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Think you’ve seen a hard sell when it comes to swine flu vaccine? Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet! The vaccine makers are just getting warmed up — and now they’re coming right out and boasting to their investors about how much money they’re going to rake in from vaccines in the next few years. Sanofi-Aventis is telling its investors that it plans to double its vaccine business by 2013. In 2010 alone, they’re hoping to sell nearly $5.76 billion in needless needles. That’s not just significant. That’s a bombshell — because this company owns Sanofi Pasteur, the world’s largest vaccine maker. That should tell you everything you need to know about these drugs. The vaccine business is not a noble effort to end disease… but a relentless push to boost profits. There’s a simple reason for this: The drug kingpins are running out of patents on their blockbuster meds. And with nothing in the works to replace them right now, they’re turning to vaccines for quick and easy cash. You just need to look at Merck to see how it works: After spending billions to settle Vioxx lawsuits, they turned to a vaccine to soften the blow. That’s how we got Gardasil, the dangerous needle being forced on little girls from coast to coast. The vaccine is supposed to protect against some strains of HPV — but it’s been dubbed “Help Pay for Vioxx.” But let’s get back to Sanofi Pasteur, because this French company typically makes 45 percent of all the flu vaccine sold in the United States, and 40 percent of the world’s flu vaccines. They’ve sold us half a billion dollars’ worth of swine flu shots already, and expect to sell half a billion more by spring. Call that fair warning, because you can now expect every sniffle that comes along to become the “next” swine flu. Don’t believe it — not today, not tomorrow and not in 2013. |
Security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski started a firestorm over the weekend when he presented findings that Apple has—apparently deliberately—created undocumented “backdoors” in its iOS operating system that third parties could use to siphon personal data from iPhones and iPads under certain circumstances without notice, much less consent of the user. Apple, meanwhile, has taken issue with Zdziarski’s analysis, although its response—such as it is—falls short of a complete denial. (Update: Apple has confirmed the presence of these backdoors, although it describes them as “diagnostic capabilities.”) It’s a complicated issue, so here’s a quick FAQ to help you sort through it all. Should I panic? No. In a blog post summarizing his work, Zdziarski includes this helpful note: “DON’T PANIC.” The backdoors he describes aren’t the sort of thing your average cybercriminal can easily exploit. There’s no evidence that they’ve been used for identity theft or any sort of related criminal attack on iPhone or iPad data. At least so far, that is. On the other hand, if you think the NSA or regular law enforcement might be tracking you, then Zdziarski might have described some of the backdoors by which their agents could be delving into your digital life. Beyond that, they’re an intriguing mystery—one that Apple has yet to explain. Hold on a moment. What’s a backdoor? Like the word suggests, a backdoor is a simple or unguarded route into an otherwise secure system. Think Matthew Broderick’s character in War Games sussing out a way to access WOPR by guessing a backdoor password specific to the system’s creator (his dead son’s name—a classically terrible password, by the way). How would the NSA (or whoever) make use of these backdoors? Zdziarski, a forensics expert and one-time iOS jailbreaker who’s written several books about iPhone development, described three iOS services that appear to have an unusual degree of access to raw and potentially sensitive data gathered by or stored on the phone. These services are also apparently designed to collect that information, package it and dump it out upon request, either via USB or wirelessly over Wi-Fi. These features are undocumented, meaning that they’re not described by Apple in the sort of detail it normally provides to third-party developers who might make use of them. According to Zdziarski, however, they are installed and active on roughly 600 million iOS devices. They provide no indication that they’re operating, and there’s no way for users to turn them off. Perhaps most ominous, these services can send out unencrypted information even if users have chosen to encrypt the data they back up through iTunes. Zdziarski calls this behavior “bypassing backup encryption” and considers it deceptive at best. That all sounds pretty panic-worthy. Isn’t it? Turns out there’s a catch. These services only work when an iPhone or iPad is “paired” to a trusted device, such as the computer you run iTunes on. (Bluetooth pairing with, say, a set of headphones doesn’t count.) That greatly limits the ability of any attacker to exploit these services and rifle through your iPhone. It is, however, possible to spoof that pairing. Every pairing generates a set of cryptographic keys and certificates designed to identify trusted devices to one another—and on the iPhone side, those keys and certificates are never deleted unless the user does a full restore or a factory reset on the device. Prior to iOS 7—the version used by most iPhones—pairing happened automatically without any user intervention. (iOS 7 now requires the user to approve pairing with a “trusted” device.) As Zdziarski put it in a March 2014 technical journal article describing his findings: “[E]very desktop that a phone has been plugged into (especially prior to iOS 7) is given a skeleton key to the phone.” And that skeleton key is transportable, because a sufficiently motivated attacker can copy pairing keys and certificates from one computer to another. Who would go to all the trouble of tracking down those keys and copying them? Well, the police might, if they thought you were involved with organized crime. So might the NSA, the FBI or a number of other intelligence agencies. And of course some of these outfits could also create seemingly innocuous “paired” devices such as an alarm clock or charging station that would run malicious code once connected to your phone. As noted above, though, it’s not the sort of thing your average Belarusan hacker is likely to use to take over your phone any time soon. OK, tell me more about these undocumented services. What are they and what do they do? In a presentation he made at the Hope X hacker conference in New York this past weekend, Zdziarski focused on three particular services known by the technical names com.apple.pcapd, com.apple.mobile.file_relay and com.apple.mobile.house_arrest. (You can see the slides from Zdziarski’s talk—all 58 of them—here.) The pcapd service starts what security professionals call a “packet sniffer” on an iOS device—basically, software that records all data traffic to and from your iPhone. It’s installed by default on all iOS devices, and operates whether a phone is in “developer mode” or not, suggesting that it’s not a developer-specific feature. And it gives the user no warning when it’s activated. “This means anyone with a pairing record can connect to a target device via USB or Wi-Fi and listen in on the target’s network traffic,” Zdziarski wrote in his March paper. The file_relay service, according to Zdziarski, exists to vacuum up large volumes of raw data from particular sources on an iPhone and then to dump it out in unencrypted form. Several years back, file_relay appeared fairly innocuous. In iPhoneOS 2.0 (an early predecessor to iOS), it was only able to access six data sources, including “Apple Support,” “network,” and “CrashReporter.” By iOS 7, however, file_relay‘s reach had expanded to include 44 data sources, many of which specifically address the owner’s personal information. These include the address book, accounts, GPS logs, maps of the phone’s entire file system, a collection of all words typed into the phone, photos, notes, calendar files, call history, voicemail and other records of personal activity that have been cached in temporary files. Small wonder Zdziarski calls file_relay “the biggest forensic trove of intelligence on a device’s owner” and a “key ‘backdoor’ service” that provides a significant amount of data that “would only be relevant to law enforcement or spying agencies.” The third service, house_arrest, originally allowed iTunes to copy documents to and from third-party apps. Now, however, house_arrest has access to a much broader array of app-related data, including photos, databases, screenshots and temporary “cached” information. Couldn’t these services have legitimate functions? Maybe, although it’s difficult to understand why they they’d have such apparently untrammeled access to so much information. That’s a pretty major security failing under any circumstance. Zdziarski also runs through a number of possible explanations—that they might be used in iTunes or Xcode (Apple’s iOS app-development environment), or in developer debugging, or by Apple support, or in Apple engineering debugging—and shoots each one down in turn. It’s very difficult to construct an explanation for legitimate, non-surveillance uses of services that aren’t documented, that bypass backup encryption, that have access to otherwise inaccessible user data and that give the user no notification that they’re accessing and dumping out information. Oh, and whose code Apple has maintained and updated across several versions of iOS. Given Apple’s historical issues with lack of cooperation and infighting between technical teams, it’s also conceivable that these services grew without much direction at all, almost by accident, as engineers struggled to solve other technical problems without writing a whole bunch of new code. Call this the it-ain’t-pretty-but-it-works explanation. Is it plausible? Your guess is as good as mine. And it’s still a major security fail. What does Apple have to say about all this? In classic fashion, not very much. Apple didn’t get back to me when I emailed it for comment, although I’ll keep trying. Apparently, however, it did email a statement to Tim Bradshaw, a reporter for the Financial Times, who tweeted it: https://twitter.com/tim/status/491370587554471936/photo/1 The statement, of course, is rife with ambiguity. Is Apple referring specifically to pcapd, file_relay and house_arrest here, or just issuing a general statement about its diagnostic functions? (Update: An Apple spokeswoman got back to me post-publication with a copy of the statement and news of its first documentation of these backdoor services.) And it fails to address most of Zdziarski’s basic questions. If these services are diagnostic functions, why aren’t they documented? Why do they operate even if users haven’t agreed to send diagnostic information to Apple? Why can’t users deny their consent to having information taken off their devices this way? Why can’t users turn these services off? It is certainly interesting that Apple feels compelled to deny that it has even “worked with any government agency from any country” to engineer backdoors into its products or services. Especially since Zdziarski hadn’t accused them of such. Does Zdziarski have thoughts about Apple’s statement? Does he ever. In a new blog post Monday night, he summed up his reaction this way: I understand that every OS has diagnostic functions, however these services break the promise that Apple makes with the consumer when they enter a backup password; that the data on their device will only come off the phone encrypted. The consumer is also not aware of these mechanisms, nor are they prompted in any way by the device. There is simply no way to justify the massive leak of data as a result of these services, and without any explicit consent by the user. I also contacted Zdziarski for comment, but haven’t heard back. (Update: I did hear back from Zdziarski, although he didn’t have time to say much.) Updated on Wednesday, July 23 at 10:08am with, well, updates noted in the text. Lead image by Flickr user Mooganic; swan image by Flickr user blinking idiot, CC 2.0 |
The Career Services Center will provide access to job postings and resources to alumni through their partnership with the Alumni & Community Engagement. Through its partnership with Alumni and Community Engagement, the Career Services Center is now able to offer UCSD alumni free lifetime access to a variety of resources including job postings, recruitment workshops and additional online tools. In the past, alumni were required to pay a subscription fee for six months of access to these services. However, in accordance with UCSD Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla’s strategic plan, the Career Services Center integrated with Alumni and Community Engagement to remove that fee completely, starting Spring Quarter 2014. UCSD is the first UC campus in the system to remove its alumni fee requirement. “It is an exciting expansion of service to alumni that demonstrates our commitment to the lifelong success and mobility of UCSD students and alumni,” Senior Director of Career and Professional Development Craig Schmidt said. “Our commitment over the next three years is to transform this university to a place where at least 90 percent of our students have secured employment or admission to a graduate or professional school within their first year after graduation.” Aside from offering these features free of charge, the Career Services Center is also implementing several other initiatives as a part of its link with Alumni and Community Engagement. This includes the online “Alumni Advisor Network,” which was launched to connect students with successful professionals in their field of interest, with 2,000 alumni expected to participate by the end of this quarter. “This is an outstanding resource for our students to develop mentoring relationships with alumni who understand what it’s like to be a UCSD student and who can help advance their career plans,” Schmidt said. He also said that the Center planned to make internships more readily available for the student body, as well as to establish career-focused programs to prepare students for those internships. All of these changes coincided with the UCSD Job Fair on April 9, 2014, which also was physically redesigned in order to help students navigate the fair and find the best-fit opportunities. |
Saint Louis University junior Robbie Kristo is a two-time All American with great size and a scorer's touch. But he was excluded from Thursday's MLS SuperDraft. ASN wanted to find out why. BY Brooke Tunstall Posted January 17, 2014 6:39 PM SHARE THIS STORY as a simple question. It turned out to have a not-so-simple answer. When Major League Soccer announced its annual Generation Adidas class this year, it only had seven members—that is, seven college underclassmen signed to contracts before the league’s annual SuperDraft. Why only seven? Surely there are more than seven underclassmen in college soccer both good enough and interested in turning pro before they’ve played their senior years of college ball, right? We see this happen in the other so-called Big Four of American professional sports leagues for years, where underclassmen announce they’re declaring for their sport’s draft and spend less than four season on campus. So could college soccer players do the same thing? Just declare for the draft minus a Generation Adidias contract? Does the league actually have a policy about this and if so, what is it? Is there interest from MLS coaches in this? Are there underclassmen who are good enough to turn pro and want to do so who don’t get a GA offer? Is this an issue addressed in the league’s collective bargaining agreement and, barring that, is it legal for MLS to keep underclassmen from seeking employment with them if they aren’t already signed to a deal? What are the NCAA’s rules regarding this issue? And finally, is MLS’ policy good for the league and the development of American soccer? American Soccer Now weaved its way through this maze of questions, and while nothing appears definitive when dealing with MLS and the NCAA, two entities noted for their Byzantine bylaws, we think we came up with some answers. Let’s start with an easy question: Are there underclassmen both good enough and interested in turning pro who aren’t getting offers? This one has a simple answer: Yes! With deft feet at the bottom of a six-foot-four frame and a scorer’s nose for the goal, Robbie Kristo, a junior forward from Saint Louis University, is a two-time All American with professional aspirations—the type of player who should have gone very high in this week’s Major League Soccer SuperDraft. But instead of shaking hands with Don Garber and getting a team scarf after hearing his name called, Kristo was back home in St. Louis planning for his future after being told he wasn’t eligible for today’s draft. “I would have at least liked the chance to find out what the interest is in me from MLS teams, see where I’d go in the draft,” Kristo told ASN. “And I know I have some teammates and guys at others schools who would consider leaving early if they could declare for the draft.” Make no mistake, at least a few MLS teams have interest in Kristo, a Bosnia native who grew up in his parents' homeland, Croatia, until immigrating to the United States at age five. Last fall MLSsoccer.com predicted that in 2014 Kristo would be one of the top players in the league under the age of 24. “I got a lot of calls from MLS coaches about Robbie,” said Saint Louis coach Mike McGinty, a former MLS goalkeeper. “They’d say they were interested in him but we never heard a thing from the league.” Kristo's European Union passport “gives me a few more choices over there than a lot of other Americans have,” he said. “Except for my Mom and Dad, all of my family are in Europe so I wouldn’t mind playing over there. So I plan on setting up some trials for spring break and the early part of the summer. But I’m an American and I really would have liked playing in this country.” Kristo isn’t alone among college underclassmen to have waited for MLS contract offers that never arrived. Reigning MLS Rookie of the Year Dillon Powers of the Colorado Rapids wanted to turn pro after his junior season at Notre Dame in 2011. “I got an offer after my sophomore year but didn’t feel like I was ready to turn pro,” Powers explained. “But after my junior year I thought I was ready and was told an offer would be coming but never heard back” from MLS. Powers returned for his senior year and admitted it was a blessing in disguise because “who knows what would have happened if I had come out early. Coming back [for my senior year] allowed me to get healthier and end up in a great situation here in Colorado.” But the point remains, he was ready to turn pro and was denied the chance to do so. And as good as he was as rookie, would he have been better if he got in a pro system earlier? Would MLS coaches want the draft opened up to underclassmen who haven’t signed Generation Adidas deals? Absolutely, especially in a year like this one when the draft isn’t considered to be loaded with high-end talent. “You’d always like more choices available to you,” said an MLS coach who asked not to be identified because he didn’t want to run afoul of the league office. “We get some good players with Generation Adidias but do we leave out some good players every year, too? I think so. I know there were [underclassmen] I saw this year who aren’t here who are better than a lot of the players that are here at the Combine. There are players who are ready who aren’t getting signed.” But what is MLS’ policy on underclassmen? A survey of a handful of college coaches, those most likely to inform a player of his professional options, revealed that the common perception is that the MLS draft was closed to underclassmen who hadn’t signed a GA deal. And they are right. Sort of. Seeking clarification, ASN contacted MLS, which declined to provide a league official for comment. A league spokesperson answered questions about this for the record but asked to be quoted anonymously. “It is the policy of Major League Soccer to not put underclassmen who aren’t signed to Generation Adidas deals on our-draft eligible list,” the league spokesperson said. Even seniors with no eligibility remaining have to be on this list to be able to be drafted. They are placed on this list at the recommendation of MLS and a selection of college coaches. MLS claims altruistic reasons for keeping unsigned underclassmen from the draft: “The league doesn’t wasn’t underclassmen to declare for the draft and then lose their (NCAA) eligibility if they don’t get drafted,” the MLS spokesperson said. But here’s where the plot thickens. As it turns out, MLS has an exception, albeit one that few in college soccer know about. “If an (underclassmen) who isn’t (Generation Adidas) signed with an agent (which is an NCAA violation that would cost a player his eligibility) or is academically ineligible or has lost his (NCAA) eligibility in any way, he can be put onto our draft-eligible list,” the MLS spokesperson said. So if an underclassmen has bad grades or signs with an agent, voila!, he is draft-eligible. But wait, there’s more. ASN also spoke with NCAA spokesperson Cameron Schuh, who referred us to NCAA rule 12.2.4.2.4: “An enrolled student-athlete in a sport other than basketball or football may enter a professional league's draft one time during his or her collegiate career without jeopardizing his or her eligibility in the applicable sport, provided the student-athlete is not drafted and within 72 hours following the draft he or she declares his or her intention to resume participation in intercollegiate athletics.” So it turns out, underclassmen wouldn’t be risking their eligibility if they went undrafted after declaring for the MLS SuperDraft, which would seem to negate MLS’ rationale for excluding them from the draft. So is there another reason for MLS’ policy? Some of the men who negotiate deals for the players think so. Having the option to go back to school creates salary negotiating leverage for the player, and MLS has a long history of trying to eliminate leverage for the players whenever it can. “The last thing MLS wants,” said one MLS agent who asked to be quoted anonymously, “is to create a situation where a club really wants a player and he is using going back to school as a way to get more money—like you see in baseball sometimes.” (Major League Baseball rules stipulate that all high school seniors, all junior college players, and all players who have completed their third year at a four-year college or turned 21 are automatically eligible for the draft. Teams have a set deadline to negotiate a contract with those players or they will lose their rights to that player and get nothing for their pick.) Further, the younger a player turns pro, the younger he is when he hits free agency and younger free agents have more market value with overseas teams and thus more leverage with MLS. Is this addressed in the CBA? And is MLS’ policy legal? No and yes. “This is not something that’s covered through collective bargaining,” said Major League Soccer Players Union head Bob Foose. “It’s strictly an MLS policy.” Is it something they might seek to address when the current CBA expires after this season? “We as a union are still in discussion about what our biggest priorities will be for the new CBA,” Foose said. (Translation: we likely have bigger fish to fry for our current members.) According to Mike Jarosi, an Ohio-based sports attorney who has dealt with Major League Soccer, the league’s policy is legal. “It might be short-sighted, because it limits some players who are ready from turning pro, but is it illegal? I don’t think so,” he said. “Because MLS is single entity, meaning one company instead of a bunch of privately held companies coming together to form a league –they can hire who they want to based on whatever criteria for talent they want to use.” Fair enough. But does this policy make soccer sense for MLS and the U.S. national team? While MLS may have financial motivation for keeping unsigned underclassmen from the draft, there’s little question that it is limiting options for its clubs, and preventing the best talent from entering into a professional environment as early as possible. College soccer takes a lot of stick for the problems of the American game, and much of that is undeserved. But even the most hard-core advocates for the college game conceded that the NCAA’s short season and limits on practice time inhibit player development. So while four-year college players like Geoff Cameron, Graham Zusi, and Matt Besler continue to carry the banner for college soccer, most of the elite players in the U.S. either don’t play college soccer or leave early. Of the 64 players to have been capped under Jurgen Klinsmann, 27 didn’t play college soccer at all, and 23 others left college before their senior seasons. And with MLS set to add five more teams in the next few years, starting with two next year, it seems short-sighted to not get the better players into a pro setting sooner rather than later. So will things change? Will we someday soon see college players holding press conferences announcing their intent to declare for the MLS draft even though they haven’t signed a contract with the league? Who knows, but at least now we know it could happen even if MLS doesn’t encourage it. We'd like to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please chime in below. Brooke Tunstall is a veteran journalist who has covered Major League Soccer since its first player dispersal draft. Follow him on Twitter |
That fall, I took a leave from college, determined to do something about the insanity of global warming. I would never return, choosing instead to co-found the Energy Action Coalition and grow it into the world's largest youth advocacy organization working on the climate crisis. As we won thousands of small victories, getting cities, college campuses, and companies to begin reducing their carbon footprints, I and those around me felt empowered -- confident that we would prevail in the greatest challenge of our generation. Then came 2008. After the election, we saw an opportunity to win both federal climate legislation and to secure an international climate deal in Copenhagen. When both went down in flames, many climate activists (myself included) fell into a kind of depression. Fast forward to 2012. We're living through the warmest year in American history. Wildfires and droughts are plaguing the West, prompting experts to warn of a looming food crisis, and Bill McKibben's tour-de-force Rolling Stone piece "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math" has been viewed 1.2 million times in two weeks. The listervs I'm on are filling up with huge threads with subject lines like, "I'm scared." What happened? What do we do now? I and many other members of the millennial generation have spent the past few years developing answers to these questions. The good news is that we now know a great deal about what works, and we know what we need to do. First, it's important to recognize that this not only a dangerous time, but also a time of immense opportunity. We are living in a world of dueling exponential curves. On one hand, there are the hockey stick slopes, the terrifying and skyrocketing lines of environmental degradation and carbon. But not far behind is another wave of fast-growing curves representing a solution set that could sustainably feed, shelter, and power the planet. In his Rolling Stone piece, McKibben mentions that Germany recently met nearly half its noonday power demand with solar energy. What he didn't mention was that as recently as 2000, solar power comprised only 0.01 percent of Germany's power supply. A similar story of renewable energy growth has played out around the world. Late last year, the International Energy Agency came out with a stunning revision of its forecast for the future energy mix of the planet, saying solar could produce most of the world's power in less than 50 years. In the U.S., the rate of uptake of wind and solar technologies has blown expert predictions out of the water. Taking note of new realities, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently issued a statement that would have been unimaginable five years ago: "Renewable electricity generation from technologies that are commercially available today is more than adequate to supply 80% of total U.S. electricity generation in 2050 while meeting electricity demand on an hourly basis in every region of the country." |
I stumbled across a Facebook page today called “Against Anti Islamic Groups and Anti Islamic Content on FB”. Basically, the sole purpose of this group is to encourage other Muslims to report any other Facebook group or page as a hate group if they dare to insult Islam or their Prophet. The guidance they give says … Anti Islamic Groups to be removed no more insult of Islam in the Name of freedom of Speech They specifically say … 1. go to bottom of the page and click on report Group 2. In option Box click on Hate Speech and then select Targets a religious Group 3. Click continue 4. In next step check the option Report to Facebook and click continue They appear to be specifically targeting groups run by atheists and ex-muslims. Now, I’m quite happy for them to rant and rave about all the insults and make silly claims regarding their beliefs. However, they have crossed the line here and are actively encouraging censorship on the basis that if its not them and it does not support their silly beliefs, then its an insult and a hate group. How to respond? Well, this did indeed piss me off … so I took their advice and guidance, and clicked “report group” on their page and reported them as a hate group. If you have a moment, and are active in FB, then you might like to click on over to their page and do the same. Share this: Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr Pinterest LinkedIn Pocket Skype WhatsApp Email Print Like this: Like Loading... |
WASHINGTON — President Obama made addressing climate change the most prominent policy vow of his second Inaugural Address, setting in motion what Democrats say will be a deliberately paced but aggressive campaign built around the use of his executive powers to sidestep Congressional opposition. “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” Mr. Obama said on Monday at the start of eight sentences on the subject, more than he devoted to any other specific area. “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.” The central place he gave to the subject seemed to answer the question of whether he considered it a realistic second-term priority. He devoted scant attention to it in the campaign and has delivered a mixed message about its importance since the election. Mr. Obama is heading into the effort having extensively studied the lessons from his first term, when he failed to win passage of comprehensive legislation to reduce emissions of the gases that cause global warming. This time, the White House plans to avoid such a fight and instead focus on what it can do administratively to reduce emissions from power plants, increase the efficiency of home appliances and have the federal government itself produce less carbon pollution. |
Housing 'crisis' looms for older Australians retiring with mortgages Updated It's well known younger people are struggling to buy their first home, but experts are warning of a "significant crisis" facing older Australians already in the market. The pressures of carrying mortgages into retirement as well as finding suitable housing are leading to increased financial strain and even homelessness, according to the Council on the Ageing. Key points Summit warns of looming housing crisis for older Australians Concern at number of people retiring with mortgages Rental prices and workplace age discrimination add pressure Concern at scarcity in social and community housing COTA described older Australians as the "forgotten faces" of the housing debate and is hosting a summit in Canberra alongside industry experts and policymakers to find a way to address the issue. "If we're not doing something about it pretty soon then in 10 or 15 years we will be facing a really significant crisis," COTA chief executive Ian Yates told News Breakfast. "We've seen some early warning signs." Mr Yates said homelessness had risen amongst older people — particularly women — and it was not due to many of the factors of traditional homelessness. "It's an economic issue, a financial issue for people,' he said. "We're seeing more people entering retirement with a mortgage, and we're seeing the rates of home ownership amongst retirees starting to decline. "The projections are they'll decline quite dramatically in the next decade." The summit will consider six key issues that could hurt older Australians in the next two decades, including: Falling rates of home ownership; Rising rental prices and a hostile private rental property market; Scarcity in social and community housing; Increasing number of older Australians retiring with a mortgage; Rental housing not fit for or secure enough to meet the physical needs of older people; and, Inadequate supply of suitable housing for older people to downsize, while remaining in or close to their pre-existing community. "We also have issues like later family formation — people who are divorced having unstable financial situations," Mr Yates said. Rental pressure combine with age discrimination The summit will also look at the rental challenges facing older Australians. The 2017 Rental Affordability Snapshot report by Anglicare found just 6 per cent of the market was affordable for a single older person living on the Age Pension. "There is a whole group of people currently in their 50s and 60s who will be retiring as renters," Mr Yates said. What's more, researched published by the University of South Australia earlier this year found age discrimination in the workplace was rife and workers over 50 are in the hardest age bracket to find a new job. "Unfortunately older Australians make up a very significant proportion of the long-term unemployed," Mr Yates said. "So you've got people coming into retirement after years of financial stress." Grattan Institute chief executive John Daley is the keynote speaker at the summit and said change must begin now for there to be a "fighting chance" of turning the tide. "We are dealing with a vastly different economic landscape than 10 years ago," he said. "Policymakers must come up to speed with the key issues and trends in housing for older Australians, including re-evaluating assumptions about home ownership that underpin age pension policy." Topics: housing, housing-industry, government-and-politics, health, older-people, australia First posted |
Swinney releases statement on Palmetto Family Council invite Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney released the following statement Wednesday about his decision to cancel an appearance at a fundraiser for the Palmetto Family Council. Swinney was scheduled to appear at the fundrasier and receive an award, but says he had no idea the appearance would create so much controversy. "I was recently selected by the Palmetto Family Council, an organization with which I have no association, as their “South Carolina Family Champion of 2015” and was invited to receive this recognition at an event sponsored by the group on June 2. I had no idea that I was being invited into a political controversy. It was my understanding that the nomination and selection for this award was based on the work done by our All In Foundation and the difference it is making in our community. My acceptance of this award was to be on behalf of all the volunteers that make our foundation a success. The work of our foundation is intended to build a better community and be a positive influence. Recently, my scheduled participation in this event has been perceived incorrectly as an endorsement of certain viewpoints and has entered the political arena. I have been out of town since last Thursday and am disappointed that this has become a distraction for me, my team and many others. I have been and continue to be very open about my personal beliefs. However, I do not inject those beliefs or the work of the foundation into the political process. I appreciate the recognition of my and the foundation's efforts. However, after much thought, in order to avoid a distraction for the team and the entire football program, I've decided it is in the best interests of all involved that I not attend the event on June 2." |
The Lakers had an early morning matchup with the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. It was a 10:00 AM (Los Angeles time) start up in the land of the maple leaf, so the Lakers would have to overcome the fatigue that may present itself with this unusual start time. After falling to the Miami Heat on Thursday night, the Lakers were looking to get back on track and win their third game in their last four games. Pau Gasol was back in the starting lineup for Los Angeles after spending his first game back as a bench player. He wasn’t very happy about the prospect of coming off the bench long term, and D’Antoni reinserted him to the first unit on Sunday. Let’s get to the action. First Quarter Things didn’t start well for the Lakers. They scored the first basket of the game but fell apart quickly after. The Raptors went on an 11-0 run, forcing an early timeout from Mike D’Antoni. The team wasn’t moving the ball, they weren’t rotating on defense, and they weren’t doing anything that resembled successful defense. What’s Canadian for “The Lakers look like crap this morning?”AK — Kamenetzky Brothers (@KamBrothers) January 20, 2013 The lone bright spot for the Lakers in the first quarter was Earl Clark. He seemed to be the only guy on the team that had some energy. He created several scoring opportunities for the team, and was the only player who didn’t appear to be sleepwalking through the first 12 minutes of basketball. Still, despite a horrid start the Lakers picked things up a bit with a 13-4 run to close the quarter. http://youtu.be/TnM5brHZ7YU Second Quarter After closing the first on a positive note, the Lakers were hoping to build on that momentum in the second period. But they couldn’t get stops, and the Raptors hit some difficult shots. In fact, things were so frustrating at one point that injured Laker Jordan Hill displayed his frustration via Twitter. Everybody wanna make shots on us huh? — Jordan Craig Hill (@jordanchill43) January 20, 2013 The Lakers once again did a decent job of closing out the quarter. They pulled it back within 10 with several minutes left in the half, but had trouble establishing more momentum due to poor defense. Toronto was consistently getting open looks, and for the most part made the Lakers pay. Things got tricky for the Lakers late in the second when Dwight Howard was ejected from the game after receiving his second technical foul. It was a controversial call at best, but the Lakers suddenly found themselves without their best big man for the second half of the game. At the half, Toronto led the Lakers 53-49. http://youtu.be/8KSSia9DENQ Third Quarter The Lakers took the court without their center to start the third, but it became an interesting opportunity for Pau Gasol. After wanting more touches in the post, Gasol suddenly found himself as the go-to center for the rest of the game. And he took advantage. Pau scored 10 quick points in the third, leading the team offensively in the period. Unfortunately, it was Kobe Bryant who couldn’t get things going for the Lakers. After struggling in the first three quarters against Miami on Thursday, Bryant was ice cold on Sunday, too. He went 0-8 in the first three quarters from perimeter jump shots, even though he had some good looks. Kobe is 0 for 8 on jump shots tonight (3 for 13 overall). Meanwhile, Nash is 22 for 22 from the FT line after 2 makes, so TOR lead is 65-59. — Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) January 20, 2013 Things began to fall apart as the quarter progressed. In fact, the defense got so bad that I don’t even want to explain how bad it is. Instead I’ll just post one of my tweets because I’m a self-promoter like that. I don’t care how bad of a team you are, if you get wide open shots and layups you’ll make them. Seeing that w/ Toronto. — Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) January 20, 2013 It’s not that the Raptors are having an absurdly good shooting game, it’s that the Lakers defense is giving them easy looks and baskets. — Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) January 20, 2013 At the end of the third the Lakers trailed the Raptors 83-70, and entered the fourth knowing they would need some kind of a miracle to leave Toronto with a victory. http://youtu.be/DL14NenFbLc Fourth Quarter Trailing by 13 entering the final period the Lakers needed to put together some kind of run to get back into the game. An early turnover and technical on Kobe Bryant didn’t help their chances. Instead it was beginning to look like so many other games have looked this year. Los Angeles Lakers 2012-13: This is a new low. Actually, THIS is a new low. Wait, no, THIS is a new low. OK, this one is a new low. Wait … — Kelly Dwyer (@KDonhoops) January 20, 2013 By the end the team had just given up. There was no defensive rotation and no evidence that the team wanted to win. It was a layup drill on defense, as Toronto marched to the rim on every possession. It became another embarrassing afternoon for the Lakers, as the team that everyone thought was destined for greatness continues to wallow in the NBA’s basement. The Lakers did what they always do – make it close in the fourth. So many times this season they have pulled back into the game late, seemingly giving themselves a chance to win. But they always come up short. Finally things came to a merciful end, and the Lakers left Canada with more than their tails between their legs, but their heads in the basket underneath the guillotine. The fourth quarter flourish fell short, as it always seems to do this season, and the Raptors finished off the Lakers 108-103. |
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.com. Lisa Lynn Masters has reportedly been found dead inside her room at the Nuevo Mundo hotel in Lima on Tuesday, according to Peru21 and several other news outlets. According to the news site, the 52-year-old actress appeared to have died by suicide. Officials, who said had been struggling with depression, found antidepressants in her hotel room. Masters, who starred in an episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, has also had roles on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Ugly Betty, and Gossip Girl. Friends and family have set up a GoFundMe page in Masters’ name and had surpassed their goal of raising $30,000 by Thursday. “Our dear friend Lisa Masters passed away tragically and unexpectedly in Lima, Peru on November 15, 2016,” Ani Mason, who set up the account on behalf of Master’s husband, William Brooks, wrote on the page. “Lisa’s genuine warmth, generosity and tenacious strength will be deeply missed.” “Lisa’s beloved husband William is shocked and grieving her sudden loss,” Mason continued. “In the midst of his mourning, William faces daunting financial challenges, including the substantial funeral and transport expenses for Lisa in and between Peru and the United States.” |
In studies of visual attention, and related aspects of cognition, race (continent/s of ancestry) of participants is typically not reported, implying that authors consider this variable irrelevant to outcomes. However, there exist several findings of perceptual differences between East Asians and Caucasian Westerners that can be interpreted as relative differences in global versus local distribution of attention. Here, we used Navon figures (e.g., large E made up of small Vs) to provide the first direct comparison of global–local processing using a standard method from the attention literature. Relative to Caucasians, East Asians showed a strong global advantage. Further, this extended to the second generation (Asian-Australians), although weakened compared to recent immigrants. Our results argue participants’ race should be reported in all studies about, or involving, visual attention to spatially distributed stimuli: to continue to ignore race risks adding noise to data and/or drawing invalid theoretical conclusions by mixing functionally distinct populations. |
The gods of ancient Egypt freely gave their bounty to the people who worked the land, but this did not exempt those farmers from paying taxes on that bounty to the government. Egypt was a cashless society until the Persian Period (c. 525 BCE), and the economy depended upon agriculture and barter. The monetary unit was the deben, approximately 90 grams of copper, and trade was based on an 'imaginary' deben: if fifty deben purchased a pair of sandals, then a pair of sandals could be traded for fifty deben worth of wheat or beer. This was the system the central government operated on in collecting taxes. Scholar Andre Dollinger writes: In a barter economy, the simplest way to exact taxes is by seizing part of the produce, merchandise, or property. The agricultural sector of such an economy is easiest to tax. A farmer cannot deny possession of a field without losing his rights. The field can be measured, the yield assessed, and the produce is difficult to hide because of its large bulk. It is no wonder that peasants were the highest and most consistently taxed part of the population. (1) The Cattle Count The best way for a king to assess what was due him from the regions of his country was to go out and see it for himself. As early as the reign of Hor-Aha (c. 3100-3050 BCE), institutionalized during the Second Dynasty (c. 2890 - c. 2670 BCE), and continuing through the time of the Old Kingdom of Egypt (c. 2613-2181 BCE), an annual event was instituted known as the Shemsu Hor (Following of Horus), better known as the Egyptian Cattle Count, during which the king and his retinue would travel the land, assess the value of farmers' crops, and collect a certain amount in taxes. Scholar Toby Wilkinson comments on this, writing: The Shemsu Hor would have served several purposes at once. It allowed the monarch to be a visible presence in the life of his subjects, enabled his officials to keep a close eye on everything that was happening in the country at large, implementing policies, resolving disputes, and dispensing justice; defrayed the costs of maintaining the court and removed the burden of supporting it year-round in one location; and, last but by no means least, facilitated the systematic assessment and levying of taxes. A little later, in the Second Dynasty, the court explicitly recognized the actuarial potential of the Following of Horus. Thereafter, the event was combined with a formal census of the country's agricultural wealth. (44-45) Egypt was divided into districts, and the fields and produce of every district were assessed for taxes. Each district (nome) was divided into provinces with a nomarch administering the overall operation of the nome, and then lesser provincial officials, and mayors of the towns operating in lesser and lesser spheres of authority. Rather than trust a nomarch to accurately report his wealth to the government, the king would personally visit each nome and collect the taxes himself. The Shemsu Hor thus became an important annual (later bi-annual) event in the lives of the Egyptians. Oil, beer, ceramics, livestock, and every other kind of commodity would be taxed, but the most important was the tax on grain. Grain Tax & Redistribution Grain not only fed the population of Egypt but was essential for trade with other countries. Whatever resources Egypt lacked could be purchased through the sale of grain, and since Egypt had fertile fields which usually produced abundant crops, grain was most important to the operation of the government. Not only did they use grain in trade but stored it in surplus to feed the people in years of poor harvest and to distribute to communities which might suffer some misfortune. Scholar Edward Bleiberg explains how the process worked: The ancient Egyptian government met its needs for food, raw materials, manufactured goods, and labor through taxation and conscription. The pre-market, essentially money-less, Egyptian economy was structured so the residents of the Nile Valley provided support for the king and other government institutions while at the same time the king redistributed these essential commodities to each class on the basis of rank and status in society. (cited in Bard, 761-762) Taxes & the Old Kingdom Taxes from the Egyptian Cattle Count and the lucrative trade it enabled provided the central government of the Old Kingdom with the great wealth required to build the pyramids at Giza. In the modern day, only the Great Pyramid of Khufu and those of Khafre and Menkaure rise from the Giza plateau along with the Great Sphinx and a number of lesser monuments, but in its day, each pyramid at Giza had its own pyramid complex, there was housing for the workers, markets, separate temples, workshops; and all of these cost a great deal of money. Further, once the pyramids, complexes, and temples were completed, staff had to be hired to maintain them and preside over the rituals which would ensure the eternal life of the king in the world to come. Taxes from the Egyptian Cattle Count & the lucrative trade it enabled provided the central government of the Old Kingdom with the great wealth required to build the pyramids at Giza. All of these building projects and attendant rituals were very expensive and eventually contributed to what is known as the Old Kingdom collapse during the reign of Pepi II (2278-2184 BCE). The strain on the central government's treasury, paying not only for the labor, materials, and transport of those materials to the site but also for the clergy and their staff to maintain the temples, was finally too great a burden. Further, in return for their services, the rulers of the Old Kingdom had exempted the priesthood from taxation in perpetuity. Since the priests had, by this time amassed a great amount of land, the loss in taxes was significant. Although the central government finally failed in the Sixth Dynasty, the government was already in trouble toward the end of the Fourth Dynasty (during which the pyramids of Giza were built) in the reign of Menkaure's successor, Shepsekaf (2503-2498 BCE). Shepsekaf had enough money and resources to complete Menkaure's pyramid and temple complex but was himself buried in a modest tomb at Saqqara. Taxes During the First Intermediate Period The Old Kingdom's decline led to the First Intermediate Period of Egypt (2181-2040 BCE) during which the individual nomarchs had more power than the central government. The practice of the yearly Cattle Count was discontinued; taxes, however, were not. The king no longer was able to command collection of taxes, but the individual nomarchs were and did. Scholar Rosalie David writes: In theory, the king owned all land and possessions. In reality, although he was the largest landowner and possessed areas within each nome, the temples and even private individuals owned substantial real estate. (95) The king was thought to own all the land because he had been granted his position by the gods, who had created the world and given it to the people, but throughout Egypt's history the king would struggle with the priesthood, especially the priests of Amun, for power because the temples and their fertile lands and fields had been declared tax-exempt. This situation allowed for the clergy to amass a great deal of wealth and attendant power at the expense of the central government. The nomarchs now kept the larger part of the taxes collected for themselves, although a portion continued to be sent to the capital as before. This is the reason one does not find great monuments like the pyramids of Giza constructed during the First Intermediate Period but one does find elaborate personal tombs of nomarchs and other nobility. This period ended when prince Mentuhotep II of Thebes (c. 2061-2010 BCE) united the country under his rule and initiated the era of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2040-1782 BCE). Once again, a strong central government ruled Egypt and taxes enabled rulers to afford grand building projects. The towering Temple of Karnak near Thebes was begun during this time in the reign of Senusret I (c. 1971-1926 BCE). Calculations of Taxes through the New Kingdom Taxes were now assessed and collected by officials charged with that duty. This practice of sending out tax collectors had actually begun toward the end of the Old Kingdom when the practice of the Cattle Count had begun to decline. Tax collectors who held back on the full amount due the government were severely punished. The Middle Kingdom, considered a classical age in Egypt's history, declined during the 13th Dynasty allowing for the Hyksos, a foreign people, to gain a foothold in the Delta region of Lower Egypt. The time of the Hyksos is known as the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt (c. 1782 - c. 1570 BCE) during which, again, individual nomarchs benefited most from taxation and conscripted those who could not pay for labor. The Second Intermediate Period gave way to the time of the New Kingdom (1570-1069 BCE) when Ahmose I (c. 1570-1544 BCE) drove the Hyksos from Egypt and founded the 18th Dynasty. The New Kingdom is the period of Egypt's empire and a professional army to spread and maintain it. It is also the era best known for its rulers and the monuments they raised. Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Horemheb, Seti I, Ramesses the Great, Merenptah, Ramesses III, all ruled during the New Kingdom and all contributed their own impressive monuments to the culture paid for, largely, through taxes. Rosalie David writes: There is more information about taxation in the New Kingdom than there is for earlier periods; for example, in the reign of Thutmose III it is known that taxes were collected in the form of cereals, livestock, fruit, and provisions, as well as gold and silver rings and jewels. The governors annually assessed the cereal payable for that year, basing their calculations on the surface area of each nome and the height of the Nile rising. The levels of inundation were recorded on nilometers; built at the river's edge, nilometers were designed to measure the annual height of the inundation. If there was a low Nile when the water did not reach the usual level, the tax to be paid that year was reduced accordingly. (95) The Third Intermediate & Late Period The New Kingdom was followed by the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt (c. 1069-525 BCE) during which rule of the country was initially divided between the cities of Tanis and Thebes. Individual nomarchs again were able to gain substantial power, and land was given to professional soldiers who served well and were able to keep a significant amount of their produce for themselves without paying tax. The priests of Amun, especially at Thebes, held enormous acreage of tax-free land while the farmers who worked it continued to pay them what amounted to a tax which they then used for whatever purposes they desired. Taxes were so heavy that many people fell into debt, and during the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (c. 525-332 BCE), people would sell themselves into service, offering their time and labor to pay off their taxes. Inability to pay these taxes, or the loans given to a person which were then called due, resulted in people selling themselves to be officially recognized as another person's son. The adopter would then pay the debt and the 'son' would work off what was owed. In many cases, this arrangement worked well for all involved since a childless couple could adopt someone who would then make sure they were given a proper burial with all rites and the adopted son would inherit their land once they passed on. The old tradition of the Cattle Count, when the king would travel among his people to assess a fair tax of the land, had been long forgotten by this time. The Cattle Count would prove important for later historians in that records of it clearly marked the dates on which it was conducted and provided an annual (later bi-annual) record of the history of the time. In the early 20th century CE, the Cattle Count became one of the more or less accurate means of dating Egyptian history. To the people of the time, however, the early Cattle Count ritual would have been regarded in much the same way as tax time is in many countries around the world today. No one liked paying taxes in ancient Egypt any more than they do now, but the Cattle Count at least provided a semblance of participating in one's government. The king and his court personally visited the districts and assessed the land, and even though precise details of this practice are unknown, the effort was most likely appreciated far more than the later visits by the tax collectors. |
Eight people were shot early Sunday in a shooting outside the Central Allison Hill Community Center in Harrisburg, city police said Tuesday. The group included adults and juveniles and none of the injuries suffered were life-threatening, according to Paula Trovy, a city police spokeswoman. Police in a previous statement did not release the number of victims in the incident. The victims were all treated at hospitals and released. Trovy said Tuesday afternoon that police continue to investigate the shooting. Police said previously that a fight broke out at a party inside the center and later someone began shooting into a crowd as guests were leaving. Neighbors and others who work in the area said the shooting was not a surprise for the area. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Det. Jason Paul at 717-255-3154 or Trovy at 717-255-3158. Those with information can also reach city police through Dauphin County Communications at 717-558-6900. |
We all say dumb things when we’re young. That’s not an opinion. That’s an inescapable fact, right up there with gravity, taxes, and the inherent sex appeal of Jennifer Lopez. I doubt anyone would argue that young, inexperienced people say foolish things that they later regret. Despite that, why do we belabor that foolishness later in life? This is an increasingly relevant question in the era of social media. For much of human history, you could usually get away with saying the dumbest, crudest, most ill-informed shit anyone could possibly say at any age. That’s because peoples’ memories are exceedingly fallible, so much so that even the courts recognize that. Then, the internet came along and, on top of all the free porn and cat videos, some of that filthy, misguided rhetoric ended up in the digital coffers that are frustratingly robust. It’s become a popular meme that “The internet never forgets.” However, I think it has graduated from meme to a fundamental law of the digital universe. Like most things, there are benefits and drawbacks to having a system that can remember how foolish and pig-headed we all were in our youth. A little perspective in terms of who we once were and how far we’ve come can actually be healthy. That said, it can also undermine our ability to function as adults who once were pig-headed youth. This brings me to Cenk Uygur, a media personality that I mentioned earlier this year in a post about winning arguments versus being right. He’s a member of an internet media group called The Young Turks and, for a time, they were at the cutting edge of a new kind of news media. They were unapologetically progressive in their message, often poking fun at extreme right-wing personalities who probably said less foolish things in their youth. They also provided genuine insight that didn’t always make it into the cable news networks, which was part of why I found them appealing for a while. Then, the 2016 election happened and The Young Turks began getting more extreme. They became less about covering the news that cable news networks ignored and more about bemoaning the fact that some of their politics were falling out of favor. Cenk Uygur, being one of the most outspoken of the bunch, became one of the loudest voices. Now, I didn’t care for his exceedingly vocal tactics and have since unsubscribed to the Young Turks network. However, I couldn’t help but feel bad for Mr. Uygur when the laws of the digital universe caught up with him and revealed an old blog post that could only have been written by someone young, uniformed, inexperienced, and in this case, horny. I won’t get into all the details of the post, since others have already done so. Even by the standards of an aspiring erotica/romance writer who has said more than his share of stupid things on the internet, it’s still pretty crude. Here is just a clip of what Mr. Uygur said. “Obviously, the genes of women are flawed. They are poorly designed creatures who do not want to have sex nearly as often as needed for the human race to get along peaceably and fruitfully.” I don’t deny that the rhetoric is crass and offensive. I certainly wouldn’t blame any woman who felt offended reading it. However, and I know this is probably one of those things I’ll end up belaboring again at some point, people say stupid things when they’re young and/or misinformed. Mr. Uygur may have been in his 30s when he wrote those, but I would still put it under the kind of ill-informed foolishness that we all experience in our youth and even as adults. It’s also worth noting that these blog posts occurred in the early 2000s before YouTube, FaceBook, social media, and cat memes. The internet was a very different place back then is what I’m saying. Now, because of this crap that he wrote over a decade ago when he was in a different time, place, and mindset, Mr. Uygur is getting all sorts of criticism about this. Just this past week, he got kicked off the board of the Justice Democrats, a group he helped found, no less. Again, it’s not because of crime he committed in the present. It was because of something he wrote over a decade ago. Think about that, for a moment. Imagine that your boss, parents, or enemies suddenly had access to records for all the stupid, profane, and flat out wrong things you’ve ever dared to say. Most of us, if we’re being honest with ourselves, would be sweating bullets at the prospect. I certainly would. I know there are things I’ve written and said that I would prefer not become public. Who else can claim otherwise? I’ve often asked this question to some of my older friends and family. I try to get them to seriously contemplate how different their lives would’ve panned out if the internet, cell phones, and social media existed in its current form when they were young. Most don’t really give me a straight answer. A few honest people flat out tell me they would be screwed. That’s an important perspective to have because our propensity to say and think stupid things goes beyond the internet’s ability to never forget. Youth, inexperience, and an overall limited understanding of the world are unavoidable . We don’t come out of the womb with a sense of context to the complexities of the world. We’re basically limited minds with limited perspectives trying to make sense of an unlimited world. Have you ever heard a kid, teenager, or horny twenty-something pitch a fit about how the world hates them? Never mind the fact that they live in one of the most prosperous periods in human history and have access to more information than any generation before it. From their perspective, they might as well be a real-life Charlie Brown. Most people, observing from the outside, would rightly roll their eyes at that sentiment. Even I don’t deny that I’ve engaged in that kind of whining in the past. At the time, though, that’s how it really felt. My perspectives and my understandings of the world were just too limited to convince me otherwise. It wasn’t a flaw in my thinking. It was just a lack of information. That’s not to say there aren’t truly despicable people in the world who say and think these things, despite having no excuses for seeing the bigger picture. However, I would not put someone like Cenk Uygur, or most people for that matter, in that category. He said something stupid and offensive years ago. He has since apologized for it and, as I’ve espoused before, we should make an effort to forgive him. People say stupid things when they’re young, dumb, and misinformed. No matter how powerful or robust the internet gets, people will continue saying stupid things. Until we can upgrade our caveman brains, that’s just the nature of who we are. Accepting that also means understanding that, despite all the stupid things people say, there is a context to consider. Even in a world where the internet never lets us forget any of the stupid things we say or do, we shouldn’t judge someone solely on the basis of the dumbest things they’ve said. That’s not to say writings like Mr. Uygur’s should be completely overlooked, but it shouldn’t take away from the man he is now and the man he’s trying to be. If we’re not willing to let people learn and grow from the dumb things they say, then nobody will be able to gain the perspective they need to stop saying dumb things in the first place. |
West Scranton residents Mary Clare Kingsley and her younger sister, Jane Duffy Shrive, grew up in a large Irish Catholic family that instilled values of resilience, determination and love for family first. Kingsley, the eldest of nine children of Clarence Duffy and the late Mary C. Duffy, and Shrive, the middle child, said they developed a bond closer than most siblings because their clan always was in it together to get by. So it made sense that the longtime members of the Society of Irish Women stepped up to be co-presidents together this year. They’ll celebrate this milestone — they’re the first pair of sisters to helm the group of about 100 in a year — during the society’s 19th annual St. Patrick’s Day dinner celebration Friday. Kingsley and Shrive also revel in how the group lined up Hillary Clinton as keynote speaker. The sisters hoped to bring in the former Secretary of State and presidential candidate for the event, which they always attended with their mother before she died in 2011. They believe the former first lady embodies many of the qualities they learned at their parents’ knees, not least of all because Clinton’s father, the late Hugh Rodham, also grew up in Scranton. “I just think it was wonderful growing up in a big family. We didn’t have a lot, but we valued everything we had. We shared a lot, but it never mattered to us, because we were happy,” Shrive said. “That’s why we wanted a woman who would portray giving, being a good person and being all about her family. Every time I think about it, I think about my mom smiling down on us and how proud she’d be.” “We’re hoping (Clinton is) going to inspire ... and unite us. After all, our group is an organization that tries to bring women to the forefront,” Kingsley agreed. “She made me believe that a woman can do anything. I think she can bring a lot back to our area to make women feel important, do what they need to do and be proud of it.” Evie Rafalko McNulty, mistress of ceremonies for Friday’s event, is a founding member of the society and sent a letter to Clinton every year inviting her to the dinner. The Lackawanna County recorder of deeds said she feels “psyched” to finally have Clinton there, an accomplishment McNulty attributed to Shrive and Kingsley’s dedicated work. They secured the appearance in large part through the efforts of Scranton resident Virginia McGregor, an ardent Clinton supporter who hosted fundraisers in her Green Ridge home during Clinton’s presidential campaign. McGregor will offer a few remarks and introduce Clinton at the dinner. “I’m thrilled and so honored that Mary Clare and Jane included me on this important, historic night,” McGregor said. “I’m very much looking forward to it. It is important to note that no one else with NEPA roots has achieved what (Clinton) has — (being) first lady, a U.S. senator, Secretary of State and nominee of a major party for president. During all that, she advocated for peace in Ireland and women and children throughout the world. All of those accomplishments are worth celebrating. She has made us all very proud.” A formal invitation went to Clinton in December, and she accepted in late January, though it remained secret among just a handful of society members until Feb. 22 while they worked out the logistics to handle what they correctly foresaw as the greatest call for tickets the group ever had. “We wanted to have (Clinton) share her courage and resilience and dedication to women and this country,” Kingsley said. “Women have had to fight for everything they’ve gotten: for positions, for salaries, everything.” Past dinners have drawn presidential candidates, sitting vice presidents and other national speakers, McNulty noted, and “things happen for a reason. We could use a boost of (Clinton).” Like the co-presidents, she expects to Clinton’s remarks to dazzle dinner guests. “(Clinton) is what most women and young women aspire to be: a strong, determined woman,” McNulty said. “She’s just the epitome of grace. She has taken a blow that is being felt worldwide and still risen above and shined above (it) and taught us to move on. “Nov. 8 (Election Day) wasn’t the end of the world. She’s got a couple thousand friends here to have dinner with. I just want her to feel at home. She’ll give an inspiring speech, there is no doubt of that. I’m hoping in the middle of it all, we can have a couple laughs, and in the next journey of her life, Scranton will be on her mind.” And while Clinton certainly marks a highlight of the night, society members and guests look forward to the celebration year after year for the networking opportunities and memories it provides. Music by Greater Scranton Black Diamonds Pipe Band and soloists and chorale singers from Valley View High School set the scene for Irish revelry. “The energy is ecstatic,” Kingsley said. “You don’t have to be Irish to be there, but you’ll feel like you are by the end of the night.” Her sister called it “such a special night.” “You leave your worries at home, there’s wonderful Irish music, and everybody’s happy to see each other,” Shrive said. “It’s so uplifting. “This group is not just about meeting once a year at dinner, though,” she added. “We are all about giving. We do lots of fundraisers, donate and help prepare hot meals at St. Stanislaus’ kitchen and St. Francis (of Assisi) Kitchen. We sing at the nursing homes at Christmas and bring cookies, give socks, hats and gloves to schools, and gave out valentines for every patient at five different nursing homes.” It’s a spirit of generosity and kindness Shrive and Kingsley said they owe to their dad, who always worked at least two jobs and walked both ways to each, and their mom, who stayed at home to raise their three sons and six daughters. “I was brought up in an Irish home and always celebrated St. Patrick’s Day,” Kingsley said. “I’m proud to be doing this with my sister. We always went to this (dinner) with our mom, so we cherish this.” Contact the writer: pwilding@timesshamrock.com, @pwildingTT on Twitter If you go What: 19th annual Society of Irish Women St. Patrick’s Day dinner celebration featuring keynote speaker Hillary Clinton When: Friday; cocktails start at 5:30 p.m., and dinner follows at 7 Where: Hilton Scranton and Conference Center, 100 Adams Ave. Meet the co-presidents Mary Clare Kingsley At home: She is the oldest of nine children of Clarence Duffy and the late Mary C. Duffy and has been married to Gerald for 41 years. She has three children, Brian and wife, Marilyn; Kelly and husband, Luqman; and Kim, plus four grandchildren, Elias, Logan, Aidan and Sahmira. At work: Retired after 25 years as a confidential payroll secretary in Scranton School District Jane Duffy Shrive At home: She is the middle of nine children of Clarence Duffy and the late Mary C. Duffy and has been married to Dennis for 34 years. She has three children, attorney Jason and wife, Jennifer; Jeff and wife, Stacey; and Eric and wife, Karlie, plus four grandchildren, Duffy, Connor, Tanner and Sophia. At work: Special-education paraprofessional for 19 years in Scranton School District 2017 honoree During Friday’s dinner, Jefferson Twp. resident Mary Ellen Coleman also will give brief remarks after the Society of Irish Women honors her for her charitable efforts with numerous groups, including St. Joseph’s Center, Scranton Tomorrow, United Way of Lackawanna County and Scranton Area Foundation. In particular, Coleman focuses her energies on serving children and adults with special needs, single moms, the lonely and the less fortunate. “We honor (individuals) for their contributions to the people of this area, and she volunteers and supports so many nonprofits,” society co-president Mary Clare Kingsley said. “She’s a wonderful woman.” |
Mamata ignores, PM Modi intervenes to save Mitsubishi firm in Bengal: Report Kolkata oi-Shubham Kolkata, Oct 23: The chemical corporation of Mitsubishi, the first foreign company to have invested in Haldia in West Bengal , is undergoing one of its worst phases but the state government has allegedly not shown any interest to guide it out the turmoil. Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation, which was set up in 1997, even approached the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction last year to find a route to recovery but the Mamata Banerjee government did not bother to respond. According to a report published in Bengali daily Anandabazaar Patrika on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took up the matter himself and asked the shipping ministry led by Nitin Gadkari to intervene and the latter immediately asked the Haldia port authorities to allow Mitsubishi build its own jetty. The port authorities didn't pay heed to the company's request to allow it have its own landing point to rein in the costs, the report said. Sources said Manish Jain, deputy chairman of Haldia port is scheduled to meet Mitsubishi authorities to discuss the proposal. The shipping ministry has also called a meeting in New Delhi on October 29 to decide on the future of the port, the ABP report said. But how did PM Modi know about Mitsubishi's plight in Haldia? According to the news report, the matter came up during Modi's visit to Japan in August. Representatives of Mitsubishi told the prime minister about the struggling chemical corporation in Haldia and even alleged that the local government wasn't helping it out and there were talks to shut it down. Mitsubishi sources said pressure to employ local youth in the company and revise the labour wage caused problems for the management. Recession in global market and the entry tax imposed by the state government were making it worse, according to the report. PM Modi subsequently took up the matter. He took particular care for maintaining friendly ties with Japan is high on his priority list for a number of reasons (political, diplomatic and of course economic). PM Modi felt that if Mitsubishi faced an unpleasant experience, then it could affect future investment from Japan in India. The authorities in Haldia are now trying to cooperate with Mitsubishi, the report said. Oneindia News |
Interesting: Marshall was a U.S. Army historian in the Pacific theater during World War II and later became the official U.S. historian of the European theater of operations. He had a team of historians working for him, and they based their findings on individual and mass interviews with thousands of soldiers in more than 400 infantry companies immediately after they had been in close combat with German or Japanese troops. The results were consistently the same: Only 15 to 20 percent of the American riflemen in combat during World War II would fire at the enemy. Those who would not fire did not run or hide—in many cases they were willing to risk greater danger to rescue comrades, get ammunition, or run messages. They simply would not fire their weapons at the enemy, even when faced with repeated waves of banzai charges. Why did these men fail to fire? As a historian, psychologist, and soldier, I examined this question and studied the process of killing in combat. I have realized that there was one major factor missing from the common understanding of this process, a factor that answers this question and more: the simple and demonstrable fact that there is, within most men and women, an intense resistance to killing other people. A resistance so strong that, in many circumstances, soldiers on the battlefield will die before they can overcome it. |
Another first in Major League Soccer! This time it’s Justin Mapp who claims the honors as the first-ever free agent signing in league history. Was he wined and dined? How did Sporting KC woo the veteran winger? Who else was in the mix? Mapp provides a primer on the process, then Andrew, David and Matt take a look at the other rumors floating around as the offseason begins. Jordan Morris is doing Jordan Morris things, and now he’s got a decision to make. One day after scoring twice to help Stanford to the national title, Top Drawer Soccer’s Will Parchman calls in to explain what the options are for the US national team star. Will he sign a Homegrown deal with Seattle? Head to Europe? Plus, what makes him so special? In the mailbag, after watching Leicester hand Chelsea yet another loss, the guys wonder whether the EPL is channeling its inner MLS when it comes to parity and unpredictability. Plus, listeners chime in on North Carolina expansion. DOWNLOAD THE SHOW |
The bill only affects trans women, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says, because "men can take care of themselves." Today Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick officially filed an anti-trans bathroom bill similar to North Carolina’s HB2 with the Texas state legislature. Patrick opened the press conference announcing the bill’s filing with, of all things, a quote fom Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Martin Luther King said, ’Our lives begin to end the day we become silent on things that matter,'” Patrick said. “This legislation, the Texas Privacy Act… is unquestionably one of the things that matters. It’s the right thing to do.” (He later tweeted the MLK quote, too.) Bob Levey Patrick, who infamously tweeted a bible verse saying “A man reaps what he sows” in response to the Orlando Pulse shooting, later stated that critics of the measure have been misinforming voters about its content. “I hope fake news will stop on this issue,” he said, asserting that under the bill, “no government will tell a business what their bathroom policy, or locker room policy if it applies, or shower policy if it applies—no government will be able to tell businesses what to do.” It protects children in public school – in bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms. — Office of the Lt Gov (@LtGovTX) January 5, 2017 Given Patrick’s choice to invoke MLK, it’s ironic how startlingly similar the bill is to the language used by states fighting federal desegration laws in the ’60s and ’70s. Senate Bill 6, the Privacy Protection Act, specifically bars transgender women from using women’s restrooms. There’s no mention of transgender men in the bill, because, Patrick has previously explained, “men can defend themselves.” Mark today as the day that Texas is drawing a line in the sand… — Office of the Lt Gov (@LtGovTX) January 5, 2017 …and saying, "No. The privacy and protection of Texans is our top priority, not being politically correct." — Office of the Lt Gov (@LtGovTX) January 5, 2017 Knowing that North Carolina’s HB2 cost the state nearly $400 million, Texas business leaders have already begun working to defeat SB6. The Texas Association of Business says it could cost the Lone Star State up to $8.5 billion and more than 100,000 jobs—a concern that Patrick waved away during his press conference. “We have the tenth largest economy in the world and that’s not going to change,” he insisted. “If you look at all the states in the country that have the most robust economies, they are almost without exception states that do not allow men into ladies rooms.” A similar measure was introduced on Tuesday in Virginia, but Gov. Terry McAuliffe said he veto the Physical Privacy Act if it reached his desk. |
A man casts his voting ballot at the polling station in the Spitalacker school in Bern November 29, 2014. Switzerland votes this weekend on three initiatives, the Ecopop-immigration, the Swiss National Bank gold initiative, and lump-sum taxation. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich By Alice Baghdjian and Caroline Copley ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected proposals on Sunday to boost gold reserves and impose strict new curbs on immigration, averting a potential nightmare for policymakers struggling with a popular backlash against the country's open borders. The referendums are part of a recent flurry of initiatives under Switzerland's model of direct democracy that have threatened to undermine the non-EU member's reputation for stability. They reflect a growing public view that Switzerland is under siege from foreign workers eroding its Alpine culture and from trading partners who have insisted in recent years that the Swiss dismantle their business model based on banking secrecy. "The result of both today's gold and immigration referenda show that the Swiss public want to pursue a coherent international economic policy and do not want to create new tensions with their EU neighbors," said Reto Foellmi, Professor of International Economics at the University of St. Gallen. The "Save our Swiss gold" initiative, proposed by the right-wing Swiss People's Party out of concern the central bank has sold too much of its gold in the past, was rejected by 77 percent of voters, said Swiss broadcaster SRF. The measure would have compelled the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to boost its gold reserves to 20 percent of its assets from around 8 percent currently, and banned it from ever selling the metal, threatening its ability to defend a 1.20 euro cap on the Swiss franc imposed at the height of the euro crisis. The SNB welcomed the result with the refrain that it would continue to defend the cap, buying unlimited quantities of foreign currency and take further measures immediately, if necessary. Spot gold was holding just below $1,167 an ounce on Sunday, down 3 percent this year. "We anticipate a short-term sell off in gold, although a no vote was mostly priced in," said Peter Rosenstreich, an analyst at Swissquote. A separate proposal to cut annual immigration by three-quarters from current levels, put forward by environmentalist group Ecopop, was rejected by 74 percent of voters, SRF said. The Ecopop referendum, which proposed capping the number of immigrants at just 0.2 percent of the resident population, was been seen as a proxy vote on Switzerland's raft of treaties with the EU, its biggest trading partner. The outcome allows the Swiss government to push ahead with its attempts to salvage these bilateral agreements after the approval of a previous proposal to introduce unspecified immigration quotas in February called into question its commitment to the free movement of people act - a key tenet of the treaties. "The government has got more breathing space to negotiate with the EU," said Regula Rytz, co-president of the Green Party. However, the Swiss government said the state of play between Switzerland and the EU, which maintains free movement of people is non-negotiable, was unchanged after Sunday's vote. Switzerland's system of direct democracy gives the electorate the right to force popular votes if they can gather enough signatures of support. A third set of proposals to scrap one of Switzerland's biggest tax perks for expatriates was also defeated. (This version of the story removes an extraneous word from the second paragraph.) (Additional reporting by Jan Harvey in London; editing by Emma Thomasson, Rosalind Russell and Philippa Fletcher) |
A Northwestern University professor accused of sexual harassment by one of his students has sued the school and several officials for defamation. Philosophy professor Peter Ludlow was accused by a student of fondling and propositioning her during an outing to an art show in downtown Chicago in February 2012. The sudent has sued the university for failing to aggressively follow up on her complaints, and is also suing Ludlow in Cook County circuit court. But Ludlow's suit claims Joan Slavin, the director of the schools' Sexual Harassment Prevention Office, conducted a "flawed and one-sided investigation" into the student's complaint, and refused to accept evidence from eyewitnesses and security videos. When media coverage about the case intensified and students planned to protest the professor's classes, Ludlow said he and the school mutually agreed that he wouldn't teach during the spring quarter, and that the school's official comment would be to say "Professor Ludlow is not teaching spring quarter." But Ludlow says university relations vice president Alan Cubbage positioned the decision as a "leave of absence" to NBC Chicago, and later clarified that "he's just not assigned to teach a course next quarter," without explaining that it was a mutual decision. School president Morton Schapiro is also named in the lawsuit for allegedly going off script by telling the Chicago Tribune that "[w]ith all the controversy and allegations out there, to have [Ludlow] teach in the spring wouldn't be the right thing to do. Ludlow also says he was punished for a consensual relationship he had with a graduate student he didn't personally teach, which wasn't against school policy at the time. NU Says Professor Accused of Sexual Harassment Was Disciplined School reveals it warned the professor to stay away from the student. Phil Rogers reports. (Published Thursday, July 3, 2014) Ludlow's suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages in an amount to be proven at trial. |
Holly Holm faces Germaine de Randamie for the inaugural UFC featherweight championship tonight in the main event of UFC 208. For the first time ever in her boxing or MMA career, she is on a two fight losing streak. Holm is feeling the pressure to not be the woman who lost her belt and never get it back. Although she welcomes that pressure, she admits a lot of people in the world would not be able to handle it. “I don’t want to go where I fight for the belt one time, lose and I never get it back. That’s a sore spot for me,” Holm said. “There’s a reason why a lot of people in the world wouldn’t be able to do this job. Because they wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure. I can handle it. That’s why I’m here.” UFC 208: Holm VS de Randamie takes place tonight from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The main card will be aired live on pay-per-view from 10pm EST. |
The IDF said the Iron Dome’s interception of Grad missiles made ‘world history,” but Hamas continues to attack with short-range Kassam rockets. The IDF said the Iron Dome’s interception of Grad Missiles made ‘world history,” but Hamas continues to attack with short-range Kassam rockets. Gaza terrorists broke a subdued offensive against Israel and fired a missile towards Ashkelon Sunday morning. It failed to reach its target, but it is not yet clear if the Iron Dome system intercepted it or if the rocket exploded in an open area. Initial but unconfirmed reports from Voice of Israel government radio were that terrorists fired a medium-range Grad missile. Simultaneously, a Hamas spokesman said, "We have no interest in an escalation in attacks.” The newly-deployed but expensive Iron Dome system, operating in Be’er Sheva and Ashkelon, intercepted six Grad missiles Friday night. It was the first in-the-field successful interception. Air Force Commander Major-General Ido Nechushtan said that although the deployment of the Iron Dome is only in its first stage, the IDF has "already made world history" by exploding several Grad missiles in mid-air. Lt. Col. Shabi Ben-Boher, commander of the Iron Dome unit, said, "Though we knew we would be deploying the system earlier than expected, in these past few days it was decided to use it operationally. We are in a trial period and as such will act slowly and with great consideration to ensure that the first interceptions will be successful." The Iron Dome’s capacity is limited to foiling rocket attacks only in the areas where it is deployed. Its high cost has limited its use to defending major population centers, while thousands of Israelis in Gaza Belt communities have to rely on the Code Red incoming alert siren, which sounds 15-20 seconds before a shorter-range Kassam rocket strikes. |
Originally posted at http://mortgageflimflam.com With additional edits by http://4closurefraud.org In a filing unsealed on June 3, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) confirms what many of us have known for years. Nobody, not even the U.S. Government, with massive resources, can determine who owns your loan and has the right to collect on your mortgage. The information comes from case files unsealed on June 3, 2016 by federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the Northern District of California in the case of the United States v. Discovery Sales, Inc. The case involves some 325 fraudulent loans originated by Discovery Sales, Inc. (DSI) between 2006 and 2008, many of which were then sold to Wells Fargo Bank and JP Morgan Chase to securitize. The Discovery Sentencing document on page 9 states: The originating lenders who made loans to purchase DSI properties, including Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase, generally would not keep the mortgages and thus did not end up losing money as a result of the DSI fraud scheme. Instead, they would sell the mortgages to other banks who would package them in securities that were sold to other investors. These securities failed when the underlying mortgages went into default. It was impossible to trace the majority of the mortgage loans on the over 300 homes sold by DSI that were the subject of the FBI investigation; it would have been harder yet to identify individual victims of the fraud given that the mortgages were securitized and traded . (Emphasis added.) To add more outrage to this case, while the government acknowledges the damages from the fraud scheme resulted in $75 million in damages, the amount being paid by DSI in restitution is $3 million to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That is all, along with an $8.5 million fine that the government will pocket. Once again the government is taking all of the money from a settlement with a fraudulent mortgage lender, and giving nothing to the people who were damaged. Oh, and one more thing. The “preferred lenders,” Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase, who were also involved in the scheme, were not charged even though it states they knew about DSI's "shenanigans to inflate the value of their homes" in the sentencing document: The parties agree that the preferred mortgage lenders, Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan Chase, were on some notice that DSI was engaged in various shenanigans to inflate the value of their homes. (Emphasis added.) During the time of the information, DSI worked with two “preferred lenders,” Wells Fargo Bank and J.P. Morgan Chase . Certain employees and managers of those two preferred lenders knew about the incentive programs offered by DSI and the builders, and knew that the incentives were not being disclosed in the loan files. (Emphasis added.) Even though Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase had the information that the loans were fraudulent, as per what has become standard procedure, the DOJ brought no charges against the banks. There is nothing new about banks selling off defective, fraudulent loans as securities. And once again, the DOJ has found no reason to prosecute too big to fail banks for fraud. UNITED STATES SENTENCING MEMORANDUM |
Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, the White House quietly released word that it has 3,400 regulations in the pipeline for next year. For those who’d like to check out the Obama administration’s proposed new government red tape, released Friday, it’s called the Unified Agenda. “The administration has been really aggressive on the regulatory front,” Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy at American Action Forum, a conservative policy institute, told The Daily Signal. “They drop [the Unified Agenda] on a Friday right before a holiday, and no one critical of their regulatory policies will have a chance to criticize it.” The Unified Agenda serves as the administration’s roadmap for regulations it intends to finalize in coming months. Over the past six years of the Obama administration, the cost of complying with new government rules has averaged $16 billion per year. “While these are not the highest totals we’ve seen during the Obama administration, they continue to be higher than in past administrations,” James Gattuso, senior research fellow in regulatory policy, told The Daily Signal. In 2012, the Obama administration had more than 4,000 regulations in the pipeline. That number decreased in 2013 but went up again by about 100 this year, he said. Though 3,400 is not the record, it is still a substantial amount, Gattuso noted. >>> Commentary: Democrats Lost the Election. But Obama Still Controls the Regulatory Agencies. Under the Clinton and Bush administrations, Batkins said, the Unified Agenda typically was a “normal, boring list of regulations” released each fall and spring. He said the Obama administration’s penchant for releasing new regulations near the holidays shows it views it “as a politically charged document.” The latest agenda includes 23 new “economically significant” rules–those with estimated economic impact of $100 million or more per year. That’s up from 21 in last year’s agenda. Those rules, as Batkins said, are the “big-ticket items.” Compliance costs for some regulations could top $20 billion. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to issue a final rule on coal ash residue, expected Dec. 19, with compliance costs of $20 billion. Additionally, the Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to issue flammability standards for upholstered furniture that could cost more than $100 million. Also to be finalized next year is the EPA’s set of rules to limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. Batkins said of the agenda: It’s a reflection of the president’s regulatory priorities and a manifestation of seven years of aggressive lawmaking. It’s a matter of adding up these regulatory priorities to see what it means to the American people. >>> Read More: Regulation Kills Opportunity The mounting regulations issued by the Obama administration has been a source of contention for many Republicans, particularly in states that look to coal production as a boon to the local economy. “It’s time for more listening and less job-destroying red tape,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said. “Easing the burden created by EPA regulations will continue to be a priority for me in the new Congress.” In a March report from The Heritage Foundation, regulatory policy experts James Gattuso and Diane Katz found that the Obama administration issued 157 major regulations during the president’s first five years in office. For the same period under President George W. Bush, the government issued 62 major regulations. Those 157 new rules, Gattuso and Katz found, cost Americans close to $73 billion. According to the American Action Forum, the $16 billion annual average for compliance costs is “tantamount to having a $160 billion tax increase over 10 years.” About $18 billion to $20 billion in new regulatory costs is the equivalent of a 1 percent increase in the payroll tax, Batkins told The Daily Signal: Payroll tax going up 1 percent — that would get everyone interested. But $20 billion in regulatory costs is the equivalent of that. This article has been modified. |
When Theresa May was challenged by a disabled voter over cuts to her disability benefits and social care last month, it shone a light on the way Conservative policies post-2010 have disproportionately targeted disabled people. Recent years have seen the introduction of many cuts and changes – from the rollout of “fit to work” tests to the abolition of disability living allowance – as well as a lack of action on existing inequalities, such as inaccessible housing. It all amounts to an unprecedented assault on disabled people’s rights and living standards in Britain. In a series of interviews over several months, the Guardian has followed three disabled readers – Stephen, Alex, and Elli – as they experience the reality of life since austerity. Stephen’s story: I’m managing to work in pain, but for how long? “I want the minister in charge to come here and tell me how I’m meant to live. I’ve worked since I was 15. I pay my taxes. Why do I then have my benefit taken away?” Stephen, 52, asks from his front room in Maidstone with his wife, Elaine, next to him. A car accident in his 30s left Stephen with osteoarthritis of the spine, memory problems and a degenerative disc in his back. There’s rarely an hour of the day his legs or his feet aren’t racked with pain, and he moves uneasily around the house, holding on to the wall with one hand to pull one leg along. Elaine’s ill herself – she has fibromyalgia, a degenerative spinal disorder, and knee problems – but it’s since the austerity cuts came in that, in Stephen’s words: “Our life’s just got worse.” Elaine had to give up work as a hotel caterer in 2014 but doesn’t get any income support. The government put a time limit on how long disabled people can have some out-of-work sickness benefits, so after six months of receiving employment and support allowance, Elaine’s benefit was stopped – despite the fact her disability hadn’t got better. Packets of medications and pain relief sit in a small basket on the sofa table. Stephen used to get free prescriptions, but when NHS cuts kicked in three years ago, this went too. The couple’s only income is Stephen’s job as a warehouse manager at Morrisons. Because the pain in his legs means he can’t use the bus, he relies on a Motability car – a government scheme that lets disabled people swap mobility benefits for the lease of a car, wheelchair, or scooter – to get there. But after being tested for the new personal independence payments (PIP), he was rejected for the mobility part of the benefit this spring and – like more than 50,000 other disabled people since 2013 – he’s been told he must return his vehicle. The couple have had a temporary reprieve – the Motability charity has extended the lease for a few months – but Stephen will need to return the car in September. Elaine’s already had her own benefit cut in the transfer to PIP – that’s £300 a month gone – but Stephen’s rejection could mean his entire wage could go too. “If I lose the car, I can’t get to work. £30,000 a year,” he says. “Who’s going to pay that?” The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) states that “more people are on the Motability scheme now than before PIP was introduced, and under PIP 26% of people get the highest level of support compared to 15% under DLA”, and that anyone can appeal if they wish. Two days ago, Stephen contacted me: the DWP turned down his first appeal to keep his car. “I work despite the pain,” he says. “[And now] they’ve kicked me aside.” Alex’s story: I was treated worse than a farm animal “It’s not just the cuts. It’s how disabled people are being treated within that,” says Alex, from Islington, north London. “You’re treated worse than an animal going to the slaughterhouse.” The 44-year-old has multiple severe conditions – a spinal and head injury, degenerative hands and feet, chronic fatigue, double incontinence, and mental health problems – and is unable to walk. For the past four years, Alex has been living in a cramped top-floor flat. Because the flat is too small for a hoist to let a carer help Alex move safely, Alex is forced to crawl to get from one room to the next: slowly pulling along the carpet, legs dragged on one side. To be able to leave the flat, Alex balances on crutches to get down two flights of stairs. It’s a visible strain: Alex’s feet twist with each step and breaths are short. Outside, at the bottom of another seven concrete steps sits Alex’s wheelchair, chained up on the street. With no lift, Alex can’t get it into the flat. I first spoke to Alex in January, and it’s clear over the months that the flat is making Alex’s health deteriorate. At one point when we speak, Alex has been bed-bound with a hemiplegic migraine for 11 days – essentially, hit with stroke symptoms that lead the body to go in and out of consciousness. By the end of April, Alex is completely bed-bound. “I can’t crawl or go down the stairs at all now,” Alex emails – but every couple of weeks they risk falling down the stairs with a personal assistant to go to therapy appointments “because my mental health has deteriorated” too. (Alex has asked to be referred to as “they”.) To afford a wheelchair, Alex had to sell the TV, phone, plates, mugs, second-hand laptop and clothes Alex has fought for months for safe housing from the housing association – even to get on the council’s higher medical band – but there are limited accessible properties in the area, and the only options the council offered were out of borough and too far from Alex’s doctors. In March, Alex was given some hope, after accepting a ground-floor wheelchair-accessible flat in Islington, but it needs extensive adjustments, and three months later, Alex is still stuck in the current flat. Islington council’s corporate director of housing and adult social services says specialist adaptations and equipment are being installed in the new property and this work is being carried out as fast as possible. They add: “Like London, Islington has a severe housing shortage, and finding suitable, ground-floor, wheelchair-accessible accommodation, in the location requested, has been challenging.” Talk with Alex and what’s striking is not only the direness of the living conditions, but the fact it’s come at a time when, as Alex puts it, every area of life has also been “infected by cuts” against disabled people. Social care cuts mean Alex is alone in the flat for the equivalent of four-and-a-half-days each week. To afford the wheelchair that sits outside, Alex had to sell possessions from the pavement – “My TV, my landline phone, plates, mugs, my second-hand laptop, clothes, everything” – as the NHS waiting list was three years. (Islington council says a powered wheelchair, which would be suitable for the new property, will be provided as soon as the move is complete.) The fridge is filled with large bottles of milk; since the government cut the medications and equipment available on prescriptions, Alex buys incontinence pants instead of food. “Only dementia patients get pull-ups now, and then only two a day,” says Alex, who can’t afford the £80 a month required to buy them every day. “So I’m left in soiled pull-ups causing sores and infections.” Elli’s story: I’ve gone from being a citizen, to nothing “If I can’t get out of bed, I have to shout to get the pizza man to deliver to my bedroom,” says Elli, 39, in her bungalow outside Norwich. Elli has hypermobility Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), anxiety, and chronic fatigue and pain, and leans on crutches as she makes her way from one room to the next. Her social care package used to help her with day-to-day tasks – dressing, preparing meals, household chores – and enabled her to found and direct a local arts organisation. But in late 2016, Elli had her care cut from 44 hours a week to 22. “They halved it overnight,” she says. “It took three 30-minute meetings with a social worker.” Elli laughs at times as we talk – making jokes about not being able to get up once she’s sat down – but it’s clear that what’s happening is taking its toll. She now has no care hours at all to support her for anything her council defines as “social” – including going swimming as physiotherapy – nor anything “medical”, such as someone going to the hospital with her. Elli’s condition means she falls regularly, but with long gaps without a personal assistant, she’s now regularly left to lay on the floor for five hours with dislocated joints because she has no one to help her up. “I’ve stopped going out now really because if I fall, I won’t be able to get up myself,” she says. In confronting Theresa May, Kathy has spoken up for all Britain’s disabled people | Frances Ryan Read more In March, Elli emails to tell me she’s had more support cut. Her Access to Work funding – which pays for a part-time support assistant – has been cut by 100%: £13,000 a year to nothing. “That’s not really a cut at all, is it?” she says. A DWP spokesperson tells me “real terms funding of the Access to Work scheme has increased”, but with hers stopped, when her health is at its worse, Elli’s bed is now not only her dinner table but her office too: a laptop on the quilt and a pile of paperwork. In recent years, she’s become familiar with fighting for disability support – she tells me she dislocated her wrist filling in the long application forms for PIP – but as she stares at the window from her bed, she sums up the reality for an increasing number of disabled people: “They’ve taken me from a citizen to nothing, hidden behind a door.” |
SALT LAKE CITY — Mitt Romney unleashed a strong and sustained attack Thursday on fellow Republican Donald Trump in a University of Utah speech aimed at stopping the presidential front-runner from securing the party's nomination. "Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud," Romney told a standing room-only crowd that included national media outlets gathered for the U.'s Hinckley Institute of Politics address on the state of the 2016 race delivered in Libby Gardner Hall. Romney called Trump's promises "as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing the members of the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat." "Whoa!" someone in the crowd yelled as others applauded. Romney, the GOP's presidential nominee in 2012, offered some of the toughest ammunition yet from the establishment wing of the Republican Party against the billionaire business mogul and reality TV star. He had already gone after Trump in recent interviews and on social media, suggesting there is a potential "bombshell" in Trump's unreleased tax returns. On Thursday, Romney went much further. Sounding a little like a candidate again, Romney cautioned that if "we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished." He referred to Trump's statements that Muslims should be banned from entering the United States, warning his "bombast is already alarming our allies and fueling the enmity of our enemies." And Romney went on, slamming Trump's "personal qualities, the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics," including bragging about his marital affairs and use of vulgarities. Trump's response to the speech, Romney told his audience, "may tell you what you need to know about his temperament, his stability, and his suitability to be president." Within hours, Trump was lambasting Romney again and again at a campaign rally in Portland, Maine, telling supporters "you can see how loyal he is. He was begging for my endorsement" in 2012. "I could have said, 'Mitt, drop to your knees.' He would have dropped to his knees," Trump said, adding that Romney "let us down" by not campaigning more aggressively four years ago against President Barack Obama. If Trump had said 4 years ago the things he says today about the KKK, Muslims, Mexicans, disabled, I would NOT have accepted his endorsement — Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) March 3, 2016 In a long and sometimes rambling talk, Trump labeled Romney a "choke artist" and took credit for keeping him out of the 2016 race. "I will tell you the real reason Mitt chickened out: It was me," Trump said. Romney did not mention whether he sought and received Trump's endorsement four years ago in his speech, but later posted on Twitter: "If Trump had said 4 years ago the things he says today about the KKK, Muslims, Mexicans, disabled, I would NOT have accepted his endorsement." Romney started his speech amid cheers and a standing ovation by saying he was not announcing his candidacy nor endorsing one of the other Republicans still in the race, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. "One of these men should be our nominee," Romney said, because "the only serious policy proposals that deal with the broad range of national challenges we confront" are coming from them. He said he would vote for Rubio in Florida and Kasich in Ohio on March 15, and for Cruz "or whichever one of the other two contenders has the best chance of beating Mr. Trump" in other states, a scenario that likely will lead to a brokered convention. Will Romney run? Jason Perry, the head of the Hinckley Institute, said Romney may not be out of the running if none of the candidates have enough delegates to secure the nomination before the Republican National Convention in July. "It will be interesting to see what impact this has on the delegates coming up and the public going forward," Perry said. If Trump is "neutralized so no one is really getting enough votes, it certainly opens the door for someone like Mitt Romney." Kirk Jowers, a longtime Romney friend and supporter, said that door may have slammed shut with Thursday's speech. "The safer path for Romney certainly would have been to keep his head down and let the 'Draft Mitt' movement continue to build than to stick his neck out," Jowers said. "He's content now to let the other candidates work as hard as they can." He says the same thing to me in private as he has in public. He's had a lot of people encourage him, and he continues to say what he has said from the beginning. –Former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt Former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt said Romney isn't interested in becoming a candidate. Romney, who also ran for president in 2008, toyed briefly with the idea of getting in the race more than a year ago before deciding against another campaign. "He says the same thing to me in private as he has in public," said Leavitt, a top adviser to Romney's 2012 campaign. "He's had a lot of people encourage him, and he continues to say what he has said from the beginning." Leavitt praised Romney for taking on Trump. "I thought it was a courageous speech because he will endure a lot of criticism," he said. "But this is a man who is not running for anything who is speaking his mind out of conscience and out of sincere loyalty to his country and his party." Impact of speech unclear Trump may be the primary season's big winner so far, but he has languished in fourth place in recent Utah polls, behind "Don't Know." Some Utah GOP officials aren't convinced he'll participate in the GOP's March 21 debate in Salt Lake City. One of Trump's Utah supporters, Senate Majority Leader Ralph Okerlund, R-Monroe, said he supported Romney in 2012 and wishes he were in the race this year. He said he's not surprised the party's establishment is resisting an outsider. "I don't agree with everything that Donald Trump says and does by any means, but I still think an outsider's viewpoints on a presidential race are going to be helpful," Okerlund said. Don Peay, a leader of a Utah group backing Trump that he said is not sanctioned by the campaign, discounted the impact of Romney's remarks. "Mitt said the people voting for Trump have been duped. So does that mean we're stupid?" asked Peay, who recently introduced Donald Trump Jr. to many Utah Republican leaders. RELATED: Full text of Mitt Romney speech at the Hinckley Institute of Politics On Thursday, former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney addressed the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah on the state of the 2016 presidential race. This is a full transcript of the remarks. Trump supporters like him because he speaks their language, Peay said, while Romney and other establishment Republicans are tone-deaf to the working class. Romney's tirade against Trump, he said, will only help Trump. Gov. Gary Herbert, who attended Romney's speech, said he likes that Trump speaks his mind. "Sometimes it's refreshing. It comes unfiltered, and sometimes you think, 'Did he really say that?'" Herbert said. "And he certainly doesn't lack for self-confidence. We all should have he same kind of self confidence as a Donald Trump. But sometimes he's a little bit blustery, and that's a bit off-putting to me." 'I understand the anger' Romney's nearly 20-minute speech was briefly interrupted several times by hecklers, who were drowned out by cheers and chants for Romney. One of the many times Romney received applause was when he said a Trump nomination means a win for the leading Democratic candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and "a person so untrustworthy and dishonest as Hillary Clinton must not become president." He said that under Secretary Clinton, "America's interests were diminished in every corner of the world. She compromised our national secrets, dissembled to the families of the slain, and jettisoned her most profound beliefs to gain presidential power." (Trump's) domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe. ... And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill. –Mitt Romney Most of his speech, however, was devoted to detailing what he sees as Trump's deficiencies as a candidate. Nothing was spared in Romney's critique, which even included suggesting Trump is not the "business genius" he claims to be. "There are a number of people who claim that Mr. Trump is a con man, a fake. There is indeed evidence of that," Romney said, citing the controversy surrounding how long it took Trump to disavow the support of the Ku Klux Klan. "I understand the anger Americans feel today," Romney said. "In the past, our presidents have channeled that anger and forged it into resolve, into endurance and high purpose and into the will to defeat the enemies of freedom." Trump is directing that anger "for less than noble purposes," Romney said. "His domestic policies would lead to recession. His foreign policies would make America and the world less safe. He has neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president. And his personal qualities would mean that America would cease to be a shining city on a hill." Romney ended his speech by invoking the late President Ronald Reagan: "America has greatness ahead. This is a time for choosing. God bless us to choose a nominee who will make that vision a reality." Read the full text of the speech here. × Photos Related Links Related Stories |
On a frigid morning in February, the Jason-Danielle, a 90-foot trawler, leaves Montauk and steams due southwest for nearly 12 hours to Hudson Canyon, an ocean-floor extension of the Hudson River Valley that runs 400 nautical miles from New York Harbor into the Atlantic, hitting depths up to two miles. The canyon is frequented by winter fishing vessels drawn here in pursuit of the vast schools of an abundant catch: squid. Recent captain Bill Grimm, a wide-shouldered, thick-handed man in his mid-50s, headed several boats before the Jason-Danielle. He moved to Montauk as a 20-something looking to surf and party and ended up helping to launch the United States’s Atlantic squid fishery in the late 1970s. “We chase the squid from a few miles off the beach here all the way to the Canadian fishing border and as far south as Virginia,” says Grimm. The northwest Atlantic is the second-largest squid fishery in the country and among the largest in the world. The annual New York catch is worth $8 million and weighs six million pounds. “In winter, we try to fish around the clock,” says Grimm who, with fellow squid-pioneer Captain Hank Lackner, owns a second 90-foot trawler and a smaller boat that also fish for squid. “That can go on for three or four days. If fishing is really good, you don’t get much sleep.” At sea his crew subsists on sandwiches and coffee. The boat’s enormous net, which opens as wide as a city block is long, skims the ocean floor. In a few days of exploring the edge of the Continental Shelf, Grimm’s crew fills its hold with 30,000 pounds of squid. That’s enough to feed 80,000 people a six-ounce serving of calamari. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch List calls all squid “a good alternative” but singles out Atlantic longfin squid as the “best choice,” in part because it’s breathtakingly plentiful: the squid fleet, mostly out of Montauk, brings in New York’s third-biggest catch in terms of volume and fourth in terms of value. In winter and spring, as many as 10 tractor-trailers a day leave Montauk full of squid, destined for Fulton Fish Market in Hunts Point, Bronx, the largest seafood depot in the country, and for squid processors in New Jersey, Brooklyn and Rhode Island. Bearing the less romantic name “squid rings,” the ingredient leads app offerings from Red Lobster to Hooters, alongside buffalo wings and mozzarella sticks. Given this cephalopod’s ubiquity (squid is a cousin to cuttlefish and octopus), it’s hard to believe the New York boats only began fishing for squid a few decades ago. And that a generation ago, few Americans would have recognized it as food. Squid has been fished since ancient times from Japan to Portugal, but it wasn’t until legislative and demographic changes in the 1970s that American boats began catching squid for export, and even later that Americans developed an appetite for it. “Thirty-five years ago there was hardly any squid landed in New York, New Jersey or Rhode Island,” says Emerson Hasbrouck, a senior educator for fisheries management at Cornell Cooperative Extension on Long Island, where he directed the marine program until retiring last year. As a young marine scientist he recalls seeing vast schools of squid off Long Island, but they were largely ignored by American fishermen, considered bycatch or bait, since domestic demand was nonexistent. But trawlers from Japan and Italy began showing up off the Atlantic Coast in the 1960s, in search of squid, and American interests took notice. The federal government restricted access to the Atlantic squid fishery from foreign vessels with the Magnuson-Stevens Act of 1976, which declared jurisdiction up to 200 miles from the coast. It was partly a Cold War–era assertion over waters that were generally considered international, and partly an attempt to plan marine management at a time when ocean traffic was increasing and many fish stocks declining. Their interest piqued by foreign ships overflowing with squid, state and federal programs began providing instruction and technology to fishermen in need of a new catch, given the increasingly overexploited populations of mainstays like haddock, flounder and cod. At first, in “joint venture” arrangements, American boats would make a drag and transfer one end of the full net to the Japanese (or sometimes Spanish or Italian) factory boat sitting a few miles offshore, which would suck it into their boats and head home. Similar arrangements spread from Montauk to nearby trawler fleets, including in Point Judith, Rhode Island, and Cape May, New Jersey. Eventually seafood processors in New York and New Jersey imported state-of-the-art squid-skinning machines to meet European taste for squid. In the late 1970s, there was no question that foreign markets would quickly gobble up the sweet New England squid in demand from Tokyo to the Mediterranean. But squid was propulsing its way into our cuisine at home, too. The sharp rise in immigration created a domestic demand from Asian-American cooks and Asian-owned restaurants in the 1970s and 1980s. Established Portuguese and Italian restaurants in Newark, Long Island and the five boroughs tapped into the increasingly available local supply. Seafood distributors in the New York area saw squid sales jump from a few hundred thousand pounds in 1979 to several million pounds by the mid-1980s. Gristedes, Food Emporium and D’Agostinos in New York City and Shop-Rite in New Jersey were early adopters, adding calamari to their freezer sections and squid salad to their deli cases. Tastes were changing. A 1988 Associated Press article entitled “Americans Not as Finicky About What They Put in Their Mouths” noted that squid was showing up on menus “alongside escargot and sushi, in these days of culinary adventure.” A Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler ad from the same era joked that its wine cooler could make even squid go down easy. Squid made appearances in Better Homes & Gardens the same year. By the late 1980s, Red Lobster alone was buying nearly a million pounds a year, and other seafood chains followed suit; calamari has held strong on Red Lobster’s menu for over 30 years. As stocks of popular fish such as cod, tuna and swordfish declined, squid stood out as cheap and abundant. The fact that it freezes well and fries even better didn’t hurt. Eventually the American demand became so great that processors actually started importing frozen squid from overseas — from China, India, Argentina and Thailand. In 1990, Jeff Licata, after a career as a technician on the New York Stock Exchange, opened Top Catch in Red Hook, Brooklyn, with squid-processing machinery he imported from Italy. New York seafood runs in his veins: Licata’s great-grandfather opened the wholesale-retail Licata Seafood Corporation on Second Avenue in Murray Hill in 1880. His grandmother’s side had the New York fishmonger Bono Fish. Today, Top Catch processes 12,000 to 15,000 pounds of squid a day. “We fully clean it and cut it into rings and tentacles,” says Licata. The lion’s share is packaged as 2.5-pound bags sold to food service companies like Sysco and Restaurant Depot, as well as Safeway, Harris Teeter, Lowe’s and selected restaurant chains. (The blue and white Top Catch boxes have an illustration of a squid in top hat with a dandy’s cane.) All of Top Catch’s product is sold in the States, and as the appetite for squid in America has soared over the last few decades, Top Catch has complemented the New York squid with imported product. But Licata prefers New York’s finest: “Here it’s a much higher-quality product. Overseas it’s a different ball game. Their squid isn’t boxed at sea, and there’s [as much as] a few extra days before it’s cleaned and frozen.” Of course, an ingredient’s increasing demand on the international seafood market can be perilous for the species’ future health. But longfin squid appear to be weathering the larger harvests. “Squid grows fast and spawns a couple times a year,” says Hasbrouck, the Cornell biologist. Because squid aren’t apex predators on the food chain, they are low in toxins like mercury. There are other marine scientists who hypothesize that the success of squid is evidence of larger things gone awry in the seas: As we’ve decimated populations of squid predators such as sharks, tuna and other big fish like cod, squid have multiplied. Nonetheless, marine scientists, in part because longfin squid reproduce quickly, regard it as one of the most resilient seafoods. Squid’s time has come. Squid is our true “indigenous fish,” says Dave Pasternack, the pescatorially minded chef at Esca, and a lifelong avid fisherman. “Even more than shad, since it’s the bottom of the local food chain and everything from bluefish to striped bass to flounder depends on squid.” (In fact, as testament to its keystone role in the marine food web, squid plays the part of both predator and prey: squid will prey on juvenile bluefish and porgies only to be consumed by adult bluefish and porgies later in life.) Now eateries across all price-points depend on squid as well, from Cantonese diners with Chinese-only menus to the latest downtown hotspot. At Esca, chef Pasternack will stuff the tubes with black rice darkened from squid ink, grill them whole and finish with chili oil. Or fry tiny squid from Maine and toss them with arugula. Or marinate larger New York squid with chili pepper, lemon zest and rosemary before grilling it whole. Or, in a Galician preparation, leave the ink sack in, cook the whole squid in black steel and serve with lemon sauce. He points out two common mistakes with squid: overcooking, and overlooking the legs. “Think about how many times you’ve had some basic fried calamari and it’s rubbery, the breading is not right and they only give you bodies,” he says. “To me, the tentacles are the most important part, the best part.” While some aficionados say winter meat makes the best calamari rings, fish mongers like Citarella, or Greenmarket fishermen like the North Fork–based Alex Villani of Blue Moon Fish, say the flesh of summer spawning squid goes perfectly with a squeeze of lemon and a chaser of Long Island rosé. And at $3.50 a pound retail, uncleaned squid is one-seventh the price of salmon or swordfish. Think of squid as kind of like the kale of the sea: hardy, available year round, economical and delicious. It’s also inherently flexible in the kitchen, and takes well to everything from boiling to frying to grilling. “From a practical perspective, it’s cheap and it sells,” says chef Jason Weiner, who captains Almond restaurant and L&W Oyster Co. “It’s $2.50 a pound [wholesale] and 90 percent yield.” In contrast, fish can be several times that price, and unless you serve it whole, you might serve only half of the weight you bought from your supplier. “It’s also versatile and comfortable in the context of a bunch of different culinary idioms. You can obviously throw it in one of those Ligurian or Provençal fisherman’s stews that everyone loves. But it’s also great in an udon or a bibimbap, let’s say. Of course, cleaning it is not much fun, but what are you gonna do?” Chef Alex Raij of Txikito, La Vara and El Quinto Pino says Blue Moon’s Long Island squid is spectacular, and shows it off in dishes like her txipiron en cebollado, squid ribbons with sweet onion and pine nuts simmered in the squid’s own juices. Raij says that while she buys imported for certain hard-to-find Spanish and Basque ingredients (like anchovies), all the squid on her menus is local. “I can actually buy Spanish squid here for pretty much same price as the local squid, and I don’t.” Citarella, one of the largest buyers of New York seafood, only sells longfin squid caught in New York and nearby states. During times of abundance, the store hand-cleans and freezes squid to sell in the slower months, rather than offer imports. “You’re not getting any better product from anywhere in the world,” says owner Joseph Gurrera. Despite the squid’s robust lifecycle, longfin squid — like all fisheries — is finite. Even at a time when the New York metro area alone would gladly consume two or five times the current catch, the catch has declined by nearly 25 percent over the last decade, partly because the high fuel bills associated with chasing squid offshore has caused some boats to fish less for squid and more for whiting or porgie. “Nowadays the trips are so long compared to years ago,” says Grimm. “Years ago we fished two, three days. We’re staying out longer because there’s not as many squid and bigger capacity in boat. They’re still there, but not as thick as they used to be.” Even at a reduced size, squid remains one of the top catches in the state. “It’s what’s keeping the trawl fishery going here on Long Island,” says Cornell’s Hasbrouck. The squid population supports 20 or 30 boats, and perhaps 100 fishermen. As some fish, such as flounder and cod, have remained low, catches of squid and whiting (which most squid boats also catch) still come in the millions of pounds. There is some hope among fishers and others that the government will raise the quotas that boats have generally been bumping up against in recent years. The industry has also demonstrated quick responsiveness in the interest of managing the fishery. As butterfish, an overfished species, started showing up in squid nets in larger numbers, the Montauk fleet worked with Cornell Extension to test a variety of ways to keep butterfish out of their nets, thus keeping the squid fishery open. If the squid fishers help rebuild butterfish populations, they may end up able to sell that species, too. Though American demand for squid is several times what we catch, some still gets exported. And as fish processing increasingly shifts overseas, there are even stories of Atlantic squid boats selling their catch — uncleaned and frozen in blocks — to brokers who ship it overseas to be thawed and cleaned and then sent out to points around the globe. “It’s a worldwide market now,” explains Cornell’s Hasbrouck, who adds that longfin squid from the North Atlantic is top-grade. “Good-quality squid is in demand throughout the world.” For Gurrera of Citarella, New Yorkers who don’t seek out local squid are missing out. A few years ago, Gurrera was in Milan and passed by a fishmonger whose crates overflowed with fresh catch from the Mediterranean. Among the sardines, anchovies and octopus, he noticed a block of frozen squid sitting unboxed. Gurrera asked the fishmonger where the squid was from, and the aproned Italian returned with the box. “It was New York squid. The box said Cape May, New Jersey.” |
Memo to American cyberwarriors: You can't rehab your lousy reputation by planting stories on how you saved banksters in big newspapers. Illustrating that global cybersecurity policy and action in the US is purely for the benefit of the 1 percent, Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post wrote a story on leaked details of a concerted Iranian attack on American banks in 2012 a couple weeks ago. Keep in mind while reading anything from the linked Post piece, the Iranian response, if it was that country's clandestine effort, came after the US/Israeli launching of the 2010-2011 Stuxnet malware campaign into the networks and controlling machinery of its nuclear program. From me, now semi-famously: Nobody in the great mass that is not the 1 percent or in the service of the same cares about attacks on the American financial system. They do, on the other hand, wish our financial system would stop attacking them. From the Washington Post: In the spring of 2012, some of the largest banks in the United States were coming under attack, with hackers commandeering servers around the world to direct a barrage of Internet traffic toward the banks' Web sites. The assaults, believed to have been launched by Iran, were bringing the sites down for hours at a time and disrupting customer business -- the first significant digital assault of its kind undertaken against American industry's computers by a foreign adversary. It "was a wake-up call," recalled an official from a large Internet service provider for the banks ... With regards to bad stuff alleged to have happened, or be happening, to the United States, in national security speak, it's always "a wake-up call." It works like this. You secretly and persistently kick your smaller, less resourceful and poorer enemy in the nuts and no one complains. When he strikes back by hurling a couple bags of dog excrement at you, it's "a wake-up call." One supposes your position on such bankster assaults depended on where you stood. Again, from the Post: The attacks on the banks were launched shortly after the expansion of U.S. sanctions against Iran, and whoever was behind them was impressively skilled ... By September 2012, financial institutions including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase were grappling with waves of electronic traffic that had crept up from 20 gigabits per second to 40, 80 and ultimately 120 gigabits per second. It was at least three times the volume of traffic that most large banks' Web sites were initially equipped to handle. Banks were spending tens of millions of dollars to mitigate the problem. In the Nakashima/Post piece there is not a single mention of the Stuxnet virus and its offspring, or any discussion by administration officials and sources in the real context of the time, that Iranian attacks on bank websites were seen as retaliation for an escalating American/Israeli malware campaign against that country. That's your standard garden-variety journalistic malfeasance, right there, partners. Instead, an anonymous official describes the American response to Iran as "gentle and precise." In contrast to Stuxnet, which was designed to wreck an Iranian uranium separation centrifuge operation. Last week, with review posts on Bill Blunden and Violet Cheung's Behold a Pale Farce book on cyberwar and the malware industrial complex, the roots of the national security complex's propaganda campaign in this area were outlined. Nakashima's Post story is another in kind, a piece to revive imaginary characteristics of reason and restraint on the part of US cyberwar/cyberdefense operations through the issue of a new load of fresh clean laundry. Instead of striking into Iran's networks directly in retaliation, because, as the story reads, American cyberwar capabilities are so much stronger than Iran's, a response was concocted to be "gentle and precise." Thank you, former NSA director Keith Alexander. In one stroke, his image redeemed. That horrid Edward Snowden mess can be left behind. American officials and workers in cybersecurity at a variety of agencies reached out to 120 foreign countries, allies, and enlisted their aid in squelching the Iranian assaults in a group effort that disarmed the botnet networks used in the distributed denial of service attacks against American banks. Grand and stirring stuff! American mega-banking websites were saved! Victory was ours in the Battle of BofA! National security dudes, you thought leaking a story about how US megabanks were bailed out by the government (again), from website attacks by little Iran was something to pat yourself on the back over? Seriously? Let's look at the relative scope: "[The] banks were spending tens of millions of dollars to mitigate the problem." How many billions have US banksters cost Americans in lost livelihood and economic calamity since 2007? What happened then? Right, the government saved the banks! Very good! When did everyone else get saved? [Crickets.] To repeat, your position on the Battle of BofA depended on where you stood. Like you, I'm a big bank client. So are friends. Is there anyone who isn't a client of a big bank? I didn't notice any problems with my bank's website during the great cyber-assault. However, I also didn't notice any slow down or change in how quickly and efficiently my bank went into my account for the usual administrative and other miscellaneous fee collections during the same time period. That's digital and software-mediated, too. The vast majority of Americans didn't know of, and wouldn't care if they did, about the attacks on bank websites and how they were staunched by US and allied cyberdefense. As a story, the Post's is entirely in the genre of computer security for the 1 percent. A great telling of doings of no benefit to anyone but those at the top of the pyramid. This content was originally published at Escape from WhiteManistan. About the author. You are invited to join the discussion there or follow on Twitter. |
Point of Contact: Steph in the Rocklands seeing the fruits of her training and focusing on the process. Photo by Jean Michael Auffant. Here is a bit of personal history. There was a time in my life when I was very much concerned with spirituality. Having been raised the way I was, this makes sense, Even as I slowly lost my faith in Christianity, certain foundational ideas stayed mostly in place and proved much more resilient to my doubts. The belief in the soul, in the spiritual portion of my existence, was one of these ideas fundamental to the religion I was raised in that stayed around much longer than the more dogmatic constructions built around it. During this period, I was, predictably, attracted to ideologies and philosophies that seemed to reaffirm this belief. I read the works of thinkers like Hesse, Coelho, and Castaneda and studied Hinduism, Sufi poets, and Tibetan Buddhism. This portion in my life culminated in a 7-week, impromptu trip to India and Nepal, during which I effectively lost all my remaining belief in spirituality. That last statement is not quite accurate. It would be better to say I effectively lost those remaining remnants of my religious being. It isn’t necessarily that I stopped believing in them, but I stopped considering them worth my time in talking about and maybe even in thinking about. I had an incredibly intense experience in India and Nepal, places that are, here in the West, considered to be the most spiritual places on earth and revered by spiritualist writers for centuries past and well into the present. I saw the Taj Mahal in Agra, and I walked around the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu. I wandered through the temples that seemed to be everywhere in both countries. I stood on ground that has been continuously occupied by civilization for millennia and felt the power of that history. I visited places of worship that had been built thousands of years ago and could feel the latent, human faith that gave these spaces their solemn weight. I watched the faithful bathe in the Ganges. Hell, I even saw the ashram where The Beatles wrote the White Album. But that wasn’t all I saw. I also saw children, thinner than I thought possible, begging for money because they were worth more to their parents doing that than in school. I saw trash choking the cities. I saw men and women defecating in the open, or even in their own water supplies. I saw men covered in boils, children missing limbs, women not allowed to look me in the eye. I was in the most spiritual place in the world, and I saw the faults in my own beliefs. Let me switch gears for a moment; I had started climbing only a few years before I embarked on this trip; indeed, that 7 weeks is the longest break I have ever taken from climbing. Climbing was a serious thing for me from the start; I fell in love with it immediately, and this passion inclined me to take the lessons I learned from climbing seriously, to ponder them and to apply them into the rest of my life. One of the early things I learned through climbing was the importance of the mind/body balance. One of the beliefs I had been raised to with, a belief that survived my loss of faith in Christianity and extended into my more free-form spirituality, was that, when I died, I would receive a whole new body in heaven. Unconsciously, this belief led me to forsake my own, physical body. I smoked cigarettes. I ate fast food. I drank soda and never water. I simply did not care, and why should I? The only verse I knew about taking care of my body was in the Old Testament, in which there were a whole lot of rules no one seemed to care about, and that verse was interpreted, in my family, to be anti-tattoos and piercings rather than anti-red meat or cake. This lack of concern with my body only intensified when I left Christianity behind and began to foster a spirituality fed by thinkers like Ginsberg and Huxley. Climbing gave me a whole new perspective. I wanted to improve, and I eventually reached the point where, to do so, I had to learn to take care of myself. For the first time in my life, I became intimately aware of the nuances of my body and realized the dangers in ignoring it. In this light, the emphasis on spirituality I had previously engaged in, an emphasis that allowed me to abuse my body with no feelings of moral wrongdoing, seemed almost sinister (I realize that not all spiritual beliefs engage in this logic; this is simply what I took from it at the time, reading, as I was, accounts of the Hindu and Buddhist ascetics keeping their arms over their heads until it withered away or meditating facing a cave wall until their legs rotted off). Indeed, walking through the streets of New Delhi, seeing the crushing poverty much of the population lived in while some enjoyed incredible wealth and freedom, struck me hard. I had heard religion referred to as the opiate of the masses, had heard of how medieval Christianity emphasized verses like “the meek shall inherent the earth” and “blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” as a way to keep lower classes content with their position in life despite their suffering and the ruling class’s pleasure. Now I was watching it happen in the modern world, specifically through the vestigial effects of the caste system and the aspects of Hindu belief related to it. It was through these experiences that I began to gradually take the energy I had put into thinking about spirituality and shift it over to climbing. As I continued to climb, I thought more and more about this and continued to become more in tune with my body. Through this progression, the importance of the balance of the mind and body, not of the emphasis of one over the other, continued to impress itself upon me. During this time, I also began to train with more dedication and noticed the effects in my climbing. My body was changing through this process, as was my mind. By training, I solidified the lesson my dad had tried to teach me my whole life: hard work is necessary in almost anything worth doing. This work ethic that I learned through climbing is what got me through grad school, and it brought up more thoughts about India and my lost spirituality. I remember being very much affected when I first began reading Ayn Rand. For someone like me, her characters seemed like an ideal. They were strong, self-assured, intelligent, talented, and changed the world around them into their own images despite the efforts of a lesser culture that surrounded them and hounded their achievements. I wanted to be like John Galt, and it is this desire that eventually revealed to me the flaws in Rand’s storytelling. As I read these books and looked at my own life, training all the while, I saw a gap. Rand’s characters, much like the ideas in many of the new age spiritual books I was reading at the same time, were presented to the reader fully-formed, already perfect in their way. There was nothing in the development of these ideas and characters to guide to the novitiate into an existence like theirs. They engaged in a type of Nietzschean or perhaps Machiavellian logic: the strong are just that and always will be. The same goes for the weak. The tension between these ideologies and real life is rather well portrayed in Tolstoy’s War and Peace; we all wish we were Prince Andrei, but in truth we are more like Pierre. How can you turn one into the other? Again, climbing provided me with some insight. When I began climbing, I had the opposite body of what would make for the kind of climber I wanted to be (aka, Sharma). I had played soccer most my life, so I had little to no upper body strength and thighs that were much larger than necessary. Over time, however, that changed. Through training, through effort and dedication, through a willingness to confront my weaknesses and to seek a path over them by taking a holistic and contextual view of my climbing, through a long-term viewpoint, I slowly improved. I began to change. I learned that the Self can be changed, can be guided into something new, but I also learned that this process requires more than just a desire and that it often changes more than just the things you want it to. My life is completely different now than I thought it would be when I read those works mentioned above. I can’t help but think about this whenever I hear the latest fitness craze promising quick results or the newest feel-good philosophy promising happiness and moral certainty. These fads are mostly alike in that they offer an end goal with the promise of minimal investment and sacrifice. Get fit in only 30 minutes a day. Achieve nirvana and keep your social standing. The logic here is the same: achieve result A (where A is a desirable) by doing/thinking B (where B is some sort of overly-generic, made to fit all solution) without giving up C (where C is the life you currently live.). The fact is, this doesn’t work. This kind of logic does not result in long term change. Like Pierre’s life shows us, we have to go through an arduous journey if we really want to achieve any kind of enlightenment. We have to be willing to put the hours in at the gym, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. And then we die. This reminds me of an important idea I learned about studying Zen a few years ago, one that I often think about now. In the past, I tended to view enlightenment, the spiritual awakening promised in many of these books, as a sort of finality of being. Once achieved, I thought, that was it; life would fall into place. I think this is the promise that attracts so many people to so many lifestyle fads, but this just isn’t the way of it. Zen talks about levels of enlightenment, about how, after a satori, the push to improve must continue. Zen literature is full of warning stories of adherents that achieve a small piece of awakening and then stop, thinking they have achieved the end goal when there is so much more to push for. The fact of the matter is that the journey towards enlightenment never ends; indeed, that result is only a small part of the point. The and final fourth Noble Truth in Buddhism is the journey itself, an idea that emphasizes not where you end up but what it takes to get there. The same is true in climbing, though sometimes we lose sight of this. A significant send is a singular moment in time that represents the culmination of all the effort that led to it. But this moment is not the end of the story. There is always another, more challenging climb to push for. There is always more work to be done. |
Treasury Secretary nominee Stephen Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton arrive for the Presidential Inauguration of Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington. | Getty Treasury inspector general reviewing Mnuchin trip to Kentucky The flight Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton took to Kentucky via government plane last week is under review by the Treasury’s inspector general. Counsel Rich Delmar told The Washington Post late Thursday that the inspector general’s office is “reviewing the circumstances of the Secretary’s August 21 flight . . . to determine whether all applicable travel, ethics, and appropriation laws and policies were observed.” Story Continued Below “When our review is complete, we will advise the appropriate officials, in accordance with the Inspector General Act and established procedures,” he said. Mnuchin visited Kentucky to view the gold stockpile at Fort Knox. Also on the trip were Republican Kentucky lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Gov. Matt Bevin and Rep. Brett Guthrie. Linton drew attention to the trip afterward, when she got into an argument in the comments section of her Instagram account. She had posted a picture of her departing a government plane and highlighted the various designer clothing brands she was wearing. Morning Money Political intelligence on Washington and Wall Street — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. After that brief controversy, the trip drew criticism on the grounds that Mnuchin and Linton viewed the solar eclipse while in Kentucky. The Treasury department has described the flight as a business trip and says it was appropriate. |
Seeing the pics of all the Blood Blockade Battlefront cosplayers at Anime Expo this last weekend reminded us of how Dark Horse was an early adopter ^_^ Back in 2011, when we heard that one of our favorite artists, Yasuhiro Nightow (creator of Trigun and Gungrave), was drawing a new manga series called Blood Blockade Battlefront, we began to publish it in English; seven volumes are available now, and an eighth is on the way. It’s often the case (even in Japan) that people don’t discover the original manga until an anime version of it comes out, and with Nightow’s Trigun things happened the other way around; the anime first came out in 1998 (there were no English-language simulcasts in those days) and Dark Horse began to release the manga five years later, in 2003; we put out the Trigun Multiple Bullets anthology as recently as 2013. But we had every confidence that Nightow’s wild characters, creations, and storytelling energy would make for another great anime show sooner or later, and so it has: Hope Chapman of Anime News Network recently called it the best anime show of the spring. So if you haven’t picked it up yet, take it right back to the source and check out the Blood Blockade Battlefront manga from Dark Horse! |
Neighbors of the International House Of Pancakes on 14th Street can breathe easy this week--the overwhelming, nauseating stench of bacon issuing from the breakfast chain will disappear soon thanks to a new $42,000 odor-killing machine. "It knocks down virtually all of the odor and almost all the noise,” owner Ed Sannepieco told The Local East Village of the apparatus while taking a break from an IHOP conference in Washington, D.C. Installation of the "smog hog"--which could involve the use of a crane-- will close down the 24/7 restaurant for a whole 12 hours. “It’s a commitment,” Sannepieco said. “And one that we’re glad to make.” The bacon stink has been haunting neighbors since the IHOP opened in September. "I am an owner of one of the apartments that gets the brunt of the smell," one nearby resident recently wrote to EV Grieve. "I literally had to move out and find someone to rent the apartment to. No one would buy it. Everybody said it smells like bacon. The new tenant says it doesn't bother him so much, but I don't think he is home too much — plus he's been there for winter only, we'll see what happens when he starts opening his windows." |
From the return of an underground classic to the rebirth of a superhero, here are some of the titles to pick up in late 2016 and early 2017 Exits by Daryl Seitchik (Koyama Press, September) Seitchik follows up her Ignatz award-nominated Missy comics with a debut graphic novel focusing on mirror-store clerk Claire Kim, who hates herself and the world she lives in. Claire spends her days showing customers their reflections while dreaming about erasing her own: a wish that ends up coming true. ZA Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Drawn and Quarterly Cheap Novelties by Ben Katchor (Drawn & Quarterly, September) Subtitled The Pleasures of Urban Decay, this collection of one-page strips featuring real-estate photographer Julius Knipl was originally published in 1991. Twenty-five years on, its observations of what is lost as cityscapes evolve and shift due to gentrification and changing demographics are still fresh and relevant. DB Equinoxes by Cyril Pedrosa (NBM, September) The second of Pedrosa’s books to be given an English translation, Equinoxes promises to be another work of watercoloured gorgeousness. Divided into four sections (to correlate with each season), it follows several unconnected people who, as they seek equilibrium and meaning, begin to cross paths. ZA Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mooncop. Photograph: Drawn & Quarterly Mooncop by Tom Gauld (Drawn & Quarterly, September) Gauld will be no stranger to Guardian readers, with his cartoons appearing in the paper and online every Saturday. In Mooncop, he turns his deceptively simple style to a tale that is both heartwarming and sad; the story of the last policeman on the moon at a time when the novelty of the lunar lifestyle is fading for almost everyone else. DB Photograph: Koyama Press Cat Rackham by Steve Wolfhard (Koyama Press, September) Wolfhard’s early, out-of-print Cat Rackham comics are collected here in one satisfyingly comprehensive volume. Although it fills him with existential dread, Rackham still gets out of bed every morning to somehow, yet again, find himself mired in trouble of the strangest kind. ZA Fatherson by Richie Pope (Youth in Decline, September) Pope’s career has been on a rising trajectory these past few years, as he established himself with layered, sophisticated narratives such as last year’s Newdini, and his superlative illustration work. This latest book, a touching and surreal narrative of fatherhood, looks set to further cement his reputation as a fine contemporary talent. ZA Photograph: Self Made Hero Dalí by Baudoin (Self Made Hero, October) Self Made Hero continues its trend of exemplary graphic biography with this piece on Salvador Dalí by French creator Edmond Baudoin. The three-time Angoulême international comics festival award winner was commissioned by the Pompidou Centre to put together this look at the life and work of the surrealist extraordinaire. DB Facebook Twitter Pinterest Detail from the cover of Nightlights. Photograph: Nobrow Nightlights by Lorena Alvarez (Nobrow, October) An impressive year for Nobrow looks set to continue with Alvarez’s charming children’s story about fear and creativity: “Every night, tiny stars appear out of the darkness in little Sandy’s bedroom. She catches them and creates wonderful creatures to play with until she falls asleep, and in the morning brings them back to life in the whimsical drawings that cover her room.” Until somebody finds out. ZA Photograph: Oni Press Space Battle Lunchtime by Natalie Reiss (Oni Press, October) GBBO and Masterchef fever makes its way to comics – with a galactic twist. Amateur pastry chef Peony finds herself the sole earthling contestant in a popular TV cooking competition. Excited about the opportunity of a lifetime, doubts soon arise as Peony realises that the show shoots on location – on a spaceship – and her alien competitors don’t play nice! Reiss brings the story to life with some joyfully expressive, colourful art. ZA Facebook Twitter Pinterest Detail from the cover of Rolling Blackouts. Photograph: Drawn & Quarterly Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden (Drawn & Quarterly, October) Continuing the grand tradition of graphic journalism most eminently practised by Joe Sacco, Sarah Glidden’s remarkable Rolling Blackouts adds a new twist to the form. Glidden accompanies a team of journalists through Syria and Iraq and her muted watercolours record not only the lives of people in war zones but the way the media interacts with them. Highly recommended. DB Photograph: Self Made Hero Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by MR James, Leah Moore and John Reppion (Self Made Hero, October) James’s ghost stories have been fertile ground for adaptions on TV and radio: now husband-and-wife writer team Moore and Reppion, along with four different artists, have brought four of James’s most famous and well-loved spectral tales – Canon Alberic’s Scrap-book, Lost Hearts, The Mezzotint and The Ash-tree – to graphic novel form (and just in time for Halloween). DB Liberty Annual 2016 (Image, November) This yearly release from Image comics features a wealth of graphic talent telling the stories of true heroes who have made a difference in the world. Ordinary people who take a stand, suffragettes, campaigners and activists all get a look in from creators including Mary and Bryan Talbot, Paul Pope and Anina Bennett, with proceeds going to the censorship-busting Comic Book Legal Defence Fund. DB Photograph: Cinebook Clear Blue Tomorrows by Fabien Vehlmann, Ralph Meyer and Bruno Gazzotti (Cinebook, November) Clear Blue Tomorrows provides an amusing dystopian set-up: engineer Nolan Ska travels back in time to prevent the ruling dictatorship made possible by the inventions of one FG Wilson. His plan? To encourage Wilson’s first career of novelist. But the man who will eventually become a seemingly immortal despot turns out to be a poor author, and it’s up to Nolan to serve as his ghost writer. ZA Sunny by Taiyo Matsumoto (Viz, November) Taking its name from the dilapidated yellow Nissan Sunny used by the residents of a children’s care home as a refuge and play area, this is the sixth and final volume in Matsumoto’s melancholy, beautiful series. Each chapter serves as a story in itself, with Matsumoto’s art reinforcing the emotional current of the narrative: dreamlike, yet rooted in something tangibly real. ZA Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Image Comics Paper Girls, Volume Two (Image, November) Brian K Vaughan, Cliff Chiang and Matt Wilson’s homage to 1980s horror and sci-fi is a delight; think Stranger Things but with more girls and more aliens. It’s probably not wise to leap into Vaughan’s convoluted plot with this second collection of the monthly comic, but you’ve still got time to catch up with book one before this is out. DB Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Image Comics Rumble 3: Immortal Coil by James Harren and John Arcudi (Image, December) Formerly a great warrior who has been reduced to a sorry, vestigial creature, Rathraq looks to avenge himself with the help of Bobby and Del, a couple of “normal” twentysomethings. The third instalment in what is an overlooked gem, this series is filled with wit, heart and fantastic art from Harren. A stellar example of how entertaining and impressive graphic storytelling can be. ZA Facebook Twitter Pinterest Detail from the cover of Harrow County volume 4. Photograph: Dark Horse Harrow County Volume 4: Family Tree by Cullen Bunn (Dark Horse, February 2017) Harrow County is one of the best and creepiest horror titles on the market, from writer Bunn and artist Tyler Crook. True southern gothic, it’s steeped in rural folklore and dark doings in the woods, with teenager Emmy discovering she is the carrier of a shadowy, witchy legacy, in a landscape haunted by creatures and myths both benign and alarming. DB Photograph: DC Comics Wonder Woman: Rebirth by Greg Rucka (DC, March 2017) In her 75th year, Diana of Themyscira – Wonder Woman to you and me – gets the DC Rebirth treatment, a new project by the comics giant to reposition their classic characters in a bid to make some sense of their tangled continuity. Writer Rucka, with artists Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp, has been making Diana relevant for 2016 since summer in monthly comic form; the collected edition of this beautiful new series is out in spring. DB Uncomfortably Happily by Yeon-Sik Hong (D&Q, March 2017) Drawn & Quarterly brings Korean cartoonist Yeon-Sik Hong’s acclaimed tale – of a young couple who leave the noise of the city in order to live off the land – to English for the first time. Her characters soon discover that living remotely on a mountain-top comes with a unique set of obstacles, as they tend their crops, fight depression in the intense solitude, and tramp through snow on grocery runs. ZA Facebook Twitter Pinterest Detail from the cover of the forthcoming issue of Love and Rockets. Photograph: Supplied 'There's nothing like it in comics' … how Love and Rockets broke the rules Read more Love and Rockets by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics, autumn) Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez are the darlings of the independent comics scene thanks to their 35 years spent creating Love and Rockets. These anthologies are most famous for Jaime’s punky Locas stories, featuring Maggie and Hopey, and Gilbert’s epic Heartbreak Soup, set in a remote South American village. After a few years being released in album form annually, they’re returning to regular magazine publication this autumn. DB |
Locales Pese a considerar que le corresponde, el TCR entiende que el ex vicepresidente no está dentro de las excepciones mencionadas y debe cobrar recién a partir de febrero de 2020. El Tribunal de Cuentas tiene pronto un escrito en el que responde la consulta realizada por la presidenta del Senado, Lucía Topolansky, quien envió al TCR la decisión de pagarle a Sendic unos 13 mil dólares mensuales por un año. El fin de semana, Sendic se refirió a su situación señalando que es el único ingreso que tiene y planteó que la polémica que se generó en torno a su subsidio debe a una cuestión personal. Según informó este martes el diario El País, el fallo no cuestiona varios puntos que estuvieron arriba de la mesa en la discusión previa a la decisión de Topolansky, como el hecho de que el vicepresidente sea un legislador o que el subsidio le corresponda. El literal 10 del artículo 77 de la Constitución sostiene que “ningún Legislador ni Intendente que renuncie a su cargo después de incorporado al mismo, tendrá derecho al cobro de ninguna compensación ni pasividad que pudiera corresponderle en razón del cese de su cargo, hasta cumplido el período completo para el que fue elegido”. Sin embargo prevé una serie de excepciones: “ Esta disposición no comprende a los casos de renuncia por enfermedad debidamente justificada ante Junta Médica, ni a los autorizados expresamente por los tres quintos de votos del total de componentes del Cuerpo a que correspondan, ni a los Intendentes que renuncien tres meses antes de la elección para poder ser candidatos”. A partir de la interpretación de esas excepciones es que se da la discusión, para unos el aspirante al subsidio debe conseguir los tres quintos en su renuncia-lo que Sendic tiene- pero para otros es el subsidio mismo el que debe ser ratificado por esa mayoría para lograr la excepción. Si el Tribunal observar el gasto, Topolansky bien puede reiterar el gasto de la Asamblea General y pagarle a Sendic o puede aceptarlo y comenzar a pagarle en febrero de 2020. Montevideo Portal |
AndyMead said: ↑ Was the Skipper meeting in 2006 or 2000? I remember MLS being bundled into the 2002 WC rights. Click to expand... Together, they started clapping. Philip Anschutz. Bob Kraft. Tim Leiweke. Clark Hunt. When MLS Commissioner Don Garber introduced CONCACAF General Secretary and FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer at a 2006 MLS board of governors meeting, the room swelled with applause. And while no one can remember who started it, everyone can remember why it began. At a FIFA executive committee meeting months earlier, Blazer had stood up and asked his FIFA colleagues not to approve a $350 million bid from NBC for the 2010 and 2014 World Cup rights. Granting NBC the rights, he argued, would hurt soccer’s exposure in the U.S. because NBC wouldn’t televise MLS or other international competition. Blazer asked for a few weeks to find an alternative, not because he had insider knowledge that a higher bid was in the works, but simply a hunch that other networks would offer a better deal. Blazer worked with Garber to eventually put together a deal for Univision and ESPN to buy the rights for $325 million and $100 million, respectively. This Friday, both broadcasters will televise the first game of the 2010 World Cup, and they have Blazer to thank for it. He changed the way the nation will watch the World Cup and established himself as the most important and influential American in sports’ most global game. A quarter-century later, American soccer has become an athletic and economic powerhouse, due substantially to the contributions of Blazer. He helped win Major League Soccer’s first real TV contract, and just last month the MLS inked a $720 million TV deal. ... Blazer’s influence wasn’t limited to these shores: He helped organize the Gold Cup, the Confederations Cup, and the Club World Cup, lucrative tournaments that improved the play of national and professional teams around the world. He also became the first American in almost half a century on the executive committee of FIFA, instilling a business-first culture in world soccer’s governing body and persuading it to take control of its own television rights, turning the money-losing organization into a profit machine. |
From the fish out of water department: Landlubbers leery of getting their feet wet can live vicariously by visiting these 10 swell ship-shaped buildings. Wanlihao Ship Building – Chengdu, China (image via: littledutchboy) If the Wanlihao Ship Building was an attempt to make the Chinese city of Chengdu famous for something other than pandas and spicy food, then a hearty pat on the back goes to its designers. Ditto for Flickr user littledutchboy for capturing and posting the image above. (images via: Kevin Fitchard and SOSO, 55tuan) This rather large waterfront edifice houses a number of businesses and services including several seafood restaurants and the exclusive-sounding Flagship Club… sounds like the kind of place Judge Smails and Thurston Howell III might hang out at. As for being just a tad gaudy and ostentatious, well, you oughta see it at night! Public Restroom – Chennai, India (images via: Kevin Fitchard and Lydia Depillis) If you were expecting a “poop deck” joke, forget abou… oh. Anyway, this public restroom in the city of Chennai, India doesn’t just look like a brick ship house, it’s built like one too. The top photo from iTravelnet dates from March of 2007 while the lower image from Lydia Depillis taken in the summer of 2012 shows significant deterioration. We’ll leave the state of the interior to your imagination. Museum of Maritime Science – Tokyo, Japan (images via: Funegasuki and Home Designing Weblog, Penta-Ocean) The Museum of Maritime Science (Fune-no-Kagakukan in Japanese) in Odaiba dates from 1974 and was one of the first buildings at that location constructed on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay… perhaps the contractors were hedging their bets a bit. The scale of the building is highlighted by the 83-meter (273ft) long Antarctic icebreaker Soya moored just offshore. (image via: TKFuruse) The ship-like styling is purely intentional; inside visitors will find a veritable 3D history book that takes one back to the era of the Shoguns, forward through the destructive Second World War and into the present era. Models of the Yamato – the world’s largest battleship – share space with those of civilian and military ships, submarines and seaplanes. Huntington Ingalls Industries Building – Newport News, VA, USA (images via: HII and The Arts Adventurer) Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is America’s largest shipbuilder and the ONLY one able to design and build the nation’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The company’s headquarters building in Newport News reflects the firm’s long history (it was known until 2008 as Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding) and continuing focus on shipbuilding. |
Seattle Fire Battalion Chief Tamalyn Nigretto, the incident commander at the Greenwood explosion and Ride the Ducks crash, says the department has gone out its way to hide her, her accomplishments and those of other females in the fire service. Seattle Fire Department Battalion Chief Tamalyn Nigretto says it was like a slap in the face when she saw a lieutenant being interviewed on television about the Greenwood explosion. Nothing against him, but she had been the incident commander — the ranking commander at the scene and in charge of the response — when the natural-gas blast leveled two buildings last week, yet she had not been asked to speak to the media. She also was not invited to the fire station where Gov. Jay Inslee personally congratulated the fire crew, including some who, like Nigretto, were injured in the March 9 explosion. For the 16-year battalion chief — one of two women to hold that rank in the department — those two slights were “the final straw.” Nigretto, 57, a member of the department since 1987, has been the incident commander at a number of high-profile call-outs, including the Greenwood explosion and September’s deadly Ride the Ducks crash. She says she has applied for, and been denied, promotions regularly since 1999. Last Tuesday, Nigretto’s wife, Lise Ellner, wrote a letter to Fire Chief Harold Scoggins, Mayor Ed Murray and Inslee criticizing the department for failing to “recognize and appreciate Chief Nigretto’s extraordinary accomplishments in successfully managing Seattle’s most devastating and catastrophic incidents.” The Fire Department says there was no deliberate attempt to ignore Nigretto or her contributions. “None of this was intended, and I feel bad Chief Nigretto feels that way,” said Scoggins. “Chief Nigretto did a great job (at Greenwood). Everyone did a great job, but I didn’t reach out to anyone individually.” According to Fire Department spokeswoman Corey Orvold, Lt. Edward Newell was asked to speak at the news conference the day after the Greenwood explosion because he had already agreed to a TV interview. Orvold also said that Inslee’s visit to the first-responders in Greenwood was impromptu and unplanned and that no slight to Nigretto was intended. Nonetheless, Nigretto says the two incidents underscore how difficult it has been for women to make their mark and advance in a field dominated by white men. Letting the public know that she was in charge of the Ride the Ducks crash, which made international news, would have been “a great platform for the department to celebrate the accomplishments of women and to recruit women and minorities,” she said. “Instead, they’ve gone out of their way not to contact me or give me an opportunity to speak,” she said. “ I would have loved to have met the governor and to be part of mentoring women and girls who might see me and think, ’Whoa! I could do that.’ ” Nigretto said there have been few meaningful efforts to recruit women to the fire service and little chance for advancement through the ranks. In the department’s history, only two women have served as deputy chiefs. Scoggins, who has been with the department just under a year, agrees the department needs to do a better job when it comes to recruiting women and minorities. He said that one of the mayor’s initiatives has been to bring more women and minorities into the Fire Department. “Our numbers aren’t where they should be on any level,” said Scoggins. “However, I don’t see this as an overnight process.” To entice more minority and female recruits, the department recently removed the requirement that firefighter applicants be emergency-medical technicians. That training will now be provided by the Fire Department, a move that will increase the total number of applicants, including women and minorities. There has been some success, Scoggins said. Between 2013 and 2015, he said, the percentage of white males in the department has declined, while the number of minorities, except for Alaskan Natives and Native Americans, increased. However, the overwhelming number of firefighters are male and white. Out of a total of 1,006 firefighters, 766 are white males and 78 are females. “I think in the ’90s and early 2000s we didn’t do so well and we’re not where we should be, but I believe our recruitment efforts are having an impact,” Scoggins said. The city’s first female firefighter, Barbara “Bonnie” Beers, was hired in 1977. By the time Nigretto was hired 10 years later, there were 54 female firefighters and by 1992, she and four other women had held the rank of lieutenant, captain and battalion chief. She said that after she was denied a position as deputy chief last year, she asked Scoggins why she was not promoted and he told her that she has an edge to her, a sharpness. “I need you to dull that,” she said he told her. She concedes that she is a stickler for correct action and training. “I want the people I work with to be safe and I want things done right. Would they hold that against me if I were a man? No, they would say he holds people accountable.” Scoggins, who is black, agreed that he told her she had “a hardness” to her that he feared would prevent subordinates from feeling they “could open up to her.” However, he said, Nigretto “is well thought of and well respected” and that she is not the only unsuccessful candidate who questioned his selection and told him they thought they were more qualified than the people he chose. Nevertheless, he said he believes he promoted the right people. Nigretto said that after her wife sent the letter to Scoggins, she decided to speak up about what she described as institutional sexism. She said she is not seeking anything for herself nor is she motivated by pride. “It would have been nice to be told I did a good job, but I’m past that. I’m doing this for the all the women who come after me.” |
ALBION have completed the signing of one of China's brightest young football talents. Yuning Zhang, a 20-year-old striker who has been playing with Vitesse Arnhem in the Eredevisie since 2015, has been recruited on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee. But Baggies fans will have to be patient for a glimpse of the China international in action in the Club's famous stripes after Albion agreed an immediate two-year loan for Zhang with Bundesliga outfit Werder Bremen. Albion describe the deal as a "development project" for one of the biggest names in Chinese football in the hope that Zhang can one day make a breakthrough at Premier League level. The Club have also made it clear that the investment sits outside the ring-fenced transfer budget for strengthening Albion's Premier League squad for the forthcoming campaign. With China currently outside the top 50 of FIFA's world rankings, a work permit would be ruled out for Yuning and the chance to play in Germany's top division is seen as an ideal alternative nurturing ground. The deal also aligns strongly with the commercial strategy of Albion's controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai in his efforts to grow the Club's profile in his homeland. Zhang's signature for the Baggies is expected to trigger unprecedented interest in the Far East in the only Chinese-owned Premier League club. Richard Garlick, Albion's Director of Football Administration, flew to Germany this week to tie up the details of the three-club deal and said: "Zhang will get the chance to further develop at Bremen, with whom we have an excellent relationship. "He will be challenging for a place in a top European league and we will be monitoring his progress before reassessing his prospects at the end of the loan period. There is no doubt he has a lot of qualities which Bremen are well-positioned to grow and develop. "His progress will be the subject of great interest here at Albion but also in Germany and in China. "There is no doubt that there are commercial benefits that come with the deal but the primary target is to help develop one of the best young players in a booming corner of the football industry." Yuning is a hugely popular figure in China where he caused a major stir by scoring two goals on his international debut against Trinidad & Tobago a year ago. He has subsequently been regularly included by new "Team Dragon" manager Marcello Lippi. Yuning also became the first Chinese player to score in the Erevedisie following his transfer to Vitesse from his first Chinese club Hangzhou Greentown. |
On this week’s episode of The One Piece Podcast we have some special guests to take us through a special One Piece chapter. On our Manga Recap for Chapter 793, “Tiger and Dog” we have Greg Werner (columnist for Shueisha’s V-Jump and One-Piece.com, the official One Piece website) and Bryan Newton (animation director for Rick and Morty and Teen Titans Go). We also have Joseph “Jammer” Medina (author of Dangerous Faces) joining us for our Piece Together segment and Jose Argumedo (production assistant for CNN) stops by to tell us about our One Piece Podcast Goes to Japan screening and panel at Otakon! Today’s episode is sponsored by SquareSpace! Enter the promo code “OnePiece” to save 10% at check out. SquareSpace: build it beautiful. Plans start at $8 a month and include a free domain for a year! We are happy to announce that we will be at Otakon to show “The One Piece Podcast Goes to Japan” with a Q&A and prizes! We’ll have Zach, Ed, Jose and The Dude at the panel, so check it out on Sunday, July 26th from 9:00AM to 11:30AM. Today on the podcast, we go through a relatively Earth-shattering chapter and violent episode. This is essential listening for those curious about the details of this chapter and the fallout from the Dressrosa arc: 0:00:00 Introduction 0:04:02 Manga Recap: Chapter 793 1:16:07 Intermission 1:22:05 Anime Recap: Episode 701 1:38:51 Piece Together 2:57:10 To Be Continued Support The One Piece Podcast on Patreon and help make the podcast bigger and better! On Thursday we’ll have the ninth episode of our Great One Piece Readthrough covering Volumes 46-50 (Thriller Bark arc). For everyone else, we’ll see you on Monday for a recap of Chapter 794 and Episode 702! We are MAJI! |
City Club Apartments CBD Detroit to be built at Washington Park Avenue Project will have 288 units and retail space $70 million development received $1 million in brownfield funding A groundbreaking event is planned in the next 30 days for hundreds of new apartments on the site of the former Statler Hotel in downtown Detroit, the project's developer said Tuesday. The newly branded City Club Apartments CBD Detroit, being developed by Detroit-based City Club Apartments LLC, is expected to have 288 units and 12,000 square feet of retail space. Workers have been at the project site at Washington Boulevard and Park Avenue for several weeks doing preconstruction work. Jonathan Holtzman, founder and CEO of City Club Apartments LLC, said in a statement to Crain's that "significant details" about retail and restaurant tenants are expected to be announced at the groundbreaking. A date for the event has not been set, although a spokesman said it's expected next month. In June, the approximately $70 million development received $1 million in brownfield funding. In a May interview, Holtzman said construction would take about 16 months to complete, with the first apartments being available within a year of construction beginning. Last year, Holtzman, the former CEO of multifamily real estate giant Village Green Cos., split from the Farmington Hills-based company that traces its roots back to Holtzman's grandfather, Joseph. He then founded City Club Apartments with Canadian investor Alan Greenberg. The company said it has $2 billion in real estate assets and $500 million under development or construction in Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Louisville and along the East Coast. |
A “Black Lives Matter” protest in Baltimore in December (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun) This post has been updated Both major political parties have given their blessing to two of the most prominent activist groups associated with the Black Lives Matter protest movement — the #BlackLivesMatter network and Campaign Zero — to host a presidential town hall focused on issues of racial justice. Activists had called on the Democratic National Committee to add an additional presidential debate to its schedule, however both the DNC and the Republican National Committee have said they will not alter their formal debate schedule. Instead, both parties have said they would support the activists hosting a townhall or forum -- which would not be a formal debate and the 2016 candidates could participate without fear of repercussion from their parties. In letters addressed to leaders of the #BlackLivesMatter network and prominent activist DeRay Mckesson, the DNC invited the activist groups to coordinate and host a presidential town hall similar to those currently being planned by some state-level Democratic parties and some liberal groups including MoveOn.org. 'We believe that your organization would be an ideal host for a presidential candidate forum — where all of the Democratic candidates can showcase their ideas and policy positions that will expand opportunity for all, strengthen the middle class and address racism in America," wrote Amy K. Dacey, chief executive officer of the DNC, in the letters which were obtained by The Post. "The DNC would be happy to help promote the event." In a statement issued Thursday, the RNC noted that while its official debate schedule has long been finalized, about 30 presidential forums like the one Mckesson is proposing have been previously announced. "We continue to encourage our candidates to speak with all voters when given the opportunity," said Orlando Watson, a spokesman for the RNC. "This presidential candidate forum, like Senator Tim Scott’s town halls, is such an opportunity." The statements of support from the DNC and RNC of a Black Lives Matter townhall come after organizers with the #BlackLivesMatter network — an activist collective with the same name often applied to the broader protest movement — called on the DNC to sanction an additional debate themed around issues of racial justice, which was only referenced once during the CNN presidential debate in Las Vegas earlier this month. [Why Hillary Clinton and her rivals are struggling to grasp Black Lives Matter] In an interview on Wednesday, Black Lives Matter organizer Elle Hearns said the umbrella group had yet to decide if it would proceed with an attempt to host a town hall, and said that she was still personally disappointed that the DNC will not sanction an additional debate. "Their response to our request is unsatisfactory,' Hearns said, and added that it is irresponsible for the Democratic National Committee to host so few debates. "Debbie Wasserman Schultz should be more mindful of her responsibility not only to the DNC, but to the American people." Mckesson, however, said he has been in talks with DNC and RNC officials to coordinate a presidential town hall including all of the candidates of both major parties. Activists, many of whom were politically unaffiliated prior to the current protest movement, continue to grapple with how to best influence the ongoing presidential campaign. While many of the most prominent activists and organizers have gained national followings, and most of the leading presidential campaigns -- especially in the Democratic field -- have worked to ensure they remain in the movement's good graces. [Black Lives Matter movement finds influencing 2016 contest a challenge] In a letter McKesson sent to DNC officials earlier this week, Mckesson noted the national conversation about race and criminal justice prompted in large part by the protests following the August 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. "The issues of police violence, state violence, mass incarceration, and the impact of systematic inequity have been at the forefront of these conversations and they should also be centered during the 2016 Presidential Campaign," Mckesson wrote. "We have an opportunity to create space for a robust and transformational conversation about a set of issues that are key to millions of voters." In an interview on Wednesday, Mckesson said he hopes to secure commitments from all current presidential candidates — both Democrats and Republicans — and that he has begun reaching out to potential venues and corporate partners. Mckesson said he has reached out to contacts at Twitter, the social network on which he is one of the most prominent users, to gauge their interest in co-hosting the town hall. "We want to bring together all of the candidates, not focused on either political party, to have a conversation centered on race and criminal justice," Mckesson said. An official at Twitter confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the company is currently discussing the possibility of working with Mckesson on hosting a presidential townhall. Top Twitter executives have taken pride in the fact that the platform is credited as one of the driving factors in the growth of the protest movement. Earlier on Wednesday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey mentioned specifically mentioned the spread of the Black Lives Matter hashtag on Twitter. "Twitter stands for speaking truth to power, and we see this every single day around the world," Dorsey said during a speech at the company's 'Flight' conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. "Most recently, with the community and hashtag #BlackLivesMatter." [Elizabeth Warren just gave the speech that Black Lives Matter activists have been waiting for] The activists' response highlights differing tactics of two of the many factions of the ongoing Black Lives Matter protest movement. Activists with the #BlackLivesMatter umbrella group, which has dozens of chapters, have been among those most often picketing and interrupting candidates on the stump. Mckesson and his colleagues at Campaign Zero, a group that is not formally affiliated with the #BlackLivesMatter network, have opted instead for sit-down meetings with many of the candidates, and earlier this year released a set of detailed proposals with regard to policing policy. Brittany Packnett, another organizer with Campaign Zero and a member of President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, called the prospect of a townhall exciting, in part because it would allow activists groups more flexibility and creativity to press candidates on the issues than a highly-regulated debate would. "The lessons of history are clear, and instructive for us right now. It is both protest and policy work that will get us the win, and we need every single possible strategy at our disposal in order to see real change," Packnett said. "So I think we have an opportunity to be creative here in how we engage presidential candidates in the same way that our movement has been creative in how we have protested and created peaceful but necessary disruption around the country." The number of DNC debates during the current presidential race has been a hotly-contested issue, with several of the candidates as well as other prominent Democrats and liberal activists requesting the DNC to add more forums to its schedule. "Just like in 2004 and 2008, the DNC plans to sanction six debates and is facilitating a fair, structured, and reasonable process for and on behalf of all our candidates so they can present their case to the American people," Dacey wrote in the letter to the #BlackLivesMatter network. |
Im sure many of you have seen the party ads of Liprofanity being a scammer and that Northgate is a scammer guild. You are being lied to. Both the victims are my friends and told me what has happened. ipineapple (also known as iipineapple, Cygnix, Doraexplora and Doraexploraa) scammed my friend by saying the code didnt work and demanded back the money. Of course she didn’t want the trade log to record the money being given back to her, so she refused it and told her to drop the money. My friend feeling bad dropped it, even though telling her the code was working for her. Moments later she started party ads on Dora and the other Dora, with a bot program to spam the party ad chat and with links of SO CALLED PROOF that led to nowhere. She also scammed Ziae and calls his whole guild Northgate a scammer guild. She basically scams people and then accusing the victims of being scammers. The victims have been afraid of people believing her and so they hid in different channels on Ruairi. Afraid to the point where they transferred most of their items on different accounts, afraid of being hacked if they spoke up. Sixty knowing who Dora was saying that DORA=CYGNIX= STFU in his party ad, moments later she horn buggled using the nx she scammed. YOU MADE BRO ;) I WILL KEEP THESE PARTY ADS UP ALL WEEK. Moments later she put in her ad LIPRO/SIXTY ARE SCAMMERS. Just because someone stood up and went against her she called them a scammer WITH NO PROOF AT ALL. I met these two nice people that were almost fooled by her ads by telling them the truth. Even one person that was her friend never knew of this happening and i told them not to be fooled. I can’t stand idly by watching people being harassed if they stand up for the victims of scamming or watching as those victims get called scammers themselves. The past few days i have been making gifs and pictures of all of this going down and reporting it, but GMs are pretty busy and I need people to know the truth about this, Noone bothered asking lipro or ziae or anyone of their side of the story and people that has asked her, just got a reply of, ” I GOT SCAMMED” no proof whatsoever. Due to Ziae’s guild losing members due to these lies, i have been trying my best to restore his guild and reassuring lipro that soon there will be no reason to fear going in ch1 and playing or hanging with other people. Please Signal boost this up, Dont allow people or just one person using bot programs and multiple computers bully or accuse people like this. Or even help fight back with party ads in channel one Ruairi Dont let this continue to happen I was about to reblog the original post, but unfortunately moneko96 has deleted the post just now. First of all, I want to point out to @Moneko96 that you cannot make these assumptions nor back up a person that you think you know well without ANY form of EVIDENCE whatsoever. You’re making these claims based on your own judgement of people who are not even involved in the situation because that’s always reliable, right? Right. I highly doubt that you even bothered to do your own research, or tried to get the REAL story from both iPineapple and Liprofanity themselves. Do you really know this so called Liprofanity person? Because I was pretty confused upon realizing that this Liprofanity person, also known as Lisa, is in fact a guy pretending to be a girl. That’s right, your friend isn’t who you think they are. For those of you who are completely unaware and not familar with the current affairs, here’s a simple recap. Liprofanity sold a 10K NX code to iPineapple for 2M gold on the server Ruairi on Tuesday, December 16, 2014. Unfortunately, the code did not go through successfully, and has resulted in extreme backlash for both parties. This is as neutral as I can put it. I hope this clears the MASSIVE CONFUSION that everyone is sprouting HEY SO AND SO is doing this and that person did that! No, it was supposed to be a simple trade of 10k NX for 2m gold. “ipineapple (also known as iipineapple, Cygnix, Doraexplora and Doraexploraa) scammed my friend by saying the code didnt work and demanded back the money.” Not even half way in, and there’s already a correction needed to be made. iPineapple and Cygnix are TWO separate entity, as in two completely different people, and in no ways are they scammers. I repeat, they have done nothing wrong. “Of course she didn’t want the trade log to record the money being given back to her, so she refused it and told her to drop the money.” In this passage, you are referring to this specific screenshot that was taken which evidently shows that Liprofanity agreed to give back the 2m or so she says to iPineapple but CANCELLED THE TRADE. Now I really wished you didn’t delete your previous replies where you claim that it’s fabricated, exclaiming that anybody can take a screenshot and no one would know who cancelled it first. Ask yourself this. Why would the person who lost her 2M gold and is not receiving the 10K NX cancel a trade that would return her 2M gold back?!… Because ding ding ding that’s right, Liprofanity scammed iPineapple. Simple as that. Please please please just sit back for a bit and try to understand the situation and the next point that you make about dropping the 2m gold on the ground. Does that make ANY sense at all? iPineapple, who’s buying the code off of Liprofanity wants her 2m gold to be DROPPED on the GROUND instead of going through a trade? Here, I’ll answer for you. No it does not freaking make any sense at all. If your so called friend is telling you that she dropped the 2M gold on the ground then that should be a red flag, RIGHT THERE. Nobody, and I say nobody would ever want their items returned through a drop instead of a safer alternative which is trading. Now it’s clear that you’ve already taken sides, and will vouch for Liprofanity. That’s fine and all but at least keep your claims consistent, and ask for PROOF from Liprofanity herself or should I say himself to validate yourself. Not just fabricated one-sided stories, actual screenshots of chats, videos, anything. You are presenting a case with just word of mouth spreading across the server which is always changing user by user, without realizing that what you are saying may not have EVEN HAPPENED in the actual situation. ”She also scammed Ziae and calls his whole guild Northgate a scammer guild. She basically scams people and then accusing the victims of being scammers.” HOLD THE PHONE, what did you just say? She also scammed Ziae, k. Way to be completely vague and not explain what she did to Ziae and the Northgate guild that’s considered to be scamming. Because here’s my convo, my dear. Do you see this? Liprofanity is telling Ziae that iPineapple is refusing to take back her 2m gold.. and keeps cancelling the trade. Oh come on, really. Seriously. Do I really need to break down what’s seriously so wrong with just that phrase in which I’ve already said above? There is no reason for iPineapple to NOT take back her money nor would she cancel the trade. So tell me right now, where in all of this bull is iPineapple scamming Ziae, Liprofanity and the entire Northgate guild? Ziae and Liprofanity are working together, period. Now the following are chat logs depicting how iPineapple is a scammer by @Moneko96, because someone can just say that out of the blue, and believe it outright. Yeah, I really want to hit my head against the wall sometimes, but not today. I am seriously so pissed off that you can actually laugh at this situation. It’s not even remotely funny at all. Each and every one of you are not taking the initiative to actually scratch the initial problem. I really hope that the person that you got banned was NOT wrongly accused, because now that’s completely unfair. Now, I’m going to go back to a point that I made above about you probably not knowing Liprofanity as well as you think you do. Again, I’m going to emphasize that Liprofanity claims to be a girl named Lisa from Ukraine. Yes, this is the so-called Liprofanity/Ukrainian girl that you’re friends with. He/she made a skype account on his/her phone in order to communicate with iPineapple. Do you see something wrong with this profile? No, not the picture or the name, but look closely at that phone number. I blurred out the remaining digits for obvious reasons, but the main point is that the area code is 571. Is that a Ukranian number like Lisa claims to be from? Let’s find out, shall we? ^ Yeah no, not even close guys. If you do a simple google search of the area code 571 then you will see that this number is nowhere even near Ukraine, not even EUROPE. This person is situated in freaking Manasass, Virginia. Now, let’s freaking dig even DEEPER because no jokes aside, there’s still something missing. Mhm k, if you look up the number on facebook, it connects directly to one specific account, and you guess it, that’s no Lisa. Not even a GIRL. Nothing that screams Ukrainian but rather just, a typical teenage boy from America trying to lie through his teeth and think he can get away with the problems he has caused on a MMORPG. I already know what you’re thinking. “What does this even tell me?”. It tells you that Liprofanity is manipulative, and will twist the story around to be in their favour because they clearly do not live up to be the person they say they are. And you know what? If your argument is going to consist of, “BUT HEY Liprofanity could’ve put a fake phone number because he/she did not want their identity to be revealed,” then here’s my answer to you. You don’t need a phone number to make an account with Skype, so why would Liprofanity intentionally put their real number on the profile? How ironic let alone coincidental that that specific number was able to track only one specific Facebook account. I’ll tell you why because when Liprofanity was making a new account through the Skype app, Lipro did not realize that the phone number field was NOT. I repeat NOT required/mandatory, so he filled it in thinking it was needed in order to make that account. This is seen below of how the skype sign up page looks like on the app: Nope, I am not done yet @moneko96. Here’s some more evidence that I want you to rebutal against. I really want you to come at me and tell me where you’re getting this claim from. And here’s the lovely screenshot that Liprofanity has given to us of his recent purchases. Please do tell me what’s wrong with this following image below. The dude claims he buys NX for cute outfits and the history is freaking empty. Nothing.. There is not ONE single transaction. It doesn’t make any sense even if you purchase them from the store like he claims. He said he buys NX to buy cute outfits… uhm HELLO the transaction should be there. The only reason why it’s empty is because Liprofanity made a completely new Nexon account just for the screenshot. Case closed. Now, Moneko, I dare you to tell me your side of the story directly from the source, not from one person to another person. Tell me what Liprofanity is really telling you, and ask her or HIM for their evidence. It doesn’t matter how many days late. There is always evidence. Until then, I am more than happy to explain and talk to you about any misunderstanding regarding this situation one on one. Got a question? Shoot me an ask. And to everyone else ganging up on iPineapple and Cygnix, please just re-read everything that I just wrote, and re-consider that A LOT and I mean A LOT of Liprofanity’s story does not add up, at all. TLDR; To all of the Ruairi server, please do not be quick to jump at the gun, and understand that there is a lot more going on than what is shown on the surface. The evidence is presented on the table for a reason, and surely justice will be served within time. I humbly thank you for reading this far, and couldn’t thank you enough for taking the time to consider our side of the story. We learned it the hard way and can only pass on the knowledge to everyone else to ALWAYS be careful when doing any transaction, and ALWAYS document your foot steps. You will be more than thankful should an issue arise. Again, I want to thank you for reading everything. |
By Ju-min Park and Sohee Kim SUNCHEON/INCHEON South Korea (Reuters) - South Korea's most wanted man, whose heavily decomposed body was found in an orchard last month, had evaded arrest by hiding behind an upstairs wall of a wooden cabin, with suitcases of cash at hand, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The body of Yoo Byung-un, 73, wanted in connection with the sinking of a ferry in April, was only identified this week, more than a month after he was found lying next to a copy of a book he had written, empty bottles of alcohol nearby, ending the country's biggest and most dramatic manhunt. "We did all we could to find Yoo and are devastated we couldn't find him alive," Kim Hoe-jong, a senior prosecutor, told a media briefing in Incheon, the city west of Seoul where the ferry began its last voyage. For two months, wanted posters offering a reward for Yoo's capture faded under the summer sun or disintegrated in the rain while thousands of police combed the country looking for a man who co-founded a church, held an exhibition of photographs at the Louvre in Paris and did jail time for fraud. On June 12, the same day farmer Park Yoon-seok found Yoo's body in his plum orchard, thousands of police and prosecutors were busy raiding Yoo's sprawling religious compound 215 km away, going as far as searching for tunnels with mechanical diggers. Yoo headed the family that owned the company that operated the Sewol, a ferry that capsized on April 16 on a journey to the holiday island of Jeju, killing about 300 people, most of them schoolchildren, and triggering an outpouring of grief across the country. KITCHEN-SINK DRAMA At the modest but well-appointed, two-storey cabin on the outskirts of Suncheon where Yoo had holed up, its entrance cordoned off by police tape, plates and other tableware could still be seen piled up beside the kitchen sink. Bags of clothes lay on the floor next to a washing machine, and bibles and a calendar still open to the month of May were visible through a window. Police raided the cabin, called "Memory in Wood", on May 25 but failed to find the multi-millionaire, who had hidden behind a wooden wall. When they returned last month, acting on testimony given by an assistant, police found two suitcases that between them contained 830 million won ($810,800) and $160,000, tagged with numbers 4 and 5, prosecutors said, suggesting more cash may have been stashed elsewhere. It was not clear how, or when, the health-obsessed Yoo traveled the two kilometers to where his body was found nearly three weeks later between orchard saplings, clad in an expensive winter coat and beside a bag containing the alcohol bottles, a change of clothes and a pack of plums. There was also the book, "Greater Love has No One Than This", written in 1995 while Yoo was serving four years in prison for fraud, and an empty bottle of a shark-liver-oil health tonic, made by a Yoo family company. 'POLICE WERE CHASING A GHOST' Prosecutors say Yoo had been helped during his flight by a network of members of the church he co-founded, now called the Evangelical Baptist Church. The church has denied the allegations. The ferry disaster triggered outrage across the country - especially when video footage emerged of crew members abandoning ship while the children stayed in their cabins as instructed. The Sewol's 15 surviving crew members, including the captain, are on trial on charges ranging from negligence to homicide. Wanted on charges of embezzlement, negligence and tax evasion, Yoo had managed to elude the country's largest manhunt in what had become a political headache for President Park Geun-hye, whose government came under heavy criticism for its handling of the disaster. On Tuesday, Suncheon's police chief said the body in the orchard had been identified with DNA and fingerprint evidence as Yoo. He was sacked the same day over his handling of the case. Authorities had offered a reward equivalent to nearly half a million dollars for information leading to Yoo's arrest and detained several family members. Prosecutors said they were still pursuing his son, Yoo Dae-gyun, and would try to seek out the late patriarch's wealth. "We thought since he had money, he must have been eating well in a warm place," said a 74-year-old who lives near the plum orchard and gave her name only as Ji. "Police didn't know they were chasing a ghost." (This story corrects age in second-to-last paragraph) (Writing by Tony Munroe and James Pearson; Editing by Nick Macfie) |
Fundrise, a crowdfunding start-up that finances commercial real estate projects for investors, will be debuting its latest offering on Wednesday morning on its site: a vacant commercial building on 1539 7th Street NW, in Washington, DC that the developer hopes to turn into a boutique retail site. The project is $2 million and $350,000 will be available to the general public. This will be Fundrise's 18th project and while in many respects it is similar to the ones that came before it, there is something new. Maryland residents can invest in the project--in as little as $100 increments—for the first time. Prior to this, these projects were only open to DC and Virginia residents. It took about seven months of working with the state's Bureau of Securities to get it to sign off, co-founder Ben Miller tells me. "They have been great to work with actually. Once they got comfortable with the concept they were very enthusiastic about letting Marylanders participate." And so Miller builds puts another piece of his business plan into play. So far, he has had to go state by state, getting local regulatory approval to sell shares in these projects. That will, if all goes well, eventually change when the Securities and Exchange Commission puts in place rules to build upon its so-called Regulation A, an existing exemption from registration for small offerings of securities up to $5 million within a 12-month period. In December, the SEC voted to propose these rules, which would allow companies to offer and sell up to $50 million of securities within a 12-month period. They have been mandated by mandated by Title IV of the Jumpstart Our Business Startup (JOBS) Act. Fundrise is at the vanguard of these funding campaigns, Miller says. "We have done three Regulation A offerings, more than anyone in the country--approximately 20% of all the Regulation A offerings cleared by the SEC nationally in the past three years. So it's fairly safe to say we are both an expert on it and can showcase with our latest project on 1539 7th St how it works and why it's an important story." Rule making at the SEC is not exactly a speedy process, though; Miller could well be making more rounds at the local regulatory offices for some time instead of talking up his Regulation A creds. But the trend is clear, if not the timeline: crowdfunding is well on its way to becoming a mainstream and significant form of finance for small and medium sized companies--along with another way to engage with customers. The Kickstarter Story If commercial real estate isn’t your thing, Kickstarter also serves as a good illustration to this point. This week the site reached its own milestone of sorts: it surpassed $1 billion in pledges to crowdfund projects worldwide. Some 5.7 million people have participated in Kickstarter campaigns, from 224 countries and all seven continents. Many of the campaigns went nowhere; some have been controversial and a few were launched by big names--Spike Lee comes to mind here--angering crowdfunding purists that see it as a tool for small business. Kickstarter has its own interpretation of this argument. A financial tool it may well be, but it is also, as I said, a new form of communication as well--call it yet another offshoot of social media. Look at Veronica Mars : a successful Kickstarter campaign turned the cult TV show into a movie, bringing in $5.7 million from more than 91,000 backers. The movie comes out this month. Granted a vacant building in a gentrifying neighborhood doesn’t have the same sex appeal--and here I must add there is big difference between Kickstarter's brand of crowdfunding and Fundrise's highly regulated equity play, which projects an 8% annual return. That said, one theme will remain constant: WestMill Capital, the developer of 1539 7th St. NW, will suddenly become a household name for the hundreds of people who decide to take a flyer on the project, just as, say, Pebble Watch turned into one for its legions of Kickstarter investors. They'll be checking the website for progress on the project; maybe they'll even subscribe to the press release RSS, an activity normally reserved for reporters and analysts who typically want just the facts and never mind the fluff. For a smallish developer whose energies have been focused on the business of building, the spotlight could prove a bit disconcerting. Or not. There is a direct and easily traceable relationship between a crowdfunding campaign and, well, funds. You can't exactly say that about the financial returns of advertising campaigns and customer service initiatives. |
A new project is closing the gaps in one of Houston’s popular bike trails. The White Oak Bayou Trail runs from far northwest Houston all the way to downtown. It’s a distance of about 15 miles. Now some people living near the trail are getting better access as the city starts building three new paths that will connect neighborhoods to the trail. One connector will link the trail with the Castillo Community Center in the Northside neighborhood. Another will take bike riders to the intersection of Main and Wood Streets, just north of downtown. A third connector will link the University of Houston-Downtown campus. Joe Turner with the Parks and Recreation Department says the problem is that a lot of Houston’s trails were built in pieces over time, before there was any demand for a continuous bike network. He says the new connectors will make it a more practical system. “It allows us to connect up back into the neighborhoods, which we’ve never been able to put that piece together,” Turner says. “But what it does, it completes this trail system, finally.” Mayor Sylvester Turner says with more connections, people can really start using the bike trail system to get where they need to go. “This is another step in changing the paradigm where we’re offering people more options than just their car,” the mayor adds. The work on the three new paths should cost about $3.5 million. It’s part of a bigger $30 million project that the federal government is helping to fund. |
Eyewitness News has obtained new video of the assault on an SUV driver by a group of motorcycle riders last month. The video, obtained by Eyewitness News reporter Darla Miles, comes from a witness to the incident. Police have seen the video, which we warn you is violent and graphic. LINK: Second version of video obtained by Eyewitness News The expletive-laden video could answer key questions about the case of road rage. The assault lasts about 20 seconds and shows shows bikers gathered around Alexian Lien, stomping on him and beating him. Sources tell Eyewitness News that 40-year-old Jason Brown is the man seen beating Lien with his helmet, hitting him so hard the visor broke. Brown is the ninth biker charged in the case. Prosecutors believe most of those arresed can be seen on the new video. A biker in a blue shirt who approaches the SUV is believed to be Clint Caldwell, while the man who bashes the rear window of the Range Rover at the end of the original clip is thought to be undercover narcotics detective Woljiciech Braszczok. Police believe the biker with the number 13 on his back, seen kicking Lien, is Craig Wright, while a biker holding holding his helmet with both hands striking Lien is believed to be James Kuehne. Finally, the man with the black and silver jacket is believed to be Kaliq Douglas, who was arrested on Friday. When the attack ends, Lien can be seen left lying motionless in the middle of the street. CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS FROM THE INCIDENT The incident happened on September 29 as the group of motorcyclists rode up the Henry Hudson Parkway following a rally. Lien was driving the SUV that bumped a motorcycle after biker Christopher Cruz, 28, had slowed down in front of him. Motorcyclists then surrounded and converged on the Range Rover, prompting Lien to hit the gas and run over another biker, who was left paralyzed. Lien claims he was fearing for his life and family, with his wife and 2-year-old daughter also in the vehicle. The bikers chased Lien, caught up to him in traffic, pulled him from the vehicle and attacked him, police and prosecutors say. The encounters were partly caught on a helmet-camera video posted online. Lien hasn't been charged with any crime and continues to recover from injuries he suffered during the assault. |
Evening folks! We’ve put together a comprehensive roadmap of what the players will be able to craft and when, how to unlock new recipes, what ingredients will be needed, and so on. The changes are quite fundamental, and as a result it demands a massive number of configuration changes across the board. Thus the task has fallen to me to make them happen. Probably the most significant departure is how rather than being a strictly linear progression of gear the whole way across ten tiers, the crafting progression will split into three paths: the Separator, Accelerator and Manipulator. The Separator gear (crafted from Cerulium and Violium) is for melee-oriented characters. The armors in this bracket will enable them to soak up significantly more damage at the expense of energy reserves. The Accelerator gear (crafted from Aegisalt and Ferozium) is for the marksman players who favour the use of guns, with the armor providing a considerable amount of energy. This gives them a lot of leeway to continually blast away from a distance and use techs more freely. The Manipulator gear (crafted from Rubium and Impervium) is for those who enjoy playing glass-cannon characters. The Manipulator’s weapon of choice is the scistaff (which you may recall we implemented a little while ago). The staves will be powerful but require a lot of energy to be used reliably. To this end, the Manipulator armors will have deep energy reserves at the expense of defence. Of course, you’re not strictly locked to one of these paths. You could easily mix and match gear from each one to create the hybrid of your dreams! We want to give players some fun and flexible playstyles. As always, we’d love to hear what you think! Good night! |
LIBERAL FAIL!… Less Than 100 Show For Anti-NRA March Guest Post by Mara Zebest The WashingtonExaminer headline sums it up perfectly: Five sad pictures from today’s anti-NRA March: I swung by the Stop the NRA March this afternoon to watch the protest and march against gun violence. I was late, but caught two of the speeches before the crowd started marching. Participating organizations include Public Campaign, Occupy the NRA, CREDO, Every Child Matters, Moveon, United For Change, USA, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, The Other 98% , and We Act Radio. As Buzzfeed’s Evan McMorris-Santoro noted earlier this morning, the event featured the debut of a new anti-NRA poster created by Shepard Fairey – the designer of the famous Obama ‘Hope’ poster. A generous estimation of the crowd size would have been about 100 people, including members of the media. Here are some of the photos: Read more here. Added bonus… the anti-NRA poster logo states: “America: The land where God saves and Satan invests in assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.” Catchy – huh? (/sar off). Why is Obama’s DHS buying 1000 more rounds per employee than the Army… if they are so anti-guns? By contrast, GunsSaveLives reports that a recent Pro-Second Amendment event was organized by Connecticut citizens. It sounds like there was infinitely more support at this rally, including Newtown father Bill Stevens, who gave a great speech. Check out the GSL article for more information including the speech Stevens delivered to the lawmakers (if you missed it the first time around). |
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