictures at a pizza place and downed an ice cream cone at a Dairy Queen over the weekend as he toured Ohio. Biden loves Ohio. The only question now is whether Ohio loves him _ and President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote in the Kentucky Law Journal in 1970 that "altering the ideological directions of the Supreme Court would seem to be a perfectly legitimate part of a Presidential platform."
But the day we learned of Scalia's death, McConnell went on Facebook to say the "vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president."
The main difference here is that McConnell is talking about an ongoing situation, while Biden's comments were hypothetical, since there were no Supreme Court vacancies in 1992.
On Monday, Biden issued a statement, pointing to a different part of the clip where he says he would have considered a nomination, saying he "urged the Senate and White House to work together to overcome partisan differences to ensure the Court functions as the Founding Fathers intended."
President Obama says he does plan to at least attempt to replace Scalia, but he has yet to name a nominee.
More from AOL.com: Severe storms, tornadoes to eye Louisiana to Florida Is Bernie Sanders' window to secure the nomination closing? Rubio needs a win, though no promises on Nevada | C-SPAN footage from 1992 shows Joe Biden advocated blocking election year Supreme Court nominees when he was a senator, despite what he's saying now. | 106.965517 | 0.862069 | 2.103448 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/The-valley-s-toxic-history-IBM-trial-is-latest-2826844.php | http://web.archive.org/web/20160703185933id_/http://www.sfgate.com:80/bayarea/article/The-valley-s-toxic-history-IBM-trial-is-latest-2826844.php | The valley's toxic history / IBM trial is latest round in long-running dispute over the tech industry's environmental record | 20160703185933 | Superfund Sites in Silicon Valley. Chronicle Graphic
Superfund Sites in Silicon Valley. Chronicle Graphic
ibm17102_pc.jpg Plaintiffs' attorneys provided this undated photograph of an employee working in a clean room. Testimony continues in the IBM trial in Santa Clara on 11/13/03. HANDOUT PHOTO Top: Cora Loanzon (right), whose husband died of cancer, looks at family photos with former IBM workers Sammie Burch (left) and Rose Rolike during a trial recess. Above right: In court, video screens display documents entered into the record, such as a photo, above left, of the disk-coating operation at the IBM facility in San Jose reportedly taken in the late 1960s. Top: Cora Loanzon (right), whose husband died of cancer, looks at family photos with former IBM workers Sammie Burch (left) and Rose Rolike during a trial recess. Above right: In court, video screens display documents entered into the record, such as a photo, above left, of the disk-coating operation at the IBM facility in San Jose reportedly taken in the late 1960s.
ibm17102_pc.jpg Plaintiffs' attorneys provided this undated photograph of an employee working in a clean room. Testimony continues in the IBM trial in Santa Clara on 11/13/03. HANDOUT PHOTO Top: Cora Loanzon
for TOXICS; Mountain View site, not necessarily Fairchild Courtesy Earl Dotter, HO / Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition / Earl Dotter
for TOXICS; Mountain View site, not necessarily Fairchild Courtesy Earl Dotter, HO / Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition / Earl Dotter
WORKMAN12/C/06MAY99/PZ/JLT Ted Smith, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, talks about the group's continuing battle against toxic pollution stemming from the area's concentration of computer manufacturers. 760 North First Street - San Jose, CA BY JERRY TELFER/THE CHRONICLE CAT
WORKMAN12/C/06MAY99/PZ/JLT Ted Smith, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, talks about the group's continuing battle against toxic pollution stemming from the area's concentration of
TOXICS_054GLADSTONE.jpg Rick and Susan Puppo who in 1981 learned that their water had been contaminated by leaking storage tanks from Fairchild corp. and IBM. Event on 12/3/03 in . / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT Business#Business#Chronicle#12/08/2003#ALL#Advance##0421513722
TOXICS_054GLADSTONE.jpg Rick and Susan Puppo who in 1981 learned that their water had been contaminated by leaking storage tanks from Fairchild corp. and IBM. Event on 12/3/03 in . / The Chronicle MANDATORY
ibm17081_pc.jpg IBM attorney Robert Weber cross-examines plaintiff Jim Moore in Judge Robert Baines' court. Testimony continues in the IBM trial in Santa Clara on 11/13/03. PAUL CHINN / The Chronicle Top: Cora Loanzon (right), whose husband died of cancer, looks at family photos with former IBM workers Sammie Burch (left) and Rose Rolike during a trial recess. Above right: In court, video screens display documents entered into the record, such as a photo, above left, of the disk-coating operation at the IBM facility in San Jose reportedly taken in the late 1960s. Top: Cora Loanzon (right), whose husband died of cancer, looks at family photos with former IBM workers Sammie Burch (left) and Rose Rolike during a trial recess. Above right: In court, video screens display documents entered into the record, such as a photo, above left, of the disk-coating operation at the IBM facility in San Jose reportedly taken in the late 1960s. CAT MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT Business#Business#Chronicle#1/19/2004#ALL#Advance##0421484755
ibm17081_pc.jpg IBM attorney Robert Weber cross-examines plaintiff Jim Moore in Judge Robert Baines' court. Testimony continues in the IBM trial in Santa Clara on 11/13/03. PAUL CHINN / The Chronicle Top: Cora
The valley's toxic history / IBM trial is latest round in long-running dispute over the tech industry's environmental record
In 1981, south San Jose residents were stunned to learn they had been drinking contaminated water laced with chemicals such as trichloroethane and Freon, toxics that they later suspected were the cause of birth defects in many of their children.
They were even more surprised to learn who the culprits were: Fairchild Semiconductor and IBM Corp., two giants of the then fast-growing technology industry, which prided itself on cleanliness and friendliness to the environment.
The companies' underground storage tanks were found to have leaked tens of thousands of gallons of toxic solvents into the ground. Residents, advocates and even state officials strongly suspected that the contamination caused a high rate of birth defects in the area, although no conclusive link was ever found.
The Fairchild-IBM case led to the discovery of numerous other toxic sites in the region -- Santa Clara County has the most Superfund sites in the nation -- and it prompted stricter environmental laws and a cleanup that has cost tech firms roughly $200 million during the past 20 years. It also ignited what has turned into a continuing battle between tech companies and activists who argue that the so-called clean industry has left behind a dirty legacy.
The latest round of that fight is playing out in a Santa Clara courtroom where two former IBM workers, Alida Hernandez and Jim Moore, accuse the company of exposing them to known or suspected cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene, trichloroethylene and Freon at a San Jose disk drive factory -- the same facility that leaked chemicals into the area's water supply.
Representing the plaintiffs are two attorneys, Amanda Hawes and Richard Alexander, who also were involved in the Fairchild-IBM debacle in the 1980s on behalf of area residents.
"The Fairchild case was the origin of all this," said Ted Smith, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an activist group that was formed in response to the south San Jose contamination. "We've been living and breathing this history all this time."
But Robert Weber, the attorney representing IBM in the trial, blasted the case as being waged by a "stale stable of activist warhorses" from the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.
Referring to Hawes and Smith, who are married, he added: "It's Ms. Hawes and her husband's crew and fellow travelers. They've been at this for years."
The leak from Fairchild's manufacturing facility on Bernal Road was publicized first and was known to be more serious. As a result, the controversy came to be known as the "Fairchild case." The company was then known as Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp.
The company's 22-acre site leaked trichloroethylene and other solvents into soil and a major aquifer, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Shortly after Fairchild acknowledged its problem, the nearby IBM factory was also found to have a leaking tank. Big Blue's underground tanks on its 400- acre site in south San Jose leaked trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, Freon and other industrial solvents, according to the EPA.
The two leaks affected the drinking water of about 65,000 south San Jose residents.
Residents and environmental advocates then began to investigate a link between the contaminated water and an apparent rise in birth defects in their community, including kidney disease and heart problems.
Before the leaks were discovered, Susan Puppo, who lived near the Fairchild plant, gave birth to a son who had a heart murmur. By the time the child was 1 1/2 years old, he had had four open-heart surgeries.
The Puppos believe the contaminated water caused their son's health problems, although no conclusive proof has ever been presented.
"It was just disgusting that such large companies, both Fairchild and IBM, could be so negligent and have something like (the leaks) happen," said Puppo, who has been clipping news stories of the trial and sending them to her dad, who had worked for IBM in San Jose and knew Moore, the current plaintiff against IBM. "It was shocking and pretty sad."
Both Fairchild and IBM acknowledged the water contamination but maintained that they worked closely with state and federal authorities to fix the problem.
Susan Puppo and her husband, Rick, joined the community movement that pressed the companies to do something about the problem.
"It was such a mess," Rick Puppo said. "All we wanted was for them to close and get out of there."
The problem of toxic contamination turned out to be more widespread in Silicon Valley. Many tech companies had stored highly toxic solvents, such as trichloroethylene, used to make semiconductors, in underground tanks.
"What we realized after a while was that a lot of high-tech companies were pouring their solvents into underground storage tanks -- and they were leaking," said Keith Takata, director of the EPA's Superfund division for the Pacific Southwest region.
Of all U.S. counties, Santa Clara has the most sites, 23, on the National Priorities List, commonly known as the Superfund list. Of those, 19 were contaminated by tech companies.
Wil Bruhns, a senior engineer with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Board, said the Fairchild-IBM case led other big technology firms, such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard, to check their underground storage tanks.
Within a few months, he said, "we were batting 1,000. Anyone who looked for leaks found them. That ballooned the number of cases of leaks manyfold."
The south San Jose case led to stricter local and state rules for underground storage tanks, which later became part of federal regulations. Companies that store toxic chemicals, including tech firms and gas stations, were required to use double-walled steel tanks with sensors installed between the walls to detect leaks, Bruhns said.
Some manufacturers also switched to less-toxic materials such as isopropyl alcohol or high-pressure water to clean components, he added.
The EPA's Takata said the Fairchild-IBM case "really caused companies to take a look at their practices."
Smith of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition speculated on the reason: money.
"The lesson they learned is it's cheaper to prevent additional groundwater contamination than it is to pay to clean it up," he said. "It was a very strong economic message."
Takata estimated that Silicon Valley companies have spent about $200 million cleaning up contaminated sites.
In the Fairchild-IBM case, both companies had to remove the leaking tanks and thousands of cubic yards of soil and then install wells to pump and treat contaminated groundwater.
A civil suit filed against Fairchild, IBM and the water company was later settled. The settlement was sealed, but it reportedly entailed payments in the tens of millions of dollars.
In 1985, the state Health Department said it found a higher-than-normal rate of miscarriages and birth defects -- including holes in the heart, Down syndrome, deformed genitalia and webbed toes -- in a south San Jose neighborhood affected by the leaks. But the agency said it did not find a direct link to the leaks.
Chuck Fraust, director for environment, health and safety at the Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents major tech firms, including IBM and Intel, defended the industry's response to the south San Jose contamination cases.
"Like any conscientious industry, we were concerned and we took action," he said.
But Alexander, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, countered: "They certainly weren't proactive when tens of thousands of gallons of solvents were draining into the aquifer."
The Fairchild site, which is still listed as a Superfund site, was eventually shut down. The company was later bought by National Semiconductor, but it re-emerged as a separate firm in 1997.
The EPA had proposed to include the IBM site on the Superfund list but decided not to do so because it was already under another federal government cleanup program, said Michael Hingerty, an agency attorney.
IBM continued to operate the factory even as it was cleaning it up before selling the facility in 2002 to a new venture controlled by Hitachi.
Cleaning up a Superfund site can take more than 10 years. Hingerty said all 19 tech-related sites in Santa Clara are in the process of being remedied.
Bruhns of the Bay Area water quality board said the tech industry has generally been cooperative in dealing with the problem in Silicon Valley, and he gave particularly high marks to IBM.
"The way I picture companies is which ones brought their lawyers and which ones brought their engineers," he said, adding that IBM brought engineers. "I would say IBM is probably one of the most cooperative companies down there."
Bruhns also described the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition as reasonable and a legitimate player. "I think they are technically sophisticated enough to get involved in these discussions."
Today, activists are focused on what they believe is another ugly legacy of the tech industry: the damage to workers' health caused by toxic chemicals used in manufacturing.
The issue is highly controversial. Despite many claims by former tech workers that they developed cancer because they were exposed to toxic chemicals in the workplace, no definitive study has been done on the effects of solvents on employees.
Tech companies, such as IBM, have used that argument to reject allegations that their manufacturing operations made many of their workers sick.
Fraust of the Semiconductor Industry Association stressed that the industry has been quick to respond to possible harm from the chemicals it uses. He cited the example of glycol ethers, chemicals used as cleaning solvents that were later phased out by the industry after studies showed that they could cause higher rates of miscarriages.
The association has also been working with Johns Hopkins University to determine if there are enough data to do a comprehensive study on the effects of chemicals on technology workers.
The trial involving Hernandez, who was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Moore, who suffers from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, will let a jury weigh in on the controversy.
"It is the first time that a jury is going to give a legal answer to the question that people have been raising for 20 years," said Smith, of the toxics coalition.
Time line of events leading up to the IBM trial
1 1956: IBM opens facility on Cottle Road in San Jose.
1957: Fairchild Semiconductor (also known as Fairchild Camera & Instrument Corp.) is founded in Santa Clara County.
2 1981: Water supply wells in south San Jose found to be contaminated due to leaks from Fairchild and IBM underground storage tanks used for toxic solvents. More contaminated sites (such as the one shown) owned by tech firms are later found and included on the Superfund list.
3 1982: Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an environmental activist organization led by founder Ted Smith, is formed amid controversy over the south San Jose contamination.
1983: Local governments in Silicon Valley begin passing ordinances for safer underground storage tanks, which later become models for California and federal regulations.
4 1985: California Department of Health Services finds higher-than-normal rate of miscarriages and birth defects in a south San Jose neighborhood affected by the leaks, confirming the suspicions of residents such as Rick and Susan Puppo, whose son was born with a heart defect. But the agency says it did not come up with a conclusive link between the leaks and the health problems.
1986: IBM and Fairchild settle suit filed by south San Jose residents. The terms are sealed.
1998: Former IBM workers at the company's San Jose plant begin filing lawsuits alleging that they became ill because of working conditions.
1999: Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents major tech firms, announces the creation of an expert panel to study cancer risks in tech manufacturing.
2001: SIA panel says it found insufficient evidence to prove or disprove that there is a higher risk of cancer at semiconductor manufacturing plants. The body recommends a comprehensive epidemiological study.
2002: SIA forms new committee to determine if there is enough information available to do a comprehensive study. Results of the survey will be released this year.
5 2003: Lawsuit against IBM by former workers Alida Hernandez and Jim Moore goes to trial before Santa Clara County Judge Robert Baines. (Photo shows IBM attorney Robert Weber.)
Sources: IBM, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Chronicle Research
Santa Clara has 23 Superfund sites, the most of any county in the nation. Nineteen of the sites were contaminated by tech firms, most of which had used highly toxic chemicals in manufacturing, including trichloroethylene, Freon, trichloroethane and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). A description and map of Superfund sites, also known as the National Priorities List, can be found at the Environmental Protection Agency Web site at www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl.
Advanced Micro Devices (two sites)
Intersil Inc. and Siemens Components
Lorentz Barrel & Drum Co.
South Bay asbestos area (former dumping area) | The valley's toxic history / IBM trial is latest round in long-running dispute over the tech industry's environmental record In 1981, south San Jose residents were stunned to learn they had been drinking contaminated water laced with chemicals such as trichloroethane and Freon, toxics that they later suspected were the cause of birth defects in many of their children. Residents, advocates and even state officials strongly suspected that the contamination caused a high rate of birth defects in the area, although no conclusive link was ever found. The latest round of that fight is playing out in a Santa Clara courtroom where two former IBM workers, Alida Hernandez and Jim Moore, accuse the company of exposing them to known or suspected cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene, trichloroethylene and Freon at a San Jose disk drive factory -- the same facility that leaked chemicals into the area's water supply. "The Fairchild case was the origin of all this," said Ted Smith, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an activist group that was formed in response to the south San Jose contamination. Residents and environmental advocates then began to investigate a link between the contaminated water and an apparent rise in birth defects in their community, including kidney disease and heart problems. Many tech companies had stored highly toxic solvents, such as trichloroethylene, used to make semiconductors, in underground tanks. "What we realized after a while was that a lot of high-tech companies were pouring their solvents into underground storage tanks -- and they were leaking," said Keith Takata, director of the EPA's Superfund division for the Pacific Southwest region. Wil Bruhns, a senior engineer with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Board, said the Fairchild-IBM case led other big technology firms, such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard, to check their underground storage tanks. Companies that store toxic chemicals, including tech firms and gas stations, were required to use double-walled steel tanks with sensors installed between the walls to detect leaks, Bruhns said. In the Fairchild-IBM case, both companies had to remove the leaking tanks and thousands of cubic yards of soil and then install wells to pump and treat contaminated groundwater. In 1985, the state Health Department said it found a higher-than-normal rate of miscarriages and birth defects -- including holes in the heart, Down syndrome, deformed genitalia and webbed toes -- in a south San Jose neighborhood affected by the leaks. Chuck Fraust, director for environment, health and safety at the Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents major tech firms, including IBM and Intel, defended the industry's response to the south San Jose contamination cases. The EPA had proposed to include the IBM site on the Superfund list but decided not to do so because it was already under another federal government cleanup program, said Michael Hingerty, an agency attorney. Today, activists are focused on what they believe is another ugly legacy of the tech industry: the damage to workers' health caused by toxic chemicals used in manufacturing. Despite many claims by former tech workers that they developed cancer because they were exposed to toxic chemicals in the workplace, no definitive study has been done on the effects of solvents on employees. Tech companies, such as IBM, have used that argument to reject allegations that their manufacturing operations made many of their workers sick. California Department of Health Services finds higher-than-normal rate of miscarriages and birth defects in a south San Jose neighborhood affected by the leaks, confirming the suspicions of residents such as Rick and Susan Puppo, whose son was born with a heart defect. Semiconductor Industry Association, which represents major tech firms, announces the creation of an expert panel to study cancer risks in tech manufacturing. 2001: SIA panel says it found insufficient evidence to prove or disprove that there is a higher risk of cancer at semiconductor manufacturing plants. Nineteen of the sites were contaminated by tech firms, most of which had used highly toxic chemicals in manufacturing, including trichloroethylene, Freon, trichloroethane and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). | 4.087121 | 0.974747 | 38.871212 | low | high | extractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/06/30/what-bernie-sanders-still-wants/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160704070334id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/06/30/what-bernie-sanders-still-wants/ | What Bernie Sanders Still Wants | 20160704070334 | The Democratic primary is over and Bernie Sanders has all but conceded. But that doesn’t mean his fight has ended.
Even as his campaign has largely disbanded, Sanders and his allies have been negotiating with presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton’s supporters continuously over the last few weeks in an attempt to craft theDemocratic Party’s platform as a liberal manifesto. The biggest test of Sanders’ enduring influence will come next week in Orlando, Fla., when a draft written by a small group of Sanders and Clinton allies goes up for a vote before a 187-member committee of Democratic delegates.
Sanders aides said in interviews that the biggest issue at stake—and the one where they may have the most leverage—is opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade deal that President Obama supports. But Sanders will fight for a battery of other policies, from a fracking ban to a $15 minimum wage.
“The platform that comes out of the Democratic convention will be by far the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party,”Sanders vowed in New York last week.
Sanders allies have already been hammering away at policy disputes in a series of meetings organized by the Democratic National Committee and held all over the country, from St. Louis to Phoenix to Washington, D.C. The negotiations are part of Sanders’ commitment to shaping the party in his liberal image for years to come, despite his loss in the primary contest.
So far, liberals are cheered by Sanders’ influence. A draft of the party’s platform released last week includes a number of victories for them, including a commitment to a modern day Glass-Steagall, which would effectively break up some of the largest financial institutions, and a call to abolish the death penalty. The draft also has language about expanding Social Security, allocating money for large-scale infrastructure spending, and allowing states to legalize marijuana. Many of the positions outlined are ones Sanders took in the primary and Clinton did not.
Many of these discussions have been occurring behind the scenes between the two campaigns. On Clinton’s side, the top negotiators are Maya Harris, a senior policy adviser, and Charlie Baker, a veteran political operative. On Sanders’ side, campaign manager Jeff Weaver and adviser Mark Longabaugh have taken a lead in hashing out strategy, along with Warren Gunnels, Sanders’ longtime policy adviser. What’s difficult to foresee is how many Clinton delegates will defect from their candidate’s official line and support some of Sanders’ positions. Sanders believes most delegates align with him on issues like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and a $15 minimum wage. “We’ve put all our cards on the table in hearings and throughout the primary,” Longabaugh said. “The question is where do [Clinton’s] representatives come in.”
Here are three key issues Sanders wants to win.
Sanders wants a commitment in the platform to not bring the 12-nation trade deal up for a vote in Congress—effectively disqualifying it from ever coming into effect.
Much of the Democratic Party opposes the deal, saying it would outsource more American jobs and hurt businesses.
“It’s NAFTA on steroids,” Zephyr Teachout, the Democratic candidate for Congress in New York’s 19th district, said in an interview. Teachout, a Sanders endorser, is a rising star in the Democratic Party’s progressive ranks. “It offshores jobs and offshores power.”
It is the policy plank where Sanders and his aides believe they have the most leverage. But opposition to the TPP did not make it into the draft of the platform, largely because of President Obama’s influence. Sanders has to convince the party to enshrine its opposition to the President into the platform in Orlando next week. Jim Hightower, the former commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture, will offer an amendment to do so,Gunnels said. Sanders is also mobilizing labor unions, including the Communication Workers of America and the American Postal Workers Union, to support the amendment.
As it is written now, the draft of the platform says that the Democratic Party should support a living wage for all workers and that Americans should make at least $15 per hour. But Sanders has so far been unable to push for a clause that explicitly backs a federal $15 minimum wage.
Clinton began the primary advocating for a $12 minimum wage, but by the end of the nominating contest suggested she would be open to a $15 minimum wage if it could pass Congress. One of her largest endorsers was the Service Employees International Union, which has been perhaps the biggest advocate in the so-called “Fight for 15.”
Ohio Democratic state Sen. Nina Turner will bring an amendment backing a $15 minimum wage in Orlando, Gunnels said.
Clinton said in a March debate that she would regulate , hydraulic fraturing, or fracking, so that “by the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place.” But for Sanders, that doesn’t go far enough: He has called for an absolute ban on the drilling technique.
Sanders allies were deeply disappointed that the Clinton supporters on the platform drafting committee did not compromise with them on this front. Bill McKibben, a leading environmentalist and Sanders endorser, decried the Clinton camp’s resistance to a carbon tax and a fracking ban.
Josh Fox, the director of the anti-fracking documentary Gasland, will be introducing that amendment to the platform. Fox could often be seen on the campaign trail with Sanders, waving a dirty bottle of water from the podium as a prop to protest fracking.
In making demands during the process and highlighting the divides in the Democratic Party, Sanders could make it harder for Clinton to unify the party. His fight over the platform is one Hillary Clinton did not wage against Obama in 2008. But Sanders supporters say they are not hurting Clinton in her fight against Donald Trump. “By strengthening the platform in a very public way, we’re doing our best to rally people around the Democratic Party,” McKibben said. “Enthusiasm is at least as good a motivator as fear.”
This article originally appeared on Time.com. | His fight over the Democratic platform has just begun. | 119.6 | 0.8 | 2 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.cnbc.com/2014/04/02/wealthy-begins-at-17-million-report.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160705135333id_/http://www.cnbc.com:80/2014/04/02/wealthy-begins-at-17-million-report.html?__source=facebook%7Cwealth%7Clink%7C010315%7C6PM%7Camount-to-be-rich | You’re only a rich Brit once you’ve got $17 million | 20160705135333 | Oracle said the survey proved the term millionaire no longer carried the cachet it once did.
"Many people who own properties in the London area have become millionaires by virtue of the dramatic inflation of house prices, but would not necessarily regard themselves as HNWIs (high net worth individuals)," said Yury Gantman, CEO of Oracle Capital Group, in a news release.
"This is undoubtedly a reflection of growing living costs which, alongside the housing market, have affected food prices, school fees, travel and other household outgoings, but also – as indicated by our survey – because their own personal assets are dwarfed by the immense and highly publicized fortunes of footballers, film stars, hedge fund managers and tech billionaires." | How do you know when you're rich? According to a survey, most people reckon it is when you are worth over £10 million ($17 million). | 4.272727 | 0.333333 | 0.333333 | low | low | abstractive |
http://time.com/3727387/michelle-carter-plainville-suicide-manslaughter/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160705200230id_/http://time.com:80/3727387/michelle-carter-plainville-suicide-manslaughter/ | High School Senior Indicted for Allegedly Encouraging Suicide | 20160705200230 | A teenage girl is facing manslaughter charges for allegedly encouraging a male friend to commit suicide.
Michelle Carter, 18, of Plainville, Mass. is accused of having sent text messages to Conrad Roy III as he attempted to kill himself by carbon monoxide poisoning last July, encouraging him to remain in the idling truck as it filled with exhaust fumes.
A police report read in part:
“…when he actually started to carry out the act, he got scared again and exited his truck, but instead of telling him to stay out of the truck … Carter told him to ‘get back in.’”
Carter, an honor roll student, went on to raise money for mental illness in Roy’s name and wrote on social media about suicide prevention. She has been indicted as a “youthful offender.” | Michelle Carter, 18, later raised money for mental illness in her friend's name | 9.8125 | 0.75 | 3.25 | low | low | mixed |
http://nypost.com/2016/05/03/ace-the-style-game-with-these-spring-must-haves/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160706092222id_/http://nypost.com:80/2016/05/03/ace-the-style-game-with-these-spring-must-haves/ | Ace the style game with these spring must-haves | 20160706092222 | May 3, 2016 | 2:12pm
Whether you’re festival bound or just fashion focused now that the sun is finally out, here’s how to upgrade your warm-weather wardrobe.
The all-American denim jacket is getting a major makeover this spring. The reboot is well-timed, given the patriotic nature of the season both on and off the runway. Among the infinite riffs on the classic you’ll see paraded all over town, our vote goes to this spangled pack leader from Alice + Olivia. Slightly bleached, cropped just right, and embellished with whimsical patchwork, it’s the perfect candidate to keep your wardrobe winning all summer long.
Rose gold-plated choker with Swarovski crystals, $788 at
Phyto 4 Ombres eyeshadow quad in "Dream", $115 at
"Traje De Luce" swimsuit, $300 at
Belt, $395 at M Missoni, 426 W Broadway
Linda Farrow gold-plated sunglasses, $665 at
Valentino feather and bead embellished earrings, $1,175 at
"Dani" scarf, $125, available by custom order at
Charlotte Tilbury K.I.S.S.I.N.G lipstick in "Coachella Coral", $32 at
Top, $896 at Etro, 720 Madison Ave.
18-k yellow gold plated cuff, $610 at Aurelie Bidermann, 265 Lafayette St.
Skirt, $2,854 at Etro, 720 Madison Ave.
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{* #tradAuthenticateMergeForm *} {* traditionalSignIn_emailAddress *} {* mergePassword *} | Whether you’re festival bound or just fashion focused now that the sun is finally out, here’s how to upgrade your warm-weather wardrobe. Pledge allegiance to patches The all-American de… | 11.102564 | 0.871795 | 11.333333 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/05/arts/book-recalls-black-world-war-ii-tank-battalion.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160707014730id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1983/09/05/arts/book-recalls-black-world-war-ii-tank-battalion.html? | BOOK RECALLS BLACK WORLD WAR II TANK BATTALION | 20160707014730 | ''These guys were better than heroes because they weren't supposed to be able to fight, and they were treated worse than lepers. I can tell you, it took a rare sort of character to go out there and do what they did. I used to ask myself, why the hell should these guys fight? Why?''
The speaker is David Williams, reflecting on his World War II experience as a captain with the 761st Tank Battalion. Mr. Williams, now a stockbroker for E. F. Hutton in Florida, is white, but almost everyone else in the 761st Tank Battalion was black.
Mr. Williams has told the story of the 761st, one of the few black World War II units permitted to take part in combat in ''Hit Hard,'' published recently by Bantam Books. One of some 75 ''Bantam War Books,'' ''Hit Hard'' is the first on a black unit.
During World War II, most black soldiers were not in combat units, but were segregated into all-black service units. The military services were not integrated until after the war.
What did the 761st do? The unit's Presidential Unit Citation commended the men for ''extraordinary heroism'' during 183 days of World War II combat in Europe in 1944 and 1945. The 761st inflicted thousands of casualties on the enemy, and captured, destroyed or liberated more than 30 major towns, four airfields, three ammunition-supply dumps, 461 wheeled vehicles, 34 tanks, 113 large guns and a radio station.
The unit suffered a 50 percent casualty rate and lost 71 tanks while battling in adverse weather conditions on terrain unsuited to armor operations and with shortages of replacement personnel.
The citation also described the 761st as ''the first United States Army tank battalion committed to battle comprised of black soldiers.''
Mr. Williams's book tells the story of the 761st - the battalion that wore the Black Panther patch - from its formation and training in Deep South Army camps through battles fought across Europe.
Mr. Williams, who was the unit's captain and commanding officer and who won the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts, said that the unit deserved to be decorated. Camp Life 'Ghastly'
For the 761st, life in Camp Claiborne in Lousiana and at Fort Hood in Texas was, Mr. Williams said recently by telephone, ''ghastly.'' ''The toughest battles we fought were here - spiritually,'' he said. ''At least in Europe we could strike back at an enemy. In the States what the hell could you do?''
The unit was one of those dispatched into combat because the black press, civil-rights groups and, most prominently, Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady, put pressure on the War Department to have black soldiers do more than build bridges, dig ditches, load and unload cargo ships and trucks, and cook and wait on white officers.
The 761st battled in France; then in Germany, where it pierced the Siegfried Line, and then in Belgium, where it tangled with the enemy in the Battle of the Bulge. It also fought in Luxembourg and Austria. In all, it went from Vic-sur-Seille, France, to the Enns River in Steyr, Austria, where it linked up with the Soviet Army.
''We're dying off,'' Mr. Williams said. ''We want this to be in the history books so some little black kid can know that his great-granddaddy or granddaddy did something besides sling horse manure in World War II.''
''We feel, all of us,'' Mr. Williams said, ''when we see Bryant Gumbel on TV, black kids working for I.B.M,, that we had something to do with it. We know this, we helped desegregate, that's for sure.'' Williams Also Changed
Mr. Williams described himself as ''a young punk out of Yale who also changed as the action went along. I was a snob,'' adding: ''I didn't know anything about Negroes. We had two people, a chauffeur and a very fine lady, working for us. Because I didn't know anything about a ghetto, I was the most unlikely candidate to be with black troops. I was very high-ranking in my O.C.S. - Officer Candidate School - class, I was a 90-day wonder, they asked me if I wanted to go'' - to the 761st - ''I didn't know the difference. But I got my manhood from them.''
Calvin Cambridge also grew up in the 761st. Mr. Cambridge, now a resident of Binghamton, N. Y., and an employee of the International Business Machines Corporation, remembers the experience of a black New Yorker going to war. ''We had people of varying ages in the organization and people from different parts of the country. That caused us to grow up pretty damn fast,'' he said by telephone. He entered the army at 18 and afterward was assigned to the tank battalion.
Overseas, ''it was very, very uncommon to see black soldiers in combat,'' he said, ''Toward the end of the war there were quite a few, but up to the point when we went in, there weren't that many. There were some artillery organizations; you had a couple of tank destroyers, but we were few and far between. We had more discrimination from the Americans than the Europeans. As a matter of fact, we were treated a lot better by the Europeans than the Americans. Of course, that wasn't 100 percent. There were a few nice guys in some organizations.'' Mr. Cambridge, a staff sergeant at World War II's end, remained in the Army for 20 years. Unit Citation in 1979 | ''These guys were better than heroes because they weren't supposed to be able to fight, and they were treated worse than lepers. I can tell you, it took a rare sort of character to go out there and do what they did. I used to ask myself, why the hell should these guys fight? Why?'' The speaker is David Williams, reflecting on his World War II experience as a captain with the 761st Tank Battalion. Mr. Williams, now a stockbroker for E. F. Hutton in Florida, is white, but almost everyone else in the 761st Tank Battalion was black. Mr. Williams has told the story of the 761st, one of the few black World War II units permitted to take part in combat in ''Hit Hard,'' published recently by Bantam Books. One of some 75 ''Bantam War Books,'' ''Hit Hard'' is the first on a black unit. | 6.288889 | 0.988889 | 59.444444 | low | high | extractive |
http://time.com/3976469/los-angeles-gun-magazines/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160707032846id_/http://time.com:80/3976469/los-angeles-gun-magazines/ | Los Angeles to Ban High-Capacity Firearm Magazines | 20160707032846 | The city council of Los Angeles unanimously voted to prohibit possession of gun magazines that can contain more than 10 rounds of ammunition on Tuesday.
Gun groups such as the National Rife Association have already threatened to sue the city over the ban, claiming it is preempted by California law and violates 2nd Amendment rights, the Los Angeles Times reports. “If the NRA wants to sue us over this, bring it on,” Councilman Paul Krekorian, one of the twelve council members who voted (three were absent), said at a City Hall rally. “People who want to defend their families don’t need a 100-round drum magazine and an automatic weapon to do it.”
California mostly prohibits the manufacturing and sale of such high-capacity magazines, but the state doesn’t outlaw possession of them. Juliet Leftwich, the legal director for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, told the Times that the high-capacity magazines targeted by the law are “the common thread” between the country’s mass shootings, including Columbine, Newtown and Virginia Tech.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he plans to sign the measure, which would give residents 60 days to turn in or legally sell the magazines before the law goes into effect. Breaking the law, which is modeled after similar ordinances in California cities San Francisco and Sunnyvale, would be a misdemeanor. | Possessing magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition would be illegal | 21.833333 | 0.75 | 3.416667 | medium | low | mixed |
http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/classic/jay-leno/about/bio/david-delhomme | http://web.archive.org/web/20160708004503id_/http://www.nbc.com:80/the-tonight-show/classic/jay-leno/about/bio/david-delhomme | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno | 20160708004503 | Keyboardist and guitarist David Delhomme joined "The Tonight Show" band in 2010 with new Music Director Rickey Minor.
Originally a native of southern Maryland, Delhomme attended Berklee School of Music in Boston, Mass. He has played with artists ranging from Marcus Miller and Lalah Hathaway to Eric Clapton and Whitney Houston.
Delhomme has played with Minor on and off for about 10 years, recording and performing with numerous artists and on television shows including "American Idol."
Delhomme lives in Los Angeles. | Meet David Delhomme on NBC.com. | 15.833333 | 0.666667 | 1 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2016/05/muslims-are-coming | http://web.archive.org/web/20160708011916id_/http://www.economist.com:80/blogs/bagehot/2016/05/muslims-are-coming? | The Leave campaign’s dog-whistle strategy will only succeed if Remain voters fail to turn out | 20160708011916 | IF BREXITEERS were going to win the economic arguments in Britain’s EU debate, they would have done so by now. Hence the signs in the past days that they are giving up on the subject. The barrage of big, serious voices—from Barack Obama with his “back of the queue” jibe to Mark Carney and most of those businesses to have taken a stance—has highlighted the Out campaign's dilettantish inability to answer basic questions about Britain’s economic future outside the EU. When it moans that the deck is stacked against it and that devastating projections like those released by the Treasury on Monday are a stitch-up, that is in substitute for a credible, detailed counter-argument.
The failure is remarkable—and telling. Many at the top of the Leave campaign have been pushing for this referendum for years, even decades. They surely always knew that, when their time came, winning the economic battle would be their main hurdle. Yet they appear to have done little serious preparation. Together with the zeal with which they have lately conceded this struggle (“It’s not the economy, stupid” runs one poster), this gives away the category into which many top Brexiteers fall: romantics in big houses. On the other side of a pro-Brexit vote on June 23rd, these revolutionaries manqués see no end of tantalising, utopian prospects: Britain as a high-tech Singapore-on-Thames, Britain in a revitalised union with “Anglosphere” countries like Canada and India, Britain a neo-Bennite socialist commonwealth. The implicit message of their insouciance about the hard economic effects of pursuing those dreams is: “Can’t you see this is about national destiny, not some schmuck’s job at Nissan?”
It is not easy to see how they win from here. The typical Briton, it is true, cares about the subjects like sovereignty and immigration on which the Brexiteers can more comfortably campaign. But he or she does not consider them very important to his or her life, compared at least with employment and public services. (Vote Leave’s bid for this territory—by hypothecating the savings of leaving the EU to the NHS—is canny but hardly neutralises its implicit acknowledgements that Brexit would make the country, and thus presumably its welfare state, poorer.) Sure enough, some polls suggest that support for Remain is edging up. Ipsos MORI has it on 55%, its highest level for three months. Remember that to believe Britons will vote for Brexit you have to believe they will abandon their habitual preference for an imperfect status quo over a leap into the dark. The burden of proof is on those who claim Leave will win.
With less than a month until referendum day, there is vanishingly little evidence pointing that way. The always-questionable notion that the Brexiteers’ superior passion would power them to a grass-roots victory now looks particularly doubtful: a study by Matthew Goodwin and Caitlin Milazzo, political scientists, shows that the Remain camp has held 1,758 campaign events since the start of the year to Leave’s 1,162. [Update: after this post was published Vote Leave described the latter figure to me as "way off".]
For some Brexiteers, it seems, the writing is on the wall. Railing against the media (which is actually heavily skewed towards Brexit), against David Cameron and Whitehall, against business and foreign leaders who dare to express a frank view of what Leave would mean, they are preparing their excuses for defeat. It is increasingly clear that—as I predicted in April—many will not take “Remain” for an answer. Casting doubt on the legitimacy of the result on June 23rd is a first step towards a second referendum.
Yet despite deteriorating odds—and, revealingly, a clear expectation on the part of voters that Remain will win—many Brexiteers are also fighting on, and seem to spy a slender path to victory, despite everything. This relies not on winning over undecided voters, let alone convinced Remainers, but driving turnout among persuaded Leave voters as high as possible in the hope that the other side’s people, perhaps lulled into complacency by the various signs that Britain will stay in the EU, choose to Remain… at home. Thus there are signs that Leave's events are concentrated in areas strongly inclined towards Brexit and that the campaign is focusing ever-more on immigration, which fires up a nativist, heavily Eurosceptic minority. Vote Leave—supposedly the more liberal of the pro-Brexit outfits—now bangs on about foreign criminals and terrorists with such recklessly divisive ferocity that Khalid Mahmood, a Labour MP, has left the campaign over what he calls its “racist” messages. The worst may be yet to come. Expect the prospect of Turkish membership of the EU, about which (and much else) the Out campaigns now routinely lie, to take a particularly prominent role in the coming weeks.
As with most core-vote strategies, this is unlikely to succeed. But to ensure its failure, Remainers must do two things. First, the campaign itself must resist the temptation to be distracted from its main strength: the economic risks of Brexit. In the now-looming television showdowns (the first is next Thursday, June 2nd) the Leave campaign will seek to electrify the debate by reframing it as one on immigration. David Cameron, Theresa May, Alan Johnson and their comrades will be challenged to justify numbers, apologise for crimes by recent arrivals, ruminate on refugee-terrorists and the like. They must stand their ground. If the rise of right-wing populism from Austria to America in recent months teaches us anything, it is that moderate pandering over immigration only raises its salience and thus benefits those for whom it is home turf. Next time someone tells you the mainstream “needs to talk about immigration” (as if it weren’t endlessly talked about already), refer them to the Jeb! Bush Presidential Library.
Second, Remainers need to vote. This point is no less emphatic for being unoriginal. Younger voters tend to vote less, and are pro-European. Middle-class ones tend to vote more, and are also pro-European. So neither campaign has an obvious advantage when it comes to getting its vote out on June 23rd. The Remain campaign rightly detects that its people should make the effort if they feel they are voting on their job security and that of their children. But the (admittedly well-founded) sense that the Out camp is coasting to victory is risky. However much it has won the central arguments, Remain will only prevail on the day—and achieve the sort of resounding victory needed to crush the inevitable Brexiteer calls for a second referendum—if its supporters actually turn up.
Britons not on the electoral roll must register by June 7th to vote in the referendum. They can do so here; it takes about five minutes. Those living abroad, in particular, are encouraged to do so as soon as possible.
Those who will be away from their normal address on June 23rd can apply for a postal vote. Local election registration offices will accept such applications up to 11 days before the referendum. The deadline for proxy vote applications is six days beforehand. Proxy voters can submit their proxy votes by post; this too requires an application. | IF BREXITEERS were going to win the economic arguments in Britain’s EU debate, they would have done so by now. Hence the signs in the past days that they are... | 41.794118 | 0.970588 | 32.029412 | high | high | extractive |
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/07/07/fios/1x4m9b7xzI03ynOOfbpINM/story.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160708082754id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/07/07/fios/1x4m9b7xzI03ynOOfbpINM/story.html | West Roxbury will be first to get Verizon’s Fios service | 20160708082754 | Verizon Communications has selected a portion of West Roxbury as the first area to get its fiber-optic Internet and TV service in Boston following an unusual marketing campaign that asked city residents to rally their neighbors in an online poll.
Construction will begin in September in the northwest section of West Roxbury, with service to the first customers commencing in late 2016, Verizon said Thursday.
A second area of the city, focused on what the city calls its “innovation district” in Roxbury’s Dudley Square, is also expected to have the company’s high-speed Fios service by year’s end, Verizon said.
The first offer from Verizon will be high-speed Internet service; video service will follow once the city grants Verizon a cable TV franchise.
The company said it is already conducting preliminary work, such as installing bigger cables and surveying its existing utility poles and conduit.
“We’re where we want to be, in that we see them actively working and having boots on the ground for the installation,” said Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Boston’s chief information officer.
The $300 million project will involve replacing Verizon’s existing copper wires with fiber-optic cables that can transmit large volumes of information at high speed. The rollout, however, will start in a few neighborhoods, including Dorchester, and Verizon has said it may take up to six years to cover the entire city.
Verizon initially estimated the work would start “as soon as this summer,” but the company confronted a labor action: More than 36,000 East Coast Verizon workers, including some 5,000 Massachusetts employees, went on strike the day after the company announced its Boston upgrade project.
The two sides reached tentative agreement on a new contract in late May. Franklin-Hodge said the labor unrest contributed to a “slow start,” but noted progress has improved since June and expects Verizon to keep to its original time frame.
Verizon’s upgrade will give Boston residents a higher-speed Internet option both at work and home, along with competition for cable TV service.
Comcast is the dominant provider in Massachusetts and has nearly 2 million Internet and cable TV subscribers in Greater Boston. But city officials have said that 90 percent of Boston residents have only one choice for broadband Internet.
Verizon has divided city neighborhoods into zones and encouraged residents to vote online to have their area served sooner.
The company expects to reveal more details about service in two neighborhoods, Dorchester and Roslindale, in the coming days. Construction in the second group of neighborhoods — Hyde Park, Mattapan, Jamaica Plain, and additional parts of Roxbury — is expected to begin in 2018, Verizon said Thursday.
At their announcement in April, city and company officials highlighted the decision to have low-income neighborhoods among the first to receive the high-speed service, by convening the press conference at the Bolling municipal building in Dudley Square.
Franklin-Hodge said city officials did not dictate which neighborhoods should get service first, but told the company that its footprint should “look like Boston.”
“What would be unacceptable to us is a build-out in which only wealthy neighborhoods got access to fiber, or in which parts of the city that needed broadband service got passed over for reasons of economic convenience,” he said.
Documents filed with the city late Wednesday provided more detail about Verizon’s planned fiber-optic network: The company plans to build a “fiber to the premises” system, with fiber-optic cables connecting directly to homes and businesses.
Verizon has said that residential Internet speeds will reach up to 500 megabits per second. Its current Internet service, as measured by independent monitoring site Speedtest, reaches just 7.53 Mbps in the city.
Speedtest lists Comcast’s Xfinity service as the fastest in the Boston area, with download speeds of about 106 Mbps. RCN, a smaller provider, is ranked second at nearly 101 Mbps.
Verizon’s fiber-optic service could also boost its mobile network, giving the company a high-speed backbone for eventually upgrading to a next-generation 5G wireless service. Business customers could also pay for extremely high speeds, up to 10 gigabits per second. | Verizon’s $300 million, six-year plan to blanket Boston with high-speed fiber-optic Internet and TV service will kick off this fall in the northwestern part of West Roxbury, followed closely by Dudley Square. | 18.930233 | 0.790698 | 2.55814 | medium | medium | mixed |
http://mashable.com/2010/08/18/facebook-search-services/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160709003503id_/http://mashable.com:80/2010/08/18/facebook-search-services/ | 5 Useful Facebook Trend and Search Services | 20160709003503 | As the world's largest social network, Facebook is a fascinating place to find out what's hot, what's news, and discover the latest meme.
Despite recent improvements, Facebook's in-site search doesn't necessarily offer the best way to see such data. However, there are various services that provide a dedicated way to either search Facebook's 500 million-strong data stream (at least what's made public), or see what's "trending" on the site in a way that's similar to Twitter.
While we can't overlook the fact that search engines like Google and Bing have begun offering "social search," we think the five services listed below offer a more useful way to find out what people are saying about a particular topic, or even find out what's being "Liked" in your social circle.
Kurrently is a dedicated search engine for both Twitter and Facebook, but you can narrow down the options to see results from one service or the other.
Kurrently's great selling point is that the search results continue to refresh after you've looked up a word or phrase, so you can experience the kind of auto-updating hashtag search we're already familiar with on Twitter.
Kurrently's programmer Gilbert Leung said he started the site because he wanted to get a sense of the global sentiment on a certain issue.
"Twitter Search was the obvious tool at the time," says Leung, "but my immediate question was, 'What about Facebook?' Why am I searching through a community of around 60 million when a network of around 500 million exists?'"
Right now It's Trending offers a non-searchable, real-time feed of the most shared content across Facebook, which is useful for anyone who wants a snapshot glimpse of the social web's current zeitgeist in an incredibly simple and uncomplicated way.
Giving you a new way to see hot topics across categories (video, news, sports, tech, gaming, comedy, etc) and across popular sites (Cracked, YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, TechCrunch, Huffington Post, NY Times, CNN and yes, Mashable) it's a good-looking service that has big plans for the future — so definitely one to watch.
While many of you may already be familiar with Openbook, it's worthy of a place on this list for how simple it is to search, or see what others are searching for.
Also worth mentioning for marketeers or researchers is Openbook's unique ability to see search results from just male or female Facebookers — something that's an incredibly useful tool if you need to narrow down data on a gender basis.
Recent startup Booshaka offers a real-time look at what's trending on Facebook based on open search keywords, as well as via topic if you're interested in more a general browse.
Main channel topics include news, music, sports, politics, gossip, TV, fashion, movies, deals, travel, brands and games (with each broken down into further sub-topics). Clicking on one of these will give you a stream of updates from relevant accounts.
Once you've carried out a topic search, you can see how many "Likes" and comments a Facebook post has received, and narrow down the results by what's trending now, what's most popular, what's most recent, and what has the biggest "buzz."
These further options could potentially help identify up-and-coming trends, as well as find out what folks are saying about established ones.
Facepinch promises to let you know popular "Likes" (as well as create your own "Like"), view hot trending topics, and see what's being sought after on Facebook with its top 100 most popular searches list. There is also the option to see recent searches if you're more interested in what's happening right now.
While there's no data to be gleaned from it, you can also browse recently updated profile pics with a gallery of random Facebook users' names and thumbnails. The site's default is the U.S., but you can select specific countries if you've an interest in a particular geographical area.
The service's creator, London-based Andrew Webb, states that besides the more obvious voyeuristic uses, he sees value in the site for brands:
"[C]ompanies and marketing professionals [can] see an unfiltered glimpse of how their products are being really perceived by the public."
More aimed at finding out what's hot in your own social circle, Like Button shows you "what people you know like on the Internet right now."
If you're signed in via Facebook, you can see what your buddies have "Liked" on popular pre-loaded sites such as YouTube, CNN, The Huffington Post, etc, and via categories including news, social media, tech, Apple, etc. But there is the infinitely useful option to add sites of your choosing too, making the Like Button site a personalized social window on the web.
You can also click to view a brief overview of what's hot on Facebook with the nine top trends displayed and refreshed every 15 minutes.
In addition, and on the fun side of things, Like Button lets you create your very own "Like" and "Dislike" buttons, the former of which looks like this when posted to your Facebook wall:
- 10 Fascinating Facebook Facts- 10 Cool Facebook Status Tips and Tricks- How News Consumption is Shifting to the Personalized Social News Stream- How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook’s Open Graph- 10 Fun Facebook Accessories
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sodafish | As the world's largest social network, Facebook is a fascinating place to find out what's hot, what's news, and discover the latest meme. Despite recent improvements, Facebook's... | 29.891892 | 0.972973 | 25.297297 | medium | high | extractive |
http://nypost.com/2016/06/03/j-r-smith-forgot-hes-supposed-to-take-shots-in-game-1/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160709043255id_/http://nypost.com:80/2016/06/03/j-r-smith-forgot-hes-supposed-to-take-shots-in-game-1/ | J.R. Smith’s no-show excuse: I got Splash Brothers treatment | 20160709043255 | OAKLAND, Calif. — J.R. Smith had one of “those” games.
The ex-Knick who was notorious for his ability to shoot a team to either a win or loss, was a virtual no-show in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Smith took three shots, made one and finished with three points. He was a minus-13 on the floor.
“They just did a good job of sticking to me,” said Smith, who has been one of the Cavaliers’ most reliable postseason scorers averaging 12.0 points. “They keyed in on not letting me get open. They played me the way we went after Steph [Curry] and Klay [Thompson].”
The Warriors’ Splash Brothers combined to shoot 8-of-27.
LeBron James was asked “what happened” to the Cleveland bench.
“What happened? They scored 45 points, we scored 10. That’s what happened.”
When the Finals are over, the league’s Competition Committee’s work will start in earnest.
Commissioner Adam Silver, while noting the game has “never been better,” stressed there are several issues, including Hack-a-Shaq fouls and flailing to draw fouls by players, that will require attention this offseason.
Silver admitted last summer he was “on the fence” regarding Hack-a-Shaq fouls. He has noted when teams employ the tactic more than 10 times, it adds about 15 minutes to a game. And its usage is up.
“What we’ve seen even since last year is a two-and–a-half times increase off last year of the number of these off-ball fouls, away-from-the-ball fouls, intentional fouls. Looking back just even at the last five years, it’s now up 16 times from five years ago,” Silver said.
And after Warriors forward Draymond Green’s kick to the groin of the Thunder’s Steven Adams highlighted the matter, Silver said the issue of players flailing to draw fouls also will be “on the agenda.”
“We’re seeing a lot more late kicks and, frankly, players flailing their arms as well, it’s clear what they’re doing. They’re trying to sell calls,” Silver said. “It’s not something new in the league, but as we track it, it’s becoming more prevalent.”
In another matter, Silver said there is no “line in the sand” date regarding the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte. The NBA has been pressured by elements of the LBGT community, claiming recent legislation in North Carolina is discriminatory.
“I was in North Carolina about two-and-a-half weeks ago, spoke to a lot of business leaders in Charlotte who are working behind the scenes, frankly, to craft some sort of compromise with the governmental leaders both in the city and the state,” Silver said. “I’d say there is absolutely strong interest in trying to work something out.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr on Green, who is one flagrant foul from a suspension, possibly toning down his emotions: “He knows exactly what the situation is. We had one conversation about it last week, and he knows exactly what’s at stake. I thought the last couple games of the OKC series he did a great job of composing himself and treating the referees well. When he was complaining, he did it more respectfully, and I think he’s done a good job of that, and he’ll continue to do so.” | OAKLAND, Calif. — J.R. Smith had one of “those” games. The ex-Knick who was notorious for his ability to shoot a team to either a win or loss, was a virtual no-show in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Smi… | 13.568627 | 0.960784 | 27.862745 | low | high | extractive |
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/13/racing-cars-clubs-lifestyle-vehicles_0213_legal_speeding_slide_2.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160709051525id_/http://www.forbes.com:80/2009/02/13/racing-cars-clubs-lifestyle-vehicles_0213_legal_speeding_slide_2.html? | In Depth: Best Places To Speed Legally | 20160709051525 | Courtesy of The Guardrail Club at Motorsport Park Hastings.
Member Dues: $12,000 per year
Track Shape: Eight-turn road course
Amenities: Membership fees buy equity in the 50-acre property.
Points of Note: Each member also purchases a $40,000 Toyota spec racer.
If you liked this story, read:
The Fastest Cars Under $100,000
Why The Ultra-Rich Continue To Buy Luxury
Comments are turned off for this post. | Got the need for speed--and a spa treatment? These private tracks and premier racing clubs offer racing and luxury. | 3.913043 | 0.217391 | 0.217391 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.people.com/article/dallas-ambush-police-chief-david-brown-this-must-stop | http://web.archive.org/web/20160709145219id_/http://www.people.com/article/dallas-ambush-police-chief-david-brown-this-must-stop | Police Chief David Brown Says 'All I Know is that This Must Stop' : People.com | 20160709145219 | 07/08/2016 AT 09:20 AM EDT
At a Friday morning press conference following
in Dallas, Police Chief David Brown called for peace between officers and the communities they serve.
"We're hurting," Brown said of the attack that killed five officers and wounded several others at a Black Lives Matter Protest in downtown Dallas. "Our profession is hurting. We are heartbroken."
He added, "All I know is this must stop – this divisiveness between our police and our citizens."
He described a tense standoff and hours of negotiating between officers and a suspect who was killed. (Police have not specified how many suspects were involved, and which were firing on the protest.)
The encounter took place on the second floor of El Centro College in downtown Dallas, Brown said.
"The suspect said he was upset over Black Lives Matter. He said he was upset over the recent police shootings," Brown said. "The suspect said he was upset at white people, he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers."
The suspect also said he was not affiliated with any groups and that "he did this alone," Brown said.
The suspect was killed when officers used a "bomb robot," Brown said, adding that reports that the suspect killed himself were not accurate.
"Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger," he said.
Brown praised the heroism of officers, saying they did all the right things to protect the people's right to protest.
"You see video footage after video footage of them running toward gunfire from an elevated position with no chance to protect themselves. And to put themselves in harm's way, to make sure citizens can get to a place of security," he said.
Brown added, "So please join me in applauding these brave men and women who do this job under great scrutiny under great vulnerability – who literally risk their lives to protect our democracy."
"We don't feel much support most days. Let's not make today most days. Please, we need your support to be able to protect you from men like these who carried out this tragic, tragic event."
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings praised Dallas police, saying, "This year, we have the fewest police officer-related shootings than any large city in America, so we are working hard to improve – and there is always room for improvement – but we are best in class we feel."
He said a group of interfaith ministers will lead a prayer vigil at 12 p.m. local time at Thanksgiving Square.
"I would ask that if you are at your home or at your office or at your school, to join us today at noon in that spirit of prayer to bring our city together and our country together to heal wounds and not create them," he said. | "We're hurting," Brown said. "Our profession is hurting." | 35.3125 | 1 | 7.125 | medium | high | mixed |
http://time.com/121682/isla-vista-shooting-elliot-rodger/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160709182632id_/http://time.com:80/121682/isla-vista-shooting-elliot-rodger/ | Lessons in Mental Health | 20160709182632 | When a mad man goes on a killing spree, a few questions immediately bubble to the surface. Who’s to blame? What should we do now? Could this have been prevented?
In the case of Elliot Rodger, who police say killed six people and himself in Isla Vista, Calif., on May 23, there are no definitive answers to any of these questions — at least not yet. But what’s clear is that a few weeks earlier, police missed an opportunity to thwart Rodger’s plans.
On April 30, deputies from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, which has jurisdiction in Isla Vista, visited Rodgers at his home to assess his mental state. They had been indirectly summoned there by Rodger’s mother. Reportedly disturbed by videos her son had posted on YouTube, she called a therapist who had been treating him, who called a mental-health hotline, which contacted the authorities. The deputies interviewed Rodger and determined that he was shy, according to Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown — but polite and did not pose a risk to himself or others. Absent that, they had no legal right to take him into custody. They urged him to call his mother and they left.
In a departing manifesto, Rodger wrote of the April 30 encounter: “For a few horrible seconds I thought it was all over. When they left, the biggest wave of relief swept over me.”
As became painfully clear weeks later, Rodger posed a grave threat. He had recently purchased several guns, along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition. And he had been plotting for several years to exact revenge on “humanity” — particularly women — for rejecting him socially, according to a final YouTube video and a manifesto he wrote before stabbing his two roommates and another man to death and then fatally shooting three others. He wounded 13 more.
A spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara Sheriff has said the department was not aware of Rodger’s YouTube posts until after he went on his killing spree. If they had been, it’s possible the outcome might have been different. “They should have definitely been made aware of those videos in my opinion,” says Kenton Rainey, chief of police for Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in San Francisco and a board member at the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) in California. “It would have been impossible for them to make an informed assessment without those.”
An official from a local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness said there was a program in Santa Barbara County to provide officers with so-called crisis-intervention training (CIT) that has been utilized elsewhere to help officers detect signs of mental illness, but it’s unclear whether the deputies who check on Rodger had received this training. Only about 30 law-enforcement personnel in the entire county receive such crisis intervention training annually, according to the NAMI chapter official.
“Crisis-intervention training is a national movement,” says Dr. Kenneth Duckworth, medical director for NAMI and a professor at Harvard. “But even that may not be enough to respond to this from an upstream perspective.”
If the deputies who met Rodger had been specially trained, it’s possible he could have simply fooled them into thinking he was mentally stable.
“My guess is he was on the best behavior possible for him,” says Kristine Schwarz, executive director of New Beginnings Counseling Center in Santa Barbara. Schwarz, who has no direct knowledge of Rodgers or his mental state adds, “It’s not out of the ordinary or out of the question that somebody could miss something in a wellness check like that. There are always people who are able to present perfectly functional.” Schwarz says law-enforcement officers in Santa Barbara County regularly collaborate with mental-health professionals and appear well trained. “But it depends on the individual law-enforcement officer and the individual client,” she says.
Jessica Cruz, executive director of NAMI California says programs like CIT are helpful, but that “more importantly, we should be able to call somebody other than the police for our loved ones going through a mental-health crisis.” NAMI is among the organizations that regularly lobby to train more mental-health professionals and provide more services, including prevention and treatment. Funding for the latter is often inadequate, says Cruz. California, for example, has less than half the number of hospital beds dedicated to in-patient mental-health care than recommended by a panel of psychiatric experts convened to study the issue.
There have also been efforts to reach more mentally ill people in outpatient settings, but here too, intentions sometimes fall short. Laura’s Law, passed in California in 2002, would allow counties to mandate outpatient treatment for some mentally ill adults, but the law includes no dedicated funding, most counties have not adopted it and the criteria for applying the law is very strict. (Laura’s Law would likely not have applied in Rodger’s case.) Cruz also points to a program in San Diego County that sends mobile teams, including clinicians, to the homes of severely mentally ill people who are reluctant to get treatment. Such non-law-enforcement approaches, if adequately funded, are often more effective, says Cruz.
As for Rodger’s parents, it appears they took appropriate steps to help their son and keep him from hurting others. They called police upon seeing his manifesto and final YouTube video, in which he outlined his plans to “slaughter” sorority members and kill others. They raced to Santa Barbara County in hopes of intervening directly, only to find their son and six others already dead.
“The family did everything they could have done,” says Cruz. “If a family is worried about their loved one and they call who they think they’re supposed to call, what else can you do?” | Police missed an opportunity to thwart Elliot Rodger’s plans before he killed six people | 76.266667 | 1 | 3.666667 | high | high | mixed |
http://www.forbes.com/2011/03/17/time-to-quit-your-job-career-forbes-woman-leadership-salary-promotion_slide_3.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160709183138id_/http://www.forbes.com:80/2011/03/17/time-to-quit-your-job-career-forbes-woman-leadership-salary-promotion_slide_3.html | Top 10 Signs It's Time To Leave Your Job | 20160709183138 | While too much stress is a bad thing, so is too little. Business coach Libby Gill, author of You Unstuck, says if your job has become dull or routine and your productivity has gone down, it’s a sign that you may have outgrown it. On the other hand, if you find you have downtime because you don’t have enough work to do, you could be in trouble. Your company may be sending a signal that you’re no longer needed.
Comments are turned off for this post. | A new survey finds that 31% of employees are not satisfied with their jobs. Here's how to know when it's time to leave. | 3.607143 | 0.321429 | 0.321429 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.tmz.com/2016/07/07/jon-jones-drug-test-news-conference-ufc-200/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160709184913id_/http://www.tmz.com:80/2016/07/07/jon-jones-drug-test-news-conference-ufc-200/ | Jon Jones Breaks Down in Tears ... I'm Not a Cheater | 20160709184913 | Jon Jones wept openly while insisting he never knowingly cheated by taking performance-enhancing drugs, and vowed to return to the UFC.
Surprisingly, Jones opened his news conference by apologizing to Daniel Cormier for ruining their long-awaited rematch that was supposed to go down Saturday at UFC 200.
Jones says he "can't even pronounce" the drug the UFC says showed up in a blood test he took in June. He would not say the drug by name, but said he has no idea how it ended up in his system.
Jones says he will "go through the process" and try to find out what caused the dirty test. He admitted to taking a few supplements, but said he didn't think they were performance-enhancing.
At one point, he got so emotional, he walked out of the room. He returned several minutes later, but then couldn't hold back tears when he was asked if he'd spoken to Cormier. | Jon Jones wept openly while insisting he never knowingly cheated by taking performance-enhancing drugs, and vowed to return to the UFC.… | 6.962963 | 0.925926 | 19.740741 | low | medium | extractive |
http://time.com/4110443/college-football-race-problem/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160710031407id_/http://time.com:80/4110443/college-football-race-problem/ | College Football's Big Problem With Race | 20160710031407 | Historian Taylor Branch famously detected “an unmistakable whiff of the plantation” in college football. This officially “amateur” sport generates nearly $3.5 billion a year, but the young men who play the game–predominantly African American—don’t see a dime of it. Yes, they get tuition, room and board, plus lots of Nike, Adidas or Under Armour gear (making them walking advertisements), but they’re essentially free labor. We call them “student athletes,” but the athlete part always takes precedent over the student part.
Almost always. What happened this week at the University of Missouri might not count as a full-scale revolt on the football plantation, but it surely demonstrates the power big-money sports wields at big-time universities. The football field-hands threatened to withhold their labor in solidarity with students fed up with the administration’s indifference to systemic racism. Somebody drew a swastika in human excrement on a dorm wall; students walking on campus got called “nigger.” Yet the school’s president, Timothy M. Wolfe, felt no apparent urgency in addressing these issues. You’d think that on a campus barely two hours away from Ferguson, the grown people might have understood that race had become a bit sensitive. By Monday afternoon, Wolfe and Missouri’s Chancellor, R. Bowen Loftin, had both stepped down.
Wolfe, a former software executive who’d also been a high school football star, did not resign when a slew of Missouri faculty declared their lack of confidence in him. Nor when the group Concerned Student 1950 demonstrated against him, even confronting him at the Homecoming Parade. Nor because Jonathan Butler, a graduate student, went on a hunger strike. But when the football team turned against him, he had to go. If the Tigers refused to play BYU at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium this weekend, essentially a home game, it would cost the university a $1 million “default fee,” plus all the lost revenue from merchandise, hotel stays and bar tabs that feeds the local economy. College football means money and prestige for a university the way nothing else—not Nobel laureates, science labs, teaching hospitals, law schools, Guggenheim grants, or Rhodes scholarships—ever could. Tim Wolfe’s annual salary was $459,000; head coach Gary Pinkel’s is nearly $4 million. It’s clear who is more valuable.
African American representation on the field does not mirror that in the classroom. Non-Hispanic whites make up 58 percent of undergraduates while black students constitute only 14 percent. According to a 2013 University of Pennsylvania study on racial inequity in NCAA Division I sports, only 2.8 percent of full-time degree-seeking undergraduates were black men. By contrast, black men comprise 57 percent of college football teams, on average. At some universities it’s over 70 percent. At Mizzou it’s about 60 percent. Most college football coaches are white; only 11 of the 128 Division I head coaches are black; you can count black university presidents in Division I on one hand. A new report from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports shows that under 10 percent of head coaches in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision are black; 87 percent are white. The people in charge are white; the football workforce, whose success the university brass depends upon, is black. It was only a matter of time before a major college team decided to exercise its considerable economic power and refuse to follow orders. When the Tigers said they wouldn’t take the field, a chill surely went down the spines of power conference presidents from Ohio State to Florida State, Oregon to Clemson, the athletic boosters whose multi-million dollar business model depends on free labor, and the NCAA honchos determined to defend the “amateur” purity of college football from demands that players share the revenue.
What would happen if other college teams flexed their moral muscles? The game has brought about social change before. In the early 1970s, white coaches in the still segregated South had got tired of being whipped by integrated teams from the North and the West. They began recruiting African American athletes. The Universities of Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and other bastions of Confederate flag-waving and “Dixie”-singing institutions rethought their commitment to the Southern way of life. They preferred to beat Penn State, and so integrated. Now imagine if football players at the University of Alabama decided to skip practice until they got a commitment from the administration to recruit more African American coaches? What if the University of Mississippi’s Rebels had refused to take the field while the state flag, with its Confederate emblem, flew over it? Or maybe football players in Florida could refuse to play until the Republican presidential candidates who keep homes in the state–Trump, Carson, Rubio, Bush and Huckabee–pledge that if they’re elected, they won’t deport the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers. What if two of the CFB playoff teams won’t participate in the championship unless the NCAA comes up with a system to fairly compensate them for what is now unpaid labor reaping millions of dollars for everyone except the boys on the field?
Most young men don’t play football to advance social justice. They love the game; it gets them a full ride to college. A few of them–2 percent–may even go on to the sign fat NFL contracts. One white player who did not support the Missouri boycott told ESPN, “If we were 9-0 this wouldn’t be happening.” Fair enough. Maybe it takes a 4-5 team to risk their scholarships. Nevertheless, the Tigers took a stand. It worked. The college football industrial complex has now been shaken right down to its artificial grass roots.
Diane Roberts is a contributor to NPR, the Guardian and the Oxford American, among many other publications. She holds a PhD from Oxford University and teaches literature and creative writing at Florida State University in Tallahassee. She is the author of three books, including the recent Tribal: College Football and the Secret Heart of America. | There remains ‘an unmistakable whiff of the plantation’ in the NCAA game | 90.384615 | 0.692308 | 2.692308 | high | low | mixed |
http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/13/400fictional.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160710102353id_/http://www.forbes.com:80/2002/09/13/400fictional.html | The Forbes Fictional Fifteen | 20160710102353 | If fiction can be regarded as a culture’s subconscious, then it’s clear that we are a nation obsessed with the very rich. From avaricious caricatures like The Simpsons‘ Montgomery Burns Montgomery Burns to literary character studies like F. Scott Fitzgerald F. Scott Fitzgerald ‘s Jay Gatsby Jay Gatsby , our culture–both high and low–is littered with images of billionaires and tycoons. Some characters are intentional riffs on real-life counterparts, most famously Orson Welles Orson Welles ‘ blistering portrayal of William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst in Citizen Kane.
Others, like Gordon Gekko Gordon Gekko from Oliver Stone Oliver Stone ‘s Wall Street, came to symbolize both a man–convicted inside trader Ivan Boesky Ivan Boesky –and an era: the go-go 1980s. To be sure, many are pure products of the imagination. But given the legion of publicity men and image handlers surrounding the typical real-life billionaires, understanding these fictitious characters is as close as most of us will come to grasping the minds of the very rich.
In creating this list we took certain minor liberties with the stories as presented on the page or on the screen. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it!
Claus, Santa Age: 1,600 years plus Source: Toys Net Worth: $∞ Hometown: New York City; North Pole Marital Status: Married, no children
Born in the fourth century as Nicholas of Myra in Anatolia, now southwestern Turkey. According to legend, gave away bulk of his inheritance to provide dowries for three beautiful–but impoverished–maiden sisters. Famously threw gold through girls’ chimney where it landed in their stockings drying by fire. Later Roman Catholic saint. Relics stolen by Italian merchants 12th century; bones now in Bari, southern Italy. Moved to U.S. by way of Holland; settled in New Amsterdam, later New York City. Changed name to Santa Claus, gained weight, grew beard. Toy manufacturing operations at North Pole yielding apparently unlimited wealth. Spends every Christmas Eve trying fruitlessly to give away fortune to little children. Keeping up with the times: Compressive of naughty and nice boys and girls now available on the Web. Passionate interest in artic wildlife: Large reindeer preserve includes rare flying and red-nosed specimens. Member since time immemorial. –Michael Noer
Rich, Richie Age: 13 Source: Inheritance, conglomerates Net Worth: $24.7 billion Hometown: Richville Marital Status: Single Known as “the richest boy in the world,” Rich learned ropes at Rich Industries from father Richard. While most men of means devote lives to accumulating and protecting wealth, Rich wants to be known for sharing fortune with friends, loyal employees and robot maid Irona. Recently began construction on gold-plated community baseball stadium using diamond-studded balls and replacing bleachers with Barcaloungers. Member since 1953. –Penelope Patsuris
Warbucks, Oliver “Daddy” Age: 52 Source: Defense Industries Net Worth: $10 Billion Hometown: New York Marital Status: Divorced, 1 child Orphaned at age 11 when mother died of typhoid fever. Fiercely competitive, patriotic and philanthropic. Made first million by 21. Patented Lazarus process for pumping oil from seemingly dry wells that helped save America from 1970s energy crisis. Shortly thereafter, adopted daughter Annie kidnapped by Sheik Bahd-Simel. Shot and nearly killed during privately financed rescue. Recently took defense contractor Warbucks Worldwide on strange diversification ride with unprecedented string of acquisitions. New interests include magazine publishing, computer software, airlines, diamond mining, distilling, TV and feature film production, tacos, plastics and cat food. Eyebrows raised after corporate headquarters moved to Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Publicity men dismiss as bizarre persistent rumors that company is being run by a body double while the real “Daddy” hunts terrorists in the Central Asian country of Ratznestistan. Member since 1924. –Arik Hesseldahl
McDuck, Scrooge Age: 80 Source: Mining Net Worth: $8.2 Billion Hometown: Duckberg Marital Status: Single Planet’s richest waterfowl amassed one of the world’s largest collections of gold coins and paper currency, kept in giant money bin atop hill in native Duckburg. Enjoys swimming in money. Moved to American West from native Scotland, amassing fortune from gold and copper mines. No longer invests–keeps everything in cash. Never gives to charity; never married. Lives in mansion with three great-nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie. Member since 1947. –Matthew Herper
Howell, Thurston III Age: 60 Source: Howell Industries Net Worth: $8 Billion Hometown: Pacific Island Marital Status: Married, no children Eccentric Harvard grad fled U.S. on eve of indictment on accounting fraud charges. Rumored to be living on private island in Pacific with wife Lovey and skeletal staff of trusted associates. Known for his bare-knuckled boardroom style, despite socialite manners. Once said that anyone believing a businessman should refuse to resort to thievery is simply “naïve.” Congressmen and prosecutors looking to drag him home to ask him what he meant. Member since 1964. –Davide Dukcevich
Wonka, Willie Age: 63 Source: Candy Net Worth: $8 Billion Hometown: Kent, England Marital Status: Single Reclusive chocolate factory owner is known for delicious products and brash promotions. Once inserted golden tickets in chocolate bars, the holders of which were promised factory tours. Result? Torrential craze for chocolates. Chronic labor problems led him to hire scab Oompa Loompa workers. Move touched off protests by British trade unions, but Oompa Loompas remain staunchly loyal to Wonka. Wonka’s age and lack of heir touched off concerns about succession. Known for dislike of the press. Demands that “all questions must be submitted in writing”–and still refuses to answer. The mystery has led to fascination about the man: “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.” Member since 1964. –Dan Ackman
Wayne, Bruce Age: 38 Source: Inheritance; Software Net Worth: $6.3 Billion Hometown: Gotham City Marital Status: Single Prominent playboy had tough year. Charged with murdering old-flame Vesper Fairchild. Exonerated partly through efforts of mysterious Batman and other costumed crime fighters. Shares of Wayne Enterprises, where he is chairman, languish based on lower-than-expected profits and Gotham City’s sky-high crime rate. Orphaned during street mugging at age eight, went on to build then-tiny Wayne Enterprises into technology powerhouse. Rumors swirl over habit of keeping teenage boys as wards. Donates tens of millions each year to charities for police, paraplegics and orphans. Member since 1939. –Matthew Herper
Luthor, Lex Age: 40 Source: Technology Net Worth: $4.7 Billion Hometown: Metropolis Marital Status: Single Forced to place holdings in LexCorp in blind trust after being elected president of the United States in 2000. Also in trust: Significant real estate holdings and investment portfolio. Before election, Lex perhaps best known for railing in public against Superman and other super-powered beings, which he believes cause normal human beings to become less self-reliant. Grew up in slums, but went on to make first fortune from peddling flying cars, rocket jetpacks and weapons to the military. Conglomerate includes pharmaceutical, biotechnology and investment bank arms. Took over company two decades ago and named after self. Prominent supporter of medical charities. Member since 1940. –Matthew Herper
Ewing, J.R. Age: 48 Source: Oil Net Worth: $2.8 Billion Hometown: Dallas, Texas Marital Status: Married Ruthless and proud of it. Fought bitter internecine battles with brother Bobby and wife Sue Ellen in order to remain at helm of Ewing Oil, company built by father Jock. Most recent victory: successfully evading federal regulators investigating him for manipulating price of crude. Socializes with group dubbed ‘The Cartel.’ Failed 1980 assassination attempt dominated headlines worldwide. Unrest in Middle East threatens some overseas interests, but war likely to boost price of oil–and net worth. Bigger problem: Ongoing federal investigation into whether Ewing Oil used off-the books partnerships to boost profits and hide debt. Ewing sanguine: “The world is littered with the bodies of people that tried to stick it to ol’ J.R.” Member since 1977. –Penelope Patsuris
Goldfinger, Auric Age: 51 Source: Gold, Commodities Training Net Worth: $1.2 Billion Hometown: Miami, Fla. Marital Status: Single Built fortune trading commodities with special talent for dealing in gold bullion. “Gold is in my name, and it’s my passion. I love it more ways than I can count.” Recently expanded into low-tech U.S. investments, buying and renovating Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises and aging Miami Beach hotels. Secretive and rarely seen, rumored to spend much time in native Planitz, Germany, closely guarded by manservant Oddjob. Passion for gambling in all forms, from gin rummy to golf to horse racing. Hates to lose; rarely does. Member since 1964. –Dan Ackman
Burns, C. Montgomery Age: 104 Source: Energy Net Worth: $1 Billion Hometown: Springfield, U.S.A. Marital Status: Single Turned adopted father’s atom-splitting factory into regional power monopoly. Ability to wring profit from nuclear power widely envied within industry. Longtime dogged by charges of cutting corners on environment, worker safety. Remains unbowed. “If you can take advantage of a situation in some way, it’s your duty as an American to do it.” Bid for governor foiled after environmentalists claimed plant was mutating local wildlife. “What good is money if you can’t inspire terror in your fellow man?” Prizes wardrobe of animal pelts, though greyhound fur tuxedo eluded him. Considers doughnuts “ethnic food.” Member since 1989. –Ari Weinberg
Kane, Charles Foster Age: 62 Source: Media Net Worth: $1 Billion Hometown: Xanadu, Calif. Marital Status: Twice divorced Yellow journalism kingpin saw empire greatly reduced from peak. Gone: 11 newspapers, three ocean liners, New York City apartment buildings, radio network. Still controls 26 local papers, including flagship New York Inquirer. Also substantial interest in Colorado Lode Mine, planet’s third-richest gold vein. Difficult year personally: Second wife, tone deaf opera singer Susan Kane, filed for divorce, moved to Florida. Now virtual recluse in coastal California pleasure dome dubbed Xanadu. Close associates said to be worried about mental state. Rumored to spend hours staring into snow globe toy muttering “Rosebud.” Member since 1941. –Michael Noer
De Vil, Cruella Age: 65 Source: Inheritance Net Worth: $875 Million Hometown: London Marital Status: Single London anti-socialite prefers solitude of Suffolk estate Hell Hall. Penchant for fur coats, cigarettes and dragster coupes. Maintains belief that money can buy anything–and often does. Critics say she “ought to be locked up and never released,” but loyal associates disagree. Recent plan for crafting coat made from fur of 99 Dalmatian puppies foiled by PETA activists. Continues to live extravagantly. Not known for charitable activity; recent application to serve on London SPCA’s board of directors denied after Dalmatian scheme unearthed. Member since 1961. –Ari Weinberg
Gekko, Gordon Age: 44 Source: Investments Net Worth: $650 Million Hometown: New York City Marital Status: Married, 1 child Traded his way to fortune by pioneering risk arbitrage. Remains one of Wall Streets most feared traders. Increased fortune when he married wife Kate, daughter of billionaire hotelier Frederick Wisher. Now moving New York real estate, buying and selling with same mania that characterized actions in mergers and acquisitions. Multiple SEC investigations failed to unearth wrongdoing. Unabashed proponent of wealth and capitalism, “Greed is good. Greed works.” Adheres to punishing schedule, even by investment banking standards, reviewing 100 deals a day. “Lunch is for wimps.” As for his horrid reputation: “If you need a friend, get a dog.” Member since 1987. –Dan Ackman
Gatsby, Jay Age: 23 Source: Racketeering Net Worth: $600 Million Hometown: West Egg, N.Y. Marital Status: Single Born James Gatz in North Dakota, built mysterious fortune through association with gamblers and bootleggers. Modern day Trimalchio, enjoys entertaining neighbors at Long Island estate modeled after Normandy’s Hotel de Ville. Measures extravagance with crates of oranges and lemons. One colleague says Jay “would never so much look at a friend’s wife.” Some have proof otherwise. With no legitimate business, critics say life of leisure will be the death of him. Learned the value of a dollar from silver baron Dan Cody. Served briefly in World War I. Adhered as teenager to rigorous daily schedule of study and sport. An avid sailor. Member since 1925. –Ari Weinberg
Comments are turned off for this post. | The wealthy have always inspired creative minds. Here are our picks of fiction's very richest. | 135.611111 | 0.611111 | 0.611111 | high | low | abstractive |
http://fortune.com/2015/09/17/amazon-new-fire-tablets/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160710103442id_/http://fortune.com:80/2015/09/17/amazon-new-fire-tablets/ | Amazon debuts new tablets | 20160710103442 | Amazon announced an update to its tablets Thursday, signaling the e-commerce giant’s continued bet on creating low-cost devices for consumers. The question is whether it will be enough to help turn around Amazon’s tablet business, which has so far failed to gain much traction.
According to recent IDC data, Amazon wasn’t even a top five worldwide tablet vendor in the second quarter. Apple, Samsung and Lenovo led the list.
Ahead of the holiday shopping season, Amazon AMZN unveiled four new versions of its tablets, all powered by an upgraded version of its operating system, the Fire OS 5 “Bellini.”
The Fire HD 8, which has an eight inch screen, that costs $150. It’s similar in size to the iPad Mini 4, Apple’s latest version of its smaller iPad.
Amazon is also debuting a larger 10 inch tablet that costs $230.
At 7.7 mm, these tablets are the thinnest devices the company has sold. In contrast, the iPad Air is slightly thinner, at just under 7 mm. Amazon said that the goal for HD 8 and 10 tablets are to be the ideal companion for watching a movie or reading a book. Both tablet screens are brighter than in the past. The tablet’s stereo speakers are equipped with Dolby Audio.
The home screen is organized by dedicated pages for each category of content. In the books category, for example, users can see all the books they have downloaded, suggested books based on their past reading, and a list of the top downloaded books by others during a given time period.
Also baked into the new software is Amazon Underground, a new app that lets users download over $10,000 worth of premium apps for free. Amazon pays certain developers to make their apps available without charge as an incentive for consumers to buy Amazon’s devices.
As David Limp, senior vice president of devices at Amazon, explained, “we know customers will love Amazon Underground and will want to use our tablets more and the investment will eventually pay back to Amazon.”
Another way Amazon wants to make it easier for people to watch media is through a new feature called OnDeck that will automatically download movies and TV shows for Prime members. So instead of having to physically click download of certain shows, Amazon will download them for you based on what you had downloaded in the past. Amazon prime members can get downloads from a larger library of videos. Amazon subscription service Prime costs $99 annually, and includes free two-day shipping on more than 20 million items on Amazon’s marketplace, same-day delivery on some items, and access to streamed songs, movies and TV shows. Non Prime members’ On Deck feature will automatically download only Amazon’s originally produced content and shows.
The new (smaller) Fire tablet and the Kids version
Amazon also introduced its smallest, lightweight and cheapest tablet yet, called simply the Fire, costing $50 with a seven inch screen. If customers buy five tablets, they get a sixth Fire tablet for free, Amazon said. The battery life is around seven hours.
Amazon is also updating the kids edition of Fire (costs $100, down from the previous version’s price of $150), which comes preloaded with kids games, videos and movies. The company said that it has doubled the amount of video content to 10,000 apps and movies, and has created a curated area where kids can access child-focused websites and YouTube videos.
These new devices and software represent the ongoing shift we’ve seen with Amazon. The company is no longer just the “everything store,” but has now become an entertainment hub where people can buy and stream movies, TV shows, books, games and music.
But as smartphones continue to get bigger screens and powerful chips, many consumers are opting to watch movies, or play games on their iPhones or Android phones.
It’s also an interesting move considering Amazon’s own lackluster sales of tablets and data showing that Apple’s rival tablet, the iPad, has seen a softening of sales. And the new version of the iPad, announced last week, isn’t aimed at the media hungry consumer, but rather at the enterprise and business world. Apple, which is traditionally focused on consumers, is trying to make headway inside corporations. Amazon, meanwhile, is still just trying to make headway.
Nevertheless, Amazon executives claimed that the company is “on pace to have a record year in hardware business” without giving any concrete numbers. In fact, it’s clear that the company has stumbled. Amazon killed off its first phone, the Fire phone, and has laid off workers in its hardware division.
Don’t hold your breath for any indication on whether these bets will pay off. Although the holidays tend to are a time of massive sales time for Amazon’s hardware devices, we will almost certainly never know how the company actually did.
For more on Amazon’s ambitions in entertainment, watch this video: | Amazon is betting on a new line of tablets designed for watching movies, reading books and playing games. | 48.9 | 0.8 | 1.3 | high | medium | abstractive |
http://www.tmz.com/2014/03/21/rosario-dawson-star-trek-klingon | http://web.archive.org/web/20160710141305id_/http://www.tmz.com:80/2014/03/21/rosario-dawson-star-trek-klingon | Rosario Dawson -- The Hottest Woman to Speak Klingon Ever | 20160710141305 | It was only one word, but noted "Star Trek" fan
busted out a little Klingon for us last night ... thus becoming the hottest woman to do so in recorded history.
Dawson has never appeared in a Trek movie, but is famous for being a super fan. Her IMDB profile even refers to her as "a huge fan of the Star Trek franchise, and even speaks broken Klingon language."
If any Trekkies want to debate Dawson's Klingon, have it out in the comments section. | It was only one word, but noted "Star Trek" fan Rosario Dawson busted out a little Klingon for us last night ... thus becoming the hottest woman to do so… | 2.941176 | 0.941176 | 14.529412 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/11/nyregion/education-for-some-prep-school-follows-high-school.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160710165256id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2000/06/11/nyregion/education-for-some-prep-school-follows-high-school.html | EDUCATION - For Some, Prep School Follows High School - NYTimes.com | 20160710165256 | Brian Lyons finds himself in an enviable position. On Friday, Brian will graduate from Hamilton High School West, outside of Trenton, second in his class.
The 17-year-old straight-A student scored 1570 out of a possible 1600 on his College Boards and he has been accepted at some of the country's top universities. But he won't be going to any of them in September.
In what is a longstanding but little-known phenomenon, a relatively small number of students -- usually boys -- choose to undertake a year of additional study at an exclusive prep school, including those in New Jersey, before heading off to college.
In Brian's case, he will attend the Lawrenceville School in the fall, where he will be one of a group of students who want to polish their academic or athletic resumes. Each year, schools like the Peddie School and the Hun School of Princeton as well as Lawrenceville take on from 6 to 25 postgraduate students. As good as the students may be, many come to improve their chances of getting into a better school. In addition, students headed to military academies, foreign students wanting to improve their English and others who simply need another year to mature make up some of this group.
''People take the postgraduate year for a number of reasons,'' said Ian Gracey, associate dean of admissions at the Lawrenceville School. ''Often, they feel that they aren't ready for the rigors of college life, and they want a year to mature. It does a world of good for most people. My younger brother did a postgraduate year and he just blossomed.''
The programs are not usually advertised or pushed by guidance offices, so many students hear about them through word of mouth. Most will live on the campus and, while about 30 percent receive financial aid, the year will be as costly as college with tuition and board -- about $25,000.
Mr. Gracey said that the Lawrenceville School usually got 90 applications each year from students seeking to do postgraduate work, of which it accepts about 25.
''We look for someone with a great sense of initiative, and we like to see them adding something to the community in arts, athletics or having students from around the world,'' Mr. Gracey said.
The median combined College Board scores are over 1220, he said.
Marty Mooney, associate director of college counseling at the Peddie School in Hightstown, which takes from 15 to 20 such students each year, said these programs were not for students ''who bombed out in high school.''
''You look for a spark in these kids,'' Mr. Mooney said. ''This is a nice steppingstone for them.''
But it's not an easy step. Mr. Mooney said that most students were shocked by the rigorous academic demands and campus regulations. At Peddie, students have a required study time from 8 to 10 p.m. every weeknight. If they are going out on weekends, they must sign out and go where they said they were going. Smoking is taboo, and students are expected to participate in community service projects.
Drew Biemer, 19, of Haddonfield just completed his postgraduate year at the Peddie School and plans to attend the University of Richmond, where he will play football.
Drew said that when his parents first suggested the year at Peddie, he balked. Now he's glad he put in the time.
''It did a lot of good for me,'' he said. ''At times it drove me crazy, but the end definitely justified the means.''
Mr. Biemer said he also felt that the school's diverse student body broadened him socially. ''I feel more attached to some of these people than the people I knew in high school,'' he said. ''It's a lot more of a melting pot.''
For students from middle- and upper-middle-class suburban districts, the postgraduate year often proves to be a time to live in close quarters with students from totally different cultural and economic backgrounds. Last year, Mr. Mooney said, an athlete from Cranbury was rooming with a very academically oriented student from Thailand who always stood up when he studied, and it was a learning experience for both of them.
''Lots of times this was the first time they've lived and worked with kids of such multicultural backgrounds,'' Mr. Mooney said.
Dr. James Byer, headmaster of the Hun School of Princeton, which takes 6 to 12 postgraduate students each year, noted that the schools also gained by the presence of the postgraduates.
''We expect them to be leaders,'' Dr. Byer said. ''They add a degree of leadership that enhances the school environment.''
For Michael Chiusano of Medford, who attended Shawnee, a large regional public high school, his year at Lawrenceville meant admission to Princeton University in 1999, where he is playing football.
''I always wanted to go to Princeton, and I got rejected and I wasn't happy about that,'' Michael said. ''I was young and would have been 17 starting college. It was the greatest year of my life so far, and it prepared me for Princeton.''
While the year helps some students get into Ivy League schools, they should not assume that they are buying an automatic ticket to admission. Harvard University, for instance, gets applications from 2 to 20 candidates a year who are completing a postgraduate term.
''A good year is a help and better is always better,'' said Marlyn McGrath Lewis, director of admissions for Harvard College, but it is by no means a guarantee into a school where fewer than 11 percent of the applicants are accepted. ''Every case is different, and there's no formula for this.''
Still, Mrs. McGrath Lewis said she has never met a student who regretted taking the extra year, even if he did not get accepted by his first choice for college. ''I've never heard people say it was a mistake,'' she said.
Daria Guelig, 16, who recently graduated from Wellsboro High School in a rural area of north-central Pennsylvania, was accepted by William and Mary College, but she has decided to spend next year at Lawrenceville.
''I thought I wouldn't really be prepared for college right away,'' Daria said. ''I think I could handle college, but Lawrenceville will be a good way to really prepare me. When I went there, I just fell in love with it.''
As for Brian Lyons from Hamilton High, he realizes that a lot of people do not understand why he is going to Lawrenceville this fall even though he was accepted by seven colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins and Cornell. But the 6-feet-2-inch, 235-pound lineman said his dream was to play varsity football for Harvard, Princeton or Cornell. He hopes to add 20 pounds to his frame and show an excellent academic record.
''I'm young, so a year of maturing would be good,'' he said.
Photos: Michael Chiusano of Medford, left, who attended Shawnee, a large regional high school, spent a year at Lawrenceville before going to Princeton. Brian Lyons, who graduated from Hamilton High School West with an A average and has been accepted by top universities, plans to go to Lawrenceville and aim higher. (Photographs by Frank C. Dougherty for The New York Times) | Brian Lyons finds himself in an enviable position. On Friday, Brian will graduate from Hamilton High School West, outside of Trenton, second in his class. The 17-year-old straight-A student scored 1570 out of a possible 1600 on his College Boards and he has been accepted at some of the country's top universities. But he won't be going to any of them in September. | 19.038961 | 0.987013 | 39.168831 | medium | high | extractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/07/08/google-self-driving-car-lawyer/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160711072048id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/07/08/google-self-driving-car-lawyer/ | Google's Self Driving Car Project Gets Its Own Chief Lawyer | 20160711072048 | Google’s self-driving car project has created a general counsel position—and hired Kevin Vosen, the chief legal officer of The Climate Corporation to fill it—as it prepares to shift from moonshot to company.
Alphabet’s Google has teams of lawyers. And even the Google self-driving project, which is housed under X (the division where the company’s experimental projects reside), has lawyers. But until now, it’s never had one dedicated to the project full time and of this level of seniority.
The hiring, first reported by Recode, was confirmed by a Google spokesman. According to his LinkedIn profile, Vosen has worked for The Climate Corporation for the past eight years. The Climate Corporation, which was acquired by Monsanto in 2013 for $930 million, is a data company that helps farmers make financial decisions and increase profitability. Vosen was responsible for all of The Climate Corporation’s legal affairs, including strategic transactions, commercial, litigation, and regulatory compliance. He was also a member of Monsanto’s management advisory council.
Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter about technology.
The hiring comes at a critical time for Google, which wants to commercialize self-driving cars by 2020. The project already has a CEO and a director. Until now, a chief lawyer has been a missing piece.
Self-driving cars that still look and feel like traditional vehicles face relatively few regulatory and legal barriers. (Although the scrutiny of even semi-autonomous features like Tesla’s hands-free autopilot technology, has ramped up in recent weeks.)
But companies like Google that envision a self-driving car without a steering wheel or foot pedals face significant restraints, according to a preliminary report released in March by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The federal government has not been prepared to regulate or certify Google’s self-driving prototype—nor any other conceptual vehicle that isn’t equipped with standard manual controls.
Google just shared its self-driving car tech with an automaker:
That’s about to change. This month, the Department of Transportation is expected to issue operational guidelines for how automated vehicle technology should be tested and regulated, as well as a model policy for states to help end the mishmash of rules that threaten to slow down the development of self-driving cars. The DOT and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have been working on the guidelines since January.
A patchwork of rules has already developed in states such as California, where numerous companies—including Daimler and Google—are testing self-driving car technology on public roads. In December 2015, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles issued draft rules in an effort to address the thorny questions involving autonomous vehicles around licensing, registration, certification, and safety—as well as cyber security and privacy. The draft rules include strict limits on the emerging technology, a position Google has said will place a ceiling on the potential for fully self-driving cars. | With a CEO, director, and top lawyer, this project is almost ready to become a company. | 28.7 | 0.8 | 1.1 | medium | medium | abstractive |
http://nypost.com/2016/06/02/tiger-schulmanns-puts-2-19m-soho-loft-on-the-market/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160711080013id_/http://nypost.com:80/2016/06/02/tiger-schulmanns-puts-2-19m-soho-loft-on-the-market/ | ‘Tiger’ Schulmann puts $2.19M Soho loft on the market | 20160711080013 | Daniel “Tiger” Schulmann, who received his black belt at age 12 and is the owner of an eponymous chain of martial arts academies, has put his two-bedroom, two-bathroom Soho loft on the market for $2.19 million.
The third-floor co-op at 196 Sixth Ave. is 1,362 square feet.
It features a woodburning fireplace with a brick mantle and custom floor-to-ceiling millwork.
There’s also a chef’s kitchen, a master suite with a spa-like bathroom and lots of storage.
“A two-bedroom, two-bathroom loft directly below is also on the market. Combined, they are asking $3.97 million as a four-bedroom duplex.”
The building dates to 1893.
It was designed by Sgt. Nathaniel Bush, who was then the New York Police Department’s official architect, and used as the 10th Precinct police station before becoming the NYPD quartermaster’s storehouse. It was converted into a residential co-op in 1987.
Both listings are repped by Sotheby’s brokers Jeremy Stein and Jennifer Lanza. | Daniel “Tiger” Schulmann, who received his black belt at age 12 and is the owner of an eponymous chain of martial arts academies, has put his two-bedroom, two-bathroom Soho loft on the market for $… | 4.755556 | 0.977778 | 43.022222 | low | high | extractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/07/06/power-sheet-july-6-2016/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160711111849id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/07/06/power-sheet-july-6-2016/ | Power Sheet - July 6, 2016 | 20160711111849 | Polling has shown for months that Hillary Clinton would be the least liked presidential nominee in modern history if it weren’t for one thing: Donald Trump, who is regarded even more unfavorably. The who’s-worse choice facing American voters took another step downward yesterday. As even the Clinton-friendly New York Times observed, “the FBI director, James B. Comey, all but indicted her judgment and competence on Tuesday — two vital pillars of her presidential candidacy — and in the kind of terms that would be politically devastating in a normal election year.”
Clinton’s salvation so far in this utterly abnormal year has been that when she looks bad, Trump looks worse. What’s significant about Comey’s statement yesterday is that, for the first time, she may actually look worse than Trump on at least some significant dimensions of leadership. Though it’s a close call.
Clinton has presented herself as possibly boring but steady, competent, and seasoned. Now the FBI director, working for a president who supports her, has portrayed her as just the opposite. She and her colleagues “were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” he said. He did not clear her of exposing U.S. secrets to enemies. On the contrary, he said that while the FBI “did not find direct evidence” that her email was hacked, “it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account.”
Depending on your perspective, she either misspoke or lied repeatedly about her email; see a compilation of contradictions here. For example, she famously said at a press conference in March, “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email.” Wrong – Comey said she did so in 110 emails. She said she had turned over all of her work-related emails. No again – Comey said the FBI found 2,000 that she didn’t turn over.
Comey marveled at her behavior in using her home email system for emails involving Top Secret/Special Access Program matters: “Any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position…should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.” In his lawyerly way, he’s saying that Clinton is not a reasonable person. That would seem to leave only two choices for her motivation, both of which are troubling. Either she was willing to sacrifice U.S. security for personal reasons (what were they?), or she’s dangerously clueless.
For purposes of the presidential election, these potentially ruinous revelations may not be fatal. The relevant question, as usual, is whether Trump is even worse. The constant turmoil in his pathetically meager campaign organization and its amateurish performance suggest he’s barely competent to manage a popcorn stand. On the other hand, he has built a business organization that has transformed him from a rich kid to a much richer adult, even if not as rich as he claims, and even if its operations have sometimes been slimy (Trump University, the Trump Institute) and his methods sometimes unsavory. His ill-informed, vacillating policy positions still give voters strong reasons to deny him access to the nuclear launch codes. But now voters must also question Clinton’s competence, judgment, and motivations at the highest levels of government.
So now who’s worse? What a terrible question to be forced to ask.
You can share Power Sheet with friends and followers here. | Power Sheet - July 6, 2016 | 95.142857 | 0.571429 | 0.857143 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.tmz.com/2011/02/24/charlie-sheen-chuck-lorre-two-and-a-half-men-argument-radio-talk-show-tirade-turd-thomas-jefferson-alcoholics-anonymous | http://web.archive.org/web/20160711123853id_/http://www.tmz.com:80/2011/02/24/charlie-sheen-chuck-lorre-two-and-a-half-men-argument-radio-talk-show-tirade-turd-thomas-jefferson-alcoholics-anonymous | 'Two and a Half Men' Shut Down After TMZ Story | 20160711123853 | " will immediately stop production for the rest of the season ... because of Charlie's escapades in the last few days ... most recently what he said to TMZ.
CBS and Warner Bros. say, "Based on the totality of Charlie Sheen's statements, conduct and condition, CBS and Warner Bros. Television have decided to discontinue production of 'Two and a Half Men' for the remainder of the season."
The decision comes several hours after TMZ posted a story in which Charlie Sheen
, calling him "a stupid, stupid little man and a pu**y punk that I never want to be like."
Sources connected with the production tell us ... Charlie's comments to TMZ were the final straw.
No word on whether production will resume next season. | TMZ has learned "Two and a Half Men" will immediately stop production for the rest of the season ... because of Charlie's escapades in the last few days… | 4.625 | 0.90625 | 15.96875 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/26/port-wines-ten-lifestyle-wines_port_slide_4.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160712040306id_/http://www.forbes.com:80/2009/02/26/port-wines-ten-lifestyle-wines_port_slide_4.html | In Depth: 10 Great Port Picks | 20160712040306 | A 10-year tawny is a blend of ports from several years, with the majority of the components at least 10 years old (some older, some younger). Warre’s used to have a stuffy image, but then “they revolutionized the bottle, now a contemporary, slender, clear bottle with an equally elegant label. Overnight, this sleepy brand became the largest-selling aged tawny,” says Broadbent. “I like [it] because it has a lovely balance between the younger, fruitier reserve ports and the mellowness of aged tawny.”
If you liked this story, read:
Great Wines Under Cork And Screw Cap
Comments are turned off for this post. | This dessert wine from Portugal offers great taste and, in some cases, great value. | 7.764706 | 0.529412 | 0.529412 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.people.com/people/article/0%2C%2C20354474%2C00.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160712044937id_/http://www.people.com:80/people/article/0,,20354474,00.html | Actor Robert Culp Dies at Age 79 | 20160712044937 | 03/24/2010 AT 06:40 PM EDT
Robert Culp, best remembered as Kelly Robinson in the '60s TV show
and more recently as father-in-law Warren Whelan on
The actor, 79, was rushed to Queen of Angels Hospital on Wednesday morning after falling outside his Hollywood home, authorities said. He was pronounced dead shortly after arrival, the
Culp suffered a blow to the head after falling while taking a walk and was found by a jogger who called 911. Paramedics, patrol officers and detectives responded to the scene. A preliminary investigation found that "his death is accidental and there appears to be no sign of foul play," police Lt. Bob Binder tells the
A native of Oakland, Calif., Culp rose to fame playing a secret agent on NBC's
a show that costarred Bill Cosby and helped break the color barrier in Hollywood. Off-screen, too, Culp became involved with civic causes, most recently opposing construction of an elephant exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo.
Besides his TV work, Culp also played some memorable movie parts, such as Wild Bill Hickok in
the fiancé of Jane Fonda's character in the romantic comedy
and one of the marital swingers in 1969's | The I Spy star suffered a blow to the head when he fell while taking a walk | 13.882353 | 0.705882 | 3.176471 | low | low | mixed |
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-life-without-parole-story-part-1/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160712072839id_/http://www.cbsnews.com:80/news/a-life-without-parole-story-part-1/ | A life (without parole) story | 20160712072839 | This story is the first in a three-part series published by The Crime Report and Alternet. Parts two and three will be posted on Tuesday and Wednesday.
BESSEMER, Ala. -- The blinding glint from razor wire that girds the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility seems out of place in the piney woods northwest of Bessemer.
Donaldson, the maximum-security home of 1,500 convicted felons, was built in 1980 and is named for a prison officer who was stabbed to death by an inmate in its early years.
The state Department of Corrections website describes its function: "Donaldson specializes in controlling repeat and/or multiple violent offenders with lengthy sentences that are behaviorally difficult to manage, and several hundred inmates sentenced to life without parole."
One of those LWOPs, as they are known in prison lexicon, is Aaron Lamont Johnson, inmate No. 00190394.
In 1994, when he was 19 years old, Johnson was accused of shooting to death another young man in their north Birmingham neighborhood. He was charged with murder and sat through four trials as the chief antagonist of the prosecutor's narrative. Three mistrials were declared when jurors were unable to agree on his guilt or innocence.
He was convicted at a fourth trial and sent away to prison without possibility of parole under a drive-by shooting sentencing enhancement, even though it was the victim who drove up and confronted Johnson in his yard.
Johnson has been locked up for 21 years. If Alabama has its way, and Johnson reaches the average African-American male lifespan of 72, he will have served 53 years in prison for a heat-of-the-moment offense committed when he was a teenage adult.
His story is an example of the enduring after-effects of the politicization of American justice through legislated sentencing mandates. A generation ago, experts say, Johnson likely would have served fewer than 20 years for a comparable crime. Even today, he would be parole-eligible in many states.
Instead, he is caught in the country's lifer bubble, roughly 175,000 strong and growing--a neglected remainder of the lock-'em-up frenzy of the 1980s and 1990s. The number of lifers today is comparable to the entire U.S. prison population in 1968. The racial imbalance is striking: Half of all lifers are black, four times the percentage of African-Americans in the U.S. population.
Yet so far lifers have been excluded from reform discussions, even though the country's long-term prisoners are the core constituency of the methodical mass incarceration that is widely viewed as racist and ineffectual.
"I think violent crime, and homicide in particular, is still off the table politically," said Ashley Nellis, an analyst with the nonprofit Sentencing Project.
Sentencing reforms are focused on the so-called "non-non-nons"--non-violent, non-serious, non-sexual offenders.
"There's a lot of work to be done there, too," Nellis told me, "but it's not going to make a substantial difference in mass incarceration unless we consider the serious stuff, as well."
Julie Stewart, president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said lifers have been "thrown under the bus" by lawmakers. Ryan King of the Urban Institute added, "It's like we don't want to deal with the problem--and life-without-parolers are the most extreme example."
About 50,000 lifers are serving sentences without hope of parole--roughly the total population of Pascagoula, Miss., Brunswick, Ga., or Grand Island, Neb.
Alabama stands apart--with a handful of other Dixie states--in its enthusiasm for long prison sentences, even as entrenched mass incarceration fuels the state's unremitting financial bonfire.
Alabama's incarceration rate is the fourth highest in the country, just below its Deep South kin, Louisiana and Mississippi, and the national leader, Oklahoma.
Doris Schartmueller, a California State-Chico criminologist who has studied Alabama incarceration trends, said the state built a "permanent" prison population by applying habitual-criminal sentencing add-ons as crime was declining sharply in the 1990s and 2000s.
Since 1980, state prison rolls have grown nearly 400 percent--from 6,500 to 24,250 today (plus another 7,000 in custody outside of Alabama penitentiaries)--while the state population has grown just 23 percent. Alabama prisons operate at nearly double their official capacity of 13,318.
Schartmueller told me that long sentences and the politicization of parole ensure that the state's dangerously overcrowded prisons will stay that way. The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, with members appointed by and politically beholden to the governor, rarely approves discretionary parole.
"Due to these stringent parole practices, you will have a quite high percentage of prisoners who will grow old in prison and eventually die behind bars," Schartmueller said.
Nearly a century ago, Lewis Lawes, the progressive warden of New York's Sing Sing prison, described the soul-numbing monotony of life in a cage: "Death fades into insignificance when compared with life imprisonment. To spend each night in jail, day after day, year after year, gazing at the bars and longing for freedom, is indeed expiation."
Aaron Johnson wards off that existential despair through prayer and a scholar's diligence to his case. He earned certification as a paralegal through correspondence school and fights incessantly from inside Donaldson for exoneration or sentence relief. Neither appears to be forthcoming.
Johnson is a light-skinned black man of average size--5-foot-8, 154 pounds. His body bears none of the usual prison mementos: He is clean-shaven, with closely cropped hair and no tattoos. He is soft-spoken and polite, though this should not be mistaken for a lack of intensity.
"People have asked me over the years, 'How do you decide which case to take on,'" said Claudia Whitman, an innocence advocate who has worked on behalf of Johnson since 2001. "There are a couple of factors. But the main one is the doggedness of the person insisting they're innocent and their willingness to fight to prove it.
"Aaron is the most dogged person I've ever worked with. He's never given up. He never stops."
I have delved into Johnson's life story for nearly a year, speaking with more than 25 people, some with a personal stake and some without. The crux of what Johnson calls his "situation" is this question: After 7,850 days behind bars, how much more punishment does he deserve?
"There are things that impulsive young people, men and women, may do that perhaps shouldn't be the thing that defines their entire life," Richard Cohen, executive director of the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, told me. "Throwing away the key is synonymous with saying there is no possibility of rehabilitation, no possibility of redemption. And as a country I don't think we ought to say that about people."
I spent many hours talking with Johnson's mother, Dinah Robinson. At one point, I pressed her (yet again) to explain a puzzling detail about her son's life.
"I'm trying to understand...," I said.
"I know you're trying to understand. But to understand any of this, you have to understand what's it's like to be a young black man growing up in a place like north Birmingham, Alabama," Robinson said.
"And if you didn't grow up black in Birmingham, you'll probably never understand."
On Sept. 13, 1994, a throng of 1,000 assembled outside the White House for a carefully staged event designed to add gravitas as President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Control and Law Enforcement Act.
The dais was packed hip to hip with some 200 people--a bipartisan mash-up of Washington politicians, police chiefs, cabinet secretaries, mayors, and the kin of crime victims, all of whom seemed to believe that the law was a good idea for America.
Clinton spoke with a preacher's pulpit rhetoric.
"When I sign this crime bill," he said, "we together are taking a big step toward bringing the laws of our land back into line with the values of our people and beginning to restore the line between right and wrong."
Moral transfiguration may have been the goal, but the 356-page legislative behemoth had a carrot-and-stick orientation. It endorsed funding of as much as $30 billion for police officers, prison construction, and other incentives and subsidies for states willing to go along with a federal prod to punish lawbreakers more severely.
Motivated in part by money, most states proved eager to do so, even though crime had just begun a precipitous decline. Hundreds of state and federal laws had already added sentencing enhancements for specific criminal acts, such as drive-by shootings. But Clinton's signature that day in 1994 served to enshrine the lock-'em-up ethos that institutionalized what we now recognize as unprecedented mass incarceration.
The very next day, September 14, Aaron Johnson was hanging out with friends on the hood of a car parked on a grassy siding in front of his wife's family's house on 25th Street North in impoverished north Birmingham, a world away from the White House.
At twilight, a Chevy Monte Carlo rolled to a stop near Johnson's perch. The driver was a neighborhood adversary, Timothy Chester, also 19.
Johnson recalled the sequence of events as we spoke in a small, spare room in the visitors' center at Donaldson prison.
"We're sitting out there talking, just enjoying, you know, the evening," Johnson said. "And he (Chester) pulls up. I don't remember his exact words, but it was something to the nature like, uh, you got a problem with me?
"He just wanted to, how can I say this, agitate and irritate me. But he didn't say nothin' that would let me know where he's comin' from. So I'm like, man, why is you coming to my house with this? What's wrong with you?"
Johnson said he told Chester to leave: "Go on ahead, man.'"
Chester didn't heed the advice, and their beef escalated into violence.
What was it all about? Johnson said, "This whole thing really results from the effects of crack."
For a decade beginning in 1985, sections of Birmingham endured the crack-driven crime conflagration that scorched black neighborhoods coast to coast.
The city had 60 homicides in 1984, a 30-year low. As crack arrived the next year, the murder total jumped to 97, up 62 percent. The homicide surge reached 129 or more in each of the first five years of the 1990s.
"It was a scourge," said Vickii Howell, an Alabama native who saw crack's impact while covering courts for the Birmingham News. "It was some kind of cultural shift that happened. There were always drugs, but there wasn't this kind of violence that came with it. It became this 'New Jack City' attitude that killing is cool and you prove your worth by how many people you can hurt or kill."
Aaron Johnson and Tim Chester had been circling one another for months, according to Johnson. Their conflict illustrated criminologist Alfred Blumstein's axiom that young men armed with guns are lousy at dispute resolution. Perhaps in another time and place, a pastor, parent, coach or cop might have interceded and saved two lives. That didn't happen.
They lived in the same cluster of neighborhoods north of downtown Birmingham--Acipco-Finley, Enon Ridge, Evergreen--tucked between rail yards and a manufacturing zone on the west and the city's airport on the east.
Metropolitan Birmingham is a traffic-snarled sprawl of 1.1 million people, nearly a quarter of Alabama's population. But the city itself seems hollowed out. It peaked at 350,000 residents in the early 1960s before white flight began amid infamous white-on-black violence, including 50 bombings, many at homes where African-Americans had crossed real estate lines of demarcation.
Birmingham has shriveled to 210,000 people. Three-quarters of its residents are black, and three out of 10 live in poverty.
Aaron Johnson spent much of his childhood in a particularly destitute precinct known as Evergreen Bottom. Johnson grew up working as a caretaker at his grandparents' group home for the developmentally disabled off Stouts Road there. His mother's parents owned an entire block of property, including several two-story apartment buildings.
Evergreen Bottom is a grim place. Many buildings have been knocked down, leaving vacant lots waist-high with weeds that obscure dumped trash. A brick housing project, several two-story apartment buildings, and many small homes sit abandoned and moldering.
Evergreen Bottom in Birmingham, Alabama
Half of the population there earns an income below the federal government's poverty line of $11,770 for individuals. Sixty-four percent of adults living in that ZIP code are not working, and 30 percent have no high school diploma.
Narcotics grew deep roots in Evergreen Bottom generations ago. According to Johnson, a relative's crack cocaine debt was the impetus for his conflict with Timothy Chester.
Johnson's aunt, Mary Lou Robinson, lived in an apartment building that shared an alley with the Evergreen Bottom group home. Johnson said he was carrying trash to a dumpster one day when he stopped to chat with his aunt. They were joined by her daughter, his cousin Mary Ann Green, and Green's 6-year-old daughter, Mesha.
Both his aunt and cousin were crack addicts, Johnson said.
As the relatives talked, Chester and two other men drove pulled up the alley to collect a crack debt from Robinson, Johnson told me.
"Chester hops out the car while we're standing and talking and everything, and he's telling my aunt, like, 'Bring your ass here. Where my money at?'" Johnson said. He said he was upset that his cousin's child had to witness this.
"So I said...'C'mon let's go. Get Mesha out from in front of this stuff.' So Chester hollers something of the nature of, 'Oh, you don't like it? You don't like it?"
"I just said, 'Shit, go ahead on, man.'
"And that's basically where it started from, that incident there," Johnson said. "This is still my family. Even though they're on drugs, we're still family."
For months afterward, Johnson said, he heard gossip that Chester had it in for him.
"I think he was just bluffing," Johnson said. "He wanted to pull me out and see what I would do. In that time period, people wanted to make reputations for themselves. So they'd prey on people they think were weak...He wanted to be famous--street famous. Street cred is what they call it now."
Johnson's wife, Terina, and Chester's girlfriend, Teresa Jones, had their own arguments about the stewing conflict. But Johnson said the two young men had no real confrontations until the evening in September '94.
I asked why Chester had shown up then.
"I really don't know," he said. "I know that people gossip a lot. Someone else may have caused him to do that--you know, like somebody told him that I said something. Anything to just keep up some confusion."
Dinah Leah Johnson was 15 years old, a freshman at Phillips High School in Birmingham, when she met Aaron Robinson Jr., who was 23.
"It was quite the controversy," she said. "People in my family wanted to have him arrested."
But she stayed with him and got pregnant just after her 17th birthday. During her seventh month of pregnancy, her child's father was sent to prison for five years for burglary.
"And there I was, alone by myself and in trouble, like a scared little rabbit," Dinah Robinson told me.
Dinah Robinson at her home in north Birmingham.
She resolved to make a better life for her son.
"I started to teach him even before he came out," she said. "We talked and talked and read and read. He learned from within. It was just he and I, and we just read our life away during my pregnancy. It was like a journey, you know?"
Aaron was born on Jan. 12, 1975. His mother had dropped out of school, but she earned a GED and took college classes while building a career in health care and office work in Birmingham and, later, Houston.
By the time Aaron's father was paroled, Dinah had moved on.
"After he got out, I was all grown up, and I knew he just wasn't the one for me," she said. "I was doing all right, and we didn't need him. I could take care of Aaron on my own, so I just kept it going, moving ahead."
Aaron Johnson said his mother encouraged him to strive.
"She stayed on me about going to school--about making something out of my life, that I can be anything I want to be," he said. "She would say, 'All you have to do is go to school, read the books, build a work ethic, pray, go to church, and don't worry about the rest of that stuff.'"
I asked Dinah Robinson what she imagined her son might become.
After a long pause, she said, "Well, what I did notice was his leadership abilities in the neighborhood. He seemed to be such a helpful and caring young man. He had some friends who were in trouble, and he helped them in so many ways. If they were failing in school, he would teach them. If they didn't have anything to eat, he would bring them to me and we would feed them. He was just always trying to help, and everybody seemed to look up to him."
"But you know, no matter how you raise them," Robinson said, "it seems they always figure out a way to jump the fence and meet somebody they shouldn't."
David J. Krajicek (@djkrajicek) writes about crime and justice for The Crime Report, Alternet, The New York Daily News and others. His work on this article was supported by The Fund for Investigative Journalism in Washington, D.C.
© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. | How much punishment does an offender deserve? Part one in a three-part series taking a deep look at America's 'lifers' --- the neglected leftovers of mass incarceration | 111.484848 | 0.909091 | 2.121212 | high | medium | mixed |
http://nypost.com/2011/05/13/fair-trade-is-a-crock/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160712144030id_/http://nypost.com:80/2011/05/13/fair-trade-is-a-crock/ | ‘Fair trade’ is a crock | 20160712144030 | Not helped: Third World farmworkers, like this one working with a Venezuelan cocoa harvest, get no direct benefit from “fair trade” products. (AFP/Getty Images)
If you want to help out Third World farm workers, ignore the “Wake up the World” campaign. Don’t have a “fair trade” breakfast — or anything else. The “fair trade” label is a crock.
You’re likeliest to see the “fair trade” label at high-end coffee shops and grocery stores — especially ones with a “progressive” clientele. The certification is supposed to let you enjoy your latte without feeling guilty for exploiting the Ethiopian or Ecuadoran who harvested the beans.
Oh, the likes of Angelina Jolie and Colin Firth endorse it — but the main value it brings is the consumer’s feeling of socially conscious satisfaction.
Fair-trade-certified products — coffee, bananas, cocoa, etc. from developing countries — have boomed this last decade. US sales of fair-trade goods rose from $15 million to $48 million from 2005 to 2009.
Most people think “fair trade” guarantees better pay for agricultural workers in developing countries. The Fair Trade USA Web site insists, “We can change the world by changing our breakfast.”
Sorry: What the organized fair-trade movement actually does is simply provide selected producers of cash crops in such nations with guaranteed minimum prices for their products. The direct benefits are small and rarely go to the least well-off. Worse, fair trade can hinder economic development.
Consider how it all works.
Again, “fair trade” merely guarantees certain producers a minimum price for a commodity. This gives farmers a safeguard against price drops, which can come in handy if they can’t access more sophisticated forms of financial hedging.
But how much does fair trade actually help poor people? Most fair-trade producers are outside Sub-Saharan Africa, the world’s poorest region. Mexico has 51 fair-trade cooperatives; Ethiopia has four and Burundi just one.
And the main benefit flows to fair-trade cooperatives — groups of landowners, not laborers. The certification includes no incentives for the owners to pay higher wages to farmworkers, who tend to be poorer and more vulnerable.
It even tends to exclude the poorer landowners. Certification involves significant up-front costs — $2,000 to $4,000 — and annual inspections that require paying sizable fees. In a developing nation, that’s a big hurdle.
And the folks shut out of the scheme are worse off. With a minimum price guaranteed, the fair-trade insiders can produce more with lower risks — increasing the overall size of the crop and thus depressing prices for the folks who couldn’t afford to buy their way in.
Even fair-trade supporters must admit that the scheme doesn’t solve the problem of underdevelopment. No nation has become rich by earning a slightly higher return on a cash crop. Most developed countries have succeeded by allowing their economies to grow more sophisticated and diversified — adding areas of production that pay more to workers and owners.
That is, there’s more money in making chocolate than in growing cocoa — and 90 percent of the world’s cocoa, but only 4 percent of its chocolate, is produced in developing countries.
But “fair trade” — guaranteeing a minimum price for certain crops — locks part of the labor force into basic agriculture, discouraging it from moving “higher up the ladder” to better long-term opportunities in manufacturing, services or more sophisticated forms of agriculture. A study of Guatemala’s fair-trade coffee industry by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University concluded that fair trade strongly encouraged production mediocrity.
Finally, “fair trade” encourages a particular business model at the expense of others. To qualify for registration in the fair-trade scheme, farmers need to form cooperatives that satisfy certain requirements of communal decision-making and transparency. Why, exactly — other than badly dated ideology — should we prefer landowner cooperatives over private companies that adhere to high standards of workers’ welfare and social and environmental responsibility?
Ultimately, only private entrepreneurship and businesses can pull the developing world out of poverty. But entrepreneurs flourish only in a situation of good governance, stable property rights and business-friendly legal institutions. Rather than falling for marketing ploys that use poor people as pawns, we should work to improve the business environment in developing countries.
Low-income countries around the world don’t need our pity and handouts; they need economic policies that work. “Fair trade” may mean well, but that’s just not good enough.
Dalibor Rohac is a research fellow at the Legatum Institute in London. | Not helped: Third World farmworkers, like this one working with a Venezuelan cocoa harvest, get no direct benefit from “fair trade” products. (AFP/Getty Images) If you want to help out … | 22.414634 | 0.97561 | 29.073171 | medium | high | extractive |
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/food-dining/2016/03/07/they-share-their-bread-obsession/CSKV1KV2QOFemraeds6YjI/story.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160712161145id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/lifestyle/food-dining/2016/03/07/they-share-their-bread-obsession/CSKV1KV2QOFemraeds6YjI/story.html? | They share their Bread Obsession | 20160712161145 | The expression “when one door closes, another door opens” could be Varda Haimo’s motto. When the Lexington resident lost her job in the financial industry in 2008, she turned to her passion: bread baking. Reading books and websites, she honed her skills and in 2013 started selling her breads out of her home and at farmers’ markets. Now she runs the wholesale company Bread Obsession with business partner Joan Forman, also from Lexington. They bake out of a Waltham kitchen and weekly turn out 500 deeply flavored, artisanal baguettes and hearth loaves, plus hundreds of rolls and bagels, and sell them to retailers and restaurants and at farmers’ markets. Rustic baguettes have a thin, crackly crust and are light and fluffy inside; the deep mahogany durum levain, made with the flour used for pasta, has a rich yellow crumb and a creamy flavor; sunflower seeds are generously scattered over a thick-crusted multigrain bread; tangy sourdough is studded with Kalamata olives. Haimo and Forman also bake traditional darkly crusted, hearty German-style rye breads they ferment for hours, fruit breads, and challah. “I spent years thinking about what makes good bread,” says Haimo. These breads are truly the staff of life. Available for $4.50 to $8 at Pemberton Farms Marketplace, 2225 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-491-2244; Dave’s Fresh Pasta, 81 Holland St., Somerville, 617-623-0867; Bermans Fine Wines & Spirits, 55 Massachusetts Ave., Lexington, 781-862-0515; Apex Wine & Spirits, 46 Bedford St., Lexington, 781-860-9463; or go to www.bread-obsession.com. | Bread Obsession turns out dreamy artisanal loaves. | 39.75 | 0.75 | 1 | high | low | abstractive |
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